Summer is here, so it’s time to slow down, take it easy in New Orleans home of jailbreaks and garbage trucks stuck on interstate off-ramps. I am not making this up.
The featured image is an early work by Mark Rothko before the whole color field thing. The title aptly describes our current political situation, Agitation Of The Archaic. The Insult Comedian is trying to revive a bygone era before Brown vs. Board Of Education. He’s an easily bored asshole making the world safe for Jim Crow.
Lonesome Dave Peverett wrote this week’s theme song for Foghat’s 1975 album, Fool For The City. I saw Foghat as an opening act several times at Winterland back in the day. They were a solid rock combo who delivered the goods. I’m unsure what the goods were but the result was rock and roll. Does that make any sense? Discuss amongst yourselves.
We have two versions of Slow Ride for your listening pleasure: the single and the extended album version.
Let’s take a free ride with Edgar Winter:
Rick Derringer who played on that track and produced the album died recently at age 77. He also wrote this classic rocker:
We move from a guitar slinger named Derringer to a gun seller owned by a certain secretive agency. All will be revealed directly.
The Company’s Gun Company: The company in question is the CIA. It turns out that one of the biggest gun sellers in 20th Century America was a CIA front.
The front man was Samuel Cummings. The gun company was Interarms. They specialized in importing and selling cheap handguns.
There had long been rumors about Cummings’ connection to the CIA. They were confirmed by the recent release of a tranche of JFK assassination documents. Louisiana Tech historian Andrew McKevitt did the digging and wrote about it for Slate. Score one for the Gret Stet of Louisiana.
Steely Dan plays us out of the segment:
The Candy Confab: Bobby Junior wants to become America’s diet dictator. It’s one reason why Nicholas Florko covered the annual Sweets & Snacks meeting for The Atlantic.
The former heroin addict wants America to kick its sugar addiction. He calls sugar poison. He’s out to MAHA-ize your eating habits. His president, of course, doesn’t give a shit about any of this. As he’s done with tariffs, he’ll fold as soon as Big Food starts screaming at him. On Wall Street they call this a Trump TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out.
The Kaiser of Chaos hates this term so let’s repeat it three times: Trump TACO, Trump TACO, Trump TACO.
Will this lead to Trump TACO trucks on every corner?
The last word of our second act goes to Jo Stafford:
We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.
Separated At Birth Casting Edition: Parker Posey is as hot as a firecracker after appearing in The White Lotus. Here’s a rather disturbing image of her as Jackie Kennedy in the 1997 film House Of Yes.
When Jackie was married to my countryman Aristotle Onassis, the press called her Jackie O. So does John Mellencamp in this song co-written by John Prine:
Your Weekly Oscar: Let’s slow things down with this OP composition.
Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?
The Best Of The Marx Brothers: My sweet tooth has been activated by the candy confab article. I want some tootsie frootsie ice cream as well as some tips on the next race from Chico.
Classic Movie Trailer: We just saw the tootsie frootsie ice cream scene from A Day At The Races. Here’s the trailer:
This is one of my favorite Marx Brothers movies. I give it 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A-. Hugo Hackenbush not only rocks, he rules.
Saturday GIF Horse: We have a GIF from Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in which the Big Apple becomes the Big Candy or some such shit.
Political Cartoon Corner: Bobby Junior became diet dictator wannabe after a close vote in the Senate. This Chris Britt cartoon captures the moment: 
The measles zombie resembles Doctor Senator Bill Cassidy only with a stronger chin.
Let’s close down this virtual jukebox with some more music.
Saturday Closer: I’m still craving candy. Let’s consult with Sammy on how to cope with candy cravings.
Candy Cravings is not a porn star name; it just sounds like one.
That’s all for this week. The last word can be found on a more characteristic Rothko painting:
