Thinking about The Punk Rock Girl reminded me that I love me The Waitresses, so "Christmas Wrapping" is on heavy rotation in the holiday mix playlist of Jackson's iPod this year. (Sadly, I couldn't find a version with the band itself on YouTube, and found this one with flashing lights to be the least offensive. To mollify my inner teenager, here's their video of "I Know What Boys Like".)
And, since 2009 has been kind of a crappy year, listening to Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas" seems to be appropriate.
What songs are you listening to this holiday season?
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
One is silver, and the other gold.
Just a little note from Jackson -- I've added a few new blogs to the list. In no particular order ....
Emily Magazine and Things That I Ate That I Loved -- both from Gawker alumna Emily Gould, allegedly the poster girl for Internet TMI and navel gazing. Whatever. I like her writing, and her Cooking the Books videos from the Awl amuse me.
Rachel Kramer Bussel -- another blogger/writer/whatever I found via the Gawker comments. Sometimes NSFW (she's a former sex columnist for the Village Voice, after all).
Nerissa (mostly) and Katryna Nields -- chicks with guitars. Check them out here (track number 10, "Fountain of Youth," is one of my favorites).
Emily Magazine and Things That I Ate That I Loved -- both from Gawker alumna Emily Gould, allegedly the poster girl for Internet TMI and navel gazing. Whatever. I like her writing, and her Cooking the Books videos from the Awl amuse me.
Rachel Kramer Bussel -- another blogger/writer/whatever I found via the Gawker comments. Sometimes NSFW (she's a former sex columnist for the Village Voice, after all).
Nerissa (mostly) and Katryna Nields -- chicks with guitars. Check them out here (track number 10, "Fountain of Youth," is one of my favorites).
Monday, December 21, 2009
Send lawyers, guns, and money.
Every now and then, my friends, lawyers get it right. And I have two examples -- I've been meaning to talk about the first one for a bit, and reading about the second one triggered the post. And, just because The Universe Has A Sense Of Humor, they both have ties to Iran-Contra. Fun, no?
The first example -- in the dying days of Bush II, the United States of America decided that Ben Kuehne, a prominent lawyer in Miami (who, surely coincidentally, was one of the lawyers who represented the Gore campaign during the 2000 election litigation), should be prosecuted for laundering drug money. Why? Because he gave a legal opinion that an alleged drug dealer had non drug related assets to sell to pay another lawyer (Roy Black, of the William Kennedy Smith trial) for his defense in the criminal trial. (Whew. Does that sentence make sense? Alleged drug dealer has property in Colombia, sells it to pay for Roy, Ben is hired to review to make sure it's Not Coke proceeds, says it's not -- Ok, I think so.) Then a different drug dealer turned snitch says to the feds: "No way, man. That was totally drug money." Ben gets charged, despite the fact that the money laundering statute says pretty clearly that a lawyer gets paid with tainted money is not guilty of money laundering. It may be money that she has to give back at some point in a forfeiture proceeding, but whatever.
Fortunately, Ben had good lawyers. And federal judges who understood the law. And a Justice Department who finally realized this was not the sort of case that the United States of America should be spending its limited amount of law enforcement time and resources on. The WSJ Law Blog lays the whole Ben Kuehne story out here.
The Iran Contra connection? One of Ben's lawyers was John Nields, who was chief counsel for the House's Iran Contra investigatory committee. And there's a bonus! Two of Nields's daughters have a band that is one of my favorites in the "chicks with guitars" genre of singer-songwriters. And they (well, mostly Nerissa) have a blog! (Note to self -- must add it to the blogroll.)
Second story -- read this WSJ Law Blog post about plea bargains and innocent people pleading guilty. The background is the criminal investigation and trials of members of management at Broadcom (remember that company?) who allegedly violated all sorts of the securities laws. One of them decided to go to trial, and the government -- our government -- basically browbeat a bunch of others at Broadcom in an attempt to get them to testify at trial in a certain way. Read the transcript of the ruling by the federal judge who dismissed the charges here. Those Broadcom guys and gals were lucky that they were able to have lawyers good enough and dogged enough to get the judge to look at what actually happened. It's scary, frankly, that this happens.
The Iran Contra connection? One of the Broadcom defendants was represented by Oliver North's lawyer Brendan Sullivan, famed throughout the land for his immortal line "I am not a potted plant!" (directed at Senator Daniel Inoyue, when the senator grew annoyed at Sullivan's objections during the hearings).
The first example -- in the dying days of Bush II, the United States of America decided that Ben Kuehne, a prominent lawyer in Miami (who, surely coincidentally, was one of the lawyers who represented the Gore campaign during the 2000 election litigation), should be prosecuted for laundering drug money. Why? Because he gave a legal opinion that an alleged drug dealer had non drug related assets to sell to pay another lawyer (Roy Black, of the William Kennedy Smith trial) for his defense in the criminal trial. (Whew. Does that sentence make sense? Alleged drug dealer has property in Colombia, sells it to pay for Roy, Ben is hired to review to make sure it's Not Coke proceeds, says it's not -- Ok, I think so.) Then a different drug dealer turned snitch says to the feds: "No way, man. That was totally drug money." Ben gets charged, despite the fact that the money laundering statute says pretty clearly that a lawyer gets paid with tainted money is not guilty of money laundering. It may be money that she has to give back at some point in a forfeiture proceeding, but whatever.
Fortunately, Ben had good lawyers. And federal judges who understood the law. And a Justice Department who finally realized this was not the sort of case that the United States of America should be spending its limited amount of law enforcement time and resources on. The WSJ Law Blog lays the whole Ben Kuehne story out here.
The Iran Contra connection? One of Ben's lawyers was John Nields, who was chief counsel for the House's Iran Contra investigatory committee. And there's a bonus! Two of Nields's daughters have a band that is one of my favorites in the "chicks with guitars" genre of singer-songwriters. And they (well, mostly Nerissa) have a blog! (Note to self -- must add it to the blogroll.)
Second story -- read this WSJ Law Blog post about plea bargains and innocent people pleading guilty. The background is the criminal investigation and trials of members of management at Broadcom (remember that company?) who allegedly violated all sorts of the securities laws. One of them decided to go to trial, and the government -- our government -- basically browbeat a bunch of others at Broadcom in an attempt to get them to testify at trial in a certain way. Read the transcript of the ruling by the federal judge who dismissed the charges here. Those Broadcom guys and gals were lucky that they were able to have lawyers good enough and dogged enough to get the judge to look at what actually happened. It's scary, frankly, that this happens.
The Iran Contra connection? One of the Broadcom defendants was represented by Oliver North's lawyer Brendan Sullivan, famed throughout the land for his immortal line "I am not a potted plant!" (directed at Senator Daniel Inoyue, when the senator grew annoyed at Sullivan's objections during the hearings).
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Come and see me, I'm the same boy I used to be.
So, in a recent discussion with some Imaginary Friends about music or dating or youth or first cars or whatever, I was reminded of The Punk Rock Girl (have I mentioned her here before?), and started wondering about what she was up to these days. It turns out that she currently lives in the same city as I do, which is not the same city that we lived in in 10th grade. Quandary -- contact her or not? "Stalkerish and creepy" or "welcome blast from the past"? Oh, the conundrums of poor Jackson's life!
Since I am too lazy to do a search to see if I have mentioned her before (until now, there was no tag for her, so I am guessing that I have not), here's the short version. It was the era of AOR (album oriented rock) radio -- filled with corporate schlock and fossilized and heavily repeated classics. The PRG and I had known each other since 6th grade, but became good friends when we started working at the same place one summer. Long before any of these people made it on the radio in our part of the world, she introduced me to Elvis Costello, the Police, British new wave pop, and pre-"Purple Rain" Prince. She and I went to concerts, hung out at indie record stores, and watched hours of MTV during Martha Quinn's shifts, because she seemed to play the stuff we liked.
Yes, as one has noted, this isn't really punk rock (although she also introduced me to the Clash and the Sex Pistols), but that's what some old (like 30-ish!) dude at work called her one day, and so that's how I've always thought of her. She was artistic and cool and talented in a million different ways (she used to cut my hair and painted wall murals for a local business). I had a bit of a crush on her, but our outings never seemed to turn into dates.
We ended up going to different high schools (she moved a short distance) and then different towns for college. And I had a girlfriend senior year, who wasn't terribly interested in having me spend a whole lot of time with the PRG seeing shows. So . . .
Since I am too lazy to do a search to see if I have mentioned her before (until now, there was no tag for her, so I am guessing that I have not), here's the short version. It was the era of AOR (album oriented rock) radio -- filled with corporate schlock and fossilized and heavily repeated classics. The PRG and I had known each other since 6th grade, but became good friends when we started working at the same place one summer. Long before any of these people made it on the radio in our part of the world, she introduced me to Elvis Costello, the Police, British new wave pop, and pre-"Purple Rain" Prince. She and I went to concerts, hung out at indie record stores, and watched hours of MTV during Martha Quinn's shifts, because she seemed to play the stuff we liked.
Yes, as one has noted, this isn't really punk rock (although she also introduced me to the Clash and the Sex Pistols), but that's what some old (like 30-ish!) dude at work called her one day, and so that's how I've always thought of her. She was artistic and cool and talented in a million different ways (she used to cut my hair and painted wall murals for a local business). I had a bit of a crush on her, but our outings never seemed to turn into dates.
We ended up going to different high schools (she moved a short distance) and then different towns for college. And I had a girlfriend senior year, who wasn't terribly interested in having me spend a whole lot of time with the PRG seeing shows. So . . .
Monday, November 30, 2009
Don't try to dig what we all say.
The latest post from my imaginary friend Philalawyer (in the latest sign that Western Civilization is swirling around the the great drain of irreversible decline, his book is out in paperback, btw, and is just the perfect stocking stuffer for a young child or your grandmother) -- Books You Might Enjoy Reading, Part I -- mentions one of my favorite books by one of my favorite writers: "Class" by Paul Fussell. In addition to telling Jackson that he is a High Prole by birth, "Class" indirectly gave Jackson and his ilk the moniker of Generation X.
Short version -- in his book, after his semi-serious/semi-tongue in cheek dissection of class in America, Fussell describes the new ideal class, the X class, which will drink Bud from a can while listening to Chopin on a Walkman after having sex in the afternoon. (I paraphrase.) In short, Fussell was talking about a group that would recognize the markers of class and the consciously disregard said markers, and pick and choose the best from each.
Fussell's paean to dope smoking at the polo match with a bong made from my grandmother's Hummel figurines reportedly inspired some Canadian dude to write a book (a book that I will re-read, now that I think about it) and thereby name my juh-juh-juh-generation.
Fussell is also a war hero who detests the glorification of combat, wrote an amazing book about WWI ("The Great War and Modern Memory"), and who (rightfully, in my opinion) defended the use of nuclear bombs to end WWII in "Thank God For The Atom Bomb."
Short version -- in his book, after his semi-serious/semi-tongue in cheek dissection of class in America, Fussell describes the new ideal class, the X class, which will drink Bud from a can while listening to Chopin on a Walkman after having sex in the afternoon. (I paraphrase.) In short, Fussell was talking about a group that would recognize the markers of class and the consciously disregard said markers, and pick and choose the best from each.
Fussell's paean to dope smoking at the polo match with a bong made from my grandmother's Hummel figurines reportedly inspired some Canadian dude to write a book (a book that I will re-read, now that I think about it) and thereby name my juh-juh-juh-generation.
Fussell is also a war hero who detests the glorification of combat, wrote an amazing book about WWI ("The Great War and Modern Memory"), and who (rightfully, in my opinion) defended the use of nuclear bombs to end WWII in "Thank God For The Atom Bomb."
Friday, November 27, 2009
When Black Friday comes
Howdy.
What have I been up to?
1. Well, I had a trial a couple of weeks ago. It was a bit of an unusual case for me in that I was not representing The Man. I won (of course!), though I didn't get the moon and the stars I pleaded for in closing, my eyes filled with tears and my voice thick with outrage. The Man is taking it up on appeal. A waste of time, I think -- the basis they are stating has a very high threshold. Whatever. I fricken beat them.
2. My trusty laptop had an unfortunate encounter with the laws of gravity. Sadly, the is one loss under the law that is Not Appealable. So, I bought a new one via eBay, and am very happy.
3. I had a pretty cool Halloween, which was quite unexpected.
4. Something bad happened. I won't post it here because of outability concerns (remember those?), but it sucked, albeit more for others than it did for me.
At any rate, my Thanksgiving Resolution is to write more, and since this is my outlet to the public (such as my reading public is -- hi, Mom!), this place will -- assuming the resolution is kept -- have a few more posts, which will come a little more often.
What have I been up to?
1. Well, I had a trial a couple of weeks ago. It was a bit of an unusual case for me in that I was not representing The Man. I won (of course!), though I didn't get the moon and the stars I pleaded for in closing, my eyes filled with tears and my voice thick with outrage. The Man is taking it up on appeal. A waste of time, I think -- the basis they are stating has a very high threshold. Whatever. I fricken beat them.
2. My trusty laptop had an unfortunate encounter with the laws of gravity. Sadly, the is one loss under the law that is Not Appealable. So, I bought a new one via eBay, and am very happy.
3. I had a pretty cool Halloween, which was quite unexpected.
4. Something bad happened. I won't post it here because of outability concerns (remember those?), but it sucked, albeit more for others than it did for me.
At any rate, my Thanksgiving Resolution is to write more, and since this is my outlet to the public (such as my reading public is -- hi, Mom!), this place will -- assuming the resolution is kept -- have a few more posts, which will come a little more often.
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