-The Monkees, ‘Daydream Believer’
I used to sing this to Ezra sometimes while I would hold him. I always screwed up the verses, and he seemed generally bewildered but fine with me singing this.
I first heard ‘South of Heaven’ somewhere around 2002 and, like most of my most significant music discoveries, it came to me via the college radio station where I volunteered, WUOG in Athens, Ga. One late-night DJ had an affinity for ridiculously over-the-top power metal like Blind Guardian and Rhapsody and willfully ignored the then-burgeoning, slow-moving post-metal scene stemming from Isis and . But one night, the opening clarion call to “South of Heaven” rang from my dorm room, sounding like one of the records I’d listened to in a year-long classical phase as a kid. On top of it squealed harmonics that bent like hot iron, ponderous and foreboding. I barely let the song reach the chorus before I called the station.
‘WHAT. IS. THIS?’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, really.’
‘It’s Slayer.’ Click. The exasperated expletive was implied.
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Lars Gotrich on the late Jeff Hanneman, the Slayer guitarist who channeled darkness into the sound of a band that exemplifies pain (via nprmusic) Rest in Metal, Jeff. |
Magnolia Electric Co. - Hard To Love A Man
RIP Jason Molina. Thank you for making beautiful music and getting me through the heartaches of 2004-2009. If you don’t know, listen.
Via the New York Times, news of the death of a major public health figure:
Dr. C. Everett Koop, who was widely regarded as the most influential surgeon general in American history and played a crucial role in changing public attitudes about smoking, died on Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H. He was 96.
…Dr. Koop issued emphatic warnings about the dangers of smoking, and he almost single-handedly pushed the government into taking a more aggressive stand against AIDS. And despite his steadfast moral opposition to abortion, he refused to use his office as a pulpit from which to preach against it.
These stands led many liberals who had bitterly opposed his nomination to praise him, and many conservatives who had supported his appointment to vilify him. Conservative politicians representing tobacco-growing states were among his harshest critics, and many Americans, for moral or religious reasons, were upset by his public programs to fight AIDS and felt betrayed by his relative silence on abortion.
As much as anyone, it was Dr. Koop who took the lead in trying to wean Americans off smoking, and he did so in imposing fashion. At a sturdy 6-foot-1, with his bushy gray biblical beard, Dr. Koop would appear before television cameras in the gold-braided dark-blue uniform of a vice admiral — the surgeon general’s official uniform, which he revived — and sternly warn of the terrible consequences of smoking.
“Smoking kills 300,000 Americans a year,” he said in one talk. “Smokers are 10 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers, two times more likely to develop heart disease. Smoking a pack a day takes six years off a person’s life.”
When Dr. Koop took office, 33 percent of Americans smoked; when he left, the percentage had dropped to 26. By 1987, 40 states had restricted smoking in public places, 33 had prohibited it on public conveyances and 17 had banned it in offices and other work sites. More than 800 local antismoking ordinances had been passed, and the federal government had restricted smoking in 6,800 federal buildings. Antismoking campaigns by private groups like the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association had accelerated.
Dr. Koop also played a major role in educating Americans about AIDS. Though he believed that the nation had been slow in facing the crisis, he extolled its efforts once it did, particularly in identifying H.I.V., the virus that causes the disease, and developing a blood test to detect it.
(Photos: Paul Hosefros [top] and Teresa Zabala, The New York Times)
In 1941, the date December 7th was a day that evoked anger, fierce patriotism and dangerous racism. Soon after that day, I suddenly found myself, pursuant to a decision by the government and along with thousands of Japanese Americans declared 4C, enemy aliens. It was a difficult time. I was 17.
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SENATOR INOUYE’S STATEMENT ON PEARL HARBOR DAY (As my friend Kevin said, “Dan Inouye is welcome to lecture me on Pearl Harbor any. damn. day. of. the. year.” Also to all those folks on Twitter who are using this day as an excuse to tweet racist bullshit, shut. the. fuck.up.) |
Did you know our president pro tempore is fucking badass? I didn’t.
If you’re thinking “Wow, it sure looks like he’s missing an arm in that last picture” maybe you should just skip to here.
Rest In Peace, Senator Daniel Inouye. You are a true American hero, especially as a Japanese-American and a disabled American.
His last words were apparently “Aloha”.
I never know what date it is anymore. I don’t even know the day. Anyway I didn’t realize that yesterday was the 7th. Yesterday marked 32 years since Darby Crash died. It was a sad day and the next day John Lennon got shot and everybody forgot about Darby. I never will.
Same here.
Actually, I like Darby more than John Lennon.
Now I really just want to sit and listen to The Germs.
I guess I should put a trigger warning for discussion of suicide, but this is semi-important Eastern European world news.
BRUSSELS — Serbia’s ambassador to NATO suddenly jumped to his death off a parking garage platform at Brussels Airport while surrounded by his country’s delegation, a diplomat said Wednesday.
The Serbian government said in a statement that Branislav Milinkovic, 52, died on Monday night, during two days of meetings of NATO foreign ministers.
Milinkovic was at the airport to meet deputy foreign minister Zoran Vujic and other officials who were due to hold talks with NATO representatives, three diplomats who knew him said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details. After the delegation arrived, as they walked over to their cars in the diplomatic garage Milinkovic suddenly strolled to a barrier, climbed over it and jumped, one of the diplomats said.
That’s kind of fucking hardcore. Damn, dude…Seriously, did something happen at the NATO proceedings? Is there some kind of shit that should be worried about?
Not the best pictures, but we are talking about a very fast-moving creature that was only two inches long.
This is my late hamster. He was a Roborovksi dwarf hamster named Jahrling, and hands-down the friendliest, chillest hamster ever. He was cool with anyone holding him, loved to climb in people’s sleeves and hoodies, and liked to just sit in my shoulder while I worked on the computer or walked around the house.
A friend of mine gave him to me around Thanksgiving during my first semester of college (when I was going to community college) because she suddenly found herself with 10 hamsters instead of the original 2.
I had him for about a year and a half, and he was already an adult when I got him…So he was about two or a little over two years old when he died.
He’s the initial reason why I kind of got the handle of “Rodent Boy”.
“I chose not to go public about this because, to misquote Casablanca, I’m not much good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of one old actor don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
There are many who believe that this disease is God’s vengeance, but I believe it was sent to teach people how to love and understand and have compassion for each other. I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life.”
Anthony Perkins, April 4th 1932 - September 12th 1992
