Buck Hill

I see, you see, we'll get a guitar,
yeah, we'll get a guitar
and, oh, we'll get, we'll get three guitars,
No!, No!!, we'll get four guitars
and we'll get Herbie Lovelle to play drums,
and we'll do, the
"Sha-la", sha...
We'll do the sha-, sha-la bit.
"Sha-la, sha-, sha-la, sha-la", we'll do it,
we'll get together, uunghh, we'll get
uunghh, ttcchh, uugnhh-uunghh-uunghh, like that,
and we'll do the sha-la bit and then,
then, then, and we'll get, we'll get sixteen guitars,
and then, then we'll play it,
and then we'll do that one, yeah.
Let me hear ya' do that again.
Over and over, Bert Berns song, over...

Like on October 25, when the Hold Steady will perform a live acoustic set during seventh period (12:40-2:10 pm, folks) in Littleton, Colorado's Littleton High School gymnasium.

By now, it has probably set in that this show a) isn't at a bar, b) isn't at night, and c) won't be open to the public. But we still think you should know about it, because the circumstances surrounding the performance are pretty darn cool. See, the event is part of a special program at LHS called Freshman Academy, one dedicated to aiding ESL, Special Education, and behaviorally/emotionally troubled freshmen in the transition from middle school to high school.

One of the Freshman Academy instructors, Thom Uhl, heard about the Hold Steady on NPR's All Things Considered, and thought that the band's music and message would fit right in on Mental Health Mondays, a segment of the program directed at tackling various teen and social issues. Uhl contacted the Hold Steady and, well, the rest is history...or upcoming...or something!

The class is currently studying the band's music and using the lyrics to fuel class discussion. In preparation for the big day, the kids are participating in an invitation-design contest, constructing a Hold Steady Advent calendar and...wait for it...staging a Hold Steady look-alike contest.
[emphasis in original, though it totally would've been mine anyway]

He was breaking bread and giving thanks. with crosses made of pipes and planks. leaned up against the nitrous tanks. he said take a hit. hold your breath and I'll dunk your head. then when you wake up again. you'll be high as hell and born again.

If Mr. Bush wants to make anything of his second term, he'll have to do his own Nixon-to-China turnaround, reframe the debate and recast the priorities of his presidency. He seems to think that by offering to spend billions of dollars to rebuild one city, New Orleans, he'll get his leadership halo back. Wrong. Just throwing more borrowed money at New Orleans is not leadership. Mr. Bush needs to frame a new agenda for rebuilding all our cities and strengthening the nation as a whole. And what should be the centerpiece of a policy of American renewal is blindingly obvious: making a quest for energy independence the moon shot of our generation.

amidst the peach mojito recipes and the garden club primers diminutive turkish opinion writer melik kaylan snuck a gem of a piece in... the article espoused the merits of placing (albeit carefully) land mines along the border of iraq and syria ... the crux of the argument being that a few maimed limbs and innocent casualties should set those border encroachers straight... how un-P.C... certainly not the light and fluffy reading i expected over my cranberry scone and skim cappuccino, brilliant and good fun nonetheless.

Why Haven't We Mined Iraq's Borders?
By MELIK KAYLAN
September 17, 2005; Page A14

As the war in Iraq settles into its medium-term attritional slog, most Americans know -- if they know anything -- that the insurrection is daily replenished from outside in manpower and matériel, chiefly from across the Syrian border. The border problem, by now, seems as predictable as the seasons, self-evident and insurmountable. There are not enough troops to seal clandestine access routes, we are told. So everyone suffers, including the citizens of Tal Afar, who have now endured a second joint assault by Iraqi and American troops to purge their town of cross-border terrorists who go to ground there. The conflict waxes and wanes, the borders remain porous, fanatical volunteers sneak in, car bombs destroy innocent lives, the sun also rises.

It doesn't have to be so, yet no one points to the obvious. An effective method of interdiction exists: the laying of minefields on the border.

* * *

Why has nobody publicly debated this idea? Perhaps the shock-horror-gasp factor is to blame. Minefields?! Has one forgotten the sainted Lady Diana's endeavors to ban these infernal devices? Or forgotten the outcry when the U.S. mined Haiphong Harbor during the Vietnam War? At first glance, minefields would seem to furnish a wildly hackhanded propaganda victory to the enemy, another juicy chance for Al-Jazeera to trumpet American barbarism. Yet once tempers have cooled, it should become clear that of all the unpleasant products of war in Iraq, mining the border offers the least unpleasant.

Minefields can be clearly marked and laid according to a network-blueprint which remains highly classified until after the conflict ends. That blueprint would allow the mines to be cleared quickly, and systematically. The decades-long Afghan- or African-style tragedy of maimed limbs happens when mines are laid irresponsibly, erratically and without a plan. Europe, on the other hand, endured two World Wars without a lasting threat from forgotten minefields. [Note: "In the West, World War II landmines in the Netherlands continue to maim an average of 12 people per year." Also, the Saharan Overland would like a word with you. -AP]

The U.S. can repeat the feat in Iraq. In the meantime, the porous borders can be choked and narrowed down to well-regulated crossing points. Inadvertent casualties there may be, but considerably less than is caused by car bombs -- or "smart bombs," for that matter. The point here is that a precisely ordered minefield is a weapon of peace, rather than war, a deterrent and a stabilizer. When done right, its aim is not to kill or maim but to take a swatch of territory out of the conflict -- and to give relief to innocent border-area residents forced, at the point of a gun, to collaborate with infiltrators.

Take the plight of Tal Afar's citizens, living as they do close to the northern border near Syria. Their town underwent a fierce purge by U.S. and Iraqi troops last August. The enemy melted away and came back. The operation was repeated again last week, and the allies found few fighters and numerous underground escape tunnels leading out of town.

Tal Afar's population is heavily Turkmen, who already suffered greviously under Saddam. The Turkmen are Iraq's next biggest minority after the Kurds, with whom they are in a struggle for ancestral territory. The attacking Iraqi forces consisted heavily of Kurds. Here is being laid the groundwork for ethnic rivalry and hatred from which only the terrorists will gain. Who can say that Tal Afar's Turkmen would not wish for a securer border by whatever means? Who can say the Iraqis themselves would not opt, in a referendum, to lay mines along their troubled borders, with clear demarcations and a clear time limit? Who will have the courage to offer them the option?

John Roberts Jr.: Aw, shucks. This has been a humbling experience, Mr. Chairman. To think that a boy from an exclusive prep school and Harvard Law could grow up and be nominated for the Supreme Court - it shows how in America it's possible to rise from privilege to power! That's the hallmark of our great nation.

So while, of course, I can't talk about specific cases, or any emotions, weather patterns or sandwich meats that may come before the Supreme Court at any time between now and my death in 2048, I do want to reiterate that I feel humbled by this experience. I feel humbled that my wife is dozing off behind me. I feel humbled by this committee's inability to lay a glove on me. And I feel modest. You see this suit? I skinny-dip in this suit. That's how modest I feel.

Writing before the invasion, Hitchens argued that the U.S. must attack even if Saddam offers self-exile in order to capture and punish this heinous criminal. Shouldn't he urge an attack on the U.S. to capture and punish Kissinger?
-Norman G. Finkelstein

Healthcare for Musicians and several other organizations, including the Grammy's MusiCares program and The New Orleans Musicians Clinic, have joined to create the Lafayette Health Alliance to specifically help musicians and music business professionals.

People can send money donations to Healthcare for Musicians which has an emergency fund account set up through SW LA Health Education Center, its sponsoring non-profit agency.

The address is: Healthcare for Musicians 103 Independence Blvd. Lafayette, LA 70506

If anyone knows of any displaced musicians who need help please let them know to call Healthcare for Musicians at 337-988-1583 Through MusiCares they can get financial help for all basic needs.

At best, the United States remains prepared for absolutely nothing, with every American city seemingly ready to descend into eternal hell while politicians congratulate themselves in television studios — four years after the horror of Sept. 11, the day we would “never forget.” At worst, an American treasure, the nation’s energy infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of lives were forever destroyed this week by the deliberate actions by the very government agencies charged with protecting citizens and immediately responding to disasters.

Before NBC, MTV or anyone else puts on a telethon to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, they might want to explore some ancillary issues. To wit: New Orleans is a city famous for its famous musicians, but many of them are missing. Missing with a capital M.

To begin with, one of the city’s most important legends, Antoine "Fats" Domino, has not been heard from since Monday afternoon. Domino’s rollicking boogie-woogie piano and deep soul voice are not only part of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame but responsible for dozens of hits like “Blue Monday,” “Ain’t That a Shame,” “Blueberry Hill” and “I’m Walking (Yes, Indeed, I’m Talking).”

Domino, 76, lives with his wife Rosemary and daughter in a three-story pink-roofed house in New Orleans’ 9th ward, which is now under water.

On Monday afternoon, Domino told his manager, Al Embry of Nashville, that he would “ride out the storm” at home. Embry is now frantic.

Calls have been made to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s office and to various police officials, and though there’s lots of sympathetic response, the whereabouts of Domino and his family remain a mystery.
[...]
Also not heard from by friends through last night: New Orleans’s “Queen of Soul” Irma Thomas, who was the original singer of what became the Rolling Stones’ hit, “Time is On My Side.”

from a co-worker:

"heard about it on the mishpucha list. Even crazier is that Chilton gave his car to a girl from the Gories so she could leave town."