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"A child fleeing violence should have nothing to fear from the greatest country in the world. We have to fix this."
~ Pete Buttigieg -- Mayor of South Bend, Indiana
"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition ... There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
~ Francis M. Wilhoit -- political scientist
"Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule."
~ Gerald R. Ford, U.S. President 1974 - 1976
Well, they'll stone you when you're trying to be so good
They'll stone you just like they said they would
They'll stone you when you're tryin' to go home
Then they'll stone you when you're there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
Well they'll stone you when you're walkin' 'long the street
They'll stone you when you're tryin' to keep your seat
They'll stone you when you're walkin' on the floor
They'll stone you when you're walkin' to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
They'll stone ya when you're at the breakfast table
They'll stone ya when you are young and able
They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to make a buck
They'll stone ya and then they'll say, "good luck"
Tell ya what, I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
Well, they'll stone you and say that it's the end
Then they'll stone you and then they'll come back again
They'll stone you when you're riding in your car
They'll stone you when you're playing your guitar
Yes, but I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned -- All right
Well, they'll stone you when you walk all alone
They'll stone you when you are walking home
They'll stone you and then say you are brave
They'll stone you when you are set down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
________________________
{"Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" - Bob Dylan. Blonde On Blonde album, 1966. Recorded in Nashville.}
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The topic of boxing keeps coming to my attention lately: on Hardball, Chris Matthews compared Pres. Trump to Sonny Liston -- no one wanted to fight him because he seemed brutal and crazy, and he frightened everybody.
I noticed that because I remember reading someplace (don't know where) that Esquire magazine featured Mr. Liston on a cover in the 1960s, wearing a Santa hat. It was ironic because he was scary. (Where did I read that? Cannot remember.)
And then I was reminded of middleweight fighter Rubin Carter when Rolling Thunder Revue was playing on Netflix and Bob Dylan performed "Hurricane."
In my life, I can go a long time without thinking about boxing at all. So this flurry of Boxer Awareness is kind of unusual. (I hope it doesn't become one of those psychological tricks where you buy a pink Cadillac and then you start seeing them everywhere...)
Reading in online encyclopedia: Sonny Liston was born in Arkansas, but was uncertain of the date of his birth, as Arkansas didn't require birth certificates until 1965.
He died at the age of either 39 or 40, in January 1971 or December 1970....
Oh, the streets of Rome -- are filled with rubble
Ancient footprints are everywhere
You can almost think -- that you're seein' double
On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs
Got to hurry on back to my hotel room
Where I've got me a date with Botticelli's niece
Yeah she promised -- that she'd be right there with me
When I paint my masterpiece
Oh, the hours I've spent inside the Coliseum
Dodging lions and wastin' time
Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly stand to see 'em
Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb
Train wheels runnin' through the back of my memory
As the daylight hours do increase
Someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody
When I paint my masterpiece
I left Rome -- and landed in Brussels
With a picture of a tall oak tree by my side
Clergymen in uniform and young girls pullin' mussels
Everyone was there and nobody tried to hide
Newspapermen eating candy
Had to be held down by big police
Someday, everything is gonna be different
When I paint my masterpiece
___________________________________
{"When I Paint My Masterpiece" -- Bob Dylan, released November 1971. From the album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II}
"When I Paint My Masterpiece" is a song with country
influences -- a medium-to-slow-tempo song with the energy and command of a fast song. It can be listened to from the album, on Amazon Prime.
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headlines last week:
Supreme Court rules for black death row inmate over prosecutor's racial bias
NBC News
Excluding Black Jurors in Curtis Flowers Case Violated Constitution...
The New York Times
"New York, Early Twenties"
by Thomas Hart Benton
_________________________________
This news story reminded me of a song by Bob Dylan:
Pistol shots ring out in the bar room night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could have been
The champion of the world.
Three bodies lying there does Patty see
And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously
"I didn't do it" he says and he throws up his hands,
"I was only robbing the register. I hope you understand.
"I saw them leaving," he says and he stops,
"One of us had better call up the cops."
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene
With their red lights flashing
In the hot New Jersey night.
Meanwhile far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kind-a shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Patterson that's just the way things go
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around
He said, "I saw two men running out. They looked like middleweights.
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates."
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead."
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him he could identify the guilty men.
Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
They took him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
Says, "Why'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"
Here's the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put in a prison cell but one time he could've been -- the champion of the world
Four months later the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America fighting for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are putting the screws to him looking for somebody to blame
"Remember that murder that you happened in a bar?
Remember you said you saw the getaway car?
You think you'd like to play ball with the law?
Think it might-a been -- that fighter that you saw -- running that night?
Don't forget that you are white."
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."
The cops said, "A boy like you could use a break.
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello.
Now you don't wanna have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
You'll be doing society a favor.
That son of a bitch is brave and getting braver.
We want to put his ass in stir.
We want to pin this triple mur -- der on him.
He ain't no Gentleman Jim."
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
"It's my work," he'd say, "and I do it for pay.
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise.
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice.
And ride a horse along a trail."
But then they took him to the jail -- house
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.
All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a fix-circus. He never had a chance
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks...
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun,
The DA said he was the one -- who -- did the deed --
And the all-white jury agreed.
Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder 'one'. Guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers -- they all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed
To live in a land
Where justice is a game.
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
Yes, that's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over 'til they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
{"Hurricane" - Bob Dylan - Desire album, 1976}
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I married Isis on the fifth day of May
But I could not hold on to her very long
So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away
For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong
I came to a high place of darkness and light
The dividing line ran through the center of town
I hitched up my pony to a post on the right
Went in to a laundry to wash my clothes down
A man in the corner approached me for a match
I knew right away he was not ordinary
He said, "Are you lookin' for somethin' easy to catch?"
I said, "I got no money." He said, "That ain't necessary"
We set out that night for the cold in the North
I gave him my blanket, he gave me his word
I said, "Where are we goin'?" He said we'd be back by the fourth
I said, "That's the best news that I've ever heard"
I was thinkin' about turquoise, I was thinkin' about gold
I was thinkin' about diamonds and the world's biggest necklace
As we rode through the canyons, through the devilish cold
I was thinkin' about Isis, how she thought I was so reckless
How she told me that one day we would meet up again
And things would be different the next time we wed
If I only could hang on and just be her friend
I still can't remember all the best things she said
We came to the pyramids all embedded in ice
He said, "There's a body I'm tryin' to find
If I carry it out it'll bring a good price"
'Twas then that I knew what he had on his mind
The wind it was howlin' and the snow was outrageous
We chopped through the night and we chopped through the dawn
When he died I was hopin' that it wasn't contagious
But I made up my mind that I had to go on
I broke into the tomb, but the casket was empty
There was no jewels, no nothin', I felt I'd been had
When I saw that my partner was just bein' friendly
When I took up his offer I must-a been mad
I picked up his body and I dragged him inside
Threw him down in the hole and I put back the cover
I said a quick prayer and I felt satisfied
Then I rode back to find Isis just to tell her I love her
She was there in the meadow where the creek used to rise
Blinded by sleep and in need of a bed
I came in from the East with the sun in my eyes
I cursed her one time then I rode on ahead
She said, "Where ya been?" I said, "No place special"
She said, "You look different." I said, "Well, not quite"
She said, "You been gone." I said, "That's only natural"
She said, "You gonna stay?" I said, "Yeah, I jes' might"
"Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane
I still can remember the way that you smiled
On the fifth day of May in the drizzlin' rain
---------------------------------------------
{"Isis" by Bob Dylan. Desire album, 1976.}
-30-
Yesterday I was listening to Rolling Thunder Revue on Netflix, and I heard Bob Dylan sing "Isis" and I wanted to blog the lyrics to that song.
Then I heard him sing "One More Cup of Coffee" and I thought maybe I should blog those lyrics.
Then I heard him perform "Simple Twist of Fate." I blogged the lyrics of that song.
Every Bob Dylan song is an invitation to blog.
Then today I read this: director Luca Guadagnino
is making a film adaptation of Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks album - !
"Simple Twist of Fate" will probably be in there.
Wait a minute -- you can make a movie of a record album??!! This is good news. (I want to write a book adapted from a record album, make a movie based on a book, and record a record album of a movie...)
-30-
They sat together in the park
As the evening sky grew dark
She looked at him and he felt a spark -- tingle to his bones
'Twas then he felt alone -- and wished, that he'd gone straight
And watched out -- for a simple twist of fate
They walked along, by the old canal
A little confused, I remember well
And stopped into a strange hotel, with a neon burnin' bright
He felt the heat of the night -- hit him, like a freight train --
Moving with a simple twist of fate
A saxophone someplace far off played
As she was walkin' by the arcade
As the light burst through a beat-up shade, where he was wakin' up,
She dropped a coin into the cup -- of a blind man, at the gate
And forgot about a simple twist of fate
He woke up, the room was bare
He didn't see her anywhere
He told himself he didn't care, pushed the window open wide
Felt an emptiness inside -- to which he just could not relate
Brought on by a simple twist of fate
He hears the ticking of the clocks
And walks along with a parrot that talks
Hunts her down by the waterfront docks -- where the sailors all come in
Maybe she'll pick him out again, how long must he wait
One more time, for a simple twist of fate
People tell me it's a sin
To know and feel too much within
I still believe she was my twin, but I lost the ring
She was born in spring, but I was born too late --
Blame it on a simple twist of fate
---------------------------------
{"Simple Twist of Fate" - Bob Dylan song from 1975 album, Blood On The Tracks}
Bob Dylan Portrait
Digital Art
by Yury Malkov
-30-
June 17th.
The Watergate break-in was 47 years ago today.
_________________________________
I began this Monday by getting a surprising surprise: I watched a movie made in 2019 that I had never seen before, and I loved it.
Now, that is weird.
Or maybe should say, "unusual."
Murder Mystery,
on Netflix.
Netflix is an interesting and exciting and scary phenomenon. They are kind of creating a New World, so to speak. An Alternative World -- an Extra World.
As the movie progressed this morning, I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is like a soufflé with aspects of 'Murder, She Wrote' and 'Get Smart' and Agatha Christie blended and whisked to a riveting peak!"
Reading a review of it in The Guardian online, I saw that they had noted influences borrowed from Game Night (2018 movie), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1994 Woody Allen movie, recently script-streamed here), and Clue (classic board game and 1985 film).
Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston play the lead roles.
Adam Sandler seems to be a person who just keeps making more movies and isn't open to freaking out over what critics say about his work.
I don't know about his other movies, because I haven't seen them except for one in the mid-nineties and I can't remember it -- but Murder Mystery is good.
Even the title: not giving it individual identity, just saying to the audience -- "This is a murder mystery. Murder. Mystery. Murder Mystery..."
Kind of like it's to pay homage to all great murder mysteries that came before it.
-30-
------------------ [excerpt] ---------- Harriet Rubin, who would later become one of Jackie's editorial colleagues and is now a successful author, described her impact on the company:
"Her becoming an editor was a tremendous vindication of the struggling book business. I think she regarded books as a form of magic.
Temples are built upon scrolls and sacred texts, and she was going to produce modern magic formulas for opening people's minds, for revealing hidden wisdom."
{Vanity Fair. "Jackie O, Working Girl." By Greg Lawrence. January 2011.}
-30-
Yesterday on Hardball with Chris Matthews, an observer said that President Trump has a pattern when he explains his actions: first he lies; then he deceives, and then he admits it and says everybody does it.
What is the difference between lying and deceiving?
Dictionary:
lie (noun) -- an intentionally false statement
deceive (verb) -- to cause someone to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage; to give a mistaken impression
__________________________________________
When you listen to the George Stephanopoulos interview with our president...
------------------------------- There's a "Bewitched" (Season 2, episode 5 - 'The Joker Is a Card') where Uncle Arthur teaches Darrin how to cast a spell. Darrin would like to get back at his mother-in-law for all the times she has turned him into things and cast spells on him -- so he tries it out on her.
He has to chant an incantation and then rattle a cowbell and toot a duck call, and Endora is supposed to disappear.
"Yaga zuzi, yaga zuzi, yaga zuzi, ZIM!"
(Ding-ah ding-ah -- clankety-clank ----- mlaaaat!)
He tries the spell a couple of times, in front of Samantha and Endora, who stare at him like he's crazy. Getting really wound up, he hollers, "Don't try and stop me, Sam, she's been asking for this for a long time!"
Samantha says to her mother, with sublime incredulity, "Mother, have you been asking for this?!"
----------------- Lately when our president speaks, all I can hear is,
"yaga-zuzi, yaga-zuzi, yaga-zuzi, ZIM!"
And I think,
"My fellow Americans -- have we been asking for this?!"
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