SOMEDAY ALL THIS WILL BE PICTURESQUE RUINS: Final Mountain Goats post (for now).

First, some links from others. Light on Dark Water talks about the gallows humor of Tallahassee.

AM suggests that Goats fans check out Wovenhand, and offers this ferocious, Soviet-surrealism video as evidence. (He says it "would fit well with your 'so far from God so far from the United States' tag.") Well worth your time. I haven't read this interview yet.

And both CR and HEAR pointed me toward this video of Darnielle covering Ace of Base. Awesome. I love watching people love things.

And now some short notes on albums.

We Shall All Be Healed: This grew on me. (Like a fungus, yes, I know.) At first it's scraps and postcards and bad broken memories from a really unpleasant time of life, a friend handcuffed to a hospital bed; and then it sort of comes together into the getting-clean album, cotton balls in the top drawer. The persistent punishment of not being trusted. There's a lot of resignation to consequences ("You're gonna do what you want to do, no matter what I ask of you," which works both ways, from the addict to the cop or from the lover to the addict). Man, this guy really tries hard to hope in a hard-up world.

The Life of the World to Come: Another entry in the death-haunted art of friendship, with song titles from Scripture, sometimes comforting and sometimes... the other things that Scripture is. "And if my prayer go unanswered, that's okay" reminded me of the Weakerthans' "I want to call requests down heating vents/and hear them answered with a whispered 'no'," and in general I could just point you to my Weakerthans review piece instead of writing about this album.

The title of the last song pretty much says it all: "Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace."

All Eternals Deck: "Estate Sale Sign": Yeah, if you liked Everything Must Go you might check this one out too. Similar metaphor, similar meaning, similarly awesome, with the urgency acknowledged rather than denied as long as possible.

"The Autopsy Garland": "Deco cufflinks and cognac by the glass," REALLY nice use of hard consonants. "You don't want to see these guys without their masks on. Or their gloves."

I know the title of this song is the reason I had this thought, but it's still true: Fans of the MGs should read Kathy Shaidle's poetry.

I pose before a lined and numbered wall,
my head like shot-glassed whisky.

JUST MAKE ME SOMETHING SOMEBODY CAN USE: It occurred to me that my earlier post on crisis pregnancy counseling--specifically, the issue of complicity with the client vs. complicity with the "system"--might shed some light on what my admittedly over-abstract discussion of conservatism looks like in practice.

She's my bus seductress, she smells of old cash,
Drinks Guinness off-duty, eats blogwatch and mash...

Light on Dark Water: "The Truth Hurts So This Should Be Painless"....

Megan McArdle: A reading list for an economic crisis. You know, in case you happen to run into one somewhere.

Postmodern Conservative: Ten songs for mass transit.

Claw of the Conciliator tipped me off to a fascinating interview with John K. of Propagandhi and (more relevantly to my interests!) the Weakerthans, in the current issue of Winnipeg's Geez magazine. Includes quite a bit of stuff about his religious upbringing and its influence on his songwriting.... Not online, but you can order it here.

And this poem, which I found via this interview with Helen Rittelmeyer, is much weirder and more awesome than it might at first appear. Check it out!

CHANGE THE OIL AND OIL THE SQUEAKS...: Just realized yet another of the five thousand things I love about the Weakerthans: They can sound like the most sentimental, wailiest country; with lyrics about Bigfoot, which are also lyrics about sublimity.

THE FOUNTAIN OF BETHESDA, MD: Claw of the Conciliator writes,

Just saw your new Weakerthans article. Just FYI, in case you don't know: St. Boniface and St. Vital are the names of two neighborhoods here in Winnipeg. St. Boniface is the historically French one, and St. Vital is a fairly upper-middle-class one that people make a lot of jokes about. I guess because it's got a high proportion of rich kids with time on their hands there's a lot of wild parties and whatnot.

I did not know that! Because the alternative would make me look dumb (and, to be fair, the line does specifically ask for the saints'/neighborhoods' intercession), I stick to the story that it's a double reference....

"LITURGY OF THE OTHER HOURS": In which I rant about the Weakerthans, at Godspy.