Barackumentary

HBO will be airing a documentary series about President-Elect Barack Obama in 2009. This documentary series will be directed by Edward Norton.

Catching up on the debates

I read an article in the NY Times this morning, which was comparing the Obama campaign to the (Bill) Clinton campaign. There was criticism on the way Obama held back in the town hall forum, and didn't reach out to the people like Clinton did in the 1992 debates. As I was only 7 or so at the time of the Clinton vs. Bush vs. Perot debates, I had to look into Clinton's ability to give a "psychic hug" to a struggling American people:



While I was youtubing this, of course, I stumbled across these debate gems:

Yer Darn Tootin' That's Putin

In 9th grade, my history teacher engaged our class in a Capitalism vs. Communism debate where he was pro-Communism and the class was pro-Capitalism. In retrospect, this was an incredibly stupid exercise, although I remember making the argument that Communism doesn't allow for Michael Jordans or Dominic Wilkenses or Larry Birds or Spud Webbs (I was really into basketball at the time). On the contrary, Communism allows for Vladimir Putin, who is apparently a Judo master with a black belt and is beginning to market that fact.

Who do you want to go toe-to-toe with Putin on your behalf, McCain or Obama?

Save The Wolf

If there was a choice on this year's ballot that read simply "Anybody BUT Palin" it would win this election.

Political Dream 01

presidential debate at school
in one of those large auditorium classrooms
old-style, each candidate took the stage separately
McCain was first
before it all begain, however, i gave personally
gave Obama a copy of "Borderline Suicide"
He graciously accepted it
McCain takes the stage and for some reason i am
a member of his cadre, thus he offers me
one of the Budweisers in the minifridge
at the foot of the stage
he is already drinknig one
they are pounders
he begins his speech, which is interactive with the audience
he begins talking about the cost of war, talking about
casualties as if they were statistics
and i am somehow behind him on the stage, facing stage right
i say "they aren't for the parents of those people who die"
which doe not go over well with McCain or the audience
so i fall to the floor on my stomach and lie there
for the remainder of McCain's turn.
Once he is done, the lights come back on and intermission
starts.
I grab a Budweiser.
Then Obama makes his appearance, despite intermission not being over
thus he begins talking to a half-empty auditorium
because people are up and about
because it's intermission
the first thing he does is start reciting the lyrics
to the MW song "Obsessed With Success"
I recognize what he's doing and make eye-contact
he smiles
People trickle back in and his speech goes over well.
I cannot get over the fact that he a.) he listened to my cd
and b.) he liked my song that much.
But I also start feeling completely cheated, like it's
actually completely horrible and ironic that Obama,
as obsessed with success as anyone I know,
is reciting a song i intended as satirical.
i catch up with Obama off-stage and he is the same,
gracious, smiling, nodding, betraying ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
no one tries to remove me, i just slowly realize
that these people, Obama and his cohorts,
are vacuous.

Long Way Wrong

Long Way Wrong
For George Oppen

1

Wrong way all along.

Who could say it?

"Confess."

What is expected tends to forget
Its own expectedness

Thus it disappoints

And we forget what
The fuss about confessing
Ever meant.

2

Suggestions, limit one per complaint

"Confess now, before my temper is
Gone for good."

So.

If something lost, to be found,
Must seek presence
And foundedness
We lost already the way we sought
And backwards we must go forever.

3

"Jesus wept."

Tissue paper for under a dollar.

Have you
Your face
On currency found?

One must be mad to think such things.

"Or brilliant."

But often I hope
That as in all difficult moments,
We tread the turbulent currents of numbers
In solitude

With vigorous ease

And weep.

4

"Perfect" is more than a word.

It's a curse

Like "Man" or "Woman" or "In" and "Out"

And without a single doubt in mind
I shake.

"Too late."

For whom?

5

Difficulty continues
To be our national shadow

To beat or be beaten

Holding sway

"Pride is a sin best punished by death."

So it is.

6

Napalm precipitates
Without our knowing
Without our understanding
That "Napalm" is more than a word in a poem

It is not understanding.

"Conflict, you mean?"

Perhaps that's what I mean.

But still I hope that what we mean
Will one day be clean

Enough to hold sway

Instead of that casual grin.

The Shiny Teeth Win The Race

Hollywood = Entertainment

I have always rejected the most obvious and apparent realities on the grounds of them being obvious and apparent. Entertainment designed to entertain me immediately inclines me to not be entertained. I've always, for some unholy reason, preferred metaphysical rumination to unmitigated entertainment. This does not mean I don't like to enjoy myself; rather, I am extremely skeptical of institutionalization and industry, i.e. of predefined modes of communication, or more accurately, entertainment, which is really just the facilitation of self-communication with your desires.

Professional Sports = Politics

In high school I had a reputation as a fierce debater as well as a dedicated athlete. Competitiveness was (and still is) in my blood. This is why in the year 2000, as many of us were, I was completely crestfallen when Bush won. I wanted my side, the Democrats, to win. But we didn't. C'est la vie.
But is it really? I only see the simplicity of the race in retrospect; at the time, I didn't just want us to win, I thought we HAD to win, that we were right and they were wrong. The realization I had that the righteousness I felt was so completely subjective caused my interest in party politics to completely disintegrate. Interestingly enough, around the same time, my once-intense interest in pro sports (NHL included) began deteriorating.

So what is the relationship between professional sports, politics, Hollywood, and entertainment?

Dolla dolla bills, y'all. Each industry proudly functions competely (yes, competely) detached from the harsh realities of sustenance living and resource scarcity that the majority of the world faces. These enormous industries seek only to communicate with our desires. In doing so, they have contributed to an atrociously gross inflation of the global economy while simultaneously inundating the world with unbelievably influential aesthetic modes of desire-fulfillment and identification. But this is the beauty of such a system; they are not accountable! The humans who "run" the industries are midwives at best. The consumer/voter/movie-goer is the true architect. We certainly decide what they feed us, Coke or Pepsi, but what if we don't want either? The simple libertarian answer is, "don't like it, don't buy it." But other people are, and it's an issue of principle, not of choice (which is informed, ideally, by principle). The imperative to consume, to slake, to satisfy, to choose, is what drives today's economy. This makes everyone from an ontological standpoint primarily a consumer. Looking at this fact from an ethical standpoint, there are two reactions one can have: resignation and outrage. The former entails drinking Coke while spouting some anti-corporate rhetoric while outrage is punching (or wanting to punch) anyone you see holding a Coke bottle. This creates a continuum of ethical disposition. Very often I tell myself that I should be outrage and only outrage, but the human in me is always asking, "what's the point?"

Desire Can Be Disgusting

I have very little faith in the integrity of the majority of my desires, thus I feel sick that essentially the same structure of desire-communication seems to inhere in all Western industries and institutions. It's contingent, as opposed to necessary (read: Communism), collectivist thinking. What "sells" is king. It is self-imposed oppression. It is your civic duty, your Existential responsibility even, to identify as a chooser, thus a consumer. The complete appropriation of all vital resources on this earth make rejecting this responsibility basically an impossibility, so DRINK UP!

Holy Alaska!

nonsense made sense

excerpt from a rough draft of a letter to a friend, 7/29/08
(unsent but suddenly afforded new relevance):

... i thought i'd vote obama,
because he's skinny and left handed,
but it doesn't mean that much to me
and given leave i'd
rather vote for pretty girls in glasses.

Our Commander-In-Chief

Ever since he awkwardly presented the national budget (or "e-budget" as he called it in jest) using a laptop a year ago, I have found there is a very endearing side to President Bush.

My first reaction to the clip above was utter disgust and embarrasment: "This is our president?". Not a novel reaction. But upon further viewings, I realized: "This was our president!"

I suppose I'll never believe that President Bush was a decent or even competent president, but I'll be damned if he can't make me smile.

A Multilingual Nation

Now that we're on the topic of language, here's an article to read about multilingualism, or the lack thereof, in America.


Now for a joke:


What do you call someone who speaks four languages?
Multilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
Trilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
Bilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks one language?
American.

What the end could look like -

Permanent Truth is Passe

I rarely if ever read The Wall Street Journal but I thought that today's Why Jesse Jackson Hates Obama was an interesting editorial.

In unrelated news, I enjoy this painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Panama Girls, 1910

Beginning of the end...

The democratic race has been painful to watch, and after today, the votes will be counted and, for what it's worth, it'll be basically over for the voters. Sadly, I've contracted the voter fatigue that critics think may do in the democrats' chance of winning this election. Because this race has been so tight for so long (which isn't a bad thing per se - it shows that our democracy is working), the candidates have resorted to pandering to blue collar workers and the middle class (i.e., the type of family many of us reading this blog are from). In some ways, it's nice to see the candidates showing that they can relate to the common people. But, it'd be more sincere if the candidates told it like it is: "Hey, show me what you do around here. Tell me what concerns you in this town. What do your kids do for fun? How are the schools?" Obviously, the candidates are now VERY far removed from the everyday lifestyle of a blue collar worker, even if that's where they came from originally.

Here's an article from the Washington Post talking about the candidates' recent blue-collar escapades.

I can't remember if it was Colbert or Stewart who talked about Hilary's fake Southern accent now that she's campaigning in North Carolina. I tried finding it on YouTube, but I haven't located it yet. Check it out if you can; it's pretty funny.