Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 4/10: Billy Joel, “Captain Jack”
A song for the Delaware Republican Party, which, like the protagonist of this song, has been reduced to just jacking off. In a way, Philadelphia — in particular this live 1972 performance of what became one of his signature tunes — is responsible for Billy Joel’s subsequent career. WMMR-FM staged an hour-long performance at Sigma […]
Song of the Day 4/8: The 1910 Fruitgum Company, “Indian Giver”
Baseball is back, which seems to be a mixed blessing in Georgia, where the GOP’s existential panic over its suckitude cost Atlanta the annual all-star game. I suppose Braves fans would call MLB Indian givers. Seriously, though, with fans back in the stands and sports leagues starting to root out Native American nicknames, some are […]
DL Open Thread Thursday, April 8, 2021
Delaware Republicans are shitting themselves over the inability of ammosexuals to intimidate lawmakers with the General Assembly meeting via Zoom, so they’re demanding a return to in-person sessions. Rep. Tim Dukes (R-Nepotism) said the quiet part out loud: Dukes added that holding public comment on the gun control bills to one minute stifled conversation, and […]
Song of the Day 4/7: Winger, “Seventeen”
H/t Foster McKenzie for this one, which I had never heard. He’s right, this should be Matt Gaetz’ rally music, not just for the apt lyrics but for its general cheeziness. Grunge might not be everyone’s favorite rock genre, but this is a good reminder of the played-out formula it replaced. This was one of […]
Song of the Day 4/6: They Might Be Giants, “Minimum Wage”
In keeping with today’s theme. Though they more recently gained attention for kids’ records like “Here Come the ABCs,” 30 years ago They Might Be Giants — basically the duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell — were at the peak of their popularity as a post-new wave alternative band. Their 1990 LP “Flood,” overflowing […]
Song of the Day 4/5: Temple of the Dog, “Hunger Strike”
Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption Putin opponent who has been jailed for being an anti-corruption Putin opponent, is in the sixth day of a hunger strike he undertook to protest his treatment in prison. He’s already sick with a fever and cough, and given the Putin government’s general treatment of its opponents, I’d say the prognosis […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, April 4, 2021
It’s one thing to share a country with dead-end losers who have turned a political party into a death cult. It’s something else entirely when that death cult insists on killing others. Their new obsession — resisting the idea of “vaccine passports,” because their freedom to infect others is more important than the right of […]
Dear Republicans: This Is Why We Don’t Respect You
I stumbled across a headline today that quoted some random conservative complaining that “maybe if we canceled sports, then they’d respect us.” I hear this all the time: The reason Republicans pursue the culture wars with such fervor is that liberals treat them with disrespect. And we do. And this formulation pretends that the supposed […]
Song of the Day 4/3: Little Richard, “I Saw Her Standing There”
The only difficulty in picking a theme song for Matt Gaetz is that rock ‘n’ roll, especially the early stuff, is full of songs that traffic in misogyny and ephebophilia, often at the same time. But when a song starts out, “She was just 17,” you know you’re in Matt Gaetz territory. Yes, it’s a […]
Song of the Day 4/2: Simon and Garfunkel, “Keep the Customer Satisfied”
Paul Simon has joined the parade of aging songwriters peddling their catalogs for big bucks, selling off his entire output — over 400 songs from both Simon and Garfunkel and his solo career — to Sony for an undisclosed sum that certainly reached nine figures. This song from “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is an upbeat […]
Song of the Day 4/1: The Bee Gees, “I Started a Joke”
The joke certainly was on Robin Gibb — he had the best voice in the group but older brother Barry had the good looks, and their conflicting ideas about who should be the front man led to years of squabbles and bad feelings. “Massachusetts” was Robin’s breakout hit, but “I Started a Joke” was his […]
DL Open Thread Thursday, April 1, 2021
Joe Biden has proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. Vox has a good explainer outlining what it does and how Democrats hope to pass it. Politico notes it has set off what might become the largest lobbying effort in memory. Schadenfreude meters around the nation redlined yesterday when the New York Times revealed that showboating […]
Song of the Day 3/31: Steely Dan, “My Old School”
Only the good die young, they say, which is probably why G. Gordon Liddy, mastermind of the Watergate break-in, lasted 90 years before he shuffled off this mortal coil Tuesday. Several years before he made his mark on history with CREEP (note for the kidz: that was the incredibly apt acronym for the Committee to […]
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