Author: jbenton

most popular on october mixes

Thomas, master compiler of all things CDMOM, tells me that these acts/songs/albums showed up the most on the October mixes people sent in:
Most popular artist:
1T. Radiohead (14)
1T. U2 (14)
3. Wilco (13)
4. Ryan Adams (12)
5. Beck (11)
Most popular song:
1. The Strokes, “Last Nite” (5)
2. Ryan Adams, “New York, New York” (4)
Most popular album:
1. Ryan Adams, Gold (11)
2. The Strokes, Is This It? (10)
3. Doves, The Last Broadcast (8)
4. Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head (5)
5. Jack Johnson, Brushfire Fairytales (5)
6. Norah Jones, Come Away With Me (5)
7. Jeff Buckley, Grace (5)
8. The Beta Band, Hot Shots II (5)
9. Ani DiFranco, Living in Clip (5)
10. Pete Yorn, Musicforthemorningafter (5)
11. Beck, Sea Change (5)
12. Eels, Souljacker (5)
13. Weezer, Weezer (Green Album) (5)
14. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (5)

trent lott on strom thurmond

Anybody else see what Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott said at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday bash yesterday?
“I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had of followed our lead we wouldn’t of had all these problems over all these years, either.” (The quote’s a ways down the page, and because The Note doesn’t permalink, it’ll disappear into the archives Monday.)
For those whose U.S. history teachers spent too much time on the Civil War and never got to World War II, Strom ran for president in 1948, as a States’ Rights Democrat — the gentler way of saying he ran on a pure segregationist platform. His most famous quote from that race: “I want to tell you that there’s not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.”
Luckily, the rest of the country didn’t follow Mississippi’s “lead.” I’m curious which of America’s “problems” would have been prevented by electing a man who would have been the most virulently racist president of the 20th century.

underdog fan fic

Underdog fan fiction. “Disclaimer: I wrote a lot of this stuff while I was on some very heavy medication for my bowel disease. Some of it is very heavy. Please be warned.”
The author of these heavy tales even gives Underdog a real name. (He was just known as Shoeshine Boy on the old cartoon.) The name: Jonathan Weissman. Who knew Underdog was Jewish?
Among the tales: “One: A snapshot of the darkest period of Jonathan’s life. Contains extreme profanity.” And “Dark Shadows of the Future: Years after ending his superhero ‘career,’ Jonathan Weissman isn’t doing that well — mentally. But a government project forces him to face his fears of the past and present.”
Of course, this Underdog renaming business has the capacity to freak out other Jonathan Weissmans.

daily advertiser corruption

Growing up in south Louisiana, I always had an inkling the local newspaper in Lafayette, The Daily Advertiser, was a little bit corrupt.
Maybe it was the fact that, through decades of publishing, it had never once exposed a single iota of government malfeasance. (“Government corruption? In Louisiana? Never!”) But, then again, that could just be a sign that it’s an awful newspaper, not necessarily one on the take.
Maybe it was the 1980s case of Gilbert Gauthe, the first nationally prominent child-molesting priest, who did his dirty work about eight miles from my house. The Advertiser, enthralled to the powerful local Catholic Church, buried the story on inside pages, even when it was making the national evening news shows. It was left to the area alt-weekly to do all the good journalism on Gauthe. (Sadly, The Advertiser has since bought out and neutered the alt-weekly.)
But the final confirmation of my anti-Advertiser feelings came last week, when I read about a lawsuit, D’Aquin v. Wright. Richard D’Aquin was the publisher of The Advertiser; Bob Wright is a lawyer in town who, in the mid-1990s, wanted to attract a minor-league hockey team to Lafayette.
According to the suit, Wright came to D’Aquin with a deal:
Skew the newspaper’s coverage of Wright and the hockey team in a positive direction. Write lots of articles saying how great having the team’s going to be. Use your sports reporters as cheerleaders. Ignore the negatives of the city shelling out tax money to attract the team.
In exchange, Wright promised D’Aquin an ownership share of the team, worth about $400,000.
To recap, the publisher accepted a secret bribe to alter his newspaper’s coverage.
Wright never gave D’Aquin the money or the ownership. So now, D’Aquin is suing Wright to be reimbursed.
To recap, the publisher accepted a secret bribe to alter his newspaper’s coverage — and is now suing the briber for breach of contract!
It’s a wonderful world we live in. (By the way, this D’Aquin fool also doubles as vice chairman of the Louisiana Board of Regents, the agency that runs the state’s universities. It’s a plum gig. He was appointed by Gov. Edwin Edwards, last seen in Fort Worth, reporting for his 10-year federal prison term. Wonder how D’Aquin got that job.)