Jeez. Glancing at the last couple weeks of posts, Miss Thang has really sucked the oxygen out of the room. Here and everywhere, it's all Palin all the time. That sucks. Obviously, she is not really the story, so much as the cloud of weirdness that follows her. It's the bizarre, unsettling dynamic of addled morlocks crowding her as if she's the 2001 version of Britney Spears, hanging on these meaningless anecdotes and buzzwords she lobs at them, like an infant in a high-chair launching mashed potatoes with a spoon.
Palin was indeed the game-changer McNasty had hoped for, but she's been superseded by a much greater one, the foundering economy. In the short run it works to Obama's advantage, but longer-term, if the systemic issues persist, this anomic base that has been energized by Palin's aphasic babble is just the sort of bloc that turns to a fascist demagogue.
That's really what interests me as this unfolds, not her lies or her quals specifically, but what her meteoric ascent says about a significant chunk of this country. It's no longer sufficient to repeat the stock line about each party having 40%, and that elections are just about competing for the 20% in the "middle". The intellectual nihilism and cultural paranoia motivating this vaunted "base" should be exposed and explored for its deeply destructive undercurrents.
But I have a feeling that come November 5th, regardless of the outcome, I will be indulging a sudden urge to talk about nothing but half-naked starlets and unusual guitar scales for the next six months or so. Or the really awesome job market these days.
9 comments:
Dude. Don't talk about the job market -- it depresses me, and I have to give it a serious try this winter. Why don't you review Metallica's new album instead ; they say it's really good. Or write about Family Guy or something.
If you wanna write serious stuff, how do you think the Democratic Party should deal strategically with the fact that over 40% of the electorate will be in the bag for Hermann Goering for the next two decades or so? Toss around a few suggestions -- big-picture wanking, as you call it.
Why don't you review Metallica's new album instead ; they say it's really good.
...by comparison to what they've been shitting out for the last decade-plus.
Just kidding (sorta), I haven't bothered to listen to it, but I do think it's possible: just like how Palin only had to avoid drooling on herself and knocking the podium over in order to exceed her lowered expectations, Metallica only has to avoid shitty Bob Seger covers and Lars' goddamn tin can snare drum sound to make people think they're back.
I agree about shitting for a decade. Haven't even listened to those albums, except for the occasional 'hit' they blare out at the gym, to pump the kids up. They're really awful. But I have no idea what the new album sounds like -- I was hoping a connoisseur like Heywood could tell us if it's worth the money or not (haven't got the 20 bucks to spend on a new CD no more, unless it's good).
'Shitting out' for a decade, I mean. Expect a foreigner to make that mistake. This reminds me of a scene in that movie with Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi -- Arnie's some kinda Soviet cop looking for a psycho in LA or something, and he proposes they go in and snatch a gangster from his den. Belushi looks at him shoocked and quizzical, and asks, 'Are you shitting me?' Then Arnie answers, in an accent he didn't have to fake, with a deadpan expression, 'I am not shitting on you.' It's ineffable stuff.
Hell. If it ain't a new album by a reformed Emperor, it ain't metal :)
Funny, I was thinking on the way home from work about doing a post on what I've been listening to lately, more extensive than the usual Winamp Shuffle kind of lists. It's time for a palate cleanser along that line.
I've heard good things about Death Magnetic, but have only heard one song from it so far (which I liked). No doubt there are some lowered expectations there, but Rick Rubin's presence is a selling point for me.
Aside from Turn the Page, the covers that really pushed me over the edge with Metallica were Whiskey in the Jar and Tuesday's Gone. Just sad, even without comparing them to the great Budgie and Diamond Head covers they had done earlier. And then that St. Anger snare sound, unbelievably fucked.
I may have to check out some Emperor; Ihsahn has been writing a column for Guitar World for several months that I like quite a bit, and I poached a couple of his solo tracks from Limewire that are cool. I usually do an Amazon order in May and at Christmas, so maybe then.
At any rate, probably some mini-reviews coming soon.
Heywood, where did you find that picture of McCain and A.-N. Smith? I'm trying to find a bigger copy of it, print it out in color, and post it on my office door. Let students know in no uncertain terms where I stand.
I found it here.
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