Random Things I've Been Writing At Three In the Morning

This one's the beginnings of a song lyric... the rhythm is rough and it needs some clean up, not to mention a proper opening verse, but it's a start. It's sort of a countrified version of Ana Ng, really.


I'm the One For You

CHORUS

There's a place and a face
And a time and a space
That'll catch me in their spell
There's a drum in my chest
That's driving me west
Into arms I've never held
I don't know where
Or who you are
But I know this to be true
Hey there pretty baby
I'm the one for you


Every story says it's true
So who am I to doubt
That there's a we, a me and you
That I can't live without
But I've been livin' without you
For all these years of mine
Those years are a cage
Let's turn the page
And make those stars align


There's a cozy little spot
Where we can meet some day
With Loretta on the jukebox
Or maybe 'Retha and Ray
And the barkeep's name is Danny
Or Dixie, or Deb, or Drew
The details are hazy
But call me crazy
Someday they'll remind me of you

Take a Little Trip and See

For whatever reason, there were a ton of low riders cruising around on the Danforth today. The best of the lot: a stunning pure white '60 Impala (although it may have been a '61, really), not overly tricked out beyond the rims. Just a gorgeous, gorgeous car, prowling the street like an albino panther.

Most of the time, when old folk complain about how modern things suck, they're just being crotchety. Not when it comes to cars. New American cars suck. Detroit lost its collective mind sometime in the '80s, and it's never recovered.

Where's Jack McCoy When You Need Him?

Bloomberg discusses the possibility of RICO charges against Tony Heyward and BP.

Much as I'd love to see it, that sounds more like the plot of an unused Law & Order script than something that has much chance of happening in real life.

What a Coincidence

Harper spends a billion dollars turning Toronto into Torontonamo Bay for the G20, and a few days later Canada gets a home grown terrorist attack.

I'm sure there's no correlation.

George Orwell Says Hi

The New York Times thinks accurate language is political:

When using a word amounts to taking sides in a political dispute, our general practice is to supply the readers with the information to decide for themselves.

In other words, the Senile Old Lady is willing to let the definitions of words be dictated from the White House. All they have to do is dispute a word's use and, poof! That word disappears from the NYT's lexicon.

This is how an industry dies. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

(h/t Sully, natch)

Pot On Stove!

The pot is still on the stove, and still dirty. That's five-plus days now.

I really should start taking pictures, or setting up a webcam feed or something.

June's Travesties

32 different songs. Sang #1 Crush an awful lot this month, looking back at it.

I'm now up to 360 different songs sung in 15 months since I started the blog, for a neat and tidy average of 24 different songs per month on average.

#1 Crush - Garbage
All Apologies - Nirvana
All Those Years Ago - George Harrison
Band On the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
Because the Night - Patti Smith
Birdhouse In Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
Conquistador - Procol Harum
Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant
Freedom - George Michael
I Can Dream About You - Dan Hartman
I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash
I Got You - Split Enz
In a Big Country - Big Country
Just Like Heaven - Cure
Kid Charlamagne - Steely Dan
Mac the Knife - Bobby Darin
Message In a Bottle - Police
Miss You - Rolling Stones
My Life - Billy Joel
No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age
Pop Life - Prince
Rebel Rebel - David Bowie
Ride Like the Wind - Christopher Cross
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) - Bruce Springsteen
Sunglasses At Night - Corey Hart
Train In Vain - Clash
Twistin' the Night Away - Sam Cooke
Vaseline - Stone Temple Pilots
When Doves Cry - Prince
Whistle For the Choir - Fratellis
With a Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker
Young Americans - David Bowie

Beware My +3 Stick of Anti-Authoritarianism!

Toronto police chief Bill Blair includes some poor guy's LARPing kit in his display of 'weapons' confiscated during the G20 protests.

It's an understandable mistake. All the coolest anarchists are wearing scale mail this year.

There Has To Be a Reckoning

A Harvard study outlined the complicity of the corporate media (specifically, the New York Times, LA Times, WSJ and USA Today) in the Bush-Cheney torture... gaaah, I hate calling it a regime, but I can't think of a better word for it.

Sully eviscerates those responsible with his usual gusto:

The editors who insisted on these changes remain liars and cowards and a disgrace to journalism and a free society. They should quit for this kind of open deception and craven cowardice in putting power before truth. They remind you that if you really want to understand what is going on in the world, the New York Times will only publish what the government deems is fit to print - even in its choice of words.

And again, I feel that sick churning in my stomach telling me I need to do something to move the country forward towards a place where these crimes can be faced, and dealt with.

This cannot be swept under the rug. And this will not be forgotten. Whatever his other accomplishments as president, if Obama does not do something to bring those responsible to justice, his time in office will be remembered with regret and the sense of a missed opportunity. At best.

Can't Say I Blame Him

Despite the fact that it's bad form to be shirking his Very Important Duties on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I probably would have dozed off or doodled during Sessions' anti-Thurgood Marshall bullshit too.

I'm just amazed Franken didn't draw Sessions wearing a peaked hood, or with a burning cross in the background. That kind of restraint speaks well for him.