Javi Garcia & The Cold Cold Ground

I know I tried to make you guys dig on this band once before, but I am today begging you to listen to this song, “Needles and Thread.” I think this is just an amazing piece of lyricism–“Mother worked two jobs ’till she passed away/ They say that cancer killed her, I say that work dug the grave.”

Whoever writes their songs just does such a satisfying job of putting words together. Look at all those “o”s that kind of let the singer grunt along with the bass contrasted with the sharpness of those “a”s (I’m counting “they” as an “a” sound). It’s just so nicely done.

Or check this: “I got a restless woman in my bed. / She keeps a ten-pound hammer in our shed.” Sure, it’s a little more sing-songy, but in a song, is that really a drawback? “Her sheets smell of sulfur and sweat. / She’s got a two-piece band she calls quartet.” That’s the next part. It’s a nice moment. The song sounds creepy. She’s got a hammer, her sheets smell like the Devil. And then there’s a second to laugh.

My Awesome Pith Interview

I interviewed Christian Grantham about his new book and I think it went swimmingly.

Beale and Gotto are Right

Southern Beale says:

Simply put, the Republican base was motivated. The Democratic base was not. That’s really all you need to know. Whenever Democrats run to the right they lose. When given a choice between a real Republican and a fake one, voters will pick the real one. Democrats need to show they are the alternative, not a paler version of what the other guys are offering. That should be the lesson here, but it won’t be.

The thing is that our country is huge. Even our state is huge. There is no one attitude or opinion we all have. The folks who are like “this proves the country is taking a conservative turn” are the same folks who thought the country was headed in a liberal direction in 2008.

As much as it’s fun to believe that conservative ideology has won the day, politicians should not indulge in that too much.

Like Jim Gotto says:

“If we let the people of Tennessee down, then we’re not going to last long. So we have a huge responsibility to be proactive.”

(Be sure to check out what Ramsey’s saying in that last link, too. This is almost dumbfounding to me. The most enormous issue this state faces is attracting jobs and putting people back to work and Ramsey’s agenda items for fixing that are to make the environmentalists less powerful and to make the permit process smoother and then to shout “Guns!” and “Abortion!” This is basically Ramsey admitting up front that they have NO plan for how to attract jobs to Tennessee. I mean, people, Environment and Conservation might be annoying and the permit process probably does need to be looked over, but that’s not what’s keeping people out of work.

Ramsey’s not stupid. He knows that.)

Tennessee Goes Republican. Will the Bogeyman Show Up?

Here’s the problem the Democrats in this state have–they all already voted for stringent anti-abortion measures, it’s a Democrat who can tell who are illegal aliens just by looking at them, a Democrat who thinks rape is different now than it was in his day, the Democratic candidate for governor who came out against gay adoption and ooooooooo Socialist Venezuela, and so on.

So, how is my life, as a Lefty in this state going to be any worse?

I see Lindsey is thinking along these same lines, so it’s not just an idle question by me.

Democrats already hated the lefty parts of their base, so what? The Republicans are going to double super-secret hate us?

Or will they trot out the bogeyman of “But what about our national agenda?!” Well, Democrat’s national agenda has also been to be impatient, embarrassed, and pissed at the progressives. So, again, for me, what will the difference be?

Honestly, Democrats better hope progressives feel a little pinch these next two years or it’s going to be very hard for them to argue that progressives should turn out to support them.