Richard Allen over at Silent Ballet reviews the album with precision and prescience.

What did you expect, lads? You submitted an album for review that came out eleven years ago (Compound the Fracture/Coil Unwind) along with one that came out seven years ago (If Your Face Were On Fire, I’d Put It Out With a Sickle), possibly hoping to get attention for your new album, due out in 2008 (oops). The first album is out of print, and the second is only available from one venue. If there’s download information, it’s extremely well hidden. Your website is nearly blank. And you’re called Ass Coffee.

Last year, arguably the first in which I had more than a fleeting interest in politics, I stumbled upon Orson Scott Card’s semi-frequent sociopolitical blog posts.  I’m not sure how I deluded myself, but by some motivation I believed that an author who filled hours of my childhood with escape, and who writes magical fiction, rather than stock science fiction, would march in lockstep with my own beliefs, generally, in the realm of politics and ethics.  What can I say, I’m naive.  Card’s disavowal of Same-Sex marriage wasn’t bigotry; in addition, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I even find many arguments against same-sex marriage compelling (some not; this link I found at the recommendation of Mr. Card, on his website).

The bothersome bit of skin I’m gnawing is that the most recently published addition to the Ender’s series, Ender in Exile, so blatantly pushes this position.  Here’s the first example (it’s about as subtle as five inches of cleavage):

“No,” she said.  “I’d do it.  Sel, you’re the smartest, everyone knows it.  And you shouldn’t be cut off without having children.  It’s not right.  We need your genes in the pool.”

“That’s the genetic argument,” said Sel.  “Then there’s the social argument.  Monogamy has been proven, over and over, to be the optimum social arrangement.  It’s not about genes, it’s about children – they have to grow up into the society we want them to maintain.  We voted on this.”

. . . and another:

As Father always said, “Monogamy is what works best for any society in the long run.  That’s why half of us are born male and half female – so we come out even.”

This second example expresses ‘what was is what shall be’ and this perpetuation is signed off by a paternal authority.  The first example throws and handful of dirt or shredded ballots into the face of the material dialectical understanding of the way systems, such as societies, function.  The material dialectic is the closest mode of thought to empirical methodology, and goes a step further to unite multiple fields in hopes of further understanding the connectedness of stuff. The material mode argues that reality, the world we live in day to day and act upon and are acted upon by, is what organizes the society one lives in.  So when Card writes “they have to grow up into the society we want them to maintain” it supplants a natural progression of society with an ideal.  If same-sex couples are allowed to marry and raise children, the society and its superstructure would auto-correct and become stable.

Orson Scott Card, you are a fiction writer.  Please let us believe that we won’t drag party lines and inequality across decades and across the galaxy.

antediluvian: relating to the time before the Great Flood of the book of Genesis in the Old Testament; as in, “After doffing his shoes, Karl found that his tattered wool socks smelled positively antediluvian.”

brinksmanship: maneuvering a risky situation to the fringe of safety in order to get a return of the greatest advantage; as in, “In a feat of pure brinksmanship, she finished the second half of the pinot noir before meeting Mrs. Wheeler for her daughter’s parent-teacher conference.”

2/6/2009

Another week and another late Friday post.

This news comes entirely from the February issue of Connect, the monthly flier that is distributed by Metro Transit.

1. There are six new or expanding park and ride lots.  Metro transit is trying to add 3,000 more parking spaces for riders to use for free.  These Park & Rides will be focused along the 35W bus lines, two suburbs in the North Metro, as well as Cedar Avenue bus lines in the South Metro.

• New parking facilities will be constructed at the Park & Rides at 95th Avenue in Blaine, and Country Road C in Roseville
• Apple Valley Transit Station will be expanded and a new station is in the works for both Cedar & 180th and Kenrick Avenue (off of 35W) in Lakeville
• Finally, a new Park & Ride is being planned for Cedar Grove in Eagan

2. Buses are free if you are vomiting green beer!  After 6 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day, bus fare is as complimentary to a night of drinking as the itchy crotch you think you caught from the girl in the mini skirt and fuzzy sweater.

A self-described “vampyre” and former fringe political candidate faces charges for threatening a teenage girl who tried to break off their relationship by telling him she was actually a vampire hunter.

Not to mention the guy who groped over a dozen University of Minnesota students, reportedly grabbing genitals abound.  As far as tactics go, how does one grab a woman’s genitals – from behind – on a bike? in a manner that would please the pervert? especially if you need to squeeze-the-goods-and-go before the collegiate swings her 45 pound Timbuk2 bag and crushes your skull with her psychology textbook?

1/30/2009

Sorry that this is late by a day but I lacked connection to the web through all of Friday.

1. During the negotiations over the $825 billion stimulus bill, a handful of democratic Representatives secured more money for public transit across the country than originally was alotted for.  The total for public transportation infrastructure enhancement is currently around $13 billion.  Reported by Elena Schlor, TalkingPointsMemo (1/28/2009).

2.  The Southwest metro light-rail line proposal is being pruned.  In light of the squabble over noise and vibration raised by MPR, the planning committee are attempting to choose a route for the LRT that would keep it away from businesses like WCCO and Orchestra Hall.  The route will stretch from Eden Prairie, run through parts of Minnetonka, Hopkins, and St. Louis Park, finally ending near the new Twins stadium.  Reported by Jim Foti, Star Tribune (1/28/2009).

3.  In 2008, 82 million people used the metro area public transportation system.  10 million of those people were riders of the Hiawatha light rail line.  Reported by Paul Walsh, Star Tribune (1/30/2009).

Riding the Route 12 home from Hopkins tonight, our bus missed a turn and it had to use reverse.  This has never happened when I’ve been on a bus.  All the lights turn out.  The driver had skills . . . he turned the bus around in the middle of a two-lane street in about 30 seconds.

One day I was riding my mom’s friend’s big bear, and it came to life.  I was astonished.  So it took us to The Hiwain Islands.  We had fun there that night.  When we woke up I noticed that we weren’t at home.  I looked for a phone, but no luck.  So we just had to ride back home  .When I looked for the big bear I relized it was gone.  Now what could I do.  For a while I thought.  (For a long while.)  I had no choice but than to swim.  By the time I got back my face was green.  It took a while for me to get back.  And I noticed that it wasn’t my mom.  I noticed that I was In Texas not Minnesota.  So I called the travel agency, and asked for a ticket to Minnesota, but there wasn’t any left.  Then I got so mad that my head was as red as a rose with my face tucked inside it.  then I saw the big bear on someone else’s truck.  My face got even more tucked in my rose head.  I told the man that the big bear in his truck, he did his monkey call.(cause he was King Kong.)  I finally got it back, and I finally got a plane ticket to Minnesota.  My mom was worried about me.  THE   END

Before?

• Compromise Your He(Art) by French Teen Idol
• To Make Him Live Again (Millimetrik remix) by Electroluminescent
• Kelp Sway by Morgan Packard
• Different Handwriting by Pretty Boy Crossover
• Dundas, Ontario by Manitoba
• Baleen Morning by Balmorhea
• Transatlantic by the Drift
• Landaur Lloyd Limit by tKatKa
• Farewell Lunch for Laura by Victor Bermon
• Heart of Glass by the Bad Plus
• Slo Did Bellwave by Casino vs. Japan

During?

• Every Wing Hits at Once by Cue
• Wedding Song for Living Things and Dead Things by Cue
• Try by MØN
• More Extinction by Grails
• Where are the Timpani Heartbeats? by the Six Parts Seven
• Lovely Allen by Holy Fuck
• Grieg by Snöleoparden
• Wildcat by Ratatat
• Jacob’s Ladder by Patrick Wolf
• Screaming at Anything that Moved by Gifts from Enola
• Rock. Paper. Rock. by Turing Machine
• There are Some Remedies Worse than the Disease by This Will Destroy You
• This Thing Between Us is a Rickety Bridge of Impossible Crossing / Bonfires for No One by Set Fire to Flames
• 3704/3837 by Ólafur Arnalds

After?

• Tall Latte by Devin Townsend
• Ziltoidia Attaxx!!! by Devin Townsend
• Wool Fever by Exhaust
• Bright Tomorrow by Fuck Buttons
• Death Rides a Horse by Russian Circles
• Behold the Black Sheep by Those Poor Bastards
• Funeralopolis by Electric Wizard
• Radical Friends by Head Wound City
• White Walls by Genghis Tron
• On the Sacred Side by Black Eyes
• Hedgehog’s Dilemma (Chapter III) by the Postman Syndrome
• This Pyramid is the Ascending Spiral by Zebulon Pike