[Plura-list] Parts Found in Sea; 2019 Nebula Award winners; Why Minneapolis can't fire violent cops

[Cory Doctorow]

Today's links

* Parts Found in Sea: A limited-access listen to some of the musical
unobtanium of my boyhood.

* 2019 Nebula Award winners: Sara Pinkser's "Song for a New Day."

* Why Minneapolis can't fire violent cops: Police union chief Bob Kroll
wore a "white power" badge on his uniform jacket.

* This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing
projects, current reading

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🤦🏿‍♀️ Parts Found in Sea

When I was a young teen, I was obsessed with the Toronto music scene,
which is hilarious, because I was too young to get into any of the clubs
where it was taking place, like the legendary Larry's Hideaway (believe
me, I tried).

But I would obsessively note the names of the bands whose handbills were
wheatpasted up and down Yonge Street and scour the bins at Sam the
Record Man for their self-produced EPs and then play them over and over.

Some of those bands were...not good.

But I was absolutely obsessed with one band: Parts Found in Sea, whose
name was taken from a newspaper headline about a plane crash (!). They
were a damned hardworking act, playing - it seemed - every weekend at
Larry's.

Since the Napster era, I have been periodically scouring the web for
MP3s of the band, for sale, for free, whatever. I just wanted to hear
them again.

Sometimes you revisit the music of your youth and realize that what made
it good was that your own lack of sophistication - you didn't have the
context to make the comparisons with other bands, didn't know that you
were hearing a weak imitation of something amazing.

I feared that must be the case with PFIS: the fact that none of their
music was available might mean that it just wasn't very good, and hadn't
stood the test of time.

Then I discovered Stevy Zong's Youtube video of a live PFIS show at
Larry's Hideaway and hearing that music again only renewed my ardor for
the band. I also learned the name for their genre: "Darkwave."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNW89ZLKwSw

(It was also great to see them perform live, at last! The band was
dissolved and Larry's was out of buiness by the time I was old enough to
get into the club)

Inspired by that video, I bought a "Seat of the Writing Man," one of my
favorite EPs by the band, on Ebay, and asked my friendly neighborhood
archivist, Taylor Jessen, if he'd rip the vinyl for me, and he very
kindly did, sending me the tracks last night.

And the band is every bit as good as I remember. I mean, just fucking
great. Especially the Frank Lippai's bass-playing, which is just...wow.
As far as I can tell, Lippai is living in London, Ont now, running
something called "Artisans Almighty," but that's all I've got.

Frontman Steve Cowal graduated to a semi-famous Canadian band, Swamp
Baby, and was featured in Bruce McDonald's "Hardcore Logo," but I can't
find anything he's doing these days.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0116488/?ref_=m_nmfmd_msdp_1

The EP really showcases some spectacular talent, right down to the
engineering by Ken Friesen, who is still working:

https://www.kenfriesen.com/

And while some of Cowal's lyrics are a little over-the-top emo, the
songs are beautifully constructed, these long, jam-band-ish tracks that
have two or three movements apiece, transitioning through different
moods. They must have been amazing to dance to at a club.

I just couldn't keep this disc to myself. I've uploaded it for your
listening pleasure, but only for 24 HOURS. Tomorrow morning (Pacific),
I'll be deleting it. I figure that strikes a balance between celebration
and misappropriation.

https://archive.org/details/pfi-s-sot-wm-lp-obverse

But if anyone out there is looking to reissue some wonderful audio
unobtanium, they should track down the band and get these tracks into
the stream of commerce.

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🤦🏿‍♀️ 2019 Nebula Award winners

Last night, the Science Fiction Writers of America held its first-ever
virtual Nebula Awards, handing out prizes for excellence in the field
that had been voted on by its members - the writers' own peers.

https://nebulas.sfwa.org/award-year/2019/

As ever, the list is a brilliant tour through the year's work, and I'm
especially pleased by the best novel winner, Sarah Pinsker, who won for
"A Song for a New Day," which I reviewed and blurbed.

https://boingboing.net/2019/09/23/hoodies-considered-harmful.html

"Song" has a bit of (un?)fortunate timing, in that it is about gig
economy workers in an oligarchic, locked-down world where pandemic and
terrorist have everyone in the country locked inside, permanently,
dependent on an Amazon-like company for drone deliveries.

It's a great rock-n-roll novel, about the underground club scene that
flourishes in this all-too-familiar totalitarian world - and how it is
co-opted by entertainment corporations - and how it ultimately resists
co-option and fights a war of liberation.

Congrats to all the winners and nominees!

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🤦🏿‍♀️ Why Minneapolis can't fire violent cops

If you're following the wave of uprisings against racist police
violence, you've probably heard that Derek Chauvin, the cop who murdered
George Floyd, had a long history of criminal conduct, but was still
carrying a gun, wearing a badge, and billing the taxpayer.

Chauvin was no aberration. Minneapolis, like many cities, has a police
crime problem - that is, a problem addressing the crimes committed by
its own police force, thanks to a combination of impunity, white
supremacy, opacity, and militarization.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/29/mind-control-skepticism/#qualified-immunity

Even where police reforms are enacted, the forces ignore them...and get
away with it. That happened in Minneapolis. As The Marshall Project
documents, a half-decade after the DoJ investigated problems with
Minneapolis's police, virtually nothing has changed.

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/05/28/before-george-floyd-s-death-minneapolis-police-failed-to-adopt-reforms-remove-bad-officers

In Minneapolis, policing was supposed to be moderated by use-of-force
guidelines (which officers ignored), "coaching" programs (which were
inconsistent and chaotic), and automated misconduct detection (whose
data the public can't see).

As to why the cops got away with it, consider that the police union boss
Lt Bob Kroll kept his job even after he showed up for work with a white
power badge on his uniform.

http://files.courthousenews.com/2007/12/04/MplsPD.pdf

You might have wondered why Chauvin's colleagues stood idly by as he
committed murder in broad daylight. It's a little easier to understand
when you know that some of those cops also had long histories of
committing violent crimes with impunity.

Like Officer Tou Thao, who knocked out Lamar Ferguson's arrest in 2017,
but got to keep his job, even as the taxpayers of Minneapolis shelled
out $25,000 to settle with Thao's victim.

Minnesota's state legislature has failed to pass even one of the dozen+
police reform bills tabled in the state house. Meanwhile, the state's
Peace Officers Standards and Training Board is a toothless tiger, with
no power to sanction or remove criminal officers.

There's a bipartisan consensus on impunity for criminal cops. Think of
Bill De Blasio blaming protesters after NYPD officers drove their
cruisers through a protest, re-enacting the murder of Heather Heyer.

https://theintercept.com/2020/05/31/nyc-mayor-bill-de-blasio-should-resign/

Or consider how Amy Klobuchar, who, as Minneapolis's top prosecutor,
declined to prosecute Derek Chauvin, giving him license to commit a
string of crimes that culminated in the daylight murder of George Floyd.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/28/george-floyd-killing-officers-derek-chauvin-tou-thao-investigated

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🤦🏿‍♀️ This day in history

#10yrsago MDs ask patients to assign copyright in any web-posting that
mentions their care, to simplify censorship
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/us/01slapp.html

#10yrsago RIP, Jeanne Robinson
https://www.sfsite.com/news/2010/05/31/obituary-jeanne-robinson/

#5yrsago PATRIOT Act expires -- now what?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/05/section-215-expires-now

#1yrago Public outcry has killed an attempt turn clickthrough terms of
service into legally binding obligations (for now)
https://www.consumerfinancemonitor.com/2019/05/22/ali-annual-meeting-ends-with-uncertain-future-for-restatement-of-the-law-consumer-contracts/

#1yrago Nobel-winning economist Joe Stiglitz calls neoliberalism "a
failed ideology" and sketches out a "progressive capitalism" to replace
ithttps://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/30/after-neoliberalism

#1yrago Google's API changes mean only paid enterprise users of Chrome
will be able to access full adblock
https://9to5google.com/2019/05/29/chrome-ad-blocking-enterprise-manifest-v3/

#1yrago Chase credit cards quietly reintroduce the binding arbitration
clauses they were forced to eliminate a decade ago
https://www.fastcompany.com/90357331/chase-adds-forced-arbitration-clause-to-slate-credit-cards

#1yrago Ted Cruz backs AOC's call for a lifetime ban on lobbying by
former Congressjerks
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/05/aoc-calls-for-ban-on-revolving-door-as-study-shows-2-3-of-recently-departed-lawmakers-now-lobbyists.html

#1yrago For the first time since the 70s, New York State is set to
enshrine sweeping tenants' protections
https://www.thenation.com/article/universal-rent-regulation-new-york/

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🤦🏿‍♀️ Colophon

Today's top sources: Naked Capitalism
(https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/), Taylor Jessen
(https://twitter.com/SidFudd), SFWA (https://www.sfwa.org/).

Currently writing: My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel
about truth and reconciliation. Friday's progress: 529 words (21044 total).

Currently reading: Adventures of a Dwergish Girl, Daniel Pinkwater

Latest podcast: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 03)
https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/05/18/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-03/

Upcoming appearances: Discussion with Nnedi Okorafor, Torcon, June 14
https://www.torforgeblog.com/torcon-2020/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book
about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

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*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla* -Joey "Accordion Guy"
DeVilla

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