Sonic Youth will release an album of b-sides and rarities, probably the last thing they do for Geffen. I'm curious if they'll land at another major. I'm also curious about the b-sides. I just got finished reading Confusion is Next: the sonic youth story, detailing a lot of their side stuff, and Sonic Nurse continues to jump in my CD player on a regular basis.
Low, low, low ... While it was completely overshadowed by the singing LaRouches, the last Lamont-Lieberman-Schlesinger debate contained yet another surprising quote from Holy Joe. Add calling Lamont a liar to the pile of jaw-dropping quotes like "No earthly messenger" (could tell him to drop out) and "I'll forgive but not forget" (Democrats supporting Lamont). Politicians usually stop short of using variations on "lie." Usually you hear "distort." Not good enough for Joe, which is odd since the ads that provoked Joe's name-calling used videotape of Joe making promises he's since broken. You could say this is out of context or unfair, but a lie? The singers were so fascinating no one else seemed to notice that Joe spent the night calling his opponent a liar and patting himself on the back for running a positive campaign. Unfortunately, Lamont is such a newbie he couldn't smack Joe's slip-up out of the park and Lieberman was even able to frame the LaRouchies as Lamont's people.
If you live outside of Connecticut, you may not realize that there is a race even nastier than Lieberman's. Republican House member Nancy Johnson has always been a negative campaigner. She looks like a sweet old lady so nobody ever calls her on it. This time, it seems her opponent, Chris Murphy, wants to house terrorist sex offenders next to you and then not listen to their phone calls. A recent Johnson ad, playing off a Murphy ad, features an actor playing Murphy going door to door for votes. Since this is a Johnson fantasy, the people shout at Murphy and reject him, except for the drug dealer at the end who embraces him. What's most interesting to me is the soccer mom who smacks Murphy. If you see Murphy, yell at him or hit him. Is depicting violence against your opponent a new low or just a plain old low? Maybe we'll see a Murphy ad where Nancy Johnson gets pushed down the stairs, Kiss of Death-style. Ha-ha, what fun and informative discourse.
At least Murphy is able bodied. Rush Limbaugh's smear of Michael J. Fox accomplishes pretty much the impossible: it makes Rush seem even meaner than before. If you haven't seen the webcast where Rush mocks the shakes and tremors, do yourself a favor and watch it. Remember, this is the sort of person the President does interviews with and nobody has a problem with that. Is there a last straw? I thought the NIE documents, showing that our own intelligence agencies admit the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat was a last straw and then came the Foley scandal. Then Rush attacks a guy about faking his disease ... If you were covering up for a Republican scandal, this may be the time to release it. Really, it will be hard to notice.
Dead Zone By some strange coincidence, the last four books I've read all have had to do with raising the dead. I've already mentioned World War Z (below). I also finished George Saunders' short story collection Pastoralia, which is mostly undead-free except for one story about a male stripper whose bossy mother returns from the grave to continue bossing him around. It's actually fairly creepy and gory. Then I finally got around to reading Carolyn Parkhurst's The Dogs of Babel (Popmatters Review). I'd been meaning to read it for so long I'd forgotten what it was actually about: a man who tries to figure out the last hours of his wife's life by teaching the eyewitness - their dog - to communicate. (The positve reviews were earned. Dogs is an excellent book, maybe a touch too MFA-ish in its delicacy and restraint.) While she's never a zombie, I'm going to squeak this book in under a "bringing the voice of the dead back to life through unnatural means" clause. Finally, I'm reading The House with a Clock in its Walls to see if it's appropriate for my 6 year old. Obviously, I picked this up knowing nothing about it except that my kid needed something to read and next thing you know, the little boy is in a graveyard bringing a dead witch back to life. (The version I have has Edward Gorey illustrations, not the ones in the new edition.)
I've decided my next read has to be something I don't know too much about to see if some zombies sneak in. (And now that I think about it, earlier I read The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power, which has as a subtext how the completely dead Bush presidency can come back to life. But that's probably stretching it.)
The two points: Anything less than worship at the shrine of Lieberman for Lieberman is something of an attack. And Joe really is working so well with the Republicans he's kind of surprised not all of them like him. Follow the link, though. It's put better there.
Your GOP at Work So I get a polling call from "Connecticut Victory" or some such group. Now, my address hits a few hotly contested races, making pre-recorded voices call me all the time informing me that they happen to be pre-recorded firemen supporting Joe Lieberman. Also I get a lot of polling calls. Many ask if I can support Joe Courtney after learning that he wants to tax money you find on the street and blood-drinking. I asked, like I always do, who is funding the poll. "In order to remain unbiased, we don't have that information sir, but it is only a two question poll." So I agree and, after answering the second question "I'm voting for Joe Courtney," they guy says - quite politely - "Thank you sir. This poll was conducted by Connecticut Victory and paid for by the Connecticut Republican Party. www.ctgop.org. You have a good night sir."
Waah? Let's just dismiss the possibility that the guy found out who funded the poll while asking me the two questions. Can they reveal their lie 30 seconds after making it because either you're voting for a Democrat and they don't care what you think anymore or you're a Republican and will forgive them for pretty much anything? Of course, Republicans will lie to advance their agenda and they will lie to cover up their crimes. But they will also lie when they don't have to because it's what they do. They're liars.
I'm almost embarrassed to say how good World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is. Maybe because I'm not much of a fan of horror movies or books. Or maybe because the premise - this is a collection of interviews with survivors of a particularly gruesome future history - seems kinda lazy. But that set-up allows author Max (son of Mel) Brooks to tell a global story, from the first outbreak to humanity's fight back. He goes from Chinese submariners to Canadian mounties to Indian doctors.
Occassionally this comes across as "zombie short stories," but the stories are compulsively readable. Prop up the book while you do dishes readable. Some are even moving. It takes the living dead to bring out the best in us. I wouldn't want to try and prove it, but this is probably the first zombie novel to rely on contemporary politics and national character to tell its story. Brooks has also given an enormous amount of thought to what a global zombie outbreak might mean for things like the oceans, the borders, and Russian religion. Unfortunately, Brooks is no stylist. The differences in language and story-telling between his interview subjects are not quite large enough. (Seriously, no one needs a translator?) Also, too often his people seem like they're talking to someone from 2006 (the reader) and not someone from their time (the "interviewer"). So, literary masterpiece it's not. But a zombie masterpiece. Easy.
You know how they say the mark of a great book is it changes the way you look at the world? Well, for several days now, every time I enter a room or a building I look around and think, "Where are the weapons? Where are my escapes? How can I block those doors?" I didn't say it changed the way I see the world for the better, just changed it.
Cylon clones ... and old fashion phones! - a synthy sing-along video about the glorious updating of Battlestar Gallatica, which I keep hearing is good but refuse to watch until they bring back the furry robot dog.
A True Hero and the Worst Kind of Cowards I don't know that I've seen such chrystal examples of heroism (the kind that makes you believe in the compassionate heart of humanity) and the snivelling, gutless cowardice (the kind that makes world bleak and full of hate) side by side as this: a young Amish girl and some Marines. The two were side by side on the cnn.com frontpage just now.
The article doesn't say if Awad, the Iraqi citizen murdered by the Marines, had children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brothers or cousins ... but I wonder how they feel about the US now. I wonder if that "insurgent" is ever caught whether, even then, if the net effect will be an increase or decrease in the number of people who support the use of terror to strike back at the US?
Behind the Scenes I need to get in tonight and move things around for our new hosting arrangement. If TC goes down tonight, just check back periodically. I'll post another message when everything seems to be working again.
Excerpt of the Day, for those pondering whether Bush secretly has a clue what's going on in Iraq or actually believes the stuff he says:
"Rove arranged public appearances in town hall settings where President Bush pitched his [Social Security] personal accounts concept with lively enthusiasm, as if the idea were still alive. In fact, the proposal was dead, and everybody seemed to know it except Bush. One House Republican recalled a summertime meeting in the Roosevelt Room in which the president went on at length about reforming Social Security. "'I got the sense that his staff was not telling him the bad news,' the lawmaker said. 'This was not a case of him thinking positive. He just didn't have any idea of the political realities there. It was like he wasn't briefed at all.'"
