One-word theme song accompanied by a picture from an old movie month continues. How obscure is that? I suspect I’m the only one who cares. I like to be consistent in an inconsistent world that’s clearly in a tailspin. I know who is responsible but the why is elusive. I like things to make sense, but they don’t right now if that makes any sense. Is it time to stop making sense? Discuss amongst yourselves.
I nearly violated my rule against fighting with strangers on social media. In this case, it was a semi-stranger, a high school friend I haven’t seen in over 40 years. He spewed Trumpist propaganda in a Facebook comment on the link to my Contempt post. Other than correcting his far-fetched claims about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, I opted to fume then unfriend.
Life is too short to waste your time fighting with someone who doesn’t matter. It’s sad that this guy is a hater but I have no use for people who let others do their thinking for them. That’s what happens when you join a cult. The only cult I belong to is the Noir Alley cult…
In other social media news, I like Bluesky but there’s a recurring problem with the wrong images showing up on my post shares:
The latest episode of Life Imitates The Godfather and The Sopranos. The actual featured image is a gangster triptych featuring Big Paul Castellano, Roy Cohn, and Fat Tony Salerno.
This is the real McCoy:
I’ve contacted Bluesky and they said it was a Word Press problem. In turn, Word Press said it was a Bluesky problem. That’s buck passing worthy of the Insult Comedian and his little Fascist friend the president of Death Squad Land DBA El Salvador.
Where have you gone Harry Truman?
Will that  picture  show up on the Bluesky share of this post? Stay tuned.
The featured image comes from a 1939 movie I’ve never seen, Tail Spin. It shows the glamorous Constance Bennett as an aviatrix; one of my favorite words but one I don’t get to use that often. I dig the one sentence brief synopsis of the movie at TCM.com: “A flyer enters a cross-country aerial derby and becomes rival to a wealthy society competitor.”
I’m not sure if I want to take a flyer on that film but it does involve aviatrixes, so you never know. I have, however, seen the trailer. Now you can too:
This week’s theme song was written by Gary Louris for The Jayhawks 2003 album, Rainy Day Music. It’s an uptempo song with downbeat lyrics, which often makes for a great song. This one rocks like hell as well.
We have two versions of Tailspin for your listening pleasure: the studio OG followed by The Jayhawks live.
Let’s follow that up with a Genesis tune that tells a whale of a tale and has tail in the title:
Let’s hightail it to a song by The Spinners:
Everything’s a shameful shame right now. What can ya do? In a word: Resist.
Let’s consult with Robert Cray and see what he thinks:
I’m keeping our second act light as a feather after that gloomy opening. It’s what The Monkees would want. Hey, hey.
Last Monkee Standing: Mickey Dolenz turned 80 last month. He sat for an interview with The Guardian’s crack music writer, Alex Petridis. Note that I didn’t call him my countryman: He’s Anglo-Greek, that’s why.
The Monkees TV show was meant to be light, cheeky, and ephemeral. It wasn’t expected to endure but endure it did thanks to the magic of reruns. The boys had chemistry and recorded some really good music written by really good songwriters. Hey, hey.
Mickey Dolenz learned the drums to play himself on TV. He was an actor best known for playing the title character in a TV series that even had a book spinoff thing going on:
FYI, I saw Davy Jones onstage in a stellar production of Oliver starring movie Fagin Ron Moody. Davy was the Artful Dodger. It beats the hell out of being a Los Angeles Dodger. I hate them even more since they accepted the Insult Comedian’s invitation to the White House. Just wait until they deny California federal disaster funds, you stupid motherfuckers. The malakatude, it burns.
Repeat after me: Fuck the Dodgers.
That felt good.
The last word of our second act goes to The Monkees with a song written by Mickey Dolenz:
Hey, hey.
We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.
Separated At Birth Casting Edition: Cole Porter week continues at First Draft. In the Cole Porter Dozen, I mentioned the two major biopics starring Cary Grant and Kevin Kline as the songwriter:
They’re all the top as far as I’m concerned. The biopics not so much.
Your Weekly Oscar: A friend of mine pointed out that the Cole Porter Dozen is short on ballads. It’s time to rectify that omission with an OP doubleheader.
Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?
I hope that concentrated your attention. Our next artists were easily distracted. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
The Best Of The Three Stooges: Do court hearings involving Trump DOJ lawyers look like this?
Nah. The Stooges were smarter than your average MAGA lawyer. I feel some self-linking coming on:
Saturday GIF Horse: In between torturing Joan Crawford, Bette Davis sang her heart out in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane:
This was Baby Jane’s signature song: Cole Porter as sung by Anita O’Day.
Your Weekly Political Cartoon: Feeling hungry? How about some ego pie? It’s guaranteed to leave you hangry:
The mere thought of Putin and Trump gives me the blues.
Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.
Saturday Closer: Here’s an Ed Sullivan Show doubleheader featuring Tina Turner and her ex-husband.
In a word: Kinetic.
That’s it for this week. The last word goes to The Monkees. Hey, hey.
