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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.
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July 19, 2003
Republican fruitcakes
So the Republicans and Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee were having a little dispute about a bill. Chairman Bill Thomas insisted on ramming it through without allowing a line reading, so the Democrats walked out to go discuss their strategy. One Democrat stayed to argue rules with the Republicans.
Colorado Republican congressman Scott McInnis may be the world's biggest pussy. He went whining to the committee chairman and literally had him call the cops on a Democrat. "That particular individual threatened me with physical harm."
Really. The supposed "threat" from California Democrat Pete Stark was "Oh, you think you are big enough to make me, you little wimp? Come over here and make me. I dare you."
My high level of pure contempt for the Democrat Party is second to none, but it's absolutely the Republicans who are the dumbasses here.
What an incredible girlyman. Jesus H Criminy, this guy gets to vote on sending our troops into war. This little nancy boy called the Democrat a "fruitcake"- and then calls the cops on him for calling him a wimp.
But even that's not what really bothers me. What REALLY bothers me is how f'ing STUPID these Republicans are. What did they think they were going to accomplish with this nonsense? How could they have thought anything at all but that this would get stuck up in them and broken off? That goes for committee chairman Thomas as much as McInnis.
What a bunch of Republican fruitcakes.
POST SCRIPT: It has been suggested that my emphasis on the term "fruitcakes" might be seen as hostile toward homosexuals. I apologize. This is unfair. These Republicans give cocksuckers a bad name. I blame them.
How should I properly mock the manhood of such as these Republicans instead, though? What would be a non-homophobic way to make the point?
posted by Al at 7/19/2003 05:13:00 AM
Chuck D is a signifying monkey
In the last 30 years, there have been quite a few musicians get praise far beyond any real musical worth, based on irrelevant sociological or political considerations. The Clash, for example, were an outstanding band, but did not begin to merit their slogan as "the only band that matters." Yet they were rushed into the Hall of Fame the first instant they were eligible, while Lynyrd Skynyrd languishes. Punk rock and descendents have been particularly rife with this kind of critical nonsense.
So has rap. The greatest act in rap history, by any reasonable MUSICAL consideration, would have to be the Beastie Boys- hands down. However, they don't have the cheap political rhetoric. More importantly, they're not black. I can understand how it might pain some folk that the best rap act is not black, but them's the facts. Given some of the particular racial pathologies of modern black America, that the Beasties are not just white but specifically JEWISH makes it that much worse.
Public Enemy, on the other hand, can't be praised highly enough among many people who care about rap. Besides the appropriate skin color, PE has the perfect schtick. They're radical militant black nationalist freedom fighters. Therefore, they are Highly Important.
Except of course that they're not. They're musicians and recording artists. Chuck D makes records. He's not in any significant sense a political leader or outlaw. For being a "public enemy," about the only significant lawlessness PE has been involved with has been Flavor Flav beating his woman. Wow, what a rebel.
Even our own Blogcritic uber alles Eric Olsen says "Public Enemy is arguably the most important rap group of all time and as such will be seen in the same league with Elvis Costello 100 years from now."
Negro puh-lease. Public Enemy's entire musical career isn't the equal just of "Alison," let alone the rest of Elvis' first album. In terms of music, you know, SONGS, PE is a third or fourth tier act. They have a few good songs, but they're no Beatles or Prince. Fear of a Black Planet was a rockin' good album, but that was all they had in 'em. Being highly generous, you might say that PE has ten worthwhile songs, eight or nine of them from Black Planet. On a musical level, their whole career might be the equal of Licensed to Ill.
As it happens, I saw them when they were touring for Black Planet. It was an irresistable lineup, with numerous hip-hop acts at the height of their prowess, particularly including the Digital Underground, promoting "The Humpty Dance." Heavy D was there as well. (This was the Indianapolis show where one of his boys got killed in an accident after the show.)
They put on a good show. I was well pleased with the value for my ticket dollar. A good time was had by one and all.
However, at no time did I actually experience fear of a black planet from attending the Public Enemy show. Look, their Security of the First World were dancers doing pseudo-militaristic dance steps while toting plastic toy guns. What were they going to do, squirt water on Whitey?
Also, actually read some of their lyrics. There's nothing to ANY of that bullshit. Any retard can be hostile and belligerant. That's not a political statement, merely a tantrum.
Woo-wee, I'm a big scary Negro. Boo! Riiiight. Now, coming from the Geto Boys, say, I'd believe it. I would in fact be at least a little scared of them and their audience. "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," now that shit puts the fear of God and Negroes in me.
Thing is though, Chuck D is merely a signifying monkey. This goes back to an African legend about a weak-ass little monkey what signifies ie makes empty signals with no backing ie talks a lot of lying bullshit to try turning bigger animals against one another. As you might expect, the monkey generally ends up getting EATEN for his bother.
Chuck D talks a lot of big talk, but he ain't Malcolm X. Those Uzis are plastic. Malcolm's weren't. The video for "By the Time I Get to Arizona" depicts the band assassinating various state officials for the crime of refusing to honor the MLK holiday. That's a pretty good gimmick for a video, but there was never a moment of danger that they were going to lead any kind of insurrection. PE is a band trying to sell records, not any kind of political or religious leadership.
Cheap racial demagoguery has been Chuck D's signifying stock in trade. Generally, I'm inclined to be sympathetic. Hey, whatever schtick helps you get across.
However, he did mildly annoy me with his totally unwarranted disrespect for Elvis Presley. "Fight the Power" was definitely their best SONG, a career making record. On that ground, I largely overlook the pure demagoguery of
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Motherfuck him and John Wayne
Very obviously, the charges of racism are precisely backward here. I've never heard of Chuck D being oppressed by anyone, and certainly not by Elvis. Elvis Presley never did one damn thing to a black man, other than providing numerous black folk jobs as musicians, dancers and songwriters. Chuck D, on the other hand, hates Elvis and curses him for absolutely no other reason than having been white. That is textbook racism.
 Now if you want a black man shaking up the racist order, try some classic Little Richard. He was fomenting anarchy and law breaking. Besides some private issues about sodomy laws, he was very publicly putting a boot in the ass of Jim Crow in the 1950s.
Read some of the stories about the authorities trying to enforce the segregation laws at his concerts. White kids this side, black ones that side. After a few minutes of Mr. Penniman wailing away, inhibitions and rule abiding were gone, as were the stupid little ropes that were supposed to keep the races apart as they danced together in the aisles.
Of course, Richard was bringing the races together, not demagogically trying to play one against the other. Oh, and he was a real musician.
Little Richard- now THERE was a public enemy.
There's all kinds of interesting chatter about this column at Blogcritics.
posted by Al at 7/19/2003 05:12:00 AM
July 17, 2003
Pass the grapefruit
James Cagney was born 103 years ago today, July 17, 1900. Among other things, he was the original movie mega-gangster. He had some of the most fascinating body language of any actor ever. There's some little thing about his ways of moving that, for example, turned a few seconds of merely shoving a grapefruit in a girl's face [in The Public Enemy] into a moment of cinematic history that the world remembers 70 odd years later.
The Public Enemy made his name. Angels with Dirty Faces really cemented it, especially his last scene with the priest. ["No, you're asking too much."] It's really odd how he was turned suddenly- yet credibly- into a Christ-like figure. Partly that's just good acting.
Then of course there was Cody Jarrett, his psycho mama's boy in White Heat. This is the only psycho mama's boy in screen history competitive with Norman Bates. The "top of the world" bit at the end was probably the best one moment of his whole career. Then again, there's the scene choking Virginia Mayo in the barn. I'd be some kind of perv if I found that scene arousing and had a big poster of it, so I don't and didn't, OK?
He was also an accomplished hoofer. He wasn't quite the pure technical dancing whiz that Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire were, but he he was exceptionally expressive. Again, it's the body language, some extra little expression of personality beyond the basic choreography. I'm more interested in the gangster side of his work, but there's no denying Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Cagney is at this point criminally underrepresented on DVD. For some stupid reasons beyond me, Yankee Doodle Dandy is the only one of his major works available on a DVD. There are numerous cheap DVDs of perhaps worthwhile but lesser works available. Cagney alone gives a good reason why we can't yet trash the old VHS decks.
posted by Al at 7/17/2003 11:51:00 PM
Elvis Costello site for musicians
Here's a particularly groovy site for musicians: bunches of Elvis Costello songs with chord changes. CLICK HERE.
I'll note that this site has some relatively obscure songs, including personal favorites like "Little Palaces."
posted by Al at 7/17/2003 07:10:00 PM
Wussy parenting
Nightline is doing a show tonight (7-17-03) about lawsuits against fast food. From their daily promotional email setting up the show:
Grocery shopping with my five year old is an excruciating experience. There is the meltdown on aisle two because I won't buy him the "Incredible Hulk" cookies. And then there's the tantrum on aisle four when I won't buy him the "Spiderman" potato chips. And finally, I cave on aisle six when he says he can't live without the "SpongeBob" Popsicles.
The marketing is brilliant and it works. Parents today must have the will, the time, the energy to fight these fights (or, better yet, find a way to go grocery shopping alone). Reinforced by television commercials, movie tie-ins at fast food chains, and even food promotions in books, kids today are hungry consumers.
Crikey, no wonder we've got so many screwed up younguns. N-O. End of story. What's so frickin' hard about that? No Spiderman chips or Harry Potter cereal. You get some decent nutritious Cheerios. Where's the big battle? You're bigger, and you have the wallet.
Sara Just and the Nightline staff are not anomalies. What she's writing here probably reflects the attitudes and experience of a great many American parents. I don't mean to single her out as exceptionally wimpy, but as a representative of our common wimpiness. Indeed, I will confess to the occasional spot of overindulging children.
But at some point the adult has to be, well, the adult. Grocery shopping with children presents boundless opportunities to model and teach impulse control. Perhaps you get ONE indulgence purchase per shopping trip. Or they can pick out $3 worth of treat items. This works particularly good for teaching decision making and the value of money. You can get this one small box of crappy cereal, or several packs of baseball cards, or even buy just a candy bar and have a couple of bucks cash!
Or you can teach children that whining and grasping at every little thing that passes before their eyes will get them what they want. These tactics absolutely do not create the wealth which allows the indulgence. Demanding and having temper tantrums only work as ways of getting things if there's someone else to pay for it.
Indeed, if enough people raise their kids this way, we'll end up with a society where every overgrown brat thinks that the world owes them anything and everything they want or need whenever they want. If that ever happened, we'd have a huge creaking welfare state with ridiculously high taxes destroying the whole damned economy. Hell, we'd probably have congress already running hundreds of billions of dollars a year in deficits, and still busy trying to add huge new entitlement programs on top of that.
Rand help us if that day ever comes.
posted by Al at 7/17/2003 06:34:00 PM
July 16, 2003
John Hancock's ding-a-ling
Silver bells hanging on, well a rattle for his son, actually. CLICK HERE to see the fancy silver and corral rattle John Hancock bought for his son.
I don't know that this is relevant to any national cause or such. It just struck me as really neat-o.
posted by Al at 7/16/2003 03:52:00 AM
Roseanne's Adaptation
I was a big fan of the Roseanne show. But this chick really badly needs to get over herself at this point.
Produced by Barr and The War Room documentarian R.J. Cutler, The Real Roseanne Show chronicles her efforts to start a new cooking program called Domestic Goddess. It features her wolfing doughnuts with celebrity friends such as Sandra Bernhard, and consulting numerous rabbis to help her deal with psychological problems and the people around her.
After the six-week series ends, the cooking program Domestic Goddess will begin running on ABC's Family cable channel.
I understand about celebrities having egos and narcisstic tendencies, but seriously. She's got a 13 episode series starting on ABC on August 6 all about her trying to learn how to be nice to people while she prepares to start a cooking show.
I had an ominous feeling when I saw Adaptation. Now I'm starting to see why. I'm afraid the whole frickin' town is about to disappear right up into their own belly buttons.
posted by Al at 7/16/2003 03:50:00 AM
July 15, 2003
Visit "The Rubber Room" with Porter
I have a new essay about the classic Porter Wagoner psychedelic, or should I say "psychOdelic" country song "The Rubber Room."Labels: country_music
posted by Al at 7/15/2003 01:14:00 AM
July 13, 2003
Live Aid anniversary
On this day in history, July 13, 1985 was Live Aid, a four-way transcontinental rock concert in London, Phila, Moscow & Sydney. It didn't make much difference one way or another in Africa, which appears to be more miserable now than then.
However, it did establish Bob Geldof as "Saint Bob." Also, it got a lot of good publicity for all the very caring performers involved, and Phil Collins got in a good two continent showing for the day.
In short, it worked out nicely for all the important people, ie celebrities.
posted by Al at 7/13/2003 11:02:00 PM
Trailer for The Passion
Harry Knowles has the first trailer for Mel Gibson's controversial upcoming labor of love The Passion. The whole film sounds just fascinating, and of course the pressure groups bitching about it during production only increase my interest.
I'm struggling with my piddling dial-up connection to get the thing, but you can find it HERE on Knowle's site, or mirrored HERE.
posted by Al at 7/13/2003 10:49:00 PM
Roger McGuinn's birthday
Born July 13, 1942, today is Roger McGuinn's birthday. Happy #61!!!
The Byrds created a unique musical legacy, on the cutting edge of popular music for most of a decade. For one thing, their legendary Sweetheart of the Rodeo was the leading edge of the rock movement to country, well before Dylan got there- and a better album even than John Wesley Harding. It was the greatest AND the purest AND the firstest. At the time in 1968, the Byrds actually played the Grand Ole Opry. They apparently seriously confused the Opry audience, as they showed up with the long hair and full hippy raments- playing the oldest sounding mountain music you'd ever want to hear.
Of course, they made their names with the twin 1965 albums Turn, Turn, Turn and Mr Tambourine Man. The chiming sound of McGuinn's 12-string set the standards for a thousand bands of which Tom Petty and REM are only the most obvious.
My fave rave Byrd record, though, has usually been the Fifth Dimension, with the classic "Eight Miles High." That opening guitar solo (inspired by John Coltrane) remains perhaps my favorite guitar solo ever.
posted by Al at 7/13/2003 10:49:00 PM
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