Category Archives: Uncategorized

And Why Not?

Kevin Drum:

There are a few evergreen topics in presidential campaigns, and one of them is a call from the various contenders to "get tough" with China. I think pretty much every presidential candidate for the past three decades has insisted that the current incumbent is obviously afraid to stand tall in the Pacific, and when he takes office we'll see the end of all that feeble kowtowing to the old men in Beijing.

And why not?

Why not? Because it perpetuates an infantile jingoist ignorance among the voting public. That's why not.

Imagine a world where being dumb as a stump is the exception rather than the rule; where you get votes by making the most sense, and not by making the shiniest lies.

Sometimes I feel like Lisa Simpson - but without the dress.

Measure for Measure

Today, on the New York Times Blog, Andrew Bird describes songwriting, recording, etc.. Very interesting.

The record I want to make here and now — the one I wish I could find in my local record store — is a gentle, lulling, polyrhythmic, minimalist yet warm tapestry of acoustic instruments. No solos, just interlocking parts. A little Steve Reich, but groovier. A little Ghanaian street music, but more arranged. Thick and creamy vocals like the Zombies’s Colin Blunstone. The bass warm and tubby like Studio One dub.

On the lyrics:

The only thing that separates a mess of seemingly disparate observations and a song is a moment of excessive confidence. As time goes on words and ideas begin to catch and gather around the original suspiciously arbitrary seeds of inspiration. There are times when I must admit that all the verse has in common with the chorus is that they both came out of my imagination, but isn’t that enough?

...

Lyrically, I decided to go with “calcified arhythmatist” rather than “unemployed ex-physicist.” It also sounds like arithmatist, as in one who does arithmetic, which makes just as much sense. I’m not sure if this is correct but don’t really care. I enjoy misunderstanding other people’s lyrics and take pleasure in others misunderstanding mine. I’m not suggesting that meaning is unimportant, but words like these on the fringe of meaning can spark the imagination.

But, better than just that one article, it's actually from the NYT musicians blog, Measure For Measure, where Bird, Roseanne Cash, Darrell Brown and Suzanne Vega blog about music. Excellent.

I Wish I Lived In Her District

So I could vote against her...
chicagotribune.com:

Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) interrupted atheist activist Rob Sherman during his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield and told him, "What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!

"This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God," Davis said. "Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon."