Fantastic! A-Rite and Guitar Center in one article? (AFFORDABLE CARE ACT I – SHIT BALLS – Issue: 10/30/13) Christmas came early my friend.
Here’s the thing: 10 days before the website launch, the pencil pushers decided they could allow signing up. That’s a big scope change. As in: Gene Kranz keying the microphone while Neil Armstrong is waiting on the launch pad and saying, “You know what, fellas? Little change, we’re going to Mars instead.” As someone who will be paying for Obamacare by doing stuff like this for a living, idiocy off that magnitude means that failure is not an option; it’s mandatory.
And yes, Amazon and eBay don’t have failures on Black Friday… Because they spend MILLIONS on testing in the months prior to the big event. Every year.
Shit balls stupid.
—The Doctor
Shit balls should be thrown at the president (I use the term loosely, like loose stool), Pelosi and all the shit balls who voted this crap in! I’m sure they aren’t looking online to buy this shit!
Assholes! All of them, but then again, what do assholes know? SHIT!
—Kimster
Which is why those of us who understood this from the beginning did not vote for Obama!
Which is why the Ted Cruz is my fucking hero! (He is the only one who had the BALLS to stand up in public and fight it despite every vituperative, manipulative attempt in the liberal playbook to slay him.)
Jesus H., how could people not see this coming?
—Elizabeth Vengen esq.
True. All I had to do was call my current carrier, BCBS, and they sent me a booklet to look over. We went through my income and my costs, and I have an appointment with them next week. They will sign me up. See what happens when people work together? I might even be able to afford to send my son to college. Wow.
—Laura DeBona
Why blame Ted Cruz? Why wish him to drive off a cliff? He was right. Are we so blinded by politics that we can’t give a guy credit for being right if he opposes “my guy?”
That’s why things are so fucked. The GOP was right in every aspect of this. Right to oppose it, right to attempt to defund it and right to negotiate a one-year delay. What did they get in return? Praise for being correct? Nope, they got called terrorists and what are the Democrats doing now to earn praise? Yep, you guessed it…negotiating a one-year delay.
We’re fucked.
Peace,
—Bill Roberts
If they had let the gambling or porn industry run it, it would have worked out of the box.
Cheers,
—Sam
Your Lou Reed eulogy is one of the finest things I have read about the honesty and clarity of rock and roll when it is done right, and Lou always did it right. (LOU REED – 1942 – 2013 – Issue: 11/6/13) I too will never forget what Lou gave us, the grime, the spit, the blood, sweat and tears of it all. He is one of the great New York City poets, and you provided him the proper send off. Thank you.
—Sarah M.
Lou Reed’s just a fucking genius…ultimately. He’s doing that early-to-mid ‘70s/early ‘80s punk movement in 1969. He’s already there with everything everyone else does 10, 15 years later, that we think is groundbreaking in 1977, the year punk broke, well…The Velvet Underground was doing it in the late ‘60s. Now that’s being ahead of your fucking time.
Then the early Lou Reed records? That’s a career that spans…you can’t have a Jim Carroll without Lou Reed. He’s almost Dylan-esque for that movement. He’s the Dylan for punk. It’s just…incredible. I could never write as well as Lou Reed. At least not in my head. I knew it never mattered that I was as good as anyone else, because you are who you are and as long as you do what you do that’s the important thing. I know our records are what they’re supposed to be and so are Lou’s. I realized later on I’ll be me and he can be Lou Reed, and all I have to do is enjoy him, which is really easy to do.
—Adam Duritz
Thanks for the mention, James. I’m devastated.
—Bob Ezrin
Great piece. Truly great writing. Check out my vodcast this week regarding Lou Reed: hunterthompsonfilms.com/vodcast/2013/10/30/lou-reed-the-man-who-said-no-to-hunter-thompson-2/.
Hope you’re well,
—Wayne Ewing
Lou Reed is one of those artists that you come to eventually, that you are looking for, but don’t know it yet. I was mesmerized the first time I heard The Velvet Underground. Completely blown away. I could not believe those guys were onto that stuff so early in the game. I think it reveals much of what Reed lent to the rock idiom, the way Dylan ignored his time and went ahead and did all those great country records when everyone else was into psychedelia and whatever the trends were then. Lou and the Velvets stirred it up, but not for fame or for fashion or to make statements. It’s as if they wanted to remain “underground.” So when you come to Lou, and you really appreciate Lou, you feel a kinship there. You feel as if you discovered something that no one else is digging. You grab onto it and you cherish it. And I cherish all those songs and records and cherish the idea of Lou and what he brought to whatever rock music turned out to be and how he influenced it. I am reminded of the legend of what someone was quoted in saying that hardly anyone bought the first Velvets album, but everyone that did started a band the next day.
James, you were able to nail all those feeling for me. And it is the first time to think about it in this way and had the chance to write it all down like this. Life moves on, doesn’t it? And sometimes you forget those things that make it magical. So, I sit at my laptop and type this out and listen to “Coney Island Baby” and think about my first discovery of great things in life, and for me Lou Reed is one of them.
—Baggons
An achingly beautiful piece. Thank you.
—L. Geller
Do yourself no favors and “like” this idiot at www.facebook.com/jc.author
James Campion is the Managing Editor of the Reality Check News & Information Desk and the author of “Deep Tank Jersey”, “Fear No Art”, “Trailing Jesus” and “Midnight for Cinderella”
