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the-quotable-alberta-hansard · 1 year

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December 15, 2022

Official Opposition and 2022 Fall Sitting Ms Rosin: Well, ‘twas the day before Christmas, and all through the House MLAs were stirring for session was almost out. Our families had hung our Christmas stockings with care In hopes that eventually we’d get back there.

Albertans were watching from their nice, warm homesteads, Feeling hope for jobs, affordability, finally getting ahead. Conservatives gave rebates, supports, and cheap gas, Lowered tax, help for parents, and all in one act.

When out of the Chamber there arose such a clatter, I looked across the aisle to see what was the matter. The NDP cried, “Job killers, dictators, destroying ‘Berta,” Forgetting their leader – well, he lives in Ottawa. They opposed all we did without reading the bills, Showing a pettiness that should probably send their support for the hills. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, A new 338 poll; they must now think: oh, dear.

On Jagmeet, on Trudeau, on Liberal appointee. Those were their top sources, now can’t you see? To the top of the party, to the ends of the Earth, Albertans know that they’ll never ever put Alberta first. They scoffed and called our sovereignty act undemocratic, But if you didn’t read the bill, then how can you be mad at it? If the NDP had their way, it’s clear they’d do nothing. They say they have solutions, but we know they’re just bluffing.

All session long our government acted in good faith. We listened, proposed amendments, and participated in debate. Unfortunately, for them, the same can’t be said, Which leaves me here just scratching my head. Because they claim we’re the problem, that Alberta won’t fare. But deep down they know that their record is quite bare. So if you listen closely, then you’ll hear the truth. Today Alberta is better, and we have the proof.

We have grown the economy and diversified, too, Giving hope to new grads that their dreams can come true. We fought for our province and defended its right To develop its resources and package beef more polite. So in next year’s election people don’t want false fear. They want a vision to bring hope to the year. So to all who are watching this afternoon bright, Merry Christmas to all, and keep up the good fight.

#without question my least favourite holiday tradition #i don't even know what the worst part is #the utter disregard for metre #rhyming undemocratic with be mad at it #or simply the phrase: package beef more polite #alberta #alberta politics #ableg #Miranda Rosin #Banff-Kananaskis #UCP #cdnpoli

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redsoapbox · 5 years

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Mitch Tennant’s Track-by-Track Guide to Head Noise’s Debut album, Über Fantastique

Mitch Tennant, singer/songwriter & keytarist with electro art-punks Head Noise, was kind enough to write this guide to the band’s recently released debut album Über Fantastique, especially for redsoapbox.

1. KINGDOM OF CROOKED MIRRORS

We had a lively debate at Head Noise HQ over which song to open the album with, either this track or the one that follows. We eventually decided on “Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors” to kick-start the debut as we think it encompasses all things Head Noise and has a great splattering of our influences in a catchy, oddball pop song. The title of the track comes from a 1963 Soviet fairy tale film and is loosely inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass”. The song reflects our own mantra for creative passion and is also a look at an outsider’s perspective for abstract art and trying to make sense of the senseless. It’s like Alice In Wonderland without the drug references. Ignore the evils of the world and just let the childlike magic speak for itself.

2. 200,000 GALLONS OF OIL

I was on my lunch break one day surfing the web and a pop-up article came on-screen about fuel, oil refining and other industrial processes that I had very little interest in. However, the title of the piece “Pipeline Spills 200,000 Gallons of Oil” really jumped out at me. I wrote it down and put it aside with my collection of other alphabetical oddities that I type up on Notepad. A little while after, Wayne sent me an electropop demo with a bouncy, squelchy bassline which I felt matched up to this wording perfectly! The title of the song has some sort of political or eco-warrior ring to it but it’s always a surprise to people who question what the song is about, and we say “Uhh… It’s just about oil?” What kind of oil do you want it to be? I’ll leave that up to you, but here are some suggestions: vegetable oil, or maybe oil to slick back your hair.

3. JAPANESE BATTERIES

One Christmas, my partner gifted me an Otamatone, which is basically a screwed-up Theremin/Stylophone synth-like device that is in the shape of a musical note, however it looks more like a giant sperm! It’s become a popular instrument on Youtube for fashioning unusual sounding covers of songs, such as Boney M’s “Rasputin” and A-ha’s “Take on Me”. I was totally amazed by the packaging - it had a little Japanese man with fluffy hair, the inventor of the instrument, looking off into the distance, not unlike some surreal propaganda poster art. The song is, basically, a homage to this strange instrument, and it’s played on the track, not long after the first chorus, just to show off the unusual noises that it makes.

4. ANATOMICALLY CORRECT SHUFFLE

This is a song where I feel the bassline really helps to give the song a danceable bounce, that’s why the title of the track has “Shuffle” at the end of it. This is the first of the collaborations that we have on the album. Wayne sent me a demo he was working on with some bass being played by his friend “Monkey” (who I still haven’t met yet) under the working title “Monkey Jam”. When we started putting the album together, we were coming out of that mad scientist stage persona from the Microwave EP run of shows, so I had a whole lot of science stuck in my mind. I thought we’d go gung-ho as a farewell to the bygone days of false nerdy scholarship with a classic Head Noise sound to it. The lyrics for the song are like an amalgamation of a botched surgery, unusual ailments and chronic nightmares. Luckily, we have Brill onboard to give it that fun little jaunty undertone on the synth, to help keep us sane and avoid any potential lobotomies.

5. MYSTERY LIQUID

This is another Notepad scribble title that I just had to make into a song! When you hear songs about drinking, it’s usually either a fun affair (a drunken pub singalong) or a dark, cautionary tale (alcoholism), so we were looking to meet in the middle between jolly and sombre. I was influenced by Spike Jones & His City Slickers and their song “Clink! Clink! Another Drink”, especially for its humorous look at binge drinking from a 1940s perspective. It seems so harmless and funny, but it’s much more morally twisted if you look at it from the outside. With a bassline from our good friend Connor Llewellyn of Math Rock band “Common Spit”, the song turned into more of a fast-paced rocker with some added spoken word and Dada inspired lyrics from Cat Daczkowski who also plays in Rock band KASIA. I really liked her vocal style as it reminded me of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth’s unique and unbothered singing approach, so we NEEDED it on the album somewhere.

6. AIRSTRIKE 4000

When I was young, I used to love my Sega Megadrive games console! I played games like Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and Desert Strike, but I got bored easily with Desert Strike because I wouldn’t always know what to do. I wanted to write lyrics that broke the fourth wall too, so the song starts out as a homage to a made-up Sega game in the style of Desert Strike. Then I get bored about halfway through and changed the theme of the song, just like when I was 8 years old and trying to play the bloody game before turning it off to play Sonic & Knuckles instead. It’s a Lo-fi retro Rock vs Synth song with some amazing guitar wobbles/shrieks from Brill and some wicked retro sounds darted across the duration of the track.

7. NITRO

When we were lucky enough to support “Public Service Broadcasting” last year at the Muni Arts Centre in Pontypridd, we wanted to go all out with a wacky elaborate stage show. We roped in our good friend Mark Strange to help us put together some surreal extras in the set such as a puppet show and a battle royale with Mark dressed up as a Ninja Turtle. We wanted to create our own little ‘introduction song’ for this show for when we walked onstage akin to Devo’s “Corporate Anthem” instrumental. So, Wayne put together our own track to help introduce the band as Mark walked out dressed in a lab-coat to inspect the equipment before we came on. There isn’t much else I can say about this track really other than performance is key! We decided to give the song a promotion from introduction song to intermission song which now sits about halfway through the album. In fact, that’s why it is called “Nitro”, it’s just an anagram of “intro” but with some dynamite flair!

8. SHRUNKEN HEAD

We used to open the live set with this song. It’s a song about idiocracy within the musical world, not too far off “Cherub Rock” by Smashing Pumpkins. The song is stacked with surreal imagery, which also includes a reworking of the “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” phrase from Science Fiction writer Harlan Ellison as a pre-chorus. I think it’s important to have passion in what you do creatively, and you shouldn’t allow others to mistake that devotion for egotism. I went to “Ripley’s Believe it Or Not” oddity museum in Blackpool a couple of times over the years and I got to see a real (or ‘real fake’, you be the judge?) shrunken head in a glass case. Rhys Jones plays some cool guitar lines on this track which is like a mix between Egyptian rhumba and the live dissection of a squirrel. It is an interesting song and we like it very much.

9. INTRUDER-ESQUE

Have you ever had those nights when you’ve gone to bed and looked over at the other side of the room in the dark to see the blurred black outline of a wardrobe or a hanging coat? In a sleep-addled state, this can be terrifying and can lead to “sleep paralysis”. I thought it was an interesting subject to pick up on. We gave the outro to Lloyd Markham of Psych-Electro band Deep Hum to use as his personal synth playground and we love it! I think the entire track captures the vibe of uneasiness that you can get in a sleep-deprived state when you don’t entirely feel safe, with an unknown threat lurking in the shadows.

10. I EAT CANNIBALS

An old friend of mine said the Toto Coelo song “I Eat Cannibals” sounds like something Head Noise would cover, so we just went off and covered it. I think it goes a little hand in hand with “Shrunken Head” and its voodoo vibe. The track features fantastic backing vocals by Miss Cat Southall, singer extraordinaire! I’m a fan of bands who re-work covers to suit their own sound. We always have an unusual cover in our back pocket if things start to go pear-shaped! We’ve previously recorded songs by Sonic Youth and The Bangles.

11. MR. EVERYWHERE

This is a Rocker Wayne had been working on for a little while until we decided to give it more context and “beef” so to speak. It’s basically a punk song that’s been shaved down to a shouty rock song, with a little bit of synth here and there. The song’s lyrics simply reflect how busy we felt after we released the Special Effects EP and how being in a band can be a lot of stress as much as a lot of fun.

12. NO PHOTO | NO FILM | NO TELEPHONE

On a trip to Venice, I stopped by St Mark’s Basilica to see the famed “Horses of Saint Mark”. There was a sign near them saying “No Photo, No Film, No Telephone” which made me laugh. Anyway, the track was inspired by a warning sign, but is about the overuse of modern communication technology and the brief escape that we get from these devices. It’s crazy to see how much the world has changed in 20 years, so we summed it up quickly with a fully Electronic Pop song featuring a fun shout-a-long chorus.

13. COMPLY

Someone said to me recently “music has been intrinsically linked to politics since like forever!” and even though there is some truth in that statement, I refuse to believe that it is the most important reason for someone to enjoy listening to music. This is my own attack against people who like to moan and whine until they get what they want, whether it is logical or not. It’s our own protest song which protests protest songs. We’ve made sure the song is happy and upbeat, because ignorance is bliss, eh?

14. GAMMA GUTS

The spiritual successor to our single “Microwave”, in fact, it’s a loose sequel of sorts. I have a fear that there isn’t enough science behind the use of microwaves. I imagine that there are some harmful side effects, but it scares me to think that we might not have a clue. The song is split into two parts - the first is a goofy little Electro Rock song about the digestion of nuclear materials and then the second part is an electronic instrumental, orchestrated by the band Massa Circles. There are some beats donated by John Barnes and some shouts by Anthony Price too. The song reminds me of Eric Clapton’s “Layla” because it starts off as a fun Rocker and ends with an emotional instrumental akin to side 2 of David Bowie’s Low album. This is one of our favourite songs to play live at the moment because it gives us free rein to experiment musically.

youtube

Visit the archives section to read the album review.

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pardontheglueman · 5 years

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Head Noise / Uber - Fantastique

For the best part of 18 months Aberdare’s Electro Art-Punks Head Noise (Mitch Tennant Vocals & Keytar), Wayne Basset (Synths & Guitar) and Jordan Brill (Synths & Guitar) have been working away on their debut album Über-Fantastique, a record which they describe, in typical Head Noise fashion, as a ‘bombastic, electropop fever dream’. In a detailed, track-by-track guide, Mitch Tennant talked to Kevin McGrath about the record they are about to unleash on an unsuspecting Welsh public.

1. KINGDOM OF CROOKED MIRRORS

2. 200,000 GALLONS OF OIL

I was on my lunch break one day surfing the web and a pop-up article came on-screen about fuel, oil refining and other industrial processes that I had very little interest in. However, the title of the piece "Pipeline Spills 200,000 Gallons of Oil" really jumped out at me. I wrote it down and put it aside with my collection of other alphabetical oddities that I type up on Notepad. A little while after, Wayne sent me an electropop demo with a bouncy, squelchy bass line which I felt matched up to this wording perfectly! The title of the song has some sort of political or eco-warrior ring to it but it's always a surprise to people who question what the song is about, and we say "Uhh... It's just about oil?" What kind of oil do you want it to be? I'll leave that up to you, but here are some suggestions: vegetable oil, or maybe oil to slick back your hair.

3. JAPANESE BATTERIES

4. ANATOMICALLY CORRECT SHUFFLE

This is a song where I feel the bassline really helps to give the song a danceable bounce, that’s why the title of the track has "Shuffle" at the end of it. This is the first of the collaborations that we have on the album. Wayne sent me a demo he was working on with some bass being played by his friend "Monkey" (who I still haven't met yet) under the working title "Monkey Jam". When we started putting the album together, we were coming out of that mad scientist stage persona from the Microwave EP run of shows, so I had a whole lot of science stuck in my mind. I thought we'd go gung-ho as a farewell to the bygone days of false nerdy scholarship with a classic Head Noise sound to it. The lyrics for the song are like an amalgamation of a botched surgery, unusual ailments and chronic nightmares. Luckily, we have Brill onboard to give it that fun little jaunty undertone on the synth, to help keep us sane and avoid any potential lobotomies.

5. MYSTERY LIQUID

This is another Notepad scribble title that I just had to make into a song! When you hear songs about drinking, it’s usually either a fun affair (a drunken pub singalong) or a dark, cautionary tale (alcoholism), so we were looking to meet in the middle between jolly and sombre. I was influenced by Spike Jones & His City Slickers and their song “Clink! Clink! Another Drink”, especially for its humorous look at binge drinking from a 1940s perspective. It seems so harmless and funny, but it’s much more morally twisted if you look at it from the outside. With a bassline from our good friend Connor Llewellyn of Math Rock band "Common Spit", the song turned into more of a fast-paced rocker with some added spoken word and Dada inspired lyrics from Cat Daczkowski who also plays in Rock band KASIA. I really liked her vocal style as it reminded me of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth’s unique and unbothered singing approach, so we NEEDED it on the album somewhere.

6. AIRSTRIKE 4000

7. NITRO

8. SHRUNKEN HEAD

9. INTRUDER-ESQUE

10. I EAT CANNIBALS

11. MR. EVERYWHERE

12. NO PHOTO | NO FILM | NO TELEPHONE

On a trip to Venice, I stopped by St Mark's Basilica to see the famed “Horses of Saint Mark”. There was a sign near them saying “No Photo, No Film, No Telephone” which made me laugh. Anyway, the track was inspired by a warning sign, but is about the overuse of modern communication technology and the brief escape that we get from these devices. It’s crazy to see how much the world has changed in 20 years, so we summed it up quickly with a fully Electronic Pop song featuring a fun shout-a-long chorus.

13. COMPLY

14. GAMMA GUTS

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toddlazarski · 5 years

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Discovering Alambres in Milwaukee

Shepherd Express

Beef or pork? Tripa? What about lengua? I can’t live without at least trying every chorizo presented to me. And with any decent Mexican restaurant even pollo should be on the table for discussion—hinting at the biggest problem within the greatest, highest-varietal world cuisine: What do you order when you want everything?

Anyone with the maybe embarrassing experience of eating out with me at a proper Mexican spot has probably witnessed, with some gastrointestinal wonder, or maybe a guffaw, a personal solution to the conundrum. It is what I’ve long deemed the “entree-plus” method. What you do is order, say, a torta dinner, but then, politely holding your finger up to indicate to the waitress you are not yet done with your wish list, also ask for a couple of tacos. For the side. Maybe get the shrimp diablo, and team it with a simple desebrada number. Try the bistec ranchero, but with a sidecar of cecina. Possibilities become endless, but within, the basic premise is simple: to run the meat gamut, as much as possible, exponentially increase your lipid-and-sauce variations, skip the fear of missing out, make lunch a cultural deep dive, in the process achieving your Epicurean best self, spinning life into a fete of curiosity, not restraint, and turning the table into one of those fashionably messy, rustic Bon Appetit cover photo shoots.

But what if the answer to the ubiquitous meat question, with all the options, all the exotic-sounding proteins, is, more simply—in that annoying social media vernacular vain—“Yes, please!”

Enter the Mexico City specialty known as the Alambre. Spanish for “wire,” the word is indeed rooted in a meat combo cooked on a skewer. But it is a shish kabob in spirit only. In the real world it exists as a single plate amalgamation, a meat party, that is actually more like a sizzling late-night drunk skillet of all the most satisfying things found in the furthest crevices of the fridge. Among the multitude varietals, the basic offering mixes steak, chopped bacon, bell peppers, onions, melty cheese. Chorizo is a common contributor as well. Ham can sometimes be considered a healthy alternative—which tells you much about the nature of the dish. Avocado is also a usual suspect. But remember, as it tells itself every morning when looking in the mirror, that is good fat. A blank slate for Fieri-level exploration when sided by tortillas and some salsa, the alambre is a vessel of a DIY taco tour through a good Mexican grocery store.

My introduction came on 25th and Greenfield Avenue, where the sadly-shuttered El Canaveral once specialized in the plate. It is a meal that still exists like something out of Proust, the memory triggering hunger daydreams of winter nights spent hunkered over a posse of a meat pile, a craggy, cheesy sponge for their quintet of creamy salsas, each building on the last in hue, heat, and intensity. What was truly unique, in those Canaveral salad days, was I only felt the need to order one thing. One word, even, levied to the waitress, enough to hold all the Mexican meal promise one might reasonably ask for. I often bemoan the loss, wistfully ponder the empty husk of the handsome and cozy corner barroom, consider the death of all that smoking meat waft potential. But in loving pursuit of those bite memories, I set out to chronicle what remains, to capture at least a loose roadmap of Milwaukee’s best single-steaming-plate Mexican marriage of foodstuffs.

4. Kompali Taqueria

Maybe the most telling thing about restaurateurs Karlos Soriano and Paco Villar is how little, through maybe two dozen meals, I’ve ever found wrong with either of their two spots. First, they put too much pineapple on the pastor offering at Kompali, the new taco joint. Second, as a waitress once chastised me for a request, scolding, “I only have two hands!” it seems they can’t find great help at C-Viche. That is it. Everything else—from the aji verde sauce to the pork beans to the esquite to the pisco sours to the succulent beef hearts fit for even those squeamish about, “wait, this is heart?”—feels somehow in turns regional and personal, and like it’s been consummated with a sense of thoroughness and chile peppered-love. C-Viche is really just a couple of brunch misfires short of upholding my contention that it is maybe the most interesting, if not flat out best, restaurant in Milwaukee.

Which is to say their second, stripped down, taco and tequila-focused Brady Street replacement of Cemapazuchi is certain to deliver on the basics. And it does: from the distinctly salty, cumin-tinged, creamy tomato salsa that comes with the chips, to the smoky chipotle mayo-textured blend that comes with the tacos, it is a happy ideal of Mexican cooking that Cempazuchi only really seemed to be that one time on TV. They also personify an ideal starter alambre for the uninitiated—in prefab taco form. Diced carne asada tumbles uniformly with tender chopped ham and slightly crunchy bacon bits, everything topped with onion and bell pepper before being swathed in smooth goo queso and swaddled neatly inside a homemade tortilla. While the rest of the list here strive for something between gut burstage and a drunken munchie sate, this is a happy, reasonable start not only to an alambre tour, but to a night out. With little threat of overwhelming, without grease-bombing, with nary a worry as to not having room for more drinks, dessert. In fact maybe that’s a third complaint. Or it would be if I wasn’t so happy filling up with their housemade chorizo, the aforementioned pastor, etc.

3. Al Pastor

Despite the nachos and burritos and ‘Stallis zip code, the menu at Al Pastor does specifically promise “Mexico City style cuisine,” and alongside the eponymous pork stuff of taco dreams and the likes of bistec en chile de arbol, the alambre is presented, simply, honestly, as a “delicious combination.”

Thin folds of tender skirt steak, with prominent sear marks, generous seasoning and decent snap, dominant the taste swirl of the mashup plate. These are buoyed by bits of salty ham—some grilltop-blackened, some fleshy; tiny granules of charred chorizo, lending a greasy beating heart to the whole; semi-charred wedges of red and green bell peppers; and bright Oaxacan cheese, half-melted throughout, gooping and draping everything like a tangled favorite blanket. Hunks of pineapple occasionally turn up too, contrasting the saltiness, lending some sweet bright sunshine, even to a barren block of Burnham in February.

It’s a richly savory meat sludge, all aspects breaking up under fork pressure, colliding, tussling, coming together in earthy, brackish bites, steaming and begging to be patted atop lightly griddled, sturdy flour tortillas. Ratchet everything up with a surprisingly zinging fresh jalapeno salsa, or a fiery vinegar-laced, arbol-based red. It’s emblematic of when food writers, like sportwriters, feel the need for that old adage of the package being greater than the sum of the parts. How else to describe the Giannis, Middleton, Bledsoe ball movement to open-three mindflow? The roll, the collective rhythm, the push and pull, the unexpectedness, the jazz, that extra-sensory unity. Like the Bucks, the alambre might be the one seed of Mexican cuisine. A “delicious combination” indeed.

2. La Flamita

It’s like a scene out of a movie: the know-everything writer, pushing big nerd glasses back up on the bridge of his cook-bookish nose, trying out a bit of show-off Spanish, placing a knowing order, within which to don worldliness, after which to scribe a wise pen-sermon full of clever phrases and expensive-sounding words, is stopped in his cocky tracks with a simple question— “What meat?” Yes, apparently you can improvise, personalize your alambre here at this white truck parked on 20th and National. And while such off-balance thinking has led to many problematic orders through the years, it’s clear this is a dish that could only be messed up by a vegetarian. This is the thought the man in the order window must have, half-heartedly agreeing, nodding, patiently waiting, as I audibly recite every possible roster variation that comes to mind, eventually arriving on an All-Star team of asada, pastor, and chorizo.

This is a to-go order of homogenized harmony, everything neatly, uniformly diced, melded, a goopy white cheese center holding the whole family together with the droopy, loving arms of a domineering grandmother. Nothing gets too far away, each bite seemingly packed with equal part onion and bell pepper hunks, velvety melty queso, and, in my iteration, craggly cow and greasy pork two different ways. Ignore the rote verde salsa in lieu of a truly mean-spirited, arbol-centered sauce. It lends a bit of heated vitality, vigor throughout all that togetherness. This eye-opening feel is furthered by full exploration of the bag. That tin-foiled brick down there isn’t more tortillas. It is a steaming baked potato. Soft, starchy, you can neatly crumble it atop the meat mix, or maybe refry a bit for next-morning eggs. Either way, it’s happily sponge-like, more salsa-soaking than french fries, and turns out to be an ingenious little carb-y loaf addition to the big styrofoam protein package. It’s also another surprising glimpse of the peripatetic nature of taco trucking—the road is a mighty teacher.

1. La Guelaguetza

The most delightfully-named taqueria in the city—the truck on 15th and Burnham takes its handle from an annual indigenous cultural festival in Oaxaca—has a handy translation placard for available meats: “lengua” is “tongue,” “cabeza” is “head,” “Alambres” is… “Alambres.” Meaning, seemingly, that there is no translation. As in, if you don’t speak the language, you won’t get it. It reminds me of a time a well-meaning prankster member of my Mexican in-law tribe tried to let me in on the ultimate Spanish cuss, the one to use if anybody is really giving you a hard time. When I asked my wife to explain what it meant, I didn’t think the translation sounded so offensive. Until, later, at one of those extended relative gatherings, when, backed into a corner, being mocked for my broken espanol, fumbling for a face-saving zinger, I let the unmentionable phrase slip in front of an abuela, a tia, and a gaggle of cousins. All eyes on me, mouths aghast in collective terror and befuddlement, with crickets suddenly echoing around the awkward silence, it was like Lenny Bruce joking about Adolf Hitler. I haven’t been invited to a family funeral since.

What can’t be lost or misconstrued in translation is taste. So if you stumble through the three-syllables, you will be rewarded with an alambre of crispy asada, tender pastor from a bulbous stationary vertical spit of seasoned pork, and bacon wedges in varying levels of doneness. The multitude meat stuffs exist in loose, pepper-inflected affiliation, messily inconsistent chops leave incongruous bites—some onion-y, some gooey, all meaty and salty and dense. Such variety is the spice of life, as they say. Which is not true. Salsa is the spice of life. And the rojo here is blood red and angrily smoky, thick enough to hold its own on the mass, spicy but short of overpowering, so that the massive container of chopped, pickled habanero and onion sitting on the counter should still be utilized. Though, in the spirit of those male enhancement drug disclaimers, maybe consult with a doctor if there is any history of heart problems. A crumbly baked papa also sits atop the two-meal mash. And by now, it feels like, why not? It’s a spongy starch addition that is better to soak it up—the debris, the salty carnage, all the messy drip of life itself. Piquant, earthy, foreign, comforting, a concentrated slop of intricacy and nuance, the whole thing is really a beautiful sense bastardization, an amalgamation that only leaves trace amounts of grease guilt.

Sometimes saying things you don’t understand really pays off.

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theliterateape · 4 years

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Staged Conflict and the Downward Spiral of Communication

By Don Hall

“Oh, I’m not trying to change your mind about anything.”

Then what the fuck are we doing here?

Like so many in the COVID-19 world, the pandemic has changed much of my perception of things I used to take for granted as normal.

The amount of cash spent on food, for example. With eating in restaurants suspended for two months, I’m seeing that practice as a luxury rather than a staple. Unlike countless folks, however, I didn’t suddenly become a home chef concocting delicious experiments in bread making or sauces. The most ambitious experiment I’ve undertaken thus far is to combine a can of tuna with a package of Ramen (it was tasty but hardly my version of Beef Wellington from scratch...).

Dana and I decided to go to a local pizza place to dine in somewhere—both to actually get out and toe-dab into the pool of the new reality as well as do some recon on what it looks like protocol-wise in other, non-casino, businesses. It was kind of magical. The beer was draft, the pizza was delicious, and the fact that we were out in the world was novel.

Another normal detail has been something I’ve struggled with since high school. I was a National Debate Champion and learned at that tender age that winning the argument was the goal in most discourse. The training was such that manipulating the moment, spinning the truth, playing psychological games, whatever it took to win was the right thing to do. In debate, there is a judge who listens and watches and ultimately decides who won. The whole competition was performative rather than any sort of search for a common truth to build upon.

Thirty-six years later, in the wake of pandemic and economic throttling, with the now decade-old functioning of social media, I’m just now starting to really question this practice fully.

We’re seeing an increase in legitimate studies about not only why we are so divided politically but how we are dividing ourselves up. Scientific articles regarding confirmation bias, siloing of political thought, the effects of both disinformation and misinformation as well as the proliferation of both by media as well as partisan and international organizations are all summing up a roadmap to what becomes the dysfunction of democracy.

The human tendency toward conflict isn’t new. The history of tribes finding enemies and subsequently going to war with each other is the true thread that binds us. Likewise, the history of the educated waged upon the unwashed masses is as old as the Roman Catholic Church positioning priests as the only people allowed to read the Bible and thus establish the primacy of unexamined authority. Disinformation isn’t new, either. William Randolph Hearst was famous for being the FOX News of his day, routinely spreading disinformation via his newspaper to promote his personal agenda.

What’s new is our collective ability to argue constantly without ever having to come into contact with one another. Also new is our unparalleled access to information and our unprecedented ability to create false narratives and distribute them to millions in one keystroke.

“Oh, I’m not trying to change your mind about anything.”

Then why?

The answer was simple. We were arguing for the sole purpose of arguing. She started by announcing her opinion: “I don’t think government should have ever shut businesses down.” My immediate response was that I disagreed. For the next thirty minutes, we volleyed more opinions that supported our initial opinions, I threw out scientific consensus, she tossed around the idea that if there is the possibility 95% of scientists are wrong, they’re probably wrong. Both of us as adamantly without budging in our perspectives as we were thirty minutes prior until I nodded and told her my mind wasn’t changed.

“Oh, I’m not trying to change your mind about anything.”

!!!!!??????!!!!!!

We weren’t trying to persuade the other to rethink our positions. We weren’t curious enough to be listening for new information from one another. We were merely arguing to win and more pernicious was that we were arguing as if we were arguing in front of an audience just like we would if we were online.

We ended up doing that thing we do— agreeing to disagree. Despite the attempt to just get along, what has plagued me ever since that argument on the grounds of an empty casino was that we weren’t, in any way, trying to communicate with one another. Since then, I’ve been examining my interactions, both on- and off-line to see if I am communicating in a similar manner. I’ve even gone back through my history to see about online battles of the past.

A couple of insights have revealed themselves along the path. First, the desire to win the argument is really fucking hardwired into my brain. Like the most strident of the Left, I tend to use heightened vocabulary and the fact that I ingest information like a hoarder takes in Hummel figurines to beat my opponent. Second, I tend to judge the less educated with a casual disdain that automatically prevents any genuine conversation to unfold. It’s an odd snobbery only countered only by an equally dismissive anti-intellectual attitude which creates a spiral of posing and insults that prevent any sort of meaningful discourse.

For decades in my past teaching of theater and improvisation, I’ve insisted that if the audience doesn’t get it, it is the artist’s fault not the audiences. In these one-on-one situations, whether discussing politics, culture, art, or anything else, if my goal is to change minds rather than win the argument, I have to own the fact that if I am failing to get through to a particularly cemented opinion, it is my fault for not fully communicating my ideas, not them.

Finally, and the most damning of my insights, is that I tend to tailor my win at any cost pose based upon my own bias about with whom I’m battling. Once someone uses the phrase “fake news” or spout some anti-Obama spin or mention they saw something on FOX News, my demeanor changes and I’m simply no longer communicating. As soon as I hear talk of Critical Race Theory and the carrying of generational trauma, I’m fully disinvested with the conversation.

I can’t control how I am perceived (depends on which side of the tribal divide you sit on because I refuse to play the sides game) yet I can control my own perceptions. Like looking at the Boring figure, the most famous of the ambiguous illusions, I can choose to see the old woman or the young, the mouth-breathing moron or the human being I need to convince, at will.

“Oh, I’m not trying to change your mind about anything.”

I am and am failing miserably.

#Communication

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Trump’s pathetic response to the opioid epidemic

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Trump’s pathetic response to the opioid epidemic

In the event you hearken to President Donald Trump’s phrases concerning the opioid epidemic, he appears to know it’s an emergency. He declared it as one late in 2017. He has promised that he’ll do one thing about it — that he would “spend the cash,” and that “the variety of drug customers and the addicted will begin to tumble downward over a interval of years.” And he repeated these assurances at his State of the Union on Tuesday, arguing that his administration “is dedicated to combating the drug epidemic and serving to get therapy for these in want.”

In the event you take a look at Trump’s actions, effectively, it’s a really totally different story. There was no transfer by Trump’s administration to truly spend more cash on the opioid disaster. Key positions within the administration stay unfilled, even with out nominees within the case of the White Home’s drug czar workplace and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). And though the administration’s emergency declaration was renewed this month, it has led to basically no motion because it was first signed — no important new sources, no main new initiatives.

Chuck Ingoglia, a senior vice chairman on the Nationwide Council for Behavioral Well being, which advocates on habit points, summarized the final takeaway of specialists and advocates: “A variety of discuss, little motion. It’s nice that the president says it is a precedence. It’s nice that he convened a activity pressure so we’ve one other paper that claims the opioid disaster in America wants consideration. However too little has occurred to truly do something about it.”

For specialists and advocates, that is arduous to know. Taking motion on the opioid epidemic might have been a straightforward win. It’s a difficulty that crosses partisan strains, with each Democrats and Republicans angling to do one thing about it. There’s proof it’s very related to Trump’s personal base. Whereas specialists discuss needing as a lot as tens of billions of for the disaster over the following few years, that’s truly not a lot in federal price range phrases — a fraction of a p.c for a authorities that spends trillions a 12 months.

And but the Trump administration has barely budged. Past declaring a public well being emergency, the administration has performed little to nothing to fight the disaster.

That’s not as a result of the disaster is getting higher. In 2016, the newest 12 months with a full official depend, there have been practically 64,000 drug overdose deaths within the US — an all-time excessive. The rise in drug overdose deaths was a giant purpose that life expectancy fell for the second 12 months in a row within the US, which had not occurred because the early 1960s. And the early knowledge means that 2017 was worse: In line with preliminary figures from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, there have been practically 67,000 drug overdose deaths within the 12-month interval by June 2017, up from greater than 57,000 within the 12-month interval by June 2016.

If the worst tendencies proceed, STAT forecast that as many as 650,000 individuals will die inside the subsequent decade — the equal of the complete inhabitants of Baltimore.

That is the truth going through Trump, the truth through which his administration has responded with subsequent to nothing.

“The administration has performed little or no to fight the opioid epidemic so far,” Gary Mendell, founder and chair of Shatterproof, which advocates on the opioid epidemic, informed me. “That doesn’t imply they received’t sooner or later, however so far, there’s no query that the administration has performed little or no.”

Listed below are probably the most important steps that Trump and his administration have taken on the opioid epidemic over the previous 12 months:

That’s it. No main new funding, nor a push for extra funding. No massive new technique. To the extent any cash was allotted, it was largely from insurance policies that preceded Trump — such because the Cures Act, which handed in 2016 with then-President Barack Obama’s approval and allotted $1 billion over two years to the opioid disaster.

“He’s performed nothing,” Keith Humphreys, a drug coverage skilled at Stanford College, informed me, referring to federal funding particularly. “He did appoint a fee. I believe these individuals did a reasonably good job. They had been good, they listened, they got here up with plenty of good concepts. And so they’ve been ignored completely.”

Probably the most notable precise coverage change is the INTERDICT Act. This regulation’s impact, nevertheless, will probably be drastically restricted. The federal authorities has for many years tried to intercept illicit medicine earlier than they arrive into the US, however medicine have persistently gotten by in big numbers anyway. Alongside these strains, specialists are deeply skeptical that any effort to beef up border safety, together with Trump’s wall, would do a lot, if something, to cease the movement of medicine into the US.

In the meantime, Trump hasn’t appointed anybody to steer the Workplace of Nationwide Drug Management Coverage, and the workplace is mired by staffing issues — together with the hiring of a deputy chief of employees who apparently lied in components of his résumé. The drug czar’s workplace, because it’s identified colloquially, is essential to coordinating federal efforts on medicine, in line with specialists.

Trump additionally has not nominated anybody to move the DEA, which is tasked with imposing the nation’s drug legal guidelines.

In his proposals, Trump has additionally tried to chop the price range for the Workplace of Nationwide Drug Management Coverage by 95 p.c — a transfer that his group initially walked again after going through bipartisan opposition throughout final 12 months’s price range talks however reportedly could strive once more this 12 months.

His price range plan additionally proposed holding spending for habit therapy comparatively flat, whereas chopping prevention funding. The administration has additionally been silent on proposals in Congress to extend funding to the opioid epidemic, together with Democratic plans so as to add tens of billions of in spending to take care of the disaster.

And the administration supported the repeal of the Reasonably priced Care Act, which specialists credit score with increasing entry to habit therapy.

All of this provides as much as the sentiment I heard repeatedly: “It’s exceptional how little we’ve seen,” Andrew Kolodny, an opioid coverage skilled at Brandeis College, informed me. “There actually has been subsequent to no motion by the Trump administration aside from public statements.”

The Trump administration’s actions thus far, significantly by its institution of a fee to review the difficulty, recommend that the opioid epidemic’s options are some kind of massive thriller.

The fact, specialists say, is that whereas there is no such thing as a one silver bullet, we’ve plenty of good concepts about take care of the disaster.

One of many massive issues is an absence of entry to habit therapy: In line with a 2016 report by the surgeon basic, solely about 10 p.c of individuals with a substance use dysfunction get specialised therapy. The report attributed the hole, partly, to an absence of provide of therapy — a difficulty that merely requires more cash to take care of.

“I don’t suppose we don’t know what to do. We do know what to do,” Regina LaBelle, who served in Obama’s Workplace of Nationwide Drug Management Coverage, informed me. “We want cash and the technique and … political management and braveness.”

As I beforehand defined, specialists typically agree on what extra federal sources ought to go to: They could possibly be used to spice up entry to therapy (significantly extremely efficient drugs for opioid habit), pull again lax entry to opioid painkillers whereas holding them accessible to sufferers who actually want them, and undertake hurt discount insurance policies that mitigate the injury brought on by opioids and different medicine.

Advocates and specialists argue about whether or not the additional sources ought to come by Medicaid, block grants for psychological well being and habit care, or another supply. The consensus, although, is that rather more federal help is required — within the tens of billions of over the following few years.

“I used to be simply in West Virginia this week. These counties are actually devastated,” LaBelle mentioned. “I do know that’s been lined so much. However it’s actually one thing once you discuss to a county official and also you see how little cash they should put towards the epidemic.”

Some states try to noticeably confront this disaster. Vermont, for instance, has constructed a “hub and spoke” system that treats habit as a public well being subject and integrates therapy into the remainder of well being care. The state was the one one in New England to have an overdose demise fee that wasn’t considerably above the nationwide common in 2016. (For extra, try my in-depth breakdown of Vermont’s system.)

However Vermont managed to construct this new system largely with federal , significantly by Obamacare’s insurance coverage enlargement and a particular Medicaid waiver that states can acquire by the well being care regulation. It’s that type of federal help that budget-strained states might want to take care of the opioid disaster.

These are the sorts of issues and concepts that specialists say might help the nation transfer towards ending the opioid epidemic.

However in its first 12 months, the Trump administration did nothing to ensure states can arrange extra packages like Vermont’s. So the opioid epidemic continues, killing tens of 1000’s of Individuals yearly.

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