Last night Meghan, Jeff and I saw Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the (now smoke-free!!) Cat’s Cradle — WOW! Great show. The Old Crow Medicine Show opened — they’re probably the biggest pleasant surprise I’ve had with an opener since I saw Ron Sexsmith open for Tift Merritt in June 0f 2002. TOCMS was real “old-timey” “string-and-jugband” bluegrass-y, with 5 (6?) vocals, a *damn* good fiddler, stand-up bass, guitar and banjo (and maybe more)? They did one song, about a girl who lied, that I adored (and, of course, which I don’t know the name of…grrr).

Gillan and David were (as always) amazing. They love playing in this area, and it shows — they energy was wonderful. Best treat of the evening was when TOCMS joined them on stage for a slow, bluesy version of Clapton’s “Round Midnight” — gorgeous.

Still sleepy though. Big project launches today, Singing tomorrow night. Will attempt to update before next Thursday. ;-)

I still like the short story Ender’s Game (yes, much better than the novel, IMHO), but I have lost a great deal of respect for Orson Scott Card as a person.  I used to believe that the more intelligent someone was the more likely it would be that they would be open-minded.  Articles such as this one have caused me to seriously re-think this.

Orson’s style in this article reminds me of one of my other “favorite” conservatives, Bernie Reeves. Bernie is the publisher of Metro Magazine, a local publication that has a very good (and forward-thinking) music critic (Philip Van Vleck, who covers up-and-coming local “alternative” favorites such as Tift Merritt and Caitlin Cary), and incredibly (IMHO) narrow-minded viewpoints on just about everything else.

Aside: I *really* don’t understand the thinking here from a marketing point-of-view… the rest of the magazine is aimed at white, conservative upper-middle class, republican “professionals” — do they really think these people listen to Tift or Caitlin or Jon Shain?  Last I checked, the folks at these shows (at the Cat’s Cradle and the Lincoln Theater were wearing t-shirts with political statements more along the line of “LOVE YOUR COUNTRY FEAR YOUR GOVERNMENT” than “I *heart* George Bush.”  But anyway.

For whatever reason they keep sending me this magazine, even though I’ve never subscribed and would never subscribe.  Weird.

Anyway, here’s a typical statement from Bernie Reeves:

Talking trash: In a weird confluence of extremism from the far sides of the political spectrum, citizens of Raleigh are being herded into a gulag of misery. The Politburo we used to call the City Council is being shoved into policies concocted by the City staff apparatchiks—themselves serving extreme pressure groups—and are instituting a trial garbage pick-up scheme. Citizens are to forego twice-a-week yard collection to once-a-week curbside pick-up after stuffing their trash in special containers provided by Big Brother himself.

It appears that the North Raleigh anti-tax zealots have teamed up with the fanatic environmentalists to screw the taxpayers.

Yep.  They’re picking up the trash once a week in standardized containers (which are more easily handled by the trucks).  Truly an outrage.

Here’s another beaut:

Today school is dominated by a hodge-podge of unrelated and contradictory ersatz values cooked up by political theorists to attempt to please every passing fad. If things go wrong at home with students, there is no longer a core system at school to absorb the student, just counseling, another field afflicted with superficial theories. Learning is spasmodic, social interaction is polluted by the fear of upsetting the politically correct regime, and the delicate yet tempestuous interaction between the sexes is a minefield of potential danger. The new educational regime disdains normal male behavior and elevates the female. Problem kids are always boys, nine times out of 10. Is there a connection between the emasculation of the male and the violence in schools today? Even participation in athletics requires a balancing act and obeisance to an artificial reality between the sexes.

Aye yi yi.

Ok, so what was my point?  Oh yeah, Orson Scott Card’s article seems to be coming from this same (frighteningly small-minded) point-of-view.  Here’s a quote from OSC:

[…] not only are two sexes required in order to conceive children, children also learn their sex-role expectations from the parents in their own family. This is precisely what large segments of the Left would like to see break down. And if it is found to have unpleasant results, they will, as always, insist that the cure is to break down the family even further.

HUH?  What does the marriage of two loving, consenting adults have to do with sex-role expectations of children in a two-parent, heterosexual family?

And a little more:

What happens now if children grow up in a society that overtly teaches that homosexual partnering is not “just as good as” but actually is marriage?

Once this is regarded as settled law, anyone who tries to teach children to aspire to create a child-centered family with a father and a mother will be labeled as a bigot and accused of hate speech.
[…]
The propaganda mill will pound our children with homosexual marriage as a role model. We know this will happen because we have seen the fanatical Left do it many times before.
[…]
In other words, society will bend all its efforts to seize upon any hint of homosexuality in our young people and encourage it.

I think he’s genuinely trying to make the argument that if homosexual marriage is legal, it will somehow create more gay kids and that will somehow derail the “reproductive train” of our country.

Now I’m depressed.