Look What The Cat Rolled In

Hotcha! Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 133

Earth: The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull: "Engine Of Ruin" [mp3]

The passing of Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy this past week has heightened the already extreme polarity of American politics between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans. While most liberals have been effusive in their praise for the man's many legislative accomplishments and his championing of those among us who are in need of the most championing (the poor, tired and huddled masses), many conservatives have approached the man's passing from an entirely different direction, honing in on the incident/crime at Chappaquiddick as the jumping off point for demonization of the man's entire life and career, and even much worse, celebrating his death, and wishing death upon others who share his political philosophy. They celebrate his death because of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. They cheer his death because of his pro-abortion beliefs, but mostly they rejoice in his death merely because he doesn't share their same basic political worldview.

This is the America we live in today - largely devoid of empathy, sympathy, compassion, forgiveness, understanding, compromise, etc...We revel in the misfortune of others, we take great comfort and joy in the misery of those we do not like, or merely don't agree with. We demonize those we do not understand because it is far easier to do so than to try and simply understand.

And I say this not to necessarily demonize the conservative right, because you and I know damn well that when Dick Cheney dies, there will be far too many on the political left who will act and speak with the same kind of vitriol we are currently seeing directed at Kennedy. Hell, I'll likely be one of them...

And the saddest part of all this is - I believe this country hasn't been this divided since the Civil War era, and there is no easy way back to civility, respectful discourse, and the ideals upon which this country was supposedly founded. We are a country adrift. We are lost, and it remains to be seen whether or not we can find our way back.

Ever the cynic (I prefer pragmatic, but whatever), I fear we are beyond the point of no return.

But hey, have a fantastic weekend!

Hotcha! Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 25 August 2009

MEAL: 1 order (8) Crab Rangoon + 1 small order Pepper Steak With Onions = $8.30 + $1.70 tip


Hotcha! Hank

Harnessed In Sideways Maneuvers

Back to Chapel Hills' finest...Archers Of Loaf...

Finest? Hmmm...

Maybe that would be Superchunk...or Polvo...Or Ben Folds...Or James Taylor...Or Corrosions Of Conformity...Or Southern Culture On The Skids...

Ach, I'll stick with the Archers, much as James Taylor's Greatest Hits meant to me as a make-out record in 7th or 8th grade...

Hotcha! Hank

A Hobble With A Wobble At The Sideways Maneuver

Can u taste the belated waste? That's some tight shit, right?

wEEn!

Hotcha! Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 132

Archers Of Loaf: Icky Mettle: "You & Me" [mp3]

I like MP3 playlists...It's pretty much the same as putting together radio show playlists, except you can add enough songs to fuel a 44 day broadcast marathon out on the ledge of the radio station's building, like Tim "The Rock'n'Roll Animal" did back in the early '80's on WQFM in Milwaukee...

But I digress...

I make playlists...Some of them consist of songs from the same decade...This particular Archers Of Loaf song came from my 1990's playlist...

It was chosen at random by looking away from my monitor and clicking...

That's kinda the way I've been rolling this past week or so - too busy with other stuff to dedicate much time to blogging and whatnot...

So, there ya go, and here we are...

Hotcha! Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 18 August 2009

MEAL: 1 Roast Pork Egg Roll + 1 small order Pork Egg Foo Yung = $5.60 + $1.40 tip


Hotcha! Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 131

Ween: Pure Guava: "Poop Ship Destroyer" [mp3]

I've been listening exclusively to the complete works of WEEN on an MP3 disc in my automobile for the last couple of weeks...13 weird and wonderful albums of eclectic music that pretty much covers every conceivable style of music known to the average person and/or WEEN fan...

I'm not sure what kind of music "Poop Ship Destroyer" is, but when I decided it was about fucking time I featured WEEN on S4TW, there was almost no hesitation - this had to be the featured song...Now, I briefly considered the 26 minute live version from Paintin' The Town Brown, but sometimes a little goes a long way...At a slim 2 minutes and 17 seconds, this version goes just far enough...Part of me thinks this song might be a children's song, and the Pure Guava album a children's album, but of course this is WEEN we're talking about here, so things get a bit messy and ugly and twisted.

I guess it's all the pitch-shifted vocals on Pure Guava that make me think this way...Songs like "Push Th' Little Daisies" that sound like they're being sung by kids...Meanwhile the music is mostly bouncy and happy and fun for children of all ages, nevermind that Gene Ween is singing about drug addiction and violent death, and disease and asshole fatboys and poop ship destroyers and all sorts of tender situations that make Gener cry in his sleep...According to Deaner...

Awesome Sound! WEEN!

Hotcha! Hank

Sideways BURB Maneuver

Tape Jazz Massacre haven't done any videos, so I offer you this trim and sarcastic bit of nostalgia, called "War Bonus", courtesy of my friend Nort Weston down in the flatter lands west of Chicago...His music/video unit is called BURB...

Now excuse me while I blather a bit...

Remember the days when the wrong t-shirt got a loony liberal forcibly removed from Town Hall Meetings or campaign rallies if he or she had even gained access with that wrong t-shirt in the first place?

Remember when Dick Cheney was the only person who could bring a gun to a political function without question or repercussions?

Remember when Dick Cheney shot his billionaire friend in the face?

Remember the days when the government spent hundreds of billions of dollars on a War On Terror (the ultimate Death Panel), and if a person even questioned any of it (the war, the cost of the war, the justification for the war), let alone raise their voice in any sort of protest, they'd be called a traitor and worse?

Remember when waterboarding and the other assorted means of interrogation as used at Abu Ghraib were rationalized, justified and accepted, and if you didn't agree, you hated America?

Remember when the government would intercept any phone calls, emails, text messages and Pony Express messengers they felt like, and we better like it...Or else...??????

Remember those days?

Nowadays, the very idea government-provided healthcare for those among us who needed the most (one of the most fundamentally Christian things we can do as a society, I'd say) is called "Socialism" by those among us who are most Christian, and often enough in need of the very kind of health care they oppose violently in these Town Hall Meetings...

In the end, I guess I can only ask - why wasn't there that kind of vitriol in 2003? 2004? Where was that kind of passion when they tapped our phones and told us war and death was the only path to glory? Where were the viciously angry words in public forums when the Bush administration lied to us? Time and time again?

Who championed de-regulation in the financial markets, and why didn't anybody raise a bigger stink before it all came crashing down?

At this moment in time, what right does ANYBODY on the conservative/Republican side of the political aisle have to bitch and complain about ANYTHING? Their elected officials have been fucking up seemingly everything they touch, and spending us into the poorhouse all the way, and now they've lost an honest election and their political power...If they can't sit down at the table, so to speak, and discuss their opposition to the policies of the Obama administration and this Democratic Congress in a rational, civilized manner, they ought to sit at home, ride it out, and most importantly, just shut the fuck up...

Why healthcare?

Hotcha! Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 11 August 2009

MEAL: 2 Vegetable Spring Rolls + 1 small order Pork Lo Mein = $6.85 + $1.15 tip


Hotcha! Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 130

Tape Jazz Massacre: Cookin' With Tape Jazz Massacre: "A Beef Tongue Supreme" [mp3]

The new Meryl Streep and Amy Adams film, Julie & Julia, is out in theaters right now, babycakes, and while I have no songs about Julie Powell to offer, I DO have two Tape Jazz Massacre songs that sample Julia Childs quite heavily, so this weekend seems like the perfect weekend to unleash 'em...

Tape Jazz Massacre: Cookin' With Tape Jazz Massacre: "Poached Chicken Runaround" [mp3]

For the record, and not that it's much of a suprise, I am one half of the sampling duo that is Tape Jazz Massacre...I am the Big Jimmmmi Cakefingers half, and my job is mostly cutting up words and mixing drinks...Ornette Yukahiro is the other half, and he mostly does the music and woolie-rolling...His software, my record collection...

As always, 100%!

Hotcha! Hank

A Word With Moshammer's Ghost

qualm

Function: noun

Etymology: unknown

Date: circa 1530

01: a sudden attack of nausea, illness, or faintness; "The smell coming from the last stall in the men's room on the second floor gave me qualm."

02: a sudden and overwhelming feeling of disturbing emotions such as fear or doubt; "The smell coming from the last stall in the men's room on the second floor filled me with the kind of qualm that haunts a man the rest of his days."

03: a feeling of uneasiness about a point of conscience or propriety; "I have serious qualms about your sudden interest in my masturbating habits."

Hotcha! Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 4 August 2009

MEAL: 1 order (8) Crab Rangoon + 1 small order Sweet & Sour Chicken = $8.40 + $1.60 tip


Hotcha! Hank