I've been meaning to mention this for a while now,,, "Blitzkreig Bop" is being used to sell ATT wireless... I'm not sure if this means our side won the cultural war or lost.....

Well, the blog is now a year old,, I would have never thought it woudl have lasted this long, but am grateful to Brook, John etc that is has. It has been a pleasure staying in touch after all these years have passed.

Picked up “Strays” yesterday. When I heard a few months ago that Bob Ezrin was producing, Im sure I just got all giddy. Ive always loved his huge, theatrical, pretentious -- often ridiculous approach to a record and couldnt wait to hear what he would do with the already larger than life and cosmically goofy Jane’s Addiction. I was equally apprehensive -- sometimes the Bob Ezrin touch can absolutely ruin what couldve been a good product, ie The Jayhawk’s 2000 release “Smile.” Sometimes it just doesnt work (and whoever suggested THAT collaboration shouldve been publicly flogged). Back on task: I immediately popped “Strays” into the CD player in the car for the drive home. MY GOD! “Here we go!” Chills ran down my spine, I was smiling and laughing the entire drive home -- it IS HUGE, theatrical, pretentious and yes, often ridiculous. And it fucking rocks. The record is joyous -- and as familiar as an old friend. This band is accutely aware of their iconic public stature -- playfully tossing around the alt/rock cliches they invented, referring to tunes past -- but never sounding dated or trite. And the RIFFS!!!! The Farrell/Navarro chemistry is as electric as it was thirteen years ago -- and in my opinion firmly cements their place in rock history among the great singer/guitarist pairings: Plant/Page, Scott/Young, Johannsen/Thunders, Mercury/May, Tyler/Perry, etc. Ive got my favorites: “True Nature” “Price I Pay” “Suffer Some” “Hypersonic” -- but there is really no weak tune on the disc. When the last song ended I felt kind of, I dont know... sad that is was over, I didnt want the experience of the first listen to end. I wanted more tunes. Do you know how long its been since Ive been able to say that about ANY record?

Also getting play in the car this week: Grand Funk’s 1969 release “Grand Funk Railroad” -- worth purchasing just to hear Mel’s amazing bass tone. If all you are familiar with from the Grank Funk catalog are tunes like “American Band” or “Locomotion” -- you’ve got a big surprise awaiting you. This is pure, raw, sloppy, dirty, blues drivin kick-ass rock and roll.

It's a darn good thing they impeached Clinton for lying about getting a blow job,,, if they had not stopped him, next thing ya know, he would have lied about Al Queda and Iraq being connected, Iraqi weapons programs, Iraqi's trying to get uranium from Niger, or even that Iraq was not letting weapons inspectors into thier country. Who knows where this would have all led if Clinton had been allowed to lie that way! Remember kids, honesty is the best policy! If they let us put the 10 commandments on every public facade in America, you would know what the Bible says about bearing false witness against your neighbor.......

no comment...

http://www1.scoopthis.com/411/met_uf/stc_met_uf_mtv.htm

What does this mean for garage bands everywhere?

Well, crap, it didn't publish the link.What does one make of that? They're trying to stop us FROM BEING FREE!!!!!! Just do it the old fashioned way, copy and paste in your browsers.

http://www.moveon.org/wmdpledge/

Howdy y'all...I'm a little late getting this posted; I think it's already got to the call-yer-senators stage, but travel to the website. They've got a good thing goin' with this grassroots electronic democracy stuff...

The President took the nation to war based on his assertion that Iraq posed an imminent threat to our country. Now the evidence that backed that assertion is falling apart.

I've joined over 330,000 other people in calling on Congress to investigate at MoveOn.org. 247 other people from our own Congressional district have already signed, but we're shooting for 350. Please take a moment to help us get there by signing on at:

[url]http://www.moveon.org/wmdpledge/[/url]

If the Bush administration distorted intelligence or knowingly used false data to support the call to war, it would be an unprecedented deception. Even if weapons are now found, it'll be difficult to justify pre-war language that indicated that the exact location of the weapons was known and that they were ready to deploy at a moment's notice. With a crisis of credibility brewing abroad and the integrity of our President and our foreign policy on the line, we need answers now.

Please ask your Representative to pledge his or her support for an open investigation at:

http://www.moveon.org/wmdpledge/

A President may make no more important decision than whether or not to take a country to war. If Bush and his officials deceived the American public to create support for the Iraq war, they need to be held accountable.

Thanks.

Is it just me, or do others think that Dick Chenny stole his name from a drag queen???

Now to Brook's real point (as I see it)...I must say, with a little further reading of the Michael Wolf article, that the only part that seems grievous is not the wares Mr. Z has in his coat, but the price he is charging us for them. The niche-market strategy the American version of The Guardian plans to pursue is small readership, big subscription price. The problem with this is both pyschological and practical. It limits the availability of good-quality thinking to those who can afford to pay for it, implying that a mind is a luxury to have, and creates further antipathy between "elite liberals" and a mass that's already too ready to see themselves as anti-intellectual even without snobbery along class lines. If The Guardian's great freedom comes from its trust fund, which makes it relatively immune to advertising pressures, why is it necessary to stick it to its readers with the price tag? Why assume from the get-go that small price, large readership won't work just as well for The Guardian as for the tabloids, that poor people can't also be smart? Or at least that there aren't enough poor people who are smart enough to make such a venture competitive on the tabloid level? That strategy would disseminate the message much more widely and give a greater chance for real social and political change rather than just breeding more conflict and hostility.

This is off the point of Brook's post a bit, but I can't help appreciating a certain amount of symmetry in the idea that since we got dumbed down by an Aussie, maybe we SHOULD be smartened up by a Brit (although ideally we ought to smarten up ourselves, which would help enormously in resisting dumbing down, wherever it comes from.) I just pulled these things randomly off the net, and rather liked the way they went together.

“I think a newspaper should be provocative, stir ’em up, but you can’t do that on television. It’s just not on.” ATTRIBUTION: Rupert Murdock, declaring that he did not plan any television tabloids, Business Week 20 May 85 (hmmmmmmm, the year he became a US citizen)

And these thoughts from Carl Bernstein, doing a keynote speaker gig at the 50th anniversary of Boston University's College of Communication (9/21/97)

Now, Bernstein argues, journalism has little to do with reality, truth or context. His accusation: journalists are out of touch, disfigured by gossip, celebrity worship, sensationalism and denial of our society about the real conditions.

"We're turning into a sewer," he said. "Our society is being handed over to the triumph of idiot culture," said Bernstein. "Make no mistake about who the most influential figure in journalism of the past quarter century is...it's not Ted Turner, the team from CBS or 60 Minutes, it's Rupert Murdock." It's time that the news media recognize that Rupert Murdock and "his sleazy standards at the low-end of his empire are increasingly affecting the standards of the high-end of our business, and are an even greater threat to the truth than the lying and the secrecy of the succession of American presidents and their governments," Bernstein charged. Bernstein questioned the leadership of the press saying, "The media are all squandering their power and abdicating their responsibility," while responsible journalists have welcomed the standards of the Murdock journalists instead of drawing the line.

And consider this:

On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

On August 18, 2000, a six-person jury was unanimous in its conclusion that Akre was indeed fired for threatening to report the station's pressure to broadcast what jurors decided was "a false, distorted, or slanted" story about the widespread use of growth hormone in dairy cows. The court did not dispute the heart of Akre's claim, that Fox pressured her to broadcast a false story to protect the broadcaster from having to defend the truth in court, as well as suffer the ire of irate advertisers.

Fox argued from the first, and failed on three separate occasions, in front of three different judges, to have the case tossed out on the grounds there is no hard, fast, and written rule against deliberate distortion of the news. The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdock, argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves.

In its six-page written decision, the Court of Appeals held that the Federal Communications Commission position against news distortion is only a "policy," not a promulgated law, rule, or regulation.
Fox aired a report after the ruling saying it was "totally vindicated" by the verdict.

Hey! I note that our little blog is about to have a birthday! woohoo! Do we get to throw a party,,, or a Hindu Fucking Rib Roast?? or something like that???

Are fans of Donna Summer called "Summerians"??? Just wondering.....