Normally  a story like this one, particularly on the topic of religion,  would lead me to write punch lines in hopes of scoring cheap laughs at the expense of these poor, lost folks. But not this time.

While I do believe that those who predict Judgment Day is five days away are laughably incorrect, I don’t believe they are crazy, at least not all of them.  I’ll call them misguided, misinformed, naive, and perhaps even too sheltered, but I can’t call them all crazy.  The ones that drive the doomsday trucks like this one:

Those people are fuckin’ bat-shit nuts.  Since we’re looking at this, please note the circle-slash 2012.  Our misguided friends that believe May21st 2011 is the correct date are in a strong conflict with the Christian / John Cusack film followers that believe December 2012 is the magic date for these events.

Now, I don’t know any Judgment Day supporters personally, but my guess is that they believe that their reasons for believing the end is coming are biblical and sound and good and 100% true.  Again, this is why I cant call them all crazy.

May 21 will come and go like any other day, I’m sure. And when we wake up on May 22, the various leaders of these various Judgment Day movements will have a perfectly ‘biblical’ explanations why all of us aren’t standing before God being judged.  I have some thoughts on this …which are similar to my thoughts on why I own no dog.

Here’s the part where I get sappy about the children….

There’s nothing funny about being misled, misguided, naive, and sheltered.   There’s nothing funny about these “true believers” quitting their jobs, draining their bank accounts or giving away their stuff. There’s nothing funny about kids believing and anticipating the end of the world.  I know that the little kids who believe in May 21st have what they consider to be “ faith in Jesus,”–but trust me, they are scared shitless. They’re nervous. Some of them aren’t sleeping. They’re asking lots of questions. They’re secretly hoping that it isn’t true. But they believe it is and their parents believe this.

And on May 22, while those of us who think that the May 21 Christians are crazy will probably be laughing or poking fun or explaining what we believe to be biblical reasons why they shouldn’t have put a date on God’s Judgment (I know I will!) the May 21st kids will be facing a “day of reckoning,” waking up to realize that their parents, priests, and theologies were somehow wrong. Many of those kids will lose something on Sunday. The questions that many of them will ask will get answered with lies, excuses or worse crappy biblical reasoning. Some of them will be angry with God for not bringing about the Judgment Day. Some of them will lose their faith and yet be unable to escape it due to their surroundings. There are also the ones that will go on like nothing happened and probably end up setting and believing in another date.

And there’s nothing funny about that.

In a Guardian UK article found here, there’s some interesting info on the US military contracting to have “online persona management service” software developed to allow up to 500 (which means 500) fake online personas to be operated by military servicepeople. The concept here is that fake personas are created to troll social media sites  like Facebook, Twitter and blogs like this one in order to ‘counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US”.  Mind you, Centcom claims the focus will be on foreign language posts, specifically Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto, and that this technology will not be applied to English language conversations. I’m guessing this is because the REAL terrorists don’t tweet in English, right?

What I wonder is, how useful will these Centcom “sock puppet” personas be out there on the web? The article states:

” The contract stipulates each persona must have a convincing background,     history and supporting details, and that up to 50 controllers must be able to operate false identities from their workstations “without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries”.”

This is all fine and dandy, provided the sophisticated adversaries really aren’t all that sophisticated. Most REAL people that have a strong internet presence including social media, blogs, etc. are very entrenched in the internet.  Heavy internet users spread their information across the web leaving trails all over the place. Unless you make a concerted effort to clean up your internet leavin’s you leave a lot of information floating out there (How’s that old Friendster profile of yours doin?) This can be a double-edged sword… A person with no internet presence cannot be “detected” but also cannot be vetted by other members of the online community. A person with a lot of information on the web, if this info is sifted through at length, is very exposed but can also be vetted. Does this all make sense…I’m a little out of practice with my blog postings!

My whole point here is that there is only so much “convincing background, history and supporting details” that can be created before Centcom’s contractors will be creating actual fake people. I’m not suggesting they will be doing this,  I’m simply suggesting that this sounds like they will be going to great lengths and spending shit-tons of money on what will ultimately be a failed project. Wait a second, I’m talking about the US Government here, OF COURSE this will happen!

Sock Puppet personas that can troll the internet looking to “respond to emerging online conversations with a host of co-ordinated blogposts, tweets, retweets, chatroom posts and other interventions.” will run up against the online community not taking them seriously. Its the internet, people. When a random Centcom faker starts intervening on your blog argument how seriously will you take him and of what use will this be to Centcom?  My guess is their first reported finding from this project will read something like this:

” Internet users were unable, or possibly uninterested or unwilling, to detect our false personas. Access was granted into many online conversations about a variety of topics including US and International affairs, financial markets, US foreign relations, the war in Afghanistan and Justin Beiber.

Military agents found some difficulty in obtaining Facebook friends as most members of the online community “didn’t remeber them from high school” Similar problems we discovered with obtaining Twitter followers as most false personas tweets were considered “mundane”, “stupid” or “really gay”.

After several months, many of the personas were found to be spending more time in chat rooms and discussions about Katy Perry’s boobs rather than investigating possible terror threats. While creating a convincing internet presence and usage mapping is important to this project, we did not expect having to invest so much time cleaning spyware and pornography off of the project’s servers.

The project has suffered significantly since most of the “alleged terrorists” in Afghanistan (our primary focus as suggested by the languages we outlined) lack both internet access as well as the ability to write their own language let alone type.”

Artist: The Like

Album: Release Me (Downtown Records)

Release Date: June 15th 2010

This album has been out for a month and I’m shocked to find that I am already feeling the need to defend it. I know, those aren’t the first words anyone wants to read on a record review, but it’s become obvious that The Like, their new album Release Me, and their new look and musical direction are confusing some folks. Mind you, I don’t find this much of a surprise since the vast majority of the listening audience these days expects to have their music explained to them well in advance and make no determinations on style, content or “what’s cool” for themselves. When a group such as The Like comes along, the non-thinkers only react with criticism.

That being said, Release Me is a refreshing new album put out by a band headed in a refreshing new direction. For those of you who may have never heard of The Like, the band emerged back around 2001 releasing a few EPs and then in 2005 their first release Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking, which was a very straight-forward indie rock offering from an all female rock act. That first album was great and well worth a listen or two, but with a few changes to the line-up and a new look The Like is really blowing the doors off. In September 2009, The Like announced their new line-up and repackaged look, that of a 1960′s girl group ala The Shangri-Las. This is one of the points of confusion for some people. They have taken their LOOK from the girl groups of the 1960′s, no one said anything about sounding like them. Most of the spoon-fed public expects that since most of the surrounding articles, interviews and photos make reference to The Like’s new look that this means they should be “shooby-doing” and “sha-la-laing” their way through every song. No. No they don’t and no they shouldn’t. This band is well beyond, in both musicianship and content, the girls they pay homage to. There is a ton of 1960′s style pop, psychadelia and Beatles-esqe rock infused in The Like’s music and, lets be honest, and the new look is a great match.

Release Me kicks off with “Wishing He Was Dead” a song which makes it clear that these ladies are not (quite) coming from the “He’s So Fine” camp of bubblegum lovey pop tunes. They’ve got the four piece-rock-act-with-organ down with bassist Laena Geronimo and drummer Tennessee Thomas laying a back beat that rivals any early sixties lineup. Vocalist Elizabeth “Z” Berg has a sexy, sultry voice that is very well suited for lead vocals on these songs and brings an air of early Breeders era Kim Deal. In fact, I think this is one of the best qualities of this album, these are sixties inspired songs delivered with the aggression, sensibility and sexual awareness of a solid alternative band. “He’s Not A Boy”, the title track and ” I Can See It In Your Eyes” are all rolling romps showcasing that The Like know their shit and arent afraid to prove it. Songs like “Fair Game” and “Narcissus In A Red Dress” evoke images the ladies cavorting in Picadilly Circus or riding The Tube while “Square One” is the closest to a Shangri-Las song as we get here. I would be remiss if I didnt point out the strength of the sleeper hit, in my opinion, “In The End”. Thomas pumps out a pure “Pretty Woman” beat which is overlayed with fuzzy guitars and Berg’s strongest lyrics and vocal delivery of the entire album.

All in all, there isn’t a bad song on this album. I promised myself I wouldn’t mention the relatives these ladies have in the music industry and I only bring it up to point out it doesn’t matter. The Like stand on their own merit and it annoys me that every article feels the need to point out who’s the child of who. This is steller execution of 60′s derivative alternative rock, it’s fun, it’s exciting and it’s well produced. Speaking of, I was really happy to heard that this album was made by The Like and it was “all us” as they say. No tricks, no computers and no cheating…four girls in the studio cranking it out. I look forward to more form The Like and you should too!!

Last words on this one: Thanks to USAMike (Letters to Cleo) for the hot tip on The Like. Had he not picked up the vinyl in Chicago, I wouldn’t have known about this one! Also, if my review isnt enough to convince you go to YouTube and see The Like performing an acoustic version of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles and their song “He’s Not A Boy”. Go out and grab Release Me…fun and top notch musicianship.

Rating: 5 out of 5 (As for it on vinyl!!!)

Enchilada!

A quick word of unsolicited advice to start off. Once someone has come to your house for a dinner part and brought to best, most delicious, mouth watering enchiladas you’ve ever had….you can’t EVER go back to the microwave enchilada. Not even the good ones from Trader Joe’s, which are surprisingly good.  It can’t be done.

and Stax o Wax

The CDs and LPs are just piling up on my desk. I have three half-finished reviews and DOZENS to complete including The Charlie Watts Riots (almost there), The Figgs, Dum Dum Girls, District of Columbias, The Like (which I’m constantly playing), the new Alejandro Escavedo album which is fantastic (another spoiler!), some other one…a Brit band, the list goes on and on. If you arent paying attention to music right now, you’re really missing out. That bullshit on the radio doesnt do it for anyone, you need to find the closest indie record store and ask the employees what they’re listening to…that should set you in the right direction. Of course, you should first come here and see if I have posted anything new. There’s alot going on in music and I think you’ll like it….which means ALOT because I’m a bitter, jaded old bastard when it comes to good music.

Thats all for right now, be back later!

Gotta run.

Follow me on Twitter to keep up….that DOES get updates. “druek” is the name to look for!