In The Mailbox: 04.29.26 (Evening Edition)
Posted on | April 30, 2026 | No Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.
OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Doctor Will Kill You Now
EBL: Martha Vickers, Humanity’s Near Extinction, MAGA SCOTUS Congressional Districts, Oven Grilled Red Snapper, and “Joan of Arc”
Twitchy: Obnoxious Ostroushko Family Indicted For Assault On TPUSA Reporter, CNN’s Laura Coates Calls SCOTUS VRA Ruling “Illogical” As Dems Double Down On Racism, and Seattle’s Socialist Nepo-Baby Mayor Cackles As Wealth Flees Her Flaming Dumpster Of A City
Louder With Crowder: Seattle’s socialist mayor thinks it’s hilarious she’s chasing billionaires – and their tax revenue – out of state, GOP Mayoral Candidate Releases Brilliant Ad Exposing Corrupt California Democrats Mansions, Christian School Awarded $500k Settlement After Being Banned From Sports Over Opposing Trans Athletes, Chicago mayor brags about how he discriminates against white people, and Tampon Tim Walz brags about increasing prisoner voting, pre-registering teenagers, as if those are good things
Vox Popoli: Ramifications, The Ticket-Taker’s Hell, One Down, Two to Go, and John Scalzi Killed Science Fiction
Upstream Reviews: Finnian & The Seven Mountains,
Born Lucky: The Destructive Impulse of Liberalism
Cedar Sanderson: The Hymn of Breaking Strain
RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: Anti-ICE Family Indicted For Assault on TPUSA Journalist in Minnesota, Supreme Court Rules that Racial Gerrymandering is Unconstitutional, New Florida Redistricting Plan Advances, Republicans Poised to Gain Up to Four House Seats, White House Warns DHS Funding Shortfall Could Disrupt Security Operations, and Senate Rejects Curb on Trump Military Action in Cuba
Animal Magnetism: Animal Magnetism LIVE Ep. 85 – Alaska and Castles
BattleSwarm: Texas Sales Tax Holiday Starts Today, Houston, Dallas And Austin Cave On ICE, Would-Be Trump Shooter Got Past Secret Service Checkpoint Using Sophisticated Penetration Technique Known As “Running”, Supreme Court Greenlights Texas Redistricting Map, and Biden-Era “Gun Dealer” Rule Dead
Behind The Black: Propaganda vs reporting in describing the battle over NASA’s budget, Canada cancels $72 million contract to build constellation to track wildfires, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launches Viasat communications satellite, California Coastal Commission settles SpaceX lawsuit by apologizing and conceding all points, and Who really was Jay Gould?
Cafe Hayek: A Note on Trade Deficits to an Astute Taiwanese Student, Entrepreneurial Opportunities, in Free Markets, Are Limited Only By the Human Imagination, Celebrating a Half-Century of U.S. Trade ‘Deficits’, Tamny Is Misled On Government Debt by a Collectivist Assumption, and A Final Few Words on My Disagreement with John Tamny on Deficit Financing of Government Spending
CDR Salamander: The BBG-1 Argument Is Obscuring The Long-Running Requirement For Capability
Chicago Boyz: When Norah Interviewed Trump, also, Don’t stand so close to me
Da Tech Guy: Get Woke Go Broke Anna Maria College Edition, Five Quick 0-3 Trying to Kill Trump Thoughts Under the Fedora, Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day: Tuckey, Tuckey and more Todd Tuckey, and Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day: My Interview with Pinball Game Designer Steve Ritchie
Don Surber: The B in EBT stands for Bentley
First Street Journal: No matter how much you hate the credentialed media, you do not hate them enough, also, You in a heap o’ trouble, girl!
Flopping Aces: Democrats Embrace The Culture Of Death
Gates Of Vienna: Damage to Catalonia, The Culture-Enriching Murder of Gabriele Vaccaro, Slouching Towards Civil War, and Cultural Enrichment, Philly Style
The Geller Report: UN Elects Islamic Republic of Iran as VP of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation, NYC Public School Sends Students Outside to “Embrace” Islamic Culture—Blurring the Line Between Education and Proselytizing, Supreme Court Rules Louisiana’s House Map an ‘Unconstitutional Racial Gerrymander’, Qatar Bribed the International Criminal Court to Act Against the State of Israel, and Muslim Stabs Two Jews Outside Synagogue In Knife Rampage in London Jewish Neighborhood
Hollywood In Toto: Russell Brand Won’t Condemn Oct. 7 Attacks, Low-rated Jimmy Fallon Lies About Tonight Show Liberal Bias, Delayed Savant Series Gets More Bad News, Melania’s Right, But Firing Jimmy Kimmel Would Be Wrong, and Sasqualogist Producer: They Don’t Make ’em Like They Used To
Legal Insurrection: Trump Fires Board Overseeing DEI-Riddled National Science Foundation, Karma – $PLC Tried To Cut Off “Hate List” Groups From Fidelity Charitable, Now It’s Cut Off, Law School in Florida Reverses Course, Recognizes TPUSA Chapter After Pressure, Greg Gutfeld Lays Blame for WHCD Shooter at the Feet of Democrats and Media, and Man Holding N-Word Sign at Kansas State is Black, Not in ‘Blackface’ as Student Paper Claimed
Nebraska Energy Observer: Reagan, Brits at War, The Scots Irish, Mercedes Schapp and Liz Truss, and Ragnarök
Outkick: Freddie Freeman admits Dodgers are ‘going through it’ after $73M Marlins take series from $500M-plus LA, Young Flyers fan gives Penguins star a perfect Philly welcome before Game Six, How the Diana Russini scandal could derail the Patriots’ season, Stephen A. Smith refuses to back down from LeBron James feud, and MAGA bikini congresswoman sends a message to Big Brother, Dale Earnhardt’s 75th, and MLB fan gets pulverized
Power Line: $1.82 million, Anti-Semitic Attacks Roil London, The Supreme Court Does Justice On Districting, In the Hernandez assault, and Another Minnesota city switches flags
Racket News: Racket Lists – American Hysteria
Shark Tank: Brian Mast Announces Re-Election Bid Amidst Florida Redistricting
Shot In The Dark: Incentive Structure
STUMP: NYC Pension Watch – Hey, What If We “Delay” The Contributions?,
The Political Hat: The European Union vs. Emojis
This Ain’t Hell: Why we love the media, Stolen Valor in the AI Age, Changing criteria, Better Late Than Never, and Someone to watch?
Transterrestrial Musings: The Democrats’ Enemies List, The Good News Just Keeps Coming, Fantastic News, America Without Democrats, and Cat Scents, Explained
Victory Girls: Shooter’s Manifesto Parrots Democrat Anti-Trump Talking Points, ‘It was Just A Joke’, Fauci’s Senior Aide, David Morens, Indicted In Covid Origin Cover-up, Brandon Gill To Abortion Advocate: Name Your Favorite Abortion Procedure, and Does Cherfilus-McCormick Think She Has A Political Future?
Watts Up With That: Changing Sunlight, Weather & Climate, Co-op City – What It Looks Like When Energy Reality Catches Up To You, Claim: Only Conservatives who Don’t Like Liberals Oppose Climate Action, Lee Zeldin Infuriates Purple-Haired Democrat While He Schools Her On Basic Supreme Court Cases, and Federal Power Meets California Resistance in Santa Ynez Oil Restart Battle
The Federalist: Pro-Lifers March On Richmond As Democrats Race To Write Unlimited Abortion Into Virginia’s Constitution, SCOTUS Confirms First Amendment Protects Pregnancy Center Donors From Nosey Abortion States, No, The Trump Administration Shouldn’t Bail Out Spirit Airlines, Leftist Brewery Owner With Death Wish For Trump Gets Secret Service, FBI Attention, and How This Conservative Group Is Breaking The Bureaucratic Bloat Wrecking Red States
Mark Steyn: Dancing with the Polovtsians, Blame it on the Youth: Cary Grant in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, The Secret Service Makes Me Nervous, Begin the Beguine, and Oops! He Did It Again
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Survival Food
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In The Mailbox: 04.29.26 (Afternoon Edition)
Posted on | April 29, 2026 | No Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
Well, as you can see, I didn’t have the necessary energy.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.
OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Claude AI Deletes Company’s ENTIRE Database, also The Gun Debate Trap
EBL: The Success of the P-51 in WWII, Veronika Miller, Mutiny on the Bounty, Miso Hungry Monday, and Indiana Pork Tenderloin Sandwich
Twitchy: Cluck Around & Find Out, Scott Jennings Exposes The $200 Billion Fraud Scheme Targeting Your Parents, and While The Left Shrieks “Trump Must Lower The Temperature!” Wajahat Ali Literally Begs Trump To Die
Louder With Crowder: Democrats Double Down on Terrorist Language – You Are the Enemy, Elliot Page hopes they/them’s new documentary about LGBTQ animals will help your kids come out of the closet, As Donald Trump meets with King Charles, remember when Joe Biden (allegedly) ripped a loud fart in front of the Queen, Bodega worker tells media in 2025 how violent NYC had gotten and feared for his life – he was just murdered outside his bodega, and Sick Ana Navarro thinks it’s awesome someone shot at the Trump Admin because something something gun control
Vox Popoli: THE TSURUGISAN SCROLL, The Satanic EU, Frozen in Time, Less Than Zero, and Immigration and National Defense
Defending The Wood Perilous: God Is Not A Respecter Of Story Size
Stoic Observations: Southwall Update
RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: FF(X) Flight II – In The Works
Don Surber: Trump isn’t Hitler
Racket News: The NerdProm Shooting, Time Travel, And Solomon’s Temple – Conspiracy Theory Roundup,
STUMP: Geeking Out – Census Numbers For Apportionment Released
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Methods of Journalism 301
Posted on | April 29, 2026 | No Comments

Welcome to J-School, boys and girls, and before we start today’s lesson, somebody needs to hit the tip jar for $16.04, for reasons to be explained later. This morning I had an online colloquy with my friend Ladd Ehlinger over the merits of When Harry Met Sally. It was Ladd’s contention that, as a director, Rob Reiner had never produced a masterpiece, to which my rejoinder was that he needed to rewatch that movie, which is certainly one of the best romantic comedies of all time. As much as we all despise Reiner’s left-wing politics, it seems to me wrong to deny him credit for that. Ehlinger shot back with some argle-bargle technical/artistic stuff, to which I replied, “Film school.”
What you have just witnessed, class, was my attempt at what Hunter S. Thompson called the Symbiotic Trapezoid Quote — the lead being a bizarre digression apparently irrelevant to the actual subject , ending with an admission of failure before continuing onward to compile your notes into some semblance of an article. Advanced technique, you see, and not for entry-level students of the craft. Having been in this racket for 40 years, I can make some claim to knowing what I’m doing, and the fact that you’re still reading this post after that (deliberately) botched lead is testimony to this advanced skill. What made Hunter S. Thompson great, at least in the years before chronic substance abuse wrecked him, was that he knew how to grab the reader by the eyeballs and drag him along with vivid phrasing, the reader/victim always wondering, “What’s this crazy son of a bitch going to do next?” Among other things, he accused the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review of being afflicted with “brain syphilis,” and given that the CJR editor did not sue for libel, we can assume that Dr. Thompson’s diagnosis was correct.
So as I was arguing with Ehlinger about the merits of When Harry Met Sally, the analogy occurred to me that Ladd’s film school standards of assessing what constitutes a movie masterpiece is sort of like the CJR editor’s version of what constitutes “quality journalism.” The real test of a movie is whether audiences like it — never mind the artistic quibbles — and the test of journalism is whether people actually read it.
Getting the facts right kind of counts, too, but even a beginner knows that. Learning how to tell the story in such a way that people feel compelled to read all the way to the end? That’s the trick.
BREAKING: In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court rules that racial gerrymandering, which has been used to create majority black congressional districts for decades, is unconstitutional. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for the majority. pic.twitter.com/AtPjtfo4cR
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 29, 2026
OK, there’s your daily quota of Important News, but you didn’t need me to tell you that story, did you? Social media and 24/7 cable news have changed the game in ways that could not have been imagined back in the day when most people got their news from the daily paper, or the 30-minute nightly broadcasts on ABC/NBC/CBS. Now any random son of a bitch with a WiFi hookup can be a “journalist,” which means that I have to find a way to do something different, something valuable, something that might inspire you to hit the tip jar for $16.04. And it so happens that getting a WiFi hookup is relevant to the real reason I wrote this post:
One afternoon in August 2011, I set up my laptop in a restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska, ready to write a column for The American Spectator. It was the week before the Iowa Straw Poll, and I’d spent the day following Herman Cain’s presidential campaign bus, ending the day with a rally at a park in Council Bluffs. My friend Dave Weigel was there, and when he said he was going to have dinner at a German restaurant in Omaha, just across the river, I sort of invited myself to join him.
When I set up my laptop, however, I kept having trouble getting a WiFi connection. After an hour of fruitless effort — and a couple of cold beers — I gave up, telling Dave that it was obvious that I’d fallen afoul of The Gods of Dateline Integrity. . . .
Read my latest Substack article, which among other things includes the explanation for why I’m so specific about that $16.04.
In The Mailbox: 04.28.26 (Afternoon Edition)
Posted on | April 29, 2026 | No Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
We’ll see if I have the energy after driving back from Vegas to do the evening edition.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.
OVER THE TRANSOM
Doug Ross: With Eisenhower On D-day (1944), The Nuland Prophecy also, A Day With Pvt. John Steele of the 82nd Airborne (1944),
357 Magnum: The Direct Impact of Banning Fossil-Fuel Generated Electricity
EBL: Hamburg Fish Sandwich, Roman Puls (porridge), “Shoot To Kill”, Saturday Spot Prawns, and Why Hasn’t China Collapsed?
Twitchy: Elevenhan 0mar World War 11 Memes are Off The Charts Perfection, Richard Stengel Farts Out That Holding NerdProm In WH Ballroom Could Violate First Amendment, and Seashell Enthusiast James Comey Indicted A Second Time
Louder With Crowder: Dog hospitalized after accidentally ingesting meth on the streets of Democrat run California, Joy Behar swears on God that Donald Trump is totally trying to kill everyone, Mother of teen who stomped a girl’s head on the streets of NYC claims her baby boy is the real victim here, Superintendent testifies it’s totally fine for kindergarteners to read book featuring two dude kissing in fetish gear, and Neighborhood that voted 70% for Mamdani isn’t happy he’s moving the homeless into THEIR neighborhood
Vox Popoli: Confirmed Oncogenic, UK Jets Attack Russian Targets, Round 4, The Warning Shot, and A Deep and Debilitating Dive
Cedar Sanderson: Cultivating Words,
Stoic Observations: Remembering Charlottesville, also Assassins Creed
The Bugscuffle Gazette: White House Correspondents’ Dinner, also, On April 27 2006,
Upstream Reviews: Mech War 3 – Dynamo
Ammo.com: States With The Highest Murder Rate
Weird Catholic: The Devil’s Mousetrap
Mazelit Airaksinen: Professor claims algebra & geometry perpetuate whiteness and “unearned Privilege” in society
Jim McCoy: Escaping Fate
RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Latin American Policy – On Midrats, also, I’ll take LCC 21 & 22, and 23 & 24 as well, thank you
Dana Loesch: Shots Fired At Nerd Prom, Motive & Targets Revealed In NerdProm Shooting, and SecWar’s Wife Criticized For Modest Cost of NerdProm Dress
Don Surber: Hail Caesar – A patriot’s statue returns
Elizabeth NIckson: James Howard Kunstler & I Discuss Globalism’s Dark Mysteries, also, The Gleaming City of the Future Will Rise From Gaza’s Blasted Plain
Glenn Reynolds: Our Self-Colonized Nation
Racket News: The Press Promotes Violence And Everyone Knows It
Amazon Warehouse Deals
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New Releases – Automotive
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‘Pretending Not to Know’
Posted on | April 27, 2026 | No Comments

In 2011, explaining his abandonment of “brain-dead” liberalism, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet published The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture. It was there that he expressed what has become known as The Mamet Principle: “In order to continue advancing their illogical arguments, modern liberals have to pretend not to know things.” We see this all the time in the make-believe play-acting of TV personalities like Jake Tapper, who did a perfect imitation of Claude Rains in Casablanca in describing how he was shocked — shocked! — by the revelation that Joe Biden was senile.
As a journalist, one of my biggest gripes is that TV news has given people a mistaken idea about what journalism actually is. Writing a 700-word news article is a full day’s work for the reporter who has to rely on his own notes of conversations with sources. To be an actual reporter — as opposed to a TV talking head — means spending a lot of time on the phone, trying to get people to tell the truth when it would better suit them to keep the truth out of the newspaper. By contrast, if you understand what TV news actually is, you realize that the anchorman is paid for his ability to convey the proper emotion about what he’s telling you.
As Mamet remarked, newscasters are hired “not for their probity or for their intelligence, but for their ‘believability,'” and that is how Barack Obama became president — he had that same kind of superficial “believability” that characterizes a successful TV news anchor.
This brings us to Obama’s disingenuous (unsolicited and unnecessary) comment about Cole Allen’s botched assassination attempt Saturday night at the annual White House Correspondents dinner. By the time he pushed the “publish” button on that tweet, we did indeed “have the details about the motives” of the gunman. Allen’s social-media archives and his written “manifesto” made clear that Allen was a Democrat, inspired by the same vicious lies about Trump that Democrats and their media allies have been promoting for the past decade.

“His beliefs mirrored mainstream Democrat talking points” — in other words, he was radicalized not by some obscure fringe website, but by what every Democrat with access to a microphone or a camera has been saying publicly ever since Trump beat Hillary nearly 10 years ago.
Barack Obama’s intent was to conceal and obscure this truth, to assert that Democrats are against political violence, no matter how often we have seen them incite, defend, justify and participate in such violence (e.g., the “fiery but mostly peaceful” riots of 2020). As David Mamet said, Obama must “pretend not to know things” (and encourage others to join him in that pretense) or else the very existence of the Democratic Party might be jeopardized, because everybody would realize what a colossal scam it is (as all honest and intelligent people already do).
For the record he’s not that stupid, of course, be he revels in the comfort of knowing his constituents are. https://t.co/AJqM5KfOKp
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) April 27, 2026
Rule 5 Sunday: It’s (Almost) That Time of Year Again
Posted on | April 27, 2026 | No Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
We’ve featured Terann Hilow of Vengeance Bikinis before, but it’s been a while, and her hand-knit bikinis are kinda cool anyway.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.
EBL: Saturday Spotted Prawns, Saturday Night Girls With Guns, “La Marseillaise“, Private Property, Jeannie Rousseau, Casting Calamities, He’s Just Not That Into You, MAGA Indictment of $PLC, Happy Birthday Rome, Logan’s Run at 50, Lucrezia Borgia, and Mae West.
A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Georgiana Rosas, Fish Pic Friday – Jean Billy, Thursday Tanlines, Offshore Power Goes Live in Virginia, The Wednesday Wetness, Lady’s On Fire, US Navy Fires On, Captures Iranian Blockade Runner, Random Celebrity News and Sunday Sunrise
BACON TIME: Rule Five Red Hot
Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!
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FMJRA 2.0: Down To The Wire
Posted on | April 27, 2026 | No Comments
— compiled by Wombat-socho
Will the Senators make the playoffs? It all depends on the Kansas City Royals and the Minnesota Twins. We took two of three from the A’s and then lost two of three to the Reds, our sole win coming from a ninth-inning rally against Dick Woodson and a solid relief inning from Diego Segui and Jim Shellenback. We’re playing the Twins in our last series, at home in RFK, and I’m hoping the home advantage allows us to take two games from the division-leading Twins, who we’re 5-6 against for the season. We’re 77-82 right now, ahead of the 75-81 Royals, but as you can see the Royals have yet to play their Friday games at Philadelphia (0-3) before they head west to play the A’s (6-3). So if they get swept by the Phillies again and take two of three from the A’s while we take 2 of 3 from the Twins, that leaves us at 79-83 and the Royals at 77-85. We’ll see if it actually works out that way.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

The Ivy League Is Decadent and Depraved
EBL
357 Magnum
FMJRA 2.0: Probably Not This Year
A View From The Beach
EBL
Guess Who Made an Interesting Point? UPDATE: Sarah Palin Explains Herself
EBL
357 Magnum
Aspiring Rapper Update
EBL
357 Magnum
Rule Five Sunday: More Hot Girls & Hot Cars
A View From The Beach
EBL
‘Several Young Individuals’: At Least Two Dead in North Carolina Mass Shooting UPDATE: Not the Expected Victims
EBL
VA’s 21Apr Vote: This Dog Don’t Hunt
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
IT’S ‘STOP THE LOBSTER’ DAY!
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
In The Mailbox: 04.21.26 (Morning Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
VIRGINIA ELECTION RESULTS: Will Voters OK Spanberger’s Gerrymander? UPDATE: Network Declares ‘Yes’ Win
A View From The Beach
EBL
In The Mailbox: 04.22.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
SPLC’s Clayton Bigsby Moment
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
In The Mailbox: 04.23.26 (Morning Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
In The Mailbox: 04.23.26 (Evening Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
The Ivy League Is Decadent and Depraved
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
In The Mailbox: 04.24.26
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
24% off Kindle for Mom
Amazon Essentials
Newly Released By Chris Cassone,
“The Art of the Stomp Box” Is A Treat
Posted on | April 26, 2026 | No Comments
by Smitty
Chris Cassone is an old and dear friend of the blog, having recorded arguably the best blues ever:
Thus, when word broke out about his new book, “ART OF THE STOMP BOX: Celebrating The Visual Artistry of Effects Pedals” I didn’t hesitate to order a copy. I have an equally old friend who is a guitarist and is getting married in June. When it arrived, I sent the book to Chris for an autograph. This volume will make a perfect wedding gift.
The book is a visually interesting snapshot of the state of the art, whether or not you are a guitarist. My personal favorite was the Shellfire Screamer, by Ulrich Dahlgren. But that’s just because I have both spent some time in Dahlgren, Virginia as an enlisted sailor and Dahlgren Hall while I was at Sing-Sing on the Severn.
Having grown up listening to rock-and-roll, I had questions. For a Wikipedia-deep review, the first stompbox to make a big impact was the 1962 Maestro Fuzz Tone in Ben Shapiro’s favorite, 1965’s (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. I recall the double-negative in the title setting Shapiro off regarding the question of whether Jagger ever did or did not obtain satisfaction. Feel free to opine in the comments.
Later effect pedals like the MXR M-117 flanger drove Unchained by the mighty Van Halen.
Anybody who knows how to get ahold of Rick Beato, please speak up. We need him to interview Cassone.
In a world increasingly awash in the fakery of Artificial Intelligence, this book is a breath of fresh air. Real human beings are still hand-crafting unique artifacts.
Consider getting this book and finding some of the vendors mentioned and musician using their wares. Then go take in some live music. Fight the power!




