More thoughts

Some thoughts (NOT about modern fascism for today):

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Bob Dylan just sold his catalogue of songs to SONY for (some guess) $200 million. That buys a lot of stuff. But, I don’t get it. I keep my mind open to music, even – gasp – hip hop (although rarely find anything I can tolerate). Twice in the last few years I have spent a couple of days listening to Dylan, thinking maybe I’d get it if I became familiar enough with it. No epiphany the way I had with Van Gogh. I’m 62. Yet I have never had a single person tell me Dylan was their favorite artist. I don't know if anyone has ever mentioned him to me since I was a kid. I almost never hear him played on a radio station. I doubt most people face to face who say they are fans can name more than the same few songs I can (probably 4 I think are good). The Nobel Prize? For what? I’ve never had anyone quote him to me, never heard anyone suggest anything he said was wise, never have been to someone’s house or in their car when they put him on or said, can we listen to Dylan. Never. I’ve read the lyrics and all I could think was – really? Personally, I think just from his era, he can’t compare to Paul Simon (whose music is still played endlessly and even kids know it - some kids), Lennon & McCartney (The Beatles are the top sellers of all time and I have read no. 2 THIS CENTURY!!!!), Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull – Anderson was an extremely underrated writer) and many others. Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash were better writers. And don’t say, well, it’s folk music and that's different, because he was no Woody or Arlo Guthrie or Peter, Paul & Mary either.

But, they gave him the Nobel Prize, and I’m sure he’s on the top 100 lists. I can’t prove it, but I best most people who say he’s awesome have rarely if ever played him – at least in 30 years. Sort of like the people who wanted to believe Princess Diana was one of the most beautiful women in the world or that Wonder Woman was a good movie. I don’t have to accept it.

I will leave a squinch of room for subjectivity and taste, but I don’t get him.

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Is there anything so beautiful yet so horrid, so useful yet so dangerous, all at the same time, as fire? Some wit will respond – women, so I’ll beat them to it.

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This is what I think it was like when the comic book character, The Hulk, was being developed. There’s no punch line. Just hard to imagine who knew he’d be a great idea.

Boss, I had a great idea for a new character. He’s a scientist who is hit by gamma rays.

So, he dies of radiation poisoning?

No, he turns gray.

I pay you for this?

But he also grows really big and strong and his clothes are destroyed in the process.

That mean naked?

Of course not. His pants and underwear get bigger.

Why don’t they get destroyed?

I don’t know. Who cares?

Okay, got a name?

“The Hunk.”

Hmmm. Okay. So, what does he do?

He jumps around and smashes things.

Why?

So, he can say “Hunk smash!”

He sounds like an idiot.

He is.

Anything else?

Yeah, he has a girlfriend.

What woman would want to date him?

Same ones who date NFL linemen. They’d be lining up.

And so on. It’s just my imagination and not exactly what happened. now because after I wrote that, I thought - everything is on the internet. What's the real story? I know how successful the character has been, but it just seemed to me at the beginning it must have seemed like a terrible idea. In real life he was thought up by comic book geniuses, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who obviously knew better than the rest of us what would work. At the time of his creation, monsters were all the rage in America, and they were trying to capitalize on it. It was Kirby’s idea to have a monster as a continuing character. Ironically, The Hulk, was, in fact, originally gray, not green, just as I guessed, as a joke. They changed him to green pretty quickly though. At the same time, his speech went from at least somewhat intelligible to more primitive. 

But, again, just like I imagined . . . it actually wasn’t a success and quickly cancelled. But then he came back later in other heroes’ titles and eventually took off. Many changes happened over time. Not just skin color and speech, but whether he was controlled by others, whether he changed back to Bruce Banner, and whether the Hulk only appeared at night (originally), or as it was later on, when Banner got angry or stressed out. There’s actually a whole story to the development, which I read here - Lee & Kirby & Ditko: The Development of INCREDIBLE HULK – The Tom Brevoort Experience.

I do think he is a great character and I used to love the Hulk in comics, tv and movies. Now they have somewhat ruined him by creating multiple versions, like they do of all successful comics these days – a Devil-Hulk, a She-Hulk, even now a wise-cracking buddy type Hulk for the Thor movies. Now, if I watched any movies at all, I would not really be into super-hero movies anymore. And, it’s them, not me. 

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The other day someone sent me a link to an article in which Peter Dinklage, the successful actor who happens to be a dwarf (e.g., Elf, Game of Thrones), was complaining that Disney was remaking Snow White. He sounded rather bitter about it: “It makes no sense to me. Because you ‘re progressive in one way,* but you’re still making that fucking backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the fuck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box? I guess I’m not loud enough.”

*I note He says progressive because Snow White herself will be played by a Latina. That doesn’t make much sense either, because traditionally SN's skin is as white as snow.  Henece, She has pale skin. Snow White is Germanic (although similar fables throughout Europe but often about white-skinned princesses) and I’m sure there are light skinned Latinas out there. Not the one Disney chose though. Does it make sense to have a dark-skinned actress play the character whose skin is supposed to be white as snow? Of course, not. But, that’s woke or progressive craziness for you and what is important in modern woke movie making is to be able to say - look, I'm X, but I'm a princess, or a cowboy, etc. You know, the same thinking which keeps saying that the next James Bond has to be black or a woman or both to satisfy them, even though that’s not the character. I don't care what color a person's skin is when it doesn't make a difference character-wise, but that's not the trend. The trend is to shout identity politics at the audience, which is boring to me and thus, privately I cancel them.

Anyway, immediately on reading Dinklage’s comment, because I’m not woke and grew up watching The Marx Bros. and Don Rickles, I thought - I guess he’s auditioning for Grumpy. I admit, I cracked myself up and was rather proud of the line. But, imagine if someone said that on a television show. At least, if it was a white male, he’d immediately be fired.

And that, my friends, is one of our biggest problems – the hyper-sensitivity now taught to kids from the cradle. Everybody wants to be a victim, and not just when it makes sense. They get offended if there is any possible connection to their identity, even a completely innocent connection. They just figure it must be mean-spirited. I get it, Dinklage is a dwarf and he thinks Snow White is making fun of human dwarfs. But, they are really not. In fact, he is making it about them. 

Leave aside that the dwarves in Snow White are heroic (and leave aside – they live in a cottage, Peter, not a cave! They are miners who work in a cave!) - it’s also because the dwarves in Snow White, a Germanic fable, like the dwarves in The Lord of the Rings, aren’t humans, Peter! – they aren’t shorter than average humans who have a gene mutation. They are a legendary magical race - creatures inhabiting a fable. Hence they have allegorical nicknames, like Happy and Bashful. And, in the European legends, the dwarves did hang out in caves. A cottage is an upgrade. It is Dinklage (who by the way, I like as an actor and I think I like personally, having seen him give an excellent college commencement speech about acting and not giving up) who is making Snow White about people like himself. The woke look to be offended. I don't know if he is generally woke, but he is acting like the type of moron who imagines Baby, It's Cold Outside is about date rape.

I get it that human dwarfs have been oppressed, ostracized and so forth. Still are, no doubt, particularly when growing up. You feel sorry for anyone who has been made fun of because of a physical or mental characteristic to the point it has an impact on their lives. But, should big people be making a fuss because Disney is making the movie Giants? Of course not.  The giants in fables or movies aren’t humans either – they are legendary creatures. And, unlike the dwarves, they are often portrayed as dumb and villainous. Now there’s a complaint in the making.

Of course, Disney can make the movie anyway it wants. There have been many variations of Snow White  I would think Dinklage would have been smart enough to snare the role for himself and make it something good and creative. Or, maybe he is auditioning for it, and . . . now I get it.

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I’d like to say a word about Bruno Kirby, the actor, whose real name was - Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu Jr.  Whenever anyone asks me who I think the best actor is or was, I usually say Kirby. I know he wasn’t that big a deal to the general public and you might not even know who he was, but I thought he could play almost any character and do it well.  A few examples:

When Harry Met Sally. . ., in which he plays Harry’s Billy Crystal’s best friend, Jess - a nice guy, genteel, a yuppyish, an intellectual, a writer.

In City Slickers, also with Billy Crystal, he played another best friend, but this one loyal, athletic, fiery and opinionated. Still a good friend, but with a completely different personality.

In Good Morning, Vietnam, he played the angry Lt. Hauk, being spiteful, stupid and with a very bad sense of humor, making him Robin Williams’ character’s foil and target.

In The Godfather II, he plays a young Peter Clemenza, Corleone’s buddy. In this movie he is a womanizer, cocky, temperamental and animated – a young gangster whose personality so differed from DeNiro’s much more placid Corleone. He also speaks fluent and expressive Italian in the movie.

I’m sure he was in a lot of other things, but I’m not Wikipedia or IMBD. He died young, 57, of Leukemia.

*

So, what happened to all that exciting proof we were going to see about UFOs from the government? As I predicted then, and will continue to predict every time there’s a flurry of activity over aliens, it was much ado about nothing. Frankly, when I look at the videos, the supposed craft looks like a bug trapped on their windshield or a reflection. Sometimes it looks like a drone.

I wish it were more exciting, but we are alone – not in the universe – but on our planet. Honestly, 7 billion people is enough company.

However, aybe there is some exciting news out there. I'm not a big fan of TED Talks, but occasionally I do watch them. My favorite - David Epstein's Are Athletes really getting faster, better, stronger? discusses the difference technology has made in athletic performances as opposed to evolving bodies. But more to my point about space aliens, Tabetha Boyajian's The Most Mysterious Star in the Galaxy, exploring a strange blockage of a star's light in our galaxy that you could explain a lot of different ways, including by - theoretically - alien technology. There isn't an answer yet, but it's interesting. 

I do disagree with Tabetha's premise that we should only go to alien theories as a last resort. My reason is that on the only planet we are really familiar with - Earth - there is intelligent life that can discuss itself and has in fact moved into space, at least a little. We are responsible for a lot of phenomena that a sentient being, traveling by, would imagine was created by intelligent life (go ahead, make your jokes about there not being intelligent life on Earth). 

So, when phenomena are seen in space, though we do not know it is created by an intelligent being (ironically, most people still believe the universe was created by one), we should simply take it as one more possibility, neither more nor less likely unless something else rules it out. We can't dismiss them for the unscientific reason that they are too interesting or exciting.

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Now, this is really bad luck. All through WWII, there were zero combat deaths in the lower 48 up into 1945 (obviously, not Hawaii where the invasion of Pearl Harbor began our war and believe it or not there was a Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, where they stayed for a while). Then, May 5, 1945, shortly before the war ends, boom, 6 people in Oregon die from a Japanese bomb.

It’s a crazy story, but true. Losing the war, the Japanese came up with a strategy that seemed destined to be ineffective, launching thousands of bombs at America, FuGo, or fire balloons, with about 11-33 pounds of explosives attached to them, which they hoped would float thousands of miles across the ocean on the jet stream to land in the U.S. Oddly, just as balloons were the first aircraft in the 18th century, these were the first inter-continental missiles. Relying on the winds was a pretty inefficient system, if you think about it – considering how much trouble even airplanes had dropping bombs right on their targets. It shows you how desperate the Japanese must have been. But roughly 3% of the balloons did land here. Fortunately, nothing really happened except to one family and some students, and, almost prophetically, to the power supply to a nuclear plant involved the Manhattan Project, which was slightly damaged, shutting it down for a short time.

The victims were Archie (a minister) and Elyse Mitchell (a pregnant school-teacher) who were driving along with some of her students. Archie pulled over because Elyse got sick. He talked to a construction crew and Elyse and the schoolkids walked down the road together. Elyse’s last words to her husband were “Look what I found, Dear,"  Boom. She and four students died instantly and a fifth student shortly thereafter. It is expected that one of them kicked the bomb.

Of course, a few months later, we would drop the big ones on Japan, Russia declared war on Japan and the war would end. Even before that, the Japanese, unaware that any but one balloon had ever landed in America, stopped the program.  Too late for the Mitchells and the kids.

Timing and luck count for so much.

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I was never good answering essay questions in high school (so I often didn't) or even in college. I got better at faking it in law school and it was good training for being a lawyer.

I just told this story to someone who was asking for help on a school essay about Socrates/Plato. It was a difficult assignment and she was having trouble writing it. After we were done talking and she was going to give it a shot, I told her about my freshman literature class where the teacher asked one student to read her paper on the symbolism in a story we had read. As she went through the symbolism she found in the story, the rest of us were clearly disappointed or stunned that we hadn't seen any of it. After class, I approached the other student (normally, I would have been too shy, but I had gone to high school with her and knew she was pretty shy too). I asked her, how did you know what all that meant? She answered, almost a little embarrassed - I made it up. 

Ah hah. Life lesson. 

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I’d guess some people in my age group would know who Artie Shaw was. In short, he was a top of the heap jazz clarinetist, composer and band leader in the ‘30s and ‘40s. But, I bet most don’t know this:

Shaw sounds Irish, but he wasn’t. Like so many in the entertainment industry, including band leaders, he was a Jewish boy, born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky. He learned to play pretty quickly, taking up the sax at 13 and beginning to tour with the clarinet at age 16.

He became a star in his 20s, after playing with a lot of groups. Begin the Beguine and Stardust were huge hits. But, he wanted to be innovative and his fans wanted the popular songs of the time ("'Begin the Beguine' is a pretty nice tune. But not when you have to play it 500 nights in a row.")

He was the first white band leader to hire a full-time female vocalist to tour the south. The South didn’t take it so well and she had to quit. He quit the clarinet in the ‘50s, describing himself as unable to continue due to compulsive perfectionism. In the meantime, Downbeat magazine, one of the premier jazz magazines,

He was phenomenally popular, earning $60,000 a week in 1940 – which would be well over a million a week now. To show you how much money that was – Burns and Allen, for whose radio show he provided the music and was a cast member – were making $5,000 a week, 1/12 his salary. And they were doing great! Oddly, though we remember them (those who do, anyway) as married, they didn’t appear that way on the radio show until a few years later, and Shaw played one of Gracie's romantic interests.

And, he was romantic. No, not with Gracie, but with his EIGHT wives! EIGHT! That’s a man who does not learn from his mistakes. That includes Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, both who complained of abuse from him. Turner had a nervous breakdown.

He was in the Army during WWII, sometimes playing 4x a day in battle zones. It didn’t sit well with him and he got a medical discharge (but, he really couldn’t stick with anything or one long) and entered psychoanalysis.

They should have put him to different uses during the war as he was a nationally ranked marksman, no. 4 at one point. And . . . he found time to be an expert fly fisherman.

Aaaand . . . he was an author. I don’t mean he had a ghostwriter as most celebs do. He wrote an autobiography, a novel and short stories.

My favorite Shaw piece - Concerto for Clarinet. Sort of Irving Berlinish.

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Since we are talking music, I was turned on to Spotify during the Pandemic and have been listening to a lot of music. My tastes are nothing if not eclectic. I find some people are almost offended by it, as they prefer whatever types of music they were exposed to when younger and refuse to listen to anything they are not familiar with.  

I’ve probably listened to close to 2000 songs the past 2 years, many of which I looked for, many of which I came upon, or read about. I have a lot of playlists, some eclectic themselves – that is for everything I like regardless of category, but others just for classical, jazz, crooners (Sinatra, Martin, etc.), 1950s, 1960s, disco, country, rock, girl power, guitar greats, really, you name it. There’s even some opera and rap among them.

Lately I notice I have become very interested in a number of female singers, and no, it is not a physical attraction (though that has happened). These are a few that blow my mind (BTW, I consider Whitney to have had the greatest voice in recorded history, but this is not about her).

Annie Haslam. Annie, now a retired painter in Pennsylvania (she sells stuff online), was a member of Renaissance in the ‘70s. They had a hit song, just one - See the Carpet of the Sun, which I was crazy about then and still am. Thanks to Spotify I learned that she had a long career and cut a number of albums. Famous for a 5-octave range, she has sung some of my favorite songs. One, a cover of Going Home (based on a Dvorak symphony) that I listen to over and over. Her Rockalise pretty much just shows off her voice in coloratura (you can google that) fashion and then breaks into a rock song.

Mary Fahl. Mary is a lot like Annie, just younger. Actually, they live near one other in Eastern, Pennsylvania. I don’t know what range she has, but the songs I know are with a deep, hypnotic and powerful voice. You probably know her without knowing it from the singer on television commercials. She also has a song she wrote called Going Home, like Haslam, but it’s not the same song, just equally good. She also wrote Dawning of the Day, based on a traditional Irish tune, for the Broadway play, Guys.

Allison Krause: Another great singer. I first heard her years ago when she sang for the movie, Oh, Brother. Where art thou? It’s an incredible soundtrack to begin with, but her performances on I’ll Fly Away with Gillian Welch and Down to the River to Pray are really beautiful, hypnotic, mesmerizing, and other adjectives. I have them on my "sleep" playlist. Maybe you’ve never heard of Allison. I hadn't until then, but she’s won 27 Grammys. If you are wondering whether that is a lot, it was more more than anyone else in the history of the award until Beyonce broke it, and among men, only Quincy Jones has1 more and Stevie Wonder the same number as her. So why haven't most people heard of her? Well, she concentrates on country-western. But, it is almost like reading a who's who seeing who she has collaborated with. Lately, it's been Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame.

Daniella Andrade: I’ve written about her before. Still a young woman, she started putting her covers of songs backed by her solo acoustic guitar in her bedroom or house posted on youtube.  She is now world famous, with just shy of 2 million subscribers. Not page hits, subscribers. These are not Mariah or Bieber numbers, of course, but she isn't a household name. She still releases mostly on youtube, but her song’s production values have increased. I don’t know if that is good or bad. What I love about her is the pure beauty of her voice – I swear it sounds like goodness or fresh baked chocolate chip cookies or something like that – the sound of her solo guitar, and the patient slow pace of her songs. Try some. My favorites are Crazy (orig. Gnarles Barkley), Creep (orig. Radiohead), La Vie en Rose (orig. by Edith Piaf, but covered a zillion times; Daniella’s is my second favorite after Christin Milioti's short ukelele version for How I Met Your Mother) and Ayayai, which I think is her own (not sure, really). Plus, any number of her Xmas songs, but especially – Christmas time is here and Santa, Baby (a song I often always like, depending on the rendition).

I'm done.

The Seven Pillars of Fascism - II

We covered the first factor on October 14, 2021. If you don't know what I mean, go read the first few paragraphs of that post and come back. Now we are up to the second in line:

  The fascist uses force or intimidation to coerce people to accept their political will.

2.     The fascist claim that they are victims and that their opponents are oppressors.

3.     The fascist creates a false scapegoat.

4.     The fascist seeks to divide and often uses race, ethnicity and/or religion to do it.

5.     The fascist gains control of critical social institutions, like the media, the police and the education system.

6.     The fascist is dishonest, and often uses fake crises or exaggerates them in order to more easily take or maintain power.

7.     The fascist takes complete control of the law and all facets of society within his or her reach – not just the reins of government.

    When I was growing up, the saying we were taught was "sticks and stones can break your bones, but names will never hurt me." Not that names didn't hurt then, they did, but we were taught that the beneficial thing to do was to "suck it up." Don't misunderstand - I did not grow up in "the greatest generation" or the days of Teddy Roosevelt imploring us to live the "vigorous life." It was already, at least where I lived, pretty wimpy, and I was no exception. But, it's gotten a lot worse.

    Now, kids are not taught to walk it off. No one would blame great champions like Simone Biles or Naomi Osaka for losing a tournament or choking after all the times they exceeded everyone else, but now they are part of the preaching of quitting because of what seems like stress under the guise of mental health, and kids are being taught, that's okay. Athletes, of course, have mental health problems like every other group and if they stop them from performing, then that's what happened and the rest of us have to move on, I'd hope, without castigating them or making them feel worse.  But, we don't have to admire them for it or celebrate it or think them especially courageous either. In the end, in sports, there is tremendous pressure for everyone and we should admire those who overcome it. Isn't that what we have always done?

    Even in football, what was the epitome of virile sports, they are starting to lean wimpy. I don't know about you, but I was a little shocked to hear that the openly gay defensive end for the Oakland Raiders (a team also once known for its virility), Carl Nassib, had to take a personal day after his coach was revealed to have made misogynistic and homophobic emails (some look like that, though I don't know the context they were made - many people say horrible things as jokes among their friends). Forget for a second that this is the same coach, the only one in the league, to have an openly gay player on his team (no less start him), but exactly why did Carl have so much to process? That's what the team said - he had to process it. It is not fun to be stigmatized or insulted by people because of who we are, which still happens every day in this world to most of us. You wouldn't think a comment made to Gruden's friend (the owner of the Washington Redskins) using the word "queers" (it is not always considered a slur, but it is when used in a derogative meaning) or stating his belief that there shouldn't be pressure to hire gay players would make a player take a day off of work. I get insulted every day just by my evalovin' gf - and that's personal.  Yes, I'd like to think Carl was tougher than that. Not because insults don't hurt, but because we are - or were - supposed to shrug them off. And when we can't, then we are defeated by them. Maybe it even gives homophobes (and there are plenty) reason to say - see, gays can't take it. I don't think Carl can say now that he doesn't think he's a victim. Because no one else had to take the day off.

    Most of the league is black, as is well known - about 2/3rds anyway. I guess some of them must support the need to have a "black national anthem" played at games (I've read it is every game) and be given their own holiday, known as Juneteenth, after the day in June, 1865 when Texas slaves were liberated. Why? Is there any other reasons than that these multi-millionaire athlete/celebrities still, despite their abilities, success and the lack of any roadblocks based on skin color, feel like victims, and they need to be consoled by their own holiday and song. I don't know why the other victims in the league don't get their own (forget whites, who now are actually victims, and certainly not the few Jews in the league, who are the no. 1 victims in the country of hate crimes, because, frankly, many people with political clout don't like them).

    Victimhood is big business today. BLM matter is entirely built on supposed victimhood. While no rational person with an inkling of historical knowledge could deny that blacks, probably along with American Indians (I know, I know, whatever I'm supposed to call them now) have been the biggest victims in American history. Of course they were. Now, quite the opposite. George Floyd's family, proved that with the 27 million they pocketed, if anyone had any doubt. Someone sent me a link to an article recently about the purveyor of so much nouveau hate and newspeak, Ibram X. Kendi, tweeted about white kids pretending they were minorities to get into school, before he scrubbed it, as it proved those white kids certainly think that minorities have a better chance than they do. Actually, it's common knowledge that many schools, including the top schools (Ivy League, etc.) do favor minorities. 

    But, it is hardly just BLM (who I've said over and over I do not think really represents blacks).  Sometimes it seems like every group wants to be a "victim" these days for whatever benefits it brings them. One of the reasons I stopped watching America's Got Talent before I stopped watching all tv was the prevalence of the contestants in who was the biggest victim. The last straw for me was when one contestant performed and as he was leaving the stage, remembered his instructions and yelled out - "And I was bullied!" 

    Last year some Antifa creature or another yelled out, "We don't want Biden. We want revenge." Leave aside the mental illness or ignorance that must arise before anyone would want to be Antifa, but "revenge?" It can only be because they are self-declared victims. Last year a few Asian-Americans were killed by a psychopath out to kill hookers (I know, I know, I'm not supposed to use that word either) even though the muttonhead himself said it had nothing to do with their ethnicity, but only their jobs.

    Whose left? There was a WAPO article a few years ago about which states had what hate crime protection. Among many others:

    7 states - the homeless

    5 states - the police (who, in some cities, yes, I'd say they were victims).

    4 states - political affiliations

    Utah had 18 categories including the military, emergency responders and school rivalry

But, that's nothing. The FBI keeps records for hate crimes against American, Indians or Alaska Natives (okay, call me ignorant, but what's the difference?), Arabs, Asians, Blacks Hispanics, Hawaiians/Islanders, whites, any other ethnicity not listed, Buddhists, Catholics, Russian and Greek Orthodox, other Christians or religions, Sikh, atheists and agnostics, Hindus, Islamic, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, or any other religion, gay, bisexual, heterosexual, transgender or non-conforming gender, or mix thereof, the mentally disabled, the physically disabled, men and women. 

Isn't that everybody?

But, I'm supposed to be talking about Fascism. Historically, fascists use their self-appointed status as victims to jump start their programs. Hitler was a master of playing the victim card: 

• The German nation was a victim of the Allied Powers who enforced an unjust peace on them at the end of WWI, taking their colonies and stripping them of their armed forces. Not surprisingly, German forced Russia to a very similar treaty when they sued for peace with Germany after their own revolution.

• Hitler used the real Reichstag Fire as an excuse why he needed emergency powers which he used to crush opposition.

• Hitler used the assassination of an German embassy official in France by a Jewish young man angry at the expulsion of his family from Germany (arguably, it was over a broken love affair between the official and himself) as an excuse for Kristallnacht and other anti-Jewish actions.

• Hitler claimed that Germans were being attacked in Austria, Czechoslovakia and then Poland when he wanted to attack or threaten those countries into submission. Attacks on Germans in Czechoslovakia were few, so Hitler sent his own troops in under a false flag to attack Germans.

• Hitler claimed that Germans were being attacked by Poles in the Polish Corridor (long story what that is, but Hitler wanted Poland out of it). He then faked a Polish attack on a German radio station on the border as a pretext to attack Poland.

    The Bolsheviks acted essentially the same, and despite the fact that the Nazis hated them, were actually a predecessor in a number of Nazi tactics. They not only used capitalists and Jews as scapegoats, but repeatedly used the threat of a Czarist reactionary attack as a predicate for the most horrible abuses (Lenin often gets a pass from history because Stalin's victims were so many, but he was also a cold-blooded murderer who couldn't care how many people died so long as he could make his warped society). The victimization claims worked well to a large degree on their less blood-thirsty socialist companion groups like the Social Democrats and Mensheviks, who thought better to have the violent Bolshies than the defeated Czarist forces. As bad as the Czarist system was, it was better than the Soviets.

    Sadly, the siren call of "I'm a victim" has grown. We can all think of ways to claim we are victims, but some do and some don't. Of course, there are real victims and even real groups that are victims. Ironically, how that is perceived has nothing to do with the narratives that get the attention.

    This was my first post of the new year. Back to fascism. It's not my preferred post. But it is a calling.

on

16th Holiday Spectacular

Man, I had to work a bit the past couple of months and it's good to wind down. It’s the season and time for my 16^th Annual Holiday Spectacular. Every year I try and write it as I go without a lot of premeditation (although someone nasty could argue that about all my posts).  I’m feeling movies this year. Actually, I did Tom Hanks last year, but add a few others here:

Dustin Hoffman's Ten Best movies:

The Graduate

Tootsie

Rain Man

Meet the Fockers

Lenny

Family Business

Kramer versus Kramer

All the President's Men

Midnight Cowboy

Wag the Dog

The Graduate is what made him famous and is iconic. I suppose younger people don't know it at all. At the time it was considered quite risque. Now, not so much. Tootsie, with Bill Murray as Dustin's roommate, was a hysterical comedy that was actually about something other than a bachelor party.  Wag the Dog is probably the least well-known film mentioned here and was a political movie he did with DeNiro and an all-star cast. I remember thinking it was a lot better than I had thought it would be. He was hysterical as Ben Stiller's father in Meet the Fockers. Family Business, with Sean Connery and Matthew Broderick, about three generations of criminals was a sleeper. I doubt Lenny is shown a lot anymore. It's about Lenny Bruce, the comedian who was arrested and sometimes banned for his performance (and comedians today should thank him), but also very good. I guess I should add the film Ishtar, starring Dustin and his real-life buddy, Warren Beatty, was one of the worst movies I ever saw.

Jack Nicholson’s Ten Best movies:

As Good as it Gets

Batman

The Shining

The Departed

Chinatown

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

A Few Good Men

Prizzi’s Honor

Terms of Endearment

The Two Jakes

Jack has been making movies since before I was born, sometime in the ‘50s. And, not surprisingly, not all of them are gems, but many were. His persona is so powerful that even when he’s not the lead or it’s an ensemble film, he usually steals it anyway, such as in Batman and A Few Good Men. Jack’s character doesn’t even have to be likeable for it to be unforgettable (unlike say, Tom Hanks, who is likeable in every film). For me, his performance in As Good as it Gets was his perfect lead role, but he may have been even better in Batman where he set the incredibly high standard for the Joker.

Top ten Westerns (Is it possible I’ve never done one yet?)

The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Tombstone

High Plains Drifter

Pale Rider

Fistful of Dollars

For a Few Dollars More

True Grit (John Wayne version)

Cat Ballou

Silverado

I can’t really choose between The Outlaw Josey Wales and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Both are brilliant films. TGTBATU probably set the standard while breaking all rules for Westerns. You have to give Sergio Leone credit for his Westerns on the list along with Eastwood. But Josey Wales is probably my favorite and has as good writing and performances as any more celebrated non-Westerns. The list, is, of course, mostly Eastwood. But, he made the best Westerns. True Grit is my favorite John Wayne movie. But, the remake with Jeff Bridges was really good too. I recommend both. Cat Ballou is unlike other great westerns. It’s a comedy starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin and in which Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole provide the chorus. I’d brag for it that it made the American Film Institute's top 10 Western list, but it is a horrible list clearly made by people who did not like Westerns and this is the only one of their ten I'd agree on. As for Tombstone, it is also a tremendous film, and I have long said that the Academy owes Val Kilmer an Oscar and I’m definitely not the only one who thinks so. 

Top Ten Denzel Washington Movies

Glory

Inside Man

Malcolm X

The Equalizer

Devil in a Blue Dress

The Taking of Pelham 123

Remember the Titans

The Preacher’s Wife

Philadelphia

Man on Fire

Notes: Everyone likes Denzel. Probably literally everyone. Philadelphia is the type of movie I normally wouldn’t like (it’s more Hank’s movie but I think it is one of Denzel’s best roles). Glory is an ensemble piece and Denzel was not yet famous. But, his portrayal of a resentful black soldier in the Civil War absolutely stole the movie. Man on Fire, Equalizer and Inside Man are simply great intelligent action hero movies (meaning not like most Stallone or Schwarzenegger or Norris movies - not that I don't love them too). And along with Ben Kingsley’s role as Gandhi, Denzel’s Malcolm X is probably the best historical portrait I’ve ever seen.

MUSIC

All that said, those movies and stars are not as important to this post as what comes next. For quite some time now in most every Holiday Spectaculars, I unveil my top 20 Xmas songs, now recognized throughout the universe as the "official" Christmas song list (let me have it). Every year it’s a little different, but this year there are a number of changes. I’m so excited, I really can’t wait (and it’s a lot more fun than writing about fascism all the time):

THE LIST

1. Fairytale of New York. I play this crazy Christmas song over and over again. It's by The Pogues, an English punk band, seemingly more Irish than English and an Irish singer, Kristy MacColl. The Pogues lead singer, Shane MacGowan melodic but very raspy voice is hypnotic with the right song. Frankly, other than this Xmas song and Rake at the Gates of Hell, I don't like them at all. But I really like this (though some might find it offensive).

2. New York City Christmas by Rob Thomas. Maybe I'm getting tired of the more traditional songs. This first appeared on my list a couple of years ago and has risen dramatically. 

3. Baby, it's cold outside. Still a favorite. I raved enough in past years about the idiocy of the woke, who claim it is a date rape song and won't say more except - Morons! 

2. Game of Bells. By the French trio L.E.D., who I think only have one mainstream hit. But, this combo of the theme from Game of Thrones and Silver Bells is great. 

 
3. Cool Yule.  Louis Armstrong sings a Steve Allen song. Almost everyday I listen and it's just as good.  

4. All I want for Xmas is you. I love this Vince Vaughn and the Vandals one-hit wonder. It was recorded before the Mariah Carey hit of the same name.

5. From a Distance. There are so many people I can't stand who are just outstanding performers. Bette Midler is one of them. I love her version.

 
6. Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Almost impossible not to sing the chorus if you are listening . . . and then for hours afterwards.

7. Joy to the World. I still think the greatest voice I've ever heard.   

8. Oiche Chiuin (I left off the Gaelic accent marks) is also one of my favorites. In English, it is Silent Night. There are many great recordings, but I recommend Enya's version. She is only my second favorite Gaelic musician, but she's awesome. My favorite Gaelic musician, the ethereal Aine Minogue, who rarely performs outside the Boston area in small venues has a wonderful instrumental version.

9.  Linus and Lucy (from a Charlie Brown Christmas – I think of it as a Christmas song). I never get tired of Vince Guaraldi's classic piano piece.

10. Christmas Eve, Siberian Sleigh Ride and Carol of the Bells. As with other years, I call a tie for three Trans-Siberian Orchestra pieces.  

11. Frosty the Snow Man (Jimmy Durante version ONLY).

12. I'll be home for Christmas. Many great versions, but right now I like the one by Joy Williams.

13. Christmas by Maria Carey. For the time being I like this one better than her All I want for Christmas is You. 

14. Christmas Time is Here. Daniela Andrade, a youtube breakout star, is one of my favorite singers these days. Maybe my favorite. Her version of this song could put me to sleep, and I mean that in a good way.  The all-too unknown Mary Fahl, an incredibly powerful singer, has one of my favorite versions too.

15. Ave Maria.  Usually I choose the version by Andrea Bocelli, which is great. But this year its Christina Perri. She isn't huge star, but I love her voice.

16.  We Wish You a Merry Christmas. I know I'm going a little Irish crazy but right now I want to hear the version by Celtic Women.

17. The Perfect Christmas. Version by the above mentioned angel-voiced Daniela Andrade.  I've been listening to her for some years now, but she grows on me stronger and stronger. Her year, obviously.

18. March of the Wooden Soldiers composed by Victor Herbert. The real name is March of the Toys, but since I know it from the movie, that's how I think of it.

19. White Christmas. But, not the Bing Crosby version from the movie Holiday Inn (not, as many think, the sequel, White Christmas). I love the Otis Redding version, made popular by the movie, Love Actually.

20.  Silent Night.  In English, right now, I like Martina McBride's version.

An American Christmas Tale:

You are probably familiar with the Harry Belafonte rendition of I heard the Bells on Christmas Eve. He did not write it, nor did any jingle writer. The words were originally written by the famous American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in a poem Christmas Bells, written on Christmas Day, 1863, after he learned his son, Charles, who had enlisted in the Union Army without notifying his father, in order to, if necessary, give his life for his country, had been wounded in the little-known Battle of Mine Run in Virginia a few weeks earlier. 

If the poem is too Christian or religious for you, try not to let it bother you. For me, at least, it is easy to look at art divorced from the religious trappings its creator may have intended. It may not be so for others. But, whether they want me to or not, I wish they could. I say to unto you in my most pseudo of faux-religious words - No one owns pretty lights, great music, movies or inspirational words once they are out in the world. 

Though not on my top twenty list, this song stirred me when I just knew it as a Belafonte (or Bing Crosby) song, and it does more so knowing what it meant to Longfellow. As the writer Ray Bradbury wrote in Something Wicked this Way Comes, it is "immensely moving, overwhelming, no matter what day or what month it was sung." It is ultimately about just what he wrote, peace on earth and the hope for the triumph of good over evil. Comforting words in difficult times. I actually hear Belafonte as I read them:

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,
    And wild and sweet
    The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
    Had rolled along
    The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
    A voice, a chime,
    A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
    And with the sound
    The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
    And made forlorn
    The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
    "For hate is strong,
    And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
    The Wrong shall fail,
    The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."