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UPDATES for Wednesday, September 9th, up top... two rounds, morning & afternoon...
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Quick note: we used to tell everyone to click the "view web edition" button. But not anymore. As a result of Google forcing their format changes on what used to be a wonderful platform (until they bought it), things are best viewed now in celphone / portable device mode.
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THOUGHT FOR TODAY from one born on this date...
"Surely there comes a time when counting the cost and paying the price aren't things to think about any more. All that matters is value — the ultimate value of what one does."
~ James Hilton, British novelist (born in Lancashire, England, September 9, 1900, died in Long Beach, California, in 1954). At age 33, he wrote Lost Horizon, about Shangri-La, a mythic kingdom hidden in the Himalaya that is a state-of-mind quest to this day. At age 34, he wrote Goodbye, Mr. Chips, about a beloved old schoolmaster he based on his father. When the latter book was published in the US, it became a huge best-seller, causing all of his previous ten novels -- which had not received any attention -- to be reissued and become best-sellers, too. (Perseverance, writers and songwriters, perseverance.)
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Speaking of ShangriLa... it was California, before the 12-month fire season
On this, the anniversary day of its statehood in 1850, the California wildfires are destroying the unique environments an scenic beauty of the Golden State, and crippling its economy.
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| The Creek Fire in Madera County, Calif., this week.Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
■ As of yesterday in America's most populous state, there were:
• 14,000 firefighters on the fire lines
• 1,900 fire engines deployed, including some from other states
• 42,000 people currently under evacuation, with that number growing
• tens of millions breathing smoke from fires both near and far
• more than two dozen huge fires out-of-control or with less than 15% containment
• entire communities and foothill cities facing evacuation adjacent to Los Angeles, including Monrovia, Duarte, Bradbury, and live music mecca Alta Dena
■ Just since August 15 in California, there have been:
• 2.2 million acres burned
• 900+ wildfires and "fire complexes"
• over 330,000 acres burned
• 3,300 structures lost
Today in the Mojave Desert, the high temperature will not exceed 88° F, a more than twenty degree drop in two days, because the thick, murky blanket of smoke prevents sunlight from reaching the ground. A fire in the Angeles National Forest threatens to jump from ridge to ridge and destroy the pine forests, even as its smoke pours down both sides of the mountain range. And the inversion layer sets-up closer to the ground over the desert than it does in Los Angeles, so any air pollution in the desert has a far more detrimental effect on human health than it does in the Los Angeles Basin. Point being, the complexities of impacts grow exponentially with major fires.
There's more than the fires now raging the height and breadth of California from San Diego County to the Oregon border, from the coastal hills to the High Sierra. America's entire Pacific west as seen from the International Space Station looks like an archipelago of volcanoes. Fires in what had been a verdant forested region of Washington State have erased an entire town from the map, and fires in Oregon completely consumed an outlying suburban community near Medford, which itself remains under threat.
Those 42,000 people already under evacuation in California will be joined by many more today. And in the time of a deadly disease pandemic, the usual evacuation facilities with cots in high school gyms and the exhibit halls of fairgrounds are too dangerous to use. So cash-strapped states who have gone six months with no sales tax revenues are faced with renting hotel and motel rooms for evacuees -- a growing number of whom have lost everything.
Before this became so serious, we had just published a story on the role of climate change in record high temperatures and wildfires. The short version is included in the Guide's "Labor Day Monday update," and the complete version, titled "Burning Up Our Only World," is in the L.A. Progressive, at:
https://www.laprogressive.com/burning-up-our-only-world/
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Also, there's the excellent John Schwartz story, "The ‘straightforward’ link between climate and California’s fires," in today's edition of the New York Times weekly "Climate Forward," at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/climate/nyt-climate-newsletter-california-wildfires.html
MORE:
The NYT staff INVITES YOU to join-in on Sept. 22 for the second episode of "Netting Zero," a series of virtual events looking ahead to key international climate negotiations coming next year.
The panel, focusing on cities trying to become carbon-neutral, will be moderated by Brad Plumer, a reporter on The Times climate team. You can register here. (And find the website version of this week’s "Climate Forward" here.)
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"Deering Live" online Thursday, noon Pacific
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Classical music tales -- instruments and artists
From Buffet Crampon's "Rhapsody in News," just out today.
What's New with Artists ?
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While the pandemic has been restrictive in many ways, it has also stimulated creativity! Buffet Crampon Clarinet Artist and New York Philharmonic Principal Clarinet Anthony McGill recently enjoyed the nice weather for a solo performance and was joined by an unexpected guest. Follow the Lincoln Center Facebook link to check it out!
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We hope you have been enjoying the #TogetherAtHome webcast series on Facebook and YouTube! Here is the latest schedule for our upcoming webcasts, which may be seen LIVE on the Buffet Crampon New York Showroom page (use link to Showroom page). If you miss the live webcast, you can always view it later on our YouTube channel Rhapsody LIVE! (link to YouTube channel).
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Buffet Crampon Division Manager 's Stories
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Midwest Division by Ben Myers
On October 3rd, Plum Grove Music will host its fifth annual anniversary event. "GroveFest", as it is now called, is a free community event that in years past has attracted up to 800 guests. This is quite astounding as Plum Grove is located in Hebron, Indiana, a town with a population of just 3,600. As with most things in 2020, GroveFest will look a bit different due to social distancing and crowd limits, but area musicians and directors have encouraged Plum Grove to carry on with this event, as it adds a sense of familiarity in our ever-changing world.
Below, pictures from last year's Festival.
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Canada Division by Austin Lamarche
It goes without saying that the past six months have been unusual (to put it mildly!). As schools begin to restart in the next few weeks, we are looking forward to discerning how our role as a resource for Canadian music teachers and a support for music education in general continue to evolve. We have remained in communication with teachers across the country and have started developing what will likely be a critical feature of our toolkit - how to utilize Zoom and online media to connect with teachers and students in order to continue to enrich music education in classrooms. We had success with that this summer with our first Canadian education based Zoom webinar, featuring Buffet Crampon guest artists Dr. Cathy Wood from Brandon University, and Dr. Jana Starling from Western University. They discussed all things clarinet to an audience of recent clarinet high school graduates who were going off to university for music in the fall. Topics included what to expect as they begin university and how to prepare, technique and practice tips, as well as reading recommendations and a Q&A session. It was a very successful webinar and we are looking forward to utilizing this type of event going forward as a way to stay connected with artists and teachers through this adjustment period of primarily online instruction.
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Artist Profiles
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Meet Clarinet Artist PASCUAL MARTINEZ FORTEZA
 A native of Mallorca, Spain, Second Clarinet Pascual MartÃnez Forteza joined the New York Philharmonic in 2001, the first and only Spanish musician in the Orchestra's history. Prior to his appointment with the Philharmonic, he held tenure with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and at age 18 he was Assistant Principal and later Acting Principal of the Baleares Symphony Orchestra in Spain. He has recently performed as guest Principal Clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle.
Mr. MartÃnez Forteza appears regularly as a soloist, recitalist, and master-class teacher at international festivals and conservatories, including the International Clarinet Festival of Chanchung (China), ClarinetFest 2009 (Porto, Portugal), the Buffet Crampon USA Summer Clarinet Academy (Jacksonville, Florida), University of Southern California, Mannes School of Music, The Juilliard School, New Jersey Clarinet Symposium, XI Encuentro Internacional de Clarinetes de Lisboa (Portugal), Mexico Clarinet Convention, and I Latinoamerican Clarinet Congress (Lima, Peru).
Pascual MartÃnez Forteza started playing clarinet at age ten with his father, Pascual V. MartÃnez, principal clarinet of the Baleares Symphony Orchestra for 30 years and teacher at the Baleares Conservatory of Music in Spain. Mr. MartÃnez Forteza earned his master's degree from the Baleares and Liceo de Barcelona Music Conservatories in Spain and pursued advanced studies with Buffet Crampon Clarinet Artist Yehuda Gilad at the University of Southern California, where he won first prize in the university's 1998 Concerto Competition. Mr. MartÃnez Forteza is currently a faculty member at New York University and teaches orchestral repertoire at Manhattan School of Music. A Buffet Crampon Clarinet Artist and Vandoren Artist, he plays Buffet Crampon Tosca Green Line clarinets (BC1150GL-2-0 and BC1250GL-2-0) and uses Vandoren reeds and M30D mouthpieces.
Pacual is featured in another example of the creativity generated by our world-class roster of Artists during the pandemic. Here he combined a beautiful performance of Stavinsky's Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet with amazing cinematography and staging (inspired his wife Gema). The video performance is dedicated to Hospices of Hope and especially to his friends Raluca and Christian Fuchs. Enjoy!
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Besson, B&S and Meinl Weston Artists
Shout out to Meinl Weston Artists Justin Benavidez and Matthew Good, B&S Artists Scott Roeder and Timothy Northcut and Besson Artist David Childs for placing their students among the winners of this year's Falcone International Euphonium & Tuba Festival!
A special congratulations to all winners for this incredible achievement!
The Falcone Festival is held each summer, over a four day period, and has been housed since its inception at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan.
In addition to the competition aspect of the Festival, participants are offered the opportunity to attend master classes and recitals provided by internationally recognized euphonium/tuba artists.
This prestigious event deserves recognition and the sponsoring company says, "We at Buffet Crampon USA want to thank our artists for being such fantastic educators and representatives of our brands."
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Tuesday morning, September 8th:
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THOUGHT FOR TODAY from one born on this date...
"If more politicians in this country were thinking about the next generation instead of the next election, it might be better for the United States and the world."
~ Claude Pepper, US Senator and, after that, US Congressman (born September 8, 1900, died in 1989)
His quote shows concern for those who will come after us, yet he was known as a champion of the elderly. He served more than 60 years in public office. Pepper represented Florida in the United States Senate from 1936 to 1951, and the Miami area in the United States House of Representatives from 1963 until 1989.
Depending how you define the beginning of a century -- and considering how they did that when he was born -- he was the last serving member of Congress born in the nineteenth century.
And while he died in the 20th century, who have you heard lately in public office more focused on the 21st century?
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We've just heard from some dear friends who live near Yosemite. They're exhausted, having spent all night packing their prized possessions and family heirlooms into their two cars, facing an imminent evacuation order due to one of California's massive wildfires. Thing is, they have been through this before, when they lost their home in Southern California to a wildfire a few years ago. That time, they got out with only what was in their cars and the clothes on their backs. Pause today to think of others dealing with worse things than wearing masks and staying home.
Update: Tuesday evening, they evacuated to Fresno.
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"International Acoustic Music Awards" now open
entry bonus expires soon
This wonderful contest's sponsors have asked us to share their message with our readers:
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PBS has three offerings today / tonight
One online at 11 am PDT, one on-demand, one on TV tonight
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From "Music to Life" in Wilder, Vermont...
Founded by folk legend Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary
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Bob Malone Concert tonight
Tune-in at 6pm PDT on StageIt
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In the tradition of Alexis de Tocqueville, a European reconsiders America.
From The Guardian (UK)
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A ‘tyrant-clown’ has destroyed my love affair with America
With its cynical disabling of the body politic, the Trump administration has contaminated the well of US independence
Sun 6 Sep 2020 03.12 EDT
Once upon a time, at the start of the last century, PG Wodehouse declared, with the fervour of the convert, that to live in America was “like being in heaven … without the bother and expense of dying”.
America used to do that to a certain kind of Brit, and to those who saw themselves as Greeks to the Americans’ Romans: we’d fall hopelessly in love, however much they abused the relationship.
My own long affair with America, as an idea as much as a reality, began in the bicentennial year, 1976, with a graduate scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. Among the lovely red brick of old Philadelphia, I maxed out on the promise and possibilities of the American revolution, its majesty, optimism and rhetoric. Those pioneers of radical political self-expression, Jefferson, Franklin, et al, became idols of deep faith. For instance, years later, on a return visit to the Constitution Center, I was brought to tears by a video devoted to that love letter to democratic principles, the US constitution, and the eternal magic of “We, the people”.
Today, after the pre-election convention season, it’s almost impossible to imagine such emotions. Like many Europeans who once looked across the Atlantic at a great democratic experiment, I’ve quit. Somehow, I must cultivate indifference to disguise the end of a long love affair. It’s become an agony to express this disillusion, but I have to try.
The first intimations of this crisis probably occurred when, visiting New York in 2017, I attended a famous Public Theater production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in Central Park. From the moment a strawberry blond Caesar (Gregg Henry in a Maga baseball cap) bounded on stage in a white shirt and a long red tie, this was a polemical interpretation that set cultivated New Yorkers at odds with the culture warriors of Fox News. Now, it seems eerily prescient of America’s nightmare: the disintegration of a great society under the leadership of an orange monster, half-clown, half-tyrant.
Like many US admirers, I’ve made allowances for a necessary disruption. I’ve argued with sceptical friends that America is not “broken”, the federal system remains resilient, and the grip of the constitution still sure. But once my admiration for the United States choked and died this year, bludgeoned by the racism, cruelty, corruption and outright stupidity of the current administration, this loss of faith became desolating.
I have always loved America for its language, the snap of Twain or Lincoln and the sonorities of Douglass and Melville. First and last, it’s a society built of words and ideas, those uplifting expressions of reason and the pursuit of happiness, that quest for “a more perfect union”, the new world’s dream. The ideas of the founding fathers, reiterated by Americans from FDR and LBJ, to MLK and even Ronald Reagan, were fierce and idealistic but always humane.
Part of the US’s appeal, as a democratic experiment, is its Anglo-Saxon pragmatism, its willingness always to frame its radicalism as provisional, a work-in-progress. As former president Obama said at John Lewis’s memorial, any ordinary person could take up the unfinished work of the society, and remake it with new words. To many Britons, imprisoned by ancient, arteriosclerotic continuities, such drive is exhilarating. The audacity of a country constructing itself, from generation to generation, in the language and ideas of the moment, remains the age of reason’s most breathtaking assertion of human ambition.
The genius of the Declaration of Independence as a mission statement is the way in which it conscripts the American vernacular to serve a flag. Language makes unfinished humanity human. Without words, there can be no expressions of thought or sympathy; and thought nourishes the inward mind. This was the faculty the founders recognised as the republic’s best guarantee.
None of this is plain sailing. An exuberant process, full of life and optimism, the ferment of ideas is noisy, messy and occasionally violent. Yes, the tree of liberty was watered by the blood of patriots. But America’s fundamental humanity would always be an inspiration to writers and poets, performers, lawyers and politicians.
Now it feels as if the well of US independence has been poisoned, and the air contaminated with noxious gas from half-baked conspiracy theories. Where language once provided a narrative line, now we find hate-filled presidential tweets. Ideas used to be a basis for community, now they only sponsor a raucous shouting match. Once, this experiment was arbitrated by trial and error, the interplay of trust and truth in the free traffic of well-founded opinion. This has now devolved into visceral internecine vendettas.
What’s died in the process are two fine American monosyllables: good faith. For the whole world, this is a democratic emergency. America was always a country where – with the usual caveats surrounding power politics – we could witness a society engaged in moral choices about improving the way people live. This was the shining city of the American ideal. Today, for millions across the “good Earth” of the astronaut Frank Borman’s inspired description, that light has gone out.
We, once faithful supporters, no longer have any appetite for a noble experiment consumed with rage, ever more vulnerable to the manipulation of untrammelled power, and tormented by habitual untruths. It’s these lies that are most lethal. Whatever treasury of words and judgments was stored up in Philadelphia during the 1770s, that bank is bust. This infamous 45th president will be remembered for many things, but the worst is the blizzard of his more than 20,000 outrageous falsehoods, the cynical disabling of the body politic.
When we contemplate the imminent battle between Democrats and Republicans, the former so eager for government but so incompetent at elections, the latter so ready for the fight but so deficient in sympathetic political capital, it’s hard not to become dismayed and fearful. How to preserve this democracy? Whence a new chapter of American revival? And is it too late for the voters to renew their lease on paradise?
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Fight to save pristine Utah wilderness teeters on the brink
Our friends at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance have an award winning film online for five days, as allies find ways to help.
We are excited to invite you to a special virtual event hosted by SUWA: an online screening and panel discussion of the new film, PUBLIC TRUST: The Fight for America's Public Lands.
 Click image to view film clip |
Produced by Patagonia Films, PUBLIC TRUST explores how our public lands are facing unprecedented threats from extractive industries and the politicians in their pockets. Part love letter, part political exposé, the film investigates how we arrived at this precarious moment through the examination of three beloved areas that are particularly at risk—Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah, Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—and makes the case for the continued protection of our public lands. Click here to view the exclusive film clip.
Our panel discussion features four speakers whose lives and hearts are intertwined with public wild lands in Utah: Angelo Baca, a Diné (Navajo) filmmaker, scholar, and activist working to protect Bears Ears; Nate Waggoner, owner of Escalante Outfitters; Lauren Wood, Trip Director for Holiday River Expeditions; and Olivia Juarez, SUWA Latinx Community Organizer.
To register, please click here.
SUWA will send you:
- A link and password to view the film anytime between September 12th at 7am and Sept 16th at 11pm (5-day window).
- A link to our panel discussion on Thursday, September 17th, at 6pm MT.
The future of Utah’s redrock wild lands is inextricably tied to the future of public lands across the West. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about the larger struggle to protect America’s public lands and to join our Utah-based panelists for a thought-provoking discussion about those efforts here in Utah.
We hope you will join us!
The SUWA organizing team
Terri Martin, Dave Pacheco, Olivia Juarez, Madison Daniels, Travis Hammill, Clayton Daughenbaugh, and Jenny Holmes
___Terri Martin, Dave Pacheco, Olivia Juarez, Madison Daniels, Travis Hammill, Clayton Daughenbaugh, and Jenny Holmes
Covidology 101 update for September 8th
Amidst all the concern from epidemiologists, virologists, and those doing contact tracing? Mass gatherings over Labor Day Weekend and students herding themselves into indoor environs on campuses have caused a lot of sleepless nights. Still, there is one obtuse bit of encouragement. Wearing masks -- where everyone takes that seriously -- has caused a sharp drop in the usual numbers of cases of other infectious diseases. In the Southern Hemisphere, where seasons are reversed, Australia just emerged from their usual April to August flu season. Aussie health authorities reported the smallest number of cases of "ordinary" seasonal flu, ever.
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After we published our lead feature story on Labor Day Monday, the European Space Agency added to, and re-confirmed, our central point:
08-09-2020 08:40 AM CEST
Their piece leads-off: "A recent report confirms that ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, whose mass-loss rates have been rapidly increasing, are matching the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's worst-case sea-level rise scenarios."
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Finally -- SOMETHING in the news to feel good about knowing
We've all been cooped-up these many months. Time to think of getting out more.
From The European Space Agency (ESA), fresh this morning...
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| Photo: "Backbone of a spacecraft." Courtesy ESA. |
Built in Turin, Italy, at Thales Alenia Space, this is the third such structure to roll out of production. However, this one is extra special, as it will fly the first woman and next man to land on the Moon and return on the Artemis III mission by 2024.
The structure is nearly complete and acts as a backbone to the Orion spacecraft, providing rigidity during launch.
Much like a car chassis, this structure forms the basis for all further assembly of the spacecraft, including 11 km of wiring, 33 engines, four tanks to hold over 8000 litres of fuel, enough water and air to keep four astronauts alive for 20 days in space and the seven-metre ‘x-wing’ solar arrays that provide enough electricity to power two households.
Orion’s backbone will travel to the Airbus integration hall in Bremen, Germany, at the end of the month to integrate all the elements listed above and more. This third European Service Module will join the second in the series that is already in Bremen, and nearing completion, to be sent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center next year.
The first service module is already finished and will be integrated with the Crew Module and rocket adapters to sit atop the Space Launch Systems rocket. The first completed Orion craft is scheduled for a launch and fly-by around the Moon, without astronauts, next year on the first Artemis mission.
The countdown to the Moon starts in Europe with 16 companies in ten countries supplying the components that make up humankind’s next generation spacecraft for exploration.
Read more about Orion and the Artemis missions.
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Labor Day Monday update...
This morning at 8 am, the skies overhead where we are in Southern California look like Mars during a dust storm. Everything is pink and murky, due to the smoke of some of the more than two dozen wildfires burning throughout the state. Already this year -- not yet having reached the period of TRADITIONAL "Fire Season" -- all previous annual records for California wildfires have been broken, with over two million acres here destroyed by fire this year alone. That's equivalent to one and half million football fields.
Meanwhile, away from the fires, heat soared. Sunday brought the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Los Angeles County: 121° F in two places, Chino and Woodland Hills. That was seven degrees hotter that the desert.
Climate change-driven phenomena are becoming widespread new cycles of evermore dangerous extremes.
In Denver Colorado on Sunday, it was 103° F. In Denver tomorrow, Tuesday, the high temperature will be 38° F and a blizzard is expected during the night when it will be 30° F. There is no precedent for such sudden extremes over a wide region.
Farmers across the upper Great Plains may lose unharvested fields to snow and freezing conditions this week after struggling through a summer of heat and drought.
Forests in California and the West lost to wildfires will not reestablish themselves, period. It is now too dry for too many consecutive years at a stretch for conifer seeds to take root and reach viability befire being killed by dryness. Forests that make oxygen and cool the planet will be, at best, replaced by the sparse vegetation of chaparral -- surrounded by grasses that dry out after the rains and become the easiest starter fuel for more fires. And topsoil will be eroded away when it does rain, bringing mud and floods to settled places and lands below the canyons.
There were record high temperatures this year in Antarctica and the Arctic. Massive pieces, the size of US states, broke-off the Greenland and the Antarctic ice shelves. Ancient arctic permafrost is melting to reveal bones and frozen tissue of extinct giants, from wooly mammoths and mastodons to sabre-tooth cats. It's happening too fast for scientists to find the pristine remains before they rot and decay in the sun. Permafrost in Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and northern Finland and Scandinavia is melting too fast to prevent collapse of overlying lands into the ocean, river valleys, and even newly formed craters and canyons. And methane -- formed by all the plants that were quick-frozen with the animals that were eating them -- is released everywhere that permafrost melts. Methane is the most potent of all climate change gases.
Incredibly, powerful economic interests continue to drive the mechanisms of accelerated climate change because their models of wealth depend on destruction. And they have political allies who remain willfully ignorant of the need for sustainability to save civilization itself.
Corporatists are killing us, with pesticides and chemicals and paradigms of maximized profits through toxic practices and wholesale ownership of political parties and mainstream media. Imperfect options are the most we are allowed, and disillusionment sets-in to suggest it isn't worth accepting anything that promises to kill us slower.
But we must fight at every junction of every minor crossroads, at every little bridge of decaying infrastructure crossing every stream that flows with pesticides and chemical growth hormones and feedlot fertilizer runoff. Otherwise, what will say to children who have no forests, no safe foods to eat, and no future on a planet where it was once comfortable to go outdoors?
A vast oversimplification of a lot of complexity? Certainly. We can lose ourselves in endless details and allow ourselves to be distracted by a thousand obfuscations and diversions -- and by reality show idiots who proclaim their freedoms begin with not wearing masks to prevent pandemics, and arming themselves to the teeth to save themselves from the rest of us, and with obsessively watching the sale ads to get the best digital deal for delivery of a bunch more unsustainable stupid crap we never needed in the first place, but buying it makes the one-tenth of one-percent richer even as 20 million Americans will face eviction and homelessness right after the first of the year. It's inflicted insanity on an overwhelming scale that numbs us beyond an ability to think holistically and form a notion of the big picture. And it makes us lemmings.
So, as you breath fire smoke, endure record temperature extremes, fear your electricity and air conditioning going off because there isn't enough to go around, face coming months of horrendously expensive grocery bills and the unavailability of much of what you usually eat? Remember back to when November 3rd, 2020, was election day in America. Remember whether you used your opportunity to do anything about it. Even something incremental and imperfect.
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Monday's music news
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FolkWorks is tunefully fundraising for cyber expansion...
Live Stream will be on the following Social Media platforms:
Funds raised from FolkWorks Busking will support the development of the new FolkWorks website.
Click here to send tips
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Ty Fance Storyteller: "Otter Story Hour" tonight @ 7:30
The experienced and always entertaining Ty usually presents and produces live multiartust shows in venues with live audiences. For tonight, he tells us, "I will be one of the storytellers. Hope you get to watch it."
Ty continues, "Yours truly will share a story about where the universe interceded when a decision had to be made about my then-job at Rockwell International Aerospace company."
Plus you can tune-in next Monday, September 7th, at 7:30 pm. Here's a teaser:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3211519588898014&id=1585398081516618
Ty Fance, Director/ Host/ Producer/ Storyteller
Check him out on his Facebook Fan Page
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Sunday morning additions, right up-top
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Ernest Troost, award-winning singer-songwriter, brings us back to Labor Day
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Annual Labor Day Weekend "Broad Fest" offers a virtual alternative
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Watch Andy & Renee livestream concerts:
Sunday 2 pm PDT, &
Wednesday, 7 pm PDT
on YouTube
The talented duo tells us:
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In the best tradition of folk music's social activism
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Emma's Revolution has plenty on their plate. They always do. They contacted us this morning with a bunch of things we're sharing with you:
While Sandy is in denial, hoping her repeated "It's not the end of the summer. It's not the end of the summer. It's not the end of the summer." will somehow make it magically so, it is, indeed, the End of The Summer. We hope you are staying safe this Labor Day weekend and gearing up for the pre-Election push! Check out Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) and poll worker info, below, and join us for these events, today and coming right up: |
Sunday Sept 6
Learn an Emma's Revolution Song: "Stand/Rise Together"
1pm PT/4pm ET on Zoom and Facebook Live When Wisconsinites took to the streets of Madison to oppose Governor Scott Walker’s union-busting, we got several emails asking us to come. Sandy wrote "Stand Together" and we sang it for the demonstrating workers, both outside and inside the statehouse. We now sing the song as "Rise Together" to include all who support workers' rights. Lyrics and chords are available for download, here. |
In March 2011, Mother Jones Magazine wrote: "Walker says his legislation, which would strip most state employees of any meaningful collective bargaining rights, is necessary to close the state’s $137 million budget gap. . . But public safety officers’ unions, which have members who are more likely to support Republicans and who also tend to have the highest salaries and benefits, are exempted from the new rules." Whaddya know.
Register for the Zoom event, watch via simultaneous livestream on our Facebook page or watch the post-session video on our YouTube channel. Register for the workshop, once, and attend today's and all future occurrences of this workshop.
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Voterama: Suffrage, Elections & Beyond - Fri Sept 11th
Voterama: Suffrage, Elections & Beyond
7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT on Zoom
Join us for a concert to sing out the vote and commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment! Hosted by the Folk Music Society of NY, the event also features a post-concert, Zoom-style sing-along. Register, here.
On June 4, 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, granting white women the right to vote in the US for the first time. African American women were denied voting rights in many Southern states until 1965. And, it's more complicated than that. Check out "Who got the right to vote when?: A history of voting rights in America" to see the whole story for women, African American men, Mexicans, Jewish people, people of Asian ancestry and, of course, everyone who lives in Washington DC. |
VoteLove #DefeatHate - Sun Sept 13th
Join us for a Get-Out-The-Vote benefit concert with our friend and powerhouse performer/songwriter, Lea Morris, Three Sheets to the Wind and monologues from Sarah Siegel & Randall Swinton!
The event benefits the New Florida Majority Education Fund, which in 2020 is "mobilizing to significantly expand democratic rights for communities that have been historically marginalized, excluded and silenced." Come support justice-making in this key swing state! |
Sing! Vote! Sing! - Sun Sept 20th
Sing! Vote! Sing!
11am PT/2pm ET on Zoom and Facebook Live Join us for the second Sing! Vote! Sing! Perfomers will share a song and info about a GOTV organization of their choice, plus we'll hear from you, the audience! Come to sing, build community, be inspired and help inspire, as we get out the vote! With Diana Gameros, Chris Chandler, Magpie, Annie Wenz,Tom Prasada Rao, Melanie DeMore, Reggie Harris, Amy Carol Webb & Joe Crookston. Register to join us on Zoom! |
Reclaim Our Democracy - Sat Oct 24th
"Reclaim Our Democracy with Emma's Revolution"
8pm ET/5pm PT on Zoom
Join us for a special pre-Election-Day concert, with post-concert visit! The event is sponsored by Reclaim Our Democracy and First Parish in Concord MA. All are welcome and a sliding scale donation of $1-25 supports the artists. Register here.
"Reclaim Our Democracy is a social action group that was formed in 2017 at First Parish in Concord, Massachusetts, a Unitarian Universalist congregation. The group’s goal is to reclaim our democratic rights as citizens of the United States of America to have a government that truly represents and supports the needs and desires of all people." |
More GOTV Info
FairFight.com is just one of the more than 30 organizational websites and hotline numbers from the info share at August's Sing! Vote! Sing! Check out the full list on our Facebook page (you don't need a Facebook account to view the page) and send us your Get-Out-The-Vote links and information and we'll share them here!
From Nina F ~ "Connecting for Change 2020 is a volunteer-led group providing referrals to people who want to take part in online organizing in the upcoming 2020 elections in the swing states of AZ, CA (contested districts only), CO, FL, GA, IA, MI, MT, NC, PA, TX, and WI. Organizations have been fully vetted to help ensure that volunteers have a positive experience. To contact Connecting for Change 2020 and receive a referral, please fill out this form on the website. Please help by sending/posting this notice to other people and groups." From Lisa S (who will be a poll worker in her county) ~ "Here are links on how to be a poll worker in these counties in California: San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco." California is paying its poll workers, maybe your state is, too! To become a poll worker in your area and help ensure we have a "safe, fair, efficient election for all", go to PowerThePolls.com. Thanks, as always, for your support of us and our work in the world! Let's get 45 out of office! |
In justice, solidarity and transformation,
Pat Humphries & Sandy O enews@emmasrevolution.com www.emmasrevolution.com |
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Saturday morning additions -- LOTS of 'em...
Added between oh-dark-thirty and
(So, why isn't this a whole new edition, instead of a giant addition? It's the ongoing battles of all of us who publish on this long-established platform, since Google bought it and started messing with it.)
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Treasure trove of tuneful event & listening links from our friends at the Pasadena Folk Music Society
(sorry about the strange font from the organization's newsletter. The platform no longer allows us to change it to something more readable. Plunge in: the info content is worth it.)
Here's the word about a whoooole gotta things, this weekend and beyond, reprinted directly from their e-newsletter:
Many of you attended and enjoyed our show featuring Ireland's Lúnasa show a year and a half ago. We got word about a concert that they just recorded which you can see and hear this Sunday, Sept 6, at 1:00 PM local time. You can attend the show by clicking here. Viewing is free and easy, but we recommend that you make a donation. Here's how they describe this concert:
"We recently had some virtual get togethers online and have recorded a concert which we will be showing this coming weekend. It will be a 1 hour concert with some new material and plenty of our favourite sets from the live shows. It has been interesting recording with the band located in 5 different cities in 3 different countries but the technology has cooperated and we have produced a concert for you all to see. We’ll also have a guest appearance from the amazing Dublin singer “Daoiri Farrell” who sang on our last cd “Cas".
Join us in the online audience!
Also this weekend, a new documentary about singer, songwriter, storyteller, labor organizer, railroad hobo, and many other things, Utah Phillips, will be premiered online now through Monday, Sept. 7 (3 days only.) Celebrate Labor Day with us! We were very proud to present Utah in our series three times, and he always made people think, laugh, and see the power of a voice and a guitar. The program consists of Utah's voice from a series of radio programs (Loafer's Glory) he recorded in Nevada City before his death in 2008 and shows the strength of his message after his passing. You can view the film here, and, again, we urge you to make a donation, which will go to 6 grassroots organizations that help people without homes. There is a nice write-up here.
If you aren't familiar with Utah Phillips, one of his most powerful songs is All Used Up and he often started his live shows with his song, Railroading on the Great Divide, which he would constantly interrupt to tell stories, both side-splitting and thought provoking. He could also write beautiful love songs, such as Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia (his brief description about the writing of this song here.) You can read Utah's obituary, written by Ross Altman, at Folkworks.
Also this weekend (Sept. 5-7, 11AM- 7PM Saturday, 11AM- 4PM Sunday) is the Fox Valley Folklore Society Festival (North Aurora, Illinois). Performers are Scott Ainslie, February Sky, Tim Grimm, Bill Harley, Reggie Harris, Sarah McQuaid, Lee Murdock, Pete's Posse (Sutherland), Sally Rogers, Sparky & Rhonda Rucker, Claudia Schmidt, Trillium, Dennis Stroughmatt, and Jack WIlliams.
On Labor Day itself (Sunday, Sept. 7) the Greenwich Village Folk Festival, 4PM to 7PM, will feature Peter Yarrow, Eliza Gilkyson, Pierce Pettis, Rod MacDonald, Robin Batteau, Carolann Solebello, Tom Prasado-Rao, Aztec 2.0, Diana Jones, and Bonnie LeClair.
We didn't get this message out in time for you to hear the Virtual Four Corners Folk Festival live, which was today, Friday, featuring Michael Franti, Tommy Emmanuel, Rising Appalachia, Caitlin Cannon & Alice Wallace, and the Stillhouse Junkies. It appears to be archived on their Facebook page (don't have to be a Facebook member) here, so you can give it a try. There's a lot of good music , and definitely don't miss Caitlin and Alice at about the 27 minute point.
Next week, the long running National Folk Festival (Salisbury, MD) will hold their 80th event, virtually this time, on September 10-12. It looks like the music is between 9AM and 3PM each day. They will feature performances from past festivals, along with new performances recorded just for this virtual festival. Musicians include Jerry Douglas, Alex Meixner, Dale Ann Bradley, Don Vappie Trio, Dovie Thomason, Feedel Band, Hot Club of Cowtown, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, Los Pleneros de la 21, Phil Wiggins, Rajna Swaminathan & Ganavya Doraiswamy, Riley Baugus, The Red Trouser Show, Wendy MacIsaac, MÃ iri Rankin, & Mac Morin.
The CT Folk Fest (Connecticut) is September 9-12 and features Ruthie Foster, Dom Flemons, Keller Williams, and others.
Coming up on September 26, 5-8 PM California time is Willie Nelson's Farmaid 2020, On the Road, also featuring Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs, and many others. This is the 35th year! The money goes to a good cause: "Farm Aid works year-round to build a system of agriculture that values family farmers, good food, soil and water, and strong communities. Our annual music and food festival celebrates farmers, eaters and music coming together for change." The event can be streamed from the web site.
We just stumbled on some really fine shows that are being done for the Library of Congress, including Si Kahn (Folk songs for Labor Day!), Joe Jencks, Jay Ungar & Molly Mason (most famous for Ashokan Farewell, from Ken Burns' Civil War series.) Incidentally, it looks like Jay and Molly are doing shows every Wednesday through September (the Quiet Room Series) see their Facebook account for archived and future videos. The Library of Congress has some other good things archived and coming up. Check them out!
We're also a little late to remind you to listen to Tom Nixon on Roots Music and Beyond, on KPFK, 90.7 FM, Saturday, September 5, 6-8 AM, though you can hear the show for 2 weeks on KPFK Audio Archives (look for Sept. 5, 6AM.) Tom has a great sense of humor and he has a lot of fun putting songs together, using a very broad pallate of songs. Check out last week's show, (Aug. 9, 6AM) on the Archives to hear Jim Moran's very satisfying show. Jim always has a theme that he develops, featuring tremendous songs, some familiar, some not. Last week's show's themes were solitude, isolation, and loneliness, to fit our current times. It isn't as sad as it may sound. Great music to have on while you are doing something else. Next week, the show will be hosted by Mary Katherine Aldin, followed by Art Podell and then Mark Humphrey on Sept. 26. These rotating hosts all bring you their own take on roots music, all of them excellent!
We don't know Allen Larman's and Kat Griffin's live guest for this Sunday night's FolkScene ( 6-8 PM) on KPFK, but their show is always enjoyable. Last week's show (Aug. 30) featured Jonathan McEuen, and the previous show (Aug. 23) was a great recent interview with Eliza Gilkyson commenting on songs from her powerful new CD, 2020, a fine reflection on our difficult times. You can listen to these shows on KPFK's Audio Archives , including the first hour, featuring new recorded folk music, and on their Apple podcasts site or FolkScene's Soundcloud site (scroll down just a bit to find it) for the guest portion.
Check out Larry Wines' Acoustic American Music Guide for more events and news. We just learned here about Arlo Guthrie's new updated version of Hard Times Come Again No More- for the Pandemic. Find out about it here and hear the song here. The new lyrics come at the end of the song and he gets some great help from others, particularly Vanessa Bryan (vocals) and Jim Wilson (co-writer & piano.)
Robin and Linda Williams, who have performed in our series a few times, most recently a year ago, did a fine set for another virtual festival in early August, the Oak Grove Folk Music Festival, near their home in Virginia. They sounded great and did some new and old songs and one by John Prine. They report that their next recording is progressing well.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, formerly an incredible annual multi-stage line-up in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, is going to have a virtual show- October 2-4 with the schedule still being revealed, though Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle & the Bluegrass Dukes are definitely in. They have a lot of wonderful video archives of previous years as well. Despite the name, they have expanded far beyond bluegrass.
The Santa Barbara Old-Time Fiddlers Festival will be held online Sunday, October 11, 10AM to 5PM. There will be an online contest competition (get practicing!) and featured performers as well. This is the 49th year for this great show, and this year's show, because it is online only, will be free, though donations will be very welcome! Still nice prizes for those who compete, too.
Just to show that an online music contest can work, check out last spring's Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival . Folkworks gives you a quick list of performers here, most with links to the performance video. These Festivals show that we have a lot of talented performers in our midst in Southern California.
Speaking of Folkworks, they are going to be expanding their coverage beyond Southern California, and a re-designed web site is on the way. Check them regularly to get links to more videos and keep up with other things in the Folk Music world.
Despite the Pandemic, with the Labor Day holiday here, we can't help being reminded of the late John Davis, who with his wife, Deanne Davis, used to play the song, Barbeque, by Mumbo Gumbo on KPFK's Heartfelt Music for the Labor Day holiday. We miss you, John.
Finally, an actual destination musical event! Descanso Gardens, in La Canada, has been featuring a wonderful event since they reopened, The Sky Beneath Our Feet. Composed for Descanso, inspired by the oaks in the garden, different voices and instruments are heard on 72 speakers, so as you walk through the garden, the sound changes, as if you were surrounded by hidden musicians and singers. You can hear one of the vocal selections from the piece here and learn how the entire piece was composed here. It lasts about 1 hour and can be heard at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm and 6pm daily in the Oak Grove and Camellia Forest. There is a fee and a reservation must be made, but the Garden is managing the numbers of entries throughout the day and requiring that masks be worn. Experiencing the 6PM program, with the shadows of the oaks, the golden sun and the late afternoon colors on the San Gabriel Mountains, is a stunning time to experience this show, which is scheduled to close on September 30.
Stay well!
___Live Irish Music in Southern Cal
from PubGuide.com
SATURDAY SEPT 5th 7:00pm - 10pm
The Whooligan Trio Al Fresco
Join us on The Patty-O at
The Auld Dubliner
for an evening of Irish Music and Fun!
Full Bar, Great Menue & ab Amazing Pub. Irish /Trad Music!
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The Patty-O is a whole new feel for The Auld Dub.
It's not your usual crazy scene.
More Kick Back, More Chill, More Betta & in times like these...
A Blessing!!
Sunday, September 6 Starts at 2 PM
Ken O'Malley Live!
Ken will present another live performance from his home on Sundays
Stories and Song from one of the greatest Irish Balladeers ever!
Everyone is invited and the direct link is
We know you miss O'Malley at the pubs so this will help!!
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The show is free of charge.
For those who would be interested in contributing to a virtual tip jar, you can use
Venmo: @kenomalley (4 digit code 1062) or PayPal: paypal.me/twlord
Saturday, September 19
Starting @ 7:00pm
| LIVE IRISH MUSIC on the Patio!
The Auld Dubliner is happy to present Ed Bell and two more of his frolicsome band of merry minstrels!!
Full Bar, Perfect Guinness, Amazing Food all al fresco at the pub that is center to the Irish Side of Long Beach!
Auld Dubliner
71 South Pine
Expanded Patio
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The Whooligans Trio play the First & Third Saturday of the month!
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"Next Fest Thing" and more this weekend
from our friends at New Orleans Off Beat...
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Rick Shea, live performance online today
Rick says, "I'll be on FaceBook Live again this Sat Sep 5th at 5 pm PST, Live from Casa de Calora, please join me if you can. Thank you to all for tuning in, I hope all is well you and all your families. Last weeks show crashed 3 times before we had to give up on it, so it's in three parts below if you'd like to check it out, I'm trying a new Internet Svc provider this week.
Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rick-Shea/142382979141066
You can see last weeks show here, in three parts; https://www.facebook.com/rick.shea.9/videos/10157997139446773/
https://www.facebook.com/rick.shea.9/videos/10157997369991773/
You can see last weeks show here, in three parts; https://www.facebook.com/rick.shea.9/videos/10157997139446773/
https://www.facebook.com/rick.shea.9/videos/10157997369991773/
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The Americana Music Association has lots of tunage for you
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Upcoming Live Virtual Concert:
Bluegrass!
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Cover Story honors in the Washington Post
Our old pal Cidny Bullens, former lead guitar for Elton John, has a new album getting accolades in the time of pandemic lockdown. And even with musical chops that have powered a stellar career, there's been a lot to overcome.
Cid checked-in to tell us about it. Here's the scoop, in his own words:
So exciting!
August 30, 2020 Sunday edition of "Arts & Style," the Washington Post by Geoff Edgers:
Here is the direct link to the 13 minute award-winning documentary short "The Gender Line" that is embedded in this WP story. Directed by TJ Parsell and produced by Bill Brimm, this is the public premiere!
Holy Crap!
Not only that, NPR featured songs from the album and a live review on World Cafe and All Songs Considered, plus some great reviews, articles, and mentions in American Songwriter, No Depression, Americana Highways, Nashville Scene, The Alternate Root, and many others.
I am blessed I know. And thank you to all who have ordered CDs. Please tell your friends! Every dollar raised from CD sales, digital sales of the songs, T-Shirts etc, is used from further promotion of the album. As everyone knows, there are no live concerts right now, or in the foreseeable future to help us get our music out there (not to mention make a living!)
So buy a CD, or just follow me on Spotify, or on my Facebook musician page www.facebook.com/cidnbullensmusic.
Tune into my live Facebook concerts. Or you can just make a donation in my TIPJAR on my website homepage. It all helps!
Here is a simple link to get you started: https://cidnybullens.hearnow.com/
Of course, my website is: www.cidnybullens.com
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New Music Videos From Ted Russell Kamp, Nocona, Ruby Friedman Orchestra, Bambi Lee Savage
"Chasing Your Shadows" --Nocona From their newly released (July 10, 2020) album, Los Dos
Directed, edited, and photographed by Adrienne Isom
Directed, edited, and photographed by Adrienne Isom
"Chasing your shadows is just a stream of consciousness, it doesn’ mean anything, it’s about aliens and crows, it’s about doc watson, it’s about not knowing whether you’re listening to an angel or a devil or even knowing what that or anything else means. It’s about being an idiot and having nothing to say but saying nothing anyway because it’s all you have to say. It’s about recognizing that the world is f*cked up and talking about all the ugly crap that’s going on it and in it while people piss on you and tell you it’s raining and idiotic so called “American” pop country stars talk about beer, chicks and trucks while Americans are dying and miserable and killing themselves in droves with opiates and whatever else they can get their hands on. It’s good old Americana, it’s about the hole every American digs for themselves and the anger they feel trying to dig themselves out of it. It’s about how full of shit everyone is who says they know god exists. It’s about asking them to repeat themselves again in order to marvel at their arrogance. It’s about “not giving up” and “doing your thing” when you don’t know what “giving up” or “doing your thing” even means. It’s about aliens helping crows seek vengeance on the world of men. It’s about Doc Watson’s vision of the astral plane and the clarity of his vision on that plane and his outer body experiences while residing there. It’s about the feeling you get when you eat a bag of mushrooms and go to the front car of a new york city subway and stare out of it as your hurtle through the underground and everything and the car and all the people in it disappear and you feel like you are physically flying through this vast underground labyrinth like a space bat and then realizing that humans are just an underdeveloped space bats and your eyes turn to black dots and lightning bolts shoot out of them but then the train stops and you realize that if you don’t get a cup of coffee immediately your gonna die. It’s about that kind of feeling."--Chris Isom
"This Blue Heart" - Bambi Lee Savage
Video by Aelstrom & Lee © 2020 From the record "Berlin-Nashville Express" Hoof & Antler Records / Bambi Lee Savage Music (BMI) © 2019
Video by Aelstrom & Lee © 2020 From the record "Berlin-Nashville Express" Hoof & Antler Records / Bambi Lee Savage Music (BMI) © 2019
"The idea for this song came to me in my 20s, but all these years later, after living in 7 different cities, I find it still rings true for me. It's written with a slightly upbeat vibe to make the message easier to take. I've always found depression to have both micro and macro elements, and 25 years ago, while I was living in Berlin, a seriously macro-depressive historical event took place: the Rwandan genocide was being reported on the radio every day. The scale of the atrocities was just totally devastating. The bridge lyrics, "All the love in the world could break my heart, and all the hate in the world tears me apart", was written in response.
I shot the video with my good friend and colleague Sabin Aell in Nashville, on a charming old piece of property that could well end up being torn down and turned into condos one of these days. On that day, we had the place to ourselves and were blessed with appropriately moody skies. Between singing and strumming segments, we admired and filmed the many weeds around us, featured to represent the beauty and pain, as well as the delicacy and tenacity of life. It's in my nature to go deep, and it was great to do that in the midst of such a striking environment of nature and man-made ruins."-- Bambi Lee Savage
"The Good Part" - Ted Russell Kamp
Here's a brand new song that is on Ted's record #DownInTheDen (release date 7/24/20)
Here's a brand new song that is on Ted's record #DownInTheDen (release date 7/24/20)
Premiered with Twangville
Ted co-wrote this song in Nashville, TN with the great Billy Burnette. We're just getting to the Good Part. The video was filmed by Craig Dacey at the Station House Studio in Echo Park, CA. The band in the video with Ted are some of the finest musicians in L.A.: Pi Jacobs (acoustic guitar and vocals), Jeff Howell (Hammond), Jim Doyle (drums), Johnny Hawthorne (lap steel), Storm Rhode (electric guitar). Unfortunately, the band on the recording were all unavailable for the shoot: Dave Dunseath (drums), Bart Ryan (lap steel), Jason 'Rowdy' Cope (el. guitar), Jennifer 'Funkyjenn' Gibbons (harmony vocals) and Ted (bass, hammond, percussion).
"Ain't Got Your Money"- Ruby Friedman Orchestra
Director/Editor: Jill D'Agnenica Cinematographer: Ruby Friedman Editor: Jill D'Agnenica Starring Ruby Friedman, Lily LeFauve, Imani Coppola, Ben Landsverk, Jeff Langston, David Jorgenson, Ned Failing, AG Donnaloia Shot all in Portland, Oregon (Lockdown 2020)
Director/Editor: Jill D'Agnenica Cinematographer: Ruby Friedman Editor: Jill D'Agnenica Starring Ruby Friedman, Lily LeFauve, Imani Coppola, Ben Landsverk, Jeff Langston, David Jorgenson, Ned Failing, AG Donnaloia Shot all in Portland, Oregon (Lockdown 2020)
Premiered with KCSN 88.5 FM
"The song was created because of student loan debt bill collectors calling me all day every day from faraway called ID cities and states. I started writing down all of these thinking I would write a song about them all. It struck me that bill collectors got their money already from bank bailouts so why are they double dipping. By the end of the song I pick up the phone and ask the bill collector if she’s in a cycle of debt and poverty too.
The video stars Lily LeFauve, Portland Drag King and Burlesque Dancer, Ruby Friedman, and Ruby’s best friend recording artist/musician Imani Coppola. Except for the scenes with Imani Coppola in NYC, all scenes are shot and directed by Ruby during the social distancing and lockdown times of 2020 in Portland, Oregon. The video takes place inside and just outside or Ruby’s apartment, and the Lily as Tiger Joe character as well as the saloon scene with Lily as masked waitress is filmed in Estacada, Oregon.
The live footage of the Orchestra was shot by Jill D’Agnenica off a streamed series concert at Alberta Rose Theatre on July 4, 2020. The band played to an empty 450 seat theatre.
The Aint Got Your Money video is co-directed and edited by Los Angeles Filmmaker and cinematographer Jill D’Agnenica who told Ruby she must get an iPhone 11 Pro if they were to continue collaborating since neither Jill or Ruby would be able to fly to shoot each other any time soon.
The video starts Portland drag king and burlesque dancer Lily LeFauve in many characters. She usually looks like the character in space girl burlesque dancing in my living room She’s Joe Exotic in the video, she’s me at times, she’s several waitresses, a businesswoman and a school kid etc. That is my Portland band on stage." -- Ruby Friedman
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A Saturday morning news quickie...
US mail bulk-dumped in Glendale spa parking lot
Now this wrinkle makes no damn sense. Somebody is facing a federal crime, and why?
Surveillance video shows bags of USPS mail being dumped in Glendale spa parking lot
By KTLA Digital Staff, Rick Chambers
Posted: Sep 3, 2020
Story:
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/bags-of-usps-mail-dumped-in-glendale-spa-parking-lot/
Video:
https://ktla.com/video/bags-of-mail-found-in-glendale-parking-lot/5822539/
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HEAT!
The state's electrical utilities have a central authority that already have declared a "Flex Alert" -- a stupid title for shutting off your electricity. That begins, rotating around California, at 3 pm Saturday, and lasts through late Monday night.This weekend will break the all-time heat records in 150 cities throughout the American West. The most extreme temperatures of all will include big parts of slurban Los Angeles. The San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys will both hit temps from 114°-117° F on Saturday and 111°-115° F on Sunday. Seriously.It won't even be THAT hot those days in the San Bernardino / Riverside "Inland Empire" or IN THE MOJAVE DESERT! And it won't "ramp-up" for Angelinos like it already has in the Mojave (where it will be 109° F today). Dwellers of both of the L.A. Basin's big valleys are set for 103° Friday (Fry-day) and Monday -- with that huge jolt of much hotter heat on the days between.
The beaches will be insane. They'll be packed like sardines on Saturday, and then the Guv will probably close 'em on Sunday and Monday to minimize superspreaders. (We know, if you're reading this in New York City, A superspreader is something else entirely, and it inhabits the subways.)Anyway, with all this heat, we're thinking where we would rather be, and remembering an old song that we'll share:
We will return during this Labor Day holiday weekend with more, so check back in.
Funny, isn't it? This marks the traditional END of summer, and nobody ever GOT one!
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Saturday & Sunday events posted in ourfresh Friday content...
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Wanna kick it with a rock star?
RRFC Masterclasses Are Rockin' Through the Weekend!
Lou Gramm (Foreigner) and Suzi Quatro
Join RRFC Masterclass
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Haven't caught-up with the Guide's last edition as originally published on Wednesday? Here ya go...
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Here are some superb music and arts story links -- and more. We're playing informer and connector -- we know that original content creation with visual art and embedded audio music and video won't work here anymore in the absence of publishing tools. But art finds expression, we receive LOTS of things you'd like to know, and one does what one can. THIS we can do.
If you don't get what we mean by "absence of publishing tools," this platform is becoming a train wreck since Google bought it. See our previous edition.
We close with a perspective on society. There's quite a bit of content here, especially if you pursue all the links. While we miss all the things we used to be able to use this platform to bring you, here is a reasonable substitute. And it's still pretty damn good.
(Re: the Spectrum News links in this edition: the text comes right up at every one of them. As for watching the videos? Everybody gets five free videos as a guest; beyond that, you need their subscriber app. Choose your five wisely.)
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THOUGHT FOR TODAY, fresh from a hundred years ago...
"The less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag."
~ Kin Hubbard, humorist (born September 1, 1868, died 1930)
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☆ SPECIAL COVER STORY... event happening TODAY
September 2nd: A Historical Day
& Virtual LA Fleet Week 2020
Join your fellow Americans and WW II Allies today as we celebrate
the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Today, Wednesday, September 2nd, the Commemorative Air Force’s Inland Empire Wing is conducting a flight over several important historic landmarks that played a major role in World War II.
Today, Wednesday, September 2nd, the Commemorative Air Force’s Inland Empire Wing is conducting a flight over several important historic landmarks that played a major role in World War II.
This event commemorates 75 years since Imperial Japan signed the surrender document aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, officially ending World War II.
With fewer veterans of World War II alive each day, the "Victory Flight" hopes to bring honor to them for their service and sacrifice, including personnel who were held as prisoners of war or listed as missing in action. It is also intended to thank and honor the families of these veterans and pay tribute to the contribution made on the home front by the people of Southern California during the war.
With fewer veterans of World War II alive each day, the "Victory Flight" hopes to bring honor to them for their service and sacrifice, including personnel who were held as prisoners of war or listed as missing in action. It is also intended to thank and honor the families of these veterans and pay tribute to the contribution made on the home front by the people of Southern California during the war.
The flight path will cover many of these important landmarks, including the aircraft manufacturing facilities in Santa Monica, the Santa Ana Naval Air Station, and Marine Air Corps station in El Toro (see the map).
At 12:30 pm today, the the Victory Flight will pass over the South Bay area and the Battleship IOWA in San Pedro. USS Iowa is a sister ship of USS Missouri, and it was also present in Tokyo Bay when the war ended. In fact, it would have been the site of Japan's surrender, but Presudent Truman, upon learning the Missouri would be present, wanted the ship named for his home state to be the scene where the most terrible war in history was finally ended.
At 1:30 pm today, the Battleship IOWA's crew will render a gun salute from the ship's Port side. Open for outdoor tours beginning at 10:00 am, you're invited to celebrate the end of WWII from IOWA's decks. Grab your outdoor tour ticket for the best view at https://www.pacificbattleship.com/museum_visit/museum_tours/
The historical commemoration coincides as a kick-off for Fleet Week.
Virtual LA Fleet Week 2020 will commence this Friday, September 4th. You can view great videos of US Navy ship tours, Navy band performances, shout-outs by local sailors, and highlights from past LA Fleet Week events.
The crew of museum ship Iowa says, "Please join us Friday through Monday, September 4th-September 7th for this virtual event on our social media channels." You can find them at:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LAFleetWeek/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lafleetweek/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lafleetweek
The Iowa crew adds, "While we will miss seeing you in person this year, we are excited to celebrate this year’s LA Fleet Week virtually and look forward to welcoming you back to the LA Waterfront in 2021!"
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☆ LEAD FEATURE 1...
Independent Venues at Risk of Closing Due to COVID-19
* Text and video story
by Nic Cha Kim, Arts Reporter, Spectrum TV News,
9:30 am PDT Aug 5, 2020
* Guide Synopsis: The National Independent Venue Association estimates 90% of independent venues are at risk of closing without assistance from the government while Pollstar estimates a nine billion dollar loss in ticket sales if venues remain closed throughout 2020. This story focuses on South Bay comedy club Dynasty Typewriter and the comics who were performing them until the pandemic shutdown. But many of the issues are the same for music venues -- which are in the forefront of the 90% that face vanishing unless help arrives from a government where everything is trapped on Mitch McConnell's desk.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/business/2020/08/03/independent-venues-at-risk-of-closing-due-to-covid-19
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☆ LEAD FEATURE 2...
Folk Legend Arlo Guthrie Tries to Offer Hope with a Pandemic Song
* Text and music video
from Spectrum TV News,
5:24 am PDT Aug 24, 2020
* Guide Synopsis: Arlo's got a new pandemic rendition of the 1854 classic, "Hard Times Come Again No More." The son of Woody Guthrie and creator of "Alice's Restaurant" brings a perspective that only he could. Arlo says, "Fifty years from now, one hundred years from now, we will look back on these times like we're looking back now on former times and there will be difficulties. But there always needs to be a voice somewhere that says, 'Don't worry, we'll get through it.'"
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-east/entertainment/2020/08/24/folk-legend-arlo-guthrie-tries-to-offer-hope-with-a-pandemic-song-
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☆ LEAD FEATURE 3...
Mystery of the Stolen Cello and its Surprise Ending
* Text and must-see video
from the "LA Times Today" TV show, Spectrum TV News,
3:30 pm PDT Sep 1, 2020
* Guide Synopsis: Two little girls, a one-of-a-kind, two-century old, one-eighth-size Bernardel cello, and a chance conversation with the only cop in America dedicated to art crimes.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/la-times-today/2020/09/01/the-mystery-of-the-stolen-cello-and-its-surprise-ending
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☆ FEATURE 4... in two parts...
☆ 4a...
Drive-In Concerts Bringing New Hope for Live Music
* Text and video story
from the "LA Times Today" TV show, Spectrum TV News,
12:07 pm PDT Aug 4, 2020
* Guide Synopsis: COVID isolation brings a sort of "back to the future" amalgamation of Southern California mid-20th century drive-in movie culture with live outdoor concerts. The Ventura County Fairgrounds brought big rock bands for their first-ever "Concerts in Your Car" series this summer with $99-per-car pricing. In the car with a well-synched FM radio signal, on the roof for a better view (wearing face masks), "Concertgoers even honked their approval at the end of songs, all while following social distancing rules." Spotify, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, redoubling their efforts to protect music and venues from total collapse, are getting behind live show promoters using drive-in concerts as a pandemic workaround.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-east/la-times-today/2020/08/04/drive-in-concerts-bringing-new-hope-for-live-music
___
☆ 4b...
Rubicon Goes Retro with Socially Distanced Drive-In Concert Series
* Text and video story
by Tara Lynn Wagner, Arts Reporter, Spectrum TV News,
6:11 am PDT Jul 8, 2020
* Guide Synopsis: With concerts running through September, the Ventura-based Rubicon became the first regional theater company in the country to offer a socially-distanced drive-in concert series. The concert series in the parking lot of the Ventura County Fairgrounds was the idea of Rubicon cofounder James O’Neil. Producers Christian Hoff and Travis Cloer worked together in "Jersey Boys" on Broadway, and Cloer holds a world record for the longest-running portrayal of the character of Frankie Valli in "Jersey Boys" history worldwide -- over 2,500 performances. Here, it combines as both audience in cars and performers on stage come together, spaced apart. It's the power of live music, “something that heals the soul, it heals the heart. Just to give people 75 minutes of a break from reality," as Cloer says.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/arts/2020/07/08/rubicon-goes-retro-with-socially-distanced-drive-in-concert-series
______
☆ FEATURE 5...
Guitar Center Sees Surge in Instrument and Recording Tech Sales
* Text and video story
by Ariel Wesler, from "Inside the Issues," Spectrum TV News,
4:10 pm PDT Aug 7, 2020
* Guide Synopsis: The company’s flagship store is the biggest and busiest Guitar Center in America. Spaced in line on the sidewalk, patrons wait a half hour or more to get inside, as more people turn to music as a creative outlet during the pandemic. The joy of making music is uplifting and comforting at a time when people need it most, and that's brought Guitar Center triple-digit growth in guitar sales. "If someone demo’s a guitar, then we gotta clean the guitar, put it back. Everything moves just a little bit slower. The podcaster, content creator stuff has really been flying off the shelves because people are home, and they really just want to have something to do," he said. "Even professionals [are saying], 'The studio I normally go to is closed. I need to do something at home.'" ~ store manager Scott Annesley.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-east/inside-the-issues/2020/08/07/guitar-center-sees-surge-instrument-sales-and-recording-tech
______
☆ FEATURE 6...
80 Arts Organizations Receive Relief Funds to Keep Going
* Text and video story
by Nic Cha Kim, Arts Reporter, Spectrum TV News,
12:41 PDT Aug 7, 2020
* Guide Synopsis: With exhibitions and shows closed by the pandemic before they could open, galleries forced to make refunds to artists with no revenues coming in, the last six months have brought existential crises. On top of that, the missions of arts institutions have never been needed more: only 11% of public schools in California meet state goals for arts instruction. Responding to the crisis, the California Community Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Trust created the "Relief Fund for L.A. County Visual Artists," with 80 Arts Organizations and 400 individual artists receiving funds. Here are some of the stories of what that means to recipients, from Art Share LA going to live streaming -- necessitating sound-proofing to convert former classrooms to podcasting studios -- to East L.A.'s Self Help Graphics and Art, a destination for Latinx artists since the 70s, where their printmaking classes have gone live on social media.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-east/arts/2020/08/05/relief-for-the-arts
______
☆ FEATURE 7...
Innovative Production Takes Shakespeare's "The Tempest" into Realm of Virtual Reality
* Text and video story
by Tara Lynn Wagner, Arts Reporter, Spectrum TV News,
7:10 am PDT Aug 10, 2020
* Guide Synopsis: In Shakespeare’s "The Tempest," the character Miranda is astonished to finally find herself in the company of others. The resonance to our time of social isolation makes this innovative production a natural -- though it doesn’t exactly stick to the classical script. The VR production features a rotating cast of actors and runs through September 30, its actors appearing in avatar form. It may astonish you: performances take place four times a day, seven days a week(!) with 11 different actors rotating the role. Watching the show requires an Oculus Rift or Oculus Quest headset.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/arts/2020/08/10/virtual-reality-production-of-shakespeare-s--the-tempest-
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☆ FEATURE 8...
How Opera Is Going Through a Racial Awakening
* Text and video story
by Nic Cha Kim, Arts Reporter, Spectrum TV News,
8:28 am PDT Aug 6, 2020
* Guide Synopsis: If you think it's all Italian and ancient, think again. Opera may date to the 16th century and COVID took it virtual. It was already in the throes of contemporary. The Long Beach Opera, founded in 1979, thinks it's time to examine the future of the art form in the wake of Black Lives Matter. Last season, the company produced "The Central Park Five,” winning composer Anthony Davis the 2020 Pulitzer for Music, with the production that reached the widest audience in the local Opera's history. (The story includes KQED’s audio link, “Away from the Opera House, Long Beach Performers Get Creative.") Dr. Derrell Acon, the opera's Director of Engagement and Equity, is tackling racial issues head on. “I would say some of the most pressing problems begin in the boardroom. Most boards are all white. Opera, from the beginning of time, has always been about engaging the most potent societal issues. They always do well financially,” said Acon. “They also do well in terms of bringing in new audiences. So that seems like something that is an obvious step towards really lending oneself to equity because we know that that model is successful.” His point: For the arts to succeed, diversity is the key.
https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/entertainment/2020/08/05/anti-racism-at-the-opera
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News beyond the arts: because a well-rounded person isn't necessarily Humpty-Dumpty
______
☆ FEATURE 9...
Remember that BIIIG rocket launch?
We aimed you to go where you could watch it last week. Turns out it wasn't 'zactly what anybody expected. Looked like it would be. Then it wasn't.
Flame. Fury. Watch ULA abort it at the last possible moment.
The team had even declared "liftoff." Uh, no. There was "a hot fire abort" at T-minus 3 seconds...
Go to the video screen at the bottom of the link. It's labelled as "live." Tap it open and give it about 30 seconds. If necessary, tap it again to get the scroll bar. Slide it across to 1:50:53 or thereabouts and wait for it to load. Worth the short wait.
https://www.engadget.com/ula-aborts-mission-just-before-launch-205931211.html
"The Biblical Flood That Will Drown California -- And take America’s most precious farmland—and Disneyland—with it."
from Mother Jones, "The Big Feature," August 26, 2020:
"In the 160 years since the botanist set foot on the West Coast, California has transformed from an agricultural backwater to one of the jewels of the US food system. The state produces nearly all of the almonds, walnuts, and pistachios consumed domestically; 90 percent or more of the broccoli, carrots, garlic, celery, grapes, tangerines, plums, and artichokes; at least 75 percent of the cauliflower, apricots, lemons, strawberries, and raspberries; and more than 40 percent of the lettuce, cabbage, oranges, peaches, and peppers.
"And as if that weren’t enough, California is also a national hub for milk production... more than a fifth of the nation’s milk supply, more than any other state. It all amounts to a food-production juggernaut: California generates $46 billion worth of food per year, nearly double the haul of its closest competitor among US states, the corn-and-soybean behemoth Iowa."
The article postulates that every bit of what we take for granted is at risk, due to the aberrations of climate change.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/08/california-flood-arkstorm-farmland-climate-change/
Not just making us sick. Also increasing risk of COVID.
You need to see this. It's from "The Conversation," which justifiably touts "Academic rigor, journalistic flair." We have been impressed with it for the months since we took a free subscription, and we have shared from its previous topics several times with our readers.
One piece in their recent edition grabs us:
"How chemicals like PFAS can increase your risk of severe COVID-19"
Their story is short, concise, and very much worth a slow, thorough read. It is science that any above-average-intelligence reader can follow (meaning you'll want to forward it to folks you know).
It tracks how "The same chronic illnesses associated with exposure to endocrine-disrupting compounds also increase risk of developing severe COVID-19."
https://theconversation.com/how-chemicals-like-pfas-can-increase-your-risk-of-severe-covid-19-143167
Worthy Whatnots...
Round-up of the recent and relevant
___
"Democrats Fiddle While California Burns"
https://www.laprogressive.com/democrats-fiddle/
___
More evidence of a literacy crisis in a high place...
'I hardly ever saw Donald Trump read a document he was handed, but he did love pictures'
~ Miles Taylor, Trump's former DHS chief of staff.
Watch the 1 min 52 sec vid from Taylor on CNN (transcript is here, too).
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/20/1971002/--I-hardly-ever-saw-Donald-Trump-read-a-document-he-was-handed-but-he-did-love-pictures
___
"In Colorado’s climate change hot spot, the West’s water is evaporating"
The Washington Post reminds us that it isn't just California that's a dry tinderbox because of climate change...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/in-colorados-climate-change-hot-spot-the-wests-water-is-evaporating/2020/08/06/77038a70-c77c-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html
___
"What You Need to Know about Ocean Worlds"
Video published by NASA, Aug 17, 2020
As longtime advocates of going to meet the neighbors, we were thrilled that NASA has begun a series of videos about the LIQUID OCEANS beneath ice crusts on worlds in our own Solar System.
https://youtu.be/_9AYw2EQm8s
___
"On the Radar: 10 Dangerous Foods from China"
Our take on what this story presents? As long as austerity-preaching idiots infest the US government, public health and safety are at risk because we lack needed watchdogs.
http://www.livingtosmile.com/on-the-radar-10-dangerous-foods-from-china/
___
"Dolly Parton and Cher show Hollywood idiots how to be woke"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dolly-parton-and-cher-show-hollywood-idiots-how-to-be-woke
___
"US Senate report goes beyond Mueller to lay bare Trump campaign’s Russia links"
In the Republican-controlled Senate, a bipartisan intelligence panel says that Russian who worked on Trump’s 2016 bid was career spy, amid a stunning range of contacts.
from The Guardian
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/18/donald-trump-us-senate-report-russia-campaign?amp_js_v=a3&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D
___
ANOTHER THOUGHT FOR TODAY
"I dreamt that my hair was kempt. Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it."
~ Ogden Nash, poet (born August 19, 1902, died 1971)
___
Cartoonists address America's Post Office crisis
1)
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/18/1970403/-Cartoon-Blue-Lives-Matter
2)
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/19/1970537/-Cartoon-The-last-mail-box
3)
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/17/1970000/-Cartoon-Election-fraud
4)
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/18/1970246/-Cartoon-First-they-came-for-the-mailboxes
The Latest Aspect of "You Can't Make this Sh*t Up"
by Larry Wines
On the very day that World War II finally ended, we would like to think of the trademark (okay, largely mythical) traits that are always held up as quintessentially American. Traits of indomitable character. Strength in the face of adversity. Readiness to help a neighbor raise a barn, or help after a natural disaster. And always present is the central and quite revolutionary American idea of Freedom of Religion. Which includes Freedom from Religion. Which we seem to have reason to appreciate rather often these days.
Especially when things get legal and tawdry because somebody caught in a sex scandal suddenly claims his ten-and-a-half-million-dollar early retirement bailout package -- of money raised by fleecing the flock.
(This feature also appears in today's L.A. Progressive, at: https://www.laprogressive.com/jerry-falwell-junior/)
______
☆ FEATURE 9...
Remember that BIIIG rocket launch?
We aimed you to go where you could watch it last week. Turns out it wasn't 'zactly what anybody expected. Looked like it would be. Then it wasn't.
Flame. Fury. Watch ULA abort it at the last possible moment.
The team had even declared "liftoff." Uh, no. There was "a hot fire abort" at T-minus 3 seconds...
Go to the video screen at the bottom of the link. It's labelled as "live." Tap it open and give it about 30 seconds. If necessary, tap it again to get the scroll bar. Slide it across to 1:50:53 or thereabouts and wait for it to load. Worth the short wait.
https://www.engadget.com/ula-aborts-mission-just-before-launch-205931211.html
______
☆ FEATURE 10...
"The Biblical Flood That Will Drown California -- And take America’s most precious farmland—and Disneyland—with it."
from Mother Jones, "The Big Feature," August 26, 2020:
"In the 160 years since the botanist set foot on the West Coast, California has transformed from an agricultural backwater to one of the jewels of the US food system. The state produces nearly all of the almonds, walnuts, and pistachios consumed domestically; 90 percent or more of the broccoli, carrots, garlic, celery, grapes, tangerines, plums, and artichokes; at least 75 percent of the cauliflower, apricots, lemons, strawberries, and raspberries; and more than 40 percent of the lettuce, cabbage, oranges, peaches, and peppers.
"And as if that weren’t enough, California is also a national hub for milk production... more than a fifth of the nation’s milk supply, more than any other state. It all amounts to a food-production juggernaut: California generates $46 billion worth of food per year, nearly double the haul of its closest competitor among US states, the corn-and-soybean behemoth Iowa."
The article postulates that every bit of what we take for granted is at risk, due to the aberrations of climate change.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/08/california-flood-arkstorm-farmland-climate-change/
______
☆ FEATURE 11...
Not just making us sick. Also increasing risk of COVID.
You need to see this. It's from "The Conversation," which justifiably touts "Academic rigor, journalistic flair." We have been impressed with it for the months since we took a free subscription, and we have shared from its previous topics several times with our readers.
One piece in their recent edition grabs us:
"How chemicals like PFAS can increase your risk of severe COVID-19"
Their story is short, concise, and very much worth a slow, thorough read. It is science that any above-average-intelligence reader can follow (meaning you'll want to forward it to folks you know).
It tracks how "The same chronic illnesses associated with exposure to endocrine-disrupting compounds also increase risk of developing severe COVID-19."
https://theconversation.com/how-chemicals-like-pfas-can-increase-your-risk-of-severe-covid-19-143167
______
☆ FEATURE 12...
Worthy Whatnots...
Round-up of the recent and relevant
___
"Democrats Fiddle While California Burns"
https://www.laprogressive.com/democrats-fiddle/
___
More evidence of a literacy crisis in a high place...
'I hardly ever saw Donald Trump read a document he was handed, but he did love pictures'
~ Miles Taylor, Trump's former DHS chief of staff.
Watch the 1 min 52 sec vid from Taylor on CNN (transcript is here, too).
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/20/1971002/--I-hardly-ever-saw-Donald-Trump-read-a-document-he-was-handed-but-he-did-love-pictures
___
"In Colorado’s climate change hot spot, the West’s water is evaporating"
The Washington Post reminds us that it isn't just California that's a dry tinderbox because of climate change...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/in-colorados-climate-change-hot-spot-the-wests-water-is-evaporating/2020/08/06/77038a70-c77c-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html
___
"What You Need to Know about Ocean Worlds"
Video published by NASA, Aug 17, 2020
As longtime advocates of going to meet the neighbors, we were thrilled that NASA has begun a series of videos about the LIQUID OCEANS beneath ice crusts on worlds in our own Solar System.
https://youtu.be/_9AYw2EQm8s
___
"On the Radar: 10 Dangerous Foods from China"
Our take on what this story presents? As long as austerity-preaching idiots infest the US government, public health and safety are at risk because we lack needed watchdogs.
http://www.livingtosmile.com/on-the-radar-10-dangerous-foods-from-china/
___
"Dolly Parton and Cher show Hollywood idiots how to be woke"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dolly-parton-and-cher-show-hollywood-idiots-how-to-be-woke
___
"US Senate report goes beyond Mueller to lay bare Trump campaign’s Russia links"
In the Republican-controlled Senate, a bipartisan intelligence panel says that Russian who worked on Trump’s 2016 bid was career spy, amid a stunning range of contacts.
from The Guardian
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/18/donald-trump-us-senate-report-russia-campaign?amp_js_v=a3&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D
___
ANOTHER THOUGHT FOR TODAY
"I dreamt that my hair was kempt. Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it."
~ Ogden Nash, poet (born August 19, 1902, died 1971)
___
______
☆ FEATURE 13...
Cartoonists address America's Post Office crisis
1)
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/18/1970403/-Cartoon-Blue-Lives-Matter
2)
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/19/1970537/-Cartoon-The-last-mail-box
3)
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/17/1970000/-Cartoon-Election-fraud
4)
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/18/1970246/-Cartoon-First-they-came-for-the-mailboxes
______
☆ FEATURE 14... Perspective on Society
The Latest Aspect of "You Can't Make this Sh*t Up"
by Larry Wines
On the very day that World War II finally ended, we would like to think of the trademark (okay, largely mythical) traits that are always held up as quintessentially American. Traits of indomitable character. Strength in the face of adversity. Readiness to help a neighbor raise a barn, or help after a natural disaster. And always present is the central and quite revolutionary American idea of Freedom of Religion. Which includes Freedom from Religion. Which we seem to have reason to appreciate rather often these days.
Especially when things get legal and tawdry because somebody caught in a sex scandal suddenly claims his ten-and-a-half-million-dollar early retirement bailout package -- of money raised by fleecing the flock.
Jerry Fallwell, Jr., born into being Bound for Glory, followed in his father's footsteps at the helm of Liberty University in Virginia. That's the nation's largest hardcore creationist Christian college. It is even bigger than Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, the one with the enormous flying saucer Prayer Tower that its late founder once hinted he would launch himself out of -- unless he got a requisite amount of money from his flock that he manipulated with guilt over his impending suicide. Which he averted because he collected. Because Gawd is merciful and all-knowing.
Point being, these hardcore Christian fundamentalist institutions of Biblically-based "higher" education are nothing like your actual or idealized image of the collegiate experience anywhere else.
For one thing, they are appendages of empires that have very specific notions of things that would be deemed heresy against factuality by any competent high school school science class.
Don't imagine that Southern California is immune. Outside the broiling desert burg of Lancaster, West Coast Baptist College gets second-billing and a smaller font on the cirner tabloid sign than Lancaster Baptist Church that owns and operates it. The college is unaccredited, meaning any class a student expensively takes there cannot be transferred toward a degree anywhere else. Of course, the campus of hard-boiled church/schools -- it includes elementary, middle, and high schools where its college students serve as unpaid classroom aides -- is quite proud of its' college's unaccredited status. They'll tell you they please God and have no need to please mammon. (We didn't misspell a wooly mammoth. Mammon is a Biblical reference to human society.)
Now that we've established it isn't just some buckle-of-the-bible-belt thing, let's get back to the ten-and-half-million-dollar, family religious dynasty guy.
In addition to running his father's college, Liberty University, Fallwell the Junior has been -- almost by default -- in command of much more. It's accurate to see that as his father's cult of extremist evangelical folks who judgementally brand everything immoral and ungodly at the drop of a hat. Though the late Fallwell Senior's Moral Majority was disbanded before the IRS could catch up with it, a manifestation of its holier-than-thou ghost persists in function as part of the empire, still nailing any broadly-based, politically inclusive ideology or practioners to its cross of narrowly defined righteousness. And that's the right word for their big picture -- empire. Because it comes with a sense of hegemony and entitlement to make everyone else conform to living their way.
Though no one has used it for years, his father's judgemental diatribes were called "Fallwellian" as an analogy to the Orwellian world of "1984." Which happened to be the actual peak year of his father playing sheep-shearing Svengali for the flock of Reagan's Big Revival Tent religious nuts.
Of course, humans being human, proclaiming perfection in anything held up as "the" model wasn't a good idea.
There was Jim Bakker. There was the TBN television empire he co-founded with the Crouch's, Paul and Jan, the couple who seemed to be on-air 24/7 proclaiming God's love for pure living. Even while they were separated but not divorced, each living with a paramour in an expensive house provided by donations from their flock. There was the party-hearty, not-yet-saved, but now proclaimed pure Franklin Graham. And enough others for a switch-hitting batting order. But most of those others didn't have the Big mojo of a Billy Graham, an Oral Roberts, or a Jerry Fallwell.
Now it's an actual Fallwell, Jerry the Younger, who got sucked into the world of presuming to speak for The-Omnipotence-That-Cannot-Be-Denied while denying yourself nothing as the spokesman. Pretty soon, Jer was just thinking like those others who were rolling under the wagon. The refrain seems to repeat, hosannas drowning out realization that evoking all that Power means commanding enough of it to apply to one's own sexual proclivities.
In Jer's case, it started with the arrogantly oblivious. Just a photo last month of Jer Junior, pants unbuttoned and zipper open, with his arm around a woman not his wife, whose pants were very much in the same condition. Well. Either shock and awe struck the pious, or it made enough newspapers and social media posts to diminish the cyber collection plate. Either way, Junior had to place himself on temporary leave, even while claiming it was but a joke.
Okay, so far. Probably recoverable. Just run-of-the-mill tawdry, especially for the world of those who buy ex-NBA arenas with other people's money and build $65 million mansions for themselves while begging on TV for little old ladies to send money from their Social Security pensions, so their TV preacher can continue to speak The Word to the unclean.
But wait.
Turns out the woman with Jer in the mutually unzipped pic isn't some random worshipper. She is his wife's longtime assistant. Also turns out that another character -- apparently the photographer who got the pair to pose and say cheesy -- stepped forward with his story. Ruh-roh. He asserts a biz partner relationship with Jer -- which would have been, uhh, awkward.
There's more. The Revealer must be missing his needed bartender in the COVID shutdown, because at the first opportunity he went oral diarrhea with a confessional. In fact, he couldn't stop talking. He revealed his own seven-year affair with Jer's wife, Becki. Oh, and who is the new arrival in this soap opera? Who else could it be but -- the pool boy.
That Fallwell pool boy -- Giancarlo Granda -- asserts that Jer Junior not only knew about it, but "He liked to watch, from the corner of the room."
Of course you're waiting for the observation that you-can't-make-this-up. Hang on. Like the guy who sawed the boat in half, we're not done yet.
At this point you expect to hear a holier-than-thou, brimstone-flinging, counterattack-The-Deceiver, full-thumping denial from Jer. And you would be half wrong. Uhh, because you missed the news that the inevitable soundtrack has already emerged? Well, yes, it did. But there's more.
Fallwell the Junior acknowledges he knew about the affair and had known "all along." He does deny that he liked to watch.
He, whose long suit is pontificating about the All-Seeing and All-Knowing maybe or maybe not liked to watch. But he really didn't see any reason why he should go anywhere else, then. Or now.
And to think, Katie Hill felt she had to resign. That, because she was a bisexual congresswoman who, she says unknowingly, had cell phone pics taken of her that were later suddenly -- and under California law, illegally -- blast-posted by right-wing radio bloviators and parroting bloggers without her consent. These weren't Fallwellian zippers-down, but (consistent-with-Congressional-precedent) clothing-absent images. Ex-Congresswoman Hill contends they were leak/planted by her estranged then-husband who was part of their "thruple," and that his was an act of revenge porn. (Obviously somebody liked to watch.) Which is salacious, titillating, and -- again -- specifically illegal to exploit under California law, where it happened.
No matter that Katie had never pontificated any Superior Walk Church Lady Moral Majority stuff telling others how to live, or put batteries in the sin meter. But she, a fast-rising political star, felt it necessary to resign from Congress anyway, with no claim of a hoax. Predictably, the special election to fill her seat gave the district back to the Republicans after she won it as the first elected Democrat there in decades. After all, Republicans did spend decades railing against situational ethics and postulating absolutism as the only way to assess moral behavior. Because Character Counts. Well it did in the days of pre-Trump Republicanism's fiery finger, calling down plagues -- like AIDS -- and killer storms -- like Hurricane Katrina -- to punish the immoral. As the late Fallwell the elder repeatedly invoked.
Okay, so we know different from the new paradigm of incessant, one-size-fits-all denials that characterize these Trumpestuous times. We surely know that certain other people are incapable of understanding self-inflicted embarrassment and public humiliation. Oh, and most prominently in their cases (brace yourself for this one) we have seen that a self-poured foundation on unpounded sand readily causes collapse when the unmasked choir in the loft of pontification ascends on pervasive hypocrisy. (Did you like that one?) Okay, we could have just said, repent your sins, take off your underwear and come unto me.
So Jer announced he was stepping down. The timing couldn't have been better. The Religiosos were all attending the Republican Convention, too busy genuflecting over the Orange Impiety to notice Jer was going out the door. With ten-and-half-million-dollars. At the time, we were thinking that if he hurried, he could still bag a spot at the GOPper convention as the only speaker whose last name wasn't Trump, Pence, or a celebrity talking (or yelling) head from Fox News. But we were not attuned to the whole take-the-money-and-the-pool-boy and run nature of it all.
Now we'll say it: You can't make this sh*t up.
The future of the bookstores' fiction section is in serious trouble when the virus is subdued and things reopen. When the standup comics get back into the venues, we're not sure anybody will laugh at their best stuff. Because Theatre of the Absurd is now the purview of the historian.
(This feature also appears in today's L.A. Progressive, at: https://www.laprogressive.com/jerry-falwell-junior/)
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♪ The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS – and views of interest to artists everywhere – more specifically to musicians and the creative community and music makers -- and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music. That includes both traditional and innovative forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues (now undergoing a major update), and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues from the monumentally large to the intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops, conferences, and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the swamp water roots of the blues and the bright lights of where the music is headed now.
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The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell. The cyber porch'll be here anytime you come back from the road.
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We'll be back again soon with music news and more "News of the Non-Trumpcentric Universe." (c)
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Til we catch ya again on the flip side
in this new world of the improbable unknown...
in this new world of the improbable unknown...
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