The tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922. The rest was pop culture history, as the discovery sparked movies about the curse of the mummy, popular songs, museum extravaganzas and renewed interest in ancient Egypt. King Tut was a pop star, though he’d been but a boy-king who died young and, we learn, lived a painful life plagued by physical infirmities.
Tut, it seems, was born with a club foot and a cleft palate. He was the son of Akhenaten, who tried to turn Egypt to the worship of one god. That didn’t last long. A new study finds that King Tut died of malaria and an infected broken leg. Pop stars are supposed to die from drug overdoses or, more recently, from so many plastic surgeries that they are effectively erased from the etch-a-sketch of life.
Tut was a fashion king. Tut was a movie star. Tut was a musical prodigy. Everyone from the Three Stooges to Batman got in on the Mummy act. No one knows who Tut’s real mom was. I think it was Momma Rose, the classic stage mother whose persistence made her daughter — the burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee — a show business phenom.
That may be Tut’s lesson. Never give up. If a 3,400-year-old club-footed pharaoh can do it, so can you. The famous late 70s homage to Tut by Steve Martin says it all.
Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”
Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.
In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.
As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.
Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.
Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.
As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”
No Comments
Start the ball rolling by posting a comment on this article!
The tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922. The rest was pop culture history, as the discovery sparked movies about the curse of the mummy, popular songs, museum extravaganzas and renewed interest in ancient Egypt. King Tut was a pop star, though he’d been but a boy-king who died young and, we learn, lived a painful life plagued by physical infirmities.