...because I fully expect to see these babies to be up on eBay by the end of the week.  I can see the ads now...

"Two companies worth of reasonably modern heavy armor.  Spare parts included.  New in box. (Reserve has not been met)"

Pool some funds, ladies and gentlemen: let's put together a bid.  The Hessian state will need some reasonable means of ( Read more... )

Extroverted Like Me

Of course, if your goal in life is to gain weight and become a borderline alcoholic asshole with limited impulse control and no orgasms, SSRI drugs might be for you.  But don't worry, the Healthcare Industrial Complex is just here to help...

(I'm sure there's someone out there who has been saved by these things, but I just got ( Read more... )

When commercial recording technology became available in the 1920s, Appalachian performers emerged as some of America's first recording stars.  Playing a stylized version of the folk music of the Southern Highlands now typically called 'old-time' (but was often called 'Hillbilly' music at the time), performers like Uncle Dave Mason, Fiddlin' John ( Read more... )

Jean Ritchie

Sometimes called the "Mother of Folk," Jean Ritchie is a Kentucky folk singer known for her pure, lyrical voice, her skill with the Appalachian ('mountain' or 'lap') dulcimer, and her vast repertoire of traditional ballads culled from the Southern Appalachian folk tradition.  Most of her songs, like those represented here, ( Read more... )

Mountain Music

The Southern half of the Appalachian mountain chain holds a unique place in American cultural history. In remote communities from the Alleghenies of West Virginia to the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains of Virginia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, to the Ozarks of Alabama and Arkansas, physical and cultural isolation favored ( Read more... )

The bar was full of punks this evening, which always sucks.  I mean, I try to be social, you can only put up with so many pretentious fuckwits telling you about the unholy shit they don't partake of.  "I'm a vegan!"  "I don't drink/smoke/fuck/get fucked/hang out with racists/hang with black people!"  Whatever it is, every punk (hardcore kid/grind ( Read more... )

I had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago.    My girlfriend and I had a moment to relax - fairly rare of late - so I decided to put some music on.  The first thing I slipped into the disc changer was Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come.  By the time we'd hit the 45 second mark of "Eventually" (in the middle of a solo that sounds ( Read more... )

All roads don't lead to Rome, nor all rivers to Memphis.

Happy birthday
( Read more... )

This is one of the most worrying moments since the 'War on Terror' begun.  The Bhutto assassination, which apparently involved a sniper attack as well as a suicide bombing, is part of a worrying string of increasingly professional 'hits' that have been placed on leading democratic figures in Pakistan.  This professionalism is fairly worrying, ( Read more... )