Just be thankfull they didn't own a taco truck

Restaurant closed after dead deer found in kitchen


(10-27) 15:34 PDT Hamburg, N.Y. (AP) --
Health officials shut down a suburban Buffalo restaurant after an inspector found employees butchering a dead deer inside the business. Erie County Health Department officials said they got a tip Friday about a dead deer in the China King restaurant in the town of Hamburg, just south of Buffalo.

An inspector soon arrived and saw the deer being butchered in the kitchen.
State health laws prohibit butchering an animal inside a restaurant.
Officials don't know whether the deer had been killed by a hunter or a vehicle. They said there was no indication the deer meat was served to any customers.
The message on the restaurant's answering machine Monday says it was closed because of "family emergencies."

Manlove and the Taco Truck

I made three trips to the Taco Truck. $4 24 ounce Pabst cans glide down gullets like mountain streams from the four bars. The bands start on time. I missed the Touch Me Nots (the bands start on time? at the Stork? Hallelujah!), but Sir Lord Von Raven did the big glam pop with Greg Ashley's fingers bleeding out the fiery leads. Apache ruled my night with the biggest gayest dumbest pop music yet heard from elfin beards. East Bay Grease was smooth southern soul with Harold Ray being Harold Ray. Roy Loney sounded great and played too long, but if you get "Teenage Head" at the end it's hard to complain. Roy Head, 67 years of former pop star manlove, showed up in blue and produced more energy than I had, and apparently he'd been drinking vodka since noon. There are better men out there, and I defer to them.

Today stands to be even better. Are you ready?

The Return of the Magnificent Mingering

Great article on one of the greats, Mingering Mike. Recall Mike: by his late teens, he had released some 50 imaginary records, all of them hits. Included is an MP3 of Coffee Cake, a funky track.

Testing

1...2.....3....

Nothing to add at this time gentlemen. Thank you for honoring me with inclusion in this esteemed fraternity.

If I do not see you before then, I hope to see you all on Saturday. Brad, if you would like to help out selling Hook or Crook stuff then by all means. Ken, take a multivitamin and drink lots of water. Avoid shellfish.

Manly

TUNA IS 40!

The Cold World

Nothing in late '08 should be as outdated as the spy novel, but I am old and so is the Cold War, and since we're fucking up the present wars it's kinda cool to look back on the time spy v. spy kicked up the dust all across Europe, colonies and lesser nations.

John le Carre was one of those cats people who blurbed novels were always on about as being a great author who happened to write genre. Maybe they were right. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974) holds up like nothing else I've read in modern or neo-noir or whatever the hell you call it. Characters worthy of Dickens in their presence (though not depth--there's one Dickens after all and not many) and I'd know them all walking the street. George Smiley is a fat old man who can out think anyone and le Carre has fun showing his cool head prevail while others lose their minds.

Halfway through the second book in the Karla trilogy The Honourable Schoolboy (1977) and it's just as good, showcasing old Hong Kong when I knew her, ruled by the Brits and the mad hub of Eastern nonsense, tradecraft, and shenanigans. Good history here too; I had no idea that Mao dumped the Shanghai mafia into HK, thus leading to all those cool movies in the 1990's. Really smart people once made a tremendous difference in the world, and then it was said they all decided to make money on Wall Street. Since we know now that wasn't the case, where are the sleeping geniuses who are gonna save us in the modern world? My bet is on some unknown novelist to bring them back in from the cold.

That author should note the fun in these old books and learn a lesson--not a hint of dour navel-gazing woe-is-me crap that bugs readers and non-readers alike as our everpresent news and media both old school mainstream and digital is rife with downers. Entertainment! That's what novels used to be, and we need more of that now more than ever, now that we've outed the young memoirists as cocksucking frauds and guaranteed via the economic collapse that no one is gonna spend $26 for a hardcover novel telling of young immigrant Akbar's magical realist experiences in his South American yurt which include friendship with a wise talking goat. The Booker and MacArthur people will award their prizes to clowns, but no one cares. No one can afford to care. For this I am happy.

God bless the 500 page paperback book printed on cheap paper that retailed for $3.95 twenty-five years ago. I want art for the masses back and I'll take it without asking.

I barf in your general direction...

but before I do, you should check out an article on a new photo of Robert Johnson, the bluesman who sold his soul to Satan for fame, commentary by shitbirds like Greil Marcus, Cream, and a postage stamp. All in, he got robbed. Angus Young meanwhile makes more sense than any person I actually know. Speaking of known folks, Jay wrote about a band I'd heard of before, which is rare. They were called Monoshock. If you need to travel to get your ass kicked, this outline provides all your destination needs.

Music I never even knew I owned

Ever take a look at your music collection and think..."how the hell did I ever come to own that? I've never even heard them before!" In my post Soul Seek bender years, I've asked this more than once. So I finally decided to listen to all the random stuff I listened to once and forgot about. Below is what's in my what-the-fuck Itunes playlist. This is the first of what will likely be multiple postings:


Hanoi Rocks- 12 shots on the rocks. I think I found out about these guys via the Hollywood Brats. Anyways, they are awful and I totally understand why many of the shitty 80s hair bands talked about these clowns. Terrible lyrics, bad writing featuring cheesy guitar riffs and BRIGHT! BRIGHT! production. Just terrible.


Hollywood Brats- s/t. I have no ideas why anyone would compare Hanoi Rocks with this band. The Hollywood Brats were perhaps better than the New York Dolls and I am a huge Dolls fan. Essentially a 70s English rock band with terrible business acumen, the Brats recorded an outstanding (I believe their only) album in 1973 that wasn't released until like 1978 when they were already broken up. The lp has amazing guitar riffs and exudes a real love of rock and roll music. Great shit.


Lee Hazelwood- For Every Solution There's A Problem. Johnny Cash on acid? That's the best I can do to describe the unhinged vocals/story telling. I'm not sure if this is more novelty music than everyday stuff, but it definitely made me smile more than once.


The Runaways- s/t. Definitely a novelty act. At its core, the Runaways strike me as sleezy teenage girl exploitatation. That said there are some great to decent songs here (Cherry Bomb, RocknRoll, Thunder, Blackmail). And Lita Ford and Joan Jett together in the same band as kids. Great concept, if not always great results.


Suicide- First and second lp. I don't get these guys. Everything I read about them was that they were the first synth punk act or something, but there is almost no music on their stuff. Hardly any singing either. Minimalism beyond minimalism is what? Hype?


more to come....

2008, a come back year for journalism?

Are we ever going to see a perp walk for those responsible for the past decades private profits and recent social loses? To believe so, I believe you have to put your faith in the press, who have yet to point the finger where blame lies for our current catastrophe.

Consider the assholes who do Wall Street’s bidding in the media. For decades, they have bloviated about the near infallibility of "free" markets and how any form of regulation is socialist and needs to be eliminated. This has conveniently provided cover for the Street as well as corp executives who reaped enormous wealth while the average American saw their incomes, wealth and standard of living flat line.

Clearly the deregulate everything argument has now been laid to waste. The emperors are now revealed to be buck naked and clueless. A destruction of the credit markets (AND interestingly the recent sharp decline of the price of oil) prove this. Both were largely driven by wild use of leverage employed by increasingly deregulated banks and totally unregulated private investment funds. When their short term thinking and flawed risk analysis turned south, it was the govt who had to come to the rescue. This has come in the form of tax dollars from those same flat lining average Americans.

Private gains, public losses.

Moving forward, I think we are going to be living in a more regulated, less risk taking environment. In short, I think our economic system is going the way of Europe, and deregulation is going to be rolled back.

Fine. Govt regulation is often a brake to growth and innovation, but maybe it is also necessary. But watch and listen closely. See if any of the WSJ's editorial page writers, CNBC hacks, Business Week writers, Univ of Chicago economic thinkers, etc are held accountable. And what about the leaders of the Street and corporate America? Will they be held accountable alla Ivan Boesky, Michael Milkin, etc?

In short, will the press in the country have the balls to call people out? Already this decade the press fell down spectacularly with regards to Iraq. Will it do so again when it comes to economic crimes? I don’t believe politicians will act unless they are goaded to do so by the public who has all of this explained to them by the press. Remember politicians did the bidding of Wall Street by undoing regulation. Here is a chance for the press to redeem themselves.

And if you think this isn’t important, consider the effect on your 401K, US employment, consumer prices like oil (gas, heating oil). Its been absolutely devestating. It will take people years (if they have them) to get back to where they were. And their incomes, personal wealth, etc were flat lining back then.

Eat me...

Cal game on TV Saturday at 7PM

Will this band get its shit together?

A member of my family said that clearly Palin won because Fox News kept flashing that 86-12% of their viewers said she did. Well, you just can't argue with that. The anti-intellectual bias in this country runs so deep. Complete sentences are suspect- what is he hiding behind that slick eloquence? Facts are suspect- he's trying to dazzle us with Senator-speak. Fully developed arguments are condescending- his professorial arrogance puts me off.

Fine. Keep smart folks out of power because you can't trust 'em and probably feel intimidated by them (for a Party that mocks the idea of self-esteem, their collective insecurity in the face of real intellectual rigor reveals a staggering hypocrisy). I want cousin Nana to do my brain surgery cuz she just regular folk.

In other news, a Nebraska police department, in an attempt to slow a rash of Dumpster babies, encouraged potential babykillers to drop off little junior at the police station. Instead, they got 15 teenage deliquents. Given my past two weeks, I find this only half-funny.

A cocksucking lawyer I endorse

A Stanford Law School graduate married to the co-founder of Ask.com has been charged in federal court with tax evasion for allegedly running an escort service to help pay her bills and student loans, court records show.

Cristina Warthen, 35, maintained a Web site called "Touchofbrazil.net," on which she advertised her services as "Brazil," discussed pricing - up to $1,300 for two hours and $15,000 for three days - and posted erotic pictures of herself, according to documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose.

Warthen is to appear in court later this month. Her attorney, Brian Getz, declined to comment.

Starting in 2001, the year she graduated from law school, Warthen met with clients in numerous cities around the country, authorities said. She used clients' payments for rent and bills as well as installments on more than $300,000 in student loans, authorities said.

Warthen "engaged in sexual acts in return for money" and grossed $133,717 in 2003, authorities said. She has not been charged with prostitution.

I Go To Bakeries All Day Long

Is there a bigger smile-inducer than the Modern Lovers' first record? This is one classic I haven't played into the ground, and each time I pull it out I wonder why I don't spin it more before realizing that occasional contact enhances each listening experience. From the greatest ode to convertibles, "Roadrunner" to the only straight edge song you nod along to, "I'm Straight," to the toe-tappinest tale of girlfriend insanity, "She Cracked," to the creepiest premise for soap opera dialogue, "Hospital," this is relentlessly catchy, painfully funny and wonderfully enjoyable. If you've forgotten about it while yet another hyped modern next-big-thing drops flat in your ears, yank it out. Guarantee yourself at least one grin today.

Yanks Too Narrow For Nobel

Nobel judge attacks 'ignorant' US literature
Alison Flood
guardian.co.uk,

The Nobel prospects of Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates may have been dashed after the prize's top jury member described American writing as insular and ignorant.
Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Horace Engdahl told the Associated Press that US writers were "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture", which he said dragged down the quality of their work. "The US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature," Engdahl said. "That ignorance is restraining."
"Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the centre of the literary world ... not the United States," he said, later adding that "what I said expresses a conviction resulting from more than 10 years of assiduous labour". Toni Morrison was the last American to win the prize, in 1993.
Contacted by guardian.co.uk this morning, Engdahl claimed a misunderstanding had occurred and that the Swedish Academy strictly adhered to Alfred Nobel's wish "that in awarding the prize no consideration whatsoever be given to the nationality of the candidates". He added: "It is of no importance, when we judge American candidates, how any of us views American literature as a whole in comparison with other literatures. The Nobel prize is not a contest between nations but an award to individual authors. It is essential to remember that when national feelings run high." He maintained that there was "no reason for any particular author to get upset by my observations.
This year's winner is expected to be announced in the next few weeks and has not yet been selected, according to Engdahl, who told AP that "it could take some time" before the academy settles on a name.
Engdahl, a professor of Scandinavian literature and a literary critic, has been permanent secretary since 1997 of the secretive committee of 18 Academy members who select the winner. Over the course of a year, the Academy will whittle down nominated authors from 200 to a shortlist of five, which is not made public. An author must receive more than half of votes cast to take the prize.
Ladbrokes' frontrunner is currently the Italian scholar Claudio Magris, who is 3/1 favourite to take the SEK10m prize, trailed by the Syrian poet Adonis at 4/1. Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth are the highest placed Americans, at 7/1, while Don DeLillo is at 10/1 and Thomas Pynchon at 20/1; Ladbrokes is also offering 40/1 odds on the generally reclusive Pynchon both winning and attending the prize-giving on December 10.
Last year's winner was the UK's Doris Lessing, a rare female choice. Over the last 10 years the Nobel laureates have had a distinct European flavour, with Turkey's Orhan Pamuk, the UK's Harold Pinter and VS Naipaul, Austria's Elfriede Jelinek, Portugal's José Saramago, Hungary's Imre Kertész, France's Gao Xingjian and Germany's Günter Grass all taking the prize. South Africa's JM Coetzee won in 2003.
In 2005, Knut Ahnlund, a member of the Nobel committee, resigned over the choice of Elfriede Jelinek as winner, describing her writing as "whining, unenjoyable public pornography". Engdahl gave no indication as to what he might do should an American author take the prize this year.