Crisis within CDC is spilling into real world, experts say by Elizabeth Cooney
The currently Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services operates with a dangerous combination of proud ignorance and craving for validation through obedience. That horrid melding of toxic traits is leading directly to a disassembling of national systems that he can’t possibly understanding, which in turn will lead to countless U.S. citizens dying needlessly. It really is as simple as that: The current administration is killing people through idiocy and blatant mismanagement. Writing for the invaluable medical news website STAT, Elizabeth Cooney details the damage being done as Republicans at all levels of government allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be utterly demolished.
Ketanji Brown Jackson Stops Just Short of Saying the Supreme Court Is Breathtakingly Full of Shit by Madiba K. Dennie
It wasn’t that long ago I shared an article about Ketanji Brown Jackson standing as the only strident voice in opposition of the Supreme Court of the United States effectively turning its back on consistency in law to, by majority, serve the appalling desires of far-right conservatives. Here is another example of impassioned writing in celebration of the good Justice’s lonely work. Madiba K. Dennie writes this for Balls & Strikes.
The Alternative Number Ones: Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” by Tom Breihan
As I’ve shared previously, of the songs that I was compelled to play with ludicrous repetition during my tenure as a commercial alternative DJ, there were only two that I enjoyed all the way through. Alanis Morisette’s “You Oughta Know” was one of them. Over at Stereogum, Tom Breihan has arrived at the Canadian belter’s breakthrough hit in his series that tracks through all chart toppers in the history of Billboard‘s alternative singles chart, and his cataloging of its derivation and strengths is absolutely wonderful. Well, can you feel it?
Discover more from Coffee for Two
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Coffee for Two 
Thanks for the Stereogum link to “You Oughta Know”. I’m surprised I was able to read it since the Alternative Number Ones are paywalled. (I’d like to check out more, but the idea of Yet Another Subscription turns me off.)
Do you have more stories from your “commercial alternative” DJ days? I’d be interested to hear what it was like. I listened to that format a bit around that time, mostly because there wasn’t that many options in radio where I was living. (There was a decent college station but I was often out of range until they boosted their wattage.) I remember the DJs on said commercial alternative station being pretty dreadful, though.
That Stereogum link was one of those gift links that allow for other people to sample them.
I’ve got loads of stories from my time in commercial radio, most of which haven’t made their way here because they tend to be grumpier than the usual vibe I’m going for with Radio Days posts. Still, a few of them showed up in this survey of all the tracks the station added in the spring of 1995 and this post about a song I was forced to play a ludicrous number of times.
I think I could have enjoyed working at a commercial alternative station just a couple years earlier, when the format still felt like a singles-oriented college radio station with strong variety. By the time I landed, alternative rock was morphing from anything-outside-of-the-mainstream to sounds-like-Pearl-Jam. The station was also under the direction of national consultants telling us what to play, which was similarly mind-numbing for me.
I had some good experiences there, but also figured out that commercial radio wasn’t for me.
I know you don’t want to be grumpy here on your blog, but I’ll allow ya to. 😀
That indeed was a weird time to start working as a “commercial alternative” DJ. That radio station I mentioned, Radio 104 (WMRQ-FM 104.1) went live at the end of 1994, when going live meant playing Live. I swear that it was “Lightning Crashes” every hour. The selection was never great (watching MTV made you more informed about good music), but I was young and broke and in cars with crappy (or non-functional) tape decks, and Radio 104 was powerful enough to be picked up in most of Connecticut.
And the DJ’s? Oof. I remember that the first month there was no DJs, and it was probably better than what followed. I got the feeling that most of them had no understanding of alternative music, and didn’t care to. During their token local bands show, stuck on Sunday night, they referred to my friend’s ska band as “one of those horns bands”, as it was still a year before No Doubt (barely ska at that point) broke, and the DJs had no clue what ska was.
The only “personality” I remember was “Kevin The Afternoon Guy”, because that moniker was so dumb yet more memorable than the other names. He showed up to some show because the radio station somehow sponsored it. When he got on stage to say something, the less-than-enthusiastic response prompted him to state “We’re the reason you’re here”, despite the station not playing any of the bands (outside of a token one to promote the show).
There are two notable things about this station: For awhile, they had Dee Snider do the AM show, which garnered some notoriety, though I never think “alternative” when I think of Twisted Sister. And they had an annual day festival, The Big Day Off at a local amusement park. The 1996 fest featured Paul Westerberg, and I almost went, but my friend was having a birthday party, so I went to that instead out of loyalty. At the time I was bummed I didn’t go. But then I read Trouble Boys, this was the infamous concert where the rowdy unappreciative crowd made Paul cut the regular set short, then went into his “pussy” set for a bit to antagonize the crowd (just like in the ‘Mats hayday). Supposedly he got really depressed due to this show, which led to Suicaine Gratifaction and seclusion for a few years.