BLCKDGRD

I have no idea why this song visited Fmf's dreams last night

   *

• British Sea Power
• Scotland Yard Gospel Choir
• Ginger Envelope
• Los Campensinos!
• The Purrs
• His Name is Alive
• Air (the French one)
• New Pornographers
• Sambassador
• Minipop
• Mitch Easter (speaking of nostalgia)
• The Vandelles. Twice. More.

   *

Nude album covers. Nostalgia? Have YOU thought about Joey Heatherton lately?

BTW, my sitemeter ratio of visits to page views is roughly 1 x 1.5. I expect you all to pump that up the next few days to at least 1 x 2.

Meanwhile, absolutely nothing will surprise you about Stephen King's 2007 favorite music. Nothing. Make your own snark.

And Birchmere or 930 in Silver Spring? Please.

   *

A terrific band I don't pay enough attention to?

Quick! Get Your Bets In!

Breaking news!

Man Takes Hostages in NH Clinton Office

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- A man claiming to have a bomb was holding one or more hostages at Hillary Clinton's campaign office Friday, police said.

How long before the first rightwing blogger claims HRC staged this stunt herself for sympathetic publicity?

Cause she's capable, the bitch, she's capable. The bitch.

Which Did I buy?

Planet's under the weather, so I stayed home with her today. After lunch, both antsy, we drove up to a local Arnesbay and Oblenay to loiter. On the front kiosk, the major table that greets you at the door, were two new books. Which did I buy?

*

**

 

*

ERRRT! Trick question.

I don't hate ANYONE enough to be seen in public with this book in my hands (much less hate you enough to inflict it on you).

If I said it once I'll repeat myself until you vomit: Gordon Sumner (voted the worse lyricist EVAH!) and The Police SUCK SUCK SUCK! Suck.

Maybe it was this one:

*

*

Yes,

And the clouds fretted and flew, as though
there was a reason for their acting distraught.
There may have been, of course, but at this distance,
better to act dumb and accept the inevitable
as a long-anticipated surprise. Then if what lands
on your plate stares angrily at you and the other guests
"can't wait" to hear your reaction, why, it's checkout time
at the gazebo and no one will forget you too heartily
as the next-to-last spectator always glimpsed on the premises,
feigning the concern for the victim that marks you as the killer,
for sure. As for being in touch with you guys
another time, we'll take it under advisement.

So this moment's tremors mingle with others
on the departure platform. Who knew it would be this silly,
and so dense? Nevertheless, we have a right to know,
to have our impulses regulated and calibrated in the
interests of farther and fainter reaction-shots. Sure,
you'll get your rights read to you and sooner
than you may have counted on. Let the monotonous
group of listeners pump you for details, we'll provide
backup and terminal ecstasy at the way stations.
It couldn't have been any other way. You knew that.

What's your name down there?
Despite misgivings, the story clicks to a halt,
as always. The credits surge. People rush to leave.
The shiny cars of another era are coming
to take us where we wish to be taken, lest we
outstay our welcome and sink in the embrace
of another mood.

*

If you guessed the Ashbery, you would be correct.

Honor of Hah

The crucial distinction between the British press and American press:

Flash of Bad Sex Wins Late Mailer Coveted Prize 

Norman Mailer beat off strong competition to take Bad Sex award posthumously with description of oral sex.

The British press not only know they're wankers, they celebrate it.

BTW, fossilize your hamster.

Fandom

The local sports-talk radio station comes out of commercial breaks with a clumsily crafted bumper of maudlin music while a dramatic voiceover announces the "continuing coverage of the death of Sean Taylor," while the hosts speak in hushed tones fit for the lobby just outside the viewing room at the funeral parlor.

They take phone calls, and callers express sincere sadness at the loss of "this vibrant young man" who had "changed his life since the birth of his daughter," and some choke back emotion as they claim "to have lost a brother" or say Taylor's death "is like losing a close friend."

This isn't snark: I'm constantly worrying at my obsession with that hometown soccer team in black kit: I posture as anti-authoritarian in every other aspect of my life and then dress in black, never miss a home game, stand and shout through the game, and adore - adore - the rituals and chants.

Theme Song Nov 07

And I got a limosine sitting out there a mile long with 25 women just dying for me to go woooo!

NOW look who's endorsing Mike Huckabee:

*

Ric Flair, Chuck Norris: who completes the trifecta?

*

*

Though let's be realistic, and I'm not kidding: Ric Flair IS the greatest of all time.

Woooo!

2010

European qualifying draw for the 2010 World Cup:

1: Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta
2: Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg
3: Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino
4: Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein
5: Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia
6: Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra
7: France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands
8: Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro
9: Holland, Scotland, Norway, FYR Macedonia, Iceland

And, assuming USMNT gets by a home and home v Barbados or Dominica, CONCACAF groups (assuming the other seeds win their home and homes v chumps):

• USA, Guatemala, Trinadad & Tobago, Cuba
• Mexico, Jamaica, Honduras, Canada
• Costa Rico, Guyana, Panama, Haiti

Can I again make the useless plea to merge CONCACAF and CONMEBOL?  Club and country?

USMNT would be better served losing in Buenos Aires than winning in Tegucilgalpa.

   *

UPDATE: Brian Carroll will be wearing yellow, an appropriate color for someone's mancrush.

   *

UPDATE: You see, the charm of Uncle Fiver is that you can see the joke coming and it's funny not despite but because of that:

Fans who disrupted a Bucharest derby between Steaua and Dinamo at the weekend smuggled explosives in their underwear to manufacture flares in the stadium, according to the head of the city's riot police. "The fans hid gunpowder and different other materials in their underwear and carried them into the stands," explained police general Olimpiodor Antonescu, before asking the Fiver if that was a stick of dynamite in our boxers or were we just pleased to see him.

Prestigious!

Obama wins Broder's Seal of Approval:

*

*****

*

Awesome!

Meanwhile, Jim Hoagland got paid to write this:

If the Democrats nominate the deeply polarizing Clinton, other GOP strategists would prefer to try to make her and her gender the campaign's central issue rather than defend Bush's terrible record or run on the strident positions and deep divisions that this year belong to leading Republican candidates.

Now why the fuck didn't I think of that?

Please. No. Please. No. Please.

John Cole writes:

In all seriousness, if this kind of thing pisses you off and frightens you, and it should, then you should be rooting for Hillary Clinton to win in 2008. Not because I trust her with the sorts of unchecked power the right wing has demanded authorities have during Bush’s tenure, but because I know the surest way to wake up NRO and the Red State and the other alleged “conservatives” to the dangers of this sorts of behavior is to give the power to Hillary.

Exactly, but what of that "liberal, democratic" relative who sat at your Thanksgiving table who rails against Bush but adores Clinton?

*

• Fox morning host defines "good Indians."
• Dennis Perrin urges you to smash your hand w/a rock.
• Elric 7 flies here tomorrow.
• Racist nation, adding, my left foot's littlest toe for a "respected" scientist to publish papers "proving" chinks and gooks smarter than round eyes.
• Dickens the racist.
• Comply or ZZZZZT!
• I vaguely remember when Michael Kinsley didn't suffer from villageritis.
• Where Audrey and I went to make out. True.
• Royalties and loyalties are not mutually exclusive.
• Good riddance John Howard.
• Yugoslavia, reconsidered (plus important links).
• The metrics: the Right's rich hate the poor and believe the poor deserve nothing while the Left's rich hate the poor but provide them aid in exchange for the poor's votes, which to the Right is both bribery and hypocrisy.
• America's Prolapsed Anus of Malevolence.
• The above isn't about Imus, but this is, and is right.
• But Greaseman? No pity.
• More Kaufman.
• Evil's henchman.

   *

• NYT's 2007 notable books.
• James Wood on Tolstoy and the new translation of W&P.
• PGWP streams a great song.
• Prestige and paperbacks.
• Quick Study digs Drive By Truckers.
• Seamus Heaney on Japanese poetry.
• 1000 albums to hear before you die.

   *

Alex Ross on his The Rest is Noise: