ZoNotes

Nashville Goes To War?
While the media fawns over stridently anti-American actors and other celebrities in the Hollywood axis of banal, country star Darryl Worley is steadily climbing the country charts with his "Have You Forgotten?", a song that reminds us of the horrors of 9.11. I wonder how much Nashville expects to go to the well on this, because that's what I think is happening.

In my opinion, the best song in the post-9.11, pre-Iraq era is Toby Keith's "The Angry American," which captured the anger and the fury of the average American. Keith said what we thought in our minds. Country music seems to be the last refuge of pro-American sentiment, however, country is also a venue for reflection and pause for the consequences of war. For example, the Dixie Chicks' "Travellin' Soldier" echoes the past -- specifically Vietnam. And, the Chicks don't sound quite as shrill as others when recalling that war. Theirs is a reflective, forlorn piece of music.

Wordplay
"When you're a historian you get to make up words like 'orphanhood' and 'indigenists.' " --- Victoria Vergara