Letters to Holly

Friday, April 13

Let's Get Newsy

The Imus scandal has crafted a national dialogue on race and free speech that quickly became an abstract argument on propriety and fairness. "Why can they say those words but we can't? Isn't this the creeping fascism of political correctness?" The most often repeated argument I hear is that it's OK for rappers to say this stuff. That's a question that removes all context. You can't say that stuff on broadcast radio music. All such words are edited out on my local radio channels, anyway. MTV certainly removes it. If a rapper uses it on a CD or single, and you hear it, chances are you paid to listen. You know what kind of language to expect in that rap. You know what the intended audience and message is. Chances are you paid to hear it because the radio stations bleeped it out. If you hear it in concert, chances are good you paid to attend.

But free broadcast, syndicated radio like Imus -- whose show was also simulcast on MSNBC -- has two things rap doesn't: media credibility and a predominantly white audience. Imus's show, while it does feature broad humor, plays host to journalists and politicians. He has a cache of respect that, say Howard Stern, doesn't. And, yes, Imus has said similar things in the past while still retaining this clientèle of guests. It could be easily argued that Imus didn't go one step too far with his comments about the Rutger's team but that his cumulative commentary finally caught up with him. And let's not forget he said this during a news segment, not a comedy skit. Context is vital. A 19-year-old black rapper lives in a different realm of obligation than a 40-year white veteran of talk radio.

I still say this is a matter of chivalry. These women did nothing to earn such remarks. They didn't hire a stripper, they didn't throw a kegger, they didn't do anything that college kids could do to garner national news and catch flack from comedians looking to score easy laughs. A 70-year-old man taking potshots at a women's college athletic team is rude. But would the backlash have gathered such career-ending momentum had he called them lesbians? I doubt it. He played the race card, and he got bit by it. You put your neck in that guillotine, you can't whine when you get cut.

And, you know, if a double standard does exists -- "those people" can say "those words," but "we can't" -- I can live with that. The civil rights act isn't 50 years old yet. We're not that far removed from federally-approved separate facilities. I can live with consensus-mandated separate vocabularies. I don't feel in any deprived by a polite inability to call someone a crude slang word. This is hardly a cruel yoke which we can deem a white man's burden.

To all those talk radio people who decry such censorship and call out for a universal patois, I say this: If you think your shtick is hampered by a lack of access to such language, you're in the wrong business.

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As mentioned here a few weeks back, the administration has employed a shadow email server to avoid federal laws denying the deletion of official communications. Some of these emails apparently dealt with the prosecutor scandal, and despite White House claims, the Democrats say those emails haven't been deleted. They still may exist on a Republican party server, they say, and should be subject to subpoena. This expands further the argument of executive privilege and Congressional checks and balances. The administration claims previous White House staff as have done the same, an obvious admission of guilt that one usually outgrows after elementary school. At the center of this growing ugliness is whether the justice department and White House discussed the firing of prosecutors because they were investigating Republicans connected to lobbyists or voter fraud.

Picture of the Day
Everyone needs a home-security octopus.



Thursday, April 12

Small Stuff and Death

I ran a soil test yesterday, and I'll spare you the nit and grit to say that we have passable food-growing dirt. Chicken alfredo was made and devoured and "Lost" was watched and beloved. We checked the regional inventory of the Matrix that we want to buy, and only two popped up. We may have to pick another color, but I believe we're going tomorrow morning to put in the order. None of the cars on the lot were what we prefer, but we might be tempted to buy one if we get a good offer.

The rehearsals for Romeo & Juliet start Saturday, and the auditions for Much Ado are next weekend. I want to do the latter much more now that I'm relegated to spear-carrier for the former. I'll read the play starting tonight, and get ready to have a more successful try-out. Maybe I can move out of R&J to do Ado.

Picture In The News
Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday. His works have stuck with me, including a short story from our seventh grade lit book. I remember reading Slaughterhouse Five on an airplane, and that must have been while I was flying to Michigan so often in college. As I mentioned a while back, he had a great cameo in Back to School.

His legacy is one of fierce cynicism, and he may be the closest thing to Mark Twain that the science-fiction genre could boast. His material was fundamental in reshaping literature after World War II, along with the Beats and the Northeasterners (Mailer, Caopte, etc.)

Wednesday, April 11

Thwack!

Tuesday was the big day for Your Sis. After a little under two years of care and delicate pruning, she decided to cut her hair for a cancer charity. I went with her to take scrapbook photos of the process. She didn't show anxiety, but her many thank-yous for support afterward revealed she was feeling it. I think she likes it a lot. I know I do. She's on Spring Break and made a nice stir-fry dish and apple pie for dinner. I could get used to this.

I got home and worked over the tilled garden. We have a number of roots from various weed shrubs, and I spent at least an hour raking the garden and digging out the weed roots. I also gathered dirt for a Ph test. I don't think we're too far from putting something in the ground, be it seeds or fertilizer.

We tried out a new wine with dinner, and after emptying the bottle, the evening drew to a quick close.

Picture of the Day
Ta-dah.


In The News
Don Imus is an idiot. The scandal has nothing to do with free speech or racial sensitivity. He insulted a successful women's basketball team. This is a matter of chivalry. You don't knock college women for succeeding in their sport. Someone as old as he should know better. Unfortunately, morning radio shows seems to exist to create controversy/free publicity with stupid humor and pranks. We're not a year removed from the death of the West Coast woman who wanted to win a Nintendo Wii from a radio station. The local shows here are unbearable, and thankfully, one station (one!) has no morning show and plays music I can handle.

Tuesday, April 10

Snow, Movies, Cars

I watched three movies this weekend.

City of God
, a Brazilian street gang movie I TiFauxed a year ago. This took two viewings as it's a mighty long film, but it is stylish and energetic. Also, the soundtrack is fuhntaztik. This is Romeo and Juliet without the romance as we watch kids grow up and dominate the slums of Brazil.

Grindhouse, a marinade of every bad film our parents won't watch. The first half, Planet Terror, is gory and camp, and it starts to wear after a bit. But Death Proof decides to forgo mocking the targeted genres of car stunts and female revenge flicks and actually IS a car stunts and female revenge flick. I prefer it much more, and it's a shame Your Sis will in no way watch the first film to get to this, a movie she will adore. Rumors abound that the startling BO failure of Grindhouse may lead to separate releases of both films. However, each film must include all the fake trailers as they brought the house down when I saw them. There's so much to love here, but Kurt Russell as the bad guy is just dead perfect. The combined z-movie glory of Jeff Fahey and Micheal Biehn is almost too pure a dream to capture in the measly flesh of the human brain. This is crap-movie nirvana.

The Host, a South Korean monster movie that brings dignity back to its genre. It's very, very good and in no way shrimps on the monster or the suspense. But it doesn't try to make the monster sad or misunderstood. I liked this a lot and was shocked when Your Sis suggested we see it. She caught the trailer for it while watching The Namesake and knew I wanted to see Host. Maybe the most satisfying monster film since Jaws.

Amid the films, we shopped for a car. On Sunday we hit the Land Rover dealership and laughed out loud at the prices and accompanying gas mileage, but were momentarily distracted by the used BMW Mini Cooper for $18,000. But we need more cargo space not less. We needed a four-door hatchback, preferably not an SVU. The BMW lot was also a herd of cars out of our range and on we went to the Saturn dealership. However, not only was it cold as hell, it had snowed, and all the outside cars were covered. We couldn't even read the sticker prices. The nearby Nissan dealership had a showroom Versa, and it charmed us with a small price and good space. Unfortunately, it has a thin candy shell. We tried the Pontiac dealership to look at Vibes (a car we noticed years back in a mall show), but the cold drove us away. As the snow melted, we enjoyed a fabulous Chinese lunch and browsed for garden plants. We then hit a Subaru dealership for our first look at those cars. We went back to the Saturn place, and the salesman tried to sell us a tank of a car called the VUE. I told him it was just too big for us. Next door was the Toyota lot, and we checked the Scion (too small), RAV (too big) and Matrix (just right). But the lot was closing, and it was cold, and we went home.

On Monday, we went back to the dealerships. Online comparisons made us reconsider the Vibe and Versa. We checked out a Matrix in the showroom and took to it. We tried to find something wrong with it but couldn't. We moved on to the Nissan dealership to see the Muranos, but man are they expensive. We liked the luxury options (such as the rear-view camera), but the price removed it from our list. The Subarus looked rather old inside, like late '90 cars, and the price wasn't comparable to the front-runner Matrix. So they were out. Once more to the Toyota lot and we actually drove a Matrix. Here I have to commend sales guy Allen who talked with us just barely and gave us time and room to browse. The perfect car salesman, I think. He gave us the Matrix key and an hour to try it. It runs great, sounds great, handles great. But we checked a used model for price comparison, and really the used prices aren't that much different. We'd rather spend the extra money and get the color and options we want. But that's for another day. We also looked at a Prius, the Toyota hybrid. It's sharp to look at, but it doesn't seem any safer than a economy sedan. The Matrix has traction control. We killed time at Barnes & Noble and had Chick-fil-A before seeing The Host. And then it was time to go home.

And this morning ... well, that will wait for tomorrow's entry.

Picture of the Day
The Toyota Matrix, a wagon on the Corolla chassis. Palm trees not included.