"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Brick

Thanks to Frank for the recommendation of Brick, which takes an improbable melange of genres -- the high-school drama and film noir -- and hits it out of the part. It's just very well-done cinema. Recommended!

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Let There Be Rock!

Last night went out to a kick-ass rock show at the Logger Bar in Blue Lake. It was fantastic in many ways.

First of all, the music was good! The headlining group was Orange Sunshine, from the Netherlands:

The problem with music in the late 60's was the hippy shit, right? The goddamn peace and love stuff, the acoustic folkies, the going-to-San-Francisco-with-flowers-in-yr-hair.
But what if the 60's were as wildly murderous a time as these strange days? What if it was ALL Charlie Manson and napalm and muddy drugfreak people and Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker? Well, then, there'd only be, like, 5 bands left standing- the Stooges, the MC5, Hendrix, Blue Cheer, and Orange Sunshine.

They were well supported by Ghengis Khan from Oakland (no link, sorry) and notable locals The Ravens. It was all good loud, driving, rock and roll. Orange Sunshine and Ghengis Khan featured singing drummers (always a strong configuration when it works), and the Ravens frontwoman Melissa Medina is channeling some serious shit.

The Logger Bar is also a great place to have a show. It's big enough to actually have a show in, but small enough that it feels full even when 1/2 the crowd hasn't shown up yet. It's also covered with ancient logging paraphernalia, like giant esoteric chainsaws and pickaxes. They serve 24oz cans of Pabst and although the two sturdy women behind the bar could have used a barback, it worked out ok.

And finally, everyone was there. It had the feeling of public life that I've been craving, and there were also girls (hooray, girls!).

Yeah, so a good time was had by all. My neck is sore today. Kudos to Kelly B for doing such a great job of organizing it. Hopefully this will happen more often.

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Interesting

Interesting stuff from Johnny Sunshine.

I very much like the message of "doing stuff is better than waiting," and I suspect we're going to see a lot more of this internet-enabled "candidates getting up close and personal with individuals" over the next year. I'll be neat to watch this unfold. Kudos to Camp Edwards for an innovative campaign tactic that, whaddyaknow, actually does some good in the world too.

Adding: they seem to be the most intent of all the major campaigns on emulating the Dean model. DeanCorps (which this is clearly a copy of) was a pretty successful program in 2003-04. The major difference is that the Dean campaign didn't generate it from the top, but you have to start somewhere. It will be intriguing to see if the Edwards campaign is able to stimulate independent activism (probably can do), and then whether or not they'll be able to nurture, develop and scale it (much harder).

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Why The "War On Terror" Is A Fraud, Part XIV

A marketing effort for Aqua Teen Hunger Force is mistaken for a Terrorist Plot.

I feel safer already. I also love that the kids who were charged w/crimes here made the most of their press time.

If they're actually prosecuted for this, it will be a dangerous precedent, because it furthers the line of authoritarian thinking which basically goes "any time we think we're being threatened, we're being threatened, and we can strike back with deadly force." That's obviously bullshit. It's manipulative paranoia.

Note to all the people in charge: this is what's coming. There are millions of us out here who have no respect for the delusional way you do business, who realize the Emperor has no clothes, and we're going to have fun with it.

FWIW, I'd love to see Frylock zap OBL.

Meanwhile, the slow build viz Iran continues. Deja vu indeed.

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