What the FUCK is wrong with you!!??!?
Monday, February 22, 2021
Radio Free California Episode 2108 - a milestone, saying goodbye to Daft Punk and cheap shots too.
Monday, February 15, 2021
Radio Free California Episode 2107, and the Loser wasn't Acquitted. Stop saying so.
New music! Featuring Tune-Yards, Danny Elfman, Pentatonix, Greta Van Fleet, Joseph Williams, Jon Batiste, Django Django, Claud, Rat Columns, The Moons, and even my own new song (3rd song on the list) and much more! Enjoy!
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I’m going to keep this short and sweet, because it’s making me crazy and I might just be crazy/wrong about this — it’s been known to happen.
I’d like us all to stop saying that the Loser in the last Presidential election was Acquitted by he Senate. He certainly wasn’t found guilty — the threshold is probably too high for a body that size but that’s an argument for another time. A majority, a solid majority, found him guilty. It just wasn’t enough.
But the real problem is this: the word “Acquittal” implies the concept that double-jeopardy is attached. That because of this he can’t be touched for it again, and quite frankly once he finds a halfway decent attorney for what’s coming next I expect it to be argued. The idea that he can’t be tried twice for what happened. It’s semantics but I think it matters.
Thing is, he most certainly can be tried for this again, in the more traditional courts. He most certainly should be. He got people killed on January 6th thanks to his rhetoric. He tried to kill his Vice President. He had encouraged violence before, and he’s going to do it again. Yes, he’s probably facing fraud and tax evasion in New York, Voter fraud in Georgia, but he should also be tried for instigating a deadly riot in Washington D.C.
Double-Jeopardy is NOT attached. because he wasn’t acquitted.
We had a hung jury. In any other trial a decision by the jury that doesn’t wind up unanimous one way or the other is a non-decision. That’s what we have. Neither team scored a victory, regardless of how much the fix was in.
Can we please frame it that way? It’s not an acquittal.
And because I love you, here's my own video for "That Man"
Monday, February 8, 2021
Radio Free California Episode 2106, and why not throw in some Cheap Shots while we're at it.
Ingredients
1.5 oz Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum
1.5 oz Butterscotch Schnapps
3 oz hot chocolate
Dash of orange bitters
Instructions
Add equal parts liquor to hot chocolate, top with whipped cream, shaved chocolate, and garnish with a cinnamon stick or candy cane.
Saturday, February 6, 2021
The COVID-19 Battle, The Super Bowl, Freedom of religion, and we just don't want you to die.
So far in February 2021 the reported infection rate in the US is down to less than half what it was the day Donald Trump tried to install a dictatorship in the US. That's good. However, the death rate has skyrocketed. In the first five days of February 2021 the US has lost at least 18,000 people to COVID-19.
That's an average of about 3,600 per day. SIX 9/11's in FIVE days.
Now most people in this country don't practice social distancing. Social distancing is hard - staying six feet away from everyone. There are simply going to be times when you're outside that you're going to be closer than 6 feet to someone, like at the Supermarket for example. I get it I do.
But then again, about 40% of the country isn't wearing masks.
Thing is, NONE of that matched the guidelines of the CDC. Those guidelines are, in full:
- Wear a Mask AND
- Stay at least 6 feet away from others.AND
- Do not spend more than 15 minutes with the same person in the same enclosed space for more than 15 minutes in a 24 hour period.
Thursday, February 4, 2021
That Man - Chris Reed and the Anime Raiders (Lyric Video)
Monday, February 1, 2021
Radio Free California Episode 2105 and why I'm not on Facebook.
New Music! What an amazing week! That's Tammy Wynette on that first track from The KLF! Weezer! Levara! The Glass Child! Kirin J Callinan! Cody Fry! Arch Echo! Feral Ghost! William Parker! The Besnrd Lakes! Home Free featuring Don MacLean! And SO MUCH MORE! 3 HOURS PLUS OF NEW MUSIC. Enjoy!
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I learned some months back that the algorithms that Facebook uses to filter your content are also used by many other media sites, including news sites, who tracks through cookies your history on Facebook and uses that data as their own filtration sources. As a result, the things you see filtered down to you in Facebook advertising and how posts are filtered and suggested is ALSO what you see filtered down to you on most of the other websites you visit.
Facebook controls what you see on about 70% of the entire internet, in terms of how that data gets filtered. That's just unacceptable. I'm perfectly fine with Facebook controlling what you see on their platforms. It's their site, let them run it as they see fit. But a lot of Facebook's money comes from selling the same filtration data for focused advertising to other companies, and they've been soaking it up. And we've been letting it happen.
I don't want Facebook to decide what I can see. I want to determine this myself. It can't be done as long as you have an active Facebook account. I have learned in the months since I dropped Facebook that much of the news I received was being filtered, and that's not acceptable.
This was a difficult step for me to take. I had remained in contact with many of my friends through Facebook alone, and I've lost some of them. That isn't pleasant, especially as I've missed a couple of life-changing events in the lives of my friends as a result. I've been finding about such things second-hand and I can't deny it hurts, even if the responsibility is mine and that my own pain is nothing compared to what some of my friends have been through. I'm a cranky man and it's difficult to be my friend and as such those people who are my friends I place great value on. I have discovered wonderful things thanks to Facebook. And even though I find Facebook to be a creative black hole - in that it makes the creative process harder because of the sheer overflow of garbage - I never was able to fully leave the site.
But this restriction of information from other sites was a step too far for me. For all that I lost I honestly believe I have gained more. The ability to be better informed. That is my very lifeblood.
All that said, this is going to be an active year for me musically, with singles (one already out and others on the way) and a new album finally coming and I have to admit that Facebook is a powerful platform to get in touch with fans and potential fans. So I decided this past weekend that I would restart my Facebook profile, with a different e-mail address and a much lower profile. I would only friend people I know in real life. The rest would focus on a new page for my music and the band.
So I swallowed my pride and I created a new account with one of my G-mail accounts. I created a band page. I posted a couple of my Spotify Streams and the single I released two weeks ago. And within 1/2 an hour I was told that my account violated the Community Standards and was suspended.
Understand, I had posted nothing political. I had only cussed once. Every post I had done was about music - artists I like and Spotify streams I had created. Of course I appealed.
It would appear that Facebook wants nothing to do with me either.
I am still here, still on twitter, still on tumblr, and will be reviving my Patreon page very soon. But I'm not on Facebook.
But because I love you, have some older The Besnard Lakes.
Monday, January 25, 2021
Radio Free California Episode 2104, plus some notes and a bit of ranting.
A fantastic week for new music, including Heather Porcaro, Steve Lukather, Weezer, Scary Pockets, Foo Fighters, Jordana, Rhye, Richard Hell, Palberta, Liquid Tension Experiment and much more including from ME! Enjoy!
Some notes about the last track:
I set the poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee to music on January 28, 1996. I had heard the poem a lot that awful day, especially from then President Reagan. Well, specifically, I heard the last two lines. I wanted to hear the whole poem, but to acknowledge that terrible day I left out the last line.
In those days I was just a poor musician and college student and didn't have access to facilities that would allow me to record it and over time I just set it aside. I would practice it from time to time as I really like the little riff I wrote, but that was that.
Then came February 1, 2003, another terrible and unexpected day. I had been working on my new album ("The Long Goodbye") in my home studio and suddenly felt the need to drag out the old song and record it. What you hear released as a single this week is that recording.
It's a single take - the first take. Me, my 12-string acoustic guitar and my voice.
I'm going to be releasing several unreleased songs as singles over the next couple of months. This was the first.
Cheap shots (it's a cold day where I live, so select the warm drink of your preference. Mine's Sake):
$1.3 BILLION... DOLLARS!!!
Freedom! Or at least steps in the right direction.
Trans formation.
Guilty, guilty, guilty. Lock him up.
This tweet should be required reading, and the photo attached (seen here) required in every classroom in America.
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Radio Free California Episode 2103, plus a couple of notes about statues
Monday, January 11, 2021
Radio Free California Episode 2102, and a few cheap shots
My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/blOy35LWJ5
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 10, 2021
While I'm perfectly fine with the Loser not attending the Inauguration of Joe Biden, it can be argued that this is also bad, for many reasons.
Explain. Oh - a disgruntled employee who discovered that the State Department's website has the same security flaw as Parler.
An internet provider in Northern Idaho, in an effort to fight censorship, has censored a number of social media sites.
And because I love you, this is the song that will lead off NEXT week's Radio Free California:
And because I love you more, here's how to make Hot Buttered Rum:
Monday, January 4, 2021
Radio Free California Episode 2101
Friday, January 1, 2021
Dancing on the grave of 2020. The year in review.
January. Remember January, all of 120,000 months ago? This has been such a long fucking year that I had actually forgotten that Neil Peart of Rush died THIS YEAR. Then Kobe Bryant and his daughter 2 weeks later. Oh, and somebody got impeached.I got my identity stolen. My neurologist told be that New Zealand was hurting for doctors and he had been asked if he wanted to move there. I wonder what he thinks now, given the year we've had.
In February the first caucus in the nation, Iowa, was screwed up because some asshole posted the phone number where results were to be phoned in to on 4-chan. I made my first post about COVID-19 in this month, and I predicted a disaster. I wish I had been wrong.
By the first of March the response by the current administration to COVID-19 had already resulted in 6 times the number of deaths we had from Ebola. I discovered the first "Covid Hoaxers", who attended CPAC. The first super spreader event in the US was a bio-tech conference. The biggest dip in the Stock Market in history happened in March. By Saint Patrick's day, better known as my Grandmother's Birthday in my house, I was already sick of the phrase "new normal". Rand Paul got Covid. We ran out of masks.
In April I posted my first list of notable people we had lost to COVID. It was heartbreaking. By this point I was also working on a secret project as a fund-raiser for Nurses working the front lines.
In May I attempted to reason with the people heading our country into disaster. We were still at less than 100K dead but the numbers were horrific. It was the last time I did so.
In June I began to realize that there is an unreported story going on with COVID-19 in that the number of people facing long-term affects of the disease is actually the MAJORITY of cases in the US, and no one is saying a damned thing about it.
I celebrated the birthday of our country by writing a lengthy essay about how the current administration was turning the country of my birth into a Prison Camp. I also wrote my definitive guide to how to watch Star Wars, which now that Season 2 of The Mandalorian has finished I will need to re-do slightly. George Floyd died in May with a man's knee on his neck, but it s was July that the police decided to attempt to clear out cities of protesters, resulting in dozens injured and secret police roaming the streets.
Finally at the beginning of August my secret project came out, an album of new music recorded by artists in quarantine to raise funds for Nurses charities. The dickhead in the Oval office signed a series of executive orders that resulted in the removal of tax relief in 2021, evictions, an increase in Student Debt, a racist screed against China, and soon to follow, BREAD LINES. And the Senate never acted on it. I wrote my infamous "shut the fuck up" rant.
In September I finally left Facebook for good. I still do not regret the decision. California caught fire, prompting the actual sky in my city to turn ORANGE for 4 days (the photo below was taken at NOON on day 2). The US fell out of the top 25 industrialized countries. We're 28! We lost the Notorious RBG, prompting the Republican Senate to actually get off their asses and do something - subvert the judicial system by appointing a self-professed "hand-maiden" to the court.
In October my recurring cough decided to exert itself and I wound up in hospital, which was a humbling and occasionally frightening experience. I had to wait for someone to die to get a hospital bed. I voted.
November brought us the actual election, and it took time but the right guy one this time. Danny Elfman made a musical comeback and my own song for this year got nominated for an award. I went on a twitter rant that was culminated by me using the word "cunt" against a member of the current administration (a male, by the way) which got me suspended from twitter for a day. I won that award.
And December? I wrote a lengthy essay about how just having vaccines isn't enough, Wrote about how one of my songs wound up on the Dr. Demento show, and did a write-up of the best in music in 2020, this is the post right before this one.
I have been advised by a couple of people to not post a "year in review" because yeah, 2020 sucked for everyone and at first 2021 is probably going to be even worse. But I do these every year and I find it to be cathartic - the chance to dance on the grave of 2020.
I hope that your 2021 is so much better than 2020 was. Unless you were part of the problem. If so, fuck you.