Goodbye 2008. It's been grand. Well, not really. But it's definitely been memorable.
Favorite News Moments
Not to be confused with most important news moments, although there is some overlap. These are favorites because they were enjoyable/diverting, with was not the case with Mugabe stealing elections or terrorists bombing Mumbai.
1. Obama presidential election victory speech: I love watching people cry in patriotic fervor
2. Giants beat Patriots: best, most satisfying game ever
3. Sarah Palin's convention speech: yep. that was fun.
4. Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich busted: lots of criminality and venality in 2008, but rarely with such jaw dropping anecdotes, tetchy gossip and theatrical hair. And he just keeps on giving.
5. "Boris vs. Ken" London mayoral race: or rather "bonking Boris vs. Red Ken"
Favorite Movies
This year my favorite movies are mostly popcorn fun flicks. Sorry.
1. Wall-E: I loved him from the very first trailer
2. Son of Rambo: P made me watch the original Rambo movie first but I love this one the best
3. Iron Man: and unlike Batman not a massive metaphor
4. Hellboy II: full of beautiful and inventive detail
5. Ghost Town: ricky gervais
6. Twilight:hated the book. loved the movie.
7. Redbelt: Rocky for those of us who like Son of Rambo better than Rambo
Here is a list of movies that are supposedly going to be on my favorite movies 2008 list when I finally see them all sometime in September 2009
1. A Christmas Tale
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Waltz with Bashir
4. The Wrestler
5. Wendy and Lucy
6. I've Loved You So Long
7. Tell No One
Favorite Music
This is not year-specific. Just a list of some things I enjoyed this year.
1. Spirit of the Century, Blind Boys of Alabama
2. The Crane Wife, The Decemberists
3. Wrecking Ball, Emmylou Harris
4. Spirit, Willie Nelson
5. Turn Around, Jonny Lang
6. Charles Mingus Plays Piano, Charles Mingus
7. The Greatest, Cat Power (yes I have her release of this year, but this I listen to more)
Favorite Books
Ditto the above category
1. Let the Trumpet Sound, Stephen B. Oates
2. Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner
3. New Art City, Jed Pearl
4. All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
5. Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
6. Living Things, Anne Porter
7. Lalla Rookh, Thomas Moore (if you have a thing for overwrought romances of yesteryear, read this aloud with a friend and you will laugh till you cry)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Cold and Foggy Night
Walking around the Heights on Stonewall Road a block off Kavanaugh Blvd, just before heading over to Starbucks for something hot. The cold, wet, wintry weather makes warm interiors and fire places so much more inviting. Perfect for Christmas. I'm savoring it now because by Friday the forecast is a high of 67 degrees.
Arkansas Symphony Christmas Spectacular (and City Hall)
Robinson Center lit for ChristmasThe other night P and I (boyfriend, I guess should specify, not brother) took advantage of the gift of some tickets and went to the Christmas Spectacular at the Robinson Center. On the way we passed City Hall, and P and I stopped to look at it. There was a lit Christmas tree inside and lit Christmas trees have a hypnotic power when you are out on the sidewalk looking in and it is freezing cold outside. I'd never even been inside City Hall. Shocking, I know, that in a childhood full of field trips we never visited city management but there you have it. So today on my lunch break I went by to have a peek.
Surprisingly, City Hall is still in City Hall. I half expected operations to have moved to some drab 80s-era municipal building with nothing left of the old enterprise but the words "City Hall" in stone on the lintel. But no, City Hall is still in City Hall! This was the big discovery of my brief tour. 
Scott Carter, public relations guy for city management, xeroxed me some plans for the building and tossed out a few recollections of the site. Apparently this is the 100th anniversary of the building and the Arkansas Historic Preservation people put together a tour to commemorate the occasion. So maybe I'll look that up. But mainly what impresses is the quiet and order and stately calm of the interior which belies what most people know of city operations. You expect the dehydration and muscle strain unique to airports and modern bureaucratic office space. Instead you get smooth proportions, tall windows, and cool, gray marble. People were quiet, and moved purposefully between offices across atriums, and answered questions directly. If the feeling of an interior can lend itself to efficient bureaucracy, then City Hall should have no trouble developing a functionary soft shoe through the troubles of officialdom.
Welcome Home P
My brother says he was just mugged at gunpoint downtown. "It was clear the guy was new to mugging." Which made me laugh because being told someone has just had a gun on them is hard to absorb. P complied and A did too, which amounted to an empty wallet and a cheap watch, until the mugger saw A's iphone. So he demanded that. At this my heart constricted a little. Because A is poor but he does own this one beautiful thing, his iphone, and he loves that iphone. And P says that to his panic A refused. And told the guy what he could do with himself. And at this point of the narrative I remembered Richard Price's Lush Life and this is the point where the inexperienced mugger shoots the victim in order not to loose face. But possibly because the mugger had no friend around to see how it all turned out, or possibly because it was cold, or possibly because he was genuinely overwhelmed with curiosity, instead of shooting somebody (and I remembered Brian Beutler's account of being shot) he asked what the boys were up to with all those photos and adhesive and made small talk for a minute and then walked away.
And this was on a street downtown. Not a bad part of town, my brother says, although the details seem fuzzy to him. Just one of those streets parallel to Main. I've heard people who live downtown talk this way; people living on twelfth say it doesn't get bad till nineteenth and so on. And the rule apparently is that the area you are used to navigating yourself never seems dangerous to you personally. I am guilty of this myself. Little Rock has been famous for its crime in the past, but most of it is in a few particularly bad areas, so that whole swathes of the city are largely untouched by it. Yet I mentor in one of those few bad spots and have never felt any qualms about being down there by myself, often after dark. It's familiar. Only in the abstract do I acknowledge the foolishness of that arrangement.
And this was on a street downtown. Not a bad part of town, my brother says, although the details seem fuzzy to him. Just one of those streets parallel to Main. I've heard people who live downtown talk this way; people living on twelfth say it doesn't get bad till nineteenth and so on. And the rule apparently is that the area you are used to navigating yourself never seems dangerous to you personally. I am guilty of this myself. Little Rock has been famous for its crime in the past, but most of it is in a few particularly bad areas, so that whole swathes of the city are largely untouched by it. Yet I mentor in one of those few bad spots and have never felt any qualms about being down there by myself, often after dark. It's familiar. Only in the abstract do I acknowledge the foolishness of that arrangement.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Courthouse Art Update
Artwork Tweaked To Satisfy Its Critics (But you have to sign in)
So, I've already blogged about the Echo Dynamics water sculpture out in front of the federal courthouse that has been raising local ire since it was unveiled in 2007. Now comes the announcement (scroll down to "Water Feature") that improvements to the tune of $120,000 are slated for the sculpture.
From the graphic links on the website it looks like the improvements are mostly landscaping. How to improve hated public sculpture 101: hide it behind trees.
So, I've already blogged about the Echo Dynamics water sculpture out in front of the federal courthouse that has been raising local ire since it was unveiled in 2007. Now comes the announcement (scroll down to "Water Feature") that improvements to the tune of $120,000 are slated for the sculpture.
From the graphic links on the website it looks like the improvements are mostly landscaping. How to improve hated public sculpture 101: hide it behind trees.
Iced In
We sit around drinking tea and eating through S's fruit tart since she had to cancel her party.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Liveblogging "It's a Wonderful Life"
1min
Altered it to fit in the time slot? But they haven't cut the title cards in the opening credits and everybody fast-forwards those anyway. Maybe this will be subtle...
10min
Little George sees the "Ask Dad" sign and goes running to the Building and Loan for his Dad. Whenever I see this scene I think of the 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best.
13min
15 minutes in and I'm already teary eyed. George gets slapped around by Mister Gower before the old gentleman realizes George has just saved his bacon.
Who is the actor for Gower? Is it just me or are bit part actors these days not nearly so good? And this movie is full of great ones. Also Beulah Bondi as Ma Bailey. I just saw her has Fred MacMurray's mother in the Preston Sturges Christmas movie "Remember the Night." She must have specialized in mothers.
25min
Violet coming on to George at the high school dance. Mama: that actress was Ado Annie in Oklahoma.
P: Do you know why this movie became so popular around Christmas? They forgot to renew the copyright on it. For years it was in the public domain and every channel could play it for free. It's only been in the last decade or so they regained control over it by asserting the copyright for the movie's soundtrack.
27min
Best "across the room" gaze in the movies: George's and Mary Hatch's eyes meet.
45min
George Bailey tells Potter where to get off after Potter denigrates the Building and Loan. When he's through Potter flicks his tongue briefly over his lips and an eyebrow stiffens. Lionel Barrymore is amazing.
1h
George and Mary share the phone and then fall into each others arms. Dad: Donna Reed and Jimmy Steward didn't rehearse that scene. Capra said he just told them where they needed to end up.
1h10
Bank Run. Goodbye Honeymoon.
Dad: "It's a Wonderful Life" or "How To Be Happy Without Ever Taking a Vacation"
Now George is giving away his honeymoon money to help Bedford Falls survive the Depression. "How much do you need Miss Davis?" "Can I take $17.50?" And then George Bailey kisses her. Mama: that actress played the grandmother in The Waltons.
1h25
George's wedding night. Taxi driver friend Ernie and cop friend Bert are helping Mary stage a makeshift fancy hotel. Bert and Ernie? Inspiration for Sesame Street?
1h47
The loose finial on the banister makes it first appearance.
1h48
Everybody joins the war effort. George misses the war while his brother gets the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Dad laughs at Potter growling "1A" over draft papers.
Paul: who is the voice of God in this? Good question. Although isn't it Joseph who is narrating mostly?
1h52
Uncle Billy accidentally hands his deposit to Potter while teasing him about Harry's medal.
Mama: If he just hadn't been gloating...
1h56
George to Uncle Billy: "Where's that money you silly old fool... One of us is going to jail and it's not going to be me." But we know it will be. Like somebody had to help his Dad with the Building and Loan. Like somebody had to give up a trip to Europe to help settle an estate. Like somebody had to send his brother to school. Like somebody had to run the Building and Loan once his brother was out. Like somebody had to provide honeymoon cash to coast his neighbors through a Depression. Like somebody had to stay home when everyone else went to war. This movie is all about frustration.
2h1m
George kissing his son desperately.
Dad: boy, he's a good actor
2h4
More finial trouble. It's the small details of frustration that Capra gets so right.
2h9
Potter asking George why he needs the loan. Playing the market? Another woman? What's really galling in all this is that he knows what happened to the money. He's got it. Worse, he has just seen George take responsibility for the loss when Potter knows Uncle Billy lost it. You lost it? says Potter incredulously. But he still can't resist crushing George while he has him.
2h16
George praying in Martini's bar. This scene is better at panic than the crazed stare into the camera George will deliver later. Then it is a bit campy horror. Here it is just sick and out of options.
George driving through snow.
Dad: they really do dark and sinister well.
This is where the movie starts to get surreal. This shift frightened me when I was little. The music goes creepy.
2h20
"...a bust in the jaw in answer to a prayer a little while ago"
"...angel second class" and the local guy falls out of his chair and darts outside. Dad: that's old Hollywood - the wide eyed gape.
2h22
"Comes in pretty handy around here, Bub." Meaning money, George to Clarence the angel. I wonder if more people will watch "It's a Wonderful Life" this year given a recession. And I wonder if it will strike people differently when they do. Or stand out again in a different way. The whole story (and George's life) revolves around the fortunes of a Building and Loan. And the run on the bank in the early part is a credit crunch in microcosm ("You're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house... and a hundred others").
2h24
Clarence is about to take everything anyway, all the previous life with its difficulties and obligations
Everyone takes this upcoming sequence, where George sees what life would be like if he'd never been born, as demonstrating how truly valuable every human life is. But from George's standpoint surely the lesson is how cold and terrible it is to have no connection to anyone (that close up on George's crazed expression when his home is an empty ruin). When he comes back into his old life his joy is more about people knowing him and loving him than about the fact that he was effective in life after all.
2h35
George thrown out of Nick's bar. No drivers license. "There not there either." "What?" "Zuzu's petals."
Dad: space music!
2h41
Oh no! Pottersville! Jazz music!
Mother: Like Hot Springs
Paul: Like a little Vegas
Bars, girls, neon, and Ernie's broken marriage: Capra on social decay
2h48
"Where's my wife Clarence! Where's my wife!"
Dad: this part is a little overcooked
Q. How do you make Donna Reed look dowdy?
A. Library
This will be the last stereotype to go. Ever.
2h55
Town saves George. While singing Christmas carols. It's nice that they kept it in a big hullabaloo instead of spotlighting the individual contributions/testimonials with silence. The euphoria of a crowd makes it all seem more possible. And infectious.
2h58
Me: I love that movie!
Dad: Well, we've seen it again
P: In real life, he's still going to jail
Altered it to fit in the time slot? But they haven't cut the title cards in the opening credits and everybody fast-forwards those anyway. Maybe this will be subtle...
10min
Little George sees the "Ask Dad" sign and goes running to the Building and Loan for his Dad. Whenever I see this scene I think of the 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best.
13min
15 minutes in and I'm already teary eyed. George gets slapped around by Mister Gower before the old gentleman realizes George has just saved his bacon.
Who is the actor for Gower? Is it just me or are bit part actors these days not nearly so good? And this movie is full of great ones. Also Beulah Bondi as Ma Bailey. I just saw her has Fred MacMurray's mother in the Preston Sturges Christmas movie "Remember the Night." She must have specialized in mothers.
25min
Violet coming on to George at the high school dance. Mama: that actress was Ado Annie in Oklahoma.
P: Do you know why this movie became so popular around Christmas? They forgot to renew the copyright on it. For years it was in the public domain and every channel could play it for free. It's only been in the last decade or so they regained control over it by asserting the copyright for the movie's soundtrack.
27min
Best "across the room" gaze in the movies: George's and Mary Hatch's eyes meet.
45min
George Bailey tells Potter where to get off after Potter denigrates the Building and Loan. When he's through Potter flicks his tongue briefly over his lips and an eyebrow stiffens. Lionel Barrymore is amazing.
1h
George and Mary share the phone and then fall into each others arms. Dad: Donna Reed and Jimmy Steward didn't rehearse that scene. Capra said he just told them where they needed to end up.
1h10
Bank Run. Goodbye Honeymoon.
Dad: "It's a Wonderful Life" or "How To Be Happy Without Ever Taking a Vacation"
Now George is giving away his honeymoon money to help Bedford Falls survive the Depression. "How much do you need Miss Davis?" "Can I take $17.50?" And then George Bailey kisses her. Mama: that actress played the grandmother in The Waltons.
1h25
George's wedding night. Taxi driver friend Ernie and cop friend Bert are helping Mary stage a makeshift fancy hotel. Bert and Ernie? Inspiration for Sesame Street?
1h47
The loose finial on the banister makes it first appearance.
1h48
Everybody joins the war effort. George misses the war while his brother gets the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Dad laughs at Potter growling "1A" over draft papers.
Paul: who is the voice of God in this? Good question. Although isn't it Joseph who is narrating mostly?
1h52
Uncle Billy accidentally hands his deposit to Potter while teasing him about Harry's medal.
Mama: If he just hadn't been gloating...
1h56
George to Uncle Billy: "Where's that money you silly old fool... One of us is going to jail and it's not going to be me." But we know it will be. Like somebody had to help his Dad with the Building and Loan. Like somebody had to give up a trip to Europe to help settle an estate. Like somebody had to send his brother to school. Like somebody had to run the Building and Loan once his brother was out. Like somebody had to provide honeymoon cash to coast his neighbors through a Depression. Like somebody had to stay home when everyone else went to war. This movie is all about frustration.
2h1m
George kissing his son desperately.
Dad: boy, he's a good actor
2h4
More finial trouble. It's the small details of frustration that Capra gets so right.
2h9
Potter asking George why he needs the loan. Playing the market? Another woman? What's really galling in all this is that he knows what happened to the money. He's got it. Worse, he has just seen George take responsibility for the loss when Potter knows Uncle Billy lost it. You lost it? says Potter incredulously. But he still can't resist crushing George while he has him.
2h16
George praying in Martini's bar. This scene is better at panic than the crazed stare into the camera George will deliver later. Then it is a bit campy horror. Here it is just sick and out of options.
George driving through snow.
Dad: they really do dark and sinister well.
This is where the movie starts to get surreal. This shift frightened me when I was little. The music goes creepy.
2h20
"...a bust in the jaw in answer to a prayer a little while ago"
"...angel second class" and the local guy falls out of his chair and darts outside. Dad: that's old Hollywood - the wide eyed gape.
2h22
"Comes in pretty handy around here, Bub." Meaning money, George to Clarence the angel. I wonder if more people will watch "It's a Wonderful Life" this year given a recession. And I wonder if it will strike people differently when they do. Or stand out again in a different way. The whole story (and George's life) revolves around the fortunes of a Building and Loan. And the run on the bank in the early part is a credit crunch in microcosm ("You're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house... and a hundred others").
2h24
Clarence is about to take everything anyway, all the previous life with its difficulties and obligations
Everyone takes this upcoming sequence, where George sees what life would be like if he'd never been born, as demonstrating how truly valuable every human life is. But from George's standpoint surely the lesson is how cold and terrible it is to have no connection to anyone (that close up on George's crazed expression when his home is an empty ruin). When he comes back into his old life his joy is more about people knowing him and loving him than about the fact that he was effective in life after all.
2h35
George thrown out of Nick's bar. No drivers license. "There not there either." "What?" "Zuzu's petals."
Dad: space music!
2h41
Oh no! Pottersville! Jazz music!
Mother: Like Hot Springs
Paul: Like a little Vegas
Bars, girls, neon, and Ernie's broken marriage: Capra on social decay
2h48
"Where's my wife Clarence! Where's my wife!"
Dad: this part is a little overcooked
Q. How do you make Donna Reed look dowdy?
A. Library
This will be the last stereotype to go. Ever.
2h55
Town saves George. While singing Christmas carols. It's nice that they kept it in a big hullabaloo instead of spotlighting the individual contributions/testimonials with silence. The euphoria of a crowd makes it all seem more possible. And infectious.
2h58
Me: I love that movie!
Dad: Well, we've seen it again
P: In real life, he's still going to jail
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Wire season six
For those of us who felt sad when The Wire ended after five seasons, reality has intervened: the Blagojevich scandal.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Road Trip
Yesterday P and I joined D and Y and drove up to Mountain View / Blanchard Springs. As it turned out, we got to attend "Caroling in the Caverns" for free because the regular tours were canceled for the caroling program and the federal website hadn't been updated. P finagled it. When we returned to Mountain View the town was gathered in the square for the lighting of the Christmas tree.
"This is Christmas. This is really Christmas!" Y said as we came out from dinner onto the square. It did look idyllic. The Court House was lit and so was the Christmas tree. People were milling around after the festivities and a long line of children stretched across the lawn waiting to sit on Santa's lap.
The idea was to show Y some of Arkansas besides Little Rock and D had thought of Blanchard Springs. P said his grandfather (who due to a quirk of generations was born in the late 1800s) had worked to sink the shafts to the cave after it was discovered. "The only elevator in Stone County," said the bushy tour guide has we rode down to the cavern. Two local sights for the price of one.
It is very white here, Y said at dinner. That's because we are in the mountains, we said. This area has historically had small farms, cattle farming, nothing much that required the cheap labor of slavery or tenant farming. Go down to the Delta and the demography changes. Take music. In the Delta it is blues and BB King and Helena's King Biscuit festival and the origins of a lot of rock'n roll. In the mountains it is folk music. Mountain View calls itself the folk music capital of the world and makes more hand crafted dulcimers than just about anywhere. For "Caroling in the Caverns" the musicians were from Mountain View and there were two guitars, one mandolin and a hammered dulcimer.
"I'd rather poke my eye out with a fork than go to Little Rock," said the lady behind the cash registrar. It's a common sentiment. But what is odd about it is that it is based on the idea that Little Rock is a big city, which it really isn't. So Little Rock remains somewhat exotic, and Mountain View, which would be half as far away if there was straight highway connecting it and Little Rock, remains isolated at the other end of a tangle of mountainous roads. Behind the counter she and I compared IDs. My drivers license is my favorite. All the others - work, school, passport - are awful. She was fine with her passport photo. She has a passport but she never makes it down to Little Rock! But maybe this is what keeps Mountain View Mountain View.
"This is Christmas. This is really Christmas!" Y said as we came out from dinner onto the square. It did look idyllic. The Court House was lit and so was the Christmas tree. People were milling around after the festivities and a long line of children stretched across the lawn waiting to sit on Santa's lap.
The idea was to show Y some of Arkansas besides Little Rock and D had thought of Blanchard Springs. P said his grandfather (who due to a quirk of generations was born in the late 1800s) had worked to sink the shafts to the cave after it was discovered. "The only elevator in Stone County," said the bushy tour guide has we rode down to the cavern. Two local sights for the price of one.
It is very white here, Y said at dinner. That's because we are in the mountains, we said. This area has historically had small farms, cattle farming, nothing much that required the cheap labor of slavery or tenant farming. Go down to the Delta and the demography changes. Take music. In the Delta it is blues and BB King and Helena's King Biscuit festival and the origins of a lot of rock'n roll. In the mountains it is folk music. Mountain View calls itself the folk music capital of the world and makes more hand crafted dulcimers than just about anywhere. For "Caroling in the Caverns" the musicians were from Mountain View and there were two guitars, one mandolin and a hammered dulcimer.
"I'd rather poke my eye out with a fork than go to Little Rock," said the lady behind the cash registrar. It's a common sentiment. But what is odd about it is that it is based on the idea that Little Rock is a big city, which it really isn't. So Little Rock remains somewhat exotic, and Mountain View, which would be half as far away if there was straight highway connecting it and Little Rock, remains isolated at the other end of a tangle of mountainous roads. Behind the counter she and I compared IDs. My drivers license is my favorite. All the others - work, school, passport - are awful. She was fine with her passport photo. She has a passport but she never makes it down to Little Rock! But maybe this is what keeps Mountain View Mountain View.
An Auto Company in Winter
Driving up into the Ozarks you see lots of trucks. Yuske, who was with us, asked why the trucks had GNC on the grills. That's GMC, we said, the car maker whose potential bust we were just talking about. Oh, he said, so the drivers are not devoted to vitamins. Nope, we said, just to trucks.
It is kind of poignant that Yuske, who is from Japan, wouldn't recognize General Motor's insignia. Americans would have no trouble with the Toyota emblem. From what I read in the papers the American auto industry has pretty much ceded the car market (where it has been thoroughly out competed) to Japan and gets by instead on trucks and SUVs. Which of course Americans love, especially Americans from rural states like this one, where getting a truck can be a male rite of passage. But now, even it every vehicle sold in the Ozarks this year were a GMC truck, it couldn't save a company needing billions monthly just to keep afloat.
There is something defining and particular in the American love of the truck, and in a similar sense the auto industry and the big unions feel distinctive of a certain kind of American life. The auto makers are no longer captains of American industry. Their plants are no longer hooks for artists to paint mesmerized portraits. The American public no longer sits in theaters and gets dewy-eyed watching Henry Fonda as Tom Joad vow to unionize. Instead they watch The Wire, where union boss Frank Sabotka gazes out over abandoned factories and empty slips along the shoreline and is powerless to do much besides grease politicians. Sabotka calls a video of a super efficient Dutch port that requires only a fraction of the jobs he'd like to see on Baltimore's docks "a nightmare." And it is if you envision, as Frank does, your son knowing the life you and your father knew and working the same job too. There is human tragedy in the fact that economies evolve. You can see the continued loss of manufacturing jobs on the horizon, no matter what the government does. You can see the blow to unions as they are faulted for undermining the competitiveness of their own companies. GM can go cap in hand to politicians. Unions can ram through card check legislation. But that won't help them compete with Japan.
It is kind of poignant that Yuske, who is from Japan, wouldn't recognize General Motor's insignia. Americans would have no trouble with the Toyota emblem. From what I read in the papers the American auto industry has pretty much ceded the car market (where it has been thoroughly out competed) to Japan and gets by instead on trucks and SUVs. Which of course Americans love, especially Americans from rural states like this one, where getting a truck can be a male rite of passage. But now, even it every vehicle sold in the Ozarks this year were a GMC truck, it couldn't save a company needing billions monthly just to keep afloat.
There is something defining and particular in the American love of the truck, and in a similar sense the auto industry and the big unions feel distinctive of a certain kind of American life. The auto makers are no longer captains of American industry. Their plants are no longer hooks for artists to paint mesmerized portraits. The American public no longer sits in theaters and gets dewy-eyed watching Henry Fonda as Tom Joad vow to unionize. Instead they watch The Wire, where union boss Frank Sabotka gazes out over abandoned factories and empty slips along the shoreline and is powerless to do much besides grease politicians. Sabotka calls a video of a super efficient Dutch port that requires only a fraction of the jobs he'd like to see on Baltimore's docks "a nightmare." And it is if you envision, as Frank does, your son knowing the life you and your father knew and working the same job too. There is human tragedy in the fact that economies evolve. You can see the continued loss of manufacturing jobs on the horizon, no matter what the government does. You can see the blow to unions as they are faulted for undermining the competitiveness of their own companies. GM can go cap in hand to politicians. Unions can ram through card check legislation. But that won't help them compete with Japan.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Pecan Pie
I made my first pecan pie this Thanksgiving
9-inch pie crust, baked
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup sugar
2 Tb. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecans
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Beat eggs slightly. Add other ingredients, mixing in the pecans last of all. Pour into pie crust and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then another 30 minutes at 350 degrees (assuming a non-quirky oven, which would have been a fatal mistake at my grandmother's house).
This recipe is from Little Rock Cooks cookbook, which is a family standard, is missing both covers, and has its most popular pages encrusted and mummified for eternity. It also has the world's best recipe for cheese grits. More on that later.
9-inch pie crust, baked
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup sugar
2 Tb. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecans
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Beat eggs slightly. Add other ingredients, mixing in the pecans last of all. Pour into pie crust and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then another 30 minutes at 350 degrees (assuming a non-quirky oven, which would have been a fatal mistake at my grandmother's house).
This recipe is from Little Rock Cooks cookbook, which is a family standard, is missing both covers, and has its most popular pages encrusted and mummified for eternity. It also has the world's best recipe for cheese grits. More on that later.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
1863, 1963, 2013
I've been reading Stephen Oates biography of Martin Luther King. Going over events again, it is amazing how much was encompassed in that one year of 1963. There was the Birmingham campaign, Letter from Birmingham Jail, the March on Washington, the murder of Medgar Evans, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I don't remember much being done to commemorate these events in 2003, which would have been the 40th anniversary. Will there be a 50th anniversary to any of these events? Will memorials be scattered, like say a celebration of the March on Washington, or a commemorative magazine issue on Kennedy? Or will the year be taken as a whole? Because it seems like a major aspect to the events of '63 is their compactness with everything else that was going on at that time, a sense of portentous events being wedged in tightly on on top of the other in a short calendar space. There is a fevered atmosphere in that jumble that a commemoration of only one episode wouldn't capture. The 50th anniversary of 1963 will be 2013. Having just finished the first term of the first African American president, will we be inclined to look back 50 years for our comparisons and contrasts of the milestone? 1963 was momentous in part because Kennedy and King were both looking over their shoulders to 1863 and Emancipation Proclamation, whose centennial was that year. History is like a backward glance sweepstakes; the present is always looking back somewhere and it is simply a question of in what direction the nostalgia tends.
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