Diaper chase scene

Another tasty slice from the ACBs recent release, Stona Rosa.  This song is entitled "Street Fighter II," and with The Pitch I'll designate it mostly safe for work.

Follow through

More of the hot stuff from The ACBs.

Can't wait for the album.

Be Professional

Tasty treat of the day: a new video and song from my pals, the ACBs.

BE PROFESSIONAL-THE ACB'S from PAT VAMOS on Vimeo.

Do yourself a favor and download the track for free here: http://theacbs.bandcamp.com/

What's the Matter with Kansas?

My dear Kansas has such nasty problems, between the immigrant-hating Kobach, the town-destorying tornados, and--well--it's pretty miserable politics. But sometimes the Crazy, when it gets really crazy, almost makes it worthwhile.

Case in point, the gay-, America-, everything-hating Westborro Baptist Church, most famous for demonstrating with non-sequitur signs at the funerals for dead US soldiers. You remember these guys, right? These people are so odious, so thoroughly beyond the pale of any semblance of theological coherence, that they actually manage to be funny sometimes. When your theology centers around hating gay people and condemning everyone everywhere that they are going to hell, it's pretty hard not to seem self-satirical.

And this brings me to the cultural artifact of the week: the granddaughter of the Church's founder/cult leader is apparently a gifted videographer. And the WBC seems to think that the best way to spread their enlightened message is through parody videos. Really the headline of this blogpost at Kansas City's Pitch Weekly speaks for itself: "Westboro Baptist Church has dropped another Lady Gaga joint, yo."

It's hard to imagine that the WBC spends its time with this kind of stuff. Really, it's just odd.

Via my man in the thick of it all, J. Barry.

And while I'm on the topic, there's a great documentary about the WBC, which you can watch online here.

See, Bob Dole gets it:

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kans.) told a group of local Kansas reporters on Wednesday, that opposition to the president's health care package had been driven by knee-jerk partisanship and urged Congressional Republicans to get on board a version of reform.

The 1996 Republican presidential candidate also predicted, following a speech at a health care reform summit in Kansas, that "there will be a signing ceremony" for a reform bill sometime this year or early in 2010.

But the comments that seem likely to create the most ripples were those that dealt with congressional opposition to the White House. Dole, according to reports, framed the pushback to Barack Obama's reform agenda as almost perfunctory in nature.

"Sometimes people fight you just to fight you," he said, according to The Kansas City Star. "They don't want Reagan to get it, they don't want Obama to get it, so we've got to kill it...

"Health care is one of those things," he added. "Now we've got to do something."

Too bad nobody listens to Bob Dole anymore.

It takes a village to raise a punk

It aint easy being a punk in the city of fountains. Hometown city paper, The Pitch, reports.

Via my hometown hookup, J Barry.

Why I haven't blogged in a week

An expected series of unfortunate events has rendered me unable to blog in the past couple of days. First, my good friend, Chris Hentzen, died suddenly of heart failure, which prompted a trip home to Kansas City. Upon returning to the Dirty Durham, I was dismayed to sense the beginnings of a serious cold, which has made my first day at the library in a week little more than a prolonged and uncomfortable nap.

As unhappy it is to have to bury a friend, especially a young one, my trip back to the City of Fountains wasn't without its upsides. For one, it was nice to be with my old friends, reminiscing about the old days, going through old photos, and watching hours of (painful) videos from high school parties. I was also fortunate that my unexpected trip brought me into to town for Bloomsday, which I spent at the always delightful Bloomsday Books, where I sat and listened, appropriately enough, to a reading of the "Hades" episode. I also picked up a John Banville novel, which I am very much looking forward to reading. And in blog news, my friend Jack Barry alerted me to the existence of a blog named Phoneless Cord, written by our friend Rachel, which I will be stealing content from soon.

More content to come once my body heals itself.