Well, here's what may be my candidate for favorite stupid thing that's happened recently: Linda Ronstadt was boo'd off the stage in Vegas for championing Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11. She had just sung Desperados - appropriately enough, when she began to talk about Moore and his film and his political views. Several questions come to mind here: When did Linda become a Vegas personality? Please, no. She hasn't joined the ranks of Wayne Newton and Tom Jones (wait, is he still alive?), has she?
Why is she still singing Desperados? That's from waaayy back in her career. Doesn't she have some new stuff? Okay, I have loved Linda since the beginning, since the Stone Ponys even. We're more or less the same age, I don't think I'm washed up - and I don't want to think she is, either. So, anyway, good on you Linda, for speaking your mind in front of a bunch of yahoos. Let me know if you need a place to stay or anything, we have a lot of extra room here.
Continuing in the vein of movies that raise one's blood pressure - I saw "Outfoxed" on Sunday night, in the living room of someone I didn't even know in Milton, DE. MoveOn.org organized house parties for groups of interested people to watch together. There were a lot of people there, there were also four TVs playing the film simultaneously in different rooms of the house. Imagine that. I've written a little about this over at thewindmills too. It was a real wake-up experience for me, as I have never watched Fox News in my life. Watching Bill O'Reilly in action aroused my every deep feral instinct, bad things rose up in me and wanted to come leaping out armed with sharp weapons. So, I know this is my book journal and not my political one, but please check out the petition to get the FCC to stop Fox from using the slogan "fair and balanced" on their outrageous propaganda channel. This outfit is taking unprecedented advantage of the gullibility and credulity of a huge number of our populace - we who can read need to pay more attention to those who don't, and those who use them for their own nefarious (I just wanted to use that word, you know? It's a propaganda kind of word, isn't it?) purposes.
7 comments:
I remember the stone ponys!
V
I heard that thing about Linda Ronstadt! I was shocked. What is wrong with people? Since when is mentioning a movie a cause to get kicked out of a hotel? I thought the story was nothing short of absurd.
Donna
I'm planning an Outfoxed party myself. It's about time the "fair and balanced" network be called to task. As Eric Alterman said in his book "What Liberal Media?", you are only as liberal as the man who owns you. Rupert Murdoch owns Fox. Nuff said.
About Linda Ronstadt -- my understanding is that she was about to sing "Desperado" as an encore, and took a moment beforehand to dedicate it to Michael Moore and to encourage people to go see Fahrenheit 9/11 -- and for that she was boo'd off the stage and fired from her Vegas gig! Unbelievable! How can people claim to support free speech and then do things like this?
I haven't actually seen either "Fahrenheit 9/11" or "Outfoxed" yet -- I'm afraid I'll get so angry they'll make my head explode. "Outfoxed" in particular, as I'm fairly certain I already know most of what F 9/11 will say, if not exactly how it will say it. But Fox News...man, the fact that they use "Fair and Balanced" as their slogan just pisses me off! They're so blatantly slanted towards the right...but this is the traditional, age-old problem with conservatives. They like to talk about how news media or whatever has to remain objective and dispassionate, to only report the facts and not opinion, which sounds reasonable -- but then they take that argument and use it to attack any statement they don't agree with as being obviously biased, even when those statements really ARE objective statements of fact! Take the whole myth of the liberal media, for instance. Their definition of the word "liberal" must come from some strange dictionary I've never read, because they use that word to mean "any point of view that is not right-wing conservative," with an added layer of pejorative connotations. And the thing is, people BELIEVE them. It makes me want to tear my hair out.
Er, I should say, "the age-old problem with SOME conservatives." Not all conservatives are like this. I know conservatives who are quite sane, logical, reasonable people who would never stoop to such underhanded tactics. And it is always easier to identify biases that you don't share. But, even so, I think my previous comment stands!
aimée, you are so right when you say that the film could make you so mad your head might explode. i left the house party Sunday night with the worst headache i could remember. really thought i might be going to explode. the problem is that most of the time i LIVE feeling as though i may spontaneously combust with renewed rage. this can't be good. needing to spend more time on meditation, less on anger, and i know it.
Linda's still doing new stuff. She did a duet album with Emmylou Harris about three years ago called WESTERN WALL, which is great.
Actually, performing in Vegas doesn't have the haven-for-has-beens aura that it once did. I mean, Britney Spears even made an HBO special of her performance there a couple of years ago! - Bruce
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