Are you....

Ready for the World?

Ouch

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo lays the smack down on W.

What I'm reading

So I've never really touched on why I started this blog, which is to talk about the books I'm reading and the music I'm listening to. So here's a quick little list, without any commentary, because I'm at work.

First, Harp Song for a Radical: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs by Marguerite Young got panned by a lot of people when it came out if I remember correctly, but it's hitting me right where I live.

I bought The Tenants of Moonbloom yesterday and just started it. ALso from New York Review Books, I recently bought Envy, Part of Our Time, and American Humor. I haven't finished Envy yet.

For my birthday yesterday, Lacey got me Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens, which I'm listening to for the first time right this second, Our Endless Numbered Days by Iron and Wine, and the amazing (I'm guessing) Charels Mingus box set, Passions of a Man.

Maybe some commentary one of these days.

Need a little graphical help?

For anybody who doesn't get what a bunch of lying scum those Swift Boat jackasses are, the New York Times has this handy-dandy little graphic. Don't choke on it, liars.

Akabane

I just got my copy of the Get Backers from ADV films. Man, I sound like such a tool.

Real! Records back in business

I can't tell you how much time I used to spend at this place when I was in school in Iowa City.

It's an observation about Michael Crichton

And it really should be attributed to Anthony Lane. I merely thought I came up with the trope. I was mighty chagrined when that turned out not to be true. But it's weird to see yourself referred to in type in such a way.

Keep reading until you get to Ice Cream Tee

A name I'd even forgot existed.

She's the kind of girl you read about in New Wave magazines

I don't think he was singing about Jean Seberg. RIP Rick James.

I know a lot of people think about him in terms of the Chapelle show, which I've still never seen. But I always think about him in terms of a cartoon by this guy named Jeff Roysdon, possibly the funniest comic strip I have ever read. I featured Rick James buying groceries and talking to the very tiny, Tinkerbell like spirit of Abraham Lincoln. Ask me to see it sometime and it will slay you.

Other links

Lest I forget what people send to me, there's always this great story from my people in Iowa. That one came from Adam Novy.

Also from Adam, a reminder that my fiend Toni Nelson's favorite fifteen minutes of famer was this chick.

More soon.

Follow the links

Do what I say, Ronnie James Dio.

Emmett

I was reading on the couch on Sunday, and Emmett was down in front of the TV playing. We'd both been up for a while, and I wasn't paying the closest attention to him when he says "Hello" as plain as day. His "words" right now are (were) all of the "gibberish that parents can understand" variety, things that he repeats in certain contexts enough and that bear enough of a relationship to their English counterparts that people who spend a lot of time with him (Lacey and I and the people at day care) can decipher.

But this was 100% intelligible to anyone with ears as "Hello." I sat up and there he was with Lacey's mom's cell phone held to face. So not only did he surprise me with his ability to say the word correctly, it was the first sign of him making a leap of abstraction (although I've never really played with this phone before, I know what kind of thing it is) and also kind of playing pretend (I've seen Mom and Dad say "hello" with these things. Let me try it out.) I don't think he knows that phones are for holding conversations, and so he wasn't constructing a narrative fantasy scenario on the phone I don't think. But who knows? There's clearly more going on in his little noggin than I previously suspected.

Get Yr Red Hot Secessionist Movements

If you've ever wanted to travel to a foreign country without leaving the United States, may I suggest you look into some of the cats talked about this guy.