An evocative portrait of the music of The Mountain Goats, a.k.a former psychiatric nurse and elliptical poet John Darnielle, the discovery of whom has been just about the best thing (along with John Vanderslice, the Fiery Furnaces and Broken Social Scene) about my personal indie rock awakening:

“Songs begin with acts of God: ‘First thing that happened was a river overflowed’; ‘Let the stars come out, and the moon shine bright / We’re sleeping on the porch tonight / Wind blew all the power lines down / Watch where you step if you go walking around.’ Characters are summoned up in a matter of seconds: ‘That fifteen thousand dollars / That turned up in your purse / You’ve done something awful / I’ve done something worse.’ Questions are raised about just what sort of species is being addressed: ‘I get letters telling me since I moved away / You’ve taken to hanging out on that rock about a mile from shore.’ Doomed relationships are summed up in two lines: ‘I know you hate it when I get my headaches / Well I’ve got a real prize tonight.’

We don’t always follow characters, however; sometimes we follow the lyric itself as it metamorphoses into animals, shimmies up trees, or heads north toward Alaska ‘where there’s snow to suck the sound out from the air.’ We hear it describe the continent eroding, or the rising flames of burning ships 73 years before the start of the Christian era. We hear the singer’s heart become an onion rising up in his throat with the first spring thaws. We are warmed by a western sun that always seems to be sending out ‘signals’ as it sets; we hear the old songs of Bacchus crackle through transistor radio static. Above all, we hear the strumming and that unmistakable nasal tenor, and we are made aware of every word that is sung.” — Jim Fisher (Salon)

Elijah

streak the windows.

smear the walls with coconut oil, yeah.

fill a cast iron kettle with water and magnolia blossom.

let it boil.

let the water roll.

let the fire take its toll.

i’m coming home.

i’m coming home.

dust off the idols.

give them something to eat.

i think they’re hungry.

i know i’m starving half to death.

i know you’re waiting.

i know you’ve been waiting for a long long time.

and i’m coming home.

i’m coming home.

set the table.

those three extra places —

one for me,

one for your doubts,

and one for god.

let the incense burn in every room.

feel the fullness of time in the empty tomb.

feel the future kicking in your womb.

i’m coming home.

i’m coming home.

— John Darnielle

“Joe Previtera, a twenty one year old student at Boston College, was arrested Wednesday and charged with felonies after dressing as a hooded Iraqi prisoner in front of a military recruitment center on Tremont St. in downtown Boston…

Previtera faces misdemeanor charges of disturbing the peace and felony charges of making a false bomb threat and using a hoax device. The charges apparently reflect the District Attorney’s concern that Mr. Previtera might have been mistaken for a terrorist.” (Boston.Indymedia)

With all due props to Ed Fitzgerald, I just had to appropriate this joke from his site and post it in full:

“One sunny day in 2005 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the Marine standing guard and said, ‘I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.’

The Marine looked at the man and said, ‘Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.’

The old man said, ‘Okay’ and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, ‘I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.’ The Marine again told the man, ‘Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.’

The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same Marine, saying ‘I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.’

The Marine, understandably annoyed at this point, looked at the man and said, ‘Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?’

The old man looked at the Marine and said, ‘Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.’

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, ‘See you tomorrow.'”

“An extensive survey of baby foods has found they contain worrying levels of disease-causing microbes. Of most concern was the presence of a bacterium called Enterobacter sakazakii, which has been linked to a handful of fatal outbreaks of meningitis at children’s hospitals in the US and Europe.” (New Scientist)