Shut Up and Sing

We here at Bloody Nib Manor have always preferred Tony Bennett as a singer to Frank Sinatra We've always felt that his voice was more pleasing, that he had a better songbook and that he was, and is, a nicer man than the Chairman of the Board.

But Mr. Bennett should remember that it has been, and is, his job to sing. He is not a cultural critic, an anthropologist or a sociologist. But like many people who have attained fame and fortune in one area of life, he feels that his opinion in other areas of life is worth serious consideration, as is evinced by this article: TONY BENNETT - TONY BENNETT: 'AMERICA IS CULTURALLY VOID'

I think that what Mr. Bennett really means is that there is not a culture in contemporary America that he likes except jazz. Whether or not jazz is a cultural contribution is arguable. There are some who believe that jazz since the 1950s is tantamount to aural masturbation. He seems to have forgotten that world has taken to rock and roll, barbeque, film animation, surfing and fast food in a way that it never did to French Impressionism, atonal music, croquet and Italian food.

I believe that what Mr. Bennett really means is that there is not an American originated culture that appeals to the cultural elites. But that's what America is all about. It is the populace that makes the culture while ignoring the elites. The majority have their fun, kick out the jams and rock and roll (and export this stuff to the world) while the elites east of the Appalachias and north of the Delaware piss and moan about what a barbaric nation they live in, and long to curtsey before the Queen of England. It is the aspiration toward the European definition of culture that will make America culturally void because it will make the States a weak sister of a weak sister.

Anyone who looks to a singer for a critique of American culture is as vapid as someone who gets their religion from a movie.

The painting at the top is called The Arts of the West, and was painted by Thomas Hart Benton. Benton has never been a favorite here at the Manor (his stuff looks often like he painted it while suffering a hangover), but this painting defines the arts of the common man of the West at the time the painting was done -- music, dancing, horseshoes, shooting, etc. If an Australian aborigine blowing through a tube can be called culture why can't a man busting a bronco not be?