Several months ago, I was talking to one of my classes, and I brought up what I thought was an obvious point: some things are awesome because they are awesome, and other things are awesome because they suck. It turns out that this was not at all an obvious idea to my students. So before I explain why The Talking Heads concert film, “Stop Making Sense” is a perfect concert film, I need to explain the bigger theoretical issue of awesome =>awesome, vs. suck=>suck, vs. suck=>awesome.
AWESOME=>AWESOME
Think of some things that are clearly and indisputably good.
Movies: “The Godfather” (I and II), “No Country for Old Men”; “Schindler’s List”
Bands: Beatles, Radiohead, Arcade Fire; The Association
Songs: “When Doves Cry,” “Somewhere over the Rainbow,” “Tracks of my Tears,” “Moonlight Sonata”
Books: “The Sun Also Rises,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Pride and Prejudice”
And so forth.
Why are they good? Because they move us; they make us laugh; they make us think. The world is a different place after than it was before. I remember my good friend Brien Henderson read this essay by DFW and remarked, “That changed my life… a little.” That is what awesome=>awesome does. It shapes our outlook and gives us a fresh perspective, even if only a very little bit. It opens our imagination to wonder.
SUCK=>SUCK
Ok, so now what about things that suck because… well because they suck? I will not create a list of suck=>suck, lest I offend someone by listing something they like. But a couple safe examples might include “Small Wonder,” Billy Ray Cyrus, and “Kangaroo Jack.” They are not awesome, and they do not even suck the right way to be funny or cool. Not even ironically. I don’t want them near me.
SUCK=>AWESOME
Some very smart people will likely have a name for this. I do not know that name but I suspect that Germans do. In America we do have a concept of “camp.” Dictionary.com offers these explanations:
“1. An affectation or appreciation of manners and tastes commonly thought to be artificial, vulgar, or banal. 2. Banality, vulgarity, or artificiality when deliberately affected or when appreciated for its humor.”
This comes close to suck=>awesome. The idea of camp is perfectly illustrated by the following: my esteemed colleague Phil Mayfield has an inexplicable affection for Hello Kitty that he is unwilling to explain. “She is a cool cat,” he will say. However, we all know that as he loves Hello (can I call her by first name only?), he does so in a way that acknowledges that he probably should not. It is an ironic appreciation. Grown men that are respected college professors should not like Ms. Kitty. He knows that. This is why it is funny. Whenever someone “likes” something that they know they should not like, and they do so in a public and self-aware way, we have an example of “camp.”
But awesome=>suck is slightly different than camp in my opinion.
It includes camp, perhaps, but also includes things like Lou Reed. No one would ever make the argument that Lou Reed is a “good” singer by any conventional definition. But many (myself included) would argue that his music is great. And that includes his bad singing. The bad singing helps the music, somehow. It sucks. It really does. But that makes the music awesome. The music would be less beautiful and interesting if his voice was more classically beautiful.
Or Take “Jesus Christ Superstar.” That is a great, great movie… probably perfect. But it sucks so bad, it will make you cry. The roman guards that arrest Jesus in the movie are wearing purple tank tops and carrying machine guns. Judas’s guilt about betraying Jesus is dramatized by having him run away from a helicopter. Suck, right? Yes. And Awesome!
Still not sure what I mean? Ok, cut and paste this into your browser: http://www.myspace.com/grumleeacoustic then report back to my blog.
I am sure that you now know what I mean.
STOP MAKING SENSE
So why is “Stop Making Sense” by the Talking Heads a perfect concert film? Because no other concert video that I can think of moves so seamlessly between AWESOME=>AWESOME and SUCK=>AWESOME. It is both.
You can watch most of the film on Youtube.com or you can watch the whole thing instantly on your computer if you have netflix.
David Byrne in the end will stand next to Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Chris Chrsitopherson, Hank Williams Sr., and all the truly great American song writers. He is consistently thought-provoking, and listenable. The Talking Heads were great. But there is no question about the “suck” part of this film. There are so many dated 1980’s elements that just outright suck… in the right way to be awesome.
But there are aspects of the music and the film that are just plain awesome=>awesome, not the least of which is the brilliant music of the Talking Heads. But the production is also brilliant. It starts with Byrne on stage alone with a guitar. Then for the next song, they add a boom box drum track. Then they add more and more stage-dressing after each song, first the remaining band members, then the touring musicians, then extravagant lighting, dancers, etc. Finally David Byrne leaves the stage and come back with a giant suit on. It makes him look like a little boy wearing his dad’s suit.
The notion is that the production itself has outgrown the musicians/music in Baudrillardian hyperreality. Brilliant, really.
At any rate. It is a great concert movie that everyone should watch.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Updating the Blog
I just posted several articles that I wrote over the course of the year. These were mostly posted to Facebook as notes. I am reposting them here.
Best Novels
In 2007, Time Magazine had 125 authors poll their Top Ten Novels of All Time, and from those lists, these were deemed the Top-Top Ten:
1. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
6. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov, by Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch, by George Elliot
So my friend Emily posted this and asked for input. I am personally surprised that authors listed plays and short story collections as their favorite "novels." I am also going to risk writing a list of my favorites, which is of course ridiculous because I could never narrow it down to ten--or even twenty for that matter. But here are my "ten favorite novels" (not in order):
1. Absalom, Absalom--Faulkner
2. Infinite Jest --David Foster Wallace
3. Lord of the Rings--Tolkien
4. Dune--Frank Herbert
5. The Sun Also Rises--Hem
6. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn--Twain
7. The Crying of Lot 49--Thomas Pynchon
8. Jitterbug Perfume--Tom Robbins
9. One Hundred Years of Solitude--Gabriel Garcia Marquez
10. American Pastoral--Phillip Roth
11. A Confederacy of Dunces--John Kennedy Toole
12. Moby Dick--Herman Melville
13. Ender's Game--Orson Scott Card
Ok so thirteen... sorry.
1. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
6. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov, by Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch, by George Elliot
So my friend Emily posted this and asked for input. I am personally surprised that authors listed plays and short story collections as their favorite "novels." I am also going to risk writing a list of my favorites, which is of course ridiculous because I could never narrow it down to ten--or even twenty for that matter. But here are my "ten favorite novels" (not in order):
1. Absalom, Absalom--Faulkner
2. Infinite Jest --David Foster Wallace
3. Lord of the Rings--Tolkien
4. Dune--Frank Herbert
5. The Sun Also Rises--Hem
6. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn--Twain
7. The Crying of Lot 49--Thomas Pynchon
8. Jitterbug Perfume--Tom Robbins
9. One Hundred Years of Solitude--Gabriel Garcia Marquez
10. American Pastoral--Phillip Roth
11. A Confederacy of Dunces--John Kennedy Toole
12. Moby Dick--Herman Melville
13. Ender's Game--Orson Scott Card
Ok so thirteen... sorry.
Perfect Summer Albums
The Perfect Summer CD’s
So I have had a longtime obsession with the idea of perfect summer albums. No time of year, it seems to me, demands a soundtrack as much as the summer: the road trips, the the evening barbecues, the camping trips, the day-long house cleanings, the drives to the beach, the car-washings. It goes on and on.
Winter certainly demands a certain kind of music as well. What is better on a cold, damp winter day than Leonard Cohen and some coffee? And the fall begs for Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, and Low.
Okay... so this is very subjective, even more-so than other claims about great cd’s. so I need your help. Please make contributions or question some of my selections.
I have organized them into three categories: the undeniably great summer cd’s, the deniably great summer cd’s, and the bands/musicians that are great for summer, but may not have a perfect cd for the occasion.
The Undeniably Great:
“Pet Sounds” The Beach Boys
“The Band” by The Band
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by The Beatles
“Blonde on Blonde” Bob Dylan
“Deja Vu” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
“Pacifico” by The Lassie Foundation
“Harvest” by Neil Young
“Graceland” by Paul Simon
“Doolittle” by The Pixies
“Between the Buttons” by The Rolling Stones
“Spinning Dime” by Rumph unreleased
“Kill the Moonlight” by Spoon
“Illinois” by Sufjan Stevens
“How It Feels To Be Something On” by Sunny Day Real Estate
“Joshua Tree” by U2
“The Velvet Underground and Nico” by The Velvet Underground and Nico
“Violent Femmes” by The Violent Femmes
“Weezer” by Weezer
“A.M.” by Wilco
“Summer Teeth” by Wilco
I think that “Pet Sounds” and “Weezer” are the most consistently satisfying. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan can always scratch the itch, so I chose the cd from each of them that felt most summery. “Harvest” is the albatross around my neck: I have spent a life trying to be that good... and failing. “Out on the Weekend” is the first track of that cd and it may be the world’s most perfect song, even more-so in the summer. The incomparable Rumph released “Spinning Dime” about ten years ago. You can’t get it that I know of, so you’ll have to trust me. The Lassie Foundation is a great summer band. If you have never heard “Pacifico” buy it now. Wilco is second only to the Beach Boys for best summer band of all time, so any of their stuff works. They can match all the shades of your summer moods.
The Deniably Great:
“The Doors” by The Doors
“Let Love Rule” Lenny Kravitz
“In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” Neutral Milk Hotel
“Brighten the Corners” by Pavement
“Me› su› í eyrum vi› spilum endalaust” by Sigur Ros
“Solitude” by The The
“The Early Years” by Tom Waits
“Hope” by Palace Songs
“America” by America
“Grown Backwards” David Byrne
“Band of Gypsies” Jimi Hendrix
“Our Endless Numbered Days” by Iron and Wine
“Wish you Were Here” by Pink Floyd
“Disraeli Gears” by Cream
Some sentimental, nostalgia in here (the Doors,Kravitz (before he went his way), Pavement, Cream). Iron and Wine is great, but you have to be a pretty moody person for them to work right for summer. Neutral Milk Hotel is genius for an outdoor party involving water sports. Iceland’s Sigur Ros may seem like a strange summer choice at first, but no band makes scenery seem more important. Put them in when you are driving toward the central coast or something. “Solitude” gets mentioned almost solely on the merit of the cd’s first track “That Was the Day.” The David Byrne album is undeniably perfect for any occasion, so it may not strike you as a “summer cd” as such, but if you do not own it, get it fast. America is a weaker version of CSNY in my opinion, but their self-titled is a fine summer cd: you will of course recognize “A Horse With No Name.”
Notable Mention:
Cat Stevens
Credence Clearwater Revival
Daniel Johnston
Gram Parsons
Neil Diamond
The Cars
The Stooges
Talking Heads
Buffalo Springfield
That Sinead O’Connor song “Nothing Compares to You” is also great for summer. I think Stuffed Animal Baby is a good summer listen as well, but I am biased. Nick Drake works well too, for the long, sad drive in the heat.
So I have had a longtime obsession with the idea of perfect summer albums. No time of year, it seems to me, demands a soundtrack as much as the summer: the road trips, the the evening barbecues, the camping trips, the day-long house cleanings, the drives to the beach, the car-washings. It goes on and on.
Winter certainly demands a certain kind of music as well. What is better on a cold, damp winter day than Leonard Cohen and some coffee? And the fall begs for Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, and Low.
Okay... so this is very subjective, even more-so than other claims about great cd’s. so I need your help. Please make contributions or question some of my selections.
I have organized them into three categories: the undeniably great summer cd’s, the deniably great summer cd’s, and the bands/musicians that are great for summer, but may not have a perfect cd for the occasion.
The Undeniably Great:
“Pet Sounds” The Beach Boys
“The Band” by The Band
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by The Beatles
“Blonde on Blonde” Bob Dylan
“Deja Vu” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
“Pacifico” by The Lassie Foundation
“Harvest” by Neil Young
“Graceland” by Paul Simon
“Doolittle” by The Pixies
“Between the Buttons” by The Rolling Stones
“Spinning Dime” by Rumph unreleased
“Kill the Moonlight” by Spoon
“Illinois” by Sufjan Stevens
“How It Feels To Be Something On” by Sunny Day Real Estate
“Joshua Tree” by U2
“The Velvet Underground and Nico” by The Velvet Underground and Nico
“Violent Femmes” by The Violent Femmes
“Weezer” by Weezer
“A.M.” by Wilco
“Summer Teeth” by Wilco
I think that “Pet Sounds” and “Weezer” are the most consistently satisfying. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan can always scratch the itch, so I chose the cd from each of them that felt most summery. “Harvest” is the albatross around my neck: I have spent a life trying to be that good... and failing. “Out on the Weekend” is the first track of that cd and it may be the world’s most perfect song, even more-so in the summer. The incomparable Rumph released “Spinning Dime” about ten years ago. You can’t get it that I know of, so you’ll have to trust me. The Lassie Foundation is a great summer band. If you have never heard “Pacifico” buy it now. Wilco is second only to the Beach Boys for best summer band of all time, so any of their stuff works. They can match all the shades of your summer moods.
The Deniably Great:
“The Doors” by The Doors
“Let Love Rule” Lenny Kravitz
“In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” Neutral Milk Hotel
“Brighten the Corners” by Pavement
“Me› su› í eyrum vi› spilum endalaust” by Sigur Ros
“Solitude” by The The
“The Early Years” by Tom Waits
“Hope” by Palace Songs
“America” by America
“Grown Backwards” David Byrne
“Band of Gypsies” Jimi Hendrix
“Our Endless Numbered Days” by Iron and Wine
“Wish you Were Here” by Pink Floyd
“Disraeli Gears” by Cream
Some sentimental, nostalgia in here (the Doors,Kravitz (before he went his way), Pavement, Cream). Iron and Wine is great, but you have to be a pretty moody person for them to work right for summer. Neutral Milk Hotel is genius for an outdoor party involving water sports. Iceland’s Sigur Ros may seem like a strange summer choice at first, but no band makes scenery seem more important. Put them in when you are driving toward the central coast or something. “Solitude” gets mentioned almost solely on the merit of the cd’s first track “That Was the Day.” The David Byrne album is undeniably perfect for any occasion, so it may not strike you as a “summer cd” as such, but if you do not own it, get it fast. America is a weaker version of CSNY in my opinion, but their self-titled is a fine summer cd: you will of course recognize “A Horse With No Name.”
Notable Mention:
Cat Stevens
Credence Clearwater Revival
Daniel Johnston
Gram Parsons
Neil Diamond
The Cars
The Stooges
Talking Heads
Buffalo Springfield
That Sinead O’Connor song “Nothing Compares to You” is also great for summer. I think Stuffed Animal Baby is a good summer listen as well, but I am biased. Nick Drake works well too, for the long, sad drive in the heat.
What is Sufjan Stevens Up To?
Sufjan Stevens released of his brilliant second album about the state of Illinois, "The Avalanche," in 2006. This was the same year that he gave us his massive (five cd's and sixty-odd-songs-strong) Christmas album. It was a good year for Sufjan fans... it was also the last year he released anything of substance.
So what has he been up to for three years. It turns out that among other things, he has been making a movie. Watch the trailer with this:
http://vimeo.com/5682252
or I posted it to my profile.
The music/movie thing was originally performed in NYC in 2007. The BQE will be available this week in a double-disc format (CD/DVD), which includes the original 16mm/8mm film (in widescreen "triptych" display), the original motion picture soundtrack, a 40-page booklet (with extensive liner notes and photographs), and the stereoscopic image reel (playable in all View-Master® viewers). Yes the 3-D viewfinder thingies that we remember from 1982.
But what is it?
"The BDQ" is apparently about the Brookly-Queens Highway, which Stevens seems to explore as a metaphor for commercialism? utilitarianism? ugliness? I dunno.
Stevens' label explains:
"The BQE is a self-made home-movie documentation, exhibiting how all the architectural colors of Brooklyn and Queens are fabulously intersected by this ramshackle artery of highway traffic. Shot renegade style on do-it-yourself film cameras, the animated footage of grid-lock crisscrossing the brick and mortar of Brooklyn flickers and cascades Koyaanisqatsi-style on three simultaneous screens. The 16mm cinematography (heroically shot by Reuben Kleiner on a 1960s Bolex) utilizes time-lapse photography, in-camera editing, slow motion, and post-production mirror effects to transform urban blight into a splendor of graphic compositions.
"The BQE further extends its mythology by anthropomorphizing the expressway and its theoretical conceits into a 40-page comic book (cover by Matt Loux, masthead by Christian Acker), in which three extra-terrestrial superhero sisters (Botanica, Quantus, and Electress) use hula-hoops to combat the 'the Messiah of Civic Projects,' Captain Moses, and his totalitarian social architecture."
It is a suitably ambitious project for the guy who aspires to record an album about each of the fifty states. (Side question: does this count as a cd about New York?)
It could be good.
He is also releasing another project this year. In 2001 he recorded an electronica album about the Chinese Zodiac ("Enjoy Your Rabbit"). He has reworked the music from that record to be performed by orchestra. That makes sense. It will be called "Run Rabbit Run."
If you have not already done so, get Sufjan's great cds:
Michigan
Seven Swans
Illinois
The Avalanche
So what has he been up to for three years. It turns out that among other things, he has been making a movie. Watch the trailer with this:
http://vimeo.com/5682252
or I posted it to my profile.
The music/movie thing was originally performed in NYC in 2007. The BQE will be available this week in a double-disc format (CD/DVD), which includes the original 16mm/8mm film (in widescreen "triptych" display), the original motion picture soundtrack, a 40-page booklet (with extensive liner notes and photographs), and the stereoscopic image reel (playable in all View-Master® viewers). Yes the 3-D viewfinder thingies that we remember from 1982.
But what is it?
"The BDQ" is apparently about the Brookly-Queens Highway, which Stevens seems to explore as a metaphor for commercialism? utilitarianism? ugliness? I dunno.
Stevens' label explains:
"The BQE is a self-made home-movie documentation, exhibiting how all the architectural colors of Brooklyn and Queens are fabulously intersected by this ramshackle artery of highway traffic. Shot renegade style on do-it-yourself film cameras, the animated footage of grid-lock crisscrossing the brick and mortar of Brooklyn flickers and cascades Koyaanisqatsi-style on three simultaneous screens. The 16mm cinematography (heroically shot by Reuben Kleiner on a 1960s Bolex) utilizes time-lapse photography, in-camera editing, slow motion, and post-production mirror effects to transform urban blight into a splendor of graphic compositions.
"The BQE further extends its mythology by anthropomorphizing the expressway and its theoretical conceits into a 40-page comic book (cover by Matt Loux, masthead by Christian Acker), in which three extra-terrestrial superhero sisters (Botanica, Quantus, and Electress) use hula-hoops to combat the 'the Messiah of Civic Projects,' Captain Moses, and his totalitarian social architecture."
It is a suitably ambitious project for the guy who aspires to record an album about each of the fifty states. (Side question: does this count as a cd about New York?)
It could be good.
He is also releasing another project this year. In 2001 he recorded an electronica album about the Chinese Zodiac ("Enjoy Your Rabbit"). He has reworked the music from that record to be performed by orchestra. That makes sense. It will be called "Run Rabbit Run."
If you have not already done so, get Sufjan's great cds:
Michigan
Seven Swans
Illinois
The Avalanche
Are White Males Discriminated Against?
There is a persistent myth that white people are discriminated against.
The world is so outrageously politically correct, the story goes, that my rights as a white male are being impinged. Maybe the world was once racist against blacks, but we are way past that now. Good luck applying to college, white guy. All those colleges slurp on racial minorities now, so you got no chance. So it goes.
I challenge that view on many levels. For one thing it is an unqualified and deeply flawed claim, even before we begin to look at any evidence. Can you find instances where whites are mistreated or discriminated against because of race? Of course you can. What does that prove? People are mean to each other and they will find any pretense.
So perhaps what people really want to claim is that “White people are more discriminated against than minorities.” But when I read that, the only thing that allows me to keep a straight face is how dangerously ignorant it is. Can anyone really think that?!
Or maybe it is more like “White people face as much discrimination as blacks and other minorities.” That is a bit more reasonable, though still quite untrue by all serious quantitative measures.
The one thing that people want to point at is affirmative action. So, let me clear up a few things. This blog has nothing to do with affirmative action. (Besides, we do not have affirmative action any more.) My ENGL 103 students will know what I mean when I say that I am arguing a claim of fact, not a claim of policy. In other words, I am concerned with clearing up what we can reasonably and objectively infer from data about race; I am not making a claim about what should be done about it.
Of course, I am not arrogant enough to think I will end this discussion, but I do feel compelled to at least make a contribution to the discussion.
I invite you consider is this: there is a huge difference between, on the one hand, broad systematic and institutional (even if unofficial) racial injustice/inequality/discrimination; and on the other hand, interpersonal racial tension.
I also invite you to consider the important distinctions between inequalities, injustices, and prejudices. These words are not interchangeable. In fact it is possible to think of a scenario where there is “discrimination” against whites, but still inequality against minorities, and injustices on both sides. For example, in the cases where a white student feels that she is excluded from college admission because preference was given to a minority applicant, she may (perhaps rightly) argue that she is a victim of discrimination. However if the overall admission ratios of the college show that only 5% of the total population is minority, then we would all acknowledge that there is inequality “in favor” of white students.
Criminal Justice:
I often find that white people will cite a particular instance when a racial minority was mean to them as evidence that minorities discriminate against whites. I invite you to consider this hypothetical situation. I am standing on the sidewalk in Fullerton at night and standing near me is a black or latino man. I tell a nearby police officer that the man stole my wallet. What will happen? Now reverse the scenario. The black man tells the officer that I stole his wallet. Can we expect commensurate treatment? I wonder.
About ten years ago, John Lamberth, a statistician and professor emeritus at Temple University conducted a landmark study that showed that on stretches of highway in New Jersey and Maryland, “While 17.5 percent of the traffic violators on I-95 north of Baltimore were African American, 28.8 percent of those stopped and 71.3 percent of those searched by the Maryland State Police were African American.” Read his report (published in the Washington Post) here http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/192.html
So why are blacks stopped on the highway more frequently than whites? Lamberth’s study shows through quantitative measures that it is not because they are more likely to commit a traffic violation.
So why are more blacks arrested than whites? Violators on this stretch of highway were typically arrested for possession of narcotics. How do the officers know there are narcotics in the cars? They search them of course. The study shows that “for every 1,000 searches by the Maryland State Police, 200 blacks and only 80 non-blacks are arrested. This could lead one to believe that more blacks are breaking the law--until you know that the sample is deeply skewed. Of those searched, 713 were black and only 287 were non-black.” In other words, of the people searched, almost exactly the same percentage of black and non-black offenders had illegal contraband in their cars. The evidence suggests that blacks are NOT more likely to drive with drugs in their car. In fact, the most reliable information from the National Institute of Drug Abuse indicates that drug use among blacks is exactly the same as among whites. And yet they are searched more frequently, arrested more frequently, and are much more likely to go to jail on drug charges. In 2002 blacks represented 44% of the federal prison population (even though they are less than 14% of the population).
The data that Lamberth compiled was used to launch a class action suit against the police forces in question, and the result is that over the last ten years there has been an increase in watch dog organizations that track state laws, litigations, arrest and search data, etc. For example, Northeastern University in Boston has a service here http://www.racialprofilinganalysis.neu.edu/ Police forces are now held accountable in a way that they were not before. The supposedly reckless lawsuits that people are always railing against are often the instrument of justice for the underrepresented and dispossessed.
Then there is the anecdotal evidence: I have never talked to an African American male (and this includes the middle class, and even politically conservative, African Americans that I know) who did not have a story about being harassed by police officers. Many of these stories are quite shocking.
African Americans do not have any unfair racial advantages in the criminal justice system. For the unconvinced, I invite you to do additional research, as there is much more data to confirm this.
Schools:
The majority of US States (including California, Texas, and New York) spend less money per student in districts that have high-minority enrollments. This is even after adjusting for things like Title III and other specialized funding packages that (some would say unfairly) target districts and schools with high minority enrollment. So even after the government gives special money to “minority” districts, they still receive less money than white-dominated districts. And it is not close. For example in 2004, Illinois was the most unfair; they spent $1,223 less per student in “minority districts” per year. As a teacher I can imagine a lost of ways that twelve hundred per student could dramatically change a classroom. There are some of states that spend extra money on “minority districts” (Georgia spent $556 more for example), but the overwhelming trend is to under-fund.
Here is another way to see it: according to a study of forth graders by the National Center for Education forty-seven percent of blacks and fifty-one percent of latinos were in the highest poverty schools in 2003, contrast with five percent of whites. Conversely six percent of black and latino forth graders were attended the wealthiest schools, vs. Twenty-nine percent whites.
The oakland school district is an underperforming district where the minorities are the majority. In the midst of the district, there is a nice white oasis in the Piedmont school district, where the schools receive max funding to reflect the wealthy demographic. In accordance with a well-established practice, the districts have been gerrymandered to guarantee that wealthy white parents will not have to share their rich schools with the poor students in Oakland at large.
According to a 2007 UCLA study of K12 racial isolation, the average white student attends a school where 77% of his/her classmates are white. Black students can expect 52% of their fellows to be black. 55% for Latinos. What does this mean. It means that we have to a large extent re-segregated our schools in part by gerrymandering districts. Even racial minorities can expect to attend a school where their race is the majority.
Despite the frequent complaints that white people get the shaft when it comes to college admission, admissions are based on many practices that favor wealthy white families. There is of course the question of the SAT that heavily favors teenagers who speak Broadcast English in their homes and/or who have access to expensive/extensive after school tutoring programs. Top Tier colleges also place a lot of emphasis on AP credits. However, studies show that “white” dominant schools are much more likely to have AP programs than minority dominated schools. Also, the AP programs at wealthier schools are consistently stronger, with well-trained teachers and counsellors.
The admissions office for Berkeley is on speed dial in the wealthiest high schools in California, but a survey of counsellors in impoverished schools revealed that nearly half of the counsellors surveyed acknowledged that they did not know they were “allowed” to talk to universities on behalf of their students. (I apologize that I cannot give you the reference for this survey; I read it in a newspaper article that I cannot find.)
Minorities are underrepresented in college and less prepared than their white counterparts. Since none of us is ignorant enough to say that whites are superior to minorities, then we need to continue to examine how we can improve K12 education. The inequalities and injustices are statistically clear.
Income:
To be brief, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2002 the average white worker made $126 more per week than the average black worker and $201 more than Latinos. Racial minorities remain proportionally underrepresented in the highest paying American jobs.
Housing:
Large gaps in homeownership between whites and non-whites are persistent as well. The US Census Bureau reports that blacks and Latinos are nearly 30% less likely to own a home. And those who did purchase homes over the last ten years were much more likely to fall prey to predatory loans. During the housing boom, subprime loans represented about 9% of all conventional home-purchase loans. Yet from 1995 to 2001 subprime loans to blacks grew 686%, to Latinos 882%. Fannie Mae estimates that nearly half of the homebuyers who received these loans could have qualified for lower-cost conventional mortgages.
Coda:
What have I shown? Maybe nothing. This was a hastily written blog. But I have tried to show that there is quantitative objective evidence showing pervasive racial inequalities, injustices, and discrimination in several foundational American institutions.
So what is the difference between institutional racism and interpersonal racial tension?
Power. And white males have it.
This is why there are no racial slurs that hurt white males, though there are for all other groups. (And don’t tell me “cracker” hurts your feelings.) We have the power. We have the money. We have the good jobs (professional sports notwithstanding). We have the criminal justice system.
Therefore, even if in specific instances individual whites may feel discriminated against, it simply does not mean the same thing. As a white male, the law of averages is on my side. If I keep applying it is bound to shape out in my favor, since the real power is on my side.
It is not liberal tomfoolery to say so.
The world is so outrageously politically correct, the story goes, that my rights as a white male are being impinged. Maybe the world was once racist against blacks, but we are way past that now. Good luck applying to college, white guy. All those colleges slurp on racial minorities now, so you got no chance. So it goes.
I challenge that view on many levels. For one thing it is an unqualified and deeply flawed claim, even before we begin to look at any evidence. Can you find instances where whites are mistreated or discriminated against because of race? Of course you can. What does that prove? People are mean to each other and they will find any pretense.
So perhaps what people really want to claim is that “White people are more discriminated against than minorities.” But when I read that, the only thing that allows me to keep a straight face is how dangerously ignorant it is. Can anyone really think that?!
Or maybe it is more like “White people face as much discrimination as blacks and other minorities.” That is a bit more reasonable, though still quite untrue by all serious quantitative measures.
The one thing that people want to point at is affirmative action. So, let me clear up a few things. This blog has nothing to do with affirmative action. (Besides, we do not have affirmative action any more.) My ENGL 103 students will know what I mean when I say that I am arguing a claim of fact, not a claim of policy. In other words, I am concerned with clearing up what we can reasonably and objectively infer from data about race; I am not making a claim about what should be done about it.
Of course, I am not arrogant enough to think I will end this discussion, but I do feel compelled to at least make a contribution to the discussion.
I invite you consider is this: there is a huge difference between, on the one hand, broad systematic and institutional (even if unofficial) racial injustice/inequality/discrimination; and on the other hand, interpersonal racial tension.
I also invite you to consider the important distinctions between inequalities, injustices, and prejudices. These words are not interchangeable. In fact it is possible to think of a scenario where there is “discrimination” against whites, but still inequality against minorities, and injustices on both sides. For example, in the cases where a white student feels that she is excluded from college admission because preference was given to a minority applicant, she may (perhaps rightly) argue that she is a victim of discrimination. However if the overall admission ratios of the college show that only 5% of the total population is minority, then we would all acknowledge that there is inequality “in favor” of white students.
Criminal Justice:
I often find that white people will cite a particular instance when a racial minority was mean to them as evidence that minorities discriminate against whites. I invite you to consider this hypothetical situation. I am standing on the sidewalk in Fullerton at night and standing near me is a black or latino man. I tell a nearby police officer that the man stole my wallet. What will happen? Now reverse the scenario. The black man tells the officer that I stole his wallet. Can we expect commensurate treatment? I wonder.
About ten years ago, John Lamberth, a statistician and professor emeritus at Temple University conducted a landmark study that showed that on stretches of highway in New Jersey and Maryland, “While 17.5 percent of the traffic violators on I-95 north of Baltimore were African American, 28.8 percent of those stopped and 71.3 percent of those searched by the Maryland State Police were African American.” Read his report (published in the Washington Post) here http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/192.html
So why are blacks stopped on the highway more frequently than whites? Lamberth’s study shows through quantitative measures that it is not because they are more likely to commit a traffic violation.
So why are more blacks arrested than whites? Violators on this stretch of highway were typically arrested for possession of narcotics. How do the officers know there are narcotics in the cars? They search them of course. The study shows that “for every 1,000 searches by the Maryland State Police, 200 blacks and only 80 non-blacks are arrested. This could lead one to believe that more blacks are breaking the law--until you know that the sample is deeply skewed. Of those searched, 713 were black and only 287 were non-black.” In other words, of the people searched, almost exactly the same percentage of black and non-black offenders had illegal contraband in their cars. The evidence suggests that blacks are NOT more likely to drive with drugs in their car. In fact, the most reliable information from the National Institute of Drug Abuse indicates that drug use among blacks is exactly the same as among whites. And yet they are searched more frequently, arrested more frequently, and are much more likely to go to jail on drug charges. In 2002 blacks represented 44% of the federal prison population (even though they are less than 14% of the population).
The data that Lamberth compiled was used to launch a class action suit against the police forces in question, and the result is that over the last ten years there has been an increase in watch dog organizations that track state laws, litigations, arrest and search data, etc. For example, Northeastern University in Boston has a service here http://www.racialprofilinganalysis.neu.edu/ Police forces are now held accountable in a way that they were not before. The supposedly reckless lawsuits that people are always railing against are often the instrument of justice for the underrepresented and dispossessed.
Then there is the anecdotal evidence: I have never talked to an African American male (and this includes the middle class, and even politically conservative, African Americans that I know) who did not have a story about being harassed by police officers. Many of these stories are quite shocking.
African Americans do not have any unfair racial advantages in the criminal justice system. For the unconvinced, I invite you to do additional research, as there is much more data to confirm this.
Schools:
The majority of US States (including California, Texas, and New York) spend less money per student in districts that have high-minority enrollments. This is even after adjusting for things like Title III and other specialized funding packages that (some would say unfairly) target districts and schools with high minority enrollment. So even after the government gives special money to “minority” districts, they still receive less money than white-dominated districts. And it is not close. For example in 2004, Illinois was the most unfair; they spent $1,223 less per student in “minority districts” per year. As a teacher I can imagine a lost of ways that twelve hundred per student could dramatically change a classroom. There are some of states that spend extra money on “minority districts” (Georgia spent $556 more for example), but the overwhelming trend is to under-fund.
Here is another way to see it: according to a study of forth graders by the National Center for Education forty-seven percent of blacks and fifty-one percent of latinos were in the highest poverty schools in 2003, contrast with five percent of whites. Conversely six percent of black and latino forth graders were attended the wealthiest schools, vs. Twenty-nine percent whites.
The oakland school district is an underperforming district where the minorities are the majority. In the midst of the district, there is a nice white oasis in the Piedmont school district, where the schools receive max funding to reflect the wealthy demographic. In accordance with a well-established practice, the districts have been gerrymandered to guarantee that wealthy white parents will not have to share their rich schools with the poor students in Oakland at large.
According to a 2007 UCLA study of K12 racial isolation, the average white student attends a school where 77% of his/her classmates are white. Black students can expect 52% of their fellows to be black. 55% for Latinos. What does this mean. It means that we have to a large extent re-segregated our schools in part by gerrymandering districts. Even racial minorities can expect to attend a school where their race is the majority.
Despite the frequent complaints that white people get the shaft when it comes to college admission, admissions are based on many practices that favor wealthy white families. There is of course the question of the SAT that heavily favors teenagers who speak Broadcast English in their homes and/or who have access to expensive/extensive after school tutoring programs. Top Tier colleges also place a lot of emphasis on AP credits. However, studies show that “white” dominant schools are much more likely to have AP programs than minority dominated schools. Also, the AP programs at wealthier schools are consistently stronger, with well-trained teachers and counsellors.
The admissions office for Berkeley is on speed dial in the wealthiest high schools in California, but a survey of counsellors in impoverished schools revealed that nearly half of the counsellors surveyed acknowledged that they did not know they were “allowed” to talk to universities on behalf of their students. (I apologize that I cannot give you the reference for this survey; I read it in a newspaper article that I cannot find.)
Minorities are underrepresented in college and less prepared than their white counterparts. Since none of us is ignorant enough to say that whites are superior to minorities, then we need to continue to examine how we can improve K12 education. The inequalities and injustices are statistically clear.
Income:
To be brief, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2002 the average white worker made $126 more per week than the average black worker and $201 more than Latinos. Racial minorities remain proportionally underrepresented in the highest paying American jobs.
Housing:
Large gaps in homeownership between whites and non-whites are persistent as well. The US Census Bureau reports that blacks and Latinos are nearly 30% less likely to own a home. And those who did purchase homes over the last ten years were much more likely to fall prey to predatory loans. During the housing boom, subprime loans represented about 9% of all conventional home-purchase loans. Yet from 1995 to 2001 subprime loans to blacks grew 686%, to Latinos 882%. Fannie Mae estimates that nearly half of the homebuyers who received these loans could have qualified for lower-cost conventional mortgages.
Coda:
What have I shown? Maybe nothing. This was a hastily written blog. But I have tried to show that there is quantitative objective evidence showing pervasive racial inequalities, injustices, and discrimination in several foundational American institutions.
So what is the difference between institutional racism and interpersonal racial tension?
Power. And white males have it.
This is why there are no racial slurs that hurt white males, though there are for all other groups. (And don’t tell me “cracker” hurts your feelings.) We have the power. We have the money. We have the good jobs (professional sports notwithstanding). We have the criminal justice system.
Therefore, even if in specific instances individual whites may feel discriminated against, it simply does not mean the same thing. As a white male, the law of averages is on my side. If I keep applying it is bound to shape out in my favor, since the real power is on my side.
It is not liberal tomfoolery to say so.
My Most Important Albums of the Millennium (So Far)
My Most Important Albums of the Millennium (So Far)
I posted a status update a while back soliciting input on the best album of the last ten years, and was delighted to be reminded of some great records, as well as excited to learn about some CD’s that I had not heard before.
After much consideration I am ready to submit my short list of the records of the last ten years that have been most important to me. This is a very subjective list. There are some records that I discovered too late for them to have had super-meaningful impact on me personally, so I left those off, knowing they might be objectively “better” than some of those I included. That’s the shakes.
Explanatory remarks below.
Note: some of these bands/artists may well deserve to have more than one record on this list, but I only included one-per.
“A Squad”
Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Radiohead: Kid A
Sigur Ros: Takk
Sufjan Stevens: Come on Feel the Illinois
David Byrne: Grown Backwards
The Books: The Lemon of Pink
Lift to Experience: The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads
“Junior Varsity”
Johnny Cash: The Man Comes Around
The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Bjork: Medulla
Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism
Beirut: Gulag Orkestar
Low: Drums and Guns
Arcade Fire: Funeral
Iron and Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days
The “A Squad” are the seven albums that had the strongest, lasting impact on me. Age twenty-seven to age thirty-five hipsters should not be surprised to see Radiohead and Wilco on this list. The Wilco CD is an absolute revelation. I wonder if the youngsters with great taste can feel the impact of this CD? It really brought widespread hipster credibility to a very interesting roots-driven indie music. A trend that paved the way for Devandra, Sufjan, and countless others. The record reinterprets the production innovations of Radiohead and blends it with Tweedy’s already brilliant brand of country-roots-rock. The album speaks for itself.
I could have chosen any of four Radiohead records, and they have the distinction of thriving in (at least) three wildly different styles since they first hit the radio waves with “Creep.” I give the nod to Kid A because it was their first album of the decade and their first since OK Computer. It is also their first album with synthesizers and such. This album (and OK Computer) opened the doors for a lot of stuff. I seem to remember them acknowledging Mogwai and Sigur Ros as bands that influenced them at the time, but in the tradition of the “favorite uncle,” it was precisely because of the fact that Radiohead said they were influenced by Sigur Ross that we even know who they are.
Sigur Ros is the best of the self-consciously “post rock” bands out there. Takk is likely their best album, though Me› su› í eyrum vi› spilum endalaust is also brilliant. If you have never listened to this band, the best introduction is the beautiful, perfect documentary about their tour of Iceland: Hvarf (which means “home” in Icelandic). They are too good.
Sufjan Stevens is truly unequivocal. He plays a roots-folk music with a heavy Steve Reich influence. He has apparently boundless creativity and energy. Illinois is as good a place to start as any, but really, you will need to have it all. I appreciate his Wes Andersonesque post-ironic enthusiasm.
The David Byrne album may surprise some people. For some reason this record did not get as much publicity as it should have. Byrne was the lead Talking Head back in the 1980’s and has busied himself with countless endeavors, such as starting a world music record label, publishing several books/picture books, and doing installment art. And occasionally he makes a brilliant CD. He is as witty a song writer as he ever was, which is saying something. When it is all done we will discuss Byrne in the same breath as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Andy Warhol, and Lou Reed. This is his best album ever in my opinion, including the Talking Heads brilliant catalogue.
The Books make roughly aleatoric music. What is amazing to me about this band is not only the creativity of what they do: sampling hours of audio from home movies they bought at garage sales and thrift stores and splicing it together with home made sounds--slamming filing cabinets and such--to make a music that is the analogue to rhythms of speech and daily sounds, never using synthesizers or drum machines of any kind, and adding their own concert-quality banjo, guitar, cello, piano playing. That is all quite amazing...seriously. What really gets me though is how they do all this high-intellect stuff without the slightest hint of cynicism or irony. It is deeply, deeply human and affirmative. The sound bytes they build their music around are stirringly real and beautiful to hear. I cannot say enough about this band.
The last CD on the “A Squad” is the solitary release of Texas loud-rockers Lift to Experience. The record is a concept album built around a vision that the lead guy ostensibly believes that he had. In this vision, an angel of the Lord came down while our hero was working as a ranch hand and warned the young man that judgement was coming and that he needed to make a CD to warn the faithful. The message of warning: USA is the center of JerUSAlem; Texas is the new holy land and will be the only place that is saved from God’s wrath. I cannot scream this loudly enough: the record is great.
I will give less explanation for the “Junior Varsity” list.
Johnny Cash reminded us why we love him (even before the movie reminded us again). The opening song about the coming apocalypse is breathtaking. And his covers of Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode are phenomenal.
The Flaming Lips never have equalled the genius of The Soft Bulletin, but their shows remain special. Yoshimi is a memorable CD.
If you have never listened to Bjork’s Medulla, I recommend you give it a go. She recorded Medulla almost entirely around vocals. There is a bit of electronic rhythm (which may be digitally manipulated vocals), but no real instruments. The CD was disappointing at first, but over the years, I keep coming back to it. It may be her best CD.
Death Cab peaked with Transatlanticism in my opinion.
When I first heard Beirut, I wilted.
I have discovered Low late. Drums and Guns is a great CD. Dragonfly is my favorite. Best first-song-of-the-record of the decade.
Don’t let the hyperbolic hype turn you off to Funeral by Arcade Fire. It is great.
Who can listen to Our Endless Numbered Days by Iron and Wine and not love it? I ask you.
Some of the biggest musical disappointments of the decade:
Spiritualized failed to build on the genius of their 1990’s output. In interviews Jason says that he doesn’t want to get stuck in a rut where is is always redoing Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space. That sounds respectable. The problem? The new stuff is a rut of another sort. In my opinion, he is avoiding doing a rinse-and-repeat on his best work from the old records by recycling his weakest work of the 90’s. There are some good CD’s (Amazing Grace is better than a lot of stuff). He simply never made anything that blew my mind.
Lift To Experience dissolves into oblivion. They made the one good CD and then the crazy came. Too bad.
Bob Dylan had a couple really really good albums at the end of the 1990’s but never really made a perfect record in the new millennium, though he remains (almost unbelievably) relevant and listenable.
Rolling Stones make it hard to appreciate their body of work by showing their actual bodies...which are old and arhythmic. On the other hand, Michael Jackson died, therefore making it possible to go back and fall in love with his great songs again.
I posted a status update a while back soliciting input on the best album of the last ten years, and was delighted to be reminded of some great records, as well as excited to learn about some CD’s that I had not heard before.
After much consideration I am ready to submit my short list of the records of the last ten years that have been most important to me. This is a very subjective list. There are some records that I discovered too late for them to have had super-meaningful impact on me personally, so I left those off, knowing they might be objectively “better” than some of those I included. That’s the shakes.
Explanatory remarks below.
Note: some of these bands/artists may well deserve to have more than one record on this list, but I only included one-per.
“A Squad”
Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Radiohead: Kid A
Sigur Ros: Takk
Sufjan Stevens: Come on Feel the Illinois
David Byrne: Grown Backwards
The Books: The Lemon of Pink
Lift to Experience: The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads
“Junior Varsity”
Johnny Cash: The Man Comes Around
The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Bjork: Medulla
Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism
Beirut: Gulag Orkestar
Low: Drums and Guns
Arcade Fire: Funeral
Iron and Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days
The “A Squad” are the seven albums that had the strongest, lasting impact on me. Age twenty-seven to age thirty-five hipsters should not be surprised to see Radiohead and Wilco on this list. The Wilco CD is an absolute revelation. I wonder if the youngsters with great taste can feel the impact of this CD? It really brought widespread hipster credibility to a very interesting roots-driven indie music. A trend that paved the way for Devandra, Sufjan, and countless others. The record reinterprets the production innovations of Radiohead and blends it with Tweedy’s already brilliant brand of country-roots-rock. The album speaks for itself.
I could have chosen any of four Radiohead records, and they have the distinction of thriving in (at least) three wildly different styles since they first hit the radio waves with “Creep.” I give the nod to Kid A because it was their first album of the decade and their first since OK Computer. It is also their first album with synthesizers and such. This album (and OK Computer) opened the doors for a lot of stuff. I seem to remember them acknowledging Mogwai and Sigur Ros as bands that influenced them at the time, but in the tradition of the “favorite uncle,” it was precisely because of the fact that Radiohead said they were influenced by Sigur Ross that we even know who they are.
Sigur Ros is the best of the self-consciously “post rock” bands out there. Takk is likely their best album, though Me› su› í eyrum vi› spilum endalaust is also brilliant. If you have never listened to this band, the best introduction is the beautiful, perfect documentary about their tour of Iceland: Hvarf (which means “home” in Icelandic). They are too good.
Sufjan Stevens is truly unequivocal. He plays a roots-folk music with a heavy Steve Reich influence. He has apparently boundless creativity and energy. Illinois is as good a place to start as any, but really, you will need to have it all. I appreciate his Wes Andersonesque post-ironic enthusiasm.
The David Byrne album may surprise some people. For some reason this record did not get as much publicity as it should have. Byrne was the lead Talking Head back in the 1980’s and has busied himself with countless endeavors, such as starting a world music record label, publishing several books/picture books, and doing installment art. And occasionally he makes a brilliant CD. He is as witty a song writer as he ever was, which is saying something. When it is all done we will discuss Byrne in the same breath as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Andy Warhol, and Lou Reed. This is his best album ever in my opinion, including the Talking Heads brilliant catalogue.
The Books make roughly aleatoric music. What is amazing to me about this band is not only the creativity of what they do: sampling hours of audio from home movies they bought at garage sales and thrift stores and splicing it together with home made sounds--slamming filing cabinets and such--to make a music that is the analogue to rhythms of speech and daily sounds, never using synthesizers or drum machines of any kind, and adding their own concert-quality banjo, guitar, cello, piano playing. That is all quite amazing...seriously. What really gets me though is how they do all this high-intellect stuff without the slightest hint of cynicism or irony. It is deeply, deeply human and affirmative. The sound bytes they build their music around are stirringly real and beautiful to hear. I cannot say enough about this band.
The last CD on the “A Squad” is the solitary release of Texas loud-rockers Lift to Experience. The record is a concept album built around a vision that the lead guy ostensibly believes that he had. In this vision, an angel of the Lord came down while our hero was working as a ranch hand and warned the young man that judgement was coming and that he needed to make a CD to warn the faithful. The message of warning: USA is the center of JerUSAlem; Texas is the new holy land and will be the only place that is saved from God’s wrath. I cannot scream this loudly enough: the record is great.
I will give less explanation for the “Junior Varsity” list.
Johnny Cash reminded us why we love him (even before the movie reminded us again). The opening song about the coming apocalypse is breathtaking. And his covers of Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode are phenomenal.
The Flaming Lips never have equalled the genius of The Soft Bulletin, but their shows remain special. Yoshimi is a memorable CD.
If you have never listened to Bjork’s Medulla, I recommend you give it a go. She recorded Medulla almost entirely around vocals. There is a bit of electronic rhythm (which may be digitally manipulated vocals), but no real instruments. The CD was disappointing at first, but over the years, I keep coming back to it. It may be her best CD.
Death Cab peaked with Transatlanticism in my opinion.
When I first heard Beirut, I wilted.
I have discovered Low late. Drums and Guns is a great CD. Dragonfly is my favorite. Best first-song-of-the-record of the decade.
Don’t let the hyperbolic hype turn you off to Funeral by Arcade Fire. It is great.
Who can listen to Our Endless Numbered Days by Iron and Wine and not love it? I ask you.
Some of the biggest musical disappointments of the decade:
Spiritualized failed to build on the genius of their 1990’s output. In interviews Jason says that he doesn’t want to get stuck in a rut where is is always redoing Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space. That sounds respectable. The problem? The new stuff is a rut of another sort. In my opinion, he is avoiding doing a rinse-and-repeat on his best work from the old records by recycling his weakest work of the 90’s. There are some good CD’s (Amazing Grace is better than a lot of stuff). He simply never made anything that blew my mind.
Lift To Experience dissolves into oblivion. They made the one good CD and then the crazy came. Too bad.
Bob Dylan had a couple really really good albums at the end of the 1990’s but never really made a perfect record in the new millennium, though he remains (almost unbelievably) relevant and listenable.
Rolling Stones make it hard to appreciate their body of work by showing their actual bodies...which are old and arhythmic. On the other hand, Michael Jackson died, therefore making it possible to go back and fall in love with his great songs again.
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