Achilles In The Alleyway

Signed, Epstein's Mother

2012-01-27T17:09:00.000-05:00

Robert Hegyes

Rest In Peace

Grateful Flag?

2012-01-26T12:26:00.000-05:00

"Unlike the punks of the Seventies, this new generation also has some respect for the hippies and the values they embraced in the Sixties. Around the Black Flag office and rehearsal room, in Redondo Beach, California, one frequently sees long-haired roadies wearing Grateful Dead T-shirts and playing Aoxomoxoa or Workingman's Dead on their boom boxes. Greg Ginn says one of his dreams is for Black Flag to open for the Grateful Dead." -Rolling Stone, 1985

Quote Of The Week

2012-01-24T08:08:00.000-05:00

"A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image."

Adiós Amigos

2012-01-10T00:00:00.001-05:00

A.I.T.A. is on a brief hiatus... Back in roughly two weeks.

Quote Of The Week

2012-01-09T02:17:00.000-05:00

"Holidays are in no sense an alternative to the congestion and bustle of cities and work. Quite the contrary. People look to escape into an intensification of the conditions of ordinary life, into a deliberate aggravation of those conditions: further from nature, nearer to artifice, to abstraction, to total pollution, to well above average levels of stress, pressure, concentration and monotony — this is the ideal of popular entertainment. No one is interested in overcoming alienation; the point is to plunge into it to the point of ecstasy. That is what holidays are for."

The Faith And The Fury

2012-01-07T14:46:00.005-05:00

"In the environment of the slum, the courage to display yourself is your only capital, and crime is the productive process which converts such capital to the modern powers of the world, ego and money."

"There was a period... when it looked as if graffiti would take over the world, when a movement which began as the expression of tropical peoples living in a monotonous iron-gray and dull brown brick environment, surrounded by asphalt, concrete, and clangor, had erupted biologically as though to save the sensuous flesh of their inheritance from a macadamization of the psyche, save the blank city wall of their unfed brain by painting the wall over with giant trees and petty plants of a tropical rain-forest, and like such a jungle, every plant large and small spoke to one another, lived in profusion and harmony of a forest."

Buy: The Faith Of Graffiti [book]

Dig: Jon Naar - The Birth Of Graffiti

Dig: Jon Naar's official photography site

Quotes by Norman Mailer, from The Faith Of Graffiti

Mesmerization Eclipse

2012-01-04T13:07:00.001-05:00

Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt

Rest In Peace

"Larry 'Rhino' Reinhardt, a man considered by those who knew him best to be amongst the top southern rock guitarists of all time, died on Monday. The one-time Iron Butterfly guitarist and co-founder of '70s rock group Captain Beyond died of sclerosis of the liver, his longtime significant other Tracey Hooper told the Bradenton Herald. Reinardt was 63-years-old." ... Story continues here: Iron Butterfly Guitarist And Captain Beyond Founder Dies (Ultimate Classic Rock)

Quote Of The Week

2012-01-02T11:04:00.002-05:00

"Alas, human vices, however horrible one might imagine them to be, contain the proof (were it only in their infinite expansion) of man's longing for the infinite; but it is a longing that often takes the wrong route. It is my belief that the reason behind all culpable excesses lies in this depravation of the sense of the infinite."

Into The Future

2011-12-31T11:48:00.000-05:00

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

A Gallery Of Cool, Take Nine

2011-12-30T14:43:00.004-05:00

Francoise Hardy

Crisis

Lauren Bacall

The Purple Hearts

Laurel Aitken

The Birds

Lou Reed and Nico

Ringo Starr

[ Previous Galleries Of Cool: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 ]

Quote Of The Week

2011-12-26T05:03:00.000-05:00

"How comforting it is, once or twice a year, to get together and forget the old times."

Point Of No Return

2011-12-25T16:10:00.015-05:00

Sean Bonniwell

Rest In Peace

I feel quite fortunate to have corresponded on and off with Sean Bonniwell for a brief period of time, sparked by him digging a review I wrote of a Music Machine reissue (Ignition, to be precise). He was really a one of a kind person, and a truly underrated and beyond-gifted songwriter. His incredible body of work speaks more than a mere eulogy ever could... May he rest in peace.

A.I.T.A. Hall Of Fame: Peter Laughner

2011-12-21T14:41:00.005-05:00

"Ain't it fun when you know that you're gonna die young."

To most who dig deep into rock history and search for its underbelly, Peter Laughner is remembered as a founding member of Cleveland's legendary 1970s proto-punks Rocket From The Tombs and Pere Ubu, as well as a gifted rock critic from the days when they really mattered. To me, Laughner's legacy lies just as much in the solo acoustic cuts he laid down, many recorded the night before he left this mortal coil due to years of alcohol and drug abuse (you can almost taste the speed on all four takes of his manic "Ridin' On Ice"). "First Taste Of Heartache" and both versions of the brilliant "The Junkman" — recorded on that fateful night — belong on the same playlist as the sonic-ache/tragi-folk as put forth by the likes of Nick Drake, Tim Hardin, Townes Van Zandt, and Gary Higgins, though with a slant which is more Lou Reed than Bob Dylan. Speaking of Dylan, Laughner's cracked take on "Visions Of Johanna" is the ultimate cover version of what is one of Zimmy's true lyrical masterpieces. On these tapes he also showed his love of deep blues and poetry, via heartfelt covers of the great Robert Johnson, and songs paying tribute to two of the greatest poets to have walked this green earth... All this from a man who died at 24 years old.

Dig: Peter Laughner bio (by Richie Unterberger)
Dig: A selection of Peter Laughner's rock criticism

Download: "Amphetamine" * • Download: "Ain't It Fun" *
Download: "Visions Of Johanna" • Download: "32.20 Blues"
Download: "Me And The Devil Blues" • Download: "Baudelaire"

Download: "Sylvia Plath" • Download: "First Taste Of Heartache"
Download: "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Man to Cry" **

Download: "Dear Richard" ** • Download: "The Junkman 1"
Download: "Ridin' On Ice 2" • Download: "The Junkman 2"

* Laughner with RFTT
** Laughner with Friction

Quote Of The Week

2011-12-19T02:17:00.000-05:00

"Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens, there can be no free and independent nations. Without internal peace, that is, peace among citizens and between the citizens and their state, there can be no guarantee of external peace. A state that denies its citizens their basic rights becomes a danger to its neighbors as well: internal arbitrary rule will be reflected in arbitrary external relations. The suppression of public opinion, the abolition of public competition for power and its public exercise opens the way for the state power to arm itself in any way it sees fit."

Christopher Hitchens, R.I.P.

2011-12-16T04:29:00.010-05:00

"Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness,
truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way." -Hitch

Christopher Hitchens was a hero (a word I reserve for very few), and I am absolutely devastated by his death. Reading Letters To A Young Contrarian in 2001 was a real life-changer, and after that I devoured pretty much every word the man wrote, not to mention tried to watch all his debates and TV appearances. Even if I didn't always agree with him, I always respected his opinion and marveled at his wit, compassion, bravery, incredible depth of knowledge, style, and love of the arts. Through Hitchens, I dove full-on into Orwell's writings (with much reward), fell in love with the poetry of Auden, and questioned stances I once held with great pride. I also felt like someone "got me" and articulated some of my deepest held views better than I ever could have hoped to have done on my own. Though he gave so very much, his loss is truly immeasurable.

Read: Hitchens at Vanity Fair • Read: Hitchens at The Atlantic

Read: A Great Journalist’s Greatest Magazine Stories (via Longform)
Read: Hitchens Obituaries (via The Richard Dawkins Foundation)

Dig: "Herewith, Hope It Serves. As Always, Christopher."
Dig: The Immortal Rejoinders of Christopher Hitchens

Dig: God Is Not Great (Hitchens documentary trailer)
Dig: Five Great Christopher Hitchens Debates

220 Years?

2011-12-15T10:39:00.004-05:00

"By signing this defense spending bill, President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in U.S. law. In the past, Obama has lauded the importance of being on the right side of history, but today he is definitely on the wrong side." -Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch

Read: NDAA Set To Become Law

Read: Happy Bill Of Rights Day

Adult Crash

2011-12-14T14:02:00.000-05:00

"Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into

the world, he is responsible for everything he does."

From Existentialism Is Humanism, 1946

Quote Of The Week

2011-12-12T11:36:00.000-05:00

"The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."

The Wanderer And His Shadow

2011-12-08T09:57:00.000-05:00

I found out the morning after. I was in my folks' bedroom, kicking my feet into the blankets while lying on my stomach watching TV, as I did most mornings. My mom had already left for work, and my dad was in the bathroom preparing for his day to come. As always, the tiny radio he had in there with him was blasting the morning news. I was lost in the world of Fred and Barney when out he walked, red-eyed and with a face loaded with shaving cream. He told me John Lennon, who was one of my heroes in a time when I still had them, had been shot and killed. I was shocked. I felt like someone I actually knew died. The Beatles — along with Dylan and the Stones — brought me some of my earliest memories of happiness; days when I was content just sitting on the floor in my room, alone with a meagre stack of glorious vinyl and the sounds that took me away to other worlds. The moment I found out about Lennon dying also sticks with me as it was the first time I can recall seeing my dad cry, or at least be near tears. I finally saw him as human, and realized that my now-dead hero was also human; all too human.

Post originally titled 30 Years Ago Today, published 12/8/10.

Don't Mind The Maggots

2011-12-07T13:37:00.001-05:00

Quote Of The Week

2011-12-05T12:01:00.000-05:00

"Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have."

Get It While You Can

2011-12-04T18:06:00.000-05:00

Howard Tate

Rest In Peace

"Howard Tate died yesterday. He had been in poor health so it was no surprise to those who knew him. Howard was a great soul singer in that time when 'great soul singer' was a phrase that fit so many. In the late 1960s, he was up against Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, James Carr, Percy Sledge, Joe Tex, Sam & Dave and a whole lot of others." ... Story continues here: It's Not The Singer, It's The Song (Dick Waterman Music Photography)

Dig: Howard Tate (AllMusic bio)

Download: "Stop" b/w "Shoot 'Em All Down"

Download: "Girl From the North Country"

Download: "Get It While You Can"

Art Is Not A Crime

2011-12-01T09:57:00.000-05:00

Dig: Style Wars Kickstarter Campaign

Buy: Style Wars (original DVD)

Thread Of Time #3

2011-11-29T17:18:00.000-05:00

For the much-delayed third installment of Thread Of Time, we present Delincuentes, a compilation of lost, boss Latin American '60s sounds. Released back in 2001 by Martian Records (apparantly the same folks that gave us the Ils Sont Fous Ces Galois! series), the comp includes a few bands well-known to trans-world '60s addicts, like Peru's godlike Los Yorks and Los Saicos, along with lesser-knowns from the likes of Mexico, Columbia, Uruguay and Chilé. Sure, there's the usual clutch of cover versions included, but overall the quality on this one is top-flight all the way, with tons of fuzz, stomp, lustful vocals, and cheap swirling organ sounds. Highlights include "Ya Se," the Mexican punk classic by Los Ovnis, the psychotic "El Loco" by the aforementioned Los Yorks, the scorching "Lo Sue Sera" by Chilé's Los Beat 4, Los Yaki's "Las Estatuas De Marfil" (think Bob Seger and The Last Heard as filtered through a haze of mezcal), and Los Shains' dance-floor raver, "Shains A Go Go." Muy caliente!

Dig: Thread Of Time #1: Tougher Than Stains

Dig: Thread Of Time #2: Echoes From The Wilderness

Quote Of The Week

2011-11-28T11:38:00.000-05:00

"There comes a time in history when the man who dares to say that two and two make four is punished with death. The schoolteacher is well aware of this. And the question is not one of knowing what punishment or reward attends the making of this calculation. The question is that of knowing whether two and two do make four."

I’m Only Passing Through

2011-11-27T21:33:00.000-05:00

Don Devito

Rest In Peace

"Don DeVito was Dylan’s most important producer during the 1970s. Together they did four albums, starting with the absolute classic Desire in 1976, the two live albums Hard Rain and At Budokan, as well as 1978′s Street Legal including the hits "Señor" and "Changing Of The Guards." In the 1990s DeVito returned as a compilation producer for the Bootleg Series, Vol.1-3 boxset in 1991, the 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration in 1993, Greatest Hits Vol. 3 in 1994 and The Best Of Bob Dylan in 1997. In 2000 he produced the single "Things Have Changed," which won the Oscar in 2001 for 'Best Song.' Lately he was recording Supervisor of the Bootleg Series Vol. 5 and producer of the Hybrid SACD set." [Text via Positively Bob Dylan]

Grave Yard Trains

2011-11-22T13:06:00.002-05:00

"The air conditioning never worked. People rode between cars because it was the only way to stay cool. And there was a way higher crime rate in the subway back then than on the streets. Everyone knew it. You avoided falling asleep at all costs." -John Conn

Bronx-born John Conn began his career at age nineteen as a United States Marine Corps photographer. Following his service, he earned a BFA in photography from the School Of Visual Arts in New York City, where he graduated with honors.

His work has been published in Time/Life Books, The New York Sunday Times, and in magazines including Nikon World, Hasselblad, Rangefinder, Studio Photography, Shutterbug, LensWork, and Popular Photography.

In the late 1970s while working as a freelance photographer, he captured the powerful black and white subway images that have become his signature collection. The artistry and historical significance of this work has earned it a place in the permanent collection of the Museum Of The City Of New York.

Dig: John Conn Photography

All photographs by John Conn

Quote Of The Week

2011-11-21T02:17:00.000-05:00

"The worst fear is that I'll learn to be happy AT LAST and then get real sad when I see what I've missed."

These Little Town Blues

2011-11-16T23:57:00.005-05:00

"I've got the greatest job in the world. There's no other job in government where cause and effect is so tightly coupled where you can make a difference every day in so many different ways and in so many different people's lives." -Michael Bloomberg, NYC Mayor

Video by Casey Neistat

Push On!

2011-11-15T11:25:00.001-05:00

"Mightier than the tread of marching armies is the power of an idea whose time has come." -Victor Hugo

Quote Of The Week

2011-11-14T02:17:00.000-05:00

"For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception... If any one, upon serious and unprejudic'd reflection thinks he has a different notion of himself, I must confess I can reason no longer with him. All I can allow him is, that he may be in the right as well as I, and that we are essentially different in this particular. He may, perhaps, perceive something simple and continu'd, which he calls himself; tho' I am certain there is no such principle in me." [from A Treatise Of Human Nature]

Death Of The American Family

2011-11-10T12:05:00.001-05:00

Bil Keane

Rest In Peace

"Daily, for more than half a century, millions of readers have received a serving of Bil (he really did spell it with one "L") Keane’s traditional-value, homespun humor in his cartoon The Family Circus, published in recent years in nearly 1,500 newspapers." ... Story continues here: Bil Keane, Creator Of ‘The Family Circus,’ Dies At 89 (NY Times)

Dig: The Family Circus (official site)

Dig: The Dysfunctional Family Circus

Dig: The Nietzsche Family Circus

Cheers To Hitch!

2011-11-09T12:41:00.000-05:00

Out Of The Shadows

2011-11-08T12:56:00.000-05:00

Joe Frazier

Rest In Peace

"Finally, in death, it appears Joe Frazier finally stepped out of Muhammad Ali's shadow... After Frazier died Monday night after a long battle with liver cancer, the appreciation began to pour out for the man doomed to be the second half of the Ali-Frazier coupling since their three epic battles in the early '70s. But even as Ali's name hung close to the top of every story told about Frazier, it fell behind for a change. As Ali gracefully expressed his sympathy, respect and admiration for Frazier, others made the case for him as far more than Ali's foil." ... Story continues here: Remembering Joe Frazier, The Working Man’s Champion (NY Times)

Dig: A Life In Video Clips

Dig: Frazier's Miller Lite commercial

Download: Joe Frazier - "Try It Again"

Download: Joe Frazier - "My Way"

Quote Of The Week

2011-11-07T12:32:00.000-05:00

"The metaphysical comfort — with which, I am suggesting even now, every true tragedy leaves us —that life is at the bottom of things, despite all the changes of appearances, indestructibly powerful and pleasurable —this comfort appears in incarnate clarity in the chorus of the satyrs, a chorus of natural beings who live ineradicably, as it were, behind all civilization and remain eternally the same, despite the changes of generations and of the history of nations."

A.I.T.A. Hall Of Fame: Christopher Hitchens

2011-11-04T12:11:00.001-04:00

"About once or twice every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to woo and to win the approval of supernatural beings. Very often, when I give my view that there is no supernatural dimension, and certainly not one that is only or especially available to the faithful, and that the natural world is wonderful enough — and even miraculous enough if you insist — I attract pitying looks and anxious questions. How, in that case, I am asked, do I find meaning and purpose in life? How does a mere and gross materialist, with no expectation of a life to come, decide what, if anything, is worth caring about?

Depending on my mood, I sometimes but not always refrain from pointing out what a breathtakingly insulting and patronizing question this is. (It is on a par with the equally subtle inquiry: Since you don't believe in our god, what stops you from stealing and lying and raping and killing to your heart's content?) Just as the answer to the latter question is: self-respect and the desire for the respect of others — while in the meantime it is precisely those who think they have divine permission who are truly capable of any atrocity — so the answer to the first question falls into two parts. A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless' except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one's everyday life as if this were so. Whereas if one sought to define meaninglessness and futility, the idea that a human life should be expended in the guilty, fearful, self-obsessed propitiation of supernatural nonentities... but there, there. Enough." [from Hitch-22]

Dig: The Daily Hitchens
Dig: Hitchens Online Directory

Read: Martin Amis On Hitchens
Read: A Voice, Still Vibrant, Reflects On Mortality

Buy: Letters To A Young Contrarian

Buy: The Quotable Hitchens

Buy: Hitch-22: A Memoir

A Sign Of The Times?

2011-11-02T13:02:00.001-04:00

Quote Of The Week

2011-10-31T11:29:00.000-04:00

"There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world."

We Loved Him, Despite Ourselves

2011-10-27T12:38:00.002-04:00

His life felt constricted for so long it became something he just learned to live with, despite the pain. The serpent's grip seemed to tighten with every aching, passing day. There was a need for release, always the quest for action; his boredom was epic.

At times his journey seemed like a disease, rather than a pursuit. Typically, he chose libation as an out, but it only fueled things; the lust seeping from his pours when the fuel hit his bloodstream. He was always charming, for as far back as anyone could remember, yet there was a secret history; a curse. The attention both feeding, and in the end, destroying his very core. Stumbling home night after night, wrecked and lost he would feel the serpent again, its embrace strengthening; tail to mouth.

One day he even stopped into a progressive temple, but he got hung on the length of the skirt worn by the girl who greeted him. The cross resting deep in her cleavage sent him reeling, and running to the nearest tavern. It wasn't to be, like all the other emotional shards left in his wake tell us, now that it's all over. He continued the endless cycle, including mighty rituals that did little to soothe.

And then there was the night that echoes like a schoolyard whisper. He just walked off alone into the night, never to be heard from again. Rumors abound as to his fate, the most circulated tale being that he took a sharp turn into a pub, and through another typical night of debauchery, he was freed, and ultimately, reborn.

Happy Birthday, Pablo!

2011-10-25T13:51:00.001-04:00

Quote Of The Week

2011-10-24T07:03:00.000-04:00

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."

When The Ship Comes In

2011-10-21T11:48:00.000-04:00

Barry Feinstein

Rest In Peace

"Barry Feinstein, a photographer who chronicled the lives of seminal rock'n'roll stars of the 1960s, and who was perhaps best known for the stark portrait of Bob Dylan on the cover of the 1964 album The Times They Are A-Changin’, died on Thursday in a hospital near his home in Woodstock, NY." ... Story continues here: Barry Feinstein, Photographer of Defining Rock Portraits, Dies at 80 (NY Times)

Dig: Barry Feinstein Official Site

Buy: Hollywood Foto-Rhetoric

Buy: Real Moments

Third Avenue, Circa 1989

2011-10-20T12:08:00.005-04:00

Pitchers of beer consumed in mugs, never pint glasses.

In places where the tables were always sticky,

The jukebox too loud and distorted,

And the good times never seemed to end.

That was the atmosphere.

Flowers In The Dustbin

2011-10-18T16:42:00.004-04:00

Occupy The Board Room!

Quote Of The Week

2011-10-17T02:17:00.000-04:00

"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent. "

Gotham's Lost Tribe

2011-10-12T15:25:00.000-04:00

"Sunshine Rebels tells the story of a group of inner-city teenagers who in the 1970s came together in New York City’s Central Park and in the process left an indelible stamp on world culture through startling innovations in street art, alternative music and extreme sports.

A coming-of-age story set at the nadir of New York City history, and in the world’s most famous — and at that time infamous — park, abandoned and crumbling amid the city’s collapsed economy, the documentary reveals a unique and colorful 1970s subculture. The film highlights a family that formed at the Central Park Bandshell, a family that to this day is held together by the ties formed then.

Some became legends... Some moved on... Some died.

An important New York City story, Sunshine Rebels highlights the lives of intriguing figures who lived communally, intensely, at times ferally, in the shadowy grounds of Central Park's Naumburg Bandshell, the heart of a reeling and broken Gotham City. In the process they contributed to the cultural and artistic shifts that continue to have an impact today."

Dig: Sunshine Rebels (official film site)

Support: Sunshine Rebels (Kickstarter site)

Quote Of The Week

2011-10-10T12:41:00.000-04:00

"Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you." [From the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at UCLA, March 2010]

More Tell-Tale Signs

2011-10-09T13:00:00.003-04:00

Tell-Tale Signs

2011-10-06T14:00:00.003-04:00

There Comes A Time

2011-10-05T12:39:00.000-04:00

Bert Jansch

Rest In Peace

"Of all the guitarists to emerge from the early days of the British folk music revival, it was Bert Jansch, who has died aged 67, who had the most sustained influence, not only within folk circles, but also on the wider music scene. To Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Jansch was "the innovator of the time … so far ahead of what anyone else was doing". Johnny Marr of the Smiths described Jansch's effect on his musicianship as "massive … one of the most influential and intriguing musicians to have come out of the British music scene." ... Story continues here: Bert Jansch Obituary (The Guardian)

In Unity

2011-10-04T16:25:00.003-04:00

"Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization." -Oscar Wilde

Dig: October 5th Community & Labor March On Wall Street

Quote Of The Week

2011-10-03T13:24:00.000-04:00

"There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all."

The City In Motion

2011-09-29T11:52:00.018-04:00

"The people in the subway, their flesh juxtaposed against the graffiti, the penetrating effect of the strobe light itself, and even the hollow darkness of the tunnels, inspired an aesthetic that goes unnoticed by passengers who are trapped underground, hiding behind masks and closed off from each other." -Bruce Davidson

Bruce Davidson is undeniably one of the most influential and important photographers of our time. Picking up a camera at the age of ten, Davidson quickly found himself on the streets of Chicago, photographing city life. After attending Rochester Institute of Technology and Yale University, Davidson was drafted in the army and stationed near Paris, where he first met Henri Cartier-Bresson. In 1957, after his service ended, Davidson starting working for Life Magazine and became a full-time member of Magnum in 1958.

From 1958 to 1961, Davidson made some of his most seminal bodies of work, including The Dwarf, Brooklyn Gang and Freedom Riders. A Guggenheim grant in 1962 led him to create Time Of Change, which documented the civil rights movement in the United States. After a one-person show at The Museum of Modern Art in 1963, followed by a NEA grant in 1967, Davidson spent two years photographing in Harlem, resulting in East 100th Street, one of the most powerful documentations of poverty and housing discrimination ever published. In 1980, after living in New York City for 23 years, Davidson turned his camera underground, creating a startling color essay of urban life in Subway. -Catherine Edelman Gallery

Buy: Subway (2011 reprint edition)

Dig: A selection Davidson's photographs
Dig: The Way It Was (Brooklyn Gang)

All photographs by Bruce Davidson (Rose Gallery)

45 Revolutions: Teenbeats

2011-09-28T09:38:00.016-04:00

"Haling from Hastings [in the UK], the Teenbeats often gigged with The Lambrettas and were signed by Safari Records in the Summer of 1979. "I Can't Control Myself" was issued as their first single and was followed by "Strength Of The Nation" [both produced by Ray Fenwick of the Syndicats and Spencer Davis Group], plus an appearance on the Safari compilation Uppers On The Sound Downs, all issued in late 1979, following which the band just disappeared." -Mark Bennan

Download: "Strength Of The Nation" b/w "If I'm Gone Tomorrow"

Dig: Beat Boys In The Jet Age (A.I.T.A.'s Mod Revival Top-20)

Quote Of The Week

2011-09-26T08:12:00.000-04:00

"Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. It is, one is told, the unforgivable sin, but it is a sin the corrupt or evil man never practices. He always has hope. He never reaches the freezing-point of knowing absolute failure. Only the man of goodwill carries always in his heart this capacity for damnation."

A Gallery Of Cool, Take Eight

2011-09-23T14:23:00.000-04:00

Lenny Bruce

Slade

Alain Delon

The Yardbirds

Bobby Moore

Phil Ochs

Desmond Dekker

"A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress, by his tastes, by his distastes, by the stories he tells, by his gait, by the notion of his eye, by the look of his house, of his chamber; for nothing on earth is solitary but every thing hath affinities infinite." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

[ Previous Galleries Of Cool: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 ]

Quote Of The Week

2011-09-19T14:13:00.000-04:00

"I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment."

We Are Born With A Chance

2011-09-14T13:20:00.005-04:00

"Find satisfaction in what they lack." -Greg Ginn

Download: "Rise Above" (Live at the 9:30 Club, 1981)

Download: "Rise Above" (Live at The On Broadway, 1982)

Quote Of The Week

2011-09-12T12:48:00.000-04:00

"Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more."

Memories Are Made Of This

2011-09-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

A.I.T.A. Hall Of Fame: Homage To Catalonia

2011-09-07T17:21:00.000-04:00

"Orwell went to Spain in December 1936, ostensibly to write about the civil war, but soon joined the anti-Franco forces. Before going he had gotten in touch with the British Communist Party but its leader was dismissive of Orwell as "politically unreliable" (and subsequently attacked him as "a disillusioned middle class boy"). Orwell then made contact with the Independent Labor Party, once an important British left-wing force whose cranky sectarianism had pushed it to the sidelines. The ILP contact meant that when Orwell decided to fight he enrolled not in the Communist-controlled International Brigades but in the militia of the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unification Marxista), a splinter Marxist group. After over 100 days at the front with POUM militia he returned to Barcelona to meet his wife Eileen who served as a volunteer with the ILP group there.

Orwell was in Barcelona during the internecine fighting that took place there in May as the Communists tightened their grip. He went back to the front, was severely wounded, recuperated, and then had to flee with Eileen to escape arrest and probably execution (the fate of others whom the Communists felt stood in their way). Homage To Catalonia recounts Orwell's personal experience in Spain; it is his view of what happened." (from the 1938 Secker & Warburg edition)

•••

"Bringing all the force of his humanity, passion and clarity to bear, George Orwell examines the bright hopes and cynical betrayal of the Spanish revolution. He describes the discomfort and inefficiency of front-line fighting; the early revolutionary euphoria; the propaganda and distortion perpetrated by both sides; and the tragic collapse of the revolution into warring factions." (from the 1977 Penguin edition)

Buy: Homage To Catalonia • Buy: Why Orwell Matters

Dig: Orwell biography • Dig: Political Writings Of Orwell

Quote Of The Week

2011-09-05T13:01:00.000-04:00

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

As I Slept, I Dreamed A Dream

2011-09-02T14:22:00.000-04:00

"One receives as reward for much ennui, despondency, boredom — such as a solitude without friends, books, duties, passions must bring with it — those quarter-hours of profoundest contemplation within oneself and nature. He who completely entrenches himself against boredom also entrenches himself against himself: he will never get to drink the strongest refreshing draught from his own innermost fountain." -Friedrich Nietzsche (from Human All Too Human, 1880)

The World Didn't Owe Him Nothin'

2011-08-30T13:07:00.000-04:00

David 'Honeyboy' Edwards

Rest In Peace

"David 'Honeyboy' Edwards, the son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, performed with the founders of the art form, Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Son House, Tommy McLennan, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Big Joe Williams. He was the last of the bluesmen from his generation." ... Story continues here: David 'Honeyboy' Edwards Dies At 96 (LA Times)

Download: "Eyes Full Of Tears"

Download: "You're Gonna Miss Me"

Quote Of The Week

2011-08-29T09:09:00.000-04:00

"The language of friendship is not words but meanings."

A Tree Dies In Brooklyn

2011-08-28T20:15:00.007-04:00

Searchin' No More

2011-08-23T10:13:00.000-04:00

Jerry Leiber

Rest In Peace

"Jerry Leiber, who with longtime partner Mike Stoller wrote "Hound Dog," ''Jailhouse Rock," ''Yakety Yak" and other hit songs that came to define early rock'n'roll, died Monday." ... Story continues here: Jerry Leiber, Rock'N'Roll Songwriter, Dies At 78 (NY Times)

Buy: The Daisy/Tiger Records Story (CD)

Buy: Hound Dog: Leiber and Stoller Collection (CD)

Buy: Hound Dog: The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography (book)

Read: Lieber & Stoller interview (Blue Railroad)

Quote Of The Week

2011-08-22T12:11:00.000-04:00

"Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself."

Rain

2011-08-19T19:49:00.000-04:00

As the falling rain
trickles among the stones
memories come bubbling out.
It's as if the rain
had pierced my temples.
Streaming
streaming chaotically
come memories:
the reedy voice
of the servant
telling me tales
of ghosts.
They sat beside me
the ghosts
and the bed creaked
that purple-dark afternoon
when I learned you were leaving forever,
a gleaming pebble
from constant rubbing
becomes a comet.
Rain is falling
falling
and memories keep flooding by
they show me a senseless
world
a voracious
world—abyss
ambush
whirlwind
spur
but I keep loving it
because I do
because of my five senses
because of my amazement
because every morning,
because forever, I have loved it
without knowing why.

From Casting Off by Claribel Alegría

Dog Daze Of Summer

2011-08-16T16:29:00.000-04:00

Quote Of The Week

2011-08-15T11:42:00.000-04:00

"Success, instead of giving freedom of choice, becomes a way of life. There's no country I've been to where people, when you come into a room and sit down with them, so often ask you, "What do you do?" And, being American, many's the time I've almost asked that question, then realized it's good for my soul not to know. For a while! Just to let the evening wear on and see what I think of this person without knowing what he does and how successful he is, or what a failure. We're ranking everybody every minute of the day."

45 Revolutions: Lester Bangs

2011-08-11T18:16:00.000-04:00

The "Let It Blurt" b/w "Live" 45 was rock journalist extraordinaire Lester Bangs' debut recording, released in 1979 by John Cale's short-lived Spy Records Ltd. On the two tracks — produced by Patti Smith Group drummer J.D. Daugherty and mixed by Cale — Lester is backed-up by members of the Voidoids, Raybeats, and Patti Smith Group, and the result is a really great two-sider of damaged art-punk, along the lines of the aforementioned Voidoids and Pere Ubu, with Lester's admittedly not-for-everyone vocals raging on-top.

Download: "Let It Blurt" b/w "Live"

Dig: The Right To Be Wrong (by Richard Hell)

Dig: Mentor. Editor. Lester (by Jeffrey Morgan)

Buy: Psychotic Reactions And Carburetor Dung (book)

Buy: Let It Blurt: The Life And Times of Lester Bangs (book)

Keep Calm And Carry On...

2011-08-09T23:35:00.000-04:00

"We are a vulgar, pushing mob whose passions are easily mobilized by demagogues, newspaper men, religious quacks, agitators and such like. To call this a society of free peoples is blasphemous. What have we to offer the world besides the superabundant loot which we recklessly plunder from the earth under the maniacal delusion that this insane activity represents progress and enlightenment?"

Quote Of The Week

2011-08-08T11:11:00.001-04:00

"A poet makes himself a visionary through a long, boundless, and systematized disorganization of all the senses. All forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he exhausts within himself all poisons, and preserves their quintessences. Unspeakable torment, where he will need the greatest faith, a superhuman strength, where he becomes all men the great invalid, the great criminal, the great accursed — and the Supreme Scientist! For he attains the unknown! Because he has cultivated his soul, already rich, more than anyone! He attains the unknown, and if, demented, he finally loses the understanding of his visions, he will at least have seen them! So what if he is destroyed in his ecstatic flight through things unheard of, unnameable: other horrible workers will come; they will begin at the horizons where the first one has fallen!"

Away From The Numbers

2011-08-05T18:54:00.000-04:00

"In life man commits himself and draws his own portrait, outside of which there is nothing. No doubt this thought may seem harsh to someone who has not made a success of his life. But on the other hand, it helps people to understand that reality alone counts, and that dreams, expectations and hopes only serve to define a man as a broken dream, aborted hopes, and futile expectations."

From Existentialism Is Humanism, 1946

A.I.T.A. Hall Of Fame: Cockney Rejects

2011-08-02T16:29:00.001-04:00

"Quintessentially British in the best possible ways... If The Clash had pretty well invented the terrace anthem take on punk-rock with their first album, the Rejects were the real deal — match lads who were in love with rock'n'roll and football — an east London answer to the Westway wonders... Listen to the Rejects and you are in a world of boxing clubs, smoky pubs, piss-stained terraces where you could stand up, good times and community." -Louder Than War

Download: "I'm Not A Fool" (live at Hollywood Studios, 1980)

Buy: Cockney Reject: My Life of Music, Football And Blood (book)

Buy: Join the Rejects: The Zonophone Years '79 - '81 (boxset)
Download: "England I Miss You Now" (demo) *

* Paul Weller's solo demo for a track eventually recorded

by the Cockney Rejects with Weller and Pete Way from UFO.

Quote Of The Week

2011-08-01T13:20:00.000-04:00

"Not to find one's way in a city may well be uninteresting and banal. It requires ignorance — nothing more. But to lose oneself in a city — as one loses oneself in a forest — that calls for a quite different schooling. Then, signboard and street names, passers-by, roofs, kiosks, or bars must speak to the wanderer like a cracking twig under his feet in the forest."

A Gallery Of Cool, Take Seven

2011-07-29T15:11:00.000-04:00

Ike and Tina Turner

Michael Caine

Cockney Rejects

Oliver Reed

Humprey Bogart

George Best and friend

Peter Falk

"To me style is just the outside of content, and content the inside of style, like the outside and the inside of the human body. Both go together, they can't be separated." - Jean-Luc Godard

[ Previous Galleries Of Cool: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 ]

Quote Of The Week

2011-07-25T11:04:00.000-04:00

"It is a strange desire, to seek power and lose liberty, or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man's self. The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains, and it is sometimes base; and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing."

Stare Into The Vacuum Of His Eyes

2011-07-20T09:08:00.003-04:00

"I found myself writing this song, this story, this long piece of vomit, 20 pages long... And I'd never written anything like that before and it suddenly came to me that this is what I should do."

46 years ago today... "Bob Dylan releases 'Like A Rolling Stone' in the USA. At six minutes, it becomes the longest single ever recorded up to this date." [Source: The Rock Source Archive]

Download: "Like A Rolling Stone" by James MarshallDownload: "Like A Rolling Stone" by The Soup Greens
Download: "Like A Rolling Stone" by Phil Flowers & The Flower ShopDownload: "Like A Rolling Stone" by The Wailing WailersBuy: Bob Dylan At The Crossroads by Greil Marcus

Quote Of The Week

2011-07-18T12:14:00.000-04:00

"Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature's monotony. The sublime idea men have of the universe would collapse with dizzying speed. The order which we find in nature, and which is only an effect of art, would at once vanish. Everything would break up in chaos. There would be no seasons, no civilization, no thought, no humanity; even life would give way, and the impotent void would reign everywhere."

Quote Of The Week

2011-07-11T11:02:00.000-04:00

"Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins."

Killed By Death

2011-07-10T23:28:00.000-04:00

Michael "Würzel" Burston

Rest In Peace

"Few fans of the English heavy metal band Motörhead would recognise the name Michael Burston, but if presented with his stage name, Würzel, the majority would respond with unequivocal enthusiasm. The guitarist, who has died aged 61 after suffering from heart disease, came closer than any of the group's many members to being the face of the band, with the exception of Motörhead's founder, Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister. Much of Burston's enduring popularity came from his unaffected good nature, his reluctance to avoid playing the role of the rock star and his expert musicianship." ... Story continues here: Würzel Obituary (The Guardian)

Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues

2011-07-05T08:14:00.003-04:00

Ruth Roberts

Rest In Peace

"Among the many songs written by Ms. Roberts and various collaborators were "First Thing Ev'ry Morning (And The Last Thing Ev'ry Night)," written with and recorded by Jimmy Dean, and "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues," originally done by Buddy Holly and recorded by the Beatles in 1969 at a session for their album Let It Be, although their version was not released until 1996. But she is probably best remembered for "Meet the Mets," which beat 18 competitors to be chosen as the New York Mets' official song in late 1961, before the team ever played a game, and was introduced to the public in 1963." ... Story continues here: Ruth Roberts, ‘Meet the Mets’ Songwriter, Dies At 84 (NY Times)

Dig: True To The Orange And Blue

Quote Of The Week

2011-07-04T13:01:00.000-04:00

"For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception…. If any one, upon serious and unprejudic'd reflection thinks he has a different notion of himself, I must confess I can reason no longer with him. All I can allow him is, that he may be in the right as well as I, and that we are essentially different in this particular. He may, perhaps, perceive something simple and continu'd, which he calls himself; tho' I am certain there is no such principle in me."

Thread Of Time #2

2011-06-29T18:15:00.004-04:00

In the first Thread Of Time (our compilation flashback series), we presented an all-American affair, while this time around we bring you a compilation of rarities from across the pond. The absolutely stellar Echoes From The Wilderness came out in 1998 on the Paranoid label — also responsible for the equally great Purple Pill Eaters and Voyage Through The Sugarcube comp LPs — and featured "Sixteen UK R&B Freakbeat Trippers." The only thing truly "trippy" about this compilation is the title; expect cut after cut of monster freakbeat and distinctly British r&b from a bunch of mostly go-nowhere, mid-'60s mod groups, the most well-know being Jimmy Winston & His Reflections (fronted by the ex-Small Faces organist), The Untamed (produced by great Shel Talmy), and The Herd, which launched the career of Peter Frampton. The compilation was released in a very limited-edition on vinyl (sans any liner-notes), and was later released on CD with an incomplete track-listing... A real must-own and essential listen for any connoisseur of 1960s sounds!

Dig: Echoes From The Wilderness (track-listing via 45cat)

Dig: Thread Of Time #1: Tougher Than Stains

Quote Of The Week

2011-06-27T09:39:00.000-04:00

"You are outside life, you are above life, you have miseries which the ordinary man does not know, you exceed the normal level, and it is for this that men refuse to forgive you, you poison their peace of mind, you undermine their stability. You have irrepressible pains whose essence is to be inadaptable to any known state, indescribable in words. You have repeated and shifting pains, incurable pains, pains beyond imagining, pains which are neither of the body nor of the soul, but which partake of both. And I share your suffering, and I ask you: who dares to ration our relief? We are not going to kill ourselves just yet. In the meantime, leave us the hell alone."

Étude In Black

2011-06-24T14:55:00.001-04:00

Rest In Peace

Questions And Answers

2011-06-23T13:40:00.000-04:00

"What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world — and defines himself afterwards. If man as the existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself. Thus, there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it. Man simply is. Not that he is simply what he conceives himself to be, but he is what he wills, and as he conceives himself after already existing — as he wills to be after that leap towards existence. Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism."

From Existentialism Is Humanism, 1946

Mr. Songbird

2011-06-21T13:55:00.003-04:00

From the beautiful, perfect ache of "Waterloo Sunset," to character sketches like "David Watts," "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" and "A Well Respected Man," to stomping anthems like "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," to the absolutely god-like The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society LP; Ray Davies pretty much always got it right... Happy birthday Ray, thanks for all the great music!

Quote Of The Week

2011-06-20T02:17:00.001-04:00

"Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one's rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them."

A Coney Island Of My Mind #8

2011-06-18T15:16:00.000-04:00

In Summer

2011-06-16T13:46:00.000-04:00

Oh, summer has clothed the earth
In a cloak from the loom of the sun!
And a mantle, too, of the skies' soft blue,
And a belt where the rivers run.

And now for the kiss of the wind,
And the touch of the air's soft hands,
With the rest from strife and the heat of life,
With the freedom of lakes and lands.

I envy the farmer's boy
Who sings as he follows the plow;
While the shining green of the young blades lean
To the breezes that cool his brow.

He sings to the dewy morn,
No thought of another's ear;
But the song he sings is a chant for kings
And the whole wide world to hear.

He sings of the joys of life,
Of the pleasures of work and rest,
From an o'erfull heart, without aim or art;
'T is a song of the merriest.

O ye who toil in the town,
And ye who moil in the mart,
Hear the artless song, and your faith made strong
Shall renew your joy of heart.

Oh, poor were the worth of the world
If never a song were heard,—
If the sting of grief had no relief,
And never a heart were stirred.

So, long as the streams run down,
And as long as the robins trill,
Let us taunt old
Care with a merry air,
And sing in the face of ill.

From The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar

A Gallery Of Cool, Take Six

2011-06-14T14:19:00.000-04:00

Edison "Edson" Arantes do Nascimento (aka Pelé)

Marianne Faithfull

Ian Brown

Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, and Marilyn Monroe

Crisis

Brian Jones

[ Previous Galleries Of Cool: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 ]

Quote Of The Week

2011-06-13T11:44:00.000-04:00

"Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began. The recovery of this standard demands of everyone who loves this country a hard look at himself, for the greatest achievements must begin somewhere, and they always begin with the person. If we are not capable of this examination, we may yet become one of the most distinguished and monumental failures in the history of nations."

Thread Of Time #1

2011-06-08T02:17:00.004-04:00

There was a time when the only way to find elusive and obscure '60s tracks was via the world of underground LP compilations, lovingly compiled and released by die-hard vinyl collectors. (Or hunting and shelling out big bucks for original 45s.) This was all kick-started of course by the officially released, Lenny Kaye-compiled Nuggets, and followed by must-own comp series like Pebbles, Back From The Grave, Rubble, Mindrocker, Chocolate Soup For Diabetics, Garage Punk Unknowns, Incredible Sound Show Stories, Ugly Things, Teenage Shutdown, Diggin' For Gold, Fading Yellow, and so on.

As time has moved forward, eBay, and boss reissue labels like Norton, Sundazed, and Crypt have made getting your '60s fix as easy as a click online... In honor of the days of "the hunt," A.I.T.A gives ya the first of our Thread Of Time flashback series, spotlighting long out-of-print, essential 1960s punk and psych compilations. Kicking things off is the all-killer, no-filler Tougher Than Stains, released in 1995 by "London Fog Records" (who may have also been responsible for the excellent Chosen Few comp series). As the title implies, this one is all snot, fuzz, and stomp, with nary a solo or forth chord in sight. It's also a real rarity in that many of the included tracks have still yet to see official reissue in any format... Dig in, and enjoy!

Quote Of The Week

2011-06-06T11:48:00.000-04:00

"When I contemplate the accumulation of guilt and remorse which, like a garbage-can, I carry through life, and which is fed not only by the lightest action but by the most harmless pleasure, I feel Man to be of all living things the most biologically incompetent and ill-organized. Why has he acquired a seventy years life-span only to poison it incurably by the mere being of himself? Why has he thrown Conscience, like a dead rat, to putrefy in the well?"

Life Is Too Short

2011-06-05T16:09:00.005-04:00

Benny Spellman

Rest In Peace

"Benny Spellman, the vocalist whose double-sided recording of "Fortune Teller" and "Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)" is an enduring classic of New Orleans r&b, died Friday in Florida after a long illness." ... Story continues here: Benny Spellman Dies (nola.com)

Dig: Benny's Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame induction

Download: "If You Love Her" by Benny Spellman

Buy: Fortune Teller - Golden Classics (CD)

Quote Of The Week

2011-05-31T02:17:00.004-04:00

"It is not hard to live through a day, if you can live through a moment. What creates despair is the imagination, which pretends there is a future, and insists on predicting millions of moments... and so drains you that you cannot live the moment at hand."

Oh! Good Old-Fashioned War!

2011-05-30T12:49:00.000-04:00

‎"...as he turned away to walk, his ma was still in shock, at seein’ the metal brace that helped him stand. But as he turned to go, he called his mother close, and he dropped his medals down into her hand."