The Chris Burns Fire Story

In the Montréal indie scene, few stories compare to the time where Chris Burns' place went up in flames. It had everything all of our daily lives consisted of: shitty building ran by a slumlord, not being able to afford insurance, a whole scene banding together to (temporarily) help cope with a crappy situation, from indie newspapers like The Mirror promoting a benefit show, to all the bands that wanted to take part in it, to everyone who showed up, and to everyone who gave perhaps not money but time and/or goods to help Chris and his girlfriend Isabelle get back on their feet.

Chris' story resonated deeply with me, because I lost all of my shit myself once, in a flood after the thawing of the 1998 Ice Storm - I had pretty much the last remaining pictures of deceased family members, hundreds of rare arts books and first editions of classics, four guitars (I managed to save one) and two amps (ditto), and the usual stuff like furniture and electronics.

It took me years to get back to the level of comfort I'd been accustomed to - though on the bright side probably enabled me to rely less on my possessions and afforded me the emptiness I required to spend a bit longer than a year going back and forth between Montréal and NYC.

But back to ''Crispy'' Burns. Here's the video from the benefit show that was held on his behalf, complete with his recounting the fire saga in the middle of a rendition of The Talking Heads' Burning Down The House...

Chris Christie: When Republicans Do Their Jobs Instead Of Merely Obstructing The System

This was Day 3 of the fallout from Hurricane Sandy, in what, for the Mitt Romney camp, has now become Hurricane Chris Christie. Indeed, Romney's opponent for the Republican nomination has been praising President Barack Obama for three days straight in regards to his help in providing relief for New Jersey, where Christie serves as governor.

Quotes such as these abound:

It's really important to have the President of the United States here.

In the meantime, Romney has to live up to his past statements about wanting to dismantle FEMA (the federal relief-effort program) and replacing it with State-run programs instead or, as he would prefer, the private sector (i.e. companies such as Halliburton), who would no doubt overcharge and leave many poor people hanging.

The problem with that line of thinking is trusting the ''humanity'' of corporations to do good, when all they are mandated to care about is their bottom line; an additional one would be to take the risk that not all states view prevention funds as an investment rather than an expenditure, and would likely kick it to the curb; or one state would provide better relief than its neighbour and compensation problems would inevitably occur for folks living at one state's border, particularly if they work in the other one.

Another question I asked myself was: now that Christie, a huge Obama critic and obstructor, has seen what The President can do when you work with him rather than against - he is, after all, the President who has tried the hardest to negotiate with his adversaries in a half century - will it incite other Republican superstars to tone down their rhetoric or - gasp! - start working for the American people?

Time will tell, but I'm liking this development.

Rats Exonerated For Plague

Nearly 700 years after the fact, a British archaeologist named Barney Sloane claims rats can now be considered off the hook for the infection which cost countless human lives - perhaps up to two-thirds of London in 1348 and 1349.

That's a relief. For rat lovers.

It now leaves the rest of us with more questions than answers, though.

BP: The Coffee Spill

Sometimes, you just have to laugh at situations. Like the BP oil spill that the American Right are trying to pin on Barack Obama, as if he had control over international waters, companies from overseas, or anything like that. Or as if the Federal government had better resources than the companies who had years of experience drilling in the middle of the fucking ocean when three quarters of the American taxpayers' money goes to the military, not scientific research.

And no one wants to admit it, but the only way Obama could interfere with BP's ''business-as-usual'' approach is by meddling with the very fabric of American society - capitalism. And he sure as fuck can't when half his country still thinks he's a Muslim Socialist, not quite understanding the implications of either word, I'm afraid.

So we're left with ''the market self-regulating itself'', and that means BP will do whatever the fuck they want, will end up firing their CEO in a very public manner and public trust in the company will grow back to the same levels as before, but nothing in their practices will change, and there will always be a risk that a fucking bolt will kill off 50 species of animals and whole regions' economies.

In any event, we have to find a way to plow through this shit, some way or another. Here's one.



 

Prank Or Truth? Large Sinkhole In Guatemala

With so many people bored out of their minds (or job-less) and skilled at Photoshop, you have to wonder if the pictures are real...

Still, it makes you wonder what state the world is in, and why some countries would attack humanitarian convoys and others are still at war after a decade, with Public Enemy #1 still at large, melting polar ice caps, and the worst oil leak ever.

In any event, more info about the possible Guatemalan tragedy here.

Edit: Reuters is on the story, too, courtesy of Yahoo.

Edit 2: more on the story here.

Nature's Destructive Beauty

Once again, the best pictures from the volcano in Iceland is from Boston.com's The Big Picture, including this one, where lightning mixes with lava and ash:

Nature's destructive beauty, right there.