Also out now is Joanna Newsom’s three-disc epic Have One on Me, the much-anticipated follow-up to the harpist’s Ys. Newsom’s latest album represents a huge step forward for the singer, both lyrically and musically, with tracks like “Good Intentions Paving Company” and “‘81″ among the best she’s written in her young career. Incredibly expansive at over two hours long, “The work repays attentive listens more than casual ones. But beware: Love may ensue,” Will Hermes writes in his three-and-a-half star review.
That's from Rolling Stone and three-and-a-half star? Had a man made the exact same album, RS would have given it a better rating. That's so typical of that crap-fest magazine. (For those who don't know, the RS joke is "three stars means never having to say you're sorry." That's the joke among the RS staff. So if you're not sure, give it three and if it's a hit you won't look stupid. Point? The album got a C grade.) I much prefer Hobey Echlin's review at ARTINFO:
Joanna Newsom makes music sound like art should look: well-crafted enough to marvel at its making, but seamless enough to still allow the interplay of light and shadow that gives way to (hopefully) worlds of experience in between. You don't so much listen to Newsom's latest Have One On Me (Drag City) as you try to simply absorb it as best you can. With three disc's worth of music clocking in at over two hours long, you can't help but be awe-struck by Newsom's expansive but intimate articulations in the unfolding, winding music that always seems a beat behind her sung-spoken lyrics. Even at seven minutes into a song—or perhaps more accurately, exactly because it is seven minutes into a song—there is never a lack of new things to say as the lyrics poke through cottony layers of sound. It's what Freud called the uncanny, that undertow of things at once new but somehow familiar that all great art has, and that Newsom effortlessly sustains with her echolalian vocabulary of Applachia-Americana-folk-roots-mystical-classical—the harp is her primary instrument for God's sake—in songs that can never be reduced to mere verse, chorus, bridge or, one can scarcely imagine, a hook.
Scott Curtis (In Utah This Week) focuses on one song, "Does Not Suffice:"
The final stanza brings into sharp focus a simple, and often unnoticed, outcome of a failed relationship, "The tap of hangers swaying in the closet/Unburdened hooks and empty drawers/And everywhere I tried to love you/Is yours again and only yours," but before it ends, and closes the album, we get 1:20 of thrashing piano to communicate, sonically, the oncoming emotional pain.
The song that's sticking with me the most today is "Baby Birch." And Paula I. Ibieta (Harvard Crimson) reviews the album but we'll focus on what she has to say about that song:
“Baby Birch,” the sixth track, also demonstrates Newsom’s ability to successfully adapt and transform previously-unexplored styles. Newsom’s voice takes on only the slightest, airy twang so that the song recalls the style of Neko Case. But the track, which approaches ten minutes in length, goes beyond a mere regurgitation of alternative country. Haphazard slips of electric guitar and banjo accent a languid harp—which, in typical Newsom style, she fits perfectly into this country song—and as the song proceeds, dramatic harp and guitar cadences alternately build up and descend. Haunting vocal harmonies and forceful drum beats later give way to an Asian-inspired melody, rendering the song difficult to classify by conventional standards, yet still easy to listen to.
Pick up the album, Have One On Me, and see what stands out the most to you. Bonnie Kate Walker (U2 Interference) has an amazing review:
The lyrical enterprise of Have One On Me is a brave departure for Newsom, daring to let her listeners have more insight into the intense emotions that underlie the songs she writes. Though in past work Newsom deftly disguised her experiences in abstracted narratives, she now refers to them explicitly yet without losing an ounce of her poetic grace, “I was tired of being drunk. My face cracked like a joke…I shaped up overnight, you know, the day after she died, when I saw my heart—and I’ll tell you darlin, it was open wide…I can love you again.” Though at times her not-so-covert yet vague allusions to an Eastern orientation can seem kitschy (or at least predictable), Newsom for the most part makes use of her pension for metaphors and striking imagery to reach the listener on a new level of intimacy.
That's just a paragraph, you want to read her entire review. She's a real writer. I'm not saying that because I agree with her (though I do agree with her), I'm saying that because it's true. She's got the chops to go back into the 60s and 70s and hold her own with Lester Bangs, et al. She's that talented as a writer. And if you use the link, check out the photos of Joanna. I think the second one down is the photo that the label should be using in promotional materials.
I'd use it if I were over the ad campaign. And I'd pull-quote from the review by Nicola Meighan (The List): "Did I mention it’s also over two hours long? It is not long enough."
It really is a great album. It's more than great.
This is the album (in answer to Juan's e-mail) that I had planned to review not last weekend (when I reviewed it) but the weekend before that. From that weekend, Feb. 21st, at Third's roundtable:
Ty: Okay, let's move to Kat. John K e-mails to ask about the CD reviews. He notes you promised one this weekend and then pulled it. He wonders why you haven't reviewed Sade's new CD?
Kat: Well, John K., you should have written me. If you'd e-mailed me before Friday, I'd be reviewing Sade's new CD this week. I love that CD. But I've been waiting on a CD. Why? I do think it's a valid criticism that I review major artists and only them. That's not intentional. And in other years, I picked up and trumpeted many smaller artists. However, in those years, I had Tower and I could walk in and grab a wide variety. These days? Downloading really doesn't lend itself to experimentation for me. So I wanted my first review to be of a smaller label artist. I asked around and around and finally C.I. helped me. I say "finally" because I asked many people before C.I. I don't mean that I asked and asked and C.I. just blew me off. So I asked C.I. around -- I think it was January 13th. C.I. said, "Really? There's a great artist who is putting out an album in February." And I get the back story on that artist, recording on a label I've never heard of. C.I. gives me two albums by the artist and I'm blown away by that. Last week, on the road, I'm listening to the new album and planning to review it in a review that would be posted today. But I didn't realize that it was breaking street date. Meaning my review would go up before the album was out. Big deal? Here's the thing, and it should be familiar to you, you go to the store intending to pick up a book. It's a book you just heard about it. You go in, they don't have it. You tell yourself, "Next time." Next time, you're looking for a different book you've just heard of. This is a small label and an artist not known to the degree of, say, Alicia Keyes. So I want my review to go up when the album is available in stores and for download so that no one says, "I'll remember to check that out!" but then forgets. However, I feel awful that I said I'd do a review this weekend and couldn't once I found out I was breaking street date. So if John had written me, I would've written a review of Sade just to keep my word. And I do listen to the new Sade constantly.
So when my reviews went up over the weekend, I grabbed Sade for John and to apologize for not doing the announced review (but I didn't want to break street date):
Torch singer Sade
Joanna Newsom's triumph
But I was also thinking, when the Joanna review went up, "Man, I wish I could have been first out of the gate." I still do. But I'm glad to see all these reviews from Monday and today (all above are from today) because (a) I love these reviews and (b) I don't feel last in line. It's like I was waiting and waiting for the next teller at the bank and then someone got in line behind me and I didn't feel so bad.
I have a feeling there will be many, many more reviews of Joanna's album because it's so damn amazing.
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Tuesday, March 2, 2010. Chaos and violence continue, the elections heat up, charges and countercharges fly, Nouri's desire to continue as prime minister meets obstacles, 2880 US service members have died in the Iraq War in the last five years, and more.
Yesterday evening, US Gen David Petraeus spoke with Law Professor Mike Newton at Vanderbilt University and the college has posted the talk online. Along with showing a lighter side than many may be used to -- he joked about when he was shot and how "You don't get a Purple Heart for getting shot by your own troops -- unfortunately" and, we'll note, he had the assembled laughing repeatedly. No one laughed -- though maybe they should have -- when he declared Iraq "the most democratic country in the Central Command area of responsibility" ("It might actually be Iraq, believe it or not."). He went to
Gen David Petraeus: What we have done there is been part of the international community, led by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, other elements that help with election monitoring and guidance and expertise. We have supported the Iraqi development of the security plan which they will carry out. We'll do some enabling, you know, our UAVs will be up, our intelligence gathering platforms, we'll provide a vareity of different forms of assistance. But they'll be the ones securing the polling places. And there will be thousands of polling places in Iraq. I forget how many tens of thousands of candidates there are, by the way. So this is certainly the way we'd like as we approach it. Now again, touch wood, there are threat streams out there, there are challenges -- al Qaeda desperately wants to disrupt this process. There are some other elements in society there that want to intimidate people. But at the end of the day, I think this is again roughly what we'd like to see in other countries. You know, by the way, one of the test questions that somebody gave me in one of these the other day is one that we've asked ourselves: "What's the most democratic country in the Central Command area of responsibility?" Remember those 20 countries? Egypt in the West, Pakistan in the North, Kazakstan in the west, Yemen in the south. It might actually be Iraq, believe it or not. Now you know some will argue Lebanon -- a pretty tough one. It's an itneresting political dynamic there. It's a pretty tough one. If you get it wrong there, you may not see the sun rise again. But, by and large, this is, in that region, an example of some form of representative and responsive governence -- again, touch wood -- that it continues and a strong man doesn't try take over and pull all the reigns of power to himself But I'm not sure that they'll let him. Again to elect the next prime minister will require a cross-sectaraian, cross-ethnic, cross-political coalition. You cannot be elected as a prime minister if you don't pull in -- Obviously it's going to be a Shia. We would suspect -- it's a Shia predominate country, well over 50% are Shia, 20% or so or Sunni, 18 percent or so Kurd, somewhere in there, and then some other minority elements Christians, Yazidis, Shabbat, Turkmen and so on. Well at the end of the day it's going to take one of the major Shia parties, probably pulling in some of the minor Shi'ite parties. It's going to take a major Sunni contribution. And it's going to take the Kurdish parties which tend in national elections to unify. And that's what it will require so it's going to be a team effort.
As Dominic Waghorn (Sky News) observes, "Iraq is preparing to go to the polls in an election that will be turning point for the country, for better or for worse." Waghorn reports from Jordan which is one of 16 foreign countries that voting will take place in. Voting begins March 5th and ends Sunday March 7th. In Iraq, Patrick Martin (Globe and Mail) says that "fear has become the currency of this campaign" and how it is thought to be unlikely that any single political party will win enough seats in the Parliament to appoint a prime minister without entering into coalition sharing agreements with other political parties. Martin informs that Nouri al-Maliki states publicly that he will form an alliance with the Iraqi National Alliance after the election but that's news to them and Sheik Jalal Eddin al-Saghir pronounces it "Impossible" and adding, "There can be no dictator in a true coalition." Gulf News offers a look at the candidates they consider to be contenders for prime minister. War Hawk Kenneth M. Pollack (Brookings Institution) gets one right, "The Iraqi elections are wide open and it is impossible to predict a clear winner with any degree of confidence." Hasan Kanbolat (Today's Zaman via Turkish Press) states, "The most powerful political party in Iraq is Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party. However, nationawide this party can count on only about 20 percent of the vote, so it will have to search for coalition partners." Martin Chulov (Guardian) reports that, while some polling indicates Nouri's State of Law Party will perform well, "it cannot win a majority of the new parliament's 352 seats without one of two post-election coalitions, both of whom say they will not countenance him being renominated as prime minister." Cholov quotes voter Hassan al-Kaisi on the campaigning by all the politicians, "All of them want to talk to us for two weeks every four years. Then they will disappear again behind their barricades, and start counting all the money they have stolen." Marc Santora (New York Times) adds, "Across the country, voters are reaping a windfall as candidates in Sunday's parliamentary elections offer gifts like heating oil and rice. When a candidate recently showed up in a poor village outside Baquba to distribute frozen chickens -- in literal homage to the political slogan 'a chicken in every pot' -- so many people rushed to get the free birds that many left disappointed after the supply ran out."
Reporting from Diyala Province, Andrew Lee Butters (Time magazine)notes Abdul-Nasser al-Mahdwe, the governor, is "more worried about an elite counterterrroism unit run by Maliki's office, which ihe acuses of arresting scores of opposition politicians and government critics in Diyala." Rebecca Santana (AP) reports on Kirkuk where election excitement/frenzy appears to be at a peak within Iraq as people stand in the streets waving flags and campaign paraphernalia while Gabriel Gatehouse (BBC News) reports, "With less than a week to go until the Parliamentary vote, the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities have become crowded with election posters." Andrew England (Financial Times of London) provides this view of Baghdad, "Security is noticeably tight as the Imams' Bridge, even by Baghdad standards. Pedestrians are frisked from shoulder to toe; vehicles are thoroughly searched at a police checkpoint lined by concrete blast walls and none carrying weapons is allowed to pass."Today on NPR's Morning Edition, Quil Lawrence discussed various issues of the election with Renee Montagne.
Renee Montagne: Now one thing that American officials who are trying to stay out of this, you know, but they have long worried about Arab-Kurdish tension in Iraq. Are you seeing those tensions coming out in the election?
Quil Lawrence: Absolutely, it's almost part of the campaign, particularly in the province of Nineveh, the capital of which is Mosul, in the north of Iraq. There is an extremely -- well, an Arab nationalist governor up there and he won his election essentially by stoking ethnic tensions and we had the same thing break out last month. Governor Atheel al-Najafi decided to take a trip into one of the disputed territories near the city of Mosul. He has every right to go there legally. He's the governor of the province, but he certainly knew that he would be going through a Kurdish town. It's sort of like the Nazi march through Skokie, Illinois, if you ask the Kurds about it. It's extremely inflammatory.
Reneee Montagne: And Skokie, of course, many of its citizens had survived the Holocaust.
Quil Lawrence: Exactly, exactly. That would be the way the Kurds would interpret this. When the governo came through, there were peple who greeted him with eggs and tomatoes and he says that there was even an assassination attempt. His bodyguards grabbed 11 people from the crowd and arrested them and took them all the way back to Mosul.
Rumors are political currency in Iraq. Alalam reports rumors, which Nouri denies, that popular cleric Muqtada al-Sadr would be arrested if he returned to Iraq (he is presumed to be in Iran currently). DPA reports that Nouri and Sadrists are in the midst of an accusation exchange and they quote the spokesperson for the Sadrist bloc, Salah al-Obeidi, stating that the rumors of arresting al-Sadr came from Nouri's office. . Henry Meyer (Bloomberg News) reports Nouri's charging "unspecified neighboring countries of funding his opponents in" the election. Buying elections? We'll again note Martin Chulov (Guardian) report that Saad al-Alusi, formerly of Iraq's National Intelligence Service, has accused Nouri of giving southern tribal leaders huge numbers of guns (apparently 10,000) in order to buy their votes. Nouri's mouthpiece Ali al-Dabbagh insists that, yes, the guns were given, but it was long planned for them to be given so this wasn't a bribe and had nothing to do with the elections. Hassen Jouini (AFP) reports on another candidate vying for votes, Sharif Ali bin Hussein who is a relative, on his mother's side, of Iraq's King Ghazi who rulled from 1933 through 1939. Hussein now heads the Constitutional Monarchy Party in Iraq. Jouini notes, "The realities of Iraq have hampered any effort at campaigning for most would-be MPs, however - violence in the country remains high, despite having fallen markedly from its peak from 2005 to 2007, and candidates fear political assassinations. Sharif Ali is no different. While he has some posters scattered across the capital and conducts interviews with television news stations in his home, he is not organising public rallies or distributing flyers on the street."
KPCC offers another report from Quil Lawrence which includes:The race even includes a prominent cleric running with his own strictly secular party. Ayad Jamal al-Din studied at the world's most famous Shiite religious schools in Najaf and the Iranian city of Qom. The black turban he wears indicates that his family descends directly from the Prophet Muhammad. But Jamal al-Din says this doesn't mean he wants an Islamic state.Iran and the theocracy there have hijacked the Shiite turban, he says, adding that he believes the vast majority -- even among clerics -- thinks that Iranian-style government has been a failure. What people in Iraq want is very simple, he says."The Iraqi on the street wants security and services. [He] does not think of a secular or religious government, just services and security," Jamal al-Din says.Ayad Jamal Aldin is the leader of the Ahrar Party and today they issued the following:
The leader of the Ahrar Pary 374, Ayad Jamal Aldin, today urged voters not to boycott this weekend's parliamentary elections
He targeted the Iraqi diaspora who will vote on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with his message of change.
Ayad Jamal Aldin said: "It is vital that every Iraqi living outside the country that can vote, does vote.
"Every Iraqi who does not vote is tacitly supporting the decline, division and destruction of our country. Those who do not vote are choosing an Iraq of violence, intimidation, and sectarianism.
"This government has lost control and is being driven by people determined to divide and destroy Iraq for their own ends.
"There is more violence and more bloodshed today because these influences are fearful of the Iraqi people. They fear us because they know that this weekend, the power is with the people.
"This weekend, every Iraqi gets to make a choice between more of the same - more violence, more division, and more corruption or a change for the better with security, unity, and jobs.
"I urge all Iraqis, regardless of religion or sect, to exercise your power and vote for a peaceful and united Iraq, free from corruption and outside influences."
For further information, contact:
Ahrar Media BureauTel: +964 (0)790 157 4478 / +964 (0)790 157 4479 / +964 (0)771 275 2942press@ahrarparty.com
About Ayad Jamal Aldin:
Ayad Jamal Aldin is a cleric, best known for his consistent campaigning for a new, secular Iraq. He first rose to prominence at the Nasiriyah conference in March 2003, shortly before the fall of Saddam, where he called for a state free of religion, the turban and other theological symbols. In 2005, he was elected as one of the 25 MPs on the Iraqi National List, but withdrew in 2009 after becoming disenchanted with Iyad Allawi's overtures to Iran. He wants complete independence from Iranian interference in Iraq. He now leads the Ahrar party for the 2010 election to the Council of Representatives, to clean up corruption and create a strong, secure and liberated Iraq for the future.
Iraqi voters are also outside the country which is why 16 other countries will have plling stations. Iraq's Sunni vice president Tarek al-Hashemi is in Syria. For those who have forgotten, al-Hashemi vetoed (as a member of the presidency council) an early election law in late 2009 citing the fact that it did not take into account Iraq's large refugee population. Alsumaria TV reports that he "thanked Syria for its 'historic' stand of embracing refugees despite bilateral political rows." Iran's Press TV notes that he "is also expected to meet with representatives of hs countr's expatriates" while in Syria.
While the candidates cannot move freely and many Iraqis are out of the country, the drones will move freely and have free reign in Iraq. Alsumaria TV reports that drones will be used to patrol throughout the elections. Meanwhile Afif Sarhan (IslamOnline.net) reports on Christian candidates in Mosul where Christians are being persecuted with some being murdered (at least 12) and many more fleeing. Candidate Kammar Bashar tells Sarhan, "The only loser in all this violence is our minority which, although representing only 5 percent of the parliamentary seats, is being the first choice for extremists and militants in the northern region."Independent Catholic News reports, "Pax Christi International have submitted a written intervention for the 13th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva which opened yesterday. In the [document], Pax Christi highlights the desperate situation of Iraq's minorities which are in danger of being wiped out." Yesterday's snapshot included:The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a [PDF format warning] four-page report entitled "Iraq Displacement in Mosul, Situation Report No. 1" which notes the 683 families who have fled Mosul between Feb. 20 and 27, and notes that 12 Iraqi Christians have been killed during this time period. (At least one other was wounded but survived a shooting.) The displaced have scattered but the largest number, 331 families, have settled for now in Qaraqosh.OCHA has released [PDF format warning] "Iraq Displacement in Mosul Situation Report No. 2" which notes the total number of Iraqi Christians fleeing Mosul has now reached 4,320 (720 families -- a 5% increase)The 720 displaced families are in the two Ninewa districts of Al Hamdaniyah and Tilkaif (204 families) and have also crossed over to Erbil and Dahuk governorates (17 families in Dahuk and 23 families in Ainkawa in Erbil governorate). The number of IDPs in Qaraqosh in Al Hamdaniya district has increased to 278 families (1,668 people) and 35 families (210 people) have moved to Namrood, while the number of IDPs in other Al Hamdaniya districts remains the same as reported on 28 February, i.e. 60 families (360 people) in Bartalah; 66 families (396 people) in Bashiqa; and 22 families (132 people) in Krmales. Those in Tilkaif town in Talkaif district have decreased from 40 to 16 families; Batnay has increased to 63 families (378 people); Tal Usquf has increased to 91 families (546 people); and Alqosh has increased to 84 families (504 people).There are protection concerns for the Christian families who have remained in Mosul. Unconfirmed reports indicate that many individuals cannot move freely beyond their homes, such as going to work or attending university, out of fear for their safety. At present, it remains unclear how many Christian families were residing in Mosul before the displacement. Furthermore, the motives for and perpetrators of the killings of 12 Christians during January and February 2010, which triggered the recent displacement, are still not clear.
Saturday February 20th, AFP reported that Adnan al-Dahan has become the fifth Iraqi-Christian killed that week (at least one other has been wounded) and that the shopkeeper's corpse was found today in Mosul. His family is among the over 700 that have fled Mosul as Christians have again been targeted. Jane Arraf (Christian Science Monitor) speaks with them including Warda, his widow, who explains why they didn't leave Mosul earlier (her husband had been kidnapped and returned when a ransom was paid), "He said 'if all of us Christians leave, who is going to stay in the land of the prophets and pray in our churches?' He said 'we were all born in Mosul and we will die in Mousl'." (You can also read Arraf's article here.) Independent Catholic News reports, "Pax Christi International have submitted a written intervention for the 13th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva which opened yesterday. In the [document], Pax Christi highlights the desperate situation of Iraq's minorities which are in danger of being wiped out." Yesterday's snapshot included:The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a [PDF format warning] four-page report entitled "Iraq Displacement in Mosul, Situation Report No. 1" which notes the 683 families who have fled Mosul between Feb. 20 and 27, and notes that 12 Iraqi Christians have been killed during this time period. (At least one other was wounded but survived a shooting.) The displaced have scattered but the largest number, 331 families, have settled for now in Qaraqosh.OCHA has released [PDF format warning] "Iraq Displacement in Mosul Situation Report No. 2" which notes the total number of Iraqi Christians fleeing Mosul has now reached 4,320 (720 families -- a 5% increase)The 720 displaced families are in the two Ninewa districts of Al Hamdaniyah and Tilkaif (204 families) and have also crossed over to Erbil and Dahuk governorates (17 families in Dahuk and 23 families in Ainkawa in Erbil governorate). The number of IDPs in Qaraqosh in Al Hamdaniya district has increased to 278 families (1,668 people) and 35 families (210 people) have moved to Namrood, while the number of IDPs in other Al Hamdaniya districts remains the same as reported on 28 February, i.e. 60 families (360 people) in Bartalah; 66 families (396 people) in Bashiqa; and 22 families (132 people) in Krmales.Those in Tilkaif town in Talkaif district have decreased from 40 to 16 families; Batnay has increased to 63 families (378 people); Tal Usquf has increased to 91 families (546 people); and Alqosh has increased to 84 families (504 people).There are protection concerns for the Christian families who have remained in Mosul. Unconfirmed reports indicate that many individuals cannot move freely beyond their homes, such as going to work or attending university, out of fear for their safety. At present, it remains unclear how many Christian families were residing in Mosul before the displacement. Furthermore, the motives for and perpetrators of the killings of 12 Christians during January and February 2010, which triggered the recent displacement, are still not clear.
We'll again note that Vatican Radio (link has text and audio) provided Pope Benedict XVI speaking Sunday at St. Peter's Square where he addressed the persecution in Mosul:
Pope Benedict XVI: I have learned with profound sadness of the tragic news of the recent killings of several Christians in the city of Mosul, and I follow with great concern other episodes of violence, perpetrated in the troubled land of Iraq against defenceless people of different religious affiliation. In these days of intense meditation, I often prayed for all victims of those attacks, and today I wish to join in the spirit to pray for peace and the restoration of security, promoted by the Council of Bishops of Nineveh. I am affectionately close to the Christian communities of the entire country. Never tire of being a leaven for good in the country in which you have fully belonged for centuries. In the delicate political phase that Iraq is going through I appeal to the civil authorities, to make every effort to restore security to the population and, in particular, the most vulnerable religious minorities. I hope the temptation is not given into temporary and partisan interests allowing them to prevail over the safety and fundamental rights of every citizen. Finally, while greeting the Iraqis here in the square, I urge the international community to strive to give the Iraqis a future of reconciliation and justice, as I invoke Almighty God with confidence for the precious gift of peace.
Catholic News Agency quotes Auxilary Bishop of Baghdad Shlemon Warduni on the reaction to Pope Benedict XVI's words, "We are thankful to Benedict XVI, we know how much he cares about our community: we hope that his voice has a resonance in the world and especially in the hard of heart." Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Reuters notes a Mosul roadside bombing left one woman and her son injured, a Mosul grenade attack on a school that will also be a polling station -- two Iraqi soldiers were injured.
Shootings?
Reuters notes 1 person was shot dead in Mosul.
It was five years ago today, Pete Brekus (Express-Times) reminds that, "the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq reached 1,500." Five years later, the death toll stands at 4380. The wounded count is less reliable. There are those with obvious wounds and those who carry wounds not readily visible. Citizen Soldier is organizing a conference on PTSD:
When the War Comes Home: Soldiers and Civilians in Crisis National Conference on PTSD co-sponsored by Citizen Soldier and the Trauma Studies Center of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy
Saturday, Apri 3, 20101, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. University Settlement: 273 Bowery
Alison Boggs (Spokesman-Review) reports on Iraq War veteran Kenny McAnally who is among the over 40,000 US troops diagnosed with PTSD in the last seven years: McAnally carried those memories for a year with no outlet, until a writing assignment for a North Idaho College class unexpectedly began to release them. It seemed harmless -- write a descriptive story -- but what poured out of him left him bathed in sweat and crying uncontrollably.His writing described his worst day, the one that yanks him from sleep, gasping for air. Some 30 Iraqi National Guardsmen in the camp next door were hit in a mortar attack and he rushed to help. He looked into the eyes of a dying man as he tried to stop the blood pouring from the man's side and leg. He prayed to God that the man would live, only to be told he was already dead."I can still hear those men, lying in the sand, bleeding to death, pleading with their God," he wrote. "Screaming at him. Begging to live another day."Susan Frick Carlman (Naperville Sun) reports on Iraq War veterans Sarah Raby and Keith Ellis who also have been diagnosed with PTSD:The couple, former Marines who have both served two tours of duty in Iraq, can't forget that in some places, a plain-looking box can contain deadly explosives. They are part of a swelling population of military veterans who are bringing home from Iraq and Afghanistan memories of sights, sounds, smells and scars that now dog them, every day. Although Raby and Ellis both exhibit the aftereffects of battle that show themselves as post-traumatic stress disorder, they are doing their best to get on with their lives. They're both working toward associate's degrees at College of DuPage, and Ellis is employed part-time in contractual security work. Normalcy doesn't come easily. The couple and their three young children were homeless for a while last fall, after it became clear that their living arrangements weren't going to work out as they had hoped. Tensions ran too high in the quarters they were sharing with some of Raby's relatives after moving back to the area from California in July. Boston's WCVB reports on PTSD, "Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, took brain scans of vets with PTSD. In those vets, a specific area of the brain responsible for memory was much smaller. Researchers said this discovery could lead to better diagnosis and treatments." Meanwhile Katherine Noble (Daily Texan Staff) reports that University of Texas professors and researchers Ivan Ponomarev and R. Adron Harris are working with others to devise new methods of treatment for PTSD: "When a person undergoes a traumatic event, the parts of the brain set to regulate stress can be overrun to the point where they cannot normalize new fear and stress stimuli. The victim's amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory, is incapable of processing fear-related stimuli. Instead, the amygdala can respond incorrectly to stress, causing the person to be overly anxious in mild-stress situations. Cases of post-traumatic stress disorder are rising among returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. At UT, veterans enrolled at the University can find support through counseling at the UT Counseling and Mental Health Center and through student groups." Susan Goldsmith (The Oregonian) reports on the Portland Vet Center where Lori Daniels works on an effort "to rewrite our own nightmares and make them less troubling" -- a treatment she and Terry McGuire have worked on developing:McGuire and Daniels guided vets to talk about their dream lives and used their answers to help them understand what the trauma meant to them. The technique taught them that "they can be in control of their trauma." These days, Daniels uses guided writing exercises to help patients delve into what haunts them at night. Once the content of the dream is laid out, she encourages vets to come up with a plan for responding to those nightmares. That plan, she explains, might be writing a letter or any other action that ritualizes their grief."The action plan is an essential piece," she says. "One vet really wanted to connect with the guys who died in his unit, and he wrote them a letter."
Susan Donaldson James (ABC News) reports on Kristine Wise's biggest problem which wasn't being an Iraq War veterans or having PTSD, "They [the VA] had a hard time comprehending I was a combat vet and didn't treat me with the same respect." Wise is part of the over 230,000 women in the US military that have been deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan in the last decade. March is Women's History Month and Ruth noted last night that the ACLU (via Chelsea Zimmerman's ACLU Blog of Rights post) celebrated that fact while the feminist (not 'feminist,' it is actually feminist) Women's Media Center decided to 'honor' Women's History Month by publishing a column informing readers of what did and didn't qualify for 'feminity.' That crap needs to stop. That column was offensive and it never should have been posted. You think Kristine Wise, on top of the other flack she gets from the VA, doesn't also catch it from other men and women that either "you weren't in combat!" or "the military's really a job for men"? This crap needs to stop. Feminism (a) isn't concerned with feminity and (b) never attempts to judge which woman is or isn't 'feminine.' In the real world, Nancy McDonald of HerStory Scrapbook notes:
March 2010 is the 30th anniversary of National Women's History Month. The HerStory Scrapbook is a "you-are-there" account of the women who were fighting for, and against, suffrage from 1917 - 1920, as reported by The New York Times.
To celebrate Women's History Month, the HerStory 360° Challenge on the HerStory Scrapbook will answer the question: "What's her story?" by highlighting a different story each day of ninety women who fought for the right to vote. Each woman's story includes internet links to rare, original source material.
Please let your network of friends, colleagues, and students of history know about the HerStory Scrapbook.
Staying with the US for a moment, John Halle (Corrente) notes the issue of those who were wrong about Iraq (cakewalk, et al) such as Thomas Friedman suffered no fall out and points that's true as well for those who refused to see the truth about the Corpratist War Hawk Barack Obama. He covers a wide terrain but we'll note the section on Lie Face Melissa Harris-Lacewell:
Among those selling the Obama product most successfully was another Ivy league Professor, Melissa Harris-Lacewell of Princeton. In increasingly high-profile appearances, Harris-Lacewell repeatedly compared the Obama campaign to iconic moments in the civil rights movements such as the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. Once the Obama administration assumed office, apologetics for neo-liberal rhetoric smoothly transitioned to apologetics for the implementation of neo-liberal policies. These required some logical contortions and more than a little cynicism. Thus, in a stunning Martin Luther Day King posting at the Nation, Harris-Lacewell chose to focus on instances of King's dealmaking, personal failings and sell-outs of core constituencies. The conclusion, according to Harris-Lacewell, was that the comparison of Obama and King remained in force: "extraordinary change can be achieved even through imperfect leadership . . . wholeheartedly groping toward better and fairer solutions for our nation."
It would seem that very few leftists remain who are willing and able to accept the Polyannish equation of the current occupier of the Oval Office with the author of the letter from Birmingham jail. Nor would many grant the benefit of doubt that Obama's "gropings" are anything other than simple capitulations to his primary consistency, the Wall Street brokerage houses, megabanks, insurance companies, energy consortia, and lobbyists who financed his campaign. Given this emerging consensus, one might have expected that Harris-Lacewell's commentaries would be seen as having a limited shelf life while Prof. Reed inconvenient truths would be recognized for what they are: as what we needed to hear then-and need to hear now.
But nothing of the sort has occurred. Prof. Harris Lacewell's remains a regular guest frequently encountered not only on the liberal wing of the corporate media represented by MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman but at seemingly authentic alternative left outlets such as Laura Flanders's GritTV. More disconcertingly, a continuing flow of Obamapologetics will likely be offered through Harris-Lacewell's recently announced "Sister Citizen" to appear weekly in the Nation, an editorial decision which will reduce the contributions of iconic left columnist Alexander Cockburn to once a month.
For those late to the pary, we don't have time for the complete breakdown. She attacked Tavis Smiley (for which I do not forgive), she lied repeatedly to get on TV (failing to disclose that she was working for Barack's campaign as she appeared over and over throughout the primaries) and, oh, so very much more.
Turning to England where Robert Winnett (Telegraph of London) reports Tony Blair experienced a fleeting moments of reality according to Andrew Rawnsley's new book which paints the Poodle as blanking out while taking questions from Parliament, waking up with night terrors and considering resigning in 2004 -- all over the Iraq War. May those conditions return, increase and plague him until his dying day. Michael Savage (Independent of London) reports on papers the Iraq Inquiry has but has not yet released to the public:A policy of "regime overthrow" is proposed, but roundly condemned. In an eerily portentous assessment of the consequences of taking military action, it states: "Such a policy would command no useful international support. An overt attempt to be successful would require a massive military effort, probably including a land invasion: this would risk considerable casualties and, possibly, extreme last-ditch acts of deterrence or defiance by Saddam." The mandarins add: "It would also be illegal. Covert attempts, on the other hand, seem very unlikely to succeed and run the risk of fragmenting Iraq, which runs clearly contrary to our wider interests in the region." Iraq descended into violence in the wake of the March 2003 invasion. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed in the aftermath, as well as more than 100 British troops. The document also calls into question Mr Blair's claim that using troops to bring down Saddam Hussein was only discussed after the 9/11 terror attacks on New York – and will increase pressure on the inquiry to call Mr Blair back to give further public evidence this summer. At the Financial Times of London, Jim Pickard runs through the "frenemies" Gordon Brown and Tony Blair in preparation for Brown's testimony to the Iraq Inquiry this Friday.
iraqsky newsdominic waghornthe globe and mailpatrick martintime magazineandrew lee buttersrebecca santanaalsumaria tvpress tvthe new york timesmarc santoranprmorning editionquil lawrencerenee montagnekpccafp
bbc newsgabriel gatehouse
hassen jouiniislam onlineafif sarhanindependent catholic news
the christian science monitorjane arraf
wsauthe express-timesthe spokesman-reviewalison boggsthe naperville sunsusan frick carlmanwcvbthe daily texankatherine noblethe oregoniansusan goldsmith
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Monday, March 01, 2010
Joanna Newsom
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Barack Renews The Patriot Act" went up last night. Also going up this weekend were my reviews: "Kat's Korner: The ultimate torch singer Sade" and "Kat's Korner: Joanna Newsom's triumph." So that's two.
And no offense but "What are you going to review next?" I was asked in an e-mail already and my attitude is, "What? I just did two reviews."
On Joanna Newsom, Claire Suddath (Time magazine) interviews her today:
Why did you keep your new album, Have One on Me, such a secret? No one even knew it was coming until about a month ago.
I didn't want to announce it and have it be delayed. There'd been so many setbacks along the way that I wanted to make sure the album was in the can and completely ready to go. Also, we were trying to prevent it from being leaked.
The album's over two hours long and spread out over three discs. It seems designed to be listened to as one complete product and not as a series of separate songs. Why did you make something in this format?
I tried to sequence it so that it could be listened to in its entirety and had a progression that felt thematically logical and natural. In a way, the three records are like chapters in a book. Unless you're serializing a book you wouldn't separate the chapters, but they're also meant to be these little self-contained segments within the narrative.
My favorite song on there is "Good Intentions Paving Co." but it feels a little bit poppier than your other work. Actually, a lot of the album does.
I think part of it was a reaction to the previous record, Ys. The experience of making Ys was quite intense and formal for me. I paid such close attention to every tiny little detail — the syntax, the lyrics, the distribution of syllabic entropies, the interior and exterior rhyme patterns — there was a lot of activity and it felt a little frenetic. When I was done with it all, I was pretty tired. I really wanted to allow my brain to approach music a little differently. When making this record, I had the feeling of being a little kid coming home from church. I was in my tight, scratchy sailor dress and my tight, scratchy patent-leather shoes. It was the feeling of tearing it all off and running around outside in my underwear.
I love, love Joanna Newsom's album. But don't ever say I don't highlight people I disagree with because I am so very gracious and loving. So here's an asshole named Jay Bennett at Pheonix News Times:
March begins with one of the most-talked-about artists going right now: Joanna Newsom, a singing harp player from California. She's a darling in the eyes of most critics, and it's easy to see why: She's a one-of-a-kind artist with a clear vision and a seemingly endless wellspring of ideas. Soooooo many ideas, in fact, that she just had to put them all into a two-hour-long triple album, one that listens more like a symphony than a rock record.
And Sexist Jay just goes downhill from there. Or, as I'm sure so many of his former girlfriends would put it, he petered out quickly. Again, I'm all about the love here, all about the love.
Laura Snapes reviewed it yesterday for England's NME:
For the most part, this is a terribly sad record, full of never-mawkish ballads that affect and still absorb with simple expression and a hundred different nuances of voice – an instrument that she’s learned to control as artfully as she does her harp. Final track ‘Does Not Suffice’ narrates her packing to permanently leave a lover’s house, ‘Jackrabbits’ recovering from a period of drunken sorrow to love again, but most affecting of all is ‘Baby Birch’.With its devastating maternal lament of “[i]This is the song of Baby Birch/Oh, I will never know you”, sparse, resonant harp and raw shards of electric guitar, it hauls gobstopper-sized lumps up to the throat that stick around for ‘On A Good Day’. “I saw life and I called it mine/I saw it drawn so sweet and fine/And I had begun to fill in all the lines/Right down to what we’d name her”, she sings, its two-minute brevity recalling Ernest Hemingway’s fabled six-word micro-story, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”.It’s only ‘Good Intentions Paving Company’ that really breaks the reverential tone, swinging like a party of banjo-wielding hooligans invading New York’s Brill Building, and featuring some of the record’s canniest lyrics: “And I regret, I regret/How I said to you, ‘Honey, just open your heart’/When I’ve got trouble even opening a honey jar”. Evidently, Newsom doesn’t record natural successors, but this would have made sense as a matured follow-up to her 2004 debut album ‘The Milk-Eyed Mender’, distilling her lyrical trickery and polarising kook into an untouchable realignment of conventional song structure.
Simmy Richman (Independent of London) also reviewed it yesterday:
It is a monumental work in more ways than one. "Good Intentions Paving Company", to use just one song to illustrate a point, is like a road movie of the mind that, in its seven minutes and two seconds, takes the listener into a car with Newsom and her partner. They are driving to a show and have "20 miles left". Over this distance, Newsom ponders her relationship to the man who is driving. "I did not mean to shout/ Just drive.../ For the time being all is well/ Won't you love me a spell/ There is blindness, beyond all conceiving/ While behind us, the road is leaving/ And leaving, and falling back/ Like a rope gone slack."
It is an epic song that ends, heartbreakingly, with Newsom admitting "I only want you to pull over/ And hold me/ Till I can't remember my name." And that's one song of 18. Will you last the distance? Only Newsom could make you even ponder such a thing.
I love all the reviews (except for sexist ass Jay) and another one I really enjoy is Patrick Gage Kelley's review for The Tartan:
The difficulty in enduring a three-disc album is lightened partially by Newsom sticking to somewhat simpler lyrics, though her eccentric touch still lingers: the storytelling in “Baby Birch” (“A tarantula’s mounting Countess Lansfeld’s handsome brassiere, while they all cheer”), the title track explorations (“I roam around the tidy grounds of my dappled sanatorium”), or the obviousness of “her faultlessly etiolated fishbelly-face.” But even with these examples (and trust me, there are more) withstanding, this is Newsom’s most inviting effort yet. Each of these songs has a story, has lyrical and musical constructions that won’t be exposed on the first listen. I have no doubt that this album will in time earn its highly regarded and deserved place in Newsom’s growing canon, but to believe that, you may have to give it days of your time. I can only try to make you believe that it is worth it.
I won’t end with some sort of meta-lecture on how it is possible to transcend the cliche that is the concept album, bucking traditional three-and-a-half-minute songs, and producing something that is musically and artistically rewarding. I won’t do that; I will just mention it so you know it is true and that it is your responsibility as an indie connoisseur, a university hipster, or a harpist to listen to this album (all of it), and when you find it grating, to listen to it again for me. And then one more time — the last one is on her.
That's the end of his review, I like all that comes before better but that would have been harder to excerpt (read in full and you'll see what I mean). He's writing for the student newspaper of Carnegie Mellon University. England's The Metro today picks the album as the album of the week:
When no one spends money on albums any more, what is the dumbest thing a resolutely radio-unfriendly artist could do?
How about making your long-awaited third album 18 songs, three compact discs and 125 minutes long?
Fans of the current indie-folk scene believe that Californian singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom is The Special One – an artist so unique and gifted that she has no need to follow pop’s rules. Have One On Me proves their point and multiplies it by three.
So what does all this say? It says you should pick up the album. It says that in 20 years, people are going to ask you, "Wow? You listened to Joanna Newsom?" This is an artist who is going to be around because she is an artist. She's the real deal and those don't come along very often. So make sure you're listening now. (It will impress your kids and grandkids in the future!)
Do you know the Democratic Policy Committee? The chair is Byron Dorgan. I will not note everything they do video wise. For example, I have no interest in whoring myself to sell BamaCare. Forget it. That thing needs to die. Universal single-payer health care. No gifts to Big Pharma, no gifts to the insurance lobbyies. But I will note this video by Dick Durbin.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)