A Mind That Suits What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.



Wednesday, December 24, 2003 :::
 
A warm, dreary day in Wlimington, and A Mind That Suits finds himself pressed to finish that translation. A few thoughts inspired, surprise surprise, by country music, on which he is loading up as per usual.

CMT reran its "40 Biggest Men of Country Music" last night. The choices were all rational and there was precious little to quibble over, although quibbling is what those lists are meant to inspire, the way that sports dj's take some extreme position on the sanity, probity, competence and sexual orientation of a famous coach just to get a rise out of people. People go nuts over music, too--just mention Wagner to a Bach fan, such as A Mind That Suits--but country music is such as to keep most people calm. Sort of.

There were some things worth noticing, the oddest one being that it was hosted by Meghan Gullaly, (if that is the right spelling), who plays the nutcase on Will and Grace. The people interviewed as each man'sname was brought up also included some odd names, such as the almost forgotten Melissa Etheridge and the musically idiosyncratic (but still very productive) Ben Harper. Missing were the infinitely talented Jason Alexander and the infinitely-willing-to-make-fun-of-himself William Shattner, who did extremely funny turns in the video for "Celebrity,"by--Tracy Bird? Correct spelling? Good singer, funny song, one of the all time great videos.

One suspects that, in appearing on CMT, they are following the advice of their agents, who are merely copying Jay Leno. During the Dark Years, when the public mistakenly thought David Letterman was more worth watching, Jay Leno routinely hosted country awards shows and had country entertainers on his show. nothing like building a loyal fan base to beat a man who makes fun of his own.

"Artist." That's what a lot of the interviewees were called, and some of them indisputably were, though some of them would perhaps be bettter identified with a less exalted term. Or a less elastic one.

And of course the Biggst Man in Country Music was Johnny Cash, about whom A Mind That Suits has dilated at length. (Check blogs for May 16 and--was it September 15 or October 15? it's hard to blog when you can't run four copies of Explorer at once, as A Mind That Suits can back in his office, which is where he will be come Friday. And it will probably not be until Friday that he can post again.

There can be no doubt that the term "artist" is properly applied to the Man in Black, and if you don't have any in your collection, you can do worse than buy the Love-God-Murder box set. Or give it as a last minute gift. And on that note, A Mind That Suits must wish everyone a happy and blessed Christmas.



::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 8:30 AM


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