THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for October 4, 2008
Hardly Strictly Tops Itself with Krauss & Plant
Krauss, Plant and band at Golden Gate Park last night.
[photo by Paul Iorio]
"This is, seriously, the best festival I've ever been to,"
said T-Bone Burnett from the stage, after performing an
immensely enjoyable set with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
yesterday evening in Golden Gate Park in San
Francisco.
It was opening night of the annual Hardly Strictly
Bluegrass music fest, a free three-day extravaganza
featuring dozens of top rank folk-rockers, folkies and
singer-songwriters, among others, and the crowd was
bursting.
Burnett wasn't exaggerating. I can't remember the
last time I've seen such a sense of exuberant celebration
on such a vast scale, as if the city had just been
liberated and everyone had come to the park to rejoice
with beer, wine, smiling strangers, non-stop dancing -- and
the best live roots music of the year (for the record,
I had water, straight up).
The band seemed charged by the fact that the crowd was
charged, turning in a performance that was even more
electric than their show in Berkeley a few months ago
(and that's saying a lot).
As for Krauss's voice, I tend to run out of superlatives
when describing its beauty. Let me put it this way: I'm
a non-theistic guy but when I see and hear Krauss sing, I
know for certain there's a musical heaven.
Plant was almost Presleyesque (early Presleyesque)
in terms of charisma, stagecraft, vocal mastery.
And T-Bone's guitar work was often irresistible,
particularly when it resembled John Lennon's rhythm
playing with the early Beatles.
Hardly Strictly continues today and Sunday with an
incredible overabundance of greats, including
Elvis Costello, Iris Dement, Emmylou Harris and Nick
Lowe (all made possible by the massive
generosity of entrepreneur Warren Hellman).
But I digress. Paul
_______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for October 3, 2008
Haven't seen the overnights yet, but I bet yesterday's
Biden-Palin match-up drew the largest audience ever
for any debate, probably largely because people wanted
to see a rank amateur slip and say something stupid
in front of around 60 million TV viewers.
Well, the slip didn't happen, and the headline is,
Palin Didn't Blow It, which isn't the same as
saying she won, because she didn't. It was Joe Biden's
to win, and he did so with Springsteenesque passion,
and when he got to the part about having been a single
parent and not knowing whether one of his kids was
going to make it, well, let's just say there
were a lot of undry eyes.
Biden showed heart and decency but also
confirmed he's still one of the smartest people
in the country on foreign policy. Not only did he
mention capturing and killing bin Laden (Palin didn't),
but he also showed the long-term path to
eliminating future Islamic terrorism:
education reform.
"There have been 7,000 madrassas built along [the
Pakistan-Afghanistan] borders; we should be
helping them build schools," he said. Biden sees
that Islamic terror will stop only when a new
generation of kids growing up in Pakistan (and
on the West Bank, for that matter) are
taught something other than jihad in class.
By contrast, Palin showed a lack of foreign
policy wisdom, calling Iraq the "central front
of the war on terror," despite the fact that
bin Laden and his gang are based elsewhere; and
saying "John McCain knows how to win a war."
(Does he really? The only war in which he fought,
Vietnam, was a defeat for the U.S.)
On domestic policy, she seemed oblivious to
the history-in-the-making going on in the financial
sector, as she spouted outdated cliches about
how the private sector handles things better
than the government. Evidently, she wants health
care to be run by the same private sector that has
just collapsed so spectacularly and that had to
be rescued by the government. (Maybe we should
put AIG and Lehman Bros. in charge of the U.S.
health care system.)
Still, there were no major gaffes on either side,
which means this debate is likely to be almost
completely forgotten by next Tuesday, when
Obama and McCain face off with Tom
Brokaw in Nashville.
* * * *
By the way, some cyber-hacker has evidently
been able to gain remote access to my email
account and may be sending emails from
pliorio@aol.com that are not from me. I'm
aware of this only because I received a sales
email from my own email address this morning
that I didn't send to myself. I'm going to be
working with AOL to solve this problem. In the
meantime, if anyone receives any sort of
uncharacteristic email from pliorio@aol.com,
please let me know immediately, because it may not
be from me! Thanks.
* * *
You know, when you do undercover journalism, as I did
in the 1990s, that targets a corporation like Moody's
(see below), you can expect that they're not going to
say good things about you. So if you hear smear coming
from someone at that company, tell them to shut the
hell up with their lousy fiction. (And feel free to
send me an email telling me what slander someone
there might be saying.)
But I digress. Paul
____________________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 29, 2008
As a journalist, I've been lucky enough to have
met and interviewed, usually one-on-one, some of
the greatest icons of cinema, from Woody Allen to
Tom Hanks, but, unfortunately, I was never able
to meet Paul Newman, who died the other day and
who I admired immensely.
I did, however, write and report about one of
his best films, "Cool Hand Luke" -- my favorite
Newman film, even if most critics prefer "Hud" --
in a story that I wrote and reported for The
Washington Post in 1994.
In my Post story, I asked physicians and other medical
professionals to assess the accuracy of the medical and
health information in feature films. And here's
what the pros told me about what would happen if a mere
mortal were to eat 50 eggs in an hour, as Newman's
character did in the film:
Doctors say Paul Newman's character in "Cool Hand Luke"
was behaving foolishly when he ate 50 eggs, most of them
hard-boiled, within an hour.
"I think you would get a protein overload," says
gastroenterologist Martin Finkel. "One would worry
about over-distending the stomach and rupture."
"You'd cause such an obstruction to your gastric
tract that you'd have constipation for days if
not weeks," adds Rose Ann Soloway, a specialist in
toxicology at the National Capital Poison Center.
"That's something that hard-boiled eggs do: they
really slow up metabolism in the bowels."
(The above is from my piece in the Post.)
Newman, of course, was exempt from the medical
realities that face the rest of us. Or at least
he seemed that way on screen, where he'll live on
forever.
But I digress. Paul
____________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 28, 2008
Regarding the financial crisis: what
rating did Moody's give AIG and all those failed
investment banks just before they collapsed?
Do those ratings constitute fraud or incompetence
on the part of Moody's? If Lehman had, say, a
triple A on Thursday and failed on Friday,
then of what value is a Moody's rating? Are some
news organizations hesitant to investigate Moody's
because they fear having their own credit
ratings downgraded? (Full disclosure: I did
undercover journalism about Moody's in '93 for
a story that never came to fruition, taking
a "position" there for several weeks when I
was actually collecting info about them. But
the piece didn't pan out. For the record, my
undercover journalism reporting was confined to the
period between late 1992 and mid-1995; the best
of those articles were published by Spy magazine
and Details magazine, and I've posted them, along
with other pieces of mine, at
www.paulliorio.blogspot.com.
* * * *
What John McCain Is Thinking Right Now
Maybe I'll ditch her after the election. Yeah,
nobody will notice in that dead zone just before
Christmas, and she can say, "Trig needs my undivided
attention" -- just like that National
Review gal suggested. After the election.
Then again, I might not make it to the White House
with Sarah dragging me down.
But if she quits now, it'll be the Eagleton kiss
of death. I'm indecisive, they'll say. And then
I'd have to break in a brand new running mate.
Meg. I always liked Meg. She reminds me of me.
True grit.
Standing up for 90 minutes really took it out
of me. And I'm trying to make amends with the
Letterman people, but they won't take my calls.
Ole Miss is pissed, too, 'cause I kept 'em
hanging.
But back to Sarah. She didn't tell me about
that affair with the snow machine racer some years
back. She didn't say, "Let me introduce you to my
family: here's my daughter the slut, my husband the
cuckold, and me -- the adulteress." She didn't
say that.
But the press won't find out about all that tabloid
stuff until after the election. For now, everyone
only knows she's not exactly the brightest light
in the greater Arctic Circle region.
Not sure if my melanoma's back. Saw a spot yesterday.
Not certain about it. Haven't even told Cindy yet.
I'll keep it to myself for now. Nobody has to know
until after November 4. And then on New Year's Eve,
when everybody's preoccupied, I'll tell the
world, casually, "Oops, look what I found, one
of those spots on my lower back."
Could be nothing. But what if it's serious? And what
if Sarah has to take over? She thought Kissinger was
president in the 1970s. It took me 90 minutes to explain
to her what a borough in New York City is. At the U.N.,
she asked for a Spanish translator in order to talk
with the Brazilian ambassador. How can I work up
the courage to tell her goodbye?
Would Meg take the spot? How about Carly?
A private sector gal -- that's what's needed for this
financial mess. Or maybe a gook. That might
smooth things over with the Asian vote.
Lieberman hates Sarah. Oh, he says he loves her, but W
has his phone tapped. You should hear the private
stuff he says. His memoir is gonna tell all.
HarperCollins wants him to title it, "Diary of a Traitor:
My Life On Both Sides of the Aisle," but Lieberman
wants "Remembrances of a Principled
Statesman," so there's a bit of a disagreement
there. And he knows about the snow racer, too.
And who is this Daily Digression fellow
anyway? That Oreo guy, calling me a failure
as a fighter pilot. That punk. Thankfully,
the big papers didn't run it.
I'll wait until after the Biden-Palin debate before
I think about replacing her with Meg. She might
do better than expected, if she keeps interrupting
Biden like she did in that debate in Alaska. Just
keep interrupting Joe, and if he overrides her
interruption, he'll look like a bully. Unless
Joe has some readymade zinger like, "Uh, governor,
in Scranton it's considered bad manners to interrupt
someone when he's talking." We'll see.
I wonder if Tina Fey is available?
But I digress. Paul
____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 27, 2008
Friday Night at the Fights
First, am I the only one who noticed that the
debate organizers seem to have placed Obama's
microphone too low? The apparently low mic,
which Obama even tried to adjust at one
point, caused him to lower his face and eyes
more often than he usually does, not his best
angle, and to become less audible
when he lifted and turned his head. McCain,
being shorter, was exactly the right distance
from his own mic, giving him the
advantage in the first ten minutes or so.
But then Obama hit his stride and started
singing that bit that went, "You were wrong
about Iraq...," and he was crooning.
And that's when I realized that he doesn't
resemble JFK as much as he does the early,
skinny Sinatra -- cool, self-assured, the
consummate master at the podium (though lately
a bit of Gwen Ifill's style seems to be
seeping into his persona).
But McCain acquitted himself well, too,
though he came off more like the president of
a small-town bank in a 1950s Capra movie.
Around an hour in, McCain got emotional about
losing the Vietnam war, and I have to say I sort
of got choked up seeing how he was so personally
invested in that conflict, as wrongheaded as that
war was.
After standing for around an hour, it seemed as
if the 72-year-old McCain wanted a chair. Notice
that between the 68 and 73 minute marks, McCain
used the word "sit" three times (Obama, talking
about the same subject, didn't use the word at
all). And then he became frustrated trying to
pronounce "Ahmadinejad," though he did score points
caricaturing what a meeting with the Iranian leader
might sound like.
McCain soon became overly bold, calling for
an across-the-board spending freeze, which Obama
shot down expertly, noting there are some programs
that are underfunded and others that should be
phased out altogether. (By the way, McCain
should retire that "Miss Congeniality"
line, which he used twice last night.)
All told, both candidates did well, with a slight
edge going to Obama.
* * * *
PHOTO OF THE DAY:
Here's a shot I snapped the other week of
a crowd lined up to watch eco-protesters in
Berkeley, Calif.
But I digress. Paul
_____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 26, 2008
Nice setlist for the Paul McCartney show at
Park HaYarkon, the biggest surprise being
"A Day in the Life," which he hadn't played
live anywhere until a few months ago, I hear.
Macca is apparently becoming less McCartney-centric
these days about the Beatles songs he performs,
as evinced by the inclusion of a Harrison tune,
"Something," which, truth be told, is effectively
a Harrison/James Taylor composition, though
Taylor has been too kind over the decades about
the swipe; a bona fide (as opposed to nominal)
Lennon/McCartney song, "A Day in the Life," which
is arguably a Lennon/McCartney/Martin composition;
a Lennon song, "Give Peace a Chance," credited
to Lennon/McCartney, though it's actually one
of the many "Lennon/McCartney" songs
that was not written by both of them.
By the way, if Lennon were still alive, and I were
McCartney, I would push to renegotiate the
Lennon/McCartney credit on all the Beatles
songs that were written either wholly by
McCartney or by Lennon, so that authorship
would go to the person who actually wrote each
track. I find it very unfair that a masterpiece
like "Yesterday" is not only co-credited to Lennon,
who didn't write a note or word of it, but that
Lennon is the first one listed as the composer.
Likewise, it's just as wrong that McCartney
is listed as co-writer of "Give Peace a Chance,"
a tune Lennon wrote alone and that the Beatles
never recorded.
Accuracy, transparency, honesty should trump all
else in both business and in the arts. The old
days of the 1950s, when some cigar-chomping
mogul named Morty would demand to have his
name listed in songwriting credits for a song
he didn't write, are long over. Of course,
the Lennon/McCartney partnership was never that
sort of thing, but "Lennon/McCartney" is also not
an accurate credit when it comes to a large percentage
of the Beatles catalog. Unfortunately, renegotiating
the record of authorship in Lennon's absence -- with,
say, Yoko Ono and the estate of Lennon -- wouldn't
feel right, particularly given that a deal's a deal
until both sides say it's not -- and they both agreed
in writing to the co-credit -- and that Yoko may not
be fully aware of who composed what
in each song.
One saving grace is that McCartney didn't have to deal
with a dishonest bandmate who tried to falsely
take credit for the brilliant melodies and lyrics
that he alone composed. He was spared
that nightmare.
Anyway, I'm digressing.
Regarding the HaYarkon show, which I didn't attend,
it's curious he played nothing from "Abbey
Road" (except Harrison's "Something"), the
Beatles's best album. Perhaps that's because
he has been playing the side two medley to
death since 1989. But still, there are
some unrealized possibilities in the "Abbey"
material; has he ever tried expanding
"Her Majesty" beyond a single verse? Or
playing "Golden Slumbers" as a free-standing song?
Also, he plays "Blackbird" all the time, but
why not try the exquisite "Mother Nature's Son,"
too? Maybe together with "Blackbird."
Has he ever performed "Another Day" live?
Does it not come off well in concert? I think
it's one of his very best singles, despite the
rep given to it by "How Do You Sleep," which
itself is not a very good tune at all. I frequently
play "Another" on acoustic guitar in my apartment
for pleasure and thoroughly enjoy it.
"Mrs. Vanderbilt" is a very smart addition to the
setlist, though I'd prefer an emphasis on "Ram"
material like "Back Seat of My Car," "Dear Boy,"
"Too Many People," "Monkberry Moon Delight," etc.
(Maybe he should play the whole album at Radio City
and encore with the entire "Band on the Run,"
Truth is, no single McCartney show could possibly
include even half of his greatest songs.
* * * *
Back in the day, after Nixon nominated a dope
for the Supreme Court, Senator Hruksa of Nebraska
defended the nominee, saying: "[The mediocre] are
entitled to a little representation, aren't they?"
Well, Hruska would have just adored Sarah Palin. Her
IQ in terms of political thought and general reasoning
ability is almost certainly somewhere in the 90s, which
makes her not just average, but something even better for
those with a fetish for mediocrity: slightly below
average.
To be sure, an IQ can be highly variable within a
given person; Albert Einstein's IQ in physics was off
the charts, but his verbal IQ was probably around 103.
So Palin may have extraordinary abilities we don't know
about yet -- maybe she's highly intuitive when it comes
to predicting which sled dog will lead in the Iditarod,
not an insubstantial talent for those betting in the
tundra -- but we do know this, or should know this,
by now: Palin is astonishingly stupid
when it comes to political thought and policy
reasoning.
And I don't mean just un-intellectual or
anti-intellectual.
She lacks even basic common logic and sense in that
area -- and the self-knowledge to stay out of an
arena in which she's clearly overmatched.
Which leads to the question: what was John McCain
thinking when he chose her? Is there something in
his character that caused him to make such a reckless
decision, or is it that his judgment has become
rusty with age?
Remember, McCain does have the instincts of a
fighter pilot -- but of a fighter pilot who failed,
almost fatally. He was shot down and did not succeed on
his final mission. Granted, that aborted sortie over
Hanoi might not have been his fault -- great pilots are
often downed, even when they're flying expertly and
wisely -- but, then again, it might have been the
result of McCain making an aerial maneuver
that was too risky and careless, bold in a
dumb way.
Like his decision to choose Palin.
The latest evidence of Palin's unbraininess was on vivid
display last night on the "CBS Evening News," in an
interview with Katie Couric that was even more
revealing than her conversation with Charles Gibson.
Here's an annotated transcript (my remarks are in bold caps):
COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of
your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?
PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between
a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land
boundary that we have with Canada. It, it's funny that a
comment like that was kind of made to -- caric -- I don't
know, you know. Reporters --
[OK, PALIN WAS ABOUT TO USE THE WORD 'CARICATURE'
BUT APPEARED TO BE UNSURE OF THE MEANING,
APPROPRIATENESS OR PRONUNCIATION OF IT.]
COURIC: Mock?
PALIN: Um, mocked, I guess that's the word.
COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy
credentials.
PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our, our next door
neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that
I am the executive of. [THEY'RE IN THE
STATE?]And there in Russia --
COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations,
for example, with the Russians? [EXCELLENT
QUESTION]
PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. [TRADE MISSIONS
BACK AND FORTH? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? ARE REPORTERS
FACT-CHECKING THAT CLAIM?] We -- we do-- it's
very important when you consider even national security issues
with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space
of the United States of America [AN INADVERTENTLY SURREAL
AND CARTOONISH IMAGE, SUGGESTING A GIGANTIC PUTIN
BALLOON AT A STREET PARADE], where, where do they go?
It's Alaska. [SHE'S NOT MAKING A BIT OF SENSE
HERE] It's just right over the border. It
is from Alaska that we send those out ["WE
SEND THOSE OUT" MEANS WHAT?; AGAIN, SHE'S NOT MAKING
SENSE] to make sure that an eye is being kept on this
very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there.
They are right next to, to our state.
So there you have the annotated version.
In the interest of fairness, if Palin would like to
explain herself or be interviewed by me for the
Daily Digression, I can be reached
at pliorio@aol.com.
* * * *
POLITICAL QUOTE OF THE DAY: On today's "NewsHour,"
Rep. Barney Frank was more persuasive than I'd ever
seen him. He rocked the place. And he had a
terrific one-liner, saying that John McCain's
return to Congress to help write legislation
that had already been largely written was
like "Andy Kaufman as Mighty Mouse" miming
"Here I Come to Save The Day."
But I digress. Paul
______________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 24, 2008
Sen. John McCain (above) wants to postpone the presidential
debate because of the ongoing tragedy in Darfur. [photographer
unknown]
* * * *
Hope Paul McCartney's show tomorrow at Park HaYarkon
turns out very well. But keep in mind that this
isn't the first time McCartney has had to deal with
death threats from religious right-wingers.
In 1966, when he toured the southern U.S. with the
Beatles, Christian fundamentalists vowed to kill
the band during performances in Texas and
elsewhere, after John Lennon made controversial
remarks about Jesus Christ.
Forty-two years later, only the fanatics's robes
and sheets have changed.
* * *
You know, it occurred to me the other day: if some
folks in the Noam Chomsky faction of the American
left substituted the words Taliban and al Qaeda with
the phrase Ku Klux Klan, they would have greater
clarity about bin Laden and the Afghanistan war of '01.
And if the religious right of America took a hard look
at the Taliban, they would see themselves in the mirror.
* * * *
Missed most of the Emmys the other night, but did
catch Teri Hatcher's yellow dress, which may have
been the highlight.
But I digress. Paul
_____________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 20, 2008
Last Night's My Morning Jacket Show
Jim James, rocketing. [photograher unknown]
Turns out that all the raves I've been hearing about
My Morning Jacket's current tour are accurate,
if last night's concert in Berkeley, Calif., was
any indication. At Friday's show, the band seemed
bent on doing nothing short of reinventing the
electric guitar jam for the late-Oughties, and
there were at least three or four guitar odysseys
that were thrilling, twisty, intense,
unpredictable and always awake to the
undiscovered possibilities of amplification.
And what a night for atmospherics! Fog turned
into mist and then into drizzle and then into
heavy fog and mist at the open-air Greek Theater,
while the group's light show (which I saw from
the hills above the theater) was caught in
the haze. At one point, a beam of lavender
in the heavy fog looked like a massive batch
of cotton candy in the sky.
Even band leader Jim James remarked on the
weather. "Thank you for waiting through the
mist and the rain," he said, noting that the
area looked like "a misty Scottish battlefield."
Then he and his band played a rousing "I'm Amazed"
-- the best song on their new album, and one of
the catchiest pop-rock tracks released by anyone
this year -- and the tune blazed like brilliant
autumn leaves in a grove.
"I love it when it starts turning Fall again, and
you start feeling nostalgic," James said, before
playing "Golden."
Last time he played this venue, in May, 2007, it was a
chilly night on the verge of summer, and he was doing a
solo acoustic set, opening for Bright Eyes and
(among other things) giving fans a preview of
"Touch Me, I'm Going to Scream (Part 1)"
a year before its release.
This show, supporting the amazing "Evil Urges" album,
was far more exciting and fun. Highlights included
"I'm Amazed," set-opener "Evil Urges," the Clashish
"Off the Record," the quirky "Highly Suspicious"
and the truly breathtaking, groundbreaking guitarwork
after "Run Thru."
This is one of the year's most exciting indie
tours, well worth checking out.
But I digress. Paul
[above, photo of Jim James from la.cityzine.com, circa March '08.]
_______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 18 - 19, 2008
The Antonioni Revival
A couple weeks ago, the Venice Film Festival screened
Carlo di Carlo's "Antonioni su Antonioni," based on
interviews with the late filmmaker Michelangelo
Antonioni.
Last month, the National Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C. had retrospective screenings
of many of Antonioni's films, including some real
rarities.
And some of his movies are -- finally -- making it to
DVD in the U.S. (though I still can't find a copy of
his first color film, 1964's "Il Deserto rosso").
So there seems to be a bit of an Antonioni revival
going on.
Re-watching several of his pictures recently, I came
away with a new appreciation of "Blow-Up," underrated
by those who overrate "L'avventura." I now see more
clearly its central meaning, metaphysically and otherwise:
we never get the entire picture; as human beings, we
have incomplete information about existence. And the
closer we get to the truth, the further away
it gets.
That also explains why the main character picks up
physical fragments -- a plane propeller, a shard of
Jeff Beck's guitar -- much as he sees only fragments
of what he photographed in the park that day. Beautiful
metaphor.
And when he blows up a photo in order to solve a
mystery, the photo becomes only more mysterious,
more ambiguous. The more he sees, the less he sees.
It's like sitting too close to the amplifiers at
a rock concert; you end up hearing less when it's louder.
My only beef is the ending, the mime tennis match, a
clever idea that doesn't really fit with the rest
of the film. The irresolution plays less well than
it does in "L'avventura."
Don't get me wrong, I love cinematic irresolution,
but you have to make it work, as Antonioini
did in "L'avventura" (or as David Chase did, many decades
later, in the "Pine Barrens" episode of "The Sopranos").
Antonioni knew form could get in the way of
expression; if what he wanted to express didn't
fit the narrative formula of conflict/climax/resolution,
then he'd jettison form.
By the way, it's also a lot of fun (in this short
life!) to run into a flock of pigeons, snapping
pictures wildly, as the main character does in
"Blow-Up." I tried that a couple years ago myself, and
here's the photo I shot (click it to enlarge it):
The central metaphor of "Blow-Up"
also applies to the flock of pigeons
sequence, too, because people who get
inside a flying flock of birds see
them less clearly than those who
watch from a distance.
But I digress. Paul
P.S. -- If you'd like to read some of my other writings
on cinema, published in such publications as The Los
Angeles Times, The New York Times, etc., please go to
www.paulliorio.blogspot.com.
P.S. -- To any writer who wants to echo my original
insights on Antonioni and "Blow-Up": if you do
so, please don't forget to cite Paul Iorio as your
source.
_________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 18, 2008
So who knew the narrative would twist so unpredictably,
that the American economy would collapse so spectacularly
weeks before the presidential election? Pundits, hold
your predictions.
Also, I've never seen so many Republicans and Wall
Streeters become born-again socialists overnight.
Welcome to the fold. Solidarity forever, and all
that. Gee, I thought they were all for free markets
and de-regulation. This Sunday, let's hear George
Will admit he was wrong about unregulated capitalism
(fat chance).
And who knew Palin would start to fade like Sanjaya. Her
convention appearance now seems more like a stunt or like
someone slightly drunk who comes late to a dull party
and really livens things up but is soon forgotten.
* * *
Here're a couple photos that I've snapped in recent
weeks.
This one is of a sculpture, "Westinghouse-Fichet"
(1984 - 88), by French artist Bertrand Lavier, on
display at the Berkeley (Calif.) Art Museum. Consists
of an ottoman atop a refrigerator, a fresh juxtaposition
I'd never seen before.
* * *
Also, here's an everyday photo I shot the other week of
a street in San Francisco's Chinatown.
* * *
LOCAL NOTES: I sometimes videotape news shows when
I'm out and then fast forward through them later. The
other day, I noticed that the local CBS affiliate here
in the Bay Area had temporarily put its traffic reporter,
Elizabeth Wenger, in the anchor spot for one of its news
programs. All I can say is, wow, did she fill the chair
like a natural. Beauty, brains, youth. And a huge
future in broadcast news, I bet.
But I digress. Paul
____________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 17, 2008
What They Need's A Damned Good Whacking
Some rich, homicidal, transient Syrian-born guy,
whose family has more houses than John McCain, is
now spending his leisure time lobbing death threats
at the world's greatest living composer,
Sir Paul McCartney.
The "reason" for the threats is that McCartney plans
to give a concert in Israel to celebrate its 60th
anniversary as a nation.
And that's evidently not to the liking of one Omar Bakri
Muhammad, also known as Omar Bakri Fostock.
Muhammad/Fostock said the following to London's Sunday
Express in last Sunday's edition: “If he values his
life Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel. He will
not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be
waiting for him.”
"Sacrifice operatives"? Sounds like a job description
invented by H.R. Haldeman. Terrorism has finally
gone bureaucratic. Next they'll have Sacrifice
Management, Sacrifice Research and Development, etc.
Look, I've been warning in print for decades about the
encroachment by Muslim militants on free speech and
artistic expression. First they came after Salman
Rushdie for writing a work of fiction. Then the militants
said, no, you can't even draw a cartoon of their
prophet Mohammed. Then, earlier this year, they
scared away Random House -- Random House, no less! -- from
publishing a book ("The Jewel of Medina") that
included a fantasy about religious figures. And
now McCartney's on their hit list for taking a
political stand.
It's long been a slippery slope when it comes to
the demands of Muslim right-wingers. What's next?
Are they going to threaten theater-owners who
screen the new Woody Allen movie because
they consider it sacrilegious? Are they going to
demand that the Uffizi Gallery remove religious
paintings by Giotto and Raphael because they're
the works of infidels?
No, we should not suspend free speech every time
Muslim militants throw a temper tantrum. Islamic
extremists must learn to be tolerant of expression
that offends them and should understand that violence
is not the only way to respond to a disagreement.
Hey, I support the creation of a Palestinian state
and a two-state (three-state?) solution, but I also
say: happy birthday, Israel; you've long since earned
your sovereignty.
And bravo to Sir Paul for his bravery in rebuffing the
militants and for insisting the show must go on.
But I digress. Paul
_______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 16, 2008
Watching the Newly Released "Get Smart" DVDs (and Loving It!)
Agent 86, tracking down Yellowcake at Zabar's pastry counter.
Given its ubiquity on YouTube and its cult
popularity in recent years, it's hard to
believe "Get Smart," the 1960s TV series,
hadn't been officially released on DVD in
the U.S. until last month.
Watching most of the first season the other
week, I was reminded why this was one of the
funniest sit-coms in broadcast tv history -- one
of the five funniest, in my view (the other
four being "All in the Family," "Sanford and Son,"
"The Honeymooners" and "Seinfeld").
Like "Seinfeld," and unlike the other three,
it took a couple dozen episodes for "Get Smart"
to hit its full stride, and when it did -- near the
end of the first season, with the two-parter "Ship of
Spies," a nice blend of humor and suspense -- it was
as good as sit-comedy gets.
For those about to rent the "Smart" DVDs, my
suggestion is to start with disc four of the
premiere season, which includes the final (and
funniest) episodes of the first season. Disc
one is somewhat spotty, revealing a series still
searching for its identity, a show still framed
as a sort of Spy-and-His-Dog type
thing, probably in order to make it more
palatable to middle America.
There is, of course, the endless succession of
gadgets and inventions, like the hilariously
malfunctioning Cone of Silence (and the more obscure
Tube of Silence), gun phones, hydrant phones,
hair dryer phones and the truly astonishing
cologne phone! Plus peg leg guns,
violin guns, purse guns. In 2008, some of
these inventions seem simultaneously
futuristic and anachronistic (like that rotary
shoe phone).
And let's not forget the many inventive hiding
places of the ever-suffering Agent 44!
All told, it's as addictive as potato chips,
particularly in the late first season.
* * *
Other DVDs I've been watching lately:
"SANFORD AND SON" -- SEASON ONE:
Within 29 seconds of the first episode of the first
season, I was roaring with laughter. But after
the first half dozen shows, it becomes
less startlingly funny, though still enormously
entertaining.
Redd Foxx is riotous even when he's just sitting
in his favorite chair, though I can't help but wonder
how much more brilliant the series would have been
as a Richard Pryor-Redd Foxx vehicle, with Pryor,
of course, in the Lamont role.
"Sanford and Son" differs from the other four
greatest sit-coms listed above in that it's a
two-person comedy, which is harder to sustain
than such ensemble works as "Seinfeld," "The Honeymooners,"
and "All in the Family," which all had four main
regular characters.
Sometimes "Sanford" resembles "The Honeymooners"
without an Alice or a Trixie, though Sanford and his
son have more modest dreams than Ralph and Ed. Where
Ralph and Ed hatched extravagant get-rich-quick schemes,
Lamont and Fred just wanted to break even or turn a
modest profit, for the most part. And the two programs
shared at least a couple plot lines in common (e.g.,
finding a briefcase full of money and being confronted
by the crooks who own it; mistaking someone else's
dire medical diagnosis for his own, etc.).
The best of season one is "A Matter of Life and Breath,"
in which Fred, and then Lamont, have a medical scare
that turns out to be a false alarm
Sadly surprising that Foxx wasn't given a shot on
network TV until this series, when he was already
in his fifties.
* * *
"SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE -- THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (DISC EIGHT)":
Everybody has seen the very first episodes of
SNL countless times, but not as many have seen the
final few shows of the first season (which extended
until almost August of '76).
The quality on Disc 8 is variable, though there are
gems to be found, particularly on the program hosted
by Kris Kristofferson, which is must-see stuff,
powered by Kristofferson's presence in sketches
in which he plays, among other things, a congressman,
a tv ad pitchman -- and a gynecologist dating one
of his former patients. But the most hilarious sketch
is the tv cop show parody "Police State," starring
Dan Aykroyd -- an idea ripe for revival.
* * *
"THE JACK PAAR COLLECTION"
Interesting DVD, with both monologues and
interviews from "The Jack Paar Show" of the
early 1960s. Paar's style so influenced
Johnny Carson that the two could pass for
close cousins. On this DVD, his guests
include a mostly humorless Barry Goldwater and
Robert Kennedy, still emotionally
fragile in the months after his brother's murder.
But his most impressive guest was Muhammad Ali, back
when he was called Cassius Clay, who seems to have
invented rap on the Paar show on November 29, 1963,
when he rhymes while Liberace plays piano. It
occurred to me: if you were to put a hip hop beat
behind Ali's rhymes, you'd have a terrific rap track.
I'm surprised someone hasn't done that yet.
* * *
ANOTHER TV NOTE: For at least the third time in recent
months, Al Roker, on "Today," has used the line "Hey,
I've got some pictures of dogs playing cards!," or
some variation of that, which he always passes off
as a spontaneous quip, which it ain't. I think
he needs some fresh material.
But I digress. Paul
[above, photo of Don Adams from Seattle Times.]
__________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 14, 2008
Who Will Palin Choose As Veep When She Succeeds McCain?
Our nukes are about to fall into the hands of
the Taliban.
Lemme me explain. But first, the short math.
Pollsters say Florida's not in play anymore and
is out of reach for Obama. That means ditto
for everything redder -- namely Georgia, Virginia,
Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, Nevada.
So let's see. The I-4 corridor ain't in play,
but metro Cincinnati is? That's humorous. Count
Ohio out for Obama. Count Wisconsin
out. Count the West Wing out, too.
McCain becomes #44 in January, and how long do you think
it will be before his melanoma recurs and metastasizes,
and doctors give him, say, six months to live?
(Look, I certainly hope that doesn't happen, but let's
look at realistic scenarios for a moment.) At his
age, the likelihood of recurrence is substantial.
And that's when our nukes fall in the hands of the
Taliban, aka Sarah Palin, who resembles Mullah Omar
(without the eyepatch) in oh so many ways (e.g., she's
a fundamentalist who acts like a book burning
religious crusader).
That's Palin, president number 45, who recently went on
Charles Gibson's show and casually declared war on, oh,
Russia, Iran, and other "spaz" nations, before heading off
to, presumably, dress a moose, whatever the hell that is.
She's likely to ascend to the presidency without ever
having given a national press conference, because I
doubt McCain will let her meet the press in the seven
remaining weeks till the election -- and after Nov. 4,
she doesn't have to.
The big question, for those with foresight, is: who
will Palin choose as her vice president when she
succeeds McCain? The answer is easy. She
would have to mollify the many moderates (not to
mention moderate-liberals and liberals) who would
be threatening mutiny and calling for her to step
down so that someone qualified could run the country.
And the only way for Palin to stop calls for
her resignation or impeachment (over, say,
Troopergate) would be to choose Joe Lieberman, who
would then reassure a trembling nation that the
mainstream is still in power and that he has arrived
on the scene to become Palin's Cheney.
* * *
Odd that Palin repeatedly referred to John McCain as
"McCain" in her second interview with Charles Gibson.
(What? She's not on a first name basis with her running
mate yet? Yet she repeatedly called Gibson "Charlie.")
* * *
Prediction: McCain starts using phrases
like "freak out."
Prediction: Obama starts using phrases
like "dern it" and "well, heck."
Prediction: Palin digs up some distant
gay cousin and trots him out, saying, "I love him just
the way God made him."
* * *
Tina Fey was funny last night on SNL as Palin, but
people tend to overstate the resemblance. After all,
Fey is a very attractive woman, Palin is not (Palin
misses being attractive by around 7%). "And I can
see Russia from my house" is a classic SNL moment.
SNL's season premiere was primo, at least for the
first hour. "Quiz Bowl," featuring a home-schooled
team; Kristen Wiig's glove commercial; and the Inchon
fight song sketch were absolutely hilarious. (Wiig
has a brilliant ability to play unhinged characters
in a manner that's both controlled and way
over-the-top.) But the high note was the Political
Comedian monologue on Weekend Update, which (unless
my Yuban was playing tricks on me) was a bit of comic
genius, or something quite like it.
But I digress. Paul
______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 12, 2008
Sarah Palin is Fully Qualified to be the Principal
of a Public High School in Alaska
Charles Gibson's interview with Sarah Palin was a
magnificent piece of television journalism. Gibson
was even-handed, understated, more than fair, quietly
tough and unexpectedly lethal.
Palin sounded like an undergrad b.s.ing on an essay
question.
Incredibly, she claimed that Alaska's physical proximity
to Russia was one of her foreign policy credentials.
(Which, of course, would make the Mayor of Nome and
thousands of Eskimos experts on international relations.)
Gibson followed the logic of her claim and asked one of
the most brilliant questions of the political season:
"What insight into Russian actions, particularly in
the last couple weeks, does the proximity of the state
[of Alaska] give you?"
Palin's response was something you'd expect from a
not-so-bright candidate for student body president
of a high school: "They're our next door neighbors.
And you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska."
Shockingly, she didn't even know what the Bush Doctrine
was (I knew instantly what Gibson was referring to,
with regard to the Bush Doctrine), and somewhat
less shockingly, admitted she had never traveled
outside America before her "trip of a lifetime" to
Kuwait and Germany last year.
And then there's her awkward use of language -- "We
must make sure that...nuclear weapons are not given
to those hands of Ahmadinejad" -- and Valley Girlisms
(she puts down "someone's big fat resume" like she's
talking about "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"; she says
the 9/11 hijackers did "not believe in American ideals"
(those hijackers were sooo grody!!!)).
In short, she's the new "American Idol" flavor of the
month -- and approximately as qualified as Sanjaya
or Fantasia to conduct foreign policy and manage
nuclear weapons.
But I digress. Paul
__________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 10 - 11, 2008
The Seventh Anniversary of an Awful Day
I actually liked the twin towers, aesthetically. I
particularly enjoyed walking through the World Trade
Center plaza on early Sunday mornings, when almost
nobody was around, because that's when the architecture
seemed to come alive without the busy distractions of
tourists and office workers. When the plaza was windswept
and desolate, it reminded me of the Acropolis, and the
towers themselves looked like a pair of Stanley Kubrick's
futuristic monoliths in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
I used to think: this whole city may be gone
in 700 years but those towers will stand like the Great
Pyramids forever, there is no erasing them. I used
to think that a lot in my countless walks through
that plaza. I had high hopes for those towers.
When I lived in and around (mostly in) Manhattan
from 1979 to 1996, I photographed the towers from
every angle imaginable: through the sculptures in the
plaza, from the Hoboken ferry on the Hudson, from atop
the south tower, from atop the unfinished World
Financial Center in '85, you name it.
On this 7th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks,
let me share several of my own original photos
of the towers, which I shot in the
1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
The real tragedy, of course, was the death of
thousands of people in those towers, so let's all
remember those who died on that awful day.
I shot this pic in 1984 through a sculpture in the World Trade Center plaza.
* * *
The twin towers were the backdrop for a speech by Bill Clinton; I snapped this photo on August 1, 1994, at Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
* * *
An early nineties photo that I snapped from across the Hudson.
* * *
The twin towers, as seen from a hill in Hoboken, N.J.; I shot this in the 1980s.
* * *
Another picture I snapped from inside a nearby sculpture.
* * *
I shot this one from a boat on the Hudson (early nineties).
____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 10, 2008
Once again, The Daily Digression is first.
In yesterday's Digression (see below), I coined
the term "Palinista" to refer to supporters of
Sarah Palin. Today, in her column in the New
York Times, Maureen Dowd also uses the
word "Palinista."
For the record, I coined it first.
But I digress. Paul
____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
EXTRA! for September 9, 2008
A couple hours ago, in Berkeley, Calif., eco-protesters
finally came down from the redwood in the oak grove
where they had been tree-sitting for the past 21 months.
There was no rioting or violence as there was last
Friday evening (see Daily Digression, Sept. 6, 2008), but
tensions were high until the sitters came down to earth
at around 1:30pm (PT).
I was at the scene a few hours ago and shot these photos:
Two activists voicing support for the tree-sitters earlier today. [photo by Paul Iorio]
* * *
A protester from "CopWatch" watches cops who were keeping activists away from the oak grove this morning. [photo by Paul Iorio]
* * *
The redwood where the final four tree-sitters sat, around ninety minutes before they came down from the tree. [photo by Paul Iorio]
* * *
Yes, "Save the Oaks" t-shirts were on sale at today's protest. [photo by Paul Iorio]
________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 8 - 9, 2008
The Temporary Palinization of America
(The Rise of the Palinistas)
The B---- To Nowhere: She wants you to trust her with the launch codes. [photographer unknown]
If Sarah Palin had tried to run for president in
early 2008, she would have likely lost all the primaries,
trailing somewhere between Sam Brownback and Duncan
Hunter. As a complete unknown outside Alaska,
she would have had to meet the press and do interviews
in which voters would've plainly seen her vast
inexperience and lack of stature. Her funding would've
dried up, her mis-speakings would've been ammo for
Letterman and Stewart, and she would've dropped out
after the first couple primaries, fading back into the
Aurora Borealis just in time to host the next Iditarod.
In other words, she wouldn't have been able to earn
her spot on the presidential ballot -- though she's now
fully capable of being appointed to the ticket.
With a mere seven weeks or so until the general, McCain
can now cynically keep her away from almost all the top
national journalists -- and she can run the clock the
way she couldn't if she were a candidate campaiging a
year before the election.
Scripted by pros, stage-managed like an actor, Palin can
play "Tootsie" for several weeks, without having anyone look
too hard at who she really is. Meanwhile, lots of minor
pols now think they, too, are Sarah Barracuda -- or could
be, because Sarah didn't have any major experience before
ascending to the national stage, so it could happen to
them, too, they think. (By the way, get ready for
the Palinization of television advertising, an
onslaught of tv commericals for all sorts of products
featuring perky wifey types (Palinistas) saying things
like, "I'm just a regular PTA mom, and I don't know
much about history, but I do know about my history
with laxatives." Etc.)
If you believe she's qualified to be president, then you're
effectively saying there's no such thing as being properly
qualified for the presidency, that the presidency is an
unskilled position that a virtual amateur can do as well
as a pro.
I mean, it's one thing to be responsible, as she was as
mayor, for events like the "Fishing Derby" and the
"Alaska Arbor Day Celebration," and quite another
to be in charge of enough uranium and plutonium
to end life on this planet. (As for her experience
as governor of a state with the population of Charlotte,
North Carolina, it should be noted that she
has yet to serve a full calendar year in that
position.)
And a huge issue that the media is largely ignoring is
that she believes the religious theory of creationism
should be taught alongside the scientific theory of evolution
in the public schools.
That's akin to believing in voodoo or in a flat Earth -- and that's
what's called a red flag. It means, among other things, that
such a person lacks the mental ability to assess fact-based
evidence, which is not the sort of quality you'd want in a
Commander-in-Chief.
Imagine if Palin were to say she believes the world is flat and
that you can fall off the Earth by sailing across the Pacific.
You would need to know nothing else about her in order to
know she's not qualified to be president. Electing someone
who believes in creationism is like electing someone who
still thinks the sun revolves around the Earth (and,
astonishingly, one in five Americans still believes the
latter). Some pundits would note that truth, if they
weren't on such a sugar high from the jellybeans.
But I digress. Paul
P.S. --
Q: What's the Difference Between Sarah Palin
and Those Who Persecuted Copernicus?
A: Lipstick.
* * *
P.S. -- For those who think Palin's popularity is
sure to endure, I have two words for you: Ross Perot.
______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 6, 2008
I ran into a mini-riot in Berkeley,
Calif., on my way to hear the Dave Matthews Band
perform at the Greek Theater several hours ago.
As I walked along Piedmont Avenue at around 7pm
(Friday), a violent scuffle broke out between police
and eco-activists trying to stop the University of
California from cutting down a grove of oak trees.
Here are some photos I shot of the mini-riot.
The guy on the ground clashed with cops and was tossed around and beaten pretty badly. (Sorry for the bluriness, but I was in the midst of the melee and being jostled.) [photo by Paul Iorio.]
* *
Two cops detain an activist (he's beneath a guy's bare arm at center left) while a crowd surrounds the cops and chants, "Let him go." [photo by Paul Iorio]
* *
A woman smashes a metal pot/drum with a bar in the middle of Piedemont Ave. [photo by Paul Iorio]
Needless to say, I didn't make it to the Dave Matthews show
until late (just as a 4.0 quake hit that part of the
East Bay, I found out later), though I did get to hear
around 45 minutes of the gig from the hills above
the Greek Theater.
I arrived as Matthews was starting "Eh Hee," a song he
released as a digital single a year ago, which was
followed by a song I didn't recognize and then by a
full-band version of 2003's "Gravedigger," which
got fans going.
"It's a lovely evening," Matthews said from the stage
after that one -- and it was. Cool, dry, crisp, like
the first night of fall (after a day of 100 degree
heat).
The crowd was even more enthusiastic about
2002's "Grey Street," featuring some spirited
sax playing by whoever has replaced the late
saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who died a few weeks ago.
Anyway, I didn't have time to hear the rest
of the concert, and walked home along Piedmont,
where I'd seen violence a few hours before.
Things had become considerably more harmonious
at the site of the protests; some guy was playing guitar and
singing some Bob Marley song, cops were
mingling and talking with the activists -- and
I strolled home.
But I digress. Paul
________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 5, 2008
Probably John McCain's best speech yet, though
that's not saying much because he's not exactly known
for his oratory. The problem with his "change" theme
is he's implicitly saying he disagrees with the policies
of the Bush administration, though he actually claims
he does not disagree with them.
When he made his entrance, he, frankly, looked a bit
like a senior security guard, casually checking to see
that the stage was safe and in order for the arriving
candidate.
What has been glossed over by some news organizations
is that his speech was interrupted at least three times
by noisy protesters, who were quickly, muscularly whisked
away, Beijing-style, by security guards. They seemed to
almost blow McCain's cool at one point.
After his speech, the body language onstage was
telling. Palin looked like McCain's fling (because she
acted like his fling), though you'd never say the same
thing about Meg Whitman or Carly Fiorina. Sure, McCain
and Palin briefly acted the expected role of candidate
and running mate, but for the most part, McCain
seemed to be distancing himself from her and even
appeared to be a little miffed at her, as if he had
found out hours earlier that there was real substance
to the rumor that Palin had once had an extramarital
affair with a snowmachine racer. Meanwhile, he gave a big,
big wave in the direction of Whitman, almost as if to say,
"Hold on, Meg, you're on standby."
Ah, how soon we forget the lessons of Eliot Spitzer:
the most puritanical are often the most secretly
promiscuous.
But I digress. Paul
______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
EXTRA! for September 4, 2008
Check out the sermons by Sarah Palin's pastor,
Ed Kalnins, staff crackpot at the way-out
Wasilla Assembly of God.
Plus, the inside word is that, yes, there is
some evidence to substantiate the charge
that Palin had an extramarital affair with
a snowmobile racer and biz associate of her
husband's.
So let me put all this together. A wild
and crazy church. A swingin' adultress
luv guv. And an underage daughter who's
havin' unprotected pre-marital sex with
an adult.
Sounds like the religious right has really
loosened up in recent years!
___________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for September 4, 2008
The First EyeWitnessNews Candidate for Vice President!
Now the McCain strategy is becoming clear: hire a
television newscaster as your running mate if you
wanna win!
Of all the skills required to become a successful
candidate, telegenicity is key.
McCain was looking for someone with the ability to look
directly into the camera and make it work, the ability to
play the space onstage, and a sense of what is
and is not effective on TV.
Palin's experience in broadcasting in Alaska has evidently
paid off. She has become the very first EyeWitnessNews
candidate for vice-president or president, and she
knows all the tricks and buzzwords.
News flash. Breaking news. We have a reporter on the way
to the scene now. This is developing news. We'll bring
you details as we learn them. Stay with us. Because
firefighters are getting the upper hand on that blaze.
70% contained. Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief.
They're lucky to be alive. We really dodged a bullet.
The tide has turned. What a difference a day makes!
Thank you for joining us. Stay tuned.
Yes, that's what a Palin presidency would sound like.
But could you please name one -- just one -- original
policy idea that she mentioned in her entire half-hour-plus
speech? Can you name one original policy idea that she
has ever had? If so, could you show me documentation
of that?
Unfortunately for Palin, her punch lines are already
getting stale. "Thanks but no thanks on that bridge to
nowhere": uh, Sarah, I think we already heard that one.
Like...last Friday. (Even Cindy McCain was almost
rolling her eyes in a cutaway shot.)
And then there was that odd appearance by McCain -- odd
in that he didn't properly close out his cameo
with a "see you tomorrow night" or something. Instead
he was led off the stage by nurse Sarah, who will make
sure gramps doesn't wander from the home and his meds and
onto the stage again.
Other notes on Night 3:
MITT ROMNEY: Inconvenient truth omitted from Romney's
auto-bio last night: he failed to mention that he came
from wealth, which gave him a gigantic advantage in his
later business pursuits.
And Romney's line about "homes that are free from
promiscuity" received an uneasy, embarrassed, tepid
response, the reason being that it's now known
the Palin home was the site of unprotected, underage,
unmarried sex. (At least we know they're not frigid in
Alaska!)
MEG WHITMAN: She looks sort of like a female version of
John McCain -- or John McCain's sister.
But I digress. Paul
P.S. -- The real double-standard about Palin is
that some female pundits, so relentlessly harsh
about the seemingly low IQs of guys like Dan Quayle
and W, overlook her obvious lack of stature and
appear to be charmed by Palin. If she were a guy
who called himself "an average hockey dad" and who
was as demonstrably mediocre and lacking in experience
as Palin is, a lot of female columnists would be
kicking the tar out of him. Instead, some who
ridiculed Quayle for every misspelling are making
excuses for Palin, suspiciously pulling their
punches.
______________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
EXTRA! for September 3, 2008
Lemme guess. Tonight, Sarah Palin will
give her Checker's Speech. Using the slick
broadcasting skills she learned in Alaska, she'll
get all choked up at the podium -- and then, in
a burst of righteous indignation and anger, she'll say
something like, "And to those of you in the news media,
I have a message for you: Leave my children alone!!!!!,"
and the audience will respond with three minutes of
wild applause.
Afterwards, some pundits will probably say the following:
"I think she might have saved her job tonight" and
"If there was any doubt going into the convention about
whether Sarah Palin could stand the heat, there is no
doubt anymore" and "Looks like she hit it out of the
hockey arena!"
* * * * *
Palin Ain't the Quayle of '08. She May Be The Harriet Miers.
Elderly John McCain, with less energy than he had
as a young man, gets lazy about vetting his first major
nominee. All he knows is he needs A Woman on the
ticket, and it really doesn't matter much which Woman.
(Is this how McCain will choose his Attorney General
and Supreme Court nominees if he's elected?)
And so, with the same gambling instincts he showed as
a fighter pilot -- instincts that, by the way, got
him shot down over the Hanoi metro area -- he made a
bold, careless veep choice and let the
devil take the hindmost, as they say in his parts.
Well, now the devil is taking the hindmost.
Because Palin is fast developing the distinct
aura of a nominee who gets ditched within a
week or so of being nominated. Yes, Palin may be
the Harriet Miers of Campaign '08.
The Daily Digression has been digging around and
found there are even more question marks
about her than the press has revealed.
For example, far from being universally popular
throughout her career in Alaska, it turns out that
she was the object of a recall campaign several months
into her first term as mayor. In early 1997, a group
of around 60 Wasilla residents (a huge number of
people for a town that small) formed Concerned
Citizens for Wasilla, which objected strenuously to
several of her early decisions and wanted her removed
from office.
It's worth noting that she ascended to mayor of Wasilla
from the Wasilla city council, a position so tiny that I
couldn't find any coverage of her race
in the main newspaper in the area, The Anchorage
Daily News.
So, effectively, Palin was a part-timer before she
became governor of a state that has a smaller population
than the city of San Francisco.
Also the Digression has learned Palin has not been
shy about putting daughter Bristol, even when she
was a child, in the media spotlight when it was to
her advantage -- and that her household was recklessly
permissive when it came to guns.
When she was merely 9-years-old, in 1999, Bristol Palin
was covered in the Anchorage Daily News because of her
rifle-shooting education. "First-time shooter Bristol
Palin, 9, recently learned how to handle a rifle," went
the piece in the ADN. Can I ask a common sense
question, or is it too old-fashioned to ask what
the hell a 9-year-old is doing in the vicinity of
a rifle?
[Incidentally, it's important to note that Palin defines
herself as an "average hockey mom"; Barack Obama has never
defined himself as an "average hockey dad" -- and neither did
JFK. So we must, to some degree, scrutinize her on her own
terms.]
The New York Times and The Washington Post have uncovered
their own info about her, including:
-- the state legislature is investigating abuse-of-power
allegations against her
-- she was busted for drunk driving in 1986.
-- for two years, she belonged to an eccentric political party
that wanted to put the issue of Alaska secession to a
ballot vote
-- the father of Bristol Palin's daughter, Levi Johnston,
describes himself as "a fucking redneck," according to
several news organizations.
Question not asked by anyone: if Levi was 18 when he had
sex with 17-year-old Bristol, then doesn't that make
him an adult having sex with a child? Is that illegal
in Alaska? If so, then how come sex crime allegations
are being levied (or not levied) in an inconsistent
manner here?
More later.
But I digress. Paul
___________________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 3, 2008
Notes on Day 2 of the GOP Convention
There's something vaguely German about the whole gathering.
Even the music sounds like Wagner, though it isn't.
A few notes:
-- Norm Coleman: Reminds me of a Franklin Mint salesman,
practicing his sales pitch alone in front of a mirror the
night before going door-to-door. And what an ear for
catchy language: "Change the Republicans can
actually deliver."
-- Funny how the Repubs now claim to admire Martin Luther
King, when in fact they vehemently opposed him when he was
alive.
-- Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Looks like
the Anita Bryant wing of the party. I half expected
her to welcome us to the Florida sunshine tree! Also
has an ear for catchy language: "Minnesota is a really nice state
that loves you!"
-- Tommy Espinozzzzzzzzzzzzzza
-- George W. Bush: Might've coined something with that
"angry left" bit. Not quite "nattering nabobs," but
getting there.
-- Fred Thompson: Calls Obama "inexperienced" but believes
Palin is qualified because "she knows how to field dress a moose."
-- Joe Lieberman. Hadassah looks like she's thinking, "Joe,
how did we sink so low? Joe, how did we lose all our Connecticut
friends?" Michael Beschloss had a nice insight on PBS, saying
that Lieberman's speech sounded like a barely modified version
of the scrapped speech he had written to accept the GOP vice
presidential nomination. (He may have to give that speech
yet.) Probably right.
But I digress. Paul
______________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
EXTRA! for August 29, 2008
After hearing Sarah Palin speak, I have to say
she sounds like the perkiest temp in the whole
typing pool.
A people person!!
And if she ever had to go head-to-head
with Ahmadninejad, why, she'd give that man 15
lashes with a wet noodle!
McCain has made an awful, cynical, dangerous
choice -- dangerous because McCain is old and
has health problems, and if he were
incapacitated as president, she would be the
one in charge of a nuclear arsenal that could
annihilate life on earth.
And get a load of these Churchillian aphorisms:
-- "Put people first!" (As opposed to what? Putting
iguanas first?)
-- "The people of America expect us to seek public
office and serve for the right reasons" (I'm sure
Vaclav Havel is hailing the arrival of a brilliant new
political poet.)
An "average hockey mom," as she describes herself, should
be in charge of average hockey teams, not of the most
powerful nation in the world.
McCain's strategic shrewdness (i.e., wedging into the
embittered Hillary-Ferraro vote) is neutralized by his
nominee's scary lack of experience, which inadvertently
inoculates Barack against such charges. A better wedge
would've been Kay Bailey Hutchison.
But I digress. Paul
P.S. -- By the way, Hillary and Geraldine should release
a joint statement by the end of today saying
that Palin is no friend of the women's rights movement
and does not speak for them or their supporters.
_____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 29, 2008
Notes on Day 4 of the Democratic Convention
Anti-climax. The expectations were too high.
You cannot will an "I have a dream" speech into
creation.
Barack's speech was prose, not poetry this time -- and
predictable prose at that (except for the moment when he
slipped and almost said, "The market should reward
drunk driving" -- now that would've been an
unpredictable moment!).
His "you're on your own" bit was classic, as were his
great lines about bin Laden ("We must take out Osama bin
Laden and his terrorists," and "John McCain says he will
follow bin Laden to the gates of hell but he won't even
follow him to the cave where he lives").
But he should know better than to use a come-on like
"This election has never been about me; it's been
about you," which sounds like the sort of thing a car
salesman or prostelitizing evangelical would say.
(Whenever I hear a salesman say that, I immediately
know it's about him, not me.)
It occurred to me while listening to him that
no matter who gets elected in November, there's
bound to be gridlock once again. I mean, Obama has
a job right now, and so does McCain, and we don't
see either of them magically ramming through
legislation or inspiring their Senate colleagues to
action, so it's hard to believe they'd suddenly be
able to do so by merely moving to the co-equal executive
branch.
In '93, the Dems had control of both houses of Congress
and of the White House and there was still partisan gridlock.
Perhaps the change that has to happen in Washington is
more fundamental than what Barack wants to bring about.
Maybe our political system needs to be re-imagined and
re-structured with a greater emphasis on direct democracy
instead of representative democracy. What I mean is, bills
and issues that are regularly voted on by Congress, and
that are regularly jammed in gridlock, should perhaps
instead be voted on by the public in ballot referenda. That
way, we can put, say, universal health care to a public
vote, and if the people choose it, it becomes law.
No gridlock. No partisan bickering. No need to reach
across the aisle to massage the interests of some
corrupt congressman who wants an unnecessary bridge for
his district.
Anyway, I don't expect Barack will see any appreciable
convention bounce from this speech, which means he may
have already peaked in the polls. We'll see.
But I digress. Paul
________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 28, 2008
Notes on Day 3 of the Democratic Convention
What a surprise to see Barack show up at the
convention center last night. Great move.
Like a gust of wind into a smoke-filled room. I've
decided that Barack is post-neurotic. He doesn't
seem to have the hang-ups that most of us do,
which allows him to move further faster.
And it was revealing to see him shake hands
with various Dems (it's evident he has great
personal chemistry with Nancy Pelosi). Also,
wonderful to see Barack's great-uncle,
Charles Payne, who helped liberate Buchenwald.
Joe Biden's speech was characteristically forceful
and poignant, particularly when he imagined,
stream-of-consciousness style, the thoughts and
anxieties of everyday Americans as they try to
make ends meet.
It's clear that Biden speaks Middle Atlantic
fluently and can talk Philly Cheesesteak, too -- a
dialect essential to persuading swing voters.
The protracted ovation for Bill Clinton was truly
astounding -- and his calls for unity sounded
heartfelt. And he scored some points noting
that the GOP had control of both the White House
and the Congress in 2001, enabling them to
implement ideas that proved disastrous.
Other notes:
-- Beau Biden seems to be made of the same stern
stuff that his dad is made of. And there wasn't a
dry face in the crowd when he described that
horrific car accident.
-- Harry Reid should lay off history and stick to
politics. Saying that World War II was
partly motivated by oil on the Russian front is a
stretch at best. A quick refresher course: Hitler
was invading everyone in the 1930s/1940s, whether
they had oil or not. Austria, France, the Netherlands
didn't have any oil, but he invaded them, too. The
opening grafs of his speech should have been
better edited.
-- John Kerry: Roared like he rarely did in '04.
-- Evan Bayh: predictable.
-- Chet Edwards: bland.
All for now.
But I digress. Paul
_________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 27, 2008
Notes on Day 2 of the Democratic Convention
More electricity than last night. If it wasn't
Hillary's finest moment at the podium, I don't
know what was. Funny, confident, spontaneous,
pithy: if she had been like this back in '07,
she might have won the Thursday night slot this
week. Lots of crowd-pleasing zingers: "No way,
no how, no McCain," "sisterhood of the traveling
pantsuits," etc. Plus, a stirring evocation of Harriet
Tubman at the end. (And, of course, any candidate
who opens with Davies has got to be gold.)
And the cutaway shots of Bill suggest he
might have a thing for her. (You think
they're having an affair?)
The big surprise of the night was keynoter Mark Warner.
I had no idea he was this great. Talk about
Kennedyesque. Came across like a guy who
knows how to get things done in an
innovative, effective way. Best line:
"In 4 months, we will have an administration
that actually believes in science."
But perhpas the most genuine moment of the night
came from the Republican mayor of tiny, cold
Fairbanks, Alaska, who looked like a throughly decent
fellow, his posture hinting at a lifetime of
shivering, his slightly too-large jacket probably
bought at one of the very few shops in Fairbanks
where you can actually buy jackets.
Other notes:
-- Montana governor Brian Schweitzer got the house
a-rockin'. Lots of unexpected pizazz.
--Did you feel the Steny-mania in the hall?
-- Janet Napolitano talked about "the burgeoning cities
and towns" in her home state.
--- Kathleen Sibeliuszzzz: better at governing than
at comedy. (To her credit, she didn't mention
"burgeoning cities and towns.")
-- And why the swipe at Franklin Roosevelt's
ahead-of-his-time vice president by a pundit on
PBS? Keep in mind that ol' Henry
believed what you probably believe now -- except
he believed it decades earlier.
Anyway, time to get back to the "burgeoning
cities and towns" in my region.
But I digress. Paul
____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
EXTRA! for August 26, 2008
Well, it's official: the first night of
the Democratic National Convention was a ratings
dud for the broadcast networks, who cumulatively
attracted a million fewer viewers than they had
on opening night in 2004, according to
TV Week's E-Daily Newsletter.
And the reason is no surprise (read my review below).
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 26, 2008
Notes on Day 1 of the Democratic Convention
This is what Day 1 sounded like:
This son of a butcher, a baker and a candlestick
maker rose to heights previously undreamed of,
because he dared to dream the dream and hope the
hope and dare the dare and believe the belief, and
in his youth his father walked 50 miles through a
blizzard each day to get to his job in a steel
mill, where he was paid a mere dollar a day,
which he shared with his nine children
after he returned home from his daily
walk, sacrificing so that the new generation
would have a better life, but his spirit
was undimmed, his optimism undefeated, his faith
unquashed, his vigor undminished, his focus un-undermined,
even as his legs ached and he cried out for Extra
Strength Advil liquid capsules, as he drew succor from
his dream of a truly united United States of America,
in which black and white, blue and green, yellow and
red, chartreuse and violet, rich and poor, suburban
and urban, those who walk 50 miles a day and those
who merely walk 50 feet, those who believe, as he
believes, and still believes, that one America, one
nation, one vision, one people, shall prevail against
all divisions, blah, blah, blah.
And on and on. The stories of boot-strap triumph blend
together like a bunch of wallpaper, leaving the
audience with the false impression that wealth
in America isn't acquired mostly through inheritance,
as the facts show. Scratch the surface of almost
any rags to riches bootstrap story and you'll find that
the "self-made" person was actually the beneficiary
of government money or family money or drug money
or criminal theft or unethical business leverage
or a freakish winning at a casino or on a TV game show.
For now, such harsher truths aren't ready for prime time.
For the most part, the first day of the convention, as
seen on TV, was so overscripted and lacking in spontaneity
that it made the Oscars look like an experimental
improvisational performance.
Occasionally, and thankfully, the human element seeped
through all the calculation. Senator Kennedy's speech was
a highlight, if only because he looked surprisingly
robust and sounded like Classic Teddy, despite his terminal
illness. And the adorable Obama children virtually stole
the show, cutely interrupting their dear ol' dad, who
was piped in from Kansas City, Mo., showing everybody
what a real political star looks and sounds like.
Also: Caroline Kennedy looked great, sounded genuine
and has developed a slightly tougher edge that is
very welcome; she should run for Uncle Teddy's Senate
seat after he passes. Michelle Obama was winning
and quite a natural at the podium -- and also generous
(can you imagine Muriel Humphrey saying kind words
about Eugene McCarthy from the stage in '68?)
More later.
But I digress. Paul
____________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 25, 2008
Sorry to those who thought I'd be covering the
Outside Lands music fest in San Francisco last weekend.
As much as I wanted to attend, I couldn't because I
was holed up in the studio, doing final overdubs
on two new songs of mine, "Love's a Heaven You
Can't Reach" and "Three Minute Song," which I've released
today (my music site is www.pauliorio.blogspot.com).
In any event, I've covered multiple concerts by almost
all the festival headliners and subheds in the past
year or two (see below or in the Digression Archive
for my pieces on Radiohead, Wilco/Jeff Tweedy,
Tom Petty, Widespread Panic, etc.).
And keep in mind that Radiohead premiered their new
"In Rainbows" material at shows two years ago in the
San Francisco Bay Area and in a handful of other
cities (at concerts that no serious daily newspaper
in the Bay Area neglected to cover), while
Jeff Tweedy's unforgettable gig in Golden Gate Park
several months ago (following a Wilco show across the
Bay) was also a must-see and must-review event.
Anyway, now that my new songs have been released, I'm
back to Digressing!
But I digress. Paul
_________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 23, 2008
Once again, the Daily Digression has been first --
this time, the first of the major blogs and
news organizations to have identified Joe Biden as
the likeliest veep nominee (see last Sunday's
column below).
And the Biden choice is perhaps the best strategic
decision in terms of vice-presidential picks since
JFK chose LBJ in 1960, as Biden complements Obama on
foreign policy the way Johnson complemented Kennedy
geographically. (The Biden selection probably won't
mean much in the opinion polls -- until the
vice-presidential debate, where Biden will surely
clean the clock of McCain's running mate.)
As a freelance journalist, I did some intensive
research around a year ago to see which of the
presidential candidates, if any, saw the 9/11 attacks
coming before the fact. And my digging showed that
Biden came the closest (by far) to sensing the clear
and present danger posed by the Taliban and bin Laden.
Listen to Biden on June 21, 2000, speaking on the floor
of the U.S. Senate: "We all know about Pakistan, the
gateway to Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden and his
buddies. Can anybody think of a better place to
beef up border security, so that terrorists can be
apprehended as they go to and from those Afghan training camps?"
Again, that was Biden in the year 2000, over a year
before bin Laden committed mass murder on U.S. soil.
And Biden had the danger sized up perfectly -- before
the fact.
To be sure, Biden wasn't completely alone in ringing the
alarm but he almost was. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was
also somewhat prescient in speaking out about the
Taliban. "The Taliban in their activities...there
[in Afghanistan] have placed them outside the circle
of civilized human behavior," said Pelosi, on June 13, 2001.
(The least prescient about 9/11? Dennis Kucinich.)
Candidates with hindsight are as plentiful as
gravel, those with foresight as scarce as gold.
In this case, the Democratic nominee for president
has chosen a running mate with the latter.
But I digress. Paul
__________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 17, 2008
After deeply researching insider blogs,
convention schedules, travel plans
of both the candidate and his veep
contenders -- and applying simple common
sense -- I've arrived at an educated guess
as to who Barack Obama's running mate
will be.
In all likelihood, it's Joe Biden.
[posted at 6:44pm, Sunday, August 17, 2008]
But I digress. Paul
_____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 13 - 14, 2008
I must confess I wasn't at all impressed by
the precision mass synchronization spectacles
of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.
They didn't express much except a punishing
level of rehearsal. Orson Welles was able to do
more with simple hand shadows in "Citizen Kane" than
the organizers of the Olympics did with their
Himalayan-sized budget.
That said, the folks at NBC (particularly Brian
Williams, Tom Brokaw, Bob Costas and Matt Lauer)
are doing a super job making it interesting even
to viewers who couldn't care less about things
like the 50-meter freestyle competition. (Lauer
had a particularly humorous moment last week
touring a building in Beijing called The Studio
of Exhaustion from Diligent Service.)
* * * *
It occurred to me yesterday that our next
president will be someone who wasn't born
on the U.S. mainland -- a first (I think).
* * * *
If you want to remember Isaac Hayes at his very
best, and you've already seen "Shaft," check out
the "Wattstax" DVD, which captures primo Hayes -- intro'd
by a circumspect Jesse Jackson, no less.
* * * *
The Enduring Ambivalence About Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull, reading the latest edition of
The Daily Digression?
Of all the major 1960s/1970s bands eligible
for induction to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame
who have not yet been inducted, few present a
more difficult problem of critical evaluation than
Jethro Tull. Watching a video of the band performing
in its absolute creative prime -- the period right
after "Benefit" and before "Aqualung," captured on a
DVD called "Jethro Tull: Live at the Isle of
Wight, 1970" -- I saw at once the reasons why
the band should be inducted and why they shouldn't,
though I lean toward the former view ("Aqualung" alone
should be their ticket in).
The DVD shows the band performing on the last
day of the Isle of Wight Festival of 1970, when
the crowd, having already heard The Who and
Jimi Hendrix on previous days, had dwindled
considerably. By day five, the audience was
gnarly, gamey, pissed off and fed up with
malfunctioning toilets and being pushed
around by fest organizers. To its credit, this
documentary/concert film, directed by Murray Lerner,
doesn't prettify this (or Tull's own performance,
for that matter).
Tull took the stage looking like they had just
stepped off the cover of "Benefit." Up close, you
can see that Ian Anderson had a case of stage fright
and, at least at this gig, was nervous, even dorky,
full of odd tics and idiosyncrasies, a strict
taskmaster who missed his own cues, while his
band was precise but clunky, for the most part.
It's when he puts down his flute, which he really
doesn't play very well, and sits with an acoustic
guitar for "My God" that you say, "Wow." Anderson is
relaxed, engaging, marvelously melodic, almost
hypnotic -- for the first three minutes and fifteen
seconds of "My God." And then he does embarrassing
schtick with his flute that even he sort of cringed
at in a 2004 interview included here.
I've long felt the band's best stuff was British
folk and folk rock like "Sossity," "Inside,"
"Reasons for Waiting," "Mother Goose,"
"For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me," "Slipstream,"
"Cheap Day Return," "Up the Pool," the "in the clear
white circles of morning wonder" part of "Thick as a
Brick" -- I almost never tire of hearing
those songs, none of which they played at Isle
of Wight. (Anderson should have hung out a bit
more with Maddy Pryor, by the way.)
Though the setlist here is disappointing (why only one
song from "Benefit"?), you see the dawn of
"Aqualung" taking shape, particularly on "Dharma
For One," where you can hear the band hurtling
toward its "Locomotive Breath" sound. (Turns out
Glenn Cornick had a lot more to do with the
overall sound during this period than you'd guess
from hearing the albums.) By show's end, the
previously angry crowd looked genuinely
thrilled.
The problem with bands that you enjoyed as a child
is that, in adulthood, you can't tell whether you
still like them because of nostalgia or because
of the group's musical value. I was barely
13-years-old, a suburban American kid living for
six months in Florence, Italy, when I first heard
of Tull. I remember the moment well: I was in the
front seat of a Fiat in central Florence in
November 1970, a couple months after Isle of Wight,
looking to the backseat where some cool older guy at my
school, St. Michael's Country Day School, was holding
a brand new copy of "Benefit" (with that "headband" cover)
and talking the band up.
At that time in Florence, "Woodstock" was in the
main movie theaters, "Led Zeppelin 3" was weeks
away from showing up in record store windows and
Italian singer Gianni Morandi had a big hit with a
protest song about the Kent State massacre.
But Jethro Tull, at least for a month or two in the
fall of '70, was the talk of the piazza, and their
melodies seemed to emanate from the medieval and
Renaissance alleys of the city, and there were rumors
flying that Tull was actually a group of 70-year-old men.
But the band's true heyday lasted only from 1969 to
1972, between "Stand Up" and "Living in the Past." The
subsequent albums, between '73 and '78, from "A Passion
Play" to "Songs From the Wood," were spotty at best,
though there are at least a few good songs or musical
moments on each. After 1978, they created almost nothing
worth listening to.
Even at their peak they were the object of an unusual
degree of derision. (I once heard the nickname Jethro Dull;
and the late, great Lester Bangs memorably eviscerated
the band with his famous line about Jethro Tull having
no "rebop.")
To be sure, they're not in the same league as the Stones
and the Who, though their melodies are more memorable
than those of a terrific band like Fairport Convention.
Tull can't be dismissed -- there's just too much good stuff
on albums two through six. "Live at the Isle of Wight,"
the best long-form concert by the group on DVD, is a
great way to take a close look at a band that still
provokes extreme ambivalence after all these years.
* * * *
A Year After "Sicko," Still No Universal Health Care
This time last year, Michael Moore's documentary
"Sicko" was stirring such debate about the U.S. health
care system that some thought the film might actually
spur some sort of policy change.
No such luck. Hasn't happened. The rich keep
getting richer off of the sick, who keep
getting sicker.
As "Sicko" notes, the government provides
free postal service, free police protection, free
education -- and nobody denounces those programs
as "socialist." Why not also provide
something as basic as health care?
Imagine if you had to personally pay the police
department every time you called 911 for an
emergency (though, on second thought, it is true
that in some communities in New Jersey and Louisiana,
I hear you actually do have to pay the cops!). Same
thing as paying for an emergency room visit.
Maybe we need to re-think our socialism-phobia,
which almost nobody else in the world shares. Let's
take that fear apart for a moment.
Since unregulated capitalism failed spectacularly
in 1929, the United States has adopted and adapted
and refined some of the best ideas of
socialism -- e.g., FDIC, unemployment insurance,
social security, food stamps, etc. -- so that
now we're -- thankfully -- a capitalist-socialist
hybrid nation, in a sense.
Even arch-conservatives have seen the absolute
necessity of having a baseline level of government
involvement and regulation, without which we would
have complete catastrophe on several levels,
as we found out the hard way in '29.
Meanwhile, the communists have adapted and adopted
some of the best ideas of American capitalism so that
Russia and China are now also socialist-capitalist
hybrids.
In other words, nobody won the Cold War. We became
partly socialist, and the socialists became partly
capitalist. The U.S. has social security, and China has
Saks Fifth Avenue. In the process, the Soviet Union
ran out of money and collapsed, which probably
would've happened anyway, whether they had been nominally
communist or not, given the fact that their economy has
long been based on main exports vodka and corruption.
(And their totalitarianism, which almost nobody defends
anymore, had more to do with their own political
traditions and history than with the theories of Marx
and Engels.)
In "Sicko," we actually see the spectacle of
Americans "defecting" to communist Cuba in order to
get health care -- and it's no joke.
Oh, I can hear the conservatives now, talking about
the lack of freedom in Cuba. But let's dissect that cliche
for a moment, too.
In the U.S., every dissenter is free to savagely
criticize President Bush in the most radical ways,
but there's no real danger or risk in that.
After all, we work for corporations like
Hewlett-Packard and Oracle and Xerox and GE, not
for Bush. And if you work for Hewlett-Packard,
I dare you to go to the office tomorrow and start
criticizing your boss in order to see how your First
Amendment rights hold up. I dare you to go to work,
wherever you work, and say, my boss is a bum and my company
is run by a bunch of fascist thugs. First Amendment or
not, you'd likely be cleaning out your desk before the
day is done.
In America, you have very limited free speech rights
when it comes to the domain in which you really
reside: your workplace, where you spend most of your
day. Your actual residence is the fiefdom of Xerox or
GE or Oracle, not the U.S.
So, yeah, it's true: there is a public sector
tyranny in Cuba -- but there's a private sector
tyranny in America.
Just watch the final scenes of "Sicko" -- in which
Cuban firefighters in Havana stand to honor the New
York area firefighters who died so tragically on
9/11 -- and you'll realize we have a lot more in
common with the communists than we care to admit.
But I digress. Paul
_______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 3, 2008
Last Night in Berkeley, John Mellencamp Declares:
"Hatred Elected George Bush"
Mellencamp performing last year (photo by Paul Iorio)
John Mellencamp has never been known to hold
his tongue about much, and last night in Berkeley,
Calif., on the final date of his tour with Lucinda
Williams, he let it all hang out.
"It's that hatred that's getting people killed overseas,
it's that hatred that's getting -- well, let's call a
spade a spade -- it's that hatred that elected George
Bush," Mellencamp said to cheers from the crowd.
He then paused, chuckled a bit and said: "I'll probably
get arrested for saying that," as if realizing he had
said something a bit extreme.
Several songs later, before "Crumblin' Down," he dialed
back a bit on his comments. "I didn't mean to start
preachin' but I did a little bit," he said, adding at
another point that a lot of people think he
should "shut up about politics."
Mellencamp also talked unusually vividly, even by
his own standards, about the infamous racial incident
that happened last year in Jena, Louisiana.
"Down in Jena there was some kind of problem, you
know, and people thought it'd be a good idea if they
hung nooses in a tree," he began. "...That's a bad
idea no matter how you cut it. Hey, here's a
good idea: [in an ironic, confidential tone]:
after the show let's all go...spray paint swastikas....That's
a good idea...That's not going to get a good result
no matter how you cut it. That is not the way we solve
problems. We're better than that." Fans cheered.
Then he launched into his song "Jena," played here a bit
like a Neil Young protest tune.
Mellencamp made his remarks at a sold-out gig at the
Greek Theater in Berkeley, last night (August 2),
supporting his recently released album, "Life Death
Love and Freedom." (I heard -- and recorded -- the gig
from the hills above the theater.)
His comments about "hatred" followed an anecdote he
told about an instance of racial discrimination he
experienced when he was a teenager in a rock band;
effectively, given the context of his story, he was
implying that racial "hatred" played a part in
electing Bush.
His remarks, however, didn't upstage his music,
which was, at times, as good as live rock 'n' roll
gets; in fact, there are only a handful of acts
-- the Stones, Springsteen, U2, R.E.M., etc. -- who
can play rock with this level of mastery and intensity.
The last segment of the show -- in which he played
several of his best-known songs in rapid
succession -- felt sort of like a jet quickly
ascending over mountain peaks; his versions
of "Crumblin' Down" and "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A."
had the irresistable force of the Rolling Stones
on their "Bigger Bang" tour, and it was almost
impossible not to dance (or not to move to)
the music.
Also notable were "Rain on the Scarecrow," a
defiant retort to anyone who thinks the Reagan era
was just an endless stream of jellybeans; "Check
It Out," the most enduring song from "The Lonesome
Jubilee"; and an unexpectedly strong "Human Wheels,"
as well as the half dozen or so new songs from his
latest album, "Life Death Love and Freedom," his best
CD in many years.
"Minutes to Memories," one of his finest songs, was
performed here solo acoustic, unfortunately flattening
a lot of the song's appeal, which has much to do with
its central guitar riff, absent here. For years,
I've enjoyed performing that song on acoustic guitar
for pleasure in my own apartment, and it works in a
bare arrangement, but only if you also include that
wonderful riff.
I remember Mellencamp splitting open Madison Square
Garden on December 6, 1985, with a vibrant, electric
version of that one, along with other tracks from
"Scarecrow," still his crowning achievement, in my
opinion. (That was the famous gig at which
Mellencamp generously offered to give everyone
their money back because he felt that a
slightly malfunctioning sound system was
diminishing the sound, when in fact it was
easily one of the greatest rock shows
I'd ever seen.)
Opening at the Greek was Lucinda Williams, playing
songs from her upcoming album "Little Honey," due
in October, and assorted songs from the past decade
or so, as well as a fun encore cover of AC/DC's "It's a
Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)."
Ever since I first heard her perform, in 1988 at
Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey, back when her
major song was "Changed the Locks," which she never
sings anymore, I've always had the urge to cry
whenever I hear her music.
I'm not joking: her stuff just breaks my heart,
and I get so sad when I hear it -- I don't know why
that is, though I do know that it has stopped me from
listening to her as frequently as I listen to, say, Bob
Dylan, whose brilliance she sometimes comes close to.
But remember: even at his most bitter and snarling,
Dylan had a marvelous sense of humor ("I can't help it
if I'm lucky" is worthy of a great stand-up comedian),
the missing element in her work.
I think the AC/DC cover is a really good sign. I'd
give a lot to hear her sing "You Shook Me All Night
Long."
my backstage pass to an AC/DC show in NY in '85.
But I digress. Paul
________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for August 1 - 2, 2008
"Laugh-In" Is Forty, Dick Martin is Dead
(But We'll Always Have Beautiful Downtown Burbank!)
Jokes about Ralph Nader, Fidel Castro, the
Olympics, tensions between Pakistan and India,
the obsolescence of cash -- with a special
appearance by Regis Philbin. Sounds like
a new TV series, right?
Nope. I'm describing the first episodes
of NBC's "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," now over
forty years old but so ahead of its time in many
ways that it still seems progressive.
Or some of it does. Clearly, the mod garb and
slang are hopelessly outdated, more associated
today with Austin Powers than with anything else,
as are most of the topical references and silly
sayings such as "You bet your sweet bippy"
and "sock it to me," which never quite made
it into the lexicon after the 1970s.
But get beyond those superficial elements and
you'll see that "Laugh-In," as much as "Saturday
Night Live," was an exponential leap forward
pop-culturally -- and in prime time, no less,
where "SNL" proper never resided. Even today, a lot
of the stoned humor pioneered by "Laugh-In" is
relegated to the 11:30 hour or beyond,
or to cable.
The main thing, though, is that the series, at
least in its first years, is still very funny.
I recently rented a DVD of disc one of the first
season, which includes two episodes from early 1968,
and laughed and laughed.
Some of the one-liners are almost worthy of
Allen and Perelman.
"My grandfather is a sexagenarian," says one woman.
"That's amazing at his age," quips Dick Martin.
And there are humorous moments from Tim
Conway.
"Hey, man, I don't want my kids hearing all them dirty
words in the movies," says Conway. "They get enough of
that at home."
Elsewhere, Conway plays The Great Nervo, who makes
predictions about events that have already happened.
The two most entertaining regular features were the
opening cocktail party, at which partygoers would
tell a joke that sort of aspired to the level of a
New Yorker magazine cartoon (though many fell far
short of that goal); and "The Rowan & Martin Report"
(aka "Laugh-In Looks at the News"), a forerunner of
SNL's "Weekend Update."
The latter had a future news sub-segment, reporting
headlines from 20 years in the future, 1988 (oh,
how quickly a future date in time becomes a date
from the past in any sort of speculative comedy or
drama). It even joked about Reagan becoming president.
Among the more humorous future news bits: "Item.
White House. 1988. President Stokely Carmichael,
in his office in Hanoi, today once again repeated
that the United States must get out of America."
Some of the sketches were more cutting-edge than
most prime-time fare today. In one segment, Rowan
and Martin covered campus riots, play-by-play
style, as if they were sports events ("the winners
will be invited to meet Berkeley in the national
championship").
At another point, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop
play government officials writing a press release
about an international incident at sea, gradually
altering the facts so that an accident in which 15
Russians were injured by Americans is changed to
one in which 15 Americans were deliberately hurt
by a Russian submarine.
One great thing about seeing this on DVD is that
you can finally slow down the ultra-quick cuts in
order to read the placards and bumper stickers that
whizzed by way too fast when they were first aired.
For the record, here's what was invisible to viewers
in 1968:
"Lower the Age of Puberty," "Get Our Boys Out of Berkeley"
and "Bullets are Forever."
Other highlights are abundant: a French juggler who
juggles plates but ends up breaking all of them; a
sight gag in which someone flamboyantly waves a sword at
Dan Rowan, who casually pulls out a gun and shoots him
(a similar bit got a lot of laughs many years later in
the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark").
It's puzzling that other networks didn't counter-program
with their own knock-offs, though ABC tried and failed.
Ultimately, the show became passe by 1970 and was fully
eclipsed by the more outre "All in the Family" by 1971.
Its influence is still felt everywhere today from
"SNL" to "The Late Show with David Letterman," and
you can even see a stylistic thru-line from Rowan
to Letterman (though Letterman at this point has
become an original in his own category).
Last May, as everyone knows, Dick Martin died at
age 88, which is 23 years longer than his partner
lived. Their DVDs, obviously, live on, but rent
them with this caveat: get the "Laugh-In"
discs that have complete episodes, not
the best-of clip jobs, and stick to the stuff from
the early years.
* * * *
As soon as I finish reading the poems Coleridge
wrote on opium, the novels Hemingway wrote on booze,
the lyrics Lennon wrote on acid, and the works that
Ginsberg, Burroughs and Kerouac wrote on a variety
of recreational drugs, I'll read Princeton's study
(scientific, I'm sure) describing the underrated University
of Florida as a "party school."
But I digress
_____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 27, 2008
Last Night's Steely Dan Show
reeling in the you-know-whats
Almost everybody coming out of the Steely Dan
concert last night in Berkeley, Calif., was
smiling wide, as if they had just gotten
laid or were about to. The show was that
satisfying.
A couple hours earlier, from the stage, in the
middle of "Hey 19," Walter Becker even gave some
advice to the romantically inclined in the crowd.
"Sometimes on a summer night, way up in the hills of
Berkeley...after a Steely Dan show...you head home
with your beloved, the object of your affections,
and there's only one thing in mind: showing her
how much, how very much, you love her," said Becker,
who then proceeded to talk about one way to
have fun with your loved one.
"Go to the liquor cabinet," he said, and find
the stuff labeled "'100% guaranteed'...If you
break the seal, you're gonna feel real," he said.
"You understand what I'm saying?"
The crowd roared approval, as the band lit into
a soulful verse celebrating "Cuervo Gold."
From the beginning to the end of this two hour-plus
gig, Steely Dan was fully dedicated to making sure
everybody within earshot -- even the people up in the
hills, where I was -- was aesthetically satisfied
and entertained.
The pleasures were many. There were exotic sounds
from quirky instruments turning up like rare animals
at a zoo. One minute, the tenor sax and the tenor
trombone would be re-combining into new combinations,
then there would be mysterious guitar riffs creating
texture, nuance. Plus, and most important, you
could dance to it all, which a lot of people did.
As the summer night progressed, hits and new material
and obscurities came vividly to life: my favorites of
the night were "New Frontier," "Black Friday," "Peg"
and finale "Do It Again."
And there was Becker's colorful intro of
Donald Fagan: "Lead singer, pianist, singer-songwriter,
composer, author, producer, star of screen, stage
and television, man about town, stern critic of the
contemporary scene, please welcome, if you will,
the original, the originator, the one, the only
one, Mr. Donald Fagan."
After the show, as I walked back home, through my
favorite park in the world, I realized that the show
had caused me, for a time, to hear the sound of
chirping birds and the rest of the world in a brand
new way, which is one of the reasons I was
smiling, too.
But I digress, Paul
__________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 27, 2008
A point missing in the discussion about
the surge in Iraq is that it's way too
early to declare "mission accomplished"
with regard to the lessening of hostilities
there. The surge is only a few months old,
and insurgents might easily re-surge later,
stronger than ever.
Remember: Tet was quashed, too, in early 1968,
but the guerillas came back with a vengeance and
fought on for several more years -- to victory,
in fact. (To be fair, McCain may not know about
all this, as I hear he didn't have access to
Cronkite in those years.)
Lately, McCain is sounding like a guy who drives
your car into a ditch and then wants to be
congratulated for replacing its flat tire, though
the car still remains in the ditch.
He's changing his heart
(you know who you are!):
McCain has flip-flopped
from advocating a "hundred year"
presence in Iraq to supporting a
"time horizon" for withdrawal.
* * *
Here's A New Idea for An Antonioni Exhibit....
In the U.S., the neglect of Michelangelo Antonioni's
work verges on the criminal. Up until
recently, even some of his most popular films were
not available on DVD domestically.
Which is why it's so welcome to see that the
National Gallery in Washington, D.C., is in the
midst of a gourmet Antonioni retrospective, spanning
his entire career and including rarely-seen gems
like "L'eclisse," the last of the trilogy that
began with "L'avventura," and (especially)
"Deserto rosso (Red Desert)," which I am dying to
see because I'm told it experiments with color
(and birds!) brilliantly. (Check out
coverage of the screenings at washingtonpost.com.)
As I wrote in the Daily Digression on July 31, 2007:
"I've always had the feeling that if Michelangelo
Antonioni hadn't been a film maker, he would've
been a post-expressionist painter, because that's
the sensibility he brought to cinema. In fact, he
seemed to see film as an almost purely visual
medium, and the best example of that was the
dazzling end of "Zabriskie Point," which was
virtually one expressionist painting after
another, if you were to still each frame. I was
always waiting for Antonioni to take his aesthetic
to the next level and make a two-hour film that was
purely painterly visuals, with no plot, no story."
Here's an original idea for a museum exhibit
that is long overdue: a photography exhibition of
stills -- blown-up still photographs -- of around
forty moments or scenes in Antonioni movies. I thought
of this idea after recently watching "The
Passenger" and finding that I kept pausing the
film just to savor various visual images that were
as powerful and resonant as many great modernist
paintings. This most painterly of auteurs should
surely have his moving paintings stilled and
displayed by a major museum.
But I digress. Paul
[photo of McCain from thewashingtonnote.com]
___________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 23 - 24, 2008
A few notes on DVDs I've watched (or re-watched)
lately:
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: After
re-watching it the other day, I was struck by
how Hitchcockian the suspense was (particularly
the sequence in which Josh Brolin sees Javier
Bardem's shadow beneath the door). The
first time I saw it, I was very impressed and
literally on the edge of my seat (to coin a phrase!),
but second and third viewings reveal flaws,
among them: suspense dissipates after the
first hour, despite a nice star turn by Woody
Harrelson; Tommy Lee Jones's opening VO segues
into Brolin's first appearance onscreen, confusing
viewers into thinking the VO was Brolin's
(further, what Jones says about "old-timers" and
generations changing hands doesn't really come
into play later in the film); it's not
believable that the cop in the opening sequence
would separate Bardem from his oxygen tank in
the squad car; etc.
More significantly, the two main characters are
indistinctly conceived. Brolin's character is
initially drawn sort of like Kris Kristofferson's
memorable sunuvabitch in "Lone Star"; but that
persona is soon supplanted by a more typical
Coen Bros. character: the bumbler a la William
H. Macy in "Fargo." And it's an uneasy combination,
likely the result of competing, colliding visions.
Likewise, Bardem's character, truly a singular
creation of American cinema, is nonetheless
indecisively conceived. In the early part of
the film, he's scripted as a serial thrill killer
who kills for killing's sake. But as the
movie progresses, the concept of his character
shifts -- not through evolution -- to that of
a businessman in the underground economy who
is semi-reasonably trying to get back
money stolen from him. There's less duality
here than flawed concept.
Still, a great thriller -- and probably as good
as "Fargo," the Coen brothers's peak to date.
* * *
THERE WILL BE BLOOD: Unlike
"No Country For Old Men," "There WIll Be Blood"
gets better with each viewing. It unfolds much
more naturally and organically, and has the epic
sweep of a best picture Oscar winner, which it
didn't win but should've. And it's probably the
first major film since Kubrick's "2001: A Space
Odyssey" to be wordless in its first fifteen
minutes or so -- but with all meaning perfectly
conveyed. Seeing this right after "No Country"
makes the latter look like a cartoon. Paul
Thomas Anderson is like Coppola and Polanski in
his ability to create a complex plot that
yields new revelations on fifth and sixth
viewings. The brilliance is everywhere:
the baptism by oil, the thunderstorm of gold,
the "milkshake" sequence at the end, the
"Peachtree Dance" moment of truth with
Henry, etc.
The plot is sort of like an entrepreneurially
legitimate version of the entrepreneurially
nefarious sub-plot of "Chinatown," in which
Noah Cross and others are trying to bump people
off their land in order to turn the land into
valuable property. Of course, Plainview is more
honest, even if he tries to give them "quail
prices" at first. (And good to see Eli Sunday
"repenting" before his death.)
* * *
JESUS CAMP: Fascinating docu
about the thoroughly nauseating indoctrination
of kids into fundamentalist religion. The sort
of manipulation of impressionable children
depicted here is not just disgusting; it's
child abuse.
It also proves beyond any doubt that most people
in the modern era don't come to religion
naturally but through warped, intense brainwashing
at an extremely tender age. Left to their own
devices, these kids might have gravitated naturally
toward the wisdom of Aristotle, Nietzsche, Sartre,
Yeats, Bob Dylan, etc. -- all better writers
than the anonymous folks who wrote and revised
and (badly) translated the Bible.
* * *
A MIGHTY HEART: I expected
an earnest, well-meaning work but was
pleasantly surprised at how consistently gripping
it was, from beginning to end -- a very satisfying,
moving movie that refuses to be exploitative about
the tragic death of journalist Daniel Pearl. And
Angelina Jolie disappears into Mariane Pearl
the way a great actress should. You know, with
all the tabloid headlines about her these days,
we tend to forget that she's a first-rank actor
(and you can almost believe she might be a
presidential contender in 2020).
* * *
GANGS OF NEW YORK: Funny thing
is, "Gangs" could pass for futuristic. As an
evocation of Boss Tweed's Tammany New York, it's
magical, convincing. But the style of its characters
is so inventive and unfamiliar that it's almost a
depiction of a future era of thuggery, the way
Stanley Kubrick/Anthony Burgess created ultra-modern
droogs, who dressed flamboyantly and spoke in
pseudo-Shakespearian slang (a characterization
that, by the way, was reportedly based on
real-life 20th century street criminals in
St. Petersburg who wore Edwardian garb and
had their own Russian dialect).
At times, it's like walking through pre-Civil War
New York, the way it must've really been. You
also see that, before the Civil War, parts of
America still had a tin-whistle Colonial
resemblance, while the decades after the Civil War
were more akin to the modern era (in fact, that's
when the grandparents of most baby boomers
were born).
Anyway, I digress.
A masterful film, even if it has neither the epic
perfection of "The Godfather, Part 2" nor the concision
of "Goodfellas." After seeing it a second time, I had
opposite feelings simultaneously: it should've
been edited down to something more succinct and it
should've been expanded by another hour.
* * *
GRIZZLY MAN: It's one of
the best documentaries of the decade -- and
not just because it features footage of
a guy hours and days before he was eaten by a
brown grizzly bear in Alaska, though that's one
of its draws.
It's also a penetrating portrait of someone
with a death wish, a clinically depressed alcoholic
who replaced booze with the natural adrenaline
released by hanging out with deadly animals. The
doomed subject, Timothy Treadwell, revered and
anthropomorphized and sentimentalized bears, a fatal
misjudgment. But before that judgment becomes fatal,
we experience his obsessive love of wildlife
and Alaska, the very picture of untrammeled
paradise, though it's telling to see that even in
these remote reaches of the far north, where there's
almost no human population, he's still as full
of anger and frustration as someone living in a
crowded slum (witness his tirade around 80
minutes in).
Ultimately, the foxes almost upstage the bears
in this film; you'll never think of a fox the same
way after seeing how much they look like a mere whim
(Richard Thompson's instrumental during
the fox chase sequence is immensely enjoyable).
In the end, Treadwell filmed his own death, but with
the lens cap on -- an apt metaphor for someone shutting
his eyes to the danger nearby.
* * *
C.S.A.: CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA:
Perhaps the most unimaginative mock-documentary ever
made. And I'm not saying that because I'm privately
offended by something in it, because I'm not offended by
it. I'm merely astounded by the degree to which the film
makers did not smartly (or even interestingly) (or even
competently) extrapolate from its premise to the future.
For the dim only.
* * *
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO: Finally saw the
double-DVD edition that was released a couple
years ago, though I must admit I have nothing
major to add to critical thought about this
flick right now. It has moments of indelible
beauty and other moments...not so indelible.
To my knowledge, no one has brought up the
fact that its theme song, "Somewhere My Love
(Lara's Theme From 'Doctor Zhivago')," is
overplayed to the point of distraction -- something
like 27 times. And while the theme is a classic
of its kind, the song doesn't seem to have an
ethnic Russian flavor the way, say, the music of
"Zorba the Greek" is distinctly Greek
and the music of "The Godfather" is Italian.
"Somewhere My Love" could as well be the theme
of a British period drama.
But I digress. Paul
_____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 21, 2008
The Next Coen Brothers Picture
The Fall movie season kicks off after Labor Day with the
Coen Brothers's comic take on paranoid movies, "Burn After
Reading," starring That "Oceans" Team Clooney and Pitt.
The next Coen Brothers movie, "Burn After Reading,"
is a C.I.A.-themed comedy starring Brad Pitt, George
Clooney and John Malkovich.
I've not yet seen the film, due in theaters after
Labor Day, a traditionally fallow period for
releases, but it looks to be a send-up of the
sorts of paranoid movies that Clooney has starred
in in recent years.
After "Michael Clayton" and "Syriana," I thought
Clooney's next project might be the feature film
version of "The Man From UNCLE," an idea I'm sure
is kicking around Burbank these days, or will be
once someone reads this.
Frankly, I think Clooney works better in movies
less byzantine than "Michael Clayton" and
"Syriana," Paranoid Movies of the kind I poked
fun at in a feature for the San Francisco Chronicle
newspaper in '97 that included a usable game board
for The Paranoid Movie Game, which I'm re-printing
here, for your enjoyment!
Have hours of fun with The Paranoid Movie Game! (I conceived and designed and wrote the Paranoid Movie Game for the San Francisco Chronicle in '97 (the only elements not authored by me are the drawings within the boxes).]
But I digress. Paul
[photo of Clooney and Pitt: photographer unknown.]
__________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 20, 2008
Last Night's Feist Show
Feist played Berkeley, Calif., last night
and was alluring, enchanting, impossibly
seductive. Hard to believe from
the fervent reaction of the mostly twentysomething
crowd that she wasn't always a Big Indie Star, but
as recently as a couple years ago, she wasn't.
"1234," of course, changed all that, and though
everyone has heard it a few million times,
the song is still astonishingly fresh and carefree
and irresistible -- perfect folk-pop magic, like the
memory of hiking through a forest as a child. Played
here at mid-set, it seemed to cast a spell on fans,
even the ones listening from the hills above
the theater, where I heard the show.
In a 90-minute set that featured much of her latest
album, "The Reminder," released around 15 months ago,
Feist was both bold and fragile, sexy and innocent,
guileless and knowing, spontaneous, loquacious, even
chatty, talking about everything from apartment living
to opening for Rilo Kiley. Highlights included
"Mushaboom" ("We'll collect the moments, one by one/
I guess that's how the future's done"), set closer
"Sea Lion Woman" and the second encore (don't know
the title of that one).
Opening act The Golden Dogs, a quasi-power pop
indie band from Toronto, is well worth checking out.
Very impressive set. I wish I knew the title of the
second song they played because it was truly
fabulous. Sort of a combination of the Velvets
and the Talking Heads and McCartney circa "Ram"
(and in fact they performed a wonderful cover
of McCartney's "1985"). I wouldn't be surprised
if they broke through in a big way.
The Golden Dogs, terrific band.
But I digress. Paul
[photo of Feist from buzzworthy.com; pic of Golden Dogs from True North website.]
__________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 18, 2008
OK, this is my last bit about that cover of
The New Yorker magazine. I just received my
subscription copy of the mag in the mail
(can't they put those postage address stickers
on the back, over the Saturn ad, so the covers
aren't defaced?).
Anyway, when you see the real cover, Barack looks
more like a U.S. Navy sailor during Fleet Week
than a practicing Muslim. And that empty chair?
They could've put Jeremiah Wright in that.
The other side of The New Yorker cover is,
literally, this advertisement (below) for the
Saturn Outlook luxury SUV, which sells for around
$30,000. Obviously, the front cover wasn't
so radical that it caused rich, conservative
back-cover advertisers to drop their ads.
"We hawk yer satire at the fronta da shop,
we hawk yer gas guzzler at da back."
But I digress. Paul
_______________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 17, 2008
No Riots Yet Over The New Yorker Cover
As The New Yorker's David Remnick noted last
night on "Charlie Rose," the best commentary about
his magazine's controversial Obama cover came
from Jon Stewart, who said the following:
"You know what [Obama's] response should've been? It's
very easy here, let me put the statement out for you:
'Barack Obama is in no way upset about the cartoon that
depicts him as a Muslim extremist. Because you know
who gets upset about cartoons? Muslim extremists! Of
which Barack Obama is not. It's just a fucking
cartoon.'"
And Remnick rightly wondered whether the cover's
detractors also took other satire, like "A Modest
Proposal," literally (which is something I also
wondered in my July 14th Digression, below).
Recently I read all TNY's cartoons from the
1920s to today, and one thing that struck me was
the courage it showed in the late 1930s and
early 1940s in skewering Nazism. Today, I see
that sort of welcome audacity in the famous
Jyllands-Posten cartoon series of 2005, which
is wearing very well with time.
The Obama cover: not quite as ballsy as this.
But I digress. Paul
P.S. -- Remnick is also right when he expresses
distaste for editors and others who say, "I get it
but let's not publish this because THEY may not get it."
I can attest that that sort of attitude
does exist among certain people in publishing; my
last editor, a senior editor, at the San Francisco
Chronicle (let's call him "David," though that may or may
not be his real name) once asked me to delete the word
"ubiquitous" from a news story because he thought readers
might not understand such a "big" word. People are smarter
than you think, I told him -- or at least they're smarter
than "David," who also thought the phrase
"quid pro quo" meant cause and effect. Look, I prefer
simple, direct language in news stories, but sometimes
a word just fits, as ubiquitous, a pretty common word,
did in this case. (By the way, how did "David" manage
to flourish at the newspaper, where he's still employed?
The same way Donald Rumsfeld flourished at Defense (and
convinced otherwise bright people to back the Iraq war
in '03): by lying, which I'm sure my former editor
will be doing once he reads this.)
__________________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 16, 2008
Once again, the Daily Digression leads the pack!
In my July 14, 2008, column (below), I noted the
"irony-deficiency" of those critical of the
controversial cover of The New Yorker magazine.
On July 15th, in the Los Angeles Times, James
Rainey also wrote about such an "irony-deficiency."
(July 14th, of course, came before July 15th --
and his story was a riff on breaking news, not a
piece that was six months in the making.)
Rainey probably didn't even see my blog before
he wrote his thing, but there is a problem out there
with big media companies ripping off the ideas and
language of bloggers who have low readership like
myself. The Daily Digression, and other blogs, are
becoming a sort of backwater for good ideas that
journalists with tight deadlines at big newspapers
can steal with near-impunity.
If you guys are going to pilfer my ideas, and I'm
not implying Rainey did (neither of us invented
the phrase, after all), take a few seconds to say
or write: "As freelance writer Paul Iorio put it."
P.S. -- And if the Rainey story is actually bait --
a deliberate nicking of my material in order to
provoke a response for which they have a readymade
retort (e.g., "that's typical Paul") -- my response is:
I don't care if it's bait or not. If you steal my
material, I'm going to note it publicly and to your
editors. And if it's merely an innocent matter of
my idea preceding yours, I'm going to make sure people
know who came first.
* * * *
There should be no compassionate release for
Susan Atkins. Let her die in prison -- that's
exactly what she deserves.
There are good, honest poor people out there
who have never committed an awful crime, who die
abusive, unspeakably cruel deaths because
they don't have money for the basics. Where is
the compassion for them?
Rather than focus time and energy on a homicidal
sadist like Atkins, let's instead focus our
generosity on poor people who are dying and in pain
because they can't afford medication, who are being
evicted by callous landlords who couldn't care less
that their tenant is dying, who are the targets of
muggers because they are weak from chemo, who are dying
in homeless shelters or on the street without even a
proper bed, etc. By contrast, Atkins has it made
in the shade.
But I digress. Paul
__________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
extra! for July 14, 2008
The New Yorker Cover, and Sharpton's Irony-Deficiency
I actually talked once, one on one, with Al Sharpton,
in a telephone interview in late 1985, when I was a
writer/reporter for music trade magazine Cash Box
in New York. He was virtually unknown then and
organizing some sort of anti-drug benefit concert,
and I thought it would be a newsworthy item for my
weekly column, East Coastings.
It wasn't an in-depth Q&A, just a casual quickie
with some guy who was putting together a show for what
seemed like a good cause.
But around ten minutes into the conversation, I noticed
there was something really ugly about this guy Sharpton.
As gracious and nice as I was being to him, he simply
wouldn't let me be gracious and nice, and he kept raising
his voice as if he were trying to pick a fight.
And I would say something like, well, good luck with
the concert and thanks for the interview, and he would
shout for no reason at all as if he wanted an argument.
Strange, unpleasant fellow, I thought at the time.
It was only years later that I was told that Sharpton
was not the sort of activist he was pretending to be,
and that he was actually working as an undercover agent
for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (that sort of thing
is hard to confirm, but I've heard it from multiple reliable
sources). For the '85 conversation, he was directed to me
by a colleague who was, evidently, trying to cause problems
for me in some way or deflect attention away from himself
for some reason.
Let me further digress here for a moment to provide
full context. A few years later, as an independent
investigative reporter, working at first for the Village
Voice on spec, and then for a time for CBS's "60 Minutes,"
I did uncover disturbing information -- downright
nauseating information -- that linked my magazine Cash
Box with the worst sort of industry corruption. But keep
in mind, I was the one who uncovered and exposed this
nefarious activity. And, I should note, there were a lot
of music-news reporters at the time who didn't lift a finger
to voice support for (much less help) my investigation, even
though they knew full well what I had uncovered, and even
after I was nearly murdered in front of a shoe store on
West 72nd Street in Manhattan in a still-unexplained
assault during the week I went to "60 Minutes"
(October 13, 1990). [Advice for aspiring freelancers:
don't get physically injured while freelancing,
because you won't be able to afford to fix your
injury. You think the government doesn't care
about your health care?! Corporate America
cares even less.)
I say all this to show the landscape in which Sharpton, the
FBI agent, phoned me, one of the honest guys at Cash Box.
(For the record, most of the editorial people at the
magazine had a lot of integrity; certainly my
writer/reporter colleagues in New York and Los Angeles
were honest pros; but it was on the business side, mostly
in the Nashville bureau, where there was extremely corrupt
activity.)
Anyway, in the subsequent years Sharpton eventually
made a name for himself as an activist, though few of
his supporters seemed to know his apparent history
with the FBI -- and even fewer know about his past
today, it seems.
When the Tawana Brawley scandal broke in 1989, it
didn't surprise me at all to see Al, the blowhard
who I had interviewed years before, at the forefront,
this time shouting lies as loud as he could in front of
every camera he could find. I had already experienced
his pick-a-fight attitude and deception, and all of
that was on grand display during the Brawley affair,
when Sharpton lied, lied and lied again for
personal gain. And I have yet to hear him apologize for
his role in the Brawley hoax, and until I do, I will
never consider taking him seriously or believing a word he
says.
If I had lied the way he lied about Brawley, I would
have never worked another day in any field. So tell me
why he's still on the public stage? It's not like
the man has changed; he has gone from championing
Brawley in '89 to defending liar Crystal Mangum in
'06.
But there are other reasons why Sharpton is abhorrent,
e.g., his religious fundamentalism, which puts him in bed
with Pat Robertson, and not just jokingly, either. In the
years since Brawley, he has become indistinguishable
from a right-winger with regard to issues of
censorship and First Amendment rights.
The latest example is typical. There was Al, earlier today,
yelling like people couldn't hear him, trying to gain
advantage by criticizing the witty, controversial cover
of The New Yorker magazine that satirizes perceptions
about Barack Obama. Seeing him on various news programs
today, it was clear Sharpton really was out of his depth,
without the brainpower to take on the sort of high satire that
he didn't understand. I mean, the guy is such a religious
literalist that you wonder whether he even knows what
irony is.
But there he was tonight on some nightly news show.
"Michelle in an Afro wig, [Obama] in Muslim garb: it
plays on all the ridiculous notions that we
hope we're getting out of American politics," Sharpton
told one television reporter.
Clearly, Sharpton is irony-deficient. Does he also
not understand Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and
other serious satiric works of literature? Or pop
cultural touchstones like Elton John's "Texas
Love Song"? Does he take those works literally, too?
Until Sharpton decides to take some time out for a college
level course on satire, he really shouldn't be weighing in on
subjects he knows absolutely nothing about.
But I digress. Paul
_____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 14, 2008
Here are the two latest installments of my
comic strip series "The Continuing Adventures
of bin Laden, the Jihadist Pooch." (Another
dozen episodes are
at www.ioriocartoons2.blogspot.com.)
[Note: I know, I know -- every dog is unique and
has his or her own personality. Some dogs are
good-hearted, loving and even heroic, and they
don't deserve to be lumped in with a sick mammal
like bin Laden. So, to dog-lovers everywhere: it's
not my intention to de-individualize (de-humanize?)
dogs with my cartoon series.]
* * * *
QUICK NOTES: Bravo to The New Yorker for
its ballsy cover of Barack and his wife,
making satirically explicit the implicit,
unspoken, irrational fears of the American
ring-wing...the Washington Post's Shailagh Murray
is a smart addition to PBS's "Washington
Week"....Very cool of Little Steven to celebrate
Bastille Day on last night's "Underground Garage,"
must-hear radio...For the record, The Daily Digression
was the first media outlet to speculate about an appearance
by Ted Kennedy at Invesco Field in August (see Daily
Digression, July 9, 2008, below); a couple days
later, on July 11, on "The NewsHour," the
always-interesting Mark Shields talked about his
own fantasy of a Ted Kennedy appearance in Denver...New
Newsweek poll showing Obama and McCain within a few
points of each other is probably far closer to the mark
than the previous ones showing a double-digit Obama
lead; the presidential race is shaping up to be yet
another near-50:50 contest that will be fought and won
in places like Gettysburg, not in the mountains of
Montana. And to those who think race is not a
significant factor in the election, I say: race
would be a substantial element even if the
vice-presidential candidate -- and not the
presidential contender -- was African-American....OK,
someone pointed out to me that a certain woman
has a wedding ring on her left hand. True, but there's
always hope, however distant, that her right hand
is available! (Just joking.) (I think.) (HD TV
is quite revealing!)
I heard the Feelies reunion shows in NY and NJ were great. So when do we get to hear them in northern California? (Also, anyone know where I can buy a new copy of "The Good Earth"? As you can see (above), my vinyl version is worn out!)
But I digress. Paul
___________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 11, 2008
Second Takes On Recent Concerts I've Heard
Listening to bootleg recordings of recent shows
I've heard, here are a few thoughts:
1) Mark Knopfler's "Cannibals" is a lot of fun
in concert, worth the price of admission in itself.
2) "Hot Corner" is the unexpected stand-out of the
recent B52s show in Berkeley, much better than
"Juliet of the Spirits," the 2nd single from the
band's new album.
3) Of all the songs Alison Krauss and Robert
Plant performed at their recent gig, "Please Read
the Letter" is the one I keep going back to.
4) If I rave any more about Jesca Hoop's set,
people might think I have a thing for her, so
I'll shut up.
5) The live verson of Death Cab's "I Will Possess
Your Heart" is addictive.
6) "Mr. Richards" is the best of the new
songs R.E.M. performed at its recent concerts
in Berkeley, though almost all the "Accelerate"
material is first-rate.
* * * *
Nothingness + Time = Matter
Thanks to those who wrote to me about my "A does
not equal A" philosophical argument (The Daily
Digression, July 1, 2008, below). As I wrote,
my premise, if taken to its conclusion, debunks
certain fundamental ideas common to most
religions.
In my view, religious people of almost all
faiths focus too much on the mythological
moment of Creation -- and scientists focus too
much on the Big Bang, the moment when the
universe supposedly began.
But that's not how to look at it. The most likely
explanation of "Creation" is this, in my view:
in the beginning, there was no beginning, because there
was complete nothingness.
And nothingness, of course, did not require a creator
or a moment of creation.
Nothingness also has no beginning and no ending.
But nothingness plus time -- an uncountable amount of
time, trillions and trillions of millennia -- equals
matter, because (as I've noted before) time
is transformative. So nothingness over a vast
expanse of time will inevitably produce some
sort of small irregularity -- a wisp of gas, for
instance -- that, in further time, will lead to
another bit of matter and then another, setting
in motion the unfolding of the universe we
have today.
The element that most thinkers leave out of the
equation when discussing Creation is time, which
is really another form of nothingness and merely
our own contrivance, a way that we organize successive
instances of nothingness (and being) and stack them
atop one another to create order, something.
Paradox, obviously, did not need a creator, either.
But I digress. Paul
____________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 9, 2008
The Unspoken Debate About Obama's Electability
An Imaginary Dialectic
ANTI-OBAMA: Let me get this straight: the Dems
are nominating a guy who can't catch a cab in parts
of New York City, yet can win old south
bastions like Georgia and Virginia, where the
Confederate flag still flies. That's realistic?
PRO-OBAMA: You pundits are all the same. You said he
couldn't possibly win that U.S. Senate seat in '04, and
he won. You said he couldn't possibly win
the Democratic nomination for president, and he has won it.
And now you're saying he can't possibly win the presidency.
Some pundits ought to consider another line of work.
ANTI-OBAMA: But winning primaries is one thing; winning
the general is another altogether. George Wallace won
primaries and was probably on his way to the nomination in '72,
thanks to intense factional support that would not have
translated into a presidential win. I'd love to see how
Obama plans to win, say, Wisconsin, which Kerry
barely took.
PRO-OBAMA: Have you seen the major polls lately? Obama is
way ahead, sometimes by double digits, in all the major
swing states, including Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Michigan -- even Colorado.
ANTI-OBAMA: Yeah, and he was leading by double digits in
the polls in New Hampshire before he lost the New Hampshire
primary by double digits. So what does that tell you about
the reliability of polls about Obama?
PRO-OBAMA: But the polls were completely accurate in most
subsequent primary states. And voters have consistently said
they are more concerned about McCain's age than Obama's race.
ANTI-OBAMA: How stupid do you have to be to think a racist
is going to admit to a pollster, a complete stranger, on
the record, that he is a racist and wouldn't vote for
a black candidate?
PRO-OBAMA: Then how do you explain the crowds at Obama
rallies? How do you explain 70,000 people at a rally in
Oregon, a state where there are something like 7 black
people, I think. And he's drawing crowds in traditionally
red states. He's even campaiging in Montana. When was
the last time the interior west was seriously in play for
the Democrats?
ANTI-OBAMA: Reminds me of the student who doesn't want
to do the hard work of studying for a calculus exam and
instead spends all night doing something even more
difficult -- but by volition -- like investigating
the 19th century origins of mass transit in his hometown.
It's fun for him to go to Montana. And it's
a lot more scenic than campaigning in old-fashioned machine
areas of Pennsylvania where some white voters will
simply not vote for a black person. Period.
PRO-OBAMA: Every credible poll has him winning
Pennsylvania by a comfortable margin.
ANTI-OBAMA: Tell me exactly when all those bitter
Pennsylvanians suddenly fell into Barack's column?
Wasn't it just weeks ago that he couldn't win Pennsylvania
from Hillary no matter how much money he threw at it?
PRO-OBAMA: The money advantage he had over Hillary was
small compared to the money edge he has over McCain.
ANTI-OBAMA: Funny thing, if Obama had less money, he'd
probably do more. He'd be forced into a more meat and
potatoes strategy, parking in, say, Monroe County, Pa.,
or Grant County, Wisc. -- counties that were
virtually 50:50 in '04.
PRO-OBAMA: He can afford to lose Monroe County because
he'll make up for it by racking up larger totals in
Philadelphia than Kerry did. What you're
not seeing is that we're dealing with a different
electoral map this time. You're driving through
Yugoslavia with a 1988 road map.
ANTI-OBAMA: Things have changed since '88, but not
so much since 2004. I could drive through Yugoslavia
with a 2004 road map.
PRO-OBAMA: In retrospect, you'll see how historically
inevitable Obama's election was all along. McCain is an
antique -- what's the famous phrase in "The Godfather"?
"Pensa all'antica." He thinks in old ways. He's Crocker
Jarmon, to mix movie comparisons. Even looks a
bit like him. Obama's McKay.
ANTI-OBAMA: Obama may be historically inevitable -- but in
2020, not this year.
PRO-OBAMA: You'll be convinced when you see his acceptance
speech at Invesco Field this August. Smart idea. Barack
alfresco. The Dems can literally clear the air. The opposite
of the tear gas of '68. Barack and Hillary can elope in the
Rockies. Bill can join the "fairy tale" that has now become
reality. And maybe the party can even persuade Ted Kennedy to
make a swan song appearance for a closing night curtain call
with, among others, Jimmy Carter, for that public handshake
that didn't happen 28 years ago -- showing that we may
have our family squabbles, but in a crisis or a general
election, we come together.
ANTI-OBAMA: That's the movie version. The reality is that
lots of Hillary backers are going to vote for McCain, no
matter who the running mate is. As the cliche goes, people
don't vote the bottom of the ticket. He could choose even
Al Gore and it wouldn't have an appreciable effect. In
the end, McCain will win at least 300 electoral votes.
PRO-OBAMA: In the end, Barack will win with around 300
electoral votes.
But I digress. Paul
_______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for July 1, 2008
Here's the latest installment of my comic strip
series "The Continuing Adventures of bin Laden,
the Jihadist Pooch!" Click it to enlarge it!
(Another dozen episodes are
at www.ioriocartoons2.blogspot.com.)
[By the way, those ubiquitous "Unlikely Alliance"
ads featuring Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson were
created months after my own Daily Digression
column of December 18, 2007, about what I
called "The Robertson/Sharpton Religious
Conservative Axis" (archived below).]
* * *
Bee Ballet
While listening to the B52s concert in Berkeley
on Sunday night, and watching people in the audience
dance inventively, I wrote in my notebook: "The B52s
are really choreographers, or choreographers in
reverse, in that their music strongly suggests,
even compels, certain dance moves by listeners."
Yesterday morning, I got an email from the
brilliant conceptual artist Jonathon Keats that
shows he had been thinking independently along
that line -- about external stimuli suggesting
choreography -- for longer than I have. Except he's
now taking the idea to a whole different level.
The premise of his latest conceptual art
work -- and I hope I'm getting this half right -- is
that plants and flowers will suggest choreography for
dancing bees. Keats has created what he
calls a "bee ballet" -- commissioned by the Yerba
Buena Center of the Arts in San Francisco -- made
possible by the planting of "hundreds of flowering
cosmos plants" in various neighborhoods in San Francisco
with the intention of having bees dance and buzz
around them in unpredictable patterns and ways.
With consultation from a Smithsonian zoologist, Keats
is creating choreography for bees by planting plants
and flowers that strongly suggest a pattern of motion
for the bees. But the audience will have to
imagine the dances created by the bees -- extrapolating,
of course, from the plant stimuli they're encountering.
Keats is sort of a 21st century combination of
Wittgenstein and Warhol, specializing in these
sorts of "thought experiments," as he calls them,
that dwell at the intersection of art, philosophy and
humor. (For example, he once sold his thoughts to
museum patrons and has literally copyrighted his
own mind.)
And he once mounted a petition drive in Berkeley to
create a binding city law, a Law of Identity, that
states A=A.
Yeah, I know that last one was meant as a bit of
absurdist humor, but the more you think about the
logic of it, the more A=A becomes less self-evident.
For example, the lamp-in-your-bedroom equals
the-lamp-in-your-bedroom. True or false? At first,
you say that that's obviously true. But then
you think about it and realize it's not so obvious at
all. Because the first iteration of the
"lamp in your bedroom" (A) happened a second or two
before your reiteration of "the lamp in your bedroom" (A),
so the second "A" is a different "A" because it
is conjured at a different point in time than
the first A.
Another example: if I were to say, "Paul Iorio equals
Paul Iorio," that's not really true. Because in
stating the equivalency, you're positing Paul Iorio at
two separate moments in time. And as Heraclitis once
said, "You can never step in the same river twice." Time
is transformative. Therefore, A does not equal A.
If you say "A" at 8pm and then "A" again at 8pm and
five seconds, the second "A" is not an identical
equivalent but a subsidiary reiteration of the
original A; you're saying the second A with the
idea that it is a copy, not the original.
(The implications of this demolish the idea of a
fixed soul, if you carry the logic forward, which
I won't do here because I don't have time.)
I could go on. (Of course, the preceding four paragraphs
about A=A are my own thoughts, not the thoughts of
Keats or anyone else.) But let me end with a photo I took of
Keats OuijaVote balloting system, which was on display
last winter at the Berkeley Art Museum.
For specifics about Keats's bee ballet, go to
http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=6878 .
Keats' OuijuaVote balloting system.
But I digress. Paul
___________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 30, 2008
Last Night's B52s Show, Etc.
The first time I heard the B52's in concert was
in the summer of 1979, just as its first album was
being released. The quintet was playing Wollman
Rink in New York's Central Park and, if I'm not mistaken,
was opening for the Talking Heads.
I remember everybody in the audience seemed to
have a copy of New York Rocker, one of the great
music newspapers of the era, and a lot of people
were completely unfamiliar with the B52s, despite
the fact that local radio station WPIX (what
a fun and smart station that was back then;
remember the PIX Penthouse Party?) was playing
tracks from the debut.
From my perch in the rocks at the edge of
Wollman (where one could see and hear the whole
show perfectly), I was knocked out and thinking
I'd never heard anything like them before. The big
song of the night seemed to be "52 Girls," and
some people in the audience thought the name of
the band was 52 Girls, and there was one guy who
couldn't see the stage who was wondering whether there
were 52 girls in the band. Such was the mystery
and mythology surrounding the arrival of these wacky
space-age Athenians.
By this summer, punk had long since morphed
into various New Wave mutations, and the Ramones
had sort of gone Hollywood. (Their own Wollman Rink
show of '79 sparked open arguments among fans
leaving the gig; some loved it (as I did) and
some didn't; I remember "Don't Come Close," which
they didn't really play much after '79, sounded so
thrilling and buoyant that day.)
But getting back to he B52s. As I left the gig,
the main things I remember are that "52 Girls" was
the dominant song and the late, great Ricky Wilson was
the bandmember people were taking about most.
Fast forward 29 years later. Berkeley, Calif. The Greek
Theater. Last night. The B52s have returned after a
16-year absence with a new album, "Funplex," only their
third post-Ricky Wilson album since his extremely
untimely death in '85. The last time the B52s had an
album out, Bush was president, there was a bad recession
and Iraq was the center of foreign policy debate. In
other words, nothing has changed.
"Funplex" is a surprisingly vital album, and the
50-minute set the band played last night, as part
of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" extravaganza
(I covered the 2007 edition of that tour in this
space), was very danceable and very enjoyable. Set
included a half dozen new tunes ("Funplex" and
"Hot Corner" were the best of those), classics
like "Rock Lobster" and "Roam," and lots of humorous
stage banter (including a dis of Larry Craig). Great
to hear them in such fine form.
But I digress. Paul
_______________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 29, 2008
Massive Indie Star
It takes around 9 seconds to fall in love with
Jesca Hoop's music
Please let me rave embarrassingly about Jesca Hoop,
who opened for Mark Knopfler last night at the Greek
Theater in Berkeley. Her stuff is absolutely,
astonishingly, I'm-running-out-of-superlatives to
describe how brilliant a singer-songwriter she is.
Hadn't heard her name before last night, but I fell
in love with her music approximately 9 seconds into
her opening song.
Hoop understands that a three-minute song is its
own free universe, with as many time zones as you want
it to have, with melodies within melodies, with any
unpredictability you can get away with, using very
little sound to get a lot of effect.
In her five song set, she fell into melodies like water
into crevices, or a river into tributaries, and each
song -- "Summertime," "Money," finale "Seed of
Wonder," from her debut album "Kismet" -- topped the
previous one.
Amazing. I bet she'll she be as big as Feist within
a few years.
* * *
(and while I'm in a raving mood!)
Knopfler: Better Than Ever Live
30 years after his debut, he continues to astonish
Last night, Mark Knopfler played the fifth
date of his U.S. tour in support of his latest
solo album, "Kill to Get Crimson," a further
resurgence in a career that keeps flying higher
almost each time out.
Among the peaks of the show: "True Love Will
Never Fade," the first single from the new one,
which had the power of an "Oh Mercy"-era Dylan
ballad; "Cannibals," which felt like an open
air celebration in New Orleans; "What It Is," which
(to me) evokes a vintage western flick (especially
when you hear it in the hilly woods above the theater,
where I heard both Knopfler and Hoop); encore
"So Far Away," always a sure shot; and the most
riveting "Sultans of Swing" I've ever heard him
play in concert.
In the 30 years since "Sultans" and the first
Dire Straits album were released (30 years ago this
October), Knopfler has successfully
re-invented himself so often that he could
conceivably play a set with no Straits material and
still satisfy fans, who love getting lost
in his guitar playing much as people used to
hang on every note of Jerry Garcia's jams. As
marvelous as his singing is, perhaps he should toy
with the idea of performing a series of completely
instrumental concerts; I thought of this while
listening to the inspired jam at the end of
"Marbletown," when Knopfler riffed with his
pianist like great conversation or two rapid streams
merging. This is a tour worth catching.
But I digress. Paul
[photo of Hoop from Minnesota Public Radio; pic of Knopfler from wordpress.com.]
_______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 28, 2008
Last Night's Robert Plant/Alison Krauss Concert
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss played such a
terrific show last night at the Greek Theater
in Berkeley that one hopes they turn their concerts
into a live album/DVD and release "The Battle
of Evermore" as their first single, because
"Evermore," at least last night, was as awesome
as anything I've heard live in years, with Plant's
singing recalling his 4th album prime, and Krauss
trading and weaving vocals with Plant like a
great tapestry.
It was the undisputed highlight of this concert,
and even in the hills above the theater, where
I heard the show, fans were entranced, charged.
But this was no Zeppelin or Plant solo gig, not
by a long shot. In fact, it was as much a Krauss
concert as anything else, and was sooo T Bone in
sensibility, and was actually a true and seamless
fusion of disparate styles, as well as an ironic
reclamation by a British rocker of his American
roots. (Originality, of course, is often the
inadvertent product of failed imitation; on
the way to following in the footsteps of
various blues legends, Zep became something
else altogether: a bona fide original in
its own right.)
Highlights were everywhere. T Bone did a marvelous
"Primitives," with the memorable line: "The
frightening thing is not dying/the frightening thing
is not living."
Krauss hit high notes with Gene Clark's "Through the
Morning, Through the Night," from Krauss/Plant's
"Raising Sand" album, and with the
haunting, siren-like "Trampled Rose." (Though
let me take this opportunity to say there are
way, way too many songs in popular music
about roses, an overrated, predictable flower.
And there aren't enough tunes about, say,
the Venus Fly-Trap or Jimson Weed,
which would set an ominous Tone for a song,
dontcha think?)
But I digress.
There was also a fresh reimagining of "Black Dog"
on banjo. (Another way to have re-arranged that
one would have been to play it briskly
on acoustic guitar, scatting the main Page guitar
riff; try it -- it's fun.)
A couple missed opportunities: "Celebration
Day" could have been transposed for banjo to fine
effect (imagine that intro live!), and
"Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" could have leveled the place
in this context.
On the way home, I couldn't help but think of what
I'd written in this space before: that T Bone
should produce a musical version of "Robert Altman's
'Nashville'" for Broadway or Off-Broadway. The
main parts of "Nashville" are easily transferable
to the stage, and its music and story are fully
ready for rediscovery by a new generation.
For now, if I were Krauss and Plant, I'd provide
radio and MTV with their live "Battle of Evermore"
so everyone can hear it. Then again, it's 2008 -- an era
when everyone's a distributor! -- and that means it's
already all over YouTube. Check it out there.
But I digress. Paul
________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 27, 2008
One original photo I left out of the June 6th column
is a picture I took of Jim Campbell's "custom electronic
installation," part of his "Triptych" (2000), on display
at the Berkeley Art Museum. It's a glowing, space-age
looking thing on the wall -- and looks even more so
when you photograph it.
Part of Jim Campbell's "Triptych" (photo by Paul Iorio].
But I digress. Paul
_______________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 24, 2008
Here's the latest episode of my cartoon series "The
Continuing Adventures of Bin Laden, the Jihadist
Pooch!" (This particular frame was inspired by Jim
Borgman's Carlin-inspired cartoon of last week.)
My other cartoons in this series are at:
http://ioriocartoons2.blogspot.com.
* * * *
The other day, I came up with an idea for
a political bumper sticker, and here it is:
[Note: The Daily Digression tries to provide even-handed analysis and reporting about politics and pop culture (and beyond!) and does not formally endorse political candidates. If I come up with an interesting bumper sticker idea about McCain, I'll be publishing that one, too.]
* * * *
Strange story. French president Sarkozy heard a
gunshot on an airport tarmac today.
Rumor has it he immediately surrendered and offered
to set up a coalition government in Vichy.
* * * *
If you don't live in northern California, you
probably don't fully appreciate the current
atmospheric situation out here, which is
downright weird. Over the last several days there
have been what they call "dry lightning"
strikes -- hundreds of 'em -- that have
sparked hundreds of brush and wild fires in the Bay
Area and beyond. No one fire is especially
dominant, but taken together, they have created very,
very unusual air-quality conditions. What I mean
is, when you step ouside in the SF Bay Area, you can
actually smell smoke, as if a fire were nearby. In fact,
in Berkeley, where I live and where there are no fires,
I can smell smoke in the hallway of my apartment house
from faraway infernos. This is a first for me and a lot
of people.
But I digress. Paul
______________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 23, 2008
A mid-summer's day obscenity bust: Carlin's mugshot for Milwaukee Summerfest arrest, 1972.
There's now one less genius on the planet;
George Carlin has died.
I loved the guy's comedy, I really did. More than
any humorist other than Woody Allen, Carlin most
closely expressed my own feelings about religion, and
he was enormously bold and brave and funny about
doing so -- and a few hundred years ahead of his
time, too.
As he would be the first to admit, if he could, he's
not in heaven or in hell right now; he's dead, as we'll
all be eventually. But he created moments of pure
heaven while he was alive, which is the point (and maybe
the only point).
I've been fortunate enough to have interviewed
several of the greatest stand-up comedians of
all time (Richard Pryor, Woody Allen (who is also
far more than a stand-up)), but I never met or talked
with Carlin, and now I never will, which is only one
of the reasons I'm sad about his death.
police report on Carlin's Summerfest bust.
* * * *
Revolution is a powerful tool that should be
used only rarely and sparingly -- and only when all
legitimate channels are blocked and the level of
oppression is unacceptable.
If ever there was a case for revolution -- armed,
violent insurrection -- that case is vivid and
clear in the nation of Zimbabwe today.
Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the presidential
race because his supporters are being attacked and
massacred by allies of tyrant Robert Mugabe, who wants
to retain power despite his evident lack of popular
support. But Tsvangirai should do more than just
boycott the election; he should carefully and steadily
consider gathering weapons and arming guerillas for
a coup aimed at toppling the current regime.
Perhaps everyone should do the short math on this
one. Sanctions won't work (they rarely do). Condemnation
by the Security Council won't work (it rarely does).
Mugabe isn't going to budge (why should he?). And
Tsvangirai's supporters will continue to be targeted and
persecuted and killed (you can bank on that).
Let's hope the international community doesn't
vacillate about this situation Kofi Annan-style.
Unfortunately, Mugabe has made armed revolution
the only reasonable option for the oppressed in
Zimbabwe.
But I digress. Paul
[above, Carlin mugshot by unknown photographer.]
___________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
June 22, 2008
Last Night's Death Cab Concert
Death Cab for Cutie performed a sold-out gig
last night in Berkeley, Calif., playing over half
of its new hit album, "Narrow Stairs," its
follow-up to 2005's "Plans," which (in my view) is
the band's peak work to date -- and this concert
made a better case for it than for the new one.
The show peaked in the middle, with the double shot
of "Soul Meets Body" and "I Will Follow You Into
the Dark," which is a fabulous song to hear outdoors
in the wooded hills above the Greek Theatre, where
I heard the whole show.
The best new ones were opener "Bixby Canyon
Bridge" and first single "I Will Possess Your Heart,"
which is somewhat in the spirit of the hypnotic, extended-play
mood of Wilco show-stopper "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," which
has spectacularly re-invented The Long Song
for modern indie consumption.
Also of note: a marvelous "Crooked Teeth" and set
closer "Transatlanticism," which had surprising
momentum.
Death Cab is evolving in interesting ways, though it
still reminds me of the unjustly overlooked indie band
The Connells -- and I can't help but think Ben Gibbard
sounds a bit like a cooler, more genuine
Al Stewart, though the band has more heft than either.
Opening act was Oakland's own Rogue Wave, which caught
fire nicely during its last two songs.
* * *
The Tree-Sitters, Day Whatever
Walked by the controversial oak grove encampment in
Berkeley before midnight last night, on the way back
from Death Cab, and was astonished by the spectacle.
Two sets of metal barricades blocked the northbound
lane and sidewalk of Piedmont Ave. Two sets of barbed
wire fences surrounded the trees where environmental
activists have been living since late 2006 (see column,
below). Klieg-like night lights illuminated
the area like it was Stalag 17. Cops were everywhere.
Take it from my own first-hand experience: I have personally
seen Iron Curtain checkpoints inside Eastern Bloc countries
at the height of the Cold War that looked less fearsome
and fortified.
It's clear that what began as an act of vivid civil
disobedience has now become an out-of-control infection
in east Berkeley.
May I make a suggestion?
The sitters are confined to one tree, right? Then put
netting and cushions beneath that tree around 20 feet above
the ground. That way, if anyone falls, there will be no grave
injury. As it stands now, if someone falls and is
badly injured, then the university and the city will
have an exponentially more serious problem,
as well as a human tragedy. And the longer they stay
in the trees, the greater the chance of a mishap.
Currently, the mainstream student population at Cal
doesn't seem to care much about the oaks dispute.
(And frankly, as an issue, it doesn't rank nearly as
high in importance as, say, providing health care for
the uninsured -- now that's something worth
climbing a tree for!) But if one of the tree-sitters,
heaven forfend, were to be badly injured (or killed) as
the result of a fall, and if it were perceived to be
the fault of the authorities, you might have turbulence
similar to the People's Park riots of 1969.
On a more immediate level, a quick resolution of
this thing would free up police resources; it's
fair to say that last night there were probably
muggings and burglaries that were not prevented
because cops were deployed at the oak grove instead
of in high crime areas.
If the activists come down from the trees, they
can continue their protest by other means; if they
truly have popular support, they'll be able to
organize an effective boycott against
UC interests (they should study the effective tactics
used by Columbia University protesters to
force the university to divest from South Africa in
June 1984). While the sitters's cause may be just,
their tactics have gotten out of hand and are
backfiring.
But I digress. Paul
__________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 19, 2008
The "Rad-Lab" on the Big Divide
This chemistry building and its chemicals, protected by this sign,
are mere feet from the Hayward earthquake fault in Berkeley, Calif.
[photo by Paul Iorio]
Many years ago, the powers that be in California
said: let's build a radiation laboratory, a chemistry
building, a sports stadium, an amphitheater and a
student dorm on an active earthquake fault that is long
overdue for a big temblor.
And so they went ahead and built those buildings
within a mile of one another on (or feet from) the
great quaking Hayward divide, which is due for
a big one soon.
Of all the places in northern California, why pick an
active quake zone for your so-called rad-lab? Oh, I know,
it's been buttressed and retrofitted to
the nth degree, but I also know that almost no structure
can fully withstand a direct hit from an 8.5 quake.
And the easternmost chemistry building on the U.C. campus
looks much more flimsy and far less fortified than the
Lawrence lab; anyone can walk by and see shelves of all
sorts of chemicals, safeguarded by a paper sign on
the window that reads: "Steal Here -- Die Here!"
And let's not even think about what would happen if an
8.5 occurred when Memorial Stadium and the Greek Theater
were packed with people. Or rather, let's think long
and hard about it.
Problem is, there's no way any of those places are going
to be relocated anytime soon, though it's worth asking:
isn't there a better place for Lawrence Berkeley (and its
paranoid border guards) than the hill above the fault?
I bring this up now because yesterday's superior court
ruling about whether the University of California can
expand an athletic facility into an oak grove (see column,
below) notes the danger of building on a fault.
The Hayward divide seems to be the root source of
a free-floating community anxiety that attaches itself
to smaller issues like the decimation of oaks. But the
far greater concern should be the hazardous overbuilding
on the east side of the UC campus and the placement of
ultra-sensitive sites on treacherous turf.
But I digress. Paul
_______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 17, 2008
Protests Over Oak Grove Escalate in Berkeley
A demonstrator blocks a truck traveling through a protest against the
proposed destruction of an oak grove in Berkeley, Calif. (She claimed the
truck was affiliated with UCB.)][photo by Paul Iorio]
Early this morning, tensions surrounding the oak grove
protests in Berkeley grew considerably worse.
As most of you know, the University of California at
Berkeley wants to destroy a group of oak trees in order to
expand a sports complex on its property. But environmental
activists have been tree-sitting in the oaks since late
2006 to stop that from happening.
This morning campus police removed some of the
tree-sitters' supplies and fenced off the sidewalk
adjacent to the grove, where supporters of the
sitters had been regularly gathering.
This is all happening a day before a Superior Court
judge is expected to decide whether UCB has the
authority to begin construction on its long-delayed
project.
I arrived at the protests around 10:30 this morning
(June 17) and shot these pictures (click on a photo
to enlarge it):
A police officer looks on as a protester jumps atop a car in Berkeley. [photo by Paul Iorio]
* * *
An activist plays a drum as protesters protest near the disputed oak grove. [photo by Paul Iorio]
* * *
The save-the-oaks protest, as seen through a floppy hat. [photo by Paul Iorio]
* * *
A police officer next to the barbed-wire fence surrounding the oak grove. [photo by Paul Iorio]
* * *
The woman-blocking-traffic, seen from mid-range. [photo by Paul Iorio]
* * *
The woman-blocking-traffic, seen in a tight shot. [photo by Paul Iorio]
* * *
Here is the court order (below) served on the tree-sitters and posted on the fence beneath the oaks.
[page one] [photo by Paul Iorio]
[page two] [photo by Paul Iorio]
[page three] [photo by Paul Iorio]
But I digress. Paul
[posted at 4pm, 6/17/08
updated on 6/18/08]
_______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 11, 2008
No Gold Glitters Like Emmylou
I've heard Emmylou Harris perform twice in
the past couple years -- on her "All the Road
Running" tour with Mark Knopfler and at the
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass fest in Golden Gate
Park, where she appeared as Emmylou Coward at
a Coward Brothers show -- and came away from both
shows charmed and amused and impressed by how she
continues to grow artistically decades after
collaborating memorably with Gram Parsons on
"Return of the Grievous Angel."
"This Is Us" still sounds like a classic of
Oughties Americana, and her star turn singing
"The Scarlet Tide" with Elvis Costello was a highlight
of Hardly Strictly.
Now comes "All I Intended To Be," her latest album, and
there's already a bit of buzz around her original song
"Gold," though I haven't been able to hear the whole album
yet. I see there's a national tour behind it -- from Cheyenne
to Tennessee, as the song says -- but no California date
is listed, so I guess I'll have to be satisfied with seeing
her perform on Letterman tomorrow night.
But I digress. Paul
[Above, photo from 1970s -- photographer unknown.]
____________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 7, 2008
John McCain's Kind of Fascist?
McCain has long voiced support, at least implicitly, for the regime of South Vietnam's former premier (and vice president) Nguyen Cao Ky, an open and enthusiastic admirer of Adolf Hitler. Has McCain ever denounced Ky? If not, why not?
Barack Obama has been taken to task
for his past associations, however remote, with
radicals from decades past. Isn't it time the media
started focusing on John McCain's defense of
right-wing extremists and outright fascists associated
with South Vietnam's Ky and Thieu regimes of the 1960s?
McCain, of course, served in the U.S. Navy in defense
of Thieu and Ky, so one can understand his personal
reluctance to denounce the South Vietnamese leaders
who he sacrificed so much to support. He evidently
doesn't want to admit those five-and-a-half years in
a North Vietnamese prison were served for a big mistake.
Now that the passions of the Vietnam era have cooled
a bit, perhaps McCain can bring himself to say what's
obvious to most Americans today: Thieu and Ky
were neo-fascists, governing without popular support,
whose human rights violations equalled (or virtually
equalled) those of the North Vietnamese.
Ky, in particular, is indefensible by any measure of
modern mainstream political thought. Here's Ky in
his own words: "People ask me who my heroes are. I
have only one: Hitler. We need four or five Hitlers
in Vietnam," he told the Daily Mirror in July 1965.
Why does McCain, to this day, still voice support,
at least implicitly, for Ky and Thieu? At the very
least, McCain should, however belatedly, unequivocally
condemn Ky's praise of Hitler, if he hasn't already.
(My own research has yet to turn up a clipping in
which McCain has been significantly critical of
either leader.)
the Daily Mirror article in which Ky praises Hitler.
But I digress. Paul
[I should note for purposes of full disclosure that I do
have a sister (who I'm very proud of!) who is in politics
in the south, but my opinions are not necessarily her
opinions and hers are not necessarily mine, and we
usually don't discuss politics.]
___________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 6, 2008
Jean-Luc Godard, May 13, 1968, the day more than a million protesters marched through Paris (photograph by Serge Hambourg).
Stopped by the Berkeley (Calif.) Art Museum yeterday
to see what was on display and was knocked out by
Serge Hamburg's photos of the massive protests of
May 1968 in Paris against the de Gaulle regime
(the so-called Days of Rage). On display are 35
pictures, most of them riveting, especially
the shot of all the great faces near the banner
"Sorbonne Teachers Against Repression"; a photo
of Jean-Luc Godard filming the protests; a poignant
shot of student leader Jacques Sauvageat, almost
tearful amongst his comrades; and a few telling
shots of older pro-Gaullist counter-demonstrators.
Also of interest at BAM is a separate exhibit of
photos, by Bruce Conner, showing Mabuhay Gardens, San
Francisco's Max's Kansas City, in all its late 1970s
glory. And there's a series of striking posters
for the punk band Crime that are worth checking out.
poster for a Crime concert, on display at BAM
OK, equal time for Stanford's Cantor Arts Center; here's a photo I shot there a few years ago.
A couple more original photos:
an ubiquitous sight in Berkeley: a bumper sticker for KALX, the best radio station in the U.S. (along with WFMU), in my opinion (and not just because they've played my own music!).
OK, it's a hokey shot, but I snapped this picture several hours ago of a dog trying to drive a truck.
But I digress. Paul
[All photos (and photos of photos) above by Paul Iorio.]
______________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 2, 2008
Night Two of R.E.M. in Berkeley: The Jangle Is Back!
R.E.M., pre-"Accelerate," pre-post-Berry.
Last night, R.E.M. played its second consecutive
show at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, Calif., and it
was even better than the first, pure proof that the greatest
jangle in modern American rock is back. And melancholy
is now, once again, danceable.
The news is the new stuff, from "Accelerate,"
which I covered in the previous column (below),
and that material sounds better each time out.
But what distinguished this particular gig was
the number of gems from the band's 1980s catalogue:
nine, which is more than they've usually
performed in recent years. And the choices were
mouth-watering.
Encore "Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)," which
the band hadn't played in the U.S. since December
9, 1985 (though it did play the song twice in
Europe in 2003, according to reliable setlists),
was as fresh and intense as ever.
(The first time I heard "Carnival" in
concert, at the Beacon Theater in New York in '84, it was
also done as an encore, and it caused people to dance
in the aisles as wildly as I'd ever seen rock fans
dance at a concert (outside of a Grateful Dead show).)
Even Stipe was impressed with his band's performance
of "Carnival" last night -- an endearingly ragged version
that made it sound like you were hearing the group
perform it at one of its earliest shows. (For the record,
I heard this Greek show in the hills above the theater.)
"We had not rehearsed that song in about four or
five years," Stipe said from the stage after "Carnival."
"It's been awhile since we've played it. But it
sounded great."
The crowd roared in agreement.
"So somebody post it immediately," Stipe said.
Elsewhere, "Disturbance at the Heron House," one of
the three or four best R.E.M. songs of all time,
was nearly perfectly played. "Heron" is the sound of a
band in its prime, with every element in harmony, a
pastoral rush like a waterfall or a drive through a
great forest.
Look, I could go on and on -- about "South Central Rain"
and "Auctioneer" and "Electrolite" -- but you get the idea.
I bet parts of the show will be turning up on
YouTube soon, so catch it there.
But I digress. Paul
[collage of REM by Paul Iorio using a photo from the "Chronic Town" EP by an unknown photographer.]
________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
EXTRA! for June 2, 2008
Remembering Bo Diddley
The only time I ever saw Bo Diddley perform was on
May 20, 1989, at Pier A in Hoboken, New Jersey,
where I was covering his concert for the East Coast
Rocker newspaper, which published my review around a
week later.
At the time, Diddley was middle-aged and largely
undervalued by a music industry that had made vast
fortunes off of his musical ideas. As I note in the
piece, his show was fascinating but more than a
little bit sad.
Here is a scan of my original manuscript (click on a page
to enlarge it):
[Bo Diddley review, page one]
[Bo Diddley review, page two]
[Bo Diddley review, page three]
[Bo Diddley review, page four]
______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSSION
for June 1, 2008
Last Night's R.E.M. Show in Berkeley, Calif.
Last night R.E.M. played the Greek Theater in
Berkeley, Calif., the fourth date of its tour
backing "Accelerate," its first studio album in
four years and probably its best since '96's
"New Adventures in Hi-Fi."
When last seen at the Greek, in October 2004, the
band was touring behind a less successful album, was
booked at this venue for only one night, and Michael
Stipe was wearing a John Kerry for president t-shirt.
What a difference four years make. The Kerry t-shirt is
gone, the band is now doing two nights at the Greek,
"Accelerate" is selling quite nicely, thank you, and
the group has rarely sounded better in concert.
And some of the new stuff is good enough to
compete with their classics (and this is coming from someone
who is R.E.M.'s age and is therefore biased in favor of their
1980s oeuvre!).
In concert, new album peaks included surprisingly
strong encore "Mr. Richards," opener "Horse to Water,"
"Man Sized Wreath," the first single
"Supernatural Superserious" and "I'm Gonna DJ," which
has grown substantially since they played it here
in '04; the title track and "Hollow Man" were less
effective live (or at least that's how it sounded
from my vantage point in the hills above the theater,
where I heard most of the show).
A third of the roughly two-hour set was from "Accelerate"
but there was also a good deal of smartly-chosen vintage
material, most notably "Wolves, Lower," a thing of real
beauty here, like watching springtime erupt at time
lapse speed.
And the encore featured a double dose of "Fables of the
Reconstruction" in the order heard on the album:
"Driver 8" and "Life and How to Live It," a bit
of a thrill.
If I were creating the setlist with an eye toward
including neglected gems, I would definitely add "Shakin'
Through" and "Near Wild Heaven" to the set (and the less
rare "Disturbance at the Heron House," "Pretty Persuasion,"
"9 - 9" and "World Leader Pretend"). And I have to
wonder why the band is so averse to "Stand." Simply put,
that song is as fun as anything they've ever recorded.
Crowd response ranged from enthusiastic to extremely
enthusiastic. Some tie-dyed Berzerkeley dude was dancing
so wildly during "Wolves, Lower" that, when I passed him
and his swinging arms, I came an inch or two from
ending up in the local E.R.
Elsewhere, even security guards and police officers were
clearly enjoying the music (and the harmonious mood of
the event, too).
More on this show -- and tonight's gig -- later.
Ah, my first R.E.M. show. "Pretty
Persuasion" exploded the place. Fans danced
aerobically during the encores.
But I digress. Paul
[Full disclosure: I should note that I once sent a CD
of my own songs to the band's management but that
nothing ever came of it, and I'm not pursuing that idea now).]
_______________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSSION
for May 28, 2008
It's all well and great that Yale University
honored Sir Paul McCartney a couple days ago
with an honorary Ph.D. Maybe this is also a
moment when we can try to figure out why no major
songwriter of the rock era ever spent a day as
a student at an Ivy League university (or at a
British equivalent, though Mick Jagger, with his
stint at LSE, which was a different sort of place
back then, comes close). Or at Juilliard.
To be sure, there are a lot of brilliant musicians
at Yale, its School of Music and its music department,
no question about it. But no songwriter of the caliber of
McCartney/Lennon/Dylan/Jagger/Richards/Townshend/Ray Davies/
Paul Simon/Brian Wilson/Buddy Holly/Chuck Berry was ever
a student, much less a graduate, of Yale or any other
Ivy institution.
In some cases, the genius of a given landmark band was
non-Ivy (say, Paul Simon of Queens College, or Dylan of
the University of Minnesota) while the supporting craftsmen
attended an elite school (Art Garfunkel of Columbia
University, or Peter Yarrow of Cornell).
Why has this been the case? Do admissions people put
too much emphasis on the SAT? Or could it be, to put
it crudely, that a flower best blooms in dung -- at least
initially -- and might wither and die in an expensively
manipulated Ivy environment?
No first-rank songwriter of the rock era has ever come out of an Ivy League university, though a lot of lesser side players did. Witness genius Paul Simon of non-Ivy Queens College, and non-genius Art Garfunkel of Columbia University. And (below) Bob Dylan (University of Minnesota drop-out) and Peter Yarrow (Cornell grad).
Genius: University of Minnesota drop-out.
Non-genius: Cornell grad.
The school that nurtured McCartney's genius was the
Reeperbahn in Hamburg -- a tough, tawdry district of
whores and speed and seedy clubs that allowed the Beatles
to perfect their sound in 7-hour shows every night.
McCartney, a "graduate" of the Reeperbahn, may well be
the world's greatest living composer (it's probably between
him and Dylan, graduate of clubland in Greenwich Village)
and is arguably a better songwriter than Yale's own Cole
Porter was. I can't think of a Porter song as great as
"Yesterday" or "Hey Jude" or "For No One," and I know
Porter's work well.
By the way, I recently picked up a copy of "Cole Porter:
American Songbook Series," a terrific 23-track CD of his
songs performed by various artists, and wondered who the
singer of "Anything Goes" was. To my surprise, I found
it was Porter himself, and he had a not-bad voice by the
singer-songwriter standards of the current, more liberated
era, when voice is considered more important than merely
having a voice, when expression is valued over technique
(though "American Idol," which has also yet to produce
someone of the stature of McCartney (or of even a Badfinger,
for that matter), runs counter to this trend). To be sure,
Porter sometimes sounded as if he were reading it from the
sheet -- and the final verses of "Anything Goes" are as
wordy as a bad blackboard lecture.
The highlight of the Porter CD is Bing Crosby's "Don't
Fence Me In," which sounds as adorably American as any
non-country song before Woody Guthrie, and the nadir
is an awful reading of "I've Got You Under My
Skin," which Sinatra owns (the definitive "Skin" is on
"Sinatra at the Sands" with Count Basie).
While I'm digressing about CDs I've been enjoying lately, I'm
also enthusiastic about "The Best of Laura Nyro," two CDs
with 34 tracks that cover almost all of her peaks. Certainly,
Nyro is not in the McCartney/Porter stratosphere of songwriters
(she's not even in the same league as Carole King), but
is nonetheless sorely underrated -- and her songs are
probably ripe for a revival.
The best way to hear Nyro's songs is to forget or
unhear the better-known versions that were later
turned into hits by MOR acts like the
Fifth Dimension and Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Listening to "Eli's Comin'" fresh, suppressing the
memory of the Three Dog Night hit, one realizes how
intense it is and that a band like the Rascals
probably could've turned it into something special and
soulful with Arif Mardin producing (a gospelish group
could cut a great version today). Other gems include
a live "Sweet Blindness," the familiar "Blowin' Away"
and the more obscure "Save The Country" and "Stoney End."
Lately I've been listening to "The Best of Laura Nyro," 34 songs, some of 'em underrated, on two discs. (Obviously, she's not in McCartney's league but worthy nonetheless.)
- - - -
Recently re-watched the DVD of "The Aristocrats," which
I admire for its spirit of extreme outrageousness. I'd
love to see a sequel called "Taboo," with each joke
taking on a different sacred cow of some sort.
It's interesting that I didn't hear major controversy
about it back in 2005 (or maybe I missed it), because
you'd think it would have been targeted by fundamentalists,
who tend to regard a joke as advocacy of the joked-about
subject. (I mean, I used to tell jokes about taboo subjects,
Andy Kaufman style, decades ago -- during a very brief
period in my life when I actually performed stand-up
comedy -- and found that some of my dimmer pals took
my act as non-fiction autobiography (and some
still do, it seems!)
Anyway, the film is an equal opportunity offender -- except
when it comes to the ultimate daredevil sacred cow of
mainstream comedy: Islam. Now there's a
subject for a sequel.
-- -- --
Recently checked out a DVD called "Blind Shaft,"
thinking it was a quirky sequel to
"Shaft" in which John Shaft, a la "Ironside,"
continues his investigative work after
having gone blind. Wrong disc! Instead, it
was a riveting, ultra-realistic Chinese
feature from 2003 about criminality and
corruption in the coal mines of China. I hope
others make the same mistake
and rent it.
-- -- --
Haven't heard anything lately about David Letterman's
tick-head mishap. For those who haven't heard, a tick
became embedded in Letterman's back some time ago; it
was removed but the head of the tick still remains
under his skin, which, as any medical professional knows,
can be a very serious condition. We at the Digression
wish him a speedy recovery from his tick head crisis.
But I digress. Paul
_____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for May 22, 2008
"Do not go gentle into that good night/
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-- Dylan Thomas
[photo from Look Magazine]
______________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for May 19, 2008
Ah, yet another audiotape from bin Laden: what a
better reason for another couple installments of my
own cartoon series "The Continuing Adventures of bin
Laden, the Jihadist Pooch." (If you want to see
the previous 12 episodes of the strip, go to
www.ioriocartoons2.blogspot.com.)
But I digress. Paul
___________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for May 13, 2008
To remember Robert Rauschenberg, who died earlier today,
here's a photo I shot of one of his works at the Norton
Simon Museum in Pasadena in 1999. It's called
"Cardbirds 1 - 7" (1971), a series of wall reliefs made
of cardboard.
_____________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for May 11, 2008
The other day I saw a McCain bumper sticker in
Berkeley, Calif., for the first time and immediately
snapped a picture of it, as if it were a rare
variety of Macaw never before seen outside Natal.
Anywhere else, that sticker might not stick out, but
in Berkeley, arguably the most liberal place
in the nation, it did. Here it is:
the loneliest bumper sticker in Berkeley
I don't know if that means McCain is making inroads
in left neighborhoods or whether it was just somebody's
cousin visiting from Fresno, but I do know that, if bumper
stickers were ballots, Barack Obama would get close to
98% of the Berkeley vote. I have seen cars on Shattuck
that are like shrines to Obama, one with a cardboard
cut-out of him on the roof that probably
wouldn't clear the Caldicott Tunnel. There are
houses that look like Obama palaces, with signs
and pictures in every window. But you can hike
for miles in Berkeley without ever seeing a single
Hillary sticker or sign, though there
have been sightings, I'm told.
lots of these in Berkeley
But California ain't a battleground state. The
main swing states right now are Wisconsin and
Pennsylvania, without which Obama could not possibly
win the presidency. And, in fact, he might not be
able to win the general with them, if
Ohio or Florida also don't come aboard, though one
wonders how they could when even Oregon -- Democratically
reliable Oregon! -- is still a question mark,
as is Minnesota. (Anyone who thinks Georgia and
Virginia are in play is dreaming or joking.)
How is Obama going to do better than Kerry did in the
swing counties of the swing states? I'm talking 50:50
counties like Grant County, Wisconsin, and also
Iron and Washburn counties, which Kerry won by a goose
feather. I'm talking Monroe County, Pennsylvania, where
the vote was virtually tied in '04. It's hard to
believe Obama's money advantage over McCain will close
the gap (remember how Obama threw bucks everywhere during
the Pennsylvania primary but didn't budge in the polls?)
And the vice-presidential choice rarely affects the
outcome.
If Kerry could barely win Grant County, Wisconsin, how can Obama? Can he offset such losses here with big totals in Madison? Or will the black-o-phobic vote offset the Madison offset?
No, Obama's only hope is he'll rack up totals greater
than Kerry's in liberal areas that will compensate for
his loss of the more moderate precincts that went
Democratic in '04. In other words, the enthusiasm
of his supporters in Madison will make up for his
losses in Washburn/Grant/Iron/etc. counties. Or in
Florida, they think his true believers in Miami
will offset his defeat along the I-4 corridor.
But his edge in, say, Dade County, will likely be
neutralized by white backlash in the panhandle. The
same thing that energizes his backers in Miami will
also energize the black-o-phobic McCain voters in Pensacola.
Let's look at Florida for a moment. The way liberals
have traditionally won statewide is to mount up votes
in the Miami area in order to overcome the panhandle
tally, which is always solidly Republican; the tie-breaker
is, generally, the central, moderate, suburban I-4 corridor.
Sure, Barack will fire up his supporters so that he gets maybe
three percent more in Miami than Kerry did; but that
will be offset by the fact that McCain will win the white
panic vote in the panhandle (where people still drive
around in pick-up trucks with Confederate flag license plates,
looking like extras from the final scenes of "Easy Rider") by
maybe four percent more than Bush got in '04.
When pundits say race is not an issue, what they're really
saying is "race shouldn't be an issue" or "race isn't
an issue among my circle of friends" or "I don't want to
admit that race is an issue." But it is, and not just among
the sorts of rural whites or blue collar workers who will
vote against a black candidate just because he is black.
(Further proof that racism is still alive and well in
America, as if we needed it, came last week with the
public exposure of racist email between Secret Service
agents, who are not exactly construction workers.
Of course, that was just the stuff they put in writing.)
Age, not race, should be the salient contrast in November,
but probably won't be. McCain is almost as old as senile
von Hindenburg was in his final years as president of
Germany -- and is almost as likely to be seen by the
rest of the world as a telling symbol of an empire past
its prime in foreign policy leadership, if he's elected.
Obama is so young that he could run again in 20 years and
still not be as old as McCain is now. And he may have to run
again because, in 2008, there is still too much racism
in America and are apparently not enough black, student
and liberal voters to elect Obama this year.
Is Obama ahead in counties like Monroe County, Pennsylvania, one of the 50:50 counties of '04?
But I digress. Paul
___________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for May 6, 2008
[cartoon/photo by Paul Iorio]
But I digress. Paul
__________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for May 3, 2008
A Brief History of the Next Few Years
-- Jeremiah Wright will appear on the season
premiere of "Saturday Night Live" in
October, acting in a sketch that sends up the
TV sit-com "Sanford and Son," in
which he plays Redd Foxx's character to
Obama's Lamont (Fred Armisen), who
he calls "a big dummy."
-- When McCain and Obama choose their running mates,
pundits will inevitably say, "Voters don't vote
for the bottom of the ticket" and
"Running mates don't usually help but can hurt
a candidate's popularity."
-- In October 2008, there will be fear of a surprise
terrorist attack that never materializes.
-- Around October 20th, people will start talking
about having seen Christmas decorations in
department stores and about how this must be the
earliest arrival of the season ever.
-- Around Halloween, Republican advocacy groups will
run TV ads in key swing states showing Jeremiah
Wright's rants, and McCain will, of course, denounce
the commercials, while saying he has "no power to
tell them to take down their ads, any more than
Obama has the power to tell Rev.Wright to shut up."
-- Obama will go hunting in Ohio and shoot at, and
miss, several geese.
-- McCain will misspeak on the campaign trail, calling
the Sunni insurgents "gooks."
-- Liberals will get giddy in late October when the latest
tracking polls show Obama within three points in
Ohio -- and ahead by one point in Florida!
-- On election day, it will turn out that the late polls
were wrong and that Obama loses Ohio by seven points,
Florida by 12 points and Wisconsin by five. McCain
wins Iowa and Missouri by double digits The final
electoral and popular tally is a massacre for the
Dems, ranking somewhere between the defeats of Duakais
and Mondale.
-- During the Christmas season, "Good Morning America" will run
a holiday segment titled something like: "Why You Hate Your
Loved Ones During Christmas Get Togethers."
-- The press will start speculating about who President-elect
McCain will appoint to his cabinet, and the list will
include lots of new faces from Arizona.
-- Someone will coin the phrase "the Arizona Mafia" to
describe McCain's inner circle.
-- The White House press corps will be reconfigured
to include local reporters from
Arizona news outlets who have covered McCain
in the past and have had access to
him. There will be glowing, puffy stories
about the new First Lady; beauty and
grooming magazines will run features about
how you, too, can look glamorous
like Cindy McCain in just 12 easy steps!
-- There will be a honeymoon period during which
leading Democratic pundits will say over-generous
things like, "President McCain is doing far
better than expected in bringing together disparate
factions." David Brooks will say, "The
grown-ups are back in charge in Washington." McCain's
approval rating in March will hit a record 77%.
-- Mother Jones, the San Francisco Chronicle and
the National Review will all run cover stories with
identical headlines: "Is The Democratic Party Dead?"
The Mother Jones and Chronicle stories will be almost
identical, while the National Review piece will not.
-- The honeymoon will last a few months, until McCain
starts over-using his veto pen. David Brooks will
call him "principled." Mark Shields will call him
"Vito McCain."
-- In February 2009, Katie Couric will resign from
CBS News to join CNN in order to helm a series
that is "still in development." She releases a
farewell statement that partly says, "I bear no
ill will as my ship sails on to ever higher peaks."
-- In the spring of '09, The Washington Post will run
a front-page bombshell quoting anonymous, tearful
White House sources who have borne the brunt
of President McCain's frequent temper tantrums. "The
West Wing has now become a hostile work environment,"
says one staffer.
-- By Labor Day 2009, there will be early
speculation about the 2012 race that
will include the phrase, "But in politics,
three years is an eternity."
-- The New York Times Magazine will run a cover story
during the holiday season of '09 titled: "The Maturation
of Hillary Clinton." Newsweek will be even
bolder, putting her on the cover with the caption:
"The Front Runner in '12?"
-- A serious Draft Gore movement will spring up by
January 2010. Tim Russert will try to get Gore to
announce his candidacy on "Meet the Press," but Gore
will only say "it's too early to decide," which will be
taken as a "yes" by jubilant Gore supporters.
-- Vicki Iseman will receive a seven figure advance
from HarperCollins to write a tell-all memoir
about her relationship with McCain.
-- President McCain adopts a pet German Shepherd
that unexpectedly becomes vicious and bites a CNN
correspondent on the leg at the White House. (A tabloid
is forced to apologize when it runs the headline
"German Shepherd Bites Pit Bull.")
-- The New York Times quotes West Wing staffers about
the insiderish power of Cindy McCain; one source says,
"If the First Lady doesn't like you, you're out."
-- During a "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" segment in
Yemen on "Today," Lauer comes under sniper fire by
Islamic militants who call him "The Infidel Lauer." Later,
the relieved anchor says, "This one could've easily gone
the other way."
-- In the spring of 2010, the Washington Post
will run a front-pager revealing that McCain
has been secretly seeing an oncologist and that
there is widespread speculation in the White
House that McCain's melanoma has returned. McCain
heatedly denies the reports.
-- Those presidential health concerns are swept from
the headlines for a time in the summer of 2010 by
the most turbulent hurricane season since
2005 and a Category Five storm that takes dead
aim at, yes, New Orleans, destroying all the
rebuilding of the past few years.
-- McCain will seize the moment and heroically
helicopter into New Orleans's Ninth
Ward, personally handing food and water to
the devastated victims. But there
will be a moment of confusion when he
says, "We must help the people of Vietnam
in their hour of need." His poll numbers
soar, as everyone forgets about
the gaffe and about the Post revelations.
David Brooks will call him "action Jackson"
-- On Christmas eve of 2010, McCain will admit that, yes,
he has had a recurrence of cancer that is not
life-threatening. The Post, angry that McCain had
dismissed its earlier reports about secret visits to the
oncologist as "fantasies by a once great newspaper,"
harshly questions his credibility and suggests he
should consider resigning. The phrase "credibility
gap" makes a comeback.
-- There will be jokes about McCain's afternoon
naps at the White House after McCain is caught
dozing at a leadership symposium in Arizona. Time
magazine will catch flak for running a photo
of a snoozing McCain on its
cover with the headline, "The Credibility Nap."
-- Cindy McCain will appear in a controversial photo
spread in Vanity Fair wearing a queen's crown
and eating jelly beans.
-- As it becomes apparent that McCain will not seek
a second term because of health issues, the 2012
race moves into gear. Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney,
Hillary Clinton and Dennis Kucinich all set up
exploratory committees, or hint that
they will.
-- Obama announces that he will not seek
another term in the Senate and will
retire from politics; shortly thereafter,
he files for divorce from his wife and
says he intends to relocate to Massachusetts,
one of the few states he won in '08, to live
with his "friend" Samantha Power.
-- Jeremiah Wright announces his candidacy for
Mayor of Chicago.
But I digress. Paul
_________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for April 26, 2008
Shining Light on "Shine a Light"
torn, frayed, mostly fabulous
I finally got around to seeing "Shine a Light"
and couldn't help but think it might have benefited
from a more straightforward approach cinematographically
instead of the incessant cutting that makes this more
of an editor's film than a director's film, though
anything Martin Scorsese is involved with is a
Scorsese film, period. Then again, any movie the
Rolling Stones are involved with is a Stones film,
period, so there is almost a tug of war between
strong-willed auteurs here, with Scorsese
seen pleading for a setlist at one point, which
he definitely could've used to block and plan
shots for his cinematographers who seem to be
scrambling frantically to catch pictures of lightning
after the lightning has already struck, though every
now and then they do catch and bottle a bolt
or two.
But it would've been nice if one of the cameras had
caught, say, Darryl Jones playing the bass intro
to "Live With Me" instead of focusing on one of
the guitarists or had shown Charlie Watts doing
that vintage drum roll that opens "All Down
the Line."
The setlist is a masterpiece, around as good as the
one at the Olympia show in Paris captured in the
"Four Flicks" film, though one can quibble at the edges.
Perhaps the better-live-than-on-the-album "You
Got Me Rocking" might've worked better than the
better-on-the-album-than-live "Shattered," which
I've never heard performed successfully live.
And "Sweet Virginia" or "Dead Flowers" could have
best filled the "country" slot reserved here for
failed joke "Faraway Eyes." And "Respectable" would've
been the perfect song to play with the Clintons
in the audience. And what about a nod to "Bigger Bang"
with "Oh No, Not You Again," the best of the new
ones live.
The choices are otherwise dead on; "She Was Hot," a
highlight, has terrific, unexpected momentum; "Loving Cup"
now sounds like it was written with Jack White in mind
all along; "As Tears Go By" has a real pulse, thanks to
Watts; "Connection" is one of the band's best
overlooked songs of the 1960s, though Keith botches it
here (he did a far better version in Oakland, Calif.,
shortly after this gig).
And each guest star tops the previous one, with
Buddy Guy leveling the place with "Champagne & Reefer"
and with offhand artistry that is assured, authentic
(he livens up the place much as Dr. John did in
"The Last Waltz"). Christina Aquilera, trading vocals
with Jagger on "Live With Me," is a powerhouse, a hurricane,
always blowing audiences away. (Wish they'd brought her
on for the Merry Clayton part of "Gimme Shelter,"
not played here.)
This is a concert film with spliced-in archival footage
that is often hilarious and rare while heavily favoring
self-promo bits in which Jagger one-ups various
interviewers -- as opposed to the Maysles brothers's
"Gimme Shelter," which shows Jagger at both his wittiest
and unwittiest (remember the "philosophically trying"
remarks?). Though the film doesn't pretend to be any
sort of definitive docu on the Stones, one still wonders
where Brian Jones is in all the vintage footage;
Jones has gone from being wildly overemphasized as a Stones
member to, today, being almost completely erased from the
band's history. That said, it's telling that the group
got only better in the years after Jones's death (see:
"Exile," "Sticky Fingers," "Some Girls").
They performed almost half of the "Some Girls" CD,
likely to remain their best-selling studio album of
all time, now that the dust has settled, though at
the time who'd have guessed that its unlikely combination
of disco and punk, warring genres in their day, would
have eclipsed both "Sticky Fingers" and "Exile." But it's
the closest the Stones have come to a diamond seller
like "Nevermind" or "Boston," which they've never had,
even if their cultural influence has been far greater
than all but a few in the rock era. Today, it's easy to
see that "Some Girls," released 30 years ago this June,
had a sort of shock jock element that made it popular
among millions of non-Stones fans, though that
element was partly excised in this film, with the
deletion of an explicit verse from the title track,
a song rarely (if ever) performed by the Stones.
I was lucky enough to have heard the very first public
performance of "Some Girls" material by the Stones, on
the first night of their "Some Girls" tour, June 10, 1978,
a couple days after the album's release, at the Lakeland
(Florida) Civic Center -- and I saw the group from only
several feet away.
As I recall, the new album was erupting unexpectedly,
so the band was in an extremely good mood at this
kick-off gig in '78. In fact, they seemed
downright giddy and manic and drunk on (among other
things) their own effortless rock 'n' roll mastery.
I remember seeing Jagger take the stage to the
opening chords of "All Down the Line," as flashing
lights briefly illuminated his leap into the air
(he looked just like a whip or a lightning bolt) and
remember seeing him physically and playfully
push Ron Wood to the side of the stage at another point.
And I remember how eerie and spooky it looked and
sounded to see Jagger right in front of me singing that
falsetto part of "Miss You" -- and he was singing it
live for the first-time ever.
A year later, with those songs still ringing in my
head, I moved to Manhattan, where I lived for years at
the Beacon, 25 floors above the theater where the
concert in "Shine a Light" took place. In those days
I used to travel to the Beacon Theater by...taking
the elevator!
Which is part of what makes that final shot of "Shine a Light"
(in which Scorsese directs the cameraman to film from
above the Broadway marquee to the rooftops of the Upper
West Side, literally between the moon and New York City) so
magical to me. And it suggests an even better flick: a
movie of a concert on the Beacon roof, a la "Let It Be," in
which the Manhattan skyline co-stars.
the Stones's bestseller, released 30 years ago this June
But I digress. Paul
_________________________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for April 24, 2008
I was reading a transcript of the latest
audio recording from Osama bin Laden the
other day and wondering: is he dating? Does he
have a lover? Would bin Laden be a less violent
person if he had a sexual partner? Could we save
the world from his destructiveness by simply...setting
him up on a date?
Hence the origin of my screenplay, "Play It
Again, Osama," presented below:
Play It Again, Osama
By Paul Iorio*
INT. OSAMA'S BACHELOR APARTMENT, SOMEWHERE IN WAZIRISTAN
OSAMA BIN LADEN (to himself): What's the matter with me?
Why can't I be cool like the Prophet Mohammed?
What's the secret?
An imaginary Prophet Mohammed, wearing a fedora and looking
and sounding like Humphrey Bogart, appears from the shadows.
PROPHET MOHAMMED: There's no secret, kid.
Infidels are simple. I never met one that didn't understand
a slap in the mouth or a slug from a .44.
OSAMA BIN LADEN: Yeah, 'cause you're Mohammed.
I'm not like you. When you lost Aisha, weren't you crushed?
PROPHET MOHAMMED: Nothing a little bourbon and soda
wouldn't fix. Take my advice and forget all the romantic stuff.
The world is full of infidels to fight. All you have to do is whistle.
OSAMA: He's right. You give the unbelievers an inch
and they step all over you. Why can't I develop that attitude?
[mimicking Mohammed] Nothing a little bourbon and soda
couldn't fix.
[He swigs a shot of Old Crow, gags.]
CUT TO:
INT. TORA BORA APARTMENT OF DICK AND LINDA CHRISTIE (OSAMA'S FRIENDS)
LINDA CHRISTIE: Osama's calling again. We've got to find him a girl.
Somebody he can be with, get excited about.
DICK CHRISTIE: We'll have to find him a nice girl.
LINDA: There must be somebody out there. Someone to take his
mind off losing Mohamed Atta. I think he really loved Atta.
DICK [picking up phone]: I know just the girl for him.
CUT TO:
INT. OSAMA'S APARTMENT
Osama is preparing for his date, which is in an hour or so.
Again, from the shadows comes an imaginary Prophet Mohammed.
MOHAMMED: You're starting off on the wrong foot.
OSAMA: Yeah, negative.
MOHAMMED: Sure. They're getting the best of you
before the game starts. What's that stuff you put on your face?
OSAMA: Canoe. It's an aftershave lotion.
MOHAMMED: You know, kid, somewhere in life
you got turned around. It's her job to smell nice for you.
The only bad thing is if she turns out to be a virgin --
or an agent for the JTTF!
OSAMA: With my luck, she'll turn out to be both.
TITLE CARD: Later That Night....
INT. OSAMA'S APARTMENT -- LATE AT NIGHT
The doorbell rings and Osama opens the door. It's Linda.
LINDA: How did the date go?
OSAMA: It never would have worked between us.
She's a Shiite, I'm a Sunni, it's a great religious abyss.
LINDA: [laughing]
OSAMA: You're laughing and my sex life
is turning into the Petrified Forest.
Millions of women in the Northwest
Territories and I can't wind up with one!
Osama takes a seat on the couch and Linda sits next to him.
OSAMA: I'm turning into the strike-out king
of Waziristan!
LINDA: You need to be more confident, secure.
OSAMA: You know who's not insecure?
The Prophet Mohammed.
LINDA: That's not real life.
You set too high a standard.
OSAMA: If I'm gonna identify with someone,
who am I gonna pick? My imam?
Mohammed's a perfect image.
LINDA: You don't need to pretend. You're you.
Osama nudges closer to Linda on the couch.
The imaginary Mohammed appears and speaks.
MOHAMMED: Go ahead, make your move.
OSAMA: No, I can't.
MOHAMMED: Take her and kiss her..
LINDA (getting up to go to the kitchen): I'll get us both a drink.
MOHAMMED: Well, kid, you blew it.
OSAMA: I can't do it. We're platonic friends.
I can't spoil that by coming on.
She'll slap my face.
MOHAMMED: I've had my face slapped plenty.
OSAMA: But your turban
don't go flying across the room.
Linda returns with two drinks.
LINDA: Here we are, you can start on this.
MOHAMMED: Go ahead, kiss her.
OSAMA: I can't.
The phone rings and startles Osama, as he answers it.
OSAMA (into phone): Hi, Dick. Yes, she's here.
I was going out -- I had a Polish date.
He hands the phone to Linda.
MOHAMMED: Relax. You're as nervous as Abu Jahl was before
I beat his brains out at the Battle of Badr. All you've got to do is
make your move.
OSAMA: This is crazy. We'll wind up
on al Jazeera!
LINDA (into phone): OK, goodbye.
LINDA: Dick sounded down. I think
he's having trouble in Karachi. I wonder
why he never asks me along on his trips.
OSAMA: Maybe he's got something
going on the side. A fling.
LINDA: If I fell for another man,
it'd have to be more than just a fling.
I'd have to feel something more serious.
Are you shaking?
OSAMA: Just chilly.
LINDA: It's not very cold.
MOHAMMED: Move closer to her.
OSAMA: How close?
MOHAMMED: The distance of Flight 175 to the south tower..
OSAMA: That's very close.
MOHAMMED: Now, get ready for the big move
and do exactly as I tell you.
Suddenly an imaginary Mohamed Atta appears and
confronts the Prophet Mohammed.
ATTA [to Mohammed]: I warned you to leave my ex-lover alone.
Atta draws a pistol and shoots Mohammed.
Osama looks a bit panicky now that Mohammed is gone.
LINDA: I guess I'd better fix the steaks.
OSAMA: Your eyes are like two thick juicy steaks.
Osama kisses Linda, who recoils, pushing him away.
OSAMA: I was joking. I was just testing you.
It was a platonic kiss.
LINDA: I think I'd better go home.
OSAMA: You're making a mistake.
Linda waves goodbye and leaves the apartment.
OSAMA: I attacked her. I'm a vicious jungle beast..
I'm not the Prophet Mohammed. I never will be.
I'm a disgrace to my sex. I should get a job at an Arabian palace
as a eunuch.
The doorbell rings.
OSAMA: That's the vice squad. [He opens the door, and Linda is there.]
LINDA: Did you say you loved me?
Osama and Linda embrace and kiss and the scene fades.
INT. OSAMA'S APARTMENT -- THE NEXT DAY
MOHAMMED: That's all there is to it.
OSAMA: For you, because you're Mohammed.
MOHAMMED: Everybody is at certain times.
OSAMA: I guess the secret's not being you, it's being me.
MOHAMMED: Here's looking at you, kid.
*with massive apologies to Woody Allen.
-------
But I digress. Paul
______________________________
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for April 21, 2008
Oh! Ye bitter Pennsylvanians, come 'round to the polls,
but drink not from the chalice of disappointment and
woe, or seek succor by clinging to thy religion and
thy guns, when ye cast ye ballots in the Primary of
the Greatest Publick Importance, at least this week,
until next month, when the next state decideth.
Thou must not delayeth thy journey to thy polls with vain
prayer or the reloading of thy guns. Thou must not
cling to that which provides false solace in grim
times. Thou must not pray out of bitterness in thy
voting booth upon the altar of discredited touch screens,
or place thy bullets amidst the paper ballots that have
largely replaced thy touch screens. Oh, ye bitter
Pennsylvanians, put aside thy clinging and loading and
praying to dodge the sniper fire on the way to the
Primary of Publick Importance!
But I digresseth. Paul
_________________________________
ALL DAILY DIGRESSIONS PRIOR TO APRIL 17, 2008, CAN BE FOUND AT
http://www.dailydigressionarchive.blogspot.com
previous daily digressions ('08)
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
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