You and I

February 22, 2008

Apparently, there was an article in a local paper bemoaning the presence of pharmacy technicians and (some of) their lack of training. Well, guess what? In this country we have decided, for better or for worse, that health care is going to be a for profit entity. Don’t whine when business act like, well, businesses-try to get maximum profit while minimizing cost.

I’m rereading Bill James as part of my preseason psych up for baseball. He had an observation on the early and mid 1980s Red Sox teams-they got old and decayed together while management kept trying to recapture 1975. I thought about that in lieu of Boston’s 2004 and 2007 teams, and how much turnover there was between those two teams.

2004: 2007:
C-Varitek C-Varitek
1B-Mientkiewicz 1B-Youkilis
2B-Bellhorn 2B-Pedroia
SS-Cabrera SS-Lugo
3B-Mueller 3B-Lowell
OF-Manny OF-Manny
OF-Damon OF-Ellsbury
OF-Nixon OF-Drew
SP-Schilling SP-Beckett
SP-Lowe SP-Dice K
SP-Martinez SP-Schilling
RP-Foulke RP-Papelbon

The ruthlessness with which Boston trims the tree and removes deadwood is not romantic, but it is effective. This is perhaps, a reflection of a stat minded mindset-while we appreciate your skills in ways that more traditional teams might not, we cull you relentlessly when you start to slip, or hopefully, just before then. That’s showbiz.

Michelle Obama apparently stepped in it when she said she was proud of her country now “for the first time”. Hillary, of course, wasted no times in proclaiming that she has “always” been proud of her country, and Cindy McCain, who seems like a basket of neuroses in her own right, piled on as well.

Well, America has done a lot of things we aren’t, and shouldn’t be, proud of in the last fifty years. (I have to assume Michelle is in her fifties. I’m pretty sure Barack is 60, or thereabouts. I could look it up, but my company is run by retarded chimpanzees, so we don’t have internet access.) I don’t know exactly how to measure such things, but it can be convincingly argued that race relations in this country are close to being as good as they have ever been. To borrow a phrase from the late Kurt Vonnegut, it used to be pretty much completely acceptable for people to hang black people from trees if they looked at a white woman the wrong way. It was illegal, but it was damn hard to get caught, and even more prosecuted, doing it. That isn’t true anymore.
There are still racists around, of course-at one of my previous jobs, some semievolved simian used to leave White Power publications in the waiting room. It made me angry at first, and then just kind of sad. It’s like the Chris Rock line about women who won’t engage in oral sex- “They still MAKE you?” That kind of white power-America first crap is not just wrong and immoral, it is deeply irrelevant, discarded decades ago into the dustbin of history. It takes a special kind of delusion to look at the world around you and believe firstly, that white men aren’t still in charge, and secondly, that, since they’re not, it would be a better world if they were. Racists have lost the power to intimidate, and now we just kind of pity them. It’s like someone still believing in voodoo, or being afraid of electricity, or getting ready to open a buggy whip manufacturing plant.

Podcasts finally done with, onto the music:

“Could I’ve Been So Blind”, Black Crowes, Shake your Moneymaker

Another album and group that I keep forgetting how much I love. Yeah, they’re derivative. So what.

“Pride (In The Name of Love)(LIVE)” U2, Rattle and Hum

I’m hardly a U2 fanboy, but I loved Rattle and Hum.

Rattle and Hum, IIRC, was released 21 years ago.

Sigh.

“For the Reverend Martin Luther King, sing!”

Ever notice how right wingers always swing about and bring up King’s infidelities and supposed Communist leanings whenever anything positive is brought up about him? Aside from simply confusing the issue, which they love to do, (they can’t attack his beliefs or values, so they attack the man) they do this to deflect the fact that Christianity, which they love to wrap themselves in, teaches that you do for others first. Which goes against their deepest value, which is love of Mammon.

“I Should Tell You,” Rent

This musical still breaks my heart every time I listen to it. The loss of its composer, whose name escapes me at this moment, seems more and more tragic with each day.

“Here Comes The Sun”, The Beatles, Abbey Road

I used to sing the chorus of this song when the local paper, the Lowell Sun, arrived at my first job. People usually didn’t get it.

“A Room of Our Own(Live)”, Billy Joel, 12 Gardens Live

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite neglected album sides, Side Two of The Nylon Curtain. Kind of like Side Two of Zeppelin IV, the mega hits are on Side One, both with one neglected classic (“Laura” and “Battle of Evermore”) among the bigger songs (“Allentown”, “Pressure”, “Goodnight Saigon” and “Black Dog”, “Rock and Roll”, “Stairway to Heaven”) And in both cases, Side Two is full of good stuff that for years I never heard because of rewinding Side One over and over again.

“Daniel”, Wilson Phillips, Two Rooms

My wife has never stopped making fun of me for having Wilson Phillips among my CDs when I married her.

Yeah, I bought it. So what?

“Rain King”, Counting Crows, Across a Wire

One of the CDs I bought with my Best Buy gift card from Christmas. I really loved the first Counting Crows record.

“Come On In My Kitchen”, Eric Clapton, Me and Mr. Johnson

Some people still get mad at people like Eric Clapton for “stealing” the blues from guys like Robert Johnson. Say what you will, but if it weren’t for his efforts, I would have never heard as many Robert Johnson songs as I have.

“Marathon(Live)”, Rush, A Show of Hands

Not my favorite Rush song. “The Pass” or “War Paint” is probably my favorite Rush song.

My wife hates Rush, because she believes they broke up her friends’ marriage. It’s a little more complicated than that.

“I Will Follow(Live)”, U2, Under a Blood Red Sky

A great riff. A GREAT riff. Very reminiscent of their very first albums and shows, a very punky, small club kind of vibe.

“I’ve Loved These Days (Live)” Billy Joel, Songs from the Attic

A very sad, wistful song. Describes how I feel a striking amount of the time.

“(Just Like) Starting Over”, John Lennon, The John Lennon Collection

No, I didn’t buy the studio albums. So sue me.
Supposedly, he had the tapes for this song in his hands when he was shot. Creepy.

"You and I (Reprise)", Chess

The saddest final two lines I've ever heard:

"And we'll go on pretending...
Stories like ours, have happy endings..."