North of Center Wednesday, October 7, 2009 Free take home and read Volume I, Issue 11

Faust summoned What I learned in Pittsburgh to set Lex ablaze The 2009 G20 summit and protests, part 1 Krautrockers play Boomslang By Trevor Tremaine

In the mid 1990s, I was a subur- ban teenager entering a lifelong obses- sion with strange, adventurous music. Before MySpace, peer-to-peer fileshar- ing, Mutant Sounds and other blogs of its ilk , and without regular access to many interesting all-ages gigs or the sorts of fantastic record stores that were found in Louisville or Cincinnati (each requiring an hour-plus drive), discovering such sounds was a rather labor-intensive process. Often, I would just peruse the CDs in (the legendary, long-gone Lexington record store) Cut Corner’s scant, rarely- restocked avant-garde section and select a disc based solely on the cover art, the description, or the instrumen- tation, if the credits were visible (i.e. if personnel were attributed with “tapes and electronics,” I knew I had to check it out—an axiom that still holds true today). For guidance, I sought The Wire magazine, a UK journal of experimen- tal music from around the world. One memorable issue listed “100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening),” and I made it my

MICHAEL MARCHMAN mission to hear as many of these very, Crowds of protestors gather in downtown Pittsburgh during the recent G20 meetings. very obscure records as I could find. Faust was a name that popped up By Michael Dean Benton gesture of political optimism. In the viewed as a historical relic of earlier, a lot in the 90s, with the resurgent spirit of dissident citizenship I wanted more troubled times. We admire interest in Krautrock precipitated by Americans... still believe in an to journey to Pittsburgh to join the and celebrate famous dissidents and post-rockers, Yo La Tengo, and others. America where anything’s possible— voices demanding a change to cur- movements like Martin Luther King, But, like many other indie geeks, I had they just don’t think their leaders do. rent American and Global economic Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, never actually laid ears on the band. —Barack Obama, during the policies. I hoped that this would Samuel Adams and our revolutionary The Faust Tapes was one of The Wire’s 2008 Democratic Primaries be a process of self-education and founders, Harriet Tubman and slavery collective-engagement. abolitionists. Our media and histories My decision to embark on the jour- Currently, dissident citizenship, a hold them up as abstract symbols of ney to the G20 Summit and Protests in vital part of democratic societies as an Pittsburgh (September 23 – 26) was a alternative to unchecked ambition, is continued on page 3 Forestalling ecocide with The Age of Stupid By Andrew Battista, Leah Bayens, Humans live in an age, environ- Films are no different. Al Gore’s and Jeff Gross mentalists claim, in which climate An Inconvenient Truth (2006) marshaled change—not war, famine, nuclear arms an impressive array of scientific evi- The Age of Stupid premiered in over 500 proliferation, religious fundamental- dence to convince his audience that cinemas in the U.S. and over 50 counties ism, or corporate crime—is the most we can’t keep consuming fossil fuels COURTESY FAUST-PAGES.COM across the world on September 21. Simulcast profound problem we face. We are indefinitely. In that documentary, to theaters, the event began with “green close to becoming the first species Gore fashions himself as part public Faust. carpet” premier events live from New to eradicate itself knowingly, and the intellectual, part university professor, York. Gideon Yago hosted the event, which proverbial window of opportunity and part reformed political stiff, and 100 records, and so, having yet to be touted the film’s low carbon footprint and to retard and then reverse the conse- he uses this ethos as the film’s unify- disappointed, I gripped the horrible included a Moby performance powered by quences of our destructive behavior is ing device. While Gore stands behind ReR CD reissue (with the entire album people on stationary bicycles. closing—and could in fact slam shut in a lectern, laser pointer in hand and sequenced as a single track) right away. the next decade. imposing graphs behind him, we learn The fabled pages described it as the After the film, the live coverage included a Let’s be clear. Climate change, how cyclical temperature increase and work of German avant rock stalwarts simulcast discussion with Direcotor Franny or the increase of the mean tempera- atmospheric carbon emissions might stealing away to an abandoned school- Armstrong and Producer Lizzie Gillett. ture on the earth’s surface and near- imperil our future life. house in the countryside for one year, Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi surface air, is not a myth perpetuated Gore values the scientific author- growing their own food and their own Annan made an impromptu address about by Europe’s intelligentsia or the United ity as a means of compelling others dope, and spending every waking hour ways that climate change, if left unchecked, States’ left-leaning cognoscenti. It’s to understand the gravity of the dam- playing music and recording, all the will result in social justice issues around the empirically verifiable. We lose little, age humans have done to the earth. while leaving a formidable tangle of world. Aside from Annan’s appearance, the aside from luxury items, if we radi- The few apocalyptic images in An tape for their producer to whittle into live coverage fell flat, sending most of the cally recalibrate the way we live and do Inconvenient Truth are relatively benign; something resembling an album—pure approximately 40 people at the Lexington business on this planet, but we stand satellite images depict what Florida, romance for the small-town kid who screening for the exits. What follows is a to lose everything if we continue to Manhattan, and San Francisco might shirked homework and extracurricu- longer musing on the film. bicker about the science and rhetoric look like when the sea level rises after lar activities to jam a fork under the of the global warming “debate.” a global melt-off, and a cartoonish strings of a guitar plugged directly into Last month’s Harper’s Magazine Nonetheless, many now realize sequence of a post-warming Arctic his four-track. confirmed that we’re all going to die. that climate change is an imbroglio wasteland shows a solitary polar bear The sort of pseudo-anthropolog- According to that publication, one- so insurmountable that it is surpassed frustratingly pawing at the only ice ical, mythologizing hyperbole of the third of people who own a Toyota in difficulty only by the challenge of chunk remaining for miles. In this magazine was, as it occasionally is, Prius also have an SUV in their garage. convincing nations and their leaders dark seascape, the polar bear succumbs totally spot-on, and the minute Tapes This ratio shows the deep reluctance of to care and subsequently re-imagine to exhaustion and drowns. exploded through my scotch-taped ear- environmentally-minded consumers— economy, culture, society, and life. Evidently, neither the science nor phones from my DiscMan, I was blown let alone skeptical masses and bureau- Environmental activists have predicted the rhetoric of Gore’s documentary away. Tape loop experiments, zonked cratic nation-states—to overhaul their ecological ruin for decades. They’ve have been particularly effective in slow- Barrettesque psych-pop, field record- lifestyles to a degree that might fore- disseminated their message of woe ing global warming. Perhaps it’s because ings, chants, freaked out rock mantras, stall global ecocide, or the widespread from treatises that appeal to scientific the former Vice President presents such free improv, Zappa-style fuckery, and destruction of ecological systems that rationalism to jeremiads that predict enable human life on earth. inevitable apocalyptic destruction. continued on page 4 continued on page 5

Contents In the next issue 2 — The Neighborhood 4 — Film & Media 6 — Sports 8 — Comics Benton: G20, part 2 The basil economy Review: My One and Only Bike Polo roundup I’m Not From Here More on the G20 The news about the new media It’s the IOC’s kind of town? Local photography Connors-Manke follows up on refugees Sticker shock 5 — Culture 7 — Opinion Must-see Boomslang Bad moon rising Reëncounter Dewburger Queer Control showcase 2 North of Center The Neighborhood

North of Center is a periodical, Building a basil economy a place, and a perspective. Keep reading to find out what The ethics of collecting rock that means. By Danny Mayer get noticed by passersby, and I’ve never affiliated—and to begin to question Editor & Publisher checked into the legal specifics, so I at the primacy of private property. “Oh, Danny Mayer I recall fondly the first time I least try to mentally prepare for just look at that young hardworking lad ever took rock. A Sunday morning, such a question whenever I’m out. over there! He’s not hurting anything Features early and cold, idling in the car on Collectively, the different answers taking all that pretty Kentucky rock Beth Connors-Manke the shoulder of the outer Circle near I’ve imagined to the question “what that X construction company ripped where it hits Liberty Road by that are you doing here?” form a sort of up during their construction of Y Film & Media ridiculous Halloween shop. Like personal ethics for rock collecting, a Estates! What a neat and industrious Colleen Glenn much of New Circle, this stretch fea- justification for why and how I col- idea putting that rock to good use!” tures a couple small road cutouts, and lect rock—in effect, an orientation for A bit idealistic? Try collecting Culture I was about to scout and grab rock being in the world. On the whole, my rock and the question will become a Nick Kidd that had fallen over a period of time rock ethic is rooted in ideas of usu- bit more intimate. It’s something that into the ditch below. I wanted to har- fructure (the taking of pleasure and I ask myself all the time while scout- Sports, Layout vest some of the fallen stone for a profit from unused private land) and ing out rock locations. Specifically, I Keith Halladay pathway and sundry other small proj- anarchist critiques of private property. ask whether I do damage to the prop- ects for my home two miles away. The Together, I have found they offer a erty owner for taking discarded rock, Contributors process would involve about thirty solid foundation for trespassing onto stone whose main use to the owner is Andrew Battista minutes of my time grabbing the rock under-used land in order to take dis- as a substance to be carted off to some- Michael Benton on the side of the road and another carded items not used by the property where else—that is, as a waste product Brian Connors-Manke fifteen minutes in transport home owners, particularly natural ones like of that property. Don’t believe me? A.G. Greebs and unloading. rock. Though thankfully nobody rep- Take a look at the many unfinished John P. Lackey The central question I pondered resenting authority has ever stopped (and finishing) construction sites and Troy Lyle that day, while waiting to jump out me to have to answer this question the amount of rock sitting discarded, Trevor Tremaine into the cold to try my hand at rock- (perhaps an indication that while I waiting to get hauled off, or watch that thievery, is the same one I continue to may be breaking the law, I’m not doing favorite cutout of yours over a couple Please address correspon- ask myself five years later when traips- anything wrong), I’ve imagined two years and wait for the county crew to dence, including advertising ing around places that are supposed general reasons against taking rock come and cart it off. inquiries and letters to the “Off Limits” to me, though my fear from public or private lands—reasons Observing these things, and see- editor, to: in having to answer it while collecting my rock ethics must both question and ing how useful stone is, has lead me to rock has subsided substantially over take into account. note simple things about private prop- [email protected]. the years: “Well, just what the hell do First, one might suggest that my erty—notably that private property you think you are doing here?” collecting endangers myself or some- owners can both misuse and not use Unless otherwise noted, all Throughout the years, I have one else. In asking how I might ensure the land that they own, and that while material copyright © 2009 offered different answers to that ques- that the process was as safe as any trespassing might be illegal, it doesn’t North of Center, LLC. tion. Gathering rock on roadside cut- other daily driving activity in the U.S. have to be immoral or wrong to do. outs, construction sites or back alley- (like commuting to work), I have had It also didn’t have to detract from a ways is a distinct activity; it tends to to ask and answer a number of related property’s value. My taking of stone questions: can I come at off-hours does no damage to the actual private time, when no workers are around. (If property—only to the unquestioning I do go at off-hours time, am I accom- idea of its sanctity. panied by a friend?) Is the shoulder Of course, the same rock ethic on the side of the highway sufficiently restricts as much as it frees. I am, wide for me to park for ten minutes? after all, not suggesting that you start Is the rock safe to access, or is it in ripping the rocks off some bungalow a position where it could do bodily on Desha. The question of damage to harm to me? Is there a possibility that the environment is much wider than the rock will pose a driving hazard to property rights. Do I want to take others in the area. When the answers stone from somebody’s house? Not to these questions are “no,” I normally hardly, unless I am invited to do so. find another spot. Doing so would damage that person’s A second, more theoretical ques- home environment. Similarly, I might tion, is a little less straightforward but ask whether the stone I gather has a I find much more intriguing. One cultural value to the environment, as might ask how my taking of rock an old rock wall might, or if it held damages the environment by manner still a use value, if it is still in service of theft. In a strictly capitalist sense, to the area, as an overgrown stepping this is what is we mean, I think, when stone might be. In my accounts of we talk about the sanctity of private environmental damages, these things property. Here in the United States, we hold more value to me than a deed assume, by dint of deed, that the owner paper. will proceed to make the best use of the Ultimately, such values necessary land. We assume this because private to answer the (as yet) unasked ques- property, in a capitalist society such as tions of “What are you doing, and why ours, is sacrosanct. The best use of that are you doing it?” force me to think property is whatever the owner does to beyond my environment as property, it, and, conversely, anything that the and to respond to it more as a com- owner does not condone gets viewed mons, a place that we all have the as damaging to that environment responsibility and capacity for using in the sense that your very unsanc- and tending to. You’ll be forced to ask tioned presence detracts from it—so the same sorts of questions, I’d wager, long as environment is synonymous at some point while you gather rock with a deed. Or at least, this seems to for your projects. Though we may dis- me pretty much what property rights agree on some particular instances, I

DANNY MAYER enshrine in our laws, the unquestioned trust you’ll arrive at many of the same assumption that your use of land is less conclusions that I have. Terraced rock helps create level garden space on a steep incline. valuable (and correct) than a property owner’s use. Rogue bicyclists paste Patterson racks Most of my rock collecting actions, of course, constitute a legal North of Center is currently NoC Staff Report the wholesale surrender of guaranteed trespassing, particularly so in the case seeking submissions from freedoms and registering one’s bike, of construction sites. That the sanctity writers, artists, and graphic Observers of the University of but it appears that a small but deter- of property stands beyond thought, designers. Send material Kentucky Parking and Transportation mined band of velocipedaling vandals beyond question, is one of the reasons to Danny Mayer or Keith Services’ ongoing attempt to build a are determined to prevent that surren- why I enjoy trespassing to collect rock. Halladay at noceditors@ registry of the thousands of bicycles der from ever occurring. I want people to see what I do from yahoo.com. parked on the UK campus on any given The registry, iniated this academic their homes or cars—trespassing onto day were amused to see, pasted on bike term, is free, but was introduced to the places both private and government racks outside White Hall and Patterson university last year as a pay-for-per- Office Tower, homemade stickers read- mit program. The plan was met with ing “FORFEIT FREEDOM HERE.” immediate resistance, and PTS elimi- The stickers were arranged in such nated the offending fees in response. a fashion as to obscure the top halves Now it seems they may have not gone of another set of bike-rack stickers, far enough. those previously pasted by UK PTS Typical concerns about the pro- and demanding seat-post-affixed decal gram involve the possibility that fees permits of all those who deign to park will be instituted in the future, that in the racks. The UK PTS web address, stolen-bike rates of recovery will not however, was left visible by the two- increase, and that promised improve- wheeled terrorists, and so the combined ments to bike infrastructure on cam- sticker read, “FORFEIT FREEDOM pus will not be completed. It is yet HERE: http://www.uky.edu/Parking/.” unclear which issue drives the cycling Few commentators have to this psychopaths, but look in this newspa- date addressed the connection between per for periodic updates. North of Center 3

G20 report (cont.) whether we were going to throw shit protesters. When we said yes, we were cut, young men approached the activ- at people. This might also explain why in Pittsburgh for the G20 Summit and ists outside the convergence center and continued from page 1 we noticed fearful glances from people Protests, the local men stated that they tried their best to provoke them into through windows of some businesses hoped we would burn the damn down- a fight, but it was quickly understood American excellence while erasing the and restaurants. town to-the-ground. This was the only and communicated that this was most actual struggles and spirit of these Despite the media predictions of time I heard anyone suggest destruc- likely a tactic designed to provide the fierce and dedicated activists. We all chaos and destruction the city was tion of the downtown environment. needed justification to shut down the remember Rosa Parks as an individual relatively quiet. We walked around Further, down the way in the same center and arrest the organizers. It is who spontaneously decided to not to downtown; the only hordes we saw neighborhood, we saw homemade card- commonly assumed that anarchists are move to the back of the bus during were columns of marching riot police board signs stuck in a wrought-iron wild, destructive, mindless nihilists. the Civil Rights Movement, but few and National Guard soldiers in their fence protesting the G-20 Summit. This gathering, like most of my inter- know that they she was trained in the military vehicles at major intersec- actions with anarchist groups, proved “Citizenship Schools” at the Highland tions leading into the downtown. Evening 1: surveillance at the center the opposite. These young activists Folk Center. Annually, we remember (Unconfirmed rumors in the media Later that evening, we hopped on were focused, communal-minded and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. stated that they had just returned from a city bus and headed across the city politically-engaged. as the pacifist civil rights icon who had Iraq). to the Resist G-20 convergence cen- a dream that we would all live together Later that night, disillusionment peacefully, but few know that this Late that night, we left the center dream also involved the demand that and headed back to our hotel. (The the USA put an end to overseas impe- closest we could find a room was in rial adventures in places like Vietnam Cannonsburg, PA, 10 miles from and that the government provide repa- downtown Pittsburgh). I was tired rations for the descendants of former and disillusioned by the unchecked slaves. and unregulated federal handout of The more troublesome dissident trillions of dollars to the banking and groups that problematize the happy- investment institutions, which ignored go-lucky, corporate, free-market nar- the desperation of everyday Americans rative of American opportunity for like the local working class men we met everyone, don’t fare so well: they are earlier in the Hill District who clearly alternatively silenced from history felt no connection to the downtown (IWW/Wobblies), selectively censored fortress housing international visitors. (Helen Keller, as the brave young girl My disillusionment did not stop who somehow never grew up to be a there. I was disillusioned by seeing dedicated radical feminist and worker firsthand that the promise of “hope” rights activist), or simply eliminated promoted by the Obama administra- (Black Panthers and American Indian tion in the buildup and aftermath of Movement/AIM). This is the dissi- the 2008 landslide presidential victory MICHAEL MARCHMAN dent heritage of America; from the rang hollow in the militarization of celebrated revolutionary-era rebellions Police protect First National Bank during the G20 meetings. downtown Pittsburgh. As usual, the against the British Empire; to slave downtown’s homeless were cleared out rebellions against Southern planta- One of the reasons we arrived ter to get information about the vari- and abandoned in another district, tion owners; to the transnational early was to have the opportunity to ous groups attending and the events protestors imagining a better future Suffragette movement, including, attend a conference style gathering at that were planned to protest the G-20 were told to Stay Away. And I was also notably in the USA, fighting for over a a Baptist Church. There were speak- Summit. As we arrived in the neigh- disillusioned at the way the G20 and century to get women the right to vote; ers from social justice movements borhood where the center was located, its protests were getting covered. It was to Mother Jones leading striking mine and worker rights organizations from we noticed four large vans crammed obvious that the local media, local TV workers marching into the hired guns around the world. One of the main with fully armored riot police and four stations, radio personalities and the of the owners; to the tragic histories of speakers that day was Joseph Stiglitz, squad cars across the street. Focused independent Pittsburgh City Paper were labor activists like Joe Hill and Eugene the Nobel Prize winning economist on the spectacle of the riot squads trying their best to demonize the pro- Debs who sacrificed everything so that who predicted the global meltdown we missed the stop for the center and tests before they took place (in this, we could have certain workplace guar- and was cited by Newsweek as the most had to walk back a few blocks. By the only the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was a antees; to Native Americans occupying referenced economist in the world time we made it back we found out the voice of moderation). Alcatraz and Wounded Knee to bring (“The Most Misunderstood Man in police had left and that all day and And finally, I despaired at the attention to the American govern- the World”: July 18, 2009). These were night they had been repeatedly mass- numbers I saw in the city. Why weren’t ment’s violation of treaties, and so on. the opportunities of learning that we ing their forces around the center and more protesters in Pittsburgh? The The list, known and unknown (so had looked forward to on this trip and then, an hour later, dispersing. G-20 was taking place in a central many unrecognized), is endless, and we wondered why none of the G20 Outside the center, activists milled place in the USA and the political yet these people are the Americans that Summit conferences involved critics of around networking for the upcoming moment was right for Americans to put the emphasis on freedom in our the current global economic system. events and planning their strategies. gather to express their anxieties, ques- democracy. While walking through the Hill Inside, affinity group representatives tions and, yes, even hope, in a public With this in mind, I went to District, a working class neighbor- planned the next day’s non-permit forum. Where were American citizens? Pittsburgh with my friend Michael hood, after attending Nobel Prize win- march to downtown. I was impressed While the progressive-left had moder- Marchman, a veteran of Midwestern ning economist Joseph Stiglitz’s talk by the intelligence of the people we ate numbers, the pundit-threatened union activism and earlier large on the global economy, we were once met and their communal sense of influx of conservative right Teabaggers scale global economic protests, most again asked if we were out-of-town politics. At one point, two beefy, crew never even materialized. importantly the 2000 Washington DC protest of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World The G20: what it is, and why you should care about it Trade Organization (WTO) policies. By Michael Marchman financial institutions) generally end economies in line with free trade prin- My experience was in Anti-War pro- up supporting the economic interests ciples, slashing social services, under- tests in Washington DC and union The G20 is an abbreviation for the of major commercial banks, finan- cutting wages for working people and activism in Midwestern universities. “Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and ciers, and multinational corporations. devastating local ecosystems. Joining us on the second day were Central Bank Governors.” It is an infor- Within the organization, it is widely Not surprisingly, these policies, three present and former UK students mal organization comprising the finance understood that the more powerful while widely adopted by political elites, attending their first large scale pub- ministers and the heads of the central countries control the process and use are in fact, hugely unpopular around lic protests. This allowed me to wit- banks from the world’s most powerful their economic, political and military the world, and there is a mountain of ness the events that followed through countries. Also at the table are the heads leverage over delegates from smaller evidence that they are largely respon- the older, experienced, perhaps cyni- of several international financial organi- economies to corral them into line. sible for the widespread economic insta- cal, perspectives of Marchman and zations, including the European Central Throughout its existence, the G20 bility at the heart of the current eco- myself, and the younger, idealistic, Bank, the International Monetary Fund, has been an aggressive and unapolo- nomic meltdown—the largest economic hopeful perspective of our student and the World Bank. Collectively, the getic supporter of free trade policies downturn since the Great Depression. friends. G20 countries account for 85% of the (often referred to as neoliberal or Despite this, the G20 leaders continue world’s economy. “trickle-down” economic policies) that to promote the same policies. The Day 1: Media Hysterics The G20 ex­cludes the world’s require countries to open their mar- bankers and financiers, who caused this Upon our arrival on the first poorest countries, and as with the kets to cheap imports and to rapidly day, Wednesday, Marchman and I United Na­tions and the G8 (an even and often violently restructure their continued on page 7 headed downtown to scout out the more elite group of the eight wealthi- lockdown situation before the second est countries), the wealthiest and most group arrived on Thursday. We had militarily-powerful countries have the heard reports that the local Pittsburgh most influence over the organization. media, in particular radio and TV, The US is the most powerful member had for months been whipping up country, despite its massive debt and local hysteria by reporting that crazy the fact that much of the responsibility hordes of uncontrolled and dangerous for the current economic crisis stems protesters would descend on the city. from US-based financial institutions. One popular radio DJ was even caught The G20, which meets annually, lying about a supposed anarchist plot has tremendous power to shape global to fire bomb the river tunnels to stop economic practices and fortunes, yet it traffic during the upcoming protest. is a highly undemocratic institution— Another ridiculous rumor spread- there is no public agenda, no oppor- ing through the mainstream media tunity for public input, and no public involved anarchist protesters living minutes from the proceedings. Our in abandoned buildings for months only insight into what happens inside while collecting human feces to throw the G20 meetings is a brief press state- at police during the protests. Locals ment that the member countries make actually walked up to us, noticeable at the conclusion of the summit. MICHAEL BENTON with our backpacks and prepared The policy prescriptions coming look, asking if we were protesters and out of the G20 (and other international Michael Marchman interviewed by Russian television during the Pittsburgh demonstrations. 4 North of Center Film & Media Film review: My One and Only A. G. Greebs conclusion that it would make exactly they both end up in the same place, the movie succeeds at being funny, it the sort of movie audiences wanted more or less, and like an actual road seems almost accidental. I’d like to begin by saying that I to see. The result was a series of inter- trip, there are more false starts and This is a problem, because it makes don’t have anything against The Catcher minable studio delays (apparently the diversions than traditional narrative the movie tonally schizophrenic. in the Rye per se. However, I consider new generation of studio heads did not structure. In some ways that’s not a Things that seem genuinely degrading any movie scene that features a sensi- share Mr. Griffith’s confidence about problem. After all, who doesn’t like (at one point Ann is hurled out of a tive young man who is obsessed with what would appeal to the viewing road trips or nicely dressed 1950s taxi cab for failing to put out, another Salinger automatic permission to stop public), and finally My One and Only, sets. time she’s arrested for solicitation) paying attention. It’s the narrative a chronicle of comic missteps, zany But My One and Only isn’t really are treated as broad comedy, whereas equivalent of calling Obama a com- adventures, and encounters with ne’er self aware enough to pull off the whole George’s constant adolescent belly ach- munist— a sign of slovenly intellectual do well rogues. free-flowing, character-driven story ing about how he wants to go live with habits. So I knew within the first fif- To imply that My One and Only thing. It is clearly the brainchild of a “the good parent” in New York (a sta- teen minutes of My One and Only that I is completely twee would be unfair. man who wants to tell Merv Griffith a ple of all divorce movies), is treated as was in trouble. Occasionally it’s maudlin. It’s also good story, and who doesn’t want any- seriously as cancer. This is a movie that has never, really, really, aggressively charming. one thinking poorly of his mother. It’s easy to wonder what the point ever, met a cliché it didn’t like. The first twenty minutes isn’t As a result, My One and Only of all of this was. If Hollywood had Long before actor George set in the early fifties, so much as quickly becomes one of those movies collectively wanted to convince every- Hamilton became famous for his sig- it is done in the style of the fifties. that wants everything both ways. Ann one in America that their lives were less nature tan, he lived a peripatetic child- Renee Zellweger, who plays George’s is a terrible mother, but she’d do any- interesting than George Hamilton’s, hood as the son of a society bandleader mother Ann, does a reasonably good thing for her sons. She has steely deter- they could have just issued a press and his high maintenance wife. When impression of Katherine Hepburn mination, but can’t function without a release. It’s not like most of us would his mother Ann became fed up with his with a southern accent. But after man. She’s a Southern Belle, but also have argued. father’s serial infidelities, she removed the movie firmly establishes itself from St. Louis. Instead, they have gone to the trou- George and his half-brother, Robbie, as a period-roadtrip-divorce-comedy And all the characters are like ble of making a two-hour long paean from their Manhattan prep school and (the press materials hail My One and that, easily imagined as product of to the 50s in which nothing, from took to the road in the search for a Only as “genre busting’” but “genre a young boy’s perception filtered the shiny wing of the Coup de Ville new rich husband. inclusive” might be a better way of through an old man’s nostalgia. to the seedy motels of Los Angeles, is Years later, after Hamilton had putting it), everything sort of calms Almost everyone in this movie is too original. George Hamilton’s life might been discovered, he mentioned the down. overdrawn to be relatable, too flawed have been more interesting than ours, ensuing road trip to Merv Griffith, Thereafter, the plot of meanders to be inspirational and too clichéd but clearly it wasn’t nearly interesting who came to the somewhat startling along with the Cadillac. Eventually to be genuinely sympathetic. When enough. Stupid (cont.) continued from page 1 which contains humankind’s entire environmental polemic. As a genre, it is the mountain-forged wisdom artistic, musical, literary, and cultural apocalypse promises a violent end to of French mountain guide Fernand a staggering problem, with data to vali- oeuvre. Via a screen-based, scrollable humankind’s idiocy. It then points to Pareau that should strike the most con- date his claims, and then offers what video list, he recounts and narrates a definitive moment when humans cern: “When you’re in the mountains seem to be paltry solutions, like chang- touchstone moments in the earth’s recognize their own complicity in eco- you’re roped together. The risk is the ing a light bulb and downloading a destruction. logical ruin, brace themselves for the same for you as it is for me.” Melissa Etheridge single. After watch- We don’t know what the earth will ride, and anticipate a world purified Armstrong suggests that it will ing An Inconvenient Truth, environmen- look like in sixty years, but The Age by catastrophe. Amidst the futuristic take a citizen-led, grassroots movement tal journalist Michael Pollan remarked of Stupid offers a guess: a tapestry of video library samplings, Armstrong on a large scale to get things right, but that the “immense disproportion apocalyptic ruin whose force is inten- familiarizes us with scenes of social Age of Stupid gives us little reason to between the magnitude of the problem sified by CGIs that meld into recent and environmental violence. The Royal hope. The film features two citizen- Gore had described and the puniness CNN footage. As the film pans out Dutch Shell Corporation, among the led movements, one a group of citi- of what he was asking us to do about it from the Arctic hideaway, we encoun- world’s wealthiest oil extractors, pil- zens in Cornwall, England, who stage was enough to sink your heart.” ter scenes where nature has subsumed lages Layefa Malini’s Nigerian com- protests to stop the installation of a Understandably, British filmmaker cultural landmarks. The elevated waters munity. The French mountain guide wind farm near their properties. It’s Franny Armstrong takes a different of the Thames half submerge the fabled Fernand Pareau, laments the arrival not that they’re against environmental- approach in The Age of Stupid (2009), London Eye. Skeletons and carcasses of interstate traffic and the melting of ism, one participant suggests, saying, a meditation on human culture and line the barren wasteland that now sur- the glaciers in his beloved Mont Blanc “Of course we’re worried about global climate change. For a documentary rounds the Taj Mahal and its decimated region. British engineer Piers Guy bat- warming. That’s got to be something about an ecological problem, scientific mausoleum. Scrolling back in time fur- tles pious locals who don’t want wind that we’re all concerned about. I mean evidence is conspicuously absent from ther still, Postlethwaite shows us videos turbines to damage the view they enjoy we’re all doing our bit to conserve and the film. There is not much beyond of post-Katrina New Orleans, where on their pastoral landscape. looking at renewable energy, abso- the opening text card’s declaration that bloated corpses decompose as they float All of this oversight, avarice, igno- lutely.” But they just cannot support a its forecasts are based on “mainstream by rows of rooftops and derelict cars. rance, obstinacy, and strife evaporates project that will impact their property science predictions.” Instead of Gore’s The message is clear. In 2055, life on into a cloud of mid 21st century chaos. values. Another concerned citizen wor- professorial persona, Age of Stupid’s earth will have effectively ended. We don’t know how we get from 2009 ries about the low-level noise the wind unifying device is the beleaguered To be sure, Armstrong’s Age of to 2055. We just know the journey’s turbines will produce, a concern that is Pete Postlethwaite, who plays a record Stupid is pitching the fantasy of an not good. made more stupid by the fact that the keeper in the year 2055. Postlethwaite environmental apocalypse, another The film leads us to blame the proposed wind farm is adjacent to the lives in an elevated Arctic vault-edifice, tried and true strategy to launch an well-intentioned folks (like ourselves) region’s largest drag racing track. The who understand why climate change brigade of angry citizens successfully matters but just can’t bring themselves pushes the matter to the local board Recent trends in film, video & filmmaking to make radical lifestyle. More particu- for review. Despite wind turbine engi- By Kiley Lane are still used, but video has usurped its larly, the film takes to task American- neer Piers Guy’s willingness to revise predecessor as a medium of choice due style accumulation writ large by the his plans to include fewer turbines and If you want to see the recent trends to the accessibility, user-friendliness, “free market” system across the planet. to have them sit lower to the ground, in film and video, check out YouTube, and high definition that video allows. It’s small wonder that Nigerian Layefa the citizens win. The wind farm proj- Facebook, Hulu, or iPhone. Not only Video recording devices and edit- Malini proclaims, “I want our place to ect is doomed. have films and videos been reduced ing equipment are so inexpensive that be like America. In a comfortable house, Which lesson, then, are we to take to the size of thumbnails, but they are access to these tools is almost uni- flashy cars, drinking good water, eating away from The Age of Stupid? Perhaps now distributed and viewed on over versal. True, there may be cause for good food.” Yet as the film makes clear, it’s that all of us are willing to make 100 electronic devices and Internet concern due to lack of quality control the very life Malini covets is possible changes, at least until those changes sites. Today, tools to make a film/video and over-saturation of the market, only at her expense. Armstrong rightly impact our lifestyles or, worse yet, our are better, faster, smaller, and most but if you look at this recent trend as connects our consumption directly to property values too directly. Otherwise, importantly, cheaper. And the reason an artistic movement rather than an environmental injustice. She implies it might be the lesson learned by the for the “/” between film and video is explosion of wanna-be Spielbergs, then that regardless of whether—but espe- aging, mountain-hardened Pareau: we because, as you’ll read, the words are there is little cause for alarm. Rather cially because—the climate is changing, can fight for change, but as long as cor- now seemingly interchangeable. And than saturate the market, video has we need to address the ecological and porate (or personal) interests are in the that is the most recent trend of all. in fact expanded filmmaking genres social results of our flippant pursuit of way, we won’t accomplish much. Some purists may protest, but in the and film-loving. The Internet allows increasingly comfortable lives. The Age of Stupid might scare us digital age “making a film” is about video to be uploaded within minutes, As the film points out, the logic into action, but it fails to give us a the process, no matter if the piece is which has made expressing oneself a of global capitalism is never-ceasing model for successful grassroots orga- made with a digital camera or a film very simple and cost-effective process. expansion, but we live on a planet with nizing. It gives us a deadline to make camera. Therefore, the term film- This could have never been done with a static carrying capacity. Rethinking a difference, but it gives us little hope maker no longer applies to just film. film. the accumulation imperative requires that we can do so. Unlike the end of Previously, the title of “film- That everyone with a camera may internalizing this fact and radically An Inconvenient Truth, Age of Stupid rec- maker” may have applied to someone consider himself or herself a filmmaker shifting our values. The Age of Stupid ognizes that we need to do more than who resided in Hollywood or New means, potentially, that we might pro- makes real the importance of doing so. change light bulbs and occasionally car York City. It was someone who worked duce an abundance of everyday artists The film eyes the coming U.N. pool. Yet, its apocalyptic tenor, its posi- on big budget productions and who living on our planet—people who have summit in Copenhagen as our last tioning of Copenhagen as our dead- only used quality film stock and bulky finally found a medium that allows chance to change course before the line, is a ruse. If we’re all tied together cameras on his shoot. It most often them to express their interests and ecological apocalypse foreshadowed in this, then we’re in trouble so long meant someone who spent hours in talents. Some create films for money, in the film. Age of Stupid’s apocalyp- as some of us are still tied to property the screening room after a 14-hour some for personal growth, and some tic imagery might be enough to strike values, profit motives, and luxuries. day, reviewing dailies on a slow play- just as a mode to foster the spread of fear in us, and the threat that we have Perhaps inadvertently, The Age of Stupid back system, unable to rewind for fear information. Some create amazing nar- only months until Copenhagen to get sends this bleak message. of damaging the film. Yet today, a ratives and others create shoddy shorts it right adds to the fear—even as the filmmaker seems to be anyone with a that only a mother could love. The Obama administration backpedals and For the next month, The Age of Stupid device that records and with the abil- point is, “film” as both a term and suggests that we can, at best, agree on can be viewed online at www.theauteurs. ity and desire to capture the moving a medium now has a much broader the parameters for an interim plan by com. It is slated to be released on DVD in image. Film stock and film cameras meaning. the December summit. Yet, perhaps the U.S. in January 2010. North of Center 5 Culture Music this weekend: Boomslang shows of particular note

kite high radiance, all buoyed by Friday, October 9 plenty of youthful energy. The Butchers Boomslang Afterparty With a recent EP traveling around The Void Skateshop. All ages. town, these underground L.E.X. heroes are out to prove that good songs can While they flirt with good behav- exist in the realm of the raw, that songs ior on record, live The Butchers let need not ape the “shitgaze” cop-out of loose a la the Butthole Surfers, Bleach- other pretenders. Hail The Butchers. era Nirvana, and the Flaming Lips Hail them on into the sun. before their thrash soul got traded in —Ma Turner for inflatable anime characters and confetti. Saturday, Oct. 10 COURTESY THE BUTCHERS Oozing out of the Void Skateshop Papa M The Butchers. “garage” scene, Lexington-born and Buster’s. 18+ realer than most fronting as genu- Whatever, Mortal, “Krusty” truly enough the song gets its name from ine pop these days, The Butchers With the exceptions of The Kinks’ encapsulates the bittersweet sensibil- The Simpson’s character Krusty the twang, clang and bang their way “Have a Cuppa Tea” and The Originals’ ity of Dave Pajo, alternately known as Clown, who can be heard at the tail through messes of pretty songs. “Sunrise,” I don’t think I’ve ever passed Papa M, Ariel M, M is the Thirteenth end of the track.) Unintentionally transcendental—in a song along to more of my friends Letter, M, or just plain Pajo. a pharmaceutical way—their music than I have with Papa M’s “Krusty.” In any case, the breadth of experience reaches you via timeless hooks and The fifth track from his 2001 album While it’s always risky to define an in “Krusty” sheds great light on Pajo’s artist by a single song (or a single output as a whole. Much like the city album for the matter), “Krusty” is and state he hails from (Louisville, a magnificent reflection of Pajo’s KY), Dave Pajo’s only fear might be efforts as solo artist. The song opens the label homogenous. While I admit lo fi, melancholy, and acoustic, indic- to favoring the artist’s Papa M work, ative of his 1999 album under the his later work under the Pajo name Papa M moniker, Live From a Shark (Pajo, 1968, and a vinyl-only Misfits Cage. Then, halfway through, Pajo cover album Scream With Me) is begins adding drums and an electric still worth a listen. Good or bad and solo. The result almost pushed me to whatever the moniker may be, every tears the first time I heard it. It’s as if Dave Pajo song truly is a different the former Slint guitarist is saying to experience. his audience “I know you’ve enjoyed —Tim Riley the dream I put you in with Shark Cage, but now it’s time to wake up and experience the world.” (Funny GLYNNIS MCDARIS

Pajo. Faust in Lex (cont.) continued from page 1

so much more whizzed by like psyche- delic roadside attractions, each more grotesque and bizarre than the last. It had been my understanding that this “Krautrock” stuff (which these boys inadvertently named, tongue-firmly- in-cheek) was a buncha stoned Euro- dudes playin’ one chord to that motorik beat for a half-an-hour… and, hell, they do that too, with the same aplomb as anything else (check out their collabo- ration with minimalist composer Tony No reins for Queer Control Conrad, Outside the Dream Syndicate, for what is basically the last word on that By Mathias Detamore formed independent record label based Morris Bookshop, Doo-Wop Shop, matter). out of San Francisco that promotes the Charmed Life, Monica Mahanes and What distinguishes Faust from the A showcase for Queer Control music of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, CD Central helped to raise $2000 to (venerable) mob—Neu, Can, and, yes, Records (www.queercontrol.com) ani- Transgender, Intersex, Queer and bring in the bands. With the leftover Kraftwerk—is their willingness to get mated the Al’s bar stage this past Questioning (LGBTIQQ ) communi- monies from the original fundrais- outside themselves and to try damn Saturday night, October 3rd. The show ties around the country. Influenced by ing and the $5 cover charge (of which near anything. It’s as if they saw the was a benefit for AIDS Volunteers of the ‘Riot Grrl Movement’ (a feminist Al’s did not opt to collect their usual finite nature of the operations of rock’s Lexington (AVOL) and included an punk movement in the 1990s) and the 10%) $420 was raised free and clear so-called vanguard—those engaged in opening set deejayed by Saraya Brewer ‘Queercore’ scene (a punk off-shoot for AVOL. psychedelic music, progressive rock— and Lauren Bolender, and to kick off of the 1980s) with a general affinity Jack Cofer, the event’s organizer and dared to look beyond the terms the show, fire play (out on the back with DIY (do-it-yourself) culture, the (and Spooky Q’s band member) into true sonic infinity. parking lot) by the Amalgamation Fire record label cultivates an activist sense believed the night to be an unequivo- Now that journalistic sub-clas- Nation, which included spinning poi, of social justice while helping sexual cal success. As he noted, “First off, the sifying and commercialization has fire hoop, and eating and breathing fire. and gender minority bands to gain fact that we can host a ‘queer’ event in infiltrated even the murkiest depths of The bands Once A Pawn of exposure. Lexington and have the support of our underground music, and everyone is Lincoln, NE and Pariah Piranha of To sponsor the event a number community clearly marks how progres- so damn willing to accept a convenient Harrisburg, PA rocked the stage with of local businesses and fundraisers sive we are. Kentucky is also now on and fashionable mark right smack in their hard core queer punk sounds. helped to raise money to bring the the map for bands of this genre and the middle of their foreheads, Faust One of the bands originally scheduled, bands in, all of whom played for caliber to add to touring. We made a should be revered as torchbearers of Box Squad was unfortunately unable to free. Monetary contributors included valuable connection last night in terms truly radical music. I mean, they just make it; so the local queer punk band Third Street Stuff, Pops, Hairrazors, of musicianship, community, and demolished a stage in New York with the Spooky Q’s filled in with equally Alfalfa’s, and individuals who gave fund-raising.” power tools last weekend. What more rocking queercore sounds. from $20 - $200 privately. As well, He plans on continuing with his could you want? The CEO and co-founder of Queer a fundraiser back in August (also at passion to bring together queer bands Control Records, Marlene Melendez Al’s bar) including two local bands— and activism, so look for many more Faust will be playing Friday night at hosted the show. Queer Control Tense Kids and The Indulgents—and upcoming events that will queer-rock Busters for Boomslang. See http://booms- Records, founded in 2007, is a newly a raffle with contributions from The Lexington. langfest.com/ for more information. 6 North of Center Sports Fall cycles into Lexington Bike Polo Hord and Simpson each score 3 in defensive standoff Wednesday, September 30, 2009 and forth action and solid mid-court mallet of Jarid (with an “I”), brought violent frenzy, defensive guru and Coolavin Park defensive work on both sides. Each T2 to within one score at the 7:25 human ball crusher Tiff Morrow, who NoC Sports Desk team attempted passes at the goal, P.M. mark. A little over a minute had just watched from the pit as her only to be stoned on their approach by later, Hord brought his team back dog Elliot relieved himself on Court 2, Both Kyle Hord and Chris Simpson stealthy steals and well-timed tie-ups. to even with an impressive slap shot tempered the audience and players by scored three goals apiece in a defensive The closest thing to a score,for both at halfcourt that sped past a bevy of making a simple observation and ask- showdown at picturesque Coolavin teams, came at the 7:22 mark when a menacing, bearded, defensemen who ing an even simpler question (before Park on the last day of September bike hard shot by T1’s Ronk careened off were charging in. then going to clean up Elliot’s gift to polo action. The weather was crisp, the the spokes of Texas Phenom Rich Momentum continued to see-saw Court 2): “We have free beer at Al’s. bike gear flashy, and the play decid- Lopez at the T2 goal and catapulted to and gain in intensity as the two teams What’s the score?” edly defensive. As player Brad Flowers midcourt. From there, a waiting Hord traded goals. The first, a Jarid (with an The question got immediate noted of the evening’s matches, “The took the puck and balljointed it in the “I”) rebound off the back wall that he response. Crowd noise dissipated. defense is getting so good now that it’s other direction to within eight feet of slapped in with furious force from 3 Collectively, the players decided to hold hard to dribble around and score.” the T1 goal before Jarid (with an “I”) feet out, pushed T1 out to a 3-2 lead a sudden death joust to decide which The third game of the night fea- stepped in to foil any goal-producing at the 7:28 mark. The ever-steady Hord team could declare themselves Game 3 tured a plethora of beards. On Team shot. evened the score, though, at the 7:31 Winners (of a random September night One (T1), Chris Simpson (hippy Finally, at the 7:23 P.M. mark, a mark with an uncharacteristic burst of of Bike Polo). Less than a minute later, beard), Brian Ronk (Jesus beard), and Lopez blooper at midcourt allowed speed down the far side of the court Simpson dutifully serviced Morrow’s Jarid (with an “I,”) (red beard) sported Simpson to break the scoreless tie by for an uncontested shot and score. implied thirsty needs by sending a a formidable and diverse amount of hitting his first of two consecutive With the score now tied and audi- half-court prayer through the cones for facial hair. Opposing them, Kyle Hord goals. Lopez had tried to leave a drop ence excitement ratcheting to a near a hardfought 4-3 T1 victory. (scrappy beard), Texas Phenom Rich pass for the circling Stanton, but the Lopez (scruffy beard), and Megan Texan inexplicably left the pass instead Stanton (lacking beard, but didn’t for a waiting Simpson at the near-side Bike polo players experience “World” shave all month—or year, for that mat- midcourt wall. Simpson grabbed the Return with beards ter) looked less imposing, but were no gift and sped around and dribbled the By Danny Mayer was fierce. No Lexington bike polo less prepared when bystanders in the ball to within 8 feet for an easy tap-in player or team placed in the tourna- player’s pit announced the 7:19 joust 1-0 T1 lead. He would add to the lead One thing became noticeable dur- ment; even the Comosexuals from time with a spirited “3-2-1 Bike Polo.” less than 30 seconds later on a back- ing bike polo action last Wednesday Missouri, who blew through last Perhaps because her smooth face hand shot and score that trickled in at Coolavin: the soft clean faces have year’s BG Games Tournament unde- provided less wind drag than the rest for a 2-0 T1 lead. gone the way of summer. And while feated, failed to place. of the bearded players (an aerodynamic The 2-0 lead would not stand, the bearded action is no doubt the As a sports journalist covering the observation reportedly first made by however, thanks to some crafty work practical end result of falling tempera- local bike polo beat, I have been hard Mad Dog Buckingham as faster bikes by T2’s Kyle Hord, who went on a two tures and strong seasonal winds, this pressed to get much out of the play- passed him by), Stanton controlled the minute scoring binge of his own. His sports commentator would like to ers who went. Lopez smiles and looks joust, though to no scoring advantage. first goal, a hard shot over the mid- offer another reason: the playful boys off into the distance, whispering some- The opening minutes featured back dle that sailed past the outstretched and girls of summer have grown up thing about stealing the Comosexual into the hardened, weather-worn men flag; Combs mentioning how great an and women of fall. experience it was. Things came so easy to the play- Vague utterances, but reverent ers this summer, as various individu- ones. The players returned, beaten als and teams began racking up deep yes, in some games to a messy pulp, tournament runs, culminating in but they survived and learned. They the wildly successful Bluegrass State returned home a bit wiser for the Games Bike Polo Tournament, held experience. right here in Lexington. But with the The beards say so: In the month end of summer, our freshly shaved since they’ve returned, the game at sports heroes left the friendly con- Coolavin has picked up. As Flowers fines of the state and traveled to the noted last week, the defensive inten- World Bike Polo Championships, a sity has picked up all around. Flowers tournament held on the hard streets should know. He did not attend the of Philadelphia. With teams flying Worlds for what some say was a chronic in from as far as Europe and the case of athlete’s foot, and he wore no Pacific Northwest, the competition beard this Wednesday night. Obama’s Olympic error By Dave Zirin In fact, the very idea that Chicago Windy City who will make out like could be an appropriate setting for the bandits once the smoke has cleared. President Barack Obama is now en Olympics might have been hatched by But his intentions are clear: he wants route to Copenhagen in an effort to sell Jon Stewart for a four-year supply of the glitz, glamour, and prestige of the Chicago as the site of the 2016 Summer comedic fodder. To greater or lesser games and he wants it for the Daley Olympics. In the process, he may be sell- degrees, the Olympics bring gentri- machine. What the people of Chicago ing Chicago down the river. Obama is fication, graft and police violence want doesn’t seem to compute. joined arm-in-arm with his wife Michelle wherever they nest. Even without the But we shouldn’t be surprised at on one side and Mayor Richard Daley’s Olympic Games, Chicago has been this point that Obama is tin-eared to Chicago political machine on the other. ground zero in the past decade for the the concerns of Chicago residents. As Michelle Obama says, “My father was destruction of public housing, political Paul Krugman wrote Sept. 20 on the I oppose the Olympics coming to disabled, and I think what it would have corruption raised to an art form, and banker bonuses, “the administration Chicago because the nonprofit child- meant for him to see someone in his police violence. Bringing the Olympics has suffered more than it seems to real- welfare agency that I work for had to shoes compete. Kids need to see that and to this town would be like sending a ize from the perception that it’s giving sustain budget cuts and layoffs, while that needs to be celebrated just as much, gift basket filled with bottles of Jim taxpayers’ hard-earned money away Chicago has spent $48.2 million on if not more.” This seems more like an Beam to the Betty Ford Clinic: over- to Wall Street.” Shoveling taxpayers’ the 2016 Olympic bid, as of July 2009.” argument to support the Paralympics (a consumption followed by disaster. money into the Olympic maw is no tremendous event) but that’s beside the It’s also difficult for Chicago better, especially in these tough times. This article originally appeared in the point. Michelle Obama should perhaps residents to see how this will help No Games Chicago organizer Alison Nation magazine. North of Center realize that if the Olympics had come their pocketbooks, given that Daley McKenna said to me, “I oppose the thanks Dave Zirin and the Nation for to Chicago when she was a young girl pledged to the International Olympic Olympics coming to Chicago because allowing us to reprint the piece. Zirin is the on Chicago’s working class south side, Committee that any cost overruns instead of putting money toward what author of A People’s History of Sports her home may have been torn down to would be covered by taxpayers. people really need, money will be fun- in the United States. Receive his column make way for an Olympic facility. No This is why a staggering 84 percent neled to real estate developers who will every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports. word on how being out of house and of the city opposes bringing the Games be tearing down Washington Park and com. Let him know you learned of him in home would have helped her disabled to Chicago if it costs residents a soli- other important community resources. Lexington’s North of Center. father. tary dime. Even if the games were to Mayor Daley, rocking a 35 per- go off without a hitch - which would cent approval rating, says that the happen only if the setting was lovely Games would be “a huge boost to our Shangri-La - not even half the residents economy, raising it to a new level. The would support hosting the Games. Games will help us recover sooner The Obamas, former Chicago from the recession that still grips our residents, should be standing with nation and enable us to better compete their city. Instead, we have the sight in the global economy.” of Barack, Michelle, and Oprah try- There is only one problem with this ing to outmuscle Pele and Brazil for a argument: the history of the Olympic place at the Olympic trough. The ques- Games almost without exception tion is why. Maybe Obama wants the brands it as a lie. As Sports Illustrated’s Olympic fairy dust enjoyed by Ronald Michael Fish—an Olympic supporter— Reagan at the 1984 Olympics in Los has written, “You stage a two-week Angeles or Bill Clinton at the 1996 athletic carnival and, if things go well, games in Atlanta. Or perhaps he is pray the local municipality isn’t sent returning favor to the developers and into financial ruin.” other sundry connected people in the North of Center 7 Opinion

By Herbert Reid Clinton. Political Science 101 text- Health Care Politics books usually state that one of sev- This summer two major polls eral functions of the U.S. President is found strong majority support (71% and Obama’s “Bad Moon to the Right” to serve as “general manager” of the and 58%) for a Single Payer medical economy. The books usually pretend plan often defined as Medicare for a clear and substantive view of H.R. Obama’s Challenge, a book of late 2008. to be neutral about the field of power everyone under 65. In the Herald- 676, which is co-sponsored by veteran Kuttner advised a 2009 focus on the in which this takes place. Diverse, com- Leader for August 25, Richard F. Rep. John Conyers and younger House economic crisis followed by attention peting interest groups ideally moving Dawahare summed up what is needed: members such as Anthony Weiner, next year to what even political colum- toward some sort of “balance” is the A single-payer, publicly funded, pri- and which has nearly twice as many nist and commentator David Brooks typical picture. vately delivered health care system that signatories as there are conservative called “the fundamental perversities” I think political analysts such cuts out the unnecessary middle man Blue Dog Democrats. (To read the text in the health care system. Instead, the as Tom Frank and Chris Hedges are and improves health care delivery for of H.R. 676, visit http://johnconyers. Obama administration’s approach has much closer to reality when they all. com/hr676text.) been one of incremental reform that describe a corporate state that is over- The fragmented private insur- Despite this weighty support for avoids challenging what one health whelming the more democratic aspects ance system has brought much more fundamental reform, as Keillor put policy expert calls “the insurance-med- of our liberal-democratic polity. In than huge and escalating administra- it in August, some are so incensed by ical-industrial complex.” major areas of concern for us all such tive costs. Across the country, stories Obama’s modest reforms that they Kuttner admits that he did not as food, energy and health care, public abound about insurers interfering with are ready to “shout until the bats fall expect Obama to adopt his economic policy making is dominated by a hand- doctors’ decisions and patients agoniz- off the rafters” about a “Socialist proposals in the absence of a grassroots ful of corporations and their political ing over the dropping of their cover- Gummint Takeover.” There is so much movement pressing for democratic functionaries. Yet, much of the main- age. Those of us who remember seeing outright propaganda whirling about transformation of a system that has stream vocabulary for political talk Sally Field as “Norma Rae” may also on the Web and on talk radio that it become more unequal and plutocratic. suggests that something else is happen- know the recent story of what has hap- is little wonder some are unwilling Kuttner is well aware of the ongoing ing. If Adam Smith were to come back pened to the woman whose mill worker to pose serious questions about such influence of Larry Summers and the today and hear all this blather about courage led to the movie. Crystal Lee policies and the rigid inequalities they associates of Robert Rubin who rose the “free market” and worthless gov- Sutton died of brain cancer after a bat- have been fostering. to prominence in the Clinton admin- ernment, he would be shocked. tle with her insurance company, which A few months ago as I was driv- istration. Very capable journalists such Recently, David Letterman opened had delayed treatment. ing one evening from downtown as Bill Greider have tracked the trans- his show by asking the audience, “Are Thousands of doctors, nurses, and Lexington toward my neighborhood, formation of much of the Democratic you despondent and confused by this other medical professionals believe I turned my radio to one of our AM Party since those years as it has come health care debate?” The reaction was with me that health care is a human stations. I was startled to hear a male under the spell of Big Money. loudly affirmative. The next morning right and that access to health care voice screaming loudly about how Perhaps as a result, instead of a when I got on the Web, I found in my should not be based on ability to pay. “sick and tired” he was of Obama. “He grassroots movement with a coher- mailbox an article by David Sirota, They agree with Garrison Keillor, who wants to change the best health care ent and comprehensive program for one of our best journalists, comparing recently wrote from a hospital bed that system in the world,” the man yelled. an alternative economy, we have got- the health policy/legislative mess in it “is not decent that people avoid seek- No doubt our system has its strong ten mobs ranting against “socialized Washington, D.C. to the movie “One ing help for want of insurance. It is not features. But we have a number of doc- medicine” (and worse) inspired and Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” decent that people go broke trying to umentaries and comparative policy funded by the insurance industry and Sirota’s depiction of the “insur- get well.” As Keillor put it, we need studies that do not bear out the gran- often coordinated by people with GOP ance industry’s Nurse Ratched” lurk- a system that “reflects our common diose claim made that night by Mark political experience. Many of us have ing in the background of his asylum humanity.” Levin. What we do know is that the heard “Bad Moon Rising,” the mar- scene is memorable, at least for a sin- Yet universal health coverage con- U.S. has the most expensive health velous song by Creedence Clearwater gle-payer advocate such as myself. His tinues to elude the USA, and our best care in the world. Compared to other Revival. One of my main points is chief target is what he calls “selective journalists have been clear about the nations, we have higher administrative that the “bad moon on the Right” is deficit disorder,” an affliction not to key role of fear-mongering by health costs and higher medical prices. And bad because it distorts both the system be found in the days of massive tax industry lobbyists and rightwing media. the Census Bureau confirms that at of power that has arisen and Obama’s cuts for the wealthy, a budget-busting Apparently, we still have lots of people least 46.3 million citizens are without approach to the Presidency. war in Iraq, and recent Wall Street who haven’t read or viewed anything insurance. The corporate media—not just Fox bailouts. I agree with Sirota that there about healthcare reform from reform I have no doubt that our media News—have magnified the distortion, “is something very wrong with those advocates like Tennessean Wendell millionaires and other affluent undercutting rational discourse about who decry deficit spending on health Potter, the former health industry exec- Americans can buy good health care. power, policy and change. Where health care for millions of people, but ignore utive who knows how “corporate com- That is not news. What is amazing is care is concerned, I share with Paul far bigger deficit expenditures on give- munications” work in this domain. If to find Americans who have no sys- Krugman, columnist and Professor of aways to a tiny handful of fat cats.” you have never heard of him, check out tematic knowledge of the health care Economics and International Affairs Too many Americans think the how he explains industry “rescission” systems in Canada, France, Britain, at Princeton University, the view that answer is saving themselves from poli- practices, which effectively allow insur- etc., but think it somehow patriotic to “the combination of GOP extrem- tics. Some are talking about “taking ance companies to cancel your coverage defend this state of affairs. Why is it ism and corporate power” may leave back America.” It makes much more should you become too costly for them patriotic to emulate those at the top of only skimpy reform, even aggravat- sense to talk about taking back poli- to insure. And once you have done so, the social ladder while kicking those ing aspects of our economic trauma. tics. We can democratize politics. After ask why shouldn’t we pay for health care on the rungs beneath? Insurance rates Unless there is a viable “public option” all, that is one of the most hopeful as we now pay for roads, fire and police are rising dramatically for municipali- competing with private insurance, this chapters in the American story, a book protection? ties, businesses and families. What is is all the more probable. that remains unfinished. I am not an expert in this field, patriotic about defending a system that President Obama has admitted We can take back politics as the and I am not foolish enough to try is dragging us down in these ways? I that a single-payer plan might be best process in which we help define the to explain everything in such a field. can assure you that from Jefferson to were it not for the fact that we “can’t terms of our collective existence. But Heaven help us if only experts can Thoreau to Wendell Berry the Bill of start from scratch.” Various members to do so we will have to take politics decide what our moral imperatives and Rights has not been understood as dis- of the punditocracy have offered their out from under the spell of Big Money economic necessities are. (Think of allowing political challenges to corpo- own similar versions of this story. and unaccountable power. When that all the economists who told us Alan rate power or any other form of power What is going on here is backhanded is done we may be able to act on the Greenspan knew what he was doing!) posing a threat to democracy. deference to a highly skewed system of “grand vision” Bill Greider points to However, I do know that the single- In addition to our debased media power and influence. What is being in his new book, “the right of all citi- payer approach advocated in H.R. 676 coverage, I also happen to think that said is that certain systems of profit are zens to larger lives.” is basically government health insur- the President and Congressional lead- difficult to challenge and to change. ance, not government health care. ers of his party could be doing better. So far, Barack Obama’s presidency Herb Reid is Professor Emeritus of Political I have also observed that the It is too bad, I think, that he did not has not revealed a leader that differ- Science at UK, where he taught from mainstream media have failed to give take Bob Kuttner’s advice offered in ent from either Jimmy Carter or Bill 1968-2008 G20: why you should care (cont.) continued from page 3 in manufacturing created an unprec- occurred behind closed doors amid And so it seems nothing is going edented surge in unemployment. huge street demonstrations in which to change. The exact course of events crisis and have already received nearly And here we are today… 9.8% one person was killed by police vio- that led to the current financial crisis is a trillion dollars in US tax-payer bail- official unemployment (always a vast lence, leaders emerged to announce a something that will likely be debated for out money as payment for their efforts, underestimate of actual un- and under- $1.1 trillion package to attempt to bail decades. But at the root of the problem must be laughing themselves silly. employment) and a home foreclosure out the global economy. The global is a global financial and economic sys- The collapse started when a mas- being filed every 7 seconds. In 2008, bailout package included up to $750 tem that is based on power, exploitation, sive bubble in the housing market in the United States alone, more than billion for the International Monetary speculation, and mass consumption. burst (predictably), causing tens of 2.6 million people lost their jobs and Fund (IMF), a trade finance package And for those who thought an thousands of home-owners with so- more than 3 million families lost their worth $250 billion, and at least $100 Obama presidency would usher in a called “sub prime” loans to default on homes to foreclosure. billion in additional lending by the new era of sanity, self-reflection, and the terms of their loans. This massive As the system unraveled in the Multilateral Development Banks. compassion in the US—guess again. spike in mortgage defaults caused the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009, the In Pittsburgh last month, the Both Republican and Democrats have value of mortgages trading on the open capitalist classes scrambled to revive G20 leaders congratulated themselves swallowed the blue pill of free trade and market to plummet. It also caused the economy and restore order to the for having saved capitalism from appear content in their blissful igno- banks, holding insufficient cash, huge financial markets. National govern- itself and agreed on a “Framework rance of its devastating effects. Many liabilities and trillions of dollars in ments offered huge loans to failing for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced of the cheerleaders and architects of the bad mortgages, to stop lending. banks, bought toxic assets to pull them Growth” that seems mostly aimed system, such as Lawrence Summers and This sparked a crisis in the con- off the books of private banks, helped at maintaining the pre-crisis system Timothy Geithner, hold top positions sumer credit markets. Since the econ- to broker huge buyouts and acquisi- with a few new regulations added for on Obama’s economic team and, there- omies of most developed countries tions and even took control of some the banking and financial sectors. fore, in the G20. So, it seems the foxes have been driven by consumers buy- major banks. Nowhere in “The Leaders’ Statement” continue to guard the henhouse. ing goods on credit, not with cash, the But still the crisis proved too big are any serious questions raised about credit crisis triggered a collapse in the and too global to be addressed by any the free trade model itself. In addition, Portions of this article are adopted from demand for consumer products. That single national government. So, in the agreement is non-binding with no The Boot Stamping On Yer Face: An crash in demand for consumer prod- April of 2009, the G20 convened a spe- penalties for countries that do not fol- Introduction to the G-20, IMF, and ucts triggered a related collapse in the cial summit in London to discuss what low through on even the weak plans to Economic Crisis available at resistg20. manufacturing sector. And the collapse to do. Following the summit, which which they have agreed. org [no copyright]. 8 North of Center Comics If you’re interested in advertising in North in advertising in interested If you’re at Mayer Danny contact please Center, of [email protected].

Waterfall in the Big South Fork. Photo by Chris Williams, taken with his iPhone. Hiking around Gray’s Arch in the Red River Gorge.