I have issues with that guy (it's not a bad book, really, it's a local thing - he's from the "rich" part of KS and the book is a wee bit condescending to folks from the poorer part of the state). But that is really neither here nor there.

Catch up on some of his other writing beforehand, if you can. The Baffler is the smartest magazine in the US, and the collections Commodify Your Dissent and Boob Jubilee both provide good support for the pro-Tom Frank among us. His Conquest of Cool is pretty smart, too. I'm currently reading Thomas De Zengotita's Mediated, which posits that our exposure to pop culture puts modern Americans at a slight remove from the real, much of which has me wondering whether he's read The Baffler (which makes similar arguments, although sometimes from different fronts). Anyway, Frank is upfront about being from Overland Park, and I hope you don't condemn him entirely for being born rich.

In other news, go see the Go-Betweens! Seriously, Spoon will be back. Who knows with the G-Bs?

I could go on and on about Tom Frank, but I will just note that he is a fine reader of texts and social history, and lousy lousy lousy at drawing any sort of conclusion from it. Trust his research, ignore his recommendations.

Maybe so, but he surrounds himself with smart concluders. I agree that the Kansas book had some problems, but I don't think Conquest of Cool was off-base. Maybe we should go on & on about Tom Frank.

Hey, Tina, if you see a big funny-looking half-Arab guy at the Hideout, go and say hi: that's my friend (and Rio's friend, too) Leonard, who is both brilliant and an all-around mensch. Leonard's blog: [link]

What? The Baffler has published some exceptionally fine essays -- Ben Metcalf's great piece on the culture of the Mississippi comes to mind -- but if you think it's the best magazine in America, my dear, you have some reading to do.

Not only do I think it, I've published that selfsame thought for all the world to see: [link]

The Conquest of Cool didn't try to draw conclusions in the way Kansas does. But when I saw Frank do a reading, and he was asked "what sort of response can anyone make to this sort of cultural manipulation?" his answer was, "Join a union." Which, yes, you should do if you can, but is bizarrely not the point the questioner was trying to raise.

Similarly, the conclusion in Kansas is "get people to think about their economic interests." This after an entire book about how people care about things other their than their own economic interests! It's an updated version of the old "false consciousness" argument, and still just as wrong.

Yeah, I'll grant you that the Kansas book fell down quite a bit and that Frank can be pretty glib, but I'm willing to cut him a lot of slack. His Baffler essays have certainly had more of a point than "join a union."

I forgot to mention One Market Under God, which was one of the first books I saw to draw the connection between free-market fervor and religious extremism.

if you think it's the best magazine in America, my dear, you have some reading to do.

What's better? (As it has been said that my sarcastic typing looks a lot like my regular typing, or maybe that my sarcastic typing IS my regular typing, for clarity's sake I'll point out that the question is in the font known as earnest curiosity.)

On the topic of the unusual love song mix, it occurred to me that rarely has there been a more appropriate opportunity for Mr. Manservant of Evil to engage in some of his customary Swamp Dogg pimping: "I Couldn't Pay for What I Got Last Night," "Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe," "The Love We Got Ain't Worth Two Dead Flies". One could even say that Jerry William's raison d'etre is writing twisted love songs. And twisted liner notes, but that's a different mix.

I know Leonard too!

ETA: Well not Know know, but posted on the same board with him for a while.

Leonard brings us all together!

I don't know what I'm going to use on the twisted love mix, but it occurs to me that with so few playing, we could go 'round twice.

Edit: strangely synchronous, I saw this just now (and haven't read it yet): [link]

Mr. H and I went to see Miss Siagon in Ft Worth last night. When we got out the streets were all misty and damp and made us miss Louisiana, so we dug around in his dad's tape box and found Clifton Chenier which we listened to all the way home (it's quite a drive). I want to add more of this kind of stuff to our music library. Besides Professor Longhair, Buckwheat, and Chenier- who else should we be looking into? I really should know this stuff, and I'm going to go ahead and invest in this. I had forgotten how good that kind of music was.