Last week, I saw several people I follow on Twitter link to a post in the Marginal Revolution blog: Why Has TV Replaced Movies as Elite Entertainment? My first thought was, “That’s wrong.” Then I realized that the issue is that the word “elite” has multiple connotations. It means superior (higher in status, better in [...]
A Roundup of My Views on the Culture Wars
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy This segment on The Rachel Maddow Show last night reminded me that I have written a number of times over the past decade on the Culture Wars that America periodically goes through. I thought it might be useful to link to some of [...]
Beat & Rhymes of Black Power
There’s kind of a rule in national politics. Man, you better at least carry your home state. Walter Mondale got creamed by Reagan in ’84, but he won his home state of Minnesota. In part, Al Gore lost in 2000 because he didn’t win his home state of Tennessee. So, it’s probably not helpful for [...]
A matter of tone
Well, I’m kinda on a political roll… What can I tell you? At least I’m posting, right? I’ve never said anything about Keith Olbermann and his program Countdown. I was a fan of his old program The Big Show and found him to be a witty and erudite host. So I enjoyed Countdown and found [...]
What are expectations after an Obama win?
You may recall this post from three months ago, which concerned someone unexpectedly performing “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” in place of a tradition version of the National Anthem. In light of this more recent news from Virginia (via Matt Yglesias), it’s good to revisit the issue. Bobby [...]
Black & White
Via Matt Yglesias, I found this to be really odd. I keep meaning to write more about the extremely “off” racial attitudes displayed by some white folks in this election season. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll was conducted earlier this month. In with all of the other questions was this one: “Just as [...]
The power of symbols
So, jazz singer Rene Marie was asked to sing the National Anthem prior to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s annual state of the city address last week. She decided to sing the lyrics of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” (also known as the Black National Anthem) to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” According to her [...]
The Chicago Way
Last Friday, Democratic candidate Barack Obama was speaking in Philadelphia. Obama promised a tough response to Republican attacks. He warned that the general election campaign could get ugly. “They’re going to try to scare people. They’re going to try to say that ‘that Obama is a scary guy,’” he said. A donor yelled out a [...]
Pop culture out of context
I want to follow up on the post below, where I spoke of the collision/collusion between pop culture and politics. In their most recent diavlog at bloggingheads.tv, Robert Wright discussed the “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” incident with Mickey Kaus. Watch this exchange where Wright (who has no idea who Jay-Z is and clearly has never [...]
“I’m the realest that run it, I just happen to rap.”
My new Spot-on column is up: A Revolutionary Soundtrack. It examines the relationship between politics and pop music and looks at an example from a few weeks ago when Barack Obama channeled Jay-Z. A lot of pop music ignores politics altogether. Some pop music is very earnest about pop music. You don’t often see artists [...]