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Boom and Stars
Two of nature’s most spectacular forces produced an incredible brew in the skies of Chile as a volcanic eruption met a lightning storm. Tons of dust and ash from the eruption of the Chaiten volcano poured into the night sky just as an electric storm passed overhead. The resulting collision created a spectacular sight as lightning flickered around the dust cloud amid the orange glow of the volcano. The eruption was all the more spetacular because the Chaiten volcano, 800 miles south of Santiago, has been dormant for nine thousand years. The Patagonian volcano left a 12 mile high plume and left vast tracts of land coated with a layer of ash.
It’s the End of the World As We Know It
The decade is almost at an end, and it’s high time you replace “The Millennium” with “Boomsday” on your List of Apocalypses that likely already includes inconvenient truths, second comings, the Infocalypse and the Red Sox winning the World Series again.
Two years from now, in 2010, the first of America’s 76 million baby boomers will begin to retire, quickly squandering what’s left of Social Security leaving those of us born after 1964 to struggle with rising taxes and no hope of welfare in our old age. At best, protesters will march on the National Mall once again, but it’s more likely that the video game-obsessed youth of today will turn violent and hit the boomers where it hurts: burning down their golf courses and looting the pink flamingos from the pristinely groomed yards of their Florida retirement homes. At least, that’s the future as envisioned by writer Christopher Buckley in his latest political satire Boomsday.
A baby boomer himself, Buckley mock-examines the crisis through the eyes of his cynical thirtysomething protagonist Cassandra Devine. Devine is a once academically promising beauty who, after a series of unusually unfortunate mishaps (that include her father spending her Yale tuition money, and her being blown up in a Kosovan minefield), finds herself working for a Washington, D.C. PR agency that specializes in enhancing the image of terrorists and mink farmers. Like all jaded Gen Xers, at night she goes back to her empty apartment, heats up a microwave dinner and vents her sociopolitical frustrations on her blog.
After one very late night, and a Red Bull-fueled online rant proposing that baby boomers kill themselves at age 65 in return for tax breaks to lighten the load on her generation, she wakes up to find the country in chaos. Within hours, Congress is actually debating her proposal, and when she’s not in federal prison, hiding from the law, or being accused of inciting murder, Devine finds herself at the center of the taskforce for “Voluntary Transitioning” backed by a one-legged Presidential candidate.
Buckley’s past as a speechwriter for Bush senior serves him well once again, as he offers us a glimpse into the harebrained decision-making that lies deep within the White House walls, and presents a thinly veiled cast of fictional politicians desperately, indecisively trying to make choices with certainty. Combining impressive political detail with his characteristically surreal wit, Buckley makes the idea of boomers leaping off cliffs like lemmings seem alternately brilliant, hilarious and at times downright sensible. Above all, he gives equal time to both sides of the generational divide, citing boomers and busters for a shortsighted absurdity that will have you laughing out loud.
Whether your coming of age moment was defined by Watergate or vitamin water, Boomsday is the perfect note on which to end a summer of relentless political pandering.
–Julia Clarke
Songlines Podcast: Little Feat
Little Feat’s latest project is Join the Band, a most unusual sort of tribute record. On it, they serve as the stellar backing band performing several of their classic songs as sung by the likes of Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, and Chris Robinson. Dive into its sound in this edition of the Songlines podcast.
Jambands.com recently did a terrific feature interview with Little Feat co-founder and keyboardist Bill Payne. It’s worth a read.
Beijing 2008
I don’t know about you but I’m always a reluctant fool when the Olympics come around. At first I think I’ll avoid them all together but eventually I break down and take a peek. I’ll see something exciting like a great dive or floor exercise or track event and eventually I’ve succumbed to the competition to the point where I’m watching every night and am truly sorry when the games end. Sure, there was way too much beach volleyball in primetime but overall, this was an amazing year. Perhaps the best ever. Hats off to NBC for spectacular camera work. As long as we kept the sound down when the annoying announcers were blathering, we found that we could enjoy the proceedings fully. Here’s a link to some great photographs taken from Beijing 2008.
–Sean Coakley
Songlines Podcast: The Virgins
The Virgins offer up enough hooky, disco-tinged rock on their full-length self-titled debut (think Some Girls-era Stones or “Don’t You Evah” by Spoon) to keep models strutting down runways for years. Now if only they would start singing about hamburgers…Check out the funky bassline and intertwining guitars of lead single “Rich Girls” and some album tracks in this Songlines podcast.
The Virgins are on tour opening for Black Kids. Find out when they’re doing a show near you.
MP3 in Pocket
This week’s downloadable Pretenders track is “Don’t Cut Your Hair.” You can get it at Imeem. Fans will be treated to each individual track from the forthcoming record Break Up the Concrete for seven days until the whole album is “revealed.”
Songlines Podcast: Carrie Rodriguez
No longer content to hide behind her fiddle or her longtime partner Chip Taylor, Carrie Rodriguez has stepped into the spotlight in a big way with the release of her second official solo record, She Ain’t Me. The album was produced by Malcolm Burn, and features contributions from Dan Wilson, Lucinda Williams and Gary Louris. It recently hit the street, and to coincide with release, Carrie was featured as the iTunes Discovery Artist of the Week, downloaded over 100,000 times. You can learn more about Carrie in this edition of the Songlines podcast.
After recent tapings for World Cafe and Austin City Limits, Carrie begins a tour next month, including several dates opening for Alejandro Escovedo.
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Like everyone in our musical community, we were shocked and saddened to learn of the tragic death of Dee Henderson, the longtime voice of Cap’n Pete’s Blues Cruise on WEVL/Memphis. Though it goes without saying that Henderson is being mourned by loved ones and colleagues, as a 26-year member of the Memphis music world, the sudden loss of this distinctive cultural voice is felt far and wide.
As we know from our dialogue with radio stations across the country, DJs can truly change lives and shape communities as they accompany listeners through their daily lives. In public radio, this connection is epitomized in the very mission of shared ideas. As a volunteer, Henderson contributed to the oral tradition of American history through his extensive knowledge of the blues, and shared with his listeners something we all hold so dear; a pure and simple love of music.
We hope you’ll take a moment to read this eloquent New York Times tribute to a music lover.
You Didn’t Have To
The Pretenders have partnered with several media outlets to offer free MP3s of new songs from their forthcoming record, Break Up the Concrete. Each individual track will be available for seven days until the whole album is “revealed.” You can find more details on their web site.
The Earth Died Screaming
Bob Dylan will release Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 in October. The lead single is an outtake from the Time Out of Mind sessions, “Dreamin’ of You.” You can get a free MP3 at Dylan’s site.