Sardonicus Keeps Smiling Till the End: Transmission 426, 2018 October 3

My program tries to be topical when it can. In late September and early October, which seem about 50 years ago now, Americans were transfixed by the trainwreck of a nomination process for (now) Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a belligerent drunk (possibly formerly, but no one is sure) who almost certainly at least tried to rape at least one woman. It was a sordid process leading to a predetermined outcome, and you felt (rightly) that there was nothing you could do to stop it. That reminds me of something, though I can't quite put my finger on what that is.

Because the whole thing needed just a touch of bleak humor, it emerged the week of this program that at some point (1985?) Kavanaugh and his bros had gone to a UB40 gig, presumably in New Haven. Afterward, at a bar, Kavanaugh had confronted someone he mistook for Ali Campbell; angry at being properly rebuffed, he initiated a fight. This led to a brief, unresolved national dialogue on whether this is something that all "real men" do--starting barfights, not attendinng UB40 concerts, sadly.

I've never done either, though UB40 did come through my hometown on what seems to be that same tour. I bet they would have been good, if the disc I played on this program is any evidence. And, though I seem less intrusive on this program than I have seemed recently, the disc certainly "stops the bleeding," by which I mean the run of terrible shows brought on by lapses of judgment and technique. If only I had heeded the lesson I learned here, which is to go back to the basics--can you just play one thing and not screw it up? It's a solid foundation.

BOMBAST playlist, 2018 October 3, 2100-2300:

1. "Missing You" | Petar Dundov | At The Turn of Equilibrium | Music Man
2. "Heart for Yes. Like for No." | Man Power | Souvenirs | Correspondant
3. "Repercussions - Live" | A Certain Ratio | acr:mcr | Mute
4. "Snake Hips" | Trinidadian Deep | The Tribute Songs | Shelter
5. "Thaw" | deathlist | The DarkSide of TBTCI, II | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
6. "Burning Curtains" | Orvar Smarason | Light Is Liquid | Morr Music
7. "The Stop Next" | The Lost End | The DarkSide of TBTCI, II | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
8. "Something's Missing Inside" | CTMF | Something's Missing Inside | Damaged Goods
9. "Touch of Goodbye" | Express Rising | Fixed Rope (II) | Numero Group
10. "Galactic Cruise" | Retep Folo | Galactic Sounds | Clay Pipe
11. "I'm Your Man" | Spiritualized | And Nothing Hurt | Bella Union
12. "Glossine (Zombie)" | Baloji | 137 Avenue Kaniama | Bella Union
13. "Mantaray" | Syrup, Go On | The New Adventures of TBTCI | The Blog That Celebrates Itself
14. "Floor Lord" | The Lavender Flu | Mow the Glass | In the Red
15. "Food for Thought" / "Sardonicus" / "Don't Slow Down" / "Folitician" / "Tyler" / "Present Arms" / "Piper Calls the Tune" / "Love Is All Is Alright" / "Burden of Shame" / "One in Ten" | UB40 | Live | Disky

Together, we shall live

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