Gasp!

Creating Change

A new way? A fabulous article on the economy and the cultural shift at Salon.

"America's not on top anymore, because we've been exporting nothing but lukewarm fajita platters and spray-tanned celebrity jackasses for decades now. The days of closet-reorganizing professionals and Botox parties and hiring a personal trainer for your nanny's personal chef are over ... and thank God for that."

Amen. This kind of mediocrity has seeped all the way through our cultural landscape. It's the reason I gravitate towards 20th century literature, music and art. After 1979, something happened which radically changed the fiber of our country. This "change for the worse" shows up in the culture from 1980 onward. It's a shift away from humanity, community and common good towards selfishness, materialism and conformity.

I've watched the transition from the 80s hard-core greed to the 90s meaninglessness to 00s fear. I've witnessed writers cater to readers and audiences who superficially protest against these values.

A cultural shift is coming. Our political system guarantees it. The recession supports it. As the article writer notes, we can't rely on catastrophes to create this shift. The job of those in the arts these days - myself included - is to witness, validate and build momentum for change.

Hard Times: The 30s

If you don't know much about the Great Depression and would like to learn more, there's no shame in reading "Hard Times: The 30s" from Time-Life Books. It will give you an overview of what life was like during the decade, and the pictures are fabulous.

The best part of the book are the factoids. Radio schedules, annual salaries and snippets of radio show scripts are interspersed throughout the text. For those writing about the 30s, these features are priceless.

Example: A union man listens to Eddie Cantor's Camel Caravan on a Friday night at 7:30 tries to do the jitterbug. His girlfriend comes in and pronounces him an ickie.

Theoretically Speaking
Books like "Hard Times" aim to collect the political, social and cultural realms into one coherent picture. It's a provocative vision.

Technology has created a cultural shift, from creative to literal. Radio shows required listeners to imagine events. Now, we can create worlds where violence happens and the consequences are within our control. Are we a less creative and more dependent society as a result of this change?

Yes. Between pictures of the Great Depression and Jean Harlow are more aggressive visions: Richard Frankensteen getting beaten for handing out union pamphlets at a Ford plant, for instance. Another picture shows a family migrating so they can find work. Some made unfortunate political decisions and chose to act upon them, as woman at the communist rally reveals.

Today it's hard to get worked up about much of anything. Economic downturns are taken for granted; prolonged wars are fought. It's still - as always - business as usual.

Compared to the days of the Great Depression, we're a society who brazenly feels immortal... Demoralized and immortal - a depressing combination.

Book Review - Manic: A Memoir by Terri Cheney

My review of Terri Cheney's book, "Manic: A Memoir" is in today's Birmingham News.

"Very little insight is given to these embarrassing situations until late in the book. Chapters resemble cocktail stories, with small doses of horror and humor. But in the end there's a payoff. Cheney wraps this string of situations into a thematic bow that makes complete sense."

Read the rest here.

Chicken Little

Jethro told me that this post didn't make much sense. Allow me rephrase it.

The economy is tanking. What effect is that going to have on the arts?

Here's one possibility. I bet we'll be seeing more of this kind of thing. I don't know how you're going to prepare for it, but I'm planning on paying off my debt and sticking to a budget. (Thanks Scott)

Feeling the American Century

What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century
by Henry Allen.
Pantheon Books
pg. 176, Copyright 2000.

Henry Allen's book, "What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century" is a fabulous book. Starting with 1900, each chapter is dedicated to a decade's worth of memories, product name-dropping, and random dialogue. Allen picks an underlying theme with ties each of these elements together.

In books like these, it's usually the earlier part of the decade that gets short shrift. The writing sparkles in the chapters which the author remembers. In this case, Allen's best work is done in the first few chapters. His voice is dispassionate, allowing readers to feel the full effect of the words. "You stand at attention in restaurants whenever the band plays, 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' which it does a lot, and there's a punch in the nose waiting for any man who doesn't. Sauerkraut becomes 'liberty cabbage.' German measles are 'liberty measles.'"

Renaming words was a 1910-1920 phenomena, which as you remember, played out again nearly 90 years later. Such patterns are subtly underscored throughout the book. Greed and rampant materialism appear and then disappear; waiting for each generation to discover it anew. And they always do.

From the 60s onward, the book takes a more dour tone; paranoia and narcissism laced with disappointment. Greed makes life simple in the 80s, but scheduling life becomes complicated. And the 90s, the "Whatever" decade in which technology imposed itself on relationships. In this book, he sees America as a lonely place - by choice. "Memoirs replaced novels as the fashionable sport. Internet games and chat rooms replaced social life, even offering the change to change your identity and sign on as someone else."

Allen allows readers to reach their own conclusions about the American Century. But with this evidence, it's hard not to be worried about the future.

Book Review: Final Journeys - A Practical Guide for Bringing Care and Comfort at the End of Life

I'm late in posting this but...

My review of "Final Journeys: A Practical Guide for Bringing Care and Comfort at the End of Life" by Maggie Callanan was published in the Birmingham News.

"Sensitively written, Callanan outlines in precise detail what a family should know about saying goodbye to a loved one. It is a deeply compassionate and moving book."

Read the rest here.

Colliding Interests

Let's see... Gas is at $3.35 a gallon on average across the U.S. Foreclosures cripple American families. In places like Ohio, one out of ten people are receiving government aid. Do I have to mention Bear Stearns? You know, the company that got bailed by the Fed, invoking a Depression-era law and making economists everywhere incredibly frightened for our future.

Oh yeah, and have you noticed rising food prices and higher energy costs? During the first quarter of this year, 232,000 jobs were lost in the U.S. Economy's first quarter. Only 80,000 jobs were lost last month alone. The Iraq War has cost over $500 Billion.

Not to be a downer, because I would certainly love to pretend that I live in a completely different time and place. You know, the one that allows me to maintain a high credit card balance and not pay it off... But it seems typical of our present society to believe that there are no limits to resources like money or the environment.

In light of the economic circumstances of our country... You know, people getting thrown out of their jobs and their homes... People begging for gas money - and actually using it for gas money... Is there a way to talk about government funding for the arts without feeling out of touch with what's happening?

Seriously. Help me out here.

Book Review: The Book of Blah

I reviewed Pamela Aye Simon's "The Book of Blah: Random Thoughts for Boring Days" several weeks ago for the Birmingham News.

“Simon's book is filled with free-verse poetry on the peculiarities of modern life. Her topics are diverse, ranging from technology to clothing, diet and the aging process…The theme throughout the text is of loss and compromise. The narrator is conflicted between her inner life and external circumstances. This underpinning accounts for the sadness that occasionally overwhelms these verses.”

Officially, it falls under the “humor” category, and that was my main quibble with it. Books like “The Book of Blah” are tough to categorize – not quite humor, not quite literary, not quite… You get the idea.

The free verse form fascinates me because of its economy - taking the most important words in the sentence and cutting out the rest. I think my eyes do that quite naturally. Using too many words dilutes the impact of a statement.

Anyway, read the review here.