They've been playing this as the background for a British Airways commercial lately. Which reminds me---I haven't been working on my London website for way over a year now. Joan sucks up all the time and attention! (Of course.)
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
I'd love to turn you on
Dusty doing her 1969 hit "Son of a Preacher Man" in 1979, at the Royal Albert Hall.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Dusty Springfield: Wishin' and Hopin'
Look, especially, at the cutaways. She's amazing! (Note to ex-lover Carole Pope: If Dusty Springfield wanted to drag her drunk ass home at 6 a.m.... OK, some people should get a little slack just because they're...DUSTY SPRINGFIELD!) ;)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Oak Trees
This afternoon I had a hard nap---a really hard sleep with some hard dreams. I was back in Azle, Texas, where I lived from 1976 to 1983. In real life, we had some land there, with a pond, a creek, acres of oak trees.
In the part of the dream I remember, I was out in the woods, looking at oak tree after oak tree. All were huge and ancient. And one stood there with a pink garland of flowers around it. I stood there in front of it, staring and staring, trying to understand what it was trying to tell me. Something of meaning had happened on that site. I felt it, but couldn't get a grasp of what exactly.
Even as I write this, I still see those oaks. The silence of those oaks. Honestly, I think that I was dead while I was looking at them. I don't understand. I certainly have no conscious desire to be buried or to have my ashes scattered in Azle when I die. And, while I spent many, many hours out in those woods by myself when I was young... Oh. That's it, I guess. Some kind of imprinting. It was a very lonesome and desolate feeling. I don't know that I'd be happy there as a ghost. It would be familiar to me, but I don't think that I would be happy. Spooking squirrels and lost kids and leaves.
In the part of the dream I remember, I was out in the woods, looking at oak tree after oak tree. All were huge and ancient. And one stood there with a pink garland of flowers around it. I stood there in front of it, staring and staring, trying to understand what it was trying to tell me. Something of meaning had happened on that site. I felt it, but couldn't get a grasp of what exactly.
Even as I write this, I still see those oaks. The silence of those oaks. Honestly, I think that I was dead while I was looking at them. I don't understand. I certainly have no conscious desire to be buried or to have my ashes scattered in Azle when I die. And, while I spent many, many hours out in those woods by myself when I was young... Oh. That's it, I guess. Some kind of imprinting. It was a very lonesome and desolate feeling. I don't know that I'd be happy there as a ghost. It would be familiar to me, but I don't think that I would be happy. Spooking squirrels and lost kids and leaves.
Awkward Moments in Lesbian Lore
"Can't seem to get a hold of your love.../I'm sick of being submissive when I really want to scream..."
Dusty Springfield appearing at ex-lover Carole Pope's farewell show in Montreal, 1986. (Pope's band was "Rough Trade"---apparently, according to her biography, very big in Canada. Pope and Springfield lived together for about 6 months in 1981. This Montreal show was the last time they ever saw each other. Springfield died of cancer in 1999.)
In Pope's 2000 bio, she remembers a fire backstage just prior to Dusty's going on, then Dusty's appearance as "relaxed...We started joking and it was all sexual innuendo. I said, 'Who's gonna be on top?' Dusty said, 'I'll be on top, no you be on top.'"
The song that Dusty sings, "Softcore," is beautiful.
But afterwards, rather than "relaxed," I find the "banter" between Pope and Springfield not sexy or playful at all, but, rather, uncomfortably tense, with Pope glaring at her. The "who's on top" comments come after some awkward stage maneuvering and awkward jokes about whose hair is bigger ("your hair's bigger than mine, time to leave the stage") and who wrote the song that Dusty just sang...
All of this, combined with the fact that 1986 shoulder-pads and big hair just are not attractive, makes me cringe! (Though, in Dusty's defense for looking bad at age 47, and acting weird, she hadn't yet sobered up.) I'm also not a big fan of Pope after reading her biography---though she's a Leo, like me, and I've yet to meet a Leo I didn't like, she comes across as rather shallow. Plus, in general, I hate that extremely annoying "butch act." My vote: Team Dusty.)
Dusty Springfield appearing at ex-lover Carole Pope's farewell show in Montreal, 1986. (Pope's band was "Rough Trade"---apparently, according to her biography, very big in Canada. Pope and Springfield lived together for about 6 months in 1981. This Montreal show was the last time they ever saw each other. Springfield died of cancer in 1999.)
In Pope's 2000 bio, she remembers a fire backstage just prior to Dusty's going on, then Dusty's appearance as "relaxed...We started joking and it was all sexual innuendo. I said, 'Who's gonna be on top?' Dusty said, 'I'll be on top, no you be on top.'"
The song that Dusty sings, "Softcore," is beautiful.
But afterwards, rather than "relaxed," I find the "banter" between Pope and Springfield not sexy or playful at all, but, rather, uncomfortably tense, with Pope glaring at her. The "who's on top" comments come after some awkward stage maneuvering and awkward jokes about whose hair is bigger ("your hair's bigger than mine, time to leave the stage") and who wrote the song that Dusty just sang...
All of this, combined with the fact that 1986 shoulder-pads and big hair just are not attractive, makes me cringe! (Though, in Dusty's defense for looking bad at age 47, and acting weird, she hadn't yet sobered up.) I'm also not a big fan of Pope after reading her biography---though she's a Leo, like me, and I've yet to meet a Leo I didn't like, she comes across as rather shallow. Plus, in general, I hate that extremely annoying "butch act." My vote: Team Dusty.)
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Rose-Colored Glasses
John Conlee, 1979. "These rose-colored glasses show only the beauty..."
I miss this kind of sentiment from a man. I've been in the Northeast for a year-and-a-half now... Southerners are definitely more soulful and expressive... (Nonetheless, I still like butch Jersey men! Shout-out to my gentlemanly cab-driver Tony from Wednesday!) :)
My sister-in-law once said to me that she couldn't understand how two women could ever get along as lovers---all of the ongoing angst and neuroses, etc., with nothing to counter it. I must say I agree. I don't know that a "good ol' boy" would be a better solution, but at least such would be simpler...
I miss this kind of sentiment from a man. I've been in the Northeast for a year-and-a-half now... Southerners are definitely more soulful and expressive... (Nonetheless, I still like butch Jersey men! Shout-out to my gentlemanly cab-driver Tony from Wednesday!) :)
My sister-in-law once said to me that she couldn't understand how two women could ever get along as lovers---all of the ongoing angst and neuroses, etc., with nothing to counter it. I must say I agree. I don't know that a "good ol' boy" would be a better solution, but at least such would be simpler...
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
"I close my eyes and count to ten..."
Wow! I was looking for Dusty singing this, and instead came across Anni-Frid's much-more-powerful Swedish version:
Dusty Springfield: Sunny (1967)
I've always hated this song. What I like a lot about Dusty's version here, though, is...first, her intro! How cute is she! And then, compare and contrast the initial "cute" with her voice in the actual song, when she goes all "sophisticated woman" and "drivingly interpretive" on your unsuspecting, sluggish ass! :)
Who people watch onscreen
from the September 2008 New Yorker:
"Years ago a scientific study, which electronically tracked eyeball movement, demonstrated that, during the showing of a motion picture, the eyes of the men in the audience followed the women on the screen. But so did the eyes of the women."
"Years ago a scientific study, which electronically tracked eyeball movement, demonstrated that, during the showing of a motion picture, the eyes of the men in the audience followed the women on the screen. But so did the eyes of the women."
The Snarky New Yorker
It pains me to write this, after loving and subscribing to the New Yorker for over 15 years.
In the October 13 issue, the magazine carried an article by James Wood called "Verbage," in which he mocks Sarah Palin for allegedly mis-using the English language.
In my 15 years of subscribing to the New Yorker, I've never written a letter, but here's my first, which I just sent in tonight:
--------------------------------------------------
I've got several problems with the ridiculously snide "Verbage" article "authored" by James Wood, in which he mocks Sarah Palin's use of the English language.
First, why does Wood insist on putting "authored" in quotes, as if Palin had made the word up or was using it incorrectly? The two reputable English-language dictionaries that I double-checked both included "to author" as a verb, with the definition being "to write."
Similarly, the same two dictionaries each listed an acceptable pronunciation of the word "verbiage" as "verb-ij" (as Palin pronounced it). While "verb-ee-ij" is more common, "verb-ij" is also correct; I'm puzzled as to why Wood would think that Palin was making up a new word, "verbage," in her pronunciation.
Finally, Wood snarkily (in the dictionary as an "informal" word) excoriates Palin for her "hazy phrases" such as "I do take issue with some of the principle there with that redistribution of wealth principle that seems to be espoused by you." Here Wood deliberately deletes the dash that should indicate the pause in speech that Palin actually made. Insert the dash where it should be, after "there," and the sentence reads perfectly clearly. (I experimented with mentally deleting the dashes in Wood's own sentences in the article; they, too, were thus reduced to "haziness" and open to ridicule.)
Such ill-founded criticism doesn't hurt Palin with non-ideologues; it just makes Wood look like he's playground-taunting rather than pointing out actual flaws.
In the October 13 issue, the magazine carried an article by James Wood called "Verbage," in which he mocks Sarah Palin for allegedly mis-using the English language.
In my 15 years of subscribing to the New Yorker, I've never written a letter, but here's my first, which I just sent in tonight:
--------------------------------------------------
I've got several problems with the ridiculously snide "Verbage" article "authored" by James Wood, in which he mocks Sarah Palin's use of the English language.
First, why does Wood insist on putting "authored" in quotes, as if Palin had made the word up or was using it incorrectly? The two reputable English-language dictionaries that I double-checked both included "to author" as a verb, with the definition being "to write."
Similarly, the same two dictionaries each listed an acceptable pronunciation of the word "verbiage" as "verb-ij" (as Palin pronounced it). While "verb-ee-ij" is more common, "verb-ij" is also correct; I'm puzzled as to why Wood would think that Palin was making up a new word, "verbage," in her pronunciation.
Finally, Wood snarkily (in the dictionary as an "informal" word) excoriates Palin for her "hazy phrases" such as "I do take issue with some of the principle there with that redistribution of wealth principle that seems to be espoused by you." Here Wood deliberately deletes the dash that should indicate the pause in speech that Palin actually made. Insert the dash where it should be, after "there," and the sentence reads perfectly clearly. (I experimented with mentally deleting the dashes in Wood's own sentences in the article; they, too, were thus reduced to "haziness" and open to ridicule.)
Such ill-founded criticism doesn't hurt Palin with non-ideologues; it just makes Wood look like he's playground-taunting rather than pointing out actual flaws.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Speaking of Dusty...
Performing her first solo hit; on Dutch TV, 1964.
(BTW: The Bay City Rollers re-did this in '76---my first favorite band, the first song I ever heard of theirs.)
(BTW: The Bay City Rollers re-did this in '76---my first favorite band, the first song I ever heard of theirs.)
"She Loves You": Bouncy Brits vs. Sluggish Swedes
Here's the goosebump-raising Brit TV version, on "Ready, Steady, Go!" Introduced by the gay (nearly-my-girlfriend) Dusty Springfield making eyes at my boyfriend John Lennon (followed up by a discussion of Brigitte Bardot and dialectical materialism---really, I don't make this shit up).
And then here's the song again on Swedish TV's "Drop In" (where the only person moving is the always-exuberant Paul McCartney). These kids couldn't even get it up for the following rave-up "Twist and Shout" while the group was standing 6 inches away from them! Thank goodness the group went to Hamburg and not Stockholm to practice! (Sometimes it's good when Germans get excited.):
And then here's the song again on Swedish TV's "Drop In" (where the only person moving is the always-exuberant Paul McCartney). These kids couldn't even get it up for the following rave-up "Twist and Shout" while the group was standing 6 inches away from them! Thank goodness the group went to Hamburg and not Stockholm to practice! (Sometimes it's good when Germans get excited.):
Monday, October 06, 2008
1974. Dolly Parton on "Hee-Haw."
Before anyone camp got ahold of her. This always was a beautiful, sincere song. (Whitney fucked it up with her shrieking. Just as the drag queens fuck up Dolly with their own shrieking. Here's Dolly in her original country element, with the song she herself wrote, before being "interpreted.")
p.s. An interesting side-note: Elvis wanted to record the song, but he demanded a 50% ownership of it. Dolly refused. Way to go, girl!
p.s. An interesting side-note: Elvis wanted to record the song, but he demanded a 50% ownership of it. Dolly refused. Way to go, girl!
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Not-so-clean Sweep
This afternoon I was in the grocery store shopping for fall gew-gaws and doo-dads like pumpkins and such, since the weather was so perfect and crisp and I was in the mood for making my apartment look and smell "fall and crisp." There was a mutedly colorful fall flower bouquet marked down from $9.99 to $3.99, which I snatched up. And a scented decorative pine broom in the $2.99 pile o' fall things... (Yeah, like hell. It turned out to actually be $5.99.)
While I was waiting in the checkout line with my delightful figurative cornucopeia o' fall delights, the aging male hippie in front of me started getting bored and looking around... He glanced back at me, then glanced at my pine broom. Then couldn't stop glancing the fuck back at the broom, to the point of finally sticking his face up against it to sniff it, at which point he had gone too far and was forced to acknowledge my human presence.
[nod]
[nod]
What is that exactly?
It's a broom.
A broom? What do you do with it?
I fly around on it.
[ha-ha look, then] No really.
Really, I fly around on it!
[blank look]
OK, I sweep my house with it.
[blank look] Do you really sweep your house with it?
No! Please. It's a SCENTED broom. It's fall. It smells like fall. You stick it in a corner of your house and it smells good and makes you think of fall.
Oh, OK.[a few beats of silence, then] I just asked 'cause a lady came to my door yesterday and asked to cut some of the herbs we had growing in front. I said "sure," and then she told me she was a witch. I don't know why she told me that. But my wife does like to burn incense in the house to make it smell good.
I hope you told the witch, Help yourself, lady!
[haw-haw]
Then, mutual chit-chat about "witches" and "household scents" and the holidays and the upcoming cold weather. At the end, I promised to "fly over" to visit him.
This kind of thing can be cute... or it can tire you the fuck out!
While I was waiting in the checkout line with my delightful figurative cornucopeia o' fall delights, the aging male hippie in front of me started getting bored and looking around... He glanced back at me, then glanced at my pine broom. Then couldn't stop glancing the fuck back at the broom, to the point of finally sticking his face up against it to sniff it, at which point he had gone too far and was forced to acknowledge my human presence.
[nod]
[nod]
What is that exactly?
It's a broom.
A broom? What do you do with it?
I fly around on it.
[ha-ha look, then] No really.
Really, I fly around on it!
[blank look]
OK, I sweep my house with it.
[blank look] Do you really sweep your house with it?
No! Please. It's a SCENTED broom. It's fall. It smells like fall. You stick it in a corner of your house and it smells good and makes you think of fall.
Oh, OK.[a few beats of silence, then] I just asked 'cause a lady came to my door yesterday and asked to cut some of the herbs we had growing in front. I said "sure," and then she told me she was a witch. I don't know why she told me that. But my wife does like to burn incense in the house to make it smell good.
I hope you told the witch, Help yourself, lady!
[haw-haw]
Then, mutual chit-chat about "witches" and "household scents" and the holidays and the upcoming cold weather. At the end, I promised to "fly over" to visit him.
This kind of thing can be cute... or it can tire you the fuck out!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Are You Experienced? / Wall vs. Main Street
Obama supporters have been hyping Obama as the "next JFK."
JFK as compared to Barack Obama, service-wise:
JFK:
1941-45: a lieutenant in the Navy in WWII, and a war hero.
1947-52: a US congressman.
1952-1957: a US Senator
1958: Re-elected Senator. Elected President in 1960.
JFK had 14 years of national experience: 6 in the House, 8 in the Senate before he decided to run for the presidency.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Barack Obama:
1997 - 2004: Illinois State Senate. (During this time, Obama also taught at the University of Chicago and worked for a Chicago law firm.)
2004: Obama elected to the US Senate. He declares for President 2 years later.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sarah Palin:
1992: Wasilla City Council (4 years)
1996: Wasilla Mayor (6 years)
2003 - 2004: Chair of Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
2006: Elected Alaska Governor.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I don't care how well-spoken Obama is or how nervous Palin is when speaking. Obama's less experienced than Sarah Palin when it comes to actually being in charge of anything. Though, Obama thought about running for president for a lot longer than she did, and so he has a lot more sound-bites at his disposal. The man has simply not put in his time and/or accomplished anything to warrant his being President. (I'll admit that Palin isn't particularly qualified to be President, either. However, the difference between Obama and Palin is that Palin is the VP choice---she didn't run for President, didn't presume to be at that level. McCain chose her for VP, so now she's cramming to catch up and rise to the occasion.)
Obama, on the other hand, himself decided that he was qualified. But, legislatively, he's been at the forefront of nothing and has contributed nothing nationally. In fact, he's been rather a well-spoken intellectual burden.
RE this current economic mess, for instance: John McCain warned about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their need for regulation years ago (in 2003 and 2005). At the same time, Obama was busy promoting, via the ACORN community-organizer group (which he once worked for in Chicago and maintains ties with), the cause of banks helping underqualified (i.e. "poor") buyers to purchase homes.
Who all do you think has been unable to make their house payments? The Obama Poor. The other part of the problem: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took up said poor-and-minorities' loans earlier after pressure from the Democrats. Greedy banks then thought, "Well, the sub-prime loans are guaranteed by the government, so we can gamble on them." As someone on CNBC today pointed out, for every $1 in actual capital, the banks were $100 in debt because of those extremely risky loans. The common-sense ratio---had things been regulated---should have been much more like $1 capital to $10 debt. And then when the credit risks couldn't make their mortgage payments--surprise!--the banks were screwed. And I don't mean "slightly" screwed---they were and are screwed to the point of major institutions shutting down and threatening every type of loan most middle Americans once took for granted: ranging from something as minor as a car loan, to something middling like a college loan, to something major like a home or business loan. The money ... just ... ain't ... there ... any ... more.
Why? The ACORN-lobbied/liberal Democrat-supported high-risk house loans to the poor. And the banks' willingness to lend to high-risk borrowers just because the government said, via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that it was OK.
None of this is OK.
JFK as compared to Barack Obama, service-wise:
JFK:
1941-45: a lieutenant in the Navy in WWII, and a war hero.
1947-52: a US congressman.
1952-1957: a US Senator
1958: Re-elected Senator. Elected President in 1960.
JFK had 14 years of national experience: 6 in the House, 8 in the Senate before he decided to run for the presidency.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Barack Obama:
1997 - 2004: Illinois State Senate. (During this time, Obama also taught at the University of Chicago and worked for a Chicago law firm.)
2004: Obama elected to the US Senate. He declares for President 2 years later.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sarah Palin:
1992: Wasilla City Council (4 years)
1996: Wasilla Mayor (6 years)
2003 - 2004: Chair of Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
2006: Elected Alaska Governor.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I don't care how well-spoken Obama is or how nervous Palin is when speaking. Obama's less experienced than Sarah Palin when it comes to actually being in charge of anything. Though, Obama thought about running for president for a lot longer than she did, and so he has a lot more sound-bites at his disposal. The man has simply not put in his time and/or accomplished anything to warrant his being President. (I'll admit that Palin isn't particularly qualified to be President, either. However, the difference between Obama and Palin is that Palin is the VP choice---she didn't run for President, didn't presume to be at that level. McCain chose her for VP, so now she's cramming to catch up and rise to the occasion.)
Obama, on the other hand, himself decided that he was qualified. But, legislatively, he's been at the forefront of nothing and has contributed nothing nationally. In fact, he's been rather a well-spoken intellectual burden.
RE this current economic mess, for instance: John McCain warned about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their need for regulation years ago (in 2003 and 2005). At the same time, Obama was busy promoting, via the ACORN community-organizer group (which he once worked for in Chicago and maintains ties with), the cause of banks helping underqualified (i.e. "poor") buyers to purchase homes.
Who all do you think has been unable to make their house payments? The Obama Poor. The other part of the problem: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took up said poor-and-minorities' loans earlier after pressure from the Democrats. Greedy banks then thought, "Well, the sub-prime loans are guaranteed by the government, so we can gamble on them." As someone on CNBC today pointed out, for every $1 in actual capital, the banks were $100 in debt because of those extremely risky loans. The common-sense ratio---had things been regulated---should have been much more like $1 capital to $10 debt. And then when the credit risks couldn't make their mortgage payments--surprise!--the banks were screwed. And I don't mean "slightly" screwed---they were and are screwed to the point of major institutions shutting down and threatening every type of loan most middle Americans once took for granted: ranging from something as minor as a car loan, to something middling like a college loan, to something major like a home or business loan. The money ... just ... ain't ... there ... any ... more.
Why? The ACORN-lobbied/liberal Democrat-supported high-risk house loans to the poor. And the banks' willingness to lend to high-risk borrowers just because the government said, via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that it was OK.
None of this is OK.
Friday, September 26, 2008
"Ivory Tower Intellectuals" and Sarah Palin
Back in the '50s and '60s in the U.S., it used to be popular for "regular folks" (and conservatives from Southern and Midwestern and Western states) to sling around charges of being an "ivory tower intellectual" at, say, presidential candidates like Adlai Stevenson, or powerful East Coast media sources like the New York Times that were perceived to be "snooty" or out-of-touch with common-sense realities. Nowadays, the "ivory tower" moniker has been replaced with the simpler "elitist." Still flung at candidates (Obama) and the Times.
It's a defensive, insecure charge, admittedly. (Trying to denigrate something that, while it may indeed be "hoity-toity," is also still obviously of quality.) Yet this name-calling came about of necessity---the nationwide media really was, as it still is (though less-so, thanks to the Internet), centered in the Northeast, and it really was, and is, run primarily by men who had attended Ivy League schools and who all tended to have a certain mind-set about how things should be run, and who looked down on "lesser educated" folk from other "backward" (i.e., "non-Northeastern") parts of the country. Who wouldn't be offended by being so sneered at and belittled? Who wouldn't fight back? (Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, to name a few politicians. Though the "fighting back" didn't reach its apotheosis of skill until the Reagan-era.)
As I've mentioned on this blog before, I've always voted Democrat since I first was old enough to vote (1984). As a teen and college student, I always mocked those who mocked the "ivory tower intellectuals" as being, yes... "backward." As a kid not yet out in the world, their charges of "elitism" and "bias" seemed ludicrous, nothing but noise made by those who felt inferior.
However, this fall cycle of the 2008 election has made me re-think my earlier dismissal of those who criticized the "elite" for their bias. Since Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate, the media first tried desperately to find mis-deeds during her term as Alaska governor. All they could come up with was "Trooper-gate"---Palin allegedly trying to fire her ex-brother-in-law because he'd tasered his 11-year-old stepson, illegally shot a moose, drank on the job, and threatened to shoot his father-in-law in the head.
When the idiotic "Trooper-gate" didn't pan out, the onslaught of the "elite" media attention quickly turned to idiotic things like: (1) Palin didn't go to "elite" schools like Obama did; and (2) Palin didn't even get a passport until last year. (Implying, "What a rube!")
Katie Couric, in an interview this week on CBS, asked Palin directly about the passport question, wondering if Palin didn't even "feel some curiosity about other cultures." Palin's simple response struck a chord with me: She said that, while she would have liked to have travelled to other countries as a youth, she just never had the money to do so, nor did her family have the money to let her do so. (And, as she got older, she had a family to take care of.)
I personally have a current passport, so this ridiculous "charge" could not be levelled against me. But I have a passport because my mother is German, and I'm a dual citizen of Germany and the U.S. (The four times I've been to Germany have been because my mother paid for it.) If it weren't for that, I would be exactly in Sarah Palin's position of having to defend myself against charges of "not feeling any curiosity about other cultures" (regardless of how much curiosity I actually felt) just because I'd been too poor for most of my life to be able to afford a summer, or a vacation, in Europe.
For the media to make constant snide comments about Palin's lack of travel was, indeed, an example of "elitism" and snobbery at its very worst. (Reminding me, also, of my one college interview---In the spring of my senior year, I'd already been accepted at UT-Austin; the only other school I'd applied to was Yale. At the Yale interview at an alumnus's office in Fort Worth (I can't remember the man's face, but I remember the incredibly thick carpets in his office), the rich businessman asked me where I'd "vacationed summers" during my high school years... "Um, I've been working at K-Mart the last two summers to earn money for college." Ouch! Obviously not Yale material! ;p
As for Palin's "crap state schools": As a graduate of one of the top universities in the world (#32 by this ranking, and ranked 15th by the London Times), I'm darn proud of UT, yet I also know that I just went there because I was a smart Texas local, and UT made it relatively cheap for smart locals to go to school there. Palin grew up in Alaska, tried out Hawaii and Idaho schools, finally graduating from Idaho State, I think. Did she not go on to an "elite" school like Columbia because she wasn't smart? Probably not the reason. She probably wasn't able to go to such schools because her grandparents didn't pay her way to an expensive liberal arts "starter school" (like Obama's grandparents paid for his Occidental College education). Nor was she eligible for any race-based admissions to schools such as Columbia. (Obama himself said that his grades at Occidental weren't good. How, then, did he ever get admitted to Columbia?)
I think denigrating Palin for what schools she went to, or the status of her passport, are completely ludicrous, and desperate, criteria. The "ivory tower intellectuals" have learned to bitch-and-moan with their "lesser" citizens.
And a final note about the complete bias against Palin in the media: This week, Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden claimed on the CBS Evening News, re the financial crisis: "When the stock market crashed, FDR got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'" Only trouble is: (1) The stock market last crashed in 1929---when Herbert Hoover, not FDR, was President. (2) Television didn't make an appearance until 1939.
I saw two snippets in papers about Biden's stupid comments. Imagine what a huge blow-up it would have been if Palin had said such a dumb thing.
It's a defensive, insecure charge, admittedly. (Trying to denigrate something that, while it may indeed be "hoity-toity," is also still obviously of quality.) Yet this name-calling came about of necessity---the nationwide media really was, as it still is (though less-so, thanks to the Internet), centered in the Northeast, and it really was, and is, run primarily by men who had attended Ivy League schools and who all tended to have a certain mind-set about how things should be run, and who looked down on "lesser educated" folk from other "backward" (i.e., "non-Northeastern") parts of the country. Who wouldn't be offended by being so sneered at and belittled? Who wouldn't fight back? (Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, to name a few politicians. Though the "fighting back" didn't reach its apotheosis of skill until the Reagan-era.)
As I've mentioned on this blog before, I've always voted Democrat since I first was old enough to vote (1984). As a teen and college student, I always mocked those who mocked the "ivory tower intellectuals" as being, yes... "backward." As a kid not yet out in the world, their charges of "elitism" and "bias" seemed ludicrous, nothing but noise made by those who felt inferior.
However, this fall cycle of the 2008 election has made me re-think my earlier dismissal of those who criticized the "elite" for their bias. Since Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate, the media first tried desperately to find mis-deeds during her term as Alaska governor. All they could come up with was "Trooper-gate"---Palin allegedly trying to fire her ex-brother-in-law because he'd tasered his 11-year-old stepson, illegally shot a moose, drank on the job, and threatened to shoot his father-in-law in the head.
When the idiotic "Trooper-gate" didn't pan out, the onslaught of the "elite" media attention quickly turned to idiotic things like: (1) Palin didn't go to "elite" schools like Obama did; and (2) Palin didn't even get a passport until last year. (Implying, "What a rube!")
Katie Couric, in an interview this week on CBS, asked Palin directly about the passport question, wondering if Palin didn't even "feel some curiosity about other cultures." Palin's simple response struck a chord with me: She said that, while she would have liked to have travelled to other countries as a youth, she just never had the money to do so, nor did her family have the money to let her do so. (And, as she got older, she had a family to take care of.)
I personally have a current passport, so this ridiculous "charge" could not be levelled against me. But I have a passport because my mother is German, and I'm a dual citizen of Germany and the U.S. (The four times I've been to Germany have been because my mother paid for it.) If it weren't for that, I would be exactly in Sarah Palin's position of having to defend myself against charges of "not feeling any curiosity about other cultures" (regardless of how much curiosity I actually felt) just because I'd been too poor for most of my life to be able to afford a summer, or a vacation, in Europe.
For the media to make constant snide comments about Palin's lack of travel was, indeed, an example of "elitism" and snobbery at its very worst. (Reminding me, also, of my one college interview---In the spring of my senior year, I'd already been accepted at UT-Austin; the only other school I'd applied to was Yale. At the Yale interview at an alumnus's office in Fort Worth (I can't remember the man's face, but I remember the incredibly thick carpets in his office), the rich businessman asked me where I'd "vacationed summers" during my high school years... "Um, I've been working at K-Mart the last two summers to earn money for college." Ouch! Obviously not Yale material! ;p
As for Palin's "crap state schools": As a graduate of one of the top universities in the world (#32 by this ranking, and ranked 15th by the London Times), I'm darn proud of UT, yet I also know that I just went there because I was a smart Texas local, and UT made it relatively cheap for smart locals to go to school there. Palin grew up in Alaska, tried out Hawaii and Idaho schools, finally graduating from Idaho State, I think. Did she not go on to an "elite" school like Columbia because she wasn't smart? Probably not the reason. She probably wasn't able to go to such schools because her grandparents didn't pay her way to an expensive liberal arts "starter school" (like Obama's grandparents paid for his Occidental College education). Nor was she eligible for any race-based admissions to schools such as Columbia. (Obama himself said that his grades at Occidental weren't good. How, then, did he ever get admitted to Columbia?)
I think denigrating Palin for what schools she went to, or the status of her passport, are completely ludicrous, and desperate, criteria. The "ivory tower intellectuals" have learned to bitch-and-moan with their "lesser" citizens.
And a final note about the complete bias against Palin in the media: This week, Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden claimed on the CBS Evening News, re the financial crisis: "When the stock market crashed, FDR got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'" Only trouble is: (1) The stock market last crashed in 1929---when Herbert Hoover, not FDR, was President. (2) Television didn't make an appearance until 1939.
I saw two snippets in papers about Biden's stupid comments. Imagine what a huge blow-up it would have been if Palin had said such a dumb thing.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Humans' desire to know
In real-life, who can you stare at with impunity/immunity, without feeling weird or having to look away? Only babies and little kids.
Aside from that, we're absolutely starved for being able to watch our fellow human beings. Just as we're starved for being able to have some insight into what strangers are thinking.
Thus the invention and power of the movies. And of blogs. Both enable you to look and look and look, without being judged yourself.
Aside from that, we're absolutely starved for being able to watch our fellow human beings. Just as we're starved for being able to have some insight into what strangers are thinking.
Thus the invention and power of the movies. And of blogs. Both enable you to look and look and look, without being judged yourself.
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