Flirting with Chaos Friday, Just a Few Pop Culture Critiques

Every other Friday, my housekeeper/nanny comes all day. Those are the two days a month I can campout in a coffee shop and write all day without worrying about school pickups. (The next closest day is Wednesday when I have from 9:30 to 2:30 for writing. Otherwise I crib together an hour here and there.) Anyway, today is not that Friday. Today is a flirting with chaos Friday. I was prepared with an art project, but the twins started painting—the kitchen table—before I got the plastic bottle flowers cut out. The flirting has gotten more aggressive as the day has worn on. Moms, you know what I mean.

I'm going for something like this under our tree house. We've got about half a dozen done today because we are painting by hand. Spray paint would be easier, if I wasn't doing this project with two 4 year olds. Pic from The Thrillz of Hillz, who was trying to camo, as it were, a dumpster.

This 15 minute post is brought to you by the Charlie Brown holiday specials. (The Great Pumpkin, Merry Christmas, and Thanksgiving are the only ones worth watching so I have them on often starting in October. The Easter Beagle is dreadful.)

When I posted the Alanis, P!nk, and Perry lyrics post at PJLifestyle, I set up Google Alerts for the artists. As a result I've skimmed quite a few album reviews. Finally today, I saw a review with a few accurate interpretations, in this instance on Alanis's havoc and bright lights. Yes, while the web is full of posts on the Mommy Wars, hook up culture, and Vagina and The End of Men, in weeks of reading reviews of albums with lyrics about love, marriage, sex, and motherhood, I've found one review that attempts in any substantial way to discuss what the songs are about. Most are shallow, mentioning only the musical style and whether the reviewer liked the songs. If they comment on the song meaning, then usually they are wrong, as in 'The Killer's "Miss Atomic Bomb" is a beautiful love song.' It is actually a betrayal of love song, but I will quibble about that a bit more later on, both in an upcoming review of Paglia's Glittering Images and when "Miss Atomic Bomb" is released as a single.

In related news, I've now seen two instances of Brandon Flowers, lead singer for The Killers, being baited about his religion and about the fact that Romney is a fan of the band. Here is the clip from The Colbert Report:

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Imagine someone asking a Muslim or Jewish rockstar about their religion this way. For instance, has anyone asked Adam Levine about how his being Jewish affects his hotel life? Imagine an interviewer asking something stereotypical, for instance, whether or not he is stingy with the tips for the staff. But Christians are a favored target, and Mormons are triple points.

Flowers is used to being baited.  Flowers isn't stupid, either. Doubling down on the Mormon card is about the only gambit the left has left in this election. (For those of you in Europe who have asked if a Romney victory is actually possible, yes it is. Yasha thinks we are on the cusp of a preference cascade, and if so then Roger Kimball might end up looking quite prescient.) Regardless of what Flowers thinks of Romney, he hasn't said, they are both Mormons. The press would love for Flowers to say something that they can pun into a runaway internet meme that fits their worldview about Mormons. I'm sure he expected the extra dose of obnoxiousness about his faith.

Personally, as a fan of a few Mormons in pop culture, I wish the interviewers and critics would at least take the time to learn something about Mormons other than they don't drink, used to practice polygamy, and aren't supposed to have premarital sex. If you are going to jab at their beliefs at least have the courtesy to learn something about their religion. It's like reviewing a book without reading it first.