'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black

* Maureen Dowd on Dr. Cheneystein. excerpt:

"He yanked America into war to preclude that chilling bloodbath. But in a spine-tingling switch, the administration's misbegotten invasion of Iraq has let fearsome munitions fall into the hands of evildoers. It's also forged the links between Al Qaeda and the Sunni Baathists that Mr. Cheney and his crazy-eyed Igors at the Pentagon had fantasized about to justify their hunger to remake the Middle East.

"It's often seen in scary movies: you play God to create something in your own image, and the monster you make ends up coming after you.

"Determined to throw a good scare into the Arab world, the vice president ended up scaring up the swarm of jihadist evil spirits he had conjured, like the overreaching sorcerer in 'Fantasia.' The Pentagon bungled the occupation so badly, it caused the insurgency to grow like the Blob.

"Just as Catherine Deneuve had bizarre hallucinations in the horror classic "Repulsion,'' Mr. Cheney and the neocons were in a deranged ideological psychosis, obsessing about imaginary weapons while allowing enemies to spirit the real ones away.
...
"President Bush is like one of the blissfully ignorant teenagers in 'Friday the 13th' movies, spouting slogans like 'Freedom is on the march' while Freddy Krueger is in the closet, ready to claw his skin off.

"Mr. Bush ignored his own experts' warnings that Osama bin Laden planned to attack inside the U.S., that an invasion of Iraq could create a toxic partnership between outside terrorists and Baathists and create sympathy for them across the Islamic world, that Donald Rumsfeld was planning a war and occupation without enough troops, that Saddam's aluminum tubes were not for nuclear purposes, that U.S. troops should safeguard 380 tons of sealed explosives that could bring down planes and buildings, and that, after the invasion, Iraq could erupt into civil war."

* Inconsistencies in the CRCR reissue booklet. [via tim o thompson]

* Cozytone interviews pink nasty. excerpt:

Please introduce yourself:

"My Christian name is Sara Beck. I rock under the God given moniker Pink Nasty. I was born and raised in Wichita, KS. in the early 80's. In the late 90's I picked up a guitar...and the rest is Quirky Female Folk Rock History!"

I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing you perform with Will Oldham over the summer. You have an amazing stage presence to say the least. How was that tour for you? What were your feelings towards its end?

"The tour was seismic! The band was all boys so I flirted with them, pitted them against each other, played mind games, made empty promises, c*ck teased -- real Stevie Nicks kinda stuff. So fun! And I love those songs so much that it wasn't hard to get up onstage every night and sing my bonnie loving guts out...even though I was smelly, sweaty, tired, hungry, PMSing, half drunk on Jagermesieter, gassy and in overalls. the end of the tour was like the end of summer camp. I cried and told them I would write them all everyday. I haven't heard from them since!"

Tell us a bit about your album Mule School? This is your debut album, correct?

Mule School is my first album. It has fast songs and slow ones and story songs and scary songs and pretty, sparkly ones. It has one song with bells and a rocking guitar outro that I really like. One song sound like the Monkees, one like the Go-Go's and one like Believe-era Cher. All the boys that played on it are really cute. It's very poppy and skitso so it's perfect for car rides or when you're cleaning your house or downing a 12 pack with your dawgs.

What is next for Pink Nasty?

I have already begun recording my next album and it's mellow and pretty and was inspired by all the herbal ecstasy I've been doing, it's called Mold the Gold and it sounds like moonlight and hot chocolate. Black and I are moving to Austin, Texas soon -- I'm gonna get a band together and we're gonna get vicious! I hope I am successful, I want people to hear my music and I would eventually like to support myself through the power of song.

Do you collect anything? If so, what?

"I have all the bongs from every boy I ever dated."

What is your guilty pleasure?

"Guy butts. Cookies."

If you could contact a much younger version of yourself, what would you tell yourself?

"You ain't got no pancake mix."

James Lipton wants to know: "If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?"

"Um, you get that big cloud on the right. By the way, I loved Mule School and Mold the Gold and you were great on the Bonnie Prince Billy tour. You got a hot ass too."