A Dream Dies

There is a fact about me which I generally keep to myself. It is largely irrelevant so it is seldom spoken of. The truth of the matter is that I, like tens of thousands of fellow Oregonians and millions across America, was born in the state of California. Or should I say the late great state of California.

I was born in San Diego in 1984, but my family did not stay long. Like so many others in the late 1980s our family fled north, settling in Oregon, just east of Salem. My uncle and one of our neighbors ended up in Washington, my cousin and one of our former pastors in Newberg, a family from our church wound up in Silverton as well. It was a mass exodus it seemed, but it was just beginning. The population of California has continued to grow. Swelling by about 9 million since 1990, however during that span an estimated 4 million more people have moved out of the state than have moved in from other states! The states growth has slowed dramatically since the recession began, with natural increase and foreign immigration being the only reason the state has continued to grow.

Some hail the incredible success of certain industries, such as high-tech, as proof that the California Dream still exists. However, those who choose to focus on the success of one small area in Northern California are either choosing to ignore or are ignorant of huge sections of the rest of this vast and diverse state. The laundry list of issues facing our nations most populous state is extensive, but here are a few. First of all an incredibly dysfunctional political system reigns. The nation saw this first hand when the pathetic governor Gray Davis was removed via recall election in 2003 and the "Governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in his place.

Schwarzenegger came in with grand plans, but was soon bogged down by the minutia of Sacramento and the perpetual do nothing legislature. Soon he was picking fights with the legislature, the status quo prevailed, and he was every bit as unpopular as the man he had replaced. When faced with real and pressing challenges those in Sacramento and across the state at all levels of government have chosen to pass the buck and kick the can on down the road. Unfortunately there is only so much passing and kicking they can do and their problems are beginning to catch up with them.

The issue California faces is that not only are their challenges huge, unpleasant, and costly. But they are a decay to the very core and foundation of the state. They are structural problems so massive that they threaten the very solvency of not only the state, but countless counties and local municipalities as well. At every level governments are saddled by enormous unfunded pension liabilities and politicians from city hall to the state house are beholden to incredibly powerful and unflinching public employee unions which have negotiated embarrassingly generous contracts and pensions for their members. Apparently the question of who will pay for all this is being passed along for another day.

However, that day will come and little by little governments across California are facing their day of reckoning and still the answers do not come easy. The state has an unemployment rate well above the national average, a toxic business climate, politicians addicted to spending, citizens addicted to the government cheese, and public employee unions with an insatiable appetite for more. And still no one can step in and say enough is enough. The politicians in Sacramento cannot see past the end of their own noses and are too worried about their own electoral chances (And perhaps getting laid.) to try and actually tackle the catastrophic issues looming above their heads.

There was a time when California was viewed as promised land. From as long ago as the mid-19th century people dreamed of the Golden State. The state had intrigue, it was romanticized by Hollywood, it was seen as cool, and most of all it was seen as a microcosm of America. Where anything was possible and where a mountain of opportunity was just sitting, there for the taking. There was a reason my family moved three thousand miles to Southern California in the 1960s (And we are talking entire extended family as well, it was a complete familial migration on my mothers side.). There was opportunity in California and the promise of a better life. It was a place where one could raise a family, enjoy the beautiful climate, and experience a relatively high standard of living. However, the flood of families and small business owners we see fleeing the state today says it all.

The California Dream is now spoken of in the past tense. No longer are young families who aspire to upward mobility moving to California, but instead they are fleeing it as fast as possible. California is a fine place for the wealthy or someone living on a hefty public employee pension. It is arguably the most beautiful state in the nation, with the most scenic coastline in America and some of the most majestic mountains found anywhere. The amenities and entertainment options for a Californian of means are also practically endless. But for a family trying to find their piece of the American dream and move into the middle class, California does not hold the dazzling allure it once did. From deteriorating services, to high taxes, and an outrageous cost of living California is becoming a land of haves and have nots as those in the middle head for more fertile pastures. Here's to hoping the so called leaders in the Golden State wake up and reverse their statist ways before it is to late. But sadly, there are no signs that the leaders of California will awaken from their statist and debaucherous coma before it is to late and all we have is a memory of the great Golden Bear that was California.

Country's Most Underrated Artist and His Antithesis.

When Eric Church's "Drink in my Hand" went #1 on the Country charts recently I was stunned to learn that it was his first song to reach the top. I have been a fan of Church since he debuted in 2006 with "How Bout You." Since then I have been paying more attention to the high quality of his music than his position on the Billboard charts, but after doing a little research I was completely floored that the highest he had gotten on the Country singles chart before "Drink" was #10! This guy has been making GREAT music for nearly six years now!

If you aren't familiar with Eric Church and you have even a passing interest/tolerance in Country music, then you owe it to yourself to get acquainted with his music. Two of his songs, "Sinners Like Me" and "His Kind of Money (My kind of Love)" are absolutely fantastic and never even cracked the Country top 40 as singles, but definitely deserve a listen. As well as "Those I've Loved" which was never even released as a single, but is an excellent heartfelt ballad. Of course his latest single "Springsteen" is absolutely incredible and has been getting rave reviews and a ton of radio airplay.

It does puzzle me however, how the Country music industry and radio can be so slow to accept him. Yet on the other hand they are so quick to jump on the bandwagon of people like Luke Bryan who produces almost nothing, but crap. His second single "We rode in Trucks" was decent, it had a good first verse and decent chorus, but overall was too wordy and a little cliche'. He has gone steadily downhill since then with such duds as "Country Girl Shake It" and "Rain is a Good Thing." "Country Girl" has to be one of the worst Country songs of all time and pretty much re-enforces every negative stereotype about Country music. There is literally a line in the chorus imploring the "country girl" to shake her ass for "the catfish swimming down deep in the creek." Now I'm sure the catfish enjoyed it, but I did not. The video also seems to reveal Luke's taste for whorish women...errrrr....cuntry girls...Who tell us at the beginning about coming from a small town ("The audition process is never easy," some bimbo quips. "But it does get a whole lot easier when you fuck Luke Bryan!" Okay I admit I added that last part.) and they inform us at the end what they find appealing about the country lifestyle. Like we're that stupid...

At some level I get it. Luke Bryan is kind of a country pretty boy, he has sparkling eyes and the ladies love him. But his songs suck and he is an absolute chauvinist. Eric Church on the other hand is what I would describe as a "man's man." He is not the best looking guy, nor does he have the smoothest voice, but he sings amazing, to the point, heartfelt songs. I am glad to see him finally getting the recognition he deserves and at a larger level it gives me some hope for the genre as a whole. If we have to have artists like Luke Bryan at least there is room for people like Eric Church. Artists who may not be the flashiest or present the most sex appeal, but sing genuine American music that comes straight from the soul. If you haven't already, check out "Springsteen" by Eric Church. Its already up to #10 and could very well be his second #1 hit!

Romney Claims Victory: Thoughts/Perspective

So I tuned in last night to watch Mitt Romney claim victory after sweeping all five of the primaries that were held last night. His victory of course had been all but certain after Rick Santorum dropped out a couple of weeks ago. But this pretty much marked the start of the general election campaign.

Overall, I thought the speech was decent. Romney is definitely not going to blow anyone away with his delivery. He is not as wooden as Al Gore or as bumbling as G.W.B., but he is definitely not the most exciting man on stage. I was pleased with the content of the speech (My wife sneered at the "A Better America Begins Tonight" theme/title. She felt it was a little too presumptive and pie in the sky. I informed her that is what a Presidential campaign is all about!), and thought that he hit on the right notes by sticking to the economy. Personally I feel that if Romney continues to pound away on the economy and resists getting sucked into pettiness and social issues then he has an excellent chance at becoming our 45th President.

Obama has to run against Romney and has to paint the Republicans as ghouls and Romney as some kind of blue blood richie-rich who wants to rob from the poor and give to the rich. The President cannot really focus on the issues, the tepid recovery, runaway debt, a wildly unpopular health care mandate which he wasted all his political capital on and may or may not be struck down by the Supreme Court. In short Obama has been the President for 3 1/2 years and has nothing to show for, except for failed promises and disappointment (As was duly noted by the former Massachusetts Governor.).

In short I thought Romney hit Obama where he needed too and that is why, out of the extremely weak Republican field, he is absolutely the best candidate to face off with Obama. He can appeal to moderates and stick to an economic message. Something that Rick Santorum proved that he cannot do. The economy is on every ones minds and the vast majority of voters really do not give a shit about abortion or other divisive social issues this time around. And lets face it, most people who are in deep on either side of the abortion issue are not going to going to be switching parties regardless. The important thing is that a moderate to liberal independent who leans conservative on fiscal issues can feel comfortable that a vote for Romney is not going to lead to a massive attack on a woman's right to choose (One of these days I will post about how the culture wars are pretty much over and the Christians lost, but that is for another day.).

Where do we go from here? Well Romney is pretty much going to keep on doing what he has been doing, campaigning, raising money, and hitting hard on economic issues and the President's record. For his part Obama is going to start kicking into campaign gear as we have seen this week with his appearances on Jimmy Fallon (WTF, seriously Jimmy Fallon?! Why would he waste his time on a show that no one watches? Does Jimmy F. have some dirt on the President and he is threatening to go public if Obama doesn't appear on his show? But hey, bully for Fallon, he tripled his audience to 15!). He has also been going around the country this week pandering...errr...pushing to keep interest rates low on student loans. Its probably just a coincidence that recent polls of young people show a devil may care attitude toward the President. A far cry from the hysteria he touched off among that demographic back in 2008. If enthusiasm continues to flag on our nations college campuses look for the President to start promising more giveaways even including, but not limited too, free beer and prostitutes for all students with a 3.5 GPA or higher (At no time in history will there be more serious academic study among jocks and frat boys!).

On the serious side however, we do have a long horse race ahead of us and at this point there is really no telling where this will go. In general the leader at this point in the game wins about half of the time. So we really can't draw much from Obama's average lead of about 3%. I could see Obama eeking out a narrow victory and I could easily see the same thing happening for Romney. There could also be unseen events/factors that turn the race into a blowout on either side, only time will tell. It will be an exciting race and there is no doubt I will post frequently on it during the next six months or so up until election day.

I leave you with this gem...

There are so many things that popped into my mind when I saw this picture. I probably shouldn't write any of them. Feel free to write your own caption in the comments section!

Can You Take Me Higher?!

I love Bill Simmon's Grantland. Always great stuff on there. They have a great new column on two of the "greatest" rock bands of my generation. Creed and Nickleback. Pretty much hits the nail on the head. I've never been a big Nickleback fan, but I have always liked Creed. Back in high school I really liked Creed! However, I will acknowledge that both these bands, especially Creed, are also universally hated. If I had a dollar everytime I've heard someone say "fucking Creed," I would be a very wealthy man.

Whatever happened to Rock anyways? It really no longer exists as a genre. Its really just shit nobody has ever heard of or cares about or Classic Rock. There is really no Rock to speak of being played on the radio these days. Think about it we laugh that we used to listen to Creed and then proceed to crank up the Flo Rida and Pitbull. Trust me, I promise you in a decade you will hear a Flo Rida song and be like "WTF!" I think some elements of the lost Rock genre have been absorbed into Country and for that Country is better off. This can be seen with Kid Rock, Darius Rucker, and Aaron Lewis doing Country albums in recent years. Also it is pretty obvious that Jason Aldean is heavily influenced by Rock. Anyways I miss Creed, they were pretty bad ass for a band that was mistakenly thought of as Christian.

 Check out the article about Creed and Nickleback on Grantland.

Lost Paradise

The following is a small excerpt from one of my writing projects. I have been working on this project on and off for several years and will be posting more excerpts in the following days/weeks. For now I won't give to much away. Its pretty raw and  I haven't edited it much so its far from perfect, but I feel its a decent sample. Enjoy...

There existed an old album, of which her husband was unaware. Contained within were the typical photographs which ones parents feel the obligation to take when one is small. The ordinary baby pictures, the photograph of the little one splashing naked in the bath tub, the first day of school, the Christmas play. All such photos of a young Rosie Anthwar existed within this album as they exist in the albums created by millions of individual families. They are seemingly all the same, but the individual memories and countless stories they tell are unique. The photographs took special meaning to Rosie, they reminded her of a time when she had known bliss, or at least this is what she believed. Do we all not believe such a myth? That there is a place in which our lives once flowered where we knew the true meaning of our destiny and if only we could journey back to that point then we could achieve the true happiness that has worked so hard to elude us. It is a lie, but a sweet one, a falsehood that is not told to oneself with ill intentions, but is purely believed. A place in our minds truly does exist where we were pure, innocent, and joyous. And perhaps we were in the naivety of our younger days, before we were thrown to the cruelty of the world or became aware of the facts which in our innocence are hidden from our eyes. Why are we told the sweet lies of the promise of life by our elders? Why is it that we so readily believe them and then continue to seek them even when they have been smashed upon the shores of life? Is it because though they have been lost to us, we pray that these dreams of fulfillment can be true for another?

            Yet, there are the forgotten ones who are never possessed with such hope. They are never told the innocent lies of youth, never know that the deception of happiness is on the table. These are people, humans, just like us, who are never given the same chance which many of us know. Perhaps you are one of these unfortunate souls? A person who never knew love, did not have the opportunity to grow up in a home with people who showered them with love and affection. You look upon a person such as Rosie and long to be in her shoes and when you become aware of her secret, that she is unsatisfied, that she longs for something else, you are puzzled. In fact, it is puzzling. Why humans long for what they cannot have, whatever it is we seek we are never completely satisfied, never totally fulfilled, yet this almost obvious fact is hidden from so many of us. It may be that if we could come to grips with this fact of life, that our dreams in some way will always be beyond the horizon then perhaps the weak among us could better come to grips with the reality of their lives. The disappointment could ebb and the resultant self destruction would never occur. Rosie had a good life if she had only known it, her husband was distant, in many ways a morally bankrupt monster. He did not care for her in the way in which most humans wish to be loved, but he did take care of her. This was not enough for her, but she could have lived with it and had a good life, however coming to grips with the facts as they stood never crossed her troubled mind.

Do I give poor advice? Advising a young girl to lay aside the dreams of love and tolerate a reality which is less then stellar. Perhaps, my advice is poor, maybe I am just offering it to her because I have the advantage of time and the question of how her life would have turned out had she left well enough alone weighs on my mind. But history cannot be erased, we can only learn from our mistakes and missteps. Improve our condition, and raise our stock. At times the tone of my writings may seem to have no hope for humanity, but that is not truly the case. There is a glimmer of hope in the story of every soul, and lessons to learn by which we may improve the fate of ourselves. One should not observe the life of another to cast judgment or to be entertained, however the importance in observation is that by watching the lives of others we may develop a pathway for ourselves. Wisdom is a complex and difficult gift to master, but if we are able to harness that power in our mind we may use the lives of others to formulate a path for ourselves, never experience the pain of life’s lessons when the point could have been processed by heeding the tale of another.

Within that photo album whose pages Rosie often browsed appeared one picture in particular which was her favorite. It had been taken in the summer when she was a toddler, a little girl no more than two years of age. She wore a cheerful  grin on her plump little face, her blonde hair pulled back in braids and her hands stained dark by the chocolate ice cream she was eating. She was sitting at the kitchen table at her families home in Mission Springs, it was there first home before it had burned. A happy place, humble, but built through the love, determination, and hard work of her parents. The sun shined through the dining room window and the picture is lit by its warm rays which even on the darkest of nights she could feel reflecting off that photograph. Her papa is seated next to her, he too is wearing a smile, his beard is dark and his eyes sparkle with pride as he watches his first born child happily scoop the ice cream out of a bowl making a mess as she does. It is a simple picture, but in the moments she spends with it Rosie is transported to a different place and a different time. She is Rosie Anthwar again, her papa is young and alive, and she is happy. For a split second she is there, two years old again on a summer day in a home that no longer exists. The warm afternoon sun is streaking through the window on her face which drips with melting ice cream and she hears the laughter of her father as he sits next to the little girl whom is the fulfillment of his every dream. At the time she is unaware, but she knows now that what love was present in that moment, she was his dream, her papa is happy, his eyes are sparkling.

Then reality sets over her, Rosie can still see the sparkle in her papa’s eyes, but it is distant now, a mere memory set before her on paper. Other visions of her father come to mind. Dreams that torment, scenes in her mind which she will never shake, but would give anything to forget. The memory of the day on which he was laid to rest forever. Those trips down memory lane always end the same way, melancholy takes over and the picture which at first represents happiness becomes the emblem of a lost paradise. A dream of which can never be replaced. Tears well in her eyes as she sees those sparkling eyes of her papa, and her heart aches to see them but one more time. Many years have passed since she saw that same spark of life in the eye of another, for a time she believed that twinkle her father possessed was unique to him, that he was the only man who had that quality hidden in him and shone only through his eyes that through it all there was something indeed to love about this life. Then one days she saw it in another, that spark, a sign in the eyes of another beyond the dull norm, a twinkle which may have gone unnoticed by all others say for her. It was just a fleeting chance instant, a minute on the high banks above the Willamette that she saw this, years would pass but it was a moment she would never forget.

Welcome

I have really resisted blogging for sometime now, but alas the time has come. One of my good friends was up at my place this weekend and we got to talking about my writing, my opinions, etc...And he really made it clear to me that I should make more of my thoughts/writing more readily available. I write a lot in my spare time, but most of it I keep to myself as most of the social networking sites I use such as facebook are just not the appropriate format for my material. My intention for this blog is to share a bit of my material in a setting where it is being read by an interested audience be that one person or a thousand. Thus, my musing will not be lost among the clutter of random statuses, comments, etc...

Also I this way I will not be posting material that some people who may come across it on Facebook, for instance, may find objectionable. This is your fair warning. If you choose to view content on my blog it will be Andrew Greenhalgh-Johnson unfiltered. From time to time there may be some instances of adult language. I am all about ideas and the expression of such by the most effective means. I realize that I am about the billionth person to blog, but I hope that I have something unique to offer in my own way.
It is my intention to touch on a variety of topics and have an eclectic mix of postings ranging my opinions on the local topics of the day, discussions of historical events, sports, weather, politics, as well as excerpts from some of my writing projects or short stories. Enjoy.