Americana by Neil Young

As most everyone knows Neil Young is on my list of great things. I believe Neil Young might be one of the best songwriters of his generation and his longevity is a testament to his ability to adapt and being willing to explore different musical styles.

Thanks to the good folks at Rolling Stone Magazine I was able today to listen to Young's new album Americana which will be released next month.

This album in which Young comes together with all the members of his famed Crazy Horse band is a theme album in which Young and his bandmates take a run at various songs from the American songbook. These are not the Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney standards albums we have recently seen but more from the traditional songs from pioneer days.

The first song released from the album has been Neil's take on Oh Susannah. Yes the same Oh Susannah that we all sang when we were kids. With Young and the bandmates it becomes a singalong for the rock era. When Young says he comes from Alabama with his b-a-n-j-o on his knee you cannot help but tap your foot and sing along. My kids with the exception of my oldest son have no affinity for Young but my daughter has complained that the song has stuck in her head as well.

As with all things Crazy Horse one has to decide just how much guitar jamming and soloing is too much but perhaps oddly these work well with most of the songs.

Another winning entry from the album is the song Travel On. The steady beat performed by Crazy Horse makes this another earwig that you cannot get rid of.

Not all the songs work, in fact much of the first side of the album is weak but this is made up easily by listening to the last half. After Travel On Young continues his fascination with birds by singing High Flying Bird as a blues song that could easily fit on his Everyone Knows This is Nowhere Album from forty years ago. Forty years ago, can you believe it?

Another splendid effort is Young's version of " She'll be Coming Around the Mountain" here titled Jesus Chariot. With a nasty electric back-beat and a strong backing vocal from members of the Horse this is not the version you sang when you were kids. It is strong with the mix of old, electric and a touch of Irish dirge. However it is the song works for me.

Young slows things down for his take on Wayfarin' Stranger performing the song in an electric Dylan way that again compliments the original.

It seems that all of the classic rock singers want to perform the Woody Guthrie classic This Land is Your Land. In recent years Springsteen and for example a great version by The Counting Crows have added to the long list of recordings. Young's version here while not the best song on the album certainly deserves to be held up as one of the better versions. I am just not sure if we need too much guitar solo on this song. Still the sing along section with the Horse and Neil's friends make this one a keeper.

The album ends as perhaps only it could with a rocking version of God Save the Queen. Neil Young, a Canadian citizen remember, singing God Save the Queen might be something you thought you never would here. Surprisingly it fits and with a single drum pounding the length of the song with a chorus helping Young makes you believe he would love to bow for the Queen.

All in all this is not a great album. While fun it is not a necessary album and proves little of what Young will be remembered for. Still some of the songs on this album are quite remember-able, certainly songs that stick in your head and Young should be commended for being willing to still take chances.

Surely this is better than 90 percent of the things you will hear this year. And of course we will never hear someone accusing Young of just knocking off another album off the assembly line. That in itself makes this album worth your time.

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

Stephen King just cannot seem to get enough of The Dark Tower. Or at least the characters in the book. The very good thing about this book is that one does not need to have read all or any of the seven books of The Dark Tower series. For those that have read the books we are told that one could place this between books four and five as at the end of the book we see the heroes heading off to Calla Bryn Sturgis which becomes the setting for The Wolves of the Calla.

In essence this book becomes simply a book of stories. Told in a unique story within a story within a story method this is a very good book.

The book begins with Roland and his ka'tet, Susannah, Eddie and Jake and the ever loyal Billy Bumbler Oy traveling on their quest to The Dark Tower. Oy on the trip is acting odd, looking always behind them to the North. At last Roland remembers the legends of his youth and realizes that a storm, a starkblast is on the way. A Starkblast is like a Tornado on steroids, one in which the temperature can drop a hundred degrees in ten minutes.

The group stumbles into a town and gets behind shelter in the nick of time. Well fortified with wood to keep warm they settle in and Roland agrees to tell a story. He tells a story of a time of his youth when he and one of his young friends were sent by his father to deal with a problem in a neighboring town. The town was beset by a shape shifter, known as a lizard man who was terrorizing and murdering the citizens.

As this story progresses a time comes where Roland must keep a young boy, named Bill, now an orphan, safe and sound. To pass the time he tells the boy a story. This story is called The Wind in the Keyhole and is the centerpiece of the whole book. This story passed on to Roland from his own Mother tells the story of Tim Ross a young man who lives with his Mother and Father in a happy home. With little material wealth Tim's Father has him recite each night what he has to give his son which is " a plot, a place, my ax ( for he is a woodcutter ) and my lucky coin. Things never seem to stay the same however and when Tim's father is killed by a dragon his life changes forever. This story truly is one of the best I have read of King's. With features of The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit and other famous tales it is truly one can enjoy in a quick evening.

With the story in a story mode as the stories end we come back to Roland his group. With both stories ended, the storm abated and dawn breaking the group gathers and sets off to the tower again.

A very interesting trick by King to garner another story out of these characters and Mid World. Certainly one that we could see him do again. Clearly there are many stories yet to tell.

One of Ours by Willa Cather

Willa Cather is one of those authors that draws much division. Some authors are widely acclaimed, others are popular. Cather won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for this effort, one would assume she was both. Reading some of the history of the book after I finished reading it I was surprised to see that in some circles it was ridiculed, including by my favorite author Ernest Hemingway.

Hemingway,of course, was a much different type of author than Cather. Cather's war scenes are not drawn that well, they could be considered a bit clunky, still from the author of O Pioneers one does not expect scenes of war to be as descriptive as an ambulance driver in World War such as Hemingway.

The book centers on Claude Wheeler, the middle son of a successful Nebraska farmer at the turn of the 20th century. Growing up on the plains, with a successful father and a pious mother Claude has a good life. He, however, feels the success and comfort is confining.

He goes to a Christian college but wishes to go to the State University. His father brings him home to run the farm while his younger brother is giving the more exciting charge of a new farm purchased in Colorado. For Claude it seems like everything is the same, he feels boxed in.

Claude marries a young woman who he has a deep friendship with. By the standards of the day however they do not know each other well and have little in common. His wife to be Enid's friend dates Claude's older brother. His older brother and Claude are not much alike and not much fond of each other, Claude also grew up with this girl, a poor girl who the town considers flighty. Claude never pursues his feelings for this girl and lives to regret it.

This book has some passages that are very memorable. Claude seeks the approval of Enid's father for the marriage. The gentleman knows and likes Claude, he knows his daughter however, what her goals in missionary work are and how that will conflict with the happiness of a young man expecting a traditional wife. As they talk however he realizes that for an older man to talk to a younger man about life is " like the dead talking to the living, they cannot be heard." Having a couple of teenage sons of my own that I often wish I could get to listen to me rather than experience the hard lessons of life themselves. It is as written, it is like the dead talking to the living. In a sense is that not what the difference is between young and old. The young are living and the old have lived.

The second part of the book features Claude going to war. As the war heats up in Europe, as Belgium and France fall his family becomes transfixed by the war. His Mother prays over Paris. Claude notes that Paris used to be the city of vice in his parochial mother's mind, now as the German army approaches it becomes a citadel of light and she prays both the city and it's citizens.

In this day of instant news watching Claude, his father, or his neighbors go into town to get the news of the war from the Omaha papers to the east shows what an effect this war had on the isolationist nation. Of course on the plains a great deal of immigrants farmed, Cather's books often speak of Bohemians, and these people were very concerned with the affairs of the home continent.


As Claude is trained and goes to Europe we follow him. He falls in love with France and it's people. Eventually he takes part in battles, loses good friends and heads for the Battle of Verdun.

This is a moving book. I was glad when I finished to see that it won the Pulitzer. Enjoying My Antonia and O Pioneers Cather is an author I appreciate. This book is more, more significant. A true moment in time of this country with a hero that is not a hero, but a simple American boy of the plains. This makes him all the more honorable.

A great book.

The Proxy Marriage by Maile Meloy

This short story appeared in The New Yorker just two weeks ago. As I am always behind in all of my reading material I just read this last night. I almost always have a favorable impression of the fiction entries in the magazine, often some of our best contemporary writers are amongst the authors.

I believe that Maile Meloy might be a relatively new author. I am not sure of this fact. In anycase this short story, dealing with the issue of proxy marriage is a true winner.

I was not aware, as I am sure most people are not, that proxy marriages, or marriages where one party cannot be present and has a stand in are allowed in many states. This story centers on something even more rare, double proxy marriage where both parties are not present. This is only legal in Montana.

The story features a young man and a young woman. The girl the daughter of a widower lawyer in town is named, appropriately enough, Bridey. She is an attractive popular young woman who is the object of the affection of a young man in town who is not as popular. A musician, a pianist they meet while doing theater arts, she dances as well.

Over the course of their high school years, then college they are the proxy groom and bride for tens of couples. Bridey's father, being a lawyer, becomes known for helping arrange these marriages, often for those in the military. What starts as exciting becomes, for the young man, a chore. His feelings for her grow deeper. As their lives push them beyond Montana and college, to her efforts at performing in New York City to his becoming a composer they still, here and there, communicate, maintain their friendship, and apparently this will always be an unrequited or even on the part of Bridey an unknown love.

In the end the relationship reaches a turning point. The story is like many you have read, it is just the back story of the proxy weddings that adds a depth and spin you have not often seen. I found myself when finished with it thinking that this would make a great movie. Being a short story it might need to be fleshed out but this has all the makings of a story that has mass appeal. Not sickly sweet like those awful Sparks books but a story which you could see some top line actresses and actors in.

We shall see if that comes to pass, I am not usually a romantic story reader but this is a story you should seek out and read. Very well done.

Springsteen by Eric Church

I read an interview with Eric Church recently in Rolling Stone or perhaps another magazine. He was, to put it nicely, not overly politic in his words, certainly did not display a great deal of intelligence, compassion for others, or thoughts about anything beyond drinking and partying.

In short your typical version of the non Bono rock star. In his case perhaps a little worse than the norm on the redneck scale.

Still no matter my opinion of him one thing Eric Church has done has crafted a great song. For those who grew up in the mid eighties, and frankly for many who first discovered Bruce with The Born in The USA album, this song will bring about a welcome feeling of nostalgia. With references to I'm on Fire, Born in the USA and Glory Days amongst others the wording is clever.

With a one word chorus " Springsteen" designed to be the summation of the memories of that time, even a short woow, woow, chorus Church hits all the right notes.

Much like Kid Rock's tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd All Summer Long this song will be a keeper for Springsteen fans. Interestingly it will add to the list of songs that become a memory for one generation as it pays tribute to those from another.

A very hard song not to like.

Ray Wylie Hubbard

Ray Wylie Hubbard is a fixture on the XM Satellite Radio Channel Outlaw Radio. As with many of the forefathers of any movement Hubbard has not had the commercial success of many of those that have followed.

For those who follow the Texas music of James McMurty and Robert Earl Keen. I surely am one of those, listening to Ray Wylie Hubbard is like listening to his father. Hubbard can sing, his voice is just ragged enough, but his lyrics and songs are great fun.

I am just now searching his catalog but three songs you must hear are Loose which is a Friday night song if there ever was one, Snake Farm which seems like a silly song until you hear it a few times and realize it is not just funny, it is also a great song.

Drunken Poet's Dream is another strong song. One either likes this kind of music or not, I am certainly becoming a bit of a shill for Outlaw Radio and these artists but there is a reason.

Listen to Ray Wylie Hubbard. Today. Or if you don't Hubbard might just advise you to listen to another song of his" Screw You, We're From Texas."

Heroes by Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson released his newest album a couple of weeks ago. Nelson, pushing eighty, has a voice that is still remarkable, as recognizable as any in music.

The Album features many guests and contributors with Willie's son Lukas playing and singing on many of the songs in the album. His son, with a voice a little higher and more nasal than his father, is a fine singer but the truth is Willie's voice is like velvet, this album needs less help and more Willie.

Still the album is strong. Willie continues his recent pattern of recording some of the best covers of rock songs that you have ever heard. On this album Willie's version of Coldplay's "The Scientist" is stunning in it's simplicity. You might remember that Willie's take on this song appeared on a Super Bowl commercial for some Mexican resteraunt chain. On this album Willie also performs the Pearl Jam song " Just Breathe." This, too, is a fantastic version of a good song.

I also want to offer advice on a song that does not appear on this album. On Outlaw Country on XM I recently heard Willie performing a version of the Dave Matthews song " Gravedigger." I do not know what album is it on, for whatever reason his version of this song is not on Spotify. I will say this however, this song is one of the best I have heard in the last year. The lyrics and Willie's voice are a perfect combination. This song is as moving as you will hear. Find it.

Returning to the album, one song the contributions strengthen is the title cut. With the unmistakable voice of Jamey Johnson and Texas music legend Billie Joe Shaver this song is a strong entry.

Proving that love of marijuana can bridge culture gaps Snoop Dogg joins Willie for the fun song " Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. " It is cute but in truth the help of Shaver and Johnson is more significant.

Willie is at his best on the songs that are just his, new songs such as A Horse Called Music and That's All There is to this Song.

This is a very strong album.

Morgan Freeman on The Electric Company

Recently I had a friend send me a video from Youtube that made me smile. I suppose most actors and actresses, and for that matter most people of all types, would prefer that some of their early efforts in work, school, and of course fashion not be preserved.

However, if you need a laugh Morgan Freeman's potential chagrin is surely your gain. Evidently in 1970 Freeman appeared as a character called Easy Reader on The Electric Company. A smooth talking, handslapping, stereotypical African American man of the early seventies Freeman could have beeb arrested for too many cliches at one time.

You can find this skit on Youtube easily, the skit I watched featured Rita Moreno with Freeman. Kind of odd to see the current day Voice of God as he started out in the wild seventies on a children's educational program.

Find it and smile.

American Graffiti

American Graffiti was a very popular 1973 movie co-written and directed by George Lucas. Yes, that George Lucas. The movie was hit a with the critics as well and was nominated for Best Picture. Starring Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss and Cindy Williams the movie became a touchstone in seventies culture even as it revisited the innocent time of 1962 in the days of cruising all night, hot rods, and wholesome middle America.

The very popular television series Happy Days starring the same Ronny Howard is often seen as a successful attempt to capitalize on the nostalgia wave the movie produced.

For me the movie was simply nothing special. Told as the tale of one night, the last night before the characters played by Dreyfuss and Howard go off to college, the movie is not supposed to be high theater. My suspicion is that having seen Happy Days for ten years growing up, and seeing movies that capture my own youthful experiences this movie seems like a relic. There just is not that much for me, with my life experiences, to embrace.

One jarring thing for me was how young Dreyfuss looked and then comparing that in my mind with the look he presented in the Jaws movies.

Certainly Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused is the movie that makes me smile and often think of my high school experiences. When I look at certain characters in that movie I say" Hey, I knew that guy." I am sure for those folks that grew up in the fifties and early sixties this movie does the same thing.

The soundtrack was very strong, the cast as well, the movie, however, was just nothing special for me.

Mick Jagger on Saturday Night Live

Mick Jagger did double duty last weekend on Saturday Night Live as both the host and musical guest. Say this for Jagger he is a good sport. He was funny in his skits, most of the characters he played were a bit over the top so it was not a great challenge to a septuagenarian who dances around state in front of tens of thousands of people.

Saturday Night Live has been uneven this year, perhaps it has been many of the last few years, this last episode was one of the stronger ones this year. The skit that has people talking was the sentimental sweet last skit that had Jagger playing a speaker at a Graduation. The Graduation of course of Kristen Whig, the SNL actress who has been the anchor of the show for the last few years. Whig who is leaving the show was seriously affected by the skit as each of her costar came up to high and kiss her or dance with her. She choked up and the show ended on a high note with Jagger at the end of the skit leading the cast in a singalong of Goodbye Ruby Tuesday. This was very sweet.

Of course with Mick Jagger the highlight has to be music and in this he delievered. Rumors had bubbled all week that Jagger might be joined by his band mates and we might actually see The Rolling Stones. This was not to be and to be honest, this was a good thing. Why? Jagger performed magnificently with backing from two of the biggest bands in rock today.

In his first performance Jagger sang the the ancient " The Last Time" backed by Canadian Alternative Rock Supergroup Arcade Fire. Win Butler, his brother, and the rest of the band might well be the biggest thing in music that you have never heard about. Each time I see them perform live I become more enamored of them and resolve to listen to The Suburbs five more times to grow and appreciation for it beyond what I already have. Arcade Fire is fast becoming like Dave Matthews and Phish, a band that can best be appreciated live and backing Mick Jagger was a thrill for them but also seemed to energize Jagger.

Late in the show Jagger was joined by the Foo Fighters for a medley of 19th Nervous Breakdown and It's Only Rock and Roll that shook the building. It is interesting that in the twenty years since Kurt Cobain's death that Dave Grohl has become the go to guy in rock and roll. If there is a rock and roll event that needs someone who has the respect and respects the forefathers of rock and roll you will most likely find Grohl. Playing at a furious, sped up clip on 19th Nervous Breakdown my daughter said " Wow the band is so loud you almost cannot hear the singer." The Foo's certainly did not slow the pace for the old man Jagger.

On top of all the Mick can never be a good boy, his Presidential themed song about Governor Romney gained some controversy and caused some local stations to cut away. I am sure that made Mick happy, he can never be too conventional.

Perhaps Mick has another career ahead of him. One thing is for sure, he has more energy than any of the hosts we have seen earlier this year.

If you missed this the first time around be sure to catch it in reruns later this summer.

American Masters : Johnny Carson

I should say that this review will be in no way objective. It would be impossible for me to do so because I revere Johnny Carson. I am sure that the fact that I grew up at a time when Johnny was the King of Late Night would make that a likely scenario but for me Johnny was more than a late night host.

I always had trouble sleeping as a kid. As a teenager I did what most teenagers did in the summer. I stayed up late. Remembering that I grew up in a rural town there was no cable television. The choices for late night programming were minimal. Even if there had been choices once you watched Johnny it was just Johnny you wanted to watch.

For me being the last child of parents who were Senior Citizens, as much as they were good to me, could sometimes be a lonely experience. They were tired. So being up late at night was a solitary affair. When I think of the times that my son comes down late at night from doing homework and watches a bit of Letterman with me I wish I could have had those moments with my Dad.

Being a solitary affair however made Johnny Carson my late night guest. Johnny was funny but more importantly he was just dependable. He was there. Johnny made the kind of wry humor that I enjoy. A play on words or a double meaning made a teenager feel more mature than he really was. The most important thing about Carson was the steadiness. It was so hot today, That lady is so fat and other dependable ask and answer parts of the monologue.

If I told you that I can still remember certain jokes such as when the Air Traffic Controllers struck Johnny said " They were so desperate for help that Ronald McDonald was in the tower helping land planes." It does not seem that funny now but at the time it was. That was the joy of Carson. Watching Johnny be amused made something funny. His laughter was sometimes as funny as whatever made him laugh.

For me Karnac the Magnificent was perhaps the ultimate segment I enjoyed. Again watching Johnny smirk as he loaded up a good one always increased the anticipation. Is it odd that 30 years later I remember this joke. Answer : Cis Boom Bah. Question : The Sound It Makes When a Sheep Explodes. And you have to remember that after this Johnny was in tears, he could not pull himself together.

The monologues were perfected by Carson. The precursor to Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, David Letterman, all comic who review the news and headlines for comedy Carson was the best, his mannerisms, from the Jack Benny school will never be bettered.

A few weeks ago a reference was made to Johnny on Letterman, and I love Letterman, and Paul and the band kicked into the Carson theme song. It brings back so many memories, even the multicolored curtains that Johnny would come through are solidified in my brain as if it were yesterday. Hi Ho and the Golf Swing. Johnny's impact on popular culture may not be understood by people who have come of age in the last twenty years but for all of us who grew up in that thirty year window of Johnny we know that he was was a gigantic figure.

So for PBS to do a tribute to Carson as part of it's Masterpiece Series was a great choice. The retrospective was very good. Comments from today's comedians, tributes from friends. We learned that Johnny lived his whole life feeling like he was never good enough for his Mother. After his Mom died he found a box of clippings that she had kept of his publicity and he kept that box in his closet in his bedroom for the rest of his life. It seemed he had made his Mom proud.

Carson had marital troubles, three divorces and evidently he might have been estranged from wife number four when he died. Truthfully I did not need to know these items. For me Johnny was not the person he was off the air, he was my friend late at night.

Watching Drew Carey choke up talking about his first time on the Carson show, watch Ellen talk about being asked over to the desk on her first visit to the show and Garry Shandling break into tears talking about when he heard the news that Carson had died you get a sense of the love and admiration he had from these people.

From me as well. I remember when he died,against all reason it was as if a friend or a treasured uncle had died.

We will never have a barometer of popular culture like we had in Johnny. We are too splintered. Johnny held us together.

He was and always will be The King of Late Night




S

Grey's Anatomy Season Finale

We watched the Grey's Anatomy season finale last night. At the end of each season it appears that the shows creators try to do something dramatic.

This year it was a plane crash. When Lexie died it was very sad as she was one of the more likable characters on the show. Perhaps the most telling comment during the episode comes from Dr. Yang as stuck in the woods, in shock, helping Gray look for Shepard she says " If we get saved the first thing I am doing is leaving Seattle Grace. " This hospital is cursed. Certainly it seems to be.

A stretch to reality? Sure. The show is however well written, with characters that are not always cookie cutter. It succeeds on a soapy level without being dumb. The finale was strong as well even if a plane crash was a bit predictable...if anything on this show ever could be.

Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat is usually known as the Conservative Columnist at The New York Times. Not the crazy kooky Conservative brand but the intellectual I challenge the left brand of Conservative.

From this point forward he should be known as one of the best research and religion writers you will find.

Douthat's new book examines American Christianity and the steep decline of Orthodoxy in all of the mainline churches in this country. While no church denomination has suffered for the exact same reasons as the others there are commonalities which when examined can show both what has gone wrong for the churches and how this might possibly be corrected, and if indeed stronger orthodox churches make the country stronger.

The book came at a very interesting time for me. About a week before I picked it up to read my son asked my wife and I if things were always this way. He went on to say that it seemed like in today's culture you could say anything, or do anything and it was ok, that no one criticized. This question brought a few responses to mind. I do not believe when your sixteen year old son gives you a chance to discuss something significant that you should give a flat answer and send him on his way.

I told my son that he was correct. We were in a time of political correctness and that sometimes that seemed to blur the distinctions between right and wrong, or as he out in normal or not. Firstly I think to a great extent I should be thankful that my son has lived sheltered enough that he does not feel that people criticize for things they do not agree with.

I also told him that, as he knew, one of my biggest issues was the lack of a shared experience or even a shared sacrifice in this country. I advised that I felt that the center in our country had drifted and continues to drift so that while it is good to be inclusive we are losing many of the commonalities which can make a people or citizenry cohesive.

To some extent Douthat's book talks about these issues, although more from the perspective of a religeous center.

In the book he takes us through the history of American Catholicism and Protestant churches focusing extensively on the revival of the Orthodox churches after World War II. It was as if the Depression and War had made people pull back from their flirting with the modernist movement in religion and realize that the God and Religion of home and family and small town America on Sunday mornings could have a great value.

We see that in the sixties as with most everything in our society we drifted from the center of religion. The famous Cover asking " Is God Dead?" was a result of people feeling we may be in a post religion or post Jesus religion. The problem as Douthat sees it is that soon a huge accommodation was made to all the modern influences. The Catholic and mainline Protestant churches were faced with the choice to change and stay " relevant" in the increasingly changing and splintering society or hunker down and face dwindling membership. In most cases the churches changed and modified.

I remember going to a Church in the nineties. It was a nice church, nice people but I did not feel religion in the building. I felt like I was at a supper club, or some sort of Civic group. Jesus Lite I called it but looking back I do not even know if it was Jesus lite. Jesus was revered but I am not sure he was followed.

What became of the churches that accommodated. They shrunk anyway. The Mainline churches continued to shrink in influence through the seventies, into the eighties and the trend continues today.

The churches that have grown in the time since the seventies have for the most part been in two different companies. There have been the Evangelicals and the Megachurches.

Mr. Douthat examines these in great detail. The megachurches seem to prosper, indeed do prosper, but their take on the Bible is suspect at best. What these churches seem to do is to take a part of Jesus's message which suits their purposes and downplays the rest.

The rise of prosperity preachers draws the strong ire of the author. Wondering how Jesus's statements on wealth can be made to agree with the ask and receive prayers of these churches, the God wants you to live a life of plenty, is a bit of logistical twisting that I cannot follow. Interestingly the classic example of this is Joel Osteen the Dallas based Minister who has perhaps the largest congregation in the country, a publishing and media empire, and who never fails to preach about the God of wealth and prosperity for his followers. I have read an Osteen book. I enjoyed it. I guess I have the ability to pick out the good, the positive message, the exhortations on how to deal with negative people and such while chuckling at his ask and receive prayer style.

In short I like some of his anecdotes but I think Osteen is more a motivational speaker than a pastor. Douthat examines churches that have their parishioners believe that failure to accomplish their material goals is a reflection on how hard they prayed not the fact that sometimes God does not give you what you want because he knows better.

Discussing Maryanne Williamson, Oprah, Derek Chopra and other personalities that celebrate the self, and your answers are in yourself he has not much good to say. Having often felt that I just could not feel good about the Oprah bandwagon without putting my finger on why he gave me a better understanding how celebration of self and self healing inevitably leads one away from orthodoxy.

A minister that Douthat hails as promising in his ability to speak to the wide world without modifying the true message of Christ is Tim Keller. I wholeheartedly agree. Keller's books and his sermons are some of the best you will ever hear. With a foot in the modern world but a foot in the orthodoxy of the church he is as good as it gets.

In the end what is the answer. Douthat asks all of us , religious and not to ask if orthodoxy does more good than bad. Does not the country prosper when the center holds. While the minority should not be run roughshod over there is something to be said for their being an expected and anticipated center of our culture. Religion can be divisive, we all know that, but we must also be careful not to make it so centrally themed that it is one size fits all. When we do that we do not need to really work at it. Religion and faith is a work in progress. It is a muscle that must be used each and everyday.

I cannot say this book is an easy read. It is not. Douthat is intellectual, he does not dumb it down, in fact he does not use the anecdotal easiness many writers in this subject matter choose. I had to read several sections a couple of times to really have a feel for what he was saying.

It was greatly worth my time. If you want to have a picture of the crisis in American churches in the postwar period this book will paint it brightly.

A fantastic, thought provoking book.

Could Bill Maher Turn it Down Just a Little

I watch the Bill Maher show each Friday night. I am a fan. I often agree with his libertarian bent of politics and find much of what he says funny. I am quite sure Maher is not going for a mainstream audience. He does need one. A wish I would have though is I wish that at times he would turn down the vulgarity. I am not a prude. I know that cursing and swearing is part of the shtick of comedy.

At times Maher though goes so far off the reservation in his humor to be well....to me..just gross. I find his take on politics and current events to be interesting and funny. I must admit that sometimes however it seems to me he gets off into the weeds and is extremely vulgar for no reason other than he can.

Sex and Gay Rights issues seem to bring this on the most. Perhaps it is part of his in your face approach. I am sure I am in the minority. I still will watch, I just think that as intelligent as he is, to be taken as more than just another comedian he might break away from some of the vulgarity for his show.

Just because it is HBO it does mean you have to be over the line.

Donna Summer Dies

Today we learned of the death of Donna Summer. If you were alive in the seventies and old enough to know what was going on you know who Donna Summer was. The queen of Disco. Looking back at Disco we all grimace and claim that we were among the few sane folks who never embraced it.

I cannot say that. My excuse is good one. At Donna Summer's peak I was thirteen years old. Certainly not the age to be held responsible for your musical tastes.

Tonight in honor of Donna Summer I played Bad Girls and Hot Stuff on Spotify. Donna Summer recorded a great deal of music after 1979 but for most of us when we think of Donna Summer, this is what we think of.

Here is a memory I have. My eighth grade prom. This was at the height of disco or perhaps it had peaked and as most things do it had come late to coastal Maine. All I know is I have strong memories of wearing my suit from Sears, a shirt with a butterfly collar, pinning a corsage on a girl named Amanda and dancing. It really was not dancing. All the rhythm I carry could be kept in a thimble. But some approximation of moving my legs back and forth passed for dancing, Donna Summer sang to us about Bad Girls and sad girls and later during Greased Lightning the strobe lights made me dizzy.

It was a great night. Donna Summer was clearly a memorable part of it. Rest in peace Disco Queen.

Howard Stern on America's Get Talent

NBC seems to have a new singing, dancing, and or talent show ready whenever one ends. This week we were witness to the return of America's Got Talent back for the summer. With Howie Mandel and his germophobia, Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan the show has had success in it's previous summer runs.

With Piers Morgan off replacing, and badly at that, Larry King the folks at NBC needed a new judge. After much searching they have hired Shock Jock Howard Stern. Howard Stern, divisive as any entertainment personality, with fans and haters in equal proportions was certain to bring some attention to the show.

I must admit that I have always been a bit on the fence with Howard. I never found him that funny but I also thought he was interesting. Watching him on America's Got Talent I find him to be a perfect fit. His sense of humor works on the show, sometimes edgy, sometimes just funny. He is also, unlike the judges on American Idol for example, able to offer criticism.

For me watching Howard the first thing I realized is how much Idol missed Simon Cowell. Howard fits. He makes this show better and more interesting, just as Simon Cowell did American Idol.

And the Cradle Will Rock by Van Halen

This might be one of the best just turn it up, hit the gas pedal songs you will ever hear. Here is a stereotype or two for you. I was driving to my eye doctor's late this evening, he stays open late on Tuesday evenings, to get my glasses fixed as I had sat on them. Why had I sat on them? Because when I take them off and set them down I cannot see them.

So here I am in my mid forties, late forties, with old bones, eyes that do not work anymore and a litany of aches and pains. One thing I do know though is a great rock song when I hear it. With all the different permutations of Van Halen over the last twenty years it is easy to forget or hard to remember just how great a band they were from the late seventies to the mid eighties.

Everything worked. They rocked.

They never were better than on this song. How many times as you heard David Lee ask " Have you seen Jr's grades? " have you slid the volume up waiting for the guitars and drums to crash back in.

When you hear this song turn it up, even if you can still hear it fine at low volume. This song needs volume and if your like me it will take you back to a time when the future was unknown and the idea of being a suburban parent car pooling kids seemed as likely as, well, as likely as Van Halen still existing thirty years later only Eddie having a plastic hip, no teeth, and having kicked out Micheal Anthony to replace him with his son named Wolfgang. Sometimes my friends the truth is stranger than fiction.

That is alright. As we get older we learn that little turns out as we expected. That is why we relish a song like this. Great then, great now, some things, thankfully, do not change.

The Cooler

The Cooler is a 2003 movie directed and co written by Wayne Kramer. The movie was very well received by critics though it did not make a great run at the movie houses.

The movie centers around The Shangri-La Casino and it's Boss Shelly Koplov played by Alec Baldwin. Baldwin is terrific in this role putting every bit of narcissistic nastiness in his soul into the role. William H Macy plays Bernie Lootz a man employed by Shelley as a " Cooler ", that is a person who joins the table of a gambler on a hot streak. Bernie is a born loser with bad luck, a black cloud on good fortune.

Macy too is fantastic in his role. As we join Bernie he is in his last week of employment. A cocktail waitress played by Mario Bello begins to talk to him and soon they are having a meal together, laughing together and sleeping together. Bernie's loneliness is palpable and his feelings of disbelief at a woman being near him again show through.

Shelley has a lot on his plate. His bosses, the underworld figures who own the casino are being given advice by a fresh MBA played by Ron Livingstone. Shelley is completely against the family friendly idea of Vegas.

As Bernie's love life improves his talents as a cooler desert him. This brings no happiness to Shelly or his bosses and how Shelly deals with the changes in Bernie's life are a turning point in the movie.

The movie has graphic language, a little more sex than movies I usually watch, but the talent in the cast and the crispness and ability to shock in the script make up for it.

This movie is an undiscovered gem. It is a fantastic movie. For those wondering how Alec Baldwin keeps landing on his feet this movie might well be the answer. He can, in the right role, be a terrific actor. The cast also includes Paul Sorvino as a drug addicted old school lounge singer that Shelly wants to keep but who the bosses as part of their modernization of the casino want to replace.

This is a fantastic movie.

Independence Day by Richard Ford

This 1995 book by Richard Ford won the Pulitzer Prize and the Pen/Faulkner award. The only book ever to win both. Knowing this and having read the first book in this series, The Sportswriter, one expects a great deal from the book. Fortunately the reader is well rewarded.

In this book a few years have passed since we last saw Frank Bascombe of Haddam,New Jersey. His first wife has now remarried, she, her her husband and his children live in suburban Connecticut. Frank now sells real estate and is successful doing so.

The book takes place over the titled holiday weekend. Frank is trying to collect rent from some tenants that seem not to find him as charming as he thinks they should while at the same time he is trying to get a middle aged Vermont club with confusion and doubt about every move they make into a home they both can afford and desire.

He spends time with his the owner operator of a hotdog/root-beer stand he is the silent partner owner of, tries to make sense of his newest relationship, with Frank no relationship is easy. He is happy and accepting of things as they are and wonders why women always worry about what comes next rather than enjoying what is.

The largest storyline however is Frank's relationship with his now teenage son Paul. Paul has had a couple brushes with the law, is exhibiting some nervous habits that could be considered mental stresses and altogether concerning his Mother. In short Paul is obsessed with his pet dog who died years ago and well....Paul barks at times. It seems to be a stress release and Frank is not that shook up over it but knows that some under it all cause is looming.

Doubting his parenting and influence both in the past and presently Frank as he does in The Sportswriter seems to have the longest, deepest, most abstract internal conversations with himself. Like no one I think I know. Certainly more than me.

It is no wonder Frank has trouble talking in real facts and not as " he wishes they would be", his ex wife's opinion, he is having such a constant internal dialogue he cannot speak an external word.

Still trying to be Updike and awards or no this is not Updike. Rabbit Angstrom was more likable and easier to relate to, at least for me. A great book none the less and I do look forward to the last in the series. Still Frank Bascombe is not someone you would want to spend time with each day. We all have the friend who has a deep thought everyday, and sometimes, sometimes you just want to talk about the ball game last night.

So a great book yes, is the third book on my list, absolutely. Do I need a break from Frank first. Yes, most definitely.

Calico Joe by John Grisham

This recently published short book written by John Grisham is his first foray into the world of baseball. The book coming in at under two hundred pages jumped to the front of my list as I saw an opportunity to finish a book in a short span.

In the story we meet the fictional ballplayer Joe Castle, a minor league first basemen from the town of Calico, Arkansas. When the parent club, the Chicago Cubs suffer an injury to their first baseman on the same day their triple A first baseman goes down Joe Castle is called up the big leagues.

What happens next is improbable but this is the nature of fiction. Joe Castle becomes the greatest rookie ever. Collecting fifteen hits in his first 15 at bats Castle takes the league by storm. Hitting for power, bunting for singles, stealing bases with abandon in this first month Joe does things that have never been done before.

The story is told by Paul Tracey a man who at the start of the story gets a call advising him that his father, Warren Tracy ,is dying of pancreatic cancer. The story is told in a combination of the present and in flashback. Paul has no relationship with his father, he was an abusive husband and a drunk. He also was a professional baseball player. Pitching for the New York Mets in the year of Joe Castle, 1973, Warren Tracy's career is winding down.

When in the end of August the Cubs come to Shea to play the Mets Warren Tracy is on the mound. Paul is at the game and his is conflicted. Joe Castle is everybody's hero and his father is not nice to him, in fact a couple weeks earlier his father had slapped him giving him a black eye. In his first at bat Joe Castle hits a homerun after an at bat where he fouls off pitch after pitch. Rounding first base he gives a slight fist pump and Paul Tracey's heart sinks.

Paul knows what will happen next. Sure enough it does. The next time Castle appears at the plate his life and both Paul and Warren Tracey's lives will be changed forever.

This is a very good story. It is very easy to read, I am planning to suggest my teenage boys read it.

As Paul's Dad approaches death he comes up with the idea of arranging a meeting between Joe Castle and his dying father, the man who beaned him on the day in 1973.

I would not be surprised if this book became a movie, it has all the elements of a great one.

Recount

There are some things that just get your blood pressure up when you remember them. An event a lifetime ago can make one feel like it just happened when it is remembered. Humans I think are programmed to remember loss and feelings of being treated unjustly much more than feelings of happiness and contentment. It stands to reason, for most of us days that we experience loss and what we perceive as unfair behavior are not everyday occurences. I guess we should consider that a person who remembers vividly a very happy experience might not have had as many of those to paint his memory banks with.

My point is that the election of the year 2000 is on of those events for me. I have a friend who to this day remembers a high school basketball game in which the timekeeper messed up preventing an important win against an arch rival. We all have these events.

I believe that in their heart of hearts most people who favored Bush know that were all the votes counted in Florida in 2000 that Bush would have lost. Now their are many arguments to mitigate this fact. They range from Gore probably stole other states, that's why we put the Justices in, to, after Gore became a caricature of himself, did you really want that guy to be President during 9/11.

I will not visit that history and ask pertinent questions like if Gore had been in office would there have even been a 9/11? They are inflammatory, cannot be argued with any certainty, and most positions are set in stone.


Still for me reading Jeffrey Toobin's excellent book on the 2000 Florida election and watching a movie like this HBO production are exercises in masochism. In short they drive me nuts and literally make me sick to my stomach.

In this wonderfully acted movie Kevin Spacey, a very underrated actor, plays Ron Klam a Democratic strategist who spearheads the Gore forces in Florida. Equally strong is Tom Wilkinson who plays James Baker. Playing Katherine Harris is Laura Dern in a performance that is honestly a bit over the top. I suppose it is possible that Harris was that ill prepared for the national spotlight and was likely led like a puppy dog by the Bush forces but her performance to me is a little unsettling, if this is an approximation of the truth it makes me feel worse to know it.


The movie moves crisply offering excellent dialogue and a full representation of the event a month after the election. In the end Rom Klam feels like he let the Vice President down by not winning but he was handicapped from the beginning. As the movie shows and Toobin's book cites the Democrats in choosing Warren Christopher as their original team leader in Florida brought in a man who was more in love with the process than the result. The Republicans led by Baker knew right away that this was a street fight and that people would only remember who won, not how they won. With this advantage the Republicans had all the advantages. With the state wired with Republicans it is amazing that the recount process got off the ground.


Many questions will never be answered. Who won? Both sides are confident they did, it does not really matter now. More important today is why did this happen. The purging of 20,000 people mostly black, fron the voter rolls, the foolish Butterfly ballot that had Pat Buchanan winning the Jewish vote in Palm Beach. The questions go on and on.


We will never know the whole truth but what we do know is history is written by the winners. Bush wrote the history. If it could or should have been a parallel history is something historians will be fighting about for the next hundred years.

This movie is an excellent telling of the events. If you will excuse me my blood is boiling, I need to go meditate.

Mika Brzezinski on David Letterman

I have to admit something. My wife, I am pretty sure, already knows this but I have to admit publicly that I have a crush on Mika Brzezinski. I am sure that says something about me, not all of it I am sure allows me to stay in the he man club.

Mika as some know is the cohost of the Morning Joe program on MSNBC and plays the Democrat to Joe's Conservative. Her father is Zbigniev Brzezinski who was President Carter's National Security Adviser, who in fact often appears on the show as a guest.

Mika is incredibly intelligent, politically minded and engaged, a Democrat but not a knee jerk liberal and possessed of a very wry sense of humor. She broke with the administration and expressed dismay over the Catholic church as employer being forced to provide birth control and can often take the left to task. Much like Joe she is a member of her party but shows respect and the ability to appreciate the other sides opinion.

When you are 47 and you list intelligence as the most attractive thing about a woman you know you have aged. She is attractive but not in a typical way. Bottle blond and with wrinkle lines when she smiles she is a grown up.

So now that I have confessed this I want to talk about her appearance on Dave last night. Interestingly she was obviously nervous. I find it interesting that any one, herself included, who handles with such aplomb Presidential candidates and international figures would be nervous being interviewed by David Letterman. I guess it just goes to show that anyone taken out of their normal environment can change.

I watch Morning Joe most every day. I respect Scarborough, find him intelligent and rational, but I think that Mika with her sense of humor, enormous wit and intelligence, and her lone female in the boys club ability to fend for herself is the star of the show. A modern woman who recently wrote a book about women in the workplace and pay equity amongst other issues Mika is a role model for our daughters. A woman, respectful of her church, but willing to question when she feels necessary, attractive without being objectified, incredibly intelligent and conversant in the issues of the world and a mother and family woman as well who by all accounts is able to maintain a work life balance. And she has a great relationship with her father filled with respect and obvious affection.

Yes Mika is the star of the Morning Joe show, underrated as the glue that holds the show together but also an incredibly strong role model for women, especially young women, everywhere.

The Great Escape

This 1963 movie tells the tale of a mass escape from a prisoner of war camp in WWII. It is an excellent movie. Based on a true story the movie has a very strong cast and is the traditional male hero movie. Tellingly however as it is from 1963 they convey the urgency of the escape without bombs, limbs being blown off and cursing.

I know the world was a different place then but I challenge anybody to find me a war movie made in the last twenty years with all those modern tools at their disposal which is as good as this.

As the movie begins a new group of POW's is arriving at the camp. Greeted by the Commander in charge he tells them that all of them have long records of escape attempts and that they should cease these efforts as the camp is escape proof and in fact they all were sent to this camp to " put all the bad apples in one bunch" in a camp designed to protect against escape.

James Donald playing Admiral Ramsey, the Sr Officer in the Camp reminds him that is the duty of all officers to attempt to escape. The Commandant does not agree but it is also clear that he is a man of honor and understand the challenges both sides face. Soon a Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett is brought into camp by Gestapo Agents. As he has been the leader of several large escape attempts he has been interrogated and marked by the Gestapo to no avail. They have brought him to this camp to be held but the Commandant is advised to keep him separate from the other prisoners. The Commandant does not respect the Gestapo, finds them distasteful in fact and does not hide the fact. He does not follow the instructions and places Bartlett with the regular troops.

Soon enough a plan to escape is set up. Not just a single escape or two but a large scale attempt involving over 250 officers. This requires the digging of tunnels and all of the secrecy and effort this takes.

The cast in this movie is incredibly strong. Richard Attenborough as Squadron Leader Bartlett, James Garner is incredibly strong in his role as Flight Lt RAF Handley and Steve McQueen as Virgil Hilts an American from the USAF, who is known as the Cooler King for all of his time spent in isolation for infractions.

The movie is very good. Very strong. Interestingly, at least for me it does not end the way I anticipated as I watched it. This movie does not have a cookie cutter ending.

The Great Escape is a Great Movie

O Pioneers by Willa Cather

Written in 1913 and telling the story of a fictional family of Swedish immigrants on the plains of Nebraska at the turn of the century O Pioneers is one of Cather's most popular works.

I am currently reading several books and certainly did not need to add this one to the list. I read it on my Iphone, with the trouble I have with my arms that can be the easiest way to read, but it was also an easy story. For me the attraction of Cather's writing is it's simplicity. It has a strong attachment to the land it describes. It is strong writing.

In this story Alexandra Bergson is the daughter of dying John Bergson. A Swedish immigrant who owns 640 acres on the prairie, Bergson had immigrated from Sweden and struggled on the prairie for the second half of his life. As he dies he tells his oldest child, his daughter Alexandra not to give up on the land and then advises her younger brothers Oscar and Lou to listen to her as he makes decisions about the farm and cares for her mother.

Alexandra is the main character and over the next 20 years she develops the farm, she buys more land and farms when her immigrant neighbors give up on the prairie, and becomes wealthy and a leader in the community.

Her older brothers over time become jealous of her. Her younger brother Emil gains the benefit of her wealth and goes to college.

Alexandra is lonely and is such a straight ahead kind of woman that she often does not feel or notice others feelings and frailties.

The main story turns on the relationship between Alexandra and her neighbor Maria and her childhood friend Carl Linstrom. Maria and Alexandra's brother Emil have a complicated relationship that becomes more so as the story goes on.

Cather's efforts at romanticism are clunky and flat at times but it is balanced by how well she affect the time and place of living on the prairie. The simpler life of church fairs, harvest time, the change of seasons and the gentle good will of folks fighting the eke out a living together.

It is easy to see why Cather has become a landmark novelist. She writes very well and this is a story to be read and savored.

Older Than My Own Man Now by Loudon Wainright III

Loudon Wainright III has been making records for forty years and as he himself has said in the past his career has had some ups and downs. A wry humorist Wainright has had a small devoted following for years but has always been on the fringes of success. I, myself, remember when I was a very young boy in the early seventies hearing the song Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road. This was, though a bit of a novelty song, the highlight of his commercial success.

With his son Rufus Wainright making his own career these days it was certainly easy to forget Loudon Wainright here in 2012. However in a surprise as large as you will find in music this year he has recorded a new album. An album that reflects on his life, his family and relationships and of course growing old.

A few of the songs still go down the pathy of silly that is further than I enjoy, songs such as I Remember Sex. This is balanced however by some songs that are some of the most affecting, honest, and meaningful songs that you will ever hear.

Yes this album is nothing short of a revalation. This is a very, very strong album with a few songs that are incredibly moving.

The title song Older Than My Old Man Now begins with a spoken word speech about his father, long dead. His words that " my father who died when I was seventeen continues to be my principal ghost " struck me in the heart. My own father died when I was in my late teens. At an age similar to the age at which he lost his Dad, that being old to a teenager but not old to a man who is in middle age.

Wainright sings on how he feels being older than his Dad was when he died, having won the race to live that long he is not sure what comes next.

In C has Wainright at the piano singing about his life, growing up in his family, then having one of his own. Talking about families breaking apart and how fast a mans life goes by Wainright can pull on your heart strings. Ending with an observation that he has noticed that his children too, also sing in C he comes full circle. As most of us do.

Somebody Else sings what we all feel as we get older, the sadness of seeing more and more people you know die before you.

The bookend to the title cut is The Days That We Die. Joined by his son on this song there is another spoken word intro followed by another rumination on death. The final verse has Rufus stating that neither he nor his Dad will change, neither will ever win. Fathers and Sons have to come to a peace especially when as Loudon sings The Days That We Die are not far away.


This is a very good album with a couple of songs that you will never forget.

Will You Please Be Quiet Please by Raymond Carver

As I continue my journey through 20th century American fiction I have landed on the works of Raymond Carver. Carver noted primarily as a writer of short stories published several books of stories.

Will You Please Be Quiet Please is one of the most successful and well thought of of his collections. When I first started reading stories I was a little surprised by them. The writing is surely grainier, grittier, than much of what I have read from other noted authors of the period.

Illusions to sex are often and obvious and indeed a big part of the storyline in several of Carver's stories. His characters are not stock brokers and insurance salesman figuring out an existential crisis, they are more blue collar with rougher word and desires. In a sense he is the doing the same thing as John Cheever just in a much more overt, grimier way. The effect for me was jarring.

As I continued reading the stories a few did stand out. The first story that I thought was strong was Nobody Said Anything. Told by a young boy who skips school, decides to go fishing, gets a ride from a pretty girl in a sporty car, and eventually as he is fishing joins up with another boy to catch a large fish. The debate then turns to who gets the trophy fish. When he returns he returns to much the same scene he has seen that morning. His Mom and Dad fighting. We do not really know what they were fighting about but it is clear it is a big part of the everyday life of these characters. The story itself is mostly a day in the life of a boy and it works.

Sixty Acres is a story about a cash poor family that has good hunting land attached to the homestead. The owner hears that people are hunting his property. He goes down in the evening and catches two young men doing just that, he scares them and sends them on their way. As he gets home he ponders with his wife the possibilities of leasing some of the hunting land for the princely sum of one thousand dollars a year. As the story ends he is balancing potential profit against the assumed wishes of the family forebears who left the property to him.

Ducks is a great story that centers on a mill worker who has dinner with his wife and leaves to go the night shift. He returns in just a couple of hours as the mill has closed for the night due to a foreman falling dead of a heart attack. The man is naturally upset by this, the seeming randomeness of life and death. He and his wife share the evening, but in the end he lies in bed and cannot sleep, he looks out the window and struggles with his thoughts. Something and someplace we have all been.

How about this is another strong story. A couple leaves the city to go live in a remote camp in the Northwest. They have romantic visions of living off the grid, fending for themselves and getting away from the dirtiness of the city. When they arrive however the house is in bad shape, it is very remote, electricity and running water non exixtent, and the foolishness of their vision becomes apparent. The woman is concerned but tells the man they will just have to love each other and make due. The man is frustrated with himself and his disappointment cannot be papered over no matter how hard he tries. An excellent look at how we often lift what we do not know to expectations that reality cannot match.

The title and last story in the collection is another take on how when we find out what we claim to want to know we often regret it. A young couple, both educators have an apparently idylic life. They have two children, they teach, have a strong group of friends and life should be good. One evening conversation turns to a dinner party a few years earlier where in the haze of too much drinking the husband has wondered what transpired between his wife and another man at the party. Poked and prodded to tell him what happened, that " he will not be upset" the wife tells the truth of her mistake. As should be expected the husband wanted the truth but was not prepared for it. He leaves angrily, goes on a bender, goes to a part of town he is not familiar with and sits in for a few hands of high stakes poker. He gets mugged and the night has gone from bad to worse. Eventually he finds his way home, his wife is tearful, he however will not look at her much less speak to her. He goes to bed and eventually she comes in and wins him over, perhaps by the same methods she betrayed him. We rarely want the truth, we just want the truth to be what we want.

Wishes and Stars by Harper Simon

As we watched the first episode of HBO's Girls when the credits rolled this song was playing. It was one of those situations that those of us who love and follow music find ourselves in often. I asked my wife what that song was. Neither of us knew. I asked her if it was Paul Simon. It was not a song I knew but it sure sounded like him.

Being the technological wizard that I am I pulled out my cell phone, brought up Shazam and, was advised that this was not Paul but Harper Simon.

I remember when Julian Lennon released Valotte and in our twenties we were all shocked at how much he sounded like John. I guess we should not be. The apple in these cases does not fall from the tree. Athletes beget athletes, singers beget singers, and teachers beget teachers.

We should not be surprised.

What is remarkable is how rarely these songs of legends in music have careers that last a long time. Harper Simon has been making music for a long time. He is not a kid. His voice is strong, his lyrics work, and yet I had never heard his music before this appearance over the credits of this show.

I consider myself open to new music, I actively search it out. Truly how some folks become stars and talent such as this stays under the radar shows just how much luck is involved with success in the music business.

For those who want to hear something new that sounds like something you enjoyed before, take a listen to Harper Simon. He is very talented.

Shaft

This movie starring Richard Roundree as a black private detective named John Shaft is considered the forebear to the blaxploitation films that became prevalent in the seventies.

In the movie Roundtree plays the aforementioned Shaft as a cool beyond cool detective in Harlem. With a working relationship with a homicide detective named Vic Shaft is connected enough in the white police force to get a tip when he needs it. As the movie develops we see Shaft get put in the middle of a black gangster whose daughter has been kidnapped by some Italian mobsters who are concerned that the girl's father, Bumpy played by Moses Gunn, is encroaching on their territories.

The movie is much better than I expected. Shaft is cool, he is dated but that is ok. He is a womanizer and the love scenes were, one assumes for 1971 racy, and in the case of his being joined in the shower by a white woman he picked up in a bar, controversial. The story moves along quickly and is with that pace easy to follow.

The soundtrack has become as famous as the movie itself. Isaac Hayes won an Oscar for Theme from Shaft. Even today it is a song that reverberates cool.

Dated. Yes. This movie is clearly dated. What it wrought in terms of even more over the top black themed movies was not a good thing. As the original or most influential of it's type though this is a very strong movie. Roundtree actually did not get enough credit for how strong his performance was.

Cum on Feel The Noise by Quiet Riot

For those of us from a certain age group, namely that came of age somewhere in the first half of the eighties there was a specific time when the hair metal bands came to the front. What ended with the pretty boys of Warrant, Poison and all the rest in the early nineties started with a band of most definetly not pretty boys called Quiet Riot.

To be clear they were not the first, or the best, but they were the first ones to break through in a large way on MTV. As all of us know in the first half of the eighties MTV gained increasing influence on the music business. This was of course when they played videos.

Cum on Feel The Noise was the song that launched acceptance of this music on MTV. It was a killer song. It still is. Driving the other day, with the radio on Classic Rewind on XM, when this song came on, like a magnet I had to turn it up. And up. And up. This song ages very well.

Quiet Riot came through Bangor sometime in the mid eighties. I think. I am pretty sure that is where I saw them. I know that Loverboy and Huey Lewis came through too. Kevin Dubrow and the boys of the Riot knew they had a good thing going. The chorus to Cum on Feel The Noise had just enough ambiguity in the refrain " Girls Rock Your Boys" to allow us testosterone filled boys to change a word or too as we shouted the lyrics back to them.

Next would come the title cut from the album called Metal Health which with it's Bang Your Head refrain was surely on target as well.

But Cum on Feel the Noise was for many of us the first exposure to the future wave of hair band pop. They were not pretty, they did not last long. They could however rock and for that short period of time they were on top of the world.

That's Why God Made The Radio by The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary this summer. The tour will be making a stop on the shores of the Penobscot at The Waterfront Concert Series. I have seen the Boys back in the eighties a couple of times, they were actually my first concert, and with the prices a bit pricey we will not be attending.

Still The Beach Boys are an institution and the huge amount of publicity they are receiving right now is well deserved. Even as a person in his mid forties I have no recollection of The Beach Boys ever be anything more than a nostalgia act. Any band that included John Stamos on drums in any incarnation has to really stretch to call themselves cool.

In the 1960's however the Boys were more, they passed many of the tests to qualify as a true rock and roll band. The album Pet Sounds was the precursor to the Beatles Sgt. Pepper and the Beachers were considered as a progressive band. Brian Wilson created the album Smile as a response to Sgt. Pepper but his band rebelled, calling it too far out there. Finally released forty years later it does not seem that revolutionary to me, but in the moment it was.

In short The Beach Boys are a huge part of rock and roll history. The new single is nothing new. It is however a very good song, the harmonies and high notes are perfect. We can wonder what studio magic has been done to make this happen, these men are all pushing seventy after all. I prefer not to know or to think about it. What I do know is this song fits with their catalogue in a very nice way. Brian Wilson, ragged from years of drug abuse and mental issues, still is worth hearing. Listen to this song and you can imagine some Sixties Beach Movie Actors trying to sell you a Time Life Collection of Feel Good Songs from the Beach Music Era. The fact that a new song can make you feel that shows that Boys have not strayed too far from home.

This is a good thing.

Girls

HBO has also launched another sitcom recently called Girls. Created and written by the young actress Lena Dunham the show introduces us to four young twenty something women living in New York City.

The show sometimes seems preposterous. These young women spend and inordinate amount of time talking about sex and drugs. I do not know if this should be taken as realistic or not. The main character is Hannah Horvath played by Dunham herself. An aspiring writer she, in the first episode, is told by her parents that they are going to stop financially supporting her. She interviews for a job and is doing well, but gets too chatty, says something inappropriate and the interview is blown.

She has a relationship with a young man that amounts to just sex. We also have Shoshanna a Jewish girl who is horrified that she has to admit that she is a virgin, Jessa her Russian cousin who finds she is pregnant and has to deal with that, and Marnie played by Brian Williams daughter Allison.

The characters are pretty clearly drawn. Shoshanna is sweet and timid, Jessa is Cosmopolitan, and Marnie may be the most interesting character on the show. She mothers Hanna and has a boyfriend who worships the ground she walks on. She on the other hand is tired or being put a pedestal and finds herself thinking of him in a non sexual way.

Hannah is the main character but one could not call her deep. She is actually pretty unlikable.

This show like VEEP seems to in an attempt to be modern and gain attention has lots of vulgarity. Sex scenes abound. It at least makes a little more sense in this show.

I am not of the target audience for this show. It might be that if too many middle aged men liked it that it was doing something wrong. We are watching it and will continue to but if this is any kind of a reflection on what young twenty something girls are doing I am afraid watching it is like slowing down for a car wreck. We want to see it but we feel bad after we do.

Veep

Julia Louis Dreyfuss is one of the funniest actresses around. We all remember her as Elaine on Seinfeld. She was a standout in that role and we all can name certain scenes from the show that we remember with a smile.

She also earned acclaim in The New Adventures of Old Christine a CBS sitcom that had limited viewership but several accolades.

For the month before the premier of the HBO Series VEEP we saw previews and certainly with the talent of Dreyfuss one had high hopes.

And in the series Dreyfuss is funny. She still has the ability for physical comedy that few can match. An expression, a gesture, these are things she does as well as anyone.

The show though needs a great deal of work. Designed as a vehicle for Dreyfuss to play a Vice President, and perhaps as an inside joke on how little power the Vice President has the show could be much better than it is. Firstly it is vulgar in a way that is not needed. It should be no surprise to think that people curse in the halls of government. Still this show seems to take it too far to a point where it seems extreme. The characters are crass and not overly likable. The dialogue on the show is witty, and rapid fire but thus far we have no real connection to the characters.

Perhaps we are not supposed to. Perhaps the show is designed to show the superficiality of the figures in our government. In that it might succeed. It is hard however to see this as a show that HBO will be picking up after this season.

Game of Thrones Season Two

We currently have the last two episodes of Game of Thrones on our Tivo. This is not a good sign for the show. I must admit that I have found Season Two thus far to be a bit of a slog. The problem for me is that it is just about impossible to follow.

I like to think of myself as pretty intelligent, able to follow detailed plots and nuances and such. This show now as it has moved to it's seven kings for one throne phase needs to do something to make it more understandable. With brothers of kings, and bastards of kings, fathers, brothers, sisters and wives it is not easy to follow.

At this point I probably if I sat down with a piece of paper could tell you who the seven or more parties are vying for the crown. During the show however I often cannot tell who is who amongst the lesser combatants, it is just too much.

We will watch the episodes we have on tape and hopefully things will become more clear. I very much enjoyed the show last season and know how good this can be. Killing Lord Stark at the end of Season One was risky, it is not easy to give definition to a show when the main character that viewers identify with is suddenly gone.

Another controversy is the sex which is everywhere and often times gratuitous. Saturday Night Live had an excellent parody of this in a skit which told that the producers used a thirteen year old adviser to tell them when to insert sex scenes. At this point it is probably over the top, and certainly does little to advance the plot in most cases.

The show is strong, beautifully shot, and has some great story lines. Dragons are very exciting. It does however have challenges that are unique which will have to be solved if it is going to retain viewers beyond it's extreme fan-boy base.

The Unlikable Christina Aguilera

Watching the voice on Monday evening one thing became apparent. Christina Aguilera is fast becoming perhaps the most unlikable person on television. Her obvious contempt for anybody who has the camera on them while she sits on unloved momentarily is becoming more and more apparent.

Monday night watching the show with my wife as Juliet sang the James Brown song It's a man's world when it came time for the judges to make their comments I pause the television and said to my wife watch Christina make this about her.

Sure enough she did. We were treated to her reminisces about when she performed a song on the Grammys and how wonderful it made her,she means Juliet,feel to sing that song.

I am sure ratings wise Christina is to The Voice as Simon Cowell was too American Idol. You either love them or or you don't. For me however I've had plenty of friends who made every single thing about them, they are not really very good friends and I certainly don't want to watch them on TV.