Stump Lane
in the dirt since history began

Delaware State University is locked down:

“They’ve been directed to stay in their dorms,” university spokesman Carlos Holmes said. “We don’t know where the shooter’s at.”

Gates at the university’s main entrance prevented people from driving onto campus. [Associated Press: 2 students shot at Delaware State Univ.]

“Lockdowns,” are a prison technique. Fehlleistungen pointed this out after the Virginia Tech shootings.

Q: Assuming the shooter didn’t immediately flee the scene of the crime, and is still within the locked down area, what does a lockdown accomplish? A: The trapping of 1500 or so innocent people who might feel safer just going home early for the weekend, in an enclosed area, with an armed and dangerous fugitive.

And parents and loved-ones are locked out. Q: How fucking desperate would I be if my kids were potentially in harm’s way and I couldn’t get to them and they weren’t allowed to leave? A: Very.

I don’t know anything about law enforcement. But it seems as though roadblocks at the gates that keep people from entering while allowing those who want to leave to do so; would give the police an opportunity to look for a suspect, or do some profiling, or whatever the fuck it is they do, without… I don’t know… infringing on Liberty.

“‘Kitsch’ is beauty deprived of Truth.” —Rob Riemen

Did you listen to that thing I posted Thursday? Same guy. Here’s something to read (.pdf): KITSCH AND THE CRISIS OF THE WEST

If you like to think about the same things Your Montag attempts to work out in my Series of Unpredictable Length, I highly recommend doing this:

1. Go to the Word for Word Program Archives: The Good Society
2. Click on “listen to program.”
3. Listen.

That is all.

Too much sex blurs your vision.

Semi-Random Friday Music

This feature really seems to be catching on with our zeroes of readers!

IT’S WHEN Your Montag goes to myspace. I listen to some music, surf from artist to artist and report back with selections for you, Dear Reader, to go listen to yourself. Clicking the red text (links!) takes you to the artist’s myspace music page. (This and previous editions of SRFM can be found by clicking here.)

1. Dischord is not any… — Syqem (Hamburg, Germany) — “Melodic” slow bits interspersed with crunching one-chord “riffs.” The twenty-times-better-than-Korn riffs aren’t quite enough to offset the wailing, less-convincing-than-Incubus yowling in between. “Dischord” is an appropriate pun to have been included in the song title.
2. Fat Life — N.D.LOX (Kassel, Hessen, Germany) — This band has a lot of little things going for it in my book: the term “experimental” in their self-description, a song title of “Troglodyte,” an E.P. album title of “Shit White,” and they get a cool ‘wall-of-sound’ type guitar sound only achievable with a full compliment of effects pedals switched on and off in the correct combinations like the stops on a pipe organ, and heavy on the distortion, but in a good way. Sadly I am left merely lukewarm to the sum of the parts.
3. Suspended Animation — Fantomas (San Franscisco) — Mike Patton, formerly of Faith No More, makes some weird-ass noise with his mouth. I saw these guys open for Tool, and Patton had a hissy fit because they were getting booed off the stage. (Not by me.) I kind of like it. However: not really for the common household music listener. So the remainder of this list will serve as a sort of “camera obscura” so that the faint of heart may avoid listening directly to Fantomas. The following artist come exclusively from Fantomas’ “friend space.”
4. Operate — Peaches (Berlin?! Really? I thought Canada. Fucking internet.) — Another opening act I’ve seen. But that didn’t get booed. Good stuff. I read something about “minimal pumping beats.” Electro, sure, but above all: Punk. [Pictured.]
5. Let’s Go Boogaloo — The 5.6.7.8′s (Tokyo) — Three women from Japan laying down some supercool garage/psychedelic/surf-type jams and nearly, but not quite, ruining them trying to be cute with the vocals. That’s their shtick, I suppose. Still, excellent, in the final analysis.
6. Blue Light — U.S.S.A. (United States) — Unassuming heavy(ish) rock that I believe could grow on me with repeated listenings. The founding members were involved in other projects you may have heard of, (Ministry, Revolting Cocks, The Jesus Lizard, Tomahawk,) if that helps you sort it out. The track Cab Ride II is also worth listening to, despite its slightly unsettling, incongruous beat.
7. Scary Circus — PLASTRON (Philadelphia) — Really cool modern surf.
8. Sunshine On the Tax… — XD WEI (Detroit via Beijing) — OK, my internets isn’t cooperating. I’m posting this ‘sound unheard’ the chosen track is simply the one with the highest number of “plays.” Self described as, “Chinese traditional / Progressive / Fusion”
9. Panasonic Youth — The Dillinger Escape Plan (New Jersey) — The fucking same as above. Self described as, “Metal / Hardcore / Progressive”

Your Montag’s top four: 4, 5, 7 and #whothefuckknows.

Suggestions? If you know of, (or are,) a myspace music artist that might value the exposure that a glancing mention on a D-list blog can bring, leave a comment here or correspond with me via electronic mail.

Bonus Awesome Video: Shiny Toy Guns — Le Disko:

Yes!

So I was reading this wonderfully puketastic article earlier, Bush tells biographer: ‘I do tears’ which had this interesting anecdote in it:

Told of a false alarm the night[*] of Sept. 11, 2001, when he and his wife, Laura, were in bed in the White House after the day’s traumatic events and a Secret Service agent came to the bedroom and told them to get to the bunker. “They’re coming,” the agent said. “We’re under attack.” The couple hurried to the bunker, the president carrying a dog under one arm and a cat under the other, with his wife slipping on a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, feeling blind without her contact lenses. The source of the alarm — a plane in closed airspace over the Potomac River — turned out to be an authorized flight.

At that time, of course, all non-military and non-medical flights were grounded. The White House would surely have known about a military flight in the area. (Right?) Could the aerial transfer of somebody’s Uncle Lewie’s donated liver be what sent the White House into a state of emergency?

This is one of the stories put out there to cement the legacy of this presidency? Scared and confused, bleary eyed and half asleep, shuffling down to the bomb shelter in his PJ’s?

Tireless; caffeine chugging; rolled-back shirtsleeves; in a conference room full of advisers; refusing to go hide in the shelter; “I’m the president goddamnit! What the hell’s going on out there?!” I’m just saying might have been better.

Musta been fuckin scary. I can see why he cries.

* It was, quite literally, the night of September 11. According to 911Timeline.net the false alarm was at 11:08 pm. Were I the president, I wouldn’t have cried myself to sleep ’till well into the morning of the 12th anyways.

Swirling

We caught this group of dancers and percussionists and did what in New Orleans— I learned just today, from an article on the Katrina anniversary —they call “second lining.”

There’s more week-old images from the American Folk Festival in Bangor, Maine below the fold: (more…)