#felony blues

[sinceileftyoublog]

Nikki Lane & Jaime Wyatt Live Preview: 12/14, Evanston SPACE

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Nikki Lane updates Cher’s “Mom, I am a rich man” on her latest and best album: “I’m going my way, livin’ and dyin’ / And I can buy my own damn denim and diamonds.” Throughout Denim & Diamonds (New West), the Highway Queen reflects on her past, present, and future, weaving tales of independence with boisterous rock and roll. The high school dropout-turned fashion designer-turned vintage Western wear shop owner and operator wears tumult like earned badges. On “Born Tough”, she sets the stage as a “big-hearted girl” in “a man’s world,” divorced “by the age of twenty-nine,” delivered over arena rock drum fills and monster hooks. “Black Widow” lays down an outlaw with whom Lane likely feels kinship: “Full metal woman in a thrift store jacket / Runnin’ Tulsa to San Antone / Making bad decisions / Don’t need no permission / If she wants to get a little stoned.” And in contrast to the platitudes of songs like “Try Harder” and “Live/Love”, a trotting song like “Good Enough” features Lane’s strongest songwriting to date. “Patience is a virtue,” she sings, making you think she’s going to provide us with another mantra, before deftly subverting traditional Americana imagery: “Battered up and beaten by the road that horse has traveled / And I’ve rode so far my rope has come unraveled in the rain.” 

For her first full-length in 5 years, Lane sought the assistance of Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, admittedly a head-scratching choice considering his recent history of legal troubles, including domestic violence allegations from his ex-wife Brody Dalle. I still think Denim & Diamonds is worth listening to, and that it’s certainly worth paying to see Lane live, as, in my mind, she didn’t need him or any of his band members to bolster her pop or rock chops. (After all, this is someone who’s already co-written with Lana Del Rey and sung backup vocals for Spiritualized.) Matt Pynn’s pedal steel wouldn’t be as affecting on “Faded”, nor Alain Johannes’ nylon string guitar on “Chimayo”, without Lane’s longing vocal turns. With every album, Lane is widening her reach; soon, she’ll be the one folks reach to in order to help shape their sound.

Opening for Lane tonight at SPACE and rendering it one of the best country bills of the year is singer-songwriter Jaime Wyatt, still riding strong off of her excellent 2020 album Neon Cross (New West). Wyatt grew up on country and folk and entered the music industry as a teenager but ended up addicted to hard drugs and spent jail time after robbing her drug dealer. Her marriage ended after serving 8 months, and when her father passed away, she relapsed. A lot of these hard times informed 2017′s Felony Blues; her further recovery and coming out as queer informed Neon Cross, from its instant classic title track to the somber version of Dax Riggs’ “Demon Tied to a Chair in My Brain”. I can’t wait to hear what Wyatt does next. Maybe she’ll play something new tonight? Fingers-crossed.

Tickets still available at the time of publication. Doors at 7:00 P.M., show at 8.

[fanaticalthings]

I really like the idea of the bat kids designating Dick and Jason's apartments as sibling gathering spots but for opposite reasons.

Sibling needs some comfort? Some eldest daughter advice? A shoulder to cry on or just a lil getaway spot from the chaos of Gotham? Dick's apartment is perfect.

But if a batkid wants to complain, maybe wants to talk shit about Bruce, or maybe even wants to discuss a lil felony in a judgement free zone? Jason's place it is.

And I like to imagine that while Dick readily keeps his doors open and reminds anyone that they can drop by anytime, it's the opposite for Jason.

Dude's got his place riddled with traps and locked up to the high heavens. He makes it obvious he doesn't want visitors, and vaguely insinuates that there are bombs rigged somewhere in his apartment so there's a always a 50/50 chance you might get blown up if he's feeling particularly bitchy one day.

But does that stop his siblings? Absolutely not. Unlike Dick (who assigns himself as the guiding older brother), Jason has been forcefully labelled as the older sibling you go to if you need to complain and stir up havoc. The hundreds of traps in his place mean nothing. And it's worse because Jason is never prepared for when someone drops in.

-----

[Jason, 3 hours into his sleep, blearily waking up to a weight on his chest at 4am]:

[Damian, perched atop him, eyes dead-centre locked onto Jason without blinking]: Hello, Todd-stop screaming it is unbecoming-I just came to tell you that father won't allow me to adopt another stray I found on patrol.

Jason, half-asleep and like 70% sure he's hallucinating: Wha-

Damian: I need you to blow up his car.

Jason:

-----

[Jason, arriving home after a 6 hour patrol, exhausted out of his mind, turning on the lights]:

[Stephanie, previously baking brownies in the pitch black darkness before Jason arrived]: Oh hey! Just thought I'd drop by, y'know, for fun.

Jason: Bruce yelled at you again.

Stephanie: Bruce yelled at me again.

And yes, while most of the time, it ends up as wholesome sibling bonding, sometimes the other batkids just feel like inconveniencing Jason just whenever, because what are siblings for?

[Jason waking up and seeing all of his traps and security systems disarmed and very deliberately broken in a way where he'll have to replace all of them instead of being able to reactivate them]:

[Jason, immediately dialing his phone angrily]: Tim, I swear to GOD-

-----

[Jason giving himself a rest-day and cooking some meals]:

[Dick somersaulting in through the open window unannounced (he missed his brother)]: Whatcha up to, littlewing? :>

Jason: GET OUT-

-----

[Jason casually reading a book, feeling a sudden chill up his spine]:

[Cassandra standing in the corner without so much as an exhale, watching Jason intensely. Who knows how long she's been there]:

Jason: Are you here to kill me

Cass:

Jason: Just make it quick.

[sapphicllove]

“she’s really something and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t married and , ya know,her father…”

-Donald Trump talking about his own daughter.

Now let that sink in.

[geekwithajeep]

TALES OF THE EMPIRE SPOILERS BELOW!!!!

if i hear “long live the empire” come out of thrawn’s mouth one more kriffing time, i am going to lose my mind.

in other news i will be re-reading all the thrawn books and crying over the thrawn we always should have been given and never got.

[runs-4-pinkcupcakes]

Felon! Guilty! No matter the sentencing (I dont see jail time), today is historic and damn, it feels SOOOOO good! Vote blue!

[tomorrowusa]

Some polls show that Trump's 34 felony convictions have somewhat been a net negative for him. This one from POLITICO-ipsos continues the trend.

This poll was conducted from June 7-9 and had a sample of 1,027 adults, age 18 or older, who were interviewed online; it has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points for all respondents. This is the fourth poll on the Trump prosecutions that POLITICO Magazine has conducted in partnership with Ipsos since last summer.

Twenty-two percent of respondents said that the conviction is important to how they will vote and that it makes them less likely to support Trump. Only 6 percent of respondents took the other side of that question — reporting that the conviction is important to how they will vote and that it makes them more likely to support Trump.

More than twice as many independents say they are now less likely to vote for Trump as opposed to those who are now more inclined to vote for Trump.

In states decided by small margins, a few thousand votes by independents can make a huge difference.

In conversation, don't just say Donald Trump – say convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender Donald Trump. A bit of a mouthful, but successful advertising campaigns are ones that use a lot of repetition. Liberals need to get over their obsessive and counterproductive reluctance to repeat things. If you want to win then repeat a lot.

The Biden-Harris campaign produced this ad to show the difference between what convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender Trump has been doing and what Biden is doing.

[worldwide-blackfolk]

Every one of us knows someone who can’t vote or get a decent job because he/she has a criminal past. But this muthafucka 🍊 can run for president.

[chilling-seavey]

Hell yeah! Write about pegging that weird British man! If we can’t get him pregnant it’s the next best thing!

HAHAHAHA AMEN, ANON!!! WOOOO!!!!!!!!!

[webntrmpt]

Michael Shaw, Reading the Pictures

[augment-techs]

A Commissioned piece from the forever wonderful and utterly amazing @felonius-glitch that perfectly adhered to my preferences for the second part of a series I'm writing for these three trying to find their way into a nice, HEALTHY poly relationship.

I really wanted to put this up WITH the sequel fic, rather than the afterword, but...my computer did a thing and this was a better option than throwing my laptop at a wall.

At least the series is already on two legs.

Bonus images for the creation process below the cut~

[1solone]

[ohyeslawd]

God Bless the United Kingdom 🇬🇧

[sapphicllove]

“SA allegations ruin a man’s career” I really hope they would’ve.

[raeathnos]

.

[invisiblegarters]

Just started ep 2 of Kidnap and I want to say this before he inevitably makes me take back my words:

I kind of love James. He's currently my stealth favorite.