Noise, Sound, Hearing

While watching a little of Henry Bean's strange Noise (2007), I thought of good sounds, appealing ones.

Trains always thrill me. Trains in the night, rolling along.

The Whip-poor-will / whippoorwill, way off in the woods.

Water in a fountain. A small fountain. Soothing.

Tides, rolling waves by the ocean or sea.

Chimes in a breeze. Spirit.

Music, singing, when it hits the mark.

Rustling leaves, breezes.

Cow bells in a pasture.

Church bells, chimes at midnight.

Plenty of annoying sounds, but also many good ones, eh?

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.

Dark Star: Full Spectrum Dominance

We live in a chilling world where nobody really knows what exactly is going on or where we're going. Economically, militarily -- or personally. A dog cloned for $155,000. Secret operations, psyops, super-hacking, disruptions in the food chain. Post-traumatic stress syndrome, military suicides. Vaporized investments.

Full Spectrum Dominance: dominating a battlefield, a zone, a region, an occupied territory. Toy robots, Dark Star, remote-controlled Predator drones, Hellfire missile systems, Global Hawk. Even the names are chilling. And what country produced these infernal systems? The USA. Look at Israel's "operations" in Gaza, and wonder who's who.

What do enemies do? Hide in the rubble, hide among civilians. Why? Because they would be slaughtered in a conventional fight, like Iraqi soldiers on the Highway of Death in 1991. Counter with primitive means -- suicide bombers, an endless supply of individual kamikazes. Their most effective weapons over the long-term? Tenacity and economic attrition. Entropy. For the rest of our lives. Unless peace can be found with equal tenacity, plus a tinge of the miraculous -- as in Northern Ireland. Who would have thought those "Troubles" would ever end? So, too, it could happen in and around Israel and Palestine. If there's a will, there's a way.

















The US needs to continue supporting Israel, but it must also use its support as leverage. As with Ireland, the US must play heavy to broker a negotiated settlement. Because Full Spectral Dominance may win in the short term, but it probably cannot in the long-term. Grinding attrition trumps technological edge, and demographics favor the now weak in the long run. Empires rise and empires fall. What is left is a rump state, or nothing at all but cultural diffusion, or a lingering spectral presence.

(Pictured at top: Rahul Mahajan, Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond (2003).

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

Revolutionary Road

Here's a film that ought to inspire adults to either 1) do something wildly existential, like a geographic move, or 2) consider suicide. Depends on your makeup, I guess. (I tilt in the life-affirming direction -- we're already mortal, so might as well go for something more interesting, whenever and wherever possible).

Based on the 1961 novel by Richard Yates, the Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead) version of Revolutionary Road stars Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Shannon (Bug) and Kathy Bates, with a solid supporting cast, too.



















I'm sure the series Mad Men gets some of its inspiration from Richard Yates. If you like one, you'll probably like the other.



Michael Shannon is superb in Revolutionary Road as John Givings. He's edgy and even kind of scary; his character provides key insights into the human condition, rendered perfectly by Shannon.

If you want to be challenged, even shaken up, Revolutionary Road is a surely provocative book and movie for you. Compare with Sue Kaufman's Diary of a Mad Housewife and other novels/movies of the 1950s through 1970s. And good luck out there, every day!

Today's Rune: Growth.

A Freewheelin' Time, Then and Now

Things are crazy now, things were crazy then. That's one of the compelling draws to Suze Rotolo's A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties (2008). For all things Bob Dylan, Rotolo illuminates the man and icon through her own observations, backed with the inclusion of primary documents authored by Dylan. She also gives voice to women in the milieu of the 50s and 60s, and she provides a lot of helpful context in terms of her family and geography.

In its own way, what Rotolo writes about that "freewheelin' time" is becoming true again, with some updated variation:

Most of the people I knew, and had known ever since I could remember, were engaged with the discourse of the day, which meant listening to voices coming from everywhere talking about Cuba, civil rights, the threat of nuclear war, and the escalating war in Vietnam (pages 236-237).

After she and Dylan more or less part ways as a couple, Rotolo makes a wild and exciting journey to Cuba in 1964. Why? To challenge the (still) ludicrous travel ban laid down by the US government.

The consensus of those in public life and in the media who questioned the validity of travel bans was that they made the United States look like East Berlin, with a wall around itself, which was hypocritical in the eyes of the free world (page 303).

Rotolo, part of a small group, zigzags her way to Cuba via Europe, evading G-men who are trying to block them. And it pays off: she makes it to Cuba, and she meets the big guys when she gets there.

Rotolo's memoir is inspiring. Why, indeed, does the US still insist on a childish travel ban to little Cuba? Canada, Europe, Mexico -- practically all Western countries except the USA permit free travel to Cuba. Now that the Bush-Cheney people are out, it's time to allow Americans the freedom to travel there if they so choose. Beyond that, Rotolo shows by her own example that creative engagement is worthwhile; existential choices are perhaps best exercised in both philosophical and poetic ways. Hearhear!

Today's Rune: Defense. RIP, Lux Interior (Erick Lee Purkhiser, 10/21/1948-2/4/2009) of The Cramps.

Su-BAR-u, the Gas Sipper

Subaru ad, ca. 1968: The 360 Mini-sedan (Source: 1wrecksman). $1297 P.O.E. (at point-of-entry), UP TO 66 M.P.G. Who's laughing now?

And also, who now remembers the original Subaru "gas sipper" ads? I can't remember exactly when they came out, but if memory serves, they were colorful print ads showing a Subaru mini-wagon sipping from a straw -- and there may have been a cartoon version, too. Late 1970s or early 1980s, like say around 1982 or 1983 when gas had spiked (Iran-Iraq War, Israeli invasion of Lebanon) and another recession spread doom and gloom throughout the realm?

In any case, happy birthday to Joseph Eggleston Johnston!

Today's Rune: Possessions.

The Biplane

First, thank you to all who've commented recently, and to the silent readers, too. Second, in answer to Jodi's question about the pronunciation of Yuengling, it's as simple as "Ying-Ling;" Yuengling is an anglicized version of the German Jüngling (sort of like deriving Yeager or Hunter from Jäger -- many adult Detroiters will be familiar, one way or another, with Jägermeister). For more, you can always see the D. G. Yuengling & Son website: http://www.yuengling.com/

and blog: http://yuenglingbrewery.blogspot.com/

Now, to the above snapshot. Eugene Shaffer, my (maternal) grandfather, told me a long time ago that he'd flown in a biplane when he was young. Other things I know about him include: he never learned how to drive a car. He walked a lot, fished and hunted small game all around Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and the Poconos; and he never lived outside of the area. He was a mill worker. He had four kids (one of them, my mother). And he was a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FDR and boxer Max Baer were prominent members around the time of The Great Depression).

Above is additional evidence that he did indeed fly in a biplane. I was looking through an old family notebook that stops in 1935 and came across the photo. On the back is written in what looks like his handwriting: Took a ride in this plane at Snydersville Summer of 1927 with Paul Meisell. Underneath in the notebook proper: First Airplane ride at Snydersville with my pal Paul Meisell in the summer of 1927. And: Second ride at Pipher's airport in the summer of 1928.

He may have been inspired to try it by the example of Charles Lindbergh, who'd flown his Spirit of St. Louis monoplane across the Atlantic in May of 1927.

In any case, he married my grandmother (still alive at 94) in 1934 and moved from Stroudsburg to East Stroudsburg, across Broadhead Creek, in 1940 -- and he did fly again eventually, in jet planes, as late as the 1980s.

Happy Groundhog Day, and Happy Birthday to James Joyce, Denise DeVivo, and Donald Delbert France, my Dad, who turned 75 yesterday!

Today's Rune: Movement.

27-23 Oorah!

Steelers defeated the Cardinals, 27-23 in a wild game full of penalties and surprises. It was up in the air until the final seconds, and either side could have won. But I'm glad it was the Steelers who did. I lost all interest in the Cardinals when they left St. Louis about twenty years ago -- and didn't like them all that much before then, either. And now, come to think of it, how good can Arizona be if it produced Cindy and John McCain and was favored by Fox News? Better duck now, you suckers! To the victors go the spoils . . .

For Steelers fans, I'm sure there'll be an update, but for now on DVD: NFL Films, The Complete History of the Pittsburgh Steelers (2005)


Today's Rune: Fertility.