#George Biddle

[random-brushstrokes]

George Biddle - Loux Veneris (1921)

[seinfeld-today]

While taking out the trash, George manages to lock himself on the other side of the door from his phone, keys, and shoes; forcing him to choose between going out barefoot to get his spare key from Jerry or wait the hours for Susan to come home from work.

[antebellumite]

drew it

[mourning-again-in-america]

Accidentally developed a hatred of the 1800s New York political scene from Pirsig--not hatred of Tammany, of Albany, but of Long Island and the Hudson families (Livingstones, Hamiltons, Roosevelts, Schuylers...)

[reality-detective]

Here are just a few of the visitors to Jeffrey Epstein's island who were confirmed: 👇

▪️Adam Perry Lang

▪️Akon

▪️Al Gore

▪️Alan Dershowitz

▪️Albert Pinto

▪️Alee Baldwin

▪️Allison Mack

▪️Alyssa Rogers

▪️Anderson Cooper

▪️Andrea Mitrovich

▪️Andres Pastrana

▪️Angelina Jolie

▪️Anthony Kiedis

▪️Anthony Weiner

▪️Barack Obama

▪️Ben Affleck

▪️Bernie Sanders

▪️Beyonce

▪️Bill Clinton

▪️Bill Gates

▪️Bob Saget (deceased)

▪️Bruce Willis

▪️Casey Wasserman

▪️Callum Hudson-Odoi

▪️Celine Dion

▪️Charles Barkley

▪️Charlie Sheen

▪️Charlize Theron

▪️Chelsea Handler

▪️Cher

▪️Chris Tucker

▪️Chris Wagner

▪️Chrissy Teigen

▪️Cyndi Lauper

▪️Claire Hazel

▪️Courteney Cox

▪️Courtney Love

▪️Demi Moore

▪️Dan Schneider

▪️David Koch

▪️David Spade

▪️David Yarovesky

▪️Dolores Zorreguieta

▪️Donovan Mitchell

▪️Doug Band

▪️Drew Barrymore

▪️Ed Buck

▪️Ed Tuttle

▪️Ehud Barak

▪️Ellen DeGeneres

▪️Ellen Spencer

▪️Eminem

▪️Emmy Tayler

▪️Fleur Perry Lang

▪️Francis X. Suarez

▪️Freya Wissing

▪️Gary Roxburgh (pilot)

▪️George Clooney

▪️Ghislaine Maxwell

▪️Glenn Dubin

▪️Greg Holbert (deceased)

▪️Gwen Stefani

▪️Gwendolyn Beck

▪️Hank Coller (pilot)

▪️Heather Mann

▪️Heidi Klum

▪️Henry Rosovsky

▪️Hillary Clinton

▪️James Franco

▪️James Gunn

▪️Jay-Z

▪️Jean-Luc Brunel (deceased)

▪️Jean-Michel Gathy

▪️Jeffrey Jones (deceased)

▪️Jim Carrey

▪️Jimmy Kimmel

▪️Joe Biden

▪️Joe Pagano

▪️John Cusack

▪️John Legend

▪️John Podesta

▪️John Travolta

▪️Joy Behar

▪️Juan Pablo Molyneux

▪️Juliette Bryant

▪️Justin Roiland

▪️Justin Trudeau

▪️Kathy Griffin

▪️Katy Perry

▪️Kelly Spam

▪️Kevin Spacey

▪️Kirsten Gillibrand

▪️Kristy Rogers (deceased)

▪️Lady Gaga

▪️Larry Summers

▪️Larry Visoski (pilot)

▪️Laura Z. Wasserman

▪️Lawrence M. Krauss

▪️Linda Pinto

▪️Lisa Summers

▪️Lynn Forester de Rothchild

▪️Madonna

▪️Mandy Ellison (assistant)

▪️Mare Collins-Rector

▪️Marina Abramovic

▪️Mark Epstein

▪️Mark Lloyd

▪️Melinda Luntz

▪️Meryl Streep

▪️Michelle Obama

▪️Michelle Wolf

▪️Mikel Arteta

▪️Miley Cyrus

▪️Nadine Dorries

▪️Naomi Campbell

▪️Naomi Watts

▪️Natalie Blachon de Perrier

▪️Nicole Junkermann

▪️Olga Kurylenko

▪️Oliver Sacks

▪️Oprah

▪️Orlando Bloom

▪️Paris Hilton

▪️Patton Oswatt

▪️Paul Mellon

▪️Paula Epstein (deceased)

▪️Paula Hala

▪️Peter P. Marino

▪️Pharrell Williams

▪️Prince Andrew

▪️Prince Charles

▪️Quentin Tarantino

▪️Rachel Maddow

▪️Rainn Wilson

▪️Ralph Ellison

▪️Ray Barzana (pilot)

▪️Ricardo Legorreta Vilchis

▪️Rihanna

▪️Rita Wilson

▪️Rob Reiner

▪️Robert DeNiro

▪️Robert Downey Jr.

▪️Rodney E. Slater

▪️Ronald Burkle

▪️Rudy Gobert

▪️Sander Burger

▪️Sarah Kellen (assistant)

▪️Sarah Silverman

▪️Seth Green

▪️Shelley Harrison

▪️Shelley Lewis

▪️Sophie Biddle-Hakim

▪️Sophie Trudeau

▪️Stephen Collins

▪️Stephen Colbert

▪️Steven Spielberg

▪️Steven Tyler

▪️Svetlana Glazunova

▪️Teala Davies

▪️Tiffany Gramza

▪️Tom Hanks

▪️Tom Pritzker

▪️Tyler Grasham (deceased)

▪️Victor Salva

▪️Wanda Sykes

▪️Whoopi Goldberg

Of course we knew some of these already. 🤔

[garadinervi]

Seeing in Tongues, Edited and Designed by James Knight, Steel Incisors, 2023 (book here) (pdf here)

An anthology of contemporary visual poetry, including work by Muhammed Yusuf Aktekin, Brian Baker, Gary Barwin, Jay Besemer, Richard Biddle, C D Boyland, ReVerse Butcher, Kenneth M Cale, Susie Campbell, Richard Carter, Burak Ş Çelik, Theodoros Chiotis, George Clutterbuck, Madelaine Culver, Amanda Earl, Alexis Fedorjaczenko, Emma Filtness, S J Fowler, Sylee Gore, Arden Hunter, Victoria Kaye, James Kearns, Robert Frede Kenter, Laura Kerr, Michelle Moloney King, James Knight, Ayşe Kongur, Emma Levin, Emma Mitchell, Bob Modem, Sophia Mold, Morphic Rooms, Mette Norrie, Michael L Orr, Michelle Penn, Konstantinos Papacharalampos, Astra Papachristodoulou, Dan Power, Dave Read, Imogen Reid, Rasiqra Revulva, Hakan Şarkdemir, J P Seabright, Rachel Smith, Chris Stephenson, Samuel Strathman, Nic Stringer, Stephen Sunderland, Michael Sutton, Simon Tyrrell, Hayriye Ünal, Nico Vassilakis, Maggs Vibo, Martin Wakefield & Bob Modem, Katy Wimhurst, Paul Woodford, Mark Wynne and Jill Zheng

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[Image of Coit Tower painting of striking workers, taken while I was in San Francisco.]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 8, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 9, 2023

You all are in trouble, because I am home tonight from ten weeks on the road and am taking the night for myself, writing about one of the Very Cool Things I learned in my travels. I expect there will be more stories along these lines in the next several weeks.

Ninety years ago today, on Friday, December 8, 1933, in the first year of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration, the Advisory Committee to the Treasury on Fine Arts met for four hours in Washington, D.C., with museum directors from all over the country and leaders from the art world. For the past nine months, the administration had been building a “New Deal” for the American people, using the government to help ordinary Americans in the midst of the Great Depression. 

Together with the Democrats in Congress, the administration had launched the Civilian Conservation Corps that put young men to work planting trees, fighting fires, and maintaining wilderness trails. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration provided work and cash relief for unemployed workers; the Agricultural Adjustment Administration boosted farm prices by reducing agricultural surpluses, while the Farm Credit Act made it easier for farmers to borrow. The Civil Works Administration put more than 4 million unemployed Americans to work building 44,000 miles of new roads, 1,000 miles of new water mains, and building or improving 4,000 schools.

Now it was time to help artists. Inspired by the 1920s public art movement in Mexico in which young artists were paid to decorate public buildings, FDR’s former classmate George Biddle suggested to the president that artists could be hired to “paint murals depicting the social ideals of the new administration and contemporary life on the walls of public buildings.” 

This idea dovetailed with the goal of the administration to tap into the skills of ordinary Americans in rebuilding the country by making sure people had work. After all, FERA administrator Harry L. Hopkins said, artists needed “to eat just like other people.” He promised $1,039,000 to be disbursed by the Treasury “for the purpose of alleviating the distress of the American artists” while decorating public property with world-class art. 

At the Washington, D.C., meeting, the attendees discussed how to “carry…forward the world of encouraging the fine arts as a function of the Federal Government.” Their first speaker was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who “expressed her sympathy with the idea of the Government’s employing artists,” and all the other speakers followed suit. The following Monday, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) opened its doors, and artists lined up outside government offices to apply. By Saturday, December 16, artists were receiving checks. When the project ended four months later, 3,749 artists had been on the payroll, producing more than 15,000 paintings, sculptures, and public murals. 

The pilot project for the PWAP was Coit Tower in San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill neighborhood, located in the city’s Pioneer Park. The 210-foot Art Deco tower of unpainted concrete had been completed and dedicated in honor of volunteer firefighters on October 8, 1933 (perhaps not coincidentally, the date of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871). When the building was finished, it had 3,691 square feet of blank concrete wall space. 

By January 1934, thanks to the PWAP, twenty-six San Francisco artists and nineteen of their assistants were transforming that blank space into frescoes and murals depicting California life. Several of the artists had worked in Mexico with muralist Diego Rivera as part of the socially conscious mural movement of 1920s Mexico and adopted his techniques, creating frescoes in which the colors became part of the wall as they dried. To keep the colors at Coit Tower uniform, one artist-assistant ground the color pigments for all the different frescoes. 

But while they admired Rivera’s art, the New Deal artists, for the most part, focused not on revolution, as he did, but on the possibilities of the country’s new approach to government. Roosevelt was backing artists, and they backed him, painting not about revolution but about restoring healthy social and economic conditions in the United States. 

By the time the PWAP got under way, the exciting artistic experiments of the early twentieth century that had brought Picasso’s cubism, for example, had begun to seem foreign and alienating, and artists had begun to turn toward representational art in a national style. The government’s requirement that the public art be about the “American scene” in American style for American people built on that shift. Artists in the PWAP painted either as “Regionalists,” who painted rural America, or “Social Realists,” who painted the cities. The Regionalists tended to celebrate the nation, while Social Realists—most of whom came from New York City—tended to critique it, but both groups found intelligence, power, and beauty in the ordinary people and the ordinary scenes they painted. 

Coit Tower showed San Francisco’s people: striking workers, farmers, cowboys, travelers reading newspapers, news stenographers, chauffeurs, a rich man being held up at gunpoint, car accidents. People of color and women were underrepresented but not entirely ignored in this celebration of the possibilities of American life under the administration's new policies (one mural had an oil can in a corner to illustrate the government oiling the machinery of the economy for the mechanics in the next panel).  

The murals in Coit Tower, and the PWAP that supported them, were such a roaring success that the federal government would shortly launch four more projects to fund artists (including writers), most famously under the Works Progress Administration that operated from 1935 to 1942. Although to a modern eye, many of the fine artists’ depictions of Indigenous Americans and racial and gender minorities are eye-poppingly racist, these colorful presentations of the lives and histories of ordinary Americans that decorated libraries, schools, courthouses, bathhouses, and post offices, honoring community and hard work—and, in the edgier paintings, jabbing at stockbrokers, bankers, and industrialists—celebrated a hopeful, new, progressive America. 

For many Americans, who had never had access to fine art and were astonished to see fine art in local buildings, the medium was its own message: they realized their neighbors had talent they had never imagined. 

President Joe Biden has deliberately echoed FDR’s policies of the New Deal in his economic program, promising to build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, even as Republicans have insisted the only way to build the economy is to concentrate wealth on the “supply side” by cutting taxes. Today, there was more evidence that Biden’s policies are paying off for ordinary Americans. The November jobs report showed the economy added almost 200,000 more jobs in November, making the total since Biden took office more than 14 million, while the unemployment rate has stayed below 4% for 22 months in a row and wage growth is strong.

As Harvard professor Jason Furman notes, the U.S. is now 2 million jobs and 2 million employed above the pre-pandemic projections of the Congressional Budget Office. Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area observed, “If these numbers were happening during a Republican presidency, the usual business community folks would be celebrating in the streets. But when there’s a D next to the president’s name, it’s tumbleweeds.” Today, on the Fox News Channel, personality Maria Bartiromo noted that “the economy is a lot stronger than anyone understands.” 

The president also echoed the New Deal’s promotion of internal improvements today when he announced an investment of $8.2 billion in new funding for ten major passenger rail projects across the country to deliver the nation’s first high-speed rail projects. High-speed rail between California and Nevada, serving more than 11 million people annually; Los Angeles and San Francisco; and the Eastern Corridor, will create tens of thousands of union jobs, build communities, and promote climate-friendly transportation options. 

In a speech in Las Vegas, Nevada, announcing the rail plan, Biden called out his predecessor, who “always talked about infrastructure week. Four years of infrastructure week, but it failed. He failed,” Biden said. “On my watch, instead of having infrastructure week, America is having infrastructure decade.” 

“Trump just talks the talk. We walk the walk,” he said. “Look. He likes to say America is a failing nation. Frankly, he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I see shovels in the ground, cranes in the sky, people hard at work rebuilding America together.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[tothelasthoursofmylife]

Kuro 212 spoilers

I saw the spoilers and immediately scrambled to get my hands on the full chapter. Writing this fic did a number on me omg.

South Eastern Railway? Existed in 1889, check.

The route they're taking looks good! RIP with the detour XD (Wikipedia notes that the SER had a "long cross-country route" between Redhill and Reading, so yey, long train ride!) but as the little criminal says...

Restaurant car? The UK got its first restaurant car in 1879 (in a Great Northern Railway train); it was a George Pullman restaurant car. He introduced this type of carriage in the USA years before in 1867. The restaurant car was in the very back and for first-class passengers only. They became more common in the UK throughout the 1880s, but only widespread in the 1890s. Check.

Now, to the crux of the matter. Corridor coaches. ("Again?!" Yes, again...)

About the first restaurant car in the UK:

"However, unlike in later decades, when passengers moved to the restaurant car from their seats through inter-connecting corridors between the carriages, in 1879 they stayed in the carriage for their entire journey."

And while Ciel and Sebastian do decide to remain in the restaurant car, they were, as they say above, in their own compartment before.

(EDIT: This here looks very much like a compartment coach. That door doesn't seem to open to a gangway, with all that light. But well.)

A page earlier, we get these panels:

A train with corridor coaches!

Before, all trains (in the manga at least) looked like compartment coaches.

Corridor coaches superseded compartment coaches around the late 19th/early 20th century. It was a gradual change, of course, with railway companies adopting the new model one after another. With the manga currently set in December 1889, we're in the turnover period, so things would not be uniform everywhere anyway. (This also fits nicely with the overall story, cough. Times of change!)

From Wikipedia about gangway connections:

Queen Victoria's train had them already in 1869:

Also: "According to "The Oxford Companion to British Railway History" (Simmons & Biddle, 1997), the first corridor connections came into use in 1882, and the GWR ran the first throughout corridor train between Paddington and Birkenhead in 1892."

December 1889 corridor coaches might be cutting it a bit close, but some railway companies could very well be, and were, ahead of others, so it's certainly possible. And the corridor Trusting Murakami's expert knowledge here that the SER was one of the companies that was ahead. Check.

I had personally hoped when I saw the spoilers that no corridor coaches would be shown, and that Sebastian just teleported Ciel into the restaurant car XD EDIT: But maybe that still happened if it's a "mixed" train after all uh XDD

(And, maybe, the train will look differently in the volume release. Yana, after all, often fixes mistakes; may they be little typos (e.g. Finnian's tattoo) or accidentally time-travelling landmarks (e.g. the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in the magazine version of Ch157).

Dear, you don't want to know......

----------

EDIT 2:

It was really chaotic yesterday, sorry! And I mixed something up. orz The London and Brighton Railway only existed until 1846! They should have talked about its successor, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (1846-1922)! Or maybe the Brighton Main Line. It's possible the translator might have made a mistake here though; one would need to check the raws (which I don't have or know how to get/where to find).

[singeratlarge]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Carlos Alomar, J Balvin, the 1824 debut of Beethoven’s 9thSymphony, my excellent cousin Jane Biddle, Johannes Brahms, Teresa Brewer, Robert Browning, Cornelius Bumpus, Armando Castellano (Quinteto Latino), Eagle Eye Cherry, Tex Cobb, Gary Cooper, ace drummer Rich Dart (Micky Dolenz, Monkees), Anne Dudley, Mic Gillette (Tower of Power), Olympe de Gouges, the late, great Col. Ed Hall, Robert Hegyes, Thelma Houston, Bill Kreutzmann, the late, great Johnny Maestro (good to have met you), Mamas & Papas 1966 single “Monday Monday,” Darren McGavin, Glenn Miller’s 1941 single “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” Christy Moore, Keith Richard’s “Satisfaction” (guitar riff born today in 1965), David Ruffin, Rabindranath Tagore, Derek Taylor, Pyotor Illyich Tchaikovsky, Johnny Unitas, Rick West (Tremeloes), and the acclaimed and eclectic artist, set designer, and drummer: Prairie Prince. He’s a foundational member of the great satirical art rock band The Tubes, and he’s performed on countless recordings, the short list includes David Byrne, John Fogerty, George Harrison, Todd Rundgren, and XTC. Prairie and I have had a few musical adventures, and I’m grateful for his artistry. Here’s a track we did a few years back. https://johnnyjblairsingeratlarge.bandcamp.com/track/halfway-to-dakota    ...Meanwhile, HB PP thank you for banging on the drum all day...

#prairieprince #tubes #toddrundgren #johnnyjblair #chrisvonsneidern #dakota #sanfrancisco #birthday #tapevaultstudio #drummer #drums

[byneddiedingo]

Linda Darnell, Sidney Poitier, and Richard Widmark in No Way Out (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)

Cast: Sidney Poitier, Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally, Mildred Joanne Smith, Harry Bellaver, Stanley Ridges, Dots Johnson, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Amanda Randolph, Maude Simmons. Screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Lesser Samuels. Cinematography: Milton R. Krasner. Art direction: George W. Davis, Lyle R. Wheeler. Film editing: Barbara McLean. Music: Alfred Newman.

Although its treatment of race relations in America seems naive today, No Way Out stands up as a solid drama about an issue that in the post-war years was finally receiving the attention from Hollywood filmmakers that it had too long deserved. It also launched the career of Sidney Poitier as well as, in smaller roles, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. The plot hinges on the novelty of a Black doctor, Luther Brooks (Poitier), serving as an intern in hospital in a large city. When two brothers, Ray (Richard Widmark) and Johnny Biddle (Dick Paxton) are admitted to the prison ward of the hospital after being shot by the police during a robbery, Brooks notices that Johnny's symptoms are not just that of a leg wound; suspecting some sort of mental impairment, Brooks does a spinal tap, during which Johnny dies. Ray Biddle has already demonstrated his racist animosity toward Brooks, and claims that he killed his brother. An autopsy would determine whether Brooks's suspicion that Johnny's death was caused by an undiagnosed brain tumor is correct, but Ray won't allow it, and he's backed up by his brother George (Harry Bellaver) and initially by Johnny's ex-wife, Edie (Linda Darnell). She once had an affair with Ray, but she loathes him and has done what she can to escape the poor-white neighborhood, Beaver Canal, where she grew up and the Biddles still live. Ray spurs the rabble-rousers of Beaver Canal to start a race riot, but they are met with resistance from the Black neighborhoods. The film is a little over-plotted: The crux of the plot, the autopsy, gets resolved in a way that isn't entirely convincing, and the confrontation of Brooks and Ray Biddle arrives in what's almost a coda, as an anti-climax. Widmark is allowed to overact in the role of Ray, and Poitier has yet to acquire the confident presence that made him a star. The best performance in the film comes from a deglamorized Darnell, who gives Edie a real toughness and vulnerability, suggesting that her inclination to do the right thing is at war with her experience growing up in Beaver Canal. The film's portrayal of raw racism still has the power to shock: We rarely hear white actors use the N-word today, even when their roles as bigots might seem to require it, and I flinched when a white woman spat in the face of Poitier's character. It's weaker in the treatment of racial violence: No one on either side seems to have any guns. 

[thesinglesjukebox]

††† - "INVISIBLE HAND"

Claire recommends a Deftones/Far superduo with an ungoogleable name. (Literally! "Your search - "†††" - did not match any documents.")

[6.09]

Ian Mathers: Wait, is ††† just Chino from Deftones doing noisy synthpop? Did I forget about this? Was I not informed? [8]

Claire Biddles: This time last year, ††† released a cover of George Michael's "One More Try", a swoony bit of December melancholia that also served as a direct acknowledgement of inspiration. Much like Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, Chino Moreno has always carried Michael's influence in his vocal performance, and no more so than in his work with †††, his Depeche Mode-ish duo with producer Shaun Lopez. In "Invisible Hand", Moreno's croons are propelled by internal drama, lifting and surging in the middle of words. His lyrics are either enigmatic or nonsense, depending on one's position, but the song itself is dense with narrative. Lopez switches modes and textures with every verse, laying a sheet of synths only to shoot through it with ten-foot-tall industrial drops; stabs of synthesised voices are weaponised; glass shatters as if in a locked room. Listening to the song, looking at the blue-lit model on the album art, I'm struck by the commonalities between the sheen of '90s/'00s alt-rock and Michael's contemporaneous "adult" period: the thread that links "Spinning the Wheel" and "Digital Bath", ending up with "Freeek!" and "Invisible Hand" -- the kind of industrial that isn't made from scrap, but from chrome coated in silk. [9]

Michelle Myers: What kind of Deftones girl are you? I'm from the Saturday Night Wrist era, but I probably would have told you my favorite album was Around the Fur if you were a metal dude I bummed a lighter from at a party in 2007. Anyway, I like this as an album cut, though I'm not sure it stands on its own as a single. Still, nobody does hot, sleazy angst better than Chino Moreno. [6]

Micha Cavaseno: I've said plenty about Chino over the course of my life, so let me go over to Shaun Lopez (or "Slopez" for those of us with far too much familiarity) first. At one point, this guy was a great post-hardcore guitarist, responsible for a number of great records with his band Far. "Love, American Style" and "Bury White" still get regular play from me, and even though that comeback album was bad and his post-Far band The Revolution Smile was some of the worst middle-of-the-road radio rock possible... the guy's had great moments! Chino -- again, I've said so much about my love for the guy! Crosses... ? Always getting worse! Part of it is that Shaun is such an unimaginative producer. So many of these riffs and little digital stabs of "hard clubby synthpop" just come off like the worst sort of adult-oriented electronica. Deftones have been mostly uninspiring to me in the last decade and a half, but if I wanted Chino doing his best faux David Gahan over Phantogram-level cliches, I know he's done better. (Team Sleep was right there! And all their gimmicky electronica was perfectly in vogue with the '00s!). So here I am, begging these men to get off TikTok, stop scrolling through legions of goth girls calling themselves "baby bats" dancing to warmed-over faux-'80s music mislabeled as "darkwave," and get their heads back in the game. [2]

Katherine St Asaph: Chino from Deftones going Dave Gahan mode (NOTE UPON REREADING: pun actually not intended, god) over a song composed entirely of bridges and final choruses. So when the actual bridge and final chorus arrive, they're identical, no more tension to be had. The half-time bit at the end could have gone somewhere. [7]

Nortey Dowuona: I was kinda excited to hear Chino's powerful yet silky voice rise over the swollen stolen valor of the 808 kick by Shaun Lopez, who also provides the newly drowned synth keys and seething guitar. But then they decided to add a Phil Collins drum track throwaway for the chorus. Big sigh. At least it's only a test. [5]

Alex Clifton: When the synths hit in the chorus this is pretty cool, but the rest of the time it feels like a knockoff Imagine Dragons song. [5]

Brad Shoup: The AWOLNATION EP was a dud, so this will have to tide me over for yowling modern rock with self-conscious electronic production choices. (Well, this and the Pumpkins' space opera.) Chino's voice remains a marvel. His sighs still don't feel like shtick, which is why I'm amazed at how much I enjoy them on the chorus paired with bog-standard synthwave. [6]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: An expertly executed take on some shit I really, really don't want to listen to -- every big noise and faux-gothic tone here has clearly been assembled by true appreciators of a dogshit form. The hook soars and the bass breaks the speakers and oh my god this is so tedious. But honestly, I respect it -- relative to the active rock and alternative radio baseline that these guys are pushing up against, this is a masterpiece. [4]

Frank Falisi: That sound is stuck in me. You know the one. [10]

Tim de Reuse: An unnerving, staccato vocal sample and an pleasantly grimy bass stab segue abruptly veer into a competent synthpop cruise. It'd go down smoother if the lyrics reached beyond the vaguest tendencies of early-aughts nu-metal. By their tone I understand that we're not happy, but I haven't a clue what we're supposed to be upset about. [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[gpuzzle]

3 and 12 for book asks. And then a general "read any good naval stuff?" question.

3. What were your top five books of the year?

Fiction List

Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon

Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, by George Gordon Byron

In The Heart of the Heart of the Country, by William H. Gass

This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Non-Fiction List

The Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871, by Quintin Barry

Mastering the Art of Command, by Trent Hone

Nonstate Warfare, by Stephen Biddle

Bond of Union, by Gerard Koeppel

Empire of Liberty, by Gordon S. Wood

Honorable mentions include Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley, The Rebel League by Ed Willes, A History of the International Chemical Industry by Fred Aftalion, Tractor Wars by Neil Dahlstrom, Europe's Babylon by Michael Pye, and The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon.

12. Any books that disappointed you?

Peter Frankopan's The Silk Road was very middling. It's an attempt at a less Eurocentric view of the world, which is nice, but it is dull and often wrong and missing parts altogether. There is something interesting there, but he just fumbles over himself.

Good Naval Books I Read:

Mastering the Art of Command which is about Chester Nimitz, Andrew Boyd's The Royal Navy in Eastern Waters - Lynchpin of Victory.

[antebellumite]

Nick Biddle: Who are you??

George Cortelyou: You but politically competant.

[mourning-again-in-america]

looks like there's two political families from New Mexico, both named Lujan, and I can't figure out if they're related. The first, the Manuel Lujans, are composed of the senior, who was mayor of Santa Fe, the junior was a House Rep from NM and went on to be HW's Interior Sec., culminating in the infamous standing case, Lujan. The current governor of New Mexico is related to these Lujans.

But there's also the Ben Lujans, of which the senior was a major show runner in the NM House of Reps, incl. as majority whip and leader, and the junior, Ben Ray Lujan, is now senator from NM, after a decade of being in the federal House.

[5conspiracy-rule]

PFUI TEUFEL

#MossadIsland

● Hillary Clinton

● Bill Clinton

● George Nader (Geschäftsmann)

● Huma Aberdin

● Laura Silsby

● Rachel Chandler

● Jeffrey Epstein

● Ghislaine Maxwell

● John Podesta

● Michael Podesta

● James Alefantis

● Anthony Wiener

● Leslie Wexner (limited Inc-Vorsitzender)

● Herbert Strauss

● Isidor Strauss

● Martin A. Nowak

● Steven Spielberg

● Edgar Bronfman Sr. (Seagram-Vorsitzender)

● Charles Bronfman (Seagram Co)

● Michael Steinhardt (ehemaliger Hedgefonds-Manager)

● Sara Bronfman

● Clare Bronfman

● Niles Lehman (Professor an der Portland State University)

● Seth Roger

● Ruth Ginsberg

● Alison Mack

● Robert Maxwell

● Wendi Murdoch

● Jonathan Tscheban

● Naomi Campbell

● Maxime Chow

● Val Kilmer

● Marina Abramovic

LISTE DER HOLLYWOOD PEDO-NAMEN:

● Steven Spielberg

● Kevin Spacey

● Alison Mac

● Marc Collins-Rector (Gründer von Den)

● Chad Shackley

● Brock Pierce

● David Geffen

● Tom Hanks

● Dustin Hoffman

● Andrew Kreisberg (US-amerikanischer Fernsehschreiber, Produzent)

● Bryan Singer

● Harvey Weinstein

● Bob Weinstein

● Roman Polanski

● Ruma Hazard

● Charlie Sheen

● Madonna

● Kate Perry

● Miley Cyrus

● Errol Flynn

● Billy Graham

● Walt Disney

● Michael Laney (ehemaliger Walt Disney Vizepräsident)

● James Gunn (Disney)

LISTE DER NAMEN VON CELEBS, DIE MIT DEEPSTATE, CIA & MOSSAD verbunden sind:

● Heidi Fleiss

● Jeffrey Epstein

LISTE DER NAMEN, DIE MIT SATANISCHE KULTEN VERBUNDEN:

● Alison Mack

● Stormy Daniels

● Rachel Chandler

● Ghislaine Maxwell

LISTE DER NAMEN DER BESUCHER AUF DER EPSTEIN INSEL:

● Ghislaine Maxwell

● Chris Tucker

● Larry Summer

● Lisa Summer

● Bill Murray

● Bill Hammond

● Ehud Barak

● Andrés Pastrana (ehemaliger Präsident Kolumbien 1998-2002)

● Jean Luc Brunel

● Doug Band

● Ron Burkle

● Woody Allen

● Sarah Kellen

● Ray Barzanna

● Sandy Burger

● Andrea Mitrovitch

● Peter Marino

● Shelley Lewis

● Paul Hala (t) (d) a

● Richardo Legoretta

● Tom Pritzker

● Kelly Spamm

● Tiffany Gramza

● Claire Hazel

● Paula Epstein

● Mark Epstein

● Ralph Elison

● Sophie Biddle

● Audrey Raimbault

● Shelley Harrison

● Melinda Luntz

● Gwendolyn Beck

● Albert Pinto

● Richard "Handsome Dick" Manitoba

● Gary Roxburgh

● Mandy Elison

● Jean Michelle Gathy

● Virginia Roberts

● Kristy Rodgers (Kristina Real Rodgers)

● Greg Holbert

● Alyssa Rodgers

● Juliette Bryant

● Heather Mann

● Ed Tuttle

● Glen Dubin

● Ellen Spencer

● Chris Wagner

● Casey Wasserman

● Laura Wasserman

● Paul Mellon

● Oliver Sachs

● Henry Rosovsky

● Lynn Forster (de Rothschild)

● Joe Pagano

● Naomi Campbell

● Nicole Junkermann

● Rodney Slater

● Magali Blachon (Deperrier)

● Svetlana Griaznova

● Emmy Tayler

● Larry Visoski

● Carrie Davies

● Johannes (Paul) Molyneux

● Freya Willemoes Wissing

● Adam Perry Lang

● Fleur Perry Lang

● Caren Casey

● Hank Coller

● Cindy Lopez

● Mark Lloyd

● Alan Dershowitz

● Seth Green

● James Gunn

● Steven Spielberg

● Tom Hanks

● Steven Colbert

● Jimmy Kimmel

● Barack Obama

● Kevin Spacey

● Kathy Griffin

● Oprah Winfrey

● Shawn Carter

● Beyoncé Knowles

● Anthony Kiedis

● John Legend

● Chrissy Tiegen

● Jim Carrey

● Steven Tyler

● Ben Affleck

● Stephen Collins

● Will Ferrell

● ALIAUNE DAMALA BADARA THIAM (Akon)

● Marshall Counts

● Jeffrey Jones

● Victor Safe

● Mark Collins Rector

● Charlie Sheen

● Tyler Grasham

● Madonna Ciccone

● Katheryn Hudson

● Gwen Stefani

● Stefani Germanotta

● James Franco

● Will Smith

● Justin Roland

● John Cusack

● Anderson Cooper

● Demi Moore

● Brian Affleck

● Meryl Streep

● Wanda Sykes

● Chelsea-Handler

● Michelle Wolf

● David Jarovesky

● Pharrell Williams

● Quentin Tarantino

● Courtney Love

● Alec Baldwin

● Robert Downey Jr.

● Disney Corporation (Biete Kinder "Tauchen" Reisen, auf die Insel Epstein)

LISTE DER NAMEN, DIE MIT DEN STANDARD HOTELS VERBUNDEN

● Andre Balazs (Besitzer der Standard Hotels und mit den Rockefellers verbunden)

● Jay Z

● Beyoncé Knowles

● John Belushi

● Britney Spears

● Errol Flynn

● Dennis Hopper

● Helmut Newton

● Jim Morrison

● James Dean

● Billy Idol

● Victoria Beckham

● Heath Ledger

● Sienna Miller

● Balthazar Getty

● Scarlet Johansen

INDIVIDUALE DIREKT MIT JEFFREY EPSTEIN & DER EPSTEIN INSEL VERBUNDEN:

● Elon Musk

● Mark Zuckrberg

● Lawrence M. Krauss

● Steven Pinker

● Mick Jagger

● Courtney Love

● Joan Rivers (verstorben)

● Kevin Spacey

● Chris Rock

● Eli Weisel (Nobelpreis gewinnt Holocaust-Profiteur)

● Lauren Hutton (Top-Mode-Modell)

● Herzog & Herzogin von York

● Earl Spencer (der Bruder von verstorbenen Diana)

● Richard Bronson (englischer Geschäftsmann)

● Tony Blair (ehemaliger britischer Premierminister)

● David Koch (1/2 eines Bruders-Teams)

● David Rockefeller

● Evelyn de Rothschild

● Eduouard de Rothschild

JOURNALISTEN DIREKT MIT JAMES ALEFANTIS, COMET PING PONG & Mice FISCHERING, WASHINGTON DC:

● Jake Tapper (CNN)

● Jennifer Tapper (Frau von Jake Tapper)

● Ahorn Inc

JOURNALISTEN DIREKT MIT JEFFREY EPSTEIN & DER EPSTEIN INSEL VERBUNDEN:

● Barbara Walters

● Mort Zuckerman

● Eric Margolis

● Rupert Murdock

● Conrad & Barbara Black; Baron Black von Cross Harbour

POLITITIKER DIREKT MIT JEFFREY EPSTEIN & DER EPSTEIN INSEL VERBUNDEN:

● Bill Clinton (ehemaliger Präsident von Amerika)

● Jon & Mary Kaye Huntsman

● Gouverneur Charles Turnbull (US-Jungferninseln)

● Henry Kissinger

● Ethel Kennedy

● Bobby & Mary Kennedy

● Senator Edward Kennedy (verstorben)

● Ted Kennedy Jr.

● Andrew & Kerry Kennedy Cuomo

● Maria Shriver (Kennedy-Verwandte / Schwarznegger Ex)

DIE DTLA STANDARD HOTEL :

(Freie 1992-2002)

● Keck Family (Standard-Öl / Gründer des Standard Hotels)

● Perry Mason

● Bank of California

● JP Morgan - Standard Oil

● Jeffrey Epstein

● Bear Stearns Group

● Standard companies

● Colombia Developement

[rfsnyder]

George Biddle