the sun highlights the lack in each

* On Johnny Cash:

"But more than that, Johnny was the kind of person who could simultaneously hold in tension the conflicting parts of his personality and communicate to those who are alienated by a deeply counterfeit culture—particularly a counterfeit Christianity. Cash could preach to offenders and the defenseless alike, and make faith believable in a way that most of us never can. We seem to prefer the smile that conceals an inner deception to the honest purgative truth about ourselves. But with Johnny it was otherwise.

"That’s because he lived, sang, and played truthfully. There was in him no hint of fraud. At a time when he could have resurrected his career by riding the coattails of others’ popularity (as is the trend today), Johnny did the reverse. On 1994’s American Recordings (on the cover he stands in a field wearing a long black preacher’s coat, alone except for two dogs), he did not simply return to the 'old' Johnny Cash and commodify himself for a younger audience. Rather, he signed with a punk label and sang about his familiar subjects, but this time with no musical accompaniment beyond his own acoustic guitar. All kinds of audiences ate it up because they recognized that in a world full of fakes, Cash was authentic."

* 1998 Index Magazine interview of thurston moore and kim gordon:

"THURSTON: This is all about making money.
Index: Oh, I see. Is that a driving force?
THURSTON: Money? Not creatively. But it's a driving force for ambitions. I want to tour with Phish because the kind of music we make is more in tune with their aesthetic than it is with any K-Rock or Geffen rock aesthetic. So it's only fair to us, and to that audience. We deserve each other. And I think we can expand their horizon, although they can do nothing for us.
Index: This expansion you're describing ...
THURSTON: Expansion of our market.
Index: But you have other outlets that are the opposite of that expansion.
KIM: You mean, doing improv stuff?
Index: Yeah, improv ... or just floating through the noise.
THURSTON: The local experimental noise scene that we've always been involved with is more referential to post-Grateful Dead listening habits. So it makes sense to me that we'd be able to bring what we do with free improvisation and experimental music into a big arena. And the only arena that exists is the arena that the Dead created, and that Phish have bit into. We want in. We should have in to that. It's just not fair. It's not fair for the kids because they deserve us, in a way.
Index: Oh?
THURSTON: They shouldn't just have post-Dead squibble. They should have Sonic Youth.
Index: Oh my God.
THURSTON: And we both win out. They become enlightened and we become millionaires.
KIM: Is this a Royal Trux interview or something?
Index: I don't know about this ..."

* DC residents, don't forget that the DC primary isNext Tuesday, January 13. DC is having the nation's first presidential primary to highlight its lack of equal Congressional Representation and full local self-government to the nation.