Sunday Funnies & So Much More

As always, click to enlarge www.tomthedancingbug.com for more...

Adding clairvoyance to their brief, Focus On The Family Action has published a twisted 16-page letter to the faithful, purporting to be a communication from "Obama's America" in 2012. The words "homosexual," "homosexuals," and "homosexuality" appear 16 times, mostly in the first six pages. ("Same sex" appears four times and, oddly, "lesbian" only once. One gets the impression that -- like Queen Victoria -- James Dobson and his demonic ilk simply won't believe that it exists.) Among other dire consequences of an Obama administration are gay troop leaders sharing tents with innocent Boy Scouts, gay church youth leaders, and the suppression of "hate speech" (quotes theirs). About the only good news is Antonin Scalia's retirement from the Supreme Court because he's sick and dying or something. The whole sick enterprise is enough to make one question the right to vote...

I spent yesterday afternoon phone banking for Obama. The office was full of volunteers, and neighborhood canvassers came steadily in and out the whole time I was there. We're going to win this thing...

Onward and upward to the Arts:

Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 (1989-2006), Bob Dylan. Who would have thought that a collection of demos, alternate versions, old folk songs, live cuts, and previously unreleased songs would be one of the top releases of the year?  It helps when the demos and alternate versions are superior to the original releases. It helps even more when the sum total projects the dystopian vision of a world gone wrong from the most significant American songwriter ever. This world is no great shakes, Dylan says, but listening to the music is at least a way of getting to the truth of it while celebrating the ability of humans to create and communicate through song. Then he takes us on a tour of virtually every popular American music form that involves setting words to a tune. What in lesser hands might have made an interesting collection of an artist in development instead becomes a great album, arguably the best of the year and inarguably one of the best of an amazing career.

Shake Away/Ojo De Culebra, Lila Downs. Crossover albums risk diluting an artist's sound by flirting with a low common denominator aimed at making him or her "accessible" to a wider audience. Too often, an authentic sounds becomes bland and the album neither crosses over nor satisfies the artist's original audience. Happily, the Mexican-American singer Lila Downs uses the opportunity to expand her sound to a pan-Latin musical vision encompassing the border, the Caribbean, and the jungles and beaches of Central and South America. Singing in both English and Spanish, Downs' dazzling contralto bounds from rock to folk to blues to Latino ballads and dances with the exuberance of children rushing to recess on the first sunny day of the year. The creative arrangements fit her like a glove: A soprano sax extends her voice. A New Orleans brass band tuba marks the beat for salsa horns. Guitars swoop in and out like hawks. Seemingly at will, her contralto leaps to a high soprano. Wow.

South Pacific (New Broadway Cast), Kelli O'Hara, Paulo Szot, Matthew Morrison. To these ears, it surpasses the original cast, which is saying something. Opera singer Szot's dashing Emile elicits all of the romance and passion from "Some Enchanted Evening" and the showstopper "This Really Was Mine." Morrison's fine tenor elicits the longing and sorrow of Lt. Cable's doomed affair. But it's Kelli O'Hara's Nellie Forbush that shines brightest. Through the first act, she brings just the right touch of self-importance to Nellie's insouciance and cock-eyed optimism. Then when confronted with her own bigotry, the self-importance gives way to the self-knowledge that makes Nellie a true heroine. It can't be easy to convey this in the soundtrack of musical, but O'Hara is more than equal to the task. Moreover, all of the beloved favorites are performed with just the right touch, especially Loretta Ables' knowing "Bali Hai" and "Happy Talk." Note: As this is the CD era, we get all of the reprises and incidental music that the space limitations of vinyl precluded...

Fan's Notes: We're having internet difficulties at home, so blog entries could be sporadic for a few days.

Blow Winds! Rage, Blow!

Ferocious winds last night, ripping and howling off the bay, colliding brutally with the house. They forced their way through the tiny gaps between window and frame, blowing the curtains in our bedroom even though the windows were closed. T. slept fitfully while the continuous bellowing had an oddly soporific effect on me: I slept like a baby. They had let up some this morning, but have started in again, this time driving a hard rain sideways through the cove. I love it. Of course, a hurricane or flood considerably diminishes the romance of a storm...

We spent yesterday afternoon running errands in the nearby market town of Castlebar, where we filled up the car to the tune of $7.85 a gallon. (1.33 euro per litre only sounds better.) T. needed art supplies for her post cards and I needed special-sized light bulbs that I couldn't find in Westport. To our delight, we discovered that the fiddler Kevin Burke performs there in July. His "Lighthouse Keeper's Waltz" was the bride's processional (as it were) at our wedding in December; we've already emailed a request for him to play it...

Thx to Amy Denio for the photo. Amy stayed at Carrowholly last February...

Charles Black, a key advisor to Johnny Wattles, sez that an attack by terrorists on the United States, would benefit McCain to the detriment of Barack Obama. Naturally, the MSM misses the real point: It falls all over itself trying to figure out whether Black is right or wrong while ignoring the colossal cynicism of the remark. The Republicans know they can't win talking about Iraq, the economy, health care, alternative energy, infrastructure -- in other words, any of the huge issues facing this country that they did nothing about when they had the chance -- so they play fear card. Hang on, it's going to be a bumpy ride...

The Washington Post's Richard Cohen brings McCain milk and cookies before tucking him into bed, here. The thrust of Cohen's argument is that no matter how many times McCain flip-flops or how egregiously he panders, his five years as a POW in North Vietnam trump all and prove that his character is superior to Obama's. He doesn't consider the possibility that McCain has sold out his legacy and will say anything to become president, gambling that the punditocracy will never call him on it. If Cohen is a representative sample, it might be a good bet...

For a nuanced, thoughtful, and perspicacious analysis of the public view of Iraq, you can't beat Frank Rich's column here. Rich argues that it no longer matters what incremental "good" news may come come out of Iraq -- that the public has already made up its mind that the war was a mistake and that nothing can change that. The issue now is to get out so that we can focus on the economy, health care, alternative energy, and infrastructure. Rich believes that McCain's platform of holding on in Iraq amounts to the flogging of a dead horse...

New Orleans: Screwed again. But the music, oh, the sweet music...New Orleans blues guitarist Spencer Bohren: "Music is a quintessential part of the fabric in the life and culture of New Orleans, and vice versa. Musicians were among the first to return to the bewildering mess that was New Orleans following the storm, and though there were very few places for them to play, and very few people to hear them, they provided an early signal that the precious spirit of New Orleans was not dead." Be sure to listen to "The Long Black Line"...

It's no picnic in the Midwest, either...

The pot calls the kettle very, very, very, very, very black. We're talking pitch-black, ebony, midnight, center-of-Carlsbad-Caverns-without-a-match-here: The Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family accuses former Constitutional law professor Barack Obama of a "fruitcake" interpretation of the Constitution and, worse, of "...distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology..." Focus on the Family supports the teaching of so-called "Intelligent" Design, opposes same-sex couples benefits, opposes meaningful stem cell research, opposes a woman's right to choose, opposes...you get the picture. They do support abstinence before marriage.

I just stepped out into the wind. Wow! It must be 35-40 mph. Best have some tea.