Random songs to amuse myself and perhaps others but, really, I mostly have great fun making up the blog post title from the songs and artists. Other possibilities: "Division Fanclub Tears Elvis Apart" and "Valentine's Bragg Faces Small Joy." Or "I Drown Runaway Soul Love" is a peculiarly creepy variation and I chastise my mind for even constructing it. Bad mind! Very bad mind!

1. "Can't Feel My Soul" by Teenage Fanclub
2. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division
3. "A Forest" by Cure
4. "I'm a Wicked One" by Hives
5. "Valentine's Day Is Over" by Billy Bragg
6. "Drown in My Own Tears" by Smithereens
7. "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself [Live]" by Elvic Costello
8. "It's Alright" by Eddie Shaw & The Wolf Gang
9. "Guiding Star" by Teenage Fanclub
10. "Love or Else" by Grin

Bonus track: "Runaway" by Small Faces

Labels: lists, songs

The more things change, the more they stay the same. No matter which candidate you love or hate, remember the following words, still pertinent and applicable 36 years on. From Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, p. 162:

Total candor with the press--or anyone else, for that matter--is not one the traits most presidential candidates find entirely desirable in their key staff people. Skilled professional liars are as much in demand in politics as they are in the advertising business... and the main function of any candidate's press secretary is to make sure the press gets nothing but Upbeat news. There is no point, after all, in calling a press conference to announce that nobody on the staff will be paid this month because three or four of your largest financial bankers just called to say they are pulling out and abandoning all hope of victory.

When something like this happens to you quickly lock all the doors and send your press secretary out to start whispering, off the record, that your opponent's California campaign coordinator just called to ask for a job.

Labels: hunter, politics

Still hunting for regular subjects to blog about. Brain rust is slowing me down. And other writing projects are taking up space in my mind as usual. As the saying goes, "I'm going to make you suffer for my art." Not that my lack of blogging is really a tortuous prospect for you, dear readers. It's a metaphor. Or perhaps a symbolic transferal of perspective between us and our mingled desires. Or some delicate transmogrification of impulse into concrete form by way of interactive art, a re-visioning of conventional form into the insubstantial spirit essence of the divine. Somesuch vacant artcrit analysis should apply to the process.

Huh? What? Did I say something?

1. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor" by Yardbirds
2. "From Her to Eternity [1987]" by Cave, Nick & the Bad Seeds
3. "Planet of Sound" by Pixies
4. "Waltz" by Screaming Blue Messiahs
5. "Come Back Baby" by Hot Tuna
6. "Water's Edge" by Seven Mary Three
7. "That's the Way" by Page & Plant
8. "Assembly" by Sakamoto, Ryuichi
9. "Fire" by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
10. "Into Method" by Shriekback

Bonus track: "Under My Thumb" by Social Distortion

I'm finding the current widespread slagging of John McCain by Conservative pundits to be passing strange. This from a group that has had remarkable discipline and ability to stay on message to the benefit of the Republican Party for at least 16 years.

Gordon Dickson wrote a Science Fiction novel called Tactics of Mistake. The title is used to describe a military tactic (supposedly lifted/borrowed from fencing for the purpose of the novel) which seeks to use a series of small feints or skirmishes to cumulatively draw an opponent into overreaching or over-committing through the mistaken impression that your side is in a disadvantaged position.

Of course, like any good gaming tactic, it can be applied in other situations. I suspect this may be the case with this so-called rejection of the almost-certain-to-be-nominee for the Repubs, Sen. McCain because of his failure to meet "true" Conservative standards.

Exactly how this is of benefit to the Repubs is difficult to gauge. And that's why it's called tactics of mistake: You never see it coming until the trap is sprung, until you are already completely and irrevocably committed to a wrong course of action.

For example, Dems might get a positive thrill/charge from this seeming dissension among the Conservative ranks. If they believe it to be real, they might become overconfident of the contest ahead. They might assume that there is no significant support for their nominal opponent and thus commit to focusing on the wrong areas for the election. They might be blindsided by a totally unexpected surge and unity on the Right.

Just a thought.

Labels: false positive, Prez race 2008, tactics

I'm still not dead and considering a return to regular blogging. My brain needs it. (uh, the "not dead" reference is to a Monty Python movie, and does not refer to any life-threatening health crisis on my part.) Happy post-Valentine's Day.

1. "It's Gonna Kill Me" by Filter
2. "Blues In The Ghetto" by Pee Wee Crayton
3. "It Ain't Easy" by Long John Baldry
4. "Artists Only" by Talking Heads
5. "Sweet Home Chicago" by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
6. "River Rat Jimmy" by Kelly Joe Phelps
7. "Blue Tondo A La Turk/Pictures At An Exhibition/Drum Solo" by ELP
8. "Twisted Heart" by Cheap Trick
9. "Putnam County" by Tom Waits
10. "I'm Cramped [Live]" by The Cramps

Bonus track: "City of Light" by 801/Phil Manzanera

Labels: bongs, love, rebellion, songs