Hammer Mill Days

Hmmmm. Play that one back again. Yep, yep. Yep. Uh.... nope. Can't hear it. Try it again. Try tweaking up the fenstenmacher towards the end, there. Okay, okay... Oh, hi. (No, not Ojai, California. "Oh.... hi ....") Forgive me for not responding to your presence sooner. I was deep in post-production land, here in the bowels of the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill wherein we have made our home (albeit somewhat tentatively). Yes, we are putting those last few finishing touches on Big Green's long-awaited sophomore album - truly a labor of love, my friends. (Yes, love... and great hatred. We've been toiling on this sucker for almost five years, and I for one can hardly wait to set it loose into the wild.) A subtle and arcane process it is, for sure. What... you've never looked in on a Big Green post production session ? My god, man... look in, then, look in. Let me be your guide, your interpreter, your local connection, your book-keeper, your rent-a-juggler, your b...

When has there been a weirder election, I ask you? It's like upside-down land, or that planet on the far side of the sun that is an exact mirror image of the Earth, except that everyone eats corn on the cob up-and-down instead of side-to-side (apologies to Father Sarducci). On one side, a field of mostly white guys has narrowed to a woman and a brother; on the other, a 71-year-old "maverick" is winning out against religious and social conservatives. It took eight years of Dubya/Cheney to make this field look good to two historically cautious institutional parties. The Democrats haven't even half-seriously advanced an African-American or female candidate for national office since 1984-88 - now it's as if they figure, what the hell? And not choosing someone broadly approved by the Christian right is a very different kettle of fish for the G.O.P. Amazing. And yet, from a policy standpoint, we're not looking at any radical departures here. The general election wil...