Listening Post

Last week I said I was on a Wings kick but maybe I'm just on a 70s kick, because I've been listening to a hell of a lot of Rose Royce lately.

Here's a classic that I still can't get enough of.

From 1977, it's Wishing on a Star.

Happy Friday, all.

Tweet of the Day

Right.

Listening Post

Dear God, yes.

Here it is, folks: brand new Nine Inch Nails.

I have to admit I was wary given the turn Trent's music has taken over the past few years. Not that I don't like it; I like it very much. It's just that it's been very experimental, free-form and obviously made to be applied to movie soundtracks. I wondered if he could regain the kind of focus that would create not just great music but great Nine Inch Nails music.

And he has.

This sounds like the old material I love so much. This sounds brand new. It's just fucking great.

Here's Came Back Haunted.

Quote of the Day

"The headline-grabbing outburst is a common ploy, one that, it depresses me to say, is far too often used by those of us here on the crunchy left. We can say that dire circumstances call for extreme reactions, but really, all that heckling does is broadcast to the world, 'What I feel right this moment is more important what everybody else in the room paid money to experience.' We see it again and again, and never satisfyingly. Last summer, a comedy club patron enticed Daniel Tosh to make some very unfortunate remarks about rape – an event that was set in motion the woman decided, 'I felt that sitting there and saying nothing, or leaving quietly, would have been against my values as a person and as a woman.' In other words, much like Sturtz, she decided that her values should be made known to everyone in the audience, because they were more important than anything anybody else was saying or doing. Certainly more important than what the person the rest of the assembly had paid their money to see was saying and doing.

I believe in vigorous debate and fighting with all the passion we have for the issues that matter. And that is not possible when we are selfish, self-appointed arbiters of what the person in the front of the room with the microphone ought to be talking about. There is plenty to be pissed off about in this world. I’m in the Yes to Equal Rights, No to Rape camp too. I think that Rick Santorum actually looks better covered in a sparkly dusting of glitter. But the moment we play the 'I just couldn’t help myself' card we shut down meaningful conversation. Yelling at someone is not 'interaction.' Sure, we get noticed, but it’s easy to get noticed. A no-nonsense mom like Michelle Obama could tell you that any two year-old in a WalMart can get noticed just by throwing herself on the floor of the sporting goods aisle. That doesn’t mean anybody is going to take her seriously."

-- Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams on getEQUAL activist Ellen Sturtz's highly ill-advised attempt to shout down Michelle Obama at a fundraiser last night over the subject gay rights

Fuck. Yes.

This sums up so much of what I've said before about both the ridiculous Code Pink-style protest model of screaming, shouting, and general disruption and why heckling a comic opens you up to just about whatever abusive response consequently comes your way.

Listening Post

I realize this song has been used and overused, but it's still a singularly extraordinary cover. It was also the soundtrack to a pretty bad little breakdown I had at around three in the morning overnight. Not that it was playing or anything; I just woke up with it in my head and everything sort of went downhill from there.

So here it is.

Gary Jules -- Mad World.

Listening Post

Maybe there's something to be said for the fact that Filter hasn't really changed in almost 20 years. While some would see it as tedious and
unimaginative, I kind of feel comforted by it. They've made blisteringly heavy but endlessly melodic rock going all the way back to 1995, with quite a bit of their stuff acting as a soundtrack to various points in my life between then and now, and I can't think of that as being anything but good.

Here's "new" Filter. This is What Do You Say.

Listening Post

Given that this clip has about 55-million hits on YouTube it's not like it's brand new or little-seen. Still, it's a great song.

Here's Justin Timberlake's Mirrors.

I mean it when I say that things will get back on track here soon. Today will be a 15-hour workday for me -- and that's about average these days. So you have an idea what I'm up against in my life right now.

I miss writing, though. I mean writing I'm not doing for Banter but for me. That has to return soon otherwise I'll go crazy.