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Friday, July 19, 2002 |
Musicologist Alan Lomax Dies (NY Times)
"Alan Lomax, the celebrated musicologist who helped preserve America's and the world's heritage by making thousands of recordings of folk, blues and jazz musicians from the 1930s onward, died Friday. He was 87."
This is a great, great loss. His contribution (and his father's before him) to authentic music can't ever be overstated. His gift to humanity was profound. Don't miss the official web site.[michael britten's Loftware]
Yow! Mike's right. A true giant of real American culture is gone. I have a book of his songs, and it's a real treasure. I don't know how many times I've paged through it, and been surprised to find some song there that I thought was new. Dylan, of course, owes a big debt to Lomax, and if for no other reason we all in turn owe Lomax. Through his work, we can still touch the America that existed before technology -- before TV, before radio, before sound recordings -- changed everything. With his death, a little more of tha old, yes, weird, America is gone.
9:14:41 PM Permalink
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When a Crop Becomes King
Michael Pollan, author of the superb "The Botany of Desire,"writes about corn in modern America. Is it now a dangerous crop? Certainly it's dangerous to our pocketbooks, thanks to the farmers on welfare:
One need look no further than the $190 billion farm bill President Bush signed last month to wonder whose interests are really being served here. Under the 10-year program, taxpayers will pay farmers $4 billion a year to grow ever more corn, this despite the fact that we struggle to get rid of the surplus the plant already produces. The average bushel of corn (56 pounds) sells for about $2 today; it costs farmers more than $3 to grow it. But rather than design a program that would encourage farmers to plant less corn — which would have the benefit of lifting the price farmers receive for it — Congress has decided instead to subsidize corn by the bushel, thereby insuring that zea mays dominion over its 125,000-square mile American habitat will go unchallenged.
Pollan always takes a flora-centric view of things, though, which makes him fun to read:
At first blush this subsidy might look like a handout for farmers, but really it's a form of welfare for the plant itself — and for all those economic interests that profit from its overproduction: the processors, factory farms, and the soft drink and snack makers that rely on cheap corn. For zea mays has triumphed by making itself indispensable not to farmers (whom it is swiftly and surely bankrupting) but to the Archer Daniels Midlands, Tysons and Coca-Colas of the world.
We eat more corn than we know about, since many food manufacturers have switched from can sugar to corn fructose. "Nearly 10 percent of the calories American's consume come from corn sweeteners, the figure is 20 percent for some children."
The problem in corn's case is that we're sacrificing the health of both our bodies and the environment by growing and eating so much of it. Though we're only beginning to understand what our cornified food system is doing to our health, there's cause for concern. It's probably no coincidence that the wholesale switch to corn sweeteners in the 1980's marks the beginning of the epidemic of obesity and Type 2 diabetes in this country. Sweetness became so cheap that soft drink makers, rather than lower their prices, super-sized their serving portions and marketing budgets. Thousands of new sweetened snack foods hit the market, and the amount of fructose in our diets soared.
Amazing stuff; a must read essay; these quotes are short (and read it quickly, before the Times charges you for reading it). The
9:08:59 AM Permalink
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The American 50s -- Finey & Douglas
A page of links constituting a reading list for English 592, a Fall 1997 class in the American 50s at UPenn. It's a deep list of links, with tons of stuff to be found in it. For example, my heart sank a little when I saw the 1995 NY Times Obituary of Jack Finney; a favorite of mine, had either not known or forgotten that he had died. Alas, as I suspected when I saw the date of the reading list, there are a number of broken links, such as this one to what was apparently a Jack Finney fan site.
Well worth reading is William O. Douglas' "Judicial Treatment of Nonconformists," an excerpt from one volume of his autobiography, discussing the represssive laws passed during the anti-communist hysteria of the early 50s:
Then came Scales v. United States (367 U.S. 203), decided on June 5, 1961. Scales was convicted under the Smith Act of being an active member of the Communist Party with knowledge of the party's illegal purpose and with a specific intent to accomplish the overthrow of the government "as speedily as circumstances would permit." No illegal actions were charged. His "crime" was belief, advocacy of action, and teaching Marxism in practical operation. Sedition or treason in the area of politics, and heresy in the field of religion had, in times past, made beliefs criminal acts. We came to this country to get away from such punishment for what was in our minds.
In Scales, the right of advocacy for the purpose of incitement, as well s for education, was lost by a five-to-four decision. But free speech traditionally had included both. The First Amendment says Congress may make "no law" abridging freedom of speech. After Dennis and Scales, Congress may make some laws abridging freedom of speech.
The American philosophy was that anyone, no matter how unpopular or disliked, was entitled to the due process guaranteed by the Constitution. Yet some of the press dubbed a justice "Communist" whenever he ruled in favor of anyone charged with being a member of that party. Thus it was that some of us were put into tables and charts showing we were 90 percent or more "Communist," while other justices were only 35 percent "Communist."
The Court was severely criticized for the modest stands it took to protect the civil rights of this despised minority. In a mature society it would have been roundly criticized for the shameful performance in Dennis and in Scales.
Dennis and Scales mark the greatest decline in free speech in the history of the nation. The constitutional theory, expounded by Jefferson and Madison, was to let the people believe what they choose and to talk as they like, putting reliance on public debate to expose the fallacy of ideas and to correct errors. Government has no rightful concern with interfering except and unless beliefs and ideas break out into violent acts. Under that view, Communists would not be driven underground. They would have the hustings, the printing press, advocacy, propaganda and all the tools which other publicists enjoy.
Reading these excerpts from Douglas, a real giant, made me realize what midgets we have on the court now.
8:58:09 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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