February rambling #1: the earth is not flat

Bob and Ray’s Slow Talkers.

EqualityEquity_300ppi.IISC

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s response to rapper B.o.B’s rant insisting that the Earth is flat and we’ve all been lied to.

How 37 Banks Became 4 In Just 2 Decades.

Rebecca Solnit: Men Explain LOLITA To Me. And Amy Biancolli on what women want.

White America’s ‘Broken Heart’.

Weekly Sift: Back to Ferguson.

Say — you want a revolution?“Changing presidents or even changing minds isn’t enough. A real revolution has to change a lot of people’s political identities.”

On Antonin Scalia: On The Death Of A Brilliant Public Servant and Don’t tell me not to be glad.

The Daily Show’s Jessica Williams Shuts Down Beyoncé’s Super Bowl Haters.

Voting in the USA, from overseas.

The Great Dictator Speech – Charlie Chaplin + Time – Hans Zimmer (INCEPTION Theme).

Why People Who Are Scatterbrained Are Actually More Intelligent. Well, duh.

The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy. Missing, though, is Bob and Ray’s Slow Talkers. Mr. Bob Elliott died at the age of 92; an appreciation of the duo.

Joe Alaskey, R.I.P. at age of only 63. Boy from Troy, NY made good.

Stupid Phrases for People in Crisis. Or, more politely, the unhelpful things one ought NOT to say.

In Defense of Artist Glenn Brown.

Now I Know: The Crack Tax and Unchecked Baggage and D-N-Nay.

An unfortunate incident on a Friday in the dead of winter.

Why Do Some People Say “Yuge” Instead of “Huge”?

The explanation of the chart below:
JEOPARDY.wildcard_info

Music

Coverville 1111: Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond Cover Stories.

Jaquandor: songs from the movie High Society.

Muppets: Does Dave Grohl Drum Battle Trump Animal vs. Buddy Rich? No, it does not.

Jed Clampett Rocks Out (Beverly Hillbillies Clip).

What’s the point of music? Ask Peter Gabriel.

New Ways Into the Brain’s ‘Music Room’.

NY State Senate’s Bowie resolution.

45s doohickey.

sjw
(Definition of SJW)

Google alerts (me)

That’s the Way of the World – Earth, Wind and Fire.

Today we have trolls.

[Top image per IISC.]

January rambling #2: JEOPARDY!, and recess

‘I feel like a dime among nickels.’

Abe Vigoda.Spidey

I received one of those recorded scam IRS phone calls this month, threatening to put me in jail. Mine came from the Syracuse, NY area from a known scam phone number.

2015 Was Hottest Year in Recorded History.

No boots on the ground… What does it mean?

Abortion Is as Old as Pregnancy: 4,000 Years of Reproductive Rights History.

No relation: The Green brothers explain January 1 and Oregon “militia”, the latter before the recent arrests.

Fiscal Woes Drowning Clearwater: Iconic Festival May be Scrapped.

I saw this moving piece (90 seconds) on CBS Sunday Morning: The Man and the Dog.

The decline of play in preschoolers — and the rise in sensory issues. Conversely, Recess four times a day is good for learning.

Now I Know: Behold the Power of Cheese and One of These Things Just Isn’t the Same (about twins).

WHATEVER happened to the laptop computer? (1985).

Rejection: A Wilderness Guide for Writers (Evanier) and Jaquandor.

Sharp Little Pencil: Bright Brit (For Alan Rickman).

Frank S. Robinson: Joe Krausman, Monkeyshines, and heightism. Joe writes on Facebook: “Carlos Rommulo, once president of the General Assembly of the UN, was very short. He went to Texas, and when asked how do you feel being short among so many tall men, he said, ‘I feel like a dime among nickels.'”

Watch Bill Nye Weigh In on ‘Star Wars’ vs. ‘Star Trek’ Debate.

Yankees without number (1.9999…).

Dustbury’s Six Degrees of Separation.

Tweets from Gettysburg.

The strange life of Q-tips, the most bizarre thing people buy.

Don’t believe that splashy finding that 10 percent of college graduates think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court.

A Venezuelan beetle named for SUNY chancellor.

Celebrity anagram illustrations from illustrator Steve Rampton and Decluttr.com.

RIP, Abe Vigoda

Mark Evanier, and Abe Vigoda’s Dead (Premortem Mix).

The Godfather – Tessio is taken away to be killed.

The graphic above is from here.

JEOPARDY!

3-day winning streak on ‘Jeopardy’. Not only is Amelia Hershberger from Albany, NY, reason enough to root for her, she attended Greenville Central School (as did my wife), she graduated from SUNY Albany (as did both my wife and I, albeit us in grad school), and she was a political science major (as was I).

Final ‘Jeopardy!’ clue stumps all 3 contestants, who all bet everything. The two people tied for first bet rationally; the woman in a distant 3rd could have bet nothing, or $5,999, or anything in between, and won. (Some really uninformed comments here.) BTW, would you have gotten the Final? I did, but I am of a certain age.

This has passed, but ‘Jeopardy!’ hopefuls can try out online features quotes yours truly.

Loo

I was looking through my draft posts. From 2008, and the original source is lost to me:


And to that end: IllumiBowl is a night light for your toilet.

Music

Coverville 1109: A Tribute to David Bowie. Plus David Bowie on Extras, and SamuraiFrog has some Bowie links; he’s right re: Kayne.

Renaissance Geek: Music for MLK Day.

Chuck Miller: Shane Howard and Lawrence Welk.

Of course, you can do mashups of classical music.

Muppets: She Loves You.

I linked to this before, as part of the Kennedy Center Honors, but it’s Aretha, FCOL.

HuffPo: A Shade of Jade: Interview With Rebecca Jade. That would be niece #1.

In Defense of the Eagles, and Not Being a Jerk About Recently Deceased Musicians.

Old music is outselling new music for the first time in history.

Google alerts (me)

Shooting Parrots: Sunday round-up and The Art of a Scammer.

Chuck Miller: Where rejection is growth.

Google alerts (not me)

Top teams win as Hucknall Wednesday Pool League heads for a tight finish. “Station B’s winners in their 8-0 romp at home to Chequers were George Roy, David Butler, Jason Smith, Danny Butler, Roger Green and PJ Singh on singles and the pairings of Andrea and Roger Green and Danny Butler and Jason Smith.”

Regional journalist turned TV wrestler dies aged 76. “Tributes have been paid to Roger Green…, who started out at the Portsmouth Evening News before working simultaneously Fleet Street and as a grappler in the ring.”

David Bowie: Thin White Major Aladdin Stardust

David Robert Jones changed his last name to that of the inventor of the Bowie knife.

Bowie.mugshot
In 1971, I won a David Bowie album called Hunky Dory, from WNPC, the New Paltz (NY) college station. I was only vaguely familiar with the guy, from that Space Oddity song. (In the day, I was very good at winning things from the radio stations I listened to because I had very good dialing fingers, an advantage lost when the redial button was invented.) I liked the LP, though it was kind of strange. My roommate Ron HATED it, except for one song, something called Changes.

Then I got Ziggy Stardust. Played it until the grooves practically wore out, especially some songs on Side 2: Star, Suffragette City, and the title track. Got Aladdin Sane considerably later, but I liked Pin-Ups, the covers album; and much of Diamond Dogs.

Two things I definitely watched at the time: Bowie “singing” Golden Years and Fame on Soul Train in November 1975, and the bizarre pairing of Bowie on the 1977 Bing Crosby Christmas special, which aired AFTER the older crooner had died. Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy became an unlikely Christmas standard.

I could go on, through his “comeback” in the early 1980s, and onto Tin Machine, which didn’t click with me. I did find it funny that two of Soupy Sales’ sons were in the band, especially since Soupy and David shared a birthday.

Arthur wrote how David Bowie helped change his life, which you should just read. Like him, I didn’t know Bowie was sick, from cancer, for well over a year, which added to the shock, I’m sure. That and the fact I’d been playing Bowie music this past week in honor of his natal day this past Friday.

Chuck posted a bunch of Bowie songs; oddly, I cried during the Queen/Bowie track Under Pressure. But he didn’t include one of my favorites, Panic in Detroit. Also, listen to the new one, Lazarus, a “parting gift” for fans, which is, in its own way, as resonant as Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt, or Warren Zevon’s last album. I was going to buy the Blackkstar album yesterday from Amazon, but it was temporarily out of stock on CD and vinyl; it will be his first U.S. #1 album.

If you’re on Facebook, you should go to the page of Adrian Belew and read a piece from about 11:30 a.m. on January 12 that starts, “In 1978 I did my first tour of Europe as ‘stunt’ guitarist and singer for Frank Zappa’s band. The night we played in Cologne, Germany unbeknownst to me Brian Eno was in the audience. Brian knew David Bowie was looking for a new guitarist for his upcoming tour.”

The cliche is to say “he was an original,” but seldom has it been more true. Here’s his 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame description. Watch David Bowie as Pontius Pilate, from Martin Scorsese’s movie Last Temptation of Christ.

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), who changed his last name to that of the inventor of the Bowie knife, so he would not be confused with a Monkee, rest in peace. I am very sad.

More links

Los Angeles Times: David Bowie, the transformative musician, and multi-dimensional artist, dies at 69

The late pop icon was interviewed by 60 Minutes in 2003, but the story never ran. Overtime unearths the Bowie tapes.

David Bowie’s 100 Favorite Books

Michael Huber: David Bowie: What we keep…

BoingBoing: Mourning David Bowie (photos) and Bowie year-by-year in photos

Conan Remembers David Bowie and Bowie Secrets

Esquire: I Didn’t Love David Bowie, But I Love What He Taught Me

Shooting Parrots: The Man Who Sold the World

SamuraiFrog remembers

Bowie bonds

Picture

Bowie’s mugshot, posted on Facebook by Jeff Sharlet.

For weed, in Rochester, with Iggy Pop. The local paper reported: “His biggest greeting was the screams of about a half-dozen suspected prostitutes awaiting arraignment in the rear of the corridor outside the courtroom.”

As someone on my FB page commented, “Oh, you pretty thing.”

F is for Fame

The impressive skill about Lady Gaga is, whether you’ve heard her music or not, there’s a fairly good chance that you’ve heard of HER.

I was reading some news aggregator one morning late last year, probably MSNBC, when there was a tease about “pre-fame Courtney Stodden pictures.” Naturally, I said to myself, “Self, I have no idea what a Courtney Stodden is.” As it turned out, though, I had heard in passing about the event that provided her greatest notoriety. She is the now 17-year-old would-be singer/model who married actor Doug Hutchison, best known for his appearance on the X-Files, who was 50 at the time of their marriage in May 2011.

So Courtney Stodden is “famous”?  I don’t THINK so.

Famous is, to steal a phrase from the lyrics from the CHEERS TV theme, “where everybody knows your name.” Or at least most people. The President of the United States, by virtue of his title, is famous. Muhammad Ali is famous. Paul McCartney is famous, although Who Is Paul McCartney was trending on Twitter last week after the Grammys. Tiger Woods was famous before he became infamous. Certainly in the United States, Oprah Winfrey. Elizabeth Taylor (pictured) was surely famous. This has less to do with whether you LIKE a person, and more about if most people can identify them.

Some entertainers go through an arc, where only a handful of people know them, then – if they are lucky – lots of people know them, but if they are around long enough, they may recede in fame. I saw the recent Muppet movie, and I wondered how many people recognized Mickey Rooney, an octogenarian actor, and knew who he was.

Back in 1992, I used to read PEOPLE magazine. 20 years ago, the number of potentially famous people seemed fairly manageable. But with the explosion of cable programming and the deluge of reality television, all sorts of people are vying for my attention. As a result, I know far fewer “celebrities”, percentage-wise, than I once did. This is neither a complaint nor a boast, just a fact.

So Michael Jackson was famous, but not sister Latoya (from The Apprentice). Sylvester Stallone may be fairly famous, but his brother Frank? Not so much.

I’d never seen a picture of Khloe Kardashian (was she REALLY her father’s daughter? don’t care) until 2012. I seriously don’t know/don’t care/can’t keep track of which Kardashian is, or is not married to which sports star. (And if you don’t know what a Kardashian is, don’t worry about it. Really.) This not to say that if you DO care, you oughtn’t to; it’s just that it’s beyond MY understanding.

Of course, repeated exposure will make someone famous, or at least noteworthy, whether you want to care or not. I remember taking the JEOPARDY! test back in 1998 and getting a clue about some young woman who married some old guy. I could not come up with the name of Anna Nicole Smith. But eventually, her constant exposure (so to speak) drilled her presence into my mind.

The impressive skill about Lady Gaga is, whether you’ve heard her music or not, there’s a fairly good chance that you’ve heard of HER. She is great at self-promotion.

I’ll end with the obvious, FAME by David Bowie, who turned 65 last month and is fairly famous, still.

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

Making Music, Literally

It’s just my pushback against W.W.C.T.G.Y.T.B.N.C.O.S.Y.A.O. – the World Wide Conspiracy To Get You To Buy New Copies Of Stuff You Already Own.

I used to occasionally buy music from Amazon. But since I canceled my Amazon credit card – because the issuing bank was going to slap on some minimum payment every month even if I had no balance – thus denying me access to some Amazon points I’d get from purchasing from them, I’ve been less inclined.

Still, I occasionally need new music. Or music that is new again to me. I have a bunch of LPs in the attic I cannot access because the area is under long-delayed refurbishing, including insulating.

The thing to do: go to the library, take out albums I already have on vinyl, copy them, then listen to them. Understand that I have absolutely no guilt about doing this.

I have purchased the music; I still have the music in my possession. It’s just my pushback against W.W.C.T.G.Y.T.B.N.C.O.S.Y.A.O. – the World Wide Conspiracy To Get You To Buy New Copies Of Stuff You Already Own.

These are some of the albums I’ve checked out, and copied, recently:

Pinups – David Bowie. This is an album of covers of songs made noteworthy by the Who, the Yardbirds, the Pretty Things and more. LISTEN to Friday On My Mind, originally done by the Easybeats.

Diver Down – Van Halen. The only VH I ever owned, it shares a common song with Pinups: Where Have All the Good Times Gone? , a Kinks song. It also features Dancing in the Street and the Roy Rogers theme, Happy Trails. LISTEN to Big Bad Bill (is Sweet William Now), a song from 1924.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere – Neil Young. Two very long songs dominate this album. But LISTEN to the minor hit single Cinnamon Girl.

Fresh Cream – Cream. The debut album from the group featuring Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. LISTEN to I’m So Glad, a Skip James blues tune from the 1930s; they would perform this live to greater effect on the Goodbye album.

Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. – Bruce Springsteen. Oddly, I couldn’t find any studio recordings on YouTube from this album except a couple that were lousy recordings. I was planning on using Blinded by the Light, which was covered successfully by Manfred Mann.

Led Zeppelin III. Always liked this largely acoustic album with songs such as Friends and Tangerine. LISTEN to Gallows Pole, a cover of a Leadbelly song.

Q: Are we not men? A: We Are Devo!-Devo. This is the premiere album of the group, which featured Mongoloid, Uncontrollable Urge, and functionally, the title song, Jocko Homo. LISTEN to (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, a cover of the big Rolling Stones hit.

Legalize It – Peter Tosh. LISTEN to the title track of the 1975 reggae album by one of the seminal figures in the genre.

Songs for Beginners – Graham Nash. Nash’s first solo albums, after his time with the Hollies and while he was still with Crosby, Stills, and (sometimes) Young. LISTEN to Chicago/We Can Change the World, which has hints of sounding quite current.

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