One of the worst things about July 4th on the Mall is leaving the Mall when it’s done. DC likes to use the exodus as an opportunity to experiment with its emergency evacuation traffic plans, so if you drive you’ll never know quite where you’re going to end up. And honestly, the Metro isn’t exactly head and shoulders above driving (consider that you’ll be packed in - shoulder to shoulder if you’re lucky, shoulder to head if you’re not - next to people who’ve spent alllll daay on the Mall.) So what to do? Ride down.
If you need help finding a path, Bike Washington has an excellent map of commuting trails (if you’re coming from VA, I’d suggest using the Roosevelt or 14th St. bridges - Memorial will be overrun with people). And what to do once you’re there? WashCycle tells us that :
WABA will be offering two free valet bike parking locations as a way to encourage more people to ride their bikes to the fireworks. The bike valets will be located at 15th and Independence Ave SW and on the south side of the Lincoln Memorial. Both valets will be in operation from 2pm to 10pm.
If you’re not really feeling the insanity of the Mall, but want to see the fireworks up close, ride over to the Iwo Jima Memorial (grab a space on the lawn by the Netherlands Carillon). You won’t be the only one there, but it’s much more manageable. Enjoy the day.
This week’s Midweek Makeover comes courtesy of Peej, commenter extraordinaire and friend. Many many thanks for this, Peej.
I think there is definitely an art to making a good cover. There is a delicate balance to be struck between paying appropriate homage to the original, and putting your individual stamp on it. The cover has to reel in new fans, while retaining the old. You don’t want to be the New Coke version, pleasing no one but yourself.
Of course, all that goes out the window if you just happen to really like that particular cover. And that’s what great about covers; there’s definite rules to play by, except when there isn’t.
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It is a clever cover (or, as was the case here, a parody, which is a cover after all) that surpasses recognition of the original, especially when we’re talking about a classic. It is a brilliant one that exorcises the hold the first cover has over your mind. (Until the next time you remember the parody, of course).
Don’t Fear the Reaper covered by Gus (Scream soundtrack)
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Not all covers have to have a higher goal in life, but it certainly helps if they help make your 70s’ guilty pleasures acceptable to blast and sing along to out loud.
Top of the World covered by Shonen Knife (The Last Supper soundtrack and If I Were a A Carpenter tribute album)
I Think I Love You covered by Voice of the Beehive (Honey Lingers album)
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Covering Queen songs is sacrilege in my eyes. Unless it is done by Rolf Harris, of course.
Bohemian Rhapsody covered by Rolf Harris (release unknown)
College a cappella covers. A lovely little subcategory that can make songs you’ve heard played to death sound fresh and exciting again. It’s only fair that I give a shout out to my alma mater’s award winning group. Please note the kick ass female beatboxer.
How to Save a Life covered by Rutgers Deep Treble (Take the Cake album)
I am sure somewhere some Police fan is going to yell (as much as I would, if anyone dared suggest someone sang a Queen song better than Freddie) when I say I think this is miles better than Sting’s version. But then, I am always right about these things, and everyone else is always wrong, so that’s okay.
El Tango De Roxanne covered by Ewan McGregor, Jose Feliciano and Jacek Koman (Moulin Rouge soundtrack)
The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”
[ . . . ]
The 1957 article from which the chart was copied was entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War” and written by Alfred D. Biderman, a sociologist then working for the Air Force, who died in 2003. Mr. Biderman had interviewed American prisoners returning from North Korea, some of whom had been filmed by their Chinese interrogators confessing to germ warfare and other atrocities.
That’s right. The US national security hinges upon (to hear the President and his defenders tell it) adherence to Chinese-developed torture techniques studied and determined to result in false confessions. And what was on this chart, exactly?
The chart also listed other techniques used by the Chinese, including “Semi-Starvation,” “Exploitation of Wounds,” and “Filthy, Infested Surroundings,” and with their effects: “Makes Victim Dependent on Interrogator,” “Weakens Mental and Physical Ability to Resist,” and “Reduces Prisoner to ‘Animal Level’ Concerns.”
The only change made in the chart presented at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”
We - as in me and you - need to make holding everyone involved in the adoption of torture by the US gov’t to account.
Apparently it’s been a confusing issue for the United States.
This is the cell on Robben Island that he spent 17 years in:
Remember, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. And I never needed the US government to tell me which Nelson Mandela was. Neither should you.
Today’s the day that Canada officially marks as its birthday, when it joined the east and west coast provinces with a rail line or something typically socialist like that. And remember, Queen Elizabeth is still in charge, so it’s not a Canadian independence day celebration or anything.
But, since their dollar is still worth more than ours, I ought not mock too loudy. In fact, I’ll repost Cory Doctorow’s link to this most excellent song about the War of 1812. Not only do you get a little bit of that rarity - Canadian Aggressiveness - but I think I even hear some pride in there. If you’re still not convinced, check the lyrics:
In 1812 Madison was mad,
He was the president you know.
Well he thought he’d tell the British where they ought to go.
He thought he’d invade Canada,
He thought that he was tough.
Instead we went to Washington,
And burned down all his stuff.
And the White House burned, burned, burned.
And we’re the ones that did it,
Who do you think has to suffer more for their work? The Log Cabin Republicans trying to make a case for John McCain as a friend or the National Black Republican Association attacking Obama’s racist party?
