Climate Change

A couple of hours ago, an earnest young man knocked at my door with a petition to "Save the Environment." He first introduced his petition as a city-wide (Austin) initiative. Knowing that Austin is uber-liberal and uber-environmentalist, I asked him what Austin could possibly be doing wrong... He then immediately changed tack and said, "Well, this is more about Donald Trump and what he's doing to hurt our environment..."

Me: "Well, I love Donald Trump, and don't see what he's done to hurt the environment."

Kid: "OK, goodnight."

Me: "'Bye."

p.s. Regarding "climate change": (1) The Earth goes through climate-change cycles every 15,000 years or so. We're now entering a warming period. At one time in the past, all of Texas and the center of America used to be covered by the Western Inland Sea. And at another time in the past, all of the northeastern United States used to be covered by glaciers. The Earth is very old. It's been through many, many changes. (Weather records by humans, on the other hand, have only been kept for the past 200 years or so.)

(2) I keep reading online: "What will the polar bears do if there's global warming?!" After a little research, I learned that today's polar bears are only plain ol' brown bears that migrated north a couple of thousand years ago. With warming, I'm sure the polar bears will eventually turn right back into brown bears. It'll be OK, snowflakes.

(3) The Paris Climate Accord that Trump has allegedly pulled out of: The US is currently maintaining the standards of the accord. What we're NOT doing is continuing to give millions of dollars to other countries like India in bribes to help their non-existent "environmental efforts."

George Jones - How Much Rain Can One Man Stand (1969)

George Jones: Divorce or Destroy (1971)

Another great song and great title.

George Jones 1968: I Don't Have Sense Enough (to Come in out of the Pain)

Great song, great title.

George Jones - The Poor Chinee (1968)

Just in case you thought George was sensitive because of the below "Unwanted Babies" song.

My name-a Sinsin me come from China
Biggy low ship I come along here
Wind blow hard it kicky up bubbley
Ship make a China boy feel very queer

Me bring along me a little girl nicey
She come alongy to be my wife
Say that she love me once or twicey
Make a big swear do it all of her life

Me like a bow wow very good chow chow
Me like-a little girl she like-a me
Me come from Hong Kong white man he come along
Take a little gal from a poor Chinee

Me goey downstairs take a little walky
Bye bye little girl me come back
Me catch a white man an' little girl talky
He kiss a little girl a very good smack

Long time ago when we were babies
Our fathers lit ceremonial fire
Swore someday we'd kissy kissy coochie
Now white man makin' ancestor liar

Me like a bow wow very good chow chow
Me like a little girl she like a me
Me come from Hong Kong white man he come along
Take a little gal from a poor Chinee

Me thinky something a smell fishy fishy
Something besides my shrimp chow mein
Little girl actin' kinda washa wishy
Make a Chinese sorta sorry he came

Me like a bow wow very good chow chow
Me like a little girl she like a me
Me come from Hong Kong white man come along
Take a little gal from the poor Chinee

Take a little gal from the poor Chinee
Take a little gal from the poor Chinee
Take a little gal from the poor Chinee
Take a little gal from the poor Chinee

Unwanted Babies: George Jones (1967)

Social Justice George! I challenge anyone to try to figure this one out! :)



How can there be peace around the world
When you hate your neighbor next door
He's done everything he can to prove he's a man
All except cut off his right hand

What makes you think he will sleep tonight
After calling him names all day
Why take the time to read the holy book
When there's unwanted babies on the way

How can there be peace around the world
When you hold a loaded gun by your side
Just waiting for a chance so you can kill in self defense
Just because you don't like someone's comment

What makes you think the sun will shine again at dawn
And seldom think it will be the Judgement Day
Can you say that Heaven has a place just for you
When there's unwanted babies on the way

You want him to fight for your beautiful land
Then you won't give him one grain of sand
Except to throw over him when he's dead and gone
If your doggie gives man the bone

Still you go to your church next Sunday morning
You'll stand up, sing, preachin, and prayin'
But mister you're the sinner who should be reborn
When there's unwanted babies on the way.

Miezekatze, part 2

 

I haven't talked to my mother in a year and a half, but the other night, after posting my picture of "miezekatze" (above) on this blog, I was feeling sentimental (and drunk) and sent her an e-mail with that photo attached, asking her if she remembered the little cat... A day or so later, she sent me the below photo with the message: "I looked for old photos with Miezekatze and found these. They were taken in February 1966 on our way to the Azores when we spent the night at Bob & Billie's in Richardson before being taken to the airport." 

Oh my god, my heart is happy (and broken). I have so much anger toward my family members, but it is such a relief to let go of the anger, even if temporarily.

 

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AstroCenter.com: Tue Feb 26

Your mother may be on your mind today, Leo. Your mother probably affects how you think, act, and feel, both in the past and now. If your mother's sign is opposite yours, conflict and misunderstanding can happen more easily. Take the time to learn about her sign today to help you understand her and the relationship you have.

--------------------------------------------

George Jones: The Race is On (1973 in Florida, with Tammy singing backup)

George Jones - One Woman Man

Perfume / Miezekatze

I moved into my current apartment 2 years ago, but until tonight, had never unpacked any of my perfume bottles or some of my more "spiritual" odds-n-ends, like my tarot cards, or little icons that I bought in Chinatown in San Francisco in the '90s, etc. For 2 years, I've had three boxes sitting there with the tops opened and newspaper-wrapped stuff waiting to be unwrapped. (Kind of sad that I have not felt the need for either perfume or spiritual help over the past 2 years...)

Tonight, though, the spirit moved me, and I finally got my perfumes in order (and dusted off) and on display on my bedroom dresser. Unwrapping them and looking at them on display made me a bit nostalgic for some of the bottles.

Back row:
Spark (Liz Claiborne) -- No idea when I bought this for myself. (Probably in the 90s after sniffing a magazine sample.)
Jessica McClintock -- I worked as a secretary for a retired executive back in the early '90s. He gave me this for Christmas (which at the time I thought was a bit strange, but sweet). I actually liked it and used up the first bottle. This is the second bottle.
Youth Dew -- I'd mentioned to Sandra that Joan Crawford once wore this, and Sandra bought it for me! (How romantic, I thought at the time.)
Royall Lyme -- Another Joan Crawford fragrance; I bought this myself a couple of years ago.

Middle row:
Sensi (Armani) -- No idea when I bought this for myself. (Probably in the 90s after a magazine sample.)
LouLou -- My "signature" scent throughout the late '80s and early '90s. Bought it for myself after discovering it from a magazine sample. My first girlfriend/lover loved it.
Code (Armani) -- Again, no idea when I bought this for myself. (Probably in the 90s after a magazine sample.)

Front row:
Bastet cat ("sometimes linked with the god of perfume and sweet smells") that my German aunt (Tante Barbel) bought during her trip to Cairo. My mother brought this home to me after her sister died and my mother traveled to Germany to take care of her estate.
Wild Musk Oil -- After "Love's Baby Soft," this is the first scent I ever owned. I've been carrying around this little bottle since I was 14 or so.
The One (Dolce & Gabbana) -- No idea when I bought this for myself.  (Probably in the 90s after a magazine sample.)

The other photos from my newly organized dresser: Next to my cat Gracie's ashes (died April 15, 2009, in NYC, after fighting on the phone the night before with Sandra) is Miezekatze ("Kittycat" in German) --- I had two little animals that I slept with and loved as a toddler: Slappy and Miezekatze. Slappy (a little stuffed duck) is long gone. But here's Miezekatze! (My mother made the little checkered dress.)

Come and Take It

I was watching Tucker Carlson tonight on Fox. His guest was Jonathan Harris, a Democrat operative. (Note that Fox shows always have a guest on with a differing opinion, unlike CNN or MSNBC.) Harris claimed that in Texas, for instance, "indigenous peoples" now attempting to cross the border from Mexico had the right to be in the state because they had once lived here. Carlson didn't bring this point up, as he should have, but... Texans once fought a war to gain sovereignty over the territory that was once Mexico's. And we won. (Was the Mexican government once stupid enough to allow Anglo settlers in to their territory? Sure. The Anglos also didn't convert to Catholicism, as they'd promised, either. Sorry. Not sorry.) Perhaps the US government should take this as a lesson, as Trump is now doing (and as both Merkel and the Romans should have done, come to think of it): Don't allow an influx of aliens into your territory, or they might try to take it over.

Jail for Jussie

Professional FALSE victim. Jussie Smollett makes me sick. As an aside, I can't tell you how many arguments I had with people in various online sites re this story, after all of their initial "This is what America has come to"/"Racist Trump America" posts, a fake narrative backed up by almost every mainstream US outlet. (My own initial questioning posts: "Are racists really running amok in Chicago in sub-zero weather? Complete with nooses and bleach?") Note that this creep Smollett still has his job with "Empire" despite breaking federal law for filing a false police report; Roseanne, on the other hand, for making a dumb joke, lost her show.

Pseudo-victims like Smollett are the true causes of the "division" and hatred within our country. More importantly, people like this would not be getting any attention were it not for media outlets like ABC that didn't do their research to begin with (that had a narrative they were trying to prove, despite any facts to the contrary, to begin with).

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/arts/television/jussie-smollett-attack-suspect.html

George Jones - Walk Through This World With Me (1967)

Splurge!

After working extra over Christmas and getting a $900 check, I, honestly, had nothing in particular to do with the money. I guess a new smart phone (to replace my current 2007 dumb phone) was an option, but... I have no need for a smart phone --- what do people do with it? I have Internet access at home, and I have it at work. I asked a friend at work about the actual uses for a smart phone, and he suggested that I could look up driving directions. But... I don't "travel." I pretty much know everywhere I'm going in Austin.

I constantly see people either stopped dead in their tracks or moving blindly with smart phone in hand... They look stupid. (For instance, nearly every day, I see a fellow apartment dweller walking the VERY short distance from his apartment to his car in the apartment parking lot with head ducked over his phone. Really? You can't walk a mere 20 feet sans device?)

I'm going to get a smart phone at some point, of course, just because everyone else has one (sad, I know). But... I don't see the hurry.

What I did end up doing with part of the money was splurging on two very expensive George Jones CD sets, his entire Musicor work from 1965 through 1971, parts one and two (nearly a hundred dollars each). I was tired of scrapping around getting various Jones hits, and finally decided to pull the trigger and get some definitive, complete collections that I will appreciate to the end of my life. More to come and buy (the man had a 50-year recording career).

Radio Lover: Whoops! Did I post this already???

I've listened to this dozens of times in the past couple of weeks. Love it.

Conversations about the Romanovs

When I was getting my hair cut last Thursday, my stylist asked me what I was reading... One of the last times someone providing a service to me, a gynecologist, asked me this, I responded honestly: "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." After which she didn't speak to me again throughout the whole appointment. (Me inwardly: "But, but... it's a classic! I don't LIKE Hitler, really!")

But this time I told my 20-year-old hairdresser that I had a whole stack of bios about Russian history and the Romanovs that I was working through. She immediately perked up and said, "I don't know anybody but me that likes the Romanovs!" Turns out she's just now reading her very first book about the whole damn thing: "I Was Anastasia," a 2018 account of the impostor who pretended for decades to be the youngest Romanov daughter...

I tried, amid the blow-drying, to convince her that Anna Anderson was a fake (DNA testing proved it) and that she should read "Nicholas and Alexandra" by Robert K. Massie if she really wanted to get a feeling for that episode in history.... She promised to do so.

Jones and Wynette bios are depressing

Just finished reading "Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen" (2010, Viking) and "The Legend of George Jones: His Life and Death" (2014).

At least the former was by a real publisher, and so had actual sources and references. The latter was by a self-publisher, completely thrown together and annoyingly unedited (but with some juicy stories).

What was depressing: After reading the whole Tammy book and enjoying the in-depth, gossipy story of her life---as it turned out, her life was horribly purposeless. There was the initial "making it" story, and then there was the star-crossed (i.e., "messed up") story of her romance/marriage with/to George Jones, which ended in divorce in '75 (though they continued to record together until 1980, plus a final record in 1995). Post-George Jones, she did little (no, I don't count the 1991 KLF song "Justified and Ancient" as being very good).  The last few years of her life (she died in 1998) were spent in a drugged-up haze, assisted by her last husband George Richey (one-time Nashville songwriter), who controlled all of her finances in her last years and deleted all of her children from her will. According to this book, Tammy said that George Jones was the love of her life, and that the love of George Richey's life was his second wife (who died of a drug overdose soon after he left her for Tammy). 

And then the self-published "Legend of GJ" book, written by George's long-time friends and songwriters Peanutt and Charlene Montgomery and published in 2014. (1) Some facts can't be gotten straight: Was George Jones's second wife Shirley a help-meet or a hindrance? Opinions vary within a page. (2) The "juicy" part of this random remembrance is when Charlene Montgomery's sister, Linda, is offered a chapter of the book. Linda lived with George Jones in Alabama for 5 years post-Tammy and pre-Nancy, and today, based on Alabama common law, considers herself to be Jones's 4th wife. In her special chapter, Linda remembers a slutty woman named "Nancy" who partied with George in New York City then subsequently moved into the house in Alabama that George and Linda shared---and refused to move out... This "Nancy," according to Linda, attempted suicide by overdose twice, and once intentionally threw herself from George's car and broke her arm; the whole time, George was allegedly calling her a "whore" and telling her to get out of his house...

As it turns out, George married said Nancy in 1983, and she's thereafter credited for getting him straight... (I don't know at all if Linda's version of Nancy is true, but it's interesting --- I'm bored with the usual "Saint Nancy" story.)

George and Tammy were fantastically talented... a gift.... But what is a gift if you fuck it up with drugs or live with someone you don't truly care about just because they're more comfortable?

The other day I woke up feeling hung-over, feeling lonely, feeling like shit in general... And a second after all of that ugliness, I thought: "I've lived longer than Elvis. And he had everything." I'll continue to let that be some small comfort.

George Jones: Loving You Could Never Be Better (1972)

George Jones: We Can Make It (1972)

Tammy Wynette - Til I Can Make It On My Own (1976)

George, Tammy, and Tamala Georgette (1971)

A 13-year-old George Jones in Beaumont, Texas

George Jones playing at a relative's house, circa 1944.

George Jones "Heaven-Made Woman"

Not loving anybody...

...is pleasant, actually. No one to get mad at for not loving me back!

I'm actually HAPPY with my current days, which I haven't been for decades. (I was happy for about a year-and-a-half in New York, 2007-2008, before Sandra contacted me.)

My editing work is intellectually challenging and diverse (in the old, good sense of the word "diverse") and it pays well, enough for me to buy whatever used books and CDs and shirts I want. My apartment complex is relatively quiet; I have a few issues with the guys next door every couple of months, but it's not a daily thing, like at my last complex, where the guy down below was bellowing every day.

On weeknights, I drink a six-pack of Bud every other day (working on my Joan website on the drinking nights). On the two weekend nights, I drink all I want ONE night and lie on the couch channel-surfing and recuperating the next day. On the OTHER weekend day, I usually wake up early, charged up to do stuff! Like going in to work to do overtime, plus doing chores like grocery shop and/or laundry that's been building up.

I don't miss my mother or brother or Sandra. Finally having personal stability has given me the strength to cut those people out of my life. (Whereas, when I was on shaky ground, I was desperate for anyone to cling to for support---then feeling angst when those folks weren't there for me at all. Nice to feel independent.)

Stacey Abrams delivers the Democratic response to the State of the Union

After the President's State of the Union address, I was patient enough to watch what followed: Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and her plan for America. During her 10-minute rebuttal speech, I actually took notes about Stacey's concerns and future plans for our country:

(1) Happy Lunar New Year.
(2) My Dad once hitch-hiked and gave his jacket to a homeless guy.

(3) Support education.
(4) Trump cages children at the border.
(5) Support fathers with prostate cancer.
(6) Voter suppression is real.
(7) Racism is wrong.

Sorry: Though I'm gay and a feminist (and thus allegedly exactly what a Democrat voter should be), I'll be damned if I hand over my future to some PC idiot thinking generically on a grade-school level. Here's a toast to the smart, independent-thinking "old white men" who know the economy and the world situation and are working for a change for the better (i.e., Trump, Rand Paul).

Overtime work: $900!

Over the Christmas break in my free time, I edited a collegiate text for an author: Wasn't expecting a prompt payment, but... I just, very promptly!, got a $900 check! What the heck to do with it? I guess buy a smart phone. (My dumb phone from 2007 is tiny and decrepit, although it does still work.) A co-worker suggested, "Go on a trip!" Aw, but where the hell would I go by myself... (waaah-waaah). New York City: Still too depressing.

Sans any trips, what I did do, though, was order a bunch of used books online about my current obsession, George Jones! Bios: The Grand Tour, Ragged But Right, Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend, Legend of George Jones. Plus some Tammy and kids-related: A Daughter Recalls, Tragic Country Queen, and The Three of Us.

That, for me, is one of the best things about having some extra cash around: Being able to buy whatever seemingly tatty used books and CDs (oh, and shirts from eBay) you feel like getting at the moment without having to stop and think if you can afford it!

George Jones & Tammy Wynette - "Near You" (1977)

George Jones: Radio Lover (1988)

At first, I thought this was a nice little catchy "dedication song." Aw, hell no! It ends terribly!

"Radio Lover"

[Spoken:]
He kisses her goodbye,
And heads for the radio station.
Oh, he hates to leave her,
But he's got another show to do.
He knows she gets lonely,
So he lets her know that he's thinking about her.
And though millions are listening,
She knows who he's talking to.

[Chorus (Sang):]
Comin' to you live like I do every night
From the heart of your radio.
I play a little sad, and I play a lotta glad.
And a few ol' cheatin' songs.

Here's hopin' everybody out in radio land
Found a love just as true as mine
Good night angel, sleep tight darlin'
Close your pretty brown eyes.

When the show is over,
Your radio lover
Will be home by your side.

She's laying in bed
As her DJ tells her that he loves her.
It would break his heart
If he knew she wasn't there alone.
She knows when to cheat
And when to tell her lover to leave her.
She knows they'll be safe
Just as long as his show goes on.

[Spoken:]
He planned a surprise
For the night of their first anniversary.
He taped his show just so he could be home.
The radio was playing and,
As he walked in on her and her lover,
He heard himself saying
The last words that they ever heard.

[Chorus (Sang):]
Comin' to you live like I do every night
From the heart of your radio.
I play a little sad, and I play a lotta glad.
And a few ol' cheatin' songs.

Here's hopin' everybody out in radio land
Found a love just as true as mine
Good night angel, sleep tight darlin'
Close your pretty brown eyes.

When the show is over,
Your radio lover
Will be home by your side.

[Chorus (Sang):]
Comin' to you live like I do every night
From the heart of your radio.
I play a little sad, and I play a lotta glad.
And a few ol' cheatin' songs.

Here's hopin' everybody out in radio land...