23 responses to “News & Links:
Wednesday, December 13, 2023”

1. 

   johnthebasket

   12/14/2023

   American Tune (from your music list) is a classic ode to American failure. In the Wikipedia article on the song, Simon is quoted as saying he wrote it shortly after Nixon was elected. He didn't. It was written shortly after Nixon was RE-elected in 1972, and the crimes of Watergate (which now seem almost quaint by comparison) were being unearthed. The song doesn't condemn the crimes: it mourns the system that enabled them. It's just a brilliant fucking song.

   John

   Reply
   1. 

      johnthebasket

      12/14/2023

      This is likely better asked in an email, but maybe someone else is curious or maybe this is a famous photo and I'm the only one who doesn't know it . . . where did you get the photo of the "to trains", and what's the story?

      Reply
   2. 

      Doug Holland

      12/15/2023

      it's a beautiful song. They sang it as a duet when I saw Simon & Garfunkel at an intimate show seating 75,000. It's better as a duet, especially *that* duet.

      Reply
   3. 

      Doug Holland

      12/15/2023

      I try to include credits on any artwork I borrow, if the artist can be quickly identified, but this time I didn't try hard enough. I don't know whether there's a story per se, but I've added credit to the image. Mea culpa.

      Reply
   4. 

      johnthebasket

      12/16/2023

      Good eye, cowboy. This photographer is the real deal, with photographs in many museums. I could try to summarize, but hell, here's the first paragraph of his Wikipedia page. The guy had a life:

      "Jack Delano (born Jacob Ovcharov (Яков Овчаров); August 1, 1914 – August 12, 1997) was a Ukrainian immigrant who became an accomplished photographer for the Works Progress Administration, United Fund, and most notably, the Farm Security Administration (FSA). He wore many hats as he also was a composer known for his use of Puerto Rican folk material, started a television production company, and was a cartoonist, poet, moviemaker, professor, and architectural designer."

      I don't know how many times I have to tell my Republican enemies, but this country was built by immigrants.

      jtb

      Reply
   5. 

      Doug Holland

      12/16/2023

      Just doing an image search on "Jack Delano" brings up a lot of images I want to look at more closely. Dude could snap.

      Reply
   6. 

      johnthebasket

      12/17/2023

      He sure could. You introduced me to an artist I'd never heard of who captured America in photos through the Great Depression and all the way to the end of the century. Thanks.

      John

      Reply
   7. 

      Doug Holland

      12/17/2023

      Well, actually, you introduced him to me. I'd never heard of him, until you asked for credit where credit's due.

      Reply
2. 

   johnthebasket

   12/14/2023

   Voyager I has hung up and is on its own. In reality, like us it always has been. But the journey to bring Bach and Chuck Berry to whoever is passing by in interstellar space continues.

   John

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      12/15/2023

      Coincidentally, I was re-watching the original Cosmos as I read your reply, just as Carl Sagan was talking about Voyager I.

      It's been an amazing accomplishment, and who knows, NASA might again find a way to kickstart communications. I'm pulling for that plucky space bucket.

      Reply
   2. 

      johnthebasket

      12/16/2023

      Sagan's Cosmos series and the golden record (curated by Sagan, et al) might not be the two best examples of science colliding with art, but I'd be hard pressed to name a better example. We know more about the universe now, but Cosmos is about the questions, and they remain the same.

      John

      Reply
   3. 

      johnthebasket

      12/16/2023

      The Golden Record will be the pick hit of the month on some interstellar schooner and be beamed across the cosmos, back home to those the voyagers miss. Soon, every guitarist on the planet will be jamming Johnny B. Goode.

      Johnny

      Reply
   4. 

      Doug Holland

      12/16/2023

      I didn't know Sagan helped curate the record. Fascinating gent. Cosmos is jammed with facts but feels like poetry. I'm using it to get to sleep, watching nightly until his smooth voice makes me drift downstream.

      Reply
   5. 

      johnthebasket

      12/17/2023

      Sagan was mostly past lecturing and onto research, by the end of his career (which ended much too early), but with that voice and speaking style of his your body would want to just drift off and your brain would be telling you to stay awake and take some notes. Not a bad problem to have.

      jtb

      Reply
   6. 

      Doug Holland

      12/17/2023

      I seem to be about finished learning stuff. That's the easiest part of my brain to click off. Kinda hard to click it on some mornings.

      Man, I sat so riveted when Cosmos was first aired, and learned plenty, but now it's just Carl speaking poetry at me as a bedtime story.

      "Poetry, physics, the same thing."

      Reply
   7. 

      johnthebasket

      12/17/2023

      Yeah, astrophysicists suspect the universe rhymes — they're still trying to suss out the meter. We're in a losing race of doing so before the last light goes out. In some ways this is The Last Question. (see also: Asimov, Isaac)

      johnthecasket

      Reply
   8. 

      johnthebasket

      12/17/2023

      The Universe geeks strapped a pressure cuff on the star clusters, but all they heard was

      "Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness
      I'll love you with all the madness in my soul
      Oh, someday, girl, I don't know when
      We're gonna get to that place
      Where we really wanna go and we'll walk in the sun
      But 'til then, tramps like us
      Baby, we were born to run"

      That might not be enough, but it'll do until the real thing comes along.

      jtb

      Reply
   9. 

      johnthebasket

      12/17/2023

      https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~gamvrosi/thelastq.html

      jtb

      Reply
   10. 

       Doug Holland

       12/18/2023

       This is probably stupid, just a thought that hit me as i was listening to Born to Run and reading the lyrics, and I'd never much noticed 'Wendy' in there before. Is the song written from an adult Peter Pan's perspective? It sorta works.

       Reply
   11. 

       Doug Holland

       12/18/2023

       I read plenty of Asimov long ago, and remember but don't "The Last Question." I shall re-read it as my bedtime story tonight, doubtless an enjoyable assignment. Thanks!

       Reply
   12. 

       johnthebasket

       12/18/2023

       I must have read Nine Tomorrows, a book of short scifi stories, when I was ten or so. I think it was the first scifi I read. I never forgot The Last Question. I haven't reread it in 20 years or more, but the fundamental idea is pretty straightforward. Hope you enjoyed it.

       jtb

       Reply
   13. 

       johnthebasket

       12/18/2023

       Re: Wendy . . . Personally I think he was looking for a two syllable woman's name that sounded slightly exotic. I guess I'm just a romantic at heart. How many times have I seen the boss live? Never-Never, but Born to Run is a nice tune.

       John

       Reply
   14. 

       Doug Holland

       12/18/2023

       Listened instead of read," but fell asleep too soon.

       Meanwhile I'm sticking with the Wendy theory. 🙂

       Reply

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