Overthunk

After nine years, this occupational hazard strikes. Guess what it is and I'll flip off a latte-clutching soccer mom in your honor.

People with placards All over this town People with placards Bring me down Come buy the leather Sofa that must go This is the final week For the twelfth week in a row Every item 6 dollars And splotched all with flowers Every item 6 dollars And it lasts 6 hours Hire someone desperate Forty-nine bucks a pop To stand in a cow suit On the corner block Ousting the unborn Out of the womb I'll never do it Do I have to look? If I didn't think Getting saved was required Is one verse on a poster Going to save me from fire? People with placards All over this town People with placards Bring me down

Sometimes I get ideas for posts and I just save them as drafts and forget. Today I was digging around here in the blog closet and found this darkly sparkly scrap, originally thought of back in November 2005 and languishing here until now. Enjoy. God makes trent reznor in his dark angelic glory trent experiences a life of woe enough so that he becomes an artist trent toils for years, distilling anger and pride and self-loathing into this: there is a game I play try to make myself okay try so hard to make the pieces all fit smash it apart just for the fuck of it it works its way down to me this distilled darkness allows me to go on another day I say thanks, God. thanks, trent I go on and have woe of my own I post here you read it maybe you don't feel so bad art will save us all.

I've already been pimping this guy all over the place, but I have to do it officially: Aqueduct, is, in fact, good music . Written and sung entirely (and sometimes performed!) by this one man, David Terry, it's a collection of indie confections, sweet and sinister all at once. What's it like? He claims the Beach Boys! as a big influence but I think I hear Beck and Cake, too. There's lots of Moog-y synth stuff. There are dark storylines of romantic intrigue woven throughout with syrupy, irresistible hooks (and one song based on The Princess Bride). It's often sad, jaded, and even violent, but little bundles of hilarity and hope are interspersed throughout (just like some gunslinger tales I know). His voice sounds like some 70's singer whom I can't place. You can listen to his complete latest record, Or Give Me Death, at the link above, but buy it if you can, because we should all support self-made musical innovation out of a bedroom in Oklahoma. This loveli

Here in Dallas, many people are from other places. Make no mistake, I have no problem with people immigrating -- if I did, I wouldn't be here, I'd be on the slopes of Ireland or Scotland paying the UK's exorbitant 40% taxes, digging potatoes from the soil, and dancing jigs and reels without moving my arms. If there were no immigrants, I'd be out of a job, as many of my students' parents came here from Mexico. Furthermore, I don't believe for a moment that anyone is taking any job that any native-born American wants. But I digress... Not that long ago, a protest called "Day Without An Immigrant" was staged in which immigrants stayed home one day from work to show people the value of immigrants working in our society, and that they provide vital services that the country can't run well without. Well, I don't dispute that, but I think that the day-to-day life of upwardly mobile 30 somethings like me is run from hidden centers of power not by immi

Think that's my rapper name? Well, let me tell you a little story. En route to Saturday School on Saturday, I became involved in the backwash from this . When two people are killed by a drunk driver, it really bungs up Central Expressway, as well it should, I suppose. The ensuing traffic glut took THREE hours to get out of. Not only did I have to navigate the jam with my carpooling matey, but our battery also died in the middle of it. Thank God I live in Texas, where you can always count on a truck-drivin' bubba to come along momentarily and rescue you. And, bless him, one did and had the car jumped within about a minute. But on we sat. And inched up. And sat. And inched up. And watched people drive the wrong way up the on ramp to get out of it. And watched people look at their watches time and again. And called our bosses to say we weren't going to be in. And sat. And it occurred to me that I had to go. So I thought I'd try to wait. But on we sat. And inched u