Big Thief Perform “Shark Smile” | Pitchfork Music Festival 2018

George T. Conway III

Shards of Peppermint

The human tongue has a rich complexity.  Bitterness is detected in the back, near the precipice of the throat, where darkness falls into the depth of the body. 

Loudon County church youth leader accused of having sex with teen

Loudon County church youth leader accused of having sex with teen

President Bonehead Got One Thing Right

Donald Trump remarked on many occasions that George W. Bush manufactured the greatest foreign policy blunder in the history of this country.  The murderous and unprovoked war against the people of Iraq resulted in the deaths of upwards of 100,000 Iraqi citizens (men, women, and children), over 4,000 U.S. troops, and the maiming and disabling of even more young men and women in the prime of their lives.  For nothing!

Bush privatized the aftermath with his golfing buddies from Blackwater and Halliburton.  These firms got filthy rich from the massacre.

America's De Facto Secretary of State Breaking Bread with a Murderer

Jared Kushner is a stain on both our nation and the world's Jewish people.  Wealth and privilege breeds into itself an incestous arrogance that needs to be corrected in very harsh and unforgiving terms.

A Vulgar Celebration

Vladimir Putin and Mohammad Bin Salman celebrate the murder of U.S. resident, Jamal Khashoggi, who Donald Trump referred to as enemy of the state. 

Tchaikovsky - Waltz of the Flowers

Thousands of Australian Guns are Destroyed (1997)

Washington Post Columnist, Jamal Khashoggi - "Enemy of the People"

One of Trump's "enemy of the people" is murdered by our ally, Saudi Arabia.  An ancillary result from Americans hobnobbing with the backward custodians of fossil fuel.

Under Oath

Wilco - One Sunday Morning

Sunday morning is for headphones.

Jethro Tull - Aqualung (Live At Montreux 2003)

I saw these cats perform in Nashville around 1980, '81.  Our motor blew up and I hitch-hiked back home thanks to the kindness of strangers.

Blood, Sweat and Tears - When I Die (1970)

Lydia Loveless: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Probable Influence:  Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt.

A. Lincoln's Hearse.  There's something terrifying about this picture; those black sentinels of a massively significant death murder.

Gwyneth Paltrow - Fraudstress

Princess should be ashamed of herself. At least she was unconsciously right-on with the name of her snake oil:  "goop."  Rich, feckless, and stupid.

Banjo Lesson 2.1

John Hartford - Gentle on my mind 1977

Although the late Glen Campbell recorded this song for the masses, John Hartford actually wrote it.  Gentle on My Mind has some of the finest assembly of lyrics I've ever heard.

Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.

I gave my son, Frank Brennan Whetstone, a tiny piece of Justice Brennan's identity out of respect for one of the greatest liberal jurists in the history of this country.

Paris Dennard - Latest Recipient of the Oreo Award

Roundup - The Beginning of the End to this Toxic Concoction that Causes Cancer

A California jury has returned a $289-million-dollar verdict against the purveyors of this poison that now saturates the earth and its groundwater reserves in densely-populated areas of the country.  Please sound the alarm and have this removed from the shelves immediately. 

Michael

My heart breaks for you, Michael.  When I look at this picture of you, my eyes try to play tricks on me.  They conspire with my consciousness to create the ostensible lie that whispers to me that you're always sad, constantly depressed, and steeped in continuous loathing, all based upon this almost incomprehensible visage of the countenance that prison has heaped upon you.  I have to remind myself that you probably smile, or laugh even, and that this photograph is a spark that was pitifully, sadly captured nanoseconds before you grinned out its proper opposite.  It's what J.D. Salinger meant when he wrote of  the rocking back and forth "between the grief and the high delight."  I, too, am intimately familiar with both extremes, one more than the other.  

Francis Bacon's Portrait of Michel Leiris (1976)

Ahed Tamimi - A Palestinian Jewel

Locke - Written and Directed by Steven Knight

The parallels drawn by this movie along the lives of complicated, 21st century men, are damn near perfectly aligned.  Tom Hardy's monolithic performance was totally convincing.  A wireless multitasking white male meets the consequences of his actions and manages to do the right thing, in relative terms, after an awful mistake.  An excellent film.

Gregory Alan Isakov - The Stable Song - How'd She Know

A strange thing happened during the summer of 2018.  I was drawn, mental pictures and all, to the Looking Glass Creek in Transylvania County, North Carolina, imbedded deep in the Pisgah National Forest, to a spot where I once played, just below Sliding Rock.  I told my wife that I wanted to go there, so off we went.  I drove so Stacey could have a beer on the way.

As we approached Highway 276, which would run parallel to the Looking Glass Creek, Stacey said, "this one's for Daddy," and played the Stable Song.  I big fat tear rolled down the left side of my face, unbeknownst to Frank and Stacey.  How'd she know?

Addicts and Alcoholics

What separates addicts and alcoholics from the rest of society is their need to constantly adjust the thermostat on their consciousness in order to cope with their own vagaries.  They are alcoholics and addicts because they have effectively lost control over their intake, called "unmanagability" in AA parlance. This naturally throws off balance their ability to make the thermostatic adjustments to their congnitive interactions with people, places, and things associated with this incremental life on planet earth.  Probably has something to do with what's called, "affect." Who knows?

Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen: Portlandia

Liberals making fun of themselves.  Cutting edge, side splitting fun to watch. 

Mothers' Day, 2016

Happy Mothers' Day, Mom.  I wish that I could have warned you that it would not end well.  What difference would that have made, though?  You wore yourself out.  You harbored too may secrets for you consciousness to bear. Please note that I did not use the word conscience.  The weight must have been tremendous. It was not necessarily your fault.