P. J. Harvey

Rare footage from 1995. Someone had been listening to Patti Smith. I also notice a crunchy guitar sound that so many bands seek to recreate today, but it's better with narco pace.

For some reason, this clip makes me think of my wife, who I had just started dating circa 1995. Maybe it's the lipstick.

Patti Smith - Free Money

Rock on, old woman.

Thinks with his base

McCain feels with his heart, but he thinks with his base. And when he picked Sarah Palin, he told the United States of America to go fuck itself. -- Leon Wieseltier

Jenny Lewis - Godspeed

Back to back posts of Jenny Lewis. It looks like these recent shows are phenomenal. The tour began in Santa Cruz!

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

Latest alt-country phenom, in a live version of her latest title track. Yes, acid is dropped, in a I-did-it-and-I'm-past-it kind of way.

Nightmares on Wax

A house music outfit that's been around since the nineties. Stay with this track. It breaks into a groove at about 30 sec.

Sharon Olds

From "The Promise"

Think how we have floated together
eye to eye, nipple to nipple,
sex to sex, the halves of a creature
drifting up to the lip of matter
and over it—you know me from the bright, blood-
flecked delivery room, if a lion
had you in its jaws I would attack it, if the ropes
binding your soul are your own wrists, I will cut them

Morningwood

Very fun song ("Take Off Your Clothes"), with a video clearly inspired by The YouTube. Not really safe for work, but mostly tame.

How White Are You?

Your result for The How White Are You Test...

Middle Man

You are 40% White

Ok so you did pretty good on the test. Your score says you appreciate different cultures, but you cant hide your true self. Just like the pic, you roll with the cool crowd, but you still go home to your mommy and eat macaroni and cheese.

Take The How White Are You Test at HelloQuizzy

Pop Levi

New glam pop with a sixties drone from England. This song is something about a "love child."

The Atomic Bitchwax

Dead Meadow

Post-psych from D.C.




Best lines:

I'm so worried
don't know what I'm worried for

Paul Krugman wins Nobel Prize

My favorite left-leaning economist, Paul Krugman, just won the Nobel Prize. As a columnist for the New York Times, Krugman has been one of the best and most visible critics of neocon economics and one of the few talking sense about the credit crisis. It's a good sign.

The Roots

From their new album, "Phrenology."

Today's button

Created by Kate Black.

The Jealous Girlfriends

"Organs on the Kitchen Floor." A youtube comment nails them: Norah Jones meets Portishead.

MC Frontalot

Known as "nerdcore."

"Joe Biden is pretty for an older man"

What I heard from my students today. A beautiful smile and pretty eyes, to be precise. My students and Fox News (see previous post) getting to the heart of the matter.

UPDATE: It seems like my students aren't alone in seeing Biden as a dreamy democratic manly man. See this post at Salon, " Joe Biden is made of testosterone and strong verbs."

It helps to be physically attractive

Fox News deconstructs the debate:

KONDRACKE: One other thing though, when she's at her best, she's in a good mood. She was obviously in a good mood tonight.

HUME: Yes, she did seem happy to be there and cheerful. And it didn't hurt...

KONDRACKE: When she's a little chirpy

HUME: ... that, look, Joe Biden, he looks kinda like me. He's getting on in years. She's younger.

KRISTOL: You do an injustice to yourself there.

BARNES: It helps to be in a good mood.

HUME: It also helps to be physically attractive, which she certainly is. I'm not saying he's not but she's more so and everybody can agree on that point.

Main Street

How to look immediately discredible: use "Main Street" as an adjective.

Palin Poetry

"Befoulers of the Verbiage"

It was an unfair attack on the verbiage
That Senator McCain chose to use,
Because the fundamentals,
As he was having to explain afterwards,
He means our workforce.
He means the ingenuity of the American.
And of course that is strong,
And that is the foundation of our economy.
So that was an unfair attack there,
Again based on verbiage.

More at Slate.