Now the courtroom is quiet, but who will confess.
Is it true you betrayed us? The answer is Yes.
Then read me the list of the crimes that are mine,
I will ask for the mercy that you love to decline.
And all the ladies go moist, and the judge has no choice,
a singer must die for the lie in his voice.


Todd Hebert, Sparkler, 2003

* Top ten conservative idiots. excerpt:

6. Scott J. Bloch

"Meanwhile, it turns out that Scott J. Bloch, the special counsel who according to the Register is "investigating whether Rove and other White House officials improperly used government agencies to help re-elect Republicans running from Congressional seats," is using a rather curious approach.

"It was revealed last week that Bloch 'hired a private computer-help company to erase all the hard drives belonging to him and two deputies.' The firm then performed a 'seven-level wipe, all but guaranteeing the files could never be restored.'

"But don't worry, there's nothing to see here. It turns out that Bloch was merely trying to get rid of a nasty virus. Even though, er, 'a manager with the private firm said a wipe that thorough is an unusual way to treat a malware infection' and 'The receipt for the work performed makes no mention of a virus.'

"To be honest I'm surprised he didn't use the traditional method of getting rid of a virus, which is to take your computer outside and smash it with a hammer before feeding it into a woodchipper and then throwing the remains into a furnace. But I guess that might have looked a bit fishy."

* From a 1974 interview of Leonard Cohen. excerpt:

J.S. - When you talk about people, do you see individual faces, or is it a concept of the masses?

L.C. - People are a complex of everyday heroes, at least that's what I feel. There are millions of faces and personalities, but all together they form a people. Then, within each group, there emerges a value system that makes some into leaders and others into followers, that makes some into celebrities, and others into unknown people. All of them are heroes, but each with a different destiny.
...
J.S. - With this tour, and with the bad treatment you have received from the English and American critics, how are you feeling about this international exposure?

L.C. - I don't consider myself a great singer. I just play the guitar and interpret my lyrics. I do what I do because I have a need to do it, to express what I know, and to show people what I do. It's true that this tour has had some rough moments, especially in the U.S. and England, but the unpleasant times have not come from the public, just from the critics, and I really don't pay attention to critics. Critics view things with a certain coldness, they focus on the sound, whether it's good or bad, whether one plays the guitar well, on whether there is a large audience, and sometimes they can't see real success, because they don't look into the soul of the audience nor into the soul of the singer. I've seen the people applauding from their hearts, and that is what is truly important for me. And that's the way it was today, here in Barcelona, so this tour, in my opinion, has gone well indeed. I am content, happy.
...
.S. - Nonetheless, "Lover, Lover, Lover" is dedicated to your "brothers" in the Arab-Israeli war, and besides, you were there, singing for them. This indicates you're taking a side, and in a way, fighting for it.

L.C. - Personal process is one thing, it's blood, it's the identification one feels with their roots and their origins. The militarism I practice as a person and a writer is another thing.

J.S. - But you worry about war, and for that reason it would be logical that you would be concerned about both sides.

L.C. - I don't want to talk about war.

J.S. - Do you feel commercialized when a million copies of your albums are sold?

L.C. - That isn't the problem, that feeling doesn't happen at the time a million albums are sold, it happens afterwards, when I accept the fact that my songs are being recorded and entered into the commercial games. I feel neither guilty nor happy, but I could add that the system uses me as much as I use it, so we would have to speak in terms of collaboration. What concerns me is reaching the people, so I have to submit to the rules of the game, because this system is the only means I have, to do what I have to do.

* Robert Crumb: The No Hope diagram.

* "I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me." --Winston Churchill