Rebels

“Rebels,” from the fine Tom Petty album Southern Accents, was on the radio this morning. It’s a celebration of being from the South, of identifying with the grey-wearing rebels who, still, are part of folklore and mythology 150 years later. Which doesn’t mean there aren’t downsides to that legacy:

Even before my father’s father they

Called us all rebels

Burned down the cornfields

Left our cities leveled - I can

Still feel the eyes of those 

Blue-bellied devils....

It’s great to sing along with even if you don’t identify with the South or the Civil War. Perhaps because its tone of self-loathing is a Reactive reflex. Or the imagery of the set pieces in each verse - mostly about an unpleasant breakup - is what a guy too often feels and remembers from how relationships ended in the past, whether 20 minutes ago or 20 years. None of which explains the similar feeling evoked by the title track, a simple acoustic-sounding ballad that doubles down on what that side of Mason-Dixon means.

There’s a southern accent

Where I come from

The young-uns call it country

The Yankees call it dumb...

There are scenes in “The Last Waltz” where a Confederate flag is proudly displayed, with neither irony or racism intended. Not exactly a surprise for a group known for “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” That was only a few years before Southern Accents, which was released in 1985. (Like many of Tom Petty’s albums with the Heartbreakers, it was recorded at Sound City, right about halfway between Rumours and Nevermind.) These days, though, the idea of invoking the South, much less the Confederacy, seems almost shocking. (It probably shows up, still, in country music, not that I’ve been paying attention to what happens there. Or popular music, either, really.) 

Which is ultimately more about history, the passage of time, and the changes wrought thereby. In 2044 and 2054, no doubt, people will look at some of today’s innocent scrawls or pictures or short-form videos and ask with barely disguised shock, “Do they even realize what they are doing, there?”

Terrorizing

When is a terror attack not really a terror attack? One possibility is that it’s not at all terrifying. For example, there was an attack on a Bay Area electrical substation last April, evidently done in a “military fashion ... quickly and professionally.” The goal was to “take down the electrical grid.” Unfortunately, I have to use these quotes because when such a goal is completely unsuccessful it’s too difficult to paraphrase them effectively.

The practical outcome was the cutting of fiber-optic lines, damage t transformers, and an oil leak. Plus an article almost 10 months later that it was terrorism (according to this one guy). Nothing about it appears to be a hallmark of Al Qaeda, so the question could be “What sort of terrorists are they, and do we need to be afraid of them?”

Maybe we do - could have been a proof of concept, might have been folks who are going to learn from their mistakes and try again. Could even be that this is what Al Qaeda is down to: a few potshots at electrical equipment that’s out in the open and unprotect-able. 

Or could be outside the scope of the Crisis. Just because it is happening at this point in history doesn’t make it definitely a part. There’s nothing about it obviously related to the generational constellation, it’s not driving folks together and doesn’t inspire much in unified thought and action. The only part that might match is the “response to a perceived thread,” but if nobody even saw it as terrorism, it’s probably not much of a threat.

Modernism

At a Los Angeles Philharmonic concert a few years ago, there was a “new music” selection, one receiving its premier that night. Not bad, really, but didn’t seem very new - not a lot different from the “modern” music in a 1983 Music Appreciation class. Inspired the thought “Why does all this so-called modern music sound 60 years old?”

Anyone paying attention here, of course, is going to know why. Or have their suspicions, anyway. Like, “Radical ideas were proposed in reaction to the post-war High, and haven’t been revisited since.” (Or at least not newly radical enough to matter...)

Which is all a response to a Los Angeles Times gallery of television consoles which, despite being described as appropriate for an “update” to one’s current setup. mostly look like they’re from the 1960s.  Not all of them, I suppose, but the second one is tagged in my mind as “Don Draper’s filing cabinet,” followed by “Don Draper’s Manhattan apartment’s stereo cabinet,” and (after skipping the Arts & Crafts inspired/Progressive era update) “Don Draper’s office sideboard and liquor cabinet.” (Although Don and his friends really have more of a cart than a cabinet in their offices.)

It’s like seeing houses listed as “Mid-century Modern,” being as that’s Mid-LAST-Century, post-war reactions to conformity and safe choices. Or so I’ve heard. It seems so conformist and safe itself, smooth, simple ... intentionally soulless. Presumably in contrast to frilly Victorian, naturalist Craftsman, Colonial Revival with white picket fencing. Sixty years later, it seems perfectly suited to be the inspiration for the next wave of reactions. The ones which can be expected by 2030 or so, if they haven't started already. 

Famous

Does Almost Famous work for my theory of generational stories? If the idea is that a writer naturally writes from the point of view of his or her generation, and further if a story is semi-autobiographical, it should work well. Although Cameron Crowe seems to get my generation very well....

The Prophet story - Cameron Crowe and his alter ego William Miller being Boomers, born in the late 1950s -  is

• There are good guys and bad guys, and the good guys win.
• The good guy wins through sheer moral superiority

William Miller doesn’t redeem himself, or win because of working with his friends, or sacrifice much of notice (unless you want to count his virginity). His “final battle” is aboard the plane, where he accuses the members of Stillwater - and Russell Hammond in particular - of hypocrisy for removing Penny Lane from the tour.  (A very Prophet thing to do: Shouting Truth to power.) He Wins, even if the Bad Guys aren't as clearly defined as they might be elsewhere.

It works, then: Cameron Crowe’s movie fits the Prophet story.

Hoffman

At a charity silent auction today we bid on a lot that included a dozen lollipops and an animated figurine of Alvin (well, one of the Chipmunks) that plays their “Christmas Song.” My son thinks has been playing it over and over and over since we unwrapped it. Which had me thinking about Almost Famous and considering watching it tonight...

It’s on now. Actually the extended “Untitled” version, which inspired some scrambling for the remote because it doesn’t have audio over the Dreamworks bumper. All to relive my initial introduction to Philip Seymour Hoffman,  whom I previously called “one of Gen X's most celebrated actors.” Which might not be clear if you follow that link, since I intentionally left his name out in order to avoid spoilers for Catching Fire. I have since been informed that it was actually perfectly well telegraphed that he was manipulating the events there, so it’s not nearly as much of a spoiler as I thought.

The man is dead of a drug overdose tonight. I’m shocked and dismayed, and clearly haven’t been paying attention to his life, since evidently he’s been in and out of rehab since graduating from NYU in 1989. And I’m not paying attention to what I write, either, as it practically goes without saying that Mister Most Celebrated would end up burning out - that seems to be What We Do.

And, sure, it’s not like GenX invented drug overdoses or dying too young. We do seem to be the group that burns out at the peak, more than fading away.

Here’s what I remember of him, though, after that great portrayal of Lester Bangs in Almost Famous:

• The attendant in Magnolia. Don’t quite remember anything about it, but remembered him.
• Gust Avrakotos, the guy “working hard” on an Afghanistan strategy in Charlie Wilson’s War, and later pointing out what a big mistake was being made by not following up 
• And of course the aforementioned darkly manipulative Plutarch Heavensbee in Catching Fire

One of the cool things about Untitled is that you get more of Lester, complaining about everything about Rock and Roll in 1973. “Take drugs?” “No.” “Smart kid...”

Daily

Yesterday was one full month of daily posts. All were written as described in the post on January 1, and it appears to be working well enough. Two days come to mind that weren’t as well done as preferred. The rest are adequate at least, and a few manage to still be interesting all these weeks later.

(Although I have a couple of pre-written posts in case I really needed a day off, I wanted to avoid doing that until at least a month had passed - if you can’t get through 31 days, after all, what hope is there for 365. )

Looking back over this long eventful month, it has involved

• A look at Benghazi - although more about how reactions to it are indicative of the shrillness of national discourse
• A couple of days talking about Captain America - as a movie, as a character in a movie, as a story, and all of them together.
• A few more days on other movies  - including Point Break - from a generational standpoint
• One day of trying to explain how this theory works, and another that looks just at the Crisis itself to see what it proposes, followed by an exercise showing how useful it was to know what to actually look for.
• Musings on what it means to be a Reactive, and an Xer in particular.

Lessons to date include

• It actually is difficult to write like this every day - sometimes inspiration takes a while to strike, others it simply isn’t there.
• It is also not simple to have a relevant Crisis-related post every day related to current events, even if current events are defined as “Since World War II, and even that’s okay if there’s a chance for an enlightening contrast.” Some days, the Crisis doesn't show in the news.
• Without a limit on how much time to spend on finding an appropriate topic, this could take all night. (2 hours is a fine one, going forward, although I’d prefer to start writing when I sit down and be done 30 minutes later, leaving a few minutes for finding Wikipedia links.)
• Having a definite list of items to relate to The Crisis is very helpful in deciding whether a given event has any relation. It’s otherwise easy to say “blah blah blah Millennials therefore Crisis blah.” (Which is not only weak but unlikely to be true.)

As long as I can find some time to write on the subject, though, having a post a day is doable. And I'm enjoying it.

China

Yesterday’s P.J. quote was about China, for those of you who haven’t memorized his books. And it is a possibility. A few months before 9/11, the biggest foreign policy issue of Bush IIs short-at-the-time political career was in China. An EP-3 doing surveillance off the coast actually landed in their target country....we could end up discovering that THAT was the really significant event of the year. 

But I doubt it.

Could China turn into a threat to this nation’s very survival? In the next ten years? It has benefited, certainly, from the U.S. relaxing trade regulations, and there are reactions - by some folks and for particular issues -  when China is in the news. It doesn’t seem enough to end up as a war or more significant Crisis, any time soon.