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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
Live free or die!
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May 08, 2004
Mother's Day CD Mix
I've got a new godson. The Acorn is not quite three months old, which makes this the first mother's day for 40ish Annie Oakley.
The Acorn being but a few weeks old, that leaves me to represent for him this Mother's Day.
To that end, here's the approximately 74 minute Mother's Day CD mix that we've whipped up for Mommy. We start with a couple of popular songs about Jewish mothers, and go on from there, ending up with a classic song of grandmotherly advice.
Loves Me Like a Rock - Paul Simon
Kyle's Mom's a Bitch - South Park
Mama Tried - Merle Haggard
Make Me Mommy - Ben Fold
I Love My Mom - The Roches
Mother - The Police
Mother Maybelle - Osborne Brothers & Mac Wiseman
Mother - Ray Charles
Night Train - Rickie Lee Jones
My Mother the Car - TV theme song
Mother - John Lennon
The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp - Merle Haggard
Harper Valley PTA - Jeannie C Riley
Little Green - Joni Mitchell
Julia- John Lennon
Klezmer - The Jewish Mother - Itzhak Perlman
Hungry Eyes - Merle Haggard
Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma - Spike Jones
Sylvia's Mother - Dr Hook
Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded - Warren Zevon
Mother and Child Reunion - Paul Simon
Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Perhaps you'd like to whip up something similar. Or something a little different. I probably wouldn't give this to MY mother. She's just not quite hip enough for this kind of deal.Labels: country_music
posted by Al at 5/08/2004 02:32:00 PM
May 06, 2004
What torture?
Big grief over some pictures coming to light of American soldiers "torturing" Iraqi prisoners.
Look at those pictures, though: There's no "torture" going on there. These pictures amount to variations on simply making them get naked and taking their pictures. This may be humiliating, but it is not torture- it doesn't involve the infliction of pain or really even the threat of it.
I would presume that such behavior is unwarranted and unacceptable, though there could be mitigating circumstances. One story has it that these things were done under orders for the purpose of "softening them up" for interrogation. If these were nasty Republican Guard members merely being humiliated and not physically molested but mentally broken down in advance of important questioning, that would mitigate if not excuse the US soldiers.
Still, people responsible for these pictures need to be removed from their positions, and possibly otherwise punished. As far as I'm concerned, though, it's punishment for STUPIDITY and bad judgment rather than faked up outrage over the non-injuries they did not inflict.
Doing stuff like this has obvious and predictable negative consequences, and no one not smart enough to have seen them has any business being in charge of anything. Humiliation games with prisoners are a bad idea even just practically. Allowing PICTURES of it to be taken is just inexcusable.
What? Al Jazeera is running these pictures 24/7? Duh! Who could have seen that coming? Of course, al Ja-frickin'-zeera will run these pictures ENDLESSLY, and they will be used in recruiting posters for al Qaeda and so on. Of course, the Arab media will talk crap about the US no matter what, but why give them ammo?
This will obviously cause US some diplomatic problems- though perhaps not that many. A lot of people are going to pontificate and shake their fingers, but mostly only because they are already hostile. This doesn't seem to change much, but it does give them an at least halfway legitimate excuse for complaining.
I'm not that concerned with a bit of embarassment being brought to some Iraqi prisoners, who've done Allah knows what. Frankly, I wouldn't feel too bad if a few of the uglier customers got actually roughed up considerably worse than anything in these embarassing but non-violent pictures- particularly if it were for the purpose of gaining intelligence that might save the lives of US soldiers. But no cameras, please.
However, they've brought embarassment to the US government, and that's different. The people who created these pictures have done what should have been obviously predictable and serious damage to US efforts to make that hellhole of a country livable.
The soldiers and commanders who made those images are guilty of war crime misdemeanors at WORST, but they made a big stupid international stink out of pure dumb stupidity. I don't feel that much urge for moral censure, but they need to take the rap for this situation. It's their doing, and they should have goddam known better.
posted by Al at 5/06/2004 02:32:00 PM
Sideshow Fez by Asylum Street Spankers
I've got a new review up for a concert video by the acoustic Austin, Texas based band Asylum Street Spankers.
CLICK HERE for the review.
CLICK HERE to stream some good MP3s from their website.
posted by Al at 5/06/2004 05:58:00 AM
May 05, 2004
I just voted for Al Sharpton
I'm not a racist, and I can prove it: I just voted for Al Sharpton for President of the United Frickin' States. Note that I have voted in previous elections for Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson. I just like voting for men of the cloth.
Tuesday May 4th was primary election day here in Indiana. I have been waiting for this opportunity for a year.
After waiting this long, the fact that he wasn't actually on the ballot was not going to stop me. I jumped through the hoops to actually cast a write-in ballot for Rev Sharpton in the Democratic primary.
Now, some might think that I did this (and recruited my father to do likewise) just for the purpose of sticking him up in the Democrats and breaking him off. Granted, after the ridiculous race baiting that this party and their co-horts at wholly owned party subsidiaries such as the National Association for the Advancement of (Liberal) Colored People have conjured up, they all richly deserve to be toyed with. Don't think I'm going to forget those nasty James Byrd ads run on black radio in 2000.
Still, you have to agree that my vote constitutes strong evidence that I am a progressive individual. After all, I obviously wouldn't vote for such an utterly unqualified person if I were not DEEPLY committed to civil rights.
I know that his campaign is lagging behind, but perhaps it can still work out. Even some party stalwarts are now getting anxious about a Kerry candidacy. That dude is a total dud. How are we supposed to stand hearing his voice for the next six months, let alone possibly four years as president? Ain't gonna happen. If there's an Anybody But Kerry move, Sharpton could step in.
Rev. Sharpton just needs a good gimmick to leverage him some publicity. Rand knows he's good at that. He needs something to remind people of his credentials, and why he would be uniquely suited.
Here's the last-chance pitch then: Sharpton needs to get some young black girls to write "Sharpton for President" on their stomachs in feces and hang out in front of the polling places. It would be sort of a Tawana Brawley sandwich board brigade.
posted by Al at 5/05/2004 05:30:00 AM
May 03, 2004
New album releases, week of 5-4-2004
The new Los Lobos album sounds about the most interesting of these new items, pairing them with guest collaborators. Cool people are most interested in hearing the re-invention of "Matter of Time" with Elvis.
I haven't heard this new Magnetic Fields album, but you MUST hear the earlier classic song "All My Little Words."
Note that the Ween album comes with a bonus DVD.
From everything I've heard from him, "It's Not Funny" probably makes a perfectly good description of David Cross' supposed "comedy." If you're interested, though, Sub Pop has several mp3s of him (and numerous other Sub Pop acts) available HERE.
CLICK HERE to check out the whole list.Labels: new_album_releases
posted by Al at 5/03/2004 11:06:00 PM
The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole
Now here's a different kind of teenage goth kid- specifically Southern Goth.
John Kennedy Toole wrote this short (162 svelte pages) Southern Gothic novel as a teenager, age 16. It shows surprising skill and craft for the creation of one so young. It also shows surprising emotional maturity for one so young.
It reads very well. Toole did an excellent job of creating not just a feel of the little Louisiana town, but several strong characters- most notably his Aunt Mae. He doesn't have a strong "plot" in the sense of a discreet continual storyline, but the succession of events over several years adds up to a statement and viewpoint. He brings it all together with a big conclusion. It works.
This book would be really excellent for high school aged readers. Though the protagonist is a boy, the sensitivities and the dominance of female characters would make this more obviously appealing to a teenage girl rather than boys of that age.
The Neon Bible rates pretty good as a book in its own right for adults or teens, but it really rates as a must-read for anyone who's big on Toole's other book, the Pulitzer winning A Confederacy of Dunces. It gives more clues and depth of meaning to his better known book.
For starters, now I'm thinking about Confederacy as a Southern goth novel turned inside out. Like The Neon Bible, it has all the decaying Southern atmosphere, and the tragic characters trapped by their birth. Confederacy is from one angle a comic Southern goth riff.
There are numerous similarities beneath the surfaces of what seem like very different styles and tones. Both novels have boys dependent on weak, deteriorating mother characters.
Most striking, both of Toole's novels end with their protagonists fleeing their homes, desperately hoping for some kind of unknown deliverance or redemption in some random place far away from a home they've never before left. In both cases, the flight resolves the immediate story lines, yet leaves the character lost and hanging out in space. You can really see how the author was staring into the abyss in both novels.
posted by Al at 5/03/2004 01:14:00 AM
May 02, 2004
Malcolm in the Middle and the art of maternal matinence
Here's just a quickie for you. Malcolm in the Middle tonight had the funniest one line of anything I've seen on television in awhile.
School counselor shows up at the house, and Malcolm really, really doesn't want to have her talking to his mother.
"Don't worry. I have a master's degree in Conflict Resolution."
Obviously she didn't know this family, and Lois in particular.
posted by Al at 5/02/2004 11:31:00 PM
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