The Styrofoam Meat Tray Solution...

WhenTheyGoHighWeGoLow
TechVille


Recently, I've taken to electrifying my acoustical guitar.

Which is straightforward when I'm fiddling around in the relative quiet of the Subterranean Homesick Bluesroom.

But when I try to do it in the high decibel environment of a 'Doctors of Distortion' session the feedback bouncing back through the sound hole onto the strings is often unmanageable.

Turns out there are musical geek accessories that you can buy to fix that problem.

None of which I have purchased so far.

Why?

Well, it turns out that I've been listening to/watching a whole lot of Conor Oberst videos lately for all kinds of reasons, including the fact that he occasionally likes to get up on stage with these guys.

And sometimes, when Oberst needs to cover his sound hole he resorts to a couple of strips of duct tape and a hunk of styrofoam.

So I decided to give it a try.

Voila, problem solved!

Best part of the entire thing was the reaction of the bandmates ensconced behind their peddle walls, etc.

And you think I'm kidding about that last bit...

Ha!


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Thought Mapping...Plausible Fakeability.

He'sAWurlitzerRunner
BabyVille


Former BC Liberal cabinet Minister John Rustad wants everybody to know, despite his recent words and deeds, that he is not a fake news generator.

The MoCo's Betsy Trumpener has the story.

Here's her extremely well-constructed lede:

B.C.'s opposition critic for caribou recovery has clarified a false social media post, days after he stated scientists euthanized 24 endangered mountain caribou in Northern B.C.

"If there's errors and stuff made, I certainly don't want to be part of what would be considered fake news," Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad told CBC News in an interview. "At the same time, when information like that comes forward, it's a piece of information that's worth sharing."...


So, you might be wondering, what exactly did the good Mr. Rustad do prior to ensure that he did not spread a demonstrable falsehood.

Why, absolutely nothing:

...The euthanasia story "was very shocking to hear," Rustad told CBC News in an interview. "That's why I posted it."...

Rustad said he didn't try to verify the information...


Later, Mr. Rustad decided to divorce himself from his previous deeds and actions by raising the spectre of an apparently beggable question on the Book of Faces:

Imagine that!


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Thought Mapping, Daily.

AllTheirApparatchiks
'RUsVille


From the 'That's Some Lede!' department...

The latest from Global News' Sam Cooper:

B.C. Lottery Corp. vice-president of corporate compliance Robert Kroeker has stepped down, months after B.C.’s gambling regulator pledged to investigate allegations that Kroeker instructed his staff to “ease up” on anti-money-laundering measures and “allow dirty money to flow into casinos,” Global News has learned...


Interestingly, it would appear that the good Mr. Kroeker was involved in that alrevolving door between the gov't regulator and the Casino Industrial Complex back in the days of the BC Liberal government reign:

...Kroeker, who is the former director of B.C.’s anti-money-laundering civil forfeiture program and the author of a 2011 B.C. government study on casino money laundering, left the civil forfeiture office to serve as corporate compliance chief for Great Canadian Gaming, the operator of Richmond’s River Rock Casino, from 2012 to September 2015...

****

Gosh.

Why is it, exactly, that I am suddenly thinking of hockey bags full of cash?

Oh, ya...

Now I remember.




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Car Wheels On A Gravel Phone.

MyKidsDay
JobVille


Just to be clear, I usually hate bloody Voicemails.

Why?

Because if someone is skipping the Email and/or avoiding the Textmobile they're very likely flogging pure junk or, worse, it's something so important that it will have to be dealt with immediately.

Anyway...

A couple of weeks ago, on a random Monday night in late June, I got a Voicemail that was coming from (and I kid you not) inside the Commodore Ballroom.

Ya.

That's right.

My oldest kid, Bigger E., was at the Lucinda Williams show and she wanted me to hear Ms. W. tell the story of how the life and times of Blaze Foley led her to write 'Drunken Angel'.

It was mostly garbled, but great stuff regardless.

All of which is just a round about way of telling you that E. took a little time out of her busy musical schedule recently so that she and I could sit down in the living room and record a few songs.

As you might have guessed, things always go best when she takes the vocal lead.

Here's her version another LW favourite...





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Image at the top of the post is from LW's 'Car Wheels On A Gravel Road' album, which is 20 years old and the focus of her current tour.



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Thought Mapping, Daily.

IfAHedgefundBurstsIntoFlamesInAGloballyWarmedForest
DoesAnybodyHearVille


The hypocrisy, it burns...

Link

Good thing we're giving the fine folks behind Postmedia a big whack of our money to screw us over even more.

Right?




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In case you missed it, the latest Sunday Set is...Here.




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Nevermind The Soft Landing....Here Comes The Shillophant.

AllTheirLegaciesAre
UsVille


First, Dipper Finance Minister Carole James trumpets the soft landing on her Twittmachine feed...

And then, first up on the comment thread, former GordCo, Inc. and ClarkWorld denizen, Marc Dalton, who is now a full-fledged member of Team Scheer, weighs in...

Now, I could be mistaken, but it appears that the good Mr. Dalton is saying that buying a home and real estate speculation should go hand-in-hand.

Hmmm...

When that kind of thinking, fueled by longterm government action and inaction (see, for example, the 'accomplishments' above the mentioned GordCo Inc. and ClarkWorld), becomes a full-throated reality, what could possibly go wrong?



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Hey!....In case you missed it, former Lotuslandian truth-to-power-journo-type guy Sean Holman (whose Public Eye Online archives just keep on giving, BTW), was on the MoCo's Sunday Edition this morning talking about how important it is for big Media to start treating global warning as an actual, you know...Crisis.


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Thought Mapping, Daily

GingerGoodwin
LivesVille


From former Obama West Wing member Dan Pfeiffer on Pod Save America:

"The true lesson of the 2018 midterms is that activism wins."

Hmmmm...

Based on how he fleshed things out re: identifying and getting out the Democratic vote, I'm pretty sure Mr. Pfeiffer actually meant 'organizing' rather than 'activism'.

Which of course leads one to think of how unions used to win before the co-optation of everything that disillusioned everyone began in earnest.



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Crawford Kilian reviewed Rod Mickelburgh's book on the history of unionism in Lotusland in the Tyee not long ago...Here.



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In case you missed it, here is the latest Sunday Set:




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Seventeen Years...

...Is A Long Time.

The lede from Pamela Fayerman's latest in the VSun:

Health Minister Adrian Dix says seniors going into nursing homes will no longer be forced to grab and move into the first available bed because as of July 15, they will be allowed to choose from their three preferred care homes.

The first-available-bed-policy was established 17 years ago and compelled families to make almost instantaneous decisions or risk losing the bed and sinking down the waiting list. Dix said families will now have up to three days to decide whether to take the available bed in one of the three preferred care facilities.

“This is one of the most challenging decisions in someone’s life, so it’s important they choose a care home that works for them,” Dix said during the announcement outside the B.C. legislature on Wednesday.

While waiting for a bed in a facility of their choice, people can either stay at home, with additional care, or go to an interim facility without losing their spot on the waiting list for a preferred facility, Dix said. Through a system of improved transparency, individuals will get more information about waiting times to any one of their preferred facilities. Historically, nursing-home clients have usually not been placed in a preferred bed in some regions such as Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health...


Mr. Dix.

The best premier we never had?



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State Sponsored Gerrymandering.

IsTheEntireWorldBecomingAnOld
WarrenZevonSongVille


A whole lot of folks in Hong Kong are upset about proposed extradition legislation that could send them to a place that disregards due process and the rule of law.

In fact, so many hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets recently that chief executive Carrie Lam announced a suspension but not a killing of the bill.

Which sent hundreds of thousands of people to the streets again and a few hundred kids into the locked legislature last weekend.

So.

How does this happen?

How does a legislature have the power to enact laws against the will of the people?

Well, there is no need to call in the Supremes, the Russians, or the Republican smear merchants in this case given the 'semi' autonomous nature of the HK Legislature.

Democratic legislator Claudio Mo explained how things work yesterday in response to a question from Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez:

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Claudia Mo, I’d like to ask you, in terms of the existing so-called democratic structure in Hong Kong, obviously under China’s “one country, two systems” policy, how is the Legislature chosen in Hong Kong, and what is the impact of the People’s Republic of China government over Hong Kong?

CLAUDIA MO: Yes, exactly. That’s a great question to be answered. The young had a particular anger at the Legislature. It mainly stems from the fact that it’s this very Legislature that was going to pass that controversial China extradition bill. Why? Because they’ve got enough Beijing votes in there. And it’s all because of our very twisted and convoluted kind of election system. They make sure that the pro-Beijing votes will occupy at least half of our seats. That’s a total number of 70. They make sure they will have enough votes to pass just anything, any policy, any bill, any funding application from the government. And democrats are always outnumbered. We are outnumbered, not because we are unpopular, but because we just don’t get the seats. We have more votes, but fewer seats. That sums up the Hong Kong legislative election. And the young knew it.


Gosh.

It almost sounds a little like, say, North Carolina...

...North Carolina Republicans won a 10-3 advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives even though the statewide vote was only narrowly in favor of Republican candidates. The justices also upheld maps from Maryland, where Democrats hold a 7-1 majority in the House, which is similarly lopsided compared to their overall support.

In a news conference Thursday morning, Republican Rep. David Lewis of Harnett County — a key architect of the maps and other voting legislation in North Carolina — said “this (Supreme court smackdown) is a complete vindication of our state.”...

Imagine that!


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Subheader?....This.
Image at the top of the page is from SCMP reporter Phila Siu's Twittmachine feed...


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Welcome To Mr. Buckingham's Musical Palace.

SometimesLayingDownTheTracksIsTheOnly
RightThingToDoVille


Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' came out when I was in my last year of high school.

And by then my friends and I had already tossed 'Frampton Comes Alive' aside long before* so that we could move to the harder stuff.

Which meant that we just didn't give Rumours much of a chance at all, at least compared to all the other stuff we were listening to and trying to play.

Which was too bad because, in addition to the hooks and the hedonism, there is some king hell good stuff in there.

Take 'Go Your Own Way', for example.

Who knew that the bare bones of the thing was literally what was going on in Lindsay Buckingham's life.

And who knew that he really, truly and honestly didn't want Stevie Nicks to go.

How do I know all of this, for sure,  right here and now in present tense time?

Because Mr. Buckingham explains it all, both the lyrical bones and the layers of musicianship that fleshes them all out, including convincing John McVie to play dreaded eighth notes on the bass' throughline, on a recent, fantastic edition of the podcast 'Song Exploder'.

Have a listen.

It's 22 minutes of your life you won't want, or even need, to get back.


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*Which was approximately 8 months if I  remember things correctly. This, of course, is eons in high school garage band time...


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Sunday Set, July 1st, 2019 - Celebration Days.

TwoCountriesOneKindaSortaAlmost
BorderVille


Tunes fit for Canada and Independence Day...

Covers of...

Sarah Shook's 'Dwight Yoakam'

The Mountain Goats 'Palmcorder Yajna'

Tragically Hip's 'Ahead By A Century'

Paul Simon's 'Graceland'






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Image at top of the post...The Two E's on an even year, circa 2008, on a trip down south where we played up both celebration days with our good friends F. and L.


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The Intent Of All Gerrymanderers.

StompingOnTheNeckOf
DemocracyVille


Following up on our previous post on the American Supreme's Court recent decision to let a thousand gerrymanders bloom...

The following  is from a letter to the editor penned by Jonathan P. Margolis published Friday in the NY Times:

...Gerrymandering is always intentional, and the intent is to make some citizens’ votes worth less than those of others. As others have said, gerrymandering means that instead of voters choosing their leaders, the leaders choose their voters. To assert that the framers of the Constitution would be comfortable with such a result is to utter a grave historical libel...


Clear enough for everyone?


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And, in case you missed it during your July 1st celebrations, something's happening here...The 'here' in this case being Hong Kong...The SCMP has done a bang up job with live-blogged coverage.



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Let A Thousand, Million Fingers Bloom.

WhatWouldGracie
DoVille


The biggest news from the Excited States* this week may be the thing you heard about leastt.

Because it wasn't the revelation that MBS and Jared Kushner really are (gun) running American mid-east policy, on their own, without a valid security clearance.

And it had nothing to do with Kamala Harris' newly patented 'One Hour De-Bidenizing' strategy.

And it sure as heckfire wasn't the Supreme Court's Citizenship Kaning decision of the Republican's Rosebudian census strategy.

Instead, the really, really, really big news was the week's 'other' decision from the Supremes, brought to US'ians everywhere by the evil machinations of Mitch McConnell.

Essentially, that decision says the federal courts have no business stepping in to stop unconstitutional gerrymandering.

This is a situation so grave that even the Grey Lady, front page, above the fold, had this to say in a piece by Michael Wines:

...Gerrymandered maps were once part of an unspoken agreement between rivals that pressing for political advantage was, within limits, part of the electoral game. But in recent years Republicans, aided by sophisticated mapmaking software, have given themselves near-unbreakable power across the country.

Now, with a green light from the justices, the party has an opportunity to lock in political dominance for the next decade in many of the 22 states where it controls both the legislature and the governor’s office...

The real take home here...

As admirable as it is in theoretical, if not historically normative, terms, Adam Gopnik's nicey-nice, center squishy, both-sides-have-good-points-so-let's-all-give-a-little-to-make-everyone-feel-gooder liberalism cannot deal with yet another hammerheaded suplex like this.

OK?



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*Tip-O-The-Toque to Granddad Ed...When we moved there for awhile he loved to give us the gears...
Regarding the title and sub-header...Laila explains.


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This Is The Modern World.

WhatKindOfFoolDoYou
ThinkIAmVille


I mean, is there no longer on single solitary entity that purports to be in the public interest that cannot be willingly co-opted?

Link

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And yes, if you are of a certain vintage you should bloody well have an ear worm from that coupling at the top of the post that needs scratching....




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Aquilini Overdrive.

BelowTheMedian
ForeverVille


Well, well, well, whadd'ya know...

Turns out that those wild Aquilini boys owe some taxes on a previous $140 million West Edmonton property sale that helped finance their subsequent acquisition of the Canuckleheads.

We know this because the judge overseeing the tax court case has ruled that each of the three brothers owes us all money on a capital gain of $11 million, plus, each.

Which, of course, means that the usual sports market shillophants in short pants will likely soon start screeching about how this will almost certainly lead to massive beer price increases down at the arena that Little Arthur lost, not to mention the immediate sale of young Mr. Pettersson to the godless Leafs if something isn't done to ease the brothers' collective pain.

But here's the thing that is most unbelievable about this entire thing, as relayed deep within a buried lede by Jason Proctor of the MoCo:

...According to the judgment, the brothers each initially declared taxable income of $50,572...

Gosh.

I guess it's true that the rich really aren't, but sometimes try to be, just like you and me.

Or some such butchered Fitzgeraldian thing.


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Tip O' the Toque to Norm Farrell on his Twittmachine feed.



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