y'all can go to hell; i'm going to listen to xmas sux vol. xvi

 y'all can go to hell; i'm going to listen to xmas sux vol. xvi

1. joy to the world - the butties
2. bound for jubilee - the old guys
3. angola, louisiana - gil scott-heron
4. angels we have heard on high - paul horn
5. o come o come emmanuel - mariana belica
6. rapture faster ft. anarchy princess - recreated by jerry garCIA
7. walkin' round in women's underwear - bob rivers
8. maga dog - peter tosh
9. i saw mommy kissing santa claus/jingle bells medley - eddie dunstedter
10. i wanna be loved by you - helen kane
11. ave maria - leontine price, vienna philharmonic
12. (did you guys) poop in a bucket - wykoff hater
13. o magnum mysterium - john angelo messana & monteverdi choir
14. onceupon - the beatles
15. the word is now a virus - mick sussman
16. big 10-8 place (excerpt) - negativland
17. another time this time one time (excerpt) - microkosmos
18. freedom day - max roach. feat. abbey lincoln
19. little jesus, sweetly sleep - anthony newley
20. we five kings - jethro tull
21. weedteefa - jerry garCIA
22. god rest ye - the ghostly trio
23. cancion del shofar - altramar medieval music ensemble
24. auld lang syne - big damn band

xmas.sux.vol.15: sorrowing sighing degrading denying

xmas sux xv: sorrowing sighing degrading denying

1. adeste fidelis – nat king cole
2. oh hanukkah – jack black
3. dance of the reed flutes – duke ellington orchestra
4. be-bop santa claus – babs gonzalez
5. o holy night – trombone shorty w/ tipitina foundation ensemble
6. song for winter’s night – sarah mclachlan
7. christmaus – instamatic feat. bruce haack & deadmaus
8. süßer trost, mein jesus kömmt – deutsch bachsolisten
9. white x-mas – the ghostly trio
10. five pound box of money – pearl bailey
11. ode to life (for maurice quesnel) – don pullen
12. god rest you merry gentlemen – ramsey lewis
13. peace go with you brother (as-salaam alaikum) – gil scott-heron & brian jackson
14. adhan and allah-o-akbar – dollar brand
15. atheist christmas carol – vienna teng
16. kuului laulu enkelten – raskasta joulua
17. winter wonderland – herb geller quartet
18. peace at last – rotary connection
19. medley: jingle on the housetop – the hollywood pops orchestra
20. back door santa – clarence carter
21. love lifted me - the swan silvertones
22. we three kings – mark lanegan
23. what are you doing new years – mary margaret o’hara

xmas.sux.vol.14: very little xmas

xmas sux xiv: very little xmas

 1. peanut brittle brigade – duke ellington
 2. zum zum zum – jibril serapis bey
 3. santa claus is coming to town – joseph spence
 4. no knock – gil scott-heron
 5. take my hand, precious lord – mahalia jackson
 6. gabriel’s message – john rutter, choir of clare college, cambridge
 7. 100 million souls – JUCA
 8. christmas tears – freddie king
 9. 1150 closer to the boxer – the kleptones
10. have yourself a merry little christmas – tori amos
11. vexations – jean-yves thibaudet, satie
12. in dulci jubilo – the bach choir
13. makji – oulawi
14. jesus – the velvet underground
15. o tannenbaum – vienna boys’ choir
16. march that thang – jon faddis
17. compassion – nina simone
18. mi revalueshanary fren – linton kwesi johnson
19. merry christmas i fucked your snowman – the showcase showdown
20. christmas trumpets/we wish you a merry christmas – ray anthony
21. the world turned upside down – billy bragg
22. what christmas means to me – stevie wonder
23. auld lang syne – ittipon tassanapayak
24. winter wonderland – jimmy mcgriff

maskmaker, maskmaker

maskmaker maskmaker
make me a mask
two plys of cotton
that's all i ask
maskmaker maskmaker
sit at your singer
and make me a perfect mask

maskmaker maskmaker
i'll bring my bandanas
if you've nothing to do
if you're going bananas
cover my face up so i can buy food
and a break from this solitude

for earloops
you can use hairbands
to hold it
as i sniffle and cough
a noseclip might
keep it from snagging
my stubble and sliding right off

maskmaker maskmaker
executive orders
have kept me all cooped up
alone in my quarters
the pantry is empty the larders are bare
so please make a mask i can wear

for papa
the family tartan
for mama
something flowery and bright
myself well i'd just be heartened
if i could buy groceries tonight

maskmaker maskmaker
make me a mask
stitch me a stitch
of cotton not bast
maskmaker maskmaker
if you're up to the task
oh make me a perfect mask

cf, for the youths
and see

trying not to go viral

oh yeah i might have caught something
spreading across the land
so you don't catch that something
i'm gonna wash my hands
i'm gonna wash my hands
i'm gonna wash my hands

if you pick up that something
while we all shelter in place
to better avoid contagion
try not to touch your face
try not to touch your face
try not to touch your face

and when you lather up the palm of your hands
please make sure thoroughly that you scrub each phylange
each phylange
each phylange!

oh yeah i might have caught something
spreading across the land
so you don't catch that something
please go and wash your hands
i'm gonna wash my hands
please go and wash your hands

and when i watch you in the bathroom with the soap
i tell you baby for a moment i feel hope
i feel hope
i feel hope!

as i cough up a droplet
no telling where it lands
the surest way to stop it
frequently wash your hands
i'm gonna wash my hands
i hope you wash your hands
i'm gonna wash my hands

cf, for the youths

xmas.sux.vol.13: accurst noël

xmas sux xiii: accurst noël

 1. frosty the snowman – leon redbone & dr. john
 2. russian dance: the volga vouty – duke ellington
 3. pardon our analysis (anon: regnantem sempiterna/alleluia “ascendens christus”) - gil scott-heron
     feat. anonymous 4
 4. o little town of bethlehem – joe gibbs family
 5. santa claus is coming to town – don patterson trio
 6. blocks & legos – dj pebkac feat. li’l pebkac
 7. another lonely christmas – prince
 8. god rest ye merry gentlemen – nat king cole
 9. jah vengeance – yabby you
10. washington d.c. - gil scott-heron
11. burn babylon – sylford walker
12. white christmas – the believers
13. gounod: ave maria – luciano pavarotti
14. gloria in excelsis deo - de carvalo, gardiner, podger & fuge, w/ monteverdi choir
15. little drummer boy – wynton marsalis
16. ninja (fragment) – englishman
17. chakpaná (babaluaiyé) - miguel santa cruz, gustavo diaz & juan gonzalez
18. julani – yesterday’s new quintet
19. toxic xmas – dj morsy (feat. jose feliciano & britney spears)
20. the christmas song – the hollyridge strings
21. go summon up the dead ones – the h.p. lovecraft historical society
22. i’ll fly away – blind boys of alabama
23. winter wonderland – chet baker quartet
24. auld lang syne – reel big fish

xmas.sux.vol.12: laughters of the innocents

xmas sux xii: laughters of the innocents

 1. duda blues - istvánfi balázs
 2. christmas is now drawing near - coil
 3. carol of the bells - abney park
 4. happy christmas (war is over) - the cranes
 5. you're a mean one, mr. grinch - small town titans
 6. someday at christmas - stevie wonder
 7. merry something to you - devo
 8. a christmas surprise - lena horne & billy strayhorn
 9. children go where i send you - nina simone
10. il est né - siouxsie & the banshees
11. silent night - klaus nomi
12. police nabbed my dad - bobnoxious
13. there is a mountain filled with blood - consolidated
14. frosty the snowman - cocteau twins
15. last christmas - death in rome
16. song of the wind - gil scott heron & brian jackson
17. little drummer boy - love spirals downwards
18. the christmas song - aretha franklin
19. bring the boys back home - pink floyd
20. clandestino - manu chao
21. jingle bells are what i got - voicedude feat. smokey robinson & sublime)
22. get happy days - judy garland & barbara streisand
23. auld lang syne - the bambir

xmas.sux.vol.11: disliking sheep, we troll the ancient yule

xmas sux xi: disliking sheep we troll the ancient yule

1.  santa baby - eartha kitt
2.  dashing through the snow - duke ellington
3.  jesus gonna be here - blind boys of alabama
4.  helter stupid - 180 Gs
5.  the christmas song - john gary
6.  make america great again - pussy riot
7.  santa claus is coming - tony bennett
8.  all we like sheep - brussels choral society
9.  'twixt twelve and twenty - pat boone
10. be a child at christmas time - doris day
11. good mornin' little school girl - sonny boy williamson
12. the christmas waltz - nancy wilson
13. clowns and ballerinas - negativland
14. zero tolerance - trans am
15. express the halls with bounce and mojo - pimpdaddysupreme
16. dance of the sugar plum fairy - shirim
17. o holy night - jim nabors
18. patapan - the cleveland orchestra
19. petit concert d'oiseaux - olivier messiaen
20. cradle in bethlehem - nat king cole
21. hey little girl - john godfrey trio
22. silent night - jim nabors
23. hang your wishes on the tree - les baxter
24. say goodbye to the little girl tree - nick cave & the bad seeds
25. god rest ye merry gentlemen - the pathfinder chorus
26. funky wassail - dj BC
27. auld lang syne - judy garland

(and see prior years here)

both sides, now, now

drawn from reddit & gamergate
united in the name of hate
they say they'll make our nation great
this nation just for some

who once were out just for the lulz
now seeking chances to crack skulls
& fantasizing racist culls
to great encomium

i've studied our political spectrum
grabbed my pen, guitar & plectrum
down w/false equivalencies
black lives matter don't compare w/nazis

w/rebel flags & swastikas
they're marching in Virginia 'cause
a golden age that never was
seems imminent to some

to meet the enemy unbowed
& shout i hate you right out loud
backed up by an angry crowd
chanting opprobrium

i've heard the false equivalencies
from npr & all the TVs
it's propaganda wall to wall
i don't trust anyone at all

& now the white supremacists
reviling "cultural marxists"
complain about their victims' fists
resisting in the scrum

& a fresh wave of violence
emboldened by the president's
willful false equivalence
has got me feeling glum

i've heard the false equivalencies
from npr & all the TVs
it's propaganda wall to wall
i don't trust anyone at all

from blood & soil to lügenpresse
the pageantry of storm & stress
they feel empowered now i guess
a taste of things to come

thought we'd finally heard the end
of blood libel & dolchstoßlegende
& everything that they portend
we still shall overcome

i've heard the false equivalencies
from npr & all the TVs
it's propaganda wall to wall
i don't trust anyone at all

i've studied our political spectrum
grabbed my pen, guitar & plectrum
down w/false equivalencies
antifa don't compare w/nazis

i've studied our political spectrum
grabbed my pen, guitar & plectrum
down w/false equivalencies
black lives matter don't compare w/nazis
__
cf.

xmas.sux.vol.10: by fossil radiance of darkened stars

1. o death - ralph stanley
2. santa clause is coming to town - bill evans
3. egy lengyel enek - csillagok palotaja
4. tower of song - leonard cohen
5. white world of winter - bing crosby
6. biological speculation - funkadelic
7. christmas eve in my hometown - jim neighbors
8. i'm afraid of americans - david bowie (w/ trent reznor)
9. lubitevoi doamne - gheorghiu & marin, romanian nat'l choir
10. what child too close (judds v. alex clare) - mojochronic
11. dear mr. man - prince
12. last christmas - malene mortensen
13. 8 million stories - a tribe called quest
14. let it snow - ed ames
15. zastupnitse userdnaya, op42 n.6 - st. petersburg chamber choir
16. shining star - earth, wind & fire
17. jingle bells - urbie green
18. rockin dopsie - buckwheat zydeco
19. anthem - leonard cohen    

xmas.sux.vol.9: slayin' at the one-horse show

find prior xmas suxs here, or browse them individually here.

50 ways to levy (give Greece a chance)

the problem is your middle class, said the elite
expecting to redeem their pensions, not be thrown out on the street
but with another round of loans and a bit more austerity
there must be 50 ways to levy the euros

we grow quite weary beating on dead Trojan horses
yet your ministers' grexit rhetoric finally forces
us to consider privatizing your public resources
there must be 50 ways to levy the euros
(50 ways to leave the EU)

renege on the loans, homes;
look 2 the BRICs quick;
slip off the leash, Greece,
get yourself free...
you restructure the debt yet?
no need to be coy, polloi
let 'em refinance, France
give Greece a chance.

they said, you show a great deal of temerity

accepting our investments and then threatening to flee

when all we want to do is help you to restore liquidity

there must be 50 ways to levy the euros

get back on rations, Athens
to reopen the banks, thanks
don't gotta be hard, Lagarde
those loans are ill-starred
we've come full circle, Merkel
don't mean to tease ya, Syriza
can't get blood from a husk, Tusk
the vig is too much

it is a shame that you elected all to shirk

your obligations to your creditors now please don't go berserk

just sit quietly and watch the shock doctrine do all the work

there must be 50 ways to levy the euros 

get back on rations, Athens
to reopen the banks, thanks
don't gotta be hard, Lagarde
those loans are ill-starred
we've come full circle, Merkel
don't mean to tease ya, Syriza
can't get blood from a husk, Tusk
the vig is too much

you restructure the debt yet?
no need to be coy, polloi
let 'em refinance, France
give Greece a chance.
renege on the loans homes;
look 2 the BRICs quick;
slip off the leash Greece,
get yourself free..

___
cf. 

xmas.sux.vol.8: oh, come on, ye faithful!

xmas sux viii: oh, come on, ye faithful

1. oh come all ye faithful - wynton marsalis
2. just three letters for christmas - unknown (via April Winchell)
3. chinese dance - shirim
4. porky's blue christmas - unknown (via April Winchell)
5. silver bells - doris day
6. danse of the floreadores - duke ellington orchestra
7. oh little town of bethlehem - joe gibbs family
8. call him up - the swan silvertones
9. jesus - the velvet underground
10. jingle bells - natalie cole
11. santa brought my baby around - ATOM
12. silent night - danny parks/darrin vincent/joe caverlee/rob ickes/ronnie mccoury
13. quantum spin network - david stutz
14. whatsittoya chorus - bob rivers
15. god rest ye merry gentlemen - nat king cole w/fred waring & the pennsylvanians
16. the soup kitchen song (feat. The Hollyridge Strings & Charles Bukowski) - DJ Pebkac
17. lamb's blood has washed me clean - the arizona dranes
18. let it snow - bit shifter
19. white christmas - charlie parker
20. christmas surprise - duke ellington w/lena horne

sometimes a double entendre is only a double entendre

there are a lot of pop songs about guns. some:

1. help save the youth of america - billy bragg
2. gunslinger - bo diddley
3. shotgun boogie - tennesee ernie ford
4. just the right bullets - tom waits
5. when the gun draws (feat. mr. porter) - pharoahe monch
6. johnson machine gun - sunnyland slim
7. don't take your guns to town - johnny cash
8. happiness is a warm gun - the beatles
9. the pistol song - ruth wallis
10. gimme back my bullets - lynyrd skynyrd
11. guns of brixton - the clash
12. there goes my gun - the pixies
13. devil's right hand - steve earle & the dukes
14. machine gun - mano negra
15. big man with a gun - nine inch nails
16. saturday night special - lynyrd skynyrd
17. test tube baby/shoot 'em down - morphine
18. tons o guns - gang starr
19. gun - gil scott-heron
20. running gun - marty robbins 
21. streeet 66 - linton kwesi johnson
22. woman shoots john - consolidated
23. sors avec ton gun - reggaesonic

some worthies from negativland that didn't make it to the playlist:

guns (then)


 guns (now) (unofficial video for not quite the entire song)


and perennial favorite, the gun and the bible

day without Internet & Pebkax Notes

I wanted to get this in under the wire:

Pebkax Notes: Four more DJ Pebkac educational tracks

(in honor of SOPA-related website blackout, against which I bumped several times):

1. Broken Brown Dub - feat. MC J. Bond, King Tubby & Yabby You

2. Superpredator - feat. MC B. Fagan, Nina Simone & Various Artists

3. Maya Collapsperilla - feat. MC B. Fagan, MF Doom & Various Artists

4. What Zarathustra Say - feat. MC Nietzsche (M. Scott), LK Johnson & St. Germain


Also: go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to oppose PIPA and SOPA.

xmas.sux.vol.6: i want my tuppence back!

xmas sux vi: i want my tuppence back!

1. santa - lightning hopkins
2. three wise men wise men three - jim neighbors
3. fidelity fiduciary bank - cast of mary poppins
4. march of the kings - robert merrill
5. sanctus: to be a european christian - dj pebkac
6. ring those christmas bells - fred waring & the pennsylvanians
7. christmas morning blues - sonny boy williamson
8. the gun and the bible - negativland
9. the christmas song - jimmy mcgriff
10. b.i.b.l.e. - genius/gza
11. the advertising song - pearl boys
12. cintec de managers of money - dj pebkac
13. it’s a marshmallow world - oscar peterson
14. step right up - tom waits
15. cigars i have to smoke - da whole thing
16. no xmas for jon quays - the fall
17. the animals were gone - damien rice
18. all i want for christmas is you - carla thomas
19. holly jolly christmas - kise
20. christmas with fat aunt bette - andrea perry
21. auld lang syne - the cucumbers
22. the secret of christmas - shirley horn

the Spy . . . Stalker concordance

Here's all three of those .mp3 footnotes from "A Spy in the House of Love or Stalker on the Street Where You Live" as one file.

Whereas each of the footnotes fails to stand on its own, I feel that all of them together work as one piece (though it may be both a little bit hard to listen to and a little bit hard to not listen to).

Also, speaking as a person who is reminded of a song in almost every situation, this file gives a pretty good, if somewhat potently condensed, sense of what it is like to be subject to a constant associative internal monologue exhibiting such a characteristic.

I hope you, Dear Reader, enjoy it.

pay to play from your dumb terminal

i wander (market-rationalized as information stored on theCloud) and wonder how they did it:

used to be, a user bought a thing and a thing was a discrete tangible item which, at the moment of the transaction, passed physically from the seller to the user and remained within the user's physical control whether idle or in use.

i am thinking of my (encoded and compressed audio recordings of musicians using musical instruments alone or with other users to perform specific sequences of sounds within the convention of) music.

used to be the listener bought an object encoding such recordings (i think one can actually still do this in some cases) and, when combined with the appropriate actuating instrument, reproducing them audibly on command, which, at the moment of the transaction, passed physically from the seller to the user and remained within the user's physical control whether idle or actuated by the appropriate instrument. (the listener bought an actuating instrument separately, which, likewise, remained in the user's physical control).

then recording and encoding and actuating technology developed, growing together according to the law of the superposition of the computer, which turns out to describe a sort of universal actuating instrument.

oh, it does not actuate the grooves in wax or magnetic signatures of a ribbon of cassette tape, although those objects -- and a great variety of their actuating instruments -- remain. it actuates a digitally encoded information object that exists as a sequence of digits abstracted within the physical structure of some object: it could be such physical object as a compact disc, but finds frequent expression as part of the physical memory structure of the same universal actuating instrument that will actuate it, when called to do so, or of another universal actuating instrument connected to that one in a network of such instruments.

west and chomsky and bears, oh my

Democracy Now strikes again and again, cutting through some of the maudlin and indulgent wallowing that has blanketed the media over the past week.

Take a moment, America: Breathe, and get some perspective.

First, an episode covering some other significant events that occurred on the 11th of September in Chile, India, Guatemala, Haiti, and Attica, NY.

Noam Chomsky patiently spends the hour rehashing the same old thing (same old thing, that is, to those of us who have been listening, not to diminish the significance of his work; those of you who have not been listening all these years, may find something new or surprising), reissuing his ten-year-old book 9-11 ("the definitive counternarrative," says Amy Goodman, several times) with a new essay, "9-11: Was There an Alternative?"

Catch the unaired portion of the interview here.

Finally, Cornel West compellingly addresses the "Attica Is All of Us," commemoration of the uprising's brutal end. (Sorry, can't find stand-alone .mp3; please watch video at the foregoing link - ed.). An excerpt:

And we live now in revolutionary times, but the counterrevolution is winning. The counterrevolution is winning. The greedy oligarchs and plutocrats are winning. One out of four corporations don’t pay taxes, been gobbling up billions of dollars. And yet . . . 42 percent of America’s children live in poverty or near poverty. That is sick. It’s a moral obscenity. It’s a national disgrace. And yet, we have a political class, no matter what color they are, that won’t say a mumbling word about that poverty. Why? Because it sits outside of the give and fro between a right-wing, mean-spirited Republican Party, run by the oligarchs and the plutocrats, and a spineless Democratic Party, that’s got ties to the oligarchs and plutocrats, and the poor people get left out. They get invisible, disposable.

sitrep: fluctuation in the heatwave

it has been a bit hot round these parts lately to run the computer in the very hot apartment with any sense of comfort or confidence that the machine would survive.

today there is a bit of a break, not an actual deep, cool and relaxing "trough" so much as a little fluctuation in the heatwave, with the promise of more grueling "peak" to again ensue.