One of my all-time favorite lyrics, from Neil Young's "Hippie Dream." Besides its self-deprecating nature, I love the conundrum: If his advice is not to listen to him, does that mean we should listen to him, since then we're not taking his advice? But if we listen to him, aren't we taking his advice? Like so many things, it leaves me confused.
For instance, I'm confused about how to feel about Memorial Day, the day on which I write this. Obviously, we've all been touched by war in one way or another, even if it's only empathic, heeding John Donne's "No man is an island" sermon. More likely, though, it's closer than that; we all have or have had relatives, forebears, friends, acquaintances, etc. who have served in the Armed Forces, perhaps even paying, as they say, "the ultimate sacrifice." As with alcoholism, I would submit that there is no family that has been untouched by the military. Let us not forget we live in, arguably, the most militaristic country in the world. We sell heroism and patriotism like psychological candy to our youngest, most impressionable, and I'll be goddamned if they don't keep buying.
I also understand that it's heretical to criticize people for serving. They or their loved ones understandably become upset by any hint of anything less than total support and respect especially, again, those who have had people close to them killed or wounded. Nonetheless I'm gonna plunge fully into the HereSea and fall back on a poster popular in the 1960's: "What If They Gave A War And Nobody Came?"
World War II has come to be seen as a "Good War," as the threat posed by Hitler, et. al. could have been near-permanently world-changing. It surely was world-changing for 6 million Jews and their families, the effects of which continue to ripple outward. So, for the sake of argument we'll consider that one okay. But, in my lifetime, more than 150,000 American service people have died for no good reason in Korea, Vietnam and its neighbors, The Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan. That's just Americans, and just military personnel. The toll worldwide, of both military and civilian casualties, has to be simply staggering, if it could even be figured.
As I write this I think primarily of my friend Mike, who has served in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Africa as a medic, as head of all medical facilities in those theaters, and think of the horrors he has seen and dealt with, not just with American troops or even enemy troops American medics have aided, but with the total innocents, the old people and children who have had the misfortune to live in the midst of places in which we see fit to wage war. I salute Mike and all those like him who have risked their lives ministering to those in harm's way, and apologize yet again to him for not being able to write the sort of piece he'd like me to, something way more up and happy. I guess I feel that the happy stuff is there to see without thinking, while, if we could change some of the less happy aspects of life, we might all be happier yet.
On this Memorial Day, then, I do not wish to celebrate the dead, but to hope for the day when we can stop the killing, when people the world over see through the phony sales pitch of "Patriotism, Nationalism, For God And Country" and say "NO!" to their service, have the strength not to pick up weapons of destruction, so that we can measure heroic deeds by a different yardstick, by acts of healing, not of violence. And there's this week's Hippie Dream.
Songs of peace this week:
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) George Harrison
Love, Peace And Happiness Chambers Brothers
Peace Chet Baker
Peace And Love Neil Young
Peace In Mind Joan Armatrading
Peace Like A River Paul Simon
Peace March Bruce Cockburn
Peace On Earth Railroad Earth
Peace On Earth U2
We Got To Have Peace Curtis Mayfield
I Wish You Peace Eagles
Peace Tommy Flanagan
Peace Malo
Peace Among Nations Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi
Peace Train Cat Stevens
Peace, Perfect Peace Toots & The Maytals
Pipes Of Peace Paul McCartney
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? Elvis Costello
Work For Peace Gil Scott-Heron
Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms) Joni Mitchell
The Torn Flag John Trudell
Where Have All The Flowers Gone? John Stewart
Universal Soldier Donovan
Find The Cost Of Freedom Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
War Bob Marley & The Wailers
Hippie Dream Neil Young
Tuesday, noon till two on 91.5 FM, wool.fm on the webs. See you there.
"He's the Universal Soldier, and he really is to blame...."
Monday, May 26, 2014
Sunday, May 11, 2014
If It Looks Like Ignorance, Quacks Like Ignorance...It's Probably Political
First things first: Sorry, Mike, no picnics or new-mown lawns again this week. There's other stuff that has my attention, so you might want to stop reading now. I still love you, though.
You may have heard of this issue, as it's been featured on "neutral" news, as well as lots of right wing media. An old (duration, not age, and let's just go along with the idea that it can be the one but not the other, shan't we?)) friend of mine is at the center of a firestorm about a book. It's sort of hard to believe that that's true in 2014 but, human nature being what it is, it'll be true in 3014, for the 18 people still living above the rising seas and below the near-constant tornadoes.
The book in question this time is Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes, which is concerned primarily with bullying in various forms, which ultimately culminates in a shooting at a school. Seems like that's about as timely, topical and important as it gets these days, and would spark valuable and necessary conversations among the population that most needs to have them and is most directly affected by the book's subject matter: students.
The problem with this particular book, in some people's eyes, is that it contains a fairly graphic scene depicting a rape. The main bully in the book forces himself on his girlfriend in this particular scene, and while they have had consensual sex in the past, this scene clearly is about something else; it's about force, domination of the powerful over the less-so, and goes to the heart of the book's theme. Without it, the climax of the novel (no pun intended) would make little sense. Additionally, the novel is 468 pages long; this particular scene is 5 brief paragraphs, about 2/3 of one page. One may be reminded of the quote, often attributed to Jack Nicholson, about movie ratings: "If you suck a tit you get an 'X' rating, but cut one off with a sword and you're 'PG-13.'" One assumes that, if the book had solely depicted non-sexual violence, no matter how extreme, the protesting parents wouldn't have made a peep.
And about those parents: interestingly enough, many, if not most, of the most vocal are members of the "Free State" movement, a conservative/libertarian group whose avowed intent is to choose a state it sees as susceptible to their propaganda and political aims, and become the dominant force in its government, in a sort of bloodless (hopefully) coup. The main parental complainant, the one who was arrested at the special meeting to discuss the issue, in fact, just recently moved to New Hampshire from New Jersey, a move allegedly paid for by the Free Staters, who are known to recruit new members in that manner. In fact, although school officials have been deluged with letters and emails from partisans on both sides of the issue, very, very few are from the town the school's located in. The vast majority come from all over the country, indeed from around the world, from people who know nothing of the matter except that their comrades in arms need their support. Seems the issue here is not morality, but politics. As Tip O'Neill said, "All politics is local;" it's just that today, in the global village, it's pretty hard to say exactly what "local" is.
Chillingly, too, there has been a request made to the school district under the Freedom Of Information Act (a law enacted by that awful Federal Government that people of that ilk hate/don't recognize except when they can benefit from it) for all emails, lesson plans, any communication about Nineteen Minutes, dating back to 2007, the first year the book was taught in the school. Never before was there any sort of problem raised about the use of the book. Sure seems like they want to shut some people up while they impose their own beliefs on the majority.
I'd be willing to bet that fewer than 5% of those parents so incensed have read the book except, of course, for that awful page 313. One of the protestors at the meeting brought a Bible, from which he intended to read as a contrast to Nineteen Minutes; unfortunately (!?) he went on too long on other things like telling folks there which of them was going to Hell. Wonder if he was gonna read Song Of Songs? Must be that the Word of God cannot, by definition, be salacious or sexual....
This is not the only recent example of a vocal conservative minority trying to impose their pedagogical will on a school: in Idaho (another state high on the FSers list of potential states to take over, before NH "won"), a group of parents recently succeeded in getting Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian removed from their school district's curriculum because they found it "anti-Christian" and "because it contains offensive words and a 'reference to masturbation'" (The Week, "Only In America," May 9, 2014). Apparently masturbation would never occur to 15 year olds in Idaho if they weren't alerted to its existence by a book, natural biological urges be damned--as they so often are.
So we can't even discuss regulation or modification of guns (have you heard of the new "smart guns?" The NRA has, and hates 'em. Yep, the NRA is against some guns. Careful, gang, that's a slippery slope; next you'll be wanting to ban all guns), but, as has so often been the case throughout history, people can advocate the banning and burning of books without a second--or first, really--thought. They'll tell you that the first step in a Totalitarian Takeover is the confiscation of people's guns; I think that it's been shown, time after time, that the first thing they come for is our books, magazines, newspapers, thus proving Edward Bulwer-Lytton's(!) famous dictum that "The pen is mightier than the sword."
Let's get to the playlist for this week's show on WOOL FM, 91.5, wool.fm, on Tuesday from noon till two, though, okey-doke? The playlist choices:
Book Ends Joe Walsh
Book Faded Brown The Band
The Book I Read Talking Heads
Book Of Liars Walter Becker
The Book Of Love The Magnetic Fields
Book Of Love The Monotones
Book Of Rules The Heptones
Bookends Theme Simon & Garfunkel
Bookworm Margot & The Nuclear So And So's
Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover The Harpoonist And Axe Murderer
Every Day I Write The Book Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Good Book Melanie
Green Book Steely Dan
Heart Like An Open Book Michael Franks
In My New Book Greg Brown
Jungle Book Weather Report
Matchbook Ralph Towner And Gary Burton
My Little Brown Book Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
My Little Red Book Love
Open Book Cake
Picture Book Simply Red
When I Write The Book Nick Lowe
You Should Have Wrote A Book Dan Reeder
Political Mark Germino
Political World Bob Dylan
Oliver's Army Elvis Costello & The Attractions
For further reading, Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here, and anything about the Free Staters.
Now those words will fuck with your head.
You may have heard of this issue, as it's been featured on "neutral" news, as well as lots of right wing media. An old (duration, not age, and let's just go along with the idea that it can be the one but not the other, shan't we?)) friend of mine is at the center of a firestorm about a book. It's sort of hard to believe that that's true in 2014 but, human nature being what it is, it'll be true in 3014, for the 18 people still living above the rising seas and below the near-constant tornadoes.
The book in question this time is Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes, which is concerned primarily with bullying in various forms, which ultimately culminates in a shooting at a school. Seems like that's about as timely, topical and important as it gets these days, and would spark valuable and necessary conversations among the population that most needs to have them and is most directly affected by the book's subject matter: students.
The problem with this particular book, in some people's eyes, is that it contains a fairly graphic scene depicting a rape. The main bully in the book forces himself on his girlfriend in this particular scene, and while they have had consensual sex in the past, this scene clearly is about something else; it's about force, domination of the powerful over the less-so, and goes to the heart of the book's theme. Without it, the climax of the novel (no pun intended) would make little sense. Additionally, the novel is 468 pages long; this particular scene is 5 brief paragraphs, about 2/3 of one page. One may be reminded of the quote, often attributed to Jack Nicholson, about movie ratings: "If you suck a tit you get an 'X' rating, but cut one off with a sword and you're 'PG-13.'" One assumes that, if the book had solely depicted non-sexual violence, no matter how extreme, the protesting parents wouldn't have made a peep.
And about those parents: interestingly enough, many, if not most, of the most vocal are members of the "Free State" movement, a conservative/libertarian group whose avowed intent is to choose a state it sees as susceptible to their propaganda and political aims, and become the dominant force in its government, in a sort of bloodless (hopefully) coup. The main parental complainant, the one who was arrested at the special meeting to discuss the issue, in fact, just recently moved to New Hampshire from New Jersey, a move allegedly paid for by the Free Staters, who are known to recruit new members in that manner. In fact, although school officials have been deluged with letters and emails from partisans on both sides of the issue, very, very few are from the town the school's located in. The vast majority come from all over the country, indeed from around the world, from people who know nothing of the matter except that their comrades in arms need their support. Seems the issue here is not morality, but politics. As Tip O'Neill said, "All politics is local;" it's just that today, in the global village, it's pretty hard to say exactly what "local" is.
Chillingly, too, there has been a request made to the school district under the Freedom Of Information Act (a law enacted by that awful Federal Government that people of that ilk hate/don't recognize except when they can benefit from it) for all emails, lesson plans, any communication about Nineteen Minutes, dating back to 2007, the first year the book was taught in the school. Never before was there any sort of problem raised about the use of the book. Sure seems like they want to shut some people up while they impose their own beliefs on the majority.
I'd be willing to bet that fewer than 5% of those parents so incensed have read the book except, of course, for that awful page 313. One of the protestors at the meeting brought a Bible, from which he intended to read as a contrast to Nineteen Minutes; unfortunately (!?) he went on too long on other things like telling folks there which of them was going to Hell. Wonder if he was gonna read Song Of Songs? Must be that the Word of God cannot, by definition, be salacious or sexual....
This is not the only recent example of a vocal conservative minority trying to impose their pedagogical will on a school: in Idaho (another state high on the FSers list of potential states to take over, before NH "won"), a group of parents recently succeeded in getting Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian removed from their school district's curriculum because they found it "anti-Christian" and "because it contains offensive words and a 'reference to masturbation'" (The Week, "Only In America," May 9, 2014). Apparently masturbation would never occur to 15 year olds in Idaho if they weren't alerted to its existence by a book, natural biological urges be damned--as they so often are.
So we can't even discuss regulation or modification of guns (have you heard of the new "smart guns?" The NRA has, and hates 'em. Yep, the NRA is against some guns. Careful, gang, that's a slippery slope; next you'll be wanting to ban all guns), but, as has so often been the case throughout history, people can advocate the banning and burning of books without a second--or first, really--thought. They'll tell you that the first step in a Totalitarian Takeover is the confiscation of people's guns; I think that it's been shown, time after time, that the first thing they come for is our books, magazines, newspapers, thus proving Edward Bulwer-Lytton's(!) famous dictum that "The pen is mightier than the sword."
Let's get to the playlist for this week's show on WOOL FM, 91.5, wool.fm, on Tuesday from noon till two, though, okey-doke? The playlist choices:
Book Ends Joe Walsh
Book Faded Brown The Band
The Book I Read Talking Heads
Book Of Liars Walter Becker
The Book Of Love The Magnetic Fields
Book Of Love The Monotones
Book Of Rules The Heptones
Bookends Theme Simon & Garfunkel
Bookworm Margot & The Nuclear So And So's
Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover The Harpoonist And Axe Murderer
Every Day I Write The Book Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Good Book Melanie
Green Book Steely Dan
Heart Like An Open Book Michael Franks
In My New Book Greg Brown
Jungle Book Weather Report
Matchbook Ralph Towner And Gary Burton
My Little Brown Book Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
My Little Red Book Love
Open Book Cake
Picture Book Simply Red
When I Write The Book Nick Lowe
You Should Have Wrote A Book Dan Reeder
Political Mark Germino
Political World Bob Dylan
Oliver's Army Elvis Costello & The Attractions
For further reading, Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here, and anything about the Free Staters.
Now those words will fuck with your head.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Marking Time Through A Dog's Life: A Lament
My dog has, rather suddenly, it seems, gotten old. Just yesterday she was a furry little bundle of apparently boundless energy, always on the go, ready to chase balls, sticks, squirrels, birds, butterflies, whatever moved past her field of vision. Now, even a walk down the driveway or across the field leaves her limping, out of breath, content to move no more than she has to-- her bed to the floor next to it, to the rug in my office, where she's lying now as I type this, back to bed, maybe out to lie on the deck or porch.
I called her energy "boundless," but she wasn't, in her heyday. She's an English Setter/Golden Retriever mix, so, as she ran through the woods leaping over stone walls, downed trees, bushes, with no regard for what might be on the other side, all you'd see would be white fur, tail and ears flowing in the breeze behind her. Occasionally, when she made one of those blind leaps, she'd give a sharp yelp when whatever was on the other side was maybe not the soft landing spot she was assuming, but she never seemed any the worse for them when she'd come back to check us out before dashing off again.
Now, as I watch her moving slowly and reluctantly around the house, I realize that that young thing is gone. We may see occasional returns to a semblance of the dog that used to be, but, as I said, there's a price paid for those returns to the thrilling days of yesteryear. When I scratch her now, run my hands over her, I feel a couple of troubling lumps or masses and wonder what lies ahead, and how far "ahead" is. And of course I think of the passage of my own life, of my own aging, and know that I can no longer leap tall buildings in a single bound, either. The best I can hope for is for someone to rub my ears, scratch my belly, give me a warm heart(h) to curl up on and, when the time comes, put me down easy.
Songs for an old dog getting older, then, this week. Among them:
Hey Packy Loudon Wainwright
Big Dog Lyle Lovett
Black Dog Jesse Winchester
Black Dog Led Zep
Black Dog Blues Dirk Hamilton
Black Eyed Dog Nick Drake
Damned Old Dog The Roches
Children And Dogs Graham Parker
Diamond Dogs David Bowie
Dog Sly & The Family Stone
The Dog Song Nellie McKay
Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog Jane Siberry
Dogs In Bed John Stewart
Dogsong (Sleep Dog Lullaby) The Be Good Tanyas
Dogs Pink Floyd
Good Dog Ska Bim Skala Bim
Good Dog, Happy Man Bill Frisell
Hey Bulldog The Beatles
Honeysuckle Dog Chris Smither
If Dogs Run Free Dylan
Little Brown Dog Taj Mahal
Mad Dog Lee Michaels
Moondog Daniel Lanois
One Man Dog James Taylor
To The Dogs Or Whoever Josh Ritter
Waggin' The Dog Railroad Earth
Old Blue The Byrds
Tuesday, from noon till two, on 91.5 FM, or wool.fm. On a frequency humans can hear. I'm Sirius (no, not the satellite radio network). The "real" one.
I called her energy "boundless," but she wasn't, in her heyday. She's an English Setter/Golden Retriever mix, so, as she ran through the woods leaping over stone walls, downed trees, bushes, with no regard for what might be on the other side, all you'd see would be white fur, tail and ears flowing in the breeze behind her. Occasionally, when she made one of those blind leaps, she'd give a sharp yelp when whatever was on the other side was maybe not the soft landing spot she was assuming, but she never seemed any the worse for them when she'd come back to check us out before dashing off again.
Now, as I watch her moving slowly and reluctantly around the house, I realize that that young thing is gone. We may see occasional returns to a semblance of the dog that used to be, but, as I said, there's a price paid for those returns to the thrilling days of yesteryear. When I scratch her now, run my hands over her, I feel a couple of troubling lumps or masses and wonder what lies ahead, and how far "ahead" is. And of course I think of the passage of my own life, of my own aging, and know that I can no longer leap tall buildings in a single bound, either. The best I can hope for is for someone to rub my ears, scratch my belly, give me a warm heart(h) to curl up on and, when the time comes, put me down easy.
Songs for an old dog getting older, then, this week. Among them:
Hey Packy Loudon Wainwright
Big Dog Lyle Lovett
Black Dog Jesse Winchester
Black Dog Led Zep
Black Dog Blues Dirk Hamilton
Black Eyed Dog Nick Drake
Damned Old Dog The Roches
Children And Dogs Graham Parker
Diamond Dogs David Bowie
Dog Sly & The Family Stone
The Dog Song Nellie McKay
Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog Jane Siberry
Dogs In Bed John Stewart
Dogsong (Sleep Dog Lullaby) The Be Good Tanyas
Dogs Pink Floyd
Good Dog Ska Bim Skala Bim
Good Dog, Happy Man Bill Frisell
Hey Bulldog The Beatles
Honeysuckle Dog Chris Smither
If Dogs Run Free Dylan
Little Brown Dog Taj Mahal
Mad Dog Lee Michaels
Moondog Daniel Lanois
One Man Dog James Taylor
To The Dogs Or Whoever Josh Ritter
Waggin' The Dog Railroad Earth
Old Blue The Byrds
Tuesday, from noon till two, on 91.5 FM, or wool.fm. On a frequency humans can hear. I'm Sirius (no, not the satellite radio network). The "real" one.
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