Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Bruce Springsteen is a bit angry. And it’s good for his music.

The new single — “We Take Care of Our Own” — soars and seethes, and in the process washes away the taste of his last, and weakest, record, “Working on a Dream.”

Slate discussed the record earlier this weak. David Haglund quoted “someone close to Bruce Springsteen” calling Wrecking Ball “the angriest album he’s ever made.” Haglund then quotes from the single’s second verse:

   From Chicago to New Orleans
   From the muscle to the bone
   From the shotgun shack to the Superdome
   We yelled “help” but the cavalry stayed home
   There ain’t no-one hearing the bugle blown

Haglund’s response:

I’d say that’s fairly angry. The chorus—“Wherever this flag’s flown / We take care of our own”—sounds rousingly optimistic, but may be intended, at least in part, ironically; that would be a familiar approach for Springsteen.

The Katrina reference, meanwhile, recalls another comment from that Springsteen acquaintance quoted above: The Boss apparently “wrote and recorded the majority of the album before the Occupy movements started, so he’s not just setting headlines to music.”

The B-side for this single (on vinyl, at least) is “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” a 1990s-era Springsteen tune. Since Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine apparently features on Wrecking Ball, I’m guessing it’s the version of that song he memorably contributed to. Hope so.

I hope so too. Wrecking Ball is his first release in the post-Big Man-era, a loss that could have stripped the passion from the music. The Boss bought into the optimism of Barack Obama’s election win, allowing it to soften his music and cut short the momentum of the truly great Magic album.

If the alum is like the single, we can expect a set of muscular, political tunes and a return to relevance for the Steinbeck of rock and roll.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

The Romney-bot bites the dust

It was just a week ago that Mitt Romney had a double-digit in the South Carolina polls. The presumed front-runner, who had been declared the winner of the first two contest (Iowa and New Hampshire), was about to run the table and lock up the nomination early.

But with tonight’s second-place finish in South Carolina — by an embarrassing 14 points — Romney could be looking at a long fight that he may not be able to win.

If nothing else, the fact that just over half of South Carolina voters said in exit polls that they made up their minds at the last minute shows just how fluid and restive the Republican electorate remains — a troubling sign for Mr. Romney that Mr. Gingrich is now poised to capitalize upon.

And after being so confident just 10 days ago — before its declared victory in Iowa was rescinded and Mr. Gingrich began his rise — the Romney campaign is now not only fighting the perception that Mr. Romney cannot consolidate broad support among conservative voters, but also at least one troubling fact of history: No Republican has gone on to win the party’s nomination without winning South Carolina since before 1980.

And even if he manages to snare the nomination, he will limp into this general election a wounded candidate knowing that he will likely face more attacks on his past — his days at Bain, his excessive wealth, his constantly shifting positions — that are also likely to be much more aggressive.

Ultimately, the primary fight offers a clear demonstration of the massive cracks in the Republican coalition and the party’s purging of moderates.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Military pisses on itself

You’d think the apparent desecration of Taliban corpses by United States Marines in Afghanistan would be indefensible, that the notion that someone would piss on a dead body would be so foreign to all of our consciences that this would not be an issue.

You would be wrong. This is a post to Facebook that I just came across:

am so sick of this shit with the Marines who urinated on their enemy. Hey stupid go visit a VA hospital sometime and look at the condition of some of our retuning soldiers. Did it ever occur to you that we might not be such a target if other people feared us? GO USA!!!!!!

To sum things up: Pissing on a corpse shows how powerful we are and apparently has military utility. Bizarre.

I’ll leave it to Cara Palmer, on Neon Tommy, — who calls the footage “utterly deplorable” — to explain things to my Facebook friend:

The thoughtless action and comments of the Marines depicted in the video is not only disrespectful, but it is also inhumane. The devaluation of another human being, dead or alive, in such a manner, even and especially in wartime, reflects badly on the character of those committing the act. Certain standards of behavior must be met, standards these particular Marines were far from meeting.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

The web reacts to NJ marriage-equality bill

[View the story “The blogosphere reacts to N.J. marriage-equality bill” on Storify]

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Anti-capitalist corporate Republicans, or something like that

Ted Rall’s piece today on Common Dreams is a brilliant dissection of our economic moment and the disjointed uses to which the Republican anybody-but-Romney brigade is attempting to use it, along with a rejoinder to a Democratic Party that has refused to really challenge the corporate order.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.