Sure, you’ve heard that Reagan’s FBI director and 19 other former GOP-appointed US attorneys are backing Biden, but if you’re still undecided, this might clinch it: Nine Inch Nails have endorsed Biden.
So now you have it from NIN themselves. Vote Biden, because it’s time for Trump to bow down before the ones he’s supposed to serve.
I saw this on this in Hampton Terrace during this morning’s 10K bike ride.
I think I’ll close this post with something you might not have seen: A scene from Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes that puts together Wu-Tang’s GZA, RZA, and Bill Murray at the same booth in a café:
It’s impossible to describe Nyango Star with mere words. This video will do a much better job:
Nyango Star is a mascot for Kuroishi City in Japan’s Aomori prefecture, on the northernmost tip of Honshu (the main island), and Japan’s largest producer of apples. In a design decision that makes perfect sense if you’re Japanese, Nyango is:
The name also makes perfect sense if you’re Japanese:
Here’s a Vice documentary about Nyango Star:
Here’s a great video — Professional vs. Beginner Drummer — in which somehow Nyango, a mascot in an apple/cat costume with fixed facial features is displaying more emotion than the human:
Here’s Nyango doing a drum cover of the Japanese pop tune Futon no nakakara detakunai, which translates as “I don’t want to leave my futon”:
And I’ll close with this observation: Only in Japan can you assemble a crowd of seniors at a concert hall to watch an apple/cat mascot drum along to Slayer’s Raining Blood:
Mash-up expert Bill McClintock took Buffalo Springfield’s 1966 anthem, For What It’s Worth and Young MC’s 1989 dance floor-filler (and one of my favorite accordion karaoke numbers) Bust a Move — both tunes with a I-IV chord progression — and melded them into this hybrid musical gem:
If you watched the vice presidential debate on CNN last night, you saw the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head and stayed there for over two minutes. The New York Times wrote about it, Fox News is spinning it, the Biden campaign is having fun with it:
Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly. https://t.co/CqHAId0j8t pic.twitter.com/NbkPl0a8HV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 8, 2020
Twitter in general was having fun with it:
Mike Pence with his only black friend. #VPDebate pic.twitter.com/e9H32MMpoy
— Christian Polanco (@chrispolanco) October 8, 2020
…and I was reminded of Drawing Flies, an underappreciated gem from Soundgarden’s 1991 album, Badmotorfinger. Here are the lyrics:
Sitting here like uninvited company
Wallowing in my own obscenities
I share a cigarette with negativity
Sitting here like wet ashes
With x’s in my eyes and drawing fliesBathed in perspiration drowned my enemies
Used my inspiration for a guillotine
I fire a loaded mental cannon to the page
Leaning on the pedestal that holds my self denial
Firing the pistol that shoots my holy pride
Sitting here like wet ashes
With x’s in my eyes, and drawing fliesI’ll say hey, what you yelling
About, conditions, permission, mirrored self affliction
Hey, what you yellin’ about sadist’s
Co-addiction, perfect analogies
Hey, what you yellin’ about conditions
Permission mirrored self affliction
Leaning on the pedestal that holds my self denial
Firing the pistol that shoots my holy pride
Sitting here like wet ashes with x’s in my eyes
And drawing flies (flies)Sitting here like uninvited company
Wallowing in my own obscenities
Share a cigarette with negativity
Leaning on the pedestal that holds my self denial
Firing the pistol that shoots my holy pride
Sitting here like wet ashes
With x’s in my eyes and drawing flies
But enough talk — crank up the speakers, and put it on!
This performance — as seen on Brazilian TV show Alerta Amazonas — perfectly captures the Spirit of 2020 like nothing else: Incredibly flawed, but damn it, we’re going to soldier through it somehow.
It’s my new favorite cover of Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 hit, Total Eclipse of the Heart:
Some days we’re the singer, some days we’re the twirling guy.
In case you were wondering what my old favorite version was, it’s Hurra Torpedo’s cover:
And for old times’ sake, here’s the original:
Thanks to Raymi the Minx for the find!
I had no real plans for the weekend, but after watching this video, I feel like running out to Bearss Groves to buy a watermelon and a kiwi fruit (a.k.a. the fruit formerly known as the Chinese gooseberry):
That’s French electronic music artist Mezerg, whose videos aren’t just vehicles for catchy 4/4 dance numbers, but are interesting performance art pieces.
Here’s another video of his, where he’s jamming on the theremin, using it as a combination volume control and low-pass filter:
You can see more of his videos on his YouTube channel and his Facebook page.