September 2007 Archives

I can't quite explain it, but I have listened to the Fleet Foxes', "White Winter Hymnal" 10 times today, maybe more. Listen to it at their MySpace page (it is the first track and will begin playing immediately), or check out a higher quality version here from this Spin article. After listening to this, and already liking some of their other songs, I tried to hunt down their album(s?), but sadly, I cannot find one. Even their own website seems to have stalled. Here's to hoping they are not so fleeting as their name.

"White Winter Hymnal"

I was following the pack all swallowed in their coats with scarves of red tied 'round their throats to keep their little heads from fallin' in the snow And I turned 'round and there you go! And, Michael, you would fall and turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime

This track and "Meadowlarks" in particular (also on their MySpace page), make my heart sink. I am reminded of being sprawled out on the floor in my bedroom with my mom's old folk records when I was about 10-years-old. That was when music really started meaning something to me, started getting to me, filling up all these little nooks and crannies I didn't even know were empty.

Am I eating crow? Perhaps. I think it's time to own up to the fact that me and my XBox aren't the great pals I thought we'd be. It's fun and everything, but it has also turned into the most expensive DVD player I've ever owned. Hopefully somebody out there will be more appreciative of this system than me. Please give my XBOX 360 a good home ($350 [obo] with extra wireless controller and 3 games). Here is the Craiglist ad and more pictures.

WTF?!?!?!!!The Smoking Gun has posted 6 criminal complaints detailing the the week-long torture endured by Charleston's Megan Williams. Williams' mother Carmen says they decided to release her name because they wanted people to know what she had endured. The Guardian Unlimited also reported this story.Okay, but why am I hearing about this through European news sources?? Googling Megan Williams proves that US news sources are slowly getting around to reporting this one. I think Roland Martin nails the point in his commentary on CNN.com:

Just look at the case of Megan Williams. The 20-year-old West Virginia woman, Megan Williams, was kidnapped by six sadistic individuals and held in a mobile home. They raped her, forced her to eat rat and dog feces, made her drink from a toilet, stabbed her multiple times, and called the black woman a "nigger" every time they beat her. Thank God she lived, and may be released from the hospital in a few days. But it still raises the question: What causes such outrage and fervor in one case involving dogs and not another?  

I've heard more about Michael Vick, O.J. Simpson and Britney Spears in the past few days than Megan Williams. That is absolutely ridiculous. I had to dig around to find any stories about this on CNN.com, no headlines in the New York Times, I've not heard anything here in Charlottesville. . . And I'm only a few hours away from Charleston.That BBC article I mentioned earlier stated prosecutors opted not to pursue race-hate charges, but are instead pursuing kidnapping charges which carry the maximum life term. This is understandably causing outrage -- this is perhaps a textbook hate crime -- but I'm a little confused. Why can't they be charged with both? And what about sexual assault and battery? She was tortured. I'd be content with charging them with "looking at a Twinkie incorrectly" if it meant the harshest punishment, but I don't know enough about our legal system to understand why it is they wouldn't pursue all of these allegations. [If anyone reading this wants to point me to some good legal resources, I'd be obliged.]So I'm outraged about the lack of attention this is getting just as much as I'm outraged at what happened to Megan Williams. My brain kind of shuts down when I try to fathom how any body could do those things to another person. Let alone 6 people standing around watching the others without even the slightest pang to stop it. I also can't imagine how frightening it must have been for Ms. Williams to be surrounded by 6 people who intend nothing but to harm her. For more than a week.[msq: Thanks for being a reliable news source.]