Wrapup: Our Think Again column is called "Falling for the Far Right's ACORN Agenda" and deals with the manner in which the MSM got rolled by right wing re-working vis-a-vis ACORN. You can find it here. My Nation column this week is called "The House that Irving Built."

Alter-reviews: Raymond Carver, Thorton Wilder and Big Star. My friends at the Library of America have finally gotten around to Raymond Carver and collected all his stories in, you guessed it, Collected Stories, edited by William L. Stull and Maureen P. Carroll

Based on previous collections such as Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral and Where I'm Calling From, Carver established himself as the short story writer of his moment. That they are all in one place would be reason enough to want this on your shelf--even, if as I do, you have the paperback somewhere. LOA decided to offer up the pre-Gordon Lish version of Beginners, the manuscript of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and it's revelatory in the extensiveness of the collaboration between writer and editor--one that was a source of both inspiration and anguish to Carver, whom I met once, and struck me as a really decent, albeit sad, man. LOA has also published a bunch of novels and stories by Thornton Wilder: The Cabala * The Bridge of San Luis Rey * The Woman of Andros * Heaven's My Destination * The Ides of March * Stories and Essays, which were edited by J. D. McClatchy. Most of us know Wilder for his plays (which LOA has also published). These are, therefore, a wonderful surprise, and a perfect example of why we need a LOA, lest they be lost to us if publishing depended purely on profit. The volume concludes with a selection of early short stories--among them "Precautions Inutiles," published here for the first time--and a selection of essays that offers Wilder's insights into the works of Stein and Joyce, as well as a lecture on letter writers that bears on both The Bridge of San Luis Rey and The Ides of March.

Big Star box reviewed by Sal.

Keep An Eye On The Sky, Rhino's new and wonderful four-CD tribute to cult heroes Big Star, might just be a little too much, but the music itself plays so smoothly one may not notice the repetition. The band led by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell with Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel are Memphis legends, the quintessential power pop band whose influence can be heard all over records by Cheap Trick, R.E.M., The Replacements, The Posies and so many more. With only 2 records under their belt, 1972's "#1 Record" and 1974's "Radio City," Big Star managed to secure a permanent place in the annals of A-list rock and roll.

Over four CDs we hear the best of these two records, as well as demos, alternates, tracks from the equally fantastic Chris Bell solo record, "I Am The Cosmos," and live material culled from 3 separate 1973 performances. Songs appear 2, 3 and even 4 times, if you count early versions with different titles. Many of the alternates are not that alternate, but the material is so strong, you don't really notice having just listened to the same tracks just minutes before. The differences are subtle, and if "Back Of A Car" wasn't my favorite Big Star song, I may not have noticed that the version included here isn't the master take, but an alternate mix, with the most subtle difference in lead vocals and one extra "doo doo doo" over the bridge.

Both the demos and live tracks sound excellent, so you may not even feel compelled to use your remote, due to some inferior sounding recordings that so often throw a speed bumb into sets like this. This one is pretty great, through and through.

Eric adds: And the packaging is solid and informative, though in a size that won't fit easily among the rest of your cds.

Sal
www.burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com

This week on Moyers (who is on vacation):

With a leaked memo, delayed decisions and calls for more troops in Afghanistan, there's a growing public demand to know what direction President Obama has in mind for the war-torn country. Journal guest host Lynn Sherr sits down with Rory Stewart, who shares his vision for a sustainable policy that could benefit both the United States and Afghanistan, which he has called "the graveyard of predictions." Rory Stewart is director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. In 2003 he was appointed as the Coalition Provisional Authority deputy governor of two provinces in Southern Iraq and in 2005, he moved to Afghanistan where he founded the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, an NGO dedicated to Afghan traditional crafts and the regeneration of the historic commercial center of Kabul. Then, Sherr talks with Kavita Ramdas, president and CEO of Global Fund for Women, on women's human rights initiatives around the world.

The Mail:

Name: Michael Green
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV

I read Navasky's letter and the two responses, and I realize that when Barack Obama says he wants an intelligent discussion of the issues, he has enough trouble getting it from those with at least some degree of intelligence. How can we then expect it from people who think Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh offer the revealed word? Anne Appelbaum and Martin Peretz couldn't win a pre-school debate, much less one with the eternally brilliant and penny-pinching (bless you, Calvin Trillin) Mr. Navasky.

Since I'm in the history biz, I think, well, the rhetoric and reporting were bad when Lincoln and Douglas were debating slavery. That Douglas clearly lied about Lincoln can be easily proved; how much Lincoln lied in that contest is far more debatable. But even when they were demagougic, at least they were more literate than this crowd.

Name: Karl W.
Hometown: Connecticut

Eric,

As a lifelong Nutmegger, I can't count the number of times someone thought the "trump card" in a racism discussion was telling me that I was "too young, suburban and Northern" to have a real-world opinion on the subject. (The patting of my head was understood to be virtual, not actual.)

The unspoken argument was that I'm too educated, liberal, and unmugged to have experienced their "real world". Yet my opinions are closely mirrored by a octogenarian who was raised in the agronomic, Jim Crow South and had to win at least some of their votes to become Governor, and then President.

Fancy that. And go, Jimmy, go

Name: Jim Celer
Hometown Omaha

Great news! David Brooks saw white people buying stuff from black people, without calling the black people names or injuring them. Therefore, no criticism of Obama is racist.

I am so relieved!

Glad also that he pointed out that, in contract to the "mostly white" tea baggers, the participants in the Black Family Reunion were "mostly black".

Name: Ed Tracey
Hometown Lebanon, New Hampshire

Professor, it would appear that the Hatfields and McCoys had nothing on the feuding Dassler brothers--who split-up a successful sportswear business sixty years ago to form the rival Adidas & Puma companies (in post-war Bavaria).

Well, this past Monday the CEO's of the two (now quite international) firms decided it was time to end the feud. And they did so (a) in support of the organization Peace One Day and (b) by organizing a soccer match on that organization's annual Peace Day of non-violence. But not featuring Adidas vs. Puma - instead, with teams made of of players from both firms, symbolizing the end of the feud.

http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/welcome
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8267709.stm

Name: Burl Stubblefield
Hometown: Whitesboro TX

Georgia is drying out from severe flooding, 9 or more people are dead and Governor Sonny Perdue say's the state is broke and can't pay to rebuild. Would his asking for federal disaster funds by chance constitute Socialism? Hope those conservative Georgia folks stand fast and reject those funds. People should be able to take care of themselves right?

Name: Karen Paolini
Hometown: Oakland

Tim Kane's post, 'Old White and Angry' rang a HUGE bell in my head. My 84 year old mother-in-law, a former Kennedy liberal, now swears that Obama is running a 'shadow' government whose mission is to subvert the constitution. When my father-in-law was alive (he passed away 10 years ago), he would always call her on her nonsense, but now she gives free rein to the crazy. At the same time, she's showing other signs of dementia - saying unkind things to her children, mostly about politics, being less careful about hygiene, etc. And yes, huge doses of Fox news all the time

Thanks, Tim, for the wake-up call.

Name: Charles Hinton
Hometown: 32937

Tim Kane has a nice theory that the old are angry because they have been suckered in by the lies and distortions of Fox news. As a man who grew old in the business of serving older people, I can tell you it is a common event for people suffering from dementia to change from sweet to angry. As you deteriorate you begin to lose all those qualities that made you human, and that can be hard to accept by a person still able to reason.

Name: Gary Amstutz
Hometown: Lake Isabella, CA

We have a little blue grass band here that also plays Beatles tunes. Everytime we get one nailed down I go back to the recording and am amazed at how much more there is to learn and play. Those guys were really good.

Name: Scott Sackett
Hometown: Springdale, Arkansas

Frank Lynch Hometown: Really Not Worth Archiving - "Hi Eric, with Friday the 18th being Samuel Johnson's Tricentennial....."

Tercentenary is the word - New Jersey had one while I was a kid living there.

Name: Pat Healy

Re: Beatles! (yay!) and Beck (not so much)

I enjoyed Sal's comments, and agreed with them to the extent I could. (Alas, 'tis not in my budget to pop for the stereo AND mono boxes, and my heart will always gravitate towards the former, not to mention that it was tres cheaper.) However, to my ears, one big factor in the improved sound that Sal omitted was the lack of compression.

Prior to this year, the main attempts* to present Beatles music in a remastered form were "The Beatles #1s" compilation and the "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" (which included all of the songs used in the movie, unlike the original soundtrack.) Both presented cleaner overall sound, but the amount of compression used barely let the music breathe.

This years models, stereo at least, provide a massive amount of space to let the sound stretch out. In addition to the overall cleaner sound of the tracks, the sonic distance between the instruments, vocals, and effects is beautiful to behold. And that's just in the versions reduced to iPod size; I can't wait to spend some time at home with the CDs, the stereo, and my good headphones.

*The soundtrack to Cirque du Soleil's "LOVE" is excluded from this point, since it's virtually impossible to compare those deconstructed versions of the Fabs' output to the canonical versions. However, even if it's not all you need, "LOVE" is brilliant, particularly in the multi-channel DVD mix.

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