I've been reading a lot of books lately having to do with rock and roll. Rock criticism. Rock critic fiction. Rock biography. Rock autobiography. All of which is somewhat oxymoronic, since rock, in its early days, would kick convention in the butt on a regular basis. Having it somehow canonized in libraries across the country is weird, but it is a literary bonanza that generally slips through the colander held by book banning folks and political correctness mavens all over. One of these days, they will get around to reviling Never Mind The Pollacks. Instead, that book, and others such as Marshall Chapman's autobiographical stories, will sit on the shelves and hint at their quasi-subversiveness to the unsuspecting library browser. At the very least, they'll get their readers to hunt down some music.

I've also been ODing on the NOLA blogosphere, as usual, and there is a highly one-sided media tug o' war out there concerning this area and what is really going on, which is the other reason why I need to get my blogroll on. I kvetched about this some in my last post, but many other blogging folks and media writers and outlets have taken it much further.

Local columnist Lolis Eric Elie put this one out to the readers of the Washington Post, and I agree with a fellow NOLA blogger that everyone has to read it. Required reading for America, people! Pass it on...

However, meanwhile, back at the ranch, this guy does a complete kowtow to our walking id of a mayor in this article. I hated seeing this in the paper and I hated having to slog through it to simply confirm that it wasn't breaking any new journalistic ground. I had to laugh when Nagin implied that there was some political prodding behind the January 11th march on City Hall. Otherwise, the article simply attempted to to put a happy face on what is clearly a sad situation in local leadership.

Then, yesterday morning, I heard a song from my pre-college and college days that got me thinking a little more about my current reading materials. So, to you who played the Violent Femmes' "Add It Up" on the radio, just for me, seemingly (and hey, radio deejay, you tried to turn down the volume on those words in the song that rhyme with luck, but I'm here to say that the FCC has got your number...), I've got another one for you that EVERYONE along the Gulf Coast and the greater N.O. area can sing along to. Well, it's not just for you - sing this one to every ineffectual politician, every journalist who doesn't want to work a little harder to get the real story, everyone who questions why New Orleans should be rebuilt, ... sing it if you're sad and angry. It helps some. Really.