Kavanaugh Circus

I watched the Kavanaugh hearing today.

 I imagined I’d be huddled over my phone trying to get a national radio program to stream since nearly every station was covering it. I was prepared to turn the TV to ESPN the way I do every day at work, and slink into my office to follow the Q&A from the Senate Judicial Committee. My boss told me early on to put the hearing up on the main TV so he could keep track. “Fantastic!” I thought. I get to see it at work and my boss isn’t going to care since he is interested too. So most of it I caught on the screen at work and some of it I caught listening to my phone while in my office. Here are some takeaways for me:

First, the idea that we can determine who is “believable” and who isn’t is a nonsensical idea. Statistics show that people can’t correctly judge guilt or innocence based on our feelings of a person’s character, demeanor, expression or tone. Most of us develop an opinion after watching a performance, it’s like we “must” develop a judgement. Ever watch those real life murder 'whodunnits' on NBC. They play out a disappearance or a murder and present both sides without revealing the verdict at the end? How often do you guess right?   

From what I saw they both seemed believable. That’s a problem because someone is lying.

 Opinion makers and talking heads seem to think it’s possible to believe both parties. That there is no contradiction between Ford’s “positive” ID of the Judge and of the Judge’s denial of the whole affair, is too much for me. I understand the need to be careful about calling either one a liar but one of them is doing it. They say Ford might be remembering someone else who tried to assault her. I doubt it. I think it was either him or she is lying. 

Of course none of us knows what happened but I lean toward believing Kavanaugh because the "witnesses" who were supposedly at the party denied being there. Also, the timing of this whole nasty affair is suspect. Just a few days before the committee was supposed to vote, the Democrats drop this letter on everyone. Feinstein’s office had the letter, written by Ford, for like two months. If  credible allegation of sexual assault pops up about a judge about to be on the Supreme Court, you act on it. She waited, suggesting the Democrats were hoping to spike the nomination a different way. When it didn't work, they went nuclear.

The details are impossible to know, no one confirms Ford's side of the story and a slew of “remembered” incidents suddenly appear in the news after it looks like she might not testify. You know, the slimy gang rape stuff. At least some part of this thing is cooked up by ‘outside’ groups desperate to keep a conservative off the court. I won’t say the entire testimony is a lie, she did seem sincere and I know she didn’t want to do this in front of the Senate, hoping for confidentiality.

The prosecutor who asked questions of Mrs. Ford tried to show possible influence from an outside group by asking who paid the polygraph fees. It wasn’t effective and I don’t know why the Republicans agreed to it.

Here is why Kavanaugh must be confirmed. It can't be this easy to hurl accusations and drag someone’s name through the mud just to squelch an appointment. You must provide evidence under our legal system. If this witch hunt succeeds it gives license for both Republicans and Democrats to rake each other’s candidates over the coals for sport. I’m convinced the only reason it’s been 30 years since the last one of these circus hearings (Clarence Thomas) is because it wasn’t successful. Despite a ruined reputation Thomas was confirmed. 

How can a 36 year old allegation with no witnesses, no date and no place be the basis for any investigation?  For all the hand wringing from the Democrats about the lack of an FBI investigation, what do they expect the bureau to investigate? This was a stall tactic all along. Lindsey Graham said it best in one of his finer moments, drag out the hearing until after the election and hopefully pick up enough seats to vote the judge down.

The last question of Kavanaugh, from Kennedy (LA), was the most appropriate of the entire hearing. He asked the judge if he believed in God, and if so this was his chance to tell it before “God and country”. It’s appropriate because it’s a reminder that God is the ultimate judge of our souls. 

It could be that Kavanaugh is a calculating liar that doesn’t believe in God anyway. It could also be that Christine Blasey Ford created the whole story with help from groups to create just enough doubt to force Trump to pull the nomination.Only God knows.

Still a "Toys R Us" Kid

 I think most of us have a favorite store or restaurant we remember from childhood. Places we can map out from memory because our recollection is so vivid. For me it was Toys “R” Us, that famous franchise that went out of business earlier this year. 

Toys “R” Us was basically a third world arms bazaar for boys in the kindergarten to 4^th grade range. Sketchy salesman offering help as we gawked at the shelves stocked with the latest violent toys. “See anything you like?” they’d inquire. They had the best toy weapons, cowboy revolvers with ammo belts, automatic rifles, belt-fed troop guns, grenades, Rambo survival knives and handguns. Mercenaries could really stock up. At least that’s what I liked it.

We always got a warning speech from my mom in the parking lot before entering the toy mecca. She lined us up outside the store, with pointed finger and stern tones she blasted us with that mantra we knew so well.

 “If you touch anything on the shelves that’s an automatic spanking when we get home!” It wasn’t shouted so much as jabbed, with the help of the index finger, into our souls.

 It mostly worked, but common. Have you seen the glory that is a toy store through the eyes of an 8 year old boy? An entire building dedicated to the pursuit of happiness, aisle after aisle of joy wrapped in plastic. Shelves strategically arranged to capture the attention of children who’ve wandered away from their families in a daze.  Every action figure, bouncy ball, battery jeep, dinosaur set, race track, stuffed bear, machine gun and video game demanding attention. It’s war out there. Hence the pre-game talk my mom felt the need to deliver, expecting the troops to wander off along the way. 

My parents must have known the onslaught coming their way once the automatic doors pulled back and the displays came into view. 

The Cherry Valley Toys “R” Us was a free standing building away from everything but a few car lots, a Baker’s Square, and later a go cart track. This was 30 years ago so I am sure the area has changed quite a lot. Nothing could top the anticipation though of walking into the store, grabbing a shopping cart and marveling at the sheer amount of toys. I remember a long walk behind a cart wall when you came in and a slow turn before you entered the main floor. 

Stepping onto the main floor was like having everyone shout “Surprise!” before balloons and confetti fell from the sky. It was better than that even. I’d been here before. I expected the surprise. I knew right when the hanging car displays would come into sight and the giant ball stacks would became visible. I remember which section contained the guns and which one the video games. I remember where the bikes and battery cars just big enough for kids to ride 2 across were kept.

At some point video games took over larger chunks of the store. Always kept behind glass cases, they weren’t as memorable. We bought games as we got older. We had Nintendo, Super Nintendo and I guess 64. I was done with games after the Super. I just wasn’t a gamer.

I went to a Toys “R” Us a few years ago to buy a gift for my niece. It wasn’t the one I grew up with so my opinion might have been a little skewed. I reminded me of watching a movie I loved as a kid only to find out how bad it was when I became an adult. The shelves were a mess, the floors littered with scattered stuffed animals and bouncy balls. The ceilings were low, the lighting was bad, the employees were indifferent, the prices high. I can chalk up some of this to the season; it was Christmas shopping time after all. Some I can blame on the difference between being a kid and being an adult. Oddly it was the low ceilings that disappointed me the most. In my kid brain the place was so grand and stuffed with toys in every imaginable spot, practically bursting like a Thanksgiving turkey. I remember trying to work out how long it would take me to play with every toy there, my brain nearly seizing up from the infinite possibilities.  

But now here was this sad, small structure in need of repair and desperate for joy. What happened to my Shangri-La? When did the circus leave town? Was it ever really that great? The great toy destination had become a dumpy rental in a neighborhood with more graffiti on the buildings than original paint.

The whole spectacle was sad. Not because a grown man expected a toy store to be a happy place 30 years after he stopped playing with G.I. Joe. But because the idea that a single flagship store can house nothing but toys seems unlikely anymore. Walmart, Target, Amazon and other companies have gobbled up much of the toy business that it isn’t profitable to build anymore. Even the famed F.A.O Schwarz store (in Manhattan) where Tom Hanks did the piano dance in the movie BIG closed up two years ago. 

My criticism of their neglected storefronts notwithstanding, it isn’t hard to see what happened to the business. Bigger stores with more offerings made it impossible to compete; same as grocery, electronics and nearly every type of brick and mortar place. Toys took an extra beating from a consumer culture with a lot of electronic options. Toys across the country aren’t selling well anymore and smartphones are getting blamed.

Toys “R” Us went out of business earlier this year and even though they had been overtaken by Walmart in sales, it still limits the number of places for kids. They got into debt and just never recovered. I still think a massive store dedicated to toys can work again. It needs to have full on displays where kids and grab and test though. It must be a destination store, not a bargain place where people look for deals. I don’t know if it makes economic sense anymore but I imagine with the right plan it could really take off. There are a lot of young kids out who need a place like that to remember. It could be there happy place, even if their moms won’t let them grab stuff off the shelf.   

Demon Hunter pulled me back in

I thought I outgrew it my heavy metal phase. I assumed, like action figures and baseball cards, it didn't appeal anymore--a passing interest from an earlier time. But some preset antenna in my brain clicked on this year and started receiving again.  

This summer I rediscovered metal. 

 I work in my yard a lot, perfect for mindless head banging tunes through earbuds on a hot day. I’m a Pandora guy so a lot of the suggested stuff that’s shuffled through is a mystery. Every once in a while a perfectly aggressive sound punctures the little film covering the ear piece and wakes me up. How many times has that sound been that of Demon Hunter? I can’t tell, but a pattern emerged after some time. All the good stuff is Demon Hunter.

Not content to just wait until the next mowing day, I got online and start searching for DH songs. I like to know what fans like, what are their best songs? Also, I suddenly wanted news about the group, tour dates and concert information and new song stuff. Google has lists for everything so I just start sampling their stuff. The internet is great. Remember borrowing CDs from friends or going to Best Buy for the new releases? No one misses those days. I discovered I have a bit of an obsessive side. I study things intensely for a short time and then never again. It’s ideal for research and writing though. Yesterday’s obsession was Demon Hunter, Tomorrow--maybe history’s great conspiracies or the best types of wood varnish for deck boards. Who knows?

I found this Demon Hunter live documentary called 45 days. First thing I noticed is the clean sound. This is a live show and the audio is surprisingly crisp. Video recordings rarely get full sound from a show; it's usually poor quality. It seems like one microphone was used, with uneven sound and muddy verses. 45 days is a quality film even if the cameras aren’t always in the perfect spot.

I assume when shooting a band you need to know the music and the timing of the chorus or when the lead singer is going to hit the low verses, high notes. If he is going to put his foot on the amplifier and lean menacingly into the crowd, filmmakers should want the best shot.  I could be wrong here. Maybe there is a standard format for shooting concerts that includes the crowd reaction and a full stage pyro demonstration.

For me, Demon Hunter songs break into 2 basic categories; Fast/aggressive and melodic/ballads. These are my terms and I am sure fans might see it differently. I guess they have a handful of slow, non-metal songs like “I am a Stone” but they mostly stay within the metalcore genre. I’m not an expert on the albums since I just listen to the songs as they pop up. I enjoy the fast stuff like on “Storm the Gates of Hell” and “Someone to Hate”. The drum pacing is very quick, the guitars sound like machine gun fire and the singing is aggressive. That’s pretty much a winning formula, fast drums, machine gun riffs and an intense singer.  There is almost no break between the verse and chorus, they intend to crunch as much thrash into a 5 minute song by quickening the pace.

 Regular ballads are emotional songs about loss (usually) heartbreak, sadness. “Godforsaken” is a little bit like this. I always think it’s a little jarring to go from sped up, yelling to slow and melodic but metal bands do it all the time. It feels weird at shows too. Groups usually come out with a neck snapping, energy laced throw down and 3 songs later slow it down to a crawl. It works though. We pull out the lighter and hum along with the band, swaying to the chorus and ‘feeling’ the lyrics. We clap enthusiastically with their heartfelt display of sensitivity. The very next song we ramp up and slam into each other, propelled by the crushing drums and beefy amplifiers.

Demon Hunter is a Christian band. A Christian Metal band is an interesting thing. I think most people don’t know what to make of it. Heavy Metal is known for occult symbolism, dark themes, death, anger and pain. The artwork covers are pretty honest, blood, skulls, death, violence. Christian music is the opposite of those things, light to darkness and truth to lies. Christians face a steep climb to respectability within metal. They struggle with being perceived as ‘soft’ or ‘talent-less’. When the music is good and group puts on a show, it doesn’t matter to the fans.

Demon Hunter doesn’t run from the label, they actually embrace it.

 “From the minute we started saying that [We are a Christian Band] we started getting more respect even from those other bands” video.

By ‘respect’ he doesn’t mean they embraced his theology. He means, once they decided to ‘live for Christ’ it cleared up a lot of misconceptions among fans. They started to explain their faith and share with others. Their music isn’t preachy so their lives have to be. Staying on message is important to them and I'm glad they understand the significance of what they do.

Summer’s almost over for me so I’ll have to find time to slam around the house and pretend I’m on stage. Is that something we are supposed to grow out of too? I assumed I was done with heavy music altogether, but you can’t be too sure.

Like Michael Corleone from the Godfather III, “Just when I thought I was out. . . they pull me back in!”