I’m
writing this at Toby’s Feed Barn in Pt. Reyes Station, which indeed has
bales of alfalfa and straw in the back and espresso and scones in the
front. Birds chittering in the rafters. (Posted a week later from Jimmy
Bean’s in Berkeley.)
There’s an interesting article on Obama’s campaign committee (“Obama’s Brain Trust”) in the latest issue of the Rolling Stone.
Obama’s commitee feels Kerry’s and Gore’s committees tried to remake
their candidates who then came off as robots. This one is keeping hands
off the candidate but uniting behind him.
Back in 1971 Malvina wrote a song about that robot aspect, during the reign of Richard Nixon. She never recorded it, but Michael Cooney did and it’s on his CD Singer of Old Songs.
The Man in the Mask
Come sit down beside me before the big T.V.
And watch the funny pictures they have there to look at,
Shampoo for your hair and the last polar bear,
And the man on the moon who was walking around
Then left, leaving junk on the once virgin ground.
There's old timey movies with old fashioned dresses,
The kidnap of babies and other such messes,
There's football and baseball and guys selling cars,
And then there's The Man in the Mask.
The kidnap of babies and other such messes,
There's football and baseball and guys selling cars,
And then there's The Man in the Mask.
Chorus:
They say it's his face, but I just can't believe it.
It looks like a mask that I saw in the store.
It talks with deep feeling about ending some war
And stopping inflation, and it's so fantastic,
You'll cry while you're laughing, and roll on the floor.
They say it's his face, but I just can't believe it.
It looks like a mask that I saw in the store.
It talks with deep feeling about ending some war
And stopping inflation, and it's so fantastic,
You'll cry while you're laughing, and roll on the floor.
Every four years he puts a new mask on.
Each one is worse than the one he had before,
But the words are the same and the same earnest manner,
About ending inflation and stopping the war.
Each one is worse than the one he had before,
But the words are the same and the same earnest manner,
About ending inflation and stopping the war.
The sponsors paid out a million of millions
To get him up there with his magic routine,
But it's really a bargain, 'cause there's such a margin
In war and inflation and the big T.V. screen
That gives us The Man in the Mask.
To get him up there with his magic routine,
But it's really a bargain, 'cause there's such a margin
In war and inflation and the big T.V. screen
That gives us The Man in the Mask.
(Chorus)
©1971 by Malvina Reynolds (Schroder Music Company), renewed 1999.
According
to the Stone article, Obama leads his team but listens. Sounds like
what we want in a president, after having one who seems to do neither.
The article says that when Obama came to the senate, he “inherited”
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s chief of staff, Pete Rouse. That
is, Daschle lost that election, and Obama convinced Rouse to come work
for a freshman senator instead of leaving the hill. It says something
about Obama that Rouse did so, and stayed.
Looks
like the Rolling Stone wants Obama elected as much as I do, so they are
going to make him sound good, but I’m ready to hear that. I’ve gotten
into the time-consuming habit of reading the readers’ comments on
articles in the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle, so I’m
aware of the thinly-disguised racism out there.
The NY Times had a favorable review of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,
and we’re planning to see that next. Both Thompson and Tom Wolfe got
their start at the Rolling Stone. Claudia bought the Rolling Stone for
the cover interview with Obama; I don’t usually read it. Looking through
the rest of the issue, I can see why. In an article on pop musicians
supporting Obama I recognize only four musicians’ names: Bob Dylan,
Bruce Springsteen, Bob Weir and Chuck Berry, but there’s a dozen other
names in the article I swear I’ve never seen or heard. In the rest of
the issue, there’s Melissa Etheridge and then another avalanche of folks
I’ve never heard of.
So
I’m wondering, is this going to turn into a political blog for the
duration of the campaign? I don’t think so, but then, what would Malvina
do? As I’ve said, both my parents would be delighted that the Democrats
have an African American candidate—it kind of takes the curse off him
being a Democrat. And for all the Republicans try to paint him as a
wild-eyed radical, he is a plain old centrist Democrat. However, the
Republicans have again come up with a candidate so scary that I am again
going to vote Democratic. Having a minority candidate just makes that
more of a pleasure than usual. The racist comments I alluded to earlier
would paint me as a racist for that statement, but I think about all the
African-American kids who are for the first time thinking they could be
president when they grow up.
Again, I recommend my favorite political blog, TomDispatch, and also Barbara Ehrenreich’s blog.
If I. F. Stone were alive today, he’d be blogging, and I’d recommend
his. He did a weekly newsletter from DC for years, digging out the
stories the regular newspapers weren’t touching. Here’s a quote from
him, sent on by Bernie Gilbert over at Freedom Song Network: “The
only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose
because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until
someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to
win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people
have got to be willing—for the sheer fun and joy of it—to go right ahead
and fight, knowing you're going to lose. You mustn't feel like a
martyr. You've got to enjoy it.” So here’s to Shirley Chisholm, Jesse
Jackson, Al Sharpton, Alan Keyes, Carol Moseley Braun, and Lenora Fulani
who all ran for president knowing they’d lose, but prepared the ground
for Obama to run and maybe (probably?) win.
Time to go to lunch—the Pt. Reyes noon signal just sounded: a cock’s crow and a cow’s moo over a loudspeaker.
©2008 by Nancy Schimmel
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
THE VIEW FROM TOBY’S FEED BARN
