April 15, 2005
Bush's iPod, is it good for the Jews?
Whenever you want to know about the important issues of the day, you have to check Jewish bloggers for their opinions. This week Elizabeth Bumiller of the NY Times reported on the songs the President has on his iPod.
Culture maven, Sha! is impressed:
A guy who likes Stevie Ray Vaughan can't be all bad.
And of course he finds a Jewish connection:
Everybody's fixated on the idea that the prez jogs to the sounds of The Knack's "My Sharona". I wonder if anyone thought to ask Sharona Alperin (a nice Jewish girl who was the inspiration for the song and is latterly a real estate agent in LA) what she thinks.
DovBear naturally sees the playlist as another proof of the President's small mindedness and lack of class:
The president's little unit is filled with 1970's corporate-rock songs and cheesy country ballads -- and nothing by a black artist, a woman, or from a genre less than 25 years old.
Nothing by a woman? What about:
Joni Mitchell, "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care"
And other than the Knack, no one listed could possibly be classified as corporate rock; and I'm not sure they exactly qualify. Cheesy country? Clearly DB doesn't like country but we're not talking about Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood; we're talking Alan Jackson and George Jones. (Kenny Chesney's no great shakes.) As the guy from Rolling Stone notes:
Mr. Jones, Mr. Levy said, was nonetheless an interesting choice. "George Jones is the greatest living singer in country music and a recovering alcoholic who often sings about heartbreak and drinking," he said. "It tells you that the president knows a thing or two about country music and is serious about his love of country music."Whether George Jones will ever recover is open to question. Just a few years ago he crashed while DWI nearly getting killed in ther process. Alan Jackson's best stuff may be behind him, but at his best he was nearly as good as George Jones. It's true that a lot country music today is overproduced dreck, but there are still classics.
And of course the Times only lists eleven songs and three artists that the president listens to. But his iPod has 250 songs, so where DovBear knows that there are no recordings by blacks on the president's iPod is a mystery.
While we're on the subject of music, me-ander wanted suggestions of what to listen to while Pesach cleaning. I'd want something with energy. Like 60's dance music: "Do you love me?" the Crescents; "Machine Gun" Jr. Walker and the All Stars; "Tighten Up" Archie Bell and the Drells; "Land of 1000 Dances" Wilson Picket; "Mr Postman" and "Mashed Potato"; "Shout" the Isley Brothers; "The Locomotion" Little Eva; "The Twist" (and the followups) Chubby Checker.
While we're discussing me-ander, I think the answer to her literature quiz is "the Shoemaker and the elves." I would have answered it sooner but it's the re-telling of a Jewish joke that I've been trying to locate. So the literary reference eluded me because I wasn't looking for it.
Posted by SoccerDad at April 15, 2005 12:49 AM | TrackBack
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The link is not to a "shoemaker and elves" story. The man makes it by his own work. THe shoemaker and elves makes it by the elves doing the work for him. When they leave, he has accumulated enough inventory and customers (as well as money) to continue to make it on his own.
I believe that I saw it in Rabbi Telushkin's Jewish Humor book as well as a "treasury of Jewish humor". It is from memory so I probably have the name of the synagogue wrong. It may be from the end of the 19th century and not from the 1920's as I tell it below.
This is the old "shammas at the Whitechapel shul" joke. He has never learned to read and write English and gets fired.
While walking along depressed he is overcome by desire for a fag (a cigaretter in 1920's British slang - this shows how old the joke is).
He looks around and sees a long commercial street with no "smoke shops" on it. He does see a storefront for lease and opens a a smoke shop.
Since many other people are caught without a smoke while walking, it is a success.
He walks throught the city and finds other streets like his own and opens up more smoke shops.
Eventually he becomes very wealthy. He plans a major expansion and goes to the bank for a loan.
The bank manager of course grants the loan and asks him to sign. He signs with an X. The bank manager is astounded and says "What would you have been if you could write English. Of course, the answer is "I would be shammos of the Whitechapel synagogue".
Posted by: Sabba Hillel at April 15, 2005 12:44 PM
My source:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,2100-14409-1565465,00.html
"The most notable aspect of Mr Bush’s fairly predictable selection of babyboomer tunes is its extraordinarily limited demographic spread — no black artists, no gay artists, no world music, only one woman, no genre less than 25 years old, and no Beatles. "
DB, Do you think she saw the whole list? Or was she just working off the Bumiller article? The tone was very snarky and since she didn't mention a single song or performer that wasn't mentioned in the Bumiller article I don't believe that she actually knows what she's asserting.
Posted by: David Gerstman at April 17, 2005 09:32 AM