Soul Patrol!

Wednesday's finale of A.I. was a bit lackluster and self-serving, with the entire naming of the season's champ practically forgotten until the very end. Some of the musical big names were true jokes - Mary J. Blige making a fool of herself and stealing the spotlight away from Elliot comes to mind, but there were some cool aspects of the show. Katharine with MEATLOAF!!!! perfect choice, though Paradise By the Dashboard Light would have been my choice. Prince? Dude, that guy just flat kicked. I must say that this show has become quite a guilty pleasure but a real pleasure nonetheless. Is this show the biggest "middle America" symbol on t.v.? That depends, especially if network television itself isn't the biggest "middle America" symbol there is. However, I was happy to see the finalists and their abilities (or lack thereof). Several of them will land on their feet. Most of them have changed their lives and for the better. Maybe this contest allows some into careers they only dreamed of but now have the chance to realistically pursue. Isn't that the best part of it all, anyway? Now that Taylor Hicks has been crowned, now that television season is over, now that school's just about wrapped, let's hope that everyone enjoys the last of their fifteen minutes and I read more since the entertainment center's doors will be shut.

My wife and I do open those doors for an occasional movie and last night we finished Elizabethtown, Cameron Crowe's attempt to make amends with his late father, as Almost Famous was a love letter to his mother and his own childhood. E-town was not only a letdown but a cinematic disaster, with Crowe clearly unsure of what he wanted to say. Was this film's main character really contemplating death? If so, I couldn't tell as the opening scenes were unbelievable. Was his mother (written horribly for Susan Sarandon) grieving or just a self-centered West Coast diva? Hard to tell. Was the Kirsten Dunst character a stalker, a sociopath or, after the obligatory all-night phone conversation that shows my true character scene, just the girl next door who wants to be loved? Hard to tell again as the character was, again, poorly written and terribly acted. Not necessarily Dunst's fault as she was following her director. Much of the dialogue was horribly contrived, Orlando Bloom showed that he really belongs dancing with orcs and Dunst showed how just hit and miss she is as a leading actress. There were some high points, and of course, in a Crowe movie, the music. The soundtrack's the most redeemable quality of the film, with My Morning Jacket getting quite a bit of attention, which is great. Check out that band if you're looking for some great rock and roll rootsers. Also, the ten-minute final road scene where the Bloom character makes peace with his father's death while trying to make sense of his latest career change and whether he should find his girl is excellent. It's another Tiny Dancer, yes, but isn't the best part of ANY Cameron Crowe film the "Tiny Dancer" part? Rent this one knowing you've wasted your money but hoping to find some redeemable qualities.

With things at work being both busy and incredibly tense, I've laid off the political rants. I'm ready to come back guns a blazing. God bless you, ol' Kenny Boy Lay. Wrong about saying "bring 'em on", George? Dennis Hastert defending Democrats? Give me a couple of hours and a really hectic work day and I'll be back...

Singers and Garage Freaks

let's get it out of the way - Taylor Hicks will be named the next American Idol. He was great.

Ironic that the day I cover Watergate and W. mark Felt, I get a phone call from the press regarding some of the issues I blabbed about last time. Just when to blow the whistle? When is the fight the family's, and when should dirty laundry be aired? I wasn't feeling the slightest Hal Holbrookesque, though I know my friend Steve would just want to call me the nickname. On a sidenote, teach THAT to a bunch of seventeen year olds without feeling like it's hotter than hell in your classroom.
I wanted so much tonight to be off the record and yet i wanted to air my conscience. The circle of people involved is small and my town is small enough that what was said by people to the press could create a blowback from the higher ups that will make what has already happened look like the warm-up act. I'm nervous and yet, I know that even the little I said was said with best faith and in proper means.

Things have been quiet as the Senate names as the new CIA chief the man who coordinated the NSA phone tapping and wiretapping schemes. Our president, as seen in this week's Newsweek, more than admitted that some of his family's domestic employees were illegal aliens and Alberto Gonzales has suddenly suffered amnesia about the history of his own family's immigration history. What we have here isn't a bunch of impeachable baffoons (see other blogs on this issue) but men with pasts that are more checkered that the pearly-white straw-men caricatures they wish us to believe. Is Bush a bad guy? No; I'd be curious to know just how many people knowingly and unknowingly have worked side by side with myself who are undocumented. however, what kills me is the point of view of this entire debate: punish those wanting to take advantage of this nation as a source of opportunity and ignore those who take advantage of the situation and hire these people yet wish to get off scott-free in this equation. Clamp down on the employee yet allow the employer shirk responsibility? Why don't we just fine the employees at Phillip Morris for being the ones who made and sold the cigarettes without paying attention to the name on the building they work in. Figures.

Who is the right candidate for the governorship of this great state? Are we as Californians willing to pay more for everything we want? To come...

Plans and Designs

Reading my friend, Kelly's, blog tonight, I am reminded that my school year is coming to an end. Thank goodness. This has been my most trying school year and one that I am most happy to see be through. The problems, the frustrations, the anger, the stress and the resentment of so many hopes and goals fail. I'll be thankful to walk off campus for a good six weeks. As a teacher, I qualify as that blue-blood bleeding heart who wants to do so much, dream so large and want to guide the youth of tomorrow towards success. Those ideals can collapse so quickly when certain links in the chain are so weak and are necessary for being so strong. While I am sure that the problems will be there when we all return, six weeks is enough to unwind and hopefully clear my head to make next year a fresh start.
With that, I need to plan my summer vacation. I am so privileged to work in a profession that allows for so much time off. I say it's needed; others say that I've got it pretty good (both sides are right). I'd like to feed my own soul with some nurishment and intellectually challenging time-fillers.
Concert-wise, I think things are going to be pretty light, but seeing Bruce and the Crowes within the first two weeks of June will be a nice start. I'm sixty-five pages into E.L. Doctorow's The Book of Daniel, a challenging but enticing read about red diaper babies coping with living a provincial life in the 1960s. I would like to follow that up with a couple of good history reads, some things I haven't read in a long time. I plan on hitting the gymnasium pool for morning laps in order to keep in shape. I also plan on becoming a member of the Oakland Zoo and taking my son once a month or so. His vocabulary and awareness of things around him is continuing to develop and grow and I love seeing every new experience of his. I am worried about my ability to be outside much due to such severe allergies. I've lived almost my entire life in Brentwood and this season has been the worst allergy season I've ever remembered. I don't like being so heavily medicated nor do I enjoy always being tired. I also hate sneezing and wheezing and being outside does nothing but exacerbate my body's immuno-weaknesses. I hope things get better in order for my good summer to happen. I can't believe that I forgot our planned trip to visit my father in law in Honolulu. My brother and his ever-growing family may also visit from Philadelphia, which would be wonderful. To see his children and even visit a close friend who just gave birth would make for some great visiting. My wife would like to go on a cruise; I'd rather be thrown overboard.

Was anyone surprised about Elliot being voted off A.I. last night? I was not, though I was bummed to see him go. While I realize that A.I. is essentially a brassed-up Star Search, seeing young people sing (mostly) good music for the sake of starting a career is exciting. Being a musician myself, of course I've wished for something similar to A.I. to happen on some level or another. Seeing Elliot's exit video, last night we saw a truly humble, thankful and gracious young individual. Some people have claimed to have seen some qualities of a young Boss or at least characteristics of subjects of his songs. While I don't fully agree, I do see how Elliot's dream of making it as a singer may just ring true. I think he'll at least make one album, have a hit and possibly even have a career in music.

I've got tickets to the A's/Giants game tomorrow. The gods of baseball are shining on me; Barry Bonds has been in a rut for the last ten days and is one HR shy of tying the Babe's number of 714. Is he going to do it? The gods of baseball history are telling me he is and I will be a witness to history.*

The more I listen to The Seeger Sessions, the more I think that this was THE album he needed to make. In the end, it's the SONGS, not the personalities. The fictitious people who live in the music and their tales are what I relate to more and more. Even pulling out my '03 Pac Bell show and listening to old and new songs in my first concert venue, listening back what I am most drawn to are the stories. In a way, there are thousands of voices and thousands of experiences; one voice just happens to be louder than the rest.

On a final note, I was really glad to see Elliot plug the music and wonderful person of Donny Hathaway; if you haven't ever heard that man's timeless music, you owe it to yourself to sit down and get lost in his songs.

Mid-May Musings

The guilty-pleasure A.I. episode was cool tonight. Taylor Hicks knocked off a cool version of Bruce's Dancing In the Dark. Now, if there was one song that was probably misunderstood by Bruce, this one's it. Lyrically, it is brilliant; it's the only way I can make it through the song, even with the new live guitars-a-rockin' version. Bruce has several songs where the lyrics just don't quite match up with the music and every time it is to take away from the words. Dancing is a song that I find myself singing without the music, often when I'm having one of those days. Hungry Heart is another song that the music just screws up the song. READ that song and what a great pop-song cry about shaken foundations; put the music to the words and you have pop pap. I like the song out of obligation but it's a weak one. "Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk" type give me a break weak junk stuff. However, Taylor put some soul into the song, even as he ripped off the worst dance maneuvers. We also have to fault Bruce for unleashing Courtney Cox on the world. Yet, Taylor moved on with some Joe Cocker and Otis and brought the house down. He will win as he's picking up momentum, Elliot is losing steam and Kat has yet to convince that she's a pop singer and not a broadway bombshell.

Speaking of bombshells, last night's speach by the President has again divided the GOP. Militarizing the border with tired National Guard soldiers? Go lightly on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens in order to keep costs down? Throw in "protecting the borders against terror"? Houston, we all what the deal is. I'm all for protecting this nation, its ideals and the states of this nation from invasion. However, Bush's policy will fail because, while he kowtowed to the extreme right, he failed to please it today. Since he's already irked liberals, moderates and most other people with rational thought, how much worse could he get last night? The fact is that Bush's immigration policy and its reactions is proof that the president is a lame duck. The true leaders of the GOP want him gone (these are the extreme right-wingnuts who wish to install theocracy) and yet, while the farthest of the right, they truly run the show. Most Republican leaders and the younglings claim to be much more moderate than the Jerry Falwell-James Dobson if-you-speak-out-of-context-of-the-i.e. "OUR"-interpretation-of-the-supreme-will-of-the-universe-you're-dead types. And yet, the party has been dicatated to by this cabal that wishes to return the nation to pre-Scopes Trial America, which is akin to the Taliban and 19th century Know-Nothing status. With that, the reason I most pity the president from his last-night's speech is that his position, a moderate but strong position, is one that I most agree with. Employers need to be disciplined, the border does need to be patroled, people need to have the opportunity to enter the country and system and this country needs to take heed of the fact that as long as it borders Mexico, we will have Mexican people coming here. As I further digress, anyone notice that poor, poor North Dakota will continue to be a target of illegal immigration, it being the center of massive Canadian coyote-smuggling and drug running. Aren't those Canadians bringing drugs into the country, those cheap over-the-counter save-your-life prescription drugs? My mom and I got into it tonight over this issue and she brought up religion, which nearly sent me through the roof. My mom and I share, for the most part, similar religious beliefs. We believe in the same God. We follow the same Trinity. The church she attends is the church that represents so much of what makes me nauseated about the church in this country. It represents Old Testament mentality - enforce the rules, expose anyone not towing the line and protect the body politic. As my mom thought that those in this country who are religous ought to support the closing of the borders, I reminded my mom that Christians are supposed to help others, support those who believe in the same God and give to others, especially the meek as they will be the ones who inherit this mess we've made. Shouldn't Christians shun the idea of protecting a nation that pushes to supercede allegiance to the church? Shouldn't Christians love and seek to reach out to all people, regardless of national identity and political affiliation? Are Chrisitians to support the United States or peoples' souls? If Christians in this country believe that we are to protect an arbitrary political entity before meeting the needs of humans, than the church further shows its irrelevance and worthlessness to people in need of help. If the church exists to enforce the rules in the name of exclusion, than the fishers of men truly are obsolete. Good luck, George, let's see how the next five months until the midterms go. I don't know who'll stab you in the back first, the Democrats champing at the bit or the radical right as they kiss on the lips for all that silver.

The Transition

Last night's West Wing was a bit of a let-down. Of course, we had the last, finishing touches of the main characters saying goodbye; I clung to every last scene knowing that each of those characters was leaving for good and yet, I think the show could have been written off better. The very first episode of the season had the cast meeting in New Hampshire for the dedication of the new presidential library and the characters were quickly catching up on what they had been up to since leaving the White House. I thought that last night should have had them back at the library since nearly ten months has passed since the airing of that last episode. While the show's popularity plummeted over the last three years, I'm surprised that it happened. For me, The West Wing was an escape; a Bizzaro-world White House where rational and passionate people ran the world with the best intentions of everyone else in mind. Politics was politics but the rules were the rules. "Enemies" still worked together and things overall worked. For at least an hour a week, the people whom I wanted to be leaders were; they were the only stable people in Washington, D.C. for the last seven years. When fiction gets un-paused and reality sets in, I'm depressed wondering how the chapter describing these current events will be written. I can only imagine that the chapter describing the Bush years will be entitled, "Ah, Fuck..." I much rather would have wanted to read about the Bartlet years instead of the failure of the presidency my (nearly) entire adult life has been surrounded by.
Anyway, whaddya think of Chris's rejection from Idol? Get kicked off, get offered the lead singer position of a band you've always loved. While I couldn't pick the band Fuel out of a lineup, I could only imagine just how cool it would be to be offered to play guitar for that band out of New Jersey after getting fired from my teaching gig?

Early Sunday Musings

Happy Mother's Day, all you mothers out there. I thank goodness for my mother as well as my son's.
I'm going to post my thoughts on the finale of my favorite television show later, as well as some thoughts on The Seeger Sessions. Maybe about President Cheney and his Veep, George Bush. Happy Sunday, as I attack the weeds in my backyard.

Wow!!!

This just in, Chris Daughtry is going home tonight. Pretty surprising, but with only four contestants left, of course, someone had to. He was ticked; the crowd was bummed; ultimately, he'll do just fine being fronted with a band and a cool look and sound away from the teeny bopper Idol scene. So long, Chris, it's been good to know ya.

Without putting my job in jeopardy, I do want to rant about a series of e-mails flying around my place of work. My school's having some serious labor/contract issues between the union and the district; teachers are watching their health care out-of-pocket costs skyrocket. Are we being driven out of our profession? Of course not. Will I not make my mortgage? Surely not happening. However, what has been seen in these deliberations is a stonewalling stance by the district, an explicit message that the teachers in the district are not valuable to hold on to. Now, the community in which I live has seen the real estate market go berserk over the last five years; I wouldn't have been able to live where I do if I had bought even four months after the date I actually did. While the market's hot, it's still the "most affordable" (read, least unaffordable) city in the Bay Area. I like my little town and I like my school. However, I believe the district's making a huge mistake by not showing an interest in meeting the union's demand of helping cover the rising cost of health care. I now pay more out of pocket at my current job than my previous district covered! If teachers and their families can't afford to remain in the area, how can schools keep their goals of great improvement, bragging rights and the hope that its competitive packages will draw teachers from more crowded, more unaffordable districts? Besides, wouldn't a district want to raise packages and hold that over teachers' heads in the goal of driving up quality teaching or replacing poor teachers with better teachers enticed to the area from better school districts? While this will always remain an us/them conflict, what is driving me nuts are the suck-up teachers who seem to be moles for the district, stirring up teachers' anger and impatience towards anyone unwilling to hope for the improvement of our salaries and benefits. One particular example was today, when a new teacher ranted about how the union doesn't serve him and spends his hard-earned money on issues that he personally doesn't support. After reading his e-mail, I made the bad choice of firing off a rant to some friends about my colleague's statement. Ultimately, who the hell loves a union? I agree; I'd love to see my $100 a month dues in my paycheck. However, a union is like auto insurance or the police department; a necessary evil. Now, don't flip out in thinking that I said cops are evil, however, when was the last time I needed my insurance agent or a cop? My taxpaying dollars pay for a service I don't need; my premium keeps increasing and I haven't filed a claim except for a broken windshield. However, I have not had my house broken into nor have been in an accident. Only then will I be thankful that both institutions exist as they will serve my best interest and do so better than I will ever be able to on my own. My colleague, woefullly out of line, is a first-year teacher. He's not tenured; he has no job security. What if something happened at that school with a teacher or administrator who had a personal vendetta against him? What if a student made up a false story or brainwashed mom and dad into thinking the teacher discriminated against that student? Where would the teacher be without the union? Sure, you have the right to defend yourself in court and yeah, a lawyer's expensive, but wouldn't you want an expert doing one's job defending you? This guy's got no idea how ruthless things can be and if he ever finds himself on the ass-end of a parental foot, he'll thank God for the existence of the union at our site. While I believe we teachers will lose this labor dispute and see our health premiums pretty close to double by 2007, this fight is doing nothing but solidifying my faith in the union, unions for workers and the belief that when labor is attacked by the employer for nothing more than the simple bottom line, EVERYONE loses. Unfortunately, we live in a time where the majority of Americans, because maybe they're losing so much, have no problem watching others around them lose what they thought they had.

Who's Going Home (Pulp Fiction)?

I'm curious, for those of us willing to go public with our guilty pleasure. Who's leaving American Idol tonight? Not sure, as I wasn't fully wowwed by any of the contestants. I must say that I'd most want Taylor fronting my rock band. His first song was kind of dorky; Chris, though, needs to lighten up and shake his money maker instead of constantly look like the pained lead singer of Creed knowing his personal video tapes were made public by Kid Rock; Elliot can sing but I think he's losing his "Idol edge" and luster with the teeny boppers. Katharine (sad that I even know the spelling) has the girl factor and it doesn't hurt that she's drop-dead gorgeous. However, she's dropped the ball on several accounts, including last night's I Can't Help Falling In Love. She's got a modern-day Linda Ronstadt quality which is cool but she's so show-tunes and classical training that she doesn't quite seem to be pop-rock. My wife thinks Taylor's going home; I'm torn between Kat and Chris. We'll see. Whaddya think?

June 6, Here We Come!

Picked up my Bruce tickets today and will be joined by my good friend Chris from Fresno. My wife's happy for me but not looking forward to hearing the record and six million stories about the tour until then. She's being a good sport about it all and she can't really complain because yesterday I threw in the Seeger Sessions dvd portion. My little son danced around the television in nothing but his diaper and even clapped after each song ended though there's no applause!!! For me, my son looking at the dvd saying, with lips pursed and face aglow, "[B]RRUUUUCCEEEEEE!", it doesn't get better. Maybe back stage, I guess...

In A Fog

Do you realize just how important the dumb shift key is? I think I dropped something on my laptop and know my left shift key is loose to the point where I'll need to send the thing in to be repaired. I see just how damaged it is and therefore I'm taking action to rectify the situation.
I just finished watching the 2004 documentary The Fog of War, the two-hour interview of Robert McNamara and his thoughts on Vietnam. A gripping film, I was riveted to the former Secretary of Defense's every word as I wanted to hear him truly open up and reveal those inner secrets and demons from forty years' past. My father served two tours there, the first being under McNamara's guise, and without spilling beans here, he's got some issues with the war. I will be showing this to my class with the intent of studying memory and history and how thought evolves over time, including the concept of hindsight compared to the historical record. I'm also building a lesson for our students to evaluate the current administration and its track record on both domestic and foreign events. I've been fortunate to find some recently-published articles assessing Bush's presidency which will hit even the most knee-jerk conservative students right between the eyes. While I'm making the lesson with the intent of pillorying the president, facts speak for themselves. Interesting to listen to McNamara talk about how to plan and carry out a war; I just wish one of his successors would sit down and watch this film.

Bruce tickets go on sale Monday and so I'm devising a lesson plan that will have my students fortuitiously busy at 10:00 in the morning. Hopefully they'll be able to work with their teacher screaming either in delight or pain upon finding whether he'll be seeing the Boss. I still need to hear from the two Chrises about going to the show (hint, hint). The new album isn't just a hootenanny for me but a time capsule, a canon of music all music lovers should know if they want to claim to understand the history of American song. Shenandoah is heart-rending and probably my favorite cut on the record though I don't necessarily like Bruce's vocal; Pay Me My Money Down will probably be the best live. While I would love to hear more of his songs in concert, I will be pleased as punch to catch these live.

Paris Bennett is gone from Idol; I think Katharine's wardrobe malfunction may have helped her along these last couple of weeks. For the first time in three years, it's looking (as it has for several weeks now) that a guy will win this one. Of course I'll allow this dumb guilty pleasure take up a couple of nights of my next three weeks.

Monday's history-making nation-wide marches supporting the rights of immigrants is going to come back and bite people in the butt. Two million or so people turned out in cities across the country supporting a policy of fast-tracking citizenship for undocumented people (illegal aliens, choose your term) though it's interesting that a push for something like this has never emerged like this in the past. I think we're going to see a conservative backlash which will press for a very tough immigration policy which will make things even harder for President Bush to get his guest worker plan launched. We're also going to see more of the Minutemen and their vitriolic rhetoric as news coverage, always looking for the loud and shallow, will give them quite a bit of air time (on a side note, I'm fascinated about why this group chose its name as it did; weren't the minutemen the group of people pushing for the violations of all laws and open rebellion instead of people calling for the enforcement of the laws? Anyway...).
Onto Congress, where this group of 535 people more and more shows itself to be a kleptocracy full of nepotistic criminals. Woody Allen may have been right in Annie Hall when he said that politicians were "just a notch below child molesters" in society. To see the Republicans pass the most porous "anti-corruption" bill is what it is; smoke and mirrors. Not that the Democrats aren't any better; I don't see too many of them on the left side of the aisle clamoring for banning big money or the removal of big business from politics. More of the same, and if you let it, the news will truly crush any sense of faith in the government as something remotely reflective of democracy. I'm not naive to have ever thought that those in the past involved in the running of this government were ever saints, but at the point where the American people need something positive to see about the government, the damn Congress gives itself a pat on the back for a job well-done. Bollocks.
Have I already complained about the price of CSN&Y tickets? $200???? Who'd pay that much money to see four guys well past their prime (well, maybe three with one loose cannon) sing out of tune and play music (for the most part) terribly dated and irrelevant but be considered a driving force on today's concert front? Maybe I'm being ironical in this rant but while I wouldn't mind pulling up a piece of lawn to say I saw the trio with Neil, I've had bad luck with these artists before. I caught CSN ten years ago and they were so boring and out of tune that I was actually disappointed that they were playing live in public. Neil's always a weirdo (mostly in a good way) and both times I saw him, I walked away perplexed. In 1993, he was still in his Arc-Weld phase, so every three minute butt-kicking rocker was stretched to eight minutes with feedback and distortion. While the songs I recognized, I loved, he could have played twice as many in the time he stood in front of his amp blowing out his frontal lobe. In 2003, I caught him at Concord as he toured Greendale, the most self-indulgent irrelevant piece of garbage since that record he made with Pearl Jam. An entire 90 minutes of the album followed up by an hour of his older catalogue, which was stultifyingly boring. Rocking in the Free World, just about the greatest punk song ever was played at a tempo that made Helpless sound like speed metal and a Hey Hey My My (crap; or was it My My Hey Hey????) that put me to sleep. Maybe I'm just too nostalgic for that old band that blew me away from the 1970s with those harmonies and timeless tunes. Instead of griping any further, I'll rave about seeing the Black Crowes, the best band from the early 1970s that ever existed. I've written about these great guys before, but imagine six guys channeling the spirits of Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart, Graham Parsons, Mick and Keef, the Stooges and Paul Rodgers and Free with a little of Almost Famous thrown in to boot. If Monday all goes well, I'll have Bruce and the Crowes in a single week. That's rocking in the free world.