Sunday, May 14, 2006

Music Spotlight: Kat's Korner on Josh Ritter's The Animal Years

Kat reviewing Josh Ritter's The Animal Years (great CD, check it out).  She's promised to do at least one more review and may do two this week. 
 

Kat's Korner: Need deeper? Check out Josh Ritter's The Animal Years

Kat: In a world where the break up of no talents like Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey is something to be mourned or Simpson going red headed is "news," it may be a surprise that anyone even tries to make music anymore. When the 'talk' is that a not-hit making, no talent is expecting child number two, what's the point?

Fortunately, real music is made by stronger souls (and talents) than the bits of fluff eating up the news cycle. Josh Ritter is an example of someone taking the time to actually create.

The CD's The Animal Years. The singer and songwriter is Ritter. Is he too clever for the masses? He may be. When he sings "I'm a good man for 'ya, I'm a good man" you may realize how perfect his voice would in a duet with Aimee Mann -- another true artist who can be accused of the apparent crime of "thought." And like Mann, he turn a phrase in a way that catches your ear.

When the pop charts are filled with boys singing the most simplistic songs about breakups (which they insist they don't wish to talk about because it's "private" before launching into the topic) what chance does art have?

Radio waves are coming miles and miles
Bringing only empty boats
Whatever feeling they had when they sailed
Somehow slipped out between the notes

That's from "Monster Ballads" and you can't say Ritter doesn't know what he's up against. The Animal Years won't fill the dance floor. Maybe Ritter can hook up romantically with one of the pop tarts of today?

Is that what it takes currently? I got this CD in April and expected to see some big write ups. I really haven't. The alternative media's done a better job of covering it then the mainstream publications. But then I think, "Well the mainstream was late on the James Blunt bandwagon too." So maybe there's hope for Ritter?

The Animal Years is eleven songs. The first track and the tenth are the ones that will immediately grab you. "Thin Blue Flame" opens with Ritter strumming the guitar and singing for the first four lines before Sam Kassirer joins in on the piano (followed by others). In those four lines, forget the word for a minute, he'll grab you if he's going to grab you.

Brian Deck produced, mixed and engineered the album with such care that the thought of Ritter: At The Tin Angel would have been a natural a few decades back because Ritter can sing, he can play the guitar. Most of all, he can write songs.

It's a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart
It's getting harder and harder to tell them apart
Days are nights and the nights are long
Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs
And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign
Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine
Now the wolves are howling at our door
Singing bout vengeance like it's the joy of the Lord
Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round
They're guilty when killed and they're killed where they're found
If what's loosed on earth will be loosed up on high
It's a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die
Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please
The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees
Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage
Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage
Lead pellets peppering aluminum
Halcyon, laudanum and Opium
Sings kiss thee Hardy this poisoned cup
His winding sheet is busy winding up
In darkness he looks for the light that has died
But you need faith for the same reasons that it's so hard to find
And this whole thing is headed for a terrible wreck
And like good tragedy that's what we expect

That's from Ritter's "Thin Blue Flame" -- an amazing song and one that demostrates no "War Got Your Tongue?" going on here. The lyrics to track one ("Girl In The War") drive that at home as well:

Peter said to Paul you know all these words we wrote
Are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go
But now talking to God is Laurel begging Hardy for a gun
I got a girl in the war man I wonder what it is we done

The lyrics and scope may not be on-the-nose enough for those raised on Justy and Britty's small-world-all-about-me-after-all songs. (I doubt many will catch the nod to Beckett, though I hope I'm wrong.) Are we ready for grown up music yet? How about music that's at least been through puberty, or half-way through?

The pre-teen racket continues to make . . . well, a racket. Long after you thought the pimples and cavities that come from steady listenings would have sent them packing. They don't even sale these days, but they're still all over the airwaves because it's better to keep a nation stupid, apparently, then have them question.

If you're looking for something more, this is a good place to start. It's a musical album. The organ playing on "Girl In The War" will have you bopping along even if the song's meaning escapes you. Songs like "One More Mouth" can grab you with the music, the singing, the on-the-nose reading of the lyrics (a breakup) or a deeper reading of the lyrics:

You act like you don't need nobody else
And you dance like you don't need nobody else
And all the other moths need light
To circle round, while you just fly
Around yourself.

Ritter's got a great deal on his mind. He's an artist grappling with the world around him. Are we ready to applaud that?

I think we are, I think we've been doing that, far from the freeze-dried, dead-on-arrival crap that makes up radio playlists. And with the inroads Green Day and James Blunt have made, possibly even radio is ready for something a little heavier than THUMP-THUMP-S/HE'S-LOOKING-AT-ME-THUMP-THUMP-I'M-SO-SEXY nonsense that's driven listeners from their radios in droves? If you're looking for something a little deeper, a little more musical, a little more poetic, check out Josh Ritter's The Animal Years.











[Note: This is the third of at least seven reviews Kat has planned for the next few days. Saturday, she contributed "Kat's Korner: Neil Young's Living With War -- key word 'Living'" and Monday she contributed "Kat's Korner: Richie Havens: The Economical Collection." She says tomorrow night may be Pink's I'm Not Dead Yet. May.]

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Blog Spotlight: Mike discusses tax breaks and Barry Bonds

Mike started out the week feeling ill, turned out he had chicken pox.  (We know he's tired of the "Chicken pox while you're in college" jokes so we'll take a pass on them.)
We're going with this one because of the Barry Bonds issue (and remember Dave Zirin is on RadioNation with Laura Flanders tonight).
 
 

Barry Bonds, Repubes drool over tax breaks, peace activists go to Iran

Hump day. Still a pox day. Let's get to Democracy Now!

Republicans Reach Agreement on Controversial Tax Bill
On Capitol Hill, House and Senate Republicans have agreed on a new tax bill critics say will disproportionately favor the wealthiest Americans. The $70 billion dollar measure would extend the 15 percent tax rate on capital and dividends until the year 2010. According to the Tax Policy Center, households earning more than $1 million dollars would save $42,000 dollars in taxes. Meanwhile, households earning around $45,000 dollars would save $46 dollars.

Okay, but if you earn something else? I think it would go like this:

Those in the top group would see their tax bill cut 4.8 percent, while Americans at the center of the income distribution -- the middle fifth of taxpayers, who will earn an average of $36,000 this year -- could expect a 0.4 percent reduction in their tax bill, or about $20.Those who make less than $75,000 -- which includes about 75 percent of all taxpayers -- would save, at most, $110 each. Those making more than $1 million would save, on average, almost $42,000.

I'm so smart, right? Wrong. That's David Cay Johnston of the New York Times. ("Analysis of Tax Bill Finds More Benefits for the Rich.") When I saw that today (I got to watch it on TV from the sickbed) I remembered that C.I. had noted that thing of Johnston's and asked Nina to look it up for me. I hope everyone who gets screwed (pretty much all of us) reads that, especially the ones who thought "Bully Boy is for the little people like me!" and they have to say, "Woah."

US Peace Activists Travel to Tehran
Twenty-two US citizens have traveled to Iran to promote peace between Washington and Tehran. "(We are here to promote) understanding between our peoples so that our governments don't get us into a situation where we go into a Conflict," said delegate member Dave Robinson, Executive Director Of The National Catholic Peace Movement."We're here to learn about Iran firsthand so that we don't succumb to the enemy building and demonising that's going in the United States at the moment."

I don't know what's going to happen with Iran. C.I. called and we were talking about that and all and how the press is attacking the letter from Iran because Condi and Bully Boy dismissed it. Which reminds me, Barry Bonds got trashed on the front page of the New York Times Sunday. Hold on a second.

That piece of trash rag has been trashing Bonds so much that you'd think he must be Irish-American. This is from Sunday, by an idiot named George Vecsey, "It's Boos, Aches and Bad Karma as Bonds Limps Toward Ruth:"

That the bad vibes are largely Bonds's fault -- he may have lied about using illegal steroids and is generally unpleasant -- is almost irrelevant. This sour exercise would best be performed quickly, and let us all move on to something more becoming than youths' heckling Bonds from the safety of the stands, accusing him of using steroids.

Bonds is reponsible for "bad vibes"? Like the press didn't attack, attack, attack. Where's Mark McGwire? Or like the whole New York Timid doesn't dog pile on Bonds every chance they get? Like Jack Curry did on Monday? Or apparent wino Eric Asimov mocking him today? As Bonds gears to break Babe Ruth's record, I don't think you can say he "fell apart under close scrutiny" but then I'm not drunk off my ass on wine. Nor do I wear lipstick and looking at his photo, I'd say he's wearing lipstick. He also looks like the son of that weird guy on PBS Jacques Pepin. But Pepin probably knows what he's talking about. Where's the "bad vibes" coming from? Fru fru writers who think they're smarter than they are. Go back to writing for Martha Stewart's magazine where no one expects you to make "quips" about Barry Bonds or any other sports star.


Teena e-mailed to ask me why I wasn't talking about WBAI's Wakeup Call and that's cause I'm sick. I did listen this morning, for instance. I know Deepa Fernades interviewed some professor from Puerto Rico and right after, I think it was right after, they did sports (not Dave Zirin, he's on tomorrow). I have no idea what was being discussed. That's not an insult to Deepa who does great interviews. Everybody knows I love sports and I couldn't tell you what he was talking about (though I'd bet it had something to do with the Yankees) and ended up falling asleep. It's a great show.

I got up this morning, still covered in pox, showered thinking I'd feel better and also cool me down because my fever still hasn't broken. Then thought I'd get something to eat. Got half way and turned around, went back to the bedroom and flopped down on the bed. I figured I'd listen a little to Deepa and get my energy back up but I was thinking "Puerto Rico. This should be good." And then a second later, I think I fell asleep, I was like, "Woah, what are they talking about." Then my mind drifted (or I probably fell back asleep) and the next thing I know the sports guy is on and I'm thinking, "Okay, this I can focus on." But next thing I knew, it was noon and I was waking up.

It's a really good show but I'm just sick -- itchy with the pox, waiting for a fever to break, and real tired.

If I'd had the energy, even covered with pox, I probably would have tried to go see Amy Goodman. I wouldn't have cared about looking like Thing from the Fantastic Four. :D
But Dad read C.I.'s thing this morning and goes "I'm quoting: 'If you're noncontagious and in the Boston area, make a point to check out the luncheon (provided they aren't all booked up).'"
:D

Good point. Somebody there might not have had the pox or maybe just a mild case. (Ma has checked and I did have them as a kid but just in one area -- my lower back -- and she thinks that I didn't have enough of them to build up an immunity.)

I'm fading, so let's do C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Iraq snapshot.
Chaos and violence.
But apparently those days over because Condi Rice is confident and Jalal Talabani (president of Iraq) is issuing statements on the need to stop the killings (1,1000 Iraqis, according to Talabani, in the month of April -- BBC says 1,091). Yeah, that'll end the conflict.
Meanwhile, back on planet earth . . .
RTE updates the death toll on the Tal Afar bombing yesterday, from 17 dead to at least 24 currently with the "US military" saying at least 134 wounded.
Australia's ABC and AFP report that the "coalition-run Fort Suse prison" has seen five Iraqi "terror suspects" break out. On a similar topic, the Iraqi parliment, that's supposed to be on track and moving forward, hit a stumbling block today "over who should head the oil ministry." Now didn't you just know oil was going to be involved?
Though bombs, car bombs or otherwise, are no longer uncommon in Iraq, CBS and AP report that that a bus was targeted not only by "gunmen" but that the "gunmen" went on to plant "a bomb aboard the vehicle" which killed at least eleven and wounded at least four. The BBC notes that the bus "reportedly" carried "employees of a state-run electricity company." RTE places the death toll at at least 12. The attack on the bus took place near Baquba. In Baquba, Lt. Col. Kanan Hassan and two of his body guards were killed, Reuters notes.
In Baghdad, "Defense Ministry press office employee" Mohammed Musab Talal al-Amari died when his car when assailants ambused his car and opened fire. Also injured in the gunfire was a pedestrian. The Associated Press notes the killing of "two traffic" police officers, a taxi driver and a civilian. A roadside bomb took the life of one Iraqi soldier. And corpses continued to turn up -- today thirteen were discovered("signs of torture").
A victim of a roadside bombing, US soldier, is Cal Perry's entry point in a report he does on the conditions army medics face in Iraq.He estimates the American troop wounded at "roughly 17,500." (17,869 is the figure that Iraq Coalition Casualties gives.)
The Associated Press notes that road side bombs took the life of at least one and wounded at least three.

Be sure to check out Like Maria Said Paz for Elaine's thoughts. And Kat's done another review,
"Kat's Korner: Need deeper? Check out Josh Ritter's The Animal Years" and Josh Ritter is one of Nina's favorites so read the review. Rebecca wrote "hud run by a liar" and you should check it out. (I put Kat's name with a link because the link goes to her site and the review is at The Common Ills -- and I'm tired.) Cedric's got a new post called "Rove about to be indicted?" and Betty's got a new chapter called "The hopping mad Thomas Friedman."


















 

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Music Spotlight: Kat on Pearl Jam

Kat's latest, posted this morning, where she reviews Pearl Jam's new CD (entitled Pearl Jam).
 

Kat's Korner: Pearl Jam does Pearl Jam

And if anybody should come along,
He gonna give you any love and affection,
I'd say get it while you can, yeah!
Hey, hey, get it while you can,
Hey, hey, get it while you can.
Don't you turn your back on love,
No no no, no no no no no.

Kat: As Janis sang in Jerry Ragovoyand Mort Schuman's "Get It While You Can," "don't you turn your back on love." Which brings us to Pearl Jam, the dart board fave of many.

Did Eddie & company market themselves as alternative? I'm not remembering that. I'm remembeing really bad music writers attempting to market Vedder, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Matt Cameron (drummer of late who appears to be sticking but who knows with this group?) and Mike McCready as another slice of alternative Nirvana. Which they weren't.
They've always been a rock band. Never alternative rock. But throw the dart at the music critics (and Epic publicists) who tried to pimp that lie, not the group.

Then there's the whole Ticketmaster issue. The group backed down, some say. Ticketmaster could have been defeated! Want to defeat Ticketmaster? Buy your tickets at the box office. Ticketmaster is just one layer in the shell game (and venues are a bigger issue to me). So if you're convinced that Pearl Jam could've, but didn't, bring down Ticketmaster and you're still using the service to purchase your tickets, throw the dart at yourself.

What are we left with? The 'concert'? The one where the crowds parted in search of different exit routes? Well, if you still have faith in Asshole Press to deliver the news as it really happened, go ahead and hate Pearl Jam. Reality was always that there was no mass exodus which is why it wasn't reported in the original 'journalist''s "report." It only popped up later as they were used in an attempted cautionary tale to silence dissent.

"B-b-b-but Kat, they don't like the Bully Boy!" Okay, fair enough. I really can't imagine anyone in the community stating that as an issue they have with the group, but fair enough. They don't like the Bully Boy, nor were they wild for Bill Clinton, so if that's the make-it-or-break-it for you, head for the exit.

For the other 70%+ in the country, what can we really convict them of? A really bad appearance in Cameron Crow's Singles? I'll conceed that point. Big in Belgium or not, that was embarrassing. If you can get past that, you might want to check their latest, self-titled album.

Pearl Jam left Epic and, made noises about staying away from all the big labels, when their bondage contract with a company that never understood them ended. Like Prince when he emerged from exile from the majors, somehow they ended up with Clive Davis (J Records) which means you should be able to find the CD everywhere outside of Kennebunkport, ME -- land of the Bushes and, I'm sure, several crabs. (It also means they are back on Sony.)

So what will you find if you pick up the CD?

"Parachutes" for one thing. It's the most adventurous song Pearl Jam's done since "Thumbing My Way" which both gives you an idea of how little experimentation has gone on in this group and reassures that you'll have the meat and potato basics. Maggie swore she'd fallen in love with this song. Dak Ho asked her what it was talking about and she said she had no idea, she didn't even know the title. Toni said, "Great, another one you fall into bed without getting a name first." Maggie reminded that a lot of "fun times" had been had "by many" via that route.

Which may be the best argument for this song. It's a tumble. A late night pick up that you're never really sure of. Eddie's voice seems sexy as it careens up and down but maybe he just needed to use the bathroom? You never know until you take the guy home if what you're seeing as a sexy strut is actually the result of excessive urine retention or someone comfortable in his own skin.

It actually should have opened the album. It or "Unemployable" which veers less from the standard Pearl Jam sound but is still different enough to leave a mark.

Sumner says it's like Van Halen circa 5150 or 1984 which I took to mean, "You've got a working band laying down some strong rock." Nothing in "Big Wave" should surprise anyone who already has Vs. Which means, at it's worst, Pearl Jam gives you half-baked Tracy Chapman lyrics delivered in a Doors' style -- "Gone," or as Dak Ho dubbed it, "Semi-Fast Car."

Eddie Vedder remains the inquisitive Soldier of Love and it may be time for him to stop asking so many questions and actually provide some answers. At various points throughout the album, he wonders: "How long must she stand before the ground, it gives"?; "How will he ever dream?"; "Why deny all the troubles"?; "What went wrong?"; "What is human . . . What is more?"; "What can be saved, and who will be left to hold her?"; "Why swim the channel just to get this far?"; and "How loud can silence get?".

As these and other questions pile up, you start to get the idea that lyricist Vedder hasn't done his homework but thinks if he can keep raising his hand and asking questions, teacher might not catch on. The most honest moment may not be the drug song ("Severed Hand") but in "Gone" when he sings "Feel like a question is forming and the answers far." Some might think Vedder meant: "the answer's far." I don't. I think he's saying many answers can be found to every question. He fears the definitive and he fears pinning anything down (might close an "open door" -- he's fond of those open doors). But at some point, you either start providing some answers or you come off sounding like Barbara Walters set to music.

As a lyricist, Eddie Vedder remains the group's weakest aspect. To some, those are fighting words. But at some point you have to note that he's never had a strong sense of rhyming (even when you factor in false rhymes), that his syntax is awkward and that too many songs go nowhere lyrically. When he can work up a rage, justifiable, he can usually provide vocals that overcome the lyrical deficencies but they are deficenies. Some who thought the band was "alternative" might not have noticed, might have thought it was further pursuit of the nonlinear along the lines of Kurt Cobain and Tori Amos; however, it's just bad lyrics in Vedder's case.

Now for those offended, Pearl Jam's a great band. But the lyrical problem should have been dealt with years ago. We're talking about a lyricist who makes Dave Matthews sound like, by comparison, Randy Newman. On "World Wide Suicide" and "Army Reserve," he works up enough outrage in his plaintive vocals to distract. But we're talking about a band that's had fame over a decade now. At what point does reality sink in that the best lyrics recorded by this band come from outside? ("Crazy Mary," "Last Kiss," etc.) When your heroes are the Who and Neil Young & Crazy Horse, you really need to have the lyrics.

I read the above to Sumner and C.I. and both said, "Kat, you know there are people that think Pearl Jam's an alternative band?" Still? When they were being packaged as such by the likes of Time Magazine, I could understand some confusion but their points of reference have never been alternative. They can rock out. They're better than Van Halen and I love them live (most of the Pearl Jam CDs I have are their concerts) but they were about as alternative as Meridth Brooks or Hootie.

Unlike those two, Pearl Jam could make music. It's why they have a career and legacy. But the reason their impact is diluted (and it is, you see wanna be Kurt Cobains every day, you rarely see a wanna be Eddie Vedder) comes down to the lyrics. If you're not a fourteen-year-old boy mistaking endless questions for figuring out the world (with or without taking a few tokes), you're left with non-poetic lyrics that contain no allusions and spit out the basics.

That is a problem when you listen to "Come Back." Here the band create something haunting but you also get Vedder's lyrics which sound as though they were dashed off during wood shop. While Kurt Cobain once wrote "With the lights off, it's less dangerous", Eddie Vedder's far more likely to write "With the lights off, it's dark." It's always obvious, it's always on the nose, it rarely rhymes and melody's never a concern. As they gear up for the 15th anniversary of the release of their first album, it's really time for the group to take a look at that.

So why should I get this? If you're a Pearl Jam fan (and I love them live) or have ever been, you know they make outstanding music. Here they provide enough tunes that can please the base and manage to push the line with with the music on three songs. A real band with a strong vocalist (but losy lyricist). Something to note. Get it while you can.







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Blog Spotlight: Rebecca on Alphonso Jackson of HUD

Rebecca's first commentary on HUD last week.
 

hud run by a liar

i'm still a 'robot' in blogger/blogspot's b.s. eyes tonight.

the key word to type (when i post, to prove i'm not a robot) is 'ujkqmqa' - and they've got it in drippy b.s. writing.

on the plus side, c.i. and kat's complaints about how hard it was to read this bullshit obviously resulted in the option to hear the letters since it's unlikely many could read their slanted, curved letters.

again, don't they have better things to do? there were 2 outagges last week.

and maybe they should actually read a site before they flag it as done by a 'robot'?

i can't imagine any 1 read my site and would think i was a 'robot.' they might think i was a bitch, or worse, but no 1's ever accused me of being a robot before.

mike's sick. he's got chicken pox. i spent a few hours at his house tonight talking to his parents. he was asleep the whole time. when i got back here, i wasn't even sure i'd blog because i'm so pissed at this 'robot' nonsense.

i really think it's offensive. and i think they need to check a site before they flag it.

kat posted a new review last night, "Kat's Korner: Richie Havens: The Economical Collection" and is planning to have another 1 up tonight.

i love richie havens but that's not a cd for me - for all the reasons listed in the review. i have richie havens' albums and this is really more for new listeners. there's a richie havens collection i love. it's called resume: the best of richie havens. it has 17 tracks (1 song's a medley so you get 18 songs) on it, only 6 of which appear on the 'best of.'

did you catch kat's review saturday: "Kat's Korner: Neil Young's Living With War -- key word 'Living'"? that's what i've listened to today, neil young's living with war. i agree that the last track is the 1 you ditch quickly. i'm already over that 1. but the rest of the album is really strong and i'm amazed at how many good cds have come out this year. i hope a lot of other people quit playing 'war got your tongue?' because until they do, the war drags on.

i've got some friends coming over tomorrow afternoon to discuss the war and i'm going to try to serve trina's latest 'Pasta salad with avocado dressing in the Kitchen' - i'm not a good cook. i can be talked through over the phone. but i have found trina's recipes to be practical and becky-proof.

so let's do some news and then i'll post this thing (if blogger/blogspot allows me to).

is alphonso jackson a crook or just a liar? he's the secretary of hud (housing & urban development) appointed by the bully boy. the associated press reports that he gave a talk in dallas, tx and told the group present that he refused to grant a contract to 1 company because the representative of the company didn't support the bully boy:

"He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president,'" Jackson told the group, according to the newspaper.
"I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.'" Jackson told the group, which promotes business opportunities for minorities in the real estate industry.
"He didn't get the contract," Jackson said. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

if the story is true, hold on for that, alphonso jackson is 1 more idiot who thinks he works for the bully boy when, in fact, he works for the people of the united states.

dustee tucker, hud spokesperson, says jackson made the whole thing up. so he's a liar?

She acknowledged that Jackson did not tell the audience the story was made up. But, she said, Jackson used the "hypothetical" story to describe the ruthless politics of Washington. She said the secretary was trying to convey that Washington is a place where political opponents, rather than stabbing you in the back, "will stab you in the chest."

i believe the knife was held by jackson and he waved it in a threatening manner. he needs to go. he is not fit to hold that office. is he a liar? let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's a liar. the liar then wants to set a tone where you either love you some bully boy or you get no contracts. jackson knew that his story (lie?) would be repeated. that's why he bragged about it. he is unfit to hold that office and his ass needs to be kicked to the curb.

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Blog Spotlight: Rebecca on the head liar at HUD

Rebecca covered the HUD issue twice last week.  We're highlighting both pieces. Here's her second one.
 
 

more on hud's lead liar alphonso jackson

it is official. though i have yet to get the promised e-mail, blogger/blogspot has reviewed and decided that i am not a robot.

no more word verification.

now that i've been cleared of the charges, i feel the urge to scream, 'i'm actually part cyborg! like jamie on the bionic woman!'

HUD Secretary Turns Down Contractor Who Criticized Bush
Meanwhile, Housing and Urban Development Department Secretary Alphonso Jackson is coming under scrutiny after he revealed he cancelled a proposed deal with a government contractor who made critical comments of President Bush. According to the Dallas Business Journal, Jackson said the contractor had been selected for a government advertising contract. But the contractor was ultimately not selected after he told Jackson he didn’t like President Bush. Jackson said: "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe." In response, Democratic Congressmembers Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Henry Waxman of California called for a full investigation of Jackson’s contract decisions. In a letter to Jackson, the Congressmemembers wrote: "If this account is accurate, your comments and actions were improper and most likely illegal. Federal contracts should be awarded based on merit, not on whether a contractor likes or dislikes President Bush."

that's from democracy now and i thought i'd start with that because i ended with hud last night.

jackson has a history struggling with the truth, a public history. c.i. passed this on because i'd written about it yesterday. billie had sent this to c.i. to provide a little background on alphonso jackson:


Then there was the Thrilla on Marilla--the lightweight bout between Fielding and Alphonso Jackson which kept us occupied for a few weeks in the winter of 1993. The councilman and the Dallas Housing Authority chief, you may recall, got uniquely physical during a tense meeting in Mayor Bartlett's office. When it was over, no one was at all surprised that someone would want to stomp grapes on Paul Fielding's face--his major in college was, no doubt, the art of bringing out the worst in people. What surprised everyone is that Jackson actually did it.
A diminutive, soft-spoken, horn-rimmed-glasses type, Jackson simply gathered himself into an absolute fury and, like a bull at Pamplona, rammed Fielding face first into the unyielding metal frame of a partially opened door. Blackening eyes. Mangling facial nerves. Sending ears to ringing.
Jackson blew his opportunity to become a sympathetic figure in the eyes of Fielding detractors when he panicked, dissolving into a choke mode--not only denying that he'd beaten Fielding up, but frantically concocting off-the-wall scenarios about what happened. In one, the mayor, who actually witnessed Jackson's handiwork along with half the mayor's staff, was blamed for the bludgeoning.


so he gets into a fight and then lies about it. the author of that piece, by the way, was laura miller who no longer writes for a periodical, she's now mayor of the city of dallas.

and jaime s. jordan provides an update in the dallas business journal, which originally broke the jackson story, that has an interesting footnote:

(On May 3, Tucker told the Business Journal that the contract Jackson was referring to in Dallas was "an advertising contract with a minority publication," though she could not provide the contract's value.)


so on wednesday of last week hud spokesperson dustee tucker was maintaining that the story was true, but yesterday, saying it wasn't.

in congress, house represantives henry waxman and barney frank are asking questions:

In a letter to HUD Secretary Jackson, Reps. Waxman and Frank ask for an explanation of the Secretary's public admission that he decided not to award a contract to a contractor with "a heck of a proposal" because the contractor expressed a negative view of the President.


jackson has more problems. from representative louise slaughter's letter to alphonso jackson:

I was troubled to read recent news reports about the nature of certain contracts awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Specifically, I am concerned that a HUD contract has been awarded to a company allegedly involved in illicit activities including bribery, gambling, and prostitution.
Last week, Harper's Magazine's web blog posted an update to its coverage of the federal contracts awarded to Shirlington Limousine and Transportation, Incorporated of Arlington, Virginia. This report indicated that HUD had awarded the company a $519,823 contract. As you may know, the company's president, Christopher D. Baker, has an extensive criminal history including drug possession, attempted robbery, and car theft along with other offenses over the last decade. Additionally, allegations have been bade that suggest that individuals involved in an ongoing Congressional bribery investigation used the limousine service to provide escorts and other services to federal officials in exchange for federal contracts. The fact that a contract from your agency has been awarded to a company embroiled in such a serious criminal investigation raises significant questions about the HUD's procurement process.
This comes on the heels of reports that at an April 28th Dallas real estate forum, you stated that individuals or organizations who had expressed their opposition to President Bush would not be eligible to receive federal contracts. All qualified organizations and businesses should have the opportunity to compete in the federal procurement process, and contract should be awarded to the company that can do the best work at the least cost to the government. Awarding federal contracts based on political affiliation is not only inappropriate, it is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Therefore, I request that you release all documents and communications in your possession pertaining to any HUD contracts with Shirlington Limousine. Thorough examination of these documents is critical to eliminating suspicion of inappropriate or illegal activity in awarding Shirlington Limousine a federal contract. I also ask you to clarify your comments regarding the eligibility of Administration opponents to compete for federal contracts.
I hope you will swiftly honor my request for the release of all pertinent documents to restore the integrity to the procurement processes of your department.


and just to remember what he said, from an article credited to kutv and associated press:

"I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.'" Jackson told the group, which promotes business opportunities for minorities in the real estate industry."He didn't get the contract," Jackson said. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

whether he's a lie face or trying to back peddle now (like he did when he got into the physical altercation), he needs to step down or fired.
now kat did another review last night: "Kat's Korner: Need deeper? Check out Josh Ritter's The Animal Years." i really love this cd. 'girl in the war' is, musically, the sort of magic brian wilson probably still wishes he could do.

and tonight? goldie, pay attention. she's reviewing pink's new cd tonight. i know a lot of community members have been waiting for it. she actually had this 1 written (i think the free design is the other 1 left that's already written) but she saw something online and decided to rewrite it. i'm really excited and i bet you are as well. so be sure to check for it. and check at the common ills because she posts her music reviews there, not at her own site: kat's korner (of the common ills). she started there and that's her contribution to the community.

the plan is 7 reviews over the next 2 weeks. she's done 3 so far with the 4th going up tonight. if you missed the other 3, the link to animal years is up above and the other 2 are:

"Kat's Korner: Richie Havens: The Economical Collection"
"Kat's Korner: Neil Young's Living With War -- key word 'Living'"

i would like to write about today when i blog tomorrow. (can you follow that?)

but be sure to read c.i.'s "Other Items" and wally's "THIS JUST IN! HILLARY CLINTON LOVES THE BOYZ WHO CHEAT ON HER!" for the latest on hillary. in fact, doesn't she resemble the character of senator in "Head on Home (a musical in four scenes)"?

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Blog Spotlight: Cedric wonders if we close Guantanamo, where will we put Bully Boy?

We love eclectic so we always enjoy "grab bag" and "different stuff" posts.  Here's Cedric covering a number of items.
 

Different stuff

Thursdays, so I'm blogging. (If you're new, I try to blog Tuesdays and Thursdays.)


"Telecom Companies Helped NSA Spy on Millions of US Citizens" (Democracy Now):
Three of the country's largest telecom companies have provided the National Security Agency with the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. This according to a report in USA Today. One source with direct knowledge of the program called it "the largest database ever assembled in the world" whose goal is to collect a record of "every call ever made" within the United States. The Bush administration has insisted its spy program focuses solely on international calls. The companies -- AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth -- have been under contract since after the 9/11 attacks. Only one major telecom company declined to participate in the program. The company, Qwest, reportedly asked the NSA to get FISA-court approval before it would hand over the records. The NSA refused. Although the program does not involve the direct monitoring of phone conservations, it amasses detailed records on who people have called and when they've called them. At least one company had already been implicated in the program. In a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation earlier this year, former AT&T technician Mark Klein said AT&T has been working with the National Security Agency to spy on Americans. In addition to raising new questions about the extent of the NSA spy program and the companies involved, the disclosure also raises new questions about CIA Director-nominee Michael Hayden. Hayden headed the National Security Agency at the time the spy program was implemented. He declined USA Today's request for comment.

If you're thinking, "What's going on?" Well, Elaine's off on Thursdays and I called to check on Mike and he suggested that we both cover the same items. I can't turn down my sick friend. (He said the fever's gone and the chicken pox is going down. I kidded him about having a kid's disease.) So remember how Bully Boy keeps covering up? Remember how Alberto Gonzales told the Judiciary Committee in the Senate that he couldn't talk about all the programs that were going on? This is just one more that we didn't know of. Just one more. There's a lot more going on and if more of it starts coming out, you're going to see the Bully Boy (who has a 31% approval rating right now) look more and more like the crook he is.

"UK Attorney General Calls For Guantanamo Closure" (Democracy Now):
Britain's Attorney General has called for the closure of the US prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In a speech in London, Lord Peter Goldsmith said: "The existence of Guantanamo remains unacceptable."

Here's my problem, if we close Guantanamo, where are we going to send the Bush Crime Family after the war crimes tribunal? I'm only half-way joking. I think Bully Boy is in real danger of being tried for war crimes. Not just because he's committed them. But because so many people are outraged by them. I think this is like Anita Hill where people tried to dismiss her and act as though her charges weren't a big deal or weren't true. And that worked during the confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas, but a year later, there was this huge number of people who believed she told the truth. I think we're going to see something similar when Bully Boy leaves office. All these people who've been silent because they didn't know what they thought or felt that they couldn't think that way about our leader or whatever. When he's out of office, there will be so much disgust expressed openly by people you'd never expect to hear it from.

Go check out Mikey Likes It! to hear Mike's take from his sick bed in the children's ward. (I'm joking with him.)


I listened to KPFA's The Morning Show today and they had an interesting discussion on race issues (they had a great one last week too that C.I., Kat and I were trying to make part of "Where do you get your information?" but everyone was tired. I'm going to push for that topic this weekend. So I'll talk instead about this Canadian documentary they broadcast. It was about the harmful things in the environment -- and the environment is your home. Philip Malderi said in the introduction that it was in a kind of Leave It To Beaver form and it was. I think they named the toddler Sam and I forget the mother, father and older sister's name. But it was a family, and they had a dog, and it addressed the stuff that was in their home without them ever realizing it. Like the dust mites and the dust in the carpet but also things that get tracked in. They used the dog there. He'd been having a blast in the next door neighbor's yard and when he comes back into the house, he's tracking in all the chemicals that they were using in their garden to try to get rid of weeds. And did you know that some of the most pollution you're exposed to is in your car? Sick building disease was talked about too. It was really informative and I'm trying to think of a comment Andrea Lewis made because when I was listening, I thought, "I need to put that in." Now I'm forgetting it. It wasn't about the dust mites. She made some comments on that but it was on something else.

They also talked about how many chemicals children were exposed to. Oh, Andrea Lewis made the point that the air outside was cleaner than the air in many homes. Which also reminds me of Andrea and Philip talking about this one section on air freshners. When people use those, the products usually either just mask the odor or they deaden the nerves (I think it was nerves) in your nose that allow you to smell.

So that was pretty interesting. If you missed it and are interested in hearing it you can go to
KPFA and check out the archives for Thursday or click on The Morning Show and pull up Thursday's show.

Philip almost didn't get mentioned when we were writing "Where do you get your information?" because people were going, "How do you spell it?" (Watch, I'll have mispelled it in this.) "Is it two 'L's?" (C.I. and Kat knew how to spell it.)


Speaking of Kat, I hope everyone's read her four reviews in the last few days:

"Kat's Korner: Pink's not dead or silent"
"Kat's Korner: Neil Young's Living With War -- key word 'Living'"
"Kat's Korner: Richie Havens: The Economical Collection"
"Kat's Korner: Need deeper? Check out Josh Ritter's The Animal Years."

She's done that since Saturday. (She'll have a new review this Saturday.) I've always been a been a big fan of Kat's writing. If you go through the old entries at The Common Ills, you'll see that from before I had my own site. As early as December 2004, I'm praising her because she's a really incredible reviewer. She's doing all these reviews lately for two stated reasons. 1) Ruth is on vacation and music reviews can't replace Ruth but they can provide us with some really interesting things to read. 2) There's so much coming out now that so many have stopped playing "War Got Your Tongue?" (I saw a dopey thing about Bob Dylan and how he performed "Masters of War" in concert -- yeah, and he didn't say one word about the current war. He performed a moldy, golden oldy. He does that on all of his tours because no one's coming to hear the new stuff -- and by "new" I mean anything from the 90s, 80s or 70s. It wasn't a "statement." It was more cowardly acts from the King of Cowards.)

I think there's a third reason. Remember when Kat got attacked by the idiot that she hadn't even written about? And how he e-mailed her with what she needed to put up at her site, only to act like she was saying it and not him? I think she's more than over the All Puff No Politics crowd. They really had a lot of nerve attacking Kat. But that's really the sort of thing they can do -- attack people who speak out against the war while they hide in silence. Grown ups, acting like 12 year-olds addicted to their TVs and putting out puff on really bad TV shows while acting like they're a political site.

They're just a joke. (And a nasty two people, there was this idiotic, screaming rant that one of them sent Ava that could best be summed up as the writer needs therapy.)

So while the Puff crowd have made themselves useless, here's Kat still keeping it real, doing her thing, contributing and refusing to be made useless. Two more things to check out are Betty's "The hopping mad Thomas Friedman" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! HILLARY CLINTON LOVES THE BOYZ WHO CHEAT ON HER!" That's it for me tonight.
 

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Music Spotlight: Kat on The Millennium Collection of Richie Havens

The one and only Kat did four CD reviews we're highlighting.  We'll mix them throughout the highlights.  Here's one of an album that brings back memories of the recent trip to NYC to protest the war. 
 
 

Kat's Korner: Richie Havens: The Economical Collection

Kat: Every now and then, an e-mail will remind me of the Bully Boy economy and suggest that I review something less expensive than a new release. I did that with a Nina Simone double disc CD and quite a few of you were able to locate it.

This is the sort of review that was.

It started when Maggie borrowed a CD, without asking -- also known as theft, and lost it. Not really lost it, she insisted, because, "Lost means lost." Yes, it does. "Lost means lost," sky means sky, sun means sun and "borrow" has its own definition too -- one Maggie can look up when I gift her with a dictionary. In the meantime, my Richie Havens Cuts to the Chase CD is not "lost."

See, Maggie explained, "lost" means it could be anywhere. She knows it fell out of the big black almost-carry-on luggage "purse" she carries. Somewhere on Pico. So it's not lost. She was hurring because she was late and it must have fallen out. But she was going to replace it.

I've heard that song before, I've seen the dance as well. As a member of the reality-based community, I don't put much weight into such statements. It's the morning of April 28th, I'm doing my make up and, in my head, checking to make sure I've packed everything for the trip to DC when Maggie's knock-knock-knocking on my front door. Then I'm looking in the mirror, applying mascara, when I see Maggie waving something.

"I replaced it," she says sticking a CD into my purse.

Well what do you know. She even offers me a ride to the airport.

So I'm on the plane and digging around my purse for some gun when my fingers hit the CD. I pull it out to look at it. It's not Richie Havens' Cuts to the Chase CD. It's The Best of Richie Havens: The Millennium Collection.

I don't know how familiar anyone is with "20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection"?
This is basically a repackaging series. Often the hits of a lot of artists whose labels no longer really exist (gobbled up in the name of synergy). The whole thing looks done on the cheap to me. This isn't a "best of" in the true sense and I'm the last to defend "best of"s and "greatest hits" collections.

The only artist who may benefit from The Millennium Collection is Cher -- who I believe has three collections now (one with Sonny and two solo). That's because there's no consistent musical thread to her work. That's not intended as an insult. But, like Madonna, she's all over the place. In the sixties, there's the earnest folkie of her folk-rockie period railing against the world and, usually, teen pregnanices. There's the early seventies pop storyteller with one "story song" after another about someone dying or someone being ignored. There's the late seventies period that is disco. The undocumented, one album, period where she's trying to be a combination of Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde (Black Rose). Then in the mid-eighties, she finally moves closer to the sort of rock-anthem songs that she's always maintained she wants to do. By the tail end of the nineties, she's back in the disco.

And I won't even attempt to summarize the Sonny & Cher recordings. But the point is, you can slice up Cher's work. You can pair late seventies disco with the Believe period, for instance. But most artists aren't Cher or Madonna. They usually have a thread of some form they're developing in their work. Such as Richie Havens whose percussive, open tuning guitar work had a huge impact (that's frequently forgotten). When on Cuts to the Chase, he covers Jackson Browne's "Lives in the Balance," it's not just another cover. He's bringing to bear three decades of experience (stage, recording and personal) into the song. That's true of all his later recordings, whether they are covers or songs he's written.

So the slice and dice of The Millennium Collection wasn't anything I was waiting to hear. In NYC, Mike and Wally wondered if I'd brought any music? I had but wasn't in the mood to unpack, so I reached in my purse and pulled out the Richie Havens.

They took it out of the plastic and started playing it and I went off to get some sleep. Saturday morning, it's still playing -- and not just because Mike fell asleep on the couch.

Those of us familiar with Havens' work weren't impressed. But those who were hearing him for the first time were blown away. Mike kept trying to persuade me of how great the CD was. Finally, he says, "Everybody, quiet!" and plays "Follow."

"Follow" is one of Havens' masterpieces. (The song's used beautifully in the film Coming Home.) Jerry Merrick wrote it, Havens gave it life. It's a song that will move you and in the early morning hours, with the rally and march bearing down on all of us, it had a hypnotic power that I'd honestly forgotten.

Wally called the following week to complain that the only CD of Havens he could find (at what we used to call "a record store," he knew not to try one of the Big Box Stores) was this one. They could order others, but this was the only one they carried.

Here's my problem with collections. Too often they act as the end-point of entry. Someone buys the CD and, suddenly, that's all they need. They may even think that they have a strong overview of the artist. That's rarely the case as they tend to focus only on the biggest charters on the pop songs. An important song, one that made the artist exciting, may not make the collection.

It may be the song that caused people to look at the artist in a new way. And maybe because it was a new direction or it had some "foul" language in it, it didn't shoot up the charts. A friend's working on a student dance routine and she told me I'd be so happy because she was using Alanis Morissette's "best song." She's going to have kids dancing on stage, in front of their parents, to "You Ought To Know"? No. "Uninvited"? No. "Hand In My Pocket."

Or take Janet Jackson. The Control album made people look at her differently. "Let's Wait Awhile," the only number one, wasn't the reason she got reconsidered. It was "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" with the follow up "Nasty" that made Jackson worth watching. But I picture a future Millennium Collection focusing on the "soft" side ("Let's Wait Awhile," "That's The Way Love Goes," et al.). Those aren't the best songs. They're the ones that can get airplay easiest.

The Best of Richie Havens: The Millennium Collection isn't the best of Havens' work. "San Francisco Bay Blues," for instance, divorced from the other tracks on Mixed Bags, sounds like nothing but the Rogers & Hart rip-off it always was. (Songwriter Jesse Fuller listened to the music of "Where or When" one time too many.)

It's also true that the collection isn't the worst of Havens' work either. Along with "Follow," you get selections from the three albums that made his name in the sixties. (There's nothing here from his historic Woodstock performance.) If you realize Havens is playing the guitar, you get an appreciation for that. Thankfully, the collection contains three photographs (out of five counting cover and back cover) showing Havens with guitar because the booklet dismisses his guitar playing in a single sentence of a four paragraph "essay."

You also get the voice that was never too smooth. Havens didn't do dance routines onstage. He wasn't an "entertainer" in that sense. He told a story and move you -- the voice was just the right equipment to cut through so much cheese that occupied the airwaves then (most of which is, thankfully, now forgotten). It's a voice (then and only more so now) that has a weight to it, a thickness. He can take it to the upper register and then some, but at its core, the voice is gravity.

Since this is the only CD of Havens that's readily available in music stores, it's a great starting point. I can recommend it for that, and the price, provided it's understood as a starting point.
There are some strong tracks besides "Follow." His covers of the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Lady Madonna" will please many. (But pay attention to the guitar work, especially on "Lady Madonna," to really appreciate them.) "Handsome Johnny" (which Havens co-wrote with Louis Gossett, Jr.) is just as pertinent today as it was during Vietnam.

Forget the entire body of Havens' work, if you just know the three albums that the twelve tracks are pulled from, you'll be thinking, "Well, I would've picked ___" (His cover of Donovan's "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" comes to mind immediately.) This isn't an album for people like that or people like me. This isn't a celebration of Havens' craft (not even from the first three albums).

What is it? A great starter set for new audiences. If you've never heard of Havens or only know his name and not his music, this is a CD you can pick up (apparently the only one in many stores). It will tell you why, at a reasonable price, Havens remains a talent worth listening to.

You need to remember that this isn't his "best" in any sense of the word. It is enough to excite first time listeners. Seeing that, I realized how much I (and maybe you) had grown accustomed to his guitar style (which was groundbreaking). So for "the new millennium" crowd, The Best of Richie Havens: The Millennium Collection is probably a wise and economical purchase. You'll hear some of his finer moments (including his cover of Dylan's "Just Like A Woman" and Merrick's "From The Prison"). If the choice is between this or being unstocked (thereby forgotten), I'd choose this. I'll even recommend it to Havens' fans who have his recordings on vinyl. But, cautionary note, this is a starter set. It's not the end-point, nor is it a representation of his finest work (not even from the three albums they cover).












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Mother's Day Spotlight: Trina's Kitchen

We always enjoy Trina's recipes and commentary.  (And we can all make this week's "dish.")  We think this is the most commentary that Trina's ever provided in a single post and, obviously, it's a topic that's important to her.  It's important to her as well.  Mike notes, "Happy Mother's Day, Ma."
 

Popcorn in the Kitchen

A tough recipe for this week.

It requires a few minutes, some seasonings and a microwave.

Take the microwave popcorn of your choice and place a bag in the microwave. Pop until the timer goes off. Open bag, being careful not to let the escaping heat burn you, pour into a bowl and then add seasonings. You may want to use salt -- table salt or sea salt. I prefer sea salt. Or you may with to add some cheese such as parmesan.

If you have children, eat the popcorn with them while sharing details of the week or details you wished had happened in the week.

The point of this? Tomorrow is Mother's Day. C.I. noted something during "And the war drags on . . . (Indymedia Roundup)" that echoed my own thoughts. It's time to trot out another middle-class worry for the state of motherhood, apparently.

Mothers are overworked, just about everyone in our country is -- everyone except our vacationing Bully Boy. But women with partners need to get serious. If you have a partner and you're pulling all the weight, well, as Rebecca said on the phone last night, the sex must be good.
Why else would you put it up with it?

But there's an idea being pushed of a put upon woman who's just so busy doing it all. I read the magazine article (as did Rebecca and C.I. who may have also read the book the article was based upon -- I haven't read the book) and reading of the mother being the first one up to fix breakfast, get the child to school, do this and do that, I wondered exactly why she had a partner?

I've given birth eight times. Maybe that makes mine a no-frills approach? I didn't have the luxury of aspiring towards perfection. I did what I could and everyone pitched in. While I was fortunate to have parents and siblings and grandparents living nearby, the person who pitched in as much as me was my husband. (He still does pitch in equally.)

Forget raising eight children, I couldn't have raised one without help. But, to me, help always came from outside of our home. I never considered it "help" when my husband did his part. They were, after all, his children as well.

I also never suffered from the belief that I was less a woman if I didn't do it all or if the house wasn't just right. In pregnancy, we know we're not going to be able to wear that beautiful dress that looks just perfect and always earns compliments. That's because you're carrying a child even though it looks as though you've swallowed a water mellon. You have to be practical, or really brave, in those last months especially.

I always saw raising children as an extension of pregnancy. Just as you settled for pracitcal when choosing maternity clothes, you settled for practical in terms of the house once kids were a part of it. The fantasy of an white living room was on hold. A white sofa and kids do not co-exist naturally.

Some people raising children by themselves don't have the luxury of another person to do their share. They may also not have friends or family who can help out. If that's you, stop reading. It's Saturday and you already do enough so if you've got the time to read right now, use it instead to do something fun for yourself.

But if you're reading and you have children and a partner, I'll share a few things that you can take to heart or dismiss.

If you're taking your child (or children) to school every day, why is that? Your partner can't find the school? Is he (or she) banned from school property?

You're making breakfast every morning shortly after you rise, why is that? No one else can work the stove?

My point here is to ask: why?

In some cases it's because we buy into this notion that if we don't everything we're supposedly supposed to do, we're somehow failing. (As "mothers" for women -- but this may apply to some men, both straight and gay, raising children as well.) That's cultural learning, not practical experience.

With eight children, there were always multiple needs. If I was dealing with one child's crisis when another child needed my attention, I learned quickly my limitations as one person. "Go talk to your father." It's one sentence, you can say it. (Or "Go talk to your mother" for some people.) If it couldn't wait and I was already dealing with one issue, then I couldn't deal with two, or three, or four, or five, or . . .

Our son Mike has written about how all the children were expected to pitch in. That's a necessacity in a big family. It should be the case in any family. One person cannot and should not carry the burden or the bulk of the burden.

The children knew they were responsible for making up their own beds, to give one example. That didn't mean, and this is a point that had me nodding when I read C.I.'s entry, that I then went back and said, "That's not good enough for me, I'll remake that bed." I wasn't sleeping in it. If it was a little sloppy, to steal from Cedric, "Oh well." I had enough work without making additional work for myself by deciding that everything would be perfection.

Mike was the worst about making his bed. He knew his oldest sister would come along and straighten his attempt for him. When she moved out, he suddenly had to face that his bed wouldn't be fixed by her and he started making it correctly. All knew how to do that. They were shown that and then, however, they made it up was their business. (They did, however, have to make it up. It might just mean pulling the bed spread up, as was the case with Mike, but they had to make it.)

I thought of an aunt when I read C.I.'s comment a sociology professor had made. I called C.I. and aksed, "Is the woman talking about her mother having a problem with the beds?" She was. I knew it because that was my aunt. The bed had to be made just so, with the corners just so, the pillows just so, everything just so. Her husband would make it and she would rip everything apart and remake it herself.

If it was her hang up and gave her peace, more power to her, but everyone in my family felt she was making more work for herself.

So that's a piece of advice, don't make more work for yourself.

Children forget things. That includes making beds, so you send them back to their rooms to make up their beds. But I'm actually thinking of "I need . . ." It may be a practice or game that they've forgotten. In that case, Cedric again, "Oh well." If they waited until the last minute to inform me of a practice or a game, they didn't go. Even if I had the time or my husband had the time to take them. If they were old enough and able to get their own (walking or taking the bus), then they could go. Otherwise, they missed it. They quickly learned that if they wanted a ride, they needed to say something ahead of time. I came up with that rule early on and both my husband and I followed it with only the exception of a special practice or rehearsal being called at the last minute. If that happened, it certainly wasn't the fault of any child but of an adult who couldn't plan.

What about school projects? An assignment is due the next day and you hear "I need . . ." Due to that being something that's academic and graded, that meant going out at the last minute for it. But not without consequences. If it took us an hour to get ready for the store, go to the store, buy the item and come back home, that was an hour the child who had the need was giving the next day to something around the house. (Usually dusting because things always need dusting.) I said that upfront. "We'll run to the store now, but tomorrow, you're dusting."

As with missing a game or a practice, they learned quickly that they needed to be more on the ball and not wait until the last minute.

With the first child, I had all these dreams and probably would have tried to be Martha Stewart (or my concept of her) for several years had the second child not quickly followed. I also benifitted from the fact that I was raised after the second wave of feminism and was aware, from my own mother and her sisters, of the critiques that came before.

Maybe other women haven't been as lucky. But once you have children, regardless of what you know about feminism going in, you have real life experience. You can learn from it or you can live in a fantasy world.

If playing Joan of Arc is your idea of happy, go for it, by all means. And if listing all the duties you've grabbed is your way of feeling better about yourself, continue sharing. But most women I know aren't going to be listening and thinking, "You're awesome!" Hopefully, if it makes you happy, they'll be happy for you. But other than that, you're asking for something you're not going to get: sympathy.

Our second oldest son and our daughter Kelley (Kelley and Mike are the only ones who don't mind if I use their names here) was the worst about needing something cleaned. He was the first to be put on laundy duty as a result. After I taught him how to use the washer and dryer, he could wash anything of his whenever he wanted. He also took care of the wash period. That's a huge job in any family, especially one of our size. My husband and I would help him at least once a week and during spring cleaning, but we always let him know, "We're here to help, you're calling the shots." He took a lot of pride in the task. Before that, it was split between his older brother and sister with my husband and I on back up duties and we were forever running behind. When all he had to focus on was his own bedroom and the laundry, he took to it with such enthusiasm that we were all shocked. (He'll say to this day that he was so glad not to have different tasks each week but the same ones.) He made up his own schedule and, as we did with the kids on other things, he enforced it. If he did laundy Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and someone needed something, just had to have it, cleaned Wednesday night, "Oh well."

Cooking meals was always my task. The kids, as they grew older, would often make their own snacks. But when you're cooking for so many children and at least two adults, it really is a task, not just in terms of the amount of work but in terms of knowing how much to fix. I'm sure I've done my share of complaing to friends and family about having to stagger half-awake into the kitchen each morning. But meals were the only task I made my own. And, as I've written before, the thought of several courses, went out of the marriage early on. (My husband would usually bring home chicken or pizza whenever we could afford it. However, with a large family, if something burned -- and it often did, burned beyond eating -- you were looking at throwing out a sizeable portion of food so it just wasn't worth it.)

If one of the children wanted to watch TV in after school and had passed the "Have you done your homework?" quiz, great. While they watched, they could pick up the living room or dust. There was always a number of things needing to be done and by spreading it out, it was done. That's not to say the house was spotless, it is to say it's always been liveable.

Except when a cold or flu was running through the family. When that happened, as a parent, I did pick up the slack. But when everyone was healthy, everyone did their part.

Mike's youngest sister, the baby of the family, has grown through life with the statement/threat that when she gets married, she's making all of her children do everything. As the baby of the family, she wasn't old enough to see what a team we really were. (She also doesn't grasp that what she does now, such as cleaning the living room, isn't as difficult as it was for her siblings when there were eight of them living in the home. There is much less to pick up now.)

But when she makes that vow/threat today, I'm not hurt. I think it's great that if she has children (she may not, not everyone has children, it's not a requirement though the article may make you think it is), she's already realized that she's not going to have to do it all.

Reading the article, and I'm being nice and not mentioning it, I felt I was reading about some with actual problems (such as single mothers with no support network) and some who had decided they were Joan of the Hearth willing to burn at the stake to be Super Mom. If that's your fantasy, go for it. But don't plan on having a large family unless you've got good insurance that will pay for your lengthy, hospitalized rest.

I kept thinking, "She needs an Alice." Remember The Brady Bunch. Did Carol Brady ever do anything besides read in bed and occassionally help Alice carry in the groceries? I'm not remembering it. I'm remembering Alice serving dinner at the table and Alice cleaning and Alice doing pretty much everything. If you can afford help, go for it.

But most of us can't. Which is why, I argue, you have to realize that a family is not a group of people you are there to serve. A family is group of people who all pitch in.

That's not one person and reading the tale of the first woman, I thought, "Give her two more years tops and she'll either be institutionalized or she's going to wise up." Nudge your partner in bed, and tell him/her to get up and make up toast. Toast can be a breakfast meal. If you're that stressed out, toast can be all that is cooked. It can be rounded out with a piece of fruit and/or cereal. And that shower the woman was rushing to take and get her make up on? She could have done that fifteen to twenty minutes later while her husband and child were in the kitchen.

I didn't dislike the woman, but I didn't sympathize with her. I felt she was taking on everything and that she needed to decide whether she got her kicks doing that or not. If she does, complain for fun, many people do. If she doesn't, she needs to stop trying to do it all.

That may be harder to grasp when it's just you, a partner and one child. You may think, "Well I should do everything." But I showed the article to my friends and we were all, sad to say, laughing at the woman. Not at the difficulties she had, but at the fact that she was making her life more difficult. She might get sympathy in some eager beaver Mommies & Me class. But among working class women, she just received a lot of laughs. She was trying to be Carol Brady and Alice rolled into one. Someone needs to tell her, "The Brady Bunch was a TV show."

Times are hard. Everyone has to work these days. That's adults (inside the home and often out) and children. No one can do it alone and, a point of feminism, no one should have to.

But what most bothered me about the article, timed to celebrate Mother's Day, was this notion of Mother's Day as a holiday. That's a nice little TV movie, it's not reality. There is never Mother's Day that is an off day. Quit kidding yourself. Once you have children, you are always "on." Even when they leave home, they often choose Mother's Day as the day to break some news, usually not, "I got a raise, Ma!"

But that's life. There's no holiday in life, either. You get together and celebrate the holidays you celebrate and they're as messy as any other day with someone breaking bad news or working through some perceived sleight from years ago. (I have an older sister who has to, has to, bring up the fact that our youngest sister got a wonderful coat, years after we'd left the house, when she never got her dream coat, always had to have a cloth coat, and how much that hurt her, at 23, to come home and see our youngest sister in that rabbit fur coat -- you'd think it was a mink stole. We've all heard the story a million times and know we'll continue to hear it a million more.)

I was also bothered by another thing and I was glad to hear from C.I. and Rebecca that they were as well. They felt the article was written for Young Bride and not for our current world. I'll agree with that. Reading over and over about "maternity leave" (sometimes the authors tossed in "paterntiy leave"), I did have to wonder exactly how well off the authors were? Reality is that these days, FAMILY LEAVE is much more likely to be used to care for an ailing parent. With the baby boom hitting the golden years, that's only going to become more common. Parents are going to have to deal with not only children but their own parents. The world portrayed in the article struck me as highly simplistic in many cases.

For all the sympathies to single mothers, the article struck me as something written by and for White, upper-middle-class women. It was divorced from reality.

Whether those with partners were taking on every duty or not, there wasn't a thing in the article that hadn't been written by second wave feminists and that women haven't been dealing with for many years. But the article didn't seem to have any appreciation for feminism. After the first story (the woman trying to do it all), it should have been pointed out, "You don't have to do it all." Feminist writing I grew up on would have made the point then if not opening with it.

It seemed to glorify in the notion of "Oh the work we do." Considering the state of the world, not present in the article, I was not impressed.

There was no discussion of the value of the work that goes unpaid, no suggestion, as Gloria Steinem has often made, that all this unapid work (essential to society) should be factored in the GDP (as is done in Canada). It was two women writing about women with no feminist perspective beyond "wages!" Wages are important and a huge body of work already exists on that topic that addresses the topic much better.

I imagined some good soul reading the article and making the mistake of making it a Mother's Day gift to their own mother. That's about as useful as the multitude of ties many fathers get every Father's Day. There's nothing in the article that should be news to most women. It read like a make-work project that was done between luncheons.

Is that harsh? So is life right now. We're a nation at war, not noted in the article, and they want to share a bunch of stories and a few facts (on wages) that aren't news to any but the most sheltered. Considering that the organization responsible for the book is the same organization that goes through periods of ignoring the war, that's really not surprising.

But if anyone's purchased the book as a Mother's Day gift, let me help you out and possibly salvage tomorrow, don't give it. No mother needs that book as a gift. She's probably quite aware of her life without a hastily put together book telling her about it. Give her something useful like CODEPINK's Stop The Next War Now. Or, as C.I. suggested, Judith Stacey, Susan Bereadu and Dan Daniels' wonderful And Jill Came Tumbling After: Sexism in American Education. (A great book that my mother gave me when I had my first child. At a time when I was getting various child care books, all with soothing language and soggy 'theories,' this was the only book worth the time of reading.)

Semi-soulful explorations on the state of motherhood may be news to some, but not to mothers. Possibly, those as well off as the authors appear to be may read it and be shocked that not everyone has all the benefits they do but working women have no use for this book. If they want to know about wages, they want to know about them at length and this article's factoids don't indicate that there's anything in it that addresses the structured system in the United States, merely notes it and proposes some hand wringing.

My husband wondered if the book might offer more than the article? If so, that the authors' problems. They got several pages to make their case (promote their book) and only served to waste time and kill any interest in their book.

I'll note this from CODEPINK:

Declare peace on Mother's Day with CODEPINK! We will be gathering in Washington DC for a 24-hour vigil outside the White House on May 13-14, and will be joined by amazing celebrity actresses, singers, writers, and moms, including Cindy Sheehan, Patch Adams, and Susan Sarandon! Bring your mother, children, grandmothers, friends, and loved ones. We will be honoring the mothers of the fallen by sending them organic roses. Click here to send your rose! We're also writing letters to Laura Bush to appeal to her own mother-heart, turning them into a book, "Letters to Laura." For event info click here, read our blogs and check out our online store for gift ideas.

I think you should know about it. Why? You can see how much attention it gets from the media. That's women honoring Mother's Day which isn't about, as intended, taking a "break" from the world. And most mothers tomorrow won't get a break from the world. Maybe, if they're of a certain economic bracket and they've martyered themselves all year, their spouses will take a little pity on them and give them breakfast in bed. Maybe even take them out for a nice lunch or dinner. But in the real world that most of us live in, we'll be doing what we usually do while hopefully getting a hug from our kids. That's reality.

So instead of trying to fix something wonderful this week, let's all just make a point to pop some pop corn and, if we're lucky, share it with the people in our lives. Have a nice conversation about what's going in our lives and in the world around us. Be part of the world around you.

Some things worth reading:
"The joke is always Thomas Friedman. Always."
"THIS JUST IN! HILLARY CLINTON LOVES THE BOYZ WHO CHEAT ON HER!"
"preaching to the converted"
"Different stuff"
"Guns & Butter and the crappy 1000th issue of Rolling Stone"
"Bully Boy caught lying & spying again"
"NYT: The intentionally blind and the willfully useless (yes, Dexy's back in print)"
"hud run by a liar"
"more on hud's lead liar alphonso jackson"
"The news is not good."
"Chaos and violence continue"
"TV: The Urine Stains of David Mamet"
"Darfur"
"Head on Home (a musical in four scenes)"
"TV commentary takes a back seat this week to Colbert"
"Shame of the Week (Musical)"
"NYT: Says nah-nah, we did in December, though they really didn't (Shane & Lichtblau)"
"Kat's Korner: Pink's not dead or silent"
"Kat's Korner: Need deeper? Check out Josh Ritter's The Animal Years."
"Kat's Korner: Richie Havens: The Economical Collection"
"Kat's Korner: Neil Young's Living With War -- key word 'Living'"

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