Ramblin' with Roger

June rambling: wealth to the top

Henry Johnson

The Republican budget shifts wealth to the top, with workers paying the price. A new congressional analysis reveals massive tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, while working families are expected to shoulder cuts, tariffs, and rising costs under GOP economic plans. ITEP analysis.

America is a scam

Peace through… by Sharp Little Pencil

The Rot Goes Deeper Than FOTUS: Just winning the next set of elections won’t fix the underlying problems.

West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate

DOJ keeps busy suing states for not being bigoted enough

If Blanche Were Here by Sharp Little Pencil

The Court fails transgender youth.

Hard Truths About Immigration by Adam Ragusea, a podcaster/content creator to whom folks usually look for tips on the best way to cook dinner

Congresswoman Kim Schrier (D-WA) questions our Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Asked to flag ‘negative’ National Park content, visitors gave their own 2 cents instead.

World of Ideas

Bill Moyers, the longtime PBS and CBS Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker, dies at 91. “He showed a generation of journalists, scholars, and public intellectuals what it means to speak truth to power.” I have his book World of Ideas and its sequel in my office, at arm’s length.

We Don’t Have To Give In To Smartphones. They haven’t defeated us. Yet. By Jonathan Haidt, Will Johnson, and Zach Rausch

That’s It, The F-Word Is Officially Boring

The unexpected package Mark Evanier received was probably brushing

I Was A Juror On A Murder Trial (possibly related: just this month, I filled out a survey to be on jury duty)

The Hollywood Blockbuster They Forgot To Copyright

Six Miles of Field Goals

Now I Know: The Earth’s Great Bear Coincidence and The Original Slush Fund and How to Watch Golf During a Basketball Game (Maybe) and The Girl With Twin Fathers and The Restaurant With A Rotating Grandma On The Menu

SCOTUS

The Supreme Court restricted the ability of federal judges to issue broad nationwide freezes on executive orders, a significant victory for FOTUS that opens the door for states to at least temporarily enforce his order ending birthright citizenship.

Justice Sotomayor’s dissent, in part. “The Government now asks this Court to grant emergency relief, insisting it will suffer irreparable harm unless it can deprive at least some children born in the United States of citizenship…

“No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates. Today, the threat is to birthright citizenship. Tomorrow, a different administration may try to seize firearms from law-abiding citizens or prevent people of certain faiths from gathering to worship. The majority holds that, absent cumbersome class-action litigation, courts cannot completely enjoin even such plainly unlawful policies unless doing so is necessary to afford the formal parties complete relief. That holding renders constitutional guarantees meaningful in name only for any individuals who are not parties to a lawsuit. Because I will not be complicit in so grave an attack on our system of law, I dissent.”

Justice Jackson adds, “The Court’s decision to permit the Executive branch to violate the Constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law.”

RENAME

From here and elsewhere: “Henry Johnson of Albany, N.Y., was a genuine war hero — recipient of the Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor, and the first American to receive France’s highest award for valor. President Theodore Roosevelt called him one of the ‘five bravest Americans’ to serve in World War I…

“This [month], news came that Johnson’s name will be stripped from the U.S. Army fort [in Louisiana] that was named for him, part of the Trump administration’s decision to revert to names that honor military leaders of the Confederate States of America who waged war against the United States.”

Technically, “according to a press release on the Army’s website, the renaming of Fort Johnson will now pay homage to a World War II colonel and Silver Star recipient, James H. Polk, as opposed to [Confederate General] Leonidas Polk.” But this is a sham.

46th District New York Senator Pat Fahy, a Democrat, says that the news “felt like a gut punch.” “It is shameless, and it is it’s, you have to call it what it is. This is clearly trying to whitewash the history, clearly a complete dishonor…

“To help re-stake claim to that legacy, Fahy, Assembly colleagues Gabriella Romero of the 109th and John McDonald of the 108th, along with Republican Senator Jake Ashby of the 43rd district, have introduced legislation that would rename the Patroon Island Bridge after Johnson.

MUSIC

Lalo Schifrin, Acclaimed Composer of ‘Mission: Impossible,’ ‘Mannix’ Themes, Dies at 93

Lou Christie, Lightnin’ Strikes and Rhapsody In the Rain Singer, Dies at 82

In honor of Dr. Demento: The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati

Bobby Sherman, Teen Idol and ‘Here Come the Brides’ Actor, Dies at 81

Best Albums of 2025 (First Half)

Caledonia – VOCES8

Coverville 1535: A Rick Derringer Tribute and Spandau Ballet Cover Story, and 1538: Cover Stories for Air Supply and The Zombies

The Joker – Lady Gaga

MAYBE HAPPY ENDING’s Standbys Sing ‘The Rainy Day We Met’; Hannah Kevitt and Christopher James Tamayo are the standbys for Claire and Oliver

Sour Times – Portishead

Peter Sprague Plays Hurricane Country and A Felicidade featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Big Spender – Sam Phillips

God Almighty’s Gonna Cut You Down – The Jubalaires –

6 Underground – Sneaker Pimps

The Longest Time by Billy Joel, Julien Neel, Dan Wright, Sam Robson, and COVID-era Zach Timson

Defying Gravity – Brittain Ashford

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, from the Disney film Fantasia 2000

God Only Knows – the Beach Boys

Heaven – Bryan Adams

Lassie 1959 Opening and Closing Theme (With the Lone Ranger Snippet)

Remembering James Horner (1953-2015)

Book: Daniel de Visé’s ‘The Blues Brothers’

Sunday Stealing — Just Another Manic Monday

Beethoven

World Almanac 2016 Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This week, we return to steal again from Manic Monday, a blog that is no more.

Just Another Manic Monday. Bangles

1. What is something you should throw away, but just can’t bring yourself to part with?

Old reference books. I have three different versions of The Complete Primetime Network and Cable TV Shows because the older versions have charts in the back that aren’t in the newer ones. I keep my Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles book from 2008, even though I have the one that ends in 2022, because the older book fits on the shelf in front of me, while the newer one is taller, heavier, and thus more challenging to get to.

Of course, old reference books have a certain historical beauty. Atlases, in particular, are fascinating because they show the national borders after the two World Wars. Africa in 1958 and 1973 was radically different.

When I used to get the World Almanac, I used to hold onto the ones showing the results of the Presidential elections every four years, in 1973, 1977, 1981, et al. I would check out how specific lists would change: who are considered “celebrities,” what are the world’s largest cities?

2. When you make yourself a sandwich, do you cut it on the diagonal, straight up the middle, or not at all?

Diagonal, of course. One can never have too much hypotenuse.

Music!

3. What song or sound brings back memories of childhood?

Impossible! I’ve probably spent two decades writing about it in this blog. But okay, I’m looking at sounds that are sometimes part of the whole.

The first 15 seconds or so of the Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC News was the beginning of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Second Movement.

The Captain Kangaroo opening.

The last minute of the end credits of West Side Story, especially at 4:30, which never fails to make me weep.

The vocal third progression of the Beatles’ version of Twist and Shout from about 1:24.

Holy, Holy, Holy – the first song in what a late friend of mine called the real Methodist Hymnal

4. Who is the first person you call when you have good news?

It depends on the news. Some people appreciate certain types of information more than others. It’s usually my wife, but not always.

5. Have you ever set out on a walk in the rain?

A light rain, sure.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

The Country Western #1 songs of 1955

A Satisfied Mind

Three different Billboard charts determined the Country Western #1 songs of 1955: most played in jukeboxes, best sellers in stores, and most played by jockeys. Interestingly, at that point, although changed in 1956, it didn’t specify most played country western, et cetera. I presume some discernment on Billboard’s part. This explains the 76 weeks of #1 songs.

From the Country Music Hall of Fame: Webb Pierce, born August 8, 1921, in West Monroe, Louisiana, died February 24, 1991, and was inducted in 2001.

“One of the greatest stars of country music’s honky-tonk heyday, the 1950s, Webb Pierce had thirteen singles top the Billboard charts in those years—more than any of his illustrious contemporaries.

“His loud, nasal, high-pitched, and sometimes slightly off-key delivery on hit after hit marked him as one of the music’s most distinctive singers in an era of great individualists.”

In The Jailhouse Now – Webb Pierce, 21 weeks at #1. I know the song from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou, the version by Tim Blake Nelson and Pat Enright (credited as The Soggy Bottom Boys)

Love, Love, Love – Webb Pierce (Decca), 13 weeks at #1

I Don’t Care– Webb Pierce (Decca) ,12 weeks at #1, co-written by Pierce

Redux

Sixteen Tons – “Tennessee” Ernie Ford, 10 weeks at #1. The only song that also went to number one on the pop charts from this list

Loose Talk (Freddie Hart) – Carl Smith, seven weeks at #1

A Satisfied Mind – Porter Wagner (RCA Victor), four weeks at #1. Red Foley and Jean Shepherd both had Top 5 hits with this song in 1955. But the version I heard on the album 50 Stars! 50 Hits! Of Country Music, which my grandfather McKinley Green, gave me, was by Pete Drake and his Talking Steel Guitar

Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young – Faron Young, three weeks at #1. He died at the age of 64 in 1996

The Cattle Call – Eddy Arnold (RCA Victor), two weeks at #1. I remember this song.

That Do Make Make It Nice – Eddy Arnold (RCA Victor), two weeks at #1

Let Me Go, Lover! – Hank Snow and his Rainbow Ranch Boys (RCA Victor), two weeks at #1

Movie review: SINNERS

Michael B. Jordan and Michael B. Jordan

Admittedly, I was wary about seeing the movie SINNERS. I can be a bit squeamish when it comes to a film described as vampire horror. My friend Steve Bissette had recommended it when he saw it in April, but that type of film is more in his wheelhouse.

Then my daughter, likewise squeamish, viewed it in Cape Town, South Africa, in June, just before returning to the States. She said I had to see it because it was about the black experience in America, and it was about music.

So I went to the Madison Theatre near my home on the hottest day of the year, Primary Day – they have $5 films on Tuesdays! – while my wife, the most squeamish of the three of us, saw another flick at the same venue.

How do I describe this film? The IMDb notes: “Trying to leave their troubled lives behind [in Chicago], twin brothers (Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown [in 1930s Mississippi] to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.”

That doesn’t tell you much. Bissette wrote: “A rip-roaring fusion of masterful visual storytelling and toe-tapping music, writer-director Ryan Coogler’s first original blockbuster reveals the full scope of his singular imagination.

“Wildly primal, big and bold, fueled by pain and rage, by community and family, throbbing with love and sex and joy, infused with magic. A sumptuously textured, unmissable howl of a passion project.”

It’s about time

Someone named Corey Creekmur commented on Bissette’s Facebook page: “It’s such a rich sequence. It seems to be drawing upon African models of time, occult notions of time (such as the way vampires move outside of human time and share memories), and rich notions of musical and cultural continuity across eras. (It seems evocative of Sun Ra and George Clinton’s mystical, time and space traveling visions.) It’s dazzling in any case.”

Oh, it’s Afrofuturism, at least in part, which does not become clear to me until near the end.

It was well-acted by all involved. The scenes with the twins, Smoke and Stack, looked realistic. Special kudos to Miles Caton, who is all of 20, for playing the pivotal role of Sammie. And the music is excellent; I have, of all things, Rocky Road to Dublin, stuck in my head.

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews were 97% positive among critics and 96% positive among audiences. Some suggested that at 137 minutes, it was about 15 minutes too long. But I think the time built up the tension and better established the characters.

An audience reviewer on a site thought the vampires were silly, rather than scary-looking. I thought that was the point. The vampire’s life was alluring at some level.

Bissette is right about this: “if (and oh, you should) you catch SINNERS in the theater, be advised NOT to leave when the first of the final credits appears…

“The real ending to the film is mid-way through the final credits” (at least three of the dozen and a half folks in my theater left too early and missed Buddy Guy!), “and after the credits crawl conclude, a sublime post-credits sequence that sent me out of my seat positively elated follows” (I was in an otherwise empty theater.)

1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture

the misinterpretation of ancient Greek

Summer Movie Night: “1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture”

Sunday, July 13 at 6:30 pm

Emmanuel Baptist Church, 275 State Street, Albany, NY

Free and open to the public

In partnership with the Pride Center Spirit Committee, Emmanuel Baptist invites you to a screening of “1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture.”

I RECOMMEND IT.

This 2022 documentary explores the tireless efforts of researchers who trace the origins of the anti-gay movement among Christians to a mistranslation of the Bible in 1946. The film chronicles the discovery of previously unseen archives at Yale University, which shed light on the misinterpretation of ancient Greek that led to the term “homosexuality” being introduced into the Bible for the first time. Featuring commentary from prominent scholars and opposing pastors, the documentary also includes personal stories from the film’s creators.

Parking Information:

For those with mobility limitations: Accessible parking is available on the east side of the Emmanuel building near the ramp entrance.
Street Parking: Available along State Street, especially heading toward the Capitol building.
Westminster Presbyterian Church: Limited parking is available across the street at 85 Chestnut Street.
First Presbyterian Church of Albany: Additional parking is located three blocks away at 362 State Street.

Questions? Call the church office at 518-465-5161 or e-mail pastorkathy@emmanuelalbany.org