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.
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.