the realest: accept no imitations

"Doing the damn thing big big big this Friday with Caps and Jones, whose Moving in Stereo mixtape is all kinds of bonkers. Honestly, this thing is gonna be big. Big like a pickup truck. Big like Patrick Ewing. Big like eating 20 tacos. Big like wall-to-wall carpeting. Big like outer space."

-- P. Nice & the Audiovandal

I'm passing along this information in hope that you can pass it along to interested parties, and/or perhaps make a small donation on your own. Nobody I, or the other people who have been trying to help Jessie Mae out with this situation, know has much money to spare right now, so we anticipate the funds will be rounded up in very small amounts. Anyway, here's the situation. The 501C3 which provided a trailer for stroke-handicapped Mississippi blueswoman Jessie Mae Hemphill has decided to evict her from it. I've been embroiled in a
series of phone calls with lawyers representing the 501C3, Jessie's friends, and many other people for the past several weeks, since receiving a panicked call from Jessie that she was being evicted.

After all this it's still not clear to me why this action is being taken against her, although it seems highly unusual. A consensus has been reached by Jessie's closest advocates that she needs to be relocated from Senatobia to Clarksdale, so she can be near people who can help take care of her. To that end there is an immediate need for as much as $1500 to move Jessie, her possessions and her storage shed to Clarksdale. She's already 12 days past her eviction date (which was given to her with an outrageous 10 days notice).

If you would like to contribute to this effort, please send a check for whatever amount you're comfortable with to: David Tollison, 2166 Stage Road, Senatobia, MS 38668. [OTD NOTE: THERE'S ALSO A WEBSITE WITH MORE INFO HERE.] The check should be made out to David Tollison. I have checked with several parties active in the effort to relocate Jessie, and they say David is trustworthy. I have also spoken with David and Jessie about this. He is a friend of Jessie's and built the wheelchair ramp to her trailer. He is a Senatobia-based contractor and has promised to keep careful records and be accountable for the money raised and spent.

If any funds are left after the move, they will be put in an account for Jessie. The long term goal, after this emergency has passed, will be to raise more funds for that account which will be used to take care of her utilities, health care and day-to-day living expenses. The consensus is that Jessie has difficulty managing her health, hygiene and finances, and it seems that David and Barbara Blue (a performer from Memphis and close friend of Jessie's who, along with Anna Lomax, brought lawyer Bruce Newman from Memphis into the matter on Jessie Mae's behalf) may end up with power of attorney for Jessie, with her blessing. Jessie's friend Blue Mike from Clarksdale and his wife, who is a nurse, have volunteered to help watch over her, too. Jessie Mae will have much more support in Clarksdale among these and other friends. As long as she can keep her things, have a place to live and keep her dog Jessie Mae seems happy with whatever the results of this episode may be. Trust that it's highly unusual for me to pass along something like this, and it won't be a regular thing. This is a special effort for a great, if not terribly well known, contributor to American musical history and African-American culture. When
this crisis is over, it appears that a number of Jessie Mae's friends and fans will be arranging benefit concerts around the country to raise cash for her long-term care.

thanks for your attention,
Ted Drozdowski

Holy beejezus! All we gotta say about last night’s Sleater-Kinney show at Avalon is . . . “Mother”?!? Mother?!? As in Tell your children not to walk my way..? Did we say holy fuckin' beejezus? Yeahhh!

Possibly the greatest moment of our year--okay, maybe week--was watching Corin Tucker, mommy-cute in ruffled skirt and a sparkly sleeveless number, first slyly introduce their cover of Danzig’s greatest hit (“Some of you will know this, and some of you won’t”), then Carrie Brownstein coyly slipping into the opening riff, which sorta confused people, until Corin unleashed her best Glenn-warble of "Mutha." Then came the devil horns and the fist pumping from the ponytailed post-riot-grrrlies in the front and the three Sleater-Kinney chicks devilishly grinning. Yaaah! We still can't wipe off the smile.

The band’s never been one to dig deep for B-sides to cover-- for example, past highlights include “More than a Feeling” and “White Rabbit”-- though they did a knarly cover of “Angry Inch” with Fred Schneider in 2003. But this one, shit, definitely supports that recurring Woods comment that Sleater-Kinney went all metal. M.K., one Ess-Kay enthusiast, had the theory that they'd played it because they were across from Fenway, and y'know, that's Foulke's anthem. Doubtful, but we'll entertain the possibility. More to come in the print ed of next week's Phoenix.

P.S. Another shocking news item: Steven Spielberg likes us. No joke.

From: deadsosoon
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 10:48 AM
To: ducky_boys@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ducky_boys] New Dropkick
Murphys' CD in stores today

The new Dropkick Murphys' album "Warrior's
Code" is in stores TODAY. Go
out and get a copy. The CD is incredible! If
you see them on Warped
Tour then tell them we said hi.

EMAIL 2:

From: Tom Pugs
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 3:00 PM
To: [redacted]
Subject: New DKM album The Warriors Code

The new Dropkick
Murphys album "The Warriors Code" is
in stores today June 21. Get out and
pick up a copy of
it its worth every penny.
Thanks for all of your
support
The Pug Uglies

So . . . is this what you've gotta do to get on the St. Patrick's Day shows?

"When I played the final Smashing Pumpkins show on the night of December 2,
2000, I walked off the Metro stage believing that I was forever leaving a piece
of my life behind. I naively tried to start a new band, but found that my heart
wasn't in it. I moved away to pursue a love that I once had but got lost. So I moved back home to heal what was broken in me, and to my surprise I found what I
was looking for. I found that my heart is in Chicago, and that my heart is in The Smashing Pumpkins.

"For a year now I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive The Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams. In this desire I feel I have come home again.

“The level of dysfunctionality that was attributed to the band in public
was nothing compared to the dysfunctionality that actually went on.”
-- B. Corgan, on the Pumpkins

"I've always thought of screw music as a fine example of American Negro Lazy Genius: take a song, slow it down, then sell it. In the hands of DJ Screw this became contagiously brilliant, this strange syrupy thing that probably wouldn't have been possible in a country where whites didn't steal Africans and force them to work for several generations. Grime is work-ethic music, strivers' shouts. Screw
is watermelon-patch process, droopy and militant at zero reparations. Why should we sweat if we didn't ask to be here?"