David > Recent Status Updates

Caetano reaffirms what I've read elsewhere, that in Brazil people aren't simply divided into black and white as they are in the US, that "racial" distinctions are more complicated.

Idiocy in all the Americas: a TV host believed "sem lenço, sem documento" was an allusion to LSD -- so he made a big demonstration out of smashing the record ("Alegria, Alegria").

Caetano didn't even own a stereo to play his first album when it was released.

Tip: Roman emperor Claudius was assassinated with a slow-acting amanita mushroom.

The too-big-to-fail implicit guarantee by the federal government amounts to a $34 billion a year subsidy, courtesy of the US taxpayer.

You know Medicare Part D? The legislation behind it prevents the federal government from negotiating for lower drug prices. Full retail all the way!

What percentage of money spent lobbying Congress came from labor unions in 2009? 1.26%. I'll bet you guessed it was at least 20 times that amount.

There's a lot to despise about LBJ, but consider his response when advised not to push for the extremely divisive Civil Rights Act: "Well, what the hell is the presidency for?" The president is the only elected official whose constituency is everyone. Maybe it takes a leader with personality disorders to take on what's both right and reckless; it certainly was not safe or selfish or rewarding in the short-term.

Another feel-good read on the heels of Greenwald's laugh-a-minute book on unequal justice in America.

This is so maddening: inequality of wealth going hand-in-hand with inequality of justice, and an elite class dedicated to making it even worse. Frankly, depressing as hell. America sucks.

"We can't go forward without looking backwards." So Obama advised the Indonesians in telling them they needed to investigate and prosecute the crimes of the Suharto regime. For some reason he thinks America can only go forward if it doesn't look backwards at Bush, Wall Street, etc. Stinks.

This is as damning of Obama for what he hasn't done (investigate or prosecute) as it is of Bush for what he did (torture and violate all sorts of laws).

"Retroactive immunity": what a concept. Sounds like something the Catholic church would have come up with in its most vigorous fundraising phase -- like "special dispensation," you know?

Ford's pardoning of Nixon stands out in my mind as the beginning of the reversal of the aspiration toward equality under the law. Perhaps that's just because it's part of my personal memory, but you can't cite a greater precedent than a president pardoning a president.

"For all the homage we [in the United States] pay to equality under the law, we have virtually abolished it in practice."

I almost can't believe how much the development of post-1950s popular music in Brazil differs from it's development in the US. In the US rock and roll was almost the only game in town, and commercial concerns predominated. Very different in Brazil, where nationalism and regionalism, multiple musical styles, competitions and festivals predominated. Or so it seems from Caetano's account.

What a concentration of talent: Paulinho da Viola and Abel Silva living across the hall from Caetano.

This is great: I'm finally seeing how the musicians I admire and music I love developed, how they met and influenced one another, how they affected and were affected by politics, etc. But it's also the personal autobiography of a brilliant, gifted artist.

The rest of the book seems to be more accessible than the introduction -- thank goodness.

I don't often find the artists I read about likable. Lubitsch is an exception. He seems to have possessed the gentleness and mischievousness that his best films exhibit. This is a really good biography by someone who knows how to "read" a film.

The English is difficult enough: I would have had too much trouble trying to make sense of the Portuguese. Thank goodness Caetano's songs aren't written this way! Then again, maybe it's a poor translation.

Too bad something simple like the greatest good for the greatest number wasn't on anyone's agenda.

What are "egg-top" trousers? Google doesn't seem to know.

Weekly movie attendance in US in 1949 was 87.5 million. Ten years later (in the TV age): 42 million. What a profound change. Plus, studios no longer owned the theaters.

It's likely that prejudice against homosexuals kept the military from taking advantage of Cukor's talents as a director during World War II.

Suskind identifies one trait as essentially American: independent thought. This, in contrast to absolutist thinking of Muslim fundamentalists. Too bad he doesn't have a Christian fundamentalist to show that this style of thinking cuts across religions and cultures.

It's almost pathological (or religious) the way the Bush administration rejected and suppressed all information contrary to its belief (fanatical faith) in Iraqi WMDs.

"Part of the saga of this age is the improbable tale of a bully's heart breaking" (W's heart, that is).

We have taste buds in our guts. They taste but they're not connected to our conscious brain, so we're not aware of what they taste. Similarly, blindsighted people see without knowing it!