Pure Country Gold

I saw a two man band play last night at Dante's. Pure Country Gold bashed out some fast and fuzzy swamp rock with both aplomb and unrestrained vigor. The Tuesday night rock and roll kids were digging it, showing their appreciation by shaking it all about and turning themselves around; that's what it's all about. PCG's brand of blooze was some strong, heavy shit--intoxicating, to say the least. The guitarist/singer, a balding stocky guy (Don Rickles with a Les Paul), played precisely through the thick distortion with some adept pluck and strum while the drummer, a hulking bearded man who looked to be fresh off the farm with the tractor still running, flogged his pristine vintage Pearl kit with no remorse. The two had palpable chemistry and never once made eye contact with each other, so intent were they on playing their respective roles and fueling the din. I was impressed by the sheer power they exuded. The drummer flailed and kept his kit shaking for the duration of the set, filling the hole left by the lack of a bass, as the guitarist/singer riffed and shouted through each song, practically ignoring the audience between numbers. And then, before I knew it, they were done. All that remained was the ringing of a cymbal, the lingering hum of the guitar and the shuffling masses clamoring for more.

miracle of modern medicine

I just copied this. The human body is such a fascinating organism. Intelligent design? I think not.BANGALORE, India - Doctors in southern India completed a grueling 24-hour operation Wednesday on a girl born with four arms and four legs that surgeons said will give the 2-year-old a chance at a normal life.
The surgery went "wonderfully well," said Dr. Sharan Patil, who led a team of more than 30 surgeons in the marathon procedure to remove Lakshmi's extra limbs, salvage her organs and rebuild her pelvis area.
"This girl can now lead as good a life as anyone else," Patil said from a hospital in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.
But he cautioned that Lakshmi was still not out of danger.
"We are still not ready to celebrate as she will be in the critical zone for the next 48 to 72 hours," the doctor said.
Lakshmi, who has been revered by some in her village as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess she was named for, was born joined at the pelvis to a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in her mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.
"This is a very rare occurrence," said Dr. Doug Miniati a pediatric surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the surgery. Miniati said the surgery was extremely complicated but her chances of survival were greater because she was not joined at the heart or brain.
The doctors worked through the night to remove the extra limbs and organs. By midnight, a team of neurologists had separated the fused spines while orthopedic surgeons removed most of the "parasite," carefully identifying which organs and internal structures belonged to the girl, said Patil.
Then began the difficult job of reconstructing Lakshmi's lower body.
The operation included transplanting a good kidney into Lakshmi from the twin. The team also used tissue from the twin to help rebuild the pelvic area, one of the most complicated parts of the surgery, Patil said.
"Beyond our expectations, the reconstruction worked wonderfully well," Patil said. "We were able to bring the pelvic bones together successfully, which takes away the need for another procedure," he said.
However, she will have to have further treatments and possible surgery for clubbed feet before she would be able to walk, he said.
Lakshmi's parents, who were expected to see their daughter later Wednesday, said they were very relieved.
"It will be great to see our daughter have a normal body," her father Shambhu, who only goes by one name, told reporters. "We were worried for her future."
Children born with deformities in deeply traditional rural parts of India such as the remote village in the northern state of Bihar that Lakshmi hails from are often viewed as reincarnated gods. The young girl is no different — she is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth.
Others sought to make money from Lakshmi. Her parents kept her in hiding after a circus apparently tried to buy the girl, they said.
Her mother, who is currently pregnant with a healthy fetus, was "overwhelmed," Patil said.
Doctors at Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore said they were performing the surgery, which they estimated cost $625,000, for free because the girl's family could not afford the medical bills.
"We are very grateful to all the doctors for seeing our plight and deciding to help us," Shambhu said.

the Hives are back!

So I went and saw the Hives play last night. The set contained select hits from their previous three albums as well as some unfamiliar songs from the new album, out in a week. The new material went over well with you dress up for armageddon and you got it all...wrong highlighting the show. Wrong, in particular, had the most danceable melody I've ever heard from the Swedish five-piece. It was a hook-filled raveup recalling classic sixties girl group pop on amphetamines that had me shaking. The New York Dolls stuck to a similar formula before self-destructing. But unlike the Dolls, who told tall tales of low life and didn't give a shit better than anyone, the Hives involve the crowd and revel in their own pomp and circumstance. While the whole thing is very tongue-in-cheek, they're still convincingly incredulous when the crowd doesn't dance and scream to their undeniably catchy garage punk. Last night though, the boys worked the all-ages audience into a frenzy. The band was as tight as ever, a well-rehearsed and well-oiled touring machine that only missed a beat once, when Nicholas Arson broke a guitar string at the beginning of no pun intended.

Howlin' Pelle has perfected his persona and worked the stage like a traveling preacher, converting the unsure and winning new fans town by town (although he had Portland wrapped around his finger the second he strutted onstage). Tugging at his lapel for added emphasis between verses and inciting pandemonium with every wide-eyed stare into the crowd, Pelle prowled the stage like Mick Jagger, dropped to his knees like James Brown, and whipped the microphone around like Roger Daltrey. Arson spit in the air and punished his telecaster, making it squeal intermittently to punctuate supply and demand and main offender. Dr. Matt Destruction, on the bass, held down the low end and had his moment in the sun during the break in hate to say I told you so when he stepped to the front and grimaced in rock and roll agony. The sweat poured off his shiny bald pate before Pelle let out a primal scream and the band came back, crashing down around him. Drummer Chris Dangerous was flawless as usual and guitarist Vigilante Carlstroem, sporting a mustache, provided some much-needed background shouting. Taking cues from the polished acts of 1960s American soul revues, the Hives are indeed showmen of the highest caliber. And they put on one hell of a show. So after a three year break, it can now be proclaimed: "the Hives are back!"

citizens of tomorrow, be forewarned

I just watched Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." I found it startling, appalling and entirely relevant. The subject matter, global warming, is fast becoming a less divisive issue as the evidence becomes harder to ignore and the scientific community arrives at an irrefutable consensus. But even though our planet is warming at an alarming rate, with devastating consequences, and action must be taken, I have little hope. Call me a defeatist but I think people are too slow to change, too reluctant to adapt in the face of danger unless the situation is unavoidably imminent. That's not to say change isn't impossible or out of reach. After all, the future of humanity is in our hands and once we all accept that, we will begin to make the necessary sacrifices.

Gore put it bluntly when he said that America has to take the lead. As the top contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, America has an obligation to step up to the plate. But we're set in our ways. I admire Gore for providing the spark that ignites this movement but Americans are fat. We're fat on power and wealth, materialism and the ease of consumption, as well as fast food. As we get more comfortable and set in these ways, we have trouble losing the weight, both literally and figuratively. We're too lazy to change our habits and we don't want to be inconvenienced, even when our livelihoods are on the line. Clearly, this problem is deeply rooted and involves broad issues like sociology, economics and, as Gore notes, ethics. Time will tell but until then, I will continue to do what I can by recycling aggressively, conserving energy and resources, and urging others to do the same. Citizens of tomorrow, be forewarned.

ReELECT GORE