Adrastos, Diary, Film, Music, Odds & Sods, Political Crack, Television

Saturday Odds & Sods: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Dorothea Tanning

It was another hot week in New Orleans. What can ya do? It’s summertime.

I’m still anemic awaiting my IV iron experience next week. Being anemic in a New Orleans summer is a nightmare in the day time. It’s been so hot that our air dish struggles to keep the house cool. It beats the hell outta stepping outside and getting slapped in the face by the damp sticky air. It makes me wanna hiss and not just at summer lawns.

Joni Mitchell wrote this week’s theme song for her 1975 album of the same name. It was widely applauded by critics and fans, not hissed at.

We have two versions of The Hissing Of Summer Lawns for your listening pleasure: Joni’s original and an instrumental version by sax man John Handy.

Do summer lawns actually hiss? Discuss amongst yourselves.

I hope nobody hissed at that remark. My only response is this Doors blues song:

We begin our second act with a piece about the woman who wrote and recorded this week’s theme song.

Joni & The Me Decade: The Guardian has a swell excerpt from a book by Ann Powers about Joni Mitchell’s Seventies vision quest, Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell.

The tag line says it all: “An extract from the new book Travelling follows the Canadian songwriter’s restless adventures in psychoanalysis and psychedelia from Hejira to Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter.”

You say extract. I say excerpt. Let’s call the whole thing off, but please Talk To Me:

Bobby Junior Is Disgusting:  Joe Hagan wrote the definitive biography of Jann Wenner, Sticky Fingers. He’s turned his attention to Bobby Junior who makes Wenner look like a choir boy. Bobby Junior uses the term church boy instead. Whatever.

He’s neither a choir boy nor a church boy, he’s a lying, rapey, dog-eating piece of shit. I meant the dog-eating part literally as you will see when you read the article.

Bobby Junior is not only unfit to be president, he’s unfit to be discussed at greater length in this post.

In a word: Gross.

For the details, get thee to Vanity Fair.

The last word of our second act goes to Johnny Winter:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Twitter Edition: It’s a repeat performance from the originator of SAB, Kurt Andersen.

Trump and Imus are creepy peas in a pod. It’s a pity that the Convicted Insult Comedian isn’t sharing a suite in hell with Imus but what can ya do?

Your Weekly Oscar: OP collaborated with many other notable artists over his long career. Here he is with the great French fiddler, Stephane Grappelli.

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

The Best Of Letterman: I haven’t posted a stupid pet tricks clip in quite some time. It’s time to change that:

What’s not to love about a stupid pet tricks top ten list? It makes me stupidly happy:

Saturday GIF Horse: I rewatched Psycho recently and still have Hitchcock on my mind:

Holy gigantic GIF, Batman.

The Junk Drawer: This week, a clip from a CW show of all things. But I’m talking Penn & Teller: Fool Us, not some show for teenyboppers.

The segment comes from a recent episode and features the alliterative stylings of John Lewit. It’s sponsored by the letter P:

I may have to start a best of Fool Us category. It’s what Penn & Teller would want. Never argue with them.

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

Saturday Closer: I have no idea how long this  video will last on the YouTube, but here’s the whole damn Joni Mitchell album:

That’s it for this week. The featured image is a painting by Dorothea Tanning who was married to her fellow surrealist Max Ernst for 30 years. They get the last word: