The Atlanta Fire Chief Fired

by Andrew T. Walker

The story of Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran’s dismissal is circulating widely, and for what looks to be good reason. Continue Reading »

14 Jan 2015

Carl’s Rock Songbook #58: Revolution’s Rush—Oliver Stone’s The Doors

by Carl Scott

What other films do we have, besides this one, that really capture the exhilarating rush—and the decadent come-down—of the 60s culture-revolution? We have a number of fine literary portrayals, such as Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test , and shading out of the . . . . Continue Reading »

28 Jul 2012

Mary Eberstadt: Sexual Revolutions and Cigarettes

by Carl Scott

So right after mentioning her new book in the post below, I noticed that NRO has posted a fine interview with Mary Eberstadt , in which she implies that, just as the medical facts about cigarettes’ harm eventually came to be undeniable, so will the sociological facts about the sexual . . . . Continue Reading »

21 Jul 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #52: Rock Recycle-ment Explained

by Carl Scott

This is the conclusion of the long series of Songbook posts kicked off by my simple observation that many bands championed as representative of new music , such as Crystal Castles, really aren’t . While many themes have been touched upon, overall, Songbook posts #36-51 have been about 1) . . . . Continue Reading »

23 Jun 2012

Our “Sex and the City” Society: Misogynists’ Paradise Realized

by Carl Scott

There are many mysterious things about the modern world, but the biggest mystery of all is how “the sexual revolution” is viewed as some sort of feminist triumph, when the objective truth is that if the most despicable, cretinous, woman-loathing men of a century ago had outlined their . . . . Continue Reading »

5 Jun 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #26: The Three Stages of Modernity

by Carl Scott

The Songbook inevitably has to analyze modernity, precisely because it is interested more in what rock reveals about our overall sociological and spiritual situation than it is in rock itself.  So what follows are two organizing posts concerning this.  Here, I’ll quickly lay out my . . . . Continue Reading »

19 Nov 2011

Reading Lonely Autonomy-First Feminists on The Front Porch

by Carl Scott

Jeffrey Polet kicks back on his rocker, and proceeds to shred a whiny-but-poignant-sounding Atlantic article, about motherhood refused and about the true consequences of the sexual revolution denied, to pieces. In a gentlemanly way, of course. Not to be missed. . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Nov 2011

Carl’s Rock Songbook #17, What Rock Does Well

by Carl Scott

For never are the ways of music moved without the greatest political laws being moved. Plato, The Republic, 242c And so they say, this the golden age . . . U2, “New Year’s Day” At this point one might well wonder why I am bothering with rock, having abundant reasons to dislike the . . . . Continue Reading »

30 Aug 2011

Carl’s Rock Songbook #4: The Poetic Wisdom Paradox, Amplified

by Carl Scott

The Poetic Wisdom Paradox, which I abbreviate as the PWP, works as follows. A wise poet, let us say Homer, wants to convey wisdom in his poetic creation. Unlike the bohemian model of the underground poet satisfied with a tiny audience, we assume he begins with the poet’s traditional desire to . . . . Continue Reading »

20 May 2011

Carl’s Rock Songbook #3: The Zombies, “Friends of Mine”

by Carl Scott

“Friends of Mine” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-F0i69_8k is a song in which the narrator has an appreciative yet ultimately ambivalent attitude towards marriage, and towards “pairing off” more generally. Officially, that is, judged by the meaning of the lyrics alone, it is a . . . . Continue Reading »

13 May 2011