I'm a producer and songwriter (for love and money), a designer (for love only), and a recovering fundamentalist evangelical prone to fits of righteous indignation at the lies told by those in power - - more @ danielholter.com
Apoplectic Skeptic (a.k.a. Daniel Holter)
Hannity says Palin faced a double standard: 'Obama never got asked tough questions about his radical friends'
I wish Hannity and Palin would just run off to Argentina and make a nice brood of Christian babies soldiers.
Bury the Never Ending Myth of Jackson as Child Molester
The child molester myth doesn’t rest on Jackson’s trial and clean acquittal on multiple child abuse charges in a Santa Maria courthouse in June 2005. Only the most rabid Jackson loathers still finger point to that to taint Jackson. The myth of Jackson as child abuser rests squarely on the charge by a 13 year old boy a decade before the trial and the multi-million dollar settlement out of court. The settlement, then and now, feeds the suspicion that Jackson must have done something unsavory and probably criminal, or else why settle?
Sixteen years later, though, the facts remain unchanged. The charge that Jackson molested the boy was brought by the boy’s father. In interviews the boy repeatedly denied the charges. This changed only after he was administered sodium amytal, an invasive, mind altering drug that medical experts have frowned on and courts have disregarded in witness testimony.
Prosecutors, police departments and investigators in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara spent millions of dollars, convened two grand juries and probed nearly 200 witnesses that included 30 children, who knew Jackson to try to substantiate the charge. Not a single corroborating witness was found. Nonetheless, a motley group of disgruntled Jackson’s former housekeepers, attendants and bodyguards still peddled the story to any media outlet willing to shell out the cash that Jackson had engaged in child sexual wrongdoing. Not one of the charges was confirmed.
Am I the only person bothered by the fact that Brian Kilmeade still has a job?
(via robot-heart-politics)
An EMPHATIC “no” from me. Unbelievable.
Trent Reznor Offers Advice to Young Bands
It’s a shame that people (myself included) spend so much time talking about how bands with a massive fan base are staying in business, when the more difficult and interesting issue revolves around younger, struggling artists. Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, The Cure’s Robert Smith, Paul McCartney, and many more have already brought this up, but few have offered solutions.
Now Trent Reznor has followed through with a hint he gave to Anja Caspary in an interview on German radio recently: Reznor said that one of his post-NIN ideas is to “help establish a new business model for musicians that’s a bit more fair to them,” adding that he’s “hoping to help come up with some new ideas to put the power back where it belongs, in the hands of musicians.”
In a lengthy NIN.com post (via The Daily Swarm), “written on a bumpy Euro-bus ride across the wilderness,” Reznor gives specific advice to the non-U2/ NIN/Radiohead type bands. The most important part is in his conclusion: “The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of [new media].” Specifically, Reznor praises the Beastie Boys’ new Ill Communication reissue site on TopSpin, but he notes that younger bands probably won’t be selling $90 collector’s vinyl.
I think Reznor’s “manifesto,” as TDS called it, will suffice as a starting point for conversation, but my first reaction is that his advice is simply, “Do what I do.” One issue, IMO, is that bands are thrust into this new media complex only months, weeks, or days after picking up an instrument. Getting heard everywhere and selling merch is less important than making sure people hear good stuff in the proper, marketed context.
“Do what I do” is a helluva lot easier for someone whose career was financed with a label’s venture capital.
We’re still waiting for the new musician’s middle class to arrive. There are precious few who can do it on their own. My $0.02.
The Rise of Right Wing Hate
Since 9/11, the right wing hate talkers have stepped up their vitriolic attacks against anyone who doesn’t agree with them or doesn’t look like them. Through their demonization of liberals, Muslims, Hispanics, and gays, they’ve opened the door to a new era of intolerance and hate in this country. And with that hate has come an increasing number of politically-based murders - murders which are becoming so frequent this year, that we haven’t gone a solid month without some right wing nutjob pulling out a gun and killing people who didn’t agree with their beliefs. Mike Papantonio discusses the mental breakdown in this week’s Pap Attack. - crooksandliars
There is hate on the left too. Olbermann goes too far sometimes in his criticism of the right. The problem isn’t with one side or the other, it’s that everyone is busy pointing fingers, trying to boost ratings by being more outrageous than the other, and have no interest in the general well being of Americans. They don’t care about solutions, they only care about ratings.
If everyone stopped paying attention to these morons on the left and the right, we might actually start having a real discussion about the direction our country.
I’m not saying Olbermann doesn’t get blindly passionate at times and, sure, he occassionally crosses the line of rational discourse… but to compare his ranting with that of the current vitriolic voices on the Right is like saying Wile E. Coyote is the rhetorical equivalent of Adolf Hitler.
This is so much better than “Here Daniel, I made those changes you asked for”, right?
If you’re not careful, Matt, I’ll be adding “write descriptions” next to “wrestle metadata” on your list of official Burst duties.
“At some point, the real reason for her abrupt departure will emerge. But not after the usual avalanche of disprovable lies that she routinely provides.
It may require a real news organization, like TMZ or the Daily Show. If Palin were a Democrat, the Drudge Report would have cracked this open last September. So we wait.
”
Andrew Sullivan on Sarah Palin’s resignation
Andrew must have edited his post after sending it through RSS channels, as the text in my RSS reader says in the second paragraph “If Palin were a Republican,” which, if you think about it, might be even funnier.
