All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about 10/04/19 Edition.

Browse all the Weekly Town Crier posts so far.

Listen to all 52 episodes of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

Listen to a mix of artists who have performed Habañero Collective house shows.

Browse the Musical Worldview posts.

Read/Watch CBS DFW’s report: “Dallas Jury Finds Former DPD Officer Amber Guyger Guilty Of Murdering Botham Jean.”

• Read NPR’s report: “Brandt Jean's Act Of Grace Toward His Brother's Killer Sparks A Debate Over Forgiving.”

• Read “The Perverse Spectacle of Black Forgiveness” at Jezebel.

• Read “What the Amber Guyger Case Reveals About White America” by Andre Henry at Medium.

• Read “Botham Jean’s Brother’s Offer of Forgiveness Went Viral. His Mother’s Calls for Justice Should Too” at Christianity Today.

Browse Colossal’s piece: “Gross Domestic Product: Banksy Opens a Dystopian Homewares Store.”

See “The Paintings of Miles Davis” at Open Culture.

Seeking to answer the age of question of whether you can “jump the shark” underwater, AZ Central reports: “Playing for the sharks: Kiss announces exclusive – but affordable – underwater concert.”

Read BBC’s report: “Single malt Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs.”

Read “Tommy Stinson on the Replacements' New Box Set and Outdrinking Metallica” at Rolling Stone.

Read about the new Senate report that found: “The NRA acted as a "foreign asset" for Russia in the period leading up to the 2016 election — providing more political access than previously known,” at NPR.

• Read New York Times’ report: “N.R.A.’s LaPierre Asks Trump to ‘Stop the Games‘ Over Gun Legislation in Discussion About Its Support.”

Hear “Snoop Dogg Cover Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ “Red Right Hand” at Post-Punk.

Read “They’re Using Us as Props for the Show” Former employees at Relevant, a hip evangelical culture magazine, have sparked a sprawling conversation about race and Christian office politics.” at Slate.

Read “Sure, we'd listen to a podcast about America through the legacy of Dolly Parton” at AV Club.

Read “Creed’s Human Clay Turns 20” which begins with the classic line: “Among other things, Creed’s second album holds the distinction as the only piece of recorded music I’ve been punched in the face over.”

Read “Kim Gordon on her first solo album, anxiety, and finding inspiration in Cardi B” at Entertainment Weekly.

Read about Robert Smith’s time with Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Read Christianity Today’s report: “Two Nigerian Evangelicals Executed in Boko Haram Video.”

Read “Chicago’s Hidden Indie Rock Archive Over three decades, Aadam Jacobs obsessively documented Chicago’s indie rock scene. Today, the future of his roughly 10,000 live recordings is unclear” at WBEZ.

Read as Christianity Today considers a recent Pew study: “Evangelicals Trust Faith Leaders, Police More Than the General Public Pew Research found the only leaders that evangelicals are more skeptical of are journalists.”

Read about a laundry detergent that claims to smell like “Whiskey” and “Bonfire.”

Read Atlas Obscura’s piece: “Centralia Ghost Town Church A mine fire has been burning under the deserted town since 1962, but this church is still going strong.”

Read “Black Crowes Drummer Steve Gorman’s New Book: 7 Wildest Tales About the Band ‘Hard to Handle: The Life and Death of the Black Crowes’ paints a picture of a group in constant turmoil” at Rolling Stone.

Read Pitchfork’s review of the new Hiss Golden Messenger album “Terms of Surrender.”

Read “J Mascis on the Nineties, Nirvana, and Dinosaur Jr.’s Forgotten Masterpiece” at Rolling Stone.

• See and hear Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis demonstrate the Converse that’s also a wah wah pedal.

I’m not a “Wine Geek,” but I like Sake, so browse “A Wine Geek's Guide to Sake, for Beginners” at Paste.

Read IGN’s report: “Spider-Man Is Officially Back in the MCU Following Sony, Disney Announcement.”

Read this 2017 report and wonder why people weren’t as upset by this as by people confessing to plants: “'Make America Great Again' Sung to Trump by Church Choir, Copyrighted for Church Services.”

Read as Rolling Stone wonders: “Why Everyone Is Freaking Out About ‘Joker’ Is the Joker backlash mere moral panic, or does the movie actually sympathize with incel culture?”

Read New York Times’ report that the White House ambassador to Ukraine has resigned.

Read about the “Man (who) drank 7 beers before turning himself in, but there was no warrant for his arrest.”

Read Out’s report: “Arizona Governor Says Christians Shouldn't Have to Serve Gays.”

Browse a “Latino and Hispanic Theologian Book List” at Starke College and Seminary.

Read AV Club’s report: “Trump tweeted out a Nickelback meme and Nickelback got Twitter to take it down so thanks, Nickelback.”

Read Washington Post’s report: “POTUS told Russian officials in an Oval Office meeting that he was unconcerned about Moscow’s interference in the election because the US did the same in other countries, an assertion that prompted alarmed officials to limit access to the remarks.”

• Read Slate’s piece: “Trump Implies Whistleblowers Should Be Executed, Which May Conflict With Rules Protecting Whistleblowers.”

• Read AZ Central’s report: “Jeff Flake: 'At least 35' GOP senators would vote to remove Trump if vote was private.”

• Read New York Times’ opinion piece: “The Whistle-Blower Knows How to Write His complaint offers lessons on how to make a point.”

• Read USA Today’s piece: “Poll: Only 4 in 10 Republicans think Trump mentioned Biden on Ukraine call even though he acknowledged doing so.”

• Read Religion News Service’s report: “Franklin Graham on impeachment: ‘Our country could begin to unravel’.

• Read Slate’s report: “Robert Jeffress Goes All In on “Civil War” The evangelical pastor and Trump loyalist has had quite a week.”

While we’re on the topic of impeachable offenses, read News and Guts’ report: “Stunning NYT Report Alleges Donald Trump Wanted To Find Ways To Injure Migrants.”

• See Jack Jenkins’ Tweet: “:: stares at phone for several minutes :: . . . “The President once considered shooting migrants in the legs to slow them down at the southern border, the New York Times reports.”

• Read the New York Times’ report which includes details such as “electrified, flesh-piercing wire on the wall, alligators & snakes in a pit.”

  • Read Aaron Niequist’s Tweet: “The loudest voices defending a serial liar caught in his web of lies are Christians. Just let that sink in. Those who claim the name of the Way, Truth, and Life are actively defending the embodiment of corruption, lies, and greed. Jesus weeps” and weep with Jesus.

Read The Verge’s report: “Elizabeth Warren says Facebook has ‘repeatedly fumbled’ its responsibility to democracy.”

• Listen as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg explains “Why Mark Zuckerberg thinks a President Elizabeth Warren would 'suck' at CNN.

Read Vice’s piece: “'Freaks and Geeks' Understood That Popular Kids Aren't Cool At All: Twenty years ago, 'Freaks and Geeks' steered clear of the jock-cheerleader cliches to tease out high school's most relatable anxieties.”

Read Consequence of Sound’s report: “Mexico listens to more music than any country worldwide: “Mexicans listen to 25.6 hours of music a week, eight hours more than the global average.”

Read KXAN’s report: “‘True love will find you in the end’ billboard appears along I-35 honoring late Daniel Johnston.”

Read Washington Post’s opinion piece: “The ‘Billy Graham Rule’ serves only to impede careers, not affairs.”

Read Christianity Today’s piece: “Is Racial Justice Becoming a Priority for Evangelical Voters? LifeWay Research measures political support for the issue for the first time,” which finds that “85 percent of US evangelicals say they “will only support a candidate who demonstrates personal integrity,” which causes great confusion because it may just mean that “85 percent of US evangelicals lie when taking surveys.”

Consider “The case against sermon-centric Sundays” by Skye Jethani at Premier Christianity.

Read as Eric Metaxas describes what Republicans are currently doing while ascribing it to Democrats: “Cultural elites in America have slowly persuaded themselves...that they are right on a number of issues. & if it means going around the electoral process, if it means going around the usual procedure that they’re going to do what they must” at Religion News Service.

Read: “Why the liberal West is a Christian creation Christianity is dismissed as a fairy tale but its assumptions underpin the modern secular world.” at New Statesman.’

Read Consequence of Sound’s report: “Metallica postpone tour as James Hetfield enters rehab "Our brother James has been struggling with addiction on and off for many years"

Read Time’s report: “CDC Says for First Time That THC Could Be Behind Vaping Deaths and Illnesses.”

Read as Paste wonders: “Is Bob’s Burgers a Low-Key Adaptation of Stanley Tucci’s Movie Big Night?”

Watch “John Turturro licks a fresh bowling ball in the all-Italian trailer for his movie about The Jesus” at AV Club.

See “Miles Davis' Illustrations Drive A Classic Recording In New Video For 'Moon Dreams'“ at NPR.

Read “Finding a faith that is stronger than death — or my family’s rejection: My problem wasn’t with religion. It was with bad religion” by Heidi Hall at Religion News Service.

Read Christianity Today’s report: “Evangelical Advocates Feel the Sting of More Trump Refugee Cuts It’s the third consecutive year that the administration has reduced resettlement totals to record lows. Under the Trump administration, the US refugee resettlement program has fallen to a quarter of previous size, and fewer persecuted Christians and other religious minorities are making it to safety in the US.”

The marketing says: “Never lose your drink in the dark again with this light up insulated drink wrap.” We say it’s a glow-in-the-dark Koozie.

See “The Strange and Stranger Things at the 2019 International UFO Congress” at Phoenix New Times.

Read as Psychology Today wonders: “Do You See Your Partner’s Sacrifices? We may only accurately detect a partner’s sacrifice about half the time.”

Read “Consistent Doodles: 40,000-Year-Old Symbols Found in Caves Worldwide May Be the Earliest Written Language” at Open Culture.

Read Wall Street Journal’s essay: “Religion for Adults Means Embracing Complexity If you think you’ve outgrown your childhood faith, you might just need to discover the real depth of its teachings.”

Read Tim Keller’s Op-Ed piece at The New York Times from 2018: “How Do Christians Fit Into the Two-Party System? They Don’t The historical Christian positions on social issues don’t match up with contemporary political alignments.”

Read Justin McRoberts and Scott Erickson’s 5-day Bible reading plan to accompany their new book May It Be So (which I profiled here).

Watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s TED Talk: “How craving attention makes you less creative.”

Read The Atlantic’s piece: “What a New Theory of Attention Says About Consciousness Filtering out distractions might be more important for the brain than highlighting important information.”

Read Vulture’s report: “Netflix Orders Stranger Things 4, Teasing a World Beyond Hawkins.”

Read “Cormac McCarthy on how to write a scientific (or any kind of) paper” at Boing Boing.

Read Brooklyn Vegan’s report: “Victory Records acquired by Concord.”

Read “Aldous Huxley on the Transcendent Power of Music and Why It Sings to Our Souls” at Brain Pickings.

Read “The Black Woman Who Biked Across the US Alone During the 1930s Jim Crow Era Despite pervasive racism and the weight of the Great Depression, Bessie Stringfield found freedom on the open road” at Vice.

Read Pew Research Center’s findings: “Independents often are portrayed as political free agents with the potential to alleviate the nation’s rigid partisan divisions. But the reality is that most independents are not all that “independent” politically.”

Read Consequence of Sound’s report: “Kanye West says he’s done making secular music, new album features no cursing The born-again Christian will only be releasing gospel music going forward.”

Read “The myth of the golden age of reading Even before the digital age, book-lovers were always prone to distraction” at Prospect Magazine.

Read Exclaim’s report: “Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's Former Seattle Home Is Up for Sale.”

Read The Spectator’s piece: “In praise of cultural elitism We have become so tolerant of each other’s taste that taste no longer matters.”

Read as Neuroscience News wonders: “Why do older people hate new music?”

Read about and participate in University of California’s research finding: “When it comes to politics, you’re not as rational as you think.”

Read Mic’s opinion piece: “Greta Thunberg's U.N. speech prompted ugly insults — proving her critics can't fault her actual message.”

I'm glad to see them getting the press, but it's weird to me that Pitchfork considers 75 Dollar Bill to be an "overlooked" album this year. Where have they been looking? Browse Pitchfork’s list of “overlooked” 2019 albums and, while you’re at it, peep my first post so far about 75 Dollar Bill to sample some of the music.

Read “HALL IN THE FAMILY: A Conversation With Incoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Chairman John Sykes” at Hits Daily Double.

Read Christianity Today’s piece: “Pastors Don’t Do It For The Money, But Having Enough to Retire Would Be Nice.”

Read Phoenix New Times’s profile of The Rhythm Room. One of the best and long-standing Phoenix venues for live music. Remember seeing Mumford and Sons there? No, because it was sold out and packed and I was there and you weren’t!

Read about the Forth Worth public libraries doing away with late fines.

Read AZ Central’s report: “Original Alice Cooper group reunion to headline Christmas Pudding with Joe Bonamassa.”

Read The Wrap’s piece: “Fox News Host Todd Starnes Out After Suggesting Democrats Worship Pagan God Moloch.”

Read “Album Of The Week: Wilco Ode To Joy” at Stereogum.

R.I.P. “Kim Shattuck of The Muffs, rest in peace Read More: Kim Shattuck of The Muffs.”

Browse “A Snapshot of the Values, Views & Faith of Hispanic Americans” at Barna.

Read “A Wreng Among The Pornographers” by Charles Bissell of The Wrens. “As you probably know, my friend & favorite musician person, Will of Okkervil River, has been doing a subscription series of live albums spanning the Okkervil career so far (also available individually) and that he’s just released Vol. 6, A Wren Among the Pornographers. You may not know that that wren is me - I was the Okkervil guitar-for-hire spring/summer of ’08, and chiefly for that tour, opening up for the the New Pornographers.”

Read “Her Side of the Story: Debbie Harry Talks About Her Life in Blondie in Her New Book” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Michael Stipe to release debut solo single ‘Your Capricious Soul’ this weekend” at Slicing Up Eyeballs.

Listen to “The Friends Theme but it's Clapping Music by Steve Reich” at Youtube.

See Aldi’s “Cheese Advent Calendar.”

Read “City on mute When you stare at your phone or use Uber to navigate your neighbourhood, you flatten the rich texture of urban life” at Aeon.

Read/Listen to “Reasons To Be Cheerful: A Conversation With David Byrne” at NPR.

Stream Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ new 11-track double LP, “Ghosteen” consisting of Cave's "fever dreams"

Read Artsy’s report: “Arts Sector Contributed $763.6 Billion to U.S. Economy—More Than Agriculture or Transportation, New Data Shows.”

Browse “5 Strategies to Demystify the Learning Process for Struggling Students” at KQED.

Read as Exclaim wonders “Is David Lynch Working on More 'Twin Peaks'?”