The penultimate installment of my Election Year Mix-tape*;I wonder if anyone's downloading this crap? Today's not quite as funky as I originally intended, 'cause I decided to spread the funk more evenly over these last two days.
The names in the song may have changed, but the groove thang stays the same. Does it even require further explanation? Heaven 17 are perhaps my favorite New Wave group; they grew out of the British Electronic Foundation project, that itself grew out of the early days of the Human League. The group managed to marry politics to a dance beat on more than one occasion, and they did it really well. Incidentally, the BBC banned this song because of the title.
This is a classic hip-hop track from the late 1980's, remixed by Dimitri from Paris. As compares to the LaBelle track, its direct political significance remains elusive, although I suppose all the complaints directed at the music critic would be equally applicable to, say, the President of the United States. Plus, you know, remixed by a French DJ, I guess that's a bit political. Or it was two years ago. But I really am just including it because of that awesome bassline, and because I think that more people should hear it. It reminds me of late nights listening to the Electrifyin' Mojo on WHYT in the mid-80s, with my lights out so that my dad didn't know I was still awake. Mojo would play sets with Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambaataa, and the B-52s. Anyways, j-j-j-j-jam on it! Word to yer precinct!
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And in a non-downloadable note, Mark Evanier pretty much summarizes my fears for how tomorrow will play out:
Right now, I'm less scared over who will win than I am over how messy it will be with all the charges of vote stealing and vote suppression and machines that misrecord your selections. This past weekend, we turned back the clocks and they said it was the longest night of the year. Just wait 'til tomorrow evening if you want to see a long night.
I'm not afraid that Bush will win -- OK, yes, I am afraid of that, only because I suspect he will be even more strident in pursuing his agenda without an eventual re-election to worry about. And of course there is the issue of Supreme Court appointments. But if Kerry wins, I don't suspect that much will change for me on a day-to-day level. Maybe there will be less bitching about the PATRIOT Act, but he can't really withdraw the troops from Iraq at this point; to do so would be irresponsible, and the people who would suffer the most (as has pretty much been the case since this ill-advised endeavor has been initiated) would be the people of Iraq. When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, so did the interests of the U.S.; this eventually led to the ascendancy of the Taliban, and we all know how that played out. (I'm simplifying, of course, but I'm still a simple man.) Bush has insured that there is no easy or quick way of extracting our troops.
Regardless of who wins, the circus that will follow in its wake promises to be atrocious. As it is, the lengths that both parties have been disturbing, and I'm not entirely certain that, given that, I'm all that comfortable with either party in power. Although I do admit that the most egregious of the offenses have been done in the name of the current regime. The notion that this is the most bitter and heated election ever is just silly, though. Aside from the inundation of ads being concentrated in states, such as mine, who weren't at all expecting it, this electoral season has made me rather more optimistic about the state of electoral discourse in the U.S. I had been genuinely upset by the Massachusetts court ruling that brought the issue of gay marriage to the fore, not because I'm against gay marriage (obviously), but because I thought that Bush would be able to use it to distract the electorate from the other (actually important) issues. And maybe he's been able to mobilize the Christian Right using this issue, but I haven't heard it invoked quite as much as I feared. Instead, there seems to have been a genuine discussion (I use the term loosely) of the war and the state of the economy. More than any other election I've participated in, this campaign has been concentrated rather heavily on the issues I consider important. It's like the first Adult election I've witnessed, in spite of the candidates occasionally giving the impression of spoiled rich kids arguing over who rules the playground.
I am not going to be moving to Canada if Bush ultimately triumphs, because I don't see why the Canadians should be subjected to an influx of Americans just because our elected officials suck. (I've found Canadians are the first to point out that Canada isn't just the 51st U.S. state.) The fact is, we're all incredibly lucky to live here. To leave just because W won is just letting him win that much more. But that doesn't mean I've got to like it, and it also doesn't mean that I'm going to sit on my ass, watching him fuck up the world.
I am hopefully dreading tomorrow. How about you?
End diatribe.
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Tomorrow I conclude this project with a three-song finale, and then I can go back to blogging about my boring life. Huzzah.
Remember to vote. Now, more than ever.
"I'm Hystrionia von Rumpole, and I approved this message."
* "Mix-CD" just doesn't sound right.
2 comments:
I for one have been listening to your mix - glad you've posted it!
Big day. Mood here is electric, boogie-woogie-woogie.
Glad you liked it! I've been trying to avoid the obvious songs; the list sort of reflects my favorite types of music, i.e., music that you can dance to.
To be honest, I'm more than a little stoked by the election. The dread is still there, but it's tempered by the excitement. The voting booths were queued up pretty good this morning.
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