THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

The inspiration for the latest pop oriented Sonic Youth record, Rather Ripped, came from Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon's 12 year old daughter, according to the latest issue of Filter Magazine:

Thurston: "Coko said to us, "Oh by the way guys: Noise music is only good if you're the one making it." She wanted to us to make a record that sounded more like the theme songs to her favorite TV shows. And of course, Kim complied.

MOUNT MISERY


Donald Rumsfeld's aptly named home has some unsavory history behind it.

Mr. Rumsfeld's house is Mount Misery and is just across Rolles Creek from a house called Mount Pleasant. On four acres, with four bathrooms, five bedrooms and five fireplaces, built in 1804, the Rumsfeld house is just barely visible at the end of a gravel drive.

Thomas M. Crouch, a broker at the Coldwell Banker office in town, says one legend attributes the name to the original owner, said to have been a sad and doleful Englishman. His merrier brother then built a house, and to put him on, Mr. Crouch supposes, named it Mount Pleasant.

But there is some historical gravity to the name, too. By 1833, Mount Misery's owner was Edward Covey, a farmer notorious for breaking unruly slaves for other farmers. One who wouldn't be broken was Frederick Douglass, then 16 and later the abolitionist orator. Covey assaulted him, so Douglass beat him up and escaped. Today, where the drive begins, Mount Misery seems a congenial place, with a white mailbox with newspaper delivery sleeves attached, a big American flag fluttering from a post by a split-rail fence and a tall, one-hole
birdhouse of the sort made for bluebirds — although the lens in the hole suggests another function.

And that's the least of Rummy's bad karma.

(via magpie)