MORE SENSELESS ACTS OF BLOGGERY

Elie Wiesel did it all the way up to July 2, 2016, when he passed away at age 87.

I felt like I should say something, even though I only read one of his books: Night, which I read way back in my college days (on purpose, not for credit). It’s a brilliant and harrowing book that somehow manages to compress all of the horror of the Holocaust into a compact 120 pages.

And I had already been exposed to that via a field trip to the Dachau concentration camp memorial site in the 1980s, which was a very intense experience. Wiesel made that look like Spring Break.

In fact, Wiesel wrote about his experience so well that I never had the nerve to pick up another of his books. It was like, “I get it, I get it.” But of course he was the one who had to live with the actual experience. And it’s remarkable that he took that experience and turned it into an inspirational crusade for justice and change, rather than bitterness and hate.

Respect.

So yeah, I may have to steel myself and check out some more of his books.

I will survive,

This is dF

You all know about Prince.

As a blogger I’m obligated to say a few things about this.

1. I should say up front I’ve never really been a fan of Prince in the literal sense. To be clear, I do like a lot of his music, and I have the utmost respect for him as a songwriter, musician, artist and general force of nature.

But I only ever owned a few of his albums, and none are from 1990 on. Prince was one of those artists that was so ubiquitous on the radio and MTV that it didn’t seem necessary to buy copies of his albums – I could hear him all the time anyway.

2. That said, this is my favorite Prince album.


Even though it was a major hit, I remember a lot of people put it down at the time – partly because it came across as a cheesy movie marketing gimmick, and partly because Prince turned the Batman and The Joker into a weird hybrid alter-ego that had nothing to do with the movie, which just seemed really egotistical even by Prince standards.

And yet the whole thing really is a weird kind of genius – the album and the videos are basically Prince deconstructing the whole Batman/Joker mythos and rebuilding it in his own image. io9 has a great write-up of what Tim Burton’s film would have been like if he’d gone with Prince’s storyline. I have to say, I'd go see that.

3. It’s always interested me that Prince was simultaneously heralded as a brilliant guitarist (which he was) and underrated to the point that he rarely made it onto any given list of the greatest guitar players. I suppose it was partly because most of the “great” guitar players are only really known for playing guitar, whereas Prince played lots of other instruments as well.

4. One of the benchmarks of any major pop star who writes his/her own songs is the extent to which people cover them. Famously, Prince has written hits for Sinead O’Connor and The Bangles. Lesser known covers include The Goo Goo Dolls doing “I Could Never Take The Place Of You Man” (with The Incredible Lance Diamond) and the Hindu Love Gods (Warren Zevon and ¾ of REM) doing “Raspberry Beret” (which I would link to if it existed on YouTube, which it doesn’t – see Item 7).

5. This sticker here?



Prince is basically responsible for that. It was his song “Darling Nikki” that set off Tipper Gore to start the PMRC and instigate a Senate investigation into “porn-rock” that eventually led to the music industry adopting that sticker.

Mind you, I’m not blaming Prince for that – I blame Tipper. But it goes to show how much Prince pushed at mainstream music’s boundaries. You know yr pushing hard enough when the Powers The Be who consider it their responsibility to set those boundaries decide to push back.

6. I know a guy who was in Minneapolis when the punk scene was raging in the early 80s. And to this day he resents that Prince made it big and got national attention and put Minneapolis on the pop culture map when there were more deserving local bands like Husker Du and The Replacements who should have been getting all the glory.

Of course eventually both bands got credit for being essential and influential. And both Bob Mould and Paul Westerberg have written touching tributes about Prince. So there’s maybe a lesson here about how being precious about yr little music scene only goes so far.

7. Anyway, it’s all been said elsewhere, but I have to respect a guy who did everything on his own terms and broke just about every rule he was supposed to play by to be a success at the time. Who else could change his name to an unpronounceable symbol and get away with it? Even his crusade against digital music (to include YouTube), while quixotic, was based on the well-intentioned argument that the artists should have control over how their music is shared and how much they’re compensated for that. 

8. This has nothing to do with Prince, but I thought I’d mention that he wasn’t the only influential music artist to die at age 57 that day.

Richard Lyons, one of the founders of Negativland, also passed away. 

Take me away,

This is dF

I was smothered in business travel in Barcelona all last week, so this is old news I know, but I did want say something about Harper Lee’s passing.

NPR has as good a write-up about her and To Kill A Mockingbird as yr probably going to see elsewhere, apart maybe from this Bloom County tribute.

For myself, To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the great American novels, and also one of the very few “classics” that I had to read in high school that I actually enjoyed.

The novel is inspirational on at least two levels for me: (1) the content, of course, and its views on racism (which wasn’t all that distant a memory for the South when I read it in the early 80s – the KKK was still having annual marches in Franklin, TN at the time), and (2) the fact that it was Lee’s only published novel. Lee was proof positive that you only need to write one novel to be a novelist. In a way, it’s as well she didn't publish another one for most of the rest of her life – TKAM is a hard act to follow.

Go Set A Watchman probably proves that, not least because it was actually written before TKAM. I haven’t read it, but I’m aware of the controversy over it, both in terms of Atticus Finch’s character development and questions over whether Lee was in full control over the decision to publish it in the first place. Either way, I’m not aware of anyone saying it’s better than (or even on the same level as) TKAM – but then how could it be? TKAM has gestated for 50+ years as one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century. How do you top that?

Anyway, I don’t plan to read Go Set A Watchman anytime soon. I don’t feel the need to do so. TKAM’s legacy aside, prequels are almost always disappointing experiences, and frankly TKAM is such a great book in its own right it doesn’t need any fleshing out.

Which is why I do plan to re-read TKAM soon. It’ll be great to see if it’s as good and/or powerful as I remember. As I recall, it was a quite an intense experience.

Meanwhile, you may also know that Umberto Eco also passed away – which I mention mainly because I’ve never actually read any of his books. But he does get namedropped by some people I know, so if any of you have any recommendations of Eco books worth checking out (besides The Name Of The Rose – that’s a pretty obvious starting place), feel free to send them along.

Recommended reading,

This is dF

And now Bob Elliott of Bob And Ray is gone. Which is less surprising, as he was 92. Still.

Most people my age probably only know Bob Elliott as Chris Elliott’s dad in Get A Life, or they may be aware that he was part of the legendary team Bob And Ray but never heard or saw any of their stuff.

Which is too bad. When I was a teenager and first got interested in radio dramas and comedy shows, one of the first books I picked up from the library was a collection of Bob & Ray radio scripts. I confess I didn’t quite see the humor at the time – I was more into the Marx Brothers/Abbott & Costello brand of classic comedy at the time. Bob And Ray were much more subtle and dry – and even more so on paper. It’s really the deadpan delivery that makes their material work, as I found out later when I got a chance to hear some recordings of theirs.

Here’s a good example – and one that actually predicted the future (more or less).



Here in 2016, where election candidates are expected to include SNL guest slots in their campaign and the President is doing slow jams with Jimmy Fallon, it’s easy to forget how preposterous an idea this was in the early 50s.

Respect.

That’s entertainment,

This is dF

David Bowie is gone. And it hurts.

Which is saying something, because I don’t usually get that emotional over celebrity deaths, even when I’m a fan of their work. But when a co-worker broke the news to me after lunch, I found myself getting teary-eyed at various points for the rest of the day.

Obviously I’m a fan, so that’s part of it. Bowie is one of those music artists who has always been around in my lifetime and – during that time – consistently releasing new music that still seemed relevant, if only because Bowie was constantly changing not with the times so much as ahead of them. (Yes, the 80s weren’t good to Bowie, but they weren’t really good to anyone whose career started in the 60s or early 70s. And Let's Dance is a better album than you may remember.) 

But part of the shock comes from the fact that Bowie had just staged one of the great music comebacks with 2013’s The Next Day after ten years out of the public eye, during which fans speculated that he was too sick to perform. And up to the release of last week’s Blackstar, he seemed so invigorated and alive – only he was dying, and fans suspected nothing.

It’s kind of a typical Bowie sleight-of-hand – as if it was all part of his latest artistic statement. Which, according to Tony Visconti, is exactly what it was – a parting gift from a man who knew his time was almost up and was determined to make art out of it.

Much has been made of the video for “Lazarus” (which is also a song from the off-Broadway musical Bowie co-wrote which has been playing since last month) being an intentional farewell message. I’d add that it’s a masterstroke because the title suggests (to me) that he wasn’t just saying goodbye, but adding, “I’ll be back” – as if he’s just gone back to his home planet for an extended holiday.

Which is possible.



Anyway.

You’ve seen, read and heard all the tributes and his life story by now. It’s true. All of it. And where it’s not true, it doesn’t matter. “David Bowie” was always a persona – or a series of personas – for David Jones, and that’s close enough to the truth for me.

Here’s a few extra personalized nuggets:

1. The first Bowie song I remember hearing (and knowing it was David Bowie) was “Fame”.

2. Growing up, I knew his songs via the radio, MTV videos and SNL appearances, but I didn’t really get into Bowie’s back catalog until I was in the military and had the cashflow to buy lots of records. The first ones I bought were Ziggy Stardust and Diamond Dogs. To this day they're my two favorite Bowie albums.

3. I never did get to see him perform live. I did have a copy of his Glass Spider concert video on VHS at some point, but that’s not really a good example.

4. I did get to see his museum exhibit, David Bowie Is, in Chicago in 2014. I was glad I went at the time. I’m even more glad now.

5. This is my office cubicle, now.



I put the pics up there last month. I got them from Mojo, who did a cover story on the new album + the story of making Scary Monsters.

Well, I could go on. But I’ll stop here. It’s sad that Bowie’s gone, but it’s great that he went out on a high note. (Or so I’m assuming. I bought a copy of Blackstar this afternoon during my lunch break. I’m pretty sure I’ll like it.)

Ashes to ashes,

This is dF

I meant to post something about Dave Cloud, the underground Nashville legend known either for his karaoke performances at the Springwater Lounge or his garage-rock project with the Gospel Of Power, who passed away in February at the age of 58 from melanoma.

I didn’t actually find out about his death until four months after the fact, since Cloud’s stature as a music artist wasn’t exactly up there with, say, Lynn Anderson. The Nashville Scene covered it extensively, and he actually got mentioned in the obit sections of two British music magazines (Uncut and Mojo), but that was about it.

Anyway, while I was trying to think up a decent tribute post, I found out that he managed to complete one more Gospel Of Power album. It is out now on Fire Records.

Title: Today Is The Day They Take Me Away.

Which is the best title for a posthumous album, although it would be a mistake to read much into it. It’s named after a track on the album which was reportedly written before Cloud became ill.

Anyway, the album sounds more or less like you’d expect from Cloud: lo-fi garage with varying production values, and Cloud’s idiosyncratic delivery that always gets compared to Waits and Beefheart but is really more unique than that.  

In some ways it’s not quite as good as his previous studio LP, Practice In The Milky Way – a few of the songs are too samey in terms of subject matter (in one case, two songs are exactly the same but with different titles).

Still, it’s got a lot of great moments on it. This is one of them.

Listen.



It’s a good note to go out on. He will be missed.

BONUS TRACK: Apparently, according to the Bandcamp page, if you buy the vinyl version instead of CD or digital, you get a bunch of extra tracks. Which just makes sense. 

Get off of my cloud,

This is dF

They say celebrity deaths happen in threes. In the last 24 hours we lost Sir Christopher Lee, Ornette Coleman and Dusty Rhodes.

It doesn't get much more diverse than that.

I confess I don’t have much to say about Coleman, if only because I wasn’t really aware he was still alive. I have two of his landmark albums from 1959 (The Shape Of Jazz To Come, Tomorrow Is The Question!), and I confess I only got into him because Henry Rollins name-dropped him and John Zorn did a covers album of Coleman compositions. But there’s no doubt he was an original.

The same could possibly be said of Dusty Rhodes, who was a TV staple for me growing up in Tennessee watching professional wrestling on weekends. He was always a standout and could always work a crowd whether he was a heel or a babyface. I had mixed feelings about his American Dream gimmick in the WWF with the polka dot outfits and all that. On the other hand, Rhodes made the most of it. Who else could get away with going on national television in a butcher shop and saying, “You can beat my prices, but you sure can’t beat my meat.”

As for Sir Christopher Lee, well, this probably sums it up better than anything I could write.



You can also add to that list, “Was on the cover of a Wings album”.



Respect.

And you will know us by the trail of dead,

This is dF

The big local news is the passing of Lee Kuan Yew, whom most people in the US have never heard of. You can read probably the best summary of his life and times here, but the short version is this:

He founded the modern nation of Singapore, ruled it for four decades, and single-handedly transformed it from a podunk island in southeast Asia into one of the most successful economies not only in Asia, but the world. And all he had to do to accomplish that was curtail personal freedom, control the media, cane wrongdoers and generally stifle anyone who didn’t like the way he was running things. Now his son runs the joint. And the people love him for it.

Mostly.

Anyway, I’m not particularly a fan – I’m not from Singapore and he was a little before my time in Asia. But I do have a few comments:

1. All of this will seem foreign and weird to anyone who grew up with the idea of liberty and democracy and so on. But Lee is essentially the modern model of a benevolent dictator – not as ruthless as Fidel Castro or as batshit insane as Kim Jong-Il, but with the same strong-willed vision to lead his country to greatness. You may not approve of his methods. But it’s hard to argue with the results.

(To clarify: Singapore is a democracy in the sense that they have elections, and voting is mandatory. But that doesn't mean you have to play fair, especially when you already have control of the govt.)

2. William Gibson once described Singapore as “Disneyland with the death penalty”. Having traveled there on a regular basis over the last 19 years, I can verify that assessment. I can also tell you that for all the propaganda about social harmony, there is discontent simmering here and there, whether it's based on economic factors, race differences, ideology or whatever. Sooner or later I think that's going to backfire on the govt, if only because sociopolitical stability in any country usually has a limited shelf life, though you can stretch that if you manage it properly. 

3. It’s telling that a lot of the coverage of Lee’s death here in Hong Kong is focused on (1) his accomplishments as described above and (2) his comments over the years (before and after 1997) regarding HK’s handover to China and the future of democracy. Lee understood the Central Govt’s strategy fairly well, and pointed out in several interviews and public speeches that HK’s future will always ultimately depend on what Beijing wants – and which is for HK to serve as an economic model for the rest of China, not a political model.

Put another away: Lee pointed out all the way back in 1992 that HK’s status as a Special Administrative Region expires in 2047 under the handover deal, and Beijing won’t allow HK to have any kind of political system that doesn’t conform with its plans for the rest of China by that time.

So it’s interesting that the HK media is replaying those interviews now and pointing this out as if to say to the Umbrella Movement: “The game really is rigged – time to cut yr losses, and anyway is a lack of ‘true democracy’ really such a bad thing because look at how great Singapore is doing, I mean just pretend Beijing is Lee Kuan Yew and it’ll be alright, right?”

Possibly.

4. I wouldn't say that Singapore’s benevolent-dictatorship-disguised-as-democracy model is suitable for other countries, especially America. But it does get me to thinking about the concept of term limits.

One of the tradeoffs of the 22nd Amendment (the one that limits Presidents to two terms) is that no President has the time to execute a long-term vision, which results in short-sighted strategies, or at least long-term strategies that can be derailed or dismantled by the next POTUS before they have a chance to work. If no POTUS really thinks beyond the next election cycle, is it really possible – or desirable – to move forward without knowing what your destination is, let alone how to get there or even where the map is? And if a POTUS had the ability to execute a strategy over the four decades that Lee had, would we be further along than we are?

Hard to say. It depends on the POTUS, of course. Liberals shudder at the idea of 20 years of George W Bush or Nixon, and conservatives shudder at the idea of Clinton and Obama even getting one term, let alone four or five. (Christopher Buckley’s Supreme Courtship makes a nice running gag about this, with Republicans in the story moving to limit presidents to one term just to prevent the sitting Democrat POTUS from running for re-election.)

Anyway, America has done okay with two-term presidents pre- and post 22A. And historically the public gets sick of Presidents after eight years anyway, so future FDRs would be rare even without the 22A. That said, with political debate in America increasingly polarized and framed as a winner-takes-all proposition, where the objective is to seize control from the Evil Opposition permanently and prevent them from winning ever again(for the good of the country), maybe it’s better to have a 22A than to not.

In fact, applying it to Congress might not be such a bad idea, either.

And that’s all I got on Lee Kuan Yew.

Someone to rule us,

This is dF

Lesley Gore is gone.

Which I thought I’d mention because Gore is usually lumped in the category of early-60s one-hit wonders, primarily because most people remember just one song (“It’s My Party”), which is usually the one that gets included in oldies compilations.

But in reality she had a number of hits in the 60s, thanks in no small part to her work with Quincy Jones.

Personally, this is one of my favorites:



There’s also “Hello Young Lover”, which you can watch her sing to Hugh Hefner here:



Gore’s songs have been covered by a lot of people. A lot of people point to Amy Winehouse’s version of “It’s My Party”. I’m more partial to Joan Jett’s take on “You Don’t Own Me”.



Respect. 

You’d cry too if it happened to you,

This is dF

James Garner is gone now.

And like most people of my generation, I grew up with him on TV via The Rockford Files in prime time and Maverick in reruns, though I watched more of the former than the latter.

Other people have said it, but The Rockford Files was one of the best detective TV shows of its time primarily because it was so character-driven. James Rockford went against the grain of every other TV detective out there – an ex-con barely getting by as a PI who’d rather talk than fight. And Garner was perfect for it. (Okay, so the show was basically created with him in mind. Still.)

However, I thought I’d take the time to highlight Garner’s film work. A lot of people have brought up titles like The Great Escape, Murphy’s Romance, and Victor Victoria.

But one of my favorite Garner films that doesn't get mentioned is Support Your Local Sheriff.



On account of its that goofy 60s humor I tend to like. Granted, it’s sort of Garner playing Maverick with a loonier sense of humor. But it’s still a lot of fun.



My other favorite Garner film is Tank.



That one is a little harder to justify, perhaps. But I was in the Army when I saw it, and while it’s not exactly an accurate portrayal of military life, the spirit is there, so I kind of identified with it somewhat.



And of course, Garner is great as CSM Carey. Also, I’m a sucker for “corrupt small-town sheriff in the South abuses his authority and gets his comeuppance” stories. Anyway, I find it entertaining.

So, yeah, respect.

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