it would be nice to record a hit song

 

Lubbock, Texas - home of Buddy Holly

"It's So Easy," the original Buddy Holly version, has the sound of the era with the stamp of Charles Hardin Holley (Buddy) on it--the being-recorded-in-an-empty-room vibe with the rock-and-roll shuffle to the beat, and emotionally specific lyrics sung with optimism and verve.

        The Linda Ronstadt cover version has fuller-sounding instrumentals, partly because of advances in recording technology, and partly from pure stylistic variations.  A powerful blues influence gives an insistent "drag" at the bottom of the sound, with the melody declaring itself and the rhythm pulling on you like an undertow.

        1970s-flavored pop-rock.

        "It's so easy, it's so easy, Yeaahh-eah-eahh, so doggone easy..."

_________________________________

-----------------------------------------------

On You Tube, find "That'll Be The Day" by Buddy Holly and <PLAY>.

(The upload by Buddy Holly - topic has good sound.)

__________________________________

        "That'll Be The Day" was written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison.

------------------------- [excerpt from Songfacts website] ---------------------------- Buddy Holly had been kicking around his home town of Lubbock, Texas, trying to write a hit song for his small rockabilly band, ever since he had attended an Elvis Presley gig at his high school sometime in 1955.  

His band in those days consisted of him on lead vocals and guitar, Jerry Allison on the drums, and Joe B. Maudlin on upright bass.  

He and Jerry decided to get together and go see The Searchers, a Western movie starring John Wayne.  In the movie, Wayne keeps replying, "That'll be the day," every time another character in the film predicts or proclaims something will happen when he felt it was not likely to happen.  

The phrase stuck in Jerry's mind, and when they were hanging out at Jerry's house one night, Buddy looked at Jerry and said that it sure would be nice if they could record a hit song.  Jerry replied with, "That'll be the day," imitating John Wayne in the film.

-30-

look into your heart and see

 

"It's So Easy"

written by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty

recorded by Buddy Holly and the Crickets in 1958

recorded by Linda Ronstadt in 1977

-------------------- You Tube the Linda Ronstadt version of this song, and <PLAY>.

...People tell me love's for fools

Here I go, breaking all the rules...

-30-

it's so easy, it's so easy

 

On You Tube (m.youtube, with adblock) there's a song called "It's So Easy To Fall In Love" by Buddy Holly (September 7, 1936 - February 3, 1959).

I pick the one uploaded by 'shoderzmuzik' -- this video has good sound.

<PLAY> and enjoy.

___________________________________

some Comments under the video, from listeners:

John Doe

My dad always says Elvis but I'm Buddy all the way.  Buddy was a huge inspiration of the bands in the 60s and 70s.  They were one of the first bands to use two guitars and a drummer forming what we know as the modern rock band.

Tom Finn

Tommy Allsup really played a great part on this.  One of the best on all of Buddy's tracks.  Unbelievable!!!

GeraldThe BusDriver

I've heard this by The Trashmen and now by Buddy Holly my life is now complete!  I love these

rwb010109

What a great talent, group and song

Santo Sgarlato

If it wasn't for Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry and so forth we wouldn't have rock n-roll as we know it

Cpt. Grimsdale Nemo

For all the Buddy Holly fans go watch The Buddy Holly Story (1978) starring Gary Busey.

alfandeddie

It's riddled with inaccuracies

___________________________________

_______________________________________

I saw The Buddy Holly Story at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, Massachusetts, a year or two after it came out.  

        ...When he gets orchestra musicians to come in and play strings on a track, and one of them says, "It's very interesting, what you're doing with this arrangement--Beethoven did a similar thing - of course he was quite deaf at the time..."

-30-

July

 

treasure

-30-

culture of deference

 

Diana, Princess of Wales;  Princess Margaret

Was thinking about the word, "deference."

online dictionary definition:

humble submission and respect

Merriam-Webster definition is slightly different:

respect and esteem due a superior or an elder; also:  affected or ingratiating regard for another's wishes

        "Affected or ingratiating" -- that sounds more like exaggerated, performative deferring to someone--whereas "humble submission and respect" was more straightforward, and unaffected--more sincere.

_____________________________________

In Monday's post here, one reader comment pointed out the "dynamic of extremely unequal power that gives celebrities the means to break laws and norms while maintaining public deference for years."

        The word "deference" sort of jumped out at me, in there--it made me think of the United Kingdom--in my readings about Princess Diana, and in The Crown, I come across the word "deference." ---------------------------- [excerpt from The Diana Chronicles, by Tina Brown] ------------------ Like Diana, Margaret was catnip to glamour-hunting photographers; also like Diana, she at once colluded with them and hid from their attention.

        Without much to do except go out and about, Margaret was escorted at night by a parade of glossy men-about-town.  She was photographed emerging from the chic Les Ambassadeurs Club at dawn in mink coat and diamonds.  

She smoked from a long, sophisticated cigarette holder.  

Where her parents had always been careful to vacation in the country estates of their own kingdom, Margaret took jet-set holidays in the Caribbean and came back with a suntan.  

She mixed with a nonhorsey set of actors, writers, dancers, and playwrights.  

She was news.  

When, seven years after the break with Townsend, she married the swinging London photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones (ennobled as the first Earl of Snowdon a year after the wedding), her plunge deeper into his café society world moved the Royal Family decisively from regal seclusion toward showbiz availability.  Press boundaries were being trampled as much by the flamboyance and glitz of Margaret herself as by press license--a fact she did not like to acknowledge....

        The culture of deference was beginning to crumble.

------------------------------------ [end / excerpt]

-30-    

a secret, private world

 

What's on:

Midnight Run    (Netflix)

Greenleaf    (Netflix)

Rear Window    (Amazon Prime)

___________________________________

Greenleaf was originally a TV show.  It appears that it was on Oprah Winfrey's own ("OWN") network.  Now you can watch it on Netflix.

        I had never heard of it until I came across it today when I tapped the Netflix icon on the screen with my stylus.  (A soundless "ppoh"...)  Checked it out -- I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.  Excellent writing.

--------------------------------------------------

Midnight Run is like lifting a curtain on the 1980s and taking a look, then watching the whole thing.  Robert DeNiro; Joe Pantoliano (Ralphie in The Sopranos); a very strong and interesting actor named Yaphet Kotto.  And many more--such an excellent cast.

        A lot of running, sunny skies, cross-country yadda-yadda.  It is a funny film that's got soul.

-------------------------------------------------

Rear Window:  now that I think about it, Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) has plot points, scenarios, and attitudes that are similar to Hitchcock's 1954 masterpiece.  A person could watch these two movies back-to-back, and have fun with the dynamic of the later one being an homage to the earlier one.

        According to Peter Bogdanovich (Tony Soprano's shrink's shrink), the French called Rear Window Hitchcock's "testament film."

-30-

in Europe we watch in astonishment

 

Q.  Why did the narcissist cross the road?

A.  He thought it was a boundary.

__________________________________

"Surviving R. Kelly" is on Netflix -- I watched / listened to a lot of it.  It's quite compelling.  Recent history, and people expressing their situations, goals, and emotions.

Girls when they are growing up need to be educated about how to avoid toxic people.  (Would public service announcements help?)

        Spot 'em; neutralize 'em; avoid 'em.

The Washington Post had some articles on this -- some Reader Comments:

^  There will always be a subset of people who lack the necessary combination of critical thinking and empathy required to understand that bad things that do not happen directly to them are still bad things.

[Wow!  I had to go back and read that one again.  Incisive.]

^  OMG...just throw the guy in jail already.... I'm tired of hearing about this....

^  Seems to me that the main reason R Kelly's victims struggled to understand their own situation, let alone have credibility or support in fighting back, is the dynamic of extremely unequal power that gives celebrities the means to break laws and norms while maintaining public deference for years.  

Like Weinstein or the famous British comedian, Jimmy Savile.  

And the more misbehavior they get away with, the more these egotists may come to believe that what they do is OK, or their rewards for success, not harmful, or it's mainly the victims' own fault.

^  I don't think R. Kelly has gotten away with his crimes because his victims are black.  R. Kelly has gotten away with his crimes because he is R. Kelly. Inc.  Lot of powerful people make money off him.

^  The problem is not women!  The problem is that our society doesn't take sexual violence that men commit against women, children, and men seriously.  In fact, our culture tends to blame and shun the victim while standing by the men.  We continue to fail the victims of sex crimes when we produce excuses for such grotesque behavior!

^  R Kelly was protected by The Establishment (black, white, brown, gay, straight, whatever) as long as he was Green, or rather, he kept making Green.  The minute he stopped making Green for those in power, he became disposable.  This is not a problem of Black Women, it's a problem of the less powerful against those in power.  

Look no further than the cases of Harvey Weinstein, Michael Jackson, Jeffrey Epstein, the Catholic Church, etc. to see various groups pushed aside as long as those doing the abusing have money, power, and influence to do so.  It is only when they are in a weakened state - or occasionally other priorities triumph, that they can be brought to account for their crimes.

^  Has the author forgotten about Bill Cosby, where it took more than 40 years and 50-plus accusers before anything was done?  The main issue isn't racism.  It's that people with wealth, power, and fame usually get their way and that women's accusations are more often than not disbelieved if they are  made against a rich and famous man.

^  America:  you are crumbling right underneath yourselves from your relentless, obsessive identity politics.  

R. Kelly was rich and powerful.  

Weinstein was rich and powerful.  

Spacey was rich and powerful.  

Cosby was rich and powerful.  

        How is the R. Kelly story unfolding differently than the others?  It's about power subjugating the voices of those with lesser power.  

You identity-focused people who cannot let go of your defining narrative are helping take the rifts within your political culture and making them chasms that, quite frankly, are becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to bridge.  

In Europe we watch in astonishment at what is happening to your country by those whose self-interest to further their political agendas is greater than the assuagement of tensions that could arise from having a wider, more nuanced lens.

-30-

a tiny flame flickering in an immense void

 

        In Wednesday's post here, titled "semantics can drive you crazy," I had put in what Bob Dylan wrote about The Balcony, by Genet--

        it portrayed the world as a mammoth cathouse where chaos rules the universe, where man is alone and abandoned in a meaningless cosmos

It reminded me of the museum scene in Play It Again Sam, a play by Woody Allen which was also turned into a movie:

Woody Allen's character, named "Allen" in the story, and the Diane Keaton character "Linda" are at an art museum looking for a woman for Allen to ask out on a date.  He doesn't see anyone and suggests,

"Why don't we split and see if there's any action at the Berkeley Museum?"

Linda spots a woman who is observing a painting alone.

Linda:

There's one.

(He stares.)

Allen:

(an awestruck tone)

Oh, she's great.

Linda:

Go ahead Allen, speak to her.

Allen:

No, are you kidding?

Linda:

Go on.  Go on, give it a try.

(he protests and demurs)

That's what we're here for, Allen.

(in an urgent whisper)

Go on!

Allen walks toward the girl.

Allen:

(in a low voice, to himself)

Casual.  Casual.

He walks up to the girl and admires the painting with her.

Allen:

It's quite a lovely Jackson Pollock.

Girl:

Yes, it is.

Allen:

What does it say to you?

Girl:

(she has a slight European accent and her words drone a little, on one note, like a mysterious chant)

It re-states the negativeness of the universe.  The hideous, lonely emptiness of existence.  Nothingness.  

The predicament of man forced to live in a barren, godless eternity, like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void, with nothing but waste, horror, and degradation forming a useless bleak straitjacket in a black absurd cosmos.

Allen:

What are you doing Saturday night?

Girl:

(in same droning tone)

Committing suicide.

Allen:

What about Friday night?

_______________________________________

__________________________________

        In the post-World War II period, 1945 to 1970, some authors wrote about existential dread.  The dialogue in PIAS is parodying existential dread -- telling the same story, only with dark humor.

___________________________________

{Play It Again Sam.  1972 film.  Written by Woody Allen.  Directed by Herbert Ross.}

(fun fact:  Herbert Ross was married, for a time, to Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy)

-30-

the old Cuba

 

b 

--------------------- [excerpt from Chronicles, by Bob Dylan] --------------------- Nearby at the Biltmore, the Cuban Revolutionary Council was meeting.  The Cuban government in exile.  They had recently given a news conference, said that they needed bazookas and recoilless rifles and demolition experts and that those things cost money.  If they could get enough donations, they could take back Cuba, the old Cuba, land of plantations, sugarcane, rice, tobacco--patricians.  

The Roman Republic.  

In the sports pages the New York Rangers had beaten the Chicago Blackhawks 2 to 1, and Vic Hadfield had scored both goals.  Our tall Texan vice president, Lyndon Johnson, was quite a character, too.  He'd flipped out and got angry at the U.S. Secret Service--told them to stop fencing him in, stop shadowing him, following him around.  

Johnson grabs guys by the lapels and squeezes the back of their heads to make a point.  He reminded me of Tex Ritter--seemed simple and down to earth.  Later, when he became president, he used the phrase "We shall overcome" in a speech to the American people.  

"We Shall Overcome" was the spiritual marching anthem of the civil rights movement.  

It had been the rallying cry for the oppressed for many years.  

Johnson interpreted the idea to suit himself, rather than eradicate it.  

He was not as homespun as it seemed.  

The dominant myth of the day seemed to be that anybody could do anything, even go to the moon.  You could do whatever you wanted--in the ads and in the articles, ignore your limitations, defy them.  

If you were an indecisive person, you could become a leader and wear lederhosen.  If you were a housewife, you could become a glamour girl with rhinestone sunglasses.  

        Are you slow witted?  No worries--you can be an intellectual genius.  If you're old, you can be young.  Anything was possible.  

It was almost like a war against the self.  

The art world was changing, too, being turned on its head.  Abstract painting and atonal music were hitting the scene, mangling recognizable reality.  Goya himself would have been lost at sea if he tried to sail the new wave of art.  We would look at all this stuff for what it was worth, and not one cent more.

-30-

semantics can drive you crazy

 

----------------  [excerpt from Bob Dylan's Chronicles - Simon & Schuster, 2004] ---------------------------- Anyway, France had now brought themselves into the atomic age and there were movements springing up to ban the bombs, French, American, Russian and otherwise, but this movement also had its detractors.  

Reputable psychiatrists were saying that some of these people who claimed to be so against nuclear testing are secular last judgment types--that if nuclear bombs are banned, it would deprive them of their highly comforting sense of doom.  

My friends and I couldn't believe this stuff.  

There'd be articles about things like new modern-day phobias, all with fancy Latin names, like fear of flowers, fear of the dark, of height, fear of crossing bridges, of snakes, fear of getting old, fear of clouds.  Just any old thing could be frightening.

My big fear was that my guitar would go out of tune.  

Women were speaking out in the news, too, challenging the status quo.  Some were complaining that they were told that they needed and deserved equal rights.  Then when they got them, they were accused of becoming too much like men.  Some women wanted to be called "a woman" when they reached twenty-one.  Some sales girls, or women, didn't want to be referred to as "salesladies."  

In churches, too, things were shaking up.  Some white ministers didn't want to be labeled "the Reverend."  They wanted to be called just plain "Reverend."

        Semantics and labels could drive you crazy.  The inside story on a man was that if he wanted to be successful, he must become a rugged individualist, but then he should make some adjustments.  After that, he needed to conform.  You could go from being a rugged individualist to a conformist in the blink of an eye.  

        We thought this stuff was idiotic.  Reality was not so simple and everybody had their own take on it.  Jean Genet's play The Balcony was being performed in the Village and it portrayed the world as a mammoth cathouse where chaos rules the universe, where man is alone and abandoned in a meaningless cosmos.  

The play had a strong sense of focus, and from what I'd seen about the Civil War period, it could have been written one hundred years ago.  

The songs I'd write would be like that, too.  They wouldn't conform to modern ideas.  I hadn't begun yet writing streams of songs as I would, but Len was, and everything around us looked absurd--there was a certain consciousness of madness at work.  

Even the photos of Jackie Kennedy going in and out of revolving doors at the Carlyle Hotel uptown, carrying shopping bags of clothes, looked disturbing.  

Nearby at the Biltmore, the Cuban Revolutionary Council was meeting.

-30-

stop, hey, what's that sound?

 

When the Introduction to Exile's Return talks about "a young generation's ability to cast off the baggage of its forebears and forge its own identity," it makes me think of the 1960s.

In the Sixties, there was a sense of things changing, things that needed to change, and things that might not change as fast as some people wanted but they were very certainly going to work hard to effect the change, or get as close to the ideal as possible.

---------------------- [excerpt from Bob Dylan's Chronicles] ------------------ Sometimes you know things have to change, are going to change, but you can only feel it--like in that song of Sam Cooke's, "Change Is Gonna Come"--but you don't know it in a purposeful way.  Little things foreshadow what's coming, but you may not recognize them.  But then something immediate happens and you're in another world, you jump into the unknown, have an instinctive understanding of it--you're set free.  You don't need to ask questions and you already know the score.... ------------------------------------------ [end / excerpt]

        Part of the efforts toward change in the 1960s was the need to make American life better, and part of it was rebellion against earlier customs and beliefs that seemed set--for example, people referred to "the generation gap."

        I became really interested in the 1920s when I was in junior high:  I would ask my parents questions, and they would say the 1920s were like the 1960s, in some ways.  

        (My mom and dad weren't old enough to remember the 1920s clearly from personal experience, but it was the time right before them and so people learn what it was, from art and culture and remembrances of older family members.  It's like if you're born in 1981, you know things about the Seventies even though you weren't there....)

----------------------- [excerpt from Donald W. Faulkner's Introduction to Exile's Return] --------------------- Much later in his life...Cowley wrote of the preconditions he saw for both generational self-identification and generational revolt.  First among them, he said, is "a sense of life, something that might be defined as an intricate web of perceptions, judgments, feelings, and aspirations shared by its members."  

Next is the generation's "thoroughness and even violence in setting aside parental or merely prevailing notions."  Then each generation needs to acknowledge its precursors--"madmen and outlaws," as Cowley called them (borrowing F. Scott Fitzgerald's phrase), who "give an intellectual structure to [the generation's] own rebellion"--and must also witness or participate in "historic events," which "furnish its members with a common fund of experience."  

Finally, Cowley stipulated (once more echoing F. Scott Fitzgerald), the generation needs "its own leaders and spokesmen."  I hasten to add another element that Cowley perhaps took as a given:  the group must feel in some fashion betrayed by both prevailing notions and historic events, in order, if only through alienation, to generate both the intricate web and the common fund of experience.

-30-

don't let Hemingway punch you

 

------------------ [excerpt from Exile's Return:  A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s] -------------------------------

Introduction

Among the chronicles, memoirs, and remembrances of the making of American literature in the 1920s, Malcolm Cowley's Exile's Return stands alone.  Far from the "we put on boxing gloves and Ernest Hemingway broke my nose" recollections of that shaping period for a national literature, Cowley's work is "a narrative of ideas," as he subtitled the original edition of his book, published in 1934.  

Save for a handful of anecdotes, the book is not an accumulation of silvered memories, but a meditative exploration of the design and goals of literary culture.

     It is a book written by a young man about a young time, and its extolling of a young generation's ability to cast off the baggage of its forebears and forge its own identity has quickened the hearts of generations of readers who have found resonance in its story.  It continues to speak.  Indeed, Exile's Return is not so much about Paris in the 1920s as it is about the exemplary revolt of one generation against its predecessors in the effort to establish itself.

------------------------- [end, excerpt]

__________________________________________

If I were president, I would make it so that each household in America had a copy of Exile's Return, and alongside it, the DVD of Woody Allen's 2011 movie, Midnight In Paris -- some of the artists and writers spoken of in Cowley's book come to life on screen, hilariously, in Allen's film.  (Time-travel situation...)

-30-

heart like a color wheel

 

(This was painted with crayons by Elizabeth Roskam.)

I was thinking about boxes of Crayola crayons we used to have in first and second grade.  There was a smaller box, with basic colors.  And when I was in second grade I had a larger box of Crayola crayons that had a couple of different levels to it, like seats at a concert, and with so many crayons in there, you found a larger variety of colors, and the color would be named on the paper wrapped around the crayon.

Burnt sienna.

Periwinkle.

When I Google it now, I see lists of color-names in this brand.  Many of the color-names now, I'm pretty sure they weren't in the crayon collection I had in second grade.  They don't seem familiar.  Two others that I do think I recognize from back then:  mahogany and cornflower.  

     I wouldn't have thought those two up from memory, but when I see them written on-screen, I seem to remember them.

Those are funny words, for a child who just learned to read the year before!

"Periwinkle."

"Burnt sienna."  It sounded vaguely exotic.  It was some kind of brown.

"Cornflower" was a good word.  I knew the word corn and the word flower, but I hadn't seen them pushed together like that....

Did it say "cornflower" or "cornflower blue"?

Is there a History Of Crayons somewhere?

Forrest Gump said life was like "a box of chocolates."

Maybe it's also like a box of crayons.

-30-

go your own way

 

painting by Henri Matisse

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Opinion | America needs to break up its biggest states

NY Times, 7.7.2021

reader comment

John

Chicago

----------- I used to feel this way.  I used to agree with my grandfather who is fond of saying, "We should have let the South go when we had the chance."

However, I have instead come to the conclusion that there are many reasons why the union is worth preserving.  Not the least of these is the incorporation of--and inclusion of--former Confederate territories in the democratic process.

Do you have confidence that certain regions of the United States are intent on preserving their own democracy?

Do you think that these regions wouldn't regress to some version of a segregated caste system driven by religious fundamentalism and ideas of white supremacy?

All one has to do to begin understanding the danger is look at the recent assault on voting rights, particularly in southern states.

A closer look at the history of racism and intolerance in these regions should make you even more wary.

As my dad once told me - abolishing slavery was a moral imperative.  That is the most important reason why the union was - and still is - worth preserving.

Cutting loose states and regions who seek to govern their populations guided by ideas of bigotry, supremacy and fundamentalism would not only be a giant lurch backward, but it would also create more problems than it would solve.  

Democracy is worth preserving and it is worth fighting for.

_________________________________

_____________________________

     It makes you think -- back in the day when Castro communists took over Cuba, America's government leaders thought, "OMG, now there's a communist dictatorship right in our back yard -- 485 miles from Florida!  It's so close!  Dangerous!"

If the United States split into two nations and one of them went full authoritarian, the dictatorship could be, instead of within 490 miles of us, right across the road.  Yikes -- be like living in France in 1939....

-30-

tell me why everything turned around

 #FreeBritney

We used to call them editorials.

Now we say Opinion piece,

for a brief essay in a newspaper written by someone explaining an opinon on something.

In today's New York Times there's an Opinion saying America's largest states should be broken up into several states.

The first Reader Comment from Roy Jones of Tampa Bay says, "What we need are more political parties."

Judith MacLaury

Lawrenceville, New Jersey

This solution will only work and be accepted representationally if we learn how to use our communities democratically.  

Right now the wealthy power brokers are able to control elections by fragmentation of the people.  

Unless or until this is stopped and people learn how to cooperate and unify, no amount of state fragmentation will give us a functioning democracy.

Karekin

USA

More states would mean more costly bureaucracies and yet more division.  Perhaps a better solution to our problems is a system that fully embraces and supports multiple political parties?  

The idea that 340 million Americans have only two viable choices is a bit unreasonable, especially when one of the two is engaged in a winner take all war of domination against the other.  

There's no way that either party can truly represent the goals and aspirations of all Americans, and in most cases, they don't even try.  

Lobbyists and corporate interests hold sway, while the needs of the people are routinely glossed over.

Massachusetts

...Would this process ultimately unwind itself into a continent of bickering tribes?

Scotty G

Jersey

...There are states that have openly stated they want to leave, Texas for example,  maybe we should start with them.  Or maybe start with the states that have been drawing from the treasury for decades and don't contribute anything, ever, like Kentucky.

Doug

New Jersey

Yes.  The idea that South Dakota and North Dakota have more representation in the Senate than Cali is absurd and is destroying the entire process of Democracy.

Jaime Hernandez

Taghkanic, New York

The first step to equitable national governance should be to increase the size of the House of Representatives.

Julie 

Pennsylvania

America needs to break up itself, into three or four or more independent nations that can each go their own way.

Miroc

The LAST thing this country needs is more division.

Loving you

Isn't the right thing to do

How can I -- 

Ever change things

That I feel

If I could,

Maybe I'd give you my world

How can I

When you won't take it from me

You can go your own way

Go your own way

You can call it

Another lonely day

You can go your own way

Go your own way

Tell me why

Everything turned around

Packing up

Shacking up is all you want to do

If I could

Baby, I'd give you my world

Open up

Everything's waiting for you

You can go your own way

Go your own way

You can call it

Another lonely day

You can go your own way

Go your own way

You can go your own way

Go your own way

You can call it

Another lonely day

Another lonely day

You can go your own way

Go your own way

You can call it

Another lonely day

You can go your own way

You can call it

Another lonely day

You can go your own way

______________________________________

{"Go Your Own Way," written by Lindsey Buckingham.  Album:  Rumours.  Producers:  Fleetwood Mac; Richard Dashut; Ken Caillat.  Recorded in Sausalito, California in 1976.  Released:  December 1976.}

-30-    #FreeBritney

great minds

 

actor Matt Whelan playing Hugh Hefner in

Amazon series, American Playboy

     So many new shows, documentaries, movies, series for us to watch, now.  It's amazing.  One thing I've noticed:  some of the series would be better as movies.

     One thing I clicked on recently had a fascinating and somewhat "chilling" premise -- (oooh, must explore!...) -- but when I saw that it was a series with episodes and seasons, my heart kind of sank, and I wished for a moment that it was a movie.

     Beginning, middle, and end.  A story with an answer and a point.  When I saw that list of episodes ... I had seen this phenom before... It starts off interesting and intense, and you're on-board for it, disbelief suspended, all set:  

and then it swiftly devolves into relationships, relationships, relationships, who's going to kiss whom, who's going to sleep with whom, kids getting into trouble...and pretty soon you just feel like, 'OK, did the producers just take this in for a classroom of 6th-graders to write it?'

What happened to all the time-travel and mystery and -- wonder -- that was at the beginning?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now the latest info I can find on that particular series is, it got arbitrarily cancelled and there's never going to be any answers or closure.

!!

I listened to some reviews of it on You Tube and someone there said it just became a soap opera.  (Thinking along same lines....)

_______________________________

Some stories are good as a series.

And some stories will make a good feature-length movie.

     But we can understand, I guess, that with the explosion of more new "platforms" and "streaming" now they have to fill those with what they call "content" and now it's like a frantic race to make shows.

     ("Movie?  Movie?!  Make it a series!  Drag it out!  Make 85 seasons with 400 episodes apiece!  Get that content!!!" - then collapses and has to be rushed to his psychiatrist...)

The impatience I feel with some of these undulating and meandering story-lines reminds me of a famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt:

"Great minds discuss ideas.

Average minds discuss events.

Small minds discuss people."

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     The First Lady could afford that type of standard:  she wasn't tasked with filling a bunch of streaming platforms....

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UFOs are fun to think about

 

reader comments under a SLATE article about government UFO report

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    ~  Interesting to see the level of emotion in these comments, on all sides.  A couple of observations:

1) the "laws" of physics are not immutable.  To quote one of my favorite movies, "the law is a human institution."  In other words, these "laws" are just our current best guesses.  The universe doesn't care what we hypothesize.  For all we know, the human laws of Physics are "more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules."  Read a little intellectual history to see how often the immutable rules of science have turned out to be, well, mutable.

2) conversely, the reason we refer to the "laws" of physics is that we have come up with some descriptions of what can and cannot happen that seem to be fairly accurate.  Given that, there's a huge burden of proof on those claiming that those rules are just wildly wrong.  Some short video and radar clips are not going to convince anyone--or at least, they shouldn't.

3) so, overall, these are interesting observations and recordings, many by highly trained and highly professional people.  More investigation is warranted.  But we simply don't have enough data to draw any conclusions beyond acknowledging that UAPs are a persistent issue, and that some sightings are difficult to explain.

OK, end of intermission.  You may resume quarreling.

    ~  Like the article says, this is not some guy seeing lights in the sky and pulling out his phone.  This is trained professional pilots with sensor equipment costing millions of dollars.  Most importantly, the sensor equipment agrees that what the pilot saw was real.  We just don't know what it is.

    ~  We have no idea what the sensor data actually says because it is classified.

    ~  Most science type people think that they are weather phenomena.  UFOs are real, but nobody who knows stuff thinks it's extraterrestrials.

    ~  Well, it's the battle of dudes on Youtube.  I don't find observations by pilots particularly compelling.  And there are plenty of astronomers who are skeptical that these unidentified phenomena add up to anything.  I mean, UFOs are fun to think about, but the report does not actually say much.

    ~  Well, I suppose I was being diplomatic.  I think that it is a fun puzzle to try to figure out the source of these optical aberrations, but not much more than that.  And puzzles are fun.

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toxic chicanery

 

     I did not ever think that Britney Spears was crazy.  In 2007 or 08, whenever it was, it seemed like celebrity-gossip journalists were writing that she was "crazy" because of three things:

She had her hair cut off

She drove her car with her baby on her lap

She used an umbrella to thump a car belonging to a paparazzi who was harassing her.

None of those things makes a person crazy, imo.

(I mean, -- thumped the paparazzi's car?  

Boo-hoo, Sinatra used to thump the paparazzi.)

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NYT reader comments

Sharon H

Georgia

   As many here have stated, I seriously doubt if this situation would be allowed to continue if this was a man or if the person was poor.  This is abuse and grifting in plain sight.  Sad.

Pauline

NYC

   Who is looking into the judge in this sordid affair?  Her comments and decisions are so bizarre that it's impossible to believe she is not being paid off within this maze of corruption and chicanery.  

Criminal investigators and forensic accountants need to start some serious digging into the finances of everyone involved in this far ranging and utterly contemptible fraud.

Catherine

Washington

   This whole thing is so fundamentally corrupt that it's mind-boggling how it's gone on for so long, in plain sight of the world.

Kelsey

Queens, NY

   @Vera, she has no control over her social media.  It's controlled by an employee of an LLC.  Owned by her father.  They cherry pick what to post in order to continue the narrative that Britney is unwell.

Thomas B

Los Angeles

   The judge in this case must be removed for sheer incompetence.

globalnomad

Boise, Idaho

   What is wrong with those judges?  Are they getting kickbacks?

Jack

US

   Aren't lawyers supposed to advocate for their clients?  If Brittany is paying for her father's lawyers, that should mean that she, not her father, is the client.  Yet those lawyers are fighting to keep the father as conservator - which also keeps money flowing to the lawyers.  

It seems Brittany is being forced to pay those who are working against her best interests.  

How is this possibly legal?

Wichita, Kansas

   After reading the article it seems apparent to me Mr. Spears has the judge under his thumb and isn't interested in "acting out of love for his daughter," while he is very interested in maintaining his $16,000 a month plus $2,000 for office space.

I feel sorry for her.  I think her entire birth family are appalling.

Kathleen

Kentucky

   If Ms. Spears needs a conservatorship, I volunteer to do it for 8k a month, and I will allow her to stain her kitchen cabinets.

Patsy

Arizona

   This is a bizarre story.  It sounds like Ms. Spears is a prisoner.  It sounds like Mr. Spears is dysfunctional, living by a warehouse in a RV.  I sure hope Britany wins her freedom to live her life as she wishes.  I hope she gets a better judge.

Matt

Canada

   Completely revolting and infuriating.  The father, the judges and lawyers involved in this are completely in the wrong and clearly motivated by selfish and perverse reasons.  How can this have gone for so long...

Copprred

DC

   Mr Spears is entirely too volatile and likely unfit even as a parent, never mind as conservator.  He needs to be removed immediately and a solid investigation of exactly what he has been doing with her money for years.

Ellen F. Dobson

West Orange, New Jersey

   Her failed father is in it for money.  And so are the judge and the lawyers.  End of story.  Once a person is forced into conservatorship it is extremely hard to terminate.  Why?  I really have no idea.

Dimitri

France

   Where do we find these judges?  They should be in jail.

CitizenTM

NYC

   After having lived in Europe for more than a decade now, I must say from multiple experiences:  the US family courts are the worst in the so-called West.

Stewart

North Carolina

   I have read previously that she has attempted to hire her own attorney on two occasions.  Both of these attorneys were told by the judge they were unable to enter into a client-attorney relationship due to Ms. Spears being deemed incompetent.  

Thus they could not represent Ms. Spears and she was required to deal with the court appointed attorney.

["Catch-22"]

Massachusetts

   Follow the money.  As long as Brittney Spears can make money, her father will try to control her.

London

   I have read elsewhere that corruption in the justice system is the reason this has gone on as long and as absurdly as it has.  I have no proof to back it up personally but she had a fortune of well over $500m by some estimates which has shrunk to $60m, not a little of which may have been lining these legal pockets.

Dave

Poway, California

   Britney Spears court appointed lawyer seems to be acting in his own financial interests, not the interests of his client.

Budleymac

Canada

   Wow...it's hard to imagine that every person in this story isn't somehow on the take.

Todd

Wisconsin

@Karen McHale, I agree.  This is utterly inconsistent with the legal standards for conservatorship.  If she was poor, the county human services department would be involved.  In this case, it doesn't seem like there are any disinterested parties involved.

Lagrange

California

   This is a bizarre story!  Why would they give conservatorship to a dad who has barely been there, is a recovering alcoholic himself, is apparently not holding any jobs and has a history of verbal and physical abuse?!  

A lot of  male performers have way more "colorful" conduct than Brittney and no one deems them incapacitated to make their own decisions!  

The court has succumbed to the demands of an overbearing over-controlling father over his daughter.  This needs to end immediately.

Frank

Dublin

   @Andy W, If she isn't mentally well enough to take care of herself she shouldn't have been performing hundreds of tours and multiple albums.  Her father and the team surrounding her are taking advantage of her.  If she has mental illness or not she is being exploited.

DD 

Boston

   Those commenting on her Instagram are poorly informed.  Her father through the conservatorship owns the rights to her Instagram and controls the content through a media manager that does his bidding.  Of course they are creating a narrative to keep the conservatorship in place.  Money, money, money, money.

Ericka

New York

   Conservatorship is a dangerous and nearly permanent tool used by crooks to bilk elderly of their assets and by family to abuse family.  It should not be so irreversible.  That someone works their whole life and what they earned can be taken so easily and permanently including agency over one's life.  It is a crime indeed.

Christopher McHale

New York

   "A recent $890,000 bill from one set of Mr. Spears's lawyers, covering about four months of work, included media strategizing for defending the conservatorship."  $890,000 for four months work?  We're watching an adult citizen get legally raped by an out of control legal system.

Jacksonville

   Why doesn't someone talk about the lawyers and what they have made off the continuation of this abuse?...This case shows the disgraceful state of conservancy laws in this country.  She should sue the jackals for every dime they have collected.

Kate S

Delaware

   Even worse, part of her allegation is that she has been forced to work when she didn't want to (example, when she was extremely ill) and that the threat of involuntary commitment is held over her head.  

She says she was placed in an institution a few years ago as punishment for arguing during a rehearsal.  

Her saying it doesn't make it true, but the known facts of her situation are so bizarre and horrifying that I don't find it hard to believe.  

It's absurd that anyone could argue that all of this is "for her own good," regardless of her competence.

Carolyn

Riverside, California

   The financial arrangement with her father is prima facie conflict of interest.  She needs a separate management firm to make professional decisions.  But these conservatorships are notoriously difficult to modify or end.

Gary Fern

Honolulu, Hawaii

   Dad's a loser.  Peaked as High School quarterback and it's been downhill from there.  So he leached onto his daughter so he'd make more than minimum wage which he is qualified for.  Ms. Spears may need some guidance (don't we all at times) but dad is the leach of leaches.  

Good luck Britney.  I'm rooting for the end of your conservatorship and a road to some normalcy - if a pop star can have that.

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#FreeBritney

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