Roger O Green

ABC Wednesday is coming again, but not forever

ABC Wednesday will conclude, but not until the end of Round 20

It’s now EIGHT years ago that Denise Nesbitt from across the pond in England created a meme called ABC Wednesday. People, literally from around the world, post an item – pictures, poems, essays – that in some way describe each letter of the alphabet, in turn. I’ve been participating since the letter K in Round 5.

Denise recruited a team of her followers to do some of the intro writing and visiting, which eventually included me because doing it all was too exhausting.

Three years ago, she ceded the role of administrator to me. This means that I assign who reads which posts, making sure somebody is writing the introductions (and writing them myself, when necessary) and inserting the link that allows everyone to participate.

The Netiquette for the site is this:

1. Post something on your non-commercial blog/webpage having something to do with the letter of the week. Use your imagination. Put a link to ABC Wednesday in your post and/or put up the logo.

2. Come to the ABC Wednesday site and link the SPECIFIC link to the Linky thing. It’ll be available around 4 p.m., Greenwich Mean Time each Tuesday, which is 11 a.m. or noon in the Eastern part of the United States.

3. Try and visit at least 5 other participants, and comment on their posts. The more sites you do visit, the more comments you will probably get.

Now, as the cliché goes, all good things must come to an end, and Denise and Roger have decided that ABC Wednesday should conclude, for a variety of reasons. The good news is that it won’t be until the end of Round 20, or four more trips through the alphabet.

We have discovered that there are folks who participate in a round, then drop out for a bit. Others start a round, but don’t complete. We think this will be an opportunity to invite those folks to participate once again.

Or maybe you have friends who have THOUGHT about tying ABC Wednesday but have not. THIS would be a good time to start.

Here’s a deep, dark secret: you don’t HAVE to participate every week. I think it’s advantageous to do so – it generates a lot of comments for me, but then again, I visit practically everyone who posts.

Bloggers, consider giving ABC Wednesday a try, if this sounds interesting. The A comes up the week of July 13, so you have some time to think about it. Write to me a rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com for more details.

MOVIE REVIEW: Tomorrowland

If it’d been up to me, I might have passed on seeing it. Tomorrowland was beset by middling reviews.

Worse, the (not unusual) manipulation of the Disney audience to see the film was quite impressive but really irritating. “Get your backstage pass” to this great film, the network promotion machine hawked on several programs The Daughter watches.

Its box office (relative) failure – as of June 14, 2015, domestic box office of $83,607,000 and foreign box office of $93,500,000, against a production budget of $190 million – put the kibosh on more Disney science fiction.

Still, The Wife, The Daughter, her friend Kay and I went on a hot Sunday afternoon to the Spectrum Theatre in Albany. The movie was down to two showings a day, and rightly so; there was only one other person in the theater, a middle-aged woman.

If I say I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would, it’d be damning with faint praise. In fact, I did like good chunks of it.

For one thing, the film looked really cool, a function, I assume, of director and co-writer Brad Bird, best known for fine animated films such as Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and The Iron Giant. The 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, which I attended, is where a boy named Frank (Thomas Robinson), a would-be inventor, gets invited by Athena (Raffey Cassidy) to be a part of the REAL title place.

Sometime later, teenager Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a saboteur for good, ends up with a button that seems to, briefly, provide a gateway aid fabulous-looking place… oh, heck, read the narrative HERE.

I liked that this movie was attempting to be an antidote to all the dystopian rhetoric that does seem to dominate popular culture. Perhaps the best part of the narrative may be a speech by Nix (Hugh Laurie, of the TV show House, MD) in the latter stages of the film.

It asked some important questions, more than occasionally in a ham-fisted way, such as none of the teachers answering Casey’s questions about the issues they’ve laid out. Still, the Daughter was inspired by Casey, who almost never gave up, and who even inspired the much older Frank (George Clooney) to keep trying as well.

The actors, including Kathryn Hahn and Keegan-Michael Key as the shopkeepers, were entertaining, and especially young Raffey Cassidy. It is true, though, that Britt Robertson, in the middle stages of the film, looked a lot like someone attempting to react to a blue screen.

If the story didn’t make complete sense, generally blamed on cowriter Damon Lindelof, the showrunner for the TV program Lost, I wasn’t as bothered by it as some. It was more coherent than the first two hours of Interstellar, which may be a low bar.

I’m musing over the complete, and therefore bloodless, annihilation of some people in this film, not to mention the intense fighting with the bad guys, which really warranted a PG rating, as opposed to a PG-13. Maybe I’m just overthinking this.

Anyway, it’s not a great film, clearly. Still, parts of it will likely stick with me, so it wasn’t a waste of time.

I side with Bernie

TWICE in the past week, I’ve seen Bernie Sanders referred to as the governor of Vermont; he is not.

I took a couple of those I Side With quizzes. Nothing particularly surprising, except that my affinity with the Republican Party was worse than I thought.

I did take exception to a handful of the answer choices besides YES and NO being counted as the same as mine. For example: “Should National Parks continue to be preserved and protected by the federal government?”

Republicans: Yes, but allow limited logging, drilling, and mining. Your similar answer: Yes. Well, that’s not similar at all, to my mind. This USUALLY is not an issue, but it may skew some results.

Candidates you side with… (links are to the Weekly Sift stump speeches, a work in progress)

92% Bernie Sanders, Democrat (US Senator from VT, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats) on domestic policy, environmental, social, immigration, foreign policy, and healthcare issues. Incidentally, TWICE in the past week, I’ve seen Sanders referred to as the governor of Vermont, once on a network news program, once on the local Time Warner Cable News.

68% Hillary Clinton, Democrat (former US Senator from NY; former Secretary of State) on domestic policy, economic, and foreign policy issues.

28% John Ellis Bush, a/k/a Jeb!, Republican (former governor of FL) – no major issues.

21% Chris Christie, Republican (governor of NJ) on environmental issues. I have SERIOUS doubts that Christie said that thing about a Viagra-like pill for women.

17% Rand Paul, Republican (US Senator from Kentucky) on foreign policy issues.

15% Mike Huckabee, Republican (former governor of AR) – no major issues.

8% Ben Carson, Republican (doctor) – no major issues.

4% Scott Walker, Republican (governor of WI) – no major issues.

3% Rick Santorum, Republican (former US Senator from PA) – no major issues.

3% Marco Rubio, Republican (US Senator from FL) – no major issues.

1% Carly Fiorina, Republican (former corporate head) – no major issues.

1% Ted Cruz, Republican (US Senator from Texas) – no major issues.

I’d be curious how I would have fared vis a vis former governor George Pataki (R-NY), or the other two Democrats in the race, Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chaffee.

Parties you side with…

98% Green Party on domestic policy, economic, environmental, social, foreign policy, immigration, and healthcare issues.

95% Democrats on domestic policy, economic, environmental, foreign policy, social, immigration, healthcare, and education issues.

94% Socialist on domestic policy, economic, environmental, social, foreign policy, immigration, and healthcare issues.
And in case you wonder if I’m freaking about that designation, not especially.
From Daily Kos:
Bernie Sanders went on to express irritation with the way journalists slap the “socialist” label on him, as if his embrace of policies common in the democracies of western Europe makes him a radical outlier.
“It is not a radical agenda,” he said. “In virtually every instance, what I am saying is supported by a significant majority of the American people. Yes, it is not supported by the Business Roundtable or the Chamber of Commerce, or Wall Street. I may be old-fashioned enough to believe that Congress might want to be representing a vast majority of our people … and not just the Koch brothers and other campaign contributors.
“He suggested that if the media are going to refer to him as a socialist, journalists also should affix the label of ‘capitalist’ with every mention of his rivals.”

43% Libertarians on foreign policy issues.

37% Constitution Party on domestic policy issues.

4% Republicans – no major issues.

W is for Whipped Cream and Other Delights

For this post, you can blame Chuck Miller, who wrote about Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in late May 2015. It reminded me of my history collecting TJB.

I owned at least 7 of the first eight albums by the band, starting with Lonely Bull, which was the very first album released on A&M Records, LP-101. This is not surprising since Alpert was the A in A&M. I suspect I got them through the Capitol Record Club.

Unfortunately, almost all my albums, alphabetically A, B, much of S and all of T-Z were stolen from my grandmother’s house in the Great LP Theft of 1972.

Subsequently, I bought, again, the album Whipped Cream & Other Delights from a used record store. As it turned out, the LP inside was actually the TJB album Going Places. Oddly, I did not mind.

The album cover was legendary. It featured model Dolores Erickson, who was three months pregnant when they photographed her. She was actually covered mostly in shaving cream because whipped cream melts under the hot photography lights.

Listen to Whipped Cream & Other Delights, an album that spent 185 weeks on the US Billboard album charts starting in 1965, including eight weeks at #1.

Right before I started blogging back in 2005, my friend/blogging guru Fred Hembeck wrote a blog post on March 31. It celebrated both Herb Alpert, who had turned 70 that day, so he’s now 80; and that album cover, which is now 50 years old, with the model now 78.

A few days later, Fred shared a fascinating find of mine: Album covers spoofing album covers. Back then, the album was pictured #14, with #15-18 as goofs on the theme. A decade later, the page is still going. Now, the original cover of Whipped Cream & Other Delights is at #79, as of this writing, with the parodies, such as the one here, following.

ABC Wednesday – Round 16

June rambling #1: procrastination, and tessellation

The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson: America’s Mozart?

When You Kill Ten Million Africans and You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’ – King Leopold II of Belgium, who “owned” the Congo.

The Dannemora Dilemma. “‘Little Siberia’ turned out to be the prison’s nickname.”

The Weekly Sift addresses the Duggars’ brand of fundamentalist Christianity and other stuff. Plus What’s So Scary About Caitlyn Jenner?

The 2016 U.S. Presidential Race: A Cheat Sheet and The Crystal Ball‘s 2016 Electoral College ratings. I have NO idea who the Republican candidate for President will be.

If it’s not Jeb Bush, and I have my serious doubts that it will be, then one of those people from the “he/she can’t win” category could possibly emerge.

ADD on blaming the victims of today’s disastrous economy for trying to survive it.

What Poverty Does to the Young Brain.

Disunion, The Final Q&A: The New York Times’s series on the Civil War.

Franklin Graham Calls for Christian Boycott — Here Are Some Ideas for Targets.

Rachel Dolezal and minstrelsy.

David Kalish: The Fine Art of Procrastination.

THE MARVEL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX and a follow-up.

Drawing the Undrawable: An Explanation from Neil and Amanda Gaiman, re: The New Statesman and Art Spiegelman.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 will be available on July 29. This SHOULD mean you can update from Windows 7, and I can get rid of the dreadful Windows 8.

How to create strong passwords.

Why Pluto Is a Planet, and Eris Is, Too.

Now I Know: The Lights That Almost Led to World War III and America’s Most Wanted Coincidence and Why are there so few $2 bills?

Gouverneur is a small town of about 6,000 located in St. Lawrence County, NY. But how do you PRONOUNCE it? In English and in French.

Berowne: George Gordon. Better known as Lord Byron.

Never-before-seen film of the legendary aviator Amelia Earhart — from her last photo shoot ever, shortly before she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

The origin of that Orange Church of God sign I see on Facebook all the time. Speaking of which: 6 Facebook Statuses That Need To Stop Right Now.

Mark Evanier’s childhood Christmas chicanery.

The app that identifies plants from a picture. Seriously, I could use this.

What is a tessellation? Math, and design.

A marbles tsunami.

True: Why are the Tony Awards so afraid of the Tony Awards?

Sex Pistols credit card.

The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson: America’s Mozart?

James Taylor’s creativity flows anew.

The Mary Lou Williams Suite, the jazz pianist and arranger. Includes the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee.

SamuraiFrog ranks Weird Al: 60-51. He also brought to mind that the birthday of Todd Rundgren is coming up, which reminded me of a 1985 album I own on vinyl that I haven’t heard in a good while. LISTEN to A Cappella, or at least the last song, a cover of the Spinners’ Mighty Love.

Bert Jansch’s Blackwaterside, first recorded in 1966. Which sounds an awful lot like Jimmy Page’s instrumental Black Mountain Side, from Led Zeppelin’s 1969 debut.

DJ Otzi – Burger Dance, “based on the premise that the single aspect of American culture most readily recognizable in the rest of the world is fast food.”

This list is rubbish, but hey, it has links to Beatles songs. The most skippable Beatles cuts, from “All You Need Is Love” to “Yellow Submarine”.

Muppets: Puppetman and Kermit the Frog and Grover on The Ed Sullivan Show and Grover is Special and the 1962 pilot Tales of the Tinkerdee and some other stuff.

Legendary Special-Effects Artist Rick Baker on How CGI Killed His Industry.

Actor Christopher Lee, Dracula and Nazi hunter, dies at 93. From The Guardian and BFI and the Hollywood Reporter and Bruce Hallenbeck in Diabolique and Mr. Frog and Gordon at Blog This, Pal.

Ornette Coleman, Jazz Innovator, Dies at 85.

Dustbury notes the passing of Monica Lewis, a voice, at least, you’ve heard, if you are of a certain age.

GOOGLE ALERTS (not me)

Roger and Carmen Green of Baraboo, Wisconsin celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

UK: An illustrated guided walk tracing the route of the Nickey Line is being led by railway enthusiast Roger Green on Saturday, June 27.