i Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

March rambling: Trimmer

me and Maurice Ravel

Trimmer (def 1): One who adjusts beliefs, opinions, and actions to suit personal interest.

Let There Be Light by Sharp Little Pencil

Fact-checking FOTUS’ address to Congress and CPAC

ICE Detention: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

RFK Jr. Misleads on Vitamin A, Unsupported Therapies for Measles

‘Project 2025 in Action’: Administration Fires Half of Education Department Staff

DEI Is Disappearing In Hollywood. Was It Ever Really Here?

Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.

Meet Everyone Hates Elon, the U.K.-Based Collective Attempting to Take Down Musk: “Let’s Make Billionaires Losers Again”

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Also

The “I Am Canadian” commercial returns!

13 Minutes To The Moon, the podcast about how NASA got to the moon. Produced by the BBC World Service and hosted by Kevin Fong from NASA, with fascinating interviews. Hans Zimmer did the music.

Sports Betting: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Devin “Legal Eagle” Stone is not quitting

The 6668th Central Postal Battalion

Read an interview with Jim McNeal and J. Eric Smith, the authors of Crucibles: How Formidable Rites of Passage Shape the World’s Most Elite Organizations, now available for preorder

John Green reads Chapter 1 of his new book EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS and is interviewed on the CBC

We Will Eradicate Measles

Joseph Wambaugh, L.A. Cop Turned Novelist and Screenwriter, Dies at 88. I used to watch Police Story.

Kevin Drum, writer of solid political commentary, died

Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years, dies at 82

A collection of the Mickey Mouse shorts from 1929, including Mickey speaking his first words in The Karnival Kid

Captain America Co-Creator Jack Kirby Getting Definitive Documentary ‘Kirbyvision’

Now I Know: Bombs Away! (Cat Version) and The Jigsaw Puzzles Worth Their Weight in Gold? and A Whopper of a Way to Pay For Your Wedding and How Homer Simpson’s Comical Gluttony Saved Lives and A Classical Way to Save the Whales and Why 19th Century Britons Lost Their Heads

Albany Public Library

Two Open Seats on APL Board. Albany voters will select two trustees for the Albany Public Library Board in the May 20 election. Both positions carry full five-year terms, which commence on July 1.

The library is hosting the following public forums:

“So, You Want to be a Library Trustee” Information Sessions

March 22 (Sat) | 10-11:30 am | Howe Branch | 105 Schuyler St.
March 26 (Wed) | 6:30-8 pm | Pine Hills Branch | 517 Western Ave.

Hear from current trustees about what it’s like serving as an APL trustee, how to get on the ballot, and tips for a successful campaign.

Meet the Trustee Candidates Forum and Library Budget Session

May 6 (Tue) | 6-7:30 pm | Washington Ave. Branch | 161 Washington Ave.

Bad news for libraries: ALA’s statement on the White House assault on the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library Author talks/book reviews in April, Tuesdays at 2 pm, 161 Washington Ave, large auditorium:

April 1 | To Be Announced

April 8 | Author Talk | C. M. Waggoner, who as a youngster ‘spent a lot of time reading fantasy novels in a swamp,’ discusses & reads from her mystery, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society.

April 15 | Book Review | Piranesi, a novel by Susanna Clarke. Reviewer: Sarah Reiter, prolific local fiction writer & artist.

April 22 | Book Review | Tracing Homelands: Israel, Palestine, and the Claims of Belonging by Linda Dittmar. Reviewer: Jim Collins, PhD, professor emeritus, Linguistic Anthropology, U at Albany, SUNY.

April 29 | Book Review | Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System by Wes Marshall. Reviewer: Jackie Gonzales, PhD, environmental historian & project manager, Capital Streets.

MUSIC

Beethoven’s Opus 72 (Fidelio), Overture, which, of course, is all about me!

In February 2014, my wife and I attended the Albany Symphony Orchestra concert, which included Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. We got the tickets from friends at church who gave them up because one of them hated that piece of music, thinking it was boring. Seeing and hearing Bolero live was exquisite.

Flash forward to March 2025, and blogger buddy Kelly linked to a performance of Ravel’s Bolero despite his long-standing disdain for the piece. He wrote, “This one’s really very good, and the camera work in this video is pretty terrific.” Not incidentally, this being the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth this year, ASO is performing Bolero again on April 5, 2024, at the Palace Theatre in Albany. We are not going because of a conflict, but I recommend it. Incidentally, Maurice and I have the same birthday.

Lisztomania -Phoenix

Bach at Home: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 Movement III by Orchestra of St. Luke’s

Defy Democracy – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Bored in the U.S.A. – Father John Misty

Hello, It’s Me – Evan Marks & Rebecca Jade. Vote in this year’s San Diego Music Awards for this song in Category 21 every day through March 27!

Personality Crisis – New York Dolls; Hot! Hot! Hot! – Buster Poindexter. David Johansen, Flamboyant New York Dolls Vocalist and Co-Founder, Dies at 75

Name of God – Mustafa

Mambo Lido – Peter Sprague

Oh! You Pretty Things – Lisa Hannigan

Lupron – Time Wharp

One O’Clock Jump – Buddy Rich

Joy, Joy! – Valerie June

Look What I Found – Lady Gaga (from A Star Is Born)

Bulletproof -La Roux

Death of Samatha – Yoko Ono

Coverville 1525: Cover Stories for Missing Persons and New Bohemians

Intro -The xx

Concern – William Tyler

Pique Dame by Franz von Suppe

Library and data geek stuff

universal broadband

Suddenly, I had a whole bunch of data geek links. These involve sources I used, primarily when working as a business librarian. While at it, I figured I’d plug in some local library events.

ITEM: New York State is approaching universal broadband through both access and adoption—and recognizes that affordability is a crucial barrier to adoption.

Late last month, I attended a meeting hosted by the local United Way and other entities, including the Albany Public Library, as part of a “listening tour” to identify shortfalls in broadband access.

You can guess some folks affected- poor communities, rural communities, and the elderly. The day I went to the meeting, I saw this story on CBS News about teens helping seniors learn to use technology. This type of innovative partnership could be replicated across the country.

ITEM: Discovering the American Community Survey – A comprehensive guide to survey information, data access, analysis, and statistics for America’s most extensive survey. If you know the history of the Census, you may realize that the current decennial census asks very few questions. The ACS gathers some of that more detailed data formerly collected from the Census long form.

Also, the new and improved Census Business Builder? Version 5.1 is “A Powerful Tool to Help Guide Your Business Decisions.” I know one of the people who developed this free product.

More tools: These NYS GIS Clearinghouse: Discover free public data, maps, apps, and other resources

Atlas of Urban Areas in New York State

How Can You Help the Internet Archive? This site includes the Wayback Machine, a means to find defunct or changed websites

Local library info

The National Library Week Soiree is on Wednesday, April 26 at 6 pm at the Bach branch of the Albany Public Library, sponsored by the FFAPL:get tickets here.

Book reviews and author talks at the 161 Washington Avenue branch of the APL in the large auditorium Tuesdays at noon.

April 11 | A tribute to the late poet Charles Simic, who published over 60 books, won the Pulitzer Prize, & was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, by Gene Damm of FFAPL.

April 18 | Author Talk | Patricia A. Fennell, MSW, LCSW-R, scientist & clinician, discusses her book, Managing Chronic Illness Using the Four-Phase Treatment Approach: A Mental Health Professional’s Guide to Helping Chronically Ill People.

April 25 | Book Review | Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions, a graphic autobiography by Steve Martin & Cartoonist Harry Bliss. Reviewer: John Rowen, former president, Friends of APL.

I want to plug Patricia Fennell’s talk, as she’s a buddy of mine.

More library stuff

May 2 | Book Review | Milkweed Smithereens by Bernadette Mayer.  Reviewer: Bob Sharkey, poet & member of the board, Hudson Valley Writers Guild. (Rescheduled from 14 March, when a snowstorm closed the library.)

May 9 | Book Review | Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies about Our Past , edited by Kevin M. Kruse & Julian E. Zelizer.  Reviewer: John McGuire, PhD, attorney.

May 16 | Book Review | Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers.  Reviewer: Carl Strock, author & prize-winning journalist.

May 23 | Author Talk | Israel Tsvaygenbaum, artist, discusses & reads from his memoir, My Secret Memory.

May 30 | Book Review | Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond.  Reviewer: Anita Thayer, attorney.

June 6 | Book Review | The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence by Stephen Kurczy.  Reviewer: David Guistina, “Morning Edition” anchor & senior producer, WAMC.

June 13 | Book Review | The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.  Reviewer: Andrea Nicolay, director, APL.

June 20 | Special Program | Dave Kibbe, an authority on Broadway musicals, will present From Oklahoma to the Austrian Alps: The Music of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

June 27 | Book Review | A Conspiracy of Mothers, a novel by Colleen Van Niekerk.  Reviewer: Miki Conn, author, poet, artist, storyteller.

Lydster: Learning from my daughter

television

There are always things I’m learning from my daughter.

She has been following online Maxwell Frost, the newly-elected member of Congress from Florida. I knew who he was because I had been getting contribution requests from his campaign.

He was supposed to be sworn in on January 3. So he wrote about that the day before. But as the drama over selecting a Speaker of the House of Representatives dragged on, no one could be sworn in. So Frost reposted that January 2 post, followed by the word “SIKE!”

Quickly, he was scolded by some folks who thought a Member of Congress should know how to spell Psych! But, as my daughter noted, people of her generation have been spelling it as SIKE forever.

Did I mention that Frost is the first Gen Z Congressperson? “At 25, [he] will be the youngest member of Congress. He’s also in debt after maxing out credit cards to win Florida’s 10th Congressional District seat.”

Influencer

My daughter told me that Andrew Tate was arrested. I said, “Who’s that?” “He’s a former kickboxer and TikTok influencer.” I muttered, “I don’t care about some social media influencer.”

But a couple of days later, after I read about him on Reuters and other mainstream sources, I knew WAY more about him than I wanted. He is a brutal misogynist. The Romanian anti-organized crime agency DIICOT alleges he created with his brother and others “an organized crime group in early 2021 ‘with the purpose of recruiting, housing, and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialized websites for a cost.'”

His feud with Greta Thunberg revealed that he was in Romania when a box from Jerry’s Pizza, a Romanian chain, was in his video response to her, which facilitated his arrest.

So my daughter, once again, was ahead of my curve.

Dick Wolf

During her winter break, my daughter watched a bit of television. Two shows were in the Dick Wolf franchise, Chicago Fire and FBI International. She seems to like to watch and dissect them.

In the one episode I watched, Chicago Fire had characters lying for no good reason. For instance, one firefighter tells a pregnant woman married to another firefighter that she’s “fine” seconds before she is rushed to the hospital. In another scene, the woman in a couple avoids telling her Significant Other she’s buying a door with another firefighter, which becomes obvious two scenes later.

The FBI scene involves the officers coming up to a suspect and saying, from ten feet away, “FBI.” The suspect runs away and eludes capture. Now I know what “hate-watching” is because my daughter does it.

I love learning how my daughter’s mind works.