What music nerd-dom looks like

First, let's adress the elephant in the room. I am the most unreliable blogger ever. My explanation for a near year-long absence is that I have been seduced by microblogging and social networking, of course. In all honesty who knows if I will ever be back here in earnest. Let's see which way the technological winds blow.

But maybe the blog, like the legally purchased CD or DVD is not entirely dead. Maybe it just needs to offer some premiums -- the bonus tracks, the director's commentary -- in order to justify its worth. So, in that vein, here are is the extendo-dance-remix to my recent Facebook post about my Top 25 Songs of the Noughties.

If, freakishly, you are reading this and you are not also my friend on Facebook (really?), here is what I posted:

As a list-making music nerd, this exercise simply had to happen. Who else wants to share a list?

First, my self-imposed rules:

• I limited it to 25 songs. No reason why, except that 10 was impossible; 20 was difficult; and my longer list of 30-plus included -- if I was to be totally honest -- songs that probably didn't need to be there.


• I limited it to one song per artist. This is completely arbitrary, but it seemed a bit more equitable. This added an extra challenge when it came to my defining artists of the Noughties -- like Ad Frank and the Hold Steady to name two -- how to pick just one song? But I did.


• These are in no particular order. That would just be impossible. And besides, in a decade in which "random shuffle" became the dominant paradigm it just seems appropriate.


• I went for a strict interpretation of the Noughties: songs released in 2000 or later. Going against my better instinct, this meant for example not including "Acoustic Guitar" by the Magnetic Fields because it was released in September 1999. I remember in 1989, Rolling Stone named "London Calling," released in December 1979, as the best album of the 80s, which makes complete sense if you think of when it made its cultural impact. But if you are going to go down that route, it opens a big can of worms. For example: should I include "Signed DC" by Love, which was released in 1966, but which made it's "cultural" impact (on me) when I bought it 40 years later?


• I limited my list to music I "own" -- meaning I have it on my hard drive. The only legitimate contender that this ruled out "Yes We Can" by will.i.am. Anything else -- if the song was as good as I like to think, I should have at least made the "effort" to download it.

Next, my observations:

• I am a hopeless sucker for power ballads.


• In the 90s I was obsessed with British music. In the Noughties, a decade I spent mostly in Britain, I seem to have become obsessed with American music. (Or maybe American music was just better. Quite possible.)


• On the one hand, music I discovered more recently has an unfair advantage because I am more likely to remember it. On the other hand, though, it has less time to make an impact.


• I am fairly certain that I only paid for eight of these songs. Talk about a sign of the decade.


• I noted the year next to each song just for informational purposes. In truth, I tended to discover or get introduced to many of these long after they were released. This is would have been different if I had compiled a list at the end of the 90s, a decade in which acquiring music when it was brand new carried much more importance.


• I am somewhat apprehensive about compiling this list with seven weeks remaining in the decade (see "London Calling" issue, above). But really, even if I hear something completely brilliant before the New Year, I am unlikely to believe that it could possibly be decade-defining. Actually, I notice that there is nothing from 2009 here -- but that's not to say I haven't acquired any music this year.


• The most recent song here, Okkervil River's "Blue Tulip" (got it about a month ago, I'm throwing it in on a gamble), and the least recent, "Hold on Hope" by Guided By Voices, sound like they could come from the same album. I think my musical tastes stayed pretty much the same throughout the decade.

On that note, I repeat, in no particular order... the list:

1. Falling - Ben Kweller (2002)
2. Spain - Kristin Hersh (2001)
3. Hold on Hope - Guided By Voices (2000)
4. First Night - The Hold Steady (2006)
5. '59 Sound - Gaslight Anthem (2008)
6. I Love the Unknown - Clem Snide (2000)
7. Time to Pretend - MGMT (2007)
8. Stan - Eminem (2000)
9. Bleeding Heart Show - New Pornographers (2005)
10. The Suffering Song - Willard Grant Conspiracy (2003)
11. Barking Up The Wrong Girl - Ad Frank (2001)
12. Deathly - Aimee Mann (2000)
13. Landlocked Blues - Bright Eyes (2005)
14. Apple of My Eye - Ed Harcourt (2001)
15. Do You Realize - Flaming Lips (2002)
16. A Break in the Clouds - The Jayhawks (2000)
17. See These Bones - Nada Surf (2008)
18. Blue Tulip - Okkervil River (2008)
19. World Inside the World - Rhett Miller (2002)
20. Somerville - Pernice Brothers (2006)
21. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - The Postal Service (2003)
22. Dry Your Eyes - The Streets (2004)
23. Loyal to My Sorrowful Country - Ted Leo + The Pharmacists (2003)
24. No Cars Go - Arcade Fire (2003)
25. Ms Jackson - Outkast (2000)

There. Discuss.

***

But of course being a true music nerd, the post did not begin there. It needed to be vetted first. I called on my friend Sean for help. The following is our email correspondence:


Wed, 21 October, 2009 22:17:34
From: Alex Maws
To: Sean Smith

Sean,

Inspired by the already-happening end-of-decade lists, I decided to see if I could come up with my own best of the noughties list.I'm going to post it on Facebook at some point, but I thought I would road test it on you, the only other person I know who would engage in such an exercise...

Thoughts? Discuss.(BTW: You may recognise your influence on a few of these...)

[And then I pasted the enire email above, except instead of "Stan" by Eminem I had "Advertising Space" by Robbie Williams; and instead of "I Love the Unknown" by Clem Snide I had "Tears Are In Your Eyes" by Yo La Tengo.]


Fri, 23 October, 2009 19:25:04
From: Sean Smith
To: Alex Maws

Be happy to oblige and I'll get back to you on this asap.

Listen carefully and you can hear the sound of public sector sighs coated with relief... yes, it's half term - to me, a week of respite, to you, a long forgotten and alien concept.

Am I really the only list-mongering-Hornby type you know? That surprises me. Anon...


Sun, 25 October, 2009 14:31:25
From: Alex Maws
To: Sean Smith

Thanks. I'm starting to fret about this. Specifically: should "Mornings Eleven" by the Magic Numbers not have made the list? But instead of what? I suppose that the one most on the cusp would be Arcade Fire, but I would struggle to cut that one.

Moreover, Robbyn, who still remembers things I may have said at the beginning of the decade feels strongly that any list of mine that does not include Eminem's "Stan" is simply fraudulent.



Tue, 27 October, 2009 17:56:57
From: Sean Smith
To: Alex Maws

Alex,

25 is good for me and I was quickly won over by your rationale for it. Btw I like Mornings Eleven [and Stan] but I wouldn't be leaving out Arcade Fire, although my track of distinction varies from yours. No real surprises on your list given what I know about you and your library, although I obviously don't know them all - currently in the process of Spofifying those I don't. In this respect the Facbookees know less than I do, so they're more likely to give you a 'hard time', I guess. I particularly like about half of them [inevitably I concur with a number of your choice of artistes, but would swap the odd selected track], and I pretty much 'like' the remainder though I'm not familiar with about 5 - and this is as it should be, albeit not for long. Didn't know you liked Apple of My Eye to that degree...not that keen on Ms Jackson...not sure how I feel about the Streets but I might review that [see below] and I suppose I'm surprised to see Robbie... All good lists need at least one total surprise.

But that's the thing about lists: in part, they satisfy a want for confirmation of your own good taste, and in part they allow us to redefine/reconstruct our own settled view of something-once-dismissed but which we have now been given the warrant to 'reclaim' anew. Oh, and part I've-never-heard-that-before-but-I-obviously-should-have-and-that-makes me-a-bit-of-loser-but-I'm-ok-with-that-because... now I can either deride its perversity or applaud its brave and judicious inclusion, and perhaps pretend I thought as much all along. Obviously, I jest, in part...

Re: Rules and Observations

Notwithstanding your musings on the impact of the passage-of-time viz decision-making debate, I decided first to consult my itunes 'Top 25 Most Played' list [did you do this...?], because I figured that, so long as I factored in the confounding variables [e.g era dependent-ish, pc listening habits vary compared to other forms etc.,] that this might then provide an empirical basis for the construction of my list. However, I was sadly mistaken - mistaken in the sense that I was disappointed in, and didn't agree with, myself. I guess this is interesting.

This left me wondering about your criteria for track inclusion - it was implicit really, but, in your own words involved the notion of 'decade-defining', which is something I find difficult. However, I guessed that you sort of meant 'liked most' too [most played...] and doubted that you wanted to unduly bemuse the Facebook Nation with this old chestnut of a distinction, or at least not too overtly. Nevertheless, a noughtical and perennial conundrum all the same.

Having said as much, personally, I don't think it's a fight worth having, with yourself or others - in the final [some used to say vinyl] analysis, personal taste wins hands down, regardless of whether or not we want to puff it up into something seminal. For my part, I've never felt catholic enough in my own tastes to assess 'cultural impact' [my list rather proved this point to me...whilst your relative breadth suggests, to some degree, otherwise]. What I would be inclined to say is that we should probably really only just be beginning to compile our 90s list about now...but that wouldn't sell much copy, now would it?

Personally, I made it a rule to include a representative track from each year because it seemed only fair. You didn't actually make this an explicit regulation, though were inclined to more or less observe it [excepting '09], I wasn't clear whether this was by accident or design. I suppose you pay your money and take your choice on this one...

A friend of mine once asked me to compile a tape/soundtrack for a 30th birthday party she was throwing, and the brief was that it should include an 'in-keeping' record from each year of her life. It was an entertaining commission

Finally, on 90s v 00s you certainly would appear more native American since becoming a resident here and, as you suggest, it may just be the result of cyclical phenomena, or, it might perhaps be otherwise construed as the upshot of some musical variation on the greeness of the grass when at home, versus the grass tending toward greener depending upon which side of the Pond your on - Umm...mixed-metaphor-leading-to-loss-of-meaning alert. Whatever, you may just be suffering from that little known condition which is the inverse of going native disorder.

You will see your influence at play in the below. And so, to return the rolling ball, though not to appear on Facebook, and in no particular chronological order...

I Love the Unknown - Clem Snide [1st Jan 2000]
Love Exploded All Around Me [single version] - Bob Schneider [2001]
Apple of My Eye - Ed Harcourt [2001]
Can't Get You Out of My Head - Kylie [2001]
Satellites - Doves [2002]
In Other Words - Ben Kweller [2002
Ribcage - Elbow [2003]
The District Sleeps Tonight - Postal Service [2003]
All My Life - Evan Dando [2003]
Fight Test - Flaming Lips [2003]
Spitting Games - Snow Patrol [2004]
Love Machine - Girls Aloud [2004]
Heliopolis by Night - Aberfeldy [2004]
Rebellion - Arcade Fire [2004]
Eanie Meanie - Jim Noir [2004]
Anecdote - Ambulance Ltd [2005]
Ugly Love - Eels [2005]
Just like the Rain - Richard Hawley [2005]
Mourners of St Pauls - Liam Frost [2006]
Love is a Losing Game - Amy Winehouse [2006]
I-95 - Fountains of Wayne [2007]
We Smash Plates - Absentee [2008]
Why do You Let Me Stay Here? - She&Him [2008]
So Far Around the Bend - The National [2009]
Aicha - The Gellieman [unknown, but sometime in the 00s]


Thu, 5 November, 2009 21:37:18
From: Sean Smith
To: Alex Maws

Did you get my road test? You posted your list yet?


Fri, 6 November, 2009 11:01:59
From: Alex Maws
To: Sean Smith

Hey man,

Sorry to take so long to respond. You've given me a lot to reflect upon here. Plus, I've been in Newcastle. Plus, I've been traumatised by visiting Newcastle.

The postmodern identity-construction strand is one that I could grapple with for days. In the end though, I feel like if I am to be totally honest with myself then yes, I have to admit that this exercise is a sort of superficial self-validating constructionist one. (Or whatever words postmodernists like to throw around these days. "Zeitgeist" maybe?). But I feel like it is mixed with enough genuiness that I can probably still sleep at night. I am actually listening to my list right now (as i thumb-type) on a great new set of headphones, and completely loving it -- as in embarrassing myself by air-drumming on the train type love. So that must speak for something.

The issue about "defining the decade" vs just songs that I "like" is tricky too. I suppose "defining" carries too much weight. What I mean is that these songs in a sense tell a story about the decade (my version of the decade). Not necessarily THE story, or the ONLY story, but A story. A story that at this very early stage I am sticking to. Until it changes.

You're right: Arcade Fire must stay. And in more significant news, Robbyn is also right. She has just won her first ever musical argument with me (I consider the great Posies debate of '04 to be a tie). Eminem is in. Robbie is out. (The final insult to him in an already tough decade. Sorry, mate.)

Now about your list... As you say, any disagreements would just be nitpicking over things that we both know to be worthy. I too will check out the ones I don't know. They're bound to be quality. My one objection is to Clem Snide. I too wanted to include "I Love the Unknown" but Wikipedia assures me it was released in 1999. If you can document something to the contrary, brilliant. But I am hoping you can't because then I don't know what will the next on the chopping block. I might just give up -- or expand the list to 50.

I've not yet posted my list because I couldn't bring myself to do it in October, you know, just in case... But I will do it very soon because I want to allow other people to have time to respond in kind. I actually think I might need to post this entire email exchange on my blog if you are ok with it. It is far more interesting than the list itself!

Over to you.

Alex



Mon, 9 November, 2009 20:16:13
From: Sean Smith
To: Alex Maws

ILtheU: I think Wikip is wrong but I can only provide circumstantial evidence to support my case. I cited 1-1-2000 on my list because I came across this 'precise release date' on some site or other when I was checking myself. Unfortunately, I now can't remember which site this was...

Circumstantially...I bought the physical copy of the single in 2000 and that year is stated on the disc; also, the album from which it is taken [My Favourite Music] came out, according to all sources other than Wikip, in May 2000, which tends to question Wikip's reliability further. On the other hand, there may just be something else going on which I'm not aware of. Really quite surprising that there isn't some authoritative source to verify these things but I couldn't find one.

Impasse. Perhaps I should stick to my story and you to yours...

Sorry to have thrown you into such postmodernist self-validatory handwringing, that wasn't my intention but it was fun while it lasted!

Feel free to blog away. That's fine by me...more than happy

Not surprised you were traumatised by the 'Toon. It's a nation unto itself.


Mon, 9 November, 2009 23:23:13
From: Alex Maws
To: Sean Smith

Hmmm... need to get to the bottom of this. My constructed identity rests on it.

In other news: I have a spare ticket to see Jarvis Cocker play this Wednesday at an art gallery in Shoreditch. You want to join me? I got two tickets on the off chance that someone else might think it sounded as cool as I do.

****

There ends the email chain. NB: Further research revealed that Sean was probably right about Clem Snide, and I made the change to my list.

Feel free to comment with appropriately nerdy things here. Or, of course, just go to Facebook where the discussion is sure to be more lively.

Obama Abroad - Part Deux

My uncle Dick (who, by some estimates, may himself be about 5% responsible for Obama’s victory) recently emailed me two articles [1] [2] about how it is once again cool to be American abroad. I cannot say that I’ve been getting a lot more party invitations than usual over the past few months, but yes, it’s true: there is something perceptibly different.

Just like that, America went from being the object of derision to being the object of envy. We didn't just undo a bad thing, we replaced the bad thing with an assertively, proactively, absurdly good thing. The high ground from which people used to legitimately be able to criticize America wasn't just leveled, it was surrendered. And now it's ours.

At first, I questioned: Is this perception that I have -- that people are actually acting differently toward Americans -- for real? Or is it just my own personal shift from embarrassment to pride, from self-loathing to self-promotion, that is making me see my world through a different lens?

But then came inauguration day, when I learned that yes, it is real.

On my morning commute to work on the Jubilee Line, it began. I had dusted of my Obama button for one final public viewing and wore it on my coat. Halfway down the packed train, a woman caught my attention with her animated mime routine of furious waving, smiling and pointing. This is unheard of on the Tube at 8:30 am. She pointed at my button, then pointed at her own.

I smiled back and gave her the thumbs up, then went back to my book.

Then more waving, more pointing. I looked puzzled. Now, she was pointing at her other button -- more Obama, opposite lappel.

How nice, I thought! That merited a double thumbs-up this time. Back to my book.

But wait, she wasn't finished. She continued, awkwardly re-positioning herself amid the sardine can of commuters -- this time to show me her tote-bag. An Obama tote-bag, of course.

With no more thumbs to use. I opted for the point/wink/nod gesture, the one that says "you're the man!" Despite being a woman, I think she understood. We never did get to high-five, but it was definitely implied.

Outdone by what I can only assume was a British person (we never spoke), I got off the train and went to work.

The swearing in was to start at 5:00pm our time, which meant I had to duck out of work early to go and watch it. I could have just watched it online at my desk, but much like game four of the 2004 World Series (and despite the fact that American hangouts are to be avoided like the plague), there are certain occasions when you just want to be with your people.

Alas, that didn't work out; it seems a few too many other people had the same idea. Robbyn and I had planned to meet up and go to a place called (wincing as I type this...) The Texas Embassy for an event sponsored by Democrats Abroad. However, at 4:45, there was a line out the door to get in. No way we were going to miss the speech by standing in line, so instead we went in to a nearby pub which was showing the ceremony on their TV.

In the pub, actual British people, arriving from their actual British jobs, crowded around a TV set to watch. They ordered their pints of British ale. They tutted Britishly when people blocked their view. They politely thanked the bartender for turning up the volume so they could hear every word. And when Obama finished his speech, even though one doesn't like to make a spectacle of one's self... they cheered. Actual applause from actual British people.

It was hard not to bask in the moment. I felt like I should stand in front of the room and say, "Thank you, thank you!"

No, on second thought I should have stood in front of the room and said, "you're welcome!"

Cuba: 50 years after the Revolution... Two weeks before Obama...

All lighting fixtures in Cuba use energy efficient fluorescent bulbs. As a result, night-time throughout the island is cast in a dim yellow-green tint that gives every home and business an unnerving institutional glow.

Daytime is the opposite. In the light, Cuba is eye candy – bright Caribbean colors, retro typefaces, 400 years of and three continents worth of architecture. But it looks as though something cataclysmic happened in the year 1959, and today the survivors are merely living among the ruins. It is Blade Runner Goes to Disneyland.

Eyes squinting. Eyes bulging.... squinting... bulging...

Such an appropriate metaphor for the most complicated travel experience Robbyn and I have ever had. Growing up in 1970s and 80s America, Cuba was like your aunt with cancer – the thing that we dare not even speak about. If we pretended it just wasn’t there, then maybe the problem would go away. It is a raft journey away from the US, but it is forbidden to visit as a tourist. To Robbyn and me, that is the best marketing imaginable. Obviously, we had to go there.

So it was: our experience in this land of myth and mystery was simultaneously revealing and bewildering. Enlightening and befuddling.

Any explanation has to begin with poverty. People there are poor by our standards. This forms the backdrop of every experience you encounter as a visitor. Visible, crumbling-buildings poverty. But it is a complicated poverty. You find yourself observing things like "They are poor, but at least everyone has a home." Or "They are poor, but people seem very happy" (in the singing and dancing sense of happy). Or "They are poor, but everyone has free health care." Or "They are poor, but at least it is really cheap to go to a baseball game."

But then there is the other great theme that cannot be avoided: La Revolucíon. The Revolution. Not in the historical sense; not just that event that took place exactly 50 years before our visit, but the ongoing "Revolution." The word that Cubans use to describe their country, their society, their way of life. Did we get an accurate view of what Cubans really think about their political situation? Hard to say. Some people we met seemed obviously more patriotic than others. The language barrier prevented us from understanding people's nuanced opinions. Or more often, the suspicion of us as foreigners probably prevented people from opening up as much as we had hoped. On a few occasions, we made progress getting to talk to people, but then we would notice their habit of constantly looking over a shoulder to see who might be listening. Being critical of La Revolucíon has real consequences. Jobs, homes, educational opportunities can all evaporate if you are not on board with the program.

No, people are not free – at least not by any definition of freedom that you or I would be comfortable with, but there is much pride and propaganda about Cuba Libre – Free Cuba. And it’s not entirely ironic or hypocritical. They are free, in a sense, they have liberated themselves from the cultural and economic imperialism that that has conquered so much of the rest of the world. But is that enough freedom? Is it the wrong kind of freedom? There are limits to what people can read and discuss and believe. Almost all books are ones that extol the virtues of the glorious revolution. It is mind control, but at least it is overt mind control. Everyone knows the rules. Is it possible that this is somehow preferable to the more subtle (but arguably just as powerful) forms of mind control that we encounter in our lives? Is it possible that we simply tolerate different trade-offs, different hypocrisies? Is it possible that there is no such thing as a perfect economic system or form of government?

I am not writing a polemic. I really don’t know the answers.

This is not the type of realization (or perhaps confusion?) that a person normally sets out to experience on a sunny vacation. But this is a hint of what it was like to visit Cuba. Seemingly every mundane encounter seemed to have major moral and philosophical questions embedded within it. Trying to reserve a bus ticket two hours in advance of the bus departure (instead of one hour – not possible). Buying an ice cream cone that is 24 times more expensive than what the locals pay at the same shop because there are two separate currencies. Going to a baseball game and finding no food or souvenirs to buy anywhere (but finding an amazing fan-led drum section in the bleachers). Sitting at a white-sand beach right next to a modern all-tourist resort, knowing that not a penny spent there will go to the local economy. Being the only two visitors in (yet another) museum dedicated to the glorious revolution, which is staffed by eight employees. Having a travel agent explain to you that another travel agent probably didn’t tell us about the flight leaving tomorrow “because it is easier to lie to tourists then to sell them a ticket.” Meeting some of the warmest, most friendly people in the world, watching them literally dance in the streets, but wondering if they will ever know the meaning of true happiness. Or maybe they are watching me wondering the same.

These are some snapshots that I carry in my mind from Cuba.

And these are some snapshots that I have posted on flickr…

Obama Abroad

Two Saturdays ago Robbyn and I were waiting to order our Fairtrade coffee at the Borough Market and saw a street canvasser holding a sign that said “Searching for Americans.” Damn, are we that predictable? The canvasser was from Democrats Abroad, and they were… get this… doing get-out-the-vote work here in London.

Well, why not? There are a quarter of a million Americans living in the UK – no small number – and surely a fair few of them are from swing states. It is significant enough that the DNC actually has a full-time staffer working here.

As it turns out, these people found me at precisely the right moment in the campaign. You see, although I am a 30-something, liberal, East Coast, passport-owning American, I am not ENTIRELY predictable. Specifically, I am not a Democrat.

If you are reading this blog then you are probably one of my close friends or family members and therefore you probably already know that for the past few presidential elections I have voted Green. You may have even briefly stopped talking to me because of it.

But the Obama UK folks found me about 12 hours after I finally got fed up enough with the Republican campaign tactics (Karl Rove, is there any chance you are reading this…) that I was inspired to CHANGE MY VOTE to Obama.

As a Massachusetts voter (in absentia), my Democratic vote is either entirely meaningless or entirely symbolic depending on where you fall on the cynicism/idealism spectrum because the Dems could nominate an actual donkey and still carry my home state. This is why I have always felt free to vote my conscience (which remains Green) in the past.

My reasons for choosing Obama this time around may be different than some other former Green voters who will also be falling back into line this year. Yes, the world is more screwed up than anyone could have ever predicted Bush would make it, and this certainly makes some people more willing to buy into the lesser-of-two-evils approach to voting. And yes, though Obama is basically another centrist Democrat he is somehow qualitatively more palatable to many people on the Left than Gore or Kerry ever were. These factors are not insignificant to me, but they are not what changed my thinking.

What changed my thinking is fear. Or more specifically, the politics and the language of fear. By now we are all so familiar with the eye-rollingly transparent Republican talking points that attempt to depict Obama as “The Other.” A terrorist sympathizer. A foreigner. A Communist. A person who just doesn't feel the same way about America that YOU AND I do.

The worst thing is that some people seem to be buying into it; we keep hearing about ugly scenes at campaign events, hearing it on the radio, and reading it on the internet. It’s getting nasty. But is it really so hard to understand those who lash out? Of course they are responding to the language of fear – they are afraid! Afraid for their jobs, and their houses, and their security – all of the things that have (ironically) been put in jeopardy by the policies of the past eight years. And now they have been given a platform and practically invited to act on those fears. These actions may be desperate and irrational, but they are there and they need to be stopped.

In my day job I try to teach young people to recognize the roots of intolerance and challenge them on a personal level. History teaches us that prejudice does not just magically appear in societies. It is planted and cultivated and nurtured. And it is accepted because it is subtle and people don't even realize they are accepting it.

I feel like this election has been turned into a referendum on fear and xenophobia. Are you willing to tolerate a campaign of whispers and suggestion against a man simply because he is outwardly different looking, or are you not? Rarely does the act of challenging prejudice come in such a tidy package. Normally it's an awkward conversation stopper. Normally you risk getting your ass kicked. In this instance, it is as simple as punching a chad. Thank you, Republicans, for making it so easy on me.

So, yes, I’ll say it: I suppose I am voting for Obama because he is black. Not in the affirmative-action sense, or in the “wouldn't it be nice to elect an ethnic president” sense (although it would be), but in the sense that I have become a single issue voter. I hate racism, and voting for Obama is precisely the thing that racists hope that I will not do.

And even though I would like to see the Green Party reach the 5% threshold needed to qualify for Federal matching funds, (which I have a much more direct impact on than I do on Obama’s election) this ultimately is not as important to me as sending a message to all of the people screaming racist insults at campaign events and posting them online. I want Obama not just to win, I want him to win big, so that no one can question his legitimacy and so that it is as clear as utterly possible to the racists that their views are on the fringe. That they lost, and that their ideas about what is “American” and what is not are not ones that are actually shared by… Americans.

Put simply, I am voting Obama to say, “f—k you” to racism.

When Obama wins, he is going to have a lot to answer for. Some of his policies suck, and I look forward to joining in criticizing him when it is needed. He seems like he’ll be more receptive to it than Bush was anyway.

Symbolism and sympathies aside, his election will have a positive impact on my quality of life as well. I’m not talking about taxes or the economy here. I am talking about being able to live and travel as an American abroad, and not be embarrassed about it. I don’t want to have to explain any more that I am American, but not THAT KIND of American, every time some one says to me in broken English “America… George Bush… very bad.” I actually think people might even begin, after a period of some serious image repair, to start thinking favorably about our country again.

I read in Time magazine that here in the UK, only 53% of people polled say they like America, compared to 83% in 2000. This brings me back to campaigning for Obama. We’ve been hitting the American hotspots ourselves lately with our Obama gear and absentee voting information. The Americans we’ve met have generally been tickled to see us out there. But more noteworthy has been the reactions of British people once they get over their initial confusion. It is so un-British! They smile. They give the thumbs up. They… don’t… pretend not to notice you. They SPEAK! “I hope your man wins,” they say.

Man, so do I.