Drive-By High Five

I’m sitting in a coffee shop editing a project for The Met on on my laptop.  A teacher and her assistant are sitting across from me grading papers.

TA: …and so I gave that one a B-.  But this one–I made a note here, let me find it… (matter of factly)

Ok, yeah, this person just has a fundamental misunderstanding of how to use literature to support an argument.

Teacher:  (concerned) Oh…hmm.  Fundamental?

TA: Yeah, like, I remember my 5th grade teacher really breaking it down for me and saying “this is your idea, this is what you’ve found to support it…”

Teacher: …

TA:  I mean, I guess there are some strong parts, but it’s just not a graduate-level paper.

Ouch!

“Hey donkey, what’s going on? …

(From: http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/10/21/in-which-sarah-palin-displays-the-latest-in-donkey-fashion.aspx)

…Alright. Say ‘hi’ to your mother for me.”

It seems improbable (and to my eye the “vote” flag seem out of place from a design perspective if not photoshopped), but I haven’t heard anyone calling “fake” yet.  So then, what was she thinking? I suppose wearing the symbol of your opposition is “mavericky.” At least that’s a nice word for it.

Maybe the scarf is part of the $150,000 the RNC has spent on her clothes. For those of you who like math, that’s $2,500 a day–or equal to one of McCain’s annual health insurance tax credits (for individuals) every single day.

* It’s a reference to last weekend’s SNL skit with Mark Whalberg, NOT “that one” with Palin.

I’m no economist, but instead of giving these banks a “get out of jail free card,” it ought to more like “we’re taking you off death row and putting you on lifetime probation.”

I can understand the need to keep markets liquid for the greater good of the global economy. But I can’t comprehend how anyone can defend, for example, letting executives who were supposedly overseeing these failed banks–people who have already gotten filthy rich off the backs of others–walk away with a single cent of public money. There need to be consequences for bad behavior built into any bailout.

I also have the same kinds of reservations about this bailout bill that I had (and still have) about the awful FISA legislation.  Namely, it gives Secretary Henry Paulson sole discretion to use up to $700 billion public dollars as he and he alone sees fit.  Again: no oversight, no courts, no questions.

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

AND it’s being rushed through without close public scrutiny. Patriot Act? Iraq war authorization? Have we learned anything?

Of course the economy is complicated, and I don’t pretend to gave a comprehensive understanding of it.  But I do know that complex problems DON’T have one solution and one solution only.  There must be real and reasonable alternative solutions to the bailout bill in its current form, but I haven’t heard anyone in the media asking experts what those solutions might be. I also haven’t heard any news reports about the possible consequences of taking on $700 billion in debt–just that whatever they are, it’s not as bad as a global economic meltdown.  I need to know what’s in the box before I buy it… Not that we have much choice in the matter.

So…I meant to write about this earlier, but tomorrow I’ll be one of 200 guitarists and 16 bassists playing in contemporary composer Rhys Chatham’s piece, “A Crimson Grail.” It’s free.

It’s kind of crazy that–being a composition major and one of those guys who was always starting bands–I haven’t actually performed any music publicly or, for that matter, played with any other musicians since moving to New York almost two years ago. (Did I write those very words in an earlier post?)  More on that at some other point, or just as it happens.

Anyway, are the deets:

800 Years of Minimalism
Friday, August 15, 2008, 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Damrosch Park Bandshell, W 62nd St between Amsterdam and Colombus Aves

Here’s their blurb on from http://www.lincolncenter.org/show_events_list.asp?eventcode=-62531:

“This special co-production highlights minimalist music spanning eight centuries of human experience, in a program exploring the transcendental and ecstatic dimension of music-making.

“Beata Viscera, an early-music vocal group, opens with a selection of works by the 13th-century French composer Pérotin.

“Next, composer Rhys Chatham and section leaders John King, Ned Sublette, David Daniell, and Seth Olinsky (Akron/Family) lead an oversized orchestra of 200 volunteer guitarists and electric bassists in the world premiere of A Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars (Outdoor Version) performed not on the Bandshell stage but along the sides of the audience at Damrosch Park, to heighten the work’s polyphonic effect. The work, originally composed for Paris’ famed Sacré-Coeur, has been extensively revised to suit the dynamics of the Park’s outdoor acoustic.

“Concluding the show will be the U.S. premiere of composer and guitarist Manuel Göttsching’s hour-long masterpiece E2-E4, one of the most important, influential electronic records ever released. Collaborating with Göttsching for the first-ever U.S. live performance of E2-E4 will be the Joshua Light Show, led by multimedia artist Joshua White, which will fill the surface of the Damrosch Bandshell with its signature display of psychedelic visual effects.”

Last Thursday I edited an audio interview with journalist Seymour M. Hersh. Hersh has an article in this week’s New Yorker about how the Bush administration already has secret operatives in Iran hooking up with dissident groups to try and destabilize Tehran.

As cool as it was to be privy to Hersh’s findings a few days before the official publication date, the story has been on my mind all weekend. This is seriously scary stuff. Almost as worrisome as the approaching conflict itself is the degree to which the media here may either avoid this story or superficially report but play it down. Let us hope–and pray to the higher power of your choice– demand that they take this seriously.

Hersh (who as it turns out is a delightfully brusque character when the tape isn’t rolling–something like a film noir P.I.–and I don’t fault him based on what I’m sure he’s had to go through to tell this and the other important stories he’s broken during his career) had some great lines that I wish could have made in in the final edit, but alas the podcast is designed to get people to read the article, and it’s all in there.

One of the quotes in the final edit comes (via Hersh) from Sec. of Defense Robert Gates during an off-the-record meeting with Congress:

“If we bomb Iran, our grandchildren will be fighting jihadists.”

Got that? It’s Bush’s OWN secretary of defense breaking with the administration and giving his own (off-the-record) opinion on the dire consequences of going to war with Iran.

If there’s ever a time to NOT soften the edges in our reporting on Iran (as if there ever weren’t one), it’s now.