National Champions: UNC Tar Heels

University of North Carolina Tar Heels Men's basketball team defeats Michigan State University Spartans in Detroit, 89-72. Savoring the moment.



Today's Rune: Journey.

National Treasures: Elaine's

Like Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit, Elaine's in Manhattan is an international treasure highly recommended for its ambiance and cultural charge.

Opened in 1963 by Elaine Kaufman (b. 2/10/1929) Elaine's is a medium-priced Upper East Side restaurant and bar located at 1703 2nd Avenue -- between 88th and 89th Streets --New York, NY 10128; (212) 534-8103. Reservations taken. Writers very welcomed. Old school, low-key, sweet. I've been there twice in the last ten years and no one bit me. Given that Elaine Kaufman is eighty now, I'd like to get back before anything major changes at Elaine's. Because as we all know, everything does change, sooner or later.


Related books: A.E. Hotchner, Everyone Comes to Elaine's: Forty Years of Movie Stars, All-Stars, Literary Lions, Financial Scions, Top Cops, Politicians, and Power Brokers at the Legendary Hot Spot (2004). An anecdotal recounting of goings on at Elaine's over the past near half-century.

Brian McDonald, Last Call at Elaine's: A Journey from One Side of the Bar to the Other (2008). Memoir by a sometimes self-destructive but resilient son of a cop and bartender turned writer.

Today's Rune: Signals.

American Experience: We Shall Remain

PBS series worth checking out -- American Experience: We Shall Remain. Covers key historical episodes in tribal experiences, with contemporary follow-through. Starting this month, starting now.

Pop culture provides often skewed reminders of Western tribes, but Eastern tribes remain, too. Many are split, with parts relocated to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and parts still in Florida (such as Seminoles) and North Carolina (such as Cherokee). There are small coherent tribes in Virginia (Pamunkey and Mattaponi). In Philadelphia when I was in graduate school in the early 1990s, there was a large gathering commemorating a peaceful meeting with William Penn that was amazing, including peace pipes. In the Midwest, the Chippewa have a significant presence. And even at Macomb Community College, I got to work with Mohawk students whose fathers worked in steel construction. From them, I learned they had passes sort of like passports, allowing them to freely travel back and forth between Canada and the USA. Learn something new every day, and in this case, something vitally new as well as old.


Scene from We Shall Remain. Fill in the blanks.

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

The Road That Ends in Detroit

Only two teams in the Men's NCAA Division I brackets left to battle for the National Championship on Monday, April 6, 2009, in downtown Detroit (Ford Field, set up nicely).

For college basketball fans, it's been quite a wild ride. I like both remaining programs, but as a UNC-Chapel Hill double graduate (BA and MSLS), have to go front and center with the Tar Heels over the Michigan State University (MSU) Spartans. I salute both teams.


Rematch Monday night at 9:30 EST. Go Carolina!

Today's Rune: Possessions.

To the Tanner Born: Mark Sanford of South Carolina

The Republican Party, the Official Hick Party of America, is a) lining up more cannon fodder for decimation in 2012 and 2) fissuring into Godsquad yahoos (Palin/Huckabee believers) and corporate Bozos (that Michigan-born Mormon millionaire with the big hair and phony smile and a last rearguard squad).

Case in point: rich, well-tanned Mark Furman, Governor of South Carolina. Though perhaps confused with racist loser Mark Fuhrman who helped blow the OJ Simpson murder case, it's not the same person. Easy homophonic transpositional mistake to make, though, and an equal opportunity figure of fun. Why? Born in 1960 in Florida. Father dies in 1982, leaving Furman and family the 3,000 acre Coosaw Plantation near Beaufort, South Carolina. Internship with Goldman Sachs, seller of real estate, and millionaire -- but not a self-made one; rather one to the manor born. "Asked how much of a boost his real estate career has gotten from that inheritance [Coosaw Plantation], Mark Sanford said, "All of my liquid worth has come from leveraging through that piece of land and doing other things." The family still owns all the original property, he said." (Source: Henry Eichel,EX-CONGRESSMAN SANFORD LIKES TO STIR UP POLITICS, RUNS STRONG AGAINST SPENDING BY S.C. LEGISLATURE, Charlotte Observer, 10/27/2002).

"I made my living in real estate down the coast," he said in an interview with a Columbia radio station in June. "I do own a number of different properties down that way, and the good Lord has been kind enough to let them be fruitful and multiply a little bit. I've done all right." (Source: Ditto.)

Most recently, Mark Sanford made a big deal about not taking stimulus money on behalf of South Carolina, which has an official unemployment rate of 11%. He'll take some now, he says, and more only if his state legislature buckles to his will. Lots of luck. The chances of this rich hayseed becoming president? Your guess is as good as mine. (Hint: see picture above and imagine the possibilities . . .).

William S. Burroughs Calls It Heavy Metal Like It Is

Does anyone else remember these cultural items? Or have I enetered a Twilight Zone of the mind's eye? Nyet. Me no think so, at any rate of the prime rate plus random interest. Heavy metal thunder . . .

Psychotic Reactions & Carburetor Dung

On another day marred by a random rampaging shooter, I'd rather celebrate music, and a good book about music: on pop, underground, and the Detroit scene.

I keep only a small handful of books about music because music usually better speaks for itself, and thanks to the wonders of computers and the internet, most of one's music library can now be stored in a very small physical space, indeed. One old school book on music I've held onto for more than twenty years is Lester Bangs' Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (1987), edited by Greil Marcus. Why? As the cover suggests, it is: "THE WORK OF A LEGENDARY CRITIC: ROCK'N'ROLL AS LITERATURE AND LITERATURE AS ROCK'N'ROLL."

This is the book of a believer; its essays cover the period between 1971 and 1981, with exciting takes on artists ranging from Iggy Pop and David Bowie to John Coltrane, Kraftwerk and The Clash. And because I dig these very same artists, I keep the book. More recently, I picked up a Creem (CREEM) anthology that's a nifty time capsule of the 70s and 80s. For a time, Lester Bangs (1948-1982) edited Creem and lived in Detroit; many of the essays in Psychotic Reactions were first published as Creem articles. Can you dig?

Today's Rune: Strength.

Hey, Mr. Rich: WTF?

So this cowboy dude John Rich whips together a song called "Shuttin' Detroit Down" and it gets lots of airplay; but any thinking person has to wonder, does he really give a rat's ass about Detroit? Just who would Mr. Rich have us believe is "shuttin' Detroit down"? Consider the man's real colors, courtesy of his oafish masterwork of 2008, "Raisin' McCain" (i.e. lubin' the rubes):

He stayed strong, stayed extra long
‘Til they let all the other boys out
Now we’ve got a real man with an American plan
We’re going to put him in the big White House!

Well we’re all just raisin’ McCain
Everywhere across the USA
You can get on the train or get out of the way
We’re all just raisin’ McCain!

Well, Mr. Rich, you may happen to be rich, but featured at the top is a much more authentic song of woe for Detroit, dating from The Great Depression, performed by Victoria Spivey in 1936, called "Detroit Moan." By comparison, Mr. Rich, your latest offering earns a Detroit groan.

Today's Rune: Fertility.

The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act

I'm ecstatic about this, and it's not an April Fool's joke:

A BILL To allow travel between the United States and Cuba.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act’.

SEC. 2. TRAVEL TO CUBA. On and after the date of the enactment of this Act, and subject to section 3--(1) the President may not regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents, or any of the transactions incident to such travel; and(2) any regulation in effect on such date of enactment that regulates or prohibits travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents or transactions incident to such travel shall cease to have any force or effect.

SEC. 3. EXCEPTIONS. Section 2 shall not apply in a case in which the United States is at war with Cuba, armed hostilities between the two countries are in progress, or there is imminent danger to the public health or the physical safety of United States travelers.

SEC. 4. APPLICABILITY. This Act applies to actions taken by the President before the date of the enactment of this Act that are in effect on such date of enactment, and to actions taken on or after such date.

SEC. 5. INAPPLICABILITY OF OTHER PROVISIONS. The provisions of this Act apply notwithstanding section 102(h) of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (22 U.S.C. 6032(h)) and section 910(b) of the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7210(b)).

(Compare HR 874 and S. 428, The Freedom to Travel to Cuba). It should pass this year or next. If it does, Americans will be free to travel to Cuba for the first time in nearly fifty years!

Today's Rune: Wholeness.