BREAKING: No Depression Has Fixed their Feed

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If only there were a song called “No Depression” that we could all sing in honor of the occassion…

In other news, I’m about out of patience for the Oxford American music issue AND I want someone to tell me if Lucinda Williams’s album is actually any good or if it’s just another so-so album critics fawn over because they want to believe she’ll do another album like Car Wheels on a Gravel Road that haunts you for the next five years.

Edited to add: And David Cantwell is writing about the music of True Blood so you should for sure go check that out.

These are the Democrats of Our Lives

So, the turmoil over the complete self-immolation of the Tennessee Democratic Party continues.  GoldnI has become indispensible for news on the matter.  I would just like to quibble with one small detail.  GoldenI says:

At any rate, most of the liberal bloggers in Tennessee got a very friendly e-mail from Wade Munday yesterday asking us for our input, how the TNDP could better utilize us and how we could help craft the message.

But Newscoma says:

I will say one thing out of the box. I ended up contacting Left Wing Cracker as no Memphis bloggers were included on the list. Nitpicky, I know, but it needs to be said.

This, to me, is exactly why, if they want to communicate with the people most willing to then communicate their message, the Democrats need to get someone on board who knows what they’re doing.

Because I have to tell you, a “most liberal bloggers” that doesn’t include Rachel, or Mack or Jim Voorhies or the folks over in Memphis or Egalia or Christian* or S-town Mike** is not actually a list of most liberal bloggers***.  I don’t see their names, I’m going to assume it’s not actually a serious discussion but a PR move designed to look like you’ve done something.

R. Neal, when he does a round-up of what progressive bloggers are talking about sure as hell has a longer list than eleven people.

Anyway, I’ll just repeat.  We’re out here.  We’re already writing about and advocating for progressive causes.  It’s stupid not to reach out to us.

Though, clearly, I understand that there’s no one left do do such outreach.

———–

*Yes, he’s on my shit list, but let’s be real here.  He’s a booger, but he’s an experienced Democrat with media savvy and a large platform.  Leaving him out of conversations like this is so stupid it makes my heart hurt.

**Yes, also on my shit list, but he has a decidedly liberal viewpoint and a vision for how that viewpoint can be enacted in our communities.

***For the record, I apparently wasn’t Democrat-y enough to warrent inclusion either, but whatever****.

****Okay, yes, I admit it, my casual air of not-caring is not exactly convincing, but I’m trying, for a second, to set aside my usual myopia and talk about real issues.

One Good Thing to Come Out of the Michael Vick Case

Okay, one of you sent me a link to this story when it broke and I’ll be damned if I can find that link or who sent it, so up front I just want to apologize for not giving you your due.  Out yourself in the comments and get the praise you deserve!

But second, so the story is that they busted this dog fighting enterprise in Kentucky and the asshat who fought the dogs was all “Oh, ha, I’m so cool and manly and my penis is so big” or something.  I don’t know.  It’s why I wish I could find the link again.  So you can see him smiling like getting arrested for fighting dogs is just the coolest thing that ever happened to him.

And here’s the thing that breaks my heart about dogs.  Here’s the vile asshat who used these dogs’ best qualities–tenacity and their overwhelming desire to please–against them in order to inflict grave pain and possibly even death on them and you know that if he showed up where they were, rather than tear him to shreds (which they should do), they’d be all jumping up on him, licking him and being all “Oh, hey, it’s our guy!  Our guy is here.”

Oh dogs.

…sniff…

Anyway, I wanted to follow up on this story because the dogs have been taken to Dickson!  To be rescued!  Before the Michael Vick case, fighting dogs were routinely destroyed and only very rarely rescued.  No one believed they could be rehabilitated and reintroduced into society.  We just assumed they’d been broken beyond saving.

And yet, only one of the Michael Vick dogs had to be put down due to aggression (the other one was too sick to recover).  The rest have responded quite well to rescue and rehabilitation efforts.

And because of that, it means that more dogs who would have been otherwise destined for death will get a second chance.

And This is Better than Racism, How?

Stacey Campfield wants America to know that Tennesseans did not decline to vote for Obama because he is black–

The “Black factor”? AHHH! the race card. Democrats favorite tool. It makes me laugh as Democrats keep dropping it over and over calling Tennessee Republicans “A bunch of backwards dumb, racist” Lets see, Ford jr. got more republican crossovers when he repackaged himself as a conservative (and almost won) against moderate Bob Corker. Were the same people racist and dumb then?

–But because they just weren’t sure whether he was the anti-Christ:

Obamas liberalism? Yes, in some part, but I got a lot of feedback on the religious issue as well. More then I would have thought. The Muslim factor as well as many people perception that he was the Antichrist was mentioned repeatedly. The blind worship and screaming adoration reminded many of early Hitler films. I also heard many people say how they did not think he was qualified to run based on his questionable place of birth.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

No, no, see we’re not racist, we’re just a state full of religious conspiracy theorists!

Ha, you know, the more I think about it, the more I think that just may be the truth.

Whew, we’re in trouble.

Ha, ha, ha.

Intellectual Property Rights Stuff

So, today Beth is talking about interesting intellectual property rights stuff in regards to what to do when you have doofus clients with no money who want your native files.

I don’t really have much to add, except to say that it does seem strange.  And to say that some business classes–not just for art students, but for all liberal arts folks–is not a bad idea at all.

It’s funny the different ways graphic designers are treated.  I know some folks who, even though they are going to need a PDF of the project, and jpgs in CMYK, RGB, and black and white, will not tell the designer up-front that that’s what they need, figuring they can just do the conversions themselves (with various degrees of success), when I would think that would be something the designer would be happy to provide–if only in order to ensure that things look right in all those formats.

And then you have other folks who seem to think they should get native files.

Hmm.

Black Squirrels

Squirrel Queen’s post today reminded me that my grandparents both lived in towns with black squirrels.  We were told growing up that they were the only two towns in the country with black squirrels.  My parents only got away with bullshit like that because we lived BWE (Before the Wikipedia Era).

Turns out a lot of places have black squirrels.

But Olneys’ the only place with white squirrels, right?

I have, really, two main streams of history, like watching the Ohio come into the Mississippi, two rivers sharing the same banks–one brown and one blue–as they flow towards Wickliffe and beyond, slowly mixing and churning and knitting together until you finally aren’t sure any more that you can see a difference.

And so it is with how the world really is and how I’ve been told the world is.  I guess it’s that way for everyone.  Just sometimes I look at both large rivers and wonder if they’ll work in the same banks.