The End

Year End: Death of the Blog?
So it is year end and I am running to the end of what was to be a one year experiment. Conclusions at the end of the year or perhaps better stated observations at the end of the year:

1. Blogging is an intentional effort at self involvement and is a very loud scream of “LOOK AT ME! LISTEN TO ME! This is less then healthy.
2. Writers write as they say and writing is hard work. Spewing out whatever is on your mind and not editing for content or form is less hard.
3. Some of the interesting things are too hard to blog about.
4. I am a bad blogger in that I have been made to understood that a good blogger reads other people’s blogs 3 times more then he or she writes and links their blog to related blogs creating a “community”. I already have a community in real life and I think as I have shown, other peoples opinions tend to be of little interest to me.
5. The best things I write take the least time. An example would be the Christmas letter which was ripped off in a 1/2 hour at 30 thousand feet on the way home from California.
6. My opinions regarding music and books are eclectic enough so as to be of very little interest to “the world.” (and sometimes even to me).
7. It is sometimes cathartic but still takes a lot of time.
8. I did not review enough diners.

So what to do? Keep on in the same vein? There are numerous diners in the area still to be catalogued and reviewed. New music, new concerts, new political developments and books but... who cares? A few thoughts and I will solicit comments either on the blog or by emails at Wantonbecker@gmail.com.

A. Keep on keeping on.
B. Change format: We could for example convene a board of diner reviewers and pick one per month and have a rigid format for review. Perhaps these people would be interesting.
C. Change format: Ignore diners. I have always wanted to do St. Louis Dive Bar Review but I do not think that aids my marriage or my life.
D. Change format: Do only reviews of concerts, books and movies (it has been done to death by better writers).
E. Change format: Try and write book on line over the course of a year.
F. Change format: Some other way you clever people might suggest.
G. Quit and get on with otherwise meaningless life.

All of these are thoughts... not necessarily good thoughts but thoughts. I do not know where to go with this. It was an act of discipline making myself write on a fairly regular basis about whatever I could make myself write about. I plan on printing the whole mess out and seeing how it looks all collected together. I think that it will, when all collected be a grammatically and stylistically painful mess of nothing but the process is sometimes worth more then the final result. We will see.

So I am thinking about it and welcome comments and thoughts. An interesting year as they all seem to be. So if you have thoughts let me know. Likely I will do whatever I want as that is my prerogative. I assume I will see you all next year but in the meantime have an awesome New Year!

Best of 2007

Favorites 2007











Ok... subjective year end lists are very important for the self involved and shallow (me). So.... for your Christmas buying guide pleasure this is for you. Naturally there are a few caveats:
1. I had to listen to it, read it, attend it, eat there and review it.
2. I have very eclectic (read marginal) taste
3. I do not care if you don’t like it
4. They are not in order of preference but I put in bold the Diner Review 10 (highest) rated Slinger Choice.
5. I start all my caveats with I
Best CDs: Spoon: GaGaGa
Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
Okkervile River: Stage Names
Neil Young: Live at Massey Hall Toronto
Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before The Ship Eben Sank
Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade
Peter Case: Let Us Praise Sleepy John

Best Books: “The Nine” Jeffrey Toobin
“Bridge of Sighs” Richard Russo
“Practicing” Glen Kurtz
“You Don’t Love Me Yet” Jonathan Lethem
“The Book of Dave” Will Self

Best Concerts: Okkervil River/Logan Square Auditorium Chicago Il
Bob Dylan/US Cellular Coliseum, Bloomington Il
The Good Life/The Gargoyle (Washington University)
Cracker/Blueberry Hill St. Louis Mo
Southern Culture On The Skids/Blueberry Hill St. Louis Mo
The Decembrists/The Pageant St. Louis Mo

Diner of the Year Big Eds Chile Mac Diner/St. Louis Missouri

Erata: Year End

So what is all this bullshit about immigration? You got the Republicans picking this up like it is an issue that America really cares about but it is just another one of those divisive issues that split our country rather then unite us. Seriously... Romney is almost foaming at the mouth when he talks about Huckabee wanting to give tuition assistants to illegals like he was butchering puppies.

We have a country that was literally built on immigration. As Bill Murray said in the movie “Meat Balls” “our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world”. True that. Then we let everyone in so that we could have the labor for our indutrial revolution. Then we started only letting in smart people... and now... we don’t want to let anyone in except throught the right channels which.... post 9-11 will not let anyone in. It is just so silly. “We cant reward these people for breaking the law”. “I just think we need to enforce the laws that are on the books”. “We cannot do this to the people who have gone through the process”. This is the kind of idiocy that comes out of epoples minds when prattling on about this. 12,000,000 people (and that is probably a low estimate) are already here and driving a portion of our economy. We collect tax dollars from them that they cannot legally enjoy the benefit of. they do all of our shit work for less then we are willing to pay people but we want to keep them out. the reason they are here is because our economy cannot run without them. We cannot pick fruit without them. We cannot run huge abominable chicken and cow farms without them. We cannot process anything with them. We need illegal aliens to run our economy and business wants and needs them not just to do the work but as 12,000,000 more consumers. They are NOT going anywhere.

Forgetting about the impossibility of the task of finding and removing 12,000,000 people lets assume they all just tturned themselves in, in a very orderly fashion at the post offices in their local communities. To house, process and transport home each of these folks would take...very conservatively 5k each. 6.6 Billion dollars to send them home. Granted it is not “peace in the middle east” type money but it is more money then we EVER like to spend on anything that does not roll or explode.
We still (despite the Bush administrations best efforts) still live in THE BEST, GREATEST country in the world. Everyone wants to live here. reagan let em all in when he was President and look where that got us? Oh a booming economy...blah blah blah. I am not saying the economy boomed because of that but seriously, they were here, they were not going home and Reagan did the only smart thing. It is still the only smart thing. Then we can work on tightening up our borders but once again... seriously... do we really want walls and razor wire on or borders? You know who had really good borders? The USSR. Where did that get them?

Lets let em in and assimilate the hell out of em and reap the benefits. Thats what I think.

****


So when did things deteriorate to this level? By that I specifically mean this year. Forget about the fact that our national intelligence estimate just told us that THEY (whoever they are but presumably the same people the President gets his info from) believe the Iranians stopped their nuclear weapon program in 2003... four years ago. Forget about the fact that our administration has been beating the drums to go to war with them... forget about that.
No... at year end we need to reflect on the year that was. Sure I was involved in a slight business reversal. Sure I am back to practicing law again full time... for people... for money... but lets set all that aside. Lets focus outside ourselves... for once and lets look at how our contry specifically got to this sorry state. Specifically... looking at the great theme phrase of the year when did we go from the brave strong country who put “Don’t tread on me” on their flags move to a country where the most important phrase of the years is, “Don’t tase me bro”.
Don’t tase me bro? How the hell could this happen here?
****
Romney was on Meet The Press this morning. It is a sign of my dotage that I so enjoy and look forward to watching that on Sunday morning. They have had almost all the cantidates on and this morning it was Romney’s turn. Fresh off of his attempt at being John Kennedy (failed) and explain why no one should worry about his faith. It did not go so well. He has spent tens of millions in Iowa and practically moved there for the last two years figuring he could use the momentum to roll on into Hillary’s New Hampshire. Looks like a failed strategy. Huckabee is leading but will perhaps fail when the hard questions start to be asked but who knows.

Faith of course should not make a difference. Our Constitution is clear that good men can serve whether Protestant’s, Muslims, Atheists, Hindus etc... But Romney has to worry because he has to pander to the radicalized Christian conservatives. That simply cannot work for him. He was on emphasizing the similarities but it just does not sell. What is worth is all the flip flopping he has done to appeal to this base. Gun control, abortion and immigration are three big 180s he has done. A man should be allowed to change his mind and position but all of his moves have been towards one thing and that is appealing to the base that Karl Rove and W put together. It is a failed strategy for 2008.

I know I already called Huckabee the winner of the nomination but these guys could still muddle it enough for a Mc Cain/Huckabee ticket. Stay tuned.

***

Dan Fogelberg died yesterday. Tragedy. He was my Sufjan Stevens. He died after a long losing battle with prostate cancer at his farm in Maine. I just assumed he still lived in Colorado where he made all his great music after fleeing middle Illinois but this guy... this guy from 1971 to 1976 released four brilliant solo CD’s produced by Irving Azoff and Joe Walsh and who had some of the best session players of the age on them. Pretty music with poetry and angst. But for his album Home Free and the song “Stars” I do not think I would have convinced my then 16 year old future wife to fall in love with me.
“Stood out in the rain
Let it soak me down
Before I called you...I called you.
Didn't see me there
Hidden by the rain
Beneath your
window...But I saw
you.
Putting on your face before the
Mirror on the wall
Dreaming that the looking glass
was me...
Catching your fondest gazes
Living through your fickle phases
I love you.
And it's getting easier each day
[ Lyrics found at www.mp3lyrics.org/GZs ]
To weep about you
Harder every night to
sleep without you
How many years must I be driven
By this dream
Of love with you?
Spend my dimes on phones
Trying just to talk but
You don't answer...you let it ring.
Spend my nights alone
Catching falling stars to
Give to you, love,
They're just for you.
For stars fall every time a
lover has to face the truth
And far too many stars have
fell on me.
And as they trail the skies
And burn their paths upon my eyes
I cry.”

Does not get much gayer then that but... I was 15. Cut me some slack.
It all fell apart around 79 when he became arty and pretentious with Jazz flutist Tim Wesiberg. By 81 he had sold out totally with the album “The Innocent Age” which included the sappy “Leader of the Band” and “Auld Lang Syne”. Awful stuff.
According to Wikipedia:
“In No Cure for Cancer, comedian Denis Leary suggests suing Fogelberg and James Taylor for turning him soft in the 70s, based on the legal precedent of the lawsuit filed by the parents of the two kids who killed themselves after listening to Judas Priest.”

Probably in poor taste considering cancer is what killed him on the 16th.

*****

Book Review 15: "The Nine" Jeffrey Toobin

The Nine
Inside The Secret World of the Supreme Court
Jeffrey Toobin
Doubleday
369 Pages

The gold standard of Supreme Court books is of course “The Brethren” by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong. This book traced the the Berger Court to the Rehnquist Court and was brilliant in it’s use of former clerks for insights as to the justices foibles, opinions and back stories. Unfortunately most of the reading world could not care less (or so they think) about the Supreme Court and so there has not been a hue and cry for a follow up book. It is fitting therefore that now that we have a new Chief Justice (John Roberts) that we look at the transformation of the Court from Rhenquist to Roberts. Rhenquists era was one of unprecedented stability of the justices of the Court but even as the personnel remained stable the Court, and it’s opinions morphed and evolved as the Justices did themselves.

Toobin is a regular writer and contributor to The New Yorker so there is definitely a liberal bias to his take on the Court but he is pretty even handed about all the Justices finding something to like in each of them and finding them all praiseworthy in one way or another. Even Justice Clearance Thomas, product of and hater of affirmative action is hailed as someone who everyone likes at the Court and who makes a point to know everyone from his fellow Justices to the janitor and the lunch lady.
The book succeeds in its review of each of the Justices individual as well as their Judicial philosophies, political leaning and how all those things formed them. He takes a great deal of time discussing, in no particular order:

Federalism
Strict Constructionalism
Roe v. Wade

The book marvels at the fact that although 7 of the 9 justices during this period were appointed by Republican Presidents there has been no progress on Abortion cases (from the conservative point of view) and similarly how federalism and strict constructionalism have been tenets of the Republican Party since Reagan, those tenets were until recently thwarted by this republican appointed Court. He waxes poetically regarding Sandra Day O’Connor and how she became the center of the court and the power of same. Rhenquist, Scalia and Thomas were one voting block on one end and Breyer, Ginsberg and Souter were on the other leaving Kennedy, Stevens and O’Connor to decide these issues and Kennedy was reliably on the right and Stephens on the left leaving Sandra as “the man”.

It is not so much Toobin’s review of how and why the Court ruled on various cases including the numerous challenges to Roe v. Wade but more how he hammered home the incredible importance of these Justices in shaping our political landscape. You can talk all you want of activist judges, and legislating from the bench but these folks are the gate keepers on the Constitution. What history has shown is that either the President, or Congress if left unchecked will almost relentlessly fill and vacuum of power left and will dominate the other two branches, as well as individual rights in the name of the greater good. Case after case illustrates the Courts importance in maintaining our civil liberties.

The Republican Court’s hate, hate relationship with the Bush administration (post Bush v. Gore) is unrelenting with 6 of the Justices lines up against the Bush administration at almost every turn. Evidently O’Connor became literally sickened by Bush and his administration and the people he sent to Court and the Constitutional power grab of the “unified executive branch”. She had one word for people and situations which she thought people demeaned themselves or the Court and that was “unattractive” and she found Bush’s Presidency which she did so much to ensure in Bush v Gore extremely unattractive.
On Roe v. Wade if someone would have just brought an abortion statute that took into account the health of the woman and did not EVER call for a spousal consent, she would overturned Roe. The book also discusses the impact of international travel on O’Connor, Breyer and Kennedy. To the horror of Republicans these justices sometime looked to international law and precedents when interpreting U.S. law. The fact that our legal system is based on a “foreign” countries laws is of no import and to these people there is no justice outside of “AMERICAN” justice. Very sad.

Toobin is clearly troubled by the recent Bush appointees and knows that the replacement of the O’Connor who was the center with two extremely conservative Justices will move the Court to an extremity which, if they do not temper themselves, could threaten the fabric of our countries laws and jurisprudence. She has high praise for Roberts as a consensus builder and as a charming and intelligent man. On the other hand she views Alito as an extremely talented nazi. I am sure that is overstated but unlike all the other Justices she does NOT find nice things to say about Alito.

it took me a long time to read this book. Almost a month and a half and that was not because the book was no good but more because the subject matter was so engaging that it required me to engage in a way not many books do. Toobins ear is almost perfect as he catches the tone and pitch of our Federal system during the last 30 years. This book is a very good read.

8 1/2 Slingers on the 10 scale

Best Music of 2007

Diner Review Best of 07 Composite

In the Diner Reviews constant, unrelenting, never-stopping, emotionally engaged and as always completely selfless effort to provide a service to it’s hapless (hopeless) readers, here is the Diner Review Best of 2007 Composite CD. If you drop me an email with your mailing address I will burn you a copy because... well that is just the way I roll. So if you want it, drop me an email at wantonbecker@gmail.com or post a comment here...whatever. Do not panic. This will be followed up an over all “best of including books, movies, concerts.... Merry Christmas!

OH! ONE MORE THING! Make some additions, post your own list here or email it to me and I will post. Do it!

One more thing. This link was forwarded by a friend. It amused me:

http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/the_worst_band_names_of_07?utm_source=avclub_rss_daily

1. “Our Life Is Not A Movie or Maybe” (Okkervil River: Stage Names) The whole CD grows on you but Will Sheff and the boys have ripped off another sweet little psychotic CD complete with hooks, rhymes and a nice back-beat. This song of course leads you to the conclusion that your life is like a movie... and not a good one. His songs never end well. I like that.

2. “Fire It Up” (Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before The Ship Ever Sank) The Mouse returns with quasi tragic, surreally brilliant CD which is... chock full of quality indie rock. “Fire It Up” can be read a lot of ways but will of course be regarded as a stoner anthem... why not? As the ice falls off the roof and the snow piles up outside, why look for deeper meaning?

3. “Black Like Me” (Spoon: GaGaGaGa) I have decided that this Spoon CD is likely one of the underrated CD’s of the year and this song begs for inclusion in a “hip” TV series. Perhaps on fax...maybe the new one called “Quarter Life” about all those interesting, self involved 20 somethings coming out. Good, self pitying and tuneful. Who could ask for anything more?

4. “Flat Head”(Fratellis: Costello Music) A curve ball. A 2006 release which of course did not capture the imagination until those taste makers at Mac put it on a iPod add. Who said the Brits are dead. This song thrums along in post punk hum along way that brings us to an in tune Clash.... that sold out. Awesome.

5. “We’re Not Alone”(Dinosaur Jr.: Beyond) Because sometimes, even if it is not his best work, you just need to hear a little J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr. The album rocks but because I am old I grabbed a softer song with understated guitar and plaintive vocals. Sweet.

6. “This Better Be Good”(Fountains of Wayne: Traffic and Weather) The boys from Jersey are back and this pretty little ditty of teen age angst and betrayal plays right into their sweet spot making cultural references to Dockers, the Gap and some girl who evidently is not telling the truth... heartbreaking in a way that you cannot feel bad about.

7. “Spirit Road”(Neil Young: Chrome Dreams II) Neil Young off of “Chrome Dreams”. Might not be a brilliant album but this is a song I can see him peeling out at concert for the next 20 years or so. Neil scathes indignantly searching for meaning as he lectures us on “the path”. Do not look for Dali Lama brilliance from Neil but crank it up and perhaps even open up the windows. The emperor still has clothes, even if their not new.

8. “Weird Fishes”(Radiohead: In Rainbows) From the formerly free on line Radiohead CD “In Rainbows”. This song is just tuneful and reminds me of the best art rock of my youth. Pretentious and precious Michael York. You other love the guy or you visualize blowing his head off gangland style... but this is a pretty song and the whole CD is pretty great.

9. “15”(Rilo Kiley: Under The Black Light) Rilo Kiley big disappointment for 2007. Big swinging horns and Jenny Lewis lilting voice make this song a really good one on an otherwise lackluster album. Your standardized song about having sex with a 15 year old girl. Sure Jerry Lee Lewis (no relationship to Jenny) did it better 40 years ago but what the hell?

10. “Either Way”(Wilco: Sky Blue Sky) Jeff Tweedy and Wilco’s pean to middle age “Sky Blue Sky” is... even as I prepare to leave middle age, a brilliant, sweet, tuneful masterpiece and this sad, sad song about a relationship (marriage) which is...ending or perhaps restarting is great. Even the sweetened strings don’t ruin the earnestness of his voice or his prose. Buy the CD.

11. “Soul Singer In A Session Band”(Bright Eyes: Cassadega) Connor Oberst (The Oracle of Angst From Omaha...not to be confused with Warren Buffet) turned out a really nice e CD in this years “Cassadega” and it has a lot of good songs on it and this is one that I did not play to death but it show cases his ability to turn a phrase and make something out of nothing. Also, his band plays very tightly on this one.

12. “Sunshine Super Man”(Rickie Lee Jones: Party of 5 Soundtrack) Another curve ball. 1995 release on the “Party of Five” sound track which I had never heard before. This was one of Donavan’s funkiest and coolest little songs and when you throw in Rickie Lee Jones voice... she reads it like she reads everything else... like a stoned beat poet. Made me smile.

13. “A Little Bit More” (The Good Life: Help Wanted Nights) The Good Life... more mopers from Omaha on a side project to the band Cursive. This guy can really whine in a way I love and plays a nice subtle electric and acoustic guitar interplay here as he complains to the poor girl who he thinks he loves... Omaha must really suck and the girls there must all be whores.

14. “England's Latest Clown”(Graham Parker: Don’t Tell Columbus) Graham Parker is one of the greatest singer
songwriters of our time and is so well regarded by critics as to elevate him to almost god like status and he puts out great music every year. Fo a 50 something he can really song too and this song about Pete Doherty of Baby Shambles and his trials and travails (oh to be a heroin addict rock star) as the next best thing is biting and poignant.

15. “Don’t This Look Like The Dark”(Magnolia Electric: Sojourner. download only) Simply a brilliant song by Magnolia Electric in the Jay Farrar Sun Volt/Uncle Tupelo mode he tears along with a a soft Neil Young guitar over his strained, throaty vocals as he despairs... and then despairs again but this is one of the best songs of the year.

16. “Jericho Road”(Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade) Steve Earle comes back with a CD about his move and his life in New York and being in love but in the middle throws us this night metaphorical song about life, love, family, betrayal...etc... good shit.

17. “Single Girl, Married Girl”(Levon Helm: Dirt Farmer) The Band is dead! Long live the Band! Levon helm shoots back at throat cancer and the world with his one of a kind voice on a great album. Helm as the bands drummer always carried the weight with his voice and back beat and this CD is a triumphant one. This song is kind of an old timey throw away but it has his voice, some nice backing vocals and some tasty picking. Pick it up.

18. “Act Naturally”(Dwight Yoakem: Dwight Sings Buck) Dwight Yoakem sings an albums worth of songs by his late friend and mentor Buck Owens. Dwight has always been a better singer and player then the “Big Hat” country boys and in his honest readings of Owen’s sometimes brilliant work he proves it again and again. I included this one because it makes me smile. If you do not know Yoakem’s voice you should.

19. “Underneath The Stars”(Peter Case: Lets Us Praise Sleepy John) Peter case is one of the greatest living singer songwriters and though the whole CD is breathtaking but this song about a homeless lady and her cohabitants who sleep out. With Carlos Guitarlos singing back up it is a song that tells you everything you don’t want to think about in regard to a life and a reality that we refuse to think about and with our current government are encouraged not to. It is easy to slip.

20. “Simple Twist of Fate”(Jeff Tweedy: I’m Not Here Soundtrack) Nothing new by Dylan this year but Jeff Tweedy’s reading of this beautiful...beautiful song from the “I’m Not There” sound track demanded inclusion. The great thing about tweedy here is that he is every bit as tortured as Dylan... but you can make out all the words. Download it and remember what great song writing really can sound like. Miss it.

The Christmas Letter

Because not all of you are on the Christmas card list (wife does not like you... don't believe in Jesus...I don't like you... I am too lazy to find your address etc...) I thought I would take the liberty of publishing the Becker family Christmas letter for 07 in all of it's glory. The Davidsons are still not invited over for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Letter 07
Since wrestling this job away from a grateful wife last year I have been struggling with how best to handle this years letter. Nothing has changed. Everything has changed. The family Becker rolls on into 2008. 2007 was, family wise pretty cool. We spent some time at Arcadia with friends, we went on a family trip over Thanksgiving to California, we got together with a couple of nieces one night a week to help fill up the table. We have adjusted to being a smaller family each night (that we actually eat together) and are wondering how next year will go when we have another spot to fill.

Sandy has returned to the paid workforce and regained her CPA license and we are extremely proud of her. She is working at Cummings and Ristow, some old Peat Marwick guys and is working on bank audits and perhaps bank taxation. She has always been the smarter, harder working one so it is with some pleasure and relief that I deliver her back to the U.S. economy. I hope it treats her well. The kids have handled the adjustment as we ask her to do everything she did before and now this too. She continues to have some kind of coordinating job is Community Bible Study and in an act of self destruction has also signed on as Church Treasurer as we try and figure out how to pay for the building we bought. She has also repopulated our second family by finding a sister for our dog Lily named Lola, 2 year old stray with no home, now has one. Lily is still queen of the castle but Lola is bigger and slowly starting to assert herself. Sandy spends an inordinate amount of time and money assuring that the dogs have no needs left unfulfilled. They generally seem happier and more grateful then our children.

This is Pat’s year to be number 1. He is a senior at Lutheran South. He makes great grades. He is filled with anxiety and and concerns about everything and everyone. Although he rarely leaves our basement where he watches Anime on various stations and works in origame he did see daylight enough to occasionally take a part in a Random theatre production. He performed in the Muny this last summer in “Les Miserables”. He is looking forward to a trip to Spain this Spring with his Spanish class and at this point in time is contemplating going to Truman University where he tells me has gotten a scholarship. he is enjoying his Senior year at Lutheran South and it should make for a nice graduation party. Pat continues his roll as the greatest blessing and the greatest challenge. Man plans... God laughs. Pat’s current Facebook status is “single”.

Laura is a Freshman at Lutheran South this year and has transitioned well from grade school to high school. She is on student counsel and played varsity tennis and generally had a good time and made good grades which are always a nice surprise. the majority of her time is spent at home in the basement with Pat (Beckers are all adverse to natural light and exercise of any kind) watching her brother watch TV and communicating with friends on Facebook. She continues to spend most of her communication time planning her next summer at camp, keeping up on camp gossip and inviting friends over to eat pizza in our basement and watch Pat watch TV. She is claiming an interest in ultimate frisbee but since it is in the nature of physical activity and she has a disinclination to run we will call that interest somewhat “sketchy” at this point. At last check on Facebook Laura was currently “single”. Stay tuned.

Jon... now relegated to the the number three spot in the family pecking order since his untimely exodus for college appears to be doing well. I say “appears” because we only see him if we can lure him away with gifts, vacations and occasionally a suitcase full of cash. he spent the summer working at Camp Arcadia in the kitchen and as a server and that combined with his rigorous academic schedule (I laugh even as I type the words) kept him away from home. Against all odds he joined a fraternity (Sigma Phi Epsilon) and is living in the house this year. He has a radio show on WVUR that can be streamed through iTunes, writes a weekly column (Becker’s Banter) for the student newspaper and generally seems to be loving life. We miss having him around, he seems thrilled to be out of town and happy to be missed. As of this writing Jonathon’s Facebook status....”single”.

I continue to muddle along job to job like an errant hobo. Life keeps providing me with opportunities and I continue to squander them. Still, when I look at the squandering it seems to have worked out really well and I am much blessed. I am currently (this week) a partner at the law firm of Hepler Broom and my partners have been very kind in allowing me to stay. I spent the last year and a half on “the never ending call committee” for a new principal at Lutheran South which finally concluded successfully. I did the camp counselor thing again this year and feel pushed to keep doing more in that direction but we will see what the future brings. Despite apparent setbacks, an over all osur disposition and a personality which veers towards lethargy, when I look at my family it is still pretty great to be me.

Outside of our faith our families biggest blessing continues to be our extended family and friends. Without all of you and your love and support being a Becker would truly suck. At every turn, each of us can look around and see all the great people God has thrown in our life to nourish and care for us and for this we are not nearly grateful enough. that having been said, for this one time in a year let us say from our family to you and yours MERRY CHRISTMAS and God’s best Blessings in 2008.
*For those of you who are keeping track my Facebook Status is “in a relationship”. I am trying to keep it that way and I think so is she as we get ready to celebrate 25 years together in 2008. We are richly blessed.

Record Review 20: Levon Helm "Dirt Farmer"

Dirt Farmer





Soooo... what do you say about Levon Helm? Drummer, mandolin player, guitarist, bassist and ragged american voice for one of the quintessential American (Candaian) bands aptly called... “The Band”. The Band was originally “The Hawks” and at one time Levon and the Hawks. They made some good music but Dylan recruited them as his touring band in 1965 and 1966 and then they recorded The Basement Tapes with him and then went on to their own career which includes classic albums “Music From The Big Pink” and “The Band”. In classic over blown fashion they memorialized their swan song in the movie “The Last Waltz”. Helm’s status as cultural icon was more then sealed when Elton John recorded the song “Levon” about him.

Since that time Robbie Robbertson has had a minor but interesting career but Helm was always the interesting one in the group. His voice gave the textures to their great songs “The Weight”, “Ophelia” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”. After the band broke up he continued to record and to act in a lot of movies, most significantly being in the picture “Coal Miners Daughter” and as the narrator of the movie “The Right Stuff”. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1990 which might have ruined his voice or... might have made it better depending on your own tastes. Helm has been hosting what he calls “The Midnight Rambles” on a regular basis over the past few years at his barn in Woodstock New York and among the hipster intelligentsia they have gained an almost mythic word of mouth. You can check out the Rambles as well as some unusual CD offierings at www.levonhelm.com.

He has not had a lot of solo material out there but the cancer and the midnight rambles have served togive him a sound and a voice that any alt-country fan can grab hold of and chew on like a bone. His new CD is a bunch of blues and country traditionals along with some originals written by other people. recorded at his studio in Woodstock his band includes Amy helm, Larry Cambell and Theresa Williams and they hold down a nice musical low end which sets up most each and every song for his plaintive, raspy, former tenor. Some of it is haunting along the lines that Ralph Stanley’s version of “Oh Death” was haunting but most of it just rolls like a river and is soothing in an earthy way that works you over from your gut to your brain.
“False Hearted Lover” kicks it off with a nice whine and twang and rolls right into the title cut where he adds an accordian and a fiddle. Both are traditionals but then he breaks into Steve Earle’s “The Mountain” which Earle recorded with the great Del Mc Coury Band and while this does not have that type of bluegrass sensibility it is kind of a wrencher. He adds the great guitar player Buddy Miller on vocals and it is a great cut. He rattles off a couple of more traditionals in “Little Birds” and “The Girl I lef Behind” before taking on Byron Israels “Calvary”. Calvary starts with a little guitar reminiscent of the late Chris Whitley and he rambles on giving you a little pump organ along the way. Good stuff. he does a song called “Anna Lee” next wish is about... Anna Lee.

He then does two songs by a guy I am not familiar with named Paul Kennerly. A little wikipedia research and googling tells me that he is an english singer song writer who was married to Emmylou Harris from 85-93. These are blusier songs set to nothing much more then Helm’s voice and a mandolin. he moves into a little sing along called “Single Girl” which has some nice backing vocals by Theresa Williams and then the traditional “The Blind Child” before closing with a bluesy ramble (yes I said it again) called “Feeling Good”.

The CD does not have an artsy feel. I wonder how long it took to make because it has an “I can do this all day” feeling to it but I am sure since it was recorded at his home studio that it probably labored over a ton. This is an excellent effort and for those of us that lived and died over The Band’s remake of Springsteens “Atlantic City” (everyone should download that on iTunes today) this CD really scratches an itch.
8 Slingers on the 10 scale

A Dream Deferred

Performance? Art? Both?


All fair questions within the context of what we did last Friday night. My wife is a CPA by training and really knows her way around a set of books. That is more then I know about anything. Anyway... she helps people out who need it now again sometimes getting paid and sometimes as a favor but either way... it is kind of cool. As I have documented several times this diner has two crazy dogs and my wife is a “crazy dog lady”. She hangs out at the park when she can with crazy dog people (I have visited once) and one of them is a booking agent for local talent.
All of that is well and good but the local talent pool similar to my gene pool is just not that deep. So that is all good. But in return for doing the books for the booking agent... (does that make sense even to me?) the booking agent (a very nice crazy dog lady) gave her tickets to go see one of her clients in a performance. the client is a professional storyteller and I met this opportunity with a little incredulous response but... I have been married for 24 and 1/2 years and this does not happen for an accident. If my wife says I should go it means I SHOULD go. And it is the least I can do but jeeez... this was a Friday night.

Worse... my son Patrick is a talented 17 year old who loves to stay in our basement and do... well, God only knows what all he does down there. My wife had determined that we had not exposed. So we truck on down to this rehabbed church on Tennessee and Shanendoah a little east of Grand. It was a nice space which would probably seat 150 people or so but there were about 30 people there to see the talent. There was a screen for one of the actors to change behind and then they got introduced and Blake Thomas came out and laid the background for this two man tribute to Langston Hughes.

According to Wikipedia:
“Hughes' life and work were enormously influential during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s alongside those of his contemporaries, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Aaron Douglas, who, collectively, (with the exception of McKay), created the short-lived magazine Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists.... Of primary conflict were the depictions of the "low-life", that is, the real lives of blacks in the lower social-economic strata and the superficial divisions and prejudices based on skin color within the black community.[27] Hughes wrote what would be considered the manifesto for himself and his contemporaries published in The Nation in 1926, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”.

Blake and Norfolk sat with a little table and a pitcher of beer and a few mugs as Blake took the roll of a narrator Langston Hughes and Norfolk was Jesse Simple, Langstons iconic character. The pace of the performance was good and encompassed several different “pieces” on feet, landladies, the last whipping and a toast to Harlem. the vignettes were punctuated with Thomas and Norfolk singing and percussing with hand claps and thigh slaps. But they sang well. The final piece of the evening which made it all worthwhile when Norfolk performed Hughes’ poem regarding all the Jazz artists who passed through Harlem... not just in the renaissance but through all time. It was impressive and bordered on brilliant and I could not help but think it would make a great You Tube video.

The whole thing was only about an hour and was very engaging. Simple/Norfolk’s wordplay and characters seemed spot on. The Simple character reminded me prominently of Lamont who works down at the chili parlor where I have breakfast and I often hear him leaning over the counter and riffing with his friends about life, women... and life. My son Patrick is watching all this but finds it hard to connect and looking around he is 25 years younger then anyone in the place. The audience seems made up primarily of arty people but they are there to watch and learn. Norfolk and Blake seem very comfortable with one another but it is clearly Norfolks show and he shines. I understand he is an awesome storyteller and we will have to go check that out sometime.

Here is a link to his booking agents site where they have information on Norfolk:
http://www.folktale.com/

The great thing about attending a performance like this is that I did not know anything about Hughes before this. What I knew of the harlem Renaissance could be summed up by what I had seen in the movie “Cotton Club” which is at best a limited view of the scene through a white film maker’s eyes. there is something about a black man interpreting a black man’s view of those times which paints a more telling picture. University of Missouri Press has come up with the complete works of Hughes and I will need to check out some that going forward.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
-Langston Hughes


***


Dream Boogie
Langston Hughes
Good morning, daddy!
Ain't you heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred?
Listen closely:
You'll hear their feet
Beating out and beating out a --
You think
It's a happy beat?
Listen to it closely:
Ain't you heard
something underneath
like a --
What did I say?
Sure,
I'm happy!
Take it away!

Hey, pop!
Re-bop!
Mop!
Y-e-a-h!

Vacation VIII: A Very Tiemann Thanksgiving

Soooo... Thanksgiving is a very special Holiday for me. I have loved it for years for so many reasons. The things I love that immediately come to mind are as follows:

1. 4 Day Weekend
2. Great Food (I love turkey and stuffing)
3. Friends and family get together without gifts
4. Fall is in the air and you can light fires
5. I can still go into work (if I want to) and catch up on stuff
6. I can sleep late or get up and go to breakfast with friends
7. Great food
8. Awesome smells
9. I like hosting it at my house which means I can have anything I want, the way i want it.
10. Beer, wine or both are normally involved.

Seriously, it is my favorite holiday and it is really nice getting together with family without any pressure for gifts and the bull shit that seems to surround Christmas. So it was with some trepidation that I allowed myself to be lured out to California (Godless place) to spend Thanksgiving with the Tiemann family.

There is always a problem with spending holidays with other people. They do not know your own traditions (they do things wrong), they do not know exactly how to prepare the food (they screw it up) and they do not let you edit the guest-list (their friends and family are jerks). These were just a few of my concerns. Additionally since it was California and since the Tiemann’s are faux healthy people I was threatened with the specter of Tofu Turkey which might or might not make me kill myself. The idea of tofu shaped as a drumstick is particularly troubling for me but i will leave that for me and my long suffering analyst. I had steeled myself to just going with the flow but my friends are after all my friends and they went out of their way to cater to all my whims and lubricated me with several bottles of wine along the way.

Tim Tiemann and I have a complex relationship going back to freshman year when my room mate was a gay guy and his was kindly named by our floor (The Pube). We did not bond all that well at the time but after college he dated and married a nice St. Louis girl and since then have served a father/confessor roll for one another as we amble through life. the best thing about Tim in this setting is that he is his mother’s son and he is a pleaser and that means he wants everyone to be at home, comfortable and have a good time and with his wife and families help he can really get it done. A role model as a host.

Their family and our family, although our kids are older, seem to get along pretty well and we added another family with two girls and a girl from Pepperdine (who is just too nice). The turkey was incredible. Tim humored me with the proper Pepperidge Farm stuffing. Tim had Jon make a spinach and pomegranate salad that was to die for (showing Jon how to separate the seeds from the mush in a bowl of water since they float), there were mashed potatoes and green bean casseroles and 4 pies... and more wine. It was a feast.

And the great thing about a Cali Thanksgiving is that you can walk a block to the neighborhood pool and hot tub with the kids and sit there for an hour and then come back and light a fire in the fire pit and sit there for an hour. the kids then made s’mores (very camp like) and we all sat around and chatted. Since all the adults (accept for the nice girl from Pepperdine) were drunk, everyone spent the night and it ended up being a friends and family Thanksgiving that at worst rivaled what we were missing with my extended family at home (although my nephew did bring out his girlfriend and her parents and I missed it).

It was a great time and a great time to be thankful for all God’s gifts to me and knowing once again, and having it emphasized that my family friends are ALWAYS one of the greatest.

Vacation VII: Oceanside California

Oceanside









So it is Sunday night before Thanksgiving and we have fought for three hours to travel 130 miles from Valencia. Part of it at 80 miles per hour, part of it stopped dead and all of it in the dark and fairly frustrating for the sad midwesterner (me). My wife had made us reservations at a condo on the beach in Oceanside, literally on the beach in a little development called Northgate or some such. We get off the highway following internet directions at the coast highway. It is dark so you really cannot see your way around that well but the over all impressing at 8:00 at night is.... “sketchy”.

I want to drive around the town a little and we of course need pizza and beer and few groceries. As we coast around the few blocks that make up “downtown” Oceanside we see the same somewhat surreal scene on each street. Every block has a barber shop, and bar and people are lined up outside each on a 65 degree Sunday night. The barber shops are lit up like Disneyland, four chairs going, all male barbers and patrons. Looking at the people hanging outside the bars... all men as well and then the light goes off in my little brain.


Pendleton Marine Base is just north of Oceanside and when I say just north I mean that they abut. So it makes sense but as I said is a little surreal as we see all these men getting haircuts. There are at least 7 barber shops within a three block area. That has to be one of the highest per capita ratios in the country. While the family waits for the pizza I walk to a convenience store and buy beer, munchies and cereal and see three cop cars on the parking lot in the process of checking the I.D.s of some people as they arrest the others. All together I am not at all sure of our decision but... we are here. The town has a similar feeling to Daytona Beach, 3000 miles away.

The next morning I wake up on cloudy breezy southern California November to see about 30 surfers outside our glass doors bobbing on some gentle waves in their wet suits waiting for their waves and... everything is OK. Sandy and I walk up and down the beach for about a mile. Oceanside is the home of the longest wooden pier on the west coast and we of course walk out to the end of it and look back at our unit which is on the far north end of the beach before a little inlet and the Marine base. I am hoping the haze is going to burn off but it seems like it might be real clouds which kind of sucks.

I take the family out to breakfast and after eyeballing a few diners we find Mary’s Restaurant and immediately know we are home. I will review Mary’s later b seriously, it is one of the best breakfast places EVER and coming from me that is saying quite a bit. Looking around the time in the daylight it seemed less sketchy. it is not really a “charming” town but it is a highly functioning little resort town and very functional and as you got to the outskirts you could see it is really quite the little suburb of San Diego and Orange County. It has the “Surf Museum” for gosh sakes. There were diners, barbers, convenience stores, 4, pizza places, beach stores, a cigar store, a 10 screen cinema and few head shops. They even had the “Oceans 11” Casino. Everything a girl could need.
But the beach is the thing. they act like their beach, which they call “the strand” is internationally famous but it is not listed on Wikipedia (I checked). It is a really nice beach though and heavily populated all day long with surfers which is also fun. it is gorgeous in a way that only the Pacific can be. Endless, cold and churning. We were able to have place that was 50 feet from the ocean with just a small tide wall between us and the sand and that was cool and it was not that expensive. The beach area is a hodgepodge of multi million dollar homes, and thoroughly beaten up apartments and houses which will likely be torn down as the property values continue to go up. the weather was not so hot when we were there with highs in the high 60’s and a lot of clouds but that is weird for the area. We were able to swim in the Pacific in November in half wet suits and it is a nice slamming surf with 6 foot breakers, at least while we were there.
There is really nothing sketchy about the town. We came in on a night when everyone must be getting back on the base. The town was pretty quiet other then that and though i would not hit the bars with my wife there was nothing dangerous about them. My family and I found plenty to do and it was a convenient location from Disney to Sea World, to mexico if you wanted to hit it in a day and come home. All in all I would say it is an excellent and still affordable destination for a get away and the Diner review heartily recommends it as an economical option for a beach vacation.

Vacation VII: Oceanside California

Oceanside CA







So it is Sunday night before Thanksgiving and we have fought for three hours to travel 130 miles from Valencia. Part of it at 80 miles per hour, part of it stopped dead and all of it in the dark and fairly frustrating for the sad midwesterner (me). My wife had made us reservations at a condo on the beach in Oceanside, literally on the beach in a little development called Northgate or some such. We get off the highway following internet directions at the coast highway. It is dark so you really cannot see your way around that well but the over all impressing at 8:00 at night is.... “sketchy”.
I want to drive around the town a little and we of course need pizza and beer and few groceries. As we coast around the few blocks that make up “downtown” Oceanside we see the same somewhat surreal scene on each street. Every block has a barber shop, and bar and people are lined up outside each on a 65 degree Sunday night. The barber shops are lit up like Disneyland, four chairs going, all male barbers and patrons. Looking at the people hanging outside the bars... all men as well and then the light goes off in my little brain.

Pendleton Marine Base is just north of Oceanside and when I say just north I mean that they abut. So it makes sense but as I said is a little surreal as we see all these men getting haircuts. There are at least 7 barber shops within a three block area. That has to be one of the highest per capita ratios in the country. While the family waits for the pizza I walk to a convenience store and buy beer, munchies and cereal and see three cop cars on the parking lot in the process of checking the I.D.s of some people as they arrest the others. All together I am not at all sure of our decision but... we are here. The town has a similar feeling to Daytona Beach, 3000 miles away.

The next morning I wake up on cloudy breezy southern California November to see about 30 surfers outside our glass doors bobbing on some gentle waves in their wet suits waiting for their waves and... everything is OK. Sandy and I walk up and down the beach for about a mile. Oceanside is the home of the longest wooden pier on the west coast and we of course walk out to the end of it and look back at our unit which is on the far north end of the beach before a little inlet and the Marine base. I am hoping the haze is going to burn off but it seems like it might be real clouds which kind of sucks.
I take the family out to breakfast and after eyeballing a few diners we find Mary’s Restaurant and immediately know we are home. I will review Mary’s later b seriously, it is one of the best breakfast places EVER and coming from me that is saying quite a bit. Looking around the time in the daylight it seemed less sketchy. it is not really a “charming” town but it is a highly functioning little resort town and very functional and as you got to the outskirts you could see it is really quite the little suburb of San Diego and Orange County. It has the “Surf Museum” for gosh sakes. There were diners, barbers, convenience stores, 4, pizza places, beach stores, a cigar store, a 10 screen cinema and few head shops. They even had the “Oceans 11” Casino. Everything a girl could need.

But the beach is the thing. they act like their beach, which they call “the strand” is internationally famous but it is not listed on Wikipedia (I checked). It is a really nice beach though and heavily populated all day long with surfers which is also fun. it is gorgeous in a way that only the Pacific can be. Endless, cold and churning. We were able to have place that was 50 feet from the ocean with just a small tide wall between us and the sand and that was cool and it was not that expensive. The beach area is a hodgepodge of multi million dollar homes, and thoroughly beaten up apartments and houses which will likely be torn down as the property values continue to go up. the weather was not so hot when we were there with highs in the high 60’s and a lot of clouds but that is weird for the area. We were able to swim in the Pacific in November in half wet suits and it is a nice slamming surf with 6 foot breakers, at least while we were there.

There is really nothing sketchy about the town. We came in on a night when everyone must be getting back on the base. The town was pretty quiet other then that and though i would not hit the bars with my wife there was nothing dangerous about them. My family and I found plenty to do and it was a convenient location from Disney to Sea World, to mexico if you wanted to hit it in a day and come home. All in all I would say it is an excellent and still affordable destination for a get away and the Diner review heartily recommends it as an economical option for a beach vacation.