maybe clever t-shirts will help

so yesterday, i was working at the picturesque humboldt park boathouse, sound engineering a excellent concert by the basque music powerhouse kepa junkera (link in english)

one of the hundred or so in the audience was sporting this t-shirt, which i quite enjoyed. it shows a late 1800s photo of three native americans armed with rifles. the slogan reads “homeland security: fighting terrorism since 1492”

of course, inter-tribe warfare was not uncommon before whitey got to the continent. europeans are in no way unique in their tendency to kill others and take their stuff.

but the shirt’s reminder about historical context was welcome. i can guess that guy gets a lot of shit for wearing it. if you ever give anybody shit for reminding people of the truth, no matter how uncomfortable the truth is, i’ll never be your friend.

sigh

the kerry campaign is in deep trouble. for the first time in my life, i have displayed a sign endorsing a political candidate in the front window of my home. what do i get for my trouble? this: the guy whose name is printed on it is a hopeless cipher. james carville might not even be able to pull the stick back on this terminal dive, although i’m sure the struggle in the cockpit is entertaining. when that corporate shill john “f” kerry went to the grand canyon and endorsed attacking iraq, i could hear the arteries popping in howard dean’s cerebellum. this tweedledum do-nothing senator is a tragedy of biblical proportions. he leaves no stone unturned in his search for ways to squander the presumably unbeatable advantage of being the candidate who can read.

by all rights, this kerry campaign is an epochal display of incompetence. today, the right is the easiest of targets. they are looking a lot meaner, greedier and more treasonous than usual. busybody suburban matriarchs wear purple-heart band-aids on their flabby forearms without a trace of irony or a pause for the purple hearts coming back from iraq in bags and wheelchairs. thousands dead and maimed, but not from going after bin laden. this turd alone is but the flagship of a punchbowl fleet encompassing haliburton, valerie plame, ahmed chalabi, wmd, the bin laden family, …the list is endless, like the colored handkerchiefs yanked by magicians.

yet, what’s that sound? it’s john kerry, dunking in his cup for his third helping of punch. “me too” he eagerly says. “see? i’m just like you, america. i can’t tell brown people apart, either.”

even america’s bloodthirstiest voters know the coach called the wrong plays after 9/11. some of them are even aware that it wasn’t really the coach, but the offensive coordinator who got us to this point. in the terror bowl, we’re down by two, it’s third and long, we’re on our eighteen and there’s 2:11 left. on the sidelines, bush and cheney won’t get off their cellphones to focus on killing the fundamentalists in afghanistan, they’re too busy with iraq to respond to 9/11. it’s plain for all to see.

kerry’s response?

mmm, good punch.

Typewriters

I have used typewriters. In 1972, when I was five years old, I used to bang on my dad’s old Underwood, use up the ribbon and get him all ticked off.

As much as I need to see George Bush run out of Washington on a rail, the recent case of CBS news producing this document and claiming that it was created in 1972, and therefore on a typewriter should never sway anybody’s opinion about the president’s military service. The document is a fraud. Shame on CBS news executives, editors and reporters for not resigning en masse over being duped so easily.

Even though it was enough to trick CBS News, this document is not even a skillful forgery. One look at the typeface is all it takes. Back in “the day” typewriters overwhelmingly used one of two basic typefaces, “pica” and “elite.” The one used in this document is neither. It looks instead like the font named Times New Roman, which is the default serif font used by Microsoft Word.

1972 had Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Spiro Agnew, and other legendary Republican criminals walking the earth. It did not yet have Bill Gates.

I’m getting older and everybody’s getting dumber.

this song is so irritating, i need a drink

here’s a recent call for material form a internet radio station dedicated to broadcasting 24/7 for recovering addicts…how surreal to ask for music that is “not too irritating in nature”.

MODERN POP/ROCK SONGS that are “recovery-related” sought by the internet’s original, all music, fully licensed radio station dedicated to playing “recovery music” 24/7. Please do not submit instrumentals or songs that have any Christian, Praise and Worship, ACC or religious aspect to them. The songs should not be too irritating in nature and should have some kind of link to 12 Step Recovery in the lyrics, e.g. talking about “inventory” or “one day at a time”. Please be sure to stay away from mentioning any specific kind of Higher Power. Broadcast quality needed–great-sounding home demos are fine. Please submit one to three songs online or per CD/cassette, include lyric sheets. Please include the following for each writer involved with the song: song title, writers’ name(s), phone numbers, email addresses, PRO affiliation (if a member of ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, or specify “no affiliation”), and name and email of person making the submission. If the song is available for purchase on a CD, also include CD title, artist, and website URL where CD may be purchased. All songs forwarded will receive an email confirmation that they have been received by the station’s A&R department. Those chosen for airplay will also be notified as songs are added to the station’s playlist.