Day: June 12, 2005

What Campaign Finance Reform?

I received a constituent mailing from my City Council representative Melinda Katz, or, rather, from “Speaker Gifford Miller and Council Member Melinda Katz…Working to Make Our City Cleaner and Safer.” Voters have long been accustomed to incumbents using taxpayer-financed constituent mailings to trumpet their dubious “accomplishments” during campaign season, but…using a constituent mailing as a blatant campaign advertisement for a totally different candidate and race? Shouldn’t this sort of thing be illegal? Come to think of it, shouldn’t Gifford Miller have dropped out of the race weeks ago? I mean, who’s clamoring for another pretty white liberal whose word can’t be trusted to be our next Mayor? Twelve percent of the voters, apparently. Well, keep at it, tiger! Don’t let ethics and campaign finance reform keep you stuck in last place. You can do it!

Music City’s Always Been Good To Him, But Irving Plaza’s a Bitch

I saw Bobby Bare Jr. and a sampling of the Young Criminals Starvation League open for the Old 97’s last Thursday. Bobby didn’t fare too well with the crowd (Who would have? That audience wanted the Old 97’s, and they wanted them right away). The way the songs were reworked for a trio – excising those wonderful Stax horns – made it sound, at times, like generic “hard country,” and Bobby’s vocals were too low in the mix, so the audience missed some good lines. He did win over a few with some funny jokes and that terrific cover of the Smiths’ “What Difference Does It Make?” Once again, I urge you to run out and buy BBJ’s latest record, “From The End of Your Leash,” from the good folks at Bloodshot Records. The Old 97’s barreled through a typically entertaining set that clocked in just under two hours. I […]