I know people who were there in ’68, and not just there as in lived through it, but THERE there. A friend who spoke at my wedding was in the National Guard during Kent State, left soon after. Colleagues were in the streets, getting beaten and gassed. I know people who fought in Europe in World War II. I knew, many years ago, a man who went to Spain to fight the fascists there after writing about it for years. Their eyes go somewhere else when they talk about it. When they gather, and someone takes a photograph, it’s not … Continue reading The Sound of Kids on the Streets Outside
Self Portrait After The Spanish Flu by Edvard Munch.
My sleep pattern remains wacked out. This lifelong night person has become a morning writer. I’ve even awakened before Dr. A a few times and fed the cat. Both she and PD were disoriented. Such is life during the pandemic.
I decided to use one of Edvard Munch’s lesser known works as this week’s featured image. It’s a reminder than one can survive even the worst pandemic. It also explains why he was such a Gloomy Gus. Of course, he was Norwegian; it goes with the territory.
This week’s theme song was written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller in 1968. They shopped it around before finding the perfect singer: Peggy Lee. I’ll have more about Miss Peggy Lee and our theme song after the jump.
We have two versions of Is That All There Is? for your listening pleasure: the Peggy Lee original and a swell cover by the woman whose name I cannot stop saying, Chaka Khan. It’s a mantra in my family and it should be in yours. Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan.
Our next musical pairing involves a title that’s similar to Miss Peggy Lee’s last hit. To add to the needless complexity of this post, they’re different tunes.
You say this, I say that. Let’s call the whole thing off.
Now that we’ve questioned everything, let’s take a dubious leap of faith and jump to the break
Here’s Paul Drake performing a cat scan while begging: My cats have always liked Yes because of Jon Anderson’s high voice. That’s why they get the last word: Continue reading Friday Catblogging: Looking Around
Real life has me busy, so I have to be short but…anyone remember this? …We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning, you’re going to come to me and go ‘Please, please, we can’t win anymore.’ You’ve heard this one. You’ll say ‘Please, Mr. President, we beg you sir, we don’t want to win anymore. It’s too much. It’s not fair to everybody else…And I’m going to say ‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to keep winning, winning, winning, We’re going to make America great again.’” Donald Trump, 2016 Sick and tired of … Continue reading Winning
In addition to being a trailblazing composer, Arnold Schoenberg was a talented painter. Below are two covers featuring the composer’s artwork. The first is a self-portrait, which spoils my chance to make a joke about “long hair music.” So it … Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: Arnold Schoenberg
One legacy, leading to another and another: The era of slavery was when white Americans determined that black Americans needed only the bare necessities, not enough to keep them optimally safe and healthy. It set in motion black people’s diminished access to healthy foods, safe working conditions, medical treatment and a host of other social inequities that negatively impact health. This message is particularly important in a moment when African-Americans have experienced the highest rates of severe complications and death from the coronavirus and “obesity” has surfaced as an explanation. The cultural narrative that black people’s weight is a harbinger … Continue reading The Long Tail
Short one this week, good people. Nancy Pelosi: ‘Morbidly obese’ Trump shouldn’t be taking hydroxychloroquine washingtontimes.com ^ | May 18, 2020 | Victor Mortan Posted on 5/19/2020, 12:44:31 AM by Berlin_Freeper … She said taking that drug was not a good idea for the president because of his “age group and in his, shall we say, weight group,” which she described as “morbidly obese.” ” Rosie (O’Donnell) ’s a loser. A real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie.” The Darnold, 2006 To: Berlin_Freeper Has the ice cream eating Botox princess opened … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Pelosi-guided missile edition
Can’t stop the celebration signal: A huge part of Ramadan is about the community, Ismail said. Not just getting together with family and friends for iftar meals to break fast at the end of the day, but eating with strangers and gathering with large groups to celebrate in the mosque. He wanted to try to emulate that in a game that has been so appealing to people in quarantine precisely because of the community aspect. He put out a call on Twitter, offering to host people to celebrate Ramadan on his island, and very quickly got a lot of responses … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks
Yeah: In retrospect it’s clear that the biggest mistake public officials made in the early weeks of this pandemic was to ask the public to be considerate of other people. All the safety measures should’ve been framed as selfishness. — Matt Zoller Seitz (@mattzollerseitz) May 23, 2020 I mean, as much as anything would shut the NRA crowd up, maybe a message of WEAR A MASK SO A FOREIGNER DOES NOT GIVE YOUR WHITE DAUGHTERS THE PLAGUE would have helped. These hissyfits almost never make sense, though, so I’m hesitant to attribute the behavior of the president’s fanclub to actual … Continue reading Selfishness
I don’t have a helluva lot to add to what I said as the 13th Ward Rambler earlier this week. I’m still keeping my head down during the lockdown. We’ve had a few front porch visitors, which breaks the monotony and allows Paul Drake to make goo-goo eyes at company and get his nose prints all over the lower glass panes of our front door.
This week’s theme song was written by Paul Samwell-Smith, Keith Relf, and Jim McCarty in 1966 and represented a sonic breakthrough for The Yardbirds. The tune’s Wikipedia entry is absurdly detailed and argues that Jeff Beck should have received a songwriting credit as well. It’s okay: Beck assumed de facto ownership of the song after recording it with The Jeff Beck Group on 1968’s Truth album.
We have three versions of Shapes Of Things for your listening pleasure: the Yardbirds original, the Jeff Beck Group, and David Bowie from Pin-Ups. They’re all shapely and thingy:
Now that we’ve shaped things and contemplated Jeff Beck’s guitar virtuosity, let’s jump to the break.
Let’s cross the pond for some bibulous folk music. Rumor has it that the Brits like to tipple even with all the pubs closed. At least I hope they’re still closed. I know some Thatcherites are getting antsy. Freedom, man. … Continue reading Friday Cocktail Hour: John Barleycorn
I guess we’re at the Bush II administration build a school/paint a school/insist that building a school/painting a school is evidence of the phenomenal success in Iraq point in DJT’s own crash-and-burn. If only we wouldn’t test, if only people weren’t dying, if only our health care system wasn’t stressed to the limit while the overall economy implodes…everything would be awesome. Yet…it’s all just another day, another IOKIYAR… And now the grand experiment begins, i.e., looks like they’ve decided a month and a half or so of quarantine is more than enough — you’d think the MAGAts who like to … Continue reading Still Batshit After All These Years
I’ve had The Yardbirds on my mind since my friend Sam Jasper posed a trivia question about them on the Tweeter Tube. Here’s the question Jeopardy-style: Who are Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page? Little Games is the fourth … Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: Little Games
The Journal Sentinel’s editorial board: But it’s not the court’s fault that the governor and top lawmakers can’t work together for the common good. Nor is it the court’s job to set public health policy in Wisconsin. That’s the job of the governor and Legislature. So do your jobs, Gov. Tony Evers, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. Adopt clear rules for the state moving forward. Do so now, so the novel coronavirus is contained. The governor issued rules and Republicans and the State Supreme Court blew them up. Yelling at them all to do their … Continue reading You Don’t Understand, or You Do, And in Either Case We’re All Dead
