New York City, 11:14 AM

The Sonics:

Retooled and Refueled

(l to r: Original Sonics Rob Lind, Larry Parypa and Jerry Roslie)

Throughout the first night of Cavestomp 2007, total strangers would approach us simply to express some variation of this sentiment: "I can't believe we're here to see The Sonics!"

There was a strong current of "pinch-me-I'm-dreaming" drifting through the ether. For the past 35 years, the band has resisted all overtures to reform... But tonight was the night.

And, holy shit, The Sonics delivered.

The band rehearsed anywhere from six to eight months (depending on what you read) for just these two shows, and the effort truly showed. We at Radio Zero hate hyperbole, but for those who worship at the altar of garage rock gods, this concert was nothing short of witnessing a second coming.

Original members Jerry Roslie, Larry Parypa and Rob Lind were ably augmented by two other Northwest garage rockers -- bassist Don Wilhelm (from The Daily Flash) and drummer Ricky Lynn Johnson (from The Wailers.) Wilhelm told us that original bassist Andy Parypa (Larry's brother), was actually sitting in at a Daily Flash gig back home that very evening, so Wilhelm could play with The Sonics. Oooh, the eerie synchronicity! And original drummer Bob Bennett flew in from Hawaii just so he could be in the audience, though he did not play.

Bennett was not the only one with serious jet lag -- people actually flew in from as far away as England and Japan to witness this event. For those unable to attend, there will be a DVD and live album (the band is recording overdubs tomorrow, in fact.)

And for those unable to wait that long, we shot some footage of the moment that 35-year sound barrier was broken. (As Cavestompers like to say: "It's primitive." But just you try holding a camera still when nearly four decades of pent-up ecstacy finally gets unleashed all around you.)

There are no plans for The Sonics to perform beyond these two Cavestomp shows, but Larry Parypa says future shows would be considered if, among other things, there is enough positive feedback from these performances.

Well, we can't imagine The Sonics aren't feelin' the love right about now.

Crisis Management =

Perception Management

FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, vice admiral Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing. Reporters were given only 15 minutes' notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA's Southwest D.C. offices, and questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters.

The Washington Posts' Al Kamen reports

Shaking The Tree
"The real story of Jena and the Jena 6 is quite different from what the national media presented. It's time to set the record straight."

From the Christian Science Monitor, this report by Jena Times Assistant Editor Craig Franklin:

"By now, almost everyone in America has heard of Jena, La., because they've all heard the story of the 'Jena 6.' White students hanging nooses barely punished, a schoolyard fight, excessive punishment for the six black attackers, racist local officials, public outrage and protests – the outside media made sure everyone knew the basics.

"There's just one problem: The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative of racial injustice."

In light of recent research on the difficulty of countering false information in the news media, it should be interesting to see how this develops.

Harold and Maude Trailer
Featuring Cat Stevens'
"If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out"

The Psychology of Believing News Reports

Conventional response to myths and urban legends is to counter bad information with accurate information. But the new psychological studies show that denials and clarifications, for all their intuitive appeal, can paradoxically contribute to the resiliency of popular myths.

This phenomenon may help explain why large numbers of Americans incorrectly think that Saddam Hussein was directly involved in planning the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and that most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

While these beliefs likely arose because Bush administration officials have repeatedly tried to connect Iraq with Sept. 11, the experiments suggest that intelligence reports and other efforts to debunk this account may in fact help keep it alive.

The Washington Post's Shankar Vedantam reports

Black Balled

"The overwhelming desire of society today is to assume that equal powers of reason are a universal heritage of humanity. It may well be. But simply wanting this to be the case is not enough. This is not science. To question this is not to give in to racism."

So says Nobel Prize-winning DNA pioneer James Watson, seeking to clarify remarks that eventually earned him a suspension from his research institution, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, NY.

In a recent (London) Times interview, Dr. Watson was quoted as saying that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really."

The remarks drew sharp criticism, and following the suspension, he stated: "This is not a discussion about superiority or inferiority, it is about seeking to understand differences, about why some of us are great musicians and others great engineers."

Read the BBC News' report here