Fader Post Wavves, Crocodiles Feature from July Issue On-Line

This article is in the July Fader but was just published on-line today. It discusses soon-to-be-playing at the Che Cafe Rapid Youth and Ancient Crux (July 25th, July 31st) as well local bands Wavves and Crocodiles:

FADER

Shopping for Pagan Gods?

Sacred Source

Bronze Thor!

Krishna!

Dionysus 8"!

New Items!

TOMORROW NIGHT: Mika Miko @ the Casbah

Show poster: Mika Miko, the Sess, Atoms, August 25th, 2006.


Crowd during Mika Miko show at the Casbah, November 15th, 2006

Mika Miko Business Cats Video January 2007 (Cat Dirt Sez)

Mika Miko July Tour Dates 2009 (Cat Dirt Sez)

A Suggestion on How to Read Music Blogs w/ RSS Feeds

I think that normal adults feel overwhelmed trying to keep up with music blogs. Here is a suggestion that I have found is productive:

1. Make a list of 25 bands that you care about.
2. Add searches to your rss feeder through google blogsearch- this is easy if you use google reader.
3. Add the rss feeds from Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan & Stereogum.

Voila! You get everything you need to know about stuff you don't care about, and anytime anyone blogs or writes about a band you care about, you'll know within a day. This method is most productive for those who have professional relationships with multiple musical acts, and amateur music enthusiasts who generally take an interest in the opinion of other amateur music enthusiasts.

Seth Combs is Wrong About Heavy Hawaii

Seth Combs wrote this about Heavy Hawaii:

It was clear from Hawaii’s opening song why they don’t have a MySpace account or any music posted. Their live show was a dreadful display, sounding like a group of special-education students covering Captain Beefheart.

(SD City Beat)

I think Seth is wrong about Heavy Hawaii. I heard distinct song structure and while the vocal distortion is a "love it/hate it" thing, it was interesting to me. I also think the "no myspace" thing is cool. But just in case anyone is looking up Heavy Hawaii and see both these results in the Top 10: I thought they were good, not bad. "Special education students covering Captain Beefheart," perhaps used for a different band, is a great turn of phrase, so in that regard "Great Job."

(video) Francoise Hardy- Will You Love Me Tomorrow

From her English language release "Loving" (1969) This is pretty much how we roll at our house on a lazy sunday.

(video) Shirelles- Will You Love Me Tomorrow

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" is the title of a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

In 1960, The Shirelles released their version as Scepter single 1211, with "Boys" on the B-side.

Why not cover this song over and over again until the end? It's a hit!

The Hittite Civilization

Hittites vs. neo-Hittites.

So into it!!!

New SD Music Blog

Funny. (SD FUCKO)

Woven Bones September Tour Dates

Woven Bones is an excellent sounding Austin based band that will be touring with garage rock icons the Spits (Seattle, WA.)   They will be trudging from Omaha to NYC- with some good dates in NYC in mid-September.  Kristin G told me that Zoo Music is putting out a Woven Bones EP to hopefully coincide with said tour.  How often to the Spits play the East Coast?

Woven Bones September Tour Dates

09 01 Omaha NE.- Oleavers 

09 02 St. Paul MINN.- Turf Club !

09 03 Madison WI.-  The Frequency !

09 04 Milwaukee WI.- The Garibaldi !

09 05 Kalamazoo MI.- Louie's Trophy House Grill !

09 06 Chicago Ill.- The Double Door !

09 07 Lafayette IN- Zooleggers !

09 09 Cleveland OH- Beachland !

09 10 Rochester NY- The Bug Jar !

09 11  Brooklyn NY- Knitting Factory !

09 12 Manhattan NY- Cake Shop !

09 14 Detroit MI- The Lagerhouse @

09 16 Manhattan NY- Monster Island Basement #

09 17 New Jersey- LIVE on WFMU

09 18 Manhattan NY- Cake Shop $

09 19 Philadelphia PA-  The Pillam %

! with The Spits

@  curated by x! Records

# with Box Elders

$ with the Girls at Dawn "Midnight Till Death Party"

Eastern Influence in the Greek Adonis Cult

Adonis

If you are looking for Greek/Eastern cultural interplay, the Greek cult of Adonis is a great place to start. 

Adonis is an ancient figure, much older then the Greeks. Most modern scholars trace his roots to the Semetic hero Tammuz. in fact, his Greek name is taken from a semetic word "Adonai" which means he who is blessed (Adonai is of course instantly recognizable to Jews and well taught Christians as a Hebrew name for Yahweh.) The supposition is that dark age Greeks witnessed Semites praying to statues of Tammuz and saying something like "he is blessed" and thought that was Tammuz's name.

In Greek culture, the cult of Adonis was practiced exclusively by women. They celebrated in July, the time at which Adonis, who had been forced to spend half of his time with the living as the consort of Aphrodite and half his time with Persephone in the land of the dead, returned to the "land of the living." During the year, women in the cult of adonis would grow plants in urban areas, then during the festival they would emerge, unclothed and beating their (bare) breasts, and would throw the plants down the nearest well.

Some argue that the "return of Adonis" is the proto-resurrection that was used as the model for Jesus's return from the dead. The Jews certainly knew the story of Tammuz, that much is for sure.

But this is an interesting example of how cultures blend together, at all times, in all places and it points to the universality of human culture.

"He Who Slays the Serpent" and Fame in the Modern World

Zeus v. Typhon

There are a couple of foundational myths which occur in almost every culture traceable to the indo europeans. One of them is the story of the hero who slays a serpent, or serpent like creature. It's pictured above in the guise of Zeus v. Typhon. It also may be familiar to fans of Old Norse (Thor v. Jörmungandr), the Rig Veda (Indra described as "the one who killed the serpent."), Hittite (Baal v. Serpent), and of course who can forget St. Patrick driving the snakes from Ireland.

My point here is that these stories are similar in that they are concerned with man's quest for immortal fame.  These stories point towards the fact that the "quest for fame" is not something that we invented in the 20th century, but rather a concern that reaches to the very beginning of indo european culture and language, and indeed, might not have that desire been what made the Indo European's different from the people's they encountered during their expansion from central asia?  The desire for fame is a powerful motivator as we can attest today.

Book Review: Travelling Heroes(in the epic age of Homer) by Robin Lane Fox

Travelling Heroes (in the epic age of Homer)

by Robin Lane Fox

Knopf

p.  2008  (1st ed. US 2009)

Robin Lane Fox is a current professor of Ancient History at Oxford University, which is basically the most prestigious post of Ancient History in the entire world (English speaking or not) so he is a brilliant scholar just as a matter of course.  I would personally compare him to David Hackett Fisher in the United States, though I devoured this book in less then a day, and I gave Fisher's most recent book (biography of French explorer Champlaign) to my mother in law without bothering to read past page 50.

In Travelling Heroes Fox tackles would can loosely be described as "assorted scholarly debates over the greek epic era and sources of homeric myths."  Fox is conversant with many discplines outside of history, and in particular he uses recent archaleogical discoveries in the Middle East to buttress his argument that Homer wrote in the 8th century and the "Epic Era" was roughly 780- 720 BC as experienced by the Euboeans.

Through out the book Fox emphasizes linking mythic events to history by describing the myths in terms of physical geography that the Euboean travellers would have encountered in the 8th century B.C.

His chapter on the mountain that is presently known as Mount Aqraa is perhaps the single most illuminating chapter on any subject that I'll read about this year.  Mount Aqraa is a rather imposing looking mountain that happens to be set right next to the Sea on the Turkish/Syrian border.

It is equidistant between Greece and biblical Israel.  During the 8th century, and way, way earlier then that, the resident ethnic group was the neo-Hittite's and they worshipped a storm god named "Baal."  The Hittite's are a indo-european speaking people, and this storm god figure is consonant with Zeus, Jupiter, Odin, etc.  Anyways, the Hittite's worshipped this storm god at this mountain, and they were way, way older in terms of a civilization then either the greeks or the israelites.  So old, in fact, that the residents during the eighth century were neo-Hittites and not even the original Hittites.  Fox convincingly argues that this mountain and it's diety, similar to Zeus, made a deep impression on "dark age" greeks.  Similarly, this locus had a similar inspirational, shall we say, impact on the man writing the old testament.  In fact, Fox argues that Homer and the hypothetical author of the Bible ("J") lived within a single generation of one another.

Lane also gives other good examples of "Eastern" intrusion into Greek culture- particularly via the ancient, ancient cult of adonis (who might be the inspiration for Jesus, too.) but discredits just as many of these types of arguments, particularly those that seek to take away credit from Homer.  Overall he paints an ancient world where Greeks were eager to learn, but lacked the ability to really listen to other cultures.  

In the fine tradition of all ancient history, you can't help compare the Greek's cultural tone-deafness to our present American situation.  This book is literally filled with example of mythic names that came from Greeks not properly understanding what the "Natives"(who were more advanced in the east, and less in the west) were telling them.  It's similar to what happens here with Native American place names, although there the mistakes are always literal, i.e. monkey island because a Greek misheard an Etruscan and the Etruscan word sounded like the greek word for "monkey."

Fox undoubtably takes some positions on specific dates and arguments that will arouse opposition but I didn't take all of what he wrote as true, it's quite easy to identify places where he is simply arguing a position and doesn't have enough evidence.  Specifically- the top of Mount Aqraa is a restricted Turkish military zone and no archaeological work has been done there in close to a century.

Maino ft T-pain - All The Above [official video]

Why People Who Criticize Music for "Lack of Originality" Are Idiots

I often read criticisms of musical artists which focus on a perceived "lack of orginality." I think those people are morons. Here's why:

Before the advent of the printing press, the very transmittal of knowledge required skillful copying. In fact, before world wide adoption of the printing press, many cultures would criticize anything that wasn't a direct copy of something already in existence.

Copying is more integral to the very idea of knowledge and art then is originality. What is the point of originality? 99% of "originality" driven by the ego of an individual who simply doesn't realize that their vision has no relationship to anyone other then themselves. On the other hand, if something "new" is disseminated, it's very dissemination REQUIRES copying- whether that be mechanical production of compact discs or other artists duplicating their sound. The fact is that the later "copying" validates the original, and thus serves as a positive force for the original artist.

This criticism has nothing to do with marketing music or record sales or anything like that, it's more about the way individuals regard the world around them. The trend in modernity is to focus on the new, the novel, like crows pecking at shiny objects. This is a recent and arguably harmful trend. For most of history, humans who actually thought about things like religion, law or art valued repetition and copying. In my opinion, that old approach is more "human" and closer to who we are as beings, then is the new.

The very rate at which those reading this blog adopt and discard new ideas is a problem that is exacerbated in every way by technology- and such has been the case since the printing press. For every positive new idea there are a dozen harmful ideas and a million irrelevant ideas. Same for music, same for books. We need less, of everything.

Those critics are nothing more then a sad echo of Herman Melville's morose clerk Bartleby the Scrivener, responding to each succesive artistic endeavor with a pouty sniff and a muttered "I would prefer not to."

So to those who criticize music for "not being original" or "sounding too much like x." I say- maybe it is your written opinion that the world does not need.

Tonight @ Soda Bar: BEATERS

Single Screen Records Showcase: Beaters, Charles Musket, Illuminauts at Soda Bar.

Soda Bar shows don't start before 10 PM in my experience.

Trash Talk Hard Core

Well you listen to Fucked Up, don't you? Hard Core never died.  And they're from Sacramento.

Trash Talk (myspace)

Why Commenters Are the Worst Part Of Amateur Music Enthusiast Culture on the Web

This isn't just about music- it's about all internet sites everywhere. Commenting may be an integral part of the internet/media world, but it's a shitty part of that world. Commenters are, by and large, total idiots. The trolls who make up 95% of the comments made on the internet, are dwarfed by the 95% of internet readers who never make a single comment.

When you think about the context of a music blog, you have to ask what commenters add to the mix. They're going to read the post anyway- who cares what they think about the post? The writer of the blog KNOWS what his/her readership will think before they post, so there is no "feedback" potential. It does demonstrate interest level among amateur enthusiasts, but that function is vastly outweighed by the inferiority of the discourse. In the context of music blogs, comment culture is the media equivalent of feeding Christians to the Lions: It keeps the plebeians distracted from their own misery.

It's kind of like the jury that sentenced Socrates to death: Nice that Athens had a jury system way back when- democratic even- but those jurors were obviously idiots, because they voted to kill one of the greatest philsophers in the history of the world.

So I saw, you're better off without people who "like to comment."

No More Comments Ever

God I fucking hate internet commenting culture. Regular commenters on this blog- there are maybe 2- you are excepted.

All Leather July August Tour Dates

The time Justin got on Jerry Springer...

The relationship between Justin Pearson and all the recent bands coming out of San Diego has yet to be discussed (certainly he is a source of inspiration) but his own work in the Locust and All Leather has contained a heavy amount of spectacle.

All Leather is doing some heavy east coast dates w/ Chinese Stars and touring along the way. They play the Che Cafe w/ Rapid Youth, Kevin Greenspon and Made in Mexico on July 25th. Tickets for that show are $5-8 (sliding scale.)

07 19 Monterrey (MX? CA?)- Garage

07 24 Irvine CA- UC Irvine @

07 25 San Diego CA- Che Cafe @

07 31 Los Angeles CA- The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock #

08 06 Los Angeles CA- The Echo $

08 10 Chicago Ill- Ronny's Bar

08 11 Detroit MI- The Garden Bowl

08 14 New York, NY- Webster Hall !

08 16 Providence, RI- Dark Lady !

08 17 Allston, MA- Harpers Ferry !

08 18 Philladelphia PA.- The Barber !
! w/ Chinese Stars

@ w/ Made in Mexico

# w/ Upsilon Acrux

$ w/ Quintron and Ms Pussycat

Michael Zimmerman Designed Show Posters Are Cool

Michael Zimmerman Flyer Art Gallery

Michael Zimmerman Flyer Art Gallery

Shark Attack is Back and they Are Ready to Perform LIVE!!!

MY SHOOS IZ WET! U HAZ DRY WONS?

Seth Combs "profiles" Shark Attack. (San Diego City Beat)

Exhibit "A" in "scenesters hate shark attack" (this is circa 2007.) (Cat Dirt Sez)

Unlike all those haters who call Patrick Heaney a "fag"- which is homophobic- by the way! I think what he has accomplished in establishing his gay identity as an artist and a performer is admirable. And this blog WILL NOT be a forum for bashing Patrick's homesexuality or his art. It takes courage for him to identify publically as a homosexual- even in this day and age, and he deserves support for that stand.

They are playing live at Voyeur tonight and doing a dj set tomorrow night at Voyeur. Voyeur is the new gaslamp venue/club run by Erica Jessup, formerly of the Beauty Bar when it didn't totally suck, and it occupies the space vacated by Ole Madrid.

Please don't leave any comments on this post- I won't publish them. Thx.

New Band (to me) Aunt Dracula

From Philadelphia PA (myspace)

Beaters Post

Check out the Beaters @ Soda Bar Saturday night. If they can get more then 2 7"s out before the end of the year it could be something. They are also playing that killer Best Coast/Pearl Harbor show on July 17th at the Whistle Stop. I'm not even going to write about the July 17th show because I want to be able to see the bands and the Whistle Stop sucks when it's crowded. Why isn't that show at a bigger venue? I just wanted to convey a message from the very top: "Go slow- take it easy- see what happens, no rush."

Wait, Did Michael Jackson Die or Something?

...

Dirty Projectors w/ Rafter @ The Casbah

I like this band because appreciating them requires as much mental energy as I take to read 400 page books about ancient religions. @ the Casbah tonight w/ Rafter.

2007 Was A Year: A History of San Diego Popular Music

I did 2006 last month. This is 2007:

I. 2007

II. The Press

1. Thoughts on Covering a Local Music Scene as a Journalist January 7th, 2007.

2. The San Diego Union Tribune is Totally on Top of This Coachella Thing January 23rd, 2007.

3. The San Diego Readers Cool San Diego Issue is Frequently Hilarious April 19th, 2007.

4. No Age Garners National Attention May 22nd 2007.

5. Left Unanswered "What the Fuck is a Skull Kontrol?" (Mario Orduno Interview) !

6. San Diego City Beat Thinks I'm A Woman

7. Cat Dirt Sez Quoted by Le Monde Twice (San Diego Fire) October 25th, 2007.

III. The Scene

1. Show Review: Muslims and Vultures @ the Beauty Bar (muslims/soft pack first show) January 7th, 2007.

2. Show Preview: First Anti Monday League @ the Casbah January 8th, 2007.

3. Show Review: The Muslims and No Age @ The Beauty Bar January 21st, 2007.

4. Show Review: Delta Spirit are the Next Cold War Kids February 4th, 2007.

5. Show Review: The Muslims @ the Che Cafe March 11th, 2007.

6. Show Review: Grand Ole Pary & The Muslims @ SD House Parties spo May 27th, 2007.

7. Show Review:949 Ind ependence Jam June 11th, 2007.

8. Thank You! (Sessions Fest 2007) September 16th, 2007.

9. Show Review: "The" Fest @ The Casbah October 6th, 2007.

10. A Very Hipster Halloween @ The Casbah October 31st, 2007.

IV. Outside San Diego

1. Los Angeles, CA Little Radio New Year's Eve January 1st, 2007; Show Review: Daft Punk in LA July 22nd, 2007.

2. Coachella, CA. Coachella 2007: The Sweetest Corn on the Cob is Mexican Corn on the Cob May 1st, 2007.

3. Mexicali Mexico. Show Review: Fifty on Their Heels in Mexicali May 13th, 2007.

4. Las Vegas, NV Expeditionary Force Summary Las Vegas August 12th, 2007.

! 120 comments on that post.

San Diego is Blowin' Up

BLOWIN UP Y'ALL!!1

Crocodiles European Tour Dates

CROCODILES (US, Fat Possum)
Support: TBA

Už už jsme si mysleli že mejdanem s Tar...Feathers končí z naší strany tahle sezóna a budem se moct nadechnout k Velký legraci na začátku srpna v Kutný Hoře, ale z čistýho nebe se nachomýtla příležitost udělat v Praze last minute koncert kapele, kterou by bylo hřích odmítnout. CROCODILES je duo Charles Rowell a Brandon Welchez, jsou ze San Diega a nejde o žádný začátečníky – oba hráli v rozpuštěných The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, navíc Rowell taky v Some Girls. To co ale hrajou Crocodiles je pevně zakořeněný v kytarový hudbě 80tých letech – nakonec podle jedný desky Bunnymen se tihle chlapíci pojmenovali. Klidně můžete ohrnout nos nad očividnou kopírkou Jesus And Mary Chain (nebo Raveonettes, jestli neradi listujete v historii bigbítu tak daleko), nám je tahle slabůstka Krokodýlů pro jen-tak-tak-k-vydržení vybuzený skřípění kytar, postvelvetovský riffy a páskovskej zpěv zpoza slunečních brejlí hodně sympatická. Retro tohohle modelu, ve kterým Crocodiles rozhodně nejedou sami (třeba s Crystal Stilts nebo A Place To Bury Strangers by asi našli společný téma hovoru) je milý, když se dělá dobře. Navíc Crocodiles to dokážo na pódiu pěkně rozjet, a to jen ve dvou.

11 07 PARADISO Amsterdam

12 07 OLD BLUE LAST London !

14 07 K4 Nurnburg
15 07 BANG BANG CLUB Berlin
17 07 CLUB 007 STRAHOV Prague
21 07 HANA BI Ravenna
22 07 PARKLIFE FESTIVAL Milan
23 07 MAKEUP CLUB Ghent
24 07 FREE BUTT Brighton
25 07 TRAMLINES FESTIVAL Sheffield
26 07 CHAMELEON Nottingham
26 07 ROYAL Derby
28 07 STEREO Glasgow
30 07 WHELANS Dublin
31 07 CHORLTON IRISH CLUB Manchester
01 08 CLWB IFOR BACH Cardiff
04 08 BARDENS BOUDOIR London

Question: How many of these venues have air conditioning? And: What, no Poupee de Son in Paris? Shame.

Crime Watch: Cruise Ships Becoming Preferred Escape Method for Fugitives?

Accused Molester Arrested on Cruise Ship (Channel 10 News)

July Music Events in San Diego CA.

07 09 Casbah Dirty Projectors, Rafter

07 11 Soda Bar Single Screen Records Showcase: Beaters, Charles Musket, Illuminatus

07 14 Casbah Mika Miko, Audacity, Beaters, Shannon and the Clams

07 20 Soda Bar Meth Teeth, Christmas Island, Fag Cop

07 24 Soda Bar Spirit Photography, BRAAAINS!!!, XYX, Blue Jungle

07 25 Che Cafe Made in Mexico, All Leather, Kevin Greenspon, Rapid Youth

07 30 Soda Bar Japandroids, Happy Hollows, Roxy Jones

07 31 Che Cafe Blank Tapes, Ancient Crux, Sunday Times, Aristides

Book Reviews from 2007

03 14 Imperial Berlin by Gerhard Masur

04 03 The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business by Alfred D. Chandler

04 19 Dynamite! by Louis Adamic

05 06 Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of a Modern City by Scott L. Bottles

05 28 The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon

06 07 The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northern Plains by John C. Ewers

06 16 Teen Age by John Savage

06 20 Revolution in Time by David Landes

06 28 North American Deserts by Edmund C. Jaeger

07 17 People v. Clarence Darrow by Geofrey Cowan

07 30 Divided Highways by Tom Lewis

11 05 Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon *

* = requires above average effort level.

gorrillavsbear mid year top ten

(GORILLAVSBEAR)

Show Review: Strange Boys, Coathangers, Heavy Hawaii, Anasazis @ Casbah 7/6/9

I. The Anasazis

This band has a US tour starting next week: it looks like a real death march. This was my second viewing after receiving extremely positive word-of-mouth. This time I thought I noticed improvement in the drumming style. It was more Crystal Stilts and less Beat Happening. If you're going to do the lo fi thing I think you need to get the drum sounds right- I see similar questions that need to be addressed by Christmas Island. I think it needs to be put out there that the lead singer of the Ansazis, who I believe is Chris Rosi (as supposed to Chris Eck, who also plays guitar and sings) looks like Buddy Holly. That's just a fact and I'm sure photographs will confirm it. But I'm here to report that they had a crowd that showed up (relatively) early to see them perform. The audience enjoyed their music.

Here are some Anasazis dates for my out-of-town readers: playing the Smell in Los Angeles, CA on July 13th; New York City on July 24th at Don Pedros.

II. Heavy Hawaii

Has zero friends on myspace, which is just awesome. How fin is that? This is the best scene band ever- it's a three piece that features a cat on harmonium. The sound is v. Animal Collective, Deerhunter w/ wierd modulation on the vox that will appeal to some and irritate the haters. I liked it, crowd liked it. This is a band that should, ideally, put out three seven inches: first one in Chicago on Hozac Records, then one in New York on Captured Tracks, then one locally. That is the scene triangle right there. I promised my wife I wouldn't blog about the 'scene' but again, I just wanted to throw that idea out there: release all three seven inches in succession #1 in fall, #2 right before end of the year (for top 10 lists), #3 in the spring, tour w/ all three to sxsw and enjoy your Stereogum band to watch feature next May.

Joking aside, I really enjoyed Heavy Hawaii, recommend them to all and dig on the whole mystery angle. I support mysticism and wierdness by music acts.

III. Coathangers

Olympia/DC style girl punk from the ATL, this band had me in mind of Slant 6 and Bratmobile. They feature a keyboardist that ads a certain panache. Although I think I actually wanted to see Coathangers more then any other single band, their set left me with questions. Questions that didn't prevent me from buying all their merch and generally considering them adorable, but questions. Questions about the songwriting, mostly. I didn't hear any hits. I doubt they give a fuck about hits, and certainly they had a bigger crowd then 95% of like acts touring through the area, so it's hard to dish out any criticsm. I mean, I listen to the full length all the time.

IV. Strange Boys

I haven't been tracking on this band, and their set got pushed past midnight so I stayed for maybe a song or two. I want to point out that I saw many people carrying around the vinyl they brought, that the crowd was bigger then for any like event I've been to the Casbah at over the last several years, and that this was on the Monday after the fourth of july.

How to explain the high attendance? I have no answers. I suppose it's a "peak" on the sine wave that is amateur music enthusiasm. I would say that shows of this type are drawing more amateur music enthusiasts who have historically been unfamiliar with the Art Fag sound. I think that interest has been 'sparked' by the commerical success of similar artists.

I think the local bands who are involved here need to reach out to indie labels in other key markets- specifically nyc and chicago and use that relationship to generate interest there, and then use the cross current to spark national interest through the blogs.