Sin City

I don’t think of the Frank Miller comics, or the 2005 film based on them, when I hear the words Sin City, as much as I liked the latter. No, my mind is rather musical (ie, an old jukebox of countless, and in some cases useless tunes) so I always think of the Flying Burrito Brothers song of the same name: “This old town’s full of sin/It will swallow you in…”

Until I read an edifying explication of the recording of the album from which that song came (The Gilded Palace of Sin, by Bob Proehl, part of the 33 1/3 series of album books) I had thought that city was Vegas, and the millionaire trying to hide from the Sodom outside was Howard Hughes. According to Proehl, the song’s authors, Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, were actually talking about LA and some corporate music biz type, though the outcome was the same: “On the thirty-third floor/A gold-plated door/Won’t keep out the Lord’s burning rain.”

Setting the Old Testament imagery aside for a moment, I think this song speaks to our fascination with Tiger Woods and his seeming endless parade of mistresses. Reactions may be split along gender lines, with more women thinking him a pig and also wondering how he could be so stupid (the voice mails, the emails,the pancake house) and more men being unsurprised by the accusations, if not the number of women involved — and also wondering how he could be so stupid. 

But I think where we come together as a nation, where this story scratches some collective itch, is in its element of comeuppance. Tiger (and when you have a name like that, don’t leave it on your girlfriend’s answering machine) is in a class of his own as an athlete and a celebrity — but all that privilege won’t keep TMZ et al from camping in your driveway. The bombardment of info that comes with each bimbo eruption is the modern equivalent of the Lord’s burning rain. And collectively I think we love it that no one escapes. 

In many regards it’s timeless. Take this quote from mistress no. 5, the pancake serving, and seemingly spankable Wendy Lawton, from today’s News of the World: “I knew he was married, but whenever he had come into the restaurant with his wife he looked so miserable… Tiger just used me as his sex toy. I thought I meant something to him, but all he cared about was lust.”

Maybe we just like to hear the same story over and over.

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