on the way to Jupiter

 

James Stewart, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn

in The Philadelphia Story

When I see a Comments section under an article on the Internet, the things I enjoy about it include the names of Commenters -- some of them maybe the person's actual name, and some of them screen names; also the location of the person -- New England; Evanston, Illinois; Paris, France, etc.

        And then I also enjoy the substance of the Comments.

Last month the New York Times ran a review of Bob Dylan's new book, The Philosophy Of Modern Song, and the 680 Reader Comments underneath were like an early Christmas present for me.

____________________________

Jim

Newburgh, NY

Although I am a long-time and frequent imbiber of all things Dylan, I am blown away by these excerpts.  Yes, they echo previous projects, most notably Theme Time Radio, but they are so fresh in content and in style.  

What a delight to be alive when our modern Bard is still writing music, releasing recordings, performing on stage, and writing books!  Dylan is one of the few bright spots in our era of growing darkness.  

        In fact, maybe he's why "it's not dark yet."  Then again, "it's getting there."

Danny Blue

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Dylan is FUN, something that others may miss when discussing such an immense figure of the past 60 years.  Both his writings and song lyrics have always been impressionistic, wildly entertaining.  

        This capacity for being "fun," is no doubt a result of Dylan not taking himself as seriously as his fans and critics are wont to do . . . .

Jon

Ann Arbor, Michigan

George Harrison was once asked whether he thought the Beatles music would last.  "I think we'll be around for a while" he said, "but they'll be listening to Bob on the way to Jupiter".

2REP

Washington state

The first time I heard Bob Dylan was in December 1965, in the central highlands of Vietnam, in a tent at the First Cavalry Division (Airmobile) base camp at An Khe.  

A guy in my squad had a tape recorder, and he loved "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35."  

        I was 18.  I thought it was the weirdest song and the weirdest voice I'd ever heard.  I have been a fan ever since.  

Sometimes that song just pops into my head.  

I'm 75 years old.  Every time I hear that song I think of that time, that place, and those guys, so many years ago.  "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!

        ♫♫ ♪♪

Washington state;

Lancaster;

Newburgh... All these places in America, and in the world; you listen to the sound of their syllables and imagine what kind of lives are lived in those places and what people smile about...

Ann Arbor.

I like the sound of that city's name.

In The Philadelphia Story, James Stewart's character tells Katharine Hepburn's character that he is from South Bend, Indiana.

Katharine Hepburn says -- almost sings -- "South Bend!  It sounds like dancing ('daunce-ing'), doesn't it?"

        That's how I feel about "Ann Arbor"....

-30-

end of the beginning

 

Opinion

Guest Essay

What Has Happened to My Country?

Nov. 7, 2022

(NY Times)

3 reader comments

Interested Citizen

NYC

I think it shows how fragile stability is in the world and how easily - how incredibly easy - it is, and always has been - to manipulate "the masses" and descend into a mob mentality.  Those of us who came of age in the previous century just happened to live in a bubble of stability.  Many of us just didn't realize it was the exception and not the rule.

Antoine

Taos, New Mexico

I'm inclined to believe that the great "American Experiment" has failed.

T.S.

New England

I ask the same question.  

What has happened?  

A group of my friends and myself gather about once a month on Sundays to watch the NFL games and Red Sox in the summer.  We have been doing this for over 30 years.  

        Conversations were political on occasion and always civil.  

Starting around 2015 things slowly began to turn.  It began with one guy's dislike for Obama.  Month by month it festered into hate.  He has total belief in the very worst things that have been said about Obama on the radio.  There is no way to reason with him.  

When Trump came along each one has fallen into the rabbit hole.  

They are all now in lockstep with right wing media and are all hardcore election deniers.  One is now so militantly anti-face mask that he harasses strangers for wearing them and brags about it.  

Years ago, he was not remotely like this.  ...I am quite dismayed for what has happened to my friends and quite worried from seeing how common this has become.

_______________________________________

        Liz Cheney (Wyoming) says Donald Trump will not be president ever again.

        I'll listen to her.  She has more knowledge and insider-info than I do.

On You Tube there's a video titled:

Full Cheney:  'If Donald Trump Is The Nominee Of The Republican Party, The Party Will Shatter'

uploader / channel:  NBC News

It's this past Sunday's Meet The Press, I think.

It is worth a listen.  We can learn what's been happening while making a salad.

_____________________________________

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

When I started freshman year at Boston University I walked from the dormitory where I had a Bob Dylan poster on the wall above my bed, to the bookstore where I could buy the books for my classes.

        I saw a paperback book titled Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye written by Kenneth O'Donnell and Dave Powers.  It was not expensive, and I could buy it, so I did -- and brought it back to my dorm room along with the books on the syllabus.  I had not been thinking about Kennedy, or wanting to shop for extra books, but I saw it and felt that I needed it.

excerpt -------------------

ONE

The End of the Beginning

Our memories of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy go back from Dallas over seventeen crowded years to the winter of 1946 in Boston, when he was a young war veteran getting into politics for the first time in a free-for-all fight for a vacant Congressional seat.... 

        But when Dave Powers and I think of John Kennedy now, we both remember him as he was on the Thursday morning of November 21, 1963, when he was leaving the White House to go to Texas.  That day before he died was a good day, when he was looking forward eagerly to his best years.   Everything seemed right for him, and for all of us.   

As he said at the time, quoting one of those obscure Victorian English poets only he seemed to know and remember, "Westward, look, the land is bright."

-30-

ripe

 

(I was wondering what a weasel looked like...)

Bloomberg

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

 | |  Billionaire Jerry Jones, the owner of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, is one of three business executives who each donated $500,000 to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's campaign in the final weeks before the Nov. 8 election.

The contribution from Jones is the largest he has ever made in a Texas statewide election, according to filings from the Texas Ethics Commission dating back to 2000.  The governor also received half-a-million-dollar donations from billionaire Ken Fisher of Fisher Investments and oil mogul Syed Javaid Anwar, the founder of Midland Energy Inc.

Messages left for Jones, Fisher and Anwar weren't immediately returned. ------------------- [end, article-clip]

Abbott is the Texas governor who, the same week as the Uvalde shooting, said he was going to go ahead and attend the NRA convention and give a speech.

        Then the next day he said he would not attend, out of respect to the parents who experienced the school shooting tragedy.

        Then he ended up taping himself talking and sent that to the convention.

        (I was going to compare his behavior to that of a "weasel" -- you know, the expression? -- but then thought, I'm not sure the Weasel Community deserves to be defamed in this manner....)

        'More guns is what we need' seems to be his belief -- and it seems like it kind of naturally leads to 'more shootings is what we need.'

I wouldn't vote for this person if I lived in Texas, but he'll probably get re-elected.

        I remember Chris Matthews saying, and repeating once for emphasis, "Things are the way they are because the politicians want it that way."

        And we could add to that:  "And the people want it this way."  Because "we" vote them in.

But then someone will make the point that our votes don't count because Republicans have gerrymandered states so that instead of the voters picking candidates, candidates pick their voters.

___________________________________

New York Times reader comments

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

My2Cents

NYC

This has been Russia's agenda all along.  I'm surprised that we are surprised.  Their goal was to install as much chaos as possible -- elections, culture wars, etc.  Most importantly, it should be asked why certain news outlets are promoting Russia talking points and how we allow social media to amplify those points all in the name of free speech.

GFM

Ft. Collins, Colorado

Point taken, but the Russians are latecomers to the game.  Rupert Murdoch is the true architect of polarization in this country.  He recognized almost 30 years ago that a huge block of US voters never read, ever, and were ripe for manipulation and propaganda.  

        His formula was merely copied and granularized by Russia into social media, where Zuckerberg et al were more than glad to profitably help out.  Murdoch is the real seditionist, even more so than Trump, and should be in jail 40 times over.

        

Ethan Allen 

Vermont

The answer to the question posed by the headline is - a slow motion coup, staged unapologetically and in plain sight over 40 years, which anyone paying attention could see if they cared to.

However, too many people have spent the intervening years wringing their hands and expressing their 'optimism' and faith in the people of our nation.

And it has been this kind of willful Pollyanna-ism in the face of all evidence to the contrary that has paved the road to our collective perdition.

Just as the current stark choice makes clear that a vote for any candidate but a Democrat is a vote for autocracy, it is equally clear that any choice to reside in (or even visit) a red state is a vote against the Union, a vote for tyranny, and a vote for a rematch of the civil war.

Gustav

Durango

Human Nature has not changed in the last 40 years.  So what has?  Fox News and Rush Limbaugh ushered in this era of disrespectful discourse, fear-mongering on a widespread scale, and disinformation.  

1987 is when it started when Reagan stopped enforcing the Fairness Doctrine and then vetoed Congress' efforts to make it into law, actions which have now reached their disastrous conclusion.  

Some presidential mistakes are more existential than others.

New York

I share your fear.  And I feel particularly bad for young Americans, including children, who are growing up in an environment of political violence, and hate.  They are not witnessing good behavior in adults.  I do hope, at some point, more rational, mature, voices are heard, and heeded.

-30-

Sweet Al Monte

 

James McEachin; Clint Eastwood

Hey, hey, you're digging

the master jock for solid rock...

...Sweet Al Monte blasting, babies.

Being bold and pouring coal on KRML

in quaint little Carmel-by-the-Sea.

We're next door to magnificent Monterey,

home of the annual jazz festival.

Although it's four months away,

you got to get your tickets...

...because they're going fast

and it can't last.

The time is 9 pm

and there's a breeze of 52 degrees...

...around your loving hips,

and there's a taste of fog.

I say we got a bowl of soul,

and if you think your heart can take it...

...come fly higher with The Heavy!

Now we're gonna wrap it up

for the week, folks.

A brand-new release from the funk capital

of the world, Squeeze Me.

Here he comes, the big "D" himself,

Dave Garver.

And Dave is gonna bring you

five hours of mellow groove.

In the meantime,

this is Sweet Al Monte saying:

"Hang in there, babies, because everything

is going to be everything."

'Bye.

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

That's opening dialogue (or monologue, rather) in the 1971 movie Play Misty for Me.  This DJ character is portrayed by --

James McEachin.

born in North Carolina

veteran of the Korean War

television and film actor, 1960s - '90s

author of several novels and a book of short stories and essays

-30-

when The Big Easy was a Windy City

 

I was looking for photographs of Conway Twitty and boy, when you look at the images there's melancholy in his eyes, even when he is smiling.

Listening to an Internet video, I heard someone recount the story -- after Hurricane Katrina someone criticized then-President George W. Bush because relief was slow in getting organized -- and Kanye West added, "Well that's because President Bush doesn't care about black people."

        Someone in the White House informed the president, "Kanye says you don't care about black people," and Bush got mad and demanded, "Who is this Conway?!"

________________________________

a poem about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina:

"New Orleans Remains"

by Dean Alan Cook

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

Triumph over Tragedy

do we not all root for Triumph

How sad are the many tragedies

Take the City of New Orleans

One of the truly great American cities

The only one of its kind

Celebration and Sadness

we all want the celebration

No one roots for sadness to prevail

The city has seen its share of both

but the heart and soul continue

For this city will not die

Citizens and Others praying for successes

Chasing away the blues

How can it be

that I love this town so

Show me the beauty

and I will understand the opposite

Show me the opposite

and I will search out the beauty

I want to be one of her people

-30-

there's a lot of ways of sayin' what I want to say to you

 

George Will

Conway Twitty

"The Republican Party used to be a conservative party with a lunatic fringe.

Now it is a lunatic party with a conservative fringe."

~ George Will

______________________________

After writing here yesterday, a few hours later I started thinking, "Did I even say the reason why those two kids weren't allowed to stay at school when we were having a holiday celebration?"

        I kind of got going with the story, and may have leaped ahead and forgot to put all the info.

The reason they had to leave before any holiday parties was because they were Jehovah's Witnesses, and they don't believe in taking part in any celebration that isn't centered around Jesus Christ.

        So then I thought -- well, but wouldn't Christmas be a holiday they would celebrate?  But no, they have something against that, too -- their tradition says Christmas is based on some pagan holiday from earlier times, so it's not OK for them.

        Years later I knew a guy at work who was a Jehovah's Witness -- we did the Morning Show at the country music radio station together.  I remember there were certain things that he would say were not quite OK -- for example, the song, "I'd Love to Lay You Down".

        I think we played it anyway, though.  It was in the radio station's collection.

________________________

On You Tube, find:

Conway Twitty -- I'd Love To Lay You Down

uploader / channel:  CountryMusicFan8

...and Play ♪ ♪ ♫ !

-30-

mystifications

 

Holiday season is upon us:

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Christmas

New Year's.

Everything coming at us in a string of events.

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

A few days ago I listened to a You Tube video of a man explaining how he decided to leave the Mormon faith.  I was letting it play while I wrote -- and I wasn't writing about Mormons, I was just having the video on as background.

It was a pretty interesting thing, because of the way he had to think it all out, and all the beliefs and traditions he had to consider and "weigh" against other considerations of how he wanted to live.  He made the decision after getting married -- to another Mormon -- when their first child was born, he went into deep thought about how he wanted his son to live, and to understand the world.

        He said it was incredibly difficult.

        After listening to that, and then having Halloween coming up on Monday of this week, it reminded me of being in grade school in northeastern Ohio, and there were two children, a sister and brother, who always had to leave class before we had a Halloween party, or a Thanksgiving play, or Christmas gift-exchange and party.

There would be all these plans and preparations and everything -- and decorations all over the classroom for whichever holiday it was.  And those two kids would have to leave and miss it all!

        Now, these weren't Mormons -- they were Jehovah's Witnesses.  (The one reminded me of the other....)

Anyway, I hadn't thought of that in years.  It was not horribly upsetting or anything -- but I do remember feeling kind of sorry that they couldn't participate in the holiday activities.  I felt like, "Geez, why can't they have any fun?"  

        And I felt that little small chill of perplexity with a murky shadow of apprehension, as the classroom door was opened and the one sibling would be standing out in the hall and the other one would get up from the desk in our class and walk out and -- they would -- leave the premises, I guess.

        We assumed their mom or dad picked them up.

Strange thing now, I cannot remember if it was the brother or the sister that was in my class -- I just have that memory of them leaving.

        Exodus.

        It was the Pre-Ghost Exodus.

-30-