Been a while, I know -- work, work, work, kid, kid, kid, yadda, yadda, yadda. But heck, here we are again (although I'm not entirely convinced anybody but me reads these things), with the list of stuff coming up in the immediate future that I/we think will be particularly cool. And no, I didn't include the Police in the list, 'cause if you're not already going to the show, well, you're not going. (And nope, neither am I.)

Mon., June 25:
The Polyphonic Spree/Jesca Hoop @ Warehouse Live
Man, do I love these guys; The Beginning Stages of... was great, Together We're Heavy was even better (even if I'm apparently the only person who thought so), and what I've heard of their latest, The Fragile Army, is equally cool. Bombastic, glorious, orchestral pop like the sunrise exploding over the horizon. (Oh, and I happened to luck into an interview w/one of the Spree-ers a few years back, which ended up being pretty entertaining, I think...)

Tues., June 26:
Radio Birdman/Awesome Color/The Kimonos @ The Meridian
Classic punk from Down Under + somebody I dunno + one of the better indie bands in town. Should be a good un'.

imadethismistake/The Rudyments/Forty Lashes/Fat Pat's Water Rats/Boogdish @ Super Happy Fun Land
I Am Wolf/Loser Life/Cop Warmth @ Notsuoh

Supersuckers @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
What the...? I'd wondered if these guys were dead & gone yet or not; I remember them as part of my introduction to the world of indie-rock, way back in the day when I was a wee KTRU DJ, and while I was never a huge fan, they were always fun. If you can make the drive...

Wed., June 27:
Turbojugend Humpday, featuring The Contingency & The Girlfriend Experience @ Rudyard's
Commune Music, featuring Parts Per Million & Tha Fucking Transmissions @ The Proletariat
Tera Melos/By the End of Tonight/B. @ The White Swan

Thurs., June 28:
Satin Hooks/Bullets on Broadway/American Sharks/The Low Endz @ Walter's on Washington
I owe Satin Hooks a big, big writeup on this site, and soon. They get better every time I see 'em, seriously.

Drop Trio/Two Star Symphony @ AvantGarden (411 Westheimer)
Drop Trio are cool, but Two Star Symphony are the draw here, for me. Amazingly talented, spooky-ooky chamber music about goblins and witches and, um, I've got no idea what else.

Morningside Drive/The Last Great Assault/Novista/Dorian Grey/Enter the Collector/Glass Intrepid/Memphis May Fire @ Warehouse Live

Rotten Piece/TEF/Crawling Iris/Carlos Pozo/Werewolf Jerusalem @ Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Okay, I'll admit it: I like the music these folks make a whole lot less than the fact that they're playing at one of H-town's most prestigious art museums. Which is fucking awesome, 'cause they're going to peel the paint off the walls both at the CAM and at the MFA across the road. Turn up loud, y'all.

Fri., June 29:
Benefit Show for Reggie, featuring The Western Civilization, Buxton, Peekaboo Theory, Subject Optional, & Gretchen Schmaltz @ Walter's on Washington
In case you hadn't heard, Reggie of Mia Kat Empire/The Western Civilization recently had his home/van ripped off by some evil fuck, who stole a ton of very expensive recording equipment that Reggie needs to continue eking out a living as a producer/engineer. (Thanks, bastards; I hope fucks with your livelihood sometime, so you can see what it feels like.) See elsewhere on the blog for details, I don't have the link handy... At any rate, the MKE folks are staging a benefit for Reggie that incidentally happens to be very cool, band-wise. I dig The Western Civ (duh), Gretchen, and Buxton, and I've heard darn good things about Peekaboo Theory. Check it out, and help the guy buy back some of his stuff, eh?

Heist at Hand/D.E.M.O./The Watermarks/The Soarce/DJ Sun @ The Engine Room
Flametrick Subs/Sean Reefer & the Resin Valley Boys @ The Continental Club
Little Brother/Orgone/DJ Haul @ Warehouse Live
July Alive/Placid Blue/Kemo For Emo/The Ride Home/Useful Information @ Fitzgerald's

Southern Backtones/Tody Castillo @ Rudyard's
I'm very, very happy to hear that Tody's working on a new album, because honestly, the guy's incredible. He writes songs like you dream you could, when you have those really cool dreams where everybody's your friend and your dog never pisses on the carpet. (No, really.) Plus, I finally caught Hank of the Southern Backtones solo a while back, and he made me remember just why I'd always loved "Blue in July" so damn much.

Ceeplus Bad Knives/Yppah/Paramour/DJ Under Warranty/Mr. Castillo/DJ Haggerty @ G.R.A.B. (809 Pierce)

Sat., June 30:
Voxtrot/Tacks the Boy Disaster/Palomar/Brazos @ The Proletariat
Love, love, love Palomar. They rule. See here for why/how.

The Dead Science/Implied Violence @ Super Happy Fun Land

M.O.D./Ese/Oklahomos/U.Y.U.S. @ Walter's on Washington
Holy shit. M.O.-fuckin'-D., motherfuckers. This is gonna rule.

Vicarious Me/The Mechanical Boy/Mothers Anthem @ Rudyard's
Yeah, so one of our guys kinda-sorta ripped locals The Mechanical Boy a new one a while back. Sorry 'bout that, fellas... The band has bounced back from that crushing blow (hey, quit laughing, dammit) and tells us they've switched things up quite a bit and are doing better. Go see for yourselves...

The Weary Boys/Mother Truckers @ The Continental Club
Benefit for Madalyn Sklar of GoGirlsMusic, featuring Robin Leigh, Tabitha Monet, Celeste Terrell Music, Finding Garbo, Hidden Agenda, Katie Stuckey, Osirus, & 3 Kisses @ Last Concert Cafe

Michael Schenker Group @ The Scout Bar (Clear Lake)
Woo-hoo! Screw the Scorpions; U.F.O. were where it was at, man. Michael Schenker make German dudes with guitars look far, far less dorky than they otherwise would have, at least for their time.

Labels: Things To Do

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I need sleep. Gah. Day-job deadlines have eaten me alive these past couple of weeks, as has my three-year-old refusing to sleep through the night, and on top of that, I'm currently blogging/putting crap online on a work laptop, sitting on the couch at my folks' house in San Antonio, surreptitiously using a neighbor's wireless network to get online. Ah, the joys of the Internet life...

At any rate, I'm a bit bummed that I'm not in H-town this weekend, 'cause it's looking like a very cool weekend, in part because much-heralded heavy post-rock "supergroup" (ex-Don Cab, ex-Helmet/-Tomahawk) Battles are kicking it tomorrow/tonight (6/23) up at Numbers with Ponytails and dear SCR pals (and damn good musicians) Sharks and Sailors. We've got a review up for the show, naturally, so give it a read.

This week's update also includes a review of local boys Thee Armada's debut disc, which I/we have really been enjoying. It's been kind of nice timing, actually, 'cause right after these guys released the album, The New You, they got tapped to play the Houston stop of the Warped Tour, due up at Reliant Park on 7/15. If their live show's anything like the way they sound on CD, they're gonna burn the stage down. Here's what's new this week...

Reviews: Battles; Ronnie Day; Thee Armada; Blank Pages; Bill Callahan; Jascha Ephraim; & Secret Annexe.

Enjoy the weekend; I'm off to bed. Sleep good...

Labels: Reviews, Things To Do

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Okay, so my dad sure as hell doesn't read this blog, but what the hell: thanks, Dad. I know we don't always get along, and your musical tastes are pretty damn wretched, but there are some things I've learned from you over the years, and I feel like now's the time to give Pops some props. Here goes:

Things That I Now Realize Dad Was Right About:

1. The Righteous Brothers did, in fact, write some gorgeous songs, despite those songs being used in bad movies like Ghost.

2. If you're ever in a fight, don't threaten to rip somebody's head off or tear their spine out. Unless you're a UFC champion or something, odds are you can't do that, which means you'll just look stupid. Warn the other person calmly that you're going to hit them in the face as hard as you can, and that you'll keep hitting them as long as you have to. Then do it.

3. It actually is important to keep an eye on how much gas costs at different gas stations. (I swear, my dad knows the price of unleaded at every single gas station between H-town and San Antonio.)

4. Know where you came from and be proud of that history. Yours is unique, like nobody else's.

5. Not everybody can be a musical genius. Even if they happen to think they are.

6. Hating people you don't know is generally stupid and a waste of energy. Dislike somebody all you want, but to really, truly hate somebody, you've gotta know 'em. (And Dad, believe it or not, you and Henry Rollins are apparently in complete agreement on this one.)

7. No political party has a monopoly on being greedy, imbecilic, or just downright callous.

8. The outdoors is a heck of a lot more beautiful than the indoors. And there are a lot more stars up there in the sky than us city-dwellers realize.

9. Yeah, I give: a lot of heavy metal really does suck. Ditto for rap. (Note, however, that it doesn't mean all of it does.)

10. Extremists of any kind -- right or left, Christian or Muslim, carnivore or vegan, whatever -- are really fucking scary, because in the long run, they don't give a shit what happens to you as long as their goals are met.

11. The Ventures were quite possibly one of the absolute coolest bands ever, clean-cut fratboys or no.

12. Recycling is a good thing, and so is not buying things you really don't need.

13. If you hike heel-toe, heel-toe, rather than just shuffling along like a moron, your feet hurt a lot less at the end of a long hike.

14. Doing things just because your friends are doing them is the dumbest thing in the universe.

15. Dammit, sometimes I do actually want to capture every moment of my kid's day on video.

16. If you're going to invent words, you'd better make them really freakin' funny.

17. Live, at least, Barry Manilow's actually pretty entertaining. (Jesus, I can't believe I'm typing this.)

18. Racism is idiotic. If there's a God, he doesn't give a shit what color your skin is.

19. It is ridiculously empowering to know that you can start a fire all by your lonesome just using a couple of sticks, a shoestring, and some wood shavings.

20. Bagpipe music is intensely beautiful. No, seriously. It's also really good for getting your revenge on neighbors who play their music too loud.

21. Organized religion's good for some folks, but it's also been responsible for a whole lot of really bad things over the millennia.

22. Pro wrestling can be really fucking funny. Piledriving your brother into the carpet, however, probably isn't in the long run.

23. Few things are cooler than putting a 45 of Jan & Dean doing "Dead Man's Curve" on the record player and just making it play over and over again.

24. If you can't kick the ball, kick somebody.

There you go. Happy Father's Day, Dad, and thanks.

Labels: Random Rambling

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Oh, man. I caught this one measly time on MTV, waaaaaaaay back in the day (like, when Illadelph Halflife came out, back in '96), and it made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt.

Flash-forward to the age of anything-in-the-damn-world-is-online, and here it is on YouTube, The Roots' video for "What They Do," which happens to be the best damn hip-hop video in history, primarily because it rips the face off all the crappy lookalike videos out there before & since and isn't afraid to poke fun at hip-hop as a genre. It's beautiful. "Wow, lightning."

Labels: Musical Crap, Random Rambling, Things To See

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Yep, tonight's (Saturday, June 16th, that is) a good one -- crushing, pummeling, NYC noise-rock pioneers Unsane are playing up at The Proletariat, along with 400 Blows, Mouth of the Architect, and locals Dizzy Pilot. Reliable sources (meaning pretty much anybody who's ever heard the damn band) say this show's gonna be freakin' insane. Seriously.

These guys came up with the whole crew of post-Sonic Youth noisemakers in NY during the late '80s and early '90s, folks like Cop Shoot Cop, Foetus (in fact, drummer Vinnie Signorelli used to play with Foetus), & the Cows, and have miraculously managed to outlive just about all of their peers. In the process, the band's influence has filtered into nearly every noisy/rock band currently out there, from The Locust to Wolf Eyes on up. If it's loud, brutal, or hateful, chances are the band's into Unsane.

Just in time for the show, by the way, SCR writer, Jonx drummer, and all-round awesome guy Danny Mee has a brand-spankin' new interview with Unsane up on the site. Check it out, then hit the show, eh? (Tickets available here.) Enjoy the noise...

Labels: Interviews, Things To Do

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Weird; June's already shaping up to be Giveaway Month here at SCR HQ (and this one's somewhat bigger one than the last, to boot...).

We've got a pair of tickets to the Fall Out Boy show a week from today, Monday, 6/18, up at The Woodlands' Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion; also on the bill are The Academy Is, Cobra Starship, +44, and H-town's own Paul Wall (who, really, seems like the best reason to go, at least to us).

Now, I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with some kind of creative contest to use to pick a winner, but dang it, I'm coming up empty. So we're going to do it the old-fashioned, Russian-roulette, completely random way: if you want the tickets, send an email to "gaijin" at "spacecityrock dot com" with the "Subject" line "I CAN HAS TICKETZ?" and your real-world address. The winner will be randomly selected from the pile, along with a runner-up, who'll win a Fall Out Boy prize pack, which includes copy of the Fall Out Boy "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" 7-inch and a bunch of FOB pins.

(If you happen to write for or otherwise contribute to SCR, by the way, you can still enter. All are equal in our eyes.)

Anyway, if you want 'em, let us know...good luck!

Labels: Free Stuff, Things To Get

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Yep, we've got a review of the new Maserati album up, just in time for their show tomorrow night, 6/12, up at Walter's with badass locals Sharks and Sailors and cool Austinites My Education. Danny's review of the album is a wee bit lukewarm, admittedly, but others of us here like the band, nevertheless, and S&S are always worth checking out. Here's what we've got for this week:

Reviews: Pelican; Maserati; The Tossers; Canned Heat; Complicated Shirt; Cyan; Lisala; & Mummy the Peepshow.

More on the way...

Labels: Pseudo-Reviews, Reviews, Things To Do

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Yes, ladies & gents, today is officially the Feel Good Hits of the Summer Fest down at The Proletariat. There's been a minor lineup change or two, I believe -- due to scheduling conflicts, the Bright Men of Learning are no longer gonna be there, for one -- but the whole shebang's still scheduled to go off as planned, according to co-organizer Ryan of The Skyline Network (along with Gilbert of Spain Colored Orange), and man, is it gonna be good. (See here for proof.)

Details, details, who's got the details? Well, here's the set times, as far as we know 'em:

• Program 4:30pm
• The Watermarks 5:30pm
• Dizzy Pilot 6:30pm
• The Kimonos 7:30pm
• Paris Falls 8:30pm
• The Western Civilization 9:30pm
• Spain Colored Orange 10:30pm
• Arthur Yoria 11:30pm
• Tody Castillo 12:30am

Now, if you've read this site for any amount of time at all, you'll notice that this show includes nearly every freakin' pop-ish band we here at Space City Rock like, from awesome popsters Program to Bright Eyes-esque rockers The Western Civilization to badass singer/songwriters Arthur Yoria & Tody Castillo. Seriously, this show is jam-packed with amazingly talented folks all the way through. Several are SCR Featured Bands, and those that ain't are all on the list to be one sometime soon, honest.

Of course, there's always the Cha-ching! Factor to consider, but never fear: this is cheap, people. Legal-to-drink-ers get in for a measly $5, while 18-20-ers get in for only $8, which is less than it costs to buy a medium pizza these days (and that's the whole damn day, mind you). How the hell can you beat that? Plus, it's all indoors, which is good since the fabled H-town Heat is now apparently upon us, and the thing is looking to run smooth-smooth-smooth, without the hassles & screwups most festival-type things run into.

Festivities start at 4:30 PM, so start getting ready right damn now, y'all. It's a beautiful, non-rainy day, with plenty of great, great, great music for a ridiculously small amount of $$$. Get on out of the house. Go. No, seriously.

Labels: H-Town News, Things To Do

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Man, it's been a rough fucking week. Not even getting to rock out live and in-person to The Hold Steady last night made me feel much better, although stopping back in the old 'hood at 1AM and sitting out on the Hazard St. Bridge over 59 with some M&Ms and Gatorade (I was dehydrated as hell after the show; goddamn, was it hot in Walter's...) helped a bit.

At any rate, I'm homebodyin' tonight, just chillin' and watching SciFi Channel and reading Day Watch, but that doesn't mean you should stay home. Here's what all's on:

Bert Jansch/Jana Hunter @ The Orange Show
Wow. This is really freakin' impressive, seriously -- Jansch is an old-old-old school folkie who's been dragged recently out of semi-obscurity by the new crop of folk-ish people out there, including H-town's own Jana H. Who is, obviously, absolutely great. And, unfortunately, moving out of state again, this time to Bal'mer, MD. Dammit...

Calvin Johnson/Julie Doiron @ Aurora Picture Show
I've never been a huge Calvin Johnson fan, I have to admit, but the guy's been one of the driving forces in the indie-rock/pop world for, what?, twenty years now? Gotta respect that. Ms. Doiron, on the other hand, we truly-truly love -- and by "we" I don't mean "me," but other folks here at SCR, too. Her new album's great.

Vietnam/Greg Ashley/The Dimes/Studemont Project @ The Mink
Truth in advertising's the name of the game for VietNam -- strange, bearded, druggy-lookin' guys playing, well, strange, maybe-bearded, druggy-soundin' music. Dunno Greg Ashley, but the Dimes are one of the coolest, most interesting rock bands in town right now, and Studemont Project prove that H-town hip-hop ain't all 'bout the lean or the bling.

Comp1 Road to Recovery Benefit, featuring Havikoro, Joe B, Illset, EZ, & more @ 3220 Hadley St. ($5 minimum)
sigh. Damn shame... I've never met the guy personally, but Comp1's been one of Houston's best & brightest DJs for some years now, so it was kind of a shock to hear that he'd been in a bad accident and was in the hospital. I think he's doing okay, but apparently the bills are astronomical, so this is a benefit to raise funds to cover 'em. More info here.

Houston Press City of Spin, featuring Josh Harris, Alex C, James Reed, & DJ Red @ 702
Yeah, we missed Night 1 of this -- sorry 'bout that. I like the idea behind the shows, though: you go, you watch the DJs do their thing, and then you vote for who you want to end up on the Houston Press Music Awards ballot. Beats trying to get your friends & family to all get together and write you in...

Necrophagist/Decapitated/Cephalic Carnage/Cattle Decapitation/The Faceless/As Blood Runs Black/Ion Dissonance/Arsis/Beneath the Massacre/Daath/Pinhed/Insect Warfare/As Eden Burns/School Girl Knife Fight/Viral Load/The Final Plague/Brazen Altar @ The Meridian
Mëtäl up your ass. Honest. I am happily ignorant of most of these folks (although I love to snicker at some of the band names), and some that I do know make my head hurt, but some, like School Girl Knife Fight, are damn cool. And again: mëtäl up your ass. What more could you want?

Skyblue72/Freebleeder @ Rudyard's
I like the Skyblue72 folks, mostly because -- and boy do I feel my age admitting this -- my wife, daughter, and I happened to see them play one morning at the Borders near our house. They were good, despite the non-audience, and my daughter loved dancing to them. Anybody who makes my daughter laugh and dance like a maniac is pretty badass in my book. (Dammit, when's Gogol Bordello going to play H-town?)

Knock Out the Triple Threat Benefit, featuring Exit 380, Flood, Swinging Teresa, Virus, & Mindflow @ Fitzdown Another benefit, but this one's a wee bit more vague -- it's a three-issue/threat benefit, raising money to combat, um, AIDS, poverty, and...hell, I can't remember. Sorry... But hey, they were all good things to combat, so y'know, make it out if you can.

More to come...

Labels: H-Town News, Pseudo-Reviews, Things To Do

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Worst day in a while; apologies for the non-postings, but I've been dealing with more "home" stuff than SCR stuff lately.

Rest in peace, Toby. We love you.

Labels: Admin Stuff, Random Rambling

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Some days it really does seem like humanity as a whole really, truly sucks. No, I'm not talking about the dipshit in the black pickup who nearly killed me when he decided his turn-only lane that merged into mine was actually a go-straight lane, or even about the fact that there are apparently still people out there who think the Democrats run the media, when it's actually the other guys who get a free pass. Granted, that stuff pisses me off, but that's not what's eating at me today.

It's a little closer to home, actually: early yesterday AM, fledgling local label Mia Kat Empire got robbed. Fuck. Wouldn't you know it? These kids bravely make the move down to the Big Bad City from the Kingwood/Humble/Spring 'burbs, and their welcome to the neighborhood is somebody breaking into MKE co-honcho/The Western Civilization band member Reggie O'Farrell's van and stealing the mics he uses to make his living. The guy's a solo recording engineer/producer who does a fair bit of work for bands in this city, so a loss like this is a hard hit to his livelihood; these folks don't have well-paying day jobs to fall back on. Damn, this makes me mad.

Here's what Reggie and MKE lost:

• 6 - Shure SM57
• 2 - Shure SM94
• 1 - Shure BG 4.1
• 1 - Shure Beta 52
• 1 - Audio Technica ATM25
• 1 - Octavia MK319
• 3 - Sennheiser E604
• 1 - Sennheiser E609 Silver

The mics were all together in a black hard-shell gun case. I should note, by the by, that some of these are pretty specialized microphones that aren't going to be of much use to Joe Schmoe who wants to do a little karaoke at the house with his buds. Odds are that whatever fuckhead stole these has already dumped 'em off at a pawnshop somewhere.

So keep your eyes peeled, and if you A) happen to stop by E-Z-Pawn some day and notice a fancy-shmancy silver thing that looks like this sitting on the shelf or (less likely) B) notice that your bandmate/buddy magically showed up one afternoon for practice with a bunch of shiny, expensive-looking gear he didn't have before, contact either us here at SCR at "gaijin" at "spacecityrock dot com" or call Reggie himself at 832-563-6561. The MKE folks really, truly need their gear back...

Labels: H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements

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Had this one listed in the Rundown from the other day, but now it turns out its even cooler than I'd figured it would be: Sun., June 3 (i.e., tomorrow), theAUDITION, New Atlantic, The Graduate, and now also Monty Are I and 1997 are all playing at the Java Jazz Coffeehouse up in Spring.

Now, I've rarely been up that way in all my years here in H-town -- that's the insular, pocket-riddled city we live in, sadly -- but I'm damn tempted to make long haul up the freeway to see 1997. These five Chicago kids came out of nowhere and blew yours truly away with their latest (only?) album, A Better View of the Rising Moon; seriously, it walloped me with a heavenly dose of Anniversary-esque harmonies, bludgeoned me with some old-school Mineral epic-ness, and left me sitting, stunned, in the front seat of my car as the blazing guitars and emo-yet-un-bitter rock poured out of the speakers.

Late recommendation, I know, but if you live in the Spring/Kingwood/Humble 'hood -- or are willing to blow the gas money to see a freakin' great band -- get your ass on up to Java Jazz tomorrow night. (And show up early, 'cause I hear those N. Houston kids like their rock emo-/screamo-flavored; it could be pretty packed...)

And to make things even more enticing, now seems like as good a time as any to kick off our first giveaway deal in a looooong while: e-mail us here at Space City Rock ("gaijin" at "spacecityrock" dot "com") with the subject line "1997 rocks my ass!", your name, and your mailing address, and win...dum-da-da-dum...a signed copy of A Better View of the Rising Moon sent to your door by Chicago punk/etc. label Victory Recs. Winners will be selected totally at random, and you only get to enter once, sorry.

Of course, if you enter the contest and you do make it out to the show, you may just have to risk getting two copies of the same disc if you happen to win -- but what the hell, you can always gift it on to a friend, right? Cheers...

Labels: Pseudo-Reviews, Things To Do, Things To Get

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New month, new reviews (live and otherwise) & such. A number are actually fairly timely, this week: New Atlantic is playing 6/3 @ Java Jazz out in Spring with theAUDITION, Monty Are I, The Graduate, & 1997(!); Illinois is playing 6/7 with the fuckin'-A Hold Steady(double-!) & Blitzen Trapper; Julie Doiron is playing 6/8 @ the Aurora Picture Show with Calvin Johnson(triple-!); The Scattered PAGES is (are?) playing 6/21 @ The Mink with the very cool Two Star Symphony; and last but definitely not least, the excellently incredible Church of Philadelphia is playing 7/1 at the Proletariat with Canada & the equally-excellent Papermoons. Check out what we think, then go see for yourselves.

Live Review: The Willowz/The Scattered PAGES/The Papermoons

Reviews: Julie Doiron; The Church of Philadelphia; Illinois; Alcibiades Jones; Black Metal Jacket; Mismo; New Atlantic; & Setting Sun.

Check y'all later...

Labels: Live Reviews, Reviews, Things To Do

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Yes, I feel the need to lighten the mood now, and besides, I absolutely have to post this (and besides, I love the fact that I just did two posts in a row with the word "fucking" in the title).

More info here, and more to come on this little blog, as well. Just watch:

Labels: Cool Web Junk, H-Town News, Things To Do, Things To See

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I generally tend to skip the political stuff on this here blog, partly 'cause that's what I did a heck of a lot of in a past life, but sometimes I've just got to mention something. Like now, for instance, when it's coming out that back at the start of last month Our Dear Leader signed the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, which says (in essence) that in case of a "catastrophic emergency," the Prez assumes total control of the government.

That is, he basically sidelines Congress or the Judiciary (the Directive allows for a "cooperative effort" with those other two pesky branches, at the White House's discretion, and to be helped along by Mr.-Plays-Well-With-Others himself, Dick Cheney) and becomes the American version of a king, with absolute power over the whole damn ball of wax. He could close, say, the EPA, if he decides it's being too damn pushy about that whole "environment" thing. He could torture people with impunity, the law be damned. He could snatch up people who don't agree with him in the middle of the night, without the need for warrants. He could fucking declare war without even bothering to check with Congress, as long as he deems something a big enough threat.

Damn. This seriously sends a chill down my spine, not least of all because it's been ignored by everybody 'til now, and even now it's only a few indie media outlets like AlterNet talking about it. Why in the hell isn't this big, big, big news? I'd sure as hell rather hear about this than Lindsay Lohan's latest binge.

Folks, the future just got a whole lot more Orwellian.

Labels: Political Stuff

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