Not really all that rested. But not quite as fucking busy as I have been for the last week. Here’s some stuff I owe y’all:

* The lecture. Prof. Shumway’s hour-long talk wasn’t so much a musical discussion as it was an assessment of the extremes of cultural symbolism represented by the Dead and the Stones. It boils down to this: The Stones, and their pumped-up male adolescent world view, were representative of status quo in the Sixties, while the Dead represented at least the possibility that a more communal existence could work. The Stones were consumption and possession, while the Dead was cooperation and community.

An illustration sharpened Shumway’s point: photographs, from the gatefold of the original Beggar’s Banquet cover — with the band lounging around an overloaded banquet table like the English country lords (albeit unofficial ones) they were — compared with the back cover of Aoxomoxoa, which shows the Dead, wives and girlfriends, employees and children, sitting together in what looks to be a Marin County field.

Interesting stuff, but I’m not completely sold on the argument, especially when it comes to the Stones, who, you could just as easily argue, represented something even more sinister to the Sixties’ powers that be. I’ll say this, though: Shumway is writing a book on the subject, and I’ll be among the first to buy it.

* Newsweek. They totally fucking caved. They were wrong about the incident, and they made a correction, as they should have. But because they rolled over when pressed by the administration, they validated the Bushies’ prime contention: that the riots, and deaths, occurred because of Newsweek’s error.

Wrong. Classic blame-the-messenger bullshit. The riots occurred because of accusations of abuse in American-run prison camps, accusations that, according to the almost-always silent International Committee of the Red Cross and human rights report issued this week by Amnesty International, might not have been that far off-base after all.

(Blame the media happens at the local level as well. The day before the primary, we got a tip about a borough councilman who was about to be arrested on a warrant issued when he failed to pay back a couple of bounced checks he wrote while on vacation two years ago. I met the guy when he turned himself in at the magistrate’s office to pay off the fines. And I got this, alternately weepy and pissed: “If you put this in the paper, our lives will be ruined.” Um, did I write those checks? Was I the one who didn’t think about paying them off until a warrant was issued for my arrest? No, wait — that was you. And by the way, he lost in the primary. Yes. Another innocent American victimized by out-of-control journalists. Quick, somebody call Bill O’Reilly.)

In last week’s issue, Newsweek announced changes it was making to the practice of using unnamed sources, things like requiring additional confirmations, clearly stating that information came from an anonymous source, etc. Good stuff to do, and proactive enough that I don’t think Newsweek, in the long run, will have to deal with the kind of shit CBS did in the wake of its stories about Bush’s national guard service.

There are parallels between those two incidents, the most important of which is this: Fuck-ups by journalists gave Bush a reason not to answer questions. Stuff that still needs to be addressed. What is going on at Gitmo? Why can’t anyone produce any records that say definitively that W fulfilled his guard obligations? Instead, we get indignation, righteous fist-pounding about irresponsible work by reporters with a liberal bias … and no answers.

Oh, and the liberal bias thing? Mike Isikoff, the reporter who got it wrong for Newsweek, was the same reporter who broke the Lewinsky stories. Does that sound like a liberal bias to you?

* On the other hand, I still think Mitch Albom should be fired.

* The Wife and I saw a kick-ass Jazz Mandolin Project show Friday night in Pittsburgh, along with maybe 100 other people. That band smokes.

* Zooma Tour was canceled, apparently because, like me, everyone said, “I’ll buy tickets later.” The good news is that Trey immediately announced he’s putting together a solo summer tour instead.

* We learned that Uncle Crappy’s European Bureau chief is going to set aside her misgivings about reunions and come home for ours in July. And here’s the fun part; Roy is bringing her boyfriend (who comes with a ready-made nickname, the Great Dane), whose only exposure to America has been, if I remember correctly, a Super Wal-Mart in Miami. The poor guy is going to be absolutely baffled by UA and our reunion.

* For Memorial Day, The Wife and I slept in, drove to Pittsburgh for a baseball game and came home for a cookout dinner featuring brats, grilled corn, baked beans and strawberry shortcake. The only way it could have been a more stereotypically American day was if we had stopped on the way home from Pittsburgh to buy guns.

* Finding out the identity of Deep Throat was kind of anticlimactic for me. And, as The Wife said, what the hell does Al Haig do now?

* Does anyone have any ideas for my Sunday story for this week? I’m fresh out, and the goddamn thing has to be done by the time I leave Thursday night.

* And so it goes.