Mexico Notes, Part 2

1. One of the coolest things in all Mexico must be Lucha Libre, the Mexican professional wrestling. Unlike both of my co-bloggers, I have never been a fan of professional wrestling. But having a chance to see some Lucha in a small arena in a Mexico City suburb was too tempting to pass up. There weren't a whole lot of people there--maybe 100. The arena was a little run down with some graffiti and such. And it was a perfect Mexican experience. About 1/2 the wrestlers had the masks that Lucha is known for. Some were incredibly lame, such as the Robin character which in the US would be read as gay but maybe not there. Others were awesome, such as Yakuza, a wrestler who had a whole samurai thing going, even putting his hair in a topknot. He came up to me at one point and said in English, "We have to get these motherfuckers back." And get them back they did! Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to see the midget wrestling that was happening the following Thursday. Bummer.

2. I really love subways. They are so modern and awesome. I just like spaces that facilitate thousands of people in interacting. I feel the same about airports, though the working-class is less prevalent there. Everyone talks about how dangerous the Mexican subway is. And that may be true. I had no problems, nor have I ever had problems on a subway. This could be luck as much as anything. On the other hand, if you are stupid enough to put your wallet in your back pocket, you might deserve to be robbed. Zipping around from place to place, avoiding hellish traffic--it's just a wonderful thing. The subway stops in Mexico City are cool too. The city has spruced many of them up, giving them themes. One has Mayan stellae in them, which aren't protected and thus are getting ruined but it certainly is interesting in any case. Another has pictures of Mexican animals and a conservationist theme. In another part of that same station, you walk under a darkened area that has a star map on the ceiling. Cool. Others have various displays. By far my favorite was the display discussing artificial insemination of cows. Included were a semen bucket and a long tube called, "vagina artificial." Awesome. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera on me at the time. Bummer.

3. I watched the NCAA national championship game in the garage of former Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles. Calles, the second of the postrevolutionary presidents, built a large home in the city that today serves as his archives. Researchers can stay there, though at rates I sure as hell wouldn't pay. A friend of mine was staying there while doing a couple of weeks of research. So we hung out in the garage watching the game with the guard. It was kind of surreal. Interestingly, American football is quite popular in Mexico. They televise nearly as many NFL games as they do in the US, and more games, including some college games, are available on cable channels. Let me tell you, if there's one thing greater than watching the Cowboys lose to the Seahawks like they did, it's watching the Cowboys lose to the Seahawks like they did in Spanish.

4. The Zocalo, or plaza, is quite the interesting place. It is the center of Mexico City, built directly on top of the old Aztec capital. When the Spanish defeated the Aztecs, they placed the center of their new city over the Aztec city, which is really the ultimate way to show dominance over a conquered society. The cathedral sits on top of the great pyramid that used to dominate Aztec social life. Some of that pyramid you can now see. The Plaza Mayor, just off the side of the plaza, is pretty cool and has a real interesting history. After the Spanish conquered the Aztec, a leading conquistador built his house there. He was later convicted of plotting against the Spanish crown, along with Cortes' son. Not only was his house destroyed but the ground salted. It was later used as a trash heap and then some other buildings were placed there. When doing some excavations in the 80s, they found a huge stone disc that made the Mexican government decide to excavate the whole thing and open it to the public. It's just a shadow of what it once was, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. Anyway, the zocalo has an interesting history too, reflecting aesthetic trends over the centuries. Big displays and pictures in the Zocalo subway station show this. 100 years ago or so, it was lined with trees and had curved pathways. Not so useful for military processions I guess, but it fit into the way Porfirio Diaz wanted to make Mexico City as much like Paris as possible. At some later point, I don't know when, it was just paved over. And so it exists today, a pretty ugly modern plaza surrounded by a death-defying traffic ring. Modern Mexico in a nutshell right there. But there's always something going on at the zocalo. Big protests, concerts the government puts on, etc. I saw one of the lamest protests ever there. Some taxi drivers were protesting something or another. There are probably a million taxis in Mexico City, perhaps a few hundred thousand more. I would guess that there were about 300 taxis at this protest. Probably not so effective. There was also an interesting communist group protesting the Oaxaca situation. On the other hand, the protests supported the Lopez Obrador candidacy after the PAN "won" the election reached in the hundreds of thousands.

5. It's amazing how beloved Pope John Paul II is in Mexico. The papacy, and the whole Catholic church for that matter, is something I don't pay a whole lot of attention to. In Mexico, it's really hard to avoid though. JP II must be one of the 5 most important popes in history. I know that could be overblown given the 2000 year history of the church and the recent death of John Paul. But no other pope is represented at the big cathedral in Mexico City. JP has a statue on the side of the church. At the Basilica of the Virgin, where she supposedly appeared to an Indian soon after Spanish colonization, there is a statue as well. No other popes are seen. My friend tells me that this relates to two things--first, John Paul II was the first pope to visit Mexico and that was huge. Second, John Paul II finally recognized the Virgin of Guadalupe as legitimate. For hundreds of years, the church distanced itself from this virgin because the Mexicans don't necessarily see her as the mother of Jesus. But JP II both legitimized her and canonized the guy she appeared to. The Virgin, I understand, is as much a part of Mexican national identity as a religious symbol and thus the Pope recognizing her meant he was also affirming Mexican identity. Speaking of the Virgin, the history of her site is interesting. Originally the site was covered with a classic cathedral. But its weight combined with the soft Mexico City soil and the masses of visitors meant that it was sinking. So in the 1960s (I believe) Mexico decided to put up a new church, which is an awful structure. A round modernist building that looks like a giant Baptist church doesn't quite seem right for the virgin's image.

A final post tomorrow.

Absurd Texts of American History (II)

Today, I bring you George W. Bush's 2007 State of the Union address. Some of the more laughable parts include:

First, we must balance the federal budget. We can do so without raising taxes.

Ha ha ha ha ha. Wow, that's some fiscal responsibility right there. We're America. We can have everything without any consequences at all!

And finally, to keep this economy strong we must take on the challenge of entitlements. Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are commitments of conscience, and so it is our duty to keep them permanently sound. Yet we’re failing in that duty. And this failure will one day leave our children with three bad options: huge tax increases, huge deficits, or huge and immediate cuts in benefits. Everyone in this chamber knows this to be true, yet somehow we have not found it in ourselves to act. So let us work together and do it now. With enough good sense and good will, you and I can fix Medicare and Medicaid and save Social Security.

Except for the fact that this is completely wrong (or would be if we would roll back some tax cuts to the wealthy or perhaps not pursue ridiculous wars) this makes perfect sense!

Spreading opportunity and hope in America also requires public schools that give children the knowledge and character they need in life. Five years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the No Child Left Behind Act preserving local control, raising standards and holding schools accountable for results. And because we acted, students are performing better in reading and math, and minority students are closing the achievement gap....The No Child Left Behind Act has worked for America’s children, and I ask Congress to reauthorize this good law.

No Child Left A Dime is a great idea! Just ask teachers. Oh wait, better not ask the teachers since they are part of their communistic unions and will say it doesn't work. Instead, let's ask some right-wing theorists in the Department of Education. They'll tell you it works!

Extending hope and opportunity depends on a stable supply of energy that keeps America’s economy running and America’s environment clean. For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists, who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments and raise the price of oil and do great harm to our economy.

I would really do something about this if it was an issue I gave a shit about. Is there a way Cheney's oil stocks and go even higher?

For the terrorists, life since 9/11 has never been the same.

Quite true. In fact, life has been much better for them!

Al Qaeda and its followers are Sunni extremists.

Still trying to connect Saddam Hussein to 9/11 I see.

The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat. But whatever slogans they chant, when they slaughter the innocent, they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale.

There's democracy in the Middle East? Oh, you mean Israel. Great.

And in 2005, the Iraqi people held three national elections: choosing a transitional government, adopting the most progressive, democratic constitution in the Arab world and then electing a government under that constitution. Despite endless threats from the killers in their midst, nearly 12 million Iraqi citizens came out to vote in a show of hope and solidarity that we should never forget.

Clearly, things are going well in Iraq!

This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in.

Yes, the fight we entered was the one made up in the offices of the Pentagon. Who could guess that it wouldn't go according to plan? Certainly not the rest of the damn country.

We didn’t drive Al Qaeda out of their safe haven in Afghanistan only to let them set up a new safe haven in a free Iraq.

Actually, that's kind of exactly what we did.

Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask you to give it a chance to work.

Even though none of my other ideas in Iraq have worked, I ask you to give me endless opportunities to fuck up even more!

Dikembe Mutombo grew up in Africa, amid great poverty and disease. He came to Georgetown University on a scholarship to study medicine, but Coach John Thompson got a look at Dikembe and had a different idea. Dikembe became a star in the N.B.A., and a citizen of the United States. But he never forgot the land of his birth or the duty to share his blessings with others. He built a brand new hospital in his old hometown. A friend has said of this good hearted man: “Mutombo believes that God has given him this opportunity to do great things.” And we are proud to call this son of the Congo a citizen of the United States of America.

What in the hell is he talking about here?

After her daughter was born, Julie Aigner-Clark searched for ways to share her love of music and art with her child. So she borrowed some equipment, and began filming children’s videos in her basement. The Baby Einstein Company was born, and in just five years her business grew to more than $20 million in sales. In November 2001, Julie sold Baby Einstein to Walt Disney Company, and with her help Baby Einstein has grown into a $200 million business. Julie represents the great enterprising spirit of America. And she’s using her success to help others, producing child safety videos with John Walsh of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Julie says of her new project: “I believe it is the most important thing I have ever done. I believe that children have the right to live in a world that is safe.” And so tonight we are pleased to welcome this talented business entrepreneur and generous social entrepreneur: Julie Aigner-Clark.

As Project Sanguine put it, "When did the State of the Union turn into QVC?"

Good times.

Historical Image of the Day

Tenement Housing. Lower East Side, New York City. Early 20th Century

Roots Music in Brazil

There's just an absolutely wondereful article in the NY Times today on a project launched by Mario de Andrade to record every kind of traditional music (what we might call "roots music") in Brazil's Northeast in 1938, much like Alan Lomax's project in the U.S. The importance of this project and of the music itself can't be overstated, and not just for Brazil. Sure, the music of the Northeast is the basis for nearly all of the major popular song forms in Brazil now (Samba, Axé, Musica Popular Brasileira, Forro, and others), and the importance of Tropicalismo extends internationally (the NY Times mentions its influence, but neglects non-"world" musicians like Beck in that list). But the music extended beyond Brazil's borders in other ways (let us not forget Carmen Miranda, who, while a cheesy joke-figure now, did much to expose American audieneces to Brazilian styles of music, even while becoming a pariah in her own country).

If there is any small complaint, it is in the portrayal of the mind behind the project, Mario de Andrade. He was not simply a "municipal secretary of culture" in Northeastern Brazil (an area roughly equivalent to the U.S. between the Rockies and the Mississippi, north to south). He was one of the major Brazilian literary figures of the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s, and beyond and, together with his brother Oswald, was one of the first Brazilian figure to not only suggest, but celebrate, the mixing of elemnts of European, African, and indigeneous cultures in Brazil, instead of lamenting the "worsening" effects of African and indigenous "blood" within Brazilian culture and society. Certainly, he emphasized the European components more sometimes, but he and Oswald have provided beacons of pride and alternate, non-European based forms of artistic expressions to musicians, artists, poets, novelissts, and others in Brazil up to the present day.

Please read the article, and just to draw you in, the NY Times has even included a link that lets you listen to all six discs and read about it in English. No word on when the discs will be released, but keep your eyes open, as this offers one of the most important musical (re)-discoveries in the last 30 years, not just in Brazil, but worldwide.

In Defense of Red Beard

In discussing the new Kurosawa DVDs coming out soon, Dave Kehr dismisses Red Beard as a film losing its stature as time goes on. His insinuation is that modern audiences are not willing to accept the films he made outside of the Samurai genre. While I would agree that, of his 55 films (many of which feature no swordplay at all), some would lose their stature over the years, the specific mention of Red Beard as one of these does a disservice to both Kurosawa and the film itself. Rob’s comments on the same subject spark me to wonder if that’s really happening. I have a hard time understanding this. Since seeing it for the first time a few years ago, it has become one of the most indispensable films in my collection and my favorite of all Kurosawa’s films.

Kurosawa’s Samurai films are fantastic, there’s no doubt about that. But with all the trick shots, fast editing and muddy fights gone, with everything stripped down, Red Beard stands as a masterwork of filmmaking and storytelling. Looking, however, at a 183 minute run-time and seeing some performances, especially in the opening, that are overwrought and dated, feels daunting, but it does not take very long for the story to take over. In response to its length, the film is told episodically, and the distinct plotlines help to both keep the story running and to watch the film in chunks as a kind of serial (which I find a great way to watch a film like this). The overriding story of Dr. Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama in, ultimately, a fantastic performance), just out of a Dutch medical school, who is tricked into coming to a medical camp for the most poverty stricken and is forced to stay for his internship by Dr. Niide (Toshiro Mifune, in his last role with Kurosawa), the strict, stoic head doctor known as Red Beard, feels forced initially. But as Niide guides Yasumoto through some of the grimmest displays in film, Red Beard becomes Kurosawa’s most human picture.

There is no contempt for the suffering of these people, some sick and some [highly] disturbed; only the deepest respect for their will to affect others. Each story moves me on a real emotional level. Whether it’s the sickening description by “The Mantis” (Kyoko Kagawa, creepily believable) of the reasons for her sexually charged murders, or the heart-wrenching story of why Sahachi (Tsutumoto Yamazaki) must give everything he has away over and over again, I always find myself completely inside this movie--following it and feeling it the whole way. The message that poverty and ignorance cause their suffering instead over disease speaks to the audience as much to those at its release as to us. The “strange cancers” that the doctors find in the stricken, most topically related to what Japanese doctors must have been finding in people twenty years after the nuclear holocausts, give the film a relevance and heart that few films can match. The story aside, the starkness of the sets and the persistence to extend the shots allow the viewer to appreciate the beauty of the lighting and the movement of the shadows who tell stories unto themselves, set pieces that often feel alien, and a series of characters that are unforgettably performed. The film soars far above what Dave Kehr calls “self-conscious art house efforts” and is on level with any film from any time. Red Beard is a truly great film from a great artist who should be remembered for more than his Samurai films. Watch this movie!!

Absurd Texts of American History (I)

I am starting another historical series on this blog. Entitled Absurd Texts of American History, it will discuss, well, just that. I hope you enjoy these. If "enjoy" is the right word for something like this. They will come intermittently, hopefully every week or so.

The first post is a 1931 letter sent to firms around the nation from the Calcyanide Company, an extermination company. Its entire text follows:

"Gentlemen:

Picture a group of darkies gathered in a circle, rolling dice. Eyes are popping, faces are drawn tight, hopes are running high. Suddenly a "throw" is made. A four, then a three appears--seven a victory! The "shooter" exultant, bursts out with the four words which have become a classic in the gentle art of "rolling the bones"--"read 'em and weep!"

Consider Calcyanide. Think of bugs instead of darkies, Calcyanide instead of dice. They men in the camp house can't sleep because they are troubled by bedbugs. They aren't gathered 'round a circle, but they are brothers in distress--tossing, scratching, rolling in their bunks. Then comes morning, the day's toil and evening again. The men are tired and looking forward to another night of torture. Suddenly the foreman walks in with "hello, boys,' and startles them by saying that the camp house has been fumigated wtih Calcyanide--while they have been at work-nad that they are no longer going to be tormented and annoyed by insect pests. As he holds up a basket full of dead bugs--swept up after the fumigation--a wag blurts out: "read 'em and sleep!"

Calcyanide is miles ahead of any other product for the destruction of bedbugs, fleas, lice, cockroaches, rats, mice and similar pests in bunk houses and other camp structures. It kills every bug in the building, no matter where hidden or buried, when applied in accordance with the few simple instructions contained in our booklet.

You can end your insect and rodent problems quickly and conclusively, by using Calcyanide--the chocie of a great many lumber, mining, power, railroad and oil companies. The use of this most remarkable of all fumigants will add greatly to the comfort and well-being of your employees nad, as a consequence, improve the quality and increase the quantity of their work.

Calcyanide is put up in 2-lb., 3-lb., and 5-lb. cans, at $1.65, $1.50, and $1.35 per lb., respectively."

Very truly yours,
Calcyanide Company,
B. Towlen, Vice-President

Comments Back

With many thanks to Maggie, people can now both read and see comments. It's using the Blogger comments as opposed to Haloscan. I know Haloscan is better for large comment threads, but it's not as if we get tons of comments anyway.

Or...perhaps not as I seem to have deleted whatever changes were made. Fucking technology.

Historical Image of the Day

Weirdo Confederate reenactors. South Carolina, 1996

Howard Hunt, Dead

I would say that Howard Hunt should rest in peace, except that I hope he burns in the fires of hell. The world is cleansed of yet another figure from the Nixon Administration. If we could only be rid of Chuck Colson too.

UPDATE: D leads us to this great Slate interview detailing the evil Hunt perpetrated in Latin America. Among the great quotes:

About his role in the Arbenz coup in Guatemala in 1954:

Slate: Some 200,000 civilians were killed in the civil war following the coup, which lasted for the next 40 years. Were all those deaths unforeseen?

Hunt: Deaths? What deaths?

About Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista:

Slate: What was your feeling about Batista?

Hunt: Well, I thought he ran a good government there. There was a lot of corruption, but there's always been corruption in Latin America. We can't be too purist about these things.

About the death of Che Guevara:

Hunt:What I thought was great foresight was that the Bolivian colonel had Che's hands cut off.

Slate: Why did he do that?

Hunt: So he couldn't be identified by fingerprints. That was a pretty good idea—if you don't want somebody identified. People still shiver a little when they think about hands being cut off.

About him leaving the CIA:

Slate: What led you to leave the CIA?

Hunt: I found out the CIA was just infested with Democrats. I retired in '70. I got out as soon as I could. I wrote several books immediately thereafter.

Wow.

Mexico Notes, Part 1

With the blog down, I wasn't able to post from Mexico. It won't be the same now, but I want to write about some of the stuff I did.

1. Mexico is just a great place. The only country I've traveled in that compares in coolness is Thailand, and that's saying a lot given how much I love Thailand. The food is great, the people are super nice, and the weather is awesome. There really is nothing to complain about in Mexico, yet many do. I was talking to a friend of mine who was also down there and he told me about researchers he's known who study Mexico, yet all they do is bitch about Mexico City, Mexicans, and Mexico in general. Why? I suspect that a these people are comparing Mexico City to home. Mexico City isn't as cosmopolitan as Chicago or Cambridge or New York to them, so they don't like it. Of course, Mexico City is as cosmopolitan as those places, but when people see home as the gold standard, nothing will match up. The only thing about Mexico City I found unfortunate was the air quality, which is shockingly bad. And while Mexico has a lot of poverty, so do a lot of places and people who complain about having to see this need to understand their own role in perpetuating that poverty.

2. If you had asked me on New Year's Eve, 2005, what I would be doing exactly one year from then, I doubt that sitting in a living room in a Mexico City suburb listening to the Thirteenth Floor Elevators would have been my answer. One can never tell what kind of circumstances they will fall into if they are open to following whatever opportunities fall their way.

3. As I've mentioned before when writing about traveling, Coke outside of the US is awesome. Sadly, the greatness of this drink when made with sugar instead of corn syrup has reignited by caffeine addiction, but what are you going to do?

4. The food. My God, the food is great. Since I'm comparing Mexico to Thailand as my favorite countries, I guess Thai food is slightly more appealing to my tastes. But Mexican food is just awesome. I first visited Puebla, which is famous for mole poblano. This is good stuff, though the richness of the chocolate is a bit much for me to eat very often. But the tacos! Holy shit, the tacos! For about 40 cents, you can get a delicious taco from a street stand with beans or some kind of meat. On the side you usually can add some kind of green sauce and pickled carrots, peppers, and sometimes radishes. This super-basic food absolutely kicks ass. As do the enchiladas, the chilaquiles, and so much other food. Mexico City is also known for comida corrida, which is a big lunch meal, though eaten later in the afternoon than American lunches. It usually comes with a soup, some kind of pasta or rice, a choice of six or so entrees, and then a dessert. It's fine when done cheaply with a canned soup and a packaged dessert. But when it comes with a tasty homemade soup, pasta with a good sauce, and a flan, along with a well-made entree, well, that is just damned fine food. I had previously traveled in the North, where the food is pretty strong, but a bit bland. Mexico City's food though is just first-rate. The city is worth visiting for the food alone.

5. Certainly one of the most disturbing sites in the city is the site of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. By the late 1960s, the revolutionary nature of the PRI was long-spent. The presidency of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz had no interest in tolerating dissent. Tlatelolco is surrounded by government housing complexes built in the 1950s and 60s for federal employees. Basically, they are US style housing projects placed in Mexico City. The government placed sharpshooters in some of these apartments and sent a large military presence into the area. On October 2, 1968, just before the city held the Olympics, the government ordered the army and sharpshooters to fire on the protestors, killing bewteen 200 and 300 protestors. There really isn't much there. It's a basic concrete plaza, though a obelisk has been erected with the names and ages of some of the dead. Today, the government has privatized the nearby housing and it was the only time in Mexico City that I got weird looks and felt uncomfortable. I am glad I wasn't there at night.

More tomorrow.

Historical Image of the Day

King Philip's War. Massachusetts, 1675?

Tuesday Forgotten American Blogging: Benjamin "Pap" Singleton

When the Civil War ended, many ex-slaves didn't really know what to do. They had no education, no land, no money, no possessions. But they wanted their freedom. They wanted land of their own. They wanted to labor for themselves and not their ex-masters. If possible, they wanted to live as far from whites as possible. But most blacks did not have these opportunities. Whites dominated the entire country. Blacks were no more welcome in the North than the South. They could not buy land. Despite the temporary respite of Reconstruction, most blacks had to resort to sharecropping by the 1880s and lived only a marginally better existence than they 25 years before, though it is impossible to overestimate the importance erasing slavery. At least black families could live together without fear of separation.

African-Americans constantly worked to gain increased freedoms. In 1879, hundreds of ex-slaves from North Carolina moved to Texas to try and claim public lands. Denied by provisions of the Texas Homestead Act, most ended up working as sharecroppers as they would have done back home. But where many thousands of blacks envisioned moving was Kansas. Much of Kansas remained to be settled by non-Indians. The federal Homestead Act did not discriminate by race and the Republican Party dominated Kansas politics. During the 1870s and early 1880s, 25,000 black emigrants moved to Kansas.

The most successful group to make this move was the Tennessee Real Estate and Home Association, founded by Benjamin "Pap" Singleton. Born a slave near Nashville in 1809, Singleton was trained as a cabinetmaker. He had escaped slavery and moved to Detroit, where he operated a boarding house that became a key stop on the Underground Railroad. After the war, he returned to Nashville to resume his life as a carpenter. Believing that the salvation of southern blacks rested in owning farms rather than working for others, Singleton began to plan moving ex-slaves to Kansas. He visited Kansas in 1873 and was impressed by its potential. He led his first party west in 1878, at the age of 69, where he established a settlement at Dunlop. Whites controlled much of the best land in this area, but colonists still bought 7500 acres to grow crops.

Ultimately, Dunlop wasn't so successful. The colony peaked at 1000 people in the early 1880s and declined to less than 500 by 1900 as many blacks moved to the city. Much of the reason for the decline of the colony rests with the good intentions of Kansas Governor John St. John, who established the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association (KRFA) to help out the Exodusters, as these blacks settlers became known. But KRFA gave blacks very small plots of land, too small to make it on the Kansas prairie. Most of these farms failed and blacks moved to the cities in order to make a better living.

Singleton continued to work in the 1880s for his people, although he wrote in 1880, "I am now getting too old, and I think it would be better to send some one more competent that is identified with the emigration and has the interest of the race at heart, and not his own pocket; some one that has heretofore directed and established colonies and is known in the South." He became head of the United Colored Links, a black labor group in Kansas that wanted to unite all black people to improve the lot of the entire race. They tried to work with white labor organizations, though these white organizations accused blacks of undercutting wages. He continued to work to get African-Americans to move to Kansas. At the end of his life, his work for his race combined with increasingly transcendental ideas about spirituality and the upcoming end of the world before dying in 1892.

Although the story of the Exodusters is far more complicated than this, Pap Singleton is a great example how ex-slaves fought for freedom until the day they died. They are almost entirely forgotten about today and that is a shame.

Just a reminder--comments can be made by clicking on the individual post. I'll try to get this problem fixed soon.

Concert Review--Eleven Hundred Springs

Last Friday, I was back at Dan's Silverleaf, this time to see Dallas' own Eleven Hundred Springs, reputedly a fine country act, who had come highly recommended and, despite the fact that they come up here all the time, I had never even heard a song. I'll probably never miss another of their shows at Dan's, for a number of reasons. A few thoughts:

--They consist of a singer on guitar, drums, bass, fiddle, and steel. Is there a better combination for a country show than this? It's true, they were a very good, very skilled band with a fun onstage act and a lot of energy, but a lot of what worked so well had as much to do with the interaction of these instruments. The drummer and bassist knew they were the rhythm section; they both kept a tight beat and stayed as much in the background as possible. There's only so far out there you can go with a bass solo in a country song. The steel player and fiddler (who also sang a rousing version of "Orange Blossom Special," a big hit with the crowd) worked together really well on the melodies, did the majority of the soloing, and were obviously having a lot of fun. The singer, whose amusing point-and-wink act was a big hit with the ladies, had a good voice, and songs about drinking and fighting work pretty well for a bar band, but his guitar was less of a presence than I would have thought. They felt really natural up there and, given that they are fairly young, will probably continue to improve.

--Speaking of the crowd, this was the most crowded, rowdiest groups I'd seen in a long time. Apparantly, they have a pretty good following both here and Dallas, a lot of whom I met at the show. They all knew the songs and sang along while dancing with drunken abandon through the shoulder to shoulder crowd. It reminded me a lot of what Erik described from the Chris Knight show he saw, although there is absolutely no excuse for a bar to run out of beer for the crowd. The solution to this problem? Stock more beer! In any case, people were having the times of their lives, and that's a fun atmosphere to take part in.

--The one problem with a crowded show like this, though, is getting a drink. The only solution to this problem is to stand at the bar the whole time. Trouble with this, though, is that the other people who have made the same decision are the drunks (and what does that say about me?). One of these drunks, a woman of approximately 55, was apparently being harassed by some guy standing next to her and, after smiling at me, came over to politely ask me to kick his ass, which she assured me I was capable of doing. I politely told her back that, while I mostly agreed with her on that, I didn't want to kick his ass. I hadn't seen him doing anything and, even so.... Anyway, she told me that was ok, but that I should do this for her. Eventually, he wandered off somewhere, at which point she came up to me again. She tells the that, while I didn't want to kick his ass, my aura scared him off, and she just wanted to thank me. For this act of heroism, the damsel in distress gave me a big kiss. You simply cannot beat this kind of entertainment.

Historical Image of the Day

Paris and Britney. America, 2006

Viva Nuevo Mexico: Mr. Trend Edition

For four years, I lived in the Citadel Apartments in New Mexico. While I certainly had no personal problems with them, they weren't anywhere near the nicest. Indeed, my first "viva Nuevo Mexico" moment happened 2 months after I moved in, when, in one of my favorite moments ever,a guy who lived two doors down from me got his head cracked open with a bottle and a baseball bat just by my apartment, and when the cops showed up, one of the officers had dated the victim's cousin (and the guy turned out OK - in another twist to the story, he had been busted for DUI 15 times and claimed an 80 year old guy did it). As I said, not the greatest place, and I occasionally thought of moving out, but was simply too lazy.

In all my time there, I never had problems with the manager (or with crime, said for the aforementioned event, which didn't personally happen to me). However, I have to say, the manager's husband always kind of weirded me out. I never felt quite right about him, avoiding him when I saw him, and always thinking he was kind of creepy and had a bit of the air of your generic scumbag.

Turns out, my gut feeling wasn't without base. For, as I learned today while my girlfriend and I were looking at apartments in New Mexico for our eventual return, we learned that the husband of the manager of the apartment is a convicted sex offender. This, in a place that was home to many lower-income families with children, not to mention single women (generally students).

Viva, Nuevo Mexico.

Commenting at Alterdestiny

As many of you have noticed, after our return from our unwilling absence while google (the new one-world power) wiped out the blog, we have no comments threads on the main page, thanks primarily to our ongoing Luddite-like battle with computer software (anything outside of Word is sometimes daunting for at least two of us). However, you can still post comments if you are so inclined. Just click on the individual posts, and when that page comes up, ther is an option to comment (don't ask us why it can be in one place and not the other).

Historical Image of the Day

Aftermath of Ludlow Massacre. Colorado, 1913

Race, Poverty, and Unemployment in New Orleans

In a case of perfect timing, while mourning the 6-year anniversary of Bush's inauguration yesterday, d reminded us of how incompetent and ultimately responsible the Bush administration was in the humanitarian disaster that was the so-called "handling" of New Orleans during Katrina in 2005. Today, the New York Times has an article that is actually extremely important in understanding the decline of New Orleans (and of other parts of the South) that unequally disadvantaged poor and/or African-Americans. The article does a great job of showing how the theory that New Orleans was in a disastrous economic decline, and that those who suffered most wer residents of the lower-income areas (who were predominantly black). While the writer does not directly raise the issue of race, references to the conjunction of race and class pop up throughout the article, and the spectre of racism hangs nebulously over the whole article. It's powerful stuff for those who think, and is well worth checking out.

(And hopefully, wingnuts won't use this article to claim that Bush didn't really fuck anything up in New Orleans because it was already going downhill, thereby showing the same "compassion" that Barbara Bush did in 2005.)

Change and Coins in Daily Spending in Brazil

Every few years in the US, it seems, the debate over whether we should keep the penny or not pops up. Some argue against keeping the penny, claiming (probably rightly, though I've never done enough research on it to care) that the cost of producing the penny outweighs any benefits. Others counter, however, that to get rid of the penny would be a bad idea, for it would only lead to the increase of prices (something that even retailers are against, because, in the consumer mind, $12.99 is twelve dollars, but $13.00 is just 13).

However, Brazil has actually offered some fascinating insight into this debate for me. The change system here works so different, that it actually offers insight into life without a penny. Technically, there is a one-cent piece in Brazil, but nobody uses it. Instead, the market economy here at the microlevel operates on what can only be described as the "close enough" model. For example, if you go to the grocery store, and your groceries total 13.03, you only have to give 13.00 to the cashier - the three cents doesn't matter. Or, conversely, if your groceries total 12.97, you give the cashier 13 reais, and don't worry about the three cents you're not getting back. Everybody basically assumes that it all balances out in the end - sometimes, you pay a few cents more than you owe, but sometimes you pay a few cents less, and it comes out about 50/50. The funny thing is, from all of my observations, that's about correct. In all my experiences, it has come out about 50/50.

Thus, the economy here at the microlevel is actually neither "formal" nor "informal" in terms of change. It's not so formal that you have to pay exact change or get exact change back (indeed, this is one of the most obvious ways to spot tourists - they wait for that three cents, or feel they should pay it if they have it). Nor is it totally informal. You can't just give 20 reais when you owe 20.75. Thus, it's just "close enough" - "well, it SAYS I owe 19.34, but I only have 19.30 - is that OK?" "Yeah, close enough."

I have no idea how the registers balance out at the end of the day at stores (whether they are just a few cents off overall, or a few reais over, or under, or just all over the place), and indeed, it would be great if some economy or economic anthropology student would study this. However, for those who feel that phasing out the use of the penny in the states would be negative on the market economy at the local level, Brazil certainly offers some fascinating alternatives, not just in terms of how monetary units can operate semi-formally, but also in how Americans are perhaps a little too uptight about exact change (especially the elderly people who are always directly in front of me at the grocery store, but that's another matter altogether...)

"States Rights" Equaled "Slavery"

D over at Lawyers, Guns & Money reminds us that, around this time of the year, most southern states legally celebrate the "rich legacy" of the Confederacy's struggle in the face of "Northern aggression." In one of the least surprising displays of filth and disgusting attitudes, as he points out, the white supremacists are equally celebratory of their "legacy" and condemning of other holidays (best summarized by one cesspool of a commenter who points out that "We have MLK day shoved down our throats and yall call it your history and heritage! We have Confederate Heroes Day and we call it OUR history and heritage, so deal with it!!! ").

Also, not surprisingly, in said comments stream the defense that the south fought for states's rights, and NOT for slavery, comes up.

Which allows us this opportunity to remind ALL the states-rights people that as South Carolina's declaration of secession (the model for all others) reminds us: defense of states rights in the south WAS defense of slavery. It's all right there (see, for example, article 19, and article 21, though it's throughout). Did the South leave for "states's rights"? Yes. Did those rights include slavery? Yes. Did the South explicitly say that those rights were primarily slavery? Yep. So memo to the confederate apologists - states rights and slavery aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, they were interdependent.

Lyrad's Random 10

I'm so happy that, out of 28,000 songs, The Hampsterdance came up. What a song...revolutionary....

1. Neurosis--Pain of Mind
2. The Skillet Lickers--Taking the Census, Pt.1
3. Dixielanders--Gates Blues
4. Clutch--Tight Like That
5. Jesus Lizard--Deaf as a Bat
6. Buckethead--Nun Chuka Kata
7. Hampton the Hampster--The Hampsterdance [Radio Edit]
8. The Breeders--Hellbound
9. Caustic Lye--Skidmark
10. The Rolling Stones--Gimme Shelter

Historical Image of the Day

Anti-Freedmen's Bureau propaganda. Circa 1867

MIster Trend's Random 10

Back into the swing of things, and that means the standard one old blues song nestled in here (though I actually do have more than 10% blues on my Ipod - I swear).

1. "Headphones" - Bjork
2. "Turn Into" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. "High 5 (Rock the Catskills)" - Beck
4. "Ist Das noch der Wang? Hier Ist Es Eben" - Arnold Schoenberg
5. "New Age (live)" - The Velvet Underground
6. "Holiday Song" - Pixies
7. "Black Mare Blues" - Big Bill Broonzy
8. "Pressed in a Book" - The Shins [new album out on Tuesday]
9. "Swimsuit Issue" - Sonic Youth
10. "Lord Can You Hear Me?" - Spacemen 3

Another Proud Moment in the History of Ohio Politicians

Well well well....looks like Congressmen aren't immune after all. It will be curious to see if Ney is the only one to get nailed on this (I certainly hope he doesn't end up a straw man for everybody else involved.)

RIP--Pookie Hudson

Pookie Hudson, the lead singer and songwriter for R&B group The Spaniels, died earlier this week at 72. He's best known as the tenor on "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight," a big hit at the time, but truly one of the best remembered songs of the era and a massive influence on R&B. He was homeless for a while after leaving the business in the '60s and, while the song remained in circulation and became revered after American Graffiti (and, maybe more dubiously, Three Men and a Baby), didn't start receiving any regular royalties for any of his work until thirty years later. Unfortunately, that's not an uncommon story, especially for artists from that era, but bravo, whoever owns the song, you sure made a lot of money off of it. He's survived by nine children, who I hope will receive checks off of that song for a long time to come. Goodnight, sweetheart. Well, it's time to go.

Don Young Goes Old-Timey On Us

The ever-classy Don Young (R-AK) got real classy today in the House when he wore a red shirt to protest the bill that will rollback tax breaks for the oil industry.

Why red? "It's the color of this bill we're debating -- Communist red."

Wow! I haven't seen any good old-timey red-baiting in some time. I feel like it's 1982 again! Taxes? Clearly a communist conspiracy against private property!

Historical Image of the Day

Kimono given to member of Matthew Perry's crew. Japan, 1854

Historical Image of the Day

Silent film star Louise Brooks

Indigenous Peoples in the Brazilian Amazon in the Media

There's an article at CNN today that's a little encouraging and even more frustrating. The encouraging part is that the number of indigenous groups nearly totally isolated from different from European-based cultural influences is higher than previously thought. However, it is worrisome that these peoples are still facing severe threats from loggers and miners, often funded by and/or serving as fronts for large corporations. Hopefully, the recent measures Lula has taken will actually have an effect in protecting the forest.

Even more frustrating to me, however, is the language of the report. Throughout, there is a tone of patronizing towards the indigenous peoples, emphasizing the "quaint" nature of the indigenous groups with language such as "Their lives do not include televisions, microwave ovens or cars" and "Funai envoys for years tried to contact an individual in Rondonia, a state in the southwestern Amazon forest, because he is believed to be the last survivor of his tribe.
They tried to introduce him to an Indian woman to procreate. But the "Hole Indian" as he is nicknamed because he lives on branches over a hole, shot arrows at them, sending the potential bride running."

Nevermind what cultural accomplishments these peoples may have made in their hundreds and thousands of years. And nevermind the constantly imperialist efforts of states, in Brazil and elsewhere, in their treatment of indigenous peoples, not just during Brazil's military state, but throughout history. Instead, the report chooses to take on the Indians-as-living-exhibits in a museum. They come off looking mildly foolish in the tone of the report, presumably because they don't use modern technology and don't know the noble efforts of those who are "modern" and "civilized" as they try to "save" some of these peoples. One would hope for some more responsible word choice in the media. It just goes to show how far we still have to go in how we deal with indigeneous peoples culturally.

Film Review--Baby Face (1933)

While the self-imposed morality monitor eventually known as the Hayes Office was put into place in the mid-20s after a series of embarrassing Hollywood scandals, there were no rules for enforcement of these principles until 1934. Until this time, filmmakers made what seemed sometimes like a dedicated effort to make salacious, lurid films for the sheer joy of doing so (and thank god for that). Like movies in general, some were better than others, but the issue escalated over the years until, finally, a provision was written into the code that forced all films to be screened for objectionable content before they could be released. One of the final films to be made before this enforcement, and one that likely had a lot to do with the decision to begin enforcement, was 1933’s Baby Face, the disturbed brainchild of Darryl Zanuck, studio head of Warner at the time, starring the stellar Barbara Stanwyck.

Unlike many of these “pre-Code” films, Baby Face actually had morality cuts imposed upon it before its initial release, and this was the only version available for over seventy years, until recently when an unaltered version appeared at the Library of Congress archives. This version, along with its excised counterpart, is included in Volume 1 of the “Forbidden Hollywood” series from TCM. Unlike many of these “raunchy” early films, Baby Face, in many ways, lives up to its hype as a truly lurid picture.

Stanwyck (arguably, at least by me, the finest actress in the history of film) plays Lily Powers, who waits serves drinks (and herself) to customers at her father’s speakeasy. Nicknamed “the darling of the night shift,” Lily has been pimped by her father since she was fourteen and sees no way out until her friend, an old German cobbler, gives her a copy of Nietzsche’s Will to Power (I’m not kidding) and shows her passages to encourage her to move to the big city, exploit herself, exert her power, and turn men into slaves over which she is master. While I’m not sure this was Nietzsche’s intent, the quotes are direct misinterpretations and Lily doesn’t really know any better. So, when her father dies in a still explosion, she moves to Manhattan with her maid to start a new life. By taking Nietzsche’s advice and screwing everybody, she gets a job at a bank and works her way up the ladder until she’s married to the bank president, leaving a trail of broken and, sometimes, dead men in her wake (there is an amusing repeating crane shot which shows her rise floor by floor up the ultra-phallic skyscraper each time she makes a conquest). While, in the end, there is an attempt to give something of a moral spin on the issue, it is fairly lame and out of place; definitely the worst part of the film.

The strength of Baby Face is based almost entirely on the strength of Stanwyck’s performance. It’s easy to see Stanwyck do well when given a superior production to work with, a la Double Indemnity, but Baby Face is pretty dubious material, which she makes rise to her level. Also of note is Theresa Harris, who plays Chico, Lily’s African-American maid. While her role is not large, she is ever-present as Lily’s only friend and the only constant in her life. As Lily’s life gets more opulent, so does Chico’s and, adding a creepy slant to the proceedings, facilitates Lily’s actions in strange ways (for example, when they are trying to get to New York by hopping a train car, Lily has to “persuade” the official that catches them to not throw them off. Chico fades off into the corner of the car, looking on, watching, serenading the two with the strains of “The St. Louis Blues,” a decidedly dirty song).

Don’t get me wrong, Chico’s treatment carries no evidence of racial equality. Additionally, Lily’s empowerment through sex carries no feminism. Indeed, both of these issues are presented solely to carry the plot along. Chico following after Lily’s heels may not necessarily be offensive, but it is certainly regressive, and Lily’s use of her charms is only evidence that this is the only power she has. There are no politics here, and what there is can be looked at as fairly disgusting; this is bawdy cinema, designed entirely to shock and titillate. On this level, with Stanwyck’s sultry and surprising sensitive performance, Baby Face works (better than many, as will be evidenced in a review of Jean Harlow’s Red Headed Woman, also on the TCM "Forbidden Hollywood" collection, coming soon).

Americans Don't Travel

The State Department estimates that 73% of Americans do not have a passport. Am I alone in thinking this a major problem in our nation? That Americans don't travel no doubt helps lead to the jingoistic nationalism, the insular thinking, and the fear of other nations that permeate our culture.

I wonder what voting statistics are like for the 27% who do hold passports. No doubt many of these people are in business and vote Republican. But I would be shocked to find that even a large minority of those 27% are Republican. I would think that by a large margin, Americans who experience other cultures, see the world, and talk to people not from this nation vote for the Democrats and have quite liberal and tolerant values.

Tuesday Forgotten American Blogging: William Byrd II

Normally, Bastard Blogging is the first Tuesday of the month, but since the site was down, I'm publishing this today instead.

Is there a more disturbing character in American history than William Byrd II? I imagine that the answer is yes, but, as I hope you will see after reading this, Byrd was a son of a bitch.

Born into the Virginia elite in 1674, Byrd was schooled in England and spent about half his time there until 1726, when he returend to Virginia for good. In 1728, He was Virginia's chief commissioner for settling the boundary dispute with North Carolina. He founded Richmond in 1737. He died in 1744, one of the richest men in Virginia and the owner of over 179,000 acres.

A lot of people like Byrd because he is the antithesis of the Puritans. No funny hats or stodgy social mores for him! What fame he has today comes from his writings, particularly his diary, which is witty and ribald. And it also shows him to be a rephrensible bastard.

His diaries from London explicity discuss his habit of raping women. He wrote of visiting a friend, recalling that he "committed uncleanness with the maid because the mistress was not at home," then, "when the mistress came I rogered her." He remembered raping a "Dark Angel" who "struggled just enough to make her Admirer more eager." He also routinely raped his slaves, particularly as he got older and found it harder to have unforced sex. He claimed to save women from rape on the VA-NC border expedition, though it is hard to believe such stories coming from a man with this kind of attitude toward women. He certainly didn't discourage his men from engaging in bad behavior, such as the members of his party who entered one house and "broke the Rules of Hospitality by several gross Freedoms they offer'd to tkae with our Landlord's sister." In another incident, Byrd and his men engaged in the following behavior:

"In the Gaiety of Their Hearts, they invited a Tallow-faced Wench that had sprain'd her Wrist to drink with them, and when they had raise'd her in good Humour, they examined all her hidden Charms, and play'd a great many gay Pranks. When Firebrand who had hte most Curiosity, was ranging over her sweet Person, he pick't off several Scabs as big as Nipples, the Consequence of eating too much Pork. The poor Damsel was disabled from making any resistance by the Lameness of her Hand."

Firebrand, who was actually Richard Fitz-William, one of the leading Virginia commissioners, had a hell of an appetite according to Byrd. Once he and his servant teamed up to go after a pair of sisters. Firebrand "endeavour'd to mend his Entertainment by making Hot Love to honest Ruth, who wou'd by no means be charm'd either with his Perswasion, or his Person. While the Master was employ'd in making Love to one Sister, the man made his Passion known to the other, Only he was more boisterous & employ'd force, when he cou'd not succeed by fair means."

In other writings, he attacked the idea that women about to start their period should be allowed to have sex because it would create weak or stillborn children, claimed that female orgasm would undermine women's ability to conceive, and that women had such uncontrollable lust that they would gladly destroy men. He also speculated about the shape of vaginas and what that meant for sex and male and female power. Why did he hate women? Evidentally, he was routinely rejected by women, particularly as he got older, and his constant concern about the size of older men's penises has made some believe that he had problems in this department. He left his first wife, who he never got along with, in 1711, and she died of smallpox in 1716. After her death, he went after a young woman who rejected him outright and drove him to near insanity. He wrote about women throughout his life, including writing The Female Creed in 1725, that was among other things, a chance for him to obsess about women's asses, even though he claimed to find women's bodies repugnant and dirty. The real point of the book however was to argue that women are the very essence of human corruption.

On the other hand, Byrd did freely engage in Irish stereotypes, discussing land that was suited for those "easily contented, and like the Wild Irish, find more pleasure in Laziness than Luxury." So I guess he had some good in his heart.

The best source for much of this information is Paige Raibmon, "Naturalizing Power: Land and Sexual Violence along William Byrd's Dividing Line." See also Kenneth Lockridge, On the Sources of Patriarchal Rage and Kathleen M. Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, & Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia.

Historical Image of the Day

Fedora

Alice Coltrane

For those who follow jazz, Alice Coltrane can be a divisive figure. To some, she's not only done the world a service by emphasizing her husband John Coltrane's influence on 20th century music, but she was an accomplished jazz musician in her own right. To others, she was overrated, only semi-talented, and has forged a narrative of jazz history in which John Coltrane reigns supreme in changing its sound, while others central to the shift in jazz in the 1960s (most notably, but not only, Ornette Coleman) have been shunted aside, mere name-checks in a history that centers on Coltrane.

Regardless of the opinion, she has been an important figure in the creation of a jazz narrative, and her passing last week at age 69 unfortunately flew under the radar, as is so often the case with all things jazz in the print media.

Things I Don't Get (II): Remastering Music

I know the answer to the following question is "corporate greed preying on ignorant consumers", and that I'm naive to believe record companies actually care about what they contribute culturally and historically, but still...

...why in the blue hell do we need a remastered version of a Maroon 5 album that came out 3 years ago, yet Husker Du's Zen Arcade can remain left alone without any remastering?

First Sign of the Apocalypse?...maybe just a little ice

Never have I seen a population that reacts so irrationally to weather as that in Texas. I heard this on the weather report last night after football (don't ask why I torture myself with the occasional snippets of local news; I guess I'm a masochist):

"If you can at all avoid it, please don't leave your homes!"

Why did they give this warning? Well, it rained a little bit and it dropped below freezing. Oh...my...god.... Say it isn't so! Don't tell me that when the ground is we and it gets cold that ice forms! I mean, really, if I went outside and started running around with my eyes closed, I could slip and hurt myself. Thanks to Dallas local Fox affiliate for saving my life.

Good lord, people, gain a little perspective. It's ice. Everyone has seen it and everyone knows what causes it. That didn't stop, however, the emails at work pleading with me to take an alternate route home and giving a game plan for "surviving" the ice storm. You know how I'm going to survive it? I'm gonna put a coat on. What a bunch of jackasses.

Bush's New "Plan"

I've been dying to point this out since early last week, when rumors of Bush's plans for troop escalation were becoming more clear, and Robert at Lawyers, Guns & Money beat me to it, but it's still worth raising the following question.

Even if you fully support the troop deployment, and it turns out to work well (which I find highly highly HIGHLY unlikely), it will mean that, nearly four years into the war, Bush finally found a plan that worked (this is hypothetically - the criticisms of the plan from military quarters make sense). But again, even imagining this DOES work...

...how can you then not conclude that the war was thus incompetently, wrong-headedly, and horribly mismanaged and run for FOUR WHOLE YEARS by Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld?

Changes in the Military...

Much was made last week of the disapproval among many sectors of the military, from top to bottom, of Bush's new Iraq plan. However, the changes are even deeper than we can imagine, as, for the first time in years, less than half of the active-duty service members identify themselves as Republican. Of course, this doesn't mean that 54% identify as Democrat, but it's potentially important in the short- and long-term. In the short-term, it reveals a basic discontent with the Republican party's stance on the war and treatment of soldiers, and if this shift continues/lasts, it could come to play a major role in election politics in the longer term.

(Thanks to Randy at Beautiful horizons for this).

Copper and Spending in Chile

Randy at Beautiful Horizons is pissed off, and I'm fully with him. The windfall of income from copper that Chile is currently witnessing, and the issue of how to deal with it, touches upon two important legacies of Pinochet that I didn't mention before.

First, there is the social security issue. Anybody with a brain knew that, after re-election, Bush was all about privatizing social security, proclaiming it as part of his "mandate" (how's that working out for you, W?). While many Americans felt that it was a bad idea, they didn't always know why. However, Chile provided a fine model. Pinochet privatized social security there in the early 1980s, and it did well for awhile. Indeed, that was what Bush had partly based his model on. The problem is, while he was proclaiming privatization and pointing to Chile, Chile's social security was entering a crisis it still hasn't exited. Privatization has unfairly helped the wealthy while basically completely screwing over those who really need it (the physically and mentally disabled/handicapped/challenged, the poor, abandoned children/mothers, etc.). As should come as no surprise, now, Pinochet's privatization was basically a mechanism for the rich to get richer and to help private companies have to pay less money to the government.

Secondly, there is the issue of military spending. Randy hits it right on the head - it's ungodly that Chile spends so much for the military (and yes, this is an American talking, but our military spending isn't even of this universe). The fact that they put so much into military spending, yet Pinochet never even used ONE CENT of government on even ONE HOSPITAL in 17 YEARS is so infuriating that words can't even describe it. Hell will have to be even more inventive with him than I'd imagined....

Human Rights in Argentina

We bring you this break in Brazil-blogging to report two stories that matter in the ongoing march for human rights in Argentina.

Last week, two arrests made international headlines. The first was the arrest of Juan Ramon Morales, a rightist paramilitary leader of the Triple A ("Alianza Anticommunista Argentina"), a group which was responsible for the deaths of hundreds (if not thousands) of Argentines between 1973 and the dawn of the military dictatorship in 1976, and which was a major factor in the escalating tensions between right and left that ultimately did lead to the dictatorship.

The second was in Spain, where ex-president Isabel Peron was arrested for her ties to the Triple-A. Peron is specifically charged with her role in the disappearance of a student. She doubtlessly had a role in allowing numerous other paramilitary activities, but the approach of trying her for just one case is wise, as it's been proven in Argentina and elsewhere that such charges often open the way for broader charges (let's not forget Pinochet was originally arrested in London in 1998 just for the deaths of a handful of Spaniards in Chile).

These arrests are extremely important for a couple of reasons. First, they reveal a broad and growing willingness in Argentina to prosecute those responsible for human rights violations. This matters because the military has been unable/unwilling to interfere, making efforts towards justice more possible. Secondly, these arrests are important because they move beyond the prosecution of human rights violations during the period of the military dictatorship (1976-1983) to prosecute those who were involved in human rights violations prior to the dictatorship. From the exit of Juan Peron in 1955 up to 1976, the military popped in and out of politics in Argentina, and human rights violations were not infrequent either on the left or the right in Argentina for those 21 years. It is good to see the courts beginning to go after criminals from the pre-dictatorship period. Finally, by prosecuting people from this period, Argentina is reminding itself (and other nations, such as the U.S.) that the violent period was not limited to the dictatorship itself. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the U.S. and the world stood by and watched as violations increased, and it said nothing. Sure, Kissinger openly supported the dictatorship's torture and murder of what ultimately was more than 30,000 people in Argentina, but the U.S. ignored human rights in Latin American long before that.

Justice marches onward.

Notes on Brasilia (III)

There is one aspect of the Plano Piloto that I feel deserves mention. If I recall correctly, when one reads literature on Brasília, one gets the sense that the plano piloto is a cold, inhumane place of governance and uniform concrete residences with no street names (the street names part is true – they’re divided by quadrants and blocks). This was particularly my impression when I read James Scott’s Seeing Like a State, though I read it nearly 4 years ago and my memory could be cloudy.

Still, I was surprised to see that in many ways this is not the case. Yes, each block is based on numbers and location, and not street names. However, each block is not, strictly speaking, a cold place of concrete residences and nothing else. Rather, each is a self-sufficient little community, full of local bars, restaurants, churches, and schools. Yes, they are self contained, and all the bars/stores/restaurants tend to be located on the same strip of land within the “quadrants” themselves (much like a small-town mainstreet). However, this gives the residential areas a vitality that you don’t usually see in the literature on Brasília, where the photographs tend to focus on the main north-south avenue of residential areas, where, it is true, you can only see large, modernist, soul-less buildings. It’s not much, but it’s worth correcting – the Plano Piloto, despite its reputation, is a lively place with its own personality and sense of community. You just have to get off of the main, five-lane-wide-with-no-sidewalks avenues to see it.

Notes on Brasilia (II)

As I’ve mentioned below, Brasília is a remarkably planned city – sort of. However, the Plano Pilot (Pilot Plan) is only one part of Brasília. The city itself has grown far more rapidly than planner Lúcio Costa, architect Oscar Niemeyer, Juscelino Kubitschek, or anybody else could have planned. When it was completed in 1960, they envisioned Brasília having 500,000 citizens by 2000. By the time 2000 rolled around, Brasília’s population was triple that, 1,500,000, and it has only and will only continue to grow. This is particularly evident in the other bairros of the city.

Firstly, the other bairros are a fair distance from the Plano Piloto proper. I stayed in a part of town called Aguas Claras, which was one of the “closest” parts outside of the Plano Piloto, and you still had to drive through 15 minutes of brush, with virtually no residents or buildings, to arrive to the Plano Piloto. This was a rather odd trip (never leaving the same incorporated city, yet driving through near-nothingness for 15-20 minutes). My guess is that, in order to keep the Plano Piloto strictly in tact, the other parts of the city have to remain a certain distance away, so that it doesn’t all blur together and lose some of its uniqueness (and make no mistake about it – Brasília is unlike any other place in the world).

However, the rapid growth has led to severe growing pains for Brasília, growing pains which have been remarkably unplanned for a city whose reputation is built around how “planned” it is. For example – there is a subway, but it is only 10 years old or so, and as you ride it from the other parts of the city towards the Plano Piloto, you go past numerous uncompleted subway stops. I’m not exactly sure for the reason for this. Again, just guessing, but I suspect that, in the need for a subway, the city decided to install the “essential” stops first (such as the stop at the beginning of the Plano Piloto, on the southern “wing” of the airplane, or the central area), while leaving the other stops in between unfinished and to be completed later. It’s not a major crisis, for the buses and taxis pick up the slack.

The planning of the newer parts of the city is much poorer, however. Buildings are popping up faster than the infrastructure can handle. My girlfriend’s godmother has lived in the Aguas Claras barrio for 10 years, and was one of the first residents in that part of the city. However, the barrio popped up so quickly that it doesn’t even have an underground sewage system. Every apartment building (all of at least 10 stories, making up for the 5-story-maximum imposed in the Plano Piloto) has no interconnected sewage system. Instead, each building has just a giant tank under it, which trucks then come by and empty. I don’t know where it goes, but in some ways, that’s not even that important. What is remarkable is that, in the most rapidly-growing part of Brasilia (buildings under construction litter the landscape – there were three separate buildings being constructed in front of my girlfriend’s godmother’s apartment alone), they lack any sewage system.

Likewise, the buses don’t go to many parts of the city outside of the main routes (unlike, say, Rio de Janeiro), making the dependency on cars even greater. Similarly, while the streets in the Plano Piloto are very clear-cut, following a quasi-grid system, outside of the Plano Piloto, they are thrown pell-mell, built wherever land is sold (thus resembling a sort of Baltimore-like system of roads).

Despite all this, Brasília isn’t some inefficient squalor. However, I quickly learned that the reputation for its strict planning really only applies to one part of the city, and the majority of the city is in reality as susceptible to the vagaries of rapid growth with undefined planning as any city in the world.

Notes on Brasilia (I)

Pardon the lengthiness of this post, but I’ve been sitting on this for nearly a month. And let me say now, I would love to hear from any planners (you know who you are) about what they know/think of Brasilia in the comments thread (once it comes back up).

I had the chance to spend a week in Brasília over the Christmas holiday. This was a trip I’d looked forward too, not just because I had free lodging (ah, the benefits of your Brazilian girlfriend having 9 aunts and uncles and 30 cousins). Much has been made of the creation of Brasília. Scholars (most notably James Scott) have studied the city in depth in terms of its role and mission as a planned city built literally in the middle of nowhere Brazil (there was literally nothing there but grassfields before construction begain in the mid-1950s). In terms of national identity, the creation of Brasília looms large in the historical narrative of Brazil, symbolizing an era of unbridled hope and development that would come crashing down in the 1960s and 1970s as inflation and foreign debt took their tolls. (It’s not coincidental that Brazilians remember the presidency of Juscelino Kubitschek, or “JK,” from 1956 to 1960, with the same fondness that Americans held for JFK for years).

However, you can’t fully appreciate just how “planned” Brasília was in many ways until you’re actually there. As Scott says in Seeing Like the State, the city lacks any major form of sidewalks (safe for dirt walkways in the main governmental esplanade, where all the government offices are). This is both remarkable and a pain in the ass. It was something else to enjoy wide avenues that weren’t congested (a luxury Rio lacks), yet at the same time, I had to pay 10 reais to travel a whole 3 blocks in taxi, just to get to the esplanade. I’ve never been anywhere in Latin America that felt as much like the United States, because you ABSOLUTELY HAVE to have a car to get around in Brasília. Also, the original part of the city (stay tuned for part II) really is shaped like an airplane. However, this doesn’t really hinder travel – it’s remarkably compact, much smaller than I’d imagined, which is fortunate, given the dependency on cars and taxis.

I myself got a big kick out of the modern architecture in the esplanade. The rest of the city is rather drab – just giant concrete buildings reminiscent of authoritarian architecture (although pre-dating the dictatorship in Brazil by 4 years). In some ways, the uniformity reminded me a bit of Albuquerque, NM (where adobe dominates everything, giving a sense of sameness, though at least in NM the building shapes themselves display a little more variety than in Brasília). However, the esplanade is fun, with the national cathedral, a new museum designed by Oscar Niemeyer, and the resplendency of the Congress overlooking the mall.

One last thing that really struck me about Brasília was that it is, hands down, the most self-referential city I’ve ever been too. Certainly, Paris outdoes Brasília in terms of quantity of self-referential items, but all of the efforts at building national identity revolve strictly around the city. For example, in the Plaza de Tres Poderes (where the Presidential palace, the Court, and the Congress are located), there is a giant monument to Juscelino Kubitschek, celebrating the creation of Brasília, as well as a giant bust of Lúcio Costa. There is also a giant, scale-model panorama of the city in the Plaza de Tres Poderes, celebrating Brasilia’s modernist shape and creation. Quotations are scattered throughout the city on buildings, commemmorating the process of Brasília. (During a proto-nationalist independence revolt in 1789, the leader, Tiradentes, demanded the capital be moved from coastal Rio de Janeiro to the interior, and in every constitution from that point on, it was promised that, one day, the national capital would be inland, and not on the coast. It was on this article of the constitution that Kubitschek acted). Likewise, when you enter the Congress, there are quotes commemmorating the creation of Brasília. And when you go to the Juscelino Kubitschek memorial, in the northern part of the “fuselage” of the city, they can’t get out of the model of “The man who built Brasília.” This is rather unfortunate, as Kubitschek did more than just create Brasília (he was the last successful president to employ import-substitution models of modernization in Brazil before the dictatorship turned to attracting foreign investors). Indeed, sometimes, in the narrative within his memorial, they tried to break free of this model, but it always fell short. Basically, the narrative came off as, “Brasília! And he made Brasília!! But he did more, such as spur domestic development….but look!! Brasília!!!” Likewise, the museum barely dealt with the contradictions of the city. One had to get deep into a computer kiosk to find mention that, while poor workers migrated to the site to build Brasília, they were basically building a city that would exclude them, as the residences were reserved for middle- and upper-class politicians and functionaries. This self-reference makes sense – the city is only 47 years old this year, so there isn’t much tradition in the region to build on (it’s still surrounded by nothing but sweeping plains reminiscent of the savannah and plantations). Still, to me it was just striking, and really emphasizes how strongly Brasília was not just a modernist project, but a project intended to add glory to the national narrative.

More Amazon

This is over two weeks old, and a lot has been going on here while we were on (unwilling) hiatus, but this story about people crusading against large companies in the Amazon is worthwhile, and provides more reason for hope in terms of the Amazon. It's just good to see residents in the Amazon not being afraid of landowners and companies in the wake of the murder of activist Dorothy Stang at the beginning of last year. Here's hoping Mr. Feitosa keeps the flame of Stang's efforts alive for a long time (and stays among the living, as well).

Beauty and Anorexia in Brazil

As just about anybody knows, Brazilians, and particularly Brazilian women, are renowned worldwide for their beauty. Brazilian supermodels, most notably Gisele, are frequent figures in the global supermodel scene. While this beauty is sometimes "natural," Brazil also has the highest per capita rate of plastic surgery, increasing the "beauty complex" here (something which has spread to the states, where Brazilians are unfortunately creating and participating in the fatal "basement liposuction" industry, which has led to the deaths of some women).

Unfortunately, it isn't just plastic surgery. Recently, there has been an "anorexica epidemic," as six women have died over the last few months from the effects of anorexia. This made news here in the first case when a young, up-and-coming model who had already broken into the international scene died at 23. Brazilians were shocked. The media was inundated with stories and reports on the effects of anorexia, with news reports and magazine cover stories that lamented the loss of young girls everywhere who fell victim to this mental disease and/or the social pressures of being thin.

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, that was it in terms of reporting. I had heard vaguely of the second of these six deaths, but recently, I haven't seen anything on the news reporting these latter four deaths. It may have been there, and I just missed it. However, I doubt I've missed all four other reports. What seems more likely is that the media hit upon the sensational sadness of a famous model, but hasn't paid attention to the other cases for reasons I do not know (perhaps they simply weren't as famous; I don't want to be too cynical, but perhaps the other victims were not as famous as the model, and the story had already been told, so they were sacrificed for better profit-stories).

And before we be too quick to blame the notion of an American sense of beauty that emphasizes women's weight, we should perhaps look to Argentina, as well. Certainly, many of the images of beauty and thinness come from north of the equator, as one doctor comments, and thus have their role. But, as should come as no surprise, Brazil and Argentina are influential on each other in a number of ways, and the beauty standard may be crossing boundaries. Argentina has the highest per capita rate of cases of anorexia in the world, and buying clothes there can be a subtle insult in and of itself (oftentimes, the "largest" pant size or shirt size only fits women who are too small already).

I don't want it to seem like I'm blaming Argentina solely, or the U.S. solely, or even Brazil solely. Doubtless, there are many influences triggering this recent phenomenon here in Brazil. But, as it would be anywhere else, ultimately it is up to Brazilians themselves to combat such notions of beauty and to accept women as they are. Let us hope that the lessons of these six tragic cases begins to sink into society.

More governmental support for protecting the Amazon

I wrote last month that it seemed Lula was making significant efforts to actually protect the Amazonian rain forest here in Brazil. In more good news, his promises were not just rhetoric, as his government, officially re-inaugurated at the beginning of the month, has launched a program to monitor and prevent logging in the Amazon. Doubtless it will not be 100% successful, but it's so good to see somebody finally putting forth true effort to curb illegal logging in the Amazon.

Book Review: Seth Jacobs, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia, 1950-1957

I highly recommend Seth Jacobs' book, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam. Jacobs takes something that I already knew, that the US supported Diem primarily because he was a Catholic, and uncovers the world behind that action. He demonstrates how the Eisenhower administration and others prominent Americans were so blinded by their own religious and racial prejudices that they supported Diem despite the seemingly obvious fact that he was the worst possible person to lead South Vietnam.

Jacobs reconstructs the support group that pushed Diem into power. In 1954, Diem was a poor South Vietnamese nationalist who hadn't visited his country in several years. He had no support at home. But he did have a vision of himself as South Vietnam's leader and the only alternative to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. He managed to convince important Washington policy makers, including Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Montana Senator Mike Mansfield, as well as people such as Time publisher Henry Luce, of his suitability for the job not because he was strongly anticommunist, though of course this was a prerequisite for such of a position. Rather, he sold these powerful men on the fact that he was Catholic and that Catholics were particularly suited to stop Vietnam from turning communist. Jacobs takes this remarkable job of self-salesmanship and puts it into context of the times. There were 2 important themes of 1950s America that made Diem's rise possible. First, the US underwent an intense religious revival. Religion dominated the period, with over 95% of Americans claiming they believed in God. Men such as Billy Graham became prominent at this time and the Eisenhower administration took on the nation's religious tone. This was particularly true with the loathesome Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. Dulles' religious moralizing assumed that Christianity was necessary to defeat communism, and thus he supported Diem simply because he was a Catholic alternative to other, and better, Buddhist leaders.

Dulles' policies lead us to our second point, racism and the utter ignorance of Southeast Asia by American policymakers. Men like Dulles and the other leading Catholic conservatives who rallied behind Diem had a lot of preconceived notions about Buddhism. Buddhists were lazy, emotional, childlike, irrational, irresponsible, prone to communism, passive, witch doctors, etc., etc. Thus, any Buddhist was entirely unable to lead South Vietnam and provide a strong ally to the US in the global war against communism. This racism turned up again and again, from Dulles' correspondance to Tom Dooley's writings about his experiences as a doctor in Southeast Asia to the widely-read and influential novels of James Michener. Diem, hardly a stupid man when it came to promoting his own self-interest, took advantage of these widespread ideas, saying that his people were far from able to accept democracy and that they needed a strong Christian leader at that key time in their development. Even American liberals such as Mike Mansfield and William O. Douglas accepted this logic and actively supported Diem, despite knowledge of his brutality. These racist stereotypes were easy in an America that knew virtually nothing about this new front against communism. Mansfield was so respected because he had taught Asian history before becoming a Senator. Diem's star rose dramatically when he got the approval of Congress' Asian expert. But Mansfield himself admitted that he knew nothing of Southeast Asia, or any part of Asia outside of China and Japan. The State Department had few experts as well, and those they did have either shared Dulles' views or were ignored, such as General J. Lawton "Lightning Joe" Collins, who was sent as a special envoy to Vietnam in 1954 and 1955. Collins saw Diem for what he was and repeatedly urged Eisenhower, Dulles, and Mansfield to dump him in favor of someone who could actually garner support in South Vietnam. But they refused to listen to Collins and by the end of 1955, Diem's position was stronger than ever.

Jacobs argues in his conclusion that Diem's decline in the early 1960s coincided not coincidentally with the rise of the American civil rights movement and the decline of the 1950s religious revival. The death of Dulles and the election of Kennedy led to a decreased religious influence in American foreign policy. When Buddhist monks started burning themselves to protest Diem's repression of the 90% of South Vietnamese who were Buddhists, many Americans made the connection between the struggles of the monks and the struggles of African-Americans in the South who also fought non-violently for their rights. In any case, Diem's position became increasingly untenable at home and his support fell apart in the US, leading to his assassination in 1963.

Jacobs sums up the failure of the American effort in Vietnam by paraphrasing Robert E. Lee. Lee once said about defeating George McClellan, "McClellan brought the mightiest army ever mustered on North American soil to the gates of Richmond. But he also brought himself." Jacobs writes:

"American policymakers brought the might of history's greatest economic and military superpower to the task of creating and preserving a noncommunist nation in South Vietnam. Five presidential administrations pumped billions of dollars into America's Southeast Asian client and sent thousands of experts to tutor the South Vietnamese on every aspect of national superintendence. The American military performed logistical miracles, constructing airfields and harbors and distributing tons of equipment to field U.S. and native forces. In terms of material wealth and brute force, the United States overshadowed North Vietnam as completely as one belligerent has ever dwarfed another. But American policymakers also brought themselves to Vietnam--their ethnocentrism and parochialism, political arrogance and cultural blindness, all the mental baggage that had accumulated in their minds since childhood. Specifically, they brought interdependent ideologies of religion and race that, analyzed in conjunction with the anticommunist hysteria of the early cold war, can help historians answer Robert Wiebe's anguished question of why 'sophisticated advisors...thought they could create a nation of South Vietnam through a puppet Catholic in Saigon and forced relocation in the countryside. To respond to Wiebe according to his convention: those advisers--Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Senator Mike Mansfield, and others--though they could accomplish this feat because they believed a puppet Catholic was preferable to any non-Christian Vietnamese with indigenous support. Moreover, they viewed Asians as malleable naifs who accomodated, indeed invited, Western management of their national destiny, even if this entailed abandoning ancestral homelands, surrendering previously sacrosanct privilges of village autonomy, and enduring a succession of human-rights abuses that no U.S. policymaker would have tolerated if inflicted on the citizenry of a European ally." (263-64)

What I find remarkable are the similarities between the stories of South Vietnam in the 1950s and Iraq in this decade. In both cases, policy makers fell victim to their own ill-informed and preconceived notions of what a particular part of the world was like and in both cases this led to disastrous consequences for both the United States and the country that US policy was inflicted upon. Both cases saw religious prejuidice and ideology substituted for understanding of the given country. The US was ignorant about both Vietnam and Iraq when it got involved and the nation and particularly policy makers were slow to respond. While we don't yet know the ultimate outcome in Iraq, there is little reason to think that it will end any better than Vietnam did and there is significant reason to believe that this is the worst setback to US prestige in the world since Vietnam. I'd like to think that American policymakers will learn from Iraq, but those in the Bush administration clearly only learned what the wanted to from Vietnam and they ignored the valuable lessons that war could and should have taught.

Back

It's damn good to be back after a long time off. Basically, Blogger wouldn't let us publish. Not good. Too bad it took place during my Mexico trip--there was a lot of crazy stuff I saw there that would have made for good writing. I'll summarize tomorrow.

As you all have noticed, the comment threads are down. This is my fault entirely. A few days ago, trying to see what the hell was going on with the blog, I erased a line in the template that allowed comments. I'm not even sure what I was trying to do or why I got rid of that line. I tried to copy the line first, but I was using a Mac and was evidentally unsuccessful. Go me! So until I figure out how to make comments possible again, that won't be happening. I want to just re-download Haloscan, but their instructions don't match up to the actual Blogger site. Great!!!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love technology?

MIster Trend's Best of 2006

This is way overdue, I'm afraid. This list was finally finished on the afternoon of Deecember 29th, and it was this very post that led to the discovery that, for reasons beyond my understanding, the blog was down. So here, on January 13, I give you my best of 2006 (which, as with any list, is totally arbitrary).

1. TV on the Radio – “Return to Cookie Mountain” – I had a horrible time deciding between this and number 2, but my gut went with this phenomenal album as number one (after all, it is the one I’ve listened to more this year). Not a single bad song from top to bottom, and Sitek’s production is unlike anything else out there (in a good way).

2. Joanna Newsom – “Ys” – This one took a little time to grow on me, but it’s a remarkable feat. Nobody does anything like Newsom, and the touches O'Rourke and Albini bring are perfect. As my review said, it's not for everybody, but it's fucking great.

3. Liars – “Drum’s Not Dead” – Hands down the most haunting album of the year. The press and fans alike killed them for making the misunderstood and underrated “They Were Wrong So We Drowned”. While the Liars continue their streak of bizarre quasi-concept albums (this time, the songs revolve around the characters of Mt. Heart Attack and Drum, who metaphorically reflect stress and stifling, and creativity, respectively), their exploration into unsettling guitar ambience, and the culmination in the fragilely-peaceful closing track, “The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack,” makes this another amazing effort from them. Check them out, if you haven’t already.

4. …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – “So Divided” – The best straightforward rock album of the year. It’s great to see them expanding their sound to incorporate blues, orchestra, tahitian drumming, and other sounds.

5. The Decemberists – “The Crane Wife” – I just really like this, the ELO comparisons be damned (it sounds nothing like bad 70s rock to me). Melloy’s songwriting and understanding of the nuances and interplay of voices and instruments keeps getting better over time.

6. Neko Case – “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” – Nobody has a voice like hers. Nobody. And it’s nice to see some of the subtle changes she adds to her repetoire here. And no single track was as beautiful as “Hold On, Hold On” this year.

7. The Long Blondes – “Someone to Drive You Home” – Still the sexiest album of the year.

8. Cat Power – “The Greatest” – Everybody mentions Chan Marshall’s/Cat Power’s new, upbeat look on life on this album, yet I fail to see how lines such as “Once I wanted to be the Greatest” or “I hate me, myself, and I” really mark a shift. It’s probably due to the use of her Memphis studio band. This is standard sheer beauty from Marshall once again.

9. Scott Walker – “The Drift” – Still the scariest album of the year. Quite a shift from a 60s teen idol. If you haven’t heard it yet, check it out. You may not like it, but you’ve never heard anything like it.

10. Sonic Youth – “Rather Ripped” – Yes, it’s not “Sister” or “Daydream Nation,” but it’s still damn good. There’s nothing wrong with trying out new things (like melodic songs that come in under 4 minutes) in the course of your 25 year career.

11. Beck – “The Information” – This one kind of flew under the radar for reasons unknown. However, it’s a remarkable little gem, fully of catchy songs, fascinating textures that reveal themselves over time, and some of the most direct and impressive lyrics in Beck’s already-great career.

MIster Trend's Random 30

Three weeks away, and the Random 10 (three times) comes back with the proverbial boatload of blues.

1. “Country Boy (live)” – Muddy Waters
2. “Hours (El-P Mix” – TV on the Radio
3. “Lounge” – Regina Spektor
4. “Let’s Make It Last” - Funkadelic
5. “Magic in the Air” – Badly Drawn Boy
6. “Georgia on my Mind” – Ray Charles
7. “La La” – The Polyphonic Spree
8. “Take Me to the Other Side” – Spacemen 3
9. “Doing a Stretch” – Blind Blake
10. “Black and Tan” – Blind Boy Fuller
11. "Inca Rag/Name Game" - Fiery Furnaces
12. "Get Myself Into It" - The Rapture
13. "Boodle-Am-Shake - Dixieland Jug Blowers
14. "Broken Face" - Pixies
15. "Novelty" - Joy Division
16. "On Broadway" - Neil Young
17. "The Wagon" - Dinosaur Jr.
18. "Cross My Heart" - Sonny Boy Williamson
20. "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic" - Public Enemy
21. "Tollin' Bells" - Lowell Fulson
22. "The Ha Ha Wall" - The Libertines
23. "Desta Vez Eu Vou" - Cartola
24. "Swimsuit Issue" - Sonic Youth
25. "Sea Foam" - Land of Talk
26. "Doctor's Orders" - Sonic Youth
27. "Grand Canyon" - The Magnetic Fields
28. "Papito" - Manu Chao
29. "Halowwen on the Barbarty Coast" - The Flaming Lips
30. "Bocuma" - Boards of Canada

Lyrad's Random 10 (x3)

Since it's been three full Fridays since we've been able to do this, I'm going to go ahead and put thirty random songs instead of the usual ten. Forgive the length, this is one night only.

1. The Skillet Lickers--Hinckey, Dinkey, Dee
2. Neurosis--Stones from the Sky
3. Pete Mays--Texas Jump
4. Clutch--Milk of Human Kindness
5. Johannes Pachelbel--Choral Prelude "Ich hab'mein Sach'Gott heimgestelt" for Organ, POP.57
6. Branford Marsalis--In Our House for Horns, Piano and Percussion
7. Pluramon--Fibonacci Express
8. Tifa--Mane Kiat (Timor traditional)
9. Kayhan Kalhor--Gallop of a Thousand Horses (perf by Kronos Qt)
10. Angelo Badalamenti--Mr. Roque/Betty's Theme (from the soundtrack to Mullholland Drive)
11. Duke Ellington--Things Ain't What They Used to Be
12. Battle of Mice--The Lamb and the Labradour
13. Ottorino Respighi--Regina di Saba; 4.Danza Orgiastica (perf by UNLV Wind Orch)
14. Richard Wagner--Rienzi (Opera in 5 Acts); Overture (perf by NBC SO, Arturo Toscanini, cond.)
15. Lemmy--Laudy Miss Claudy
16. Bumble Bee Slim--I Keep on Drinking
17. The Pixies--Bird Dream of the Olympic Mons
18. Reverend HR Tomlin--Amazing Grace
19. John Zorn--Con mistero
20. Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsant--Echidna
21. John Buddy (as The Caresser) and his Blue Rhythm Orchestra--Shango (Calypso)
22. Johannes Brahms--Quartet No.3 in B-flat for Strings, Op.67; 2.Andante
23. The Louvin Brothers--Southern Moon
24. Flatt & Scruggs--Wabash Cannonball
25. Ennio Morricone--Ninna Nanna in Blu (from the soundtrack to Il gato a Nove Code)
26. Rasputina--My Little Shirtwaist Fire
27. Scorn--Light Trap
28. Ruins--Vrresto
29. John Prine--The Late John Garfield Blues
30. Wayne Hancock--Route 23

We're Back!!

Well, after almost three weeks of no explanation and no response, we're back online. Sorry for the delays, but I'm just happy we didn't have to change blogs .Vive Alterdestiny!!!