Pheaturing Ken Burns

Hey there, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Monday. How are you? So, I was thinking... if we give everybody a hot of acid they won't be bored for 8 to 12 hours and they won't go outside because of the fucking dragons. If you want an example of how housebroken Americans are, right now there's mass protests in several states. They aren't demanding rent freezes, or UBI, or healthcare. They're demanding the right to go out and die to keep making the ruling class richer. Here's a very appropriate analogy... the curve is flattening, we can start lifting restrictions now equals to the parachute has slowed down our rate of descent, we can take it off now. Just saying.
A Kenyan governor has proved that government really can work for the people after announcing that little bottles of Hennessy will be provided in the local government’s COVID care packages for citizens. Along with food and medicine and blah blah blah Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko included several small bottles of the cognac Hennessy, which he rationalized would act as an (extremely rad) throat sanitizer. Of course, a couple of nerd virgins were all like, “Wahhh the W.H.O. says alcohol doesn’t help and is dangerous” and “What about the children!?!” Whatever, losers. Mike Sonko knows that the only way to beat a pandemic as alpha as coronavirus is to be alpha ourselves. And what’s more alpha than slamming Hennessy? Apparently a lot of things, according to Hennessy, who told the Nairobi News that, “Hennessy would like to stress that the consumption of our brand or any other alcoholic beverage does not protect against the virus.” Pfft fine. Maybe Sonko isn’t the best source for medical information. For one, he’s not a doctor. Also, last year he took some serious heat for corruption charges. Enough that he was arrested. Not a good indication that his judgment is as solid as you want it to be from the guy issuing government medical supplies. Though he still has his job, so that’s… something. But here’s the deal. Sure, Hennessy won’t cure anything. It also won’t prevent you from getting anything. But what it will do is make your time indoors a whole a lot cooler. This is indisputable, scientifically speaking. So, dear Kenyan friends, obviously confiscate the Hennessy bottles Sonko gave your kids, pour a few cocktails with your government-issued Hennessy, and batten down the hatches until this bat meat storm blows over.
You know how they say that sometimes dads come up with the most hilarious hacks that somehow always work? Seriously… think about it. It’s like they have a superpower when it comes to them trying to come up with a way not to do what they are told to do. So, being the "fun dads" they are, they try to go around it and make it fun for both the child and them. Like in this case, where four dads decided to have some fun. Turns out a group of men from Parker, Colorado decided to come up with a new game called Toss the Toddler, and it is EXACTLY what you think it is. The men are seen standing in a square, and two of them are holding two toddlers. Out of the nowhere, they throw the children up in the air to the dad next them, as if playing a game of hot potato. Luckily enough, the children seem to be having just as fun as the dads, because let’s face it, who doesn’t like to be flung around in the air as a child? Here's what it looks like...

Honestly, this is so clever, I don’t care what you trolls say out there. It’s an innocent game of "let’s keep the children entertained and make it fun for us too" and it is clearly working. The moms are even laughing in the background, so it’s mom approved as well! In case you haven’t realized yet, I’m being sarcastic. What surprised me the most about this video is how all these dads seem to be synchronized. Can you imagine if one of them doesn’t catch the kid? Yikes, I can hear the cries in my head! Someone needs to make this an Olympic sport or something, because it’s actually really, really impressive… and maybe a little bit dangerous. Maybe just maybe, we should come up with new games. Still, three cheers for fun dads, right?
In terms of sheer redneckery, attempting to drive your pickup truck away while it’s being towed by the repo man is pretty up there. I’d give it three and a half trailers out of five.

All this pic is missing is a dog in the truck bed, a pregnant woman yelling at the guy driving the truck, and an ice-cold tallboy of Busch. But we shouldn’t nitpick. We should appreciate what we’ve been given, and that’s the wonderful video of a man desperately and ultimately failing to prevent the inevitable. Not long after he started attempting to drag the tow truck his Ford was hitched to down the highway, the pickup owner had to realize he was going to get arrested, so he figured he might as well just let it rip and slam on the gas. I feel like paying your bills would have been the easier way out of this you do you, buddy. It’s rare you root for the repo man in any situation but this truck owner is so selfish you get the impression that he didn’t pay his bills just because he didn’t feel like it. I’m just guessing but buying or leasing another car might be problematic for this gentleman. According to the repo man, the guy did go to jail, by the way. Tow trucks: you can’t drag them with your pickup. Lesson learned.
In preparation for a predicted surge of COVID-19 patients in San Antonio, Texas, this hard-working nurse deserves an award, among the many other health care workers that are working relentlessly to get the coronavirus pandemic under control. With reports by KSAT predicting many an increase in coronavirus patients in San Antonio in May, Tommye Austin, the chief executive nurse at University Health System has been working hard to get ready. Using AC filter material from Lowe’s, Austin has made 600 masks with better filtration than the N95 masks. In talking to KSAT, Austin says, “Once we learned that the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] had given us the ability to create masks, rather than using a bandanna or a handkerchief, we decided to look at creating our own N95.” With research and testing done by the Southwest Research Institute, the new masks are actually more efficient than the original masks because the new ones have better filtration. According to Austin, the masks have a “filtration rate of 99.5 percent with one material and has a 97.8 percent filtration efficiency with another material” whereas the original masks have a filtration rate of 95 percent. With these kinds of statistics, she hopes to make another 6,500 masks that can be used twice if properly sanitized. Her masks prevent dizziness and headaches because it doesn’t have carbon dioxide buildup. Austin told KSAT, “Hearing the stories from the nurses in New York and other hot spots, it was just heartbreaking. As a nurse, we are to be advocates for people, so my primary goal was not to make money off this mask or anything. The main purpose of this mask was to keep people safe.” She plans to share her design with all other health care workers, especially the ones who are struggling to keep up due to limited resources. Let’s continue to support our health care workers, our true heroes, in these trying times. Spread the word and stay at home.
A 45-year-old California homeless man Adrian Alberto Rodriguez Herrera has been booked on suspicion of arson and attempted murder for dousing a 64-year-old homeless man with gasoline and then lighting him on fire. Surveillance video shows Herrera bike up to his victim, circle, and then douse the man with a liquid. As the victim attempts to get up to leave Herrera tosses a lighter on him and the victim becomes engulfed in flames. He stands up, then falls, and burns for about 30 seconds. Orange County firefighters responded after a witness called 911 and the victim was taken to the hospital in what was described as critical condition. The victim went into surgery for first, second, and third-degree burns to his torso, neck, and head. He was still in critical condition after surgery. Police later found Herrera and arrested him for his disgustingly violent act. Authorities are still trying to figure out if there was any sort of dispute between the men or if this was a random act of violence. Yeah let’s never let this guy out of jail. Obviously that’s not a very American sentiment but don’t worry I’m half (only half) joking. Still, there’s trying to “normal” murder someone and then there’s burning someone to death. Getting quite literally medieval on their asses. Let’s maybe keep that person away from other people for a long time. At the very least until he’s too old to effectively light people on fire anymore. There were a couple witnesses to this crime and, I have to wonder, what in the name of God do you do if you’re a witness to a crime like this? The initial reactions are, of course, a given. Scream. Cry. Pee your pants. Puke at least a little bit. But after that? I never want to find out how I’d react to seeing an innocent human being lit on fire.
Instead of doing this blog thing I should be listening to this album...

Good news, kids, wildlife is returning to Brooklyn. Nature is healing...

If you could see COVID-19 this is what it would look like...

Would you still go outside if you could see it? It's good to wear a mask and gloves when you go out but some people are taking it a little bit too far...

Haha. They're making masks for dickheads now...

Here in Florida beaches are open...

I didn't know there were mountains in Jacksonville. So, since the coronavirus church signs have become very creative...

One of things I do for fun is look up the word "Foghat" on Twitter to see what people are saying. This is one tweet I saw recently...

Hey, future kids, this was Adam and Eve...

Hahahaha. So, this is March versus April...

Okay, so, you might think you're cool but you're not Charlie Watts air drumming on network television cool...

Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...

Top Phive Games Married People Could Play In Quarantine

5. Go around opening or closing windows and doors... correcting the other persons incorrect portal positioning decision.

4. Turn on and off lights in a passive aggressive manner.

3. When a package is left outside play the game But You Have Pants On.

2. Play the game Who Are You Texting?

The number one game married people could play in quarantine is...

1. Play the game Is This Your Water?

If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. It should be easy. Okay, the weather is windy and overcast here in Central Florida. I wonder what it looks like in Port Jeff right now.

It looks good. I see a few people... someone walking their dog and it looks like a woman with two children. 

Stupid mom who'd rather her kids get COVID-19 now. Yeesh.

Hahaha. That reminds me the time I came to a dead halt on 1-4 when a friend told me they didn't like the Beatles. Hahahaha. 

Ken Burns

Ken Burns is what happens when a powerpoint gets funding from the Kellogg Foundation and viewers like you. 

The 121st book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

Mike Reiss will be on the Phile on Wednesday. 

Today's guest is an American filmmaker, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs in documentary films. His widely known documentary series include The Civil War,  Baseball, Jazz, The War, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, Prohibition, The Roosevelts, The Vietnam War and his latest Country Music. Please welcome to the Phile... Ken Burns.

Me: I was standing by the window on a cloudy day... or something like that. Hey, Ken, welcome to the Phile. How are you? 

Ken: I am great, Jason. It's good to be on your Phile. 

Me: So, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"? Who originally sang that song? 

Ken: "Mother" Maybelle Carter who is the original American guitar player. If you're anybody else, Eddie Van Halen shredding the guitars or Vince Gill who is still playing country music and still playing her "Wildwood Flower" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." 

Me: That song starts off your new documentary, sir. Can you tell us what your documentary Country Music is about even though I think the title says it all. Hahaha. 

Ken: I have chronicled the early history of country music, which traces the genre's origins in minstrel music, ballads, hymns and the blues, right through to the early '90s. 

Me: Ken, were you much of a country music fan when you started the project? 

Ken: No, can't say that. My daddy and my granddaddy played me songs that I guess would be considered country in the Carter Family tradition. They came out of the hills in West Virginia and Virginia. But I grew up a child of R&B and rock and roll in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I worked in a record store there in the late 60s and early 70s and sold a lot of country records. The person who made the biggest impression of course was Johnny Cash, who crossed over so many different times, the polymath of country. But no, that's not a prerequisite of my investigations in fact I think it's a hindrance when I thought I knew something about baseball or Vietnam it was a day humiliation for the years each of those projects took. This was diving into clear deep water and just finding such unbelievable stories and connections and interconnections in American history. As well as just simply telling the story of this extraordinary music. 

Me: As you were doing research for this was there a clear story for you to tell? 

Ken: There was and I credit my long time producing partner and co-producer and writer of this, Dayton Duncan as the one who really unraveled and untwisted at least initially where to start. That's always in country music a complex thing. 

Me: The documentary starts in the 1920s... why is that? 

Ken: We started in the 1920s when there's an intersection of interest in recording not just race music meaning the blues, not just ethnic music old time hill county music coinciding with the technology to record it, the phonographs and the records to play it on and then radio to disseminate it. Then we go back several centuries to bring the African and Celtic European roots forward to that present then introduce the Carters. If the Carters represented Sunday morning then Jimmy Rogers represented Saturday night and set off after the big bang in 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee, both of them being recorded this unbelievable juggernaut of country music that's never one thing, it was never just one thing and neither the Carters were on thing and neither was Jimmy Rogers one thing and there were two things the Carters and Jimmy Rogers at the beginning and then went on to appropriate cowboy songs and western swing and lots of variations of string bands that eventually go to bluegrass, the Bakersfield sound in opposition to the Nashville sound. All of a sudden there's pop and relationships to jazz and R&B and blues and folk and even classical that is kind of mind boggling. Then at the heart of it there's the amazing stories of human beings and the creation of this elemental form of music communication, whereas it's distilled down to three chords. Meaning it ain't super complicated musically but that lack of complication allows us to hear the lyrics of this incredible poetry of course of this distillation of our language into an emotional delivery system that's second to none. 

Me: This is mind boggling, Ken. That's very deep, sir. Haha. A lot of people interviewed in the documentary have passed. Did making this film seem like a race against time with some of these people? 

Ken: Almost all of the films that we work on are in that way are a kind of rush. We choose our interview subjects based on actuarial tables. I don't mean to put it so crassly but we start of with the oldest and work our way down. Of the 101 interviews that we conducted we've lost twenty, and we lost a few in the last year. 

Me: Like who? 

Ken: Fred Foster, the producer but not only Merle Haggard who is Zeus in this film. When he's on you'll just feel oh my God. You're there at the foundational center of what country means and it's possibility. He was called the Poet of the Common Man, and kind of echo of two decades earlier when Hank Williams was called the Hillbilly Shakespeare. Both of these are appropriate monikers for these people. We've lost Ralph Stanley we lost Fred Foster, we lost Cowboy Jack Clement, a maverick, a producer. We just lost too many people of our friends. It is, Jason, super bittersweet for us. We are thankful that we have them, but also see made friendships and forged relationships and then we get in the editing room, they might not remember us from Adam because it was just the two hours when we invaded their living room or office four of five or six years ago. But we live with them everyday, we talk to them and they talk back to us, we put his one in or we move this one to another place or leave this one out and regret it. All of that kid of angst of filmmaking. The cutting room floor is now filled with bad stuff, it's good stuff that we can't fit. There's too many notes. 

Me: So, Charlie Pride is featured in the documentary who was one of the rare black musicians who had success in country music. A lot of people think country music is a white genre. Is this something you wanted to focus on in this? 

Ken: Jason, I've been plumbing the depths of American history of races everywhere. EVERYWHERE. We can't form this country on cataclysm that all men are created equal and have the guy that wrote that sentence own more than 200 human beings and not see the contradiction. So it's here and we presumed as we dove in that it'll be there and in some ways I might have not so much subscribed but assumed that that stereotype conventional wisdom about it would obtain. But of course the banjos is an African instrument and that of the Mount Rushmore of early country greats like A.P. Carter, Hank Williams, Bill Monroe and Johnny Cash all four of them had an African-American mentor that gave them an appreciation of the blues. Took their chops from here to way up here and justified their existence in that pantheon. The first great superstar in the music Jimmy Rogers was infused in that southern Mississippi African train crews. that he heard singing. So he didn't necessary have a mentor, he was surrounded by the African-American sound. Early on there was a harmonica player on the Grand Old Opry who was the most popular name... DeFord Bailey. 

Me: I never heard of him until just recently. He was really good, right? 

Ken: He is so great. 

Me: The first episode of the eight part series is called "The Rub." What does that mean? 

Ken: It's the friction between the American south between black and white. Normally I spent my professional life charting the indignity of that friction and they are too numerous to name of course result in civil wars and all sort of injustices and continue to the very present. But county places is one of those places not immune to the indignities but the net positive is that that friction created an extraordinary music. If country music isn't focused on the aspect of its history, we have been. We're interested in sharing that and Charlie Pride is one of those people in the 1960s when times are changing he is pushing the boundaries and he is able to achieve some kind of super stardom in country music that belies that conventional wisdom. 

Me: I know people who only listen to country music and I know people that listen to everything but country music, which I never understood. I listen to most music, and like country music. Have you put any thought into that? 

Ken: Sure. We're filmmakers, which means we're storytellers which means we have to spend eight and a half years trying to figure out how to tell this story, this complicated Russian novel multi-generation nearly a century long with dozens and dozens of characters, primarily secondary characters with bit parts. When I finished I looked up and realized the extent to which commerce and convenience particularly in a media age has conveniently categorized country music and we assume it's only one thing. Nothing in the United States is every a one thing, it's always a mixture, it's always an alloy. I think in our divisional politics right now and the hyper-polarization we experience everywhere, not just in the United States but the world everything is just a binary on and off switch, it's a red state or a blue state. It's going or it's old, it's gay or it's straight, rich or poor, north or south, east or west and of course nothing about our lives conforms to that kind of binary model and country music refuses to be categorized is connected in everyday share or form to all the other American forms of music. It isn't an island nation where someone needs a visa or a passport to get through the restricted immigration laws. People pass back and forth across it, it is related to jazz, it's related to the blues, even related to rhythm and blues, the two parents of rock and roll. It's connected to rock and roll, folk music and even classical music. The borders are only defined by us, simplicity and perhaps discrimination. I think we think in our binary world we presume something white, southern and conservative about country music in which Woody Guthrie is county music. He was accused of being a communist and he said, "I don't know about being a communist but I know I've been in the red all life." This is what it is, we make assumptions about the other. 

Me: You have made so many documentaries, Ken, is there anything special about this new one about country music? 

Ken: Here is my thing, Jason, and it maybe just too facile to pawn off to you and your readers but I've spent my entire professional life in this kind of unique space between the lower case two letter plural pronoun "us" and it's larger capitalized equivalent "the U.S." So all the intimacy warmth if "us" and "we" and "our" along with the breath and majesty and complication and the contradiction and controversy of the U.S. What I've learned in county music is that there's only "us," there's no "them." It even includes our neighbors to the north, we're all "us," it's all human family. And what is so unique about country music is that three chords and the truth is really it. Country music is dealing with the universal human experience. We disguise it, we not only say it's white or it's southern or conservative but we also say it's good ole boys and pick-up trucks and hound dogs and six packs of beer because we aren't willing to deal with the things that it is willing to deal with which are two four letter words which most of us would rather ignore... love and loss. So as Wynton Marsalis says in this film about country music its about the joy and sadness at depth, broken heart, jealousy, rage, anger, what my old lady did to me, what I did to my old lady, getting right with God, these are things that no one reading this blog have not experienced. Hank Williams once said, "The silence of a falling star lights up a purple sky. And as I wonder where you are I'm so lonesome I could cry." There is nobody on the planet who has at one moment experienced that absolute certainty that Hank Williams got right. This is the story of all the other musical forms but I think country music has just been given a bum rap. 

Me: Recently there's been talk that there's not a lot of women in country music nowadays. I'm curious, has it always been that way? 

Ken: No, I think this is a sort of thing that deserves a little bit of head scratching. There's always been a patriarchy that always oppressed. That's a human story as old as perhaps Adam and Eve. The surprising and flabbergasting thing to us our exploration is the centrality of women in this supposedly patriarchal conservative medium. It's not. Mother Maybelle Carter was the original singing voice of country music. There's Rose Maddox of the Maddox Brothers and Rose, there's Kitty Wells, there's Patsy Cline and then you get to Loretta. She's singing "Don't Come Home a Drinkin'" in the mid 60s. No one in rock and roll was dealing with this sort of stuff. That's the same year that she related that that the National Organization of Women was founded in the United States and the term "women's liberation" were put into our lexicon. Loretta wasn't going to identify with a particular philosophy but her pro-feminism is much more powerful, she's speaking to people who don't need to have a philosophical background or a label to call it all the way through it. She helps another generation like Dolly and Jeannie Seely and Bobbi Gentry and now Kathy Mattea and so many strong women all the way through it which I think is some strange anomaly which I hope the long jam will be broken soon. What has been country radio has been a dominate masculine form in the last few years. That doesn't necessarily, Jason, represent what country music is. You may be will find more what it is in roots of Americana in which women dominate and which women have an equal voice. Nobody is doing the, this may be the last gasp of that bankrupt patriarchy. 

Me: What is your favorite country song, Ken? 

Ken: Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." 

Me: Why is that? 

Ken: I just think all of this experience, this sort of feeling and this hillbilly Shakespeare, Hank Williams was able to distill. This was also a guy who was rollicking, he not only lost but he was loved too. "I've got a hot rod Ford and a two dollar bill and I know a spot right over the hill" in "Hey Good Lookin'." These are great lyrics. Paul Simon was explaining to me do I realize this is like haiku, the way he's boiled down the language. When you hear the song again just listen to the simplicity of the first couple of versus of this extraordinary song. The elemental, universal, human yearning that's in it. 

Me: Ken, I knew this interview would be deep but not this deep. Who knew talking about country music would be so complex. Hahaha. Thanks for being on the Phile, sir. Please come back again. Stay well.

Ken: Good to be here, Jason. Thank you.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to my guest Ken Burns. Man, I didn't understand half he stuff he said. Haha. The Phile will be back tomorrow with comedian Joel Kim Booster. Spread the word, not the turd... or virus. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.

I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon