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These Days: Saturday, September 19th, 2015

It is not often I agree with Trump about anything, but I agreed with him about Syria: let Assad and ISIS fight it out and wait till the dust settles before you pick a side. Since nothings works for the Yanks, why not leave em to it? It is as though the US forgot what Russia learnt in their own excursions into Afghanistan: this shit will bankrupt you. Enough of wars, since you aren’t really on any side, let Russia go bankrupt for awhile.

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These Days: Friday, September 18th, 2015

People claim this is an important series, Mets Vs Yankees, but my friend Ben Buchwald claims otherwise. The Mets have the division sown up and home field advantage isn’t worth wearing out their players, and the Yanks have Wild card in pocket and don’t stand much of a chance of taking the division. So fun? Perhaps. Important? Not so fast.

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Keith Richards Can’t Stop Loving Ed Sheeran

‘These days? You know what? Ed Sheeran is really interesting to me… Yeah, yeah. Lovely guitar and he’s a one-man band at the moment but he has the potential. And James Bay. They’re the two that come to mind immediately.” ’60s and ’70s legends seem to just love the shit out of Ed Sheeran; you should hear Elton John talk about him on his Beats 1 Radio show.’

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Greg Graffin To Present His New Book ‘Population Wars’

‘In that respect, it’s my worldview on ecology, and the persistence of species and communities of populations that are currently existing on the planet. Let’s face it: Our community, our social connections, are really all that matters. It’s this realm of social connectivity that we must come to terms with in order to get along with all the other populations on the planet,’

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These Days: Thursday, September 17th, 2015

Cablevision: The worst run cable company, in a market that includes Time Warner, has been sold by the dreaded Dolan family to European telecom giant Altice is for $17.7 billion. Now if we can just convince them to buy the Knicks while they’re at it. But no. The fat pudgy face of James Dolan, a man so hated in this town he should run for President.

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Taylor Swift At Adele Levels Of sales For 1989

If she manages to surpass 11 million units sold, I don’t know how you could possibly follow it. I’ve long felt that the sheer hugeness of Adele’s achievement paralyzed. She couldn’t see any way to compete with herself and fiddled and faddled for years on end (the promise is 26 will be out later this year, but who knows?).

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Listen To Deafheaven’s New Song, ‘Come Back’

‘A lot of this record is us being like, “Look, we are a metal band. We do a lot of other stuff, but we can solo; we can have some Slayer riffs in there. There was a lot of, “Hey, what if we throw some traditional thrash metal stuff in here, but just make it our own?” And I think it worked really well.’

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Billboard Not by The Numbers

This is a real mess, nothing about Billboard’s charts means the slightest thing any more. For instance, Billboard had a post about how “Selena Gomez celebrates her first No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Songs airplay chart, as “Good for You” rises 2-1.” Fine, but since it is # 7 in the Hot 100 what does it mean and what does it matter?

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“I SAW A MAN DIE ON THE INTERNET” -Interactive Art From California

The video will post from everyone’s facebook on September 16th at the exact same time. This will ensure that the videos progress is easy to track and promote. This video contains explicit language and difficult themes. If you do not want this content on your timeline or would feel more comfortable sharing this in the privacy of your home, that’s totally fine! If you would like to forward this campaign to others who might want to get involved, that’s great too!

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These Days: Wednesday, September 16th, 2015

P. Diddy is a thieving bastard? That’s a shocker. According to Danity Kane ex-member Audrey O’Day “We have two platinum albums, let alone grossed over $1millon on Christina Aguilera’s Back To Basics tour while opening for her, and we came off that tour $15,000 in debt.” Quite how this is possible, we will have to wait to find out. Quite how he managed to siphon off everything I have no idea, but I bet it is a lot more interesting than Diddy’s career as a rapper

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The Wainwright Sisters, Lucy And Martha, Record An Album, Playing City Winery, November 2015

Martha is such a dirty mouthed diva, such an histrionic and brittle ill-tempered and temperament folk rocker, and Lucy a well tempered smart and delicate folkie. But apparently, the duo are at least half sisters, Martha’s Mom was the late extremely great Kate McGarrigle, and Lucy’s Mom is a member of one of the greatest sister acts ever and of all time, The Roches.

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These Days: Tuesday, September 15th, 2015

I upgraded a couple of weeks and this sleep, smart operating system is the best in the business. Much better than the baffling 8.0 or luddite 7.0, it is a helluva easy system, a pleasure to negotiate and simple as 1.2.3. I have never had a Mac but I would be shocked if it is as good as this at getting you where you want to go. A personal favorite is the “Task View”. A great way to use your computer and if you have 8.0 the upgrade is free.

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Youth Lagoon Feels Like A Rotten Human In His New Song

‘Throughout the process of writing this album—about two years—I’ve gone on this spiritual journey to learn more about myself and my faults and all this stuff that I’ve tended ignore for a really long time. It’s so much easier to go through each day and forget the previous day or forget the hurtful things you said to someone or whatever it might be, just the shitty parts of your life. This song is addressing that. It’s really examining what it is that makes me who I am, and what parts of that are disgusting.’

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Elton John Wants To Discuss Gay Rights In Russia With Putin

While speaking to BBC News, John said ‘I would like to meet [Mr Putin],’ ‘It’s probably pie in the sky… He may laugh behind my back when he shuts the door, and call me an absolute idiot, but at least I can think I have the conscience to say I tried.’ At least he is realistic! ‘Give me a break,’ said Elton John. “You are President of Russia, and you go and say stupid things like that?’ I guess he is preparing himself when he has the big meeting with the president whose anti-gay attitude is ‘isolating and prejudiced’ and ‘ridiculous’ according to John.

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That Was The Week That Was: September 7th, 2015

Football season is upon us though with the sun still out I’ve held off taking any serious serious attention to it. The Jets drew the Browns and beat em well, journeyman QB Ryan Fitzpatrick everything the lousy Geno Smith isn’t. A couple more outings like this and guess who won’t be coming back. The Giants gave one away for no reason. The Yanks saved themselves from a sweep but with 20 games to go better keep their eye on the wildcard, the Mets keep on rolling, and have their first winning season 2008. Finally, Roger Federer lost to US Open winner Novak Djokovic.

Elliott Smith, News, Not With The Band, Slideshow

Not With The Band: Has The Internet Changed The Biography Game?

Brett Morgen’s ‘Montage of Heck’ received seven nominations for the Creative Arts Emmys which took place on Saturday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, I don’t know how many he actually won but this is revolting,… revolting because Morgen has tried to sell this fiction for the truth, heavily promoting a story that simply is a lie. Didn’t Buzz Osborne say ‘Montage of Heck’ was 90% bullshit?

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These Days: Sunday, September 13th, 2015

I guess you can call this the end of the Tony Blair era once and for all in the UK, the Labour Party has chosen to stop being a carbon copy of the Conservatives and voted socialist Jeremy Corbyn their new leader. Paradise redux? One thing is certain, unlike the States stuck with a right and an extreme right party system, the UK now has a serious alternative and possibly the first real change since Harold Wilson’s second term. The UK now has a two party system, two more than the US has.

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The Big Huerta and Lenny Bruce, The King of Comedy

I did this painting on black canvas. Only special peeps get to the black canvas. I also used fluorescents to help dignify his intensity. I put his name in green like those old scary movies ads of the 50’s…as if he is “The Blob” and coming for your children. As Lenny once said, “I’m sorry I haven’t been funny. I am not a comedian. I am Lenny Bruce.”

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Yoko Ono Wants To Make The Largest Human Peace Sign To Celebrate Lennon’s 75th Birthday

‘This is a free, all ages event. Registration does not guarantee entry. Entry is available for the first 10,000 registrants on a first-come, first-served basis. Please arrive at 10:00am to secure your place in the Largest human peace sign! On-site registration and peace sign placement will close promptly at 12:00pm. The aerial photograph capturing this historic event will take place at 12:30pm.’

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Sneak Peaks: Upcoming Album Releases 9-18-15 – 9-24-15

Of the big ones I am not impressed with, put Keith Richards at the top of the list and then add Chris Cornell, Mac Miller, Metric, The Front Bottoms who are emerging into one of the biggest disappointments, then moved to the maybes with Lana Del Rey, Motion City Soundtrack, Mercury Rev, Robert Forster, David Gilmour and Lucero. Finally, the battle for most intimating, intimate, and anticipated album of next week… no not Robert Delong or Darlene Love but RUDIMENTAL!!! If only because it includes one of Bobby Womack’s last vocals. And not only because of that either.

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Mac DeMarco Gets Hurt Like Everyone Else

‘People ask: ‘These are your friends, right? This is a funny thing? I’m like, ‘I’ve never met these guys. I don’t know what they sound like.’ They asked me to play guitar with them on David Letterman a couple of months ago and I said no. But I guess somewhere in between that time and now they decided that they didn’t like me actually and yeah, if they have a problem, then that’s fine. Not everyone’s going to like my music. That’s fine.’…

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These Days: Saturday, September 12th, 2015

“A group of ten patrol officers on the nightwatch conducts end-of-shift get-togethers they euphemistically call “choir practices” (possibly to hide their true nature from superiors but actually a sardonic reference). These “choir practices” almost always involve heavy drinking, complaints about their superior officers, and war stories (and, occasionally, group sex with a pair of lusty, overweight barmaids). They hold the choir practices in MacArthur Park because it is in another division’s territory and “one does not shit in one’s own nest.”

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Oldies But Goldies: Through Bob Dylan Darkly Reached The 90s

Six years ago I reviewed every single Dylan album, decade by decade. Why? Same reasons as ever I had room to fill. Here is my look back at Dylan in the 1990s. I haven’t read this in years and years -wonder if it is any good. I do believe I’ve improved of the years. But as a fan recently mentioned, I shouldn’t be allowed to write about music

News, Slideshow, These Days

These Days: Friday, September 11th, 2015

went to see Michael Jackson with a girl named Christina at MSG the night before (with Whitney Houston! and Marlon Brando!) and we’d been out all night (Id taken the next day off work), we were at a bar in Queens when we saw it on the news, I took the last running train back to the city as my niece Louba was at work and I wanted to get her home safely… crossing 5th ave I watched WTC topple. Picked up Louba and no way out of the city we went on a pub crawl…

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Chrissie Hynde Vs Pornographic Pop Stars

For one thing, if Miley Cyrus is pornographic, what on earth was Prince in 1979? And for another to claim the tragedy in Syria has ANYTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH, with discussing Chrissie’s statements regarding rape is pure asinine. If that is the case, why discussing anything? Why talk about music when a five year old child just died?

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The Future Of Ticket Brokerage Is Here

It used to be that at least in New York City, everything you wanted to see sold out instantaneously, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. U2, Taylor Swift, Madonna, even The Weeknd, is not entirely sold out (The Weeknd has tickets available at Prudential and loads more in the secondary market).

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