Garth Brooks: The Dance (1990)

I hadn't heard this song for at least 30 years. 
A local country radio station played it today as I was driving around.

"How could I have known that you'd ever say goodbye..."

The voice of Garth was never profound, but, nonetheless, hearing this song on the radio made me cry!

It also flashed me back to when I was in grad school in San Francisco in the mid-90s---
after years of keeping up with mid-90s rock and rap, I was finally sick of it.
I think a mediocre Courtney Love album and a Warren G album were the final dull straws.
At the time, there was the "BMG Club," where you could order 12 CDs for a dollar, and then only have to buy 2 full-price CDs in the next year.
I ordered a bunch of Country CDs for the first time: Tammy Wynette Greatest, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, Waylon, Willie.
The Tammy CD, which had duets with George Jones, led me to buying George Jones for the first time. He's since become my favorite male singer.

The Garth Brooks CD was "The Hits," released in December 1994. Nearly everything on this is very good. (The most famous/greatest song being "Friends in Low Places." But here's "The Dance.")

I never went on to be a Garth Brooks fan. (From the Hits, I could tell that he wasn't going to get any more "soulful" or anything on any individual album! But this is a great "party" and/or "'90s memories album.")

Looking back on the memory of
The dance we shared 'neath the stars above
For a moment all the world was right
How could I have known that you'd ever say goodbye

And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end, the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss the dance

Holding you I held everything
For a moment wasn't I a king
But if I'd only known how the king would fall
Hey who's to say you know I might have changed it all

And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss the dance

"I Wanna Be Sedated": Go-Gos in Central Park, 2001

 

"I Wanna Be Sedated": Return of Jackie/Judy in LA (July 2026)

 Thanks, Carrie and Fred. Nice of you to allow Corinne to participate...
And then there's your random DEI hire... There's no JOY in your version.
This song can't really go wrong, regardless of who does it.
Though the Go-Gos, above, do actually do it much better.

Deep Thoughts by Not-Jack-Handey

Life is like "The After Hours." It's a 1963 "Twilight Zone" episode. I saw it for the first time around 15 years ago or so. In a depressed state, but still: When I watched this, I felt a sense of epiphany: This is exactly how life is: We're part of the ether, then briefly, in cycles, get a chance at acting out in physical form. (The woman in the story was chastised for not wanting to go back.)

As for "black holes": Each black hole is kind of like an hour-glass in the universe. They draw stuff in, and then spit stuff out. The stuff they draw in: Where does it go? As with an hour-glass, to be sifted out/recycled into another universe.

Oh, and what is the "Dark Energy" that astrophysicists cannot explain? 
Says AI: "Dark energy and dark matter are two mysterious components of the universe. Dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe and exerts gravitational pull, while dark energy accounts for 68% and drives the accelerated expansion of the universe."

Souls? According to "Science": "Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed or transferred from one form to another."

I once knew a woman who thought she was the reincarnation of the Black Dahlia. Pretty much the saddest thing I've ever heard. When I think of my own reincarnation, I think of the real-life story of the horse being transported in a trailer whose leg was stuck outside a window of the trailer. The humans didn't have time to unload the trailer and re-adjust the horses within, so someone just sawed off the horse's leg that was sticking out of the window.

As EVERY religion in the world teaches you: Don't rely on the physical life for happiness. Now---if only one or another of dozens of cultures taught this, I might think it was just a shallow, cultural thing. But, going back thousands of years: The root of EVERY SINGLE CULTURE has taught to focus on the SOUL and the afterlife. Why is that? Was each and every one of these civilizations just stupid? Was it ALL a hoax concocted by those in power to subjugate the masses, as the Marxists later claimed?

The early Christians, for example, initially had ZERO power. They were complete low-lifes and outcasts, yet somehow later convinced major potentates like Justinian, for example, to accept their views. Why is that? What happened? Why are millions around the world following these beliefs today if there were not something to it?
 
Back in the mid-1990s, I travelled from Texas to California, and was stunned/awed by the barrenness of the landscape. "It looks like the bottom of the sea," I thought. As it turned out, that's exactly what this landscape had once been. 

Mars is known to have once had water. What if Earthlings are refugees from Mars as it ran out of resources? (Would that explain the dichotomy between advanced people and aborigines?) Or what if we were criminal outcasts from some other planetary society, given the Old Testament as a guide-post to our past history and how we should construct the new one?

It's all very mysterious. So thinks Not-Jack-Handey.

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

Addendum: I'm a "Portlandia" fan and was doing a search on Reddit, coming across a 12-year-old open forum from Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, I think upon the release of their latest season of the show. Armisen asked the Reddit audience (paraphrased): "Which do you think is more accurate? What people of the time say, or what historians come up with centuries later?" If I remember right, he was referring specifically to the Egyptian pyramids. (And what a great question, though why ask it on Reddit, of all low-info places?) I was way-too-late to respond, but if I'd been there on Reddit:
People at the time. Because someone's dad or cousin or friend-of-a-friend would have been working on the pyramids and would have been able to tell you exactly how they hauled all of those rocks and what they ate for lunch. Centuries-later, only academics guessing.

German TV (1977): It's a Game / Rock-n-Roll Love Letter

 I was a 12-year-old BCR fan from the US in Germany this summer 
and saw this actual TV show!
(And, at the time, took Polaroids of the TV screen at my German aunt's house!)
While in Deutschland, my mom bought me the German version of 
Shaun Cassidy's debut album, plus the newly released "It's a Game" by the BCR---
much fancier than the US version, as I later discovered.

The Beatles: Happiness Is a Warm Gun (1968)

 

George and Tammy: We're Not the Jet Set (1973 on "Hee-Haw")

 

By a fountain back in Rome
I fell in love with you
In a small cafe in Athens
You said you loved me too

And it was April in Paris
When I first held you close to me
Rome, Georgia, Athens, Texas
And Paris, Tennessee

No, we're not the Jet Set
We're the old Chevrolet Set
There's no Riviera in Festus, Missouri
And you won't find Onassis in Mullinville, Kansas
No, we're not the Jet Set
We're the old Chevrolet Set
But ain't we got love?

No, we're not the Jet Set
We're the old Chevrolet Set
Our steak and martinis
Is draft beer with weinies

Our Bach and Tchaikovsky ("who's that?")
Is Haggard and Husky
No, we're not the Jet Set
We're the old Chevrolet Set
But ain't we got love?

No, we're not the Jet Set
We're the old Chevrolet Set
The Jones and Wynette set
Ain't the flamin' suzette set...

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

 

Tammy Wynette: It's Just a Matter of Time (1970)

 

Sleater-Kinney: A New Wave (2015 on Letterman)

 

Well every day I throw a little party
But a fit would be more fitting, fitting
And every time I come a little higher
Should I leap or go on living, living?
Hear the voices venomous and thrilling
In my head they're always calling, calling
But I wanna gotta go the way my blood beats
So I'm not fodder for their folly

No one here is taking notice
No outline will ever hold us
It's not a new wave, it's just you and me
Eyes are the only witness
Die to prove we ever lived this
Invent our own kind of obscurity

Let's destroy a room with this love
We can drain out all the power, power
Steal from the makers who unmade us
Leave them nothing to devour, devour
Well I am raw material
Make me plastic, make me fuel
I can be, I can be
I can be all

No one here is taking notice
No outline will ever hold us
It's not a new wave, it's just you and me
Eyes are the only witness
Die to prove we ever lived this
Invent our own kind of obscurity

No one here is taking notice
No outline will ever hold us
It's not a new wave, it's just you and me
Eyes are the only witness
Die to prove we ever lived this
Invent our own kind of obscurity

Sinead O'Connor: The Emperor's New Clothes (1990)

 Incredibly sad how bold and confident she sounded in 1990, yet how she ended up. 
By 2010, she was an oft-married, religion-switching, drug-addled nut-case 
who'd lost her kids, appearing on US talk shows and on the Internet 
discussing her mental problems. She died in 2023 at age 56.

Sinead O'Connor: Mandinka (from "The Lion and the Cobra," 1987)

 I have the below 1987 album cover on a T-shirt that I wore today.



(This was the European cover for the "Lion and the Cobra" album; 
the US album had a more demure shot, as shown on the video below.)

While doing errands today in my Sinead T: 

A 20-something homeless guy hanging around outside the post office as I left said: 
"Ma'am, I really like your shirt." 
(I love it! Now that I'm over 50, street-dudes and mechanics tend to call me "Ma'am" 
instead of giving me a hard time!)

And, later, in the UPS Store, the 30-something gay clerk said only: "Mandinka!"

This album came out a whopping 40 years ago!! 
And it's still known---among old ladies, gay store-clerks, random homeless guys!

 

I'm dancing the seven veils
Want you to pick up my scarf
See how the black moon fades
Soon I can give you my heart

I don't know no shame
I feel no pain
I can't see the flame
But I do know Man-din-ka
I do know Man-din-ka
I do know Man-din-ka

They're throwing it all this way
Dragging it back to the start
And they say, "See how the glass is raised?"
I have refused to take part
I told them, "Drink something new"
Please let me pull something through

I don't know no shame
I feel no pain
I can't see the flame
But I do know Man-din-ka
I do know Man-din-ka
I do know Man-din-ka

Merle Haggard + Tammy Wynette: Wembley Stadium UK (1988)

 I love Merle, but... TAMMY'S VOICE!!

George Jones: On the Back Row (1972)

 

Here I sit on the back row in a church down the street
Not too far from the place where we used to meet
And it's finally getting through to me, you found someone to love
But I'll go back to the place that I keep thinking of

It's not a fancy place just a tavern in the lonely part of town
Where lonely people find someone and hope to settle down
They tell me to go and I can't understand
Here I sit on the back row while you wed another man.

You'd never dream but after many years I may still be sittin' there
With just a bottle and two glasses right next to your favorite chair
And who knows, you might outlive him, and he might even do you wrong
There I'll sit in a tavern waiting for you all alone.

And it's not a fancy place just a tavern in the lonely part of town
Where lonely people find someone and hope to settle down
They tell me to go and I can't understand
Here I sit on the back row while you wed another man

George Jones: Moments of Brilliance (1987)

 

I wasn't the smart one in class
And I wasn't the one who ran fast
I begin things then I don't follow through
But I have moments of brilliance with you.

There are times when I'm flawless perfection itself
There are times when I'm even amazed at myself
I'll admit it my talents are few
But I have moments of brilliance with you.

I can't draw lines that look straight
I live life a half hour late
As a lover, I'm average, it's true
But I have moments of brilliance with you.

There are times when I'm flawless perfection itself
There are times when I'm even amazed at myself
I'll admit it my talents are few
But I have moments of brilliance with you.

Carrie Brownstein/Sleater-Kinney: Jumpers (2005)

 (please ignore Corin Tucker's screeching; she's Brownstein's Yoko)

I spend the afternoon in cars
I sit in traffic jams for hours
Don't push me, I am not ok

The sky is blue most every day
The lemons grow like tumors
They are tiny suns infused with sour

Lonely as a cloud
In the Golden State
The coldest winter that I ever saw
Was the summer that I spent

The only substance is the fog
And it hides all that has gone wrong
Can't see a thing inside the maze

There is a bridge adored and famed
The Golden spine of engineering
Whose back is heavy with my weight

Lonely as a cloud
In the Golden State
The coldest winter that I ever saw
Was the summer that I spent

Be still this old heart
Be still this old skin
Drink your last drink
Sin your last sin

Sing your last song
About the beginning
Sing it out loud
So the people can hear, let's go

Be still this sad day
Be still this sad year
Hope your last hope
Fear your last fear

You're not the only one
You're not the only one
You're not the only one
You're not the only one, let's go

My falling shape will draw a line
Between the blue of sea and sky
I'm not a bird, I'm not a plane

I took a taxi to the Gate
I will not go to school again
Four seconds was the longest wait

Four seconds was the longest wait
Four seconds was the longest wait
Four seconds was the longest wait
Four seconds was the longest

Carrie Brownstein/Sleater-Kinney: Modern Girl (2005)

 

My baby loves me, I'm so happy
Happy makes me a modern girl
Took my money and bought a TV
TV brings me closer to the world

My whole life
Was like a picture of a sunny day
My whole life
Was like a picture of a sunny day

My baby loves me, I'm so hungry
Hunger makes me a modern girl
Took my money and bought a donut
The hole's the size of this entire world

My whole life
Looks like a picture of a sunny day
My whole life
Looked like a picture of a sunny day

My baby loves me, I'm so angry
Anger makes me a modern girl
Took my money, I couldn't buy nothin'
I'm sick of this brave new world

"A Star Is Born": My favorite version (in order)

(1) 1976: Streisand and Kristofferson.

(2) 1937: Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.

(3) 1954: Judy Garland and James Mason.

(4) 2018: Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. 

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

(1) 1976 -- Streisand's show-tunes did not at all fit in with the theme of her becoming a star via Kristofferson's country-rock fans. (They would have hated her.) And her closing "concert" is very "show-tune obnoxious." And her personality is kind of obnoxious throughout, yet their relationship (pushy-but-kind broad and laid-back dude) seems real. I felt something for both of them, and felt a heavy sense of loss at the end upon Kristofferson's death (not seen on screen, just the aftermath). 

And to think that Streisand first offered Elvis Presley this role in 1974. If he could have handled playing a real role (and handled pretending to be in love with Streisand)---this would have been TOO great!

(2) 1937 -- This is the first version I ever saw, on late-night TV, back when I was a very impressionable teen in the '80s. I felt a lot for this movie, and the people in it, and even wrote a poem about Norman's death at the time (one of my first poems ever, in 1985):

he will die within these waves
sunset-stripped to cloudy gray
and he will float beyond the tide
sinking to a stillness
not barren, not in need of hue

outstretched, he feels his cells divide
as the waters merge
as his salt explodes
as the ether parts
to let him live

(3) 1954 -- Just an entertaining movie. Felt nothing. Was especially annoyed by Garland and her big "show number" in the living room. (I've never found Garland to be as cute as she finds herself.)

(4) 2018 -- I couldn't get beyond the first 20 minutes.
 

Elvis Presley: 1956 in Tupelo, Mississippi

 

 

Erling Haaland's "Flow Kingz"

 10 years ago, a teen Erling and his soccer buddies doing a Norwegian rap about grilling, et al! :)

Norway's Erling Haaland in Dallas

Unfortunately, Haaland and his Norway team lost to England today, but 
he's still captured the attention/imagination of the world with his good-natured 

YouTube posts, like this one while visiting a Western boot/hat store in Dallas. 
(It's nice to see someone appreciating/enjoying America/Texas 

rather than the constant online deprecation from left-wing Americans/Europeans.)

Pool Companions

While tanning/swimming at my apt complex today, I got to hear a grand hours-long fight between a white gal and her Hispanic boyfriend, with her (not "their") 3-year-old son attendant. When I first arrived around noon, it was only the Hispanic guy and the kid. The second I walked over to a deck-chair, the guy, who was sitting under an umbrella, said to me: "Ma'am, if you need an umbrella, you can have this spot; we can move somewhere else."  !!!   #1: Do I look THAT old? :)   #2: There were 3 or 4 other seating areas with umbrellas available around the pool. He could see that... Me: "No, I really need to get some sun! Thanks for asking!"

Minutes later, his white girlfriend came out to the pool. An argument immediately ensued RE who had been disrespectful to whom previously. After loudly telling him to "fuck off" multiple times, he left the pool area. The little kid, who had previously been having a good time, immediately went over to a chair across the pool and started weeping copiously. The mom then made dramatic gestures: "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" And then dramatically gathered him to her breast... A half-hour later, the Hispanic dude reappeared. More "fuck you"s from the mom, plus "Me and my son are doing just fine on our own. I have a nice apartment, we have a happy home---until you always fuck things up!!" This time, SHE exited the pool area, with a dramatic slam of the pool gate, leaving the guy and the kid by themselves. Both seemed just fine afterward. (A real-life storm rolled in a few minutes later, so I went on inside. Don't know what happened to this "happy family.")

GOOD LORD. Who does this---and in front of a witness? And at a supposedly "happy place" like a pool? I feel bad for that little kid. Within 5 years, he'll be spouting "fuck you" just like mom.

Cultural Appropriation: Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy

Helen of Troy, according to the new "Odyssey" movie, is best epitomized by Kenyan Lupita Nyong'o:

Helen of Troy (once of Sparta) is a figure out of Homer's Greek mythology:

"The most beautiful woman in the world." "The face that launched a thousand ships."
Her kidnapping by Paris led to the famous Trojan War.
It's argued whether or not Helen ever actually existed, but her mythological origins are certainly Greek. And the real city of Troy has been identified as existing in the Northwest area of modern-day Turkey:

 

 

Neither Greece nor Turkey are anywhere near the country of Kenya in Africa:

So why did the current "Odyssey" filmmakers choose to make Helen a very dark African woman, rather than relying on historical accuracy? 

On the BBC recently, two different "scholars" talking about the movie have said exactly the same thing (which is blatantly an example of received "talking points" rather than independent thought). 

To paraphrase their arguments: "We all want cultural figures who look like us. Like Jesus, or Santa. Helen of Troy falls into this category. Why is anyone disgruntled by a black Helen?" (Implied: You're only "disgruntled" if you're a racist.)
(1) Jesus: I agree---the Jewish Jesus should obviously never have been portrayed in 1950s US kitsch paintings as a blue-eyed blond! But, similarly, being from Judaea, he was certainly not a black African.
(2) Santa Claus: Initially a real-life 4th-century Greek bishop---St. Nicholas---he morphed with "Father Christmas" in 16th-century England, then was popularized by the northern European Dutch/Belgians/Swiss/Germans in the 18th-century, an image that remains prevalent today in Western countries. Again: If you're a purist, you might insist on a skinny, Greek-looking figure. But he was certainly not a black African.

(3) Helen of Troy: Greek/northern Turkish women do not look anything like Kenyans, or Lupita Nyong'o. Whether or not "Helen of Troy" actually existed, her concept was very much based on actual Greek/Turkish battles and literature, and on THEIR ideals of womanhood. NOT on 2026 politically correct images forced upon us.

Lupita Nyong'o is a pleasant-looking woman. Not a great beauty by any country's standards. But, more importantly, a Kenyan has nothing to do with Greek/Turkish history or standards of beauty, and so is obviously a big distraction in the role of "Helen of Troy." (Much as the Hispanic Rachel Zegler was a big distraction in the role of "Snow White"---based on a German fairy tale, with the name of the heroine based on the adjectival whiteness of her skin. The tale wasn't "Snow Brown." If you want a "Snow Brown," then write your own Hispanic version of it. Don't try to idiotically mangle the original.)
I also just read that Nyong'o was one of the stars of a couple of the "Black Panther" movies. Given that: Now, what if Hollywood liberals suddenly decided that Margot Robbie or Emma Stone should start appearing as heroines in "Black Panther" movies... Do you see how ridiculous that would be? Well, that's exactly as ridiculous as Nyong'o as "Helen of Troy" or Zegler as "Snow White." (Or any black actor as "James Bond.")

Don't like the Western culture that you now live in? 

#1: If you hate it, why are you here? Either make an intellectual effort to learn about/appreciate Western history and why it has worked, or go back home, where you might be happier in poverty rather than victim-complaining about how mean white people have obstructed your alleged potential advancement that never occurred until you started living in the West.

#2: Research your own myths and write about them/make movies about them. But attempting to change Jesus, Santa, and Helen of Troy into black Africans is ridiculous. Even white liberals know this (though they're currently loathe to admit it). But, hey, you still have Aesop!

Viking Row!

https://youtu.be/G5WUEqEkQZU?si=lfgxlxngChg1BW9b

And congrats to underdog England for beating Mexico in their home stadium!

 

HA! I despise Brazil! Congrats, Norway!

July 4th and New Year's Eve: The Fireworks Horror

For the solo person, July 4th and New Year's Eve are nightmares. 

I can easily handle being alone on these holidays, sans family/friends/acquaintances. What is nighmare-ish, though, is the fireworks going off around me. If they're from afar, that's OK. But often they're NOT from afar. Often they're within my apartment complex. Or else at the apartment complex across the street.

Mentally, I like to think that things will be OK when, on July 4, kids stop setting off things before midnight. On New Year's Eve, I think all might be well after 3am.

DEI Hires: Jewish Woman in Mexico, Asian Woman in Peru

The current leader of Mexico: Claudia Sheinbaum

The current leader of Peru: Keiko Fujimori 

Is it just me, or does it seem extremely odd that a Jewish woman is leading Mexico, and that an Asian woman is leading Peru? 

The populations of these countries would NEVER elect such. What Big Corporations are controlling these elections---and promoting these women in an attempt to gain Western money?

Oliver! (1968)

Oliver Twist

A couple of days ago, I had to call my tech company to re-set a password.  

I used "Oliver Twist" as part of my new password. The tech guy was amused at the funny name: "What is that, the name of a movie or something?" 

I tried briefly to explain: "Something Charles Dickens wrote back in the 1830s." I don't think the guy on the phone understood either "Charles Dickens" or "the 1830s." And I also don't think that he would have understood the clever 1968 movie!

Romy: Anatomy of a Face (1967 West German doc clip)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romy:_Anatomy_of_a_Face

And "Bee-Bom" by Sammy Davis, Jr, featured in the film:

Schneider also slept with Davis during this time. 

Apparently, it was de rigueur for many white actresses to sleep with 

token-black-ugly Sammy in the 1960s, to show how non-prejudiced they were!

Dan-o-Rama Joan Crawford Mega-Mix

"Country Roads": Japan stadium, 2019