she's going to smile to make you frown


nico, 1967, by lisa law

* from kristine mckenna's interview of chrissie hynde in talk to her:

although you were born in akron, ohio, you've always been an outspoken critic of america, and you emigrated to england in 1973; do you feel any bond at all with the united states?

"I do still feel like an american, but it's not something I'm proud of, nor am I proud of being an english resident. i'm not a proud person and I have an aversion to patriotism. It's wonderful to love your place of birth, but his idea of "we're the best country in the world" -- well, that's clearly not the case with america. we're living in a media dictatorship, and this is particularly true of america, where the media is all encompassing. and this oppression by media is very much in keeping with the history of the country. america was built on a foundation of genocide and you can't expect a whole lot out of that. the karmic reaction to murder is always murder. we killed the people who lived in north america and stole their land and we've got a lot to answer for taking more than we deserved or needed. obviously, I still find much about the country deeply troubling."

* clusterfuck nation. excerpt:

"When people of any political persuasion cry for America to pull out of Iraq, what do they suppose will be the result? That America will go back to being the same nation of easy-motoring, McMansion-buying consumpto-trons we were in 1999?"
...
"There is really only one condition that will allow us to pull out of Iraq. That is if we make an enormous collective effort to change our behavior here in North America; if we break free from an economy pegged to suburban sprawl, reform the way we do agriculture and retail trade, make substantial investments in public transit and railroads in particular, and practice fiscal restraint at every scale, including an end to the reckless creation of mortgages. Unless we face these facts and the tasks associated with them, then we will find ourselves at the center of that geopolitical struggle.

"Right now, nobody from any political stance is talking about these facts and these tasks. Those in the anti-war movement are by-and-large people who enjoy the same suburban "entitlements" as the war-hawks. The anti-war leadership is even worse than the pro-war leadership, because the war-hawks don't even pretend to be interested in reforming the way we live -- they've declared it 'non-negotiable.'
...
"Stealthily over the past week, the price of natural gas has crept above $14 a unit (one million btu's). Half the houses in America are heated with the stuff. 90 percent of America's farm fertilizers are made out of it. Above $14 really is uncharted territory."

* Apparently, David Cone remembers his bartenders.

* The 2006 erotic scenes bible is now available.