Anthony Braxton - Willisau (Quarten) 1991 Live

...specifically: Composition No. 69(0) + 135

catchy title, eh?

every year i try to search out a new cd of christmas tunes. i'm looking for something different. so far i've got: traditional, celtic, new age, blues, cajun, rock, folk, jazz and reggae.

this year's entry is surf. you've just gotta check out Los Straightjackets - Tis The Season For Los Straightjackets. these guys know their surf music. Los Straightjackets pay tribute to The Ventures (also see The Venture's Christmas Album) and others by sprinkling in quotes from many a surf classic.

bring this one to your next christmas party.

oh, this is so exciting. we're going to spend untold billions to develop and put in place an unproven technology.

this will make us all safer.

sure.

defense contractors will be safer. that's about it.

The Vanishing Voter Project conducted over 80,000 interviews during the year 2000 United States Presidential campaign. The goal was to study the reasons behind the the fact that the United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates among industial nations.

The resultant book, Thomas E. Patterson's The Vanishing Voter, brings to light the many reasons we vote in numbers so small: the changing nature of political parties, the role of media, campaign length, structure and financing.

It's not like any of these topics are new ones. Who hasn't complaigned about, say, negative political ads?...or thought that the campaign itself was just too darned long? What's enlightening here is to see how all of these issues act together to suppress interest in the political process.

My personal campaign peeve? Negative and simplistic advertising. After months of wall-to-wall half-truths, oversimplifications and outright lies, it's tought to think well of any candidate. Patterson alludes to this when he reveals that

75% of respondents agreed with the statement 'political candidates are more concerned with fighting each other than with solving the nation's problems'

Patterson does offer some suggestions for reversing the current situation. These include: restructuring campaigns to reduce the negative effects of front-loading, moving the end of the nominating races closer to the party conventions and increasing and restructuring prime-time television coverage. None of these proposals are offered as ultimate solutions to the problem at hand. Patterson is merely suggesting that something be done.

I'd have to agree. It would be nice to enter that voting booth and not be presented with Evil #1 and Evil #2.

More about the Vanishing Voter Project can be found here

ok, it's not quite the end of the year (but, hey, close enough).

so here they are:

• Patricia Barber - Verse
  guitar takes center stage on this one, a change of pace for ms. barber...and not an unwelcome one.
• Brad Mehldau - Largo
  if, a while back, somebody had told me that i would enjoy a jazz cover of a Radiohead tune i would have laughed them out of the room. guess i was wrong.
• Cassandra Wilson - Belly Of The Sun
  i just cannot get enough of her voice.
• Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
  i don't really care if she's a "true jazz singer" or not. she's got a great voice and the tunes just stick in my head.
• John Scofield Band - Uberjam
  Scofield adds a second guitarist. funk happens.
• Branford Marsalis - Footsteps Of Our Fathers
  Branford starts his own label and releases a fine tribute to his influences.
• Beck - Sea Change
  i don't usually go for this kind of thing (in fact, i can't deal with most of what i call "mope rock") but Sea Change is very heartfelt...and sounds gorgeous.
• Drums And Tuba - Mostly Ape
  are they a rock band? a jazz band? who cares?! they're fun!!
• Tom Waits - Alice/Blood Money
  is the old man starting to repeat himself? maybe...just a little. but nobody sounds like this. he's a true original.
• Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
  a great response the the events of 9/11.

i just love those early ECM years. so much 'air' in the music.

wow! even the big boss man (that would be gw. bush) is giving trent lot the the what-for about the whole strom thurmond thing. man, even william "more moral than you" bennett is pile on.

i thought that the republicans were incapable of doing wrong. no??

heh!

i'm not sure what's more scary: that the us government has an information awareness office or that it's headed up by john poindexter. john fricken' poindexter?! i thought that bush wanted to return some dignity to the oval office.

i guess one person's dignity is another person's sleaze.