Ramblin' with Roger

I’ve grown accustomed to her face

This is wedding anniversary #17.

The last week in April was a school vacation. The Wife and The Daughter were going to go to visit Philadelphia to see one of the former’s sisters-in-law and nieces.

I was thinking, “Hey, this will be my chance to tackle all the things I never get a chance to do.” I’d read, and catch up on blogging – it was taking a beating that month – and all sorts of Roger stuff.

I wouldn’t have to negotiate using the computer, or hear about Dancing with the Stars – I REALLY don’t care!

More than that I figured I would sleep better because I wouldn’t have to worry about someone hogging the sheets. And I didn’t have to get up with alarm.

Much to my surprise, I slept terribly all week. The first night I had this weird dream about trying to hide an affair from my wife; the “other woman” was a married lesbian friend of mind. In the dream, it was an exhausting exercise. And when I awoke, I felt pretty much the same way.

By the time I saw my family Thursday night, I felt like – do you remember those old clothes washers with wringers, like that one pictured? You put the clothes through the wringer to get rid of excess water, making the drying process on the clothesline so much easier. The phrase being put through the wringer came to mind.

So I’m pretty self-sufficient. I can feed myself, and take care of the cats, go shopping. The family’s been away before, but this time…I don’t know how, but it was different. I missed them more, for some reason.

Anyway, this is wedding anniversary #17. Now that Downton Abbey is over, I have to struggle to buy presents, because The Wife remains difficult to shop for. I’ll think of something…

I’ve grown accustomed to her face Song cue

Music Throwback Saturday: Cars by Gary Numan

The didgeridoo was featured on the very first season of the “reality show” Survivor, which took place in the Australian outback.

Another one of those records I bought only as a single – we’re talking the 45 RPM record – was Cars by Gary Numan.

The song was a single from an album called The Pleasure Principle. “It reached the top of the charts in several countries, and today is considered a new wave staple.” It was #1 in the UK in 1979 and in Canada in 1980. It spent 17 weeks on the US charts, getting to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980, his only big hit song in this country.

“Musically, the new song was somewhat lighter and more pop-oriented than its predecessors.” Numan later conceding that he had chart success in mind: “This was the first time I had written a song with the intention of ‘maybe it could be a hit single.'”

I’ve tried to ascertain WHY it was instantly infectious. My working theory is that the very first sound one hears is reminiscent of a didgeridoo.

You know the didgeridoo, that wind instrument developed by indigenous people of northern Australia “within the last 1,500 years and still in widespread use today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or “drone pipe'”.

The didgeridoo was featured on the very first season of the “reality show” Survivor, which took place in the Australian outback. My ABC Wednesday buddy Reader Wil wrote a post on the instrument, which explained, via a couple of videos, how one plays the instrument.

I’ve discovered that when I tried to replicate the sound of the instrument, humming with my mouth open while quickly covering and uncovering my mouth, I could approximate the sound of the first notes of Numan’s Cars.

READ/LISTEN TO:
ABC Wednesday, D for Didgeridoo.

LISTEN TO:
Survivor: The Australian Outback OST – Track 01 – Didgeridoo.

Cars by Gary Numan: HERE or HERE or extended play HERE.

Cars by Fear Factory, featuring Gary Numan (1998).

Stops being a “thing”

There are dozens of shows that were or are a “thing” I have never seen more than I five minutes of.

I was intrigued by Ken Levine’s post, When a thing stops being a “thing”. Surely much of it applies to me.

He talked about missing the reality show Survivor. It’s still on the air, in what seems to be its 200th season. “At the time it was innovative, original, and best of all – a ‘thing.’ People talked about it the next day.” And now I too see it on the schedule and remember the great season one, the mediocre season 2, and well, that was about it. Once they started recycling contestants, e.g., Boston Rob, who appeared on some OTHER reality show, I stopped even paying attention.

This is American Idol’s final season. I started watching near the end of the first season, some 15 years ago. I couldn’t even tell you the last nine winners. As Levine noted, “Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood became legitimate stars. Jennifer Hudson (who lost) later won an Academy Award… I suspect the next American Idol will get a gig at Six Flags Magic Mountain.”

Whereas I don’t even think I ever saw The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn, or with Jon Stewart until well after 9/11. But I watched it religiously – “THE DAILY SHOW was THE way to follow the news” – until Stewart left in August 2015. He departed at the point where the man with the orange hair was still perceived as an ersatz candidate for President. I wonder if Stewart were still doing the show, the point at which he would have realized that The Donald was no longer a joke.

While Trevor Noah’s still finding his way as Stewart’s successor, Stewart’s other disciples are closer to the function what Jon Stewart was serving. Larry Wilmore on The Nightly Show noted that Drumpf was not funny anymore about three months ago. John Oliver on HBO’s This Week is taking great long-form looks at seemingly boring topics such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and net neutrality, topics that should be snore fests. Samantha Bee’s new show I haven’t watched, but the clips I see online appear sharp.

Truth is, though, that there are dozens of shows that were or are a “thing” I have never seen more than five minutes of: The Wire, The Sopranos, Orange Is The New Black, Mad Men, Lost, oh, far too many to mention here. And now that there is more programming of new, scripted television than one can watch viewing 24/7, I don’t fret. (Not that I was fretting before.)

I’m just not a “thing” watcher. The Good Wife, which is going off after this season, I guess, was still a thing in some circles, but I was watching before it was so anointed.

But maybe you can tell me what “thing” I should be watching; trust me, I’m not watching it presently.

“Bye, Felicia” and why it bugs me

“Felicia” makes an appearance at a raunchy post-performance party with the rappers at their hotel suite, which suddenly gets interrupted by two armed men knocking on the door.

Someone I know personally used the phrase “Bye, Felicia” in his blog. I’d seen the phrase before, and while I had no idea about its derivation – the cutting edge of recent pop culture phrases I’m not – I’d glommed on to the fact that it was a dismissive response.

One use might be to say it after US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) lost the Florida GOP Presidential primary and was forced to give up his Oval Office aspirations. Or about any of other more than a dozen candidates who’ve dropped out of the race.

“Bye, Felicia” bugged me to an irrational degree, and I was curious to find out why.

Part of it, I suppose, was that it had become one of those cute “in the know” phrases that might have been clever, once upon a time, but had become irritating from groupspeak overuse. The NOT phenomenon from Saturday Night Live – “You’re very intelligent – NOT!” – for instance.

More than this, though, is The Daughter’s reporting that she hears it “every day” at school, usually as a taunt to shut down someone else’s conversation. Not exactly bullying, I guess, but definitely snark. I’m not big on snark, as I feel that it lowers the bar on an intelligent conversation, especially online. (“Intelligent online conversation”, I’m told, is an oxymoron.)

What IS the origin of “Bye, Felicia” anyway? From Know Your Meme:

“Bye, Felicia” is a memorable quote from the 1995 comedy film Friday [which I’ve never seen] which is often used online as a dismissive farewell.

Origin

On April 26th, 1995, the comedy film Friday was released, starring the characters Craig Jones (played by Ice Cube) and Smokey (played by Chris Tucker) as a pair of unemployed stoners who must find a way to pay a drug dealer $200 within 24 hours. In the film, a character named Felicia attempts to borrow a car and a marijuana cigarette from Smokey and Jones, causing Jones to say “Bye, Felicia.” On March 11th, 2007, YouTuber HyFlyer988 uploaded a clip of the scene, gathering over 870,000 views and 290 comments in the first eight years.

And it spread:

On December 7th, 2008, Urban Dictionary user pimpin’817 submitted an entry for “Bye, Felicia,” describing the phrase as a way to bid farewell to someone who is deemed unimportant. On October 27th, 2011, YouTuber Mamclol uploaded a video titled “Bye Felicia,” featuring the clip from Friday with an accompanying hip hop track about the character.

I asked The Wife if she had seen/heard the term. She had guessed that perhaps it was a sexual reference. Well, no. And yes.

In August 2015, online discussions about “Bye, Felicia” saw another notable resurgence after its inclusion in a scene from Straight Outta Compton, an American biopic film about the ’90s hip hop group N.W.A directed by F. Gary Gray, the same filmmaker behind the 1995 urban comedy movie and origin of the quote, Friday.

In the film, a minor female character named “Felicia” makes an appearance at a raunchy post-performance party with the rappers at their hotel suite, which suddenly gets interrupted by two armed men knocking on the door and looking for their friend by the same name. After a brief moment of confrontation, members of the group find Felicia giving oral sex to Eazy-E, who eventually proceeds to push her out of the hotel room by the head. As the door slams behind, Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.) drops the line “Bye Felicia” in a direct nod to the now-famous quote from Friday.

While the film was generally met with critical acclaims upon its release, both the scene and the line were brought up by several film critics and hip hop bloggers for its abashedly misogynistic, slut-shaming undertone.

Is the character sexist, or is the movie? A conversation for another day.

You won’t see me using “Bye, Felicia”. Since my antipathy predated my knowledge of the origin, it must be the flippant, offhand disdain of its use. Its derivation has merely solidified my irritation.

Friends of APL annual meeting; Chuck Miller talk to follow

You are invited to attend the annual meeting of the Friends of the Albany Public Library on Wednesday, May 18 at 7 p.m. It will be held at the Pine Hills branch at 517 Western Ave, between West Lawrence and North Allen Street.

Whether or not you are a member, you are welcome to attend. Of course, we invite you to become contributor, at only $15 per year. The Friends provide programming for the library nearly every week, a book review, an author talk, or special event. The organization also contributes money to the library for events such as the Summer Youth Program. At the meeting, there will be some some brief reports, the election of new officers, and an award.

At about 7:15, there will be a presentation by photographer Chuck Miller, a vociferous blogger for the Albany Times Union, who has written about ghost buildings, Albany Patroons, music, trivia, and much more. The topic: how to write a blog for 7 years and keep it fresh.