Go read Billmon, NOW!
Whiskey Bar: If It Quacks Like a Duck

In Your Ear....

Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

DONALD FAGEN
Morph the Cat
Warner Music, 2,580 yen

A new album of smooth, jazzy R&B-inflected pop from Steely Dan is always a major musical treat and a new solo album by Donald Fagen, one half (some might say more) of the creative brain trust behind the band, is a very close second. The casual listener might be hard pressed to hear the difference, but Fagen's solo work seems to lean a little more heavily on old-fashioned R&B and a little less on radio-friendly rock hooks.

That isn't to say Morph the Cat is a noncommercial album--far from it--but Fagen indulges his love for extended solos and dense horn arrangements a little more when on his own and nearly half of the album's eight songs clock in at over six minutes. Most of that length is taken up with intricate and artfully executed guitar solos, by past Steely Dan sidemen Hugh McCracken, Wayne Krantz and Jon Herington. All three manage to scream and wail enough to put most heavy rock guitarists to shame, yet do so in the most tasteful way imaginable, never veering into vulgarity or seeming out of place.

Also reminiscent of Steely Dan is Fagen's love of offbeat humor and storytelling. "H-gang" tells the story of the "ultimate five-chord band" and "Security Joan" is a meet-cute tale for the era of the "war on terror."

Behind all the fancy arrangements and clever lyrics lies the rock upon which the tarnished chrome church of Steely Dan was built--Fagen's solid talent as a composer, pianist and singer. His versatile voice remains as expressive as ever, straining just a little to hit all the highs and lows as it always has, with just a hint of decadent indulgence and corruption and a large dose of ironic humor.

Besides, you have to love anyone who can get away with describing a character in a song as a "Rabelaisian puff of smoke."

THE LITTLE WILLIES
The Little Willies
Toshiba-EMI, 2,500 yen

Pulled together in 2003 by singer-songwriter Richard Julian and his longtime friend and pop-jazz sensation Norah Jones, the Little Willies were originally meant to give the two a chance to play some old-time country music with some pals in a one-night stand at a New York bar called the Living Room. Fortunately for all, the gig proved to be so much fun that it became a recurring irregular engagement whenever the band members' conflicting schedules permitted.

That sense of fun permeates this collection of western swing and old drinking songs penned by the likes of Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Townes Van Zandt. There is even an Elvis cover, with Jones languorously crooning Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller's "Love Me" with backup vocals provided by "the Ordinares."

Julian adds three of his own songs and a contribution from bassist Lee Alexander rounds out the collection.

Jones and Julian split the vocal work evenly with Jones' authentic sounding honky-tonk piano and some tasty guitar work by Jim Campilongo grabbing the instrumental spotlight.

Purists may question whether a bunch of New York jazz musicians can do justice to country and bluegrass classics such as "Streets of Baltimore" and "Tennesse Stud," but their infectious sense of enjoyment and obvious affection for the material make the Little Willies more appealing than the bluff jingoism and Nashville cliches of Toby Keith or Garth Brooks any day.

Besides, you have to love a band that can get away with writing a song about Lou Reed going cow tipping.
(Mar. 30, 2006)

Land of the Weird, Home of the Strange
New airline slogan: Fly with us and get a free Transportation Security Agency uniform
or did the bag-searcher just run out of thank-you-for-letting-us-invade-your-privacy notes and decide to leave his shirt instead?

You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't poke the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with the Easter Bunny but you could sue his fluffy butt.

I wonder if these kids were studying the Constitution the day they were locked in like criminals

No monopoly on stupid
Christian creationists who insist that Darwin is nonesense and the cleave, uh...religiously to literal interpretations of the Bible are by no means confined to red states of U.S. or even North America. They say and do thing that many of us find odd or funny (like setting up creationist dinosaur parks) but are really at their most hilarious when they try to show "scientific proof"

"There will even be a week-long Family Creation Conference in tents at the Cefn Lea Christian Holiday Park near Newtown in mid-Wales, for which about 40 families have signed up, at which Mr Mackay will attempt to answer fundamental questions such as: Did bees sting before Adam sinned? Why would birds need to migrate in a good world? What would polar bears do in a world with no ice and what did great white sharks eat before Aussies went surfing?
The answers may seem obvious, but it is proof that even believers in the inerrancy of the Bible
feel the need to seek something scientific to bolster their case "

Five weird habits
I've been tagged by Dave over at the Galloping Beaver, who was tagged by Sandra at Lesser Spotted Bunting and asked to reveal five weird habits. While I have a variety of weird habits, many of which I will not discuss in polite company, let me say that I'm sure my friends and especially my wife could name many many more than five weird things I do, say or think.

1. I always carry a harmonica and play it everywhere - waiting for the bus, walking down the street, waiting at the stoplight when I drive. When I used to spend a lot of time on the road for work I used to wear one in neck rack occasionally and play non-stop on longer drives.

2. I put mustard on dill pickles and cheese, sweet pickle relish on grilled cheese sandwiches and hot sauce on just about everything.

3. I almost never wear sneakers - a lifelong habit- and notice other people's shoes. I do not have a shoe or foot fetish and doubt I have ever owned more than three or four pairs of shoes at any given time in my life.

4. As a (recovering) literary critic, I read obsessively and rarely leave the house without a book. I regularly go back and reread favorites. I read everywhere (when I'm not playing harmonica, though I have been known to do both) and have a such a book-buying jones that I try not to go into bookstores if I have money in my pocket.

5. I never leave or return to the house without my pockets overflowing with stuff: wallet, notebook, pens, pencils, lighters (I don't even smoke anymore), food, hipflask, handkerchief, harmonicas, penknife, change purse, safety pins, matchbooks with phone numbers or ideas written on them, business cards, harmonicas, chopsticks, comb, cell phone, ipod, reciepts for thing bought weeks, even months ago, newspaper clippings, train schedule, etcetera ad infinitum.

My car, when I drove one, used to be much worse - the backseat floor I used as a garbage dump, the trunk was stuffed with camping gear and tools and odd and ends like stray cans of beer, old newspapers and leftover firewood, I could, and occasionally did, live out of it for days on end.

So between all that and being a blogger I suppose I can pretty much count on ending my days as a mustard-stained derelict in brogues pushing a shopping cart full of books, playing the harmonica and shouting at traffic

And I'm tagging:
Dave at Axis of Evel Kneivel
Baz at Oi! Thump!
CC at Canadian Cynic
Cathie at CathiefromCanada
The almost daily Mike Daley

My Old School

Night view of the University of Waterloo Arts Library

Nice to see the kids at my old Alma Mater are as classy and inventive as ever. Hat tip to Maple Leaf Politics

Surf music is not dead

Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

Move over Frank Sinatra, there's a new chairman of the board--the surfboard that is.

When thinking about surfing and pop music, the first thing that comes to mind is early '60s teenage beach movies and the twangy, energetic surf-guitar sounds of Dick Dale, the Surfaris and the Ventures, or the tight harmonies of the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. Then along came Jack Johnson and everything changed.

Johnson is currently riding a wave of popularity worldwide with his laid-back, feel-good, roots-based beach sound built around simple acoustic guitar melodies and gentle, reggaelike rhythms. This wave will bring him to the shores of Japan for a one-night stand at Chiba's Makuhari Messe on Saturday.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Johnson was a professional surfer from the age of 16 until he moved to the mainland to study film at the University of California's Santa Barbara campus. From there, he went on to make a pair of award-winning surfing films before his musical career took off in 2001 with the sleeper hit "Brushfire Fairytales." Subsequent albums On and On in 2003 and last year's Between Dreams both entered the U.S. Billboard charts at No. 3, and his latest Curious George: Sing-a-Longs and Lullabies for the Film debuted at No. 1.

Johnson's seemingly effortless rise to fame came about almost by accident. While he had been playing guitar since he was 14, Johnson had never planned a career in music. He played in a punk band in high school and at occasional parties and college coffeehouses in Santa Barbara and used some of his own music in the soundtracks for his films, but never expected it to become a full-time job.

In 1998, while editing his film Thicker than Water, he met G. Love, whose music he had used in a film. The two hit it off and Johnson was invited to hang out at the studio the next day.

His visit to the studio culminated in his teaming up with G. Love and Special Sauce to record one of his own songs, "Rodeo Clown," which appeared on the band's 1999 album Philadelphonic.

At the urging of friends, Johnson recorded a four-track demo, which caught the attention of surfing buddy J.P. Plunier--the right-hand man of singer-songwriter and guitarist Ben Harper.

Johnson signed with Harper's Enjoy Records in 2001 and Plunier produced his first album, which sold mainly on the strength of word of mouth starting in the surfing community, eventually moving 250,000 albums in its first year of release. U.S. tours with Harper followed, and by 2003 Johnson was headlining shows of his own.

No stranger to Japan, Johnson has been performing here since 2002, and his 2004 tour is the subject of a recently released DVD.

Johnson's success has helped launch careers among his surfing and singing comrades, notably Donavon Frankenreiter, whose debut came out on Johnson's own Brushfire Records label.

Saturday's show will be opened by Johnson's former U.C. Santa Barbara schoolmates the Animal Liberation Orchestra, an up-and-coming jam band whose 2005 independent debut Fly Between Walls--released last year in Japan--will be rereleased across the United States this month by Brushfire Records. The album contains a collaboration with Johnson, who provides the vocals on "Girl, I Want to Lay You Down."

Also on stage Saturday will be singer-songwriter Matt Costa, another artist debuting on Brushfire this spring in the United States and Japan.

Jack Johnson with guest Animal Liberation Orchestra will perform April 15, 6 p.m. at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, (0570) 08-9999; Animal Liberation Orchestra will also play April 14, 7 p.m. at Thumbs Up in Yokohama, (045) 314-8705.

(Apr. 13, 2006)

The sane people
Over at Liberal Catnip, there is some pondering of when the term liberal became a perjorative and what the heck a progressive is. Go read that.

I think some of the reluctance of many on the left/progressive/liberal side of the political spectrum (or "sane people" as I like to call them) to identify as "liberals" has to do with the marginalization of so-called liberals in the 60s by the more committed people in the progressive movement who had nothing but disdain for what some "progressives" and right wingers still refer to as "chequebook liberals" - people who give money to causes but don't really do anything to support them.

(see Phil Ochs' "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" )

There are still lots of these people around, in fact the vast majority of the population is liberal in orientation, but not really committed to full-scale activism. How many people do you know that recycle, but drive gas-guzzling SUVs or deplore the flight of the manufacturing industry from North America, hate slavery and sweatshops, but love to buy cheap crap imported from China at Wal-Mart. I don't want to point any fingers, since almost everyone on the planet is a hypocrite -- we all compromise, it's really just a matter of degree. (You're reading this, so you probably own a computer - do you have any idea how bad building computers is for the environment, you tree-killing bastard?)

Also in the '80s it became widely known (thanks to the demise of the FCC's fairness doctrine and the rise of Rush Limbaugh, the original oxy(contin)moron) that all "Libruls" had three eyes, fangs, ate Christian babies, wanted to take everyone's guns away and set up a one-world government under the communist-dominated United Nations and worst of all wanted to keep good, red-blooded Amurikins from calling women "broads" or African-Americans "niggers" and spend all our tax-dollars to rename manholes "personholes" (-- all which is true by the way, didn't you get the memo?). The end of the fairness doctrine sped the rise of the loudmouthed yahoo nativist school of punditry. That, along with the return of the worship of wealth and conspicuous consumption that took off in the '80s, and the reactionary culture of victimhood ("Change is always for the worst, bring back the good old days! What do you mean we can't do anything we want?) is what made old conservatism new again. You can blame Ronald Reagan for that - I certainly do.

In Canada, since the Liberal Party has been the natural ruling party for so long, it is part of the establishment, something that became more evident than ever when the party swung to the right in the 80's and 90's. As a result, those more who are more activist, left-oriented and anti-establishment (NDP voters and so-called small L liberals) have often called themselves progressives to set themselves apart for those who backed the big-business-friendly Chretien and Martin governments.

Call them what you want - liberals, progressives, leftists, radicals, revolutionaries, anti-fascists, socialists, ratfink commie pinko bastards - I just think of them as my friends, the sane people.

First "Truthiness" now "Scienciness"
Cornell University drinks the "intelligent design" kool-aid and offers a two month long credit course.

I think Drew Curtis over at FARK said it best: "Two-month schedule starts with lecture on "Great Breakthroughs in Intelligent Design Research," followed by 59.5 days of lunch"

Maybe Cornell will eventually establish an ID faculty - it could go next to the School of UFOlogy, across from the L. Ron Hubbard Memorial Center for Theology and Xenobiology.

The ultimate treehouse
The Swiss Family Robinson's pad ain't got nothing on these arborial pod dwellings. Definitely a step up from the shipping skid, two-by-four and chipboard scrap lumber monstrosities of my youth.

Family Values
Okay, I give up. I'll admit the Republicans are the party of sound morals and family values and even love children more than Democrats.

Guarding America while it sleeps
Yes, Mr. and Mrs. America you can rest easy knowing that Homeland Security is protecting you and your children from nasty foreign terrorists and journalists. Well, at least its protecting you -- the kids, ehh....not so much. And lest you think that the Homeland Security spokesman facing charges for child porn and attempting to seduce a 14-year-old girl via a computer chat is an exception to the rule, think again.

the envelope please...

The winners list for the Koufax awards has been released. Maybe next year.

Delusional
This is really the only word for Stephen Harper. He is sitting as Prime Minister with the slimmest minority government in Canadian history and is below 40% in the polls and yet thinks he has a mandate to monkey with the Constitution. Eventually the man is going to get a serious bitch-slapping from reality.

Pay no attention to that Brownshirt behind the curtain
Nunc Scio has the goods on Tory MP for Okanagan-Shuswap Colin Mayes, who has suggested that journalists be jailed for writing "distorted" or "inaccurate" articles. He has since retracted the comments he made in a column he wrote and sent out to local newspapers in BC - I suspect he got an angry phone call from the boss. As a professional journalist of over 15 years experience, I would like to say I support this idea wholeheartedly. I think any journalist who knowingly lies in print should be clapped in irons, right next to any politician who lies or fails to live up to a promise.

Joke
CathiefromCanada: On the lighter side of American history and immigration.

Powerlessness of Prayer
They needed a scientific study to prove this? Power of prayer overrated. What's next, using electron microscopes to see once and for all how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

They've got nothing!

It has been a busy week here in Woodshedland, too busy getting kids ready to start school and enjoying the cherry blossoms of Tokyo - to say nothing of the daily working grind - to blog. As a result I missed the whole Ben Domenech/Washington Post feeding frenzy. Here is the opening shot, followed by a number of 16 ton weights dropped on "Box Turtle Ben's" scrotum. (just scroll around for numerous links)

At one point last week, Atrios wondered aloud who the Post could possibly hire from the Wingnut end of Blogsylvania that would not be a major embarrassment to conservative with IQs above room temperature - and contrary to what you think my politics are, I do admit such people exist. I thought about it long and hard and the truth is this: they got nuthin'. Zero, zilch, zip, nada y pues nada. While some of the wingnut bloggers may not be as obviously horrible choices as the openly racist and clearly stupid plagiarist they picked, but none of the top ten (based on the TTLB ecosystem which measures links) are exactly stellar options.

Top ten conservative bloggers

Instapundit - heh, indeedy! I'm afraid to just google "Glen Reynolds says something stupid" as the bazillion of results might crash my machine.

Michelle Malkin - I won't link to her, I just won't. But Dave Neiwert over at Orcinus has a whole Koufax nominates series about how crapulous her work is that starts here and goes on for six more parts. Ben Domenench helped edit her "book."

Powerline- It's run by a man known as Assrocket, 'nuff said. TIME's blog of the year a few years ago.

Little Green Footballs- You'd need to be on hillbilly heroin to think Charles Johnson and his gang of ignorant yahoos was anything more than a bunch of stormtroopers with a leather fetish .

Captain's Quarters - while generally better behaved, an ignorant wingnut is still and ignorant wingnut

Hugh Hewitt - Everything you really need to know about Hugh Hewitt can be found in this parody of his reaction to the nomination of Harriet Miers. One commentor mentions that Hugh's opinion of The President has earned him the nickname "Monica."

The Mudville Gazette-One of the many popular military fetishist blogs run by a real live soldier who is heroically protecting the homeland in Germany.

Real Clear Politics - not so much a blog as a careful selection of links that slant the news to the right.

Stop the ACLU - I just couldn't read any further than the masthead quote "beating them with their own sickle and hammer." Even conservatives know its "hammer and sickle" dammit! Should not be taken seriously until they stop eating paint chips.

So that's the top ten conservative bloggers - clearly not the cream of the intellectual crop. The Post's Jim Brady has said that they will be looking for someone with a more traditional journalism background. I suppose that means someone like Adam's Apple Anne, Doughy Pantsload or the other NRO dimwits

Now if the Wapo were to decide that instead of hiring a conservative blogger to balance its journalism, it wanted to hire a conservative blogger and a liberal blogger to balance each other, It could choose any of the following without fear.

Top ten Liberal Blogs

Daily Kos - Markos has the street cred and runs the finest group blog going.

Talking Points Memo - Josh Marshall is bright, erudite and ready to fight. A man who does his research and uses it. TPM Cafe is a great group site with very informed writers.

Eschaton - While the comments may get a little wild and wooly and there are a lot of open threads, Atrios is a trained economist who knows what he's talking about and can write like a house on fire when he chooses to.

Huffington Post - A round up rather than a single source blog. I've never really bought Arriana's road to Damascus conversion to liberalism, but she can write a fair stick and has none of Box Turtle Ben's faults.

The Washington Monthly - I don't always agree with Kevin Drum and he takes a fair bit of shit from female bloggers for occasional sexism, but he would still be a decent choice.

Crooks and Liars - More of a video resource for the blogosphere than anything else, but if you want to know what is going on in the television end of the media, this is where you go.

Wonkette - Already a media darling.

Crooked Timber group - A sizeable group, any one of which could eat the entire Pyjamas media crew alive

Informed Comment - Professor Juan Cole is an expert on Middle East History and has had plenty of practice slapping conservatives around on a factual basis.

Hullabaloo - Digby is eloquent, informed and original.

And that is just the top ten, nevermind people like PZ Myers, David Neiwert, Michael Berube, Jane Hamsher, David Noon, Billmon, Attaturk, Roy Edroso, Tbogg -- Hell, even the Rude Pundit would liven things up. Its a deep, deep bench on our side of the rink. Over there, not so much.

On second thought...
Suddenly, I'm considerably less sure about the wisdom of our war in Afghanistan. Is Canada really there supporting a government that endorses executing people for converting to a different religion? I'm not sure if even the Taliban did that. NATO or no NATO, I'm not sure if this is such a great idea after all if we are ousting one group of intolerant religious fascists to replace them with another group of intolerant religious fascists.

I know there is still considerable anti-Western feeling outside Kabul and that to a considerable extent the Taliban still rule the countryside. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak with an Afghan journalist who was visiting Tokyo. It was by turns inspiring, depressing and frustrating. He was very offhand about the risks he runs daily as a stringer for the foreign press. He said he could travel the country freely with a beard and more traditional garb than the suit he was wearing, but that if anyone found out who he worked for, he'd be dead. "But you don't get far in this business if you are afraid to take chances" he said, throwing gasoline on the fire of my frustration at the editorial timidity and herd mentality of the Japanese media. He was very definite about the state of affairs in his country being much better generally than the news would indicate. After years of civil war, the fighting is mostly over in most of the country and things are getting back to what he called normal, pointing out that normal in Kabul and normal in Tokyo are as different as chalk and cheese. "I come from another planet" he said.

Thought Crimes
A recent NYPD memo brags about the use of "proactive arrests" and intimidation tactics to break up and silence political demonstrations in 2002. So now all you have to do to get busted at demonstration in NYC is look like you might be thinking of doing something bad and you will be "pre-emptively arrested." Remember, police officers can read your mind - they know if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake! Only you can prevent thoughtcrimes!