Health Care?

On the eve of the U.S Senate passing health care "reform" I thought I would look back on the 6 month-plus odyssey through the muck of legislative capitulation that led to this bill. THEN I got depressed. You know, when I graduate college in three months, four out of five members of my family will officially be sans health care. So, therapeutically, I thought I would post some better visions that were sadly left out to pasture - to be all optimistic-like.
This bill, by the way, is shit. A mandate without a control or substantial competition. No reimportation, no anti-trust, no public option, no single payer obv, no medicare extension, it goes on. In a related note, Obama's presidency will be short and poorly remembered unless he develops both principles (besides the principle that multi-faceted, elaborate speeches are ersatz cure-alls) and the ability to fight for them.

200fine

2009 In premature media remembrance.

Before the perfunctory lists - I don't know what I was doing in 2009 but apparently reading, watching and listening wasn't part of it. My film watching in particular dropped off compared to 2006-2008 while my reading migrated to blogs (not working at a bookstore anymore didn't help). Music, on the other hand, "left me." It has become a black hole. We live in the most slashed-and-burnt musical landscape of the last 50 years (excising the late 90s). If you do not agree, if you think the Democratic Party that is indie music is captivating, please write an argument about what you think vital, intriguing music is and compare that to the forthcoming end of year lists. I think the discrepancy will be apparent. Perhaps I am just bitter about the impotent husk my generation is leaving - one split down the middle between soundtracks for camera parties of the self absorbed and soundtracks for romantic comedies aimed at high school art students. Any idea that any of the indie bands on any type of "national" stage are anything other than the Stone Temple Pilots / Franz Ferdinand ethos updated for 2009-10 is misguided at best.  Also, DIY is stale and is in need of a paradigm shift - most, if not all, of the political planks in DIY during the Bush era have been mainstreamed and both the content and presentation lack real oppositional meaning. There is an absent center in music. I'm rather annoyed at my place in time. How else can I say this - music is boring.

The five books I most enjoyed reading in 2009.

1. John Porcellino - Thoreau at Walden
Found a copy of this in Shakespeare's on a particularly self-hating day of wandering and anonymity - made me happy.

Ohio State University Press

                                   Two new books out on the Ohio State University Press.

I recently wrote a profile of the Ohio State university press for the Lantern. It's located somewhere out in the Siberia of west campus and diligently and unassumedly goes about its business of publishing fine fare for the literary critics of the world. The books above are departures for the lit-based press: "The Freshwater Mussels of Ohio" and a book of William S. Burroughs' unpublished papers straight out of OSU's special collections. My sister used to work at the press about a decade ago and from all accounts enjoyed it. I found the staff to be insightful, gregarious, hilarious, etc. The MP3 of our conversation is here. I speak with Malcolm Litchfield - the Director, Jennifer Forsythe - the Production Manager, Jason Gray - the Journals Manager, and Laurie Avery the Marketing Director.

The story is after "the jump." It begins with a "Hey, doesn't reading suck?" lead to properly connect with the OSU community.