Whywhywhywhywhywhy?
Dec 28, 2003 outsideNews
On December 13, when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush not only celebrated with his national security team, but also pulled out his pen and signed into law a bill that grants the FBI sweeping new powers. A White House spokesperson explained the curious timing of the signing – on a Saturday – as the President signs bills seven days a week. But the last time Bush signed a bill into law on a Saturday happened more than a year ago – on a spending bill that the President needed to sign, to prevent shutting down the federal government the following Monday.
By signing the bill on the day of Husseins capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds dont suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism…
From the San Antonio Current.
[via Toomuchsexy.org via jayallen.org]
My Name Is Peaches!
Dec 24, 2003 musicByOthers
If you’re not listening to Nina Simone’s Wild Is The Wind/High Priestess of Soul, you should be. Thanks to Bill for opening my eyes.
“We Got Him”
Dec 14, 2003 thingsThatHappened
Saddam Hussein, one of the most important figures in the Al-Qaeda terrorist organizations that planned the attacks of September 11th, 2001, was captured today….
Wait, no, let me try again….
Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq, where thousands of weapons of mass destruction were recently found, was cap…..
No, that’s not it either….
Um. What’s going on again?
Tuesday Morning Update #15
Dec 2, 2003 myMusic
It’s been a long time since I did one of these. And I’m sick today, so the best I can do is hope this comes out more than just garbled nonsense. Or maybe that would be apropos.
The first thing to mention is The Nonsense Album. I’ve probably told some of you about it, but for those that I haven’t, here’s the scoop. You may have noticed that I have a hell of time writing lyrics. If We Were was the first set of lyrics that I completed in literally 10 years. And the ones before that were crap that I threw out a long time ago.
But I write music all the time, and sometimes I do even “finish” things. And sometimes I’ll write vocal parts over them, and I’ll just sort of sing syllables over them which turn into words, just cause they sound right, not cause they mean anything.
So I figured, why spend another 10 years trying to write lyrics just so I can fit into the singer/songwriter mold? They’d clearly just be frosting anyway.
The ideas crystallized when I went to see Susan Marshall’s dance troupe at BAM about a month ago. In both the pieces they did, the dancers did an amazing job of not quite telling a story, but evoking the same sorts of feelings, abstractly, as if they had been explicitly acting out understandable scenarios. The pieces sort of hinted at broader ideas of human interaction, but through, especially in the second piece, Other Stories, these nonsensical little vignettes. It was brilliant.
With that in mind, I’ve begun work on The Nonsense Album. Evan aptly described the concept as “neo-soul Sigur Ros.” I like to look at it as giving Bobby McFerrin a much-needed dose of Sturm und Drang stirred up with some of that old boom-bip. Or some equally ridiculous The-Claws-meet-Soul-Academy-meet-Edgar-Allan-Blow sort of nonsense. 
I’ve got a bunch of ideas for it, but it’s all still in research and development right now.
The Monday night open mic at the Village Underground has closed. It’s really too bad – it was an amazing and really supportive place. I’ve been talking about checking out Groove, and I may even do so this week, if my scratchy, painful throat returns to normal some time soon.
I’m trying to start a regimen of practicing piano half an hour a day, because my skills have fallen to shit. Seems to be working pretty well, not necessarily for my skills, but for stimulating new ideas and whatnot, and helping provide some kind of structure to daily life. External structure is one of the key points to ADD treatment.
Of course, so is actually seeing a psychiatrist and getting a diagnoisis. Mbee.
Which Biological Molecule Are You?
Dec 1, 2003 pollsAndSurveys
You are DNA. You’re a smart person, and you appear
incredibly complex to people who don’t know
you. You’re incomparably full of information,
and most of it is useless.
Hmm.
Which Biological Molecule Are You?
[via Think_Tank.Mark]
