The Weekly Town Crier (05/08/20

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/08/20).

Read “R.I.P. Sam Lloyd, Scrubs Actor Dies at 56” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “R.I.P. Irrfan Khan, Legendary Indian Actor Dies At 53” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Kraftwerk Co-Founder Florian Schneider Dead at 73” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Was (Not Was) Singer Sweet Pea Atkinson Dead At 74” at Stereogum.

Read “Barney Ales, Indispensable Motown Executive, Is Dead at 85” at New York Times.

Read “New report finds nonreligious people face stigma and discrimination” at Religion News Service.

Read “How dying churches abuse pastors Gene Fowler examines why traumatized congregations so often attack their leaders.” at Christian Century.

Read “Sudan Makes FGM a Crime in 'New Era' for Women's Rights The crime will be punishable by up to three years in jail” at Global Citizen.

Read “Don’t Look Away: Why Ahmaud Arbery’s Tragedy Must Be Addressed Head On” at Christianity Today.

• Read “Ahmaud Arbery Should Be Alive Convicting his killers is the start. But the family of this modern lynching victim can’t have “justice” in a country with laws that protect white people who kill black people” at Rolling Stone.

Read “An Indianapolis Police Officer Fatally Shot A Black Man Who Reportedly Livestreamed The Encounter On Facebook” at Buzzfeed News.

Read “Why People Cling To Conspiracy Theories Like ‘Plandemic’” at Forbes.

Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

• Read/watch “Protesters Swarm Michigan Capitol Amid Showdown Over Governor's Emergency Powers” at NPR.

• Read “Two Arizona County Sheriffs Are Refusing to Enforce Coronavirus Emergency Orders” at Phoenix New Times.

• Read “White House Denies Congressional Request For Dr. Anthony Fauci's Testimony” at NPR.

• Read “Phoenix airport sees almost 50% drop in number of travelers due to coronavirus” at AZ Central.

• Read “With Trump's Coronavirus Response, U.S. Forfeits Global Leadership Role” at NPR.

• Read “Trump’s Favorability Among White Christians Falls In Double Digits, Particularly In Counties Hit Hardest By Coronavirus, Poll Says” at Newsweek.

• Read “The US just reported its deadliest day for coronavirus patients as states reopen, according to WHO” at CNBC.

• Read “Pope Francis joins Muslim leaders in calling for world day of prayer to end the coronavirus” at American Magazine.

• Read “A new clinical study is investigating whether prayer might make a difference in the outcomes of COVID-19 patients who require intensive care. “We all believe in science, and we also believe in faith,” says the principal investigator” at NPR.

• Read the opinion piece “Donald Trump's four-step plan to reopen the US economy – and why it will be lethal” by Robert Reich at The Guardian.

• Read “Why Conservatives and Liberals Are Not Experiencing the Same Pandemic” at Heterodox: The Blog.

• Read the opinion piece: “We’re Still Living and Dying in the Slaveholders’ Republic The pandemic has brought the latest battle in the long American war over communal well-being” at The Atlantic.

• Read “WHO says it has seen zero evidence to support White House claim that COVID-19 came from Wuhan lab” at Salon.

• Read “A Mexican 'Lucha Libre' Wrestler Is Sewing Masks To Fight Coronavirus” at NPR.

• Read “Coronavirus Lingers in Air of Crowded Spaces, New Study Finds” at Bloomberg.

• Read “Black Bodies Are Devalued And Overlooked In Georgia” at Sojourners.

• Read “Franklin Graham calls for coronavirus quarantine defiance: Only God ‘knows the number of our days’” at Raw Story.

• Read “Ohio lawmaker refuses to wear mask because he says it dishonors God” at NBC News.

• Read “Why Pandemics Are the Perfect Environment for Conspiracy Theories to Flourish” at Snopes.

• Read “Pastors Claim Bill Gates Will Use COVID Vaccines to Impose the Mark of the Beast” at Friendly Atheist.

• Read/Watch “Arizona state health department tells modeling team to stop work” at ABC 15.

• Read “Without Federal Aid, More than 1,000 U.S. Music Venues Are in Danger of Closing” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “40 People Were Arrested on Social Distancing Violations. 35 Were Black” at New York Times.

Read “Joe Walsh Reflects on Kent State Shootings: ‘We Are as Divided Now as We Were Then’ “The solution then, as it is now, is to be able to peacefully assemble and understand each other and accept our differences,” says artist who was a present at the massacre” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “Devo’s Jerry Casale Looks Back at Kent State 50 Years Later: ‘Time Stood Still’ “I saw somebody in charge yelling at these two lines of National Guardsmen and then he made a hand gesture,” says Casale. “That is when they started shooting” at Rolling Stone.

Read “DeVos finalizes regulations that give more rights to those accused of sexual assault on college campuses” at CNN.

Read “Betsy DeVos unveils new Title IX rules: Are they aimed at "silencing survivors"?” at Salon.

Read “Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces ban on assault-style weapons” at MSN.

Read “Joe Biden denies he sexually assaulted a former Senate aide, calls on National Archives to release complaint if one exists” at Washington Post.

• Read “Obama team fully vetted Biden in 2008 and found no hint of former aide’s allegation” at News and Guts.

Read “How Mitch McConnell Became Trump's Enabler In Chief” at New Yorker.

Read “Retired Republican Senator Jeff Flake will vote for Biden over Trump and says GOP needs 'a sound defeat' in 2020 election” at Yahoo.

Read “DOJ dropping case against former Trump adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying about Russia contact” at AZ Central.

Read “Trump’s Narcissistic Punishment Of Withholding Michigan Aid” at Forbes.

Read “Amanda Palmer announces separation from Neil Gaiman on Patreon” at AV Club.

Read “Quincy Jones Won't Be Awarded $6.9 Million in Royalties on Behalf of Michael Jackson Estate” at Okay Player.

Watch “Rodney Mullen and the First Kickflip Ever” at The Berrics.

Watch “Olympic Channel Investigates Norway’s Ban On Skateboarding In The ‘80's” at The Berrics.

Read “watch hours and hours of early ’80s MTV, complete with commercials Read More: watch hours and hours of early ’80s MTV, complete with commercials” at Brooklyn Vegan.

Read/Listen to “The Triumphant Return of Fiona Apple, Pop Music Renegade” at New York Times.

• Read “What Happens If I Don’t Like Fiona Apple? It seems like everyone in the world loves “Fetch the Bolt Cutters.” So why don’t I? On the isolation of disconnection” at Long Reads.

Read “An interview with the incomparable Jim O'Rourke” at Tone Glow.

Read “Channeling the cosmic imperfections of Sun Ra’s record sleeves” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Win Butler Reveals Secret Influences Behind Arcade Fire’s ‘Reflektor’ Frontman says additional James Murphy collaborations could be in band’s future: “We have more work to do” at Rolling Stone.

Browse “Pitchfork Staffers Recommend 16 Great Indie Record Stores You Can Support Online”.

Read “Marilyn Manson Wants to Team Up with Brandi Carlile for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” Duet The Antichrist Superstar "cried so hard" during Carlile's Joni Mitchell tribute” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Bob Dylan announces new album ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’, shares single ‘False Prophet’” at NME.

Read “Nicolas Cage will play Joe Exotic the Tiger King in his first TV role, report says” at CNet.

Read “Five Bottles of Whiskey We’re Revisiting During Quarantine” at Paste.

The Weekly Town Crier (04/24/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/24/20).

Read “Henry Grimes, Bassist of Avant-Garde Pedigree and a Storied Return, Dies of COVID-19 at 84” at WBGO.

Read “Tex Earnhardt, colorful founder of car dealership empire, dies at 89” at AZ Central.

Read the opinion piece “Mohler's turn to Trump is the crowning flip-flop of his career” at Religion News Service.

Read “Grieving Is Leading I’d done everything I could think of to keep the church running. But I’d forgotten to mourn” at Christianity Today.

Read the opinion piece: “Evangelicals Have Abandoned the Character Test. The Competence Test is Next” by David French at The Dispatch.

Read “Good News? Are T4G/TGC Leaders Starting To Change Their Gospel? Is T4G shifting on the gospel? Looks like it” at Jesus Creed.

Read “Now Is the Time to Think About Nuclear Weapons Pope Francis condemns deterrence and the New START Treaty is set to expire. Where should Protestants stand?” at Christianity Today.

Read “Episode Eight (Daniel Smith of Danielson, Adam Again, Dylan’s Foul Murder, Salute to Prine and Withers)” at True Tunes.

Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:

• Read “Member of church that bused in members to defy social distancing order dies of COVID-19” at LGBTQ Nation.

• Read “Trump claims it's his call on when to 'reopen' the country. He's wrong. Only the states can give shutdown orders, and only the states can lift them, legal scholars say. Many governors agree” at NBC News.

• Read the opinion piece: “COVID-19 is accelerating the Republican Party’s descent into authoritarianism” at Salon.

• Read the opinion piece “Coronavirus didn't bring the economy down — 40 years of greed and corporate malfeasance did” at Business Insider.

• Read “The Betsy DeVos connection to the protests against Covid-19 precautions in Michigan” at Eclectablog.

• Read “Kentucky sees highest spike in coronavirus cases after lockdown protests” at New York Post.

• Read the opinion piece: “These People Aren’t Freedom Fighters—They’re Virus-Spreading Sociopaths The “liberate America” protesters claim they just want to make their own choices about their health and safety, but they really want to force others to risk their lives” at The Nation.

• Read "Bon Jovi Cancel Entire 2020 Tour with Bryan Adams Due to Coronavirus Pandemic "This will enable ticketholders to get refunds to help pay their bills or buy groceries" at Consequence of Sound.

• Read “Here in Sweden we're playing the long game, and listening to science not fear” at The Telegraph.

• Read/Watch “NBC News/WSJ Poll: Nearly 60% of Americans support keeping stay-at-home restrictions” at MSNBC.

• Read “How Musicians Are Fighting Coronavirus by Turning Merch Into Masks” at Pitchfork.

• Read “After Fauci urged caution in reopening the economy, Fox News turned to Dr. Phil for a second opinion” at Washington Post.

• See “Video shows nurse facing down Colorado protester against stay-at-home order” at NBC News.

• Read “Oregon town plans to deliver masks, door-to-door, to every resident in midst of coronavirus outbreak” at Oregon Live.

• Read “Gov. Brian Kemp sets Georgia on aggressive course to reopen, putting his state at center of deepening national debate” at Washington Post.

• Read “Trump suggests 'injection' of disinfectant to beat coronavirus and 'clean' the lungs” at NBC News.

• Read “In New York’s largest hospital system, 88 percent of coronavirus patients on ventilators didn’t make it” at Washington Post.

• Read “Trump reverses course, says it's 'too soon' for Georgia Gov. Kemp to reopen state” at NBC News.

• Read the opinion piece “We Are Living in a Failed State The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken” at The Atlantic.

• Read “DOJ Would Support Legal Action If Governors' Restrictions Go 'Too Far,' Barr Says” at NPR.

• Read “Parks and Recreation’ Cast Reuniting for One-Off COVID-19 Charity Episode” at Rolling Stone.

• Read/watch “Trump suggests 'injection' of disinfectant to beat coronavirus and 'clean' the lungs” at NBC News.

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

Read “Trump says he will sign executive order temporarily suspending immigration into US” at The Hill.

Read “Mail-in voting doesn't benefit either party or invite more fraud, study says” at UPI.

Read “The Erosion of Deep Literacy” at National Affairs.

Read “Joe Pera Talks with You David Bazan (Pedro The Lion) on the Talkhouse Podcast” at Talkhouse.

Read “The Cure’s ‘Seventeen Seconds’ is a cold, eerie post-punk masterpiece” at Treble Zine

See “Kermit The Frog & Jim James Duet On ‘Rainbow Connection’At Newport Folk” at Jambase.

Read “Betting it all on 311” at AV Club.

Read Pitchfork’s first 10.0 rating in a decade: “Fiona Apple Fetch the Bolt Cutters.”

Read “Blanks And Postage: How To Build A Diving Bell, or Tape-Hunting Tips For Quarantined Gormandizers” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Back To Sun City :: Sir Richard Bishop, Clandestine Quartet, Sun City Girls The Sun City Girls saga came to a sad end with the death of drummer Charles Gocher in 2007. But the band’s bizarre, inspiring spirit lives on in the recent work of SCG co-founders Rick and Alan Bishop (as well as a recommended live show just unleashed from the vaults)” at Aquarium Drunkard, and watch Sun City Girl’s Cloaven Theater right here.

Read “Alison Pill on the ‘Devs’ Finale and What’s Next for Katie” at Variety.

Read “Spike Jonze’s New Beastie Boys Movie Is No Fun” at Pitchfork.

Read “ Ozone hole three times the size of Greenland opens over the North Pole” at Live Science.

Read “How Arizona native Courtney Marie Andrews' new music video honors her Bisbee music mentors” at AZ Central.

Read “With the Live Music Industry at a Standstill, Indie Venue Owners Are Banding Together” at Phoenix New Times.

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 (04/10/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/10/20)

Read “John Prine 1946 – 2020” at JamBase.

Read “Hal Willner, Music Producer and ‘SNL’ Veteran, Dies at 64” at Variety.

Read “Mort Drucker, Master of the Mad Caricature, Is Dead at 91” at New York Times.

Coronavirus Weekly Roundup:Education:

• Read: “I’ve Spent 27 Years in Solitary Confinement. Here Are Some Tips on Making the Best Use of Time Alone” at Mother Jones.

• Read “Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp admits he just learned asymptomatic people can spread coronavirus” at NBC News.

• Read “Liberty University student tests positive for Covid-19 after Falwell reopens campus Nearly a dozen students showed symptoms of coronavirus after Jerry Falwell Jr defied calls for closures and invited them to return” at The Guardian.

• Read “As coronavirus death rates multiply, these monks are giving away caskets” at Religion News Service.

• Read “The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the myth of self-reliance The people we deem invisible are holding us together right now” at Christian Century.

• Read “Fox News Is Preparing to Be Sued Over Coronavirus Misinformation Polls show that Trish Regan, Sean Hannity, and others successfully bamboozled viewers about coronavirus. Now, Fox is reportedly lawyering up for a potential legal backlash” at Vanity Fair.

Read “President Obama & Marilynne Robinson: A Conversation in Iowa” at The New York Review of Books.

Read “Sen. Elizabeth Warren Calls For National Voting Overhaul” at NPR. “Sen. Elizabeth Warren is unveiling a plan that includes $4 billion in new elections funding and that would require 30 days of early voting and a mail-in ballot to be sent to every registered voter in the country.”

Read “Bernie Sanders drops out of the 2020 race, clearing Joe Biden's path to the Democratic nomination” at CNN.

Read “Everybody Loses: Tiger King, Greek Tragedy, and Spectacle as Entertainment” at Christ and Pop Culture.

Read “Why Do We Even Listen to New Music? Our brains reward us for seeking out what we already know. So why should we reach to listen to something we don’t?” at Pitchfork.

“Listen to Henry Rollins’ 4-Hour Radio Show The Cool Quarantine” at Pitchfork.

Read “When I Get To Heaven”: A Candid Conversation with John Prine” at Relix.

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 (03/13/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (03/13/20).

Read “Jazz Pianist McCoy Tyner 1938 – 2020” at Jam Base.

Read “Rosalind P. Walter, the first 'Rosie the Riveter', dies at 95” at Upworthy.

Read “Rolls-Royce promotes exclusive Mass with pope — for $155,000” at Religion News Service.

• Read “Rolls-Royce offer for private Pope Francis meeting ‘does not exist anymore’” at Catholic News Agency.

Read “All Non-Consensual Sex Will Be Considered Rape Under Spain’s New Law The "only yes means yes" law aims to ban all sexual violence in the country” at Global Citizen.

Read “‘This is absolutely abhorrent’: Nazi flag at Sanders rally sparks outcry, concerns about safety” at Washington Post.

Read “Gender study finds 90% of people are biased against women” at BBC News.

Read/Watch “Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison” at Yahoo.

Read “Chelsea Manning Is Freed” at Common Dreams.

Read “Child homelessness highest in more than decade, feds say” at New York Post.

Read/Listen to “When Xenophobia Spreads Like A Virus” at NPR.

• Read/watch “Costco Will Stop Offering Free Samples & Our Shopping Trips Will Not Be the Same” at Yahoo.

• Read “Televangelist Jim Bakker Ordered to Stop Selling Fake Coronavirus Cure” at Consequence of Sound.

• Read “Italy suspends mortgage payments during coronavirus shutdown” at The HIll.

• Read “Austin’s South by Southwest Festival Canceled Due to Coronavirus” at The Wall Street Journal.

• Read “Coachella Moved to October 2020 Due to Coronavirus” at Consequence of Sound.

• Read “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Postponed” at Spin.

• Browse “Coronavirus: Cancellations and Postponements” at Relix.

• Read “Trump's mismanagement helped fuel coronavirus crisis” at Politico.

• Read “Arizona Governor Declares State of Emergency on Coronavirus, With Nine Cases So Far” at Phoenix New Times.

• Read “Tom Hanks Tests Positive for Coronavirus While Working on Elvis Presley Movie” at Pitchfork.

Read “Mandatory vasectomy at 50 or after 3 kids? Alabama bill proposes it” at 12 News.

Read “Virginia General Assembly passes bill capping monthly costs of insulin to $50” at 12 News.

Read “Trump administration quietly cuts funding to the nation’s poorest schools” at Yahoo News.

Read “GOP-appointed judge orders unredacted copy of Mueller report as he questions Barr’s “credibility” A federal judge calls out Barr for making “distorted” and “misleading” statements about Robert Mueller’s findings” at Salon.

Read “Michael Bloomberg Drops Out Of Primary After Reportedly Spending More Than $500 Million” at Forbes.

Read/Listen to “What Democratic Socialism Means In The U.S.” at WBUR.

Read “The Body Politic Electric: Walt Whitman on Women’s Centrality to Democracy” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Federal Court Sides With House In Fight Over Mueller Grand Jury Materials” at NPR.

Read “Wu-Tang Clan Are for the Infants: New Wu-Tang Lullaby Album Coming in April It's the 100th album by Rockabye Baby” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Woman-Owned Record Shop Sonidos! Wants To Build An Inclusive Corner In The Region’s Vinyl Scene” at DCist.

Read “Remembering Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous 10 Years Later A look at the unlikely triumphs of the Virginia singer/songwriter's eerily beautiful music” at Spin.

Read “When We Celebrate John Coltrane, We Celebrate McCoy Tyner, Too” at Rolling Stone.

Read “After 25 Years, Jimmy Eat World Isn’t Just Surviving” at Christ and Pop Culture.

Read “On hobbies, habits, and creative work Musician Stephen Malkmus on the value of chill music in crazy times, the pleasures of falling into old man mode, and understanding the ways your creative process evolves over time” at The Creative Independent.

Read “My father said I should be looking after the cows': the first female Tuareg guitarist” at The Guardian.

Read “Tony Iommi Says Michael Bolton Once Auditioned for Black Sabbath Bolton has consistently dismissed the story as a rumour” at Exclaim.

Read “Stephen Malkmus on His New Folk Album, Pavement Reunion, Bernie Sanders, And More” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Wilco and Sleater-Kinney Announce Tour The rock giants will play shows together this summer” at Pitchfork.

Read “How does Nationals closer Sean Doolittle stay calm in big moments? The Grateful Dead” at NBC Sports.

Watch “Dawes Covers Grateful Dead Live at Relix” at Youtube.

Read “The Kids in the Hall Revived by Amazon for New Season Lorne Michaels will return as executive producer for an eight-episode run” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Substance Summit: A Previously Unseen Fax From Hunter S. Thompson To Keith Richards” at Ranker.

Read “Mister Rogers Thought Farts Were Hilarious — And Often ‘Ripped One’ To Amuse His Wife” at All That’s Interesting.

Read “How a Potato Is Fueling the Fight to Protect a National Monument Indigenous farmers in Utah are championing an ancient spud” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “The Origins of GORP” at REI.

Read “This Brave Man Protests Annoying Everyday Things With Funny Signs” at Sad and Useless.

Read “In Palestine, Protecting One of the World’s Oldest Olive Trees Is a 24/7 Job Salah Abu Ali often sleeps beneath his ancient charge” at Atlas Obscura.

The Weekly Town Crier (02/21/20)

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

Read “DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall has died” at Vinyl Factory.

Read “Pete Buttigieg On Faith ‘As A Source of Unity’ And Its Role In The 2020 Election.”

Read “James Cone looked evil in the face and refused to let it crush his hope Antiblackness is outrageous, but it does not have the last word” at Christian Century.

Read/watch “Christians surprise Pride parade marchers with signs apologizing for anti-LGBTQ views” at 10tv.

Read “Will the Real Pro-Life Political Party Please Stand Up?” by Shane Claiborne at Red Letter Christians.

Read “There is beauty and joy at the end of life, too” at Globe And Mail.

Read “Deliver Us, Lord, From the Startup Life In the Midwest, Christian entrepreneurs are searching for relief from the corrosive grind of company-building—while some faith leaders preach the gospel of crushing it” at Wired.

Read “Trump critic Russell Moore, ERLC to face scrutiny by Southern Baptists” at Religion News Service.

Read “First Asian American sheriff in California vows to protect immigrants from Trump policies” at AZ Central.

Read “The No. 1 reason you’re still broke even if you received a pay raise last year” at Market Watch. “When adjusted for cost of living increases, real wages actually declined 1.3% since the end of 2017.”

Read “At the border, “law and order” looks a lot like chaos Trump’s new policies are creating confusion and misery” at Christian Century.

Read/Watch “Why Trump’s outreach to black voters is raising ethical questions” at PBS News Hour. “"It seems like the president suggested that the scholarship for Janiyah Davis was part of a government program. But then we found out that it was paid for by the personal charity of one of his employees," says Donald Sherman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.”

Read “Trump Administration To Waive Contracting Laws To Build Border Wall” at KJZZ.

Read “Primary Season Is Here And 'Hispandering' Is Back” at NPR.

Read “The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Will Officially Become a Part of Oklahoma School Curriculum Beginning in the Fall” at The Root.

Read “There Is Not Some Separation Between Jesus and Justice.' How Rev. William J. Barber II Uses His Faith to Fight for the Poor” at Time.

Read “Psychology shows it’s a big mistake to base our self-worth on our professional achievements” at Quartz.

Read “Boy Scouts seek bankruptcy under wave of new sex abuse lawsuits” at Los Angeles Times.

Read “If we can't stop active shooter drills, let's at least do them without traumatizing kids” at AZ Central.

Read “US ranks lower than 38 other countries when it comes to children's wellbeing, new report says” at CNN.

Read “A Second School in California Will Be Named After Michelle Obama Michelle Obama Elementary School opens its doors in August” at Global Citizen.

Read “Arizona charter school principal pleads guilty in $2.5 million enrollment scheme” at AZ Central.

Read “Trump Calls For End To Student Loan Forgiveness Program” at Forbes.

Read “To promote success in schools, focus on teacher well-being” at Brookings.

Read “Children stage mass-walkout after teachers were forced to quit for being gay” at Metro.

Read/Watch “Poverty is a winning issue for 2020” at CNN.

Read “'Just Plain Ugly': Proposed Executive Order Takes Aim At Modern Architecture” at NPR.

Read “1,100 Former DOJ Employees Call On Barr To Resign After Intervening In Stone Case” at NPR.

• Read “Federal judges' association calls emergency meeting after DOJ intervenes in case of Trump ally Roger Stone” at USA Today.

Read “2.5M Pounds Of Radioactive Waste Illegally Dumped In Oregon Landfill” at OPB.

Read “Greece Elected an Environmentalist as Its First Woman President Katerina Sakellaropoulou gained support across party lines” at Global Citizen.

Read “Bloomberg set to debate in Nevada after qualifying in new poll” at The Hill.

Read “Trump Commutes Sentence Of Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich” at NPR.

• Read “Trump Threatens to Sue ‘Everyone All Over the Place’ Another morning, another Twitter outburst” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “How Much Has the Government Spent at Trump’s Properties? It Won’t Say” at ProPublica.

Read “Japan’s Lost-and-Found System Is Insanely Good” at City Lab.

Read “The Next Smithsonian Might Be A Women's History Museum” at NPR.

Read “The gloriously unhinged progressive pushback against the Babylon Bee The humor may or may not be to your taste but it’s hardly about to bring the republic crashing down in a slurry of ignorance” at Spectator USA.

Read “Court Records Confirm Works From Nirvana, Elton John And Others Damaged In 2008 Fire” at NPR.

Read “Grateful Dead To Release 15-CD ‘June 1976’ Box Set” at Jambands.com.

Read “New Adventures with The Kernal” at Sound And Soul.

Read “Facing Hearing Loss, Huey Lewis Releases What 'May Be' His Last Album” at NPR.

Read “New Musical ‘Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Story’ to Open in London in 2021” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Day The Music Became Carbon-Neutral” at The New Yorker.

Read “An Attempt To Explain The “Difficult” Neil Young Records” at Vinyl Me Please.

Read “Neil Young Pens Open Letter to Donald Trump: ‘You Are a Disgrace to My Country’ Now an American citizen, Young rails against the president” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Henry Rollins To Voice Tri-Klops In Netflix’s He-Man Reboot” at Stereogum.

Read “Feature-Length Ronnie James Dio Documentary Is Being Made The film is being produced by BMG and will span the singer's illustrious career” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Watch More Than 400 Classic Korean Films Free Online Thanks to the Korean Film Archive” at Open Culture.

Read “The Original Renegade A 14-year-old in Atlanta created one of the biggest dances on the internet. But nobody really knows that” at New York Times.

Read “LeBron James to release his first children's book this summer” at Entertainment Weekly.

See “This Graffiti Artist Makes Walls Appear Transparent Using Nothing But Spray Paint” at Bored Panda.

See “Portraits of “Most Beautiful Chickens on the Planet” Capture Their Underrated Beauty” at My Modern Net.

Read “Improving the prognosis of health care in the USA” at Science Direct.

Read “Scientists detect an unexplainable radio signal from outer space that repeats every 16 days” at AZ Central.

Read “Generations of Handwritten Mexican Cookbooks Are Now Online North America’s largest-known Mexican cookbook collection inspires both tears and restaurant dishes” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Arpaio Leads in Sheriff’s Race Cash, But Just 1 in 8 of His Donors Are Arizonans” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Lawmaker would ban students from listing dormitories on voter registration” at AZ Central.

Read “Caverns Grotto In a 345-million-year-old cave that's 200 feet underground, dinner awaits.” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “7 Arizona Locations On Pier 1 Imports Store Closing List” at KJZZ.

Read “Arizona Governor, GOP Lawmakers End Sanctuary City Ban Push” at KJZZ.

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 (02/07/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (02/07/20).

Read “Gang of Four’s Andy Gill Dead at 64” at Pitchfork.

Read “Ivan Král, Patti Smith Group Member, Dead at 71” at Pitchfork.

Read “Kirk Douglas, Hollywood Icon and Spartacus Star, Dies at 103” at People.

Read “For Those Who Feel Betrayed By Christianity” at Sojourners. "Since the election of President Donald Trump, many Christians are asking: How could so many Christ-followers agree with actions that are so decisively un-Christlike?"

Read “Christians are Supposed to Care About People” at John Pavlovitz. “I never once see a Jesus brandishing a “Don’t Tread On Me” bravado in the face of dire need. I don’t see him lecturing the poor and the afflicted to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” I can’t find him inviting war or celebrating bloodshed or reveling in loss of life for any reason.”

Read “Evangelicalism Is Dead. We Need A New Label For Our Faith” at Sojourners.

Read “State of the Church” at Barna.

Read “Faith formation in my world religions classroom Each year a Hindu priest asks my students to “worship our own, but respect all.” They find the second part easier” at Christian Century.

Read “Christian Nonprofits Reeling from Trump Cuts to Foreign Aid Work in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador was starting to bring change, agencies say” at Christianity Today.

Read “Richard Rohr Reorders the Universe” at New Yorker.”The seventy-six-year-old Franciscan friar Richard Rohr believes that Christianity isn’t the only path to salvation.”

Read “Capitalism Is Incompatible With Christianity” at Sojourners.

Read “Pope Francis Turned a Roman Palace Into a Homeless Shelter” at Global Citizen.

Read “U.S. Showing ‘Many’ Genocide Warning Signs Under Trump, Expert Says: ‘I Am Very, Very Worried” at Newsweek.

Read “Greensboro Sit-In: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know” at Heavy.

Read “Before the Bus, Rosa Parks Was a Sexual Assault Investigator Why has history left out this piece of Rosa Parks' story?” at History.com.

Read “US judge in Tucson overturns convictions of 4 border-aid volunteers” at AZ Central.

Read “Investors Buy Old Hotel and Convert It into 139 Mini-Apartments for the Homeless” at Black Business.

Read “Finland's Women-Led Government Has Equalized Family Leave: 7 Months For Each Parent” at NPR.

Read “Watch: News Anchor Shows Americans Real Size of Wealth Gap—Using American Pie” at Common Dreams.

Read “How Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk” at New York Times.

Read “E.B. White’s Beautiful Letter to a Man Who Had Lost Faith in Humanity What sailors teach us about hope and the resilience of the human spirit” at Brain Pickings. "As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate."

Read “Steve Wozniak: When Apple got ‘big money’ Steve Jobs’ personality ‘changed’” at CNBC.

Read “Report: Where Parents Have More Choice, Schools Appear To Become More Segregated” at WBUR.

Read “J.Lo and A-Rod Just Donated a Year’s Worth of Meals to a Tennessee School” at Global Citizen.

Read “Excess Teacher Responsibilities are Stealing Bonding Time with Students” at Bored Teachers.

Read “It's official: Trump's tax cuts were an economic bust” at Business Insider.

Read “Trump administration ‘rolling back women’s rights by 50 years’ by changing definitions of domestic violence and sexual assault” at The Independent.

Read “Senate rejects witnesses in Trump trial, ensuring acquittal” at PBS News Hour.

• Read “Which Republicans Had the Worst Excuses for Ending the Impeachment Trial With No Witnesses?” at Slate.

• Read “Voting to acquit this noxious criminal is the point of no return for the Republican Party” at Salon.

• Read “Sen. Kyrsten Sinema votes to convict President Trump on impeachment charges” at AZ Central.

• Read “Mitt Romney: ‘Dishonesty Is Donald Trump’s Hallmark.”How Mitt Romney Decided Trump Is Guilty” at Sojourners.

  • Read “How Mitt Romney Decided Trump Is Guilty” at The Atlantic.

Read “Trump extends travel ban to 6 countries — but is OK with selling arms to those same places” at NBC News.

Read “Trump's sexual assault allegations: The full list of women who have accused the President” at The Independent.

Read “The Downfall of the Republican Party To see men and women who had a positive vision beaten down and broken by Trump is a poignant thing” at The Atlantic.

Read “'It was a total mess': Caucusing is long over, but Iowa still doesn't have a winner” at USA Today.

Read/listen to “'No Longer A Friend': Ukrainians Are Losing Faith In The U.S.” at NPR.

Read “Trump Administration Loosens Obama-Era Restrictions On Land Mine Use” at NPR.

Read “Pelosi rips up Trump’s State of the Union speech” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Attorney General Barr Issues New Rules For Politically Sensitive Investigations” at NPR.

Read “Rush Limbaugh Says He Has Been Diagnosed With Advanced Lung Cancer” at NPR.

• Read “Trump Honors Rush Limbaugh With Presidential Medal Of Freedom” at News and Guts.

Read “Gen X Will Not Go Quietly” at Gen.Medium.

Read “Fully Armed Rally-Goers Enter Kentucky’s Capitol Building With Zero Resistance” at Rolling Stone.

Read: “The Reading Room: Where Politics and Country Music Collide” at No Depression.

Watch “Vampire Weekend Perform at Bernie Sanders Rally” at Pitchfork.

Read “Country music is ‘dead’: Icon Loretta Lynn trashes modern hits” at Lexington Herald Leader.

Watch “The Velvet Underground Played At My High School” at PBS.

Read “Read between the lines with Mike Doughty” and Aarik Danielson at Columbia Daily Tribune.

Read “From White Supremacy To Opioids, Drive-By Truckers Confronts 'The Unraveling' at NPR.

Read “Built To Spill Announce Daniel Johnston Covers Album” at Stereogum.

Read “Remembering Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, & The Big Bopper On ‘The Day The Music Died’ In 1959 (02/03) at Live For Live Music.

Read “Spike Lee To Direct Film Version Of ‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ Stage Show” at Deadline.

Read “Soundgarden countersue Vicky Cornell over ownership of final Chris Cornell recordings” at Consequence of Sound.

Consider “Television’s Punk Epic “Marquee Moon,” 40 Years Later” at Pitchfork.

Read “ABBA intend to release new music in 2020 The iconic Swedish group's first material in over 30 years” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “In conversation: When Elvis Costello met Tom Waits” at Far Out Magazine.

Read “David Byrne to Appear as Musical Guest on ‘Saturday Night Live’” at Jambands.

Read “Prominent Malian Musician Alleges That TSA Destroyed His Instrument” at NPR. “Delicate and complex, koras can stand more than 4 feet tall. In a statement on Ballaké Sissoko's Facebook, an ethnomusicologist deemed the custom-made style irreplaceable.”

Read “Brian Wilson Opposes Mike Love’s Beach Boys Show at Trophy Hunting Convention Wilson points fans toward a Change.org petition that calls to boycott the Beach Boys until their performance is canceled” at Pitchfork.

Read “Pee-wee Herman's "Dark" Reboot: Paul Reubens Is Ready to Stage a Comeback” at Hollywood Reporter.

Browse “74 Ways Characters Die in Shakespeare’s Plays Shown in a Handy Infographic: From Snakebites to Lack of Sleep” at Open Culture.

See “Super High-Resolution Photo of the Sun Reveals It Looks Like ... Corn” at Mental Floss.

Read “15,372 Scientists Just Signed a Letter Calling Climate Change Impact ‘Catastrophic’” at Global Citizen.

Read “Record-breaking astronaut Christina Koch returns to Earth after 328 days in space” at 12 News.

Read “The Art and Science of Kashmir’s Pink Tea Green tea becomes rosy with the addition of a special ingredient” at Atlas Obscura.

Browse “Haunted by Cybersects A freaky tour of the extant websites of 1990s cults” at Baffler.

Read “Arizona Quietly Sells 16,810 Acres to Freeport-McMoRan for Mining Waste” at Phoenix New Times.

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 (01/17/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/17/20).

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 “Neil Peart, Rush Drummer Who Set a New Standard for Rock Virtuosity, Dead at 67” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Christopher Tolkien, 'Middle-earth's First Scholar,' Dies At 95” at NPR.

Read “Why Do People Believe in Hell? The idea of eternal damnation is neither biblically, philosophically nor morally justified. But for many it retains a psychological allure. By David Bentley Hart” at New York Times.

Read “New documents show government targeted NYC pastor for officiating immigrant weddings” at Religion News Service.

Read “An open letter from black church leaders and allies to Christianity Today” at Religion News Service.

Read “Scam Lures Speakers to Fake UK Church Conferences Hundreds of American Christian leaders have been invited to Anglican events—then asked to pay up” at Christianity Today.

Read/Listen to “Can Spirituality Exist Without God? A Growing Number Of Americans Say Yes” at WBUR.

Read “The Earth Is the Hottest It's Ever Been, According to the UN Rising carbon emissions and human activity have contributed to warming global temperatures” at Global Citizen.

Read “Space Force Bible Blessing At National Cathedral Sparks Outrage” at NPR. “The blessing of what's being called "the official Bible for the new U.S. Space Force" at the Washington National Cathedral on Sunday is being criticized as a violation of laws separating church and state.”

Read “Falwell Says He Will Call For Civil Disobedience if Virginia Democrats Implement Gun Grab” at Todd Starnes.

• Read “'Evangelicals for Trump' was an awful display by supposed citizens of the Kingdom of God Trump mocked his enemies, trafficked in half-truths, instilled fear and expressed zero humility. My fellow evangelicals loved every minute of it” at USA Today.

• Read “Religion voters to rally against Trump in Denver on Tuesday evening” at Colorado Politics.

Read “Why Pete Buttigieg Has Made Religion Central to His Campaign The former mayor is not only trying to bridge ground within the Democratic Party, he’s also making a direct appeal to disaffected conservatives who cannot stomach President Trump” at New York Times.

• Read “The Democratic Candidates’ Favorite Bible Verses” at Christianity Today.

Read “Most Pastors Say Middle East Politics Won’t Speed Up the Second Coming A new LifeWay Research survey shows that only 1 in 8 pastors link geo-political events with Christ’s return” at Christianity Today.

Read “Donald Trump Jr., Iran, and the Right-Wing Obsession with the Crusades Talia Lavin on the real-world implications of politicians caught up in holy war fantasies” at GQ.

Read “Christian school expels girl over rainbow shirt and birthday cake, family says” at ABC News.

Read “Trump Defends School Prayer. Critics Say He's Got It All Wrong” at NPR.

Read “In Rare Move, Pope Francis Appoints A Woman To A Senior Vatican Position” at NPR.

Read “Many Churchgoers Don’t Know If Their Pastor Is a Republican or Democrat” at Christianity Today.

Read “Diversity Makes Countries Stronger in the Long Run, New Research Shows” at Global Citizen.

Read “Video Outside Cell During Jeffrey Epstein's First Suicide Attempt 'No Longer Exists'‘ at NPR.

Read “Texas will become first state to reject refugees under Trump executive order” at PBS News Hour.

Read “'The Incredible Hulk' actor Lou Ferrigno to become deputy in New Mexico” at 12 News.

Read “Yemen Once Again Ranked as Worst Humanitarian Crisis in the World” at Global Citizen.

Read “A place for homeless families to sleep safely in their cars How a group of interfaith partners is making use of their idle parking lots” at Christian Century.

Read “I was in juvenile detention, so I know that locking up kids doesn’t work” at NJ.

Read “Border Wall Threatens National Wildlife Refuge That's Been 40 Years In The Making” at NPR.

Read “Man requests 'trial by combat' with Japanese swords to settle custody battle with ex-wife” at AZ Central.

Read “Admit It: You Have a Box of Cords You’ll Never, Ever Use Again” at Wall Street Journal.

Read “Sandusky, Ohio, Makes Election Day A Paid Holiday — By Swapping Out Columbus Day” at NPR.

Read “Why do we get sad when robots die? It’s not about seeming “human” — it’s about the work machines do for us.” at The Outline.

Read “Harvard Just Discovered that PowerPoint is Worse Than Useless Intuitively, anecdotally, and scientifically, PowerPoint may be the worst business tool ever created” at Inc.

Read “30 Unbelievable Places That Are Illegal to Visit” at Travel A Lot.

Read “Death by design We can chose how we live – why not how we leave? A free society should allow dying to be more deliberate and imaginative” at Aeon.

Read “Why we owe it to ourselves to spend quiet time alone every day” at Ideas.TED.

Read “Microsoft Pledges To Remove From The Atmosphere All The Carbon It Has Ever Emitted” at NPR.

Read “Education without liberal arts is a threat to humanity, argues UBC president Social Sharing Santa J. Ono says studying the liberal arts made him a better scholar, scientist, teacher and father CBC Radio” at CBC.

Read “Do You Really ‘See’ Your Child? Helicopter parenting has become the American norm, but it may not be the best way to connect with our kids Parenting/New York Times.

Read “Justice Department Effectively Ends Clinton Investigation After Finding Nothing” at Huff Post.

• Read “Trump Broke The Law In Freezing Ukraine Funds, Watchdog Report Concludes” at NPR.

Read “House votes to limit Trump's military action against Iran without congressional approval” at CNN.

• Read “Trump Brags About Serving Up American Troops to Saudi Arabia for Nothing More Than Cash Conservative Rep. Justin Amash, who was a Republican until recently, responded to Trump’s remarks, saying, “He sells troops” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “In a Rare Political Gesture, the Met Speaks Out Against Trump’s Threats to Iranian Cultural Sites, Calling Such Targeting ‘Abhorrent’ The Met joins other museum leaders as well as top museum organizations in condemning the US President's comments” at Art.net.

• Read “Majority of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of Iran and feel less safe, poll says” at CNN.

Read “Colin Powell: The Republican Party Needs To 'Get a Grip' and Stand Up to Trump” at Time.

Read “Cory Booker Drops Out Of Presidential Race” at NPR.

Read “Drug price outrage threatens to be liability for GOP” at The Hill.

Read “Virginia Finally Ratifies The Equal Rights Amendment” at News and Guts.

Read “International Bonhoeffer Society Calls For ‘Ending Donald Trump’s Presidency’ in ‘Statement of Concern’ at Sojourners.

Read “Henry Rollins expresses an angry, bleak vision of the world in this rare Dutch television documentary in 1995” at That Eric Alper.

Read “The case for ... making low-tech 'dumb' cities instead of 'smart' ones” at The Guardian.’

Read “Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group Selling Stereogum To Founder Scott Lapatine” at Stereogum.

Read “Oteil Burbridge: The Road Goes on Forever” at Jambands.

Read “The Beatles’ Abbey Road Was the Best-Selling Vinyl LP of the 2010s” at Pitchfork.

Watch “Patti Smith Cover Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" on Fallon” at Paste.

Read “Danzig Is Finally Releasing His Elvis Presley Covers Album” at Exclaim.

Read “How Spotify For Artists is Making Musicians Engage with Data and Build an Audience” at Rolling Stone India.

Read “Why Your Favorite Alt-Rock Legends Are Remixing Their Old Albums” at Vice.

Read “Sun Ra Plays a Music Therapy Gig at a Mental Hospital; Inspires Patient to Talk for the First Time in Years” at Open Culture.

Read “Early Myths About R.E.M. Debunked: What We Learned From a New Biography” at Pitchfork.

Read “New Design For The Quarter-Tone Piano Unveiled In Finland.”

Browse Paste’s picks for “The 80 Best Albums of the 1980s.”

Read “D’Angelico Debuts New Bob Weir Signature Guitar” at Jambands.

Read "Billie Eilish to write and record James Bond theme song” at Consequence of Sound.

Read/Listen to “How To Like Country Music, For The Uninitiated” at NPR.

Read “Drive-By Truckers Call Out Unchecked Gun Violence in New Song, ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ at Rolling Stone.

Read “Terry Allen giving sculpture made with Guy Clark’s ashes to Wittliff Collection” at Austin 360.

Read “Ken Jennings Misses Tool, Courtney Love, Kanye West Clues In Jeopardy! Greatest Of All Time Tournament” at Stereogum.

Read “Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails to be Inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” at Post-Punk.

Read “Beastie Boys and Spike Jonze Announce New Documentary Beastie Boys Story premieres on IMAX and Apple TV+ in April” at Pitchfork.

Read “Hiss Golden Messenger Is Looking For Truth On 'Terms Of Surrender' at NPR.

Read “Relive the history of The Band in first trailer for Once Were Brothers documentary” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Mark-Paul Gosselaar (a.k.a. Zack Morris) Signs On to 'Saved by the Bell' Reboot” at Exclaim!

Read “10 David Bowie Songs That Made Films Better” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Oscars Best Picture Nominations 2020: The Full List” at Pitchfork.

Read “Barack Obama lands first Oscar nomination American Factory, a film which Obama distributed, is nominated for Best Documentary” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Actor Jon Gries Reflects on a Flippin' Sweet 15 Years of Napoleon Dynamite” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Fox Is ‘Wide Open’ to ‘Firefly’ Revival – ‘If There’s a Way to Reinvent It for Today’" at The Wrap.

Read “Slaughterhouse-Five Will Soon Get Its Own Comic Book” at Paste.

Read “The New York Public Library Has Calculated Its Most Checked-Out Books Of All Time” at NPR.

Read “What are the health benefits of being creative?” at Medical News Today.

Read “Kandinsky on the Spiritual Element in Art and the Three Responsibilities of Artists” at Brain Pickings.

Read “Photographer Travels The World To Capture Every Skin Tone In Pantone Style” at Demilked.

Read “How One Photographer Captures the Glory of Birds in Flight An otherworldly look at a familiar sight” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Teen's graphic images of vaping damage go viral: 'My lung tissue was just completely destroyed' at Yahoo.

Read “Teen discovers new planet during NASA internship” at 12 News.

Read/Listen to “Addicted To Sugar? This Doctor Says It's 'The New Tobacco' at NPR.

Read “New Survey Shows Increasing Number of Parents With Young Children Don’t Support VaccinationNew Survey Shows Increasing Number of Parents With Young Children Don’t Support Vaccination” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Scientists use stem cells from frogs to build first living robots Researchers foresee myriad benefits for humanity, but also acknowledge ethical issues” at The Guardian.

Read/watch “Giving birth in America now costs more than a woman earns in a month” at CBS News.

Read “A Travel Guide from Anthony Bourdain Will Be Released This Fall” at Food and Wine.

Read “Feces from a giant kettle of vultures is disrupting CBP communications on the US-Mexico border” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “Toilet paper robot will deliver fresh roll when you're stranded” at 12 News.

Read “A Big Archive of Occult Recordings: Historic Audio Lets You Hear Trances, Paranormal Music, Glossolalia & Other Strange Sounds (1905-2007)” at Open Culture.

Read “Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announces closure of Florence state prison” at KTAR.

• Read “Town of Florence ‘startled’ by Ducey’s plan to close down prison” at KTAR.

• Read “‘Rehabilitation’ in Name Only? Advocates React to Ducey’s Plan on State Prisons” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Arizona's budget 'surplus' hides our underfunded schools, prisons and health care” at AZ Central.

Read “Zia Records Kicks Off Its 40th Anniversary With Rare Vinyl Releases” at Phoenix New Times.

Read “Arizona teacher shortage not getting better, survey shows” at AZ Central.

Read “Prescott couple fights HOA decision to evict orphaned grandson from their senior community The couple had to take in their teenage grandson after both of his parents died weeks apart” at 12 News.

The Weekly Town Crier (01/10/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (01/10/20).

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 “Author of ‘Prozac Nation’ Elizabeth Wurtzel Dead at 52” at Rolling Stone.

Read “American Christianity Has Failed" at Sojourners.

Read “Todd Bentley Investigation Finds ‘Steady Pattern’ of Immoral Conduct The edgy Canadian preacher was declared unfit for ministry due to credible allegations of adultery, sexting, and substance abuse spanning the past 15 years” at Christianity Today.

Read “On the Assault of James Cone & Black Liberation Theology” at The Witness SBC.

Read “Last call for aging white evangelicals: The political marriage to Trump will collapse. What then?” at Baptist News.

Read “Outspoken Chinese Pastor Wang Yi Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison” at Christianity Today.

Read/watch “Millennials are leaving organized religion. Here’s where some are finding community” at PBS News Hour.

Read “The MAGA Church (Teaser) It is clear that in exchange for power and money these “pastors” have been tasked with recasting Trump’s absurdities and moral failures as nothing short of prophetic divinity.”

Read “Montana Court Reverses $35 Million Child Abuse Verdict Against Jehovah's Witnesses” at NPR.

Read/Listen to “'Your Body Being Used': Where Prisoners Who Can't Vote Fill Voting Districts” at NPR.

Read/Watch “A Phoenix researcher interviewed 100 homeless people. Here's what she found can help them” at AZ Central.

Read “How to Be a Better White Person in 2020” at The Root.

Read “White evangelicals' attacks on James Cone are about power, not truth” at Religion News Service.

Read “India Rules Sex With a Child Bride Is Always Rape in a Massive Win for Girls’ Rights” at Global Citizen.

Read “Children of color projected to be majority of U.S. youth this year” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Facing Unprecedented Anti-Semitic Attacks, New York Jews Are Learning To Fight Back—Literally” at NPR. “ Across New York City, anti-Semitic hate crimes went up 26 percent in 2019, according to the NYPD. That's prompting some Jews to take matters into their own fists.”

Read “U.S. imposes visa bans on International Criminal Court investigators - Pompeo” at Reuters.

Read “Patti Smith wrote Greta Thunberg a poem for her 17th birthday” at Consequence of Sound.

• Read “Climate Skeptic Meat Loaf Says Greta Thunberg is ‘Brainwashed’ at Bloomberg.

Read “A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you” at Aeon.

Read “Terry Gilliam: “I’m tired of white men being blamed for everything wrong with the world” Terry Gilliam sneered at #MeToo and defended white men in a controversial new interview” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “The Advantage of Not Fitting In Being an outsider lets you invent your own systems” at Forge/Medium.

Read/Watch “The culture of masculinity and its negative impacts on men” at PBS News Hour.

Read “Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong” at Vox.

Read “Vermont bill would ban people under 21 from having cellphones” at 12 News.

Read “Diapers and feminine hygiene products are now tax-free in California” at The Hill.

Read/Listen to “How The CIA Overthrew Iran's Democracy In 4 Days” at NPR.

• Read “War With Iran” at Truth Dig. ““So why go to war with Iran? Why walk away from a nuclear agreement that Iran did not violate? Why demonize a government that is the mortal enemy of the Taliban, along with other jihadist groups, including al-Qaida and Islamic State? Why shatter the de facto alliance we have with Iran in Iraq and Afghanistan? Why further destabilize a region already dangerously volatile?”

• Browse “The history of US-Iran relations: A timeline” at PRI’s The World. “In 1953, the CIA helped orchestrate a coup that laid the groundwork for future hostilities between the US and Iran. But in 1967, it was the US that gave Iran a 5-megawatt nuclear reactor and weapons-grade enriched uranium fuel. Here's a look at the long and complex history of US-Iranian relations.”

• Read “Pence Falsely Links Soleimani to 9/11 Attacks to Justify Assassination” at Slate.

• Read “Iraqi parliament calls on government to expel U.S. troops over Soleimani killing” at Axios.

• Read “None of Trump’s Iran Policy Makes Sense. All of It Is Dangerous” at Rolling Stone.

• Read “War With Iran Is Nothing To Worry About, Men Who Launched Iraq War Promise” at Huff Post.

Read “White House Withholds 20 Emails Between Two Trump Aides on Ukraine Aid It contends the release of the documents sought by The Times would “inhibit the frank and candid exchange of views” in government decision-making” at The New York Times.

• Read “Bolton ‘prepared to testify’ if subpoenaed in Senate trial” at PBS News Hour.

• Read “Defamation lawsuit from Trump's sexual misconduct accuser is put on hold Summer Zervos was a contestant on "The Apprentice" and says Trump made unwanted sexual contact with her” at Salon.

• Read “Much Of The World Doesn't Trust President Trump, Pew Survey Finds” at NPR.

Read “Appeals Court Allows Trump To Divert $3.6 Billion In Military Funds For Border Wall” at NPR.

Read/Listen to “Stanford Researchers Bring Together People With Different Political Views” at WBUR.

Read “Chinese Tech Giant Tencent Wants A Piece Of The World's Most Successful Record Label” at NPR.

Browse “In Remembrance: Tributes to Ten Notable People Who Died in 2019” at Englewood Review of Books.

Read “Linda Ronstadt sees 'great parallels' between Donald Trump's America and Hitler's Germany” at AZ Central.

Read “Prince Harry, Meghan Markle ‘Step Back’ From Royal Family Decision comes amid family tensions, legal battle with British press” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The ‘warspeak’ permeating everyday language puts us all in the trenches” at The Conversation.

Read “Coachella reveals 2020 lineup” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Rod Stewart Faces Battery Count After Scuffle With Security Guard on New Year’s Eve Singer and eldest son considered “primary aggressors” in incident at Florida resort” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Dave Grohl Reunites With Nirvana Members For Special Performance Beck, St. Vincent and Grohl’s daughter Violet perform alongside Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear at 2020 Art of Elysium Gala” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Mickey Hart Remembers Robert Hunter” at Relix.

Read “How Music Copyright Lawsuits Are Scaring Away New Hits” at Rolling Stone.

Read/Watch “the sound shirt lets deaf people feel music on their skin” at Design Boom.

Read “Bonnaroo 2020 Lineup & Interview with Bryan Benson of AC Entertainment” at Relix.

Read “The Endless Potential Of The Pedal Steel Guitar, An Odd Duck By Any Measure” at NPR.

Read/Listen to “How Bill Graham's Nazi Escape Might Explain His Fillmore Apples” at KQED.

Read “Hear A Previously Unreleased Version Of David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold The World'“ at Rolling Stone.

Read “Prince Is Getting an All-Star Grammy Tribute Concert” at Rolling Stone.

Read “The Venetian ice cream maker with a 26,000-strong record collection” at Vinyl Factory. “Using a different sound system for every genre in his collection, Carlo Pistacchi is one of the biggest reggae collectors in Italy.”

Read “Artist to Watch: Revealing the Mystery Man Behind Rose City Band” at Vortex. Listen to “‘Fear Song’ by Rose City Band from the album Rose City Band” on Volume 01 of my 04-volume 2019 year-end music wrap-up.

Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for the “25 Most Anticipated TV

Browse Rolling Stone’s picks for the “25 Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2020.”

Read “Timothée Chalamet to play Bob Dylan in new James Mangold movie” at AV Club.

Read “The 2020 Oscars Will Be Hostless Again” at Rolling Stone.

Read “William Tyler Scores New A24 Film First Cow: Watch the Trailer” at Pitchfork.

Read “Lori Loughlin hires prison coach, learns martial arts "She's knuckling down, learning the lingo, and practicing martial arts" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “FEC Commissioner Rips Facebook Over Political Ad Policy: 'This Will Not Do' at NPR. “The FEC commissioner is blasting Facebook's policy to continue allowing political ads to target its users — saying Facebook's "weak plan suggests the company has no idea how seriously it is hurting democracy.

Read “Rumi, Caught Between The U.S. And Iran.”

Read “Czech grandma transforms small village into her own art gallery” at My Positive Outlooks.

Read/Listen to “Making Art Is Good For Your Health. Here's How To Start A Habit” at NPR.

Read “The World Is Using Natural Resources Faster Than Ever Before” at Global Citizen.

Read “Africa's Most Ancient Trees Are Dying Due to Climate Change” at Global Citizen.

Read “Why Newfoundland Is Turning Its Moose Into Bologna” at Atlas Obscura.

Read “The Prickly Symbolism of Cactus Fruit in Israel and Palestine On different sides of border checkpoints, different views of a sweet treat” at Atlas Obscura.

See “There's Now A Tote Bag That Looks Just Like An Office Binder Clip, For Extreme Office Nerds” at Oddity Mall.

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.