Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Greatness of Stevie and the Clavinet
From pitchforkmedia...
"A crafty sound engineer by the name of Funkscribe has dissected the unmistakable Clavinet part from Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" and discovered that it's actually eight Clavinet parts."
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The Armpit Collection XVII: God Bless the Bridge
Sonny Rollins - The Bridge
"I was getting very famous at the time and I felt I needed to brush up on various aspects of my craft. I felt I was getting too much, too soon, so I said, wait a minute, I'm going to do it my way. I wasn't going to let people push me out there, so I could fall down. I wanted to get myself together, on my own. I used to practice on the Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge because I was living on the Lower East Side at the time."
Listen for the hard hittin' intro theme of "John S," Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child," and the title track.
$10.25/pack
That's how much I paid today for a pack of Parliment Lights. I mostly buy cigarettes in a little convenience store in the building where I work. It's run by Indians or Pakistanis (I honestly have no idea), but depending on who is working that day depends on how much you pay for cigarettes. The young guy sold them for $9, the old guy sold them for $9.25, and I was used to a give-or-take quarter difference in price... until today. Now it's posted on a sign behind the register $10.25 for some goddam P-funks. I told the clerk, "that fucking sucks," like the intelligent, cost concious human being I am. He didn't seem to care.
What could all that added tax be contributing to? Is it going to help the homeless, because I still know a lot of bums asking me for, you guessed it, a cigarette. I only wish some of that tax was going to the TARP money given to banks! At those prices, all banks would be solvent in no time. I bet MANswers would know where the tax money goes...
What could all that added tax be contributing to? Is it going to help the homeless, because I still know a lot of bums asking me for, you guessed it, a cigarette. I only wish some of that tax was going to the TARP money given to banks! At those prices, all banks would be solvent in no time. I bet MANswers would know where the tax money goes...
Remember when I quit smoking? Only last year I was paying $7.75/pack. Those days are currently just a memory. My addiction has strengthened, and so has my cough.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Kenny Powers
if you're unfamiliar, let me introduce you to one of the greatest and most controversial pitchers to stand on the slab. He loves himself like he loves lines of coke and kissin pussy. Kenny Powers ladies and gentleman!here's a clip on youtube of "Eastbound & Down", among others:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iijy--dag0
Barack Obama Sucks at Presidenting
OK, I'm calling it: President Barack Obama has jumped the shark. Less than two months into his presidency, he became the first sitting president to appear on a late-night talk show. Coincidentally, he was also the first sitting president to dis the Special Olympics on a late-night talk show. What was his appearance on Leno supposed to promote? The stability of the American economy? In an ideal world, what would Obama have gained from a stumble-free appearance? He didn't use the historic moment as an opportunity to say anything new or particularly reassuring, and more than half the interview was taken up with "So how cool is Air Force 1?!" and "So Portuguese Water Dog, huh, that sounds like a lot of fun."
But even that wasn't as bad as his LonelyGirl15-style webcam chat with Iran. The president does not need his own YouTube channel and Facebook page. He has a fucking press corps assigned to follow him every day: we don't need him twittering, too.
Gawker does a great job picking apart Barack's appearance on 60 Minutes this weekend here: http://gawker.com/5180113/obama-wont-stop-cracking-up-for-60-minutes
Judd Gregg, who Obama tried to select as Commerce Secretary, has become one of the administration's loudest critics. Remember how Tom Daschle was supposed to finally get every American health care? Well he can't now because he sucks at paying taxes and Barack's team sucks at vetting.
Does Barack Obama have any idea how to do his job? Or even an idea of what his job should be? Or are we going to have four more years of smiling, artful speech-making, and dancing on Ellen?
We all knew he didn't have any executive experience prior to this, so maybe we should cut him a little slack. But honestly, when the biggest changes you've made as the "change" president are casual dress in the Oval Office, Michelle's sleeveless dresses and plans for a vegetable garden on the White House lawn, can we really be blamed for wanting something more substantial to come out of the White House? We haven't closed Guantanamo yet. Haven't reduced troops in Iraq or figured out a strategy for Afghanistan. Or come up with a plan for the economy other than more of W's "throw money at it" theory.
I don't know anything about Jimmy Carter or why Jimmy Carter gets such a bad rap, but in the sense that nice guys shouldn't be president: I think we've got ourselves another Jimmy Carter.
But even that wasn't as bad as his LonelyGirl15-style webcam chat with Iran. The president does not need his own YouTube channel and Facebook page. He has a fucking press corps assigned to follow him every day: we don't need him twittering, too.
Gawker does a great job picking apart Barack's appearance on 60 Minutes this weekend here: http://gawker.com/5180113/obama-wont-stop-cracking-up-for-60-minutes
Judd Gregg, who Obama tried to select as Commerce Secretary, has become one of the administration's loudest critics. Remember how Tom Daschle was supposed to finally get every American health care? Well he can't now because he sucks at paying taxes and Barack's team sucks at vetting.
Does Barack Obama have any idea how to do his job? Or even an idea of what his job should be? Or are we going to have four more years of smiling, artful speech-making, and dancing on Ellen?
We all knew he didn't have any executive experience prior to this, so maybe we should cut him a little slack. But honestly, when the biggest changes you've made as the "change" president are casual dress in the Oval Office, Michelle's sleeveless dresses and plans for a vegetable garden on the White House lawn, can we really be blamed for wanting something more substantial to come out of the White House? We haven't closed Guantanamo yet. Haven't reduced troops in Iraq or figured out a strategy for Afghanistan. Or come up with a plan for the economy other than more of W's "throw money at it" theory.
I don't know anything about Jimmy Carter or why Jimmy Carter gets such a bad rap, but in the sense that nice guys shouldn't be president: I think we've got ourselves another Jimmy Carter.
"Fuck, when the Couge's on, he's on"
That is my favorite quote from my entire time in Richmond. Whilst standing in a checkout line at Plan 9 as John Cougar Mellencamp was playing on throughout the store I heard one hipster behind the counter tell another hipster behind the counter "Fuck, when the Couge's on, he's on". And not only is that applicable to Mellencamp's music but a lot of times to his take on American life and culture, and now in his take on the music business as a whole. Below is an op-ed that The Couge has just posted laying out his thoughts on the music biz...
"Over the last few years, we have all witnessed the decline of the music business, highlighted by finger-pointing and blame directed against record companies, artists, internet file sharing and any other theories for which a case could be made. We've read and heard about the "good old days" and how things used to be. People remember when music existed as an art that motivated social movements. Artists and their music flourished in back alleys, taverns and barns until, in some cases, a popular groundswell propelled it far and wide. These days, that possibility no longer seems to exist. After 35 years as an artist in the recording business, I feel somehow compelled, not inspired, to stand up for our fellow artists and tell that side of the story as I perceive it. Had the industry not been decimated by a lack of vision caused by corporate bean counters obsessed with the bottom line, musicians would have been able to stick with creating music rather than trying to market it as well..."
The rest of the article after the jump
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Cold Case Turkey
I saw an advertisement last night on the ol' network station that Cold Case will be featuring solely John Lennon songs this Sunday. The episode is entitled, "Mind Games" and deals with a delusional, paranoid schizophrenic killer (hmm). I've never seen the show knowingly but I might try to catch it if I can remember. [ditty]
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Can We Be Cavemen Again?
Let's find out...on MANswers!
Last night as I was trying to drift asleep...I found myself flipping between two programs, "Warriors", on the History Channel, which was about Mayan warfare, and "MANswers", which is a retard-inducing show that poses stereotypical questions that are apparently pondered and appreciated by your typical meat-head. This show has been on for a few years and fortunately I've only just found it. This specific episode raised these important questions that required a MANswer:
"What's the Deadliest Weapon you can smuggle up your ass into prison?"
"Which method of smoking weed gets you the highest?"
"How do you go an entire year without washing your underwear?"
"Which topless beach houses the nicest breasts?"
Each question deferred to some sort of authority in regards to each question. A correctional forensics expert explained how once someone smuggled a grenade into prison...up their ass. A former NARC broke down the THC percentages between smoking joints, bong rips, and vaporizers. A brand of underwear apparently exists that requires no cleaning or washing. And a Playboy photographer advised how nice breasts can be found on a specific topless beach.
The show touted the annoying, movie-preview-voiced announcer-guy, who fired pun after pun...all white giving you...MANswers.
I'm now remembering why I watch a minimal amount of TV and deeply distrust the powers that be behind Popular Media Culture.
Last night as I was trying to drift asleep...I found myself flipping between two programs, "Warriors", on the History Channel, which was about Mayan warfare, and "MANswers", which is a retard-inducing show that poses stereotypical questions that are apparently pondered and appreciated by your typical meat-head. This show has been on for a few years and fortunately I've only just found it. This specific episode raised these important questions that required a MANswer:
"What's the Deadliest Weapon you can smuggle up your ass into prison?"
"Which method of smoking weed gets you the highest?"
"How do you go an entire year without washing your underwear?"
"Which topless beach houses the nicest breasts?"
Each question deferred to some sort of authority in regards to each question. A correctional forensics expert explained how once someone smuggled a grenade into prison...up their ass. A former NARC broke down the THC percentages between smoking joints, bong rips, and vaporizers. A brand of underwear apparently exists that requires no cleaning or washing. And a Playboy photographer advised how nice breasts can be found on a specific topless beach.
The show touted the annoying, movie-preview-voiced announcer-guy, who fired pun after pun...all white giving you...MANswers.
I'm now remembering why I watch a minimal amount of TV and deeply distrust the powers that be behind Popular Media Culture.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Yummy Idea from Abroad
"Every customer sits on a stylish acrylic toilet (lid down) designed with images of roses, seashells or Renaissance paintings. Everyone dines at a glass table with a sink underneath. The servers bring your meal atop a mini toilet bowl (quite convenient, as it brings the food closer to your mouth), you sip drinks from your own plastic urinal (a souvenir), and soft-swirl ice cream arrives for dessert atop a dish shaped like a squat toilet. "(source)
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
F U C K Me
So apparently this is what you do when you're career falls apart and your desperate for relevancy. You sing a song with the chorus "If You Seem Amy" which sounds like F U C K Me...I guess her next hit will be titled Amanda Hugandkiss or something along those lines. This is a pretty pathetic example of songwriting, and even sadder it's apparently selling like hotcakes. I mean just look at some of these lyrics below, it's ridiculous...
"lalalalala
oh baby baby
have you seen amy tonight?
is she in the bathroom
is she smokin up outside
oh
oh baby baby
does she take a piece of lime
for the drink that imma buy her
do you know just what she likes
oh
oh oh
tell me have you seen her
because im so
oh
i cant get her off of my brain
i just want to go to the party she gon go?
can somebody take me home?
haha hehe haha ho
love me hate me
say what you want about me
but all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek amy
love me hate me
but cant you see what i see
all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek amy"
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Blogama: Vicious Cycle
http://www.badpaintingsofbarackobama.com/
Watch for Obama with White House teeth...and then Obama with Taco Hat.
Watch for Obama with White House teeth...and then Obama with Taco Hat.
Monday, March 9, 2009
How to Smoke Smarties
Recession got you down, can't afford your smokes? Don't worry, this kids got an alternative for you.
Batman Overdoses
I'm not usually the one to post sports stories, but I thought this one was too odd, sad and PTIS-appropriate to slip through the cracks. Sorry if Lucas already posted this in one of his round-ups -- parts of the story have been circulating since November 5.
Abridged from the original:"A tragic end for minor leaguer traded for bats" by Ben Walker...
Ask the most hard-core baseball fan about John C. Odom and most likely you’ll get a blank stare. Yet millions of people have heard of the slender right-hander.
He was “Bat Man” or “Bat Guy” or “Bat Boy,” the minor league baseball player traded for 10 maple bats.
It became a big joke last May when word of the unusual swap jumped off the sports pages, and the former San Francisco Giants prospect went from pitcher to punch line.
“People are like, ‘I’d kill myself’ and stuff,” Odom said at the time, dismissing any such notion.
Three weeks after the trade, he abruptly left the team.
Six months after the trade, he was dead.
The medical examiner said Odom’s death in Georgia on Nov. 5 at age 26 was an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol.
Odom’s death had drawn little notice by the start of spring training this year. Now, former teammates, managers and club officials keep asking a question for which there is no satisfying answer.
“I guarantee this trade thing really bothered him. That really worried me,” said Dan Shwam, who managed Odom last year on the Laredo Broncos of the United League. “I really believe, knowing his background, that this drove him back to the bottle, that it put him on the road to drugs again.”
Shwam added: “There were some demons chasing him, they’d been after him for a long time. But there’s no way to really know whether the trade did it, is there?”
...
“This guy comes into my office, hair hanging below his shoulders, earrings, and asks if he could use my field,” TCC coach Mike McLeod recalled.
With a sharp curveball, 90 mph fastball and good changeup, Odom made the team as a walk-on. He pitched well, going 9-3 in 2003-04.
Odom had another talent: He was tremendous on the guitar, playing so often he hurt his elbow and missed some games.
“He had a musician’s heart, not an athlete’s heart,” McLeod said. “He was manic. He’d sometimes come in with dark glasses and you’d know he was in a black mood. But he had so much going for him.”
...
The Giants released Odom in spring training last year. Calgary offered a job, but because of a 1999 conviction for aggravated assault when Odom was a minor, he couldn’t get into Canada. On May 20, the team made the famous trade.
Calgary team president Peter Young and Laredo general manager Jose Melendez nearly traded him for a slugger, but it fell apart. Melendez proposed buying Odom’s contract for $1,000. Young rejected that, saying the Vipers didn’t do cash deals because they made the team look financially unstable.
Bats, though, the Vipers could use. At $665 for 10 bats—made by Prairie Sticks, double-dipped black, 34 inches long, model C243, Laredo agreed to the unusual deal.
“This was not done as a publicity stunt,” said Young, now the Vipers’ director of baseball operations. “I talked to John several times and told him this wasn’t done to embarrass him.”
Odom did more than change teams. He changed identities.
One day a ballplayer, the next day a bit of trivia.
“It really is sad,” Giants ace Tim Lincecum, who used to bunk on Odom’s couch in Class A, said about the deal last weekend.
Eager to play somewhere, Odom packed up after the trade and drove 30 hours, nearly 2,000 miles, to Laredo. When he arrived in Texas, everyone wanted to ask him about the bats.
At first, Odom lapped up the publicity. “Batman survives,” he said. His first outing went OK, too.
Then came a particularly bad night in Amarillo.
...
On June 5 in Amarillo, the “Batman” theme played while Odom warmed up for Laredo, and he tipped his cap to the sound booth. But he was battered for eight runs in 3 1-3 innings and mercilessly taunted by the crowd. Shwam went to the mound.
“The chants, the catcalls, they were terrible. I had to get him out of there for his own good. He was falling apart, right in front of our eyes,” Shwam said.
When Shwam noticed Odom becoming more withdrawn, he called a team meeting. The message: No more talking about the trade or the bats by anyone.
Odom pitched five good innings at San Angelo on June 10 in what turned out to be his third and last start. On the bus after the game, Odom said he needed to speak with Shwam the next day.
“He came in and said, ‘Skip, I’m going home. I just can’t take it. I’ve got some things to take care of. I’ve got to get my life straightened out,”’ Shwam recalled.
And with that, Odom disappeared.
Several baseball people tried calling him, but got no answer.
In January, Shwam called Odom’s cell phone, seeing if he wanted to pitch this year for a team in Alexandria, La., but got only his voice mail. A few weeks later, Shwam learned that Odom was dead.
“I was shocked,” he said. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t surprise me.”
Melendez and Young found out only recently, and his old Giants teammates hadn’t heard.
Remembered infielder Kevin Frandsen: “He was always wanting to joke around, always wanting to keep the clubhouse mood light.”
Odom’s roommate in Laredo, former Twins prospect Nathan Crawford, now lives in Australia. He didn’t learn about Odom’s death until a few weeks ago.
“As far as the trade, I can say it started getting to him,” Crawford wrote in an e-mail. “Something would happen, like a umpire walking past would be ‘What’s up, Batman?”’
“We would stay up some nights after the games and jam on the guitar, talking about pitching, the trade, family. I said goodbye to him finally after a trip to Amarillo. He said he just had enough and that he wanted to spend time with his father. He told me he would play again next year,” he wrote. “He was a friend, he was a ballplayer, he will be remembered.”
The medical examiner’s office figured out Odom’s fame when they saw a tattoo on his right elbow over suture marks that read “Poena Par Sapientia”—a rough Latin translation of “Pain equals wisdom”—and did a Google search.
Details of his final days are elusive. His death was obscure. There is no record on where he was living, no explanation of how his body wound up at a hospital, no police report, no public record of where he is buried. Numerous telephone messages left for his family and friends were not returned.
The actual 10 bats that Odom got traded for, they’re easy to discover. An Internet search shows a picture of them, stamped with “John Odom Trade Bat.”
They were never used.
The Vipers planned to auction them for charity. When Ripley’s Believe it or Not! heard about the trade, it offered $10,000 to the team’s children’s charity.
So the bats are now stored away at a warehouse in Orlando, Fla.
“We’re still hoping to create an exhibit around them,” said Tim O’Brien of Ripley’s. “It would still attract a lot of interest.”
There's nothing as entertaining or as sickening as freak show, I guess.
Abridged from the original:"A tragic end for minor leaguer traded for bats" by Ben Walker...
Ask the most hard-core baseball fan about John C. Odom and most likely you’ll get a blank stare. Yet millions of people have heard of the slender right-hander.
He was “Bat Man” or “Bat Guy” or “Bat Boy,” the minor league baseball player traded for 10 maple bats.
It became a big joke last May when word of the unusual swap jumped off the sports pages, and the former San Francisco Giants prospect went from pitcher to punch line.
“People are like, ‘I’d kill myself’ and stuff,” Odom said at the time, dismissing any such notion.
Three weeks after the trade, he abruptly left the team.
Six months after the trade, he was dead.
The medical examiner said Odom’s death in Georgia on Nov. 5 at age 26 was an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol.
Odom’s death had drawn little notice by the start of spring training this year. Now, former teammates, managers and club officials keep asking a question for which there is no satisfying answer.
“I guarantee this trade thing really bothered him. That really worried me,” said Dan Shwam, who managed Odom last year on the Laredo Broncos of the United League. “I really believe, knowing his background, that this drove him back to the bottle, that it put him on the road to drugs again.”
Shwam added: “There were some demons chasing him, they’d been after him for a long time. But there’s no way to really know whether the trade did it, is there?”
...
“This guy comes into my office, hair hanging below his shoulders, earrings, and asks if he could use my field,” TCC coach Mike McLeod recalled.
With a sharp curveball, 90 mph fastball and good changeup, Odom made the team as a walk-on. He pitched well, going 9-3 in 2003-04.
Odom had another talent: He was tremendous on the guitar, playing so often he hurt his elbow and missed some games.
“He had a musician’s heart, not an athlete’s heart,” McLeod said. “He was manic. He’d sometimes come in with dark glasses and you’d know he was in a black mood. But he had so much going for him.”
...
The Giants released Odom in spring training last year. Calgary offered a job, but because of a 1999 conviction for aggravated assault when Odom was a minor, he couldn’t get into Canada. On May 20, the team made the famous trade.
Calgary team president Peter Young and Laredo general manager Jose Melendez nearly traded him for a slugger, but it fell apart. Melendez proposed buying Odom’s contract for $1,000. Young rejected that, saying the Vipers didn’t do cash deals because they made the team look financially unstable.
Bats, though, the Vipers could use. At $665 for 10 bats—made by Prairie Sticks, double-dipped black, 34 inches long, model C243, Laredo agreed to the unusual deal.
“This was not done as a publicity stunt,” said Young, now the Vipers’ director of baseball operations. “I talked to John several times and told him this wasn’t done to embarrass him.”
Odom did more than change teams. He changed identities.
One day a ballplayer, the next day a bit of trivia.
“It really is sad,” Giants ace Tim Lincecum, who used to bunk on Odom’s couch in Class A, said about the deal last weekend.
Eager to play somewhere, Odom packed up after the trade and drove 30 hours, nearly 2,000 miles, to Laredo. When he arrived in Texas, everyone wanted to ask him about the bats.
At first, Odom lapped up the publicity. “Batman survives,” he said. His first outing went OK, too.
Then came a particularly bad night in Amarillo.
...
On June 5 in Amarillo, the “Batman” theme played while Odom warmed up for Laredo, and he tipped his cap to the sound booth. But he was battered for eight runs in 3 1-3 innings and mercilessly taunted by the crowd. Shwam went to the mound.
“The chants, the catcalls, they were terrible. I had to get him out of there for his own good. He was falling apart, right in front of our eyes,” Shwam said.
When Shwam noticed Odom becoming more withdrawn, he called a team meeting. The message: No more talking about the trade or the bats by anyone.
Odom pitched five good innings at San Angelo on June 10 in what turned out to be his third and last start. On the bus after the game, Odom said he needed to speak with Shwam the next day.
“He came in and said, ‘Skip, I’m going home. I just can’t take it. I’ve got some things to take care of. I’ve got to get my life straightened out,”’ Shwam recalled.
And with that, Odom disappeared.
Several baseball people tried calling him, but got no answer.
In January, Shwam called Odom’s cell phone, seeing if he wanted to pitch this year for a team in Alexandria, La., but got only his voice mail. A few weeks later, Shwam learned that Odom was dead.
“I was shocked,” he said. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t surprise me.”
Melendez and Young found out only recently, and his old Giants teammates hadn’t heard.
Remembered infielder Kevin Frandsen: “He was always wanting to joke around, always wanting to keep the clubhouse mood light.”
Odom’s roommate in Laredo, former Twins prospect Nathan Crawford, now lives in Australia. He didn’t learn about Odom’s death until a few weeks ago.
“As far as the trade, I can say it started getting to him,” Crawford wrote in an e-mail. “Something would happen, like a umpire walking past would be ‘What’s up, Batman?”’
“We would stay up some nights after the games and jam on the guitar, talking about pitching, the trade, family. I said goodbye to him finally after a trip to Amarillo. He said he just had enough and that he wanted to spend time with his father. He told me he would play again next year,” he wrote. “He was a friend, he was a ballplayer, he will be remembered.”
The medical examiner’s office figured out Odom’s fame when they saw a tattoo on his right elbow over suture marks that read “Poena Par Sapientia”—a rough Latin translation of “Pain equals wisdom”—and did a Google search.
Details of his final days are elusive. His death was obscure. There is no record on where he was living, no explanation of how his body wound up at a hospital, no police report, no public record of where he is buried. Numerous telephone messages left for his family and friends were not returned.
The actual 10 bats that Odom got traded for, they’re easy to discover. An Internet search shows a picture of them, stamped with “John Odom Trade Bat.”
They were never used.
The Vipers planned to auction them for charity. When Ripley’s Believe it or Not! heard about the trade, it offered $10,000 to the team’s children’s charity.
So the bats are now stored away at a warehouse in Orlando, Fla.
“We’re still hoping to create an exhibit around them,” said Tim O’Brien of Ripley’s. “It would still attract a lot of interest.”
There's nothing as entertaining or as sickening as freak show, I guess.
Just Say "Oh, Alright"
Over the weekend, Matt and I met up in Astoria (the Athens of New York City) for one of our regular intellectual discourses. Matt had NetFlixed "Super High Me," a documentary about weed and all things people do better stoned (take the SATs, read minds, do stand-up comedy about being stoned). We watched and enjoyed and discoursed.
Throughout "Super High Me," the filmmakers keep a tally of how many medical marijuana dispensaries there are in Los Angeles. At the start of the film I think there are around 90 and by the film's end they're up to 300 or so. It's legal in California to grow, sell and buy weed as long as you've got the right paperwork. The Feds, though, are all the time breaking in with unsigned warrants and bogarting the stash, arresting the "pharmacists" and harshing the vibe. Well, no more. Attorney General Eric Holder has almost-but-not-quite vowed to end the DEA raids on medical marijuana dispensaries and stop the harassment of the poor, poor souls who need reefer relief. Holder's cryptic response to whether DEA raids would continue: "What the president said during the campaign ... is now American policy."
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first international ban on a drugs (the International Opium Commission of February 26th 1909) the Libertarian but usually a bit more socially conservative Economist is calling for an end to drug prohibition, saying "the least bad policy is to legalise drugs."
Now that Spring Breakers are being warned away from Mexico on account of the murderous, kidnapping, meth-snorting acid-bathing drug lord banditos, American hero Michael Phelps gets high and gets off, AMC's hit series Breaking Bad has humanized a meth chef, and Pineapple Express made $87 million and the economy is tanking for lack of spending, maybe the stars are aligning for legalization? Is there money in the stimulus package for grow lights? Is this the green economy Barry keeps promising? California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (fun name to say out-loud) and I certainly hope so. In California alone:
"Despite its illegality, marijuana is said to be the state's largest cash crop ($14 billion), ahead of vegetables ($5.9 billion) and grapes ($2.6 billion).
Tax collectors estimate that Ammiano's proposal would produce $1.3 billion in new tax revenue for Sacramento."
So my question is: Do we give the rest of the country a chance to catch up, or do we all move to Cali now?
Also, I want this illustration from The Economist article on a t-shirt:
Throughout "Super High Me," the filmmakers keep a tally of how many medical marijuana dispensaries there are in Los Angeles. At the start of the film I think there are around 90 and by the film's end they're up to 300 or so. It's legal in California to grow, sell and buy weed as long as you've got the right paperwork. The Feds, though, are all the time breaking in with unsigned warrants and bogarting the stash, arresting the "pharmacists" and harshing the vibe. Well, no more. Attorney General Eric Holder has almost-but-not-quite vowed to end the DEA raids on medical marijuana dispensaries and stop the harassment of the poor, poor souls who need reefer relief. Holder's cryptic response to whether DEA raids would continue: "What the president said during the campaign ... is now American policy."
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first international ban on a drugs (the International Opium Commission of February 26th 1909) the Libertarian but usually a bit more socially conservative Economist is calling for an end to drug prohibition, saying "the least bad policy is to legalise drugs."
Now that Spring Breakers are being warned away from Mexico on account of the murderous, kidnapping, meth-snorting acid-bathing drug lord banditos, American hero Michael Phelps gets high and gets off, AMC's hit series Breaking Bad has humanized a meth chef, and Pineapple Express made $87 million and the economy is tanking for lack of spending, maybe the stars are aligning for legalization? Is there money in the stimulus package for grow lights? Is this the green economy Barry keeps promising? California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (fun name to say out-loud) and I certainly hope so. In California alone:
"Despite its illegality, marijuana is said to be the state's largest cash crop ($14 billion), ahead of vegetables ($5.9 billion) and grapes ($2.6 billion).
Tax collectors estimate that Ammiano's proposal would produce $1.3 billion in new tax revenue for Sacramento."
So my question is: Do we give the rest of the country a chance to catch up, or do we all move to Cali now?
Also, I want this illustration from The Economist article on a t-shirt:
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Public Enemies
So I've long been a fan of Michael Mann's work ever since Miami Vice became my favorite show of all time. He's done the underworld of southern law enforcement, a taxi ride with Tom Cruise, and now he's setting his sight on Great Depression era criminals. Depp as Dillinger, Bale as J Edgar Hoover's hand picked FBI agent hunting him down, and tommyguns out the ass. Other than Inglorious Bastards this is probably the movie I'm looking forward to the most this year.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Keyboard drummer
This site turns your keyboard into a drum set and is pretty entertaining. http://ronwinter.tv/drums.html
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
'Surprise' Bob Dylan album
Bob Dylan will release a new studio album in late April, Rolling Stone reports. The magazine quotes an anonymous insider who says the 10-song set's arrival "came as a surprise" to those around the folk-rock legend. The currently untitled album reportedly centers on "raw-country love songs, sly wordplay and the wounded state of the nation."
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Showdown
Got any guts? Or just chicken guts? Don't beat the devil around the stump. Pony up or skedaddle! Don't be so sure of yourself niether. Some of them shooters are fine as cream gravy. They'll make you sweat by golly, hotter than a whorehouse on nickel night. If you should survive this whole ordeal, we'll ride to the saloon and get roostered up. And I'll just as directly say I'm proud to know ye. Until then partner... *shoot em up*Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Webcicle
jseger.com
Kind of reminds me of:
Of course there will be more to come. Design courtesy of Nat Roney and web magic courtesy of Eric the Robot. Official cover image of the upcoming record "With His Hat On," which will be out within the next few weeks. It will be very available for the New Yorkers at one of the following shows, featuring full band:
April 4 10pm Googies Lounge (above the Living Room)
April 18 8pm Bar 4
May 24 7pm Rockwood Music Hall
June 11 10pm Googies Lounge (above the Living Room)
Kind of reminds me of:
Of course there will be more to come. Design courtesy of Nat Roney and web magic courtesy of Eric the Robot. Official cover image of the upcoming record "With His Hat On," which will be out within the next few weeks. It will be very available for the New Yorkers at one of the following shows, featuring full band:
April 4 10pm Googies Lounge (above the Living Room)
April 18 8pm Bar 4
May 24 7pm Rockwood Music Hall
June 11 10pm Googies Lounge (above the Living Room)
Monday, March 2, 2009
I'm Afraid of the Police!
So I've long been afraid of cops. Not sure why, I guess it's for the same reason that I was afraid of clowns as a kid, it's just one of those things. But as I've gotten older I've lost my fear of clowns but my fear of the police has grown. Now don't get me wrong, I know that the large majority of cops are good people doing a very difficult job protecting us all. But it's the other ones that I'm afraid of, and because of that it generalizes into a fear of all cops.
And with the recent rash of police brutality videos my fears aren't abating. I've seen video's of highway patrolmen in South Carolina running down people with their cars because they were too lazy to chase them, I've seen a homeless man handcuffed and beaten for no reason, I've seen a guy handcuffed and shot dead in the back, and we all remember the infamous "Don't Tase Me Bro!" clip. Well then now there's this video, of a 15 year old girl getting the fuck beat out of her. She takes a charging punch to the face, a head slam against the wall, then a hand full of hair twists her back and slams her face first onto the ground, then the knee in the back while pulling the head up in some modified camel clutch position, and then the obligatory fists to the face.
For someone with a phobia of police shit like this is terrifying....
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