The return
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I started this blog as an unofficial vehicle for interesting statistical
information. When I retired, I let it lie fallow. I'm going to post here
period...
Gender Wage Gap By State - Census Bureau
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If you need a reason to start a business, the gender wage gap may be a
factor. The Census has created a new visualization of the disparity between
male ...
It takes a lot of practice
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A friend asked: “If you had the chance to ask three different people
(living or dead, famous or not) ONE question… who and what would you ask?”
The one req...
Faded road markings cause concern
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Q: Can someone at New York state tell me why the DOT doesn’t use a better
reflective paint when the lines are painted? It appears the paint used has
no ref...
Goodbye but NOT farewell
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Using the words which Roger used in his intro for the last post of round
20--- Z
*With joy, we'll dream away each sorrow, With love we'll live for each...
Alan Moore's Twilight Proposal
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Introduction by Alan David Doane:
Honestly I didn't intend the irony, but this week's FMF, looking at Alan
Moore's never-published Twilight proposal, also ...
The Best Films of 2023
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Martin Scorsese, left, Lily Gladstone, and Robert DeNiro all received Oscar
nods for *Killers of the Flower Moon*. Some say Leo DiCaprio, right, was
snubbe...
Getting Ready To Die
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Getting Ready To DieNo, as far as I know, it’s not imminent, but you never
know. An awful lot of people are checking out in the seventh decade that I
just ...
Petitioning season cut short
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Political "petitioning season" for U.S. Congress, NYS Assembly, NYS Senate,
and a host of other positions, was cut short. Like all the other things
that...
Eagle Scout Project
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Rutherford neighbor Krish Soni is getting started on his Eagle Scout
project on Saturday, October 26. He will be labeling storm drains in the
neighborhood ...
We’re Off On An Adventure!
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Just now, Marge and I are doing a bit of adventuring. The next adventure
will include a whole new online reality and presence for me and my work…
See you i...
It Changes
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Living with Lupus and Fibro and Asthma is often not so much 'one day at a
time.' It is much more like one fifteen minute segment of time - at at time.
This...
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye…
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Well, kids, this is it. I’m leaving first thing tomorrow morning. My visits
home will be few and far between, and when they happen, they’ll be
exclusive...
Spring is here?
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As far as the pro peloton goes, it’s on! I watched the Tour of Flanders
today, and it was one of the best races I’ve ever seen. “Looking back, you
get a b...
Modern Types-Ronald Searle,Geoffrey Gorer
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With the recent attention given to Ronald Searle's 90th birthday and new
interview,I decided to look at one of his books.
The book is titled Modern Ty...
Dual layers of memory reminders
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I often share Facebook “Memories” on my personal Facebook page, and
sometimes I talk about them here on this blog. Lately, I’ve noticed how
many of those ...
Sun Surf Sand & Sea 2024
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Vacation 2024 is on the books. Our family trek to the champagne shores of
Cancun didn’t disappoint. It’s hard to coordinate eight people to meet
anywhere, ...
1, 2, 3, 4: You Can Count On It
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Up the stairs, count the steps1, 2, 3, 41, 2, 3, 41, 2, 3…Crap, it didn’t
come out even, it’s eleven But 1-2-3-4-1/ 2 /3-4-1-2-3 will have to do; the
middl...
second-guess
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[image: young woman head & shoulders, hand on chin, surrounded by question
marks; Text: The Confidence Catalyst Podcast, How to stop second-guessing
you...
AmeriNZ 412 – Returning to normal mode
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This week I’ve been starting to get back to regular life after my holiday.
February is already shaping up to be a busy month. I start today with
updates to...
Here we are at 21.
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Happy 21st birthday, Johnny Bacardi Show!
Probably won't begin writing here again anytime soon, but hey, if you like
my stuff I have a Substack now and...
Check me out!
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Over the years I have collected a range of recipes to help me lose weight.
I attend Slimming World and achieved my target weight in November 2022.
Read...
This is The End (a follow-up)
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I wrote yesterday about my possibly retiring this space in favor of
migrating all of my blogging to ForgottenStars.net, because of Reasons. I
am now pul...
A Dumb God
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People who believe in God but don’t believe that creation is teleologically
imbued essentially believe in a dumb God, likely a God who merely exists to
ser...
18 and life, you got it
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It's the 18th of April, and that means it's the anniversary of Mia's
accident - 18 (!!!!) years ago today, we were in the crash that damaged her
brain ir...
Sunday Round-up
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Wash your mouth out
In these ultra-hygienic days, Russian artist Yulia Popova has come into her
own by making models of foodstuffs out of soap. What makes y...
I believe ..Religion
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Written by the Rev.Jeannette van der Veen-Bosgra
I believe in a world where all people can live in happiness,
and that I too have a duty to create such a wo...
Tough Day
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A few weeks ago, I turned 38, and I am still under the scrutiny of
strangers in public. One would think that once you're out of grade school,
middle school...
Change
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Group Reading “The only thing we have in this world that is utterly and
intrinsically ours is our integrity.” ~ Mira Grant One- to find the
universal eleme...
Retro Y'all!
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Still jumping. In place, mostly. Someone should do one of these rap battle
style brags about being a junker. Seriously. Big sale at the Peddlers Mall
today.
X is for XMAS
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*MERRY CHRISTMAS (XMAS) EVERYONE!*
I thought I'd put a link to the top 100 Xmas songs for 2017 so you could
click on it and play anything your heart d...
The Myth Memers
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One of those little questionnaires just to dip a toe back into blogging.
Took this from Chris Hull's Facebook.
1. Do you make your bed? No.
2. The first c...
Now available in paperback!
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*Sharp: A Memoir*. William Morrow & Co, 2012. Print.
We lost 4 members of the Guilford High School Class of 84: David Ciardello,
Richard Eaton, Ronnie Burn...
No parallel
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Get a good look at these: Whence they came: After seeing that incredible
glow-in-the-dark Zac Posen dress that Claire Danes wore at the 2016 Met
Gala, Lori...
ABC Wednesday: The Importance of Being Bored
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When I was growing up, you being bored was your problem that you were
responsible to rectify. As children we learned never to be bored- or at
least not t...
Monday PSA: The Pioneer of the Pole
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Click on the image for the full ad As promised, the second of two
Antarctica themed PSAs. Today: “Pioneer of the Pole.” Just like last week,
this is from D...
Final Act
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Dear Followers of Berowne's "Savage Reflections." I'm very sorry to have to
inform you that my father, John Savage, passed away on December 26, just a
week...
Friday Post - Your services are no longer needed
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Heads will roll
While the good news fairies of Wall Street would have you believe that
everything is just hunky dory the truth is it's not. In order to m...
Age is a State of Mind, Somewhere Near Nebraska
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What a year it has been! After surviving the odometer rolling over to 40, I
had a year of sabbatical. That gave me plenty of time to think about my mid-lif...
The End of a Long Day
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You know those days where all you really want to do is change into your
pajamas and curl up on the couch while you decide which comfort food would
mak...
#Freaking Out -AND!
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Calmly completely freaking out about my move. AND! I quit smoking. I feel
this qualifies me to have an opinion on how to do it.
So I am calmly completel...
Gaze Upon My Works and Snicker, Part 53.
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[image: DP700-F365028]
Another quickie sketch at work, because I wanted to draw Pandora A in a
white fuzzy hat (no, I don't know the name for them) and a b...
Superheroes I Love #10: Deathlok
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Every red-blooded boy loves cyborgs. Half-man, half-robot, what’s not to
love? The Marvel Comics character Deathlok is a bit on the obscure side,
but debut...
How to Prevent Pest Infestation in the Kitchen?
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Pests such as ants, rodents, and cockroaches are common in the kitchen, and
they target
The post How to Prevent Pest Infestation in the Kitchen? appeare...
Lettuce Pose
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“My Dad was a farmer so where better to do my 21st birthday portrait
session than lying down in a lettuce field?” (submitted by IG
@rosalyncropper)
The ...
Episode 326: The WGA Strike
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One by one, Ken goes over the many issues the WGA is fighting for and why
they’re important. He also gives an overview of the situation and how it
might...
The dopamine jail of joke Twitter
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I’m home from vacation and the Planet Funny promotional engine is slowing
down. (There’s still one last signing at Powell’s City of Books in two
short week...
Rex Smith: Free speech, pulpit speech and tax laws
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Each school day when I was a little boy began with the Pledge of
Allegiance, followed by all the students bowing their heads to recite the
Lord’s Prayer. T...
Mixed Results for The Rules
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Well that was an “interesting” Emmy Awards. There were enough surprises to
make the alteration of the voting rules to a single round plurality rather
than ...
Mom Has Stacked Dinner Party Roster
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GOLDEN, CO—Their eyes widening in amazement as the 43-year-old rattled off
the names of heavy hitter after heavy hitter, impressed members of the
Dreesh...
Week 17 NFL Picks
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Last week’s 10 wins leaves me with 153 wins. Weak season. Sorry. Week 17
picks NFL Picks Away Home Chicago Detroit NY Jets Buffalo Tampa Bay Atlanta
Caroli...
Coverville Countdown 2012: Nominations Begin NOW!
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It’s that time of year again! Time for you to nominate and vote for your
favorite covers, and for me to spend the last few shows of the year to line
them...
Obama’s speech coverage on NPR
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What were the people at NPR thinking? The coverage of President Obama’s
speech on National Public Radio on Wednesday was just awful. I’ve never
minded anal...
2PP132 – 16 May 2020
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This episode was delayed, yet again, because Arthur didn’t have enough
time. Anyway, here we are—were? Today’s chat was about the changes to New
Zealand’s ...
My New Venture: Top Flight Family
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You may have noticed that you haven’t heard much from me lately. That’s
because I’ve been quietly working on new passion of mine, a digital media
startup o...
First blog post
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This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it,
or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you
started t...
10.29.15 GOOGLE UBER ALLES
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This article originally appeared in the 10.29.15 issue of Metroland.
You may have heard that the New York federal appeals court granted Google a
big win ...
This Is Not A Joke
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A new ball game - with tasers. Hat-tip : The Volokh Conspiracy According to
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said, “I...
I've also been reading Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story Of Stax Records by Rob Bowman, which came out in 1997 during the 40th anniversary of the label; the book was 12 years in the making. It is stunningly detailed, with footnotes indicating, among other things, differing memories of the participants. It also makes me wonder why Estelle Axton isn't in the Rock Hall, for it was her Satellite Record Shop where the sound of early Stax was developed.
On PBS this month, I got to watch Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, which, not so incidentally, will be available on DVD on October 2, 2007; I believe it's available through PBS now. Let me put it this way: if you claim to care about American popular music, you should either read the Bowman book or watch the video. Preferably both, although the last third of each, showing the final decline, is a bit tough.
You'll find out about a problematic deal with Atlantic Records that, along with the deaths of Otis Redding (on a plane in the Midwest) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (assassinated in Memphis), nearly killed the label by 1968, but you'll also learn about how Stax managed to have a racially integrated house band that rivaled Motown's The Funk Brothers in segregated Memphis, including Steve Cropper and "Duck" Dunn, names you might recognize from the Blues Brothers band.
Thanks to the hard work of Al Bell, the record producer who had become president of Stax, the label not only survived but thrived. According to the Wikipedia piece: "On August 20, 1972, the Stax label presented a major concert, Wattstax, featured performances by Stax recording artists and humor from rising young comedian Richard Pryor. Known as the "Black Woodstock," Wattstax was hosted by Reverend Jesse Jackson and drew a crowd of over 100,000 attendees, most of them African-American. Wattstax was filmed by motion picture director Mel Stuart (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory), and a concert film of the event was released to theaters by Columbia Pictures in February 1973." Thus, today is the 35th anniversary of that seminal event.
Some bank dealings, plus an unfortunate arrangement with CBS Records, helped lead to the label's unfortunate first ending in 1975, although it's been recently revived. The final piece is that today is the 65th birthday of "Black Moses", Isaac Hayes. Long before he started recording as a featured performer, he was a session musician. He also wrote a number of songs, many for Sam (Moore) and Dave (Prater); his songwriting partner was often David Porter. Then he became a star, putting out an 18-minute version of Jim Webb's "By the Time I Get To Phoenix" on "Hot Buttered Soul"; a 6:45 single was also released. Of course, he is probably best known, at least in my generation, as the writer/performer of the Oscar-winning theme for the movie Shaft. "That man Shaft is a bad mother---." "Shut your mouth."
Here's a section from the Bowman book: ...by the time Hayes was eighteen months old his mother had passed away in a mental institution; because his father had disappeared sometime before her death, Isaac was raised by his [sharecropper] grandparents...After his grandfather died, when he was eleven, Isaac, his sister and grandmother, together and separately, lived all over North Memphis...When they were cut off from welfare...they used the wood from their outhouse to burn for heat...The next year, the family ran out of food and Isaac's grandmother and sister got sick from hunger. Yet, Hayes survived, and once he discovered music, thrived.
I enjoyed your story of the time share, but vacations with 3 year olds CAN be tough! And y'know, I somehow missed the Stax set! I have some old Motown box set collections (NOT the complete singles series that's coming out currently, at least overseas (I keep reading about them in Mojo and uncut, but haven't seem 'em here)) and a series of Atlantic singles, but no Stax! Nice thought regarding Julie, but her current obsession? Abba! The Greatest Hits--over and over! And I have all the other CDs, but no, just that one, over and over ( I dig Abba the most as well, I should point out. They'd be in my top 10 bands somewhere, beleive it or not...)
I really need to dive into the whole Motown-Harlem black music history, because I suspect there is a line that runs from the great bluesman to early pioneers in jazz into do-wop to "progressive" jazz (like Bitches Brew) to small portions of disco to hip-hop and the like.
FREDERICK KNIGHT had a big Stax hit in the early 1970s with "I've Been Lonely For So Long"; he was born on August 15, 1944.
LARRY GRAHAM, the former bassist of Sly and the Family Song, did a song with Graham Central Station, "I've Been Waiting", which swipes, big-time, "I've Been Lonely"; he was born on August 14, 1946.
3 comments:
I enjoyed your story of the time share, but vacations with 3 year olds CAN be tough! And y'know, I somehow missed the Stax set! I have some old Motown box set collections (NOT the complete singles series that's coming out currently, at least overseas (I keep reading about them in Mojo and uncut, but haven't seem 'em here)) and a series of Atlantic singles, but no Stax! Nice thought regarding Julie, but her current obsession? Abba! The Greatest Hits--over and over! And I have all the other CDs, but no, just that one, over and over ( I dig Abba the most as well, I should point out. They'd be in my top 10 bands somewhere, beleive it or not...)
I really need to dive into the whole Motown-Harlem black music history, because I suspect there is a line that runs from the great bluesman to early pioneers in jazz into do-wop to "progressive" jazz (like Bitches Brew) to small portions of disco to hip-hop and the like.
Another August STAX coincidence:
FREDERICK KNIGHT had a big Stax hit in the early 1970s with "I've Been Lonely For So Long"; he was born on August 15, 1944.
LARRY GRAHAM, the former bassist of Sly and the Family Song, did a song with Graham Central Station, "I've Been Waiting", which swipes, big-time, "I've Been Lonely"; he was born on August 14, 1946.
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