"Ring Out the False / Ring in the True" George Harrison's Happy New Year Song from 1974

Could George's 'Ding Dong, Ding Dong' from the Dark Horse album really be 40 years old?
Happy New Year!

Wealth Inequality in America

As I type this I'm watching (for the first time) some of the Duck Dynasty West show that takes place on Rodeo Drive known as "The 'Real' Housewives of Beverly Hills."  If this horror show isn't enough of an argument for a new French Revolution, maybe this scientific chart is:

And I'll say "Happy New Year" to You Even If You Insist on Living in the Past

Here's the bumper sticker of the day in the ongoing "War On Christmas" seen leaving Yankees Stadium after the Pinstripe Bowl on December 28:

This cheery red and green Comic Sans "Merry Christmas, whether it offends you or not!" bumper sticker was on the back of a dirty black Ford Raptor pickup truck with Connecticut plates that looked as if it might be Darth Vader's gas guzzler of choice.

Celebrating Patti Smith's Birth on 12/30/1946

Here's Patti singing Horses and (a truncated) Hey Joe in 1976:

 

The sprechstimme line at 3'55"(which doesn't exist on the Horses album), "If you are male / and choose other than female / you must take responsibility / to holding the key / to ... freedom", seems so key to her later masterpiece about Robert Mapplethorpe, the beautiful Just Kids that brought her new literary fame and a National Book Award in 2010.
Please watch this wonderful and very touching conversation between Patti and Jeffrey Brown about the book and its award that aired on the PBS NewsHour three years ago:


And, finally, Patti reads a Christmas and birthday story from Just Kids (and smiles):


Happy Birthday.

How'd youse guys do on this test?

There's an interesting dialect quiz (for True Blue Americans only -- no furriners) over on the New York Times website that's fun to take if you have a few spare minutes on this Christmas Eve morning.
I answered the questions yesterday and got no results.  I had thought this meant my dialect was simply unique from having lived on both coasts growing up, but the system must have just been busy. I took it again this morning (with a slightly different set of questions) and it triangulated my exact location from my answers.

Another possible theme song for our Liberal War on Xmas (from Miles Davis & Bob Dorough)

"Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern)" is certainly in the running for the official 2013 theme song for our Annual Liberal War on Christmas, but it may still be trailing a little behind Eric Idle's "Fuck Christmas", which is slightly more succinct and to the point.



And if you're looking for the chords and lyrics to sing and play "Fuck Christmas" around your own bare aluminum Festivus pole this year, try clicking here.

"death or glory becomes just another story" -- Joe Strummer, 1952-2002

I just saw that today was the 11th anniversary of Joe Stummer's unexpected death in 2002.
It's hard to pick one song from The Clash to remember him, but here's the first one that pops to mind.

Cyber Monday Has Scrambled Amazon Dot Com's Brain

Why else would they be recommending that I buy books by Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck? Amazon has obviously been spending more time developing its drone air force than perfecting its famous algorithms.

This is just one more reason to continue fighting our Annual Liberal War On Christmas by buying nothing.