Personal

The “Chase & Status We Just Bought a Guitar” remix of this song is also great. Here is the original.

Music

Great voice, great band. I like to boogie.

Music, Queer, Video

Phenon’s middle school chamber choir just performed in Dallas at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Middle School Conference, and they sounded awesome. I wish I could have been there. It really is shocking each time I hear them, how great they sound. Seriously! Listen to this:

Personal

It is 8:30am and I am sitting in the jury lounge to see if I will be called to serve as a juror for the District Court of Montgomery County.  My stomach is in knots, not only because I have a huge amount of work to do and this is a kind of crummy week to be missing time at the office, though that is definitely part of it.  The knots also are not only because today is my 13 year old daughters last day of Chemotherapy for Hodkin’s Lymphoma, though that is certainly a part of it as well.  But the elephant in the room –  the bloody and incredibly sad elephant – is Patty Rebholtz.  I’m thinking of Patty and really, really, not wanting to hear my number called.

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News, Opinion, Personal

I can’t believe I haven’t heard of Ida Maria before. The way she sings around the 2:20 mark in this video brings tears to my eyes every time. Just…holy fuck!

Music, Video

Personal

I love his books, and have been reading his blog for years.  John Scalzi’s recent post on the Penn State Child Rape issue is excellent and pretty much says everything I would were I as good a writer as he.  He also analogizes the situation with an Ursula K. LeGuinn story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” that I had forgottern about until I read his post.  Extra bonus points!

If your underling comes to you to report that he saw another man, also your underling, raping a small child, but then left that small child with the rapist, you should a) call the police immediately, b) alert your own superiors, c) immediately suspend the alleged rapist underling from his job responsibilities pending a full investigation, d) at the appropriate time in the future ask that first underling why the fuck he did not try to save that kid.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/11/10/omelas-state-university/

News, Opinion

“It is terrifying, and paralyzing, as the strands of sound disintegrate … in ceasing, we lose it all. But in letting go, we have gained everything.”

-Leonard Berenstein – who died eleven years ago today – commenting on Mahler’s 9th, the ending of which this video shows him conducting fearlessly and with quite remarkable emotion.

Personal

Yeah, I guess you could listen the the new Kanye/Jay-z album. Or you could, instead, venture over here…way the fuck out into left field and give Death Grips a listen. Something about it (spare, industial, confrontational) reminds me of The Beatnigs.

“We obviously had the option and foresight to not use a seatbelt, but that misses the point. It is not real – the outside is static, the inside is static, and the seatbelt is fucking static. Everything is static, just eating away at the individual. The material world and many things within it are designed to keep us half-dead, and we’re trained to think these things are keeping us safe. We reference the weaponry of fear and our music and vision isn’t about being hard or tough, it’s about being real and raw, and feeling our shit. We counter with energy, everything is energy.”
- Flatlander, Death Grips

Music, Video