The Perpetual Three-Dot Column
The Perpetual Three-Dot Column
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

by Jesse Walker

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
SELF-PROMOTION: My most recent Reason
column is titled "The Swine Flu Panic That Wasn't" and subtitled "Mass hysteria fails to materialize. Again."


posted by Jesse 10:47 PM
. . .
ALASDAIR MACINTYRE ON POLITICAL SCIENTISM:
There once was a man who aspired to be the author of the general theory of holes. When asked 'What kind of hole--holes dug by children in the sand for amusement, holes dug by gardeners to plant lettuce seedlings, tank traps, holes made by road makers?' he would reply indignantly that he wished for a general theory that would explain all of these. He rejected ab initio the--as he saw it--pathetically common-sense view that of the digging of different kinds of holes there are quite different kinds of explanations to be given; why then he would ask do we have the concept of a hole? Lacking the explanations to which he originally aspired, he then fell to discovering statistically significant correlations; he found for example that there is a correlation between the aggregate hole-digging achievement of a society as measured, or at least one day to be measured, by econometric techniques, and its degree of technological development. The United States surpasses both Paraguay and Upper Volta in hole-digging; there are more holes in Vietnam than there were. These observations, he would always insist, were neutral and value-free. This man's achievement has passed totally unnoticed except by me. Had he however turned his talents to political science, had he concerned himself not with holes, but with modernization, urbanization or violence, I find it difficult to believe that he might not have achieved high office in the APSA.
The APSA being the
American Political Science Association. Quote lifted from Susanne Karstedt and Manuel Eisner.


posted by Jesse 2:53 PM
. . .
Monday, May 11, 2009
AFTERFOLLIES: I did the midnight shift at WCBN this past Friday. That gave me the opportunity to play (a) records with words the FCC doesn't permit in the daytime and (b) stuff too experimental, or maybe too self-indulgent, to inflict on a midday audience.

The first hour of the show was mostly given over to excerpts from
Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me, a collection of street toasts -- most of them really filthy -- recorded largely at prisons in Texas in the '60s. ("Tom from Ellis," for example, was incarcerated at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville.) I mixed those spoken-word performances with funk and jazz, thus highlighting the ways they foreshadowed hip hop, and in-between I played other tracks that fit the theme, from Wilson Pickett's soul version of "Stagger Lee" to a Last Poets proto-rap about smack addiction.

The other two hours didn't include as much mixing on my part, though I did do a really absurd live mash-up between Yes and James Chance; and, later, combined some music with an old LP of the premillennialist preacher Hal Lindsey.

Here's the playlist:

Herbie Hancock: Watermelon Man (excerpt, mixed with "Titanic")
Tom from Ellis: Titanic
Ben Taylor: Dolemite
Herbie Hancock: Chameleon (excerpt, mixed with "Stackolee")
Henry from Ramsey: Stackolee
Wilson Pickett: Stagger Lee
Isaac Hayes: Shaft
Pee Wee Ellis: Chicken (mixed with "Pimpin' Sam" and "Up on the Farm")
Henry from Ramsey: Pimpin' Sam
Peter from Wynne: Up on the Farm
Walter Roland & Lucille Bogan: I'm Gonna Shave You Dry
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball
Henry from Ramsey: Dance of the Freaks
Earth, Wind, and Fire: Sweet Sweetback's Theme (mixed with "Dance of the Freaks" and "Jones Comin' Down")
The Last Poets: Jones Comin' Down
Jimmy Smith: J.O.S. (excerpt, mixed with "The Signifying Monkey")
Tom from Ellis: The Signifying Monkey
Jon Brown: 30 Days
The Bad Livers: Love Songs Suck
Brian Eno & David Byrne: Regiment
Was (Not Was): Dad I'm in Jail
James White and the Blacks: Contort Yourself
Yes: Würm (sped up & mixed with "Contort Yourself," then slowed down and spun backwards)
Taj Mahal: Corinna
Joe Tex: Trying to Win Your Love
Dr. John & The Meters: Peace Brother Peace
The Bar-Kays: Mean Mistreater
Juicy Bananas: Bad Man
Cookie Monster: Me Lost Me Cookie at the Disco
The Bobs: Disco Inferno
The Doors: Peace Frog
The Commodores: Brick House
The Kinks: Demolition
The Section: Black Dog
The Section: Bron-Y-Aur
The Recliners: Back in Black
Mrs. Miller: Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Monty Python: Sit On My Face
Henry Mancini: Baby Elephant Walk
Firesign Theater: Young Guy Motor Detective
Keith Jarrett: Second Invocation
Hal Lindsey: Questions and Answers About the End Times (excerpt, mixed with "Second Invocation" and "New World Order")
Presage: New World Order
Ministry: N.W.O.
The Ramones: Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio?
Fear: Let's Have a War
Patti Smith: My Generation
The Shaggs: My Pal Foot Foot
Nina Hagen: Spirit in the Sky
Bob Dylan: All the Tired Horses
George Harrison: If Not for You
Henry Mancini: March of the Cue Balls
Jimmy Page & Robert Plant: Nobody's Fault But Mine
The Bobs: Is That All There Is?


posted by Jesse 11:14 PM
. . .
Thursday, May 07, 2009
THE FINAL FOLLIES: Tuesday saw the final installment of my weekly Titicut Follies radio show. (It won't be my last broadcast before returning to Baltimore, though: I'm going to do a late-night shift this Friday at midnight.) I replayed a lot of my favorite songs and threw in some tracks I'd never aired before as well:

O.V. Wright: I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled, and Crazy
Margie Johnson: Touch Your Woman
James Carr: Row, Row Your Boat
Ivan Neville: Fortunate Son
The Bar-Kays: Feelin' Alright
The Gift of Gab & The Blind Boys of Alabama: Demons
Sly and the Family Stone: In Time
Duffy: Mercy
Taj Mahal: I Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Steal My Jellyroll
Tony Joe White: Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll
Leo Kottke: Monkey Lust
Larry Jon Wilson: Sheldon Church Yard
Bob Dylan: Slow Train
Clarence Carter: Making Love (At the Dark End of the Street)
Booker T. and the MGs: Summertime
Charlie Rich: Your Place Is Here With Me
Karen Dalton: In a Station
Steve Earle: Another Town
k.d. lang: Big Boned Gal
Jerry Lee Lewis: Big Blue Diamonds
Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton: All That Meat and No Potatoes
Rodgers and Hammerstein: Oklahoma!
The Kinks: Oklahoma U.S.A.
Merle Haggard: Okie from Muskogee
Josh Graves: Jennifer's Waltz
Dolly Parton: Early Morning Breeze
Van Morrison & The Chieftains: Raglan Road
The Pogues: The Broad Majestic Shannon
Steve Goodman: Lincoln Park Pirates
The Kinks: No Return
The Bonzo Dog Band: Look Out, There's a Monster Coming
Sesame Street: Hey Food
Roberta Flack: Compared to What
Candi Staton: Sure As Sin
The Neville Brothers: A Change Is Gonna Come
Willie Hightower: Back Road Into Town
The Band: Life Is a Carnival
Jackson 5: I Want You Back
Stevie Wonder: Living for the City
Roy Ayers: Brawling Broads
Flight of the Conchords: Business Time
Parliament: Handcuffs
Beck: Where It's At
Esther Phillips: 'Til My Back Ain't Got No Bone
Townes Van Zandt: Black Widow Blues
Johnny Cash: Mary of the Wild Moor
Willie Nelson: Always on My Mind
Bob Dylan: Wigwam


posted by Jesse 3:10 PM
. . .
Sunday, May 03, 2009
SELF-PROMOTION: My essay on the politics of superhero movies, originally published in the May Reason, is now
online.

Also, I wrote a column about FCC v. Fox last week for the Reason website.


posted by Jesse 10:40 AM
. . .
THREE HOURS OF COUNTRY MUSIC: I hosted The Down Home Show on WCBN yesterday. The high point was getting a call from my brother about 50 minutes into the program: He was listening online in Iraq, and he wanted to hear some Freddy Fender.

Here's the playlist:

Emmylou Harris: Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight
Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn: Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man
Balfa Toujours: Reel de Deshotels
Tom T. Hall: Ravishing Ruby
Roger Miller: Kansas City Star
Johnny Cash: I've Been Everywhere
Rick Moranis: I Ain't Goin' Nowhere
Cliff Bruner: Draftboard Blues
Steve Earle: My Uncle
Doc Watson: Going Down the Road Feeling Bad
Rose Maddox: Silver Threads and Golden Needles
Linda Ronstadt: Silver Threads and Golden Needles
Merle Haggard: Huntsville
Charlie Daniels: Long Haired Country Boy
Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Jason and the Scorchers: Lost Highway
Terry Allen: Truckload of Art
Roy Acuff: Wreck on the Highway
Steve Goodman: Somebody Else's Troubles
Freddy Fender: Since I Met You Baby
Dwight Yoakam: T for Texas
Willie Nelson: Shotgun Willie
Lou Johnson: She Thinks I Still Care
Charlie Rich: A Woman Left Lonely
Vern Gosdin: I'm Still Crazy
The Tractors: The Tulsa Shuffle
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys: Take Me Back to Tulsa
Floyd Tillman: Daisy May
Red Foley: Tennessee Polka
Robin Holcomb & Bill Frisell: Will Jesus Wash the Bloodstains from Your Hands?
Michael Hurley: Griselda
R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders: Crying My Blues Away
Hank Williams Jr.: I Just Ain't Been Able
David Allan Coe: Atlanta Song
Mickey Newbury: Mobile Blue
Guy Clark: L.A. Freeway
Johnny Paycheck: The Cave
Uncle Tupelo: Atomic Power
Lowell Blanchard and the Valley Trio: Jesus Hits Like an Atom Bomb
John D. Loudermilk: No Playing in the Snow Today
Merle Haggard: If We Make It Through December
Waylon Jennings: The Taker
Bob Dylan: Gotta Travel On
Elvis Presley: I'm Movin' On
Bobbie Gentry: Okolona River Bottom Band
Jim Ford: She Turns My Radio On
Sammi Smith: All I Ever Need Is You
Clarence Gatemouth Brown: Fiddlin' Around
The Blasters: Little Honey
Larry John Wilson: Ohoopee River Bottomland
Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen: My Home Is In My Hand
Johnny Horton: Take Me Like I Am
Merle Travis: Dark as a Dungeon
Dave Alvin: What Did the Deep Sea Say
The Band: Long Black Veil
Sir Douglas Quintet: Texas Me


posted by Jesse 10:26 AM
. . .

. . .


. . .