Fair and Balanced Day

As you can see from my new tagline, I’m jumping on the “Fair and Balanced” bandwagon. After all, if Fox News can claim to be fair and balanced, just about anyone can. See this post from Neal Pollack about making August 15th Fair and Balanced Day on the Internet to protest Fox’s bogus suit against Al Franken’s new book for using the words “fair and balanced” in the title. And go pre-order a copy of Al’s book while you’re at it…

Miscellaneous listening: live rarities and booty-shaking

I’m swimming in so much music these days, between the iTunes Music Store and eMusic, that I occasionally have to remember to stop and think about what I’ve heard recently that I liked. Quick notes on two recent finds:

Lounge and Dance: There are three collections available from Miami DJ Ursula 1000 (eMusic carries two of them), including Kinda Kinky (which features what must be the most nakedly ironic reading of the line, “Now that is kinky”), the remix album All Systems are Go-Go (with a phenomenal lead track remix of ECD’s “Direct Drive”), and my new favorite,
The Now Sound of Ursula 1000
, which has such surreal moments as an aerobics instructor’s direction to “Breathe in” dissolving to a lounge organ mix and a call and response chant of “I am not a pleasure unit.”

Alternative: This week’s iTunes Just Added listing included a new “single” from Jeff Buckley: a live cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Night Flight.” Sadly, like much live Jeff that I’ve heard, the truly astonishing vocal moments (like one sustained full-voice high note right at the end of the song) are matched by an equal number of off-pitch melismatic moments. But it’s still good stuff—and, according to the official web site, is going to be on the reissued double-cd release of Live at Sin-é in the fall, featuring the full sessions from which emerged that staggering early live recording of “Mojo Pin.”