The Rant Goes On

I'm usung a lighter shade of green this post - while I'm a creature of habit, routine gets tiresome and troublesome.

A few random thoughts:

Kids today have IPods, Blackberries, cell phones, instant messaging and access to the world wide web at their fingertips. They can store more music on a MP3 player than I had in my vinyl collection back in the day. They drive cars that are so computer-oriented, changing the oil at home is almost impossible. The day of the shade tree mechanic is done and past. We're quick and convenient, but we're missing something - take a look at my blog of January 19 - I cited the need for us Baby Boomers to come to terms with the fact that we really needed a plan of action several decades ago. We had a vision but needed something to make the transition to viable plan. I guess that's where the young and not-so-passioned have the edge on my generation - they're thinking things through and perhaps formulating something we didn't. You'll never change my opinion, though, that we had the best music.

Listening today: Disc One, "Those Were the Days," by Cream

Trees

Steve should first cut the trees and then read the book. . .

Nixonland - At Page 444

Rick Perlstein's "Nixonland" is a telling of the tumultous 1960s through a relatively new and witty voice. This is my first Pearlstein read, and I'm sure more will follow - this is a writer to listen to and hear from. About the only follow up work I could recommend would take you back more than a decade; "In Rerospect, " by former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, published in 1995. Pearlstein wasn't around to live these scenarios first hand, but his research makes all of us who did rethink the whole process, what we were thinking at the time, (if we were thinking at all) and where some our passions were. It was far too many for many of us, myself included, to carry a sign and say we were against the War and champion the rebelliousness of the era, much more to actually get out and show colors of involvement.

I was hearing a message from the music I listened to: Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, Cream, Blind Faith, The Beatles, Stones, and the Doors. I could smell a classic a mile away. I knew Crosy, Stills, Nash, and Young's "Deja Vu" was going to be a long remembered album, it would be pivotal to understanding the decade, but that was about all I was hearing. Other than disseminating views on the then-current rock and roll scene I considered the 1960s a stretch of paranoic fears and mistrusts that would compel me further and further into myself. I disrusted and feared people and kept to myself. It took me years to become vulnerable and I look back on that ten years as the worst of my life.

"Nixonland" at page 444 is more than compelling, more than historic, more than just another backward glance. It shows how the cult of Nixon grew up around the events of the times. Perlstein is compassionate but irrascibly and incisively charming. He tosses in tinges of humor. No one interested in this time period should miss it. I even told my neighbor, Steve, who has made a commitment to cut the trees and brush along the fence line, that if he would read Nixonland, I'd buy him a copy. He has contended for some months now that he is the greatest element to come out of the 1960s. I just want him to see what kind of world he was born in to.

Nixonland at page 444 surpasses what I thought it would be. Put down the Koontz, King, and McBain novels and crack this book and see why.

Updated Blog

This is a blog update. . .this morning I had Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for breakfast, a slice of whole wheat toast with Great Value (read Wal-Mart) grape jelly on it. . .I then went for a walk and listened to a collection of 50s oldies I compiled on my Sansa player. . .then I came home and did some writing, continued reading "Nixonland" (Rick Pearlstein) and here I am updating this blog especially for my over-the-fence neighbor who is promising to cut the trees along the fence line.