all the bushleague batters are left to die on the diamond


one year of the milkweed, by arshile gorkey, 1944

* Tom Delay is a very bad man. excerpt:

"Tom DeLay thinks the federal treasury is his personal piggy bank. DeLay slipped 'a $1.5 billion giveaway to the oil industry, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas” into the energy bill.'

"But this isn’t a normal case of government pork. DeLay has completely dispensed with the democratic process. From a letter Rep. Henry Waxman just sent Speaker Dennis Hastert:

"'The provision was inserted into the energy legislation after the conference was closed, so members of the conference committee had no opportunity to consider or reject this measure.'

"The $1.5 billion won’t be administered by the government but by a private consortium in DeLay’s district:

"'The subtitle appears to steer the administration of 75% of the $1.5 billion fund to a private consortium located in the district of Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Ordinarily, a large fund like this would be administered directly by the government.'

"Hastert and DeLay need to explain themselves immediately. No member of Congress who takes taxpayer dollars seriously should vote for the energy bill until this matter is resolved."

* from a 2003 interview of scott kannberg. excerpt:

Nick Bensen: Your early music (along with the work of others such as Bob Pollard, Lou Barlow and Nick Saloman) was largely responsible for the lo-fi home recording movement. What gave you the idea to put out self-produced music at a time when even most indie records were done in studios with producers?

Scott Kannberg: Our early records were not really lo-fi home recordings like the others you mentioned. We recorded everything in a real studio. Gary Young was the engineer. It probably sounded lo-fi because we didn't have a clue on how things were to sound and we just put everything on there, all the mistakes etc. and we didn't know how to mix or master things correctly. We were so excited to hear ourselves that we just said 'fuck it, it sounds cool.' I think Gary thought we were crazy wanting it like that. He was into Zappa and Yes and we were Silver Apples and Pere Ubu. At the time, putting out our self-produced stuff was really our only option. We were just following in the footsteps of what others were doing at the time. K records were putting out singles, so was Am Rep. Plus, there was this little fanzine scene going on and I think we thought it would be cool to be part of that.

NB: What were your earliest musical influences?

SK: Kiss, Devo, Stones, Blondie. But I really started to get into music when I was 18 or so. I loved Punk Rock and then English Post Punk like Echo and the Bunnymen. REM also got me into a lot of bands by namechecking their favorites. That's how I got into Wire and Television etc. etc.

NB: What do you listen to these days?

SK: I'm kind of into West African high life stuff from the 70's this month. Oh, and I like the new Spoon disc.

NB: Can you share a few high points and low points from your years with Pavement?

SK: High. Playing to 30 thousand people in the wind and rain right before Nirvana at Redding 92. Making Mark E Smith care. Making a few great records. Low. Coachella festival 99.

NB: What was it like doing the HBO Reverb show near the end of Pavement?

SK: Didn't really like it. Lots of hot lights and stupid questions from the interviewee. When you listen to the show, you can actually hear my guitar in the mix. That usually didn't happen.

-- Related: Sales figure of pavement records:

Westing (By Musket and Sextant)/ 63,000
Slanted and Enchanted / 144,000
Watery, Domestic EP / 33,000
Crooked Rain Crooked Rain / 237,000
Wowee Zowee / 118,000
Brighten the Corners / 142,000
Terror Twilight / 96,000

* from john vanderslice's website:

An open letter to DC Berman.
Re: Tanglewood Numbers

Dear David:
You've made a fantastic record. It's another stake in the ground, another mast on the sail... In other words, your records are incredibly important to me; they make me more sane. I'm sure recording it wasn't easy, but please, god, please keep making records. I have it early because I'm a slouch who downloads illegal music. I'll make it up to you by making this year a Tanglewood Numbers Christmas ("Andre was a young black Santa Claus!").
Love,
John

* Quicktime video of Bush giving someone the finger yesterday.