Blogging on Meds

This should add a little spice to the Olympics:

The Frenchman Frederick Bousquet said, “I talked to my coach, and he said the ideal position for us was to finish second behind the U.S. and they beat the world record and they come in as favorites tomorrow and tomorrow morning we take all that they have.”

“The Americans?” Bernard recently told the sports newspaper L’Equipe, “We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came for.”

Bousquet looked at members of the United States team in the ready room Sunday and saw a few cracks. “They didn’t look at us, although usually they do,” he said. “We could sense that they were a little bit afraid.”

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The pink bus to the pink hotel. Two guys you’ve all known forever: Sean Dorsey and Gabe Banner party in AC…pics c/o Lindsay Boivert

Gawker and New York Magazine’s Grub Street picked up my way too over-the-top recollection of a bus trip to Atlantic City for the opening of the Beatrice Inn’s new hotel venture, The Chelsea. Big thanks to both, and to whoever tipped Gawker off.

Gawker called me “nightlife dude,” which works I guess (way better than “nightlife douche”). All this stuff about Gawker always going after people is not neccassarily true. Consider: They could’ve easily shredded me for the AC piece. It was overwrought, dumb, filled with tons of stupid inside jokes, and more than a little arrogant. But they held back. This is the third or fourth time Gawker’s been more than fair with some retarded post of mine. We broke some Chris Matthews bullshit a few months ago and were really unprofessional when the story hit, pulling it offline and not releasing a statement for days. But they fact-checked and were patient and ultimately as professional as any media outlet I’ve ever dealt with. The hype on them as unconscionable vultures is bullshit.

Here’s the Grub Street post:

Beatrice Team Creates Nowness, Newness in Atlantic City

Blogging on Meds recounts a heavily, well, “medicated” press trip to the Chelsea (the Beatrice Inn team’s new project) a couple of weekends ago. The write-up starts with “You get the bus driver high as he wheels around the city picking up everyone you ever met, ever” and goes on from there, and while it isn’t quite poetic enough to be Fear and Loathing in Atlantic City, it sure does mention drugs a lot. “People yell, hug, scream, sing songs, make out, do drugs, smoke hash and weed, all the good stuff — and you’re still on the bus. You love that the Beatrice party ethic isn’t irony based like the BK/LES scenes, nor is it status based like the Meatpacking or Chelsea (how else do you explain your loser-ass riding on this bus).” Blogging on Meds thinks AC and the Chelsea might just be the next big thing: “What works for The Chelsea and Team Beatrice is their collective now-ness. No amount of sentimentality or metaphor can be used to capture that nowness, the newness. It’s this very urgency that makes you think The Chelsea could indeed set a precedent and create a new weekend spot for downtown’s kids.” Sounds kind of like riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave, as HST would’ve put it. Then again, maybe it’s just the weed talking.

The funny thing is, I kind of hate Hunter S Thompson. Fear and Loathing 72 is a great book, but this is a guy who had endless talent and wound up wasting it (whereas I have no talent). Nothing sums up Hunter’s decline better than his trip to Vietnam in 74. The fall of Saigon; Cambodia about to hit Year Zero. Where’s Hunter? Running to US Embassy with a cooler full of beer, ignoring history to protect his own (in)sanity. As much fun as it is to party, loathe, and write about it, that stuff doesn’t matter. When given the chance to report on his generation’s biggest story—Nam—Hunter cracked. That’s why I’ll take one Bright Shining Lie over thirty Fear and Loathings…

Also, I wrote the Beatrice piece as a kind of dual satire. It was written in second person ala Bright Lights, Big City, because you can’t write about NY partying without homage to Jay McInerney. And you especially can’t write about the Sevingy clan without it. McInerney was the one who dubbed Chloe “It Girl” in 1994 a 7000-word New Yorker story. Second, I co-wrote a book, Babylon By Bus (Penguin Press 2006), about a bus ride into Baghdad that, as one would expect, went horribly wrong. So satirical bus rides are my shiite.

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Papelbon takes it easy. JD Drew, ASG MVP, hits 7th inning homer.

Best All Star Week Ever? ASG in Review

On Monday night I sat in Yankee Stadium’s right field lower deck, two rows back from the foul pole, just barely in fair territory. Great seats for a Home Run Derby. And a perfect vantage for watching Josh Hamilton’s dingers fly during his record breaking first round. By home run number 12, all 55,000 Bronx fans chanted “Hamilton, Hamilton!” Corny as it sounds, the chills were a-goose-bumpin. When he railed like 13 straight with 7 outs, most to the upper deck or deep into the bleachers, my awe-factor reached boner status. Ending with a dead center shot, Hamilton’s 28 homers broke Bobby Abreu’s record of 24 and earned him a long standing ovation and place in Yankee lore (barf).

It was my fourth or fifth time at the Toilet this year. On previous visits, as much as I tried to get nostalgic for The House That a Bad Trade Built, it never hit me—until Hamilton. Seeing an entire stadium—the biggest in the majors—packed with baseball nuts on their feet cheering for some guy who spent his early 20s smoking crack was beautiful. I’m hardly a mystical, metaphoric baseball fan (it’s just a game), but I love communal energy focused on pure athletic power and talent.

This was my second Derby. Back in 99, I was at the Home Run Derby in Boston. Then, Mark McGuire hit 13 homers in the first round, a record, some of which flew above the old Green Monster Coke bottles to heights still unmatched in Fenway history. Like Hamilton, McGuire lost the Derby (to Ken Griffey Jr). Like Hamilton, McGuire’s performance legitimized the Derby, making it more than just a dunk contest or some dumb spectacle. When a guy like an Ortiz or Abreu goes on a Derby tear, it becomes a once-in-a-lifetime oppurtunity to see the hardest feat in sports at the highest level.

Yesterday I went up the All Star parade on 6th Ave in Midtown. Arriving late, and finding it sparsely attended, I missed A Rod and Jeter, but caught JD Drew and Captain Tek sitting together in the back of a Chevy truck (official MLB sponsor). The fifty people on the corner of 57th barely booed, but boo they did. Mo Rivera drove by wearing the worst brown-on-brown biz casual/Latin yuppie outfit.

Then Josh Hamilton came by and was given the best non-Yankee response. Doing his best Tom Brady, Hamilton, in a white shirt tucked into chinos, was all humble smiles. The “Josh” chants, overwhelming cheers, and so many happy onlookers (”That’s him!” screamed a girl in a sundress to another, who responded, “The cokehead who hit all those home runs last night! He’s hot!”) made me realize this guy’s about to score some big time endorsement deals. You don’t come to New York and steal the spotlight without Madison Ave noticing. Look for a Hamilton NIKE deal by week’s end.

When the most hated man in NYC, Jon Papelbon, rolled by in a grey suit and tie, he flicked off the crowd with a World Series ring. (Love it.) Boos and “faggot” chants came in response. Pap’s comments the day prior to reporters, saying him not Mo Rivera should close the ASG, were plastered with a “Papelbum” headline on the back of the day’s Daily News. He later blamed the News for blowing up a non-story, “My wife was really upset. We got threats, everything. I wish I hadn’t taken her.”

I don’t know why, but before every All Star Game people always say, “I only care about the first two innings. These game’s usually suck.” Except they don’t. And last night was maybe the greatest ASG ever. 15 innings. 7 Red Sox. 4 Yankees. 34 strikeouts. 3-3 tie for seven innings. An amazing 11th inning . JD Drew hit a 7th inning game tieing two-run shot and the whole Stadium cheered—for a Red Sox! Obviously, The Rivalry was the true star (Jeter-A Rod/Pedroia-Youk starting infield, the Papelbon-Mo closer beef, Terry managing at the Stadium) even if ESPN and the Steinbrenners want you to believe the Stadium was.

On ESPN Derek Jeter said New York has the “Most intelligent fans in all of sports. They pay attention to detail here.” Incorrect. Boston has more knowledgeable fans. I’ve been to The Stadium enough to know that Yankee fans don’t pay attention to nearly as much Sox fans do. In Boston, the Red Sox are all people have. New Yorkers actually have lives outside baseball.

I’m not too familiar with New York Mag’s new sportswriter, Will Leitch, but he totally misses the beauty of last night’s game by focusing on the scene at the Stadium:

It is a unique quality of baseball that an event can hold such magnitude that the best tickets are running nearly $10,000 … and then, just four hours later, those same people are leaving before they know who wins. Yankee Stadium looked pretty last night, but it wasn’t an epic sendoff of the old bird. In fact, people couldn’t wait to leave. Considering the sorry lot of the Yankees this year, it’s more than likely this will be the stadium’s last night in the national spotlight. Fox’s last shot? The box seats, nearly empty. “This time it counts.” Obviously, no, it doesn’t.

First off, the assholes paying $10k for tickets are just that—assholes. All Star Games aren’t filled with average baseball fans. They draw show-offs and rich guys trying to impress chicks, especially in the expensive seats.

But really, all the baseball fans I know (mostly AL East maniacs) were texting about this game right up until 2am. No one said, “Please end this.” Rather, I read “Best game,” “Holy shit,” “Am I rooting for or against Mo here,” etc. Some fans I know even went out to celebrate post-game. That’s right folks, an impromptu party for an All Star Game AL win was held at a downtown sleaze den.

To the players and real fans, last night’s game counted. If you think Terry Francona, whose team is in first place, doesn’t want home field advantage for the World Series, you’re high. The game features all the best players in the league, and no one wants to get showed up, especially the young guys from small market teams making a national appearances for the first time—in New York of all places! There were thirty f–king four strikeouts against the best hitters in baseball! These guys weren’t playing an exhibition game (certainly had no meatball tossing like to Cal Ripken back in 01). These guys were playing to win, playing like it counted, because it did.

And finally, what of A Rod, the most amazing human ever? The guy didn’t do much at the game, but he did throw a funny, weird sounding party at 40/40: 

Instead, his mommy, Lourdes, and his new best friends, Guy Oseary and Ingrid Casares, were by his side in a corner booth as he threw back shots. And Casares was then spotted leaving A-Rod’s Park Avenue pad yesterday afternoon.

Reps from Berk Communications, who’d slapped Madonna’s name on their tip sheet for the event, kept insisting she was on her way, but she never showed. Instead, A-Rod was entertained by big-busted hotties who shimmied to Material Girl tunes and desperately tried to make eye contact with him.

Overall, the ASG NYC energized the city and made me happy to live in a baseball-mad town even if I hate both teams that play here. The Derby was record breaking. The gossip and shit talking unprecedented. And the game was the best ever. Now, bring on the second half!

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Last night former first round draft pick Josh Hamilton hit a record 28 home runs in the first round of the MLB All Star Game Home Run Derby breaking Bobby Abreu’s record. Hamilton had a break out season last year with the CIncinnati Reds hitting .292 and swatting 19 home runs before being traded in the off season to the Texas Rangers.

Hamilton’s well documented battle with drug and alcohol addiction lead to eight trips to rehab and a temporary ban from the major leagues. Since being drafted by Tampa Bay right out of high school he’s fought his was back and was rewarded with his first All Star appearance at age 27. Despite actually losing the contest to the Twins’ Justin Morneau he’s become and amazing story about battling addiction but there is an inaccuracy in every article stating that he’s a former heroin addict.

I too thought Hamilton was once addicted to Heroin as I texted back and forth during the contest : “Damn,  a dude who was on Ron Ron is killing it” and “Hamilton has an ill her-ron flow! R U watching this?”. (Yes I text like a 14 year old girl, I watch Gossip Girl too)

Something didn’t make sense to me though. I had a tough time believing that Josh was a heroin junkie. All the former junkies I knew did three things :

1. Talk about how long they’ve been clean before going into some sexy tale of addiction with a 10 carat twinkle in their eye.

2. Make the worst music of their career, usually country or folk influenced with songs about children.

3. The most productive and noble and path least traveled, help other addicts recover. This one is tough because you’re forced to be around what almost destroyed you, help people who probably don’t want help and everyone who kicks heroin smokes like a thousand cigarettes so you’re probably going to die from second hand smoke.

I looked around for pictures of Josh Hamilton with his shirt off to see if he had that leathery Iggy Pop/Anthony Kiedis thing going down but no dice, in fact in all my searching I only found him talking about his former addictions to alcohol and crack cocaine. That’s right  like Tyrone Biggums, Josh smoked rocks but didn’t boot Ronzo.

Now it all makes sense. I could see Josh and his flame tattoos roasting a rock, getting aggro and smashing shit with a bat but I couldn’t picture his goatee junked out on a couch with the lock groove of a record skipping while he stared at the ceiling. So people, get that fucking shit right! My man over came an addition to the white stuff, that cooked crack, not heroin. It’s still and amazing story, I’m still stoked for him, and the performance brought a tear to my eye.

Applaud Josh Hamilton getting his shit together for himself and his family and breaking a record held by a guy who looks like he’s always getting an allergic reaction but don’t call him a junkie.

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Left, pic by Geoff Kenyon

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader spoke today about presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Nader accused Obama of “talking white” and being “corporate.” Despite his causing of Gore to lose in 2000, I generally like Nader. I’m gonna pull the quotes from the Denver Rocky Morning News, who conducted the interview, and go through them:

“There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” Nader said. “Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.”

“I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law,” Nader said. “Haven’t heard a thing.”

“He wants to show that he is not a threatening . . . another politically threatening African-American politician,” Nader said. “He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as black is beautiful, black is powerful. Basically he’s coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it’s corporate or whether it’s simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.”

Nader is little off here. Remember Obama’s Philly race speech? In it, Obama said (with a Faulkner quote to boot):

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

Nice try Nader. While it’s true that Obama has not made the plight of the poor his top campaign priority (that was Edwards’ theme and he lost—fast), he did in fact address it in the best speech of 2008.

Obama’s historic race speech is not to be taken lightly. He said things no major American presidentail candidate has ever said. And I believe once in office there’s no way he can ignore black America, as it will make up one his largest constiuentcies. Strategically, he needs to court the middle now—the left is already with him.

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When will John McCain reject and denounce Clayton Williams? Williams just raised over $300,000 in contributions for McCain. Williams is the same guy who, while running for governor of Texas in 1990 (he lost to Ann Richards), once said that women being raped should just, you know, relax:

“As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”

Classy guy. McCain’s camp said the remarks were “offensive,” but they’re going to keep the money anyway, because they had no idea Williams had ever said that. Right. What Williams said is apparently such an obscure fact that it took crack reporters all of five minutes to discover his attitude towards women. McCain’s other defense for keeping the money is that the people who donated money wanted to help his campaign, and it wasn’t like Williams gave the campaign $300,000. True, but would McCain have ever gotten his hands on that $300,000 without Williams? Perhaps. What we do know is that McCain is happy to cancel a fundraiser at Clayton’s house after being questioned by the media because he doesn’t want to get knee-deep in this mess, but he’s also perfectly happy to take $300,000 from a misogynist who thinks that rape can maybe be fun for women.

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Gore threw his weight behind Obama earlier tonight, and he told the crowd in Michigan: “Take it from me — elections matter.”

He cracked two great jokes, and they both played on the theme of the importance of this election and the need for change, by rattling off a number of areas where Bush administration policy, or lack thereof, hurt America. Here’s an example (a not so funny one):

“If you live in New Orleans, you know that elections matter.”

 You get the idea. He listed off a bunch of examples, and then he said:

“If you want the ‘T’ in your BLT, you know that elections matter.” Nice. Then, after using the example of contaminated pet food, he said:

“Even our dogs and cats now know that elections matter.” Priceless.

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Safe money bets, the coalition will be saved…

Hassan Chop, a Med A writer who is at work and cannot access the blogging software, writes:

Nawaz Sharif and Zardari had recently agreed to push back the date for the restoration of the deposed judges to May 12th, but since they couldn’t agree on the elements of the plan by today, Sharif just announced that his party’s ministers will quit the cabinet.

It seems that they’re also leaving the coalition, but that’s a little unclear at the moment, since Shahbaz Sharif, Nawaz’s brother, said that “We will support the government issue by issue - we will not let the government destabilize.” Whatever the case, this move could draw the PPP into a pact with Musharraf’s “King’s Party,” the PML(Q).

The PPP has suggested that the only real disagreement is about how to restore the judges, not whether or not they should be restored. They’re saying that there’s some legal wrangling over the issues, but they’re hopeful that those will be resolved soon. Of course, the real issue here for Zardari is that if the sacked Supreme Court judges are reinstated, they could start proceedings against Musharraf, and his removal would only strengthen Nawaz Sharif and his party, who have taken on the mantle of judicial independence (nevermind the irony that Sharif’s goons rushed the Supreme Court when he was Prime Minister). Zardari’s likely worried about Sharif angling for another shot at the PM spot.

The PPP is apparently also worried that restoring the sacked judges would set up a conflict with Musharraf, as the current Supreme Court could ask Musharraf and the Army to protect it, which could lead to parliament getting tossed.

Personally, I think that it’s unlikely that Musharraf would sack parliament, as this would almost certainly lead to more national unrest, and he’s still in a weakened position. Whatever Zardari is thinking, he needs to find a solution fast. Aligning with Musharraf’s party, which just got crushed in the national election, is hardly a good idea. In my opinion, such a move would only invite a public backlash, and weaken the PPP in the long-run. The editioral board of The News seems to agree, but still, others think that the PPP will still be “comfortably in power.”

After facing the world’s condemnation (except from the US) following his November “emgency plus” declaration, and being humiliated during the election, Musharraf has to be sitting back and smiling today.

Meanwhile, there are reports of a new crackdown on the media afoot.

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Ya know, I was watching this video this morning and started laughing aloud at yet another double standard shoved down my throat this Mother’s day.
Michelle Duggar, the evangelical white talking vagina, is getting more air time and compliments for her amazing ability to parent and all her accomplishments as a mother.

I would just like to point out, if this lady wasn’t white, the story would have had a totally different angle. The ahhs would become ewws. If a Mexican woman has, lets say for example, 8 children like my gramma Bustos, she gets treated like a pimple on the ass of society.
This wacko has been pregnant 11 years of her life and she’s getting a television show! White people cracker me up.

So, let me just clarify for everyone before you get knocked up…
-As Anthony stated previously in his post, pregnant teens are fine as long as you are white. If not, surely your evil spawn will return to rob us one day. (as Chris Rock would say)
-Having ridiculous amounts of children is totally fine as long as you are both white and a Christian. If not, you are a total burden to society and further justify the stereotypes that have been placed on your race by white people.
-Taking handouts and receiving assistance from various media and religious outlets is fine as long as, you guessed it, you’re white and a Christian. You deserve help and all the people that go to your church and live within your community are more than happy to help you! If you aren’t, you are a lazy bum who is working the system and should be deported back to Africa, Mexico, etc. before your children, who’s futures are obviously not worth investing in, grow up and begin to rape and pillage as you have.

So basically, fuck the Today Show and props to ALL the Mothers out there making it happen, usually alone, day in and day out all over this country.

Happy Mothers Day to my Mom, Valene Bustos-Mathews…
A woman who wouldn’t settle for the stereotypes. A beautiful, strong, educated woman that has given life and love as her true legacy on this planet. You are my hero and I’m so proud to be your daughter.

To all the Mommies out there, makin ends meet, thank you for all your hard work and your unconditional love.
-My Best Friend Leah Suval
-My Cousin Noel Maria
-All my Tia’s and my Grams

Please feel free to give a shot out the amazing woman in your life.

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The Philly debate and the GOP attack ads that followed.

One Thing PA Changed: The Media’s Love Affair with Obama is Over.

Last Wednesday during the first half of the ABC debate, Obama sparred with Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos over his character and electability. Obama came off as glib and annoyed.

The next day, Obama’s campaign and his supporters attacked ABC’s line of questioning, which they felt unfair. True, the entire first half of the debate was policy free; economy and Iraq questions should have been asked.

But the “electability” issue is a real one. The media was offended by the debate’s fallout. They considered it an overblown outrage towards a legitimate question: Is a black guy with a sketchy pastor, who thinks some whites are bitter, and who hangs with 60’s terrorists able to win in November?

I wondered last Thursday if Obama had lost the national media. But I knew that only after the PA primary, and only if Obama lost by a wide margin, would we see the results. Well, the results are in. Obama has indeed lost the media.

Since the debate, op-ed pages have simmered with Obama dissing. When even Bob Herbert, the resident black man at The Times, is complaing of “hollow rhetoric,” you know you have a problem. Both David Brooks and Maureen Dowd, previously Obama cheerleaders, have unsheathed their cleavers. Today, most major oped pages—NYT, WaPost, BosGlobe—question Obama’s candidacy in ways unseen before the debate.

The LAT takes the cake, leading with a “New Republican ads target Obama — and make Democrats fret” story. Looks like the electability issue ABC was hammering away at is real:

As they promote their candidates and try to pave the way for GOP victories this year, Republicans have begun making their case to voters in advertisements featuring a new star: Barack Obama.

In North Carolina, a TV ad shows Obama’s former pastor making racially charged comments. An Internet ad attacks a Pennsylvania congressman for endorsing Obama’s presidential bid. A New Mexico radio ad says Obama disrespects “the American way of life.”

The ads also are playing into a debate among Democratic officials about Obama’s electability in November. GOP strategists said the negative six-week campaign in Pennsylvania produced reams of material that, for the first time, laid out for them a clear pathway for attacking Obama. They pointed to the much-publicized sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Obama’s pastor of 20 years; his past association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers; and the senator’s own statement at a San Francisco-area fundraiser that “bitter” people in small towns “cling” to faith, guns and anti-immigrant sentiments.

Note those three issues (Wright, bittergate, Weather U) were at the top of ABC’s questioning. So was ABC really out of line? Obama is going to have answer these questions all year—ABC was just the first to ask them. “Electability” is the campaign’s main issue now, so if anything ABC was ahead of the curve.

Obama’s visible annoyance during the debate, combined with his campaign and supporters’ over-reaction, is yet another example of a rookie mistake. Why didn’t Obama make light of all these unimportant questions about faith and flag—crack a joke, laugh at that idiotic flag woman? Why did he let surrogates run wild and attack ABC afterwards? Why pick a fight with the media, who’ve largely offered positive coverage?

Obama’s been on a slow dive since early March. He ought to shake up his campaign a bit, re-write his stump speech (I never want to hear the Dick Cheney’s my cousin joke again), and start outlining real policy proposals. This week the New Republic, Obama’s house organ, runs a million word piece about Obama’s Iraq plan being a lie. If Obama is truly above “old politics,” he’ll take this chance to ignore the gossip and petty personality/character talk and move issues—especially that little war in Iraq—back to the center of the race.

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The Warfield is in an awesome neighborhood. By awesome, I mean its littered with crack heads, beggars and crazies. It’s right next to a strip club and right around the corner there’s actually a decent restaurant. We started there, had a few drinks and walked over. The Warfield is also a pretty mellow place… you feel safe of persecution just in case you end up being a total fucking idiot in pursuit of a great time. There’s plenty of bars selling a variety of beers and the room is a generally simple layout with every seat being pretty good. The crowd was a reminder that we are getting old. We’re thirty somethings. I see less and less shaggy hair every time I come out to a show like this. Male pattern baldness is a bitch. Luckily one need not to sport a mane to rock the Clarks Wallabies. So predictable but what fucking ever. Richard Ascroft is our hero, so the least we can do is respect his uniform.

(large tan left footed Wallabie, front and center)

We had general admission tickets. Right on the floor which we’d normally call the pit… if The Verve was a hardcore band. Thankfully those who’d once enjoyed a hardcore show or too were there also, friendly faces from which to sway shoulder to shoulder with. (Those there know the full story - Pete, maybe not.)

My favorite feature of certain adult shows like this one is NO OPENING BAND. Who gives a shit about some dumb emerging band that was pushed onto the bill from some major label crap? I don’t, you don’t and quite frankly, you probably have a job to go to in the morning so you wanna get on with it. I assumed I’d be, as I was, a little drunk and work in the morning sounds like a terrible idea, so I took PTO.

(cell phone cam)

So the band took the stage. The old farts in the crowd were good enough for a Wednesday night. After a bit of screaming throughout the room, Richard Ashcroft mumbled something. He looks younger than us. He’s still skin and bones, wearing a black zip-up shirt, mostly open with no undershirt. He looks happy.

I don’t write set lists down, nor have I ever paid attention to song titles anyway. I’m one of those people that thinks what ever word is said most often in the chorus is probably the song’s title. I try to enjoy the show and that means allowing the entire set to melt together into one giant experience. Maybe Azriel can help me fill in the blanks and make corrections. I’ll try my best, but here’s a short rundown. (Those who want to be surprised in New York should stop reading.)

“This Is Music” - yes and it was awesome.
“History” nope, WTF?
“Sonnet” yep!
“Bittersweet” yep! “It’s a masterpiece” Rick says.
“A New Decade” booze makes my memory fuzzy but I think yes
“The Rolling People” oh yea
“The Drugs Don’t Work” yes, the semi-epic version
“Weeping Willow” yup
“Lucky Man” yes, maybe the best song live
“Velvet Morning” yes, yes, yes.

And a new song, which I can’t describe but was pretty good.

For the ending, The Verve practically did turn into a hardcore band as seen here in this terrible cell phone video clip. I think it’s some of my best camera work to date. Don’t ask me if they were good. At the beginning of the clip you can see a cloud of smoke puff up from the nerdy guy in front of me. He was obviously having a good time. Yes they were really good.

Update: I forgot to say, Ashcroft dedicated a song to Ken Kesey. Nice!

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General Petreaus commands a $100 billion dollar a year war (Reuters). His enemies have, gulp, mopeds (AFP)…

Two Day Iraq War Schedule
Tuesday 9:30am: Senate Armed Services Committee, featuring McCain and Clinton, will face off with Iraq’s on-ground military and civilian authorities, Gen Petreaus and Ambassador Crocker respectively.

Tuesday 2:30pm: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, featuring Senator Obama, get a chance with Crocker and Petreaus.

Wednesday before we wake up: rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr, Iraq’s most powerful man, holds a million man march on Baghdad to protest 5 years of US occupation of the capital.

Wednesday 9am: House Armed Services panel questions Petreaus and Crocker.

Wednesday 1pm: House Foreign Affairs committee takes a crack…

And you thought the Wooster Group’s 2-day version of Hamlet was drawn-out tragic theater! With the three presidential candidates taking part, this is the highest stakes debate of the war. The one question no one will ask but should: What do the Iraqi people want from America?

Quick note on yesterday’s developments. PM Maliki told Sadr his militia had to disband before Iraq’s October elections. Sadr agreed to do so if the clerical establishment asked him to. But that’s such a myth. Every family in Iraq is allowed to keep an AK-47, the main tool of the Mahdi, so all that means is that the mortars, RPGs, and explosives be tucked into a safe house. Never mind the fact that Sadr always says this. Or that the clerics would never intervene.

The Wapost gives a round-up of what to expect from Pet and Crock…

Petraeus is expected to cite Iranian assistance to Mahdi Army forces as another reason to carefully consider any further troop withdrawals. But U.S. intelligence officials have noted that Iran has also provided training and weapons to all Shiite militias, including those allied with Maliki. “One reality of Basra is that you have Iranian-influenced organizations fighting each other,” said one intelligence official. “On multiple levels, Iran has its hooks” in all of them, the official added.

Note that Sadr has more popular support than Maliki. Sadr’s also been touting himself as an Iraqi nationalist. But his support base of Iraqi urban Shia poor still distrusts Iran. After all, many of Sadr’s supporters lost relatives in the Iran-Iraq war, where poor Shiites served as Saddam’s cannon-fodder. So Sadr gets less out of Iranian support than Maliki does. America’s man in Iraq not only maintains close ties to Iran he actually needs them because his Iraqi popular support is nonexistent.

More from WaPost…

While Crocker is expected to point to Iraq’s passage of militia amnesty and a reversal of de-Baathification laws, along with legislation to authorize provincial elections in October, the Maliki government remains gridlocked on electoral procedures that must be agreed upon as well as on new oil legislation. At least one-quarter of cabinet seats remain vacant or are only nominally filled.

At the same time, the government has not responded to U.S. demands that it speed up the process of incorporating members of the largely Sunni “Sons of Iraq” into the official security forces or establishing a comprehensive employment program for them. Nearly 90,000 members of the all-volunteer force, which the administration has touted as evidence that Sunnis have turned against the insurgency, remain on the U.S. payroll.

Crocker has frequently used the metaphor of a ticking timepiece to warn against unreasonable U.S. expectations for Iraqi political movement. Washington’s clock, he says, moves far faster than Baghdad’s. But lawmakers raised concerns that the administration has made too few demands on Iraq. With the possibility of a Democratic administration that may quickly withdraw troops, and as Bush negotiates a new strategic framework for the U.S. military in Iraq, they argued, the president’s leverage with Maliki has never been higher.

All this debate on a day when Baghdad continues to burn.

Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is demanding the Iraqi government protect the public from “the booby traps and American militias” or he may formally end the freeze he imposed seven months ago on his Mahdi Army fighters. Al-Sadr also wants a timetable for the U.S. to leave Iraq.

In addition, nine Iraqis were killed and 65 were wounded in clashes that lasted into Monday morning in Sadr City, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. U.S. troops and armor backed up Iraqi troops in Sadr City on Sunday as they fought to shut down rocket and mortar fire that targeted U.S. bases and the International Zone, the heavily fortified Baghdad district that houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy.

Aides to Muqtada al-Sadr say the anti-American Shiite cleric is calling off a mass rally in Baghdad Wednesday. Iraqi security forces are blocking al-Sadr’s followers from traveling to the capital from the southern Shiite heartland where he enjoys wide support.

Al-Sadr had called for a “million-strong” protest to mark the fifth anniversary of the capture of Baghdad by U.S. troops. It was seen by many observers as a show of force in his confrontation with the government over calls to disband his Mahdi Army militia.

A U.S. soldier died Tuesday from wounds received in a roadside explosion the night before in northeast Baghdad, raising to 11 the number of American troop deaths since Sunday.

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(Badr 2 the Bone)
It’s a shame the Speaker of the House is a moron. Nancy Pelosi has been a less effective majority leader than Newt Ginrgrich—if that’s possible. And she seems to know as much about Iraq as John McCain. Today Politico runs a story where Pelosi threatens Petreaus with nonsense:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Thursday not to “put a shine on recent events” in Iraq when they testify before Congress next week. “I hope we don’t hear any glorification of what happened in Basra,” said Pelosi, referring to a recent military offensive against Shiite militants in the city led by the Iraqi government and supported by U.S. forces.

Although powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr agreed to a ceasefire after six days of fighting, Pelosi wondered why the U.S. was caught off guard by the offensive and questioned how the ceasefire was achieved, saying the terms were “probably dictated from Iran.”

“We have to know the real ground truths of what is happening there, not put a shine on events because of a resolution that looks less violent when in fact it has been dictated by al-Sadr, who can grant or withhold that call for violence,” Pelosi said.

What does that even mean, Nancy? What exactly was dictated from Iran? Maliki’s Sciri-Dawa governing coalition has more Iranian ties than Sadr. And today’s WaPost says:

Sadr apparently hopes to bolster his credentials as an Iraqi nationalist.

There’s no evidence Sadr’s 9-point truce had anything to do with Iran. In fact, Maliki is arguably more of an Iranian puppet than Sadr. During last week’s fighting, Maliki merged the Badr Brigade, Sciri’s Iranian trained militia, with the Iraqi Army.

Again, who is taking orders from Iran? I can’t find a full copy of Pelosi’s speech, but from this reading it seems she’s just throwing the I(ran)-word out there for no reason. I agree that Petreaus ought not try and spin Basra as anything but a victory for Sadr. But the Dems need to back their questions and criticism with solid rhetoric. Don’t just throw Iran into a sentence sans context. All it does is make you sound dumb.

Ladies and gentlmen, meet your new Iraqi National Army:

What is the Badr Organization?
It is the Iranian-trained wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the largest Shiite party in Iraq. During the U.S.-led occupation government’s crackdown on militia groups in 2003, the 10,000-strong militia changed its name from the Badr Brigade to the Badr Organization of Reconstruction and Development and pledged to disarm. The group, however, has reportedly remained armed, and today operates mainly in Shiite-controlled southern Iraq, where a number of regional governments are dominated by SCIRI representatives. One of Badr’s recent offshoots is a feared, elite commando unit linked to the Iraqi Interior Ministry called the Wolf Brigade. Sunni leaders have recently accused the Badr Organization of revenge killings against Sunni clerics and unlawful kidnappings.

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(Left, Evan Mann caught Cave and the Bad Seeds in NYC a few weeks ago. Right, nice pony.)

Two aging musicians—both age 50—weighed in on the state of New York City. One’s an Aussie cult rocker/decent novelist/screenwriter/ex-junky. The other, a pop singer/bad actress who fakes a British accent and dates an one hit UK-caper director. Here’s what each said…

Nick Cave in NYmag:

Were you here then?
I was around in New York from the early eighties. I’ve lived here on and off. I lived in Chinatown for six months, with a political journalist who was also a junkie. He had the money, and it was my job to go and score for him. It was a special time.

Don’t you think it’s overromanticized?
No, actually. The city was so powerful. You could see the neurosis of the population in a way that you didn’t really see in cities in other parts of the world. In many ways, New York City is the one city that never disappointed me back then.

How were the drugs?
Not particularly good. The scoring experience was slightly extreme, but the drugs were not good—in America in general.

Don’t you find New York a letdown now?
Not at all. When you live in England, you see the corporateness of cities. It’s supposedly an American thing, and actually it’s not. It’s a European thing. On the English High Street, there are no small businesses at all. In New York, there still are. You can still eat in a family restaurant—it’s still very much got its character. There’s some idea that it’s cleaned up, which of course it has, but it’s still kind of deranged. You walk around the streets—it’s a completely different kind of ill. There’s nothing like it. The concept of humanity has gone to some other level.

Madge in VF:

“It’s not the exciting place it used to be. It still has great energy; I still put my finger in the socket. But it doesn’t feel alive, cracking with that synergy between the art world and music world and fashion world that was happening in the 80s. A lot of people died.”

So who’s right and who’s wrong? Let’s see. New York is on the verge of economic collapse, at the tail end of the largest commercial and residential building boom in decades (unlike the 80s, developers used great architects this time), the art market is at an all time high, more live music is played in our clubs (and subways) than ever before, the murder rate is up 30% on last year, Mayor Bloomberg just fired 1000 cops, the Governor just lost his job for fucking a club-slut/hooker, our female Senator is running for President, and Basquiat sucked compared to Kehinde Wiley. Fashion, art, and music will be one on Thursday when Kayne, Murakami, and LVMH synergize the BK Museum. You can still get heroin in Chinatown and Nick Cave, who never made a Pepsi commercial, still likes it here.

You lose, Cone Tits!!! Someone doesn’t “get” the level of humanity New York has gone to. Vogue your ass back to boring London. PS: The 80s—the most overrated decade—suck.

More of Evan Mann’s picks of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at Terminal 5.

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(Both photos by Nan Goldin. Left, John Waters for New York Magazine. Right, “Rene Smoking Crack 1990,” print available for a mere $6000.)

New York Magazine has a weird write up on camp director John Waters this week.

…recently, John Waters accidentally smoked crack. He was having a party at his house in Baltimore and someone passed him a pipe that he assumed was packed with pot, so he took a puff. “I thought, Am I addicted? Am I gonna rob my parents now? I had a horrible hangover, but I’d been drinking anyway. I was glad, actually, in a way. I would never now purposely try a new drug, I don’t think, but I’m secretly glad I know what it feels like. All I remember is it freezes your lungs.”

Accidental crack smoking occurs more than one might think.

A similar thing happened to me in London back in 2002. I was with some friends, popping off the tube way out in Kew Gardens after a night at ye ole pub. Under a bridge I spotted two Rastamen puffing a joint and asked for some. They obliged, but said, “That’s not weed, mon,” right as inhaled. Out came blue smoke. Next thing I knew I was destroying a trash can—kicking, smashing, punching—in the middle of the street. I stayed up all night shivering; my mind so twisted I saw a yellow ghost. Though I wasn’t scheduled to leave for a few days, I wound taking the first train to Heathrow the next morning. Haven’t been back to London or accidentally smoked rocks since.

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(Cleric loyal to Sadr looks bummed; Mahdi Miltiamen in Basra say no, no Saddam.)

Things took a major turn for the worse today in Iraq, as Shiite militias battle US troops in Baghdad, Basra, and Kut. From NYT (oddly enough, a photographer, Michael Kamber, got the byline):

Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric who is the leader of the Mahdi Army, on Monday called for a nationwide civil disobedience campaign in response to what his followers have characterized as unwarranted crackdowns on them.

Witnesses in Basra said that throughout the day, American jets flew overhead, armored vehicles raced through the city, and machine gun and canon fire reverberated through the streets. Civilians took refuge in their homes. Iraqi television showed images of civilian gunmen with rocket propelled grenade launchers taking up positions and ambulances ferrying the wounded to hospitals. In Baghdad, scattered clashes broke out across the city. In some areas, police and army checkpoints blocked the sparse traffic every 100 yards.

60%: That’s the common figure sited for how much overall violence is down in Iraq due to the Surge. 60% is also the amount of US troop deaths have decreased since the Surge. Again, 60% is the percentage of pre-Surge violence in Iraq attributed to the Shiite militias. Looking at numbers, it could be argued that today Iraq is 60% worse than it was two weeks ago.

More from Basra, c/o the Guardian:

“There are clashes in the streets,” a Basra resident told Reuters. “Bullets are coming from everywhere, and we can hear the sound of rocket explosions. This has been going on since dawn.”

And more:

The Associated Press also reported fighting in the southern Iraqi town of Kut, where Sadr loyalists had reportedly taken control of several city neighborhoods.

Moqtada is making a power move. He’s flexing his muscle, reminding the US that he is the most powerful man in Iraq. He might even be trying to say, “Hey, I am one of the most powerful men on earth. I can control America’s Presidential elections.”

Meanwhile, John McCain continues living on planet not earth:

“We’re succeeding. I don’t care what anybody says. I’ve seen the facts on the ground.”

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(Barry Chin, Boston Globe)
And I will be at Professor Thom’s, on 2nd Ave btwn 13-14th St, using the best and only excuse I’ve had to drink beer at the crack of dawn. Dice-K’s on the mound against the A’s. Hopefully Thom’s is serving sashimi and sake…be there!

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West African insanity is