Here's to Sitting on the Fence

The New York Times has made it clear it believes the Joe Biden should step aside and let another democrat challenge Donald Trump in the November election. So have a large number of prominent voices in the political world - Thomas Friedman,  to name just one. Meanwhile, a whole lot of prominent democrats are lining up to get behind him in his decision (as of the moment, at least) to carry on, including Obama and Nancy Pelosi.

I'm taking a break here for a minute from listening to podcast after podcast in which the world - my part of it, at least - is crying "the sky is falling."  By which they mean that Biden lived up to our worst expectations the other night that he is a doddering old man, and unfit to be president any longer. I thought that since I have this forum at my fingertips I'd use it and take a stand. I've decided to come out firmly, unequivocally and clearly in favor - of staying on the fence.

We are in a moment of heightened awareness. It was not lost even on folks who were shocked at Biden's performance how high the stakes are. Nobody is denying that the once simple split between Democrats and Republicans has become cancerous and we are at the brink of turning over our experiment in becoming an ever better democracy to a charlatan who has convinced the uninformed and the greedy that he can solve all their problems.  Republicans with integrity once believed that government and regulation should be kept to a minimum and Democrats believed government is necessary to keep wild horses in check. It was a battle between trust in the Administrative State on the one hand and those who believed the market was the best source of control over our economy - and by extension the nation.

It's not that simple anymore. The world has gotten meaner. If that were all there is to the story, we could go on debating the pros and cons of each position ad infinitum, but it isn't. The free marketers have gotten the upper hand and the country is now run by what we lovingly call "the almighty dollar." The rich have gotten obscenely rich and we have a bottom that includes millions living on the street. When hitherto trustworthy politicians like Mitch McConnell talk about tax cuts, what they mean is tax cuts for the rich - and screw all the rest of you.

The economic breakdown into rich and poor has caused no end of fear and uncertainty. And that has led to the very human desire for a big daddy to solve all our problems. Enter "Make America Great Again" and its Pied Piper-in-Chief. Put a Bible in his hand to convince the masses of evangelicals he's proof that God still has his hand in American affairs, and use the money produced by the self-serving among us to elect legislators to pass laws favoring the corporations over the average Joe, and you've got what you need to maintain near total control.

I wonder if we're looking at things all wrong. Is it that we are about to lose our democracy? Or is it that we've already lost it?  We have the structure we've built up over the years, including the electoral college - not the majority - to decide who will be president. We've staffed the Supreme Court with business-should-decide Republicans, not neutral or majority-should-decide Democratic justices. If you understand democracy to include the will of the majority, you have your answer to that question.

The cat is out of the bag. Even Republicans are beginning to understand that when Trump speaks he doesn't say what is true, but what serves his best interests. Unfortunately, that seems to be OK with them. He has persuaded a critical mass of Americans that the Administrative State cannot be trusted, that the media can't be trusted, that he and his minions should decide for the rest of us how and where we go from here. And that means we really are at a turning point in November. Just as anyone who took the time to read Mein Kampf in the 1930s would have seen Hitler's intention to kill all the Jews in Europe, anyone who reads the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 will see what is in store if Trump is returned to the Oval Office.  Everybody - and I mean everybody - should drop what they're doing and read it now.

And that brings us back to whether Biden's candidacy is the best means of keeping Project 2025 from being put into effect. On the surface, the race is between a self-serving lying cad and an imperfect politician of character and integrity. Not a real choice, you say?  Go with the good guy, you say, faults and all? Well yes. 

But maybe no.

We have another four and a half months, give or take, to make the decision. From my firm position sitting on the fence, I can't go with Biden and argue the better man should win, because I understand how easy it is to let the perfect become the enemy of the good and that a president (and an administration) should have other features besides integrity.

I recommend everyone listen to the debate put on by Pod Save America the other day. If you don't want to listen to the whole thing, the debate itself begins at about minute 45:25. One reason given for more argument is that it will expose America to the issues, and such exposure can only help the democrats because they vote issues while Republicans vote in lockstep. Another is that Biden fell down the other night as a communicator, but at the job of president he excels - and we should not reduce the entirety of the presidency to the ability to debate. Countering that is that Biden's near collapse at times on the stage reflects weakness, and he must be judged taking that weakness into consideration.

Everything must be taken into consideration. Would voters go for Kamala Harris? Could we get Gavin Newsom to change his stance and accept the nomination?  Gretchen Whitmer? Pritzker? Sherrod Brown?  What are their chances of winning? Can Americans shrug off Biden's flop the other night and plough on through, drawing on American optimism that the good guys always win in the end?

We've got a lot of work to do.

Stop panicking. Stop the doomsaying.

There's going to be a lot of turbulence, so buckle up.

But get in there and do the work. 

Germans Rapping about Rhubarb - an update on Bodo Wartke

Twelve years ago come September I posted a blog in which I identified myself as a serious fan of the German liedermacher/cabarettist Bodo Wartke. I was - and still am - really taken by his marvelous talent as a composer and performer. He combines music and wit with an extraordinarily creative use of language. I bewailed the fact that you needed to be a German-language speaker to fully appreciate the quality and extent of his skills and I made a feeble attempt to give a rough translation of his poetry into English, hoping some of his talent would cross the language-and-culture barrier.

To my delight he - or somebody on his team - picked up my blog and recommended it on their website. Misspelled my name, but hey, even monkeys fall from trees, as the Japanese saying goes.

To my double delight, he has made excellent use of the years since then and, most recently, has hit the millions of viewers of his videos on YouTube. He has greatly expanded his talents as a cabaret artist and counts today as probably Germany's best-known writer of this genre of poetry known as the sprachgesang,  (I write it in English, i.e., without a capital letter, since it has evidently entered the English vocabulary), literally a "speech song."

Let me give you an example. Here is Bodo Wartke saying his poem, "The Fat Roofer." I know. It lacks appeal as a concept, but get past that into the rap-like delivery. Note how it differs from rap. Rap is counter-cultural and ventures into the offensive; this is very mainstream entertainment that borders on (and can even cross the boundary into) the nerdy.  Here are the words, if you want to follow along, in the original German with an English translation evidently done by a literal-minded machine:

The fat roofer covers the roof

Der dicke Dachdecker deckt das Dach

Not my roof, no, the neighboring roof

Nicht mein Dach, nein, das Nachbardach

This woke me up at 8am this morning

Davon wurd ich heute früh schon um 8 Uhr wach

I never imagined how much noise that would make

Ich hätte nie gedacht, wie viel Krach das macht

I wonder what he's trying to achieve with all this noise

Ich frage mich, was er mit diesem Krach bezweckt

The fat roofer who covers the roof there

Der dicke Dachdecker, der das Dach da deckt

And why he doesn't cover the roof a little more carefully

Und warum er das Dach nicht etwas sachter deckt

And whether this still extends across the entire Tach today?

Und ob sich das so heut noch übern ganzen Tach erstreckt?

I'll be specific, this roofer is leaving

Ich sach es konkret, dieser Dachdecker geht

I'm so crazy about an alarm clock

Mir sowas von fett auf 'n Wecker

With his electric roof tile cutting device

Mit seinem elektrischen Dachziegelschneidegerät

From Black & Decker

Von Black & Decker

Unfortunately he works with him from morning to night

Mit dem arbeitet er leider von früh bis spät

I'll go over there and complain

Ich geh da gleich rüber und mecker

Before this goes on like this forever

Bevor das hier ewig so weitergeht

And pull the plug

Und zieh den Stecker

But also the next day, oh dear

Doch auch am nächsten Tach, ach du Schreck

The roof will be boldly covered again from eight o'clock

Wird ab acht wieder keck das Dach gedeckt

I am rudely awakened from the night

Ich werde unsanft aus der Nacht geweckt

About the fat roofer's crash comeback

Von des dicken Dachdeckers Krach-Comeback

But while I'm there from the aft deck

Doch während ich da so vom Achterdeck

Watch him cover that roof there

Beobachte, wie er das Dach da deckt

I notice, oh, he's doing it correctly

Fällt mir auf, oh, er macht es korrekt

The roof is becoming more and more of a magnificent object

Das Dach wird immer mehr zu einem Prachtobjekt

Respect, I'm peeking over

Respekt, ich luge hinüber

And admire the roof deck tactics

Und bewundere die Dachdeck-Taktik

Hey, this guy could easily write a book about it

Ey, der Typ könnte glatt 'n Buch schreiben über

Roof deck didactics

Dachdeck-Didaktik

I've been dealing with the fat roofer ever since

Ich befinde mich seitdem mit dem dicken Dachdecker

In perfect, intimate harmony, Digga

In perfekter, trauter Eintracht, Digga

And wish me directly, immediately in emotion

Und wünsch mir direkt, sofort im Affekt

He'll be covering my roof soon too

Er deckt demnächst auch mein Dach

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Matthias Kraeutli / Bodo Wartke

These days (and I don't know how far back this goes) he has teamed up with others to produce popular cabaret-style musical performances, and now has extended even into dance. In the 90s he published a series of pieces about German tongue twisters, once again showing off his facility with language.

There is a  silly German tongue-twister that has been around for years about a girl named Barbara - also called Bärbel - known for her delicious rhubarb cakes. She is good enough to open a bar to sell them in. Living in the neighborhood are three barbarians. They become regulars at Barbara's Rhubarb Bar and become known as Barbara's Rhubarb Bar Barbarians. You can see what you can do with these word/concepts in German: Barbara is Barbara in German; rhubarb is Rabarber; bar is Bar; barbarians is Barbaren.

The poem is available in its entirety, line by line in the original German with an English translation here.

The song has gone viral and is widely becoming known as simply, "That German Song" - now in sprachgesang form.  It is now crossing language barriers and is available in Italian, English, and French, albeit in literal forms without the rhythm and rhymes of the original.  Kids (see here minute 2:39) in Uganda are dancing to it. And it has even led to a sequel [actual sequel begins just after minute 10], in which Barbara teams up with Bärbel and becomes a lesbian. Barbara and Bärbel have a baby named Emily to add to their (warning: German pronunciation of English word family = femily.) If you want more about the background to the poem and the content, have a look at the website of Feli from Germany, who does a bang-up job with that. 

But back to Bodo Wartke. Here he is, teamed up with the well-known musical artist, Marti Fischer, doing the original. And here are the Australian couple, Jasmine and James, who, I believe, created the dance, gone equally viral. They met in ballet class in Dresden - she's German, he's Australian and they are now married and living in Australia posting their dances on their website.

There are many more - too many to list here, proof that the world has not lost its appreciation of the absurd.

All is not lost!

Eric - a Netflix Series review

Back in the day when I first became aware of the talented English actor Benedict Cumberbatch - I think it was when he was playing Sherlock Holmes -  I had trouble remembering his name. It kept coming out Cummerbund Bandersnatch.  Since then, I've been blown away by the astonishing breadth of his talents as actor and public figure and become a big fan. I won't go into the lengthy list of his accomplishments; you can find them listed on his Wikipedia page. 

He's on my mind at the moment because I've just finished the six-part Netflix Series, Eric, in which he plays the role of Vincent Anderson, a man with exceptional artistic talents. He is the father of Edgar (Ivan Howe), an equally talented nine-year-old who yearns in vain for his father's attention. The neglect leads to devastating consequences; the son goes missing and for a long time we don't know whether he has run away or been kidnapped and the story evolves into a thriller. Two other characters play major roles in the drama: Cassie, Vincent's wife, Edgar's mother (Gaby Hoffman), and a missing persons police detective, Michael Ledroit (McKinley Belcher III). Driving the plot is the fact that Edgar has had to witness regular violent conflicts between his father and mother and the fact that Detective Ledroit, known as Micky, has to relive another kidnapping case eleven months earlier where the victim died.

Some of the plot line can come across as trite or pedantic. Micky is black, as was the former kidnap victim, and he suspects not only that white racist NYPD cops were involved, but that his immediate surpervisor's refusal to let him investigate Edgar's disappearance properly is somehow connected.  This is the 1980s, Micky is gay and his lover is dying of AIDS, and the racism, no surprise, is accompanied by homophobia. But most of the tension stems from watching Vincent fall prey to alcoholism and drugs, even becoming a suspect in his own son's disappearance at one point. This is where BC adds even greater acting chops to his bulging list of accomplishments.

Besides Vincent, Cassie, Edgar and Micky, there is a fifth major character, the one the series is named for: Eric.  Vincent is the creator of a kid's television show called Good Day, Sunshine, a puppet show widely known across the country (think Sesame Street). When the producers insist the show needs a new character to boost ratings, Vincent decides that puppet should be Eric, a furry monster invented by his son, hoping that Edgar will see the character and understand that his father is trying to reconnect with his lost son and want to come home.

In his drunken stupors Vincent begins to see Eric as a real character and talks aloud to him, even in the presence of others, leading them to conclude that he has lost his mind. Eric plays the role of Vincent's conscience, uttering one harsh bit of self-criticism after another.

The plot gets a bit woozy at the end. I won't spoil things by revealing how the story progresses toward a conclusion. And I can't guarantee that everybody will find it in their hearts to forgive the character flaws of Vincent; they are seriously reprehensible.

But that, in a nutshell, is why I think so highly of Benedict Cumberbatch's performance. I don't think I've ever seen a character this troubled and difficult to forgive that I felt I could relate to. Few actors, I think, could pull that off.

But then I've already shown myself to be among those who believe BC is that good.

photo credit