Laural's Dish

(OCCUPIED) LAURAL'S DISH

Laural is our dog, my dog. Everyone else heads off to school, "people like me and Laural" stay home. He's a fine companion, but you have to understand. If he's having a really good time he tries to bite you, me, anyone. Not hard, just…similarly, if you're scratching his belly real good, but then shift to his (apparently less preferable) ears, he'll growl at you. The irregular spelling of his name results from the time that Alexandra and I were mulling the possibilities, in a tunnel in Newton Abbot, when we came across the graffiti: Laura L is a dog.

Laural loves to eat more than any living being ever created, and he will eat absolutely anything. We've weaned him from rocks but he once tried to eat an unopened can of Carlsberg Export. surprise! So his dish frequently has unusual things in it, bits of this or that, absolute treasures that others might consider slightly unfit for human consumption, for whatever stupid reasons.

Beneath please find my literary reflection of Laural's Dish:

Laural's Dish comes out on Fridays, often, before lunch, usually.

December 16, 2011

Just got back from seeing Billy Bragg play Occupied Exeter, in front of one of the most famous cathedrals (probably my favorite) in the world. It was acoustic, it was very Exeter (i.e., raining), the crowd for one of the most famous performers in the UK was...maybe 80...and it was beautiful.

I work for a man named Woodie Guthrie.

--Billy Bragg, Exeter Cathedral 12/16/2011

I'm no Billy Bragg scholar, I've always liked him more than his music. But when he played the Woodie song laying out the sides: the exploiters and the exploited-most of us sang along "which side are you on, which side are you on," and then he turned to the cathedral, and we got louder.

When he closed with the mandatory a capella version of The Internationale I have to say that only maybe fifteen people automatically raised their left fists into the air, disproportionately my friends that I like and admire.

Billy Bragg never bothered to notice the small crowd, other than to adore it. I've seen him play audiences easily 1000 times as big at Tolpuddle, each of the past three years. His passion is his passion and it is doctrinaire socialism, union socialism. I'm not entirely on board, but we certainly could use more of that sort of thing...along with re-training for workers whose jobs have become obsolete.

But it was a moment, not mine, someone else's...the singing of The Internationale and the automated fist raising. Altruistic socialism is a beautiful thing, and I don't want to get in the way of anyone who believes it any more than I want to get in the way of anyone who...you know,...no, there's no comparison. They believe in justice, they believe in equality and they believe that it can be delivered in a way that I do not. But it's beautiful, like watching the last of the flower children in California...

And there is some sadness watching it die, even though it couldn't work.

Just to cut to the chase...if you were running for president, is there anyone you would rather run against than Newt Gringrich? He of the failed post-Reagan Corporato agenda...a guy who cheated on his wife dying of cancer, while at the same time urging everyone else to impeach Clinton for a blowjob?

Ok, how about a film update... in the order of how good they leave you feeling about the human condition in the cosmos...which is kind of backwards considering that the best film left me feeling the worst...

December 9, 2011

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/kid-rock-told-mitt-romney-campaign-could-song-210720469.html

I like Kid Rock. I like his music, I can't think of a song that he's ever cut that I don't like (or any that I love). I like his unassuming style. How could I not like anyone who name-checks entities as diverse and cool as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rusty Staub? When he was a rapper, he was one of the few that I liked (he got nuthin' on NWA, but who does?), now that he's more rockin'…he's got that authentic feel. If we'd met thirty years ago we would have hung out, I imagine we could talk shit and have fun for an hour or two...

I DO NOT like Mitt Romney, particularly on a political level. I imagine he's part of the 99.89% of the world that I would enjoy talking to for a beer or two (too late: he apparently only had his one, and that years ago), and part of the 75% that I would entirely lose interest in somewhere in the third. His best spin, politically, is that he's a more competent political stooge than Obama. The more likely reality is that he's a less competent-and so potentially disastrous, given the landscape-corporate stooge than Bush (pick one, any one). So, however I vote, I won't be voting for Mr. Romney.

But the combination of the two is fascinating. At first glance it appears the sort of master-stroke that I considered Romney incapable of. First of all, it's a good song, in the mega-patriotic Kid Rock tradition. Secondly, Kid-the self styled King of Trailer Trash-is going to be a magaplus association for the Tea Party, which largely suspects Romney of…you know, his record. And it's a cool song, playing it before the speech will probably be the highlight of the event, for many. It's a weird way of saying "I'm one of you," which he clearly isn't.

But the Tea Party is hardly the only Republican constituency to which a pathological political panderer-Mr. Romney's picture is by the dictionary definition-must pander. What is the Evangelical Right going to think of a Mormon (therefore going to hell anyway), playing music by a lawng-hared hippie who mainly loves to smoke bourbon n' drank the evil weed and fuck…apparently damn near anyone with female genitalia, sometimes all at the same time, and think nothing of paying them for the ordeal?

I mean, if you really want to get down to it…if whatever Mitt's current positions on the issues are real (hee, hee)…he must think that Kid Rock belongs in prison, before going to hell. Kid just says he likes people to hear his music (no doubt), doesn't think or care much about politics (ditto), and pretty much figures everyone means well (ahem!).

The best part of the story is where Kid says he'd only endorse a candidate who adopted instead his song "So Hott" as their theme. The lyrics, in most printable part:

You got a body like the devil and you smell like sex
I can tell you're trouble but I'm still obsessed…

So hot, I wanna get you stoned...

I want to fuck you like I'm never gonna see you again...

As the aristocratic British judges say with such but somehow disapparent disapproval, besmirching their own smile, "Well….yessss…"

I mean, a candidate who's going to hell anyway (I don't believe that, I'm only saying orthodox evangelicals do), opening his show with a song by a guy who's at least as obviously on the same path...and who named his record Rock N Roll Jesus, opening it by singing "I'm a rock 'n' roll Jesus..."

I really hope we haven't heard the last of this. It should be great fun, for those of us who enjoy such things.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/republicans-being-taught-talk-occupy-wall-street-133707949.html

This is probably the most meaningful news piece of the year. (1) Corporatists should NOT suggest that there's no problem, but should instead agree that there is, then go about their business, and (2) always blame Washington, which they entirely control.

Wow, what a strategy! What propaganda logic! Now everything will be fine! Makes me think of some George Carlin quotes…

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/05.10/carlin.html

“Germany lost the second world war. Fascism won it.”

My recollection is that George then proceeded to go on in some detail, about how six corporations control 94% of the US news media, etc. If you need me to fill in the blanks, you're probably not going to get it anyway. The quote dates back to the Reagan era, but was repeated...for the last time, and most famously, on the Bill Maher show a few years ago. Before George died, obviously. But it does enjoy increasing resonance...now that the Cold War is over and that was the last we heard of the "peace dividend" (all the money Republicans were going to spend on society once the Soviet Union ceased to exist)...and our congress can't decide whether or not it's ok to just lock people up because someone thinks they might be terrorists, and never grant them trial. What was the prosecution rate from the Guantanamo Bay detainees....like 2 of 300, and fifty apologies? Wow....I wonder if anyone would consider that-at least...neo-fascist.

George Carlin was an incredible intellect, he had a gift for seeing through bullshit and calling it the same. He was not, I suppose, the most spiritual man...though he made a point of noting that he'd met spiritual people he admired spirituality was not his long suit. I feel comfortable saying this.

Did fascism win? It comes down to definitions, doesn't it? I mean, was the early Christian community socialist, or was Stalinist Russia socialist? Are low taxes capitalist or is taxing everyone else to pay for corporate bail-outs capitalist?

I believe that George was speaking to an unbearable level of societal control, and in that sense-at least-he was right. No one in their right mind would compare Reagan or Bush (any) to Hitler; or Obama to Stalin (or Hitler, c'mon). But we have become a more closed society, with concentrated control. That's certainly more representative of global fascism than...universal healthcare, for example...is of any kind of adverse Marxism (frequently used as a synonym for "sharing" by Corporato).

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/former-sheriff-arrested-sent-jail-named-him-153854700.html

So the first step is to establish the Bush & Blair Prison For War Criminals? I'm ready to contribute.

http://news.yahoo.com/barney-frank-leave-congress-152402907.html

This is sad news. Although Rep. Frank is perhaps most famous for his boyfriend running a whorehouse out of the congressional basement, Barney was also the man who stood up and said that conservatives "believe that human rights begin at conception and end at birth." He has been a great congressman, and I do believe that God (my God, your God) would prefer that we conduct our affairs in accordance to the sort of generosity and wisdom so consistently demonstrated by Barney Frank than....well, you know, Mitt Romney or Kid Rock :)

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