Jolene
Amanda at Pandagon takes a look at one of my favorite Dolly Parton songs, Jolene. She links to a great older video of Dolly performing the song in London and cracking some jokes about fighting the real Jolene - and there really was a smokin' redhead who tried to steal her husband once. But if you listen to the lyrics, it's not a catfight at all, it's much more interesting -
And all this is why I think joking about it as a fight is especially interesting. It’s no fight, but just a clear-headed if tense discussion between two women about where they stand in terms of their sexual assets and ability to score a man, but no fight. Not at all. If anything, there’s a weird sisterhood between even rivals who understand this much about each other, that they’re fighting the same battle and it creates a grim sisterhood where they can discuss these issues in cold, rational terms between themselves. And it’s that more than the same old story of heartbreak that makes the song gripping.
More interesting stuff at Pandagon, cause I'm catching up on my reading this morning: (this on the documentary Red State, which I haven't yet seen):
I want to extend a kudos to Michael for making a point to have diversity in the interviews. His interviews with black Southerners who routinely showed that they actually thought about the issues of homosexuality and abortion instead of just coughed up talking points was particularly interesting, because it subtly reinforced what the interview with Gill demonstrated, that this conservative surge is less about religion per se and more about white reactionaries pushing a political agenda by calling it religion. Michael also was able to uncover the gender gap (women who voted for Kerry and hid it, women who were unwilling to agree with their husbands about Teh Gheyz) and he showed that a lot of the good ol’ boy Republican voters are actually not socially conservative at all, and will take the liberal position on gays and abortion, but they’re mostly pro-military and probably still somewhat racist. Guys like this are the ones we can reach by pointing out, repeatedly, that BushCo couldn’t run a proper military to save their lives.
I've got a lot of thoughts on this but nothing coherent enough to post. I'll work on it.
And, speaking of Red States and country singers, turns out Tim McGraw is an old-school populist Southern Dem:
MCGRAW: It's innate in me to be a Democrat -- a true Southern populist kind of Democrat. There's not a lot of those anymore. I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. That's just the way I feel. The issues that matter to me are the social safety nets for people, health care, middle-class concerns. We need to take care of the middle class and the poor in our country. The chasm is getting larger between haves and have-nots, and that's something we need to close down a little bit.Spoken like a true Southern populist -- although McGraw is right that not too many identify as such anymore, even though polls show it's one of the most promising ways for Democrats to make inroads in the region.
McGraw is hella influential in the country world. It's great to see him saying things like this.