The Wonderful D. O. I.

It was the summer of 1971. I looked dubiously at one line of the contents of the envelope. No, it wasn't my draft lottery number: This was something of more immediate concern. H. M. King High had sent out fall class assignments, assigning me to Mr. Maddox's American History class. Students -- at least some of us -- derided Mr. Maddox for an approach to pedagogy that was both orthodox and unorthodox, but always in the service of rote learning. I showed the paper to my mother, whose brow furrowed.

Nonetheless, worse things had happened. It was still 1971, I was still 16, I was still exploring rock-and-roll, I was still college-bound, and there were still girls everywhere I looked. Life was good, all things considered. If Mr Maddox wanted to start off the school year by teaching us to memorize the Declaration of Independence by learning to sing it, well, it was only an hour out of a bustling day.

"The Wonderful D. O. I.," he called it, and he performed it with gusto: "WHEN in the course (WHEN in the course) OF human events (OF human events) IT becomes necessary (IT becomes necessary)..." I'll never forget it. How could I?

Having taught us The Wonderful D. O. I., Mr. Maddox set us to work writing an outline of the textbook, which we turned in periodically for a grade. This was the plan for the rest of the year. I don't recall anything about the book itself, but it couldn't have been that bad: Nothing in it made me want to ask my parents, "Is this true?", as so much of junior high history had.

One day about six weeks into class, I received a summons to the office of the school counselor, an ascetic, resentful woman with the unlikely name of Helen Troy. Miss Troy glared balefully (a formidable expression reserved for all students regardless of race, class, color, or creed. Miss Troy was a firm believer in equal opportunity) while informing me that I had been transferred to another teacher's class. My mother, it seemed, had been working assiduously to that end for some time.

I returned to class and gathered my books. Mr. Maddox, with a somewhat defeated look, shook my hand and said that he thought that the other class would be better for me. I nodded uncertainly, and left.

My new American History teacher, Mrs. Cooper, had a reputation for pushing her students to think critically within the limits of the unsettled combination of the 11th-grade intellect and half her class in miniskirts. Her reputation was merited, and in fact she did her job a little too well: At the end of the school year, the school board declined to renew her contract (overruling the school principal). While I was learning The Wonderful D. O.  I., she had taught via a simulation that the post-Civil War South might not have been the most hospitable place for black Americans.

Mrs. Cooper, who had roots in Kingsville, was not going anywhere. Plus, she liked her job and wasn't at all understanding about the necessity to fire anyone who raised uncomfortable truths. (Years later my father disclosed that he had heard a local doctor ask "Why did she have to bring up the niggers?") So, she sued and eventually prevailed.Ten years later, she returned to her old job. (You can read a summary of the suit here, under "Academic Freedom," and the legal details here.)

The Coopers were family friends, and I remember her husband angrily pointing out that a well-known reactionary teacher had worn to school -- of all things -- a "Belles for Bush" headband in support of H. W.'s failed 1970 senatorial campaign. This woman was genuinely hateful: I once witnessed her corner a black student and demand to know why she shouldn't call him "boy."

I myself had sat through a long-winded exhortation from a speech teacher about the endless virtues of a book called A Texan Looks at Lyndon, a right-wing screed by one J. Evetts Haley. (John Birch was Adlai Stevenson in comparison to J. Evetts Haley.) Anyway, these teachers "taught" on in no danger of losing their positions.

Next to them, Mr. Maddox wasn't so bad. His students were, at least, memorizing the most resounding sentence in American political prose:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

He didn't qualify it, nor did he seek to minimize it. No, Mr. Maddox unabashedly told his students -- most of whom were Hispanic unaccustomed to hearing Anglo adults call them equal -- that this sentence was "wonderful," when there were no doubt many residents of Kingsville who secretly found it subversive. You couldn't fire anyone for teaching The Wonderful D. O. I., though.

Mr. Maddox must have known that most of his students were not college bound and that anything they took away from his class would be a plus. He didn't have the skills to teach as Mrs. Cooper had, but he stayed within his game and didn't stack the deck. I carried the parting look he gave me in the recesses of my mind until recently, when I realized I had sold him short. Hey, if someone is going to make a fetish of something, better "all men are created equal" than the Second Amendment.



(Music begins at around 3:30.)

Sunday Funnies & Arts

As always, click to enlarge...

Understanding the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Health Care System. For more than 20 years, the Dartmouth Atlas Project has documented glaring variations in how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States. The project uses Medicare data to provide information and analysis about national, regional, and local markets, as well as hospitals and their affiliated physicians. This research has helped policymakers, the media, health care analysts and others improve their understanding of our health care system and forms the foundation for many of the ongoing efforts to improve health and health systems across America. And it's fun: You can spend hours playing with it...


Medical factoid: Regions of the country with the highest overall medical expenses have poorer outcomes than regions with the lowest expenses...

Strange days indeed with Mrs Ingeborg Koeber, Regnar Dahl, Christian Apnes, and Mrs Stolt-Nielson...

PHOTO GALLERY

South Claiborne Avenue...

Art of the Poster: Dead of Night...

Emmylou and Myra Taylor...

Softened at the edges. Sometimes, death arrives on folded feathers...

Vista with buzzards...

Girl with a hoop...

FROM THE JUKEBOX

End of an era: The Radiators call it quits...

OK, The Allman Brothers Band. Don't miss this 1970 set...

Darkness, Darkness

The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story is, in a word, magnificent. In 1976, embroiled in a lawsuit and disillusioned by the hoopla that had accompanied his masterworkBorn to Run, Bruce Springsteen began to write and record an expansive group of songs that would eventually become distilled into his finest album, released in 1978. The Promise tells that story via three CDs and three DVDs -- a remastered version of Darkness on the Edge of Town, 21 additional songs recorded during the session, a documentary about the making ofDarkness, a recent performance of the entire album, a compilation of recording sessions and concert clips, and a complete concert from the triumphant 1978 tour.

I saw Springsteen twice in 1978 (once the day before the performance included in The Promise). They were great shows delivered by an artist and band that seemed to treat every note as a make or break moment. The San Antonio show on July 14 remains not only the best show I've ever seen, it's easily the best show I've ever seen.

The Promise is not only the release of the year, it's the release of most years: An epic account of a great artist at the pinnacle of his game...

A conservative friend from Texas writes:

I just drafted a letter to Senators Cornyn and Hutchison and representitive Gohmert asking them to reconsider the TSAs new policy giving us a choice of the x-ray that reveals all or the pat down that touches all. I might feel differently if the policies in place had caught a single terrorist or seemed to make much sense...

I agree with him, but have no inclination to join him in writing my senators. If the TSA lifted the policy and something happened for whatever reason, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Fox News, the teabaggers, and every right-wing politician on the face of the earth would fall all over themselves in the rush to be the first to blame President Obama...

Be sure to check out the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care:

For more than 20 years, the Dartmouth Atlas Project has documented glaring variations in how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States. The project uses Medicare data to provide information and analysis about national, regional, and local markets, as well as hospitals and their affiliated physicians. This research has helped policymakers, the media, health care analysts and others improve their understanding of our health care system and forms the foundation for many of the ongoing efforts to improve health and health systems across America...

How about those Seahawks, anyway?

Constitution "tragic," say right wing. When a court found a Guantanamo prisoner not guilty on all but one count, Republicans were quick to denounce President Obama's decision to try suspected terrorists in civilian court. Apparently, they do not trust the system of justice prescribed by the Constitution they pretend to revere. I'm waiting for the left to defend the president. Judgement Day will come first...

Bruce Springsteen in San Antonio

On July 14, 1978 at Municipal Auditorium, Bruce Springsteen played his only San Antonio show. The day before tickets went on sale, a friend and I went downtown to Joske's department store, which handled the sales. He sweet-talked a clerk into selling us fifth row seats. Tickets, as I recall, were $7.75 apiece.

The Boss opened with "Badlands" and shortly thereafter plunged into the crowd during "Spirit in the Night." Clarence "Big Man" Clemons followed him and wound up chatting casually with my roommate. When we requested "Fever," he said in mock dismay that he thought San Antonio would be the one town that didn't ask for it. Then he played "Fever." He gave us a choice between "Candy's Room" and "For You," played the former, and then said "This one's for the rest of you guys" before launching into the latter.

My sweet-talking friend recently forwarded some pictures of the that show, taken by the date of a buddy of his. Here they are:

Set List:
01 Badlands
02 Night
03 Spirit in the night
04 Darkness on the edge of town
05 Candy's room
06 For You
07 The promised land
08 Prove it all night [With long guitar intro]
09 Racing in the street
10 Thunder road
11 Jungleland

12 Paradise by the C
13 Fire
14 Adam raised a Cain
15 Mona
16 She's the one
17 Growin' up
18 Backstreets
19 The fever
20 Rosalita (Come out tonight)

21 The promise
22 Born to run
23 Because the night
24 Quarter to three

(Thanks to Killing Floor.)

Not a bad way to open:

All Foreign Wars, I Do Proclaim, Live on Blood and a Mother's Pain

In memory of James Riekena. James' sister was a welcome presence in our house for three years. She is currently a member of the United States Marine Corps...

The Best Lack All Conviction

It's been long apparent that John McCain has sacrificed every conviction he ever had on the altar of preserving his political skin. If that weren't already evident, his craven and pandering call for President Obama to militarize our southern border confirms the worst: The man who stood up to the brutal tortures of his North Vietnamese captors now runs like a rabbit from the teabaggers and the right-wing crank radio talk show host challenging him for the Senate seat McCain has held for 24 years. Said McCain at a Phoenix news conference:

If the president doesn’t like what the Arizona Legislature and governor may be doing, then I call on the president to immediately call for the dispatch of 3,000 National Guard troops to our border and mandate that 3,000 additional Border Patrol [officers] be sent to our border as well. And that way, then the state of Arizona will not have to enact legislation which they have to do because of the federal government’s failure to carry out its responsibilities, which is to secure the borders.

McCain, who at one time favored comprehensive immigration reform that included amnesty for illegal immigrants, did not note that National Troops are deployed at the discretion of state's governor; that Border Patrol arrests in the Tuscon and Yuma sectors exceed arrests in Texas, New Mexico, and California combined; that from 2002-2006 Border Patrol agents apprehended 1.8 million migrants crossing into Arizona; or that heightened security in California and Texas (Operations Gatekeeper and Hold the Line) diverted the immigrant traffic into Arizona.

Big John speaks loudly but wields a mighty small stick. For one thing, it's hard to see what he expects to accomplish by adding 6000 National Guardsmen and BP agents to the 3000 already in Arizona. The Arizona-Mexico border is 351 miles long. Even filling his request (which would require diverting agents from other border areas, leaving them more vulnerable to crossing) would place one soldier or agent every 205 feet, or two-thirds the length of a football field. It won't take LaDanian Tomlinson to run through that hole.

Not only that, experts argue that an immigration policy based only on security is counterproductive. Directed at the most heavily trafficked points of crossing, security crackdowns succeed in diverting immigrants to remote and dangerous areas. Not only does this result in more immigrant deaths (not that the people who enacted this law care about that), it encourages illegal immigrants to stay put once they are here and to bring their families over.

No matter what the teabaggers and vigilantes think, the United States is not about to round up 12,000,000 people and deport them. The affront to civil liberties and the cost in dollars is too immense to contemplate. Even if Big John and colleagues wanted to spend the money, their own fiscal policy has rendered that impossible.

The fundamental issue is one that any free marketeer can understand: The United States per capita income is $46,400; in Mexico, it's $13,500. Unless and until there's a more equal balance, people from the south will come to El Norte even for low wage jobs that Americans traditionally haven't wanted to do at any pay. Some of them will smuggle drugs along the way, and why not? The supply is there and the demand is here, it pays, and it's not like they're welcomed into this country with open arms. Moreover, we can't expect much help from Mexico because it is a desperately poor country that depends on the money sent back by the migrants.

Some claim that the employment issue has become more complicated. Says one BP agent:

It’s a flat-out lie that illegals are doing the jobs Americans won’t do. American companies are hiring skilled workers at low wages compared to US wages. We’re now catching welders, auto mechanics, heavy equipment operators, even nuclear power-plant workers. The strawberry pickers are a thing of the past. These people don’t live in wigwams. They have stuff, and want more stuff.

Which makes them different from Americans how?

According to the same article, over 8,000 American companies of all sizes have undocumented workers on payrolls. But if this is the case, doesn't it make more sense to go after the employers and not the workers?

One thing I am not is an expert on immigration matters. But I don't see an answer here as long as the income disparity exists. We can initiate an amnesty program for workers already here, but that does nothing to remove the incentive for others to cross the border. And they'll come for the same reason immigrants have always come to America: For the money and the opportunity.

We could try to build a fence, I suppose, but at what cost? A 2006 non-partisan study estimated a cost of $49 billion for 700 miles of fence (the entire border is 1,952 miles long) that would last for 25 years before needing replacement. Another study found that "the $49 billion does not include the expense of acquiring private land along hundreds of miles of border or the cost of labor if the job is done by private contractors -- both of which could drive the price billions of dollars higher." And the price hasn't gotten cheaper since 2006. Plus, a fence is unlikely to work: When you're talking about a 4:1 income disparity, people will figure out ways to go around, over, or through a fence to get on the 4 side. Anyway, do we really want to fence ourselves in? It seems like an expensive idea driven by paranoia and frustration and doomed to failure. Then where will we be?

We are in grave danger of a policy that will be expensive, fruitless, frustrating, and as futile as the War on Drugs. It's time to face facts: If the United States wants to significantly reduce illegal immigration, then it must recognize a national interest in Mexico raising its standard of living. How we go about assisting in that without provoking a political upheaval at home is another story.

If you want to take the long view, we're harvesting the fruits of Manifest Destiny and imperialism. The Mexican War, which was essentially a land grab, established an artificial political border that never took into account the indigenous populations. A young officer named Ulysses S. Grant served in the Mexican War and later wrote that it was "one of the most unjust ever waged on a weaker company by a stronger." Maybe it's true: As ye sow, so shall ye reap...

Nicholas Lemann analyzes the new discipline of terrorism studies. According to Lemann's readings of these books, everything works and nothing works: The same tactic that works in one locale can fail so dismally in another as to be counterproductive...

Robert Creamer writes optimistically that the Arizona of 2010 is the Alabama of 1963, meaning that the obvious injustice of the law will cause decent people to speak out. I wish I shared his optimism. In 1963, white America outside of the south tended to view Civil Rights as a southern problem; that America was never enthusiastic about addressing race issues in its own back yard. Maybe people will see the Arizona law as an outrage; I hope so. But I fear that too many whites will regard it as a necessary step to stemming a brown horde that they see as overrunning the country. As long as it doesn't raise the price of lettuce...

Robert Kuttner thinks it's a good thing that Obama has rejected a bipartisan approach to health care reform. Along with Paul Krugman, there is no better writer about economic policy than Kuttner...

Freddy Fender sings Ry Cooder's "Across the Borderline" (music starts about 1:20 in and includes an effective montage):


Bruce Springsteen's tender "Across the Border" is one the Boss's best songs:

Loving It To Death

Unlike many teabaggers, I don't walk around with a copy of the Constitution in my hip pocket. Nor do I claim any particular Constitutional expertise. But, I know what my values are and I know what kind of country I want to live in.

I believe that the law of the land defines a nation in which all are created and treated equally regardless of color, gender, or sexuality; in which political equality is assumed; where health care is a right and not a privilege; and in which economic equality as a way of life is something to be reached for and legislated if needs be.

I believe that "We the people" is not an idle phrase, and that the point of providing for a common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty is to "form a more perfect union," which means that the states united enable a stronger, better way of life than they would as separate parts.

I believe that the Constitution allows "We the people" to form a national government that provides defense, promotes general welfare (which I interpret as intending everybody and not a fortunate few), and secures the blessings of liberty.

I believe that together our people -- no matter what different gods they worship (or not); what part of the country they live in; what color they are; whether they are rich, poor, or middle class; whether they are male or female, young or old -- are a "we," a one people who should look out for each other. I believe that the Constitution encourages this instead of making it more difficult.

I believe in a country that helps one provide for one's family, where you help out the other guy, and where you live and let live. I believe that this is not possible without a government to regulate the excesses of the free market and to guarantee Constitutional rights.

I believe that there is nothing radical or dangerous about my convictions. I don't believe that I have all the answers, and I mistrust anyone who thinks that he or she does.

I don't understand how anyone can love the Constitution and support laws that trample on one of its fundamental tenets: The presumption of innocence.

I don't understand how anyone can love the Constitution and support a practice that would violate the separation of powers and politicize the judicial branch.

I don't understand how anyone can revere the right to free speech and deride anyone who disagrees with their reading of the Constitution as an un-American socialist.

I don't understand how anyone can revere the Constitution while constantly seeking to amend it.

I don't understand how anyone who stands for individual rights can be part of a mob that disrupts public discourse.

I don't understand how anyone can say that they love the Constitution but care only about the Second and Tenth Amendments and their own personal freedom of speech.

I don't understand how anyone can love America and applaud the murder of 168 Americans.

I don't understand how anyone can fanatically oppose so-called Big Government and support the Patriot Act.

I don't understand how anyone can love America and fear it at the same time.

I don't understand how believing all of this means that I hate my country.

But what do I know?...

This guy did a pretty good job, even if he did use a teleprompter...

Fox News: Liar or whipping boy? The Young Turks report, you decide:


Start buying eggs. Now...

The Bruce Springsteen Navigator:

...he still comes across as a working-class guy from New Jersey, putting across a compassionate populism as he sings about jobs, families and everyday life...

The Rush Limbaugh Navigator:

More recently, he galvanized Republican opposition to Democratic plans for an economic stimulus, and said he hoped President Obama would fail...

Which one sounds like a better American to you?...

You Have The Right To Remain Stable: The new Arizona anti-immigrant law could cost billions to a state already struggling with large deficit. But, says Republican Governor Jan Brewer, that's okay because the bill ensures that "...the constitutional rights of all in Arizona remain solid, stable, and steadfast." As for the other 49 states, our constitutional rights are gaseous, teetering, and drunk as a skunk...

Alternative meanings for common words, as in

Pokemon (n) -- A Rastafarian proctologist...

This one goes out to the state of Arizona:

Monday, Monday

Is everyone still alive? We've had health care reform for a couple of weeks now, and still no nuclear holocaust. I spend most of my time crouched under the dining room table waiting for Armageddon. Beats me how those teabaggers have the guts to hop a bus and travel from one Conservative Woodstock to another. Did SP and Joe the P come on before or after Sly and the Family Stone?...

Watch this debate between former Bush speechwriter David Frum, who was fired from his gig at the American Enterprise Institute for having the temerity to write that health care reform has become a Republican debacle, and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Frum argues, correctly, that Democrats, should health care reform lead to an electoral defeat in November, will accept the tradeoff because they won a major legislative victory that will remain in place while any Republican majority will necessarily be temporary. Buchanan points out that health care reform has energized the Republican party via the teabaggers, energy that he believes is critical as long-term demographic trends favor Democrats. Frum is skeptical of the 'baggers staying power, pointing out that they lack leadership and discipline and that they make too many mistakes...

Note to PB: Political history actually began sometime before you got in the game...

Gonna take them down to the Cadillac Ranch...

The word from Olympus: It's gossip, all gossip...

Karin Dalton Beninato has it up to her French Quarter with Newsweek's snide attitude toward New Orleans and Treme. I've been waiting for the show for over a year. I hope it's great, but understand that expecting it to be as good as The Wire is unreasonable. But even if Joshua Alston didn't like it, writing something as loftily callous as this says more about him than the show:

This time, his [David Simon's] microcosm of choice is post-Katrina New Orleans, which has become the civics nerd's favorite fishbowl since all the water drained out of it. The themes are familiar: urban decay, the failure of elected officials to serve their constituencies, the complex truths behind societal ills, all of which incorporate some kind of African-American suffering.

It's as if the guy spent his entire sheltered existence within the confines of a Manhattan penthouse without having set eyes on a single African-American outside of an occasional TV news report, much less ever set foot in New Orleans (thanks, Editilla)...

One down, 161 to go. Always feels good to come back and beat the Yankees in Fenway Park...

Pedro throws out the first pitch. Probably at least fifty guys named Pedro have played Major League Baseball. But there is and always will be only on Pedro...

As RGG once told me, sometimes Bruce is full of shit, but it's great shit:

Working On A Dream

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has pancreatic cancer. Although her doctors claim to have diagnosed the cancer in its early phase, make no mistake about it: Pancreatic cancer is terminal. If it really has been caught early on, with aggressive treatment she has a shot at making it past the five-year threshold. But typically, pancreatic cancer victims survive for less than six months. Which makes me all the happier that Barack Obama and not John McCain will appoint the next Supreme Court Justice...

I'm watching Fox News this morning (at the gym) and who do I see but John McCain criticizing the stimulus package being focused on the future instead of jobs right now. American people to John McCain: If we wanted what you are selling, we would have bought it...

Next up after McCain was Steve Forbes, who derided such stimulus features as funds to update facilities at the Center for Disease Control and National Park and Forest trail maintenance as handouts for redecoration. He then advocated cutting the payroll tax, which strikes me as handout that would also Social Security and Medicare. When you think about, the Republican mantra of cutting taxes no matter what amounts to a dole. And exactly what does cutting taxes do for people who are out of work?...

Then there's the fact that the Obama recovery plan includes a tax cut, just not for Steve Forbes. Incidentally, the strategy of a middle class tax cut during a bad economy is class Keynesian economics. Agree with it or not, a tax cut pours money into the economy by giving it to the people most likely to spend it. Anyway, the middle class has borne a disproportionate share of the tax burden since the days of Ronald Reagan...

Obama performed a neat feat of political jujitsu when he took responsibility for not knowing about Tom Daschle's tax problem. Independent voters especially detested Bush's unwillingness to admit to error...

Luckily, I left the gym before Fox brought Karl Rove on to discuss his idea of a stimulus package. One can only imagine...

Of all places, the Vatican accuses Obama of "the arrogance of someone who believes they are right." This from the religion that requires its one billion members to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility...

Brother rgg provides a song-by-song breakdown of Bruce Springsteen's new album, Working On A Dream: "I’ve listened to it about ten times. I don’t hate it, but I certainly don’t love it, either. There’s nothing memorable here and it fails as a “pop” album if that was the intent. Let’s call it Human Touch 2." [Citizen K.: Uh oh...]

Outlaw Pete – There’s probably a good song in there somewhere, but at over eight minutes, this isn’t it. 

My Lucky Day – I like this one.

Working On A Dream – There are 34 lines in this song and the phrase “I’m working on a dream” is used 19 times, including 16 times as a single line. I guess that’s why it gets stuck in my head.

Queen Of The Supermarket – Utterly forgettable and the f-bomb at the end is just a cry for attention. You’re better than that, Bruce. [Citizen K.: Why drop the f-bomb in this particular song, out of all the songs he's written? If he didn't need it on Darkness on the Edge of Town, Nebraska, or The Ghost of Tom Joad, he sure doesn't need it here.]

What Love Can Do – He wants to show you what love can do so bad he uses that phrase 14 times. You know the end of “Backstreets”, where he’s crying “hiding on the backstreets” over and over again? This is nothing like that.

This Life – There seems to be a lot of sky, star, and sun imagery on this record and it’s more prevalent here than anywhere else. Carl Sagan could have written this one. Is that the Cowsills singing back-up at the end?

Good Eye – Sounds okay to my good ear, bullet mike and all. I hate to keep harping on lyrical content, but this song is only nine lines long, three lines each to three verses. One line is used in all three verses and the other two lines of each verse are repeated. That means there are four lines to this song. [Citizen K: Just to show it can be done, go here for a great four-line song.]

Tomorrow Never Knows – I like this one, so I’m not saying anything bad about it. [Citizen K.: The lyrics occupy the very interesting space between Born to Run and Darkness.]

Life Itself – Could have been on The Rising. The potential for a great guitar solo is killed by O’Brien’s production (there's a surprise). [Citizen K.: Banal lyrics kill a good sentiment. "The flowers of temptation"?]

Kingdom Of Days – This is his kingdom of days, apparently. Meh.

Surprise, Surprise – You know how Gomer Pyle used to say “Surprise, surprise, surprise”? That’s more entertaining than this. Yes, I hear The Byrds influence, but I also hear Up With People. The worst thing is, it’s an earworm – once it’s in your head it won’t go away. Ever.

“And when the sun comes out tomorrow, it’ll be the start of a new day”. Thanks for clearing that up for us, Bruce.

The Last Carnival – a nice tribute to Danny Federici, but it sounds out-of-place on this record. [Citizen K.: IMHO, the best cut on Magic was "Terry's Song," the tribute to Boss friend and associate Terry McGovern. Guess who didn't produce it?]

The Wrestler – It’s a good song, obviously a bonus track not related to anything else here.

[Citizen K.: Here's the dream I wish that Bruce would work on, starting with cutting outthe overproduced crapola. Then, go to his home studio with Steve Van Zandt and a hand-picked bassist and drummer. Lay down 12-14 tracks - including 3-4 carefully chosen covers - and record them all in 1-2 takes, being sure to feature some guitar duels between Bruce and Little Steven. Release the results from his website, iTunes, and Amazon. Drag out the release 2-3 songs at a time, if that feels right. In other words, do something that is artistically and commercially serious, interesting, and creative, and that stems from the primal pulse of rock.]

Krewe du Vieux leads the first Carnival parade of 2007 though The Marigny and the French Quarter:

Superior Scribblers Unite!

As mentioned yesterday, Sylvia From Over The Hill recently named me as a Superior Scribbler. Superior Scribbledom comes with rules, and here they are:

1. Name five other Superior Scribblers to receive this award.
   
2. Link to the author and name of the blog that gave you the award.
   
3. Display the award on your blog with this LINK which explains the award.
   
4. Click on the award at the bottom of the link and add your name to the bottom of the list.
   
5. Post the rules.
   

When you read about the "blogosphere," it's generally in the context of its political impact and the resentment of the MSM that bloggers have greater influence than they do. What you rarely hear about is the blogosphere's effectiveness as a social network. Facebook is easy: By posting a picture and a brief profile, you're inundated almost immediately by past friends and acquaintances. Blogging is different: You command an audience by virtue of what you write about and how well you write. Blogging affords the power of  staying current with old friends and making new ones. 

Since nothing in the rules says I can't do otherwise lest the sun burn out, I'm  naming five people who write about their everyday lives in such a way that they have either deepened our long-time friendship or helped build a new one. In no particular order:

• Cafe Nita Lou writes especially well about the challenges that come when your child goes away to school and a new life. But she also keeps her perspective and examines the world around her -- starting with her household with a laudable (and humorous) self-deprecation.
• The Lakewood Daily Snap has become one of my favorite blogs. Often, it's as a simple as a picture (of the sort that isy worth a minimum of a thousand words) with a caption; as the photos and captions accrue, you find yourself a fellow neighbor in this Cleveland suburb.
• Owing to a mutual appreciation of the film Holiday Inn, Scrumpy's Baker was my first blog connection and I believe that I left the first comment ever on her blog. A fine writer with a pointed wit, she pulls you in to the quotidian dilemmas of career, marriage, relatives, and staying fit in such a way that anyone can identify with her and cheer her on.
• Over at Robert Frost's Banjo, Robert Hayes writes eclectically about music, cookng, and poetry. He's a Superior Scribbler because of his Thoreauvian accounts of life in rural Idaho after years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Like Blake, he sees the world in a grain of sand.
• The demise of a local chain store inspired Red Apple Elegy, which has become a sort of layman's guide to urban design as seen through the malls, parking lots, and produce stands of the Newport Hills area of the Seattle suburb of Bellevue. Entries like this prove her point that "if you find something ugly you're just not looking closely enough..."

To keep track of conservative-in-moderate's clothing Dave Reichert, put the Reichert Report on your blog roll. Reichert is apparently so embarrassed by his vote against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that it gets no mention on his official web site...

The United Countries of Baseball (click to enlarge):

4804 Dauphine Street, Holy Cross neighborhood, New Orleans...

Carnival parades, Slidell style!...

Bruce Springsteen kicked ass and took names during yesterday's halftime show at the Super Bowl, but it's getting harder and harder to find a good word about his new album. Don;t count the Boss out, though: The one other time he made an artistic misstep (the simultaneous release of Human Touch and Lucky Town), he followed up with one of his best: The masterful Ghost of Tom Joad. For anyone who missed it or wants to see it again, here's the halftime show:

Part 2:

Sunday Funnies & So Much More

Citizen K. apologizes for the dearth of this week's funnies; neither Ben Sargeant nor Tom Toles would upload. If that continues to be a problem, I may have to discontinue this feature, as most of the other comics come from the soon-to-be-defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In the meantime, click to enlarge. And for more F Minus, Tony Auth, and Zippy the Pinhead go here, here, and here...

There's something special about peer recognition in that it comes from people who share your experience and appreciate what it takes. This is especially the case when the recognition comes from such accomplished bloggers as John Hayes at Robert Frost's Banjo and Sylvia From Over The Hill. So I'm honored to have received the Premio Dardos award from RFB and the Dardos and Superior Scribbler awards from Sylvia. 

The Premio Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

The rules:

1. Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog.
   
2. Pass the award to another five blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.

Without further adieu, here are five blogs that deserve recognition for "creative and original writing:"

I'm admittedly biased on this one but...Premium T.'s verse-like entries provide a poet's perspective on the beauties of everyday life with humor and insight. Terrific photographs and meditations on recipes and food, if I do say so myself!

The artist PWALLY writes with flair and humor about work experiences, past loves, and the stories behind her paintings. Don't miss her current entry ("Attempted Murder By Cologne"), wherein a fellow employee's body odor leads to an emergency room visit.

She hasn't been at it long and I wish she'd write more, but Molly The Dog's Caterpillars to Butterflies is already a must-read for Citizen K. Molly employs plain, repertorial language to tell stories of her experiences as a nurse at an inner city clinic, writing in a way that combines realism with compassion.

Foxessa blogs at Fox Home with passion and knowledge -- two traits that don't always appear in the same person -- about any subject that comes to mind, but especially her passions of history, New Orleans and the Caribbean, literature, movies, and women's issues. Although even this sells short her eclectic range.

Strictly speaking, Renegade Eye may not be what the creators of the Dardos Award had in mind: A typical entry is an article pulled from a left-wing publication. But Ren has created an environment that encourages the left and right to debate (often fiercely) while he moderates the discussion with well-placed and articulated comments. He merits recognition, and here it is...

The Axeman of Old New Orleans: 

New Orleans. 1917. Based on a true story. A serial killer stalks the streets. 3 distinct detectives try to find him. Who will get there first? - Murder - Voodoo - The Birth of Jazz - Interracial love - Floods - Police Corruption - Intrigues. This script contains racist dialogue and characters and some violent and sexual episodes...

Leonard Pitts takes on the dittoheads here. Those people will never understand the liberal hatred of Bush and Cheney: What started out as principled opposition became hatred only after the Bush Administration personalized opposition as unpatriotic...

Ann Powers criticizes the new Bruce Springsteen album as "stirring but slight." I'm so unimpressed with what I've heard that for the first time since I became a fan -- back in 1974 -- I didn't run out and buy it on the release date. More on this later...

From Baugh to the Boss

If you didn't click on yesterday's link to Sammy Baugh's obituary, you missed this picture, one of the best sports photographs I've ever seen...

Once again, Helen Thomas tells it like it is:  "...a bevy of Republican senators from the South are trying to break up what the United Automobile Workers have struggled since the 1930s to achieve -- a middle-class life for union members." Is there any doubt of this?...

Foxessa reports that the New Orleans Public Library system faces difficult times: "It's happened before in many communities, that the public library becomes a playing field for the town or city's political rivalries and power struggles. But these plays have hardly ever been done so flamboyantly, with so little disguise anywhere else..."

Derrick Jackson wonders why in the world the Bush Administration thinks it's a good idea to allow concealed weapons in national parks: "This completes eight years of political cruelty to animals and a final imposition of the National Rifle Association on what is left of public serenity in America -- our shared natural sanctuaries..."

PWALLY 'fesses up... "I ran out and told Judy to get in the car and leave the scene, whispering loudly that they hadn’t heard a thing and hadn’t been sitting near the window so they didn’t see anything, either. Hurry!!"

FiveThirtyEight.com projects a 40-vote lead for Al Franken in Minnesota. Unreal. As much as I want Franken to pull this out, statistically speaking the race is a tie with no way of knowing who really got the most votes. By all accounts, Minnesota's recount process and the people administering it are first rate. No matter which candidate prevails, he will have as clean a decision as the circumstances allow...

Time Goes By thinks that the MSM passes over the real stories of the economic crisis: "What’s missing, however, are stories about how most of us – the poor, the middle class, the people who live paycheck to paycheck and one small emergency from destitution - are getting by."

A Chicagoan visits New Orleans and has a most unusual life-changing encounter. (T'anks to Da Ladda!)...

You Can't Make This Stuff Up Dept:  A Palinista worries about her dreams: 

This might seem like a strange question, but have any of you had dreams about Obama lately? I'm not suggesting that they are sexual dreams in nature; just any dreams about him?
I know a lot of people who are having various types of dreams about BO, and finally I did, too (nonsexual, I must add), so I'm wondering....
Maybe they just signal worry/concern about what BO might do as President?

Sock And Awe Dept: Click here and throw shoes to your heart's content. (Thanks, Stupid!)

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Friday's Choice: Bruce "D'Artagnan" Springsteen sings "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" with a little help from his friends:

Let Me Get This Straight...

...we have $20 million dollars to bail out Citicorp, which is on the verge of failure despite years of charging usurious interest rates on its credit cards, but we don't have $25 million for General Motors even though it employs 150,000 people directly and millions more through its subsidiaries and job multiplier. 

Look, I know that General Motors bears heavy responsibility for its problems and that its brand has a bad rep. But there's still something wrong with a picture where it's o.k. to use taxpayer dollars to bailout finance but not o.k. to use them to help labor. For all the big talk in this country about the work ethic, public policy time and again favors capital over labor. Look no further than the tax code, where the highest tax rate on money earned by money (capital gains) is lower than the highest rate on money earned by work. Moreover, capital gains are exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Conservatives of course see GM's travails as golden opportunity for them to fulfill their moral imperative of union busting. For them, this is like the Prime Directive. And I don't like seeing my tax dollars go to bailouts any more than anyone else. Nor am I for giving GM (or Citicorp, for that matter) carte blanche with bailout money. The government needs to hold their feet to the fire and exact a commitment from them to build green cars. But I don't see the point in allowing the backbone of American manufacturing to disappear without a whimper...

"Working On A Dream," Bruce Springsteen's new single is available from iTunes and his web site for free today only. It's an o.k. song. Bruce is capable of more original metaphors than playing the hand you’re dealt, although the first stanza is classic Bruce. But what’s with the whistling? His harmonica suddenly isn’t good enough? And if that’s actually Roy Bittan on piano, he got turned into a 1970’s Southern California sessions ace. On the other hand, I’ll be the first to admit that if I’d been present when Bruce broke out the song at an Obama rally, I’d have been singing along and crying with everyone else. Context is everything, and "Dream" might work well as part of a song cycle. (Although I’m apprehensive about what’s been leaked so far. Any album that opens with a song called "Outlaw Pete" should be greeted with apprehension.)

My personal dream for the next Springsteen album remains the same: Ever since hearing his contributions (“Ain’t Got No Home” and especially “Vigilante Man”) to 1988’s Folkways Revisited: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, I’ve hoped that he would do an album in this spirit. This takes the form of a four-piece band – two guitars, bass, and drums – performing live in the studio. The material is a combination of nine or ten originals and three or four covers. It’s generous with guitar workouts, and most of all it is self-produced. I think he could take that baton and run a mile in 100-meter dash time...

Summer's Here And The Time Is Right...

Part of the summer fun is wondering which CDs will take the country by storm. Here at Citizen K., we make no pretenses of knowing what will capture the imagination of young people, but we already have a few of our own favorites. (Note: You can sample any of these CDs by clicking on the artist name and going to the web site.)

The Baseball Project, Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails, Vol. 1. The brainchild of Seattle musicians Steve Wynn and Scott McCaughey (with assistance for REM's Peter Buck and drummer Linda Pitmon), this CD is way more than a cute exercise in nostalgia.  In turns ribald ("Ted Fucking Williams"), bitter ("Gratitude [for Curt Flood]), nostalgic ("Sometimes I Dream Of Willie Mays"), and rueful ("Long Before My Time"), Frozen Ropes successfully and accessibly makes the case that baseball isn't that much different from everyday life, reminding us in "Harvey Haddix" that "We're drawn to tragic stories/The ones that suit us best." Incidentally, the title refers to baseball slang for line drives and pop flies. 

Teddy Thompson, A Piece Of What You Need. With this CD, Thompson emerges from the long shadow of his parents, Linda and Richard Thompson. His first two CDs showed a singer-songwriter of great promise; Up Front And Down Low showed off Thompson's peerless tenor via a brace of country standards. In A Piece of What You Need, his lyrics combine the melancholy reflectiveness of summer twilight with music that reflects the buoyancy of the day. A major talent who should be better known. 

James Hunter, The Hard Way. Veteran Brit R & B singer delivers his usual strong set, propelled by his silky smooth voice, tough picking, and diamond-hard horn section. If you haven't heard this guy, you should. The Hard Way is as good a place as any to start.

Bruce Springsteen has released for download four duets (in both audio and video) from the Magic tour, including the brilliant collaboration with Tom Morello on "The Ghost Of Tom Joad." More here...

I usually avoid internet petitions, but this one is for an awfully good cause. Junk mail is wasteful and depressing and, really, why should we have no say in whether we receive it or not? Plus, circulating this one on paper would defeat the purpose!

Friday's Choice: Lady Day Digs The Prez-- Lester Young serenades Billie Holiday:

Lost In The Flood

This one goes out to Iowa. And Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Let's not forget the Army Corps of Engineers, too:

Click to enlarge today's funny (www.tomthedancingbug.com):