Mon - June 16, 2008
5:01 today, June 16
Over the last couple of weeks I've dipped my toe
back into this blogging thing. I doubt there is anything more boring than a
blogger blogging about why he hasn't been blogging, so we'll skip that. I leave
town later this week for a short vacation and then I'll be back, and I do think
I'll start up again with more regular posts and music
links.
However, since, a long long time ago, I blogged often about the issue of equal rights for gays, and since today, in my home state of California it is now legal for gays to wed, I thought I should at least mark the occasion with a "hooray." So, "hooray."
In November Californians will have the opportunity to vote for a ballot measure that would make it illegal for gays to wed and nullify the state supreme court's decision. I don't look forward to the ugly battle that is no doubt coming. Although my home county, Orange, is famously conservative, it's a conservative that leans towards the libertarian, and that makes me somewhat hopeful that the ugliness won't be quite as prominent around here as it will be in other parts of the state.
I've written before about my confusion over the argument that gay marriage is a "threat" to my own or somehow liable to harm my own family. And no one thinks that anyone takes that argument seriously: we're all aware that lurking behind that argument is a much stronger feeling about homosexuality in general--two men or two women living together in a romantic relationship is just as bothersome to these people whether they have a piece of paper from the county clerk in their safety deposit box or not.
But we'll see these folks:
That's from the LA Times. "Homo sex is a sin." You know what? I think my problem here stems from the fact that I grew up in the Bible belt and attended a high school where a very significant portion of my fellow students and their parents objected to the fact that my high school held a prom in the school gym. The reason? Dancing was a sin. For a short time I dated a girl who knew that my buddies and I often played the card game Hearts at lunch, and told me once that she prayed for me because card playing was a sin. And these people are perfectly welcome to their beliefs. But let's not amend the California constitution to outlaw dancing or card playing. You folks go on praying for us and, most importantly, keep on refraining from activities you deem sinful. But, as Kurt Vonnegut once said, "have someone read the US Constitution out loud to you, you god damn fool."
In the mean time, it IS a very happy day in sunny California.
However, since, a long long time ago, I blogged often about the issue of equal rights for gays, and since today, in my home state of California it is now legal for gays to wed, I thought I should at least mark the occasion with a "hooray." So, "hooray."
In November Californians will have the opportunity to vote for a ballot measure that would make it illegal for gays to wed and nullify the state supreme court's decision. I don't look forward to the ugly battle that is no doubt coming. Although my home county, Orange, is famously conservative, it's a conservative that leans towards the libertarian, and that makes me somewhat hopeful that the ugliness won't be quite as prominent around here as it will be in other parts of the state.
I've written before about my confusion over the argument that gay marriage is a "threat" to my own or somehow liable to harm my own family. And no one thinks that anyone takes that argument seriously: we're all aware that lurking behind that argument is a much stronger feeling about homosexuality in general--two men or two women living together in a romantic relationship is just as bothersome to these people whether they have a piece of paper from the county clerk in their safety deposit box or not.
But we'll see these folks:
That's from the LA Times. "Homo sex is a sin." You know what? I think my problem here stems from the fact that I grew up in the Bible belt and attended a high school where a very significant portion of my fellow students and their parents objected to the fact that my high school held a prom in the school gym. The reason? Dancing was a sin. For a short time I dated a girl who knew that my buddies and I often played the card game Hearts at lunch, and told me once that she prayed for me because card playing was a sin. And these people are perfectly welcome to their beliefs. But let's not amend the California constitution to outlaw dancing or card playing. You folks go on praying for us and, most importantly, keep on refraining from activities you deem sinful. But, as Kurt Vonnegut once said, "have someone read the US Constitution out loud to you, you god damn fool."
In the mean time, it IS a very happy day in sunny California.
Posted at 10:02 PM
Fri - June 6, 2008
a movement "to make a firearm as common an accessory as an iPod"
Because I know, when I walk into Starbuck's, how
much better I would feel if everyone in there was packing
heat....
From the Los Angeles Times
COLUMN ONE
Packing in public: Gun owners tired of hiding their weapons embrace 'open carry'
Those who wear their guns in full sight are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm a common accessory.
By Nicholas Riccardi
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
5:06 PM PDT, June 6, 2008
PROVO, UTAH — For years, Kevin Jensen carried a pistol everywhere he went, tucked in a shoulder holster beneath his clothes.
In hot weather the holster was almost unbearable. Pressed against Jensen's skin, the firearm was heavy and uncomfortable. Hiding the weapon made him feel like a criminal.
Then one evening he stumbled across a site that urged gun owners to do something revolutionary: Carry your gun openly for the world to see as you go about your business.
In most states there's no law against that.
Jensen thought about it and decided to give it a try. A couple of days later, his gun was visible, dangling from a black holster strapped around his hip as he walked into a Costco. His heart raced as he ordered a Polish dog at the counter. No one called the police. No one stopped him.
Now Jensen carries his Glock 23 openly into his bank, restaurants and shopping centers. He wore the gun to a Ron Paul rally. He and his wife, Clachelle, drop off their 5-year-old daughter at elementary school with pistols dangling from their hip holsters, and have never received a complaint or a wary look.
Jensen said he tries not to flaunt his gun. "We don't want to show up and say, 'Hey, we're here, we're armed, get used to it,' " he said.
But he and others who publicly display their guns have a common purpose.
The Jensens are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm as common an accessory as an iPod. Called "open carry" by its supporters, the movement has attracted grandparents, graduate students and lifelong gun enthusiasts like the Jensens.
Read on here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-opencarry7-2008jun07,0,3346099,full.story
Do I need to make a comment? I think not.
From the Los Angeles Times
COLUMN ONE
Packing in public: Gun owners tired of hiding their weapons embrace 'open carry'
Those who wear their guns in full sight are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm a common accessory.
By Nicholas Riccardi
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
5:06 PM PDT, June 6, 2008
PROVO, UTAH — For years, Kevin Jensen carried a pistol everywhere he went, tucked in a shoulder holster beneath his clothes.
In hot weather the holster was almost unbearable. Pressed against Jensen's skin, the firearm was heavy and uncomfortable. Hiding the weapon made him feel like a criminal.
Then one evening he stumbled across a site that urged gun owners to do something revolutionary: Carry your gun openly for the world to see as you go about your business.
In most states there's no law against that.
Jensen thought about it and decided to give it a try. A couple of days later, his gun was visible, dangling from a black holster strapped around his hip as he walked into a Costco. His heart raced as he ordered a Polish dog at the counter. No one called the police. No one stopped him.
Now Jensen carries his Glock 23 openly into his bank, restaurants and shopping centers. He wore the gun to a Ron Paul rally. He and his wife, Clachelle, drop off their 5-year-old daughter at elementary school with pistols dangling from their hip holsters, and have never received a complaint or a wary look.
Jensen said he tries not to flaunt his gun. "We don't want to show up and say, 'Hey, we're here, we're armed, get used to it,' " he said.
But he and others who publicly display their guns have a common purpose.
The Jensens are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm as common an accessory as an iPod. Called "open carry" by its supporters, the movement has attracted grandparents, graduate students and lifelong gun enthusiasts like the Jensens.
Read on here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-opencarry7-2008jun07,0,3346099,full.story
Do I need to make a comment? I think not.
Posted at 08:48 PM
Thu - May 29, 2008
Worth reading, several times
From Glenn Greenwald's blog in Salon:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/28/mcclellan/index.html
Scott McClellan on the "liberal media"
In a minimally rational world, this extraordinary passage, from the new book by Scott McClellan, would forever slay the single most ludicrous myth in our political culture: The "Liberal Media":
If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq.
The collapse of the administration's rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. . . . In this case, the "liberal media" didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.
Just consider how remarkable that is. George Bush's own Press Secretary criticizes the American media for being "too deferential" to the Government. He lays the blame for Bush's ability to propagandize the nation on the media's uncritical dissemination of the Republican administration's falsehoods. And most notably of all, McClellan actually uses cynical scare quotes when invoking the phrase which, in conventional political discourse, is deemed the most unassailable truth of all: The Liberal Media.
How much longer can this preposterous myth be sustained when even the White House Spokesman not only mocks the phrase but derides the media for being "too deferential" to the right-wing Government "in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during [his] years in Washington"? If one were to set about with the goal of debunking the "Liberal Media" myth -- as Eric Alterman specifically did four years ago and other media critics have more generally done before that -- one couldn't dream up evidence more conclusive than McClellan's admissions.
Scott McClellan on the "liberal media"
In a minimally rational world, this extraordinary passage, from the new book by Scott McClellan, would forever slay the single most ludicrous myth in our political culture: The "Liberal Media":
If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq.
The collapse of the administration's rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. . . . In this case, the "liberal media" didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.
Just consider how remarkable that is. George Bush's own Press Secretary criticizes the American media for being "too deferential" to the Government. He lays the blame for Bush's ability to propagandize the nation on the media's uncritical dissemination of the Republican administration's falsehoods. And most notably of all, McClellan actually uses cynical scare quotes when invoking the phrase which, in conventional political discourse, is deemed the most unassailable truth of all: The Liberal Media.
How much longer can this preposterous myth be sustained when even the White House Spokesman not only mocks the phrase but derides the media for being "too deferential" to the right-wing Government "in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during [his] years in Washington"? If one were to set about with the goal of debunking the "Liberal Media" myth -- as Eric Alterman specifically did four years ago and other media critics have more generally done before that -- one couldn't dream up evidence more conclusive than McClellan's admissions.
Posted at 06:59 AM
Fri - January 4, 2008
One I Missed: Frank Morgan
A couple nights ago, flying home from a week in
New Hampshire, I was reading the latest Michael
Connelly novel, which I had picked up in the airport. Connelly's
detective Harry Bosch is a jazz fan, and at the very beginning of this book he
tells us he's listening to a Frank Morgan recording. I was, at the time,
listening to Art Pepper on my ipod, but the Morgan reference
made me spin my clickwheel, and I spent most of the novel listening to Frank
Morgan. Since I love the jazz saxophone above just about anything else, I'd be
hard pressed to choose a favorite saxophonist--Getz, Pepper, Coltrane, Webster,
Hodges, Rollins, Desmond, Sims, Henderson, Mulligan, Young...I couldn't pick.
But Frank Morgan nevertheless has a special place in my collection, because I
hadn't listened to much jazz in a long while before my friend Mark Dolan, in
Montgomery Alabama, gave me a gift of Morgan's new (at the time) release Mood Indigo. I liked this CD as much as I've
liked any jazz recording, and I've kept buying Morgan's releases, and I've dug
into his back catalog, ever since.
So I was really saddened to read today, in one of those "year end death" reports, that Morgan died on December 21st--the day before I flew to New Hampshire, and so I completely missed his obituary. (Read his NY Times obituary here.) It's a little late, but here are some Morgan cuts...two from Mood Indigo, and two from his next CD, A Lovesome Thing, including a cut with the magnificent-beyond-words vocalist Abbey Lincoln. And you should dig into his catalog, too.
Frank Morgan, Mood Indigo
Frank Morgan, Bessie's Blues
Frank Morgan, A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing
Frank Morgan and Abbey Lincoln, Wholey Earth
So I was really saddened to read today, in one of those "year end death" reports, that Morgan died on December 21st--the day before I flew to New Hampshire, and so I completely missed his obituary. (Read his NY Times obituary here.) It's a little late, but here are some Morgan cuts...two from Mood Indigo, and two from his next CD, A Lovesome Thing, including a cut with the magnificent-beyond-words vocalist Abbey Lincoln. And you should dig into his catalog, too.
Frank Morgan, Mood Indigo
Frank Morgan, Bessie's Blues
Frank Morgan, A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing
Frank Morgan and Abbey Lincoln, Wholey Earth
Posted at 07:28 AM
Wed - January 2, 2008
Now You're REALLY Jealous
I've just returned from a week in New England, and,
as usual when I travel--especially in the winter--I encountered a good many
people expressing envy for where I live. And I have to say, it IS pretty nice
here. Today, dropping off some dry cleaning, I pulled over to take this
picture:
And a couple weeks ago, when we went out to take our Christmas card photo, I took this, after a 20 minute drive from my house:
And then, rejecting that, we drove another 20 minutes where I took this:
And of course there are all kinds of other reasons to want to live here. Vin Scully. In-N-Out Burger. Wahoo's Fish Tacos. This place:
But in today's LA Times comes the story that will really have all you folks sad that you're not me:
O.C. sewage will soon be drinking water
January 2, 2008
As a hedge against water shortages and population growth, Orange County has begun operating the world's largest, most modern reclamation plant -- a facility that can turn 70 million gallons of treated sewage into drinking water every day.
The new purification system at the Orange County Water District headquarters in Fountain Valley cost about $490 million and comprises a labyrinth of pipes, filters, holding tanks and pumps across 20 acres.
Almost four years after construction began, the facility is now purifying effluent from a neighboring sewage treatment plant run by the Orange County Sanitation District, a partner in the venture.
The finished product will be injected into the county's vast groundwater basin to combat saltwater intrusion and supplement drinking water supplies for 2.3 million people in coastal, central and northern Orange County.
Read on here.
I think I may have to give up my Scotch and waters....
And a couple weeks ago, when we went out to take our Christmas card photo, I took this, after a 20 minute drive from my house:
And then, rejecting that, we drove another 20 minutes where I took this:
And of course there are all kinds of other reasons to want to live here. Vin Scully. In-N-Out Burger. Wahoo's Fish Tacos. This place:
But in today's LA Times comes the story that will really have all you folks sad that you're not me:
O.C. sewage will soon be drinking water
January 2, 2008
As a hedge against water shortages and population growth, Orange County has begun operating the world's largest, most modern reclamation plant -- a facility that can turn 70 million gallons of treated sewage into drinking water every day.
The new purification system at the Orange County Water District headquarters in Fountain Valley cost about $490 million and comprises a labyrinth of pipes, filters, holding tanks and pumps across 20 acres.
Almost four years after construction began, the facility is now purifying effluent from a neighboring sewage treatment plant run by the Orange County Sanitation District, a partner in the venture.
The finished product will be injected into the county's vast groundwater basin to combat saltwater intrusion and supplement drinking water supplies for 2.3 million people in coastal, central and northern Orange County.
Read on here.
I think I may have to give up my Scotch and waters....
Posted at 01:39 PM
Thu - December 13, 2007
And More Ike
I made myself a playlist of all my Ike Turner
cuts last night, and listened to it throughout the day. Too much good stuff not
to share some more. First, I realized that I had forgotten how good Ike's 2006
release Risin' With The Blues was. I had bought it,
listened to it, liked it, and then dropped it into a huge iTunes playlist that I
listen to on shuffle which, unfortunately, meant it kind of fell into a black
hole. It's a great disc! And then, of course, there's the Ike and Tina stuff. I
know that, for many, these cuts are super familiar, maybe even over-played. But,
sadly, I think that for many others, these are unfamiliar--and so: give a
listen, please!
Ike and Tina Turner, Nutbush City Limits
Ike and Tina Turner, Come Together
Ike and Tina Turner, Honky Tonk Women
Ike and Tina Turner, Baby Get It On
And check out this video: still smoking hot, although it appears to be at least 100 years old. (Thanks to There Stands The Glass)
Ike and Tina Turner, Nutbush City Limits
Ike and Tina Turner, Come Together
Ike and Tina Turner, Honky Tonk Women
Ike and Tina Turner, Baby Get It On
And check out this video: still smoking hot, although it appears to be at least 100 years old. (Thanks to There Stands The Glass)
Posted at 04:59 PM
Wed - December 12, 2007
Ike Turner
Oh man. Ike Turner has died. If ever there was an
unsung hero of rock and roll, it was Ike Turner. Read his LA Times obituary
here, and if you don't know much about him or
his contributions to the history of rock--especially if you only know him as
Tina's husband--keep looking for articles and blogs and obituaries. He's worth
knowing about.
Also worth listening to. Here are some early cuts:
Jackie Brenston, Rocket '88'
(from the Times: Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar. But as would be the case for most of his career, Turner, a prolific session guitarist and piano player, was not the star on the record -- it was recorded with Turner's band but credited to singer Jackie Brenston.)
Ike Turner, Matchbox
Ike Turner, Steel Guitar Rag
Ike Turner, Hey Hey
Ike Turner, Prancin'
Also worth listening to. Here are some early cuts:
Jackie Brenston, Rocket '88'
(from the Times: Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar. But as would be the case for most of his career, Turner, a prolific session guitarist and piano player, was not the star on the record -- it was recorded with Turner's band but credited to singer Jackie Brenston.)
Ike Turner, Matchbox
Ike Turner, Steel Guitar Rag
Ike Turner, Hey Hey
Ike Turner, Prancin'
Posted at 05:09 PM
Tue - December 4, 2007
"Do You Think We Are Stupid?"
In an otherwise very smart opinion piece
titled Corrupt News Network , LA Times media analyst
Tim Rutten makes the utterly absurd statement that:
It's nobody's business whether a candidate
believes in the virgin birth, whether God gave an oral Torah to Moses at Sinai,
whether the Buddha escaped the round of birth and rebirth or whether an angel
appeared to Joseph Smith.
I'm sorry, but that is so completely wrong.
Jacob Weisberg, the editor of Slate, got it right when he wrote, some time ago, that:
I wouldn't vote for someone who truly believed in the founding whoppers of Mormonism. The LDS church holds that Joseph Smith, directed by the angel Moroni, unearthed a book of golden plates buried in a hillside in Western New York in 1827. The plates were inscribed in "reformed" Egyptian hieroglyphics—a nonexistent version of the ancient language that had yet to be decoded. If you don't know the story, it's worth spending some time with Fawn Brodie's wonderful biography No Man Knows My History. Smith was able to dictate his "translation" of the Book of Mormon first by looking through diamond-encrusted decoder glasses and then by burying his face in a hat with a brown rock at the bottom of it. He was an obvious con man. Romney has every right to believe in con men, but I want to know if he does, and if so, I don't want him running the country.
One may object that all religious beliefs are irrational—what's the difference between Smith's "seer stone" and the virgin birth or the parting of the Red Sea? But Mormonism is different because it is based on such a transparent and recent fraud. It's Scientology plus 125 years. Perhaps Christianity and Judaism are merely more venerable and poetic versions of the same. But a few eons makes a big difference. The world's greater religions have had time to splinter, moderate, and turn their myths into metaphor. The Church of Latter-day Saints is expanding rapidly and liberalizing in various ways, but it remains fundamentally an orthodox creed with no visible reform wing.
It may be that Mitt Romney doesn't take Mormon theology at face value. His flip-flopping on gay rights and abortion to suit the alternative demands of a Massachusetts gubernatorial election and a Republican presidential primary suggests that he's a man of flexible principles—which in this context might be regarded as encouraging. But Romney has never publicly indicated any distance from church doctrine. He is an "elder" who performed missionary service in France as a young man and did not protest the church's overt racism and priestly discrimination before it was abolished in 1978. He usually tries to defuse the issue with the tired jokes about polygamy, or cries foul and insists that his religious views are "private." That they may be, but if he's running for president, they concern the rest of us, as well. (Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2155902/)
You don't have to agree with everything Weisberg says about Mormonism, but I don't think you can argue with his point that it is very much our business to look into a candidate's actual beliefs. Mitt Romney will be making a speech on his religious beliefs on Thursday, and I'll be interested to hear what he has to say, but I don't mean to single out Romney here. Here's a quote from an AP wire story that posted tonight on Mike Huckabee:
Huckabee — who raised his hand at a debate last May when asked which candidates disbelieved the theory of evolution — asked this time why there is such a fascination with his beliefs.
And I mean...really? Really? He doesn't understand why voters might be "fascinated"--might care, in other words--to know whether or not he believes in evolution? Once he asks us to vote for him for president--president!--it very much is our business. Tim Rutten ought to know that.
I'm reminded of one of my favorite passages from one of my favorite novels, Don DeLillo's White Noise. The protagonist, Jack Gladney, finds himself having an intimate conversation with a nun:
I said to my nun, “What does the Church say about heaven today? Is it still the old heaven, like that, in the sky?”
She turned to glance at the picture.
“Do you think we are stupid?” she said.
I was surprised by the force of the reply.
“Then what is heaven, according to the Church, if it isn’t the abode of God and the angels and the souls of those who are saved?”
“Saved? What is saved? This is a dumb head, who would come in here to talk about angels. Show me an angel. Please. I want to see.”
“But you’re a nun. Nuns believe these things….”
“You would have a head so dumb to believe this?…This is why we are here. A tiny minority. To embody old things, old beliefs. The devil, the angels, heaven, hell. If we did not pretend to believe these things, the world would collapse.”
“Pretend?”
“Of course pretend. Do you think we are stupid?”
I'm certainly fine with the candidates--Romney and Huckabee included--talking about the positive role their religion has played in their lives. But when put on the spot to explain just what, precisely, it is that they believe--which is not only a completely fair question, but is in fact an essential question--I'll tell you how a candidate could guarantee himself--or herself--my vote. Be as honest as Sister Hermann Marie.
I'm sorry, but that is so completely wrong.
Jacob Weisberg, the editor of Slate, got it right when he wrote, some time ago, that:
I wouldn't vote for someone who truly believed in the founding whoppers of Mormonism. The LDS church holds that Joseph Smith, directed by the angel Moroni, unearthed a book of golden plates buried in a hillside in Western New York in 1827. The plates were inscribed in "reformed" Egyptian hieroglyphics—a nonexistent version of the ancient language that had yet to be decoded. If you don't know the story, it's worth spending some time with Fawn Brodie's wonderful biography No Man Knows My History. Smith was able to dictate his "translation" of the Book of Mormon first by looking through diamond-encrusted decoder glasses and then by burying his face in a hat with a brown rock at the bottom of it. He was an obvious con man. Romney has every right to believe in con men, but I want to know if he does, and if so, I don't want him running the country.
One may object that all religious beliefs are irrational—what's the difference between Smith's "seer stone" and the virgin birth or the parting of the Red Sea? But Mormonism is different because it is based on such a transparent and recent fraud. It's Scientology plus 125 years. Perhaps Christianity and Judaism are merely more venerable and poetic versions of the same. But a few eons makes a big difference. The world's greater religions have had time to splinter, moderate, and turn their myths into metaphor. The Church of Latter-day Saints is expanding rapidly and liberalizing in various ways, but it remains fundamentally an orthodox creed with no visible reform wing.
It may be that Mitt Romney doesn't take Mormon theology at face value. His flip-flopping on gay rights and abortion to suit the alternative demands of a Massachusetts gubernatorial election and a Republican presidential primary suggests that he's a man of flexible principles—which in this context might be regarded as encouraging. But Romney has never publicly indicated any distance from church doctrine. He is an "elder" who performed missionary service in France as a young man and did not protest the church's overt racism and priestly discrimination before it was abolished in 1978. He usually tries to defuse the issue with the tired jokes about polygamy, or cries foul and insists that his religious views are "private." That they may be, but if he's running for president, they concern the rest of us, as well. (Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2155902/)
You don't have to agree with everything Weisberg says about Mormonism, but I don't think you can argue with his point that it is very much our business to look into a candidate's actual beliefs. Mitt Romney will be making a speech on his religious beliefs on Thursday, and I'll be interested to hear what he has to say, but I don't mean to single out Romney here. Here's a quote from an AP wire story that posted tonight on Mike Huckabee:
Huckabee — who raised his hand at a debate last May when asked which candidates disbelieved the theory of evolution — asked this time why there is such a fascination with his beliefs.
And I mean...really? Really? He doesn't understand why voters might be "fascinated"--might care, in other words--to know whether or not he believes in evolution? Once he asks us to vote for him for president--president!--it very much is our business. Tim Rutten ought to know that.
I'm reminded of one of my favorite passages from one of my favorite novels, Don DeLillo's White Noise. The protagonist, Jack Gladney, finds himself having an intimate conversation with a nun:
I said to my nun, “What does the Church say about heaven today? Is it still the old heaven, like that, in the sky?”
She turned to glance at the picture.
“Do you think we are stupid?” she said.
I was surprised by the force of the reply.
“Then what is heaven, according to the Church, if it isn’t the abode of God and the angels and the souls of those who are saved?”
“Saved? What is saved? This is a dumb head, who would come in here to talk about angels. Show me an angel. Please. I want to see.”
“But you’re a nun. Nuns believe these things….”
“You would have a head so dumb to believe this?…This is why we are here. A tiny minority. To embody old things, old beliefs. The devil, the angels, heaven, hell. If we did not pretend to believe these things, the world would collapse.”
“Pretend?”
“Of course pretend. Do you think we are stupid?”
I'm certainly fine with the candidates--Romney and Huckabee included--talking about the positive role their religion has played in their lives. But when put on the spot to explain just what, precisely, it is that they believe--which is not only a completely fair question, but is in fact an essential question--I'll tell you how a candidate could guarantee himself--or herself--my vote. Be as honest as Sister Hermann Marie.
Posted at 08:56 PM
Sun - November 18, 2007
Hometown News, Part III
I'm very fond of my
hometown, but I'm sorry to see that so many of the things that give it character
are disappearing. This is nothing new, of course...the McDonalds and
Wal-Martization of America is a subject that has almost become a cliche, true as
it is. One of the best of the many observers of this phenomenon, and from my
neck of the woods, is the wonderful western Kentucky author Bobbie Ann Mason. In
the title story from her terrific collection Shiloh and Other Stories she writes:
"Subdivisions are spreading across Western Kentucky like an oil slick... Leroy
can't figure out who is living in all the new houses. The farmers who used to
gather around the courthouse square on Saturday afternoons to play checkers and
spit tobacco juice have gone. It has been years since Leroy thought about the
farmers, and they have disappeared without his
noticing."
Yesterday my hometown newspaper ran the following little item about the disappearance of a landmark, of sorts, from Harrisburg's courthouse square. I'm going to miss it; I'm glad I snapped a picture this past summer.
The sign advertising First Federal Savings and Loan has always been on top of Sloan and Tolley Abstracters on Poplar Street in Harrisburg. Now the sign is going to a new home....workers for SignCo of Paducah, Ky., removed the sign Thursday. It is going to the Neonville Museum in Indianapolis, Ind., where is it to be fully restored and placed on display.
Steve Earle, Hometown Blues
Yesterday my hometown newspaper ran the following little item about the disappearance of a landmark, of sorts, from Harrisburg's courthouse square. I'm going to miss it; I'm glad I snapped a picture this past summer.
The sign advertising First Federal Savings and Loan has always been on top of Sloan and Tolley Abstracters on Poplar Street in Harrisburg. Now the sign is going to a new home....workers for SignCo of Paducah, Ky., removed the sign Thursday. It is going to the Neonville Museum in Indianapolis, Ind., where is it to be fully restored and placed on display.
Steve Earle, Hometown Blues
Posted at 12:17 PM
Mon - November 12, 2007
Cultural Literacy, Part I
Lord knows I understand and agree with those who
were critical of the "cultural literacy" movement of the Reagan years: the Pat
Buchanan's and ED Hirsch's of the world who argued that "multiculturalism" and
"feminism" and such were bringing about the ruin of America, and indeed Western
civilization.
So I also understand that the same sort of elitist thinking can occur in the pop culture world: conservative old fogies decrying the loss of "pop cultural literarcy." Kids today, and all that. It goes without saying that not a single one of my high school students--bright, well-educated though they may be--would respond with even the slightest recognition to the names Porter Wagoner, Hank Thompson, or Norman Mailer. No, you would get blank stares all around should you mention any of those gentlemen. And I think that's too bad, although Buchanan and Hirsch wouldn't care very much, especially about the first two. I guess I'm a different sort of snob.
And here's what bring this up. I think this is terrible, terrible, terrible, a real sign that we, in the immortal words of Merle Haggard, are rollin' downhill like a snowball headed for hell. Here's the ad that appeared in yesterday's LA Times for next spring's "Stagecoach" music fest;
Do you see what I mean? Itty bitty print: Billy Joe Shaver and JD Crowe. Little larger print: George Jones, Earl Scruggs and Ralph Stanley. (Read those names again!!!) The draw? Rascal Flatts! Dierks Bentley! Big & Rich!
Are you kidding me?
It's a great lineup, I'll say that. But come on.
So I also understand that the same sort of elitist thinking can occur in the pop culture world: conservative old fogies decrying the loss of "pop cultural literarcy." Kids today, and all that. It goes without saying that not a single one of my high school students--bright, well-educated though they may be--would respond with even the slightest recognition to the names Porter Wagoner, Hank Thompson, or Norman Mailer. No, you would get blank stares all around should you mention any of those gentlemen. And I think that's too bad, although Buchanan and Hirsch wouldn't care very much, especially about the first two. I guess I'm a different sort of snob.
And here's what bring this up. I think this is terrible, terrible, terrible, a real sign that we, in the immortal words of Merle Haggard, are rollin' downhill like a snowball headed for hell. Here's the ad that appeared in yesterday's LA Times for next spring's "Stagecoach" music fest;
Do you see what I mean? Itty bitty print: Billy Joe Shaver and JD Crowe. Little larger print: George Jones, Earl Scruggs and Ralph Stanley. (Read those names again!!!) The draw? Rascal Flatts! Dierks Bentley! Big & Rich!
Are you kidding me?
It's a great lineup, I'll say that. But come on.
Posted at 05:42 PM
Sat - November 10, 2007
Norman Mailer
In the mid-1980s, a college professor of mine, teaching a course on the 20th century American novel, declared that Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song was the very best of that category: the best American novel of the century. I don't know that that is an opinion much held today--I imagine that Mailer's The Armies of the Night is his work that most often appears on college syllabuses, but not long ago I re-read The Executioner's Song and I would have to say, it ranks very high on my list. It is a magnificent work, as is, of course, The Armies of the Night, and many other Mailer novels and journalistic pieces and essays as well. Some of his writing was not so good, too, as he well knew. Mailer died today at 84.
I saw Mailer twice: once, as an undergraduate, when he came to speak on my campus, and once, in graduate school, when a seminar class took a field trip to watch a taping of the Dick Cavett show--the one on the USA Network that didn't last very long--because Mailer was a guest. He was electrifying both times. I think this blog from The Nation's John Nichols does an excellent job of capturing what we've lost, the author as "world-classrabble-rouser"
Norman Mailer Brawled With Bush to the Bitter End
There is much, much to be said of Norman Mailer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and world-class rabble-rouser who died Saturday at age 84.
But the pugilistic pensman would perhaps be most pleased to have it known that he went down swinging. The chronicler of our politics and protests in the 1960s with two of the era's definitional books--1968's Armies of the Night and Miami and the Siege of Chicago, did not rest on the laurels--and they were legion--earned for exposing the dark undersides of the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
He went after George Bush with a fury, and a precision, that was born of his faith that all politicians--including 1969 New York City mayoral candidate Norman Mailer - had to be viewed skeptically. And, when found to be lacking, had to be dealt with using all tools available to a writer who had pocketed two Pulitzers, a National Book Award, a George Polk Award, a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation and a global prominence rarely accorded the pushers of pens.
Mailer did not hesitate to suggest that Bush and his compatriots were setting up "a pre-fascistic atmosphere in America" and he saw the war in Iraq as an imperialistic endeavor destined--as all such attempts are--to diminish democracy at home.
"Iraq is the excuse for moving in an imperial direction," Mailer wrote on the eve of the conflict. "War with Iraq, as they originally conceived it, would be a quick, dramatic step that would enable them to control the Near East as a powerful base -- not least because of the oil there, as well as the water supplies from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers--to build a world empire."
Mailer recognized in the president's schoolboy militarism the most dangerous of instincts. So it was that, when Bush made his 2003 appearance in flight-suit drag before a sign declaring "Mission Accomplished" as part of the first--though certainly not the last--celebration of the fantasy of "victory" in Iraq, Mailer responded with a critique that remains the most damning assessment of a president who has known more than his share of damnation.
"Democracy, more than any other political system, depends on a modicum of honesty. Ultimately, it is much at the mercy of a leader who has never been embarrassed by himself," Mailer, who as a young Harvard graduate had served in the South Pacific during World War II, wrote of Bush at the close of a brilliant piece for The New York Review of Books. "What is to be said of a man who spent two years in the Air Force of the National Guard (as a way of not having to go to Vietnam) and proceeded--like many another spoiled and wealthy father's son--not to bother to show up for duty in his second year of service? Most of us have episodes in our youth that can cause us shame on reflection. It is a mark of maturation that we do not try to profit from our early lacks and vices but do our best to learn from them. Bush proceeded, however, to turn his declaration of the Iraqi campaign's end into a mighty fashion show. He chose--this overnight clone of Honest Abe--to arrive on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on an S-3B Viking jet that came in with a dramatic tail-hook landing. The carrier was easily within helicopter range of San Diego but G.W. would not have been able to show himself in flight regalia, and so would not have been able to demonstrate how well he wore the uniform he had not honored. Jack Kennedy, a war hero, was always in civvies while he was commander in chief. So was General Eisenhower. George W. Bush, who might, if he had been entirely on his own, have made a world-class male model (since he never takes an awkward photograph), proceeded to tote the flight helmet and sport the flight suit. There he was for the photo-op looking like one more great guy among the great guys. Let us hope that our democracy will survive these nonstop foulings of the nest."
Mailer would continue protesting the foulings of the nest, on the streets of New York during the 2004 Republican National Coronation and with a pugilistic pen that pummeled the empire builders and their lesser stooges--asking pointedly in final years that paralleled Bush's "Patriot Acts" and an endless "war on terror": "What does it profit us if we gain extreme security and lose our democracy?"--until it was finally laid to rest on Saturday.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=250720
Here is the entire piece by Mailer that is quoted aboveg: on the eve of the 2004 Presidential election, the New York Review of Books asked a number of public intellectuals for their "views" on that election. Here is what Mailer had to say:
NORMAN MAILER
Provincetown, Massachusetts
A victory for Bush may yet be seen as one of our nation's unforgettable ironies. No need to speak again of the mendacities, manipulations, and spiritual mediocrity of the post–9/11 years; the time has come to recover from the shock that so abysmal a record (and so complete a refusal to look at the record) looks nonetheless likely to prevail. Who, then, are we? In just what kind of condition are the American people?
A quick look at our movie stars gives a hint. The liberal left has been attached to actors like Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson. They spoke to our cynicism and to our baffled idealism. But the American center moved their loyalties from the decency of Gary Cooper to the grit and self-approval of John Wayne. Now, we have the apotheosis of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He captured convention honors at the Garden in the course of informing America, via the physicality of his presence, that should the nation ever come to such a dire pass as to need a dictator, why, bless us all, he, Arnold, can offer the best chin to come along since Benito Mussolini. Chin is now prepared to replace spin.
In 1983, during the formative years of spin, 241 Marines were blown up by one terrorist blast in Beirut. Two days later, on October 25, Reagan landed 1,200 marines in Grenada, which is 3,000 miles away from Beirut. By the time that the invasion force grew to 7,000 Marines, the campaign was over. The US lost 19 dead, while 49 soldiers in the Grenadian army perished on the other side, as well as 29 Cuban construction workers. Communism in the Caribbean was now kaput (except for the little matter of Castro and Cuba). After this instant victory over a ragtag foe, Reagan was stimulated enough to accept his supporters' claim that America had now put an end to our shame in Vietnam. Reagan understood what Americans wanted, and that was spin. It was more important to be told you were healthy than to be healthy.
Bush-and-Rove enlarged this insight by an order of magnitude. They acted on the premise that America was prodigiously insecure. As an empire, we are nouveaux riches. We look to overcome the uneasiness implicit in this condition by amassing mega-money. The sorriest thing to be said about the US, as we sidle up to fascism (which can become our fate if we plunge into a major depression, or suffer a set of dirty-bomb catastrophes), is that we expect disasters. We await them. We have become a guilty nation. Somewhere in the moil of the national conscience is the knowledge that we are caught in the little contradiction of loving Jesus on Sunday, while lusting the rest of the week for mega-money. How can we not be in need of someone to tell us that we are good and pure and he will seek to make us secure? For Bush-and-Rove, 9/11 was the jackpot.
The presidency is a role, and George, left on his own, might have become a successful movie actor. Kerry's task by now is to scourge Bush's ham machismo. But how? Kerry's only real opportunity will come as he steps into a most constricting venue—the debates. Kerry has to dominate Bush without a backward look at his own dovish councils—"Don't be seen as cruel, John, or you will lose the women!" To the contrary—Kerry must win the men. He has to take Bush apart in public. By the end of the debates, he has to succeed in laying waste to Bush's shit-eating grin and present himself as the legitimate alternative—a hero whose reputation was slandered by a slacker. That will not be routine. Bush is the better actor. He has been impersonating men more manly than himself for many years. Kerry has to convince some new part of the audience that his opponent is a closet weakling who seizes on inflexibility as a way to show America that he is strong. Bush's appeal is, after all, to the stupid. They, too, are inflexible—they also know that maintaining one's stupidity can become a kind of strength, provided you never change your mind.
There is a subtext which Kerry can use. Bush, after all, is not accustomed to working alone in hostile environments. He has been cosseted for years. It is cruel but true that he has the vulnerability of an ex-alcoholic.
People in Alcoholics Anonymous speak of themselves as dry drunks. As they see it, they may no longer drink, yet a sense of imbalance at having to do without liquor does not go away. Rather the impulse is sequestered behind the faith that God is supporting one's efforts to remain sober.
Giving up booze may have been the most heroic act of George W.'s life, but America could now be paying the price. George W.'s piety has become a pomade to cover all the tamped-down dry-drunk craziness that still stirs in his livid inner air.
These gloomy words were written before the first debate on September 30. They were followed by an even gloomier final flourish: "Through this era of belly-grinding ironies, the most unpalatable may be that we have to hitch our hopes to a series of televised face-offs whose previous history has seldom offered more than a few sound bites for the contestants and apnea for the viewer. God bless America! We may not deserve it, but we could use the Lord's help. Bush's first confidence, after all, is that the devil will never desert him in his hour of need. His only error is that he thinks it is the Son who is speaking to him."
The debate, however, offered surprising ground for optimism. Kerry was at his best, concise, forceful, almost joyous in the virtuosity of his ability. He was able to speak his piece despite the Procrustean bonds of the debate. And Bush was at his worst. He looked spoiled. He was out of his element. He was tired from campaigning. There are times when a man has campaigned so much that he is running on hollow. Even Bush's face had become a liability. He looked cranky and puckered up. For years, he had been able to speak free of debate, always able to utter his homey patriotic gospel without interruption. Now in the ninety minutes of formalized back and forth, with the camera sometimes catching his petulant reactions while Kerry spoke, he looked unhappy enough to take a drink.
Most of this was seen on a big state-of-the-art television set, and the verdict seemed clear. Kerry had won by a large margin. Bush's only credit was that he had gone the distance without making any irremediable errors. Kerry's poll numbers seemed bound to increase.
Only one caveat remained. The first twenty minutes of the debate had been seen on the kind of modest-sized set that most of America would be using. On that set, one saw a somewhat different debate. Karl Rove had scored again. However it had been managed, the placement of the cameras favored Bush. His head took up more square inches on the screen than Kerry's. In television, that is half the battle. Kerry looked long and lean as he spoke out of what seemed to be a medium shot, whereas Bush had many a close-up.
This advantage partly disappeared on the large set. There, each man's expression was clear, and their relative strengths and weaknesses were obvious. On a small set, however, some of the cinematographic advantage went the other way.
We will have to wait for the polls. Will they be as skewed as the camera angles? We seem to be living these days in a kaleidoscope of ironies. Is the worst yet to come? If it is a close election, the electronic voting machines are ready to augment every foul memory of Florida in 2000. Perhaps it is no longer Jesus or Allah who oversees our fate but the turn of the Greek gods to take another run around the track. When it comes to destiny, they were the first, after all, to conceive of the Ironies.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17511
Raise a glass tonight for Norman Mailer.
Posted at 09:25 AM
Fri - November 9, 2007
Memphis
I'm very sorry to read the news out of Memphis, as
reported by Gary Younge in the most recent Nation
magazine. A few years ago, on a visit to Memphis, I went into the National Civil
Rights Museum, and I was really impressed. But I was unaware of the whole story
behind the
museum:
Thieves of Black History
[from the November 12, 2007 issue]
If Beale Street could talk, as James Baldwin famously imagined, then somewhere around Memphis's South Fourth Street it would let out an agonizing cry. Facing east, the garish neon commodification of the blues stands behind you--a trap for tourists and an insult to the legacy of a great musical tradition. Commerce here is thriving from a culture it doesn't respect. Ahead sprawls the desolation and poverty of the communities that gave blues its meaning and to whom the blues returned some dignity.
A block away at the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center, around eighty people have gathered to prevent the pilfering of yet more local black heritage. Twenty years ago, the Lorraine Motel, where King was assassinated, was turned into a National Civil Rights Museum. The chair of the executive committee of its board, J.R. "Pitt" Hyde III, is a wealthy white Republican. Charged with safeguarding a vital landmark in the nation's racial history, Hyde lobbied for the defeat of Harold Ford Jr.'s bid for the vacant Senate seat from Tennessee in what was widely regarded as the most racist campaign of the 2006 election. While Hyde has been representing the civil rights museum, the company he founded, AutoZone, has been embroiled in a longstanding EEOC racial discrimination lawsuit.
The board, on which blacks are a minority, is packed with those who dedicate their lives not to civil rights but to corporate profits. And they know how to do business. Recently the board discussed exercising an option to buy the museum building from the State of Tennessee, which owns it, for $1. (Apparently they never made a formal offer, as they knew it would be rejected.) Black history on sale at bargain prices.
For some, the moral price of surrendering such a crucial site to big money was too high. Community activists have been fighting back, battling not only for control of a building but the stewardship of history. "No race holds a monopoly of beauty, of intelligence, of strength," wrote Martiniquan poet and activist Aimé Césaire. "There is a place for all at the Rendezvous of Victory." But who gets which place and what stories they hear when they get there is determined by power, not happenstance.
The struggle over the future of the Lorraine Motel highlights three crucial developments in the nearly forty years since King was assassinated. First, it demonstrates how much of the civil rights agenda remains to be accomplished. King had been in Memphis campaigning for better pay and conditions for striking sanitation workers. "In the past in the civil rights movement, we have been dealing with segregation and all of its humiliation; we've been dealing with the political problem of the denial of the right to vote," he said ten days before he died. "I think it is absolutely necessary now to deal massively and militantly with the economic problem."
Hyde and the corporate agenda he represents remain at the core of that "problem," which keeps one in four Memphis residents (who are mostly black) below the poverty line.
The civil rights movement made great strides in achieving integration. But that victory prompted white supremacy to become more skillful and subtle in its bid for self-preservation. Segregation was outlawed, but its economic, social and cultural legacy was left intact. Black people in Memphis now have the right to go into any restaurant they like. Unfortunately, many cannot afford anything on the menu.
Second, the story of the Lorraine museum is a brazen example of the crude but effective manner in which the right, which fought so hard to thwart the work of the civil rights movement in its heyday, has sought to buy, co-opt or otherwise manipulate the movement's most popular emblems.
Four years ago fundamentalists stood on the steps of Alabama's Supreme Court building, waving Confederate flags and singing "We Shall Overcome" as they protested the removal of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda. A few months earlier, opponents of affirmative action went to the building to protest a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment--ratified to protect the rights of freed slaves. They called on universities to judge applicants not by "the color of their skin but by the content of their character," words of course lifted from King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
"Nowadays they like the fact that they can sit down to dinner at the site of the King assassination," says Circuit Judge D'Army Bailey, a founder of the museum who was ousted from the board. "It gives them a good feeling. Corporations want to be identified with it because that kind of identification brings pacification. It's been hijacked." Read the rest of the article here.
Cassandra Wilson, Memphis
Thieves of Black History
[from the November 12, 2007 issue]
If Beale Street could talk, as James Baldwin famously imagined, then somewhere around Memphis's South Fourth Street it would let out an agonizing cry. Facing east, the garish neon commodification of the blues stands behind you--a trap for tourists and an insult to the legacy of a great musical tradition. Commerce here is thriving from a culture it doesn't respect. Ahead sprawls the desolation and poverty of the communities that gave blues its meaning and to whom the blues returned some dignity.
A block away at the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center, around eighty people have gathered to prevent the pilfering of yet more local black heritage. Twenty years ago, the Lorraine Motel, where King was assassinated, was turned into a National Civil Rights Museum. The chair of the executive committee of its board, J.R. "Pitt" Hyde III, is a wealthy white Republican. Charged with safeguarding a vital landmark in the nation's racial history, Hyde lobbied for the defeat of Harold Ford Jr.'s bid for the vacant Senate seat from Tennessee in what was widely regarded as the most racist campaign of the 2006 election. While Hyde has been representing the civil rights museum, the company he founded, AutoZone, has been embroiled in a longstanding EEOC racial discrimination lawsuit.
The board, on which blacks are a minority, is packed with those who dedicate their lives not to civil rights but to corporate profits. And they know how to do business. Recently the board discussed exercising an option to buy the museum building from the State of Tennessee, which owns it, for $1. (Apparently they never made a formal offer, as they knew it would be rejected.) Black history on sale at bargain prices.
For some, the moral price of surrendering such a crucial site to big money was too high. Community activists have been fighting back, battling not only for control of a building but the stewardship of history. "No race holds a monopoly of beauty, of intelligence, of strength," wrote Martiniquan poet and activist Aimé Césaire. "There is a place for all at the Rendezvous of Victory." But who gets which place and what stories they hear when they get there is determined by power, not happenstance.
The struggle over the future of the Lorraine Motel highlights three crucial developments in the nearly forty years since King was assassinated. First, it demonstrates how much of the civil rights agenda remains to be accomplished. King had been in Memphis campaigning for better pay and conditions for striking sanitation workers. "In the past in the civil rights movement, we have been dealing with segregation and all of its humiliation; we've been dealing with the political problem of the denial of the right to vote," he said ten days before he died. "I think it is absolutely necessary now to deal massively and militantly with the economic problem."
Hyde and the corporate agenda he represents remain at the core of that "problem," which keeps one in four Memphis residents (who are mostly black) below the poverty line.
The civil rights movement made great strides in achieving integration. But that victory prompted white supremacy to become more skillful and subtle in its bid for self-preservation. Segregation was outlawed, but its economic, social and cultural legacy was left intact. Black people in Memphis now have the right to go into any restaurant they like. Unfortunately, many cannot afford anything on the menu.
Second, the story of the Lorraine museum is a brazen example of the crude but effective manner in which the right, which fought so hard to thwart the work of the civil rights movement in its heyday, has sought to buy, co-opt or otherwise manipulate the movement's most popular emblems.
Four years ago fundamentalists stood on the steps of Alabama's Supreme Court building, waving Confederate flags and singing "We Shall Overcome" as they protested the removal of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda. A few months earlier, opponents of affirmative action went to the building to protest a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment--ratified to protect the rights of freed slaves. They called on universities to judge applicants not by "the color of their skin but by the content of their character," words of course lifted from King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
"Nowadays they like the fact that they can sit down to dinner at the site of the King assassination," says Circuit Judge D'Army Bailey, a founder of the museum who was ousted from the board. "It gives them a good feeling. Corporations want to be identified with it because that kind of identification brings pacification. It's been hijacked." Read the rest of the article here.
Cassandra Wilson, Memphis
Posted at 06:16 PM
Wed - November 7, 2007
And now, RIP Hank Thompson
A little over a year ago, I posted some Hank
Thompson songs in celebration of his 80th birthday. Hank died yesterday. Not as
large or significant a figure in the country music world as Porter Wagoner, and
perhaps even somewhat forgotten today, Hank deserves our accolades nonetheless.
Raise a glass.
Here's what I wrote back then:
The great Hank Thompson celebrates his 80th birthday today, so let's give him a well-deserved listen. In that special category of "country music Hanks" I suppose Thompson always runs third, behind Williams and Snow, but that's pretty rarified air up there and he shouldn't be overlooked. The cuts below all come from one of my favorite live country albums, Hank Thompson At The Golden Nugget. As Rich Kienzle writes in his liner notes for the CD reissue, "The album, recorded with just enough casino background noise to provide the right ambience, provides an excellent representation of Thompson at his peak." Indeed, you start to think ALL country recordings ought to have roulette wheels in the background....Of course, "Thompson at his peak" means that Merle Travis is playing with him, and here I especially like Travis's guitar on his own "Nine Pound Hammer." Enjoy!
Some of these songs are the same as I posted back then, with some new ones (not all from that live album), several of which feature Hank's crack band The Brazos Valley Boys: Plus, I think we've lost something when country artists stop recording songs as corny as "Blackboard of my Heart," I truly do. I'd be hard pressed to explain just why I love this stuff as much as I do, but come on: "But my tears have washed 'I love you' from the blackboard of my heart/It's too late to clean the slate and make another start." Emily Dickinson would have killed to write those lines!
Hank Thompson, Steel Guitar Rag
Hank Thompson, Nine Pound Hammer
Hank Thompson, Six Pack To Go
Hank Thompson, Woodchopper's Ball
Hank Thompson, The Blackboard Of My Heart
Here's what I wrote back then:
The great Hank Thompson celebrates his 80th birthday today, so let's give him a well-deserved listen. In that special category of "country music Hanks" I suppose Thompson always runs third, behind Williams and Snow, but that's pretty rarified air up there and he shouldn't be overlooked. The cuts below all come from one of my favorite live country albums, Hank Thompson At The Golden Nugget. As Rich Kienzle writes in his liner notes for the CD reissue, "The album, recorded with just enough casino background noise to provide the right ambience, provides an excellent representation of Thompson at his peak." Indeed, you start to think ALL country recordings ought to have roulette wheels in the background....Of course, "Thompson at his peak" means that Merle Travis is playing with him, and here I especially like Travis's guitar on his own "Nine Pound Hammer." Enjoy!
Some of these songs are the same as I posted back then, with some new ones (not all from that live album), several of which feature Hank's crack band The Brazos Valley Boys: Plus, I think we've lost something when country artists stop recording songs as corny as "Blackboard of my Heart," I truly do. I'd be hard pressed to explain just why I love this stuff as much as I do, but come on: "But my tears have washed 'I love you' from the blackboard of my heart/It's too late to clean the slate and make another start." Emily Dickinson would have killed to write those lines!
Hank Thompson, Steel Guitar Rag
Hank Thompson, Nine Pound Hammer
Hank Thompson, Six Pack To Go
Hank Thompson, Woodchopper's Ball
Hank Thompson, The Blackboard Of My Heart
Posted at 05:04 PM
Sun - October 28, 2007
RIP Porter Wagoner
I'll admit that I was a late convert to Porter
Wagoner. I suppose I was a late convert to country music, all in all, because
the stuff I listened to in high school was proud to call itself "outlaw" and
what, we supposed, Waylon and Willie were rebelling against was signified by the
likes of Porter Wagoner, who I knew from his TV show and from his commercials
for Biz detergent with Dolly Parton. We were wrong, of course, and gradually I
began to expand my country music listening to include "Nashville" acts...but
even then, I was late coming around to
Porter.
Just a few months ago he was the cover story in No Depression magazine, written by my friend David at Living in Stereo (sidebar). I know David will have a lot to say about Porter in the days to come. Here's his obit:
Country Star Porter Wagoner, 80, Dies
Oct 28th, 2007 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Porter Wagoner, the rhinestone-clad Grand Ole Opry star who helped launch the career of Dolly Parton by hiring her as his duet partner, died Sunday. He was 80.
Wagoner, who had survived an abdominal aneurysm in 2006, was hospitalized again in October 2007 and his publicist disclosed he had lung cancer. He died at 8:25 p.m. CDT in a Nashville hospice, a spokeswoman for the Grand Ole Opry said.
"The Grand Ole Opry family is deeply saddened by the news of the passing of our dear friend, Porter Wagoner," said Pete Fisher, vice president and general manager of the Opry. "His passion for the Opry and all of country music was truly immeasurable. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this difficult time."
His illness came after a comeback that saw him recording again and gaining new fans even as he reached his 80s.
In May 2007 he celebrated his 50th year in the Opry. After years without a recording contract, he also signed with ANTI- records, an eclectic Los Angeles label best known for alt-rock acts like Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Neko Case.
The CD "Wagonmaster," produced with Marty Stuart, was released in June 2007 and earned Wagoner some of the best reviews of his career. Over the summer, he also was the opening act for the influential rock duo White Stripes at a sold-out show at New York's Madison Square Garden.
"I was thinking while on stage last night, 'This is the biggest, most well-known arena in the country, and here I am performing at it,'" he told The Associated Press at the time.
The Missouri-born Wagoner signed with RCA Records in 1955 and joined the Opry in 1957. "It's the greatest place in the world to have a career in country music," he said in 1997.
His showmanship, rhinestone suits and pompadoured hair made him famous, with his own syndicated TV show, "The Porter Wagoner Show," for 21 years beginning in 1960. It was one of the first syndicated shows to come out of Nashville, and it set a pattern for many others.
"Some shows are mechanical, but ours was not polished and slick," he said in 1982.
Among his hits, many of which he wrote or co-wrote, were "Carroll County Accident," "A Satisfied Mind," "Company's Comin'," "Skid Row Joe," "Misery Loves Company" and "Green Green Grass of Home."
The songs often told stories of tragedy or despair. In "Carroll County Accident," a married man having an affair is killed in a car crash; "Skid Row Joe" deals with a once-famous singer who's lost everything.
In 2002, Wagoner was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
To many music fans, though, he was best known as the man who boosted Parton's career. He had hired the 21-year-old singer as his duet partner in 1967, when she was just beginning to gain notice through songs such as "Dumb Blonde."
They were the Country Music Association's duo of the year in 1970 and 1971, recording hit duets including "The Last Thing on My Mind."
Parton's solo country records, such as her autobiographical "Coat of Many Colors," also began climbing the charts in the early 1970s. She wrote the pop standard "I Will Always Love You" in 1973 after Wagoner suggested she shift from story songs to focus on love songs.
The two quit singing duets in 1974 and she went on to wide stardom with pop hits and movies such as "9 to 5," whose theme song was also a hit for her. Wagoner sued her for $3 million in assets, but they settled out of court in 1980. He said later they were always friendly, "but it's a fact that when you're involved with attorneys and companies that have them on retainer, it makes a different story."
At a charity roast for Wagoner in 1995, she explained the breakup this way: "We split over creative differences. I was creative, and Porter was different."
He said in a 1982 Associated Press interview that his show "was a training ground for her; she learned a great deal and I exposed her to very important people and the country music fans."
She was present at the ceremony in May 2007 honoring Wagoner on his silver anniversary with the Opry. At the time, he called Parton "one of my best friends today." She also visited him in the hospital as he battled cancer.
Wagoner was born in West Plains, Mo., and became known as "The Thin Man From West Plains" because of his lanky frame. He recalled that he spent hours as a child pretending to be an Opry performer, using a tree stump as a stage.
He started in radio, then became a regular on the "Ozark Jubilee," one of the first televised national country music shows. On the Opry since 1957, he joined Roy Acuff and other onetime idols.
At one point his wardrobe included more than 60 handmade rhinestone suits.
"Rhinestone suits are just beautiful under the lights," he said. "They've become a big part of my career. I get more compliments on my outfits than any other entertainer — except for Liberace."
While he continued with the Opry, and even had a small part in the 1982 movie "Honky Tonk Man" starring Clint Eastwood, his recording career dried up in the 1980s.
"I stopped making records because I didn't like the way they were wanting me to record," he said. "When RCA dropped me from the label, I didn't really care about making records for another label because I didn't have any say in what they would release and how they would make the records and so forth."
After his New York show in 2007, tears came to his eyes as he recalled the reaction.
"The young people I met backstage, some of them were 20 years old. They wanted to get my autograph and tell me they really liked me. If only they knew how that made me feel, like a new breath of fresh air. To have new fans now is a tremendous thing."
http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/entertainment/2007/10/28/D8SILDBG0_obit_wagoner/index.html
And give Porter a listen:
Porter Wagoner, The Cold Hard Facts of Life
Porter Wagoner, The First Mrs Jones
Porter Wagoner, The Rubber Room
Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, Just Someone I Used To Know
Just a few months ago he was the cover story in No Depression magazine, written by my friend David at Living in Stereo (sidebar). I know David will have a lot to say about Porter in the days to come. Here's his obit:
Country Star Porter Wagoner, 80, Dies
Oct 28th, 2007 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Porter Wagoner, the rhinestone-clad Grand Ole Opry star who helped launch the career of Dolly Parton by hiring her as his duet partner, died Sunday. He was 80.
Wagoner, who had survived an abdominal aneurysm in 2006, was hospitalized again in October 2007 and his publicist disclosed he had lung cancer. He died at 8:25 p.m. CDT in a Nashville hospice, a spokeswoman for the Grand Ole Opry said.
"The Grand Ole Opry family is deeply saddened by the news of the passing of our dear friend, Porter Wagoner," said Pete Fisher, vice president and general manager of the Opry. "His passion for the Opry and all of country music was truly immeasurable. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this difficult time."
His illness came after a comeback that saw him recording again and gaining new fans even as he reached his 80s.
In May 2007 he celebrated his 50th year in the Opry. After years without a recording contract, he also signed with ANTI- records, an eclectic Los Angeles label best known for alt-rock acts like Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Neko Case.
The CD "Wagonmaster," produced with Marty Stuart, was released in June 2007 and earned Wagoner some of the best reviews of his career. Over the summer, he also was the opening act for the influential rock duo White Stripes at a sold-out show at New York's Madison Square Garden.
"I was thinking while on stage last night, 'This is the biggest, most well-known arena in the country, and here I am performing at it,'" he told The Associated Press at the time.
The Missouri-born Wagoner signed with RCA Records in 1955 and joined the Opry in 1957. "It's the greatest place in the world to have a career in country music," he said in 1997.
His showmanship, rhinestone suits and pompadoured hair made him famous, with his own syndicated TV show, "The Porter Wagoner Show," for 21 years beginning in 1960. It was one of the first syndicated shows to come out of Nashville, and it set a pattern for many others.
"Some shows are mechanical, but ours was not polished and slick," he said in 1982.
Among his hits, many of which he wrote or co-wrote, were "Carroll County Accident," "A Satisfied Mind," "Company's Comin'," "Skid Row Joe," "Misery Loves Company" and "Green Green Grass of Home."
The songs often told stories of tragedy or despair. In "Carroll County Accident," a married man having an affair is killed in a car crash; "Skid Row Joe" deals with a once-famous singer who's lost everything.
In 2002, Wagoner was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
To many music fans, though, he was best known as the man who boosted Parton's career. He had hired the 21-year-old singer as his duet partner in 1967, when she was just beginning to gain notice through songs such as "Dumb Blonde."
They were the Country Music Association's duo of the year in 1970 and 1971, recording hit duets including "The Last Thing on My Mind."
Parton's solo country records, such as her autobiographical "Coat of Many Colors," also began climbing the charts in the early 1970s. She wrote the pop standard "I Will Always Love You" in 1973 after Wagoner suggested she shift from story songs to focus on love songs.
The two quit singing duets in 1974 and she went on to wide stardom with pop hits and movies such as "9 to 5," whose theme song was also a hit for her. Wagoner sued her for $3 million in assets, but they settled out of court in 1980. He said later they were always friendly, "but it's a fact that when you're involved with attorneys and companies that have them on retainer, it makes a different story."
At a charity roast for Wagoner in 1995, she explained the breakup this way: "We split over creative differences. I was creative, and Porter was different."
He said in a 1982 Associated Press interview that his show "was a training ground for her; she learned a great deal and I exposed her to very important people and the country music fans."
She was present at the ceremony in May 2007 honoring Wagoner on his silver anniversary with the Opry. At the time, he called Parton "one of my best friends today." She also visited him in the hospital as he battled cancer.
Wagoner was born in West Plains, Mo., and became known as "The Thin Man From West Plains" because of his lanky frame. He recalled that he spent hours as a child pretending to be an Opry performer, using a tree stump as a stage.
He started in radio, then became a regular on the "Ozark Jubilee," one of the first televised national country music shows. On the Opry since 1957, he joined Roy Acuff and other onetime idols.
At one point his wardrobe included more than 60 handmade rhinestone suits.
"Rhinestone suits are just beautiful under the lights," he said. "They've become a big part of my career. I get more compliments on my outfits than any other entertainer — except for Liberace."
While he continued with the Opry, and even had a small part in the 1982 movie "Honky Tonk Man" starring Clint Eastwood, his recording career dried up in the 1980s.
"I stopped making records because I didn't like the way they were wanting me to record," he said. "When RCA dropped me from the label, I didn't really care about making records for another label because I didn't have any say in what they would release and how they would make the records and so forth."
After his New York show in 2007, tears came to his eyes as he recalled the reaction.
"The young people I met backstage, some of them were 20 years old. They wanted to get my autograph and tell me they really liked me. If only they knew how that made me feel, like a new breath of fresh air. To have new fans now is a tremendous thing."
http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/entertainment/2007/10/28/D8SILDBG0_obit_wagoner/index.html
And give Porter a listen:
Porter Wagoner, The Cold Hard Facts of Life
Porter Wagoner, The First Mrs Jones
Porter Wagoner, The Rubber Room
Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, Just Someone I Used To Know
Posted at 10:06 PM
Thu - October 25, 2007
Snow Day
When I was growing up, we always looked forward
to snow days--days school was closed because there was too much snow for the
busses to drive safely.
Today was a snow day, of sorts, in southern California. My school was closed--as were most others in Orange County--because of the ash and gunk in the air.
This was my car this morning.
And here is what the sky looked like mid-morning.
But things look good now.
Today was a snow day, of sorts, in southern California. My school was closed--as were most others in Orange County--because of the ash and gunk in the air.
This was my car this morning.
And here is what the sky looked like mid-morning.
But things look good now.
Posted at 05:59 PM
Way Down In The Hole
Books, music, movies, pop culture, politics, food & drink.............I post Mp3s from time to time: if you own the copyright to these tunes, or have some other reason to object to their being shared like this, please let me know and I'll remove the links. The Mp3s will only be up for a limited time, so if you encounter a broken link, the song has been removed.
About Me
Dallas Other Places to Go
Roland AllenChris B
Zoilus
Living in Stereo
There Stands The Glass
Holler If Ya Hear Me
Take 'Em As They Come
Real Country
The Rest Is Noise
David Byrne
Tom Tomorrow
Steven Johnson
My Photos
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Extreme Tracking Web Counter
Non public counter
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Published On: Jun 16, 2008 10:02 PM
Published On: Jun 16, 2008 10:02 PM