The passing of a great American progressive

From The Guardian:

Studs Terkel, the Pulitzer prize-winning author, broadcaster and master chronicler of American life in the 20th century, died last night. He was 96.

Celebrated for his streetwise portrayals of the American working class, Terkel was best known for letting the common people he called "the uncelebrated" tell their stories in books like Working and The Good War.

To generations of radio listeners he was also the voice of The Studs Terkel Show, which ran for 43 years and was widely syndicated across the US.

More on Studs @DemocracyNow!

Studs Terkel worked as an activist, a civil servant, a labor organizer, an ad writer, a television actor, and a radio DJ, among many other occupations. But since the 1960s, he was particularly well-known as a world-class interviewer, a writer and radio personality who drew celebrities and, far more often, average citizens into sharing their oral histories.

For 45 years, Studs Terkel spent an hour each weekday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conversing with famous and not-so-famous guests and with a loyal audience of Chicago listeners.

Late nite music to sit down to...

Tim Booth works the crowd @ the El Rey last nite.

First show in ages where I actually stayed for its entirety. Simply amazing. Fans rushing the stage at a James show?! Yes but aren't they like old now? Self control has just expired--Tim brought it out in us ;) Stand out tracks--Say Something, Say, Sit Down, Top Of The World and Laid. Say, I hear Tim lives in L.A. now...I should go get him a new hat. Here is an older live clip featuring Tim in a weird skullcap/beenie. Cheers!


Laid


Say Something



Tim Booth sans curls 2008

You ever seen these two in the same place? Exactly. Now if you could get Ben Kingsley to dance like Michael Stipe, Tim Booth would be out of a job.

Ka'dairy.

What did I say? What did I say? For the love of Intelligent Designer, never trust anyone named Asif--under any circumstance. Here is the playboy makin' a play for my special lady friend, Sandra. Yes, I call her Sandra now.

And a happy Eid to you too.

Late nite music that bobs and flaps...

My second favorite Scorpio.


OMD - Pandora's Box

Late nite music from the land of fire and ice.

Gus Gus circa 1997 - Believe (Live)


Fashion. Art. Beats. 10 years ahead of it's time. Brilliant.

Has it been over ten years?! Geez, I'm gettin' old. Help the aged. One of the best live shows I've ever seen. Polydistortion tour 1997 @ the Roxy, Sunset Blvd. Where were you?

The Market is falling!

So much for my retirement accounts. Another headline like this--Lehman bankruptcy filing shows $613 billion debt, and I'm going to have to stop using my stimulus package on lapdances. $613Bn. Seriously? How does this happen? Someone explain! Surely Governor Gidget Palin will save us! Say, whatever happened to the guillotine? I decree now would be a good time for it to make a historic comeback. Begin with them pesky whiners and their mental recession! Say what? You owned LEH and AIG? Listen, this will all be over soon enough. Think of the losses you can write off.

Say, what are the visa requirements for Canadian residency?

Cup half-full--lapdances will stay reasonably priced for some time to come. Oooh, 2 for 1 specials. Don't despair!

Give this guy your money.

Unhealthy obsession #342

Vintage Trek road bikes. I youtub'd Trek and came across this winner from the Empire state...normally I don't condone any kind of violence but after watching this, I wish someone would run over this guy's big toe with a 27" Super Champion Wolber. Vintage wheel reference. Thank you.



Subdivisions? $180! New Pedals! Craig1974 on youtube. Watch his videos. Pray for humanity.

How do you say crook in Urdu?

"Playboy"

BBC Profile:

He spent several years in jail on charges of corruption. He was labelled "Mr 10%".

He found himself in major trouble in 1990 when he was accused of tying a remote-controlled bomb to the leg of a businessman and sending him into a bank to withdraw money from his account as a pay-off.

As a rule of opposable thumbs, never ever under any circumstance trust anyone named Asif. As if? Please. Crook? Possibly, but he'll be a pro-Western crook! Well why didn't you just say so in the first place? Send cash quick!

What say you Democracy?

Harmony, balance, beauty! Or simply looking for Chinese investors?

Red.

Red is hot. It's a strong color that conjures up a range of seemingly conflicting emotions from passionate love to violence and warfare. Red is Cupid and the Devil.

Red is power, hence the red power tie for business people and the red carpet for celebrities and VIPs (very important people).

Flashing red lights denote danger or emergency. Stop signs and stop lights are red to get the drivers' attention and alert them to the dangers of the intersection.

In some cultures, red denotes purity, joy, and celebration. Red is the color of happiness and prosperity in China and may be used to attract good luck.Red is often the color worn by brides in the East while it is the color of mourning in South Africa. In Russia the Bolsheviks used a red flag when they overthrew the Tsar, thus red became associated with communism. Many national flags use red.

First it was Nevada State Hwy signs, now this...for over a year now, I've been watching every Bank of America location update it's signage to it's (newer) logo to a red background with red or occasionally blue text (see below). I totally flip out every time I see it now. Red on Red?

What say you dear Aesthetic?


Logo w/white background. Super!


Passion?




Let the eagle soar!

En vivo...

Miss Mol as The Notorious Bettie Page

Watched more t.v. tonite than I have in years...

Watched a few minutes of Russell Brand hosting the MTV Music Awards, was sad to see him perform for such a sorry ass audience. When exactly did Kurt Loder become a wing-nut job?

Entourage. Season 5. What's it been 18 months? So after four seasons, we've come full circle...like watching the first season all over again. One word--gratuitous. And that's a good thing. Til next week.

True Blood. Bayou flavored vampire dramady. Indeed the vampire craze is in full swing. Apparently the grandma from Twister is in it. And that's pretty much all I recall. Aren't we due for a UFO craze?

How would I go about stalking meeting Gretchen Mol? I like her even more since I found out she named her son Ptolemy. As a brunette! Mmmm...Gretchen, like geography is spatial! Get it?! Spatial! I kill me. Why am I thinking of Miss Mol you ask? The Notorious Bettie Page is on now...Gretchen is amazing. However, the film itself is a bit unbalanced. Apparently, everyone in Tennessee is a creep/abuser/rapist/molester/religious nut. And all the smut peddlers/pornographers/bondage fiends in New York are hard working good folk. It's all so innocent! They're just pictures. They're just props! Come on now...how naive do they reckon we is? Irving Klaw? Seriously, total scumbag.

I recall watching my first Bettie Page video some dozen odd years ago...featured a dude in a monkey-suit knotting Bettie up improper like. Classic.

Amen.

Following up...

How can you slap redux. It was only a matter of time.

When keepin' it real goes too far...

Fun with Hindoos.



Does this mean he's officially off the show?

Here's the deal, listen, seriously, here's the thing--if you are the host of a lame English language Indian reality show and your job is to slap contestants around dressed like some kind of Desi dominatrix, don't be surprised if a little guy dressed as a Bavarian fruitcake slaps you back every now and then. These things are bound to happen. Just think of the ratings!

For the record, I stand with the fruity guy. Seems like a sweet sweet man. How can she slap? Seriously.

No bones about it...

Courtesy Rossetti Archive

Like the mighty fist of God, Armageddon will descend upon the fashion world. I predict and slow miserable death...truth be told it's long over due. I don't claim to know who/what/where/how it started. Pirates? Secret societies? Animists? Headhunters? The Aryan Brotherhood? Yale University? OPEC? Yes, blame OPEC!

Enough!

In the new days--I reckon the culprits reside mostly in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In fact, I'm convinced it's mandatory for every angry asshole in LV to sport that shit. I digress, what more can be said of fashion that hasn't already been said? In this case, that Wilde fellow was wrong when he wrote, fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Sorry Oscar, you weren't around long enough to meet Sir Ed Hardy. The imagery probably says something about our society today. What exactly, I don't know. I have my theories; War. Guns. Violence. Cage fighting. Fear. Paranoia. Ten-fold increase in karate school enrollment. An affliction indeed. I'm being vague. I'll get to the point. It's got to end. Please. God. End it now. Save humanity and fashion. I'll make a deal with you...how about this-- ban any clothing with skulls and/or bones, crosses, guns or roses printed, flocked, stitched, stamped, or glued on it from every town save for Las Vegas and I will vote Republican this November. Fair? Strike them down God. Thanks! Oh, and if you could get Hollywood to stop casting talentless fat curly-haired Jewish dudes named Seth in every film I would totally stop using your name in vain.

Truth Alert & Update: 5 years ago I purchased a black Affliction t-shirt with skulls/horses on it. It has since been donated to an angry White guy in Clark County, NV. In return, he gave me all of his old flames/dice garb.

Does anyone still sport Von Dutch?


Borderline White-Supremacist Imagery?

61

Courtesy Ronin 2.0

The Library.

I'm back. Hi. I realize I don't write much about the library anymore--truth be told this is due mostly to laziness, apathy and genuine embarrassment...so here goes...catching up with the happenings and goings on the the Los Angeles Public Library. Some old news, but my take on things is important. Yea.

Beware the Trees

The signs were there. We just didn't heed their warnings. It started with the sap. For months it's been the sap. The dog-forsaken sap. More sap than I've ever seen--ruining many a car exterior and literally flowing down the driveway--staining everything in its wake. Then the Yellowjackets came (bees for the non-naturalists) buzzin' around the Peppercorn tree--instilling fear into the hearts of the evil-doers--library patrons rather. Finally culminating last week--a most brazen daytime assault. An angry Eucalyptus tree in the lot attacked our Adult Librarian's Honda. It was a sight to behold. A freak accident some proclaimed--as a large branch snapped, fell, defied the laws of physics, then made a hard left into the hatchback window. Smash! Absolutely amazing. But this was no freak accident. I know better--the parking lot was designed around the existing trees--much to the displeasure of the public today--the same public, I may point out, during the early public hearings, asked that the trees not be cut down when the new library was constructed. But I digress...much verbal venom has been spewed at those poor trees since--something had to the give. The message they sent was clear. Park elsewhere. Nature 1 Honda 0.

Smile

All library employees had to go in for a new photo-identification card recently. No reason provided. The two gentleman who took our photos--equipped with a notepad and simple low quality slim digi-cam--the kind popluar among myspace-skank-mirror-self-shot takers), didn't look like they were from the library personnel department. I wore a light grey button-up which blended into the white background of the ID. So all you is my brown head floating in space. Next person in line please.

Careful what you wish for

After much public outcry, celebrity op-eds, media scrutiny, a silly Save LAPL website (who claim today that they "Saved LAPL") combined with countless complaints from old White ladies, the city library and librarian (who has since stepped down) rescinded its controversial (not to me) interagency (inter-library to the layperson) planned loan fee of $1.00/per book--which btw costs the city one half hour of work per book, and more importantly makes life for library clerks miserable (I'm looking at you serial reservists). A compromise would have been to simply limit the number of Interagency requests a month. Right now of course there is no limit--so we have patrons who literally have 90 requests (on multiple cards).

So, in lieu of that, the library decided to--shorten the loan period for books back to two weeks instead of three (more I think about it hurts slow readers or our English as second language friends). Increase overdue fees to .30/per day. New non-Resident fee of $25. Increase the collections fee to $15. Among other recent increases--photocopier fee increase to .25. I'm sure I am forgetting other increases, but you get the idea. Yes, careful what you wish for indeed. Ha. Ha.

Public Libraries more popular than ever

Videos stores beware.

TKO

The company that provides every L.A. Public Library with "free" wireless is called Telkonet Inc. with it's Ethostream service. Listed on the AMEX (I've been watching the stock for almost two years), is trading at near its yearly low @ .44/share even though it reported a recent revenue increase. I don't know how long the the city's contract with the company is, but how hard could it possibly be for the city to provide its own wireless service?

More library related news/insights/adventures to come....hang on tight.