Roger answers Chris’ questions while on drugs

They managed to even make it into the freezer section of the fridge, where, hopefully, they died horrific deaths.

thx-comes-home-616wThis is the first blog post attempted since I had my hernia operation. Everything else I’ve posted recently had been written before, partially in anticipation of feeling unfocused now. Well, at the time of this composition, I was home, and still on Hydrocodone. But I couldn’t just watch TV all day. I had to write something. Whether any of it is coherent…

Chris:

Haha! Internet is finally working at my new house.

Congratulations.

– if you could have anything, what would it be? (We just did this as an icebreaker at my foster parent class. I’m curious if you’ll give the same answer I did)

I want to be around long enough for The Daughter to talk about some of the things I wrote about in this blog. And especially things I haven’t written about in this blog, because they’re too personal. (Yes, there are such topics.)

I think I’ve gotten to that point that there aren’t that many THINGS that I want. Oh sure, in some idealized world, I’d still like a place to watch movies, a dark room with cushy seats.

Or is this the question I’m supposed to say “world peace,” which, of course, is true?

– what endearing trait of your wife did you notice in the first year that you still love about her?

Hmm. I think I most was impressed that she owned her own home as a single woman. She was confident and strong and intelligent, and almost certainly more rational than I. Still is.

– do you consider yourself at all handy?

No, not at all; if there are four possible ways to fit something into a space, I’ll come to the right solution no earlier than effort #3, so it’s exhausting. This is why owning a home, in some ways, is such a drag. We were talking about the recent renovation of our bathroom. When you get an estimate for work, it’ll usually end up costing 15% to 25% more. This is why our kitchen, which has needed updating since we moved here, looks pretty much the same.

Well, new flooring, new refrigerator, and dishwasher, but the layout and the cabinet space – it’s still has that same 1970s look.

– what did you consider the best thing about being a new homeowner?

Well, I’ve been here for 15 years. Often, in my renter days, I had to move because of the whims of various homeowners, who wanted to renovate, move in themselves, and/or sell the place.

– if someone made you eat an insect, which insect would you pick to eat?

Fruit flies. They’re small. In fact, I probably already have. We had this rare infestation this summer in the kitchen, and some managed to even make it into the freezer section of the fridge, and the ice cube tray, where, I’m hoping, they died horrific deaths.

My first instinct, though, was a grasshopper, probably a response to watching the TV show Kung Fu, a few decades ago.

– what character have you most identified with that you’ve encountered in the last year? It can be in a book, TV, or a movie

I assume you mean a fictional person when you say “character.” I suppose Scott Lang in the Ant-Man movie, who had the social conscientiousness to do the right thing, more than once.

Music Throwback Saturday: Theme from an Imaginary Western

Theme from an Imaginary Westerns was never recorded by Cream because Eric Clapton is said to have hated it.

mountain climbingI started getting reinvested in Disraeli Gears, the classic second LP by the group called Cream, when I came across this 48-minute video on the making of the album from 2012 a few months ago. It includes interviews with the band members Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and the late Jack Bruce.

Clapton talks about how the album’s producer Felix Pappalardi took him to a New York City music shop to buy his first wah wah pedal in April of 1967, which he then played on Tales of Brave Ulysses. Felix was like a fourth member of the band.

Subsequently, Pappalardi produced an album by guitarist Leslie West titled Mountain. Then Pappalardi and West formed a band called Mountain, described by Rolling Stone magazine as a “louder version of Cream.” The band’s best-known song was probably Mississippi Queen [LISTEN].

Another song from that 1970 album Climbing! was Theme for an Imaginary Western, written by the aforementioned Jack Bruce, and Pete Brown. The song was never recorded by Cream because Eric Clapton is said to have hated it.

Some of the LYRICS:

When the wagons leave the city
For the forest and further on
Painted wagon of the morning
Dusty roads where they have gone

Sometimes travelin’ through the darkness
At the summer comin’ home
Foreign faces by the wayside
Look as if they hadn’t known

All the sand was in their eyes
And the desert that’s dry
In the country town
Where the life was found

When Pappalardi, who died in 1983, left Mountain, West and Bruce were in various groups together over the years.

LISTEN to various versions of Theme for an Imaginary Western, a/k/a Theme from an Imaginary Western:

Jack Bruce, Songs for a Tailor album, 1969, produced by Felix Pappalardi.

Mountain, at Woodstock, 1969, Felix Pappalardi on vocal; it’s on the Woodstock 2 album that was released in 1971.
Mountain, 1970, Felix Pappalardi on vocal. This is the first version I heard.

Leslie West’s Theme album, with Jack Bruce on vocals, 1988.

Jack Bruce on piano, n.d.

GOP, Cuomo, concerts and hiking

boehnerJaquandor, the emperor of Byzantium Shores, muses:

What will it take to get the Republican Party to start moving back to the real world? I look at their collective insanity right now as the 2016 election cycle is revving up, and I remember how I noted in 2012 that if Obama was reelected, THAT year’s Republican Crazy would look quaint compared to what was coming in four years. Now that this prediction is coming OH SO TRUE, I’m worried about what the Republican field will look like in 2020 if the Democratic nominee wins next year.

Some people think that it will take another couple of electoral drubbings for the White House, but I’m thinking, as long as they keep winning at midterm time, that will be enough to keep them thinking that the Insane Approach is JUST THIS CLOSE to winning. (Sorry for the length of the question!)

Re: crazy: I thought the Republicans were in 1994. Now Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker, looks, in retrospect, practically looks like a statesman. You’ve answered your own question: when they start to lose.

I am starting to wonder if party alignments will begin to fray. John Boehrer (pictured) quits as Speaker amidst cheering from some Tea Party types, who considered him a RINO (Republican In Name Only), which is absurd. They are seeking an ideological purity, an “our way or the highway” philosophy, of people who do not appear to want to govern, or even have a government.

If a Democrat wins the White House in 2016, I have a sense that there will continue to be a bloc of obstructionists, in some ways, worse than what Obama faced in 2009, with little chance of a honeymoon. And if it’s a Republican President, I’m not sure he or she will fare much better, because, depending on the Congressional races, it could embolden the House fringe especially.

I can’t think about 2018, never mind 2020.

What’s your general take on Governor Cuomo, now that he’s into his second term? I can’t help feeling there’s something smarmy about the guy.

In some ways, Andrew Cuomo was his father Mario’s enforcer, so he’s been a schmuck for a while. Still, I voted for him in 2006 when he ran for Attorney General, and in 2010, when he went for governor. But I voted against him, twice, in 2014, in the primary and the general election. I ALWAYS voted for Mario, at least a half dozen times.

Some of my antipathy towards Andrew has to do with his generally manipulative ways, particularly with the Common Core education process. He dismantled the Moreland Commission looking into corruption when there was still work to do. He’s hostile to the press, and many citizens. Even the gun control SAFE Act, which I tend to support, I thought was forced through the legislature without due process. During the prison break, he seemed to insert himself in the story as much as possible.

I realized what a jerk he could be when he shows up on his brother Chris’ news program, as Jon Stewart pointed out. He’s just annoying.

This story in the New Yorker from February 2015 is pretty balanced.

There was some controversy in Buffalo recently over tickets to an upcoming Paul McCartney concert — the tickets were WILDLY expensive and sold out almost instantly, leaving a lot of angry people. Do you have views on how live music takes place these days? Demand for Garth Brooks tickets earlier this year led to Brooks actually adding shows to his Buffalo stop — I think he did five total shows — and the Rolling Stones recently sold out Ralph Wilson Stadium. Any thoughts? (What’s with me and the long questions?)

Yeah, I got McCartney tickets on the secondary market for his show in Albany, and they were pricey. I didn’t know until too late if I had followed him on his website a week before the tickets went on sale, I might have had a better shot at the tickets. I don’t have a solution except to say “no”.

Hiking in the woods: Yay or Nay? I’ve always liked hiking but I’ve REALLY taken a shine to it over the last year, now that I’ve got this four-legged-friend to hike with.

On flat services, or mild inclines/declines without a lot of tree roots to trip me up, sure. But I better wear my knee brace, just in case.

October #1 rambling: recovery mode

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will commission 36 playwrights to translate all of Shakespeare’s plays into modern English.

wrong reenactment
Still on the mend, wearing this band around my waist, until at least November 9. I will write about this eventually.

I’ve managed to watch more baseball in the past week and a half than I saw the entire regular season. Great to see former Met Rusty Staub after his heart attack. Rooting for the Mets, or if they get eliminated, the Cubs. Just realized that the World Series Game 5 would be November. If it’s the Dodgers in the Series, I’m rooting for the American League team.

ALSO, my office is moving this week. Note to self: do NOT pick up anything over 20 pounds.

Understanding Mass Incarceration and Bringing It Down: An Interview With James Kilgore.

John Oliver: rips GOP candidates for blaming gun violence on mental illness in absence of a plan, and Migrants and Refugees.

Color film was made for white people.

The War on Science, even in Canada.

Seth Meyers explains that ridiculous Congressional hearing over Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood’s “Government Funding”: The Same Kind Your Doctor Receives.

What the Speakership Battle is About.

Pope Francis met with an openly gay couple — and unlike Kim Davis, who ambushed him, he did so intentionally, and Was Pope Francis Actually Swindled into Meeting Kim Davis?

If we gotta honor a Christopher…

“Sick of hearing about the damn emails.”

Analysis Ranks Presidential Candidates By Their Supporters’ Grammar.

It costs you $43 every time you wait for the doctor.

What Happens When There’s No Internet. Presented By BuzzFeed & Hyundai – is it real?

Sweden is shifting to a 6-hour work day.

Shakespeare in Modern English? “The Oregon Shakespeare Festival… recently announced that over the next three years, it will commission 36 playwrights to translate all of Shakespeare’s plays into modern English.”

Chaz Ebert reviews the play BlackWhite Love, about Roger and Chaz Ebert.

How to Make a Sandwich. It only took 6 months and cost $1500.

K-Chuck Radio’s Sunshine Pop includes rare music from Mary Hopkin and Victor Garber.

New 2015 remix and video of Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson’s 1983 international smash hit single ‘Say Say Say’.

Van Morrison and the Thirty-One Songs about Nothing But a Bad Contract.

Mark Evanier continues to list the twenty top voice actors in American animated cartoons between 1928 and 1968, including Hans Conried (Snidely Whiplash), Don Messick (Scooby-Doo) Alan Reed (Fred Flintstone), Jack Mercer (Popeye), and Gary Owens (Space Ghost, Roger Ramjet).

GOOGLE ALERT (me)

It’s so very nice that Eddie the Renaissance Geek wished me well after my surgery, given the fact that he’s had much more serious health issues of his own.

Albany High hosts tours in advance of vote on improvements.

What’s the last comic book or graphic novel you picked up at a comic book store? Also, The Big Event effect.

SamuraiFrog: Ant-Man and the Book Light Lady.

Donna’s quote resonated.

GOOGLE ALERT (not me)

New national role for Biscovey head teacher. “Roger Green is one of 70 heads across the country…”

U.S. Election Day is November 3, and you probably won’t vote

THE competitive race in Albany is the city school board, eight candidates for three slots.

vote.angleI always vote. ALWAYS. There was a Democratic primary between two guys, both named Dan, for the county executive race in September, and that was the only race on my ballot. It was on a Thursday, which meant squeezing it in after coming home – the bus was a half-hour late – and then having to go back out to sing in the choir. But I voted, along with only 20% of the eligible voters on that day, because people have literally died trying to vote in this country.

And the struggle continues: “Alabama just closed 31 drivers license bureaus in counties with the highest percentage of Black voters. Every county with over 75% of registered voters that are African American will have their DMV office closed.” And when the feds come in to investigate – and they should – some will scream federal government overreach.

This November, there’s a dearth of interesting races in my town. One of the Dans won the county exec race and is unopposed, except by a Green Party person who has zero chance. Three of the four judges’ races have no opposition.

There’s a County Comptroller, County Sheriff, and two County Coroner positions up. As a lifelong Democrat, I nevertheless ALWAYS vote for the Republicans in the Albany coroner races. And since Albany is mostly a one-party town, the Democrats ALWAYS win, but it’s my little protest.

There are county legislator races up, but the incumbent in my district – I had to look up his name, he’s so impactful – will get reelected easily; if he has a competitor, I know nothing about him or her.

THE competitive race in Albany is the city school board, eight candidates for three slots, who will be debating on October 20. This is interesting that while I know only one of them personally, FOUR of them (not the guy I know) have invited me to “like” their Facebook campaigns. I met one of the other candidates at a public event recently, and she seemed quite pleasant; at that same event, TWO of my long-time friends told me she’s a crazy person.

Frankly, the school board is NOT a position that I would want. We had a terrible state commissioner of education, who got kicked upstairs to the federal level. Now that Arne Duncan is leaving as U.S. Secretary of Education, John King will be the interim Secretary. Arrgh!

Ramblin' with Roger
Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial