Hope: and Songs to Sing

admin — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 03:51:00 +0000

Mike Law started Eulcid on a whim in 1996. Although the band wrote the music for their first song in one evening, their first album, The Wind Blew All the Fires Out, took a year to put together and debuted in 2000. Six years, and several different band members later, Eulcid has released another full-length CD.

The theme of this album, Hope and Songs to Sing, seemed more about crying out at injustices than about hope, although perhaps crying out in complaint is a first step in that direction. I was not very impressed with the music or singing in the first few songs. It was loud and unmelodic; however, the words were the best part. The song “Checkbook” was a bit better; the sounds of the music did not overshadow the singing quite as much, which allowed me to more easily hear and appreciate the lyrics. “Word of Mouth” has a very nice steel guitar solo with a short succinct message, perhaps my favorite of them all.

This style of music is one that does not easily cross age, ethnicity and cultural lines. I had a hard time classifying the music. The music style seemed almost, metallic but not quite. The words being more shouted than sang were almost rapping, but not quite. Those who like the harsh, abrasive sounds of heavy drums and steely guitar will likely love this work.

Written by: Teri King, March 23rd 2007

Cry Rape: The True Story of One Woman’s Harrowing Quest for Justice

admin — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 03:57:00 +0000

By Bill Lueders

University of Wisconsin Press

Justice and rape have a horrible history of rarely being bedfellows. This is one of the best chronicles of how torturous the justice system can be to women who have been forced into sexual acts against their will. Equally inspiring is the fact that it was written by a man, Bill Lueders, who is a news editor for Isthmus, Madison, Wisconsin's newsweekly. He does a great job of telling Patty’s incredible and moving story taking the reader on a step-by-step journey from the rape through the medical examinations, police investigation and interrogation, and the aftermath of the trial.

Typical of systems built on money rather than justice, offensively insensitive tactics that were intimidating and disrespectful were used with unrepentant fervor. Somewhere along the line “innocent until proven guilty” turned into “innocent by shifting blame to the victim.” You will read about the damaging, emotional wounds Patty held in this revealing expose of our justice system, and how her struggle with depression that resulted from the rape was difficult to reconcile when she had to continually defend herself. Not only is this book worth buying; it is also worth reading several times.

Written by: Teri King, March 14th 2007