November 2021 - Ramblin' with Roger

Nov. rambling: down the rabbit hole

ancient board games

**From https://wronghands1.com/2021/11/12/too-on-point/**

Does the red pill have an antidote? Why do previously reasonable people go down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, and what can be done to bring them back?

The vaccine tore her family apart. Could a death bring them back together?

Pharmaceutical messianism and the COVID-19 pandemic

Why WHO skipped ‘nu,’ ‘xi’ for the new COVID variant, omicron

Trump believed his press secretary when she told him he’d win ‘because’ of COVID

Nations Fiddle While the Earth Burns (and Floods)

Time’s Up– IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD, AND WE KNOW IT

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – Union Busting and The Power Grid

Wealthy Americans get paid leave. Shouldn’t the rest?

The scary rise of private intelligence companies

What your smart devices know (and share) about you

Public-Private Partnerships Are Quietly Hollowing Out Our Public Libraries

Parents are scrambling after schools suddenly cancel class over staffing and burnout. (It’s happened at least twice in Albany this fall.)

To Catch a Turtle Thief: Blowing the Lid Off an International Smuggling Operation

An Extraordinary 500-Year-Old Shipwreck Is Rewriting the History of the Age of Discovery

Land Back and The Third Reconstruction: A Truth Commission with the Shinnecock Nation

Can a Doughnut Heal Our World?

Culture

An Indigenous chef is putting her heritage on the menu with landmark restaurant

French dictionary adds non-binary pronoun

Sesame Street debuts Asian-American muppet

Lee Elder, first Black golfer to play in Masters, dies at age 87

How to wake up early, even if you’re not a morning person

The link to Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library book talks

Some People Can Literally See Time

Your 2 Step Guide To Creating Mindfulness Gratitude Practice

Ancient Board Games, even more ancient than I am

Ken Levine’s 250th podcast: For Those Who Love Lucy

David Brickman and Stanley Tucci are not the same person

RIP, laugh track

The Love Boat video shows every single guest in alphabetical order.

Now I Know: What Does the Fox Spray? and How Ben Franklin Killed the Competition and The Boy Who Shared His Wish and The Somewhat-Fake Sausage That Saved Lives

Heart-pulling Christmas commercials

MUSIC

How Great Thou Art, performed by Carla Fisk

A Pile Of Dust – Voces8

Fanny Mendelssohn

Peter Sprague Plays Miles Davis

Romanian Rhapsody #2 by Georges Enescu

Come A Little Bit Closer – Jay and the Americans

Barnyard Boogie – From Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie: Starring Indigo Blume

Overture to Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin

Future Past (Visualizer) – Duran Duran

Symphony No. 3 by Aram Khachaturian

J. Eric Smith: Be Thankful for What You’ve Got

Latke Recipe – the Maccabeats

Coverville 1379: Cover Stories for Lorde and Taylor (Swift) and 1380: Covering the 2021 Inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft – Carpenters

Composer Stephen Sondheim

colonel,and journal

As much as I loved Stephen Sondheim as the composer of some of my favorite songs, I was even more taken by him as a teacher and raconteur.

He came to that first profession because he was fortunate to have as a neighbor Oscar Hammerstein II, as in Rodgers and. Here’s a story I’ve heard him tell. “In 1945, Sondheim presented his first musical, By George, to Hammerstein, who told him: ‘It’s the worst thing I’ve ever read. It was terrible, and if you want to know why it’s terrible, I’ll tell you.’

“Hammerstein taught him how to construct a musical. ‘I dare say, at the risk of hyperbole, that I learned more that afternoon than most people learn about songwriting in a lifetime.”

Has anyone so talented been so hard on himself? His books Finishing The Hat (2010) and Look, I Made A Hat (2011) collect lyrics with Attendant Comments, Anecdotes, et al. They are very entertaining additions to my book collection. In fact, they reside perhaps a meter away from where I sit in the office. The former was my favorite book that year.

A massive body of work

I wrote how Leonard Bernstein, another of his teachers, kept him from using the obvious profanity at the end of Gee, Officer Krupke. Of course, as I’ve noted repeatedly, West Side Story is my favorite musical. Its creation and evolution from the stage to the movie have long fascinated me.

“The first show for which Sondheim wrote both the music and lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Comedy Night is a grand opening piece. I recall that from seeing a production of it back in the early 1970s. At some point years ago, I’ve actually sung the title tune from Anyone Can Whistle. My daughter was in a variation of his Assassins, which is difficult music indeed. I’ve seen the movie Into The Woods.

And I haven’t even mentioned Gypsy or Company or Follies or A Little Night Music. He received a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for Sunday in the Park with George. As the Boston Globe asked, “Who else would write a musical about a vengeful barber whose victims are turned into meat pies (‘Sweeney Todd’)?”

Ken Levine notes an even earlier credit, on a television show.

Words that rhyme

Here’s something I find intriguing. He believed “words that are spelled differently, but sound alike, such as rougher and suffer, engage the listener more than those spelled similarly, rougher and tougher… ‘I have got a rhyme in ‘Passion,’ colonel, and journal. Now, you look at them on paper, they seem to have no relation to each other at all. So, when you rhyme them, it’s, ooh, you know?'” I believe he is correct.

Mark Evanier has linked to Sondheim-related material dozens of times. As he noted: “If you have ever wanted to write songs or plays — or really anything — you will enjoy this conversation between Adam Guettel and Stephen Sondheim. It’s just two guys who write great stuff for the Broadway stage sitting around and yakking…”

Evanier also posted Send In The Clowns, sung by Bernadette Peters, generally considered the greatest interpreter of Sondheim’s work, with the composer on the piano. And Everybody Wants To Be Sondheim, a “song written by — and performed here by — Alan Chapman.” In fact, just go to Mark’s site and search Stephen’s name.

Stephen Sondheim received nine Tony Awards, an Oscar, eight Grammys, the Laurence Olivier Award, the Kennedy Center Honors (1993), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2015). He was 91.

Lamenting to God, or Whomever

“prayers of the discontented, the disturbed, the distraught”

On November 14, our church held a day of lament. It reminded me, in case I had forgotten, that lamenting to God, or Whomever or whatever you believe in, is OK. More than OK, actually.

One pastor lead the Adult Education class and spoke about the book of Lamentations and, of course, Job, but also the Psalms. Over 40% of the Psalms in the Bible are psalms of lament.

Then the other pastor gave a great sermon on the topic. “What was going on in the lives of those psalmists. Life is not as they expected it to be. They call out to God for an account asking how long? and where are you? They are lamenting. They speak out of their experience, their reality – nothing seems to be off-limits. Thankfully we have this witness as part of our Bible. We have these lament psalms.”

This took place at a fortuitous time. I had been recently talking to a devout Christian, a hard-working person who was feeling a loss of faith because of a situation in life. And the situation WAS certainly unfair and debilitating and frustrating and worthy of lament.

My pastor quoted Old Testament scholar Kathleen O’Connor. “Laments are prayers of the discontented, the disturbed, the distraught. They protest God’s rule of the world, bemoan the speakers’ physical condition and whine about enemies. But remarkably, in the process of harsh complaint and resistance, they also express faith in God in the midst of chaos, doubt, and confusion.”

My own distress

I suppose it also gave ME a sense of comfort when I’ve complained, sometimes on these pages, of feeling distraught. Recently, it was about COVID-19, and the country’s resistance, to my perception, of ending the damn thing. Some people of faith have suggested that, if I had REALLY believed, I wouldn’t be distressed.

Now, I KNEW, instinctively, that this was… crap. But the class and the sermon that week created the framework for a more specific response. “We need these psalms – we need to lament. Lament psalms provide us a blueprint for how to lament – and how to lament well. We live in a society that doesn’t lament, at least not to God. To lament is to cry out, to express our despair.”

Psalm 13

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

At least that Psalm ends with an upbeat thanks to God. Compare with the other scripture of the day, Psalm 88, which has no happy ending.

But yes, it’s all right to rail against God, or the heavens. “The psalmists aren’t afraid to do that.” Why shouldn’t we?

In fact, the First Church of Albany, along with the FOCUS churches, is offering a Blue Christmas service on Thursday, December 16 at 6:30 pm in person and on Zoom. It is for those who approach the coming holidays with heavy hearts due to loss or other reasons. You’re not alone.

Farkakte title songs #10: artists V-Z

Van Halen, John Waite, Neil Young

This is the final group of farkakte title songs. The album name appears as a lyric, but it’s not the title song. There is no actual title song, but these can be farkakte title songs.

The Sphinx in the Face – Van der Graaf. Album: The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome. Lyrics: “I got a steady vocation for the Quiet Zone, I just can’t wait for the song to be sung, I’m still possessed by the promise of the Pleasure Dome.”

Could This Be Magic? – Van Halen. Album: Women and Children First. Lyrics: “Better save the women and children first”
Mean Street – Van Halen. Album: Fair Warning. Lyrics: Somebody said fair warning. Lord (This is Mean Street) Lord strike that poor boy down”
Bullethead – Van Halen. Album: A Different Kind of Truth. Lyrics: “B-b-b-b-b-b-bullethead. Got a different kind of true”

Say What! – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Album: Soul to Soul. Lyrics: “Say what! Soul to soul, soul to soul…”

Book of Dreams -Suzanne Vega. Album: Days Of Open Hand. Lyrics: “Pages made of days of open hand”

Falling Down – Vertical Horizon. Album: Running On Ice. Lyrics: “Spinning my wheels Standing still. It’s like running on ice”
I Believe In You AND Carrying On – Vertical Horizon. Album: Burning The Days. Lyrics: “Are you burning the days just to get through the nights?” ALSO “But I’ve been where you’re going And it’s not worth knowing Burning the days I’m just carrying on” respectively

Life’s A Beach – Kurt Vile. EP: So Outta Reach. Lyrics: “I’m out of reach. I’m so out of reach, yeah”

W

White Heat – John Waite. Album: Ignition. Lyrics: “White heat indiscrete ignition”
Downtown – John Waite. Album: Temple Bar. Lyrics: “You can find me in the usual place Inside the Temple Bar”
Masterpiece of Loneliness – John Waite. Album: Figure In A Landscape. Lyrics: “It’s a work of art, you’ll see. A figure in a landscape”

Let Me Live My Life Lovin’ You Babe – Barry White. Album: Just Another Way To Say I Love You. Spoken lyrics: “I guess you could even say it’s just another way, to say I love you. I need you. I want you.”

Denial – White Lies. Album: Five. Lyrics: “Four kids and a cat, might as well be called five”

Several songs -The Who. Album: Tommy. “And Tommy doesn’t know what day it is” (Christmas); “Tommy Can You Hear Me?
Can you feel me near you? Tommy, can you feel me? Can I help to cheer you? Tommy (Tommy Can You Hear Me); “She knew from the start Deep down in her heart That she and Tommy were worlds apart” (Sally Simpson); “I’m your Uncle Ernie And I’ll welcome you to Tommy’s Holiday Camp” (Tommy’s Holiday Camp)

Wi

Theologians – Wilco. Album: A Ghost is Born. Lyrics: “No one’s ever gonna take my life from me. I lay it down. A ghost is born”
Poor Places – Wilco. Album: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. “The album was named after a series of letters in the phonetic alphabet that [Jeff] Tweedy had heard on the Irdial box set The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations. A clip from this Numbers Station transmission” was used in the song.

Fit It – Kim Wilde. Album: Teases and Dares. Lyrics: “And now I’m all alone And the telephone teases and dares”

Ambitious – Wire. Album: The Ideal Copy. Lyrics: When it’s cold I feel cold. When it’s hot I feel ambitious”

Jammin’ – Stevie Wonder. Album: Hotter Than July. Lyrics: “Everyone’s feeling pretty. It’s hotter than July”

XYZ

Hey Hey, My My – Neil Young. Album: Rust Never Sleeps. Lyrics: “It’s better to burn out ’cause rust never sleeps. The king is gone but he’s not forgotten”
Hangin’ On A Limb – Neil Young. Album: Freedom. Lyrics: “There was something about freedom he thought he didn’t know”
Downtown – Neil Young. Album: Mirror Ball. Lyrics: “Jimi’s playin’ in the back room, Led Zeppelin on stage, There’s a mirror ball twirlin’ And a note from Page”

Willie The Pimp – Frank Zappa. Album: Hot Rats. Lyrics: “Hot meat. Hot rats. Hot zits. Hot wrists”

Epilogue

I’ve written ten of these posts this year, and I STILL don’t know what you call a song that serves as a title song but is not. I’ve been obsessed with the topic since I noticed this phenomenon decades ago.

I had taken a cursory look at the topic back in 2013. But I didn’t realize there were so many examples. And there may be more, but I couldn’t decipher cryptic citations online that lacked some important detail.

Lydster: proper COVID protocol

flow chart

My daughter was feeling under the weather on a Wednesday, so she stayed home from school. Primarily, she had an upset stomach, though she was also experiencing those seasonal allergy symptoms that I too experienced.

Then she felt better and went back to school on Thursday. My wife, who is a teacher in another district said that her return was not the proper COVID protocol.

I groaned even as I looked at my district’s policy. “Feeling sick or unwell in any way: Fever, fatigue/tiredness, muscle/body aches or pains, congestion, cough, runny nose, shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, nausea/vomiting or diarrhea, headache, loss of taste or smell, rash.” I have a cough and a runny nose almost daily these days. And I suspect my daughter experiences much the same, though she’s a teenager so doesn’t always say.

And this, BTW, “Regardless of vaccination status.” She is fully vaccinated. “CANNOT go to school. Can return to school with a negative COVID-19 (PCR/NAAT) test or after a 10-day quarantine. According to the school nurse, they don’t want one of those rapid tests but one that takes a day to get the results. Is that accurate? IDK.

So she got a test on Thursday evening, and per the regulations, took Friday off, though she was feeling much better. Almost exactly 24 hours later, she received a negative result, which is positive news.

No perfect attendance

One of the parents on a listserv I monitor said, “The focus on attendance is so frustrating in general but especially because of this flow chart. Stay home if you have even the slightest symptoms, but get a prize if you come to school. Makes no sense.” Indeed, we just got a letter indicating the school is concerned that she’s been out so often.

Yes, the district is incentivizing school attendance through a series of contests. Frankly, I haven’t paid much attention since my daughter’s not going to win.

I will say that, in general, her spirits seem to be up by being in school in person. Well, except on the days she’s not.