The penultimate day of June and so far this year we’ve had just nine days (4 in May, 5 in June) where the maximum official temperature has reached 90º F; 92º (twice) is the highest temp this summer so far.
My electric bill for the month ending June 25th was $25.02.
“Wiser and older people tell you that the passions of your youth will dry up and that a more sere and autumnal condition will overtake you as maturity advances, but the thought of the Nixon gang in the White House still infuses me with a pure and undiluted hatred and makes me consider throwing up things that I don’t even remember having eaten.”
Why do celebrity deaths matter? Why the outpouring of grief for a person we’ve never truly known?
Anthropologists tell us that so-called primitive societies — wherever in the world — had a few near constants. One of these was the identification of self — of their particular tribe or clan — as “the people.” Everyone else was “the other.”
This human trait continues to the present. We may belong to multiple clans now — family, friends, school, work, church, community, nation, sports teams, whatever. But we still belong — and to some extent everyone who doesn’t belong to our clan is still “the other.”
Celebrities, however, transcend clan. They are the others that we welcome into our lives because they touch it in unique and exciting ways — their humor, their style, their music.
Much too simple I know, but that’s what I think both makes them celebrities, and causes us to grieve for them when they go.
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
Leonard Cohen, “If It Be Your Will”
Five teenagers were riding in this Subaru early this morning near Santa Fe. Four were killed. The driver of the other vehicle has been arrested. Charges include four counts of vehicular homicide. Alcohol suspected, of course.
I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can’t stand the scene.
And I’m neither left or right
I’m just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I’m stubborn as those garbage bags
that time cannot decay,
I’m junk but I’m still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Leonard Cohen, “Democracy”
Ben Fong-Torres sums it up. You should read the entire, brief article, but here is the key:
Which helps answer the second question: With the J5 and the Jacksons (their name after they left Motown in 1975 and had their first personnel changes), and as a solo artist, Jackson shattered the categories that have always been part of popular music.
The J5 were the first crossover act, attracting fans of all ages, getting airplay on both Top 40 and FM “progressive rock” stations, and selling to blacks, whites – all colors. With the Motown machine behind them, they pumped out music that might be labeled “bubblegum,” but blended solid R&B, funk and rock, executed perfectly by the guys and fronted by a cute, miniature version of James Brown and Jackie Wilson.
As they grew, the spotlight stayed on Michael, who remained loyal to his brothers but scored big hits on his own – never more than with “Thriller,” whose sales have reportedly hit 100 million units since its release in 1982. With his “moonwalk” on Motown’s 25th anniversary special, he galvanized a nation.
Suddenly, he was a dancer in a league with Astaire and Kelly; he was a mainstream show-business superstar – the biggest force in pop music. Once again, colors and categories meant nothing.
“The new Porsche Panamera is the best-handling big sedan in the world, which I grant is a little like being the smartest kid on the Arizona State football team or the most chaste governor of South Carolina.”
Dan Neil reviews the 4-door Porsche
“What is a Porsche? If you’ve spent much time in a Boxster, Cayman or 911 Carrera, new or old, you know the feeling of these cars: cold-rolled and heat-tempered, hard and light, nap of the Earth, edgy and reactive, ineffably masculine, a disposition that is to other sports cars what Dexedrine is to Geritol.”
He doesn’t really like it, but he did get it up to 180 mph.
“The tension was palatable.”
I’m thinking palpable.
From an interesting and well-done article in the Santa Fe New Mexican about the 38th national gathering of the Rainbow Family of Living Light. This year it’s near Cuba, New Mexico; between 10,000 and 12,000 people are expected.
“The Rainbow Family calls July 4 interdependence day.”
Despite my jab, a very good article.
“I had to take an oath, and part of the oath was that I couldn’t eat Mexican food. That’s when red flags went up all over for me. That seemed like prejudice.”
Merrill Metzger, formerly of Minuteman American Defense
UPDATE: Debby, official sister of NewMexiKen, and one-time resident of Arivaca, reports after reading the article:
Junior was not a drug dealer and did not traffic in “narcotics” as those people imagined. He had an arrest for pot when he was 19, which hardly qualifies. He was a dad, though, so he quit any of that activity years ago. Yes, he had nice vehicles and money, which may have given the killers the impression that he must be a dealer. But, just because a Mexican on the border has money, doesn’t mean he’s running drugs. (They never mention in the articles that the people didn’t find any drugs or money. I imagine the cops looked, too, as long as they were in there.) In reality, Junior ran a feed store in a small agricultural town, so he did well enough, especially considering that he lived in the same family place his whole life, and there was no big mortgage to pay or anything. His money was his own, not spent on high monthly bills, so he could afford nice vehicles. I actually knew his grandfather, the one in the article who is a good soul, and [my son] went to elementary school with Junior. [My son’s fiancée] even knew the murdered daughter from activities at the community center. It’s rocked the town, but it’s hardly the first occasion of violence down there–just the the one with the most national coverage because of the lunatics who perpetrated the violence.
STOP whatever you are doing and go enjoy.
… if it’s the last thing we ever do.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”
Four Five banks taken over by the FDIC today. That’s 44 45 failed banks in 25 weeks so far this year.
Astronauts (and Cosmonauts) get to look down on everybody.
“As the father of daughter who’s in high school, I find [the Redding ruling] a blessed relief. As a lover of Amendments IV and V, and an observer of the current Supreme Court, I find it damned near miraculous. As a longtime observer of Clarence Thomas, I continue to find him pretty godawfully revolting.”
“I started my column in January 2004, and one dominant theme quickly emerged: That George W. Bush was truly the proverbial emperor with no clothes. In the days and weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, the nation, including the media, vested him with abilities he didn’t have and credibility he didn’t deserve.”
Dan Froomkin’s last column for The Washington Post
Here’s the link to follow Froomkin going forward.
I have a copy and love this book. “The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book”.
The number of new applicants for unemployment benefits jumped to 542,000, the highest since 1992. What do you think?
Thomas Belew,
Systems Analyst
“I hope the problem does not reach previously unscathed sectors, such as the sixth floor of the Thompson Center, cubicle 17.”
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top economic planning agency is likely to reject Sichuan Tengzhong’s bid to buy the Hummer brand from bankrupt General Motors Corp, state radio reported on Thursday.
. . .Besides, Hummer, as an expensive, gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle, would not fit in with the government’s policy of encouraging energy-efficient vehicles, the radio said.
CARNAC: The latest politician sex scandal, or a 72 at Augusta.
ED McMAHON: The latest politician sex scandal, or a 72 at Augusta?
(Carnac opens the envelope and pulls out the card.)
CARNAC: Par for the course.
Adapted slightly by me from McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Carnac the Jaded.
A national memorial to Thomas Jefferson was authorized 75 years ago today. It was dedicated in 1943.
Thomas Jefferson-political philosopher, architect, musician, book collector, scientist, horticulturist, diplomat, inventor, and third President of the United States-looms large in any discussion of what Americans are as a people. Jefferson left to the future not only ideas but also a great body of practical achievements. President John F. Kennedy recognized Jefferson’s accomplishments when he told a gathering of American Nobel Prize winners that they were the greatest assemblage of talent in the White House since Jefferson had dinner there alone. With his strong beliefs in the rights of man and a government derived from the people, in freedom of religion and the separation between church and state, and in education available to all. Thomas Jefferson struck a chord for human liberty 200 years ago that resounds through the decades. But in the end, Jefferson’s own appraisal of his life, and the one that he wrote for use on his own tombstone, suffices: “Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.”
Some fortunate wedding parties are able to have photos taken at the Jefferson Memorial among architect John Russell Pope’s beautiful columns and curves. (That’s Emily and Rob, official daughter and son-in-law of NewMexiKen.)
“One forensic accountant reportedly testified that Jackson had an ‘ongoing cash crisis’ and was spending $20 million to $30 million more per year than he earned.”