Last date

For those of you who have always wondered what this haunting, bittersweet piece of piano-music is called, that's the title.

Etched in my memory, I have visions: A young man with a DA haircut accompanies a young woman with a poodle skirt... neon signs reflecting in dark puddles, late at night, as the couple leave the bar to cuddle in the warm car, motor idling. Maybe they turn on the car radio, and hear this song.

They were my parents.

Not sure how I got the memory, unless it was just so strongly conveyed by their presence. No matter how nasty they brawled, even after they divorced, they would be brought together by the song. (Yes, they continued to see each other long after they were divorced and married to other people, plural. I'll get around to writing about THAT convoluted and complicated state of affairs, one of these days.)

When my mother heard the song, even decades later, she would always politely excuse herself to go to the restroom. (And shed tears for my father, no doubt.)

This song, recorded in 1960, was used in country-and-western-bars (and maybe still is, in some areas) as a "last call"--a signal the bar was closing; time to drink up and leave. Folks would often dance this song with their ex-lovers, or someone they believed they would NEVER have as a lover. They would dance with their best friends' wives, in full view of the best friend. Women would also dance with each other (men never did). The song was transcendent; it said "We have shared this space and time together, and now, this night is over." Something about the wistful melody made the saloon-denizens suddenly thoughtful, quiet, melancholy, sentimental, aware of their mortality. People might break out in fights during rowdier songs... but never this one. Last date signaled a graceful 'good night'--an always-tender parting of the ways.

I just love it.

It's best listened to VERY LATE on a Saturday night... maybe 2:30 am, when the bars in my hometown closed.

~*~

Floyd Cramer - Last Date

John Edwards: from Ashley to Barney

Left: John Edwards, photo from C-Span's Campaign Network.

~*~

I first wrote about the John Edwards extramarital affair and possible love-child back in December, when the National Enquirer initially broke the story.

What's interesting is that I got two rather snotty emails at the time, haughtily informing me that this is a non-issue and I should be ashamed of myself for covering it.* And now, this non-issue is all over CNN and the other news networks. The story has gone respectable, now deemed ready for prime time. Why was it a trashy story back when the National Enquirer first covered it, but it isn't now? Didn't they pursue the story and thus MAKE it an issue?

When is a story about a candidate's personal life important and/or necessary? Who decides what news is news, and when?

I find these questions confusing, but what I don't find confusing is the behavior of Senator Edwards when discovered in flagrante by National Enquirer reporters. FOX NEWS was virtually beside itself with glee, reporting on the incident on July 25th:

A Beverly Hills hotel security guard told FOXNews.com he intervened this week between a man he identified as former Sen. John Edwards and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child.

The Beverly Hilton Hotel guard said he encountered a shaken and ashen-faced Edwards — whom he did not immediately recognize — in a hotel men's room early Tuesday morning in a literal tug-of-war with reporters on the other side of the door.

"What are they saying about me?" the guard said Edwards asked.

"His face just went totally white," the guard said, when Edwards was told the reporters were shouting out questions about Edwards and Rielle Hunter, a woman the National Enquirer says is the mother of his child.

The guard said he escorted Edwards, who was not a registered guest at the hotel, out of the building after 2 a.m. Edwards did not say anything while he was escorted out, said the guard, adding that at times the reporters on the scene were "rough on him," sticking a camera in his face and shouting questions.

The guard did not recognize Edwards at the time of the incident, but said he concluded it was the 2008 presidential hopeful after hearing reports about the incident and finding an Enquirer reporter's notebook at the scene.

The guard said during the chase the reporters had dropped the notebook, which he picked up. "This book has everything in it on him," he said, referring to Edwards. The guard later confirmed Edwards' identity after being shown a photograph.

A former campaign staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told FOXNews.com he wishes he were "more surprised" to hear reports Edwards was visiting [Rielle] Hunter. "I'm definitely upset by it. I wish I was more surprised, though."

Edwards has gone from dashing, would-be Vice President Ashley Wilkes, to... Barney Fife, eyes bugging out like a Tex Avery cartoon (BOIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!!), sprinting down a hotel hallway in a panic and barricading himself in a public toilet. From one unforgettable southern archetype to another!

In case you haven't heard the whole story, it just gets worse:

Enquirer Editor-in-Chief David Perel told FOXNews.com his reporters caught Edwards visiting [Rielle] Hunter and her baby at the hotel earlier Monday evening. Perel said Hunter and Edwards have been occasionally getting together so Edwards can see the baby. Hunter came to Beverly Hills with a male friend, Bob McGovern, said Perel. Hunter and her companion reportedly booked two rooms under McGovern's name, and McGovern picked up Edwards to bring him back to the hotel.

Perel said Enquirer staff had been given information about the planned Edwards-Hunter meeting, and the tabloid sent reporters to the hotel in anticipation of Edwards' arrival. According to the Enquirer, Edwards was first spotted being dropped off at the hotel at 9:45 p.m. PT, about 25 minutes after reporters watched McGovern leave the building in his BMW.

Edwards went to Hunter's room and the two left the hotel together and returned 45 minutes later, Perel said. Edwards reportedly entered her room and stayed there until after 2:30 a.m. PT.

FOXNews.com could not independently confirm the Enquirer's allegations. Perel also declined to identify where the Enquirer received the information about Edwards' alleged visits.

Perel told FOXNews.com that after leaving Hunter's room, Edwards took an elevator to the basement, where he was confronted by two Enquirer reporters. He ran into the bathroom, where he remained until the security guard arrived.

The Enquirer says it has videotape showing Hunter entering the room where she met Edwards, and shows Edwards leaving the same room. However, the Enquirer has thus far declined repeated requests by FOXNews.com to release any photographs or videotape evidence of the incident.

He's finally admitted the affair, but still denies being the father of Rielle Hunter's baby. We'll see how far he gets with that one.

Meanwhile, not sure what I think about the whole fiasco, as a moral/political issue. I'm not sure it should be one.

*I think when my correspondents self-righteously announced that this is a "non-issue"--they were making an ethical judgment of how things SHOULD be. Not how they really are.

STOP PARKSIDE!

Left: Anti-Parkside signatures were collected at Bele Chere, last month in Asheville, NC.

~*~


The people of Asheville, North Carolina, continue to battle the Parkside Condo Development, as I stated in my Bele Chere post. A day ago, protesters connected with the Mountain Voices Alliance received a notice from developer Stewart Coleman, that the blockaded Magnolia tree was coming DOWN within 35 days.

Meanwhile, the development continues to divide the community in Asheville.


Left: The entrance to Malaprops.

Emoke B’Racz, the owner of one of my favorite bookstores in the world (and the first place I go when I get to Asheville), Malaprops, tells Mountain Xpress she is worried her business may not survive the development:

“What I hear from our customers is that they love downtown Asheville because it’s different—because it doesn’t have high-rises, because it has small businesses you don’t see anywhere else in the country,” she says. “We’ve worked hard for 27 years to make [downtown] viable for the emerging artists, writers, musicians, galleries and bookstores. Why we think we’ll make Asheville better by having a Tiffany’s store is beyond me. If the small businesses can’t afford to stay downtown, we’re changing what this town is—and it’s not going to be attractive to tourists. Period.”

B’Racz doesn’t know whether Malaprop’s would still be in business by the time the Haywood Park construction finished. “I hope we could handle it, but I’m not 100 percent sure, in all honesty, that we would survive,” she notes. “Speaking from my experience of the six months we had construction on Haywood for the water pipes, that was a really hard time. This development is two years, and how much do you want to bet it’s going to take longer. No small business has the funds to stay open for three years without sales coming in—and why would [customers] come down here if there’s dust and explosions everywhere?”

And now, demonstrators against Parkside are preparing for the worst. Mountain Xpress reports:

Parkside protesters demand eminent domain, plan demonstration training

by Brian Postelle
Mountain Xpress, August 7, 2008

Responding to a letter from Parkside developer Stewart Coleman, protesters beneath the magnolia tree adjacent to City/County Plaza are planning “direct action” workshops and demanding that either the city of Asheville or Buncombe County declare eminent domain to return the property to public hands

“There is nothing left but eminent domain,” said Elaine Lite, one of several who spoke before a crowd of about 50 people at a noon press conference held at the site.

The conference was called in response to a letter delivered Tuesday to protester and Coven Oldenwilde high priest Steve Rasmussen in which Coleman spelled out his intention to cut down the tree “sometime after 35 days from today’s date.”

The magnolia and the Hayes and Hopson building stand on property sold by Buncombe County to Coleman in 2006. Over the past few months, Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners have each repeatedly appealed to each other to correct the situation. Meanwhile, it appears that Coleman is ready to move forward with his condominium project, saying in his letter that he is applying for a demolition permit to tear down the Hayes and Hopson building.

Rasmussen’s wife, the coven’s high priestess Dixie Deerman, is one of several protesters who has been camping beneath the tree for the past month. Reading from a prepared statement, she said that “we reject Stewart Coleman’s ultimatum and vow to peacefully prevent the destruction of Pack Square’s beloved magnolia tree and the historic Hayes and Hopson Building.”

As part of that protest, the activists announced a “Direct Action Workshop” on Sunday, Aug. 16, to train potential demonstrators, and will conduct nightly “Tree Watch Orientation” sessions.

The spokespersons were vague on actions planned for future protests.

“Coleman’s not revealing all of his strategies, so the less we say about that, the better,” Deerman said.

Tree Watch Orientations will take place at 7 p.m. nightly. The time for the direct-action workshop on Aug. 16 has not yet been announced.

Click here to view a video clip from the rally.

STOP PARKSIDE!!!

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Listening to: Grateful Dead - Jack-A-Roe
via FoxyTunes

Odds and Sods - After the deluge/Stealth antichrist edition

Left: Anti-Walmart art on display at Downtown Books and News, Asheville, NC. (Artist/inventor unknown!)

~*~

Yes, sports fans, the horrible new neighborhood Walmart, the one we could not keep out, the one I complained about so much that I worried I would alienate my dear readers, is ready to open. It's too traumatizing for mere words. Suffice to say, the mess they have made of everything (I hold them accountable for my flood last week, although of course I can't prove their shitty construction is responsible)... is plenty substantial. The toll on my nerves alone, is sufficient to hate them forever!

And so, this edition of Odds and Sods, picks up where the flood left off. I wanted to give it a Biblical tinge.

~*~

For those of you who thought my piece yesterday was mean, I assure you, I am still getting a significant number of hits on IS BARACK OBAMA THE ANTICHRIST?, which probably skews my thinking a bit. And then I wake up this morning and learn that Dr Dobson's outfit is asking people to PRAY FOR RAIN during Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the convention.

I wish I were making this up:

COLORADO SPRINGS – A video producer for Focus on the Family is asking people to pray for rain when Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois) makes his speech at the end of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Obama is giving his acceptance speech outdoor at Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday, Aug. 28.

Stuart Shepard made the prayer request in his latest Internet video for the evangelical Christian group.

He says he's only partly joking.

"Sure it's boyish humor perhaps to wish for something like that, but at the same time it's something people feel very strongly about. They're concerned about where he would take the nation," said Shepard.

Shepard does a weekly commentary called Stop Light, produced for the Internet by Focus on the Family Action.

Boyish humor!

Do you BELIEVE these people?

It is my opinion that such statements, as well as the recent McCain ad (famously featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears), highlighting Obama's popularity and naming him "the biggest celebrity in the world"--are covert, sly, under-the-radar winks to the Black Helicopter Faction of the GOP. This is precisely the faction McCain can't easily win over: the hard-core right wingnuts who are constantly looking for signs of the Rapture. They believe Senator Barack Obama is the antichrist, as evidenced by the fact that I am getting hits from them every day. And these little "boyish" jokes, the praying for rain (suitably Biblical, for those who don't get it), the frequent reminders of his dangerous, alarming "celebrity"--all of this is code. Most of it seems to be going right over the heads of the mainstream media, but it's connecting with the Rapture-freaks (and their many fellow-travelers) in the Heartland. The Obama campaign really should address these ongoing religious rumors HEAD ON, because I think his recent falling-poll numbers have everything to do with what I am hereby naming the Stealth Antichrist Campaign.

Stay on the lookout for more of the same.

~*~

Speaking of fundamentalists, Heart (aka Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff), our favorite ex-fundie feminist running for president (supposedly, although I have yet to see her on a national forum of any kind), posted a very bizarre, racist comic over a week ago, which I didn't know if I should link here. The comic, by one Elena Steier, I found very disturbing, because it reminded me of something, but I could not put my finger on just what it looked like.

Belledame and SnowdropExplodes have helpfully solved the mystery for me. The comic, particularly the juxtaposition of the sheer blond whiteness of the dancer and the dark, leering, long-nosed appearance of the male audience, look exactly like nazi propaganda cartoons. There are various footnoted comparisons (with linkage) to several of these old comics at Snowdrop's blog.

Heart, please stop embarrassing other feminists with this vicious bullshit of yours, and go back to the bosom of your cozy ex-comrade, Dr Dobson, where you belong. PRETTY PLEASE!?!

~*~

And while we are on the topic of vicious bullshit, Heart has repeatedly claimed transwomyn are not oppressed. And we now have another transwomyn who has been murdered, named Angie Zapata. (PS: that link is a veritable educational gateway; lots of details about the case, which are almost too heartbreaking to read.) Zapata was also a transwomyn of color, and Brownfemipower and Uppity Brown Woman write very well about these various intersections of identity, and how they threaten the mainstream media's hegemony (when they attempt to cover such stories), as well as the status quo in general.

I'm sure Heart has some handy-dandy explanation for why Angie Zapata wasn't really oppressed. She can sell it to Dr Dobson, as they go riding into the sunset together.

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Listening to: The Clash - Hateful
via FoxyTunes

Q-and-A with Daisy - Volume Three

Left: Mr Natural by R. Crumb

~*~

A defender of Bob Jones University writes me, blood a-boilin, and wants to know WHY I dislike the school. Seriously, he wants to know WHY!! What, dear God, can one say to that?

My reply:

Did you bother to read my posts? Isn't it CLEAR? If not, I can't help you.

My question: How could you NOT hate a backward, reactionary, disgusting, repressive, anachronistic, warmongering, heretical, duplicitous, power-hungry, racist, sexist, homophobic, fascist organization like that, unless you are unAmerican and think repression is GOOD?

The USSR is history. Hopefully, BJU will be next.

Ciao,

Daisy

That answer didn't set too well with BJU-defender. He replied and I pseudo-fisked his reply, most of which is included below for your amusement, edification and as a cautionary tale. Names and details left out to protect actual BJU students. [I will say: I don't know anyone NOW attending Bob Jones University, at this moment. Thus, what I have said below applies only to past students and alumni I have known. BJU ANTI SEX LEAGUE: Please do not use what I have written below to start a witch hunt against anyone NOW attending BJU. Thank you.]

~*~

Mr BJU-Man replies:

Of course it's not clear, Daisy. All I see is a bunch of raw emotion and no facts.

One fact, just one of 12,000 of any "facts" I could randomly provide: gay people are denied the right to marry, a right that heterosexual couples enjoy and that confers the rights of adoption, automatic parental rights, inheritance, tax deductions, insurance, and so forth... and BJU financially backs politicians (proudly!) who avidly work to continue to deny these rights.

Do you deny that this is so?

There's a fact for ya.

Great catch phrases in your description--those self righteous terms are typical of folks that are unwittingly narrow minded. U are simply another simpleton with no understanding of the school, just what U choose to believe.

I've known gay students at BJU who have to slink around and arrange to meet their girl/boyfriends off campus, lest the BJU Anti-Sex-League (SEE: Orwell's 1984) catch them. I've also known AA and NA members, BJU students, who likewise had to lie and sneak around. Why? Why is it the business of the school what individuals do in their personal lives? It has been personally described to me many times as an intrusive, damaging cult environment.

I doubt you have met those particular BJU students, because they would NOT TRUST someone like you, who defends the fascist rules of the school.

Why does what a student does in their off hours matter? That's FASCISM, sorry.

It's so much easier to spout off endless ranting of hate and stereotype than to dig a little deeper and actually educate yourself, right? Hey, the world's a complicated place and it takes a little effort to gain new perspectives.

I've been to the Bob Jones University campus to hear various right-wing speakers, such as Pat Buchanan. It is one of the few times the campus IS open to the public [with the exception of the Art Gallery, a somewhat separate entity].

The students were ordered to attend. I saw and heard for myself their political engagements, the employment of the student body for political ends, the expectation that the students would automatically share the politics of Pat Buchanan and Bob Jones III.

And when BJ III started to talk, BANG, I never saw a buncha kids jump into shape so fast in my life--SHUUUUUSH. Like, right now. Nobody talked over him, or dared say anything while he was speaking. He commanded an almost-cultlike respect, in my humble opinion. Of course you would not agree with me, since I speak as an outsider. You are completely accustomed to the adulation. However, I considered it spooky and Stepford Wives-ish, like a bunch of androids, all dressed alike, all abruptly silenced on cue.

Yes, I do my homework, as I think my posts make clear. Although if you want more posts explaining even further why I dislike BJU, I can certainly provide that.

How about another fact: BJU party hacks monopolize the Republican Party in this area, they pack every local district/precinct meeting and in a block, elect each other as delegates to the state and national conventions. (What EXACTLY does this politicking have to do with the Lord? Render under Caesar, etc.)

[Here in] the USA, unlike the USSR, we celebrate diversity and tolerance.

Does BJU allow openly gay students to attend? No. That is discrimination, not diversity... certainly, it has no resemblance to tolerance. What a joke.

BJU would be glad to support your right to think incorrectly and choose to believe anyway U wrongly desire, because that group of people actually understand the US Constitution and what America is all about. If U ever want to visit the school and learn for yourself what this place is all about, I'd be happy to give U a tour.

I've been many times, XXXX, as stated above. I love the painting of St Francis receiving the stigmata in the art museum, although I find the Catholic-hating theology, cheek-by-jowl with the Catholic art, more examples of the same repugnant, disgusting hypocrisy always present at Bob Jones University.

But hey, I will try not to take it personally, right?

Like I said, I have many gripes about BJU myself, but that doesn't mean I just lump them into a boiling pot of emotion without educating myself first.

I got plenty more where the above examples came from. So I think I am the one educating YOU.

Happy thinking and enjoying your first amendment.

First Amendment is properly capitalized, but probably not at BJU. [Note, this was after he implied I didn't know what certain words meant, so I was being petty and correcting his punctuation. Yes, I know, I know...]

Same backatcha, Mr BJU-Man!

Daisy

Edit: Another timely plug for the Carnival for Progressive Christians - First Edition
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Listening to: The Pogues - Transmetropolitan
via FoxyTunes