Everybody Loves Justin

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where everybody knows your name

"Bullying is totally unAmerican."

~ Anthony Scaramucci

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     There's an interesting video on You Tube, 16 minutes -- title:

Scaramucci Urges GOP To 'Save The Country,' Speak Out against Trump |  Velshi & Ruhle


     Anthony Scaramucci highlights some perspectives that are unique and specific, and "big-picture."  It is worth listening to.

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     I read somewhere a while ago that Donald Trump was giving someone a tour of his New York apartment and he mentioned that Mrs. Trump sleeps in a separate bedroom because she likes to read at night before turning off the light.



     I wonder what she reads.

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     On the Guardian article, "The age of comfort TV:  why people are secretly watching Friends..." there are many Reader Comments that I found interesting:

^ People like to feel good.  The 90s were very optimistic, a new millennium, now the Nazis and the far-right became a thing again.


^ I remember the 90s being a nightmare:  square, overbearing, saccharine.
     Culturally things are getting better but think the return of the far right is a symptom of that....

^ "Parks and Rec" is one of the few .. where the Americans vaguely comprehend subtle humour.


^ I personally find it hard to get excited about the new hit show because, whether they're set in a mythical middle ages (GOT) or present day US, like HOC or Veep, they are basically all the same:  behind the facade everybody is powerhungry, perverted and corrupt.  It gets boring.  At least Frasier was kinda easy to watch.

^ This is spot on, behind the facade everybody is powerhungry, perverted and corrupt.  It gets boring.  It's like the writers can't write anything else and it is so predictable.

^ Is there really any higher value in subjecting yourself to the millionth violent unpleasant drama, disconnected from any lived or desirable reality, that tries to "shock" and vaguely traumatize you?  Does this help anyone?

^ I do some game design, making environments, which pretty much amounts to designing landscapes and architecture, and it occurs to me all the time that just exploring these places is entertainment enough on its own, if that's all you expect to get out of it.  Safe and beautiful spaces.  I wonder if stories really do need conflict, or if it's just what we're used to.


^ Is it really such a big mystery that people like to be surrounded by positive things?

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so no one told you life was going to be this way

        The Guardian (online) had an article today titled,

"The age of comfort TV:  why people are secretly watching Friends and The Office on a loop"

(sub-heading) -- We are in an era of 'prestige television', with unprecedented choice and quality.  So why are so many of us streaming endless reruns of 90s sitcoms?

written by Richard Godwin

----------------------- One of the Reader Comments said she likes to start binge-watching episodes of a favorite situation comedy, and "create a little bubble and totally tune out."

     ...Like Timothy Leary in 1966 advising everyone to "Turn on, tune in, drop out."

(Found this painting representing Timothy Leary -- but doesn't he look kinda like Alec Baldwin...?)

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"false promises to bring back a past that never was"

Reader Comment from SLATE today:

^ I honestly think people who pay attention to the "If it bleeds, it leads" media coverage become anxious over things that will probably never personally affect them.  The happiest people I know are totally clueless about world affairs.  They just go about their life, oblivious to it all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now, there's a Comment.

________________ It makes me think of the scene in Gone With The Wind where Scarlett O'Hara admonishes two of her admirers, "Fiddle-dee-dee!  War, war, war!  This war talk is spoiling the fun at every party this spring.  I get so bored I could scream.  Besides there isn't going to be any war."

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

"War, war, war!"


"Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"

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incorrect but oft-repeated

     On SLATE, there's an article titled

"After ICE"

sub-head:  On Aug. 7, immigration agents arrested 680 factory workers in Mississippi.  Here's what happened next.


Written by Henry Grabar
Aug 18, 2019      7:00 PM

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     Perusing the Reader Comments was interesting.

_________________________
COMMENTS


^ It's a distraction and nothing more.


^ If every immigrant, illegal or otherwise, were a white European we wouldn't even be having this debate.


^ Eh, we need someone to hate.  Without browns and blacks, we would be back to hating Italians and Irish people.  Without them, we would turn our attention to left handed people.


^ Yes.  If we solved the immigration issue, Republicans would have one less issue to whip their racist base into a frenzy with.

     It's getting harder and harder to keep the white masses voting for tax cuts for billionaires while you take away their health care!

     Stirring up hate and fear are really the only tools Republicans have.

^ The GOP platform today is basically that

no amount of spending to hurt people is too much,

but

any amount of spending to help people is too much.


^ Sadly true.  They won't even help the veterans they claim to love so much...


^ Republicans have forgotten what it means to be a republican since they are all intent on recreating the landed gentry from whence they fled.

^ ...there are (incorrect, but oft-repeated) arguments against immigration on both sides.


^ The solution surely isn't to rely on illegal labor then intermittently crack down on individuals.  That is a "solution" that is designed to not solve anything.


^ I wasn't alive in the '30s, and I didn't live in Germany, but the growing stench of fear closely resembles that described by surviving Jews, "Gypsies" and many other Undesirables of that time.

^ On the other hand, they might move on to another "villain" any time.  Who wrings their hands about the gays anymore?


^ Fundamentally, we are not going to "be tough" enough to end undocumented migration.

So far every attempt to do so has backfired.

And it would require something as draconian as China and North Korea to do so.

This is theater for the MAGA crowd to feel like someone is doing something for them against "those people."

(end, SLATE Reader Comments)
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     I was contemplating these Comments because some of them were expressing things I was noticing, too.

     For example, it sometimes appears that some people vote (and cheer at rallies) based on their idea/perception that a candidate is going to "get" somebody, on their behalf.  Not -- do something positive for their own life, but do something to harm or bash someone else.

     I find that puzzling and weird.  But that's how it appears.


     (Is is possible that WWE is having a negative influence on people's thought processes and emotional and intellectual health?)

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This is a poem written by Miller Williams, titled

"Of History and Hope"


We have memorized America,
how it was born and who we have been and where.
In ceremonies and silence we say the words,
telling the stories, singing the old songs.
We like the places they take us.  Mostly we do.
The great and all the anonymous dead are there.
We know the sound of all the sounds we brought.
The rich taste of it is on our tongues.
But where are we going to be, and why, and who?
The disenfranchised dead want to know.
We mean to be the people we meant to be,
to keep on going where we meant to go.

But how do we fashion the future?  Who can say how
except in the minds of those who will call it Now?
The children.  The children.  And how does our garden grow?
With waving hands -- oh, rarely in a row --
and flowering faces.  And brambles, that we can no longer allow.


Who were many people coming together 
cannot become one people falling apart.
Who dreamed for every child an even chance
cannot let luck alone turn doorknobs or not.
Whose law was never so much of the hand as the head
cannot let chaos  make its way to the heart.
Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child
cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.
We know what we have done and what we have said,
and how we have grown, degree by slow degree,
believing ourselves toward all we have tried to become --
just and compassionate, equal, able, and free.

All this in the hands of children, eyes already set
on a land we never can visit -- it isn't there yet --
but looking through their eyes, we can see
what our long gift to them may come to be.
If we can truly remember, they will not forget.

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

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all good

Do you know the difference between a Frenchman and a Jew?

     The Frenchman will leave without saying good-bye.
     The Jew will say good-bye but never leave.


-------------------------- Mel Brooks tells this joke to Jerry Seinfeld in "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee."


     One of the things I noticed about this internet series is that it looks very good -- the cinematography (or -- Internetography??) is extremely clear and bright, like jewels in sunshine.

     Another thing I notice is, I like all of the music Mr. Seinfeld uses on that show.  Music is to embellish background and assist in transitions -- a little here, a little there...(they don't attend a Rolling Stones concert or anything)... But there is music blended in to help make the entire smooth, bright, lovely show.  

     -------------- And every time I hear some music on there, it's something that I think is good -- it always sounds good.  I sometimes wonder whether it's music of real songs somewhere, or music in various styles -- jazz, etc. -- that composers wrote for this show.  I can't tell.

     It all sounds good.

     It all looks good.

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...I fear rivers overflowing...

On You Tube where I played "Bad Moon Rising" by CCR, I was drawn into a vortex of Comments...

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^ Goooooood morning Vietnam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


^ American Werewolf in London


^ Marge:  Homer give this man CPR
Homer:  Um - I see a bad moon rising
Marge:  That's CCR


^ I was looking for this comment

^ Looks like we're in for nasty weather


^ I was just talking about that


^ U got it mixed up that's family guy that came from

^ "Don't go out tonight coz it's bound to take your life.  There's a bedroom on the right." ....I really thought this was an anti-drink-driving song


^ I can still hear this through the headphones of my flight helmet as we flew night missions over the Mekong Delta in '69-'70.  CCR...best rock band of all time.

^ If the world ends, I'm gonna go on a ham radio and play this


^ I recently took a trip to Arkansas, and as I was traveling I was listening to a classic rock station.  When I came to the Mississippi, there was a large storm coming in on the horizon.  

I could see huge lightning strikes in the distance, it was just starting to rain, and I had heard multiple tornado warnings.  

And I kid you not, as soon as I was over the Mississippi and in Arkansas, with the huge storm coming in, the wind buffeting my car around, people out in their farm's fields quickly hurrying home, with all the tree branches whipping around, this song came on.


     It was probably the most awesome coincidence I have ever experienced, this song came on in the perfect state as I crossed the perfect river while the perfect storm came in, just like something out of a movie.  I half expected movie credits to start playing, I felt like I was heading into a murder mystery or some shit.

--------------------------- ^ Thank you for this idea, I am going to America and will stay there for decade until a tornado comes and I can hop in a black Chevrolet Camaro and chase it down thus the tornado picking me up and tossing me down the ground killing me instantly all while I'm listening to this song.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


^ Why is it so cheerful?!?!
Yet the lyrics are so dark


^ One of the best rock n roll songs of all time!  Love it.


^ Primary school assembly song... teacher would sit at the front of the hall with a guitar and we'd sing this one


^ Cool My favorite group of Rock Country.  I like to play their music with my harmonica and my keyboard.


^ Now it's just as relevant as the day it was released


^ hello yanks!  I am from across the pond.  How you doing?

------------------------- ^ Not well.  Our president is a Russian asset.


^ I heard this in my dad's truck and only remembered the lyrics "looks like we're in for nasty weather" - google is cool

^ As the rain worsened I lost my perception of time and self but was caught in a space of sound

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down to Memphis

Seven-Thirty-Seven comin' out of the sky

Oh, won't you take me down to Memphis

On a midnight ride? --

I wanna move.



Playin' in a travelin' band, yeah!
Well, I'm flyin' 'cross the land,
Tryin' to get a hand,
Playin' in a travelin' band....

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     "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" -- a Netflix show -- is simply a gentle pleasure.

     At the beginning of most episodes, Jerry Seinfeld shows the audience what car he is going to drive this time:  the cars are unique and interesting.  He tells you some background information about the car.

Then he drives the car to pick up the guest.  He had Don Rickles on, and Jerry Lewis too, when each of them was still alive.

He had Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, and some others -- I can't remember all the names.

They go and get coffee and have a conversation.  They talk about what's funny, why it's funny, what do we like in life, what do we care about, things that seem worth it but aren't -- or the other way around...


It is a very -- "easy," and laid-back show.  And educational.

Sometimes Seinfeld will say something that's exactly how I feel:  in one episode he says watching the tv series "Get Smart" had a big impact on him.  (Same, for me!)

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On You Tube, type in

CCR travelin' band

and play.

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so tired of the boo-hockey

     When I was working as a lobbyist to the state legislature in the '90s, capitol cafeteria conversation one day turned to a newspaper article:  the author had pointed out that in the current legislative session the three areas of most intense interest were schools, property taxes, and coyotes.  

And in the first legislative session in the 1800s after we became a state, the most urgently debated & legislated issues were -- schools, property taxes, and coyotes.

     On the national level, however, the issues are different because they are much broader -- having to do with the progress of humanity.


climate change

gun availability

election protection

stop harassment


------------------------------ I was trying to come up with a short list that they should work on.

     Under the heading of Climate Change, we could include a national infrastructure project -- fix roads and bridges and bike paths and foot-paths.

     Gun availability:  crazy morons may not have any.

     Elections:  no foreign interference; no voter suppression; end gerrymandering.  Anyone in Congress who allows these things, whether it's Republicans or Democrats, is automatically charged with treason and tried on television.

     Harassment:

no L.E. stalking or murdering the public;

and no pestering, abusing, or en-caging of any people at the border.  Either they're in or they're out.  Don't steal their children; leave them alone.  If Congress doesn't like people coming across the border, then send helpers to those countries where they have difficult conditions, fix the problems, and then people won't want to come here -- they'll be happy to stay in the beautiful country they are already in.

     If our government and industry really truly didn't want any immigrants coming into America on a -- shall we say -- informal basis -- they would have easily put a stop to it 60 years ago.  The reason they didn't and haven't is, they wanted cheap labor (just as long as it wasn't, like, their jobs).

     Now our government and politicians and corporations do a passive-aggressive tap dance --

(dah dah da-da-da-da-lah-dah)
Yes, we want very inexpensive workers so we can be more rich;
No, we don't like no body coming across the border --
Oops,
(dance, dance)
Look over there!
Squirrel!
(dancity, dance-dance)...

----------------------- They're putting on this show at the border in order to distract people and turn them against each other.

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     And speaking of Creedence Clearwater Revival -- go on You Tube and type in

CCR, Bad Moon Rising

and play.

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world gone beat

     Last week I typed in here, to listen to the Creedence Clearwater Revival recording of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" -- I  misspelled the band, I put "Credence" -- It's "Creedence."

     Another caveat -- on You Tube, there are some videos of that song that are 3 minutes long.  I was not referring to those, I was referring to the 11-minute "extended jam" ones.

     What a great song, no matter who sings it, even raisins, but CCR brought their own swamp-rock thing to it, and I didn't even know about that version until 1990 when I bought a CD of their Greatest Hits and it was on there.

     I can't believe such an outstanding recording can be "lost" somehow, but there was so much exciting music coming out -- all the time -- in the 1960s and '70s, you could miss some of it -- it just depended on what radio stations you had available to listen to, and what they played, etc.  It was catch-as-catch-can.  

TV performances here and there -- if you were home to see them ... and you could buy records, of course, but you didn't necessarily know what to look for, or where....

     It was like being lost in a jungle-desert-city of Sound where you felt like you were fortunate to hear some wonderful music, but you also had the uneasy feeling that you might be missing some things...  like -- you didn't have a "handle on" the whole phenomenon....

     Many artists and bands almost had their own whole genre --

Bob Dylan songs
Rolling Stones songs
Grateful Dead songs

Creedence Clearwater Revival songs...

     It's like -- whole worlds to be discovered and listened to.

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