End of an Era?

I heard the new Republican Party mouthpiece say forcefully on the radio that "the era of apologizing for Republican mistakes is over." This announcement was greeted with applause, presumably from other Republicans.

The obvious question to me was as follows: When did this era of apology begin? I don't remember hearing of an apology from, let's say, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or any of the other war criminals whose grave misdeeds hung heavy and obviously over the new mouthpiece's announcement. Did I miss a whole era? I guess it's my fault if I did, because I don't really like paying attention to the news. I only happened to catch that fantastic announcement flipping through stations in the car.

So yes, I remember the long, long era of costly, deadly mistakes, but I don't remember the era of apologizing for them.

P.S. I also love the idea that declaring that something is over makes it over, a Republican classic. (Mission accomplished?) I hope the next declaration is that the Dow is back into five figures.

The Other Jubilant Dogs Were Right

I remember one time in high school when I was inviting a girl to Young Life with the goal of helping her to know Jesus. Without smiling at all she said, "David Bowie is my god." I could tell she meant it. I did not know what to say and she never did come to Young Life although we remained friends.

Flash forward 19 years. David Bowie is probably not going to rise to deity in my personal pantheon, but only because I reserve that distinction for my main god, God. "Life On Mars?" is my current favorite song by someone other than me. (My current favorite song by me is called "When, If Ever" and will be available before terribly long if I can get my computer to stop skipping like a 45 long enough to mix it. Yes, that is what happened last time I opened the session.) Anyway, how did I not get more music by this man called Bowie until now?

The point being that in 1997 I wrote a song called "Andy Warhol" with no idea David Bowie had written a song by that title in 1971. In the early '00s Jubilant Dogs were getting together for a practice/adding new songs session. We e-circulated our lists of songs people wanted to add. I was thrilled to see that someone wanted to add the song "Andy Warhol" and eagerly typed up chord sheets and a lyric sheet (such as it is – the lyrics merely consist of the title repeated several times, interspersed with "ooooh"s) for the singers. I didn't know how they'd heard my song, since I hadn't played it for anyone in the band yet. I was unhappy to find that they had actually never heard of my song. My excitement dashed, I was subsequently disinclined to play the complex sounding David Bowie song I'd never heard before.

Flash forward six or seven years. Today I was listening to Bowie's album Hunky Dory for the fourth or fifth time this week. His song called "Andy Warhol" came on and I thought to myself, "This would have been great for Jubilant Dogs." My bad.

Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow.