Archive
Our Taxes present The National Jukebox
This was flying around the interwebs last week… finally got as chance to check it out. The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.
** http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/ **
facebook.com/libraryofcongress
twitter.com/librarycongress
Within the first 48 hours since its launch on May 10th, it logged more than 1 million page views and more than 250,000 streams. The project has opened up the library’s archive with an initial posting of more than 10,000 pre-1925 recordings from the Victor record label, now under the Sony Music umbrella. The recordings span jazz, blues, ethnic folk, gospel, pop, spoken word, comedy and other genres dating to the early 20th century.
You think tax dollars aren’t going towards something good? Well, as far as archival music, I’m super happy that my tax dollars helped make this possible.
Howard Zinn dies at 87
Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist A People’s History of the United States became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts.
Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Mass.
He was 87.
He will be missed, but he left a legacy.
~Dan
Haiti Relief :: RED CROSS
Haiti needs your help. Please visit the RED CROSS for more information!
You can donate $10 to the relief efforts in Haiti by texting “HAITI” to “90999.”
The charge will show up on your phone bill.
Change I can get behind…
The new 2009 quarter representing the District of Columbia has jazz great / composing legend Duke Ellington featured on it… this is change I can get behind:
I haven’t paid attention. Of the state quarters, do any of them have people outside of presidents? Looking here, it looks like the Duke Ellington quarter is the one with a person the most prominently featured (outside of the Helen Keller one for Alabama). Anyway, it’s great to see a jazz great on our currency. Jazz is one of the most truly American creations.
Oh, and unrelated, anyone go to the Album Leaf show last night in Portland at Rotture? Was it good? I wasn’t able to go, but I’m hoping Jimmy LaValle swings through again soon…
Happy Year of the Ox!
Happy Year of the Ox!
Here’s a string-quartet version of Sufjan Stevens‘ “Year of the Ox,” which originally appeared on his (brilliant) electronic album, Enjoy Your Rabbit! The string quartet version was arranged and played by the Osso Quartet, based in NYC.
The performance above is from Osso’s 2007 appearance at Cincinnati’s MusicNow Festival (click here for my review). Check out Sufjan’s Enjoy Your Rabbit, too…
Senator Al Franken
2 months later and 225 votes ahead… and it’s now official. Congratulations, Senator Al Franken of Minnesota!
Olbermann Special Comment: Proposition 8
Do unto others what you would have them do unto you…
~Dan
Monty’s Rockcast / Palin Debate Flowchart & Duck Hunt / Holy Fuck on CBC Radio Q
Well, three unrelated topics… Monty Colvin’s podcast, the VP debate, and Holy Fuck on CBC Radio Q…
Monty Colvin, bassist/ songwriter/ backing singer from Galactic Cowboys and multi-instrumentalist/ lead vocals/ songwriter from Crunchy, has a podcast. If you’re a fan of Galactic Cowboys (GC), King’s X, or guys who say “um” and “stuff” a lot… check it out. As a big GC fan, episode #2 was really good… great insights to the making of the self-titled debut. He’s only up to episode #3, but I look forward to more Rockcasts. Keep it up, Monty!
“And a great podcast fell upon the ground… hmmm…”
-Wylde Silas Tomkyn
Subscribe here: itpc://web.me.com/montycolvin/Site/PODCASTS/rss.xml
Check out his webpage: http://www.montycolvin.com/
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Speaking of podcasts (ok, I guess they were related topics), I just got through the 10/2/08 Vice Presidential Debate on my iPod (I wasn’t around to watch the debate) between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.
Well, all I can say it… “you betcha” is starting to sound like a bad cartoon catch phrase, Sarah.
So, Dick Cheney‘s only bad decision was shooting his friend in the face? That’s what she said. Really, Sarah Palin?
Really?
No… really?
Sigh… I just hope this doesn’t turn out poorly… for us all… not just “Joe Sixpack and Hockey Moms.”
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OK, back to something that cheers me up… because as much as I like to hear my politicians mispronounce “nuclear” (it’s not new-cue-lar), I like hearing post-rock, organic-electronic band Holy Fuck MUCH MORE… they play “Lovely Allen” and “Royal Gregory” on Canada’s CBC Radio Q hosted by Jian Ghomeshi.
The CBC Radio Q podcast is located HERE (the 10/3/08 show is one with Holy Fuck playing live — they’ve been interviewed on it before, but as far as I know, not playing live).
Bleh… sorry for my run-on, parenthetical sentence (as I like to do)… the podcast link is HERE (iTunes link) or HERE (CBC web mp3-link).
I ♥ Peter DeFazio (my representative)
I ♥ my house representative, Peter DeFazio.
Sure, the failure of the bailout bill caused the Dow to drop 700+ points in one day on Monday. I’d rather have short-term losses than long-term unchecked corporate greed. We need to find a solution, but the solution brought forward by Henry Paulson and the White House was not the solution.
Back to the drawing board, people.
mongolian clusterfu*k
PARENTAL ADVISORY – EXPLICIT BLOG
George Carlin: Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits got him into trouble in the 70s (view the police report).
On June 22, 2008, the great free-thinker, comedian, and all-around entertainer George Carlin has passed on at 71 years young old.
George Carlin [1937 – 2008]
I got a chance to see him a few times in Ohio (and even once in Vegas). His potty mouth wasn’t just for potty mouth’s sake. It really got me to think about words. I may not always use them correctly, but at least I know they’re just words.
“I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where
the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.”
“Think of how stupid the average person is,
and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
“You know who I pray to? Joe Pesci. Joe Pesci. Two reasons; first of all, I think he’s a good actor. Okay. To me, that counts. Second; he looks like a guy who can get things done. Joe Pesci doesn’t fuck around. Doesn’t fuck around. In fact, Joe Pesci came through on a couple of things that God was having trouble with. For years I asked God to do something about my noisy neighbor with the barking dog. Joe Pesci straightened that cock-sucker out with one visit.”
(Some of) my fav CDs of his:
His books are good, too.
“Gee, he was just here a minute ago.”
– George Carlin writes his own obituary (1997)
~Dan – np: Bobby Previte & New Bump – Set the Alarm for Monday
PS– in true early-morning fashion, I still feel bad, but I misspelled his first name in this blog’s URL… sigh…
vegeterrorists? kale is the new jihad
What is this world coming to? Huh?
What’s on the FBI’s big list of things to do this summer in preparation for the Republican National Convention? They’re going to go to vegan potlucks.
What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.” Read the story
Sigh. This is ridiculous.
But I guess it makes sense… I mean, George W Bush did choke on a pretzel… which is… gasp… vegan.
Maybe “Send Bush a Pretzel” should be the terrorists’ motto.
Sigh. 245 more days, and counting…
~Dan, your friendly neighborhood vegeterrorist?
Only Five Years to Admit Fault
sigh… today marks the fifth anniversary of one of many softheaded moves by Lil’ Bush… and the White House is JUST NOW admitting it was a mistake to hoist the banner (news story).

265 more days (1/20/2009) until we can say “mission accomplished, pack your bags”…
~Dan – np: Tegan & Sara – iTunes Live Session -EP-
Letter to America
John Cleese
(Okay, so it wasn’t John Cleese (http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/revocation.asp). That doesn’t mean it’s not hysterical. Now stop complaining and enjoy your anonymous comedy!)
~Dan – np: Jonathan Kingham – Hardwood Floors
You down with NPP?
::a rare non-music blog::
Kudos to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their valuable contribution to awareness about climate change. Al Gore has donated his $1.5M stake in the Prize to the Alliance For Climate Protection, the non-profit he founded for spreading the message. Let’s hope the message about the need for solutions for making a positive impact can be spread wider and not dissolve into the trash-heap brain of American collective retardedness(tm).
~Dan
-np: ken laster‘s in the groove, jazz and beyond podcast (podcast link)