By CHARLES ANDREWS
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT KEVIN POORE
And his cool documentary, “LongPlaying,” that you can see at a free screening this Sunday afternoon (LA) or the following Friday night (Long Beach). Details below. You don’t have to be a music buff to dig it, or a vinyl junkie, but if you are, you really will.
But first, a word from my righteous, resolute anger.
BAD IN SM, HORRIBLE IN DC
What to do, what to do, about the recent elections, both national and here in Santa Monica?
Everyone I know is aghast, agonizing, angry, confused, fearful, in denial, despairing, devastated, at best highly skeptical over the ascent of the Orange One; some are motivated toward resistance, and a few are cautiously hopeful, that Donald Trump will become a less scary president than he was a candidate.
Ain’t gonna happen. We’ve had three weeks since the election and he’s more Trump than ever. His appointments have been horrible. His top advisor runs a neo-Nazi “news” site. He skips security briefings but calls heads of state off the cuff. He lies to the press so he can have a clandestine business dinner. Former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke loves him. He will not disclose his financial holdings nor put them in a blind trust, letting his kids run the empire and requesting top security clearances for them (handy when negotiating for a new hotel in Abu Dhabi), and sternly reminds us that the President is not subject to conflict of interest laws.
Mixing his business with his new political power, he is already acting like a two-bit autocrat of a third-world nation who uses his position to engorge his own bank account. He is deftly structuring a kleptocracy. (Ivanka, where again can we buy that $10,000 bracelet you’re flashing on “60 Minutes”? Oh, I see, you just sent a press release…)
$1.3 MIL
Locally, was LV defeated because $1,300,000 buys an avalanche of big fliers, a heap of lies and the opposition endorsements of an impressive list of formerly reputable organizations whose boards, not their rank and file membership, line up with big money developer interests? Were four City Council incumbents re-elected because their campaigns have access to those same vaults? No one can say for sure. But I’ve got a feelin’.
I try to think the best of all people. I’ll talk with anyone, about national or local issues, keeping an open mind. I believe everyone really wants to do good (though some are very misguided). I believe in giving a second chance, sometimes even a third. But giving extra chances to those who show they have absolutely no interest in compromise or modifying their ways or beliefs is a fool’s errand. Ask Obama.
This is not just, I don’t like Romney, or George Bush. This is recognizing an attempt to fundamentally subvert our democracy, for personal gain. So much about Donald Trump as candidate and now President-elect is unprecedented, in very dangerous ways. I think many believe our democratic institutions can resist even Trump, but many of the things I mentioned are traditions not laws, that every President until now has respected.
TRUMP SHREDS
Trump arrogantly shreds those conventions. He has shown that there’s not a line he won’t cross. Not because he’s an outsider who wants to make America great again by draining the swamp, but because he envisioned the path for his own incredible enrichment, and he acted his way to that top prize. No matter who got hurt. And many did. I know the arguments, the economy (which the GOP torpedoed), but the truth is, he conned the nation.
I believe in our nation and the Constitution. Futile as it may seem, we must resist, and not cut him an inch of slack. No waiting to see how it might go. He has shown us. We must demonstrate, protest, stay on the backs of our representatives to work with him on things good for the country but resist tooth and nail any concessions otherwise. They can start by denying him his horrible appointments.
And slim as the possibility may be, we do have an out. Reread “The Federalist Papers (68),” probably penned by Alexander Hamilton. He wrote that the Electoral College was designed to weed out those not fit to become the commander in chief of the
United States. The Electoral College votes Dec. 19.
BACK TO K. POORE’S “LONGPLAYING”
Screening just twice: 3 p.m. Sunday at Cinefamily in LA, and 9 p.m. next Friday (12/9) at the Art Theater in Long Beach. Free but you need tickets through Eventbrite. If you can’t get the link here, write me for it. But they still need money for odds and ends, so if you can pitch in 10 bucks, that would be greatly appreciated.
Writer/director/editor Kevin L. Poore is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever known. A cool cat, but very passionate. Beneath that slow-talking, laid back exterior is a dynamo of talents and accomplishments. He’s whip smart and into everything. He’s a film, music video and stage director, a screenwriter and playwright (9, 4 produced), a novelist (4), musician and songwriter, producer, jingle composer, host of the fun podcast “Nights At The Sound Table” (6 years), and one of the best music critics on the planet.
I found him through my worldwide search for a very special kind of critic whose work would be its own art form, when I was regrouping the music department for a major audiophile website some years ago. Poore hooked me with a review of a Michael Nesmith (Monkees) album that never mentioned the album until near the
end; instead he told a tale of a kid at his high school and how Nesmith, heir to the
Wite-Out fortune, was probably just like that privileged brat who got all the girls.
His “LongPlaying” doc about music on vinyl is bound to be highly entertaining, and a little controversial. See ya there (Long Beach).
MUSIC NOTE — The new Stones album (first new album in 10 years), “Blue and
Lonesome,” out Friday, is a total surprise, a return to their earliest blues roots. Lots of slide guitar and Mick blowing harp. Funky and mighty fine.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Autocratic governments are masters of
self-contradiction. They say one thing, do another." -- Alastair Reynolds
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 30 years and wouldn’t live anywhere
else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at
therealmrmusic@gmail.commailto:therealmrmusic@gmail.com
