The
Dave Matthews Band backs pro-environment presidential candidate John
Kerry.
Photo shamelessly lifted from the web and shamelessly
altered by James Hilston, shameless Photoshop aficionado.
What's this
all about? The Chicago
Sun-Times reported how the driver of the Dave Matthews Band
tour bus allegedly dumped foul-smelling waste into the Chicago
River and showered a tour boat filled with passengers in the process.
Early
Dave Matthews Band Discography
(Click
here for context)
2:00 p.m. entry
Original
titles of Dave Matthews Band early discography:
- 1994 "Under
the Table and Dreaming" was originally "Dropping the Kids Off at
the Pool"
- 1996 "Crash"
was originally "Crap"
- 1998 "Before
These Crowded Streets" was originally "Let's Dump a Busload of the
Band's Poop in the Bay"
Original
titles of Dave Matthews Band early singles:
- 1995 "Ants Marching"
was originally "Ants Marching on Piles of Dung"
- 1995 "What Would
You Say" originally had a subtitle: "What Would You Say (If I Dumped
a Busload of the Band's Poop All Over Your Tour Boat?)"
- 1996 "Satellite"
was originally "Floater"
- 1996 "Too Much"
was originally "(I Go) Too Much"
- 1997 "Crash
Into Me" was originally "Crap Onto Me"
- 1997 "Tripping
Billies" was originally "Pinching BBs"
- 1998 "Don't
Drink The Water" (unchanged)
Dave
Matthews Band
Does Its Doodie Duty
1:30 p.m. entry
From the Chicago
Sun-Times:
Authorities said Wednesday
they are unsure if criminal charges will be filed against the Dave
Matthews Band and one of its tour bus drivers for allegedly dumping
foul-smelling waste into the Chicago River and showering a tour
boat filled with passengers in the process. ... According to the
lawsuit, on Aug. 8, a bus leased by the band crossed the grated
Kinzie Street bridge near the downtown business district and the
driver allegedly emptied the contents of the bus' septic tank
into the river below. [Emphases added -- jh]
From the Dave Matthews
Band website:
Speaking about the
upcoming concert, Dave Matthews said, "Whether one is talking about
the economy or the environment, jobs, workers' rights or
education, national security or the war on terror, John Kerry is
the only choice. A vote for John Kerry is a vote for a stronger,
safer, better America." [Emphases added -- jh]
From liberalartists.com
Dave
Matthews the Preservationist
In March of 2002, Singer Dave Matthews bought 1,261 acres of agricultural
and forestlands just south of Charlottesville, Virginia, birthplace
of the Dave Matthews Band. The price: $5.3 million. The property
encompasses pastureland, forest, livestock and farms that will now
emphasize organic farming. Matthews' purchase was intended as
an act of preservation. [Emphases added -- jh]
Stars
Ask Fans To Help Protest Bush Energy Plan!
Alanis Morissette and the Dave Matthews Band are sending e-mails
to fans asking them to log their protests with the Senate via electronic
postcards on saveourenvironment .org. [Emphases added --
jh]
From the DMB nancies.com
website:
DMB Playing Vote for
Change Tour By Waldo Jaquith Aug.04.2004 In a statement, Dave Matthews
said: "A vote for change is a vote for a stronger, safer, healthier
America. A vote for Bush is a vote for a divided, unstable, paranoid
America. It is our duty to this beautiful land to let our
voices be heard. That's the reason for the tour. That's why I'm
doing it." [Emphases added -- jh]
If-I-Had-The-Nerve
Fantasy #105
Panhandler: Got
any spare change?
Me: You mean you
don't have any money?
Panhandler: I got
a couple bucks, but that's not enough for ... to get ... uh, some
food. I'm hongry.
Me: I have an idea!
Can you see that green sign over there?
Panhandler: (Craning
his neck, but not getting up off his shiftless panhandling tuchus)
Uh ... yeah, I see it.
Me: That's an ATM!
Panhandler: Huh?
Me: Ay. Tee. Emmmmm-uh.
You know, Automatic Teller Machine?
Panhandler: O ...
kay?
Me:
Panhandler: So?
Me: So!? Dude!
Those things have money in them! Just stick your ATM card in
the machine, punch in your PIN, and BAM! Instant cash!
Panhandler: But
...
Me: This is so
cool! I mean, whenever I've given you guys money in the past, I've
always regretted it. Because I'd see you soon after doing a drug deal
on the corner or coming out of the liquor store, having just spent
the money I thought I was donating toward your food.
Finally, I feel good about helping you guys out! Can you pass
this tip to the second shift panhandler?
Panhandler: I ...
Me: Thanks. Later.
Snoop
Dog Goes French
Foi shizzileu, mon
noi-zzileu
You can use that.
Firsteenth
Birthday
My oldest son turns eleven
tomorrow.
When I turned eleven,
I had been formulating my arguments as to why I was henceforth to
be regarded as a technical teenager. Phonetics (the silly "-teen"
suffix) were irrelevant. After all, "eleven" could just
as easily have been dubbed "one-teen" if the inventor of
number names had the horse-sense to be consistent:
One-teen, two-teen,
thirteen, fourteen, and so on.
Or ...
Firsteen, secondteen,
thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, etc.
If my memory serves correctly,
my parents had just been divorced when I turned eleven.
My wife and I celebrated
our thirteenth year of marriage a few days ago.
Watching my oldest son
grow these eleven years has been nothing short of mind-blowing. To
think that he'll want to be driving in five short years.
For those of you who have
already gone through this, stop your snickering, you negative vibe
merchants.
Oh yeah -- today is Greg
Mayfield's birthday. We were best friends in grade school and high
school, and I haven't seen him since the early 80s. Despite my best
efforts to find him, I have been unsuccessful.
I will find you,
you elusive plonker.
Happy birthday, Greg.
A Moment
of Clarity
Jane R. Eisner, columnist
for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote a column about a Pennsylvania
family who is saying "that the government has no right to monitor
their children's 'holy and sacred education' and that complying with
Pennsylvania's stringent home-school laws is a sin."
She spends the rest of
the article pondering whether or not we, i.e. the state, should care
about how these parents choose to educate their children. She seems
to endorse a slippery slope argument (which typically translates:
If we let parents educate their own children, we are affirming a government
endorsement of child abuse).
The conclusion she reached
goes like this:
Yes, Pennsylvania's
rules may be unnecessarily stringent, although that hasn't stopped
25,000 other children from being home-schooled in the state. But
imagine a state that altered its constitution, absolving itself
of all responsibility for educating its young, leaving it in the
hands of parents and caring nothing about the outcome.
Imagine! Parents being
responsible for the education of their own children?! How appalling!
Aren't there people who are paid to do that job? I pay my taxes! Why
should I have to worry about that stuff?
My Bilingual
Calendar
Calendars provide useful
information. Beyond the basic days and dates and months, it's nice
to have the occasional inspirational quotes ("Education is
not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire." - William Yeats)
and trivia ("A cockroach can live for up to a week without
a head").
What I especially like
are the multicultural, multi-lingual features the calendar designers
saw fit to include. For example: Boxing Day. Would that the U.S. saw
the value in taking just one day out of the year to put on the gloves
and to pummel one another to our heart's content.
Looking ahead to the month
of September, I was especially pleased to see that Canada, the foreign
nation to the north, was represented in my calendar, and in Canada's
native language!
Strangely enough, despite
our vast differences, Canada shares a holiday --the same date even!
Sept. 6 -- with the U.S. We call it Labor Day. But in the Canadian
tongue, it is called Labour Day.
I wonder if the day has
the same meaning in Canada as it does in the U.S. According to the
U.S. Department of Labor:
Labor Day, the first
Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated
to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes
a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to
the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
If I were to proffer a
guess, Labour Day is probably Canada's equivalent of our Tax
Freedom Day.
Less
Biased Than Thou
It's amazing to me how
far journalists will go to protect their soi disant objectivity.
It seems they'll say anything to avoid being hit with the B-word,
especially on political lightning rod issues. My favorite is: "I
personally don't have an opinion about that." How can you not
have an opinion, especially about something provocative?
A poll that resulted
in a vote to drop "Doonesbury" was defended by the head of a Sunday-comics
consortium. "It was not a political statement of any kind," Continental
Features President Van Wilkerson told E&P.
"I personally don't have an opinion about 'Doonesbury' one way or
another."
Of course not. Having
an opinion would be an admission of bias, wouldn't it? And
journalists can't be biased, can they?
A recently published study
used the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) scoring system to evaluate
the political biases of the big media outlets (the "alphabets",
Fox News, CNN, New York Times, etc.). The ADA ratings rank U.S. Senators
and Representatives from 0 (conservative) to 100 (liberal) based on
how they vote on certain issues. The media bias study used a similar
ranking method, but gauged according to the media's chosen think-tank
references instead of voting record (for obvious reasons). The results
are fascinating.
The estimated ADA
score for Fox, based on citations, was 35.6. That puts it in the
company of Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and a few points below the
House median, 39.0. The two highest were The New York Times, at
67.6, and CBS Evening News, at 70.0. The average Republican in Congress
has an ADA score of 11.2, and the average Democrat 74.1.
For a summary of the report
whence I culled the above excerpt, check out the Rocky Mountain
News article
where you can also find the link to the full report.
Mr.
Cranky Bombs the Village
I realize that Mr.
Cranky is not really a serious movie critic. After all, his reviews
begin with the premise that all movies suck, it's just a matter of
how badly they do so. That's why I like him. His vitriol alone amuses
the bejeepers out of me.
That said, his review
of M. Night Shyamalan-a-ding-dong's* latest film, "The
Village" (3 bombs), seems to completely miss the point. He
writes:
Another one of my
problems is this constant, inescapable idea that the past is better
than the present. That somehow the shortened lifespans, the disease,
the inequality, the things that went bump in the night and all the
other hardship of centuries past was all sweetness and light, because
everything was so beautiful and everybody just so gosh-darn nice.
Those things Cranky is
complaining about were not portrayed in a positive light at all.
At. All. Those people lived in a continual climate of fear and
superstition. Even after the plot twist was revealed, I found myself
saying, "That was a bad idea from the start." I am frankly
baffled as to how Mr. Cranky seemed to miss the point entirely.
Furthermore, it appears
Mr. Cranky's blatant disdain for religion evoked an irrational and
unfounded knee-jerk assumption that couldn't be further removed from
the premise of the movie. Cranky writes:
This is largely a
fantasy perpetrated by the religious in an effort to infer that
religious times were inherently more moral. I wonder, anybody ever
hear of The Crusades? How about the Inquisition? Witch hunts, anyone?
Again, nowhere does M.
Night even hint that this village portrays a preferred existence,
that the lifestyle "enjoyed" by the characters is something
we all would or should desire. What makes Cranky's complaint all the
more puzzling is the fact that religion is never once mentioned in
the film. There is but one reference to God. Specifically, one person
offers a blessing to another. "May God bless your life together,"
or something to that effect. That's it. You see no church services,
no Bible reading, no praying, no heads bowed, no grace being said
over meals, nor anything one might expect from a religious community.
Where in the universe did Cranky get the inkling that religion had
anything to do with this movie, let alone the assumption that religion
was being lauded and endorsed by Shyamalan-a-ding-dong*?
Maybe Cranky was tired
and couldn't focus. After all, he did review a record four films in
one weekend. Perhaps he was confusing this film with the plot details
of the "The Manchurian Candidate."
*Note: I intend
no disrespect to M. Night Shyamalan by sticking "a-ding-dong"
after his name. Every time I hear his name, it just pops into my head
that way. So I thought maybe by typing it out I might experience a
cathartic side-effect and have the demon exorcised from my brain.
