AaronFox.com

If you're reading or teaching my 2004 book Real Country, and would like to access downloadable A/V materials (photos, audio recordings, videos, transcripts, etc.) as mentioned in the book, please send me an email at AaronFox@ethnocenter.org to request these materials, specifying your reason(s) for wanting to use them. I've decided not to make these freely available to the public for the time being, but am happy to share them for appropriate uses.

I'll be be presenting a talk on the Iñupiaq music repatriation project at the Workshop on American Indian Languages, at UC Santa Barbara. The talk is at 2PM on May 8. The program is here.

The punditocracy and the pseudo-"journalists" of the mainstream media can't stop hyperventilating about Sarah Palin's "ordinary" and "small town" roots. Well, as someone who knows something about small towns where people own guns and go to church and all the rest, let me agree.

She reminds me of the boss class of every small town I've ever known. She's that opportunist who has more money than most of her neighbors, and more ambition, and who sees her community as a mere stepping stone to greatness. She rose to power by abusing power, firing "disloyal" public servants, and spending Wasilla, Alaska into a defecit. She dispenses favors and punishments based on her own need for control and approval. Sure, there's people like her in every small town. They run for election, become mayors or city council members or school board members, and then they lord it over everyone else, pushing people around to settle family vendettas.

I know her type. It's small town, alright. The worst of American small town culture. She's not the salt of the earth. She's the MSG added to hide the flavor of rot.