Steve's Live From Las Vegas

I was 14 when some friends asked me if I’d heard about that group from England with all the long hair. I hadn’t, but I didn’t admit it. I memorized the names as quickly as I could (John, Paul, George, and Ringo if you didn’t know.) When I was 20, they broke up. In the meantime they had more influence on my generation than anything else, so far as I can see. The Rolling Stones, given that they’ve had decades to do it in, have developed a lot more variety in style and musicality. They are great, but that’s a different post. I actually hadn’t thought about The Beatles in a long time. Then I watched that Grammy tribute and it brought back a lot of memories. My title here is “Let It Be.” I didn’t like the song all that much when it was first released on the album of the same name. Like the rest of the album, it suffered a great deal from Phil Spector’s overproduction. When the bootleg album “Cum Back” was released, it was basically versions of all of the tracks on “Let It Be” without Phil Spector’s tinkering. Even then I didn’t like enriching copyright stealers, but I did go to the Popular Culture Center at Bowling Green State University (I travelled at least two blocks to get there) to listen. Even though the sound quality on that album is awful, the arrangements were much more personal and, well, a heck of a lot better. Once I heard “Let It Be” without Spector, I liked the song a lot, although I never knew how it came to be written. Then I heard the story alluded to during the Grammy tribute, and subsequently looked it up for myself. It’s really touching as a story. Here’s Paul stressed out by the tensions within the band, what with all that John and Yoko stuff, and he has a dream where his mother Mary appears and tells him that it will be alright if he can just “Let It Be.” Damn. According to a Wikipedia article, “Let It Be” is one of the best songs ever. Rolling Stone ranked it #20 on the “Top 200 Songs of All Time” list they published a few years ago. Could be. It certainly is poignant, now that I know the story. But just consider: if John Lennon hadn’t been such a shit, that song might never have been written. Hey, silver lining!

Get Your Kicks . . .

Mostly this category is what I use to describe current things along Historic Route 66, but I thought that readers might enjoy a view of Route 66 in its prime. The photo is from Albuquerque New Mexico in the 1960s. The Interstates were coming, but hadn’t yet made the road obsolete. It is posted on the MCM Revival page on Facebook.

The picture can also be accessed here.

Route 66, Albuquerque New Mexico, Late 1960s Photo: Ernst Haas

Writers of Southern Nevada is proud to present Writing for Love, February 12, 2014 at the Downtown Cocktail lounge in beautiful Downtown Las Vegas Nevada. Meet authors! Hear readings! Maybe get a book signed! Mingle and enjoy cocktails with actual writers of romance and erotica, just in time for Valentine’s Day. This is the first in a series of events by Writers of Southern Nevada which will feature various genres and venues as it progresses. Plan your evening now, and I’ll see you at Writing for Love!

When I was in grad school one evening one of my fellow grad turned out to be a former roadie for Bruce Springsteen. That made me perk up my ears when The Boss came on the radio, but I never really listened to all of the lyrics. I liked the songs, and Clarence Clemons ranks as one of the finest tenor horn players ever, but beyond admiring the fact that he was telling stories about growing up in New Jersey, I never dug into the actual words. Then lately a satellite channel I listen to gave heavy airplay to Born to Run. Because I heard it over and over, and because the quality of the sound is a lot better than what I listened to in the 80s, I was able to hear the poetry along with the music. And, holy buckets, I do believe that Springsteen might be one of the best poets of the last century. Here’s an example verse from Born to Run:

Beyond the Palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard
Girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist
I wanna die with you Wendy on the street tonight
In an everlasting kiss

I really think that William Carlos Williams would appreciate his fellow New Jerseyite’s words. That is one heckuva stanza, and no mistake. So, my apologies, Bruce, for not realizing before just what a good writer you were. Of words, I mean, and not just music.

Lately they’ve switched to rotating Thunder Road heavily. Okay by me!

S.

That poem is all copyright by somebody else. It’s just here as an aid to a review. Please don’t steal it.

Back in 2010 I called the Nevada Senate race for Ried in May. In 2012 I called the Presidential race for Obama in January. If you don’t believe me, search the “politics” tag and you’ll see them there, unchanged since they were posted. This year I’m not feeling so bold, so this is mostly going to be a vague sort of “in general” prediction. There will be a lot of idiosyncratic races this year, so with the exception of what I’m going to put in my next paragraph, I’m not ready to call anything yet.

That said, in Nevada our Governor is a man named Brian Sandoval, and Governor Sandoval is so popular that whoever the Democrats run against him will be doing it for the practice. In other words, I’m calling it for Sandoval right now. Me and everybody else, of course. I don’t endorse, I just predict. Outside of that race, and some inner city races in Las Vegas and a few rural races Outstate, it’s not so easy. The Democrat will win District 1, yo, and the Republican will take District 4.

Now for the “in general” and “vague” stuff. Unless the Republican party changes quite sharply, there will be much disappointment over the results of this midterm election. I don’t mean that they need to “abandon their principals.” I mean that they should come down off of their ideological high horse and look at the world as it exists. In some parts of the country there is no longer a majority ethnic group. Know what that changes? Instead of griping about a governor named “Smith” or “Rockefeller” you get to gripe about a governor named “Sandoval.” And heck, nobody even gripes much about our guy in particular. Because, you see, most of the people in Nevada live in a multiethnic soup. Amazingly, though, the stores stay open, the roads still get fixed, the water still flows from the taps and the power is reasonably reliable. The only difference is that you have to keep your complaints about “them” down, because “they” are “us.” I know that makes the hard core conservatives that the Republicans have been catering to see patriotic spots before their eyes, but that’s the way it is in the most populous areas of the country now. And the way it will be everywhere in a couple of decades. If you don’t like it, well, I feel sorry for you. You might as well not like Nitrogen — you have to keep swimming through it anyway.

More specifically, when you try to “appeal to hispanics” you entirely miss the boat. You know what “hispanics” actually are, right? They’re just people. Some of us are Vikings, some are English, some are Russian, some are Mexican, but all in heritage only. What any people want is just what plain old “anglos” want, and that is food on the table, meaningful employment, a chance that things are going to get better, and basic respect as a human being. The way to appeal to “hispanics,” “asians,” “african americans” and anyone else is to quit worrying about ethnic voting blocs, because they don’t exist. As soon as you say you’re trying to appeal to “them,” you’re separating them from the normal social processes of America, and that’s where you fail. If the Republicans can accept people without categorizing them, they might have a chance. But if they feel the need to “appeal to ________, including Women,” then they’re in for a let down.

And as of right now, my prediction is that such is what is going to happen in this election cycle. The Republicans will not get it this time, and they’ll not do nearly as well as they’d hoped to do. I’m not a member of a political party. I already assume that people are people (including, for the record, redneck Tea Party members) so it’s not an issue with me. But it will definitely have an effect on this year’s election results.

I don’t mean that there will be a huge Progressive/Liberal resurgence in 2014. Just that the Republicans will not take over the Senate, and may lose some seats in the House. <—– This paragraph contains my actual prediction!

Later,

Steve

When I am watching a movie, unless it is absolutely top-notch, one of the very best, I deconstruct the story. The timing, structure, pace, that sort of thing. I did not deconstruct Frozen.

Someone asked in a comment who I hosted with because this blog seems to load quicker than most. I agree. I added a link to my hosting service over on the right side, right above the one that says “Ads.” I use server101, an Australian hosting company with a mirror site in San Diego, California. They do load quickly, they are reasonably priced, and they have good customer service. This is, for the record, an unsolicited and unpaid plug.

The big holiday season is here, and this year it seems even odder than usual. For one thing, of course, there is the very rare convergence of Thanksgiving and Chanukah, which is sort of cool even though I’m not Jewish. I’m not Christian, either, though, but I like Christmas, so I’ll just point out for my Jewish friends that good turkey stuffing contains some bitter herbs, if you get my drift. Talk about a combo made in Yid heaven, huh? But the other unusual thing about Thanksgiving is that it is almost at the very end of November. It’s the 28th, which is only three days from the last of the month. In fact, it can not get any later, because if it tried it would be the fifth Thursday, and that doesn’t work. This has led some to suggest that Thanksgiving be permanently moved to, say, the third Thursday, so that Black Friday could be gotten underway in a more timely fashion. Uh, yeah. What’s Thanksgiving for again? Something about being grateful for what you have? Y’know, a gift given with love is a great gift, even if it isn’t what you first had in mind, and even if you didn’t go out on a frosty Thanksgiving evening to buy it by braving a crowd of determined shoppers. Geez, guys, give it a rest, will you? I live in a 24/7 town, and I would never tell anyone when they could or couldn’t sell anything, but I do wonder if those frantic shoppers have any idea why we have Thanksgiving in the first place. It’s not like we need an excuse to be gluttons, is it?

On Saturday comes the “official” start of the Christmas season, when every small town Santa will be putting on the red suit and schlepping down main street saying hello to the kids. This is an excellent thing, so far as I can tell. I think it’s great to have a season of being generous and forgiving, of parties and presents and of good cheer. The Romans thought so, too, which is why they celebrated Saturnalia over the solstice, in ways not all that different from the way we celebrate Christmas. In fact Jesus’s birthday is in the Spring sometime, but the Mass celebrating that birth was moved to coincide with Saturnalia in order to draw people away from Pagan gods. Like Saturn for example. December 25th was Mitra’s day, Mithra being a sun god that some Romans worshipped. It didn’t hurt Mithra that his day came in the middle of Saturnalia, and it hasn’t hurt Jesus any either. But as to Jesus being the reason we celebrate this time of year, well, no, it isn’t, but nice try. The fact that being generous and forgiving meshes well with “what Jesus would do” is a real bonus, though, I’ll give you that. As far as celebrating Jesus’s birthday goes, there’s no reason for a Christian not to, but one might be aware that everyone, even I, was born. That’s no big deal. Maybe there’s some other holiday you should be more concerned about? Uh, sure, maybe, right?

Personally, I’d prefer that stores start plugging Christmas maybe Thanksgiving week and no earlier. I’d also prefer that people keep in mind that there are a lot of holidays this time of year (even my Pagan friends celebrate Solstice or Yule) and that most of them urge people to be loving, generous and forgiving. Nobody is against you because they don’t call out your special holiday; zero clerks give a Pagan a “good Yule.”  For that matter, I’ve never heard a single “Good Kwanzaa, although my not being black might have something to do with that. This is a great time of year to let go of ourselves to the extent that we accept each other’s foibles and silly religious stories (any one you don’t believe in is silly, isn’t it?) Doing so won’t kill us, but it would make the holidays a lot easier to get through, don’t you think?

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Ho Saturnalia, Good Mithra’s Day, Good Yule, Good Kwanzaa, and last but not least, Happy New Year 2014!

That oughta cover it.

Just saw Thor The Dark World. I know, little slow on this one. Good story, well told. And what I’d call a happy ending.

Something. About the fact that the Speaker of the House just caved. I have friends on Facebook who are truly shocked. (I made a joke to that effect, but it ain’t so.) They post rants such as “You sold out! You are worthless! You will never get re-elected!” I wonder if, when this is over, they plan to go back and try again to win that darned “War of Northern Aggression” too? It’s about the same attitude, and from some of the same people, at least in spirit. Boehner is their whipping boy du jour, and I suppose that’s to be expected. The thing is, he finally showed some spine and stood up for the business loving Republicans who are the closest thing to moderates in the Republican caucus. Just as the folks who fired on Fort Sumpter decided that righteousness would prevail against overwhelming odds, so did the Tea Party Republicans think that their ideological purity would prevail over the forces of Obama’s evil. They say that Obamacare is Communist, which simply demonstrates that they don’t know how Communism works. If Obamacare were a Communist program, the government would simply nationalize all healthcare, doctors, hospitals, clinics, etc., and then not charge any citizen for the use of the (most likely substandard) facilities. Like all of Communism, it sounds good until you start thinking about it. If Obamacare did that, they’d have a point. The truth is, Obamacare makes everybody get insurance, on the theory that insurance is cheapest when everybody is in the pool. Worldwide, private, single-payer insurance yields the lowest cost health care, and that’s the truth. But, Obamacare won anyway, and that’s not my theme here.

My theme is that a less ideologically pure solution was reached in the end. I don’t know what it is with some people, but they can’t seem to accept that nobody gets what they want in a democracy, but over time, we all pretty much get what we need. Being free isn’t, as some seem to believe, the ability to do whatever the heck you want. Being free is getting to choose how you contribute to society. You can contribute however you’re best suited, or however you want, but you do have to contribute. Even to the point of paying (gasp!) taxes. I mean, really, think about it. After our revolution, nobody forced our forefathers to set up a government. They did it voluntarily. Those guys were pretty damned smart, too, so you’d think even an ideologue would realize that maybe, just maybe, they knew something that the ideologue didn’t. But, that’s the problem with ideologues: they believe their own BS.

There are a couple of very pure ideological movements from the first half of the twentieth century that serve to illustrate the problem with a rigid ideology. I refer to the Bolsheviks in Russia, and the National Socialists in Germany. One left wing, the other right wing, both of them devolved into cruel and vicious regimes that ultimately failed. The Bolsheviks praised democracy, until they lost the election. Reasoning that “The people were fooled and made a bad choice” they staged a coup and took over. That’s why for seventy years or so we got to watch the Soviet Union grow, stagnate, and crumble in the light of modern communications. The Nazi party decided that forcible racial purity and conquest were the road to glory. Unfortunately, the rest of the world, including the Soviet Union no less, failed to share their vision, and they went down, as it were, in flames.

Racial purity is a sure path to extinction. So is ideological purity. What Boehner did today may doom his career, although I wouldn’t bet on it. Those business Republicans have a lot of money, after all. What he may have done, and this is still not certain, is saved the Republican Party. If the deal hadn’t gone through in time, then the Grand Old Party would have  been, for practical purposes, through. Those business people would have started a new party, sure as you’re born. The Liberals would still have hated them, and maybe vice-versa, but they’d have found a way to work together. I suspect that a lot of freshman representatives will not get re-elected next year. Partly because they “sold out” their Tea Party base, but more because they alienated a huge chunk of the middle of the American political spectrum. A little compromise may be a mess, but it’s how we’ve always done it. Just ask the boys at Appomatox.