(no subject)

[rm]

If I were theoertically going to audition for something that requires singing a rock song, what would I sing? I never thought it possible back when all I listened to was "alternative rock", but I'm not sure I'd know a rock song if it bit on the ass. I mean, everything I listen to these days is pop (if not odder), and Nick Cave and Sinead O'Connor and all that? Not rock.

I am dead tired in a deader than a dead dead thing way.

Meanwhile, it's becoming clear this is going to be the ugliest election in a while -- currently one of the anti-Dean ads running in Iowa features an elderly couple stating, "I think Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont—where it belongs."

This, understandably galls me. First, it continues the message that only some people are Americans, and that if someone isn't exactly like you, the audience, the consumer, the individual voter, they're not worthy. Two, The New York Times, for all its many flaws is the paper of record in the United States. Additionally it is the largest funder of the Associated Press, which means that if you're not reading the New York Times, and are not reading one of the other very top U.S. dailies, most of the national and world news in your local paper is coming from wire reports, and there's not a bloody hell of a lot of difference.

I don't even comprehend most of the rest of the charges other than to create a vague association between latte drinkers and supposed sexual depravity or something.

The group responsible for the ad has defended it by saying, "What we're trying to show is Dean is supported by the cultural elite and not by anyone with middle-American values and finances."

I didn't know we were still talking about the cultural elite. I didn't know I was a bad guy for having an education or because of where I was born (that pesky north east), and I'm sure a whole host of other reasons that will come out as the months wear on. I really hope they don't decide to break my eye glasses and send me to work on a farm, but snce they're not the cultural elite, I suppose they wouldn't understand that reference.

So. totally. disgusted.

Comments

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

I hate the 'contrast' with midwestern values, too; I live on the west coast and I'm proud of being honest and direct and having a work ethic and it doesn't make me better than other people but it is part of the culture I grew up with, and it doesn't have to be some crazy divisive thing. I'd like to think middle america families who love their sons and daughters and grandchildren and aunts and uncles who didn't choose to stay will be able to see through at least some of this and not get sucked into it.

[anathemadevice.livejournal.com]

Iowa, eh?

They are afraid. Very afraid.

[rachel-wilder.livejournal.com]

Um...afraid of what? Yeah, I agree that the ad is totally pussy, along with many of the attack ads that we're seeing here in Iowa, but I can say that there are many of us, sushi eating or not that support Dean here...

Or maybe I just didn't get your subtle attempt at humor...

[anathemadevice.livejournal.com]

it was a reference to an Austrailian editorial that rm had posted a day or two before.

Proud Sexually Depraved Latte Drinker Here..

[labellerose.livejournal.com]

But I don't even *like* Hollywood and only have pierced ears, so I guess I won't make the freak show. Damn.

I can grok that many people don't appreciate being patronised by folk they regard, with some reason as pretentious parasites. But pandering to this sort of intolerance on any part of the political spectrum, is just wrong wrong wrong.

[kalyx.livejournal.com]

I didn't know I was a bad guy for having an education or because of where I was born (that pesky north east)

yes, shame on you for having an education, exploring the foods of other ethnicities, being concerned about the environment and having taste. And you call yourself an american...

har.

But seriously, I hear sushi, odd interior paint colors (i.e. not having white walls), yoga and good coffee being slammed on a regular basis. Probably because I gripe a lot about the lack of decent ethnic foods, my inability to have a drinkable cup of coffee and have pained my walls red. And to further highlight that I am in the midwest, you should see the look I get when I have the gall to order hot tea at a restaurant. I have been asked how you make that!

But I am planning my escape soon. Back to the land of good coffee, too many health fads to shake a stick at, seafood and gourmet pizzas. But I never imagined that the anti-Dean campaigns would be using sushi as a reason not to vote for him.

[mariann]

If I were theoertically going to audition for something that requires singing a rock song, what would I sing?

Maybe some Annie Lennox? I don't know your voice, but there are a few Eurythmics/solo titles that have a strong rock element.

My husband showed me the text of that ad last night because I'm bringing political rhetoric into my 102 class this semester. To be "fair and balanced," as the saying goes, I have to present two sides of candidate bashing, so I've got MoveOn.org's Bush ads, plus this one. The liberal in me, however, wants to only present Shrub-knocking stuff. :)

[chite.livejournal.com]

odd... i thought i posted this but maybe LJ ate it.

Adam's band did a few female-voiced rock songs: One Way or Another, Bitch, and I'm Just a Girl to name a few. I could probably think of more.

[random-girl.livejournal.com]

Hmm. "Used to You" by Ani DiFranco (good for mid-range voices and memorable). "Plenty" by Sara McClachlan (depends on your range). "All I want to do" by Sheryl Crow (also good for mid-range voices, and for a crowd that you want to leave in an "up" mood or to show that you are "trendy.")

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Because, you know, middle America hates Hollywood, and movies never get tried out in Iowa. And Britney Spears, with her pierced navel, is only feted by the cultural elite, and certainly not Midwestern junior high girls.

Blech.

[coryphella.livejournal.com]

Never mind that Dean's nowhere near as much of a "liberal freak" as the other Democrats would like to paint him. But then again, I practically want to bear his children at this point, I'm so pro-Dean.

frawst made me come here. Mind if I add you?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hehehe... feel free.

[rufus.livejournal.com]

the last time i was called upon to sing a rock song in public, i think i chose Pat Benatar's We Belong Together. Admittedly it was for kareoke, but still . . . I think for you I would choose something by Liz Phair or Melissa Ethridge. Or maybe Joan Jett.

does it have to be a fast rock song or a slow one? ballad or barn-burner?

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* That kind of overheated "real Americans" rhetoric has been around at least since Adlai Stevenson was getting pounded as an "East Coast egghead," and probably earlier than that. And it's equally as insulting to the middle of the country as the coasts, not that they (the ad creators) much care.

female rockers

[lllvis.livejournal.com]

Well, I dare say almost any rock song would do, no matter who originally performed it. Although if they wanted you to do something originally known for being done by a female, somewhere between Heart and Joan Jett should do you just fine. There are plenty of others of course, lately a couple of my favorite female voices have been Susan Tedeschi (Hurt So Bad) or Lucinda Williams (her Car Wheels On A Gravel Road cd...particularly the song 'Can't Let Go')

And yer right...this is gonna be an ugly election. I'm wondering how the escalations are going to go over the next three or so...

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

The cultural fucking elite.

"Yeah, Bush went to Yale, but it's okay because he had a D average!! THAT's what represents AMERICA!!!"

grumblemumble.

Rock Song

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

"crimson and clover" . . . the Joan Jett cover by IForgetWho.

[shakespearessis.livejournal.com]

Stupid America. Sigh.

You should totally do Barracuda (Heart). It'd be so fun(ny). Or Celebrity Skin (Hole).

[heron61.livejournal.com]

The most pathetic part of all of this is that I don't even consider Dean to be a liberal - he's another moderate like Clinton and the right wing is reacting to him like he's a candidate that I would wholeheartedly support. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that it would be a good idea to split the US up into half a dozen different chunks, leaving the fundys and the scary midwestern conservatives in another nation from you or I.

[editrx.livejournal.com]

It's getting downright ugly here in New Hampshire, with only 19 days to go.

What gets me about that Iowa ad (and others like it, here of all places!) is that I've got a Dean intern staying at my place till the Primary. And he's from Jefferson City, Missouri, for crissakes. He had never seen a real city before (the "city" in his hometown's name is a moniker meaning, "we will cash in your corn crop for you here at the bank but we don't have sidewalks"). He's never seen a Broadway show (hell, never been to live theater before!), until he took a day off to go to NYC to see Urine Town and then also went to Cambridge to see Rocky Horror one night. His world is opening up before him, and he's thrilled.

But back to my diatribe. This kid, John, is soooooo Midwest. He's exactly the people the Iowa ad are proclaiming to be. And this kid rode 36 hours on a Greyhound bus to volunteer to intern for a few weeks for the Dean campaign. Midwest thinking? This kid has Midwest thinking. Is he the intellectual elite? Hell no. But he's supporting Dean all the way.

[lllvis.livejournal.com]

btw...last night one of my more conservative friends commented about that same commercial. I think his highest praise for it was 'hokey and laughable'...