Soon. Maybe.

INAUGURATION

My daughter and I will be traveling to D.C. next week for the inauguration. I don't know how much access I will have to computing while we're there, but at some point I hope to share our stories about the crowds, the cold, the history, and the crowds.

Stay tuned.

IS THE MEDIUM THE MESSAGE?

What's music for? What does a song do? What should a song do? I've been thinking about these questions lately, as a consumer and a musician.

Recently, an old friend of mine (who is actually quite young, and a musician herself) introduced me to some newer tunes. She turned me on to Fleet Foxes and Greg Laswell, among others. It's not the sort of thing I typically listen to, but I really like them. I find that I am attracted to the sonic qualities and some of the lyrics. I bought 2-3 CDs on iTunes, and I'm enjoying them, particularly as background when I'm driving or having conversation with friends. It's good atmospheric music, in style and effect.

But, something keeps nagging at me. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something substantively different about these new indie-folk-pop-rock bands than the music I play and listen to.

In a NY Times article today, Jon Pareles gets at part of it when he explores the way music is being made today. It's not about songwriters and albums anymore--the instrinsic appreciation of the songs--it's about marketing. Before you assume I'm criticizing the artists, let me assure you I'm not. It is virtually impossible to sell music today. No one believes they should have to pay for music anymore; so, the best way to turn it into a financially sustainable enterprise is to attach it to commodities. Whether it's a Grey's Anatomy soundtrack, a car commercial, or sonic wallpaper for office buildings, music has to be sold differently than a decade or two ago.

Pareles asks the important question:

What happens to the music itself when the way to build a career shifts from recording songs that ordinary listeners want to buy to making music that marketers can use? That creates pressure, subtle but genuine, for music to recede: to embrace the element of vacancy that makes a good soundtrack so unobtrusive, to edit a lyric to be less specific or private, to leave blanks for the image or message the music now serves. Perhaps the song will still make that essential, head-turning first impression, but it won’t be as memorable or independent.

After reading that, I may be getting a fix on part of what I was noticing about newer music. It is less specific...?

I have been told by a few people that a very personal song I wrote would be more commercially viable if I would take out the specific references and generalize it. I have not done that, probably as much out of laziness as anything; but, there is something about changing a song that tells my former brother-in-law's tragic, yet hopeful story, into a dramatic pop song. Nothing wrong with that. Might even be a better song. It's just something I am noticing.

I don't share the snarky perspective of Gawker, when Hamilton Nolan took Laswell to task for corporate "bootlicking" by selling his songs to hotel chains for lobby music, Pepsi and Amazon commercials, and nearly a dozen television soundtracks. I don't begrudge Laswell these moves, but I am still interested in how it changes the way music is made.

I wonder if songwriters and producers make room for more atmospheric spaces and less specific poetry so the focus can be on the product or the "feel" a potential buyer would want to get at with the sound.

For the record, let me say there is a difference between your music being picked up and used in a corporate context, and recording songs with a clear eye on that market.

I have several friends who have been delighted to find their songs have been selected for local commercials, national commercials, TV shows, and elevator music, among other commercial outlets; but I don't think that was on their minds when they wrote and recorded the songs. Maybe Nick Drake turned over in his grave when "Pink Moon" was used for that VW commercial, but I doubt it.

I saw a band last night that was a blast from my personal past. Fools Face, a local and regional phenom in the 80s, blew my mind last night. They were sensational, but they were pretty straight ahead rock and roll, with a nice selection of punk-influenced, new-waviness, and pop grunge in the mix. Don't hear too many soundtracks coming out of that, but it was tremendous music.

I guess I find myself at this mid-life point, where culture is changing around me, and I'm trying to make sense of it. I am not entirely unhappy with where pop music is going. It's just becoming something different than what it was. Isn't it? Hmm?

LET'S BE PLEASIN' FOR THE SEASON

We've come through an election where sides were chosen and winners were declared. Propositions were made and pastors proclaimed victory. Culture wars were restarted. We seem to be as aware as ever of the lines that separate us, and there is much money and power to be gained making those lines as clear as possible. Blessed assurance sells. Mystery is rarely profitable, outside Agathie Christie and Mickey Spillane.

May we join David Wilcox embracing the unsure this Christmastime, saying, "I didn't join the other side. The battle lines just disappeared."

May the Love we celebrate this season be fearless.

May the lines that we have drawn be blurred.

May "the others" in our lives become very sacred to us, whether they sit across the table, hold a different belief, or play for the other team.

May we all get at least a small dose of vertigo from the unhinged love contained in that small Child, so that when we speak we speak from our blindness and dizziness and emptiness, thus using the very voice of God.

A DIN OF INEQUITY

I don't really have anything to say about the economic crisis, or the various bailouts in the works. I just thought this moment in history should not pass without someone using this headline.

TRYPTOPHAN DREAMS

I don't think I had fully engaged my thankfulness until the morning after the morning after. Spent a wonderful Thursday with a family of 25, where I tiptoed up to the edge of gluttony, stared into its gorgeous face and embraced it. Fully. Reprised my performance yesterday with another family remnant of six, where, in addition to performing the roll (that's right, I performed the roll, not role) of digestion machines, we baked crazy amounts of cookies and chocolate goodies for my nephew and his buddies serving in Qatar.

Yesterday, as my wife and daughters and I were together decorating the house for the holidays, listening to Christmas music by Sufjan Stevens, James Taylor, Sarah McLachlan, and the late, great Dan Fogelberg, I was reminded--as I am every year about now--how fortunate I am.

When I turn on the faucet I can get hot water, while many in the world can't even get clean water.

I may fear the turns my life may take professionally, aesthetically, emotionally...but I don't live in fear that someone is going to conk me on the head and drag me by the hair into the weeds.

I have more than one guitar, even though I can only play (sort of) one at a time.

I live in a 98-year-old house that is aging well and continually shaping me in its image.

I have three women in my life (only sleeping with one) who are exceedingly beautiful, intelligent, funny, and simply the best company a man could want.

I have friends from the Midwest, to Colorado, to DC, to NYC, to New England, to Florida, to Oregon, to Greece, to Singapore, to New Zealand, to China, and all divers places in between who are meditative, irreverent, crazy smart, and full of grace; who would actually acknowledge my presence in their world and would at least stumble a bit in their daily lives if I were to depart this skin suit.

I live in a country that is confused and in disarray, but where no tanks are rolling in the streets, and we are free to bang our rhetorical heads together as we try to figure things out. And where we are hopeful.

I am generally content with the things I have, and I don't feel the need to trample my fellow humans to death in pursuit of outrageously low holiday prices.

I know Love, when so many do not.

In the words of the profound prayer written by Anne Lamott, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

TWO EARS, ONE MOUTH

We have just come through a time of talk. We have heard the candidates and all the pundits had to say, and we have all said our piece. Too often we didn't say our peace, just our piece of some bigger thing that was being hammered against the thing of the other, in hopes of being the winning thing. That's not to say that our piece and peace are always mutually exclusive.

It is my belief that there are two primary uses for communication: conciliation and critique. There is a time for each. There is a time to speak "truth" to power, and jab our rhetorical sticks into the soft underbelly of whatever beast is in need of poking. There is also a time to use our voices as magnets and glue--drawing closer to each other through the sharing of narratives and the building of consensus. Conciliation without critique makes us victims. Critique without conciliation can make us mean.

So, the timing is very appropriate for Storycorps to sponsor the National Day of Listening this week.

As we prepare to enjoy the balm of family and gravy, may we all use this time to be mindful. And listen. Be mindful of the one across the table. Everyone has stories to tell. And it is in the telling that we become aware of who and what we are.

In the listening we take on the posture of thanksgiving. How can we give thanks when we are onstage or on the attack, or preaching, or desperately needing to be right?

Two ears and one mouth? Must be a sign from God.

MY LIFE THESE DAYS

I'm Not One Of Those "Love Thy Neighbor" Christians

The Onion just keeps bringing it.

WHAT NOW?

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

PREACH IT, KEITH

I'm not always an Olbermann fan, but on this day he could be my pastor.

SPREADING THE WEALTH IN AN AGE OF SELFISH CHRISTIANS

Conservatives regularly oppose state-supported social programs for the poor, arguing that they interfere with market principles and diminish incentive for individuals to achieve. In rare moments of compassion (or cold calculation), when they consider how the catastrophic failure of the proletariat will affect the ruling class, they will say any relief should come from private rather than public sources.

Politically conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists will continue this argument by suggesting that such relief is the responsibility of the churches, not the state.

Fine.

Where are they?

Let me say that I have read about and witnessed extravagant and impressive acts of giving from faith communities, and there is no doubt in my mind that well-intentioned and well-motivated believers are far more capable of addressing the needs of the poor than most agencies, public or private.

However a new book, Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don't Give Away More Money, delivers some sobering news about the reluctance of believers to part with their cash. In his review, Ron Sider (author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger), lays out some of the disturbing data:

• 20% of Christians give nothing.
• Those who do give average 2.9% of their income.
• 20% of Christians give 86.4% of the total.
• 5% give 59.6%.
• As our income has quadrupled, our giving has declined.
• The facts suggest that as we get wealthier, we get stingier.
  
• If Christians who attend church regularly would tithe (presumably the standard 10%), there would $46 billion extra available for serving the poor.
  

For the record, I happen to believe that relieving the suffering of the "poor" (in all manifest meanings of the word) should be the prime objective of our churches. Above mall-like worship centers, gymnasiums, and Starbucks, we should be serving "the least of these." And, it appears that as hard as it is to get believers to give, when they do we are more likely to fund our edifice complex than the poor.

A couple of disclosures: My wife and I used to give over $500 a month to an organization that serves the poor in Central America--we quit giving to churches years ago (see edifice complex comment above)--until things came to light about how the funds were not being used honestly. Now, we will only give to actual people in actual need. But, it is terribly inefficient and ad hoc.

Also, it appears from Sider's review that while evangelicals still have nothing to brag about, they give better percentages than other Christian groups.


So, I cannot take conservative Christian's arguments seriously when they protest loudly about "socialism" and "redistributing the wealth," while they are actively keeping more for themselves than even their doctrines demand.

We must be a culture that takes care of those who can't take care of themselves. If we aren't, we embrace a form of social Darwinism where the weak are trampled underfoot, and civilization as we know it deteriorates. Public means of support are terribly inefficient and often not the most effective, but until "believers" step up and get as aggressive in living out the gospel as they are preaching it, I cannot support a political ideology that would benefit the powerful over the weak.

CRACKER MAP (updated)

This map has been a point of discussion at The Ready Room, and in several email threads. Based on the reported numbers from Tuesday, the bluer an area the stronger the vote for Obama in comparison to the vote for Kerry in 2004. The redder the area the stronger the vote was for McCain than for Bush. The less color, the closer the vote was to '04.

The rash of red in the South seems to suggest a disturbing racial pattern. The southern areas with larger African-American and Latino populations are bluer, but Old South whites seemed to vote Republican in dramatically higher numbers this year than in 2004.

I tend to side with Occam's Razor in assuming the most obvious answer is the best. The reddest areas seem to be where the whitest Southerners live. What else would move them so deeply?

McCain supporters are strongly denying this is about race. Maybe so. What's another explanation? Somehow you would need to isolate an issue that was unique to that area.

Before you are tempted to make the reverse racism argument, take a look at the West. Not a lot of black voters in Montana and Nevada.

**********UPDATE 11/11/08**********

As pointed out by Stephanie (Mrs. Ready Room), today's NY Times supports the cracker map thesis, adding terribly disturbing interviews with crackers that position Inland and Deep South as being out of step with the rest of the country and on the wrong side of history.

While not exactly in Cracker Map territory, this picture was sent to me from Mike in Springfield, MO. This was sent to the local paper.



And, this news: The Sapulpa (Oklahoma) Herald did not print anything about Obama's victory in their paper Wednesday. The cracker-dominated county went overwhelmingly for McCain.

God, bless America. Please.

POST-GAME SHOW

My emotions are still too raw and unprocessed to do more than this for now.

An assessment and course correction on my predictions: First, I had a math error. I never got around to posting my state list. What I found as I marked the results on my paper copy last night was that I had misapplied Georgia. Early Sunday I had Georgia in the Obama column, thinking that the unanticipated African-American turnout would subvert the polls. However, late Monday I switched it back to McCain, but forgot to change the math. So, my real prediction was 375 to 163. Assuming Missouri and North Carolina end up the way they are looking now, I will have picked every single state in the country correctly, with the exception of Missouri. Some of you will find that amusing.

My prediction: 375-163
Likely outcome: 364-174

My prediction: 52%-45%
Likely outcome: 53%-46%

Not bad. Better than most of the people who are paid handsomely for their analysis.

I have more to say about where we go from here and what we should talk about next, but I'm still trying to assemble my thoughts. Not to mention the amount of work I need to attend to that has been put off while I followed the campaign.

IT'S A GOOD DAY

I voted at about 8:00 this morning in my swing state. Pretty uneventful, until I turned in my ballot and noticed that our Republican governor was right behind me submitting his ballot. On the way out of the building I wanted to turn to him and say, "I canceled you out, buddy. This state doesn't belong to you and yours anymore." But, my better angels prevailed (and my instinct for self-preservation, since I suspect his secret service detail might have interpreted "cancel you out" differently than I would have intended).

Instead I simply smiled at him, nodded, then looked up at the beautiful blue sky and choked back a tear. The time for rancor and division is over. It's a new day.

It's a good day.

Goodnight, Toot

I cannot imagine the exhaustion and emotion of two years of constant campaigning, nearly at its end. Then, on the eve of the greatest night of your life, you get the news that the woman who raised you passes from this life.

Thank you, Madelyn Dunham, for your life and your work. You done good.

May you rest in peace.

Our hearts go out to you, Barack.

MARK IT

Popular Vote*
Obama 52%
McCain 45%
Other 3%

Electoral College*
Obama 390
McCain 148

Winner*
All of us.

*Assuming voting irregularities are held to a minimum.

I know that's more dramatic than predicted by the pollsters and pundits. I'll give you the list of states and the analysis behind it. Tomorrow.

40,000 in Springfield...

MISSOURI!!!


Sorry Sarah. Eli's comin'.

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LOST GREATNESS

James Dobson's flying monkeys are at it again. The Word from the King of Chaos, the Wicked Pitch from the West is here--the Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America--designed to scare the beJesus into us. I wondered how long it would be before JD would once again offer us a toxic blend of bad theology, Rovian politics, and hide-under-your-covers fear appeals. Praise God and pass the gunpowder. This man likes the smell of gaypalm in the morning.

Dobson's Focus on the Family Action (Don't you remember that passage in chapter one of II Bealiah where Jesus encourages us to create cultural hit squads in case anyone disagrees with us and threatens our power?), feeling the pressure of being Left Behind, or Behind the Left, felt the need to use the power of time travel to scare us straight.

Sorry Barack. Dr. Dobson gave us the news: we got a bad case of loving you. Apparently, no pill's gonna cure our ill; and, in fact we are probably going to die miserable deaths at the hands of pornographic terrorists.

When faced with the likelihood of a Christian man being elected as a Democratic president, What Would James Do? It appears that he would scare the shit out of you.

According to Focus on the Fantasy, an Obama administration will result in a hijacking of the Court, ushering in nearly mandatory gay marriage, public elementary gay factories, the shuttering of Christian schools, adoption agencies, and publishing houses. Christian doctors and nurses, counselors and soldiers, teachers and broadcasters will all be out on the street. The Boy Scouts will be abolished. The streets will be littered with exterminated fetuses. We will terminate unwanted newborns like roaches. Our gunless citizens will be overrun by porn-juiced criminals. Americans will be killed abroad, and several major U.S. cities will be destroyed by terrorists. Our country will become communist, but for some reason at war with Russia. Israel will virtually cease to exist. Health care will become so rationed we will start euthanizing the old and infirm. Our economy will collapse, we will suffer electrical blackouts, while buying $7 gas.

Honestly, in the midst of all that, $7 gas doesn't sound so bad.

The letter is prefaced with a statement that includes a call for mutual respect.

Of course, there are many evangelical Christians supporting Senator Obama as well as many supporting Senator McCain. Christians on both sides should continue to respect and cherish one another’s friendship as well as the freedom people have in the United States to differ on these issues and to freely speak their opinions about them to one another.

Oh, yes, let's be respectful of the infidel wolves masquerading in sheep's clothing. Respect them until you get a clear head shot. If this is how you cherish friendships, all your enemies should shave their heads, move to Tierra del Fuego, and change their names to Chris (unless their name is already Chris, in which case they should change it to Terry).

Dobson and his kind are driving thousands of people out of the faith. They do so by devouring their young. They observe that young evangelicals may make up the margin of difference in this election. Then they tell them they are wrong. "We want you to be part of our Family, but everything that matters to you is crap. Now, sit up straight and repeat after me...."

On behalf of young evangelicals (one of which I'm not) told by Dobson they are wrong, let me say: "Are not. You are."

WHEN THE MAN COMES AROUND

Last summer my family had the opportunity to attend an Obama town hall meeting. It was great. Not as exciting as tens of thousands of people at an outdoor rally, but a solid, reasonable display of intelligence and leadership. At one point during his answers to audience questions, my 15-year-old daughter sighed and said, "I feel calm listening to him. He makes me feel safe." Back then I took that to be the words of a teenager who is more than a little intoxicated by this good-looking, charismatic man. But, reading Joel Klein's article "Why Barack Obama is Winning" in Time magazine, I now understand what she was feeling.

Klein closes with this assessment:

His has been a remarkable campaign, as smoothly run as any I've seen in nine presidential cycles. Even more remarkable, Obama has made race — that perennial, gaping American wound — an afterthought. He has done this by introducing a quality to American politics that we haven't seen in quite some time: maturity. He is undoubtedly as ego-driven as everyone else seeking the highest office — perhaps more so, given his race, his name and his lack of experience. But he has not been childishly egomaniacal, in contrast to our recent baby-boomer Presidents — or petulant, in contrast to his opponent. He does not seem needy. He seems a grown-up, in a nation that badly needs some adult supervision.