Alan Grayson on Ted Cruz

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL 9th) has a history of offering inflammatory opinions in order to pejoratively paint his political opposition.

 As he ramps up his campaign for the Florida Senate seat being vacated by first term Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), it is natural that Grayson relies on his outrageous ability to tweak an ascending Republican Presidential candidate like Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and stand out from his primary opponent Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-FL 18th).

One wonders whether Cruz's propensity for principled fights is more like Miley Cyrus or Grayson's absurd analogies are more like the twerk jerk.

The horror. It makes one want to scream (sic).

"The National Anthem is our patriotic anchor to the national defense."

Last year was the bicentennary of the penning of Francis Scott Key's of the Star Spangled Banner. Our National Anthem is based on a poem "The Defense of Fort McHenry" about the bombardment of Baltimore by the British during the War of 1812.  The British had just burned Washington, DC  and their forces were heading North to beat "rebel" American forces in Baltimore.  What stood in the way of British military dominance was Fort McHenry, which blocked warships from entering Baltimore harbor.

The British bombarded Fort McHenry for 27 hours.  Key was aboard a Royal Navy warship negotiating the release of a prison.  During the aerial siege, the American lawyer was taunted that soon the Stars and Stripes would be replaced by the Union Jack.  On the dawn of September 14, 1812 when Francis Scott Key saw the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry, he was inspired to write: 'Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?".

Shelli Jones Manuel 

Shelli Manuel, an accomplished musician and vocalist, was inspired to educate people about the Star Spangled Banner when she interviewed Baltimoreans about the National Anthem in the city of the song's birth, yet 80% of the adults and none of the youths knew any of the verse.  No wonder people chuckle nervously at scene in The Naked Gun (1988) when Detective Frank Drebin stumbled along when singing the Star Spangled Banner at a ballgame.

There have also been movements to replace the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem with the Woody Guthrie folk song "This Land Is Your Land" (1940).  Guthrie's ditty was written in reaction to his repulsion to hearing Kate Smith sing  Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" (1918) on the radio, as he thought that the lyrics were unrealistic and complacent. Guthrie tinkered with the tune to occasionally include overtly political verses which showed communist sympathies. It may be a fun song to sing around a campfire but does it really depict universal American values?

Pit Bull singing Nuestro Himno (2006)

In 2006, there was a push by a bunch of Latino pop stars like Pit Bull and  to make "Nuestro Himno" a de-facto hip-hop Hispanic National Anthem. Clearly, a Spanish version of a National Anthem takes away from the unity of one song brings a nation. This was foisted on the public in the midst of the 2006 push for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  What a way to Balkanize the country! 

But there is also the trickiness of translation.  The first stanza of "Nuestro Himno" was fairly accurately rendered, although references to bombs and rockets were referred to as "fierce combat" so as not to sound too militaristic.  However, the second stanza seems to totally rewrite Key's lyrics, expressing "we are equal, we are brothers."  An alternate version of "Nuestro Himno" including rapping in English exhorting: "Let's not start a war With all these hard workers They can't help where they were born."  Did they channel Woody Guthrie with some Latino flair? Fortunately, Nuestro Himno got mixed reviews and seems to have faded into the sunset. 

Miley Cyrus at 2015 VMA

In 2014, Miley Cyrus backed a "We the People" petition to President Obama to change the National Anthem from the Star Spangled Banner to "Party in the USA". Of course that publicity stunt should have been taken as seriously as Miley Cyrus would be by a Music Conservatory.  Still, the petition only fell 90,000 votes short of being addressed by the White House. Shelli Manuel and the Veterans of Foreign War also muted this mutiny of our National Anthem.

Why is it that there are multiple moves to replace the Star Spangled Banner as America's National Anthem?  Obviously, education is a key component for the anthematic cognitive dissonance. Our educational system seems to stress social history in lieu of patriotic concentrations.  Moreover, students are conditioned to consider the United States a warmonger, misinterpreting the "bombs and rockets" as aggression rather than standing in self-defense.

Another aspect which people wonder "What the Hail?" about our National Anthem is the tune.  Key was a lawyer and poet, not a composer. Hence he borrowed the already established tune "The Anacreontic Song" (To Anacreon in Heaven). Unfortunately, that was a popular English tavern tune which was used as a sobriety test-- members could be refused another round if sang off key or flubbed the lyrics.   Key ought not be chagrined at borrowing popular melodies, as that is what Guthrie did for "This Land Is Your Land" too.

There has been some consternation about stylized instrumental arrangements of the Star Spangled Banner, like Jimi Hendrix guitar solo rendition at Woodstock (1969) or Jose Feliciano's soulful arrangement at Tiger Stadium during the 1968 World Series.  Tastes can differ but so long as the musician does not make a mockery of the National Anthem like Rosanne Barr did in 1990, we can tolerate it so long as the lyrics are not butchered or altered.


To combat this ignorance and indolence about the Star Spangled Banner, Shelli Manuel took a multi-faceted approach.  After singing at a subdued 2014 bicentennary celebration for the Star Spangled Banner in Baltimore, Shelli Manuel sprang into action.  Manuel organized Sing It America to educate the public about our National Anthem.  The group convinced the United States Senate to honor and give thanks to the Star Spangled Banner  to have a year long celebration of the Star Spangled Banner. Moreover, Senate Resolution. 550 (2014) expresses the Senate sentiment that all the current verses of the Star Spangled Banner remain the National Anthem in perpetuity, including the "Forgotten Prayer Verse". 

But aside from symbolic Senate votes, Sing It America launched a comprehensive educational program to help students learn about the Star Spangled Banner.  

In the Bicentennial year, the National Symphony Orchestra premiered a new symphonic arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner at "A Capitol Fourth". But Shelli Manuel wanted to demonstrate that the Star Spangled Banner can be performed well in a variety of arrangements and settings.  So Sing It America arranged a Marathon 24 hour celebration of the Star Spangled Banner on the 201st anniversary from 5am to 5am on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Dozens of groups will sing the National Anthem every hour on the hour.

This dedication to the Star Spangled Banner shows that the National Anthem is not just a pro-forma tradition before sporting events.  The Sing It America Marathon and educational efforts invite Americans to deeply enter into the meaning of the Star Spangled Banner and see the lyrics of our National Anthem as a credo reflecting our freedom, our history, acknowledgement of Divine Providence, and self defense.

CMA Skewers Obamacare By Morning

In the entertainment industry, awards shows try to create buzz for the craft segment while honoring its echelon.  Often, the buzz from these awards shows are stunts which create resonating word of mouth. These publicity stunts reflect where the industry movers and shakers believe that their audience is (or should be).

On the one hand, Miley Cyrus created buzz this summer at the Video Music Awards by twerking onstage with Robin Thicke  While it may have positioned Cyrus away from her Hannah Montana child star roots. which should make her blue, but the controversy caused many to lament the degradation of popular culture. 

Brad Paisely and Carrie Underwood at CMA Awards

On the other hand, the opening segment of the 47th annual Country Music Association Awards Show managed to create buzz without bawdiness or calumny.   Brad Paisley joked with co-host Carrie Underwood that his back hurt and that he needed to see a doctor.  Underwood enthused "Have you signed up for Obamacare?"

George Strait

As the pair briefly feigned trying to use the inadequate Heathcare.gov website, the duo launched into a song: "Obamacare by Morning" which parodied Country Music Entertainer of the Year George Strait's "Amarillo in the Morning".  The capacity crowd at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville enthusiastically applauded. 

Although the content of the CMA opening sketch is more appealing to the political sensibilities of the District of Calamity, the manner which the humor was used was sublime yet biting on a real public policy pivot.   Moreover, the CMA sketch acknowledged the audience's druthers rather than defining degeneracy downward ala the VMAs and prompting an impressionable audience to join them in the moral mud. 

Invade Chicago?

As Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert tried to make sense of the news after a two week long Roman Holiday, he acutely analyzed the conundrum of the Syrian Crisis.  Colbert commented:

The United States has no choice but to attack Syria because dictator Bashar Assad is killing his own people with chemical weapons.  Before he was just killing them with bullets.  But if America cared about shooting people, we would invade Chicago.

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Indeed.

An Artistic Antidote to Miley Cyrus Twerking Travesty

As the world is on the brink of war pending action on Obama's Bloody Red Line in Syria, the American public is tittering about Miley Cyrus's titillating twerking performance at the M-TV Video Music Awards.

[F] Miley Cyrus [B] Robin Thicke at 2013 M-TV Video Music Awards

While the performance allowed 20 year old former star of Hannah Montana to certainly devolve from her Disney roots, the edgey "dance" was universally panned and made many  viewers wish that they could wash their eyeballs. 





Considering the surrealistic choreography which seem to resemble Build-a-Bear Workshops in Hell, the antidote to this aesthetic atrocity may be found in an artistic reductio ad absurdum. Let's see how Miley Cyrus's twerking contrast with other modern masterpieces. 

Edvard Munch's Expressionist work Der Schrei der Natur , a.k.a. "The Scream" (1893), has been compared to an individual suffering from depersonalization disorder, feelings of distortion of the environment and one's self.  Some have speculated that Munch was inspired by the proximity of a slaughterhouse and an insane asylum near his studio.  Or perhaps he had premonitions of Miley Cyrus' dad's achey breaky heart of watching his daughter deliberate debase herself in public. 

Pablo Picasso painted "Guernica" (1937) in response to the Nazi German and Italian Fascist bombing of the Basque village during the Spanish Civil War.  Picasso wanted to depict the suffering of people, animals and buildings due to the bombing of Guernica.  As Picasso worked on his painting in Paris, the artist opined: 

The Spanish struggle is the fight of reaction against the people, against freedom. My whole life as an artist has been nothing more than a continuous struggle against reaction and the death of art. How could anybody think for a moment that I could be in agreement with reaction and death?

It is only fitting that Miley Cyrus' twerking fits in with the death of art. Or maybe just grandly bombing.

Salvador Dali's famous "The Persistence of Memory" (1931) has several symbolic hooks which tie into Cyrus' M-TV obscenity dance.  The melted watches depict Dali's insight that one can not hold onto time (or music).  Deeper Dalian hermeneutics understand the appearance of ants to be a symbol of decay.  So the ants devouring a pocket watch means there is no permanence. Then there is the strange "monster" at the bottom center of the painting.  It looks vaguely human, perhaps an abstract self-portrait of the artist.  Docents from the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida recognize the figure as being  "The Great Masturbator".  There's a certain symmetry with Cyrus' desperate gyrations.  Personally, the "Great M" reminds me of a dead fish, which also has parallels to Cyrus' post VMA artistic career.  But in the parody piece, Cyrus seems to be  barking up the wrong tree. 

After ascending to artistic heights to put Cyrus' dirty dancing into context, it is worth considering the publicity hungrey celebutard's potential synergy in today's entertainment industry.

[L] Miley Cyrus [R] Ashton Kutcher in Two and a Half Men

It's a pity that Two and a Half Men already cast the role of Charlie's long-lost lesbian daughter to Amber Tamlyn for this season.  Miley Cyrus' prior guest shots on the delightfully bawdy show were cute.  Now with her hedonistic reputation, Miley Cyrus  could follow in the footsteps of Charlie Sheen and star in a show which charmingly celebrates cultural depravity which nods to their trouble pasts while undergoing a personal public meltdown.

h/t: Buzzfeed