WE'VE GOT ARMADILLOS IN OUR TROUSERS. IT'S REALLY QUITE FRIGHTENING.

This is Spinal Tap is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

The actual anniversary was a couple of months ago, but I mention it now because they’ve released a new track – from their unfinished musical about Jack The Ripper that they mention near the end of the film.

It’s called “Saucy Jack”. And you can download it here (though you’ll need to give them yr email address).

As you might guess, I’m a huge fan of the Tap. Apart from being a funny and by most accounts accurate send-up of the rock’n’roll business – as well as a masterclass in improv – it’s also one of the greatest practical jokes in cinema history. It’s amazing how many people thought this was a real documentary about a real band. And I’ve heard Harry Shearer tell stories about how the first time Spinal Tap went on a real tour to promote the movie, half the audience at their shows “just thought we were the loud band in town that night”.

Genius. Though maybe you need a certain sense of humor to get it. And a certain taste in music.

Anyway, here’s one of my favorite bits: the drummer problem.

FACT: I saw them play live at Starwood Amphitheatre in Nashville during their Break Like The Wind tour in 1992. Great fun. The actors used to joke about how "bad" the music was, but I think actually their soundtrack album is fantastic. I don't think the concept would have worked as well if the music had been crap.

A fine line between stupid and clever,

This is dF

PHOTOS? I KNOW NO PHOTOS ...

ITEM: A new bill jointly sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, called The Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009, aims to retroactively change the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) so that any "photograph taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States" can be suppressed by the govt – provided the govt feels they might "endanger" American citizens or troops.

Put another way, the bill would allow the White House to block the release of detainee torture photos even if a judge ordered them to be released under the FOIA criteria.

Put another way, it means the White House would have the power to cover up photographic evidence of torture.

The Obama Admin actively supports this bill.

Glenn Greenwald explains why this matters:

What makes all of this even worse is that it is part of a broader trend whereby the Government simply retroactively changes the law whenever it decides it does not want to abide by it.  For decades, we had laws in place authorizing citizens to sue their telecommunication carriers if the telecoms allowed government spying on their communications in violation of the law, but when it was revealed that the telecoms did exactly this, the Congress simply changed the law retroactively so that it no longer applied.  For decades, we had laws imposing civil and criminal liability on government officials who engaged in or authorized torture, but when it was revealed that our government did that, the Congress just retroactively changed the law to protect the torturers.  And now that courts have ruled that our decades-old transparency law compels disclosure of this torture evidence, the Congress is just going to retroactively change the law -- again -- this time to empower the President to suppress that evidence anyway.

You know ... this isn’t exactly the “change” I was hoping for.

Make it go away,

This is dF

WHATEVER YOU DO, NEVER, EVER CUT THE BLACK WIRE

ITEM: Threat Level’s Kim Zetter tells the one about how a a construction crew working on an office building in Virginia in 2000 cut a fiber optic cable that wasn’t on anyone’s map. Turns out it was a ‘black line’ used for carrying secret intelligence data.

Within minutes of cutting the cable, three black SUV’s pulled up carrying men in suits who complained that their line was severed...

AT&T crews arrived the same day to fix the line, an unusually prompt response. When AT&T tried to bill the construction company $300,000, the company balked and the charges “just disappeared.” ...

The cut occurred in the Tysons Corner region, where the neighbors include the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center. The Central Intelligence Agency is a few miles away.

I have no idea why this story is being told nine years after the fact. So I can’t swear it’s true.

But it’s a great story anyway.

Cut off,

This is dF

THE HAPPIEST DAMN GUITARIST IN ALL JAPAN

... is Suzumiya Haruhi.



[From the collection of Danny Choo]

Though you can’t tell from the music video from the anime episode of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi that inspired this.

I’m not really a fan of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. But I rather like that guitar.

Plug it in,

This is dF