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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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November 29, 2002
Good work, o brothers!
Born November 29, 1954 in Minneapolis, today is Joel Coen's birthday. Happy number 48!
Working with his brother Ethan, Joel Coen may be the greatest writer and director of films working today. Their credits include the classics Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Fargo, and The Man Who Wasn't There. This already represents an outstanding career's worth of achievement, besides the fact that the Coens are still young and in their creative prime.
Towering above all this, however, they created O Brother, Where Art Thou? A couple of years out, this film astounds me even more than the first time seeing it. People will be writing books about this movie in years to come. It is a career peak achievement for everyone involved. The plot and dialogue and characters, the cinematography and technical aspects, the music- everything about this movie bears the mark of perfectly executed genius. They were working on a Citizen Kane level here.
Moreover, if you wanted just one, this would be THE movie to represent the United States to the world. Here is what we're about. Here is the richness of our heritage, our music and spirituality and wit. It shows the goodness and determined forward thinking optimism that gives us our strength- without ignoring the hard parts. They captured a good part of the vibrancy and boldness of America, and the nuances and contradictions- for example the good-hearted political hack versus the corrupt reform candidate. Indeed this may well be the one most perfect cultural artifact of any kind to present to someone in a foreign land wanting to understand America.
Good work, o brothers.
posted by Al at 11/29/2002 02:45:00 PM
A cornucopia of blessings
I was too busy on Thanksgiving actually enjoying the good things to make any kind of statement of them. Checking the web late in the day, however, I found myself directed to The Boondocks cartoon. A foolish and ingrateful child had dutifully listed his five things to be thankful for, and was cut off by Grandpa as he prepared to begin reading "a short list of 1,543 things I am NOT thankful for." This inspires me to the conclusion that perhaps some sort of short counter statement is in order.
Some people seem to think that nihilism or just plain spitefulness equals intelligence and sophisitication. They are very foolish. You get one life to enjoy as best you can. It may not serve your best interests to just pretend everything is great when it's not, as this may de-motivate you from making improvements. However, it certainly does not serve your or anyone else's interests to go around mad at the world all the time either. That's just choosing to be miserable when you don't need to- and it's not motivational either. One day a year hardly serves as a bare minimum time to pause and appreciate the good things of life, and there are many more than five.
Some people in the world may understandably feel like they have more to be grateful for than others, but the average American really has it amazingly well. Depending on how you want to slice and dice it, even a somewhat below average income American enjoys greater prosperity than 99.9% of humans EVER. We enjoy a wonderous bounty. Our poor people are fat. Very few of us are homeless, hungry, lacking heat or decent clothes. We're all rich beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors, even some silly monkey clerking at a video store. For my part, I am grateful that even when I'm "broke" that doesn't mean I'm worrying about where the next meal is coming from. There's always food and heat and gas money. The bare necessities of life will come to you.
We should all express wonderous gratitude to the entire broad medical industry. Some folks resent them. They begrudge the profits that doctors and drug companies make. However, those profits pale in comparison to the good they do. Every day seemingly brings more miracles, more diseases cured or ameliorated.
People should appreciate how harsh nature is on our bodies, and how much we just don't even notice how well our system works because stuff gets prevented or fixed so smoothly so often that the gravity barely registers. Yup, this stuff costs money, and not everybody can afford absolutely every latest state of the art technique. However, anybody who shows up at the hospital will get treatment. The poorest Americans routinely get life saving surgeries and drugs that kings and queens couldn't get even just 20 or 30 years ago, let alone generations before that.
About five years ago I busted up my leg pretty bad. Two bones suddenly became five. Thinking back, it didn't seem possible that my stuff would be anything like right again. Yet today I'm something near good as new. I'm continually grateful for the skilled surgeon and his staff who fixed me, and the chiropractor who added the simple but critical final touch.
We should be grateful for all the ever expanding wonders of communications technology that enrich our lives. The internet has dramatically expanded my personal world. I am grateful for the chance it has given me to become friends with people far away from me, like Salam in Baghdad. It almost seems I can find out anything I want to know about anything within minutes sitting in my own bedroom- for free.
I'm grateful to all the artists who have shared their insights, visions and passions with me, from Aristophanes to Ayn Rand to Vermeer to Robert Mitchum and Tom T Hall. I'm grateful for the ability to download MP3 files- while appreciating the concerns of artists who still want to get paid for their efforts. My life has been enriched by having access to many out of print or previously obscure items. I'm grateful for CDs and CD burning technology that have given me personal copies of, for starters, hundreds of hours of old bluegrass and country records from the library.
I'm grateful for the American political system. Much of my website relates my misgivings, but let us not forget the bigger picture. The founding fathers handed us a beautiful vision, and very wise mechanisms for giving it life. Without wanting to court strife, I'm grateful that the shifting tides of popular opinion landed the steady if imperfect hand of George W Bush at the helm of our ship of state in these turbulent times.
Once I get started, I could be here for a good long time grokking and praising the endless good and wonderous things of life. But then I'd never get anything else done. So I will not even try to start on family and friends- though Hannah the Goat Girl cannot escape mention as a great loyal friend and a fiercely honest and fearless spiritual presence.
Let me conclude then with an expression of gratitude for the young generation coming up. They bring the strength and joy of youth, not yet fully burdened with the trials of adulthood, and the hope that in their lives they will be able to reach beyond the limitations that have held us back.
Generalizations will not suffice here, however, so let me indulge in mentioning just a couple specifically. My top Monkey Boy is turning eight. Besides taking an active interest in learning songs from Marx brothers movies and doing a mean Groucho dance, he enjoys a good game of Beat the Boy. His classic response to a savage beating from Uncle Al: "Thanks for the massage." That's nothing, however, compared to the beating his sister is going to get standing there in her pigtails if she gets any cuter or more loving and kind. I'm obviously quite proud of being her "meanest favorite." She'll stand to learn much from the fighting spirit of her older sister, now becoming a teenager and stepping up to the plate to start sorting out all kinds of adult stuff. Her early taste for Elvis Costello ["the real Elvis," whom she prefers to "the dead Elvis"] pleases me, and should stand her in good stead.
It pains me not to fully praise and cherish here every outstanding young person I have the privilege of knowing, but I'll mention only a couple more. My little Daniel stands strong amidst the total foolishness of his young parents, and the Critter dude maintains an open spirit amidst strife. Young Joshua is my little rabbi in the chaos. Lastly, I'm grateful for my Wayner, who may have no feet, but has enough heart for ten men.
Thinking of these things fills me with joy and gratitude. Thanks and praises to Jesus, Yahweh, Allah, or Ayn Rand as appropriate.
Joy to the world
All the boys and girls
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me
posted by Al at 11/29/2002 11:26:00 AM
November 27, 2002
The little drummer boy gets himself whacked
Oh, now here's a sad tale for the holiday season. Jewish soldiers in Nablus just whacked the the little drummer boy. Jihad Natour, age 22, was out with his friend playing a-rum-pum-pum-pum for Allah -a traditional Ramadan ritual- when the Israelis jumped up, yelled and immediately started shooting.
At least that's the story if you take his partner Raed Faour at his word. And alright then, for the sake of argument let us assume that this account is something halfway close to true.
Note also, however, that it was 3 am and that there was a curfew. The Israelis did not impose this curfew just to be mean and oppress their religious observance. An Israeli spokesperson said, "It's a very violent city. We've arrested seven [would-be] suicide bombers in the city in the last two weeks."
Look, sorry if it crimps your style, but if your people are constantly trying to kill Jews, then there will be consequences. You think that simply claiming it's a religious observance means you have a right to do it no matter what. This is wrong. If your neighbors are sending out suicide bombers to kill Jews every other day, then they're going to have to curtail your holiday observances.
Now, realistically it's not very likely that Israeli soldiers just started shooting out of the blue. Palestenians have very often pushed Israeli security forces, testing their limits. Israelis, on the other hand, have typically gone WAY out of their way NOT to shoot Palestenians unnecessarily, if only because the world is watching them and they know they will be held accountable. Fine. Most likely, though, the reasonable inference is that Israeli defense forces confronted them, and they kept going, didn't stop right away.
These young men pushed their luck, and it gave way. How would the Israelis know that these guys didn't have Ramadan drums packed full of bombs and nails, looking to take out a couple of Jews in Allah's honor? Seven suicide bombers in this town in two weeks? Any soldier or cop in their right mind would shoot at the first sign of resistance or defiance, and ask questions of the next of kin.
In this same article, Palestenians are bitching that the Israelis wouldn't let their ambulance come treat the wounded guy. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that they've sent Red Crescent ambulances out in the past loaded with bombs. Arafat himself apparently conspired to send one out intending to blow up Secretary of State Powell when he came to see him in April 2002.
We're on to you, guys. You keep doing things to get yourselves shot. You care so little for your own lives that you think it is worth getting yourselves killed just so your next of kin will have something to whine to CNN about.
It's unfortunate when your unarmed civillians manage to act stupid and get themselves killed, but the Israelis are not going to simply lay down and let your people kill them. Even if a whole bunch of you commit suicide by IDF and get weepy interviews with your next of kin on the TV, even if you and the French and Noam Chomsky have conniption fits- the Jews are not going to dry up and blow away.
posted by Al at 11/27/2002 09:18:00 PM
Star spangled freak flag
Jimi Hendrix was born November 27, 1942. This would have been his 60th birthday.
That's plenty excuse enough to break out some Electric Ladyland or perhaps his version of the national anthem, and let that star spangled freak flag fly.
posted by Al at 11/27/2002 01:56:00 PM
Empire my butt
Many idiots like to carry on about American empire. Maureen Dowd famously mocks the "boy emperor." These people really should shut the hell up, and save this stuff for when they're talking to their therapists about their daddy issues.
America does not act like an empire. Words have meanings. Empires send armies to conquer and subjugate other countries. They appoint puppet governments. They collect tribute. None of this bears any close resemblance to America's behavior.
This does not mean that I approve of all American foreign policy. We have way too many troops and way too much foreign aid money spread all over the place. This arguably causes more problems than it solves. We certainly should reconsider most of our foreign involvements. We could start by cutting off funding and involvement with the United Nations.
Even as it is, though, America does not act in an imperial manner. Most of the entangling foreign alliances that we are engaged in (against George Washington's wise advice) are misguided attempts at helping out. We spend big fat hunks of money defending Japan and Europe and South Korea. Sometimes our ideas of trying to help don't, but that doesn't mean that we're trying to subjugate the world.
Even the stuff about oil does not constitute anything like "empire." Our government pays for security and protection for oil fields and oil rich countries. That's even after American companies paid to develop the oil fields a century ago and then had their contracts nullified and their investments nationalized. We've even put up with the Saudis funding Islamic extremism and even terrorism. And then we STILL pay full market price for the damned oil. What kind of exploitative "empire" is that?
Victor Hanson breaks it right down with some historical perspective on what empirical powers actually do versus what America does.
posted by Al at 11/27/2002 12:56:00 PM
November 26, 2002
Martial Mix CD: Songs for our fightin' troops
Our boys need some tunes to inspire them as they prepare for the coming liberation of Iraq. Here are my two dozen ideas for inclusion on a mix CD to send to your brother, son, sister or cousin heading off for duty in the Middle East:
"Mama Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J - I could imagine some of our boys wanting to wire up some speakers to boom this ultimate in gangsta rap upon a garrison of Republican Guard troops in a loop. "I think I'm gonna bomb a TOWN, get down! I gotta thank GOD, cause he gave me the strength to rock HARD. Knock you out, Mama said knock you out."
"Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" by Warren Zevon - Other Warren possibilities include "The Envoy" or "The Long Arm of the Law." Somehow, you've got to have some Warren in the mix. "Roland," of course, is a eulogy for a great warrior, and Saddam should be well feeling the sentiment of the classic rock inevitability of having that "long arm of the law" tapping on his shoulder. Your cousin in the infantry might well say, "'Long arm of the law?' Oh yeah, that would be ME!" Then of course the badass envoy that carries a "lethal weapon that nobody sees" might entertain your soldier boy.
"Neighborhood Bully" by Bob Dylan - The "bully" would be the Israelis who had to deal with the Hussein problem twenty years ago. Here's one of Dylan's catchiest, most furious, and straightforward rock and roll classics. It's about taking care of business and protecting your own, even if the rest of the world hates you for it.
"Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys - Bringing the hard funk and the metal together in rare perfect harmony, the Beasties read the riot act to the provocateur: "You're scheming on a thing that's a mirage. I'm telling all y'all it's sabotage." Well, we've got an answer for that.
"Psycho Street" by Richard Thompson - You know where you try to get along and be nice with the neighbors, but it just ain't gonna work? This veers from the nice lollipop Mr. Rogers chorus about friendly neighbors, to the swinging psycho rants of the verses, with neighbors interrogating the cats, and cheerful throbbing murders amongst friends. "'Oh well,' says the dad as his life blood trickles away. 'Boys will be boys.'"
"I Walk on Guilded Splinters" by Dr. John - Here's a nice long, slow shuffling little New Orleans voodoo session, turning into an evil seance as the doctor conjures up a hex. "Put gris-gris on your doorstep, and soon you'll be in the gutter."
"Goon Squad" and "Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello - "Goon Squad" may have been meant as a warning about how easy it is to get yourself caught up in the military-industrial complex or something, but it has an evil undertow that can make you want to take it to the enemy. That getting caught up in something idea is exactly the point. Yeah, boys, we're the frickin' GOON SQUAD. You want to try some of this?
"Oliver's Army" would be far scarier to folks if they saw past the sweet pop pleasantry. This song describes the creature that can't be touched by any enemy: the professional army. We've got a wealthy country that can afford to hire many of our very best minds to come and work in well-equipped units with all the best weapons and materials available to man. "Oliver's army is here to stay."
"Highway Patrol" by Junior Brown - Think of this modern honky tonk country classic in this context as a corollary to "Oliver's Army." It's a professional career. "I'm just a-doin' my job, I'm the highway patrol." Not some overheated belligerent badass, just a cop on the job. But I suggest you co-operate with his polite demands, lest you find yourself on the wrong end of a courteous and professional ass kicking.
"Blue Suede Shoes" by Elvis Presley, or alternately "A Little Less Conversation" You could even go for the "US Male." - Somewhere there has to be Presley. Certainly it or the "Blue Suede Shoes" give a friendly but aggressive warning as to the limits of the patience of America. Besides being a good modern techno song for a dance at the UFO, "a little less conversation, a little more action" might suit the mood of many good military folks who would like to go if we're going, and get the job done.
"The Bitch Is Back" by Elton John - Back before he collapsed into weary sighs, Elton could rock like a bitch. "I can bitch, I can bitch, cause I'm better than you." With them guitars cutting right through to the bone, this would be a perfect song to play in the cockpit as you're dropping bombs on the presidential palaces.
"Der Fuhrer's Face" by Spike Jones - This gives a little shot of something different in the mix. While still a good movement to buoy the fighting spirits, this WWII novelty classic brings in a little historical perspective, and a classic model for properly disrespecting a tyrant.
"The Payback" by James Brown - This long, slinky, dirty precision funk just carries out that long slow inevitability of getting what you got to have done to ya.
"Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett - We might have to send this classic blast of defiance back to the "good folks" at the UN who seem to think we need their permission to defend ourselves. Plus, it occurred to me while watching her pointedly throwing off a burqa at a USO show that this chick is a good personification of what we're fighting for. Joan Jett IS the all-American girl.
"They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore" by Kinky Friedman - The redneckest damned Jewboy in all of Texas lays down the law in this perfect country barroom singalong. This would be a good thing for our boys to listen to while they're having a couple of drinks in the bar the night before a big mission. "No, we don't turn the other cheek the way we done before."
"Bad" by Michael Jackson - Granted, the guy's gone off his beam in the last ten years. Nonetheless, he's made some of the best records in the history of recorded pop music, and you can't take that away from him. This one lays down the law harder than any funk other than by James Brown Himself. "You're doing wrong. Gonna lock you up, before too long." With the syncopated lock steps of the rhythm and unrepenting washes of organ, this ain't a threat- it's a promise.
Show your stuff, or let it be
I'm telling you, just watch your mouth
I know your game, what you're about
"Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" by Toby Keith - Alan Jackson's "Where Were You" is actually a pretty good song and a nice meditation, but it ain't cuttin' it when you're psyching up to kick some ass. This'll do the trick.
"Unchained" by Van Halen - It just seems like our fightin' soldiers need a little bit of classic churning Eddie Van Halen guitar while they're hitting the beaches with a little message for Mr. Hussein after many years of his foolishness. "Change- ain't nothing stays the same. Unchained, and you hit the ground running."
"America" by Prince gives one very colorful and specifically patriotic blast of the funk, a little note of pride in living in a free country, problems or no.
"Pride" by U2 - This song can produce surging, loving conviction to stand up for freedom. Of course this song was written in admiration of the non-violent Martin Luther King. Even Bono, however, would tell you that it takes something different to stand up to some misguided crackers in Birmingham versus Arab psychopaths.
"Drink Before the War" by Sinead O'Connor - We can also send this one out to my buddy Salam, and all the other good folk of Iraq who are caught in the crossfire. Hope we're helping you rather than hurting, but it's definitely going to be ugly. This big slow, but relentlessly powerful ballad from her classic first album would make a good last pause before our boys go out and do what has to be done.
Finally, at long last: "Let's Roll" by Neil Young - This brooding midtempo song might be more something to buck up your conviction as you face the actual immediate danger, a reminder of what we're really dealing with- staring evil directly in the eye. I could see some Navy Seals listening to this while they smear on the camouflage make-up.Labels: country_music
posted by Al at 11/26/2002 06:39:00 PM
November 24, 2002
A gentleman and a scholar
Nik Karanikos at The Weblog Review is obviously both a gentleman and a scholar who appreciates the finer things in life. Thus, his REVIEW OF CULPEPPER LOG shows the reviewer to be someone who properly appreciates an outstanding web journal.
posted by Al at 11/24/2002 12:27:00 AM
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