frontline: the way the music died

What I watched last night.

Most of what was covered in the show I pretty much already knew. Thanks to the record companies treating music like a corporate asset and not art, the stuff coming out now isn't that great. Sales are also down because people are downloading music. It was still fascinating to see, because they compared two new artists: Sarah Hudson (cousin of Kate) and the group Velvet Revolver (including two ex-G&R members + Scott Weiland of STP). Both have new releases coming out this month. Velvet Revolver, which is pretty much a sure hit by company standards, is indeed doing well. Sarah Hudson, however, is not getting played anywhere yet. And listening to the song the company picked for her single, I can understand why not. It's pretty much a lame song, titled "Girl on the verge", with a chorus that states, "I'm a girl on the verge / of a nervous breakdown". I mean, ugh. The sad thing is that the other bits of songs I heard from her album sounded very decent, and pretty original. She is a singer/songwriter, but the single they chose just doesn't work for her.

You can go to the above link to view the show and also see interviews with artists, music journalists, and company execs.

funny ads that make sense

Last night, while watching the re-run of my soap (yeah, yeah) I caught both of the TV ads from Register and Vote. They are very humorous, and really work. The first one I saw has women in a bathroom commenting about a faucet that has been left on. They just stand around and watch it, making side comments, until someone walks by and turns it off. At first I thought it was an ad for the environment (because you know you should keep the water off while you brush your teeth), but was surprised by its intent.

The second one, and I think my favorite, has a group of people standing around and commenting about a piece of litter that someone left on the ground by the trash can. One guy says, "well, I could pick it up", but doesn't.

So go to the site and watch them if you haven't already. And, by all means, register and vote!!!!!

The Curse of Beauty for Serious Musicians

from The New York Times:

It's notable that women in classical music come under fire for their image, since each must create her own identity from the start. "The template is male," Ms. Walsh noted. And not only in terms of career — there are still fewer female instrumental soloists than male ones, still fewer women than men in top-flight American orchestras — but also in terms of what you wear. There is no female equivalent of a man's standard concert uniform, the tuxedo.

Of course men are also evaluated in terms of their sex appeal, but the violinists Joshua Bell and James Ehnes do not seem to be relegated to bimbo status because of their pinup images.

I'm not a classical snob, but I will admit to being turned off by classical "crossover" artists. However, since a lot of women still are unable to break into the world of mainstream classical music, I think they should use whatever options are available. This article quotes a review of a Lara St. John concert that critiques her gown in the first paragraph. That is ridiculous. When a male performer is on stage, the critic won't comment, "While his performance was uplifting, his tuxedo just didn't cut it!" At least, I've never seen anything comparable. It's just such a double standard.

Christianity and blogging

I have just learned through Ralph Luker that Allen Brill, formerly of the Right Christians and now involved in The Village Gate, is leaving the blog world. This is quite disappointing to me. Since TVG began, I haven't been involved, but I was a reader and frequent commenter at the now-defunct Right Christians site.

Allen says in his entry:

I have been thoroughly rejected by the dominant individuals in the progressive blogosphere. I have no connections in the established church bodies or parachurch organizations. I began as one voice. That one voice is now tired and frustrated.

It saddens me that the blogosphere is losing such a voice. I believe that the separation and dichotomy between progressive liberals/Democrats will hurt us rather than help anything. We have progressive Christians, progressive environmentalists, liberal feminists, etc. Surely not all Republicans agree on certain issues, but their party is just picking up steam (and money) while we bicker between ourselves on what is more important.

As a progressive Christian, I realize I am biased in my views as far as Allen and his organization are concerned. I was excited to know that there were other Progressive Christians out there in the blogosphere. I wish we could just get our act together and recognize that we can only benefit from diversity.

But I'm just optimistic that way.

Capital Metro restructuring

Here's my first official Austin entry here. I have been hearing about how Capital Metro has come up with a plan for how to deal with the increase in population here and the strong need for better transportation options. So I went to the site last week and took a survey. You can see their plans here. The thing is, I live in Northeast Austin. None of these proposals will help with east-west traffic. They only deal with north-south traffic (which is an issue, I'll give you that). I just don't see how these plans will be of help to me, or that I will have an opportunity to put them to use. I'm very wary of these proposals.

I'm planning on going to an open house and/or a workshop so I can be more informed. I think it is a great idea to use rail services (would prefer light rail!), but as M1EK's Bake-Sale of Bile points out here, the Rapid Bus Routes proposed wouldn't really be much of an improvement.

Now, if Austin could get some HOV lanes, that would be a beneficial improvement. I just don't see that happening anytime soon.

I commented somewhere

I made a comment on Adam K's blog that I'd like to ruminate some more on here. Here's my comment re Eugenides' Middlesex:

am I the only one who has already attempted to read it? I guess I am part of a small percentile that didn't get into it. Maybe all the junky pop fiction I've been reading since graduation is affecting my tastes. Since college, any time I can't get into a book by a certain time, I give up and read a new one. I do give books a good amount of time to grab my attention and interest, but sometimes, they just don't.

The last great book I read was "The Known World" by Edward Jones. That is greatness.

And I think you all would be interested in "Erasure", about a black professor who writes a blaxploitation book as a joke, and it goes on to win awards and acclaim.

Before I graduated from college, I felt that I had to read a book. Even if I felt that I wasn't getting into it, even if I thought it was bad, I would finish it. I guess I felt that I had started it, so I should finish it. Now I just stop. It's my time I'm wasting, and I don't owe anyone the responsibility of reading a book I don't like. I make the attempt, at least.

I do, however, also have a bad habit of buying books I read parts of, and putting them away for later. I have done this with Soul Mountain and Caramelo, along with other books. I really should get to finishing them.

More than a couple of times I have read a book a third of the way through before I realized I had already read it. Luckily, this doesn't happen frequently. It's annoying.

edit: Erasure really is a terrific satire on race and publishing in America. It's funny, and it hurts, at the same time. Here's a bit of the synopsis:

Avant-garde novelist and college professor, woodworker, and fly fisherman — Thelonious (Monk) Ellison has never allowed race to define his identity. But as both a writer and an African-American, he is offended and angered by the success of We’s Lives in Da Ghetto, the exploitative debut novel of a young, middle-class black woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Hailed as an authentic representation of the African-American experience, the book is a national bestseller and its author feted on the Kenya Dunston television show. Her book’s success rankles all the more as Monk’s own most recent novel has just notched its seventh rejection.

Even as his career as a writer appears to have stalled, Monk finds himself coping with changes in his personal life. Forced to assume responsibility for a mother rapidly succumbing to Alzheimer’s, Monk leaves his home in Los Angeles to return to the Washington, DC, house in which he grew up. There he must come to terms with his ailing mother, his siblings, his own childhood and youth, and the legacy of his physician father, a suicide some seven years before. In need of distraction from old memories, new responsibilities, and his professional stagnation, Monk composes, in a heat of inspiration and energy, a fierce parody of the sort of exploitative, ghetto wanna-be lit represented by We’s Lives in Da Ghetto.

But when his agent sends this literary indictment (included here in its entirety) out to publishers, it is greeted as an authentic new voice of black America. Monk — or his pseudonymous alter ego, Stagg R. Leigh — is offered money, fame, success beyond anything Monk has known. And as demand begins to build for meetings with and appearances by Leigh, Monk is faced with a whole new set of problems.

I read it a few years ago and enjoyed it immensely.

I have to point out that it makes a big deal about "African-American fiction" as a genre, and I saw it in that section at Borders. It was somewhat ironic.

More on why it just keeps getting worse

AP: Video Shows Iraq Wedding Celebration
Although we are being told that it wasn't really a wedding celebration that the American soldiers attacked, video coverage has been found to validate the story of the survivors:

An Associated Press reporter and photographer, who interviewed more than a dozen survivors a day after the bombing, were able to identify many of them on the wedding party video — which runs for several hours.

APTN also traveled Thursday to the village of Mogr el-Deeb, 250 miles west of Ramadi, to film what the survivors said was the wedding site. A devastated building and remnants of the tent, pots and pans could be seen, along with bits of what appeared to be the remnants of ordnance, one of which bore the marking "ATU-35," similar to those on U.S. bombs. . .

The survivors agree that the wedding festivities had broken up for the night when the attack began, but they insist that there were no foreign fighters or other combatants in their group.

Thanks to TMW, where you can also find this incredibly disturbing entry.

Fats Waller

Happy 100th, Fats!

NPR: A Century of Fats Waller, Jazz's Clown Prince
Bio and discography
Entry from Grove at PBS' Jazz page

gosh, I was sad to hear this.

After I argued with the guy trying to get people on the Nader petition at the Blix event.

Nader Misses Texas Ballot Requirement, Sues

It just keeps getting worse, don't it?

U.S. Reportedly Kills 40 Iraqis at Party

"A U.S. helicopter fired on a wedding party in the remote desert near the border with Syria, killing more than 40 people, most of them women and children, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said it was investigating. . .

"Al-Ani, the doctor, said people at the wedding fired weapons in the air, and that American troops came to investigate and left. However, al-Ani said, helicopters later arrived and attacked the area."

Could things get any bleaker for us over there? I wonder if we'll ever be able to get any respect after all of the mistakes we're making. God help us. I hate hearing stories about unarmed, innocent women and children being killed.

notes from underground (posted at UWC)

I posted this today at the University without Condition. Obviously, I took religion classes in college over philosophy. Here goes:

Although I made time to read this passage by Kristeva late last week, I really only got the gist of half of it. Following are my limited reflections.

Kristeva thinks Dostoyevsky enjoys suffering - "As far as writers are concerned, they can extract jubilation out of it through the manipulation they are able . . . to inflict upon signs and things"(182). Said suffering reflects "man's dependency on a divine Law, as well as his irremediable difference in relation to that Law"(185).

It was her section on forgiveness that struck and threw me the most. She makes statements such as "any modern impreciation against Chistianity. . . is an imprecation against forgiveness" (190) and "he who does not forgive is condemned to death" (192), but what I noticed most in this mid-section of her piece is what I termed the born-again section.

I tend to frown upon more evangelical sects of Christianity. I believe we are saved by grace, yada yada yada. Kristeva makes some comments that reminded me of the "born-again" philosophy, such as "forgiveness seems to say . . . I take you for a child" (204) and this paragraph:

"Forgiveness does not cleanse actions. It raises the unconscious from beneath the actions and has it meet a loving other--an other who does not judge but hears the truth in the availability of love and for that very reason allows me to be reborn. Forgiveness is the . . . stage at which the latter changes laws and adopts the bond with love as a principle of renewal of both self and other"(205).

I think that Kristeva is accurate in her analysis of Dostoevsky, at least from my limited experience with Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment. I recall forgiveness being quite significant in CandP, but not so much in Notes from Underground. Of course, I read both of these in high school, so my memories aren't too clear; I've probably read over a hundred books since then.

I just find it interesting that she makes it seem that Dostoevsky advocated such a welcoming form of forgiveness, that one can be born again through it. From my experience attending a Southern Baptist school for a good part of my life, I have to read that into her statements.

Then later on she comments, "Because it is forgiveness, writing is transformation, transportation, translation"(217). So writing is forgiveness, which is given through Christ, and causes us to be born again. Alrighty then.

Can we read some more fiction now?

Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy

I remember when I first read Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face. I was a high-school senior, visiting the college I would later attend. Instead of going to a lame party, I stayed in my host's room and read this work of non-fiction. In it, Grealy writes of her childhood experiences with cancer, chemotherapy, radiation and reconstructive surgery. It is an engrossing book and a worthwile read.

I hadn't realized that she died in 2002. Her best friend, Ann Patchett (one of my current favorite writers), has completed a work of non-fiction about their relationship. You can read her reflections on writing it here. The book is entitled Truth and Beauty: a Friendship, and I will now have to add it to my reading list.

I haven't forgotten what Altria means.

Altria Plans Ads on Bush, Kerry Policies:

Tobacco and food giant Altria Group Inc. (MO) is asking federal regulators to sign off on its plan to run magazine ads contrasting the policies of President Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry.

Their rationale being that this would be a "nonpartisan" voter's guide. And I would accept that, except for the $2.2 million it donated to Republican committees in the 2001-2002 election cycle. That's just a little thing.

And also, check out Altria Means Tobacco.

sickness and Nick Berg

I'm still feeling crappy, and now I have a cough that makes it sound like I have tuberculosis. I just pray it's gone by Sunday.

I haven't posted on Nick Berg, because I have heard conflicting stories on the situation. Hugo has posted on Nick Berg, anger, and pacifism, and I read this from Al-Jazeera today. After seeing a story on CBS Evening News last night about Berg and his reasons for being in Iraq, I am befuddled. The story said that he was being questioned by the FBI because he and Moussaui shared an internet password. I think that's just ridiculous, if that's all there is to it. Anyway, it is sad that Berg lost his life in such a manner, but I can't really have an educated opinion on it until I get the truth from someone.

In movies, bad girls die.

As a feminist, I am always interested in different portrayals of women in film through the years. I've seen way too many films, and you'll have to believe me on this. One thing that astounds me is the fact that even in contemporary films, bad girls get killed off. Last night I was watching The Spitfire Grill on HBO (**spoilers coming**) and thought, oh, here's a film about a girl getting a second chance. The main character went to jail for killing her abusive stepfather (thereby making her a bad girl). She comes to this small town in Maine and lifts up the spirits of the townspeople around her. Even though she's got this going for her, she ends up dead in the river. When the movie wanted me to cry (I can tell these things) I was just angry that they decided to kill her off. Which reminded me of . . .

Butterfield 8 starring Elizabeth Taylor. She plays a call-girl who falls in love with one of her customers. He's married and won't leave his wife, so she decides to give up her her profession. She reconciles with her momma, is on her way to being a "good girl" again, but in the end is killed in a car crash, attempting to escape from her jilted married lover.

In both of these films, a "bad girl" is on her way to reconciliation with society. She is working for redemption. I believe that as these characters are killed off, redemption is denied. Ultimately, they were just "bad girls".

"Thelma and Louise" differs because although the main "bad girl" characters dive to their deaths in the Grand Canyon, it is their choice to do so. If they didn't drive off the cliff, they would be captured, and ultimately killed anyway, if Arizona has a death penalty. Nevertheless, redemption was never an option. I guess one could view the killing of the rapist as a sort of redemption, but I don't think society will give them that.

I've seen more movies than I'd like where the bad guys find redemption through a good woman, a relationship with a son or daughter, etc. Why is it that Hollywood won't afford the same option to our "bad girl" characters?

sick day

I'm having my bi-yearly allergy attack, so I'm off work today. I just finished watching Elephant and it left me very shaken. I knew the plot, and it still freaked me out. It seems such a simple, well-shot film, but it is so much more than that. And the thing that really hit me about the film was the lack of judgement made in it. There is no answer at the end of the film. It leaves you to decide what you want about it (I love when films do this). The "bad guys" are portrayed as equally as the "good guys". I just don't know what else to say. I think everyone should see it. It's worth watching just for the school building itself. I was amazed at the length and breadth of the school. But I went to a poor(er) inner-city school that was much smaller. And why were the halls so void of people in the film?

Anyway, this film definitely left me thinking (and made me reminiscent for the days I could use the school darkroom).

A portrait of who they were | csmonitor.com

The Christian Science Monitor gives us a look into the lives of the troops who have died so far in Iraq:

Between March 20, 2003 and May 6, 2004, 759 US troops died in Iraq. This is the longest, fiercest, sustained combat Americans have seen in a generation.

There is an article along with an interactive presentation on a portion of the fallen.

Will Tacy attempts to understand conservatives

At Mother Jones' blog, Will Tacy analyzes a piece from the National Review. The editor, Ramesh Ponnuru, is trying to get to why liberals don't like Bush. Hmm. That's hard to figure out. Let's think on that for a while.

new template

Since Blogger has updated itself, I figured this blog could stand some updating also. I kinda messed up by not saving my codes before I chose this new template, so I lost all my old comments. Sorry! However, I am going to try the new blogger comments and see how that goes.

edit - don't like Blogger's commenting and have figured out my Blogback code. So I'm going back to that, but still have lost all the old comments. Ah well.

FAIR ACTIVISM UPDATE: Eisner's Fantasyland Excuse for Censorship

Eisner's Fantasyland Excuse for Censorship from FAIR:

"On the television network that his company owns, Disney CEO Michael Eisner dismissed the idea that forbidding Disney subsidiary Miramax to distribute a controversial new documentary by Michael Moore was a form of censorship. 'We informed both the agency that represented the film and all of our companies that we just didn't want to be in the middle of a politically-oriented film during an election year,' he told ABC World News Tonight (5/5/04), referring to Moore's Fahrenheit 911, which examines the connections between the Bush family and the House of Saud that rules Saudi Arabia.

"On its face, Eisner's statement will have a chilling effect. A major movie studio with an announced policy of only releasing apolitical films, in an election year or any other year, will discourage filmmakers from tackling important themes and impoverish the American political debate. (That Moore and Miramax were given advance warning of this policy hardly mitigates its censorious impact.)

"But Eisner's statement cannot be taken at face value, because Disney, through its various subsidiaries, is one of the largest distributors of political, often highly partisan media content in the country-- virtually all of it right-wing."

I didn't realize that most all of Disney's radio stations broadcasted Limbaugh. You can go the link above to read the examples of Disney's right-wing media content.

Rummy

My thoughts on the questioning of Rumsfeld

Well, I was trying to work and listen to the questioning at the same time, so I don't know how much I actually caught. What I did note:

- that Senator from Maine has the most ANNOYING voice ever. My boss pointed out that maybe she was reading. I think that makes it worse! Can you imagine listening to a speech she made in Congress? I'd fall asleep! I kept waiting for her to get to the point, and it took forever for her to do so. I was surprised to discover she's a Republican.

- Mark Dayton rocks! I voted for him while I still lived in Minnesota, and I'm so glad I did. He really socked it to those guys.

- I was not surprised at the evasiveness of the Secretary. However, I was surprised to hear him admit that it might be best for the country for him to resign. I think he said, "That might be the case" or something to that effect. But he doesn't think it's needed at this time.

I could be drafted.

From This Modern World, I find that:
"The chief of the U.S. Selective Service System has proposed registering women for the military draft and requiring that young Americans regularly inform the government about whether they have training in niche specialties needed in the armed services.

"The proposal, which the agency's acting director Lewis Brodsky presented to senior Pentagon officials just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, also seeks to extend the age of draft registration to 34, up from 25."

His source is an article from the Toronto Star.

This is ridiculous. I am against the idea of a draft in any way, shape, or form, with women, without women, up to 25 or 50. I don't care. What a mess we have gotten ourselves into, that this is even being looked into at all.

I can't believe I've had this blog for a year now.

Disney Forbidding Distribution of Film That Criticizes Bush

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 is in trouble.

G-mail

Apparently this G-mail thing is a big deal. I got invited, so I assumed other blogspot owners did too. However, if you didn't get invited, and you really want a beta g-mail account, send me a nice note and I'll let you have my extra invite.

Josh Marshall's analysis of Bush and Iraq: "A strong president, a good president, would put his country before his pride and throw himself into saving the situation even if it meant admitting previous mistakes and ditching past policies and advisors. But I don't think this president has the character to do that."

There's more good stuff in this post. I've been lax in my reading TPM.

edit: because Josh Marshall's middle initial isn't J.

You've probably already read it by now

Annals of National Security: TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB: the article in The New Yorker that tells much of the story behind the torture in the Iraqi prison. I knew that the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay had it bad, and I've written to all my legislators about it. I didn't expect this, however. I find it extremely disturbing and sad.

Ted Rall's coming under fire

for yesterday's cartoon. I even am somewhat conflicted about it. Here's the cartoon and the reasoning behind it. I have to disagree with his statement that Bush is evil. I don't think he's evil - I think he's stupid, ignorant, holier-than-thou, and more, but evil, no. His intentions may be close to evil, but I don't think he is. Anyway, I basically agree with Rall, but his feelings are a lot stronger than mine. I guess that's how I would characterize it.

two entries related to TMW in one day!

We haven't forgotten, Mr. Rove!

Wherein Ambassador Wilson reflects on a passage from his book that says, "According to my sources, between March 2003 and the appearance of my article in July . . . the workup on me that turned up the information on Valerie was shared with Karl Rove, who then circulated it in administration and neoconservative circles."

He notes in the interview, "Cliff May, who wrote for the National Review online, suggested in a matter of days after my article appeared and a leak appeared, that it was widely known in Washington that my wife worked for the CIA. It was not widely known. None of my friends, for example, knew it. So it's hard to believe that it was widely known unless somebody else put that story out."

Very interesting. But I thought that this wasn't a story anymore - I mean, the networks aren't covering it. There are many things the Bush administration hopes we don't pay a lot of attention to, and I know this is one of them.

What I'm watching tonight

I just love shows about bridges. Seriously.

Oh, golly

Via Tom Tomorrow, I find out that the guy who had redone old propaganda posters to make them relevant to our current situation has admitted to making up a military history. Read more about it here: Rangers Lead the Way in Exposing Author as a Fraud

Now I feel bad for linking to his site. I even have one of his re-done posters on my writing desk here by the computer. It says "That Tired Feeling, Don't Give In!: That's just individuality trying to reassert itself."

Irony or hypocrisy, whichever

Yesterday while at the gym, I read my new issue of Mother Jones. I was especially interested by the article which discussed the "lightness" of blogs. The author seems to think that political blogs should not be taken seriously. He did admit to being addicted to blogs, but then goes on to dismiss them.

Why did this article interest me so? Well, first of all, I keep a blog (really two) and I do depend on blogs and other internet news sources for my news (along with NPR). I don't read the newspaper, except for the alternative weekly which I don't really get for the news articles. Second of all, as you can tell by my blogroll and previous entries, Mother Jones has a blog! I read it often and take what I read there quite seriously.

Do they not take their own blog seriously? If so, why have one at all? I wait to be enlightened. If anyone saw this article and read it differently, please let me know.