It appeared to be some very well-financed six-piece group of black musicians advocating walk-in baptisms to stage left. Like most fringe cults, they won’t stay in their own venue, they have a compulsion to invade yours. The usual Sunday crowd had gathered hoping to be entertained, not converted. Like most, Dave-O and I left in disgust.Dave-O, who was long employed in the movie industry, reports that the bigger outfits are compelled by law to have 20% of any hired musicians as ethnics or blacks. Some kind of industry rule enforced by law. This is exactly what is meant by “tyranny of the minority”. They don’t have what it takes to start their own industry, they just want to take over yours. And they can’t understand why you don’t like or respect them. No idea whatsoever.
I’ve been reading “The Scorpion’s Gate”, an unusually interesting geopolitical cowboys and Arabs novel. By yet another author whose name I won’t remember unless I see it again, Richard A. Clarke (with an ‘e’). He uses the concurrent plot mesh popular with Clancey fans, but lightens up on the military bum-boy angle while still managing to give accurate descriptions of advanced weaponry. He seems unable to avoid the usual clichés. The FBI counter-counter-counter this and that, the over-glorification of useless diplomats and the ubiquitous comments of how youthful the known bag of old-fart military commanders think they are as they slap each other on the back.
Clarke’s writing moves forward at a constant clip, like Capote. No wasted sentences other than the usual admixture of crooked senators, single female reporters pushing 50 but still sexy (no less), and the evil Chinese for doing exactly what the US has been doing since day one. Clarke certainly knows the material he writes about, but only from the brainwashed viewpoint of the American politician totally indoctrinated with the belief that what’s good for his job is good for the world. He was some kind of military advisor to yet another of our useless string of presidents.
The most impressive chapters are his accurate portrayal of the Arab side of things. His characters are surprisingly insightful, including his knowledge of the structure of the language and religion. My favorite passage is the Islamya (Saudi) leader explaining to his brother, “Did you know that America is so backward that people have to pay for doctors and to attend university?” He’s got a point, there.
Eddie, the new guitarist, is not returning my phone calls. I’ll drop in to see him one more time, but something tells me he will be my 17th failed guitarist from Florida. The real problem seems to be that these people quickly figure out they are not the star of the show and don’t deal with it very well. This is more common than you may think. Oddly, such people also fail as soloists, because their brand of “stardom” is dependent on having at least one other person present to be the star of—see, it is such a screwed up concept it is difficult to say. Think of early TV, all the "heroes" needed a sidekick. Ever wonder why that is? But I understand the attitude. I’ve got two brothers myself.
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