Molly Ivins

I just learned that Molly Ivins passed away earlier today.

She was a political columnist from Texas who covered George W. Bush, Tom DeLay and many others. Her bio of Bush, titled "Shrub," confirmed a lot of the suspicions I had about his qualifications and character going into the 2000 election, and her subsequent volume, "Bushwhacked" still serves as a revealing chronicle of the problems that many in our nation suffered as a result of his administration's poor task management. Of course, she wasn't the most partial of reporters, but I had no problem with that - her voice was that of a populist and her identification with the common folks was heartfelt, as far as I could tell. I heard her speak here in Grand Rapids a few years ago and enjoyed her salty wit and vibrant way with words. She had a knack for finding wry humor in appalling circumstances, never losing sight of the humanity that even the most inept or cynical efforts of privileged fat-cats cannot snuff out. I got encouragement to keep up the struggle when the political and cultural landscape looked bleak for peaceniks and other assorted misfits that I identify with.

I'm sorry that she didn't live to see the end of the Bush administration. Here's a link to her last column. Elsewhere on that page is a tribute written to her by her editor.

I've added another blog!

I've decided to start another blog called "Church Police" where I will post a lot of information about my former band and also whatever develops in the future as Tim and I are on the verge of releasing some old recordings to the world in the form of a 7" single, and who knows what might follow after that?

You can access the blog at this address: church-police.blogspot.com

Expect tales of uncouth behavior and rough language as I present a documentary history of my past.

Another phenomenal cinematic work of art...

...with spiritual significance to boot!

Yesterday afternoon I watched "The Passion of Joan of Arc," a masterpiece of the silent era, made in France by Carl Theodor Dreyer. About the movie itself, there are many fascinating aspects to speak of, such as the film's nearly miraculous preservation after it was thought to be lost forever due to a fire that burned the original negative. A copy was found 50 years later in a Norwegian mental institution!

The actress, Maria Falconetti, turns in truly one of the all-time great individual performances - I'm not kidding, her acting is amazing - and it's the only movie she ever made (she was primarily a stage actress.) She does so much with her face, in tight close-ups, conveying profound emotions and subtle thoughts that words cannot capture as she goes through the anguish of interrogation by church hierarchs who don't know what to make of her visionary claims. I mean, the entire gamut of heavy feelings is on display here - grief, sorrow, fear, confusion, doubt, resignation - as well as faith, courage, determination and hope. Falconetti has this amazing ability to stare straight ahead into space, hold her gaze and then produce tears with no other stimulus than her inhabitation of the role and make it real for herself. What a breath-taking performance... Even now as I sit here recalling it, I'm get the shivers, I'm so impressed by her achievement as an actor. None of the cast wears any make-up, so each wrinkle, blemish and facial hair is right there in all its monochromatic glory, lending the film a strange air of authenticity despite some abstract looking and stylized sets - it's clearly a movie stage they're on, not an actual medieval French location.

I could rave on about the film but it would only be a pale echo of the experience of watching it. I highly encourage finding a copy and viewing it sometime, provided you are in the mood to be moved and haunted - it is an intense movie, especially considering that it was made in 1928. There's a common tendency to write off films that were made back then as quaint, simplistic, naive. But I venture to say that there are few films made in recent decades that achieve such majestic heights or are as daring as this one.

Joan was burned at the stake for heresy, you know, and the film doesn't really hold back all that much in its portrayal of her suffering there. Of course, in Joan's story there's much food for thought on the nature of religious orthodoxy vs. individual spiritual freedom to follow God as we believe the Spirit leads, and the excruciating dilemmas that life puts us in when we have to choose between conforming to expectations and doing what our conscience demands. Knowledge of the historical context is not all that essential, either. I got this DVD as a Christmas gift and I'm really glad I own it. This is more than a "rental check out," in my esteem anyway.

More Church Police Nostalgia

I spent some time this evening rummaging through my old files looking for artwork or other stuff that might be worth including in some future musical product release featuring my former band. Here's an excerpt from article that was published in the first issue of "Maximum Rock'n'Roll" (yeah, that's right, ISSUE #1, man! That is a rare honor, considering that MRnR is still published today and the latest issue is #285. (We are also in Issue #0 and there's a letter about us in Issue #2. After that I think we disappear from their pages...) WARNING: We used some foul language back in the day.

A cold night in San Francisco, and Tim [singer] is telling his version of the creation myth of the Church Police.

Tim: One day at this show in Concord I said "I'm gonna start a band called the Church Police. Who wants to be in it?" Eric was standing around and...
Eric [drums]: We had a bass. Bruce had a bass amp and we didn't.
Max R-R: Is that the only reason you used him?
Eric: Basically.
Tim: I wanted to be the frontman. That was the real reason behind the group, because at the time I was drumming for the Maroons. Bruce and Dave formed that band when we were all going to [Diablo Valley] College. I first saw Dave walking down the steps of the administration building wearing these red pants. I said "this guy looks like a jerk." Then later on we went to Bruce's writing class once and you did that thing called "The Chair."
Dave [me, guitar]: Oh Jesus.
Bruce [bass]: We're going to embarrass Dave.
Tim: This was written before anybody knew anybody.
Dave: I left my stepmom's chair out in the rain and she got pissed and I wrote a poem about it.
Tim: I happened to go into this writing class...
Dave: I had problems.
Tim: And there was this guy doing this thing called "The Chair." We all thought it was real stupid. We did.

The Church Police recently reunited after an overly long period of non-activity, which caused much speculation as to the reality of their existence. But they never really broke up because they never officially got together. For awhile, Dave and Tim didn't play - they felt they had "better things to do." That's all over now. Tim and Dave are back from Mexico and ready to play.

Tim: We went to the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan and the Mayan ruins. It was a literary journey, 'cause I read lots of books. Do you know why it was inspiring? Down in Mexico we kept saying, Fuck, what're we doing here? We should be in San Francisco, practicin' and playin' shows.
Dave: The center of the universe, San Francisco man.
Tim: Whe we were driving through Texas, Arizona, Mexico, we kept saying "All these people here are morons. They don't know anything." These restaurants in Arizona had these pamphlets that are kind like religion but kinda like Burroughs control systems. The control system is something that you're sucked into as you get older, go to College and GET A JOB which pays like 20-30 thousand a year increasing by 3 thou a year.
Eric: Hey Tim, wouldn't you rather be making 20 thousand a year than fuckin' 3 dollars and 50 cents or whatever?
Tim: But Eric, what would you say if they tell you if you do this you gotta quit the band, and you gotta quit writin'. If you get a telephone operator job, or like a PG&E job, they want you to go home and not even do nothing.
(Bruce comes back from the bathroom.)
Bruce: What are you talking about? I work as a receiving clerk for this company that makes buttons and trim and I also deliver stuff.
Eric: I work at Accumation, this tax place, putting taxes together. Like, I could fuck people up, but I don't know who I'm fucking up. I can't take no money.
Dave: I'm unemployed and proud of it.
Tim: I'm unemployed right now too.
Eric: No way! You work at that shitty little place.
Tim: I went in there the other day and said, "I'm back" and they said...
All: Who cares?
Dave: That's OK, we both read Henry Miller, we both want to be bums.
Tim: Yeah, literary bums.
Dave: No, just bums.

There's more, if you are interested. Let me know in the comments section. If this catches on, I have a ton of old journals and stories I could post here.

Protest Day (but I took a pass)

There was a big anti-war rally in Washington DC today, and many smaller gatherings around the country, including a vigil here in Grand Rapids, but I wasn't able to attend. I helped my dad move into his apartment this morning and had other tasks to attend to in the afternoon. I will be interested to hear reports from some of my friends and colleagues who took the bus to DC. Didn't see much C-SPAN coverage of it today either, but will look for videos on line. It's wierd... at this point, the anti-war sentiment is so pervasive and I think clearly understood by most informed observers that I'm not sure the rally presents anything new, nor is it likely to change minds. If circumstances were different, it would have been a great event to be a part of but not for me at this time. It's just one of many ways to maintain and increase the political pressure to bring this fiasco to an end... though that still feels like it's months if not years away.

My last couple of days

Drive-by style... Led a half-hour training in LSCI for one of the treatment homes, went from there to my first team meeting with the Advancement (fundraising) department where I learned a lot more about how Wedgwood raises the private donations that keep the agency healthy and the programs more than just bare-bones operations, and then back to my other job where I continued working on a power point training module designed to give staff some tips on how to work with small groups. Got a voicemail from a dear former co-worker who I hope to talk with again sometime this weekend. During my lunch hour I moved my grandmother out of the rehab care center she's been staying at back into her own apartment, then I had to get back to work. I returned to my Advancement office and confirmed that my writing assignments for the next edition of the Impact newsletter are complete and the final draft is on its way to the printer. I met with my two senior colleagues in Advancement to get some details on a few new tasks, one a progress report to a foundation seeking an update on the grant they awarded our school last year, and the other some preliminary work on a proposal that we're going to send out for more grant money. That, and some routine paperwork, emailing and communications stuff filled out the rest of my workday. I went home from there and we had a feast of leftovers for dinner. After that, I watched Robert Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" not just once but twice, the first time just regular, the second time with the commentary track, until Julie decided that she wanted to watch the movie itself so we watched the second half together. This film was made in 1950 and features one of the most interesting and intense exchanges of spiritual dialogue between a believer and unbeliever that I've ever seen in the movies. Another highly recommended movie - I'm really drawn in by the Criterion Collection and the fascinating variety of films they present with strong spiritual currents running through them.

This morning I was up early and once into the office I put the finishing touches on that power point training piece, which I will pilot with a few staff in the next few weeks before sending it into general release. Met with a new Assistant Supervisor to help orient him to his position and explain the "training tracking" aspects of his job responsibilities. Spoke briefly with a new intern who is doing some research on trauma-related treatment. Got confirmation of a conference call that we'll be setting up with a consultant in New York state on the same topic, which may lead to a trip to the agency he runs to learn how they structure their programs and apparently do a good job connecting with traumatized youth. Had to rush off to a business lunch with my two Advancement colleagues where we talked to the administrator of our school for expelled students and learned a lot about what she and the school has to do to help these kids get their education back on track and how to secure the funds necessary to keep it all going. Learned that the dropout rate is approaching 60% in Grand Rapids public schools and that our school is already full to capacity with far more referrals coming in than they can hope to enroll, and there's no clear sense of what the local community plans to do to slow down or reverse this trend. Then it was back to the office to work on that progress report and more email communications and some friendly chatter with folks in the office to wrap up the day. Learned that one of my former co-workers at Delta is going to be leaving Wedgwood for a job at another agency and he invited me to his farewell get-together next Thursday which I intend to do. I'll drop by after I finish making a new TV show that evening (which I'll have to join a little late because I'm also leading a training that afternoon from 5:30 - 7:30.)

Got home and we decided to have dinner at Applebee's which is usually nothing all that special but also typically a fine meal but tonight it wasn't because the service was slow and when our food arrived it was cold so we sent it back which I hardly ever do but this was really unacceptable and even though they worked diligently to try to make it up to us it was kind of a letdown to say the least but they only charged us for our beverages and I left the waitress a decent tip anyway because I think she felt pretty bad about how things went. We left the restaurant, dropped off Derek who is spending the night with a friend, picked up Alyssa from a local art gallery where she and three college friends were checking out an exhibition and I enjoyed going inside to find her, mingling for a few minutes with the trendy art poseur crowd just like old times. On the way home Julie wanted to watch another movie so we stopped by the video store and paid a two-dollar fine for a late return that was probably lingering in their computer since 2005. We rented "Thank Your For Smoking" since I think she's had her fill of my somber art-house stuff and wants to watch the same entertainment that other people are checking out these days which is fine and makes sense to me and I thought it was a pretty funny film, I always enjoy satirical humor, which she doesn't, generally speaking, but she heard good things about it and was curious so that was cool with me though I don't think she cared much for the swearing. We also rented "An Inconvenient Truth" which she's never seen but wants to because she has a hard-core Republican friend at work who is convinced that global warming is a liberal con-job done purely for political and financial gain and Julie wants to get all the information she can on the topic and thinks this movie is a good place to start. And now it's off to bed, get a good night's rest and help my dad move into a new apartment first thing Saturday morning.

"No Buzz" State of the Union

Bush made another speech the other night, but it didn't seem to make much of an impact. It felt more like a formality that had to be dealt with rather than an event that sets the stage for things to come. Did any of you watch it, or have any thoughts about what Bush said, or didn't say? I'm interested to get the comments of ordinary people.

I understand that the TV ratings were pretty high actually, higher than the past couple of years. I watched the last part of it on the tube, listening to the first half on the radio driving back home from a family dinner over at my sisters. There are some pretty good analyses of the speech and its implications out there, but overall I don't get the sense that much is going to come from the plans that President Bush laid out. Maybe something that will lead to better fuel economy...? A tweaking of the tax deductions allowed for purchased health insurance? Important and significant changes in their own way, but not much in terms of drama or history in the making.

That's a lot different than the SOTU that I'll never forget, the one Bush gave in 2003. That's when he dropped the famous phrase about yellow-cake uranium from Niger, which led to so much controversy (the Valerie Plame disclosures, the threat that Iraq presented from supposedly being "this close" to having nukular weapons, etc.) and really set the political stage for the invasion of Iraq. The next day, Bush came to Grand Rapids and hundreds of us gathered on the snow-covered streets downtown to protest his plans. We gave it our best effort to slow down the march to war but it made little difference. It felt at the time like the ship of state was being navigated into a disaster of its own making, and lo and behold, look at where we are today.

It is surprising to me to see how dramatically the political landscape has shifted over the past several months, a change I thought was nearly impossible to envision up until maybe last spring or summer... and even then, seemed quite unlikely. While the US is still at war and our policies are still not moving in the direction I'd like to see, I'm at least relieved that it doesn't seem like the energy and reputation of the USA is strapped on to some out-of-control juggernaut hurtling into oblivion. A measure of reason, accountability and humility is being reintroduced into national level decision-making... dissent seems to be taken just a bit more seriously... ambitious ideological revolutionary plans have been shelved and there's some hope that practicality and human rights will be given more serious consideration when it comes to legislation and law enforcement. At least, I'm feeling like these ideals are a bit closer to being put into practice. I could be too optimistic, I suppose. At least it seems like the Bush administration has been put on a shorter leash now and the president's speech struck fewer grandiose notes. That may not exactly be progress but given where things have been at the past few years, I'll take it.

Church Police Silver Jubilee

My old band, the Church Police, is getting fairly close to releasing a new single. I think the records have actually been printed up - yes, we're going to produce a 7" vinyl EP. It's made up of songs we recorded in 1982 in our only amplified studio session, so I guess with this being the 25th anniversary of the original performance, we can consider this a commemorative issue or something.

Tim (the vocalist) and I (the guitarist) are figuring out what we want to do with the art work. We're thinking of adapting one of our old posters for the cover. Here's what Ry (the guy who knows how to make records) has suggested:



I made that poster to advertise the first public performance given by the Church Police, in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco at a sleazy little bar called the Sound of Music. I was in the opening band The Maroons too (it was their last gig.) Gaga Din were some friends of ours from suburban Contra Costa County. This gig was sparsely attended but I think had cultural significance because to my knowledge no all-suburbanite punk lineup had ever made up the entire bill at a San Francisco nightclub. We're talking 1980, folks! Reagan hadn't even been elected yet and there was not even the slightest hint of an idea that one day high schools all over the USA would have huge cliques full of punkling kids dressed up in trendy clothes they bought for full price at shopping malls.

A lot has changed since then. I'm eager to see our record hit the market. Maybe it will spur some kind of resumption of activity for our band. My twins have instruments now, including an electronic drum kit and a Fender Stratocaster guitar. They use the same beat up speaker cabinet that the Church Police used to haul around from club to club. It's pretty cool!

Levin Staff Meeting Revisited

Here's a more detailed, less bloggy report of my meeting with Senator Levin's staffers last Friday. It's being circulated around the state via the Michigan Peace Network.

On Friday, January 19, 2007, Betty Ford and I met with two staffers for U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI): Paul Troost, Regional Representative, and Dave Casey, Staff Assistant. They were very hospitable and I believe genuinely interested in hearing our views.

Our interest in this meeting was to advise the Senator that he should align himself with efforts to withdraw American troops from Iraq using funds that Congress has already approved. We were very pleased to be able to represent many people in this area who want to see the war end in the shortest possible time. We talked briefly about our involvement with the Institute for Global Education, the West Michigan Justice & Peace Coalition, and the statewide Michigan Peace Network.

We entered the meeting with the purpose of sharing a list of talking points developed by Military Families Speak Out and getting their response. The central thrust of the argument is that de-funding the war is the most humane and effective way of opposing President Bush's announced plans to escalate the conflict by sending in an additional 21,000 + troops over the next several weeks. The list of points that I presented is posted at this website.

Knowing in advance (based on public statements that he and others in the Democratic Party leadership have made) that Sen. Levin was unlikely to agree with our stance, we sought to learn more about the approach he plans to take regarding future funding and troop deployments in Iraq.

One day prior to our visit, Senator Levin made headlines by co-sponsoring a bipartisan, non-binding resolution expressing opposition to Bush's plan. His idea is to develop a broader consensus against the "surge" that includes as many Republicans as possible. His reasoning for disagreeing with the de-funding proposal is that it would change the argument, fragment a developing bipartisan agreement and wind up portrayed in the news media as "Democrats abandoning the troops."

Sen. Levin is using political tactics in an attempt to obstruct Bush's plans to deepen U.S. military involvement in Iraq. He wants to help create an environment where prominent Republican politicians will be willing to speak critically against the Iraq occupation and Bush's handling of his responsibilities as Commander in Chief.

We asked about what effect this approach will have on future appropriations bills, which will come up on the congressional agenda beginning in February. On this point, the staffers were non-committal, acknowledging that it's hard for them to anticipate where matters will stand, politically speaking, several weeks from now. They recognize that many thousands of lives are on the line as the conflict drags on. Levin's interest is in sending a message to the administration that their ability to prosecute the war without checks and balances no longer exists as it did under the previous Congress.

However, they offered no details on any specific limitations, conditions or directions for military spending that Sen. Levin or his colleagues have in mind. They did mention some current hearings that are taking place aimed at creating more oversight and accountability on the numerous no-bid contracts that have been doled out to corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel since before the invasion took place in 2003.

Betty shared some very interesting observations and reflections from the months, in the early 1960's, when she lived in Baghdad that put the human suffering of the Iraqis in the forefront of our thinking.

Though we were not able to come to a point of agreement on the immediate next steps to be taken regarding U.S. involvement in Iraq, I believe that we had a candid and open exchange. I see this as a first step in building a stronger sense of understanding and clear communication between the Senator and the community of peace activists here in Grand Rapids and across the state. We let the staffers know that there are a number of others in our area who would appreciate a chance to meet with them (or better yet, the Senator himself). They indicated a willingness to meet again, but due to space limitations indicated that they would like to meet with no more than three or four people at the next meeting.

At this point in the political process, a significant difference remains between our senator and those of us who want to see the troops withdrawn immediately. However, I believe we need to persevere and press for continued movement in that direction. Political momentum is definitely on the side of the antiwar perspective, and we need to do all we can to encourage that trend, as frustrating as it is having to wait. Senator Levin occupies a uniquely influential position when it comes to determining U.S. military policy and I sense an opportunity on our part to help bolster his willingness to strongly oppose the misguided and destructive policies that President Bush continues to foist upon our nation and our world.

I Have Found It!

I'm taking a quick break to make my nightly blog post while Julie is on the phone talking to my sister. We are in the middle of watching this most wonderful movie, I Have Found It, which is the English title for Kandukondain Kandukondain. It's a "Kollywood" film (not Bollywood) performed in the Tamil language, originating from the southern end of the Indian subcontinent. It stars Aishwarya Rai (an absolute stunningly beautiful woman - I can see why she is such a huge star in India and around the world) and another lovely star named Tabu. The story is an adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility which is why Julie checked it out of the library. I'm quite glad she did - the movie is entrancing, entertaining, vibrantly colorful, thoroughly exotic and a delightful discovery. I have never taken in a full-fledged Indian musical epic before but this definitely creates an interest on my part to discover more of what Bollywood and South Asian cinema has to offer.

This link offers a nice summary of the story and quite a few screen caps focusing mainly on the faces of the stars, giving just a taste of what the film has to offer.

Aishwarya is more than just good looking - she is a singer and dancer and though I'm far from a connoisseur of Asian pop music (that's my daughter's department, though mostly of the Japanese variety), I think I recognize quality when I hear and see it. And Aish is magnificent! She simply grabs and dominates the screen when she does her thing, and the costuming, choreography and sets dazzle the viewer with non-stop surprises. This is eye-candy of the most pleasing, tantalizing sort!

I have no idea if Kandukondain Kandukondain is the "epitome" of this kind of cinema, or just run of the mill for its genre, but I'm really delighted to have been introduced to this movie and happily recommend it to my suburban American neighbors who are looking for a unique change of pace from the standard variety entertainment that is routinely shoveled our way.

Football at its finest.

Today's post is going to be very short. I'm wiped out from watching two very exciting football games that held my interest all the way through, even though the first one turned into a blowout. I had not only predicted that the Bears and Colts would win, I was rooting for each of them as a fan. This is the first time in memory that both Super Bowl teams were ones that I was genuinely glad to see arrive in the big game. It has something to do with the players and something to do with the region. The World Series was played in the Midwest last year (Michigan and Missouri) and the Super Bowl will feature two other Midwestern teams. I think that's cool. It's great that the home fans in both cities got a chance to whoop it up big time - that's pro sports as good as it gets.

The Colts comeback is one for the ages - statistically, I guess it's the "biggest ever" but even more impressive is the psychological hurdle they had to get over, making up an 18 point deficit then having to tie the game a couple more times, then fall behind, then win it in the final minute, then sealing it with an interception of the most clutch QB of this era.

The NFL's marketing department couldn't have scripted it much better, from my p.o.v. Though I guess the New Orleans Saints had a compelling saga going as well, considering the post-Katrina era we're in. But the Bears are a good story in themselves. Two strong black men leading their franchises to the premiere showcase in sports. Good friends, God-fearing men, each having overcome some setbacks and tough circumstances along the way. The outlook for two weeks of hype doesn't seem quite so dismal this time around.

Letters From Iwo Jima

I saw this film tonight. Kind of interesting in that it was more Julie's request than my own but I was content to go check it out. I'm not going to do an in-depth review here. This isn't the kind of movie that moved me on that spiritual/introspective personal level that is generally what's required for me to put much effort into writing up a summary here (which is one reason that I still haven't gotten around to writing up that Good Shepherd review quite yet...) but that's not to say that LFIJ isn't a very powerful and profound movie - it is. It's grim and emotional but also kind of a fresh angle on the war movie genre in that there aren't many films that cast a sympathetic portrayal on the Japanese side of World War II. Part of the reason for this, my daughter (who saw it with me) explained, is that the Japanese film industry has had some kind of restrictions over the years prohibiting or at least discouraging realistic portrayals of military combat from those years... not to mention their own conflicted relationship with this part of their national story. And of course, American WWII movies have for a long time parlayed in stereotypes of the "dirty Japs," bloodthirsty and ruthless savages who lived for nothing more than to slaughter our brave boys as they kept the world safe for democracy. Even with a less jingoistic view coming into fashion in war movies over the past 20-odd years or so, no one has ever really seen fit to conjure up much empathy for the armies of the Rising Sun.

This movie does, and does it quite evocatively. Even though director Clint Eastwood wisely refrains from making blatantly political statements by way of grandstanding speeches or awkward symbolism, the message that got through to me was decidedly anti-war. There is some debate amongst viewers about whether the film was accurate to the history and first-person accounts that we have from those who were there, and I'll let others hash that out. I just know that this film lays out the absurdity and monstrosity of what happens when whole nations and cultures are manipulated into believing that campaigns of massive mechanized annihilation are the necessary response to whatever problems are facing them. World War II is rightly the subject of much fascination and analysis by many people all over the globe. What kind of madness drove the combatants to the point that millions of men were so intent on destroying each other? It's a settled fact of history now, but I hardly think we can afford to avoid considering those basic questions, and doing all we can to both learn from our predecessors' experience and make sure that such insanity doesn't take place again, at least not on such global scale.

Letters From Iwo Jima offers a chance to take a new look at our traditional "good guy/bad guy" dichotomies, hopefully leading to the realization that when it comes to war, everyone loses.

Meeting with (staffers for) Senator Carl Levin

This was another busy day - quite full (sent in my grant proposal, played a game of Seafarers of Catan, and watched the first half of Tarkovsky's Solaris), so I'm only going to post a stub that I'll expand on tomorrow when I have some more time...

I spent this morning reading up on some of the recent statements re: the Iraq war made by Michigan's senior Senator, Carl Levin (D), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee. He's a man with some clout when it comes to oversight of the U.S. Military. Yesterday, he along with Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snowe, introduced a bipartisan resolution expressing disagreement and a lack of support for Pres. Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops into Iraq, a.k.a. the "surge" or as we more accurately call it, the escalation of the U.S. military presence in that country.

I and a friend (a dear woman named Betty Ford but not that Betty Ford) were granted the opportunity to meet with two of Sen. Levin's staff in his downtown Grand Rapids office, on the seventh floor of the Gerald R. Ford Federal Building. I wanted to take some pictures there but cameras were not allowed, sorry. We went representing local and statewide peace activist organizations who had called for rallies today outside each of Levin's offices across the state, requesting that he take more vigorous action to stop the war by cutting off funding and applying the already-approved funds toward redeployment of the troops in as short a time as possible. I carried talking points generated by the Military Families Speak Out organization.

While I did not expect the Senator or his staff to automatically agree with or be persuaded by our talking points, I was generally satisfied with the respect and consideration they gave us. To put it briefly, Sen. Levin's approach is a political one - he seeks to build a bipartisan consensus, hoping it will be a veto-proof majority of 60 senators, who will support the resolution, which currently does not have any language in it that affects funding of military activities. His sense is that talk of cutting off funding at this time would push Republicans back toward the presidents plan and be used by spinmeisters to paint the Democrats as "abandoning the troops." The resolution is being used to set the stage for the upcoming budget and appropriations process that will take place in February and March. From a pragmatic perspective, I can easily see the logic of their reasoning. I also recognize the part that I and organizations like IGE, the Michigan Peace Network, MFSO and others play, which is to maintain pressure to bring the war to an end as swiftly as possible. So I see our meeting today as a first step in maintaining a dialogue with Senator Levin's office. I believe that we were seriously listened to and that Betty and I represented our colleagues well. I have more to say about the meeting, but that about does it for me tonight. I have a training event I have to lead in the morning so my time for writing has come to an end, for now!

Today was a productive day.

My level of personal satisfaction is high at the moment. This morning I co-facilitated a rather successful and enjoyable three-hour training of new material that I hadn't presented before, and it went well. Then in the afternoon I wrote a lead feature article for an upcoming edition of our agency's fundraiser newsletter, and then after that I completed (barring a few last minute finishing touches that will be done tomorrow after final reviews from a few department heads) a funding proposal that will be submitted sometime tomorrow afternoon. It's my first official grant writing project, after months of talking about it and looking for the right opportunity to bid on. I won't know if we get the award until sometime in May, but I've got this one under my belt and there are more coming up in the weeks ahead. So I'm really glad to be moving into this new endeavor.

And tomorrow I get to meet with representatives of Senator Carl Levin, urging the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee to get behind the idea of cutting off funding for further prosecution of the war in Iraq!

I will have a full report of how that goes sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening. Now I have to go study up in preparation for that meeting.

(btw I don't really "get" that cartoon, but it's what came up when I googled "productive" Images.)

Demise of the CD?

I read an interesting item today. Since it's Thursday, I checked in to the Billboard website to see if there was any change to the upper tier of the Hot 100. I wasn't expecting there to be, since nothing really new or exciting has happened in pop radio lately, and as I figured would be the case, Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" holds the top spot for the seventh week in a row. No big deal here... Beyonce is to 2006-07 as Usher was to 2004, that practically goes without saying.

But what I did find intriguing was the news regarding album sales. This week's #1 on the Billboard 200 CD chart is the "Dreamgirls" soundtrack (featuring Beyonce, of course) for the second week in a row. However, it only took 60,000 units to keep that lead, the lowest quantity ever recorded since the current system was put in place back in 1991. And I have a hard time imagining that #1 album sales were anywhere close to that low in the decade or three prior to that... ever since the heyday of the Beatles at least. The previous record for low sales for a #1 album was set... last week! when "Dreamgirls" sold 66,000 units.

All this seems to confirm the notion that sales of music on durable media may be in a serious and perhaps irreversible decline. Not that people are exactly flocking to on-line sales either. I think what we see happening is a steady increase in the popularity and casualness of file sharing, CD copying among friends and library patrons, and fewer qualms about getting music for free on the part of many consumers. Our entertainment dollars are still being spent, istm, but it's more and more going to DVDs (rental services and purchases), computer and video games, cable/satellite packages, gadget-packed devices (phones, media players, PDAs) and so on. Basically, a plain ol' CD of music and nothing but music seems to hold very little attraction to the mass audience in comparison to amusement products that offer a more immersive, comprehensive form of escapism. Which renders moot my earlier query about what will emerge as the new "decade-defining" musical trend that seems to be due in every year ending in 7. It's not really about music any more. Music is out there of course, but it's increasingly just a side item, the soundtrack to something with the requisite flash to arrest our attention for more than 15 minutes or so.

The "Drive Thru Difference"

My son Curt was the recipient of a "drive-thru blessing" this afternoon. On break from his job at the Beaners coffee house, he went to a nearby Taco Bell to pick up some food for himself and a couple of his co-workers. He figured he'd just pay for them out of the innate goodness of his heart, but when he got to the window, he was informed by the cashier that his order had been paid for by people in the car ahead of him!

What was that all about? Click on this link to find out.

Update: The link doesn't lead to what I want you to see so try this one instead. (Thanks for tipping me off to this, Alex!)

Some Film Buffery

The other day I mentioned that I felt a series of movie reviews coming on as content for this blog. Partly that was because I watched a fair amount of film this weekend while my wife was out of town. But I'm not going to go all out in that regard. I have enough other work-related writing to do to try and wax all eloquent about recently-viewed cinema. Also because I got a little shook up from watching a documentary, "Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession." It's the story of Jerry Harvey, a fanatical cinephile who was a true pioneer of cable television in the 70s and 80s. He programmed content for the Z Channel, which made a big impact (apparently) on a lot of people in the Los Angeles area when the station operated. He had a deep devotion to a wide range of films, and did a brilliant job in putting schedules together, arranging for retrospectives of great directors, actors and genres and exposing people to movies that might otherwise have been long forgotten. It's hard to measure the impact that he made on pop culture, but the documentary features quite a few contemporary filmmakers (like Tarantino, Jarmusch and others) who have gone on to affect public tastes themselves, each of whom give heaps of credit to Harvey as an inspiration and consciousness-raiser re: the power of film.

Eventually, the Z Channel succumbed to the pressures exerted upon it by corporate giants like HBO and Showtime, and went out of business. The story of the channel and how this small-time operation got the rights to air a fantastic variety of great movies would be interesting enough if that's all it was, but the fact is, Jerry Harvey was a very disturbed individual, despite of or maybe because of his "magnificent obsesssion." The tragic element of the story is really sad and horrifying, actually, because as the station was in the process of making a last ditch effort to remain viable, he wound up killing his wife and then committing suicide. (That's not a spoiler - this information is mentioned in the description of the film on the DVD case.) Basically, he was so far gone in his absorption into the world of cinema that he lost his bearings somewhere.

Part of the reason he got that way was that he had a very painful childhood, though the details of what he suffered appear to be shrouded in some mystery. He had two sisters, each of whom also took their own lives. His mother was described as extremely flat in her emotional affect, and his father was a prominent judge in the city of Bakersfield, of all places (hello, Bilbo!) So as I was watching it, I was thinking of Bilbo and Julie B. who were both somewhere in the vicinity of the Z Channel during those years, wondering if they ever got cable or checked out any of Harvey's programming? I'll wait for them to answer for themselves...

Anyway, the documentary is really very compelling, and it's full of excellent film clips, that definitely pique my interest to track down a bunch of DVDs ranging from famous to obscure. But what a sobering splash of cold reality to think about what can happen when escapist entertainment becomes too central to our way of life. I'm not saying that movies turned him into a killer, but there was something really sad and desperate that it seems Jerry Harvey was trying to fill, but could never quite reach. It's a great shame, because in many ways he seems to have been quite a remarkable and beautiful person.

Brenda Salter McNeil & Jon Meacham

I made another visit to Calvin College's January Series today, with a few colleagues from work, to hear Brenda Salter McNeil speak on "The Heart of Racial Justice." Coincidentally enough, it's also Martin Luther King Day, which generated some extra interest on the part of many who came to her presentation. But it wasn't quite as jam-packed as the N.T. Wright event I went to the other day, fwiw. But the weather was rougher today (icy roads, the first hard winter weather we've had here in the last 5-6 weeks or so) and let's face it, Wright is a famous dude. And there were other MLK-related events going on around town that undoubtedly deserved support.

Her talk is available in streaming media on the Calvin website if you want to listen for yourself. A very quick recap: she chose Luke 19:41-44 as her text and Chicago's "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?" as her pop culture reference. She gave an invigorating and gently provocative sermon, getting us to wonder just what the "birth pangs" of our present crises are about to deliver. I was intrigued by her story of how she was called along with some other students when she was a seminarian to speak to a group of Anglicans at Oxford University. They were interested in learning from (not about) the experience of the black church in America, because they saw it as the closest accessible example in the English-speaking world of faith communities that remained vibrant while remaining in the urban context. The idea of a young black woman speaking about worship and theology to a bunch of Anglican church officials in the intellectual heart of England is quite compelling!

Her presentation style was very "church-like." She opened with a strong a capella praise chorus and struck a decidedly evangelistic note in putting forth her solution to the racial divides that still plague our society. She raised a lot of questions and drew parallels between our contemporary situation and the Jerusalem of Jesus' time, that rejected him as Messiah because they were 1) looking for something else than what he had to offer, 2) were resistant to change because they were comfortable with the status quo, and 3) were just plain scared and were operating out of that fearful, defensive posture. She sees all those same tendencies in us today.

So my thought is, who or what should we be looking for that we're currently missing? and if we want to get away from the status quo, what do we get rid of and what should we still keep? and how do we alleviate the fear and paralysis that seems so deeply woven into so much of our public and private discourse? What does an "unscared" Christian faith really look and feel like? So much of what I hear in popular Christian activism seems to come from that reactive, self-protective place...

Tuesday Update: Rather than dedicate another day's post to the January Series, I'll just mention that I went to hear Jon Meacham, an best-selling writer (his latest book is "American Gospel") and editor at Newsweek magazine, speak on "God, History and the Founding Fathers." He's also something of a pundit, recently doing a show with Tim Russert and Rick Warren on the morning of Christmas Eve, talking about religion in America. (Not the most diverse panel they could have assembled though!)

The contrast between him and Brenda was pretty dramatic. Whereas Brenda is a bold, unequivocal, strong-voiced black woman, Jon is a subdued, calm, dry, introspective type who had many interesting things to say, but a style that meandered a bit. I could tell that he was speaking from a deep base of familiarity with the writings of many presidents and other leading figures of American history, and he's smart enough to catch himself when he makes broad or hard-to-support assertions, but that made him catch himself in side remarks and clarifications quite a bit when he was speaking extemporaneously. A born editor!

I recommend listening to the stream of his talk when it becomes available, if you want to hear some well-informed discussion of various points of the church-state debate and the role of religion in American public life. Don't expect much in the way of slam-dunk conclusions though! He puts things in context and is a proud proponent of a centrist, accommodating practice of unabashed civil religion. I think his approach is one worth considering as an alternative to the fundamentalisms of the theocrats and secularists who always seem to be rudely grabbing for the steering wheel. But some might consider him a bit of a sleeping pill, if you know what I mean.

WorldChanging

Here's a book review that I wrote up for publication in the next issue of Equity, the quarterly newsletter published by the Institute for Global Education.

It's been almost forty years since John Lennon first sang (in the Beatles' "Revolution"), "well you know, we all want to change the world." His lyric connected with an audience that was already beginning the transition from youthful, starry eyed optimism of endless possibilities to a more wary and weary perspective, one that puts us at risk of turning our backs on the challenges we all collectively face and focusing only on our own short-term individual wants and needs.

The decades between then and now have seen a number of bold new ventures aimed at restoring energy and vision to those inclined to indeed try making the world a better place. Some of those efforts have been successful for a time, continuing to affect the values and choices of millions of people, while other initiatives have struggled to find an audience of people willing to try and put new ideas into practice. Over the course of our history, IGE has seen a lot of these trends, fads and wishful thoughts take their turn in the spotlight, and many of us have benefited personally by applying them to our own lives.

Always on the lookout for something new, I recently noticed a book on the shelves at a local retailer that first caught my attention due to a brightly colored bird surrounded by an exploding pattern of perforations on its cover. The packaging having done its work of drawing me in, I picked it up, intrigued by its title - WorldChanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century. Slipping the hefty volume out of its case, it became clear to me that this was a book I would enjoy exploring. At nearly 600 pages in length, there was much more than could be realistically digested even with a lengthy in-store browse, and the broad variety of topics covered impressed me with the notion that this resource could be very handy and desirable for the long term. So I added it to my holiday wish list, and was delighted to receive it as a gift from my children on Christmas morning!

So what exactly is the WorldChanging book about? As its title implies, the objective is nothing less than serving as a catalyst for broad and dramatic changes in how we live, consume, relate with others and manage the resources that we need to begin viewing with a longer perspective of time in mind. The book (which refers to itself as a "treeware search engine") grows out of a collaborative website, Worldchanging.com, based in Seattle but truly global in outlook. Somewhat encyclopedic in scope, the book divides up into seven sections, each one color-coded in progressively darker shades of green.

The first section, Stuff, deals with items that we purchase and consume. It talks about the long-established wasteful habits that most humans semi-consciously indulge in. Whether it's talking about durable goods, high technology or the various forms of energy we use to feed our minds and bodies, this section offers a wide variety of ideas on how we can be smarter in our consumption.

The next section, Shelter, talks about how we protect our bodies from the elements, both individually and collectively. Whether our concern of the moment is on our personal homes or the housing needs of large urban populations, the focus returns to fuel of different types and how we can maximize our production of energy in sustainable ways and avoid dribbling it away on excessively wasteful applications.

Since they are already large, complex and difficult to manage, Cities get a closer look in the third major portion of the book. This is where WorldChanging's globally-informed perspective comes most clearly into focus. Case studies and constructive examples of positive innovations are presented from major metropolises on each of the inhabited continents are presented.

The next two sections, on Community and Business respectively, implicitly recognize that social and economic needs drive so many of the choices we make on a daily basis. These two parts of the book are mostly just introductions with a few ideas and examples, serving more as conversation starters than as comprehensive solutions to current and anticipated problems. They rightly point out that a dramatic transformation of public priorities will be needed, or is already overdue. They also recognize that if the concept of "world changing" can be presented in a way that makes "sound business sense," the chances of successful implementation will increase considerably. The many contributors to the book do a good job framing their arguments in practical, non-inflammatory terms, while still getting across their very serious warnings of the hardships to come if current patterns continue unaltered for the foreseeable future.

Wrapping up the thick collection of articles are two sections, Politics and Planet, that speak very directly to the cultural, legislative and whole-system obstacles that we as a species have to work through if we want our future to be as positive as it can be. Though we still live in a culture where even the need for sustainability and the reality of global climate change are often regarded as debatable points, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to elevate the quality and breadth of discourse. The editors and writers who put this project together do a solid job balancing the massive large-scale perspective with practical, personal action steps that we can take as individuals, home-makers and small communities.

My own investigations of the book and website are still in the initial exploratory phase, but I believe that WorldChanging will be a steady companion for months and years ahead. The day may soon come when IGE has a copy on our shelves for our members and friends to peruse, or even a working group aimed at making a more substantial connection with the organization that put it all together. It feels to me like our respective institutions are kindred spirits in many ways, and it could be rewarding to act locally and think globally in collaboration with the many people around our nation and planet who still want to change the world.

My theory about the 7's

Today marks our entry into what I consider (non-theologically) the first week of "ordinary time" in the new year. The very first week is, of course, a holiday week. Then the following week is something along the lines of a gradual warm-up, the "first week back" from the holiday breaks and general lack of busy-ness that our culture grants itself. Since we're still in the process of getting our normal routines rolling again, it's not a "regular" week. But this week will be, I'm quite confident of that. Which establishes the platform for what I'm about to pronounce.

The title of this post calls it a "theory" but that's probably implying more than is really there. It's more like a hunch, or a pattern that I've noticed, over the four-plus decades of my life, that years ending with the numeral 7 seem to be pretty significant and auspicious. At least, that's been the case for as long as I've been alive.

Allow me to substantiate the claim. 1967 is widely regarded as the quintessential year of the phenomenon known as "the Sixties." It was, of course, the time of the Summer of Love, the apex of all things hippie, a year when music and pop culture came to a nearly-literal full flowering. Think of all the magnificant albums that came out that year:

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Who Sell Out
Forever Changes
The Doors
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Between The Buttons
Surrealistic Pillow
Are You Experienced?

... and that's just the proverbial tip of the iceberg - check out this list to get a better rundown than I'll take the time to type. I still think that 1967 represents a high-water mark in the history of pop music that has never been equaled in terms of quality and longevity, across the full range of genres. But I don't want to get bogged down in establishing that point. Suffice it to say that '67 was a peak of all that had come before and set the stage for the near-apocalyptic events that followed in the years shortly afterward. Plus, I was a "hippie" for Halloween that fall, at the tender age of six, a fateful choice for me that was, primarily I think my mother's decision.

In 1977, I was a surly, mildly depressed young man, still reeling from the effects of my parents' divorce a few years earlier. That summer I made the decision to move away from my mom's house in Michigan and in with my dad in California, another hugely significant, life-altering event for me. I had seriously plunged into the world of rock music in 1975 (I'll describe that process some other time in another post that I have in mind) but it was mostly just the standard commercialized arena rock that was hugely popular among white suburban teens at the time. After a couple years of that, I hungered for something even more intense and riveting, and found it in the emerging punk rock scene that was burgeoning in New York City and London, primarily. An avid reader of Creem Magazine, I learned about a few bands whose album releases that year were very pivotal in steering my future directions:

Rocket To Russia
Young Loud and Snotty
Damned Damned Damned
The Clash
Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
My Aim Is True

There were a lot of other great releases of more traditional rock that I would come to appreciate in later years, but the whole punk thing was quite exhilarating and gave me much impetus to do my own creative thing with music. Disco was also on the ascendancy... I only need to say three words to those of us who were there... Saturday Night Fever. And though I was decidedly on the "Disco Sucks!" side of the equation at the time, I have long since made my amends and appreciate disco as the irreplaceable forerunner to the pulsating electronic/techno sounds that I've enjoyed so much over the past decade or so.

Fast forward to 1987. While it's maybe a little more difficult to defend the claim that 1987 was the "trademark" year for our popular recollection of the 80's, I think it's at least plausible. U2's Joshua Tree album was released, which to me is the landmark album for that year (and probably the whole decade) on the mass popularity scale anyway. But 1987 for me wasn't so much about the music, personally speaking. It was the year that our twins were born and our young family ended it's experiment of living in California and moved back to our ancestral homeland of Michigan, for cost-of-living and childcare purposes mainly.

1997 may or may not stand out as a pivotal year in your own recollection of the decade, but it was a big one for me. It was the time when I made a significant shift in my own approach to spirituality and theology, the (current) end-result of which is my self-identification as "PoMoXian" and all that implies. Prior to that, my expressions of thoughts and ideas as a Christian were consciously forced into a Reformed-Evangelical mode that I've since become much less fastidious about, with a resulting increase in personal authenticity when it comes to how I relate to God. I also began to step more deliberately out of the restricted cultural box that my conversion to Christianity (in 1983) had pretty much forced me into. Some of the music that came out that year that I got into at the time may not resonate on many "greatest of all-time" lists, but it was a great year for pop-electronica:

Dig Your Own Hole
Becoming X
Better Living Through Chemistry
Homework
Homogenic

...not to mention Pop, u2's own attempt to jump on that bandwagon (which I actually enjoy listening to more than some of their other more heralded albums, just cuz I like that abstract, austere, hypnotic, repetitive 'lectronic stuff...)

I also have fond memories of Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, OK Computer, Pieces of You and Tubthumper. And my own personal favorite release of that year was the Moodswings' amazing Psychedelicatessen, which remains one of the most powerfully emotion-inducing albums in my rather sizeable connection, due to both the music and also the memories it evokes.

So my anticipation for 2007 being a very important and memorable year is more heightened than normal. I can't really predict what will happen or even say what part of my life is likely to be changed, but if the pattern continues as it has, for me personally at least, I will be in some kind of a different place by this time in 2008!

Us "hippies" were right all along...

NPR played this commentary the other day (Jan. 11, to be exact.) It features a conservative commentator, Rod Dreher (author of Crunchy Cons) who is publicly and candidly re-evaluating his support for the Iraq War. Approaching 40, after growing up as a young Reaganite, he's just now coming to the point where a cynical mistrust of conservative, patriotic-talking, old-time values politicians is making as much sense as it has to me for a number of years now.

I take a bit of satisfaction from hearing something like this, though it's a bit too little and a bit too late in some respects. And given Dreher's affinity for what some consider more progressive points of view on various issues, he may not be considered a full-fledged conservative in the eyes of some of his ideological peers. I saw his book on the stacks when it came out months ago, and found its premise kind of amusing, kind of encouraging too. I know that there are a lot of people inclined toward political conservatism for temperamental, cultural and familial reasons, and it's good to see someone who is interested in challenging some of what's become the conservative status quo. Dreher's blog looks like it's worth spending some time with, but I'm going to get back to watching the end of the Saints-Eagles game. I hope NOLA can pull it out!

Curse of the Golden Flower

Julie (my wife) is in Atlanta tonight on a business trip. That's a pretty unusual occurrence, since she's a floral designer who has never traveled at all on behalf of her employer, but they decided to send her and a couple of colleagues on a buying trip to the ATL. Believe it or not, their task is to order Christmas decorative supplies that will be delivered this coming July and retailed shortly after that. I thought we just got past all that Christmas holiday stuff!

But anyway, that left me with a lot of free time on my hands tonight. It was just Derek and I at home, with my twin sons working and my daughter at her dorm. So we decided to take in a flick. I was leaning toward "Children of Men" but Derek is pretty interested in China, since he traveled there this past summer. So he suggested "Curse of the Golden Flower," which I had heard about but wasn't really tracking all that closely. Still, I enjoyed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" (and "Kung Fu Hustle," while I'm at it!) so I figured that was a good choice.

I know I just raved about "King of Kings" yesterday (and again today in another comment) so I'll keep my fan-boy tendencies in check here. Let me just say that if you are in the mood for incredibly vivid, colorful pageantry and a big dose of Asian palace intrigues, this is the movie for you. It's an amazing visual feast - the sets, the costumes, the martial arts action (though this is not a "kung fu flick" - the other movies I mentioned above are superior offerings along that line, though this one has some monumental battle scenes, albeit with a lot of CGI assistance.) The acting per se isn't all that exceptional - the characterizations are more "operatic" than "dramatic" - but the actors are gorgeous - especially the two leading women, Gong Li and Man Li!

The story may not connect very well with many in the Western audience - there's nothing close to the kind of tidy resolution or predictable settling of scores that we're used to in our Hollywood productions, but that's part of what I liked about it. A chance to venture more deeply into the lore of a different culture, though I imagine that this isn't Chinese story-telling along strictly traditional lines either. It's an idealized fantasy, even a postmodern mash-up of sorts, carrying it's own commentary to Asian and Western audiences alike about the perils of centralized power (imperial or otherwise) and the devastating effects that such power has on people and nations when it becomes an end in itself.

To some people, this will be a phenomenal masterpiece, while others may find it elusively less-than-satisfying. I think it's worth checking out on account of its production values at least, and more highly recommended if you enjoyed earlier Chinese costume epics.

The Greatest Jesus Movie Ever Made

I just got through watching the original full-length (155 minute) version of Cecil B. DeMille's "The King of Kings" and I must tell you that it is a magnificent film! I sat through the last hour utterly spellbound at how marvelously the production captures the essence of the biblical story, amazed that this film was made in 1927.

DeMille, of course, has a reputation as something of a schlock-meister, a producer of overblown epics featuring hokey melodrama, cheezy dialogue and admittedly pretty cool special effects - and all of that (except for the cheezy dialogue, since it's a silent film) is definitely on display in this one. He's the master of the "cast of thousands" cinematic spectacles, and this film features some memorable crowd scenes, full of vigorously gesticulating bodies and faces, all swarming over massive sets that are themselves a wonder to behold. The DeMille film most familiar to today's audience is the Charlton Heston version of "The Ten Commandments." He's also renowned for "The Greatest Show on Earth," "Samson and Delilah" and "The Sign of the Cross," among others. But "King of Kings" seems to me to be his masterpiece. The composition of the shots, the non-ironic, reverent, straightforward performances of the actors, and the majestic simplicity and directness of how the gospel stories were selected from and recombined to tell the story of Jesus were far more moving and evocative than I had any expectation of them being.

I checked out from my local library a two-disc set of the film, produced by the Criterion Collection. As usual, the DVDs are of the highest quality, and the picture clarity brought about through their restoration of the 80-year-old prints is thrilling. There are even two lengthy segments in color, which I so enjoyed watching, seeing the actors and costumes of that era in a way I never have before. I think the story is told more effectively through the nicely-crafted titles, rather than audible dialogue, retaining the power and uniquely literary quality of the gospels themselves, especially in the venerable King James translation, which was all that most English-speaking audiences knew at that time, much more authoritative and majestic than any translation will ever be again.

That may be enough gushing about a film for now, but really, I can hardly recommend this movie much more strongly for anyone who wants to take in a truly uplifting and effective work of the filmmaker's art. I would love to discuss it in more detail with anyone who's seen the movie, or if you have questions for me about it, that may prompt some further reflections on my part. This really is a classic of the cinema.

Bush made a speech...

... but I wasn't tuned in.

Actually, I did have the TV on for a few minutes after 9 p.m. local time, noted Bush's glum body language and briefly wondered if there's not some part of him that is just tired out from having to be president and make the speech that he was duty-bound to deliver tonight. But my dad was over for dinner and dessert and I was more interested in hearing his descriptions of the San Blas Islands and the Kuna people who live there. They make these beautiful cloth applique designs called "molas." Dad had a sample of one with him but those he showed us on-line are more intricate and beautiful, though of course it's better to see and hold one yourself than to just look at images on a monitor.

I watched a rerun of the speech later on C-Span, listened to Dick Durbin's equal-time response, and then tuned in to Nightline. They had a short "Bush on the Couch" segment (my term, not theirs) analyzing Bush's mindset, trying to account for his determination and confidence, bringing up some of his family and personal history, and so on. Then they interviewed Barack Obama who gave predictably good answers to the questions posed to him. My quick first take on the speech is that Bush buffed up his case about as good as it could be made, and it sure does seem like the dire urgency of the situation is beginning to register with the guy. But I don't have much reason to expect that the "new way forward" will really alter the dynamics of the situation all that significantly. I think the fundamental problem is that the Iraqi government simply doesn't appear to have much legitimacy in the eyes of most of the Iraqi people, so they are more likely to conclude that each sect, group, subgroup and neighborhood has to more or less fend for itself. Of course I speak rather presumptively, not being anywhere close to the situation myself. But the Iraqi government appears to be, as conservative commentator Tony Blankley put it a few weeks ago, "a group of men hiding in the Green Zone" and not a real source or force of moral, cultural or political authority in that poor, afflicted land. So Bush's plan looks to me like it's aimed at helping one side win its end of the civil war and hoping that they will remain loyal to the USA when and if they actually do manage to wrestle some control over the majority of the populace.

I know that it is hard to be an American president and preside over something that looks like a military defeat. It's just so dismal to see our nation in this predicament, with the solution regrettably entrusted to a commander-in-chief who led us into the mess in the first place. But it's late, I am not going to lose any sleep over this.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Of all the things I could write about, this is what I picked - not the turncoat Catholic bishop in Poland who collaborated with the Communist secret police, or the anticipated escalation of the Iraq war (I've covered that one recently, I guess) nor any of the fascinating topics that Julie already mentioned in her recent flurry of bloggin'...

So there's this place in Cleveland that I would probably enjoy checking out some time but I still have mixed feelings about, especially when it comes to debates about who belongs in the Hall or not. This year's inductees were announced today, and they are R.E.M., Van Halen, the Ronettes, Patti Smith and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. That's an interesting bunch. I own music by each of those performers, but not in equal quantities. I have a lot of R.E.M., Van Halen's first album (the only good one they ever did, IMO) and a few selected songs, several of Patti Smith's CDs, a few of the Ronettes Top 10 hits from back in the 60's, and a number of downloads of Grandmaster Flash's old-skool party rap. I saw Van Halen perform live on the tours supporting their first two albums (with David Lee Roth,) and I saw them a couple years ago at the Van Andel Arena with that other singer that they had in recent years. Oddly enough, I also saw Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five do their thing in concert back in 1982, when "The Message" introduced a political consciousness into the rap scene. I think that they had the shortest career, by far, of any of the acts that were selected, but I completely respect their status as innovators and trailblazers. It could even be said that the movement that followed them is more significant than any of the other performers, since the others all followed in fairly established traditions (Patti Smith was a trailblazer too) but let's face it, hip-hop has grown to enormous proportions compared to where it was in 80-81-82 when GFF&TFF were making inroads selling urban funk to young white guys like myself. (Their early single "Freedom" is one of the most exhilarating-upon-first-listen songs that I ever heard and I still feel such DELIGHT whenever I play it again!)

But I am still not so sure about this whole enterprise of "memorializing" rock and roll in such an official way. I dunno. I can dig looking at the memorabilia, and I don't begrudge these artists the recognition that they've earned... It's just that whole corporate thing, and the "sanctifying" aspect of elevating a band to some kind of canonical status as judged by a secretive ballot of (presumably) critics and hipster insiders who determine these things. Maybe it's just my aversion to the whole "college of cardinals" thing, my assumption that beyond the sheer merits there are intrigues and political double-crossings between shadowy movers and shakers that determine who we should or shouldn't revere.

I was pleased to hear awhile back that the Sex Pistols, another major favorite and influence on my life back in the day, blew off the invitation to perform at their induction ceremony a couple years ago and slagged the whole institution to boot. It fits their profile, in any case, but it wouldn't bother me if more bands shrugged it off like that. I also read a column in the Detroit Free Press wondering about why Iggy and the Stooges weren't voted in. Though I love the Stooges, I'm not sure they are a "hall of fame" type band. Rather scruffy and anarchic, when one stops to think about it. Better that they not allow themselves to be domesticated to the point where "proper acknowledgments" seem obligatory.

Rock and roll is great, but it gets kind of sickening when the pomposity takes over and self-importance sets in. The nice thing about this year's inductees is that they are all heroes with feet of clay, one could say. There's an element of screwiness and vulnerability to each artist's reputation that ought to keep the vanity of the proceedings somewhat to a minimum. I don't expect to watch the ceremony - I never have up until now, and wouldn't know where to find it on TV. At some point, I guess it behooves me to find out who else is enshrined there... and maybe someday make the haj to Cleveland to do my obsequies...