Desiring Machine

A punk ethic for politics:

I’m nothin, but im not proud.
Cause being nothin is not allowed.

Are you gay or are you straight?
Do you believe in love or do you believe in hate?

Somebody somewhere’s sayin you’re somethin,
But everybody, everywhere is sayin i’m nothin.

~ Source: The Violent Femmes “I’m Nothing”.

So what’s it gonna be? Do you believe in love or do you believe in hate? Or are you like me and resent these kinds of polarized questions?

I have really been digging that recent Depeche Mode song John The Revelator lately. It is perhaps their best song since Personal Jesus. And Personal Jesus was totallly redefined by Johnny Cash ’s cover of it

And there is a most excellent video floating out there on the internet. Most memorable moments for me are the illustration of 7×7x7 as a cube and Tony Blair the lap dog.
Watch:

John Frusciante is perhaps one of the greatest living guitar players out there. He always brings silky smooth riffs and hooks to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I am especially grooving on the song Hey from their latest release Stadium Arcadium. The hooks and guitar work are simply heavenly, smooth, thoughtful, and pensive.

Frusciante’s life story, rise and fall with drugs and falling out of the Chili Peppers in the 90’s is certainly a cautionary tale. But to hear the story of his reunion with the Chili Peppers is heart warming. And the turn around has been nothing short of amazing with the Chili Peppers putting out the best albums of their career in the last several years. It is great to hear a true artist back in the swing producing intensely great songs.

UPDATE:

After initially posting this I went and checked out some of Frusciante’s solo work on iTunes. I purchased two albums Curtains and The Will to Death. I am speechless. This music is so beautiful. Very different from traditional RHCP music. John’s music is very much like solemn prayers to a divine presence. Church music really. I didn’t really know John’s music outside of the Chili Peppers. This is truly some of the best music I have listened to in a long, long time. Fresh, unique, fundamentally beautiful, introspective and spiritually envigorating. John is like some beautiful angel bringing us music from another otherworldly place. His music and his muse are full of meditation. His voice angelic. Kind of reminds me a little bit of Cat Stevens.

What is really amazing about Frusciante is how prolific and prodigious his output has been. And the quality seems to be consistent. Many of his solo albums come from 2004 where he released 6 albums in 6 months including “Curtains” and “The Will to Death”. A profound feat in itself. It is really amazing stuff. My words cannot really give it its proper due. You just have to listen.

And for the record I want the song Unchanging played at my funeral. It is one of the most lovely hymns I have ever heard. Ecstatic and redemptive.

Unchanging:

And we will show that wherever you are
that is where all time starts
It’s a pleasure to die
a pleasure to be gone
Into the sky we move on
Life is unchanging
It let me go
Life gave me up
and I have no control
Everything goes a way that I do not
I clean up the clouds I ride
I’ve never been up where I see the others climb
Seems like it must be nice
Laughters an ugly friend of mine
We share the best and the worst of times
Everyone goes where they belong
Nobody goes elsewhere
Never much thought goes to being
right or wrong

Some of the most insightful lyrics I have ever heard come from Leonard Cohen’s There is a War.

There is a war between the rich and poor,
a war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
and the ones who say there isn’t.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, that’s right, get in it,
why don’t you come on back to the war, it’s just beginning.

I have always liked the sublime paradoxical calculus and insight of the line: “The is a war between the one who says there is a war and the one who says there isn’t”. Even though this song was written in the 70’s it seems very precient today and even more profound in light the confrontational times that we find ourselves in today.

As a true artist Cohen doesn’t offer any advice, merely observation and insight. Knowing that there is a war doesn’t help you any more than knowing that there is not a war. As so many things in life these are beyond our immediate control and will. Hence the paradox in Cohen’s words. However, I find comfort in Cohen’s song because I somehow find it useful to know that the world is on fire. Better that than to sleep through the party, right?

I offer you three videos that can only confirm the suspicion that there are those who want to add to the fire:

Jesus Camp. A Christian madrasah in North Dakota?

Leftist Radicals and the case of Josh Wolf in San Franisco

Islamic Mob Rule at the Trial of Three Christian Terrorists Convicted in Indonesia to the Death Penalty.

No matter what political stripe, you are likely to find yourself in agreement, dissent or dismay with at least one or any combinations of these videos.

But alas I remain optimistic because as a freedom loving, rule of law believing, ultra liberal, Christian school upbringing, privileged White Male I know that this is all statistical noise. I have a trust that cooler heads prevail ultimately. It is just a shame that the noise machine can attract so much attention. Attention whores in an attention economy. That is font of our times and the source the clamour.

Welcome to the war. We will resume our normal broadcasting of peace and prosperity just as soon as we can elect cooler heads to high office.

Recently purchased Tom Petty’s latest album Highway Companion. Not a whole lot specific to say about this album. It is a refreshing rejuvenated sound. Listening to the album gives me the feeling that Tom Petty has rediscovered something that has been missing in recent years. And this is what makes for the best moments on the album. A lot of comparisons have been made to Full Moon Fever. I think this is a fair comparison. The album is equally powerful in the mood and musical delivery. The best songs on the album are the ones with themes of travel and rediscovery. Big Weekend and Down South. The first is a simple ditty about meeting up some old friends and the freedom of travel.

There’s some friends that I know
living in this town
and I’ve come far to see them.
Gonna track em’ down.
They live in a brick house
painted white and brown.

…

I can work,
I can travel,
sleep anywhere,
cross every border
with nothing to declare.
You can look back babe,
but it’s best not to stare.

I need a big weekend.
Kick up the dust.
Yeah a big weekend.
If you don’t run, you rust.

By far my most favorite song on the album is Down South. A catchy song about going back down south and engaging a personal past. I don’t come from the south but this song paints a picture that carries a satisfying tinge of romanticism. And for no particular reason I can pinpoint, I really like the following verse:

create myself down south
impress all the women
pretend i’m samuel clemens
wear seersucker and white linens

The imagery is nice, and the idea of recreating oneself in the image of Mark Twain just has an uncanny appeal. The song celebrates southern style, culture and convention in just as powerful a way as Southern Accents, but this time around less reactionary and more introspective. There is a nostalgia here but also a realization of the way things have changed.

spanish moss down south
find the heroes of my childhood
who now can do me no good
carve their name dogwood

The album is definitely one of the strongest efforts by Tom Petty in years and worth a listen.

I recently purchased 10,000 Maniacs Campfire Songs. A collection of greatest hits and a wonderful album of obscure and unknown recordings. On the second cd there is an absolutely beautiful cover of the wonderfully sweet Iris Dement tune “Let the Mystery Be”. This cover features Natalie Merchant and David Byrne in an uplifting duet. This song reminds me just how great the 10,000 Maniacs was. The voices, the arrangement, words just don’t do it justice. I really enjoy the earnestness in Byrne’s voice on this live track. This track alone makes the album worth the purchase but there are also some other hidden gems including a cover of David Bowie’s Starman.

Every so often I will come across a song that I just need to replay over and over again. Sometimes it is because the song puts me in a happy mood, other times a deep contemplative mood. When I first listened to Ani Difranco’s “You Had Time” I literally listened to that song non stop for three days and nothing else. Let the Mystery Be, is another one of these kind of songs. As soon as I heard it I can’t stop listening to it. The song puts me in a great mood and I love the humility of the lyrics. There is some real honesty in this song.

Everybody’s wondering what and where they all came from
Everybody’s worrying ’bout where they’re gonna go
When the whole thing’s done
Nobody knows for certain,
And so it’s all the same to me
I think i’ll just let the mystery be

Some say once gone, you’re gone forever
Some say you’re gonna come back
Some say you rest in the arms of the savior
If in sinful ways you lack
Some say that they’re comin’ back in a garden
Bunch of carrots and little sweet peas
I think i’ll just let the mystery be

Some say they’re going to place called glory
And i ain’t sayin’ it ain’t a fact
But i’ve heard that i’m on the road to purgatory
And i don’t like the sound of that
I believe in love and i live my life accordingly
But i choose to let the mystery be

The point is very simple, it is about respecting the mysteries of life and death. You have to get on with the process of living and respect the mystery for the power of its mystery. It seems that so many people are way too eager to act on absolute certainty of the future and the hereafter. I just don’t get it I suppose. For me this notion of “letting the mystery be” seems like the only legitimate kind of religious response to the wonderful mystery of life and death. It appalls me how some people seem to revel in their apocalyptic visions of the future. Take the current war between Israel and Hezbollah. Numerous fundamentalist Christian pundits appear to be beside themselves with enthusiasm and absolutely certain that this is all a real sign of the end times. The eagerness to greet the apocalypse baffles me. Even CNN had coverage seriously entertaining the question does the war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah validate the apocalypse of revelations? This will to prohpecy has never settled well with me. Likewise the empiricist in me has never been satisfied by those that are certain about the nothingness of death. I tend to accept this nothingness as the reality but I would never feign certainty in the idea of nothingness after death. Death really is a mystery that we can’t have knowledge of. The only way you can evaluate these theories of death is in their consequences for the present. If your view of death compells you to negate the present and the future then it strikes me that the theory is not worthwhile and likely dangerously maladaptive. If you believe in some grand destruction of the planet with a post apocalyptic vision of redemption then you are lead to an eagerness to hasten the end. Consequentially, environmental or human destruction logically become inconsequential in the process. The consequence of this kind of thinking is a subversion of the present for the future. Death=redemption becomes ascendent over life=preservation. I don’t prentend to know what lies in the great beyond but I am not willing to destroy life in a haste to find out. We would be lucky if more people could just let the mystery be. I find peace in the resignation to mystery as mystery, and so this song puts me in an elated mood.

Wonkette has a nice batch of photos from the recent visit Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi made to Graceland, home of Elvis. These pictures are so breathtakingly awesome words just can’t do them justice.

Radio KAOS, a long forgotten pop album of the late 80’s by Roger Waters. It certainly had its element of cheesiness, but I think Roger Waters is perhaps one of the most underrated politically minded pop singers. He has been singing about the Middle East long before the American public really cared or was compelled to think about it. I remember always liking these verses from the song Home. Listening to it now it seems oddly prescient:

When they overrun the defenses
A minor invasion put down to expenses
Will you go down to the airport lounge
Will you accept your second class status
A nation of waitresses and waiters
Will you mix their martinis
Will you stand still for it
Or will you take to the hills

…

When the cowboys and Arabs draw down
On each other at noon
In the cool dusty air of the city boardroom
Will you stand by a passive spectator
Of the market dictators
Will you discreetly withdraw
With your ear pressed to the boardroom door
Will you hear when the lion within you roars
Will you take to the hills

I owe a lot to Roger Waters. His music had a deep influence on me. Amused to Death was a masterful album rooted with much despair and ultimately cynicism about the consumeristic culture we live in. I don’t necessarily share all this despair because I think consumption and the consumer society is a bit more complicated than his music portrays. But the emotional core of Waters’ music is undeniable. While many in my generation spent there time tripping on acid and reliving their parents’ glory days listening to David Gilmour and old Pink Floyd I spent my teenage years in sobriety intensely intrigued by Roger Waters. It was a political education of sorts. I still classify The Final Cut as the all time greatest Pink Floyd album. I remember exploring the back catolog of Waters’ solo albums becoming utterly partisan and entrenched in the Waters camp of the Roger Waters vs. David Gilmour feud. After a short stint lurking at alt.music.roger-waters I quickly realized how much in the minority I was in after comparing the dozens of Waters posts versus the thousands of posts at alt.music.pink-floyd. Even though I thought Roger Waters was the true soul of Pink Floyd even though the rest of the world clearly did not see it that way. In hind sight I chalk this up to the serious and strongly political intent of Waters’ music. By any objective account you have to admit that he is pretty clear and direct in his criticism of capitalism and American power, I guess these themes never really connected to the public like the much more ethereal and abstract muzak that Gilmour and company continued to produce under the banner of “Pink Floyd”. But the outcome of all this teenage obsession with Roger Waters is that it turned me into an obstinately serious individual. I constantly think and worry about state of the world, to an unhealthy degree perhaps. The marks of despair and political mindedness of these thought patterns come directly from Roger Waters’ music. And his music is always something that I can turn back to get in touch with that little bit anger needed to goad myself into action.

Waters’ song Home seems to say more about our times than even the time it was written in. I think the key term here is Market Dictators. The battle is not against making a living or free exchange in the market. The battle really is against the authoritarian forms of capital and class that leave the entire world in shambles. Home is a very simple song with a very simple question, how long are you willing to take it? What are your limits? Are you willing to passively accept your status as a second class citizen or will you stand up to the forces of evil that overrun our government and our world? Opposition can take many forms, but it basically boils down to an unwillingness to yield to fascist forces that always tell you no. No you cannot do this, no you cannot do that. We own you, and you will worry your life away when a couple of our office towers are collasped by the barbarian horde that we helped foster in the middle east. You will do our bidding as we commit your sons and daughters to desert sands far away to terrorize people you do not even know.

Well I can tell you I am tired of the whole lot. I would just as well ship the entire Bush family, and the Bin Ladin family to central Jerusalem and build a wall around the whole city and let them rot in the desert heat as they fight each other, eager to bring on the apocalypse. Then the rest of us can live in peace away from these murderous tyrants and thieves. For me this boils down to a simple proposition: I am tired of having to think about the murderous war lords that are running our country into the ground. I am tired of seeing them on my T.V. I am tired of hearing about the record profits these market dictators are collecting in the oil industry. I am tired of feeling ill at ease. And I am sure the rest of the world is tired of it as well. I am tired of living in an authoritarian culture. My patience is thin. I can’t predict my exact personal response but I think something has to give. It is time to vote the clowns out of office, and if that fails more dramatic action might be needed to take back our world.

Short is the time to be conciliatory, it is time to take a partisan stand. That is what taking to the hills means. It is not some romantic survivalist fantasy. It is taking a militant stand against fascism. It is about over turning the militaristic order that threatens our world.