The Weekly Town Crier (05/01/20)

All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/01/20).

Read “BREAKING: Fela's Ex-drummer, Tony Allen, Dies In France” at Sahara Reporters.

Read “Knock Knock. It's Weird Evangelical Twitter. Online, millennial Christians embrace the absurd” at Christianity Today.

Read “Can Staying Home Help Us Regain a Sense of Place? How rediscovering creation around us can deepen our connection with God” at Christianity Today.

Read “America's billionaires have become even richer since Donald Trump became president, and it says a lot about the country's record-high wealth gap” at Business Insider.

Read “Microsoft Word now flags double spaces as errors, ending the great space debate” at The Verge.

Read Pentagon Officially Publishes Tom DeLonge’s UFO Videos Confirming what DeLonge's known since Enema of the State -- that "Aliens Exist" at Consequence of Sound.

Read “'This is no damn hobby': the 'gangsta gardener' transforming Los Angeles” at The Guardian.

Read “The Great Gatsby and Catch-22 among classic books banned from Alaska classrooms Works from Maya Angelou, Joseph Heller, Tim O'Brien, Ralph Ellison and F Scott Fitzgerald erased from curriculum” at The Independent.

Read “Land O’Lakes quietly gets rid of iconic Indian maiden mascot” at Minnesota Reformer.

Read “We are living in an apocalypse” by David Dark at American Magazine.

Your Weekly Coronavirus News Roundup:

• Read “Tom Cotton: Ban Chinese students from learning science so they can’t ‘steal’ coronavirus vaccine” at Raw Story.

• Read “Miami goes seven weeks without a homicide for first time since 1957” at CBS News.

• Read the opinion piece “Lysol and UV Rays: Running A Pandemic Like A Reality TV Show” at Empty Wheel.

• Read “Tennessee Restaurants Reopen As State Sees Biggest 1-Day Jump In COVID-19 Cases” at NPR.

• Read “How Some Phoenix Record Labels Are Surviving the Coronavirus” at Phoenix New Times.

• Read “States Warn That Workers Will Lose Unemployment If They Refuse To Return To Jobs” at The Intellectualist.

• Read/Watch “The dangerous global flood of misinformation surrounding COVID-19” at PBS News Hour.

• Read “How Are Rich People Getting Richer During the Coronavirus Pandemic? Jeff Bezos has reportedly made another $25 billion since the beginning of the year” at GQ.

• Read/Listen to “Grief is Everywhere in the Age of COVID-19” at WNYC.

• Read “King Crimson’s Robert Fripp Launches “Music for Quiet Moments” Quarantine Series” at Consequence of Sound.

• Read “THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS 'I Am Mourning The Loss': Two-Thirds Of Artists Report They're Now Unemployed” at NPR.

  • BUY MUSIC, SUPPORT ARTISTS (Listen to music. Love Your Neighbor): Beginning this Friday, May 01, Bandcamp will again waive their revenue share for everything sold. Until otherwise stated, they will be doing this on the first Friday of each month. Please use these chances to support artists during this difficult time.

Read/Listen to “How Will Chief Justice And Supreme Court Conservative Majority Affect 2020 Election?” at NPR. “Chief Justice John Roberts has worked hard to persuade the public that the Supreme Court justices are fair-minded legal umpires — not politicians in robes. But that image was tarnished by the Court's decision on Wisconsin's election earlier this month.”

Read “Here are the largest public companies taking payroll loans meant for small businesses” at MSNBC.

• Read “U.S. Citizens Married To Immigrants Are Blocked From Getting Stimulus Checks” at Yahoo.

Read “Trump’s History With the Word Sarcasm Is Littered with Excuses and Ignorance When Trump uses the sarcasm excuse, it’s because he knows he’s gone too far but can’t bring himself to admit it” at Rolling Stone.

Read “Nancy Pelosi Endorses Joe Biden: “The Personification Of Hope And Courage, Values, Authenticity And Integrity” at News and Guts.

Read “Hillary Clinton Endorses Joe Biden” at News and Guts.

Browse the 2017 piece “11 Warning Signs of Gaslighting Gaslighting is a manipulation tactic used to gain power. And it works too well” at Psychology Today.

Read “I Love Phish Concerts, and I Can’t Wait for Them to Come Back”: Trey Anastasio Speaks About Quarantine, Tour Plans and ‘Sigma Oasis’ in New Interview” at Jambands.

Watch “Post Malone Performs Nirvana Covers With Travis Barker” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “Quarantine Creativity Interview Series: Ethan Miller” at Savage Henry.

Read “Library of Congress Launches Open-Source Hip-Hop Sampling Tool Producers will have access to the library's vast audio collection, which dates back more than a hundred years” at Consequence of Sound.

Read “This Is Heartbreaking For Us": Amoeba Music's Original Hollywood Location Permanently Closed” at Okay Player.

Read “Tori Amos Believes the Muses Can Help A conversation about music, politics, and what you learn about America from being on the road” at New Yorker.

Read “How Do You Sell Concert Tees Without Concerts? Merch Companies Are Up Against a Wall “I was thinking this is a bulletproof business,” says one of many merch execs who have lost their biggest revenue stream” at Rolling Stone.

Read “PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, More Sign Letter Calling for Creative Industry Funding From UK Government” at Pitchfork.

Read “It Has to Be About Need :: The Mysteries of Lucinda Williams’ Good Souls Better Angels” at Aquarium Drunkard.

• Read “Lucinda Williams on the Music That Made Her The venerable singer-songwriter talks about the artists and albums that have meant the most to her—Sade, Audioslave, Tricky—five years at a time” at Pitchfork.

Read “Live Nation Updates Ticket Refund Policy” at Jambands.

Read “Stephen Malkmus on Traditional Techniques :: We’re Just Going To Wing It” at Aquarium Drunkard.

Read “Charlie Parker's Story to Be Told in Graphic Novel 'Chasin' the Bird' at The Hollywood Reporter.

Read “European Cities Launch Drive-In Concert Series With Great Success” at Live For Live Music.

Read “Watch Fiona Apple Give a Rare TV Interview on Democracy Now!” at Pitchfork.

BUY MUSIC, SUPPORT ARTISTS (Listen to music. Love Your Neighbor): Beginning this Friday, May 01, Bandcamp will again waive their revenue share for everything sold. Until otherwise stated, they will be doing this on the first Friday of each month. Please use these chances to support artists during this difficult time.

Read “For this year only, movies that had to go streaming will still be eligible for Oscars” at AV Club.

Read “AMC Theatres Refuses to Show Universal Films Following VOD Release of Trolls World Tour Universal seemed to imply that the commercial success of Trolls was proof that VOD was the way of the future” at Consequence of Sound

Read “Museums are sharing their creepiest objects in apparent attempt to digitize ancient curses” at AV Club.

Read “In Thailand, Funeral Cookbooks Preserve Recipes and Memories Though their origins are tragic, the books provide invaluable inspiration” at Atlas Obscura.

The Weekly Town Crier (04/03/20)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coronavirus Weekly Roundup:Education:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Weekly Town Crier (03/20/20)

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.