I may have mentioned this before, but Iggy Pop performed for a solid week upon the opening of Atlanta’s legendary New Wave/punk venue, the 600 Club, in 1980. His spray-painted play list from that gig remained visible on the wall of the stage until the place closed in 1986.

I somehow missed the debut, but did catch Iggy at the 688 a couple of years later. Like Captain Beefheart, he was a performer who somehow always felt like an old friend to some of us, and a space alien to others. Unlike the Captain, he’s still alive. Our friend Tammy Booth’s comment at Daylight Video is priceless: “I’m really starting to worry about what kind of world we’re going to leave behind for Keith Richards and Iggy Pop.”

Here are some more conventional midday news/views treats:

* Senate reaches status quo compromise on trafficking bill, which should open way to Lynch confirmation.

* Ted Cruz adds “unmitigated” to his description of Obama as a “socialist.” Was he a “mitigated” socialist up until now?

* Morsi sentenced to 20 years in prison by Egyptian criminal court, allegedly for attacks on protesters just before coup deposed him.

* At the Plum Line, Paul Waldman notes HRC may receive presumption of innocence from non-Republicans over new corruption allegations since we’ve been here so many times before.

* New PPP poll of NH shows Clinton leading Paul and Walker by 9 points in general election trial heat, and other Republicans by double digits.

And in non-political news:

* Blue Bell Creameries recalls all of its products nationwide due to Listeria scare.

As we break for lunch, here’s one of my favorite Iggy Pop tunes, from Soldier; unfortunately, there’s not a good live version available, but there’s a chance a lot of you have never heard it: “I’m a Conservative.”

YouTube video

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.