Eloquent Guitar, Quiet Man

Not that I'm a fan but I had this from some weeks back about Jeff Beck:

The covenant between guitarist Jeff Beck and his audience is the same as it's been for most of his four-decade professional career. With little concession to show business or shifting musical trends, Mr. Beck mounts the stage, as he did here on Monday night, plays brilliantly, says good night and leaves. What we get for 80 minutes or so is his perfect attack, impeccable control, diverse sonic palette, and music that's both savage and beautiful. Would that everything in life were so direct and so thoroughly achieved.

This is from some weeks ago so the original appeal of the article is lost on me. Maybe I just liked the thought of a 64 year old rock guitar god who became that rock guitar god by hard work. A good old-fashioned story of continued success. That and he seems like a polite man. Reason enough to bring him to your attention.

Obama's Popularity

Obama celebrates his first 100 days in office but before things get too out of hand, we might want to take a closer look at his poll numbers:

President Obama's media cheerleaders are hailing how loved he is. But at the 100-day mark of his presidency, Mr. Obama is the second-least-popular president in 40 years.

According to Gallup's April survey, Americans have a lower approval of Mr. Obama at this point than all but one president since Gallup began tracking this in 1969. The only new president less popular was Bill Clinton, who got off to a notoriously bad start after trying to force homosexuals on the military and a federal raid in Waco, Texas, that killed 86. Mr. Obama's current approval rating of 56 percent is only one tick higher than the 55-percent approval Mr. Clinton had during those crises.

Good numbers, to be sure - with Bush, it was a case of been down so long it's beginning to look up - but not great and when compared to other presidents, not even that good.

It's important to keep in mind, Obama's only the President. He's not King or anything else. If you don't like how things are going for you, the only person you can count on to really change things is yourself. Good luck to Obama, of course. But stand back. We've got work to do.

American Idol’ Gets Down to Final Four

So it's so long, Matt Giraud. He had a good run but of the remaining five, he was my least favorite. Not to take anything from him - they're all astoundingly good and though none of them are Carrie Underwood, I have to agree this seems to be the best batch American Idol has fielded ever. It's all about votes and I think Matt split the "cute guy" votes with Kris and Danny. Alison has the rocker chick vote so I don't think she'll last for much longer as Matt's voters run to either Danny or Kris. I dunno what group votes for Adam - Rachel and Emily squeal for him and though I don't like him I have to say he brings something interesting to the table. I'm not sure if his being in the bottom two was hype or true but it was another surprise from a show that always delights.

Natalie Cole looked as hot as she ever does. Good to see Taylor Hicks looked fit and trim and working it out; it's too bad he hasn't been as popular as the other winners. Missed Jamie Foxx's performance - had to dash out on Dad duty - but somehow I survived.

Didn't catch next week's theme but I'm already counting the days.

Flaming Lips Are All Smiles

It's official:

With more than 300 people at the Oklahoma History Center, Gov. Brad Henry signed an executive order Tuesday proclaiming the Flaming Lips’ "Do You Realize??” the state’s official rock song.

"The Flaming Lips are great ambassadors for the state of Oklahoma, all over the world, and they are fiercely loyal to the great state of Oklahoma,” he said before signing the order.

"Fiercely loyal." I like that phrase.

Despite the controversy and lead singer Wayne Coyne's silly slap at religion, the group has never given off anything but good vibes about the state of Oklahoma. A class act, all the way.

Good for them. Good for us.

(BTW, my first link about this story was going to go to The Journal Record until I remembered how they make their stories go down the memory hole after only a few days. That's no way to reach readers, Journal Record.)

Flaming Lips' Song Update

Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips does pretty well about the controversy over naming his group's song, Do You Realize?, Oklahoma's state rock song:

"This didn’t get put into law because we know some rich lobbyist,” Coyne said on Friday.

"This was voted on. It was overwhelmingly voted upon, and we won. It wasn’t like we were handed this or anything. This was a vote that happened. So we’re just simply going by what the majority of the people that voted in Oklahoma wanted.

Indeed. Nice populist take there, Mr. Coyne. But why couldn't you just leave it there?

"Me, I just say look, it’s a little minority of some small-minded religious wackos who think they can tell people what kind of T-shirts and what kind of music they can listen to, and the smart, rational, reasonable people of Oklahoma are never going to buy into that,” he said.

(Emphasis mine.)

Sigh.

Where is the love, Mr. Coyne, for us religious folk?

Of course, Coyne knows more about what was said than I so maybe there was something religious bandied about in all the hoo haw but otherwise, I don't get the gratuitous kick at religion. You know what? I'll bet religious people like his group's music, too?

Next time, Mr. Coyne, in your victory speech, in the spirit of reconciliation, try painting with a little narrower paintbrush.

More Oklahomans Are Arming Themselves

Yahoo! If this don't make us the most rootin' tootin' son-of-gun shootin' state in the Union, I don't know what will:

A record number of Oklahomans are seeking permits to carry concealed handguns.

More than 21,000 people applied for concealed-carry permits in 2008, the most since the program began in 1996, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

There have been twice as many applications so far this year as the same point last year, said Felicia Jackson, who manages the permit registry.

"This is kind of a nationwide phenomenon,” Jackson said.

Some firearm instructors attribute the increase to a rise in violent crimes or concerns about President Barack Obama’s policy plans, but OSBI officials refused to speculate.

"It’s probably anyone’s guess, quite frankly,” agency spokeswoman Jessica Brown said.

An armed society is a polity society.

I don't know if I favor an open carry policy over a concealed carry - carrying a pistol on your hips leaves little doubt of what you're do if you have to do it, but the unbearable tension a criminal must feel when they don't know for sure if you're armed or not is worth something.

Singing Lips' Praise Despite Opposition From Oklahoma House

I heard about this first on Twitter:

Oklahoma House members, upset by what some said were inappropriate attire and a filthy mouth, rejected a tune by The Flaming Lips as the state’s official rock song only to be trumped by the governor.

The House rejected a resolution Thursday to name "Do You Realize??” — which won by more than a 2-1 margin in an online contest as the state’s official rock song — because one of the band members wore a T-shirt bearing a symbol associated with the Communist Party while at the state Capitol on March 2 when the resolution was passed by the Senate.

Soon after Thursday’s vote, Gov. Brad Henry said he would issue an executive order that would declare the song as the state’s official rock song.

Good for Governor Henry. Sure, the hammer and sickle t-shirt is in bad taste but most rockers dress in bad taste. At least it wasn't a Che t-shirt.

I doubt the group endorses communism; they showed up at the Capitol, for goodness' sake, and though they dropped the F-bomb at the dedication of the street named after them, they showed up at the dedication to the street named after them. So they seem pretty okay to me.

The song? Here are the lyrics:

Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face
Do You Realize - we're floating in space -
Do You Realize - that happiness makes you cry
Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Do You Realize - Oh - Oh - Oh
Do You Realize - that everyone you know
Someday will die -

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face
Do You Realize

No, it's not Inna Godda Da Vida but it's not bad. Quite pleasant, actually. And you've heard snippets of it on a car commercial on television so it's already entered the mainstream through other venues besides radio airplay.

Not an earth shattering occurrence down at the Capitol but a bone-headed move to be sure.

Obama Vows to Reform Monstrous Tax Code

Have at it, my friend:

President Barack Obama promised Americans his administration would reform the "monstrous" U.S. tax system as millions faced the dreaded annual deadline on Wednesday for filing income tax returns.

Obama used Tax Day, a national ritual of public frustration due to the confusing tax code, to underscore his drive to cut taxes for many Americans while increasing spending to jolt the United States out of its worst recession in decades.

Opposition Republicans seized the chance to rail against what they see as wasteful spending by his new Democratic administration, and some of Obama's grass-roots critics staged "tea party" protests in several U.S. cities.

Obama is pushing a $3.5 trillion federal budget plan that Republicans and some Democrats say carries too much deficit spending and too few tax cuts.

The rest of the article is political boiler-plate with no details about how the Tax Code will be reformed. The truth is, it won't be. Sure, we all want a simpler tax code - Hey, let's just make it a straight across the board 10% tax after a certain exemption, based on household numbers. Oh, but that wouldn't be fair to the poor when the rich could afford to pay more than 10%. And what about ways to encourage good behavior like charitable donations or owning a home or contributing to a retirement fund or purchasing health insurance? What about credit for additional children under a certain age? College expenses.

There you see the problem.

No, the Tax Code is a tangled mess and for good reason. I suspect when it comes down to it, no matter what we say, we'll much prefer the Code the way it is to what it could be if we tried to make things more simple and fair. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

Cezanne Exhibit: A Father of Modern Art and His Many Progeny

I don't pretend to understand modern art but I like the impressionists. The Philadelphia Museum of Art has an exhibition of Cezanne that sounds interesting:

For many modern artists Paul Cézanne was a talismanic figure, the shadow of his painting as impossible to escape as his achievement was to define. Throughout the 20th century, as scholars labored to construct a viable history of modern art, Cézanne (along with Manet, Courbet and a handful of transgressive others) was posited as its fountainhead, the protean begetter whose countless artistic progeny shaped a new aesthetic that placed vision and touch above traditional formal and narrative concerns.

Both Matisse and Picasso would claim Cézanne as a father, and almost every variant of 20th-century art could trace some aspect of its origins to his painting. Cézanne's effect on later artists has become the stuff of exquisite exhibitions, heated debate, and a linear notion of modernism. Without thoroughly disrupting that tidy critical trajectory, the Philadelphia Museum of Art's current exhibition, "Cézanne and Beyond," moves it onto more fluid and fertile ground, and the results are highly satisfying and visually thrilling.

Um, okay. I just think his pictures are purty. (My preference is Van Gogh and Monet; they manage somehow to convey powerful emotions.) More importantly, my favorite writer, Hemingway, set out to write like Cezanne painted and that's reason enough for me to enjoy Cezanne. Hemingway's "Big, Two-Hearted River" is nothing if not an impressionistic painting of a deceptively simple fishing trip that manages to convey emotion through the terse descriptions of the landscape and action.

Go ahead. Treat yourself to both Hemingway's story and Cezanne's pictures. You'll thank me for it.

Getting Back To It. No, Really

Yes, yes, I know, I said I'd be getting back to it but despite the end of filing season, it still feels like I'm smack dab in the middle of it. I'll dig out from under eventually but for now I still have old news to share with you. Hang tight.