Wednesday June 30th 2004, 6:44 pm
…I will tell you that I’m eight chapters in.
Not yet…
Tuesday June 29th 2004, 11:23 pm
I can’t show you what I’m working on, ’cause it will ruin the surprise. I can only tell you that I’m working on it, and that I’ll talk about it when it’s done and hiding in a drawer, mellowing like a good beer. Or cheese. Or whatever.
Trust me, I really, really want to show it to you, but I know it’ll just screw everything up and I’ll never finish it. That’s just the way it works.
So…
Tuesday June 29th 2004, 9:34 pm
…on the one hand, we have Christopher Hitchens’s critique of F 9/11.
On the other, we have Chris Parry’s critique of Christopher Hitchens’s critique of F 9/11.
I remember going to a party or a conference or some event that had company-sponsored Good Beer and asking a bunch of SF web people just what the hell they meant by “going all meta.” Their original answer didn’t quite stick with me, but I now understood what they were talking about. “Going all meta” is talking about stuff that goes on behind the stuff, and then the stuff behind that, and then the stuff behind that and on and on and on. I do remember that I filed that answer under Needless Wankery, which I am now engaged in by whipping up this post. I figure the best way to realize the absurdity of wankery is to take part in it, and now that I’ve taken part in it, I can see how absurd it is and will continue to be.
I’m all for critique, and I’m all for discussion, but I think it’s going to get ridiculous when there are critiques of critiques of critiques. It can’t be tortoises all the way down, can it?
Tacos, with a side of Outrage
Monday June 28th 2004, 1:40 pm
Well.
Like I said, I’m mad at both Michael Moore and George W. Bush. The anger at the President is nothing new, and I don’t think Fahrenheit 9/11 did much more than stoke the anger fire. We all went for drinks right afterward, and I think all it did was change that anger to dispair.
I think the dispair came from Moore’s motives. This movie is meant to piss people off, to stir ‘em up, to get ‘em angry. What it doesn’t do, however, is propose how to focus that anger, and that lands Michael Moore right in the same camp as the punditocracy and the news personalities. Their job isn’t to foster debate or an exchange of ideas where we all learn something and carry the good points forward into something new and constructive; I think their job is to shill for their books, to get on each other’s shows, and to babble like morons and convince the public that this is what democracy in action is supposed to look like.
We know the war in Iraq was a bad idea, we know the current gang in the White House are a bunch of fear-mongering jackasses who only care about making themselves richer (I wonder how the average Bush-loving, Moore-hating American would’ve felt after seeing footage of the President in white tie and tails at a gala ball saying, “Quite an impressive crowd: the haves, and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite; I call you my base.” Probably the same), we know that the War on Terror is a crock. Great. Now, what in hell do we do about it?
And the tag line at the end of the credits (the end!) to “Do Something” and visit Moore’s website…Christ, Michael, put it at the front of the credits! And knock off the clowning! Put away the ice cream truck, quit bugging the Congressmen, put away the footage of Dragnet and Bonanza, sit back at the editing table and focus! Like Nate said, it was like throwing sand up in the air to watch the pretty patterns scatter. If you’re writing an essay, pick a thesis and stick with it.
Ah, doesn’t matter. This isn’t going to change anyone’s minds. The troglodytes who talk about turning Mecca into a parking lot are just going to talk about shipping Moore and anyone else who disagrees with the Bush Administration out there before the bombs fall. The War Is Bad group will continue to demonize the Bush Administration as Evil Incarnate. And, in the meantime, the rest of us, who just want good jobs, safe borders, and clean air and water will be fucked over. It’s not enough to vote George Bush out of office; we gotta have something we’re voting for.
Prevention, Anyone?
Friday June 25th 2004, 2:56 pm
I know in the next few months, there will be human interest stories about vets coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq all over the mainstream media, and I will have to hold my tongue and swallow my bile and put in an extra mile at the track to keep myself from exploding when someone says, “Did you see that bit on Dateline about the guy who lost his legs in Iraq and is doing the Ironman?”. I will be mad for two reasons:
1) These programs will suck. They will be produced by hacks. They will be full of syrupy music (probably with lots of Celtic pipes and female chorus music) and overwrought voiceovers about overcoming adversity from reporters who wouldn’t know adversity if it walked up, introduced itself and presented its card (”ADVERSITY: Kicking you in the ass since Time Immemorial”) and its references. These are compelling stories, and they deserve to be told well. Paula Zahn, Matt Lauer, Wolf Blitzer’s beard and any of the interchangeable Wigs & Voices of Fox News are not now and never will be up to the job.
2) None of the people who talk about the shows afterward with approving voices will think that, hey, maybe if the media had done its job in vetting not only the plans for the War on Terror but the crew who kicked it in motion (and, for that matter, had vetted them back in ‘99 back before they could do real damage) and pointed out that the whole thing was being executed poorly and the guys weren’t getting all the support (ie new body armor, training in urban warfare, backup from NGOs who know how to fix broken states, a pantsload of allies to spread the burden) they needed, and that maybe we should finish the job in Afghanistan before traipsing off to Iraq where everyone and his mother knows things will suck, maybe, just maybe…HE WOULDN’T HAVE LOST HIS LEGS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Of course, it’s easy to spew that out here. I have yet to say that second part out loud, and I know there will be a time in the not-too-distant future when I’m going to have to say it. I hope I can say it without letting my passions getting the better of me, ’cause nothing will lose a fight like a flaring temper. Anyway. I’m off to see Fahrenheit 9/11 tonight. I’m sure I’ll be mad at both Michael Moore and George W. Bush. How’d'ya like that?
Addendum
Friday June 25th 2004, 2:35 pm
Having said that, I hope some readers will look at what I’m listening to, and, if they haven’t heard of it, will check out the song, artist, or album. Curiosity is what lead me to a lot of music, and it’s easy to be daring with new tunes. It’s also a lot less permanent than getting one’s temple pierced. If you don’t like it, then you never have to listen to it again. I gots me plenty of dead CDs in the milk crate in the garage that got one spin based on their cultural importance and never darkened the player again.
Listen. Be curious. Try. If it won’t kill you, it’s worth a shot. If it will kill you, it’s worth a careful shot.
Confession
Friday June 25th 2004, 2:17 pm
Okay, see that blurb in the “Meta” section that’s listing music? Those are the songs I’m listening to right now. KungTunes gets what I’m playing on iTunes, makes a file, uploads it to my server, and WordPress parses the file into the stuff you see. I love music, I listen to it as much as I can, and I will tell you something that’s just between you and me:
I play music so people will think I’m hipper than I am.
Don’t get me wrong: I listen to 99% of my collection because I love, love, love the music. But there’s that 1% that I have ’cause someone I respect said it was incredible, it was amazing, you have to listen to it or you suck, and I did. And I haven’t had the heart to tell that person that , no, you’re wrong, this blew, and I’ll take my XTC and 1776 and enjoy it, thenkyuveddymuch. But I have this stuff so that people can nod in approval when they look over my collection. Screw that. De gustibus non est disputandum, Romani ite domum, blah, blah blah. That’s what I listen to, and I listen to it ’cause it’s good. Woof.