Uncategorized Archives - Page 189 of 1326

Sunday Stealing – Identity

hot under the collar

mytrueidentity The Sunday Stealing this week is about identity, an intriguing topic.

1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?

Read: see #8 below

Watch TV- JEOPARDY, 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Twilight Zone, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Mission: Impossible until Landau and Bain left. See movies: Young Frankenstein, Annie Hall, Casablanca, West Side Story, 13th.

Listen to: see #4 below

2. have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who?

He is not exactly like me – he is far more technologically knowledgeable, e.g. But Arthur is a political science guy, sometimes activist, and is open to stealing ideas from me. In fact, he’s doing his Ask Arthur Anything event, which he admittedly purloined from me.

3. do you care about your ethnicity?

Yes, and yes. Yes, it still seems to matter to others; we aren’t in that post-racial society yet. And yes, because it’s interesting to me. Ancestry occasionally recalibrates my DNA percentages. Presently:

Ireland 28% – specifically Munster, Ireland; West Cork; South West Cork;

South West Munster

Nigeria 19%

Cameroon, Congo & Western Bantu Peoples 14%

England & Northwestern Europe 9%

Benin & Togo 8%

Mali 6%

Ivory Coast & Ghana 6%

Senegal 3%

Nigeria—East Central 2%

Norway 2%

Indigenous Americas—North 1%

Sweden & Denmark 1%

Northern Italy 1%

Mister Music

4. what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?

In response to blog posts J. Eric Smith shared, I wrote a series of pieces that featured Prince, the Temptations, Jethro Tull, Steppenwolf, Johnny Cash, Steely Dan, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Harry Belafonte, plus a bunch of people also mentioned in the previous links. If I HAD to pick three, it’d be The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon.

5. are you an artist?

Suppose art is drawing, painting, or sculpting; then absolutely not. If art includes singing, then arguably yes.

6. dog person or cat person?

I had cats from when I grew up until 40 years ago. Then, a decade ago, there were two cats, one of whom was certified demented by his vet. The one dog we had when I was a kid bit me; we got rid of that dog when he also bit the minister’s daughters. There are a handful of dogs I’ve liked, especially Random.

7. inside or outdoors?

I like the outdoors when it’s temperate. I like April, May, and September. But I hate heat and fear burning. My tolerance for the cold has diminished with age.

Literature

8. five most influential books over your lifetime

I dunno. How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi regarding how I see inequity. Life Itself by Roger Ebert is about how I see movies. The Sweeter The Juice by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip is about how we’re the same. The Good Book by Peter J. Gomes is a philosophical treatise. One of those Joel Whitburn books about music – Top Pop Singles – is about how music rules.

9. would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?

By default, Hogwarts. I’ve never read any of the books, but I’ve seen all the movies.

10. list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.

Sleeping, reading, sorting through stuff, blogging, eating (including food prep or purchase)

11. have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?

Yes, at random times. A few times on the Amtrak.

12. could you live as a hermit?

That’s what COVID felt like. If I had a phone, Internet, a source of food delivery, maybe for a year before I started going bonkers.

13. do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?

Most people who know me well recognize that my outside appearance is not particularly a high priority for me. So I haven’t a clue.

14. three songs that you connect with right now.

Here are songs by artists who have birthdays in December: Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinéad O’Connor, who died in July 2023; Something So Right– Annie Lennox from her all-covers album, where she reorders the Paul Simon lyrics; Love and Affection– Joan Armatrading, which has one of my favorite first lines: “I am not in love. But I’m open to persuasion.”

made into a PBS series

15. pick one of your favorite quotes.

When I get this question, I pull a book off the shelf and randomly pick something. From The Story of English by McCrum, Cran, and MacNeil: “Phrases like hot under the collar and bite the dust are an everyday reminder of the powerful influence the cowboy has had on the English language. Perhaps this is because, of all of the frontier heroes, the cowboy was the beneficiary of nineteenth-century technology. The camera and the railroad exported the cowboy lifestyle and language back to the east so vividly that a New York dentist, Zane Gray, who was virtually ignorant of the real West, could create a believable picture of cowboy society from the information available to him in New York, thousands of miles from the range.”

More Early Pop Chart Xmas Hits

Harry Stewart

Here are more early pop chart Xmas hits. There were no specific Billboard holiday charts until 1963.

Winter Wonderland – Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers, #4 in 1947. Issued on the 78 flipside of the Mercer hit “A Gal In Calico.” Orchestra conducted by Paul Weston. I think of Mercer more as a songwriter and producer than a performer. He “co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallichs.”

I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas – Yogi Yorgesson, #4 in 1949,with The Johnny Duffy Trio, and the B-side of Yingle Bells. It’s a parody of ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas. Who IS this guy? He’s “the creation of Harry Stewart, who delighted audiences in the 1940s and 50s with parody songs” in a Swedish accent. He was born Harry Skarbo, the son of a Norwegian immigrant father and a second-generation Norwegian-American mother.

White Christmas – Frank Sinatra, orchestra and chorus conducted by Axel Stordahl, #5 in 1945. The song is from Holiday Inn, written by Irving Berlin. I’ll have to remember to play a LOT of Frank at Christmastime in 2025 when he would have been 110.

Jingle Bells – Glenn Miller, with vocals by Tex Beneke, Ernie Caceres & The Modernaires, #5 in 1941.

Frosty the Snow Man – Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys, orchestra conducted by Carl Cotner, #7 in 1950. Like many of my generation, I’m more familiar with the Jimmy Durante version from the 1969 animated film.

Not the same

Silent Night – Bing Crosby with Victor Young and his orchestra, #7 in 1935. This is a “markedly different arrangement from his much more familiar Decca re-makes of 1942 and 1947.”

Christmas Island– The Andrews Sisters, Guy Lombardo, and His Royal Canadians, #7 in 1946. I loved the Sisters. I have several seasonal cuts with them and Bing.

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Woody Herman, #7 in 1946. Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote it. I got a Herman album from my late FIL’s collection.

Yingle Bells – Yogi Yorgesson, #7 in 1949.

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Spike Jones, #7 in 1950.

Chevy

Chuck Miller recently posted three long-form (four to six-minute) Chevrolet commercials for the holidays from the past three years. It was touching stuff.

December 1st

among other things, vote

Every December 1, I’m torn about what to write. Item #1: It’s World AIDS Day. “This year’s theme is “World AIDS Day 35: Remember and Commit.” This annual event serves as a reminder of the global struggle to end HIV-related stigma, an opportunity to honor those we have lost, and a rallying cry to commit to working toward a day when HIV is no longer a public health threat.

In the national goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030, GLAAD “noted an alarming generation gap. Gen Z, the youngest generation in population surveys, is the most diverse and most out LGBTQ generation in history. According to our study, Gen Z is also the least knowledgeable about HIV.” Ignorance is NOT bliss.

Wyoming

Here’s a JEOPARDY clue:

#8974, aired 2023-11-16

THE NAME OF THE LAW $1600: The Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 was named for James Byrd Jr. & this Casper, Wyoming man

The $1,600 clue was a Triple Stumper, with no one even ringing in to say the name of Matthew Shepard, born on December 1, 1976, whose brutal death in Wyoming in 1998 because he was gay I mentioned here and elsewhere.

(In case you’ve forgotten Byrd, he was the black man “who was tied to a truck by two white supremacists and a third man who had no racist background, dragged behind it, and decapitated in Jasper, Texas” in the same year.”)

It only took a decade and a black President to enact the bill.

Per Wikipedia:

“The measure expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

“The bill also:

Removes, in the case of hate crimes related to the race, color, religion, or national origin of the victim, the prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally protected activity, like voting or going to school;
Gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crime investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue;
Provides $5 million per year in funding for fiscal years 2010 through 2012 to help state and local agencies pay for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes;
Requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to track statistics on hate crimes based on gender and gender identity (statistics for the other groups were already tracked).”

Sister Rosa

The other December 1st recollection involves Rosa Parks being arrested on a Montgomery city bus in 1955 for failing to cede her seat to a white man.

As I noted back in 2010, Rosa was hardly the first person unwilling to give up her bus seat. Claudette Colvin had done the same nine months earlier, but she was young, loud, and brash.

What got me thinking about this was a new movie about Bayard Rustin, which I have not yet seen. He was the most important civil rights organizer that most people never heard of. It was his study of Gandhian nonviolence that informed much of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategies. He was also instrumental in forming the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

You probably didn’t know him because he was gay at a time when, at best, it was inconvenient to the civil rights movement. At worst, he could have been jailed.

This makes me think about how well we marginalize folks who either don’t fit a particular narrative or else we cast aspersions on them to make them less than.

Alternative narratives

The defense in the Shepard case suggested that his ruthless murder was just a drug purchase gone wrong.

Many high-profile murder of a black person while dealing with law enforcement since the Black Lives Matter movement began has involved the victims painted as criminals. George Floyd allegedly passed a counterfeit $20 bill. Philando Castile was stopped for a traffic violation. Eric Gardner was selling loose cigarettes. And so on.

So, December 1st often fills me with hope. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 wouldn’t have happened if Martin Luther King Jr. and MANY others hadn’t used the Montgomery bus boycott as a launching pad for another phase of the Civil Rights movement.

December 1st shows how marriage equality, from Loving v. Virginia (1967) to Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) can take place.

But I have no illusion that these hard-won victories can’t be rolled back. Since Shelby County v. Holder, when SCOTUS gutted the Voting Right Act, the “Brennan Center has consistently found that states previously covered by the preclearance requirement have engaged in significant efforts to disenfranchise voters.”

Books being banned and challenged usually highlight black people, brown people, gay people, trans people… you get the drift.

My Christmas wish is for people to register and vote, not just in presidential years. Folks should be voting in school and library board selections, city and town council races, state and county legislative contests, etc. If possible, get involved in campaigns. Or – if you’re brave enough, and in this social media environment, it is brave – run yourself.

November rambling: we’re in trouble

notable books

A great cover illustration by Walter Molino, repurposed by Jan Strnad, and used with Jan’s permission

Democracy and the Press: We’re in Trouble

Revisiting the fascism question

Liz Cheney’s new book blasts GOP as ‘enablers and collaborators’ of djt

Why Georgia Republicans Are Protecting the D.A. Who Indicted Trump

In the wake of the Voting Rights Act ruling, North Dakota to appeal the decision that protected tribes’ rights

ProPublica reviewed 12 of the nation’s strictest abortion bans. Few changed in 2023, as state lawmakers caved to pressure from anti-abortion groups opposing exceptions for rape, incest and health risks.

Dollar Stores: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

The Remarkable Biden Economy

You Cannot Rely on the Government to Protect You From Bad Charities

FTC Authorizes Compulsory Process for AI-related Products and Services

Rosalynn Carter, Outspoken Former First Lady, Dies at 96

Chuck Miller: A big toe named Elise Stefanik

NYPL service was impacted due to City budget cuts, including ending Sunday service at the vast majority of locations that currently offer it.

About 8.2 Million People Moved Between States in 2022

Of special interest to me

Finally — a PROFESSIONAL Comics Magazine! COMICS SCENE 1, January 1982. At this point in the video, there is a discussion about a FantaCo ad. Tom Skulan noted that the ad wasn’t particularly successful, whereas the ads for horror items in Fangoria magazine were much more profitable.

New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2023, one of which was written by an author I actually know

Obit for Bob Maye, who grew up not far from my house in Binghamton, NY

Consumer Value Stores

Boston Globe: CVS pharmacists are at a breaking point, imperiling the company’s reinvention plans. The link may be behind a paywall, but basically: “There are not enough pharmacists in the pipeline, and the ones the company employs are reaching a breaking point. The company… has spent billions remaking itself into a sophisticated healthcare conglomerate. A key goal is turning its thousands of stores into community clinics where pharmacists, doctors, and nurses work together to improve patient health. But none of this works if the company can’t hire or retain its pharmacists. ‘Pharmacists are burned out,’ said a former CVS executive.”

Plans

Warner Bros. Reverses Course on ‘Coyote vs. Acme‘ After Filmmakers Rebel. I don’t understand how a studio makes money scrapping a film it’s completed.

The people who ruined the internet

The Boy Who Captured JFK From His Parents’ Basement

John Oliver – Finding a Place for Satire & Immigration as a Comedian | The Daily Show

Do You Want to Build a Movie? An Oral History of Frozen

How TMZ Became Hollywood’s Grim Reaper

Frances Sternhagen, a two-time Tony winner and television and movie actor, Died at 93. I’ve seen her on The Closer, ER, Sex and the City, Cheers, and the movie Misery, among many other roles.

What Is the Value of a Scenic View?

Medical Malpractice On Law & Order, episode 1, Ft. Legal Eagle

Mark Evanier bankrupted his grandmother in Monopoly, and in life

Greg’s long, strange trip of collecting comic books

There is no such place as Wyoming

Now I Know

How Fake Fish May Save Coral Reefs (And You Can Help!) and Cops of Coffee and The Very Expensive (and Not Very Nice) Surprise Party and The Man Who Bought (And Returned?) Stonehenge and

The Hole in a Swiss Citizenship Application

MUSIC

Peter Sprague Plays Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You featuring Rebecca Jade

Tray Wellington: Crooked Mind

Mr. Big Stuff – Jean Knight, who died recently at 80

The Highwomen: Crowded Table

Jake Blount: Didn’t It Rain

Rhiannon Giddens: You’re The One

Coverville 1465: The XTC Cover Story II and 1466: The 20th Annual All-Beatles Thanksgiving Cover Story

Amythyst Kiah: Hangover Blues

Our Native Daughters: Black Myself

On The Beautiful Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II

Rina Sawayama : Chosen Family

Kara Jackson: Pawnshop

Rossini: L’italiana in Algeri – Overture

Michael Pollack accompanies Billy Joel on “New York State of Mind”

You Were Meant For Me – Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds

Notation Must Die: The Battle For How We Read Music, which starts with ten minutes about chess notation

Early Pop Chart Hits of Christmas

Does Daddy know who Mommy is kissing?

The early pop chart hits that we consider Christmas songs were in competition with non-seasonal songs. There were no specific Billboard holiday charts until 1963.

Five songs reached #1 between 1934 and 1954, and a few more came close. Most of them you will know. A few you may dislike.

White Christmas – Bing Crosby, #1 for 14 weeks. The first year was in 1942. It spent 56 weeks on the charts, and that’s just in those 21 years, though the ’47 version replaced the ’42 take. “John Scott Trotter’s drummer on the ’42 ‘White Christmas’ was none other than Lindley ‘Spike’ Jones.”

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Vaughn Monroe, #1 for 5 weeks. The first year was in 1945. It spent a total of 14 weeks on the charts.

All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth) – Spike Jones, #1 for 3 weeks. The first year was in 1948. It spent a total of 9 weeks on the charts. Jones is #10 on the Christmas charts in terms of chart action.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Jimmy Boyd, #1 for 2 weeks. The first year was in 1952. It spent a total of 5 weeks on the charts. Jimmy Boyd was 13 when he recorded the song. He married Yvonne Craig, later TV’s Batgirl, in 1960, but they were divorced in 1962.

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer– Gene Autry, #1 for 1 week. The first year was in 1949. It spent a total of 20 weeks on the charts. Autry is considered the #2 most successful Christmas crooner in chart action after Bing.

More hits

Winter Wonderland – Guy Lombardo, #2 for 1 week. The first year was in 1934. It spent a total of 9 weeks on the charts. Lombardo is a fine example of a generational star. I often used to watch him on New Years Eve, while my daughter has never heard of him.

I’ll Be Home For Christmas (If Only In My Dreams) – Bing Crosby, #3 for 2 weeks. The first year was in 1943. It spent a total of 6 weeks on the charts. I find this one of the saddest songs of the season.

The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) – Nat “King” Cole, #3 for 1 week. The first year was in 1946. It spent a total of 12 weeks on the charts. Nat is #4 on the Christmas charts. Here’s Mark Evanier’s annual story about Mel Torme, who, with Bob Wells, wrote, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”

Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt, #4 for 1 week. The first year was in 1953. It spent a total of 5 weeks on the charts. I heard Madonna’s 1987 version first.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Spike Jones, #4 for 1 week. The first year was in 1952. It spent a total of 3 weeks on the charts. The second apearance of both the song and artist.