MEANINGFUL POLITICAL DIALOGUE

An actual e-mail from a reader concerning the Joe Wilson sidebar (mysterious and racist "ebonics" reference left intact) :

From: xxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 12:32 PM
To: sterrell@sfnewmexican.com
Subject: 'LAME' PLAME and JOE'the putz'WILSON

The questions you should be axsking(ebonics spelling) is why did VALERIE PLAME or her 'real' maiden name state that "...she (PLAME)wanted to marry rich and no just be a secretary at C.I.A. anymore"??? Mrs. WILSON and her husband seemed to enjoy 'outing' themselves in WHO'S WHO - don't-ch-think??? Oh sorry you are part of the NATIONAL ASSHOLE MEDIA - you don't or can't think!!!

Zyskandar A. Jaimot, Orlando, Fl.


My reply:


Thanks for your thoughtful note.

Actually I'm not part of the National Asshole Media. Just the local asshole media.

Have a good holiday,

swt

Steve Terrell
Santa Fe New Mexican
1368 Cerrillos Road
Santa Fe NM 87505


UPDATE!

I just got this clever retort:

From: xxx
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 1:58 PM
To: sterrell@sfnewmexican.com
Subject: RE: 'LAME' PLAME and JOE'the putz'WILSON


glad you admitted you are an ASSHOLE

have a great 4th hope a cracker gets up your ass!

JADOO YOU!

My brother Jack Clift just posted on YouTube four videos of his Uzbek band Jadoo playing live in Tashkent.

I've only seen the first one. Great music and lovely dancers!


You can find all of Jadoo's videos HERE

JOE WILSON ON THE LIBBY COMMUTATION

This probably will be on The New Mexican's site by the morning, but just in case ...

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 3, 2007

Commuting the prison sentence of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby raises questions of whether President Bush is now an active participant in obstructing justice, former Ambassador Joe Wilson told The New Mexican on Monday.

“I’m outraged,” Wilson — whose wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a CIA agent by Bush administration figures — said in a telephone interview. “The question for President Bush is if, in commuting this sentence, are you not an accessory or participant in the obstruction of justice in ensuring that Libby will never be forced to tell the truth?”

President Bush on Monday commuted the 2 1/2-year prison sentence of Libby, former chief of staff of Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators in the Plame case.

Wilson, Plame and their children moved to Santa Fe this year.

Wilson said the action on behalf of Libby means “the president can no longer hide behind an ongoing investigation. He could instruct the special prosecutor to release (Bush’s) interview with the special prosecutor and the vice president’s interview, so we can learn what is the cloud hanging over Vice President Cheney.”

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has spoken of a “cloud” hanging over Cheney in the Plame scandal.

“Congress ought to conduct an investigation of whether or not the president is himself a participant in the obstruction of justice,” Wilson said.

Although outraged, Wilson said he wasn’t surprised by Bush commuting Libby’s sentence. “I’ve seen enough of this administration to realize they are capable of this,” he said.

Wilson and Plame last year sued Cheney, Libby, White House political director Karl Rove and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Armitage has admitted leaking Plame’s name to conservative columnist Robert Novak, who published it after confirming it with Rove. The civil suit is still pending in federal court.

In February 2002, the CIA sent Wilson to Niger to investigate a claim that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy enriched “yellowcake” uranium. He concluded the story was false. The next year, he wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times accusing the Bush administration of exaggerating the threat of Iraq to justify going to war.

Soon after, White House officials informed some journalists, including Novak, that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA.

Several Democratic presidential candidates, including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, decried Libby’s commutation.

“The arrogance of this administration’s disdain for the law and its belief it operates with impunity are breathtaking,” Richardson said in a news release. “Will the President also commute the sentences of others who obstructed justice and lied to grand juries, or only those who act to protect President Bush and Vice President Cheney?”

PETTERSEN ON YOUTUBE

Ed Pettersen has just posted some videos of his songs on YouTube. More people should know about this guy.

The first song, "Baghdad," is on Ed's recent album The New Punk Blues.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, July 1, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
I Wanna Live by Iggy Pop
Bone Broke by The White Stripes
Psycho Daiseys by The Hentchmen
Sealings by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Sick of Sex by Daisy Chainsaw
I Just Might Crack by April March
Veronica Fever by The Raveonettes
The City Never Sleeps by The Fall
Rub Every Muscle by Half Japanese
Marie Douceur Marie Colere by Marie Laforet

Buried Alive by The Black Lips
Don't Tease Me by ? & The Mysterians
Coney Island Steeplechase by The Velvet Underground
Voodoo Idol by The Cramps
Oh That's Good, No, That's Bad by Sam the Sham & Pharoahs
Deputy Dawg by Great Gaylord & The Friggs
Murder in My Heart for the Judge by Moby Grape
Heart by The Remains
Animal Girl by The Standells
It's a Hard Life by The Seeds

I've Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body) by Parliament
Joe Tex by Buddy Miles
Chicken Heads by Bobby Rush
Soul Town by The Motherhood
Black Snake Moan by Samuel L. Jackson
Joy in Repetition by Prince
Slinky by The Dynomites featuring Charles Walker

Ghost Surfer by The Surf Lords
Goldfinger by Webb Wilder
Um Expectro Sem Escala Man or Astroman
Insense & Peppermints by The Strawberry Alarm Clock
You Wear Your Dresses Too Short by The Jefferson Airplane
Trying to Get to You by Elvis Presley
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

NEW CATEGORY HERE: YOUTUBE MUSIC

I've decided to add a new category to this blog, "YouTube Music" so you, gentle reader, will have an easy time finding my posts concerning Conway Twitty & The Residents, "The Night That Porter Wagoner Came to Town," some of my suggestions for Bill Richardson campaign themes, Dino & Ricky, etc.

Anytime you want to see my YouTube music collection, just click on the link under "Categories" in the column always found on the right of my blog page.

To celebrate this great moment, here's a few of my favorites I haven't posted before now:

Love them Collins Kids!



Here's Frank Zappa speaking truth to power to Congress in the '80s. This is just the first of four segments. Find the others HERE



More important sociological discourse:

JOHNNY & SATCH

Yes children, there was a time in which GIANTS WALKED HE EARTH!

This must be from Johnny Cash's ABC TV show circa '69-70. Here he sings Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #9," which Louis Armstrong orginally recorded with the Singing Brakeman in 1930.

KSFR GETS BIGGER SIGNAL

It's true, KSFR's signal is increasing and the station will be moving up to 101.1 on the FM dial.

Basically it means we can be heard from Taos to Albuquerque -- though I understand the signal will only penetrate the northern part of Albuquerque.

Here's John Sena's story in The New Mexican.

Here's the KSFR site.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 29, 2007
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org


OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Poor Me by Big Al Anderson & The Balls
A Girl Like That by Steve Earle
Close Up the Honky Tonks by Bill Hearne's Roadhouse Revue
The Old Man and the River by Johnny Paycheck
Don't Go Back to Sleep by Patty Booker
Yellow Mama by Dale Watson
My Many Hurried Southern Trips by Porter Wagner
Blistered by Johnny Cash
Collegiana by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Never Settle For Less/Movin' by Lovin' by ThaMuseMeant
New Delhi Freight Train by Terry Allen
Steeple Full of Sparrows by The Gourds
Too Many Rivers by Webb Wilder
Soba Song by 3 Mustaphas 3
You Took My Thing and Put it In Your Place by C.W. Stoneking

To Begin Again by Goshen
Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
Catch Me a Possum by The Watzloves
Jole Blon by Waylon Jennings
Born in 1947 by Ronny Elliott
Caves of Burgandy by Boris & The Saltlicks

Bayou Beauty by Ronnie Dawson
One Endless Night by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Exit 194 B by Richmond Fontaine
Can't You See I'm Soulful by Eleni Mandell
Underneath the Stars by Peter Case
Trying to Get Home by David Bromberg
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BACK TO THE GARAGE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 29, 2007

The modern-day garage band refuses to die. In fact, some garage bands from the distant past refuse to die as well.

Here’s a look at some recent noise coming out of the allegorical garage.

*Hentch-Forth.Five by The Hentchmen. The Hentchmen is a Detroit band that arose in the mid-’90s steeped in the noble tradition of Michigan bands of previous eras such as The Stooges, ? and the Mysterians, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, and Amboy Dukes.

As documented on the 2001 compilation The Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit, bands like The Hentchmen, The Dirtbombs, The Von Bondies, and The Detroit Cobras got back to rock ’n’ roll basics in a most delicious way. However only one of the Sympathetic Sounds bands actually made it big — The White Stripes, a duo well on its way to glory when that compilation was released.

On Hentch-Forth.Five, originally released in 1998, The Hentchmen, led by Farfisa fiend John Hentch (aka John Szymanski, aka Johnny Volare), had a bass player named Jack White who went on to become singer and guitarist for The White Stripes. Detroit’s Italy Records has remastered the album, originally released on vinyl only, and rereleased it last week — on the same day The White Stripes’ new album, Icky Thump, was released. That’s a complete coincidence I’m sure, and if you don’t believe that, you’re probably one of those evil cynics who believe that campaign contributions to politicians are somehow connected to government policies favorable to the contributor.

But no matter what marketing forces might be behind it, I’m glad they made this album available again.

It starts off with a hopped-up guitar rocker called “Some Other Guy,” in which White and Hentch harmonize like the early Beatles. You can almost envision a John Lennon-like toilet seat around White’s neck as he wails.

And the music doesn’t let up. From there it goes into a song called “Psycho Daisies,” an obscure Yardbirds tune that namechecks American locales. Sample lyrics: “Down in Mississippi I’m told is nice/ But all the meals there, they come with rice.” There are actually two versions of this on the new version of the album, the “extended version” being one second longer than the shorter one.

The Hentchmen, who celebrate their 15th anniversary this Halloween, haven’t released a new album in about three years. Hope they’ve got more coming.

This record is available at the usual online sources. I downloaded my copy from eMusic.

* Los Valientes Del Mondo Nuevo by The Black Lips. I used to fantasize about recording a live album from the Spiral Staircase club in Juárez, Mexico. These Georgia rockers had a similar idea. They went and recorded a live album in a bar in Tijuana.

The Black Lips should team up with the San Diego group Deadbolt, whose 1996 album Tijuana Hit Squad might be a secret spiritual antecedent of this record.

Calling their sound “flower punk” (anyone remember the Frank Zappa song of that name?), the Lips are just a good, basic, primitive, lo-fi, minimalist rock ’n’ roll group with grimy echoes of “Psychotic Reaction” and the Blues Magoos. The Lips is basically a guitar group, colored sometimes by electric piano and harmonica.

The Lips get almost pretty on the early-’50s-sounding “Dirty Hands,” then recall the Rolling Stones’ “Mother’s Little Helper” on “Buried Alive,” which features a Middle Eastern-sounding guitar riff. The unison singing on “Fairy Stories” (“... my daddy has a gun ... ” ) reminds me of an even sloppier version of The Dead Milkmen. “Hippie Hippie Hoorah” is a slow-burning teaser that sounds as if it’s on the verge of exploding but never quite does.

Atmosphere is everything. On Los Valientes, you can hear the crowd going crazy, throwing bottles, heckling in two languages. Now and then stray mariachi music wafts through the proceedings. The liner notes describe the band meeting a “nylon-suit-clad mexi-sexual drug dealer” in the bathroom and local prostitutes performing lascivious acts onstage as the band plays.

Can’t wait for the DVD.

* The Remains. This is a bonus-fortified reissue of a 1966 album by a Boston band that never quite hit despite touring with The Beatles, having a major-label contract, and appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show and Hullabaloo.

Barry Tashian, the singer in The Remains — not to be confused with the tacky local band The Charred Remains — went on to a respectable post-Remains career. He played on Gram Parsons’ first solo album and played for most of the ’80s with Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band. He’s made several bluegrass-flavored albums with his wife, Holly.

According to their Web site, “The Tashians are available for all types of concerts, music camps, church services, workshops and festivals worldwide.” That’s a long way from the proverbial garage, but it beats the proverbial carwash.

The group, initially known as Barry & The Remains, wasn’t quite ready for music camp, but back in the ’60s it didn’t seem as wild and uninhibited as some of its proto-punk contemporaries like The Seeds, The Standells, etc. It’s not just the dorky suit and ties, as seen in The Remains CD booklet. The group’s sound was milder and a little slicker too.

The producer on several of the tracks is Nashville’s Billy Shirell, who is far better known for his work with George Jones and Tammy Wynette.

Still, there are some cool tracks here. One of my favorites is the first, “Heart,” a Petula Clark song (!) that starts out slow before it unleashes the rock. There are also fine covers of Charlie Rich’s “Lonely Weekend” and Bo Diddley’s “Diddy Wah Diddy” and original rockers like “Why Do I Cry” and “Time of Day,” which has an irresistible fuzztone.