What's an Elitist?

Liam and I came up with a lexically different outcome when discussing the notion of elitism as it relates to identity.
Brian Williams of NBC just asked Sarah Palin who she thought a member of the elite was and she replied:

PALIN: Oh, I guess just people who think that they're better than anyone else. And-- John McCain and I are so committed to serving every American. Hard-working, middle-class Americans who are so desiring of this economy getting put back on the right track. And winning these wars. And America's starting to reach her potential. And that is opportunity and hope provided everyone equally. So anyone who thinks that they are-- I guess-- better than anyone else, that's-- that's my definition of elitism. Look for the elitism discussion circa minute 4:05
Here is the McCain/Palin discussion of the term elite as seen on tonight's segment on the NBC Nightly News:
How do you define the term elitism?

Blog Power and Indie Rock

This is an excellent article.
Bloggers have influenced the music world a lot. Bloggers are now having a say not only when it comes to music information dispensation, raising awareness about new acts, boosting CD and merchandise sales but also booking shows. A bit from today's Times says:

"Indie-rock, with full blog support, is now the refuge for the musicianly impulses of progressive rock. Pattern Is Movement, a two-man band (drums and keyboards) from Philadelphia, records mercurial songs that juggle Minimalist repetition, musical-theater melodicism and progressive-rock asymmetries. But onstage, like duos from Lightning Bolt to the Dresden Dolls, they happily pummeled the music, vigorously knocking down any hint of effeteness. Women, a four-man band from Canada, moved inexorably between the pointillistic guitar patterns of King Crimson and the enveloping squall of Sonic Youth, when they weren’t singing about “the place where nobody has been keeping track.
...
On Tuesday afternoon Oxford Collapse, a Brooklyn band whose burly songs try to bridge post-punk and arena-rock, looked into its audience between songs and asked, “Anybody need time out to blog?”
Read it all here.

Text Behind Clothing: Substantial

Every news program I have marginally or solely seen/listened to from yesterday to today has not only mentioned but also analyzed the GOP's decision to give Sarah Palin a substantial makeover.
And people are having strong reactions to the $150.000 makeover. Some are even pointing out that the attention the Palin camp is getting on the matter is a sign of sexism and that male candidates spend thousands on designer suits all the time.

Personally, I don't know any hockey moms so I can't rely on personal experience to comment on this. Cognitively, there are a number of ways to interpret this, of course.

The thing I'm thinking about is the fact that the hockey/soccer mom image, at least the one that stereotypes inform, does not, for the most part, reside in a 'Prada-informed niche'. Prada does not come cheap.
When John Edwards' $400.00 haircut bill was made public many people commented on it and presented it as a sign of elitism. I don't tend to think that there is a direct correlation between wardrobe choices and elitism but I can see why certain clothing items could make some equate the wearer of such things with elitism. And this brings me to the whole 'hockey mom' notion as one that's [apparently?] antithetical to elitism.

Hockey moms and Prada items are not mutually exclusive.

Bottom line: The text behind clothing is a strong one. And aesthetics will not be irrelevant anytime soon. It never was in the first place.
The NY Times article points out:

"Such an image is unhelpful at this late stage of the general election, Republicans said, especially when many families are experiencing economic pain, and when the image applies to a candidate, like Ms. Palin, who has run for office in part on her appeal as an outdoors enthusiast and former small-town mayor who scorns pretensions.

“It looks like nobody with a political antenna was working on this,” said Ed Rollins, a Republican political consultant who ran President Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984. “It just undercuts Palin’s whole image as a hockey mom, a ‘one-of-us’ kind of candidate.”

Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, have been described as elitist by both Republicans and Democrats at times, and so much was made when she appeared on “The View” in June in a black-and-white patterned dress. Turns out it sold for $148 at an off-the-rack store.

Few Republican operatives or politicians, even those critical of the McCain-Palin campaign, were publicly criticizing the ticket on Wednesday over the clothing purchases. Some said privately that doing so would be akin to kicking a campaign while it was down.

Others said the issue was tainted with sexism, given that male politicians often spend thousands of dollars on suits.

“She had a legitimate need to purchase clothing to get her through three months of grueling campaigning in the constant spotlight of television cameras,” said William F. B. O’Reilly, a Republican consultant in New York. “No one would blink if this was a male candidate buying Brooks Brothers suits.”
Read more here.

Lennon's New Biography: Thumbs Up!

There is one major reason why Philip Norman’s new biography on the incomparable Beatle is a must-read: literary relevance.

John Lennon: The Life exposes Lennon's humanity and idiosyncratic habits as an adolescent and mature man.
And, most importantly, Sophocles' Jocasta & Oedipus goings-on just might make a wee bit of sense.

As for Philip Norman, the established author has done it again. He shines as a narrator and the life details of his characters never seem tedious or labor-intensive to read.

One more note, those of you interested in learning more about Lennon's creative process and music will not learn much about either thing from this book. But those of you who enjoy well contextualized biographies, will have a heck of a time with this text.

In John Lennon: The Life, Norman focuses primarily on John, the human, not Lennon, the musical legend.

graph per rs