Adrastos, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, LBGTQ Rights, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Television

Saturday Odds & Sods: Wicked Rain

In The Rain by Franz Marc.

The heat wave has eased in the last few days, but it appears ready to play a return engagement this weekend. That’s all we need.

Despite being damaged by Elon Musk, Twitter continues to amuse. Because of the disaster tourism disaster, the Bird app was full of amateur underwater rescue experts and marine engineers. I know little about either subject, so I kept my trap shut except with Dr. A. To her, I suggested that they send Burt Lancaster and Clark Gable to help. They were excellent together in Run Silent, Run Deep. Of course, they’re both long dead and were too big to be submariners in any event.

I learned nothing from the people on Twitter about the submarine accident, but the whole thing reinforced something I already knew: some people have more money than sense.

Up periscope.

The featured image is a 1912 painting by German Expressionist artist Franz Marc; one of the founders of Der Blaue Reiter. That’s German for Blue Rider. I’m not sure what they were riding but I know why they were blue: Kaiser Bill was about to stumble into the Great War. He was the original Kaiser of Chaos.

Los Lobos month concludes with this week’s theme song. It’s NOT a song by David Hidalgo and Louie Perez from Kiko. Instead, it’s a song from Kiko written by Cesar Rosas, Los Lobos’ resident bluesman. Does that make him a Clamoroso Lobo? My college Spanish comes in handy sometimes.

We have three versions of Wicked Rain for your listening pleasure: the studio original, live in 2006, and a medley of Wicked Rain and Across 110th Street recorded in 2004 with the great soul singer songwriter Bobby Womack.

Since it’s so damn hot in New Orleans, here’s a rain song that says “bring it on” but more artfully:

I dig that image. Here’s a better view:

Who knew the Temps had enlisted in the French Foreign Legion? Did they run into these guys?

We begin our second act with a self-referential segment.

The First Draft America Is Collection: I colluded with my colleagues to meet the NYT’s America Is challenge. It beats the hell outta the ice bucket thing. Splash. Brrr.

I kicked things off with my Los Lobos post, America Is: One Time, One Night. I told you June was Los Lobos month.

Cassandra then hit the road with America Is: Where The Mythic Touches Reality.

Jamie O completed the trilogy with America Is: Not Quite Seeing The Threats.

The Upstairs Lounge Fire At 50: On this day in 1973, a fire was intentionally set at a French Quarter gay bar: 32 people perished. Horribly enough, city officials were indifferent, but it led to an awakening in the local gay community. Last year the City Council finally apologized for the city’s mishandling of the Upstairs Lounge fire.

My friend Clancy DuBos covered the fire and its awful aftermath. He’s written an excellent column commemorating this solemn anniversary.

The Private Eye & The Hollywood Con Queen: Amy Pascal is a high-powered movie mogul. Someone was impersonating her. She called in an East Coast detective agency. Jersey girl Nicole Kotsianis was assigned to her case. Weirdness ensued.

How could I resist a story involving a Greek American shamus? Can a woman be called a shamus? Discuss among yourselves.

For the details get thee to Crime Reads.

The last word of our second act goes to 10cc:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: This is in the nature of a follow-up to my Beautiful Mind Boxes post from last Friday. I give you John Nash and the actor who won an Oscar for playing him, Russell Crowe.

They look nothing alike. Billy Wilder had a term for stuff like this: Movie Magic.

I’ll let Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks play us out of this segment:

They nail it with this perceptive albeit ungrammatical line: “Movies is magic, life is tragic.”

Your Weekly Oscar: Here’s a clip from a 1979 OP appearance on Dick Cavett’s PBS chat show:

Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?

Saturday GIF Horse: Recently, I discovered, much to my delight, that one of my all-time favorite sitcoms, Barney Miller, is streaming on Amazon. Seeing Fish, Harris, and Yemana takes me back to my wayward youth.

The second image evokes one of the best running gags on the series: Nick Yemana’s terrible coffee. Character driven comedy is the best. Nick’s coffee was the worst.

Tweet Of The Week: First Draft pun consultant James Karst is the communications director for The Coalition To Restore Coastal Louisiana. As you can see from this Tweet,  he’s not just a tree-hugger, he’s a nutria hugger.

That was a lot of hugger-mugger about rodent hugging.

The hugger-mugger above reminds me of this nutria related image featuring my late friend Michael Homan:

Enough with the cronyism, let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Classic: I still have sweet Memphis soul on my mind. Let’s get extra soulful with Ann Peebles and her 1974 album, I Can’t Stand The Rain:

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to the Season-4 cast of Barney Miller: Jack Soo, Steve Landesberg, Ron Glass, James Gregory, Hal Linden, Max Gail, and Ron Carey.