The database state
B. Traven
TADD DAMERON & HIS ORCHESTRA--Casbah
AMARA TOURE--Cuando Llegare
STAR BAND DE DAKAR--Caramelo
DIZZY GILLESPIE & HIS ORCHESTRA--Manteca
LORD INVADER--Fidel Castro
TITO RODRIGUEZ--Descarga Cachao
MANU DIBANGO--African Boogaloo
WILLIE COLON--La Murga (De Panama)
HERMANAS BENITEZ--Estas Botes Son Para Caminar
MANNY CORCHADO--Up And Down
SALAH RAGAB & THE CAIRO JAZZ BAND--Egypt Strut
ALI HASSAN KHAN--Mabruk
NAJMATE EL RIF--Diwana
M.A.N.D.Y. VS. BOOKA SHADE--Body Language (Senor Coconut Mix)
COOL BENNY (VELARDE) & HIS STONE SWINGERS--Wobble-Cha
MICHEL LEGRAND & HIS ORCHESTRA--Come Ray Or Come Charles
JOE ACOSTA--All Night Long
OS COBRAS--Nana
Kafka
Borges
Calvino
SAMMI SMITH--The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me
BLIND WILLIE MCTELL--Writin' Paper Blues
SHORTY PETTERSTEIN--A History of Jazz: An Interview Of Our Times Conducted By S. Petterstein
KID KOALA & MONEY MARK--Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
PANDA BEAR--Comfy In Nautica
ALABAMA SACRED HARP SINGERS--The Last Words Of Copernicus
ELECTRELANE--Film Music
ROXY MUSIC--Editions Of You
THE EQUALS--Diversion
TOM TALL--Stack-A-Records
RIAA--I Hate Your Little Red Book (Kelis vs. Love)
DONNA LYNN--I'd Much Rather Be With The Girls
JERRY LEWIS--The Book Was So Much Better
THE MAYTALS--6th & 7th Books
LEE DORSEY--There Should Be A Book
SLY STONE--Crossword Puzzle
THE HONEYMOON KILLERS--Histoire A Suivre
CHICKS ON SPEED--Wordy Rappinghood (The Playgroup Remix)
GRANDMASTER FLASH & THE FURIOUS FIVE--The Message (Datashat Remix)
JEAN GRAE FEAT. THE MELON BAYSIDE HIGH DRAMA CLUB--Taco Day
MICO--Black Words
Sarko et Ségo
THE MELODIANS--I Could Be King
KING SPORTY--A Year Full Of Sundays
FRANCOISE HARDY--Je N'attends Plus Personne
JACQUES DUTRONC--Je Suis Content
JAMES MCMURTRY--God Bless America
WIRE--French Film Blurred
ALICE DONA--Mon Train De Banlieu
ELIZABETH HARPER--Let Me Take You Out
FRANCOIS--Tour De France
PSAPP--Year Of The Cat
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM--North American Scum
LIL' WAYNE (FEATURING JUELZ SANTANA)--Black Republicans
CUIZINIER (FEATURING TIDO BERMAN)--Seulement Toi
DJ MEHDI--Busy Being Born
FRANCE GALL--Musique
MC SOLAAR--Arkansas
A TRIBE CALLED QUEST--Luck of Lucien
BRAND NUBIAN--One For All
IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS--Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
THE BRUMMELS--Bof!
MR OIZO--Nazis
UTA--Baudelaire
JACQUELINE TAIEB--7 Heures Du Matin
Secular prayer: May Chelsea fail to secure any awards this season. May the Special One leave the Premiership. May West Ham be relegated. May Leeds be relegated too. And may Spurs be rewarded with European football next season.
When I moved to the University of Texas at Austin in August 1991 my roommate and I went into a pawn shop to look for a secondhand television, a toaster, and other appliances to help set up our student digs. A big shop assistant comes over to us and says, 'Hi fellas, are y'all lookin' for a gun or a TV?" That was our first experience of Texas retail. We didn't bother going to the firearms counter. In August 1966 a sniper at UT killed 15 people from the University Tower . The CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC axis is blaming the VT massacre on many factors, though the easy availability of guns is low on the list. Gun lobbyists are saying that if the kids had been allowed to carry weapons on campus they might have saved lives and taken the shooter out before he could have done so much harm. More guns make you more secure, apparently. A surge? I wonder how many more students will now go out and buy guns for their 'protection'. Guns R Us. The shooter was a South Korean with a Green Card. He's lived in the US since 1992 and is technically a Resident Alien. His alien status will doubtless become more emphasised as the networks squeeze every last bit of pus out of the story. The TV movie must be in the works. Producers are probably saying, 'We gotta get an Ashton Kutcher lookalike for the hero in the German class'.
A student gun club a couple of weeks ago
University of Terrorism
Is Rap Racist?
PRAIRIE RAMBLERS--Monkeys Is the Cwaziest People
ALABAMA 3 & GARY LUCAS--Woke Up This Morning (Live)
JOHNNY CASH--Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart
DALE WATSON--I Wish I Was Crazy Again
TANYA TUCKER--Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone)
DON HO--I Love The Simple Folk
THE REVELS--Dead Man's Stroll (Midnight Stroll)
CLAUDINE LONGET--Lullaby From Rosemary's Baby (Sleep Safe And Warm)
THE FLEETWOODS--Mr. Blue (A Capella Version)
LESLEY GORE--You Don't Own Me
CAROLE KING--School Bells Are Ringing
SHOP ASSISTANTS--I Don't Wanna Be Friends With You
THE VASELINES--Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam
THE DYNAMICS--Murder In The First Degree
LAVICE & COMPANY--Thoughs Were The Days
GRAVEDIGGAZ--1-800 Suicide
CHESSE ROOTS--Rambo Salute
UNKNOWN ARTIST--Jeitili
M.I.A.--Bird Flu (Guns Up Buraka Remix)
SHELLSHOCK--Cheaptalk
BILL EVANS--Peace Piece
SMITH'S SACRED SINGERS--Where We'll Never Grow Old
FIDDLIN' POWERS FAMILY--Old Virginia Reel
So it goesRegime change
MUTAMASSIK--Abdel Wahab's 'Zeina' (Occupation Mix)
NMS--Evacuate The White House
LIL WAYNE--Georgia... Bush
J DILLA--The $ (Instrumental)
J DILLA--The $
GHETTO GIRLZ--My Man's Playing Tricks On Me
KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS--Annie I'm Not Your Daddy (Special Edit)
LUOMO--Wanna Tell
KARIZMA--All Teched Out
TIGA--Burning Down The House
COMMON--New Wave (Playgroup Remix)
DJ 3000--Merchants Of Identity (The Marketplace)
CRASS--Walls (Fun In The Oven)
GLAXO BABIES--Christine Keeler
MISTER FREEDOM--Balls!
BUSDRIVER--Lefty's Lament
KAM--Stereotype
DON CARLOS--Pass Me The Lazer Beam
SERGIO MENDES & BRASIL 66--For What's It's Worth
MERLE HAGGARD & THE STRANGERS--Sing Me Back Home
CIBELLE--London London (featuring Devendra Banhart)
I used to read The Beano and 2000 AD and have dabbled in graphic novels off and on. Saw the movie American Splendor but haven't read the book of the comic. Pekar's work is mostly autobiographical but The Quitter is seriously close to the bone. No frills. Dean Haspiel's hard-edged drawings apply black humour to 50s B-movie noir figures and landscapes. This ain't no Sweet Smell of Success though, but a discomfiting memoir that brings you layers of self-loathing, and fesses up to the bad things one does as a youth (like beating up guys for peer cred). Pekar's persistent fear is that he might not make enough money to get by. The young Pekar tends to fuck up in minor ways and loses jobs. The Quitter lends some insight into the tedious casual labour that young people do and then moves on to the lives of working stiffs in offices. The older Pekar is still anxious about paying the bills, providing for partner and daughter, despite some success and cult fame as a comic book auteur. The Quitter's characterisations are sharp and unfussy. It would be easy to blame the parents. But there's no bitterness with the neurosis. Vivid sketches include his downbeat Mom (it's all going to turn to custard, always), lonely ex-Navy cousin who lodges upstairs, and his angry father who thinks everything America is shit compared to the European. No immigration clichés here. The Pekars came to Cleveland from the shtetls of Poland. At times you'll have your head in your hands in despair like Pekar, though you might also gnaw at your cuticles. Music is not quite a saving grace but the love of jazz records and writing about them helps to validate Pekar in a more respectable way than kicking the shit out of other tough nuts in school and the neighbourhood. The Quitter flipped some backpages to melancholia and the crack-ups of mundanity.
