Dust on the Bookshelf

I'm Still Not Over It

If there is one man I feel saw the most injustice throughout his musical career it is Chuck Berry. His 1958 song Sweet Little Sixteen was ripped off by The Beach Boys in 1964 (more below) This and it surrounding events have always angered me. And this example of music theft by what were at the time white record labels is one of many. This post simply wants to put the good music in your ear and increase awareness of these past crimes and the cultural context they expose.
To start, here's a great old video of a CB Sweet Little Sixteen performance:

 

...according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "“Surfin’ U.S.A.,” the Beach Boys’ thinly veiled rewrite of “Sweet Little Sixteen,” enters the Top 40 at a time when Chuck Berry is serving a term in a federal penitentiary for violating the Mann Act. Berry later sues for and receives a co-writing credit on “Surfin’ U.S.A.”"

Briefly on the Mann Act... a funny little bit of legal history. Wikepedia definition: "The White-Slave Traffic Act, passed June 25, 1910 (ch. 395, 36 Stat. 825; codified as amended at 18 U.S.C. §§ 2421–2424), better known as the Mann Act after Congressman James Robert Mann, is a United States law which in its original form prohibited white slavery and the interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”. Its primary stated intent was to address prostitution, immorality, and human trafficking. While its ambiguous immorality language allowed selective prosecutions for many years, it was later amended by Congress to apply only to transport for the purpose of prostitution or illegal sexual acts^."

By "selective prosecutions" wiki means persecutions and the jailings of many a [black] man who had sex with white women- when others didn't want them to. ie: Chuck Berry's driving of young white girls across state lines to probably have sex with them at some point.. this seems like a common thing with musicians (tour vans right?) unfortunately for Chuck his groopies were young and white.
By "illegal sexual acts" wiki may be referring to old misegenation laws in America. These laws extended racial segregation to the spheres of mariage and sexual relations. It was illegal in America for two people of different races to have sex or be married. Some of the laws go back to colonial times when mixing with native americans was feared. They remained on the books in many states until 1967 (hold out: Alabama, who finally wrote it out in 2000) when the Supreme Court deemed them unconstitutional.

But back to Sweet Little Sixteen. Chuck knew a few of them of course, but here's the song as it was stolen and reworked by the Beach Boys. Perhaps you've heard it before, ladies and gentlemen, "Surfin' USA"

 

I'm not sure if that could have been more lame. But I resist devolveing into a Beach-Boys-are-lame rant.

Here's Chuck doing it in 1964, a video which is a little strange. The girl in the background looks to be about Chuck's type- a visual echo of why he was feared by some white americans in 1960. His successful pursuits of white women perhaps inspired this song. Quickly the lyrics:

Sweet Little Sixteen
She's just got to have
About half a million
Framed autographs
Her wallet's filled with pictures
She gets 'em one by one
She gets so excited
Watch her look at her run

Oh mommy mommy
Please may I go
It's such a sight to see
Somebody steal the show
Oh daddy daddy
I beg of you
Whisper to mommy
It's all right with you

Cause they'll be rockin on bandstand
In Philadelphia P.A.
Deep in the heart of Texas
And 'round the Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis
Way Down in New Orleans
All the Cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen

Sweet Little Sixteen
She's got the grown up blues
Tight dress and lipstick
She's sportin' high heal shoes
Oh, but tomorrow morning
She'll have to chang her trend
And be sweet sixteen
And back in class again

Cause they'll be rockin on bandstand
In Philadelphia P.A.
Deep in the heart of Texas And 'round the Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis Way Down in New Orleans
All the Cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen

 

But, impressively, Chuck has survived all of this ill-fortune. He is still alive today and performing. Just look at him...
 

Just look at Mos Def playing him in the 2008 film Cadillac Records...


Keep on, Chuck, Keep on. You are a living example of the ever-true lyrics: Rock and roll is here to stay. It will never die, and a healthy reminder of former injustices both artistic and social. 

Download 12 Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay

A Song for Quentin

This song is not, as some of you might expect, an ode to Quentin Compton. I am not that obsessed with William Faulkner. Instead, it is a song that if I could I would share with one of my other favorite Quentins- Quentin Tarantino.

He is the creator of one of my all-time favorite movies, Pulp Fiction. There are too many wonderful things about this movie in particular... the rapid-fire mundane yet somehow hilarious dialogue embedded in all of the wonderful motorized scenes: "a royale with cheese" "I shot marvin!" "She's dying on me man" "What does it feel like to kill a man?" "it was on the kangaroo!" "Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead" there are so many more but i stop myself...

another great feature of this move and all of QT's films is the music. Some of the lesser-known greats from Pulp  include: "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones, "Son of A Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield, "Bullwinkle Part II" by the Centurians, "You Never Can Tell" by Chuck Berry and "Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon" by Urge Overkill, to name a few. Check out samples of these and others on amazon.

So in this post I place a hidden gem of a song on the steps of the Tarantino Altar. I personally believe, that, the track "Bed of Roses," by Elysian Field, must be in the next QT film, or at the very least could be. Take a listen and see if you agree.

Download 1-20 Bed Of Roses

I found this song in a 1oth Anniversary music sampler of the Oxford American (a literary magazine of Southern writing that I love- they put out an anual music issue) The moaning and twinkling of this song evoke a red convertible down a lonely highway, John Travolta's greasy hair blowing in the wind. The refrain is delicious- a cheery topic that in spite of the angelic violins suggests a grimier rougher song-past.

O, Quentin!
For you these notes
Soar o'er Somerville
To LA lands
of pulp and death.
May you lay on your own
Bed o' Roses!

Hiroshima mon amour

I just finished reading the screenplay Hiroshima mon amour. The French is quite pretty in its simplicity. With short clips of dialogue such as:
Lui: Tu n'as rien vu a Hiroshima. Rien.
Elle: J'ai tout vu. Tout... Ainsi l'hopital je l'ai vu. J'en suis sure. L'hopital existe a Hiroshima. Comment aurais-je pu eviter de le voir?
Lui: Tu n'as pas vu d'hopital a Hiroshima. Tu n'as rien vu a Hiroshima...
Elle: Je n'ai rien invente.
Lui: Tu as tout invente.

my copy: Gallimard (1960)

I haven not yet seen the movie, though I was shown the first three minutes or so in Jason Stevens' Faulkner class. He wanted us to see the use of montage and disordered scenes, suggesting the large influence Faulkner had on Japanese authors and screenwriters. He argued that many Japanese people related Japan's history to that of the rise and fall of the Old and New South. I do not know enough about Japanese history to write any more on this comparison. However, Faulkner's celebrity in Japan is undeniable. In Houghton Library our class was able were able to look at the transcript and photos of one of Faulkner's visit to a Japanese university. Indeed, his reception there was much warmer and more immediate than here in the states.

but the book. it ends: She says to him, "Hi-ro-shi-ma. C'est ton nom." and he calls her "Ne-vers-en-Fran-ce." What is the significance of these appellations? Does Duras suggest that for these two characters their identity is almost completely a result of where they are from? Are these locations, where they were both tremendously scarred, all they amount to, boil down to, as people? "vers" can mean "towards" in French. Is there a play on words, un jeu de mots, going on here-- the Japanese man saying "not towards France?" something like that? Maybe not. but Ne-vers is a great name for a city as the man says at least once in the script. And what a happy correspondence in English: nevers. multiple never. more than one never? what is the plural of an ultimatum like that? It somehow does not have the happy ring of "Never Never Land."

The land of Never, where she (she who is never named in the film, but through the screen play we come to learn is called Riva) was trapped in a cave, shorn like a sheep with bloody fingers from their attempts to climb the walls. she is left in the cave because she has shamed her family, for sleeping with the German enemy.

Nevers. c'est superbe comme mot. je l'aime bien.

My next task, watch this movie in full. From the snippet i've seen it's beautiful. I would love to know anyone's thoughts on the screenplay or film if you've encountered them. I'd wanted to read it for a long time. Now I will never say that I never read it. voila-- some nevers.

pages before the end, the skies opened up and the fire trucks came

Today I finished Sanctuary by William Faulkner (yes, I am still on this kick).
Actually, no, it's not a kick it's just something I cannot stop doing. Reading Faulkner that is.

But Sanctuary. It is unlike many of the other Faulkner novels I have read. It is salacious, it is racy, it is in your face alcohol, rape, prostitution, murder, bloody corncobs..

That being said, I still recommend it. It is easier to read than a lot of Faulkner's stuff (I started reading the Sound and the Fury three times over three years) and he is slightly less subtle about what actually takes place in this story than his usual cryptic what-just-happened-i'm-totally-lost style. So in Sanctuary, you'll probably follow about 80 percent of what is actually happening to the characters.

I don't want to give away the story so I'll sell you on it with the name of one of the main characters: Temple Drake.
Temple.
Drake.
    Reading Faulkner, as one should, with Christianity in the back of my mind, I am brought here:
    If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are. 1 Corinthians 3:17.
Jesus' sole noted use of violent force in the bible is when he cleared the temple of vendors and salesman calling it a "den of thieves." Its violation makes him very angry and aggressive.
Drake to me sounds like how one might say "drank" with a certain more southern accent, and in a way Like the collision of events and bad timing that surrounds Temple Drake expels her from what was a privileged sheltered life at university. Her own violation evokes Jesus' reaction as it was described in the gospels and might cause you to put down the book a few times.

We remeet Horace Benbow from Flags in the Dust-- who gosh darned really means well, but is too ignorant of the tone and ilk of his own home town to see the obvious, inevitable events to follow the doomed court case he plays lawyer in, defending a penniless black bootlegger accused of murder and more.

If summer does not already have you sweating, this book will light a fire under you. Crime fiction and summer-- a natural pairing that I recommend. I was barely able to finish this book, sitting by the Charles river on page 305 of 309 (Vintage edition, 1958) before a force of nature overtook my hurried reading and a menacing downpour sent me fleeing for shelter at the Dunster/Mather shuttle stop. A fire alarm had gone off at the apartments across the street and soon three firetrucks blared in front of me. The rain picked up and I knew this was not the place or time to finish Sanctuary.

Later on I did get to page 309. And it felt... I don't know. I was not relieved, nor was I sad. There is little resolved at the end for most of the characters I grew attached to. That which about them that was screwed up remained so and I have to be satisfied with that. Typical Faulkner.

"mmmm yeah, so what's your point?"

Ratatouille and Polenta

I did some cooking yesterday. I made two things that remind me of something other than what they are as foods: Ratatouille and Polenta.

Ratatouille.
This is an amazing dish that originates from the South of France. It is basically a lot of vegetables cooked down until they are soft. Then you eat them. The key is having time to cut them all and then having the right combination of vegetables. Here's an image to get your mouth watering while I briefly wax non-poetic about this dish.

The vegetables that I used: onions, carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, red and yellow bell pepper, tomato and EGGPLANT.
Eggplants are essential to ratatouille and are also objectively a beautiful alien-like plant.

Is anyone else inspired? afraid??

Anyways, in addition to fear, eggplants add a unique texture and pungency to the dish. Ratatouille is both colorful and flavorful, because that's what happens when you put half the produce isle in one pan.
But recently whenever someone brings up this plate, my mind immediately goes here (click image for video):

To a movie about a mouse in Paris that loves to cook. Is this a good thing? What is this? The 2007 oscar-winning film about a rodent and the culinary arts is a far cry from the previous connotation this dish held for me-- of rustic Southern France and the wives of old fisherman making due when the catch that day was minimal.. Now I think of how hard it must be to be a rat (especially one who wants to be a chef) in the haute-cuisine world of Paris, France.

What??

Polenta.

And yet I can't stop thinking about Tim Pawlenty. This man:

He seems nice enough from this picture. And I figured as the former governor of Minnesota he's probably smart enough too. Until I saw the video in which he thought Bill O'Reilly's calling him "vanilla" (re: plain) meant that O'Reilly was playing the race card. Or the video of the Republican presidential debate, after his "ObamneyCare" comment was brought up, in which he back-stepped and sucked-up so hard to Mitt Romney I thought he was just going to abandon his podium to go door-to-door for the former governor of Massachusetts.

Geez, this guy seems lame, and confusingly so. Maybe comparing him with the food that always brings him to mind will stir some clarity into this melting pot.

Polenta -vs- Pawlenty

Bland unless well-seasoned -vs- Bland and politically unseasoned

congeals over hot fire -vs- breaks down under fire

sticks to your ribs -vs- sticks it to Mitt

can be molded into a loaf -vs- easily molded and aloof

-vs- "vanilla"

-------------------------------

In short, two things on my mind: Disney and the 2012 Election.

How to Eat Fried Blogs

I've been inspired by Becky* to start a blog. Really I just want to make something colorful, and mine will not be nearly as funny as hers is.

This isn't a blog primarily about books, as the title might suggest, hopefully just a space to dust off my own thoughts and start conversation. James is another person in my life who has been blogging lately and I would like to shamelessly link to it here, for those of you who might be reading The Pale King by David Foster Wallace (I am not). http://tpkteam.wordpress.com/

For some reason, books have me thinking about worms. They are funny creatures. It always strikes me as a small tragedy to see them fried up on the sidewalk in the morning. Shouldn't they have evolved by now to know that the sidewalk will be super hot in morning if they don't try to cross it before the sun comes up? (Darwin studied them for almost forty years, seems they are slow changers) I'm not sure if I have a favorite type of worm... there are earthworms, tapeworms, glowworms, bookworms, gummyworms.. all kinds really.

If you were a worm, what kind would you be? Are you the worm who eats its weight in food each day? the worm that is both male and female? Are you cold-blooded? Are you blind? Are you slimy? Do you have a deep-seated fear of birds? Did you ever read Thomas Rockwell's How to Eat Fried Worms? Or are you militant, perhaps, like these worms?



And thus ends my brilliant, I woke up at 5am to drive to the airport today, first blog post.

* shameless use of Becky's asterisk style and her blog: http://rebecamendizabal.typepad.com/blog/