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.