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Top 10 of 2003 1. The
Stax Museum of American Soul Music.
Opened in May in a down-and-out neighborhood in Memphis (a down-and-out
kind of city), the Stax Museum is a celebration of Memphis soul,
a perfect replica of the original Stax studios and a more triumphant
vision of racial harmony than the National Civil Rights Museum
uptown (where the tour more or less ends at the balcony on which
Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot, as if the Civil Rights Movement
stopped right there). Link: http://www.soulsvilleusa.com
Link: http://www.rhinohandmade.com
Link: http://www.cowboypictures.com
Link: http://www.projex.net/rftt.html 5. Boob Jubilee: The Mad Cultural Politics of the New Economy: Salvos from the Baffler (W.W. Norton & Company). Read my article. Link: http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/spring03/032430.htm
Link: http://www.decemberists.com
7. Alan Moore’s Promethea (America’s Best Comics). Sure, Alan Moore is a seriously odd man with some seriously odd obsessions, but luckily for us, Moore’s obsessions with magic and mysticism have spilled over in this, the greatest of his current series. Promethea is the beautifully drawn and surprisingly realistic tale of a young woman, Sophie Bangs, who becomes the Mother of All Stories, meets God, and then learns of her destiny to end the world. The five issues from 2003 address Sophie’s poignant aftermath of meeting God, fighting with her best friend, and trying to avoid her terrible destiny. As of this writing, however, the end of the world has begun and the end of the series (and with it, Moore’s probable retirement from comics) is due in 2004. Link: http://www.angelfire.com/comics/eroomnala/Promethea.htm
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/ 10. This. Being part of The High Hat kicks ass. The people who donate their time and talents to make each issue happen leave me in a constant state of awe, and my world is a better place because of them. Bottom Five of 2003, or Signs & Portents of the Apocalypse Sure, I could easily fill a hundred of the worst of 2003 with the words and deeds of the Bush Administration, but to spare you another angry jeremiad, I’ll stick to cultural events. 1. Country music radio’s backlash against the Dixie Chicks. How dare they speak their minds? Don’t they know that celebrities have to march in lockstep with the political leaders of their times, however morally bankrupt? That’s what it means to love America! 2. Willie Nelson & Toby Keith, “Beer For My Horses.” Willie, why do you forsake us? Please tell us that John Ashcroft was threatening to drop a semi-nude statue of Justice on Trigger to force you into recording this obnoxious pro-vigilante, pro-war, pro-frontier justice bullshit with the execrable Toby Keith. 3. Freedom fries. I’ll have mine with “free-speech” ketchup and an “I’m-a-brainless-moron” burger, please. 4. Paris Hilton’s celebrity. Why? Why do I need to know who this rat-faced anorexic brat is? Is she truly as spam-worthy as the noble cause of Nigerian financial solvency? 5. Rush Limbaugh gets his talk-radio show back. … and, meanwhile, the mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws that he supports send less well-connected drug addicts to rot in jail. I guess you’re exempt if you’re a loud-mouthed public Republican. Hey, Bill O’Reilly! Wanna start that smack habit again? |
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Pictures in the lobby document the disrepair
into which the original Stax studio fell during the ’70s and
’80s, and finally light upon a picture of a field where the museum
now stands with only a lonely historical marker to document the
insanely great things that happened at Stax during the ’60s.
When you get into the museum, that insane greatness is the
official story of Stax. You can hear Steve Cropper and Rufus Thomas
talk
about Stax’s multiracial approach to soul, funk, and rock.
You can hear analytic breakdowns of how Stax’s sound was
different from anything else happening in soul, and how the mish-mash
of gospel, doo-wop, country, funk, rock, blues and r&b built
that ultra-crisp Stax sound on the foundation of Booker T & the
MGs. You can see eye-popping examples of excess, such as Isaac
Hayes's gold-plated, white-fur-lined Cadillac. And, unlike the
defeatist Civil Rights Museum, the Stax Museum brings the history
to life.
