A Lot of Nice Things Turn Bad Out There

My coffee pot broke last weekend, leading me to a serious contemplation of Islam.

So, I've been buying coffee in the shop by my office. The coffee's very good and the people who work there are very nice. I went in this morning (what else does one do on a Sunday but go to work?) and for the third - the third - time this week Cat Stevens was playing.

The kid working all three times looks sort of like a cross between John Doe and Dave Navarro. Doesn't exactly look like the typical Cat Stevens fan.

On a side note, women visibly swoon when they see this guy. Actually swoon. It's shameless and unseemly. Not to mention unfair to me, over whom women never swoon. This kid clearly gets more trim than Mr. Monk's banzai tree. Just by showing up.

But I've managed to put my resentment aside. He really is a nice kid, and it's not his fault that I'm old and starting to get a little paunchy and women wouldn't look at me if I was on fire.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Cat Stevens. So three times this week this pierced and inked and entirely too-cool person chose to put on a Cat Stevens album.

It got me wondering if this is some reaction to the US war on all things Islam. Is Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam cool now? Is listening to him an act of protest?

I mean, I understand the impulse. Every time I hear something about the "clash of civilzations" or "crusade" or "good versus evil" or "black and white" getting trotted out by the administration to legitimize their hazily understood war or their use of torture and illegal surveillance--every time I hear it, I feel kind of defensive about Islam.

I start thinking, "You know, the Taliban is just misunderstood. They just want to protect women."

Now, I don't know anything more about Islam than I did five years ago. But I am more than ever convinced that the terrorists are a fringe sect of a basically peaceful faith. I'm convinced of this out of sheer contrarianism, I admit, as a reaction to being preached to about "evil" by the White House. My own version of truthiness, I suppose.

But Cat Stevens? Really?

First of all, the whole fatwa thing. I would like to go on record to say that I think it is very wrong to try to kill Salman Rushdie. Although...maybe if someone could have just
disabled him somehow while he was writing Fury....no, no. Fatwas are wrong.

An even more powerful reason, though, to not let political dissent shape your musical choices is this rhyme from "Moonshadow":

If I should ever lose my mouth,
All my teeth North and South.

Worst. Rhyme. Ever.

Some things just can't be forgiven.

I realize that there is a non-ideological explanation for this ridiculously attractive coffee guy to be listening to Cat Stevens: he actually likes Cat Stevens. But this just seems too incredible.

Although in the interest of full disclosure, I was tortured in my formative years by my older sister's copy of Teaser and the Firecat, which she played endlessly. And sang along with. To this day she defends the "north and south" rhyme.