Month: July 2017

Music shaming and Pooh relating

My knee-jerk reaction was to say Eeyore.

Another from Arthur query for Ask Roger Anything:

Have you ever been chastised by a group you were part of for liking a pop culture performer (band or solo artist)? For example, black people, fellow church members, your group at university, whatever, who collectively disapproved of someone you liked (regardless of whether they knew you liked that act or not). If so, how did that make you feel?

Not that I can recall as a collective. Individuals, I can certainly remember. My sister’s boyfriend in high school who thought my taste in music was too “white”. Then he’d find artists such as Three Dog Night or Blood, Sweat, and Tears and embrace them.

This reminds me that he also liked Bridge Over Troubled Water, the Simon & Garfunkel song, and in fact bought my sister the single. Well, she was disappointed that he had not purchased the album of the same name for her. Shortly thereafter, I bought the LP for me and noticed that the single version and album versions were in different keys! So, thanks, George.

Also, my girlfriend c 1979 had a son who was a teenager, and he really mocked me playing the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever.

I have an extraordinary memory for playing music that I like but that others didn’t: buying my mother Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive, and that was a dud gift. Some of the cast of the production of Boys in the Band finding Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon boring. Friend Carol from high school hated At the Zoo and Strawberry Fields Forever, A DJ I knew giving up on Maybe Tomorrow by the Jackson Five.
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Tom the Mayor wonders:

Are there any Bands or singers you saw and said to yourself, “I wish they had stayed retired!”

Y’know, I don’t. I figure to let them and/or the marketplace decide. It seems that some artists such as Roger Waters and Fleetwood Mac are doing farewell tours, and that’s cool.

I AM amazed that the Rolling Stones are still at it, though.

What Character in Winnie The Pooh Are You? I read an article years ago that every Pooh character is a personality type.

My knee-jerk reaction was to say Eeyore. But I decided to take one of those highly scientific tests on Facebook. The results: Eeyore:

“You may be the ‘Debby-Downer’ of your group of friends, but that’s just because you’re realistic. You tend to be pessimistic and gloomy at times, but you know when to pull out your smile at the perfect moment. Being very cute doesn’t hurt either.”

Rabid goats and rabid fans in June

The performances were good, but the storybook is still very thin.

There’s only three of us, but we calendar a LOT these days so that we don’t inadvertently book a couple items on the same day. These all happened in June.

ITEM: The Wife and I saw, at the local Steamer Number 10 theater, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, an “unauthorized parody” written by Bert V. Royal. The “play imagines characters from the popular comic strip Peanuts as degenerate teenagers.”

It starts when “CB and CB’s sister have a funeral for their dog, who recently contracted rabies and was put down after killing ‘a little yellow bird’.” This is NOT children’s fare.

It was very good, but obviously very dark. I would like to believe that the homophobia displayed by Matt, a manifestation of Pig Pen, would not be as virulent in 2017 as it was when the play was first performed in 2004, but maybe it is.

Here’s the script.

ITEM: Friends of ours gave us tickets to the Albany Symphony Orchestra, which is a very fine symphony indeed. This program was held at the EMPAC, a fascinatingly cool structure.

The logistical issue was the birthday party to which the Daughter was invited late in the afternoon, but that ended up working out well. She stayed at the party long enough that she was home alone only about an hour. In large part, that was aided by the ASO decided NOT to perform the first piece on the program because ot wasn’t ready, the first time that’s happened when we’ve attended. But the other four pieces were quite enough.

ITEM: The three of us saw the last performance of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Mac-Hadyn Theater. All I know of this musical is the LP I owned, barely 30 minutes. This is expanded by at least three songs. The performances were good, but the storybook is still very thin.

ITEM: Another trip to Mac-Hadyn a couple weeks later to see Anything Goes. The first time I had seen it was a couple years ago at Catskill High School. I continue to marvel how well the choreographer coordinate people coming off and on this tiny stage.

ITEM: I’ve mentioned our church’s relationship with Giffen Elementary School, with with the Book and Author event the past five years, and tutoring for even longer. We went to the grand opening of Wizard’s Wardrobe, “a non-profit organization providing a free, after school tutoring program for elementary school students in the South End of Albany.”

So it was distressing I read that rabid goats had to be euthanized at Albany’s Radix Center. Three second-grade classes at Giffen Memorial Elementary School took field trips to the Radix Center during this time period. Yuck.

A is for animals – new ABCW site!

I felt sorry for it, almost.

I noticed this spring that I was much more aware of the animals in my midst. I heard the birds more clearly, and I spotted a woodpecker, a blue jay, a cardinal, and perhaps the fattest robin, sitting on our fence, that I’ve ever seen.

The neighbor’s cat, an outside feline, seems to want to come to our house. More than once, he was sitting right at the front door, and once at the back door. We think this would engender a bad outcome, especially because our indoor male cat, Midnight, is sometimes barely pleasant to us and our girl cat, Stormy.

We made the mistake of leaving a used pitcher of maple syrup on the kitchen counter after having pancakes. The next morning, the pitcher was overrun by ants! Yuck. We hadn’t seen any before then, in months. Now that we’ve cut off the food supply, we still see a stray insect in the strangest places, such as on the ceiling. The Daughter does NOT like them.

During a severe thunderstorm on May 18, we saw something crossing our yard. But it wasn’t until a massive lightning flash that I could determine it was a skunk. I felt sorry for it, almost.

But our strangest visitor to our backyard has to be the woodchuck. We never had one before this year, but this one has come by at least a half dozen times. My wife and I decided we needed to name the creature, so we call him/her? – we had no idea! – Murray, after Bill Murray, who was involved in a popular movie about February 2.

Initially, he may have been attracted to the compost bin deep in the back of the yard. But he has ventured much farther towards the back porch, digging holes for no discernible reason, and eating the grass, likely the clover.

He/she almost got to the picnic table near the house one morning when the next-door neighbor came out and startled Murray. For a nearly round creature, he/she moved surprisingly fast.

Then a few days later, SHE came back, much thinner, and with four offspring!

So there’s our recent menagerie, wild and domesticated.

ABC Wednesday at its new home, Round 21

July rambling #1: Joe Sinnott, and Marigolds

Where are the boxed prunes?

I’m told kitten pictures are allowed if they’re yours. One of these is now ours, this from 3 years ago.


My wife had foot surgery on the morning of July 5. It was not required, but it was suggested if she wanted to maintain her mobility as she gets older. She’s recovering well.

NRA Issues Call for White Supremacy and Armed Insurrection

Fundamentalism, racism, fear and propaganda: An insider explains why rural, Christian white America will never change – I don’t believe people can NEVER change

My Aunt Had a Dinner Party, and Then She Took Her Guests to Kill 180 Jews

John Oliver exposes The Right-Wing Media Empire Taking Over Your Local News

I Don’t Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People

My Life With a Pre-Existing Condition

Three Misunderstood Things, including The Masterpiece Cakeshop case

NOT ME: Bello, dressed in a white medical coat to conceal an AM-15 rifle, spotted Dr. Roger Green on the 16th floor. “Why didn’t you help me out when I was in trouble?” Bello demanded of Green as he pulled his AM-15 assault rifle from its hiding spot and took aim. [Green as not hit, but one was killed and several wounded before the gunman at the Bronx hospital killed himself.]

The Hijacked American Presidency

Internet Wading: Pride in June

Unspoken Funeral Etiquette Rules Every Guest Should Follow

Jaquandor on choosing happiness

A Name for the Micro Generation Born Between 1977-1983

Understand The Difference Between Second Cousins And Cousins Once Removed

Inker Joe Sinnott, inking the Spider-Man strip at 90. He is one of the sweetest men I’ve ever met.

I want to see the production of “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds” at the Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill

Every TED talk ever

Coca-Cola taste test

C’EST MOI: On Bing …Roger’s got the top search result for Spaulding Krullers; also true on Google

Is Cookie Monster part of the resistance?

In case you need to know, the boxed prunes are next to the raisin in the produce section of the Madison Avenue Market 32, fka Price Chopper.

Now I Know: The Sleep-away Camp That Starts At Night and The Color of Feeling Better and Why (Some) Coins Have Ridges and How Long Would It Take to Count to a Million?

Family Feud: Gilligan’s Island Vs. Batman and Gilligan’s Island Vs. Lost in Space

MUSIC

Moby & The Void Pacific Choir’s “In This Cold Place”

Higher Love – Lilly Winwood and Steve Winwood

K-Chuck Radio: Rock Hits in Early Stereo and Making it on Promo CDs

Someday Baby Blues – SLEEPY JOHN ESTES & HAMMIE NIXON (1935)

Too Darn Hot – Charlie Rosen’s Broadway Big Band with vocalist Alan H. Green

Okie From Muskogee – Phil Ochs (1970/Live At Carnegie Hall)

Lists, to music

Paul McCartney Finally Regains Beatles Rights After Near 50-Year-Long Battle

Annie Lennox Has ‘Potential,’ Purported Radio Station Scout Says

Orenthal James Simpson turns 70

I remember staring at that image in Canton.

In the summer of 2016, when the family went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH, one of the first of the player busts I looked at closely was that of one Orenthal James Simpson. He was one of the greatest players in the game, the first to rush for over 2000 yards in a season while playing in upstate New York’s only NFL team. He was good-looking and affable. He was mediocre at best behind the mic on Monday Night Football, but he was entertaining enough in those Naked Gun movies.

How did THIS guy go so wrong?

This past Oscar season, when I noted that I had seen O.J.: Made in America, more than one person said that they weren’t going to watch it because, they surmised, it would glorify the athlete. It was quite clear that they hadn’t viewed the film at all.

As the Boston Globe noted: “The movie turned out a lot better than expected: Wider, deeper, more thoughtful, and more thought-provoking. Not just a nostalgic rehash of tabloid titillation but a work that viewed the Simpson case through a telephoto lens of race, class, sport, celebrity, and injustice.”

I found the film oddly compelling. There was about 30 minutes in the second segment that didn’t even mention O.J. but talked about the Korean woman who shot a black person. And Rodney King, who was a black man beaten by members of the Los Angeles Police Department, and who, in a foretelling of 21st century events, were caught on camera. And Reginald Denny, the equally unfortunate white truck driver, who was beaten by rioters after those LAPD officers were acquitted.

And I remember staring at that image in Canton, only a month after watching that movie, and I was literally shaking my head, less in disbelief than in sorrow.

Orenthal James Simpson is 70, and in jail, though, I understand, eligible for parole in October 2017 for his part in a robbery.

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