"And under the boughs unbowed/ All clothed in a snowy shroud..."

My Decemberists feature for the Seattle Weekly is here and my world is tasty as milkshakes:

http://seattleweekly.com/music/0646/decemberists.php

One of our sister publications, The Cleveland Scene, ran it, too. Please note it bears little resemblance to the Seattle Weekly version, i.e. the version I actually wrote:

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2006-11-08/music/music4.html

My Seattle Weekly editor, Brian Barr, is a Believer compadre and if you haven't already, you should partake in his interview with the author, Padgett Powell:

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200609/?read=interview_powell

See you at the Paramount Friday night!

For those scoring at home

1) In the past few weeks, I've been asked to write for two of my favorite publications and had a short story accepted to a lit journal I admire.

2) One of my editors has tucked his dick so far between his legs, it is now wedged up his own ass.

3) I interviewed singer/songwriter/pianist Annie Stela for Filter this morning and she was as engaging as her songs:

http://www.anniestela.com/

4) Way up his ass.

5) More so than anything, I feel grateful that I get to do what I love.

Ed Bradley 1941-2006

This makes me inexorably sad. Good night and god bless, Mr. Bradley. From today's New York Times:

Ed Bradley, Veteran CBS Newsman, Dies

By JACQUES STEINBERG

Published: November 9, 2006

Ed Bradley, a pioneering black journalist who was a fixture in American living rooms on Sunday nights for more than a quarter century on “60 Minutes,” died today. He was 65.

Mr. Bradley died at Mt. Sinai Medical Center of complications from chronic lymphocytic leukemia, said Dr. Valentin Fuster, his cardiologist and the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mt. Sinai. Mr. Bradley, who underwent a quintuple bypass operation on his heart in 2003, was diagnosed with leukemia "many years ago,” Dr. Fuster said, but it had not posed a threat to his life until recently, when he contracted an infection.

His most recent segments on “60 Minutes” had been on Oct. 15 (on the rape case involving Duke University lacrosse players) and on Oct. 29 (an investigation of an oil refinery explosion in Texas). Even many close colleagues had not known that his health had been deteriorating precipitously for several weeks. On the day that last segment was broadcast, he was admitted to Mt. Sinai. He remained there until his death. “This has been a long battle which he fought silently and courageously,” said Charlayne Hunter-Gault of the “News Hour with Jim Lehrer,” who was one of several close friends at Mr. Bradley’s side when he died this morning. “He didn’t want people to know that this was a part of his struggle. He didn’t want people feeling sorry for him. And for a good part of his life, he managed it.”

To generations of television viewers, Mr. Bradley was a sober presence — albeit one who occasionally wore a stud in one ear — whose reporting across four decades ranged from the Vietnam War and Cambodian refugee crisis to the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the Oklahoma City bombing (his was the only television interview with Timothy McVeigh). He won 19 Emmy awards, including one for “lifetime achievement” in 2003.

But Mr. Bradley’s life off camera was often as rich and compelling as the one in the studio. Having begun his broadcast career as a disc jockey in Philadelphia, Mr. Bradley was an enormous fan of many forms of music — particularly jazz and gospel — who counted the musicians Wynton Marsalis, George Wien and Aaron Neville among his many friends and made a regular pilgrimage to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

“I made the mistake once of letting him get onstage with my band, and he never stopped doing it,” the singer Jimmy Buffett, a friend of Mr. Bradley’s for 30 years who was also with him when he died, said in a telephone interview today. Mr. Bradley had many nicknames throughout his life — including “Big Daddy,” when he played football in the 1960’s at Cheyney State College in Pennsylvania — but his favorite, according to Ms. Hunter-Gault and Mr. Buffett, was “Teddy Badly,” which Mr. Buffett bestowed on him on stage the first time Mr. Bradley played tambourine at his side.

“Everybody in my opinion needs a little Mardi Gras in their life,” Mr. Buffett said, “and he liked to have a little more than the average person on occasion.”

“He was such a great journalist,” Mr. Buffett added, “but he still knew how to have a good time.”

Mr. Bradley, who grew up in Philadelphia, broke into broadcasting as a news reporter for WDAS-FM radio in his hometown. Following that job, he was hired in 1967 as a reporter for WCBS radio in New York.

In 1971, he joined CBS News as a stringer in its Paris bureau and then a year later was transferred to the Saigon bureau. He became a CBS News correspondent in April 1973 and, shortly thereafter, was wounded while on assignment in Cambodia. Mr. Bradley joined 60 Minutes during the 1981-82 season. Among the Emmys he won throughout his career was one for a report on the reopening of the 50-year-old racial murder case of Emmett Till.

Last fall, the National Association of Black Journalists honored Mr. Bradley, who was among the first wave of African Americans to break into network television news, with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

“I grew up in Philadelphia rather protected from life in the South,” Mr. Bradley said at the association’s awards ceremony in Washington. “Emmitt Till and I were the same age when he was killed, and that was my introduction to the reality of life in this country for a black person in the mid 50’s. When we were awarded an Emmy earlier this year for this story, I said it was the most important Emmy I had ever received. I would say the same thing about your recognition tonight.”

Mr. Bradley is survived by his wife, Patricia Blanchet.

Maria Newman contributed reporting.

Link:

http://tinyurl.com/ycujtl

Despite the Northface parkas

I've been working at the Zeitgeist off Pioneer Square for the past two hours. Earlier in the day, I attended a Viva Voce show at the Gibson Showroom down the block--ScreenPlay was filming it, hence the unusual hour--and the band cracked skulls and bricks. Sundry friends, editors, and combinations thereof partook, also, and it was a cheered and raucous gathering.

Now Zeitgeist is piping the "Until the End of the World" soundtrack.

Sometimes this city gets it just right.

Dear Howard Dean,

I voted mostly for the DNC ticket. Now could you please stay off the airwaves until all of us are dead?

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,

Litsa Dremousis

Re the election, I think it's wise not to get cocky:

This was a vote against the Republicans as much as it was a vote for the Democrats. And the Democrats have yet to elucidate a new policy for Iraq. Still, I'm pleased that the D's have gained majority in the House for the first time in twelve years, that they might regain the Senate, that Maria Cantwell handily won her second term, and, of course, that Donald Rumsfeld has resigned.

Re the fact Nancy Pelosi will probably be the first female Speaker of the House and third in line to the the presidency, I cede the floor to Chris Rock:

"As long as you live you will never see a black vice president, you know why? Because some black guy would just kill the president. I'd do it. If Colin Powell was vice president, I'd kill the president and tell his mother about it. What would happen to me? What would they do? Put me in jail with a bunch of black guys that would treat me like a king for the rest of my life? I would be the biggest star in jail, alright, people would be coming up to me and I'd be signing autographs: '97-KY, here you go.' Guys would be going: 'You're the brother that shot Bush. And you told his mother about it huh? I hope my children turn out to be just like you. Man, you know I was getting ready to rape you until I realized who you were.' And even if they had a death penalty, what would happen? I'd just be pardoned by the black president."

[Note: it's an old quote. He's actually discussing #41, not #43. The more things change, etc.]

The Centers for Disease Control announces that CFIDS (aka Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) is real

I've had a fever for most of the past fifteen months. I welcome the following news:

Excerpt from NBC Nightly News, November 2, 2006:

But now the top federal public heath agency is declaring that it is real, and that it affects more than 1 million Americans — four times as many women as men.

"People genuinely are suffering and there are things we can do to genuinely help them," says Dr. Julie Gerberding, who heads the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). "And we need to take this seriously as a real illness for a lot of people."

More:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15535705/

"Since 2001, the State Department estimates that up to 130 million women worldwide have undergone circumcision."--CNN, Nov 1, 2006

More:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/01/female.circumcision.ap/index.html

From today's BBC: From Weapons of War to Great Coffee

From weapons of war to great coffee

By Amber Henshaw BBC News, Mekele

Azmeraw Zekele begins with a burnt-out shell...

In biblical times they said "turn your swords into ploughshares", now in northern Ethiopia a tradesman is bringing the saying into the 21st Century.

In his workshop in Mekele, just 200km from Ethiopia's border with Eritrea, Azmeraw Zekele is turning burnt-out shells into cylinders used in coffee machines.

Most of the shells are left over from the 1998-2000 war between the two countries.

The workshop is made up of three quite small ramshackle rooms that lead from one to another with sunlight coming through the gaps, but it is a hive of activity for Mr Azmeraw and his six staff.

More:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6102290.stm

"The story was about coming back from the war...

...but there was no mention of the war in it." p. 76 A Moveable Feast

Check out Paul Devlin's insightful piece on Matthew J. Bruccoli's book, Hemingway and the Mechanism of Fame: Statements, Public Letters, Introductions, Forewards, Prefaces, Blurbs, Reviews, and Endorsements:

http://www.slate.com/id/2151514

In a week strewn w/ pencil-chewing half-wits...

...this knowing response totally cracked me up. From the lit journal, Pindeldyboz:

this is an autoresponder.

We got your submission. Thanks! Now, good heavens, go outside and play or something while we read it--you're looking pasty.

rock on,

pboz

"Do you ever take drugs so that you can have sex without crying?"

Sarah Silverman's "The Porn Song" via Milk and Cookies and Pistol Wimp:

http://www.milkandcookies.com/article/4000/

Kathryn Lebo's compelling Rivet essay...

...in which I briefly discuss a former friend:

http://tinyurl.com/y7zprz

"Stronger women build stronger nations"--Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International

I've considered myself a feminist since I was in the seventh grade. (Decades later, I could still flay certain individuals who disparaged my mom when she went back to school.) But I long for the day when being a woman isn't considered an exceptional state. As I've often said, we're 52% of the population. We are the goddamned norm and it would behoove us to act accordingly.

Until then, I'm buoyed by the following piece from CNN:

By Elizabeth Yuan
CNN

(CNN) -- In Africa, 40 first ladies have banded together to use their positions to fight HIV and AIDS.

In Kandahar, Afghanistan, an American former reporter is running a cooperative that employs both women and men to produce a line of soaps and bath oils that will eventually wind up in U.S. and Canadian stores.

Similar efforts to empower female survivors of wars and genocide are under way in dozens of other countries, thanks to organizations like the U.S.-based Women for Women International.

"Stronger women build stronger nations," Zainab Salbi, the founder of Women for Women International, has said. Last month the group won the $1.5 million Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Prize for its work in providing emotional support, financial aid, skills training and business services to women in war-torn regions.

On Tuesday, Salbi will join Rwanda's first lady Jeannette Kagame, Sarah Chayes, founder of the Afghan soap cooperative, Arghand, and other women to discuss -- among other topics -- how women can gain influence in the economic and political power structures of developing countries. They will meet at a CNN-hosted conference, the Inspire Women Summit, in New York City.

More:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/10/10/worlds.women/index.html

So Many Dynamos' Guitars Stolen at the Paradox

From Barsuk’s message board yesterday:

Last night at their Seattle show, 3 guitars a wallet and a cell phone were stolen from So Many Dynamos. The show was at the Paradox and the stuff was stolen from the back room during the 3rd bands set.

If anyone has any information at all, please email me at skrockirecords@yahoo.com

Here are the details on the guitars:

1978 Gibson SG-tobacco sunburst with a repaired headstock, many dings and chips and a Smokey the Bear sticker on the case.

G&L ASAT Classic Tribute Series (looks like a telecaster) - sunburst semi-hollow body (has an f-hole) in a black gator case with "Griffen Kay's" name and address on the case. This guitar has lots of rust.

Squire Supersonic-black with white pickguard in a Gibson gig bag. The guitar has a “Anyone Can Do This” sticker on the back.

All guitars are pretty dinged up but loved dearly.

Thank you

Posted 2006-10-22 18:01:54 by Robbie [Urbandale, USA]


I have friends who stole in their twenties. They regret it deeply and learned from it. So I don't think theft marks someone for life as an evil person. That said, stealing a band's gear is evil. I can think of no better punishment than the one laid out in the Decemberists' "Mariner's Revenge Song":

"Find him
Bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
his fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
wakes up naked
clawing at the ceiling
of his grave"

And while we're (again) on the topic of the indie rock: certain music blogs are a joy to peruse. They burst with love and appreciation for their favorite acts and they champion art that impacts their lives. Cheek kisses and licorice whips all around.

On the other end of the spectrum are those who snipe unprovoked and are certain--for reasons unapparent--that they understand an artist's motivation and influences and allegories. Then they misspell everything. To those I say: a keyboard won't make you a writer. And when you assert that one band is "following in another's footsteps" based solely on geography, I must resist the urge to poke you with a stick.

Less bang maintenance and more fact-checking, please.

Searching For Jacob: "60 Minutes"' Scott Pelley Reports on the Genocide in Darfur

October 22, 2006

(CBS) It hardly seems possible, but the genocide in Darfur is taking a turn for the worse. The government in Sudan has launched a new offensive, maybe trying to finish what it started three years ago. As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, more than 300,000 people are dead and more than two million are refugees in the Sahara.

To understand what is happening in Darfur, 60 Minutes came upon on the story of a boy named Jacob. We know him only because his name is on schoolbooks found in the ashes of his home. Jacob's village was wiped out. Our team saw his books in a museum. We didn't know whether Jacob was alive or whether we could find him. But we decided to try. Our search turned into a remarkable journey into a place we were forbidden to travel looking for a boy swept up in the 21st century's first genocide.

The search for Jacob began at the United States Holocaust Memorial in Washington D.C. Dedicated to never letting genocide happen again, it now finds itself with fresh evidence in a new exhibit.

John Prendergast brought the remains from Jacob’s village to Washington and to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. In the Clinton White House, he led a team that imposed economic sanctions on Sudan. Now, he’s with the private, International Crisis Group, pressing for action in Darfur.

"We found in a book bag, a series of notebooks," Prendergast explains. "Clearly the kid who was doing math and spelling homework and the teacher has corrected it with a red pen."

The kid, Jacob, must have been 16 when his village was destroyed. 60 Minutes packed his books and left on a 7,000-mile journey.

More:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/20/60minutes/main2111909.shtml

"But for now, we say goodbye, and we mourn a little."

My favorite account of CBGB's closing. From Caryn Rose's Jukeboxgraduate:

http://www.jukeboxgraduate.com/archives/000337.html#more

"Say it with dead flowers at my wedding/ and I won't forget to put roses on your grave..."

http://rollingstones.com/discog/?v=&a=1&id=17

http://rollingstones.com/discog/?v=&a=1&id=16

http://rollingstones.com/discog/?v=&a=1&id=12

http://rollingstones.com/discog/?v=&a=1&id=13

For the past two plus years, by choice and by circumstance, I've been immersed in all things indie rock. I've mostly enjoyed myself and there have been some magical times, but the problem is that, too often, indie does not rock. My favorites in the genre bring an unfettered energy as well as an accomplished artistry to their work. They are the exceptions. I listen to KEXP constantly--at this point, it's a job requirement--and some of what I hear is mesmeric and inspiring and on. But over half of today's crop leaves me screaming, "Oh my god. Wake up, you monkeys."

Thurston Moore said recently that the Rolling Stones have sucked longer than they were great (prompting, in my mind, the phrase, "glass houses", but anyway) and maybe that's true. But Let it Bleed, Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St. have been staples of my adult life and are medicinal. (Three years ago, I was in an NIH study on Fibromyalgia and CFIDS and named those four records as part of my health regimen. The doctor thought I was joking. I insisted she write them down.)

So I was amazed when I quoted the headline lyric to a friend last week and he had no idea what I was talking about. How can a highly intelligent, creatively gifted thirty-nine year old male not know the lyrics to "Dead Flowers"? How did we arrive at this point in history? How can we stem the tide?

I'm ever the optimist. Perhaps if more folks are exposed to these seminal discs (don't say Exile is overrated or I will cut you), aesthetics will morph and listeners will seek music with more blood and wit. Perhaps not. But if I must live in an era wherein the Fruit Bats are taken seriously and Illinoise is heralded as a masterwork, I won't stand by in protracted mute horror.

My love is not in vain.

In answer to Mr. Schierling's question: yes, the dicks who burst with talent do, in fact, comprise a separate list:

Recently, I was asked to write for Seattle Metropolitan Magazine (http://www.seattlemet.com/). An SMM editor read my pieces in The Believer and Googled me. This is a delectable way to get work.

Said awesome editor is new to town and I asked him if I could recommend certain writers and photographers. Several of my other editors read this blog, so I'm posting the list below. As I told my compadres: each of them bursts with talent. And none of them are dicks.

Writers:

Brian Barr: The Believer, The Seattle Weekly, Harp, The Stranger
http://believermag.com/contributors/?read=barr,+brian+j.

L. Suzanne Stockman: Monkeybicycle, Spin, Nylon, Pindeldyboz
http://www.pindeldyboz.com/lseight.htm

Ryan Boudinot: author of "The Littlest Hitler" ("Ryan Boudinot is some kind of new and dangerous cross between Vonnegut and Barthelme."--Dave Eggers), McSweeney's, BlackBook, Monkeybicycle
http://www.amazon.com/Littlest-Hitler-Stories-Ryan-Boudinot/dp/1582433577

Michelle Goodman: Seattle Times, Bust, Salon, Seal Press
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/genderf/2002872444_gencareer.html

Sean Nelson: editor emeritus at The Stranger, music editor at MSN, on-air at KEXP, Harvey Fucking Danger
http://www.seannelson.net/

Diane Mapes: Seattle Times, Washington Post, Seal Press
http://www.howtodatebook.com/

Chris Estey: The Stranger, Seattle Sound, Paste, Three Imaginary Girls
http://ghettochicken.livejournal.com/

Leah Baltus: Seattle P-I, Rivet
http://www.rivetmagazine.org/

Angela Fountas (Monkeybicycle, Seal Press, Syntax)
http://www.writehabit.org/about.html

Brangien Davis (Seattle Times, Swivel)
http://swivelmag.com/


Photographers:

Amanda Koster: Newsweek, Fortune, "AIDS is Knocking", United Nations
http://www.amandakoster.com/

Ryan Schierling: Paste, Seattle Sound, Barsuk
http://www.ryanschierling.com/
http://www.aural-fixation.com/

Laura Musselman: Paste: Seattle Sound
http://pastemagazine.com/action/article?article_id=2870
http://flickr.com/photos/righton/

Gregory Perez: KEXP, scads of others, I'm sure, but I couldn't access his site content
http://www.gperez.org/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gperez/sets/72057594087826610/

And an extra-special shout-out to the crackling Ms. Dana at Three Imaginary Girls (http://threeimaginarygirls.com/) who recently linked The Slippery Fish to TIG's Indie RSS Blogroll. Continued cheek kisses to you and the Girls!

And occasionally, get fall-down drunk:

Lately, I've been asked, "If the CFIDS treatment works, what will you do?"

It seems obvious, but in case it's not:

1. Travel.
2. Travel.
3. Never look back.

And in answer to the oft-asked follow-up, "Really, you wouldn't have kids?"

Are you high? Are you David-Crosby-circa-1971 high? My reasons for not wanting kids have little to do with my health. And perhaps a reliable treatment or cure for CFIDS will never be developed. But if I were to receive the gift of physical autonomy (as opposed to intellectual and creative autonomy, both of which remain intact), why in the name of god would I dispose of it to drive the carpool?

Seriously, stop asking.