Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Inaugural Theme Music

Happy Holidays, all. Let's dance:














Michael Franti and Spearhead, "Obama Song" (feat. SoliLLaquists of Sound, Cherine Anderson & Anthony B)

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Fermi. Time. Space. Movies. Aliens. Love.




This is probably getting tiresome, but it's hard not to be back on the john Hodgman bandwagon after watching this charming (15 min) talk:



Friday, December 19, 2008

Just Around the Corner

Not to spoil the mood or anything, but when your eight-year-old is a leukemia survivor (and sorry again, but I'm inclined to add the modifier "so far" to that phrase), reminders hide behind the strangest of corners. In this case, in the midst of a MoveOn.org solicitation, these words:



"I lost a daughter to cancer in July after a fight she couldn't win because she had no insurance. When President-elect Obama said no one in these United States should die of cancer because they didn't have insurance, I knew we had to work to get him elected. My daughter had to go to a county hospital where they died one by one in Houston, TX, one of the cities with the best cancer hospitals. That is when I joined MoveOn and worked with them online and in my city to register and get out the message to vote. My daughter passed away wishing her death would not be in vain. Yes We Did."—Martha T., Abilene, TX


But when I speak of "reminders" I'm referring to what, exactly? I don't know. But these words jump out at me, and I wince. I knock wood, and wince.

The John Hodgman Presidential Invocation, Megaforce Edition




The bloom has faded from the vine for me, a little, John Hodgman - wise, but he does make some good points on his blog about the Barack Obama / Rick Warren hubub. Myself, I can't decide if the Rick Warren choice is an affront to decency or much ado about a speaking engagement (and can an "invocation" even be considered a speaking engagement? Isn't it more like a brief howdy-do?). But as I say, Hodgman has some points. Is he positioning himself as the next Al Franken?



Begin Hodgman transmission:



EVERYTHING I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT RICK WARREN



AS I WROTE on the Twitter feed, I have spent many mournful hours turning over the Rick Warren conundrum in my brain, and it all adds up to this: what makes Rick Warren a “moderate?”



HIS “FRIENDS” goatee?



HIS HAWAIIAN shirt?



THE FACT that he spoke at TED?



SOME have argued that it is his commitment to good works: his anti-hunger and anti-poverty initiatives. His work with AIDS and HIV patients. (Though some may call this the basic requirement of being a “Christian” in the first place).



SOME have argued as well that it is his willingness to reach out to those who do not agree with him. (Also known as “conversion”)



THAT IS ALL FINE. I do not wish to silence Warren. I am glad of his good works, and I respect the inspiration and comfort his congregants take from his example.



I ALSO SUSPECT he is a very nice person to spend time with. While there’s clearly some politicking going on, my instinct is that Obama invited Warren because he likes him… because he appreciated Warren for inviting him to Saddleback, and wants to return the favor.



EVEN IF YOU ARE GAY, or had had an abortion, or believed in evolution, I bet Rick Warren would be nice to you. He probably wouldn’t call you a sinner to your face, or suggest that your loving relationship is at best immature, at worst akin to pedophilia.



(OR YOU KNOW WHAT? Maybe he would say it to your face. Maybe his convictions are that strong. And while I think those convictions are demonstrably wrong and logically absurd–and not particularly “moderate”–I recognize his right to them.)



WHICH IS TO SAY: I would shake his hand. If I met him, I’d try to find some common ground, or at least keep the dinner party civil until dessert. I think there are lots of ways for Obama to do the same in his presidency.



BUT AS SOMEONE CLEVER on Twitter pointed out, I still wouldn’t invite him to sing at my wedding.



WHAT’S MORE: this not solely a question of being inclusive of different viewpoints. If Warren were merely a pro-life creationist, I would not be so bothered. It’s the question that Obama and Warren agree on that really troubles me.



BOTH WARREN AND OBAMA believe in a fallacy: that one can support equal rights for “everybody” (Warren) and for gay folks specifically (Obama), and yet not support a gay person having the same access as a straight person to the governmental special status known as “marriage.”



I KNOW HOW TEMPTING this fallacy can be: I am ashamed to admit that I half-fell for it myself until Massachusetts proved that the world would not end, and the semantic difference between “domestic partnerships” and “marriage” was so meaningless as to be offensive. I was wrong, I am sorry.



I HAVE CONFIDENCE that, in no short order, Prop 8 will be repealed, and the gay marriage debate will look as absurd at the miscegenation debates of the 20th century do now. I have confidence this will happen not because it is merely right, or because the electorate will suddenly love gayness, but because opposition to gay marriage has no logical foundation in a civil society that is premised on equality.



(CHURCHES can go ahead and ban it all they like. They have their own charters, and no obligation to logic.)



THOSE OF US, however, who foolishly refused to take Obama at his word when he told us he didn’t support gay marriage OVER AND OVER AGAIN must now take him at his deed. He really, really doesn’t want gays to get married. SRSLY.



LOOK: my gut tells me that Obama likes and respects gay people and wants them to thrive in this country. I think he is tolerant by nature, as his patience with Wright and his embrace of Warren shows.



BUT AFTER MCCLURKIN and now Warren, it is hard not to conclude that Barack Obama is somewhat tone deaf when it comes to gay issues. And at this point, if he is interested in convincing us otherwise (and I’m not presuming he is), it will take more than a few words or a second pastor or some other symbolic gesture. It will take deeds.*



That is all.



*DID YOU NOTICE I was paraphrasing the tag line to “Megaforce” here. NO ONE QUESTIONED THEIR “LIFESTYLES:”




The full post, INCLUDING MEGAFORCE VIDEO EXCERPT, here.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Quite Cold = 33?

In Seattle, they call this Winter Storm 2008. City shut down. Sledding in the streets. Well over an inch on the ground.



Meanwhile, in Vermont, it's Just Another Day.



...And Dancing Bob writes from Seattle:

"In their infinite paranoid wisdom the Public School officials closed the schools on Wednesday for fear of The Storm. Turned out to be above freezing and relatively sunny all day. It didn't snow in the city 'til after midnight. Compacted snow on the roads on Thursday and Friday no school then either."

Monday, December 15, 2008

Athens Wrap-Up, Maybe

Before things calmed in Greece (they have calmed, haven't they?) my friend in Athens wrote these words:

Report for today (Thursday? Friday? It's all a blur): it's raining cats and dogs, and Greeks don't like getting rained on, so the hooligans have gone indoors until the weather blows over. Arrived home a short while ago, however, after picking my daughter up at the bus-stop, to a very upset babysitter who had watched from our balcony (we live on the fifth floor of a building on a hill that has a sweeping view of downtown Athens) a bunch of protesters hurling rocks and what-all from the roof of the university building (Panepistimiou). Large explosions, flames, and so on, and then a report that a passing bus had been hit with molotov cocktails. Escalation and retreat. Escalation and retreat. You may be wondering how "students" can storm the roof of a university building in order to create mayhem... It works this way: there is a legal (perhaps even constitutional) amnesty that forbids police from entering university premises--amnesty that came about after the infamous events of November 17, 1973, when army tanks drove through the Polytechnic gates to end a standoff between between students the the ruling military junta. I think about two dozen students were killed. So it's a "never again" kind of thing that now permits students (and others) to stockpile petrol bombs and other weapons on university property, and to seek refuge there. It's like a sprawling "home base" in a grown-up(ish) game of tag. I throw a rock, a home-made bomb, and run to base. Whew!



Forgive the tone problems, but this has gone on for about a week now, and there is not much to show that it's going to let up soon. Is it the American in me that wants to know why they haven't called in the Greek version of the National Guard and rounded everybody up by now? Whatever happened to the concept of the candlelight vigil after a shooting, anyway? What happened to the idea that police are supposed to protect the public (granted, this goes wrong sometimes, but shouldn't they be protecting the mom-and-pop shops that are being smashed and looted?) Here they say that the police are supposed to be "a presence" that doesn't "get involved" and is "meant to observe"--which makes them, what? Bystanders.



We will see where this leads.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

This Xmas Brought to You By...Disco

Yes, we did this too--just like everyone else. Why do I have this sudden urge to go to OfficeMax?

Friday, December 12, 2008

The Best Holiday Party I Can't Attend


One of my favorite Seattle traditions was playing Loteria (a kind of Mexican bingo) with friends on christmas eve at The Canterbury (a tudor-motif dive bar and restaurant on Capitol Hill).

If I still lived there, though, I'd be hard pressed not to bump it up a notch and do the Burning Elf instead.










Tuesday, DEC. 23rd, 2008
at 6:30PM
@
(address) Ave SW
Seattle WA 98106

Jim and Laurie's
annual Christmas Eve Eve Chili feed, Sing-along
and questionably legal immolation of an 8 foot tall wooden elf!

We'd like YOU and your family to attend.

Hearty meat-laden and delicious (not whimpy) vegetarian Chilies will be served.
Traditional xmas carols will be sung accompanied by the freshly tuned 104 year old piano.

Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like burning the effigy of a cute imaginary toy-making imp!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

More Reportage From Athens


My friend in Athens sent this yesterday:

You know, there is really hardly any way to explain this, because I can't see this sort of hoo-ha happening to this extent in the States, for various reasons (to be explained later if you are interested), but there has been huge civil unrest on the part of, um, disaffected youth. Who are, en masse, burning down buildings, firebombing various offices and banks and storefronts, looting, burning cars, smashing windows, throwing rocks and sticks and molotov cocktails at police and on and on. Started, so they say, when a 15-yr old was killed by police gunfire (very very rare here) after he and a couple of cohorts overturned a car and attacked the police. Turns out that the cop fired three warning shots, one of which ricocheted off of a building and hit the kid. Which is only to say that this was not a police killing in cold blood.

They say that the killing prompted the riots but one begins to think that the mayhem was already afoot, the kid part of it, and then escalated when the anarchic elements here found a convenient excuse to go on a total rampage. The police have very limited powers here--almost no enforcement authority, and so they have been largely standing by as thousands of black-hooded teens and twenty-somethings lay waste to downtown Athens. Monday night was the worst when we could see large swaths of downtown on fire from our balcony.

Fortunately, despite firebombings happening right in this very neighborhood, the hoodlums tend to shy away from direct bodily harm (unless you are talking about the police) so it's a matter of trying to stay away from the fray and go about one's business. We are still out there doing the grocery shopping and getting to the park. Hm.

The good part? Greeks don't tend to bear arms. So we are not talking about hepped up wackos running through the streets with firearms. Rocks and sticks and what have you, just like they do it over there on the West Bank is good enough for us, thanks. But of course that makes a difference.

Needless to say, we are happy to be leaving next Thursday for xmas in New Mexico. I think that after four days of this, we're heading toward calm. The grossest part for me was leaving the apt. with the kids on Tuesday morning and noticing immediately that my neighborhood smelled like Ground Zero.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Meanwhile, In the Rest of the World


There has been rioting in Greece for days now, following the shooting death of a teen by police. According to the BBC, hundreds of buildings have been torched, dozens injured, and the parliament has been basically under siege since Saturday.

My friend in Athens says:

"And so the city is literally up in flames and they are burning cars and all manner of things one block from our apartment. And so. It is dramatic and greatly distressing...I hate this country, tonight."

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Record Club #3: "Covers"


© Mike Owens, all rights reserved

Last week was the third meeting of the False 45th Record Club, which this time included 52 cover songs contributed by local cooks, teens, librarians, tech flunkies, civil servants, architects, lawyers, artists, banjo players and other ne'er-do-wells. It makes for a good playlist:

















































































































































































































































































Song (Original Artist)ArtistFan
Ceremony (New Order)RickolusJosh Schwartz
I'm Sticking With You (Velvet
Underground)
The DecemberistsPete
96 Tears (? and the Mysterians)Religious KnivesScott Lovlette
Life in a Northern Town (Dream Academy)SugarlandSharon Winn
Frontwards (Pavement)Los Campesinos!Jeff Willius
Tom Sawyer (Rush)The Bad PlusScott Kerner
Palmitos Park (El Guincho)The Ruby SunsPete
Just Like Heaven (The Cure)Dinosaur Jr.Mark Sciarrotta
The Beehive State (Randy Newman)Harry NilssonDan Richardson
Jack Palance (Little Sparrow)Van Dyke ParksBritt Richardson
Mr. Pharmacist (The Other Half)The FallBrian Murphy
Pink Turns to Blue (Husker Du)SaturnineKelly McCracken
Disorder (Joy Division)BedheadMike Donofrio
Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes (Edison
Lighthouse)
Freedy JohnstonMike Rapaport
My Favorite Things (John Coltrane/Rogers
and Hart?)
Andre3000Tom Sabo
Red Red Wine (Neil Diamond)UB40Carolyn Dwyer
Misfit (Wipers)The ThermalsJeff Willius
Kiss the Bottle (Jawbreaker)LuceroJosh Schwartz
Believe (Cher)Macha and BedheadKelly McCracken
Love Train (O'Jays)Lewis FrancoMike Rappaport
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)Tori AmosJim Tringe
I Remember (Suicide)Chris BrokawMike Donofrio
We can Work it Out (Beatles)Stevie WonderBritt Richardson
If You Have Ghosts (Roky Erickson)John Wesley HardingMike Nordstrom
Thirteen (Big Star)Elliott SmithBrian Clark
Gin and Juice (Snoop Dogg)The GourdsPeter Kopsco
Vitamin C (Can)Big BloodNick Mavodones
This Land is Your Land (Woody Guthrie)Sharon Jones & The Dap-KingsRob Ryan
The Orchids (Psychic TV)CalifoneNick Mavodones
Aretha, Sing One for Me (George Jackson)Cat PowerBrian Clark
Mony Mony (Tommy James + ShondellsBilly IdolCarolyn Dwyer
I Fought the Law (Bobby Fuller)Green DayLarry Dwyer
Gimme Some Truth (John Lennon)Pearl JamClancy DeSmet
12XU (Wire)Minor ThreatDanny Sagan
Making Love - At the Dark End of the
Street (James Carr)
Clarence CarterDan Richardson
Strawberry Letter 23 (Shuggie Otis)The Brothers JohnsonMike Nordstrom
Let's Dance (David Bowie)M. WardScott Kerner
Blackhole Sun (Soundgarden)Paul AnkaDanny Sagan
Smooth Criminal (Michael Jackson)Alien Ant FarmJim Tringe
Climbing Up the Walls (Radiohead)Easy Star All-StarsClancy Desmet
A Case of You (Joni Mitchell)John doeScott Lovelette
I Wanna be Your Dog (Stooges)TitmachineJosh Friedman
Dirt in the Ground (Tom Waits)We Versus the SharkTed Ingham
American Idiot (Green Day)Richard CheeseMark Sciarrotta
Too Drunk to Fuck (Dead Kennedys)Nouvelle VagueBrian Murphy
Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith)Leo Kottke and Mike GordonTom Sabo
Ghostrider (Suicide)The GoriesJosh Friedman
I Heard it Through the Grapevine (cover)The SlitsTed Ingham
Desperado (Eagles)Langley Schools ProjectRob Ryan
California Girls (Beach Boys)David Lee RothLarry Dwyer
Summertime (George Gershwin)Miles DavisPeter Kopsco
The Lion Sleeps Tonight (The Weavers)The NylonsSharon Winn

Saturday, December 6, 2008

DeLillo: "They Have to Walk Slowly to Accommodate Their Awe"

Strangely, it appears that Don DeLillo blogged from the Democratic and Republican conventions for The Onion. Some excerpts (posted 9/26/2008):

He speaks in your voice, American, and he's blogging right next to me, as I type my own blog, in this our blogging age. Our faces fixated with vigorous purpose on glowing rectangular screens, measured in centimeters. In the air, invisible information. Uploads, downloads. Waves and radiation. Surrounding us both, on every side of the lobby, dozens more do exactly the same, typing with their thumbs into tiny silver death machines.

From across America, they come to Minneapolis, to Denver, in herds, teaming hordes filled with sounds, smells. In great tidal flows of seething humanity they ease around the I-beam sculptures and move into the sports arenas. They are loaded down with noisemakers and paper and special hats.

The crowds are a slowly spreading ripple and moan. They heave and surge with some unexplainable animal intelligence. They have to walk slowly to accommodate their awe. Snatches of unattributed dialogue—absurdist, yet paradoxically naturalistic—come out of the mass of pressing bodies:

"You cannot state categorically?"

"Not at the present moment."

"So that's that?"

"As far as we are aware."

"So the general consensus seems to be that we don't know enough at this time to be sure of anything."

"Let me put it to you like this: if I were a rat, I wouldn't want to be within a 200 mile radius of Minneapolis right now."

"What if you were a human?"

[....]

We've witnessed these spectacles every fourth September, every four years. The volunteers stand handshake-dazed near their supervisors, seeing images of themselves in every direction. Staffers greet each other with comic cries and gestures of sodden collapse. In Denver there were vendors nearby when we ate breakfast. Stretch limos outfitted with powerful communications technology stalled in murderous crosstown traffic. Helicopters shine searchlights down at the buildings, the crowd. Chanted rhymes emerge like a collective tribal memory. Allegations are advanced concerning faked pregnancies. "This is one of those moments." There is a meet-and-greet with the guy from the Doobie Brothers.

A voice from the subconscious: Toyota Corola.

Here in Minneapolis, a woman with a clipboard, frazzled, efficient. She reads from a printout to a group of staffers a change in schedule from the coordinating committee: the station wagons arrive at noon. In the Free Speech Zone, a man dangles from a wire, the famous performance artist from New York. Everywhere, security: badges, metal detectors, small plastic cards with magnetic stripes. Police, silent in riot gear, truncheons like humming, efficient software. Someone says: "So she was technically never the actual Miss Alaska?"

They feel a sense of renewal, of communal recognition. The women, crisp and alert, knowing people's names. Their husbands in little hats shaped like elephant heads, something about them suggesting massive health insurance coverage.