So What Else is New?

With the Kavanaugh circus still in town (and adding more showtimes as we speak), I think it’s time to ramble through some other stuff that I’ve been sitting on for a while. Personal stuff… It’s been a couple months since I’ve “checked in” with you.

But first, let me take a minute to jump on this drug ad billboard I see at my subway stop every morning.

Couple of things at play here:

1.      What the @#$% is this supposed to treat? There’s all that information, typed in great detail, and you can’t read a freakin’ word of it. The billboard is across the train tracks from the platform, so it’s not like you can walk up close and get a better look. The disorder is right at the top and I couldn’t make it out until I took the picture and blew it up. And then there’s all the disclaimers! Who knows what it says in there? It could say in plain English: “This will cause monkeys to fly out of your butt,” but you’d never know unless you showed up on the platform with binoculars.

Apparently, this drug is for “Genotypes 1-6, not previously treated and without cirrhosis.” What the hell does that even mean? Genotypes of what? Best I can figure, it’s liver disorder, based on the cirrhosis mention. Who knows? But is that really the type of thing you need a billboard to advertise?

2.      The name… “Mavyret.” At first glance, I thought it was NavyVet, like it was for crusty old sailors. Who the eff came up with “Mavyret”?” They didn’t even focus-group this one. It’s like they needed a fresh name, so they pulled some Scrabble tiles out of the bag and went with that. Can’t argue with a 15-point score…

Also, what’s with the non-advertising name? “Glecaprevir/pibrentasvir. More Scrabble tiles; either that or it was named in honor of the Russian pairs ice skating champions.

“Now skating for the gold medal, Misha Glecaprevir and Irina Pibrentasvir!”

               It’s like they’re not even trying anymore. Anyway, that’s enough of that…

Going Yard

It’s been a couple months since I moved in with Sweetpea and it was clear right away that we had way too much stuff to keep; not to mention the duplicates. So all along, we planned to have a yard sale. We had it pegged for September 8^th. Sweetpea went up and down the street, trying to get others to put stuff out as well so we could advertise a Neighborhood yard sale.

A lot of people liked the idea, though not so much that they would commit to actually doing anything. A lot of other people were more than happy to give us their crap to sell for them. (NOT part of the deal.) Then the few people that did commit promptly backed out a few days later.

We put up the signs, I put an ad on Craigslist, and we hoped for the best.

Naturally, by the time the big day rolled around, the weather forecast was for rain most of the day. We were stuck because our subsequent weekends were already booked up with various activities, and we already had all the stuff staged for moving outside. We had to go through with it rain or shine, regardless of what the neighbors did. We started moving the stuff outside around 7:00 and were ready, as advertised, by 8:00.

 Ready for business!

About 15 seconds after I placed the last item, it started to rain. Because of course it did. Because we’d planned for it, we had a tarp and a couple of plastic tablecloths we used to cover all the porous items, which was most everything.

Rain delayed.

After an hour or so, the rain let up. I didn’t see any more “green” on the weather radar, so we uncovered all our wares and dried off everything that had gotten wet.

Ten minutes later, the rain began again, even harder than before.

P.I.S.S.E.D!!!

Although it was funny, even around all the covering and uncovering, people were driving by and checking out our stuff. We sold some of our “big ticket” items that way, like my 5-speaker home theater system and her karaoke machine.

Hour and a half later, the rain stopped again and we went back to it.

We never did get many “destination” shoppers; mostly it was just people from the neighborhood who happened by. We ended up doing OK, selling a lot of our larger items... We sold a number of things that we almost didn’t put out because we didn’t think anyone would possibly want them. You never really know what someone else thinks of your junk until you put it out there.

It started raining again around 1:00, which is when we planned to wrap up anyway, so we shut it down. By that time, we’d cleared about $150, which we felt pretty good about, considering how miserable the weather was. We may take another shot at it this fall. But this time, no signs go up until I see a weather report.

Crossroads

Earlier in August, we took a long weekend to visit Sweetpea’s brother and sister-in-law, on the Delaware coast. They live in a community that’s literally being built around them and the thing that got me was the street naming. This is an intersection just down the block:

Are you kidding me? They also had “Serenity Lane” further down the block.

I don’t think that’s the neighborhood for me. I mean, find me the intersection of Heathen Place and the Highway to Hell. Or at least this place:

And that “old school” is the School of Rock!

Game On, Game Over

I was pretty excited for the football season to start. My Steelers opened against the Brownies so I headed down to my local sports bar to watch the game. My game was opposite the Ravens game so I had no choice if I wanted to see it. Of course, I’ve been going there for the games even when the Steelers game is on local TV, just because it’s been fun. Hell, if I hadn’t been out to watch a game that was on TV, I never would have met Sweetpea!

Anyway, my favorite waitress met me at the door with a distraught look in her eyes and told me that the owner was no longer getting the NFL Sunday Ticket package, meaning no more out of town games. Because they did offer a 1-week trial period, she did have my game teed up for Week One, but it would be the last.

At least I didn’t have to scramble that day, but I was seriously pissed! They could have at least put something on their Facebook page, to keep people from wasting their time looking for football. The official line was that it had become too expensive, but I also know that the owner is a Fox “News” conservative and was aggressively unhappy about the Nike/Anthem-Kneeling thing and had been threatening to give up the Sunday Ticket all last year.

I couldn’t help but take it personally. I was like, “Fine, your bar, your rules, but you won’t see MY ass in here on Sundays again. I’ll find someone who will take my money.” (Not that I could tell him directly; he picked that time period to go on vacation.)

The Steelers are playing tonight on Monday Night Football, so yesterday, Sweetpea and I checked out our next best option. There’s a Chinese restaurant about two blocks from our house and it contains a huge bar with scores of TV sets, which include the NFL package. We’ve been getting take-out from them for ages, so I knew the food was good.

We got there about 15 minutes before kickoff and there was plenty of places to sit around the massive bar. But it was clear that this was not anything like the place we used to go. My old bar was in an old predominantly Jewish neighborhood. On football afternoons, it was a pretty mixed crowd; mixed races, mixed ages (although predominantly 40+).

Our new place? Might as well just call it the Dexter Lake Club. Out of 50-60 bar patrons, Sweetpea and I were literally the only white people.

 “Hey Otis!”

That’s why I wanted to do a test run when the Steelers weren’t playing. I wanted to be able to bug out if it got uncomfortable. I showed up wearing my Steelers cap and a Nike t-shirt just so there would be no confusion as to where my sympathies lie.

Didn’t really matter though… we had a great time. I’ll definitely go there again. It wasn’t much different than when I ride the Baltimore subway. Probably the same number of drunks there, too.

No one really paid us much mind other than those we were sitting directly beside. It was kind of weird though, sitting at a sports bar and watching all the orders of Chinese food rolling by. They also had the usual bar food, but most people went Chinese. It all looked good to me.

So, I expect that will be my new hangout for when my boys aren’t on local TV. I’ll let you know if anything noteworthy happens. Who knows, I may be the inadvertent key to racial harmony in this town.

“Nobody leaves this place without singin’ the blues!” (Adventures in Babysitting, 1987)

The Kavanaugh Karavan

The Kavanaugh SCOTUS nomination just got a whole lot more interesting, with the news that his party-rape-attempt accuser unveiled herself. No longer an easily-dismissed accusation from over 30 years ago, there is now a name, a face, and a lot of uncomfortable details to digest.

In a nutshell, California psychology professor Christine Ford says that when she was 15, she was at a party where a blind-drunk Kavanaugh (and another guy) dragged her into a bedroom, held her down, clamped his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream and tried to remove her outer clothing and bathing suit. She estimates they were 17 at the time.

At one point, the “other dude” jumped on the pile and knocked them all to the floor, which gave her the chance to get out of the room and lock herself in the bathroom, until the boys went away.

Now, when I first heard that there were high school-era accusations, my first thought was that I know I’d hate to be judged, in my 50s, by what I did in my teens.

HOWEVER.  Even at 17, I sure-enough knew not to pin girls down and try to rip their clothes off (and whatever else he had a mind to do next). Even drunk, even young, even desperate and hormone-fueled, decent people know right from wrong. This isn’t even close. There is no equivocation; this is wrong.

First of all, if true, this should be a disqualifier for a Supreme Court nominee. Second of all, of course it’s true. Do you think this woman came out in public lightly? Do you think she’s looking forward to the fun of a Congressional hearing about the most traumatic episode of her life? Of course not. No one does this for fun, fame or riches. She only went public because her identity was leaking anyway, and reporters were showing up to her home and classroom.

Her attorney said, “She is willing to cooperate. What she's not willing to do is to be part of this bloodletting that happens in Washington."

She knows she risks becoming the next Anita Hill; who remains a cultural punchline to every joke about pubes in the workplace.

The Republicans are already gearing up to make her testimony as grueling as possible. They already know she has a believable story, because:

·        She told her therapist and her husband about the incident back in 2012.

·        She tried to conceal her identity to avoid the spotlight (unlike someone who’s in it for the fame).

·        She took a polygraph test, administered by a former FBI agent, and passed.

They better tread carefully. The shit that flew during the Anita Hill testimony won’t fly now and they’ll come off like misogynist bullies.

Not that they care though… nothing is more important to GOP leadership than getting a hard-right conservative on the Supreme Court. That’s the whole reason they still support Trump, (now that they have their tax cuts in hand). They need one more of their guys on the bench to make sure their next legislative scams; voting ID laws, gerrymandering, limiting or overturning Roe, stripping environmental and banking regulations, ensuring dark money flows freely to campaigns… all see the final action of being upheld in the highest court.

Ford’s testimony must be compelling if anything is to change. Merely being inconvenient will not move Republicans off this guy. They literally cannot be shamed. They stood fast amid near-universal condemnation when stonewalling the Garland nomination, knowing the result, (another conservative justice rather than a moderate or liberal) would cement their political domination.

Kavanaugh is already running with the Republican playbook, by denying everything. Just this weekend, I read in Woodward’s book that Trump, himself, counseled a colleague, “When faced with accusations from other women, just deny, deny, deny. Never admit anything. Kavanaugh is a quick study.

Right-wing media is already going nuts about this being a “hit-job,” and arising with suspicious timing.

Timing? Let’s talk about timing. They are trying to ram this nomination through, withholding requested documents, limiting hearing times, accelerating the process, for the sole reason of getting him confirmed before the November elections. There are two reasons for this:

·        So they can campaign to their base about packing the court with their guys,

·        In case they lose control of the Senate and risk the Democrats doing exactly what the Republicans did to the Garland nomination.

I don’t think they care what we unwashed masses think, especially not Democrats. If this runaway train is to be derailed, it will only come from fear of losing elections. That means Republicans will have to make their views known that they will not tolerate an attempted rapist getting a lifetime appointment to a position that literally drives the direction of their lives.

But considering the people the GOP already supported, a statutory rapist in Alabama, a pussy-grabber and serial cheater in the White House, I’m not optimistic.

Power trumps morality in the conservative world. Morality only a club used to criticize others.

Odd Bits - The Patriotic Edition

The story of the week has to be the turmoil in the White House brought on from the Bob Woodward book, “Fear,” and the anonymous op-ed in the New York Times written by a “senior administration” figure, both describing the chaos in the oval office. The op-ed goes so far as to say the senior staff has to remove paperwork from his desk before he can damage national security by signing some order expressing the tantrum of the day.

First, let me talk about the op-ed. That one went off like a bomb because it was purported to be written by an administration insider and speaks for other unnamed White House staff members.

Naturally, there was a huge uproar in trying to figure out who wrote it. One by one, administration players spoke out or released statements denying they were the writer.

Early money had it pegged on the VP, because of the appearance of a word, “lodestar,” which Pence frequently uses. Then it came out that it is a common tactic of White House leakers to pepper their leaks with terms known to be used by others.

For example, if a leak read, “Fuckin’ Ivanka thinks she runs the fuckin’ place but she wouldn’t know her fuckin’ tit from a tort. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” everyone would assume the quote came from Bannon.

I think that instead of denying it, every person on staff should have come forward and say that he wrote it, like it was a Spartacus moment.

Or at least like a Life of Brian moment:

Or in this case,

Further leaks indicate that the Prez is tearing the place apart looking for the writer AND claiming he should have taken ownership.

Right. That’s what the writer should do right before he quits because once that’s public he’s gone… fired, and probably prosecuted under the Being Unfair to the President Act. (I’m thinking BUPA is one of those announcements that got lifted from the Resolute Desk.)

The most convincing sleuthing I saw attributed the op-ed to Jon Huntsman, Trump’s Ambassador to Russia. It says the writing style, moral code, and sphere of expertise is right in line the former Republican candidate for president. We’ll see.

Woodward’s book seems to be telling the same story as the Michael Wolff book, in overall point if not the same examples. And like “Fury,” it set off another round of press-bashing and criticism.

What Trump doesn’t understand is that this is what real journalists do. When Woodward publishes something like this, he has it cold or it doesn’t run. He’s used to “News” outlets like Fox, where they basically go, “It’s bad news for liberals? Run it!” Whether it’s true or not doesn’t factor in.

And just because a source is anonymous doesn’t mean it’s wrong. And as Woodward says, the sources aren’t anonymous to him. They’re also corroborated. If someone gives an anonymous account of a meeting, he finds out who else was at the meeting and confirms the story.

That’s how journalism is done at the highest levels, like at the New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, etc.

So even when Trump claims he never said those words, or that he doesn’t talk like that, you have to look at the process. First of all, his being paraphrased by others probably helped him sound like less of a dunderhead.

Second of all, unless the writer is in the room (where an event happens) with a recorder, getting information from others is always like a game of telephone. He must rely on the recollection of others. Even in confirming, it’s unlikely two people will recall a spoken line exactly the same way. It’s up to the writer to first and foremost capture the point, if not the exact phrasing. So pay no mind to the “I don’t talk like that” or “I never said those words” denials.

And obviously, all the staff and cabinet members will deny they said any of it. They have to if they want to keep their jobs. But that doesn’t make the information they provided, knowingly or unknowingly, wrong.

It’s also funny how Trump was lauding Woodward back when he was writing about Democratic administrations. But now that Woodward is pointing at him, he’s a hack. Got it.

Just further evidence that this guy will say anything at any time, as long as it suits him. He has no principles but his own self-anointed infallibility.

The sad part of this whole mess is that, in terms of fixing or changing anything, none of it really matters. The Republicans in Congress are not going to act against their president until their voters make them. And the GOP base thinks Trump is king and everyone else is lying. Or, they just want to be able to shit on non-white people again, like they did back in the good old days.

Even when Mueller files his report, I won’t put it past these clowns if they just shit-can it. They can literally keep this report from ever being made public. Mueller is investigating the president. Only Congress can remove him from office.

Judge Not

The other sideshow in town has been the Kavanaugh hearings. No doubt, he was well trained in the art of not saying a damned thing about what he thinks on any issue. And the Republicans are again engineering the process to their favor while doing the exact opposite from what they demanded from the Democrats when the tables were turned.

They withheld hundreds of thousands of requested documents from Kavanaugh’s time in the Bush Administration, and then release like 40,000 pages at 3AM, the night before the first hearing. The last thing they want is for any information about the guy’s background to leak out and give the public the chance to demand “no” votes from their senators.

Still, plenty has come out, like his belief that presidents are essentially above the law, and that Roe v Wade is not “settled law.”

That last one comes heavily into play because the Republicans need the votes from Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, both of whom support abortion rights. The judge made his case to both of them personally, assuring them that he considers Roe to be “settled.” However, recently unearthed emails of his say just the opposite.

Also, his nomination was cultivated by the Federalist Society, as was everyone on the list Trump used to choose his nominee. The Federalist Society is opposed to abortion rights and it is a guarantee that every judge on their list agrees with them. There is literally no mystery on Kavanaugh’s stance on abortion.

Right now, it appears to me that Senator Collins is tap-dancing furiously to maintain the illusion that Roe is safe with this prospective justice. First-hand accounts from visitors to her office say they’ve seen her staffers taking calls from constituents, telling them they’ll relay their concerns to the Senator, but not writing down or recording a single word.

I think Collins is already in the bag and is merely trying to save face, in the midst of intense lobbying pressure. If she (and Murkowski) vote down this nominee, they’ll be punished by the party leadership (and not to mention donors). If she votes “no,” next thing you know, she’ll be facing a well-funded challenger in the next primary.

Republicans are rushing the whole process because they know there’s a real threat of losing the Senate this November. And if they do, they’ll have no chance of getting a guy like this approved. And the Democrats will be especially salty about how the GOP robbed them of Merrick Garland’s rightful seat on the bench, by bending Senate rules and years of precedent to benefit themselves. There’s no reason the Dems should refrain from doing the same.

Just Boo It

The NFL started up again amid more Anthem controversy, this time instigated by Nike and their Colin Kaepernick ad. Much hue and cry came forth, of course, with zero new ground being broken. There’s still a giant swath of the country that finds it easier to claim offense rather than to see someone else’s uncomfortable point of view.

All this standing at attention and lapel pins and reverence for the flag and an old song… I call it Easy Patriotism. Adhering to it is easy and it costs you nothing in time, effort, or money. It’s shallow toadying; a way to say, “Look at me and how patriotic I am!”

You want to impress me with patriotism, stand up for the first amendment when it means having to hear something with which you disagree. Fight to have the rights granted by our Constitution applied to all, not just the white or the powerful or the privileged few. Demand that our leaders work for everyone, not just their rich donors.

People always claim they’re defending the military. You want to defend the military, stop permitting their use as a land and resources acquisition team. The military is for defending this country and its principles, which includes the right to disagree and to protest. And by “protest,” I mean protest where people notice. That’s the whole point! People have to notice.

Those saying, “Not here, not now,” really mean, “Not ever. Or at least not where I can see it. I don’t want to have to think about how others are getting beaten, arrested or killed, on account of not being white.”

Because then we might have to do something about it.

Robo-Racism

Last week, we heard about the racist dog-whistle that the Republican nominee for governor of Florida blew while running against an African-American opponent, when he told a crowd that they couldn’t afford to elect the other guy because he’d “monkey it up.”

I can’t even call it a dog-whistle. That was blatant. Naturally, he claimed that it was just an old expression, but there is no one in his generation or any to follow, who is not aware that any reference combining a black person and a monkey or ape is highly offensive by default, and steer way clear. Hell, Howard Cosell almost lost his career 35 years ago over the same thing and that was an accident. (It was a phrase he’d used on mic in the past, referring to both black and white players.)

With this particular door now swinging wide open, this weekend saw an escalation of blatant racism in politics. In both Iowa and Florida, residents began receiving racist robo-calls espousing principles of white power.

In Iowa, the calls were about deporting all the “invaders from Mexico,” and declaring that America should be white-only.

In Florida, the calls consisted of a caricature of a black dialect, complete with jungle noises, about how if they vote for the Democratic nominee, among other things, he’d make sure that no more black people go to jail.  

When I heard about both of these calls, my first thought was that they couldn’t have come from the Republican nominee or official Republican establishment. There’s no way they are that stupid that they would allow something so blatant. Even if, down deep, they agreed with the content and intent, they’d know that it would eventually be linked back to the source, which could not be allowed to be them.

I thought it sounded like the work of the Russian instigators because this is exactly what they do… drop firebombs into the culture and then fan the flames.

Eventually, I found where the source was identified, right off the bat, to some Nazi, white-supremacist group in Idaho, who runs a blog.

If the GOP is smart, they’ll try to rein these guys in. If these kinds of calls continue, there are a lot of people who won’t bother to find the source; they’ll just assume it’s the work of the new Republican party.

Or, maybe they’ll soft-pedal their opposition because deep down, they believe that white America is genuinely racist, and count on white fear to turn out in November. I guess it remains to be seen.

It could still be the Russians though. Maybe this is how they’re going to work this election year… by backing and funding others. Maybe they had access to phone lists from Iowa or Florida, or the technical capability to conduct a robo-call campaign. I have no idea how sophisticated the Idaho people are. I know if THIS blog ever wanted to conduct a massive phone campaign, I’d have no idea where to even start.

I’m calling it here… don’t be surprised if these calls get somehow tied back to the Russians.

That said, Happy Labor Day, and happy birthday to Bluz Sister, who turns… um… another year older on Tuesday.

Odd Bits - The Maverick Edition

Leave it to ol’ John McCain to leave everyone all riled up, even after his death.

I saw today that after flying the White House flag at half-staff over the weekend, the Trump Administration has it back up to full-staff already. The recent precedent, when such a dignitary passes, has been for it to remain at half-staff until the funeral. Just one more thing that if Obama had done it, there would have been seething rage pouring from the Right.

It was a shame that Senator McCain passed so soon. While I didn’t agree with his politics, he was a gentleman of conviction and class, and a throwback to when politics wasn’t a zero-sum game.

Everyone’s mentioning that town hall clip where he cuts off the lady blustering about how Obama was an untrustworthy Arab, telling her that he is a real American and a fine man, one with whom he has a difference of opinion.

Would that all politicians man-up and squash hysterical misinformation like that. Of course, it might have cost him the election, being all decent in the face of ginned up anti-foreigner propaganda.

Same with his refusal to “go negative” during the campaign. In the HBO movie “Game Change,” the story of the McCain/Palin campaign, his advisors implore him to drop the civility and go negative against Obama. Release the Palin and all the froth she could whip up.

John McCain refused, saying he wanted to run a civilized campaign and talk about the issues rather than denigrate his opponent’s name and character. I’m pretty sure that also cost him dearly in the election.

I respect his principled decision, but I fear he will be the last Republican to take such stand. The modern Republican base will not be happy with a campaign about mere policy. They’ll want blood. And “Lib tears.” And if they lose on that platform, hey, it’s just more evidence that George Soros and Hillary Clinton have the whole thing rigged, right?

Rest in peace, Senator McCain. At ease.

***

Selective Attention Rages On

Last week, authorities found the remains of Mollie Tibbets, that Iowa girl who had been missing for over a week. It had been a story on my Yahoo page, seemingly, forever. After all, the missing was a nice looking, white, college girl. Black girls go missing all the time without creating a national story.

And then, it turns out she was killed by an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Cue the nationalistic politicization machine!

 Yep, by objecting to children being torn from their families and put in cages, Democrats hate you and want you killed by the brown scourge.

Why is it that we can’t seem to entertain multiple thoughts at one time? Can’t we keep families intact (many of whom are not “illegal” at all, but merely seeking legal asylum), while still creating a rational immigration process that bars dangerous people from entering?

Note to Republicans: Being brown is not indicative of being dangerous. But the Right is so racist today, they try to give credit for Johnny B Goode to Michael J Fox.

The unspoken part here is that statistically, the number of people killed by illegal immigrants is dwarfed by the number of people killed by good old home-grown Americans. But no one is willing to do anything about that…

It’s like, “I’m Amurcan and I demand to be killed by only another red-blooded Murcan, preferably one who is using a Second Amendment-protected semi-automatic firearm. We can’t have these ferners coming in here and doing all the killing… that’s OUR job! Hooah!”

Case in point: we had another mass shooting this weekend. Another anti-social, sullen, white boy shot up a video gaming contest after losing his match. Whatever happened to just throwing your controller after getting blown out on Madden? Sheesh!

If only there was a “good guy” with a gun there, to fire back and totally not hit anyone else in a crowded, panicky room. But here we are again, with two dead, (plus the shooter via suicide) and over a half dozen more injured. Can’t you just smell the “freedom” in the air?

Funny how “freedom” usually smells like gunpowder.

***

Locally, there’s been some news around town that the City of Baltimore is trying to be better prepared to save people who fall in the water at the Inner Harbor. Walking to work this morning, I saw some new life preserver stations lining the waterway leading to the Harbor.

I think they have more work to do. Considering the quality of the Harbor water, they need fewer stations for life preserver rings and more stations for Silkwood Showers.

Music Associations

Following last week’s Springsteen post, I wasn’t going to write about music again so soon, but then I saw this graphic on Facebook:

I thought it looked like the makings of a fun post, so what the hell, I thought I’d give it a shot.

Director’s DVD Commentary: I’m answering these as songs I like, even when not specified, and not just as a trivia test. I will list song/artist/album (when known) and my rationale. Many of these songs I’ve mentioned here before, so look for the links for additional information.

1)      A song you like with a color in the title: Still Got the Blues, Gary Moore, (title track). Also considered Back in Black, but I like this slow, smoldering, soaring blues number better. RIP Gary Moore. Also reminds me of those several months where I was a regular in a little Schenectady strip bar.

2)      A song you like with a number in the title: I Can’t Drive 55, Sammy Hagar, VOA. Also 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. (j/k) Great driving beat for a great driving song. (Not the best, however, see #7.)

3)      A song that reminds you of summertime: Let’s Go, The Cars, Candy-O. I could really pick any song by The Cars. They were always a primo summer band to me. Lots of sunny-day, top-down music.

4)      A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about: The Dream, David Sanborn, Change of Heart. This was an instrumental jazz sax track that I always associate with that girl from Cleveland who put me through the ringer, both in the 80s and the 2000s. Nice song, but it’s impossible for me to separate the two.

5)      A song that needs to be played LOUD! Rock You Like a Hurricane, Scorpions w/ the Berlin Philharmonic, Moment of Glory. The power chords of the Scorpions meet the original heavy metal of a full symphony orchestra… this track ROCKS.

6)      A song that makes you want to dance: Shout, Otis Day and the Knights, Animal House Soundtrack. This was THE dance/party song of my college years. And of course, we all would do the “gator.”

7)      A song to drive to: Roll On Down the Highway, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Not Fragile. There are so many good “driving songs,” but this one is a favorite. You want to know frustration? Being stuck in traffic when this one comes on.

8)      A song about drugs or alcohol: I Ain’t Drunk, I’m Just Drinkin’, Albert Collins, Cold Snap. Great party song that came out just after we stopped having Barn Parties.

9)      A song that makes you happy: Let it Ride, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bachman-Turner Overdrive II. Always reminds me of when I saw them in concert in the 80s and they opened with this song. And it was stone cold perfect.

10)   A song that makes you sad: Keep Me in Your Heart, Warren Zevon, The Wind. It hurts every time I hear it. This was the last song Zevon recorded for his final album, made while battling terminal cancer. And I have a tight association between this song and my late friend, Brill, who introduced me to Zevon way back when.

11)   A song that you never get tired of: Up to my Neck in You, AC/DC, Powerage. I had this album for over 20 years before I really paid attention to this song and now I’m obsessed with it, due completely to that long, slow-building, simmering and explosive guitar solo. I yearn for the days when we used to go all out on the “air-guitars” during barn parties. I would have nailed this one.

12)   A song from your preteen years: Spirit in the Sky, Norman Greenbaum, Title Track. From a very young age, I loved that nasty, greasy, grungy guitar lick. The heck with the smarmy “uplifting” lyrics, this had a grooooove!

13)   One of your favorite 80s songs: Hells Bells, AC/DC, Back in Black. This was the song that opened the door to me for AC/DC. Believe it or not, at one time I hated them. Hell’s Bells made me rethink my position and I’ve been rocking out to them for almost 40 years.

14)   A song that you would love played at your wedding: Some Kind of Wonderful, Grand Funk, All the Girls in the World Beware. As a matter of fact, I’ll be getting married next summer and if we were playing music, I’d play this song. So far, it’s the only “Our Song” we have. Why? Because when we first started dating steadily, I hugged her and said, “My Babeh!” Then she said, “Mah Babeh!” And we went back and forth going “Mah Babeh” like they do at the end of the song. The fact that she picked that right up told me I had found the right girl.

15)   A song that is a cover by another artist: Jumpin Jack Flash, Aretha Franklin, Jumpin Jack Flash Soundtrack. Also, the same song by Johnny Winter. Both artists put their mark on it. Aretha belts it out with funk and gospel choir backing vocals. Johnny tears it up with a lot of yelling and a wicked, high-speed guitar solo. (RIP Aretha.)

16)   One of your favorite classical songs: William Tell Overture, Glen Campbell, B-Side to the Southern Nights single. Found this by accident. As a joke, I got my mom the Southern Nights single (she hated that song) but I found this on the back, with old Glen pickin’ it along with the orchestra. Hiyo Silver!

17)   A song you would sing a duet with on karaoke: Disorder in the House, Warren Zevon (with Bruce Springsteen), The Wind. I’d sing the Bruce part because it doesn’t require any actual singing. I couldn’t carry a tune with a forklift.

18)   A song from the year you were born: Hit the Road Jack, Ray Charles, (1961). I had to look up some songs from ’61 and among all the doo-wop and saccharin orchestral tunes, this was the one with the most “cool.” Brother Ray doesn’t play.

19)   A song that makes you think about life: You’ve got a Friend, Carole King, Tapestry. I had a hard time coming up with a song that makes me think about life. I ended up thinking about friends and how awful life would be without them. I have a number who would come running if I called their names, as would I if they called mine. That’s life. (OH! That totally should have been my song! That’s Life! (I’d go with the David Lee Roth version over Sinatra, though.)

20)   A song that has many meanings to you: Funeral for a Friend, Elton John, Goodbye Yellowbrick Road. I wrote a whole college paper on what I heard in this instrumental. It was the combination of mourning the loss of a loved one (during the slow/sad parts) and the fond remembrance of good times past (during the upbeat parts.) This was a favorite of my late friend Brill’s and mine. That he passed so young made the song all the more poignant to me.

21)   A favorite song with someone’s name in the title: Johnny B Goode, George Thorogood, Live: Let’s Work Together. As George calls it, “The Rock and Roll National Anthem.” Chuck Berry basically invented rock and roll with this song.

22)   A song that moves you forward: Ride On, AC/DC, Dirty Deeds. Who would have thought I’d find inspiration from these guys? But once, long ago, while feeling sorry for myself in a far-away hotel room, this blues ballad picked my ass up and stood me back on my feet. Got me moving again.

23)   A song you think everybody should listen to: Tanqueray, Johnny Johnson, Johnny B Badd. I have many of these, but this is one of the coolest songs I ever heard, yet hardly anyone knows about it.

24)   A song by a band you wish was still together. Don’t Pass Me By, Georgia Satellites, Open All Night. No question that the band was going to be the Satellites. It’s a cryin’ shame they only cut three albums. This was my favorite, a cover of an old Beatles/Ringo Starr song that they totally raved up.

25)   A song by an artist no longer living: Pride and Joy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Texas Flood. This song sent my musical taste in a whole new direction. One song, one time. I was hooked on SRV and the blues.

26)   A song that makes you want to fall in love: Moondance, Van Morrison, Title Track. First time I heard it was in the movie “American Werewolf in London,” during the love scene. Made me want to go take a shower with a cute nurse, immediately! (This activity proved to be more romantic in theory than in practice.)

27)   A song that breaks your heart: Into the Fire, Bruce Springsteen, The Rising. As mentioned in last week’s post, I bought the CD based on seeing Bruce and the band play it in concert (on TV). It’s still hard to listen to because it never fails to bring back the feelings of 9/11/2001.

28)   A song by an artist with a voice you love: Bat out of Hell, Meat Loaf, Title Track. Possibly my favorite song of all time. Powerful vocal performance amid pounding piano and howling guitars. I think Meat is the greatest rock singer of all time.

29)   A song you remember from your childhood: Zorba the Greek, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Going Places. I remember tons of songs from my childhood but this was a favorite. It’s a whole party in four and a half minutes. No wonder Greece is in such bad shape. Who can get anything done with all the dancing and “Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-yip-yip-yip?”

30)  A song that reminds you of yourself: Oreo Cookie Blues, Lonnie Mack, Strike Like Lightning. 

“Chocolate on m’fingers/Icing on mah lips

Sugar diabetes and/Blubber on mah hips

I keep the night light burnin’ in the kitchen, baby

So I can go downstairs and cruise…

I got da Oreo Crème Sandwich, Chocolate Covered Cream-Filled Cookie Blues.”

My Top Ten Bruce Springsteen Songs

A few weeks back, Sweetpea and I got into a conversation about our favorite Bruce Springsteen songs. Bruce is an artist we both like a lot, but it’s funny how profound our differences are about what we like.

On her part, she’s into meaningful lyrics, and so favors songs she can sink her brain into.

On my part, I see two distinct Bruces. I tend to favor Loud, Fun, Rock Party Bruce over Mumbly, Introspective, Navel-gazing Bruce. But when talk went to our Top Tens, I found I had a bit of both in there.

Now, I’m sure my list will rile a lot of life-long Bruce fans. I was never one of those. While I liked Born to Run, once I really listened to it, I didn’t give him much more thought until he took over the world with the Born in the USA album. I saw him on that tour in the Pontiac Silverdome and that performance colored my opinions about a couple songs.

So I’m basing my Top Ten not just on the songs alone, but their significance in my life and memories that they conjure up. I’m not saying these are his critical best, but they’re the ones I like best. Now without further ado, or like Bruce, without an opening act, here are my Top Ten Bruce Springsteen songs.

10) “Dancing in the Dark,” Born in the USA album, 1984. No, it’s not the greatest song in his catalog, but it was catchy, fun, and most importantly, hit the country like a nuclear bomb, raining down the magic of Bruce like so much radiation. This album came out at the onset of MVT and this was his first real music video, where he escapes the watch-cap-wearing mumbler image and debuts the buff, energetic all-American guy image. And to kick off the magic Springsteen touch, the cute girl he pulls out of the crowd to dance with him grows up to become Courteney Cox.

He may have been energetic in concert in years before, but only the people in attendance knew about it. This song and video broke him nation-wide, to the point that people from all generations knew about Bruce. The album went on to spawn seven Billboard #1 singles.

9) “You’re Missing,” and” Into the Fire,” The Rising album, 2002. The Rising was Bruce’s 9/11 album, coming out the summer after the twin towers fell. The last thing I wanted was to hear an album about 9/11, so I avoided it for a while. Then one night, I stumbled over a Springsteen concert on TV, in which he was playing his new songs.

Hearing both of these songs moved me to near tears. From the sad violin of You’re Missing to the haunting imagery of Into the Fire, the spare message of unresolved pain was searing. I got up from the couch, went to the computer and ordered the CD that night. These songs are so powerful, I rarely listen to them anymore, but I’ll never forget them. When I hear Into the Fire, all I can think about is this photo:

“Up the Stairs, into the fire…”

8) “Jungleland,” Born to Run album, 1975. I never even heard this song until well into my college years in the early 80s. I was listening to a lot of Meat Loaf at the time and this 9-minute opus seemed to fit right in, with its drastic tempo-changes and rock opera energy. And I loved how Steven King quoted from it and referenced it in the title of perhaps my favorite book of all time, The Stand.

7) “Born to Run,” Born to Run album, 1975. I loved the desperation of the lyrics, the great release of rock and roll energy, and the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-ala-Phil Spector production. This was Bruce’s Bat Out of Hell. (Like I said, I was listening to a lot of Meat Loaf.)

6) “Badlands,” Darkness on the Edge of Town album, 1978. I was never drawn to this song until I saw it played in concert. It was this one bit that I loved, in the bridge, where at each break in the lyric, drummer Max Weinberg would nail this huge bass drum strike. Like:

“Talk about a dream [BOOM]

Try to make it real [BOOM]

You wake up in the night [BOOM]

With a fear so real…” [BOOM}

I’ll never know how Max gets such a huge sound out of such a tiny drum kit. Good sound tech guy, I guess.

Photo credit

5) “Downbound Train,” Born in the USA album, 1984. Bruce sings the blues. It’s not as rockin’ as I usually prefer but he does such a great job of making you feel the sadness of the character facing the emptiness of his heart. It was riveting in concert.

4) “Stand on It,” Born in the USA album, B-side single, 1984. This was the B-side of the Glory Days single and in my book, far outshines the A-side. Stand on It is a 50s-inspired rock and roll romp, with a bouncy bass line and killer piano laid down by “the Professor,” Roy Bittan. This song would be a natural for swing dancing. Here, see for yourself…

3) “Trapped,” USA for Africa, 1984. This was Bruce’s contribution to the USA for Africa/We Are the World album. It was a song by reggae star Jimmy Cliff, that Bruce did as a live cut. And live is where it thrives. I love the massive volume changes between the soft verses and the slamming chorus. Backup singer and future wife (at the time), Patti Scialfa cuts through the sonic field like a laser with her background vocals.

2) “Cover Me,” Live 1975-1985 box set, 1986. I always liked the original, from the Born in the USA album, but the live version is far more powerful. When I saw it played live, you didn’t even know what song it was from Patti’s “Nowhere to run to baby/Got nowhere to hide…” intro, not until Bruce came in with an echo-effected, strobe-lit “Cover me…”

In the live version, the guitars howl louder, the bass pounds, and the drums thunder, just the way Bluz likes it!

1) “Further On (Up the Road),” The Rising, 2002. Bruce’s 9/11 revenge song, the one that said, after of all the heartbreak and fear, the tears are dried and now it’s time to go and get some.

“Got on my dead man’s suit, and my smilin’ skull ring

My lucky graveyard boots, and a song to sing

Got a song to sing, to keep me out of the cold.

And I’ll meet you further on up the road.”

This one starts starkly, with only Max’s hi-hat and snare drum beat, and as the song progresses, more instruments get laid on until the sonic field is jam-packed with guitars, mandolins, and huge backing vocals.

Other Bruce “Honorable Mention” moments, (in no meaningful order):

1. Contributor, “We Are the World,” 1985. I think his part redeemed the whole thing, because face it, this song was pretty lightweight and sing-songy. Then when it comes to Bruce’s turn to echo the chorus, he brings that lion’s roar of his to the show and provides a little vocal firepower.

2. Backing vocals and guitar on Warren Zevon’s “Disorder in the House,” 2003. When Warren Zevon was diagnosed with a fatal lung disease, he went directly into the studio and began what would be his last album, “The Wind.” His rock star friends came out in force to contribute whatever was needed to the effort.

Bruce showed up to provide vocal accompaniment on Disorder in the House, and play electric guitar, including three long wild-ass solos. After as he wound up his third one, Zevon looked up at him from the control panel and said with mock amazement, “You ARE him!” You can see for yourself right here:

3. My Ride’s Here, (live) “Enjoy Every Sandwich,” 2004. Following Zevon’s death, an album was released of various artists performing Zevon songs. Bruce and the E Street Band contributed a soft, affectionate version of “My Ride’s Here.” You can hear the love for his friend in his earnest introduction.

Note: The album title was taken from a comment Zevon made to his close friend, David Letterman, who asked how it felt to live with a fatal diagnosis. Warren said something like, “It makes you want to enjoy every sandwich,” meaning, appreciate the little things in life.

All Photo-Ops Are Not Created Equal

Perhaps you’ve seen this meme on Facebook.

Here’s why it’s complete bullshit.

1)      It’s a president’s job to meet with world leaders, no question. You can see by each of the first five shots that these were informal photo-ops, not two leaders having secret meetings. And a shot of Trump acting like a comrade of old Vladdie wouldn’t have been a big deal either if that’s all there was. When all the leaders are pouring out of a G-8 meeting, people mix and pose for photos. That is indeed, fine.

2)      Prior to the first five photos, there hadn’t been overwhelming evidence shown that Russia had hacked private political emails and released them to damage one political party. Further, we hadn’t yet seen evidence that Russia had engineered a social media campaign to divide the country, sow unrest, and ultimately back one candidate over another. Also, Russia hadn’t forcefully annexed Crimea or sent fighter jets to counter our military operations in Syria.

3)      None of the people in the first five shots had a private, one-on-one, meeting with Putin, in which there were no witnesses (save for translators), and with no transcriptions of the meeting made available to the public or even other Cabinet members. All we know about what went on in that meeting comes from the comments of two seasoned liars, both of whom will tell whatever story suits their purpose at any given moment.

What we have here is another logical fallacy of false equivocation. Five of these examples are nothing like the last one, therefore any comparison is misguided. But the creators don’t care about that; they just want their base to get pissed off about it and blame the media.

This country is careening down a dangerous path right now, with all the drummed-up antipathy toward the media, social and otherwise. To this president, any media outlet that’s not fawning over him, not telling everyone what a great job he’s doing, is “The Enemy.”

Journalists are doing what they’ve been doing for centuries, reporting on what politicians do and say, and are receiving state-sanctioned death threats for it.

I’m certainly not the first to warn that the prosecution and suppression of journalists is a primary tool of dictators. I can’t understand why the Right, supposed to be so super-patriotic, is determined to shred one of America’s founding principles. Their tribalism run amok is stripping this country of the very greatness they pretend to revere.

Sad.