I was a huge fan of the Mamas and the Papas. I was also a huge fan of John Phillips after the Mamas and the Papas. For Pete's sake, I have both the John Phillips solo album (featuring "Mississippi", which should have been a major hit) and the Jack of Diamonds album, featuring a collection of outtakes (some of which should have remained there). I also have a collection of items from the Monterey Pop festival, which was his brainchild and perhaps his greatest accomplishment. And I'm in awe of his songwriting talents, ranging from the Mamas & Papas hits to the much, much later "Kokomo", which he supposedly wrote with Terry Melcher (Doris Day's son and perhaps Charlie Manson's real target) while so wasted that he could barely function.
So why do I find Mackenzie Phillips' story of incest with her father absolutely, without a doubt, believable -- especially when two of her former stepmothers, Michelle Gilliam Phillips and Genevieve Waite, claim she's lying?
Well, first off, maybe it's because I'm surprised by Michelle's denials. This is a woman who has discussed her own father being attracted to her -- as she put it, she was "his type". As a result, she lived a wild bohemian lifestyle atypical of Southern California during her youth. I'm sure Mackenzie lied and deceived over the years -- what addict doesn't, including her father? But you would think she would recognize the possibility of the situation. Maybe it's denial.
As far as Genevieve Waite, her daughter with John (Bijou) filed for emancipation from her parents at 14, went into rehab a couple of times while modeling, and turned into a Scientologist, one of the creepiest of the creepy. You don't think something about that seems a little off? Like maybe there were more family troubles other than just drug addiction?
Second, I remember when Mackenzie joined the reformed Mamas & Papas. John and Denny Doherty were there. Cass Elliot was dead and replaced by Spanky MacFarland (from 60's stars "Spanky and Our Gang"). And Mackenzie was playing Michelle's part. I remember thinking at the time, in response to some joke that John made, about her taking on all of her stepmather's roles, that he was implying that he was sleeping with her. But I thought that was so creepy that he was clearly joking.
But now...
Third, we know that John had incredible problems with substance abuse. My favorite story about this was John's story of writing "Me and My Uncle", the song for which he became widely known from its constant performances by the Grateful Dead (66 performances between 1966 and 1995!). John started getting royalty checks for the song, which first appeared on a Judy Collins live album, but he hadn't written it and told Judy so. Then she reminded him about a night out with her and a couple of other young musicians named Stephen Stills and Neil Young (pre-Buffalo Springfield) in Arizona after Judy's concert. As they got drunker and drunker, they were taping themselves on a cassette recorder. During the night, among other song fragments that were composed, John came up with an entire song, preserved by the tape. Judy took the song and started performing it -- unbeknownst to John, who couldn't really remember much about the evening period, let alone about the song.
come on, if you could get so blotto that you couldn't remember anything about writing a song that became a classic, is it hard to believe that you could get drunk/high enough to lose your inhibitions about incest? Especially with a beautiful and talented daughter who was as much of a junkie as you were?
If there is any part of the story that I have doubts about, it's about Mackenzie's own reactions. I'm willing to believe her story that her father initiated their sex. But I have a hard time picturing Mackenzie as anything but an enthusiastic participant over the life of the relationship. After all, her father had dumped her, her mother and her brother when they were just kids to take off with the teenaged Michelle. In some way, this had to feel to her like she was winning him back. I know her feelings weren't quite that simple, but look at the lengths to which she would have had to go over the years to keep such a relationship a secret from everyone, including her husband at the time. Apparently the only person she told was her half-sister Chynna (John & Michelle's daughter) back in 1997, which was about 10 years after she broke off the incest.
Anyway, nothing about this seems unlikely to me. I do feel sorry for Mackenzie, because she was such a talented actress (unlike her stepmother Michelle, who did some of the worst bombs ever), and it's a shame that she wasted her most productive years with so many personal issues, from the incest to the drug addiction. On the one hand, she has so much more than most people that she has no grounds to complain, from the starring role in a classic movie (American Graffiti) as a young teen to the hit TV shows ... on the other hand, I appreciate that she probably feels that she has to be open about her past to make sense of her future (and she's only turning 50, so it's not like she doesn't have years of possible achievement in front of her).
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Cancellara wins again
Fabian Cancellara has proven to be the reigning king of the time trial. He's not so bad outside of the time trial either.
Cancellara, riding for Switzerland instead of Saxo Bank (the former CSC) today blew out the rest of the world cyclists in the World Championships Time Trial, defeating his teammate Gustav Larsson, riding for Sweden, by 1:27. Germany's Tony Martin was third, 2:30 behind. American Tom Zirbel was fourth, 2:46 behind. Zirbel is joining Garmin-Slipstream next year, and it will be interesting to see how he does in a full international season.
Not competing were the Astana pair who were the closest competitors to the Saxo Bank duo in last year's Beijing Olympics: American Levi Leipheimer and Spaniard Alberto Contador. Of course, with Leipheimer's recovery from his wrist break and Contador's uncertain status for next year, their absence comes as no surprise.
Cancellara also was the bronze medalist in the men's road race in the Beijing Olympics. We'll see if he has a double left in him here.
In the women's time trial, American Kristin Armstrong won again, also matching her Beijing Olympics gold, and then confirmed her retirement after the women's road race. She doesn't intend to match Jeanne Longo in staying in the sport until age 50. Considering the limited sponsorship payments even to the top women, that's easy to understand.
More interestingly, UCI voted to ban the use of race radios, despite the fact that the big teams swear by them. Honestly, I think most of the European opposition to race radios is that they are seen as an American innovation (which they were, courtesy of Team Motorola, and they became an essential after former Motorola rider -- and American rider -- Lance Armstrong became the poster boy for them), and no one in Europe seems to be too happy about the presence of three American teams (plus a British team) in the top tier of cycling next year.
However, considering that UCI doesn't have control over the three Grand Tours, we'll see what happens from here. Will the Grand Tours drop the radios after the huge fight over them at the Tour de France this year (which the teams won)?
Cancellara, riding for Switzerland instead of Saxo Bank (the former CSC) today blew out the rest of the world cyclists in the World Championships Time Trial, defeating his teammate Gustav Larsson, riding for Sweden, by 1:27. Germany's Tony Martin was third, 2:30 behind. American Tom Zirbel was fourth, 2:46 behind. Zirbel is joining Garmin-Slipstream next year, and it will be interesting to see how he does in a full international season.
Not competing were the Astana pair who were the closest competitors to the Saxo Bank duo in last year's Beijing Olympics: American Levi Leipheimer and Spaniard Alberto Contador. Of course, with Leipheimer's recovery from his wrist break and Contador's uncertain status for next year, their absence comes as no surprise.
Cancellara also was the bronze medalist in the men's road race in the Beijing Olympics. We'll see if he has a double left in him here.
In the women's time trial, American Kristin Armstrong won again, also matching her Beijing Olympics gold, and then confirmed her retirement after the women's road race. She doesn't intend to match Jeanne Longo in staying in the sport until age 50. Considering the limited sponsorship payments even to the top women, that's easy to understand.
More interestingly, UCI voted to ban the use of race radios, despite the fact that the big teams swear by them. Honestly, I think most of the European opposition to race radios is that they are seen as an American innovation (which they were, courtesy of Team Motorola, and they became an essential after former Motorola rider -- and American rider -- Lance Armstrong became the poster boy for them), and no one in Europe seems to be too happy about the presence of three American teams (plus a British team) in the top tier of cycling next year.
However, considering that UCI doesn't have control over the three Grand Tours, we'll see what happens from here. Will the Grand Tours drop the radios after the huge fight over them at the Tour de France this year (which the teams won)?
"Stupid is forever"
While the interests of hockey fans (especially ones in metro Toronto) seem to be fixated on the take-no-prisoners brawl being fought in bankruptcy court in Phoenix over the future of the Coyotes, the NHL players themselves (and their retired predecessors) are rehashing the summer's surprise dismissal of the head of the NHLPA by a cabal of scrubs and hangers-on that serve as union reps. Yesterday, former NHL great Brad Park took aim in response to comments by Bruins player rep Andrew Ference that also appeared to tick off Ference's teammates. The money quote is the title of this post.
Of course, the Bruins will have enough problems this year replacing Phil Kessel, but it looks like Ference hasn't made himself many friends either. Park basically says that Ference got conned. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Of course, the Bruins will have enough problems this year replacing Phil Kessel, but it looks like Ference hasn't made himself many friends either. Park basically says that Ference got conned. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
America blunders with Honduras
I have to interrupt this fascinating (to me only) discussion about Astana (the cycling team, not the capital of Kazakhstan) to note the blundering of the current U.S. government in Central America, in particular Honduras. Basically, the situation in Honduras has been the kind of chaos beloved by the fringes of both parties.
Back during the summer, the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, scheduled a referendum to assess "popular support" for changing the Honduran constitution and removing the one-term limit on the president. Most countries quake at the thought of a strongman who wants to set himself up as a leader for life; many historians think that the greatest gift George Washington ever gave America was to limit his presidency to two terms, thus establishing a precedent that no American was willing to break for fear of looking like an egomaniac -- someone who thinks he's better than Washington -- until the hyper-egomaniac Franklin Roosevelt shattered it and forced Congress and the states to put it in the Constitution. (You could incite quite a debate among historians by asking whether the willingness of Americans to elect FDR to a third and fourth term showed that some part of American national character had been lost during the Great Depression, but that's a debate for another day.)
In Honduras, not only is the term limit already in the Constitution, but it is in a section that is designated as un-amendable. (At one point, Lincoln proposed to put the continuation of slavery in the South in such an un-amendable provision of the U.S. Constitution, but the South fortunately (?) opted to try to secede instead.) Zelaya's opponents, including within his own party, saw this as a set-up for him to abrogate the provision by presidential proclamation (in the manner of Zelaya's patron, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela), especially since the election for Zelaya's replacement was taking place in November. They brought an action with the Honduran Supreme Court to block the referendum. The Supreme Court promptly ruled that it could not take place. Zelaya ignored them and had the ballots printed. Then the Supreme Court blocked the Honduran Army (which had them stored on Army bases) from distributing them. Zelaya called out his mobs, and they attacked the Army bases and seized the ballots. The Supreme Court then ordered the Army to arrest Zelaya.
Here's where the Army dropped the ball. It didn't want to be caught in the middle between the Big Dictator (Zelaya) and the Supreme Court, figuring (rightly) that its leaders could be cashiered if they didn't back the winner. So it decided to alter the contest. Instead of arresting Zelaya and holding him for trial, it deported him. And that set the stage for the farce that has followed.
The Honduran government, which was dominated by Zelaya's party, promptly placed the next person in line for the presidency (Speaker of the House Roberto Micheletti) in office; the office of the vice-president was vacant because the VP, who also belonged to the same party as Zelaya and Michiletti, had a major split with Zelaya last year and resigned rather than support the government any longer. And that would have been the end of it, except for Hugo Chavez and his minions blustering -- until Barack Obama decided to get involved.
He desided to support the Big Dictator over the rest of the government and demanded Zelaya's reinstatement. Chavez was overjoyed. As a result, Honduras plunged into chaos for a little while. But, even though the U.S. imposed harshly punitive sanctions on Honduras (continuing Obama's trend of turning on our allies while appeasing our enemies), the situation stabilized with Zelaya out of power. Even though the EU and the US said that they would not recognize the results of the November elections unless Zelaya was returned to power, most Hondurans had come to the conclusion that the guy couldn't be trusted. Costa Rica's leftist president offered a "compromise" that would require the government to make all the concessions now in return for Zelaya's promise that he would make concessions in the future -- a promise that everyone but Obama could see was empty (since all Zelaya would say was that such a promise wasn't binding on him since he had been removed from power illegally). Hondurans rejected the compromise, which apparently infuriated Obama and his puppets at teh State department, led by Hillary Clinton. But as the sanctions got tougher, the unity of Honduras against Zelaya became more apparent. It was obvious that the Chavez/Obama strategy wasn't working to restore their ally.
...which led to a new strategy. On Sunday, Zelaya snuck in to Honduras, apparently with the help of the fellow Chavistista who are running El Salvador (though they deny it) and holed up in the embassy of Brazil, another Chavez ally. The strategy had two prongs: on one hand, the Hondurans might attack the Brazilian embassy to arrest him. As embassies are seen as the property of the foreign country, this would be the equivalent of Honduras attacking Brazil, which would give Chavez's allies in El Salvador and Nicaragua a pretext to attack Honduras and probably bring down the current government, since no one could support Honduras after that. This was the action that was apparently hoped for by Chavez and Zelaya, but -- although the Hondurans briefly cut off the water supply to the embassy -- it didn't happen. The second prong was that Zelaya's street mobs, who had attacked the army bases for him, would arise and lead a revolution on his behalf. However, although hundred of people showed up, that wasn't enough to take on the Honduran army -- and the government imposed a curfew to prevent people from camping out at the Brazilian embassy and arrested a hundred or so people who wouldn't disperse, while permitting another 300 or so to enter the embassy.
About 200 of those inside-the-embassy demonstrators have since gone home, leaving Zelaya with a shrinking core of supporters. The nationwide curfew was lifted early this morning, allowing people to return to work as of today. And Brazil's appeal to the UN to restore Zelaya to power seems to have netted it little other than a suspension of UN aid to the Honduran election commission. But everyone is still on edge, because no one knows how far Obama will go to support Hugo Chavez and his minions. What will the U.S. do next?
Back during the summer, the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, scheduled a referendum to assess "popular support" for changing the Honduran constitution and removing the one-term limit on the president. Most countries quake at the thought of a strongman who wants to set himself up as a leader for life; many historians think that the greatest gift George Washington ever gave America was to limit his presidency to two terms, thus establishing a precedent that no American was willing to break for fear of looking like an egomaniac -- someone who thinks he's better than Washington -- until the hyper-egomaniac Franklin Roosevelt shattered it and forced Congress and the states to put it in the Constitution. (You could incite quite a debate among historians by asking whether the willingness of Americans to elect FDR to a third and fourth term showed that some part of American national character had been lost during the Great Depression, but that's a debate for another day.)
In Honduras, not only is the term limit already in the Constitution, but it is in a section that is designated as un-amendable. (At one point, Lincoln proposed to put the continuation of slavery in the South in such an un-amendable provision of the U.S. Constitution, but the South fortunately (?) opted to try to secede instead.) Zelaya's opponents, including within his own party, saw this as a set-up for him to abrogate the provision by presidential proclamation (in the manner of Zelaya's patron, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela), especially since the election for Zelaya's replacement was taking place in November. They brought an action with the Honduran Supreme Court to block the referendum. The Supreme Court promptly ruled that it could not take place. Zelaya ignored them and had the ballots printed. Then the Supreme Court blocked the Honduran Army (which had them stored on Army bases) from distributing them. Zelaya called out his mobs, and they attacked the Army bases and seized the ballots. The Supreme Court then ordered the Army to arrest Zelaya.
Here's where the Army dropped the ball. It didn't want to be caught in the middle between the Big Dictator (Zelaya) and the Supreme Court, figuring (rightly) that its leaders could be cashiered if they didn't back the winner. So it decided to alter the contest. Instead of arresting Zelaya and holding him for trial, it deported him. And that set the stage for the farce that has followed.
The Honduran government, which was dominated by Zelaya's party, promptly placed the next person in line for the presidency (Speaker of the House Roberto Micheletti) in office; the office of the vice-president was vacant because the VP, who also belonged to the same party as Zelaya and Michiletti, had a major split with Zelaya last year and resigned rather than support the government any longer. And that would have been the end of it, except for Hugo Chavez and his minions blustering -- until Barack Obama decided to get involved.
He desided to support the Big Dictator over the rest of the government and demanded Zelaya's reinstatement. Chavez was overjoyed. As a result, Honduras plunged into chaos for a little while. But, even though the U.S. imposed harshly punitive sanctions on Honduras (continuing Obama's trend of turning on our allies while appeasing our enemies), the situation stabilized with Zelaya out of power. Even though the EU and the US said that they would not recognize the results of the November elections unless Zelaya was returned to power, most Hondurans had come to the conclusion that the guy couldn't be trusted. Costa Rica's leftist president offered a "compromise" that would require the government to make all the concessions now in return for Zelaya's promise that he would make concessions in the future -- a promise that everyone but Obama could see was empty (since all Zelaya would say was that such a promise wasn't binding on him since he had been removed from power illegally). Hondurans rejected the compromise, which apparently infuriated Obama and his puppets at teh State department, led by Hillary Clinton. But as the sanctions got tougher, the unity of Honduras against Zelaya became more apparent. It was obvious that the Chavez/Obama strategy wasn't working to restore their ally.
...which led to a new strategy. On Sunday, Zelaya snuck in to Honduras, apparently with the help of the fellow Chavistista who are running El Salvador (though they deny it) and holed up in the embassy of Brazil, another Chavez ally. The strategy had two prongs: on one hand, the Hondurans might attack the Brazilian embassy to arrest him. As embassies are seen as the property of the foreign country, this would be the equivalent of Honduras attacking Brazil, which would give Chavez's allies in El Salvador and Nicaragua a pretext to attack Honduras and probably bring down the current government, since no one could support Honduras after that. This was the action that was apparently hoped for by Chavez and Zelaya, but -- although the Hondurans briefly cut off the water supply to the embassy -- it didn't happen. The second prong was that Zelaya's street mobs, who had attacked the army bases for him, would arise and lead a revolution on his behalf. However, although hundred of people showed up, that wasn't enough to take on the Honduran army -- and the government imposed a curfew to prevent people from camping out at the Brazilian embassy and arrested a hundred or so people who wouldn't disperse, while permitting another 300 or so to enter the embassy.
About 200 of those inside-the-embassy demonstrators have since gone home, leaving Zelaya with a shrinking core of supporters. The nationwide curfew was lifted early this morning, allowing people to return to work as of today. And Brazil's appeal to the UN to restore Zelaya to power seems to have netted it little other than a suspension of UN aid to the Honduran election commission. But everyone is still on edge, because no one knows how far Obama will go to support Hugo Chavez and his minions. What will the U.S. do next?
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Astana, RadioShack, and reality (Part 1 of 3)
When I left, Astana was on the verge of winning the top two places in the 2008 Vuelta a España behind Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer. Leipheimer won the last time trial, and so the race ended with Contador some 30 seconds ahead of Leipheimer, making Leipheimer the first American to ever place second in the Vuelta (and he's still the only American to place third), but continuing the Vuelta as the one Grand Tour that no American has ever won.
Contador, meanwhile, became the fifth person and first Spaniard to win all three Grand Tours, joining Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault of France, Eddy Merckx of Belgium and Felice Gimondi of Italy. But the cauldron was starting to bubble, because seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong decided that he wanted to unretire after three years away from the sport, while Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov had completed one year of his two-year suspension from professional cycling.
Both of these would have imiplications for Astana. Armstrong wanted to ride for Bruyneel again, since he was the one who was largely responsible for Bruyneel becoming the DS for U.S. Postal Service back in 1998/99. Vinokourov wanted to take Astana back over, despite the fact that Bruyneel has two years to run on his contract with the team.
Of course, Astana couldn't afford Armstrong, with the salsries that the team was already paying to Grand Tour winner Contador, Grand Tour runners-up Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden, and all of the other star support riders on the team. But Armstrong agreed to ride for free, although the team had to provide services for him -- in return for which, he got to keep the appearance money provided to him by race promoters who badly wanted him at their races (which even included one of the Grand Tours: the Giro d'Italia).
With Contador, Armstrong, Leipheimer, Klöden, Slovenian champion Janez Brajkovič, Ukranian Yaroslav Popovich, Portuguese champion Sergio Paulinho, Lithuanian champion Tomas Vaitkus, all of whom except Klöden had ridden for Discovery Channel, plus American Chris Horner, Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia and several other talented domestiques, Astana put together the best team since the old La Vie Claire team of 1986 (with Hinault, Greg LeMond, Andy Hampsten, Niki Rutimann, Jean-François Bernard and Steve Bauer, among others, all six of whom placed in the top 25 of the 1986 Tour de France).
Of course, that old La Vie Claire team in 1985 and 1986 was also the source of the nastiest intrasquad battle ever seen in cycling, with the North Americans (LeMond, Hampsten and Bauer) on one side and the Europeans on the other. And everybody was looking for the same from Astana. Were they disappointed? See Part 2.
Contador, meanwhile, became the fifth person and first Spaniard to win all three Grand Tours, joining Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault of France, Eddy Merckx of Belgium and Felice Gimondi of Italy. But the cauldron was starting to bubble, because seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong decided that he wanted to unretire after three years away from the sport, while Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov had completed one year of his two-year suspension from professional cycling.
Both of these would have imiplications for Astana. Armstrong wanted to ride for Bruyneel again, since he was the one who was largely responsible for Bruyneel becoming the DS for U.S. Postal Service back in 1998/99. Vinokourov wanted to take Astana back over, despite the fact that Bruyneel has two years to run on his contract with the team.
Of course, Astana couldn't afford Armstrong, with the salsries that the team was already paying to Grand Tour winner Contador, Grand Tour runners-up Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden, and all of the other star support riders on the team. But Armstrong agreed to ride for free, although the team had to provide services for him -- in return for which, he got to keep the appearance money provided to him by race promoters who badly wanted him at their races (which even included one of the Grand Tours: the Giro d'Italia).
With Contador, Armstrong, Leipheimer, Klöden, Slovenian champion Janez Brajkovič, Ukranian Yaroslav Popovich, Portuguese champion Sergio Paulinho, Lithuanian champion Tomas Vaitkus, all of whom except Klöden had ridden for Discovery Channel, plus American Chris Horner, Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia and several other talented domestiques, Astana put together the best team since the old La Vie Claire team of 1986 (with Hinault, Greg LeMond, Andy Hampsten, Niki Rutimann, Jean-François Bernard and Steve Bauer, among others, all six of whom placed in the top 25 of the 1986 Tour de France).
Of course, that old La Vie Claire team in 1985 and 1986 was also the source of the nastiest intrasquad battle ever seen in cycling, with the North Americans (LeMond, Hampsten and Bauer) on one side and the Europeans on the other. And everybody was looking for the same from Astana. Were they disappointed? See Part 2.
A one-year vacation
Oh my. Economic collapse, mayhem in the world, everything falling apart ... wasn't the election of the Chosen One (aka Barack Obama) supposed to end that? Wasn't I supposed to run out of things to write about?
Well, I've taken the past year off, largely because I haven't had the impetus to blog. The Sarah Palin candidacy was a perfect disaster, and John McCain has to be blamed for putting such an incompetent in the (proposed) line of succession to the Presidency. Since I couldn't write anything nice about Ms. Palin, I chose not to write anything. Plus, I've actually had real, profit-producing work to do.
But I guess I'm back for a while. I'll have to provide a series of updates to bring the world to the current moment ... or maybe I won't.
And maybe I'll just ramble. That's what I'm good at.
Anyway, welcome back. I'll be here for a little while this time.
Well, I've taken the past year off, largely because I haven't had the impetus to blog. The Sarah Palin candidacy was a perfect disaster, and John McCain has to be blamed for putting such an incompetent in the (proposed) line of succession to the Presidency. Since I couldn't write anything nice about Ms. Palin, I chose not to write anything. Plus, I've actually had real, profit-producing work to do.
But I guess I'm back for a while. I'll have to provide a series of updates to bring the world to the current moment ... or maybe I won't.
And maybe I'll just ramble. That's what I'm good at.
Anyway, welcome back. I'll be here for a little while this time.
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