totalitarianism today

Preoccupations for your wistfully lonesome lunch hour.

SHE'S GONE by Willie Heath Neal (mp3)

"The Dictator's Handbook".

A totalitarian circus in Prague. The Cirkus totality (or Totalitarian Circus) was one of the cultural projects chosen to accompany the Czech Republic’s EU presidency. A new textbook about Central Europe’s communist past has been written, there will be a series of plays and performances staged, and a giant ‘communism timeline’ has been unveiled on Prague’s náměstí Republiky.

HATE TO SEE YA GO by Mickey Cochran (mp3) - a tune that never fails to make me smile

"The cosmonaut of the erotic future".

We seek satisfaction in the present. According to a recent paper by the British Parliamentary Office of Science and Tech,  several factors influence the extent of this bias towards the present. How does this play out in incentivizing the adoption of certain policies? The paper reviews evidence on the influence of time in decision-making, and looks at the policy implications for pensions, health and consumer affairs.

COLORSHOW by The Avett Brothers (mp3)

Europeana, a private museum experience.

Moscow contrasts.

Photo taken by Anca Cernoschi.

Manu Chao, terrorist with a bong.

French singer Manu Chao faced deportation from Mexico after recent comments on the country's politics. Did he call for armed insurrection, as is common at many heavy metal shows? Actually, all he did was to express his opinion on the 2006 uprising in San Salvador Atenco, in which Mexican police intervened. Over 200 people were injured, 2 were killed and 27 women were sexually assaulted. What did Manu Chao say that got the Mexican authorities so excited?

"What happened in Atenco was, in some way, state terrorism...[Officials] are saying 'don't say a word when we seize your land, because you better watch out, the same thing will happen to you as happened in Atenco."

The Guardian tells the tale:

Article 33 of the Mexican constitution states that "foreigners cannot in any manner interfere in internal political affairs" and the government carries "the executive power to force them to leave national territory".

On Thursday, the Mexican interior ministry confirmed that they were investigating the singer, while Chao pulled out of a planned concert, citing "private reasons".

At this point, Peter Gabriel stepped in. The British rock legend had recently visited president Filipe Calderón and commented on Chao to the Mexican press. "We are all citizens of the planet," Gabriel said, "and have responsibilities ... to our consciences." He insisted that Chao "absolutely" had the right to comment on Atenco.

Indeed, the former Genesis frontman may have persuaded the authorities to let Chao stay. In a news release on Friday, the Mexican government denied that they had ever considered expelling Chao.

I'm glad the nonsense was resolved. It deserves an mp3. Just right-click and save.

Manu Chao - Bongo Bong (King Of The Bongos)

The death of protest music.

What happened to punk, rap, and reggae protest anthems? Punk and rap cater more the runways and fashionistas than their original roots in the anti-.

While the rise of heavy shtetl excites the imagination, it does nothing to soothe the sense of political injustice. Where is the political protest anthem when you need it? All you songwriters out there, stop kvetching about love and loss and the rollercoaster of human hormones. Sit down, look around, and write something real about the political apathy which constitutes it own, dangerous revolution. If protest music is dead, the protests can't be too far behind.

For more musical distractions and musings:

• Surrender to nostalgia and download free protest music.
• "The Last Outlaw Poet: Kris Kristofferson", an article in the Rolling Stone by Ethan Hawke.
• An interview with Hebrew songwriter Nachum Heiman.
• Music for Passion Friday courtesy of Harper's.
• The Theme Song from Duck Tales and Why It's Stuck In Your Head.

R.o.c.k. around the world.

The Mafa people, who live in the far north of Cameroon in the Mandara mountains, are one of the most culturally isolated groups in the world. Since many of their settlements lack electricity, there are some individuals who have never been exposed to western movies, art, or music. Yet even a culture as isolated as the Mafa understands the emotions conveyed by Western music. Dave Munger explores musical universals.

Monkees and penguins.

Davy Jones reveals that musical life beyond The Monkees can be fulfilling in his latest tune, Your Personal Penguin. Oh my.

Nose-rings for Christ?

Spin magazine writer Andrew Beaujon is opening doors for the stories no one wants to hear since the Campus Crusade for Christ turned off many a young college student considering whether or not to return to the church. Usually, just hanging out with a few Crusaders could bring on the baby brimstone talk. And then beer would seem to light a potion too erase the thoughts of hellfire. Enter MD 20/20. But I digress... as did many.

Back to Beaujon. By putting Christian rock activists on the map, Beaujon's book, Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock, provides insight into the world of bands like Pedro the Lion, among others. An indie-rock veteran himself, Beaujon drew the name for his book from a t-shirt popular at Christian rock festivals. On the front of the tee reads the aforementioned slogan. On the back? An image of two outstretched palms with puncture marks through them. You can catch an excerpt of Body Piercing dressed as a feature article in the latest issue of the Washington City Paper. No mixed emotions on my part-- I'm glad to see a music writer finally cover these bands in a way that truly represents them. And I will read the book, though the "body piercing saved my life" t-shirt seems like a very cheap symbolic representation (as well as an excuse for young Christian kids to go and get their bellybuttons pierced) of an event that deserves a more serious analogy than comparison to current fashion trends. No guys, you aren't "doing God's work" or "being like Jesus" when you get your third nose-ring.

Butterflies to chase:

• The quite simply lovely website for this book, which includes a list of links for bands, events, and trinkets touched upon in Body Piercing.
• Whitney Strub's book review for Popmatters.
• A Nerve.com interview with Andrew Beaujon, where I found the information about what inspired the title.
• A free excerpt courtesy of Amazon.com.
• DaCapo Books, the branch of the Perseus Books Group, that might be focusing on effective, cool marketing for Christian ideas. Here is the Perseus press release, just to make sure we've covered all the bases.
• "The Kingdom of Rock Is At Hand" in Christianity Today

Summer songs for free.

• romeo and juliet / the dire straits
• one sweet world / dave matthews band
• busy doin' nothing / the beach boys
• blue sky and the devil / trampled by turtles
• when i stop dreamin' / the louvin brothers
• lady madonna / the beatles
• none of us are free / solomon burke
• a woman, a lover, a friend / otis redding
• buckets of rain / neko case
• sweet lil' thing / the eels
• all the time in airports / handsome family
• love comes quickly / the pet shop boys
• #20 motel room / three speed rusty
• you and me and the moon / the magnetic fields
• bern for me / paul westerberg
• shelter from the storm / bob dylan
• hearts and bones / paul simon

For fans of The Handsome Family, they will be playing a show at the Iota Cafe on July 22. That's this week. In case you missed it.

Music for mediocre train rides.

• be my love / geraint watkins
• brakeman's blues / jimmy martin
• whiskey bottle / uncle tupelo
• on a beach / richard ashcroft
• segredo / suba
• bus stop bitties / RJD2
• i get my beat / richard ashcroft
• strange bird / bobby bare jr.
• two kinds of love / stevie nicks & bruce hornsby
• stinging velvet / neko case
• the person and the skeleton / papa m
• if you're gonna love me (c'est le moment) / paul burch
• city lights / room to move
• drunk on love / radney foster

Now that I have forsaken the possibility of a great chain of being to organize the mp3 selection, I will follow this same organizing principle for a few essays and articles that leave a cosmic aftertaste:

• "lsd, dogs, and me" / robert anton wilson
• "starseed" / transmitted from folsom prison by dr. timothy leary
• the relation of the state to the individual / benjamin tucker
• "propaganda in a democratic society" / aldous huxley

Spring fever songs.

Download gomez_see_the_world.mp3
Download pine_valley_cosmonauts_with_neko_case_stay_a_little_longer.mp3
Download rjd2_bus_stop_bitties.mp3
Download steve_earle_i_love_you_too_much.mp3
Download the_gourds_burn_the_honey_suckle.mp3
Download the_unicorns_i_was_born_a_unicorn.mp3
Download uncle_tupelo_i_wanna_be_your_dog.mp3

Bluegrass et al.

• The 34th Annual Rockygrass Festival promises the best of bluegrass.
• 24 hours of streaming bluegrass music from BlueGrassCountry.com.
• For radio show elitists, Into The Blue is the rocky mountain oyster of bluegrass radio shows.
• Lexington, Kentucky is home to the Blue Grass Airport.
• Find a bluegrass festival near you with this handy festival map.
• The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival might be the only excuse you ever find to see Acramdale, New York.
• The 14th Poppy Mountain Blue Grass Festival returns to the roots of bluegrass and whiskey.
• A little history to put the bluegrass preference in context.
• Cybergrass isn't what you think.
• Bluegrass Journey offers the documentary experience to bluegrass history, including more big names than one might expect. Discover Bluegrass is an easy website which accomplishes the same end without as much starfare.