Thank Goodness (Patriot Act In Check)

“Sometimes a right, once extinguished, may be gone for good.”
-U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero

I won’t lie. The Patriot Act scares me. Mostly because, let’s face it, it’s huge and no one knows what the hell it says. Yes, yes, Michael Moore hijacked an ice cream truck and drove around reading the Act to Congress members he felt neglected to puruse the bill. But beyond that, do you and I know what it says? Not I!

Thank goodness someone is paying attention.

Declaring that personal security is as important as national security, a judge Wednesday blocked the government from conducting secret, unchallengeable searches of Internet and telephone records as part of its fight against terrorism.

Hey, I am not saying we don’t need to catch terrorists, so don’t even go there with me. It’s the “secret and unchallengeable” bit that scares me. Have you ever seen The Net? All right, maybe it isn’t as bad as that, but as my opening quote suggests, it’s a slippery slope.

This Slate article summarizing and analyzing the act states:
The truth of the matter seems to be that while some portions of the Patriot Act are truly radical, others are benign. Parts of the act formalize and regulate government conduct that was unregulated—and potentially even more terrifying—before. Other parts clearly expand government powers and allow it to spy on ordinary citizens in new ways. But what is most frightening about the act is exacerbated by the lack of government candor in describing its implementation. FOIA requests have been half-answered, queries from the judiciary committee are blown off or classified. In the absence of any knowledge about how the act has been used, one isn’t wrong to fear it in the abstract—to worry about its potential, since that is all we can know.

So I recommend reading the Slate article in full. I plan to. (Yes, I admit I haven’t made it through.) I just think that we need to be educated and aware of the things that are happening to us. We need to know both how the government plans to catch terrorists AND how it might impede on the rights we blissfully take for granted.

Read up kids!

ROAD TRIP!!!

Spontaneity reigned this weekend.

Music Rant

I’ve been listening to more bluegrass lately. I’ve liked it for a while. For instance, Nickel Creek is easily in my top 5 favorite bands right now. I LOVE Chris Thile. And lately my love is expanding exponentially. I’ve been listening to these sort of bootlegged CDs of a jam session with John Hartford (fiddle), Chris Thile (mandolin) and some Chris Sharp on guitar. A friend gave me these discs so I don’t know much about where they came from or where the jam is, but it sounds just like a coffee shop or something.

It’s amazing to hear these musicians swap ideas, show off and learn new things. These out-of-this-world musicians… Chris definitely talks the most on the CD and you can tell two things. One, that he’s greatly respected by these older accomplished musicians. The guy is only 22. He’s been playing mandolin since he was 5 and has been considered “great” since he was about 14. I can’t even tell you how much he rocks. The other thing you can tell is how much he wildly and passionately and excitedly LOVES MUSIC! Listening to theses CDs is like sitting right in a little circle with this immense talent. At one point, John Hartford even excuses himself from the circle to use the bathroom and says, “Now don’t move or play or anything, I don’t want to miss something!”

Bluegrass is such happy music. One of the reasons I love the mandolin is because I think its sound emanates joy. Of course it DOES have depth- most definitely, but it’s just happy. The banjo and fiddle don’t fall too far behind.

One of the things I truly love is being engaged by music. This can happen in a lot of ways. One could be engaged by the lyrics and voice. Even being a singer/songwriter, I think this is the easiest way to engage people. But mastering your instrument… that’s something else. Now, I’m not saying that rock and roll and country and metal and rap don’t all take talent and a true understanding of music. I like all those genres (well not so much metal). But right now in my mind, bluegrass and jazz are the top of the charts for ingenuity and exploration.

These two engage me because I feel like the music is a puzzle. How many things can we do with our instruments in this song? Where can we take the listener that he or she doesn’t expect to go? What melody and counter melody can we weave together and in how many layers? No matter the talent that other genres take, they are somewhat limited in their reach. And I think that the people involved in those genres choose and accept that. They go where they can and make stellar music. For instance, Jimi Hendrix was beyond a doubt an amazing, envelop-pushing musician for whom I have a deep respect. (Please understand that some of my very favorite musicians and bands are in the group I am discussing. Including myself! I’m not knocking talent, ingenuity or creativity that flourishes in other genres. I am just sharing what I think if top of the line.)

But take a group like Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and tell me they aren’t going places you never thought music would go. They are weaving together jazz AND bluegrass- exploring the same puzzling precepts I just mentioned but with a combination of styles, approaches and nearly (for me) mind-blowing boldness.

When I am thoroughly engaged by nothing other than the music itself, I feel so stimulated. And on top of that, with bluegrass being happy music even in its worst melancholia, I just can’t help but love it.

And that- ladies and gentleman is my poorly written music rant for the day. I’ve been contemplating a lot of this stuff for a while. And I would like to write more on music from now. I just needed to get it out.

Oh yeah, one more thing- Chris Thile’s new album Deceiver is set to be released on October 12.

“I love you. Be brave.”

Morvern Callar was a very good movie. I rented it because I like Samantha Morton. You’d remember her most as the female precog in Minority Report. I fell in love with her in In America and further in Jesus’ Son. It was fabulous to see her gain an academy award nomination for best actress last year for In America, even though she didn’t have a chance. Still, at only 27 years old, she’s got plenty of time to make the world take notice.

Morvern Callar is a very dark and subtle story. Finding her boyfriend dead at his own hand and a copy of his novel saved on the computer, Morvern journeys forth in her despair. “I love you. Be brave.” I was stunned by the subtle emotion, which shone through Morton’s acting and brilliant camera work. Silence speaks volumes. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“In this post-punk existentialist road movie by Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher), Morton, whose catatonic stare can convey more emotion than many actresses’ entire range, conveys an impression of lingering detachment, of not quite being there, and inhabits the role as few others could. A fascinating character study.” From Metropolis

A little more

Under my current sidebar, I am going to start putting other music I have listened to in between postings in parenthesis. I just don’t like limiting what I put up to what’s in the car or computer right now. I guess this is trivial, but music is pretty important to me so…

Another Bad Billboard

From TBS “Very Funny”:

Have “Sex” With “Friends”