It's been a good, albeit all-over-the-map, kinda day - I've done lots of paperwork/bill-paying/filing, as well as made a cake for my daughter's friend's birthday party tonight. I've dubbed copies of a few mix CDs as gifts for friends and spent some time answering e-mail - I also watched, OnDemand through my cable channel, the most wonderful movie, which has been on my wish list forever...
Ten days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Natalie Maines publicly criticized U.S. President George W. Bush. The ensuing controversy cost the group half of their concert audience attendance in the United States as chronicled in the 2006 documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing. At the 49th Grammy Awards Show in 2007, the Chicks, as they are informally known, won all five categories for which they were nominated, including the coveted Song, Record, and Album of the Year, in a vote Maines interprets as partly a statement for free speech.
I was an early follower of The Dixie Chicks, but became even more of one after the brouhaha of their comment sent their country fans trashing the old and boycotting the new - what had the potential to destroy their career actually made them stronger, not only popularity-wise but in following their convictions. The movie does a wonderful job portraying the unfolding of events, without getting in the way of dictating the path chosen - the women become more articulate, more honest and more in touch with themselves musically and lyrically in the three years of living, working and filming. I admire their spirit and am thrilled an entirely new type of fan stepped forth from the drama - the new CD is a brilliant testament to their growth of character and talent...
MCC's song was written in reaction to the reaction - it's also brilliant... :-)
POEM: Home by Bruce Weigl
I didn't know I was grateful
for such late-autumn
bent-up cornfields
yellow in the after-harvest
sun before the
cold plow turns it all over
into never.
I didn't know
I would enter this music
that translates the world
back into dirt fields
that have always called to me
as if I were a thing
come from the dirt,
like a tuber,
or like a needful boy. End
Lonely days, I believe. End the exiled
and unraveling strangeness.
QUOTE: "A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her." ~ David Brinkley
for such late-autumn
bent-up cornfields
yellow in the after-harvest
sun before the
cold plow turns it all over
into never.
I didn't know
I would enter this music
that translates the world
back into dirt fields
that have always called to me
as if I were a thing
come from the dirt,
like a tuber,
or like a needful boy. End
Lonely days, I believe. End the exiled
and unraveling strangeness.
QUOTE: "A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her." ~ David Brinkley
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