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Recessive gene My oldest son is a red head ("ginger"), as was (before going grey) my father. This photo is from a new book by Jenny Wicks, "Root Ginger." Social reactions to such recessive genes are curious and often weirdly negative. As one participant says, "My mother's reaction to being told her first born was a ginger was to weep uncontrollably." I'll admit to some pangs of worry when BB emerged with ginger hair, as though he'd been born with a strike against him. Such an odd reaction.
Posted by RSH at 9:46 PM No comments: 
Change you MUST believe in Posted by RSH at 2:33 PM No comments: 
Calvin & Hobbes / SRV

For Big Boy, who's a HUGE Calvin & Hobbes fan right now. A video featuring my favorite Stevie Ray Vaughn song. BB says, "I've seen that" for every slide.

Posted by RSH at 6:46 AM No comments: 
Shemekia Copeland

A change of pace. Johnny Copeland's daughter.

Posted by RSH at 6:25 AM No comments: 
A Day in the Life of Abbey Road

Don't miss the guy who pulls down his pants about half way through.
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Bat for Lashes

Covering Bruce Springsteen.

Posted by RSH at 6:32 AM No comments: 
Glass Candy

Disco punk.

Posted by RSH at 6:19 AM No comments: 
Meat Puppets

The Puppets did a kind of meandering version of grunge back in the late 80's and early 90's (I saw them then). Some of their original songs, like this one, were covered by Nirvana. From Texas, they're now following the "cowpunk" way.

Posted by RSH at 6:33 AM No comments: 
These Are Powers

Ghost-punk no wave.

Posted by RSH at 7:37 AM No comments: 
Brian Jonestown Massacre

It's been a while since I posted a BJM song. Equal parts narco, pop, and just plain haunting, BJM still floats my boat. The slo-mo video is from Godard's "Bande à part"; the song, "The Devil May Care."

Posted by RSH at 6:59 AM No comments: 
Another Nico Vega

Doing an acoustic turn.

Posted by RSH at 7:42 AM No comments: 
Nico Vega

Kinda wannabe badass, but a really good song.

Posted by RSH at 7:31 AM No comments: 
Those Darlins

Indie twang trio, from Nashville I think.

Note the baritone ukulele, confirming again my sense that ukuleles are resurgent.

Posted by RSH at 7:40 AM No comments: 

We watched "Milk" last night, the story of the first gay elected official, Harvey Milk, in San Francisco. I was in 8th grade, I think, and living just north of SF when Milk and Mayor Moscone were assassinated, so I remember it well. What I was less aware of are the details of the gay movement at the time. I knew who Anita Bryant was, but not some of the details of the fight against the newly emboldened religious right. The second act of the movie is built around these details, especially the struggle against proposition 6, which would have banned gay teachers (imagine that witch hunt).

The strategy against proposition 6 was the right way to fight an anti-gay measure. They fought the proposition with visibillity: their slogan, "come out! come out! wherever you are!" The tepid opposition to proposition 8, the recent anti-gay marriage measure in California, could have taken some lessons from this strategy.

Sean Penn is brilliant in the movie, simply because I forgot I was watching Sean Penn. I'm not always a fan of the biopic, but I liked "Milk" more than I thought I would. I think I'd also been avoiding the movie because the assassinations were an example for me then of the senseless cruelty in the world. Their killer, ex-cop Dan White, got the minimum sentence with the "twinkie defense," and the long winter of the Reagan era followed shortly thereafter, not to mention AIDS/HIV. But what I took away most from the movie was the sense of elation in the mid seventies of the new power of being out of the closet.
Posted by RSH at 8:37 AM No comments: 

Magnetic Fields' "The Book of Love"

"The Book of Love is long and boring,
No one can lift the damn thing.
It's full of charts and facts and figures,
And instructions for dancing."
Posted by RSH at 12:14 PM No comments: 
Robots Playing a Larger Role in American's Lives

Posted by RSH at 8:07 PM No comments: 
In Praise of Fuck (and Shit)

The director Victor Solomon has cut together every bit of profanity in HBO's The Sopranos. It digs deep into the Germanic roots of the English language with a weird sort of beauty. This is about a third of the full cut, which can be found here. (This is how I talk when I can get away from the kids.)

Posted by RSH at 7:40 PM No comments: 
TV on the Radio

Brooklyn-based experimental band, now getting lots of exposure (SNL and Colbert this week alone). This song is like a cross between Prince and Brian Eno.

AO figured out that the lead singer, Tunde Adebimpe, plays the groom in the movie "Rachel Getting Married," which we just saw. I highly recommend the movie, as much for the cool music (Robyn Hitchcock makes an appearance) as the family drama.
Posted by RSH at 10:31 PM No comments: 
Five and Twenty Random Things Abovt Me

From Mike McPhaden, Shakespeare takes on the 25 Random Things About Me meme.

2 I haue been Knowne to cry at Bear-baiting.

4 I cannot keep Lice, and know not why.

21 Whitsuntide has become so commercial.

25 When I am feeling Melancholic, I console myselfe with the Knowledge that, aboue all else, I will be remembered for my Musick.
Posted by RSH at 5:20 PM No comments: 
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