What Those T-Shirts Should Say

Story here.

Glamorising a wealthy doctor who used his privileged background to gain entry into "forbidden" parts of society and his knowledge of medicine and the human body to make sure his personal victims died? No thanks. He was a brutal and repulsive killer.

BTW, "Che" was Argentinian slang (at the time) for "Hey, you!"

Bill Clinton Gets Desperate

Oh, come on. Like you haven't seen Blazing Saddles.

You know it's coming.

Quote of the Day

An intriguing comparison of Civil War generals Joseph E. Johnston and John Bell Hood with today's presidential candidates includes the following quote, from famous boxer Billy Conn:

What's the use of being Irish if you can't be thick?

Thick, of course, is British slang for stupid or dim-witted. Yep, that's me to a T.

Read the post linked above. Ever since the run-up to the Second Iraq War, I've been endlessly struck by the many parallels between the Civil War era and today, especially politically, and all the lessons we've already learned and forgotten.

The most striking parallel: Both the elections of 1864 and 2004 had unpopular wartime presidents running for re-election against former soldiers who ran as anti-war Democrats.

A Question on the Democratic Convention

For those of you who still sometimes come by, I have a question.

What is the rule for how delegates to the Democratic Convention in Denver this year are held to the candidate they are pledged to? In other words, are delegates held to their candidate until the candidate themself releases them, or is there some releasing mechanism like, say after the first or second round of voting, they can vote their conscience?

I've searched various convention and Democratic sites but can't find a specific rule on it. And I'm not asking about superdelegates.

I ask because I'm curious if the Clintons are staying in the primary race until the convention, hoping to be able to arm-twist released delegates and thereby secure the party's nomination. It's a frightening thought but very Clintonian.

Thanks!

MidSouthCon

I went to the MidSouthCon last weekend. I had a pretty good time, too, though I think I set my expectations a tad too high. I didn't have a plan for events (especially all the programming tracks) and let myself drift around too much. I missed or wasted a lot of opportunities that way. Below are some photos I took. I wasn't really thinking photos, so I just snapped pics when it occured to me that I should do so.

A few views of the Dealers' Room. Lots of repeats from last year, but the used bookseller I was hoping would be there wasn't this year. And all the board games were of the Munchkin / Carcassonne / Settlers of Catan stripe. The only dealer who had games beyond that didn't have anything I was interested in. (Or could even afford.) There were a couple of t-shirt dealers, though, which was new.






Found this woman in the hallways. There seemed to be fewer costumed people this year than last, though that may be a subjective perception. The wagon she's holding onto is a Radio Flyer-type that she had some Con stuff in along with her infant son, who seemed to be enjoying himself way too much.


Here's a series of shots from the Boardgaming Room, which was mostly my base this weekend. Surprisingly, I didn't play that many boardgames on Saturday. I did spend some time in the video room (which was packed) but didn't have the nerve to rock out on the Rock Band videogame in front of all the kids. (I could have been a grandparent to some of them! Yeesh.) The boardgame closeups are from a game called Tide of Iron. Pretty fun; similar to Memoir '44 or BattleLore.
















I did spend some time in the Anime Room, which had some good stuff this year. I missed the truly weird, dark stuff Saturday night as I was ... boardgaming! The Video Room was hopeless -- lots of the same old movies you've seen a million times. (Star Wars! Star Trek! Superman! Independence Day! King Kong!) Nothing bizarre or foreign or out there or hard to find. I was deeply disappointed.

My buddy Mark Havener was manning the Games Workshop / Battle Bunker demo table on Saturday. That's him in the red t-shirt. He's with the Warhammer 40K Apocalypse game.







The Battle Bunker also had a demo of the game Space Hulk. I'm not much of a tabletop wargamer (like with figures shown here), but Space Hulk seems kinda appealing. I only play Epic: Armageddon, which is with 6mm figures and is much more strategic (almost chess-like), rather than slugging it out man to man.

Mark and I did a demo of Epic at last year's Con, which was a lot of fun. Many folks stopped by to watch and participate. But now that Games Workshop has withdrawn support for the Specialist range (which includes Epic), it wasn't going to happen. Ah well....





Another costume pic I took. Zombies!!


That, unfortunately, is that! Not many pics, but I thought I'd share my meager selection anyway.

I'm already saving up for next year's MidSouthCon.

Homeless Guy Returns!

In February of 2007 a homeless guy took up residence on the front steps of the antique store on the corner. (Monroe and Avalon) He showed up anywhere from early in the morning to around 10AM and stayed in that spot until dark. He never went anywhere else, nor talked much to anyone. Once in a while, he'd yell at traffic. But mostly, he just sat there all day. For a while, he was bringing a bike with him. No one ever saw him leave at night; he just disappeared. We suspected he took up a spot in the alleyway behind the strip malls on the north side of Union.

We started calling the police on him. The guy told a story about waiting for his girlfriend down the block's boyfriend to leave for work before heading to her apartment and laying up there while the boyfriend was away. Suuuuuuuure.... And the business wasn't posted with signs (it's been closed for years) so the cops couldn't really do anything. Homeless guy would show up anywhere from three to six days a week and just sit there in the shade with his carry-alls and backpack. And he always wore a red cap of some kind; usually knit.

One day, I saw someone working over there and went to introduce myself. Turns out it was the business agent for the elderly woman who owned the antique business! He said she was afraid to come into Midtown for fear of being robbed or killed, so he was taking care of things. I told him about the homeless guy and our problems with him (he had begun to attract the occasional friend).

The agent went out and bought a "Posted No Trespassing" sign to put in the window, right next to where the homeless guy sat. When he got back, the homeless guy was there! Agent told him to get lost, stay gone and if he returned then he'd be arrested. Much yelling, but the homeless guy left.

For a week. Saturday, he returned. And then Sunday. We called the police again. But they told us that since I wasn't the owner or the agent, I had no standing to do more than report a trespasser and they couldn't really do anything but shoo him along. (They gave me the sense that they were getting tired of that, too.) We had to get the agent to sign an "Authorisation of Agency" so the police could actually arrest the guy for showing up.

One problem: we had to have the guy's name. This was the fall now and we still didn't know who he was. The police wouldn't tell us, either. Quandary.

One Sunday night, after he'd been there all day, a bunch of fire trucks show up and break into one of the apartments across the street. There are twenty units in three buildings, but it's abandoned mostly. A handful of apartments have been rented out to some guys attached to the Door of Hope program. I can't understand any agency putting people in there, as there are safety issues (no outside lights in the whole complex at all) and health issues (mold and rot inside the apartments), but their response is always, "Well, where else would you have us put these guys?"

Anyway, turns out someone had broken into the apartment and started a fire while cooking something. Problem was, the guy next door didn't call the fire department and if they hadn't show up, he likely would have died, as he was deep asleep at the time and had no idea what was happening. There was no external sign whatsoever of a fire inside.

Homeless guy showed back up to watch the activity and then I heard someone talking about how the fire department had received a cell phone call about the fire. We know homeless guy has a cell phone, as we've seen him use it. We think homeless guy was actually inside the apartment, maybe sleeping or cooking, and the fire got out of hand. He fled, then called 911. Can't prove this, but it seems to be the concensus of the neighborhood now.

After a few serious squabbles with the cops over the "No Trespassing" sign over the following weeks, he was forced to take up residence west a couple of blocks up the street, under the shade of some old trees. The couple of times I went past him, he gave me the Death Glare.

The situation dragged on until the cold set in, about December. He stopped coming around all winter. We thought he was gone for good.

Nope, he showed back up yesterday. Today, when he returned, I called the agent and the cops. The agent will be down tomorrow if homeless guy shows up again and we'll reolve this once and for all.

Here he is today, napping on the steps:


A closeup:


Just a minute (literally!) before the cops appeared, he suddenly collected his things and moved up the street.




The cops arrived and talked with him. He left for points unknown.


I don't doubt we'll see him tomorrow anyway.

Your Monty Python of the Day

see more crazy cat pics

Random Photoblogging

Just some pictures I've taken lately.

First, Bennie asleep on the bedroom floor in a spot of sunlight. This came out better than I expected, but still not quite what I was hoping for.


Riding the bus one rainy Saturday.


There's a stray that a couple of my neighbors take care of. She lives outside and claims the whole building as her territory. She and Bennie do not get along at all.


I rather like this shot of the stray, named Pook-A-Pook. My neighbor Danny gave her the name. He can't explain what it means nor how to spell the anme. She obviously used to be someone's pet before she went stray. I'm guessing she was put out. It's not obvious in the photo, but she's a polydactyl. Her paws look like huge mitts.


Another view of Pook, in her upstairs home. I bought that cat condo for Bennie, and she utterly ignored it; so, I donated it to Pook. Danny put it up high on the A/C unit in his living room. (We live on the second floor.) Pook loves it for the view she has of her domain and its trespassers.


I've mentioned before that I like to play EPIC: Armageddon. This is a closeup of a game in progress. Sorry for the blurriness, but I like the composition and angle.


"What?"

Testing... Testing... Testing....

Is this thing on?

Christmas Eve Photoblogging

For the first time in ... well, ever, I bought some Christmas lights and strung them up in the bedroom window. Here's the street view:


And here's the bedroom view. Sorry for the darkness, I'm still learning how to set film "speed." Ho! Ho! Ho!


And here's Miss Bennie sleeping on her bed recliner. My neighbor Danny gave it to me and I put it up on these shelves next to the bed. Bennie immediately claimed it for her own.


A different view of the living room. Swank and stylin', eh?

Thanksgiving Sunday Photoblogging

A couple of shots of Bennie enjoying the heat. Bow down before the one you serve! That's Bear-Bear on the sofa behind her. She used to drag Bear-Bear around the apartment when she was a kitten and Bear-Bear was nearly as big as she was. Nowadays, she barely acknowledges Bear-Bear. Fickle feline friendships.


A closer shot with some cropping. Believe it or not, she used to love to sleep in front of the radiant electric wall heater in our old apartment. I couldn't stand in front of it for more than a minute or two, but she'd sleep 18 inches away all afternoon.


Me at the desk. Sorry for the glare in the glasses. I'm not sure why it's slightly out of focus, either. I was experimenting with putting the camera on a ledge near the desk.


Meager offerings today. Come back again!

Photoblogging

I bought a new digital camera recently, so I'll occasionally photoblog stuff. I know: it's sad.

First, me. Mike needz brainz!!



Bennie on the living room carpet. She's my 7 year old tabby.



Bennie on the desk, hanging out while I work.



Bennie naps as Mr. Jefferson watches over her.



A box of gaming dice.



I'll probably... no, certainly be posting more pictures.

Chris Davis is Still My Bitch

I'm changing the tag line under the blog name, so I just wanted to archive the old one in a post. Chris Davis is still my bitch.

Satisfied now, mother?

I'm a Feminist!

I'm a Feminist!

You Are 84% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn't mean you're a man hater (in fact, you may be a man). You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It's a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.

Are You a Feminist?

[Note: This post was deleted and reposted to remove some comment spam.]

Now That's a Debate!

Of course, the mayoral race will come with some debates and they pretty much promise to be dull and surprise-free affairs. How I wish they could be like this one, from England's Alan Partridge. [WARNING: The last minute or so is not work safe. Language and male posterior nudity.]





Never heard of Alan Partridge until Lileks mentioned him, so thanks for that!

Lazy Sunday, the Musical

Why, yes, I am being lazy today and posting a bunch of YouTube links to some favorite songs or interesting music videos, instead of commenting on the knifing that John Ryder gave to the Shelby County Republican Party last week. Sucks to be them; glad to be me. Let's get to it!

First, from the Seventies, great glam-rock band Mott the Hoople and The Golden Age of Rock and Roll. This demands to be remade in a black church with the choir behind the band onstage, arms flinging to heaven with every "Woooo!" Ian Hunter rises up through the floor to the pulpit; Ariel Bender goes floating around the church during his guitar solo and at the end the doors burst open as hordes of young rockers flood in to dance in the aisles.

Seventies rock: The dude in the paint thinks he's gonna faint. Stoke more coke on the fire.





Next, Eighties rockers Wall of Voodoo, one of my most-loved bands. We'll begin with a very early video of a song from "Dark Continent," Call Box. This must date to the very early Eighties.





And next, an appearance on American Bandstand!





An excellent live performance of Tomorrow, a personal theme song.





Lead singer/songwriter Stan Ridgway and percussionist Joe Nanini left the band, but the remaining members recruited some new people and kept going. The resulting album, "Seven Days in Sammystown," isn't that bad, as this song demonstrates. There's another song on here that can stand with anything WoV Mk1 did, Big City. After that, they drifted into irrelevance. But the early stuff is landmark weird rock.





This next song is a personal favorite obscurity. Most folks have heard of actor Bill Paxton, but almost noone knows he had a band! This song, How Can the Laboring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?, is classic Eighties synthpop, a genre I love to death. I'd never seen the video before today (and I love the wacky German Expressionist style), but I've been know to play the 9 minute dance remix (yes, I own it) over and over and over again, letting myself get lost in the sound.






Speaking of endless repeats and dance remixes, this one is another 9 minute wonder! It's early English industrialists and tape experimenters, Cabaret Voltaire. Close your eyes for the video part, which is unintentionally hilarious and bad; the song kicks all kinds of ass, though.





Another song from their earlier days, one I loved inflictng on people who'd never heard this kind of music back then, Nag Nag Nag. Pretty much no one I knew could stand this, but I love hell out of it!





But wait! There's more. This is Catherine Wheel doing I Want to Touch You, another favorite. They were a Nineties hard rock (not exactly metal) band from England, now defunct sadly.





I wanted to put up Broken Head, what I think is their best song, but couldn't find it. The production and playing on that song is astounding. With a good stereo at very high volumes, it's not as if the song is being played at you, so much as you are walking around inside a massive, mid-tempo cathedral of sound. Spectacular and, to recycle last night's term, transcendent. It's another song I've been known to leave on repeat for 45 minutes or so.

The band was also well-known for releasing demo versions of some songs. They weren't significantly different from the final release, but revealed fascinating songwriting and production decisions. In the case of She's My Friend, I think the demo version is superior.

I also like bands that can do great covers of other folks' songs. Like this version of Iggy Pop's The Passenger, done by Siouxsie & The Banshees. They've totally revamped the style, adding lots of horns and a flamenco flavor but the song's essential message of ennui, boredom and endless nights is still there intact.





Back to the South. I lived in Birmingham during the Eighties and got to see Athens, Georgia, band Guadalcanal Diary live at the first Kudzu Festival. Killer show that ended with a slow-grind verions of Johnny B. Goode. This is the only good GD video I could find, of their "hit," Watusi Rodeo. Parts of this were filmed in Memphis. If you don't blink, you can see the Antenna club in one shot, and what might be a drug deal going down in front of Graceland. And check out the Klan parade!





Where to end this post? How about... apocalyptic punk rock? Ultravox! were part of the second wave of punk rock bands from England and they specialised in frnatic songs of disconnection and frenzied alienation in the post-nuclear ruins of the world. Until they morphed into shimmering New Europeans playing synth-driven songs of love. Go figure....

This is yet another of my personal Top Ten favorite songs of all time, The Wild, The Beautiful and The Damned.





Ooooh! One more. This was one of the earliest synthpop songs, from New Zealand of all places. Mi-Sex and Computer Games. Check out that state-of-the-art technology on display. The Who get credit for Baba O'Riley (Teenage Wasteland) as the first synthesiser rock song, but that song was mostly done before Moog contacted Pete Townsend to show off their new synth. (Listen to it closely some time; you can tell the synth was just underlaid.) German bands like Neu, Can, and Kraftwerk were doing rock with synths, though heavy on the spacey psychedelics, by the mid-Seventies, but to my knowledge this is the first rock song written with and around a synth riff and intended for a general rock radio audience. Give 'em their props, y'all!





I just cannot begin to make you understand just how cynically dopey the Seventies were and how earnestly dopey the Eighties were. Thanks for this little tour of some of my personal jukebox.

No, no! Wait! Just one more.... Sex Beat by the Gun Club. Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a part of the small movement in punk rock (along with the Cramps) that didn't look back to the early "punk" bands of the Nuggets era but further back to the rockabilly bands of the Fifties, when rock was about energy, abandon and sexual discovery. He also had a tremendous appreciation of seminal bluesman Robert Johnson, famed for his supposed selling of his soul to the Devil at a Mississippi crossroads.

[Digression: On album, Pierce is one of the few singers who sings sharp, and not flat like most folks.]

Lyrics are here. If you can close your eyes to the abysmal, lame, alterna-white boy, wank-posing of the visuals, you can hear the original studio version here:





You can hear some of Johnson's same Hellhounds chasing after the drugged Pierce in this live version, which completely smokes after a shaky start. It's amazing how the heroin-stupored Pierce doesn't even seem to hear the band but keeps up with the frantic pace perfectly.





If you could choose only one song to stand in for all of rock music, this would have to be the one. Without a doubt.

Look For the Good in Others and They'll See the Good in You

Again, aimless drifting around YouTube turned up a video for one of my all-time, Top Ten favorite songs, Look For the Good in Others and They'll See the Good in You by New Zealand band The Chills. This video is from the late Eighties and features one of the band's best line-ups. I got to see them here in Memphis around 1990, when they played the Antenna. One of my most favorite shows. The sound is a bit light on the keyboards, which add a carnival midway feel to the song. But it's an energetic, speedy performance that's completely winning.




Because you asked nicely and I like y'all so much, here are the lyrics:

I used to be in love but that is long since through.
You know we used to be one living thing, now we're back to two.
Oh, I was driven for a while, now I know it's true:
Look for the good in others and they'll see the good in you.
Fa fa fa faaaaa.

I used to look for too much in the people that we are.
You know we used to have a reason for doing things the way we do.
Sorrow's my reward 'cause I'm unhappy with me too.
I've learned that I am me and me is not the same as you.
Fa fa fa faaaaa.

Last week just for a while, I thought I'd found someone at last.
The woman in my future was a child from my past.
Oh that was cruel of fate to give me hope -- first time in two years!
But I've learned just who my friends are and no one really cares.

I trade away my loving soul; filled me with despair.
The dreams they all seem pointless and the talent cupboard bare.
Through all this there's still one thing, sometimes sets me free:
How it's good to be an adult and still believe the child in me, ohhhh --
Fa fa fa faaaaa.

Probably three of the most transcendent minutes I'll ever know in this life. You can hear echoes of the Buzzcocks and the Beach Boys there, with a wonderful South Pacific breeziness.

And then, this murder song with a chilling twist, Pink Frost. It's the first time I've ever seen this appropriately atmospheric video.





There are plenty more links available to more Chills music. Check 'em out.

Random Web Comment of the Day

i love this song it reminds me when me and my boyfriend first met this song was on weve been together 3 mnths on sunday x

Sigh... teenagers.

From the comments to a video posted to YouTube. (Poison by Alice Cooper, if you must know. Don't laugh!)

INSTANT UPDATE: While digging up Alice, I ran across the video to Elected, from the mid-Seventies. Gotta love the YouTube. And the song seems appropriate to the season here in Memphis.

Faces to Names

Earlier tonight, I was at a meeting here in Midtown and got to talking with a guy named Roy. I mentioned my name and starting to say, "I'm with Main Street-- " when he jumped in with, "Half-Bakered!" Turns out he is The Gates of Memphis!

Small world here in Midtown, indeed. We seem to be infested with bloggers. I was in Otherlands a month or so ago and as I was walking out, there was Paul Ryburn!

Actually, I guess I should say Memphis is infested with bloggers. At last month's Dutch Treat Luncheon, the moderator asked how many in the crowd were bloggers and I think about a dozen hands went up. Wow.

Roy and I talked of this, that and the other. Turns out we share a mutual skepticism of the whole "Creative Class" concept, but for differing reasons. I really like Roy's blog, though I don't read it often enough. We also have a mutual love of the history of this city, something I like about his blog. Anyway, he turned out to be a thoughful and intelligent person, surprise, surprise.

As always, it's nice to put faces to the bloggers of Memphis.

Better News Than the Paper!

Lots and lots of news about closing and opening businesses in this thread on the Goner Records board. Seems there's a flurry of activity in my little area of Midtown of late.

The info about "Hung" of Pho Hoa Binh is amusing to me, as on my block (right around the corner!) it's widely assumed he's the big drug kingpin for the crack dealers in the area. I've heard this several times now from a variety of people. We see him all the time just walking the block, watching everything that's going on. Sometimes he'll wander back into the apartments and just stand there., looking around and watching Sometimes he'll just stand on the corner (Monroe & Avalon) for hours, watching the street. He never speaks to anyone.

I'm sorry to hear about the closing of PHB, as they make a killer curry-potato soup. The first time I ate there, I was halfway into a plate of the lunch buffet before I realised it was tofu!

Link via Mixmaster Mark.