1965: Opening from "The Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Jim Nabors Show"

#9 Dream (John Lennon, "Walls and Bridges" 1974)

So long ago
Was it in a dream, was it just a dream?
I know, yes I know
Seemed so very real, it seemed so real to me...

Dream, dream away
Magic in the air, was magic in the air?
I believe, yes I believe
More I cannot say, what more can I say?

The Beatles: From Me To You (The Royal Variety Performance, April 1963)

My own technique for not dying ahead of time:

Focus on something that makes you happy.
This song, this band, makes me very happy.
(Lennon's post-Beatles comments are nasty and stupid as hell; I try to ignore those---

his desperation for acceptance by his new leftist wife and NYC radicals.

I try to remember Lennon's initial charm and originality.)

In Search of Religion (Part Two)

I only started watching EWTN (the Catholic "Eternal Word Television Network") a few months ago, back when I still had Spectrum cable. After I switched to YouTubeTV, EWTN was only available as a "+" station, which I added for free. Since no cable/streaming station has any sort of philosophical channel, EWTN was the closest I found. It doesn't scream at you, and I've now found that Catholicism has a high level of both intellectual and historical content. Which I was STARVED for.

One series that I just discovered last night:

"The Heresies"

https://www.ewtn.com/tv/shows/heresies
https://ondemand.ewtn.com/Home/Series/catalog/video/en/the-heresies

1. Gnosticism
2. Arianism
3. Pelagianism
4. Nestorianism
5. Albigensianism
6. Jansenism
7. Modernism I
8. Modernism II
9. Donatism
10. Iconoclasm
11. Post-Modernism (refuting that "all claims to truth are simply expressions of power")
12. Heresies Against the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
13. American Heresies

I don't know about "Albigensianism," for instance, but I do know from personal experience that Post-Modernism is utterly corrupt. And so I'm very curious to learn more about the other so-called Catholic "heresies" from past centuries!
-------------------------------------------------------

On 11/6, as of the first 3 episodes: The biggest debate seems to be RE whether Christ is a man elevated to God, or a God made flesh in man. (Catholics say the latter.)

In Search of Religion (Part One)

I was raised in a primarily agnostic house that had no opinion on religion, either pro or con. Though I was baptized in a Texas Lutheran church as a baby (my Mom being from Germany, where Protestant Lutherans prevailed), and we did only-very occasionally attend both Lutheran and Methodist services in my early years in northern Texas, up 'til about age 10.

In my later early/mid teen years, I lived in a rural Fort Worth area where fundamentalist Baptists were the primary influences; I did once attend a Baptist teen summer camp with my best friend and neighbor Marla. We were asked to leave because: (1) We ran around without bras; and (2) One day at camp, every kid was given an assignment to go out into the woods---solo---and "think about your sins." Rather than doing so, Marla and I ran around together and ambushed other serious campers: "Tell us about your sins!" At 14 or so, we giggled like mad, but looking back---how utterly obnoxious we were! :(

A few later high-school encounters with religion:
At 15, my close friend Suzanne (a very beautiful and voluptuous and talented fundamentalist Baptist) won the role of "Sarah Brown" in our school production of "Guys and Dolls." (I had unsuccessfully tried out for "Miss Adelaide.") Once the show premiered at the school, she got LOADS of attention from various football players, and dated one of them for a few WEEKS. And her parents immediately withdrew her from the public school into a local Baptist school. I remember weeping on the phone with her, then begging my mother to allow me to withdraw from my public school and attend the Baptist school with Suzanne! (She sensibly did NOT allow such a thing---thanks, Mom!) :)

At 15, I'd also started reading the Bible by myself. Didn't learn much, just skimming and skipping over things. I thought I learned there that women were considered inferior---and I knew that I certainly was NOT inferior, and so I dismissed the rest of it.

At 17, I met a new transfer to my high-school from California. He was a Mormon guy, and we dated for only a couple of months. But during that time, I skimmed his "Book of Mormon" and met with his preacher once. (I remember asking the man "What about the dinosaurs and the cave-men? Why doesn't the Bible mention these things?" I also actually fasted for a day just 'cause this Mormon boy was fasting. Not for a religious purpose, but just to prove that I could do it---and to impress him, I suppose.)

Later that Spring of 1983, also at 17, I met the girl (Ginny) who would be my first real love. I was still rather religiously obsessed. This time, I'd been reading about "Unitarianism." And I'd somehow found a Unitarian church in Fort Worth. Ginny's parents were devout Baptists, and they thought Unitarians were quite radical. But Ginny was rebellious, and so we set out to drive one Sunday morning to where we thought a Unitarian service was being held... We wound up on some dirt road with only ramshackle homes. ("Is THIS how bad off Unitarians are?" I thought---not really knowing anything about Unitarians. No---I'd only confused the addresses. As I found out later, Unitarians actually had a very nice, big "regular" church elsewhere in Fort Worth!) I can't remember the circumstances upon arriving back at Ginny's parents' home: We were both dressed casually, in jeans. And her father asked us: "I thought you said you were going to church." (I don't think we were dressed any differently when we first left---and I'm not sure what we told him when we first left. But somehow what we had on was an issue, and proved that we had not been where we said we were going.)

Today, over 40 years later: How innocent we were! Our idea of "rebellion" was seeking out a non-Baptist church! Oh, yeah, and Ginny and I also tried to play "The White Album" backwards on the record player after hearing so much about that from the rock press! But only when her parents weren't home!

My Plea to the Jews of New York City

My plea to Jewish residents of New York City (15% of the city's population, with a high education and voting rate):

You have it within your voting power to defeat this overtly anti-Jewish candidate.

Mamdani has called for Intifida.

Mamdani has overtly supported "BDS" (Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions) against Israel.

Mamdani responded to the October 7 massacre of Israeli citizens by Hamas as "genocide"---but he was referring to the Israeli response, NOT the initial slaughter by Hamas! (Seriously!)

Over 1000 rabbis just days ago condemned Mamdani for his anti-Israel views.

Mamdani appears in the press with a smarmy grin and Namaste hands, but his actual views are not friendly at all. And he's not equipped (either intellectually or experience-wise) to run THE major city of the United States.

Mamdani's past experience: Rich parents. A 2016 rap song. His 2020 election to the NY State Assembly.

Mamdani's platform: Free bus fare. Free groceries. Free rent. Defund the police.

This man is not qualified to run ANYTHING, much less the biggest, greatest city in the United States.

DO SOMETHING to stop this. Please. Protect both yourselves and all of us.

Predictions for today: Such grand wind, such lowering of temps! HA!

There were supposed to be "North winds of 35mph" blowing into Austin around noon today, with temps immediately plummeting to below 70 as of early afternoon! Around 3pm or so, I turned off my AC and  opened all windows and back sliding-glass door with screen and waited for the glorious influx of fresh air... HA!  

I've still got all windows (except the back door) open about 6 inches at 9pm---and it's still 79 degrees in my apartment. And the wind is hardly blowing at all.

I am seriously going nuts with this heat/humidity and this constant lack of fresh air in my apartment for the past 6 months. I think I mentioned this a few posts ago: I cannot fucking BREATHE in this weather. I can stand it for maybe 6 months, thinking of October as a refuge, but... even all the weather-people lied to me about today! :)

Freedom of Speech (by Ted Hughes, 1998: from "Birthday Letters")

 FREEDOM OF SPEECH

At your sixtieth birthday, in the cake's glow,
Ariel sits on your knuckle.
You feed it grapes, a black one, then a green one.
From between your lips pursed like a kiss.
Why are you so solemn? Everybody laughs.

As if grateful, the whole reunion---
Old friends and new friends.
Some famous authors, your court of brilliant minds.
And publishers and doctors and professors.
Their eyes creased in delighted laughter--even

The late poppies laugh, one loses a petal.
The candles tremble their tips
Trying to contain their joy. And your Mummy
Is laughing in her nursing home. Your children
Are laughing from opposite sides of the globe. Your Daddy

Laughs deep in his coffin. And the stars, 
Surely the stars, too, shake with laughter.
And Ariel---
What about Ariel?
Ariel is happy to be here.

Only you and I do not smile.

Happy Birthday, Sylvia Plath (October 27)

 ARIEL

Stasis in darkness.

Then the substanceless blue   

Pour of tor and distances.

God’s lioness,   

How one we grow,

Pivot of heels and knees!—The furrow

Splits and passes, sister to   

The brown arc

Of the neck I cannot catch,

Nigger-eye   

Berries cast dark   

Hooks—

Black sweet blood mouthfuls,   

Shadows.

Something else

Hauls me through air—

Thighs, hair;

Flakes from my heels.

White

Godiva, I unpeel—

Dead hands, dead stringencies.

And now I

Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas.   

The child’s cry

Melts in the wall.   

And I

Am the arrow,

The dew that flies

Suicidal, at one with the drive   

Into the red

Eye, the cauldron of morning.

Happy Birthday, Sylvia Plath (October 27)

 ELM 

I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root:   

It is what you fear.

I do not fear it: I have been there.

Is it the sea you hear in me,   

Its dissatisfactions?

Or the voice of nothing, that was your madness?

Love is a shadow.

How you lie and cry after it

Listen: these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse.

All night I shall gallop thus, impetuously,

Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf,   

Echoing, echoing.

Or shall I bring you the sound of poisons?   

This is rain now, this big hush.

And this is the fruit of it: tin-white, like arsenic.

I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets.   

Scorched to the root

My red filaments burn and stand, a hand of wires.

Now I break up in pieces that fly about like clubs.   

A wind of such violence

Will tolerate no bystanding: I must shriek.

The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me   

Cruelly, being barren.

Her radiance scathes me. Or perhaps I have caught her.

I let her go. I let her go

Diminished and flat, as after radical surgery.   

How your bad dreams possess and endow me.

I am inhabited by a cry.   

Nightly it flaps out

Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.

I am terrified by this dark thing   

That sleeps in me;

All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.

Clouds pass and disperse.

Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrievables?   

Is it for such I agitate my heart?

I am incapable of more knowledge.   

What is this, this face

So murderous in its strangle of branches?——

Its snaky acids hiss.

It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults   

That kill, that kill, that kill.

Altered States (1980) Trailer

I first saw this film at a local Fort Worth theater when I was 15. 

I was spending the night with my friend Debbie and her mother took us to see it.
One of the most profound films I've ever seen.

At school the next week, a recent new student just in from NYC (Debbie's friend) asked me:

"What did you think the theme was? I think it was 'Love conquers all.'"

I was 15---I'd been blown away by the imagery, by the man's quest for knowledge.

I didn't think it was "Love conquers all."  I stuttered. I sounded stupid. I FELT stupid.
I'd just loved a film, but I couldn't explain why to this person.

 

After I just re-watched this film on Criterion last night for the first time after 45 years: 

Yes, "Love" is AN important theme. It's his salvation.

But the actual theme is: Don't seek knowledge that is beyond your scope. I'd thought this before I watched any of the Criterion extras---including an interview in which director Ken Russell said: "He tried to force a revelation that had not been revealed to him."

 

I trust Ken Russell more than the teenaged pseudo-intellectual from NYC. 

 

 

 

Inside "Warrendale" (1967 doc by Allan King)

Just watched this last night on Criterion. Doc released in 1967.
Footage shot over 5 weeks in Spring 1966, at a facility for "emotionally disturbed" children and teens in a suburb of Ontario.

Founder John Brown was fired in June 1966. The facility was sold for $1 in Sept. 1966.

https://www.etobicokehistorical.com/warrendale.html

What looks terrible in the below clip was actually considered advanced for 1966. 

The tweens/teens were not drugged and were "held" if they acted up.
(Though "holding" often involved 2 or 3 staff members physically restraining---and berating---the patients until they calmed down.)

 

For a couple of scenes, with some of the older teen girls,  the "holding" was pleasant---arm around the shoulder, hair-stroking, and calm words. But for most scenes, the "holding" was physically intrusive and even sometimes weirdly sexual. (I mean, I felt bad for little Tony---his saying "your breath stinks" is quite appropriate when several big people are sitting on you and breathing in your face. And it was sexually creepy when one of the teen girls violently fought the kindly female therapist, yet quieted right down when the male therapist wrestled her into submission.)

I also question the primary scene near the end of the film, where all residents are informed in a group meeting that their facility cook has died. Mass chaos and shrieking then ensues from some of the residents, while the calmer residents are forced to witness all of the acting out and the subsequent restraints.
(Wouldn't it have been a lot wiser to inform the more-prone-to agitation patients privately, so as not to disturb the others?)

I'm guessing that all of these residents were kids from relatively well-to-do families. Despite the "holding," there was a bit too much patience had this been a state ward. (Today? I have no idea what goes on in places like these, either state or private. I'm guessing that everyone is just drugged into submission.)

 

Jesus on Earth

 

I've been thinking about Christianity and Christ recently---

thanks probably to now having access to the Catholic network (EWTN). 

And a recent personal revelation that the religion is about Christ's being sacrificed as an experiment.

(I knew that the sacrifice was the basis of the religion, but I never UNDERSTOOD it until now.)

His teachings did not correspond with the authorities of his time.
Whatever Christ did or did not do, he would have been crucified.
It wasn't about any sort of "purity"---it was about the people in charge: 

The Jews in charge betrayed him, and the Romans in charge betrayed him.

This was (the) God's "Experiment": "Let me see what happens if I send someone to this planet..."

He got his answer. We failed our test.
Is that it? We've been abandoned? No more chances?
 

For centuries, we've known that we'd failed the test. 

Yet we have kept up the superficial outer trappings. What else is there to do? 

We've been desperate for quite a while. 

Clinging to the past forms was/is better than what is going on today.

Andy Griffith: I'll Fly Away (1972)

Charlene Darling: "Oh, Pa, can't I even look at that purty man?"

I Wish It Would Rain - The Temptations (1967)

RAIN! Just heard the thunder!

There's been no rain in Austin for months now, and this October has been the hottest, most rain-less ever. I can't stand it. Living here for decades, I know to steel myself for 90-degree-plus temps from May thru September. With the knowledge that October will be rainier and cooler. 

This October hasn't been like that at all! It's been nastily 90+ humid all month. UNTIL JUST NOW! I just heard a huge thunder-crack! I'm going to run and open all of my windows to let in some fresh air! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Let me finally BREATHE!

Andy Griffith with Joanna Moore: Down In The Valley

Andy Griffith's Uptown Downtown Show (1967)

Love Andy (and my beloved Joan Crawford too), but this kind of cheesy TV thing (that they both variously appeared on in the mid to late '60s) is a great example of why things in entertainment needed to change. 

Looking back from 2025, part of this is mildly entertaining and charming----but for the most part, it's kinda dumb. 

 

Compare to musicals of the late '40 thru early '60s, whose premises and songs were SOMETIMES actually very brilliant: 1959's "Sound of Music" and 1957's "The Music Man," for instance, along with their later movie adaptations, were fantastic. But then this is TV, and put together much more quickly. This bit isn't supposed to be "art," after all.

 

Today---such TV entertainment is much more overtly sexual, and even dumber. And sans any charm whatsoever. We were supposed to GAIN something (intellectually), not lose the "charming" part while adding the more scuzzy stuff.... Right??

 

Appearing here from the "Andy Griffith Show": 

Don Knotts and Maggie Peterson (of "The Darlings"). 

And a fore-runner of the upcoming New Gen: See if you can spot Goldie Hawn and Teri Garr among the chorus girls!

Oh, and a side note: This particular bit was actually very well choreographed. It was pretty hard to put together something like this on short notice!

 

This has gone waaaaay too far!

OK, look, I'm not turning into an "Andy Griffith Show" nut, but... I apparently kinda AM!

This all started when I got YouTubeTV streaming last summer (thankfully replacing my Spectrum cable)---which happened to be showing "Andy Griffith Show" re-runs on TVLand and Sundance (and the incredibly cheesy "Great American Family" channel). After I ended work in the afternoon, I'd sit/lie on the couch and eat dinner and watch a couple of AGS episodes on TVLand (before the programming switched over to "Everybody Loves Raymond" at 6pm Central). 

I'd seen random AGS episodes in re-runs while growing up, and I liked it OK then. But watching it now was a pleasant experience. Since my new YouTubeTV allowed recording of upcoming episodes, I once experimented with recording ONE episode---only to discover that YouTubeTV then automatically recorded EVERY SINGLE EPISODE over 8 seasons (1960 to 1968)! Since all million episodes (well, 249) were now just sitting there, and since I'd been watching them anyway every weekday afternoon, I decided to just start from the very beginning... (After a couple of months, I just now finished watching the end of Season 4 of 8 last night.)

I still don't even LOOOOOVE the show, but at least I now know how various girlfriends came and went, the history of Aint Bee and Barney, and when the various goofy side-kicks showed up and how they developed. (Including interesting musical guests like "The Darlings"---who were the actual bluegrass group The Dillards in real life---plus total freaks like "Ernest T. Bass"! Watching the show sporadically in the past, I was often a bit confused!) :)  

Halfway through the whole run, I'm still annoyed by Aint Bee and Barney and Gomer. And I still think Andy Taylor should have stuck with love interest "Peggy" (Joanna Moore), who was both gorgeous and a good actress AND she could harmonize with Andy! Right after Moore appeared in 4 episodes of the show, she married Ryan O'Neal, and then went on to drug addiction and birthing Tatum O'Neal in real life...I'm guessing that Griffith and Moore had a fling during taping and O'Neal gave her an ultimatum. (A p.s. to this: One random AGS blog online funnily suggests that "Andy Taylor" might have been a serial murderer---so many of his love interests simply disappear without any explanation!)

OK, there are the shows to watch. And I've LONG been a big fan of Griffith's pre-AGS dark-and-funny performance in 1957's "A Face in the Crowd." (This is probably in my Top 20 movies of all time.) 

But I have finally ALMOST tipped over the edge: I just started ordering books about the show. Not just the show, but a book about Griffith's later life in Manteo, North Carolina. And then, after watching Griffith sing "Turn Your Radio On" on a Carol Burnett Show clip and liking it, I ordered his 1972 gospel album on CD. And then, thinking about "Face" and wanting to see more of villainous Andy, I ordered the 1983 DVD of the CBS made-for-TV-movie "Murder in Coweta County," co-starring Johnny Cash! And I even ordered a CD by The Dillards!

I've gone Andy-Griffith-Mad! 

NO! Not quite! I've seen a few episodes of his later "Matlock" show ('86 to '95), and I think they're extremely cheesy and poorly written---just as I've always thought the "Murder, She Wrote" episodes ('84 to '96) that I've seen were also extremely bad, to the point of annoyance. I've never been a pure "nostalgist"---dammit!

 

 

KISS Live: "C'mon And Love Me" (1975)

KISS Live: "Beth" (1977)

Birth of, permission for, the hard-rock ballad.

KISS Koncert (April 1, 1975 - The Midnight Special)

The only time I got to watch "Midnight Special" was when I spent the night

at my friend Debbie's house! So NO, I didn't see this in 1975!

--Deuce
--She
--Black Diamond

For those posting online, post Ace's death, saying glibly, 

"Oh, I never liked KISS---they didn't rock..." This IS rock.

"Citizenship Award"

We took various national IQ tests while in grade school. I was so smart back then! (Top 5 percentile!)
I remember that a couple of my various elementary schools also gave awards for "Citizenship." Based on....sluggishness?

In 5th grade, "Harlan Kidd" got the "Citizenship" award. I, reveling in my 5th-grade-IQ glory, internally mocked him. (And I'm sure I EXternally mocked him a few times, as well.) 

As I was writing this, perhaps there's a lesson for me? Harlan Kidd is probably now a happy grandpa, after a lifetime of calm relations and 35 years at the same job. (Even when he was 10, he had a very staid face and demeanor. I'm guessing that those have served him well in life.)

Me? I'm now of grandma-age, and when I flew to San Francisco last May on Mother's Day, I got congrats multiple times by various airport people for being a Mother! At one point, I just outright said: "No, I'm not a Mom, just a Cat Lady!" But to my jittery black seat-mate (kicked out of her seat across the aisle 'cause that wasn't her seat) who, when asking if I had kids and being told "no," said "How did you ever avoid THAT?"----I said only "Just lucky, I guess." 

How do you actually explain that? I was always bi from the beginning. And didn't care one way or another whether I had kids; I'd always liked kids---I mean, kids from 4 to 7 or so (who are very interesting to talk to!), but I'd never been particularly attracted to babies or had a "maternal instinct," like you're "supposed to" have...

Sadly, I never met a partner to ever make such a child-bearing decision with.

Did he ever venture beyond North Texas? Did he ever get his heart utterly broken (not once, but twice) and then survive? Was he ever self-destructively lonely for years at a time? And did he ever create anything out of scratch? 

I'm guessing his life has been much happier than mine. But I'd still rather have lived my life than Harlan Kidd's life. I never, ever wanted a "Citizenship" award.

My Mini (aka "Solomon Grundy")

My song for Mini whenever she comes to lie on my tummy: 

Nolomon Newly
Met you on a Saturday

It was a rainy day
One was black and three was gray---
Four little babies in the rain (where's Mini?)
Four little babies in the rain...

 

(Mama Cat Hennessy, whom I'd been feeding for months as a stray, had her kittens in my neighbor's backyard in April 2019 during a 3-day rainstorm. My neighbor had a big, gentle dog, and I didn't realize that there were kittens until I saw this dog looking quizzically at a corner of the yard... Once I told the neighbor about his new residents, he kindly set up a protective cover over the new mama/babies to protect them from the rain. The next day, Mama Hennessy moved all 3 of her kittens over to my own yard.)

I also have a cat-rap that I say to Mini when she comes to sit on my lap:
A little black cat 
with a tail like a rat
and a face like a bat
on my lap like that!
(When Mini was born, she didn't have any fur on her tail---looked like a rat-tail! It's since filled in.)

Interacting in the Real World: Post Office

I sell stuff online and so go to my local post office about twice a week to mail things.

I try to pick off-hours to visit (e.g., not during lunch, and not just after school gets out). A couple of days ago, though, I walked into a maelstrom. I entered at 12:25pm, and did not leave until 1:30. 

One of the 3 counters was down. That left 2 mail clerks. 

One of the clerks was dealing with a young woman who was trying to mail several packages to her husband at a military base. She had apparently not filled out any of the mailing forms correctly. And she had not addressed any of the packages correctly. And the biggest package, which I could see, had only rudimentary tape strips, and the address was written on it with ballpoint pen.

As I said above: I entered the place at 12:25pm, when the above woman was already at the counter. By the time I got up to the counter myself, around 1:30, this woman had only just now departed.

When I was at the head of the line, and watching this idiot at the counter, there was a line of over 20 people stretching nearly to the door. All of us suffering in silence. Until the 80-something-year-old man behind me struck up a conversation about the wait. I asked him if he had a watch---he did NOT, only a phone (what, an old man without a watch?)---which revealed "1:17pm." Which prompted me to go off LOUDLY about how I'd entered this place AN HOUR ago, and how THAT lady still at the counter had been there since I first walked in!

Everyone, including the postal clerks and the sluggish customer currently at the counter, looked askance at me as I railed out loud. But the man behind me was entertained. And it felt GREAT to be so overtly HONEST about how insane this one slow customer was, and how no one should have to wait AN HOUR at the post office!

I felt only mildly bad for being rude. The overall feeling, though, was GREAT. I walked out of there with a new sense of invigoration. (Unlike the usual passive/aggressive online posting, since I work from home---this time, I got to actually say out loud to an idiot (albeit from the line): "You're an idiot!")

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

p.s. When I went back to this post office to mail more stuff a couple of days later, it was completely quiet, and I was the only customer there. I went to the clerk who'd had the annoying lady days before, and apologized to him for previously wondering so obnoxiously and loudly what had been taking so long----He at first didn't seem to remember what I was talking about, but when I reminded him, he then took the delay upon himself: "I should have told her [about certain postal requirements] to begin with..." She'd had several packages, but was insanely trying to get one price for 3 different packages! (I hadn't known what had caused the delay to begin with; all I noticed was how crappily her biggest package was taped up!) I gave massive kudos to this guy, and his fellow postal employees, for being so utterly patient.

KISS: Rocket Ride (1977)

GO, ACE!



Lady Space, you like the way
I make you feel inside
Take a rocket ride
From the start, you wanted to fly
I got the rocket and you want the ride
Take a rocket ride

[Chorus]
Baby wants it fast, baby wants a blast
She wants a rocket ride, she wants a rocket ride
Baby wants it fast, baby wants a blast
She wants a rocket ride, she wants a rocket ride

Lady Space, you better wake up fast
Countdown is coming on
Take a rocket ride
The gravity that used to hold you down
Just don't exist no more
Take a rocket ride

Ace Frehley solo album (1978): Wiped-Out

Rap influence in NYC at the time (though no one knew what this was yet). 

Another really original song off the solo album. I'd never heard anything like this! 

(Pretty stupid lyrically, but pretty interesting musically in 1978!)

 

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

Wiped out, ha ha ha

I went to a party, dressed so smartly
Cool as cool could be
I knew I could make it, knew I could shake it
Loose and fancy free

So I went to the table and reached for a bottle
And poured me a glass of wine
Took a few sips and looked around
I was feelin' fine

But an hour along, comin' on strong
I was gettin' drunk
Next thing I knew I looked at you
I was blind as a skunk

(Oh, oh, oh)
I was

I was wiped out
I had my lights out
Was fallin' right out
'Cause I was wiped out

Through the smoke-filled room I caught your eye
And I think that you caught mine
And I knew in a minute or maybe less
It was just a matter of time

Then you started to move with such a groove
Stronger than sneakin' slow
Then you looked at me with your big blue eyes
They had such a glow

So I took your hand and tried to stand
And ended up sittin' back down
Then you smiled at me and gave me a wink
How quick I lost my frown

(Oh, oh, oh)
I was

I was wiped out
I had my lights out
Was fallin' right out
'Cause I was wiped out

So I looked at you and then I knew
That we were gonna have some fun
So I thought to myself, wine was out
We should switch to rum

So without a word and like some bird
We flew to another place
And pretty soon we were in some room
Stretched miles out in space

The room was turnin', we were burnin'
Things became a haze
It seemed that already I had too many
Firewater caused the blaze

(Oh, oh, oh)
I was

I was wiped out
I had my lights out
Was fallin' right out
'Cause I was wiped out

Ace Frehley solo album (1978): What's On Your Mind?

My second-favorite Ace-written song off his solo album.
(Look, I was 13---and most of the rest of the album was more-druggy guitar-stuff;
I liked the tuneful stuff most! But to this day, I remember every single song, druggy or not!)

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

You're breakin' my heart, I'm fallin' apart
You make me crazy, crazy
You're breakin' my heart, I don't wanna start
A new day, new day

I'm wrackin' my brain, I'm feelin' insane
You make me crazy, crazy
I'm changin' my ways, I'm leavin' today
But things look hazy, hazy

I can't express the words to tell you 'bout the feelings I got
Locked up inside
If only you would give me a reason why you're so uptight
What's on your mind?

Maybe we could make it one more time
Maybe we should try it again
Maybe we could make it one more time
Baby, please let me know when

You're breakin' my heart, I'm fallin' apart
You make me crazy, crazy
You're breakin' my heart, I'm spinnin' apart
I'm lookin' this and that way

I can't express the words to tell you 'bout the feelings I got
Locked up inside
If only you would give me a reason why you're so uptight
What's on your mind?

Ace Frehley solo album (1978): Speedin' Back To My Baby

My favorite song off the Ace album. Written by Ace and then-wife Jeanette.

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

I'm drivin' down the road, doin' 95 miles per hour, oh yeah
My radio's blastin' and I'm passin' cars faster and faster, uh huh
I'm feelin' kinda down 'cause I left her with a frown, my baby, oh yeah
We always seem to fight when things are goin' right and maybe, uh huh

Maybe I should turn around
Maybe I should stop
Maybe I should turn around

Speedin' back to my baby
And I don't mean maybe
Speedin' back to my baby
And I don't mean maybe

You know, maybe I should turn around
Maybe I should stop
Maybe I should turn around

I'm lookin' for a station, 'cause there's no acceleration to get back
(Speedin' back, ooh speedin' back) Oh yeah
My gauge is showin' red and my battery's dead, I'd better
(Ooh, speedin' back, ooh speedin' back) Find one fast

The whole thing began 'cause I saw her with a man, my baby
(Ooh, speedin' back, ooh speedin' back) Oh yeah
I really wouldn't mind, but you know I've got my pride to think of
(Ooh, speedin' back, ooh speedin' back) Uh huh

RIP Ace Frehley: New York Groove (1978)

When the 4 KISS solo albums were released in 1978, Ace's sold the most.
And this song (not written by him) was the biggest hit from any of the albums.

It still gives me a thrill whenever I hear it.
(I was a pre-teen and couldn't afford to buy my own albums. But over the course of a year and Christmas/birthday gifts, I managed to get the Ace album first, and then the Gene album. I never did own Paul or Peter's albums.)

When my tween-friends and our younger brothers used to dress up as KISS
in the late-'70s (with old tennis rackets for guitars), I was usually Gene, sometimes Paul. 
My next-door neighbor Marla, a year younger than me, was always Ace.

Oh, and we didn't know anything about how their makeup was done: We once tried smearing toothpaste on our faces, then dusting the sticky surface with baby powder. For the black part: Magic Marker!

To this day, I get goosebumps when hearing this song.

US Soldier Deaths per War

Civil War = @ 620,000

WWI = @ 117,000

WWII = @ 405,000

Korea = @ 37,000

Vietnam = @ 59,000 

And Abraham Lincoln is considered a "hero" of this country?
And Democrat Woodrow Wilson in WWI.
And Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in WWII.

LOOK AT THESE STATS. I was never taught this in school.
I was taught that Lincoln and Wilson and FDR were liberal peace-niks. 
The stats don't add up. What they espoused does not add up to what actually happened---the US soldier death rates---under their administrations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

ChatGPT says...

I've been primarily a copy-editor (and occasionally an editor) for over 25 years now. The main job of a copy-editor is to clean up a writer's text. Not just grammar/spelling/punctuation, but also reading for sense and fact-checking, etc. 

Examples of catches: 
(1) Years ago, a writer had "Rio Grande River" multiple times in his text. Since "Rio" means "river," the "River" was redundant. Should have just been "Rio Grande." He refused to change it; so be it. The text went out like that.
(2) Once, a writer touted a new US weapons system as being "New Age." (He meant that it was state-of-the-art and technologically advanced, etc.) I pointed out that the term "New Age" is primarily known in recent years as referring to a hippie-like spiritual/religious philosophy---NOT as "the most up-to-date in technology." And that military readers of this doc probably wouldn't appreciate the "New Age" phrase. The writer didn't change the wording. The text went out like that. (I never heard back on what the military reaction was.)

Sigh. Such is the life of a copy-editor. But at least I try.

One recent thing:
I had a query for a writer (an Instructional Designer--ISD--in her mid-30s) RE the meaning of the wording of a sentence. I didn't understand what it meant, as worded, and suggested it be revised for sense. Her reply was "I just checked with ChatGPT and it didn't offer any alternative. Leave as is." 
"Leave as is" because Chat GPT couldn't figure it out! 
I mentioned that this ISD was in her mid-30s, because this was the first time that I've ever heard anyone say that they relied on ChatGPT to make an intellectual decision for them instead of relying on their own thinking! 

This is quite a new thing in employment history!

The Beatles: Rain (1966)

The Beatles: I Feel Fine (1965)

Andy Griffith: This Is Your Life (1971)

So interesting! The ex-wife shows up, and the kids, and then "Ronnie" Howard and Jim Nabors.
(And the ex even gets presented with a bracelet at the end! Ha!)

Andy Griffith: "Mama Guitar" (1957)

I had no idea this song from "Face in the Crowd" was actually ever released as a single!
Here it is, from Capitol, sung by Griffith.

 

Written by Budd Schulberg + Tom Glazer. 

Also released as a single in 1957, in a much tamer version, by Julius La Rosa.

Andy! We hardly knew ye!  You GO, Man, GO! :)

Livin' On Easy Street (George and Tammy, 1971)

RE: "We draw our welfare check this week..." 

 

Tammy came from a well-off county farming family in Alabama 

that never needed a welfare check.
George's father was a drunk who sporadically did odd jobs. 

The Govt probably gave his family many welfare checks.

This song isn't literally referring to themselves "struggling" as a couple: Just tryin' to be folksy.
When they got together in '69, George had already been rich and famous since the late '50s.

But I always love the line mentioning the cat:
"Livin' on Easy Street, with a dog and a Persian cat..."

OHHH!

For the past 6 months or so (after discovering the Eternal Word Catholic station), I've not been re-reading the Bible, but mainly re-thinking about it.

I flirted with the Bible as a teen. The Old Testament is pretty much a bunch of junk. Who begat who, and who slept with who and had a hundred wives. But the New Testament is actually philosophical---and I have not paid much attention to it. As a teen, I was so quick to reject the Bible without actually studying it in depth. (What I did at the time was dip into various pages chosen at random, asking for some personal "revelation" based on what page I had just randomly chosen.)

But I think I just figured out the main concept of the New Testament: There is a spiritual realm, and, as an experiment, God manifested in Jesus as a physical form on Earth to see what would happen. It didn't work out very well. And all of us leftovers are now constantly being forced to atone for that! (I think atonement is a necessary thing, but you can only say "sorry" so many times.)

Ted Hughes: The Thought Fox

I miss Sandra terribly.
She was never a companion for me,
but she was always a muse, and someone 

who knew about the same things that I did,

and could talk about them with me.

Today: I have no one at all to talk to (and certainly no inspiration).
She and I were the only two people I knew who had read "Birthday Letters."
And for whom it meant something.
I am so utterly lonely. Bereft is a better word.

George Jones: "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (1980)

Keith Urban singing Dolly Parton's AppleJack (1980)

Today, I think Keith Urban is the most generic and awful of pseudo-country singers.

But THIS is the cutest thing ever! Here he is as a kid on Australian TV.

"In Love With"

A centuries-old common phrase: "I'm in love with you."
But what is "in love with"? 
Different from "I love you."

I think there's a floating energy source that we've named "Love." And people are sucked into it. No rationality once you're "in Love."

Outside of this, there's "I love you"---which is caring and sweet and pure. Moms for babies, comrades for comrades.

Take Back Your Country

 RE the Muslim murders of Jews at a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday:

I watched BBC coverage for hours on Thursday morning to try to get full info on what had happened. The BBC coverage was disturbing in a couple of respects:

 (1) The BBC interviewed a Muslim cleric, who said something along the lines of: “We Muslims and Jews are both under attack, so we must all stand together.”
HUH?? It’s the Muslims and their associated in-house Marxist pals who are responsible for the massive increase in attacks against Jews over the past few years. Starting with the 2016 influx of Syrians into the UK, and the ongoing UK liberal policies toward immigration from Muslim countries.

(2) The BBC showed a response-speech from Prime Minister Starmer (a leftist) about the UK needing “diversity.”
HUH?? The UK decidedly does NOT need radical Muslims in its country (no Western country does). Radical groups not willing to assimilate into their new country’s long-standing culture are NOT welcome!

“Diversity” is a deceptive academic, Marxist term that, despite its seeming innocuousness, seeks to eliminate both national borders and national unity in favor of a monolithic fascist “World Order” that controls the media, the educational systems, the health orgs---all telling us what to think, what to post, and what vaccines to get, etc. Great examples of this are China, North Korea, Soviet Russia, and the recent Biden Administration. (Under Biden, for example, I was forced to get the COVID vax or else lose my government job. Under Biden---who pressured social-media companies---I was kicked off Facebook; I still don’t quite know why. For saying “Wuhan virus”?)

Unlike the UK, with its very specific peoples originally in the region, the US was actually founded as a vast “melting pot.” Our country’s origins are of English, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, French explorers/businessmen/settlers; indigenous peoples; slaves; etc. (Much latter-day guilt over the slaves; and then later, over the so-called indigenous peoples---who had crossed over from the Asian continent; and then still later we, out of more guilt, started letting in masses of Vietnamese. And under Biden especially, the apotheosis of guilt-based Marxism: Allowing 20 million illegals from every country into the United States in a 4-year span.)

Starmer: As you might have seen recently in the US, trying to appease various ethnic groups never works out. Marxism never works out. Admit what's causing the current problem in your country. (And it sure as hell ain't Tommy Robinson.)

Take back your country.

Andy Griffith: The Arthur Smith Show (1973)

Go, Andy!

Andy Sings - There Is A Time (1963)

The Only Clothes I Buy Nowadays are T-Shirts

Since 2020, I've been working from home and thus only buying sweatpants and T-shirts.
Based on the below lot of T-shirts I just bought:
I think I have a type (I mean St. Olga and Joan, not Floyd or DEATH).