February 2024 - Page 4 of 6 - Ramblin' with Roger

Mixed CD- Heart

SPAC

heartbreak It’s time for Mixed CD – Heart, it being Valentine’s Day. Some are happy love spongs, some not so much. And since I love music, I’m noting if I saw the artist perform.

You Really Got Me – the Kinks. I didn’t pay that much attention to the group until a few years after they broke through.

Caught Up In The Rapture – Anita Baker. My friend KD recently reminded me that when we saw her at the Palace Theatre in Albany on March 25, 1986, I met her, and she got us backstage where we saw Jack Nicholson, in town to film the movie Ironweed, and boxer Mike Tyson, who trained around the area.

Love Is Everywhere I Go – Sam Phillips. I first heard her during the TV show Gilmore Girls.

How Sweet It Is – Marvin Gaye

Passionate Kisses – Mary Chapin Carpenter. I have several of her albums. This is a Lucinda Williams song; her I saw at the Newport Folk Festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Saratoga Springs, NY, on Aug 9, 1998, and at least once in Washington Park in Albany in the mid-1990s.

Stepping Out With My Baby – Tony Bennett. I saw him at Tanglewood on September 5, 1998, with Diana Krall opening. A great show.

I Do It For Your Love – Paul Simon. I saw him perform in Albany at the Knick Arena in March 1991.

My favorite song from Tapestry

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Carole King. With James Taylor and Joni Mitchell.The only time I ever saw JT was at the anti-nuke demonstration on June 12, 1982. Joni I saw on August 22, 1974 at SPAC, then in Philadelphia in 1981.

Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby – Diana Krall. I saw her on 8/8/2023 at a disappointing show.

Tempted – Squeeze. One of the finest groans in all of pop music.

Good – Better Than Ezra

Someone To Lay Down Beside Me – Linda Ronstadt. She was also at the 12 June 82 demonstration.

For No One – the Beatles. I saw Paul McCartney on July 5, 2014 at the Knick Arena (or whatever they were calling then) in Albany.

Season Of Hollow Soul – k.d. lang

Time and Tide – Basia

I Believe – Stevie Wonder

I Love Everybody – Lyle Lovett. He was the headline artist at the Newport Folk Festival at SPAC in 1998.

Can’t Nothing Be Love But Love – the Temptations. This was from the Norman Whitfield wah-wah era. I saw the Temptations twice, once during the Reunion tour at the Colonie Colesium in 1982, and a couple of years later at Heritage Park in Colonie near Albany.

February rambling: obituary pirates

strong men always fall

**Posted by Jessica Wilson to Star Trek Wholesome Posting**

He Died in a Tragic Accident. Why Did the Internet Say He Was Murdered? Within a day of the death of Matthew Sachman, 19, on New York City subway tracks, so-called obituary pirates had flooded search results with false information.

Judge clears names of 2 men convicted in Times Square murder after they spent years in prison and The Juror Who Found Herself Guilty. I’m always pained by these stories of innocent people being in jail for decades before being exonerated.

Gazan Lives Matter

Cory Doctorow: How I Got Scammed

Sam Waterston to Leave ‘Law and Order’ After 20 Seasons

50 Best ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Guest Stars, Ranked

Anti-Racism Resources

I gave blood at the Albany High School on January 31. It was my 178th time. My time: 5 minutes, 17 seconds. Booyah!

Kelly goes marbles

Mel-O-Toons: Cheap cartoons for weekday enjoyment

Now I Know: When New York Choked the Artichoke Trade and When Milwaukee Went to War Over Bridges and Math and the Missing Planet and Why Did This Rabbit Drive a Car?

NOT ME: A SCOTTISH commercial cleaning firm has announced its acquisition of an English rival, adding a further 100 staff to its growing UK team. Founded in 1988 by its Chairman Roger Green, Spotless now operates over 1,700 contracts across the UK, providing a full range of cleaning services for blue chip companies, retail outlets, industrial leaders, and premier commercial premises.

Health

Chuck Miller: The surgeries aren’t done yet; Panic at the hospital; Waiting on an NPO; This blog post was almost written from beyond the grave. Get better, Chuck!

About Biden’s Age and Memory

King Charles Diagnosed With Cancer, Buckingham Palace Say. The Royal Line of British Succession

Seiji Ozawa, Captivating Conductor, Is Dead at 88. He led the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 29 years, toured widely, and helped dispel prejudices about East Asian classical musicians. I saw him on television several times, at least once in person, probably at Tanglewood.

Chita Rivera, revered and pioneering Tony-winning dancer and singer, dies at 91

Carl Weathers, Apollo Creed in “Rocky,” dies at 76

Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane was possibly spotted in the Pacific by an exploration team

The retribution presidency

2024: What Kind of Society Will America Be?

***

djt Calls for ‘All Willing States’ to Deploy National Guard Troops to Texas. Kareem: “This is not a drill: Donald Trump has become the most destructive force to American democracy. To support him after all that’s happened, after all he’s said and done, is to denounce America and everything it stands for. That’s not hyperbole or liberal posturing. It’s merely acknowledging the facts.”

***

From Maggie Haberman, New York Times: “A vindictive Trump second term is now a frequent point of discussion. But [John] Bolton already got a close-up look at Trump’s nature — and how his anger can boil over. He spent 17 months in the administration and left in 2019.

“The new edition of Bolton’s book focuses on several examples, especially the case of Ellen Knight, a National Security Council official who cleared Bolton’s original edition for publication and was then dismissed from the [National Security Council].

“Knight told a federal judge that senior White House lawyers pressured her to falsely claim that Bolton’s book contained classified information. She was reinstated under President Biden.”

***

djt says he’d let Russia do ‘whatever the hell they want’ to NATO countries that don’t pay enough. Republicans say it was just fine.

Heather Cox Richardson: “What I’m saying is… if former president Donald Trump or a Trump-like figure… is elected president or takes the presidency in 2024, we will lose American democracy for our lifetimes. Not forever, because strong men always fall. It’s the nature of authoritarian movements.”[She’s more optimistic than I.]

***

Federal Appeals Court Rejects Trump’s Claim of Absolute Immunity. The ruling answered a question that an appeals court had never addressed: Can former presidents escape being held accountable by the criminal justice system for things they did while in office?

MUSIC

Where has Tracy Chapman been? Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

The Genius Of Stevie Wonder

The War and Treaty: Lover’s Game

1712 Overture – PDQ Bach

Karma Chameleon – Culture Club

Victoria Monét: On My Mama

Coverville 1475: The Harry Styles Cover Story

Jelly Roll: Son Of A Sinner

J. Eric Smith’s Favorite Songs by Favorite Artists: Buggy Jive and D.O.A.

Laufey – From The Start

Gracie Abrams: Difficult

Movie review: Poor Things

Yorgos Lanthimos

I was wary of seeing the film Poor Things. A knowledgeable friend of mine wrote that the film was not on his list to be seen “due to my dislike for Emma Stone’s acting and my doubts about having the stomach for another Yorgos Lanthimos grossout.” I was unfamiliar with the director.

The good news is that this movie of Frankenstein’s monster’s monster, of a sort, was not particularly gross. It was weird and funny, and weirdly funny. But though I saw it a couple of weeks ago at the Spectrum 8 in Albany, I’ve been bereft of useful descriptions.

Weird: it had impossible combinations of animals walking about the laboratory of Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) as he, er, “re-animated” Bella (Stone). Early on, Bella acts like a very large infant but matures relatively quickly. While Dr. Baxter’s assistant Max (Ramy Youssef) is assiduously recording Bella’s development, she is fascinated by the flashy Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), who wants to liberate her from the cloister Dr. Baxter has created.

I agree with the general assessment that the movie is “wildly imaginative and exhilaratingly over the top… bizarre, brilliant…” Reviewers used terms such as fascinating, disturbing, beautifully odd duckling, darkly comedic, and cerebral.

Know thyself

One critic notes, correctly, “Bella comes to identify herself and her possibilities … in accordance with Goethe’s notion that ‘Man knows himself only in as much as he knows the world … Each new object truly recognized, opens up a new organ within ourselves.'”

Another one notes that it’s a surreal/acid movie… “It wonderfully combines fantasy, sex, and a tiny bit of Sic-Fi to shape a fable about chauvinism, toxic masculinity, and female sexuality, using Emma Stone’s performance as the perfect vessel.”

Oh, yeah, sex. There’s a fair amount of that in the middle third of the film as part of Bella’s self-discovery. It’s not particularly sexy.

The critics who hated this film REALLY hated it as “dull, arthouse trash… Hollywood elites are fawning over this reprehensible film, claiming it’s about female empowerment, but that supposed empowerment actually disguises the worst sort of exploitation.” So either it’s the proto-Barbie or the anti-Barbie, I guess.

I am not sure what the title means, although I surmise that those who don’t embrace life are the poor things, I guess, maybe. Ultimately, I did like the film, though it’s not for everyone.

WTIT: Sunday Stealing

Sabor a Campo

Sunday Stealing is per WTIT again.

1. What is a big dream you have for the future?

To go to several Major League Baseball stadiums in the same season. I know some people have gone to ALL the stadiums in one season, but I’ve given up on that. Maybe one year, I will do the Northeast (Toronto, Boston, New York (2), Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Then, another year, tackle the Midwest et al, preferably by train.

2. What are your favorite hobbies?

Genealogy. Do I HAVE other hobbies?

3. If you could change the world, what would you do?

Have news, especially quasi-news, Twitteresque “information” poured through a truth filter.

4. What places have you traveled to? What was your favorite?

Thirty-two states in the US, Mexico, Canada, France and Barbados. The latter was my favorite, partly because I didn’t have to pay for it; I won it on JEOPARDY!

5. What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

I don’t eat weird things. Well, not by my definition. My daughter thinks eating cottage cheese and maple syrup together is weird. Nah.

6. What are your favorite places to eat?

The truth is that several eateries have come and gone. It’s challenging to narrow down places. The last place my wife and I ate was Sabor a Campo, 485 Delaware Avenue, Albany, NY, in a half-filled strip mall at Whitehall Road. The name, “which translates to ‘Taste of Country,’ is an eat-in buffet, carry-out style restaurant, specializing in value-driven multicultural foods, and set in a relaxed, homey, and familial environment.” A couple at church recommended it, and the food was excellent.

A friend calls me “Mister Music” – seriously.

7. What kind of music do you like? Talk about a favorite artist or songs.

I can’t do that. Too many choices. Pop music from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s. A bunch of classical music. Jazz. Search the blog; I write about music almost weekly.

Meanwhile, listen to the William Tell Overture by Rossini. Here are people who have birthdays in February, so I’ve listened to them all recently: Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter – Nina Simone. I Don’t Remember – Peter Gabriel. Shut Up and Kiss Me – Mary Chapin Carpenter. The Mercy Seat – Johnny Cash. Lay Down (Candles In the Rain) – Melanie (with the Edwin Hawkins Singers).

8. What was the last book you read?

Prequel by Rachel Maddow

9. If you could meet a character from a book, who would it be?

Bartholomew Cubbins, who spoke truth to power in Bartholemew and the Oobleck

10. Do you prefer books or movies? Why?

Movies because I can commit to them more easily. I started reading many books, both paper and audiobooks, but I didn’t finish them. I also like to GO to the movies because watching at home tends to be too hard to focus on.

Fear, and lack of the same

11. What is something you used to be scared of but aren’t anymore?

Embarrassing myself publicly. I may still do it, but it doesn’t fuel anxiety as it used to.

12. What is something you were never afraid of but are now?

The end of democracy is not just in the United States but in several other countries. Global warming.

13. What item is your most cherished possession? Why?

I have a metal box with all my important papers, including genealogy notes. If there were a fire, it’d be the single thing I would grab.

14. What awards or contests have you won?

I won a racquetball tournament in 1989, I think.

15. Do you like working jigsaw puzzles?

Not really. I have no patience for them. And I don’t “see” the connecting parts well.

Recently deceased rodent

mighty hunters?

I got up Monday morning. There was a small, recently deceased rodent at the top of the stairs, it seemed; the lighting was terrible there. The two cats were both hovering about a foot away from the creature. It was slim, no longer than my cellphone.

First, what was it? It wasn’t a mouse because the tail was way too short. My wife said it was a mole. Or a vole. What is the difference anyway? It was definitely a mole.

The rest of the narrative is less clear. Which, if either of the cats found the animal? Was it alive when they found it? How did it get into the house? It was mighty cold outside, and it’s a century-old building. Our felines are indoor cats. The cats are 10 and 11 years old. This behavior has never occurred before.

Occasionally, one acts as though something behind our kitchen stove fascinates them, but I’ve never seen anything. I assumed it was an insect or arachnid of some sort.

The Instinct to Hunt

From here: “Cats are born to hunt. Even if domesticated cats know they don’t need to catch their own food to survive, they cannot resist the urge and often enjoy the hunt and chase. Some cats that catch prey will bring their owners the dead animals—or, perhaps even more unpleasantly, sometimes ones that are still alive—to show off their prized catch for later consumption, as a teaching aid, or as a gift.”

I’ve read about cats and dogs bringing their owners animals, some of them alive. Google “dog brings owner live rat,” or better yet, don’t.

This is a new side of our furry friends’ personalities. I’m hoping we don’t don’t see any more presents.

The faux hunters

They are are also hostile to the neighborhood cats. In fact, when I was taking the dead rodent to the trash, there was a cat on our front porch who I had to block from coming into our house. THAT would not have been pretty, based on the hostility that Midnight still shows Stormy occasionally after a decade together.