What the Hell is with the crazy people?

Posted in current events, politics with tags , on July 7, 2009 by furious buddha

Are they sure it’s doesn’t have something to do with Michael Jackson’s funeral coverageI guess not- it looks like North Korea is not being subtle about this. In the past few months North Korea has withdrawn from the armistice and gotten far more belligerent than usual. The idea of a nation with nuclear weapons being run by a deranged narcissist makes me nervous.

Speaking of, I came across some staggering quotes from the personal lawyers of the Alaskan maniacs… 
From CNN:
“No legal “bombshell” or personal scandal lies behind Palin’s resignation, but off-color jokes by talk-show host David Letterman contributed to her decision to step down, Thomas Van Flein said.”

Really? David Letterman’s dumb joke pushed the Governor of Alaska over the edge? (cocks head to the side) Really?

The governor needed a break after being “on duty now for two and a half years solid,” he said.

No he did not. There’s no way he said that. Fuck you he actually said that. Nobody has ball that big and brassy.

“There is no bombshell. There is no shoe to drop. There are no investigations of any type that I’m aware of — no IRS audit, no federal investigation, no state investigation,” Van Flein told CNN. “There is no legal reason in terms of a legal problem that compelled the governor to resign.”

Please not the phrase ‘that I’m aware of’. Just note it. That is all.

Friday was “deliberately chosen” for the announcement because of its proximity to the July Fourth holiday, Van Flein said: “She declared her independence from politics as usual.’

Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say she declared independence from rationality?

Curiouser & curiouser (Independence Days in the Life)

Posted in current events, politics with tags , on July 5, 2009 by furious buddha

Interesting speculation.
More interesting speculation.
And what Joan says about the incredibly weird letter Palin’s lawyer released to ‘the media’.
Palin’s FB post further deepens the weirdness.

I suppose the thing that bothers me the most about Sarah Palin is how thin-skinned she is while demanding everyone scrutinize her. I understand that it’s very pleasant to have people tell you how pretty and smart and annointed by God you are, but to demand it from everyone around you to the exclusion of everything else is at the very least rude. To quit your job as Governor and have your lawyer send letters making crazy threats because the world will not unanimously acknowledge your inherent awesomeness are symptoms of a fevered ego run amok.

I think the most confusing thing about her reasoning was her lame duck ‘argument’. An office holder doesn’t become a lame duck until their replacement is elected. She wouldn’t have been a lame duck just because she wasn’t seeking a second term. It really doesn’t make any sense. None of the reasons she gave made any sense or were even actually rooted in real fact. It had a ‘you won’t have me to kick around’ feel to it while still seeming to cast a coy eye on future aspirations.

This is why I think that she only discussed this decision with a handful of incredibly uniformed people. She doesn’t understand the basic principles of the political machine she’s seeking to run, and that is what is most dangerous about her. She is tremendously ambitious and has powerful personal charisma without the restraint to wield it responsibly. She is a populist in the mold of George W Bush who is savvier in the ways of the 21st Century while simultaneously being tremendously naive. I wish that the rumors that she’s really just going to drop out of politics entirely were true and that she could be dismissed entirely. I doubt it, however.       

It’s actually just hard for me to believe that she really is as flaky as her behavior indicates. Actually it’s not, but it’s hard for me to believe that our standards have slipped so far that she’s gotten as far as she has. Actually, it’s not that hard for me to believe it at all; I have observed the last twenty five or so years of American politics as it unfolded and creatures like Sarah Palin seems inevitable in retrospect.

Had an extraordinary several past several days with much to think about and reflect upon. Arcs closing and opening, epochs passing in the foggy night, a dinosaur makes eye contact with a mammal; Saturday in the Park on the Fourth of July.  Connecting stories across calendars under a full moon, evoking my pantheon, I learned a new tale of Kenny among other things. Can you dig it?

It’s my ‘Checkers’ speech, you betcha!

Posted in current events, politics with tags , on July 4, 2009 by furious buddha

When I first saw the news I literally couldn’t believe it. But when I saw it at CNN that’s when I thought that I had been wrong in my assessment of Sarah Palin all along. She is not a flaky lightweight who can’t be taken seriously; she is a totally insane narcissist. Then I decided to actually watch the whole speech. I’m watching the full speech right now. I’ve decided I need to read along with a transcript. It’s one of the weirder things I’ve ever seen in politics.

Last week Governor Sanford compared himself to King David for abandoning his office to frolic with his mistress. Today Governor Palin evoked the founder of Alaska when she was getting ready to bail on Alaska. Amazing.

Of course it’s FOX…

Posted in current events on July 2, 2009 by furious buddha

We Have a Winner!

Posted in current events, politics on June 30, 2009 by furious buddha

The Supreme Court of Minnesota has finally named Al Franken the winner of the Senate race held last year. It’s only taken slightly less time to determine that race than for one of those ‘Sore/Loserman’ bumperstickers Republicans thought were so clever to weather off of their Hummers.

Prince Wins

Posted in current events, days in the life, music, pop culture with tags , , , , , , on June 30, 2009 by furious buddha

I downloaded the full album of covers of ‘Purple Rain’ Spin assembled for the article I mentioned thid morning and it’s a lot of fun. (.ksa 2 woh on u fi drow cigam eht u llet lliw eye)

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings take on ‘Take Me With U’ is smokin’ hot. It sounds like a lost James Brown classic if James Brown sang like Aretha Franklin. Really. The Riverboat Gamblers had a nice take on ‘Let’s Go Crazy. It reminded me of my old pal Robert Rial mixed with Nick Cave or something.

‘The Beautiful One’s’ sounds like it should have been on the ‘Electro Goth Tribute to Prince’ album Cleopatra put out a few years ago. Which, incidentally, has some really essential cuts on it. Rebecca Romijn’s cover of ‘Darling Nikki’ is so good that even Wulf liked it. No kidding. Everyone who hears it loves it. The cover of ‘Darling Nikki’ here is by Chairlift who also has a female vocalist, but I like Rebecca Romijn’s better.

But I do like the inclusion of the backmasking bit at the end, which I believe is essential to the song and Romijn skipped it. One of the reasons Purple Rain should be considered an important album is because it is one of the the last great records ever produced with the convention of having two sides; contemporary artists have been freed of the mechanical reality of flipping the record that ensured an interruption of the work. The best albums embraced this enforced intermission; think of Sgt Pepper or Dark Side, or countless others, unless, of course, you’re of an age where you only listen to these songs on ’shuffle’. Here the grey beard shakes his fist at Time Itself and tells the kids they don’t know what they’re missing with their newfangled technology that he himself adores and embraces wholeheartedly. The bit of prettily eerie backmasking closing side one, and the spare simple beat of ‘When Doves Cry’ opening side two are effective bits of compositional inspiration that are meaningless in the mp3 age.

The punk mariachi version of ‘I Would Die 4 U’ is spectacular with spicy horns and guitar rhythm crunchiness and a beautiful take on the refrain. This and the Sharon Jones cuts are definitely my favorites, but the rest of the record works fine for what I paid for it. I am struck by the fact that I saw this magazine on the newsstand while in the midst of the media frenzy surrounding Michael Jackson’s transfiguration into a secular god; clearly Jackson is destined, like Elvis and Marilyn or Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop, to gaze in maudlin happiness at mortals from merchandise and sing from mall speakers for decades, perhaps even a century to come.

It is generally uncouth to speak ill of the dead but in this case I must make an exception as I cannot reconcile the glossing over of the monstrous corruption that festered in Neverland. Michael Jackson possessed great glamor, but I use the word in a literal sense; it is as if he magically charmed people with illusions that allowed him to do as he pleased without consequence. He literally announced to the world that he thought it was just dandy to share his bed with prepubescent boys and still managed to portray himself as a victim when authorities investigated.

Twenty five years ago I was frequently told by adults that I shouldn’t listen to that nasty Prince music and asked why I didn’t like that nice Michael Jackson? Probably because they were both black the two artists were frequently and unfairly compared to each other, with Jackson being the paragon of wholesomeness embraced by the mainstream and Prince as the dangerous outsider. In my eyes, Jackson resembled Nosferatu in clown makeup, an artist turned predator who exploited innocence. Purple Rain was a quasi-autobiography that actually painted Prince in flawed terms; he slaps his girlfriend, pisses off his friends, and has a messed up family. He didn’t try to pretend to be something he wasn’t and that’s why the music and film still resonate a quarter of a century later.

the 29th

Posted in current events, days in the life, music, pop culture on June 29, 2009 by furious buddha

Scientology!

Meet January, she broke my heart.

This amused me…

indulgences are back

So, over the weekend Julia and I went and saw Moon. I thought it was excellent. Afterwards we strolled through a bookstore and I noticed that Prince was on the cover of Spin magazine for a huge tribute to the Purple Rain album. It took me back in time about a quarter century and I decided that the ‘Michael Jackson vs Prince‘ debate had finally been settled once and for all.
****I started to update this post and then decided to just make it it’s own post.

Last week I took my uncle to the Art Institute. He lives in Tennessee and was visiting us for a week. Chuck is an artist who is being treated for schizophrenia. It was really an extraordinary day. He took my photo on the steps with the Sears Tower in the background. It’s one of my favorite places to take a picture ever since I took a shot of Dahlia there back in ‘01. Moments later I had another echo of Dahlia when we were walking down Monroe and ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. J- is Irish as hell. She used to own an Irish import store but now she’s tending bar downtown. She was having a cigarette when I saw her. We embraced and chatted for a while, agreeing that Wulf and Susan need to have a housewarming party. I have a tendency to run into people I know when I’m showing the city off to out-of-towners, especially when we’re downtown in the midst of the teeming masses of people. When I was walking down the Mag Mile with Dahlia the guy in the nutcracker soldier costume in front of FAO Schwartz waved and called out to me ‘Hiya Winston!’ Stuff like that happened the entire time Dahlia was here, but that was kind of the quintessential magical moment. The fortnight or so in between the solstice and 4th of July kind of belong to her in my mind, and whenever something like that happens, especially during that period, it’s like she’s here.

Republican Delusions of Grandeur, #674,117

Posted in current events, politics, religion with tags , on June 26, 2009 by furious buddha

These are not the Vivian Girls

Posted in art, current events, pop culture with tags , , , , , , , on June 25, 2009 by furious buddha

Lara asked my thoughts on this story of a Tennessee man charged with making child pornography via photoshop manipulation. Generally, I am very leery about any kind of thoughtcrime or artcrime laws; the work of Henry Darger would be my exhibit A in any argument on the subject.  In an eerie coincidence, I see at CNN that Michael Jackson has just died. I must admit that I feel oddly about this; I would not have thought that I would have such a strange mix of emotions upon hearing this news. There’s a sense of disbelief, and even sadness. For even though I do believe that he did monstrously criminal things, I also can’t help thinking of the kid who played the Scarecrow in the Wiz. The sadness is for him, not what he would one day become

Henry Darger was a janitor who died in the early 70’s. His landlords found a trove of artwork in his apartment and recognized its merit. The content of the work could sometimes be disturbing, but it is also captivating and intriguing, to say nothing of posessing unique beauty. Darger may have been a bitter and strange loner fixated on his miserable childhood, but he certainly isn’t the only person who turned out that way. A significant portion of Darger’s work could be considered ‘criminal’ if we’re going to say that altered photos or drawings can be considered child pornography.   

However, the devil is in the details and when one reads the specifics of the case against Michael Wayne Campbell the deviltry is easily apparent. I don’t think that merely making provocative images can or should be criminal, but there is evidence that this individual presented a threat to those girls. At the very least his actions involved trespassing, but there’s something even more ominous underneath. My hat is off to the father of the girls who showed admirable clear-headed restraint by going to the police rather than going crazy vigilante-style on the son-of-a-bitch.

everything is a choice

Posted in current events, politics, religion with tags , , on June 23, 2009 by furious buddha
 I really liked this piece by Kate Harding. Since the Tiller assassination there’s been some interesting and provocative thinking about where choice really might end. Obviously, it ends somewhere between forcing necessary medical care on children against their parents wishes and allowing victims of incestuous rape to abort their pregnancies. It turns out there’s lots of shades of gray inside the shades of grey. 
Kenny and Lara had a great discussion about this yesterday. Like both of them, I find myself to be entirely unorthodox in my unwavering commitment to a woman’s choice. Any thinking person will have different reasons for feeling the way they do; only zealots fully embrace party lines.
I support Roe v Wade because it not only ensures women their rights but it also ensures everyone the right to privacy and freedom from government meddling in our most private affairs. Watching a fascist theocracy run amok in Iran is an appropriate backdrop to this observation. However, I was born to a couple of 18-year olds who retreated to their respective parent’s homes on their wedding night. I don’t think every abortion is necessary or every unplanned pregnancy a curse, but it really isn’t for anyone outside of the people involved to decide.