Roger O Green

Phony title songs #9: SL-U

Sloan, U2

These are more phony title songs. The album name appears as a lyric, but it’s not the title song. There is no actual title song, but these can be phony artificial title songs.

G Turns To D – Sloan. Album: One Chord to Another. Lyrics: “You can go from one chord to another.”
Sinking Ships – Sloan. Album: Navy Blues. Lyrics: “I want a special meeting too With Captain Everyday of Station Navy Blue.”
Flying High Again – Sloan. Album: Never Hear the End of It. Lyrics: “Keep in mind that you’ll never hear the end of it.”

Chocolate – Snow Patrol. Album: Final Straw. Lyrics: “This is the straw, final straw in the Roof of my mouth as I lie to you

Slave To This – Soft Cell. Album: This Last Night In Sodom. Lyrics: “Hey, is this the last night in Sodom?”

Trilogy– Sonic Youth. Album: Daydream Nation. Lyrics: “Day dreaming days in a daydream nation.”

Dusty – Soundgarden. Album: Down on the Upside. Lyrics: “I’m down on the upside”

Hasta Mañana, Monsieur – Sparks. Album: Kimono My House. Lyrics: “Kimono my house mon amour I am sure that this motion don’t need no accompanying words”

St

You and Me (Babe) – Ringo Starr. Album: Ringo. Spoken lyrics: “So it’s a big good night from your friend and mine, Ringo Starr.”

The Hounds of Winter AND Lithium Sunset – Sting. Album: Mercury Falling. Lyrics: “Mercury falling I rise from my bed, collect my thoughts together, I have to hold my head” and “And I’ll ride the turning world Into another night See mercury falling” respectively

Curfew – The Stranglers. Album: Black and White. Lyrics: “Gray becomes black and white Is it true what they say? They turn the day into night Black and white becomes”

Reptilia – The Strokes. Album: Room on Fire. Lyrics: “The room is on fire as she’s fixing her hair”

Roll Up – The Struts. Album: Everybody Wants. Lyrics: “Everybody wants, Everybody needs So get up.” (and more)

Introducing the Band – Suede. Album: Dog Man Star. Lyrics: “Dog man star took a suck on a pill”

This Fever – Suite 100. Album: The Only Cure for Gravity.

How Heavy This Axe – The Sword. Album: – Gods of the Earth. Lyrics: “Wrought in Stygian visions By the gods of the earth”

T

Mississippi Summer – June Tabor And The Oyster Band. Album: Freedom And Rain. Lyrics: “Lord send us freedom and rain.”

April 5th – Talk Talk. Album: The Colour of Spring. Lyrics: Waiting for the colour of spring. Let me breathe. Let me breathe the colour of spring”

Creatures of Love -Talking Heads. Album: Little Creatures. Lyrics: “Well, I’ve seen sex and I think it’s alright. It makes those little creatures come to life”
Totally Nude – Talking Heads. Album: Naked. Lyrics: “Totally naked, baby. Totally nude”

Copperline – James Taylor. Album: New Moon Shine. Lyrics: “Sour mash and new moon shine”

The Gap – Thompson Twins. Album: Into The Gap. Lyrics: “We say break the line, chew the fat Keep moving out into the gap”
Future Days – Thompson Twins. Album: Here’s To Future Days. Lyrics: Here’s to future days. Here’s to future ways”

Big Sur – The Thrills – So Much For the City. Lyrics: “So much for the city. Tell me that you’ll dance to the end.”

Coming Up Close – ‘Til Tuesday. Album: Welcome Home. Lyrics: “Coming up close Everything sounds like welcome home”

Wild and Loose – The Time. Album: What Time is It? Lyrics: “Fellas? Yeah? What time is it? Time to get wild and loose”

Misunderstood – Pete Townshend. Compilation album: coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking. Lyrics: “Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking. Coolwalkingsmoothtalking, yeah”

Progenitors – Treat. Album: Tunguska. Lyrics: “REMEMBERING TUNGUSKA. NO MORE EGOS, CRAVING WAR”

U

Communion With The Sun – Utopia. Album: RA. Lyrics: “Ra, climbing the horizon” et al.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell – Utopia. Album: Oops! Wrong Planet. Lyrics: “It’s the wrong world. I must be on the wrong planet”

Walk On – U2. Album: All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Lyrics: “The only baggage you can bring Is all that you can’t leave behind”
Bullet The Blue Sky – U2. Live album: Rattle and Hum. Lyrics: “In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum”
Several songs by U2. Album: Boy. Lyrics: “Boy tries hard to be a man” (I Will Follow); “In the shadow, boy meets man” (Twilight); “Boys and girls go to school” (Out Of Control); “Stories for boys” (Stories For Boys); “Boy, stupid boy” (The Electric Co. )
The Refugee – U2. Album: War. Lyrics: “She’s the refugee. Her mama say one day she’s gonna Live in America”
New Year’s Day – U2. Live EP: Under a Blood Red Sky. Lyrics: “Under a blood red sky, A crowd has gathered in black and white”

Final Jeopardy! Round for Show #8438 – Wednesday, July 7, 2021
ROCK BANDS. In 2017 this band whose singer goes by a nickname became the first to have No.1 albums in the U.S. in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s

Working as an election inspector

poll worker

For the second time in two years, I engaged in a civic engagement that I hadn’t done in decades. You may recall that I worked the 2020 Census as an enumerator after having engaged in the same task back in 1990.

This past Election Day, I worked as an election inspector, a/k/a poll worker. That was something I hadn’t done since the mid-1970s, when I lived in my college town of New Paltz, NY.

I must have gotten an email on October 24 or 25 from the state Board of Elections stating that they were seeking people to work the polls. Still, I was surprised to get a call from the Albany County government phone number almost immediately. The gentleman said that there was training for folks on Wednesday, October 27 from 10 am until noon. Could I make it? Sure.

The last time I was a poll worker, they had heavy machines with mechanical buttons, and a lever to cast one’s vote. For the past few years, they’ve used an optical scan paper ballot system: “Voters mark their votes by filling in an oval…on a paper ballot. The paper ballots are scanned… at the polling place.” But the paper ballot still exists in case of an audit.

They also had a ballot-marking device, “used primarily to accommodate voters with disabilities.” To the latter point, our trainers made it quite clear that we should not reference the machine as one only for people with handicapping conditions.

The Gospel

We had a 48-page manual describing it all. The Seals Report involves all of the sealed compartments that needed numbers recorded at the beginning and the end of the day. This function alone would make anyone thinking an election could be fixed quite likely to reconsider. Although we could not ASK for ID, if it – driver’s license or card from the verification mailing – were offered, it’d make the process simpler. We wouldn’t have to ask for their address and date of birth.

The requirement was to get to our respective polling places by 5:30 a.m. I went to bed early, around 9:45, and lay there for an hour. So I got up checked my email for about 75 minutes, then went to sleep. I woke up about 3:45, too late to go back to sleep. So I got dressed and eventually rode my bicycle to the polling place at Maria College, which was only 1.2 miles (about 1.9 km) away, a very up and down path, of course in the dark.

One of our original trainers said that there would be election inspectors who would act as though they were in charge, but they’re not. Except, of course, those who’ve done it more often will inevitably take over. This was particularly true in this room with these large computer screens overhead. I wouldn’t have configured the room so that the monitors could whack us if we stood up too quickly.

The day

In any case, we were more or less ready by 6 a.m. despite the building not being opened until 5:38. The voter traffic waxed and waned, of course, with a good crowd around 7:30, almost no one at 10 a.m.,. and a line out the door at 6:30 p.m. There were four tables of poll workers, two from the 14th ward, and two from the 9th, where I sat. One of our team was a regular, but the other three were newbies, including a woodworker who was 80, and a politically interested young man of 18.

80 was in competition with other tables to give out the most stickers. He was fairly new in town, so he didn’t recognize Kathy Sheehan, the mayor when she briefly came in. I talked politics with 18 since I had lived through a half-century of events he had heard of (Watergate, Newt Gingrich, et al) before he was born; of course, that didn’t make me feel old at all, did it?

We were all supposed to take 45 minutes off for lunch, and another 45 or 60 minutes (I heard both) for dinner. But I doubt anyone even took the 45 the second time because the lines were so crowded.

We ended the process at about 9:30. I got home around 10. Though exhausted, I was so wound up that I didn’t get to bed until midnight or later. But it was worth it because I had supported democracy. And the training and the elections were the only days this year I actually worked for pay.

Veterans for New Americans

Starting with Lafayette

After Colin Powell died, I was reminded that there have long been people who have been immigrants and/or non-citizens who have joined the US military. I found a link titled Veterans for New Americans with a Non-Citizens in the U.S. Military Fact Sheet.

“To join the U.S. military, non-citizens must be living permanently and legally in the United States. Non-citizens must also have permission to work in the United States, possess an I-551 (Permanent Residence Card), have obtained a high school diploma, and speak English…

“Between 1999 and 2010, approximately 80,000 non-citizens joined the U.S. military force. Most recent data from the Department of Defense (DOD) showed that 24,000 noncitizens were on active duty in 2012, with 5,000 legal permanent residents (LPRs) enlisting into the U.S. military force each year…

“From FY2001-FY2015, USCIS naturalized 109,321 noncitizen service members. Since 2008, USCIS has also naturalized 2,650 military spouses.”

A 2019 article looked at the 2017 American Community Survey. 697,711 foreign-born veterans lived in the United States, comprising 3.5 percent of all veterans; 190,198 foreign-born individuals were actively serving in the military comprising 4.5 percent of all active-duty service members.

The US Foreign Legion, as it were

An August 2021 Washington Post article reads: “The U.S. government hasn’t protected noncitizen veterans from deportation. That may change.” And “The U.S. military has a long history of relying on foreign recruits.”

But from DHS and the VA comes the announcement of an “Initiative to Support Noncitizen Service Members, Veterans, and Immediate Family Members.”

WaPo: “Noncitizens have played critical roles in every war that the United States has fought. Decades after the Marquis de Lafayette served as an aide to General George Washington during the American Revolution, tens of thousands of Canadians and Europeans joined the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War. And hundreds of thousands of Black soldiers fought in the Civil War, their service all the more remarkable given that the U.S. government denied them citizenship.”

Over time, I’ve noted that a number of black Americans have used serving in the military as a way to “prove” their “worthiness” as Real Americans. This has been true from the Revolutionary War through at least through World War II. Perhaps Powell, as a black from Jamaica, consciously or not, may have used his service in Vietnam in the same matter.

“As modern militaries increasingly field sophisticated weapons systems, countries have also looked to noncitizens to bring much-needed technical skills into the ranks, as well as expertise in foreign languages and cultures in areas where the military operates.

This reminds me of, for instance, the Afghan translators who often risked their very lives working with the US military. I wish them every opportunity to come to this country and have the good chance to become citizens.

The Police Quota System

read the manual

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah had a segment called The Police Quota System – If You Don’t Know, Now You Know. “Police officers give people tickets for speeding or running a stop sign, but there’s another reason that people are getting pulled over: It’s the dirty little secret called the quota system.”

Here’s a news story about the Daily Show segment. “Noah explains that police give people traffic tickets for multiple reasons, be it speeding or running a stop sign, or simply to generate ticket revenue. The quota system is illegal in a handful of states, like Florida, at which Noah quipped that if it’s illegal in Florida, ‘then it’s got to be really bad.'”

And the map shown indicated that quotas are likewise illegal in New York. But a friend of mine, a very good driver, I believe was caught up in one of those situations. I wasn’t present but heard all about it. And it’s what they WEREN’T charged with that really caught my attention.

CAUTION

In a small, rural community, there was a school bus riding down the road with its yellow lights flashing. My friend was driving on the other side of the road toward the bus. But since the bus never stopped, my friend slowed down but did not halt.

The local cop soon pulled over my friend. He said, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” “No.” “Because you passed the bus. You should have come to a stop.” This is bogus.

From the NYS DMV manual: When a stopped school bus flashes its red light(s), traffic that approaches from either direction, even in front of the school and in school parking lots, must stop before it reaches the bus. You should stop at least 20 feet (6 m) away from the bus…

Before a school bus stops to load or discharge passengers, the driver will usually flash warning lights, which are located on the front and back of the bus near the roof. When you see them, decrease speed and be prepared to stop. Which is what happened, but the bus NEVER stopped.

Then the cop said he’d give my friend a pass on the bus charge and only give out a ticket for speeding. Unfortunately, this place is four hours away, because my friend would LOVE to see the alleged sign suggesting a lowered speed limit. So going back to challenge the ticket is not cost-effective, especially since my friend has not had a ticket in decades.

Is network television dead?

Rhimes, Bellasario, and Wolf

law and order With all of the streaming, cable, and other options of TV viewing, I’ve wondered if network television is dead. 2021 has brought three MORE hour-long spinoffs of established shows. And the majority of all of these programs are from the same production house.

At least, Young Sheldon (CBS, Fri, 8 pm ET) is a 30-minute comedy replacing Big Bang Theory on the schedule. I’ve never seen it, BTW.

Seattle

Two or three years ago, I came across a survey of shows that started since 2015 that teens were watching. Much to my surprise, one of the popular selections was Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, Th 9 pm ET), a medical soap opera that started in 2005 by Shonda Rhimes. She’s had some other successful such as Scandal (2012-018), and How to Get Away with Murder (2014-2020), as well as the often terrible Grey’s spinoff. Private Practice (2007-2013).

For the next spinoff, she set Station 19 (ABC, Th 8 pm), a piece about firefighters, in Seattle, just like Grey’s. This allowed more opportunities for crossovers. For instance, Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey has appeared on Station 19 at least a dozen times. Dr. Bailey is married to Dr. Ben Warren, now a firefighter on Station 19, who’s appeared on Grey’s at least 30 times since his character moved from the hospital program.

My daughter began watching Station 19 on her own. Later she learned that Okieriete Onaodowan (Dean Miller) played Hercules Mulligan and James Madison in the original production of the Broadway musical Hamilton, which made her quite excited.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service

She discovered reruns of NCIS (CBS, M, 9 pm, 2003-). It is actually a spinoff of JAG (1995-2005). As the parent, I had to check out what the daughter was watching. It wouldn’t have been my first pick.

It was the vision of Donald P. Bellisario, who often has his protagonists as current or former members of the United States armed forces. Tom Selleck’s character in Magnum, P.I., Jan-Michael Vincent’s character in Airwolf; and Albert “Al” Calavicci in Quantum Leap are some examples.

There is also an NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS, F, 9 pm, 2009-) that my daughter has no interest in. Ditto with NCIS: New Orleans (2014-2021), which just left the CBS schedule. But now there’s an NCIS: Hawai’i (CBS, M, 10 pm, 2021-).

Dick Wolf

The rest of the shows are the aegis of Wolf Films. That is to say, Dick Wolf, the executive producer. The two FBI shows Tuesday nights on CBS, FBI (8 pm, 2018-) and FBI: Most Wanted (10 pm, 2020-) are joined in 2021 by FBI: International (9 pm, ET). “Elite agents of the FBI’s International division as they travel the world with the mission of protecting Americans wherever they may be.” I saw one episode of the eldest show.

Chicago owns NBC Wednesdays. Chicago Med (8 pm, 2015– ), Chicago Fire (9 pm, 2012- NBC), and Chicago P.D. (10 pm, 2014– ). At least once, the stories leaped from one show to the next.

But Wolf is best known for being the executive producer of the Law and Order franchise. The original ran from 1990-2010. I used to watch the Lenny Briscoe (the late Jerry Orbach) seasons. The quirky Criminal Intent (2001-2011) I’ve actually just discovered. There are a few more series.

Special Victims Unit (NBC, Th 9 pm, 1999-) is the longest-running scripted drama on television, surpassing Gunsmoke (1955-1975). The show became a personal issue a couple of summers ago, before COVID when my daughter was watching it at the family timeshare. Her parents had watched it with her at home, but others were less comfortable about her viewing it.

The sound effect

The newest entry in the brand is Organized Crime (NBC, Th 10 pm, 2021-). Despite starring a character who started on SVU, Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler, it has a very different feel. It does the famous Chung Chung sound effect exactly once per episode. Having watched it a few times because it crossed over with SVU, I now know that it is a vile program.

Characters are crossing over all of the time in the Wolf universe. And actors on one Wolf show will end up as a different character in another Wolf program. A discussion of those phenomena would be lengthy.

A Dick Wolf quote: “TV is not about ideas. It’s about execution. And writing and casting. That’s why most of TV drama’s biggest stars have been character actors, not romantic leads.” His shows, as well as some of the NCIS line, and Grey’s Anatomy, are constantly available in syndicated reruns, likely more profitable than the latest offering from Netflix.