Parental Shame

Most parents, at least at some point, have to admit that they are sometimes ashamed of their children (or often ashamed; for instance, my parents from the time I was about 11 until I got married).

But smart parents keep that shame/embarrassment threshold pretty high.  That's why I'm trying to play it cool with my recent twin - and silly - shames from Ariadne and Evan.

ARIADNE 

As the half-dozen readers of this blog know (my market research says it may be a dozen, depending if you count hits from inside of prisons), I am a punk rocker and conversely very anti-hippie.  But two weeks ago Ariadne announced that she is a hippie.  Not the drug-taking kind, she quickly added.  Nor has she stopped bathing, making things out of macrame, nor is she sitting around the house lazily complaining about how bad things are but getting high instead of working to solve those problems (the latter is my true definition of a hippie).  

I'm not reacting, similar to my non-reactions to claims of being an atheist - followed contradictory claims of being a Buddhist.   

And luckily she is not listening to old hippies or new jam bands.  One of my patented anti-hippie screeds is a complaint against the Beatles song 'Let It Be.'  Did Rosa Park let things be?  Did Abe Lincoln? Did Dean Smith? Did Paul Wellstone?  Did John Lewis?  No.  You can NOT let things be.

Not only does that song and sentiment stink, but it's not ever the best 'Let It Be' in music.  This morning I'm listening to The Replacements album of the same name, simply one of the best albums of all time, an album that shows a punk band using that attitude and energy to guide their often sloppy - which is so punk rock! - musical evolution into one of the best rock bands of all time.  You want sloppy brilliance?  'LIB' includes 'I Will Dare' a classic piece of songwriting that features a mandoline solo courtesy of  REM's Peter Buck, and ranging from 'Unsatisfied' to 'Gary's Got a Boner.' It sounds like a compilation album for an era, not a young punk band making their second full-length album.  The last best band on the planet.

The Mats' version "LIB" proves something that does not even need to be said, but I will to continue to keep the record straight - punk rock is better than non-punk rock (and the civil rights movement had better music than the anti-war movement, too).

EVAN

So I'm proud of playing it cool over my hippie daughter.  We'll see how I do with Evan, who last weekend timidly asked 'Is it okay if I become a Redskins fan?'

I haven't followed the NFL closely for years, since the year the players went on strike and he owners fielded replacement teams full of strike breakers at line backer.  Fans actually showed up and tuned in to watch the scabs play - hey, violence is violence, right?  The union quickly caved in the face of public support for the owners, and as a result football players - with the exception of uber-protected quarterbacks - have been treated like meat ever since: few guaranteed contracts, pretty limp pension and health benefits, longer seasons that turn a players body to pulp, etc.   

Anyway, during the baseball strike of 1994 I realized how much I missed baseball; I didn't and haven't missed the NFL since their strike and the owners' defeat of the union.

But one consequence of living in DC is you live in a Redskins town.  And all of Evan's friends, at least the guys he plays baseball with, are Skins fans. And I started the slippery slop by watching the Heels play on Saturdays, and taking him to Chapel Hill four out of the last five seasons to watch a game.

So even though they have the most offensive nickname is sports, are owned by a guy who makes George Steinbrenner look like Dean Smith, and the entire NFL is nothing more than 'right wing theater' we've got a Redskins fan in the house.

His room is next door to the hippies'.

Punk Rock Americana

A brief respite from Carolina basketball to blog a bit about two great American - and punk rock - institutions: Habitat for Humanity and Alcoholics Anonymous.

As many probably heard, Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, died this week. Since it was founded in 1976, an auspicious year for America and punk rock, H4H has housed more than 1 and half million people in 3,000 locations (including Tallahassee, Florida where I worked on two houses in the late 80s) around the world.  Families living in Habitat homes do not pay interest on their mortgages and the homes are built by volunteers with donated materials.

Fuller, like his most high-profile supporter Jimmy Carter, was an evangelical Christian.  Unlike most of that ilk, he was not a hypocrite and put his beliefs into action . . .  rather than spend his time say, bashing gay people.  

But what he really was was a punk.   What could be more punk rock, more do it yourself, than building someone a house who doesn't have one?  He didn't wait for corporations or government to solve the problem of low income housing (though to be fair the U.S. government has probably built more low-income housing than any entity on earth), he did it himself.  He didn't sit around lamenting the problem; he identified it and tried to solve it.

DItto Alcoholics Anonymous.   A complete DIY operation - identify problem, identify solution - run by volunteers reaching out and helping their peers.  And it works!

In addition to being punk rock operations, H4H and AA are excellent examples of American participatory democracy. Citizens organizing themselves to make their society and country better on their own.  One of the things that makes American better than Europe (take your pick actually: baseball, Bill of Rights, better pizza, rock and jazz vs. opera and classical, etc.) is that we don't expect the state to fix everything. Here, democracy means more than voting. It means civic institutions and being involved in your community, and that's what these two organizations do (punk rock style).

Random Thoughts

• Good article on Bobby Frasor in today's N&O. With Graves out for the rest of the season I hope we'll soon see the 2006 Frasor reemerge for the Heels.  Also worth checking out the N&O's midseason report on ACC basketball.
• You heard it here first: watch Maine moderate Senator Susan Collins.  She knows the Dems don't get to 60 filibuster-proof votes without her and fellow Maine Republican - and Greek-American - Olympia Snowe.  Collins just got reelected and is already asserting herself as a key power broker. Witness her deal making on the economic stimulus bill last night.  Expect more of that to come.
• I was in Whole Foods last night; I'm always struck by how bad the music is in there.  It's usually a mix of boomer-dreck: Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, "Do You Like Pina Coladas . . ." . etc.  Shouldn't we hear more Pete Seeger than Bob Seeger at a store like that?  Anyway, last night they played "Lie to Me" by Chris Isaak.  I came home and have been listening to his second (self titled - 1987!) and third (Heart Shaped World) records ever since.  Both still sound great and unique twenty years later.  
• Some Hellenic hoops news.  Greece replaced coach Panagiotis Yannakis with Lithuanian and former Olympiacos coach Jonas Kazlauskas.   Coincidentally, Yannakis is the current coach of Olympiacos. Kazlauskas recently coach his national squad at the Olympics.  Yannakis is the Dean Smith of Greek hoops. He won a European championship as a player with Greece in 1987, defeating the USSR in the title game, and coached Greece to the 2005 European championship and a silver medal in the 2006 World championships (defeating the U.S. in the semi-finals). Kazlauskas takes over as Greece prepares for the 2009 European championships in Poland.
• One final final Hellenic hoops news.  If you have NBA TV you can watch Olympiacos play today - Feb. 7th, live - in the Eurobasket tournament.  American Josh Childress is hurt but you can still watch Theo Papaloukas hoop it up Hellenic style.
• In case anyone is wondering, 1976 was the U.S. Bicentennial and the year The Ramones released their first album.