insane in the brain

lately the beginning of the week has the distinction of being pretty anxiety-ridden; that is to say, i worry that there will be no news. of course, there is always news, but i worry about it anyhow. i mean, a half an hour can be a long time, when you can't find a stories that are compelling beyond encouraging citizens to keep barbeque grills off their balconies.

not that fire safety isn't important. as the person who unplugs the coffee maker every morning as i leave the house, and then stares at the back yard as the bus pulls away and wonders frantically if i forgot to do so, i am all about fire safety. to a fault. but we're talkin' bout news here, and we want the news to be interesting. at least i do.

but, as i said: the news will come. i will just have to sweat it out until it starts to crystallize round about thursday morning, which it will inevitably do. and in the meantime, i will still lose sleep over the idea that we might have to do two minutes on barbeque grill safety. but not really. only in my twisted little brain.

hysterical and useless

this past week has been pretty off the hook, to use the parlance of the times... the best news week ever turned into one pretty kick ass half hour of WRIR news, and i can honestly say that i am proud of the show we did this past friday, may 27. it was a crazy ride, and i loved every minute of it.

not only am i suddenly the producer of a radio news program, which is an entire thing unto itself, but i am also navigating the waters of journalistic integrity with basically nothing but my little ol' instincts to guide me. it keeps me up at night.

as a result, the rest of my life, including this blog, has been put on hold. and now, as i sit here on sunday night, i feel somewhat drained. i think i just spent way too much of the last five days amped up, to the point where a normal night at home makes me feel antsy and kinda, well...sad. but i suppose i should be happy with a little downtime. it starts all over again tomorrow.

this week promises to be pretty high energy itself, the highlight of which will be the ted leo show on wednesday night. i cannot stress enough how absolutely amazing it is that i will be seeing t.l. at a local club. in richmond, these kind of things don't happen everyday, and i'm actually passing up tickets to see rilo kiley in norfolk to go. i saw rilo kiley last fall, however, and the ted leo, well...like i said, doesn't happen everyday.

this past week was also rife with boy craziness, which is also something that doesn't come to my neck of the woods too often. at this point, i'd say that's a good thing, cause it takes a hell of a lot out of me. there is nothing to gain if one doesn't put oneself on the line, but man...it's not easy. at least for moi.

best. news week. ever.

and i'm not talking about newsweek, as in the magazine that has become the latest casualty for the so-called fourth estate. i'm talkin' bout a news week. as in a week full of news. and this week, here in richmond, is a news goldmine. whoo hoo!

i commented last night that i have suddenly become a news nerd. i sit at home and read city council documents. i have recently gleaned an understanding of some of the more key relationships between the people and public offices that make up this city. it's an understanding that is growing every day, and the more familiar with it i become, the more it fascinates me. news nerd. right here.

so, it's going to be another crazy week, and i am interested to see how it works out. there are some other interesting factors at work, on a more personal scale, and i think that the outcome of this particular week will determine a lot.

pssst...

i just wanted to point out that this week's top ten conservative idiots from democratic underground was particularly enjoyable. see for yourself, why don't ya.

top ten conservative idiots for the week of 5/16

skeletons from the closet

hey, you wanna know everything there is to know about airwolf?

actually, i kinda already do know everything there is to know about airwolf. i'm going to put this out there right now, so that anyone who has any reservations about knowing someone who has seen every episode of airwolf ever made can nonchalantly make for the exits. I HAVE SEEN EVERY EPISODE OF AIRWOLF EVER MADE. i forgot about that chicks hair, though. that's some crazy shit. i'm not sure if it's crazier that she had that hair, or that there was a time in my life where i didn't have any real problem with it.

the nocturnal lunacy of my subconcious mind

every now and again, my subconcious likes to hash it out with whatever has been irrationally plaguing me in the recent past. the result is a night full of dreams, shoddily disguised metaphors for my various insecurites, which can range from a nearly imperceptible pilot-light sized flame, to a raging conflagration capable of taking out entire neighborhoods. maybe even a city.

last night was that night for the week of 5/9. my noctournal meanderings included a gigantic spider, covered in light brown, dog-like fur, which showed up on the passenger door of this gigantic vehicle i was driving with all these people i know in it. (i can't remember who, exactly, but i know my brother brain was riding shot, which places him nearest the spider, poor guy.) anyhow, now i had to drive this van or whatever it was, full of people, with that freakin' spider hanging out, like, three feet away. eventually i freaked and jumped out on to the street or whatever, and wouldn't get back in until somebody got rid of the thing. which they did by chucking it dangerously close to my head. hmmm.

then i was somewhere with a bunch of people, yet again, and this time it was snowing. but i was in summer clothes, and didn't have anything else with me. everyone around me started pulling on winter gear, and i was saying to someone, i don't even know who "but i didn't pack any winter clothes! it was really hot when i left home!" and they guy just like shrugged and moved on. so that sucked.

sometime after that whole escapade, i happened upon anita baker singing while barry manilow played guitar wearing teva sandals(yeah, i know) and some other now forgotten famous musician played something else, which was really nice except for the tevas. then i gained a degree of conciousness and realized that anita baker was playing on the alarm clock radio in the next room.

this particular set of dreams doesn't require much anaylsis. i can basically see where my brain was going with all this; occasionally it takes a break from getting too creative with the anxiety transfers. i mean, a big hairy spider? come on. the barry manilow was a nice touch though.

'and when you believe, they call it rock and roll'

just in case you were wondering, editing soundwaves for a bunch of hours makes one a little crazy in the brain. this is one of the many things i am learning in my foray into the world of radio.

but what i really want to talk about is the new mp3 from john vanderslice's upcoming album, which you can download at www.barsuk.com

it's called trance manual, and it's beautiful. jv and scott solter are geniuses. it's just that simple. here i am, back to pining away for the release date, only this one is a bit further off. i suppose will just have to hope that they continue to post mp3's over the next three months. yikes.

music rules wednesday

the news of the day, for me, is that ted leo is playing a local club here in richmond on the first of june. considering how infrequently a band i really really want to see comes through this town, i damn near fainted when the plan 9 cashier told me where he was playing. rather excellent news.

i also went cd shopping today, and naturally with money i "don't have". but i do have it. it's right here in my wallet, all green and nice and wanting despereately to be forked over for some spoon and some mountain goats. oh boy.

so, as i mentioned, the spoon kicks all sorts of ass, but even more so when you own it. so get on that. and the mountain goats is amazing. absolutely amazing. i think that john darnielle is the only recording artist i can honestly say i have followed through the majority of his career...i stumbled upon him back in the early nineties on some shrimper mix tapes...dennis callaci of shrimper is really quite awesome and used to just throw extra stuff in with my orders, including "high fly graveyard" and other shrimper classics. i think "the hound chronicles" was the first mountain goats i owned, and i was completely taken with the whole deal. since then, jd has progressed through his recordings and i have been fortunate enough to continue along for the ride. his works are some of my first and most true musical friends, and i feel very close to them. i feel very close to this record as well, for that reason and because the subject matter and presentation lend themselves to being felt close to by those who have reason to do so. and i do. there is a special kind of self-awarness that comes to those who make it out of abusive situations and can look back on them from a better place. and that, i think, is one of life's truly beautiful twists.

'i'm gonna stop/ riding the brakes...'

i have a bunch of unrelated things to talk about, as usual. luckily there are these things called paragraphs, so i don't need to worry about appearing too fragmented. or do i?

first of all, let me just say that i need it to be may 9th right freakin' now, so that i can take my ass down to the record store and buy me some spoon: gimme fiction. merge is streaming tracks from the album, one a day until the release date, and holy crap, it is crazy good. i'm already planning for it to rule the interior of my head all next week. hell, it's ruling in there now, even though i can't take it with me and listen to it constantly.

i am missing the mountain goats/eric friedlander show tonight in d.c., which hurts. it really hurts. john vanderslice is playing guitar with jd and peter and i'm sure eric will be all up in it too, since he's on the album...i can't even talk about it, i'm getting choked up and thinking about calling in to work even though i am a few dollars away from falling headfirst off the cliff into financial ruin. god, i hate financial ruin. i hate financial anything.

here's something interesting. i actually found something that the oasis brothers said pretty spot-on. i have never been all that taken with the franz ferdinand-types, to be honest. i gave them a chance, but they just don't do anything for me. not a goddamnned thing. in a recent nme interview, liam had this to say. i agree with the million miles an hour and not going anywhere thing. this is probably the last time the gallagher boyz and i will agree on anything, but i must give the props where the props is due. although i don't really care much for oasis, so there won't be much in the way of props headed over there. i can't say that they don't have that special something, however. it may not be the special something that reels me in, persay, but it's there. franz and their ilk are critically lacking in the special something department.

now, for the scary stuff. i was eating a turkey sandwich and reading a magazine called yes! which deals with independent media, and they had a bill moyers speech in there, where he was talking about the importance of unbiased, uncorrupted media outlets. that was all very interesting, but what really got me was this little bit about american religious fundamentalism:

"How do we explain the possibility that the election in November may have turned on several million good and decent citizens who believe in the Rapture Index? That's what I said--the Rapture Index; Google it and you will understand why the best selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative millions of people believe to be literally true.

According to this narrative, Jesus will return to earth only when certain conditions are met: when Israel has been established as a state; when Israel then occupies the rest of its "biblical lands"; when the third temple has been rebuilt on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosques; and, then, when legions of the Antichrist attack Israel. This will trigger a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon during which all the Jews who have not converted will be burned. Then the messiah returns to Earth. The Rapture occurs once the big battle begins. True believers "will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts, and frogs during the several years of tribulation which follow.

I'm not making this up. We've reported on these people for our weekly broadcast on PBS, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious, and polite as they tell you that they feel called to help bring the Rapture on as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why they have staged confrontations at the old temple site in Jerusalem. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the ninth chapter of the Book of Revelations.

One estimate puts these people at about 15 percent of the electorate. Most are part of the core of George W. Bush's base support. He knows who they are and what they want."

(Bill Moyers, from a presentation to a Society of Professional Journalists conference on Sept. 11, 2004.)

wow, bill. that's some pretty heavy stuff right there. i would like to think that this isn't true, but i have seen the "left behind" books peppering the ny times bestseller list for too long to dispute that there are a hell of a lot of people out there who not only subscribe to this brand of craziness, but are rabid about it.

yikes.

in better news, "i turn my camera on" by the aformentioned spoon, is one of the sexiest, ass kickin' tunes i have heard since before irony took over as the preferred indicator of one's bad-assedness. come on, may 9th!!