February rambling #1: the earth is not flat

Bob and Ray’s Slow Talkers.

EqualityEquity_300ppi.IISC

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s response to rapper B.o.B’s rant insisting that the Earth is flat and we’ve all been lied to.

How 37 Banks Became 4 In Just 2 Decades.

Rebecca Solnit: Men Explain LOLITA To Me. And Amy Biancolli on what women want.

White America’s ‘Broken Heart’.

Weekly Sift: Back to Ferguson.

Say — you want a revolution?“Changing presidents or even changing minds isn’t enough. A real revolution has to change a lot of people’s political identities.”

On Antonin Scalia: On The Death Of A Brilliant Public Servant and Don’t tell me not to be glad.

The Daily Show’s Jessica Williams Shuts Down Beyoncé’s Super Bowl Haters.

Voting in the USA, from overseas.

The Great Dictator Speech – Charlie Chaplin + Time – Hans Zimmer (INCEPTION Theme).

Why People Who Are Scatterbrained Are Actually More Intelligent. Well, duh.

The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy. Missing, though, is Bob and Ray’s Slow Talkers. Mr. Bob Elliott died at the age of 92; an appreciation of the duo.

Joe Alaskey, R.I.P. at age of only 63. Boy from Troy, NY made good.

Stupid Phrases for People in Crisis. Or, more politely, the unhelpful things one ought NOT to say.

In Defense of Artist Glenn Brown.

Now I Know: The Crack Tax and Unchecked Baggage and D-N-Nay.

An unfortunate incident on a Friday in the dead of winter.

Why Do Some People Say “Yuge” Instead of “Huge”?

The explanation of the chart below:
JEOPARDY.wildcard_info

Music

Coverville 1111: Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond Cover Stories.

Jaquandor: songs from the movie High Society.

Muppets: Does Dave Grohl Drum Battle Trump Animal vs. Buddy Rich? No, it does not.

Jed Clampett Rocks Out (Beverly Hillbillies Clip).

What’s the point of music? Ask Peter Gabriel.

New Ways Into the Brain’s ‘Music Room’.

NY State Senate’s Bowie resolution.

45s doohickey.

sjw
(Definition of SJW)

Google alerts (me)

That’s the Way of the World – Earth, Wind and Fire.

Today we have trolls.

[Top image per IISC.]

Throwback Music Saturday: Fantasy

Fantasy is a song written and composed by Maurice White, his brother Verdine White, and Eddie del Barrio.

earthwindfireWhen I think of the song Fantasy by Earth, Wind, and Fire, I think of elementary school.

Oh, not mine. In March 1978, after over a year of being underemployed or unemployed after college, I was the newly hired bookkeeper for the Schenectady Arts Council’s program to do outreach in the local schools. It was funded by a program called the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. CETA was much maligned by critics, but it was great for me, part of the administrative staff, and a coterie of artists: sculptors, actors, painters, a photographer, a book author/illustrator duo, and a choreographer, who I’ll call Darlene.

Darlene was more classically trained, but disco was all the rage, so much of what she taught in the schools were more popularly oriented. And to teach this, she needed a partner. Foolishly, I thought, she hornswoggledconvinced me to go with her to the various elementary schools.

I wouldn’t say I was good at this, but I did get to be less bad over time. The program sent out evaluations to the schools afterwards. Since I wasn’t an artist, I didn’t get evaluated, but one of the kind teachers mentioned me positively.

One of the pieces Darlene put together was set to the tune Fantasy by EW&F. But it wasn’t the version I had heard on the radio. Rather it was a take that reprises the slow section from the beginning of the song. That iteration was was from the 1977 album All ‘n All, which got up to #3 on the US album charts and sold triple platinum.

Fantasy is a song written and composed by Maurice White, his brother Verdine White, and Eddie del Barrio. It became an international hit. While the single only went to #32 in the US pop charts, and #12 on the soul charts, it reached #25 in Australia, #14 in the UK, and #6 in Sweden.

Unfortunately, the founder of Earth, Wind and Fire, Maurice White died on February 3 at the age of 74, from Parkinson’s Disease. (he is second from the right in the photo.)

Links

Fantasy (album version) here or here

Fantasy (single version) here or here

Chuck Miller’s great post– Earth, Wind, and Fire: I’ll Write a Song For You.

Maurice White, RIP, played drums on Summertime by Billy Stewart, as Dustbury notes.

Trumped, again

Seriously, I try to ignore the phenomenon that is Donald Trump. But I profess weakness; I am only human.

Trump_Crumb
A friend posted the pic above, with a caption “From Robert Crumb’s strip in HUP comix from 10 or 15 years ago.” But a cursory search reveals that HUP comix #3 was actually from 1989, “featured his take on the ugliness of America (Donald Trump).”

This means that at least some folks realized the toxicity of one DJT over a quarter century ago.

And his father was equally reviled: Woody Guthrie, ‘Old Man Trump’ and a real estate empire’s racist foundations, and Woody Guthrie Loathed His Racist Landlord: Donald Trump’s Father.

nydn-palin-trumpThe New York Daily News has been doing a series of front pages mocking the Donald, and to a lesser extent, Ted Cruz. Audiences are entertained, and the points I tend to agree with, for the most part. The endorsement of Trump by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin was odd theater.

See also the cartoon of Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty But is it journalism? I’d say not as I understand it.

Conservatives against Trump. If he IS the Republican nominee for President, know that the Clinton and Sanders campaigns have bookmarked this piece. Of course, National Review was booted from co-sponsoring the February 25 GOP debate for putting this out.

The Week says Donald Trump is hypnotizing the GOP. Literally. THAT would explain things, such as retweeting a white nationalist, with minimal consequence. Is it true, as he posits, that he could shoot somebody and not lose voters?

I’m now convinced that Donald J. Trump could be elected President this year, especially after reading Ruth Marcus on how much more dangerous Cruz is than Trump, an argument I hear by others. President Trump would cut deals, Cruz would not.

To Dustbury’s everlasting horror:
1. There exists Donald Trump fanfiction.
2. There exists sexually explicit Donald Trump fanfiction.

Man’s obituary: ‘In lieu of flowers, please do not vote for Donald Trump’.

January Rambling #1: Of Oz The Wizard

This is what happens when you reply to spam email.

lutefisk

Gordon Parks’ Jim Crow photos still resonate, alas.

David Brooks of the NY Times: The Brutalism of Ted Cruz.

The father of a boy killed at Sandy Hook gets death threats from people who say the shooting was a hoax.

Amy Biancolli: Not alone at being alone.

Affluenza and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

What militants and the pungent salad radish have in common.

Mark Evanier’s scarlet fever.

The New Yorker: My Last Day as a Surgeon. “In May of 2013, the Stanford University neurosurgical resident Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic lung cancer. He was thirty-six years old.”

Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace. “Workplaces need more walls, not fewer,” something I’m painfully aware of.

‘Lost’ Jerry Lewis Holocaust film sees the light.

Your favorite movies, re-edited, including Of Oz The Wizard, the movie arranged in alphabetical order, from Aah to Zipper. Don’t watch “of”, if you value your sanity.

Periodic table’s seventh row finally filled as four new elements are added, and the song to go with it.

British actor Alan Rickman, star of stage and ‘Harry Potter,’ dies at 69. Here are his Top 20 movie quotes.

2015: SamuraiFrog’s 50 favorite pop culture artifacts and the year in 4 minutes.

2016 in the Capital District: Salaries, food and taxes, have yourself a nice hot cup of coffee while you still can.

Metroland, RIP, and Albany’s alternative weekly Metroland nostalgic, bittersweet final issue.

TEDx: James Veitch: This is what happens when you reply to spam email.

Music!

Natalie Cole, R.I.P.

The Drifters: A Legacy of Harmony

The Beatles’ 50 Biggest Billboard Hits.

SCIENCE WARS – A capella Parody

“Cortez the Killer” – Anders Osbourne Band with Warren Haynes and Danny Louis, Island Exodus 1/18/2013

Hula Medley – Robert Crumb.

Muppets: Kodachrome and Pure Imagination.

Comics!

abridged classics
How Mickey Mouse Evades the Public Domain.

Morrie Turner dies at 90; broke barriers in comics.

FOUNDER OF RUTHLESS COMICS MONOPOLY SPEAKS OUT IN FAVOR OF INCOME INEQUALITY. That would be Steve Geppi of Diamond Comics Distribution.

Coming Out as Gay Superheroes.

A Nigerian comics startup is creating African superheroes.

Google alert (me)

Is Arthur a blog cheat? (I don’t think so). And he credited/blamed me for him getting out 365 blog posts in 2015. You’re welcome.

Chuck Miller’s five most prolific blog commenters of 2015.

Get out the vote/off my lawn.

December #2: Famous Monsters Chronicles, & EOY

The Great Songs :”Overlooked tracks from artists you know, obscure tracks from artists you may not know…

toon refugee.santaWeekly Sift explains the US polarized body politic: Small-government Freedom vs. Big-government Rights. Plus the Yearly Sift.

New York Times: For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions.

Deadliest U.S. mass shootings | 1984-2015.

Short video: A Conversation With Police on Race. Also, the Ferguson cop says life is ‘ruined’ after pointing AR-15 at journalists.

No Charges in the Murder of Tamir Rice and Why white people see black boys like him as older, bigger, and guiltier than they really are.

A girl narrates a letter to her dad as she grows up, and it makes rape culture obvious.

Shooting Parrots is blogging again! Why we’re hard-wired to believe conspiracy theories?

Latest Sunrise and Sunset Forecast in the US.

The city of Albany’s budget crisis.

Everyone on Earth is actually your cousin.

George Clayton Johnson, R.I.P. He was known for writing on the original Twilight Zone TV series, for co-writing the novel Logan’s Run and for writing the first-aired episode of the original Star Trek, among many things.

TEDx Grand Rapids talk: ‪”Valuable Bodies” by artist Riva Lehrer.

Second impressions By Tara Whittle.

Now I Know: The Jumping Frenchmen of Maine and How Panama United Great Britain and the derivation of the word “dude”.

The grilled cheese sandwich; you’re probably making it wrong.

Explain to me how it is that people who’ve been dead, usually exactly three years, seem to cycle up again in FB as recently deceased? Ravi Shankar and Dave Brubeck, just this month. Before that Andy Griffith. With Bob Denver, it was 7 years, so the feedback loop is shrinking.

Wide receiver Edgar Allan Poe.

Instagram Journalism, Internet Fame, & How to Think About Exercise, the former with Jeff Sharlet.

I wrote “Heaven forfend” to someone. My spellcheck does not like forfend?!

Kickstarter: The Official Famous Monsters of Filmland Chronicles Book from FantaCo.

Arthur celebrates the end of the year in search and words and phrases.

I LOVED to watch Meadowlark Lemon play with the Harlem Globetrotters.

The passing of Berowne of Savage Reflections at the age of 94, one of our regular ABC Wednesday contributors. He had a very rich life, but I’ll miss his weekly reflections.

A legendary Jerry Lewis film is reportedly about to join the National Film Registry.

Why West Coast Drivers Add ‘The’ to Their Freeway Numbers. “It’s not an affectation of the car-obsessed—it’s history.”

velveteen rabbit

Satire

Make America Great Again.

How to Misrepresent Global Warming in One Graph, for Dummies.

Lawyer for Martin Shkreli Hikes Fees Five Thousand Per Cent.

Parents Outraged Schools “Indoctrinating” Students Into Islam With Arabic Numerals.

Single Woman With 3 Young Children Unaware She Subject Of 984 Judgments Today.

Chuck Miller

Seven Star Wars movies in one day. And the British weather forecast.

What’s Japanese for “You’re so stupid”?

A TV show I barely heard of called Galavant returns; clips of the musical numbers makes me want to check it out.

Music!

The niece! Rebecca Jade & the Cold Fact – Gonna Be Alright.

From imgur: Hosanna in Excel Sheets
hosanna in excel sheets
The Carole King tribute at the Kennedy Center Honors.

End of year musical mashups.

The Coverville Countdown: Best Covers of 2015, Part 1 and Part 2.

Pantheon Songs is dead. In its ashes: The Great Songs – “Overlooked tracks from artists you know, obscure tracks from artists you may not know, masterpieces, and other curios I’d play if I were an overnight DJ.”

The Sound of Silence- Disturbed.

The Artist Formerly Known As Terence Trent D’Arby.

At 90, Dick Van Dyke sings “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” with Conan O’Brien and The Vantastix.

NPR: In memoriam, 2015.

Frank Sinatra’s Drummer Tells the Story of His Final Concert.

New Yorker: The Discovery of Roscoe Holcomb and the “High Lonesome Sound”.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. No YES? NO!

Animated

New group I joined on Facebook: Stephen R. Bissette, writer-artist. NOT started by Steve, BTW.

Evanier on Mel Blanc. Mark has been blogging for 15 years.

Extinct Attractions: Thurl Ravenscroft Documentary (2004) – Grinch, Haunted Mansion, Tony the Tiger.

Trouble with Comics: Favorite Holiday Comics.

I supported the Kickstarter for the documentary I Am Big Bird, but I did NOT know the BINGHAMTON connection of the early career of Caroll Spinney.

Today’s Video Link

Google alerts (me)

Like any rational person, Dustbury LOVES Pet Sounds. I’d love to see Brian Wilson at Tanglewood in June 2016.

How Arthur@AmeriNZ blogs.

Google alert (not me)

Roger Alin Green, 74, died Sunday, December 13, 2015, at his home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

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