As it does every June, summer’s cauldron has settled on New Orleans. We’ll have little respite from the steamy heat until early October if we’re lucky. Sometimes the heat hangs on until the end of that month. I’m not keeping score; I’m just stating facts.

It’s supposed to be an active hurricane season but all we can do is watch and wait. The freak outs on my social media feeds have been mercifully minimal thus far. That won’t last.

Here’s a quick and dirty health update: No bleeding, no head whacking, low iron. My IV treatments don’t start until July, so my recovery is stalled. Oh well, what the hell.

This week’s theme song was written by David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth for Talking Heads final studio album, Naked.

We have three versions of Blind for your listening pleasure: the studio original. the video, and David Byrne live from his American Utopia show.

Here’s what I said about this week’s theme song in the Talking Heads Dozen:

Blind was my theme song when I did a summer law clerkship with NASA at Stennis Space Center. I worked on a case involving the Randolph-Shepard Act. The law gives preference to blind vendors at federal buildings and facilities. We called it the Blind Vendors Case, which meant I walked around singing this insanely catchy tune for weeks; Blind, blind, blind.”

Keep your blinders on. We have two more songs with blind in the title.

We begin and end our second act with a story from my childhood. My Willie Mays tribute seems to have stirred up some memories.

The Blind Man’s Hands: The first time I met a blind person was so memorable that I’m surprised I haven’t written about it before.

When I was six or seven years old, my parents and I took a road trip to visit my aunt’s family in Phoenix, Arizona. My father had recently heard from a distant relative who was living in Nogales, Mexico, so we took a Mexican detour. At least I think he was a relative, as you may recall Lou had an expansive view of our gene pool.

Anyway, we met up with an elderly Greek man in a cantina in Nogales. I don’t remember his name, but the meeting was unforgettable.

I was fascinated that he was wearing sunglasses inside. Nobody had told me that he was blind. He asked me to come closer so he could feel my face with his hands. It was an odd request, but I complied after my mom nodded her assent. His verdict was that I had a fine and sensitive face. I was glad to hear that: I was afraid that he’d tell me that my lifeline was too short or some such shit. Is there a lifeline on the face? Discuss amongst yourselves.

It was the only time I met our blind relative; I have no idea why he lived in Mexico or what became of him. All I remember is feeling his hands on my face and my dad slipping him a C-note as we parted.

The last word of our second act goes to Dave Alvin with a cover of a Tom Waits tune:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: Part of the 2004 Ray Charles biopic was shot in my neighborhood. I didn’t see Jamie Foxx, but I saw the fleet of vintage cars brought in by the production company.

Here are the two Rays:

My favorite Ray Charles album is The Genius Sings The Blues. This is my favorite song from that record.

Wah-doo-day.

Your Weekly Oscar: This week, an Irving Berlin tune that’s on theme.

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

The Best of SNL: I’m not a Rob Schneider fan, but I dug his name gaming as the Richmeister. In this 1991 sketch he had some help from Jeff Daniels:

Saturday GIF Horse: My favorite Chaplin film is City Lights. In that memorable movie, Charlie falls in love with a blind girl. He even helped her do whatever the hell she’s doing here.

The Junk Drawer: Perhaps I should have called this segment The Rishi Sunak Chronicles. The junk drawer works because he’s about to be junked by the British people along with what historians have dubbed the worst government in post-war history.

Rishi seemed to hit it off with Italy’s neo-Fascist premier Giorgia Meloni at the recent G7 summit. So much so that the wags at Slate created this movie poster mock up:

It’s time for yet another version of the hapless Tory PM’s theme song. This time by German singer-songwriter Muriel Zoe:

Rishi is certain to lose that number on election day.

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

Saturday Closer: I’d rather close with the great Etta James than go blind.

That’s all for this week. The last word yet again goes to Talking Heads from the back cover of Little Creatures.