Mister Faded Glory | misterfadedglory.com

Been kind of sluggish around here lately, what with the approaching holiday and obligatory trip to the homeland. Anyway, there’s still stuff going on, namely cheap shots. Here’s my random thoughts, a combination board/bored – and you, dear reader, are entrusted to figure out which is which.

1. Monday Night Football. Why are we talking about this? Why does this story appear to have legs still? On Friday! And how pretentious and ridiculous and hypocritical can the complainers (the NFL, families, concerned watchdog citizens) insist on being?
Right, a faux-locker-room scene with Nicolette Sheridan flirtatiously baring all to uber-annoyance Terrell Owens is the death of civilization.
I’m sure it ruined families who sat down to watch football interspersed with this or this. Give me a break. Besides, if you’re 18 to 49, aren’t you desensitized to this stuff? Don’t we watch Dennis Franz’ ass on the same network each week?
2. Mergers. In today’s America, consolidation is king. But what if two low-end retailers combined all their products and no one cared? Next up, Piggly Wiggly and Big Lots – come on, it’s time to expand! (Attention, shoppers, we have a Blue Light Special on Craftsman tools, featuring Bob Vila!)
3. College Football and the BCS and the Big 12. I hate to rehash this year after year, but here goes: (1) No ranking system can ever be perfect if human polls – which factor in preseason rankings – are accounted. Think about it – Oklahoma and USC get a free pass to the top, while everyone else has to work, based on their much-lower preseason prediction.
Add to that, (2) the Big 12 is a perenially, heinously overrated conference, a step above only the Big East. Still, some coaches in this country still feel like they are being slighted, even given a free ranking pass, and with a QB about to win his second undeserved Heisman at age 29. It’s just garbage. But, hey, at least the myopic Big 12’s championship city is counting on an influx of Hawkeye fans if rival Iowa State is in Kansas City’s big game – seriously, who is this guy kidding? (scroll down)
4. Novels. My new year’s resolution of 2004 is quickly turning into my follow-up resolution of 2005. But don’t worry, Vapid, The Stardog Champion, These Monks, or as-of-yet-untitled is off and running again. Practically writing itself, when inane list-happy posts aren’t being slapped on a web site.
5. Dinosaurs. Not going to say why I know this is absolutely one of the coolest toys ever, but I do. And it’s cuddly to sleep with. Wait, not true. Or is it….?
6. Maynard James Keenan. I’m ambivalent on this. Nestled in a red state, I normally hear nothing about my favorite talent’s CD releases, and this caught me off guard. It’s all covers. We’ll proceed with caution here. Also, I just heard Nirvana’s box set is finally out, after umpteen years of litigation with Ms. Love! Why wasn’t I aware of this! How can this be! I’m getting old! Exclamation points are annoying!
7. National Treasure. I’m guessing this is the title of the movie, and not the popular classification of said celluloid.
Am I the only one who smelled something fishy when Nic Cage’s character says “I think there’s a treasure map on the Declaration of Independence” and the movie’s tagline says “A Mystery 2000 years old…” ? Come on, people. The Dec of Ind is only 200 years old! Did they add an extra ’0?’
Well, I’ve done some reading, and apparently the mystery is actually descended from millennia past, passed down by the Knights Templar all the way to their descendant, Cage’s character Benjamin Franklin Gates … oh, who cares? Note: it’s a Disney flick. So where the hell is a naked Nicolette Sheridan?
8. Orange Crush. It begins…..

Out for the week.

This day finds me wallowing in shallowness, as I try and comprehend how Pearl Jam could even consider releasing a ‘greatest hits’ album – the sign a band is nearing its end.—and in doing so, failed to consult me, no less.

The album comes out next week (or, failing that, drops next week) and here is a track listing. I regret to report that this is the first Pearl Jam release I will not purchase the same day it arrives in stores, partially because I own every original version of all songs included, but also because there are some glaring omissions from the discs. (And, they slapped together the songs’ sequence in order of release. What in the?!?!?) However, I do think they did do a fairly good job of track selection, if uninspired.

However, I would retitle the disc rearviewmirror: pearl jam greatest songs so that I could omit some of the tired and overdone tracks on the disc. Since you asked, of course, here is my own track listing, conforming to the 33 tracks and 2 sides of the current collection:

Also of interest to no one, is that in my laboratory as an adolescent, while very much a Pearl Jam fanatic, I crafted drawings, set lists, and engineered dubbed tapes entitled Rearviewmirror: The best of Pearl Jam. However, seeing that my old bedroom has been razed and all my old files/sketches/drawings/tapes are likely gone, there is no actual proof of my being ahead of my time. Not that you care anyway. (This is not for you!)

Upside
1. Release (from Ten)
2. State of Love and Trust (from Singles soundtrack)
3. Insignificance (from Binaural)
4. Daughter/It’s Okay (Live from Seattle ’00)
5. Corduroy from Vitalogy)
6. Down (B-side to I Am Mine)
7. Can’t Keep (from Riot Act)
8. Hard to Imagine (from Chicago Cab soundtrack, and Lost Dogs.)
9. Lukin (from No Code)
10. Not For You (from Vitalogy)
11. Faithfull (from Yield)
12. Off He Goes (from No Code)
13. In Hiding (from Yield)
14. Last Exit (from Vitalogy)
15. Porch (version from MTV Unplugged, original on Ten)
16. Yellow Ledbetter (B-side to Jeremy)
17. Indifference (from Vs.)
(hidden track) – Oceans (from Ten.).
Downside
1. Sometimes (from No Code)
2. I Got Shit (from Merkinball)
3. Untitled/MFC (from Live on Two Legs)
4. Rearviewmirror (from Vs.)
5. Black (from Ten)
6. Hail, Hail (from No Code)
7. Wishlist (from Yield)
8. Alive (from Ten)
9. Cropduster (from Riot Act)
10. Elderly Woman (from Vs.)
11. Gods’ Dice (from Binaural)
12. Even Flow (from Ten)
13. Betterman/Save It For Later (live from Philly ’00, from Vitalogy)
14. Present Tense (from No Code)
15. Immortality (from Vitalogy)
16. Long Road (from Merkinball)
(hidden track) – Crown of Thorns (live in Las Vegas ’00.)

Thought I’d let my friend here espouse on my last topic, about this bizarre mandate that apparently sprung from Dick Cheney’s lips into all of history, the future, and gave rise to nods and approval from nearly all of America’s media.

Of course, I realize you may want to take the word of someone who is not a godless treehugger like (a) me and (b) the above link’s author, so here you go, my ex-industry’s mag (which even has some Republicans in its highest levels, if I remember correctly) also shares this point of view. Of course, he’s commenting on the rush of faux-journalists to delineate this as a consistent historic event. Which is, of course, complete garbage. And almost — but not quite as egregious as the manner in which Team Bush expects to govern as if it holds carte-blanche in America.

Where’s the outrage, people?

Honestly, where is it?

Will it happen when it hits your kids’ pocketbooks? Then, maybe, just maybe, some of us will wish we hadn’t ridden the back of “low taxes” and “religion” into an unfriendly abyss.

Before I retreat into safety this weekend, away from the bombardment of Misguidedwestern values, check this out. Great piece, and I completely agree. And, Mr. Schama discusses it all more eloquently than even me on my best day, and it’s rare you’ll hear me say that. G’nite. Drive safely.

In our world, the people have spoken. And today, we still reel from their decision. I speak not for the left, or for the Democrats. Not for the academics. Not for the elite. Not for the media.

I speak for myself, a human, and others like me. With a brain. With questions.

Until Tuesday, I allowed myself to feel comfortable in the knowledge that anyone, people, could make an informed choice about the direction of their country, not allowing themselves to be assuaged by fear or religion or petty differences. I realize now this was wrong. I was wrong. I do not mean to seem elitist or self-congratulatory. Conviction is a serious character flaw when it leads to self-congratulatory depression.

This is not the end of the left, of reason, of enlightenment, democracy, of any of that, though it certainly stings those of us who jump to-and-from each of these convenient labels.

If anything, one can expect the voices of dissent to cry out louder now, more forceful, amid more expensive, and powerful opposition. In fact, this week is making me re-examine my own life. I am actually quite happy and enjoy quite a lot. Somehow, there has to be something I can do to re-educate and give back. I’m certainly going to try. Great leaders, thoughts, arguments, and conviction arose when it seemed darkest before the dawn. I feel hope that some of these will emerge in the next four years, from many people across our country. It must be possible to embrace them.

Finally, I remember reading this somewhere in academia. (Or everywhere in academia.) Scroll down to Sec. II, Article 1. Check out the presidential oath, extracted below.

“Clause 8: Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:–”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” “

Vague, admittedly. Clear that the office governs us all by the Constitution. Not just the electors.

OK, now look here. I’ve also extracted the troubling quote below from CNN’s vanilla story.

Despite Bush’s appeal to Kerry supporters, Cheney said the popular vote victory gave Bush a mandate and the Bush White House would continue pushing for the Republicans’ “clear agenda.” (Italics and bold are mine.)

Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that a president and his administration shall win a rubber-stamp of approval for any agenda they may propose simply by winning an election. Where’s the outrage, people? It’s our country. Not theirs.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of their band of merry men do not have carte blanche to enact their egregious tax and foreign policies on a whim.
Rather, the president’s sworn oath is to uphold the Constitution (supra). Not his party’s ideology. I hope that in the coming years, we dissenters choose often to remind our administration of this, and I hope the president’s voting base also remembers.

Of the people, by the people, for the people.

We can change. I think we can change.

===================================

“Think for yourself
Question authority

Think for yourself.
Question authority. ”

- Timothy Leary.

Dreaming of that face again.
It’s bright and blue and shimmering.
Grinning wide
And comforting me with it’s three warm and wild eyes….

So good to see you once again, I thought that you were hiding from me.
And you thought that I had run away. Chasing a trail of smoke and reason.
Prying open my third eye.

– Tool

Doubtful that anyone not securely in a certain camp (or anti-camp) today will stumble upon this Web site, but similar to another site which I consider a must-read, today I offer my personal endorsement to John Kerry, and without delving into the litany of reasons that I personally distrust and abhor our current leader, here is where I come down:

As leader of the United States of America, I think the quality that is most often overlooked yet necessary is curiosity. To become successful and more complete as a person, it is impossible to assume that one is completely right every single time, to admit any error in judgment, or to simply assume infallibility.

And I believe that John Kerry’s greatest strength is his willingness to learn everything about anything that may arise during his presidency of the Divided States. Team Bush’s constant refusal to admit even the possibility that another point of view may have merit is not only disgusting, but embarrassing.

More than two hundred years ago, the founding fathers of the United States crafted a Constitution which was largely vague, yet intentionally so, in order to allow for interpretation as the country grew, in size, population and quality. To dismiss the qualities of curiosity, listening, research and discussion simply because of an assumption that a strong leader is one who never wavers is an absolutely ludicrous policy – personal or political.

Strict constructionists would certainly disagree with my constitutional interpretation, just as each religion’s far right would disagree with a similar application of the Bible, Koran, etc. However, I believe that none is the ultimate say. Both are road maps. And to govern with the assumption that your administration solidly knows all well enough that it is never at fault – well, such a government severely damages political, scientific, religious and intellectual discourse. The United States does not legislate beliefs. In fact, that’s the opposite of what the USA stands for.

This infringes on the principles of the Constitution itself, namely its First Amendment. It severely polarizes our country, rewarding the outlandish simply for being steadfast, while punishing the pursuit of careful thought or argument. And that’s not who we are.

I voted for John Kerry, not because he deserves to be president. Because the President of the United States deserves to be him. My parents raised me an independent, often telling me in their experience, who is president does not necessarily matter to the middle class, to the “little people.” Well, we’ve come around. It does matter. And an increasingly bipolar United States is at once scary, pathetic and shameful. This is the road we’re on. Tomorrow it can swing back in the correct direction. Please vote with your conscience, and yours alone.

Thanks for your indulgence. Song of the week is I Am A Patriot, written by Jackson Browne and delivered by Pearl Jam.