Let’s see what happens when your host (me) has nothing to say, and instead it’s open mike night. Step right up, speak your mind, tell a story, sing a song, whatever.
12/21/2024
Anything goes #7
34 responses to “Anything goes #7”
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I sub to the Seattle subreddit just to see what’s gong on. It had a pretty disparate view to yours on the state of the city, in particular in the amount of drug use.
When I read you transit tales and there are homeless in it it’s mostly folks down on their luck, there for the grace of Gandalf go I. When I read the SeattleWa subreddit it’s drugs drugs drugs, and poop.
I know the default is to over react ( Portland is not a hellhole), but what’s your take on the homeless situation in Seattle?-
Reddit has two Seattle pages: r/Seattle is where sane Seattlites hang out, though I’m there sometimes too, and r/SeattleWA is where the Republicans and suburbanites gather into rhetorical mobs. Sounds like you wandered onto the wrong page.
I don’t know that the homeless situation in Seattle is any better or worse than anywhere else in America. The safety net is fictional, so when something goes wrong or people have a dreaded weakness (gasp!) they get to live on the sidewalk and poop in the bushes. Republicans want to arrest and incarcerate or (literally) eviscerate them. I disagree, and think they’re people and ought to be offered help.
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You’re right of couse. So much of life is evaulating the messager as well as interpreting the message. I’ll keep wandering.
Thanks for your thoughts. In retrospect, it was an odd thing to ask. A better question would be what steps could be taken that would be effective, what’s worked in the past and is there anyone with good ideas in the field. A lot of which is ultimately window dressing as underlying issues would continue to exist.
There’s plenty of other places to have that discussion. I really enjoy reading about your bus rides, the description of the nieghborhoods, your interpesonal dynamics, your movie reviews and diners.Thanks Doug
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Hey, thank YOU. I really enjoy writing those pages, and it’s even better if someone else enjoys reading them.
What can be done about homelessness is jack squat, on the local level. That’s because the NIMBY ninnies are actually right about one thing: If the city, state, or county builds the robust support programs that are needed, bums will flood in from elsewhere. If you build it, they will come. That’s why it’s a problem that can only be solved on the national level, with shelters and counseling everywhere, nationwide.
• Housing and/or counseling for anyone who needs it, with minimal red tape and at no charge.
• Involuntary commitment or jail for troublemakers who remain on the streets after adequate housing and counseling are available.
Problem solved! You’re welcome, America!
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Damn this is Tom not paying attention again
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Hmmm. Pretty sure the software is *supposed* to remember you, and insert your name from last time. Let me check the settings…
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Yeah, unless your computer is set to reject cookies, the site’s software is supposed to remember the name you input last time you commented. Is it *not* remembering that you’re Tom?
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That would be the case, at least for me. I’m using the Brave browser with Ublock Origin which may be causing it. I did check and nothing is set to clear cookies.
Going to post this without putting my name in and see what happens.
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I gave it a test drive too. Seems it does remember the name you last used, but it doesn’t fill it. It’s just an option, if/when you click on the ‘name’ field. Which seems very unimpressive, and easy to forget. Sometimes, well-written software is a help. More often, not-so-well-written software is no help at all.
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Sweet sounds: Many people have recorded Sweet Jane. Only one of them is Lou Reed. . . . jtb
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“Sweet Jane” is my best-loved Lou Reed, and this is maybe the finest performance of it I’ve heard.
Jack, he is a banker
And Jane, she is a clerk
And both of them save their monies
And when they come home from work
Sittin’ down by the fire
The radio does play
The classical music, said Jim, the `March of the Wooden Soldiers`
All you protest kids, you can hear Jack say, get ready
Sweet Jane, come on, baby
Sweet Jane, sweet Jane-
The one-two punch of Sweet Jane and Rock and Roll on the Velvet’s Loaded is my all time favorite two song sequence in all of pop music, followed closely by The Replacements Sixteen Blue / Answering Machine on their Let It Be.
On Sweet Jane it’s these verses that kill me:
Some people like to go out dancing
And other people, they have to work, just watch me now
And there’s always some evil mothers
Well they gonna tell you that everything is just of dirtYou know that women never really faint
And that villains always blink their eyes, ooh
And that you know children are the only ones who blush
And that life is just to dieBut anyone with or had a heart, oh
They wouldn’t turn around and break it
And anyone who ever played the part, oh
They wouldn’t turn around and hate itSuch great sentiments about naivete and cynicism, very bittersweet.
And on Rock and Roll, these lines:
Then one fine mornin’ she puts on a New York station
You know, she couldn’t believe what she heard at all
She started shakin’ to that fine fine music
You know her life was saved by rock ‘n’ rollDespite all the amputations
You know you could just go out
And dance to a rock ‘n’ roll stationAh, the power of great art! And the ending freak out, Reeds best vocal performance ever, a few simple words repeated desperately in defiance of pain, as moving as any more ornate song ever written:
All right
All right
And it was alright
Well, listen to me now
And it was alright
Come on, man, listen
It was alright
It was alright
And it was alright
Alright!
It’s alright
Alright!
Yeah, it’s alright now
Alright!
Yeah, it’s alright now
Alright!
It is all alright
Alright!
Yeah, alright now
Alright!
And it’s alright right now
Alright!
And it’s alright now
Alright!
Oh baby
Alright!
Oh baby
Alright!
Oh baby
Alright!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Alright!
Now it’s alright now
Alright!
Ooh, it’s alright now
Alright!
Oh, alright
Alright!
Alright now
Alright!-
The Velvet Underground didn’t get much top-40 airplay, I guess. Top-40 is what I listened to in my teens and 20s, but Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground didn’t find me until my 30s, maybe 40s.
And their “Rock and Roll” didn’t find me until just now, thank you kindly. It’s terrific! Wish the instrumental bit at the end lasted another five or ten minutes, though.
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Here’s Tom Waits singing “I Wish I Was in New Orleans” off perhaps his best album, Small Change.
jtb
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Correctly accuse me of lacking music appreciation, but Tom Waits makes anti-music. He croaks like a frog at Chernobyl wrapped in rusty steel wool.
When I’m in the right frame of mind, though, open-minded, patient, not too grumpy, and give him a genuine listen like here, he weirdly loops around from anti-music to something ear-exquisite that makes ordinary singing seem mighty bland.
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As I recall, my only suggestion in the area of music appreciation is for you to listen to more album versions of songs and fewer singles versions. See also, Light My Fire, Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, Let it Be, Honky Tonk Women, ina-gadda-da-vida . . . many more. You certainly don’t lack music appreciation.
John
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Dude, let’s get some real music around here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc7zUm38GAmHphxz6vRZQB71jzoaUiHAk&si=HKbHiWRTtTiRpPLg
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Om, I didn’t realize we were going for real music. Here’s a tune . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG1aLZx0Ml8
jtb
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. . . and a live performance of “A Change is Gonna Come”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zDeBIA-vQ8
jtb
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All this music, on a morning when tragically I’m in a rush getting ready for a sacred Xmas with the family. Gotta shower! Gotta poop! Maybe even put on deodorant! Too much to do and it’s gotta be done in a hurry, but when I’m back and ready to recline and enjoy, it’ll be a Christmas concert…
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If anyone cares, my response to all the music ended up here.
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We’re doing music, so here’s an unknown ditty I just discovered, Alabama’s “Song of the South.” Google says it was a big hit, but I never heard it until this morning.
Never was a fan of Alabama. The band’s country/rock is too country for me, and I can’t hear the fiddles and drawls of country music without being on edge, waiting for the racism or stupidity of so much country music. So I’m on edge for the whole listen, but I kinda didn’t hate it. It’s mainstream, country, mildly political, not offensive or aggravating, and it made my head rock’n’roll on my neck.
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Alabama is a country act like Garth Brooks, so it won’t be played on the AM stations you grew up listening to. But on country stations, and there are some in western Washington, it’s all country all the time. So it’s not surprising that you haven’t heard it among the fried chicken and Vote for Trump commercials of country radio. Try listening for four hours straight. Three tunes and two keys.
jtb
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Ha ha — three tunes and two keys — that got me, man.
Think I thought they’d done “Sweet Home Alabama,” but nope, that’s Lynyrd Skynyrd. Checking Alabama’s greatest hits, a few of the titles are vaguely familiar, probably from being on movie soundtracks, but rarely have I listened intentionally to country music, and never have I regretted that choice.
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Just proceed to a public area crowded with rednecks and holler, “Play Free Bird!!” They’ll get the joke and beat the crap out of you. So it goes with the late Lynyrd Skynyrd, not the only band named after a gym teacher, but certainly the most famous. Al Kooper made them famous and kinda rich — he tells the story engagingly in his book, “Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards.” It’s a book worth reading if you’re curious about rock in the third half of the 20th century.
John
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Curious enough to listen if you want to tell it, but not curious enough to read a book.
I like “Free Bird,” but once every year or two is enough.
Hey, the web says Lynyrd Skynyrd is still a band, still touring.
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The band formed in 1964, 60 years ago. And they weren’t babies. Between drugs, old age, and a plane crash the original band is gone, but in the band business people get replaced all the time. There is still a band called Lynyrd Skynyrd touring, but it contains none of the original members. That doesn’t stop them from playing early songs the original band recorded. Touring is a big business. Most of the current band members are tired of playing the same songs night after night, day after day, that the mostly now dead touring band was tired of. Band touring isn’t without art, but it’s mostly business. And Lynyrd Skynyrd isn’t the Grateful Dead.
In my view, life is too short to NOT read books.
John
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Touring, I’ve read, is the only way even higher-level bands make a living, as the payback from criminal outfits like Spotify is such a pittance.
The Spinners and the Platters are still spinning and plattering too, and I ain’t mad at ’em. I don’t think the Green Bay Packers have any original members still playing either.
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Dylan is still touring vigorously, but hasn’t sung much of a note for 30 years. He just talk-sings his way through his catalog, plays a couple of chords on his guitar, and his much younger band does the rest. But when Dylan dies, his band will die. So it was with Hendrix, and, for that matter, Rick Nelson, who died in a plane crash with his band. Good music has to get out of the way so the terrible music of today can move in. No key changes, no time signature changes, no timeless lyrics.
jtb
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Pretty good cover.
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Reply to Johnthebasket on Dylan and bands:
Dylan’s band is no longer “The Band,” right?
That’s only a trivia question, but what I wanted to say is, I’d *hope* that if he has a band of regulars behind him, they’d stick together and keep touring after his death. Maybe even recording. Once written, even a Dylan song doesn’t need Dylan. It’s not like there aren’t other and better singers. Maybe the price for a ticket would go down.
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