06 December 2005

Playing catch up

Part of my problem as a blogger is that my life occasionally overtakes my intention to post regularly. So this post, and the previous post both have been floating around my journal/blackberry/email inbox for a while. I promise more up-to-date adventures soon. And let’s do lunch. No, I mean it. Really.

Enjoy.

In the headlong rush to get out the door after a long holiday weekend, I found no pens in my messenger bag. Which delayed writing an amusing entry on new music that sounds like 1970s French porno soundtracks. I promise I’ll get to it. Really.

Although I've used digital technology since I was in third grade (that's over 30 years, for those of you keeping track) I've refused to abandon pen and paper for my address book and my journal. For 11 years I used a magnificent Filofax. This year I lost it, and have been adrift ever since. For those of you who might read this (and wondered about the lack of phone calls and birthday cards), consider it explained if not apologized.

I think -- seriously think -- that I'm about to take the plunge and use a combination of media to organize my life. The journal will remain paper. But my personal and professional calendars are moving to digital media. My iPod will be the display mode for calendar and contacts, and I think a new cell phone is in order, too.

But how I will miss the annual ritual of replacing the old year's pages with a new year! And I will also miss the equal pleasure of leafing through a year's events with pride (and occassionally, regret).

Party like it's 1974

Watching the events of the last months, I can almost imagine it's 1974. Well, there is no half-gallon of Dewar's in the liquor cabinet, no carton of unfiltered Pall Malls in the kitchen drawer, and no Walter Cronkheit on the tube. But in the White House there is a corrupt Administration and a paralyzed President. Plus ça change, plus ça meme rest.

It's clear that this president and his administration have been brought down by their imperial hubris.

20 November 2005

Because we can can can ...

It's so hard being Benoit Denziet-Lewis. I, for one, would have been a puddle of lust hard core entertainment journalist.

http://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_4026

Jake Gyllenhal. Down, boy!

Death From Above

Records, that is.

James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy are Death From Above Records. DFA has been putting out music that makes me smile, makes me laugh, and makes me shake my ass. My two favorite DFA bands, LCD Soundsystem and the Juan Maclean are featured on the DFA Holiday Compliation. Those tricky boys made only 100 CD copies available (and which are, not suprisingly, sold out). Fear not friends, as the compliation will be available from iTunes beginning Tuesday, 22 November. Get it now -- the compilation will be deleted 31 December 2005. Don't believe me? How about this (requires NYTimes registration to view)?

14 November 2005

The Revolution will not be televised. It will, however, be blogged.

Thank you to Gil Scott-Heron and Joe Trippi.

Let me pull a three wood out of the bag for this shot.

Where we are as a nation today is a direct result of a historical tension that first arose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and is best understood by reading the its exposition in the Federalist Papers and in the writings of Thomas Jefferson and the Anti-Federalists. That tension literally blew up at the time of the Civil War, was partially resolved through Reconstruction and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and has been in dynamic flux ever since. There have been anomalies and extremes along the way: The Gilded Age’s “Robber Barons,” Wobblies, Huey Long, Supreme Court packing, Texas politics, HUAC, and the Reagan Revolution.

What the Reagan Revolution really brought was the ascendance of people who were fundamentally anti-democratic, and lead to their control of the political and social agendas of the United States. The Republican Party, and the men who had come to control it used the guise of the need for action against foreign threats and domestic problems to strengthen the Executive Branch and the Federal government at the same time they championed “states rights” and the need for a smaller Federal government. The anti-Federalist, “small government, individual responsibility” head fake distracted people. They thought and were told one thing: that the Federal government was bad. At the same time, the Reagan Administration was pursuing a massive military buildup and using it to support an interventionist foreign policy – a foreign policy that frequently ignored the rule of law. The anti-democratic and authoritarian nature of the Reagan Administration was revealed in many ways, but the Iran-Contra scandals and the activities disclosed in by both the House and Senate Select Iran-Contra Committee and the Iran-Contra Investigation lead by Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh are the ones I believe are most important to consider.

The Democrats who controlled both the House and the Senate at the time failed to prosecute the Iran-Contra investigation in a way that lead to the identification of the principals involved with the original events, the cover-up, and the orchestrated obstruction of justice. The identity of the principals was never revealed in criminal or civil court. (And we may never know the true identity of those principals – but it is likely they include Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, James Baker, and William Casey.) The minimal convictions of the supporting figures in the scandal – Elliot Abrams, Robert McFarlane, Oliver North, John Poindexter, Richard Secord, Casper Weinberger and others – were overturned or were pardoned by President George H.W. Bush. Many of their deputies and supporters now make up the White House staff of President George W. Bush.

The pardons reinforced the clear intention of the principals not to abide the rule of law. And the success of the strategy and tactics emboldened the Republicans to employ a similar strategy and use the same tactics once they had again had control of the White House.

And the results? A political system without accountability. The Global War on Terror. The war in Iraq.

So, we now have at least these issues to address as a country:

• The prosecution of not one, but two wars in countries where there is no realistic hope of a conventional victory;

• A dysfunctional Executive Branch – one that is the focus of an ongoing criminal investigation that has produced one indictment of a senior aide to the Vice-President of the United States on five felony charges, and which may yield more indictments; and

• A Legislative Branch where the leadership of both Houses are being investigated for possible criminal and ethical violations, including “pay for play” scandals involving Republican political appointees, lobbyists, and political operatives.

This sad laundry list is not an indictment of conservatism or Republicans. It is a stinging rebuke to anyone who believes that “the ends justify the means” with regards to political control in the United States. Senator Barry Goldwater famously stated, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.” And while he might have appreciated the intentions of a Grover Norquist, I am certain he would repudiate the techniques Norquist, Karl Rove, Jack Abramhoff, Tom DeLay and others use to win elections. More to the point, Goldwater would be appalled by the actions of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and the rest of the Bush Administration use to rule govern.

The rule of law applies to all the citizens of the state, governed and governors alike. The founders – the men who wrote the Constitution, and who struggled with the tension of a unitary, federal United States versus a confederated United States believed in the rule of law above all else. They were not above the law they created in the Constitution.

If we as a people fail to hold our elected leaders accountable for their actions, then we will surely loose the Republic that was created 229 years ago.

It is only in the rule of law that the United States Constitution defines that we can find a way to hold our political leadership – Democrat and Republican alike – accountable, to us, and to the ideals they swear to uphold. We must demand careful, thorough, and transparent investigation of their actions, and the actions of the people who support them. We must demand that the appropriate criminal and civil penalties be applied to any elected official, and any appointed official who is found to have violated the law in any way.

This must not become a witch hunt. It is a test of our Constitution, and our willingness to test ourselves, and the ideas on which our country was founded. Members of both political parties are likely to be found guilty of crimes, and must be punished. And we must be prepared to hold ourselves up to a higher standard of behavior and accountability from this moment on.

If the media (who have been complicit in the failure so far to hold our government accountable for its collective actions, and of the individual actions of its elected and appointed members) fails to assist the investigation, then we must do it. We have a tool in the Internet that allows for the collection of data and information, its analysis, and the wide dissemination of knowledge in a substantively different way than ever available to individual citizens before.

Governor Howard Dean said it simply: “You have the power.” We do have the power. Do not believe otherwise. That power is what created this great country. That power will save this great country.

I’m not a historian, or a political scientist, or a philosopher. I’m just a citizen who’s made as hell at what has become of a country I am proud of. I had to do something. This is my first step.

OK, we’ll now return to our regularly scheduled programming of light entertainment.

02 November 2005

Placeholder

I've been busy in other places in the blogosphere (is it really like de Chardin's noosphere?), at home, and at work. We've had an interesting week here in Washington, and I'm carefully picking my tee and and pulling a club for a shot down the fairway on politics. Oh yeah.

26 October 2005

Cleopatra Jones, Cornel West, and Cleopatra Jones

Cleopatra Jones, Cornel West, and Cleopatra Jones,

The DP and I spent a lovely evening at home eating farfalle and sauce Bolognese.  We also watched Cleopatra Jones.  It’s a 70’s period piece, but it’s an important period piece.  Tamara Dobson plays Cleopatra Jones as a black James Bond with a conscience and fabulous clothes.  Sure, the plot is nothing, the stereotypes of black and white characters alike are, ehm, broad, but the movie is fundamentally optimistic.  Jones works for good – to see that people are free from the threat of crime, drug abuse, and intimidation – and does it with compassion, style and panache.  Is it cheesy?  Sure.  But it completely lacks either the nihilism or the saccharine sanctimony that has come to dominate popular culture.  And that was unbelievably refreshing to see.

A lot of people think of the 1970’s as a string of hopeless clichés and embarrassments.  I disagree.  People tried to make things better.  A corrupt Presidency was removed from office by good journalism and the efforts of courageous and principled Legislators.  As a nation, we continued to work towards greater equality of opportunity for all Americans, and attempted to balance our great military and diplomatic resources with a dose of conscience.  And people were free to express themselves artistically, intellectually, and socially in a way consistent with being citizens in a liberal democracy.  Hell, the “decadence” of, say, Studio 54 seems downright wholesome when compared to the behavior seen any night at clubs in any major city.  And compare Chic to 50 Cent.  No, really.  Or Brittany.  Or, if you want wholesome, maybe Shania Twain.  See – nihilism or sanctimony.  No wonder snarkiness is a preferred mode of discourse!

Watching the movie, the DP asked what seemed on the surface to be a trivial question: whatever happened to Afros?  Now, as someone whose hair naturally approximated an Afro in the 1970s, I have been delighted to see the acceptance of progressively shorter and shorter hair.  (I inherited from my father hair that was once described as “curly as fire”.  I’ll leave you to ponder the image, and pray that no photos of my high school and college years are floating around on the internets.)  But I know of at least one person who proudly maintains his Afro:  Professor Cornel West.

I tremendously admire Professor West for his elegant prose, his impassioned teaching, and his intellectual project of work towards a synthesis of Marxist materialism and Christian teleology.  I respect Brother West for his singular understanding of the economic, ethnic and racial issues that cleave America and many other nations.  And finally, I am in awe of a man who can as easily stand on the corner of a street in Harlem, bring calm and understanding to a crowd, acknowledge me (hearing him call out “Brother Scott – what are you doing here?” was one of the proudest moments of my life, and made my job that day much, much easier) and look so fine in his black suit, French cuffed shirt, and the aforementioned Afro as he can show up President Bill Clinton by saying more in five minutes than WJC can in an hour.  But apart from the Afro, what ties together Cleopatra Jones and Cornel West is the stand against nihilism.  West’s constant goal is not to say “no”, but to say yes – yes to hope, yes to belief, yes to tell truth to power, yes to making the world a better place.  And we need more, not less of this.

Now, finally, the other Cleopatra Jones: it’s a song Mark Eitzel wrote and recorded on Sixty Watt Silver Lining.  While much of Eitzel’s music  is within a hair’s breadth of Morrisey-mopey, Cleopatra Jones is a brilliant, chiming tribute to “a great couple of films and a woman I met in a bar” (his words, not mine).  And it features a stunning, shimmering trumpet solo by Mark Isham in the bridge that moves a four minute pop song into something altogether different. Which brings us back to hope.  Always a good thing to end on.

23 October 2005

More songs thoughts about buildings music and food

The Talking Heads entire catalogue has been remastered and reissued. For those of us of a certain age and disposition, this is a major event. And if you have any doubts about the influence of the contribution of the band and its members, look no farther than here, here, and here. Yours truly will be purchasing, though I already own all but “Sand in the Vaseline” on vinyl.

Today has been about finishing. Yesterday was about starting. After a shopping trip to the world’s DC’s best coffee roasters, DC’s best market, and the temple of yuppie pulchritude, I set about making chili and spaghetti. Now, while I’m not a slow food enthusiast, per se, I do work up my food from scratch. And in the case of both chili and spaghetti, I think you need to cook ‘em for a lllooonnnggg time. So after an hour of prep work (dicing much garlic and onion, cutting up racks of ribs, cubing steak, decasing sausage), four plus hours of cooking, and ongoing cleanup (so as to spare the DP the nightmare of a kitchen pillaged used by me), I had two vats of chili and spaghetti that a normal person might think were finished. Not so. After resting overnight (and allowing me time out to go here and here – see below for more details), I had to finish the chili – which was easy: skim off the fat, and make sure the whole tomatoes were fully broken down into sauce, and finally thickening the chili with corn flour. (Please note that my definition of “easy” cooking has been ridiculed the DP as the culinary equivalent of “bait and switch” advertising.) The finishing of the spaghetti is somewhat more involved and, ehm, tactile. Once you’ve cooked five pounds of pork ribs and two pounds of bone-in chops until the meat falls off the bone, there are lots of bones, collagen, sinew, fat, and other stuff that need to be removed, tomatoes to be mashed, fat to be skimmed, tomato sauce evened and thickened, and the whole thing put back together again. And then everything packed up and labeled, and tucked into the freezer so we can eat very, very well for some time to come.

So back to Saturday night and Sunday morning: Bob and Rich have been playing music that they like for their friends and fans for over two years. Blowoff is an event the likes of which I always wished for, but never imagined could happen. I called it the basement party you always wanted to have the first night I went, and I haven’t changed my mind since. It’s never the same twice, and the crowd is what it is: people who like music and eschew the trappings of the usual gay and straight clubs – that is, they’re human (and the pretense that you too often feel in DC isn’t there). Bob and Rich have “golden ears” and networks that bring them the best of new music – and they share it, wrapped up in a sexy, intimate way. And, finally, Backbar is the working home of my favorite. bartender. ever.

Last night the blogoratti were out in force. I saw him, him, him, him and I think I saw him – and I was spanked scolded by my blog daddy for not posting more often. It’s been a slow, grinding haul of the last two weeks, bud. More will be forthcoming. If you’re wondering why I didn’t talk to ya, well, I was catching up with the other Shawn, back from Madagascar. And I was out before the alleged shirt swapping or boyfriend macking on my way to see Miguel Migs.

I like lots of different kinds of music; a trip to the record store can be a harrowing experience for the bank account. However, I’m pretty selective, and in some genres can put me off in a big way. Dance and house music fall into that category – but there are some artists (Ben Watt, Justin Martin, Jon Clausell) who can overcome my objections and create great music and amazing events. Migs is one of those artists, and even solo I found myself shakin’ my groove thang. Five is not my favorite venue – the space sucks, and the crowd can be, well, the pretentious lot that inhabit clubs all over the world. But last night people were shakin’ ass and having a good time to Mig’s great percussive mixes. And ya gotta love seeing straight boys dancing with their hands in the air (like they just don’t care they look just like the gay boys at Nation)!

When I left at 3:30, people were still pouring in! No available cabs lead to a refreshing walk up the street to the treehouse. Debriefed with the DP (who’s not much for big crowds or the claustrophobic confines of Backbar). Sleep followed, though not encouraged by the various caffeinated beverages added to the liquor along the way.

09 October 2005

A short editorial note and a statement of purpose

I've been a computer user for far longer than I care to admit, and have made a career in and around information techology. But for reasons far too complicated to explain, I've chosen never to learn how to code in HTML. So I apologize at the outset of this endevor for the low-tech appearance of the blog. Change is coming, in the form of a custom template courtesy of my tremendously talented domestic partner (known in these parts as Gsquared), whose business it is to make digital media appropriate for the purpose it is to serve. Bear with me as I come up to speed.

This project is meant to be fun -- fun for me to write, and fun for you to read and comment on. When it stops being that, it will stop. That being said, like a good dinner, there should be lots of variety of taste, color and texture, served first with a cocktail and followed with dessert and coffee. Wine, of course, will match the courses. Beer may be substituted when appropriate.

Once more a virgin ...

Honestly, I never expected this would happen. I've been loathe to think that I could add anything to the blogosphere. But peer pressure is an amazing thing. And really, all the cool kids are doing it, so ....

Don't expect much. In an age of lowered expectations, lower again what you expect for good writing and intelligent commentary. Posting will be infrequent, if consistent. I've kept a journal for 26 years. That being said, six months may pass between entries. You've been warned.