The most prominent Dem in the lion’s den of Fox News, Wolfson has been described by the New York Times as “a fierce competitor” who “seems to love a good fight.” But if you were to read his new music blog, Gotham Acme, you’d realize he’s something else completely: The world’s most persistent Glasvegas booster.

Wolfson’s re-entrance into the world of music blogging should come as no surprise, considering that this “widely recognized authority-slash-nerd on music” appears to wear his sonic love on his sweater sleeve. In fact, when asked in 2001 what he saw himself doing in ten years, Wolfson replied, “Owning an independent record store.”

1) What is the first website (other than your own or email) that you visit in the morning?

Largehearted Boy

2) What is the most interesting bit of information that you’ve picked up in the past month?

That there is a world outside of politics.

3) How would you describe your taste/interest in music?

Eclectic.

4) Name five of your favorite songs at the moment (in no particular order).

1) Alina Simone — Half Of My Kingdom
2) Glasvegas — Daddy’s Gone
3) Wild Beasts — The Devil’s Crayon
4) BLK JKS — Lakeside
5) Death Cab For Cutie — I Will Possess Your Heart

5) Name five of your favorite albums of all time (in no particular order).

1) REM — Murmur
2) TV On The Radio — Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes
3) Nirvana — MTV Unplugged
4) PJ Harvey — Dry Demos
5) Fugazi — 13 Songs

6) What are some songs to which you have a particular emotional attachment?

We sang Blackbird to my daughter when she would cry as an infant — it always stopped her tears. Over The Rainbow reminds me of my mom, who passed away this past year.

7) How did you first get interested in music and how has your taste developed since then?

I used to listen to my parents’ Beatles and doo wop music as a kid — I’m not sure if my taste has developed or gone downhill since then.

8) What are some of your musical guilty pleasures?

I liked Journey and Rush and Jethro Tull as a teenager.

9) If you were running for President in 2008, what song would you use as your campaign theme?

The Clinton campaign chose a Celine Dion song over my objections — I argued for KT Tuntstall’s Suddenly I See

10) What is your opinion on downloading copyrighted material without paying for it?

Artists deserve to be compensated for their work.

And now a mix of artists whose work readers will hopefully deem worthy of compensation.

1) ABC World News Tonight 1978 - Track 10 (info)
2) Marit Larsen - Recent Illusion (buy)
3) Wynder K. Frog - Jumping Jack Flash (Rolling Stones Cover) buy)
4) The Sunshine Fix - Afterglow (buy)
5) Wanda Jackson - This Gun Don’t Care (Who It Shoots) (buy)
6) Cowboy Junkies - State Trooper (Bruce Springsteen Cover Live) (buy)
7) The Mattoid - Joy (buy)
8) Mark Oliver Everett - Sophia Writing In The Sky (buy)
9) Van Morrison - T.B. Sheets (buy)
10) David Byrne And Brian Eno - I Feel My Stuff (buy)
11) Planxty - As I Roved Out (buy)
12) Dark Meat - Angel Of Meth (buy)
13) Preston School Of Industry - Get Your Crayons Out (buy)
14) Essential Logic - World Friction (buy)
15) Giorgio Moroder - Underdog (info)
16) Graham Parker And The Rumor - Protection (buy)
17) The Muppets - A Piece Of Obscurity (info)
18) Bishop Allen - The Monitor (buy)
19) Leadbelly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (buy)

Now he’s gone and proved it:

I’ve Never Even Meta: Prescient Moments in Bedbug History, Vol. 1

This one’s from May, 2006:

Songs that need more airplay [on Radio Disney]: “SOS” even though I’m on overload since about March…this should go to #1. Also Hannah Montana’s “Who Said” and any other Hannah Montana song they care to play, “Mandy” by the Jonas Brothers (the kids aren’t gonna give a shit about a promotion to meet the Bros if you don’t play their song on the radio…jeez when are you people going to hire me?? You need HELP), any number of summer-themed songs that ARE NOT “GRADUATION”!!!!!!

I was right about EVERY SINGLE THING I SAID HERE. “The kids aren’t gonna give a shit about a promotion to meet the Bros if you don’t play their song on the radio!” “THE. KIDS. AREN’T. ETC.” And then they played their songs on the radio and now the kids give a shit! Of course I wasn’t so much “prescient” here as I was ignoring the fact that the Jonas Brothers were quickly becoming very popular anyway. But my world with blinders on is more interesting than my world with blinders off, and anyway how can you not have blinders on when EVEN COUNTING PERIPHERAL VISION everyone doesn’t see everything and we’re all part of this crazy blue Margaret together and also I was right about those dumbass neoracist radio spots. (NEOMETA can be anagrammed into this word: ummmm…. MEAN TOE. TWO WORDS are often better than one. I.e. Fucking Hostile is better than just Hostile, though admittedly it is not better than just Fucking.)

Also. TAME EON. Which is what we’re in the middle of, except it’s really more of a LAME EON, which can be anagrammed right back into NEOLETA, i.e. ALOE TEN. Neato El! Uh, ‘ey, ‘ey, ‘ey, which hadn’t happened yet cuz she was just on SOS which cannot be anagrammed in any particularly satisfying way .

Congrats!

Skye Sweetnam - Billy S (buy)

Before gracing this government city with her open-government agenda, Lizzie made the “east west connection” come alive on local TV sets in the land of hot sauce, celery and bleu cheese.

With her culture cultivated and communicated at reality-surrounding Ithaca College, Ms. Nolan is now able to bridge “intellectual perspectives across schools and divisions.”

1) What is the first website (other than your own or email) that you visit in the morning? I’m a newly converted netvibes user/abuser.

2) What is the most interesting bit of information that you’ve picked up in the past month? The most active 2% of users on Wikipedia , which is 1400 people, have done 75% of all the edits on Wikipedia or something like that.

3) How would you describe your taste/interest in music? Love, drugs, + hugs: melted, brought to a boil, cooled for 5 mins, and then salted to taste…

4) Name five of your favorite songs at the moment (in no particular order).

1) Spring is Here - Nina Simone
2) Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number - Alliyah
3) Lonesome Sundown - The Halo Benders
4) Kids - Mgmt
5) Two Daughters + Beautiful Wife - Drive By Truckers

5) Name five of your favorite albums of all time (in no particular order). — In that case. I did away w/ the numbers. And another thing , “all time” is tooo much pressure …

+ Bee Thousand - Guided By Voices
+ Astral Weeks- Van Morrison
+ In An Airplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
+ Closing Time - Tom Waits
+ Little Creatures - Talking Heads

6) What are some songs to which you have a particular emotional attachment? Historically:

Recently: The Way The Lazy Do - Dr. Dog, Maple Leaves- Jens Lekman, Los Angeles - Decemberists, I Think We Gonna Be Friends - White Stripes, Wear Your Love Like Heaven - Donovan, songs from the Monsoon Wedding movie, Coyote - Joni Mitchell,

7) How did you first get interested in music and how has your taste developed since then? My father sang TV jingles to me in the womb. It set up family influenced musical interest. Our car trip playlist was a colorful blend of soundtracks, greatest hits, classic albums. Think: Tom Petty, Waiting To Exhale, Fiddler On The Roof, Talking Heads - Little Creatures. … Joint X-mas gifts were A Boy Name Goo - Goo Goo Dolls , TLC - Waterfalls, + Coolio. A tape recorder gave way to the ultra low fi cover of Sublime’s “What I Got.” Lots of classic rock + “oldies pop” preceded a period of hippy expiermental sillyness I thought was cool to listen to. But, really I just wanted to listen to the two R. Kelly cds I had. One for my room. One for travel. I became “indie-fied”@ college Ithaca. Elliot Smith, Decemberists, Broken Social Scene, Coco Rosie, etc.

8) What are some of your musical guilty pleasures? Any female vocalists/groups from pop lady empowerment era of 90-00’s. Or anything that will make everyone want to dance @ a family wedding.

9) If you were running for President in 2008, what song would you use as your campaign theme? I thought common was running for president in the ” the people” video.

10) What is your opinion on downloading copyrighted material without paying for it? I just downloaded my very own first torrent today. I am conflicted and excited.

Now, for her and your listening pleasure (hopefully), a mix.

1) Woody Allen - Love And Death (intro)
2) Buddy Miles - Dreams (buy)
3) Arif Sag - Osman Pehlivan (info)
4) Japan - A Foreign Place (buy)
5) The Glands - Swim (buy)
6) Tyrannosaurus Rex - Strange Orchestras (buy)
7) Elf Power - Olde Tyme Waves (buy)
8) Carla Thomas - Something Good (Is Going To Happen To You) (buy)
9) Dr. John - Loop Garoo (buy)
10) Oui Oui - Ma Maison (info)
11) The Persuasions - You Are What You Is (Frank Zappa Cover) (buy)
12) Michael Hurley - Moon Song (buy)
13) Delta 5 - Try (buy)
14) The dB’s - Cycles Per Second (buy)
15) Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance (buy)
16) Talking Heads - Road To Nowhere (Early Version) (buy)
17) Laura Cantrell - Big Wheel (buy)
18) Lefty Frizzell - Cigarettes And Coffee Blues (buy)
19) Dolly Parton - The Seeker (buy)
20) Spiritualized - Ladies & Gentleman, We Are Floating In Space (buy)
21) Blondie - Once I Had A Love (The Disco Song) (1978 Early Version) (buy)
22) Jad Fair And Yo La Tengo - Nevada Man Invents Piano With 21 Extra Keys (buy)
23) Jake Holmes - High School Hero (buy)

Get Off The Internet:

It feels so 80’s
Or early 90’s
To be political
Where are my friends?

(Get off the Internet!)
I’ll meet you in the street
(Get off the Internet!)
Destroy the right wing
(Get off the Internet!)
I’ll meet you in the street
(Get off the Internet!)
Destroy the right wing

This is repetitive
But nothing has changed
And I’m crazy
Where are my friends

VERSUS

The Left’s New Machine:

Already, the netroots are the most significant mass movement in U.S. politics since the rise of the Christian right more than two decades ago. And, by all appearances, they are far from finished with their task: recreating the Democratic Party in the image of the conservative machine they have set out to destroy.

Le Tigre - Get Off The Internet (buy)

A veteran of battling punk gangs in China, Mr. Christie has most recently braved death as a website designer and fundraiser for the Oswegatchie Educational Center in upstate New York. Prior to that, he taught English in South Korea as a Fulbright scholar.

A lover of life, his friends know him to say, “I’m so glad we did this,” whenever he is chowing on almost any form of food.

1) What is the first website (other than your own or email) that you visit in the morning? Either Slate, The New York Times, Rotten Tomatoes, or Grist

2) What is the most interesting bit of information that you’ve picked up in the past month? James Kellogg, father of breakfast, developed cereal to curb masturbation in young people, and held a number of weird-ass beliefs about sex.

3) How would you describe your taste/interest in music? Hard to define and unfocused

4) Name five of your favorite songs at the moment (in no particular order).

1) Spiral Stairs By Elf Power
2) Tei! Tei! Tei! By POLYSICS
3) Good Hearted Woman by Willie Nelson
4) Who is He and What is He to You? by Bill Withers
5) The Lucky One by Au Revoir Simone

5) Name five of your favorite albums of all time (in no particular order).

1) At the Five Spot by Eric Dolphy
2) More Songs about Buildings and Food by Talking Heads
3) Paradise and Lunch by Ry Cooder
4) Phrenology by the Roots
5) Roxy and Elsewhere by Zappa

6) What are some songs to which you have a particular emotional attachment? The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys by Traffic

7) How did you first get interested in music and how has your taste developed since then? I listened to what my dad listened to (and still do!), but am heavily influenced by my friends. I guess I’m pretty lazy about music and try to get acquainted with whatever is accessible.

8) What are some of your musical guilty pleasures? Pop Country and Classic Rock Station Playlists in addition to Simply Red, and some Neil Diamond.

9) If you were running for President in 2008, what song would you use as your campaign theme? I Won’t Back Down by Petty

10) What is your opinion on downloading copyrighted material without paying for it? Music like all art and information wants to be free. I think that we’ll see major changes in how record companies distribute content in the near future. However, the law is the law, and until it changes, illegal downloaders are responsible for their behavior.

Here are some songs that are bound for his iPod.

1) Demetri Martin - Six Organs Of Admittance - Intro (info)
2) Hank III - Hellbilly Joker (info)
3) Bruce McCulloch - When You’re Fat (buy)
4) Lou Reed - Kicks (buy)
5) Lee Hazlewood - White People Thing (buy)
6) Bobby Bare - Detroit City (buy)
7) Bobby Bryant - Happiness Is A Warm Gun (Beatles Cover) (info)
8) Theoretical Girls - US Millie (buy)
9) Bobby Charles - Save Me Jesus (buy)
10) Jack White - Never Far Away (buy)
11) She And Him - Why Do You Let me Stay Here? (buy)
12) Giorgio Moroder - Mah Na Mah Na (info)
13) Shirley Bassey - Spinning Wheel (buy)
14) John Doe - Pressing On (Bob Dylan Cover) (buy)
15) Aaron McGuire - New Ways (info)
16) Santo And Johnny - Love Theme From The Godfather (Nino Rota Cover) (info)
17) Phil Lee - Carl’s Got Louise (buy)
18) Still Flyin’ - Rope Burn (buy)
19) Lonesome Bob - Heaven’s Gate (buy)
20) Andrew Bird’s Bowl Of Fire - Some Of These Days, Chinatown My Chinatown (buy)

Iraqi security officials said the women were mentally impaired, but offered no conclusive evidence. The Iraqi officials said the bombs were set off by remote control. […]

“We were just talking about the first bomb when it happened,” said Abbas Muhammad Awad, 54, a pigeon seller. “There was not enough time for people to leave because it was only 5 or 10 minutes between the bombs. Many kids were killed because children usually gather around the bird sellers.”

Swell Maps - The Stairs Are Like An Avalance (info)

Bob Dylan - Pressing On (buy)

Dark Meat - Well Fuck You Then (buy)

Cold War Kids - Electioneering (Radiohead Cover) (info)

Also, I have a new favorite album of the moment. In terms of D.C., it’s like the second coming of Pacer for me.

The Glands - Swim (buy)

I don’t like communist Censorship of my books
I don’t like Marxists complaining about my looks
I don’t like Castro insulting members of my sex
Leftists insisting we got the mystic Fix

I don’t like Capitalists selling me gasoline Coke
Multinationals burning Amazon trees to smoke
Big Corporation takeover media mind
I don’t like the Top-bananas that’re robbing Guatemala banks blind

I don’t like K.G.B. Gulag concentration camps
I don’t like the Maoists’ Cambodian Death Dance
15 Million were killed by Stalin Secretary of Terror
He has killed our old Red Revolution for ever

More importantly, the totality of his pome points out with simplicity that all ideologies have some kind of down side. Full lyrics here.

On a personal note, the idea of “first thought, best thought” — which Ginsberg championed but did not create — is an important one for me in my approach to personal correspondence.

Allen Ginsberg - Capitol Air (buy)