Roger O Green

Being for the benefit of…

Yes, THAT Paul Simon

I shall have gone to three benefit events in a two-week period in October. None of them, unsurprisingly, were in person. Two of the three I HAD attended in person LAST year. But that was so long ago.

Wizard’s Wardrobe

The Wizard’s Wardrobe is a program in Albany’s South End. “Children spend time with a special tutor just for them — to read, write, and explore the wonderful world of books.” It was started by two members of my church, Deb and Eric Fagans. They were inspired by the TED talk Once Upon a School.

The program grew out of the relationship our church had developed with the Giffen Elementary School in the South End of the city of Albany. Several of our members tutored at Giffen and held an annual Book and Author event there.

The benefit on Monday, October 5 featured Katherine Paterson, Newbery Medal-winning author of The Bridge to Terabithia. She read as did local authors Margaret Miki Conn, Lorraine Garnett, and Marion Roach Smith. The Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York performed The eyez in the wall, written and directed by Aaron Moore. The ASL Interpretation was provided by Marian Eaton. The Master of Ceremonies was Rex Smith, Editor of the Times Union newspaper.

There was a ZOOM afterparty following the presentation. I knew about half of the participants personally. One of the attendees was Gregory Maguire, a local author who’s done well. He wrote the book Wicked, upon which the musical was based. What’s the correct protocol for departing a gathering online?

Green The Senate, Save the Planet

Paul Simon hosted an event to support seven US Senate candidates on Thursday, October 8. The singer wrote, “In a year that has been incredibly challenging, often overwhelming, and too often heartbreaking, it is easy to become discouraged. But future generations are counting on us, and I urge you to channel your energy in these final days before Election Day to help secure a pro-environment majority in the Senate.”

Simon began the program by singing American Tune. Then there were videos, including from the sponsor Give Green and from former Presidential candidate and rich guy Tom Steyer. Some of the candidates gave brief video presentations.

Then Simon interviewed three of them: Steve Bullock (MT), Jamie Harrison (SC), and Theresa Greenﬁeld (IA). Paul was an unsure questioner, seeking to ask certain things and at the same time wanting the candidates not to be hemmed in by his queries. Still, the candidates acquitted themselves well.

After another video, Paul sang The Boxer, Homeward Bound, Sound of Silence, and Here Comes the Sun. He was accompanied by a guy named Mark Stewart. He was wearing a mask, but I think he’s this guy.

Literary Legends@Home

The Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library are having its annual Literary Legends Gala on Saturday, October 17 from 7 to 10 pm. Each year, the group “selects a new outstanding person of letters in our community, and invites the community to celebrate them with a cocktail reception in their honor.” Well, not in person THIS year.

The FFAPL is honoring the writer Elisa Albert. Past honorees have included William Kennedy, Paul Grondahl, Amy Biancolli, Gregory Maguire, Barbara Smith, Marion Roach Smith, Dr. Leonard Slade, Athena Lord, Frankie Bailey, Alice Green, Peter Golden, Lyn Lifshin, and Dan Wilcox. (The second time Gregory and Marion appear in this post.)

The gala is the primary fundraising effort of the FFAPL, which “provides critical financial support to the Albany Public Library in order to help the Library provide education, literacy, career development, cultural enrichment, and lifelong learning.” It can provide mini-grants for the library to offer programming that the APL cannot. One can buy tickets here.

BTW, on October 20 at 12:15 pm, there will be a ZOOM review of the book Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide by Richard Dawkins. The reviewer will be Carl Strock, a former columnist for the Daily Gazette, Schenectady. It is free but one must preregister here.

A new Rolling Stone top album list

Pet Sounds, still.

Somehow I missed the release of a new Rolling Stone top album list back on September 22.

Consequence of Sound notes its semi-import. “It’s nerd news, yes, but the list — if only because it has been the most famous and accessible of its kind — has been as much an authority and tome as anything else over the last two decades on what’s essential when it comes to popular music albums.”

The last time the list was fully updated was in 2003 . This list of the Top 100 from that year is far more accessible.

Here is Top 10 for 2020 (and where that album was in 2003):

01. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (6)
02. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (2)
03. Joni Mitchell – Blue (30)
04. Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key of Life (56)
05. The Beatles – Abbey Road (14)
06. Nirvana – Nevermind (17)
07. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (26)
08. Prince and the Revolution – Purple Rain (72)
09. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks (16)
10. Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (314)

The 2003 version (and where that album is in 2020):

01. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (24)
02. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (2)
03. The Beatles – Revolver (11)
04. Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (18)
05. The Beatles – Rubber Soul (35)
06. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (1)
07. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street (14)
08. The Clash – London Calling (16)
09. Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde (38)
10. The Beatles – The White Album (29)

In with the new

The CoS notes Five Reasons to Appreciate Rolling Stone’s New Top 500 Albums. they are Inclusion; Canons Change; More Music Is a Good Thing; The Purpose of Criticism Has Changed; and Precedent.

As it turns out, I have all of the albums in each Top 10 list. But my collection is sorely bereft of rap/hip hop. So I don’t have any Kayne West (#17) or The Notorious B.I.G. (#22), e.g.

I know these lists have helped me discover music I haven’t listened to. Rolling Stone Top 10 Albums of the 1980s got me to add Shoot Out The Lights by Richard And Linda Thompson to my collection. Likewise, I’ve only acquired Public Enemy (#15) and Kendrick Lamar (#19) recently.

I’m actually happy to see the Beatles relinquish dominance of the Top 10, from four albums to a totally different one. Likewise, two Dylan albums have been replaced by another. I’m amazed how Pet Sounds has remained at #2. Joni, Stevie, and Prince belonged there years ago.

Here are some songs from those Top 10 albums according to Rolling Stone in 2020.

Lost Ones – Lauryn Hill.
Shelter from the Storm – Bob Dylan.
Take Me With U – Prince.
The Chain – Fleetwood Mac.
In Bloom – Nirvana.

Because – The Beatles.
All Day Sucker – Stevie Wonder.
A Case of You – Joni Mitchell.
I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times – Beach Boys.
Right On – Marvin Gaye.

John Lennon would have been 80

“The whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension.”

John-Lennon The problem with me writing about John Lennon is that I’ve written about him, as a solo artist or with The Beatles, about 200 times. Examples are here (The Word) and here (John and Yoko).

As I’ve noted, when my sisters, a neighbor girl, and I used to charge the local kids a couple cents to watch us lipsynch to the songs of Beatles VI, I was John.

Ten years ago, I listed my Top Ten Lennon songs, which has not appreciably changed. BTW, NONE of the original music links worked, but I replaced at least those.

Here are some covers

David Bowie Covering “Imagine” Live.

Covers by various artists of the entire Imagine album.

John Lennon’s Rock ‘n’ Roll album from 1975. The links don’t work. BUT here is the whole album. I bought it on December 9, 1980, in no small part because Double Fantasy was sold out.

A few covers of (Just Like) Starting Over.

Instrumentals from HELP

Since Coverville celebrated the 55th anniversary of the album HELP, I found the desire to listen to the instrumentals that were on the American soundtrack, arranged by Ken Thorne.

The James Bond Theme (Help ‘intro’). When I was about to be on JEOPARDY! back in 1998, Glenn Kagan from the show was going over my response card. He asked about my favorite group, to which I replied, “The Beatles.” This led to a conversation about the American Beatles albums and the two of us started doing this instrumental. I said, “I’m not familiar with that. How does it go?” We both laughed heartily. (On the videotape, this looks VERY goofy.)

From Me To You Fantasy
In the Tyrol
Another Hard Day’s Night
The Bitter End/You Can’t Do That
The Chase

Help is the first Beatles movie I ever saw. The title song is among the top five of my favorites of the group’s songs. Lennon said he wrote the song while feeling “the whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension” and subconsciously crying out for help.

Miscellany

John Lennon official site

Biography.com

A Songwriting Mystery Solved: Math Proves John Lennon Wrote ‘In My Life’

Rolling Stone interview, November 1968

An updated, comprehensive guide from Beginner Guitar HQ on how to play rhythm guitar like John Lennon

John Lennon posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1994.

Lest I forget, it’s also Sean Ono Lennon’s 45th birthday.

“Will” versus “shall” in the Constitution

Plain Language

shall Here’s a question I received from Uthaclena.

I am told that there is a Constitutional difference between the words “shall” and “will.” Since you took PoliSci, do you know what that difference is?

I must admit I had had never heard this. So I decided to look at the document itself. The word will shows up about four times. Twice, interestingly, it appears a very familiar sentence. “I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Whereas shall can be found over 300 times, starting in Article 1, Section 1: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” In fact, shall appears in every part of the Constitution except the Preamble and Amedment X.

Compare and contrast

Does this suggest a differential of obligation in these two examples? Probably not. As the Wikipedia notes: “Historically, prescriptive grammar stated that, when expressing pure futurity (without any additional meaning such as desire or command), shall was to be used when the subject was in the first person, and will in other cases.”

Thus, the Simple Future Tense with no assertion of intention is I/we shall but you/he/she/it will. “I shall go to the store. She will go too.” Whereas Simple Future Tense with an assertion is more pointed. And the words are reversed. I/we will but you/he/she/it shall. “I will survive.” “He shall clean his room if he wants to go to the party.” “Thou shalt not kill.”

The phrases “I will faithfully execute…” and “All… Powers… shall be granted…” are both using Simple Future Tense with an assertion. Therefore, they are both indicating something mandatory. Got that?

Attorneys!

In common parlance, will has all but replaced shall altogether. From the Wikipedia: “Shall is… still widely used in bureaucratic documents, especially documents written by lawyers. Owing to heavy misuse, its meaning can be ambiguous and the United States government’s Plain Language group advises writers not to use the word at all.” Attorneys and plain language? What a concept!

“Other legal drafting experts, including Plain Language advocates, argue that while shall can be ambiguous in statutes (which most of the cited litigation on the word’s interpretation involves), court rules, and consumer contracts, that reasoning does not apply to the language of business contracts. These experts recommend using shall but only to impose an obligation on a contractual party that is the subject of the sentence, i.e., to convey the meaning ‘hereby has a duty to.'”

Here’s more about will versus shall here and here and here.

Dr. Rick Bright resigns from the National Institute of Health

failed White House leadership

Dr. Rick Bright has resigned from the National Institute of Health on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. Here is his letter.

Of all the tools required for an effective U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, one that is sorely missing is the truth. Public health guidance on the pandemic response, drafted by career scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been repeatedly overruled by political staff appointed by the Trump administration. Career scientists throughout the Department of Health and Human Services hesitate to push back when science runs counter to the administration’s unrealistically optimistic pronouncements.

Public health and safety have been jeopardized by the administration’s hostility to the truth and by its politicization of the pandemic response, undoubtedly leading to tens of thousands of preventable deaths. For that reason, and because the administration has in effect barred me from working to fight the pandemic, I resigned on Tuesday from the National Institutes of Health.

BARDA

Until April, I had for almost four years been director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. When I strongly objected this past spring to the Trump administration’s insistence that BARDA support widespread access to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, two potentially dangerous drugs recklessly promoted by President Trump as a COVID-19 cure, I was shunted to the NIH and assigned a more limited role in the pandemic response.

My task at the NIH was to help launch a program expanding national COVID-19 testing capacity. The program is well underway and should reach nearly 1 million daily tests by the end of the year. Since early September, though, I was given no work; my services apparently were no longer needed.

I fear the benefits of dramatically improved testing capacity will be wasted unless it is a part of a coordinated national testing strategy. My recommendations to support a national plan were met with a tepid response. In an administration that suffers from widespread internal chaos, such coordination may be impossible — especially when the White House has seemed determined to slow down testing and not test people who might have asymptomatic infections.

Making it worse

From the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, the administration’s failure to respond with a coordinated strategy only heightened the danger. Now the nation, and the world, are in the worst public health crisis in over a century. More than 1 million people worldwide have died from the pandemic; more than 211,000 Americans are dead. More than half of the states in this country are reporting rising COVID-19 cases.

Nine months into the pandemic, the United States continues to grapple with failed White House leadership. Instead, we get the recent spectacle of the president exploiting his own illness for political purposes and advising the nation, “Don’t be afraid of COVID.” Ironically, he was only able to leave the hospital after receiving two treatments that I had pushed for in January.

Meanwhile, there is still no coordinated national strategy to end the pandemic. Federal agencies, staffed with some of the best scientists in the world, continue to be politicized, manipulated, and ignored.

The country is flying blind into what could be the darkest winter in modern history. Undoubtedly, millions more Americans will be infected with the coronavirus and influenza; many thousands will die. Now, more than ever before, the public needs to be able to rely on honest, non-politicized, and unmanipulated public health guidance from career scientists.