sabotabby | I do like some of their songs, though

I never understood why people got so upset about what one of them said. I mean, there's sort of an irony there in that Bush isn't from Texas at all. A guy from Connecticut who sometimes lives in his house in a suburb of Austin where he obsessively clears brush with a chainsaw? If I were from Texas, I might be derisive but not ashamed.

It was a silly statement to begin with (especially since he isn't from Texas), though hardly controversial. What gets me is that, as far as I can remember, every American musician I've seen in concert since at least the 2000 American elections has made some anti-Bush joke. And not just the political types. It's a thing that goes over very well with Canadian (and presumably UK) crowds.

What I didn't realize was how drastically different the country scene is in the U.S. Country albums apparently outsell rock albums. And while there are a lot of leftie (or at least populist) old country artists, modern country radio is a right-wing thing.

I'm trying to remember back to the kd lang controversy here, and I don't remember anything she said having such an impact on her popularity. It mostly shifted her audience from rednecks to CBC-listeners.

Well, and the Dixie Chicks are doing fine, too--it just shifted their audience from mainstream country stations to NPR sorts.

The statement was silly and basically toothless, but it made them an excellent scapegoat I think. Mainstream country music has a creepy, defensive, angry nationalist side (see also "Have You Forgotten?" by whatever that disphit's name is. I think maybe it sells records to tap into the rage of the oppressed straight white male. Not to be defensively reductioninst...that rage exists because it's politically useful, but chicken/egg.

Sorry, I completely lost the train of what I was saying. Anyway was the focus of the documentary really their loss of revenue and not the crazy political climate that made it happen?

There's all that, yeah, and also it reinforced some fears about the dangers of politically influential media oligopolies. That was my concern, anyhow.

That too.

Anyway was the focus of the documentary really their loss of revenue and not the crazy political climate that made it happen?

Yes. There was very little context, which to me (since I'm not fanatical about their music) would have been the second-most interesting bit.* You were supposed to feel very sorry for them that radio stations wouldn't play their music and that they didn't sell out every single concert.

* The most interesting bit, which took up about five minutes of the documentary, was their feud with Toby Keith. Hilarity!

to this day in Alberta, among those old and dumb enough to care anyway, there's a sort of ingrained and occasionally violent hatred of kd lang. It's really weird. She was a bit of a legend here since back when she was still doin her cow-punk-ish thing and then she spoke out against meat, and people here flipped their fuckin wigs, the word traitor was bandied about. Like she owed her success to the beef industry or something. And then she went and sealed the deal by coming out. People my age don't really give a shit, like you said we were the demo that sorta went "oh she did what? Cool!", but I think a lot of old ranchers felt a little ashamed about springing wood back in the day for a closeted veggie-dyke or some such.

My friend Ange does a lot of dinner theatre shows, and I went to see one of them in Edmonton, where she did a little kd lang set, in the old "and the Reclines" getup, and it was the weirdest bread and circus thing I've ever seen. Ange comes out and starts singing one of her old songs and the audience, boomers all, save the performers' friends who've all been comped in, do that boomer dinner theatre thing, that sorta "oh! I remember this song, oh, that was back in the 80s, we saw her at the Sidetrack, oh she really sound like her murmurmuurmurmurmur", and then it morphed into Constant Craving or somesuch and everyone is still al like "Yeah, awesome, remember she got famous, Alberta's own murmurmurmurmurmur" And then at the end of the set--wait for it--a guy in a cow suit comes on stage and kd screams and exits, pursued by the cow, and it's all sorta atged to suggest that the cow is gonna chase her down and eat HER. And suddenly the whole feel of the crowd just shifts and they're all cackling and an applauding and are all suddenly like "hey, yeah, you know what? FUCK kd lang! I almost forgot!"

Saddest of all, I think, is I'm fairly certain that the director didn't have any particular beef, if you will, with kd. He just knew it would play and was going for the cheap easy laugh.

This got long, but is thematically linked, so I guess that'd probably okay...

This got long, but is thematically linked, so I guess that'd probably okay...

That, and it involves a guy in a cow suit, which is always good for lolz.

Do you remember if she got death threats? Anyway, I think the whole controversy basically just made her popular with people our age (who buy more CDs than redneck ranchers in Canada) and with people like my mom, who would be embarrassed to listen to country but kd is okay because she's a cool vegetarian lesbian and rednecks hate her.

It's a bizarre thing to have to keep in mind but much of the political discourse in the US comes down to bumper-sticker rhetoric and ill-informed talk radio catering to the gullible. Nuance is a highly suspect Euro-liberal commodity.

That's why it's 'unpatriotic' to criticize the government if it happens to be Republican, and if you're against the war it actually means you personally hate every single serviceman and -woman and OMG how could you be so evil, support the troops!, blah blah honk wheeze.

What I find bizarre, except not, is that no one is setting up garbage bins for easy disposal of, say, people's Seinfeld DVDs. So obviously that sort of hysterical reaction is confined to a certain end of the political spectrum.

I was actually going to draw a parallel between 'Support The Troops' and Elaine's boyfriend Puddy's mindless face-painting 'support the team' attitude but I thought it might be too much of a stretch.

Nuance is a highly suspect Euro-liberal commodity.

You can lump critical thinking into that category too.

Good point.

In other news Prince Harry is going to Iraq, let's hope he gets all blown-upsies.

Haha. I think if we went back to the days when kings and generals had to literally lead their troops into battle, we'd have a lot fewer wars.

Hes I'm sure he'll be signing some really dangerous documents in his war-torn tent-office.

I can't believe you'd trivialize the horror and danger of papercuts like that.

He may even staple something to himself. I mean the Windsors' genepool can't be all that deep or wide.

Good point. Don't they all have hemophilia?

I hope nothing happens to him. Think about all the "glory" that would shine on the whole royal family, should he die.

I think he's trying to wash up his "bad boy" image.

re: the squid:

Look, something amazing! let's kill it!!!

fuckin humans.

And they do it every time!

When Cthulhu rises, they are going to be eaten last.

I don't know how I'm supposed to care about the Dixie Chicks' careers when Iraqis are getting blown to bits.

So true. They still seem to have made a good come back with thier last record. What's the big deal? I'd rather have someone make a documentry about those unfortunate Palestinians who got detained in Texas.

Though I don't think it would sell as many DVDs. :(

Did they really detain people for the Space Shuttle Columbia crash?

When you say "Palestinians" do you mean people from the Palestine the struggling nation-state occupied by Israel? or Palestine the small town in Texas?

She means Palestinians from Palestine, living in Texas, including children and a 60-year-old refugee. They were arrested for being "illegal" and they're being held in Hutto. I've posted about it a few times (usually tagged under "orwellian dystopias" and "it's okay if we're the ones doing it") and

sadie_sabot has posted about it a lot (tagged under "hutto").

Looked it up, disgusting proto-fascism for sure.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the police did detain Palestinians (from Palestine, the occupied territories) in Texas after the space shuttle went down in flames in 2003. Paranoia is a powerful non-sensical thing.

I do like some of their songs, though

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