The Weekly Town Crier (04/17/20

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/17/20)

Read “Brian Dennehy, Burly Actor in 'First Blood,' 'Cocoon' and 'Death of a Salesman,' Dies at 81” at Hollywood Reporter.

Read “The pope just proposed a universal basic income. Is the United States ready for it?” at The Atlantic.

Read “On Christians Spreading Corona Conspiracies: Gullibility is not a Spiritual Gift” at Christianity Today.

Read “In Florida, Pro Wrestling Deemed Essential Business” at News and Guts.

Read “White House Seeks To Lower Farmworker Pay To Help Agriculture Industry” at NPR.

Read the opinion piece “The plague of Donald Trump” by Sarah Kendzior at Globe and Mail.

Read “Trump says Republicans would ‘never’ be elected again if it was easier to vote President dismissed Democratic-led push for voter reforms amid coronavirus pandemic during Fox & Friends appearance” at The Guardian.

WATCH: “Cuomo pushes back against Trump’s authority to re-open the economy” at PBS News Hour.

Read “The Woman Accusing Biden of Sexual Assault Filed a Report to Police. Here’s What You Need to Know” at Vice.

Read “Virginia governor makes Election Day a holiday and expands early voting” at CNN.

Read “Scotland's claim to fame as birthplace of the F-word revealed” at Scotsman.

Read “Speed: The Infinite Soup Can, Psychic Visigoths and The Beatles Going Fast” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

• Read “Dave Grohl’s Pandemic Playlist The Foo Fighters front man picks a song for your every quarantine mood” at The Atlantic.

• Read “What Does Apple Music’s $50 Million COVID-19 Fund Mean for Indie Labels? Reps from Saddle Creek, Partisan, Don Giovanni and others have mixed feelings about the tech giant's relief effort” at Pitchfork.

• Read “Record Stores: Coronavirus ‘Could Be the Death Knell’ For Indie Retailers Most shops were already scraping by, but many look for hope as the pandemic forces their doors closed” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “Trump Removed the Head of the Coronavirus Bailout Oversight Board. Its Members Could Be Next” at Pro Publica.

• Read “Sturgill Simpson Confirms COVID-19 Diagnosis Following Frustrating Attempts to Get Tested” at Billboard.

• Read “Belfast pub delivering pints of freshly-poured Guinness door-to-door during lockdown” at Irish Post.

• Read “The Police Power of the States to Control a Pandemic, Explained The federal government has the resources, but it’s the states that have the power” at The Dispatch.

• Read “A Month After Emergency Declaration, Trump's Promises Largely Unfulfilled” at NPR.

• Read the Opinion Piece: “The Huge Cost of Waiting to Contain the Pandemic As the numbers show, the timing of social distancing can have an enormous impact on death tolls” at New York Times.

• Read “Tax change in coronavirus package overwhelmingly benefits millionaires, congressional body finds” at Washington Post.

• Read “Virginia pastor who defiantly held church service dies of coronavirus” at New York Post.

• Read “Live Concerts Won’t Return Until “Fall 2021 at the Earliest,” Health Expert Warns” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Mountain Goats Release New Album Songs for Pierre Chuvin: Listen John Darnielle’s first boombox album since 2002’s All Hail West Texas” at Pitchfork.

Read “Sturgill Simpson Pens Emotional Goodbye To John Prine” at Whiskey Riff.

• Read “John Prine: The Last Days and Beautiful Life of an American Original His wife, Fiona, son Jody, and others remember a big-hearted genius who championed new artists and made the most of the small things in life” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “John Prine, A Beacon of Middle America by Erin Osmon at No Depression.

• Read/Watch/Listen “John Prine :: Sessions At West 54th” Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “'Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar' (excerpt)” at Pop Matters. “Ravi Shankar was bemused by the Beatles and others using the sitar in rock music.”

Read “Ticketmaster changes refund policy amid COVID-19 outbreak” at Lambgoat.

Read “David Nelson Reflects on Writing and Recording with Robert Hunter” at Relix.

Read “Spacemen 3’s Peter Kember On Analog Synths, Plant Life, And His New Album as Sonic Boom” at Vinyl Me Please.

Read “How Independent Music Could Suffer If Trump Kills the U.S. Postal Service” at Pitchfork.

Read “‘Robin Hood’ Animated Film Getting Disney Remake” at Variety.

Read “Carole Baskin Feels ‘So Angry’ That Tiger King Made Her Look Like a Husband-Murderer” at Vulture.

Read “Wes Anderson Lists Movies to Watch In Quarantine The veteran filmmaker is also a big fan of Jimmy McGill” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Beverly Cleary, Creator of Mighty Girl "Ramona Quimby," Celebrates Her 104th Birthday” at A Mighty Girl.

Hear “Christopher Walken reads Where The Wild Things Are” at For Reading Addicts.

Read “How Orange (the Fruit) Inspired Orange (the Color) Until the Renaissance, the English language had no word for yellow-red” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “When the Government Banned PBR, Pabst Made Cheese Instead Selling dairy products helped the brewery survive Prohibition” at Atlas Obscura.

The Weekly Town Crier (04/03/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/03/20).

Read “Remembering Doug Clark, a mysterious icon of the Phoenix punk music underground” at AZ Central.

Read “Ellis Marsalis, New Orleans jazz piano legend hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms, dies” at Nola.

Read “R.I.P. Bill Withers, “Lean on Me” and “Lovely Day” Singer, Dies at 81 The legendary crooner passed away from heart complications” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger Dead at 52 From COVID-19” at PitchforkI.

Consider “Should Christians Participate in Boycotts?” with Alan Noble at Christian Research Institute.

Coronavirus Weekly Roundup:Education:

• Read “A coronavirus outbreak in jails or prisons could turn into a nightmare Experts warn prisons and jails aren’t ready for a pandemic — and that could hurt everyone else too” at Vox.

• Read “Rodney Howard-Browne, Megachurch Pastor Who Flouted Virus Rules, Arrested” at The Daily Beast.

• Read “Liberty University Brings Back Its Students, and Coronavirus Fears, Too The decision by the school’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., to partly reopen his evangelical university enraged residents of Lynchburg, Va. Then students started getting sick” at the New York Times.

• Read “Hobby Lobby Closes Stores, Slashes Salaries Following 'God Is in Control' Remarks and Social Media Has Thoughts” at PopCulture.

• Read “Over 1,200 people attend Louisiana church service, defying coronavirus ban: "We will continue" at CBS News.

• Read “Roy Moore, ex-Alabama chief justice, to aid Central church defying coronavirus order” at The Advocate.

• Read “Some evangelicals deny the coronavirus threat. It’s because they love tough guys. White evangelical conservatives don’t take the novel coronavirus seriously because they believe in a muscular Christianity” at Washington Post.

• Read “Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It's Not Supposed To” at Time

• Read “John Prine Hospitalized With COVID-19 Symptoms” at Jambands.

• Read “I'm a Doctor Recovering From COVID-19. I Can't Get Over the Government's Callousness for Human Life” at Time.

• Read “General Electric Workers Launch Protest, Demand to Make Ventilators GE workers who normally make jet engines say their facilities are sitting idle while the country faces a dire ventilator shortage” at Vice.

• Read “Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issues statewide stay-at-home order” at KTAR.

• Read “ Honeywell Hiring 500 in Phoenix to Make Millions of N-95 Masks Each Month” at Phoenix.gov.

• Read “Netflix's Tiger King star Joe Exotic hospitalised after contracting coronavirus in prison” at The Mirror.

• Read “Brian Kemp Is What You Get When Allegiance to Trump Is All That Matters Georgia’s Republican governor announced his reversal on social distancing policies with a stunning admission” at The Esquire.

• Read “Florida officials: Arrested pastor not exonerated by new order listing religious services as ‘essential’ at Religion News Service.

Read “Bernie Sanders says he’s staying in the presidential race. Many Democrats fear a reprise of their 2016 defeat” at Washington Post.

Read “Last Call: Neal Casal and the Dangerous Thing We’re Afraid to Talk About” at Premier Guitar.

Read “Robert Plant interview: my life after Led Zeppelin. It's been a long time since Robert Plant fronted the biggest band in the world, and now, at 71, he’s enjoying the fourth decade of a successful solo career” at Louder Sound.

Read “The My Generation: An Oral History Of Myspace Music Myspace changed the way we discovered music and fell apart after conquering the world” at Stereogum.

Read “Miles Davis’ ‘Bitches Brew’ At 50” at Tidal.

Check out “Stevie Wonder :: @ The Rainbow Theatre — London, 01/31/74” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Listen and Download “Herbie Hancock & the Headhunters :: 1974 – Bremen, Germany” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Chuck D Says Flavor Flav’s Public Enemy Firing Was a Hoax to Promote New Album” at Pitchfork.

Read “Hasbro releases every episode of 80’s G.I. Joe animated series on YouTube” at Arrow In The Head.

Read “You Can Now Binge-Watch Every Single Episode of The French Chef with Julia Child” at Taste Of Home.

See “20+ People Who Discovered Their Art History Doppelgängers at Museums” at My Modern Net.

See “Incredibly Realistic Paintings Look Like They’re Wrapped in Plastic Film” at My Modern Net.

See “Museum Asks People To Recreate Paintings With Stuff They Can Find at Home, Here Are The Results” at Sad and Useless.

Read “Gannett, publisher of The Arizona Republic, announces unpaid furloughs” at AZ Central.

Read “Arizona arts telethon has tons of content for all ages. Here's how to stream it this week” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (03/27/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (03/20/20).

Read “Legendary country singer Kenny Rogers dies at 81” at CNN.

Read “Tres Warren Of Psychic Ills Dead At 41” at Stereogum.

Read “Mike Longo, Prominent Jazz Pianist Known For His Tenure with Dizzy Gillespie, Dies at 83” at WBGO.

Read “Albert Uderzo, a creator of French hero Asterix, dies at 92” at Art Canvas.

Read “Ray Mantilla, Percussionist Who Blazed a Trail in Both Jazz and Latin Music, Is Dead at 85” at WBGO.

Read “Sax maestro Manu Dibango has died from Covid-19, aged 86” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Playwright Terrence McNally, 81, dies of coronavirus-related complications” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Dear Liberty University board: Please stop Jerry Falwell Jr. before it’s too late” at Religion News Service.

• Read “Jerry Falwell Jr. is inviting some students back to Liberty University amid pandemic, argues he’s ‘protecting’ them” at News and Guts.

Read “If you can’t go to confession, take your sorrow directly to God, pope says” at Crux News.

Read “Robert Jeffress suggests that Tim Keller is a “wimpy Christian” who has “cloaked” his “cowardice in theology” at The Way of Improvement.

Coronavirus Weekly Roundup:

• Read “Coronavirus: Rough sleepers in London given hotel rooms” at BBC.

• Read “Vinyl Delivery? How Local Record Stores Are Adjusting to Coronavirus Concerns” at Phoenix New Times.

• Read “‘I’m going to keep pushing.’ Anthony Fauci tries to make the White House listen to facts of the pandemic The infectious disease researcher has become America’s most trusted coronavirus expert” at News and Guts.

• Watch “How to practice #SocialDistancing, according to the films of #WesAnderson. Edited by Luís Azevedo” at Little White Lies’ Youtube page.

• Read “Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear for Their Safety As bigots blame them for the coronavirus and President Trump labels it the “Chinese virus,” many Chinese-Americans say they are terrified of what could come next” at The New York Times.

• Read “DOJ Wants to Suspend Certain Constitutional Rights During Coronavirus Emergency The Department of Justice has secretly asked Congress for the ability to detain arrested people “indefinitely” in addition to other powers that one expert called “terrifying” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “Volunteers produce 3D-printed valves for life-saving coronavirus treatments 101 Volunteers made the valves for about $1” at The Verge.

• Read “R.E.M's Mike Mills on why It's the End of the World resonates during the COVID-19 pandemic Social Sharing For the record, he still feels fine” at CBC.

• Read “Trump says he wants the country 'opened up and just raring to go by Easter'" at CNN.

• Read “White supremacists encouraging their members to spread coronavirus to cops, Jews, FBI says” at ABC NEWS.

• Read “Arizona national-forest campgrounds are closed due to coronavirus. Here's what we know” at AZ Central.

  • Read “National Park Service to waive entrance fees at open parks to aid social distancing” at CNN.

• Read “Conservative churches need to get the social distancing memo” at Religion News.

• Read “How Panic Buying Affects Our Personal Finances For many, it will lead to overspending, credit card debt, and greater anxiety” at Psychology Today.

• Read “Target Spends $300 Million To Give Raises, Paid Leave To Workers” at Forbes.

• Read “How the Pandemic Will End The U.S. may end up with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the industrialized world. This is how it’s going to play out” at The Atlantic.

• Read “Senate Passes $2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Package” at NPR.

• Read “NY Gov. Cuomo Counters Trump: Don’t Put a Dollar Figure on Human Life” at News And Guts.

• Read “Fact Check: Trump Compares Coronavirus To The Flu, But It Could Be 10 Times Deadlier” at NPR.

• Read “The coronavirus is now the American virus As deaths and infections mount, our historic failure to stop the outbreak will become a dark lesson” at The Verge.

• Read “#GenX is Trending on Twitter Because of How They're Handling Coronavirus—Here's Why” at Parade.

• Read “The U.S. Now Leads the World in Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Following a series of missteps, the nation is now the epicenter of the pandemic” at New York Times.

• Read “Jackson Browne Tests Positive for COVID-19, Shares New Song “A Little Soon to Say” at Jambands.

Read “Wisconsin Humane Society Finds Home for Every Animal Up for Adoption: 'We’re Near Tears'“ at Yahoo.

Read “GOP Congressman Blasts Sen. Richard Burr For Suspicious Stock Sale” at News and Guts.

Read “Federal Reserve to lend additional $1 trillion a day to large banks” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Beatles’ Iconic Abbey Road Crosswalk Gets Repainted Because Nobody Is Outside The London landmark, which is usually clogged with tourist traffic, gets a fresh coat” at Pitchfork.

Read “The lost art of deep listening: Choose an album. Lose the phone. Close your eyes” at Yahoo News.

Watch “Neil Young’s Stunning First Fireside Session Got a Little Weird: Watch Including performances of "Vampire Blues", "Razor Love", and "Tell Me Why" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Never-Ending Couch Tour: How Livestreams and Social Media Have Already Transformed Live Music” at Pitchfork.

Read “Sinéad O'Connor Is Still In One Piece” at Washington Post.

Read “Musicians Earned $4.3 Million From Bandcamp on Friday Nearly 800,000 items were sold on the day the site waived its revenue shares” at Pitchfork.

Read “Track By Track: African Head Charge - Songs Of Praise Ahead of the mighty reissue of the dub ensemble's back catalogue, band leader Bonjo guides us through one of his favourite albums...” at Ransom Note.

Read “Nine Inch Nails Release Two New Albums ‘Ghosts V - VI’ For Free Download” at Revolver.

Read “Montreux Jazz Festival Releases More Than 50 Full Sets from Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Should Music’s Biggest Companies Be Doing More to Help Right Now? Spotify, Amazon, Warner Music Group, and other major music companies are donating to coronavirus relief — but how do the acts stack up against meaningful measures elsewhere in the industry?” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Bob Weir Shares “Gymming Playlist” for Active Deadheads” at Jambands.

Read “Wes Anderson Made His ‘French Dispatch’ Cast Watch These 5 Movies Before Filming Wes Anderson fans might want to prioritize watching these five French classics before the July 24 release of "The French Dispatch." at Indie Wire.

Read “Japan’s Toei Launches YouTube Channel for Classic Tokusatsu Shows” at Variety.

Read “David Lynch Is Coming to Disney+ in April, So Get Your Children Ready” at Indie Wire.

Read “Using Art to Expose What Government Hides: An Interview With Laurie Anderson” at The Nation.

See the “‘Where’s Waldo’ Coronavirus Edition Is Here And It’s A Tad Easier To Spot Waldo Than Usual” at Bored Panda.

See “Rooms From Famous Paintings Brought to Life With Realistic CG Renditions” at My Modern Met.

Read “The Oregon Creamery Making Vodka From Milk” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “KEZ will bring a little cheer to the airwaves with Christmas music. Here's when to tune in” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (03/20/20)

All the week's news that's fit to cry about (03/20/20)

Read “Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Dead at 70 The Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV co-founder was diagnosed with leukemia in 2017” at Pitchfork.

Read/Listen to “Survey: White Evangelicals See Trump As 'Honest' And 'Morally Upstanding'“ at NPR. And stay tuned for more news from the Isaiah 5:20 channel soon!

Read “White Christians: Trump May Not Be a Good Person, But He Is a Good President New Pew Research data details the mixed feelings among Trump’s faithful supporters” at Christianity Today.

Read “Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to ‘flatten the curve’ at Washington Post.

• Read “America Is a Sham Policy changes in reaction to the coronavirus reveal how absurd so many of our rules are to begin with” at Salon.

• Browse “Coronavirus: Updated List of Tours and Festivals Canceled or Postponed Due to COVID-19” at Pitchfork.

  • Read “Record Store Day 2020 Postponed Due to Coronavirus Concerns The global music event has been moved from April to June” at Pitchfork.

  • Read “Coronavirus Should Be a Turning Point for the Music Industry” at Vulture.

• Read “Trump Dissolved Pandemic Response Team Because He Doesn't Like Having People Around "When You Don't Need Them" at Paste.

• Read “He Has 17,700 Bottles Of Hand Sanitizer And Nowhere To Sell Them. Amazon cracked down on coronavirus price gouging. Now while the rest of the world searches, some sellers are holding stockpiles of sanitizer and masks.

• Read “Racist Attacks Against Asians Continue to Rise as the Coronavirus Threat Grows” at People.

• Read/Listen to “When School Is The Safest Place For Kids; Concerns Over School Closures For Low-Income Students” at KJZZ.

• Read “AMC Theatres to Close All U.S. Locations as Cinemas Across the Country Go Dark” at Hollywood Reporter.

  • Read “NBCUniversal Breaks Theatrical Window, Will Make Movies Available On Demand Immediately” at Hollywood Reporter.

• Read “Amazon Will Cease Stocking Vinyl Records Due to Coronavirus The retail giant needs to make room on its shelves for more essential items” at Consequence of Sound.

  • Read “Bandcamp Waives Revenue Shares to Support Musicians During COVID-19 Outbreak The platform will not collect their cut of sales for 24 hours on March 20 in an attempt to “put much needed money directly into artists’ pockets” at Pitchfork.

• Read “Coronavirus Could Decimate Touring Musicians’ Livelihoods” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “America begins drinking at home With states and cities shutting down bars and restaurants, the government response to the coronavirus outbreak enters a new phase” at Politico.

• Read “Need to stock your pantry? These L.A. restaurants are temporarily flipping to corner stores.” at Time Out.

• Read “Russia deploying coronavirus disinformation to sow panic in West, EU document says” at MSN.

Read “Moog and Korg make synth apps free to help musicians stuck at home” at Engadget.

In honor of Phil Lesh’s 80th birthday listen to the official “In The Phil Zone” mix from the Grateful Dead at Spotify.

Download the new John McLaughlin, Shankar Mahadevan, Zakir Hussain album for free at Bandcamp.

Read “You can now download over 300,000 books from the NYPL for free” at Time Out.

The Weekly Town Crier (02/14/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (02/14/20).

Read “Wes Wilson, Psychedelic Poster Pioneer, Dies at 82 His work announced concerts by the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and more — to those who could read them.” at New York Times.

Read/Listen to “Robert Conrad, star of TV's 'The Wild, Wild West,' dies at 84” at 12 News.

Read “Joseph Shabalala, Ladysmith Black Mambazo founder, dies aged 78” at The Guardian.

Read “Lyle Mays, Evocative Pianist Who Helped Define The Pat Metheny Group, Is Dead at 66” at WBGO.

Read “Acts 29 CEO Removed Amid 'Accusations of Abusive Leadership' Steve Timmis was acclaimed for his model of close church community. But former members claim that inside The Crowded House, he resorted to bullying and control” Christianity Today.

Read “Christian activist to sue NFL because Shakira and J-Lo performances endangered his eternal soul” at Raw Story.

Read “Can Christianity be a counterforce to finance capitalism? “Religious vocation sits very uneasily with individual self-advancement.” at Christian Century.

Read “After a Backlash, Nashville’s Belmont University Says It Will Let Non-Christian Art Professors Teach After All Watkins College of Art, which is being absorbed, was originally told that Belmont had a firm no non-Christians policy” at Artnet.

Read “A German Jew Vows To Fight On To Remove Anti-Semitic Sculpture After Court Defeat” at NPR.

Read “John Ortberg Investigated After Church Volunteer Confessed Attraction to Minors Menlo Church said the senior pastor showed “poor judgment” in allowing the member to work with children and failing to notify other staff” at Christianity Today.

Read/Listen to “Brené Brown Strong Back, Soft Front, Wild Heart” at On Being.

Read “Despite Stigma, More Divorced Evangelicals Are Going to Church Their attendance outpaces other traditions, but still lags far behind married evangelicals” at Christianity Today.

Read “Breaking Out of the White Evangelical Echo Chamber Putting faithful witness ahead of political expediency starts with changing surroundings, words, and friendships” at Christianity Today.

Read “Ron Carpenter was promised $6.25M retirement payout in transition plan with John Gray, court docs say” at Christian Post.

Read World Magazine’s opinion piece “The gospel according to Pete Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks often of his religion—but he tailors it to fit his politics, and it focuses on works over faith.”

Read “Billie Eilish Can Help Us Understand Teenage Anxiety The Grammy-award winning teen’s dark music can help us have necessary conversations with our children” at Christianity Today.

Read “Pope Francis Won't Allow Married Men As Priests, Women As Deacons” at NPR.

Read “Time To Delete Your Church’s Facebook Page?” “"Seventy percent of U.S. adults use Facebook, so the platform has effectively made itself the public square. Facebook is that worst possible spawn of the capitalist system—an unregulated monopoly” at Sojourners.

Read “Are Nationalism and Populism the Cure for What Ails the West? The “strong gods” of old are knocking at the door. We ought to be wary of letting them inside” at Christianity Today.

Read “Barbie debuts Rosa Parks doll as part of series honoring iconic women” at AL.com.

Read “Police Offering Drug Recovery Help: 'We Can't Arrest Our Way Out Of This Problem'“ at NPR.

Read “Masked white nationalists march in Washington with police escort” Yahoo News.

Read “Trump ‘Is Not a Racist’ Because the ‘People Who Wash Dishes’ at Mar-a-Lago ‘Love Him,’ Says Ben Carson “The people who drive the cars and park the cars at Mar-a-Lago, they love him, because he’s kind and compassionate,” the housing secretary said” at Rolling Stone.

Read “In The 1920s, 1 In 3 Eligible Men In Dallas Were KKK Members” at WBUR.

Read “Virginia lawmakers approve Confederate statue removal bills” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Many Mississippi prisoners kept locked up past release dates due to housing shortage” at Mississippi Today.

Read “Pakistan Court Rules That Men Can Marry Underage Girls After They've Had Their First Period The ruling comes in direct violation of the Child Marriage Restraint Act” at Global Citizen.

Read “Are Gun Owners Happier And Do They Sleep Better? UA Study Says No” at KJZZ.

Read “After Flint Water Crisis, Number Of Students With Special Education Needs Spikes” at WBUR.

Read/Listen to “World's 1st 3D Printed Neighborhood Being Built In Mexico” at WBUR.

Read “QAnon’ conspiracy theory creeps into mainstream politics” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Navy Pilot Who Filmed the ‘Tic Tac’ UFO Speaks: ‘It Wasn’t Behaving by the Normal Laws of Physics’” at The Intelligencer.

Read “The Age of Decadence Cut the drama. The real story of the West in the 21st century is one of stalemate and stagnation.” at New York Times.

Read “"You wouldn't think you'd go to jail over medical bills": County in rural Kansas is jailing people over unpaid medical debt” at CBS News.

Read “Trump says Coronavirus will be gone by April when the weather gets warmer, doesn't offer scientific explanation” at AZ Central.

Read “Nearly 1 in 3 American workers run out of money before payday—even those earning over $100,000” at CNBC.

Read “Not welcome: Gay students, parents are denied service in Florida’s publicly funded voucher schools” at Orlando Sentinel.

Read “President Trump Is Trying to Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts—Again—in His Just-Released 2021 Budget Proposal” at Artnet.

Read “Trump administration moves ahead on shrinking Utah monuments” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Trump Charges Secret Service up to $650 a Night for a Room in His Properties Add this to the long list of the president’s grifts” at Rolling Stone.

Read “'Not Guilty': Trump Acquitted On 2 Articles Of Impeachment As Historic Trial Closes” at NPR.

• Read “Trump fires key impeachment witnesses Sondland, Lt. Col. Vindman in purge The officials provided critical testimony during the House inquiry into the president's conduct with Ukraine” at NBC News.

Read “Mike Bloomberg Is Paying ‘Influencers’ to Make Him Seem Cool” at Daily Beast.

Read “Pelosi Delivers Another Resistance Meme, and Nothing Else The House Speaker theatrically ripped up a speech that she gave Trump a platform to deliver” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Trump’s New Budget Goes After Social Safety Net Programs The budget calls for cuts to Medicaid and food stamps while asking tax-payers to pay billions for the president’s wall” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Tech Entrepreneur Andrew Yang Drops Out Of 2020 Presidential Race” at NPR.

Read “Barr takes control of legal matters of interest to Trump, including Stone sentencing Attorney General William Barr's intervention in Roger Stone's case wasn't the first time senior political appointees reached into a case involving an ex-Trump aide, officials say” at NBC News.

• Read “William Barr Supported Pardons In An Earlier D.C. 'Witch Hunt': Iran-Contra” at NPR.

Read “Senate GOP blocks three election security bills” at The Hill.

Read “The Great Affordability Crisis Breaking America In one of the best decades the American economy has ever recorded, families were bled dry” at The Atlantic.

Read/Listen to “The Day America Went Dry: Looking Back At Prohibition 100 Years Later” at WBUR.

Read “Good Looks Alone Do Not Make You Attractive: There’s Much More To It…We live in a world where many like to think that attractiveness is all about having good looks and a cool taste for fashion” at I Heart Intelligence.

Read “Who decides what words mean Bound by rules, yet constantly changing, language might be the ultimate self-regulating system, with nobody in charge” at Aeon.

Read/Listen to “Antarctica just hit 64.9 degrees - its highest temperature ever recorded” at WHAS11.

Read “Bill & Melinda Gates Add Climate Change and Gender Equality to Foundation's Priorities” at Global Citizen.

Read “Native burial sites blown up for US border wall” at BBC.

Read/Listen to “Capturing The Undersung Blues People Of The Rural South” at NPR.

Read “10 Songs by The Clash That Made Films Better Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, and Judd Apatow are all fans” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Devastating” Manufacturing Plant Fire Threatens Worldwide Vinyl Record Supply Third Man Records’ Ben Blackwell says the destruction of Apollo Masters’ California facility “will present a problem for the vinyl industry worldwide” at Pitchfork.

Read “Fan designs impressive Tool LEGO set that has a chance to be manufactured” at Consequence of Sound.

Read/Watch/Listen to “Family Of Bob Marley Releases New Animated Video For “Redemption Song” at Live For Live Music.

Read “Sufjan Stevens Announces New Album With His Stepfather Lowell, Shares Song” at Pitchfork.

Read/Listen to “For Bob Marley's 75th Birthday, Ziggy Marley Reflects On His Father's Legacy” at NPR.

Read “Blind Faith: The Meteoric Rise & Rapid Fall Of Clapton, Baker, Winwood, And Grech’s 1969 Supergroup” at Live For Live Music.

Read/Listen to “Fascination, Friendship And Desire: Kathleen Hanna On The Reign Of 'Rebel Girl' at NPR’s American Anthem series.

Watch “A Brief History of Dad Rock” by Pitchfork.

Read “Putting their necks on the line one gig at a time” at the Sydney Morning Herald.

Browse “5 Movie Soundtracks That Rescued Great Musicians From Obscurity” at Pitchfork.

Read “Take one: lost Dave Brubeck tapes reveal jazz hit originally sounded like ‘a bad student band’ at The Guardian.

Read “Nina Simone’s rare 1982 album, Fodder On My Wings, to be reissued Until now, the album's commercial availability has been sporadic at best” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Voice Offers A Sonic Refuge” at NPR. “Last year, a live recording of a performance from late Pakistani vocal master Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was released from the archives after 35 years. The album, 'Live at WOMAD 1985,' captures Khan at his vocal prime and at his most traditional, performing in the South Asian musical style of qawwali.”

See “John Frusciante Perform With Red Hot Chili Peppers Members for First Time Since Reunion” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Yo La Tengo on the Pros and Cons of Being a Self-Managed Band” at Spotify.

Read “Pussy Riot Say Russian Police Shut Down Video Shoot, Citing “Gay Propaganda” The “БЕСИТ / RAGE” shoot was thwarted at a cost of $15,000, the group says” at Pitchfork.

Read “Kamasi Washington releasing new concert film from Apollo Theater” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Bauhaus, Morrissey, Blondie, Devo, Bunnymen, P-Furs & lots more playing LA’s Cruel World fest at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Heavy Metal, Year One: The Inside Story of Black Sabbath’s Groundbreaking Debut Half a century since Ozzy Osbourne first bellowed, “What is this that stands before me?” the band and their collaborators look back on the album that kick-started a worldwide movement” at Rolling Stone.

Read “RPM Records: Sustainable Vinyl Pressing In Europe!” at Discogs.

Read “Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Stephen Stills and More Will Perform at ‘Light Up The Blues’ Autism Benefit” at Jambands.

Read “Carol Kaye: The Boss of the Bass Guitar” at Please Kill Me.

Read “Bassist Admits to Burning Churches to “Raise His Profile as a Black Metal Musician” Holden Matthews will be sentenced to at least 10 years in prison on May 22nd” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “A Code Switch Playlist For Black History Month” at NPR.

Read “Remembering Richard Flower, an unsung player in the Gin Blossoms' origin story” at AZ Central.

Read ‘The Whole System Collapsed’: Inside the Music Industry’s Ongoing Distribution Crisis ‘It’s amazing how a company most have never heard of can bring the U.S. music industry to its knees,’ said one label exec struggling to get his artists’ records into stores” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Universal Confirms Nirvana, Beck, Sonic Youth, Elton John Masters Damaged in Warehouse Fire Works by Soundgarden, R.E.M., Jimmy Eat World, and others were also lost in the 2008 blaze” at Pitchfork.

Browse “8 Pitchfork Staffers on Their Favorite Music Moments in Recent Movies” at Pitchfork.

Read “Netflix reveals the 9 shows and movies it's pulled at the request of the world's governments” at News.AV Club.

Read “Be Kind. Please Rewind: An Ode to the VCR” at Pop Matters.

Read “The Rise Of The Single-Shot Movie In A Hyper-Edited World” at NPR. “Once editing was invented, one-shot movies seemed primitive. But in the past 20 years, the number of one-shot feature films rose 500%.”

“Let's unpack this whimsical, detailed poster for Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch” at AV Club.

Read “Disney Didn’t Just Buy ‘Hamilton’ for $75 Million; It Bought a Potential Franchise Disney wants to bring the Lin-Manuel Miranda brand under the same corporate umbrella as Marvel and "Star Wars." at Indie Wire.

Read “Keith Richards quits smoking The Rolling Stones guitarist admitted that kicking heroin was easier than stopping smoking” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Famous Authors Are Writing Books for a Time Capsule Library None of Us Will Ever See” at Bookish Buzz.

Read “Finally, Van Gogh Gets His Own Action Figure, And Yes, You Can Detach His Ear” at Demilked.

Read “President Trump Wants to Make ‘Federal Buildings Beautiful Again’ With a New Executive Order That Echoes Fascist History” at Artnet.

Read “Thorncrown Chapel This futuristically sylvan church is a glass-enclosed marvel of modern architecture” at Atlas Obscura.

See “Someone In Bulgaria Is Putting Googly Eyes On Broken Street Objects, And It’s Even Better Than Fixing Things” at Bored Panda.

Read “A Small Pennsylvania Museum Just Discovered It Has Owned a Rembrandt for 70 Years Without Knowing It” at Artnet.

Read “Foucault Pendulum at the Franklin Institute A daily replay of the experiment that proved the rotation of the Earth” at Atlas Obscura. “The four-story Foucault pendulum at the Franklin Institute has now been swinging for more than 80 years.”

Read “The name you’re given as a child might affect the shape of your face” at Quartz.

Read/hear “The Trump Administration Is 'Silencing Science,' Environmental Law Expert Says” at WBUR.

Read “For Kid's Coughs, Swap The Over-The-Counter Syrups For Honey” at NPR.

Read “Researchers Link Autism To A System That Insulates Brain Wiring” at NPR.

Read “'Ghost' DNA In West Africans Complicates Story Of Human Origins” at NPR.

Read “Mad Honey This hallucinogenic honey can sell for over $60 a pound on the black market. This pollinated honey can pack a hallucinogenic punch” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “How Dried Cod Became a Norwegian Staple and an Italian Delicacy” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “All About Books and Comics is Closing in April” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “O'odham sacred site near Lukeville blasted for border wall construction” at AZ Central.

Read “President Trump hosting rally in Phoenix February 19” at 12 News.

Read “'No One Claims Responsibility': Amid Rising Homelessness, Phoenix and Its Largest Shelter Are Out of Sync” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “The Whole Family Will Love A Trip To This Bigfoot-Themed Restaurant In Arizona” at Only In Your State.

Read “Poll: Arizona Voters Support Tougher Gun Laws By 8:1 Margin” at KJZZ.

Read “Rep. Raul Grijalva: Border Wall Construction Doing Irreparable Damage” at KJZZ.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/24/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/24/20).

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.

• Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

Read “Singer-songwriter David Olney dies on stage at age 71” at CNN.

Read “Jazz Saxophone Legend Jimmy Heath Has Died” at NPR.

Read “Terry Jones, Monty Python Co-Founder and Comedy Polymath, Dead at 77” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Jim Lehrer, journalist who co-founded PBS' nightly newscast, dead at 85” at NBC.

Read “When Your Theology of Pain Is Painfully Bad” at Mockingbird.

Read “The Heresy of Christian Nationalism” at John Pavlovitz.

Read “Kindness, kinship, and the boundaries of justice The virtue of kindness depends on who we see as kin” at Christian Century.

Read “70% of people in local jails are not convicted of any crime” at Prison Policy.

Read “Depressive realism We keep chasing happiness, but true clarity comes from depression and existential angst. Admit that life is hell, and be free” at Aeon. “What if depression is the collapse of the illusions that help us cope with a truly depressing reality?”

Read “Indiana's Oldest State Worker Is Retiring At 102: 'I've Been A Pretty Lucky Guy'" at NPR.

Read “The Mysterious “Order of the Odd Fellows” that frankly, belongs in a Wes Anderson Movie” at Messyness Chic. “A secret society that outnumbered the Freemasons at one point. But had you ever heard of them??”

Read “Patagonia’s CEO is donating company’s entire $10M Trump tax cut to fight climate change.” at Upworthy.

Read “If the National Archives Blurs Anti-Trump Speech From Its Exhibits, Is It Really an Archive?” at The Root.

Read “The National Archives Has Apologized For Altering A Photo To Remove Criticisms Of Trump” at Buzzfeed.

Read “Italy passes law to send unsold food to charities instead of dumpsters Italy joins growing list of countries looking to end food-waste” at Global Citizen.

Read “Richmond Gun Rally: Thousands Of Gun Owners Converge On Virginia Capitol On MLK Day” at NPR.

Read “Football and Brain Trauma – Recommended Books” at Englewood Review of Books.

Read “Why Do You Think They Cross the Border?” by John Pavlovitz.

Read “High School Transforms Hallways Into Iconic Book Covers” at For Reading Addicts.

Read “Trump Administration to Roll Back Obama School Lunch Rules” at News and Guts.

Read “Pelosi impeachment manager is calling for McConnell’s recusal from Trump Senate trial” at Miami Herald.

• Read/watch “Lev Parnas remarks on role of Devin Nunes in Trump Ukraine Scheme” at MSNBC.

Read “NRA Was 'Foreign Asset' To Russia Ahead of 2016, New Senate Report Reveals” at NPR.

Read “Trump’s Plan to Reduce Trade Deficit Falters as It Hits an All-Time High Instead” at Fortune.

Read “In a break with convention, the editorial board has chosen to endorse two separate Democratic candidates for president” at New York Times.

Read “Wiggles member Greg Page goes into cardiac arrest during reunion concert” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “M.I.A. receives M.B.E. from Prince William” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Without Small Venues, the UK Doesn't Have a Music Industry How many more have to be railroaded by rent hikes and property developers before we lose our grassroots scenes completely?” at Vice.

Read “Nick Cave says Kanye West is currently “our greatest artist” "There is no musician on Earth that is as committed to their own derangement as Kanye" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Radiohead Add Rarities to Streaming Services in Online Archive Launch The Radiohead Public Library corrals band trivia, visuals, HD performances, rare songs and merchandise, and more” at PItchfork.

Read “The Wall of Sound The untold story of the Grateful Dead's short-lived mega PA, arguably the largest, most technologically innovative sound system ever built” at Vice.

Read “Why We Need MTV Now More Than Ever The struggle to find music in a world with too many options and not enough community” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Aerosmith Drummer Sues Band for Excluding Him Ahead of Grammys” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Josh Klinghoffer on Red Hot Chili Peppers Exit: ‘Complete Shock But Not a Surprise’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “‘Punky Brewster’ Is Coming Back to Traumatize a Whole New Generation” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Quentin Tarantino plans to write and direct Bounty Law series He also teases his tenth movie may have a connection to his first” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Joe Pera Talks With You’ Is the Best Thing Adult Swim Has Ever Done The comedian plays a gentle, Mr. Rogers-like figure who navigates our anxiety-ridden world with unfailing kindness” at Vice.

Read “Ozzy Osbourne Reveals Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosis” at Rolling Stone.

Read “A vending machine for books” at Bookish Buzz.

Read: The Secrets of The ‘80’s New York Art Scene - As Told By John Lurie.”

Read “Hoverboarding dentist found guilty of 'unlawful dental acts' at NBC.

Read “In 1930s New York, the Mayor Took on the Mafia by Banning Artichokes” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Ranking says Phoenix is a top 50 city in the world, top 20 large city in the US” at KTAR.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/03/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/03/20).

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.

• Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

• Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

Read/Hear “The Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions Read by Bob Dylan” at Open Culture.

Read “Lee Mendelson, ‘Peanuts’ Producer and ‘Christmas Time Is Here’ Co-Writer, Dead at 86” at Rolling Stone.

Read “R.I.P. Don Imus, veteran radio broadcaster dies at 79” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Broadway Legend Jerry Herman Is Dead At 88” at NPR.

Read “Cult Rockabilly Star Sleepy LaBeef Dead at 84” at Pitchfork.

Read “R.I.P. Jack Sheldon, Schoolhouse Rock! singer and jazz musician dead at 88” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “When a Dragon Tried to Eat Jesus: The Nativity Story We Don’t Talk About” at Mockingbird.

Read “There’s No Shame When A Miracle Doesn’t Come” at Christianity Today. “God didn’t #WakeUpOlive, but the gospel teaches Christ’s solidarity with suffering.”

Read “Trump campaign selects Apostolic Miami megachurch for evangelicals campaign roll-out” at Yahoo News.

• Read “The Evangelical War Over Impeachment Has Been A Long Time Coming” at Talking Points Memo.

Read “11 Nigerian Christians Executed in ISIS Christmas Video” at Christianity Today.

Read “Conservative Protestant Men Are Still Resisting Porn Sociological data suggests that churchgoing men engage pornography at a vastly lower rate than others” at Christianity Today.

Read “Greece's first and only crematorium opens despite pushback from the church” at PRI.

Read “Why Christianity Has Thrived in the U.S.” at Time. “Between 1870 and 1960, Christianity declined across Europe. But not in the U.S.” Hint: “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

Read “Christianity Today’s Editorial May Be Watershed Moment For 2020” at Sojourners.

Read “I and Thou: A Bigfoot Encounter It’s possible, even likely, that somehow all of us, even those among us who pay close attention, have missed something” at Guernica Magazine.

Read “Churches Are Saving Ethiopia’s Last Remaining Native Trees” at Christianity Today.

Read “Good Guys’ Carrying Guns & a Savior Who Carried a Cross” at Red Letter Christians.

Read “Has family become an idol? The Bible gives no sense that the family is an end in itself” at Christian Century.

Read “The Strangeness of Grief” at New Yorker. “We are never finished with grief. It is part of the fabric of living. Love makes memories and life precious; the grief that comes to us is proportionate to that love and is inescapable.”

Read “Mexican police chief arrested in connection to Mormon family massacre” at 12 News.

Read “Ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn fled Japan ‘hiding in double bass case on private jet’ while awaiting trial for corruption” at The Sun.

In headlines that feel like we shouldn’t have to deal with in 2020: Read “West Virginia Governor Approves Firing All Cadets Who Posed In Nazi-Like Salute Photo” at NPR.

Read “Buttigieg Getting Dragged For Saying Constitution Signers Didn't Know Slavery Was Bad” at The Root.

Read “Illinois governor clears thousands of marijuana convictions” at PBS News Hour.

Read "'The Slaves Dread New Year's Day the Worst': The Grim History of January 1” at Time Magazine.

Read “Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu seeks immunity from corruption charges” at PBS News Hour.

Read “U.S. launched Baghdad airstrike that killed Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani” at AZ Central.

Read “Trump Vs. Toilets (And Showers, Dishwashers And Light Bulbs)” at NPR.

Read “People Can't Even Agree On When The Decade Ends” at NPR.

Read “Why Am I Unhappy? Because All American Men Are Getting Sadder” at Fatherly.

Read “Boomers, Take It from Woody or Iron Man: It’s Time to Pass the Torch This summer’s blockbusters showcase the importance of transferring wisdom between generations” at Christianity Today.

Read “The world's 500 wealthiest people gained $1.2 trillion this year, boosting their collective net worth 25% to $5.9 trillion” at Bloomberg.

Read “How to Talk to Someone Whose Opinions You Can’t Stand It’s a family gathering, not a debate you need to win” at Forge.

Read “US mass killings hit a record high in 2019: 'This seems to be the age of mass shootings'“ at AZ Central.

Read “It's OK to not be OK. So go ahead and cry in public, if that's what you need to do. Life is full of breaking points after thousands of personal apocalypses. You have to learn to forgive yourself for yours” at NBC News.

Read “With Births Down, the U.S. Sees the Slowest Population Growth Rate in a Century” at Time.

Read “The Death of Truth: “Both Sides” Don’t Deserve Our Consideration” at Theology Corner.

Read “OxyContin Billionaire Granted Patent for Opioid Addiction Treatment” at Fortune.

Read/watch “Greyhound offers free bus ticket home to runaway kids” at Fox 4 News.

Read “Italy passes law to send unsold food to charities instead of dumpsters” at Global Citizen.

Read “Stop Believing in Free Shipping How retailers hide the costs of delivery—and why we’re such suckers for their ploys” at The Atlantic.

Read “No Test Left Behind How Pearson Made a Killing on the US Testing Craze” at Talking Points Memo.

Read “Virginia School District To Give Students One Day Off Per Year For 'Civic Engagement'“ at NPR. “Starting next month, students in Virginia's Fairfax County — one of the largest school district in the country — can take one day off per school year to engage in political activism.”

Read “Don’t assume that every student had a fun or warm holiday break” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Public support for Trump conviction at all-time high, poll finds” at Yahoo.

• Read “Fed study finds Trump tariffs backfired” at Market Watch.

• Read “The Louder the Monkey, the Smaller Its Balls, Study Finds Howler monkeys can be well-endowed in the voice box or the family jewels, but not both” at Vice. Yes, I put in the “politics” section.

• Read “A Gangster in the White House” at The Atlantic. “The President tweeted the name of the presumed Whistle-Blower in the Ukraine scandal–demonstrating that he is unrepentant and determined to break the law again.”

• Read “Germans think Trump is more dangerous than Kim Jong Un and Putin” at DW.

Read “Anger and Anguish From The Navy SEALs Who Turned In Edward Gallagher" at New York Times.

• Read “Eddie Gallagher ‘Is Freaking Evil’ Says Fellow Navy SEAL in R

Read “Eddie Gallagher ‘Is Freaking Evil’ Says Fellow Navy SEAL in Rolling Stone.

Read “Treasury will again borrow $1 trillion to pay for tax cuts, spending” at Axios.

Read “Spotify Becomes Latest Tech Company To Hit Pause On Political Ads” at NPR.

Read “Civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis diagnosed with Stage IV cancer” at 12 News.

Read “NC voter ID law written with ‘discriminatory intent,’ says judge who just struck it down” at News Observer. “Federal judge just struck down NC’s voter ID law: “North Carolina has a sordid history of racial discrimination & voter suppression stretching back to the time of slavery, through the era of Jim Crow, and, crucially, continuing up to the present day.”

Read “Farmers Got Billions From Taxpayers In 2019, And Hardly Anyone Objected” a NPR. AKA: Welcome to ‘Murica’s Socialism.

Read “After 2 Years, Trump Tax Cuts Have Failed To Deliver On GOP's Promises” at NPR.

Read Washington Post’s opinion piece: “Wake up, Republicans. Your party stands for all the wrong things now.”

Read “Intended to induce awe': codpiece thrusts itself back into fashion Designers’ embrace of 16th-century accessory forms part of revival of Tudor power dressing” at The Guardian.

Read “Judge orders Alex Jones to pay $100,000 in Sandy Hook case” at PBS News Hour.

2019 Year-End Round-Ups continue to roll in.

• Browse “NPR Music's 25 Best Albums Of 2019.”

• Browse Magnet’s Top 25 Albums of 2019.

• Browse “Stinkweeds’ Top 25 of 2019: The “Shop Favorites”.

• Browse Barack Obama’s Favorite Music of 2019 at Twitter.

• Browse the full list of my favorite 2019 music.

  • Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

Read “From Digable Planets to Knife Knights: The Many Faces of Ishmael Butler” at Pitchfork.

Read “Kim Gordon on five of her favorite breakup songs Read More: Kim Gordon on five of her favorite breakup songs” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “A Conversation With Brian Eno About Ambient Music The unceasingly curious composer on chance, minimalism, and the politics of form” at Pitchfork.

Read “Watch the Berlin era Nick Cave documentary “Stranger in a Strange land” at Post-Punk.

Read Esquire’s profile of Mdou Moctar: “The Hendrix of the Sahara.” Listen to “Tarha” by Mdou Moctar on Episode 43 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow. Listen to "‘Wiwasharnine’ by Mdou Moctar from the album Ilana (The Creator) in Volume 01 of my 2019 year-end music wrap-up.

Read “40 Years of Goth: Essential Albums from the Genre’s Beginnings” at Post-Punk.

Read “Nick Cave on PJ Harvey breaking up with him: “I was so surprised I almost dropped my syringe.” Read More: Nick Cave on PJ Harvey breaking up with him: “I was so surprised I almost dropped my syringe” at Brooklyn Vegan.

• Read “An Essential Guide to Nick Cave” at Exclaim.

Read “Bo Diddley’s Essential Tips for Surviving Life & the Music Business” at Open Culture.

Read “Death Row Records is now owned by toy company Hasbro The maker of Monopoly and Transformers acquired the label's catalog in its purchase of Entertainment One” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Rare Rolling Stones Outtakes Appear on YouTube in Copyright-Extending Release” at Variety.

Read “Watch Dead & Company Get Interviewed By Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen on New Year’s Eve” at Relix.

Read “He has spoken: Jon Favreau confirms season 2 of The Mandalorian” at AV Club.

Read “Daniel Day-Lewis Called Adam Sandler to Congratulate Him on His Uncut Gems Performance” at Esquire.

Read “How Space Ghost Coast to Coast Changed Cartoon Network Forever A perfect nerd storm of late-'90s sarcasm, twisted nostalgia, and surrealist delights” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Kurt Vonnegut on 8 'shapes' of stories” Big Think.

Read “Toddlers engage more with print books than tablets” at ABC News.

Read “Dolly Parton's Charity Just Donated Its 100 Millionth Book to Kids” at Global Citizen.

Read “100+ Museums Turn Their Collections Into Free Downloadable Coloring Books” at My Modern.

Browse “Rolling Stone’s Favorite Photos of 2019.”

Read “For almost every common medical service, patients and insurance companies in the U.S. pay higher prices compared to the rest of the world, an international survey found” at New York Times.

Read “When Wasps Are Given Colored Paper, They Build Rainbow Nests” at Bored Panda.

Read “Humanity Has Killed 83% of All Wild Mammals and Half of All Plants” at Global Citizen.

Read “Psychedelic Drugs: Researchers experimenting with active agent in magic mushrooms to treat addiction, depression and anxiety” at CBS News.

Read “6 Bricks Under: Vienna Cemetery Introduces Funeral LEGO Sets” at Cult of Weird.

See “Tortoises eating berries” at 41 Strange on Twitter.

Read “How Chinese Artisans Turn Dead Cicadas Into ‘Hairy Monkeys’ These traditional handicrafts require exoskeletons, magnolia buds, and a steady hand” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Ruins of Aleister Crowley’s Cursed House on Loch Ness for Sale” at Cult of Weird.

Read “According To FBI Statistics, These Are The 10 Most Dangerous Cities In Arizona For 2020” at Only In Your State.

Read “U-Haul to stop hiring smokers and nicotine users in Arizona, 20 other states” at AZ Central.

Read “Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Phoenix is closing. Here's what we know” at AZ Central.

The Weekly Town Crier (12/27/19)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (12/27/19).

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 “Ram Dass, LSD Pioneer and George Harrison Inspiration, Dead at 88” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Magi’s Gift Under Threat: The Steep Decline of the Frankincense Tree Used in worship for millennia, the tree’s resin is in dangerous demand due to popularity of essential oils” at Christianity Today.

Read “Evangelism and religious supremacy” at Religious News Service. “religious supremacy is the idea that “I am better than you on the basis of my religious practice.”

Read “How Trump Lost an Evangelical Stalwart The editor in chief of Christianity Today explains his scathing editorial about the president’s behavior—and the damage he argues his fellow Christians are doing to the Gospel” at The Atlantic.

• Read “The Case For Keeping Trump” by Peter J. Leithart at First Things. (Let me summarize it for you: Anything not Republican = bad.)

• Read “Mr. President, You Asked for a Prayer… This might not be the answer you were looking for, but it’s the one this country needs” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “The Flag in the Whirlwind: An Update from CT’s President Why our editor in chief spoke out against Trump, and why the conversation must continue” at Christianity Today.

• Read “Nearly 200 Pro-Trump Evangelicals Respond to *Christianity Today* After Editorial Calling for Trump’s Removal” at The Way of Improvement.

• Read “Trump Is Freaked Out by Christianity Today’s Support for Impeachment He should be” at Slate.

• Read “‘Evangelicals are not monolithic’: Following scathing editorial, top Trump aide defends president” at Washington Post.

• Read “Convict Trump: The Constitution is more important than abortion” at Christian Post.

• Read “Behind Christianity Today’s editorial is a deeper crisis of America's religion of whiteness” at Religion News Service.

Read “Louisiana Church Filled A Plane With Holy Water And Blessed A Whole Community” at NPR. “A Roman Catholic church in rural Louisiana has come up with a way to maximize its blessings: filling up a crop-duster plane full of holy water and misting the entire community. "We can bless more area in a shorter amount of time," said one reverend.”

Read “The Buffer At Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr. has a secret weapon for muffling student dissent” at Slate.

Read “Can teaching about religion reduce intolerance?” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Refuse the Evil, Choose the Good” at Red Letter Christians. "The arrival of Emmanuel is about a season of discernment, a time to see, listen, ponder, judge what is good and right, and act."

Read “New Jersey Governor Signs Bills Restoring Voting Rights To More Than 80,000 People” at NPR.

Read “Stephen Miller floated plan to embed ICE agents in refugee agency” at The Hill. “Stephen Miller floated plan to embed ICE agents in refugee agency to up deportations.”

Read “For-profit prisons reap business benefit from Trump’s immigration stance” at PBS News Hour.

Read “The Sons of Confederate Veterans want their due They’re wrong” at Christian Century.

Read “Why we must take white supremacist symbols seriously” at CNN.

Read “'More amusing than disgusting': Why Trump is so popular in Nigeria” at PRI.

Read “That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It Here’s what Russia’s 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Poverty Grew in One-Third of Counties Despite Strong National Economy” at Pew Trusts.

Read “Children Are Waiting: Fostering And Adopting From Foster Care” at the Dave Thomas Foundation.

Read “Nike's Colin Kaepernick shoe sells out in one day The shoe reportedly includes the date when Kaepernick first refused to stand during the National Anthem” at 12 News.

Read “Behind the troubling rise of uninsured American kids” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Arresting people for sleeping outside is 'cruel,' U.S. Supreme Court affirms” at AZ Central.

Read “The Christmas Eve Confessions of Chuck Todd That disinformation was going to overtake Republican politics was discoverable years before he says he discovered it” at PressThink.

Read “Tidying up is not joyful but another misuse of Eastern ideas” at Aeon. “‘As a professor who regularly teaches East Asian philosophies, I die a little inside every time we experience a cultural phenomenon with a veneer of “wisdom from the East” on it.’ On the cultural fascination sparked by Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.”

Read “Fox News Is Now a Threat to National Security The network’s furthering of lies from foreign adversaries and flagrant disregard for the truth have gotten downright dangerous” at Wired.

Read “The Creator Of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap Escaped From A Mental Asylum To Start His Business” at Ranker.

Read “Betsy DeVos' Education Department rejects 99% of applications for loan forgiveness program” at Salon.

Read “Former White House Officials Feared Putin Influenced Trump’s Views on Ukraine and 2016 campaign” at News and Guts. “The Washington Post is reporting former Trump advisers believe it was Vladimir Putin himself who planted the Ukraine theory with the president.”

Read “Washington Legislator Matt Shear Accused Of 'Domestic Terrorism,' Report Finds” at NPR. “A new report concluded that Washington state Rep. Matt Shea was involved in training young people to fight a "holy war." He created a pamphlet that advocated replacing the government with a theocracy and "the killing of all males who do not agree."

Read “Fear and Loyalty: How Donald Trump Took Over the Republican Party The president demands complete fealty, and as the impeachment hearings showed, he has largely attained it” at New York Times.

• Read the New York Times opinion piece: “We Are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet.”

• Read “Trump Meets the Four Tests for Impeachment” at National Review.

• Read “Public support for Trump conviction at all-time high, poll finds” at Yahoo News.

Read “Effort to freeze Ukraine aid began about 90 minutes after call between Trump and Zelensky” at CNN.

Read “Trump Adviser Caught on Tape Discussing ‘Aggressive’ Voter Suppression in 2020” at Rolling Stone.

Read “How Trump has betrayed the working class” at The Guardian. “Trump’s corporate giveaways and failure to improve the lives of ordinary working Americans are becoming clearer by the day.”

Read “The power of conservative talk radio” at PRI.

Read “Brett Kavanaugh Wrote That Hiding Evidence From Congress Is an Impeachable Offense” at Yahoo.

Read “Mike Bloomberg exploited prison labor to make 2020 presidential campaign phone calls” at The Intercept.

Read “Trump Campaign Site Offers Help In Winning Arguments With 'Snowflake' Relatives” at NPR.

Read “Big Money and America’s Lost Decade Yes, the rich have too much political influence” at New York Times.

The Music Year-End Round-Up rolls on:

• Browse Magnet’s Top 25 Albums of 2019.

• Browse “Stinkweeds’ Top 25 of 2019: The “Shop Favorites”.

• Browse the full list of my favorite 2019 music.

  • Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

Read “Terry Riley’s Avant-Garde Sounds Are Still Casting Spells” at New York Times.

Browse “Neil Young’s Essential Albums 50 legendary years of following his cranky muse wherever it takes him — from hippie folk to country rock to grunge and beyond” at Rolling Stone.

“Explore Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (in 5 Minutes)” at Pitchfork.

Read “Green Day Donate $2,000 to Pay for Denny's Punk Show Damages” at Exclaim.

Read “Bill Kreutzmann Remembers Robert Hunter” at Relix.

• Read “If My Words Did Glow: An Unpublished Archival Robert Hunter Interview” at Relix.

Read “Remember the Discman? A Tribute to the Portable Music Players of 1998” at Pitchfork.

Read “The Bronx’s Universal Hip Hop Museum Awarded $3.75 Million from New York State” at The Root.

Read “Kanye West Releases New Album ‘Jesus Is Born’ The companion to Jesus Is King hit streaming services on Christmas Day” at Rolling Stone.

Read “In Praise of Barack Obama, Music Critic The former president’s annual year-end playlist never fails to delight” at Washington Post.

Read “How a Calypso Anthem Became the Surreal Centerpiece of Beetlejuice” at Pitchfork.

Read “How to Talk to Anyone The holidays are a time of warmth, cheer, and awkwardness. Here’s how to enjoy even the trickiest conversations” at Forge.

Read “The Invisible Woman: A Conversation With Björk” at Pitchfork.

Read “How Americana Went Mainstream in the 2010s” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Finally Recognizes Woman Who Practically Invented Rock and Roll” at Jezebel.

Read “The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds Celebrates its 50th Anniversary: Artists Pay Tribute to the Eternal Teenage Symphony” at Pitchfork.

Read “Pete Townshend thinks The Who “sort of invented heavy metal” at Consequence of Sound. "We were copied by so many bands, principally Led Zeppelin -- you know, heavy drums, heavy bass, heavy lead guitar. And some of those bands, like Jimi Hendrix for example, did it far better than we did."

Read “Vampire Weekend Break Down “Harmony Hall” on “Song Exploder” at Pitchfork. “Ezra Koenig explains how “Harmony Hall” tackles themes of power, dispossession, and anti-semitism: “The idea of stateless people forming a state and being seen, understandably, as the powerful ones.... It’s a tough combo, power plus fear.”

Watch “‘Schitt’s Creek’ Final Season Trailer Teases David’s Wedding and a Rose Family Goodbye” at Variety.

Read “Ritchie Valens Musical in the Works From Los Lobos’ Louie Perez and David Hidalgo” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Trump’s cameo in Home Alone 2 cut from Canadian TV broadcast The CBC says the decision was made "to allow for commercial time within the format" at Consequence of Sound.

Watch “Hulu releases first teaser for High Fidelity TV show” at Consequence of Sound.

Browse “These are the 10 best-selling books of the decade” at LitHub.

Browse “30 Of The Best Books To Teach Children Empathy” at Bookish Buzz.

Read “Want to Increase Your Chances of Living Longer? Go to a Museum, Says a New Study Apparently even one or two cultural events a year could cut your risk of early mortality by 14 percent” at Artnet.

Read “Last year, 40% of honey-bee colonies in the US died. But bees aren't the only insects disappearing in unprecedented numbers” at Business Insider.

Read “What Kurt Vonnegut Taught Us about the Science of Happiness” at Elephant Journal.

Read “Dogs Know What That Smile on Your Face Means A new study lends further proof that your pet can read your emotions” at National Geographic.

Read “After Automats Died in New York, They Flourished in the Netherlands The “waiterless” restaurants were once iconic symbols of the Big Apple” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “The Remarkable Resurrection and Unique Nature of Four Roses Bourbon” at Paste. "It’s not the origin of Four Roses Bourbon that is the most interesting thing about its history—it’s the way the brand disappeared from the U.S. for half a century before coming roaring back."

Read “Move Over Kale, Jalapenos Are the Health Food You Never Knew About” at The Hearty Soul.

Read “How Brazilian Chefs Are Using the Fruit That Can Turn Anything Blue” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “How Santa Survived the Soviet Era Of all the variations on the beloved character, Russia’s Ded Moroz might have the strangest history” at Atlas Obscura.

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.

  • Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

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.

The Weekly Town Crier (12/13/19)

All the week’s News that’s fit to cry about (12/13/19).

Question for the three of you who browse this list each week: when compiling the list each week, I use headers to (very broadly) categorize the different sections. Would you prefer that I left those in so that you can jump to different sections, or do you like just scrolling?

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 “Sesame Street puppeteer Caroll Spinney dies at age 85: at PBS.

Read “Rapper Juice WRLD Dead at 21” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Roxette’s Marie Fredriksson Dead at 61” at Pitchfork.

Read “The White Evangelical Persecution Complex” at Red Letter Christians.

Read “Want to Get Into the Christmas Spirit? Face the Darkness How I fell in love with the season of Advent” by Tish Harrison Warren at New York Times.

Read “GREAT JOB INTERNET Finally, a Christian alternative to the wicked heresy of the "Cha Cha Slide" at AV Club.

Read “Biblical Literalism among American Protestants Pastors, denominational leaders, and curious Christians need to be reassured—American Christianity is not becoming more liberal” at Christianity Today.

Read as Fathom wonders “Where was Jesus before Advent? If Jesus is eternal, can we find him in the Old Testament?”

Read “Behind the Rise of Evangelical Women “Influencers” at Religion and Politics.

Read “Misusing Romans 13 To Embrace Theocracy” at Sojourners.

Read “The Sort-Of Socialist Church Is Taking A Radical Approach To Christianity Jubilee Baptist is a quasi-socialist, anti-racist, LGBTQ-affirming church conducting a bold experiment: focusing on debt, work, and freedom from oppression instead of fear and moralism” at Buzzfeed News.

Read “Pastor Who Sermonized That Jews Are Going to Hell Was Trump’s Pick to Speak at White House Hanukkah Reception” at The Root.

Read “Is the “final judgment” really final? What the Bible doesn't say about hell” at Christian Century.

Read “Arizona will continue to resettle refugees, Gov. Doug Ducey tells Trump administration” at AZ Central.

Read “Merkel Tours Auschwitz With 'Sense Of Shame' And Warns Of Resurgent Anti-Semitism” at NPR.

Read “Papa John’s Founder Blames His Use of the N-Word on Kanye and Colonel Sanders” at The Root.

Read “India Prepares to Block Naturalization for Muslims A bill establishing a religious test for immigration to India is expected to pass Parliament, a major step for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist agenda.” at New York Times.

Read “How Do We Know When Research Participants Truly Give Consent? Following news about research that used data collected from Uighurs, scientific publishers want to create new consent guidelines. But it’s complicated” at Slate.

Read “A University’s Betrayal of Historical Truth The University of North Carolina agreed to pay the Sons of Confederate Veterans $2.5 million—a sum that rivals the endowment of its history department” at The Atlantic.

Read “New Statue Unveiled In Response To Richmond's Confederate Monuments” at NPR.

Read “Nikki Haley gets the history of the Confederate flag very wrong” at Washington Post.

Read “CRACK VS. HEROIN An unfair system arrested millions of blacks, urged compassion for whites” at App.

Read “Principal Who Allegedly Banned Black History Month Accuses Black Teachers of Reverse Racism. Teachers Accuse Her of Original Recipe Racism” at The Root.

Read “This Is What Racism Sounds Like in the Banking Industry A JPMorgan employee and a customer secretly recorded their conversations with bank employees” at New York Times. ““We’re in Arizona. I don’t have to tell you about what the demographics are in Arizona. They don’t see people like you a lot.”

Read “Kansas City Chooses Free Public Transit” at The Appeal.

Read “Houston police chief criticizes McConnell and Senate Republicans over guns: 'Whose side are you on?' at CNN.

Read “Why You Need to Schedule Some Alone Time” at Rewire.

Read “Hiking Wheelchair Opens Up Outdoor Lifestyle To People With Serious Disabilities” at NPR.

Read “This town is giving families $500 a month. The results are remarkable: Recipients have used the money to apply for better jobs, spend more time with their children, or save for better housing” at The Guardian.

Read “Father Books 6 Flights To Stay With His Flight Attendant Daughter On Christmas” at Bored Panda.

Read “Socialism is as American as apple pie. Yes, really” at The Guardian.

Read “Former Top Mexican Security Official Arrested On Cocaine Trafficking Charges” at NPR.

Read “MLB to Stop Testing Minor League Players for Weed” at Now This.

Read “Merriam-Webster Singles Out Nonbinary 'They' For Word Of The Year Honors” at NPR.

Read “Goodell says league has 'moved on' from Kaepernick special workout at Reuters. ““This was about creating an opportunity. We created that opportunity. It was a unique opportunity, a credible opportunity, and he chose not to take it. I understand that ... We've moved on.”

Read “Greta Thunberg: TIME's Person of the Year 2019” at Time.

• Read “Brazil's President Calls Greta Thunberg a 'Brat'“ at Time.

• Read “Trump mocks 16-year-old Greta Thunberg a day after she is named Time’s Person of the Year” at Washington Post.

Hear “Controversial Versions of “The Star Spangled Banner” by Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, José Feliciano & John Philip Sousa” at Open Culture.

Read “FCC votes to set up a 3-digit suicide hotline number like 911” at 12 News.

Read “We Teach Children, Not Curriculum” at The Educator’s Room.

Read “Lawsuit Claims SAT And ACT Are Illegal In California Admissions” at NPR.

Read “Betsy DeVos Overruled Education Dept. Findings On Defrauded Student Borrowers” at NPR.

• Read “Congresswoman Tells Betsy DeVos, You Are ‘Out to Destroy Public Education’ at Rolling Stone. “I’ve had some honest disagreements with my friends in the Republican Party on how to move education forward but I have never, not one time, believed they were out to destroy public education until I met you.”

Read “Judiciary Committee releases report outlining constitutional grounds for impeachment The report aims to define what the framers of the Constitution meant by an impeachable offense” at 12 News.

• Read as the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board declares ‘We’ve seen enough. Trump should be impeached.”

• Read “Legal Scholars Conclude President Trump Engaged In Impeachable Conduct” at News and Guts.

• Read “We need to stop reacting to Trump—and start responding. There’s a big difference” at America Magazine.

• Read “AP Fact Check: Trump and the people he forgets he knew” at PBS News Hour.

• Read “The Trump campaign has over $1 million in outstanding bills from American cities” at Washington Post.

• Read “Articles Of Impeachment Against President Trump” at NPR.

• Read “Trump pays $2 million in damages ordered by judge over misuse of charity funds, according to NY attorney general” at Washington Post.

• Read “The Case For Impeachment Is Overwhelming” at American Conservative. “The president doesn’t have a credible line of defense left. That is why his apologists in Congress and elsewhere have been reduced to making increasingly absurd and desperate claims."

Read “Judge says South Carolina GOP allowed to cancel its 2020 primary” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Medicare chief asked taxpayers to cover stolen jewelry” at Politico.

Read “Millions in military aid at center of impeachment hasn’t reached Ukraine” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “Trump’s border wall threatens an Arizona oasis with a long, diverse history: Many observers fear that a 30-foot wall along the Arizona border with Mexico will harm wildlife, lower the water table and destroy archaeological treasures” at PBS News Hour.Buzzfeed.

• Read “US Border Officials Are Issuing Fake Court Notices To Keep Out Immigrants Who Have Won Asylum” at Buzzfeed News.

• Read “Under Trump, immigrants face increasingly long and complicated road to citizenship” at PRI.

• Read “$400M Arizona border wall contract under review for potential impropriety” at KTAR.

• Read “Doctors Say They Were Arrested Trying to Give Flu Vaccines to Detained Migrants” at Now This.

Read “U.S. Backs Out of U.N. Meeting on Human Rights Situation in North Korea” at Time.

Read “At 34, Finland's Sanna Marin Set To Become World's Youngest Sitting Prime Minister” at NPR.

Read “Explosive investigative report says U.S. government misled public on war in Afghanistan” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Trusting the News Media in the Trump Era Partisan dynamics overshadow other factors in Americans’ evaluations of the news media” at Journalism.org.

Read “A new U.N. report argues many of the street protests popping up around the globe are driven by a growing sense that societies are rigged to favor the powerful — and trap the masses in low-wage, dead-end lives” at NPR.

• Read “Bolton Tweets Criticism of Trump Admin. Blocking UN Meeting on North Korea” at News and Guts.

Read “Russian Foreign Minister Invited To White House; Claims No Election Interference In 2016” at News and Guts.

Read “Homeowner Leaves Snacks For Amazon Delivery Guy And His Reaction Is Too Pure” at Bored Panda.

Read “Low-income communities are being decimated by fines.”

Read “Solange Is Very First Recipient of Lena Horne Award, Donating $100,000 Prize to Houston Charity” at The Root.

Read “Why Are Cops Around the World Using This Outlandish Mind-Reading Tool?” at ProPublica.

Read “The Mistake I Made With My Grieving Friend The author of We Need to Talk reveals how she learned to help — and not help — a friend with loss” at Huffington Post.

Read “A North Dakota county was poised to be first to bar refugees under Trump’s executive order. Residents said no” at Washington Post.

The “Best Of” Lists continue to roll in:

• Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “The 50 Best Songs of 2019.”

  • Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “40 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2019.”

• Browse “2019 Year End Lists: John Darnielle, the Mountain Goats” at Merge Records.

• Browse Pitchork’s picks for “The 100 Best Songs of 2019.”

  • Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2019.”

• Browse PopMatters’ picks for “The 70 Best Albums of 2019.”

  • Browse PopMatters’ picks for “The Best Jazz of 2019.”

• Browse Paste’s picks for “The 50 Best Songs of 2019.”

• Browse NPR’s picks for “The Best Songs of 2019 So Far.”

  • Browse NPR’s picks for “Best Music Of 2019.”

• Browse “Steven Hyden’s Favorite Albums of 2019” at Uproxx.

• Browse Vice’s picks for “The 100 Best Albums of 2019.”

• Browse “RSTB Best of 2019” at Raven Sings The Blues.

• Browse my list of 2019 Favorite music

  • Listen to Volume 01 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 02 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 03 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

  • Listen to Volume 04 of my 2019 Year-End Playlist

Read as Time names Lizzo “Entertainer of the Year.”

Take “A Deep Dive Into Tom Waits’ Best Rare and Unreleased Material” with Tyler Wilcox at Pitchfork.

Read “Warren Ellis on the transformative power of music” at Sydney Morning Herald.

Read “Spotlight: Garcia Peoples” at Relix.

Read “How five friends from Phoenix came to rule the world as Alice Cooper” at AZ Central.

Read “Hall and Oates announce 2020 tour dates Including shows with Squeeze” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “A Conversation With Jeff Lynne Of ELO” at NPR.

Read “ASCAP launches health and wellness program for musicians A report earlier this year revealed that 73% of musicians suffer from mental illness” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “A Show About Spotify Is Coming to Netflix The scripted series will tell the story of Spotify’s creation” at Pitchfork.

Read “Dinosaur Jr. are in the studio making a new album” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Chris Cornell’s Widow Sues Soundgarden Over Unreleased Recordings” at Rolling Stone.

Revisit at 1980 Relix interview with Robert Hunter about some of the band’s most memorable songs.

Read “Nils Lofgren: Back on the Horse” at Premier Guitar.

Read “The story of Ghanaian highlife legend Ebo Taylor’s “lost tapes” in his own words” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “How Ryley Walker Survived Addiction, Mental Illness, And Self-Destruction In 2019” at Uproxx.

Read “The Raincoats / 40th Anniversary :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “In Memoriam: Bands We Lost In 2019” at Stereogum.

Read “‘Let It Bleed’: Why the Stones’ Nastiest Masterpiece Feels Right on Time” at Rolling Stone. “Their 1969 classic remains the band’s darkest LP, and that’s why it sounds perfect right now.”

Read “David Bowie immersive live experience to be held at National Space Centre planetarium” at NME.

Read “Talking Heads Create Official Instagram Account Stoking Rumors Surrounding “Remain in Light” 40th Anniversary” at Post-Punk.

• Read “This is not your beautiful Talking Heads reunion, David Byrne confirms” at AV Club.

Read “40 Reasons We Still Love The Clash’s London Calling The band's masterpiece remains a glowing torch in a world of fear, injustice, and oppression” at Consequence of Sound.

TV and Movies get Year-End Lists too:

• Browse Consequence of Sound’s picks for the “Top 25 Films of 2019.”

• Browse “The 20 worst films of 2019” at AV Club.

• Browse Think Christian’s picks for “The Best TV of 2019.”

Read “Redbox no longer lets you rent video games” at CNet.

“Watch a teaser for Hulu's Hillary Clinton docuseries” at AV Club.

Read “Prince’s Purple Rain Added to National Film Registry The Library of Congress has also archived She’s Gotta Have It, Clerks, The Last Waltz, and more” at Pitchfork.

Read “New Matrix film gets 2021 release, will open on same weekend as John Wick 4” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The TV Club, 2019 Entry 4: TV isn’t dead, but it’s not getting livelier.” at Slate.

Read “Elon Musk wins defamation lawsuit over tweets against caver in Thailand rescue” at 12 News.

Read “Miss Universe 2019 Is Young, Gifted And An Outspoken Believer In 'Black Girl Magic'“ at NPR.

Read “Bill Cosby Loses Appeal of Sex Assault Conviction” at Variety.

Read the Chili’s menu interpreted by Cormac McCarthy at McSweeny’s.

Read “This Library Bar In Indiana Is Every Book Nerd’s Paradise” at Bookish Buzz.

“Check Out these Miniature Book Houses” at Bookish Buzz.

Browse “40 Of The Worst Newspaper Headlines To Make You Facepalm At The Stupidity” at Bored Panda.

Browse “Christianity Today's 2020 Book Awards” at Christianity Today.

Read as Bookish Buzz wonders “Seriously Though, How Did the Most Beautiful Library in America Get Demolished?”

Read “A Q&A with Justin McRoberts” by Aarik Danielsen at Fathom Magazine.

Read “A Gardener Found a Stolen Gustav Klimt Painting Tucked Behind a Secret Panel—in the Very Building It Was Stolen From” at Artnet.

Read “Revive Dying Coral Reefs, Study Finds” at Forbes.

Read “Plants 'Scream' in the Face of Stress: A new study suggests that plants that are stressed by drought or physical damage may emit ultrasonic squeals” at Live Science.

Read “Scientists discover how gene mutation causes autism and intellectual disability” at 12 News.

Read “Earth's magnetic song recorded for the first time during a solar storm” at Phys Org.

Read “ACA Insurers In The Supreme Court: Why Consumers Should Pay Attention” at NPR.

Read as Boing Boing wonders “Where are all the time travelers?”

Read “Weak potato harvest could cause French fry shortage across U.S., report says” at WSBT.

Read “St. Nicholas: The story behind Santa Claus” at CNN.

Read “The Story Behind Vintage "Shiny Brite" Christmas Ornaments” at Crackerjack 23.

Read “Someone Is Putting Tiny Cowboy Hats On Pigeons Around Las Vegas” at Unilad.

Read “The Time a Nazi Mad Scientist Built a Real Movie Villain Island Lair in Argentina” at Mysterious Universe.

Read “20-foot ‘Indescribably beautiful’ leg lamp inflatable appears at ‘A Christmas Story’ house” at Local 10.

Read “Man whose farts 'can kill mosquitoes six metres away hired to create new repellent'“ at The Mirror.

Read “Arizona man registers swarm of bees as emotional support animals” at New York Post.

Read “EPA Data: Phoenix Has Highest Levels in U.S. of Carcinogenic Gas Ethylene Oxide” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Laws allowing U.S government to force Native American children into boarding schools still in force” at AZ Family.

Read “Versace to open store at Scottsdale Fashion Square mall in 2020” at ABC 15.

Read “Beer Price Could Double By End Of Month If Tax Break Expires” at KJZZ. “The Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act could expire at the end of the month. Over the past two years, the act lowered federal excise taxes for breweries, wineries and distilleries. This allowed producers to use money they saved in taxes on their operations.”

Read “Ducey-Appointed Nursing Board Member Said 'Minorities' Are 'Trying to Change Us'“ at Phoenix New Times.

The Weekly Town Crier (12/06/19)

All the week’s News that’s fit to cry about (12/06/19).

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.

R.I.P. Irving Burgie, Songwriter Who Helped Bring Calypso To America, Dies At 95 (NPR)

Read “Thankful for the Bad: Upside Down Gratitude This Thanksgiving Upside down gratitude is the ability to give thanks even for the parts of our lives which lead us to sadness and struggle and suffer” at Christianity Today.

Read “Will Worship for Likes To build their celeb-approved megachurch, Churchome, pastors Judah and Chelsea Smith preach community, love, acceptance, and inclusion. Is their Instagrammable message truly reframing Christianity or simply helping their church rake in millions?” at Marie Claire.

Read “What Pastors Can Learn From a Converted Musician: He’s a tremendously famous musician. Some people even use the word genius to describe him. His music moves people, as it has for a long time. He changed the industry. By all accounts, he’s a legend in popular music. But then something happened. It’s make sense if you thought I was talking about Kanye West. No, I’m talking about Bob Dylan.”

Read “The Christian Roots of the Fair Trade Movement” at Christianity Today.

Read “False Idol — Why the Christian Right Worships Donald Trump: White evangelics have their presidential strongman in Donald Trump.” at Rolling Stone.

Read “This Advent, Listen to those who feel unwelcome in the church” at Sojourners.

Read “The Crisis of American Christianity, Viewed From Great Britain The theologian N. T. Wright is unfazed by the faith’s politicization in the U.S.” at The Atlantic.

Read “Jesus’ risen, mutilated body In Luke’s postresurrection appearances, the disciples have to reckon with the traumatic somatic” at Christian Century.

Read “American Jesus, Stay Away from Me: The Jesus of the Bible looks nothing like American Jesus.” at Red Letter Christians.”

Read “The New Math of Church Mergers An option once seen as a failed strategy is now giving many congregations a new lease on life” at Christianity Today.

Read “Why we need religion Stephen Asma, an agnostic, argues powerfully that religion is natural and beneficial. Is it such a leap to believe that it is grounded in truth?” at Prospect Magazine.

Read “Florida Bill Protects Black Hairstyles in School, Workplace” at My Spectrum 13 (Orlando).

Read/watch “Michael Eric Dyson: 'black voters are sick and tired of being taken for granted'“ at MSNBC.

Read “The Night Doesn’t Stop the Stars” On the 50th anniversary of the killing of Fred Hampton, poet Haki R. Madhubuti pays tribute to the leader of Chicago’s Black Panthers with a new work” at Chicago Magazine.

Read “George Zimmerman Sues Trayvon Martin’s Family, Others for $100 Million The new suit is helmed by conservative lawyer Larry Klayman, based on allegations in new book and film by conspiracy theorist Joel Gilbert” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Sick and Alone Most of America’s county jails escape lawsuits seeking reforms for inmates with serious mental illness. Now Arizona’s Cochise County has joined hundreds of other small counties innovating ways to keep people with serious mental illness out of their jails. But it comes too late for Adrian Perez, who has spent the past 13 years cycling in and out of jail, and solitary confinement, which only makes him sicker.: Our jails and prisons have become our new asylums because there is nowhere else for the mentally ill to go” at Arizona Center For Investigative Reporting.”

Read “Rev. William Barber on the Political Power of Poor People: ‘We Have to Change Our Whole Narrative’” at New York Magazine.

Read/Watch “Young boy invites entire kindergarten class to his adoption hearing” at 12 News.

Read “North Korea warns Japan's Abe may soon see 'real ballistic missile' Pyongyang lashes out at Japanese leader stepping up rhetoric against close US ally in the region as nuclear talks stall” at Al Jazeera.

Read The Guardian’s opinion piece: “America is not the land of the free but one of monopolies so predatory they imperil the nation.”

Read “Not So OK, Boomers They‘re attacking the seat of millennial pleasure — the body. It’s high time we contemplated the possibility Boomers want to kill us all” at Medium.

Read “Defiant Mark Zuckerberg defends Facebook policy to allow false ads Zuckerberg says ‘people should be able to judge for themselves the character of politicians’ and compares alternative to censorship” at The Guardian.

Read “Researchers Find A Remarkable Ripple Effect When You Give Cash To Poor Families: A new major study finds that for every dollar in cash aid given to Kenyan families living in poverty, the total economic activity in the area increased by $2.60.” at NPR.

Read “TikTok accused of secretly gathering user data and sending it to China A proposed class-action lawsuit alleges the app "includes Chinese surveillance software” at CNet.

Read “His Company Makes Speakers. Now He's Speaking Out, Opposing Tariffs: Since last fall, this 70-year-old speaker company in Minnesota has had to pay tariffs on some components imported from China. "A surprising number of people I talk to … think that somehow China is paying the tariffs," the company's president says. It's a claim that President Trump has repeatedly made.” at NPR.

Read “Half of all homeless people may have had traumatic brain injury” at The Guardian.

Read “This is the World’s First Beer Taproom That Also Houses Foster Dogs Rescued From Kill Shelters” at Good News Network.

Read “Hedy Lamarr: The Incredible Mind Behind Secure WiFi, GPS And Bluetooth” at Forbes.

Read/watch “What newly released emails reveal about OxyContin, Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family” at PBS News Hour.

Read “The False Promise of Morning Routines Why everyone’s mornings seem more productive than yours” at The Atlantic.

Read “Google faces $50 million lawsuit from Genius for stealing lyrics They've been accused of "misappropriating content".” at NME.

Read “You may be required to get your picture taken when leaving, entering US” at 12 News.

Read “Millennials weren’t the only ones gutted by the recession. Gen X has never recovered. By Austin Channing Brown Dec 4, 2019, 8:00am EST Share this story” by Austin Channing Brown at Vox.

Watch/Read “You Won't Live Comfortably In the U.S. Working 40hrs a Week” at 12 News.

Read “Schools teach refugee, migrant kids skills to succeed in US: This year's students at Valencia Newcomer School feature kids from 21 countries and speak 15 languages” at KTAR.

Read as PBS wonders “What If We Let Kids Get Bored? Give kids space to get bored — you will be amazed by the creative ways they fill their time.”

Read “A Silent Epidemic: Our public schools are struggling to handle millions of students with mental health problems. Here’s why” from 2016 at NPR.

Browse “6 Books for Kids about the Civil Rights Movement” at the New York Public Library website.

Read “Majority Of Republicans Say Trump Is A Better President Than Lincoln” at Politics USA.

• Read “Trump Has Spent $115 Million On Golf Trips ― Or 287 Years Of Presidential Salary Trump often boasts of donating his White House pay, but taxpayers are shelling out much larger sums for his hobby” at Huff Post.

• Read “Trump to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups” at KTAR.

• Read “Trump campaign will deny press credentials to Bloomberg News Trump’s campaign manager accuses agency of ‘declaring their bias openly’ after choice to not cover Democratic candidates critically" at The Guardian.

• Read “Trump, Who Slashed Taxes by $1.5 Trillion, Is Pushing Cuts to Food Stamps Self-declared man of the people proposes to take food from poor people” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “Trump loses appeal to block Deutsche Bank, Capital One from handing his financial records to Congress” at CNBC.

• Read “Trump Is Waging War on America’s Diplomats: And the impeachment inquiry is only making things worse. With new figures and fresh horror stories, Julia Ioffe reports on how the president is politicizing our embassies, alienating our allies, and decimating the ranks of the foreign service.” at GQ.

• Read “the House Intelligence Committee’s Impeachment Report” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “Rep. Adam Schiff: 'The Uncontested Facts Show This President Solicited A Bribe'“ at NPR.

• Read “Report reveals frequent contact between Giuliani, Nunes and the White House” at PBS News Hour.

• Read “Trump Hands $400 Million Border Wall Contract to Republican Donor Who Touted Construction Firm on Fox News” at Second Nexus.

Read “US seeks high court permission to resume federal executions” at KTAR.

Read “Trump nominee who is anti-IVF and surrogacy was deemed unqualified. She just got confirmed” at Washington Post and then just remind yourself that the Trump administration is appointing judges to lifetime appointments who have previous been deemed “unqualified.”

Read “William Barr says "communities" that protest cops could lose "the police protection they need" at Washington Post.

Read “We should hang’ Ilhan Omar, GOP House candidate says while seeking donations” at Washington Post.

Read “Romney Saw “No Evidence” of Ukraine Meddling in 2016 U.S. Election” at News and Guts.

Read/watch “Student loan forgiveness emerges as key 2020 issue” at MSNBC.

Read “Kamala Harris Has Dropped Out of the Presidential Race” at Rolling Stone.

• Read/Watch “Why Kamala Harris’ campaign failed to gain traction” at PBS News Hour.

• Read “Kamala Harris’s Criminal Justice Record Killed Her Presidential Run: Harris’s record as a prosecutor was representative of a politics of the past. The nation has moved on” at The Appeal.

• Read “Kamala Harris Mattered, and Still Does She made the boldest and (ultimately) most quixotic argument of any candidate, and her failure is a sign of these Trumpian times” at Rolling Stone.

Read “It’s Not Just A ‘Fictional Narrative,’ It’s Russian Propaganda: Republicans are not following Fiona Hill's warnings to ignore the Russian propaganda about Ukraine, in fact they're doubling down. Contributor Steven J. Harper puts in all in context and perspective.” at News and Guts.

Read “Lisa Page Speaks: ‘There’s No Fathomable Way I Have Committed Any Crime at All: “The former FBI lawyer and ongoing Trump target breaks two years of silence in this exclusive interview. And she has quite a lot to say.” at Daily Beast.

Read “Fox News host Tucker Carlson: Putin does not hate America like liberals do” at The Guardian.

Read “Inside the ‘extraordinary’ campaign to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court” at PBS News Hour.

Read “A New Online Archive Lets You Listen to 40 Years Worth of Terry Gross’ Fresh Air Interviews: Stream 22,000 Segment Online” at Open Culture.

Read “Mahna Mahna at 50: fascinating facts about the unforgettable Muppets song” at CBC.

Browse “Best of 2019” Lists:

• Browse Stereogum’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums Of 2019.”

• Browse Consequence of Sound’s picks for “Top 50 Albums of 2019.”

• Browse Gorilla Vs. Bear’s Albums of 2019.

• Browse Paste’s picks.

• Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for “The 50 Best Albums of 2019.”

Read “Samana Give Listeners a Map to Locate an Obelisk Hidden in Wales” at Bandcamp.

Read “Taylor Swift, Lizzo, Lana Del Rey: Pop Stars (and Their Fans) Clap Back: This year has seen a spike in pop stars using social media to push back against music critics. Their fans fell in line, swarming the offending writers with hate” at New York Times.

Read “Khruangbin and Leon Bridges Team Up for New Texas Sun EP” at Pitchfork.

Read “Massive Attack commission research into touring’s impact on climate The research aims to create a "roadmap to decarbonisation" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “U2 Are Getting Their Own SiriusXM Channel “Generally when I open my mouth, people prefer if I’m singing,” Bono said. “But on U2X RADIO, maybe they’ll forgive me the odd interruption” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Frozen Fingers :: An American Primitive Holiday Meditation” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read as NPR wonders “Is It OK To Bootleg Concerts?”

Read “Justin Vernon Tells Aaron Rodgers What “Holocene” Is About” at Stereogum.

Read “Kid Rock is shutting down his Detroit restaurant amid protest over his recent Oprah rant. "I may be guilty of being a loud mouth jerk at times, but trying to label me racist is a joke" at Consequence of Sound.

Read as “Lana Del Rey Interviews Grimes” at Pitchfork.

Read “Garcia Peoples’ One Step Behind Is Clear-Eyed and Ambitious Chris Forsyth on how the Brooklyn band successfully does “whatever the f&*k they want” on their new album” at TalkHouse.

Read “Chet Baker’s Tale of Woe” at Downbeat.

Read “Alice Cooper on Returning to His Detroit Roots Legendary rocker details his new covers album, Breadcrumbs” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “A Look Inside Japan’s Listening Bars For Audiophiles” at Vinyl of the Day.

Read “Jimmy Eat World share playlist of music they listened to on tour in the ’90s Read More: Jimmy Eat World share playlist of music they listened to on tour in the ’90s” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “10 Lessons Learned From Attending Concerts Sober For A Month” at Live For Live Music.

Read “A New Tool From Spotify Walks the Line Between Advertising and Pay-For-Play” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison, Adrian Belew to Tour “40 Years of ‘Remain in Light'” with Turkuaz” at Jambands.com.

Read “The Go-Betweens' Perfect Pop Cracked Open Stream rarities and live tracks from volume two of 'G Stands For Go-Betweens'“ at NPR.

Read “Jimmy Eat World's Jim Adkins: "I used to study classical and jazz... then I was suddenly sleeping on floors and playing punk-rock" at Guitar World.

Read “DC Comics Comes Under Fire for Deleting Batman Poster That Sparked Chinese Backlash: DC Comics came under fire for pulling a Batman poster after Chinese commenters said it appeared to support pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong” at Variety.

Browse “Top 100 TV Shows of the 2010s” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Questlove to Direct New Movie Black Woodstock A documentary about 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, which featured performances from Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, and more” at Pitchfork.

Read “Oprah Producing Documentary About Sexual Assault in the Music Industry” at Exclaim.

Read “Johnny Depp producing musical starring Michael Jackson’s glove In which the King of Pop's iconic sequin glove "is actually an alien from outer space [and] feeds on virgin boy blood" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Brazil President Blames Leonardo DiCaprio for Funding Amazon Wildfires Without evidence, Jair Bolsonaro says actor is “giving money to torch the Amazon” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Willie Nelson quits smoking marijuana due to breathing issues "I have abused my lungs quite a bit in the past" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Travel Diaries of Allen Ginsberg in South America” at LitHub.

Read “'We Wanted Our Patrons Back' — Public Libraries Scrap Late Fines To Alleviate Inequity” at NPR.

Read “Reading Toni Morrison in Advent A seasonal practice: cultivate the patient gaze to describe life as we find it” at Christian Century.

Read “Cry, Heart, But Never Break: A Remarkable Illustrated Meditation on Loss and Life “Who would enjoy the sun if it never rained? Who would yearn for the day if there were no night?” at Brain Pickings.

Read “How did renowned novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wind up in Iowa City? Two years in Iowa were turning point in novelist's career at The Gazette.

Read/Listen to “What Bestseller Lists Really Tell Us About A Book's Popularity: The appearance of Donald Trump Jr.'s TRIGGERED on the bestseller lists prompted us to dig into how those lists work -- and how they can be manipulated.” at NPR.

See “Winged Insects Made From Old Computer Circuit Boards And Electronics” at Bored Panda.

Read “Researchers Have Found That Visiting Art Museums Can Offer Significant Relief for People Living With Dementia” at Artnet.

See “Photographer Spends Eternity Waiting For Museum Visitors To Match Artworks And The Result Is Worth The Wait” at Bored Panda.

Read “Were the Mexican Muralists America’s Greatest Street Artists? A New Whitney Show Will Examine Their Too-Long-Ignored Legacy” at Artnet.

Read “Just A Reminder That Gorillas Hum ‘Little Food Songs’ To Themselves While They Eat” at Live For Live Music.

Read “Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows” at National Geographic.

Read “Scientists Resume Efforts To Create Deadly Flu Virus, With US Government's Blessing” at Forbes.

Read “Scientists Discover Psychedelic DMT Creates Waking Dream State In Brain: ‘It’s Like Dreaming But With Your Eyes Open’ at Newsweek.

Read “Hoag's Object Is a Galaxy Within a Galaxy Within a Galaxy (and Nobody Knows Why)” at Live Science.

Read “China gene-edited baby experiment 'may have created unintended mutations'“ at The Guardian.

Read “Probe Gets Close To The Sun — Finds Rogue Plasma Waves And Flipping Magnetic Fields” at NPR.

Read “New drug curbs delusions in dementia patients, study finds If approved, it could not only help people with Parkinson's but also Alzheimer's” at 12 News.

Read “Ballast Point sold to tiny suburban Chicago brewery Kings and Convicts in beer industry stunner” at Chicago Tribune.

Read “The World’s Most Valuable Whisky Collection Is Worth Nearly $17 Million A Vietnamese man's 20-year obsession with Scotch yields a world record” at Inside Hook.

See “Vale Street England's steepest street has such a drastic incline that locals tie their parked cars to lampposts when it gets icy” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Bill would require Arizona students to say the Pledge of Allegiance: The bill would strike an existing law that allows time for "those students who wish" to recite the pledge and instead require a parent to excuse the student” at AZ Central, and remember kids, forced patriotism is fascism.

Read “Arizona 19-year-old suing Juul for getting him addicted to nicotine” at 12 News.

Read “Whistleblower says contractors failing to fix locks at Phoenix-area prison” at KTAR.

Read “Why the devil is the Scottsdale City Council fighting Satanists?” at AZ Central.

Read “20 Years of Modified Arts: How the Gallery Changed Roosevelt Row” at Phoenix New Times.

The Weekly Town Crier (11/29/19)

All the week’s News that’s fit to cry about (11/29/19).

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.

R.I.P. Michael J. Pollard (05/30/39 - 11/21/19)

Read “A barbershop births a church of drug users, ex-cons, and homeless folks” at Christian Century.

Read “The Democratic Candidates’ Favorite Bible Verses” at Christianity Tod

Read “Grief Is Messy and Complicated How you support a friend in the midst of it doesn’t have to be” at Slate.

Read “Two Leading Republicans Praise God For Bringing Us Trump” at Rolling Stone”

Read “Wayne Grudem Changes Mind About Divorce in Cases of Abuse Leading complementarian theologian says he no longer believes the Bible offers only two justifiable reasons for ending a marriage” at Christianity Today.

Read “High school outcasts: An increasing number of public school districts across the country are giving the boot to faith-based, pro-life, and politically conservative student groups” at World Magazine.

Read “A Hope for Thanksgiving: Assigning Grace Instead of Malice: I was saddened several years back to read some stuff that John Mayer said in an article for Rolling Stone magazine. He was basically racist and misogynist all in the same breath. It was heartbreaking for me... And then he announced his sobriety from alcohol. And I guess I thought, "there it is” at Mockingbird.

Read “Jim Wallis: White Nationalism Is Not Just Racist, It’s Anti-Christ at Sojourners.

Read “How local governments punish poor people with fines” at Christian Century.

Read “Uganda’s Escalating LGBT Crackdown Feels Eerily Familiar” at World Politics Review.

Read “Black male teachers have positive influence on students of all races’ at The State.

Read “What mercy in the criminal justice system could look like” at Christian Century.

Read “ICE arrests 90 more students at fake university in Michigan” at Detroit Free Press. “In early 2016, ICE created a fake university, built out a website saying it was authentic, and recruited an accreditation organization to vouch for it. Foreign students signed up, came here, and were arrested by ICE for ... attending a fake university.”

Read “Why are rural white Americans willing to prioritize cultural whiteness above all else?” at Christian Century.

Read “Philosopher Jacques Derrida Interviews Jazz Legend Ornette Coleman: Talk Improvisation, Language & Racism (1997)” at Open Culture.

Read/Listen to “Forgiving Student Debt Would Boost Economy, Economists Say” at NPR.

Read “Kenya Installs The First Solar Power Plant That Transforms Ocean Water Into Drinking Water” at Bored Panda.

Read “Saudade: the untranslatable word for the presence of absence” at Aeon.

Meet “Rachael Li, 9, Youngest Female US Chess Master Ever” at US Chess.

Read “Why Child Care Is So Ridiculously Expensive Three broad reasons obtaining care for kids now costs as much as buying a brand new Hyundai Elantra each year” at The Atlantic.

Read “Most Americans would pay more to avoid using plastic, poll says” at PBS News Hour.

Read “3 kids. 2 paychecks. No home. South of San Francisco, in a fertile corner of California that feeds much of the country, working families are sleeping in shelters and parking lots” at The California Sunday Magazine: In Salinas, CA, you can’t afford to rent an apartment if you make less than $30/hr.

Read “Profitable Giants Like Amazon Pay $0 in Corporate Taxes. Some Voters Are Sick of It.” at New York Times.

Read “The Road That Brought Conservatives and Republicans to This Point” at National Review.

Read/watch “'Not kings!': Judge issues stinging rebuke to Trump's impeachment stonewall” at MSNBC.

• Read “Trump was briefed on whistleblower complaint before Ukraine aid was released” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Mike Pompeo Says Ukraine, 2016 Election Interference Should Be Investigated” at NPR.

• Read/Watch “Nunes now implicated in Ukraine scandal” at MSNBC.

Read “State Dept. releases docs that show how Giuliani's smear campaign against Yovanovitch reached Pompeo” at MSNBC.

• Read “Giuliani Once Again Says He Has “Insurance” if Trump Throws Him “Under the Bus” at Slate.

Read “Diplomats question why U.S. military aid to Lebanon is being withheld” at PBS News Hour.

Read “The War-Crimes President When violence is directed at those Trump’s supporters hate and fear, they see such excesses not as crimes but as virtues” at The Atlantic.

Read “Navy Is Said to Proceed With Disciplinary Plans Against Edward Gallagher Top military officials threatened to resign or be fired if their plans to remove Chief Gallagher from the SEALs were halted by President Trump, administration officials said” at New York Times.

• Read “Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer Forced Out Amid Controversy Over SEAL Case” at NPR.

Read “White House directed block of Armenian genocide resolution” at Axios.

Read “Trump Tax Records Reveal New Inconsistencies — This Time for Trump Tower” at Pro Publica.

As Michael Bloomberg enters the presidential race, read Boing Boing’s response: “Peak billionaire: a billionaire tries to purchase a party nomination to outflank anti-billionaires so he can run against another billionaire.”

Read “Sarah Huckabee Sanders: ‘I’ve Been Called’ to be the Next Governor of Arkansas” at The Root.

Read “Sacha Baron Cohen says what we all know: Facebook is profiting from Nazism” at AV Club.

Read “J.K. Rowling and Quentin Tarantino swear by pen and paper, and even science agrees that writing can make you more productive” at Business Insider.

See “The 2019 Beard & Mustache Championship In 30 Pictures” at Bored Panda.

Read “Pope Francis, In Visit To Hiroshima, Says Possession Of Nuclear Weapons Is 'Immoral'“ at NPR.

Read “Imagination is ancient” at Aeon.

Hear “U2’s Meditative New Song ‘Ahimsa’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Neil Young’s unreleased album Homegrown will finally see light in 2020” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Is There Anything We Can All Agree On? Yes: Dolly Parton. At 73, the enigmatic country star is captivating a whole new generation and riding high as the subject of a podcast and the inspiration behind a Netflix series” at New York Times.

Read “Circle Jerks Tease 2020 Reunion Tour to Celebrate 40th Anniversary” at Rolling Stone.

Read “They Might Be Giants announce Flood 30th anniversary tour” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Tom Waits Challenged Our Preconceived Notions (Again) With ‘Glitter and Doom Live’ at Something Else Reviews.

Read “Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets says they've recaptured the chaos as reunion tour comes home” at AZ Central.

Read “Somebody paid Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath to break up with their boyfriend via Cameo” at AV Club.

Read “Jimmy Fallon Expresses His Love For Dead & Company On ‘The Tonight Show’ Following First Show At MSG” at Live For Live Music.

Read “Joe Henry Shares a Romantic 'Gospel' In the Wake of Cancer Diagnosis” at Billboard.

• Read “Joe Henry and the Art of Disappearing Into a Song” at New York Times.

Read “Billboard Announces New Rules For Merchandise/Album Bundles” at Stereogum. The effort is an attempt to prevent artists from manipulating the charts.

Read “Beck Is Home Twenty-six years into his career, the musician visits the Los Angeles of his youth and says goodbye to the past.” at New Yorker.

• Read “Beck Fears He Lost Entire Unreleased Albums In The Universal Warehouse Fire” at Stereogum.

• Read “Beck: "I'm Not a Scientologist: After declaring 15 years ago, "Yeah — I'm a Scientologist," the singer takes an abrupt turn away from the organization following a divorce from second-generation Scientologist Marissa Ribisi” at Hollywood Reporter.

  • Read “Beck distancing himself from Scientology was a “pussy move,” Leah Remini says” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read/Listen to “Song You Need to Know: Leonard Cohen, ‘Puppets’” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Cornershop Announce First Album in 8 Years, Share New Song: Listen” at Pitchfork.

Read “Arlo Guthrie Looks Back on 50 Years of ‘Alice’s Restaurant” at Rolling Stone.

Read “In U2's 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For,' A Restless Search For Meaning” at NPR.

Read “Jeff Tweedy’s Chicago Home Reportedly Struck By Gunfire” at Stereogum.

Read “Morrissey to Release 13th Album “I Am Not A Dog On A Chain” in 2020” at Post-Punk.

Read ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Producer Lands Authorized Michael Jackson Biopic” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Martin Scorsese working on documentary about 1970s New York City music scene” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Martin Scorsese has spent his entire career searching for God” at Vox. For Scorsese, Alissa Wilkinson writes for Vox, "people are imbued with both a human spirit and a spark of the divine; we’re not Jesus, but we’re 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 him, and what he struggled with, we struggle with, too."

Read “Christopher Walken Told Will Ferrell That the "More Cowbell" Sketch Ruined His Life” at Exclaim.

Read “Bill Cosby says he has “no remorse” in first interview from prison "It’s all a set up. That whole jury thing. They were imposters” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Charles M. Schulz, Civil Rights, and the Previously Unseen Art of Peanuts” at Brain Pickings.

Browse “40 Children's Books Celebrating Native American and Indigenous Mighty Girls” at A Mighty Girl.

• Browse “25 Books by Indigenous Authors You Should Be Reading” at Evangelicals For Social Justice.

Read “Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart Drums to Own Beat in Mind-Blowing Paintings” at Broward/Palm Beach New Times.

Read “A Museum in Wales Had a Botticelli Right Under Their Noses and Didn’t Realize It Until This Helpful TV Art Detective Told Them” at Artnet.

Read “Thieves Stole Up to a Billion Dollars Worth of Jewels From Dresden’s Famed Treasure Museum, Escaping in a Limousine” at Artnet.

Read “FDA Calls Psychedelic Psilocybin a 'Breakthrough Therapy' for Severe Depression” at Live Science.

• Read “A Single Dose Of Ketamine Might Help Heavy Drinkers, Study Finds” at NPR.

Read “How Your Negative Emotions Can Literally Make You Sick” at Medium.

Read “The Science of Gratitude (Won’t Make You Grateful)” at Mockingbird.

Read “2020 will be a defining year for America” at The Guardian.

Read “New Belgium Will be Acquired by Kirin-Owned Lion Little World Beverages” at Paste Magazine.

Read “A South African Couple Has Turned Elephant Dung Into Award-Winning Gin” Atlas Obscura.

Read “World's best sushi restaurant dropped from Michelin Guide after refusing to serve public” at The Telegraph.

Read “You Can Get a Full-Course Christmas Dinner in One Can” at Cosmopolitan.

Read/Watch “Bisbee library named best small library in nation” at KVOA.

Browse “Holiday Gifts: 5 Ways to Support Arts and Culture While You Shop” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “GOP proposal would increase in-state tuition at ASU, UA, NAU” at Arizona Mirror.

Read “Homeless Man Arrested for a Felony for Stealing a Burrito” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Arizona saw children’s obesity drop after WIC required healthier foods” at Cronkite News.

Read “Pat McMahon Is Just Getting Started” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Glendale police officer suspended for punching man in face during traffic stop” at 12 News.

Read “This Arizona Husband-and-Wife Team Wants to Make a 4,000-Year-Old Product the Hottest Holiday Drink Superstition Meadery founders Jeff and Jen Herbert are betting you'll love mead, an alcoholic beverage that dates back to ancient times” at Inc.

The Weekly Town Crier (11/22/19)

All the week’s News that’s fit to cry about (11/22/19).

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.

Read “Howard Thurman’s contemplative nonviolence The pastor and mentor to Martin Luther King formed a vision of resistance around prayer, not politics” at Christian Century.

Read the Washington Post’s opinion piece: “Jesus isn’t interested in America’s two-party division: Sadly, many want Jesus to be the personal chaplain to a Republican emperor, or else, Jesus is invoked to sanction a Jacobin purge on anyone suspected of not progressive enough. Jesus is re-created in either the image of Caesar or Che Guevara.”

Read “Scripture and Neuroscience Agree: It Helps to Lament in Community Through song, liturgy, and communion, the body of Christ inhabits the suffering experienced by its weakest members” at Christianity Today.

Read “Christianity is declining at a rapid pace, but Americans still hold positive views about religion’s role in society” at Washington Post.

Read “What Research Tells Us About the ‘Seal’ of Believer’s Baptism A new study suggests that the rite doesn’t bind young Christians to a certain level of faith commitment, but to a faith community” at Christianity Today.

Read “Kanye West calls himself 'the greatest artist that God has ever created' at Joel Osteen service” at AZ Central.

Read “Why Black Protestants and Evangelicals Still Preach Politics” at Christianity Today.

Read “The Real Battle (Between Atheism and Christianity) Is Always Emotional” at Mockingbird: “Disproofs of God’s existence are about as effective in creating atheists as proofs are in creating believers. Such arguments are shadow boxing. The real battle is always emotional."

Read “Chick-fil-A Says It Will Stop Donating to Anti-LGBTQ Organizations” at Advocate.

Read/Listen to “'Who Is An Evangelical?' Looks At History Of Evangelical Christians And The GOP” at NPR.

• Read “U.S. Adults See Evangelicals Through a Political Lens” at Barna.

Read/watch “How these Oregon teachers are fighting back against white nationalism” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Paige Patterson feared backslide after election of first black SBC president” at Religion News Service.

Read “Scott Warren, Who Provided Humanitarian Aid To Immigrants, Found Not Guilty On Harboring Charges” at Sojourners.

Read the opinion piece: “Kanye West is spreading the gospel of white evangelicals: Like other black conservatives, the rapper and designer downplays racism while promoting bootstrap virtue-signaling” at The Guardian.

Read “Michael Bloomberg apologises for 'stop-and-frisk' policy” at BBC.

Read the opinion piece: “Enough Thanksgiving Myths. Schools Should Teach Indigenous History” at TruthOut.

Read “Trump’s new refugee limits are senseless and destructive” at Christian Century.

• Read “U.S. has world's highest rate of children in detention: U.N. study” at Reuters.

• Read “U.N. Expert Faults U.S. For 'Inhuman Treatment' And High Incarceration Of Children” at NPR.

Read “Bound By Statute: In Mississippi, Jim Crow era laws result in a high rate of black kids charged as adults” at Reveal.

Read “Why 1,200 people who never took a life are condemned to die in Pa. prisons” at Inquirer.

Read/Listen to “Jeffrey Epstein's Prison Guards Are Indicted On Federal Charges” at NPR.

Read “U.S. income inequality at highest level in 50 years, economic gap growing in heartland” at NBC News.

Read “Israeli PM Netanyahu indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust” at NBC News.

Read “After decades of pushing bachelor’s degrees, U.S. needs more tradespeople” at PBS.

Read “Our legislators’ silence is a failure of moral courage” at Christian Century.

Read/Watch “70% of Americans say Trump’s actions tied to Ukraine were wrong” at ABC.

Read “The White House Just Released A Log Of Trump's First Call with Zelenskiy: The log differs from what the White House originally said about the call in a brief readout” at NPR.

• Read “Trump attacks impeachment witness Marie Yovanovitch on Twitter” at PBS News Hour.

• Read “Democrats invite Trump to testify in impeachment inquiry” at PBS News Hour

• Read Sarah Kendzior’s opinion piece: “Why the Trump impeachment hearings need to go beyond Ukraine” at Globe and Mail.

• Read “Trump ‘Will Strongly Consider’ Testifying in Impeachment Probe, as New Poll Shows 70% Disapprove of His Ukraine Actions As the president defends his actions, however, the American people seem unconvinced” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “House Looking Into Whether Trump Lied to Mueller During Russia Investigation” at News and Guts.

• Read “Trump’s Retribution Against the Washington Post Owner Is His Gravest Abuse of Power” at New York magazine.

• Read “Chief justice orders delay in House fight for Trump financial records” at PBS News Hour.

• Read “I Followed the Directions of the President’: Read Gordon Sondland’s Explosive Impeachment Testimony” at Rolling Stone.

  • Read/Watch “Sondland says Pence knew about concerns over the hold on military aid to Ukraine” at PBS News Hour.

• Read “Trump Brags About Opening Apple Plant In Texas That’s Been Producing Computers Since 2013” at News and Guts.

Read “Roger Stone, Political Operative And Trump Aide, Guilty In False Statements Trial” at NPR.

• Browse “Everyone Charged in the 2016 Election Investigations” at New York Times.

• Read “Prosecutors in Giuliani investigation interested in talking to Ukrainian energy company” at CNN.

Read “Over 75 Members Of Congress To Stephen Miller: Resign From White House Now” at Huff Post.

• Read/Listen to “Stephen Miller And White Supremacy: the book mentioned in Stephen Miller's leaked emails. What is it? And why is it important to white power movements?” at NPR.

• Read “Stephen Miller planted anti-Rubio stories in Breitbart during 2016 campaign, leaked emails show” at NBC News.

Read “Trump Retreats From Flavor Ban for E-Cigarettes Advisers say the president pulled back from proposed restrictions intended to curb teenage vaping after he was warned of the political fallout among voters” at New York Times.

Read “Bill Barr's fascist manifesto: Is this man the real threat to American democracy?” at Salon.

Read “No One Believes Anything’: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of Political News Paying attention to the impeachment inquiry and other developments means having to figure out what is true, false or spin. Many Americans are throwing up their hands and tuning it all out” at New York Times.

Read “In Major Shift, U.S. Declares West Bank Settlements Do Not Violate International Law” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Trump advisory board member: Women should strive to be “handmaidens,” stay out of the workplace Trump surrogate Clarence Mason Weaver on women: “We don’t care how smart you are. We don’t care how strong you are” at Media Matters.

Read “What ending DACA could cost the U.S. economy” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Social Security Does Not Add To The Federal Deficit” at Forbes.

Read ‘You’re Done:’ Conservative Radio Host Fired Mid-Show for Criticizing Trump “I call things as I see them,” Craig Silverman wrote” at Rolling Stone, and remember, friends, that forced patriotism is fascism.

Read “Nikki Haley Used System for Unclassified Material to Send ‘Confidential’ Information” and wonder . . . but her e-mails . . . with the rest of us at The Daily Beast.

Read “Democrats in Congress reauthorize Patriot Act, again” at Boing Boing.

Read “Whatever Happened To Reality Winner? Reality Winner’s mom, Billie J. Winner-Davis, speaks out about her daughter and the effort to #FreeRealityWinner” at Rantt Media.

Read “Democrat Edwards wins reelection in conservative Louisiana” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Pete Buttigieg and Jim Wallis Discuss Christianity in Politics” at Juicy Ecumenism.

• Watch “Mayor Pete surges ahead in Iowa polling” at MSNBC.

• Read “The Generous Gospel of Mayor Pete Buttigieg talks with ‘Rolling Stone’ about faith, the religious left, and what the Mike Pences of the world get wrong” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Possible pay-to-play scheme for ambassador role in Trump administration uncovered by CBS News Emails obtained by CBS News show Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the Bahamas was asked by the RNC to donate half a million dollars as his confirmation in the Senate hung in the balance” at CBS.

Read “Amazon will pay $0 in taxes on $11,200,000,000 in profit for 2018” at Yahoo Finance.

Read “Two people showed up for ‘Straight Pride’ in Dallas. Yes, two” at Metro Weekly.

Read “Meth. We’re on It’: South Dakota’s Anti-Meth Campaign Raises Eyebrows” at New York Times.

Read "25 Years of Wilco: Tracing the Band’s Live Evolution Through Their Best Bootlegs” at Pitchfork.

Read “The kids of Wu-Tang Clan have formed their own Wu-Tang Clan” at AV Club.

Read “Church builds huge baby Jesus statue — that looks like Phil Collins” at New York Post.

See “Inside the vinyl archives of Berlin’s biggest music library” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Spotify Announces Its Own Award Show” at Pitchfork.

Read “David Bazan talks about his music and watching Christianity be “co-opted by authoritarianism” at Vox: "For me, it’s heartbreaking over and over again. You just think, “Surely now they can see. Surely now they can see.” What do I do with that? Knowing that certain people that I love deeply, and depended on, are just going to go to their graves being stooges for fascism and authoritarianism? That’s still something I’m trying to make sense of."

Read “Chris Martin Says Coldplay Won’t Tour for Environmental Reasons” at Pitchfork.

Read “Nick Cave announces new autobiography and exhibition, ‘Stranger Than Kindness’ Read More: Nick Cave announces new autobiography and exhibition, ‘Stranger Than Kindness’ at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Trump’s Denials Turned into a Ramones Song: “I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO.” at Open Culture.

Read “How Countries Around the World Fund Music—and Why It Matters As President Trump eyes abolishing federal arts funding in the U.S., a survey of tax-supported music from Australia to Iceland reveals a complex, shifting landscape” at Pitchfork.

Read “How Poison frontman Bret Michaels went from glam-metal icon to Humanitarian of the Year” at AZ Central.

Read “Flying teapots and electric Camembert: the story of Gong, prog's trippiest band” at The Guardian.

Read “Noel Gallagher wants to play guitar for The Smiths if they ever reunite” at NME.

Read “Tiddas honoured for their fierce, bold, pioneering music” at The Age and listen to "Inanay" by Tiddas on Episode 05 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

Browse “Portrait of the Artist: An Oral History of David Berman at UVA” at Virginia.edu.

Read “Janet Weiss talks leaving Sleater-Kinney: “the new record was made sort of without me” Read More: Janet Weiss talks leaving Sleater-Kinney: “the new record was made sort of without me” at Brooklyn Vegan: “"I said, ‘am I just the drummer now?’ They said yes. And I said, ‘can you tell me if I am still a creative equal in the band?’ And they said no. So, I left."

Read “KISS played a show for great white sharks, but no sharks showed up” at Consequence of Sound.

Watch “Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart plays the rhythm of the universe” at PBS.

Read “'One of the Best Yet' Is Another Gang Starr Classic” at PopMatters.

Read “Neil Young Will No Longer Use Facebook Because Of Its “Obvious Commitments” To Republicans” at Stereogum.

Read “Why Your Favorite Alt-Rock Legends Are Remixing Their Old Albums” at Vice.

Read “Wu-Tang Clan are getting their very own amusement park in South Korea” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “How Wes Anderson Perfected the Music-Nerd Soundtrack (from 2018)” at Pitchfork.

Read “That Time Michael Bolton Wrote a Song With Bob Dylan” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Lunachicks are back, announce first show in over a decade Read More: Lunachicks are back, announce first show in over a decade” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read/Listen to “Pete Townshend On Creativity, 'The Age Of Anxiety' And The Who's New Record” at NPR.

Read “Bonnie "Prince" Billy on Recording Others' Songs, Mourning David Berman and Long-Awaited 'I Made a Place' at Exclaim.

Read as Grimes tells NME “I think live music is going to be obsolete soon”.

Read “Bon Iver Share First Official Music Video Since 2012” at Pitchfork.

Read “‘Blurryface’ by Twenty One Pilots is the biggest-selling rock album of the decade” at NME.

Read “A new Gorillaz documentary is coming to theaters for one night only” at AV Club.

Read “The Timetravellin' Bob Dylan: On 'Bringing It All Back Home'“ at PopMatters.

Read “Taylor Swift Is Fighting With Her Former Record Label Again” at Spin.

Read “'Tis Already The Season To Argue About 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'“ at NPR.

Read “The Beatles: Abbey Road Changed Music History Forever” at Den Of Geek.

Browse “A Brief Guide to Metal In China” at Bandcamp.

Read “Kanye Announces Nebuchadnezzar Opera” at Pitchfork.

• Read “Kanye West put the wrong emperor on his Nebuchadnezzar opera invite It features Persian emperor Darius the Great, not the Babylonian king” at Consequence of Sound.

• Read “Kanye West teases Jesus Is King Part II with Dr. Dre” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Joe Henry's Next Second Chance” at NPR: “I'm not going to hide with this," Joe Henry said. "We're called to bear witness." Almost a year to the day since a grim diagnosis, Henry has released 'The Gospel According to Water,' an album as emotionally nuanced as he's ever made.”

Read “Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Poison Set 2020 Stadium Tour” at Rolling Stone.

See “AIR Studio Ruins: George Martin's Caribbean recording studio now rots within the shadow of an active volcano” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “How Do We Live With Music Made by Problematic Artists?” at Pitchfork.

Read “Nicolas Cage in talks to play Nicolas Cage in movie about Nicolas Cage” at CNet.

Read “How an Internet Obsession Resurrected a Creepy, Long-Lost Sesame Street Cartoon” at Slate.

Read “John Mulaney made a kids variety special with David Byrne & more for Netflix Read More: John Mulaney made a kids variety special with David Byrne & more for Netflix” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “The Bob's Burgers Movie Has Been Pulled from Disney's Release Schedule” at Paste.

Read “‘Sesame Street’ Is Highlighting a Forgotten Skill: Failing” at Forge.

Read “Beautiful Day' Director On Mister Rogers' 'Radical Notion': Telling Kids The Truth” at NPR.

Read “How The ‘Dora the Explorer’ Effect Helped Usher in a New Wave of Inclusive Animation” at Variety.

Read “Justice Department to change how studios distribute films by revoking decades-old rules Wiping out the Paramount consent decrees could completely alter the theater industry” at Consequence of Sound: “Under the new rules, a Netflix Multiplex, or a new Amazon subscription tier that includes two screenings a month in an actual cinema could come to fruition.”

Read “Todd Phillips to write and direct Joker sequel, wants to do more DC Comics origins movies” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Alan Moore: why I turned my back on Hollywood” at Guardian.

Read “Jay-Z says Colin Kaepernick turned his ‘legitimate workout’ into publicity stunt” at NY Daily News.

Read “'Our friendship was intimate on all levels': Robyn Crawford on her love for Whitney Houston” at The Guardian.

Read “Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium: A Forgotten Treasure at the Intersection of Science and Poetry” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Pizza Hut’s ‘Little Free Libraries’ Look Exactly Like Mini Pizza Huts” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Wendell Berry on Delight as a Force of Resistance to Consumerism, the Key to Mirth Under Hardship, and the Measure of a Rich Life” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Proust on Why We Read “The end of a book’s wisdom appears to us as merely the start of our own, so that at the moment when the book has told us everything it can, it gives rise to the feeling that it has told us nothing” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Traveler Restaurant This small-town Connecticut restaurant gives each diner a free book from its vast library” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “The Guerrilla Girls Are Targeting MoMA Trustees Tied to Jeffrey Epstein With an Ad on a Phone Booth Outside the Museum” at Art.net.

Read “120,000 Ribbons Hover Where The Berlin Wall Once Stood To Mark The 30-Year Anniversary Of Its Fall” at Bored Panda.

Read “Police Foiled a Brazen Thief Who Tried Sneak Out of a London Museum With Two Rembrandts in Tow” at Art.net.

Read “Comic Sans Turns 25: Graphic Designer Vincent Connare Explains Why He Created the Most Hated Font in the World” at Open Culture.

Read “Baltimore Museum of Art will only acquire works from women next year: ‘You have to do something radical’" at Baltimore Sun.

Read “A Three-Story Mural Keith Haring Created for a Catholic Youth Center Sold for $3.9 Million—to the Chagrin of the Artist’s Foundation” at Art.net.

Read “Download 576 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art” at Open Culture.

Read “Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos: An Illustrated Celebration of How the Pioneering Artist’s Love of Animals Shaped Her Character” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Amid Criticism and Controversy, the Guggenheim Museum Hires Its First Full-Time Black Curator” at The Root.

Read “Donald Trump’s Crazy Handwriting Is Now A Free Font Called Tiny Hand” at Fast Company.

Read/Watch “Why overuse of antibiotics is a massive, ‘staggering’ problem in health care” at PBS News Hour.

Read “It’s impossible to see the world as it is, argues a cognitive neuroscientist” at Aeon.

Read “An Oceanographer’s Amazing Algorithm That Removes Blue-Green Visual Distortion From Underwater Photos” at Laughing Squid.

Read “Scientists develop slippery toilet coating to stop poo sticking Spray-on surface could prevent bacteria building up and reduce household water use” at The Guardian.

Read “NASA Makes Their Entire Media Library Publicly Accessible and Copyright Free” at DIY Photography.

See “Excellent animation explains how an escalator works” at Boing Boing.

Read “60% of world's wildlife has been wiped out since 1970” at CBC.

See the “Paste Eater's Grave” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Serial Killer Goblins May Be On the Loose in Zimbabwe” at Mysterious Universe.

See “Museum of Miniature Books” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Bainbridge Township police: Man said he fired gun because he thought Bigfoot was trying to enter his home” at Cleveland 19.

Read “Arizona is the only state with an English-only education law. It's time to repeal it” at AZ Central.

Read “Arizona Man to Plead Guilty to Illegally Making Ammunition Bought by Las Vegas Shooter” at Time.

Read “Lyft announces plan to end service at Phoenix airport due to proposed fee” at KTAR.

Read “Amazon opens first physical bookstore in Arizona at Scottsdale Quarter” at AZ Central.

Read “Oscar Mayer Wienermobile to make stops in Valley this weekend” at KTAR.

Read “‘We need to act fast’: Statewide forum focuses on climate solutions for Arizona” at AZ Central.

Read “Tent city's closure saving Maricopa County millions” at AZ Family.

Read/Watch “Flyer for white supremacy group found in downtown Phoenix” at 12 News.

Read “Protesters want Valley Metro to stop police sweeps for light rail fares” at KTAR.

Read “Arizona Lawmaker Wants Armed Vets in Schools, Slams Funding For Counselors” at Phoenix New Times: “Arizona State Representative Jay Lawrence told New Times that "a couple Green Berets" at a school could deter a "bad actor" or possibly serve more mundane school functions, like breaking up fights.”

Read “Country’s 1st car-free neighborhood coming to Tempe in 2020” at KTAR.

The Weekly Town Crier (11/15/19)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (11/08/19 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.

R.I.P. Robert Freeman, Beatles photographer dies at 82

Read “Kanye West’s ‘Jesus Is King’ Sparks Biblical Searches” at Facts & Trends.

Read “What Freud Can Teach Us About Trump And His Christian Supporters” at Sojourners.

Read/Watch “Still teaching at 95, Jimmy Carter draws devotees to church His message is unfailingly about Jesus, not Jimmy Carter” at 12 News.

Read “PC(USA) Stated Clerk responds to questions on Trump’s membership: Donald Trump was baptized in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). However, there is no factual evidence that Mr. Trump currently holds membership in any local congregation. Therefore, the discipline process that would be necessary to remove him from membership is not applicable” at PCUSA.org.

Read “Paula White and the Mainstreaming of American Pentecostalism” at Red Letter Christians.

Read “Respect for pastors is at an all-time low. What would help? Nobody wants to be irrelevant. Yet how much can pastors really do to reverse the increasing lack of interest in organized religion and religious practice that shapes attitudes toward clergy?" at Christian Century.

Read “Why Jesus Followers Should Be Prison Abolitionists” at Red Letter Christians.

Read “Debt Is Holding Black Americans Hostage To break free, we need an honest conversation about reparations and forgiveness on a mass scale” at The Nation.

Read “I Went to Mexico to Meet Asylum-Seekers Trapped at the Border. This Is What I Saw” at ACLU.

Read “#EatingASandwichWhileBlack: Commuters Hold Protest After Cop Detains Black Man for 'Illegally Eating' at BART Station” at The Root.

Read “Trump ended DACA. This woman is suing to keep the program alive” at PRI.

Read “Second Trial Against Activist Who Helped Migrants To Begin” at KJZZ.

Read “The cursing president: Donald Trump is the first president to make C-SPAN unsuitable viewing for children” at The Week.

Read “Researchers Reveal Kids Who Get More Hugs Have More Developed Brains” at Healthy Food House.

Read “You Can Get A Master's In Medical Cannabis In Maryland” at NPR.

Read “Can I Get A Witness? The righteously, radical Campbellite core of Nashville by David Dark at Southern Foodways.

Read “The Alarming Message of Mattel’s “Gender-Neutral” Dolls” at Slate.

Read/Watch: “Mural of activist Greta Thunberg going up in San Francisco” at 12 News.

Read “Experts Worry Active Shooter Drills In Schools Could Be Traumatic For Students” at NPR.

Read “Indigenous people blocked Ecuador oil auction in growing fight to save Amazon” at Salon.

Read “Criminals may be banned from being near guns in New Zealand” at 12 News.

Read “Federal Court Rules That Border Officers Can’t Arbitrarily Search Our Electronic Devices” at ACLU.

Read “Demon Screens: For the last twelve years, social media, handheld devices, and video games have swept into teens’ lives like a tidal wave” at First Things.

Read/Listen to “Who Will Decide On The Dalai Lama's Successor — His Supporters Or Beijing?” at NPR.

Read “Nike designed a pair of comfortable sneakers just for medical workers, and all of the profits will go to a children's hospital” at Insider.

Read/Listen to “Detroit Public School Students Allege They Were Deprived Access To Literacy In Lawsuit: Many days were spent in freezing or mold-infested classrooms watching movies, sometimes without a teacher even in the room, plaintiffs allege. Textbooks were outdated. Lunch food was expired” at WBUR’s Here and Now.

Read: “Supreme Court Wrestles With Consequences for Piracy by State Governments” at The Hollywood Reporter.

Read “What We Learned From Reading Thousands Of Pages Of Impeachment Inquiry Transcripts” at NPR.

• Read “Lawyer for Ukraine whistleblower sends White House cease and desist letter to stop Trump’s attacks” at CNN.

• Read “Trump says he might attend Russia Victory Day events in May” at Reuters.

  Read “Impeaching Trump Is Imperative to Preserving Our Democracy: Trump’s first abuse of trust is the one our founders feared most: inviting a foreign power to interfere with our democracy,” at Time.

• Read “The Whistleblower Complaint Has Largely Been Corroborated. Here's How” at NPR.

• Read “What you learned about the impeachment hearing depended on what channel you watched” at Washington Post.

• Read “Trump Asks Supreme Court to Bar Release of His Tax Returns” at New York Times (just as one with nothing to hide does).

Read the New York Times opinion piece: “Multibillion-dollar fortunes are often called excessive and decadent. But here’s something they’re rarely called but ought to be: anti-democratic. These fortunes will destroy our democracy,"

Read “University of Florida student president faces impeachment after paying $50,000 for Don Jr. visit Michael Murphy is accused of using $50,000 of mandatory student fees "to further enrich" Trump and his girlfriend” at Salon.

Read “Trump adviser Stephen Miller injected white nationalist agenda into Breitbart, investigation reveals” at The Guardian.

• Read “Stephen Miller’s Affinity for White Nationalism Revealed in Leaked Emails” at Southern Poverty Law Center.

Read “Supreme Court Allows Sandy Hook Families' Case Against Remington Arms To Proceed” at NPR.

Read “Elijah Cummings' Widow Announces She's Running For His U.S. House Seat” at NPR.

Read “U.S. budget deficit surges to $134.5 billion in October” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Trump Official Punished Public Servant Over Her Iranian Heritage” at NPR.

Read “Tindersticks :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview.”

Read “Fox & Friends is throwing its support behind Kanye West’s presidential candidacy "When our current president announced that he was running, a lot of people laughed too" at Consequence of Sound.

• Read “Kanye West WIll Appear At Joel Osteen’s Sunday Service . . . Choir In Tow” at TMZ.

Read “Neil Young Says U.S. Citizenship Application Delayed By Marijuana Use” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Neil Young Wants You to Hear His Unreleased Music Before You Die “It’s a race against time,” Young writes of his ambitious plan to release a huge cache of unreleased albums to his fans in 2020” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Why David Byrne Became a U.S. Citizen After Six Decades” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Jeff Tweedy: Learning to Love the Music You Hate'“ at That Eric Alper.

Read “Dolly Parton: A Seeker and a Poor Sinful Creature” at Christianity Today.

Read “A Subversive History: An Interview with Music Historian Ted Gioia” at Image Journal.

Read “Spike Lee to direct hip-hop version of Romeo and Juliet” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Internet Archive Is Digitizing & Preserving Over 100,000 Vinyl Records: Hear 750 Full Albums Now” at Open Culture.

Read “The Spotify Blacklist Continues ⁠— Artist Faces Retaliation After Magazine Exclusive” at Digital Music News.

Read “Moby is an animal rights advocate, and he now has giant arm tattoos to prove it” at Consequence of Sound.

Hear “Iggy Pop, Frank Black Cover Jazz Great Mose Allison for New Tribute Album” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Lijadu Sisters: the Nigerian twins who fought the elite with funk” at The Guardian and listen to “Orere Elejigbo” by Lijadu Sisters on Episode 17 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

Read “Meat Puppets & Mudhoney announce 2020 co-headlining tour Read More: Meat Puppets & Mudhoney announce 2020 co-headlining tour” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “The Monkees Announce 2020 Tour Dates, New Live Album” at Rolling Stone.

Browse “Ryley Walker :: A Roundup” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Rod Stewart Spent More Than Twenty Years Building a Model Train Railroad” at Flood.

Browse Crack Magazine’s picks for the top 100 albums of the decade.

Read “Andy Partridge Looks Back at XTC” at Culture Sonar.

Browse “The Story of Outlaw Country in 33 Songs” at Pitchfork.

Read “Grateful Dead Announce Soundtrack Featuring Rare Live Recordings To Accompany Forthcoming Graphic Novel’ at Live For Live Music.

Read “Black Crowes Reunite, Plot 2020 ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ Tour” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Silence, presence, and challenging conventions – thoughts on John Cage’s 4’33”' at Crosseyed Pianist.

Read “Trump Opens New Portal to Hell By Promoting #MAGACHALLENGE Rap Contest on Twitter” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Country Music Veteran Trent Reznor Nabs His First CMA Award” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Michael Jackson’s Estate Acquires Sly and the Family Stone’s Catalogue” at Vulture.

Read “When Christ Came for Kanye” at Think Christian.

• Read “Kanye’s ‘Jesus Is King’ is Superficially Gospel” at Sojourners.

Watch “a new film celebrating 30 years of record shop and label Mr Bongo” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Robert Johnson Biopic Reportedly In The Works From Oscar-Winning ‘Spider-Man’ Director” at Live For Live Music.

Read “Hall & Oates announce 2020 tour, dates w/ Squeeze & KT Tunstall Read More: Hall & Oates announce 2020 tour, dates w/ Squeeze & KT Tunstall” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read “Bob Weir & Wolf Bros Announce Early-2020 Tour Dates” at JamBase.

Read “'Sesame Street' celebrates 50 years on the air” at 12 News.

Read “Kevin Feige: Disney buying Marvel was the 'greatest thing that ever happened to us' "If Disney hadn't bought us, you wouldn't have seen the movies we've made since then” at CNet.

Read ‘Michael Jackson’s Simpsons episode kept off of Disney+” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Zoinks, Scooby-Doo gets a new origin story in this trailer for Scoob!” at AV Club.

Read “NBC renews Brooklyn Nine-Nine for season 8” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Werner Herzog on Why He Didn’t Need to See ‘Star Wars’ Films for ‘The Mandalorian’ Role” at Variety.

Read “Disney+ warns viewers about past racism, but not as well as Warner Bros. 53 Disney’s 1941 Dumbo is a prime example” at The Verge.

Read “Keanu Reeves plays a Sage named Sage in first trailer for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Noel Fielding is writing a new Netflix series about a magical record player” at NME.

Read “The Day Dostoyevsky Discovered the Meaning of Life in a Dream” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Graphic Adaptation Of 'Heart Of Darkness' Takes On Canonical Racism, Artfully” at NPR.

Read “Woman Turned 110-Year-Old Dead Tree Into A Free Little Library For The Neighborhood And It Looks Magical” at Bookish Buzz.

Read “A Group of Middle Eastern Artists Was Denied Entry to the US to Attend the Opening of Their Own MoMA PS1 Show” at Artnet.

Read “Artists are turning the U.S.-Mexico border fence into the world’s longest peace-themed mural” at Inhabit.

Read “A New Museum Dedicated to Picasso and Giacometti Is Launching in Beijing Next Year” at Artnet.

Read: “Wine Kills Germs That Cause Sore Throats and Dental Plaque, Says Awesome Study” at Maxim.

Read “A Tiny Species That Looks Part-Deer, Part-Mouse Was Missing for Nearly 30 Years. Scientists Just Found It” at Live Science.

Read “This nightmare fish with a human face is reminding people of Dreamcast's Seaman” at AV Club.

Read “I Thought Being a Health Care Reporter Would Make Cancer Easier. I Was Wrong. Nothing can prepare you for the immense number of complicated, sometimes life-or-death decisions the disease forces you to make about your own treatment” at Politico.

Read “Speech-Language Pathologist Teaches Her Dog to Communicate Through a Custom Button Talking Board” at Laughing Squid.

Read: “Two Guys In Mexico Just Created Vegan Leather From Cactus” at VegNews.

• Read “Wu Tang Clan Is Making Vegan Wallets Made Of Bananas” at Truth Theory.

Read “Overactive Brain Has Been Linked to a Shorter Life Want to live longer? Quiet your mind” at Medium.

Read “Bob Dylan's Heaven's Door 'Bootleg Series' Is a Rare 26-Year-old Whisky Finished in Japanese Oak Barrels: The 111.5 proof whisky comes in a bottle adorned with a Dylan painting and inside a collectible leather journal” at Maxim.

Read: “EPA Data: Phoenix Has Highest Levels in U.S. of Carcinogenic Gas Ethylene Oxide” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Arizona school districts suing e-cigarette maker Juul” at KTAR.

Read “Andy Warpigs on Building a Local Music Community” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Federal judge says Arizona prisons too broadly censor publications inmates can see” at Tucson.com.

Read “How the Disney/Fox Merger Is Affecting Local Independent Movie Theaters” at Phoenix New Times.

The Weekly Town Crier (10/11/19)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (10/11/19 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.

RIP Rip Taylor.

Read “Social Justice Is A Christian Tradition - Not A Liberal Agenda at Sojourners.

Read Christianity Today’s piece: “Teacher’s Lawsuit Reflects Evangelical Educators’ Dilemma Over Transgender Pronouns A fired French instructor says the school board’s policy didn’t allow for compromise.”

Read as Facts and Trends wonders: “When Is It OK To Walk Away From Toxic People in Ministry?” My guess is that it should be a lot sooner than most people would admit, but read the piece for yourself.

Read as Jim Wallis wonders “And Who Is Your Neighbor: “How can so many white Americans, most of whom call Jesus 'Lord,' be so disconnected from the meaning and implications of perhaps Christ’s most famous teaching?”

Read Mike Frost’s piece: “New kinds of churches really are the hope of the future.”

Read “How Augustine responded to the problem of evil without solving it When we make sense of suffering, we lose our ability to protest against it” by James K.A. Smith at Christian Century.

Read “The Utter Strangeness of Christ’s Divinity” at Mockingbird.

Read Christianity Today’s piece: “Make a Joyful Silence Unto the Lord Why quiet is essential to corporate worship.”

Read: “Ancient Megalopolis Uncovered in Israel Was the 'New York City' of Its Time Period” at Live Science.

Watch as MSNBC wonders “What image portrays our national mood today?"

Read: “I Used to Be Homeless—and Here’s What Everyone Gets Wrong About It” at MSN.

Read “Leo Tolstoy on Kindness and the Measure of Love “Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness” at Brain Pickings.

Read AV Club’s report: “HBO is adding mental health disclaimers before certain shows.”

Read Washington Post’s piece: “Researchers say there’s a simple way to reduce suicides: Increase the minimum wage.”

Read “Corporations and guns: How companies are reshaping the gun control debate” at CBS News.

• Read/watch ABC7NY’s report: “Dick's Sporting Goods destroyed $5 million worth of assault weapons.”

Read Christianity Today’s opinion piece: “David Was a Rapist, Abraham Was a Sex Trafficker What we miss when we downgrade Old Testament abuse stories to sexual peccadilloes.”

Read: “Undermining Human Rights In The Name of Religious Freedom: The Pompeo commission is at odds with Jesus' radically egalitarian teachings.” at Sojourners.

Read Juicy Ecumenicism’s piece: “Why the Red Letter Christian Movement Is Not Growing.”

Read Slate’s report: “Polish men under 40 now think the biggest threat to the country is LGBT people: The Horrifying Campaign Against LGBTQ People in Poland—and How the U.S. Has Made It Worse.”

Watch “as An Animated Michael Sandel Explains How Meritocracy Degrades Our Democracy” at Open Culture.

Read The Intercept’s opinion piece: “Dear Ellen: The Problem With George W. Bush Is Not His Beliefs — It’s His War Crimes.”

Watch MSNBC’s report: “Two businessmen who helped Giuliani go after Biden in Ukraine arrested on campaign finance charges.”

Read NPR’s report: “After China Objects, Apple Removes App Used By Hong Kong Protesters.”

Read CNBC’s report: “The cost of Trump’s tariffs has fallen ‘entirely’ on US businesses and households.”

• Read Pro Publica’s report: “How Trump’s Tariffs Are Creating Jobs — for Canadians.”

Read Rolling Stone’s report: “The Richest Americans Are Now Paying a Lower Tax Rate Than the Working Class The U.S. government isn’t just failing to address inequality. It’s driving it.”

Read NBC’s report: “House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings subpoenas White House for Ukraine documents.”

• Browse “A Running List Of Republicans Criticizing Trump's Ukraine Scandal” at HuffPost.

• Sign Faithful America’s petition arguing that Christians should not support Trump.

• Read Rolling Stone’s report: “Trump Blames Rick Perry for ‘Perfect’ Ukraine Call “I didn’t even want to make the call,” the president said while tossing the energy secretary under the bus.”

• Read/watch “2nd whistleblower comes forward after speaking with IG: Attorney” at ABC News.

• Read “Kelli Ward to hold anti-impeachment Arizona events for Trump campaign” at AZ Central.

• Read “New York judge rules Trump must turn over tax returns for hush money investigation” at ABC News.

• Read NPR’s report: “Trump Administration Says It 'Cannot Participate' In Impeachment Inquiry: The Trump White House said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and three House committee chairman that it would not comply with their requests for witnesses and documents in their impeachment inquiry.”

  • Watch MSNBC’s report: “The White House says it will no longer cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry.”

• Read “Law and Crime’s” report: “Scottish Government Says Trump Org Refuses to Pay Legal Bills After Losing Wind Farm Lawsuit.”

• Read Religion News Service’s report: “Christian leaders call for Day of Prayer in support of impeachment inquiry.”

• With the White House refusing to cooperate, Read NPR’s piece: “Who Sets The Rules? When Is It Real? And Other Big Questions On Impeachment.”

Read as “Pence Makes Clear There Is No Daylight Between Him and Trump” at MSN.

• Read New York magazine’s piece: “Pence: I Participated in the Ukraine Plot But Only As a Patsy.”

• Watch as Colbert plays: “Mike Pence: He’s Either ‘Corrupt or Dumb’.

Read NPR’s report: “Trump Bars Immigrants Who Cannot Pay For Health Care.”

• Read/Listen to “From Snakes To Spikes, Reporters Reveal Trump's Extreme Border Proposals: When efforts to build a border wall stalled, President Trump suggested other options — including building a trench filled with snakes and alligators, according to a forthcoming book.” at NPR.

• Read NPR’s report: “Twitter Analysis Shows How Trump Tweets Differently About Nonwhite Lawmakers.”

Read Christianity Today’s report: “Syrian Christians to US: ‘Don’t Abandon Us Now’ After surviving a civil war and ISIS attacks, the Christian minority fears a Turkish takeover in Kurdish border region.”

Read/Listen to: “Whistleblower Explains How Cambridge Analytica Helped Fuel U.S. 'Insurgency'“ at NPR.

Read “Judge rips into Trump Education chief Betsy DeVos over student debt: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, was supposed to stop collecting on former Corinthian Colleges students’ loans and forgive the debt.“ at LA Times.

Read Phoenix New Times’ report: “County Assessor Paul Petersen Indicted for 'Horrible Crimes' Involving Adoptions.”

• Read a follow-up piece: “8 Pregnant Women Found in Home of County Assessor Accused of Adoption Scheme.”

Read “'God Is Not Going to Put It in Your Lap.' What Made Fannie Lou Hamer’s Message on Civil Rights So Radical—And So Enduring” at Time.

Read Chicago Tribune’s report: “A puzzling number of men tied to the Ferguson protests have since died.”

Read “The Ritual of American Racism” at Paris Review.

Read “I've never told anyone': Stories of life in Indian boarding schools” at MNPR.

Read “Joshua Brown, key witness in Amber Guyger murder trial and neighbor of Botham Jean, shot to death in Dallas” at CNN.

• Read The Root’s report: “Police Allege Joshua Brown, Witness in Amber Guyger Trial, Was Victim of Botched Interstate Drug Deal.”

Read NPR’s report: “South Carolina Sheriff Candidate: I Wore Blackface 10 Years Ago.”

Read Shane Claiborne’s opinion piece at RNS: “Let’s not ask Botham Jean’s family to choose forgiveness over justice.”

Read The Root’s report: “Baltimore’s Top Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby Moves to Throw Out Nearly 800 Cases Involving Tainted Cops.”

Read “The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt on the Normalization of Human Wickedness and Our Only Effective Antidote to It” at Brain Pickings.

Read Christianity Today’s report: “Judge: U of Iowa Officials Have to Pay for Repeated Discrimination Against Christian Groups The recent ruling in favor of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship was the second time the court called out inconsistent policies on campus.”

Read/Listen to “Grab The Train At Grace Jones, Get Off At Yoko Ono: Exploring NYC's New 'City Of Women' Map” at WBUR.

Read: “Street art is a crime Why is the metropolitan elite celebrating this vandalism?” at Spiked.

Read “The 5 richest men in the US have a staggering combined wealth of $435.4 billion. That's more than 2% of America's GDP” at Business Insider.

Read “The Soul of an Octopus: How One of Earth’s Most Alien Creatures Illuminates the Wonders of Consciousness” at Brain Pickings.

Read: “Nostalgia for a Less Innocent Time: On the glory and depravity of hair metal” at Paris Review.

Read Stereogum’s piece: “Goodbye, iTunes: Once-Revolutionary App Gone In Mac Update.”

Browse Pitchfork’s picks for “The 200 Best Songs of the 2010s.”

• Browse Pitchfork’s picks for the “The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s.”

• Browse “Remembering the Weirdest Album Launch Stunts of the 2010s” at Pitchfork.

Browse Paste’s picks for “The 100 Best Albums of the Decade.”

R.I.P. Ginger Baker.

• Read as “Ringo Starr Remembers ‘Incredible, Inventive’ Ginger Baker” at Rolling Stone.

• Read as “Bill Frisell Remembers Ginger Baker: ‘Nobody Sounded Like That’ at Rolling Stone.

• Read: “Stewart Copeland Remembers 'Rock God' Ginger Baker” at Time.

Read Noisey’s piece: “Wilco Haven’t Just Endured, They’ve Gotten Better 'Ode To Joy’ cements their legacy as the greatest band of our time.”

• Read Vulture’s piece “Wilco’s Ode to Joy Is a Thrilling New Beginning for the Band.”

• Read “Wilco, Forever In Competition With Its Own Best Work, Tries Shifting The Stakes” at NPR.

• Listen to “Wilco in 10 Songs A sad yet quirky scrapbook into the wonderful world of Chicago's finest rockersWilco in 10 Songs A sad yet quirky scrapbook into the wonderful world of Chicago's finest rockers” at Consequence of Sound.

• Read Pitchfork’s reivew of “Ode to Joy” written by friend Jason Patrick Woodbury.

• Read NPR’s piece: “Wilco's Jeff Tweedy On Finding Joy In A Complicated World.”

Browse as “Guitarist Bill Frisell Picks His Favorite Blue Note Albums” for Jazziz.'

Read/Listen to “Listen to former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe’s debut solo single, ‘Your Capricious Soul’ at NME.

• Hear “R.E.M’s Gripping New Remix of Kurt Cobain Tribute ‘Let Me In’ Track will appear on Monster‘s upcoming 25th anniversary reissue at Rolling Stone.”

Read: “Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart Remembers Robert Hunter: ‘You Can’t Replace Him’” at Rolling Stone.

Read a profile of Finnish “band” Paavoharju: “"Paavoharju is not a real band," says Lauri Ainala. "Never was."

Read: “Mind Matters: Musicians on How Meditation Keeps Them Focused and Free” at No Depression.

Read Post-Punk’s report “Dead Can Dance Announce North and South American Tour Celebrating Life & Works.”

Read KTAR’s report: “Three Arizona stores to participate in Cassette Store Day.”

Watch: “Take an exclusive first-look at INXS performing ‘New Sensation’ in restored ‘Live Baby Live’ concert film and album.”

Read “Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – ‘Ghosteen’ review: a beautiful account of harrowing grief” at NME.

• Read the Guardian’s review: “Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Ghosteen review – a heavenly haunting.”

• Read NME’s review of “Nick Cave live at Tennessee Performing Arts Centre, Nashville: extraordinary honesty and coruscating one-liners.”

• Read AV Club’s review: “On Ghosteen, Nick Cave invites us into his bright abyss.”

• Read Pitchfork’s review.

• Read Consequence of Sound’s review.

Read Live For Live Music’s report: “Trey Anastasio Documentary, ‘Between Me & My Mind’, Headed To Streaming Platforms.”

Read “Rihanna Calls President Trump ‘Mentally Ill,’ Talks New Album and Why She Wouldn’t Play the Super Bowl” at Variety: Rihanna explains why she'll never play the Super Bowl: “For what? Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler. There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all"

Hear “Tears for Fears Perform Selections from Songs From The Big Chair in 1985” at Paste.

Read “Kurt Cobain’s ‘Unplugged’ Sweater Heads to Auction Again, Never Been Washed” at Rolling Stone.

Read as Quietus interviews Suede front man Brett Anderson.

Read “So Many Roads with Mike Vallely (by Mike Vallely) at Relix: A pro skateboarder straddles the line between Black Flag and the Good Ol’ Grateful Dead.”

Read Rolling Stone’s profile of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott: “The Last Folksinger Ramblin’ Jack Elliott befriended Woody Guthrie, hung out with the Dead, and hit the road with Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue. At 88, this self-made cowboy is still on the move.”

Read “Ezra Koenig & Justin Vernon Talk Playing Beer Pong Together, Touring Hardships On Time Crisis” at Stereogum.

Read/listen to “The Story Of José Feliciano's World Series Guitar” at NPR.

Read “University of Kansas apologizes after Snoop Dogg brings pole dancers, money gun "We made it clear to the entertainers' managers that we expected a clean version of the show" at Consequence of Sound.

Read/listen to NPR’s piece: “In U2's 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For,' A Restless Search For Meaning.”

Read Consequence of Sound’s piece “Josh Homme announces Desert Sessions Vol. 11 & 12 Featuring Les Claypool, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears, and more.”

Read “How Funk Band Vulfpeck Sold Out Madison Square Garden Without a Manager or Big Label” at Billboard.

Read “Philip Glass: ‘Everyone needs a technique, whether they’re a plumber or a cook’” at Irish Times.

Read Reverb Is For Lover’s review of One Eleven Heavy’s Desire Path.

Read about the time “Kim Gordon was sent to ‘Disney jail’ for smoking weed at Disneyland” at Dazed.

Read Rolling Stone’s report: “Sinead O’Connor Plots First North American Tour in Six Years Irish singer details February West Coast run, Midwest, East Coast dates in March, April.”

Read as NPR wonders “All Ears: Music That Maps A Personal History Of Place: Place is never singular. Always layered, the meaning of a place can change based on tiny shifts in perspective. Can music bring these layers together?”

Read Something Else Reviews’ review of the recently released John Coltrane album “Blue World.”

Read “How a Newspaper Article Saved Thousands of Black Gospel Records From Obscurity” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “A History Of The U.K.’s Earthshakingly Bass-Heavy Sound System Culture In 10 Tracks".

Read TalkHouse’s: “On Joker, Fight Club and the Danger of Self-Fulfilling Cautionary Tales Filmmaker Adam Kritzer examines the seductive and deeply problematic vision of Todd Phillips' new movie, and Fincher's classic which preceded it.”

Consider Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five At 50” with Iowa Public Radio.

• Listen to “Hear a Radio Opera Narrated by Kurt Vonnegut, Based on His Adaptation of Igor Stravinsky’s 1918 L’Histoire du Soldat” at Open Culture.

Read “In 'Horror Stories,' Liz Phair Writes Of 'The Haunting Melodies' In Her Head” at NPR Books.

Meet the “Badass Female Librarians” who “Delivered Books On Horseback in 1930’s at Bookish Buzz.

Read Variety’s report: “Live-Action ‘Inspector Gadget’ Movie in Development at Disney.”

Read The Verge’s report: “Disney is reportedly banning Netflix ads across its entertainment TV networks.”

Read Wired’s report: “Dyson Sucks the Air Out of Its Electric-Car Dreams The British household-products maker had promised to invest $2.5 billion in EVs. Now, it says it can't produce one that's “commercially viable.”

See “Ghost sculptures in the Castle of Vezio in Lake Como, Italy.”

Read 12 News’s report: “This bar sells drinks by the hour, not the glass For an average price of $10 per hour, customers can drink as much as they can handle, the bar said.”

See “The Fascinating Science of How Trees Communicate, Animated” at Brain Pickings.

Read “New north Phoenix bookstore Enchanted Chapters caters to children with autism” at AZ Central.

Read “Glenlivet's seaweed pouch Scotch pods are a triumphant testament to the power of stupid” at AV Club.

Read “The Secret to Shopping in Used Bookstores First Step: Surrender All Expectations” at Lit Hub.

Read AV Club’s review: “Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal is a harsh reminder that the food chain can’t be beat.”

Read Art News’s report “Actress Jessica Lange Is Paying Homage to Bob Dylan With a Stunning Set of Photographs Taken Along Highway 61. See Her Photos Here.”

Read Rolling Stone’s report: “On the Scene at America’s First Public Cannabis Cafe After years of anticipation, Lowell Café has opened in West Hollywood. For the staff and the patrons, it’s a whole new kind of experience.”

Read as National Geographic wonders “To save birds, should we kill off cats?”

Read PBS’ piece: “Record number of colleges stop requiring the SAT and ACT amid questions of fairness.”

Browse “5 Eateries With Dope House-Made Hot Sauce in Metro Phoenix” at Phoenix New Times.

Read/listen to “The Lasting Legacy Of Bob Ross And His Colorful World Of 'Happy Accidents” at NPR.

Read “A Brief History of the ‘Danse Macabre’" at Atlas Obscura.

Read Atlas Obscura’s piece reminding us poor Americans that we’ve never tried real Wasabi.

Read “Scientists hope to digitally unravel scrolls charred by Vesuvius with light 10 billion times brighter than the sun” at CNN.

Read/Listen to “Arthritis Foundation Releases Guidelines For Patients Who Want To Use CBD To Manage Pain” at NPR’s Here and Now.

Read CNBC’s report: “Researchers find e-cigarettes cause lung cancer in mice in first study tying vaping to cancer.”

Read The Telegraph’s report: “Folklore is dying out due to rise of social media, National Trust warns.”

Watch CBS’s piece: “California teen holds birthday parties for homeless children.”

Read Phoenix New Times’ piece: “9 Haunted Restaurants and Bars in Greater Phoenix.”

Read Atlas Obscura’s piece: “The Macabre Art of Baking ‘People Pot Pies’ Crafting skin and flesh from the sweet and tasty.”

Read AZ Central’s piece: “This Phoenix brewery is one of the fastest growing companies in the US. Meet the founder.”

Read/Listen to: “'Not One Drop Of Blood': Cattle Mysteriously Mutilated In Oregon” at NPR.”

Read Mysterious Universe’s report: “Strange Image Captured In North Carolina Woods Is Believed To Be Bigfoot.”

Read KTAR’s report: “Arizona ranked worst state in the country for teachers.”

Read Phoenix New Times’ report: “Arizona Lost 10 Percent of Its Licensed Foster Homes Last Year, Report Finds.”

The Weekly Town Crier (09/27/19)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (09/20/19 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 as Christianity Today wonders “Why Chris Tomlin Still Dominates Both Radio and Sunday Morning.”

Read as Magnet considers the legacy of The Clash.

Read The Hollywood Reporter’s report: “Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds to Star in Musical Reimagining of 'A Christmas Carol'.

Read as 1A interviews Billy Bragg.

Read “Why I Created A Chapel Service Where People Confess to Plants” at Sojourners. “"Our worship seeks to witness to God’s love for the whole world, to manifest a love that goes deep and spreads wide, that transcends ourselves and becomes fully lived and embodied in the complex and diverse ecosystems of this earth and the cosmos."

Read “A Response to Recent Events” at “Relevant.”

Read Pitchfork’s report: “Fiona Apple Says She’s “Hoping” to Have New Album “Ready for Early 2020”.

• Read as “Fiona Apple Asks Lil Nas X: “Where’s My Money, You Cute Little Guy?” at Stereogum.

Read Fox 5 Atlanta’s report: “White nationalism is now recognized as a major terror threat by the Department of Homeland Security” and consider Kyle Howard’s reply: “It’s ALWAYS been a major terror threat... it would have always been considered such if #blacklivesmatter”

Read NPR’s report: “Sandusky, Ohio, Makes Election Day A Paid Holiday — By Swapping Out Columbus Day” and listen to Uncle Tupelo’s track “Sandusky” at Youtube.

Read reports that “An 'Extinct' Taiwanese Leopard Was Spotted For The First Time In 36 Years.”

Read CBS News’ report: “Trump trade war with China has cost 300,000 U.S. jobs, Moody's estimates.”

Browse as Rolling Stone considers the “40 Saddest Country Songs of All Time.”

Read Jambands.com report: Adam MacDougall Confirms Addition of Eric Krasno for Circles Around the Sun Fall Tour Dates and see my post: “Musical Worldview (Instrumental Edition): Circles Around The Sun, "Hallucinate A Solution".

Read as New York Times profiles Kim Gordon.

Read as PopMatters interviews Thurston Moore.

• Hear Thurston Moore cover New Order’s “Leave Me Alone.”

Stream a new song from The New Pornographers, “One Kind of Solomon” at Spin.

Read as Stuart Murdoch talks to NPR’s Weekend Edition about the new Belle and Sebastian album, 'Days Of The Bagnold Summer'.

Read Far Out Magazine’s piece: “David Hasselhoff releases cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain song ‘Head On’".

Browse as The Guardian considers the best books about debate.

Read NPR’s report: “The Vaping Illness Outbreak: What We Know So Far . . . The CDC now says there are 805 reported cases of vaping-related illness — and 12 confirmed deaths across the country.”

Read Slate’s piece: “The President Who Wanted Us to Stop Climate Change If only we’d listened to Jimmy Carter on renewables, consumption, and transportation.”

Read Paste’s profile of Devendra Banhart.

Read Wired’s opinion piece: "Red flag" laws help prevent suicides and mass shootings, and they buy time for people in crisis to get help.”

Hear a new Angel Olson song at The Current.

Hear Lucy Dacus cover Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark.”

Read Christianity Today’s report: “Young Life Voted Off Campus at Duke.”

Read Paste’s report: “Cream Drummer Ginger Baker Is "Critically Ill," His Family Says.”

Read as the San Diego Reader interviews The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle.

Read Jamband.com’s report: “Stanton Moore, Skerik, Scott Metzger, Robert Walter, Andy Hess Teaming Up as Emerald Quintet for Fall Shows.”

Read WGNTV’s report: “Sony releases a Walkman for its 40th anniversary.”

Hear Thom Yorke on Desert Island Discs on BBC.

Hear “Harry Nilsson Estate Preps Posthumous Album ‘Losst and Founnd’” at Rolling Stone.

Read as Public Books reconsiders John Kennedy Toole’s Confederacy of Dunces 50 years later.

Consider “Why Ted Cruz was making a biblical case for gun rights after the Odessa shooting” at Washington Post.

Read AZ ED News’ report: “Severe Teacher Shortage In Arizona Continues” and vote for #redfored policies and candidates.

Read SBS’ report that Greta Thunberg has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Browse “Captain Beefheart's 10 Commandments of Guitar Playing” at WFMU.

Browse a “Grateful Dead Album Guide” at Rolling Stone.

Consider “The Unsolved Case of the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet” at Rolling Stone.

Browse “A Guide to African Country Music” at Bandcamp.

Read “A Perfect Movie: The Enduring Legacy of The Princess Bride” at Christ and Pop Culture.

Hear a posthumous track from Leonard Cohen from a forthcoming collection due out this November at NPR.

Read: “Forget STEM, We Need MESH The importance of media literacy, ethics, sociology and history education” at Medium.

Read “In Jamaica With Island Records Founder Chris Blackwell” at Billboard.

Help keep Zanzibar's only music academy open!

Read “How The Replacements’ Biggest Failure Predicted The Future Of Indie Rock” at Uproxx.

Watch Lecrae Get Baptized in the Jordan River at “Relevant.”

See some of the items from Anthony Bourdain’s estate that are up for auction.

Read Rolling Stone’s report: “Jennifer Lopez, Shakira to Perform at Halftime Show at Super Bowl LIV.'“

Browse Paste’s picks for the 30 Best Albums of 1999.

Ever wonder what it would be like “If Mr. Bean Played Every Role In Hollywood…”

Read Magnet’s interview with Grant-Lee Phillips as “Mighty Joe Moon” turns 25.

Read Wall Street Journal’s report: “Trump Repeatedly Pressed Ukraine President to Investigate Biden’s Son.” In other words, he asked a foreign country for help in U.S. elections. Again.

• Read Washington Post’s commentary: “"It is a form of shamelessness worn as a badge of protection— on the implicit theory that the president’s alleged offenses can’t be that serious if he commits them in full public view."

• Read The Atlantic’s opinion piece: “If This Isn’t Impeachable, Nothing Is The president reportedly sought the help of a foreign government against Joe Biden.”

• Read “the full, redacted Trump whistleblower complaint” at PBS.

Watch a “Mexican congressman climbs U.S. border fence to illustrate that Trump's wall is 'totally absurd' at ABC News.

Read Christianity Today’s report “World Vision Flips the Script on Child Sponsorship In the ministry’s first major innovation in seven decades, the children now do the choosing.”

Read as “John Mayer Credits Dead & Company For His Change In Perspective In Heartfelt Post-Tour Note.”

Read The North Star’s report: “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Apologizes For Wearing Brownface And Blackface.”

Read NPR’s report: “Young People Lead Millions To Protest Global Inaction On Climate Change.”

Read/Listen to NPR’s report: Gang Starr, Hip-Hop's Chilliest Pair Of Heads, Returns.”

Read Oregon Live’s report: “Dr. Bronner’s soap company donates $150,000 to Oregon’s 2020 legal psychedelic mushroom initiative.”

R.I.P. Suzanne Whang, original host of House Hunters, dead at 56.

R.I.P. Larry Wallis, original Motörhead guitarist.

R.I.P. Robert Hunter.

Read Was Is Das’ review of One Eleven Heavy’s Desire Path.

• Read Echoes and Dust’s review of the new One Eleven Heavy album Desire Path.

Read The Guardian’s review of Hiss Golden Messenger’s new album Terms of Surrender.

• Read as Paste interviews Hiss Golden Messenger on the release of the fantastic album “Terms of Surrender.”

Read as NPR wonders “How did a bubblegum pop tune by a fictional cartoon band become the top song of the year in 1969?: 50 Years Later, The Archies' 'Sugar, Sugar' Is Still 'Really Sweet'“

Read the New York Times’s report: “Walmart to End Sales of E-Cigarettes.”

Read “Books Won’t Die” at The Paris Review: “In 1913, Thomas Edison said books “will soon be obsolete in the public schools.”

Read New York Times’ profile of Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness.

Read Stereogum’s report: “Area 51 Fest Cancelled After Only 500 Humans Show Up.”

Read Hollywood Reporter’s piece: “'Schitt's Creek' Creator Dan Levy Signs Overall Deal With ABC Studios.”

Watch “Charles and Ray Eames put their 1969 spin on one of the world’s oldest toys” at Aeon.

Listen to “Scott Erickson & Justin McRoberts — If You Don't Create a Formational Practice For Yourself, Someone Else Will Create One For You” on the Let’s Give A Damn podcast. And read my profile of the newest book May It Be So from the two here.

Read Buzzfeed’s report: “Immigration Officials Want To Change References Of "Foreign National" To "Alien" In A Policy Manual.”

Read NPR’s report: “The 'OK' Hand Gesture Is Now Listed As A Symbol Of Hate.”

Hear a new track from NOLA’s Cha Wa at Relix and listen to “Chapters” by Cha Wa from the 2018 release Spyboy on Episode 21 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

Hurt your brain wondering if our own consciousness is an illusion created by our brains at Aeon.

Consider “The Intelligence of Plants” at the Paris Review.

Browse Buzzfeed’s list of “11 Great Books About Rock And Roll.”

Read as Spin talks to Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline.

Read “Ta-Nehisi Coates On Magic, Memory And The Underground Railroad” at NPR.

Watch the trailer for the Elephant 6 documentary at Aquarium Drunkard.

Browse “13 Books About Immigration to Read This Hispanic Heritage Month” at Oprah Magazine.

Consider “Why It Matters if your Bible was translated by a racially diverse group” at Washington Post.

Walk through the last home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright with Phoenix New Times.

Read ASU Now’s report: “ASU women's robotics team places first in country, third in world.”

Read Pitchfork’s report: “Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged Gets 25th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue Featuring five additional rehearsal performances from the iconic set.”

The Weekly Town Crier (09/13/19)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about. 09/13/19 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 “Jerry Falwell Jr. Shows How the Advance of Christendom Can Harm Christianity” by David French at National Review. Read my piece: “Americans: Stop Confusing Your Personal Cultural Values With Christianity.”

Read “Why Nobody in Hollywood Has Any Friends” at Hollywood Reporter.

R.I.P. Daniel Johnston.

R.I.P. Jarrid Wilson.

Read “Nodding To The Shadow” by Richard Rohr.

Read: “‘Simply Unacceptable’: 145 Executives Demand Senate Action on Gun Violence” at New York Times.

Read CNN’s report: “Publix joins retailers asking customers not to openly carry guns into its stores.”

Consider “The coming death of just about every rock legend” at The Week.

Read NME’s report: “The Rolling Stones are releasing a hefty deluxe ‘Let It Bleed’ 50th anniversary boxset.”

Listen as “R.E.M. Share Unreleased Song “Fascinating” to Support Hurricane Dorian Relief” at PItchfork.

Read “Sammy Brue – The Folk Rock Kid” at Salt Lake Magazine.

Read about “Wallace and Ladmo's Musical Mastermind” at Phoenix New Times.

Read PBS’ report: “Trudeau says Canada will take refugees banned by U.S.'“

Read ArtNet’s report: “Artist David Hockney Is Moving to France Because It’s Illegal to Smoke Practically Anywhere in America.”

Listen as “Wynonna Judd & Cass McCombs Form Duo The Frothy Pit, Share New Song “The Child” at Stereogum.

Read “A Shared Place Wendell Berry’s lifelong dissent” at The Nation.

Read/Watch “Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey to talk all things The Office on new podcast Co-stars and real-life best friends will break down episodes and reveal behind-the-scenes trivia on Office Ladies” at Consequence of Sound.

Browse “The Music That Made Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy” at Pitchfork.

Read “Dan Brown's Desire Path: Our Arts & Music Columnist's new band is quite good” at VoidLive. Browse my post about One Eleven Heavy here.

Read Christianity Today’s report: “Is American Christianity on Its Last Legs? The Data Say Otherwise.”

Read “Sounds emanating love – the story of Arvo Pärt” at Estonian World.

See “The photographer shooting a 30-year timelapse of New York's skyline” at CNN.

See the “Evolution of Picasso’s Iconic Self-Portraits From Age 15 to 90” at mymodern.net.

Watch Chance the Rapper and Smino Perform “Eternal” on “Ellen” at Pitchfork.

Watch “Chance the Rapper Explain How Jesus Inspires Him to Serve His Community” at Relevant.

Read “Buttigieg Talks Being a Pro-Choice Christian” at Relevant.

Read “Sun Ra Applies to NASA’s Art Program: When the Inventor of Space Jazz Applied to Make Space Art” at Open Culture.

Listen to “Jemar Tisby on Race and the American Church” at Fuller Seminary.

Read Paste’s Op-Ed: “Brewery Taprooms: Please Allow Half Pours. I’m Begging You.”

Read: “Rob Stoner :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview.”

Read “Let’s bring back the Sabbath as a radical act against ‘total work’” at Aeon.

Read “It's Soul Music Without The Sex': Fat Possum Records' Bruce Watson Goes Gospel” at NPR’s World Cafe.

Watch the new trailer for the Michael Hutchence documentary ‘Mystify’ at NME.

Read “I Was Always Trying To Get Better”: Sonny Rollins On A Life In Jazz” at Udiscovermusic.

Read PBS News’ Hour’s report: “Share of uninsured Americans rises for 1st time in a decade.”

Read “Robert Del Naja on the technological world of Massive Attack” at Dazed Digital.

Discover “Ancient Sufi Dance: Rumi's Whirling Dervishes” at Culture Trip.

Listen to Kim Gordon’s New Song “Air BnB” at Pitchfork.

Watch “this young musician shred “Voodoo Child” on a Korean gayageum” at AV Club.

Read jambands.com’s report: “moe. Announce First Studio Album in 5 Years.”

Read “Pastor and Writer Jarrid Wilson Has Died By Suicide” at Relevant.

Hear a new Matt Valentine song “Light Speed>” at Raven Sings The Blues.

Read “What I Learned From Aquarius Records, A Record Store For Big Ears” at NPR’s “All Songs Considered.”

Watch on MSNBC as Morning “Joe asks Mayor Pete about Jesus Christ being his lord and personal savior.”

Read Pitchfork’s piece: “Neko Case on Her New Album, Her House Burning Down, and Her Futuristic Feminism.”

Read: “Tennessee Senator calls higher education a 'liberal breeding ground,' calls to remove it all together.”

Hear Mary Oliver read “Her Beloved Poem “Wild Geese” at Brain Pickings.

Read “NRA Sues San Francisco Over ‘Terrorist Organization’ Designation’ at Rolling Stone.

Read “Live After Death: Inside Music’s Booming New Hologram Touring Industry” at Rolling Stone.

Read PopSugar’s report: “Schitt's Creek Season 5 Will Drop on Netflix in October.”

Read about Bonnie “Prince” Billy returning with his first new album of music in 8 years and watch the video for the new song “At The Back Of The Pit” at Stereogum.

Read: Jimmie Rodgers: “How an American country music pioneer entered African mythology” at Aeon.

Read: “Original Bauhaus lineup to reunite for first time in 13 years” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “They Don’t Think There Is Any America Left” What a researcher found when she interviewed black, white, and Latino working-class residents of a struggling coal town.“They Don’t Think There Is Any America Left” What a researcher found when she interviewed black, white, and Latino working-class residents of a struggling coal town” at Slate.

Hear “Hear U2 Discuss The Making of The Unforgettable Fire on This Day in 1987” at Paste Magazine.

Listen to a Spotify mix of my friend Justin McRoberts’ music.

Read Stereogum’s report: “Jack O’Connell To Star In Biopic About Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder.”

Read Rolling Stone’s report “We’re Only Beginning to See the Consequences of the Bush-Era Assault on Civil Liberties.”

Read Stereogum’s report: “Courtney Love Says She Turned Down $100,000 To Attend Opioid Heiress’ Fashion Show.”

Read/Watch “David Hasselhoff Covers The Lords of The New Church’s “Open Your Eyes” for New Album Full of Post-Punk Covers” at Post-Punk.com.

Read “Bahamians Fleeing to U.S. Turned Away Following Sudden Policy Change” at Relevant.

Visit PopSugar’s piece: “If You Think I'm Gonna Spend All My Money on These Golden Girl Chia Pets, You're So Right.”

Read “Religious conservatives voice fears that a Democratic president will lead them to 'martyrdom'“ at Yahoo, then read my piece “Americans: Stop Confusing Your Personal Cultural Values With Christianity.”

Read/Watch “The culture of masculinity and its negative impacts on men” at PBS.

Read Sojourners piece: “Margaret Atwood On Christianity, ‘The Handmaids Tale,’ And What Faithful Activism Looks Like Today.”

Stream “Miles Davis’ unreleased ’80s album Rubberband” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Love Is Not a Battlefield, and Neither Is Jeni’s: An Afternoon Eating Ice Cream With Hanif Abdurraqib” at The Ringer.

Read “Frances Bean Cobain Launches ‘Kurt Was Here’ Clothing Collection” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Bob Dylan announces 2019 US tour dates The 28-date outing launches in October” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Mark Twain on Racism, How Religion Is Used to Justify Injustice, and What His Mother Taught Him About Compassion” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Why ‘Wichita Lineman’ Contains the Greatest Musical Couplet Ever Written” at Lit Hub.

Watch “Sinéad O’Connor makes epic return on Ireland’s Late Late Show” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Tool’s Maynard James Keenan Addresses Justin Bieber Beef” at Stereogum.

Read an Op-Ed at Relevant: “A Christian Case for Prison Abolition.”

Uh oh! “White Claw announces nationwide shortage.”

Read Christianity Today’s report: “LifeWay’s Stores Are Closing. But Its Christian Books Will Be in More Stores Than Ever.”

Imagine being able to afford these turntables.

Read about the beef stews that’s been simmering for 45 years.

Stream or download a mix that I’ve been listening to in the car during Summer 2019.

Read Consequence of Sound’s report: “Vinyl sales on track to earn more than CDs for first time in over 30 years.”

Read Relevant’s piece: “Scientists: The Loch Ness Monster Might Just Be a Dumb Old Eel.”

Read Salon’s report that the “GOP poised to cancel caucuses and primaries in four states in spite of Trump challengers.”

Read Spin’s report that “Neil Young Announces New Book on the History of Pono.”

Read Christianity Today’s piece: “Meet the Dutch Christians Who Saved Their Jewish Neighbors from the Nazis.”

Read as Eric Trump teaches us how to do good journalism.

Hear Wilco “Debut Four New Originals in Norway” at Jambands.com.

Read Katelyn Beaty’s review of Chris Arnade’s book Dignity: “Proximity Over Punditry.”

Read the New York Times opinion piece: “That Assault Weapon Ban? It Really Did Work.”

Read Sojourners’ piece asking us to remember “When American Christians were Socialists.”

Read Huffpost’s piece: “Pete Buttigieg: GOP Will Face A ‘Reckoning’ As Christians Realize Its Hypocrisy.”

Hear “Three Songs From Pernice Brothers’ First Album In 9 Years Spread The Feeling” at stereogum.

Read “The Literary Canon Is Mostly White. Here’s an Alternative Latin American Reading List” at remezcla.

Read Consequence of Sound’s piece: “Judas Priest’s Rob Halford announces holiday album, unveils new song “Donner and Blitzen.”

Read Relevant’s piece: “So, These Glasses Will Physically ‘Nudge’ You If You Stop Paying Attention in Class.”

“Here Is Sleater-Kinney's New Drummer” at Exclaim!

Read NPR’s report: “CDC Says Number Of Possible Cases Of Vaping-Related Lung Illness Has Doubled.”

Read Christianity Today’s report: “Baptist College Handbook Authorizes ‘Full Access’ to Students’ Social Media Accounts.”

Read Billboard’s piece: “New Grateful Dead Photography Book Offers Deep Dive Into Jerry Garcia's Life.”

Read about the four-story roastery Starbucks is opening in Chicago.

Read 12News’ report: “Cars with back seat alert systems could help prevent kids left in hot cars.”

Read “A ‘Sabbatical’ From Church? One woman's story of how a break from church has helped remind her of what church is really all about” at Relevant.

Watch Dave Matthews for a solo set at NPR’s Tiny Desk.

Read Aldi’s statement on Twitter: “At ALDI, the safety of our employees, customers and the community is our highest priority. Alongside many other businesses, we are asking that our customers refrain from openly displaying firearms in any of our stores, except for authorized law enforcement personnel.”

Read “Chance the Rapper Postpones Tour Following Birth of Second Daughter” at Pitchfork.

Follow KJZZ’s series: “Tracing The Migrant Journey.”

Read “‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence” at Politico.

Read and consider “Brotopia: breaking up the church’s boys club” at Mike Frost.net.

Read: “Survey: 45 Percent of College Students Don’t Think ‘In God We Trust’ Belongs on U.S. Money” at Relevant.

Read Jambands.com’s report: ““There’s A Reward: A Celebration of the Life & Music of Neal Casal” Will Feature Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Circles Around the Sun, Joe Russo, Dave Dreiwitz, Dave Schools and More.”