the passion of the post
(an email exchange)
fred gates and arnold ahlert
"Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation"
- chinese fourtune cookie
A few months ago I wanted to trash "The Passion;" it seemed like a mean-spirited, awful movie with an obvious agenda by an horrible man done in a hideous and hateful manner. The only trouble was I would have to ACTUALLY SEE it; and since I didn't want that horrible Mel Gibson to have a DIME of my money for this flick, I decided I couldn't write the piece.
I guess the sort of journalistic standards that a tiny (my) website try to keep are just a starry-eyed, naive fetish that the big boys, in this case the uber-conservative Rupert-Murdoch-subsidized money pit The New York Post, would simply snicker at. How else to explain the following email exchange between myself and Arnold Ahlert over a piece entitled "The Film They DON'T Want," where Mr. Alert writes an outline for "his" documentary, which would be called "What We are Up Against" and include footage of terrorist beheadings, Saddam's atrocities, and the grisly death/mutilations in Fajullah? He ends his sh(l)ock piece with a sneering "Do you think I'd win at Cannes?" Watch him squirm as I point out (and he never really answers) that this last piece of footage was actually IN "Fahrenheit 9/11" ... bon appetite!!
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Dear Arnold,
If you had actually SEEN the movie that you think you are so cleverly lampooning, you'd know it DOES include footage of people mutilating and hanging on a bridge the charred bodies of four Halliburton employees. Is this how lazy journalism works?
Peace,
Fred
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i'm not lampooning anything--i'm merely presenting an alternative viewpoint to that of the bash-bush/america crowd.
AA
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You didn't even SEE the movie... one of your ideas for "The Movie They Don't Want" IS IN THE MOVIE!!! Not for a second or two, either, for a few minutes of hard to watch footage. (Halliburton employee's mutilation/hanging on bridge at Fajulla)
A shallow, lazy article... your readers deserve better.
If it's the SAME as what is in the movie, that would be an ALTERNATIVE how, exactly??
-Fred
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anyone can show footage of anything--it's how the footage is presented that counts--otherwise we wouldn't be having this exchange.
ps. I don't title my columns. whoever "they" is has nothing to do with me. judging from my mail, I think plenty of people would like to see a movie with an alternative--as in pro-American and/or this administration--viewpoint.
AA
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I appreciate what you said re the title, my dad was a journalist. And of course your opinion is valid (not true, but yours to have!!) But I think anyone who HAS seen the movie would still find the statement at the end about "Do you think I would win at Cannes?" etc, a sure sign that you have no idea what is in this film. That just seems shoddy to me, like so much "conservative" cricism of the film: my favorite is it "doesn't support the troops"... I don't see how anyone can come away with that impression. Perhaps you can explain that viewpoint to me, AFTER you SEE it.
Peace,
Fred
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my last sentence was more of a reflection on the French--our "allies."
'til the next go-around,
AA
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See the movie, and you can see a public beheading by one of our closest allies, saudi arabia... I think these guys were beheaded because they were homosexual. yeah, i know that isn't the beheading you think we all SHOULD see.
Three emails and you never answered the original point... I guess you guys get used to being so slippery... write me back another non-sequitor, and don't be suprised if it ends up on my website!!
www.fredgatesdesign.com/soundsdujour.html
peace,
fred
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web away, lawn boy*
AA
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okey dokey...
*this refers to my screename on AOL, which is presented in a google-proof mode HERE: get/off/my/lawn/ugly/at/aol/dot/com.
who's a big fat idiot?
(a sounds post)
fred gates
Welp, it looks as though Fox News's attempt to sue satirist Al Franken has been rightly stuffed by a judge who, uh, knows the law.
If you haven't been following the story, those freedom-loving folks at Fox sought to stop sales of Al's new book "Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, A Fair and Balanced Look at The Right," because, as their lawyers explained, people could be confused and think that the book was put out by Fox or that Mr. Franken works for Fox. Here's my paraphrase of the judge's response: "what sort of moron would think that?"
Certainly Mr. Franken should at least stop the book based on his use of the TRADEMARKED phrase "fair and balanced," Fox contended. To paraphrase again; "It's satire, dumbass, and it's protected free speech, duh...you guys are supposed to be lawyers!!!" Mr. Franken is on record thanking Fox for it's free promotion of his book (now on the NY Times bestseller list) and claims that Fox violated his trademarking of the word "funny" when they accused him of being "unfunny." (not really, see, that's why he makes the big bucks...)
Mr. Franken is also the author of "Rush Limbaugh is A Big Fat Idiot, and Other Observations;" also a NY times bestseller, which I have personally read and found extremely funny (really!). But Mr. Limbaugh, for all his fatness and idiocy, was never stupid enough to try to sue... that takes true dumb-assedness.
So, anyway, this segment is an informal celebration of humor over sanctimoniousness, if that's even a word... and we are gonna have some First Amendment-testin' fun here.
Rap Sucks?
Well, the numbers are in, and violent crime is down a whopping 50% nationwide since 10 years ago. I want to personally give a shout to 50 Cent, Eminem, Marilyn Manson, Biggie, C.A.G.E., Ill Bill, Outkast, Ludicris, Fabolous, Rob Zombie, Tupac, Busta Rhymes, Obie Trice, and the hundreds of other artists responsible (that's how it works, RIGHT?) for this dramatic improvement.
Way to go guys!! We did it!!
September 4, 2003
turn down that racket!
(my dad talks about growing up jazz)
george gates
How does a kid growing up in the country in the 1940s learn about jazz and develop a lifelong devotion to the music?
The short answer is that he lived close enough to New York City to catch the occasional appearances of jazz on the metropolitan radio stations.
It began in 1940 when I was eight years old and often found time to listen to Brooklyn Dodger baseball games on WHN (later WMGM) the big city station at 1050 on the dial. I continued a Dodger fan until they left for LA in 1958, but the important part, musically, is what came after the game and after the post-game hacking around by the studio sports announcers.
Somewhere in the mid-40s, the station began airing a program of jazz records hosted by Leonard Feather, an Englishman with some skills as a piano player and considerable knowledge about jazz. I became fascinated, especially when Feather played short solos by various musicians and challenged his audience to figure out who was playing.
I had no musical training so I was surprised to learn that one guy's trumpet playing could be radically different from another guy's playing, and, yes, possibly unlike everyone else's.
I had been buying the pop records of the day, a particularly stupid expense, given that the popular music of the mid-40s was pretty bad. I think a record called "Dingbat the Singing Cat" was my first buy. After hearing Feather's program, I changed taste. The turning point was a choice to buy a hit tune called "It's Magic" by Sarah Vaughan rather than the much more popular version by Doris Day.
That was the end of pop music for me. The road was open for the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman and Duke Ellington. It was a lonely interest, however. I knew of no one else in my high school who cared about jazz (or even knew it existed).
College turned out to be different. A few days into orientation week, I was sitting in my room when the unmistakable sound of Teddy Wilson playing piano came through the hallway. I investigated and struck up a friendship with a fellow devotee of jazz, a drummer, who still leads a jazz band in his off-hours to this day. It turned out there were a number of others on campus who cared about jazz.
Eventually, I started playing jazz records on the dinky campus radio station. I wasn't close to being as knowledgeable as Leonard Feather, but, with his instruction, I did well enough.
June 20, 2003
my first walkman
fred gates
My first walkman weighed about 15 pounds and was about the size of a Girl Scout cookies box; the original brand was out of reach, so it was a knockoff… a "Walk-Mr." or "Sir-Walky" or "Walk-n-Jam," which I got through a mail order ad in Mad magazine.
It was the last year of high school, the spring of 1981, and my rebellion was in full bloom ... my mother had passed the previous year, I was getting into the school I wanted to, and I couldn't wait to get the hell out of suburban Buffalo, away from memories and snow and my stupid girlfriend and my wannabe art teacher who thinks it's still the renaissance ... from feeling like a that kid in the corner that people wonder if he's OK, to being that kid in the corner that people are intimidated by or scared of ... that was the plan at least. I would wear black clothes.
 The things I cared about now were all on my back: A thrift-shop long wool coat, a LL Bean green knapsack I had saved up for too, sketchpad, and the "walkman." I had one tape: "Wha'ppen?" by the English Beat. It was perfect at the time and I played it over and over, a Caribbean fantasy world of politically righteous English guys ... like "A Hard Day's Night" with black people and palm trees. Whatever it was, it wasn't HERE.
click to>Listen to "All Out To Get You" by The English Beat
My vinyl was too cumbersome for my new life, anyway, I'd leave it home. I'd be moving on from the Devo Blondie B-52s U2 Clash Sex Pistols world anyway. And this was portable, loud enough to piss off people on a bus or a plane, which you can't do at home. My scowl was complete: military issue boots, punk buttons on my lapel, and loud-ass music on my head. One tape was cool, besides, I had to save my money for batteries.
I still love this album- songs like"All out To Get You," "the Limits We Set" and "Get A Job" seem less worse for the wear; still fresh, relevant, idealistic, and totally danceable. Was my taste that good? Have I heard these songs so many times that I have to love them? Or is it that we see beauty best when we are at our lowest? My walkman is long gone ... its robot-cookie-box mass not biodegrading somewhere... but this music is still on my head!
January 25, 2003
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