Mister Trend's Random 10

Yes, I know it's only Tuesday. However, I travel to Brasília on Thursday to spend a week with my wife's family for Christmas, and will be internet free. Plus, tomorrow is a re-evaluation of my "Best of 2006", and Thursday is my "Best of 2007", so here is my random 10 for this week

This week's 7th song is by a member of the Wu-Tang Clan, and reveals one of the little-known secrets about me. By and large, I'm not a huge hip-hop fan, yet I love a lot of the stuff by the Wu-Tang and its members. The Clan's albums are phenomenal, but the solo albums are hit or miss, based largely on whether Clan-member and producer RZA is producing it (the one exception to this being Inspectah Deck's Uncontrolled Substance). The first round of Wu-Tang members' solo albums (Raekwon, Ghostface Killa, Method Man, and GZA) are top notch, with RZA behind the production of them all, but GZA's Liquid Swords is far and away the best of the batch. His rhyme and rap-skills are unrivaled, and the RZA's tight production (often putting a 2-bar drum-beat on loop and adding creepy atmospherics and kung-fu movie samples) is at its peak on this album. Also, to me at least, a lot of hip-hop delivery depends on the tone of the performer's voice, and there's nobody's delivery and voice I enjoy more than Genius/GZA's.

1. "Mr. Syms" - John Coltrane
2. "Me & My Head" - Quasi
3. "Listen, the Snow Is Falling" - Galaxie 500
4. "Vette" - Django Reinhardt
5. "I'm Nuts About That Gal" - Lonnie Johnson
6. "The Time of Times" - Badly Drawn Boy
7. "Liquid Swords" - Genius/GZA
8. "Low Down Loving Gal" - Blind Blake
9. "Cochinando" - Abel Ferreira
10. "Skoodle Do Do" - Big Bill Broonzy

Santa Shot At in Rio

I still haven't made up my mind over whether this is kind of amusing or really sad (though I do take issue with the story's description of Rio as "the violent Brazilian city of Rio" - Rio has neither a monopoly on violence, nor is violence the first thing that characterizes the city as a whole). Apparently, a helicopter flying an actor dressed up as Santa to a favela in the North Zone was shot at by people in another favela, who mistook the helicopter for a police chopper. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and Santa still made it to the children's party by car. Still, it's a rather bizarre story that says a lot about how police and favelas interact.

Lady in the Red Chador

Iran may be allowing the first western singer to perform in the country since 1979. The singer: Chris De Burgh, singer of "Lady in Red." Why De Burgh? Well, according to this story, bootlegged copies of De Burgh's music were smuggled into Iran during the 1980s. He and his music were seen as somewhat "revolutionary."

Of course, for young Iranians in the 1980s, any western culture had a seriously subversive element to it. But De Burgh? Really? Fascinating how important contact with the outside world is for isolated people, even when the outside world might see those particular contacts as really crappy.

Craft vs. Industrial Unionism

The impending return to the air of Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien without their writers demonstrates the inherent problem with craft unionism. Although there has been good solidarity among Hollywood workers, there are also a ton of working people without a stake in this strike who are suffering. Not the big actors or celebrities of course, but the middle-class people who work hard for a living and can't handle several months without a paycheck. The late-night hosts have done a good job of keeping their employees on salary, but you can't do that for months on end without receiving some kind of salary of your own. Even millionaries feel it when they pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars a week.

Hollywood is still on the old craft-union system. Rather than an entertainment-wide union fighting for the rights of all workers, it is made up of a maze of individual organizations. When one goes on strike, everyone suffers. But not everyone gains when the strike is won.

This reminds me of the decades before the CIO's founding in 1935 when the American Federation of Labor ruled the national labor movement. Not only did the AFL refuse to organize blacks, women, children, immigrants, or most industrial laborers, they split everyone up into crafts rather organizing them around industry. Thus the pipefitters in a steel mill might go out on strike. But the rest of the steel mill would either continue to work or be unemployed for no reason. This was such an ineffective organizing method that the CIO formed to revolutionize labor, which it did during the next two decades. Unfortunately, the CIO could never break the AFL's back and the two organizations combined in 1955. More relevant to the topic of this post, the CIO's failure meant that a lot of industries remained organized on craft lines, thus helping to set the stage for the writers' exploitation by entertainment executives and the situation where shows are returning to work, even without their writers.

On the other hand, there is some talk of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert making temporary agreements with the Writers' Guild to allow those writers to return to work. If they gave the writers a good deal, they might force the industry to crack. That would be good. Maybe they could help create a positive end to the strike.

Bali

I was out of town for most of the Bali talks so I couldn't comment as they were happening. But I see that lots of smart people are optimistic coming out of them. Kate Sheppard argues that "the rest of the world proved this weekend that they aren't going to let the U.S. stand in the way any longer." Tom Athanasiou states, "So it's with great relief that I'm able to say that, judging at least by Bali, the game has indeed changed -- except, of course, for the United States." John Quiggin goes so far as to say, "The outcome of the international climate talks in Bali has been a huge win for the planet."


I'm not disagreeing with any of this per se. But I think it was a step and little more. Everyone knows that nothing will be done until Bush leaves office. The rest of the world showed some willingness to leave the United States behind. This is all good. But nothing binding came out of the conference. China is supposed to pursue emissions-cutting actions. Does anyone really believe they will? There is an agreement in principle that emissions should be cut in half by 2050. That would be awesome. What happens when the nations sit down and decide how that is going to happen? If there are technological solutions that will drastically cut emissions, maybe such a goal is possible. What if those technological solutions don't make up for continued growth by India, China, Brazil, and the rest of the developing world? Who will make the necessary sacrifices?


I have little belief that American consumers will, that's for sure. Take for example Andrew Martin's Times article on the rising price of American food because of biofuels. My God, someone at Whole Foods actually had to use a coupon! How low-class!!! And the price of Rogue beer threatens to go even higher, all the way to the point that only the wealthiest 1% will be able to enjoy it, instead of the top 2% who can now. Now, there's no question that ethanol has its problems. It is most certainly not the solution for either climate change or the U.S. energy supply. But more importantly for my point, at the slightest hint of a drop in the standard of living, we throw a fit. The sacrifices necessary to battle climate change will make slightly higher food prices look as bad as hitting all red lights on the way to work.


The Bali talks were definitely a good thing, even without American cooperation. But I remain skeptical as to whether humanity will take the necessary actions to fight climate change in an even rudimentary way. Still, even I have become ever so slightly less pessimistic after last week.

Historical Image of the Day

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.

No doubt they are talking about how much they love bunnies and flowers.

Mexico's Country Music Stars Incresing Targets of Murders

For entirely unclear and confounding reasons, Mexico's country music (grupero) stars are being murdered at an alarming rate. Already as many as 13 have been killed this year, and they aren't even little-known performers. The most recent murder of Sergio Gomez on December 2 (in which his body was found with burn marks from torture and then killed with plastic wire) was a member of K-Paz, one of Mexico's more popular grupero groups. In another case, a failed attempt on the life of Zayda Pena Arjona led to her hospitalization, where the following day hitmen still entered the hospital and killed her with two shots to the head.

Official explanations are sparse, and the authorities are really puzzled on this. The lyrics of the dead may have had some cause, as many of them sang narcocorridos, or songs about the drug trade (not always in a bad way). Officials suspect the lyrics here and there may have angered some drug lords, yet Gomez, whose group K-Paz doesn't really have many such songs, has confused authorities further. Besides the lyrical content, the only possible suspicions autorities have on the issue is the possibility that some of these musicians were tied to organized crime (knowingly or unknowingly). However, there is absolutely nothing concrete to point to any of this - it is all just suspicion, making the cases even more bizarre and difficult to understand or solve.

What is really frustrating in all this is the blatant open war on one of Mexico's major cultural forms. Grupero music is part of the rich legacy and tradition of Norteño music in Mexico, expressing love and murder in ways not totally unlike early murder-ballads and country and blues music of the early 20th century. It isn't just terrible that a particularly rich expression of Mexican culture is under attack. Other artists, grupero or not, are now increasingly afraid to play in Northern Mexico, fearing an attack themselves. While this certainly won't end all musical production or performance in Mexico, the clear war that drug dealers or others are now launching against Mexican culture is extremely distressing, and the inability of the police and authorities to even begin to figure out where to start doesn't bode well for Mexican musicians in the near future.

Big 12 Foolishness

If I were a fan of Big 12 football, I'd be really ecstatic about the coaching hires of my rivals Nebraska and Texas A&M. Both are classic examples of how not to hire a coach.

Nebraska hired Bo Pelini to replace Bill Callahan. The reason--Pelini is a Nebraska guy. Great. Does that mean anything in terms of ability to win? No. Admittedly, Bill Callahan was a disaster. But people didn't like him anyway because he's not one of them. He ended the walk-on progam. He didn't do the good ol'boy thing. And my God, he passed the football! Again, he is a bad coach and deserved to be fired. But the hiring of Tom Osborne as athletic director means that Nebraska fans care more about doing things their way instead of winning. The only coaches they even considered were Pelini and Turner Gill, another Nebraska guy.

While Pelini could turn out to be a great hire, my guess is that Nebraska is going to struggle for a long time. Nebraska fans are living in the 1980s, when a few teams dominated college football. Those days are over. Nebraska faces an unfortunate geographical disadvantage for recruiting since Nebraska is far from a hot spot. They used to go into Texas all the time and get their great players, but that's not so easy anymore. If they return to conservative offenses and doing things "The Nebraska Way," they could well find themselves again searching for a new coach in 4 years.

There was an obvious choice for Nebraska. That is Dennis Erickson. Sure he's only been at Arizona St. for a year, but he'll always leave for the big money. His style perfectly fits the personnel that Callahan has recruited. He'll only stay for a few years, but by that time, Nebraska will be really good again and they could go and get the truly great coach.

But no, they'd rather have someone who makes them feel like Nebraska.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M, always desperate to compete with Texas, hired former Packers coach Mike Sherman. Why? What do they possibly expect to accomplish with this move? He hasn't been in college football for a decade. Failed NFL coaches do not make good college coaches, with few exceptions. Callahan? Chan Gailey? Not good. The exception is Pete Carroll, but he failed in the NFL because he was a college guy and that didn't translate to the NFL.

So if was a fan of Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas St., Missouri, or any other top Big 12 team, I'm real happy today and I'm laughing at Nebraska and A&M. Luckily though, I'm not a Big 12 fan. Rather, I know the Pac-10 is where it's at.

John C. Breckinridge

John C. Breckinridge is one of the most loathesome people in American history, summed up very well here. The presidential nominee of the southern Democrats in 1860, Breckinridge played no small part in destroying the Union. Plus, when in Lexington, Kentucky last year I couldn't find his grave, which made his perfidy personal.

In a recent discussion with frequent commenter "Murderface," I come to find out that he is a direct descendant of Breckinridge. He pointed out to me this New York Times editorial from December 7, 1863, after Breckinridge was believed to have been killed fighting for the Confederacy.

The Times was somewhat less than charitable to Breckinridge. The editorial begins, "If it be true, as is now positively declared, that a loyal bullet has sent this traitor to eternity, every loyal heart will feel satisfaction and will not scruple to express it.

It goes on to discuss Breckinridge's disgusting behavior in 1860 and then ends this way:

"We know that it is not easy to draw distinctions between the shades of this black treason against the Union. Yet we can recognize that some sort of charity may be given to a man as Stonewall Jackson, who bred to the doctrine of paramount State sovereignty, and conscientiously believed that it was his duty to obey the decision of his State expressed through constitutional forms. But no such extenuating plea can be advanced for John C. Breckinridge. In one of his last speeches in the Senate, he declared that he was a son of Kentucky, and would follow her destiny. And yet, in spite of the fact that Kentucky, within a week afterward declared, by a majority of sixty thousand votes at the polls, that she would not go out of the Union, he went home and issued a manifesto, declaring that "there is no longer a Senate of the United States within the meaning and spirit of the Constitution; the United States no longer exist; the Union is dissolved;" and that he was now about to "exchange, with proud satisfaction, a term of six years in the Senate of the United States for the musket of a soldier." The declared intention he made good by soon afterward rallying his friends at Russellville, where a resolution was passed, in so many words, bidding "defiance both to the Federal and State Governments," and delegates were appointed to the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy. Breckinridge was soon afterward as thoroughly identified with the rebels as Jeff. Davis himself; though in doing it he had to turn his back, not only upon the Union, but upon his own State, whose destiny he had solemnly protested that he would follow. Of all the accursed traitors of the land there has been none more heinously false than he -- none whose memory will live in darker ignominy. God grant the country a speedy deliverance of all such parricides.

Awesome.

Historical Image of the Day

Statue of James Buchanan, the worst president in American history. This staute is in Washington's Meridian Hill Park. It is also the #1 thing on my agenda when I go to Washington again in a few weeks. Wow.

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 16

Finally, the last of the 16 question Test 3 from the U.S. Army Mental Tests, given to recruits during World War I. I hope you have enjoyed the absurd subjectivity of these questions as much as I have. Remember that when Italian and Greek immigrants didn't know about American patent law, it wasn't because American patent law wasn't relevant to their lives, it was because Italians and Greek are racially inferior to Anglo-Saxons.

16. Why is it colder nearer the poles than near the equator? Because


A. the poles are always farther from the sun
B. the sunshine falls obliquely at the poles
C. there is more ice at the poles

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 15

15. If the earth were nearer the sun


A. the stars would disappear
B. our months would be longer
C. the earth would be warmer

Erik's Random 10

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the canon and classical music. While there may be a reason for a canon for music that has gone back hundreds of years, I am deeply concerned over the canonization of jazz music. The fate of people like Lester Young is the reason why. While the canonizers, such as Wynton Marsalis and the writers for the New York Times, love Young, does he make the cut? While Marsalis and the Times have a different agenda for canonization, the project is accepted by the American public because they don't want to have to think about their music and they want to know what to buy. Thus they are looking for a few great people they can impress their friends with. In classical music, that is Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart above all else. In jazz, it is the old female singers, Miles, Coltrane, Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Lester Young is not forgotten about today, but if someone is talking to you about Young, you know they are a big jazz fan. Lester Young is not someone you bring up in polite conversation because you can safely assume that the other people don't know who he is, or at least have no sense of his music even if they have heard of him. Occasionally, you might be wrong, but then it is 2 people excluding a group of others whose jazz collection goes no further than "The Romantic Miles Davis."



1. Lester Young, All of Me
2. Bonnie Prince Billy, Careless Love
3. Mississippi John Hurt, If You Don't Want Me Baby
4. Cat Power, Colors and the Kids
5. Gillian Welch, Annabelle
6. Chris Knight, Summer of '75
7. Malo/Flynn/Ickes/Pomeroy, (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
8. Loudon Wainwright III, The Untitled
9. Catherine Irwin, My Old Unlucky Home Far Away
10. John Zorn/Masada, Bikkurim

Lyrad's Random 10

As early as recorded music existed in Germany, so did the tango. The style reached great popularity before WWI through Latin artists, but soon German bandleaders (who were likely previously only working with polka) began adapting the music for more German sensibilities. Much of it, as a result, comes across as much polka as tango and, with much of the Latin influence absent, feels very flat. This is not always the case, as evidenced with the album, "Ghetto Tango," that this first track comes from. The recordings are current, but Cooper and Mlotek have dug up and re-recorded a fantastic sampling of tangos from the Jewish theater just previous to and during WWII. Mainly recorded with small orchestras or unaccomanied, the songs display an emotional range (undoubtedly due to the duress they were under) that much of the genre could not touch. While I'm not the biggest fan of show tunes in general, and this most assuredly is that, many of the lyrics here are chilling displays of the lives they lived.

1. Adrienne Cooper & Zalman Mlotek--Fun der Arbet
2. Nirvana--Marigold
3. Guy Klucevsek--Road Runner
4. Virgin Prunes--Pagan Love Song
5. Miles Davis--Bitches Brew
6. Booker T. Laury--You Can Go Your Way
7. Dokken--Breaking the Chains
8. Teddy Wilson--As Time Goes By
9. Mr. Bungle--Retrovertigo
10. Masada Chamber Ensemble--Shamor

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 14

14. Why are high mountains covered with snow? Because

A. they are near the clouds
B. the sun seldom shines upon them
C. the air is cold there

Historical Image of the Day

African boys captured for slave trade

Mister Trend's Random 10

Of all the things blues music does, directly and openly addressing current political affairs hasn't ever really been one of them (though certainly hundreds if not thousands of songs have used metaphor and vague allusions to address such matters). J.B. Lenoir is one of the few exceptions I know of. He was never afraid to openly (rather than subtly, like many blues artists did) cite political factors for social and economic problems in the world (such as his "Eisenhower Blues"). And he is the only bluesman (that I know of) who openly addressed issues of the 60s such as racism, the Civil Rights movement, and the escalation in Vietnam blatantly, be it in "Shot on James Meredith," or "Vietnam," or this week's seventh song, "Vietnam Blues". His playing and singing styles are unique themselves (his voice can easily be confused for a woman's), but to me it's his effort to use the blues to openly deal with these issues that makes him one of the standout bluesmen in the 1960s.

1. "General" - Jorge Cafrune
2. "Herculean" - The Good, The Bad & The Queen
3. "O Homem Falou" - Maria Rita
4. "Drei Phantasion nach FriedrichHordelin - Three phantaseis after Holderlin: II. Wenn aus der Ferne" - Gyorgi Ligeti
5. "I Dream a Highway" - Gillian Welch
6. "Meu Glorioso São Cristovão" - Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben
7. "Vietnam Blues" - J.B. Lenoir
8. "Easy" - PJ Harvey
9. "Martha" - Tom Waits
10. "Die Sweite Heimat" - μ-Ziq

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 13

13. Freezing water bursts pipes because

A. cold makes the pipes weaker
B. water expands when it freezes
C. the ice stops the flow of water

Historical Image of the Day

Cartoon attacking John Muir's opposition to the Hetch Hetchy Dam in Yosemite National Park, date unknown but probably in the early to mid 1900s

RIP - Ike Turner

Let's get one thing clear, here - Ike Turner's death is a very real loss. Before all else, and after all else, there will always be the music. Ike Turner was a great musician and incredible songwriter. From his work in the early-1950s to his work with Tina Turner, to his most recent work (a very good guest-appearance on Gorillaz's Demon Days, and his 2006 album Risin' With the Blues), he was remarkable. Unfortunately, since 1993's What's Love Got to Do With It, that's been all but forgotten. He's just remembered for the abuse, and when people talk about the work of Ike and Tina in the 1960s, the emphasis is always on Tina's voice, and never on the songs, which were as killer as her voice.

This is in no way an apologia for spousal abuse. Should we just forget he was abusive and made bad mistakes? No. Spousal abuse is despicable, period, and he should be rightfully criticized on that front. But that doesn't make his music any less good. If you don't want to listen to it on ideological reasons, fine, but what he did in his home doesn't detract from his music anymore than the fact that Miles Davis openly admitted to beating and terrifying Cicely Tyson detracts from his music. And it seems a bit fair that we can forgive some (such as Davis) and chastize Turner so harshly. So with his passing yesterday, try not just to remember that he hit Tina Turner (the first thing the AP obit mentions). Remember his music, too, and how solid and great it was.

...UPDATE - as with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Allmusic has a great obituary on Turner here.

Peru's Alberto Fujimori Guilty on Lesser Charges

Yesterday, a Peruvian court found Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori guilty of abuse of authority when he ordered an illegal search of an apartment without a warrant in 2000. The judge could have given him a lesser sentence, but instead chose to sentence Fujimori to 6 years in jail, at least part of which he will have to serve.

It's good to see him going to jail on at least this charge, but the big charges are still waiting. Just this week, Fujimori's trial on the more severe human rights based on murder and disappearance during Peru's struggle with the Maoist Shining Path rebel group in the Andean highlands in the 1990s. Fujimori stands up to 30 years jailtime if he is found guilty in this case. Additionally, as the NYT points out, from an historical standpoint, the trial could be important in revealing evidence about the Grupo Colina paramilitary death squads that operated in the country, allegedly with government support.

While the details of the massacres the Grupo Colina committed are well known, and it's no secret that Vladimir Montesinos was in charge of the Grupo Colina even while head of Peru's intelligence service during Fujimori's administration, Fujimori has remained defiant that he knew nothing. Also, as in Colombia with the AUC, there hasn't been much to date that directly connects Fujimori to Grupo Colina (and, like Uribe, Fujimori insists that, if any crimes were committed, he had no knowledge of them, nor did he participate in the decisions and orders that led to further violence). However, the trial could begin to reveal just how close Colina and the Fujimori government were connected, which will be an important step in reconciling the violence and human rights abuses (on both sides) during the Shining Path era and will hopefully reduce the current narrative popular among many of Fujimori's supporters that he "rescued" Peru from financial troubles.

Brazil's CPMF Tax Goes Down

This morning, Brazil's Senate voted down the CPMF tax by a vote of 45 in favor of maintaining the tax, and 34 against keeping it (the tax would have needed a 2/3 majority, or 49 of the 79 senate votes). The CPMF (Contribuição Provisório a Movimentação ou Transmissão de Valores de Créditos e Direitos de Natureza Finança - Brazilian acronyms don't always totally match with their full names) was basically a tax waged on those who had bank accounts. Every time you paid bills online or did major withdrawals or deposits on your bank account, there was a .38% tax levied (originally the rate was .25%, but former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso gradually raised it to its current level of .38% in 2001). Because only the middle-middle to upper classes in Brazil have bank accounts (due to multiple economic and social factors), this tax really affected the wealthiest sectors of Brazil.

The failure means a couple of things. First, the opposition has celebrated this as a major victory, and it is a blow to Lula's administration (though nowhere near the "worst defeat Lula has ever suffered" and revealed a major popular refutation of his policies, which is what one member of the opposition declared. Losing a 2/3 majority by only 4 votes hardly constitutes a major refutation of his policies.) Additionally, as I mentioned in passing before, it really shows how despicably contrarian oppositional politics in Brazil are sometimes. The bill was defeated by the PSDB-Democrata right-wing political alliance, the same parties that voted for the bill's permanence in 1997 when Fernando Henrique Cardoso, of the PSDB, was president, and the tax continued to be passed during his administration. Yet the moment it came up for renewal (until 2011 in theory) under Lula, the opposition condemned the tax as one of the worst things to ever happen to "honest" (read: white and wealthy) Brazilians. Finally, there is the policy impact. The CPMF wasn't a useless tax - it played a major role in providing funds to social programs like Brazil's health care system and the Bolsa Familia, which helps families with less than the minimum income (which in Brazil is about $200/month). In seeking its renewal, Lula had pledged that all of the money would go to Brazil's health care (and most of it had already gone to health care). With this vote, the right-wing opposition, in what is in no way surprising yet still frustrating, basically said "to hell with the poor and disadvantaged in Brazil, and to hell with a funcitoning health care system".

This doesn't totally mean these programs will now disappear. Just because one form of taxation has disappeared doesn't mean others won't pop up, and already the Folha de São Paulo (incidentally, a much better example of good journalism without nearly the classism and Lula-hatred of O Globo) is already pointing out that other taxes can and will probably surface to replace the CPMF. However, the vote will also probably force Lula to reduce Brazil's budget surplus to continue to try to address the issues of social and economic inequality in Brazil.

Finally, in the area of a more personal gripe, there is the issue of the PSOL (Partido de Socialismo e Liberdade). The Party claims to be from the left and to want to fight for equality amongst all Brazilians. Its claims appear leftist on the surface, but it has been clear since the party's foundation earlier this decade that there are no pretenses to issues of social equality in every aspect, as it repeatedly and adamantly refuses to even consider basic women's rights such as abortion. The strongest claims they could make to seeking "equality" were generally on economic grounds (better distribution of wealth, combat rural poverty, improve minimum wage, etc.). However, even those claims are now in doubt. The one senator from PSOL, João Nery, voted against the tax, in effect saying that he was not interested in approving a tax that actually taxed the wealthier in an effort to help the Brazilian poor and try to reduce the numerous social and economic equalities in Brazil. I have ideologically had more problems withe PSOL than the PSDB for a couple of years - at least I knew the PSDB wasn't even going to pretend to try to really work on issues like social equality, preferring neoliberalism and openly favoring "private initiative" (and subsequently blaming the poor for their conditions) instead. But any mild shred of respect for PSOL I may have had has basically disappeared. While it is possible, I find it extremely unlikely that Nery was bucking party policy behind closed doors on this one (as it was only founded in 2003, PSOL is still very much the party of its leader, Heloísa Helena, a presidential candidate last year, and her followers). Once again, despite its protestations to represent the "uncorrupt" left, the PSOL did everything to try to help the PSDB-Democratas right-wing alliance, as it has done many times before. Nery's vote today just goes to show that the PSOL, despite its superficial appearance and insistence otherwise, is no less than a mockery and affront to all parties and people actually interested in social and economic justice.

NFL 2007 Week 14: NFC Edition

NFC EAST: The Cowboys spent 45 minutes getting their asses kicked all over the field and then spent fifteen cleaning up their mess. I wasn’t sure how this game was going to go before it happened. On the one hand, you have the Cowboys. God’s team, to be sure, but they were at Detroit so God couldn’t watch (because the tops of domes are clearly as lead is to Superman). On the other is John Kitna, who sits at the right hand of Jesus. Who could possibly lose? Looks like heaven wound up playing both sides for a couple of fools. In the end, the coin toss went to Dallas and he granted the dual miracles of a win and fifteen catches for Jason Witten. The Giants are bound and determined to be somebody’s whipping boy in the first round of the playoffs. No matter how badly they play, their opponents always do worse. As a result, the Eagles, who I still believe are the second most talented team in the division, now fall alone into last. While they won’t wind up with one of the very worst records, they’re going to have a high draft pick and should come back even better, although their dissatisfaction with McNabb may also ruin them. The Redskins may have won the battle against the Bears on Thursday, they lost the war with the season. Campbell was just starting to look competent before going down hard. They weren’t looking at the playoffs before, but they’re going to have to struggle with Todd Collins fronting them. As an added note, I found this strange blog, which seems to be somebody impersonating an extremely egomaniacal Todd Collins. Anyway, it’s more fun than watching the Redskins actually play. Plus, the guy, who may actually be Todd Collins (or TC, as he calls himself), has been posting this way for over a year.

NFC NORTH: Favre jumped right back on the cheese wagon for another great game. I can’t be to upset, since he destroyed the Raiders, but there’s only one way that a man that old gets up from injury the next week to play so well. That way is painkillers. It’s true, he’s off the Vics; my guess is a morphine drip on the sidelines. See that big smile after the game? That’s the smile of a junkie who just got a fix. Four straight wins have turned what started as a woeful season into a real shot at the playoffs for the Vikings. The two-headed monster of Peterson and Taylor really makes up for Tavarius Jackson’s failings, and even he’s been some skills the last few weeks. If they can keep playing like they did against the Niners, they could go deep into the postseason. I wonder if Kitna has considered other religions. It seems that Jesus was just jerking him around for a few weeks, because he hasn’t seen any miracles in a while. There are a lot of gods in the Hindu faith, maybe one of them is still without a favorite football team. The Bears let Todd Collins score 24 points against them. That’s one hell of a defense. Boy…scary….

NFC SOUTH: The Buccaneers were hoping to be like their NFC brothers and clinch their division, but were embarrassed by the Texans. Houston’s turned into a good team, with a record that doesn’t give them enough credit for their tough division, but if Tampa is really a division winner, they shouldn’t have had a problem. If the Saints come back to take the division after the start they had, the Bucs should just quit the league. Brees is doing well, and the running game should benefit from the lack of Reggie Bush. A hundred yard game from Aaron Stecker was surprising to say the least, but what must have been a shock to New Orleans fans was the fact that Stecker was running toward the endzone and not parallel to it. The Panthers got smashed by the Jaguars, who are the best team right now not leading a division (and a lot better than some that are) and ruined any chances at the postseason they might have had. Seriously, one would have to think that any other quarterback could be doing just as well as Testaverde. Thirteen completions for 84 yards is not professional play and, hopefully, they won’t rest their few wins on Vinnie’s shoulders; he had nothing to do with it. Just when it seemed that things couldn’t get worse for Atlanta, Bobby Petrino quits to coach at Arkansas, likely taking the majority of the coaching staff with him. This is my chance. I may not be able to be head coach, which has already been filled, but I could be offensive coordinator and run my patented 1935 style offense. Fullback runs all the way down.

NFC WEST: It’s easy to clinch when you lead the worst division in football. The Seahawks and their marginal play are helped week after week by all their competitors’ losses. Doubling up Arizona is the perfect way to clinch the division, but I predict they’ll be going down to the Vikings in the first round. In four weeks, they won’t have the rest of their division to rely on for sucking. Like many years, Arizona has seemed so strong at times but, when it counts, they seem to fear the playoffs. They were slaughtered in every way and, with their two elite receivers out, they are going to have a hard time making this deficit up. Though the Rams started out 0-8, they have managed to take the race for net points from the Niners. Alex Smith is officially out for the season, and we all know how good Dilfer is at putting points up, so the race should be officially lost for them.

Historical Image of the Day

Eugenicist poster, early 20th century

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 12

12. Why do inventors patent their inventions? Because



A. it gives them control of their inventions

B. it creates a greater demand

C. it is the custom to get patents

More on Jails and Police Impunity in Brazil

I wrote about this a few weeks ago, but the NY Times has finally gotten around to putting up an article that actually has some extra info not available the first time the story made its way into the North American media. For those who missed this the first time around, a 15-year-old girl was accused of petty theft, and ended up in a prison with grown men, where for almost 4 weeks, she was tortured and raped, sometimes in exchange for food, sometimes for no reason, by her male cellmates. Police not only ignored her screams for help, they shaved her head to make her look like a boy and now, in one of the worst "defenses" for any event ever, are saying it's not their fault because she has lied about being only 13.

I've written often about the horrible police system that employs murder and torture with impunity in Brazil often, but usually in the context of favelas in Rio (see here, here, and here, for example). However, it should be clear that the problem with police in Brazil is not a Rio-only or favela-only issue. They have employed torture against prisoners (particularly the darker-skinned and poorer) since at least the late-19th century (and that doesn't include slavery, which was only abolished in 1888 but which has undoubtedly had a direct social role on the presence of torture to this date). Prisoners' rights are thrown out the window in a double-standard system in which the wealthy and well-off can serve their time without ever actually going to jail (and that's only IF they are brought to trial, which in itself is extremeley rare) while the poor languish in overcrowded prisons, subject to gang violence, police violence, torture, and inhumane conditions.

And the police continue to act with impunity across the country. In this particular case, the girl and her family have been forced to relocate under a federal witness protection agency due to death threats they have received from the police, who have threatened to kill members of her family if the family doesn't "admit" the girl is 19 or 20. Indeed, when the story first broke, her father said he was told he would be killed if he didn't get the document "proving" her age to be 19 or 20, to which he said (via the media), "How can I give them a document that doesn't exist?" And the worst part in all of this is, while I have no doubt the federal government is sincere in its concern over this case and its broader implications for Brazil's prison system, the atrocities are so deep and so long-standing and institutionalized that I just really don't see any changes coming in a long time, if ever.

Historical Image of the Day

First Central School, Seattle, circa 1870s

NFL 2007 Week 14: AFC Edition

AFC EAST: The last real hope for the Patriots to lose a game was dashed in their rout of the Steelers on Sunday. The Steelers were playing up and the Pats were playing down over the last few weeks, and everything looked set. Then the game started. The Steelers kind of looked like they were trying during the first quarter, but it all blew up in their face. New England didn’t have their best performance of the season, but they had way more than enough to withstand what Pittsburgh brought to the game. Both the Jets and the Dolphins could be traps for them but, much as I’d like to see it happen, I have a feeling that I’ll wind up disappointed. Buffalo’s mediocre surge toward the playoffs continued unabated against the Dolphins, but they’ll have a hard time the rest of the way. Cleveland, the Giants and the Eagles to finish the season is a tough river to cross and, with the injuries they continue to suffer, they’re going to have a hard time coming out with a winning record, let alone the playoffs. The Jets pretended to be a decent team over the last couple of weeks, but they dropped back to where they belong against the Browns. They got a ton of yards, both rushing and passing, and ran a whole lot of plays, but squandered everything they got. Despite their blowout of the Dolphins, they still aren’t really any better. While I say that Miami has gotten the short end of the stick a lot of the time this season, their performance last week against Buffalo was horrible. While I really think they are a better team than their record indicates, a lot of that game reminded me of the clips of the old Bucs 0-14 team.

AFC NORTH: Pittsburgh was the only good shot for a hero, but they blew it. For having such a strong record and being so well-regarded, they sure are an inconsistent team. Generally, they’ve played up or down to their opponents, but they only showed why they are in first place on a couple of drives. Otherwise, I may have just as easily been watching the Dolphins play. Now only one game back of the division lead, the Browns are an even more unlikely success story than last year’s Saints. They have the same benefit New Orleans had last year in the easier scheduling, but they’ve performed when they’ve needed to and have won all the games they were supposed to. They’re the most consistent team in the division and, with their remaining schedule as weak as it is, they could very easily wind up in control of the division. One of those teams, the Bengals, have been playing far better now than when they started the season, but they still have no shot at doing much for the rest of the year. They beat the woeful Rams in lackluster fashion; with an offense like they have, and a defense like the Rams have produced this season, Cincinnati really should be able to put more than nineteen points up. They are, however, no longer in last place, where they’ve been the majority of the season. That honor goes to the Ravens, who have now lost seven in a row. From a promising 4-2 to an abysmal 4-9, they are as much a story of failure as Cleveland is of success. Given the offensive production the entire time they’ve been in Baltimore, one has to wonder how much longer they’re going to give Billick to turn it around.

AFC SOUTH: The Colts are up to their old tricks again, putting thirty points up just barely into the second quarter. For all their dominance, though, they took Manning out in the third quarter and stopped playing defense to keep the score at a relatively respectable 44-20. I’m sure they could have put up eighty points, but that’s why Dungee’s not an asshole and certain other coaches are. Jacksonville, the way they’re playing, have all but wrapped up a wild card slot. They’re likely to beat the AFC West winner by at least two games and are clearly the best team in the AFC not leading a division. Their defense stomped all over Carolina and what looks like a worthless offense scored relentlessly throughout the game. They are now my official dark horse pick to enter the Super Bowl. Had the Broncos not won, the Titans would have ruined my Sunday. They completely fell apart at the end of the game, playing like they just didn’t care and letting the Chargers in the door. Did someone tell their defense to stop playing in the second half? It was a pathetic display and one that may still signal the end of Denver’s season…bastards…. The Texans are looking to spoil things for whomever they play. They kept Tampa from clinching and, based on how the underrated strength of their play right now, they could blow Denver out of contention and end their season. I like the Texans, and I really like Kubiak, but this could all change depending on Thursday’s outcome.

AFC WEST: Stupid damn Chargers and their comeback ways. Rivers has looked so bad this season, but they still win just enough to ruin the Broncos’ season. They have to lose two of their next three and Denver has to win out for them to win the division, but the disparity in play between the two teams has been obvious the last few weeks. Denver played their best football of the season last week, and it’s too bad they’re playing on a short week. They’re injury-ridden enough as it is. Still, their offense clicked like it hasn’t in a couple of years and their dubious run defense shored itself up enough to hold the Chiefs to sixteen yards on the ground. KC had seventeen rushes for sixteen yards. If you take away their longest of the game, they were sixteen for nine. Their offense and defense were both terrible, though not so bad as the Raiders, who laid face down for Favre to come have his way with. The best part is that they’ll likely choose another Robert Gallery with their third or fourth pick in the draft and remain this bad for years to come.

Why Chavez's Reforms Failed (A Reasoned Analysis)

I haven't written much on Venezuela's voting down Chavez's 60+ constitutional reforms (in part due to bureaucratic and research-based issues I've been having, but) primarily because of the difficulty in finding anything that isn't either painfully pro- or anti-Chavez (with the theories sometimes entering the painfully absurd and untrue). However, Stephanie Blankenburg has a great article up that very reasonably and intelligently goes through some of the possible reasons as to why the reforms failed here. It is well worth checking out, including some surprising (but very intelligent and well-argued) conclusions about the role of different classes in Venezuelan society, as well as the actual cultural and daily effects April's closing of RCTV may have had. I highly worth checking it out.

RIP - Karlheinz Stockhausen

The world lost one of the 20th century's most polemic cultural figures last week with the death of Karlheinz Stockhausen (which I only saw mention of today). Allmusic does a really nice little obituary of him and his importance. Unfortunately (thanks in no small part to his detractors and those who hated "modern" music), Stockhausen's name is usually dropped as a joke/reference to pretention and/or technology ruining things culturally, but in my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. While I don't enjoy all of his music (though, in fairness, I've only heard a couple dozen of his 326 works), much of it is excellence, and the importance he had across the musical genres and geographic regions of the world can't be overestimated. A sad loss, indeed.

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 11

11. All traffic going one way keeps to the same side of the street because



A. most people are right handed

B. the traffic policeman insists on it

C. it avoids confusion and collisions

More Huckabee

Many seem to believe that a Huckabee victory is the best thing that can happen to Giuliani from a Romney victory. They argue that Huckabee can't compete nationally because he doesn't have the money.

Maybe. But I don't think so.

Mike Huckabee has run a total of zero ads in South Carolina. His first one runs today. He is currently leading there, with 21% to 17 for Giuliani.

While everyone argues that money is the predominant factor in political success, I don't necessarily agree. If you can manage to get publicity, even without a large amount of money, you have a shot. People aren't idiots and they will look around a little bit for the right candidate, especially motivated constituencies. That is what Huckabee has in his favor--millions of Christians in this country who can support no other candidate. They are flocking to him now that they know who he is. They don't care if he wanted to quarantine people with AIDS; hell, they might still believe that. Letting the rapist go could hurt him here, but again, who else are the Christians going to vote for?

Ever since the Republican Party unleashed the lunatics with Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy, they have been able to keep control of them. They get the crazies to vote for candidates who pander to them while being under the thumb of the Republican power brokers. But the problem with this idea is that eventually those people are going to figure out they are being used and will strike out on their own. They can now flex their power in the face of the elite. That's what Mike Huckabee represents. I'm surprised this hasn't happened before.

It is still a few weeks before the Iowa caucuses. A lot can happen between now and then. But if Huckabee wins in Iowa, I firmly believe he will be the Republican nominee, despite being loathed by the power brokers.

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 10

10. The feathers on a bird's wing help him to fly because they


A. make a wide, light surface
B. keep the air off his body
C. keep the wings from cooling off too fast

Historical Image of the Day

3 German spies after their execution by U.S. soldiers. Herbesthal, Belgium, 1944

Concert Review: The Hacienda Brothers

In what was both a great and a disappointing time, I had the good fortune to see The Hacienda Brothers at Dan's Silverleaf this past Thursday night. They are a great band, and a great live band. My favorite stuff from them is the oultlaw country, but it's amazing to hear them switch song by song from Waylon to Bob Wills and, more shockingly, to the likes of Sam Cooke. It's the soul music that is so surprising, for the fact that they play it so damn well and for the fact of how natural the steel guitar fits the music. The whine of the steel perfectly accents the slow smokey voice and, while it may be out there somewhere, I don't know that I've heard the instrument played in the genre.

What was so disappointing has happened with other equally skilled artists at Dan's but I'll never get over it. The crowd, including myself, the band, the bartenders (thankfully, the trifecta of hot servers who I like so much), the sound guy, the door girl, and the owner, was a grand total of 23 people. They had obviously expected more, since they had three servers when they only needed one. This is pathetic and disgraceful. Listening to the band, though, you couldn't tell. They played like there were at least twice that many people. They just played the shit out of their two sets and never made mention of the abyssmal crowd. They were professionals, for sure, but I have to feel bad for them and for Dan himself, who I'm sure took a loss on the night. How many times can this happen before Dan can no longer put on shows? I rue the day this happens, but it's inevitable if people in this town are too concerned with their "beauty sleep" to go to see some incredible music. Disgraceful....

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 9

9. Why do many persons prefer automobiles to street cars? Because


A. an auto is made of higher grade materials
B. an automobile is more convenient
C. street cars are not as safe

Historical Image of the Day

Trona, California, 2006

Commodore 64 Music--LIVE!!

...sort of. Apparently, CNN has decided that Commodore 64 nostalgia is a newsworthy item. I couldn't care less about people's dreamy memories of a crappy computer. However, the end of the article did pique my interest. Rob Hubbard has arranged the themes from the most popular of the Commodore's games for chamber orchestra and is releasing an album of the music in the states in January. The C64 Orchestra, or Ricciotti Ensemble depending on where you look, has also been touring the music with montages of the performed games in the background. The music is high tension and cheesy, so who knows how it'll play as a concert or an album, but the arrangements seem to be short bursts of repetition on the game theme, which gives it a very strong sense of Philip Glass. This can be both good and bad, but the album will definitely be worth a listen, if for no other reason than the rascist theme of "International Karate."

Because I have no idea how to place a video directly onto a post, here's a link to the trailer for the live performance.

Democrats and Foreign Policy

I agree with Yglesias' Los Angeles Times editorial where he argues that Democrats lack a coherent foreign policy to counter Bush. As one would expect from an expert on current politics, Yglesias focuses on the policy plans of current Democratic candidates. He claims that

"Unfortunately, this sort of muddle on the part of the front-runners has been typical of the Democratic performance on national security ever since 9/11. One sees, repeatedly, little inclination to face the issues squarely."

He's right but the issue is greater--Democrats have had this problem since Vietnam. Since 1973, Democrats have tended to fall two ways on foreign policy--isolation and Republican-lite positions on trade and intervention, i.e. the Clinton administration.

The party, and especially its base, have largely refused to discuss seriously just what exactly the US role in the world is, and particularly the role of the U.S. military, for the last 35 years. Now I'm at least theoretically OK with acknowledging a foreign policy with a greatly shrunken military and severely limiting the situations in which that military will be used. But a real policy of what our foreign policy badly needs to be articulated.

As for the present, what is the Democratic policy on terrorism? To say we would not have invaded Iraq is not enough. This fact should be stressed repeatedly for the next two decades, but it doesn't tell us anything about how to fight terrorism, deal with North Korea, provide the environmental and economic protections for workers at home and abroad that many Democrats want. Specifically, what should we do about Afghanistan? Pakistan? Israel-Palestine? Trade? Climate change and environmental problems? The only response from too much of the Democratic base toward any kind of US role in the world is "NO!" and perhaps vague platitudes toward "peace" however defined.

Until Democrats, and not just the politicians but the rest of us too, think about, discuss, create, and articulate a real foreign policy, we remain vulnerable to the Republicans on this issue. Moreover, this vulnerability will allow the kind of quasi-Republicans that dominated foreign policy during the Clinton years to play major roles in the next Democratic administration too.

Huckabee Dominant

According to a new poll of Iowa voters, Mike Huckabee has 39% of the vote. Second place is Mitt Romney at 17%. Third is Fred Thompson at 10%.

This is a remarkable turnaround, although I am not particularly surprised. It has seemed to me for a long time that either Huckabee or Sam Brownback would rise to the top sometime before the Iowa Caucuses as the only candidates acceptable to the Christians.

Also, Giuliani is dead and gone. He might have lots of money but if you can't finish higher than 4th in Iowa, you can forget about the nomination. I'm weeping some serious crocodile tears over this. Maybe he can come back if he wins New Hampshire, but that sure seems like Romney country. And a Huckabee win in Iowa will give him the name recognition he needs to raise big bucks fast, especially if he can finish in the top 2 in New Hampshire.

The best part is that Huckabee is completely unelectable in a general election. A total lunatic who even much of the Republican power structure can't stand. A lot can change in the next 11 months, but 2008 could turn out to be a real treat.

Feist

What am I missing? Feist is OK, but a lot of her songs are really kind of boring. I know she's the new indie queen or something, but I am pretty uninterested, outside of 3-4 songs on each of her albums. Emiliana Torrini and Joanna Newsom, among many others, seem far more interesting in the world of female indie singers.

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 8

8. If a man made a million dollars, he ought to


A. pay off the national debt
B. contribute to various worthy charities
C. give it all to some poor man

Historical Image of the Day

Bataan Death March, Philippines, 1942

The End of an Era

Today is December 7, the 66th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

For the first time, I have not heard or read anything about it in the news. Usually there is some kind of survivors' gathering in Hawaii.

But of course if you were 20 years old and survived the attack, you are 86 years old today.

The World War II generation is gone. A good many are still around I guess, but they are fewer by the day. Today's lack of coverage can be seen as a symbolic end to their existence on the planet.

Although the Greatest Generation myth makes me want to vomit, I have to say that this is a sad day that makes one aware of their own mortality, or at least this historian with a serious fear of death, which is not a good characteristic for someone who spends their days dealing with dead people.

Notes From the End of the Semester

1. I am finding that the problem with assigning 15-20 page final papers is that I then have to read them. Some of them are very good, don't get me wrong. But it takes a really long time, even without making very many comments since most of them won't ever pick them up.

2. I wish I could just teach activist history courses forever. This environmental history course I taught this semester has been great. Committed students, excited to be there, good things to say. Next semester, I guess I am teaching 3 activist based courses--US/Latin America comparative environmental history, Hurricane Katrina in Historical Perspective, and Work and Workers Movements in US History. Should be fun.

3. I find myself really honing my teaching persona. It's all an act, or at least an accentuation of already existing personality traits for performance effect. This is particularly true with my survey course, where I will wander off into tangents about visiting the place in Tennessee where Meriweather Lewis shot himself in the face, discussing how prostitutes became known as "hookers," or talking about how Johnny Appleseed spread all those apples for booze. Point is that I portray myself as a very nerdy guy with a penchant for weird stories about the past. Again, this is not inaccurate, but definitely amplified. I am nerdy and do like talking about weird shit after all. Related to this is that I am also getting the reputation as the kind of professor who you can get off on a tangent and will talk for a long time about it. But I can't help it--my whole life is a series of tangents loosely circling around a mythical central point. Many of them are Pluto-esque--are they actually related to the central point? Not sure myself.

4. While I like my students, there are lots of people I'm glad I don't teach. I was sitting in the school's coffee shop area yesterday doing some grading. These three sorority women are at the next booth. Stupider than a sack of hammers, let me tell you. One thing about students at my school is that they are upper-middle class suburban kids with very limited outside world experience or even basic understanding about people not like them. Not all, but many. Anyway, these women are talking about this "hippie" professor they had. The evidence--she had a tattoo on her chest and she once worked, "in, like, a thrift store or something," as if this kind of job was completely outside their worldview. They had no idea what the difference is between a hippie and a hipster. To make it worse, they started badmouthing some other professor and then one of them, having reached the proper froth, decided to take that moment to do her online course evaluation of said professor. I can only imagine what they say about me. Good times.

5. One very cool and kind of weird thing about being at a small school is the close interactions between students and faculty. One of my students is taking care of my cat next week when I am at a wedding. At New Mexico, I would have been scared to invite my students into my home. I was eating lunch by myself today in the school dining area and a couple of students just came and sat with me and chatted. One of them I have not had in any classes but I just know from around. It's all very different for me but in an entirely positive way. I also find myself becoming a kind of magnet for lefty and alternative-type students. Of course this is intentional to some extent but also quite welcome, particularly that it is happening by the end of my first semester.

Well, I guess that's about it. Back to the grading. Erik's Friday night--always a hot time!

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 7

7. Why is wheat better for food than corn? Because


A. it is more nutritious
B. it is more expensive
C. it can be ground finer

Historical Image of the Day

Jail, Clay County, Alabama, 1883

Erik's Random 10

Ah, John Philip Sousa. No musician has made a bigger contribution to historical American wingnuttery than Sousa (sorry Ted Nugent). I can't speak much about "The Marquette University March." I imagine it's just a fight song he got paid for. But Sousa's music was designed to stir the worst passions of Americans. The head of the Marine Band from 1880 to 1892, Sousa's music inspired Theodore Roosevelt and other American imperialists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sousa actually volunteered to come out of retirement during the Spanish-American War to serve as a bandmaster but couldn't due to illness. He did however manage to rejoin the military during World War I, at the age of 63, to lead the Navy Band at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago.

Sousa's music is pretty over the top and the politics behind it quite reprehensible. Nonetheless, I manage to find it amusing at this point and I don't really flip to something else when it comes up on my random listenings. Maybe because it's three minutes of amusement rather than 60 minutes of annoyance.

1. John Philip Sousa, The Marquette University March (Detroit Concert Band, Leonard B. Smith, conductor)
2. Eels, Checkout Blues
3. Alejandro Escovedo String Quartet, Everybody Loves Me
4. Richard Thompson, The Way That It Shows
5. Ashley Hutchings, Epilogue--Died for Love
6. Ora Alexander, Sweetest Daddy in Town
7. Earl Hines and Jimmy Rushing, Changing the Blues
8. Sonny Rollins, Get Happy (Short Version)
9. Fiddlin' John Carson, In My Old Cabin Home
10. Conway Twitty, It's Only Make Believe

Mister Trend's Random 10

"Galloping Over the Vast Grasslands” is off of the CD Chinese Traditional Yang-Qin Music. I can easily say I know almost nothing about Chinese music. I only bought the CD 5 years ago because I was really in the mood for something simple yet beautiful, organic, and unlike anything else I had, and while at the local Borders, a little voice in my head said, “What about China?” I looked at that section of music, Guo’s was the only one I saw that looked like it might be what I wanted (thanks to the “Traditional”), so I picked it up on a gamble.

While I couldn’t begin to tell you what makes one particular Chinese artist technically “great” and another one “bad”, I love the Guo CD. As I’d hoped when I bought it, it has a simple beauty to it, without the music ever being simplistic. It’s just Guo and her Yang-Qin (a dulcimer-like instrument), with occasional light percussion (such as on “Galloping Over the Vast Grasslands”, which has a galloping sound that always makes me think somebody is playing two empty coconut halves a la Monty Python’s Holy Grail). I often find myself listening to the CD when I wake up and am getting going on a relaxed morning, or starting to do some reading, or other such quiet, introspective moments. I have bought a few other albums of Chinese music (always being aided by the word “traditional”), and have never been disappointed, but Guo’s is still my favorite.

[As an aside, I also love Chinese song titles (from my limited knowledge), which perfectly describe what the music wants you to envision (other nuggets from other CDs include “Flying Snow Decorating the Green,” “Picking Red Chestnuts,” and “The Great Wave Washes the Beach”.]

1. “Cassandra Gemini: Plant a Nail in the Navel Stream” – The Mars Volta
2. “Bring It to Jerome” – Bo Diddley
3. “Quando Eu Te Vejo Passar” – Nelson Sargento
4. “Rock and Roll” – Velvet Underground
5. “The Lord Gave the Word” – Georg Friedrich Händel
6. “Bodysnatchers” – Radiohead
7. “Galloping Over the Vast Grasslands” – Anna Guo
8. “Alegria, Alegria” – Caetano Veloso
9. “Suckers Never Play That” – DJ Cam
10. “Surrogate Drone” - Swans

Random Music Observations: Humbug Edition

I love almost everything about the Christmas season, save for two things: the crass commercialism, and the music (ok, lots of the movies, too, including *gasp* A Charlie Brown Christmas, but these aren’t random film observations). It isn’t just that I don’t really like Christmas music – I hate just about all of it (save for some traditional hymns and classical pieces). This hatred was never aided by the fact that, growing up, I was forced to listen to it every year, both in the house [when not shut up in my room enjoying my OWN music] and in the car. And so, in the holiday spirit, my observations on the dreck that is holiday music:

-The world needs another version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” like it needs another version of “Summertime (And the Living’s Easy)”.

-Item one also goes for “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “White Christmas,” “Santa Clause Is Comin’ To Town” (the worst moment in the Bruce Springsteen catalogue), and probably another 127 songs.

-I think the goal of trying to get into the multi-ethnic, multi-religious tone of the season by playing holiday songs from other religious and ethnic traditions is fine. Playing Adam Sandler’s “Haunukah Song” as the only “Jewish” song to meet that goal is not fine.

-I think the Chipmunks’ Christmas Song is just like the comic-strip Marmaduke – it probably stopped being funny or cute around 1963 (save for, of course, modern re-interpretations of Marmaduke).

-In the modern music world, I think nothing better captures the modern holiday season than holiday albums from Mariah Carey, Christina Aguileira, Destiny’s Child, and even New Kids on the Block (and you’d forgotten about them). In a perverse way, nothing is more perfect about it all than the fact that they are simply trying to cash in on “genuine love” for the season.

-I don’t know its name, but there was one Christmas album titled "The Tarquin Records All-Star Holiday Extravaganza" that I loved (and frequently played when I was on air). The college radio station I DJed at in undergrad had it, and it included songs such as “Santa Was Seen Flying Through Soviet Airspace” by the Philistines, Jr., "Zamboni Stuck in the Snow" by the Zambonis, "R2D2, We Wish You A Merry Christmas" by Brian Dewan, and "Rudolph Burger...Hold the Nose" by The Pork Guys. It was often stupid, but in a good way, and at least it was different.

Absurd Texts in American History (X)

From a recent brochure for Huntsville, Texas, home of the Texas State Penitentiary, where the state executes its citizens.

"Excite your senses. Huntsville if famous for its historic Texas Prison System. You can still hear the "prisoner-count" whistle blow every day. No one should leave without visiting the Prison Museum; home of the original electric chair, "Old Sparky".

And yes, they put the period outside of the quotation marks.

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 6

6. Streets are sprinkled in summer


A. to make the air cooler
B. to keep automobiles from skidding
C. to keep down dust

Historical Image of the Day

Field taken over by Kudzu

NFL 2007 Week 13: NFC Edition

NFC EAST: Dallas has established dominance of the NFC and is the first team in the conference to enter the playoffs. Hopefully, they do better there than they’ve done in the last decade but, who knows, snaps can always be fumbled. Still, butterfingers that he is, Romo has become officially the best Cowboys quarterback ever. I don’t know about some of them (you could make a great case of Quincy Carter), but he’s sure superior to that coward Troy Aikman, who was just playing in the NFL to parlay his success into selling bricks. I have no idea how the Giants can continue to win. They play poorly every week, yet they will likely make the playoffs. I will hand it to them, though. They know the importance of taking advantage of your opponents’ ineptitude, and they were able to pull another one out with a two TD fourth quarter. They may have played well, but they have to be disappointed that Derrick Ward, after a career day, broke his leg. Now they have to rely on the oft-injured Brandon Jacobs to carry the load, which really hurts their depth. After four consecutive losses, the Redskins have shown their true colors. Last week, they let Buffalo back in the door, helping the Bills get into the playoffs and effectively ruining their own chances through spineless, stupid play. In the end though, it was senility that caused their downfall. Gibbs, however, called only the second dumbest time out of the week, with Rex Ryan being the king of idiocy. Nothing besides Philadelphia’s record would indicate that they’ve failed as much as they have. After nearly taking out New England, they return with another loss and last place in the division. Feeley, for all the decent games he’s had, was only 19 out of 42 passing. The Seahawks aren’t great right now, but you can’t throw so many away and expect to come back. Anyone who feels that Feeley is the answer to Philly’s problems is either crazy or rooting for the team to lose.

NFC NORTH: They were who I thought they were. The first quarter of the Dallas-Green Bay matchup looked exactly how I expected it to. It’s the Favre I know. You know the one: he throws off his back foot all the time and throws into coverage pretending to be a hero. We haven’t seen him too much this year, but he broke out in full force on Thursday. What I didn’t expect was to see Aaron Rodgers look so polished and professional. A Rodgers-led Packers is a team I could support. Too bad, despite his injury, the Hulkster that is Favre is going to keep his streak alive and keep his team down as long as he possibly can. Well, Kitna needs to win out to fulfill his guarantee. Has anyone told Kitna that lies make baby Jesus cry? He needs to get off the pulpit and get back to reality, because his team is playing as terribly as they possibly could be. For all the pomp at the beginning of the playoffs, they are right in position to miss the playoffs once again. Minnesota, on the other hand, is as hot as any team right now. Tavarius Jackson is no longer playing like the JV reject from the beginning of the season and, with Peterson back in the lineup and their defense playing as high caliber as they have, they should take the number two slot from the Lions on Sunday. The Bears aren’t taking anything. The only thing they will take is their pants off so the Redskins can have their way on Sunday. This week was a classic Bears breakdown. They kept letting the Giants in the door and, finally, couldn’t stop them from doing anything in the second half. They were pathetic, and will continue this trend against Washinton.

NFC SOUTH: The Bucs close win over the surging Saints was probably their most important win of the season. They have a three game lead in the division now and look to be a shoe in for the division title. Luke McCown looked fantastic in Garcia’s stead but, if they can get him back this week, they should cinch the division against Houston this week. The Panthers can beat all the bad teams they want; that doesn’t make them any less a bad team. They won, but their playoff hopes are all but shot. Steve Smith started playing just in time for his catches to not mean anything, but at least he’s showing up for games these last couple of weeks. The Saints may not have looked great on paper, but their loss against the Bucs was a back and forth, exciting matchup that New Orleans almost pulled out of. At this point, the organization must realize that Reggie Bush is barely useful on offense. They have to hope Deuce is back next year full strength or their running game will never get going. I used to hear a lot about untapped potential in Jake Plummer, and I didn’t believe it then. I sure don’t believe it here. Tap the potential or throw away the keg. An untapped keg is of no use to anybody. Like this is a surprise to anybody, but the Falcons looked absolutely wretched against the lowly Rams. They crack me up though. Why on Earth would they have signed Harrington if they refuse to play him a full game. He’s inefficient, so they put in Chris Redman. Now, he’ll probably start this week and they’ll get blown out, so they’ll put Harrington in. He’ll start the following game and get benched, and so on, and so on, and so on.

NFC WEST: If there’s one thing that’s been consistent this year in the NFL it’s the crappy play in the Western half of the US. The AFC and NFC divisions are basically identical. The Seahawks had another back and forth battle against the Eagles, who can’t seem to win no matter how hard they play. Seattle looks like they should be a good team every week, and they were in this outing, but they fall apart every couple of games. It’s hard to have faith in this kind of team, but they’re easily the class of the division. Nobody even comes close. Arizona looks to be ready for another playoff berth. I’m keeping my hopes way up for the Cardinals to take on the Cowboys so we can have a repeat of their previous meeting. They keep winning by exploiting their superior receivers, but now that Boldin’s out, they are going to have a little more trouble. I don’t think they have a shot at going far in the playoffs, but making the postseason to spoil one particular team’s run keeps me going. San Francisco and St. Louis are tied at the bottom but, based on how they’re playing, the Rams are far better. They beat the crap out of the Falcons and, though they’ve only won three games, the second half of their season has been significantly stronger than the first. The ‘Niners, however, couldn’t beat even the worst of teams. Their big 195 total yards sure won’t win many games for them. When your defense gives up nearly twice as many yards as you can gain, it shouldn’t be too surprising when your team gets destroyed.

Computer Issues

Regular readers (all 5 of you) may remember in the summer me wondering about buying a laptop. I never did that, in part because my old computer was still working fine. Now however, I'm not so sure. It's slowed down considerably in the last few months, especially upon turning it on. I can't get the left speaker to work, though I know this has nothing to do with the speaker itself. Those are problems I can live with.

Yesterday though, something strange happened. I was working on a Word document and the whole computer froze up. I had no choice but to hit the power button and restart. Everything works fine after doing that except for Word. It says I need to insert the disc I got from Word 03 (shows you how old this thing is, though it is XP capable). I don't have that anymore. Everything else works fine, including the rest of Microsoft Office, like PowerPoint and such.

I ordered another copy, hoping it would be a cheap way of avoiding the inevitable switch to the laptop and an investment I don't want to make with money I don't have. If anyone has any suggestions as to what might be going on and what I can do, I would appreciate it. Right now, not having Word at home isn't that huge of a deal because I'm in full grading mode anyway and I can write in my office, but this is a pretty unacceptable situation.

Renan Calheiros Steps Down

Brazil's president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, resigned his post. While he had insisted he would not make such a move earlier this year, Calheiros, after a 45-day leave of absence, announced his resignation yesterday. While speculation for his motivations can abound, it certainly doesn't hurt that his resignation prevents his colleagues in the Senate from carrying through a vote to ban him from politics for 8 years.

As I said in September when this was becoming a bigger and bigger scandal, Calheiros' scandal, while rather "salacious", I think probably still won't hurt Lula. Yes, he was an ally of Lula's in the Senate, but not through any personal connections. Calheiros and Lula simply worked together because Calheiros was simply the acting president of the Senate and a member of the multi-party coalition that includes Lula's PT in the Senate (Brazil is one of the few examples in the world of presidential parliamentarianism). Additionally, his departure allows the Senate to actually get back to legislating other issues such as budgets, taxes (including the CPMF, a tax involving bank accounts, which, in a case of absurd contrarianism and the basest of partisan politics, the opposition party is adamantly protesting, despite the fact that that it was a president from their party that put the tax into effect with the support of the party and party senators in the 1990s. But now that Lula also supports it, it must go, dammit!), and other policies that matter far more to daily life in Brazil than the questionable dealings of a politician from Brazil's North.

NFL 2007 Week 13: AFC Edition

AFC EAST: So close, so tense a game, but so disappointing. After being given every opportunity, both by the Ravens and by the officials, the Patriots were able to pull another victory from nowhere. They look more beatable every week, and the Steelers next week will be even tougher. It was funny to see Brady’s indignant look after the game; I guess he can only be happy if the win is by more than thirty points. I would have enjoyed Belichick’s indignant look too, but I can’t distinguish it from his happy face. Buffalo pulled one of their own from the jaws of defeat, but they were handed it too. This is the year of the kicker and Ryan Lindell’s five second half field goals turned the tables on an absolutely abysmal first half. I always love seeing a safety, though. I wonder when the last time a halftime score was 9-2. Whenever it was, I’m glad I didn’t see the game. Last time I checked, the Jets were a worthless team. How does a team like that score forty points? Playing the Dolphins. I’ve always felt like the Dolphins were a better team plagued by bad luck, but that game basically proved this theory wrong for me. One thing I didn’t think I’d write this season was “the Jets took the game over,” but there you have it. They’re still terrible, just not quite so much as Miami.

AFC NORTH: Pittsburgh may not be playing their best football right now, but they’re really luck to play teams like the Bengals, who do everything in their power to have a bad game. The Steelers are the best shot at taking down the Patriots; I just hope they play up to their better opponents the same way they play down to their lesser. The inconsistency of Arizona paid off in their victory over Cleveland. Derek Anderson had another big game (how he’s still pulling these out is beyond me…maybe he goes to the same church as Kitna), but they let too much go early and couldn’t recover. Carson Palmer had such a bad game; there was no way they could win. How you have receivers like that and can’t get into the endzone is beyond me. It’s great that TJ is leading the league in receptions, but that doesn’t mean anything without the touchdowns. Baltimore sure didn’t look like a 4-8 team last night, but that’s what they’ve been reduced to. They played New England as well as anybody has all season, but it wasn’t good enough when your coaching staff is trying to lose the game for you. If I was Rex Ryan, I’d be pretty scared of that defense in the locker room after that game; you could feel the anger through the television.

AFC SOUTH: In what was a fantastic game, Indianapolis basically won the north in their victory over Jacksonville. The Colts have gotten back on track from their little slide a few weeks ago, and were too much for the Jags, but they sure looked strong in defeat. David Garrard has really had a great year; it’s too bad he finally threw an interception, but it had to happen sometime. They’ve turned themselves into a real force in the South and assuming they don’t fall apart which, since they just got their running game going full speed, I don’t see that happening, they are a match for anybody in the playoffs. The Titans have finally stopped looking so much like a joke and, though their playoff hopes are pretty well up in the air right now, they’ve looked strong the last two weeks. Houston has been so much improved this year and are far from the joke team of their previous years. The Titans’ run game wasn’t spectacular, but got the job done against Houston’s front four. Unfortunately, Houston is 0-4 in the division and so, to the South, they still are kind of a joke. They still have plenty of holes, but they’ve made impressive strides and should look forward happily to next season.

AFC WEST: Sadly, San Diego has pulled away in the division and the Broncos’ playoff hopes are looking dim. They did put the Chiefs back in their place at the bottom of the division, but this was also only possible through the breakdown of Denver’s game last week. Their defense isn’t that good, but how did the Raiders score so many points on them? Looking at the West standings, it is making me sick and writing about it makes it way worse.

Noon on Theodore Roosevelt

Dave sums up Theodore Roosevelt in one paragraph.

Now, it's not surprising that certain varieties of conservative would have man-crushes on Teddy Roosevelt. After all, he was a belligerent executive authoritarian whose dime-novel masculinity consisted mostly of shooting animals and complaining that he was surrounded by lady boys who lacked the will to get things done; he spent most of his presidency threatening other nations with war, yet he never had the prunes to initiate actual hostilities against anyone who might actually muster a defense; he detested Congress, and no more so when its members made any noises whatsoever about overseeing his foreign policy; he was a belated convert to the cause of women's rights, a shift that came at the tail end of a life devoted to the proposition that women were little more than pods for the species; and he believed the evolution of white civilization required constant struggle against the barbarian hordes who lived beyond the borders and who -- via loose immigration laws -- threatened to spoil the nation from within.

Yep--that just about sums it up. Theodore Roosevelt was an awful man who is popular today because he tapped into some of the worst impulses of America that remain powerful. Now, he was right on a few issues and he had a weird sense of fairness that allowed him to do crazy things like not actually call in the U.S. Army to break strikes. But far more often, he evoked a dangerous race-based masculinity that led to the worst the United States has to offer. Even the things people laud him for, like creating the national parks and other conservation laws, came out of deeply racist beliefs. A disturbing figure, to say the least.

A Surreal Sight in Rio

My wife and I are hosting some out-of-country friends of her this week. On Sunday, we took them down towards Copacabana beach to see the ocean. While walking down the 6 km beachfront road (which is closed to traffic for pedestrians on Sundays), we noticed a small crowd gathering. A bunch of people (tourists and cariocas) had gathered to watch what appeared to be some Brazilian Indians, wearing "traditional" clothing, playing some "traditional music".

The quotation marks are purposeful, though, and are what made the event surreal. The three men certainly may have been Brazilian indigenous people - they looked like they could be. However, their "traditional" clothing had nothing to do with Brazilian indigenous clothing. They were wearing the type of enormous headdresses (that looked like this) that you only find among indigenous peoples in the United States, and which in no way resemble Brazilian headdresses. In addition, they were also clad in nice, "traditional" handmade pants, which would be fine, except Brazil's indigenous people, when dressing traditionally, at best wear a loincloth or a gourd, given the heat in the tropics. They most certainly don't dress in the kind of pants North American Indians would wear while riding horses (among other reasons, because the horse never really became a major part of the indigenous lifestyle in Brazil).

And then there was the music. They had a semi-elaborate set-up that involved speakers playing pre-recorded music, and the three men playing what looked to be a type of Andean pan-flute over the soundtrack. Now, the pan-flute may have actually made its way into some indigenous groups in Brazil. I doubt it, given that most of the wind-instruments I've seen are more like recorders than pan-flutes, but I may just be uninformed. However, I know for CERTAIN that playing the main melody from Enigma's "Sadeness" and the famous line from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is certainly not a part of any Brazilian indigenous people's musical legacy or present practices. The tourists and Rio residents had gathered around in sizeable numbers (around 25-30), and I suspect the three men may have made some money on the day. (I also fear and suspect that some rather ignorant tourists were thinking they were seeing what "authentic Indian culture" looked like in Brazil, and while "authenticity" is always difficult, I think it's fair to say that this trio wasn't exactly demonstrating a majority of Brazilian indigenous culture's practices, past or present).

However, seeing three men who were probably native indigenous peoples to Brazil, dressed in clothing traditional to some groups of North American Indians, playing instruments that are probably from the Andes to music from (two very different) European composers, went beyond strange.

U.S. Army Mental Tests, 1917, Question 5

5. If you were asked what you thought of a person whom you didn't know, what would you say?



A. I will go and get acquainted
B. I think he is all right
C. I don't know him and can't say

Historical Image of the Day

Works Progress Administration project, Utah, 1930s