The Weekly Town Crier (12/20/19)
All the week’s News that’s fit to cry about (12/13/19).
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.
Stream/download an introductory mix of Sacred Steel music.
Browse all my favorite music of 2019.
Read “R.I.P. Danny Aiello, Do the Right Thing actor dies at 86” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “Flamin’ Groovies Singer Roy Loney Dead at 73” at Rolling Stone.
Read “Anna Karina, Singer and French New Wave Actress, Dead at 79” at Pitchfork.
Read “Observing Advent Makes Me Feel Less Alone Following the rituals of the church calendar remind me that my life is part of the larger story of God’s creation, redemption, and restoration” at Christianity Today.
Read “Is Trumpism a cult? A new book from a former cult member makes the case” at Vox.
Read the opinion piece: “The False God of Conservative Christianity” at Evangelicals for Social Action. “here's a religion whose savior was a refugee, yet it rejects refugees. Whose God embraces sojourners, yet it deports immigrants. Whose parishioners worship someone called the Prince of Peace, yet they defend violence and are pro-war. Whose hero was an ethnic minority, yet they're complicit in white supremacy. Whose Christ was unlawfully arrested and killed by a governing empire, yet it has become nationalistic and oppressive.”
Read “Mormon Church has misled members on $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund, whistleblower alleges” at Washington Post.
Read “Mormons pulling 400,000 youths out of struggling Boy Scouts” at KTAR.
Read “How long is the sermon? Study ranks Christian churches” at AP News.
Read “The Risky Business of Letting the Government Define a Religion Trump's executive order undermines the freedom of Jewish self-definition” at Sojourners.
Read “Don’t Panic About Nones Who Stop Believing” at Church Life Journal.
Read “Who was the Buddha? When we strip away the myths, such as his princely youth in a palace, a surprising picture of this enigmatic sage emerges” at Aeon.
Read “Christian influencer couple wants to resurrect young daughter who died, seeks $100k in crowdfunding” at Boing Boing.
Read ““Sort-Of Socialist” Church Pastor Accused of Sexual Misconduct” at Juicy Ecumenism.
Read “Chicago’s Top Prosecutor Tosses Out More Than 1,000 Marijuana Convictions Ahead of State Legalization Law” at The Root.
Read “Krispy Kreme, Panera Bread owner to give $5M to Holocaust survivors over family's Nazi ties The Reimann family learned that their ancestors used forced laborers in their factory under the Nazis during World War II” at NBC News.
Read “Gambian minister brought Myanmar to The Hague ‘in the name of humanity’” at PRI. “25 years after the Rwandan tragedy, here we are again, not doing anything to stop another ongoing genocide in Myanmar.”
Read “Dolly Parton statue may replace KKK leader memorial at Tennessee Capitol” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “Wyoming Students Showed Up to Class in Bootleg KKK Robes Because of Course They Did: 'This Is Taught Behavior” at The Root.
Read “ICE Denied Arizona Detainees Proper Medical and Psychiatric Care” at Phoenix New Times.
Read “Despite Trump’s vow to revive the death penalty, support for capital punishment shrank in 2019” at Washington Post.
Read/watch “Texas judge sues after being warned for refusing to perform same-sex marriages” at 12 News.
Read “New Research Identifies Possible Mass Graves From 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre” at NPR.
Read “We changed how we refer to the 'Tulsa Race Riot.' Here's why” at Tulsa World.
Read “Why a Small Offense Shouldn’t Have Life-Altering Consequence Opinion: Nearly 10 years ago, I was arrested and detained in jail for 45 days after failing to appear in court for a low-level, non-violent offense. Today, I’m fighting so that others don’t have to go through what I did” at Texas Observer.
Read “Americans are drowning in medical debt, so this nonprofit is buying — and forgiving — it” at PBS News Hour.
Read “Amazon is delivering half its own packages as it becomes a serious rival to FedEx and UPS” at The Verge.
Read “Baby boomers are the most sensitive generation, new study says — and it shows exactly what the world is getting wrong about millennials” at Business Insider.
Read “President Obama: A world ruled by women would improve "just about everything” at Salon. “I'm absolutely confident that for two years, if every nation on earth was run by women, you would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything... living standards and outcomes.”
Read “United States to fund gun-violence research after 20-year freeze Government spending deal includes $25 million for studies of firearm safety” at Nature.
Read “Why Some Men Still Dress Like They’re 16. It’s not because they’re lazy” at Slate.
Read “Archaeologists Discover Ancient Greek Royal Tombs Dating Back 3,500 Years” at NPR.
Read “Facebook, Instagram ban influencers from promoting guns and vaping” at Engadget.
Read “Germany bans gay ‘conversion therapy’ for minors” at PBS News Hour.
Read “Wakanda (fake Marvel country) listed as US trade partner on USDA website The fictional home of "Black Panther" appeared on an agricultural tariff tracker maintained by the USDA, NBC News reports” at 12 News.
Read “‘We are sending more foster kids to prison than college’” at Kansas City.com.
Read/Listen to “Fewer Students Are Going To College. Here's Why That Matters” at NPR.
Read “House Judiciary Committee Approves 2 Articles Of Impeachment Against Trump” at NPR.
Read “McConnell indicates he’ll let Trump’s lawyers dictate Trump’s impeachment trial” at Washington Post.
Read “Arizona Republican in denial about core impeachment detail” at MSNBC.
Read “Bill Barr is serving notice to DOJ officials that he’ll ruin them if they investigate Trump” at Raw Story.
Read “Dem. rep. expected to leave party over impeachment” at MSNBC.
Read “750+ historians add their voices on Impeachment” at Medium. “President Trump’s numerous and flagrant abuses of power are precisely what the Framers had in mind as grounds for impeaching and removing a president.”
Read “Russia’s State TV Calls Trump Their ‘Agent’ at The Daily Beast. “Russian commentators note, rightly, that “sooner or later, the Democrats will come back into power," and they’re already joking about offering Trump asylum.”
Read “President Trump Sends Pelosi Letter Protesting ‘Partisan Impeachment Charade’ at NPR.
Read “Matthews: This isn't a fact finding mission, it's a roll-call vote to see what party you're in” at MSNBC.
Read “Trump Should Be Removed from Office. It’s time to say what we said 20 years ago when a president’s character was revealed for what it was” at Christianity Today.
Read “Wake up, everybody: a response to the impeachment of Donald Trump from the AME Church” at Religion News Service. “"We take no solace in the fact that God's revelation about Trump's lack of Constitutional character and his divisive and destructive policies would push our nation away from democracy and toward dictatorship were right."
Read “If Trump is impeached, it will be hard for Senate Republicans to vote to convict him They need to do it anyway” at Christian Century.
Read as Franklin Graham tells the New York Times “My father (founder of the magazine) would be embarrassed ... There’s a liberal element within the evangelical movement. Christianity Today represents that.”
Read “Vladimir Putin Backs Trump, Calling Impeachment Charges ‘Completely Made Up” at NPR.
Read “To avoid removal, Trump only needs senators representing 7 percent of the country to support him” at Washington Post.
Read “Trump May Not Debate 2020 Democratic Nominee” at News and Guts.
Read “Trump says he'll do debates, but may bypa
Read “Vladimir Putin Backs Trump, Calling Impeachment Charges ‘Completely Made Up” at NPR.
Read “Trump May Not Debate 2020 Democratic Nominee” at News and Guts.
Read “Trump says he'll do debates, but may bypa”
Read “Vladimir Putin Backs Trump, Calling Impeachment Charges ‘Completely Made Up” at NPR.
Read “Trump May Not Debate 2020 Democratic Nominee” at News and Guts.
Read “Trump says he'll do debates, but may bypass commission that runs them” at 12 News.
Read “You Don’t Know Bernie” at Buzzfeed News. “Bernie Sanders — the guy who admits he can be grumpy and “nasty” and a “real son of a bitch,” the guy who’s known for giving the same speech over and over again — that guy is trying to win this campaign, maybe his last, by making people feel less alone.”
Read “U.S. Government Loses 2 Border Fence Funding Lawsuits” at KJZZ.
Read “Fox News poll finds a wealth tax is far more popular than Trump's wall” at The Week.
Read “New Kentucky Governor Restores Voting Rights to More Than 100,000 Formerly Incarcerated” at The Root.
Read “Pardons by Former Kentucky Governor Spark Outrage and Calls for Investigation” at Rolling Stone.
Read/watch as PBS News Hour wonders “Should the federal government be able to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs?”
Read “Appeals court strikes down ACA's individual mandate” at Axios.
Read as Rolling Stone wonders “What Do We Do With the Afghanistan Papers? Are Americans ignoring the revelation that their government lied to them, again, for decades about another endless war? Or have they mastered their ability to process their anger about such injustices?”
Read “The Whole Damn Thing Was A Lie” at Sojourners. “A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.”
Read “This is How a Society Dies America and Britain are Textbook Examples of a New, Gruesome Phenomeon: Rich Nations Self-Destructing Into Poor Failed States” at Eand.
Read “‘This Feels Worse Than Trump’: Artists Voice Anguish After Boris Johnson’s Landslide Victory in the British General Election” at Artnet.
Read “Trump's War Pardons Are Sabotaging the Military Justice System Victims of America's war crimes had little means of accountability. Now, even that is being eviscerated” at ACLU.
Read “Mitch McConnell is in ‘Literal Violation of the oath’ he must take for impeachment trial, says government professor” at Newsweek.
Watch “Sen. Sherrod Brown says there’s “increasing talk” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should recuse himself in an impeachment trial: “He doesn’t have respect for the institution, although you’d think the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate would” at MSNBC.
Read “Georgia purge removes nearly 309,000 voter registrations” at PBS News Hour.
Read “Conservative Radio Show Cancelled After Host Wishes a ‘Nice School Shooting’ Would Replace Impeachment Coverage” at The Root.
Read “Why Dyeing My Hair and Tattooing My Body Are Forms of Self-Care” at The Mighty.
Read “Grace at SantaLand: Why David Sedaris Is My Favorite Advent Reading” at Mockingbird.
Read “Opinion: Should It Be Illegal To Sleep Outside?” at NPR.
Read “Why Are So Many Gen Z Kids Becoming Furries? Furry influencers on TikTok are bringing the long-misunderstood subculture to a whole new generation” at Rolling Stone.
The 2019 “Best Of” Lists keep rolling in:
Read “Our 50 favourite albums of 2019” at Vinyl Factory.
Read “NPR Music Staff Picks: The Best Albums Of 2019” at NPR.
Browse “Aquarium Drunkard :: 2019 Year In Review".
Browse “J.C. Mosquito’s Best of 2019” at Something Else Reviews.
Browse the full list of my favorite 2019 music.
Read “Jerry Garcia’s “Alligator” Guitar Sells for $420,000” at Jambands.com.
Read “The Clash: How London Calling still inspires 40 years on” at BBC.
Read “The Clash’s ‘London Calling’: 10 Things You Didn’t Know” at Rolling Stone.
Read “The Clash Never Failed Their Influences” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “The Clash Started a Rebellion by Defying Labels” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “You've Never Heard 'London Calling'?!” at NPR.
Read “At The End Of The End of The Decade Lists“ by Marty Sartini Garner at The Outline. “Era-specific album lists are only really interesting because of the implicit arguments they make. I wrote about how this year’s Best Albums of the Decade lists upheld our cultural hegemony and highlight some problems with music criticism.”
Read “Yeasayer Call It Quits The Brooklyn indie band released its final album, Erotic Reruns, earlier this year” at Pitchfork.
Read “Here’s the most popular YouTube music video of the decade” at KTAR.
Read “Kanye West’s Opera Mary Coming to New York City” at Pitchfork.
Read “Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim – the legendary roots producer and Channel One founder.”
Read “Hiss Golden Messenger review – songwriter is an anchor in a rudderless world” at The Guardian.
Read “'He was a musical warlock': reflecting on Frank Zappa's greatest album at 50” at The Guardian.
Read “Cox Communications Hit With $1 Billion Verdict in Music Copyright Suit” at Variety.
Listen “to the Full Version of The Smiths’ Historic First Recording “I Want A Boy For My Birthday” at Post-Punk.
Read “YouTube Plays Will Now Count Toward the Billboard Album Charts” at Pitchfork.
Read “Lee “Scratch” Perry’s first #1 on Billboard in 60yr Career” at Yardhype.
Read “'It's a Total Nightmare': Problems at Direct Shot Distributing Have Made New Vinyl and CDs Scarce” at Billboard.
Read “Radiohead upload their entire discography to YouTube” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “DC’s Legendary Punk Label Dischord Records Makes Its Entire Music Catalog Free to Stream Online” at Open Culture.
Read PBS’ profile of Tinariwen: “How this nomadic music group is bridging cultural divides.”
Watch a short profile of Tinariwen here at Holiday at the Sea: 'We made a career out of roaming'.
See Amadjar by Tinariwen on my 2019 Favorite music wrap-up.
Read “US Justice Department Reportedly Preparing Legal Action Against Live Nation” at Steregum.
Read “Chasing Ephemera: Entering the World of the Necks Michael McKinney offers an extensive guide to the veteran jazz trio at Passion of the Weiss.
Read “Ivan Conti’s Free-Thinking Samba Legacy” at Bandcamp and listen to “Aroeira” by Ivan 'Mamão' Conti on Episode 39 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.
Read “John Frusciante Rejoins Red Hot Chili Peppers” at Relix.
Read “Iggy Pop, Public Enemy, Roberta Flack, Isaac Hayes, More Get Lifetime Achievement Grammys” at Pitchfork.
Read “Bill Kreutzmann Talks Hawaii Home, Jerry Garcia, More In Rare New Interview” at Live For Live Music.
Browse “An introduction to Parliament-Funkadelic in 10 records” at Vinyl Factory.
Read “Are Podcasts Threatening the Growth of the Music Industry?” at Rolling Stone.
Read “Insane hardcore show at a Denny’s restaurant gives new meaning to Super Slam: Watch The young promoter launched a GoFundMe campaign to pay for damages” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “George Benson: The Album That Changed My Life” at Jazzwise.
Read “Greta Thunberg Documentary Coming to Hulu in 2020” at Rolling Stone.
Read “Adam Driver Walks Out of NPR ‘Fresh Air’ Interview Over ‘Marriage Story’ Clip” at Daily Beast.
Read “Star Wars,' The Trilogy That NPR Turned Into Radio Drama” at NPR. “A long time ago, in an NPR far, far away, the network produced three radio dramas based on the original "Star Wars" trilogy.”
Read “Chris Frantz Talking Heads Memoir ‘Remain In Love’ Set For May 2020 Release” at Jambase.
Browse “17 Home Libraries That Look Like Something Out Of A Fairytale” at Bookish Buzz.
Read “In Acknowledgement of Acknowledgements: Dispelling the myth of the solitary genius” at Comment.
Read “Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers to Release Young Adult Novel About a Supernatural Dog” at Paste Magazine.
Read “The Far Side is officially online for the first time, with new comics to come” at The Verge.
Read “If Jane Austen Got Feedback From Some Guy In A Writing Workshop” at Buzzfeed. “Also, why five sisters? How about just two? Combine Jane and Kitty. Or, better, make one of the sisters a brother (named "Jim," maybe?), and then he could be the narrator who mentions his sisters from time to time! Like Hamlet!”
Read “Go Ahead in the Rain Will Make You Love A Tribe Called Quest Even More” at Pitchfork. “That insistence on evolving alongside the music we cherish is the book’s most rewarding sentiment.”
See “This Artist Turns Precious Moments Figurines Into Your Worst Nightmire” at Best Products.
Read “Salvador Dalí’s Tarot Cards Get Re-Issued: The Occult Meets Surrealism in a Classic Tarot Card Deck” at Open Culture.
Read “This new exhibit explores the work of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat” at Vinyl Factory.
Read “With exhibit on Abraham, Episcopal cathedral in Boston organizes interfaith conversation” at Christian Century.
See “The Psychedelic Beauty of Destroyed CDs” at Wired.
Read “The Smithsonian Just Opened a Manila Envelope and Discovered Four Yayoi Kusama Paintings It Had No Idea Existed” at Artnet.
Read “The Milky Way Sounds Like a Wacky Jazz Ensemble An astronomer translated the sounds of galactic gases into a piece of music” at Atlas Obscura.
Browse “All the Species Declared Extinct This Decade” at Gizmodo.
Read “In Our Brutal Modern World, Science Shows Our Brains Need Craft More Than Ever” at Science Alert.
Read “Invasive insect never-before seen in U.S. discovered at Port of Nogales The bug that was found during an inspection is part of the family of leafhoppers” at 12 News.
Read “Singing Mozart in the MRI shows how overtone singers can hit two notes at once” Aeon.
Read “How a White Lie Gave Japan KFC for Christmas One cunning business maneuver created a tradition and saved a franchise” at Atlas Obscura.
Browse Hop Culture’s picks for “The 20 Best Beer Label Designs of 2019.”
Read “The Return of Japan’s Female Sake Brewers Pushed out of brewing more than a century ago, they’re making a comeback” at Atlas Obscura.
Read “Ancient Egyptian 'head cone mystery' solved by archaeologists Researchers have long speculated about the purpose and meaning of pointy “head cones” depicted in Egyptian art. Now they’ve actually found the real thing” at National Geographic.
Read “The Story Behind ‘Green Boots’ Tsewang Paljor, Mount Everest’s Most Famous Dead Body” at All That’s Interesting.
See “Glowworm Tunnel An abandoned railroad tunnel is now filled with bioluminescent bugs” at Atlas Obscura.
Read “Why monsters haunt Christmas in Europe but not America” at QZ.
Read “Inside the New York Public Library’s Last, Secret Apartments” at Atlas Obscura.
Read “Red light cameras still going away, but speed radars may stay in Phoenix” at KTAR.
Read “Barrio Brewing Company turns over business to employees” at KOLD.
Read “SuperShuttle to end service to Phoenix airports in 3 weeks” at KTAR.
Read “Once affordable, Phoenix rents among fastest rising in US” at KTAR.