punk is what you make it to be

Salim's got a great new update to his punk page featuring the minutemen at sea teachin' me about history (issuing me my numbers!!!!!)

but that's only the most recent reason I want to post - the other is I saw Joanna (sp?) Newsome at the great american musical hallitorium with bolsinga the other day. after years of making fun of her for her drag cititude whilst secretly making eyes at her at dian arbus exhibits and unknowingly loving her music, I got to see her live. she's really, really good. our generation's joni mitchel, but thankfully weirder and probably much better informed in the avant garde.

she gets two thumbs up from me.

pinochet

after learning that pinochet died today i was in a pretty dang good mood (thanks for the call salim!) - i spent a little time wondering if it's ever appropriate to celebrate the death of someone. after a great deal of thought I came up with this answer:

yes.

then I looked out the window and the sun wash shining and it started to rain - a rainbow fell directly on to my house and I thought:

all we have to do now is wait for kissinger to die and a little corner of the world will be even better!

and if you were wondering which corner of the world will is better, it's every corner of the world. the less bad people there are in the world the better off all of us are.

skateboards in the nytimes

several months ago, maybe 4 even, I suggested over a beer at zeitgeist that my friend jonah have his company make skateboards. well, after a lot of work and time, that suggestion came to fruition. Specifically, the NYTimes actually used the skateboards in a gift suggestion article for "old fashioned" toys.

Greg was kind enough to make this NYTimes permalink.

last rites

So, Pinochet has finally taken "full responsibility" for the actions of his regime. turns out this comes days before he dies or almost dies and is even given last rites by some priest more concerned with surrounding himself with powerful people than any religious belief.

I'm not a big fan of even the idea of hell, but I'll tell the Internets one thing - people like Pinochet do not deserve a get out of jail free card. Something is wrong with the system when you let someone skirt justice on earth for 40 years then sweep in at the last minute and tell them everything will be okay for the rest of eternity once they die.

Everything will not be okay. Pinochet left a horrible legacy of death and torture which will never be erased, no matter how much Kissinger thinks it no longer matters and no matter how desparate some Chilean priest is to wear the trappings of weath and power vicariously in the name of self importance.

I don't understand why the Church cannot recite cummings' I sing of Olaf instead of making that jerk feel any better about all of the suffering and evil he was directly responsible for.

Here's to hoping Dante underestimated all that you will suffer, you bastard.