The Obama/Clinton divide you haven’t been hearing about

It’s a story (followed by an argument, followed by facts) about the biggest split within the Democratic Party. It starts with two groups.

Group A is a social minority whose political and cultural power exploded during the 1960s. As that decade went on and certain factions within Group A grew more militant, Congress pushed to extend voting rights to millions of disenfranchised people in Group A. Today, Group A is shrinking as a share of the population, though its leaders remain visible and outspoken – and though its members increasingly dominate pop culture and the entertainment industry.

Group B, by contrast, holds sweeping political power. Much of the machinery and benefits of government have therefore aligned in Group B’s interest, despite the fact that Group B’s members are about half as likely to live in poverty as those of Group A.

Though they’ve often joined the same political coalitions, Groups A and B face a deep cultural divide on issues from the war in Iraq to gay marriage. In this year’s Democratic presidential primary, those fissures have showed up in state after state across the country, with Barack Obama winning Group A by colossal margins almost everywhere he goes and Hillary Clinton winning Group B by margins almost as big. It’s such a clear split that it seems to threaten the party’s unity.

Oh, by the way: Though no member of Group A has ever been elected president, more than half our presidents have belonged to Group B.

Which Albums Have Shaped You?

A recent post over at Good Readings (the new blog of Ryan Williams, a Grinnellian once removed) mentions the 15th anniversary of Liz Phair’s album “Exile in Guyville” — an album containing such classics as “Divorce Song” and “Fuck and Run.” Ryan links to an article by former Sleater-Kinney rocker Carrie Brownstein describing the album’s influence on her when she first heard it in 1993. He then goes on to describe his own relationship to the same album, one whose adult themes were enjoyed clandestinely “alone in my bedroom with my headphones on, listening with a uniquely teenage intensity of focus and emotional engagement.”

Is there anyone among us who cannot sympathize with that statement? Each of us could identify a few sentinel albums in our lives: those calling out to us clearly with their music, vocals or lyrics and which, despite the onward march of time, soldier on inside our heads and hearts and on our playlists.

So fellow geeks, which albums have shaped you (your world view, your understanding of music) significantly? Please also share which song you believe to be the most underrated on the album — never a hit, rather the kind of gem you discover only by purchasing the whole disc and (perhaps warm up to) listening to it incessantly.

-posted by poetloverrebelspy

Carmina Burana

I first fell in love with Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in the spring of 2001. I was taking a seminar on medieval German literature, and our professor brought in a CD player one day. Without saying a word, he pressed play, and out blasted “O, Fortuna!” It was thrilling, and at the end he beamed around the room and said, “Aren’t you ready to go fight something now?” We all yelled “Yeah!” (or perhaps, “ja!”)

Most of you would probably recognize “O Fortuna” when you heard it, whether you knew that’s what it is or not; it is often used in commercials and movie soundtracks and is one of the most dramatic choral passages I know of. Unlike most choral works I am familiar with, though, Carmina Burana was not written as a mass or other form of sacred music. No, this is one of the bawdiest pieces of classical music out there, but since no one can understand the words it usually passes muster without anyone batting an eyelash.

Cell Phone Dependency

An interesting and frightening thing happened this weekend. My brother lost his cell phone. Or rather, my brother lost his cell phone, failed to show up at two or three places he said he was going to be, and no one heard from him for nearly three days.

As it turns out, it had fallen out of his pocket in someone else’s car and then had the battery die, so the other person was driving it around for a couple of days all unsuspecting. And he didn’t show up at his previously scheduled events because the Clinton campaign* called the restaurant where he works at the last minute to schedule a huge dinner, which he then got roped into working even though he was supposed to be off that day, and he couldn’t tell anyone because he didn’t have his phone.

But the whole thing was kind of scary, because it made me realize I have no other way to reach him. I sort of kind of have an email address for him, but I’m never sure if it’s the address he’s still using any more, because he’s not much of an emailer. (At least, not to his geeky sister.) Since he works at a restaurant, he doesn’t really have a “work phone,” (though my parents did go to the restaurant and leave him a physical note-style message when they got a call from the person who did have the phone.) I don’t know the phone numbers of any of his friends. Conversely, I suspect he doesn’t know my phone number without looking it up in his own phone. Hence, the loss of his cell phone pretty much meant that my brother fell off the face of the earth.

Public Service Announcement: Free Ice Cream!

I don’t know how many people will see this in time, but today, April 29, is Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day! Check the official site for the shop nearest you. I’m seriously considering stopping on my way home from work.

Now, the requisite poll question: What’s your favorite flavor?

I am, unoriginally, a huge fan of Cherry Garcia.

-Dana

Welcome to DC! Now Stand on the Right!

Last spring, I posted my maxims for DC tourism.

This year, I decided to go more positive. You have my list of rules, so why not some insider suggestions of things you should do?

Of course!

1. Go to a baseball game. What better way to watch America’s pastime in America’s capital? Especially since we have a brand new, awesome stadium. Check it out!

2. Go to a museum. American History is closed for awhile, but there are a million museums in this town. My favorite is the Freer and Sackler galleries, but I’m a sucker for Chinese art. Some not-to-be-missed ones are the Holocaust Museum, the Phillips Collection, and the Spy Museum. Also, the Newseum just opened up. It’s so new, there’s not buzz about good or bad, so check it out!

3. Go to brunch on Sunday. It’s a DC thing. We love our Sunday brunch. Most restaurants have one.

4. Try some new food. DC has most types of food– try something new. Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide has the low down on where to eat. His site is where DCers go to find new ethnic restaurants, so you should, too!

5. Try a walking tour. There are several companies that will lead you on one, several books that have one. I even saw a deck of cards with different tours on them… our neighborhoods are great and hold a lot of treasures you’ll miss if you stay with the usual attractions. Our row houses are gorgeous, as are our tree lined streets, with small treasures tucked amongst them.

6. Buy a book. DC is one of the most literate cities in America and we have some excellent independent bookstores to prove it. Olsson’s, Politics and Prose, and Kramer Books are all excellent places to grab a cup of coffee and browse. They also often host author readings– Politics and Prose has an author every night!

7. Eat some seafood. You’re on the coast and no one does a Maryland crab cake quite like Maryland! And if you’re in the northern suburbs? You’re in Maryland!

8. Grab a drink at the Willard Hotel. As the story goes, President Grant used to grab a drink here after a long day at the White House. The best time to get a favor from him was a few drinks in, so… people used to mill about the hotel lobby and wait for him, hence… lobbyists.

And, while you’re doing all that…

Let people on and off the metro

Don’t block entrances, exits, and the tops and bottoms of escalators

On the escalator, stand on the right, walk on the left (seriously)

Don’t drive

Don’t rub your vacation in my face

HAVE FUN!

New Crayons

This year, the Crayola 64 ct crayon box turns 50!

So they introduced some new crayon colors. Check ‘em out!

I got a box to play with (of course) and I’m pretty frustrated that I can’t figure out what color the various colors are. I meant, “Paint the Town” is a J. Crew color, but you paint the town red so, you at least know it’s red. I mean, what color, exactly, is Bear Hug?! Well, here’s the report:

Awesome: would have been awesome in 1985! Bright florescent orange red

Giving Tree: oddly similar to the discontinued Jungle Green, but not as bright. Slightly brighter than regular green.

Famous: A pinkish-purple magenta-y color. Like, if red violet were lighter. It would be cooler if it had glitter.

Fun in the Sun: A bright, happy orange.

Super Happy: Very similar to the long-ago discontinued Lemon Yellow. However, I think this one should be “fun in the sun” and the orange one “super happy.”

Best Friends: a nice, dark lavender that reminds me a lot of the cover to My Last Best Friend by Julie Bowe

Happy Ever After: a nice dark blue with a hint of gray– my favorite of the bunch

Bear Hug: a gray with a hint of brown to it. An odd color that I like. Almost moss-like.

I’m most happy about the inclusion Happy Ever After and Bear Hug– they’re darker, subtler, and ultimately, cooler, than a lot of the colors Crayola has introduced in the past.

What are your thoughts?

More Local China-Tibet Protest News

Not to make this blog all East Asia, all the time, but hey, it’s what’s catching my attention right now. It turns out there was a lot more fallout from the local NC protest/counter-protest I mentioned last week. A Chinese undergraduate somehow ended up between the two groups, apparently trying to get them to actually talk to one another rather than just competing over who could yell slogans loudest, and, well, things went downhill for her from there.

Some people posted an account of her actions to the Chinese student and scholar listserv I mentioned before as having organized the counter-protest. Outraged messages followed calling her a traitor. Then people posted her picture… and her name, her Chinese identity card number, her US address and email, her parents home and work addresses in China, a map to their house, and pictures of their front door. One of my colleagues has friends in the student’s hometown, and they called over the weekend to ask what the student had done to get rocks thrown through her parents’ windows. News of this has now made:

• The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 14, 2008
• Global Voices Online (with translations of some of the listserv emails), April 13 & 15, 2008
• NY Times, April 17, 2008
• Washington Post, April 17, 2008

Interestingly, the two articles that came out today do not mention at all the event that took place last night, which the NY Times reporter attended sitting next to the threatened student. It was a panel discussion set up to address the contentious issues surrounding Tibet (and to some extent the Olympics as well) in a calm, rational setting. Though seven campus police officers had been arranged for security, the entire thing went very smoothly, with no heckling or interruptions of any kind during the speakers’ presentations, nor during the Q&A. The campus paper has a reasonably good report of the overall points that speakers made here: Panelists Stress Trust, Sincerity.

Secular Memorialization

My last post on the Yasukuni documentary got me looking around for other stuff on the politics of war memorials in general. While I have mostly found so far that I will need to go to the library and check out actual books, I did come across an interesting article on Sino-Japanese relations in a 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, which contained the following intriguing paragraph with a suggestion on how to handle the Yasukuni issue:

[C]onferences … involving academics from neutral countries such as Canada as well as Asian specialists from within the region, could improve relations by fostering less-politicized discussions of the war. Germany and Poland, as well as Japan and South Korea, already have joint textbook commissions that could serve as models for China and Japan. An initiative such as this could be particularly effective at de-escalating tensions in the wake of progress in the strategic dialogues outlined above. To help those dialogues along, moreover, U.S. officials should refrain from making casual pronouncements on the delicate matter of wartime commemoration in Japan. As Koizumi has noted, many personal issues are involved in such events. The Japanese people themselves, however, deserve the broadest possible range of options about how to remember the war. For several years, there has been spirited discussion about building a national secular war memorial to supplement Yasukuni, and this deserves serious consideration. Such a model has worked well in both Hiroshima and Okinawa. Apart from providing a way to commemorate the sacrifice of civilians and other heroes of past conflicts not enshrined at Yasukuni, a secular memorial would clearly help improve Japan’s relations with other countries in the region and provide foreign leaders with a way to gracefully honor the past sacrifices of the Japanese people.

-Calder, Kent E., “China and Japan’s Simmering Rivalry,” Foreign Affairs, 85(2)

(emphasis mine)

Yasukuni Documentary

I’ve written about the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan before, and all the controversy it causes, especially every year when the prime minister decides to go or not to go to pay respects. I was therefore very interested to read this article on the BBC yesterday all about a documentary that has been made about the shrine, simply called “Yasukuni,” by a Chinese director. It sounds fascinating to me, especially its attempts to understand what the shrine represents to differing groups:

In all, Li Ying has spent 10 years, on and off, making the film.

During visits to Yasukuni he says he was at times threatened, abused, and on occasion had his equipment confiscated. Newspapers here have reported that he has received death threats.

He says he set out to try to understand better what the shrine means to Japanese people.

[...]

To many it is one of the most sacred places in Japan. To others it is a place they feel glorifies war.