Seeking A Homeland

Talking At the Same Time

This track from Tom Waits' 2011 album Bad As Me sums up a lot of what's going on these days.

Get a job, save your money, listen to Jane
Everybody knows umbrellas will cost more in the rain
All the news is bad
Is there any other kind?
Everybody’s talking at the same time

Well it’s hard times for some
For others it’s sweet
Someone makes money when there’s blood in the street
Don’t take any lip
Stay in line
Everybody’s talking at the same time

Well the dog is in the kitchen
And the war drags on
The trees wait by the freeway
All the moneys all gone
Well she told me she would leave me
I ignored all the signs
And now everybody’s talking at the same time
Everybody’s talking at the same time

Ain’t no one coming to pull you from the mud
You gotta build your nest high enough to ride out the flood
I know you’re leaving and there’s no more next time
Everybody’s talking at the same time

A tiny boy sat and he played in the sand
He made a sword from a stick
And a gun from his hand
Well we bailed out all the millionaires
They’ve got the fruit
We’ve got the rind
And everybody’s talking at the same time
Everybody’s talking at the same time

 

Talking At the Same Time

 

Buy the album directly from Waits

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Why occupy?

A few days ago, after I shared on Facebook a notice of an Occupy Denver event taking place this weekend, a close friend replied, "What are you promoting Dale? What's this movement about?"

Another friend liked my reply and suggested that I post it as a note. I decided to make it a blog post instead, so I could include some images and hyperlinks inline. Here it is.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Well, that's a fair question. This is my understanding of it, which may not be expressed the way the people most involved would choose for themselves.

I think it is a more or less gut response to economic injustice. There have always been some people more wealthy than others, and as someone is supposed to have said, "Ye have the poor always with you." In the last thirty years, though, and particularly in the last ten or so, there has been a systematic, deliberate and massive transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich.


The government, which in theory is supposed to represent the interests of all people, and particularly of the most powerless and therefore most vulnerable, has been little more the willing servant of the rich, bought out body and soul. Both parties have been more or less complicit in this.

The most culpable have been the financial sector,the big banks and Wall Street investors. They went on an unprecedented spree, gambling recklessly with other people's money to enrich themselves. When it all fell down around them, as it had to eventually, we the people bailed them out. Then they walked away with impunity, not one of them (except a few of the most egregious examples, like Bernie Madoff and Raj Rajaratnam) being indicted, much less jailed, for larceny on a scale that defies comprehension. Many of them even received and were allowed to keep bonuses for the success of their crimes!

All of this wouldn't sting so badly if there were an expectation of a better life for all and a chance of upward mobility for at least some of us. The widespread fear is that we are being locked permanently into a society with a tiny class of the super-rich, an ever growing underclass suffering in poverty, and a shrinking middle class with less and less hope for financial security. My parents and yours believed we would have a better life than they did. Hardly anyone believes today that their children will live even as well as we do, even in our straitened economy.

For better or worse, right or wrong, we Americans have always believed in our exceptionalism--that we were meant to be a "Shining City Upon a Hill." We thought we had a social compact that guaranteed we would be an example to the world of what it might be, free of an aristocratic ruling class securely ensconced in its privilege, a place where everyone had room in which to develop and express the best they had within themselves. That is what we are losing, and this may be the last chance to seize hold of that dream and resuscitate it before it slips away, irretrievable forever.

 

A Mayor for Aurora

For 24 years the last name of the mayor of Aurora has been Tauer. In 1987, when Ronald Reagan was president, Microsoft released Windows 2.0, and the Broncos lost to the Giants in Super Bowl XXI, Paul Tauer was elected mayor here. In 2003 his son Ed succeeded him.

That is going to change this year.  Ed is term limited and on his way out. So far, though, no one who really excites me is running to take his place. The only person whose name has been discussed for the job about whom I would have been enthusiastic, Molly Markert, has decided not to run. That's too bad. She may have taken a step or two I disagreed with, but overall she has been and will continue to be a vital part of Aurora. She would make a good mayor.

Aurora is a good city, but it could be much better. It badly needs new leadership, though, and with Molly out of the race no one else has shown up yet to provide it. Steve Hogan has been part of the local political scene since 1979, when Jimmy Carter was dealing with the Iran hostage crisis, Bill Gates was tinkering with BASIC, and John Elway had just entered Stanford. I don't think he'll be the innovative mayor this city deserves. None of the other names I've heard kicked around excite me, either. We need another candidate, and since the election is less than nine months away, we need one now.

 I sense a lot of dissatisfaction and immense boredom with the way things have been run. This is an enormous opportunity for someone new to step in and point the way forward. What we need is someone who could be for Aurora what John Hickenlooper was for Denver--a new face, successful outside politics, with a fresh approach and no baggage from past battles.

Here is what I would like to see, ideally, in a mayoral candidate. Besides meeting the basic qualifications, of course, here are some traits I'd like to see in her or him:

• a strong concern for our city and its future;
• capable of leading a large enterprise and turning it around in a period of tight finances;
• energetic, willing to work hard both campaigning and after election;
• a good speaker, personable, maybe even charismatic;
• respect for Aurora's diversity, one of its greatest strengths;
• ability to work well with the business community without being dedicated only to its interests;
• commitment to preserving city services and restoring lost services;
• determination to get the FasTracks I-225 corridor completed and linked to the East Corridor;
• understanding of the necessity of planning for Aurora's long term water needs, particularly as climate change is likely to reduce precipitation both in the mountains and locally;
• a vision of renewal of Northwest Aurora, including the Fan Fair area, as vital to the city overall, without gentrification that drives out the community there now;
• election of a woman or a person of color would emphatically mark the transition from the past 24 years to the future.

There is one characteristic this person wouldn't need. This is a non-partisan race. As long as a mayor cares about the right things and has the right skills, he or she might be a member of either political party, or no party at all.

All that's not too much to ask for is it? Actually, it is. It's unlikely that anyone will have all those traits, but someone with many of them could easily be our next mayor. But if the routine political process has failed to produce that person yet, to find one we who are usually outside that process will have to think and act outside our routine.

Do you know someone like that? Could you talk to him or her about running?

It might be a businessperson,  or someone from a nonprofit or community group, or from a religious community. If you know someone like that, could you talk to them about this opportunity? Or you could pass on that person's name to me, and I can pass it to people who have been much more involved in Aurora politics than I.

I will be sending this note to a number of people both through email and on Facebook. If you get it twice please excuse the redundancy.

 

 

Get Together

Tonight after a more stressful day at work than usual I decided to stop for a beer at a new place near the office that advertises a great beer selection. As I read, ate and drank I was half listening to the music in the background. It must not be easy to select music for a bar these days. You don't want to chase anyone away, but you don't want to bore folks too much, either. This place made what I suppose is the safest choice--classic rock, played at an audible but unobtrusive volume level.

One song caught my attention. You've probably heard it at some point--Get Together, from the 1967 debut album by Jesse Colin Young's band The Youngbloods. The chorus goes like this:

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

I got to thinking about those lyrics. When they were new in 1967 I believed them fervently. Then I came to think they failed to take into account the power of evil that had to be opposed, resisted, fought whenever and wherever it appeared. Later I thought they were just naive and futile because evil would continue if not prevail. Finally I thought they were merely sentimentality and kitsch. Some of those phases may have overlapped, too.

Tonight, maybe in light of recent events in Tucson, I got to thinking about them again for the first time in a long time. If you abstract their intention from their sexist language, aren't they true? Not to minimize the complexity and persistence of the world's problems, or to deny the value of addressing them directly, but in the final analysis doesn't the answer have to be love?

Love on an interpersonal level, sure, but also love in our public discourse and love in institutional structure and behavior. We certainly have a long way to go, but the only way to make progress is to find ways to move forward.

I think anyone willing to hear it may believe this way, but for Christians it should certainly be compelling.

What happened to make me stop believing in love? Can I get over it and get back to that belief? How? And how will I express it?

Best albums of 2010

This has been a very good year for popular music. Some major acts that almost automatically get onto my “Best of” list didn't have releases of new material this year, but that just made room for others. Even things way down on my list are strong enough that in other years, like last year, they might have been higher.

As I did (mostly) last year I've provided for each album a link to the artist's web site whenever possible, a link to a review or two of the album, and a link to at least one video of a song from the album.

1. Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid: Suites II and III – Here's one out of 23 videos. This one bears an obvious resemblance to this classic that still gives me goose bumps after all these years. Monáe's is better, and not only because it's not a cover but her own composition.

Janelle Monáe is astounding. She has ambitions as great as Prince or Isaac Hayes at their peaks, but at this point at least she realizes them more consistently. She has Michael Jackson's deft skill, but uses it to deal with mature concerns. She has Marvin Gaye's moral concern and despair, but expresses them with sparkling wit. Her voice has a tremendous range, with the ability to hit piercing high notes and hold them endlessly and she has complete control of tone that lets her scream, rock, croon or be saucy as each song requires.

NPR's The Current says it well: “ Monáe's delightfully fresh style combines the matching stage-clothes of 1960s Motown, the science-fiction storylines of '70s album rock (even prog), the virtuosity of jazz, the choreographed athleticism of the modern R&B stage show, the winking theatrical pomp of early Bowie, the soul-meets-shredding-guitar of Prince, and a little Grace Jones androgyny. But Monáe is more than just an appetizer sampler of her influences; in fact, it's easy to feel like she's not only working on Prince's level of uber-confident genre-mixing, but even matching Bowie for sheer audacity and originality.” The Current's interview with her on that page is worth listening to, too.

Here are more videos with her covering two different songs that show her range. One is by Prince with him smiling a little in the audience. Unfortunately it looks and sounds like it was recorded by holding a camera in front of a television, but what a performance! The other is by Charlie Chaplin and Monáe sings it beautifully, although with more melisma than some might like. It's just a coincidence, I suppose, but the Jewish barber's speech at the end of Chaplin's The Great Dictator seems to express the themes of The ArchAndroid.

After its mostly fast first half some have suggested that this album sags in the second half. It certainly slows down; it's not as immediately incendiary. That's fitting, because the narrative arc of the album moves into a stretch of separation, loss, and eventual acceptance. Those don't exactly prompt jamming dance numbers. After a few listens, though, I realize that these subtle, complex songs are the album's greatest achievements. The closest comparison that comes to mind is the collaborations of Miles Davis and Gil Evans. It's risky to try to think for someone who's gone, and especially for someone who when he was alive would never have allowed someone who looks like me to speak for him. Still, I think that if Miles were with us today he would be amazed by and in love with this album and this artist. I can't think of praise much higher than that.

One of those later, quieter tracks is 57821.

Janelle Monáe_16_57821

2. Roky Erikson with Okkervil River – True Love Cast Out All Evil - Goodbye Sweet Dreams

That someone could come roaring back this way from the edge of oblivion is an inspirational tribute to the restorative power of rock and roll and to the self-effacing friendship of Will Sheff and Okkervil River. I've discussed this album at length before, so I'll let it go at that.

Roky Erickson With Okkervil River_09_Forever

3. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz - I Walked

All Delighted People EP - All Delighted People (Classic Rock Version) 

To give two records the same rank violates the way lists like this are generally done, I know, but since they're by the same artist and it's my list I decided to lump them together.

My initial reaction to The Age of Adz was, as the first full song says, “There's too much riding on that, There's too much, too much, too much...” Too many instrumental and vocal parts fighting against each other with too many notes, too many strange harmonies, too many noises that at first seemed nonmusical, too many styles. It just sounded like a mess that I might respect but would never listen to, in the same vein as Scott Walker's 2006 album The Drift.

The more I listen to it, though, the more fascinating it becomes. It has dynamics, with the quieter parts displaying a lot of the elements I so loved in the Michigan and Illinois albums: his beautiful melodies, his angelically gentle tenor, the ecstatic chorus, majestic horns, and the Philip Glass-like sound. The banjo is pretty much gone, though. This is not folk music any more. It's not any sort of rock, either, although it does have some wild guitar solos not found on the earlier albums. All of it, but particularly the faster, louder, more climactic sections, rise to a level of knotty complexity more like some modern music composed in the classical tradition. The more attention it's given, the more levels it reveals. What seemed only to be thorny turns out to be deeply lyrical. And those “nonmusical” noises turn out just to be music of a different sort. A long time ago a famous album used the sounds of a clock and a cash register as music, and I guess this is not that different!

The All Delighted People EP is not an EP as it's usually thought of; its 8 tracks add up to an hour. Its sound is somewhere between Illinois and the Age of Adz, so it might be a way to transition to the full album. Its accessibility is also helped by the fact that both versions of the title song, together about 20 minutes, rework Simon & Garfunkel's “Sounds of Silence.”

An example of the EP's greater accessibility is Heirloom.

Sufjan Stevens_03_Heirloom

4. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs - The Wilderness Downtown This technologically innovative video will only work with Google Chrome, so here's another: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).

This has moved up several slots from an in-progress version of this list I posted elsewhere a couple of weeks ago. It's taken me (at least) a lot of listens; it's been played more times in my computer media program than anything else from this year. Finally, I get it, though, and songs that initially didn't stand out from each other now sound great, every one of them. This is not Funeral—hardly anything could hope to be—but it didn't have the circumstances that gave birth to that debut album, either. The toned down drama avoids the possibility of an accusation of empty bombast, which has swirled around Win Butler's and Régine Chassagne's ankles.

08 - Half Light II (No Celebration)

5. Antony and the Johnsons – Swanlights - Thank You For Your Love

This is a very hard album for me to say anything about. Trying to pin it down is like trying to logically and fully explain a particularly entrancing dream. I can say it's not as tragic as last year's The Crying Light. Now that still leaves a lot of room for moroseness, but “Thank You for Your Love” almost sounds cheerful. On the other hand, while that song is pretty traditional, many of them move into minimalism and other styles of contemporary classical music. Flétta, his duet with Bjork, is a good example of that.

This album is sure not to be to everyone's taste. My wife and daughter run away when they hear Hegarty's quavery, acrobatic counter tenor. For the second year in a row, though, he has made a foray into an enigmatic but necessary world.

I'm In Love

6. The National - High Violet - Bloodbuzz Ohio

Last March when One Track Mind posted a link to Bloodbuzz Ohio I said on Facebook that if the rest of High Violet equaled that track it would be my album of the year. Well, it didn't and it isn't. It's not far off, though. Every track is good, despite or maybe because of lyrics that are evocative but totally elusive. Bryan Devendorf, let it be said, is an absolutely amazing drummer!

09-Conversation 16

7. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest - Helicopter

Sleek, immaculately produced pop, like Pet Sounds for the electronic age, with a ringing, pounding sound.

Deerhunter_02_Don’t Cry

8. Johnny Cash - American VI: Ain't No Grave - Ain't No Grave If there were an award for the most tearjerking video of the year, this might win it.

As with Roky's album, much of the drama of this one comes from its connection to the artist's biography. Some people feel strongly that personal history in music is a bad idea because it leads to sentimentality and self-indulgence. I suppose that is often the case. Sinatra singing “My Way” comes to my mind as an example of that. In Cash's case, though, compared to Erickson's, the biography is much longer and for better or worse it was lived much more in the public eye, so we can feel more connected to it. More importantly, that biography is linked to a vastly larger and greater oeuvre.

Like the rest of the entries in Cash and Rubin's American Recordings series, not every song is as good as the best. The worst is so good here, and the best so great, that the album as a whole is a success. The selection of the last track, the hopeful swan song for a life lived fully, could not be more perfect.

Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound

9. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor - A More Perfect Union

A Springsteenesque story delivered with the Irish punk punch of the Dropkick Murphys or Flogging Molly about being trapped, longing to get out, and the damage that can do to one's relationships and one's liver. The idea of using the Civil War as a metaphor for all that sounds contrived, but works very well. Beginning and ending songs with quotes from people like Lincoln and Walt Whitman doesn't come across as pretentious and even the 14 minute final track moves along ferociously without being boring, self-indulgent or repetitive.

This doesn't reflect their lyrics well, but it is a short shot of their sound:

02 Titus Andronicus Forever

 

Spots 10 through 19 share a lot of traits and there isn't a big quality gap between any two consecutive slots, or even that much between Plant at 10 and Mellencamp at 19. They are more or less guitar rock (Hopkins more; Weller and Jones, less). They use conventional harmonies and song structures a lot. They tend toward a roots/Americana sound (even Plant, but not so much the more British Weller). They like to use songs to portray a character and/or tell a story, so they often have a cinematic feel. They sometimes express an attitude toward the state of the world that I find compatible. For those reasons and more they all owe a debt to Bruce Springsteen (particularly fellow New Jerseyites The Gaslight Anthem, but maybe not so much Plant). For that matter so do Arcade Fire and Titus Andronicus, too.

Some of them are major stars enjoying late career artistic, if not commercial, resurgences (Plant, Petty, Jones, Mellencamp). Others haven't been quite so famous, but have been well known and respected for a long time and are now doing some of their best work (Weller, Jason and the Scorchers, Los Lobos, and Escovedo). This is only the second major album for The Gaslight Anthem, but both have been outstanding. Rich Hopkins has been laboring in relative obscurity for a long time and remains there—he's new to me—but he truly deserves to be among this company.

 

10. Robert Plant – Band of Joy - Angel Dance, a cover of a song by Los Lobos.

“Jimmy who? I'm having a great time on my own with my new mates, thank you.” The last time that meant a partnership with Alison Kraus. This time it's all Plant's show, but backing him up are Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin.

A Townes Van Zandt song:

Robert Plant_10_Harm's Swift Way

11. Alejandro Escovedo - Street Songs of Love – Anchor

Who else suffers a greater disjunction between the success his body of work deserves and the success he has? Very few.

Several of the tracks were co-written by Chuck Prophet and the great Ian Hunter appears on one. On this track he has help from some guy named Bruce:

Alejandro Escovedo_12_Faith

12. Rich Hopkins and the Luminarios - El otro lado/the other side - El Otro Lado

Passionate songs with a Southwest version of REM's and Tom Petty's drawl, influences who point in part back to the Byrds. Traditional without seeming to have been encased in amber, which is how Dr. Dog struck me. His song El Otro Lado is one of the best songs I've heard this year. It towers over the rest of a generally excellent album in some of the same ways Joe Henry's masterpiece Our Song did over his 2008 album Civilians.

"If you've got the dream/as hard as it may seem/you can change anything, it's up to you!"

03 - World on Fire

13. Tom Jones - Praise & Blame - Burning Hell

A late addition to this list and the big surprise of 2010. It particularly came as a surprise to an executive at his record company, who sent around an internal memo calling the album a “sick joke” and earning himself endless mockery. This is no joke. It is deadly serious.

Jones' role in Scorsese's 2008 PBS series The Blues opened my eyes to the fact that Jones was not merely the panties magnet caricature I long thought he was, and this seals it. It is an powerful reworking of several traditional blues and gospel songs, a few originals that hold their own well, and to start of a riveting cover of Dylan's “What Good Am I?” from Oh, Mercy:

01 - What Good Am I_

The first obvious comparison for this album in Johnny Cash's and Rick Rubin's American Recordings albums, and it does shoot for the same gravity and simplicity. Another good comparison is Neil Diamond's 2005 release 12 Songs, in which Rubin rebuilt Diamond's image by stripping away accumulated layers of glitz and corn. Ethan Johns has done the same here for Tom Jones.

 

14. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Mojo - Something Good Coming

One of the best albums of new material in years from one of the most consistently excellent bands in the country. There's more of a band feel, too, with Petty's pop tendencies and his place in the limelight pulled back some so the band as a unit with its blues rock roots can shine more, like on "U.S. 41."

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers_08_U.S. 41

 

15. Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation - Wake Up the Nation and Find the Torch, a Paul Weller documentary by Julien Temple

Sometimes a little appropriately placed anger is a good thing. He sounds more awakened and energized than he has in a while, and more ready to rock. I loved 22 Dreams, but at points its sprawl and its experiments got the better of it. With 16 songs in 40 minutes, this is more tightly disciplined, Like the Who, for instance, or the Jam.

Paul Weller_14_Up the Dosage

 

16. The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang - American Slang

Another album of quintessentially American rock n' roll by the second best band from New Jersey. A good example of the quality of this year's releases; this is way better than being #16 might make it seem.

This track starts out with a bit of a Van Morrison feeling:

04 - The Diamond Church Street Choir

 

17. Los Lobos – Tin Can Trust - Tin Can Trust

These guys have been doing it so well for so long—it's been 26 years since they put out the classic How will the Wolf Survive? By now the music seems to flow out of them as easily and naturally waves on the ocean, but they always find a keep it fresh and vital. Rock, blues, and Mexican elements blend into the stew, not a melting pot, each enriching the others.

This instrumental track, an exception, shows what great guitarists both Cesar Rosas and David Hidalgo are:

Los Lobos_06_Do The Murray

 

18. Jason and the Scorchers – Halcyon Times – Moonshine guy (live)

Reunited after a long hiatus—it's been 14 years since their last studio album—these guys are still scorching, that's for damn sure. “Crash and burn rock and roll, we've got it going on,” as the last track says. Good songs don't hurt, either.

14 - We've Got It Goin'on

 

19. John Mellencamp – No Better than This & another review - No Better Than This

As AMG says, “The first thing that grabs the listener... is its sound: mono -- recorded live to an Ampex 601 tape recorder circa 1955, with a single microphone without mixing or overdubs.” That, the simple instrumentation, and Mellencamp's scratchy voice give this album a dusty, back road feeling of honesty. His songs avoid the epic drama they've sometimes been burdened with, but they hold up to repeated listening. The album might have benefited by being changed up more,

John Mellencamp_01_Save Some Time To Dream

 

20. John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension - To the One - The Fine Line

This is so different from everything else on this list it seems unable to be compared to the rest in a meaningful way; is it really #20, or is it #1? Not knowing, I still felt that I had to stick it in somewhere. More than one reviewer thinks of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme when discussing it, and you can't be in a better neighborhood than that.

John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension_04_Lost And Found

 

 

Honorable mentions:

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms – Laredo I'm still a sucker for that Poco/Jayhawks sound, and these guys do it about as well as those models.

The Black Keys – Brothers - Tighten Up, a funny video. This s a very good record, much more deserving of Grammy nominations than the dreck that usually gets them. Since they're from Akron I like them, too, because you always like to see hometown boys make good. There are many others still more deserving.

Eden Brent - Ain't Got No Troubles - The Making of "Ain't Got No Troubles" You may not have heard of Eden Brent. I hadn't until I heard an NPR feature about her, but when I heard it I went straight home and got her album. I gather that among the diminished but faithful remnant of fans of contemporary blues she's quite well known. Great piano playing, great singing and good songs that don't rely on blues cliches.

Field Music - Field Music (Measure) - Them That Do Nothing In terms of musical complexity and originality this matches anything in this list below Sufjan. At this time at least I find it a little too smart, too intellectual. It's my most recent acquisition on this list, but I haven't found a tug at my heart or a visceral kick in it yet, so it remains down here.

Jeremy Messersmith – The Reluctant Graveyard Since this might be the least known name in this list I'll include two contrasting videos: faster slower. Effervescent pop with morbid lyrical concerns whose cartoonish delivery doesn't

Josh Ritter - So Runs the World Away - Long Shadows & The Curse It's a good thing to have tasteful, finely wrought music and thoughtful, sensitive lyrics, but too much taste and sensitivity can be a little dull, and that may be the case here. Still, it's a grower: every time I listen to it I like it better. There's no telling where that might take it if the year were longer.

Konono No. 1 – Assume Crash Position - Lufuala Ndonga (a song from a previous album) Konono No. 1 @ Prospect Park July 17th 2010 When it comes to taking a hypnotic groove and launching it into the stratosphere and beyond no one is better than these folks. I miss hearing what I would call songs, though. I'd probably rate them higher if I knew what they were singing about.

Mary Gauthier – The Foundling - The Foundling Films, a 10-part video story “I was born to an unwed mother in 1962 and subsequently surrendered to [an orphanage] in New Orleans, where I spent my first year. I was adopted shortly thereafter... I searched for, found, and was denied a meeting with my birth mother when I was 45 years old... The Foundling is my story.” On the surface this sounds obnoxiously narcissistic, I know, but it's done with so much courage, compassion, insight, wry humor and good music that in the end it doesn't come off that way.

Teenage Fanclub – Shadows - Baby Lee (The best video I could find for this album. Maybe in these days of straitening the record labels don't want to invest in producing a video for a band in the downward tapering part of its career, especially if at its zenith that career was good, but not massive.) That this fine album is only an honorable mention is indicative of how good a year this has been. No other song in it has as strong a hook as Baby Lee, but it's an enjoyable listen all the way through.

Tracey Thorn – Love and Its Opposite – Oh, The Divorces! Literate, restrained acutely observant songs about breakup and its aftermath, delivered mainly by Thorne's piano and wonderful voice.

And yes, I suppose I'll give a grudging nod to Beach House's Teen Dream. Some lists have even made it #1. It does have a lovely sound. But so far I find the center that sound's wrapped around to be vacuous. Will anyone remember any of those songs in 2011?

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True Love Cast Out All Evil

My favorite album of the year, so far, is True Love Cast Out All Evil by Roky Erickson.

I'm a sucker for the stories of people who survived the '60s, maybe with impairments. A typical example is Roky's story.

His Austin band, the 13th Floor Elevators, had some underground prominence; back in Ohio my good friend Denny had a copy of their 1966 album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. They weren't my favorite band then; the electric jug, that strange wavering noise you'll hear if you listen to any of the tracks in the link above, was a little too much for me. They spent some time in San Francisco, allegedly influencing the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, and particularly fellow Texan Janis Joplin.

They went back to Texas, though, and trouble ensued. Like Lee Otis Johnson, Roky was busted for a few joints. Being white and apolitical, unlike Johnson, he was given the option of going to the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane instead of to prison--not that that meant a vacation at a Club Med. Prison in Texas at that time was surely hell, but public mental hospitals in Texas were probably about the lowest level of purgatory. It's hard to know exactly what Roky's mental status was when he went to the hospital. Being in a band in which the rule was that everyone had to drop acid before every performance could have created issues for him.  Still, his time at Rusk, only a few years, began a long downward slide that may have reached its nadir when he made an affidavit declaring that he was an alien.

In recent years, under his brother's custodianship, Erickson has received better medical care, better legal representation and better management, and he's been getting better. This album, (prefix review) his first in 14 years and his best in 40 years, is a sign of his restoration. It is alternately tender and furious, wounded and hopeful.

 The first track, Devotional Number One, and the last track of the standard edition, God Is Everywhere, were recorded at Rusk. They sound like field recordings and their fragmentary state, occluded by noise, could be taken as an analogy for Roky's state at the time. They begin and end the album in the context of the muddlement he emerged from. Ain't Blues Too Sad sounds like it is newly recorded but it is still a brief fragment and it seems like a song from his dark years. The album takes off in earnest with Goodbye Sweet Dreams. It starts off with the guitar almost drowned out by whistling, buzzing acid-like sounds that fade and are dispersed by the band's pounding, but come back intermittently through the end of the cut.

This is as good a  point as any to mention the contributions of Okkervil River and Will Scheff, who also produced the album. Their playing is more powerful and impassioned than I remember them being before, but they make an excellent setting for Roky's material, too, moving him to step up and focus. This seems like a clear case of mutual inspiration. Sheff's production is clean and warm, with Roky clearly front and center, but full of subtle, effective touches like the thunderstorm in Please, Judge. In the mordant John Lawman the band is thunderingly powerful. On the title track they sound like a country gospel band that like many musicians are trying to figure out how to respond to the standards Dylan established.

After the flashback sound of Goodbye Sweet Dreams Roky sings in Be and Bring Me Home, "Suddenly I'm in control... won't you be and bring me home?" Bring Back the Past sounds like it could fit in with the best of early Poco, the Jayhawks, or Ryan Adams. Forever once again once again reminds me of Dylan, but it's so good it could stand without being a letdown in the middle of Love and Theft. Think Of as One (which throughout the songs sounds like "think of as on") has lyrics that are nonsense tautologies, but it is delivered by both Roky and Okkervil River with such sincerity and commitment, with its Memphis soul horns and tinkling keyboard, that you can't help but be convinced anyway. The title of Birds'd Crash and its use of electronic sounds are reminiscent the songs of Jonathan Meiburg in Scheff's sometime side project, Shearwater.

As I mentioned, God Is Everywhere closes out the standard version of the album, but let me suggest the deluxe version. That is because Sweet Honey Pie may be my favorite track of all. After being separated from his first wife Dana for a long time Roky is back together with her, and the love and gratitude in this song are unmistakable. It builds throughout its length to an almost unbearable beauty, and then the last, dedicatory track For You is a gentle coda. The link in the first line of this post is to that version on eMusic, but it can also be found on Amazon.

Roky Erickson With Okkervil River_10_Think Of as One

Roky Erickson With Okkervil River_13_Sweet Honey Pie

 

What a difference a year (and two months) makes!

The 90 items in the list below came from a list that a friend emailed to me. It was assembled (the email says) by Robert Watson, Ph.D., coordinator of the American Studies program at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, a city universally known to be even more of a hotbed of radicalism than Berkely.

Tomorrow night I'm going to work on assembling a list of my own to add to his. Two things come to mind right away since they're more recent than Watson's list, but without having looked I bet I can come up with at least a dozen more. I may add hyperlinks for references, too.

This president must be asleep at the wheel. This is all he has done in 12 months.

I am always being asked to grade Obama's presidency. In place of offering him a grade, I put together a list of his accomplishments thus far. I think you would agree that it is very impressive. His first six months have been even more active than FDR's or LBJ's, the two standards for such assessments. Yet, there is little media attention given to much of what he has done. Of late, the media is focusing almost exclusively on Obama's critics, without holding them responsible for the uncivil, unconstructive tone of their disagreements or without holding the previous administration responsible for getting us in such a deep hole. The misinformation and venom that now passes for political reporting and civic debate is beyond description.

As such, there is a need to set the record straight. What most impresses me is the fact that Obama has accomplished so much not from a heavy-handed or top-down approach but from a style that has institutionalized efforts to reach across the aisle, encourage vigorous debate, and utilize town halls and panels of experts in the policy-making process. Beyond the accomplishments, the process is good for democracy and our democratic processes have been battered and bruised in recent years.

Let me know if I missed anything in the list (surely I did).

1. Ordered all federal agencies to undertake a study and make recommendations for ways to cut spending
2. Ordered a review of all federal operations to identify and cut wasteful spending and practices
3. Instituted enforcement for equal pay for women
4. Beginning the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq
5. Families of fallen soldiers have expenses covered to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB
6. Ended media blackout on war casualties; reporting full information
7. Ended media blackout on covering the return of fallen soldiers to Dover AFB; the media is now permitted to do so pending adherence to respectful rules and approval of fallen soldier's family
8. The White House and federal government are respecting the Freedom of Information Act
9. Instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible
10. Limits on lobbyist's access to the White House
11. Limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration
12. Ended the previous stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date
13. Phasing out the expensive F-22 war plane and other outdated weapons systems, which weren't even used or needed in Iraq/Afghanistan
14. Removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research
15. Federal support for stem-cell and new biomedical research
16. New federal funding for science and research labs
17. States are permitted to enact federal fuel efficiency standards above federal standards
18. Increased infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants) after years of neglect
19. Funds for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools
20. New funds for school construction
21. The prison at Guantanamo Bay is being phased out
22. US Auto industry rescue plan
23. Housing rescue plan
24. $789 billion economic stimulus plan
25. The public can meet with federal housing insurers to refinance (the new plan can be completed in one day) a mortgage if they are having trouble paying
26. US financial and banking rescue plan
27. The secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere are being closed
28. Ended the previous policy; the US now has a no torture policy and is in compliance with the Geneva Convention standards
29. Better body armor is now being provided to our troops
30. The missile defense program is being cut by $1.4 billion in 2010
31. Restarted the nuclear nonproliferation talks and building back up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocols
32. Reengaged in the treaties/agreements to protect the Antarctic
33. Reengaged in the agreements/talks on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions
34. Visited more countries and met with more world leaders than any president in his first six months in office
35. Successful release of US captain held by Somali pirates; authorized the SEALS to do their job
36. US Navy increasing patrols off Somali coast
37. Attractive tax write-offs for those who buy hybrid automobiles
38. Cash for clunkers program offers vouchers to trade in fuel inefficient, polluting old cars for new cars; stimulated auto sales
39. Announced plans to purchase fuel efficient American-made fleet for the federal government
40. Expanded the SCHIP program to cover health care for 4 million more children
41. Signed national service legislation; expanded national youth service program
42. Instituted a new policy on Cuba, allowing Cuban families to return home to visit loved ones
43. Ended the previous policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions
44. Expanding vaccination programs
45. Immediate and efficient response to the floods in North Dakota and other natural disasters
46. Closed offshore tax safe havens
47. Negotiated deal with Swiss banks to permit US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals
48. Ended the previous policy of offering tax benefits to corporations who outsource American jobs; the new policy is to promote in-sourcing to bring jobs back
49. Ended the previous practice of protecting credit card companies; in place of it are new consumer protections from credit card industry's predatory practices
50. Energy producing plants must begin preparing to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources
51. Lower drug costs for seniors
52. Ended the previous practice of forbidding Medicare from negotiating with drug manufacturers for cheaper drugs; the federal government is now realizing hundreds of millions in savings
53. Increasing pay and benefits for military personnel
54. Improved housing for military personnel
55. Initiating a new policy to promote federal hiring of military spouses
56. Improved conditions at Walter Reed Military Hospital and other military hospitals
57. Increasing student loans
58. Increasing opportunities in AmeriCorps program
59. Sent envoys to Middle East and other parts of the world that had been neglected for years; reengaging in multilateral and bilateral talks and diplomacy
60. Established a new cyber security office
61. Beginning the process of reforming and restructuring the military 20 years after the Cold War to a more modern fighting force; this includes new procurement policies, increasing size of military, new technology and cyber units and operations, etc.
62. Ended previous policy of awarding no-bid defense contracts
63. Ordered a review of hurricane and natural disaster preparedness
64. Established a National Performance Officer charged with saving the federal government money and making federal operations more efficient
65. Students struggling to make college loan payments can have their loans refinanced
66. Improving benefits for veterans
67. Many more press conferences and town halls and much more media access than previous administration
68. Instituted a new focus on mortgage fraud
69. The FDA is now regulating tobacco
70. Ended previous policy of cutting the FDA and circumventing FDA rules
71. Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations, and reports
72. Authorized discussions with North Korea and private mission by Pres. Bill Clinton to secure the release of two Americans held in prisons
73. Authorized discussions with Myanmar and mission by Sen. Jim Web to secure the release of an American held captive
74. Making more loans available to small businesses
75. Established independent commission to make recommendations on slowing the costs of Medicare
76. Appointment of first Latina to the Supreme Court
77. Authorized construction/opening of additional health centers to care for veterans
78. Limited salaries of senior White House aides; cut to $100,000
79. Renewed loan guarantees for Israel
80. Changed the failing/status quo military command in Afghanistan
81. Deployed additional troops to Afghanistan
82. New Afghan War policy that limits aerial bombing and prioritizes aid, development of infrastructure, diplomacy, and good government practices by Afghans
83. Announced the long-term development of a national energy grid with renewable sources and cleaner, efficient energy production
84. Returned money authorized for refurbishment of White House offices and private living quarters
85. Paid for redecoration of White House living quarters out of his own pocket
86. Held first Seder in White House
87. Attempting to reform the nation's healthcare system which is the most expensive in the world yet leaves almost 50 million without health insurance and millions more under insured
88. Has put the ball in play for comprehensive immigration reform
89. Has announced his intention to push for energy reform
90. Has announced his intention to push for education reform

Oh, and he built a swing set for the girls outside the Oval Office.

Best Albums of 2009

It has come to my attention that 2009 has ended. If I'm going to get this done at all it needs to be now, I guess.

It turns out to be a good thing that I waited until now, though. Until yesterday I had decided to leave my number 1 slot blank as a way of expressing my disappointment with 2009. I thought there had been nothing that thoroughly moved me, or that I played compulsively, or that played itself in my head. Nothing seemed to have the quality and stature of a Highway 61 Revisited, or Born to Run, or The Joshua Tree. In fact, nothing seemed to occupy securely the rank below them, either.

Then I downloaded Hospice by The Antlers from eMusic. I am finally fully satisfied: this is what I was missing. It is the story of the grief, anger and eventual death of a woman with cancer, of her involvement with a health care worker, and of his grief after her death. Not light stuff, but it's handled with insight and honesty. The NPR video linked to below shows that in concert these heartbreakingly intimate songs can be vehicles for powerful, thundering majesty, too, even though there are only three musicians performing them.

Let me say something about the absence here of an album that has been rated number 1 all over, like on Pitchfork, eMusic, The Hype Machine, and Tiny Mix Tapes, and probably elsewhere, too. That's Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective. I've listened to it repeatedly, and I have to admit it's upgraded my opinion of the band. I've gone from despising them to being neutral about them. That still doesn't earn this album a place on my Best of list. Maybe this is a generational thing, but to me it sounds like a muddled, formless mess.

Here, then, is my list. There are links to a review of the album and the performer's site for the first several items. I sort of ran out of steam, but I may come back and add more links later. There are a lot of honorable mentions, and two set off at the end because live albums and cover albums are special, problematic cases. The farther down the list you go, the more the relative ranking becomes approximate.  It may all seem  idiosyncratic to you, but it is after all my list, not yours!

1. Hospice - Antlers videos: Two   NPR concert excerpt (20 minutes long, but really great)

2. The Crying Light - Antony and the Johnsons videos Another World  Daylight and the Sun

3. The Liberty of Norton Folgate - Madness videos: The Liberty of...  Clerkenwell Polka

4. Middle Cyclone - Neko Case video: This Tornado Loves You

5. xx - The xx video: Crystalised

6. Tres Tres Fort - Staff Benda Bilili (select "Read Full Biography") video: Na Lingui Yo

7. Noble Beast - Andrew Bird video: Anonanimal

8. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk video: Temazcal

9. Together Through Life - Bob Dylan video:Jolene

10. Hold Time - M. Ward video: Rave On (feat. Zooey Deschanel)

11. The Mountain - Heartless Bastards video: The Mountain

12. Get Guilty - A.C. Newman video: Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer

13. Blue Lights on the Runway - Bell X1 video: The Great Defector

14. It's Blitz - Yeah Yeah Yeahs video: Zero

15. Rainwater Cassette Exchange - Deerhunter

16. The Hazards of Love - Decemberists

17. Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons

18. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix

19. Grrr… - Bishop Allen

20. Hombre Lobo - Eels

March of the Zapotec / Realpeople Holland - Beirut

I'm Going Away - Fiery Furnaces

Touchdown - Brakes

Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

Yonder Is the Clock - Felice Brothers

1372 Overton Park - Lucero

Floodplain - Kronos Quartet

Forget the Night Ahead - Twilight Sad

Keep It Hid - Dan Auerbach

Living Thing - Peter Bjorn & John

Born on Flag Day - Deer Tick

So Cow - So Cow

Now We Can See - Thermals

Spinnerette - Spinnerette

Untitled #23 - Church

White Lies For Dark Times - Ben Harper and Relentless7

The Last Pale Light In The West - Ben Nichols

Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl - Van Morrison

Play Some Pool - Wave Pictures

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

Thursday I finished reading Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (Amazon Google Books preview A-SCPL record) by Jeffrey D. Sachs. Friday a discussion arose on Facebook among some people I know about some financial commitments made this week in Copenhagen. It directly touched on some of the things Sachs wrote about. Since his book was still very much on my mind, I mentioned it in the discussion. It became clear there were some climate change skeptics in the conversation. No one else in the thread had read Sachs's book, but I was unable, within Facebook's limitations, to fully explain what I thought it had to do with the conversation. Therefore what I want to do is to post a longer discussion here, and then I can link to it in Facebook.

First, a little about Sachs. His credentials are very substantial. He is the head of Columbia University's Earth Institute, a cross-disciplinary team of specialists in agronomy, hydrology, engineering, ecology, public health, climatology, economics, geography, and so on. He was the head of the WHO's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health and then of the UN Millennium Project under Kofi Annan. He has worked with the current or former heads of state of several counties, including the USA and the UK. Presently he is an adviser to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

His previous book, The End of Poverty (Amazon Google Books preview A-SCPL record) was a bestseller. Of course, that doesn't mean it sold as well as something by Dan Brown or Nicholas Sparks, but within its genre it was one of the most noted books of 2007. The preface to this book was written by Harvard's Edward O. Wilson, who may be the most respected and famous biologist in the world today.

His method is not to make broad, unsupported assertions in stirring but vague rhetoric. Rather, he marshals more and more detail from official and academic sources to support his claims and then makes them in deliberate, cautious language. It seems like there is another graph or table on nearly every other page. In the end he makes a convincing case that addressing each of those issues is not just a matter of altruism but is vital to the economic and security interests of the developed nations.

Sachs's intention, I'd say, is to recommend to the developed nations of the world, and particularly to the United States, that they fulfill the commitments they have already made in several treaties and agreements. Without going here into their wordy, formal titles, these were made from 1992 into the 2000's, through both Democratic and Republican administrations in the U.S. (although more enthusiastically in the former than in the latter), and covered a wide range of interrelated concerns: poverty, climate change, overpopulation, desertification, contagious diseases, and the loss of biological diversity.

They certainly are interrelated, too. For instance, poverty leads people to cut down forests for charcoal or for farming, even if the soil will only be productive for a few years, and that contributes to climate change. Climate change leads to desertification, which forces species to migrate or become extinct. Loss of natural enemies lets disease vectors, like mosquitoes, proliferate. And those are just a few of the ways one problem leads to another.

If all those tragedies would stay in place, maybe they could safely be ignored by the United States, as long as we all were willing to harden our hearts to others' plight and to ignore God's call to justice and compassion. They move around, though. Two results of poverty, overpopulation and climate change will often be war and migration. that makes them vital security concerns for the U.S.

Darfur and Afghanistan are two examples. The genocide in Darfur is not just a result of the Janjaweed being bloodthirsty and cruel, although they are. It is basically a response to prolonged drought caused by climate change. Nomadic herders and settled farmers are competing desperately for diminishing resources, and when survival is at stake people will do anything they think they have to.

In the same way our war in Afghanistan is not just a response to the Taliban's religious fanaticism, although they are fanatics. The Taliban would not have the support they do, the government would not be so successfully corrupt, and growing opium poppies would not be such an irresistible option if Afghanistan were not in the grip of this same nexus of difficulties. Poverty and war have left it with little infrastructure with which to build its economy, desertification has cut into its agricultural sector's ability to feed its people, and it is is overpopulated in a way that gives it too many young men with nothing to do, no way to support a family, and no hope that things will get better.

Moving on from these two present hot spots, consider two that are imminent--South Asia and America's southern border. The third largest store of ice in the world is the glaciers of the Himalayas, but they are already receding faster than glaciers anywhere else in the world. They are the source of the Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers. They flow through India before they go into Bangladesh, which is largely dependent on them for both domestic use and agriculture. The Indus River, on which Pakistan depends, also begins in the Himalayas and first goes through India. As the Himalayan glaciers recede, they will probably first increase the river's flow, making catastrophic floods more frequent. After the glaciers are gone, though, there won't be enough for everyone, especially if India intercepts most of these rivers' flow before they pass her borders. By 2030 the Ganges could join the growing ranks of rivers like the Colorado, that in the summer at least are completely dry before they reach the ocean. The same could happen to the Indus, too. How could Al-Qaeda or groups like it take advantage of a Pakistan in distress and chaos? What might a nuclear Pakistan do if it is being condemned to die of thirst by a neighbor with which it has had repeated wars?

Closer to home, consider what might happen to Mexico. More frequent and more intense hurricanes on both coasts will make storm surges more and more destructive. Rising ocean levels could easily put Cancun island, with its huge tourism income, permanently underwater, driving away all the people who moved there to work in American hotels. On the other hand, the interior of Mexico will become hotter and probably drier. Today greater Mexico City has a population of about 21 million, and it's certain to keep growing. If heat, lack of rainfall and population pressure deplete its groundwater resources and make it uninhabitable, where will all those people go? Not south to Guatemala and Honduras, that's for sure. No wall will keep them from making their way to Texas and California, then to Colorado, Ohio, and every other state.

Sachs doesn't put it quite this way--it's my generalization--but in the end he draws a picture of a world of trouble, touching every nation but focused on a band form Bangladesh--or even beginning in the Philippines--and stretching through Afghanistan and the more southern of the former Soviet Republics, all of the Middle East, into the Horn of Africa and all the way across Sub-Saharan Africa. Consider what it would be like if the scenarios I've suggested in South Asia and Mexico were repeated all across that band? What would be the cost to the United States of defending its security and interests in all those places while coping with the loss of all of southern Florida, the Gulf Coast, and the port and shore areas of every city on both coasts?

As an example of the sort of advance planning going on in the military and intelligence communities of many nations in preparation for all of this, read this detailed, lengthy study produced by the UK's Ministry of Defence. I've read equivalent studies produced for the U.S. and Australia, too. They all agree that action now and planning for the future are necessary in order to "manage the unpreventable and prevent the unmanageable."

Sachs calculates that all it would take to mitigate much of this--it's already too late to completely prevent it--would be an increase in our foreign aid from today's parsimonious level of 0.14% of GNP to 0.70%. If we today fail to make the lifestyle changes and refuse to make the relatively modest investments needed to prevent all this, what will my grandchildren, whom I may never meet,say of us? Even more so, what will their grandchildren, who could live in a world in which the dystopia I've suggested would seem like a utopia, say of us?

A Christmas poem that matters

Here's a quick video for the Christmas season. Ironically, in the second minute a truck goes by in the background with a large message on the side saying, "You shop, we drop."

For more commentary, see the page where I found this on Sojourners.