Month: July 2004

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

“Feeling Better”

Vice President Dick Cheney admitted Friday that he “probably” used an obscenity in a heated exchange with Democratic senator Patrick Leahy.

Cheney uttered a common vulgarity for sexual intercourse, variously heard by witnesses as “f–k you” or “go f–k yourself,” in the normally staid Senate chambers following references by Leahy to Cheney’s involvement with corporate giant Halliburton.

In a later appearance on Fox News, a feisty Cheney defended his four-letter rebuke. “I expressed myself rather forcefully; felt better after I had done it,” he said. He added that many of his Republican colleagues cheered his clever rebuke as something that “badly needed to be said, that it was long overdue.”

Leahy later sardonically described the exchange as “a little floor debate between me and my good friend Dick — and I do mean Dick — Cheney.” When asked by a Washington Times reporter to elaborate, Leahy replied, “What? Do I need to draw you a picture, a–hole?”

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, calling for his colleagues to rise above “partisan retaliation,” said he was surprised the usually mild-mannered Leahy would resort to such language. “But that’s about what I’d expect from a c–sucker like Cheney,” he added. “Yeah, I said ‘c–sucker.’ And I feel great!”

Although many in government have deplored the increasing rancor and vulgarity in political discourse, others insist such heated rhetoric is a necessary part of the frank exchange of ideas and is “long overdue.”

“We’ve still got a little thing called freedom of speech in this country,” said Attorney General John Ashcroft. “And any son of a b–h who tries to mess with the First Amendment is gonna get my eagle soaring right up his a–!”

In a rare press conference, President Bush told reporters he was glad to hear Ashcroft coming out so forcefully for the Constitution. “Maybe he’s not such a d–smoker after all,” Bush mused to a clearly surprised press corps. He added, in apparent reference to Ashcroft’s covering of seminude statues in the Department of Justice, “Come on, don’t tell me you guys didn’t think he was a f—-t for covering up those statues. Those were the hottest t–s in D.C.!”

This coarsening of the national dialogue has recently shown signs of spreading worldwide. After the recent defeat of a Bush administration resolution before the United Nations, one delegate described Secretary-General Kofi Annan as “one bad–s m———-r.” When fellow delegates — after an unusually long wait for translation — expressed outrage at his characterization, the diplomat defended himself by saying, “Hey, I’m just trying to give my boy Kofi his props.”

Even the ultra-debonair Tony Blair has gotten into the act, calling on French prime minister Jacques Chirac to “lighten up” about Iraq and “stop being such a t–d in the punch bowl.”

One consequence of this verbal arms race is that those who do not keep pace risk losing their ability to shock. Lost amid the tumult of the last few days has been an audiotape released by Al-Jazeera, which CIA analysts have confirmed contains the voice of Osama bin Laden. Apparently responding to remarks by Pope John Paul II condemning recent terrorist atrocities, bin Laden called the pope a “crusader puppet of the Great Satan, America.”

When told of bin Laden’s words, the feeble but still mentally sharp pope laughed and replied, “Is that all you got, Osama? Come on, you can do better than that, you camel-humping piece of s–t!”

The pope is reportedly feeling better than he has in weeks. n

Michael Compton is a Memphis writer.

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Short Cuts

Rejoicing In the Hands

Devendra Banhart

(Young God)

I do a lot of writing and research on the creative endeavors of complete strangers, therefore, I do a lot of Googling. When I Googled “Devendra Banhart,” I was awarded an astonishing 78,900 results. Keep in mind that, in contrast to “Tortoise,” “Nuclear Assault,” or “Circle Jerks,” the words “Devendra Banhart” will not likely get confused with anything but the artist’s moniker. The results were also astonishing because Banhart not that long ago came out of nowhere with a brand of outsider acoustic music steeped equally in the pre-pop skiffle prevalent on the Broadside and Folkways labels in the ’50s and ’60s, John Fahey, the fried folk of Marc Bolan’s early Tyrannosaurus Rex, and an arcane style that is all his own. That he has been so widely embraced may seem odd at first exposure, but Banhart’s songwriting is so strong, playful, and commanding that it could endear itself to a surprising variety of listeners, jaded or not.

Less accessible than Nick Drake, to whom he is often compared, Banhart is like a less frustrating Will Oldham (Palace, Bonnie “Prince” Billy) who went ahead and made great albums instead of clogging up the process with pretentious filler. But while Oldham’s voice is distinctly his own, Banhart’s high-end quiver is indebted to the above-mentioned Bolan.

The story goes that after finishing up at the San Francisco Art Institute, Banhart appointed himself to the full-time position of drifting bard, casually distributing his four-track demos. These demos came to the attention of Michael Gira, proprietor of Young God Records, main man in the Angels of Light, solo artist, and onetime ringleader of the Swans (the earlier incarnations of which can be amusingly credited with some of the more purely violent American music ever made).

Gira was enamored enough to begin a quick succession of Banhart releases, beginning with 2002’s Oh Me, Oh My, 2003’s The Black Babies, and this year’s Rejoicing In the Hands. Banhart’s babe-in-the-woods naiveté, genuine originality, and aggressively intimate live performances immediately began to wrangle the hype machine. Rejoicing In the Hands is fuller than its predecessor, with some hand-clap percussion, back-up vocals, layering, and relatively little allegiance to low fidelity. It retains the unearthed-field-recordings-of-undetermined-age feel often assigned to his work, though “The Body Breaks” and “Fall” have strong pop sensibilities.

Folk music may be always associated with acoustic guitars or singer-songwriters, but it was initially termed because it was music “made by folks.” Devendra Banhart honors this original intention and adds new moxie and topicality to decades of traditional American music. –Andrew Earles

Grade: A

Devendra Banhart performs at the Hi-Tone Café Thursday, July 1st, with Joanna Newsom and Vetiver.

463

Buck 65

(Warner Bros. Canada)

I’m a huge fan of Nova Scotia’s Richard Terfry, aka Buck 65. His music — sorta folksy, sorta hip-hop-y, sorta astonishing — sounds like the frontier of urban cowboys’ dreams: It’s creaky, nailed together with available materials, and often as beautiful as the echoes, wind, and arid open spaces that surround it. But in contrast to this vast, ingenious, duct-taped, acoustic-instrumental sound, Buck 65’s singing/speaking voice is nearly expressionless. He often sounds like he’s whispering bedtime stories or confessions in the dead of night to anyone who will listen. It really helps that he happens to be the finest lyricist working right now, a smart and articulate guy in love with words and jokes who can write with compassion, exactitude, and wisdom about his mother’s death, his favorite foods, and the last time he cheated on his girlfriend.

Buck 65’s last full-length, Talkin’ Honky Blues, was my favorite album of 2004. This EP is a 17-minute reminder of things past and things to come: a big rock remix and original take of the Talkin’ Honky song about double plays and childhood (where “The whole world was made of wood and smelled like gasoline/The days were at least twice as long and the grass was green”), a Wild West romance with a killer Ennio Morricone-ish hook, one rather nondescript piece of filler, and a live track. Sadly, I don’t know anyone who’s not a rock critic who’s even heard of this guy. Follow their (and Buck’s) lead: Be brave and curious. –Addison Engelking

Grade: A-

E-mail: herrington@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Ediorial

In its 5-4 decision on Monday barring prosecutors from enforcing the Child Online Protection Act, the Supreme Court inched somewhat closer to clarifying two problem areas — pornography and the Internet — that are vexing enough in themselves and doubly so when joined together.

COPA was passed in 1998, a year in which Congress seemed determined to construct explicit parameters for a society in flux. (Another case in point was that year’s Defense of Marriage Act, which attempted to define the institution as exclusively heterosexual.) The Child Online Protection Act made it a crime to publish “any communication for commercial purposes that includes sexual material that is harmful to minors, without restricting access to such material by minors.” It defined “harmful to minors” as lacking “scientific, literary, artistic, or political value” and invoked local “community standards.” COPA provided a maximum penalty of $50,000, along with six months in prison and additional civil fees.

Predictably, the act faced immediate litigation from the A.C.L.U. and other groups, and it ultimately met with an appeals-court injunction staying enforcement. It was that earlier ruling which the high court met to consider. The majority opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, was joined in by justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg, John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, and Clarence Thomas. That’s two liberals, two centrists, and an archconservative, and what these justices essentially argued was that, pending a full trial to adjudicate the issues, a filtering system might be preferable to criminal sanctions.

In other words, technology can resolve the issue better than snoops and lawyers. That’s an interesting variation on the old “hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-you” remedy. It’s a novel idea and worth a try.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Editorial

Almost no Memphian needs to be reminded that our city is the cradle of rock-and-roll. And of the blues. And of “soul.” And of innumerable other streams of popular music, as well as the social revolutions that came with them. So why are we devoting this issue to commemorating the fact? Because, like the city itself, through the Convention & Visitors Bureau and various participating entities, we’re in a mood to celebrate that reality — one that distinguishes us like no other.

We’re a crossroads city, a point of historical contact for races and cultures. We developed traditions early on that allowed various genres of music to develop and flower. Yes, we’re the real deal, and we know it, even though the fact is, we don’t know all the reasons why.

Many of them are summed up in this issue, however, as they are in the current issue of Memphis magazine, our sister publication, and in a comprehensive book that CMI, Inc., our parent organization, will shortly publish in conjunction with the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Thanks, Sam. Thanks, Elvis. Thanks, B.B. Thanks, W.C., Ike, Carl, Willie, Otis, Rufus, Carla. Thanks … Well, there’s no end to such a list, once you get started. That’s why we hope you read and enjoy all the aforementioned sources by way of reminder. And by way of celebrating with us.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Bum Rap

Everywhere you look these days there is 8th District U.S. representative John Tanner of Union City involuntarily playing straight man for Michael Moore.

He’s in the promos for Fahrenheit 9/11 on all the TV channels, getting his hand pumped in front of the U.S. Capitol as Moore ropes Tanner in for one of the filmmaker’s patented ambush interviews. In the film itself (which is doing blockbuster business in virtually every kind of venue), Tanner is Exhibit Number One among various congressional foils as Moore sallies forth, a compliant U.S. Marine in tow, to do some mock recruiting for the war in Iraq.

The idea — or, more accurately, the dramatic frame — is: These congressional hypocrites have voted for the war but aren’t willing, as Moore straight-facedly implores them, to send their own kith and kin to fight in that Middle Eastern cauldron.

Never mind that Tanner explains to Moore that his children are grown adults with families.

Never mind that he doesn’t challenge anything the filmmaker says, even attempting to express sympathy for Moore’s antiestablishment views. He’s still presented as a fall guy, a stand-in for President Bush‘s war policies. Why?

Tanner, though a Democrat from a rural West Tennessee district that historically has included portions of Memphis and Shelby County, has the blue-suited clean-cut look one might otherwise see in many a suburban Republican member of Congress. And he has a broad Southern accent. That makes him a perfect foil for Moore, a tubby Michigander who’s gotten rich from his barn-burning books and films but still affects the look of a rumpled day laborer. A “tribune of the people,” you see.

One of the other congressmen set up by Moore has complained that he told Moore he had a nephew who was headed for military service in Afghanistan and that he’d be glad to help with the “recruiting” effort but that these parts of the conversation were trimmed from the film. (A transcript available last week on Moore’s own Web site seems to bear out the congressman, Representative Mark Kennedy, R-Minn.)

Tanner was placed in an even more misleading context. True, he voted for the October 2002 Use of Force resolution that would ultimately, for better or for worse, give President Bush the go-ahead to commence hostilitiesagainst Saddam Hussein. For the record, so did Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry; Senator John Edwards and Representative Dick Gephardt, Kerry’s two most likely choices for a running mate; and 9th District U.S. representative Harold Ford, among others.

But here’s a scene you won’t find in Moore’s movie. Let us fade to election night in November 2002. The scene is the downtown Hilton in Nashville, where various Tennessee Democrats, including Tanner, have been following the televised returns showing a surprise Republican sweep in congressional elections. Quoting from my report in the following week’s Flyer, we see a troubled Tanner, “who nursed a libation in his hotel room … and professed outrage at Bush and the GOP as the bad news from national contests streamed across the bottom of his TV screen.

“‘Those people ought to be arrested and tried for fraudulence!’ Tanner said. ‘They took our minds off what was important, the economy, and sold us a bill of goods about Iraq. The idea, trying to convince us that a two-bit tinhorn dictator with 20 million starving people was a threat like Adolf Hitler! They don’t have any weapons to bother us with! The whole thing was an election fraud. Nothing but!'”

How’s that for buyer’s remorse? And how’s that for a far-sighted presentation of the same point of view that film-splicer Moore labors so hard and cleverly to assemble in Fahrenheit 9/11?

Though a Navy veteran, Tanner is no war hawk. Au contraire. And though I was impressed by the forthrightness of his election-night remarks, I almost came to feel guilty in reproducing them, since a right-wing Nashville blogger exploited them for a whole week thereafter to accuse Tanner, a certified “Blue Dog” conservative, of being a lefty know-nothing.

But that was no more unfair or ludicrous than the way Tanner just got treated by that celluloid blogger of the left, Michael Moore. Not that Tanner will be impacted much among his home folks. His official Republican opponent this year, one James L. Hart, is an avowed racist who has begun to be repudiated by official spokespersons for the party.

Hart got the GOP nomination by default, since it’s hard to dig up credible opposition to Tanner in the 8th District, whose voters know him to be a levelheaded, fair-minded centrist. Michael Moore has no idea who he is. n

Categories
News The Fly-By

Political Briefs

Dr. Jeff Warren, a family-practice physician and a newcomer to politics, became the first formal filee Monday for the District 5 (Midtown) school board seat being vacated by Lora Jobe. At his filing, Warren was flanked by a diverse group of supporters including state senator Steve Cohen, state representative Beverly Marrero, activist David Upton, Dr. George Flinn, and Jobe herself.

n Financial analyst Dennis Bertrand of Newbern has become a write-in candidate for the 8th District congressional seat with the backing of TeamGOP, a statewide Republican organization anchored in Tipton County. The organization has repudiated formal GOP nominee James L. Hart for avowedly racist views. Incumbent Democrat John Tanner is a heavy favorite.

n U.S. representative Harold Ford’s cup runneth over. The political newsletter Roll Call reported that FedEx plans a party in honor of the highly visible congressman at this month’s Democratic convention in Boston. Entertainer Justin Timberlake is rumored to be aboard.

n Senator Lamar Alexander is the target of criticism from the Rev. James Dobson and other national pro-life activists for being one of the signatories of a letter sent to all members of the Senate calling on President Bush to rescind his restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Medical Tour Guides

When Marva Turner underwent breast cancer treatment at Baptist Hospital, a health-care social worker was by her side. Unfortunately, many patients have to endure this process alone, which can lead to misinformation and fear. Congress has proposed a bill to ensure that patients with chronic disease are no longer left alone to manage the health-care maze.

The Patient Navigator, Outreach, and Chronic Disease Prevention Act is a sort of “buddy system” bill that pairs patients with a health-care professional. The “navigator” would help patients schedule appointments, arrange transportation, and identify financial sources to pay for medical care.

“This year 30,850 people will be diagnosed with cancer and another 12,710 will die in Tennessee,” said Turner. “This legislation can benefit people in Memphis. For people who are isolated and don’t know where to get help, just knowing somebody is there would really be good for them.”

The bill has garnered support from several health-care organizations, including the American Cancer Society, which has lobbied Tennessee congressional members to support the legislation. If approved, the National Cancer Institute and similar health alliances would become responsible for allocating grants to outreach organizations. Patients requesting navigator services through the American Cancer Society would pay fees based on their financial ability to do so, said ACS community advocacy spokesperson Dena Owens. n

The proposal is modeled after successful programs such as the Harlem Navigator Program in New York City. After that program began in 1990, New York’s early diagnosis of breast cancer has improved from one out of 20 to four out of 10. Kansas City, Missouri’s program reduced the number of days from cancer screening to treatment from 176 to 28. Hazard, Kentucky’s program has lowered the one-year cost of hospitalization from more than $1 million to $250,000.

The bill is currently pending before the senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Making Over Memphis

Six Memphians will get their 15 minutes of fame and a whole new look when the crew from Fox Television’s Ambush Makeover comes to town in August.

Casting for the Memphis shoot began this week on the show’s Web site and runs through July 12th. On the show, a crew of stylists takes subjects nominated by their friends or family from salon to boutique, revamping their appearances.

“If you think your mom needs a makeover, go to the Ambush Makeover Web site and do the whole thing there,” said Cathleen Jordan, a casting researcher for the show. “If we think you’ve got a great story, we’ll give you a call back.”

Jordan said they’ll be picking three stories from information submitted to the Web site. They’re especially seeking African-American women, and nominees must be willing to have their hair cut and colored.

“We’ll pick the stories that grab our attention the most, like maybe finding someone in Memphis who’s an Elvis look-alike and his wife wants him made over,” said Jordan.

Three other makeover subjects will be chosen by the show’s style agents when they’re in town. They’ll scout the streets makeover candidates.

The show will use local salons and boutiques. Jordan said the production crew is still selecting which businesses to feature. The Memphis segments will air randomly throughout the show’s next season.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Teaching Baptists

The 55,000 delegates in town last week for the National Baptist Convention got an education — some of it in city schools.

Memphis City Schools officials let delgates use Vance Middle, Booker T. Washington High, Carver High, and Hamilton High for classes last week at no charge.

“Most of the things we have are on weekends, and they require someone actually having to come to the school, open it up and stay there, which requires us to charge them,” said Vince McCaskill, communications manager for the school district. Because the schools have employees working in them and because the conventioneers needed facilities during the week, the school district didn’t need to charge a fee.

McCaskill says anyone who wants to use the school district’s facilities can make a request through the district’s business operations division. “Generally, community organizations want to use our facilities on weekends, and we have to charge a them.”

Unlike last week’s conventioneers, most groups who use school facilities only want a specific area such as the auditorium or the gymnasium.

According to the district’s fee schedule, groups wanting to use an air-conditioned school are charged $200 to $400, depending on the day and the school.

Now that the delegates are gone, the city schools are lending their hospitality to the Johnny Cash biopic, I Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, which will be filming at Humes Middle, gratis.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Beating Around the Bush

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last two months, Fahrenheit 9/11 is the latest inflammatory film by documentarian Michael Moore, who first came to prominence with the 1989 documentary Roger and Me about the closing of General Motors’ automotive plants in his native Flint, Michigan. In 2002, Bowling for Columbine examined not only the proliferation of guns in our country but how the culture itself nurtures violence and encourages guns as a means of defense and as a symbol of strength, self-importance, and pride. Moore is angry again. He’s angry at George W. Bush and his administration. Big time.

Fahrenheit begins with the 2000 presidential election and suggests that the results may not have been the most accurate representation of the will of the people. This is nothing new, right? But Moore goes a step further to scold not just the Bush posse for rigging the election results but also the Democrats for not stepping up to do something about it. A scene from a session of the Senate reveals several black representatives of the House calling for a senatorial investigation. With the support of just one senator, an investigation could have taken place, but as each congressperson desperately and unsuccessfully pleads for support, each is dismissed by the president of the Senate, Al Gore. Weird.

We move quickly to al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, and Iraq, but this eerie prologue sets the stage for a presidency that Moore famously referred to as fictitious in his Oscar speech (accepting as Best Documentary Director for Columbine). To what extent does Bush represent the people and to what extent does he represent big money, special interests, and the wills and ideas of those who would manipulate him? What follows is a step-by-step survey of the circumstances leading to the attacks on America on September 11th; ties between the Bush family and the bin Laden family; curious cover-ups in the investigation of Bush’s military records; and ultimately, the questionable decision to go to war with Iraq, when it was Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda that crashed the planes. To this day, Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction have not been found and neither has bin Laden.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a remarkable experience. While not as entertaining, in a theatrical sense, as Columbine, Fahrenheit more subtly and calmly submits an argument: Bush is unfit for the presidency, and he has led us foolishly into a war that has compromised our credibility in the world community, brought irreparable harm to innocent people in Iraq, and put our soldiers needlessly into harm’s way.

Does Fahrenheit 9/11 make a good case for these points? You bet it does. Is the argument objective? By no means. As journalism, this is not balanced reporting. This is editorial. As an essay, this is not objectively informative; it is persuasive. Moore is taking some conservative heat for not presenting a balanced depiction of the film’s events. Screw “balanced.” Moore is a storyteller, and like all good storytellers, Moore presents a strong point of view.

The most successful presentation of his thesis comes early in the film when we see the fallout of the World Trade Center attacks. There is an early scene where we see the papers and debris and dust swirling in slow motion as people scurry for cover. The music is haunting and somber; the scene is horrifyingly beautiful. We soon switch our focus to Bush as he sits in a Florida classroom reading to schoolchildren. After being told that the country is under attack, he waits seven minutes before he even gets up. Both towers of the World Trade Center have been crashed into by commercial jets, people are jumping to their deaths, the Pentagon has not yet been hit nor has the plane crashed in Pennsylvania, the streets of Manhattan are chaos WE ARE UNDER ATTACK and suddenly those seven minutes seem like a very long time for the leader of the free world to sit reading My Pet Goat when he knows what is happening, if not to the full extent.

This film is good news for America, whose people have been numbed by soundbites and rhetoric and by the unending stream of violent images that have flooded our airwaves since the attacks of September 11, 2001. There has been enough talk. This movie is action. It’s a gauntlet thrown down to inspire, engage, and provoke discussion, and I hope that everyone will see it and strengthen themselves and their voices in this great national debate.