We’re riding a weather roller coaster here in New Orleans. I hate roller coasters and prefer consistent weather as long as it’s vaguely wintery be it Johnny or Edgar…

I’m still fighting a cold so this will be on the short side. I know, famous last words and all that shit.

I’m not feeling apocalyptic but many people are. I cannot blame them. It’s hard to be a glass half-full person right now and this week’s theme song reflects that. End Of The World was written by John Wetton and Geoff Downes for Asia’s 2010 Omega album. The melody is a bit too gorgeous for a truly apocalyptic feel but that’s what they do.

While we’re ending the world, we might as well give a certain REM tune with a very long title a spin:

If you’re feeling apocalyptic now, you might want to be patient. It’s bound to take longer than expected. Everything does.

Don’t worry. We’ll still be waiting after the break. The world isn’t going anywhere for the time being.

We begin with a quick look at the trial I wrote about last Monday:

Hayes/Smith Update: In typical legal system fashion, the DA’s office and the jury told different stories of how the verdict was reached in the Cardell Hayes case. DA Cannizzaro claimed that the appearance of Saints luminaries helped the prosecution’s cause. I think he’s trying to wrangle better tickets because here’s what one of the jurors had to say about that:

One point that did not sway the jurors, she said, was the star power stacked up on Smith’s side. Towering names in Saints history, from Sean Payton to Deuce McAllister, sat at Racquel Smith’s side throughout the trial.

“I know there were concerns that there would be some star-struck stuff. It carried no weight,” she said. “Cardell had a packed gallery, too, of people who cared and loved him as well.”

The mystery juror also supported my contention that second degree murder was an uncanny overcharge by Canny’s office:

The juror, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because of the extreme passions surrounding the case, said that she and her 11 colleagues never seriously considered finding Hayes guilty of second-degree murder.

 Instead, said the juror — one of eight women on the panel — the “gut-wrenching” discussion centered almost entirely on whether to convict Hayes of the lesser charge of manslaughter in the killing of former Saints player Will Smith.

“No one there had an intent of agreeing with the second-degree murder (charge). No one. I know that may come as a surprise,” she said. “Really, what we were struggling with was not guilty — which didn’t bode well either, because (Hayes) had some responsibility for his actions.”

There was a lot of inaccurate on the fly reporting (much of it on twitter) that the two no voters wanted a harsher penalty when they were, in fact, not guilty votes. I’m not a fan of the 10-2 conviction split but it’s the law in this jurisdiction. These jurors were given a terrible task and did a good and conscientious job. I hope Judge Buras shows mercy but her pro-prosecution track record makes that unlikely. I’m not sure I still believe in pleasant surprises.

Speaking of terrible things to contemplate, I’ve had a Guardian piece in the hopper for a few weeks. It’s time to unleash the monster.

Steve Bannon: Movie Mogul- John Patterson’s article is actually about Bannon’s career as a right-wing “documentarian.” Propagandist is more like it given his filmography. Quite naturally, he worked with fellow B3 David Bossie on several films. You know what that means: S is for smear, not schmeer…

If you’re curious or feel like getting bummed out, here’s a link to Bannon’s IMDB page.

Bannon’s much-discussed piece of the Seinfeld action is discussed in a piece at the Wrap.com. His role was strictly financial without any creative input. I hope that Larry David deals with his B3 money connection in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm when it returns to HBO next year.

Bannon is not the only one associated with Seinfeld to have racist views. Remember this career wrecking rant by Michael Richards?

I love the way a black guy in the audience takes him on: “That was uncalled for.” Yeah, you right, man.

Richards apologized but never regained his goofy pre-rant glow. I wonder how many Trumpers replay that clip because they like it?

Speaking of politically incorrect, borderline offensive humor, I’ll see you in the funny papers:

Old Toons Never Die, They Just Sleep It Off: I was once an avid consumer of the comics page. That changed when the Picayune zombified itself and I canceled my subscription. We started taking the rival daily last year but I don’t read the comics every day like I once did. So it goes.

One of my comic strip guilty pleasures was Andy Capp by Reg Smythe. Andy was a drunken Cockney layabout who spent most of his time on the couch sleeping off his latest bender and bickering with his wife, Flo. I liked the venerable strip (born in 1957) because of my fondness for snarky, knock-about British humor even if it made me flinch on occasion. That’s why I found a piece by Paul Slade about the evolution of the strip and its post-Smythe after-life so interesting.

I stopped reading Andy Capp long ago so I just learned about how it changed over the years. It remained politically incorrect, but the strip flipped in the 1970’s when Flo started fighting back:

Let’s move on from the Case of the Cold Cocked Cockney to a sunnier, chairier subject.

Pee-Wee Mania: I was an adult when Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was on the air but I was a faithful viewer. Why? Because of the sheer surreality of the show. I had a close friend who faithfully recorded it on his VCR and enjoyed watching the show in the evening hours in an altered state; not that I would know anything about such things…

One of the reasons that stoners liked Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was its colorful and utterly wackadoodle art design. Eric Ducker of the Verge recently caught up with the three artists responsible: Gary Panter, Ric Heitzman, and Wayne White. The latter has the article’s money quote:

“That was the power of the Playhouse — it was an art project that happened to get on TV.”

A concise quote for a concise post.

It’s time to get good and greasy with the early Rolling Stones:

Saturday Classic: 12×5 was the album the Stones recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago in 1964. I’m surprised it’s still up on YouTube in single file form. It’s well-worth a listen while it lasts. It’s the young Stones at their bluesiest and funkiest complete with major contributions from Brian Jones and Ian Stewart. Enjoy.

That’s it for this week. We’re back to super villains Rex-n-Vlad with this closing meme.