New Species Thursday

A potentially new recurring feature here at Loud Mouth Soup kicks off with some rad photo mash-ups from the king of the digital age, Scottie P.

Check out this bad boy. Naming contest anyone?...

UOGB - Shaft

That's the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain to the uninitiated.

Brilliant.

More gloom in Bushworld

This is just about the saddest thing I've read so as it relates to the foreclosure crisis. Just when you think modern day America can't sink any lower on the evolutionary rung, we lower ourselves a little further into the muck.

This story is positively Dickensian.

He's knows if you've been bad or good..

Threat Alert Jesus

30th Anniversary

The traditional gift for a 30th anniversary is pearl.

No, no, the Blonde and I are still a few years short of that date. Mebbe I'll give her a pearl necklace later.

However, it is the 30th anniversary of the 1978 storm that crushed the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio.

I was a freshman at Bowling Green State University. The storm blew in over night on a Wednesday real late. We awoke on Thursday morning to find found ourselves to be part of about 850 guys trapped in a huge dorm complex. We had heat, couldn't get out of the doors and the plumbing didn't work. It was both frightening and exhilarating.

Everybody laid low for a couple of days. I read Tom Wolfe's, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test about Kesey's scene and we could still get hot food at the cafeteria after we dug a tunnel. As I remember it, martial law was literally the rule of the day and there were a lot of National Guard dudes in big trucks patrolling the main streets in BG.

I was in a production of Sheridan's The Rivals (it's where the word "malaprop" comes from) with Paulie at the time and was awakened every morning around 7:00 a.m. by a call from Dr. M. telling me that the show had yet again been canceled for tonight's performance. Thanks, man.
I recall my roommate really appreciating the wake up call. Anywho, we got out a couple times through the weekend. Dave knew a guy who knew a guy with the padlock to a package goods store which had already been looted a bit. Ummmmmmmmmmm....Beer.

All in all not too bad a time particularly considering that I was thankfully not among the teams of guys who were deployed in Rodgers Quad to manually purge the toilets before the plumbing could be restored. Yeah.

Opposable thumb screws

Steve Bell brings it all into focus. Let us never forget who brought us to this lowly place in American history shall we?...

Post Friday Random Ten

Hey everybody,

I was busy doing some other stuff yesterday and didn't get around to posting my usual spate of rock tunes for your enjoyment. Here they are a day later and a few brain cells lighter...

Marquee Moon--Television
How Do You Sleep?--John Lennon
Message To The Streets--Wyclef Jean
I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts--X
Red Rabbits--The Shins
Ocean Breathes Salty--Modest Mouse
Superman--Gruppo Sportivo
Wattershed--Foo Fighters
Nineteen--Tegan & Sara
Straight Razor--Chomsky

It's the end, the end of the Century

...the American Century that is. At least it is the end according to deluxe smart guy, Chalmers Johnson. I tend to agree with his assessment...

Get it here at Tom Dispatch.

Mark Fiore

I kinda lost track of Mark Fiore for a while. He's still up on Mother Jones, but his website is pretty cool too. Damn clever guy.

It's Surgeriffic!

Koo-koo-ka-choo

This Mrs. Robinson is slightly edgier than the one you may be thinking of.

Potemkin Chimp

They say that being leader of the free world carries a good deal of weight and ages a person at an accelerated rate. Seems like if I look for a picture of ol' W though, he still looks damn good. I mean, just take a gander at the official portrait I lifted from the WH website.


Oh, wait a minute, here's another shot taken yesterday. Maybe they're right, he does look like a big bag of douche after all.

Huh...what was I thinkin'?

MLK redux

After reading, listening to and viewing a few more tributes to Dr. King yesterday, I was reflecting on this obtuse connection between how the conservative movement has come to embrace King's deeds and thoughts and cleave them to their own weird ass dogma of Jesus and stock options.

It occurred to me that maybe I should write something myself about that notion.

And then I found this piece by our old pal, Rick Perlstein and figured that whatever I could think up would be far better distilled by him instead of my usual offering of cave drawings.

Go read here.

One other thing...

Although I do support John Edwards, I do so mostly in the sense that he's the most "electable" and honest of the big three candidates.

Ultimately, my heart still belongs to Dennis...

World Markets

	FTSE 100	-323.50	-5.48%	5,578.20
	XETRA-DAX	-523.98	-7.16%	6,790.19
	CAC 40	-347.95	-6.83%	4,744.45
	HANG SENG	-1,383.01	-5.49%	23,818.86
	NIKKEI 225	-535.35	-3.86%	13,325.94
	U.S. Dollar vs Euro	-0.0156	-1.07%	1.4439
	U.S. Dollar vs Yen	-0.8500	-0.80%	0.0094
	U.S. Dollar vs UK £	-0.01	-0.61%	1.94

Holy shit, I guess we should be glad that the stock market is closed for the ML King Holiday today. Check out the percentage free fall of the FTSE and DAX exchange.

We're dragging the whole world into our financial toilet. Nice job GOP privatization assholes!

MLK Day

I stole the idea from my pal, Kid Charlemagne over at PowerPop, but here's a great Nick Lowe song performed masterfully by Elvis and Attractions in honor of Dr. King's birthday.

Yes, indeedy...

Blast from the past

Here's an old clip of SP poundin' the skins and Keith ripping it up on guitar covering that PowerPop smash hit by the Records--Starry Eyes.

Gosh, the things you'll find out on the Innertubes.

BTW...Nice mullet on Scottie.

Yeah, but where is Tige Andrews?

I have no earthly reason as to why I posted this picture. I just found it very clever and well photoshopped...

Cavs win

Man. Just finished watching the game.

The Cavaliers never won a single game last year in the finals against San Antonio, but they looked pretty effin' good tonight.

Nice.

Box score

George Bush Coins

Holy crap!!

My friend J. from Austin made me aware of this video the other day.

It's a better satire on the last 7 years than anything I've seen so far.

I'z trust in George.

Brilliant.

Huckleberry stew

Yet again, join me in shouting a collective goodbye to the American experiment.

Terrorism on your plate

Ya know, this wacky govmint of ours doesn't just like to scare people with wild tales of mustachioed brown men lurking around every corner.

Big Pharma has their finger in the terra pie as well. Check out Jill's latest post over at Brilliant at Breakfast.

Flee to the Cleve

As clearly stated in the article, who knew that Cleveland was an undiscovered culinary Mecca? Well, okay, I may have overstated that a tad, but it does feel good to have them sophicated big city mice from Chicago fawning over our goodies.

Twenty Flight Rock

Nobody did it like Eddie Cochran...nobody.

The Bloom is off the rose

I remember reading some of Harold Bloom's criticism way back when I was a twee green undergraduate lad and there was still a chance of saving this nation. Sigh.

He was right then and he's still right now. Next to the ever remarkable Lewis Lapham, I cannot think of a more credible writer and cultural analyst of the past 40 years.

Greed

...is not good

You always hurt the one you love

Music for a Monday morning. I always loved the Mills Brothers.

I guess you can tell what kind of mood I'm in this a.m.

Oh, the places you'll go

Steve Bell takes a gaze at the end of the Bushian empire.

For another gauge on the Israli reaction to the Chimp's visit to the Middle East look no further than the very well respected Ben Caspit, who was Netanyahu's biographer no less, to sense the anguish.

"It is a long time since the United States has had such a failing president, who caused so much damage to so many interests and values in such a short time. Think about the state in which he received America and how he is returning it. The power that dominated the world is now begging for favors...."

And this excerpt...

"The most severe thing about him is that until now, he has not managed to understand the magnitude of the stupidity of his moves. There is no one to tell him that despite the limousines, Air Force One, the Secret Service, the boots, the trappings of power, the CIA, the FBI and the other rituals and ceremonies surrounding the American president, despite all this—the president has no clothes".

Read the whole thing here.

If a regular goyim such as myself may be so bold...Oy vey!

Friday Random Ten

Savages--Paul Weller
All I Really Want--Alanis Morissette
Lost In The Supermarket--The Clash
Your Dictionary--XTC
Night Light--Sleater-Kinney
The Crane Wife 3--The Decemberists
Fool To Think--Dave Matthews Band
Parachutes--Pearl Jam
Skin Deep Town--X
Virginia Moon--Foo Fighters


...gosh I loved X

Juan Cole

Dr. Cole brings it right back around to where attention must be paid.

"I am often struck by how clueless the American public is to the vast destruction we have wrought on Iraq and its people, directly or indirectly. It strikes me as a bitter joke that 4 million are displaced, often facing hunger and disease, and the right wing periodicals and presidential candidates are talking about how the "surge" has "turned things around." ...For whom? How many orphans have we created? How many widows? How many people who weep and cry every night while trying to fall asleep on straw mats?"

And So It Goes...

Hey everybody,

Today is the 1st anniversary of the launch of Loud Mouth Soup. In honor of that occasion, I give you this...The brilliant Rockpile featuring Messrs. Edmunds and Lowe.

Ted hearts a hoot in the Arkansas woods

That Huckabee feller is a Deliverance ass cracker fo 'sho. And his wife most certainly dresses like a freakshow. What's not to hate about that outfit?

Further evidence here of dumbfuckery .

Scheer value

I haven't linked to Robert Scheer in a long while. This one is worth your time.

Soul Train

Mr. Wolcott has an opinion or two to share.

I'm, of course, of the opinion that I'll vote for a ham sandwich for president in '08 before I'd vote for a Repugnican, so it's clear that I'd vote for Obama regardless. But the oozing ardor for Barack Obama does get to be a bit much sometime does it not?

Sure, he'd be an interesting change in national identity, but let's be clear, he's a very young and very inexperienced guy, who, if elected, will be swimming upstream against El Rushbo and the Faux News machine for the entirety of his career.

Let's all take a deep breath everyone and to coin a phrase, keep our eyes on the prize...

Separated at Birth

Huh. Funny thing about being out of work...you end up seeing more daytime television than you're normally accustomed to and one thing pops out at you.

This asshole...


Now what is truly remarkable is how it takes one back to that period of unemployment, oh, let's say when you were 4 years old and watched a lot of cartoons and you remember that this guy was on the teevee a lot then as well.


Ah yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Garschk, Olives!

Clusterfuck indeed

Again, whether he's right or wrong, crazy or sane, that's for someone else to decide. For me, he's just a hilarious and frequently, honest writer.

I ask you, who else could pen a line like; "Whatever else Americans have been conditioned to be lately -- blubbery, debt-crushed, tattoo-etched, Jesus-haunted, multiply-addicted TV zombies -- a residual kernel of fairness seems to persist underneath all that cellulite and avarice."...and get away with it in the relatively mainstream press of blogsylvania?

Regardless, I give you Mr. Kunstler in all his bitter glory.

Chimp Fleet

There was no god-damned mention of this whatsoever in any 'Murkan news outlet this morning. We're all too busy wondering if Hillary is going to cry again today or if Huckabee is "jammin'" on his low rent bass with the rubes in New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, the Cheney administration goes blithely around the globe fomenting dissent and trying to pick a fight like a schoolyard bully.

At least Steve Bell is on the ball...

Arrows - Touch Too Much / Toughen Up (1974)

Does anybody else remember these guys? I feel like I should be sitting in front of the tube munching on a bowl of Quisp or Quake in between Banana Splits episodes.

In any case, both the Ramones and The Redwalls owe a debt to these guys. There is also a titch of Dave Edmunds in there as well...

They also penned the Joan Jett cover of "I Love Rock and Roll".

Posthumous Friday Random Ten

So...that's what?...like two Fridays in a row that I've missed the FRT? Sorry about that, folks.

One would think that since I'm not working at present I would actually have more time for mindless bloggagoria stuff, but au contraire, mon freres.

I've been far too busy watching missed episodes of Extras and Flight of the Conchords on HBO On Demand to fritter away my days with Intertubes nonsense. And since I couldn't give a rat's patooti as to who won the Iowa caucuses, I've been less than interested with the political side of the World Wide Web.

Not to worry thought dear freinds, I'll be back in the swim next week. until then, here's a Saturday edition of the Ten.

This Fffire--Franz Ferdinand
A Lonely Man--T Bone Burnett
Big Time--Peter Gabriel
Get Behind The Mule--Tom Waits
Nausea--Beck
Pinhead--The Ramones
Edible Flowers--The Finn Brothers
When I Get Home--The Beatles
Yellow--Coldplay
M.I.A.--Foo Fighters


Bonus Track:

She's Not Mine Anymore--Robert Gordon