Holden - I got through Dylan's 'Chronicles' recently and it had several anecdotes about he and Hank's relationship. I know you're a big fan of his - thought you might be interested.
Regarding the Green Day suckage factor - I personally don't like them much.... but then, that isn't even close to being the point.
They used to come to a local club here in the early 90's. This was about the time of 'Kerplunk' and they were very much on our radar back then. They had no money, but were touring their tulips off.... a lot. And by touring, I mean yer basic Dodge van with a riser in the back and a $5 per diem. This went on for years.
One night, Billy Joe made a plea from the stage; "Hey - can we crash at someone's place tonight"? Kinda sad, but we used to do the same thing when out on the road. I have an appreciation for showers that since, has never left me. Same goes with couches, a TV, a fridge, and real beds. This chick Shelley who I was kinda dating and who used to photograph all the unheard of bands that used to pass through said "sure." She had a POS house, but she was like the only one we knew with an actual house. And we partied our arses off that night with this POS band called Green Day, like we would do a few more times before 'Dookie' blew up in '94.
I saw them a few months ago, in a Stadium... and it was awful. It wasn't a show, it was a show, and their songs took very much a back seat to showmanship. I didn't expect much, and I was given the tickets, and I really haven't followed them since the early nineties. That being said... and stripping away any context - 'American Idiot' is very much a great album by a band that only these last couple of years has reached the top of their game.
Anyways, this is all a kind of a meaningless anecdote, and it really is beside the point, but I say it just as a point of reference.
Because yesterday, they released the video that I linked to. Today it is #1 on MTV.
Yesterday, I mentioned that the maximum age for Reserve recruits has been upped to 39. Two weeks ago, the Defense Department quietly asked the Congress to up the maximum age for military recruits for all branches of the service to 42.
Everybody knows that the enlistment numbers are so far south that the downward spiral has started to spin counter-clockwise. The response from our culture - be it the arts, the media, what have you - has been either MIA, or has come up so weak that the only thing we can point to is the Dixie Chicks for Chrissakes.
Then you have this video.
Corny? Yes.... a little. But as effective as a mallet to the head. And usurping 50 cent's (or whoever else's) domination of the charts and telling the kids that hey - you might want to think twice.
Support for the war has plummeted into the thirties. Bush is under virtual siege at his ranch because he just cannot face a lone mother and her greiving. It is undeniably sad.
It really is the summer of our discontent.
Lazs - you call my lack of support for this circus "predictable."
Thank you. No, really.
