The Senate gave its anti-Ecstacy bill the acronym R.A.V.E.. Are they H.I.P. or what? Probably not. I bet they were thinking of F.I.S.T. or C.H.U.D. when they did it. Fortunately, the A.C.L.U. is getting involved: "[the ACLU attorney] argues that while there is no constitutional right to smoke crack, there is, in fact, a right to dance. Music and dance are protected forms of free expression, he said. By extending the crack house law to dance parties, the RAVE Act would discourage promoters from sponsoring this kind of art, he said."

(quoted from the Washington Post article)

Here's the petition to which the article refers. The Electronic Music Defense and Education Foundation ("EM:DEF") is trying to defend "innocent professionals in the electronic dance music business" victimized by The War on Club Drugs--here is their page opposing the Senate bill. The ACLU steps in again to oppose a California state bill, and once again helps to protect the rights of ravers.

Now here I am making a big fuss about ravers, when my buddy Sean Kelly hates them so much. And I should say that I like a lot of electronic music, but I have never been into the rave scene (and the stuff I like is not generally the type played at raves). Still I consider them an important sub-culture and they are citizens of the U.S.A which used to mean something. *weep*!

I'd like to take this moment to recommend to you the SF Gate Morning Fix email newsletter by Mark Morford. A blatant warping of all of the news that is fit to warp by already being warped already in regard at least to all that should be right in the world, as MM sees that it should be and is glad to tell us. I won't go into a long and poetic gesture at encapsulating his style (in some cases "writing about writing" can be as silly as "dancing about architecture" [btw, here's a fascinating page that I just found on the search for the proper attribution of that quote], but merely point you to the archives/sign-up page which has a couple choice quotes. Suffice to say he has a viewpoint that I think well represents and will tend to delight the intelligent cynical San Francisco resident who would really like to be an optimist if the world didn't suck so bad. He also likes lube. It's Politically Incorrect meets The Daily Show at News-of-the-Weird's house, and there's a sex columnist moonlighting as Cultural Weather Man. And he's not a fan of Dick Cheney. I'm doing it, aren't I? I'm just going to link to the archives again.

The Morning Fix comes out 3 times a week and is waaaaay to long to read all of everytime. But whenever you focus on it, it will bring you joy.

Today he asks Why Is No One Talking About The Walking Meat-Eating Fish? referring to a a very real newswire story about a carnivorous fish from China that has been released in a pond in Maryland. There were two of them 2 years ago, now there are at least 100. It wouldn't be so much a concern if they weren't cable of [walking] short distances on their fins in search of food. Morford also points in today's installment to an article on the Phil Donoahue's new TV show, which I feel like doing, too. Morford is not related to Morford, so far as I know, but I'm sure the conversations, if they ever had any, would be fascinating.

Ever wonder what's in Steve Martin's art collection?

Checkout my Dadafest performance!

DADAfest went fantastically well over the weekend! More on this hot issue soon, including a few mp3s of what I did for it.

Just a crazy little post about how DADAFEST is going on this weekend--I'm performing and I made collages which are up in the gallery. Also there's a play at The EXIT theater running this month which is based on the life of one of the only women in the original Dada scene Elsa von-Freytag Loringhoven
(whom I first discovered in an amazing anthology by Jerome Rothenberg which also included Jackson Mac Low and the cubist poems of Kenneth Rexroth amongst many others. an incredible anthology, I'll link it later). The play is a solo show performed by Christina who is the EXIT's artistic director. The show runs all month on Friday nights. Here's a review.

Wow. I just found out where the New York Dolls got their name!!! Thank you memepool!

yeah, you need more accounts of 9/11.

But it's impossible to resist reading them, isn't it? It's like pressing on the bruise, it's like listening to Smiths songs when your already depressed, reading her love letters after you've broken up, sticking your neck out the window golden retriever style to see the subject of the ambulance's flashing light. I'm not quite being flippant here, in fact I'm being a bit confessional--I have a post 9/11 condition myself, of news-addiction. I flinch briefly before checking the news sources several times each day. First thing in the morning is usually the worst, or when I've been away from it for a while. Checking multiple sources is almost requisite (one might be missing it, maybe it just happened). Things like the LAX shooting are darkly pleasing fulfillments of that wannabe psychic impulse that made me check the news just... THEN. Like hitting re-load to see if the headline has changed and something traumatic has occurred. NOW! no. NOW! no....

Anyway, it's not as bad as last fall. I was out of the country when it happened, so I was news-deprived and language-challenged as far as keeping up with developments. The International Herald Tribune was a godsend, btw. I believe that in the future they will call this nervous news-minding something and cite statistics on it. For now I'm just a dork.