Something/Someone Old

I don't know why I put so much music in this section. I guess it's because I love so many different kinds of old music. Today I'm celebrating a kind of music often made fun of: smooth jazz.

My absolute favorite band in this genre. I almost didn't include them here, because they deserve a section all their own:

At its worst, smooth jazz can devolve into elevator music, but I still love it, increasingly so as times get more and more stressful. I'm relying more and more now on genres of music I might have made fun of in happier times (Bee Gees, Air Supply, I'm looking at you. Sorry for my earlier snobbery, guys.) Not that I ever made fun of smooth jazz. I loved that from my childhood on.

There's a lot of really talented people who have made their home in this genre.

I'm not sure whether the contempt for this musical genre came from the fact that it was so accessible, removing all the aspects of jazz that were difficult for your average Joe to like, and thus, in the eyes of many, reducing jazz down to a balsamic syrup, or if it comes from the fact that it's a music that comforts and soothes rather than rouses people to anger or irritation, a music that allows you to let your mind go quiet instead of a music that forces you to think.

I think of the first argument as the populist vs avant-garde argument that seems to come up in every musical genre except pop. I could reproduce it in any genre about any artist. And actually, it's not limited to music. The second argument I think of as the punk argument; if something is comforting you, it's probably untrustworthy and definitely pointless. The honest condition of life under the status quo is rage, and that's what music is for:

"A good song should make you tap your foot and want to get with your girl. A great song should destroy cops and set fire to the suburbs. I'm only interested in writing great songs."
--Tom Morello

I like Tom Morello's work a lot, and he seems to be good people, but while I don't exactly disagree with him, I would have to respond by quoting one of my favorite books:

"You can't beat your hands on the wall and scream all the time."
--Antryg Windrose

Something New

The new Spiderman movie is my something New this week. And this is an unusual entry, because I haven't gone to see it yet, and don't know if I will, and I'd like to see what you all think.

I love Spiderman.

Actually, I could write an entire essay on Marvel Comics generally, or Spiderman specifically, but here I'll just say that I love Spiderman for the same reason everybody else does: he's an everyman from a working-class background with high intelligence and a good-natured yet wisecracking sensibility. He's everything that's best about an idealized vision of the American working class, and his first arch enemy is a crazed member of the 1%, Norman Osbourne, who ought to be functioning as an employer or even a mentor to this talented and bright young man, giving him good work to do. But unfortunately, Norman Osborne chooses instead to become the Green Goblin, and ultimately his mentoring takes the form of trying to convince Peter Parker that special superbeings like themselves are better than ordinary people:

Hence my deep suspicion of the new Spider-Man movie:

The first thing you hear in this trailer is Peter Parker saying "This is my chance to prove myself." Now, you could make the argument--as I did above--that Peter Parker the young man--not Spiderman the superhero--wants to prove himself by becoming a world-class photojournalist or a top-notch scientist working for Norman Osbourne. But his identity as Spiderman has nothing to do with proving himself to anyone, except perhaps his internalized Uncle Ben and Aunt May. It's the morality they tried to instill in him, inside his own head, that he has to answer to. The business of being a superhero does not involve filling out an application to yet another member of the 1%:

Peter: "So, to become an Avenger, are there like, trials, interviews?"
Tony Stark: "Just don't do anything I would do. And definitely don't do anything I wouldn't do."

OK. So now becoming a superhero is sitting in the back of a rich man's car and asking him what hoops you have to go through to become one.

Don't get me wrong. I like Tony Stark. Actually, since Downey started portraying him, I love Tony Stark. (For those of you who are not comic book fans, Tony Stark, or Ironman, is the son and heir of someone who made billions by developing horrific weapons. Stark's journey from this to some kind of morality is the subject of the Ironman films.) He's a great character. But what he is not, and should never be, is a mentor.

Tony Stark: "Look, I know school sucks. I know you want to save the world. But you're not ready yet."

I can't begin to tell you how this line makes my gorge rise, for multiple reasons. First, since when does a young superhero have to receive approval from some elder in order to be a superhero? The role of elders as moral centers is crucial in Marvel comics (Uncle Ben, Professor Xavier), but I can't remember a moment when a superhero had to receive approval in order to be who he was. That is not the superhero narrative, at least not when you're talking about meta-humans like Peter Parker, or the Hulk, or the mutants in the X-Men. These are people who have had power thrust upon them unexpectedly. They have it; they can't get rid of it even if they want to. The question is what they will do with it.

Tony Stark is different, in that his superpowers come from technology he has invented. Like Batman or Green Arrow in the DC universe, or Hawk in Marvel, to some extent Tony Stark is a superhero because he has chosen to be. Perhaps this is the reason Stark is trying to advise Spiderman, without fully grasping that their situations are different. However, I still can't remember a moment when Batman or Green Arrow or Hawk had to apply to some older superhero in order to get permission to be a superhero. This is a clunky intrusion that, if it becomes widely accepted, will reduce the cool of the superhero genre by about 1000%. Because it now looks like a fucking job application--or a meeting with your guidance counselor.

The other reason I hate this change is that Stark is the last, the absolute last person who should be determining whether or not young superheroes are "ready." The core story of Tony Stark is of an irresponsible, highly privileged person developing a moral compass of sorts. The tension between his selfishness, hedonism, and big ego and his growing need to do something good IS the tension that drives his story. That tension recedes somewhat as he becomes more grounded in what I'll call, for lack of a better term, goodness. But the day the tension goes away is the day that his story ends. And having it end with him being some kind of elder statesman of superheroes lecturing the young does violence to everything I ever liked about Ironman. "Now, now, son, go to class and be a good boy" is not something that should ever come out of that character's mouth. Neither is "Stay close to the ground. Stay out of trouble." It does violence to the character, even in his more redeemed state. This is a process that began, sadly, with Captain America: Winter Soldier: Tony Stark goes straight. Not an inconceivable end for that character, but probably the least interesting, least inspiring, and definitely least fun ending anybody could have come up with.

And it's not only Ironman whose character is violated. Putting Peter Parker into that relationship with Tony Stark disrespects Parker's character by turning him into a teenager who's too big for his britches and it turns all his deeds into something that has to be judged, not on the basis of whether he is using his power responsibly (h/t Uncle Ben) but on the basis of whether some older person thinks he should be using his power at all. From the trailer, I half expected to hear Stark say "You're GROUNDED, young man!" And that insults and damages both characters.

The message that "you are a kid, you should be a kid, act like a kid, stay in school, don't be a superhero" ultimately demolishes every superhero narrative from Captain America to Spiderman to Rogue or Jean Grey. It's the opposite of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The idea seems to be that if you're under 25, you should conform, obey, and do what you're told. Act appropriately for your age, and your elders get to determine what that is. And the central question becomes "will the teenager obey his elders and be a good boy, or will he become a superhero?" rather than being "how should power be used?"

Comic books, despite being a lowbrow genre, are dealing with the same essential question that Tolkien addressed in The Lord of the Rings. They are wrestling with the issue of power and how to ethically use it, or if that is even possible. Turning that core conflict into "You will behave, young man!" vs "You're not the boss of me!" diminishes not just Ironman and Spiderman, but the genre.

Yet everyone loves the movie.

So, am I misreading the trailer? Or does the trailer misrepresent the movie? Or do people just enjoy the teenager vs parent or pseudo-parent power struggle better than they enjoy asking hard questions about power?

Something Borrowed

This is an amazing cover. I love YouTube precisely because it encourages people to do things like this and share them with the world. A traditional Jewish klezmer band covering hip-hop. Sometimes I love humanity:

Something Blue

The Miami blue butterfly is critically endangered. Scientists at the Florida Museum of Natural History say "theoretically, one storm could wipe this butterfly out."

They don't know the reason for the insect's decline, but they know that tropical storms, loss of habitat, and climate change are contributing factors.

The Florida Museum is apparently taking action to try and save this butterfly. Good on 'em.

Florida Museum of Natural History researchers are leading collaborative conservation and recovery efforts for Miami blue butterflies by monitoring wild populations, breeding the butterfly in the laboratory and closely studying its ecology to learn how to effectively re-establish it in the wild.