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On Sunday, Father's Day, my son put together an awesome mix tape. Rather than go out and purchase some mass-produced detritus, he put his own personal touch into giving me something that I'm enjoying way-too-much.
I'm amazed that he's paid attention to my music and my moods and like me, who has always put too much thought into tapes I've made for others, created a mix that captures a good portion of the past ten years of musical highlights for me.
One of the bands Mark put on the tape was Soul Asylum. I used to be a huge fan, when they were the darlings of the college radio circuit, before they hit it big with their platinum-selling Gravedancers Union record.
I always appreciated the solid songwriting of Dave Pirner and had recently read an interview he did pertaining to his recent solo release, Faces and Names.
Today, I heard on our local alt-rock station, that bassist Karl Mueller had passed away, after a battle with throat cancer.
I saw Soul Asylum play back in 1985, at a club in Chicago called Caberet Metro. It was on upper Clark Street, not far from Wrigley Field. A typical hangout of the college, indie rock crowd of the time, local faves Precious Wax Drippings opened up. Both my musician friend Leo and I had a great evening hearing Soul Asylum rip through a loud and fast set, with Pirner handing over his guitar mid-song to someone in the front row and the fan didn't miss too many notes. This was a fun time, two decades back. A night when the music was good, the hair was less gray and the St. Pauli Girls (weird link) flowed freely.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Monday, June 20, 2005
In the city
I’m not sure where the fascination with capitalism and American’s woeful understanding of economics originates. While it would be (and is) fun to lay the blame at the feet of our educational institutions, I’ll refrain from doing so, at least for now.
Free markets act irrespective of people, environments and sentiment. They are cold and calculated agents that more-and-more, steamroll anything and anybody in their path.
A recent book I picked up at the library, Mike Davis’ Dead Cities, has stirred in me a once more, a fascination with urban environments and their influence in our country, as well as other parts of the world. In the same way Mumford’s The Culture of Cities opened up areas of understanding I had never entertained before, so does the writing of Davis. Using cities past and present as his stage to engage in tales of infinite greed, urban neglect and political scandal, Davis lays waste to the 1950’s Howdy Doody caricature that many Americans are still wedded to.
His takes on the southwest and in particular, the environmental deterioration of that former beautiful and unspoiled region of the United States are eye-opening to say the least. With this mirage city’s water gluttony fueling the extravagances of the casinos and other tourist meccas, it stretches my incredulity regarding others greed and capitalist excess.
In the preface of the book, he begins with, “Lower Manhatten was soon a furnace of crimson flames, from which there was no escape. Cars, railways, ferries, all had ceased, and never a light lit the way of the distracted fugitives in that dusky confusion but the light of burning. Dust and black smoke came pouring into the street, and were presently shot with red flame.”
What? Someone’s eyewitness description of the events of September 11, 2001? No, actually, H.G. Wells, from The War in the Air, written in 1908!
As I said earlier, capitalism and its markets care not at all about people, places and personal predilections. As Naomi Klein’s article in The Nation reaches the conclusion, disaster and human suffering is good for business—misery loves capitalism!
With all the talk about God, morality and the anathema of one’s personal sexual conventions, the basic root of all evil is conveniently left out of the discussions.
Free markets act irrespective of people, environments and sentiment. They are cold and calculated agents that more-and-more, steamroll anything and anybody in their path.
A recent book I picked up at the library, Mike Davis’ Dead Cities, has stirred in me a once more, a fascination with urban environments and their influence in our country, as well as other parts of the world. In the same way Mumford’s The Culture of Cities opened up areas of understanding I had never entertained before, so does the writing of Davis. Using cities past and present as his stage to engage in tales of infinite greed, urban neglect and political scandal, Davis lays waste to the 1950’s Howdy Doody caricature that many Americans are still wedded to.
His takes on the southwest and in particular, the environmental deterioration of that former beautiful and unspoiled region of the United States are eye-opening to say the least. With this mirage city’s water gluttony fueling the extravagances of the casinos and other tourist meccas, it stretches my incredulity regarding others greed and capitalist excess.
In the preface of the book, he begins with, “Lower Manhatten was soon a furnace of crimson flames, from which there was no escape. Cars, railways, ferries, all had ceased, and never a light lit the way of the distracted fugitives in that dusky confusion but the light of burning. Dust and black smoke came pouring into the street, and were presently shot with red flame.”
What? Someone’s eyewitness description of the events of September 11, 2001? No, actually, H.G. Wells, from The War in the Air, written in 1908!
As I said earlier, capitalism and its markets care not at all about people, places and personal predilections. As Naomi Klein’s article in The Nation reaches the conclusion, disaster and human suffering is good for business—misery loves capitalism!
With all the talk about God, morality and the anathema of one’s personal sexual conventions, the basic root of all evil is conveniently left out of the discussions.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Back on the soapbox
I guess my self-imposed sabbatical was short-lived. While I don’t think I’ll be posting as frequently as I have in the past, a part of me finds it difficult not to write down my thoughts, as well as observations.
When I first decided to be a writer and began to pursue it as a vocation and not a hobby, Stephen King’s On Writing motivated me and urged me on with practical advice. One of his pieces of advice offered, was the admonition that to become a good writer, one has to write regularly—he said at least an hour per day. At the time, I was a corporate cubical occupant for a large insurance mega-giant, working a dead-end, nine-to-five job. At King’s prompting however, I began to write each morning at 4 am in order to get my writing in before I went to my soul-draining corporate gig. Blogging is just that habit in continuation.
This morning, awakening to another day of overcast and light rain, I decided it’s high time to resume another ritual that I held to in the past—my three times per week workout with free weights, to maintain some level of muscle tone, so I don’t totally go turn to blubber. During my 20-30 minute session, I usually watch some television, preferably news, and C-Span. Because of the usual early hour, it is mostly rebroadcasts of previous live events; speeches, congressional hearings and other policy-related fare.
This morning, I was regaled by my president, talking about the need for Congress to pass the energy bill, in order to lessen our dependence on foreign oil; sounds good, right? Well his solution was coal! He waxed eloquent about the abundance of coal and as he is want to do, he glossed right over the environmental concerns. He did this in his usual “folksy” way, saying that he campaigned on “clean coal technology” and that is one of his major tenets of his energy policy. Coal, the producer of greenhouse gasses and acid rain, falling on Mainers as I speak; this is President Bush’s central pillar. As if that wasn’t enough, he also spoke about “nucular” power as another option. Once again, his cavalier phrasing and flippant remarks that “there are some problems with ‘nucular’ power, but we can address them with technology”. Ah yes! Technology to the rescue!
If anyone’s interested in extracting their heads from out of their asses, I dug up another prescient piece by Jim Kunstler that he wrote back in March, a basic synopsis of his book, The Long Emergency. I couldn’t help noticing the glaring paradox between Kunstler’s “doom and gloom” predictions and our president’s Pollyanna-ish glib glossing-over of the real issues pertaining to oil as a future reliable source of energy.
Getting back to my sabbatical. I probably won’t right longer pieces like this one as frequently. Having said that, I enjoy this style of writing, as it most resembles the Op-ed, one of my favorite tools of communication that I employ.
Blogging is an opportunity for me to write and work through issues that trouble me, that I’m passionate about, or often, both. I don’t consider myself an expert, but maybe I’m what Buckminster Fuller called a “professional generalist”. That person, who is interested and tracks multiple theories, sources of information, trends, etc. In an age of specialization, generalists often are able to see the forest and not get fixated on the trees in front of them.
I’ve got a lot on my plate at present, but I’ve been encouraged the past few days by people I’ve spoken with, a few well-placed words and ideas, and coming to terms with the motivation of people who would rather I didn’t succeed.
Yesterday, I had to make a phone call as part of a writing assignment that I was doing for a client. I was privileged to speak to this wonderful, visionary man named Gus Jacacci. A member of Maine’s arts community and a true visionary, Jacacci encouraged me and boosted my spirits as only a member of his generation could. He’s led a fascinating life and is still actively engaged in building a better world to leave for the next generation. I’m looking forward to our future conversations about Thomas Jefferson, social architecture and other topics of mutual interest.
When I first decided to be a writer and began to pursue it as a vocation and not a hobby, Stephen King’s On Writing motivated me and urged me on with practical advice. One of his pieces of advice offered, was the admonition that to become a good writer, one has to write regularly—he said at least an hour per day. At the time, I was a corporate cubical occupant for a large insurance mega-giant, working a dead-end, nine-to-five job. At King’s prompting however, I began to write each morning at 4 am in order to get my writing in before I went to my soul-draining corporate gig. Blogging is just that habit in continuation.
This morning, awakening to another day of overcast and light rain, I decided it’s high time to resume another ritual that I held to in the past—my three times per week workout with free weights, to maintain some level of muscle tone, so I don’t totally go turn to blubber. During my 20-30 minute session, I usually watch some television, preferably news, and C-Span. Because of the usual early hour, it is mostly rebroadcasts of previous live events; speeches, congressional hearings and other policy-related fare.
This morning, I was regaled by my president, talking about the need for Congress to pass the energy bill, in order to lessen our dependence on foreign oil; sounds good, right? Well his solution was coal! He waxed eloquent about the abundance of coal and as he is want to do, he glossed right over the environmental concerns. He did this in his usual “folksy” way, saying that he campaigned on “clean coal technology” and that is one of his major tenets of his energy policy. Coal, the producer of greenhouse gasses and acid rain, falling on Mainers as I speak; this is President Bush’s central pillar. As if that wasn’t enough, he also spoke about “nucular” power as another option. Once again, his cavalier phrasing and flippant remarks that “there are some problems with ‘nucular’ power, but we can address them with technology”. Ah yes! Technology to the rescue!
If anyone’s interested in extracting their heads from out of their asses, I dug up another prescient piece by Jim Kunstler that he wrote back in March, a basic synopsis of his book, The Long Emergency. I couldn’t help noticing the glaring paradox between Kunstler’s “doom and gloom” predictions and our president’s Pollyanna-ish glib glossing-over of the real issues pertaining to oil as a future reliable source of energy.
Getting back to my sabbatical. I probably won’t right longer pieces like this one as frequently. Having said that, I enjoy this style of writing, as it most resembles the Op-ed, one of my favorite tools of communication that I employ.
Blogging is an opportunity for me to write and work through issues that trouble me, that I’m passionate about, or often, both. I don’t consider myself an expert, but maybe I’m what Buckminster Fuller called a “professional generalist”. That person, who is interested and tracks multiple theories, sources of information, trends, etc. In an age of specialization, generalists often are able to see the forest and not get fixated on the trees in front of them.
I’ve got a lot on my plate at present, but I’ve been encouraged the past few days by people I’ve spoken with, a few well-placed words and ideas, and coming to terms with the motivation of people who would rather I didn’t succeed.
Yesterday, I had to make a phone call as part of a writing assignment that I was doing for a client. I was privileged to speak to this wonderful, visionary man named Gus Jacacci. A member of Maine’s arts community and a true visionary, Jacacci encouraged me and boosted my spirits as only a member of his generation could. He’s led a fascinating life and is still actively engaged in building a better world to leave for the next generation. I’m looking forward to our future conversations about Thomas Jefferson, social architecture and other topics of mutual interest.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Kalifornia dreamin'
Did I tell you that I like Jim Kunstler? Maybe it's the bowtie, or maybe it's the name of his blog? Maybe, oh maybe, it's his irreverent and often prescient take on Amerika the Bee-uu-tee-full!!
If you don't buy the mindset that someone/thing (God, guns, GW , the guvment, technology or the wonderful ingenuity of the 'merican peepo) is 'gonna save us, then you might enjoy C'fuck Nation.
Here's JK's take on California.
[I know, I'm supposed to be in exile/hiding; I'm crawling back under my rock.]
If you don't buy the mindset that someone/thing (God, guns, GW , the guvment, technology or the wonderful ingenuity of the 'merican peepo) is 'gonna save us, then you might enjoy C'fuck Nation.
Here's JK's take on California.
[I know, I'm supposed to be in exile/hiding; I'm crawling back under my rock.]
Sunday, June 12, 2005
I must not think bad thoughts
Bush campaigns to extend Patriot Act .
Patriot Act II passed by Senate Intelligence Committee.
More power given to FBI under Patriot Act provisions.
The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear -- fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants beyond everything else is safety.--H. L. Mencken
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt (1918) [What would Teddy say now?]
Patriot Act II passed by Senate Intelligence Committee.
More power given to FBI under Patriot Act provisions.
The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear -- fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants beyond everything else is safety.--H. L. Mencken
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt (1918) [What would Teddy say now?]
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