Ramblin' with Roger

Blog friend Lefty asked if those of us who engage in mixed CDs work with particular themes. I’ve been compiling a list of cover version for a future disc. One of the early tracks will be the Nylons doing a great version of Gene Pitney’s “Town without Pity.” Something I didn’t know until today: his recording of “Only Love Can Break a Heart”, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, was kept out of the number one spot on the charts by The Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel,” written by Pitney. But my favorite Pitney song is another Bacharach/David tune, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”.
For me, the odd thing about Pitney, a 2002 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is that I didn’t discover him at his commercial peak, in the early 1960s, but rather from an oldies station in the 1980s. There would be a song I liked but didn’t know, and often as not, it would be Gene Pitney. He also wrote Ricky Nelson’s Hello Mary Lou, my favorite of Rick’s songs. “Hello, Mary Lou, goodbye, heart.”

Gene Pitney died today at the age of 65. Damn.

[Fred remembers Gene.]
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I’ve learned that this has been bouncing around for a few weeks now, but I only discovered it today: some Indian director wants an unlikely “actress” to play Mother Teresa. To quote friend Dan, “The horror! The horror!”

I got to thinking again about cable TV bundling. Sure, one probably knows if he or she wants want something such as the Weather Channel, Home Shopping Network, or the History Channel, though perhaps not – one might REALLY learn to enjoy Storm Stories. Or this on C-SPAN. But how would the novice viewer know exactly what an FX is, or a Bravo? Or perhaps one has channels one doesn’t even realize one has, then stumbles across it, and realizes, “Hey, that’s kind of interesting.”

Lydia grabbed hold of the remote last week – your comments about gender trends here – and I ended up on Movie Trailers on Demand, a station I didn’t even know I had, and probably would not have selected. I poked around the choices, and ended up seeing, among others, the trailer for the upcoming Superman Returns movie. It was interesting enough that I’m more inclined to see the film based on the iconic character than I was before.

Maybe there should be some way for cable subscribers to get a range of stations for a short time, with blocks on networks folks already know they don’t want in their homes – “no Playboy channel, but thanks anyway” – so that consumers can make more informed choices.

Or maybe that’s just too much pressure.
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A tool to pervert the copyright law from its intended function, which was to reward creativity.

My wife asked me a couple weeks ago if I had ever heard of “sundown towns”. I said, “Beg pardon?” She was listening to something on public radio, and she must have heard an interview with sociologist James W. Loewen, author of Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, published in October 2005 by New Press (562 pp.).

The basic premise of the book was that certain towns had systematically kept blacks and others (Jews, Hispanics) out, particularly after dark, in the period from the codification of the Jim Crow laws in the 1890s to around the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968 (He died on this date, actually.) People might work there, but they didn’t sleep there. On the radio interview, Loewen noted that DWB (Driving While Black) was an enforcement mechanism of this phenomenon.

Based solely on my wife’s description, I guessed that the book would claim that this was not solely a function of Southern racism, which people in the North would often point fingers at, but in Northern suburbs as well. Indeed, Loewen does make this point, but also includes small town America. The Washington Post has an interesting article about the book. You may have also seen the author on C-SPAN in recent months, I understand.

In a quick search, this book was often paired with Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth T. Jackson from 1987 and Loewen’s 1996 book Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.

I’d really be interested to know if any of you have read any of the books cited, and what you think of them, whether you’ve ever heard of the term “sundown towns” in a context other than this book.
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Something oddly comforting about a rout. Your team loses by one or two points, you wonder, “What if?” They lose by 16, you say, “No way!” My team loses the final game for the second year in a row. Congratulations, Michael!. And fourth place (out of eight) for me.

I was going to tape the game, then watch it in the morning, before hearing the score. But my DVR whacked out just before game time, so that not only could I not record the game, I could not watch anything I had already recorded, AND I had but a handful of stations (the seven networks- including PBS, TV Guide Channel, Weather Channel and a couple others). I was spared watching this thrashing, for which I am grateful.
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Blogger has looked at my site and apparently determined that it is NOT a spam site. Joy, joy: no word verification each time I post, or even write a draft.

Here’s something I’m pretty sure I swiped from Gordon some months back.

1. Some choices at 19 are really as stupid as people say.

2. Ease up on your disdain for Richard Nixon. You’ll find Presidents far more despicable, and you’ll think Nixon’s a gem by comparison. Really.

3. You should cut back on your LP purchases in the early 1980s, just getting the more obscure stuff. There’s this new technology called the compact disc that will all but make your records obsolete.

4. You know when you were a page at Binghamton Public Library a couple years ago? That’s the career line you should follow.

5. Find a dentist now. Root canal is no fun.

6. Bet on the 1986 Mets.

7. Always have a venue for singing.

8. Contact the student loan people, even if you don’t have the means to repay it.

9. Go see “The Graduate”; it’ll really speak to you.

10. Don’t bother trying to figure out Archie or Veronica Internet protocols; something better will come along soon enough.
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“On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. This won’t ever happen again.” Unless you’re not a purist, in which case it will happen again 12 hours later. Or you live another century, in which case it’ll happen in 2106; I’m unlikely to see that.
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Write fake news. Win prizes.
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GO, BRUINS!
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I’m always fascinated to find how people find this site, especially from outside the U.S. I know the folks from Singapore, and I’ve figured out at least one of the folks from the U.K. I’ve also had, in the recent past, people from Mexico, Ireland, India, and South Korea. Yesterday, I looked at the most recent 100 visitors, and it included visitors from Canada, Argentina, Venezuela, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, France, and… the Islamic Republic of Iran. Oh, please don’t let the CIA know I’ve been contacted by a national from one of the so-called “Axis of Evil” countries. Thanks – it’ll be our little secret.

Did you spring forward? Offer void in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and parts of Arizona. Welcome to Daylight Saving Time, all of Indiana! Here’s the current time in your area.
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I’ve been doing this blogging thingy for 11 months now, and have been thinking what I want to do with the blog in the coming year. Your input is desired. I’m just throwing it out there. I think this post has something to do with my musings. Yesterday’s post was my April Fool’s post, and I’m the one that got fooled – Blogger now thinks I have a spam site, and I am asked for word verification when I post!
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Some asked me why I often note dead people. Well, I don’t mention ALL the famous dead people. Slobodan Milošević died, and I said nothing. He’s gone, I’m not broken up about it. Lyn Nofziger, who worked in the Reagan administration died; all I can say is that he was probably the second most rumpled man in political life in the last half of the 20th century, after Fred Harris, who I once voted for. Sometimes, I don’t place the name, so I might link, for example, to Gordon’s tribute to Dan Curtis.
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Took Lydia for her two-year checkup this week. She’s 36 1/4″ inches, over half my height! That puts her in the over 95th percentile bracket. She’s 30 pounds (85th percentile). Her head is in the 75th percentile.
However, I’m increasingly convinced that she has developed allergies, since she has many of the symptoms described in the article. We’re going to experiment with different foods.
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This is the end of National Sleep Awareness Week 2006. Lately, Lydia’s been waking up at 4:30 a.m.; I’m aware that this has had some impact on MY sleep. The upside: it will make her transition to Daylight Savings Time easier. Not MY transition, but there it is.
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I’m always happy when people come home safely from a dangerous situation, even the ones I don’t know, but Jill Carroll’s release really brought me joy. I think it’s partially a function of this story a couple months ago on CBS Sunday Morning.
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So, it’s Florida vs. UCLA in the men’s college basketball final. Michael and I going mano a mano in the pool; no one else can win. Or, since Michael’s only five, maybe it’s mano a boyo.
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I’ve added a few links to the web/blogroll. There may be others, but I can’t remember, and I’m too lazy to look.

One of them is a webpage I used to maintain, but with Lydia, the blog and other matters, fell through the cracks for so long, I need a refresher course in how to access it. It’s the FOCUS Churches of the Capital Region. FOCUS folks, please send me stuff to post.

Indie Rock Librarian – this is a nascent site by Christina, the Youth services librarian at the Pine Hills branch, about two blocks from my house. I’ve given her an idea or two. If you go there and/or to the main branch blog, I’m sure they’ll be thrilled with some out-of- town traffic.

The Scooter Chronicles I meant to link to months ago, but I didn’t know what category to put him in. So, I just changed the categories! He’s a newer (but younger) dad than I, likes music and baseball. He also likes hockey; I don’t quite understand hockey. Somebody please explain AGAIN what icing is?

I wasn’t going to add any more comic bloggers, but Thom Wade is so wonderfully acerbic, I couldn’t resist.

A Place to Talk About War by an English professor in Texas I discovered when he commented on of Greg Burgas’ posts. It’s a site where, well, you know.

TU Editors’ Blog, primarily for “Today’s 2-faced heads”: Headlines that can be taken more than one
way. Example: “Court to Paris Hilton: Stay away from man, except at parties”.
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I’ve been accused of a lot of things. But being a “23-year-old-white sorority girl living in Urbana, Illinois” was not one of them. Until now. (See the comments section.)
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Feel better, Kelly.