Richard Thompson

Via The Sideshow, a new song from Richard Thompson. Free.

Testing

Just testing.

S.O.T.D. 1/20/07

It just won't leave my head.

Turnabout

From TPM Muckraker, who's helping the terrorists now?

Maliki disputed President Bush's remarks broadcast Tuesday that the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein "looked like it was kind of a revenge killing" and took exception to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's Senate testimony last week that Maliki's administration was on "borrowed time."

The prime minister said statements such as Rice's "give morale boosts for the terrorists and push them toward making an extra effort and making them believe they have defeated the American administration," Maliki said. "But I can tell you that they have not defeated the Iraqi government."...

Sean Hannity tonight: President Bush and Condoleeza Rice, your today's Enemy of the State!

[Producer's note: The feature on Sean Hannity's teevee show known as "Enemy of State" for the one week of its duration, after being pointed and laughed at incessantly, will now be known as Enemy of the Week. Now back to our regular programming.]

S.O.T.D. 1/18/07

Song of the Day is Out on the Road, by Loudon Wainwright III. I couldn't find it. Here's another one, from the BBC, 1978.

Steve Clemons on Iranian Nukes

Steve Clemons, on a subscribers-only "email version of a daily blog" known as the Nelson Report:

If folks are interested in paying in the low five-figure range for his high quality daily reports, I'll link you up.

I'm very interested in paying the low-five-figure sum for any damn thing at all in the universe. Very. Really.

But on to the report, which the mysterious Nelson allows Clemons to sometimes reprint:

IRAN. . .recent news stories out of the Middle East seem to be generating a sense that Iran is closer to a successful nuclear weapons capability than had previously been thought, and that the risk to Israel is rising to the point where Israel is moving closer to a decision to "take out" the Iranian nuclear weapons facilities.

Balderdash, our informed sources continue to maintain.

Yes, it does seem to be true that Iran has accelerated its program to bring on line the 3,000 centrifuges required to generate nuclear fuel. . .but it also seems true (and not Iranian disinformation) that of the 50 centrifuges recently hooked up, all 50 blew up.

And dang the MSM for going on and on about that...

Nothing else. Just passing along some info from someone smarter and more involved than you myself.

Edge of Existence

British move to protect weird and rare mammals.

Welcome ot the Edge.

Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna is known from a single specimen collected by a Dutch botanist in 1961, and currently held in the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden. The species is believed to be restricted to a single mountain peak in the Cyclops Mountains in the Indonesian province of Papua (on the island of New Guinea). There have been few systematic attempts to survey the flora and fauna of the Cyclops Mountains and no mammal surveys in the region since the type specimen was collected. The main threats to the species are not known, although other long-beaked echidnas are threatened by hunting and human encroachment onto their habitat.

S.O.T.D. 1/17/07

Just five days ago I started the Song of the Day and already I have a short songlist for hell.

But no more.

News and Less

• Skull found in Romania shows humans and neanderthals may have interbred.

• Adultery could lead to life in prison.

• Humans rode pterodactyls!

• Fake outrage of the day.

• Beavers could be frogs best friends.

And a bat:



Cat brought the little bugger in. He was given another chance.

Holy crap - look at the teeth on the little monster!



She's a beaut, I reckon.

Song of the Day, 1/16/07

Hank, Jr.

Great News Reported For Nazanin

This horror story has been around for awhile, with little good news coming. (I posted about it here seven months ago, and the links give you all the background.) Short story: A 17-year-old Iranian named Nazanin Fatehi stabbed and killed one of three men who were trying to rape her and her younger niece. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging.

But a judge has stopped that from happening.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam and Mina Ahadi spoke with Nazanin Fatehi's lawyers today regarding her retrial that took place on January 10th 2007.

They have received verbal confirmation from the court that she will be exonerated from the charge of murder. The incident that took place in March 2005 has been recognized as an act of self-defense, however the court has ruled that disproportionate force was used by Nazanin while trying to defend herself and her 15-year old niece. Accordingly, they have asked Nazanin to pay “dieh” (blood money) to receive a pardon from the family of the deceased. Once this amount is paid, Nazanin can be released from prison.

Shadi Sadr and Mr. Mostafaei, Nazanin Fatehi's laywers, are appealing this blood money because they believe that Nazanin is innocent for acting in self-defense and therefore she should not have to pay any money. Unfortunately, this appeal may take several months, so in the meantime arrangements may be made to have Nazanin released from prison by paying “bail” money into court.

Formal documentation should be available within days, including further details and specifics like the cost of bail and the cost of blood money.

Not perfect - but what is?

My warmest regards for the young woman far away, and a big "Bravo" to all of those who did so much to get her story out.

BIG HAPPY UPDATE:

Jan 15 : Nazanin could be freed on bail immediately!

According to Etemaad Newspaper in Iran, which also reported Nazanin's original death sentence in January 2006, three out of the five judges in Nazanin's retrial have ordered that dieh "blood money" be paid to the family of the man who was killed, although the other two had recommended Nazanin's unconditional freedom.

Nazanin's lawyers intend to appeal the payment of blood money, but since this appeal may take several months, they have also requested bail so that Nazanin may be released from prison immediately. The court has set bail at 400,000,000 rials (over US$40,000).

Because Nazanin's family is very poor and unable to make payment of the bail or blood money, immediate financial assistance is required to secure Nazanin's release from prison.

And the most important part:

Mostafaei said the court set Fatehi's bail at 400,000,000 rials or about US$45,000, and he would meet with her on Tuesday. He asked people to help collect money for Fatehi's bail to help get her released from custody.

DO WHAT YOU CAN.

Song of the Day, 1/15/07

Oh man. I found myself singing, sans melody and with nothing like the right words and based on some regurgitated memory from my preschool days John Jacob Jingleheiner Schmidt. There's a track in that link of a bunch of kids singing it, if one were so moved...

Bullfrogs Are Going to Eat You

Not that's ironic

Oh dang, it's just funny.

Via Metafilter.

Elephants Loot Tapioca Trucks

I wrote about something similar, strangely enough, a year or so ago.

The Bangkok Post:

Chachoengsao _ The chief of Khao Ang Rue Nai wants the road through the wildlife sanctuary closed at night after a herd of elephants held up and looted a string of cargo trucks. About midnight last Saturday a herd of 20 elephants blocked route No.3259 (the Ban Nong Kog-Ban Wang Nam Phon road) holding up 10 trucks, Yoo Senatham said.

They tipped some vehicles on their side, spilling the cargoes on the road so their young could eat, and gorged on sugarcane and tapioca.

Via Fark.

Eat your Bottomfeeders

Or get it by the song straight to your computer at iTunes.

• Or at Music is Here

• Or at Tradebit (search "Bottomfeeders")

• Or look in your own favorite online music outlet - I just may be there

The Klootchy Spruce

Really nice post from Loaded Orygun:

This 750 year old giant is near death having been damaged four decades ago by lightning. Last year's wind storm blew off a large chunk of the tree, revealing a rotting interior.

I really need to get out that way. It's been 23 years, and was the first place I saw the Pacific.

Winter Morning, Back Room

LT

Song of the Day, 1/13/07

I see, this is going to take over the LTB and it'll become nohing but a string of YouTube videos. Well, that would probably be an improvement.



I think this is a sign of a good day. And kite flying.

Song of the Day, 1/12/07

Here's a new daily feature that I'll probably forget about within minutes. And it's not the "Song of the Day" in a "really great song" sort of way - it's the song that first plays in my head when I wake up.

It has to be an unforced song, one that is already playing, or that I'm unconsciously singing along with, when I take notice of it. It usually happens in the shower, and I sometimes think it is a sign of things to come for the day. The theme song, maybe. Today's song:



Oh no.

Tulips For Lunch - Chuck Brodsky

I've got Chuck Bodsky's new CD, Tulips For Lunch.

I've only heard three songs so far, but they manage to be thick and lush and at the same time Chuck's signature stark.

Give it a listen. The Curse of the Billy Goat is gonna be another baseball classic from Chuck.

Here's Chuck with some friends at a show at the Tønder Festival in Denmark (with his Kerrville shirt on).

Enemy of the Brain!

Via Crooks and Liars, Sean Hannity is such a dolt. His new feature, This Week's Enemy of the State, obviously modeled after Keith Olbermann's Worst Person in the World, is, like the Right's War on College Professors, eerily reminiscent of Nazism and Fascism, and really, really dumb. Watch it:



He doesn't even give a reason for being "Enemy of the State" that resembles being a, you know, "enemy of the state." What earns him Sean's bizarro world distinction?

• He called Hannity a "whore in a recent speech"

• He's "called for the impeachment of just about everybody in the Bush administration"

• And "called them 'bastards'"

He then goes on to say that "Penn can say whatever he wants." And then invites him on his show. Pretty squishy treatment for someone who's a, you know, "enemy of the state." Hannity then goes on, apparently not even understanding the point of his own feature, to say, "But the real question is, Who does this guy speak for? Who does he represent, other than bad actors?"

What a noodle.

Sean Hannity, you're today's Enemy of the Brain!

Mano a Mano

One of the reasons I love going to Metafilter.

Bush Lifts Ban on OIl/Gas Drilling in Bristol Bay

My one time stomping grounds, as was Valdez before the spill (I'll try and find some pics). And it comes with its own Bushesque irony:

The news comes as a trans-Alaska pipeline was shut down after some 500 gallons of crude oil were spilled.

The report says that the move has the approval of the Aleutians East Borough, but H. Joseph Hebert of the Chicago Tribune finds other voices:

"It's outrageous. It's a sad day for Bristol Bay," Eric Siy, executive director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, said in a telephone interview, responding to Bush's action.

"It's one of the largest and most valuable commercial fisheries in the world," said Siy. "And precisely where they intend to drill and site rigs is the critical habitat, feeding grounds of the North Pacific Right Whale, one of the most endangered on Earth."

And more from the borough:

The Aleutians East Borough's administrator, Bob Juettner, said developing the offshore oil and gas presents "a wonderful opportunity" to bring jobs to area and help the economy which has declined because of competition from foreign fisheries and the growth of farm-raised salmon.

"But keep in mind our families have centered their lives around commercial and subsistence fisheries for thousands of years," he continued. "And we can't let anything threaten our traditional way of life."

Without strict safeguards, warned Juettner "we will withdraw our support."

More info on the Bristol Bay fishery here.

Doctors Without Borders

9th Annual Top 10 Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2006.

Cicarelli: YouBoobTube

Sorry, not the link you wanted.

Daniela Cicarelli, a model and ex-wife of soccer star Ronaldo, and her boyfriend, Renato Malzoni Filho, sued YouTube and demanded $116,00 [sic] in damages for each day the video, which apparently showed them having sex on a Spanish beach, remained on the Web site.

Ten Airmen Killed in Iraq (Total) - (Updated)

Three Air Force Airmen First Class were killed in Iraq in the last 24 hours.

A car bomb in Baghdad on Sunday killed the three airmen assigned to the 447th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron's Explosive Ordnance Division, the U.S. military said. A soldier died Saturday after coming under fire in the capital, and another soldier died Friday from combat wounds sustained in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province.

I haven't seen "airmen" linked to the sickeningly regular news reports of military deaths very often, so I looked at The Washington Post's Faces of the Fallen. The Air Force has lost the fewest members of the four major services in this Iraq war - 51 (that doesn't appear to include today's deaths).

Airman First Class - A1C - is the Air Force's third lowest rank, after Airman Basic and Airman, and the lowest rank listed in the Air Force's deaths in Iraq. According to the WaPo, only seven A1Cs have been killed there since the war started. They range in age from 20 to 22, with one 24, at the time of their deaths. And three were killed today.

I don't have any idea what, if anything, that signifies. A change in tactics? Desperation in deployments? I don't know. I just wanted to note it.

My heart goes out to the families and friends of three more brave young people.


UPDATE: The three were not Airmen First Class, but two Senior Airmen and one Tech Sgt., ages 23, 24, and 35.. My ignorance of Air Force terminology ("airmen" can signify any member of the Air Force) led to that assumption.

Also: I had to repost this after losing it and lost a comment - an angry one pointing out my ignorance and educating me about Explosive Ordnance Disposal airmen - from I believe it was David Dougherty, and my reply to it.

This is what a trained EOD airmen does. It is a decidedly difficult and dangerous job that requies a huge amount of know-how and courage.

Her Highness

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Royal Highness Christine the Indefatigable of London by the Bow Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Via The Sideshow.

Never Get Busted Again

Almost funny:

A one-time Texas drug agent described by a former boss as perhaps the best narcotics officer in the country plans to begin selling a video that shows people how to conceal their drugs and fool police.

A promotional video says [Barry] Cooper will show viewers how to "conceal their stash," "avoid narcotics profiling" and "fool canines every time."

Cooper, who said he favors the legalization of marijuana, made the video in part because he believes the nation's fight against drugs is a waste of resources. Busting marijuana users fills up prisons with nonviolent offenders, he said.

In 2005, 696,074 people were arrested for possession of marijuana in the U.S. 1,907 a day.

Happy holidays to everyone sitting in prison for possession of pot.

Jeff Ranjit Stanley

Just goofing in his studio in Manley.

He's agot a new CD out, you can hear it over here and over here.

Christmas Bottomfeeders

Or get it by the song straight to your computer at iTunes.

Laura's War

Laura Bush: James baker and Lee Hamilton work for CNN. And these guys do too.

Taking Mrs. Bush's argument at face value and agreeing, for this experiment, that the media isn't reporting enough of the "good news" about Iraq, exactly how much "good news" would it take to "win out," if that's the way to put it, over the actual carnage? Honestly? I think she must know that it would be an impossible amount, nothing short of, say, "Iraq War Finds Cures for Cancer!" and is therefore, along with the others who have been saying this for some years now, dishonest of her to push it.

Go Ron Go

Via TPM, Senator Wyden (D-Here) will will unveil his universal health care proposal today.

Wyden said his plan would allow workers to carry their health insurance from job to job without penalty and would cost the federal government no more than it's paying today for health insurance coverage. It would cover all Americans except those on Medicare or those who receive health care through the military.

Like I said, Go Ron Go!

Raw Links

I like Raw Story, but why would they uncritically link to crap like this?

GENERAL FORESEES 50 TO 100 YEAR TERROR WAR

In all caps no less to further its hoped-for urgency - why?




Beside the fact that it's God's Sun Myung Moon's newspaper, and that it's a Bill Gertz story (the Russians took the WMDs to Syria!), wouldn't a headline with, say, a question mark or something be more appropriate? Or "Air force General Goes Crazy Stupid" maybe?

The fact that a brigadier general in the Air Force said something so absolutley loopy is news, but not that kind of news. The people at Raw Story should know better.

I'm done.
Crossposte at DKos.

The Poetry Man

Videos. Music. And poetry from one of the hardest working people on the tubes.

Browse. Listen. Read. Look. There's a whole world in there.

Horny Manatee Dot Com

Now this is funny.

At the end of the skit, in a line Mr. O’Brien insists was ad-libbed, he mentioned that the voyeur (actually Mark Pender, a member of the show’s band) was watching www.hornymanatee.com. There was only one problem: as of the taping of that show, which concluded at 6:30 p.m., no such site existed. Which presented an immediate quandary for NBC: If a viewer were somehow to acquire the license to use that Internet domain name, then put something inappropriate on the site, the network could potentially be held liable for appearing to promote it.

In a pre-emptive strike inspired as much by the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission as by the laws of comedy, NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159, after the taping of the Dec. 4 show but before it was broadcast.

By yesterday afternoon hornymanatee.com — created by Mr. O’Brien’s staff and featuring images of such supposedly forbidden acts as “Manatee-on-Manatee” sex (again using characters in costumes) — had received approximately 3 million hits, according to NBC. Meanwhile several thousand of Mr. O’Brien’s viewers have also responded to his subsequent on-air pleas that they submit artwork and other material inspired by the aquatic mammals, and the romantic and sexual shenanigans they imagine, to the e-mail address conan@hornymanatee.com.

Go. Look at the horny manatees. Oh no, don't!

929 Speakers

At Le Web3.

Steve Does Clarence

Steve Audio (this is becoming a habit) put a bunch of time into this piece on guitar god Clarence White. History, links, videos, thoughts, as only Steve can do.

The Sun Came Up Again

Christine got a good one. I was still in bed.

Frizzarday

He has hit the jackpot with this regualr feature.

Kangaroos. Boxing.

Like I said, Boxing Kangaroos.

Niel Young: "Living With War" Raw Version

From an email from Jeff Watson, Director of New Media at Warner Brothers Records:

"Living With War - In The Beginning" is a new CD/DVD version coming on December 19th that includes the original mixes done the day of each session (the CD-only version is out on iTunes today as well). These raw mixes do not include the choir that was added in L.A. the week after the original recordings were done. These recordings are not remixed. They are the first mixes that were made in the heat of the moment. Although they are not polished, they represent the essence of Living With War, in the beginning.

LIVING WITH WAR - IN THE BEGINNING

Included in the new set is a DVD of all 10 of the videos done in the LWW network form, as well as all 10 of the documentary videos of the original sessions. These Living with War documentary videos show the choir and the sessions, day by day, as the project was evolving.

The Raw version "In the Beginning" is a separate CD within the package. This new LWW package, including the Raw CD and the DVD of the videos, along with a new cover, will be will be released on December 19th.

You can get the audio only version digitally right now though at iTunes! Click here to get it - RIGHT HERE!.

Give a listen to the raw version of the song "Living With War."

Windows:

56 Kbps

128 Kbps

Quicktime:

56 Kpbs

128 Kpbs

A perfect present: Let's Impeach the President for Christmas!



Bonus:


Crossposted at DKos.

TV5, Ulaanbaatar

Via Metafilter, TV5 is the first Mongolian TV station on the internet. Sign up here. Schedule here.

And the blog, Mongolian Matters.

Like a Hollywood Script

Republicans in Hollywood.

Hollywood producer bilked $5.5m for TV show claimed "backed by Bush"

One of Dana Rohrbacher's friends.

According to today's Los Angeles Times, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) received a $23,000 option on a screenplay he wrote 30 years ago from Hollywood producer, Joseph Medawar. Rohrabacher, clearly in return, helped introduce Medawar to at least five Republican congressmen at the House Homeland Security Committee in 2004, including then-Chairman Christopher Cox.

At the time, Medawar was pitching his latest Hollywood project, a TV series about the Department of Homeland Security. It was reported that Medawar bragged about his access to Washington big-shots when discussing his project with journalists and selling it to potential investors in his company, Steeple Enterprises.

Hey! This would make a great screenplay...

Steve Audio

Steve Audio puts his expert ear to the Bare Naked Ladies.

How expert? He's been in the business for so long and so hard that he's heard the 5 hidden guitar solo tracks on the 2" master for Steely Dan's "Peg".

Damn.

Rush Limbaugh Admits to Cat/Girlfriend on Radioshow

You heard it here first folks. Or possibly here.

Rush Limbaugh admitted on his radio show yesterday that, "This cat's taught me more about women, than anything my whole life."

Than anything. Including...actual women.

"She gets loved," said Limbaugh, speaking again of his cat.

"She gets petted."

I interviewed the cat at at a safe house not far from Limbaugh's Florida home.



"Shoot me! Just friggin shoot me!" the kitty screamed over and over and over. I shot him. It was for the best, considering what it had been through.

Rush Limbaugh: Hillbilly heroin and a cat for a girlfriend. What will he admit to next?

Little Thom's Video Blog

I've got a new blog - Little Thom's Video Blog - which will be about and for music.

It'll be up and running in a little while with the first song, My Own Best Friend.

And don't forget: The perfect Christmas gift for friends and enemies alike is my CD, Bottomfeeders. God said so. Get it by the song - just 99 cents - or the entire album at the following links:

iTunes
Little Thom's Music at CDBaby

And just for a listen:

LT at MySpace
LT at Podsafe Music Network
LT at Pure Volume

When Harry Met a Knucklehead

Harry Shearer gets out the shears and shaves a few inches off Newt Gingrich’s knuckles. And head. Or something.

The Jesus Bird

The Comb-crested Jacana, according to the very knowledgeable and perfectly-talkative guide on the South Alligator River in Kakadoo National Park (part of the Yellow Waters cruise), has the longest feet, per bird size, of any bird in the world. Allows in to "walk on water."

The Comb-crested Jacana [check out the illustrations circa 1800 by John Gould], also known as the Lotusbird, has a red fleshy forehead comb, a black crown, back and breast and brown wings. The belly, face and throat are white, and there is a faint yellow tinge around the eye and throat. Both sexes are similar in appearance, but the female is larger than the male, and slightly brighter in colour.

At a distance, the Comb-crested Jacana appears to have the ability to walk on water. In fact, it is walking on floating plants. Its extremely long toes help it to spread its body weight over a larger area. In flight, the long legs and toes trail behind the body.

Kangaroos. Boxing.

This is just too cool. I just registered with YouTube so I can put some video from Australia up. I took this is Canberra in mid-October. I had gotten up at my usual Australian waking time of 5:30 and gone for a walk. This is right in the center of town. I saw my first two kangaroos, in the wild (zoos just aren't the thing), munching grass at a high school not far from the Australian War Memorial.

I was ecstatic.

And they did a show for me. Unbelievable. The buggers even seemed to stop and wait until I had my camera ready. Check it out.

Bottomfeeders on Tradebit

My CD Bottomfeeders is available at CDBaby, and they've sent it out to so far 26 online music distributors. iTunes has had it for some time, and I just found out that Tradebit now has it up. Looks pretty simple. You can even use PayPal.

A bargain at a buck a song download. Perfect for the holidays. (Just found out the entire album is available on this page.)

Katia and Kylie Mac: The Podcast

I got a notice a while back from a couple new computer radioheads in Paris letting me know that they had used a song of mine for the teaser for their upcoming podcast. They are now up and running. And they've used the song as their theme song:

k&k podcast : Katia and Kyliemac, an Australian and an American living in Paris, podcast about the expat life and how they eat Oreos.

(Thanks to Little Thom for the great song we've used as our theme tune!)

Thanks Katia! Thanks Kylie!

You can subscribe to their show on iTunes and various pod places at the above link and here at the Podsafe Music Network, which is where they found me.

South Africa to the Fore

An example for the world.

S Africa approves same-sex unions

South Africa's parliament has voted to legalise same-sex weddings - the first African country to approve such unions.
The controversial Civil Union bill was passed by 230 votes to 41.

...

The ruling was based on the constitution, which was the first in the world specifically to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual preference.

Photos by the Sea

Sculpture by the Sea in the east Sydney suburbs is a truly enjoyable, makes you happy to be alive kinda event. A few kilometers of wind-sculpted sandstone beachfront (Tamarama to Bondi) with cleverly (and not-so-cleverly) installed sculpture, some on a grand scale, appearing along the way. People seemed to arrive in a good mood and it got better through the day. Many thanks to Christine's sis Shannon and her Kevin for taking us there.

Extra coolness: Kodak, the major sponsor of the 17-day—and free—event, had booths set up along the way where you could, if you had a digital camera (we got one the day before the trip) get three free prints and enter one into a photo contest. I entered this one:



It was one of the five finalists for the day and I'm now in the running for the grand prize (camera and cash). How cool is that?

Lots more photos coming, flora and fauna.

UPDATE: I didn't win. Bastards.

Back From Australia

Saltwater crocodile on the South Alligator River in Kakadoo National Park.

I was in a boat.

It was still a little freaky.

Top 300 Songs of the 20th Century

I normally don't give a crap about such lists, but NPR puts a personal hero up high where he belongs.

#12: "Angel from Montgomery" John Prine, as performed by Bonnie Raitt (1971)

The Constitution of the United States 2.0

Political Cortex:

ARTICLE I

Section 1

All legislative Powers are hereby ceded to the Executive branch, though the Congress will still make a Grand Noise and wave their arms as if they give a Damn.

Browsing

Via Metafilter:

• Air Sex!

• Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is a grammatically correct sentence.

• Kung Fu v. Yoga

BOTTOMFEEDERS on iTunes

I've told you about CDBaby before - great place for unsingined and signed musicians alike to get their stuff out and into the world. Today I got up and lo and behold, BOTTOMFEEDERS is on iTunes. Thanks to the gang at CDBaby.

You can go there and buy one song at a time to download onto whatever device it is you have for 99 cents. How cool is that?

Of course, you can still go to CDBaby and get the entire CD shipped to your home and get the great graphics and all the lyrics too. Woo hoo!

Bottomfeeders, available at CD Baby.

The Hour of Dave

I haven't advertised the Greatest Podcast On Earth lately, so here ya go: The Hour of Dave. Go, download, open beer, listen. Piece of cake.

And better yet, a baby (created by Dave and Sage): The Sadie Project

The Sadie Project is an attempt to take two pictures per day of my new baby Sadie- one of her face and one of her whole body- in an effort to make a time lapse movie of her development.

This, my friends, is Sadie June.



I have smelled this child, and I can tell you with no hesitation that she is a perfect little inhabitant of our now-better world.

Meet the Relatives II

Brothers and sisters, the head of our cousin the hellgrammite as seen under a microscope:



I found this on the the helgrammite page of the Web site of the Stratford Landing Elementary School in Fairfox County, Virginia. The give credit to Uglybug.org.

I've gotta get out of here, so I'll just leave you some photos to drool over. Here's another view of the head:



And here's a view of the the head of what the hellgrammite turns into:

Thumbs Up, Roger

Yes, I am a sucker for sick sweet stuff like this.

Roger Ebert, still recovering from an arterial burst following surgery to remove cancer near his jaw, could use a little love. Show some, and be a gigantic nerd, by taking a picture of yourself giving a "thumbs up" and uploading it to this Flickr Group. They'll be sending the whole spiel to the good sir himself after they have enough pictures uploaded.

Your 2007 Tax Dollars

Via Metafilter again, a detailed look at the 2007 budget from Death and Taxes.

I'm Ready

Via Metafilter, this.

Keep it brief here. Just want to say, uh, family, take care of yourselves. Uh, look at this as a learning experience. Everything happens for a reason. We all know what really happened, but there are some things you just can’t fight. Little people always seem to get squashed. It happens. Even so, just got to take the good with the bad. There is no man that is free from all evil, nor any man that is so evil to be worth nothing. But it’s all part of life, and my family, take care of yourselves. Tell my wife I love her. I’ll keep an eye on everybody, especially my nieces and nephews. I’m pretty good. I love ya’ll. Take care. I’m ready.

A Song For Steve Irwin

Oh jeez. Just looking through some Aussie papers and I found a song by Colin Buchanan.

1. Wasn't he a beauty
Crikey what a gem
A dinkum Aussie treasure
A khaki larrikin
Throwin' it all out there
Doin' what he'd do
You'd better duck for cover
Cos Steve is comin' through

2. Crazy as a cut snake
Bold as any man
He'd dive onto a crocodile
Hold spiders in his hand
Dodge a deadly brown snake
With big-eyed, "Holy
Smoke!"
You could love him
You could loathe him
But you couldn't miss the bloke

CHORUS

And wasn't he a beauty
Crikey what a gem
A dinkum Aussie treasure
A khaki larrikin
Throwin' it all out there
With his heart upon his sleeve
Goodbye Crocodile Hunter
Farewell Steve

3. He loved those deadly creatures
He gave the bush his all
The nastier the moment
The more he had a ball
1000 miles a minute
A showman to the core
He'd take a bit of bark off
And keep comin' back for more...

CHORUS

And wasn't he a beauty
Crikey what a gem
A dinkum Aussie treasure
A khaki larrikin
Throwin' it all out there
With his heart upon his sleeve
Goodbye Crocodile Hunter
Farewell Steve
Goodbye Crocodile Hunter
Farewell Steve
Farewell Steve

Farewell from over here too.

CD Baby

Portions of the funding for this life brought to you by Bottomfeeders, available at CD Baby.

The Folks: Chris Chandler

I'm going to start a new regular feature here at LTB featuring my favorite, mostly underground, singer/songwriters. For many it will simply be a link, since a lot of these foks don't have video and I don't have the know-how to put a player in here. Yet.



Chris Chandler has been on the road for, I don't know, more than 15 years, playing at hundreds of places along the way—festivals, concert halls, union meetings, living room concerts, bars. Chris does something that is All. His. Own. I don't have time to do him justice this morning, but just check out this video, made with fellow New Orleanian David Roe.

Here's the Web site. Browse around, check out his New Orleans videos, listen to some tunes, buy a CD. He's out there for us. And here's Chris's MySpace site.

The ABCs of the 9/11 Commission Report

The best part of the statement from American Airlines is this:

A factual description of those events can be found in the official government edition of the 9/11 Commission Report and supporting documents.

A factual description of the events that you portrayed as based on the 9/11 Commission Report can be found…in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Twist.

Australia

Crunchtime is over. The book has gone to press and I am out of here. In early October Christine and I will be flying to Los Angeles and then to Sydney—for a five week stay here and there in Australia. I've never been; Christine is Australian. I am, of course, very excited and will be reading and watching whatever I can to prepare myself for best absorption. (My sister Sue just recommended Where the Green Ants Dream.) If anybody passing through this little site has a book or film recommendation, or a site in Sydney or around Darwin that I have to go and see, ithe advice would be greatly appreciated.

Here's to a good September.

News you Really Don't Expect to See

From ThinkProgress: Pentagon University Elects First Openly Gay Student President

For the first time, a Defense Department university has elected an openly gay student council president.

The student body of Uniformed Services University (USU), which includes uniformed personnel in the armed forces, this week voted for Patrick High to represent graduate students at the school. High served nine years in the Illinois Army National Guard and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at USU.

His election “is just the latest in a series of signs that those serving in our armed forces are ready to welcome openly gay colleagues,” said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

CD, Baby

Air Guitar

I'm off to work in a minute; read-throughs start today. Book goes to press on the 6th of September. Two weeks of snappy people (me included) ahead. Okay.

On the 20th or thereabouts, Christine and I are flying to San Francisco—then to Sydney. Damn. All I want is a long beach and to see wild kangaroos. That's all I'm asking.

Things I noticed...

Hey Joe, where you going with that primary in your hand.

"They have sound all over them..." New Dylan sounds like old Dylan.

Mexican fishermen ate raw catch, prayed, played air guitar

Kangaroos get the pill. (See you in September!)

The tents now cover a 12-kilometer (7.5 - mile) stretch of Paseo de la Reforma...

Things That Deserve a "War on…"

This is the kind of thing that should scare the hell out of everybody:

Even though the average American has more years of education than when Miller began his surveys 20 years ago, the percentage of people in the country who accept the idea of evolution has declined from 45 in 1985 to 40 in 2005.

Can we get a "War on Stupid" now?

The Other Twins

"Two fully functional penes is unheard of even in medical literature. In the more common form of diphallus, one organ is rudimentary," the newspaper quoted a surgeon as saying.

You're probably thinking the same thing I thought: the plural of "penis" is "penes"? Who knew? All these years it's "penises". Boy, have I got a lot of correcting to do.

Bottomfeeders To The People

You can hear songs from my CD Bottomfeeders at Pure Volume, or over at PodSafe, or at the now ubiquitous to the point of annoying MySpace. Recommended track: I Can't Wait to Do a Tracheotomy. A love song.

Then, because you have a deep appreciation for artists whose works expresses feelings so fundamental that you blah blah fucking blah.

You can buy Bottomfeeders at CDBaby for $12.97. They're a good company, lots of great music over there, and they're very good to us musicians.

THE AMAZING PLAYERS ON THE CD:

Tom Freeman: producer, engineer; drums, other percussion (Freeman Sound Studio, Ashland)

Jeff Addicott, Karl Mansfield, and Peter Falbo: bass

Theresa McCoy: percussion

Bob Evonuik: dobro, vocals

Frank Sullivan: pedal steel (Sullivan Recording, Talent, Or.)

Brent Norton: electric guitar, vocals

Dennis Freese: woodwinds, vocals

Paul Jenny: trumpet, vocals

Emy Phelps: vocals

Sean McCoy: engineer (Oregon Sound, Medford, Oregon)

Little Thom: acoustic guitar, vocals

Bat Boy

I want to do learn how to do this.

Fourteen-year-old Ben Underwood of Sacramento, Calif., is one of the few people known to use echolocation as a primary means of navigating the world on land. There's not even a hint of light reaching his brain. His eyes are artificial, but his brain has adapted to allow him to appraise his environment. He makes a "clicking" sound to communicate with objects and people around him.

Crunchtime

Deep in deadline mania here and will be until the first week of September. Ouch. I'll be putting up small bits of strange news in the meantime.

Like this:

MUMBAI, India - A new restaurant in India’s financial hub, named after Adolf Hitler and promoted with posters showing the German leader and Nazi swastikas, has infuriated the country’s small Jewish community.

Hitler’s Cross, which opened last week, serves up a wide range of continental fare and a big helping of controversy, thanks to a name the owners say they chose to stand out among hundreds of Mumbai eateries.

“We wanted to be different. This is one name that will stay in people’s minds,” owner Punit Shablok told Reuters.

Pulp Non-Fiction

Holy crap somebody made the 9/11 Commsion Report into a comic book.

I've Been Comment Spammed

About 60 comments at once. All spam. I've had to activate word veriftication. Sucks.

CDBaby

Jus got my CDBaby account set up and they've set up my site. Very cool. I even got a bar code for the CD—for only $20. If you have your own music to sell, I recommend these guys.

Memory Lane is a Street on the Internet

Varanasi: I kept saying, "What the hell was that"? The crowds on the ghats and in the water, the colors and smell and the sound; nobody else in the boat would see them. They'd make a beautiful gentle curl out of the water, like the dolphins at Knossos, but they'd be gone so quick I'd only see them out of the corner of my eye; an imprint of a long-nosed water-ghost would be left on half my retina. Years later I was jawdropped, watching the Discovery channel or somthing: I'd been seeing Ganges River Dolphins. Unbelievable.

Damn. Gotta go to work. I've also gotta go through the old photo albums, see what I can find. Here's a Gosainkund extra. I got altitude sickness, decided to lie down in the snow, take off my socks and warm my feet for a while. Godamighty, I don't know how I made it down. When I did the two nice young girls who were the only inhabitants of the chesse-factory town made me omelets, with mushrooms they'd picked "in the jungle."

There are More Coming Home

John Prine's Sam Stone

A Sage Enters the Net Neutrality Fray

Sage Meadows wants you. (Would you rather be had by this guy?) And she recommends these links:



Hey, wait a second. I forgot to tell you that the world would be a better place if every single person on the planet sat down and heard Sage sing. Honest.

I Just Thought About Warren Zevon

So I went and found a clip. 1989. Enjoy. (Comes in loud.)



So many good ones! Here's another one, just having a good time in the studio with Bruce Springsteen.

Anyone know where I can find a video of Mohammed's Radio?

It's a Little World

An anecdote, if I may.

So I'm downtown with Christine last week just walking and looking and we run into Bob and Danella the Evoniuks—Bob played the amazing dobro on my CD Bottomfeeders, as well as singing backup on the title track—and Danella says, "Oh my God, I've wanted to see you! I was driving to Seattle a couple of weeks ago..."

Background now needed. I have several songs up on The PodSafe Music Network, a place where podcasters from around the globe can grab songs of their choosing for their podcasts. I've been grabbed by 30 or 40 so far over the months from various locales around the world, such as The Hour of Dave from right here at home, Antecubital Liposuction from I don't know where, the JuLi Podcast from Zülpich, Germany, and MadPod with JADonnelly out of NYC.

And a knitting podcast out of Wales.

Yup. A Knitting podcast. "Popular knitting culture deconstructed, news, views and podsafe Knit-Tunes. Hosted by Brenda Dayne."

Brenda has quite a following and does an excellent show, so I'm told. She played my song Inside Joke for her listeners in early June. (Many thanks, Brenda Dayne.)

So back to Danella. Christine and I run into Bob and Danella as we're walking and looking downtown in small town Oregon and Danella says, "Oh my God, I've wanted to see you!" Seems she was driving up to Seattle in early June, and, like any normal person, she was listening to her favorite podcast.

A knitting podcast.

Out of Wales…

Things like that make my skin crawl.

Lazy Sunday

Republic of Dogs says Happy Canada Day to our friends up North.

Bra of the Week and so much more from Avedon Carol.

Glenn Greenwald on the latest NYTimes plot discovered by right-wing bloggers. Hint: they're helping the terrorist's assassinate Cheney and Rumsfeld…in their vacation homes!

Talking Points Memo on the Air Force's new program: “Automated Ontologically-Based Link Analysis of International Web Logs for the Timely Discovery of Relevant and Credible Information.” Translation: They read the blogs.

TalkLeft on Addington's Disease.

France beats Brazil. Steve Gilliard kicks it in.

Dengre at DKos on Abramoff, and the Inspector General's just released report.

Little Thom's Blog Has Hit the Big Time!

Well, that's it peasants. I'll so leave you and your furry shoes behind. I just found a comment in each of my last two posts…from Shara:

Shara said...
Hi, You are interested in Music!!! :)
I like your information. please visit the links:
Do you like t.i music ?
I think It is usefull, t.i music

A bit time to relax:
Do you want to try Poker?

I think it is useful too, Shara, this t.i music.

I'm assuming you mean "tit and intestine" music. My fave.

I have so made it.

Harriet the Tortoise

Well dang. I wrote about Harriet at that other outfit I write for and loved her story, so I was bummed when I read That Harriet the Tortoise has died.

Harriet the tortoise, one of the world's oldest known living creatures, has died in Australia aged about 175.

Senior vet Dr John Hangar told Australia's ABC that Harriet, a Giant Galapagos tortoise, had died of heart failure after a short illness.

"She had a very fairly acute heart attack and thankfully passed away quietly overnight," Dr Hangar said.

Last year staff at Australia Zoo, where Harriet had lived for 17 years, held a party to celebrate her 175th birthday.

Some people believe that Harriet was studied by British naturalist Charles Darwin.

Darwin took several young Giant Galapagos tortoises back to London after his epic voyage on board HMS Beagle.

What a life, even if she didn't meet Darwin. And she wasn't named "Harriet" until she was quite old; she was "Harry" until they figured out why tryng to breed her with female tortoises wasn't going so well. Here's a slideshow of Harriet doing all things tortoise.

Loudon Wainwright III

I remember seeing this guy way back when as a teenager I watched M*A*S*H every day after school. Little did I know he'd be up there with John Prine on the list of my all time favorite songwriters.

Random Blog Search

Wir Suchen ein Schiff really are looking for a ship (me too) in Cologne.

Meix2 is very, very pink.

I have absolutely no idea. The most laborious act of black mold test comprises trying in order to find out either or not We do have rotational mold in ur bedchamber. If You could’t see to it or even odor cake mold, it is very hard to know what to observe. As luck would have it, there are mold test compacts for Such too. That type of mold test packs come-at-able With the agar culture dish carrying a platter.

嘉盛苑 and other images.

Bildt Comments, A European in Sweden on European and International Developments.

Appalachian Greens. We are the people of Appalachia.

Little or Nothing (yes, it was something about the name). Name: Rebekah. Location:Australia. An ideal lazy Saturday afternoon would have me rising to a late brunch, managing to complete the day's crossword and then curling up on the couch reading the latest Harry Potter novel whilst watching Australia beat England in the Ashes with Ponting getting a tonne.

The Indian Expat, Talking Points for the Indian Diaspora - Culture, Food, Asia, Children, Relocation, Reviews, Corporate, Travel....

Life on Coatham Marsh.

29 Fragile Days. Here's one of their magic things.

Talking with Townes

Thanks, Hour of Dave. Thanks.

Now go listen to the song.

Bottomfeeders: The Australia Fund

Christine and I are saving for a September trip to her old home in Australia (namely Sydney and the Northern Territory.) My traveling days never took me there and I am of course very excited. I have a goal to sell 200 copies of my CD, Bottomfeeders, by then to help finance the trip.


(I just scanned these shots of a CD—the designer has the image files.)

The CD features tracks such as I Can't Wait to do a Tracheotomy (a love song), Squirt (an ode to a friend after she had her baby), Donald (for my Dad. Bob Evoniuk's dobro kills), and You Can Use My Bathtub, which features background vocals by the incomparable Emy Phelps.

You can listen to tracks at MySpace, at Podsafe Music Network, and at Pure Volume. You can download tracks there, too. For free. And then come back here and buy a CD! (How cool!)



A copy of Bottomfeeders will cost you $13, and that includes shipping here in the U.S. For international buyers, I'll add on only the cost of whatever kind of shipping you'd like me to use. Just hit the PayPal "Buy Now" button up in the top right of the page.

Thanks! I hope you enjoy the CD.

Late Update: Many thanks to Avedon Carol at the Sideshow.

Deals to Australia

Just looking at airfares to Australia for September. Not as bad as I thought. $999 includes the roundtrip and 3 flights within Australia on Qantas. Anyone know any better deals?

Getting to Know the Relatives

Having spent a great part of my young childhood on my hands and knees in the woods and swamps of Western New York, I have many animal-encounter memories. Better said: young, wide-eyed human and other strange animal encounters. The best kind. One of my favorites: the star-nosed mole.

Condylura cristata is one of the most distinctive mammal species. Its nose is hairless and is ringed by a unique 'star' of 22 pink, fleshy tentacles. The star is bilaterally symmetrical with 11 appendages per side that vary in length from between 1 and 4 mm.

Twenty-two. It's always been my favorite number. Thought it had to do with my twin sister. But I may have just really like star-nosed moles…and been an unconsciously fast counter.



How could you not love being on Earth seeing that?

Live Science:

A new detailed study of tiny touch receptors, called "Eimer's organs," on the tip of a mole's nose reveals how the animals do it.

For moles, the Eimer's organs serve the function of whiskers found in most small mammals and fingers in humans. By touching their noses to the ground repeatedly, the animals explore their surroundings and discriminate between different objects.

Using fluorescent dyes, the researchers found that the Eimer's organs in the coast mole and the odd-looking star-nosed mole are composed of a column of skin cells, around which numerous nerve endings are arranged. An outer ring of nerves interlacing the column function as high-threshold pain receptors, while nerves within the cell column act as low-threshold touch receptors.

The researchers think that this organization allows the outer nerves to sense abrasive or potentially harmful areas before the more sensitive inner nerves come into contact with them.

Scanning electron micrograph image of mole appendages covered with Eimer's organs. Credit: Kenneth Catania


Oh, by the way, Eimer’s organs were named, of course, after Gustav Heinrich Theodor Eimer (1843-1898).

Don't Watch This

I warned you.

From Jesus General.

Which Ones Are We?

Some Humans Ain't Human



Ain't nobody like The Prine.

Bottomfeeders

Just got another shipment of my CD—Bottomfeeders—in. You can listen to some of the songs on MySpace, Podsafe Music Network, and Pure Volume.

YOU CAN BUY IT RIGHT NOW FOR THE LITTLE PRICE OF $13! (that includes domestic shipping) Just hit the BUY NOW button in the "Vital Links" section on the top right of the screen.

If you'd rather send a check or money order, make it out to Little Thom and send it to Little Thom at Box 85, Ashland OR 97520. Send me an email at littlethomsongs@yahoo.com to let me know or to just say hey.

THE SONGS:

1. Lullab-I-90
2. I Can't Wait (To Do a Tracheotomy)
3. Donald
4. Bottomefeeders
5. Inside Joke
6. Lost and Found
7. You Can Use My Bathtub
8. Sigh
9. Squirt
10. Relish
11. I'm With You
12. The Bass Player
Extra: The CD ends with a ghost track from Marty, the Bass Player, doing his magic thing all by himself on his 5-string fretless.

THE PLAYERS:

Tom Freeman: producer, engineer, drums, other percussion (Freeman Sound Studio, Ashland)

Jeff Addicott, Karl Mansfield, and Peter Falbo: bass

Theresa McCoy: percussion

Bob Evonuik: dobro, vocals

Frank Sullivan: pedal steel (Sullivan Recording, Talent, OR)

Brent Norton: electric guitar, vocals

Dennis Freese: woodwinds, vocals

Paul Jenny: trumpet, vocals

Emy Phelps: vocals

Sean McCoy: engineering (Oregon Sound, Medford, Oregon)

Little Thom: acoustic guitar, vocals

Nyah Fearties Does Woody Guthrie

A Bed On Your Floor

Update: Help Save Nazanin

The Geekzone reports that Nazanin's death sentence has been stayed.

I posted about this last week. Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi is an 18-year-old Iranian woman who killed a man who was attempting to rape her and her 16-year-old niece. From the last post:

The girls tried to escape, but the men overtook them, and at this point, Nazanin stabbed one of the other men in the chest, which eventually killed him. According to the newspaper, she broke down in tears when she told the court: "I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help." Nevertheless, the court sentenced her to death by hanging.

Her ordeal is not over. She will now be retried and could end up spending many years in prison—when she should be given a fuckking medal.

The link has a list of things you can do to hopefully help this young woman. Please go there, international pressure can still help her.

Here's an online petition you can sign. I was number 151,314. And I called the Iran interest office in the Pakistan Embassy:

2209 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20007

Tel: (202) 965-4990
Fax: (202) 965-1073

Baghdad

Atrios just had WUnderground.com's (the "W" is for "weather") forecast for Baghdad. Great idea.

Updated: 4:00 AM ADT on June 02, 2006
Friday
Clear. High: 116° F / 47° C Wind NW 11 mph. / 18 km/h.

Saturday
Clear. High: 114° F / 46° C Wind NNW 11 mph. / 18 km/h.

Sunday
Clear. High: 114° F / 46° C Wind NNW 11 mph. / 18 km/h.

Monday
Clear. High: 114° F / 46° C Wind NNW 11 mph. / 18 km/h.

Tuesday
Clear. High: 114° F / 46° C Wind NW 13 mph. / 21 km/h.

Wednesday
Clear. High: 111° F / 44° C Wind NW 17 mph. / 28 km/h.

Thursday
Clear. High: 107° F / 42° C Wind WNW 13 mph. / 21 km/h.

Bet they can't wait until thursday. Yikes.