Stop The Clocks

The bell rang and the dogs went wild. The mail carrier was at the door with a large package. I scrambled out the back door and met her around front where the package required my signature. The first thing I noticed was that the box had originated in Germany; it was probably a gift for Sydney from my in-laws. Signing I noticed the box was addressed to me. I only got as far as the backyard picnic table before I tore into it.


I remember reading about the controversy surrounding Stop The Clocks in the months preceding its release last November. I don't remember purchasing a copy; but, apparently I did, on December 16, 2006. It arrived today, eight months later, in all its glory, packaged as a boxed set by Big Brother Records on three weighty platters with a forty page booklet of photos, lyrics to all the songs, and an essay by Andrew Smith, and no indication of where it's been.




I think Oasis' contribution to Rock & Roll is often overlooked/underestimated, at least here in the states. They're current claim to fame is Stop The Clocks' role in the celebration of the completion of a week long plumbing project, rife with problems, but finally done right with not so much as a leaky drop coming from my retrofitted H2O connections.



MP3 Oasis - Songbird

I (heart) Big Head DC

I (heart) DC

So, our kids are the fattest in the country. But, they're also some of the poorest in the country. That doesn't compute, and is yet more evidence that the Democratic(big D) wellfare system has everything backwards.

In unrelated local news, Charm City is about to hire Chief Wiggum/Ramsey as their top cop. Mrs. Mayor cites Wiggum/Ramsey's controlling the crime rate in DC as grounds. I think she should name Demographic Change her chief of police, but I guess he's busy down on H ST .

Bully in a Bowtie

First Tucker Carlson threatens to "destroy" a video store clerk, now he recounts the tale of when a buddy and he beat the stuffing out of some gay dude at Georgetown Park Mall over an unwanted advance. What a guy. I wonder what "house he was in."

CARLSON: No, actually. I got that -- my point is -- let me just say --
ABRAMS: Tucker, what did you do, by the way? What did you do when he did that? We got to know.
CARLSON: I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and -- and --
ABRAMS: And did what?
CARLSON: Hit him against the stall with his head, actually!

Two Rivers, two field trips

Two Rivers "Public Charter" School's website boasts that the school uses an "Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound Curriculum". A recent Washington City Paper article reveals that that translates to two field trips per school year. The article profiles a third grade class' trip not to the National Gallery of Art, not to the Air & Space Museum, not to explore one of those two rivers, but to check out "dingy nightclubs" with "bar owner" Joe Englert. One student reported that "it didn't smell very good." I agree, but that is the smell of your tax dollars at work, young man!

Lil Mama

Lil Mama makes discreet reference to every great female MC in hip hop's canon, creating an East Coast flavor all her own. Mama was born in Brooklyn in 1989 and grew up transient between the BK and Harlem. "My skill & my writing is hard-a** Brooklyn, but it's fun, it's smooth because of Harlem."

MP3 Lil Mama - Lip Gloss

Sugar & Iron

The official gifts for one's sixth wedding anniverary are made of sugar or iron. Jill loves sugar, and I love iron. Vegetate had enough of each to satisfy us both. If you haven't had their jerk sliders, and no longer partake of White Castle, get down there, pronto, and wash them down with a Wolavers Oatmeal Stout or a Rogue Chipotle Ale. We were there early, so DJ Dread was behind the bar rather than the turntables, but the music neglected to dissapoint nevertheless, often reminding J & I of six short years ago. So dig photos from 8/25/01 & 8/25/07, and tunes we found quite digable upon meeting one another.

MP3 Digable Planets - Rebirth of Slick
MP3 Digable Planets - Where I'm From(Aural G Ride Mix)

Countryman

Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come(1973) is the greatest of all Jamaican films. Its closest rival has long been and remains Countryman by Dickey Jobson released by Island Films in 1982. Countryman tells the story of two young Americans, Bobby & Beau, who crash Beau's father's Cessna on the island of Jamaica. After being rescued from the wreckage by the mythical & blessed, autochthonous Countryman, the infrequently clothed couple become reefed in a web of debauced & violent political espionage in which players include the CIA, and theatrical versions of the Jamaican Labor Party & the People's Nationalist Party of Jamaica. The film showcases surprisingly top notch action and a stellar Chris Blackwell produced soundtrack second again only to that of The Harder They Come in the Jamaican canon.

Countryman.mp3**
1. Natural Mystic - Bob Marley And The Wailers
2. Rastaman Chant - Bob Marley And The Wailers
3. Theme From Countryman - Wally Badarou
4. Rat Race - Bob Marley And The Wailers
5. Jah Live - Bob Marley And The Wailers
6. Ramble - Rico
7. Rebel Music (Three O'Clock Road Block) - Bob Marley And The Wailers
8. Sound System - Steel Pulse
9. Mosman Skank - Aswad
10. Small Axe - Bob Marley And The Wailers
11. Sitting And Watching - Dennis Brown
12. Bam Bam - Toots And The Maytals
13. Ooh! Aah! - Fabulous Five Listen
14. Wisdom - Jah Lion
15. Carry Us Beyond - Human Cargo
16. Dreadlocks In Moonlight - Lee Perry
17. Time Will Tell - Bob Marley And The Wailers
18. Theme From Countryman - Wally Badarou
19. Pass It On - Bob Marley And The Wailers
20. Guidance - Wally Badarou
** audiophile alert: original pressing out of print vinyl>AIFF>MP3

The bathtub...

is a hoax!

Vampire Weekend

Did you ever love Paul Simon’s Graceland? Still do? Did you ever wish it rocked? Still do? Columbia Class of 2007’s Vampire Weekend combine great song writing and Afro-Pop rhythms as astutely as Rhymin’ Simon did in ’88; but, they replace Simon’s folk sensibility with pop sweetness, punk energy, and collegiate swagger. Meet the brothers down at the house, crack some beers, invite over some ladies, and throw on Vampire Weekend. The rest will take care of itself.

MP3 Vampire Weekend – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Max Roach

1924-2007

... asks if Karl Rove resigned to become an advisor to Barack Obama? Evidence is there.

Live Free Or Die

The Free State Project is an agreement among 20,000 pro-liberty activists to move to New Hampshire, where they will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property. The success of the Project would likely entail reductions in taxation and regulation, reforms at all levels of government to expand individual rights and free markets, and a restoration of constitutional federalism, demonstrating the benefits of liberty to the rest of the nation and the world.

– Adopted at the 2/27/05 Board Meeting.

For the record...

ANARCHISM - a doctrine urging the abolition of government or governmental restraint as the indispensable condition for full social and political liberty

LIBERTARIANISM - an ideological belief in freedom of thought and speech

DEMOCRACY - government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY - a type of democracy in which the citizens delegate authority to elected representatives

THEOCRACY - a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, the God's or deity's laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities.

CAPITALISM - an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

SOCIALISM - (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles

COMMUNISM - a form of socialism that abolishes private ownership

Dictionary.com

MP3 Pearl Jam - I Am A Patriot
MP3 Pearl Jam - Fortunate Son
MP3 Pearl Jam - Keep On Rocking In The Free World
MP3 Pearl Jam - Know Your Rights

I remember watermelon, tube socks, Purple Rain and being cool.

And just like that, another summer vacation ends. Time flies when one is having fun. There's almost room for the ping-pong table in the basement, and autumn weekends can be even sweeter than summer vacation. Fall's when the beer tastes the best. So, out with flip flops, tank tops, sprinklers, and pools. And, in with flip cup, fight songs, tailgates, and Terps.

Josh Rouse's Summertime, from last year's excellent Subtitulo, is a perfect song for the day. Thanks to AK & SeeqPod. Pick up Rouse' latest, Country Mouse, City House, released mid July.

Everybody come on down to Solly's U ST Tavern tomorrow around 9. I'll play a few new songs with Kate and whoever else shows up.

MP3 Josh Rouse - Summertime
MP3 Prince - Purple Rain

HEY! METRO!

Keep our trains. Tax commuters.

Ghetto Rock

Black Jack Johnson - Ghetto Rock

Exclusive

100YearsOfTrash - Can't Stop The Tilapia

Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway

resides on the third floor of Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery. Each screen flashes hundreds of images that correspond with its geographic location on the neon map. Check yourself in DC. This is America.

The Museum, hoagied between Martin Luther King Public Library and MCI Center, opens at 11:30. We covered the third floor & mezzanine today, and will continue tomorrow.

District's Ex-Charter Schools Chief Admits Fraud

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 10, 2007; Page A01

Brenda Belton had some gall, by her own admission. As charter school oversight chief for the D.C. Board of Education, she repeatedly stole from the school system, arranging roughly $649,000 in illegal school payments and sweetheart contracts to herself and her friends.

Pneumonia

Bar Lights
Crazy About You
Under Your Breath
Jacksonville Skyline
Don't Wanna Know Why
Sit And Listen To The Rain

...and there it is.

Where's Jill's Photo Credit?

Publicly Funded Private School Update

Amid Turmoil, Washington Latin Seeks Permission to Relocate

Washington Latin, a charter school with a classics-based curriculum that attracted parents in droves when it opened last year, is embroiled in turmoil over a plan to accept more students and move from its Upper Northwest location to downtown Washington.

Four board members resigned abruptly last month, including the chairman and former D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous, saying they could no longer work with headmaster T. Robinson Ahlstrom because he has "refused to cooperate or communicate."

Parents have flooded the D.C. Public Charter School Board with e-mails and phone calls, saying they are unsure whether they will re-enroll their children for a second year.

Other charter schools also are experiencing growing pains after a first-year flush of excitement over starting a new kind of school. Students have struggled with the curriculum, and parents have worried their children did not receive enough academic support, concerns that were reflected in minutes of the board and the 12-member Parent Council.

At a recent board meeting, when describing the business of the school staff, Ahlstrom said he was "working them like Georgia slaves," according to two people who were at the meeting.

In June, Ahlstrom's wife, Kymberly, sent parents a letter accusing two board members of "acts of deceit and sabotage." Later, when the board began negotiations with Ahlstrom over his contract as headmaster, Ahlstrom demanded that the two members resign, according to a memo he sent the board through his attorney, Nathan I. Finklestein.


**Chavous has been replaced as board chairman by former Pittsburgh weatherman and PA congressman Ron Klink. Klink was a key figure in producing the fake WMD intelligence used to justify the latest invasion of Iraq.

The Monongahela Mash Up

Greg Gillin is Pittsburgh's Girl Talk. He takes the best part of every one of your favorite records and turns them into a new song, equal to the sum of its parts.

MP3 Girl Talk - Smash Your Head
MP3 Girl Talk - Hold Up
MP3 Girl Talk - Bounce That

Atmosphere

I met Slug from Atmosphere in April of 2001 at the Fifth Element in Minneapolis. I was in town to see the Terps play in the Final Four, and the shop was right around the corner from where I was staying. I had just met Jill a few months earlier & she was watching Pres for the long weekend, so I picked up a sweet Hieroglyphics tee for her & a slew of vinyl. I asked the cat behind the counter what the hot underground records coming out of Minneapolis were. He threw a few records that escape me now on my stack. He rang me up respectfully/Jerry style, and then threw the Ford Two vinyl & the Lucy Ford The Atmosphere Ep's CD on my stack, and said "Play those for your friends in DC." I asked him what it was. "That's what I've been working on." Pounds were exchanged. Songs were respected and bumped.

Fast forward 2007. Last time I saw Slug, he was being interviewed on MTV2, and today sunshine ends up in my atmosphere. Atmosphere's Sunshine IS the song of the summer. This response to Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince's 1991 anthem is the ultimate real life update of the still ubiquitous classic. I only lament that it's already August.

MP3 Atmosphere - Sunshine(Sad Clown Bad Summer Accompanied by Piano-Sad Clown Bad Summer - Number 9)

MP3 Atosphere - Like Today(Lucy Ford)
MP3 Atosphere - Between The Lines(Lucy Ford)

Polyphonic Spree

I never knew quite what to think of The Polyphonic Spree, and I never payed them much mind, until Friday at Lollapalooza, when they would be ignored no longer. Sydney & I agree that they put on one of day 1's strongest performances, and their cover of Nirvana's Lithium made for the festival's most moving moment.

Tim DeLaughter started the Spree in 2000 after taking a year to recover from the demise of his Dallas band Tripping Daisy following the tragic death of guitarist Wes Berggren. The "choral symphonic rock" group currently consists of 24 members including the three former Tripping Daisies (the fourth, Ben Curtis, formed Secret Machines), a choir, a pair of keyboardists, as well as a percussionist, drummer, bassist, guitarist, flautist, trumpeter, trombonist, violinist/violist, harpist, French horn player, a pedal steel player, theremin player, and an electronic effects person. Their new album, The Fragile Army, is available on double gatefold vinyl.

MP3 The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army Mashup

Lollapalooza 2007

Austin City Limits, January 26, 1998

Billy Goat Tavern

In 1940, William "Billy Goat" Sianis bought the Lincoln Tavern with a rubber check for $206. He changed the name to the Billy Goat Tavern & hung a "No Republicans Allowed" sign in his window for the Billy Goat's first weekend of business. That weekend Chicago happened to be hosting the Republican National Convention. The bar was full of angry thirsty Republicans all weekend long. Billy had no problem making good on his $206 commitment.



The tavern was made famous by John Belushi's "Cheezborger Cheezborger Cheezborger. No fries. Cheep. No Pepsi. Coke." character on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

One TV for sox, one TV for Cubs; the Tavern hasn't seemed to change much over the past 67 years. They have haus light and haus dark on draught, and the whole family ate for under $10.




MP3s Ryan Adams - Dear Chicago
Demolition
10/20/02
7/22/06
12/4/06

jillco

Chicago River, August 1, 2007

MP3 WILCO - Venus Stopped The Train(YHF demo)
MP3 WILCO - True Love Will Find You In The End(Daniel Johnston cover)