The Crew is Red Hot

Some Heatmiser came on Indie Pop Rocks (Soma FM) today over iTunes while I was at work and it totally made my day. Great that music still has that kind of power, isn't it? Makes the 8 hours of proofing a pet catalog a little more bearable each day.

Before I get into today's post, I want to once again extend my thanks to everyone who has stuck around or come back to Veritas Lux Mea. It's been hard moving around and getting a new job and trying to blog without an internet connection, but knowing that people continue to come by day-in and day-out to see "what's up" makes it all worth it. To you, I say thanks for making this humble little blog toiling in music blog obscurity worth every second of uploading. Here's to things to come.

Featured Story: Shooting Closes San Diego Border

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The world's busiest border crossing reopened early Friday following a nine-hour closure that occurred after federal authorities shot and killed the driver of a car headed for Mexico, officials said.


U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents began following a black sport utility vehicle after somebody reported seeing it pick up suspected illegal immigrants near the U.S. side of the Otay Mesa border crossing, said Lt. Kevin Rooney of San Diego Police Department.

As traffic backed up near the border, the vehicle stopped on the shoulder. When agents approached, the suspect ''began to drive off and he veered hard to the left, trying to get back in traffic,'' Rooney said. Two agents then opened fire, he said [NY Times].

So in other words, border authorities are beginning to open fire on vehicles that fail to stop? No shooting out the tires or anything, just a couple of rounds to the ol' skull for trying to cross the border. What is this, the USA/Mexico border or the Gaza Strip?

Read the full article here
Robert Scheer: Bush more right than wrong on immigration [Truthdig]

Sports

Brewers sweep red hot Phillies

Outside of the Detroit Tigers, nobody has been hotter this past month than the Philadelphia Phillies, who won 13 of 14 games coming into the series with Milwaukee. That made Milwaukee's recent three-game sweep of Philly that much sweeter.

Geoff Jenkins two-run double in the seventh inning helped Milwaukee to a 5-4 win. Wednesday night, Jenkins hit a two-out RBI single to lead the Brewers to a win.

Now, if only Ricky Weeks could stop making errors...

Yahoo Sports coverage of the Brewers-Phillies series
Jeff Passan article on Phillies young phenom Cole Hammels

Music

Fellow Wisconsin blogger Ryan was lucky enough to catch Pearl Jam in Chicago last night. I've seen them twice (Alpine Valley, WI and Pittsburgh, PA) and they were amazing both times. I can only imagine how incredibly great the Chi-Town show was, but if you don't take my word for it, take his.

I'm still working on pulling together a list of what I consider to be truly great covers, but in the meantime, check out these Nouvell Vague tracks.

Nouvelle Vague - "The Killing Moon"
Nouvelle Vague - "O Pamela"
Nouvelle Vague - "Dancing With Myself"

Various music to get you through the weekend:

The Ramones - "Oh Oh I Lover Her So"
Social Distortion - "Story of My Life"

Some old-school hip hop and R&B for my boys K (Analog Giant) and Kevin (So Much Silence).

Beastie Boys - "Paul Revere"
Grandmaster Flash - "White Lines"
Jackson 5 - "Rocking Robin"

Some Rilo...

Rilo Kiley - "The Execution of All Things"

Last but not least, two great Friday songs...

(not) Jimmy Buffet - "Margaritaville" (thanks Dan)
Butthole Surfers - "I Hate My Job"