|
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!
----
|
July 12, 2003
Henry David Thoreau's birthday
Henry David Thoreau was born on this day in history, 186 years ago on July 12, 1817.
Of course Walden was his main book. I personally got more out of his famous essay on civil disobedience. I note that from the Amazon link below, they list used copies of a book with both for as little as $1.29.
The single most arresting thought I got from reading Thoreau was his talk about a wealthy farmer, except that it was the farm that really owned him rather than the other way around. This was not any kind of altruistic argument - that it's bad for you to be rich- but an assessment of the investments of your very life involved.
That is, he was contemplating the costs of being rich, the extent to which your life can really be dominated by the seeking after wealth, how much the farmer's entire existence was consumed by maintaining his holdings. This always puts me in mind of the decades of 12 hour days my father put into maintaining his modest business, and the experience of many other people I know.
posted by Al at 7/12/2003 03:48:00 AM
The Beverly Hillbillies Red state/Blue state comedy
One way of appreciating the genius of The Beverly Hillbillies is to consider it as a comedy of social contrast. Nearly 40 years before the Y2K elections brought the issues into a new focus, the Clampetts spent most of a decade representing the blue states of middle America against the quintessentially red state behaviors of the denizens of Beverly Hills.
Who would you really want making the decisions, wise and emotionally stable if undereducated Jed Clampett, or the emotional and neurotic Miss Jane? Would she in fact make better decisions with her nominal sophistication? This is more a question of personalities rather than of policies, something separate from being "liberal" or "conservative." Poor white folk from the Ozarks such as the Clampetts could very well be Democrats.
Odd actually how well the sitcom folks foreshadow the actual politicians, or at least the public images of Bush and Gore. Jed Clampett was a calm, wise guy who had good sense and good judgement that were more important than his lack of high education. He's a good stand-in for Dubya, as sitcom characters go.
Of course, Miss Jane Hathaway makes a frickin' PERFECT doppleganger for Al Gore. Note that itchy, neurotic discomfort with their own bodies. Note the useless overeducation. Note the kind of distant city-fied dedication to environmental causes, such as the Biddle Birdwatchers- as opposed to Jed/Dubya who actually spent time in nature hunting and fishing.
This Blue State/Red State stuff played out interestingly in real life even before Bush/Gore. Nancy Kulp ran for congress in 1984 as a good liberal Democrat, espousing policies about like you'd expect from Miss Hathaway. She blamed Buddy Ebsen for her defeat, based on the radio ad he recorded for her Republican opponent.
Umm, President Clampett. I feel safer already.
posted by Al at 7/12/2003 03:47:00 AM
July 10, 2003
VH1 preparing Warren Zevon documentary
From Billboard:
Warren Zevon will be the debut subject of a new VH1 series, "Inside Out," which launches Aug. 24. The program will chronicle the veteran singer/songwriter's struggle to complete "The Wind," his forthcoming album for Artemis Records, due Aug. 26. Zevon was diagnosed with the terminal lung cancer mesothelioma in August 2002.
It will be hosted by Billy Bob Thornton, and naturally has a bunch of big famous guests. Hopefully Warren will still be around to see it, and the release of his album. Heck, maybe he'll get another one made.
posted by Al at 7/10/2003 01:23:00 AM
56 years on the Group W bench
Arlo Guthrie was born July 10, 1947. Happy #56. Woo-hoo!
Surely "Alice's Restaurant" was the greatest anti-war protest song of the Vietnam era.
"Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."
Arlo made a pretty interesting movie based on the song which took the story in whole different non-political directions. Note that the infamous Officer Obie played himself in the movie. HERE is a nice tribute to an officer with some sense of humor, from Arlo's official website.
posted by Al at 7/10/2003 01:11:00 AM
July 09, 2003
Tori Amos lyrics site
I find myself significantly frustrated looking for lyrics on the net. I most often want them to attach to mp3 files. Often, lyric sites will have one or two songs from an album, the main hit. Even if the lyrics for an album are available piecemeal, it's a big pain in the ass to go through them one by one. I'd much prefer to find lyrics to a whole album, so I can gang edit all the lyrics to every song of the album. Much quicker and easier.
To the end of offering such appreciation, I found a particularly good site for getting Tori Amos lyrics. Dig it.
Oh, and GO HERE for more groovy deep thoughts on Tori.
posted by Al at 7/09/2003 09:51:00 PM
Now THIS is homophobia
MSNBC fired Michael Savage for some hateful anti-gay comments on his television show.
"Oh, you're one of the sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig. How's that? Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig. You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage. You have got nothing to do today, go eat a sausage and choke on it."
Returning to an earlier theme, some liberals interpret any criticism of homosexuals or gay lobby groups as homophobia. Our beloved Brian Flemming, for example, accuses even me of "rampant homophobia." Our Mark Saleski expects "whining" about political correctness from the right in response to Savage being fired.
Mr. Saleski is mistaken. There will be no such outpouring of sympathy. See, Savage really IS what Brian seems to think everybody to the right of Howard Dean is. Conservatives and libertarians will look at this and say "off with his head." Screw this hateful jackass.
There's all the difference in the world between not being comfortable sending your young son out camping with a gay scoutmaster versus spitefulness and hatred. Even being an evangelical Christian who considers homosexuality a grave sin does not mean wishing suffering and death on sinners. Indeed, I would expect good conservative Christians to make a special point of condemning Savage's wickedness.
I was not sympathetic to gay groups trying to pre-emptively stop MSNBC from giving Savage a show. Even if he's pretty much of an ass, let him have his say. But the guy did this to himself. It didn't take a lobbying campaign from anybody to get him fired.
Indeed, this strikes me more as an act of self-sabotage than of homophobia. He couldn't have thought anything other than that he would be fired for this. Too bad, so sad.
Something's obviously wrong in the guy's head. Maybe he just needs a (very) understanding boyfriend to tell his troubles to.
We've got a lively comments thread connected to this article at Blogcritics.
posted by Al at 7/09/2003 04:39:00 AM
Risin' Outlaw by Hank Williams III
I've had the 1999 album Risin' Outlaw by Hank III repeatedly inflicted on me by the old man. The boy looks and sounds significantly like grandpa, and Pops is pretty determined to like him.
Hey, I want to like the record, but the songs are not there. They all sound like grandpa, only without the inspiration. The songs mostly are watered down re-writes of Hank Sr. Indeed, my dad seems to think that they are cover versions of grandpa's songs, though they are in fact credited as original songs. I haven't bothered to correct him.
The biggest display of skill in these songs is lawyerly, making something that sounds as close as possible to classic Hank Sr without being legally actionable plagiarism. In practice, this mostly means dispensing with the identifiable hooks.
On top of which, he kept re-writing the same couple of songs. You could pretty well sing a karaoke "Mind Your Own Business" over top of "Why Don't You Leave Me Alone"- and a couple of the other "original" songs as well.
The boy does have a good vocal instrument, courtesy of grandpa. If someone hooked him up with some decent songs, he might do well enough. He tried very hard to make a good record. It IS a real country record, not pop-glossed Garth Brooks crap.
However, he just doesn't seem to have the personal inspiration or vision. He learned heartbreak from listening to grandpa's records and outlawery from listening to dad's records. It comes across as book-learned country rather than lived experience. There's just nothing that's distinctly Hank III here.
posted by Al at 7/09/2003 04:25:00 AM
Malkovich?
posted by Al at 7/09/2003 12:25:00 AM
July 08, 2003
"When I See You" - Macy Gray's hot new single
Macy Gray has a new single out in advance of her upcoming new album The Trouble With Being Myself, "When I See You." In short, it's one of the couple of finest new songs to come out so far this year.
This record puts me in mind of Motown, in the best way. It doesn't sound like any particular Motown record, but it represents a kind of professional r&b pop with a lot of soul. I can hear the assembly line rolling under this one, with proper attention paid to all the parts of the melody, lyrics, production. This is proper professionally constructed record making.
This isn't just another love song though, but something much more specific. She details a woman not quite ready to make up with her boyfriend. Better than any but a few songs even from Motown, she packs in several different levels of conflicting emotions working themselves out. She exudes the happy anticipatory joy of make up making out in the bouncy phrasing of the title ["When - I - see ya, I'm gonna kiss you all over your face"], and the underlying funky guitars.
Yet she works in the hesitation, the fear and apprehension that's holding them both back. Feel the pain and drawing back not just in the words but in the melodic phrasing of "I'm hesi-TA-ting cause I don't want another fight."
Ms Gray's unique vocal instrument contributes much to that effect. She has sort of a Ray Charles style voice, and she knows how to work a little rasp. She's a pretty remarkable singer.
Indeed, she has a greater vocal presence and effect than any female singer in the classic Motown stable. Diana Ross sang perfectly well, but as a vocal performer she couldn't hold a candle to Macy.
Perhaps Diana would have been considered cuter, or a better clothes horse. Even for sexy though, Macy does it for me personally ten to one over even classic 60s-era Diana Ross. And what exactly does she mean by "Spray your love all over my face" at the, uh, climax of the bridge? She just slips that in all innocent-like.
Ms Ross did have the advantage of Holland-Dozier-Holland writing her songs. I don't want to overhype Macy, leaving you disappointed at having something less than a fully religious experience when you hear the record. The underlying song does not have quite the pure dramatic impact of "Love Child" or "Reach Out, I'll Be There."
You can have a song a half-notch below "You Keep Me Hanging On" and still have a really outstanding record, though- especially when you've got one of the greatest vocalists of a generation at the mic.
posted by Al at 7/08/2003 03:02:00 AM
No blood for rubber!
Jesse Jackson should get a special Ignorant-Assed Argument award for his appearance on Chris Matthews' Hardball show Monday night (4-7-2003).
He was there arguing for deployment of US troops to Liberia. The fact that the likes of Jesse Jackson and Howard Dean support US intervention should be a good first clue that it's a bad idea. Their support gives evidence to Ann Coulter's claim that liberals do not oppose US military intervention in other countries, so long we have absolutely no conceivable national interest in doing so.
This gets us to JJ's award winning argument. Having no possible US national interest in getting in the middle of Liberia's ugly civil war, Jackson argued that we owed it to the people of Liberia because we get rubber there to make tires. They were there for us when we needed rubber, see, so now we should be there for them. He invoked this rubber argument several times within about five minutes.
Somebody get Jesse Jackson a trophy. This must be the lamest political argument I've heard anytime recently. For starters, I doubt that the rubber was just given to us; I bet Firestone paid good money. Beyond that, does he think that we are somehow obligated to send soldiers in to get killed in every country where we do any business? No blood for rubber, I say.
Crikey, he staunchly opposed action in Iraq to overthrow an evil dictator who killed at least a million people and aided terrorists. Yet by this standard he's invoking to justify occupying Liberia, we would have to have soldiers in absolutely every hot spot on the planet. You couldn't have a fist fight in Laos without getting the US Marines involved.
Hell, this argument was so lame that he couldn't even make it rhyme.
posted by Al at 7/08/2003 01:33:00 AM
July 07, 2003
Robert Heinlein's birthday
We couldn't very well let the day pass at Blogcritics without noting the birthday of Robert Heinlein, the greatest science fiction writer ever. Born July 7, 1907, today would have been Heinlein's 96th birthday.
His most popular book has been Stranger in a Strange Land. Surely it ranks as one of the most fun and most consciousness expanding books in the history of literature. If you know a young person needing to have their basic thought processes opened up, you couldn't do much better than this.
Over time, though, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress has turned out to be my favorite Heinlein book. Stranger is more a work of fantasy. Moon is a more realistic science fiction. The characters thus mean more; they naturally draw out a greater emotional investment from the reader. Also, the themes are more streamlined to address political issues, thus giving stronger intellectual focus and greater depth.
Somehow, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress has done more to make the American revolution real to me than any history book. This story about an uprising for lunar independence was designed as a conscious dramatic parallel to our American struggle for independence. Heinlein really did a good job in communicating what it would mean to pledge your lives, fortunes and sacred honor.
Among his slightly less well known work, dig on Job: A Comedy of Justice. Anyone raised among evangelical Christians should particularly enjoy this religious fantasy. Satan and especially Yahweh become truly superb comic characters.
One thing I don't understand: the lack of Heinlein movies. There have been only a few half-assed movies made of any kind for an author of such prolificity and long-lived popularity. In particular, no one ever has made even a lame film of any of his major works. Why?
posted by Al at 7/07/2003 11:29:00 PM
Buddy Ebsen, 1908 - 2003
Buddy Ebsen passed today. He lasted 95 years, so he had nothing to complain of there.
Jed Clampett has been one of my great mythological cultural icons all through life. The first episode of The Beverly Hillbillies broadcast about three weeks before my birth. The family of Jebediah Clampett resonates strongly not only with me, however.
America's collective mythology and folk heroes start of course with the founding fathers. George Washington and Ben Franklin are great, but a little bit far from us culturally. They are great admired forebears, but more in a dusty historical way than in an immediate personal manner.
Going for mythical ie fictional American icons, lots of people would invoke Western characters. For starters, no one I know gives a rat's ass about Paul Bunyon or Babe the Blue Ox. Many people admire John Wayne or Roy Rogers, but again they are something rather far away from us.
The Clampetts, however, are MY people. These are fictionalized and idealized archetypes relevant to my background. I know people like this. To my neighbors and kin, the Clampetts [and Hee Haw] represent our shared mythology more than about any other cultural artifacts.
Jed Clampett particularly represents a fairly admirable model. He did not have the benefits of high education, but he was intelligent and thoughtful. He exhibited a fairly advanced wisdom about important things- far more so than any of the supposed high class folk of Beverly Hills- but without any arrogance or pretense or resentment.
JD Clampett represents only a small part of the time frame of Buddy Ebsen's career, though. By 1962, Ebsen was already a stage, movie and tv veteran of over 30 years. He was originally a song and dance man. Among other things, he was hoofing alongside Shirley Temple in Captain January in 1936.
He first became really prominent as Davy Crockett's friend George Russel in the 1950s. If nothing else, they helped sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coonskin caps and assorted other Crockett merchandise.
After the hillbillies, Ebsen had a long run as Barnaby Jones. It was pretty good, as such things go. It surely didn't have the cultural impact of the Clampetts, but the series ran nearly as long.
Perhaps his best acting performance came in the role that supposedly got him the part of Jed: Doc Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). He played the much older country doctor and skeleton-in-the-closet husband of Audrey Hepburn's character. Watch closely the wistfully lustful monologue in the park where Doc tells Hepburn's boyfriend (George Peppard) the story of his child bride. That's some acting.
Beverly Hillbillies Photo Gallery
posted by Al at 7/07/2003 09:31:00 PM
July 06, 2003
Journalistic fraud?
Please tell me that not all newspaper editors are this stupid:
From MSNBC:
The sports editor of the Roswell Daily Record has been fired for fabricating part of a news story about a golf tournament in which he quoted a fictional character from the movie "Caddyshack."
[Editor Mike] Bush said the story contained three fictitious paragraphs referring to a "Carl Spangler" who claimed to work at the course. In "Caddyshack," Bill Murray played a golf course worker named Carl Spackler.
Jones quoted "Spangler" as saying he invented a new kind of grass for the tournament. The quotation in Jones' story is taken directly from "Caddyshack."
"'This is a hybrid ... of bluegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, featherbed bent and northern California sensemilia (sic),' " Spangler said. 'The amazing stuff about this, is that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on the stuff.' "
Now perhaps this writer could have been a little more careful to make absolutely crystal clear he was making a joke, but who could mistake "take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt" for a real news quote?
Obviously writer Gregory Jones showed no intent to deceive. Could the editor not see the difference between this and Jayson Blair?
posted by Al at 7/06/2003 11:59:00 PM
That's alright, don't bother
It's easy enough to demonize the record companies. That's because they're pretty demonic. However, many of the artists show just as much greed and shortness of vision.
Case in point: many "major artists" have resisted inclusions in the Apple iTune service, or insisted on full-album sales, which are priced at near the cost of actually buying the ridiculously priced physical CDs.
99 cents to download a song is a very high price- yet not near enough to satisfy the talentless hacks of Linkin Park. From Billboard:
For example, Linkin Park recently pulled its music as a singles offering from digital services. Sources say the band has expressed concerns about undercutting album sales. Other acts with similar stipulations about their work include Radiohead, Madonna, Jewel and Green Day, sources say.
Top acts and their representatives are expressing reservations about the creative and financial implications of shifting to a singles-based model. "The fear among artists is that the work of art they put together, the album, will become a thing of the past," says attorney Fred Goldring, whose firm represents Will Smith and Alanis Morissette.
Oh Jebus, I'm gonna blow a load over the integrity of the artistic album statements of Will Smith and Alanis Morissette. What a load of pretentious, greedy crap. Har, har.
Tell you what guys: don't bother. Don't worry about compromising your artistic integrity. We'll just keep downloading your crap off the net. That's why God made Kazaa.
posted by Al at 7/06/2003 03:41:00 AM
Link Soup
morethings master
photo gallery index
MP3
new album
releases
lyrics
sammy davis
little richard photos
buddy holly pictures
fats domino images
chuck berry pictures 01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
la
24
lucille ball images james
blunt photos
clint eastwood pictures lena
horne images team
america pictures
robert mitchum photos
bruce springsteen pictures
mariah carey pictures
ann coulter photos
george clooney images
loretta lynn pictures
beatles pictures
white stripes pictures
andy griffith pictures
kill bill pictures
beverly hillbillies pictures
robin williams
frank zappa pictures
jerry lee lewis pictures
richard pryor photos
june carter johnny cash pictures
vic mackey shield pictures u2 photos
four seasons images
james cagney images
elvis presley pictures
country music
blog
dolly parton pictures
olsen twins photos
tom petty photos
tori amos pictures
joaquin phoenix images David
Bowie photos
Quills movie images
reese witherspoon pictures rolling
stones photos
fiona apple images kim
novak images ray charles photos marx
brothers pictures
prince rogers nelson pictures blazing
saddles images
sinead o'connor images
eddie murphy photos aretha
franklin photos
south park pictures homer
simpson images
bob dylan pictures elizabeth
taylor photos madonna
images
saturday night live pictures willie
nelson images hee
haw pictures james
brown images pete
townshend photos
tina turner pictures
dixie chicks photos
margaret thatcher photos
guns
n roses pictures
paula abdul pictures
jodie foster photos
amy winehouse
eminem
frank sinatra photos
van
halen images
satan
blondie photos
joni
mitchell pictures
merle haggard
images
rocky horror pictures
monty
python
|
|
