Vegetables of the Mind Weblog

I just about jumped out of my chair last night when I saw the distinguishing G&L headstock adorning Garry Beers’ bass on Rockstar:INXS last night. There weren’t many good shots of his bass but I could see the split precision-style MFD pickup near the neck so I knew it was an SB-1 or SB-2…. then I saw the 2nd pickup. Still couldn’t get a good look but it appeared to be a MusicMan-style humbucker at the bridge. Couldn’t tell whether it was a G&L MFD, a MusicMan, or generic, but it was definitely not standard and the bass body was routed to fit it in there.

It turns out that Garry Beers got the whole band into G&L. Way to go, Mr. Beers!

Sadly, INXS sounded terrible compared to the house band. The bass was lost in the mix with too many effects and everything sounded muddy. After many weeks enjoying the House Band, the level of musicianship of INXS just seemed amateurish. And the lasers were just so… 1988.

I saw The Exorcism of Emily Rose over the weekend. It really spooked me. Part of why it was so creepy was that it was based on the true story of the only (?) exorcism that the Catholic Church has recognized. I have since learned that the movie is only loosely based on the true story, a little like Fargo. But it still creeped me out. Enough to make me pick up my Bible to read about the End Days.

I was most impressed with Jennifer Carpenter’s performance as the 19-year-old girl who became possessed by demons. A very physical role, and she had me completely convinced that demons are real and that she was possessed.

The other performances were weak but good enough to keep the story moving. Laura Linney was annoyingly overzealous in her portrayal of the priest’s lawyer. She acted way over the top and had me feeling like I was watching a bad version of Law & Order during the court scenes. Tom Wilkinson, while likeable and for the most part believable, often came across as a little too chummy and he seemed more like an actor trying to play a priest than a real Catholic priest.

The court scenes were fairly well-scripted and I was happy to see that the lawyers always gave reason for their objections rather than the typical “Objection!” “Overruled!” quips that we see all too often on the television.

Now the movie itself… it walked that fine line between shocking the audience out of their seats with cheap scares and frightening the audience simply with its subject matter. There wasn’t any bloody gory stuff, but there was an omnipresent sense of danger for every character and Emily Rose’s suffering under the grips of possession was at times horrific and difficult to watch.

The movie made very good use of other languages to convey an other-worldliness to Emily’s possession. Lines that sound cheesy in English sound bone-chilling in Latin and the subtitles showed that the writers at least had some amount of Biblical knowledge. I feel inspired to learn more about the theology of angels and demons. The movie touched on some interesting Biblical issues — I found myself thinking about what defenses humans have against the supernatural and how the gift of freewill affects God’s role in protecting His children.

As I said, this movie had me convinced that demons exist. As I have learned more about the real story (apparently this happened in Germany about the same time as the original The Exorcist was released, and “Emily’s” parents were more hard-line fanatically religious than those in this movie), my usual skepticism has settled back in and I appreciate the devices used by the film makers to convince the audience.

That said, I am a little wary of the 03:00 hour.

I find it really strange that the more I hear John Roberts speak, the more I believe that he’s fundametally a rational, thoughtful person who will actually do a good job as Chief Justice.

How in the Hell did that happen?

The Democrats are pissing me off. They’re playing right into the Republicans’ game of “not playing along.” They sound like a bunch of chickens throwing a hissy-fit. Come on, guys. Grow up.

I’m finding that I increasingly cannot ally myself with the Democrats. Maybe I should give in and register as a Republican. Bring them back to reality. I wish it would make sense to register as an Independent, or (*shudders*) Libertarian.

It’s funny how the context of my life alters my perception.

I was heavily into Pink Floyd during my formative high school years. Being a young male, my hubris conned me into believing that everything must be about me, including the heavy subject matter of Pink Floyd’s concept albums.

Wish You Were Here provides a fine example.

As a young man, I was deeply skeptical of The Man and all of the institutions that keep us down. What I see now was a child who was so afraid of his dreams and, more importantly, of doing the work it takes to make those dreams come true, that he would shun the very institutions that would help him achieve those dreams.

Welcome To the Machine was a metaphor I clung to as I ventured from high school to college. I saw my life as a piece of meat caught in the grinder between suburbia and the working world. The Machine was a factory job or a slow death under fluorescent bulbs in an office building, and the song was a frightening siren-song goading me to assimilate into the workforce.

My father became a symbol of one who had been enslaved by the machine, weighted down by familial and financial responsibility. With adulthood looming on the horizon, I disliked what I saw in my father, though now having shed some of the distorted youthful filter clouding my vision I understand my father’s choices and I feel remorse for villifying him.

Lyrics that didn’t really fit my situation were twisted in my head to become applicable to my life:

You dreamed of a big star
   What kid doesn’t want to be a rock star?
He played a mean guitar
   I played instruments and I wanted to play a mean one for sure
Always ate in the steak bar
   I liked steak!
Loved to drive in his Jaguar
   Hey my dad had a Jaguar! This must be about me!

I listen to this album now and I don’t feel that it applies to my life at all. Sure, there are some themes that are universal, but the album is really about a single person and his experience in the music industry. I find the album much more enjoyable, and actually more deep, when I don’t personalize it.

Bush allows federal contractors to pay below prevailing wages

Why would Bush do this? We’re talking federal contractors here. So it’s ok to spend $80+ billions on Iraq but he wants to save a couple bucks by short-changing labor at home?

I can’t stand watching Anderson Cooper. But he apparently gave a tongue lashing to Senator Mary Landrieu about the federal government’s criminal lack of response to the refugee crisis in the South while patting each others’ backs for their great jobs handling the crisis. Kudos, Mr. Cooper.

Read about it here.

I posted a link to this guy’s blog yesterday and I have been caught in its grips ever since. I still don’t understand how the guy maintains an internet connection, though one commenter mentioned that fiber only needs power at its access points, so if the fiber isn’t cut then as long as there is power (and the guy has a generator) then connectivity is unbroken.

The violence and anarchy is extremely disheartening. This is the kind of stuff that kills my faith in humanity. This is the time to rise above the catastrophe and help your fellow man, yet the New Orleans refugees have in large part reverted to savagery.

The world needs more people like the man writing the blog. It is absolutely heroic that he would maintain his position to keep his company online, knowing how his clients count on him. As well, I am counting on his perspective on the “real story” inside New Orleans. While not a journalist, for whatever reason his story has conveyed far more to me than all the sensationalized headlines and rumor-mongering that cnn has spewed.

Don’t get me started on Anderson Cooper. What a melodramatic turd that guy is.

One of the contestants on American Idol Rock Star INXS sang Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd and it gave me the bug to listen to that album again.

Sweet Jesus what an incredible piece of work.

I haven’t listened to it since the end of high school, and while I knew it was about Syd Barrett, I had no idea how much the album is completely and totally about Syd Barrett. Each song is a lament for Syd and a stab at the industry and culture that destroyed Syd Barrett’s soul.

The end of Have a Cigar just about blew my mind this morning in the car. In my interpretation, it beautifully captures Syd’s isolation after his drug-induced meltdown. Up until that point, the album feels 1st person, as if you’re part of this group making this incredible music. Suddenly reality sets in and you realize it’s all on the radio, and an impassable gulf separates the listener from the band. Wish You Were Here begins to play and there is only a partial connection as the listener picks up a guitar to play along, adding licks here and there, but nobody’s listening. The lyrics to Wish You Were Here conveys the band’s grief over losing their friend and former bandmate, whose mind is so far gone that he may as well be dead. Shine On You Crazy Diamond is an heroic lament, celebrating Syd’s genius in his early years and grieving over what he had become, and possibly hoping to call his younger self back to the present.

All in all, a heavy album and a very interesting followup to their smashing success, The Dark Side of the Moon.

I don’t want to launch into any unconstructive diatribes about Bush’s policy in Iraq weakening the National Guard’s ability to handle domestic emergencies. I’ll save that for later.

At any rate, Bush needs to send the military into New Orleans right now. He should have done so immediately after the hurricane hit, or at least once the major flooding began and we realized the impending humanitarian crisis at the Superdome. He needs to stop with his “zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this” platitudes and take decisive action to restore order to the city. NOW.

Order needs to be restored. Bodies need to be picked up and given due respect. The levees need to be fixed. The city needs to be cleaned and infrastructure fixed. It can be done. The Army Corps of Engineers is well trained and ready to tackle the challenge.