So, I've been meaning to sit down and write about how much this was bugging me for the last week. The other day, while sitting in traffic on the 405, I was telling my Mom over the phone about some of the stories I'd been reading regarding ABC's investigation on torture. More importantly: who approved it. It didn't help my nerves to find out that my Mom hadn't heard anything about it - I'm sure many people haven't either.

Since the details of the 5 month long investigation were reported (on April 9th), it's basically been a non-issue in the main stream media. Shocking.



I wish I were more surprised that a) this administration, at the highest levels (Cheney, Rice, Tenet, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Ashcroft), personally oversaw and gave the go-ahead on torture... let that word sink in a bit, our tax dollars and "representatives" hard at work: torture... torture.

Or that b) this information is reported and no one bats a fucking eye. Eh, who cares, it's only torture. We all like the show 24, right? Real life is just like, isn't it? No big deal. I'm sure people won't look at me 20 years from now and wonder if I was one of the blood-lusting, chest-thumping idiots who thought this kind of behavior was fine and/or "keeping us safe".



I love thinking back to the leaked pictures of the prison camps and the wave of talking points that followed, relieving us of any worry or responsibility by assuring us it was "only a few bad apple". While at the same time, people *in the white house* were sitting in their comfy office chairs, looking at pictures of strangers deemed "enemy combatants", deciding who would be tortured by simulated drowning, who would be tortured via hanging them up by their arms for 6 hours at a time, who would be tortured by sleep deprivation and freezing temperatures, who would be held under water while 2 or 3 men punched the hell of the person's stomach.


It's important to remember that this policy of torture has killed, what is it now, 35 people, if I remember correctly. Maybe a few more, maybe a few less, but the number is really irrelevant - the policy in and of itself is damning enough. Our government has tortured... our government has killed people who were never given a trial.


I can't help but picture the man I watched in a 60 Minute's piece two weeks ago, he was 22 when he was randomly picked off a bus at a routine road stop. He was then paid a bounty for by the government, $3,000 per head... not a bad way for a person to make some cash on the side in a war torn region of the world, eh?

So he was then put into a prison camp, no one was ever told about his detention, no lawyers were notified, no family members knew where he was. He was around my brother's age. And our government beat him daily, put him in freezing cells, and blasted music for days straight, they held him under water while they punched his body, they hung him by metal chains in an airplane hanger for days, every so often letting a doctor come take a look at his eyes and heart to determine if he could withstand it any longer.

Turns out this man, by both the US and European government was excused, they admitted they had made a mistake. By then it had been years... the camp was instructed to release him in a few weeks. Three... more... years went by. Three years. Of beatings... of torture... he lost five years of his life. I can't help but think of my family going through this, the man was from Germany... what if this was someone I knew, what if this was my brother. What if he was snatched up... and beaten for years... would I recognize him when he was finally released? Would he be the same? Would I ever really get my brother back?

It makes me sick to think of this - to *know* now, to without a doubt *know* that our government tortures. It's no longer a sneaking suspicion... or a "few bad apples"... we have fucking transcripts from the meetings. I don't even know what to say... it just makes me ashamed. Anyone who doesn't feel like vomiting when thinking about this... needs their fucking head checked.

I have almost 40 GBs of little avi movies from my camera in iPhoto - and I know that if those were saved as mp4's instead, that I'd probably save a lot of space on my drives.



But the problem is - there's no easy way, that I can think of, to take the movies I have in iPhoto now, replace them with newly exported mp4's and put back in the same spot retaining all their info. Does anyone have a way to do this?

Okay people, I have a favor to ask of you, it's nothing too elaborate, but it's a favor all the same. I'm sure 90% of you have stopped reading by now :P But my friends, A Faulty Chromosome, are trying to set up a tour, and it would help them greatly if certain college radio stations have played their music once or twice (or preferably many, many times).

So, it's easy, many of the stations have AIM accounts, I've made a vcf card here - if you're not sure what that means, don't worry. You just download it, and it's a list of addresses for your email client, or in this case, IM client. You can drag these into your buddy window and send a quick IM to the 14 different stations requesting one of the songs off their new album. Which you can download here for free :)



Here's a blog post from the band, if you want to read the entire thing and see a more detailed list of radio stations you can contact, then click this magical link.

This past month I have been working as band manager (I should probably dress in suit-and-tie so as to make it official and appropriate), booking a tour, talking with people about lawyer / record label / college radio / getting reviews-type things. It is dirty and very businessmanlike and I do not enjoy it much. I'd prefer to magically rain our album upon all those in the world who would enjoy it, but --sadly, very sadly -- it doesn't work that way, and in order to be able to survive making music (which is the only goal here, not giant, rockstardom stupidity, just making enough to not have to put everything on an ever-giant credit card debt and be able to eat more than tostadas and cereal without resorting to spending 8hours a day working a job I'm not very good at) we have to at least get people to hear it. And so, I ask for your help (which I mostly never do):

If you don't hate us / like us / love us / want to see us in your home town / are bored at work / don't feel like doing your stupid essay / want to practice your acting skills by caring on short conversations with strangers / want to conquer your fear of speaking on the phone in a business-like manner / just want to do a good deed...... request us on your local college radio station (or any college radio station for that matter; if you have nationwide cell phones, a call to Athens, GA costs exactly the same as a call to your mother who is only downstairs in the kitchen, right?) please? We will certainly lose over $2000 on this tour, so it'd at least be nice to have at a few kids happy to see us there instead of the usual jaded scenester at the bar.

Now, I've already heard from a few people who volunteered to do this stories about DJs saying "I never heard of it / we don't have it / I can't find it." But they do. They were all sent the cd, the delivery was confirmed, and the music director has it somewhere. Now, whether or not the DJs put it back where it belongs / feel like bothering to look for it is an entirely different story.

Hope you can spread the love a little and help them out - trust me when I say that they are some of the best guys ever.

... from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Mike Hedge and I drove to Austin for SXSW - we stopped to get out of the car and walk around quite a few times, taking pictures and video... just cause that's how we roll.

I didn't really know what to do with all this footage :P so, I just smoothcam'd some of it and put it to a song. Kinda long'ish... kinda boring'ish. But I'm sure Mike and I will enjoy it. Good times.


And Tiff left the nicest comment on Vimeo:

I made a Mix for Erica, and thought I'd spread the love with a Muxtape. Enjoy.