In reviewing the video, I conclude that John (of blessed memory) had no BB game. Weak two handed set-shot. Otherwise, the video is funny, sweet, and sad. The song is so apt that it hurts.
Whereas....
In other news....
Hip Hop Evolution...
This guy has a look!
Don's Book Club
Or should we have just kept hunting and gathering?
Today, we leap forward into the past. When I was a wee little sprout, I used to hang out in the basement. (The more things change...)
Here were the key components:
From this simple mix came wonderful Saturday nights.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, my favorite media to consume (although I would never have said that way) were Gladiator movies. Today these movies are called "Sword and Sandals" or to the cognoscenti, 'peplum' (a term coined by French film critics in the 1960s after the Latin word for a Greek style tunic.)
Peplum
The most successful star of this genre was unquestionably Steve Reeves. Let's look at the career of this man who was born in Glascow, Montana, became a world champion body builder and starred in 16 or 17 (depending on who's counting) pepla.
Mr. America: 1947
Mr. World: 1948
Mr. Universe 1950
Starring as Lt. Bob Lawrence in Jail Bait directed by Ed Wood, 1954
First Sword and Sandal for Steve: 1958
Hercules Unchained: 1959
Goliath and the Barbarians: 1959
Morgan the Pirate:1960
Sandokan the Great: 1963
Vivo per la tua morte: 1968
Steve Reeves wrote A Long Ride From Hell his first and only Western. From the Guardian's obituary of Reeves (May 1, 2000), When Mario Bonnard, the director making The Last Days Of Pompeii in 1959, fell ill during shooting, the film was finished by Sergio Leone, who, watching Reeves at work as the centurion, thought seriously of casting him as the nameless cowboy in A Fistful Of Dollars.
Reeves later told an Italian journalist: "I turned the part down because it seemed to me impossible that the Italians could make a western. I was wrong. And Clint Eastwood was perfect for the part."
A Long Ride From Hell was a box office flop and Reeves retired from acting. He moved to a ranch in Escondido, California where he bred horses and wrote a workout guide Building The Classic Physique, The Natural Way.
I can't let this go without citing the women of pepla.
Today, I face my most daunting challenge. An attempt to defend seven Trump moments that were highlighted by the Young Turks.
The Young Turk Network (TYT) "is the largest online news and talk network for the connected generation." Cenk Uygur started a radio show on Sirius Radio in 2002. "It has since evolved into a 24-hour channel on YouTube TV and the network includes more than a dozen owned and operated and partner shows such as The Young Turks, #NoFilter, The Damage Report, Happy Half Hour, TYT Sports, TYT Interviews, TYT Politics, TYT Investigates, and more."
Here is how they literally (we'll get back to that word) describe themselves.
What does The Young Turks mean? Why is the show named The Young Turks?
The selection of the name The Young Turks reflects the definition provided in American Heritage Dictionary. Young Turk (n.) Young, progressive or insurgent member of an institution, movement or political party. Young person who rebels against authority or societal expectations. The selection of this name does not refer to any specific, historical incarnation of The Young Turks. In other words, they are a left wing alternative to Fox News, Daily Caller, Red State et al. And not The Young Turks whose post revolutionary nationalist government was complicit with the Armenian Genocide during the WW1.
Odd name choice for Cenk, a Turk, whose family immigrated to the US when he was 8.
The Story: On August 26, 2019 Axios reported that - During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, "I got it. I got it. Why don't we nuke them?" according to one source who was there. "They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they're moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can't we do that?" the source added, paraphrasing the president's remarks.
President's Reaction:
Basement Take: Let's assume for a moment that the President really did say what was reported. If he said it, he is not the first person to suggest using nuclear energy to change the climate. According to a Wired Magazine article, since the nuclear age began the following climate altering ideas have been suggested for atomic bombs.
1. In the 1945 book, The Almighty Atom, The Real Story of Atomic Power, the author John Joseph Oneil suggested using atomic weapons to melt the polar ice caps, gifting “the entire world a moister, warmer climate.”
2. Julian Huxley, brother of novelist Aldous Huxley and a renowned biologist suggested at one point that nuclear weapons could be used to flood the Sahara, allowing the arid landscape to “blossom.” He argued in favor of “atomic dynamite” for “landscaping the earth.”
3. World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, "looked to Antarctica, suggesting nuclear weapons could help miners and businesses access the valuable minerals locked deep under ice."
4. In 1959 Jack Reed, a meteorologist, submitted his concept of dropping a nuclear bomb into a hurricane. “It appears that a megaton explosion in the eye would engulf and entrain a large quantity of this hot ‘eye’ air and carry it out of the storm into the stratosphere.”
None of the "concepts" have ever been tested due to the incredible danger of radiation and greater sophistication in the scientific community about the unforeseen consequences of these "thought experiments."
Conclusion: "I typically get those questions (about nuking hurricanes) and I get an uptick on ’em when there’s an active tropical cyclone,” explains Dennis Feltgen of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “I must get that question, maybe, depending on the year, anywhere from up to two dozen a year.”
This falls into the category of the unfiltered Trump just saying stuff that some other people think but are embarrassed to say it out loud.
It's dumb. 2.
The Story:
On July 4, 2019 during his tribute to the army, President Trump said: “In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York...Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory.”
President's Reaction: "We had a lot of rain. I stood in the rain. The teleprompter went out. It kept going on, and then at the end, it just went out. It went kaput!"
Basement Take: I know that guy is not an historian but I can't believe that he thinks the Continental Army had an Air Corps. It seems more likely that, in fact, the teleprompter went out. I have no idea what he was supposed to say. It sounds like he was riffing on the National Anthem...ramparts, Fort McHenry, rocket's red glare. Conflating the Revolutionary War with the War of 1812. But the airports..
Conclusion: This is a case of the anti-Trump press piling on.
Bumbling but not dumb. 3.
The Story: During a 2017 campaign style rally in Phoenix, the President said. “We’ve ended the war on beautiful, clean coal,” he said. “It’s just been announced that a second, brand-new coal mine, where they’re going to take out clean coal — meaning, they’re taking out coal. They’re going to clean it— is opening in the state of Pennsylvania, the second one.”
President's Reaction: I couldn't really found out what President Trump means by "clean coal." He says it a lot. He said it alot when he was campaigning and he has said it a lot since then.
Basement Take: "Clean Coal" is not a Donald Trump invention.
1. U.S. Senate Bill 911 in April, 1987, defined clean coal technology as follows:
"The term clean coal technology means any technology...deployed at a new or existing facility which will achieve significant reductions in air emissions of sulfur dioxide or oxides of nitrogen associated with the utilization of coal in the generation of electricity."
2. The clean coal movement, pushed by Jimmy Carter in the 1970’s, emphasized coal as a source of reliable and efficient power. Carter’s policies sought to end US reliance on foreign oil. (Morning Consult, April, 2016)
3. "Making good on campaign promises, the President Obama is throwing the full weight of his administration behind a moonshot effort to make coal the "clean" energy technology of choice" (Inside Climate News, February, 2010)
FactCheck tries to clear up what is behind the President's catch phrase. “Clean coal turns out to mean largely whatever one wants it to mean,” says Edward S. Rubin, a professor of mechanical engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University" in the November 2018 article.
According to Rubin, Trump could be thinking of coal cleaning or coal washing, an older technology that removes impurities, such as non-combustible mineral matter and sulfur, from coal. This can cut down on coal ash pollution, and slightly reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. But this processing hardly makes coal clean.
“Today, no one really thinks of coal cleaning as a significant clean coal technology,” said Rubin.
Conclusion: The concept of "clean coal" may be farfetched but it is not dumb. It would be a boon to both the environment and the economy if there were a way to burn coal that did not pollute.
However, the President implies that the coal itself, prior to processing is "clean," sounds at least ill-informed and uncurious to be sure.
Lazy and dumb. 4.
The Story: Nov. 23, 2017: "With the Air Force, we're ordering a lot of planes, in particular the F-35 fighter jet, which is, you know, almost like an invisible fighter. I was asking the Air Force guys, I said, how good is this plane? They said, well, sir, you can't see it. I said, yeah, but in a fight — you know, a fight — like I watch in the movies — they fight, they're fighting. How good is this? They say, well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it. Even if it's right next to it, it can't see it.
President's Reaction: The President has on a number of occasions made similar comments. There are at least 7 instances where the he has said that the F-35 Stealth Fighters are invisible. The most recent comments I could find were from July, 2018. If the President thought the planes were "literally" invisible back then, I'm sure his opinion must have changed during this June, 12, 2019 flyover of the White House.
Basement Take: C'mon. I know that the Young Turks hate Trump. I agree that the man is inarticulate but he is not "moronic." The worst you can say about this one is that he misuses the word "literally," a common problem these days.
Conclusion: More piling on. Not dumb. 5.
The Story:
In September 2017, President Trump began a speech to the National Association of Manufacturers with the following. "I'd like to begin by sending our thoughts and prayers to the people of Puerto Rico, who have been struck by storms of historic and catastrophic severity. We've undertaken a massive federal mobilization to assist Puerto Rico. The response and recovery effort probably has never been seen for something like this, This is an island surrounded by water, big water, ocean water."
President's Reaction:
The President is no fan of Puerto Rico. He has called it “one of the most corrupt places on earth.” He said that "The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA." And he tweeted, 'Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments...and so little appreciation!”
He has history with Puerto Rico. His company took over a struggling golf club resort in 2008. The resort filed for bankruptcy for 2013 while the Trump Organization managed the property.
Basement Take:
Do the Young Turks et al think that the President did not know that Puerto Rico is an island? Or that it is situated between the Atlantic and Caribbean Oceans? Or that 'big water' sound juvenile? I agree that the 'big water' comment is risible. I also believe that the President doesn't like to think that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. But I think he knows that it is.
Conclusion:
Understandable anger at Trump's hurricane response. Not dumb. 6.
The Story:
Before the National Republican Congressional Committee' in April, 2019 the President said. “If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer."
President's Reaction:
December, 2019, the President pressed his case against windmills before a conservative student group in Palm Beach.
1. And if you own a house within vision of some of these monsters, your house is worth 50 percent of the price. They’re noisy.
2. They kill the birds. You want to see a bird graveyard? You just go. Take a look. A bird graveyard. Go under a windmill someday. You’ll see more birds than you’ve ever seen ever in your life. (Laughter.)
3. I’ve seen the most beautiful fields, farms, fields — most gorgeous things you’ve ever seen, and then you have these ugly things going up.
Change in home devaluation. No talk about cancer.
Basement Take:
No brainer. Trump for personal reasons (his golf course in Scotland has a wind farm nearby) and political (favors fossil fuels over wind and solar) has, you'll pardon the expression bug up his ass about windmills. Windmills do kill hundreds of thousand of birds every year. And there are studies that show noise levels do affect nearby residents. But no studies to suggest that the noise of windmills causes cancer.
Conclusion: Dumb. 7.
The Story:
April 23, 2020. During a White House Task Force Briefing, the President said, "I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."
President's Reaction:
The following day, the President said, “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen."
Basement Take:
It didn't sound like sarcasm to me. The President kept turning to William Bryan, a Homeland Security official while he spoke. There are two options here.
1. He was doing the unfiltered Trump...top of his head..thing. (See #1)
2. He was being sarcastic to piss off the press.
Either way this is just wrong. And maybe dangerous but not as much as the anti-Trump media would have us believe. Still. Wrong.
Conclusion: Dumb
Here is the scorecard for the Young Turk's dumb moments.
Dumb 4 Not Dumb 3
Feel free to leave a comment on this page or on FACEBOOK or send an E-mail. Or do nothing. That's good too.
Yes: "At the end of the day, building cairns for fun can be cathartic and challenging, but as a general rule of thumb, people should practice the ‘leave no trace’ method, so as not to disturb the natural environment, distort the path or risk cultural appropriation of such an ancient and sacred art form." From Culture Trip.
No: Rock cairns aren’t for aesthetics.
Rock cairns aren’t for competition to see who can build a taller cairn.
Rock cairns aren’t for having a seat for a picnic.
Rock cairns aren’t for hiding emergency gear. From Bear Foot Theory
4. Are these cairns?
Jokes: (sent to me from California)
The doctor said to the blonde, “I’m so sorry. Your dad has been pronounced dead.”
The blonde replied, “Oh my god, I can’t believe I’ve been pronouncing it wrong all these years.”
You really have to hand it to short people — because they usually can’t reach it themselves.
Did I mention that I was robbed by six dwarves last week? Not Happy!
On April 14, Medium posted an article from their series, My Favorite Corner of SF, which features a special place in the town called Frisco. (Click for rabbit hole about that nickname). Sunny Chanel picked the southwest corner of Market and Octavia the location of Grooves, a record store she inherited from her parents and Top's Coffee Shop, opened in 1935.
This piece of Americana so delighted Bob Dylan that he painted it as part of his Beaten Path Series.
My search for the Dylan image lead me (online) to Shanghai's Halcyon Gallery which ran a retrospective of over 250 artworks spanning the 1970 drawings (remember the cover of Planet Waves) through the more recent, Beaten Path acrylics.
In celebration of Bob's 79th birthday, I am exploring the artwork which may have been exhibited (September 28, 2019 through February 2020).
Writings and Drawings 1973 This collection includes Dylan's lyrics from Bob Dylan (1962) to Greatest Hits (1971) and his drawings from that way back then. You'll recall that era spans post-motorcycle accident (July 1966) and Big Pink and Woodstock (town, not the festival)
"She Belongs to Me"
Minstrel Boy
I can see a lot of Woody Guthrie influence in this endeavor.
Originally published in 1994, Drawn Blank is a series of landscapes, hotel scenes and nudes that Dylan created whilst (sic) on tour from 1989 to 1992. They were enhanced in 2007 and enlarged digitally to create 320 original paintings. Selections shown are from Castle Fine Arts.
In this Medium article, the author takes on Dylan's Asia Series, Gagosian Gallery, appropriation, forgeries, and the capitalist nature of the art world. And that many of the Asia Series works are copies of photographs but sell for a lot of money because the artist is (probably) Bob Dylan.
Of New Orleans, Dylan writes “There’s a thousand different angles at every moment. No action seems inappropriate here. The city is one very long poem.”
Dylan has long been a willful contextualizer of his own source material. All personas are interchangeable. His diverse musical output spans a wealth of genres. His Revisionist art provides a glimpse of an artistic process that is equally maverick and elusive.
Yeah, like they said. These are large silk screens about 4 feet tall.
Sharon Stone on the cover of Playboy. Not Sharon Stone getting an autograph during the Rolling Thunder Review.
"There is nothing to suggest these paintings were inspired by the writings of Sigmund Freud or that they were based on any mental images that occur in dreams, no fantasy worlds, religious mysticism or ambiguous subject matter. In every picture the viewer doesn’t have to wonder whether it’s an actual object or a delusional one. If the viewer visited where the picture actually existed, he or she would see the same thing. It is what unites us all."
Attempts to see things as they are – whether through the emptiness of Buddhism or the neant of Sartrean existentialism – haven’t been very successful at offering clarity. We still insist on a truth that is often nothing more than a hodgepodge of subjectivity and seemingly endless loops of personal associations.
On April 14, Medium posted an article from their series, My Favorite Corner of SF, which features a special place in the town called Frisco. (Click for rabbit hole about that nickname). Sunny Chanel picked the southwest corner of Market and Octavia the location of Grooves, a record store she inherited from her parents and Top's Coffee Shop, opened in 1935.
This piece of Americana so delighted Bob Dylan that he painted it as part of his Beaten Path Series.
