Taj Mahal in Wisconsin.

Isn't this a beautiful building?



No, it's not the Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal was in Wisconsin last night, playing a solo concert in the Stoughton Opera House. The place was almost full, with people who were very warmly appreciative and as far as I could tell 100% white and old. Taj — who is 72 and whose real name is Henry Saint Clair Fredericks — had us all smiling and laughing and spent a good deal of time trying to teach us the proper way to sign the lines:

I had the blues so bad one time it put my face in a permanent frown
You know I'm feelin' so much better I could cakewalk into town

We were feeling so much better we could raindrive back to Madison.



But we were already feeling good, already happy. Arriving early, we'd walked on Main Street in Stoughton. We'd stopped to read the names on a Civil War Memorial plaque, and up came a very friendly woman who struck up a conversation. We said we'd been looking at whether all of the names were Norwegian, Stoughton being strongly associated with Norwegians, and she told us her name was completely German, but when she was growing up, Germans were not popular, and she did what she could to blend in with the Norwegians, and these days she makes lefse, the Norwegian pastry, in a "health food" form. Sweeties Lefse. Here, I found a video of her demonstrating her lefse technique:



Meade and I walked further on down the road to the Yahara River Grocery Coop and bought some Sweeties Lefse, which we stowed in the car and which I couldn't help thinking about during the concert, as many of Taj's songs are about food, beginning with the first song, "Fishin' Blues." "Put him in the pot, baby put him in the pan/Mama cook him till he nice an' brown/Get yourself a batch o' buttermilk, whole cakes mama/An' you put that sucker on the table and eat it on down." Whole cakes, eh? Anything like lefse?

When we got home it would be lefse I'd be putting on the pan. It was the very pan where we cooked pancakes when I was a little girl. In Delaware, we called that pan the "spider."

Sting, "Girl from the North Country"... Mark Knopfler – "Restless Farewell"...

Jackson Browne, "Love Minus Zero/No Limit
"...  Bryan Ferry, "Bob Dylan’s Dream"... Carly Simon, "Just Like a Woman
"... Bad Religion, "It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue"... My Chemical Romance, "Desolation Row"... Ke$ha, "Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
... Taj Mahal, "Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream"... Dave Matthews Band, "All Along the Watchtower"... Kris Kristofferson, "Quinn The Eskimo"... Eric Burdon, "Gotta Serve Somebody"... Marianne Faithful, "Baby Let Me Follow You Down"... Pete Seeger, "Forever Young"...

The full list. The one I'd be most interested in hearing? Oddly enough, it's Taj Mahal doing "Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream"... which just by chance is kind of Thanksgiving-appropriate:

I was riding on the Mayflower
When I thought I spied some land...
“I think I’ll call it America”
I said as we hit land
I took a deep breath
I fell down, I could not stand

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Here at Meadhouse, it's pre-dawn and we're eating pancakes. (We just invented peanut butter pancakes.) I'd give you an Amazon link for that Bob Dylan cover songs album so you could buy it, but it's not available yet. Feel free to buy something else at Amazon. For example, here's Taj Mahal album I really like. Listen to the title track.

Obama's post-election escape to Mumbai: "Obama’s contingent is huge. There are two jumbo jets coming along with Air Force One, which will be flanked by security jets."

"There will be 30 to 40 secret service agents, who will arrive before him. The President’s convoy has 45 cars, including the Lincoln Continental in which the President travels."

Can someone do a quick calculation of the carbon footprint? And please — everyone join in — explain why behavior like this shouldn't make global warming skeptics out of us all. If the emergency were really what it's claimed to be when we little people are urged to drive tin-can cars, no moral leader would travel this way. As it is, I can't understand why Obama and his group are willing to look like such hypocrites.

To ensure fool-proof security, the President’s team has booked the entire the Taj Mahal Hotel, including 570 rooms, all banquets and restaurants. Since his security contingent and staff will comprise a huge number, 125 rooms at Taj President have also been booked, apart from 80 to 90 rooms each in Grand Hyatt and The Oberoi hotels. The NCPA, where the President is expected to meet representatives from the business community, has also been entirely booked. 

"Fool-proof" — "fool" is a fabulous euphemism, considering that the Taj Mahal Hotel was the scene of a horrific terrorist attack 2 years ago.

Trump at the Taj Mahal.

I realize, writing "Trump at the Taj Mahal," that it needs some clarification like "the one in India." Anyway, I enjoy the raw footage... scroll to the parts you like... lots of Trump and Melania getting ready to be seen, with Trump adjusting his jacket and Melania moving her hair back in place...

"More than 300 years after the death of Aurangzeb, whose full name was Abul Muzaffar Muhi-ud-Din Mohammad Aurangzeb..."

"... allies of India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, have demanded his grave be removed. For Modi and his allies, the legacy of the Mughals, who ruled India for some six centuries, is a byword for the subjugation of Hindus by a foreign occupier. Udayanraje Bhosale, MP for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra, the state where Aurangzeb is buried, urged the authorities to 'send a bulldozer and raze his grave … he was a thief and looter'....For many Hindus, Aurangzeb was cruelty incarnate. Under his reign, from 1658 to 1707, Hindus were raped, butchered and forcibly converted by the Muslim dynasty. Aurangzeb was a devout Muslim and chose an austere lifestyle, unlike other Mughals.... Aurangzeb... specifically instructed that it should be plain and unmarked, unlike the monumental tombs of Akbar, Humayun and Jahangir, as well as the Taj Mahal — commissioned by Aurangzeb’s father, Shah Jahan, to house the resting place of his wife Mumtaz Mahal...."

From "Modi’s nationalists demand destruction of ‘thief’ emperor’s tomb/An MP from the ruling BJP party called for bulldozers to be sent to the grave of Aurangzeb, a move seen as part of the erasure of Islam from Indian history" (London Times).

I wouldn't call that "massively booed"... but then to tell you the truth, I don't know what UFC even is.

Seems like a big deal. United... Fight Club? Whatever. Here's your President getting greeted at Madison Square Garden... you judge the reaction:

President Trump getting massively booed as he entered the Garden for #UFC244 pic.twitter.com/ZwmSxlQ4uL

— Rob Taub (@RTaub_) November 3, 2019

I hear lots of loud crowd noise, then a guy clearly booing. A guy who happens to be near the camera. And who would expect that a group that big — a group that didn't assemble for the purpose of rallying for Trump — not to include some Trump antagonists? What's nice is that Trump is willing to go to such a place and be seen. He's not cocooning with supporters.

And whatever UFC is — I'll look it up in a sec — isn't it one of those things where villains are popular and booing is part of the fun?

The Hill conveys the news/fake news with "Trump gets deluge of boos upon entering MSG prior to UFC 244"

Okay, I looked it up. UFC is Ultimate Fighting Championship...

... an American mixed martial arts promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, that is owned and operated by parent company William Morris Endeavor. It is the largest MMA promotion company in the world and features the highest-level fighters on the roster....

With larger live gates at casino venues like the Trump Taj Mahal and the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the UFC secured its first television deal with Fox Sports Net....

William Morris Endeavor — I assume Trump has some connections to that talent agency. Let's see:

On September 14, 2015, WME acquired from Donald Trump the Miss Universe Organization, which produces the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA beauty pageants and related content....

These are businesses. Who knows how much Trump actually likes mixed martial arts fighting?! Anyway, I'm not surprise the crowd is loud and rowdy and a good portion of them get off on booing the President, and I'll bet that lots of mixed martial arts fans love Trump.

You voted. I saw 2 movies: "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Australia."

You could have sent me to "Rachel Getting Married," "Milk," "Synecdoche, New York," or "Let the Right One In," but you chose "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Australia." 

I'll say a few things comparing the 2 movies, and I'll keep this spoiler free.

1. Both movies have an in-your-face sense of place. "Slumdog Millionaire," showing us India, has us running all over the slums of Bombay and touring the Taj Mahal. I get it. It's India. "Australia" fills the screen with the map of Australia and giant red rocks and expanses of dry wasteland. Yeah, that's Australia. 

 

2. Both movies tell an elaborately plotted story through the eyes of a little boy. In "Slumdog," the boy, Jamal, plunges into a pool of shit to get his story going, and in "Australia," the boy, Nullah, plunges into a water tank to advance the plot. Our hearts are, of course, supposed to mesh with the heart of the central child character. This is a time-worn method of emotional manipulation, but it works pretty well in both movies. Both boys, for all their troubles, are magically lucky.

3. Both movies have lovers who are torn apart and brought together repeatedly, and both have key scenes where there is a lot of violent chaos and the lovers are running around looking for each other as time is about to run out. Both movies have big close-up kisses that seem to be about the cinematic history of big close-up kisses. There's no real fire between the lovers in either movie. They are big, pretty movie-star heads, but I didn't for one second believe I was looking at 2 human beings who were passionately in love with each other.

4. Both movies weave in a very familiar work of American pop culture. The whole story of "Slumdog Millionaire" is framed by a single performance on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." This is the coolest thing about the movie and is extremely well done -- using flashbacks and quiz questions that relate to the past. "Australia" is strewn with references to the movie "The Wizard of Oz" that come and go and don't really pay off very well. Wishing, home... whatever. But it is pretty amusing when Nicole Kidman's character awkwardly and abysmally tries to tell the Oz story and sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to the boy and manages to inspire him in spite of her inadequacies.

5. Both movies have bathtubs. I'm slightly obsessed with the prominence of bathtubs in the movies. You'd think the most interesting thing in the world was a woman in a damned bath. "Australia" has the conventional lead actress taking a bath for no good reason. Hmm... 2 characters have to have a conversation. Let's put the woman in the bathtub. Depending on what rating you want, it will either be a bubble bath or it won't. It's embarrassing. "Slumdog Millionaire" has a memorably unusual use of the bathtub, so that was fine.

6. Things "Australia" has more of: cattle, horses, spears, bombs, airplanes, ships, sentimentality, pectoral muscles, drunk guys, fistfights, aborigines, contracts. Things "Slumdog Millionaire" has more of: shit, TV, doing laundry, guns, beggars, torture.

7. "Slumdog Millionaire" was a lot shorter and a lot better. "Australia" was a big epic that was completely old-fashioned except to the extent that there was supposed to be something hip about being intentionally old-fashioned. I'd rather watch "The African Queen" again, and if I need some hipness, let me watch it with hip people and we'll say hip things.

Force Althouse to go to the movies.

You know I said the other day that "I don't enjoy going to the movies these days -- for about 6 reasons." Pushed about the reasons, I enumerated not just 6, but 8.

But I'm going to give you a chance to force me to go to the movies. Apply whatever standard you want -- what you think I'd like, what would lead to the best blog post, what would teach me a lesson I need to learn, what would punish me for my sins.... The choices on the poll are just the movies that are currently playing at Sundance, the Madison theater with the best aesthetic appeal -- notably: rectangular screens.

I'm assigning Althouse to see:
	"Slumdog Millionaire"
	"Milk"
	"Let the Right One In"
	"Australia"
	"Synecdoche, New York"
	"Rachel Getting Married"
pollcode.com free polls

UPDATE: "Slumdog Millionaire" won the poll, and accordingly, I saw "Slumdog Millionaire." I didn't know what this movie was about -- not the slightest thing -- so I was a little worried when it opened with a torture scene. I certainly didn't want to watch a man being tortured -- or even an actor pretending to be tortured. But the torture did not last long, and it set up a delightfully plotted story about 2 very different brothers, a beautiful girl, and a sprightly tale framed by a set of questions on the Indian version of the TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." We got heights and depths of ecstasy and despair and the best and worst of human nature -- not to mention the slums of Bombay and the Taj Mahal. Children suffer, but never too much (or at least not too long), and they never cry or lose their fundamental feistiness. Our hero Jamal is up for everything, because he trusts destiny, and he is ready to put up with whatever it takes, from his first -- intentional -- plunge into a pool of shit.

The director is Danny Boyle, who directed "Trainspotting" -- and I seem to remember someone falling into a toilet in that movie too. Ah, yes. Here it is (NSFW):



Well, "Slumdog Millionaire" is much more uplifting. And the excrement is a much cheerier color for whatever reason... artistic license? ... turmeric? ....

UPDATE 2: I let you force me again, see "Australia" and detect 7 points of comparison to "Slumdog."

"Unlike Unesco’s World Heritage List, which includes sites considered important to humanity like the pyramids of Giza in Egypt or the Taj Mahal in India, the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity..."

"... documents elements and practices of different cultures that are deserving of recognition. Another, Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, includes endangered elements of a culture that are at risk of fading away. Reggae, which rose to prominence in the 1960s, often celebrates Jah, or God; ganja, or marijuana; and Ras Tafari, also known as Haile Selassie, the former Ethiopian emperor, whom Rastafarians revere as the messiah. It is also meant to put listeners in a calm groove."

From "Reggae Music Is Added to Unesco Cultural Heritage List" (NYT).

I'd never noticed the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list, and it's interesting to think that part of humanity's cultural heritage involves putting us humans in "a calm groove."

What else is on that list — and what else has gained this stature by putting us in a calm groove? Here's the Wikipedia article about the list. It says there were 429 things on the list as of 2017.

Also on the list: Oxherding and oxcart traditions in Costa Rica, Cultural Space of the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit of the Congos of Villa Mella, Opera dei Pupi (Sicilian Puppet Theatre), the Hudhud Chants of the Ifugao, Xooy (a divination ceremony among the Serer of Senegal), the manufacture of cowbells (in Portugal), Al Azi (the art of performing praise, pride and fortitude poetry in the United Arab Emirates), the coaxing ritual for camels (in Mongolia).



Here are the 31 things added to the list this year, including reggae, which is described officially without mentioning marijuana:

Originating within the cultural space of marginalized groups, mainly in Western Kingston, the Reggae Music of Jamaica combines musical influences from earlier Jamaican forms as well as Caribbean, North American and Latin strains. Its basic functions as a vehicle of social commentary, as a cathartic experience, and means of praising God remain unchanged, and the music continues to provide a voice for all. Students are taught how to play it from an early age, and festivals and concerts are central to ensuring its viability.

We often speak of the "drug culture," and I don't think UNESCO wants to recognize drug use as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, but it is.

"If she played the men's circuit she'd be like 700 in the world... That doesn't mean I don't think Serena is an incredible player..."

"I do, but the reality of what would happen would be I think something that perhaps it'd be a little higher, perhaps it'd be a little lower. And on a given day, Serena could beat some players. I believe because she's so incredibly strong mentally that she could overcome some situations where players would choke 'cause she's been in it so many times, so many situations at Wimbledon, The U.S. Open, etc. But if she had to just play the circuit - the men's circuit - that would be an entirely different story."

Said John McEnroe, and I guess this is making the news because 700 is so low. 

Interesting factoid: "President Donald Trump approached McEnroe 17 years ago about playing a $1 million, winner-take-all match against Venus or Serena Williams at his Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City."

I remember the "Battle of the Sexes" matches in the 1970s, with Bobby Riggs bragging tauntingly about the superiority of men and then trouncing Margaret Court. (Later, under questionable conditions, he was beaten by Billie Jean King.)

I see Margaret Court is in the news within the last month. She said: "I mean, tennis is full of lesbians because even when I was playing there was only a couple there but those couple... took young ones into parties and things. And because they liked to be around heroes and what you get at the top is often what you will get right through that sport."

Court, 74, is a Christian pastor, and she was speaking on Vision Christian Radio.

"Edwin (Bennett), an innocent and shy young man, is hit by a nude man falling from a high-rise building while carrying a chandelier."

"Edwin's penis is mutilated in the accident and has to be amputated; the falling man is killed. Edwin becomes the recipient of the world's first penis transplant: he receives the very large penis of the womanizer killed in the same accident. With his new bit of anatomy (which he names 'Percy'), Edwin follows the womanizer's footsteps, meeting all his women friends, before settling happily with the donor's mistreated widow."

The plot summary of the 1971 movie "Percy," which I happened upon because I was reading the Wikipedia entry for the singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock — "Hitchcock was born in Paddington, London, England, son of novelist Raymond Hitchcock (writer of Percy)." I was reading about Hitchcock because his is one of the names on the list of upcoming shows at the Stoughton Opera House. I've been there only twice — to see Taj Mahal and then Jim Kweskin with Geoff Muldaur — and I'd like to make a better effort to notice shows I might like to see.

Do you think having the name "Hitchcock" makes it more likely that you'd write a story about having a penis sewn on — hitching a cock?

Friday afternoon thoughts. Do you have any? I feel like watching "Percy." For one thing, it has Elke Sommer and Britt Ekland. I've pretty much always thought they were the same person — Elk/Ekl... For another thing, it has a soundtrack by The Kinks!

But, wait. Here's the trailer. It looks terrible...



But at least I learned — I couldn't tell from Wikipedia — which one of the 2 penis-havers was carrying the chandelier. (Why a chandelier? Did it provide occasions to make jokes on the word "hung"?)

Fortunately, you can listen to the entirety of The Kinks' "Percy" on YouTube.

"We have water and we're hunkered down and patient and ready to wait it out. We're OK. Last night was a different story, but today we're OK."

An American woman, still trapped in the Taj Mahal hotel.

UPDATE: Who is doing this?

Christine Fair, senior political scientist and a South Asia expert at the RAND Corporation, was careful to say that the identity of the terrorists could not yet be known. But she insisted the style of the attacks and the targets in Mumbai suggested the militants were likely to be Indian Muslims and not linked to Al Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Taiba, another violent South Asian terrorist group.

“There’s absolutely nothing Al Qaeda-like about it,” she said of the attack. “Did you see any suicide bombers? And there are no fingerprints of Lashkar. They don’t do hostage-taking and they don’t do grenades.” By contrast, [Sajjan Gohel, a security expert in London] said “the fingerprints point to an Islamic Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group."

"Mughal emperor Shahjahan's unfulfilled last wish of building a black Taj Mahal facing the white one at Agra has come true."

In black sand. (No photo yet!)