unconditional endorsements again

Not the “Anthropology of the United States,” but ‘anthropology in united states.’

First, Prisonship readers circa 2007 will remember multiple laudatory posts about the blog of Andrew Earles, a Wire-worshipping Memphis-dweller with considerable rock writer credits and noteworthy affiliations with the Gerard Cosloy/pigfuck milieu as well as Tom Scharpling’s Best Show. If you know what these references mean, you know this is pretty much “he had me at hello” status, but so be it. Oh, and they’re from the South, and the calls are rife with references to and reviling in the region. Well, Earles and his equally adroit cohort Jensen have produced what has to be called the first truly ethnographic prank phone calls. The calls distinguish themselves as ethnographic practices to the extent that both Earles and Jensen’s many characters are receptive, attentive, and responsive to their interlocutors. In stark contrast to generic, stilted, pranks a la ‘Is Your Refrigerator Running?’ or ‘Do You Have Prince Albert in a Can?,’ Earles and Jensen actually create, uh, almost-conversations, in a way that sheds light on how well they know their characters. On a more formal level, I am more than pleased by the gaudy profanities, gaudy banalities and extended liner notes, all of which, again, evoke late-1980s, forced exposure aesthetics that i think are hotwired into my manboobs by now.. I try for all of those same vibes on this blog, it’s just that i’m nowhere near as intelligent or adept as these mothereffers, whose efforts and whose irony, like those of the Baffler or Doug Henwood or Scharpling, keeps me doing the very different things I do for a living. Don’t believe me, though. Believe Prindle.

What’s funnier than pop culture references? Until you’ve heard “Confusing Array Of Things To Sell,” you may never know the answer. This - one of the funniest calls on the disc - involves Jensen as a slow-voiced yokel calling an antique furniture store in an attempt to sell such clearly non-antique furniture items as a used Teddy Ruxpin, a Refrigerator Perry Halloween mask, a Jackson Browne “Lawyers In Love” painters cap, a “Where’s The Beef?” button, and a promotional Press Your Luck Whammy! stuffed toy (”I think you’d like that Whammy! guy — he’s cute!”). Other great examples of type (b) include a man who simply cannot understand the humor in “The Wizard Of Id,” a fellow interested in getting tattoos of “Taz” and “The Taco Bell Dog” above each of his eyes, and the relentlessly laugh-out-loud “Just Farr A Laugh: The Yogurt Machine,” in which a slow-voiced expert on the yogurt market spends several minutes warning an ice cream store owner that ‘Go-Gurt’ is going to be the next big thing, before concluding with a recommendation that the hapless owner read the autobiography of Jamie Farr (”Remember when he played that character ‘Klinger’ on M*A*S*H? Yeah, that fucked him up big-time.”).

• jurn learn urnickson is holding it down with the most daunting sociopolitical posting any of us have churned out since wobs had a moment about healthcare (sorry Uncle: it’s a little too late to be captivating with an Obama endorsement). i am looking forward to posting a comment that’s somehow appropriate to keep this necessary conversation alive , and i do hope that none of us, ever, presume that something so relatively unimportant as a presidential election will ever be elevated to the level of being a proxy ‘race’ referendum.

one important anxiety put to bed

he voted for obama, for chrissakes.

Edwards may have dropped out of the presidential race in the dead of winter. But he will be in the fight by high summer. And come next January, if there is an Obama administration, John Edwards will be in the thick of it.

uh, i wouldn’t be so sure about elizabeth’s vote, though.

crap/not crap: Larry King

please advise.

at first i didn’t believe my lying eyes, but

chris matthews really did dye his hair. red.

campaigns come to crescendoes, just like life

this weekend is the world series after all of the campaigning. here comes.

Having worked on this campaign for a long time, sometimes the world reminds me of Capital, in which Individuals are dealt with only in so far as they are the personifications of economic categories, embodiments of particular class-relations and class-interests (Marx, 1867).  It’s a really necessary way of being able to see the world, but it is an unsustainable subject-position for any one individual to maintain permanently.

Rather than renouncing all the theory I’ve chased after in school, I’d say that my experience campaigning has vindicated my faith in the idea that critical social science practices can be put to the service of fucking shit up.

But let me say this. I’m ready for some of that ivory tower action, when the dust settles. I need a bleeping pitstop, little nerd-car that I am. I need some letters next to my name like a teen needs a charm bracelet.

That’ll have to do by way of a life update right now.  Huge weekend for my family.

opposition recherches

is this going to be me one day, just with a different uniform on?

must-read of the Month

because i’m too tired, because my sinuses ache too much to tolerate any glee:

adolph reed jr., Obama No!

a healthy elixir, before we gird up our loins and join the epic, underdog battle for a little less neo in our liberalism.

Redacted

excerpts from an internal memo written by the powerful-est Clinton partisan I have access to.

Hillary no longer has any realistic chances of winning and if she does not bow out gracefully within the next couple of weeks I fear her image as a fighter will be transformed to that of a selfish nut case.  It is one thing to fight but it is another to fight in a way that will embarrass yourself and potentially damage your party.

By the way of post mortem the following are the factors which I believe dictated the outcome:

• 1.    Change – the country is ready to shake up the establishment and there is no way she could campaign as a candidate of change;

• 2.    Her position on the war in Iraq and her stubborn refusal to admit it was a mistake – it is bad enough that she was wrong on authorizing Bush to embark upon the war, her refusal to admit that she made a mistake barred her from making any inroads with the progressives;

• 3.    The campaign’s inability to see that Bill Clinton’s comments in South Carolina were perceived as racist – I know that there is not a racist bone in Bill Clinton’s body, but the adamant refusal of the campaign to understand that taken out of context and being negatively commented on by the cable pundits made Clinton’s comments appear to be racist and then the perception became the reality;

• 4.    The comments on sniper fire in Bosnia – this was a stupid example of exaggerating which reinforced the perception that she was untrustworthy and it came during a relatively dead news cycle which caused it to be blown way out of proportion;

• 5. Her proposal on the gas tax holiday – this gimmick which was apparently repudiated by one of her own staff members received an undeserved amount of attention from the economists and the cable TV pundits and took the attention away from Obama’s personal issues, as well as suggesting that Hillary would say anything to get elected.  This proposal was more clever than smart and like most clever proposals it can not endure in the long run.  This proposal did not endure in the short run.

Senator Clinton is a great lady who became a more effective campaigner and more human as the campaign continued, and to my mind is the most qualified to be the President of the United States right now.  However, the nomination does not go to the most qualified candidate, but rather to the candidate who has run the best campaign.  She did not run the best campaign and has lost.

Ante Up

Prediction Time, please.

NC = Obama by 5-7

Indiana = Hillary by 3-5

Headline:  Both sides claim victory, but ultimately the outcome clarifies nothing.  HRC continues to make the “electability” argument, but we start to see some high-profile superdelegates endorse BHO.  A stalemate tomorrow should make some of ‘em realize it’s time for some decisive action.

(Fantasy: Obama wins both, “stealing” Indiana due to the backfiring of Hillary’s gas tax bullshit. HRC bows out and we get down to the business of Defining John McCain… Speaking of, please DNC, if you need some pro bono opposition research on that score… ‘just saying.)

the week of the teeth