Court and Spark

Today Britney Spears filed for divorce. Who can blame her? Everyone but her already seemed to understand that K-Fed projects an aura of greaseball and clown. As Jihad, an ex-brother-in-law of mine (born in Syria and taught English in Detroit) once quipped: Love is blind. Marriage is a real eye-opener.

Oh, yeah: today it's also election day across the USA. A Democrat Man, I enjoyed voting today in the steady rain.

November 7 also happens to be the birthday of international multi-genre talents Albert Camus and Joni Mitchell. The allure of being a free man in Paris is something they both understood early.

Albert Camus (11/7/1913-1/4/1960) always seemed like a real Mister Cool to me. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in seminal year 1957 and died in a car accident at the age of 46. His short 1942 novel L'Étranger / The Stranger still carries a lot of weight, as does much of his other work.

Alberta-born Joni Mitchell (Roberta Joan Anderson was the name she started with in 1943) married musician Chuck Mitchell in 1965 and together they moved to Detroit. She divorced him and left in 1967 for New York City.

I know a guy who bartended in Detroit near Wayne State in the mid-1960s who ran into her several times. He's about the same age as her and lived in the same apartment building, saw her play locally and genuinely liked her. Apparently a lot of travelling musicians stayed with her and Chuck when they played Detroit.

Down in North Carolina in the 70s, I followed my sisters in becoming an avid Joni Mitchell fan, starting with Court and Spark (1974) and then working backwards and forwards. She's definitely an artist who marches to her own beat. I can still remember the 8-track playing over and over and over until even if I never heard it again, the album would stay with me.



Today's Rune: Fertility.

Viva Albert Camus and Joni Mitchell!

Foolish No More! Be Gone, Demons!

In addition to their other extracurricular activities -- the ones they've been condemned for -- Ted Haggard and Saddam Hussein have both written and published books of their own. Haggard may be publicly stoned, and Hussein publicly hanged, but they will still leave a literary legacy.

Haggard whipped together a Christian diet book (he likes to stay fit for his leisure time, I suppose), and most recently, he came out with Foolish No More! Seizing a Life Beyond Belief (2005). This is true.

Saddam Hussein has been busy, too. In the last six or seven years, he managed to churn out four books -- both creative nonfiction and allegorical fiction. Again, this is true.

Hussein's books are titled Zabibah and the King, Men and a City (alternately Men and the City), The Fortified Castle, and his most recent effort which has all sorts of English translations ranging from Devil's Dance, Get Out, Damned One, and my favorite, Be Gone, Demons!

Furthermore, Zabibah and the King has been adapted into musical theatre, perhaps to be brought to the silver screen in due time. I can imagine a full-throttled Bollywood version, certainly.

Whatever happens to these unfortunate fellow writers, may they ultimately rest in peace. As they must know as well as anyone, real life is much stranger than fiction.

Today's Rune: Opening.

Fiimaan illaah!

John Lee Hooker: That's My Story

That's My Story: John Lee Hooker Sings the Blues (1960) was recorded on a single day in New York City -- February 9, 1960; members of Cannonball Adderly's jazz band backed him on some tracks (Sam Jones on bass, Louis Hayes on drums). It's pure distilled Hooker and one of my favorite albums. John Lee Hooker was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, August 22, 1917, and died in Los Altos, California, on June 21, 2001. He's survived by his music, family members, a foundation and website.

From "Democrat Man," a timely song nearly fifty years later:

Democrats put us on our feet,
these crazy women they voted them out
I don't think they make the same mistake,
they won't make the same mistake no more

I'm a Democrat man, I'm a Democrat man
Please, please don't be no fool no more
Hmm, hmm I ain't goin' down to that welfare store
It won't be long, whoa yeah
I'm a Democrat , I'm a Democrat man
And I'll be until the day I die

Full track list:

I Need Some Money
Come On And See About Me
I'm Wanderin'
Democrat Man
I Want To Talk About You
Gonna Use My Rod
Wednesday Evenin' Blues
No More Doggin'
One Of These Days
I Believe I'll Go Back Home
You're Leavin' Me, Baby
That's My Story

It's a beautiful, haunting album and covers a wide range of human emotions, situations, longings. "That's My Story" tells how Johnny Lee made it from Mississippi to Detroit and began his successful music career in earnest here starting in the 1940s.

It's true that the blues signature is as much vocal as instrument, and Hooker has both -- vernacular eloquence, direct simplicity, primal force. His voice, his guitar, his beat-thumping shoes reflect a thousand visions of life, hard but good, much improvised, and nothing ever exactly the same. It makes sense that he made things happen while living in Detroit.

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

House Rent Boogie, peoples.

God's Angry Man and Other Eccentrics

The USA has a rich tradition of religious eccentrics, crackpots, and pop-style entertainers, especially since the advent of TV ministries (or are they mini-series?). Evangelical leaders can be funny, aside from their evident hypocrisy and sometimes heinously Puritanical political impact. They are paid to entertain their flock much like any other celebrities. If people want to send them money, what the hell, what the heck? As long as they don't force people to join them, whatever.

I had a grandmother and an aunt who sent money to support their chosen man of God. It provided them comfort in a dodgy world. Who can say these people aren't doing some good?

I used to love watching Eugene Scott (8/14/1927-2/21/2005), or Dr. Gene Scott as he preferred, on his 24-hour "University Network." My parents, living in the country, had satellite TV, so I could watch this compellingly flamboyant cigar-smoking dude at odd hours. There's a fine documentary about him, too -- Werner Herzog, God's Angry Man (1980) -- that gets up close and personal with Scott. He's very open with Herzog, who empathizes with his charisma and drive, his sheer nuttiness.




Living in North Carolina at the height of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's popularity in the 1980s, I watched them occasionally, too. One of my brothers-in-law once suggested they add a "Christian rodeo" to their TV PTL Network programs for extra pizzaz -- Jim could lasso and round up some camping buddies. PTL, in case you didn't know, stands for Praise the Lord (and pass the money). Their Heritage, USA Christian theme park and center operation near Charlotte, N.C., fell apart due to a sex scandal involving Jessica Hahn; there were also allegations of Jim Bakker (originally from Muskegon, Michigan, by the way) "frolicking in the steam room" with other Christian men. He ended up in jail and was later released. Tammy Faye Bakker is the subject of a sweet, droll documentary called The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2000). Sadly, Tammy Faye is dying. She was one of the more innocent of these characters -- plus she was married to Jim Bakker. Isn't that punishment enough? I hope she gets another great TV show in the sky, and angels sing.



Sex scandals go with the territory. Jimmy Swaggart was very sorry he was taped visiting hookers, poor man. He was just trying to Walk With Jesus, after all, and understand the downtrodden better. The Buddha might have done the same out of sheer compassion for the much-maligned prostitutes. Who knows?

As for Ted Haggard, he said to a cameraman (you can see this watching Jesus Camp, 2006): "I think I know what you did last night. If you send me a thousand dollars, I won't tell your wife." I guess such things were weighing heavily on his mind.



Today's Rune: Fertility.

Dr. Gene Scott, RIP.

The Iraq War: Known and Unknown

Reported November 3, 2006:

BAGHDAD – Three Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers died at approximately 2:15 p.m. Thursday when the vehicle they were riding in was struck by an improvised-explosive device in eastern Baghdad.

The names of the Soldiers are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq - One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died from injuries sustained due to enemy action Thursday while operating in Al Anbar Province.

The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq –Three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Nov.2 from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province.

The names of the deceased are being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

Reported November 2, 2006:

Lance Cpl. Minhee Kim, 20, of Ann Arbor, Mich., died Nov. 1 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Lansing, Mich.

Cpl. Gary A. Koehler, 21, of Ypsilanti, Mich., died Nov. 1 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Spc. Ahmed K. Altaie, 41, of Ann Arbor, Mich., has been unaccounted for since Oct. 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, at about 4:30 p.m. GMT. The soldier is assigned to the Provincial Reconstruction Team Baghdad.

Verbatim Source: U.S. Department of Defense, November 2-3, 2006.

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - - the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.

-- Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld at Department of Defense news briefing, February 12, 2002.

Today's Rune: Harvest.

William Styron: Lie Down in Darkness

The death of William Styron (b. Newport News, Virginia, 6/11/1925-d. 11/1/2006, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts) throws my mind back to my high school years in Durham, North Carolina.

Given that every English teacher I've ever taken classes with has ranged from eccentric to outlandish and sometimes outrageous, Mrs. V. stands out as a moody mix of them all, only with a very Southern twist. Hailing from Mississippi, she taught an outstanding class called "Southern Writers." Mrs. V. loved her people and championed their work, had met Faulkner, the master, and had us read his novels, plus Tennessee Williams' plays, Flannery O'Connor's writings, Carson McCullers, Walker Percy, and also her friends Eudora Welty and Reynolds Price (who came to class once). Anne Tyler was in the mix somehow, too. For a special research paper, I was given William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), which I found alternately absorbing and nauseating, and certainly memorable.

Styron was an intense guy, masking depression with various addictions I suppose, but also, perhaps, because of his sensitivity, perceptiveness and depth. After attending Davidson College, he graduated from Duke, with stints in the Marine Corps before and after. Before he died yesterday, he completed five novels (including Sophie's Choice, 1979) and three other books, including Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990).

I thank Mrs. V for making me read Styron early. I don't remember a Mr. V, but she had a son who suffered from a wasting disease. In class, she alternated between fussy propriety to whispered enthusiasm at "Freudian symbolism" like cigars, hot lava, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Mrs V. refused to ever mention General William Tecumseh Sherman's name ("that awful man") because of Vicksburg and Atlanta, and always referred to the American Civil War as "The War of Northern Aggression" or "The War for Southern Independence." Since I was born in Yankee Pennsylvania, I found her observations highly entertaining and a bit Mississippi crazy. In her mind, very little of importance happened in the world since "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." Except, of course, for Southern writers -- America's saving grace in the twentieth century.

Today's Rune: Journey.

Adieu, William Styron.

Notes on a Scandal

Stories that mix education and scandal always make for a wild ride -- in real life and in art. I'm happy to report the imminent arrival of Notes on a Scandal (2006), based on the superbly rendered 2003 Zoë Heller novel (in the USA, also called What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal). Starring Cate Blanchett as Sheba Hart and Judi Dench as Barbara Covett, its limited American release date is set for December 25, 2006. Richard Eyre directed, screenplay by Patrick Marber, and soundtrack by Philip Glass. The book skewers the elite school system in England; Heller's wickedly sardonic take could easily be made on a very similar private school culture in the USA.


Another withering look at social interaction in a secondary school setting is Tom Perrota's 1998 novel, Election, and the 1999 movie version that came hard on its heels -- both excellent, if cringe-worthy for educators.

School for scandal, college level, can be found in J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace (1999). The movie version is slated for a 2007 release.

For truly old school style, there's Der Blaue Engel / The Blue Angel (1930), with none other than Marlene Dietrich in the title role as Lola Lola; it's based on a novel by Heinrich Mann. A remake was made in 1958. A fantastic variation of the original story, which it incorporates, is Blue Angel, the 2000 novel by Francine Prose. I read somewhere that Randy and Evi Quaid had optioned the movie rights. Evi directed The Debtors (1999), which has been blocked from release for legal and financial reasons but was well-received in Toronto. Hopefully they'll have better luck with Blue Angel, if the option stories are true.

One more film mixing students and scandal: To Die For (1995), directed by Gus Van Sant with excellent performances by Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, and Joaquin Phoenix.




Today's Rune: Partnership.

Cheers, then!