One of my favorite blogs is “Corrente, the stayed behind series“. I read it every day, as it serves as a fine example of …well…how to write a blog the right way. The Farmer, who is the genius behind this blog, writes with an amazing combination of insight and humor and …also gives valuable plant growing tips. I know, I know.. but you have to see for yourself, go over there now fer chris sake.
Update May 11: I have just noticed that around the ‘net, people use the farmer’s tag in their own posts..the farmer who is referenced here always uses lower case spelling, and is the proud owner of Corrente..so, accept no substitutes! I am changing this today to reflect that spelling.
One of the things I especially like about Corrente are the people who read and discuss the farmer’s articles..a few have their own places on the ‘net, and I have gotten to know them a little as well. While farmer’s articles are always good, sometimes the discussion following them is the better part..’specially when the farmer comes back in on his own bad self (ref: James Brown, USA, Godfather of Soul) in the comment section.
Every once and a while (ok, usually every day…) there’s a section he writes that just hits the spot.. this morning, he was commenting on a Salon article about Billary from Joe Conason, wherein Joe was talking about the disgruntled auntie inna pantsuit’s horseshit tactics post the NC primary. In the comments section, a few of the good people who frequent Corrente started commenting..then the farmer let it rip:
‘Conason gives her some benefit of the doubt. I don’t, because I think its a calculated narrative (and another cynical faux folksy pander) shes adopted (as per Tweety’s little hometown girl “regular people” storyline in the earlier post). Clinton recklessly shoots her mouth all the time (Bosnia sniper fire bullshit stories, her tall tales (lies) about her previous NAFTA support… her cheesy gas-tax giveaway holiday pander… her unapologetic stance on her ignorant support of the war in Iraq… You’d think by now someone who has spent the last 27 years in the Whites House, the Senate, and a governors mansion… would have the common sense and grace and sophistication to speak in public without making a complete jerk of herself. This kind of undiplomatic (and thats given the benefit of the doubt) “slip” is a good reason why she is NOT ready to be president. The other thing that annoys me about her white power pander is that it is so arrogant and obnoxious in a white country club elitist kind of way — as if to say, well, we welcome the black guy to join us, to play around the course with us, and he is a good sport, but it just won’t do to allow him to win the tournament. The white “regular” members just won’t be happy with that. Jeezis.
Time to roll her up in her own pandering pantsuit and send her off to the cleaners!’
cool, no?…then he followed with:
‘another thing that annoys me is the cynical use of the class frame(s) (which is coming from so many of the Clinton boosteroos lately) IE: “working class” and “creative class”. What is “working class”? What is “creative class” (or “knowledge workers)? Take a nurse for example… a nurse is a “professional” (nursing isn’t considered a “blue collar” job) a nurse is a “knowledge worker” (because it requires some formal education, like a high school teacher) and therefore a subset of the (horrors!) “creative class”. A Hollywood script writer (and Union member) would probably be considered part of the “creative class” - but maybe not necessarily because to be a good Hollywood script writer you don’t necessarily have to have any formal education (you just have to know how to tell good stories and write good scripts). But none the less all are also part of the “working class”. So…. all of this talk about the “elitist” “creative class” vs the “working class” and so on is just so much blow it out the ass gassholery on the part of “jackoffs” (mostly members of the “craetive class” themselves) attempting to construct some kind of confrontational narrative to exploit for their own self serving political gain. Just sayin’.
Here’s a man who can skillfully articulate what a lot of people know to be true, but can’t quite say…and does it with humor and a huge hit of insight.
Rena and I ended up watching (because we had never seen it, and farmer, as well as driftglass and attaturk, frequently reference him) Chris Matthews’ “hardball” teewee show yesterday..it’s a true pile of framed dung..( if you read the blogs I list here, you’ll get to see him RIGHTFULLY and PROPERLY drawn and quartered) But what got me thinking this morning..follows along this a ‘here line..Follow along please: I have spent the last few weeks in places I usually don’t go..a meeting or two with the “Aurora Creatives” (of which for some reason I is..) to plan to make Aurora-by-the-sea an “artist’s friendly” place (nocommentnocommentnocomment), a presentation at Aurora University (home of the “Fightin’ Fearful Farm Folk”), wherein author Scott Turow was introduced by the head cheese of the city’s economic development commission as Scott Thoreau (Mr Turow also, it seems, attended Elmhurst College (home of the Marchin’ Paralegals), when in reality he went to Amherst..hey, what the heck, Kishawaukee Community College, Yale, it’s all good)..
Inspired by these and other messes, I have started a list called “why do these people have a job”? I am not talking about just “a job”, the kind most people have, where you work 58 hours a week and making $35K a year with no benefits..but GOOD jobs WITH benefits. Going up up up in doughski on my list, I wistfully pass graft- commissioned bureaucrats, corporate lawyer slugs, suburban sprawl developers ..and venture into the entertainment/gnus biz holy land, where it gets to be..unreal surreal…where someone like Chris Matthews hauls in the kind of Rethuglikan salary..with benefits… that makes the typical DuPage County divorce lawyer “earning” $150K/year (with benefits) look like the po’ relation.
My point here is (tap tap tap)….when someone like the farmer..or driftglass..or attaturk at Rising Hegemon..people who write everything themselves without a staff..people who even do their own Photoshop pics (several of which I have used here, and I wish they would all get on the GIMP train btw, hint hint)..writes a blog for free, and is brilliant and funny and inspires intelligent conversation..why aren’t they the ones who get the $$$$$ the yapping bobbleheads get? I am not just talking about obvious bobbleheads like..hmm.. so many to choose from.. one of MY favorites…..

..but also people like Colbert and Stewart..the “smart funny hip” guys..who have an army of people behind them (funded by awful corporations), and still can’t do anything close to what these men are doing… for free.
It’s all sad further proof of the upside-downdedness (new word!) of this dumb downed culture.
John Prine used to have some good advice that I could imagine the Farmer singing when he’s harvesting the arugula: “turn off your tv, throw away your paper, plant a little garden all your own”
And as the farmer would end with..and so have I lately..
‘just sayin’














