March 30, 2009

My Super Awesome Maddow Pre-Show Playlist

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If you missed it, then I hate to rub it in, but Yerba Buena Center for the Arts was totally the place to be here in San Francisco on Saturday night, as Mother Jones‘ dynamic editorial duo of Clara Jeffrey and Monika Bauerlein shared the stage with everybody’s favorite MSNBC host Rachel Maddow at an event packed with enthusiastic supporters of good journalism. In addition to having the most enviable cowboy shirt this side of Jack White, Maddow was also charming and informative, although I’m still troubled that this TV star doesn’t actually watch any TV. Not even Aqua Teen?! Anyhoo, those of you who showed up early to get a good seat may have noticed a delightful little music mix playing over the loudspeakers. And who, pray tell, could have put together such an awe-inspiring CD? Why, your idiotically-named DJ and contributor, of course. Organizers asked me to come up with an hour of tunes to entertain the early arrivals, so I took it upon myself to find tracks that were not only diverse and entertaining, but also had (perhaps wryly) appropriate lyrics. Unfortunately, when I showed up at 7:45, the CD was just starting, so I don’t know if the whole thing got played or not. But if you’re curious about what you heard (or what you were supposed to hear), look after the jump for the full list of tunes. And yes, I totally included “The Bleeding Heart Show.”Party Ben’s Mother Jones Rachel Maddow Pre-Show Playlist

Nicole Willis – Feelin’ Free
ABBA – Take a Chance On Me
The Streets – Let’s Push Things Forward
The New Pornographers – The Bleeding Heart Show
Bjork – Army of Me
Erykah Badu – The Healer
Beck – Gamma Ray
Marvin Gaye – What’s Goin On
Jose Gonzalez – Down the Line
The B-52’s – Channel Z
Johnny Cash – The One on the Right is On the Left
Amadou & Mariam – Ce N’est Pas Bon
Bob Mould – If I Can’t Change Your Mind
Stereolab – Ping Pong
Public Enemy – Fight the Power
TV On the Radio – Golden Age
M.I.A. – Pull Up the People
Faithless – Mass Destruction
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings – Got a Thing On My Mind
Tom Petty – I Won’t Back Down

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The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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