Tag Archives | Can’t Stop the Muzak

The Pear Tree Code, Part 2

By Roderick on January 4, 2011 0

Sith lords a-leaping

The following letter appeared in today’s Opelika-Auburn News:

To the Editor:

I’m depressed to see Mary Belk (Dec. 29) repeating once again the internet myth that the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” originated as a coded way of transmitting Catholic doctrine.

She and others have published this misinformation in your paper before, and I have corrected it before (see your letters column for Dec. 24, 2003, and Dec. 29, 2007).

As a simple Google search will confirm, the claim has no historical basis, and no one has yet uncovered any references to it earlier than the 1990s.

Moreover, the doctrines supposedly encoded in the song are generically Christian rather than specifically Catholic, and so are nothing that Catholics would have needed to hide from Protestants.

Sincerely yours,
Roderick T. Long

Ad Valorem, Aïda, and Oligarchy

By Roderick on November 30, 2010 3

I’m back in the frozen north (relatively speaking).

Various items, in no particular order:

1. The following proposal appeared on the Nov. 2, 2010 Alabama ballot:

Proposed Statewide Amendment Number One (1)

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to provide that the provision in Amendment 778, now appearing as Section 269.08 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, which prohibits the payment of any fees, charges, or commissions for the assessment and collection of any special ad valorem tax on taxable property levied by the county commission pursuant to Amendment 778 (Section 269.08) shall only apply to any ad valorem tax first levied and collected pursuant to Amendment 778 (Section 269.08) for the tax year commencing October 1, 2006. (Proposed by Act No. 2009-286.)

Evidently the measure failed by 568,861 to 459,917 – which means that 459,917 people not only thought they understood what the hell the proposal meant, but cared about it enough to vote for it.

2. From an AP story about a cruise on Lake Nasser:

The cruise includes several classy touches, like cocktails at the start of the trip as the ship sails past the Tropic of Cancer, the northern boundary of the tropics. Then as the awesome statues of Abu Simbel rise out of the waters on the final day the triumphal sounds of Verdi’s Egypt-inspired opera “Aïda” burst out of the ship’s speakers.

Because, y’know, nothing says “class” like modern music blaring kitschily at you to jerk you out of the moment as you’re trying to look at ancient monuments.

3. In an interview with Olbermann last month, Nancy Pelosi warned that if the Supreme Court’s horrifying defense of free speech in Citizens United were to enable corporate fatcats to pull off a Republican victory, it “would mean that we are now a plutocracy, an oligarchy.” As opposed to what we’ve been for the last two centuries?

4. A recent “Quote of the Day” from my local newspaper:

“Adventure is not outside man; it is within.” — George Eliot

That would be a great tagline for Fantastic Voyage.

5. Damon Root mentions my post on Lane.

6. Check out how you can promote the cause of market anarchy by buying Christmas music.

Tertium Datur

By Roderick on August 27, 2010 3

gay Muslim demonstrators

I’m curious to know what the right-wing anti-mosqueteers’ response will be to this proposal (CHT Starchild) to open a gay bar – catering specifically to gay Muslims – next to the non-Ground-Zero non-mosque.

It puts them in a bit of a bind, I should think. Lately, people who’ve never given a damn about the rights of gays before have been invoking Islamic homophobia to justify their own Islamophobia. It’ll be interesting to see whether the conservatives’ newfound concern for gays will extend to a support for this latest effort, i.e., whether their anti-Muslim bigotry will be strong enough to overwhelm their usual anti-gay bigotry.

In other words: will the anti-mosqueteers be willing to pass beyond mere lip service, suppress their gag reflex, and swallow a gay bar? (Sorry.)

I reserve the right, however, to remain skeptical about the claim that the bar will have better music than the Islamic center. But then, I really like Islamic music.

A Match Made In Hell

By Roderick on July 11, 2010 4

For Doctor Who fans only: some recent iconic villains from the show meet one of the show’s original songs. It seemed a natural idea to put these two elements together, but apparently nobody had, so I did.

When Alabama Gets the Bomb

By Roderick on June 19, 2010 4

I’ve heard most of Tom Lehrer’s songs multiple times, but until now I’d never seen footage of him performing them. Somehow his performance comes across as edgier – and less merely whimsical – when you can see it as well as hear it; his anger and contempt toward the cold-war political establishment are even more obvious.