Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

krisis

Krisis has been creating Crushing Krisis since 2000, writing songs since 1996, and reading comics since 1991. He is a Customer Success and Digital Brand Strategy executive, serial organizer, parent, and feminist, among other things. Based in Philly through 2017, he now resides in Wellington, NZ.

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All free-internet-radio Ani is good free-radio-Ani: Acoustic Cafe, 2004 (real audio). Includes an insightful interview, and some songs (“Knuckle Down” @ 22:00 is new, as is the excellent “Recoil” around 30:00). In keeping with the recent trend, her solo performance of the tunes makes those on the disc pale in comparison. Also, the interview is insightful, especially this question (which i had wondered myself, as “Educated Guess” was a favorite of mine last time i saw Ms. DiFranco with the band):

Rob Reinhart: Did these songs come out of the process itself, or did they predate it?

Ani: Only “Educated Guess,” the song … predated the record. That one got bumped off the Evolve record actually and, uh, i used to play with my dear friend Julie Wolf. So, it’s the oldest tune, and the rest were constructed in solitude, you know, back to my roots, you know, where they’re built to stand alone on the guitar again.

Ha, her next album is being produced by Joe Henry, famous to me for being related-by-law to Madonna and having his “Stop” nearly covered outright by her “Don’t Tell Me.” I wonder if Ani realizes she’s being produced by someone who is collecting royalties on a Madonna song; should be interesting. And, hey, if you like free internet tuneage, you need to make Largehearted Boy the first stop on your daily web crawl; he scours the internet for almost a dozen one off songs and full concerts every day. Absolutely indispensible.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107941474831976589/

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Yes, i know all politicians are crooked, and you’ll be pointing out these same things to me next time a Democrat comes up for re-election. I just plan to do everything i can to make sure that happens exactly four years from now.


Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration’s efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month.

This from a Time article via Metafilter via Pandagon, a person i actually know (sorta) through Rabi. I don’t think that this move is downright evil, as Bush is certainly a big part of why we have a Department of Homeland Security today, but when it comes down to it no-one should be telling the Department to look into photo-ops — i don’t care what party they’re from.

Here’s an alternative to partisan voting: If we reward the people who lie less on a consistent basis, maybe everyone will lie less. Along those lines, a conservative classmate of mine put together Anybody But Bush 2004 as his senior project. Go Geoff!

Also, if you missed the big campaign story from last week, the article does an excellent job of rehashing it simply: Tipped off by Democrats on Capitol Hill that the appointment was in the works, Kerry’s staff had quickly done a LexisNexis search on the proposed nominee, Anthony Raimondo, and discovered that the Nebraska manufacturing executive laid off 75 U.S. workers in 2002 while building a $3 million factory in Beijing. That might make it awkward for him to champion keeping jobs at home. Two hours before the Commerce Department was scheduled to announce Raimondo’s nomination last week, the Kerry campaign did it for them. A day later, Raimondo had withdrawn his name from consideration … White House officials insist that the nomination collapsed because a Senator in Raimondo’s home state did not approve of him.

Anyway, BushBashing aside, the article is a good read. I’d obviously love to put a Democrat in office, but what i’d love more is for every person who has ever read this site to go out and vote in November. That would be much cooler.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107939524276123597/

Ecstacy Debunked

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Ecstacy Debunked – If opponents of drug use are going to say scientific evidence should be the reason to “Just Say No,” at least they could report their studies accurately. I would love to do research about the press that ecstacy/MDMA has received over the last decade; does it deserve to be so thouroughly (and occasionally falsely) villified just because it gives the user pleasure? Seems like an overly puritanical approach to combatting America’s drug problem when there are other more addictive, more harmful substances to drum out of the youth culture.

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Really good indy music writing: Glorious Noise.

I am having trouble posting because i cannot bear to look at my page anymore. I am tired of being blue. What color should the next layout be? I’m leaning towards orange, but i suspect i’d get sick of that too fast… this one did last me a year and a half, after all.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107899330246402260/

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If you didn’t already know that election time was drawing near, you would have been tipped off by President Bush attempting to surf his way into office on a coffin of a 9/11 victim (probably not for the last time) in one of his campaign’s first national adds. Story here. I don’t know that you can deny the man the ability to refer to 9/11 in the list of his political accomplishments, but let’s not forget that he said he’d avoid it. From the article: Added Rita Lasar, who lost a brother on 9/11, “President Bush promised in a speech he gave in 2002 that he would not use the site for political reasons. We believed him; we trusted him. He has broken his promise to us.”

This is the same guy who said of gay marriage “The state can do what they want to do” while on the 2000 campaign trail, so if you had any illusions about him not being a liar feel free to dispel them.

I personally support gay marriage because it is in keeping with the way i interpret the Constitution, the way i feel about State rights, and my religious beliefs. I feel very strongly that the federal government should not impose a standard for or against gay marriage on the entire nation. This doesn’t mean we should have a national amendment stating “Queers can get hitched!,” but it also means i find a national marriage amendment or initiative to be an alarming overreach of Federal power.

I realize that at a time like this it is everyone’s responsibility to voice their opinions in a logical way that can be appreciated by both sympathizers and opponents. Also, i think all of my friends deserve to marry the people that they love as much as i do. Expect to be hit on the head by my big liberal hammer repeatedly in the coming months.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107853080587457072/