Adrastos, Diary, Fog Of History, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Political Crack, Television

Saturday Odds & Sods: Picture Book

The Hat Makes The Man by Max Ernst.

Regular New Orleans summer has broken out after the heat dome moved on, dissipated, or whatever. It’s still hot as hell but our AC system can keep up with this level of heat. The cats are back to their normal antics after two weeks of sleeping a lot even by feline standards.

The warfare between the New Orleans City Council and Mayor Teedy has waxed as the hear dome waned. They’re fighting over spending, who to hire as police chief, and overall executive branch incompetence. It’s usually like this in a Mayor’s second term but the fighting is increasingly bitter and personal. I found myself mildly defending Teedy recently after someone called her the worst mayor in our history. My money is on the convicted felon who gave up on the job after winning reelection. Come on down, C Ray Nagin.

It’s been so damn hot that I’ve been a Sunday Dozen slacker in August. That should change as summer winds down; if, that is, it ever does.

I selected this week’s theme song because of all the mugshot chatter about the Atlanta RICO case.

Picture Book was written by Ray Davies for The Kinks’ classic 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society.

We have three versions of Picture Book for your listening pleasure: the studio original, a 1994 live version, and a 2009 version featuring Ray and a choral group:

Since Max Ernst’s The Hat Makes The Man is this week’s featured image, some hat songs are in order:

We begin our second act with a tip of the hat to mugshot mania.

The History Of Mugshots: I really dig the WaPo’s regular Retropolis feature. It’s a look at the fog of history through modern eyes.

I really dug a recent entry by Gillian Brockell about famous folk who have been mugshot. Is that the right term? I doubt it but don’t call me a mug or take my picture.

For the mugshotty details get thee to the WaPo.

I’ll let Paul Simon sing us out of this segment.

The Capone Teardown: The Louse DBA Ron DeSantis is not only a foe of wokeness, whatever the hell that means, he also takes a dim view of historic preservation:

“Al Capone’s historic waterfront mansion in Florida, where the notorious gangster took his last breath in 1947, has itself been whacked, and preservationists are pointing to the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, as the hitman.

The elegant century-old property on one of Miami’s most exclusive islands was quietly razed earlier this month. The take-down followed the enactment of a law from the DeSantis administration last summer stripping municipalities of their power to prevent the demolition of certain properties, regardless of historic designation.”

The Louse has moved on from the Mouse to Scarface. This time, he’s fighting phantoms. I don’t believe in an afterlife, but if there is one, Al Capone has added Governor DeSantis to his shit list.

The last word of our second act goes to Prince Buster:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Twitter Edition: I like to check in with Kurt Andersen, the creator of SAB, from time-time. He posts the odd SAB image on Twitter, never X. This time, it’s the Indicted Impeached Insult Comedian and former talk radio bigmouth Don Imus.

Holy Imus in the morning, Batman.

Your Weekly Oscar: After the RICO indictment, we all have Georgia on our minds. Here’s OP playing the Hoagy Carmichael classic.

Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson? Yeah, I know, I did it yesterday.

The Best Of Letterman: Legendary game show host and animal rights activist, Bob Barker died recently at the age of 99.

Here’s the Bobster reading two Top Ten lists: in 1994 and in 2007 after Barker’s retirement from The Price Is Right.

Saturday GIF Horse: Who among us hasn’t wanted to punch that annoying twerp, Adam Sandler? Bob Barker got the chance. Sandler starts thing off by sucker punching the beloved quizmaster:

Atta boy, Bob. The last word of this punchy segment goes to Mary Wells with a tune written by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White:

Tweet Of The Week: A doozy from cartoonist Paul Noth.

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Closer: Here’s a  2017 Tiny Desk Concert featuring New Orleans’ own Tank and the Bangas.

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to Al Capone’s 1931 mugshot:

 

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