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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
Live free or die!
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October 11, 2002
That'll learn him
Funny how any bad shooting tends to get trumped up in the press, but these good ones get ignored.
And the moral of this story is: be careful which old women you decide to go breaking in on.
posted by Al at 10/11/2002 09:49:00 PM
Give me that old time religion
Some of us go to church on Sunday morning, but others of us go to church on Saturday night.
Saturday Night Live premiered on October 11, 1975 with host George Carlin. It has become such a cultural institution over a quarter century plus that we often fail to appreciate what a radically old and new and totally unique creature was born. They reached way back to the dawn of television for the unique demands and rewards of a live variety show, thrust way forward into modern sensibilities with very pointed and sometimes macabre [ie Mr. Mike] social satire. No show before -not even All in the Family- gave such truly cutting mockery of political figures. Few have managed to equal the insight and sympathy for the geeks and outsiders that comes through SNL characters ranging from the Murray-Radner nerds to Mary Katherine Gallagher. They have also provided the best live music forum in television history.
Some combination of the rigors of the format and the unique talents of Lorne Michaels et al have made it a show that has really never been successfully imitated. Mad TV has been about the closest thing that has survived, but it's not really in a league with SNL. Nor is it live, thus lacking the distinctive edge coming from that special pressure.
People often say that the first cast era was the best. I certainly wouldn't want to take anything away from Gilda and Belushi et al. They came up with a whole new thing, and they were brilliant.
However, the show arguably peaked creatively in the late '80s to early '90s. For starters, Phil Hartman was probably the best sketch comedy actor ever- though Darrell Hammond for one cannot be denied. Add Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz, Mike Meyers, Chris Farley, Chris Rock- and we haven't even gotten to the girls. [Got to give a special love shout-out to Victoria Jackson, my all time SNL sweetheart.] Certainly Carvey as Bush the Elder went far beyond Chevy Chase's bumbling as President Ford in de-constructing a president. Nor could we forget the wicked Al Franken's definitive affectionate mockery of the self-help movement as Stuart Smalley. [Stuart Saves His Family made -by a good margin- the best movie ever based on SNL material.]
None of which takes away from the brilliance of the more recent casts. Ana Gasteyer in particular did brilliant work, especially playing the uptight white chicks ie Hillary and Martha Stewart. [With all due respect to a fine professional actress, she'll make you forget all about Jane Curtin.] Will Ferrell's Dubya was particularly good, especially as he became more distinctly sympathetic after 9/11, with moments such as the "dumb" president's promise to cast Osama Bin Laden as the subject of his own personal Where's Waldo. And of course, there's the phenomenon that is Darrell Hammond.
So keep the faith, brothers and sisters, because -like rock and roll- Saturday Night Live will never die.
We leave this obsessive fan's tribute with a nod to the best one sketch in the show's history- a dissection of obsessive fandom, "The Guy Who Plays Mr. Belvedre Fan Club." [CLICK HERE for complete transcript and pictures.]
Doug: Yeah, I'd like to say, partly to talk about it, and partly to let the new guy in on the mood here a little bit. Uh.. Mr. Belvedere is.. the light of my life. Um.. I know I speak for the others.. uh, when I say he is.. so amazing.. you know? And, uh.. he's just.. I wish.. you know.. I wish I could know him more, you know? Because.. he.. he is one of a kind, you know? He's.. I think about him all the time, and.. well, I'm wondering - should we kill him?
posted by Al at 10/11/2002 09:48:00 PM
October 10, 2002
Too bad, so sad
An Earth First! tree-sitter fell out of the tree and died. Too bad, so sad.
posted by Al at 10/10/2002 04:21:00 PM
And the US hasn't killed Arafat because...?
So, it appears that Arafat personally helped set up an assassination attempt on Colin Powell when he was in town in April 2002.
Real cute. So why don't WE whack this sumbitch ourselves? Dubya and Colin Powell have pulled Sharon off his dumb ass how many times? This is how he wants to pay us back. Besides anything else, US killing Arafat would seem like the least we could do to thank the Israelis for thwarting this attempt. Let US take the bad publicity hit for taking out this worthless bastard.
We are engaged in a war against terror, right? Who is more deeply engaged in terror that Arafat? Israelis and other unfortunates aside, numerous Americans have been killed even just in the last two years by him and his affiliates.
What exactly would Arafat have to do for us to kill him? According to The High Price of Peace, "During a meeting with [special negotiator Gen. Anthony] Zinni, Arafat made a special request - a personal favor. A police officer from a very important family in Gaza had just been killed at Arafat's compound. It was imperative to get the body to Gaza for proper burial, Arafat pleaded." From there, they went on to load an ambulance with bombs and a separate bomb jacket for one of the drivers to wear to get a second bite at the apple as they approached Powell's motorcade.
Obviously we need to verify the truth value of this report before we go off killing someone, but this should be fairly simple and direct, considering that it involved Arafat personally doing the setup with a high official [Zinni]. Check and double-check our facts before we attack this symbolically important person.
The facts of the case being settled then, what reasonable argument would there be for the US NOT killing this evil bastard? Setting aside for the moment all the wickedness he's perpetrated against Israelis, he's directly and personally involved in trying to assassinate our high official.
What, are we going to anger the Palestenians or Muslims or Arabs? Screw them. You can get mad all you like, but you start killing Americans- especially our high officials- and your head's going to be on the block. All ideas of vengeance or justice aside, practically it does not behoove us to have evil people thinking otherwise.
posted by Al at 10/10/2002 03:34:00 PM
Harry Belafonte: Good liberal house Negro
According to history books [the only way either Harry Belafonte or I would know of such things], in the days of chattel slavery in America, there were basically two kinds of slaves. Most slaves did the grunt work of the plantation, and lived in run down shacks. Some few, however, won favor by serving the master with particularly adamant chauvinism, and got to be house Negroes. They got to stay in the house, and got more favorable assignments.
The white masters especially liked to have their "good" negroes dispense the punishment to their unco-operative brethren. In order to minimize resentment and retaliation toward themselves, white owners often preferred to let other blacks wield the whip hand. That way, the black man who got beat would be mad at the other black man who was doing the beating, rather than the white owner who was calling the shots.
In the context of modern American politics, black folks are largely a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat party by dint of some serious internalized mental chains. Black Americans typically vote 90+% for the Democrat party. Democrats have lost a lot of ground among white folks. Being free Americans, they get to vote for candidates of whatever party seems to be doing a better job, or for whichever candidate has the prettiest face, or whatever.
But whoa be unto the black man who presumes to break from the orthodox liberal Democrat plantation mentality. The Democrat party OWNS the black vote. They will send out the hounds for any black person who breaks rank. By classic Freudian psychological projection, the plantation mentality black folk will be whipped into a frenzy denouncing any non-Democrat black as a subservient Uncle Tom. They will likely be shouted down for the mere act of trying to speak in public. They sometimes need body guards.
Colin Powell represents a grave danger to the Democrat party. He has established himself as a stalwart Republican, a power player. Worse yet, he has made himself known as a particularly independent minded Republican, free to disagree with the majority of his own party on affirmative action and abortion issues, for example. This heartily gives the lie to any possible charges of being Uncle Tom. Whatever you may think of his policy ideas, Colin Powell is nowhere near anybody's plantation but his own.
This cannot be tolerated by the Democrat party. If black folks look at Powell's example and start voting independently, the Democrats are totally screwed. Yet Ted Kennedy and Tom Daschle dare not denounce the most admired black man in America. He's a war hero and Secretary of State. If they start whipping him, they risk a slave revolt.
This brings us to Harry Belafonte. He had a hit novelty record fiftyish years ago. There's not much reason that anyone would care about him now, except that he spews good orthodox partisan liberal rants that most establishment politicians and media wouldn't dare. He's black, somewhat famous, and says what the big boys want to hear, so he gets attention. No doubt he truly believes the things he says, though; he sincerely loves the master.
He recently turned his whip hand against Colin Powell. During an interview on Tuesday, 10-8-2002, Belafonte attacked the whole Bush administration, especially Powell. [CLICK HERE for streaming audio] In an interview with San Diego radio KFMB, he turned in a particularly vicious and slanderous rant against the Secretary of State, accusing him at length and in detail of being nothing more than a house negro doing the bidding of his white masters. "Colin Powell is permitted to come into the house of the master, as long as he will serve the master according to the master's plans."
Thing is though, slavery has been long abolished in reality, and all Belafonte can do is rant harmlessly. Powell took the abuse with some humor, and gave a measured diplomatic response worthy of the Secretary of State. Other black folks were slightly harsher in their dismissiveness.
Belafonte, meanwhile, was back down at the docks singing his watered down Caribbean music just the way the master likes it while the field negroes load them banana boats.
Day, he say day, he say day, he say day,
He say day, he say day-o
posted by Al at 10/10/2002 12:12:00 AM
October 09, 2002
What is wrong with these people?
As bad as I hate Republicans, it's hard to top the Democrats, cause they are WAY over the top. Criminy, check out this "cartoon" from their main official website. Their idea of "humor" involves depicting the president murdering old women in their wheelchairs to avoid paying Social Security benefits.
Who votes for these evil sonsabitches? What is wrong with them?
posted by Al at 10/09/2002 09:46:00 PM
John Lennon: Bad Boy
John Lennon was born October 9, 1940. He was the singingest, songwritingest, rock and rollingest MF around.
Till the day he passed, there wasn't a farm animal safe for miles around whenever this bad boy hit town. Forget the saccharine strains of the ridiculously over-hyped "Imagine." He'd be better represented by "Tight A$$" or "Meat City."
My favorite personal Lennon birthday memorial: his early Beatles version of "Bad Boy" He didn't write the words, but when you hear them come out of his mouth, you'll swear he's singing his autobiography.
A bad little kid moved in to my neighbourhood
He won't do nothing right, just sits down and looks so good
He don't wanna go to school and learn to read and write
Just sits around the house and plays that rock and roll music all night
Well he puts thumbtacks on teacher's chair
Puts chewing gum in little girl's hair
Now, Junior behave yourself!
Buys every rock and roll book on the magazine stand
Ev'ry dime that he gets oh it's off to the jukebox man
Well he worries his teacher till at night she's ready to poop
From rockin' and a rollin', spinnin' like a hula hoop
Well his rock'n'roll has gotta stop, Junior's head is hard as rock
Now, Junior behave yourself!
Gonna tell your mama, you'd better do what she says
Get to the barber shop and get that hair cut off your head
Took the cannary and you fed it to the neighbour's cat
You gave the cocker spaniel a bath in mother's laundromat
Well his mamma said it's gotta stop, Junior's head is hard as rock
Now, Junior behave yourself!
posted by Al at 10/09/2002 12:43:00 AM
October 07, 2002
The Washington Post lies again
In a recent story about the US Supreme Court refusing to look at the New Jersey senate ballot issue, the Washington Post writes "The Supreme Court surprised both sides by jumping into the fight two years ago, ending ballot recounts in Florida by a bitter 5-4 vote."
They're lying. The vote was 7 to 2. Seven of nine justices voted to end the Gore monkey business. They come up with saying it was 5-4 on the basis that two justices offered a separate reasoning for why they voted to end recounts.
The Washington Post and other liberal media have consistently described it as a 5-4 vote in what appears after the 10,000th consistent misstatement to be an obviously concerted attempt to de-legitimize President Bush. They want the public to believe that the Bush v. Gore decision amounted to Republican appointed justices stealing the election from Gore over the objections of all the fair minded (ie Democrat appointed) justices.
You can say that the opinion was 5-4, but that is the opinion, not the decision. It wasn't even a 5-4 opinion. Properly, you'd have to say it was a 5-2-2 opinion. Anyway, the justices decided by a 7-2 margin to end recounts, which was the main practical point.
Calling it 5-4 decision once at the end of a story about something else would just be sloppy reporting. Lots of reporters in numerous outlets making the same sloppy mistake consistently does not happen by accident.
Calling it a 5-4 decision amounts to purposefully attempting to mislead the public into thinking that George Bush stole the election by a one vote partisan decision. This is simply not true. They are dissembling. They are misinforming. They are varnishing the truth. They are, to use quaint midwestern terminology, LYING. They should stop doing it.
posted by Al at 10/07/2002 04:57:00 PM
Happy birthday Big Daddy
Born in '51 and today turning 51, our Hoosier hometown hero John Mellencamp was born October 7, 1951. Happy birthday Big Daddy!
For whatever reasons, John Mellencamp has never gotten the credit as a great artiste that Springsteen has, but he'll go song to song with the Boss, with nowhere near the hypocritical commercial crassness. If you don't own Uh Huh, Scarecrow, and The Lonesome Jubilee, your life just isn't complete.
Among lesser known Mellencamp work, you definitely should have the excellent eponymous John Cougar album, on which the hit "I Need a Lover" rates as actually one of the lesser cuts. "Small Paradise" stands out especially.
Also, almost no one has seen his movie Falling from Grace. That's too bad, but understandable. He didn't conjure up a commercial star vehicle, but a dark and utterly unglamorous meditation on his internal demons. It's not necessarily THE great movie of the year, but a real and thoughtful film. Fans should definitely see it.
posted by Al at 10/07/2002 04:56:00 PM
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