Those crocodile tears are what you cry

As when a weary traveller that strays
By muddy shore of broad seven-mouthed Nile,
Unweeting of the perilous wandering ways
Doth meet a cruel crafty crocodile,
Which in false grief hiding his harmful guile,
Doth weep full sore, and sheddeth tender tears:
The foolish man, that pities all this while
His mournful plight, is swallowed up unwares
Forgetful of his own, that minds another's cares.
                  -Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen, 1, v, 18

Are you bend on imitating the crocodile of theNile? which, they say, mourn over the huiman heads they devour and weep over the remains of the dead --not from motives of repentance, but from regret that the head has no flesh they can eat.
      -Photius, Bibliotheka

Here's a fun thing about me: I cry when I eat.

   Not always. Probably not even most of the time. But it happens. I never really thought about it much, other than to be uncomfortable eating around other people. I would assume that it's slightly off-putting to see someone dabbing at their eye with a handkerchief while eating a meatball sub or whatever.

   Otherwise, it never really bothered me enough to look into. Until I was at an eye appointment awhile back and I mentioned it to my optometrist. She got really excited and asked me if I'd ever had Bell's Palsy. I had, I told her. "You've got crocodile tears!" she exclaimed, which I probably didn't react to as well as I could've.

   She explained that she had just attended a conference and had seem a presentation about a rare nerve disorder called Bogorad's Syndrome. for the most part, it has affected a small percentage (3.3 - 6.5%) of sufferers of Bell's Palsy and other facial paralysis. It's marked by excessive unilateral tearing as a result of gustatory stimuli. In other words, when the face heals from the paralysis, the nerve fibers headed for the salivary gland regenerate improperly and instead grow into a tear gland.

   Anyway, it seems that the most successful treatment is botox, which I'm not about to consider anytime soon. I'm happy chalking it up to God's fingerprints and continuing to wear a Phantom of the Opera-style mask when I eat. Kidding.

   Of course it's kind of funny that I get the very rare disorder from the rare symptom of Lyme Disease. Snowflake indeed.

   But at the end of the day, how many people can claim crocodile tears as a medical condition? Not many, it would appear.
 

misc.

   I updated the last mix with downloadable links. I'm already working on another one.

   I'm trying very hard right now not to turn this into a lengthy screed about the current administration, but I won't. If you're reading this then I'm sure you're already well aware of how I feel about them. and if you support what they're doing, then kindly piss off to whatever bog (or gilded penthouse) you crawled out of.

   I will, however, share two incredible moving things I read last month that give me strength. Both are from comic books (because it's not like anything in the news is giving me strength).

   The first is from the letter column from Lazarus, one of the most original and thought-provoling books to come out in the last decade. It's a little complicated to get into, but if the advancements of science, technology, and accumulation of wealth interest you, I cannot recommend it enough. I have bought something like 8 different copies of the book because I keep giving them away to people I insist read it. Anyway, one of my favorite parts of every issue is the letters column. In addition to being an immensely talented writer, Greg Rucka has a social conscience that lands him not far from me on the political spectrum. He's also a dedicated researcher and the letters columns are usually filled with facts that don't make it into the book but are too interesting to pass up. I remember one issue where he wrote about the NSA likely already having software that can detect what you're typing just by listening to keystrokes, which is completely terrifying. In fact, there's a lot about the book that's completely terrifying, mostly because almost everything in it is based in very real groundwork that's being laid right now.

   In the most recent issue (the first since the inauguration), Rucka laid out a ton to think about. If you're interested, check out the issue (#26) for the letters alone. Shit, I will pay for your copy. But as with all great writers, he closed on a positive note:

   The other one is from the most recent iteration of Doom Patrol, which has proven to to be fantastic, and the first run on it since Grant Morrison's to embrace the delightful weirdness If you're not familiar with the book, it's a team book that gets compared a lot to the X-Men (misfit heroes let by a guy in a wheelchair and don't really interact with the superheroes), only it's older and much, much weirder. I mean, there's a sentient, crossdressing street named Danny. They battle the Brotherhood of Dada. Morrison's run remains one of my favorite things in comics just because of the weirdness and darkness of the whole thing. 

   Anyway, the current run from Gerard Way and Nick Derington has been pretty spectacular, and one panel caught me right as I was going to bed one night and it just hit me very hard:

anyway, it's not like you haven't heard either of these sentiments before, but they hold a lot of weight with me and it can't hurt to see them again.

   I actually sat down to write about crocodile tears (an actual medical syndrome that I have) and this is what came out. Better luck next time, dude.

   I hope all are well and taking the changes we're seeing every day in stride. Do not despair. Do not throw your hands up. Keep your composure and wits about you. and keep fighting those motherfuckers until they're gone and there are some new motherfuckers in their place.

You are not alone. We are in this together.

I love you all. Even the shitty ones.

-C

The kingdom is ransacked, the jewels all taken back

And the chopper descends

They're hidden in the back, with a message on a half-baked tape

With the spool going round, saying I'm back here in this place

And I could cry

And there's smoke you could click on

What are we going to do now?

-The Clash

Picnic at Cirith Ungol

1 I Am Your Heart - Dennis Linde
Everything that's excessive and vulgar...
2 Right On Running Man - Stephen
I guess those are pretty important times
3 Poor Connection - Blackfoot
We're all in our forties...
4 The Soul Swingers - Ca'-Ba'-Dab'
5 The Woman That Got Away - J.J. Cale
I understand you have an unusual pencil, Jim
6 L'Automne - Francois Wertheimer
7 I Don't Wanna Be Rich - Guilty Razors
Carolyn and her mother
8 Better Off Dead - The Shivas
9 Everything's Alright - Dry Ice
You see, we human beings are not born with prejudice.
10 What Would You Do If I Did That To You - Nolan Porter
11 Ahinam (Take 2) - Axe
I'd like to begin by asking...
12 Beat Your Heart Out - The Zeros
We'll, I'm not exactly a hippie...
13 Walking In the City - The Barons
14 We've Been Pushed Around by Blue Rivers & The Maroons
Nothing like being Miss Popularity
15 I Feel Much Better by The Small Faces
I don't know what it is...
16 Somebody To Love by Kalyanji Anadji
17 Future Thoughts by Tam White
The only question is...
18 It's My Own Fault by John Lee Hooker
19 Black Olives by The Bad Boys
The best hopscotch player in the second grade
20 Back to Square One by The Outnumbered
21 Another Sunday by The Scientists
22 Boudou Nyida by Les Imbattables Léopards
Let's not be suckers



downloadable version:
Whole mix
tracks
 

   I actually forgot I took this. I work at a college in the heart of Southern California's conservative stronghold. So I was impressed when my library requested (and received) permission to hang two Black Lives Matter banners on the front of the building, facing the central piazza of the campus. I was slightly discouraged, then, when I arrived for work the next morning to see someone had gone to great effort to hang an All Lives Matter banner over the pan-African one that had been hung the day before. We were unable to do much but call facilities and have them remove it. But before they could, a young black student sat directly beneath the banners with a homemade sign that read "But will you say it to my face?"

   It didn't take long for the student who'd snuck the banner up the previous night appeared. To his credit, he identified himself and claimed responsibility for what he'd done. He wanted to have a discussion about the movements behind both banners. And that's exactly what they did. They sat well into the afternoon, by which point a crowd increasingly hostile to the young man had gathered. While the dialogue was contentious, it was relatively mild mannered until a member of the crowd picked up a trash can and went to throw it at the guy who'd hung the sign. Seeing it about to happen, the young woman then put herself in front of him to prevent the attack from happening. The debate continued a little while longer. I can't say if anything was resolved or whatever, but it ended without incident. It really meant a lot to me to witness this. It's so easy to experience all of this through online vitriol and massive rallies that we forget that 

   With what's going on right now, it's so, so easy to paint people we don't know with a wide brush. It's easy to make assumptions. It's easy to forget that not everyone who disagrees with you is evil or racist or bent on world destruction. Sometimes they are just looking for answers. We cannot conflate every single person we disagree with the leaders of the movements we disagree with. I am repulsed by plenty of things on the left side of things, just as I am with the right. I will push back on everything the current political climate is churning out, but I refuse to scream at people in the streets because of who they voted for. I will continue to stand for what I believe in, but I will not act like a child in order to do so. I refuse to shout over a shouter. I am grown and I will use my voice as I see fit. I will be heard. I will let my passion drive me, but not control me. I will fight ideologies with information, and I will fight ignorance with education. I will fight hate with love. We are all human. the second we discount that, there isn't anything left to fight over.

Don't be passive. Don't grow complacent. But above all, act like a fucking human being please.

Hot Dog Social Hour Vol. 9: The finale

Here's the final volume of Hot Dog Social Hour. It's not like much will change after this, I still listen to music and try to make mixes every once in awhile, but the whole format I started using for this series isn't really necessary anymore and I also like to come up with new names/art for each mix. I can't really tell them apart anymore when it's volumes 1 - 9 with the same picture (although I love that I identified where in Savannah that was taken the first time I saw it).

Also, my computer is slowly crapping out and I might have to take a hiatus if I can't repair it on my own.

This final version is extra long, and that's mostly because I have a massive folder full of songs I just never got around to putting on other mixes for whatever reason. That doesn't mean they aren't any good, it's just that sometimes I want to hear a song a few dozen more times to make sure I don't get sick of it. Sometimes there is a weird message in the lyrics that I don't want anyone to think is me being cryptic via mix (I am not). Sometimes the mix is already too damn long.

So this one is a hair over 2 hours long. You might really like some of it. You are certain to loathe some of it. 



Hot Dog Social Hour, Vol. 9
2:08:56

“there’s a sea of people”
1. “In My Soul” - Jesse Hector & the Gatecrashers
“You can expect anyway for the whole place to just fall into the earth”
2. “Blind Alley” - Fanny
3. “Tension (part 1) - Lonnie Mack
“Superchick (pt. 1)”
4. “Happiness girl” - Jelly Bean Bandits
“Superchick (pt. 2)”
5. “Asleep at the Wheel” - The Incredible Kidda Band
6. “Lost Control” - The Reds
“I want a cheeseburger”
7. “Soul Crazy” - The Movers
8. “My Baby Likes to Boogaloo” - Don Gardner
9. “Never Never Coming Home” - The Shivas
“Something big’s gonna happen tonight”
10. “Pellucidar” - Milk Lines
11. “Bat Wing” - Peach Kelli Pop
“I like those chicks you hang around with”
12. “He’s Making a Tape” - Sipho Mbesa
13. “Miggy” - The Sandwitches
14. “Lonely Room” - Lou Pride
“Watch your mouth when you’re talking about the fabric of our lives”
15. “Bam Bam” - The Maytals
16. “People Get Ready” - Slim Smith & the Uniques
“People are told that someone’s gonna get smashed…”
17. “Waiting for Blood” - Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats
“Have you checked on my police protection yet?”
18. “Love Goes Underground” - Pezband
19. “Listen” - Hilton Valentine
20. “Give” - Harari
“I was thinking about the City Hall”
21. “Rainin’ In My Heart” - Mary Gresham
“Wrong wall”
22. “Emperor of My Baby’s Heart” - Kurt Harris
“what happened here?”
23. “La Charra (part 2)” - Jack Oblivian & the Sheiks
24. “Som Imaginario De Jimmi Hendrix” - Pops
25. “Good Times” - Love
26. “Burn” - Dennis LaPage & the Persuaders
27. “Dance of Death” (fireball remix) - John Fahey
28. “Dans Les 10 Premiers” - Jocy
“Don’t exaggerate, boy”
29. “Chicken Voodoo Blues” - The Creeping Ivies
30. “I Know” Thee Tsunamis
31. “Call a Spade a Spade” - Thony Shorby Nyenwi
32. “You’ve Got a Friend” - Pou Vannary
33. “Pata Pata Rocksteady” - Basie Basie Band & Patsy Tod
“Tommy Lasorda, tell us about…”
34. “A Long Night Ahead of You” - RJD2
35. “Planet Sizes” - Steve Mason
36. “Tip” - Loy Clingman
37. “Losing You” - Ellen McIlwaine
38. “I Didn’t Know” - Sugluk
39. “Too Many Dociled Minds” - Doug Sahm & the Sir Douglas Quartet
“Important people in this country, celebrities like myself”
40. “Lost Highway” - Bob Dylan
“It’s not finished”

listen to it above or download it here.