Truth is Just As Strange As Fiction

Yesterday, I read Elmore Leonard's new book, Tishomingo Blues. Leonard has such a compulsive page-turning style that I read the whole book (300 pages) in about 5 hours (with breaks for Futurama and Alias, of course). The book takes place in the Mississippi Delta, near the famous crossroads where blues great Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil. Like the other Leonard book I've read, Maximum Bob, it deals largely with rednecks, cops, and guns. Of course, I'm running out to the library today to pick up five more (he's written a truckload of them), but the point of this post is to direct your attention to a news item I read just this morning. The story sounds like something right out of an Elmore Leonard book, up to and including the fact that many of the town's residents heard the shooter talking to police on their home police scanners.

Maybe I like Leonard because his books remind me of good old Madisonville, Tennessee.


Is It Just Me?

Or is anyone else planning to rent movies, check out library books, take up knitting, or drink heavily on September 11 to avoid the media barrage we're being told to expect? Some of my readers may know that I was very close to the WTC when the whole thing went down. Hmm, pun not intended, but interesting. I was able to watch about an hour of news coverage after I got out of the area, but after that, I couldn't tolerate it. I couldn't tolerate all the whining on television for months afterward. I couldn't tolerate the light memorial. I couldn't tolerate the freaking tourists from Iowa, clutching their brand new FDNY T-shirts and telling reporters, "I feel so close to the tragedy that happened, I just had to come and be close to it and see it for myself." Bertha, you're peeking through a wooden fence at a construction site, blocking the sidewalk while I'm trying to get my lunch. Fuck off!

Sure, I'm a little excitable when it comes to that stuff, I admit it. I'm just not big on the empathy, you know? Nor am I a rubbernecker. God, I despise those people. I just don't get it. The news has been out of control for years now, so I'm not surprised at them, not really. Of course they had a logo made by 11 am on September 11. Of course they were able to find 16 angles of the planes hitting the buildings. They're sick freaks. What disappoints me is all the people going for it. Mindless, thoughtless, truly numb, they need the TV news to tell them how to feel about the horror of a man-made disaster. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but history has taught me that I'm never really harsh enough. People do things that are more stupid, more senseless, more self-centered every day, and I'm not about to go Pollyanna just because a few people helped each other escape a collapsing building, then for a few weeks New Yorkers were nice to each other. Screw that noise. Ahem. On to more pleasant subjects.


Musicians Want More Money: Film at 11

Dude, I think the real lawsuit in this case should be by the patrons of the bar. "Bed of Roses" by Bon Jovi? Gah, that's even worse than "Sweet Caroline." But seriously, ASCAP pisses me off anyway. $2,818 is a lot of money to pay every year, just to have the right to play records you've already bought. Doesn't this seem like a scam to you? When I have my bar, I'm sure as hell not paying it. What, do they have ASCAP spies or something, that go to bars that don't pay the fee and check to see if they're playing the wrong music? That's just creepy, man.