March 3, 2006 – The Designer Monologues

Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan is bankrolling construction of a new town in Florida that will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic strictures. He calls his efforts “God’s will.”

The town, Ave Maria, would feature private ownership of homes, but all commercial space controlled by Monaghan and his partner — so stores will not sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies will not carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will have no X-rated channels.

At the groundbreaking of construction on the town, Governor Jeb “Your Future President” Bush lauded the development as “a new kind of town where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens.”

Gotta love how CNN headlines the story, with a simple “New Florida town would restrict abortion.” Um, NO, fuckheads….it would restrict EVERYTHING according to religious doctrine.

Can’t say that, of course….if CNN drew attention to that, after all, people might start realizing that calling these people the American Taliban *isn’t* really that far-fetched. This town, the effort underway to turn South Carolina into a “Christian Homeland”…..this is what these people actually want. They are exactly like the Taliban. The rest of us had better wake the fuck up…..our disbelief at how “far-fetched” this stuff appears is exactly what allows them to get it done. While we sit back with our comfortable intellectualism and say “but that’s ridiculous….there’s no way….”, they rally their forces, work them into an ecstatic furor, and DO IT.

They’re not kidding when they talk about a “Culture War”, people. When do we actually start taking it seriously, and fight?

More music to introduce to you….

First up is an odd little track, which I’ve heard described as “folktronica”, which isn’t a bad description, actually. The “group” is called Money Can’t Buy Music, which is actually just a collaboration between two guys fiddling with music on their computers at home, and collaborating over the internet. MCBM are Gordon McIntyre from Edinburgh in Scotland and Maja Mångård from Växjö in Sweden, and their first single has gotten a bit of play in the UK. It’s a spoken-word piece (by Gordon) over layered electronic background music. The whole thing is really quite lovely, and I like what it has to say: Money Can’t Buy Music – “The Ghosts.”

The second selection this week snuck up on me. I heard it first without realizing what it was…and then that realization hit me full in the face, and I was in love. This is a lounge-jazz cover of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s classic hip-hop track, “White Lines.” Until now, I had thought that the finest use of this composition was the sing-along with the approaching zombie in “Shawn of the Dead”, but my friends, I have to tell you…this has it beat. Barefoot – “White Lines.”

Speaking of classics, I was in the mood to hear this one again, after seeing the video for Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy”, which samples its main hook. For those of you who didn’t already know, this group, the Tom-Tom Club, was a side project of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth from the Talking Heads in the early 80s. Tom-Tom Club – “Genius of Love.”

Here’s a new band that I first heard this past week: Dutchess Says is a Montreal electronic-rock band that is currently recording their first album. I really like their sound — here’s a track from their first EP: Dutchess Says – “Black Flag.”

Another bit of the new: Smoking-hot guitar-and-brass rock from Japan, of all places: Yoko Utsumi – “Neji”. Wow. Reminds me of how much I miss bands with brass sections. Of this entire week’s entries, this is the one that I’ve been listening to the most.

This track is from a group whom I discovered via : The Modern. A high-quality entry into the retro-New-Wave genre. The Modern – “Industry”

Last year, WIRED magazine included a CD of music released under the Creative Commons License (an alternative to traditional copyright). It included this track from The Beastie Boys – “Now Get Busy.”

Another week down, and now back to work for me.

Day: March 3, 2006

God-Town, USA

Friday Music