danajohnhill.org

Summer is officially here, and with it brutally hot temperatures.  The last week has seen near-record heat.  I almost passed out on my bike ride to work yesterday.  I enjoy getting the exercise, but arriving at work dripping with sweat is unpleasant.  Today was over 96 degrees, and tomorrow will probably be about the same.  A year ago today I was at Wrigley Field, enjoying temperatures in the 70s.

So, Coors (the company that wrote me a letter claiming Kid Rock is an “American hero”) is now advertising their new “Cold Activated Can”:

Coors Light is giving adult consumers a way of knowing when their beer is at the ultimate drinking temperature with the debut of the brand’s Cold Activated Can in a 24 fluid-ounce container. Thermochromatic ink turns the mountains blue when the beer is cold enough to drink. The company was the first U.S. beer brand to offer this type of product with the debut of Coors Light and Coors Cold Activated Bottles….

I have an equally effective technique for determining when my beverage is at the “ultimate drinking temperature”:  I touch it with my hand.

I follow a number of photographers’ streams on Flickr, the website where I keep tens of thousands of my own photographs.  I have met none of these photographers in person, though one, whose Flickr name is Gato Ranch, lives in north central Florida.  She has many pictures of nature and bands.

On her stream today, Gato Ranch, whose real name is Jana, posted something that I found disturbing.  The Gainesville Sun has taken one of her photographs, and, without her permission, posted it on their webpage in conjunction with a story.  Worse still, in spite of the fact that the stolen picture had her real name and a copyright symbol, the Sun gave her no credit, and posted a link for readers to buy the image.  From them!  It is the most blatant copyright violation I’ve ever seen.

Jana tells me that she notified the Gainesville Sun of their violation, but this isn’t the first time they have done this to her, so one must assume that this is par for the course with them.  She doesn’t believe that they copied the picture from Flickr, but from MySpace, which explains the low resolution.

I’ve never thought much of the Gainesville Sun.  In fact, I have a hate-hate relationship with that paper.  They publish unsolicited Craigslist-style rants in their letters section, which I feel violates all standards of journalism; they have been adversarial in their coverage of WUFT-FM, where I work; they have misquoted me in articles, and acted offended when I alerted them to that fact.  They are simply a bad newspaper.  Now I see they are also criminals.

Shame on you, Gainesville Sun.

So, I have a polite request for anyone who reads the Sun online:  if you ever see any photographs you recognize as mine, please let me know.  If it can happen to Jana, it can happen to me.

Robert Kagan has a column in the Washington Post today criticizing President Obama for not publicly encouraging the supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who have been in the streets of Tehran for days now, protesting the results of the (almost certainly rigged) recent election.  Kagan argues that Obama’s Iran strategy, which, in stark contrast to Bush’s policy, involves direct talks with the government there, means that the president wants the protesters to give up, and for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to simply be acknowledged as the winner, fraud or no fraud.

This is patently absurd.  I can almost guarantee you that the Obama administration would have very much preferred a Mousavi victory.  But what good would it do to trumpet that preference at this point?  None.  The United States has no ability whatever to demand a recount or a do-over.  And to officially declare that Ahmadinejad is a cheater will only make things worse for us if the forces within Iran–the only ones who can do anything to change this–do not succeed in overturning the sham election.  What chance would we have to discourage the pursuit of nuclear weapons by Iran if their president thinks we’re against him personally.

As always, an argument as foolish as Kagan’s comes complete with an intentional misinterpretation of history:

Supporters of President Obama, who until very recently had railed against the Bush administration’s “freedom agenda” and who insisted on a new “realism,” have suddenly found themselves rooting for freedom and democracy in Iran.

Supporters of President Obama–let’s say liberals in general–didn’t ever oppose “freedom and democracy”.  They opposed the military invasion of a sovereign nation that had no weapons of mass destruction or connection to 9/11 at a time we were fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and could not afford to redirect those resources.

Liberals are not contradicting themselves as Kagan would like you to believe.  He’s lying, and I’m sure he knows it.  In any case, I shouldn’t expect any better from the man who co-founded the Project for the New American Century, and who pals around with Bill Kristol.

My attitude toward most popular music created since 1988 can be best described as disdain.  I haven’t heard every record released, of course, and I don’t doubt that many fine songs and performers have missed getting my attention.  But so much of what excites others leaves me ambivalent.  I seldom hear anything special. Perhaps this is because that music lacks context for me.  I am, after all, entirely disinterested in “the scene”.  Any music associated with a distinct social group will, when stripped of that context, strike me as irrelevant or even pointless.  Thus, dance, emo, punk, shoegaze, and other genres inextricably linked to a “scene” leave me cold.

But, last month I made a rare nighttime outing, and braved the scene to see a band that shows astonishing promise, and whose songs have been echoing in my head since: Bombadil, from North Carolina.

Miriam saw them last summer at a music festival in Gainesville, and she spoke very well of them.  I heard a few songs on their MySpace page, and they seemed good enough that I was interested in seeing them myself.  But in a disaster which I’d rather not think about ever again, we missed seeing them on their next Gainesville visit, when they played at the Orange and Brew, a small, but clean, smoke-free venue at the Reitz Union.  It was distressing, to say the least.

Months passed, and I waited for word that Bombadil would again venture south.  Finally, in March or so, I noticed some Florida dates scheduled on their webpage.  Orlando, Tampa, etc., but no Gainesville.  I wrote to the band to ask if they might consider adding a Gainesville show.  James, the drummer, soon wrote me back to say that, indeed, they were adding a stop at 1982 (a bar in the same building once occupied by Common Grounds, which has moved to SW 2nd Avenue).  I was glad to hear it.

I always worry a bit that the band I’m present to see will play last, requiring me to stay past midnight.  But, upon arrival, I was delighted to see that 1982 had a sign right inside the door showing what times the bands would play.  Bombadil was listed second, and would start at a reasonable 9:45 or so.  I chatted with the members of the band before hand, as they were unloading their van.  James remembered that I had written to them.

Sara, Mark and Laura had come with us, and since we had a little time before Bombadil would start, we went down to Mother’s Pub and got some food.  The place is a dive, but I kind of liked it.

Once we got back to 1982, and the show began, I was transfixed.  Bombadil is a whimsical, captivating band.  Their songs were instantly catchy and memorable, and their arrangements were inventive, with the guitarist frequently switching between acoustic and electric instruments, and the bass player repeatedly moving to electric piano.  The drummer played a large recorder.  When the set ended a mere twenty minutes later, I was sad.

Afterward, when I spoke again to members of the band, James gave me a copy of their new CD, due to be released in July.  A couple days later I got a chance to listen to it.  It is the best album I’ve heard in a decade.  A review is forthcoming.