In 1961, Ronald Reagan spoke out against socialized medicine on an LP titled "Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine." On that LP, the future-president claimed that Medicare would be the first victory of a gradual takeover of the United States by socialists. Not only that, Medicare would lead the government to tyranny. Soon, he said, the government would be telling its citizens where to live, what schools to go to, and what jobs they could have.
Medicare passed, of course, in 1965, and has been functioning ever since. Somehow, perhaps through divine intervention, none of Mr. Reagan's predictions have come to pass. I have yet to receive a letter from the feds ordering me to move to Indiana and become a dentist. In fact, today the conservative movement has warmed up to Medicare. A recent poll showed that 62% of Republicans want the government to "stay out of Medicare," which is a bit like telling your engine to stay out of your car.
The "SOCIALISM!" approach to debate hasn't just been used against health care reform. It was also a frequent argument against the civil rights movement, with some opponents going so far as to claim that desegregation was a Soviet plot to weaken America. Going back further, big business interests fought against labor reform at the turn of the 20th century by claiming that extending benefits to workers would spell the death of capitalism.
Naturally, now that we have a political moderate in the White House, the conservative movement has dusted off the "SOCIALISM!" war cry, added a dash of casual xenophobia (for flavor), and sent it out to once again cheapen and insult any kind of intelligent debate. Obama's health care plans, it is said, will lead us down the road to tyranny. Doctors will be unable to properly help patients. Elderly people will be killed rather than treated. Rush Limbaugh recently made the assertion that Obama's health care plans are actual covert reparations for slavery. Somehow.
I think I've found a way to stay sane. There's a reason why we can laugh at how paranoid Reagan sounds on that old LP. There's a reason why we look at those segregationists and wonder how they could be so filled with hate. It's because they lost. Medicare was passed, segregation was abolished, and history was written by the victors. If progressives had lost, we might be sighing with relief that Medicare was never created, and being thankful to those racist protesters for speaking "truth" to power. Thank god the liberals won.
And we'll win this time too. Hell, we've already won with the American people. According to a recent poll, 62% of Americans would prefer a universal health care system to our current one. That's pretty much a mandate. But the opinions of Americans pale in comparison with the wealth of the health insurance industry, which has spent $380 MILLION dollars to influence politicians and block health care legislation.
But we progressives have been up against worse than this, and we've always come out on top. America has a long history of fighting for reform, battling against ignorance and lies, and eventually succeeding. We'll do it again this time, and someday a new generation will wonder why conservatives seemed so dead-set against helping people stay healthy. They'll wonder how a portion of the country could fight against something so obviously necessary.
Going back to that old Ronald Reagan LP, we find a quote that, if you replace "Medicare" with "Obamacare," could have dribbled out of the mouth of Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck just yesterday: "If you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free." Of course, Reagan lived well into his sunset years and never had to worry about Medicare destroying America's freedom. This all poses the question - if he considered Medicare to be such a threat to the country, why didn't he move to have it dismantled once he became president? Why was Medicare, once a threat large enough to potentially destroy the nation, become so insignificant two decades later?
"Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialism" was recorded, distributed, and funded entirely by the American Medical Association, as part of its costly and sweeping campaign to defeat Medicare.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
The Top 10 Most Overlooked Beatles Songs
When I had the idea to start a blog, my first thought was that it should mostly be in list form. Lists are the easiest way to write about something, because you don't have to worry about annoying things like segues and original thoughts. You can just slap ten or so things together, put them in an order, then call it a day. But a blog with nothing but lists would be obviously lazy, instead of just partially lazy. So I've decided to update this thing twice a week - with an essay at the beginning of the week, and a list of some kind every Friday. And you'll all just have to sit there and like it.
I wanted to write about The Beatles this week because everyone who writes a music-related blog has to write about them eventually. It's a rule, like ignoring mainstream rock bands, or pretending to understand hip-hop. You have to do it, so I might as well do it now that Beatles Rock Band and the new remasters are creating a mini Beatles revival of sorts. (This has to be the second or third one by now, right?)
But a "top 10 best Beatles songs" list is boring. Millions of people have already written about "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Hey Jude." So I decided to write about songs that merely thousands of people have written about. These are the songs that get overlooked when people talk about the best of the Beatles. Some of them are too weird, some were unfairly packaged as b-sides to popular singles and then forgotten when the market became more album-based. But they're all great, and they deserve some recognition. I'm a hero!
10. Sexy Sadie
The Beatles (White Album)
When the Beatles went to India to visit the Maharishi, they came back with songs about peace, tranquility and the awesome forces of love that dwell within us all (read: LSD). And then there's "Sexy Sadie," one of the most bitter and angry songs the band recorded. John spends the entire time lashing out at "sexy Sadie" with lyrics like "you've made a fool of everyone" and "you'll get yours yet, however big you think you are." Who is Sexy Sadie? No one - John changed the title to placate George. The original title was "Maharishi." Apparently John had some trouble with that whole "inner peace" thing.
9. Flying
Magical Mystery Tour
It's easy to see why this one gets overlooked, but it's still a great song. "Flying" is the only Beatles instrumental, but it makes you wish they had tried more. It conjures up a hazy, laid back psychadelic sound that builds on itself until it finally fades away into a haze just as you start hoping it would go on longer.
8. Hey Bulldog
Yellow Submarine
The "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack is probably the weakest thing the Beatles ever did. It consists of two previously released songs, four originals, and the non-Beatles related score to the movie. But one of those four originals is John's "Hey Bulldog," a great, bluesy song that sounds like "Lady Madonna"'s more aggressive, more dog-themed cousin.
7. Blue Jay Way
Magical Mystery Tour
Okay, this one is right on the line between "overlooked" and "disliked." And I can see why - it's probably the band's least melodic song that doesn't repeat "number nine" over and over. But its droning psychadelics evoke an eerie tension, sounding like the bad trip lurking on the other side of "Lucy In The Sky."
6. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Help!
Let's get the obvious out of the way first. It's a Bob Dylan song. John could have retitled it "Bob Dylan's 115th Imitation" and it wouldn't seem too far off the mark. But it's a great Bob Dylan song, and a big step forward for a band that, at this point, was still known for screaming teenage fans and "yeah, yeah, yeah."
5. One After 909
Let It Be
There has to be some alternate universe somewhere where this song was a huge hit. I mean, listen to it! Doesn't it sound like it belongs on some greatest hits album, sandwiched between "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "All My Loving?" It was written in the band's early days, but didn't turn up on an album for almost ten years. By that time, The Beatles had moved far beyond this kind of old school rock and roll, but if this song had been released in 1964 it could have been huge. Of course, the Beatles could have released a twenty minute album of Ringo farting in 1964 and it would have sold ten million copies, but you know what I mean.
4. And Your Bird Can Sing
Revolver
I'm not sure if this song is overlooked, exactly. As far as I know, everyone likes it. But it had the bad luck to be a great, straight-forward rock song on an album full of revolutionary new sounds and ideas, so it gets pushed to the side in favor of "Eleanor Rigby" and "Tomorrow Never Knows." But it's a great song with one of John's best melodies. John claimed to hate it at least twice, but what does he know?
3. The Inner Light
"Lady Madonna" b-side
"The Inner Light" was the furthest The Beatles went into Indian music, bringing in a full band of Indian instruments instead of the usual sitar. It's also one of George's best songs, with a beautiful, timeless melody that shines through the Bollywood feel of the music, and some of the trippiest lyrics George ever wrote.
2. Rain
"Paperback Writer" b-side
Okay, forget the whole "overlooked Beatles songs" thing that this entire entry has been about so far. This song and the next one rank up with the best Beatles songs ever. "Rain" is one of those songs like "She Loves You" and "A Hard Day's Night," with a melody so simple and perfect that it seems like it's always been around. It also has one of the first backwards vocals ever on a pop record. But you should really let John Lennon, in an interview from 1980, tell you about that:
"I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana... and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day. Somehow it got on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, 'I know what to do with it, I know... listen to this!' So I made them all play it backwards. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the guitars going backwards. (sings) 'Sharethsmnowthsmeanss!' That one was the gift of God... of Ja actually-- the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one."
I'm pretty sure Jah is the Christian God, as interpreted by Rastafarians, but whatever. That's still awesome.
1. I'll Follow the Sun
Beatles for Sale
Remember that alternate universe where "One After 909" was a huge hit? In that universe, "I'll Follow The Sun" is as popular as "Yesterday," or at least "Penny Lane." It's one of those great, seemingly effortless songs that Paul was able to pull out of nowhere constantly. It got lost in the chaos of Beatlemania, but it's easily equal to anything else the band recorded around this time.
Now, if you just scrolled to the bottom first to see what number one was, go back up and listen to the songs quickly, before YouTube takes them all down!
I wanted to write about The Beatles this week because everyone who writes a music-related blog has to write about them eventually. It's a rule, like ignoring mainstream rock bands, or pretending to understand hip-hop. You have to do it, so I might as well do it now that Beatles Rock Band and the new remasters are creating a mini Beatles revival of sorts. (This has to be the second or third one by now, right?)
But a "top 10 best Beatles songs" list is boring. Millions of people have already written about "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Hey Jude." So I decided to write about songs that merely thousands of people have written about. These are the songs that get overlooked when people talk about the best of the Beatles. Some of them are too weird, some were unfairly packaged as b-sides to popular singles and then forgotten when the market became more album-based. But they're all great, and they deserve some recognition. I'm a hero!
10. Sexy Sadie
The Beatles (White Album)
When the Beatles went to India to visit the Maharishi, they came back with songs about peace, tranquility and the awesome forces of love that dwell within us all (read: LSD). And then there's "Sexy Sadie," one of the most bitter and angry songs the band recorded. John spends the entire time lashing out at "sexy Sadie" with lyrics like "you've made a fool of everyone" and "you'll get yours yet, however big you think you are." Who is Sexy Sadie? No one - John changed the title to placate George. The original title was "Maharishi." Apparently John had some trouble with that whole "inner peace" thing.
9. Flying
Magical Mystery Tour
It's easy to see why this one gets overlooked, but it's still a great song. "Flying" is the only Beatles instrumental, but it makes you wish they had tried more. It conjures up a hazy, laid back psychadelic sound that builds on itself until it finally fades away into a haze just as you start hoping it would go on longer.
8. Hey Bulldog
Yellow Submarine
The "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack is probably the weakest thing the Beatles ever did. It consists of two previously released songs, four originals, and the non-Beatles related score to the movie. But one of those four originals is John's "Hey Bulldog," a great, bluesy song that sounds like "Lady Madonna"'s more aggressive, more dog-themed cousin.
7. Blue Jay Way
Magical Mystery Tour
Okay, this one is right on the line between "overlooked" and "disliked." And I can see why - it's probably the band's least melodic song that doesn't repeat "number nine" over and over. But its droning psychadelics evoke an eerie tension, sounding like the bad trip lurking on the other side of "Lucy In The Sky."
6. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Help!
Let's get the obvious out of the way first. It's a Bob Dylan song. John could have retitled it "Bob Dylan's 115th Imitation" and it wouldn't seem too far off the mark. But it's a great Bob Dylan song, and a big step forward for a band that, at this point, was still known for screaming teenage fans and "yeah, yeah, yeah."
5. One After 909
Let It Be
There has to be some alternate universe somewhere where this song was a huge hit. I mean, listen to it! Doesn't it sound like it belongs on some greatest hits album, sandwiched between "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "All My Loving?" It was written in the band's early days, but didn't turn up on an album for almost ten years. By that time, The Beatles had moved far beyond this kind of old school rock and roll, but if this song had been released in 1964 it could have been huge. Of course, the Beatles could have released a twenty minute album of Ringo farting in 1964 and it would have sold ten million copies, but you know what I mean.
4. And Your Bird Can Sing
Revolver
I'm not sure if this song is overlooked, exactly. As far as I know, everyone likes it. But it had the bad luck to be a great, straight-forward rock song on an album full of revolutionary new sounds and ideas, so it gets pushed to the side in favor of "Eleanor Rigby" and "Tomorrow Never Knows." But it's a great song with one of John's best melodies. John claimed to hate it at least twice, but what does he know?
3. The Inner Light
"Lady Madonna" b-side
"The Inner Light" was the furthest The Beatles went into Indian music, bringing in a full band of Indian instruments instead of the usual sitar. It's also one of George's best songs, with a beautiful, timeless melody that shines through the Bollywood feel of the music, and some of the trippiest lyrics George ever wrote.
2. Rain
"Paperback Writer" b-side
Okay, forget the whole "overlooked Beatles songs" thing that this entire entry has been about so far. This song and the next one rank up with the best Beatles songs ever. "Rain" is one of those songs like "She Loves You" and "A Hard Day's Night," with a melody so simple and perfect that it seems like it's always been around. It also has one of the first backwards vocals ever on a pop record. But you should really let John Lennon, in an interview from 1980, tell you about that:
"I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana... and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day. Somehow it got on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, 'I know what to do with it, I know... listen to this!' So I made them all play it backwards. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the guitars going backwards. (sings) 'Sharethsmnowthsmeanss!' That one was the gift of God... of Ja actually-- the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one."
I'm pretty sure Jah is the Christian God, as interpreted by Rastafarians, but whatever. That's still awesome.
1. I'll Follow the Sun
Beatles for Sale
Remember that alternate universe where "One After 909" was a huge hit? In that universe, "I'll Follow The Sun" is as popular as "Yesterday," or at least "Penny Lane." It's one of those great, seemingly effortless songs that Paul was able to pull out of nowhere constantly. It got lost in the chaos of Beatlemania, but it's easily equal to anything else the band recorded around this time.
Now, if you just scrolled to the bottom first to see what number one was, go back up and listen to the songs quickly, before YouTube takes them all down!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Dead, All Messed Up: The Evolution of Zombies
Hi. This is my first blog post, and I'm pretty awful at introductions so I'll keep it short. I'm Mike, and in this blog I'll be sporadically enlightening you with my opinions on music, movies, politics, and anything else I feel like writing about while bored at work. My posts should range from "boring and pointless" to "unbearably pretentious," depending on how much effort I feel like putting into them. I was going to make a graph to illustrate this, but I don't feel like it.
For my first entry, I thought I'd write about something near and dear to my heart - zombie movies. This post contains spoilers for Zombieland, so if you haven't seen it yet, proceed with caution. I say "yet," because it's a great movie and you really should go see it. Right now. I'll wait here.
My first real exposure to zombie movies was in a film class in high school. My teacher, who I'm fairly sure was only teaching the film class so that he could sit quietly at his desk for a while, threw on an old copy of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and told us all that it was "cheesy" and "dumb," but that it had probably been scary to someone at some point.
So I was pretty surprised when the movie scared the shit out of me. Well, not really. It's hard to be scared when you're surrounded by bored high school students who are only taking a film class so they can sleep. But I was caught off guard by how claustrophobic and bleak the movie was - Night was a revolutionary film for its time because of how little hope it offered audiences. Somewhere between the scene where dozens of zombies pull people from a car accident and start eating liberal handfuls of organ meat and the scene where a young girl murders her mother with a gardening trowel, I realized that this was a pretty ballsy movie for 1968.
Afterwards, I sought out as many zombie movies as I could, which was pretty easy since a full-blown zombie revival started happening right on cue with the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. The remake kept the mall setting of the original, but removed most of its consumerist satire, amping up the blood and guts in its place. From there, a ravenous horde of zombie movies descended on theaters, ripping the box office to shreds and eating the brains of... okay, I'll be honest. This metaphor has gotten away from me. Suffice it to say that a lot of zombie movies got made. Some of them were great (28 Days Later...), some of them were... not quite as great. (House of the Dead) The resurgence even brought Romero out of retirement for the flawed Land of the Dead and the even-more-flawed Diary of the Dead.
But by far the best of the bunch was the least traditional. Shaun of the Dead managed to subvert nearly every rule of the genre, while honoring its influences at the same time. Shaun is brilliant in the way that it brings a typical zombie movie into a world recognizable as our own. It succeeds because it replaces the action-movie cliches of other zombie movies with real life situations. The characters in other zombie movies react to the crisis by stockpiling guns, or building gigantic tank-buses. The characters in Shaun spend most of the movie just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
Shaun also takes the long-running tradition of "zombies as societal warning" and neatly turns it on its head. Zombies have stood as metaphors for conformity, consumerism, militarism, capitalism, racism and plenty of other -isms. The zombies in Shaun stand for the threat of arrested development. Shaun's struggle against them is really his struggle to mature, and face the challenges of growing up. For his troubles, he's rewarded with a stable relationship and a happy life. Those who aren't so lucky are resigned to playing video games in sheds. It's a brilliant move, and it recasts the zombie genre in a more personal and relatable light.
Which all brings me to the inspiration for all of this, Shaun's new American cousin, Zombieland. Zombieland hones in on a crucial, sometimes subtle, part of all zombie movies: wish fulfillment. Sure, a zombie apocalypse would suck when you're being ripped to shreds by living corpses, or shooting your loved ones to keep them from turning into crazed cannibals. But if you manage to survive, the world becomes your playground - full of empty amusement parks and deserted mansions where everything can be yours for the taking. Even the zombies become wish fulfillment in Zombieland, with zombie killing turned into the competition that more serious movies have always denied it is. The zombies aren't a metaphor for anything in Zombieland. They exist only to be killed, usually in the most creative and funny ways possible.
In the end, the zombies aren't even the point of Zombieland. You could replace them with monsters, mummies, or giant lizards, and the point would stay the same. Zombieland is a comedy about finding your place in the world. It just happens to be a world overrun by the living dead. And, unlike nearly every zombie movie that's come before it, all the characters survive in the end, and find something resembling happiness. Together with Shaun of the Dead, it's the zombie movie coming full circle, finding hope in a genre that has long been defined by unrelenting bleakness. And it's my first blog entry, being pretentious as all hell. See you next time!
For my first entry, I thought I'd write about something near and dear to my heart - zombie movies. This post contains spoilers for Zombieland, so if you haven't seen it yet, proceed with caution. I say "yet," because it's a great movie and you really should go see it. Right now. I'll wait here.
My first real exposure to zombie movies was in a film class in high school. My teacher, who I'm fairly sure was only teaching the film class so that he could sit quietly at his desk for a while, threw on an old copy of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and told us all that it was "cheesy" and "dumb," but that it had probably been scary to someone at some point.
So I was pretty surprised when the movie scared the shit out of me. Well, not really. It's hard to be scared when you're surrounded by bored high school students who are only taking a film class so they can sleep. But I was caught off guard by how claustrophobic and bleak the movie was - Night was a revolutionary film for its time because of how little hope it offered audiences. Somewhere between the scene where dozens of zombies pull people from a car accident and start eating liberal handfuls of organ meat and the scene where a young girl murders her mother with a gardening trowel, I realized that this was a pretty ballsy movie for 1968.
Afterwards, I sought out as many zombie movies as I could, which was pretty easy since a full-blown zombie revival started happening right on cue with the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. The remake kept the mall setting of the original, but removed most of its consumerist satire, amping up the blood and guts in its place. From there, a ravenous horde of zombie movies descended on theaters, ripping the box office to shreds and eating the brains of... okay, I'll be honest. This metaphor has gotten away from me. Suffice it to say that a lot of zombie movies got made. Some of them were great (28 Days Later...), some of them were... not quite as great. (House of the Dead) The resurgence even brought Romero out of retirement for the flawed Land of the Dead and the even-more-flawed Diary of the Dead.
But by far the best of the bunch was the least traditional. Shaun of the Dead managed to subvert nearly every rule of the genre, while honoring its influences at the same time. Shaun is brilliant in the way that it brings a typical zombie movie into a world recognizable as our own. It succeeds because it replaces the action-movie cliches of other zombie movies with real life situations. The characters in other zombie movies react to the crisis by stockpiling guns, or building gigantic tank-buses. The characters in Shaun spend most of the movie just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
Shaun also takes the long-running tradition of "zombies as societal warning" and neatly turns it on its head. Zombies have stood as metaphors for conformity, consumerism, militarism, capitalism, racism and plenty of other -isms. The zombies in Shaun stand for the threat of arrested development. Shaun's struggle against them is really his struggle to mature, and face the challenges of growing up. For his troubles, he's rewarded with a stable relationship and a happy life. Those who aren't so lucky are resigned to playing video games in sheds. It's a brilliant move, and it recasts the zombie genre in a more personal and relatable light.
Which all brings me to the inspiration for all of this, Shaun's new American cousin, Zombieland. Zombieland hones in on a crucial, sometimes subtle, part of all zombie movies: wish fulfillment. Sure, a zombie apocalypse would suck when you're being ripped to shreds by living corpses, or shooting your loved ones to keep them from turning into crazed cannibals. But if you manage to survive, the world becomes your playground - full of empty amusement parks and deserted mansions where everything can be yours for the taking. Even the zombies become wish fulfillment in Zombieland, with zombie killing turned into the competition that more serious movies have always denied it is. The zombies aren't a metaphor for anything in Zombieland. They exist only to be killed, usually in the most creative and funny ways possible.
In the end, the zombies aren't even the point of Zombieland. You could replace them with monsters, mummies, or giant lizards, and the point would stay the same. Zombieland is a comedy about finding your place in the world. It just happens to be a world overrun by the living dead. And, unlike nearly every zombie movie that's come before it, all the characters survive in the end, and find something resembling happiness. Together with Shaun of the Dead, it's the zombie movie coming full circle, finding hope in a genre that has long been defined by unrelenting bleakness. And it's my first blog entry, being pretentious as all hell. See you next time!
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