I know that we must always work with great diligence to separate the news, from the entertainment, the wheat from the chaff so to speak. I have spent two weeks soul searching about this, and I know Matt Lehmen does his best, and honestly his work is something to be respected. I know that, but I also know that my not saying something about locally created programming that seeks to be something other than entertainment, well that is something I have to say something about. And what I have to say is this…

I have had enough of you, Pat and Tom. I honestly cannot tell you apart anymore. When I ask friends which one is the bully, and which one the whipping boy is, they tell me. Only then do I know, and I only know for a few moments, because at the end of the day, it does not matter. How one man has a career based on getting bullied and mocked each morning in a completely uncivil manner is beyond me, but so it goes.

Today a line was crossed though, and it was a line we won’t return from. A caller this morning(I wrote this two weeks ago), John, made a patently racist comment that mocked and denigrated those of Latino lineage. The hosts of the shows, MODERATORS, did nothing to confront this blatant act of racism, and instead allowed John to make his silly comment to the guest of the show. He made a disparaging comment that included the line, “Mamacitas in Escalades.”

That was the last straw. I turned my radio off on the drive to work, and just stewed. The hosts did not give out a number to call, as I am sure the lines were full of Homers waiting to pounce on this poor author who was on the air to talk about her book. A book that, by the way, rails against corporate influence on our government — something that on any other day the bully rails against himself. But this day, the bully took on the role of a bully who supports an apparent version of capitalism that is Utopian in nature. Or he just wanted to beat up (poorly, I might add) on this woman who did him the service of calling into his show.

The 550 AM show has turned into a terrible display of Central Wisconsin negativity, and mean-spirited nature. It celebrates the negative call. The bully pounds on the other guy for even suggesting anyone do further research. The bully pounds on the other guy for everything. It is a sad display.

It is a display of the further dumbing down of our culture. The increase in anti-intellectual pride in our country, the replacing of evidence with belief, the replacing of discussion with bullying. Any attempt by the other guy to bring up any sort of research is met with derision, and mockery by the bully. Apparently peer-reviewed academic journals or journalists are not good enough for folks anymore. We just live in some vacuum of our own making.

You have failed me, both intellectually and as broadcasters. You serve the people, and we give your company that spectrum to use. You make a living off of our ears, and you infect us with your bullying. You allow patently racist, xenophobic, homophobic comments to go forth. You say things you know are not true, and you let them stand as fact. You treat local government with disdain.

It is you who have failed the great opportunity given you. You had a chance to elevate the city of Wausau, to engage the listeners in discussions about the city policies, to have civic leaders in to talk about our cities future. Instead you sought to create a mini Crossfire, instead of a meeting of the minds we are left with a bully, and his minimized sidekick.

So it is with great sadness that I say Pat and Tom, you shall darken my ears no more. Your terrible reporting of stories, your clichéd reading of headlines and commenting in snarky ways, your bullying of the other guy is over with for me. I shall listen no more. Instead, I will go to the Web site, and figure out who your sponsors are, and I will not shop at those places. Businesses that support you will not get my dollars. Promotions from your station will not get my dollars. I will act.
I will act like a capitalist.

I will act with my dollars. I shall take this stand today.

It does have a ton of sort of hot boy worship of Kevin Rose.  This fits in with the sort of Julia Allison, Sarah Lane, voiced stuff on the internet.  A sort of tech Sex in the City kind of smarmy vibe to it.  In this, the idea of Kevin and his discheveled hair, or his love of tea being somehow charecteristics to explore teake precedent over the wildly significant effect that Digg has had.  Even going so far as to not mention the created DIGG EFFECT on a story of company.  Rather we read about Kevin as party boy.  I had hoped for something more I suppose.

But, the fact is I love that Sarah Lacy took this on.  She got famously crushed at a public interview at SXSW (I think) where the crowd booed her.  She did not back down, and wrote a pretty darn good book about her friends, and the stuff they have done.

I think it was a little too focused on her famous friends, and a little lacking in a focus outside of the people she knows, but all of that reservation was cancelled when I read the Epilogue.  It was the best story telling she pulled off, the most inspirational part of the book.   She told a story of Max of PayPal fame going to the doctor as a child.  It was a great story.

That story alone makes Sarah Lacy one of my favorite writer.  Thank you for this book

In another life, I spent a lot of time looking at the ancient Samurai code of Bushido. Read the book Hagakure over and over. Spent time with Guru fellows, and learning about how it translates into life, into art, into hardcore. How we saw bushido in Mike Vallely, or in the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

I spent time with this bass player, and we talked about how it made sense. Then we saw a writer from Details write and article about my good friend, and he referenced the LA thing with Bushido, and musicians.

I was watching The Dark Knight, for the third time, and there was a scene, and it made me remember that stuff.

Here is your chance to get out. Consider this a warning.

The specific scene is where the joker is in custody, and Harvey and Rachel have been kidnapped. Commissioner Gordon has left the room, and Batman is beating the joker. Batman has for all purposes lost control. The woman he loves has been taken, the one thing he cares for in the world is in danger, and he cannot fix it. The scene rang true on so many levels for me.

The Joker says something to the effect of, “You can do nothing to me with all of your strength.” I know it was a two sided thing (see the Harvey Dent reference), but it made me remember my friend Henry onstage, and another life I led.

In that moment, the Joker is saying the Batman, that he is ready to die. Nothing anyone can do, is going to stop the mission, the choices he has made. He is committed, and he has nothing to lose. The civilization falls away, and it is just this madness. Just this burning of the world.

I thought about that, and I think that it goes throughout life. The Joker, the artist, the brilliant, the mad genius, is often those without any option. Just this thing that propels them, this work, this art, this music. They have surrendered to it.

The Samurai, was prepared to die every day. they did not want to die, they did not fear death, they did not seek it out, but they were prepared. Each moment was the preparation for that death.

The preparation for death, made the Samurai fearless. There was only one true outcome, death. They were not afraid of death, so anything was possible.

It must be an amazingly liberating thing. To not fear death. To know nothing other than the commitment to the vision you have. To know that nothing that anyone says or does is going to change it. No matter how hard Batman will beat you, you will not crack.

Because you are cracked. Because you are free of the shackles. You are in the moment, like the samurai.

So thank you Chris Nolan. Now I can rebuild my life, to the other one I lived.

I met him at Scott Street like 100 years ago, and somehow the friendship has stuck.

Thanks Jim for such a great photo.

They have been replaced in daily life, by the same shoe, but I am not sure that I should throw them away.

What does one do with lost generation shoes?

At NTC, Jesse bought these for me. I hated them initially. I was coming off some great DC Shoes, and these felt like, as I put it…stoner shoes.

But the served me well.

I am not sure where hip hop came from for me. I have a feeling it was because of NYC punk rock, and a shot of Russell Simmons at a Dead Boys show 100 years ago. I think Spin used to cover the convergance between hip hop and punk rock back in the day. Either way, this is old for me. I saw Run DMC when I was 16, and I am 37 now. I rode in a van with the Beastie Boys in Europe a long time ago as well. Hip Hop is a part of me. As is punk rock. I think hip hop is more though.

I am a head.  I study hip hop with an aggressiveness that I never exhibited in school.  I never paid as much attention to Chaucer as I did to the comings and going of the Def Jam stable.  Nothing shook me as much as Hank and Keith Shocklee, not even Iggy Pop.  And that is saying something.  Those early PE records defined my sonic palatte, in a way that has never shaken.

1. Public Enemy- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Keep Us Down. This album came out in high school. The Bomb Squad (Hank and Keith Shocklee) made a sound explosion that was so perfect. Nothing, absoltely NOTHING ever came close. The only reaction similar was seeing The Black Keys live. Not much in the whole world is better than this record.  The layering, the sonic violence.  It is all amazing.  It is beyond understanding, especially when you become aware that it was ANALOG.

2.  LL Cool J-Radio.  I think that this might be the perfect Boom Bap record ever made.  LL was 18 or 19 when he made it, and he was fully formed.  I have it on cassette, vinyl, and cd.  It was REDUCED by Rick Rubin, and Rick makes no real mistakes.  His lyrical prowess makes all others sit and watch.  In hip hop, the title of Greatest of All Time is fairly bestowed on LL Cool J.

3.  Boogie Down Productions-Criminal Minded.  I had no way into this record, other than Kris Parker, KRS One wanted me to understand.  This was one of those neighborhood records.  Calling out another hood, to battle.  Songs like 9mm goes bang, scary.  I think it was also the last record by Scott LaRock.

4.  Ice Cube- Amerikkka Most Wanted.  This is the lyrical fury of a young Ice Cube, fresh out of NWA, declaring himself.  With the cache of Chuck D, and the Bomb Squad adding real steak to the sizzle.  Cube was fearless.

5.  Ice T-OG Original Gangsta.  This is the first album when Ice T had a bit of time.  He introduced us all to Body Count, had the amazing song New Jaack Hustler.  Again, this is a young Ice T, still fearless, willing to go further, and deeper into hip hop.  I wish this Ice T kept going, not the home invasion, Law And Order horrer movie Ice T.

6.  Wu Tang Clan- Enter the 36 Chambers.  I think that this is a stretch.  Honestly, I have no idea what these guys were talking about ever.  But the way they talked about it, it was like nothing I have ever heard, and I have been to Scotland.  The depth of the RZA is the thing, it is beyond all of the other things I have heard in hip hop.  Beyond the Boom Bap, beyond the floss.  It is a deeply cinematic this.  The Wu Tang, is not for the faint of heart.  It is advance hip hop.

7.  Third Bass- The Cactus CD.  I had the great fortune of coming of age in the golden age of lyrics.  And what Serch and Prime Minister Pete Nice did, amazing.  They took people on.  They discovered NAS.  they brought Chubb Rock to the front of the line, and they made it funny.

8.  Run DMC- Tougher than Leather.  I took my ten year old brother to see the Runs House world tour.  Mary Mary, amazing.  the kings.  They invented it.  We live what they birthed.  Right now.  I am wearing dickies, Run wore dickies.

9.  De La Soul- Three Feet High and Rising.  This record I hardly ever stopped playing.  It kept going, over and over and over again.  it was funny, and smart, and it dared you to rise to it.  It was so special.  Still amazing to this day.

10. Eric B and Rakim- Follow the Leader.  Rolling Stone writer Toure said that Rakim was so strong, that he single handledly changed the direction of hip hop all by himself.  rakim is the greatest emcee of all time, lyrically.  LL Cool J may be the greatest, but lyrically NO ONE is as good as Rakim.

I am venturing into scary territory here. I am considering saying something slightly negative about a web superstar. I have a feeling that she has a quick look at the old Google about her name in the course of the day, and I do not think that this blog will rate very high up there, but one never knows.

This all started a few weeks ago, when on twitter I got a link to a presentation by Miss Tara Hunt. I rolled my eyes, and sighed. Another presentation about this or that, put up somewhere, and the whole world would look. The thing is, the presentations that I tend to see on twitter, they are not about ANYTHING. They are literally about presentations. Marketing talk about more marketing talk. It never fails to amaze me. I have never met more people interested in doing the business of marketing, than on twitter.
The presentation is amazing. I could care less about marketing this or that, and Tara has a vision, and the ability to write and put together narrative in a way that even I am willing to sit and listen. Or in this case watch silent slide across a screen. 197 of them I think.  Tara has had the chance to work for Timbuk2, one of my lifelong devotion brands, and as such I immediately love her work even more, cool enough for Timbuk2 cool enough for me.

And more than that, and not to minimize this, she is a pretty girl who can write like no tomorrow. Her voice on the internet is amazing, and I am glad to read it from time to time.  I think she has a book in the works about the Whuffie, which might be about Star Wars, but one can never know.

That being said, I recently have found Julia Allison. I wish I could tell you how, and I tend to think it was at one of the two Rev3 parties I have had the chance to go to. I am sure that someone brought it up. So I did the requisite Google work, and found the website. Where I found this video. I was absolutely in love, totally smitten, head over heels.
Lip Dub: Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing from Julia Allison on Vimeo.

But recently, I have had reservations. I have started to see this class of internet superstars through a different set of glasses. A bit crueler maybe, but never the less, I have sort of decided that people like Tara and Julia might just be at opposite ends of a spectrum that I do not understand one bit.

It brings us to once again, the cool factor of twitter, and how we view ourselves.  I have had people tell me that the measure of a real twitter superstar is someone that has more followers, then the number of people that they are following.  That this proves, objectively, that people are more interested in what this person has to say.  That this person is of merit.

I think of someone like Scoble.  A real writer.  I think.  A dad, a husband, a good dude.  Met him once, but no big whoop.  He has like 8000000000 followers.  I think the tsunami comes from people who have been there all along.  Plurk has even sort of pointed that Scoble is responsible for the first wave of sign ups.  But, from what I can tell, Scoble started this out by being a dude in the know.  He broke stories.  Was a good writer, and people liked him.

But now we have an entire class of people who it is there job to talk about the people who are doing the thing.  For example Leo LaPorte.  An old time radio guy who got his TechTv chops, and now has an entire podcast network at his beck and call.  And honestly, I am not sure what Leo does.

This brings us to Julia Allison.  The wikipedia thing says she is an author, and columnist, and the like.  I honestly have done the nexis searches, and went to Us Magazine, and found nothing with her name on it.  So I am unsure.  But she is famous, and apparently so famous that her quitting this or that is worthy of this dude putting something on youtube.

So I guess that brings me to the essential question.  What is valid anymore?  What is actual work, and what is discussion and what is pretend?  I create content for a living, on a specific issue.  A lifes work if you will.  I do not understand the nature of those who comment to comment.  The role of the twitter genius who is a celebrity in his or her own right, not based on anything other than there talking loud about something.

When did we need a Valleywag?  What is the point of discussing that?

Why not celebrate the amazing work of the dudes who code things, in some way other than a tabloid affair?

Where is the Web 2.0 Walt Whitman?  Where is the San Fran Ralph Ellison?  Do we not have a culture of folks who think that writing fiction is worth while?  Where is your voice in this?

Who pick up the hammers and nails?

So given the shake up at the Great Northern Blues Society, which we left off the front page, I thought I would sit here and crank out a list. My ten favorite blues records. Not THE BEST, by MY favorite. I think I have a pretty good ear for this sort of thing, and I have earned a bit of a nasty habit of listening aggressively.

To be fair, the first time revisiting blues, or visiting blues, as I was a punk rock and hip hop young man, was this.

I want to be clear about this. I need to be clear. A lot of folks are going to assume that I had any real idea that it was Hendrix, and I caught onto that. No. Hendrix died when I was 1. I was a punk rock kid. The idea of me looking back to the 60s, well that was just about insane. Still, in many ways, is.

What did it for me was SRVs elbow. In the beginning of the song, his arm is moving in ways almost exactly similar to a punk rock dude. Fast, open, his whole arm movie over the strings. Not like Clapton, who barely moved at all. SRV moved his body. And as a young man, I caught that.

SRV led me to Freddie King, in one step. From there Muddy Waters. From there Buddy Guy. Form there, the world.

So here we go.

1. Bill Perry-Manny’s Car Wash LIVE. I am so proud to own this record. It is actually in my safety deposit box. There are few copies in existence, and since Bill passed away, I am sure you are not going to find it anymore.

2. Scott Holt-From Lettsworth to Legend. So yeah, Scott is one of my best friends. But, onstage, I do not think that there is anyone better on the planet. He avoided making a tribute record to Buddy for 100 Years, and finally made the one he wanted.

3. Hound Dog Taylor-Release the Hound. Dear God in heaven. This was a man who played like he was on fire. His band was charging ahead 100 miles an hour, and no brakes at all None.

4. Ass Pocket of Whisky- RL Burnside. The fact that Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is on it, it tears itself apart, and fights itself bloody. Just hooping and hollering. Fighting to the bank, and kicking your girlfriend in the ass when your both drunk.

5. Chipped Front Tooth- Scott Holt. This might be the single best incarnation of his band ever. So powerful. So fast. So rich. They are just fearless.

6. Thickfreakness-The Black Keys. Not purely the blues. But so much perfection, Sonic Youth and Hound Dog Taylor. My favorite band ever.

7. Grand Slam- Magic Slim and the TearDrops. This is what a blues band is supposed to sound like. I had the great opporutnity to have Slim play in my hometown at an event I worked on. He was everything I had hoped for.

8. Sweet Tea-Buddy Guy. Honestly, I am afraid of Buddy. This record made me even more scared of him. It just sort of announced him as a man who had looked into the face of the devil, and shouted at him. Fearless Buddy. Kick your ass Buddy.

So good he deserves two.

9. Live at Cook County Jail-BB King. I have over the years developed a friendship with the king of the blues, and my life is better for knowing him. Knowing him is something that I am so thrilled about.

This song makes me remember Mickey Larson, RIP Mick.

10. Bad Man-T-Model Ford. You can see, I like it rough. And it does not get much rougher than T Model.

I know that I have left most of your favorites, or the best ones off. But this, right here, is what I take in my car to drive to Chicago.

And like all blues music, we end it with a pretty girl.

Kerry Bielen, long time secretary and treasurer of the GNBS has apparently resigned amid some sort of shenanigans.  That being said, I am sorry to see her go.  While she and I butted heads a lot, and I thought she was often holding onto a bad business model, few folks have been there are consistently for the organization as she has.  Even I walked out in a snit, as president.  So I am not above reproach.

Sorry to see you go Kerry.  I hope the GNBS ship can right itself.

Here is her letter to the public that I received today.

May 22, 2008

I want you to know it matters to me. Like this. It is not marketing, it is not that.

I wish this place had humanity. I lost mine somewhere.

“We had no other reason than reason itself”

I am 37, and somehow, and someway, I let it slip.  I let the actual meaning slip away.  I became dull scissors, wanting to fit in.  With you, of you, there with you.

I was wrong.  I was wrong when I got sad that you did not call me, to help you with your record that I would not have liked anyway.  I was wrong to get upset when you asked me why I wrote what I wrote, as if I did not write lovingly about you in spite of myself.

I was wrong when I asked permission.  I was wrong when I asked permission.  I was wrong when I asked permission.

I was wrong when I asked permission, and you spoon fed me something that I knew was not what I saw, and not what I wanted to write about.  I was wrong when I did not stand up to that.  I was wrong.

It has been a long weekend.  It has been a good weekend, alone in a room, in the dark.  Making noise on the table.

Why not just stand there, and say it?