(Garry Miller, for Texas Monthly)
.
Texas Monthly has an exclusive interview with foxy grampaw Willie Nelson:
TM: But to be clear, you think everybody should be able to get married?
WN: Absolutely. I never thought of marriage as something only for men and women. But I’d never marry a guy I didn’t like.
“Images available for download… for use as avatars on your Facebook or Twitter account” available at the link.
And here’s the title song, which is probably NSFW under strict high-corporate standards.
Batocchio
Willie just continues to be awesome.
Narcissus
Shwhaaaat
Seonachan
Ned Sublette, who wrote the song 30 years ago, recorded a brilliant version of it that was never released, with a full Texas swing backup. This version is a much more acquired taste.
Steeplejack (phone)
Weird being on Pacific time. That is all.
Alison
@Steeplejack (phone): You mean AWESOME.
West coast = best coast.
GrammyPat
Annie, Good on you for reading Tx Monthly. IMHO, it’s a world-class publication. Framed on my wall is its May, 2008, cover with Willie embracing his beloved Martin. Both are very well worn and, in the photo, their relationship appears akin to the love of a marriage. Willie is beyond awesome.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Alison: you got that right.
NotMax
So Sen. Portman’s son, a junior at Yale, penned an essay for the paper there attempting to lay out his and his father’s positioning.
Frankly, from a junior at an Ivy League school I’d expected something more meaty than what reads like a humdrum bar mitzvah speech or a 9th grader’s boilerplate effort to touch all the buttons he surmised those grading it are expecting. I don’t begrudge him not being a masterful writer, but I am taken aback at the rudimentary level of competence in the composition.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack (phone): Waitaminute…when did I miss you travelling to my coast?
I also haz a very demanding border collie on my bed. Also. Too.
MikeJ
@Yutsano: How does the cat feel about this intrusion?
Mike G
Creepy: Klan Air
http://www.shorpy.com/node/11690
The prophet Nostradumbass
I give you, Rep. Don Young of Alaska: “My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes”
ant
@Seonachan:
Thanks fer that link.
I didn’t grow up with country music, so I don’t care for it, but I think I like that version better than Willy Nelson’s remake. It’s very well done.
I don’t mind a good country song every once in a while.
Mustang Bobby
@The prophet Nostradumbass: His office issued a statement basically saying, “Hey, it was a term we used when I was growing up. I know no one uses it any more. I meant no disrespect. Get over it.”
Hey, Mr. Young, how’s that minority outreach thing going for ya?
MikeJ
@Mustang Bobby: Why is it that white guys always feel like they’re the perfect arbiters of precisely how seriously other people should take things said about them?
fuckwit
For some reason, I always think of when he was on SNL and did a sketch “Great Moments in the History of White Trash”.
Also, Bill Hicks doing his schtick about Willie as the star on the new reality show “IRS BUST!”
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Mustang Bobby: one of the striking things about that interview is that the article from that Ketchikan radio station had nothing on the “wetback” comment, they just coasted on by it.
Maude
@Steeplejack (phone):
Had forgotten you were traveling. Wondered if you were okay. Back on east coast, housecat needs the cat command center turned on every day. Still a bit chilly for shutting down the heat.
Enjoy yourself.
raven
Great, a lisping limey on Monrning Joe!
Schlemizel
Remember the doofus at CPAC who thought slaves should have been grateful for the food & housing NOTE: he forgot to mention the great motivational efforts of the masters! Today people spend big bucks to go to motivational seminars those slaves got it for free! anyway, turns out the clown is a student at a university in MD and he has a student organization with a very important role on campus:
http://jezebel.com/5992735/insane-white-student-union-patrols-campus-in-face-of-perceived-black-crime-wave
Seriously, their goal is to save the white women from black crime. I just want to weep, this shit may never end
NotMax
@Schlemizel
It is, sadly, crowded at the shallow end of the gene pool.
Rosalita
@raven why do you punish yourself?
RedKitten
Good for Willie! He definitely won’t change the minds of any hardcore homophobes, but it’s great to hear a country music legend speak out like that, as the genre’s fan base tends to lean rather rightward, in my experience.
arguingwithsignposts
@Schlemizel: Wow, Jezebel is slow with the news. That’s been posted on the front page.
Also, pet peeve time: “Texas Monthly has an exclusive interview …” I really wish people would throw the term “exclusive” under the bus. It’s exceedingly rare these days that anyone gets an “exclusive” interview with a celebrity. It’s meaningless.
ETA: If you want something else to worry about, this has been making the rounds in the tech world the past two days: The FBI is hoping for more “real-time” monitoring of Internet chat, etc. I can’t see how this would get abused. /snark
amk
Gotta love this guy.
Linda Featheringill
I can testify that “wetback” was an insulting term as far back as 1950. It probably was rude and racist a long time before then. Just how old is this guy that’s throwing that term around? 150?
amk
@Linda Featheringill:
These racist idjits never grow up.
Baud
@arguingwithsignposts:
BREAKING has also become meaningless.
JPL
Good Morning America celebrated Sam Champions marriage and the Today Show spoke about the pregnancy of Jenna Wolfe. Both people are gay. If the homophobic group, want to boycott stations with openly gay people, they will have few choices.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Yutsano:
Been in Las Vegas since Monday night. Going back Saturday night.
And I am now awake at 4:40 in the morning.
Schlemizel
@JPL:
I’m sure FAUX News and Glen Becks tiny corner of hell will offer them respite
Steeplejack (phone)
@Steeplejack (phone):
ETA: Wait, that’s normal.
Edit not working on mobile site. Takes me back to the main page.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Maude:
The housecat is at my brother’s house, and those bastards have refused to send a proof-of-life photo.
JPL
@Schlemizel: Shep Smith works at Fox, so even though the news might have an anti-gay bias, they don’t hide him.
Schlemizel
@arguingwithsignposts:
Thanks – life has been complicated again and I have gone a couple days without making it to BJ recently. I missed that
Schlemizel
@JPL:
I’m gonna guess he never discusses it though and the folks who watch FAUX are big on denial. Let me know when they let him talk openly about his chosen life style ;)
NonyNony
@NotMax:
Why? Because you still have the illusion that the reputation that the Ivy League schools have is one that they’ve actually earned through the kinds of students that they actually produce and not because they happen to be an intricate part of the social network for rich Americans?
You get very good students who graduate out of the Ivy League schools – you also get a lot of duds. Just like any other university on the planet (Let’s not forget that both Yale and Harvard gave George W Bush degrees after all). The primary purpose of the Ivy League schools is as a networking center for the wealthy elite and those who are trying to break into the wealthy elite. Portman, as the son of a US Senator, is in that first class and so his skills don’t have to be any better than those of a typical college junior anywhere else. (That second group though – to get in as part of that group you need skills. And it’s probably mostly from that group – where there are no “legacy admissions” – that the Ivy League gets its reputation for being a place for the best and brightest students.)
ETA: Not that young Portman is a legacy admission, but his father is a US Senator and has been part of the political class for much of his adult life as well as being rich. There are other strings that can be tugged as needed when such folks come calling.
kdaug
Not to rub it in, y’all, but this is in front of City Hall.
ETA: Also, here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/willie-nelson-statue-austin-420-314774
JPL
@kdaug: One of my sons had colic and Willie Nelson songs helped calm him down.
kdaug
@fuckwit:
I will contribute to the Bill Hicks statue. Seriously.
TheMightyTrowel
@NonyNony: so i went to Yale and i do alumni interviews now. these days even most of the ones with giant bank accounts and famous parents are pretty damn outstanding – not all mind, but most. FWIW my money is on sen portman’s staff having ghost written this article.
Cassidy
@kdaug: I’m more of a Leary fan. I always thought he was funnier and had more material.
RaflW
We could use a bit of Willie Nelson humor up here today. Minnesotans for Marriage released a “sermon starter kit” that includes making the assertion that pro-freedom to marry folks use Goebbels-like Nazi propaganda techniques.
Yes, the same MN4Marriage folks who apologized publicly for making that spurious Nazi claim less than 6 months ago.
These folks are desperate and shameless.
mai naem
@NotMax: I had the same thoughts when I read the piece. I am assuming that he’s in the sciences and not in an area where writing skills are as important. Assuming it but wouldn’t be shocked if he got in as a legacy, what with Portman being Bush’s budget guy.
The Moar You Know
Willie Nelson’s more of an American than almost any American I know. For freedom. For equality. Cheats on his taxes. Wears his hair long and doesn’t give a fuck. Plays a Martin.
Not a Gibson, which is for fake cowboys
Not a Taylor; which is for insufferable “singer songwriter” types
No, he plays a motherfucking Martin, God’s own guitar.
drkrick
@Linda Featheringill:It’s not that the term wasn’t insulting when he was a kid. It was that white people didn’t have to care about insulting those people. That’s what they keep forgetting.
Jebediah
@The Moar You Know:
I’m afraid to ask where mine (Simon and Patrick) fits in…
fuckwit
This too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCGEIVWBqnU
Yay Willie.
Mary Jane Leach
So nice to see my friend Ned Sublette getting some credit. He’s an important part of the NYC experimental music scene, as well as now being a huge advocate/expert for/on Cuban music.