Protest-news -free Saturday for me

 #PrincessBeatrice was married on Friday and wore the same tiara that her grandmother Queen Elizabeth wore on her own wedding day in 1947. No photographs of Beatrice's dad Prince Andrew and  no new recording of the Sex Pistols, God Save the queen.

I found an old interview online of the late Jim Carroll labeling his writing as 'Burroughesque", a recorder or conduit of stories. For the most part, Ol Bill Burroughs was better at removing himself from the scenes he was writing about.

I 'm about a third of the way through Hakan Nesser's, Stranglers Honeymoon. It's been great catching up on fictional, Swedish detectives.

It was great to hear Teardrops, by Womack &Womack.

July 21, 2020

I guess the salamander's slimy coating is why the word is used in titles for TV shows and movies.The Golden Salamander is an ok flick from 1951 about  Tunisia, and the French and British interests there. I can see why #AnoukAimee , the French actress, was all the rage

Salamander is the title of a Belgium cop series that aired from 2012-18

July 25, 2020

While watching The Bootlegger, a 2016 documentary about Henry(Killie) Wagle (1886-1929) of Colchester , IL, the  voice of a radio news reader had a flat, midwestern sound  that reminded me a bit of author William Burroughs(1914-1997), a writer who was born in St Louis, MO which is about three hours from Colchester.

July 30, 2020

After a few trials #christineConnor  was found guilty in Belfast of the attempted murder of police officers who she lured  to areas with bogus 999 calls.  Also, she posed online as a blonde Swedish model called Sanne Anderson to recruit helpers to carry out her plans. Detective fiction writers will be 

using some of this material in future novels.

August 1, 2020

The Space X astronauts are hoping to land in the Gulf of Mexico today in the  first splashdown return for US astronauts in 45 years.

I started reading The Summer of Kim Novak by Hakan Nesser and came across a new acronym TPW for an old expression, The Perfect Woman.

Aug 6, 2020

 Saniniu Laizer, who has been in the mining business in northern Tanzania for more than 15 years, hit it big after selling three rough Tanzanite stones for $5.4m.

Aug 9 

I 'd never considered rubbish as a verb  and saw it was used in the past tense in Belfast Telegraph article yesterday. #SinnFein rubbished claims that Gerry Adams was an MI5 informant.

Aug 16, 2020

 While watching  a documentary on corruption in Bulgaria, which referenced the after-effects of Soviet occupation and battles with the Ottoman Empire, I got to wondering about well known folks from Bulgaria. Some historians believe #Spartacus was a part of the Thracian tribes (Bessi, Maedi or Getae), the ancient ancestors of today’s Bulgarians, who lived in what is present day Sandanski in southwest Bulgaria. 

Aug 31, 2020

  The Vanishing of Sidney Hall(2017) provided plot answers, but you had to watch  the entire movie as the chronology of events, at times felt random.  Hall, played by Logan Lerman, is a  best selling author of modern suburban angst, who is not treated with kid gloves  by the the movie's director, Shawn Christensen. I was hoping they were going to delve deeper into censorship demands and results.

Sept 7

Clicked  on U-Turn (1997) , a movie starring Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and J-Lo, yesterday and was pulled in by how bad it was. Penn and JLo are a mismatch. Nolte improves as the movie bounces along. Jon Voight as the Blind man   bordered on a complete goof.

Hey, Oliver Stone is the Director , which explains why  it's lacking direction.

Sept 13

 The Courier had some interesting  scenes and Gary Oldman was decent, but the countless ways in which Olga Kurylenko's, a Ukrainian-born actress, character managed to survive made this thriller into a farce. 

Sept 26

Curiosity about threats to the Roman Empire led me to this name.  #Boudicca , the warrior queen, an uprising against the Roman Empire,after the death of her husband Prasutagus ,who ruled East Anglian people of the Iceni. The Romans prevailed and she committed suicide in 61 AD.

oCT 18

I watched a 1986 flick, In Defense of the Realm, and have become nearly immune to  a prevalent theme of British kids who were Communists in college, then shift slightly to center as Labor Party politician, and are later framed for spying for Russia or East Germany. As if Philby were an aberration.

Oct 25

Inherit the Viper is a solid movie about small town Appalachia drug dealing of pharmaceutical opioids, and how the Conley siblings sort out their differences. #MargaritaLevieva , the leader of the Conley drug crew, nabbed my attention. I was surprised by the ending in this flick not filled with stereotypes.

nov 8

A sports channel was running clips of the 2015 KC/NYM World Series , and I could not recall the name of the Mets Manager.  #terrycollins  was the Mets MGR from 2011-17. He "retired" from managing and moved into the Mets front office. #NedYost was the Royals MGR in that World Series.

Nov 15

#CoreyConners of Listowel, Ont., shot the lowest round by a Canadian at the Masters, a seven-under 65 in Round 2. The previous record was 68.

Nov 19

I've been captivated lately by episodes of #Decoy, a 1958 American TV series about a NYC policewoman starring #BeverlyGarland , who later played the stepmom in My Three Sons. Some of the stories aren't too hokey and  the film footage of NYC in 1958 is great.

Nov 23, 2020

Garland's character, Casey Jones, in Decoy threatened an aggressive informant with arrest for mashing. That a new term to me so I went searching and found : Enrico Caruso, the great opera singer, was arrested at the Central Park Zoo in 1906 after pressing himself up against a woman and  was fined $10 in court for mashing.

Jan 17, 2021

Jeju Shinhwa World, one of the largest resorts on Jeju Island, reported to police that over 14 billion  Won notes, the equivalent to $13 million dollars, had gone missing from the Landing Casino. It was in smaller denomination notes so it wouldn't have been an easy move. A female employee from Malaysia who had been in charge of the cash but hasn't returned to work after leaving for a vacation at the end of December, is the top suspect.

Jan 23, 2021

Some dates won't leave my cranium. I went to a Catholic elementary school that had an affiliation with Pallottine nuns. Saint Vincent #Pallotti died January 22, 1850  at the age of 54.

Feb 2, 2021

I started reading Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay last weekend and  learned that thieves ruled the day in that area in the 1600s. Great Britain was slow to react, while MD and VA argued over territorial rights ,and the  thieves would head south to the Carolinas when they felt threatened.

March 13, 2021

Narcosubs, semisubmersibles that float mostly below the waterline, have been used in to transport cocaine from Columbia to Central America.  In February Spanish police discovered a narco-sub in Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol that was most likely intended to transport cocaine ashore from a larger vessel.

March 21, 2021

I watched a few episodes of West of Liberty, a spy  TV mini-series filled with  Russian mobsters, CIA pricks, Arab terrorists, and Stasi vets, yesterday, and the character Lucien Gell, obviously based on Julian Assange,  was portrayed as a man with many masters. It was entertaining and  had enough  diversity to piss  off anyone viewing it through  the lenses of his or her favorite political agenda.

april 25, 2021

I watched a few episodes of Aber Bergen, a Norwegian  TV Series (2016–2018) about lawyers, yesterday and was a bit surprised that nearly all the cultural references were to famous American entertainers.

may 8, 2021

I checked out this tune after reading a WSJ review on Van Morrison latest album“Latest Record Project: Volume 1”  that mentions 

only a song      a  number with a harmonic structure similar to his tune “Wild Night"

June 19, 2021

When I needed  foreign language  credits in college I saw a chance to get them  by taking a course taught in German and English on the Weimar Republic. Four years of German classes in high school, in what I later learned was High German, helped a little and opened my eyes wider to an era in which Brecht and the Mann brothers were thriving in literature, the Bauhaus was influencing Architecture, while Hitler was battling Hindenburg for political power. Below are some  political ads in Berlin in 1932.  

July 5, 2021

#kremilinletter , a #johnhuston flick from 1970,   entertained me this weekend. I was a bit mesmerized by #BibiAnderson , and needed a scorecard sometimes to keep track of the plot twists and how often Richard Boone used the word nephew. The opening ten minutes included  #GeorgeSanders  as a drag queen so you knew  this was going to be a little different.

July 26, 2021

I found this tidbit while reading  some June 2021 news. When a 49-year-old Greek man was arrested on June 28, 2021 and  asked why he stole the Picasso painting, the Mondrian, in 2012 from the  Athens Pinacotheca, he said he grabbed the first paintings he encountered. However, this painting was so "hot" he was unable to find a buyer willing to take the risk.

August 1, 2021

When I saw the names, Fritz Lang and Bert(Bertolt) Brecht associated with this 1943 Hollywood movie ,Hangmen Also Die!, I thought I was in for a treat , and it had some decent moments, but it felt a bit stunted and gave the feeling of a play put on film. It was loosely based on the aftermath of the assassination of  Reinhard Heydrich, the SS Chief of the Reich Security Main Office, by the Czech resistance in 1942. 

Walter Brennan as Professor Stephen Novotny was a revelation.

Aug 21, ,2021

On August, 21, 1970 my parents gave me the Steppenwolf Live album for my eleventh birthday, which was a big deal since my budget allowed for an occasional 45 rpm purchase.

Sept 19, 2021

Dorothy Tapper Goldman, plans to use proceeds from the upcoming sale of one of 11 surviving copies of the first edition USA Constitution for her foundation, which funds grants intended to help improve the understanding of democracy. Sotheby's Auction House estimates it will sell for between $15M and $20M dollars.

oct 26, 2021

Morton & Eden Ltd hopes to get 300 thousand dollars for a rare coin that was minted in colonial Boston in 1652 and was recently found in the UK inside a candy tin. The mint responsible for producing North America’s first silver coinage was shut down by King Charles II in 1682 because he considered the operation treasonous.

Nov 27, 2021

I found a thick book titled The War Chronicles, for five bucks at B&N a few weeks ago, and it has refreshed my brain on war stories that occurred during BC. The author does the reader a favor by adding a note to ancient city names, this is modern day ___ in ___. 

Dec 11, 2021

I checked out "My Man Godfrey", a 1936 screwball comedy, yesterday for the fourth or fifth time in my life because I wanted some laughs, and Carole Lombard certainly provided them. It's filled with noble poor/ stupid rich cheap shots, but also has some great one- liners.

Then I checked out Demimonde, a 2015 Hungarian film about a courtesan, her housekeeper/ long -time associate, and a recently hired maid, living in Budapest of 1910s. The interplay among the three women was intriguing and, at times, I kept thinking of Emile Zola's book Nana.

Dec 25, 2021

Erroll Garner (1921-1977), a jazz pianist, on never learning to read music, “Hell, man, nobody can hear you read.” 

Don't confuse him with Erle Gardner(1889-1970), the author of the Perry Mason series.

Jan 22, 2022

I like the taste of milk chocolate and of dark chocolate M&Ms and could care less about the M or whatever image is on the candy. However, to be more inclusive Mars will switch the footwear from boots to sneakers on the green M&M. Am I showing my age(62) or do most folks stare at a piece of candy for a long time before consuming it?

Jan 27, 2022

Netherlands unveiled the Ijmuiden lock which will allow large, modern cargo ships to reach the port of Amsterdam without having to wait for a favorable water level. 

Feb 16, 2022

Eleven years ago, Borders, a 40-year-old retail book superstore chain that began as a used book shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and at one point had 650 locations and 19,500 employees, filed for bankruptcy. I used to go to the Towson, MD store often.

May 5, 2022

Midges, non-biting flies which are found near lakes and smaller bodies of water, are blanketing Chicago. 

May 13, 2022

Three musical instruments including a 1758 violin were stolen from a town home in the South Loop Wednesday morning while a family of musicians was sleeping.

May 15, 2022

MingHuan Xu, a resident of the South Loop in Chicago and a professional violinist and director of the string program at Roosevelt University, said an antique violin, made in 1758 by Nicolò Gagliano, was stolen from her house.

According to surveillance cameras in her neighbor’s garage, the thief entered her house after being able to open Xu’s closed car and clicking the garage button inside the car.

July 3, 2022

I watch Bowery at Midnight with Bela Lugosi,  but Wanda McKay snared my attention. Man, she appeared in a zillion things.  

July 23, 2022

Surfskating, a version of skateboarding that uses a more flexible front-end wheel assembly to enable deeply carved turns akin to surfing, is all the rage in Chinese cities since the spring, particularly among women. 

August 1, 2022

While watching The Adventures of Tartu. a WW2 pro Allies film, I was dozing off when a line something like "the High Command shouldn't fraternize with the Czech girls," woke me up. Then I focused on Valerie Hobson (1917–1998) who played the role of Maruschuka Lanova in the flick.

August 14, 2022

I was watching Port of New York, a 1949 film that features great shots of NYC and the screen debut of Yul Brynner. The cops are tracking an opium smuggler in Penn Station, and I hear the ETD announcement for several east coast cities including Baltimore, which the station employee pronounces Bal-tee more.  I spent the next five minutes trying to recall if I've heard it pronounced that way in my nearly 63 years on the planet.

Sept, 11, 2022

I hit pause on football games to watch Beautiful Kate, an interesting movie about sibling incest in the Outback,AU produced by Rachel Ward. Bryan Brown, Ward's husband, played the father of the family. 

Story bounced around but the familial difficulties were not candy-coated.

Dec 17, 2022

While watching The Birthday Cake(2021) last night, I was guessing if Val Kilmer's speech problems, due to a tracheotomy, were built into the plot? Definitely wise to use sub -titles. Movie felt half-real , half mob spoof.

Dec 31, 2022

Another discovery of #BeverlyGarland before she played the stepmom on My Three Sons. This time she was beguiling thief in a 1960 episode of Tales of Wells Fargo.

Artists on art

8/23/15

When I first heard this chorus on the Tragically Hip tune Poets, I stated aloud that's it. I'll have more as time stumbles on. On the street and the epitome of vague Don't tell me how the universe is altered When you find out how he gets paid 

8/26/15

this one gets to the point:

  Nietzsche on Dante Alighieri

“A hyena that wrote poetry on tombs.”

8/27/15

I found  some comments from Professor Ermath, my mentor on George Eliot @ UMBC circa 1980, but prefer this  Woolf comment on George Eliot aka Mary Ann Evans . link
 she has little “verbal felicity.”

8/29/15

Enjoyed this quote whether it's true or not not:
In 1969, while submitting work to Paloma Picasso, Charles Bukowski remarks that 

William S. Burroughs’s “cutups and tape arrangements are just ghetto bored flip of a safe and secure man.”

9/13/15

I think rotten Johnny has Greenday's #

 The blancmange that is Green Day, where you have a Johnny Rotten first verse, a Billy Idol chorus and a Sham 69 second verse. Preposterous!

10/24/15

John O'Hara, the author  of  Butterfield 8,etc,  wasn't shy and definitely aware of being a Mick. I'm guessing this was about critics:

Little old ladies of both sexes. Why do I let them bother me? 

11/15/15

Some easy guesses on Neil's targets . From Hippie Dream

 And the wooden ships are a hippie dream capsized in excess

11/21/15

Faulkner's "Sound & Fury infuriates me and probably others because you need a flow chart to keep track of the characters.

12/23/15

an oldie but goodie for the season:

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays.  Henny Youngman

3/6/16

The biodoc, Regarding Susan Sontag,  stirred some  mixed feelings  such as an appreciation for her solid quips and a dislike for her late 1960's visit  to North Vietnam during that war.

Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, conformable.

4/2/16

Bowie from his song Andy Warhol:

 Andy Warhol, Silver Screen Can't tell them apart at all

4/13/16

Thomas Jefferson was born on this date in 1743. I'm  buying his quote:

“I cannot live without books.” 

5/8/16

another THip line   keeps bouncing around my skull. This one from 100th Meridian:

"It would seem to me I remember every single fucking thing I know"

7/16/16

Bukowski in 1959: " I do not feel it is pedantic or ignoble to demand freedom from the opiate of clannishness and leech-brotherhood that dominates many of our so-called avant-garde publications"

7/29/16

back to kerouac:
“Artist or no-artist, I can't pass up a piece of fried chicken when I see one.”  Jack Kerouac, Visions of Gerard

8/19/16

Keeping it light this morning-from  Paul McCartney: Yoko Ono and I are 'mates'

8/21/16

The late  #JoeStrummer and I share a birthday today so I'm snipping a  lyric from the Clash to keep upbeat today.

"I'm all lost in the supermarket.......I came in here for that special offer"

9/24/16

This resonates more now than ever. #Saul Bellow :   "Open discussion of many major public questions has for some time now been taboo. We can’t open our mouths without being denounced as racists, misogynists, supremacists, imperialists or fascists. As for the media, they stand ready to trash anyone so designated."

10/2/16

No reason in particular but  here's a quote from the seedy #Celine 's book North:

“whenever they get a chance, never fear, people make you waste hours and months ... they use you as a wall to bounce their bullshit off"

10/14/16

the late #gilscottheron wrote these lyrics in the song "B Movie" about Reagan's presidential victory, and I'll dare to spin them forward . View them through your political "frames"

"Before the free press went down before full-court press
And were reluctant to review the menu
Because they knew the only thing available was ... Crow"

10/29/16

It's the height of the political season in the USA so I'll turn to Hemingway's opinion on the poet #EzraPound who went off the rails for Mussolini and Hitler .

"He should not be hanged and he should not be made a martyr of…. It is impossible to believe that anyone in his right mind could utter the vile, absolutely idiotic drivel he has broadcast"

11/3/16

Johnny "Rotten" Lydon once called #Bono- Bozo. Wonder what he thinks of this

 "Bono named on #Glamour magazine's Women of the Year list"

11/11/16

RIP #LeonardCohen. These two lines from #JenniferWarnes cover of  Cohen's "first we take manhattan" still reverberate.

"I don't like your fashion business, mister

And I don't like these drugs that keep you thin"

11/24/16

from #iggypop: " What did Christ really do? He hung out with hard-drinking fishermen."

11/29/16

Appropriate reaction or stoking more interest in the upcoming 40th anniversary of the Sex Pistols debut single?
 #JoeCorre (48), the son of Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, torched about 6M worth punk memorabilia s  in the middle of the River Thames claiming punk  wasn't intended to be nostalgic.

12/31/16

Ending the year with a  #Bowie line or two from the song Blackout with a touch of pretense:

"Oh you, you walk on past
Your lips cut a smile on your face"

2/18/17

This #Bukowski line nabbed me this morning

"I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there."

2/25/17

Most of her books are worth reading so why not share  her opinion on writing

“Writers are always selling somebody out.”
—Joan Didion

4/1/17

No foolin, one of the straighter lines from the late  #gilscottheron  about Guns:
   "When other folks give up theirs, I'll give up mine."

4/29/17

PFurs lyrics from "it goes on"

"Where they put on wigs and stuff
So they can be themselves"

5/28/17

After a cool conversation with an old friend, I went looking for some poems by #FrankOhara and enjoyed this line on Impressionists research from Having a Coke with you.

" when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank"

6/9/17

I wonder  about this quote but find #mickeyspillane 's jab amusing.

 "Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn't. Of course most of mine sold for 25 cents"

6/21/17

#gorddownie of #tragicallyhip appointed Order of Canada. I've always considered it an  oddity for rock and rollers to get government medals.

7/29/17

weather related lyrics from Tom Verlaine's tune "kingdome Come"

 "Well, I walked in the pouring rain And I heard the voice that cries "it's all in vain"

8/3/17

Yuh never know with "Rotten Johnny" Lydon. On meeting #newtgingrich some time ago"
 "I found him completely dishonest and totally likeable, because he doesn't care!"

8/25/17

"and he's hearing something she never said" from when the weight comes down by #TragicallyHip.

10/22/17

moving through an Mp3 playlist of THip- mourning #GordDownie and starting with the first line from "The Luxury"  "Zoo Lion sobers up and starts to scream and shout"

10/28/17

#georgeclinton , the funkster, co-opted this fast food ad line in 1986. "do fries go with that shake" Today, the PC police would arrest him.

11/9/17

#kurtweill "song of the white cheese" with lyrics by Günther Weisenbom has been found in the archives of Berlin Free University. The lyrics lampoon a Weimar-era religious leader who laid cottage cheese on  eyes in attempts to heal blindness. 

11/25/17

I watched a 1992 #GeorgeCarlin HBO special last night in which everyone from enviromentalists to fundamentalists was  fair game and thought his bitterness made him less funny.

1/14/18

#Shitholes is the word of the week, but I'll mention the late #gorddownie 's words from the song Little Bones: 
"Baby eat this chicken slow
It's full of all them little bones."

1/25/18

RIP #NicanorParra, the chilean poet, died at the age of 103. He once told poets to come down from Mt Olympus

2/14/18

Memo from Joy Division on Valentines Day : "Love will tear us apart...again "  😉
3/4/18:  comedian #stephenwright amusing line on crossing into Canada "they asked if I had any firearms with me. I said, "Well, what do you need?”

4/1/18

Easter 2018 pondering how stunned and amused I was in 1978  by #JohnDonne 's poems and the tales of his transition from a rake, womanizer and hellraiser, to  a cleric in the Church Of England. Time to spin #vanmorrison 's tune  : Rave on John Donne

4/30/18

In these days of if you don't share my politics, I aint buying your products or listening to you, I watched a good portion of the #SteveEarle interview on the PBS Speakeasy series this weekend and learned enough to not the switch the channel. 

5/12/18

Reacting to the headlines this morning with a line from This Corrossion by Sisters of Mercy

I got nothing to say I ain't said before

 5/20/18

My response to all the celebrity lectures, #metoo crowd, etc. #menot

7/7/18

"and he's hearing something she never said"  a line from the #tragicallyhip song - when the wieght comes down.  Will it be #maxinewaters new campaign slogan ?

9/15/18

#bertoltbrecht tune Mack the Knife has beeen covered by a ton of artists from Bobby Darin to the PFurs and with  a new movie version of ThreePenny Opera opening in Germany , I read that Brecht provided his actors with whistles to drown out boos from the audience at  the world premiere of The Threepenny Opera at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm on August 31, 1928.

9/30/18

The late #charlesbukowski probably didn't consider this line from his book #pulp offensive in the 1990s, but it's likely deemed offensive by today's snow angels.  “-Look, barkeeper, I'm a peaceful man. Fairly normal. I don't sniff armpits or wear ladies' underwear."

11/17/18

In a #steveearle listening mood this morning and this line  from "Other Kind" resonates for no particular reason: "Ah - but leave it up to me to say something wrong and hurt someone before I'm done"

12/08/18

 #tragicallyhip song "the Luxury"  digging this line : "Melancholy wine-soaked tenderness"

1/23/19

 Iran's Culture Ministry announced  a suspension of  the upcoming "Poland's Film Week," in #Tehran. Probably only four or five films would have passed their strict codes.

3/9/19

 I'm using this line from THip's "Nautical Disaster"song to describe #IlhanOmar  self-absorption this week.  " I had this dream where I relished the fray"

3/24/19

"Instinct is the common lawyer--A million years won't erase"

Echo & The Bunnymen - All That Jazz

5/23/19

 #Spillers music store in Wales has stopped stocking #Morrissey 's  releases because of his endorsement of British political party For Britain.  Intolerance grows!

6/12/19

Rather than pay ransom,  #Radiohead makes stolen tracks available online at Bandcamp with proceeds to help 'Extinction Rebellion' , a climate change group. That's one way to deal with hackers!

6/22/19

 “If I'm a bitch and a fake, is there nobody who will love a bitch and a fake?”
― Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
After  watching a biopic on Greene yesterday, I'm still shaking my head at his loyalty to #Philby and his embraces of various Communist countries and causes.

7/12/19

In an attempt to keep current I found this quote from  #jermainedupri,  producer and owner of the So So Def record label, " today’s women rappers sound like strippers.”

8/9/19

 "A smile is like a blush, it is a response, not an expression per se, and so it can neither be easily maintained nor easily recorded."  #nicholasjeeves on why smiles are so rare in painted portraits.

9/20/19

 "You pay for this, but they give you that" #neilyoung  from Hey, Hey, My my

9/22/19

  #thomyorke of #Radiohead on being a climate change campaigner and needing air travel to tour.
"I totally agree I'm a hypocrite but... what do you want to do about it?"
Hey Thom: STFU

10/16/19

" Bad artists always admire each others' work." #Oscar Wilde born Oct 16, 1854

11/1/19

  #VanMorrison sings about politicians on the song "nobody in Charge" :  'waffling endlessly' .... "getting paid too much for screwin' up". Some think this about Stormont being inactive in NI, but it could be applied to many politicians.

11/26/19

This BBC headline gave me a chuckle. Coldplay joins the fossils at museum gig

12/18/19

 "The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live." #georgecarlin

12/24/19

Rev #JohnDonne lines from his poem Nativity 

"Stars and wise men will travel to prevent
The effect of Herod’s jealous general doom"

2/2/20

#iggypop received a lifetime Grammy. Maybe he should've performed his song, "I won't crap out."

2/9/20

 Jasper and Jinx, their original names, became Tom and Jerry in 1940 and turned 80 this weekend. A career that included  some production time in Prague in the early 1960s.

2/22/20

 #Andre Bazin  , a film critic, wrote this in 1967 :"The cinema owes virtually nothing to the scientific spirit," ..... The fathers of film are not scholars, but rather "monomaniacs, men driven by an impulse, do it-yourself men or at best ingenious industrialists."
 Is this back-handed compliment, complete bullshit, jealousy, or all of the above?

3/12/20

 #Nadasurf played two shows in the same day to beat virus restrictions of 1000 people in avenue by playing Paris show twice, one at 1900 and then at 2115 . #vanmorrison did a similar thing in a different Paris venue. #coronavirus .

3/21/20

digging #johnnyrotten 's comment on Occupy Wall St movement which he liked for awhile but " it always ends with some hippie playing a flute"

4/18/20

"A patronizing disposition always has its meaner side." George Eliot aka Mary Ann Evans

4/29/20

Some candor from a famous 84 year-old  actress #JulieAndrews:   I'm 'old and crotchety' for a ‘Princess Diaries 3,’ but would do it for Anne Hathaway

6/13/20

A little bit of Bowie from "up the hill backwards" 

More idols then realities
I'm okay, you're so so

7/16/20

Oh no, more Hitler stories but this may be worth reading:

#HansPosse , Hitler's favorite museum man in Germany, documented a vast criminal enterprise in looted art in minute detail in his travel diaries which are now available online .

7/24/20

I was listening to "Everytime you go" by the Tragically Hip and  remain amused by the lyric "pissin bliss" penned by the late Gord Downie.

8/23/20

#johncleese on dealing with political correctness:  comedians “have to set the bar according to what we are told by the most touchy, most emotionally unstable, and fragile and least stoic people in the country.”

9/30/20

Years ago David Bowie sang ,Is there life on Mars?  Italian scientists reported that a network of salty ponds may be gurgling beneath Mars’ South Pole alongside a large underground lake, which raises the possibility of tiny, swimming Martian life. 

11/14/20

I saw a video clip of #OrsonWelles discussing Hemingway and eventually found my way to this quote about #Hemingway's suicide from #johnhuston : "Hemingway wouldn’t have done it had it been cancer. But he was on his way to imbecility."

12/12/20

#markknopler from the song Lady Writer: "you talked to me when you felt like it " I'm sure you know the feeling.

12/15/20

The life of  former British PM Tony Blair will be the subject of a  rock opera to be performed in London in 2021. I wonder if Pete Townsend will be involved in the project.

1/17/20

“The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision.” George Eliot (Mary Evans)

02/27/21

"Modesty in an actor is as fake as passion in a call girl."   Jackie Gleason

03/27/21

I watched old video clips of David Bowie and John Lennon separately discussing their collaborations on the song Fame which were mostly positive, and then got a chuckle from Lennon's response to a question about his chats with Bowie while working on Bowie's cover of the Lennon-McCartney tune, across the universe.   I paraphrase: which David, you never know which one you're talking to?

04/10/21

Over the years Rotten Johnny's comments about British royalty have changed so I bet he utters kinder words about the death of Prince Philip than Harry and Meghan do from California today.

05/22/21

Rotten Johnny, the ex SexPistol, shoots from the hip again on the  woke brigade defacing a statue of Churchill last summer.. Churchill "saved Britain" and added that "whatever he got up to in South Africa or India beforehand is utterly irrelevant" to the current issues of today.

JUNE 11, 2021

Sir Van Morrison took to the stage at the Europa Hotel in Belfast last night to hit out at Health Minister Robin Swann. for the last minute forced cancellation of his concerts 

 North Antrim MP Ian Paisley joined him on stage.

July 29, 2021

Getting a chuckle out of John Mayer's new album title,  "Sob Rock"

Aug 10, 2021

Director Tsai Ming-liang's documentary "The Night" and Chung Mong-hong's drama "The Falls" were submitted under the name Taiwan, but Venice Film Festival organizers listed the two films as being from "Chinese Taipei". Communist China wields its influence everywhere.

Aug 18, 2021

 Elton John interviewed on partying with John Lennon. They were doing rails in a hotel room and someone knocked on the door. EJ said it's Warhol and Lennon said ,No. . EJ said ,why. Lennon: "He always carries a camera."

Sept 5, 2021

#davidspade on cancel culture survival : "I just turned into Marlon Blando" 

Nov 9, 2021

Northern Ireland’s health minister #robinswann is suing Van Morrison after the singer accused him of being “very dangerous” over his handling of Covid restrictions. Also, there are allegations that Van called Swann a fraud in a print interview.

Nov 20, 2021

I tend to give the music industry a hard time for some of its political stances, but props for Homeland and Life, a  Cuban protest anthem against the Commies  that won a Latin Grammy for song of the year. Hopefully, Maykel Osorbo, one of the songwriters, won't die in a Cuban prison.