Pretty Goes with Pretty

Let's Talk About the Issues

I just came across this article in the Los Angeles Times profiling the candidates pop culture tastes. It's a pretty bullshit article but I like trying to pick apart the honest answers from the campaign staff-penned answers. Here are the highlights, in the order they appear in the article.

[Edit: It should be noted that everything in this post except the "Pretty Goes with Pretty reactions" (obviously) and the final verdict was copied and pasted directly from the LAT article.]

John McCain
Campaign soundtrack: "Gonna Fly Now (Theme From 'Rocky')", ABBA's "Take a Chance on Me" and "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry

Favorite TV show: "Prison Break"

On the iPod: "I have an iPod with Beach Boys, Roy Orbison – I have a varied taste in music between very good music and not-so-good music, but most of my advancement in music appreciation stopped the day I was shot down in October of 1967."

Pretty Goes with Pretty reaction: Fuuuuuuuuuuck. It's hard to fuck with a dude who throws his POW ordeal in your face when you ask him who is favorite band is. Speaking of, it would blow my mind to hear him talk back to his TV during an episode of Prisonbreak.  (Additionally, I like that he likes good music and he also likes not-so-good music--lest he offend people who really love not-so-good music. Ever the politician.)

Hillary Clinton
Campaign soundtrack: Celine Dion's "You and I"

Favorite TV show: "American Idol," "Grey's Anatomy," "Dancing With the Stars," and HGTV makeover shows

On iPod: Clinton told the Associated Press in the spring of 2006 that she received her iPod as a gift from her husband. At that time, songs included Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and “Take it to the Limit” by The Eagles.

Pretty Goes with Pretty reaction: the transparency of her clearly pandering choices for favorite television show are a great example of why I don't want her to win the nomination. I do, however, believe that she likes the Eagles. However, taking her campaign song into account, apparently Clinton and McCain could reach across the aisle in their love of not-so-good music.

Mitt Romney
Campaign soundtrack: Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation"

Favorite TV show: “Lost”

On the iPod: “What I typically download is country music as well as 1960s music. I'm a baby boomer so The Beatles and The Stones and some of the old groups from the '60s are my favorites; I listen to them. And I also listen to country. I have some inspirational music as well, but those are the highlights for me."

Pretty Goes with Pretty reaction: This is the first guy that I think gave honest answers.

Barack Obama
Campaign soundtrack: John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change,” Ben Harper’s “Better Way”

Favorite TV show: HBO’s “The Wire” and Sportscenter

On the iPod: “I won’t let Apple release the new and improved iPod the day after you bought the previous model.” (From "Top Ten Campaign Promises" as read by David Letterman on the "Late Show.")

Pretty Goes with Pretty reaction: Sadly, the LA Times could not find a real answer to the last question. Meanwhile, let's look at his TV choice and compare it to Clinton's: this is where Obama's long-trumpeted good judgement comes in. Do you want someone in the White House who checks the Nielsen ratings before choosing what to watch, or do you want someone who can survey the field and say "goddamn, The Wire is the best show on television. I'm watching that." Further confirmation that Obama is my candidate.

Mike Huckabee
Campaign soundtrack: Anything by the Rolling Stones

Favorite movies: “The Godfather,” “Casablanca,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Citizen Kane “

Favorite TV shows: “The Colbert Report,” “The Sopranos”

Pretty Goes with Pretty reaction: Based on the fact the Times article mentions that Huckabee let Keith Richards off on a parking violation in Arkansas, I will accept answer #1 as true. The rest, if they are true, point to someone who at least consulted the AFI Best Films of All Time list rather than Variety's list of biggest blockbusters.

(The article profiles Ron Paul too but all the answers are lame.)

Final Verdict: Looks like we need to see an Obama/Romney match-up if we want to have any sort of real

dialogue for this election.

 

Malachi Ritscher's Self-Immolation

Pitchfork has a fascinating and deeply depressing article up today about Malachi Ritscher, a Chicago free jazz musician who set himself on fire on November 3rd in protest of the Iraq war. Nitsuh Abebe's article is part obituary, part analysis of just what it all means. I'm familiar with some of the people on the jazz scene in Chicago, mostly in the way they relate to the universe of Tortoise; too, I do have a couple of friends from college that are/were also part of that scene, but I'm not familiar with Ritscher's music specifically. Nevertheless it is shocking to hear that someone would do this, and Abebe is right to try and look deeper than whether it will really have any political effect or whether it was simply a mentally ill person's suicide method of choice. An event like this should make you reach out to your community—whether musical or otherwise—and keep your peers grounded, informed, and appreciated. It also rightly stirs up feelings about this war all over again. My first thought upon hearing about this was how awkwardly timed it was: just a few days before the Democrats took over both houses of government and Donald Rumsfeld was dumped. But of course the situation in Iraq has not changed in a small number of days, and as many people have pointed out, the Democrats that rolled into Congress and the Senate are not necessarily lefties. Ritscher's protest should, at the very least, remind those of us that are against this war and against this administration to remain vigilant and tenacious.

Mentioned but not linked in the Pitchfork article are this blog entry at the Chicago Reader, which was the first place to break the news and which as of now contains nearly 200 comments, including posts by Ritcher's son (and links to the pertinent pages of Ritscher's own website); and Richard Roeper's column in the Chicago Sun-Times.

An Animated History of the Middle East

Fascinating. From Maps of War, via Centripetal Notion.

Don't Get Stuck in Your Daily Me

Related to my previous post—in the sense that I urge you once again to read that New Yorker article—Abe Burmeister has a nice post over at Abstract Dynamics. We all have our "daily me" exercises as we scroll through our favorite bookmarks. Personally I'm very much in a "daily us" mindset right now, thanks to the current Middle East situation. The steady drone of news from Iraq can feel monotonous after a while, easy to ignore, but seriously, stakes just got high in the last six days. And just because the U.S. is not yet involved does not mean that won't change soon (unless cool heads somehow manage to prevail this week).

So in the spirit of Abe's post, at the very least you should include this website—The War in Context—in your "daily me." It's a very easy place to digest all the news coming out of the Middle East, from both U.S. and international news agencies. It gives a good perspective on these complicated issues.

A Good Hezbollah Primer

All this chaos in Lebanon and Israel is pretty scary. When I first heard word what was going on I immediately thought of an old New Yorker article I read about Hezbollah a few years ago, back when Al Qaeda and Afghanistan were at the forefront of our minds (remember that?). The two-part article, by Jeffrey Goldberg, claimed that Hezbollah was potentially more sinister than Al Qaeda due to its size and organization. Part two of the article also goes into detail about Hezbollah's presence in South America (scary!). I went to the New Yorker website to see if I could dig up the article, and what  do you know, they've currently got it on their front page. Here is part one, and part two. This is an excellent place to start if you're trying to understand just who and what the world is about to start dealing with.