Was the most exciting thing that happened to me yesterday my first cold brew coffee of the year? It might be. I wonder if what I like about it is just how it’s made. If there were a blind taste test would I know the difference between it and regular iced coffee? Would most people? I’m always suspicious that people, and I’m a person, fool themselves. This is why science demands double blind experiments. There should be tasting parties. People sample two things, one allegedly better than the other, and see which they prefer when they don’t know which is which. As I doubt myself I have no doubt that people would find that the often deceive themselves. They did this on All in the Family. Archie didn’t believe that Mike could tell the difference between Coke, Pepsi, and RC Cola. Mike tastes them and without hesitation gets them all correct. I felt that the time I would too and that was not deception. Now I’m not sure if my taste buds are as discriminating. I am sometimes not sure if a drink is Coke or Diet Coke.
As has become increasingly common I’m picking this home hours after I started, more that twelve hours later. Back in the old days I would often update before I went to sleep. I preferred it, things were fresher in my mind and often I didn’t have time to write in the mornings before I went to teach. One advantage to writing now is that my background music is Exploring Music on WQXR, my favorite classical music show. I generally write to classical music or jazz. It can’t have words; those interfere with my words.
My health is pretty much back to normal. When my intestines are obstructed the muscles around them spasm trying to break it up. Afterwards they get sore just as your calf does after it cramps. I’m relating it to calf cramps as if everyone gets those too. Do they? I know it’s not just me. It took me years to figure out how to stop them. I was told, point your toe, so I would as if I was trying to dance on point. That’s what pointing my toes means to me. That’s exactly the wrong thing to do. The trick is to point them up as much as you can. That’s why standing helps, it puts your foot perpendicular to your leg.
I’m not going to write another stream of consciousness. I said I prefer writing at night because things were fresher in my mind. That didn’t stop me from forgetting what I meant to write. I just got a message from Crys Matthews, and that reminded me. She is what I wanted to write about, at least my thoughts while listening to her livestream tonight. Oh, great it’s now after midnight and I have a therapist appointment in the morning I better get to sleep. Remind me what I want to write about tomorrow. I’m counting on you.
It’s tomorrow and you know what? Not one of you reminded me. Good thing that I’m a genius that knows he’s an idiot so prepared for that. You think it’s easy to live in my head? You must believe in three impossible things every day before breakfast. That’s a little easier than it sounds as I usually don’t eat breakfast until after noon. Today it was bacon and eggs on naan. I have no idea why putting the unblotted bacon directly on the bread, especially flatbread, and then putting the egg on top of the bacon is not the standard way of serving bacon and eggs. Try it once and You’ll never go back.
Sorry Crys, I really do plan on writing about you, but food is always an acceptable detour while blogging. Damn, you need to write some food songs. Nobody writes of delight better than you, thinking of ¾ Shimmy and At My Side. That’s a good lead into what I wanted to write about Crys. She divides songs into love and social justice songs like her trademark, Battle Hymn for An Army of Lovers. Crys is a self-described “a proud black, lesbian, butch-identified woman. That must be perfectly clear if the rest of what I have to tell you is to be understood. As if that doesn’t encompass enough societally disparaged identities she’s learning banjo. When she was married to a white woman she said that just walking down the street with her wife was making a social statement. The incentive for her to write songs for social justice are clear. Her talents for it is undeniable, it’s easy to write a song against poverty, war, and injustice, but it’s difficult to write one that just doesn’t hit you over the head. That’s enough for some people, it makes them feel good about themselves, “I’m not one of those bad people I like songs calling those people bad!” That’s not what Crys does, she writes songs that work musically, songs that work lyrically, songs that work to persuade not just get people that agree to cheer.
The thing is that I often wonder if her loves songs do the same thing just because they come from a proud black, lesbian, butch-identified woman. I can comprehend someone watching this video and not thinking, “I love Crys,” and identifying with her, even me a white, straight, nerd-identified man.
That’s where my mind always was but last night watching her I realized that it’s not true. If she just wrote songs that make you go “aww” and made you feel good people might very well love her. But that doesn’t mean they’d learn the to respect other blacks, lesbians, women, butch identified or not. Many would fall prey to the “Some of my best friends are Jewish” syndrome. Think of when Sammy Davis Jr. was a guest on All in the Family. Archie was star-struck. He even let Sammy sit in his chair. He loved Sammy Davis Jr. while still being a bigot. People are complicated. By playing both kinds of songs Crys can make you lover her as a person, then think about all the other people that many in society don’t love. Martin Luther King preached that we should just a man by the contents of his character, not the color of his skin. People can find that easy to do with one person but difficult with groups of people. They become tribal. There are people that will look at Crys and see someone adorable. There are people that will look at Crys and see someone threatening. The weird but true fact is that some will see both.
Today is Richard Wagner’s birthday so I’m listening to his music as I write. Wagner was not adorable. He was a miserable, anti-Semitic nationalist bigot, but a miserable, anti-Semitic nationalist bigot that made divine music, which calls to the divine in each of us. Like I said, people are complicated. I appreciate the irony of listening to him while writing of social justice and social acceptance. Yesterday was the anniversary of the release of The Empire Strikes Back. Is Wagner like Darth Vader, was there still good somewhere buried deep inside him and trying to get out? I’m not even sure if that has meaning but it’s what his music makes me feel. I will never let who he was as a person come between me and his music, which was as great as anyone ever made. Perhaps there are bigots who will feel that way about Crys. Perhaps they won’t be as good at separating the art from the artists as I am and so become a little less bigoted. I gave you the Yin of Crys, here is the Yang.
Wise Madness 