Linkatharsis: I specifically asked not to be woken up until September ended

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Today:

One of the hardest moments in anyone's life is when they realise fairytales are bull. That in the real world, Cinderella would have been sussed as an impostor, battered by steroid-crazed bouncers and left to trudge home in the rain. She'd have fought away tears, then been splashed by passing cars and jeered by idle urchins. She'd have been an Everton fan.

Gawker has about as appropriate a response as you can give to the New York mag piece asking why two pretty girls with so much to live for speedballed to death.

Well, Juan Carlos Pesantez, the father of one of the, um, victims knows what really happened.

"No, we need to clear up what the truth is. From here forward, we are going to clean up my daughter’s name.” He believes the facts will eventually show that Mellie Carballo was working as a roper for Martinez, luring in new girls in exchange for drugs.

“I know that Maria would, if Mellie asked her to, to ‘please come with me quickly to drop off this bag at my friend’s house,’ she would go up,” he says. “I think that Mellie does the drugs first and she passes out. So these guys decide that they can’t have a live witness and so they make Maria do the same. Then they can wash their hands of it, put it all on them, saying that they brought the drugs, or they wanted to do the drugs, or they set it up. They killed Maria so she wouldn’t be able to talk! I say to you, Maria has to have had some kind of pressure, maybe a fist, or a gun, because we’re not sure that Maria would have gone into that apartment with those men voluntarily.”

Mr. Pesantez, I'd like you to meet someone. Occam, this is Juan Carlos Pesantez. Mr. Pesantez, the gentleman here with a rather large razor in his hand is Occam. Why don't I leave you two alone?

"Oatmeal makes you rock more efficiently", says Jeff Tweedy's 9-year-old kid.

Hey, have you noticed that Honda Civic commercial with "Nature Anthem" by Grandaddy? I'm digging it right now, mostly because I only see it every now and then.

Can we squeeze a few more tortured storm analogies in there?

"After the deluge, the Gulf Coast is being overwhelmed again. But this time it's with waves of contractors, prospectors and speculators looking to cash in on what President Bush calls 'one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen.' The tsunami of spending, already budgeted at $62 billion, could top $200 billion - what the U.S. has spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then as now, those mopping up first are the politically well connected: Fluor, Bechtel and the Shaw Group, which each scored $100 million no-bid contracts before the flood waters began to recede. (Halliburton is benefiting from an existing $500 million contract to repair naval bases.)

Oh, and watch out for Rita, seriously.

Meanwhile, the Saints can't wait to get out. They're just trying to let New Orleans down easy and pretend they haven't been winking in the general direction of San Antonio.

Playlist ponders how Motorola and Apple would do things differently if they could make Rokr all over again:

Meeting Three would be postponed so that Apple and Sony Ericsson could get together yet again to try to settle their differences over the whole "You Guys Understand That Sony Connect Sucks, Right?" thing.

Tyco's Kozlowski gets 8 1/3 to 25 years. As satisfying it is to see a white collar criminal get his (and state prison won't be Camp Cupcake by any stretch of the imagination), why do I get the feeling that he's simply the exception that proves the rule, and that you only get caught if you screw other rich folks?

Brooklyn Vegan posts pics from last week's Seu Jorge show at the Bowery. I was feeling really crappy at that concert so it's nice to get a reminder that the music and the atmosphere were fantastic. Well, except for all the people who kept talking over the music.

Low Culture rounds up a few Bush items.

Of note is Clinton's criticism of the Bush borrow-and-spend strategy. As I've said before, Bush only cares that he sells a product and take the commission. He doesn't care about what happens 3, 5, 10 years down the load when that product when the bills are due and he's out of office. It's quite alarming that throughout this presidency, Bush has never asked for sacrifice from the American people, even with big ticket items like Iraq, Social Security reform and now Katrina. Consumer spending can only cure so many ills.

You cool kids and your CMJ reviews.