So, I’ve written about this musician before and she definitely doesn’t need any promotion from me as she is already a well-established singer, BUT I want to laud the talents once more of vocalist Stacey Kent. I really love her voice and her new album is a real delight. It’s so nice to hear a voice that doesn’t fall in line with convention. In the past if you heard Sarah Vaughan, you knew it was Sarah Vaughan. Billie Holiday, Ella, Anita. You didn’t have to wonder what the name was behind the voice. Well, the same goes for Stacey Kent. Whenever I am listening to the station and one of her tracks begins to play, I know right away who I am listening to. A great talent. I look forward to hearing more and more from her.
Listen out for some tracks from the new album in the upcoming week.
After the tragedy of 2001, no matter where you looked in the U.S., you saw the American flag. On front doors and shop windows, magnetically attached to cars and affixed in various ways to the clothing of American men and women. This country reeked of patriotism and the desire to right the wrongs that had been committed against us. People offered me lapel pins to stick on my shirt pocket. They offered me patriotic stickers and other little trinkets that would allow me to display my love for my country. I turned them all down. I knew that all of this patriotic fervor was only temporary and just as quick as you saw flags strewn here and there as far as the eye could see, you would eventually see garbage trucks vomiting reams of red, white and blue. And you did. Or at least, I did. What happened? After a few months, did we just tire of being so patriotic? Toby Keith says he’s going to put a boot in the ass of the enemy (whoever they may have been at the moment), and we decide he pretty much summed it up and got back to our regular routine.
In his most recent commentary, Lou Dobbs criticizes other public figures such as Katie Couric, Barack Obama and Bill Moyers for not being in full support of wearing patriotic garb. Dobbs mentions the fact that Obama put away his lapel flag pin. Obama states that “his words will be a testament to his patriotism”. Dobbs then says that, “any politician of any political party who believes their words can be an adequate substitute for the symbolic power of the American flag is sadly arrogant and horribly mistaken.” This suggests to me that Lou seems to think that it isn’t what a man says, it’s what he wears. You want to galvanize the country? You want to cure America of all its ills? You want to make this country a better place to live? Well, that’s all fine and good, but where’s your pin, Barack?
All of this reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer refuses to wear the A.I.D.S ribbon before participating in a a marathon. A mob turns on him for refusing the pin, and eventually he gets his ass kicked before finishing the race. Why didn’t he just put on that damn pin? Didn’t he know that he wasn’t really supporting the cause without the pin?
A symbol without action is nothing. It’s not a symbol. It’s a trinket, a knick knack. Christians who where the cross but never act in a “Christian way” are not Christians, are they? A Klansman who wears the robe but never burns crosses or terrorizes innocent folk isn’t really a Klansman. He’s just a dumbass in a pointy white hood and robe instead of being a dumbass with a purpose! The tragedy of 9/11 brought Americans together. Everyone said, “Let’s put our differences aside for now and focus on the enemy, focus on winning this war against terror.” And that is what we all did…for a little while. Then, when things settled down, we went right back to hating each other. That’s real patriotism for you. My grandfather fought in the second world war. There was an explosion of patriotism during that time as well. “Let’s put away our differences and focus on the real enemy, those damn Nazis!” The war ended. America won. And my African-American grandfather came right on back to the segregated south. True patriotism seems to have a very short shelf life.
You don’t want to wear the pin, fine with me. I could give a damn about a stupid pin. It doesn’t mean a thing without action. True patriotism is in blood, sweat and tears, not accessories.
So, I’m sipping on a beer and flipping through Playboy yesterday evening when I come across an interesting little blurb. Apparently, a woman in New York was arrested for walking down the street topless. Having read this, you probably have one of two reactions. First reaction, “Well, she should have been arrested! Hasn’t she any self-respect? Hasn’t she any morals??†Second reaction, “Hell, yeah!â€
Of course, I was compelled to research this further and discovered the following: In 2005, Jill Coccaro of New York was arrested for exposing her breast on the city street. She was held in custody for 12 hours before being told that prosecutors were not going to pursue charges. In June of this year, the city offered a settlement of $29,000 to Coccaro. Wait…they paid her? Yep. In 1992 the New York state appeals court ruled that women should have the same right as men to take off their shirts. Damn right, they should. It’s called equality, baby. And I love it. Coccaro was in the right and the cops were in the wrong. How often does that happen??
Coccaro says that she went topless “out of practicality.†Not sure how practical it is to walk down the street of a major city with your boobies on display, but hey, what do I know? All I know is that this law is buried in the deepest hollows of New York jurisprudence and someone needs to dredge it up and let all of the fine women of New York know that it’s alright to let their hair down and their bra snaps unfasten. Carpe diem, ladies.
Of course, reading about this odd law caused me to wonder what other weird laws New York may have. I came across a few interesting and disturbing ones.
A fine of $25 can be levied for flirting – or $11 million if you’re the Knicks. A second conviction for a crime of this magnitude calls for the violating male to be forced to wear a “pair of horse-blinders†wherever and whenever he goes outside for a stroll. A third conviction gets former president Clinton kicked out of Harlem.
It is against the law to throw a ball at someone’s head for fun – Roger Clemons is screwed.
The penalty for jumping off a building is death – Not sure how valid this law is, but it seems to me that if you are purposefully jumping off a building, then in your mind death is the reward.
A person may not walk around on Sundays with an ice cream cone in his/her pocket – Someone please explain the origin of this one to me. I’ve looked and looked but can’t find it. I thought that there was nothing greater than getting out of church on a warm, Sunday afternoon, going to the local ice cream parlor for a scoop of vanilla on a sugar cone and shoving it in my pants.
Citizens may not greet each other by “putting one’s thumb to the nose and wiggling the fingers”. – However, they can kick each other in the nads.