Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
People are talking about America again. I don’t mean the country, though I’m sure that’s true, but rather the song “America” by Simon and Garfunkel. The Bernie Sanders campaign has used the beginning and end of the song, expertly edited, as the backdrop of his new political advertisement, also titled “America,” in which he highlights Sanders’ supporters: Iowans who walk though their fields, carrying hay or a calf, and the huge crowds who have come to Sanders’ rallies. Like the song, the ad says that all these (predominantly white and rural) Iowans have “come to look for America.” At the end of the ad that skillfully communicates many people’s enthusiasm for the Sanders campaign, we hear Bernie say, “I’m Bernie Sanders, and I approve this message.” As the ad is what we in poetry class would call a “paean” to America, I think that everyone from Marco Rubio to Hillary Clinton would “approve” the uplifting message of the ad.
Piqued by this engaging video, and especially by my wife Kate’s support for Sanders and love for Simon and Garfunkel, I have been listening anew to the duo’s music. Interestingly, as is the case with many of Simon’s great lyrics, the words to the actual song “America” are more complex and even dark than would be appropriate for a political campaign. Just before one of the lines that the Sanders ad quotes, about “Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike,” Simon’s speaker expressed existential anguish:
“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping.
“I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why.”
One can guess why the Sanders audio editors left that bit out.
I left in some of the darkness, and added some of my own, when I recently wrote a satirical take on that poem. Some of you know that I have been assigned to write about the hopes and concerns of war veterans returning to Yolo County. Having previously written a book about 20th century poetry called Mad Men (and this was long before the AMC TV show), I found myself writing poems about veterans’ struggles with posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. How different is the alienation of Paul Simon’s speaker, who like me is always pursuing his “Kathy,” from that of the young recruit serving overseas?
Well that is what I explored in a poem that I wrote and performed yesterday in Sacramento, “The Recruiting Station.”
“The Recruiting Station” (With apologies to Simon and Garfunkel)
“Let us be soldiers, we’ll invade some small countries together
I’ve got some armaments here in my bag”
So we bought some hand grenades, and meals ready to eat
And walked off to look for the recruiting station.
“Martin,” I said, as we boarded a Greyhound in Augusta
“The Georgia Dome seems like a dream to me now
It took us four hours to hitch-hike from Valdosta
I’ve come to look for the recruiting station”
Laughing in the tank,
Playing games with the knobs and dials
Martin said the captain in fatigues was a Bolshevik
I said, “Be careful, He’s friends with Boris Yeltsin”
“Toss me a needle, I keep an extra there in my holster”
“We used the last one an artery ago”
So I looked at the barbed wire, as Martin reviewed the field manual
And the coordinates came in over the radio
“Martin, I’ve lost my drone”, I said, though I know he was unconscious
“I keep pulling the trigger and I don’t know why”
Counting the boys who used to play football in high school
They’ve all come to look for the recruiting station
All come to look for the recruiting station
All come to look for the recruiting station
I hope you find what you are looking for. Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature a bunch of music questions. Expect also questions about cars, things that are purple, Cloners and Clonees, inline skates, kings and queens, warriors, book awards, halogens, California cities, the WWE, Irish air, Star Wars, young adult fiction, clashing princes, the ghostly noises made by the wealthy, Iowa, eponyms, birds, food and drink, refined polishing, three-syllable names of warriors, the extent to which no means no, confidence, continents, street names in east Davis, desiccation, sports, Irish culture, and Shakespeare.
Please join us tonight for the last Pub Quiz of January. As Hawthorne says, “Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.”
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Mottos and Slogans. What U company founded in 2009 uses the slogan “Where lifestyle meets logistics”?
- Internet Culture. January 15 marks the birthday of Wikipedia. A number divisible by 5, how old is Wikipedia this year?
- Jason Sudekis Films. The highest grossing Jason Sudekis and Emma Roberts film is the second-highest-grossing Jennifer Anniston film and the top-grossing Mexico travelogue film. Name this 2013 film.
P.S. A remembrance of Francisco Alarcon has been planned for February 18th at the John Natsoulas Gallery. I hope you can join us.