Day 37: It's Sunday...Still Accepting Nominations for the Donnies™

We interrupt Sunday FACEBOOK style for a special message.

Big Announcment: The Donnies™ ARE Coming! Send in your nominations. 
Closing DATE: May 1, 2020

Don's Basement has had a serious meeting with an L.A. editor/producer/director to work on the first annual and hopefully only presentation of  The Donnies™, Don's Basement will award a Donnie™to the best videos and images that have been sent to me since the confinement began (in Illinois).

The categories (subject to change without a second thought):

Best Image: JPEGs preferred

Best Short: Video under 30 seconds

Best Song Parody

Best Video: Single Camera

Best Video: Muti-Camera

Please send your nominations via text, E-mail, or direct message. If you read this blog, you have my contact info...

During the week of May 10th, I will post the nominees, betting odds, predictions and commentary. Keep tuning in for details of the award ceremony.


It's that time again. To kick back, relax, close our eyes and just whisper WTF.

FACEBOOK STYLE:

Walk on the mild side....

The Title of "Rainy Day Women 12 and 35"

Someone asked my what the title of this song means. Here is what I discovered.

1. From Tony Attwood,  "Allegedly the final title came from Proverbs 27 v 15, “A continual dripping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike,” the religious input coming from the fact that the accompaniment (and afterthought once the recording session was underway) was added to give it a “Salvation Army” appeal."
2. From an article in Time Magazine, July 1, 1996, "a 'rainy day woman' as any junkie knows, is a marijuana cigarette." 
3. "The 'official' explanation of how this song got its name: A woman and her daughter came into the recording studio out of the rain. Dylan guessed their ages correctly as 12 and 35." I have no idea where this 'official' explanation came from other than the Internet.

George Jackson's Wig

There was strong interest in this week's post on Bob Dylan's Real People and when I say strong I mean three people made reference to it.  Specifically, in 1971, how did George Jackson conceal a 9MM pistol under a wig in San Quentin? Here is an unpublished comment...A gun and clips under a wig. Do you really thing prison guards are that dumb? With an avowed revolutionary career criminal? After the Marin Courthouse shootout?"

In the 1997 trial of Steven Bingham who was accused of smuggling the weapon to Jackson, defense attorney, Susan Rutberg demonstrated the difficulty of balancing a gun that weighs two pounds on one's head for 75 yards. She also proved that the wig could not be found for nearly 3 days after the shootout in the prison yard.

I listened to The Dollop's podcast about George Jackson and the shootout. They said there was evidence found at a dry cleaner's weeks before the escape attempt. While The Dollop is a comedy show, they do quote sources.

In a review of "Who Killed George Jackson" by Jo Durden Smith, the reviewer concludes "Durden-Smith came to California to prove that Jackson had been assassinated by San Quentin guards and by the police; to a significant degree, he does prove that. But he also found out much that he did not want to know: that as a convict Jackson fought not only for control over the destiny of his people but for control over prison rackets"

Was George Jackson set up by prison guards or rival inmates or killed in a failed prison uprising? I don't know. But the wig story seems pretty contrived. The basement apologizes for any confusion.