September 2008 Archives

TOP TEN QUESTIONS FOR MCCAIN'S CAMPAIGN (Letterman, via Kurtzman)

10. "I just contributed to your campaign - how do I get a refund?"
9. "It's Sarah Palin -- does this mean I'm pars'dent?"
8. "Can't you solve this by selling some of your houses?"
7. "This is Clay Aiken. Is McCain single?"
6. "Do you still think the fundamentals of our economy are strong, Genius?"
5. "Are you doing all of this just to get out of going on Letterman?"
4. "What would Matlock do?"
3. "Hillary here -- my schedule is free Friday night."
2. "Is this just an excuse to catch up on napping?"
1. "This is President Bush -- what's all this trouble with the economy?"

(See video to crack header above.)

How about Three Strikes You're Out! Cue Paul Krugman on PBS Newshour last night. Or hey, how about: "They didn't NEED to strike our Twin Towers -- they were already ROTTING FROM WITHIN!" Too bad about that collateral damage, huh? VOTE NO BAILOUT

Best thing yet on Dark Knight, just let me add one thing: a posthumous performance like Ledger's, which already upstages Jack Nicholson, feels beyond tragic:

Yet I suspect it is still the news. While both candidates run on the premise that Washington Is Broken, I'm disinclined to disagree, only to add: our good faith with ourselves is broken, too, a cost of silencing or at best mumbling the most crucial truths. Among these, pre-eminently, is the fact that torture evaporates our every rational claim to justice, and will likely be the signature national crime of our generation -- a matter in which we are, by the very definition of democracy, complicit. (Perhaps some unconsciously hope that electing a man who was himself tortured will provide moral cover, just as Batman's losing his parents to violent crime forever renews his revenger's passport.) -- Jonathan Lethem in the NYTimes

Chicago Reader has upgraded its archives, and voila.

Brown University: three lectures
SGT PEPPER (9/16, 4pm, see poster below)
FEVER: HOW ROCK TRANSFORMED GENDER (10/30)
MUSIC CRITICISM (12/2)
Host: Professor Rose Rosengard Subotnik (401) 863-3234

Society for Music Theory
November 7 & 8, 2008, Nashville, TN
Plenary Session: The Pop Music Catalog
Host: Professor Gretchen Horlacher, Indiana University
with: Walter Everett (University of Michigan), David Brackett (McGill University)

Skidmore College
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Host: Professor Gordon R. Thompson, Department of Music
40th Anniversary of the Beatles White Album
with: Walter Everett (University of Michigan), Allan Kozinn (New York Times),
and Jonathan Gould (Can't Buy Me Love)

Brown University: three lectures
SGT PEPPER (9/16, 4pm, see poster below)
FEVER: HOW ROCK TRANSFORMED GENDER (10/30)
MUSIC CRITICISM (12/2)
Host: Professor Rose Rosengard Subotnik (401) 863-3234

Society for Music Theory
November 7 & 8, 2008, Nashville, TN
Plenary Session: The Pop Music Catalog
Host: Professor Gretchen Horlacher, Indiana University
with: Walter Everett (University of Michigan), David Brackett (McGill University)

Skidmore College
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Host: Professor Gordon R. Thompson, Department of Music
40th Anniversary of the Beatles White Album
with: Walter Everett (University of Michigan), Allan Kozinn (New York Times),
and Jonathan Gould (Can't Buy Me Love)

This week's Republican convention will be full of overt and subliminal references to all of last week's Democratic catchphrases, and the pundits will congratulate themselves on how many they can point out. Expect Rove to write glib rejoinders to Clinton's "example of our power..." line, and watch for a clever spin on Mark Warner's "Four more months..."

But what about the soundtrack? The Dems have a lot to answer for, starting with how Michael McDonald's overwrought gospel "America" FOLLOWED Stevie Wonder's uncrunked funk. Here was the measure of the party's timidity at nominating a black man: position the weak blue-eyed fascsimile of soul as the musical climax. This tacky aestheticism typified the way Dems sweat to the oldies, a place where Joe Biden's new theme song becomes Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World." Yeah, in exactly no other context, bubba. Our favorite was the way "Born in the USA" followed military testimonials and segued into "Power to the People" to set up Obama's entrance. "Only in America" by Brooks and Dunn didn't cap his speech so much as deflate it. I mean, you can't disqualify the man for his taste in music, but that song alone was a trap door negating all the spine-tingles of his soaring, BIBLICAL finale. (What -- no Charley Pride)?

This was a symbolic answer to RNC's use of the song after Bush's 2000 inaugural, and Cheney's convention speech in 2004. Watch the Reps pull out "Elvira" by Alabama just to get even. But the Republicans have only themselves to top: Rush pretends to be hip daily to the sound of "Ohio," by the Pretenders. And Ray Charles proved his craven psychotic allegiance for his "America" at more than one Republican convention. And that man was born with one leg.