Month: February 2007

Here’s my February 2007 mix:

  1. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” by Led Zeppelin
  2. “Sing Like the Sun” by Rotary Downs
  3. “Beautiful Enemy” by Dar Williams
  4. “Jenny Jenkins” by Lisa Loeb
  5. “Sweep the Leg” by No Kings
  6. “In Our Talons” by Bowerbirds
  7. “Valentine Moon” by Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
  8. “The Queen and the Soldier” by Suzanne Vega
  9. “I Want You to Want Me” by the Holmes Brothers
  10. “Nothing Is Real” by Fisher
  11. “Human Thing” by the Be Good Tanyas
  12. “Limehouse Blues” by Django Reinhardt

So far, only one person has taken me up on my 2007 mix exchange. Keep in mind, you don’t have to trade every month, or even more than once. Every month, I’m going to put together a mix of 12 songs, even if they’re just for me. If you think maybe you want to trade, let me know.

Over at Backwards City, discussing Spike Lee’s powerful HBO documentary When the Levees Broke (which, unfortunately, I’ve yet to see the entirety of), Gerry Canavan writes:

I sometimes wonder whether it’s Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, Operation Enduring Freedom, or the tsunami that will come to be seen as the formative disaster of our time. I suppose the tragedy is that it’s all of them.

Actually, I think the formative disaster of our time may have to be the nomination and election of George W. Bush as our nation’s president.

Having someone competent at the helm would have gone a long way to mitigating those other disasters.

I must admit, I had never heard of pianist Joyce Hatto before this, but Neil Gaiman is right — it’s a fascinating case.

Gaiman has also been making some very good points about the whole recent The Higher Power of Lucky controversy, including at the top of that post above.
I’ve been a little distressed and surprised to hear some of the people I know come out in favor of the book being pulled from schools lately. I understand the good intentions that often lay behind that impulse, I think, the belief that parents should decide what books their kids should, or should not, be exposed to. But denying that right to other parents is still censorship, and I’m actually a little offended by the idea that that’s somehow okay, just so long as that’s what the majority wants.

Removing one book from a public school library doesn’t simply keep it out of the hands of a kid whose parents object. It keeps the book out of the hands of all the kids at that school, regardless of what their parents think or prefer. I think there are much better, and more effective, options available to parents than having a book pulled from the school library. I think there are better options than trying to police every stray idea that a child might accidentally be exposed to.

Reading the book with your kids, for one. Or talking to them about why you object to it.