Barking On Command: R.E.M.'s Monster Tour
Inspired by this tweet from Matthew Perpetua, pointing out that R.E.M.’s 1995 Monster tour featured a veritable who’s who of contemporaneous alt music, the first half of the playlist is a grab bag of artist who opened for R.E.M. during that international trek, including Sonic Youth, Radiohead, The Cranberries, Grant Lee Buffalo, PJ Harvey, Blur, Oasis, Sleeper and Belly. The second half is a super-sized representation of R.E.M.’s setlists at the time.
(Yes, I know the shows with PJ Harvey opening were cancelled, and that the Blur and Oasis shows were probably more like co-headlining. Shut up and enjoy the playlist.)
Listen on Apple Music, Spotify, or Last.fm.
Once again, we are obliged to ask, “Who’s defunding who?”
The settlement follows a familiar pattern: Delaware police kill someone, their supervisory authorities dispute any wrongdoing, the victims' family file a lawsuit seeking accountability and the litigation ends with a settlement paid by a municipal insurance provider and a gag order about the case for municipal authorities and family members party to the settlement.
It’s likely costs will be passed along to municipal taxpayers through higher insurance premiums, though that is unclear as of now.
What a six-figure lawsuit settlement after 2022 killing by Milford Police doesn’t tell us
Full marks to Xerxes Wilson for speaking plainly and placing this story in the broader context of state-sponsored violence.
Having a “maybe my favorite R.E.M. album is actually Monster?” kind of evening.
It didn't have to be like this
What purpose does this police action serve? Does this type of police violence keep us safe? Do these incidents aid in establishing trust and respect between the armed agents of the state and those they serve? It doesn’t have to be like this indeed.
Another Day, Another Case of Extreme Police Violence - Rob Vanella
PLEASE read REV on yet ANOTHER incidence of state-sponsored police violence in New Castle County.
If you are local, please come to the next meeting of the New Castle County Police Accountability Board on Tuesday, July 16 at 6:00 pm. There are even virtual options if you’re not local!
Good thing Delaware just legalized raw milk!
As of February, at least 165 people were sickened with salmonella infections tied to raw milk products from Raw Farm, of Fresno, California. It is the largest reported salmonella outbreak linked to raw milk in the U.S. in the past decade, according to health officials.
Dozens were sickened with salmonella after drinking raw milk from a California farm | AP News
Today I learned that Phillies reliever (and newly-minted All Star) Matt Strahm has a Youtube channel called Strahm’s Stadium Pulls that features him opening packs of baseball cards, and is extremely wholesome content.
Finished reading: Heavier Than Heaven by Charles R. Cross 📚
I came away respecting Cobain’s artistry more than ever, and understanding the true raw power of Nirvana at their peak in a way I had never appreciated before.
Cross retells the Cobain story in a fresh way, using his unprecedented access to nearly everyone in Cobain’s life and his own experience as a contemporaneous member of the Seattle music scene, to recontextualize the bits we’ve all heard with new sources, new angles, and new insights.
Highly, highly recommended.
Gotta love an establishment that hangs a reproduction of Guernica above the toilet.
I am also dependably engaged from 10am to 4pm, but more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued outside of that time range or while traveling abroad, so I really don’t see how this is an issue.
I respect Ted Leo for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that he’s his own guitar tech.
Squarespace’s Events feature has to win the award for “Most Unhinged UI Element, Time Picker.” Behold:
All Under Heaven’s debut album is out today, and it’s a banger. Strongly, strongly recommended if you like Hum, my bloody valentine, Slowdive, Lush, etc.
The overall effect size for police force size on crime is negative, small, and not statistically significant.
Police are not primarily crime fighters, according to the data | Reuters
At this point, the sensible, evidence-backed, research-based policy position is that the most efficient way to “fight crime” is to improve the material conditions of people by housing the homeless and guaranteeing a universal basic income.
Any position that suggests more investment in law enforcement is either unaware of the prevailing facts, or willfully ignoring them.
MLB is “essentially in the business of content creation for the gambling industry now."
Breaking down the Shohei Ohtani-Ippei Mizuhara story by Craig Calcaterra
This captures the dynamic of all major sports in 2024. They’ve all mostly existed to create content for the television industry for decades, but this pivot that subjugates coverage of the actual sport to “how does this affect the spread” has been particularly painful.
Git is the closest thing we have to software from the future. I wrote Minimalist Git because I’ve seen too many developers get lost in its advanced features and I wanted to show there is a simpler way to be productive and keep your codebase safe.
Minimalist git by Ben Garvey
A great reminder that while git is extremely powerful, you can do most of what you need with a handful of commands.
Bookmarked Why Wall Street Won’t Stop Trump by .
“Woke capital” is a myth, a shallow analysis that mistakes advertising and brand management for ideology. What do corporations really want? The answer is the same as it’s always been: tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and a labor market more favorable to employers than to workers.
Bookmarked Jobs for Delaware Legislators by .
Delaware tolerates a General Assembly with an ethics crisis which rivals our national Supreme Court… Speaker of the House Valerie Longhurst’s PAL has benefited from a 1300% increase in public appropriations under her tenure.
Bookmarked Fluxblog 455: good night to the Pitchfork era by .
Media corporations are not our friends. They don’t care about writers, they don’t care about audiences, and they don’t care about subject matter. Working for them is like surfing – you can ride a wave for a while but it will eventually crash. Major media corporations like Condé Nast and the New York Times are attractive to writers because they seem like firm institutions that are less likely to collapse, but that’s just an illusion.
Bookmarked Delaware lawmakers are headed back to Dover. Here’s what they’re focusing on in 2024 by .
Senate Republicans argue that Delaware’s bail reform bill passed in 2018 has “resulted in high recidivism” – a criticism that Republicans across the country have used in recent years as states moved away from cash bail.
However, the data doesn’t back up that claim. In fact, the “return to prison” rate has declined 60% since 2019, according to data from the state Department of Justice.
Do you see how easy this is? You don’t simply have to parrot things that are inaccurate, just because an elected official says them. Thank you, Amanda.
I get mail sometimes.
