Roger Ebert – “Where I Draw the Line” (2010)
A good article written by movie critic Roger Ebert about the new airport security measures; taken from the Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 25th…
It appears that not a single TSA agent has declined to perform a full-body pat down of airline passengers. That includes patting down small children. They’re not patted down on a routine basis, but on some occasions they can be and they are. A child under 12, sometimes way under 12, may be required to remove outer clothing and be touched on such areas as the genitals.
Would you take this job? I don’t believe I would. But it’s worth reflecting that employment as a TSA agent is a good job in these hard times of high unemployment. The starting pay is $12.85 an hour, better than Wendy’s for an employee who doesn’t need a high school diploma. Read the rest of this entry »
Bruce Springsteen – “The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story” (2010)
Taken from Crawdaddy!, Nov. 15th, and written by Greg Gaston…
Besides Bob Dylan and his perennial Bootleg Series, what other major artist can offer up such a treasure trove of unreleased vintage material? Most artists, especially today, write just enough songs to fit their latest disc. With the release of The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town, it becomes laser-clear that Bruce Springsteen, once touted in the ‘70s as yet another “new Dylan,” is one of the very few artists able to Read the rest of this entry »
“Angel’s Dust”
In the middle of the night,
When I’m all alone,
You appear to me like a sweet reverie
Sprinkling your angel’s dust into my eyes
And I cannot see anything
Except your naked beauty before me
You’re all that my heart desires,
The reason it beats like a raging thunder
I long to kiss you for a thousand years
And protect you from any harm Read the rest of this entry »
William S. Burroughs – “Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986)
For John Dillinger
In hope he is still alive
Thanks for the wild turkey and the Passenger Pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts –
thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison –
thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger –
thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin, leaving the carcass to rot –
thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes –
thanks for the AMERICAN DREAM to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through –
thanks for the KKK, for nigger-killing lawmen feeling their notches, for decent church-going women with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces –
thanks for “Kill a Queer for Christ” stickers –
thanks for laboratory AIDS –
thanks for Prohibition and the War Against Drugs –
thanks for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business –
thanks for a nation of finks — yes,
thanks for all the memories… all right, let’s see your arms… you always were a headache and you always were a bore –
thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.
William S. Burroughs
Brian Eno – “Small Craft on a Milk Sea” (2010)
Corey Beasley’s Nov. 1st, 2010 PopMatters review of the new Brian Eno album…
Finally, Warp Records and Brian Eno come together. These two names hold equal footing in the pantheon of electronic music, Eno having charted the way and the Warp Records roster picking up on his cues to continually push the genre forward in the past two decades. Crucially, neither Eno nor the folks at Warp ever seem comfortable merely repeating patterns of success. Eno’s music ranges from avant-garde pop to the surreally ambient (and he coined the term, let’s not forget), while Warp’s recent releases include works from math rock revivalists Battles and chamber pop heroes Grizzly Bear. Both Eno and his new home label find their creative fuel Read the rest of this entry »
watt – “elvin jones: 1927-2004” (2004)
that’s some spirit, elvin
birthing those drums
alive
conjure them so
it would seem
if not for the
breath-flow
living
though
how
I missyou missyou missyou
man
watt
May 2004
“The Corner” (2000)
Written Nov. 8, 2010…
Less Than Human
“We sitting here day after day making ourself a little bit less human.”
– Gary McCullough
After watching this six-part 2000 HBO miniseries, I have to say that it is one of the most powerful, moving films I have ever experienced. Compassionately directed by actor Charles S. Dutton and written by David Simon and Edward Burns (creators of The Wire), every performance here is deeply moving and powerfully acted. Based on a real-life family from Baltimore, and the friends and neighborhood they are from, this miniseries deals with the horrors of drug addiction Read the rest of this entry »
The Beat Patrol 