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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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June 26, 2004
Dirty words and sticks and stones
So Vice President Cheney dropped the F-bomb on Senator Leahy this week. Shocking! Naturally, he went tattling like a little child to tell everyone how mean Cheney was to him.
Now granted, throwing Carlin's classic "dirty" words at someone might reasonably be considered rude, or indecorous. It's just not nice.
On the other hand, it doesn't mean much. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but all this really meant is that Cheney was angry with the senator. He suggested that the senator have sex with himself. This is obviously physical impossibile. What it really means is "I don't like you." He has not really said anything about the senator. He has not accused him of anything.
The vice president explained his behavior by reference to Senator Leahy's repeated comments claiming corruption and seeming inferences of felonious and impeachable behavior, which the vice president vigorously disputes. The senator hasn't used any of Carlin's seven magic words, but he has made grave and -at best- questionable accusations against him.
If Vice President Cheney has NOT been starting wars and fixing contracts for the purpose of benefitting the company he used to work for, then the senator (among many others) has committed far worse offense than he has. Being cussed at does not besmirch your reputation, being accused of felonious corruption does. If the senator and his Democratic colleagues can make their accusations stick in the public mind, Cheney et al could not only lose their jobs, but expect to be scorned by decent people for the rest of their natural lives.
Many liberals today like to drop extremely bad aspersions on basically anyone who substantively disagrees with them, starting with the Bush administration. It is routine rhetoric now to describe President Bush or Attorney General Ashcroft as Nazis. Also, the president -- so they say -- LIED again and again to the American people to trick them into a war in Iraq. That's pretty serious, far worse than simply saying that the president was mistaken in thinking there were WMDs. They are essentially accusing the president of treason.
Now, I'm not saying that liberals are all slandering name callers and conservatives are all clean and circumspect in their rhetoric. Certainly down in the trenches, there are people from all sides of the debates who wallow in a bit of mud. At this historical point, though, it's more that conservative types of any public note simply aren't allowed to get away with much abuse that way.
That's fine- keep them danged Republicans honest and civil, or at least relatively so. I'm all for calling them out when they step over the line.
One might wish, however, that the same standards were applied to all sides. It's not just a few left wing cranks on websites making ugly and unfounded descriptions and accusations. Even the most prominent left wing media figures feel free and justified in making truly wicked and conspiratorial accusations. We won't even start on Michael Moore's antics here.
Even the nominal elder statesmen of the Democrat party routinely trash the president with highly indiscriminate words. Just this week, Al Gore repeatedly used Nazi references to describe the president in a big, formal speech. Senator Kennedy, among others, has accused President Bush of LYING to the American people to get us into war.
So then, in short, unfounded or even deliberately false accusations of dishonesty, racism, homophobia, and anything else against any conservative are justified, because they deserve it. Any conservative who cusses them out for it can expect to be denounced for breaking the rules of civility, and even face calls for censorship.
I've got just the song to top off this consideration, a little ditty from an old college pal called "Dirty Words." Note his extended list of what he considers to be "dirty words" that constitutes the chorus.
posted by Al at 6/26/2004 03:50:00 PM
Peter Lorre's 100th birthday
Born in Hungary on June 26, 1904, Peter Lorre would be 100 years old today.
Lorre has long been recognized as an exceptionally skilled actor. He was also one of the most interesting and distinctive looking actors ever. What with his weird eyes and accent, he may have been the best weird, creepy bad guy in movie history.
He's probably best known now for his supporting role in Casablanca, which was good -- but that's more because of the overall reputation of that movie rather than because of his performance.
Best role to see him in action would be in Fritz Lang's early 1931 German language film M, as the young pedophile murderer Franz Beckert. You have to make the effort of subtitles, but both his performance and the overall movie are menacing pre-Nazi masterpieces. Beckert's self-defense in his "trial" before the mobsters at the end of the movie is unforgettable.
I've also recently run into a really cool audio recording of Lorre, on a 3 CD set of The Great Radio Mysteries. "Mystery in the Air - The Black Cat" from disc 2 is essentially a 23 minute monologue of Lorre, in which he describes his mental breakdown. It goes from killing a cat, and ends up with him headed for death row. It's worth looking up.
Peter Lorre definitely messes with my brain.
PETER LORRE PHOTO GALLERY
posted by Al at 6/26/2004 03:30:00 PM
June 25, 2004
Michael Moore's briar patch
The general counsel of the FEC has recommended that they absolutely ban Michael Moore from advertising his Fahrenheit 9/11 movie on tv after the end of this month because of the McCain-Feingold BiCRA law. MORE HERE
Now, if one were of a cynical or conspiratorial bent, you might be tempted to think that this nonsense was dreamed up by someone at FEC sympathetic to Moore, trying to set him up as a First Amendment martyr. That may be a bit farfetched, though.
However, I'm sure that Moore is quaking in his boots. Oh, PLEASE Mr. FEC man, don't throw me in that briar patch...
posted by Al at 6/25/2004 03:34:00 PM
June 24, 2004
My new hero
Bryan Henderson is my new personal hero. He's a freshly graduated high school student who spent some quality time finishing his senior year fighting for free speech. STORY HERE
As Bill Murray said in Stripes, "I want to party with you, cowboy."
Note that he did not just jump up and down and hold his breath till he got blue in the face. He did research, and showed great patience in trying to have civil conversations with people intent on irrational, thuggish behavior.
And doesn't that teacher LOOK like a Noam Chomsky fan?
posted by Al at 6/24/2004 01:06:00 AM
June 23, 2004
Clinton in a nutshell
Jonah Goldberg has a perfect encapsulation of the character of the former president, and it doesn't take 957 pages:
"It was a symptom of Bill Clinton's tackiness that he inverted the old axiom that 'everyone lies about sex.' It's true, gentlemen did lie about sex to protect the honor of women. Bill Clinton lied about the honor of women he had sex with to protect himself."
posted by Al at 6/23/2004 02:48:00 PM
June 22, 2004
Enjoying every sandwich at the Great China Buffet
Great China Buffet
532 W 30th St
Connersville, IN
(765) 827-8888
One of the better parts of whatever modest wisdom I may have gained in life is that you should appreciate the little pleasures of everyday life. As the noxious countrypolitan song put it, stop and smell the roses. On a hipper note, remember Warren Zevon's advice on his final Letterman appearance: "Enjoy every sandwich."
To that end, I feel moved to send out a few words of love to the proprietors of the Great China Buffet in Connersville, Indiana. We are blessed to have such an outstanding restaurant out in the countryside like this. Indeed, I'd put our local eatery against any Chinese in the state. I've enjoyed many delicious meals here over several years.
Now, I haven't eaten at every Chinese restaurant in the state, so I suppose that qualifies things a bit. It seems likely that you might get something a little fancier at some premium place that charges three times as much. I suppose you might get a table cloth.
However, I'm not there to eat the linen. Our Connersville outlet is a nice, large roomy place with nice paintings and such. It has perfectly good atmosphere, and it's big enough you could bring a wedding party or such.
Plus, it's cheap. Prime dinner time cost $7, drinks and all.
There's nothing especially unusual or creative, it's just basic Chinese food -- but really good basic Chinese. I'm partial to the General Tso's Chicken, and their broccoli with beef always has some crunch left to it. They seem to do pretty well at keeping just enough stuff out that it doesn't set too long and get yucky. This is one of the trickier parts of running a buffet -- especially in lower traffic places out in the country.
Special Al pick: This Great China Buffet has exceptionally good hot and sour soup. I don't know why, but this seems to be one of the harder things to get right. I don't know if it's just difficult to mix, or more likely that it costs extra to get the right ingredients. I don't know. I wouldn't have a clue how to start trying to make the stuff at home.
I DO know, however, that if I go to this restaurant, I'm going to get the shrooms and all the good stuff. This stuff has a good, strong tangy flavor. It is worth tasting.
If you have occasion to be in Fayette County, Indiana, or really anywhere in east central Indiana, you really ought to try them out, maybe get some of that hot and sour soup to take home as well.
posted by Al at 6/22/2004 03:28:00 AM
New album releases, week of 6-22-04
This looks like an above average week for new albums.
Top likely pick: Brian Wilson has a new album out on Rhino, Gettin' in Over My Head. His last album was pretty disappointing, but this is BRIAN WILSON, so that alone rates a careful listen.
The appeal of their last album escaped me, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the consensus Blogcritics pick for album of the year. This week they are releasing the follow up, A Ghost Is Born. I've never known of this band actually being popular, but note that this album is currently #1 at Amazon.
There's a new release of Elvis Presley's Sun sessions, Elvis at Sun, which have been described as "brand new remasterings that are sometimes startling in their clarity." This sounds promising, as I for one have never been satisfied technically with previous CD releases of this key material.
Also, the words "Spider Man" apparently have some magical incantation powers that cause people to helplessly reach for their wallets for no obvious reason. The Danny Elfman produced soundtrack for Spidey 2 is out this week. Uncontrollable urge... Must buy...
CLICK HERE for the complete list of this week's major new releases.Labels: new_album_releases
posted by Al at 6/22/2004 02:26:00 AM
June 21, 2004
Ray Davies turns 60
Master Raymond Douglas Davies was born 60 years ago today, on June 21, 1944. Happy #60, Ray!
For starters, by any rights Ray Davies should be rated one of the top 10 greatest songwriters in the rock music tradition. He's just that good.
Of course, the Kinks made their name with some of the most brilliant simple two and three chord rock and roll singles ever recorded, notably "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" in 1964.
Ray and the boys rapidly expanded the palette with contemplative ballads such as "So Tired of Waiting for You." Ray has been famous for the daydream stuff, "Sunny Afternoon" and "Lazy Old Sun."
He's got his own little genre of pop social satires, totally rockin' good stuff like "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" and "Harry Rag" and "Apeman."
They could always return to their teenage rock roots to touch base and revitalize, such as "Victoria" and "Low Budget."
To those who share the religion, "Rock and Roll Fantasy" may sound like the greatest and saddest song about losing faith in the music. Then again, he wrote the equally brilliant "You Can't Stop the Music." That kind of thing shows why they would be called Kinks.
True to their name, they had a lot of kinks, most notably homosexuality versus social conservatism. On the one hand, Ray Davies wrote some really gay stuff, starting with "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion." No one else has made as big a pop hit as gay as "Lola" -- give or take maybe "Karma Chameleon." Then, of course, there's "David Watts" -- possibly their best song, with the perfect pop hooks and the furious gallop detailing class envy and pure confused teenaged homosexual desire.
Yet on the other hand, Ray Davies has been the most hardcore conservative in a social preservation type sense, most famously with the whole album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Even as the 60s youth social rebellion was peaking, Ray was writing "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home." In the brilliant "Two Sisters," Ray took the side of the housewife and mother over the "wayward lass" of a sister.
Perhaps Ray's best expression of conservative thought running against the "sex and drugs and rock & roll" grain would be the brilliant diamond hard smackdown of "The Hard Way," in which a teacher breaks it right down for some smartass punk. "I'm wasting my vocation teaching you to write neat, when you're only fit to sweep the streets."
"Conservative" here means more a broad sense of favoring old, quiet and traditional over new and flashy, rather than any particular political affiliation. Indeed, Davies has often exhibited a kind of class consciousness associated with liberalism, or even Marxism. There's a sense that he WANTS to believe in Marxist stuff, but just knows better.
The perfect encapsulation of this comes from the Preservation, Act 1 album, with the masterly "Money and Corruption/I'm Your Man." The setup of this construct has the working folk railing against the evil capitalists and their political hacks. Then a man arises from the people with a seductive ballad promising a five year plan to fix things. Pretty soon he's explaining how all the big shots that run these companies will be personally answering to HIM.
If all you know of the Kinks is the half dozen songs that the radio usually plays, you're SO sadly deprived. Some of those aren't really even their best songs. "Come Dancing" is a perfectly nice song (and classic conservative type nostalgia), but not the very pick of the litter.
Besides a good best-of collection, all cool people should definitely have the albums Face to Face and Something Else for starters.
They had some high concept albums that they used as the basis for little stage plays with costumes and such in the early 70s that have been particularly criminally underappreciated. All connisseurs of modern pop music really need to hear Schoolboys in Disgrace, Soap Opera, and Preservation, Act 1 . These all have interesting overarching ideas, stories and themes. More importantly, they have some catchy, tuneful and totally unique sounding SONGS. You definitely benefit from the context of the album with these, but they work beautifully as individual songs.
There are still many hidden gems in these albums. Few noticed "Stop Your Sobbing" until the Pretenders recorded it on their first album. Also, for Ray being such a poof, he managed to impregnate Chrissie Hynde -- THE rock and roll girl of my teenaged dreams.
As recently as 1999, the Rushmore movie soundtrack dug up a buried Kinks treasure that few people had ever noticed before, "Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl." Jebus, are there more songs that good buried in the Kinks catalogue that even I haven't noticed?
For a particularly personal pick, the weird undertow of dreamy dread in "Rainy Day in June" has haunted my summers for many years. Man, but that's a freaky one.
There's just NO way to pick out 10 best Ray Davies or Kinks songs, so here's about the smallest list I can stand to leave:
"Rainy Day in June"
"David Watts"
"Lola"
"I'm Not Like Everybody Else"
"Rush Hour Blues"
"You Make It All Worthwhile"
"Have Another Drink"
"You Can't Stop the Music"
"Jack, the Idiot Dunce"
"Headmaster"
"The Hard Way"
"Demolition"
"Money and Corruption/I'm Your Man"
"Two Sisters"
"Rosie Won't You Please Come Home"
"Rock and Roll Fantasy"
"Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl"
"Harry Rag"
"Afternoon Tea"
"Tin Soldier Man"
"Schooldays"
"Dandy"
"Sunny Afternoon"
"Low Budget"
"Dedicated Follower of Fashion"
"Tired of Waiting for You"
"Victoria"
"Father Christmas"
"All Day and All of the Night"
"You Really Got Me"
"Waterloo Sunset"
"Superman"
"Come Dancing"
"Celluloid Heroes"
"Deadend Street"
"Party Line"
"A Well Respected Man"
"The Last Assembly"
Thank you, Ray.
posted by Al at 6/21/2004 04:05:00 AM
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