Hubcap City’s next show is
July 25th at Opal
Gallery in Little Five Points. We
are going to perform the live score to Carl Th. Dryer’s silent film “The
Passion of Joan of Arc.” To
prepare for the show, I’ve been watching the film repeatedly. The more I see Joan struggle against
the cruel authority of her time (an ecclesiastical court led by the manipulative Bishop Pierre Cauchon) the more I notice similar patterns repeating today.
For example: Reading
the news and watching video clips of
Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, it’s impossible not to think about
Dryer’s film and Joan of Arc. In
the movie, a lone woman is put on trial by an array of old white men who ask
endless questions designed to trick her. Did God speak to her?
Did God promise her a great victory? What's up with dressing like a guy? The men’s goal is simple: destroy Joan! Crush her! Remove her and the threat she posses to
them! This week in the hallowed
chambers of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the exact same scenario plays
itself out. The white senators sit
an elevated table, just like Bishop Cauchon and his minions in the movie. Sotomayor has to take all their
crap. At least she gets a
microphone and a glass of water, unlike Joan had to sit alone for the duration
of her trial.
At the
committee hearing, Republican Senators Sessions and Lindsay glower and admonish
Sotomayor. They keep asking her
questions like, What’s up your wise Latina woman speech? If a Latina woman were truly wise,
would she vote against dyslexic firemen getting promoted? How are you, as an uppity chick, gonna rule on abortion? Senator Coburn from Oklahoma asks the
most annoying questions. He wants
to know when Sotomayor will rule
in favor of a fundamental right to bear arms. He’s all, Hey baby, are you gonna take away my right to go
deer hunting with a grenade launcher and/or a flame thrower? But Sotomayor can’t answer this
question. How can she? He’s asking her to rule on a case she hasn’t even heard
yet. The specifics of the case
matter. Coburn’s an asshole. If he could, I bet he and Lindsay and
Sessions would send Sotomayor to their super-secret Senate torture chamber
where she would be waterboarded until she signed a confession they wrote in advance.
For the live score, Hubcap City is gonna play Smoke songs. Brian H., the Smoke cello player, is gonna play with us. I better go practice. "This dirt is beautiful. This dirt is mine."