"The Wild Holiday Goose"

Dal Carver, owner of the Wild Goose Cafe in Ashland, Oregon, and an extraordinarily gifted piano and keyboard player, and I, a ne'er-do-well folkie, came up with the idea for this album in 2005 or so. In October. With the help of a mindblowingly great group of musicians and recording people (Tom Freeman), it was finished in six weeks. We sold a thousand or so, gave all the profits to local schools for art programs. Bonus: I only sing one song on it. You're welcome.

No lie: this is a really great album. Try "Jingle Bells" first and you'll understand.

  The Wild Holiday Goose by Little Thom

I'll get all the track info soon.

And why someone in Germany is selling one I do not know.

I May Marry This Video

This is fatuous, lowbrow YouTube stuff, but hellonfire, this made me happy for a little while:

Bottomfeeders: "Sigh"

A song you can purchase for pennies here or here (and lots of other places listed in the right-hand sidebar), and listen to right here.

Sigh by Little Thom

Jingle Bells Kicked in the Ass By Jeff Stanley

Jeff Stanley.

Like they say in "Free Bird" - turn it up.

Jingle Bells - Jeff Stanley by Little Thom

My Sunshine Face

My sunshined-face baby, and some other people I love.

June 21, 2010, our Valley View Road home.

UPDATE! Dingo! | New Inquest For "A Dingo Ate My Baby!" Case

Update, June 12, 2012: The dingo did it!

**

I'm now convinced this story will still be playing out in the 27th century:

A new inquest into the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain will begin on February 24, Fairfax media reports. 

Fairfax says Northern Territory Coroner Elizabeth Morris will conduct the inquest into the death of Azaria, who was nine-weeks-old when she disappeared from her parents' tent at Uluru (Ayers Rock) in 1980. 

Azaria's mother Lindy said she saw a dingo leave the tent, a claim that was greeted sceptically by many in a case that gripped the attention of the nation. 

Fairfax says that Ms Morris is reopening the inquiry mainly because of information provided by the Chamberlains' legal counsel regarding dingo attacks since Azaria's disappearance.

Information regarding dingo attacks since? Interesting. Maybe they found a dingo den full of baby carcasses...

• Hilarious picture came from here.

Explosion at Canberra Food Court? [updates]

Jus saw this, unsourced, on Twitter.

Theres been an explosion at the food court at Belconnen Mall in Canberra

Update: News story here:

A man has be taken to hospital after suffering burns and fragment injuries in an explosion at a shopping mall in Canberra that also left another man with superficial facial injuries.

Update 2: I asked Twitter user if he was there:

No, some friends of mine are. The word is a bomb went off near Donut King. Waiting to hear confirmation of what happened.

More here. Big news orgs are getting this now:

Some witnesses speculated the incident was the result of a gas bottle detonating, while others blamed a “homemade confetti bomb”.

Update, December 18: Looks to have been an accident.

Soul-Crushing News

Tens of thousands of children abused in Dutch Catholic institutions, report says 

Eight hundred Catholic clergy and church employees were guilty of abusing children over 40 years, a commission reports

How the Catholic Church still exists, and that so few within its ranks have been punished—with what we've learned in the last decade and more—is just so fucking depressing.

Louis CK's Experiment

A couple days ago I paid $5 to download video of a recent performance by comedian Louis CK at the Beacon Theater in NYC. (You can but it right here.) Christine and I watched it on my laptop, and it was an all-around excellent experience: good video, sound, etc. and the performance was several times literally laugh out loud and almost out of our seats funny.

I did not realize that I was part of an experiment:

People of Earth (minus the ones who don't give a shit about this): it's been amazing to conduct this experiment with you. The experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money can be made by an individual in this manner?

He goes on to explain that he decided to bypass going with a "big company," which would have paid him a big guaranteed fee, and which would have sold videos of the performance - videos with limitations - for a whole lot more than $5. He paid for the production himself - video, editing, the website where it was sold - paying more than $200,000. There was, as you could see, risk involved with this experiment.

What happened?

The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we've sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000.

Experiment successful. An the cool thing is that with its success, Mr. CK says he plans to do this in the future - screw the big companies.  So the experiment was a success for us, too.

• A friend points to a Reddit thread Louis CK took part in two days ago. One comment from him, replying to a question about how much he actually does on the editing of his shows:

yeah I do the whole thign. On season 1 I had an editor and we shared it about half. But season two i edited without any help. It was fucking hard. and yes, i sit at the macbook and just put it together from start frame to finish.

[pic]

Songs Make Excellent Christmas Presents

And they're darned inexpensive!

1983: A very good year for sweaters!

Cults: "Go Outside"

Wow.

 

Background from the director.

Yo Yo Ma, on the floor of a bathroom, with a wombat

The things you find on Twitter:

Remembering Iran-Contra

I don't know where Charles P. Pierce has been hiding (just from me, probably), but witnessing his sudden appearance and meteoric rise on the internets via his position at Esquire's website has been inspiring, and provides an opportunity for a learning experience unparalleled I think in recent internet history. I honestly have the feeling that if I were to read everything he's written in, say, the last ten years, I'd emerge a smarter—and wiser—person by several factors.

An example:

... Iran-Contra was a straightforward constitutional B&E. The Reagan people wanted to fight a war in Central America. Congress did its constitutional duty and shut off the money. The administration then broke the law by arranging private funding for its pet war. One of the ways it did that was to sell military hardware to the government of Iran, which sponsored not only terrorism, but also the kidnapping of various American citizens abroad. All of this was in service to a private foreign policy, devoid of checks and balances, and based on a fundamental contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law… 

Iran-Contra was the moment when the country decided — or, alternatively, when it was decided for the country — that self-government was too damned hard, and that we’re all better off just not knowing. It was the moment when all the checks and balances failed, when our faith in the Constitution was most sorely tested, and when it was found most seriously wanting. Iran-Contra is how all the crimes of the subsequent years became possible. It is when the Constitution became a puppet show.

Via.