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Music: Current count 26705 [26674] rated (+31), 440 [447] unrated (-7).
First, some business left over from yesterday's Weekend Roundup post. David Everall wrote a long and informative letter on the "Brexit" question. Main point: "both the linked to article and your comments vastly underestimate the racist, xenophobic nature of the 'leave' side of the debate here." I've added the whole letter to the Comments section of the "faux blog" post. (If you seriously want to comment on a post, best way is to send me email -- look for the "Contact" link.)
What Everall says makes sense to me, and not just because I'm tempted to see a parallel in Donald Trump. I've probably tended to underestimate Trump movement racism because I find his more conventional Republican opponents so horrifying, but I do think that Laura Tillem has a point when she says that the worst thing about a Trump election is that it could happen (i.e., what it would show about the dim-witted viciousness of the American people). The takeaway of a Trump election would surely be that racism and xenophobia are acceptable, even majority, views, and that's probably what people would glean if "Brexit" succeeds. I can't say as I ever thought the latter would happen, as both right and left have their own reasons for keeping the union together. But I finally looked up some polling, and the referendum looks to be very close, with either outcome possible. But whereas, say, last night's NBA Finals Game was so close I figured either side winning would be a meaningless fluke, the "Brexit" is even close is already some kind of racist, chauvinist triumph -- even if what it really suggests is the utter breakdown of Britain's conservative elites' ability to keep their popular base in line. Again, this runs parallel with America's conservative elites inability to derail Trump. Whoever thought that decades of cynical manipulation of racial and ethnic grudges would have led to this?
Of course, a big part of those conservatives elites' failure comes from their disastrous excursions abroad. For example, see Record 65 million displaced by global conflicts and The translators promised visas but made into refugees by the US Army.
Another thing I haven't been paying sufficient attention to is the Trump meltdown. Given a little more time, the Trump section could have grown to two or three times as many items as I cited. Just from TPM today we see Trump Adviser Resigns After Celebrating Top Aide's Ouster, How Did Trump's Internally Loathed, Embattled Top Aide Last So Long?, The Real News Is Trump Is Broke, and Panicked Utah GOP Chair Is Another Sign That GOP Stronghold Is in Play. The first of those four starts out:
After sending out a tweet Monday dancing on ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's grave, top aide Michael Caputo admitted the tweet was "too exuberant" and resigned his post with Trump's campaign.
There's also this: Trump says US should adopt Israel's racial profiling model.
I also want to note that Al Leiderman passed away -- Uncle Al to us. Born 1917, married Lillian Tillem for 74 years until her death in 2015, owned a laundry business and did fairly well. I met Lillian and Al twice: in 2008 when they came to Kal Tillem's funeral, and in 2014 when Laura and I visited them in Palm Beach. Googling Al gets us to several episodes of Old Jews Telling Jokes, like this and this and this. Not great jokes, but more of a legacy than I usually find.
Fairly hefty list of newly rated albums this week, mostly drawn from Christgau's Expert Witness (Aesop Rock, Chance the Rapper, Robbie Fulks, Heartsrevolution, Mr. Lif, Thao, White Lung), a Jason Gubbels SPIN World Report (Kel Assouf, Can't You Hear Me?, Romulo Frķes, Elektro Hafiz, Ukandanz), Phil Overeem's latest Good to My Earhole (Chance the Rapper, Elizabeth Cook), and Stereogum's The 50 Best Albums of 2016 So Far (Chance the Rapper, Pinegrove, Pup, Radiohead, Underworld). Looks like everyone (but me) loves Coloring Book. I gave it three plays, bumping it a notch from my original grade. I could imagine getting to like it somewhat more, but unless I figure out how to burn a copy I doubt I'll bother. Too much mess, even before there's too much God. Cook also got three plays, but they finally took. I got off on the wrong track with Heartsrevolution, but the widget at Noisey did the trick.
Taking my jazz queue pretty much in order, which leaves Tyshawn Sorey up for next week. First three or four albums after I got back came in B or worse. Wondered whether that was because I had spent the previous two weeks listening to classics, but I'm pretty sure they weren't very good.
Looks like AMG dropped their anti-AdBlock hostageware. No idea why, but I had decided to see how long I could live without it. Still, glad to have access again.
New records rated this week:
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week: