Primitive Information

In a week that’s been pretty depressing so far, at least we still have something to laugh about.

Tags: Uncategorized by dhadbawnik
1 Comment »

As my wife and I approach our one-year anniversary, I’ve been thinking about the nature of marriage and life and all those big questions you think about from time to time. Then I read this article about a politician in Germany who proposed making marriages automatically “expire” after seven years (unless both parties mutually agree to renew their vows). This reminds me of something we read this summer in Thomas Cahill’s book How the Irish Saved Civilization: that in Ireland, marriages used to be annually renewable, the man and woman both having the option to, well, opt out.

Once you finish chuckling about it — or, in the case of the mostly Catholic population where the above politician resides, getting all righteously indignant — you realize there’s something about the idea that makes sense. Marriage is a kind of socially / legally sanctioned promise, one that we have less and less of the old social-economical-religious reasons for entering into and maintaining. And since divorce was legalized in Ireland, by the way, divorce rates are soaring. If love is the primary reason to get married — not economic necessity, not the orders of a prophet, not even having children — what’s the motivation to stay married?

Does the notion of mutually renewable vows encourage a healthy sort of examination of that question, or is it just what critics say it is — a slap in the face to the sanctity of marriage? Is it just an acknowledgment of what we already have — a wobbly social construct that couples are left to define on their own, while insecure religious types try to “defend” it against (gasp!) gays who want the right to marry as well?

As for myself, I am amazed every day at how grateful and good I feel to be married, at how fresh it still feels. There is a kind of wonder about words like “husband” and “wife” — I think we both feel that and play with it when we use those words to refer to each other or ourselves. That sort of thing doesn’t come from the state or the church. And so, in other words, no — I wouldn’t want to opt out. In fact, I’m looking forward to that long-delayed honeymoon…

Tags: Uncategorized by dhadbawnik
3 Comments »

Then again, don’t. This is depressing. Detroit has such a strange relationship with its relics. The old railroad station has been standing for many years, a monument to classic municipal architecture. Like a Roman ruin, you could just wander into it (as graffiti artists, urban strip-miners, and generations of horny teenagers did). There are bits of history like that all over Detroit, abandoned buildings that in any other city would have been torn down a long time ago.

Since the new ballpark opened in 1999, Tiger Stadium has stood at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull awaiting its fate. No longer. The inside — including seats, pennants, urinals, whatever else they can tear loose — is being auctioned off. I had gathered from a news report that proceeds were going to preserve the park. But then I read this:

“Proceeds from the sale will help pay for demolition of the historic ballpark and redevelopment of the site.”

The Friends of Tiger Stadium are trying to stop this, and I wish them the best of luck.

Tags: Uncategorized by dhadbawnik
2 Comments »

Dig this — a beatnik-style poem, complete with backup band, performed by Phillipa Fallon from the 1958 film High School Confidential. The reaction shots from other characters are priceless.

Tags: Uncategorized by dhadbawnik
5 Comments »

I rarely venture into politics on this blog, but this interview with former U.N. ambassador and arch-neocon spook John Bolton concerning the mishandling of Iraq is too hard-hitting and shocking to pass up. My favorite part is when Bolton trips over his own semantics, ranting “Well you’d rather live in a dictatorship than a failed state, that’s up to you.” Also, the look of utter disbelief and disgust on the face of BBC newscaster Jeremy Paxman could sum up my inner expression for the past eight years.

Tags: Uncategorized by dhadbawnik
3 Comments »

This is an album that a friend burned for me as sort of a birthday / farewell present several years ago. I had listened to it every now and then, but yesterday I plugged it in to my discman before going out for a long run, and really heard it for the first time. The music has a poppy but antiquated feel, full of crunchy sythn, bouncing bass lines, and pretty melodies. Later I read a review that compared it to Burt Bacharach, but I thought more of early Prince as I listened to it while running.

The theme of most of the songs was that of lost love, love gone cold, not so much betrayal in the “I caught you with my best friend” that’s been the grist of so many crappy pop songs, but a heartfelt, realistic look at what happens to love. What can happen. It’s brave and honest, and unlike some of Prince’s music (or a more recent and equally apt comparison, Liz Phair’s), doesn’t rely on sex to shock the listener.

There’s a peculiar relationship the body has to music listened to while running. You can’t listen to just anything. Jazz doesn’t do the trick; steady (mostly) four-four time and short segments of melody and some kind of words to follow, especially songs that have a little pop to them, always work best for me. I’ve gone long stretches listening to early Leonard Cohen during runs. The Garden State soundtrack is awesome. I’ll soon have my new I-pod fairly well loaded, so maybe this is a moot and somewhat quaint point.

I thought of the friend who had given me the album — someone I’m not really in touch with anymore. Since I was in a pretty blue mood to begin with, there was naturally a bit of wistfulness or even sorrow involved in hearing this music in such a suddenly intense way, while thinking of all this and everything else that had gotten me down. But it was a good feeling, too.

Tags: Uncategorized by dhadbawnik
2 Comments »