Bite the Hand that Bores You

The problem with trying to channel Björk is that Björk

is

not

dead

yet.

What Should I Do with my Life?

by Po Bronson

Mr. Bronson was recently voted San Francisco’s sexiest writer. I hesitate to challenge that claim (I’d rather let history speak for me), especially when faced with his icy blue eyes and fashionable stubble. But this book mostly led me to decide his eyes must be even more blue in person. (more…)

When I Was Cruel

by Elvis Costello

Costello has released what he describes as his “first LOUD album since 199?”. Critics everywhere are hailing it as the return of ‘the nervous tic of a generation’ and a glorious revisit of his punk rock glory.

There are a few great songs worth special mention. The first is “45″, a song he wrote for his 45th birthday. It begins with Armstice day in 1945, the beginning of his generation and goes through the 45rpm records he bought as a child, to splitting up those same records in a divorce and finally his own 45th birthday. He addresses rock and roll of course, as part of the definition of his generation (and manages to poke fun both his youthful and current self) with:

bq. Bass and treble heal every hurt
there’s a rebel in a nylon shirt
but the words are a mystery, I’ve heard
until you turn it down to 33 and 1/3

This song of all of them best displays classic Costello infatuation with metaphor and laissez-faire attitude toward meter. I first heard “45″ live when Costello was dowtown with Steve Nieve. He played it on an acoustic guitar, unamplified, in a very small venue — and it was brilliant. Even the unsatisfying drums and background vocals can’t diminish it by much in the studio version.

“Spooky Girlfriend” is my favorite and one of the most classic pieces. Costello tackles the madonna/whore complex _one_ more time with lyrics like:

bq. I want a girl to make a mess
to do no wrong she must confess
and then perhaps hitch up her dress . . .

[. . . ]

bq. I want a girl who has no past
she’s made up now, but that won’t last

Now *there* is a double meaning worthy of Costello.

bq. I want to paint you with glitter and with dirt
Picture you with innocence and hurt
The shutter closes
Exposes the shot
she says “Are you looking up my skirt?”
When you say “No”
She says
“why not?”

You can hear 45 at
http://www.tty1.org/~joshua/music/45.mp3
and “Spooky Girlfriend” at http://www.tty1.org/~joshua/music/SpookyGirlfriend.mp3″

Trickster Makes this World

by Lewis Hyde

I wanted to love this book. I have always been a fan of the trickster tales-Loki, Raven, Legba and other characters who operate on the borderline of humanity and deity. I recently read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” in which Pirsig examines (among other things) the role played by structure and dynamism in the human mind, and “Lila”, the sequel in which he makes this notion of structure and dynamism more explicit, and even relates it directly to the Native American trickster and Brujah. I was looking forward to a more scholarly further examination of these topics.

Trickster wants to be that book as much as I want it to. Hyde is much more scholarly; his book is full of references to Native American myth, classical literature, and copious sociological and psychological research.

Nor is a the writing style anything less than engaging. Hyde is clearly excited by his topics, and doesn’t hesitate to say so or to share his personal opinions or experiences. It is in fact this excitement and commentary that gets in the way. Hyde seems so eager to point out all the pretty, sparkly connections and correspondences in all his anecdotes that he doesn’t take the necessary steps for anything approaching academic rigor. I found myself frequently frustrated at the leaps he would make; frequently they were leaps to destinations I would have liked to have reached, but couldn’t in good faith say that I felt comfortable with the route.

His organizational skills are occasionally quite elegant, but never consistently approach the level of those of Jared Diamond or Carl Sagan. At times, he is downright meandering and chatty, as in the section in which he offers Mapplethorpe and Serrano (the artist of Piss Christ) as modern-day tricksters, injecting dynamism as a means of both cementing standards of sociological behavior and fomenting change. In this section, he takes an opportunity, several paragraphs, and minutes of the reader’s time to introduce a weak tangent criticizing Senator Jesse Helms (”a ‘particular kind’ of politician”) for his position on the National Endowment for the Arts. I’m not without sympathy, but this isn’t the place for editorializing.

Trickster is full of insights. If dynamism and structure, or mankind’s relationship with religion are on your mind, it will sketch in some new territory for you. But if you’re looking for a scholarly analysis, you will have to look hard through copious additional material.