I keep coming back to Yeats, and The Second Coming: "The best lack all conviction/While the worst are filled with a passionate intensity...". Of course "best " and "worst" depend on where you stand--my "best" may be your "worst," and vice versa. I see what I'm doing in these posts as an attempt to keep my best passionately intense; others just see my posts as angry, ranting polemics. What to do, what to do?--it's the liberal dilemma.
Now that Isaac has safely blown past Fla., Mitt Romney tonight will realize his long-held dream and officially receive the Republican nomination to become The POTUS (that always sounds somehow vaguely dirty to me). While--shocking revelation coming up--I've lately found myself becoming more receptive to spirituality in some form, organized religion still makes me squirm, as I think that far more bad than good has come from it over the centuries. And while pretty much all religions have weird origination stories, it sure seems that Mormonism is front and center in the weirdness department. Angels in America (Tony Kushner took his title at least partly from the Mormon story); golden tablets buried in upstate New York which an angel named Moroni (a feeble-minded Italian, evidently) led Joseph Smith to; angelic writing on said tablets which only Smith was able to decipher; and the disappearance of those tablets before anyone else saw them. Oh yeah--and the revelation that the ancestors of Native Americans were the Lost Tribes of Israel (of which Isaac was one of the three patriarchs; cue spooky sound effects) who Somehow found their way to these shores in pre-history; and, finally for this rendering, a visit to America by Jesus, sometime between the Resurrection and the Ascension, which apparently no one else knew about. Or maybe the media were just kinder back then and didn't want to get all up in his grill about what he was doing and where he was going. Why couldn't they have done the same for Mark Sanford and John Edwards and on and on?
So we're gonna entrust our country to a guy, all of his other strengths and faults aside, who can give credence to that story. There's probably something to be said for unquestioning belief, but sheesh! Then again, I guess when the only alternative is a Kenyan-born Muslim intellectual who's going to use UN troops to take our guns and land, even that choice looks reasonable. Anyway, in honor of Moroni and all of the other angels in America, merrily dancing on pinheads, I'm playing a show of "Angel" songs, of which there are an enormous number in my collection. Hope you can join me today, noon till two on 100.1 FM or www.wool.fm on the webs.
Wonder what Pat Robertson and his ilk would have said if a hurricane had forced postponement of the Democrats' convention?
...come Angels with guns."
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
"America, Where Are You Now...?
So yeah, it's another week, and thus nominally the self-appointed time for a nearly 60 year old pretty privileged and insular white guy in the wilds of New Hampshire to fulminate against the evils and fucked-upednesses he sees in the world, and, apparently this week, to do so in the third person. But really, it's all just "blah, blah, blah" or "obla-di, obla-da," isn't it? To wit:
115 degree rain fell in the Mojave Desert this week. Hot tubs are kept at around 104 F. It was the hottest July in recorded human history. Even The Wall Street Journal is suggesting that it might be time to start taking this shit seriously. Repug Govs. Chris Christie of NJ and John Kasich of Ohio are also saying the climate is getting "hotter and wilder." Guess they're dead to the Right now, huh?
An African-American couple was prevented from marrying in a mostly-white Baptist church in Crystal Springs, Miss. because they were told by their pastor that the congregation had decided that "no blacks should marry in this church." In 2012. That's one man, one woman; that's a "normal couple" attempting to start a "normal" family, the sacrosanct unit to the Religious Right (which, again, proves that they are neither). Yeah, I think that Jesus said "One man, one woman--except for niggers," right?
Todd Akin, Republican Senatorial candidate from Missouri (the "Show Me" state) and currently a member of the House SCIENCE COMMITTEE said that cases of "legitimate rape" (think about that one for about a nanosecond before your head explodes) don't usually result in pregnancy "because the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down." Yeah, and they can spin their heads 720 degrees on their necks and projectile-spew green bile at will, too. If we didn't need 'em to breed with us--white women, that is--we'd be better off just bein' with other guys, ya know? As the Reverend Haggard said,--oh, never mind. So Akin's in the House, now, and on the science committee (Earth's only 6,000 years old, y'know); at the whim of ignorant voters maybe soon a US Senator.
Paul Ryan, the current golden boy of the Right, Willard's choice for VP, wants to cut taxes on the rich and fruitlessly attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. Again, just the way Jesus spelled it out on those golden tablets he left behind when he visited America. "Mitt gliberty, und justice for some."
Some guy in Nevada, wearing a legal concealed weapon at a movie theater (what's up with guns and theaters anyway, Mrs. Lincoln?) shot himself in the ass as he attempted to adjust his seat.
Why isn't everyone walking around either laughing maniacally or wailing bitterly?
So this week, on my radio show, for no reason whatsoever, songs with women's names in the title. I'm serious. Why the hell not? I'm going alphabetically through the alphabet (not really a redundancy). It can be fun, although, admittedly, "U" and "X" are one-shot deals, and sketchy at best even then. Tuesday, noon till two on 100.1 FM, www.wool.fm on the webs.
"Why did you leave, America?"
115 degree rain fell in the Mojave Desert this week. Hot tubs are kept at around 104 F. It was the hottest July in recorded human history. Even The Wall Street Journal is suggesting that it might be time to start taking this shit seriously. Repug Govs. Chris Christie of NJ and John Kasich of Ohio are also saying the climate is getting "hotter and wilder." Guess they're dead to the Right now, huh?
An African-American couple was prevented from marrying in a mostly-white Baptist church in Crystal Springs, Miss. because they were told by their pastor that the congregation had decided that "no blacks should marry in this church." In 2012. That's one man, one woman; that's a "normal couple" attempting to start a "normal" family, the sacrosanct unit to the Religious Right (which, again, proves that they are neither). Yeah, I think that Jesus said "One man, one woman--except for niggers," right?
Todd Akin, Republican Senatorial candidate from Missouri (the "Show Me" state) and currently a member of the House SCIENCE COMMITTEE said that cases of "legitimate rape" (think about that one for about a nanosecond before your head explodes) don't usually result in pregnancy "because the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down." Yeah, and they can spin their heads 720 degrees on their necks and projectile-spew green bile at will, too. If we didn't need 'em to breed with us--white women, that is--we'd be better off just bein' with other guys, ya know? As the Reverend Haggard said,--oh, never mind. So Akin's in the House, now, and on the science committee (Earth's only 6,000 years old, y'know); at the whim of ignorant voters maybe soon a US Senator.
Paul Ryan, the current golden boy of the Right, Willard's choice for VP, wants to cut taxes on the rich and fruitlessly attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. Again, just the way Jesus spelled it out on those golden tablets he left behind when he visited America. "Mitt gliberty, und justice for some."
Some guy in Nevada, wearing a legal concealed weapon at a movie theater (what's up with guns and theaters anyway, Mrs. Lincoln?) shot himself in the ass as he attempted to adjust his seat.
Why isn't everyone walking around either laughing maniacally or wailing bitterly?
So this week, on my radio show, for no reason whatsoever, songs with women's names in the title. I'm serious. Why the hell not? I'm going alphabetically through the alphabet (not really a redundancy). It can be fun, although, admittedly, "U" and "X" are one-shot deals, and sketchy at best even then. Tuesday, noon till two on 100.1 FM, www.wool.fm on the webs.
"Why did you leave, America?"
Monday, August 13, 2012
"...The Disappear(ed) Railroad Blues."
I-86 in New York state, the so-called "Southern Tier Expressway" is our favorite route to Chautauqua, much nicer and more scenic than I-88, which cuts across the middle of the state making a beeline to Buffalo(!). And while it's a nicer drive, it's still a helluva long time to be steering a car and basically staring at the macadam in front of you while the fortunate few passengers get to find other things to look at and ways to amuse themselves.
About an hour east of Jamestown sits the Seneca reservation, replete with the now de rigueur (for our displaced indigenous peoples) casino. In addition to the casino, three things about the Rez stand out for me. One is the fact that many of the highway signs are in both English and, one assumes, Senecan, or some tribal language, at any rate. That's pretty cool to see. The second thing is that the 20 or so miles you spend on the interstate driving through the Rez are probably the worst-maintained miles I've ever driven on our interstate system, and have been unchanged and unimproved in the dozen or so years we've been driving that way. Sure seems like we're still stickin' it to those savages.
The third thing, the most amazing thing to me, is a sign at one of the exits proclaiming the points of interest to be found there. The top of the sign promotes a railroad museum, the bottom advertises the Seneca/Iroquois museum. Don't know if they're at the same location, but, top billing aside, wouldn't it seem that the only two possible exhibits that could be more offensive to Native Americans than a railroad museum are, perhaps, a tall-ships celebration or a smallpox-blanket diorama? It's pretty hard for me to think of anything that contributed more to the demise of the native population here than the Iron Horse. Really? Both museums together? Yikes!
Genocide aside (and we've done a damn good job of keeping it at least aside, if not totally hidden, haven't we?), the railroad system is arguably humans' greatest transportation achievement. For moving the most goods and people most efficiently, it can't be beat. And, if we'd advanced the technology involved rather than dismantling the whole system, it would almost certainly be the greenest form of transport, too.
Conversely, the interstate highway system, President Eisenhower's baby, of course, is arguably--or maybe it's not even arguable--the most inefficient, wasteful and environmentally-destructive system ever devised. It's possible that it's the single biggest contributor to the horrible change humans have wrought to our very planet. Yep, Ike had one brilliant and fabulous idea, a warning, actually, to beware the Military-Industrial Complex and the havoc it could wreak morally, financially and psychologically to our country and the world, an idea we have emphatically ignored and rejected. And he had one horrible and horribly destructive idea, the interstate highway system, which we have embraced wholeheartedly. Yay, us.
The long drives I've taken in the last few weeks have made me long to be on a train, staring out at the scenery whizzing by, lulled by the "clack, clack, clack" of steel-on-steel, partaking of a much more enjoyable journey. That, coupled with the fact that Bellows Falls and North Walpole, where I spent my formative years (dasn't say "grew up," as there are too many who would dispute that) were railroad towns has made me nostalgic. Amtrak still runs right under the square in BF; if you're sitting on the deck at Popolo at the right time, you can watch it run right beneath the restaurant, whose beer and soda lines were laboriously fished over the top of the tunnel. And, as some of you who have listened to my show have heard, the Montrealer blows its horn as it heads into that tunnel at around noon every day.
So I'm honoring all of that this week with "train" and "railroad" songs; I'm sure that with only a few minutes' rather cursory thought you too can come up with a very long list of songs on topic. I hope you can tune in tomorrow from noon till 2 (ish)--I have a lot of 'em--to hear my list. 100.1 FM, www.wool.fm on the webs.
And, although none of you were in attendance, I'm sure you'll be excited to know that our Block Party on Saturday night (held in part of the old train yard, as a matter of fact) raised enough to pay our bills for the next 3 months. You should still become members, though, if you haven't yet. We wicked deserve it.
About an hour east of Jamestown sits the Seneca reservation, replete with the now de rigueur (for our displaced indigenous peoples) casino. In addition to the casino, three things about the Rez stand out for me. One is the fact that many of the highway signs are in both English and, one assumes, Senecan, or some tribal language, at any rate. That's pretty cool to see. The second thing is that the 20 or so miles you spend on the interstate driving through the Rez are probably the worst-maintained miles I've ever driven on our interstate system, and have been unchanged and unimproved in the dozen or so years we've been driving that way. Sure seems like we're still stickin' it to those savages.
The third thing, the most amazing thing to me, is a sign at one of the exits proclaiming the points of interest to be found there. The top of the sign promotes a railroad museum, the bottom advertises the Seneca/Iroquois museum. Don't know if they're at the same location, but, top billing aside, wouldn't it seem that the only two possible exhibits that could be more offensive to Native Americans than a railroad museum are, perhaps, a tall-ships celebration or a smallpox-blanket diorama? It's pretty hard for me to think of anything that contributed more to the demise of the native population here than the Iron Horse. Really? Both museums together? Yikes!
Genocide aside (and we've done a damn good job of keeping it at least aside, if not totally hidden, haven't we?), the railroad system is arguably humans' greatest transportation achievement. For moving the most goods and people most efficiently, it can't be beat. And, if we'd advanced the technology involved rather than dismantling the whole system, it would almost certainly be the greenest form of transport, too.
Conversely, the interstate highway system, President Eisenhower's baby, of course, is arguably--or maybe it's not even arguable--the most inefficient, wasteful and environmentally-destructive system ever devised. It's possible that it's the single biggest contributor to the horrible change humans have wrought to our very planet. Yep, Ike had one brilliant and fabulous idea, a warning, actually, to beware the Military-Industrial Complex and the havoc it could wreak morally, financially and psychologically to our country and the world, an idea we have emphatically ignored and rejected. And he had one horrible and horribly destructive idea, the interstate highway system, which we have embraced wholeheartedly. Yay, us.
The long drives I've taken in the last few weeks have made me long to be on a train, staring out at the scenery whizzing by, lulled by the "clack, clack, clack" of steel-on-steel, partaking of a much more enjoyable journey. That, coupled with the fact that Bellows Falls and North Walpole, where I spent my formative years (dasn't say "grew up," as there are too many who would dispute that) were railroad towns has made me nostalgic. Amtrak still runs right under the square in BF; if you're sitting on the deck at Popolo at the right time, you can watch it run right beneath the restaurant, whose beer and soda lines were laboriously fished over the top of the tunnel. And, as some of you who have listened to my show have heard, the Montrealer blows its horn as it heads into that tunnel at around noon every day.
So I'm honoring all of that this week with "train" and "railroad" songs; I'm sure that with only a few minutes' rather cursory thought you too can come up with a very long list of songs on topic. I hope you can tune in tomorrow from noon till 2 (ish)--I have a lot of 'em--to hear my list. 100.1 FM, www.wool.fm on the webs.
And, although none of you were in attendance, I'm sure you'll be excited to know that our Block Party on Saturday night (held in part of the old train yard, as a matter of fact) raised enough to pay our bills for the next 3 months. You should still become members, though, if you haven't yet. We wicked deserve it.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
"He Maketh Me to Lie in Green Pastures...."
Dateline:Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York
Good morning Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea. This is your intrepid reporter, Germ Hammerin' Sleazy on the front lines for this week's theme here at Chautauqua, The Ethics of Cheating. Flash: Turns out we are all liars to varying degrees, and we all can rationalize that lying so that we still think we're good and moral people. Who knew?
Yesterday's main speaker was Dan Ariely, eminent professor, author, and researcher into this whole cheating/lying thing. Among many fascinating facts and research statistics, he also told a great joke: Man goes to his Rabbi (hey, Ariely's from Israel, don't blame me) and says "Rabbi, something terrible has happened. Last week at Synagogue, someone stole my bicycle." Rabbi says, "At Synagogue? That's awful. Here's what we'll do: This week you sit in the front row; we'll talk about the Ten Commandments. You turn toward the congregation and look them in the eyes. When we get to 'Thou Shalt Not Steal,' whoever took your bike will avoid your gaze and you'll know who did it."
After the next week's service, the Rabbi approached the man and asked how it went. "It worked great!," enthused the guy. "When you got to 'Adultery'"--and here the entire audience of 3,000-plus bursts into knowing laughter, having figured that NO ONE in the congregation could meet his eye--"when you got to 'Adultery,' I remembered where I had left my bike." Oy vey.
Today's speaker: Julia Heiman (not making that up), Director of the Kinsey Institute. At this beautiful place that started as a Methodist retreat! Woo hoo!
Next week's post and show theme: trains and railroads (really). Hope to see lots of you at the WOOL Block Party this Saturday, 7-11 PM at the Waypoint Center in BF: Music, food, me tending bar, everyone helping out WOOL. It's a winner all-around.
Good morning Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea. This is your intrepid reporter, Germ Hammerin' Sleazy on the front lines for this week's theme here at Chautauqua, The Ethics of Cheating. Flash: Turns out we are all liars to varying degrees, and we all can rationalize that lying so that we still think we're good and moral people. Who knew?
Yesterday's main speaker was Dan Ariely, eminent professor, author, and researcher into this whole cheating/lying thing. Among many fascinating facts and research statistics, he also told a great joke: Man goes to his Rabbi (hey, Ariely's from Israel, don't blame me) and says "Rabbi, something terrible has happened. Last week at Synagogue, someone stole my bicycle." Rabbi says, "At Synagogue? That's awful. Here's what we'll do: This week you sit in the front row; we'll talk about the Ten Commandments. You turn toward the congregation and look them in the eyes. When we get to 'Thou Shalt Not Steal,' whoever took your bike will avoid your gaze and you'll know who did it."
After the next week's service, the Rabbi approached the man and asked how it went. "It worked great!," enthused the guy. "When you got to 'Adultery'"--and here the entire audience of 3,000-plus bursts into knowing laughter, having figured that NO ONE in the congregation could meet his eye--"when you got to 'Adultery,' I remembered where I had left my bike." Oy vey.
Today's speaker: Julia Heiman (not making that up), Director of the Kinsey Institute. At this beautiful place that started as a Methodist retreat! Woo hoo!
Next week's post and show theme: trains and railroads (really). Hope to see lots of you at the WOOL Block Party this Saturday, 7-11 PM at the Waypoint Center in BF: Music, food, me tending bar, everyone helping out WOOL. It's a winner all-around.
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