Jefblog

I've linked to an article that kind of sums up my feelings about the whole Michael Jackson spectacle. My family and I had a discussion the other night about his cultural significance. We all agreed that it actually wasn't much, and David Michael Green hashes out what I was thinking a little further.

I had no problem with Mike, some of his stuff was pretty good, I rocked out to the J-5 as a pre-teen, and he was a damn fine dancer. Other than that, though, I don't see much to him as an artist. I mostly felt sorry for him, and his life was a slow motion car wreck, near as I could see. As Green points out, he actually sums up just how vapid our culture has become.

It really started with the Reagan era. There's good music in any decade, but really, what are the 80's bands remembered most for? Their hairstyles!

I've noticed in listening to my 40-ish friends that when they are reminiscing about the music of their youth, most of the emphasis is on bands that were mostly style, and whose music for the most part is throw away...it stands up only as a curiosity, rather than as a cultural underpinning or continuation.

The 80's was when the establishment regained cultural control by elevating the trivial, and the vapid, in the form of Madonna, big-hair metal bands, and the like. I'm hard pressed to come up with anything loosely pop that was a culture changer in the way Charlie Parker, Dylan or Elvis were. Sting? U2, perhaps. Not much else.

Perhaps rap was the only genre in the 80's that represented true folk culture, and that was quickly co-opted (yep happened to rock and roll in the 70's) and most artists were happy to go along with it and make some bucks. Really, true rap was excoriated for the most part in the 80's anyway.

For all their so called radicalism, the greats of Rock n Roll and 60's Rock were mainly continuing older traditions, from folk to blues to dance hall to Americana.

Also ironic that those leaders calling themselves "conservatives" were actually radicals bent on destroying longtime cultural traditions and replacing them with manipulative, addictive fluff. Or making up fake traditions, like "family values". Cultural fast food as it were.

The reason the late 40's, 50's and 60's (even the 70's!) produced such iconic artists occurred in part because for that brief time the lines between vapid, manipulative pop culture and the deeper folk traditions and true culture were blurred. I don't think the leadership was paying attention, or they were taken by surprise, or they were more enlightened. I doubt that last reason...

The lines were blurred, and on any given day on Top 40 AM you could hear the vapidity of Bobby Vinton intermixed with Dylan, the Beatles, the Stones, the Airplane, the Doors, Motown, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, James Brown, the blues in general, and country crossover to boot in the form of Creedence, Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and so much more, all on one radio station. If you were a white kid in the suburbs like I was, you couldn't help but be exposed to some pretty different stuff from what you might see around the neighborhood.

Sure a lot of it was the pop of the day, however most of the musicians mentioned above were basing their work on folk, country, the blues, and so on. There was even a bit of classical and jazz were in the mix. The songwriting was better than average as well, even for fake acts like the Monkees. (To their credit, the Monkees actually rebelled against the pop straight-jacket they were being forced into and ended up being pretty good musicians and pretty funny cultural comedians!)

What began with MJ and Madonna culminated in Britney Spears. Can anyone really name a song she did that is worth remembering? Her whole schtick became her train wreck of a life, just like Michael Jackson. Madonna is to be admired primarily for staying in shape! None of them ever really "lost" creative control, because there wasn't much creativity to begin with!

As usual I digress, but I see hope. The music nowadays, albeit more underground, or "indie" is pretty damn good, and the young musicians are mining and continuing the deep traditions in music. The Decembrists, the Kings of Leon, mattpondpa, heck there are too many to mention.

Perhaps in a tragic, perverse way, MJ's demise represents the beginning of the end of vapid fake pop culture and the return to a more realistic pop culture. One can only hope.

As for MJ himself, I wish him peace. His spirit is no longer trapped in what must have been a living hell of a tortured, distorted life. In that he truly did contribute. The price the Jackson family has paid for success is surely a lesson in the suffering caused by striving after false goals.

May you rest in peace, Michael, and angels dance thee to thy reward....

PS. A quick note about my politics. I am equally frustrated with what is nowadays identified as liberal or conservative. I think both those positions have been co-opted and manipulated in order to manipulate the people into accepting corporate oligarchy. Most of the regular liberals and conservatives I know are good people, who are practicing the universal values that are owned by no party or ideology: responsibility, charity, love, tolerance, community, non-judgment, and freedom. Those are basic human values. We should all hold onto those.

All the "socialism" talk from the right is enough to make one pound one's head against the floor.
Most of the people I've spoken to that are worried about Obama bringing us "socialism" don't know the first thing about it. It's so frustrating. However it is something I've come to expect from most conservatives and Republicans. They just don't think things through too well. Pity. It's why the country is in the toilet right now. Not that most liberals are all that much better. But that's another story. Anyway, here's some comments stolen from another web site. Just thought they were good:

By "socialism", I guess the Republicans mean that they don't want to adopt the radical policies of such fringe states as---say---the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Canada, or (God forbid) France.

• Places where you don't go bankrupt because you get appendicitis.
• Places with better life expectancies, lower infant mortality, and yet markedly lower health care costs.
• Places where you pay a nominal fee or nothing to go to the best universities and colleges.
• Places with high school students a year or more advanced in mathematics and the sciences, and where the idea of a metal detector in a school is ridiculous.
• Places where citizens have better quality-of-life outcomes, work fewer hours, and have more vacation, and yet maintain high productivity and innovation.
• Places that look after their elderly.
• Places that seem able to do all of this, and yet maintain a wealthy society that supports innovation and individual ambition.

If that's "socialism", then the Republicans have to explain to us why we shouldn't look at models that have been clearly more successful than our own. It's not about ideology; a totally dispassionate look at the data shows that in certain areas, these models are extremely effective and efficient. Now that our backs are against the wall, it is not good enough to simply chant that the American Way is *always* the best way, when the evidence so starkly shows this to be a lie

Please tunnel-visioned Republicans, go watch a lot of Bruce Willis and Chuck Norris movies and let the adults clean up the mess you've made over the last 30 years....

The symbolism here is so apropos to our times.

A collision with wild forces; a high flying "US" Airways, tanked in the waters of the city at the heart of our financial mess.

The village idiot on the tube shuffling his feet and trying to find something good to say about his eight years.

All the "people" are led to safety by a cool, calm professional doing his job, a true hero, a regular guy who does it right, trumping the fool on the podium.

This is an auspicious sign indeed!

Well, Colin Powell is now rehabilitating himself after allowing himself to be humiliated by the madmen of the Bush Administration.

Powell has always been the "good soldier", albeit a bit expedient. I'm not sure what he was thinking when he got involved with the Bushies. It probably looked like an excellent career move at the time. As it was, it pretty much damaged his credibility to the point of removing him from further consideration as a presidential candidate.

He was one of the thoughful few within the cabal of thugs and madmen surrounding Bush, and the moronic wing of the Bush Administration did their best to sideline and undermine him.

He finally left in embarrassment and disgust, knowing his reputation had been tarnished. There are actions he could have taken, and things he could have said, but he's no Smedley Butler.

Ah, well. Revenge is sweet, especially when you don't even have to justify it. Especially when it is handed to you on a silver platter.

And it's finally been handed to Colin in this election. McCain, who is clearly failing mentally, has run an incompetent and disastrous campaign that's all but shot itself in the head. This gives Colin the opportunity to endorse the only establishment candidate worth the effort.

Remarkably, Powell has finally stood up for what's right. He's done it using typical millitary pragmatism, for which I have much respect and admiration.

I foresee an opportunity for Powell to finally serve his country in a good way again. While I doubt he'd be offered (nor would he accept) a cabinet position in Obama's administration, I am sure he will be involved as a senior statesmen, and his generally excellent judgment will be highly valued and listened to.

Perhaps he can make amends for going along with the lies and the lying madmen who took us into the most disastrous American policy decision in 60 years.

Can you imagine how Obama's cabinet and advisers will look? I can't help but feel hopeful.

Anyway, Powell is sounding positively Eisenhowerian in his words lately, like a good general should.
Here's what he had to say about his endorsement of Obama:

"I think that Senator Obama brings a fresh set of eyes, fresh set of ideas to the table. I think that Senator McCain, as gifted as he is, is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he'd be quite good at it, but i think we need more than that. I think we need a generational change. I think Senator Obama has captured the feelings of the young people of America and is reaching out in a more diverse, inclusive way across our society."

Powell said that the Republican focus on William Ayers and Obama's religious affiliations were damaging America's image abroad.

"Those kinds of images going out on al Jazeera are killing us around the world," he said. "And we have got to say to the world, it doesn't make any difference who you are or what you are, if you're an American you're an American. And this business of, for example a congresswoman from Minnesota going around saying let's examine all congressmen to see who is pro America or not pro America, we have got to stop this kind of non-sense and pull ourselves together and remember that our great strength is in our unity and diversity. That really was driving me."

Powell continued, defending Obama against McCain's latest charge that the Democrat's policies are quasi-socialist:

"We can't judge our people and hold our elections on that kind of basis. Yes, that kind of negativity troubled me. And the constant shifting of the argument, I was troubled a couple of weeks ago when in the middle of the crisis the campaign said 'we're going to go negative,' and they announced it. 'We're going to go negative and attack his character through Bill Ayers.'
Now I guess the message this week is we're going to call him a socialist. Mr. Obama is now a socialist, because he dares to suggest that maybe we ought to look at the tax structure that we have."

"Because he dares to suggest that maybe we ought to look at the tax structure that we have."

Priceless! He subtly hits the nail on the head. The conservative movement and it's low information, proud of ignorance, knee-jerk, shouting, unthinking lackeys generally shout and bully their way through problems because it's the only thing they can do halfway competently.

Even McCain has done it in this campaign. I'll bet he rues the day he decided to campaign the Karl Rove way. Rove's done him in again!

Under Obama, I expect vigorous discussion and debate before a policy is decided upon, unlike the Neanderthal Bush II admin. Sorry Neanderthals, figure of speech.

Powell again:

"Taxes are always a redistribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those who pay them, in roads and airports and hospitals and schools. And taxes are necessary for the common good. And there's nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be paying more or who should be paying less, and for us to say that makes you a socialist is an unfortunate characterization that I don't think is accurate."

Exactly! A thoughtful view on taxes, not some mindless, mouth-breathing knee-jerk reaction based on selfishness and a false sense of entitlement. It's about responsibility my friends. If you want government services (like many red-state conservatives do) you gotta pay for 'em. They don't "trickle down".

As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization."

Yes, taxes. Appropriate taxes, which includes the wealthy taking responsibility for their wealth. (The Kennedys actually do this, as far as taxes and societal responsibility go, unlike the Bush Crime Family.)

Finally, another quote from Our Friend the General:

Powell distanced himself from McCain's staunchly pro-Georgian line. "The fact of the matter is that you have to be very careful in a situation like this not just to leap to one side or the other until you take a good analysis of the whole situation," Powell said, tamping down the rush to herald the rise of a new Soviet threat.

Oh, if only the Great General had said this in the case of Iraq! Perhaps he said it privately but was sidelined by the insane Cheney and Rumsfeld. If only he'd said it publicly, rather than waving around trumped up photos. If only....

Well, the Fates, the Norns, call them what you will, have their own agenda for humanity and the "great" among us. I guess America needed to go down the rabbit hole in order to get better. So in an indirect way, maybe CP helped us live our collective fate....

The worm has turned, and it looks like a new era is being birthed. There is the potential for greatness and progress in the face of the shit storm that we are now feeling the first wave of.

Powell has recognized we are all up the creek, and that McCain and the GOP do not have the proverbial paddle at hand.

Obama does.

Let's hope the General is willing to help and good with an oar. His greatest days could be ahead of him....

I don't think there is a true conservative in politics at the national level. The Republican party has been taken over by thugs and mouth-breathers, supported by otherwise good people who are so terrified of brown people and gays that they've become morons.

And please, don't even bring St. Reagan into this. He was the beginning, along with Nixon, of the Republican descent into idiocy, fascism, and finally irrelevancy.

Please, Reagan was incompetent at best. If conservatives want to have a hero to look up to, start with Eisenhower, the last decent thinking conservative of the modern era, who did not let fear cloud his cogitation.

Please Repubs, go off somewhere for 30 years or so, figure it out, and then maybe, just maybe, you might be ready to help govern.....

We've just come off of 26 years of a widening income gap, decline of the middle class (which, when strong, creates the America we all want), massive waste and indebtedness. Certainly the New Deal had some failed experiments, but I would hardly call them socialist. They were an attempt to stave off outright socialism and to ultimately save the wealthy from themselves. And they worked! They ushered in the greatest era our country has ever had, 1945-1795.
The New Deal's programs ran their course, but the solutions of Reaganism were destructive and crude. That's how we got where we are now. No social cohesion, ruined economy, dumbed-down and disenfranchised middle class, weakened military, the list goes on and on. All brought about by faux conservatism sold to a gullible public by thugs, facists and con men.
What's needed is a New New Deal. Can Obama do it? Can America imagine it?
Time will tell, but I'm not holding my breath.
Let's also remember the words of leader ship from back then. Roosevelt and Churchill, for all their flaws (which were many), knew to inspire the many, calling out to their courage, fortitude, ingenuity and moral strength. And it worked!
So, while I am not holding my breath, I have no other choice than to be Optimistic!

There are many excellent BBQ places in Kansas City. I haven't tried them all yet, but Bryant's, Jack's Stack and others are all really really good. Surprisingly though, an L.A. based restaurant in Kansas City's wonderful Country Club Plaza has one of the best BBQ ribs plates in town, IMHO.
Houston's, just north off the main drag of 47th on Wornall, where it runs at a diagonal to the main streets.
Houston's has ribs that fall off the bone, a great sauce and excellent fries, both russet and sweet potatoes. Plus, it's a great place to eat alone, with nice low light, comfortable booths, and a dining room that is at once open, intimate and private. Great salads and steaks as well.
Houston's. Next time you are in KC, check it out.