But I think I’m the only one. What a day! Farrah Fawcett succumbed to the cancer she’s been battling for years. She was 62, and her friends and family were at her side.

But poor Farrah barely got half a day’s news coverage before the madman that is/was Michael Jackson was rushed to hospital in a coma. He was later pronounced dead. He was 50 years old.

And then… rumors started flying around the Internet that Jeff Goldblum was dead. He’s not. And Harrison Ford dead. He’s not. What the high holy hell is going on? Relax people, before you break the Intertoobz.

I would like to address petty pieties, which I will get into further on Monday’s Brass Balls Radio (which is going to sound a helluva lot like the annual Oscar death list roundup). I didn’t like Michael Jackson. I wasn’t even a big fan at the appropriate time in 1984. As I grew older he disgusted me. He paid off parents to let him fondle their children - both he and the parents involved should rot in hell. And on top off all that, he was a joke. He was butt of eleventy-billion jokes for more than 15 years. So those of you who are all pious today about his passing are full of shit if you were part of that two-decade ridicule. Jackson leaves behind 2 or 3 kids (I don’t care enough to look it up), and I have a feeling their lives are about to get really, really normal. Good for them. I am not going to mourn his passing any more than I mourned wife-beater James Brown’s or will mourn murderer Ted Kennedy when he finally kicks it.

That said, Jackson was insanely talented (insane being the operative word), especially in his youth. And talent should be respected and remembered. So if you’re going to take a moment to mourn the death of Michael Jackson, at least remember him at his best and blackest.

And if you need a laugh after all the deaths, this is from Twitter:

“Heeeeeeeeeere’s Farrahhhhhh!”
“Heeeeeeeeeere’s Michaelllll!”
God: “Dammit Ed. Cut it out.”

And because of the strange events of last Monday, and the great time I had, I will be joining Loftus Cuddy and his wife tonight at Massey Hall to see The Jim Cuddy Band.

Chances of an autograph are pretty high. Of course, my friend Meredith has already told me that any autograph belongs to her.

Me. Christian Bale. Angry Sex. That is all.

Before I post the article it might be worth mentioning a few things as preface to those not as obsessed as I on watching groups like Taliban etc. The Taliban have had a campaign on as long as they have existed to maintain the Islamic idea that women should never be taught anything other than Koran and have in fact already blown up a large number of schools which dared teach females. As recently the Taliban issued a warning about the non playing or performing of music and shortly thereafter murdered 7 musicians, this is no idle threat. They have already murdered women who go to schools as we have seen also in Algeria and other nations under siege by Islamics or in already Islamic states. For those of you interested in the subject of women and Islam here is a truly excellent video by women who are dealing with the subject.

The video linked to above contains no graphic images whatsoever. It is just a set of short speeches by various activists including the most excellent Dr. Wafa Sultan. However I find it very disturbing and difficult to watch because of the information revealed so be warned. This video about women in Afghanistan however does contain graphic images. Also I have talked with a number of soldiers who have done tours in Afghanistan and I can assure all of you what is revealed in these two videos falls far far short of the horrors done to people in general by Taliban and women in particular. Most of what was reported to me, was beyond my own imagination for cruelty.

James Cohen

Taliban threaten to kill Pakistani schoolgirls: Officials

ISLAMABAD:Taliban extremists in Pakistan’s troubled northwest Swat valley have banned girls from attending school, threatening to kill any female students, officials said Thursday.

The threat was delivered this week by local Taliban commander Shah Durran in an address carried on an illegally-run radio station in the area, local officials told AFP.

“You have until January 15 to stop sending your girls to schools. If you do not pay any heed to this warning, we will kill such girls,” one official quoted the commander as saying.

“We also warn schools not to enrol any female students; otherwise, their buildings will be blown up.”

The mountainous Swat valley was until last year a popular tourist destination featuring Pakistan’s only ski resort.

But the region has been turned into a battleground since radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has links to Pakistan’s Taliban movement, launched a violent campaign for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the valley.

Durran said local Taliban leaders were determined not to allow girls to attend school, saying: “We want to enforce the true Sharia in the area — for this, we are fighting and laying down our lives.”

Swat residents said Taliban fighters had already destroyed scores of government-run schools, leading some to set up private schools in their homes to educate girls.

An official at the Pakistani education ministry said there are about 1,580 schools registered in Swat — once known for its top-flight schools.

But the official, Naeem Khan, said: “Already Taliban militants have destroyed 252 schools, mainly those where girls and boys were studying together.”

Education has suffered badly in Swat as a result of the ongoing fighting between Taliban-linked militants and security forces, with only a handful of schools still open in the region’s main city Mingora, Khan said.

The government had reached a deal with the rebels in May to gradually pull out troops and introduce an Islamic justice system in exchange for an end to rebel attacks, but the violence eventually resumed.

This post from vladtepesblog.com. It really is worth having a good long think about what culture really means. It runs a lot deeper than just what key you play a Beatles tune in. It has more to do with weather or not you get killed for playing music at all than it does if you’re ‘Strat’ is Mexican made or American.
(posted by James Cohen for Right Girl)

More on Islam and the arts. Taliban murders musicians for making music
By Eeyore | December 15, 2008

I have done several articles recently detailing the attitude of Islam and the arts. I tend to focus on this a bit because the artistic community seems determined to ally itself with the left and the multi cultural. I would hope they would reconsider and instead choose an ideology of individualism and liberty which is what the arts have always thrived in as opposed to theocratic or totalitarian regimes. Islam by the way is both.

GHAZNI(Afghanistan): Armed Taliban militants abducted six musicians and an election worker in eastern Afghanistan, one of whom was later found dead, a local official said.

The body of one musician was found today, one day after the group was kidnapped in Paktika province, provincial spokesman Hameedullah Jowak said.

“One of the six musicians abducted on Saturday by Taliban was found dead in the district. We have no information on the fate of the other five,” he said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the hostages had flouted a ban on music, but denied killing the victim.

“We abducted them after they continued to sing and play music despite a recent ban on music announced by Taliban. One of them died of a heart attack,” said Abdul Wakil Mubariz, who claims to be the provincial Taliban commander.

Jowak said armed militants had snatched the election worker from his house in the same province on Thursday.

On Sunday, militants attacked a convoy en route to a coalition base in southern Ghazni province, sparking a gun battle in which three Taliban were killed, provincial spokesman Ismail Jahangir said.

You tried to throw me one last line
To throw me one last time
But now I guess I’m wise to you
And vows spoken in the night
Are broken in the light
What you recite I have heard before
So say no more

No more words tonight, no more words
I don’t ever want to hear you say you love me one more time
No more words tonight, no more words
I’ll forever keep the silence, you can keep your lies

Does anyone other than me even remember this wonderful tune?

Though my views my be wrong, they may even be perverted
She’ll hear me out and won’t easily be converted
To my way of thinking in fact she’ll often disagree
And at the end of it all
She will understand me

Because early industrial music was cool, until the 90’s came along, and everything became uncool.

You were messed and tired and cut and weary
But I said that’s alright you could be a girl

Bonus points if a) you know what it is without looking it up, and b) you’ve actually heard the song.

A Canadian fiddler who is no stranger to controversy has put half his future music earnings up for sale on eBay, the auction website.

Ashley MacIsaac, who says he declared personal bankruptcy in 2000, is seeking a minimum bid of C$1.5 million (744 million pounds) from an investor who would in turn get half of what the Cape Breton musician earns during the rest of his career.

Isn’t he in jail for pissing on his underage fiddler-diddler?

Oh well, there’s a sucker born every minute - someone will buy this guy’s non-existent career.

For those of you who get Showtime, you’ve probably seen the ads for HBO’s Big Love. There’s a Patsy Cline song used in the ad.

What is it? I’ve never heard it before, and I’ve tried Googling the lyrics to no avail. Go forth and find this out for me!

Merci.

It’s been fifteen years since my mother succumbed to lung cancer. Cigarettes were her vice. Two and a half packs a day for thirty years. When she died she was just 47 lbs.

Everyone loved my mother. She was a perfect angel to all who knew her. Kind, benevolent, trustworthy - she was a girl scout. Funny, silly, a middle-aged child.

Why then do I have so many nightmares about her? Why was I so shy when she was alive, and only came out of my shell when she was gone? Sure, I fucked up a lot of my life after her death, and my father’s a few years later. But I can’t help but wonder if I would be as strong, interesting and successful as I am today had she given up her habit and lived to see me into my twenties. Or would I be doing as all my friends are beginning to do, and turning into my mother?

The dynamic of a mother-daughter relationship is a strange one. Every one is different. Some mothers and daughters are remarkably alike in looks, interest and temperament. Others are like night and day. My mother and I weren’t at each other’s throats, but we were quite opposite. I was my father’s child - smart and sharp and acerbic. I was dramatic, a diva at a young age. My mother was a tomboy in jeans who would entertain the kids (my friends and I) by building a campfire or teaching us to climb trees. She could shoot. I could walk in heels. She was a backwoods girl who said “eh” a lot. I read my first Tolstoy at 11. When she died, I felt like I could breathe.

My father, on the other hand, was lost without her. Within five years, he drank himself to death. Saying it that way makes it sound so ugly - and it was, don’t get me wrong. But time and distance have a way of letting you blur the edges, and now I prefer to say that he died of a broken heart. Because he did. The day we buried my mother, we left him behind in her grave.

Over and over he would play Honey, and cry silently, empty bottle on the table and tears streaming down his cheeks from his glassy bloodshot eyes. I’ve never seen any man of any age so in love with a woman that he willed his heart to stop beating for her. Terrifying as it was, it was also beautiful. Fifteen years ago today, he lost Honey.

Aside from that insufferable falsetto.

The lakeside Tennessee home of late country music superstar Johnny Cash has been destroyed in a fire.

It burned down on Tuesday while renovations were being carried out for its new owner, Bee Gee Barry Gibb.

The interior of the house, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, was used in the video for Cash’s final hit, his 2002 cover of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt.

Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, lived in the house from 1968 until their deaths, months apart, in 2003.

Having lost my own house in the same fashion, this breaks my heart.

Daylight has found me here again
You can ask me anything, but where I’ve been
Things that used to matter seem so small
When you’re looking for a soft place to fall

Don’t misunderstand me, baby, please
I didn’t mean to bring back memories
You should know the reason why I called
I was looking for a soft place to fall

Looking for a soft place
Nothing more than a small taste
Of a love that ended long ago
Looking for a place to hide
A warm bed on a cold night
I didn’t mean to hurt you
No, no, no

Looking out your window at the dawn
Baby, when you wake up, I’ll be gone
You’re the one who taught me after all
How to find a soft place to fall

You’re the one who taught me after all
How to find a soft place to fall

An earworm that will have you humming it all day…

Ain’t gonna follow no child molester, sex offender, prophet pretender.

Ain’t gonna follow no child molester,

Islam is not for me.

In my ears tonight: the rushing of blood, the buzz of a million thoughts, and music…

The Letting Go - Melissa Etheridge
I came here to let you know
The letting go
Has taken place
I have held the winter’s son
Become one
Set my pace
Isn’t that what we wanted all along
Freedom like a stone
Maybe we were wrong
But I can say goodbye
Now that the passion’s died
Still it comes so slow
The letting go

Path of Thorns - Sarah McLachlan
Through the years I’ve grown to love you
Though your commitment to most would offend
But I stuck by you holding on with my foolish pride
Waiting for you to give in…
You never really tried or so it seems
I’ve had more than myself to blame
I’ve had enough of trying everything
And this time it is the end…

Goodnight and Thank You - Madonna & Antonio Banderas
Oh but it’s sad when a love affair dies
The decline into silence and doubt
Our passion was just too intense to survive

Breakfast After Ten - Blue October
And I’ve learned a lot from all these break ups and make ups
And fuck ups and fake ups
Things that I wish you could comprehend yeah, comprehend
But for now I’ll lace up
these wingtip shoes, boys
And I’ll go have breakfast with my good friends

Bad Timing - Blue Rodeo
I never meant to make you cry
And though I know I should call
It just reminds us of the lost
Of everything we’ve lost
Bad timing that’s all

Did I Shave My Legs For This? - Deanna Carter
I bought these new heels, did my nails
Had my hair done just right
I thought this new dress was a sure bet
For romance tonight
Well it’s perfectly clear,between the TV and beer
I won’t get so much as a kiss
As I head for the door I turn around to be sure
Did I shave my legs for this?

Wow. Been a long damn time since I heard this song. I remember driving around the West Island, angry at some horrible thing he’d said or done. Angry at the man whose babies I had pre-named, for the day I finally got to have them. That bastard.

And this little-known chick screaming out the window as I raced at least 80km over the Lakeshore speed limit (yes, that was me that caused those speedbumps to go in - sorry ’bout that).