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I’m really pissed right now.  I’m writing this completely off the cuff and don’t have time to edit but screw it.

I’m only going to link this disgusting, insulting, morally objectionable bullshit in the interest of full disclosure and you being able to read it for yourself I think that’s essential, because I could be wrong. But like my Irish Studies teacher said about Irishman:  If you can’t go off half cocked, why go.  

Yesterday KMOV (channel 4 in St. Louis) ran a follow up story, fed by AP, about the family at the Ethical Society that Trish knew pretty well.  You probably saw something about it a month ago…Doctor from Alton…Miami hotel…jumped after throwing his 2 kids out while this wife, the kids’ mother, was in the bathroom?  Both of the boys were in the Sunday school at the Ethical Society, Qinuo (pronounced Cheeno) taught a class here and there as did Ed from what I understand.

The new article paints a picture that she may have been complicit in the murder suicide, or worse that she may have been doing something to warrant.  The reporter took quotes from her 911 call (who is in their right mind when calling 911 in that situation huh?), snippets from the investigation, and trying to make it seem that the blame falls on Qinuo. 

A few points:

• “Edward Van Dyk did not suffer from mental illness and was not on any sort of medication his father said.”  Sadly, it’s not unusual to find out until it’s too late.  Not saying he did, only met him once, but something was going on.  Does the author think a healthy mind comes up with that action?
• “Qinuo Van Dyk and the couple’s two sons arrived in Miami Beach three days before Edward Van Dyk joined the family there the day before the tragedies, though Ramos’ investigation found it was unusual for the family to travel separately.”  So f*cking what?  It’s weird for Trish and I to not arrive together somewhere but that’s life in the big busy city.  Go figure the head of oncology at a hospital might not be able to get away at the same time as his wife and kids, who have the benefit being home (where the brilliant kids were homeschooled by Qinuo by the way).
• “Thomas Cromer wrote that authorities sought to seize from the Van Dyk home any computer equipment and documents tied to the Van Dyks’ marital or financial status, including any wills. Ramos said Qinuo Van Dyk initially agreed to have the family’s home searched but later withdrew that consent, Cromer’s affidavit read.”  First, whoever wrote this needs to be introduced to my boot and get that Grinch heart out of them.  Woman just lost her whole family and the author is insinuating there may be a monetary reason that a 5’3, 120lb or so woman hurled her 2 kids and 6’4″ husband out of a hotel? I don’t think I’m stretching too far on that.  Second, there’s no criminality in this whole thing.  Zero.  Zilch.  With media treatment like this why would she let them in? 
• “No one came to the door at the Van Dyk residence Monday, and the family had no listed phone number. The Associated Press left a written request for comment.”  No shit Sherlock.  This article is certainly written to provoke a response though don’t you think?  I think I’m stratching a bit in saying the press hasn’t gotten any direct comments from Qinuo and they are hungry to hear what she has to say.  Maybe they’re pissed that she robbed them of their money shot by leaving the 3 coffins inside the funeral home while the leaches ran to the back to take pictures.

The whole thing is about getting people to watch their news and read their websites, regardless of the reality of someones surroundings.

The only message that anyone needs to know is that they were a happy, loving family.  Qinuo spokes those words at the wake, at the funeral, directly to Trish.  I heard them with my own ears and felt the truth of what she was saying.  A terrible thing had just happened but she was able to look at the scope of their marriage and not focus on what brought it to an end.  And honestly, I don’t even think that much is anyone’s business.

But having quoted some of AP’s words directly, I must relent and give them full credit for being incompetent jerks.  I’m shure there was a reason, but it’s seems a shame that Channel 4 got an AP feed on a local story.

What prompted my anger is that this reopens the sorrow Trish was feeling and her anger in seeing how Qinuo is being treated by the slanted reporting only adds to my anger.  Qinuo is a good person in my estimation and in a billion years didn’t earn or deserve the destruction of her life.  And she doesn’t deserve to be spoken of by a few reporters who skipped J-school and went to a-hole school instead.

I’m done.  Feel a bit better.  I did edit a lot of profanity.  I wish I had Don’t Believe The Hype by Public Enemy somewhere to link.

Thanks for tolerating.

Here’s the first of what will be 2 new podcast.

As I started this one, my intention was to do one long Cool New Stuff show but thought the flow would be better like this.

This one is the shorter of the 2 and is more on the mellow tip than the one that will follow in the next day or two. The artist on this one are Josh Rouse, Amy Rigby, Glen Phillips, Neko Case, and finally Elvis Costello w/ The Brodsky Quartet.

Enjoy!

My cheese metal collection recently got completed, just as I’m about to offload almost all of it.

What wreath of gold now adorns the crown of my years prior to 1992?

You guessed it. A Vixen bootleg.

Bear in mind, I’m about to sell both of my Vixen full length albums and the import single (with bonus track and 2 live tracks suckers) but I had to hear what the band sounds like live. To my knowledge they only played St. Louis once and it was at the Westport Playhouse at a time when I felt my cash money was better spent on acquiring more cd’s than on going to concerts.

The 56 minutes is all the aged sharp cheddar that one could expect from what was a 2nd tier metal band. If Vixen had been all dudes instead of all chics they probably would have been a 3rd tier metal band, just above Britney Fox in the anals of rock history.

A meticulous setlist was crafted for the 1 hour show kicking it off with a metal sounding song called ‘Rev It Up’ whose lyrical inspiration is summed up by the inspiring chorus:  Give it all you got. Rev it up. Then, their just-metal-enough lead off single ‘Edge Of A Broken Heart*’ is ripped out and ended with much revelry. 

Yay.

The rest of the show follows the same pattern.  And there is a confusing bass and drum solo half way through, a traditional guitar solo is lacking. The lead singer kind of falls short when she actually tries to sing their profound rock ballad ‘Love Is A Killer’. But, each song is replete with the proper bombast which is amplified a bit since the lead singer is trying to sound tougher than the guys running the show.

And as a special wah-hoo for y’all, a newly reformed Guns ‘N’ Roses played a show in Portugal for some radio show and a happy bootlegger grabbed it. Rather, grabbed what of it that Axl ‘Botox’ Rose would allow to be broadcast. They kicked off the show with the stalwart threat ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ and it’s really bad. Really. You’d think if a band could nail any song it should be this (or Paradise City, perhaps Patience, both of which the band botches less comically) but they play sloppier than a wet mop in the hands of a meth addict.

The mp3 is 16 minutes long and I expect you to delete it this or at the minimum never listen to it again.  I didn’t even spend much time with it so the fades and edits aren’t pretty.  So, get out your tennis racket, or whatever you have in your car or office that you can use as an air guitar for a few minutes until you get bored.

Remember, if you get caught, there’s know way you can say were doing anything else.

*Edge Of A Broken Heart, by the way, was written by death metal patron Richard Marx.

I’ve had a hankering to do another installment of this theme and a cover that I found at one of my favourite blogs led the way.

It also marks the ultimate in laziness in that I downloaded the song P2P style (Boy’s Don’t Cry) instead of tracking down Trish’s copy of The Cure’s Greatest Hits in our front bedroom.

Anyway, cool song, cool cover.

Enjoy!!

Check out this really great article in the new Riverfront Times about factors contributing to the demise of the independent record store.

I went to Vintage Vinyl a couple of weeks ago sure to purchase John Zorn’s latest noise piece but they didn’t have it.  I would have rather bought it from a local business than a website but it occurred to me as I left empty handed that demand for such a disc is low enough that it would probably be a cost for them to stock it until my West County dwelling arse crawls down to The Loop.

Also, there’s a quote from Tom ‘Papa’ Ray, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl, talking about how too much music is making music cheap.  When I had my show on KDHX a lot of the promos in my mailbox were DIY.  From them I learned the following:

The beauty of technology is that anyone with a microphone and a computer can create a song and put it out There.  The drawback of technology is that anyone with a microphone and a computer can create a song and put it out There. 

I’m sure I’m not the only person to have said that.  Sometimes it worked out great but most of the time I was happy of the songs were just ‘bad’.  Eventually I’ll subject you to the crap of the crop.

Also, I could really tell a difference in Now Hear This when bittorrent and lossless audio took off.  A huge chunk of their business used to be in bootlegs (I spent a fabled amount of money there from ’92-’99 before slowing down) but on the occasion I go there now to get imports I look at the shrinking section of audio bootlegs and see that most could be had with 10 minutes of searching, some bandwidth, and one of a dozen programs.

There are a lot of things that depress me about the Vintage Vinyls and Now Hear This’s going through rough times.  still like to have an actual cd in my hands that I bought at a record store, sold to me by someone (who may or may not be a jerk) with an informed opinion about the artist.  Also, and perhaps more frivolous, I’ve wanted to own a record store for a long time and seeing Streetside Records go mostly under and how a nationally known shop like Vintage Vinyl had to lay off half their folks sort puts that one even further back on the burner, if not burning it off entirely.

Done rambling.  Let me close with yet another link, this one to my current favourite local band Formula Kid who is generous enough to put a bunch of demos on their website.  I’ll talk more about them in a podcast.  The demo for Cut Out Bin is an ode to the joy of finding a record in the bargain box. 

Dig.

After doing battle about politics, my friend Cameron and I talked about the music industry and I dug out this classic breakdown written by producer/musician Steve Albini. 

Some of the information is dated (like including recording tape as a cost, it’s all digital these days) but it shows how your favourite local band is going to get booty raped by The Man.

Here’s a really cool clip of Kurt Vonnegut reading part of Slaughterhouse 5, his oft referenced book about WWII and the incineration of Dresden (Germany). I got this off of Salon.com when they had an audio lit section.

On my most recent read of it a couple of weeks ago, the image he lays out in the first part had me laughing out loud. In that section, he describes an air raid happening in reverse. It then segues into his first encounter with the Trafalmadorians, which as that part of the book develops becomes an interesting look at the concept of Time.

“I ain’t superstitious”–Willie Dixon, 1950 something (or something like that). 

 But that being said, here are a couple of fun links about today being the 6-6-06.  First comes courtesy of my friend Kyle.  What better band than Slayer as someone’s ambassador to silliness?

Second is an fun look at the phenomena from the standpoint of a Jesuit educator.  It starts off with something I’m surprised I didn’t get e-mailed to me today and has links and info if you want to look into it a little bit more.

I thought about posting Tori Amos’ version of Reign In Blood but felt that a:) it’s too cliche and b:) it’s not too interesting.

Word.