Put the Moose Under the Table

With Kicking Against the Pricks -- the 1986 album by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds -- in the background, it is my sad duty to point out that yet another conservative hypocrite appears to be going down. Randall Tobias (b. Indiana, 3/20/1942), US Director of Foreign Assistance, Ambassador and head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), resigned his post yesterday at 5 p.m. "for personal reasons." Remember the saga of Ted Haggard? In Tobias' case, he called some "gals" over to his place over the years, high paid workers from Deborah Jane Palfrey's California-headquartered Metro DC escort service (Pamela Martin & Associates).

Now, I'm already on record as being in favor of legalizing and regulating prostitution and certain drugs, so that's not my main issue with Mr. Tobias, servant of the American people whose salary is paid by tax-paying citizens. No, it's the hypocrisy and arrogance of "pricks" like him and Ted Haggard. Haggard denounced gay men while secretly hooking up with a gay massage "specialist" and taking illegal drugs; Tobias as US AIDS Coordinator hectored people to follow ABC -- Abstinence when not in a committed relationship, faithfulness to one partner within a committed relationship, and only as a last resort, C, condoms. He did, though, admit in a PBS Frontline interview that "C recognizes the fact that there are individuals in high-risk circumstances who either by choice or by coercion are going to find themselves unable to follow A and B, and therefore they need to have access to condoms, and they need to understand the correct and consistent use of condoms." (see transcript of May 30, 2006 interview posted on Frontline segment of PBS website). I guess "by choice" he found himself in just such a situation, presumably requiring the employment of Rule C.

Tobias has "worked" with prostitutes before, saying he wants to "help" them. Try not to laugh too hard. Here's more from the Frontline interview:

Frontline: But with regard to prostitutes and sex workers in developing countries, is it necessary to work with them? Do you try to get them to change behavior? And if they don't, then what?

Tobias: First of all, very recently I was in Haiti in a program where we are working with prostitutes, teaching them skills that will give them the economic leverage to get out of prostituting. The particular program that I visited, young women were being taught the skills of being beauticians, of doing cosmetic work and hair work and that kind of thing. . . . .

In the end, there's a far more egregious offense -- the ridiculous titles of their "non-fiction" books: Foolish No More! (Haggard, 2005) and Put the Moose on the Table (Tobias, 2003).

Good God, what were they thinking? And when's the YouTube version coming out?

The Dream Life

J. Hoberman, The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties (2003). A fun-filled book that looks at "the Sixties" -- covering from Sputnik 1957 to Watergate 1973, with a B movie coda, "Freedomland 1981: Ronald Reagan and the Last Sixties Movie."

All in all a biting analysis of the conflicted American psyche as reflected through mostly American movies. Some of the films covered to varying degree:

Spartacus
The Alamo
The Manhurian Candidate
Seven Days in May
Easy Rider
The Green Berets
Zabriskie Point
Coogan's Bluff
Bonnie and Clyde
The Wild Bunch!
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Little Big Man
Myra Breckinridge
Patton
Night of the Living Dead
Hey Joe
Dirty Harry
Shampoo
The Candidate
Blowup/Blowout

Hoberman sees the inner American struggle for direction mirrored by movies that are set within a framework of cultural politics and the Cold War.


I've not seen Hey Joe. I wonder how much Shampoo holds up? I never really saw the appeal of Warren Beatty; Faye Dunaway, on the other hand, sizzles in Bonnie and Clyde.

Today's Rune: Strength.

Birthdays: Alistair MacLean, Harper Lee, Saddam Hussein, Ann-Margret (Olsson), Penélope Cruz, Jessica Alba .

Adieu!

Ségolène Royal - Clip Officiel de Campagne - (09/04/07)

At Baker's Keyboard Lounge

Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit is always worth checking out. It's got all the live ambience, relaxed hepcats, and smooth acoustics any jazz fan could want in an intimate venue. Plus soul food, Southern fried, and good drinks -- all very affordably priced. The oldest running jazz club in the business, Baker's is very accessible on weeknights; not surprisingly, weekends can be more crowded, with a wait.

The other night I dropped in to hear Kris Lynn, a Motown-connected singer, cover standards and tell little stories. Introducing "For Once in My Life," she recalled being on site when it was written. She also introduced the nattily dressed Maxine Powell, a key Motown talent agent now in her early nineties, creator of Maxine Powell Finishing and Modeling School. A dapper gentleman friend accompanied her (he was not introduced).

Naturally I was curious and did a little research later in the week. Turns out that Maxine Powell (b. Texarkana, Texas, 5/30/1915) first visited Detroit in 1945. She opened her school in 1951 and ran her own talent agency. One of her models, Gwen Gordy Fuqua, hooked up a deal between Powell and Barry Gordy, head of Motown, in 1964. Ms. Powell then trained the Motown performers how to dress, act and behave -- everyone from Martha Reeves to Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and The Supremes.

After a break with Gordy in the late 1960s, Powell taught classes at Wayne County Community College, did consulting work; last I checked, the Maxine Powell Finishing and Modeling School was located in a suite on East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit.

On any given night, Baker's Keyboard Lounge is sure to have nice surprises like Powell in the audience. Dig it, man!

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Birthdays: Edward Gibbon, Mary Wollstonecraft, Samuel Morse, Herbert Spencer, Ulysses S. Grant (b. Hiram Ulysses Grant), Cecil Day-Lewis, Yórgos Theotokás, Jack Klugman, Coretta Scott King, Anouk Aimée, August Wilson, Kate Pierson, Arielle Dombasle .

Happy Weekend to all!

SOS: Chernobyl/Tschernobyl

It was probably not good luck to have a wedding day on April 26, 1986, and then fly to Europe for a honeymoon -- all on the first day of the Chernobyl/Tschernobyl nuclear disaster. Talk about timing. By the time we touched down in London, it was too late to turn back. We divorced, however, in 1992.

On the other hand, during this same period Kraftwerk reshaped their song "Radioactovity" into a powerful artistic statement, with pulsing SOS signals and repeated naming:

.-. .- -.. .. --- .- -.-. - .. ...- .. - -..--

Tschernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima.
Tschernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima.

I saw them play this track with a starkly effective neon backdrop at the Brixton Academy, London, in July 1991, and again in an almost identical, near-perfect performance at the State Theatre in Detroit on June 11, 1998. As long as this song exists, people will be reminded of the perils of radioactive fallout. Of course, it also always reminds me of my aborted anniversary. All in all a reflective kind of day.


Today's Rune: Partnership.

Birthdays: Marcus Aurelius, Muhammad (Shi’ite tradition), Eugène Delacroix, Frederick Law Olmsted, Ma Rainey, Anita Loos, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bernard Malamud, Morris West, Carol Burnett, Giorgio Moroder, Joan Chen (b. Chén Chōng).

Prosh-chavay!

Guernica/Gernika in Memory

Guernica/Gernika represents all violent attacks on primarily civilian targets -- that is why it's so important and lasting as a symbol. It was also a real incident (April 26, 1937) in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), a conflict that helped spark the Second World War. But it was not the first such incident. The German Condor Legion bombed the Basque town of Durango on March 31, April 2 and April 4, 1937, killing some three hundred people -- including at least fourteen nuns and a priest giving communion.

At Guernica, perhaps another two hundred civilians were killed. Most of the townspeople were able to run for their lives after the first bombs fell, though Guernica itself burned. In 2007, some 200 survivors of that attack still live and remember.

After Durango and Guernica, air forces on all sides ramped up the scale and scope of such attacks, so that by 1945, the world experienced hundreds of such mass atrocities ranging from the London Blitz to attacks on Warsaw and Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Civilians killed en masse. It's happening today in Mogadishu and around the world, and it is perpetuated by suicide bombers and Stealth bombers alike.


"Guernica was not bombed by my air force . . . it was destroyed with fire and gasoline by the Basques themselves." Generalissimo Francisco Franco, May 5, 1937.

"Guernica can offer nothing of interest to anyone concerned with its past, nor is ther any value in discussing what happened then with anyone here." Gervasio Guezurago, mayor of Guernica under fascist dictatorship, 1974.

Sources:

Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts, Guernica: The Crucible of World War II (1975).

Paul Haven, "70 Years Later, Guernica Holds Secrets" (Associated Press, April 22, 2007).

Guernica/Gernika as Symbol

Picasso images are all over the place. I've seen them in Spain, in France, in England, Scotland, New York, Philadelphia, and Detroit and probably elsewhere. They are distinct and memorable; Picasso's style infuses popular culture as much as Andy Warhol's. Still, I was nearly blown away when I saw the gigantic copy of Picasso's Guernica at the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan in the 1980s. More than all the diplomats and bureaucrats combined, it makes us wonder at our seeming need to exterminate those who oppose us. Even so, I don't think we will stop indulging in war and genocide. Guernica seems to recognize that sentiment, too.

From Gijs van Hensbergen, Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon (US, 2004; British version has the shorter sub-title pictured above):

Guernica had tapped into the ancient and epic rituals of death. But it was also a silent requiem. The contorted, grief-stricken faces of women, with their gaping cup-shaped mouths, seem to wail up to the heavens in despair. But there is no sound. The screaming horse, with its vocal chords cut -- as was the practice before horses were supplied with padding during the corrida -- also remains silent in its pain. Guernica symbolised a requiem for an entire generation. (p. 70)

Death from Above: Guernica

By air, the German Condor Legion attacked the Basque town of Guernica 70 years ago today. Thank God for artists and cultural remembrance. In this case, thank Pablo Picasso. Nobody ever called him an asshole. Meanwhile, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

"A country without memory has no meaning at all." -- Emilio Silva.

Blondie - Detroit 442 (1977)

This Is Radio Clash

The Last Seduction

As far as femmes fatales in 1990s film noir, it's hard to beat Linda Fiorentino as Bridget Gregory/Wendy Kroy in John Dahl's The Last Seduction (1994). Like any guilty pleasure, it's fun to watch Ms. Fiorentino run circles around various men. Bill Pullman is good as her bilked husband, the one guy who can almost match her wits. Peter Berg plays a rube named Mike. The Last Seduction is particularly effective in making the viewer complicit in various criminal enterprises. It's no accident, I'm guessing, that this movie was shown on HBO before being released theatrically. Complicity, moral complexity and dark humor are trademarks of many an HBO series or film.

I keep meaning to track down more films featuring Fiorentino (b. March 9, ca. 1958-1960, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). She sizzles in this one, certainly.

Odd HBO connection: Peter Berg's roommate in college was Ari Emanuel, the inspiration for Ari Gold on Entourage. To follow the daisy chain down the line, the name Ari Gold is probably a play on chief Goldfinger villian, Auric Goldfinger, a name that is itself a mockery of Ian Fleming's Hungarian neighbor, an architect named, in real life, Ernő Goldfinger. But it's fiction!

Today's Rune: Movement.

Birthdays: Edward R. Murrow, Ella Fitzgerald, Meadowlark Lemon, Jerry Leiber, Alfredo James "Al" Pacino, Jaroslava Schallerová, Dominique Blanc.

The Best and the Brightest

David Halberstam (b. NYC, 4/10/1934-d. Menlo Park, CA, 4/23/2007), RIP. The prolific author of fat books wrote particularly well about the Vietnam War in The Making of a Quagmire (1965) and The Best and the Brightest (1972). Problem is, those who should have read these books probably never have and never will. Indeed, I just heard President G.W. Bush insist that he "will not let politics and impatience determine the course of the war" or something very close to that. (Was not his very decision to invade Iraq an act of politics and impatience?)

Halberstam, on Vietnam War policymakers: Nor had they, leaders of a democracy, bothered to involve the people of their country in the course they had chosen: they knew the right path and they knew how much could be revealed, step by step along the way.

They had manipulated the public, the Congress and the press from the start, told half truths about why we were going in, how deeply we were going in, how much we were spending, and how long we were in for.

When their predictions turned out to be hopelessly inaccurate, and when the public and the Congress, annoyed at being manipulated, soured on the war, then the architects had been aggrieved.

They had turned on those very symbols of the democratic society they had once manipulated, criticizing them for their lack of fiber, stamina and belief.

Why weren't the journalists more supportive? How could you make public policy with television cameras everywhere? (The Best and the Brightest, pages 655-656; one big paragraph in the original).


Today's Rune: Strength.

Birthdays: Vincent de Paul, Anthony Trollope, Shirley MacLaine, Véronique Sanson.

They Came Out of Tar Heel Land

Twentieth century icons who came from North Carolina include Ava Gardner (born in Johnston County) and John Coltrane (born in Hamlet). They more than make up for Jesse Helms.

North Carolina is an interesting place – for as long as I can remember, it’s been about half progressive and half conservative. Hence, anything is possible coming from the Tar Heel Nation -- which is the working title for a book I've been writing in my head. It has chapters on a variety of people connected in some way to the state. (I lived there for about twenty years). There could also be sections on happenings. And places.


Then there's stuff about North Carolina, songs and the like. Here's a verse from an odd one. What it's really about is anyone's guess.

"Hypnotized" (–- Bob Welch, Fleetwood Mac, 1974)

Now it’s not a meaningless question
To ask if they’ve been and gone
I remember a talk about North
Carolina and a strange, strange pond
You see the sides were like glass
In the thick of a forest without a road
And if any man’s ever made that land
Then I think it would’ve showed


Today's Rune: Fertility.

Birthdays: Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Michael Moore, Judy Davis, Timothy McVeigh, Patricia Manterola, Yana Gupta.

Hasta La Vista!

Ségolène Royal Goes to the Mat

First round of the presidential elections in France today. Regardless of who becomes the next president, another major cycle begins with this election -- generational change. If Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal wins enough votes today and on May 6, the French will beat the USA in having a woman president. Both election days fall on a Sunday -- now there's separation of church and state.

Vive la France!