Is This the Future of Downtown Albuquerque Redevelopment?

I am a pretty big supporter of the redevelopment programs going on in downtown Albuquerque. I am also a critic of it as well. We have a great opportunity to learn from the mistakes of other cities and their redevelopment programs. Unfortunately, I'm not real sure that we are. One concern that I have is that Albuquerque and the Downtown Action Team looking to Denver as its model. A friend of mine from Denver says they took San Diego as their model. And who knows where San Diego got it. But in any case, that model revolves around bringing large corporations downtown, creating a mall-like atmosphere, and eliminating nuisances to the downtown consumer experience. There is even some talk about blocking a section of Central Ave. to traffic and create a foot mall, an idea that I think is bad in the extreme. Here they are clearing riffing on Denver 16th Street Mall, a place that has certainly brought money and people to downtown Denver, but is also an extremely sanitized experience that doesn't leave me at least with any real warm feelings toward the city.

One of the problems with downtown redevelopment is of course what to do with the homeless population. Denver's solution: set up a fake charity as an excuse to crack down on their presence downtown. Albuquerque definitely has its share of homeless folks. And sometimes they do agressively panhandle and I had someone threaten violence against me not long ago down there when I didn't give him money. I fear that Albuquerque, like many cities, will look at the homeless as enemies to the ability to consume and profit in downtown spaces rather than people with real problems that deserve real consideration. What "solutions" like Denver's do is to demonize the homeless rather than look at the facts surrounding that population, including that most of the homeless are women and children, that most homeless people are only homeless for a very short length of time, and it is only a very small percentage of the homeless population who cause major problems, who are on the streets for years, and who can get violent. This recidivism of a very few has proven both extraordinarily expensive for cities to handle and almost impossible to solve.

What we can hope for in the case of Albuquerque is for a more well-thought out response than we are seeing out of Denver, a response that both recognizes the fact that poor people do have a right to the public spaces of the downtown, that there is more to urban life than consumption and profit, and that we need to treat homelessness as part of a larger social fabric of city building rather than seeing them solely as a "problem" that needs a "solution." Alas, I am not confident that Albuquerque can or will show this kind of foresight.

Via YAL and Dexter's Lab

Recent Album Releases

I haven't had many music posts in awhile. Thought I'd just mention a few things I'd been thinking lately about new releases.

Probably the best new release of 2006 so far is Alejandro Escovedo's The Boxing Mirror. Produced by John Cale, this is Escovedo's first new album in 5 years. Since then, he almost died of a combination of Hepatitis C, cirrhosis of the liver, and internal bleeding. Fun. I don't think it is quite as good as that 2001 album, A Man Under The Influence, but it is a worthy addition to anyone's collection nonetheless. The songs are solid. "Died A Little Today" is a particular early favorite after a few listens. He has such a great band. Brian Standefer's cello really brings that band together and Jon Dee Graham's guitar playing is great. Just a first rate production.

Also of note is the new 5 CD Richard Thompson box set. Comprised of a variety of live performances, covers, alternative versions of songs, novelty songs, and other rarieties, this collection is a great box set. RT is so great. An amazing writer, wonderful guitar player, and charismatic performer. I can't believe I haven't seem him play since 1996. I don't think he plays the red states much. The book that comes with the set is pretty lame but the music is first rate. One CD is all live performances, another is his "essential" songs, a third consists of songs that present RT's views of life, a fourth is covers, and the fifth is rareities. Just hearing live versions of "Walking on a Wire" or "Walking the Long Miles Home" makes me remember why I fell in love with his music so many years ago now. If you have the money, buy this. Buy it now.

Also worth owning is the Drive-By Truckers, A Blessing and A Curse. This is a very solid album. Songs like "Gravity's Gone," "A World of Hurt," and "Easy on Yourself" would be the best songs most bands ever wrote. Honestly though, it is a step down for the band. The last three albums, Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day, and The Dirty South, are among the best albums put out in the last 10 years. And you can be damn sure that no other band has 3 albums worthy of this kind of consideration. The fact that this album is a step down is hardly an insult. But I doubt people will be listening to it for as long as they will the other three albums. I do understand that there is a serious backlog of songs from those albums that are unreleased, and perhaps unrecorded. I sure would like to hear those songs. Maybe they'll show up on solo albums or some future box set.

Two artists I find both interesting and frustrating have released new albums this year: Neko Case and Hank Williams III. Neko's new album, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood is a strong piece of work, more so than Hank's new album, Straight to Hell. She's just a more advanced and complete artist. But both suffer from the same problem in my view. They do the same thing over and over again. Hank has nothing to sing about except getting drunk, getting high, or hating Nashville. That's all fine and good but there is a lot more in the world than that. Neko's topics are more obscure than Hank and the songs are better. But ultimately, the albums all blend together. She has always had way too many mid-tempo songs on her albums. She started out in punk bands. Where did that go? She needs some damn screaming on an album. She has a great voice and can do different things with it. She is great doing "If I'm Gonna Sink, I Might As Well Go To The Bottom" on the Johnny Paycheck tribute album and also in her performances on the New Pornographers albums. Why can't she combine some of this in her own work?

Tom Russell's Love and Fear is also a solid album. Somehow though I thought this album would be better. I saw him live last year and he played 5 songs off the album. Some of them are really great--"The Pugilist at 59," "Stealing Electricity," "Ash Wednesday." But somehow, the sum doesn't quite equal to the parts. It is a good album, his best in a few years. It's just not the masterpiece I thought it would be. And "Ash Wednesday" really is one of his best songs ever I think.

I've been a little slower on new jazz releases this year for some reason but I do have a couple of recommendations. Matthew Shipp's One is a fine solo piano record. Usually I'm not a huge fan of solo piano. And I prefer Shipp with a larger group. But this is an album worth owning. He is so inventive on the piano that hearing him alone is worthwhile. I saw him play a show in Albuquerque last month. I think that piano had things done to it last night that it hadn't ever experienced before. If it's Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown piano music you're looking for, don't listen to this. But if you like sonic experimentation, this is the piano album for you.

Also of interest is William Parker's new album, Long Hidden: The Olmec Series. This is a quite varied album, featuring solo bass peformances, along with pieces by The Olmec Group, younger musicians working in the merengue tradition. I'm not at all biased toward this album because my good friend Todd Nicholson plays bass on some of the songs where Parker is on the doson'ngoni. It's just a very solid piece of work and highly recommended.

I have been a little remiss on not acquiring a lot of new albums this year--I buy a lot but I also look to the past for a lot of my music so I don't buy all the new albums that I want. Still on tap to buy (that I know of) are the new Built to Spill, Dave Alvin, Flaming Lips, Kris Kristofferson, and Guy Clark. So many albums, so little money.

I'll try to review albums as they come out in the near future so that I don't get so far behind and have to write such a long post.

A Message to Catholics and Episcopalians--You Are Christians!!!

A friend of mine was just talking to me about this conversation she was having where some guy claimed that he wasn't Christian, he was Episcopalian.

I have had this conversation before at least twice with Catholics. I can't even tell you how much contempt I had for these people I was arguing with.

I think there's a pretty simple equation here. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and is the Savior (or some such thing)= You are a Christian.

Now I'm sure there are some anti-Catholic elements out there who would love to say that Catholics aren't Christians.

Seriously, it was a long time ago when I realized that well over half of Christians weren't very smart, but this is ridiculous.

If you are going to believe in crazy things like some dude walking on water and resurrections, shouldn't you at least have to take some courses so that you know a little bit about what you actually believe?

More World Cup Notes

After another weekend of the World Cup, more thoughts....

-Never has hope risen so much for any team on less production than it did this weekend. With the tie with Italy this weekend (which was still truly stunning), the US still hasn't scored a goal this world cup (3-0 Czechs over US, and 1-1 Italy-US, with the US goal being an own-goal). Despite the poor performance thus far, the US can advance with a win over Ghana and an Italian victory over the Czechs. Theoretically, the US could advance to the second round having been out-scored 4-2, with only one goal scored. THIS is why the World Cup is an adventure...

-Speaking of the US-Italy game, here's hoping the Italians treat players who score own-goals better than Colombia did in 1994. It's still a shame that some fans are so insane that they will kill players for costing their teams a game. Yes, the world cup is fascinating, absorbing, and wonderful, and yes, things can get intense, but at the end of the day, it's still a game.

-Nothing like watching an African team pick apart a European team. In this case, Ghana over the Czechs. Coming into the cup, the Czechs were number two in the world rankings (for whatever those are worth), while Ghana was 48. It was a joy seeing the Czechs get picked apart, and seeing a team in Ghana whose fans rooted for their team with exemplary class and joy. Here's hoping for many more African victories in the World Cup, both this year and in world cups to come.

-While I write this, the Ukraine-Saudi Arabia game is on, and while many non-Ukranian European fans and most American fans would poo-poo the game, it's been a wonderful game to watch through the first half. One of the great things about the world cup is, anybody can make it in. Sure, Brazil's been in every world cup, and England, France, Germany, Italy, and others are regulars, but the divisions of the world by region is brilliant, and gives so many teams opportunities. Indeed, of the four African nations in the world cup this year, three have never even been, and Ecuador, in its second World Cup ever, is going on to the second round already after 2 games. ONe more reason this is a captivating event.

-Finally, suffice to say, Brazilian fans have been less than impressed with their team's performance, and the blame is falling squarely on Ronaldo and on the coach that refuses to bench him. Sure, Ronaldo scored 8 goals in 7 games in 2002, but this is 2006, and it's clear that Ronaldo has begun his "Maradona: the Fat Years" phase before even retiring. Here's hoping the coach either realizes how great the 21-year-old phenom Robinho is, or that Ronaldo gets his act together in a hurry.

Singapore Sling--Film Review

I woke in a panic after the most disturbing dream: Li'l and Big Edie Beale (from "Grey Gardens" fame) had kidnapped a man and were torturing him, only breaking the tempo of punishment to make love. I turned over to quietly contemplate my obvious insanity, when I noticed the case for "Singapore Sling" sitting by my bedside...I wasn't dreaming.

I picked this film with the thought that I'd be viewing my first Greek horror film. My assumption was partly right: it is Greek. Nothing could have prepared me for what writer/director Nikos Nikolaidis delivers, for better and for worse. This is not horror, no matter the section of the video store it resides. Instead, aspects from many genres are mashed together to make the bizarre tale of a family who's outrageous wealth affords them the time to kidnap, torture, murder and, finally, bury their victims in their garden to help them grow the most beautiful flowers. "Daddy says people make the best fertilizer," the daughter says with glee. With only the mother and daughter left alive, a detective searching for one of their victims comes upon the estate and is captured. Now, the real fun begins.

The madness that ensues owes as much to Pasolini and Buñuel as anything in the realm of horror. The dark, very dark, satire on the excesses of the ultra-rich is demonstrated much more sharply from his predecessors, but Nikolaidis carves a niche by dwelling on the sexual transgressions and evoking his own native tragedy as the mother and daughter, playing strophe and antistrophe, address the audience directly with commentary on the action. Using black and white photography with high contrast expressionistic lighting, he creates an instantly intriguing silent movie atmosphere full of anachronism that readily allows for the heaps of absurdity piled into it.

"Singapore Sling" is the kind of pleasant surprise that helps to justify the time and money I've invested on some of the most awful genre movies imaginable (see "Salon Kitty"...actually, please don't). It's generally a losing proposition but, when you'll watch just about anything, you will hit the jackpot sometimes. The film is often quite derivative, and isn't quite the jackpot, but it is often beautiful and always insane. Make no mistake, the content truly is explicit, so buyer beware, but I guarantee there isn't much else like it.

Alas, I have yet to see a Greek horror film...the hunt continues....

Puget Sound Notes

After spending a week in Oregon, I went up to the greater Seattle area for my second week in the Northwest.

Seattle just makes me happy. It's funny--I have never lived in Seattle. But I feel more at home there than any place I've been since I left home. It's just a great city. Seattle certainly has its problems, one of which I am writing about for a near-future post. But I am just a happy person there.

Film festivals are crazy. The Seattle International Film Festival is going on right now. They are showing hundreds of movies over a period of around a month. Seriously--hundreds. What do you go see? How can you navigate this? I love movies. I thought I knew a lot about them. I guess maybe I do. But compared to some people, I am a complete imbecile.

I also went to the area of White Center for the first time. An unincorporated section of King County, just to the south of the city, White Center, despite the possible historical origins of its name, is quite diverse. I was taken there to eat Pho, the Vietnamese soup. The place we went--well, wow. That was some amazing Pho. Just wonderful flavors. There were tons of Vietnamese places around in what passes for downtown in the neighborhood. Also, it is evidentally significantly cheaper to live there than nearer downtown Seattle. Naturally, however, I burned my tongue on the soup, something I have a consistent problem with. I rarely drink hot beverages for this reason. Just not worth scorching my tongue for.

I also spent meaningful time in Tacoma for the first time. I had been through Tacoma quickly several times but I never really spent quality time there before. But the Washington Historical Society is there and they have a lot of useful material for my dissertation. So I went over there on a few different days. One day, after the archives closed, a friend and myself met downtown to check Tacoma out.

I have long referred to Tacoma as the Albuquerque of the Northwest. Both towns have reputations as pretty rough places. Neither are generally seen as nearly as pleasant as nearby cities (Seattle, Santa Fe). Both have a real aspect to them that neither Seattle nor Santa Fe have. Tacoma and Albuquerque have people who work for a living. With all the warts that the working-class is associated with, there is something refreshing about being around people who actually function in the real world. But in reality, Tacoma is better off than Albuquerque. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's the environment. But I would far rather be in Tacoma than Albuquerque.

Like Albuquerque and lots of other places, Tacoma is in the middle of a downtown revitalization. What Tacoma has that Albuquerque doesn't is an already existing historical core. In Albuquerque everything looks the same, thanks to the Santa Fe-style architectural enforced conformity. But Tacoma still has lots of buildings from the late 19th and early 20th century that actually look like buildings from that era (in New Mexico many buildings from that era were later renovated to look like adobe) and that look different from modern buildings. The oldest building I saw dates from 1889 but there may be some older buildings as well. These wonderful old Victorian buildings provide downtown Tacoma with a great deal of character to build around. Most of the shops downtown are occupied, it has a little monorail system, and is a not unpleasant place to be. What's less good are the consequences of urban renewal. Tacoma was gutted during the 1960s and 1970s with stupid urban renewal projects. There is an area along the main drag downtown that is just worthless. It is occupied by a parking garage that goes on for like 3 blocks. It does have a few shops underneath but it is ugly and uninviting. It reminds of the kind of parking garage you saw in the movies and TV shows of the 1970s and 1980s where people got shot or raped. What do you do with this kind of space? No matter what Tacoma tries to do to spruce up their downtown, it still has this hulking monster in the middle. Perhaps they could tear it down and build something new there but where is the money for that? How would downtown merchants react to the loss of their garage. And I have nothing against parking garages. In fact, I am for them if they are done right. Something that sprawls for several blocks is not done right. Parking garages should facilitate multiple downtown functions, not get in the way of using the space in any way.

Tacoma, a long-time center of the lumber industry and shipping in the Northwest, has also started to clean up its environment. We walked along its restored waterfront. Across the bay was still industrial activity but on the south side, it was a nice walk. They had signs about the restoration, now presumably finished. More interesting perhaps were the recently completed lofts on the bay. Like most of these new urban lofts, they were quite expensive, running at over $200,000 for a 1 bedroom. But on the other hand, for me, living in tight urban quarters is a more meaningful environmentalism than restoring the bay and shoreline. The latter has value, no doubt, but the sheer amount of land saved by intensive urban living is stupendous. If you have 200 units, think of all the land not being built up in homes in Maple Valley or some other suburb. How many acres remain unbuilt upon? Not to mention the building of community by consistent interaction with your neighbors and the value these kind of residences give to keeping the city active and vital. I find it difficult to consider one an environmentally-conscious individual if you live far from work on a large tract of land away from your neighbors. The future of environmentalism is in urban living. Not to mention the saving on gas by living close to where you work.

General Motors Rewrites Transportation History

General Motors, who has been a major funder of the Smithsonian for several years, is under attack for destroying the possibility for electric cars during the 1990s. A new documentary, Who Killed The Electric Car?, is coming out showing this. Honestly, such a documentary seems painfully boring. Is it really going to tell us something that we don't already know? Is this surprising in some way? I don't really think so. It seems all too typical of many recent documentaries that are far more position paper than interesting film.

However, can it be a coincidence that at the same time this movie is coming out, the Smithsonian has chosen to pull its electric car from its exhibit hall to make room for a high-tech SUV? Does seem awful suspicious doesn't it?

Via KnoxViews

Fandango

I have a simple question for the blogosphere:

What the fuck is deal with Fandango? How hard is it to go to the ticket counter and buy a ticket. Last night, I went to see Brick (which I highly recommend) and my wait at the ticket counter was all of 0 seconds. So I could pay extra money to buy my tickets at home, in addition to spending actual time doing this, or I could go to the ticket counter, wait my 0 seconds, and get a ticket.

If people want to throw away their money, that's fine. They're probably watching Da Vinci Code anyway so clearly they have no compunction about flushing their money down the toilet. But stupid Fandango routinely has to oppress me with their stupid ads before the movie starts. I enter every movie now with a feeling of irritation about having a product forced down my throat, not to mention a product that is completely without value.

Am I missing something here?

Random World Cup notes

I enjoy soccer, and as much as I love baseball, there is nothing quite like the world cup. You find yourself rooting for or against any given country in a game for reasons ranging from the obscure (pulling for Trinidad & Tobago over England and Angola over Portugal for the anti-colonization "fuck you") to plain silly (rooting against Argentina for every person who insists Maradona is better than Pele - at best, Maradona's the third best player in history, enjoying counting how many last names end in "-son" on the Swedish team) to endearing (Ecuador going on to the second round in only their second World Cup - no continent is more difficult to qualify in than South America).

Anyhow, you can expect to see random World Cup notes at this blog over the next few weeks. Having just watched Argentina move on to the second round (unfortunately - my hatred for them runs deep), one can only be amazed by the sheer magnitude of mullets on that team. One stereotype of Latin America is the dominance of the mullet, but really, this is most applicable to Argentina. There are more mullets, from the short (down to bottom of neck) to lengthy (between the shoulderblades) on that team than there probably are in many cities in the US. Watching them play, I find myself in a coif-based "chicken or egg" question, pondering whether women in Argentina love these men b/c of their mullets, or if the men wear the mullets b/c women love them. A friend of mine in Brazil has informed me that, if you see somebody with a mullet in Brazil, they call it "the Argentine."

So, in one of the more absurd blogs here lately, if you would like to see some GREAT (and by great, i mean absurd and numerous) mullets, than catch an Argentina game in the World Cup (and root against them, unless they play England).

Film Review

For those who don't know, Turner Classic Movies always shows old silent films on Sunday nights at midnight eastern time (which is a bit of a shame, as it means many people across all time zones have gone to bed or are getting ready to sleep by the time such movies come on). Last Sunday, they showed "Speedy", Harold Lloyd's last silent comedy. It's a delightful little film, and taking a lead from Mr. Loomis, here are 3 quick thoughts:

1) The opening panorama of the New York City is remarkable. Keep in mind that the Chrysler building had only begun construction in 1928, and the Empire State Building was still just an architect's idea. Many still feel it's odd seeing the Manhattan skyline without the World Trade Center towers. I recommend they get a load of the Manhattan skyline in 1928.

2) Babe Ruth. One of the subplots of the film is Speedy (Lloyd) loves the Yankees [a sad flaw in an otherwise fine film], and at one point, he drives Babe Ruth to the stadium. The best thing is, it's really Babe Ruth, and he's charming and endearing in his part. Plus, it's some of the clearest film footage of Ruth (far better than the footage of his games). Thus, this movie's good for both film historians and baseball fans alike.

3) I love silents in general. If you don't like a movie that has about 4 plots just to make it to 85 minutes, then this film is not for you (nor are most silents). However, I love being tugged along as far as they can take me, and Speedy definitely comes through in that regard.

Teaching Evaluations

The single biggest thing I stress about each semester is my teaching evaluations. This might seem absurd. But still being a young teacher and knowing what they might mean on the market, particularly at community colleges or small, liberal-arts schools where I am more likely to get a job, the teaching evaluations are really important. Plus, to some extent, I take them as a sign of validation. If I've done a good job, I'll probably get good evaluations. If I have done a bad job, I won't.

The problem with taking these so personally is that the evaluation system is deeply flawed. If you are hard or assign a lot of work, you are far less likely to get good evaluations than if you are a push-over or if you don't want to deal with grading so you don't assign very much work. I can't do this. It really bothers me that so many faculty members see teaching as the last thing on their plate and so they don't put the energy into it that they should. So you get upper-division classes with very little reading assigned, pointless assignments that are both easy and uninspiring, and preferring to give high grades so you don't have to deal with student complaints. These are signs of serious problems within the academy. This has become worse with the rise of the student-as-consumer idea, which in short claims that students are shopping for the best deal, that faculty are commodities that are "purchased" by students, and that faculty should serve students. This puts a lot of pressure on faculty to mold their courses to serve student interests rather than to mold students' minds. All of this is made worse by websites such as ratemyprofessor.com, where students basically rank professors by how easy (or hot) they are and which encourages the publicizing of easy teachers.

I have really worked to reject the path of modern teaching during my first years as a college teacher. I do assign a lot of work. I expect a lot. I try to challenge my students. I'm not the best teacher. Not by a long shot. But I do try. I have become better over time. The first semester I taught my ratings were pretty low. There were good reasons for that. The class didn't really cover a strength of mine. I lectured too much. I included too much information. I didn't have enough class participation. But I learned and have fixed these problems (more or less) without making my classes easier. I still get comments saying that the class is too hard, that there is too much reading, etc. But to me, these comments are not really legitimate complaints. After all, isn't that what you're here for? However, each semester the evaluations have become stronger. And I was very happy this week to find out that my spring courses resulted in my highest evaluations yet, with my first upper-division course that I designed resulting in quite high marks.

And while I know I shouldn't take these evaluations as validation, I do anyway. So I am in a good mood this week.

ACHTUNG!!!!!!!

...or, should I say , "Howdy folks & gather round!" I'm unsure which feels better rolling off the tongue. Maybe the combination of the years in the great (by which I mean large) Republic of Texas, the quality Aryan blood pumping through my veins (indeed, by bringing me into the fold, another step complete in the completion of Erik's grand plans), and a binge too many has left me confused, but both statements seem fairly appropriate.

In spite of the voices that attempt to derail, Lyrad Simool refuses to veer from the path that Orson Welles forged and, therefore, will serve no wine before its time. Rest assured, however, that all the topics so tantilizingly proposed in the introduction below will find a home here; Paul, truly, is an asshole and the relevance of the world of professional wrestling deserves its voice. The one topic that was greivously omitted, though, and Erik should feel remiss, is the impending an future glory of the Denver Broncos, but all will be revealed in time.

For now, I would simply like to confirm the theory that the emotionless of Lutheranism plays a fantastic role in the art of deception and, thus, success at poker. When supression is trained from that early an age, even a straight flush will elicit little more than a confident blink and the day is yours. If parents would like their children to grow up as grifters, I'd suggest Lutheran instruction.

As I look toward the bottom of my third rum & ginger ale, though, and think about how great it tastes, I can't seem to decide on a proper garnish for the drink. A cherry is too sweet, a lime is too acidic, and an olive is out of the question. My current theory is a slice or two of ginger, but I sadly have not the resources to test this. Oh well, another night....

Expanding Alterdestiny--Introducing Lyrad Simool

Allow me to introduce the second new member of Alterdestiny, Lyrad Simool.

Part of the goal of this blog is to have correspondents in other countries. Mr. Trend will be living in Brazil beginning this fall. Lyrad Simool will cover that most strange of foreign nations, Texas.

Expect Lyrad to expand Alterdestiny's coverage of the arts, particularly of the more avant-garde variety, as well as Texas life, philosophy, the beauty industry, our finer alcoholic beverages, and how the apostle Paul was an asshole. Also expect posts on the grand meanings of professional wrestling, something both Lyrad and Mr. Trend are interested. Finally, expect me to send out posts insulting them for talking about such a lame subject.

No, I'm not making those subjects up. You actually should expect to read about most of those things over the coming months.

A music obit

On Monday, Gyorgi Ligeti died. Not many realize they know Ligeti, but his was the music that Kubrick used in much of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (allegedly, without informing Ligeti himself). However, Ligeti's importance to classical music and 20th century music goes far beyond a classic film. He, up with Steve Reich and Iannis Xenakis, was one of the most important avante-composers of the 20th century, using a micropolyphonal approach that was (to use one of those too-often-abused-but-in-this-case-true words) revolutionary. His choral works are remarkable (if not downright creepy), and his work as a whole is important. If you like music that stretches the boundaries of how we understand music, do yourself a favor and listen to some Ligeti.

Film Review--Love Film (1970)

There are a few truly great movies in the world that even big time film fanatics have rarely seen. István Szabó's Love Film is one of these. I was first exposed to Love Film about 3 years by chance--somehow my brother had found a copy. Ever since then I have been a prophet of this movie.

The story is fairly simple: Jansci and Kata are very close friends during World War II Budapest. Over time, perhaps because post-war Stalinist Hungary attacks them for putting themselves over the collective, they separate. They start seeing each other again in 1956, but the Soviets invade and Kata flees to France while Jansci stays in Hungary. They keep in touch over the years and around ten years later, Jansci comes to France at Kata's request. They instantly fall in love again but they can't stay together. Jansci's life is in Hungary, Kata's in France.

But like so many of the best love stories, the straightforward plot allows for intense emotions, great beauty, and an overwhelming experience of getting to know these people and feel what they are feeling. It is a slowpaced film, but that slow pacing allows for greater understanding of what makes up their love and their ultimately failed relationship.

Hungarian history plays a huge role in this film. It is WWII that brings them together in the same house. Stalinism plays a role in separating them. 1956 breaks them apart for good. Szabó does more than just bluntly throw the politics into his film. Rather, he uses Jansci's intense nostalgia for his childhood with Kata as a way to show how politics and history can ruin our lives. The scene in France where Jansci and Kata are having dinner with Hungarian expats includes one of the most intense scenes I've ever seen on film. The camera moves in for a closeup of a woman standing between Jansci and Kata as she tells of how she survived the Nazis. She was standing in front of a firing squad on the banks of the Danube. They start firing and as an instinct she falls into the water a split second before the bullets would have mowed her down. The day was foggy and she managed to swim to the center of the river without being seen. She survives this and walks to Yugoslavia, eventually making it to France. Her telling of this harrowing tale may only take 2-3 minutes but it seemed like 7 or 8. What is really great about this is the patient way Szabó uses his camera. In a modern American film, this scene probably would have used a voiceover and the action would have been filmed. But the power of watching this woman's face as she tells the story provides a much greater punch than actually watching the woman escape.

But ultimately, the movie is much more about love than politics, even if the two are inseparable. As Kata and Jansci are fretting over their lack of future, Kata says (and I wish I could find a quote on this) that love is only half of it--you have to have the same goals as well. True words there. Despite the politics and the history and the hell of war that get in Kata and Jansci's way, this statement rings true for pretty much all of us.

My love of this film is by no way lessened by Judit Halász, who plays Kata. I find Halász stunningly beautiful in this film with shockingly striking eyes. Both Halász and András Bálint, who played Jansci, are excellent in the film. But I could see why Jansci would travel halfway across Europe to meet Kata after actually seeing her. Plus this film is supposed to take place in 1966, which was a really strong time for women's fashion. That period just before the hippie thing took over is just perfect. The hair, the clothes, the increasingly open expression of sexuality through fashion just before going off the deep end--it's just perfect. And Kata represents that in all its glory.

Love Film is not particularly easy to find. It's distributed by Kino and is on Netflix but good luck in finding it at your local video store, even if it's a good one. If you can see it though, I would recommend few movies more highly.

The One Thing The Lutheran Church Has Done For Me

As many of you know, I am a recovering Lutheran. I really hate that church for a lot of reasons. One of the most important is the constant training to repress all emotions, never put yourself out on a limb, or otherwise take any risks with life. This is something I am always fighting against.

However, I have discovered that this very thing can serve me quite well in one field: poker.

Although I don't really know the rules of poker, I have come in 1st or 2nd in 3 of the 6 games of Texas Hold'Em I've ever played. I have to think that my complete lack of expression, something that is totally unintentional while at the poker table, has a lot to do with that.

Thank you Lutheranism.

Now I have to go nail something on a door.

The subaltern speaks

Well, this is my (Mr. Trend's) first post, just to clear things up right away. I thank erik in his ongoing quest as an "organic intellectual" to help sublaterns speak. As we all know, the white, Protestant, male voice is criminially silenced in the United States these days, and, by joining forces with Erik, we will amend this situation. I also hope to combat the west-coast bias that dominates the world while adding to the "liberal" bias of the media and the blogosphere (take that, Ann Coulter - run and attack more 9/11 widows in defense of yourself).

So if you look to this page in the future and see bizarre personalities taking over, it's simply me - Erik hasn't developed some form of multiple personality disorder (yet).

Expanding Alterdestiny--Introducing Mistertrend

So as all of you readers know, blogging on this site has been, um, sporadic over the last several months. To remedy this, I am acting on a long-held desire to make Alterdestiny a group blog. The first new addition is Mistertrend, which is pretty funny if you know him.

I am looking forward to Mistertrend's posts on music, Brazil, Latin American politics, and baseball.

I am not so much looking forward to his posts on Ohio St. football.

Mistertrend adds a lot to the blog. Here's a few things.

1. People of German descent are far underrepresented on the blogosphere. Mistertrend helps fix this oppression. Heil!

2. The spirit of Protestantism is not nearly strong enough on this blog. Mistertrend definitely helps with that.

3. I need help making fun of Tim McCarver's desire to fellate Derek Jeter every October.

I'm sure there are other reasons too but I can't think of them right now.

The technological aspect of getting Mistertrend's profile up on the blog might take a few days. Did I ever mention how technologically adept I am?

So let's all welcome Mistertrend.

The West: Landscape of Death

All of my bitching about the heat of New Mexico has reminded me of thoughts I've had several times recently while driving through the American West:

The West is a landscape of death.

People do not belong here, except in small numbers. Look at Native American populations. New Mexico has a large Native American population. But most of the pueblos are along the Rio Grande or other water sources. It is the same throughout the West. The groups that nomadically traversed the West on horses were once limited to water sources as well before they acquired horses from the Spanish. Only with horses did mobility come and even then, horses had to be watered too. It's no revelation that water is the most important element of the West. Control over water=power. Donald Worster, Marc Reisner, and many other historians have pointed this out.

But you can't control water forever. And what happens when that control fails? To me, living in the arid West is living with fear. If you've driven across Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico or several other western states, haven't you thought, "God, I hope the car doesn't break down out here." Because what happens if the car does break down? You might be 50 miles from the nearest town and even more from somewhere where you could actually get your car fixed. Now let's say that American society breaks down. Our ability to get water from the river to your home is ended. The West dries up. Oil supplies are insufficient to get gas into your vehicle. What do you do? How do you survive?

The answer is that you will die.

I don't feel this way west of the Cascades or in the East. I'm not living with a constant fear of death in wet regions. Because people are meant to live there. If my car breaks down in Oregon, Tennessee, or Vermont, I know that I can find someone relatively close by to help me. I know that if I was abandoned to the world in those places I might be able to survive by living off the land in a way that is virtually impossible in the West.

But isn't the landscape of death that is particually appealing to people. For this landscape brings with it much to offer if you don't have to worry about survival. Sunny skies. Warm temperatures. Wide views. Beautiful sunsets. The Big Sky Country. The Land of Enchantment. Even the historical tourism of these places revolves around death--Dodge City, Tombstone, Billy the Kid. This violence was part of larger issues of resource control in the West--resource control absolutely necessary to survive in this deadly land.

The separation of people from the realities of the land where they live is part of a much greater problem of willful ignorance of the environmental damage we do everyday in order to live our consumerist lives. Nowhere in the US is this disconnect stronger than in the arid West, where we fetishize the very things that are telling us not to live there. Someday that fetish will collapse and we will wonder why we didn't pay attention to those very clear warning signals.

Erik Has Trouble Dealing with the World (V)--Air Conditioner Edition

Over the past 6 weeks or so I have had to use my air conditioner. You may have heard this from me before, but Albuquerque is hotter than hell this time of the year. But it rarely seemed to work right. Sometimes it would blow cold air and sometimes it would just be blowing the air from outside--OK at night, not so good during the day. So I called my landlord and asked to have someone come out and fix it.

The guy comes out and changes the water pump, which I guess was old. He also, and in a very subtle and pretty nice way, suggested that I actually turn on the water pump in order to get cold air to come in.

Now, you'd think I could have figured this out for myself. The pump button on the wall unit is faded and I thought it said medium. I thought it was odd that it didn't work, considering that high and low did work. I thought it more odd that "medium" was above both high and low but didn't think too much of it. Then I looked today and realized that it actually does say pump.

I love technology.

The King Family is at it Again--Selling the MLK Papers

The family of Martin Luther King continues to disgust me. Now that Coretta has passed on, the kids have full reign to make as much bank as they can off their father's legacy. The latest plan: auction off all of his papers to the highest bidder.

This is revolting on two levels. First, the simple materialism involved in it. MLK's family long ago decide to cash in on his legacy. On one level, this is understandable given the financial straits they were in when he died. But they long ago reached a more than adequate comfort level.

But it is as a historian that this is truly outrageous. Martin Luther King is arguably the most important human being in the history of post-war America. And rather than donate his papers to an archive at a major university, they are going to sell them. For years, they have tried to sell them to archives, but what archive has this kind of cash? Maybe the Library of Congress steps in and buys them all up. Or maybe the state of Georgia. Possibly Stanford University, where some of his papers already are open to reserachers. That would be great. Then they could be processed, opened for researchers, and we could learn more about King. But what are the chances that some rich guy buys them and keeps them for his personal collection and doesn't let anyone see them? Or even worse, someone buys them and then resells them to a variety of buyers, then some of them eventually disappear, and our understanding of King will forever remain incomplete.

I'm really not one for moralizing. But the King family should be ashamed of themselves for their relentless money-grubbing and for placing profit over providing a service to the future of the nation.

Oregon Notes

Spent the week before last in Oregon. Couple of things.

Everyone complains about the weather there. That is because you all are crazy. Having suffered through the desert for the past six years, I have come to appreciate rain. Rain is good. Could we all say that one time: RAIN IS GOOD. Now doesn't that feel true to you? Even people in Oregon complain about the rain. Everyone wants to live here in the sunny Southwest. Well, guess what. Most of the Southwest is uninhabitable. The only way we can live here is through large scale social and environmental engineering that is turning the area into an environmental disaster. Seriously, when most plants can't live in a particular place, it's probably a good sign that people shouldn't either.

When did the sun aesthetic begin? In my research on the Northwest, few people seem to have complained much about the weather before World War II. It was not always fun to work in and a lot of loggers were cold and wet and they didn't like that too much, but that's pretty understandable. My assumption is that this is a post-war phenomenon, related to the rise of the Sunbelt and the desert aesthetic. Weather became a commodity and smart entrepreneurs came up with names like "Sun City" for their new developments. The Northwest is of course by no means strangers to turning their natural world into commodities (more on this in a later post) but they will always be at a disadvantage at making money off the weather.

I actually think this is important because the love of heat and sun among modern Americans tells me a lot about why most of us don't actually care about global warming--if all the nation were dry and hot, most Americans would like it. I remember that before 9/11, David Letterman was on a serious climate change kick. It was clear that he was quite disturbed by it and he explained why people didn't care by saying that they wanted to play golf in January. He hit the nail on the head.

In any case, Oregon weather rocks.

Oregon is a nice place. I'm biased because I'm from there, but still. One thing it has on most of the country--Portland's love of movie theaters where you can drink beer. Why hasn't this spread around the country? Why don't we have these in Albuquerque. And they show good movies too. I went to one theater where I bought a ticket to the classic Hitchock film, Strangers on a Train, a beer, and popcorn. The total price? $8. I couldn't even get in to see the Da Vinci Code in downtown Albuquerque for that. Great movies, good beer, low price. How can you possibly go wrong here?

One thing about Portlanders though. They always talk about how their city is so much better than Seattle. A quick message to you all: shut the fuck up. If your city was actually better than Seattle, you wouldn't talk about it so much. Do you think Seattleites talk about how much better they are than Portland? No. Why? Because they don't care about you. Plus, there is no way that Portland can make this kind of claim until they have major league baseball. Right now, they are a AAA city in many ways. So again--shut the fuck up Portlanders.

I needed to get that one off my chest a long time ago.

I also spent a little time in eastern Oregon. I took a long hike above Multnomah Falls. Got back about 3 and wanted to spend the rest of the daylight hours seeing some of my home state since I don't get the chance very often. Where did I go? East, along the Columbia River to Arlington and then took a circle through the rarely visited, except on the freeway, Gilliam and Morrow counties and then back. An interesting trip. Why Arlington? It's the home of Doc Severinsen, Johnny Carson's old band leader. I wanted to see a statue of Doc in bronze. How awesome would have that been? But they didn't have a damn thing about him. I mean, what the hell else does Arlington have going for it? It's status as a place to stop on the freeway? I suppose the river provides some kind of commerce. But come on--Doc Severinsen is your future Arlington! Embrace the 1940s arrangements! Emphasize the ridiculous clothing! Bring in Ed McMahon for talks! Tourist gold.

The Worst Thing About Seattle

The worst thing about Seattle is having to leave there to come back to Albuquerque.

Projected temperature in Seattle tomorrow: 65

Projected temperature in Albuquerque tomorrow: 97

Sigh.

It Really Stinks When....

...the internet monsters steal a long post you have just written. Aaarrrgg.

The Only Way To Explain This Is That I Have Been Slipped Some Powerful Mind-Changing Drugs

OK....

USA Today's Top 6 World Travel Destinations of the Year.

In no particular order:
1. Turkey
2. China
3. Croatia
4. Thailand
5. The Netherlands.

Number 6....

Albuquerque.

Having lived in New Mexico for the last 6 years, I can only say, what the fuck are you talking about? I mean, what???????

Texas Notes

So I promised a discussion of my trip to Houston. My illness has got in the way. I was going to do this in a series of posts but that clearly is not going to happen. So I will just throw them all together here in a series of short notes. I am also going to include something about a trip to El Paso I took in October.

I think all of this goes under the general heading, "Texas, One Weird Fucking Place." Actually, before we get to Texas, I need to give all of my readers some very important advice. Never eat in Carlsbad, New Mexico. I have had 2 meals there in my life. I have regretted both very much. The first was in the town's nice restaurant. I ordered the pasta with the marinara sauce, as opposed to the other option, the meat sauce. As a vegetarian, the choice was obvious. Except that in Carlsbad, the marinara sauce still has meat in it. On this trip, I stayed the night in lovely Artesia, New Mexico. That night I watched Iron Chef America where I saw a battle over some kind of weird Australian fish. Maybe my hopes were too high. But I stopped in some Carlsbad greasy spoon for breakfast. I ordered the cheese omelet. What came was some eggs topped in about a pound of greasey cheesefood. The oil from the cheese coming apart was just laying on top. I ate it, but it was hard going. That I got a kidney stone 2 days later is not surprising. I knew my body would get its revenge against me for that meal.

Also in New Mexico, this time just outside of Loving, in the southeastern corner of the state, just before the Texas line, I saw one of the West's more interesing idiosyncracies--a cowboy church. I can't remember the title but it had a picture of a bucking bronco buster on it. I have heard about these but have never seen one. I guess fundamentalist Christianity is real big among the cowboy population of the world. I believe it too. I would need to believe in some kind of better afterlife if I had that horrible job.

From there I headed down toward the Mexican border. I hit Del Rio, Texas, just over the border from Ciudad Acuna, about 3 pm. I was hungry. I didn't eat lunch because I thought I could find some kind of super-tasty Mexican food right over the border in Del Rio. In El Paso, there is a long strip just before you cross the bridge. I was hoping for something like that. Couldn't find anything. Obviously, it's there but I didn't find it. And I was super hungry by 3. So instead I just hopped into the Thai restaurant across the street for some pad thai. God I love the postmodern world.

I headed east from Del Rio toward San Antonio. I was lucky enough to pass through Uvalde. Now you are asking, what is in Uvalde, Texas? Why, it is the hometown of one John Nance Garner, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first vice-president. When I saw the sign for his grave, I dangerously pulled across 2 lanes of traffic to screech into the cemetary. Garner evidentally regretted his acceptance of the VP slot. Roosevelt was notorious for ignoring his vice-presidents. Harry Truman didn't even know of the existence of the atomic bomb when he took over in April 1945. Garner commented that the office was "not worth a bucket of warm piss." I was really hoping this would be on his gravestone. Alas, I was devastated not to find it there.

From Uvalde, I passed through Seguin. What is in Seguin? Texas Lutheran University. Alma mater of Verne Lundquist. Texas is not known for its self-loathing. When you think of Texas, images of people lacking confidence in the world, hating life, and showing few emotions is not really what most of us think of. But every place must have a center of self-hatred, and for Texas, it is clearly the campus of TLU in Seguin.

Finally, I reached San Antonio. I decide to stop by the Alamo. Never been there. Don't really care. But I figured I should see. As soon as I saw it, I was proud. What a great sight. A landmark where the Mexican army slaughtered a bunch of redneck Texas slaveowners revolting against laws forbidding slavery in Mexico. Wish they would have killed every last white Texan. Damn, I'm proud of you Mexico.

I was even prouder when a group of Mexican-Americans decided to get a ton of pictures taken of themselves right in front of the Alamo flashing their gang signs. This was possibly the best travel moment of my life. A giant "Fuck You Whitey Texan" to all of you crackers. Talk about claiming the meaning of a historical site for yourself. Awesome. And there were some irritated whites, let me tell you.

Then I turn around and see a school bus from a town outside of San Antonio. That town--Hereford. The mascot. The Whitefaces. Yes, that's right. They are the Hereford Whitefaces. Now I know that Hereford cattle have white faces. But somehow, and call me crazy, I'm thinking that the Whitefaces has a meaning not related to cows. I know it's the South and all, and it's impossible to imagine such double meanings on the issue of race, but could it be that Hereford was claiming whiteness for the town? Nah....I must have spent too much time in the academy.

God, I love Texas.

I was hoping to make it to Jasper, where those two rednecks lynched that black guy 10 or so years ago by dragging him behind a truck. Unfortunately, the kidney stones intervened. Oh well.
All of this made me remember my trip to El Paso in October. I had a little time to kill so I drove through the Lower Valley, which is a traditional Hispanic neighborhood of El Paso. I come to a stoplight. It is named Avenida Rafael Septien. Rafael Septien was the kicker for the Cowboys in the 1980s. Only in Texas would a street be named for a kicker. I wonder if that is the only street in the nation named for a kicker. Great stuff.

I'm not sure if Texas is the best or worst place in the country for me to live. There is nowhere else that I would laugh at people as much. On the other hand, it might permanently poison me. What a place!

Albuquerque Isotopes + Wind= Interesting Night of Ball

Tonight, I am seeing Albuquerque play the Tucson Sidewinders. Isotopes Stadium is the most hitter-friendly park in organized baseball. The wind right now is blowing at about 40 mph. This could be interesting.

Over/under on triples for tonight: 3 (it would be 2 without the wind).

Buster Keaton and the Rise of Modernism in America

I love silent movies for many reasons. Not least among them is that they are a window on their time in a way that talkies never quite managed to be. Silent movies just laid society bare, whether it is Fritz Lang savaging the loose morals of Weimar Germany in "Dr. Mabuse the Gambler," Lon Chaney playing a Chinaman, or D.W. Griffith's Reconstruction revision.

Buster Keaton's films are a look into early 20th century America as much as any other silent movie figure. For instance, take "The General." The book it was based upon had the hero being a Union soldier. Keaton figured that the hero would be more sympathetic if he was a Confederate and so he changed it. A little-known fact but interesting.

More directly, many of his films reflect the challenges that Americans faced during the early 20th century. This was a time of intense change in the United States. In 1880, the United States was most Anglo-Saxon (at least among its European immigrants). It was mostly rural. Large swaths of the West remained virtually unsettled by whites. The doctrine of separate spheres held more or less and middle-class women generally worked out of the home if they worked at all. Although the Civil War had begun transforming the American economy, it was still a nation of farms and small towns. By 1920, all of this had changed. Millions of immigrants had come from eastern and southern Europe, challenging both what it meant to be white as well as what an American was. The Industrial Revolution had completed its sweeping changes of the American economy and American society. Women increasingly worked outside of the home and even lived alone. In 1920, over 50% of Americans lived in cities for the first time. The automobile had changed spatial patterns in the United States, gave individuals more freedom, and brought the world closer together. The West was fully settled by whites and this supposed traditional outlet for American problems had gone. Technological innovations were coming at a rapid pace--refrigeration, airplanes, radio, washing machines, etc., etc.

Many of Keaton's films deal directly with the challenges the individual faced in this crazy new nation. I just finished one of fine DVDs Kino has put out of Keaton's work. The feature of this DVD was "Go West," while "The Paleface" and "The Scarecrow" were shorts that Kino also included. To a greater or lesser extent, all 3 of these films deal with this issue of modernism.

The most striking of the three is "Go West." Here Keaton is a poor vagabond who ends up working a cattle ranch in Arizona, despite his lack of any cowboy skills. He also makes friends with a cow, which pretty much provides the plot. You might say this sounds pretty lame. But it's not. Keaton starts out in Indiana. He has to sell everything he owns. He thinks he should head to the city for a fresh start. When he gets to the city, he is run over by the sidewalk crowd. He struggles through the hordes of people going the other way, falls, and is trampled upon. He scrambles into the street where he is hit by a car. How many people got this joke in 1925? Nearly everyone I would guess. With an audience that no doubt contained many urban migrants, this joke would have hit home.

Keaton quickly realizes the city is not for him and he hops a train heading west. He falls off that train while inside a barrel in front of an Arizona cattle ranch. Here is the life Keaton is looking for. He's a loner and he can be lonely here, except for his pet cow which he spends the rest of the movie trying to save from slaughter. Incidentally, you can really see from the film how bad cattle farming destroyed the vegetation in the Arizona desert, even by the 1920s. Eventually, the cattle are to go to Los Angeles for processing (and when was the last time LA was a beef center?). Keaton hops the train in a last ditch effort to save his cow. But a rival farmer is trying to raise prices for all the local cattle ranchers and he refuses to allow Keaton's boss to sell the cows. There is a shootout and the engineer is forced off the train. Keaton takes over and when he gets to LA he lets all the cows out. This is a big mistake. The cattle start roaming the streets of LA, entering boutique shops and scaring all the urban dwellers. Here is another clash between the rural and urban. Of course, the cows are there to provide beef to the local population but that population has no desire to see that beef, particularly within their barber shops and clothing stores. Buster ends up saving the day by dressing in a devil outfit to attract the cows with the red and running away from them while leading them to the stockyards. This movie took place in the present, but it is so old that it seems like it was talking about a day long ago. But the rancher has a car, even if his ranchhands use the old ways and ride on horses. Buster and his cow get a nice ride back to the ranch in the car.

The first short, The Scarecrow, is less about modernism than the other two, but even in its 20 minute running time, it says quite a bit. The first gag is these 2 bachelors living together who have managed to turn their apartment into a sort of marvel of gadgets. All the appliances turn into other appliances (the phonograph is a stove for instance). All of your kitchen accoutrements hang from the ceiling for easy access. The point of this film is the 2 guys going after the same woman. Buster wins her. What's interesting is the use of transportation technology. Horses are still around but so are cars. Buster and his girl get married by basically running over a preacher standing in the middle of the road. He gets picked up in their open motorized vehicle. Buster is driving, his girl is in the sidecar, and the preacher is marrying them in between. Stealing this vehicle gives them an advantage over the transportation options of the girl's father and her other beau, who have horses as well as other motorized vehicles.

More interesting from our standpoint is The Paleface. Here Buster plays a butterfly chaser who helps protect a tribe of Indians from having their land stolen by the oil industry. Again we have a western where modernism is intruding upon life. The Indians are minding their own business but are under attack from oil barons. The Indians (played to all the stereotypes you would expect, though they are sympathetic at the same time) decide to kill the first white man they see, which is butterfly-chasing Buster. He gets away long enough to hide in a settler cabin and create a fire-proof suit out of asbestos he finds there! The Indians then burn him at the stake but he lives because of his asbestos suit. Nothing in the movie on how long it took him to get cancer from the suit. Anyway, he is then accepted into the tribe and he helps them get back at the oil men and of course they win the day and Buster gets to hook up with his favorite squaw.

Of course, Chaplin (among others) touched upon many of these same themes in his early work. But Keaton's films seem to exist in that borderland between the modern and pre-modern America that millions were crossing over in the early twentieth century. These films are worth watching for many reasons, the first of which is their sheer quality. But they also have great value as a window into history and I strongly recommend them for that.

John McCain

So John McCain got booed giving a commencement address at The New School. So sad. I would feel slightly more bad for him had he not given the address at Liberty University last week. Quit pandering John. I know you are a conservative and on one level, that's fine. But don't think you can talk to Jerry Falwell's students and then have any legitmacy talking to one of America's most traditionally liberal student populations. Decide where you stand and stick to it. But quit faking your independent credentials. You've had plenty of chances to do something right. You could have stood up to W. Hell, you could even have not campaigned for him in 2004. But you did. And you have to live with the consequences.

No doubt next year you will receive a far better reception speaking at Oral Roberts and BYU. Stay there where you belong.

Southern Rock

Rob links to a Crooked Timber post on music. This is a good post. He gives props to Tom Russell, which gets a lot of respect from me. Mary Gauthier too. But he doesn't like the Drive-By Truckers. He says, "The Drive-By Truckers who struck me as over-loud Skynyrd wannabees."

I don't think he gets the point of the Drive-By Truckers. And it's not just him. Lots of people who don't like DBT say the same thing. I think a lot of this stems from a ingrained aversion to Southern Rock. Many people see Skynard and they think of rednecks from Alabama and the Confederate flag in the background. This was certainly part of Skynard. But they miss that a) there was a lot more going on there culturally than they know and b) the music is good. Lynard Skynard wrote smart songs, were excellent guitar players, and just generally were one of the best bands of the 1970s. The Drive-By Truckers definitely follow in the tradition, as they would be happy to tell you and as anyone who has heard "Southern Rock Opera" knows. That's a good thing. They are building on a fine tradition of American music. Like Skynard, DBT are superb songwriters, great musicians, and put on a wonderful show.

I guess what gets me is that I think people are putting politics and culture over the music. I think that people who don't like that band don't like them for the same reason they don't like Skynard--they don't like the South. And that is not a good reason to like or dislike music. If a person likes Skynard because of the Confederate flag, it's just as bad.

The other thing I want to say about Southern rock comes out of the comments from Lawyers Guns Money, where my earlier post on seeing DBT live is quoted extensively. Some of the commentators took exception to my saying that DBT had said the first interesting thing in the genre of Southern Rock since at least the first Black Crowes album. Some took exception because I tolerate the Black Crowes. Whatever. But others mentioned bands like Gov't Mule and Widespread Panic. I think that Southern Rock has split onto 2 paths. The more commonly tread path today is like Gov't Mule and Widespread--going off into Jam Band territory. I do have a strong dislike of jam bands. I don't think Gov't Mule and Widespread are really saying anything interesting in Southern Rock through their music. In fact, I don't think they are really saying anything at all. Someone who likes jam bands will no doubt disagree with me, but I think bands like those just use words as an excuse to play long, pointless solos. I like my music in the form of songs. So shoot me.

Death List--2 Down

Some of you may remember my death list post back in January. I am proud to say that I struck gold today for the second time this year with the death of Peter Viereck, one of the founders of the conservative movement in the 1950s. Although Viereck later moved away from the New Right, his influence was pretty big. While for a lot of reasons I have no love lost for the first person to go this year, Coretta Scott King, I can say that it feels better when the person who dies is someone you don't like.

Back From the Dead (More or Less)

May has sucked.

I already blogged about the kidney stone. Well, I was admitted to the hospital last Thursday and got out late Friday morning. That was the worst of it. But even since then, I've hard sharp pains in my kidneys. I am pissing blood like you wouldn't believe. Supposedly this is normal. I have taken exactly 100 Motrin since Saturday morning. No doubt my liver thanks me. I had a lovely stint (the sexiest word in the English language) from Thursday through Tuesday. I was glad to get that out--for those of you who haven't had such a thing, imagine a rubber tube being pulled through your penis. For women I don't know what the equal experience would be. So that was fun. Unfortunately, it started my kidney pains, which had subsided by Tuesday, all over again. 2-3 times a day, I go through 30-45 minutes of pretty intense pain. I am OK the rest of the time. This is good. But a pain-free day would be nice.

Add that to the fact that it is hot as hell in New Mexico in May, the thing with the salvage title used car, and the end of the semester, and you can only imagine how much I have loved this month.

Kidney Stones

Much more on Texas later. It's a crazy place. I have the greatest Alamo story ever.

But for right now, let me say that getting kidney stones sucks. On the other hand, the ER at the hospital I went was pretty good.

I would describe kidney stones as having your intestines eaten by fire ants. I never knew what pain was before today.

I should also say that our country has come up with some amazing narcotics. God bless America!

In Houston This Weekend

I have to make a trip to Houston this weekend so blogging will be somewhere between limited and nonexistent.

Of course where would anyone rather spend a weekend than beautiful, mild, lovely Houston, Texas.

On the other hand, they have a Venezuelan restaurant I want to try. I have no idea what that is but I am curious.

Erik Has Trouble Dealing with the World (IV): Used Car Edition

My ability to deal with the practical side of the world is limited. I can deal quite well with some parts of the world. I am very good at eating. And wasting time. Academia, generally, is right up my alley. But when I have to deal with practical things, nothing good ever happens.

Unfortunately, I have been dealing with all kinds of practicality lately. And it sucks. I was in the market to get a used car. I wanted a car just like my old car. I found just such a car. In good shape (seemingly), clean, low miles, nice color, good mileage. Everything I want. Good price too. Thought I was getting a hell of a deal.

On Tuesday, I buy the car. We sign off on the title, etc. Later in the day, I'm dealing with registering it, etc. I look closely at the title and what do I see but that it is a fucking salvage title. Of course this bastard I bought it from didn't mention it. Given that it's a single person and not a dealer, I probably have no recourse. I took the car immediately to the dealer to have them check it out. While it needs a little work, that work seems to be mostly related to general wear and tear. It may be that the car lasts me for several years, but I definitely paid more than the car was worth.

I like to think that most people in the world are good. Despite what I think is an extremely undeserved reputation as a curmudgeonly misanthrope, I really like people and want the world to be happy and nice. Then I get ripped off.

Conservatives always talk about morality. But morality is not about who you fuck or what language you use in casual conversation. Morality is about the way you treat other human beings each and every day.

I should have expected it though. Cars are a piece of complicated technology. And we all know how much I love technology.

Concert Review--Drive-by Truckers, Son Volt, Curt Kirkwood, Albuquerque, NM, April 30, 2006

I should begin this post with a nearly irrefutable statement:

The Drive-by Truckers are the best rock and roll band in America today.

Now that we have that out of the way, to the show proper. Curt Kirkwood from The Meat Puppets opened the show. It was pretty cool. He played some old Meat Puppets songs and I assume some new stuff as well, but it was in that same crazy ass style as the Meat Puppets. The songs were long, didn't make any real sense at all, were played at about 15 different tempos throughout the song, and were a great way to start the night. I don't know that I would have wanted to hear 2 hours of this, but for 40 minutes or so, it really hit the spot. Definitely a good opening act for a show like this.

The problem was that the audience kept fucking talking so much that you could barely hear what he was singing. I'm tempted to attribute this problem to Albuquerque music audiences (more on Albuquerque and music later) but I don't think that was the problem. I've seen this before. When I saw Jon Dee Graham open for Alejandro Escovedo in Seattle last year, he had to get mad at the people near the bar for them to shut up. I guess it must be really hard to be an opening act playing acoustic for a really great closing act that lots of people have come to see, and who are playing electric and can just drown everyone out.

Son Volt was the second act. They were absolutely awful. Now, I'm not a big fan anyway. They've never done much for me. But this was a dreadful show. I was so bored it's hard to express in words. What's really amazing is that the show was both loud and boring. How is this possible? I don't really know but I guess it is. The solos went nowhere. Jay Farrar has the charisma of a rock. No one seemed to be having any fun. The songs all sounded the same. They also seemed to have no heart or spirit in them. The last 4 songs or so Son Volt played were much better--and not surprisingly they were the older songs. The difference in the sheer quality of the older and newer songs was remarkable. If this is typical, Son Volt should never play another show. Jay Farrar seemingly has nothing more to say. Son Volt has to be one of the most overrated bands of the last 10 years.

On the other hand, the Drive-by Truckers kicked much ass. I was fully rocked. This is just such a great band. The songs are spectacular. They have 3 songwriters much superior to Jay Farrar. They had fun. They sang like they gave a fuck. Their guitar solos had meaning. And think about that. Every band uses guitar. But how many bands actually do something with it? How many bands make it worth a damn? How many bands today come up with a riff that you remember? And Drive-by Truckers do this with every song they write.

One of the great things about Drive-by Truckers is how they are rehabilitating one of the most underrated forms of American rock and roll--Southern Rock. They are firmly within that tradition but are taking it new places. Can you ask more of a band than that? And when was the last time a band really made a statement in that genre? The Black Crowes in 1991 or so maybe? Early Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers albums?

They played a lot of new songs that I didn't know. I wish I had a chance to listen to the new album a few times before I went. One thing that is key for a show like this is to hear the songs ahead of time. The lyrics are so great that they are key to the listening experience. The new songs seemed to be really good, especially "Gravity's Gone," but I couldn't generally follow along too well. Oh well. They played great versions of "Goddamn Lonely Love," "Carl Perkins' Cadillac," "Marry Me," "Sinkhole," and many of their other excellent tunes. Plus they ended with Patterson Hood singing "Let There Be Rock," which is a great closing song. If I had to make any complaint, and this is extremely minor, it was a little hard to hear Patterson Hood's vocals. I don't know if this was equipment related or perhaps it is because his voice is a little thinner than Jason Isbell or Mike Cooley's. But whatever. A really top-notch show. Probably the best show I've seen in the last 9 months or so.

The one issue I want to bring up here is the terrible reputation Albuquerque has for concerts. This show was advertised big time. But the place was still probably only 60% full. People just don't come out to shows here. This is nationally known. Many artists just go to Santa Fe (where venues charge $40 or more) or they skip New Mexico altogether. For a town this big, and for the increasingly hip reputation of the town in general, the music scene is really bad. There are lots of people trying to change this. But ultimately, people have to put up the money and come out to see some live music.

The Future of the Country is Not in Good Hands

In a disaster for the University of New Mexico, the basement of Zimmerman Library caught on fire Sunday night, destroying up to 90% of the periodicals. This may make us the only research institution in the United States with no periodical collection. Not good. Hopefully, the vast microfilm collections, particularly useful for Latin American scholars, are OK. We don't know the answer to that yet.

What's pathetic though is the response. The less than stellar student newspaper, The Daily Lobo, has basically said that the real tragedy of the situation is that students have lost a good place to study. One student by the name of Bradley Knockel, who I hope to never have in a class, remarked,

"You can study anywhere. If you need a book, you've got databases online. I kind of think libraries are outdated."

My friend and occasional commentator Colin whipped off this letter to the student newspaper in which he refers to this idea as "unfortunate and ignorant."

I should say so.

UPDATE: Recent reports are saying that far less of the collection was destroyed than first thought. Perhaps 10%. Still very bad though. Of course the library is closed for the foreseeable future. None of this makes Bradley Knockel less of a numbskull.

Another Reason Bill Richardson Should Not Be The Democratic Nominee in 2008

Bill Richardson evidentally agrees with George W. Bush that the National Anthem should be sung only in English.

Richardson, the half-Hispanic governor of New Mexico, has one thing very much in common with another 2008 presidential hopeful, Bill Frist. They are both incredible panderers. Like Frist, Richardson has zero principles.

More National Anthem Absurdity

From Atrios, via Left in the West, comes this comedic tidbit that in 1919 the US Bureau of Education commissioned a Spanish-language version of the "Star-Spangled Banner." But of course that was under the administration of that commie Woodrow Wilson. No doubt the Harding victory in 1920 was a direct result of out-of-touch Washington liberals betraying our American ideals....

More on this via the wonderful David Neiwert, including some of the multiple languages the song has been translated into.

A Really Uncredible Threat

Ooooh...how scary! Harry Reid is threatening to filibuster judicial nominees over the Jack Abramoff case.

I'm mean, really. You're not going to filibuster Samuel Fucking Alito, a man who has the potential to inflict massive damage upon this country but you are going filibuster to publicize a scandal. I mean, I'm all for publicizing this scandal but I'm also for having some damn priorities. Should Democrats be filibustering Bush's judicial nominees? Hell, yes. Should it be for a reason that is actually principled, like preserving the Constitution? It would be nice.

More Conservative Racism

While this article discusses the (surprising) fact that both the Republican and Democratic leadership in Congress are supporting renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act, what is really amazing is that an (unnamed) group of Republican senators are proposing to do away with "obsolete" parts of the act like interpreters at voting booths and ballots in languages other than English.

So...when did "obsolete" begin to mean "not in our political interests?"

The three GOP senators who seem to be supporting this are among the true leaders of our nation--John Cornyn, Jeff Sessions, and the Cicero of Oklahoma himself, Tom Coburn. And over 50 House Republicans wrote that allowing such provisions to continue would "encourage the linguistic division of our nation and undermine the 'melting pot' ideal."

Of course the melting pot is an inherently racist term because it assumes that all foreign cultures will be subsumed within the English, Anglo-Saxon dominant culture, except with tastier food options at our strip malls.

Lou Dobbs, American Idiot

Lou Dobbs strikes again, this time in an insipid cnn.com article.

Yes, according to Lou, "radicals" have taken over the pro-immigration movement. Why? Because there are national organizations supporting the boycott and these groups want to destroy the American economy. That's right. They want to destroy the American economy by not working. Oddly, according to Dobbs, they also want to destroy the American economy by working. It's those damned "leftists," according to Dobbs, who are instigating this.

So...Lou, what exactly are these people supposed to do? If they work, they are the enemies of America. If they don't work, they are the enemies of America. Sounds like a good, well-thought out racist argument to me.

Christians Are Weird

So I'm looking at where my blog rests in the TTLB ecosystem (I assure you that it is ranked very low) and I decided to look at the blog directly in front of me. This turned out to be some weird Christian blog. I was deeply amused by this 1923 sermon from the always bizarre neo-Calvinist J. Gresham Machen:

"Upon the Christian doctrine of the Cross, modern liberals are never weary of pouring out the vials of their hatred and their scorn. Even at this point, it is true, the hope of avoiding offense is not always abandoned; the words "vicarious atonement" and the like--of course in a sense totally at variance from their Christian meaning--are still sometimes used. But despite such occasional employment of traditional language the liberal preachers reveal only too clearly what is in their minds. They speak with disgust of those who believe "that the blood of our Lord, shed in a substitutionary death, placates an alienated Deity and makes possible welcome for the returning sinner." Against the doctrine of the Cross they use every weapon of caricature and vilification. Thus they pour out their scorn upon a thing so holy and so precious that in the presence of it the Christian heart melts in gratitude too deep for words. It never seems to occur to modern liberals that in deriding the Christian doctrine of the Cross, they are trampling upon human hearts"

I am amused by a couple of things about this. First, what the hell is Machen talking about? Nothing screams "trampling on human hearts" like, say, Unitarians. What's even better is trying to figure out the motivation of the guy who has this blog. I wonder if he has any actual evidence that liberals "use every weapon of caricature and vilification" aganst Christianity? Of course I speak with scorn to modern Christianity, but then again, I'm hardly the preacher that Machen and presumably this guy is talking about. Actually, no, I don't speak with scorn toward Christianity so much as I speak with scorn toward the right-wing idiots who harness a version of fundamentalist Christianity to their own political agenda. Like this guy for instance.

In any case, Christians are really really weird.

The Immigration Debate

Not suprisingly, George W. Bush has come out and said that the "Star-Spangled Banner" has more meaning in English than in Spanish. This argument is absurd on the face of it. It equates language with citizenship, which I believe is one small step away from equating race with citizenship.

The United States is not a country of English-speakers. Nor has it been historically. As early as the mid-18th century, English-speakers were bitching about all the German being spoken in the colonies. Throughout the early 19th century, the languages of western Europe were spoken throughout the new nation as immigrants flooded from Germany, France, and Ireland (and naturally I am asserting that the Irish don't speak English). Between 1880 and 1920, immigration exploded in the United States. One could walk the street of any large US city and hear dozens of languages spoken every hour. In the Midwest, Norwegian, Swedish, German, and even Czech speakers far outnumbered native-born English speakers. Native-born Anglo Saxon Americans freaked out over this, studied eugenics, organized anti-immigration societies, watched with rhapsody the 1915 film Birth of a Nation (not dealing with immigrants) and then, inspired by the movie, began the Second Ku Klux Klan (very much about immigrants). Whiteness was threatened and Americans responded by closing the doors of the United States to immigrants from Asia and Central and Southern Europe. Immigration restrictions were much less on our southern border because cheap labor was needed so Americans could eat lettuce in January.

Only in the 41 years between 1924 and 1965 did America not have relatively open doors to those who wanted to make a better life here. During the 1970s and 1980s, the nation still seemed white and English-speaking because immigrant numbers had not risen to the present total--if you were in a Dominican neighborhood in New York City maybe, but of course for many of the anti-immigrant crowd, New York is not really America either. But over the last 10 years, the immigrant totals have risen to percentages not seen since the 1920s (though they are still well below them in relation to the total population) and they are making real differences in American life. These differences, including hearing other languages spoken on the street, and even singing the "Star-Spangled Banner" for Christ's sake, are American. Immigration is as much of an American tradition as speaking English, eating food that is chicken-fried, and bitching about the government. We need to welcome these immigrants for what they are--the future of the United States of America. Immigration has caused very little harm in American history and has led to massive amounts of good. It's time people starting thinking about this issue with some actual facts about the meanings of Americanness instead of shooting from the racist hip.

How Stupid Do The Republicans Think Americans Are?

The answer is clearly, quite stupid. Why? See this proposal coming from Republican Senators Ted Stevens (AK), Pete Domenici (NM), Charles Grassley (IA), and Rick Santorum (PA) to give Americans $100 checks for gasoline. What do we have to give up in return? Well, it would just open up ANWR to drilling. That's all.

But the question is--are Americans actually this stupid? Because I'm not sure that we're not. How many people would take the $100 for drilling in ANWR? 50%? Higher?

Tony Snow

It sure is good to see the White House Press Secretary revert back to someone who exudes evil. Fleischer was of course as bad as they come. McClellan seemed like a schmuck. Snow...well, you couldn't ask for a bigger dick to hold the position. Thanks, W. This should be fun.

Concert Review--Tin Hat, Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 23, 2006

I always wanted to see something like this--a jazz band playing to silent film tracks. It's as good as I figured it would be. And this was no ordinary silent film either. Tin Hat, a fairly experimental group featuring Carla Kihlstedt (violin), Mark Orton (guitar, dobro), Ben Goldberg (clarinet, contra-alto clarinet), Ara Anderson (trumpet, pump organ, glockenspiel), and Zeena Parkins (accordion, drums, sound effects), played music written to accompany the Russian animator Ladislaw Starewicz. Starewicz was an entomologist who wanted to make the first documentary on insects. But the camera lights were too strong at the time and killed the insects. So he began experimenting with stop motion animation. He built very realistic models of insects, frogs, and other small creatures and placed them within very human stories.

Tin Hat played to 5 of Starewicz's films and also played a few of their own songs. The films ranged from a pair of married beetles who are both having affairs and get found out to frogs praying to Jupiter for a King and when they complain about the first king, he sends them a stork that eats them all to a ridiculous WWII propaganda piece about how the Germans had overrun the noble and brave Lily of Belgium. The films ranged in time from 1908 to about 1944 and were completely fascinating.

As was the music. It was interesting to have this experience. It was hard because I kept wanting to both watch the films and watch the musicians. I enjoy watching musicians' technique, especially at jazz shows. But ultimately, I let the music be a soundtrack and focused on the great films. Unfortunately, Starewicz's granddaughter controls the rights to his films and she rarely lets them be shown. In fact, when Orton introduced the WWII film, which includes her as a small child in the live action part, he encouraged people to hiss when they saw her, which several people did. Sounds like she's more than a bit unpleasant. Luckily, the show was far more pleasant than she was. If Tin Hat comes through your neighborhood, with or without the Starewicz films, treat yourself and go.

More Movie Reviews--The Ballad of Cable Hogue; Morvern Callar

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

1. No one could ever quite create a complex, well-rounded female character like Sam Peckinpah. The way that most of the first shots of Stella Stevens were of her breasts really reflects his feminist nature.

2. The attempts at "comedy" are questionable to say the least. I suppose that to speed up the camera when things are supposed to be funny could theoretically be a good technique. But I doubt it. Peckinpah sure was having fun with new film gadgets though. Speeding up the characters' movements during the comedic scenes. Split screen too. He was really getting off on that.

3. Jason Robards is solid in every movie that I've seen with him. What a great and underrated actor.

4. Did L.Q. Jones and Strother Martin ever play anything but buffoons? They're really good at it so I hardly blame directors for casting them this way.

5. Stella Stevens fell in love with Robards why? Given the centrality of this to the plot, some sort of thought into why it happens would have been a good idea.

6. This is a pretty solid movie overall, despite my complaints. But I really hated the end. Robards dying under the wheels of modernity (literally) was so obvious. Yes, Sam, we all know you hate the modern age.


Morvern Callar (2002)

1. What the hell was this about? It's not that it was bad exactly and I don't mind movies where people sort of drift around discovering themselves. But this was a little too much.

2. But at least there wasn't a lot of dialogue. Because I couldn't fucking understand those Scottish accents. Is it asking too much to provide subtitles? On a DVD, this seems like a reasonable option. I probably understooc about 40% of what was said.

3. No one can accuse Samantha Morton of not internalizing her roles. Even though I didn't like this movie, I definitely respected her work in it.

Jerking-Off Hogs, or, I Hope You Enjoyed Your Bacon This Morning

The quality of Harper's has declined precipitously over the past few years, perhaps culminating in last month's atrocious article pushing the theory that HIV does not cause AIDS. I am almost certainly not going to renew my subscription. But every now and then, they still manage to publish a really great piece. Such is Nathanael Johnson's "Swine of the Times: The Making of the Modern Pig," in the May issue. I will say that as a vegetarian, I am greatly enjoying telling everyone I know about the beginning of Johnson's article, when he describes people who have the less than enviable job of jerking off pigs for artifical insemination. Yummy!

The real point of the article is to show how the nation's biggest hog farmers are turning the pork industry into the chicken industry--mass production, no respect for the animals, uniformity in product, breeding to the point that the animals cannot survive in the wild, etc. Artificial insemination, and the human labor that goes into it, is just one (particularly visceral) cog in this industrial machine.

There has been no shortage in writing over the past decade on industrialized agriculture. The most known of this literature is Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, which all should read. I don't have a lot to add to this debate, but I do have a couple of points I think are worth making.

First, even though I am a vegetarian, I don't have a problem with people eating meat. If that's what they want to do, that is there choice. I wish they wouldn't, and if publicizing stories of people jerking off pigs helps them stop, great. But if people do choose to eat meat, they should at least be aware of the process that gets it from animal to you. In the modern economy, that process is not pretty. Your pork doesn't just appear packaged neatly in your grocery store. It goes through some very disturbing industrial processes to get there. Reading Johnson, Schlosser, and other writers of America's meat culture should be required for anyone wanting to eat meat.

Second, what I don't understand is why people strive for uniformity in product. Do we really want uniform food? Do we want pigs produced under inhumane, industrialized conditions just so that every ham tastes the same? I don't eat ham so I guess I don't know--but do you all really want every ham to taste exactly the same? Is that a goal of food-buying. I know that I don't want food to be uniform. I like the fact that the varieties of apples in stores has expanded so much over the past 10 years. When I was growing up it was Red Delicious, Gold Delicious, and maybe Granny Smith. All of these varieties basically suck and were chosen for mass marketing because they look good, resist bruising, and have long shelf lives. We sacrificed taste for uniformity. Today, even in just a standard grocery store and certainly in stores like Wild Oats or Whole Paycheck, you can choose between maybe 6-8 varieties. At the co-op here in Albuquerque they sometimes get really funky versions of apples. It's cool, tasty, and when you are trying a new variety, exciting. An apple doesn't taste like something--different apples taste differently. This same process of rejecting uniformity and expanding choice for consumers has overtaken other fruits and vegetables over the past decade, especially lettuce and tropical fruits.
So why then, is the meat industry pushing for more and more uniformity? Does this kind of processing really produce a better tasting piece of pork? Or would you rather have a little adventure with your meat, knowing that slight differences of taste will happen with pigs from different parts of the country, eating different things, and living as pigs are meant to live? The answer sure seems obvious to me.

Movie Review--The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

1. No matter how many times I see this movie, I continue to be amazed that it got made in 1951.

2. Were the McCarthyites and fear-struck Hollywood leaders so stupid as to not see this movie as a direct attack upon the post-war world, particularly the United States? The answer must be yes.

3. I would have liked to see the movie end with Gort destroying the world.

4. The guy playing Gort definitely deserves the Pagoda Award, named after the character from The Royal Tenebaums. When I saw that movie, someone who was watching with me declared that the guy playing Pagoda definitely deserved an Academy Award for creating such a multifaceted character. I thought this was an excellent idea. So here's to the guy who played Gort, who gets the first Pagoda Retrospective Award, for those underappreciated characters from the past.

Idiotic Gas-Related Comment of the Day

Now I promise you, this isn't as crazy as the last e-mail to CNN on gasoline prices I posted. But this is still pretty dumb:

"The United States has to decentralize business districts so people are not all rushing in the same direction each day. When DOD decided to move many offices out of Crystal City (near Pentagon) that was a good start. Now we, as a country, need to reduce the transaction costs of buying and selling a home, so that people can afford to move closer to their work easily. It is plain idiotic that real estate agents are making 6 percent commissions on homes that sell in days."

Jen Keller, Silver Springs, Maryland

What a great idea! The best way to deal with high gas prices is to promote more sprawl and suburbanization. People so clearly want to live near where they work (such as the people who every day commute the 100+ miles from South Carolina to Atlanta) that this is bound to solve all our problems!

I wonder if this person has thought about selling that suburban monstrosity and moving back into Washington or wherever her work currently is located. Probably not. Might be black people around.

Quicky Movie Reviews

I watch a lot of movies but I rarely review them because I want to say a lot, I don't have a lot of time for extra posts, and I'm lazy. So I'm going to try an experiment. I'm going to review movies with just a few short comments. So here's the last three movies I've watched.

This Gun For Hire (1942)

1. Veronica Lake in a skin-tight leather suit is a good thing.

2. I think the director and producers of the movie had many meetings coming up with ways to show off Lake's breasts. The best was her taking an aquarium and moving it back and forth across them. Awesome.

3. Alan Ladd was fine in this movie but it's hard to take a man seriously who is best known for a role where he spent the whole movie wearing a buckskin outfit with fringe (Shane). Maybe it's bitterness over that character providing my middle name.

The Decline of the American Empire (1986)

1. I liked this movie a lot. Especially for a movie where the entire dialogue is about sex. There is really something appealing about a really smart movie about sex. This is that movie.

2. It always rankles me though when directors cast characters as history professors. It's just never quite right. Even 20 years ago, the historian parts of the movie are just a little weird. I guess it's too close for comfort.

3. What's the deal with commentators bitching so much about how this movie and The Barbarian Invasions, it's sequel, were anti-American? Did these critics even watch these movies?

4. God, 80s fashions were awful. There is this beautiful woman in the movie. But then she puts on these gigantic glasses with green frames. Who thought this was a good idea? I'm really glad I was a kid in the 80s and so was able to avoid the worst of these fashions.

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

1. My God! An independent movie that isn't full of shit! I didn't know such things existed anymore!

2. I wonder if Miranda July is as weird in real life as in the movie. Somehow I think the answer is yes.

3. The scene where the guy and Miranda July are walking down the street and are talking about how the end of the block represents their relationship is really pretty hot.