Friday Musical Tribute: The Greatness of "Porch" At This Point is an Established Rule of Physics

Chatting on the phone with oxymoron of many things under the sun, earlier today, the subject of Pearl Jam's first record came up, and what a splash it made on the culture at the time. This is still Harrogate's favorite song off of Ten. And the performance shows why, as great as their records are, Pearl Jam will always be known more as a live band than anything else. Sometimes listening to Pearl Jam live, Harrogate thinks that it may not get any better on the live guitar, than Mike McCready.

Friday Label Tribute; Or, Obviously I'm Not Laughing about the Pornographic Pictures

Today's tribute is twofold:

1) It celebrates the label used below, which I believe was coined by Harrogate. No other label is suitable for something as funny as the clip posted below.

2) This post also celebrates Solon, who earlier today steered me back to FailBlog, the site from which this video post hails.

What's the matter with Dana?

I think he's unhappy.

Fashion as Rhetoric / Rhetoric as Fashion

"By the way I don't believe you're leaving
Cause me and Charles Manson like the same ice cream
I think it's that girl
And I think they're terrible collections of me you've never seen
Maybe she's just terrible collections of me you've never seen, well"
- (Not) Tori Amos


Rape, the 88th element of hip-hop. Also, coincidentally, the 88th element of the periodic table.

Thursday Label Tribute; Or, Flea Coins the Phrase "That's Hot!"

To honor Harrogate's newest label (used below), here is a clip of Anthony Keidis and Flea from The Chase, starring Charlie Sheen. Pay special attention to Flea's line at the .45 marker. It would seem that Paris Hilton plagiarized her famous catch-phrase from Flea. Perhaps that's why the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied her request to copyright "That's Hot."



P.S. Monster madness, dude.

Political Cartoon of the Week

Thursday Muscial Tribute

"Parallel Universe," by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from the album Californication. Turn it way up, only way to hear it.



And one hell of an album cover too.

From the Rachel Maddow Show: Terrorist Threats Against Women's Health Clinics on the Rise

It really looks like more violence against women and medical providers in the crusade to end abortion, is coming. These groups are just whacked out, picketing people's private homes, yelling at and touching patients, threatening doctors and staff. Etc. Tiller's murder emboldened them, and the closing of his clinic has further emboldened them. Now we see that Operation Rescue wants to make a bid on Tiller's clinic.

Perhaps more insidiuously, a meme has been gaining traction, recently articulated by this assshole, arguing that by taking the abortion issue "out of the democratic process," the Supreme Court is to blame for political violence. How unfortunate that the New York Times would publish such trash.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Tiller's Clinic Closed

Linking to this AP piece, Charles at Little Green Footballs asks:

Does anti-abortion terrorism actually work in America?

A chilling question, yes?

From the AP piece:

Dr. Warren Hern, one of the few remaining doctors in the country who performs late-term abortions, said the closure of the clinic was an "outrage" and he feels the loss for Dr. Tiller's family and the patients he served.

"How tragic, how tragic," Hern said when contacted by phone at his Boulder, Colo., clinic. "This is what they want, they've been wanting this for 35 years."

Asked whether he felt efforts should be made to keep the clinic open, he said: "This was Dr. Tiller's clinic. How much can you resist this kind of violence? What doctor, what reasonable doctor would work there? Where does it stop?"

A bit further down:

Hern blamed comments from anti-abortion groups for Tiller's death.

"The anti-abortion fanatics have to shut up and go home. They have to back off and they have to respect other people's point of view. This is an outrage, this is a national outrage

Meanwhile, back in crazy-fucktard-town:

Randall Terry, the founder of the original Operation Rescue group, responded to news that Tiller's clinic would remain closed with, "Good riddance." He said history would remember Tiller's clinic as it remembers Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.

"What set him apart is that he killed late-term babies," Terry said. "If his replacement was going to continue to kill late-term children, the protests would continue, the investigations would continue, the indictments would continue."

And so here we are.

Tuesday Musical Tribute; in Honor of M's Thread on Gay Rights, and of the Metaphorical Ted

A true 90s Anthem, even if it did come out in 1988. Harrogate will never forget when Jane's Addiction burst onto the scene.

The Rhetoric of Expectations: Question of the Day

Big Television week for Megs and I. Well, not really, but we do try albeit rather poorly.

But this leads to the question of the day: what is the proper form for a new television series (with form meaning, according to Kenneth Burke, the creation of certain appetites in the minds of the audience members- see Counter Statement) ? What should a viewer expect from a new series (or a new season e.g. Weeds)? How long do you give a show that sits on the edge of being watchable? Or, at what point do you begin to use the time to watch the paint dry or to catch up on the academic murder mystery books that piled up on the shelf?

Please note: there may be a difference between shows the broadcast on the premium channels, which, I imagine, creates a unique form or carries a different set of expectations from the regular broadcast channels.

The back story: This week we started to watch Showtime's new show, Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco. The show concerns a NY City Nurse dealing with, well, being a nurse, which is the signature twist from other medical dramas, as I am told, personally, by the producer, as other shows just focus on doctors for the lead roles. Simple enough. And since I do not watch other medical dramas and I am only watching this one because of Edie Falco, I do not know if the producer is right or wrong.

As for the story: the main character is both a saint and sinner: a saint for helping those in need; a sinner for abusing painkillers, having affairs, and abusing patients as the situation dictates. She deals with patients, family members, doctors, administrators, and whatever else walks in the door. There is little that occurs outside of the hospital: lunch with a doctor and some family interaction and both seem to distract from the story.

After two episodes (via On Demand), I have very little feeling for the show. It is okay though I am not sure if I would miss it if I stopped watching it. Nurse Jackie is certainly not as high on my TV list as the Sopranos, Big Love, The United States of Tera, or even Entourage, where I needed to be in my seat minutes, if not hours, before the show begins. Instead, it exists on the True Blood or Weeds plane, where if I catch it, I catch it; if I miss it, oh well. Maybe I have time for On Demand latter.

I am thankful the show is only twenty-five minutes in length. If it were an hour, it would be too much.

There seems to be some depth and intrigue in the show but I am not sure if I want to stick around to try and understand why she became a "realist," why she removes her wedding ring when she goes to work, or why she is having an affair. Instead of attempting to discuss these aspects in the first two weeks, the show just plays on the good/ bad tropes of hospital life: Nurse Jackie displays a sense of charity by helping some patient or showing compassion for some patients while demonstrating a sense of moral superiority by mistreating or yelling at others. Of course, because of her own moral failings and an absence of character development, the attitude that reveals her moral superiority seems "blah" at best. And, yes, blah is a technical term.

Thoughts? Has anyone else seen the show? What are your experiences with other shows? How long do you continue to watch before the "blahness" takes over? What is the "turning point" at which the show meets the acceptable form and you continue watching or you reject the show and find something else to do?

J.D. Salinger Finally Speaks!!!

New Terminator Movie Brings J.D. Salinger Out Of Hiding

"Come in, come in, sit down, there's plenty of space," an exuberant Salinger told reporters, gesturing around his sitting room, which was filled with movie posters, comic books, and other Terminator collectibles, including a life-sized statue of the T-800 Model terminator as portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. "What a frigging inspired choice to cast Bryce Dallas Howard. She made so much more sense in that part than Claire Danes."

Tip of the Hat to one of Harrogate's Facebook friends.

Disappointing

The Supreme Court has decided against hearing a challenge to the Defense Department's "don't ask, don't tell" policy concerning homosexual men and women serving in the military. I have to say, even given the conservative make-up of the court right now, I find this really disappointing. I find it even more disturbing that the White House has said they won't stop the military from dismissing gays and lesbians from military service. I really like the President, and I think he and his administration are on track with most things. I really do not like the half-hearted stance he and his administration take on gay rights.

Deeply Retroactive Assy McGee Award® to Michael Reagan

An extremist white supremacist radio host named Hal Turner was just arrested for engaging in what apparently DO constitute "fighting words." Turner has been charged with:

inciting Catholics to “take up arms” and singling out two Connecticut lawmakers and a state ethics official on a Web site -- was taken into custody in New Jersey late Wednesday after state Capitol police in Connecticut obtained a warrant for his arrest.

But blightful a human being as he is, it is not Turner who wins the Assy McGee Award® for today. That honor instead goes to President Ronald Reagan's son, Michael Reagan. The clip below, Harrogate learned about from one of the commenters in the above link, and from there it did not take long to find video footage of a blood-chilling exchange that took place between Reagan and a caller on 8/15/2006. This is some of the most extreme rhetoric you will find on Right Wing talk radio, and that is saying something.

What we encounter below on its face would appear to be hyperbolic, not representative of right wing punditry. But given the increasingly shrill climate on the internet, the radio, and even on cable news today, one wonders just how hyperbolic it really is in the circles to which Bill O'Reilly caters, and to which George Tiller's murderer undoubtedly belonged.

Hippos for a Friday Night

Friday Musical Tribute; Or, The Discourse Continues

I'm going to announce right here, right now that my single best music purchase over the last two years is Neil Young's 1972 album Harvest. This is a bold statement given the quality of music I've added to my collection lately (e.g. Carole King's Tapestry, Cat Stevens's Tea for the Tillerman, and Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks), but I'm going to stand by it.

Everything about the album is wonderful, especially the arrangements. In most cases, we have only an acoustic guitar and harmonica accompanying Young's voice. Sometimes a piano, and sometimes a few stringed orchestral instruments. The minimalist arrangements compel even me to focus on the lyrics, which are wonderfully gentle and melancholy.

Until this week, Harvest was the beginning and end of my Neil Young interest. I've heard some of his electric stuff but don't care for it. I prefer his stripped down, acoustic, classic singer-songwriter stuff from the early seventies. Young is a pretty eclectic artist, so there aren't a lot of titles that fit this particular mold. I always look, but usually leave music stores empty handed.

All of this changed on Monday when I was browsing the shelves in my local Best Buy while Oxywife and toddler were playing drums on the Rock Star display. As my eyes scanned the selections towards the end of the alphabet, I saw a picture of a young Neil Young sitting at a piano. Above the photo, a label read Neil Young Archives: Massey Hall 1971.

I bought it.

I love it.

And I can't will myself to take it out of the CD player.

As the title implies, this is a live concert from 1971. It's just Neil and his guitars, and a piano in the corner of the stage at which he twice sits to play. The songs, as he tells his audience, are mostly new compositions. Several would make it onto Harvest a year later.

While all the tracks are great, I've really been digging "Dance Dance Dance" over the last twenty-four hours or so. It's just so different from the other songs on Harvest and Massey Hall 1971. It's happy.

And since it's Friday, and the weekend is just a few hours away, happiness must begin. Watch the video and feel free to dance.



(BTW: This is not the 1971 performance. And what's with these poorly synced videos? I hate it when lips don't match the sound.)

Thursday Musical Tribute; or TRS and Soundtracks

One of Harrogate's favorite aspects of this blog, if not his very favorite, is the musical discourse, in which all Board Members have engagingly participated over the years. And, Soundtracks have been a subject this blog historically bandies about. Once upon a New Years' Eve, Megs reported on a vehicular conversation between herself and solon, in which the question of "best soundtracks" came up. A great thread emerged.

Harrogate listed the soundtrack to She's The One, which is also a record by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Harrogate's reasons for putting this album involve every single song, which taken together represents some of the best work this group ever did. And the song posted below is, perhaps deservedly, the most famous single from that record. Harrogate presents it now, as the Thursday musical tribute.

Give it up for The Onion

Harrogate isn't the hugest Onion fan out there, but he knows a winner when he sees it. Like all good satire, it takes hold of a sore spot in the political corpus we constitute, and throttles the hell out of it.

Wednesday Musical Tribute: Todd Snider's "Iron Mike's Main Man's Last Request"

The awesome Todd Snider CD, "East Nashville Skyline," was at the center of Harrogate's Big Birthday Musical Haul. This song, as the title implies, represents the point of view of one of Mike Tyson's entourage. Great stuff. Harrogate definitely hearts Todd Snider.

"Don't Blame O'Reilly": A Pro-Choice Advocate Reminds Us That Media Do Not Yell "Fire!" in Movie Theaters

Yesterday, Helen Searls had a compelling rhetorical treatment of the Tiller murder, as well as of the nature of how America handles the abortion debate more generally. Making her own pro-choice proclivities very clear, Searls takes shots at Andrew Sullivan Daily Kos, pundits on MSNBC, and many of us in the unwashed blogosphere for over-reaching in laying blame for acts of anti-abortion violence at the mantle of its most vitriolic talkers.

But, Searls' take is also very different from those who throw in totally with the free will position, or the idea that this was the action of a lone loon.

Bloggers like Jill Filipovic are quite wrong to make an analogy between O’Reilly’s rhetoric and the shouting of ‘Fire!’ in a croweded theatre. The point about the overused ‘Fire!’ example is that in a crowded theatre there is no time to think: if someone shouts, everyone runs, as there’s no time for debate or reasoned inquiry into the nature of the fire or the truth of the claim. The link between words and actions becomes blurred in this one, exceptionally rare instance.

In contrast, when O’Reilly says stuff on his show, there is every opportunity to question and challenge his claims. TV is not a panicked atmosphere but a media outlet, where the audience hears things, weighs them up, and decides whether to agree or disagree. Far from calling for anti-abortion activists to ‘mind their language’, their often crass remarks should be seen as an opportunity to meet fire with fire, to counter their claims with more compelling arguments and opinions. Far from needing less talk about abortion, we need more. Things might have turned out differently if O’Reilly’s arguments had provoked a robust public debate about why women need people like Dr Tiller and access to late-term abortions

Much to chew on here. It is certainly true that Pro Choice advocacy in the United States has grown increasingly timid, and in some ways has altogether disappeared (occasional soundbites in favor of the principles of privacy and choice notwithstanding) from the rhetoric of leaders within the Democratic Party. This unwillingness to meet the anti-abortion arguments directly, on the rhetorical battlefield in the public square, very much extends to President Obama, as Searls notes:

But sadly, for too long the question of late-term abortion has been treated as a highly sensitive, even embarrassing issue by many pro-choice activists. And pro-choice politicians do not consider late-term abortion a good subject for public discussion. As President Barack Obama’s speech at Notre Dame University demonstrated, pro-choice politicians are keen to avoid the substantive issues in the abortion debate whenever possible.

But if the pro-choice lobby stays quiet on this issue, it will effectively vacate the public arena and allow people like O’Reilly to barge in and take the alleged moral highground; shamefacedness about late-term abortion allows anti-abortion campaigners to see it and treat it as, well, something shameful. In such a climate, it is little wonder that individuals like Dr Tiller were so effectively demonised. Late-term abortion should not be a dirty little secret never raised in polite society. It should be openly discussed and rationally understood. There are many very sound reasons why women need to have access to late-term abortion services, and there should be no shame in defending them.


It is a tragedy that it has taken the brutal murder of a decent and compassionate man to remind us why so many women turn to people like Dr Tiller for help. O’Reilly has been banging on about Tiller for years, but it is only now that we are beginning to hear the other side of Tiller’s story - a story about a brave doctor who believed passionately in defending women’s reproductive rights. This was the real Dr Tiller, who was seen by many of his patients as something like a knight in shining armour.

In the wake of the Bush Administration, many of us have been gladdened and relieved at Obama's central strategy of seeking to "tone down" the culture wars. We do not want things to escalate to violence, after all, and there are pressing matters such as health care and North Korea and Harrogate's student loan debt to worry about. But at the same time, if one side refuses to tone down the culture war, then does the other essentially cede all the important Rhetorical Ground, by confining engagement to asking everyone to get along?


Questions of responsibility for Tiller's murder aside, In Harrogate's view, Searls is dead-on right in her premise that our wish to avoid vociferously defending abortion rights in the public square has been exposed as a totally ineffective approach.

How do you fight inflammatory speech? Not by shutting it down, not by asking the speakers to chill, and also not by ignoring it. Fight it with reasonable, but vociferous and bold speech of your own. We all need to realize that the Culture Wars have not gone away, have not been toned down in the United States---nor will they anytime soon.