Work Drugs, “Philadelphia’s premier Bat Mitzvah and Quincenera party band”, has a new album ready for pre-order on Bandcamp. When I find a band I like, I tend to buy their music via Bandcamp because they have a no bullshit business model: stream whole tracks and if you like it, buy it. I first learned about Work Drugs from a great local music blog, Tympanogram, which is back after a short hiatus.
Here’s an open thread.
PurpleGirl
Nice song.
After nearly a week of very few or no incidents of those vibrations they started up again last night and are now in full force this morning. Of course the management office is closed and there is no one I can complain to right now. I’ll send an e-mail to the property manager to greet him first thing tomorrow morning.
Nicole
Hey, PurpleGirl! Ah, the eternal joys of getting stuff done in an NYC apartment. Our tub has been stopped up for weeks now.
I like the song, too. I’ll check them out.
Editing audio today (I record books on mp3) and off to a 24-hour play festival (meet your actors and get your concept Friday night, write Saturday, hear the play Sunday). Unfortunately, said festival is in B’klyn and I live in Harlem. I like B’klyn; it’s just that the MTA seems to believe that people should not need to travel out of their borough on the weekends and adjusts mass transit accordingly. And this is a three-train trip. With one of the trains being the 7 and the other the G. Oh, joy.
Jamey
Nicole: I live just across the river in NJ. Public mass transit (multi-modal) to my GF’s place in Jackson Heights takes approx 2 hrs. By bike, I can make the trip in just over an hour.
Harlem to Brooklyn probably would be faster by bike–esp. on a gorgeous day like today.
What festival are you entered in?
smintheus
Here’s the NYT and the Washington Post both flat out ignoring what the great majority of Americans believe: That SCOTUS was going to politicize its ACA ruling no matter what.
Nicole
@Jamey: It’s a group that does this shindig about once a month at the Brooklyn Winery; a friend of mine is in it and they were short writers this month, so she volunteered me and I thought it sounded like fun. They seem like a nice group of people. I’m a very, very slow writer, so it was good for me to have to write quickly (though of course, I’m brooding over all the things wrong in my piece. ;) ).
I don’t have a bike, but I have rollerblades. That’s a very tempting idea. Maybe I’ll Hopstop it for walking directions. Thanks for the suggestion!
PurpleGirl
@Nicole: The theatre festival sounds interesting. Hope you enjoyed your parts of it so far and that the performance goes well today.
I was thinking of going to the Renegade Crafts Fair at the East River State Park; I have the bus directions and it will take about an hour and a half to get there. Too many train stations with too many stairs for me to take the train.
handsmile
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi has just been declared the winner in Egypt’s presidential election by the country’s electoral commission.
According to the commission’s announcement, Morsi received 51% of the 26 million votes cast, defeating Ahmed Shafik, who had served as the last prime minister of the Mubarak regime. Prior to today’s announcement, both Morsi and Shafik had preemptively declared himself the victor.
What remains to be answered is whether and the degree to which the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), the military junta ruling Egypt since Mubarak’s ouster in 2011, will accede to the announcement. Last week SCAF issued a constitutional declaration conferring it far-reaching executive, legislative and legal authority. For example, the decree sharply limited the powers of the incoming president. Also, SCAF and its parliamentary allies will now be responsible for drafting Egypt’s new constitution.
It is understood that behind-the-scenes negotiations have been taking place between representatives of both Morsi and Shafik and the military rulers.
Egypt’s “Arab Spring” may be in critical condition, but as renowned activist Mona Eltahawy shrewdly asserted this morning on “Up w/ Chris Hayes,” if it were already dead, the generals would simply have invalidated or cancelled the election itself.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/201262412445190400.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/24/muslim-brotherhood-egypt-president-mohamed-morsi
nastybrutishntall
Work Drugs vs The War On Drugs, and the Philly drugs-band scene: discuss.
gbear
Kind of a nice putzy la-ti-da song. It sucks that they stole 100% of the visual content from Quadrophenia.
mainmati
The Muslim Brotherhood was not set uo to be a political party – they were much more interested in social policy and encouraging the faithful to be devout. In addition, 60 years of outright suppression did nothing to sharpen their political skills. As a result, they have proven to be amateurish and confused over the last year and have lost some of their popular appeal. The main reason that Morsi won was that most people did not want to see a member of the Mubarak regime become president and because the Brotherhood is by far the most organized entity outside the military in Egypt because of the vast number of cells doing charity work mainly among the urban poor and rural villagers. None of the secular and/or liberal groups have been able to organize themselves into serious political parties, which left the Brotherhood practically by default. However, the latter is hardly a political Juggernaut in anyway.
Lojasmo
Last day in Portland. The boy asked his phone where we should eat breakfast. We were pointed to the roxy in the pearl district. Who walked in for breakfast? Fred Arnesson of SNL and Portlandia fame. Crazy Portland.
chopper
@Jamey:
harlem to my part of brooklyn is easy. but jesus there are other parts of the borough that are like public transit black holes.
handsmile
@mainmati:
All astute observations. Your last sentence in particular should be better understood by the American corporate media for whom, in much of its reporting on Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood=triumph of Islamic radicals=the new Iran=America under attack! from Al-Qaeda.
Also as you implied, having been systematically suppressed during the 30 years of the Mubarak regime (with at least the tacit support of bipartisan US administrations), it is not surprising that Egyptian secular and/or liberal groups have been unable to develop coherent or cohesive political organizations in the 16 months since Mubarak’s ouster.
Negotiations between SCAF and the Muslim Brotherhood (the very fact of which some analysts suggest undermines the Brotherhood’s moral authority/independence) would seem to be the key element in this current volatile moment for the governance of Egypt and broader Middle Eastern affairs.
WereBear
Many lovely commentors wanted to know when I launched a Way of Cats fund drive. It’s NOW.
Let’s keep the Way of Cats blog Blooming
Ironically, the blog’s growth is why I need contributions. I don’t have enough ad, cat toy, or book revenue to cover bandwidth, security, and all the etceteras that come with popularity. I’m apparently not that popular yet.
So please? Help the Cause?
Increase cat understanding and acceptance. And let’s empty those shelters!