The cheering section.

As I may have mentioned about a million times before, I like to take a little midweek me-time at a bar near Kate’s Wednesday-night activity. I drop her off for three hours of musical instruction, and I go to the Park Bar for a wrap and two beers. I take my iPad. I read, I write (rarely), I people-watch.

This week was the first time I’d stopped by since Opening Day. Today’s was an afternoon game, but a few hardy souls were still pounding shots and being incredibly loud when I arrived at 6. One woman had tucked her shot glass into her cleavage and telling her friends that she was ABOUT TO BE FORTY-THREE, AND GODDAMNIT, I THINK I’M BETTER THAN EVER.

John Mellencamp interrupted on the sound system. They joined together like a pack of coyotes:

SO LET IT ROCK, LET IT ROLL, LET THE BIBLE BELT COME AND SAVE MY SOUL. HOLD ONTO SIXTEEN AS LONG AS YOU CAN. CHANGES COME AROUND REAL SOON MAKE US WOMEN AND MEN. Then she took out her shot and downed it.

It was sort of annoying, and then I reflected that the library doesn’t serve Stella Artois and I was the odd one out.

Hoosiers, is it true? Is it true Dick Lugar isn’t long for this world? He was always the Republican I never minded voting for, and not because he’s some flaming liberal. You couldn’t help but respect his intellect, which informed his positions, more than you can say for most politicians, especially more contemporary ones.

And while we’re on the subject of politics, here’s James Fallows on current events:

Mitt Romney informs us that the raid that took out Osama bin Laden one year ago was no big deal, because “even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.” …Jimmy Carter is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who spent ten years in the uniformed service of his country. As far as I can tell, this is ten years more than the cumulative service of all members of the Romney clan.

Why, yes. Yes, it is.

Finally, do I have to have an opinion about Barack Obama, boyfriend? Because I’d prefer not to.

The downslope of the week! How wonderful.

Posted at 12:03 am in Current events, Detroit life |
 

50 responses to “The cheering section.”

  1. coozledad said on May 3, 2012 at 7:20 am

    Well, “even Jimmy Carter” would have given that order, but acting president Donald Rumsfeld refused the opportunity in 2005:
    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/the-hunt-for-bin-laden-and-president-obama.php?ref=fpa

    Musharraf had the Republicans by their tiny, tiny balls. And flight suit boy was completely out of the loop.

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  2. alex said on May 3, 2012 at 7:53 am

    The Salon piece says the public behavior of Lugar’s challenger, unlike that of the Tea Party senatorial candidates the last time around, hasn’t branded him as a kook. Funny, everything that comes out of Richard Mourdock’s pie hole is the same shit that came out of Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell. The difference is that it doesn’t shock anymore, and he exhibits a dour face instead of a smirk and crazy eyes.

    I was going to go support Lugar next week, along with a local politician, John McGauley. That was until I saw McGauley endorsing Mourdock. I think I’ll just stay home now and let the GOP go fuck itself in the ass.

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  3. Deborah said on May 3, 2012 at 7:59 am

    Nancy, I’m curious now why you don’t want to have an opinion about the Obama Vanity Fair piece? I found it fascinating.

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  4. beb said on May 3, 2012 at 8:16 am

    I got hooked on the band “Bowling for Soup” because of their song “1985.” It has great lines like “whose that singing with Van Halen” and “when did Motley Crue become classic rock?” The title refers when she got married, had children, etc. It’s a nice compliment to Mellencamp but a little more down-beat.

    The “even Jimmy Carter” line really ought to be rolled up like a dunce hat and stuck on Romney’s head for the rest of the campaign. How can anyone forget that Carter did, or that “W” didn’t.

    Dick Lugar became a senator shortly before a moved to Detroit. So I only had the one chance to vote against him. And did. I could never vote for him because he was to reactionary. That he is being attacked from the right tells you how far the Republican party has gone off the edge.

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  5. nancy said on May 3, 2012 at 8:17 am

    I dunno, Deborah. I guess I want the guy to have a little privacy in his life, and reading about his Brut and sweat-smell felt kinda skeevy.

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  6. alex said on May 3, 2012 at 8:33 am

    Brut? Why that’s more embarrassing than a love child. When did Vanity Fair become a secret organ of the right?

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  7. Julie Robinson said on May 3, 2012 at 8:35 am

    Lugar is being punished because he wouldn’t bow down to Grover Norquist and has made the occasional foray into bipartisanship. I have great respect for the Nixon-goes-to-China work he did to get nukes out of Russia 10-12 years ago. But, have you ever heard him speak? Zzzzzzz.

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  8. coozledad said on May 3, 2012 at 8:35 am

    I can’t imagine what it would be like, as Atrios says, to have your old girlfriends dishing on you. Publicly anyway.
    The French exchange student I dated would be a lot less charitable than Genevieve, I’m sure.
    He took me to what he glibly referred to as an “American Charcuterie”. There was a statue of a man in dungarees holding a hamburger. “That’s Bob” he told me. “He is the head of a powerful moon cult that has forsaken most vegetables.” I knew he was lying, but I was starving.
    The crepes were thick and unwieldy. I heaped my plate with potatoes, believing they were safe…”Can all Americans be this cheap?” I asked myself…

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  9. Hank Stuever said on May 3, 2012 at 8:38 am

    Thank you, Nancy, for CHANGES COME AROUND REAL SOON MAKE _US WOMEN AND MEN._ Every Mellencamp hit is a tangle of misheard lyrics for me, up there with Mick Jagger, and all these years I had the changes he sang about make us “swimmin’ somethin’-somethin’.” I still don’t know what Jack wanted to do behind a shady tree, (Drooble off those body bookbags?) but I wasn’t far off: DRIBBLE OFF THOSE BOBBY BROOKS, LET ME DO WHAT I PLEASE.

    What a mushmouth.

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  10. nancy said on May 3, 2012 at 8:42 am

    It’s Bobbie Brooks, Hank, a clothing line that was once ubiquitous in teen girls’ closets but seems to have had a comedown. Dollar General? The sub-basement of Wal-Mart?

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  11. Hank Stuever said on May 3, 2012 at 8:58 am

    Yeah, sounds like it droobled off.

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  12. brian stouder said on May 3, 2012 at 9:19 am

    I can’t imagine what it would be like, as Atrios says, to have your old girlfriends dishing on you. Publicly anyway.

    Word, Cooz.

    You know – not to commit an “internet over-share”, but I will say that when I was in my lower 20’s, I became involved with a woman who personified the word “insatiable”; and I will plainly confess – I could not keep up with her (although I tried mightily, for a year or two).

    If she wanted to dish on me (if she remembers me at all!) I’d be an absurd little footnote, in what must otherwise by now be a genuinely astounding narrative.

    But, we digress

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  13. Deborah said on May 3, 2012 at 9:30 am

    Oh good, this is going to be a fun comment thread today.

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  14. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 3, 2012 at 9:40 am

    Sen. Lugar is a trustee for Denison University, and I had to sleep with someone to learn more about him. Anyhow, my wife says a) his staff is the most friendly AND professional of any of the muckety-mucks she works with (there are more friendly staffs, and more professional staffs, but the combo is a tricky one), and in her experience, individuals, whatever their actual or imputed power, are wonderfully reflected in their staff choices and the teamwork they exhibit. And b) when you’re dealing with him (I’ve only had two conversations with him myself, both standing up, in general group event settings, so fwiw), he’s dangerously close to self-effacing for a US Senator. Sherrod Brown is hands down my favorite politician to talk to, especially when Connie Schultz is standing there with him, but Dick Lugar is friendly, very knowledgable, but totally without any hint of “and I know SO much stuff I can’t talk about” which he surely does. Then he asks if he can get you another cup of coffee or glass of punch . . . and does.

    He’s just so atypical a national pol . . . but the fact that he didn’t maintain a figleaf residence in Indiana baffles me. It’s why he will lose, if he does. This is so simple, so politically obvious: except I really believe he just couldn’t bring himself to create a fake residence. It’s the only reasonable explanation, and it makes me like him even more in a way — flying back and forth every week is a young person’s game, and I can see why he just stopped. But I’d have kept a small homestead on one of the family farms, which he actually can talk about as a farmer, but since he hasn’t been on a tractor for thirty years, he just didn’t put himself through that kind of subterfuge.

    The good thing about his losing, and it’s minuscule, is that he’s likely to spend more time here in Granville, OH if he does. But I think the Senate and Indiana and the country benefit from him being in the Capitol.

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  15. Connie said on May 3, 2012 at 10:03 am

    As to knowing what it would be like to have your old girlfriends dishing on you…. I am reading “Triggers” the new book by Robert J. Sawyer, award winning science fiction writer and author of “Flash Forward”. An odd combination of circumstances gives several people access to someone else’s memories, including the President. The President finds himself experiencing someone else’s Iraq War flashback. Others remember being molested or having great sex. A secret service agent assigned to watch over the elderly Mississippi woman who now has the President’s memories has access to her memories and realizes she thinks of him as “that n****r”. And a lawyer find he has the best sex ever with the woman who has his memories.

    So they are having their own memories “dish” on them.

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  16. Connie said on May 3, 2012 at 10:14 am

    Recently someone on this list commented on the lack of tulips this year at Holland’s Tulip Time. Tulip Time just posted the following on their facebook page. Stem Fest!

    Although our tulips are still with us (Centennial Park is GORGEOUS), we’re anticipating their early departure with our Stem Fest 2012 T-Shirts. They’re in a limited quantity and they’re already flying off the shelves. Get yours today before they’re gone! https://www.tuliptime.com/stem-fest-2012-t-shirt

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  17. Sue said on May 3, 2012 at 10:45 am

    “I can’t imagine what it would be like, as Atrios says, to have your old girlfriends dishing on you. Publicly anyway.”
    Holy gods, Cooz, you mean you haven’t told us everything yourself already? There’s MORE?

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  18. brian stouder said on May 3, 2012 at 10:49 am

    Holy gods, Cooz, you mean you haven’t told us everything yourself already? There’s MORE?

    That sounds like a “hanging curve” (so to speak) right over the plate, if you ask me…

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  19. basset said on May 3, 2012 at 11:01 am

    “Hold on to sixteen”? I’ve spent the last forty years trying to forget sixteen, or heal up a little anyway.

    Mellencamp came into my mother’s office at the Bloomington street department once, wanting a street closed temporarily for some event or another. Everyone else in the building was peeking around doors and getting all excited, she didn’t know who he was but said he was “nice.”

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  20. Dave said on May 3, 2012 at 11:04 am

    Alex, I’m still going to go vote to vote against Mourdock, although I’m afraid it may be a futile gesture. I, too, was going to support McGauley, didn’t know he’d endorsed Mourdock. So much for that. I really dislike Mourdock. I was pleased to see that the Tea Party Express bus that went through here Sunday only drew about 300 people, from accounts I read.
    http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/tea-party-express-stops-in-fort-wayne-eight-days-before-the-indiana-primary

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  21. coozledad said on May 3, 2012 at 11:12 am

    Sue: One of the reasons I use a pseudonym is I’m deeply afraid of waking some of the ghosts of my past. The worst would be the woman who was convinced I gave her diarrhea through telekinesis.
    I tried to assure her my powers are limited to hiding things from myself, or suspending the laws of physics to enhance the perception that I never know what I am doing, but she wouldn’t hear any of it. To her, I will always be the guy who used his mind to give her the shits.

    My wife gets suspicious of me any time she gets colicky as it is.

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  22. Prospero said on May 3, 2012 at 11:59 am

    Obama in the VF excerpt.

    At a cursory glance: psychobabble that reaches the level of “Kenyan anti-colonial”. And I still don’t get that anti-colonial shit. Isn’t that the single greatest foundational American attitude?

    Horribly pedestrian book title. Given the author’s name, how did somebody at the publishing house not come up with “Honey, I Shrunk the President”?

    How can anybody vote for a guy named after the undeground cannibal beasts from “The Time Machine”?

    Sad, but it sounds from what y’all are saying that had Lugar kept a room on C Street and pretended an association with the Fellowship (of Unspeakable Evil), this Morlock guy would be a nonentity. As it is, he’s fairly obviously destined to be the next Sen. Demented, the bane of South Carolina’s existence. At least we’ve got Linsay Graham, who is a paragon of standing for the courage of his convictions, when it isn’t inconvenient.

    My favorite Mellencamp malapropism is in Little Pink Houses (aka Morning in America), where the reminiscing old narrator is telling his beloved how he remembers when her face “could stop a clock”. Was that supposed to be romantic.

    I always wished Bobby Fuller woulld sue Mr. Cougar for plagiarism. Swapping out “law” for “authority” is transparent, and leaving out the bopbopbopbopbopbop six gun is no defense.

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  23. alex said on May 3, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Dave, I may still go out and vote on Tuesday but McGauley’s endorsement really put me off. Perhaps endorsing Mourdock has simply become pro forma, like kissing Cathie Humbarger’s ring, for those who hope to have any chance of being elected to office in Allen County.

    (For those who don’t know Humbarger, she’s a local anti-abortion zealot who has successfully positioned herself as a kingmaker. Pols fall all over themselves trying to make her believe they’re at least as fanatical as she is.)

    Our only hope is that normal people will recognize the folly of Lugar being trounced by someone so vastly inferior and will get their asses out to vote next Tuesday.

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  24. Dave said on May 3, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    Pros, you must wonder, as have I, what kind of career Bobby Fuller could have had. Now, you’ve gone and stuck both of those songs in my head.

    My youngest met John Mellencamp at some sort of an affair in Indy, in which his son was taking part. He didn’t find him at all friendly but then, sometimes, I wonder how those folks put up with the thing they wanted after they get it, that being money and fame, and the bothers that come with it.

    We saw him once in a Bob Evans (yes, Bob Evans) in Columbus, IN, nobody bothered him but the Bob Evans assistant manager, who appeared to have some slight connection to him. I say some slight connection because of the overheard conversation, they were in the next booth.

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  25. Hattie said on May 3, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    We all get to go to hell in our own ways, I guess.

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  26. LAMary said on May 3, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    I know the person who came up with the title, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” Same person came up with “Field of Dreams.”

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  27. Jason T. said on May 3, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    I never thought much about Mellencamp one way or another until I began dating my future wife, who’s a big Mellencamp fan. Even then, I was kind of “meh” until I saw him in concert two years ago.

    He destroyed the place. He absolutely “tore the roof off of the dump” for more than two hours, with only one five minute break. It was just one raw number after another — his new stuff and his “greatest hits,” plus vintage blues and rockabilly. And he’s what, 60 now?

    The man works like he still has something to prove — like his songs aren’t ubiquitous on classic rock radio. I seriously dig that.

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  28. Jeff Borden said on May 3, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    I heard on the radio this morning that the anti-gay legislation in North Carolina is winning by 14% with the vote next Tuesday. The same report said the legislation was so badly written and so vague that it would have significant impact on ANY kind of civil union, so it’s clear the brightest minds in the N.C. legislature wrote it.

    The same program ran a clip of some dipshit named Pastor Sean Harris of Fayetteville, N.C., who told his congregation that if a son seems effeminate go ahead and hit him. Here’s the transcript:

    “Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? ‘You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male.’ ”

    I’m not picking on the Tar Heel State, but that’s an ugly one-two punch in one morning. Or maybe I just need more coffee.

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  29. Prospero said on May 3, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    The President is in good company with the ex-girlfriend biographical sourcing. Suze Rotolo did the same thing to Bob Dylan a couple of years back.

    Soooo, Kaopectate is coozledad’s Kryptonite.

    Jeff, “Pastor” Harris made an official policy to “any Christians he might have offended.” And the creepiest thing the guy said was telling parents to tell their “too butch” daughters to “smell like girls”. Guy sounds like Olivia and Elliot need to knock him around an interview room. Lawrence O’Donnell took the pervert apart on his show last night:

    http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/03/11511969-rewriting-pastor-harris-hateful-sermon

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  30. coozledad said on May 3, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    Borden: If the pro amendment creeps win, it’s because the right wing churches were whoring for it. The wife of the dead motherfucker who introduced the amendment said the purpose of the bill was “to save the caucasian race”.

    What the Republicans and blue dog trash have done here is get the pastors Bush bought off with his faith-based palm grease riled up again. One of them, Byrd Blackwell, showed up the Person County Democratic convention and started whining about how “failure to pass amendment one would effectively prohibit him from preaching from Romans”. That “Christians are being persecuted everywhere you look, and the law of god outweighs the law of man (I presume he meant the Constitution here). Instead of just calling him out as the cash hunting piece of human garbage he is, I suggested he was just an unwitting tool of Art Pope, which went directly over his head (or he hadn’t prepared his grift fully).

    I don’t give a fuck what anyone says, they need to tax that trash back out on the street, where they can learn to panhandle with a little bit more dignity.

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  31. Deborah said on May 3, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    How did we go from revealing salacious information to Mellencamp? I saw him rehearsing for some outdoor gig at Daley Plaza a couple of years ago. I thought he was awfully good looking for a man of his age.

    edit: I just got my computer at work all upgraded and had Chrome downloaded which I’m using right now, and nn.c asked me to input my name and e-mail again. Hope this works.

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  32. Julie Robinson said on May 3, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    I’ve mentioned this before but I saw Mellencamp perform in his early Johnny Cougar days, during orientation at IU in 1974, on Dunn Meadow. He was wearing some kind of animal print stretchy pants and didn’t show much promise during the brief time I listened.

    Boy oh boy would I hate to have old boyfriends interviewed. Nance is right; it’s skeevy.

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  33. Prospero said on May 3, 2012 at 12:57 pm

    Sheppard Smith has been Nooz Corpse last tenuous link to reality for a long time, but Newt’s campaign suspension and RMoney’s reaction have driven the poor guy around the bend. He does manage to point out that these bastards “suspend” their campaigns because that allows them to continue to collect contributions.

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  34. Charlotte said on May 3, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    Thanks Prospero — was going to post that. “Weird.” long pause. “And creepy.” long pause. “And completely divorced from reality.”
    I’ve sort of had a soft spot for him ever since he lost his shit after Katrina (in the best way). Apparently Rachel Maddow played the clip and commented, but I don’t have cable anymore and haven’t gone to look it up online …

    And I’m still giggling about the warm birthday cleavage shot …

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  35. Bitter Scribe said on May 3, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    Regarding Lugar and his residence:

    In his definitive bio of Joe McCarthy, Richard Rovere discussed this phenomenon, in the context of McCarthy’s first Senate win, over Robert LaFollette. He said something to the effect of, many Senators find themselves dealing with very important issues and people, nationally and internationally, and they lose their appetite for glad-handling down-home politics. Eventually some opponent comes along, not necessarily a McCarthy, but in all probability someone of limited perspectives, and accuses them of being an out-of-touch elitist Washington insider.

    Let’s hope this ends better for Lugar than it did for LaFollette, who ended up killing himself after McCarthy beat him. I can never understand why losing an election should be such a shattering tragedy for a high-level pol, whose service should leave him or her with enough connections to ensure a comfortable life.

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  36. JWfromNJ said on May 3, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    Prospero – I think the anti-Colonial thing is a suggestive of the idea that Africans and non-whites are better or more civilized under the firm hand of the British monarchy whereas us white folks in the USA can handle our own affairs. I may be reading way too much into that though.

    I’ve basing some of that on the current dialog out of Jamaica where their prime minister Portia Simpson Miller is seeking to seperate from the Brits entirely and many of the older generation don’t think that’s a good thing. Prince Harry recently visited on the Queen’s behalf and was pretty charming and handled that debate with class. I’ve been hooked on reading the Jamaica Gleaner and Jamaica Observer for a few years because the mix of great AP Style and patois is a joy.

    Beb – “who’s the other guy singing in Van Halen?” Given when the song was released I don’t think that was a dig at Sammy Hager but the short lived and not-too-memorable tenure of Gary Cherone.

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  37. Peter said on May 3, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    I guess I wouldn’t mind if my old girlfriends told all. State of the world as it is, we could all use a good laugh.

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  38. Sue said on May 3, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    Nice kitty… Nice kitty…
    http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c3#/video/us/2012/05/03/bts-lion-tries-to-eat-boy.cnn

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  39. Deborah said on May 3, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    “I can never understand why losing an election should be such a shattering tragedy for a high-level pol, whose service should leave him or her with enough connections to ensure a comfortable life.”

    Bitter Scribe, I always think that most politcal people are extremely self-involved. Reading Obama’s early letters to his girlfriends shows that he certainly was wrapped up in himself (at least back then). It must be very, very hard for them to lose, especially after having won so many for so long.

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  40. Prospero said on May 3, 2012 at 2:55 pm

    JW: That exact slant hadn’t occurred to me, though the white man’s burden/racist appeal of the implied MauMau connection is painfully obvious.

    No matter how you look at it, Sammy Hagar is twice as obnoxious as Diamond Dave at his worst; I can’t drive 55 is lamer than I fight authority, authority always wins, and that’s so lame you need to crack that wrist, give ’em a good punch, and tell ’em to smell like a girl.

    Bowling for Soup, 1985. Very clever post-modern cultural references. 1985 is the year Dave left and Senor Cabo Wabo entered VH.

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  41. Connie said on May 3, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    For what’s it worth I spent a large chunk of the 80s and 90s living in Seymour, John Mellencamp’s home town. In fact you get a quick glimpse of my library at the beginning of the “Small Town” video. I never met John, though my husband did and said John just wanted to chat about his (Tom’s) big lawn tractor. John bought the local skating rink in order to save it, and it was run by his brother. One Sunday afternoon my friend took her daughter skating and the only other people in the rink where John and his daughter. Very exciting for friend. He also provides assistance to the Southern Indiana Center for the Arts in Seymour, which sells posters of two of his paintings. http://www.soinart.com/mellencamp.html. Paintings for which I fail to see the appeal.

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  42. brian stouder said on May 3, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    My lovely wife always liked Mellencamp, and she and I attended one of his shows* at what used to be called Deer Creek – an outdoor theater just north of Indy.

    There is nothing at all like a Mellencamp show nestled in an Indiana cornfield on a July evening – it was as superb as Jason T says.

    And a non-sequitur (sort of); the sweetest senior-citizen-woman-who-lives-across-the- street; a woman who might be 4′ 6″ tall and who genuinely reminds me of Piglet (and I truly do mean that as a sincere compliment), and who is a dyed in the wool Democrat and who supports President Obama as firmly as I do, says she used to cross-over to vote for Lugar (in November) but won’t anymore, “because he doesn’t live here”.

    So, bonus points to Jeff tmmo; I think he points to something that doesn’t matter to me at all, but which may well be decisive

    *The opening act was Blind Mellon. I think their one big hit was still somewhat fresh, but they.were.absolutely.completely.irretrievably.TERRIBLE!!

    The lead singer was literally rolling around on the stage, howling incoherently.

    It came as no surprise to us when we heard of his untimely death (a few months later? I think)

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  43. beb said on May 3, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    JW from NJ: Given that the song “1985” talks about the changes in the world since 1985 I’m pretty sure it was a reference to (but not a dig at) Sammy Hager.

    The phrase “Kenyan anti-colonial” has to read as one unit, from what I recall reading about this when it was first run out. There was something about the Kenyans fighting for freedom, but I don’t recall what it was.

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  44. Prospero said on May 3, 2012 at 5:01 pm

    I realize that John Mellencamp is not really responsible for that Johnny Cougar crap, and he seems like a very solid citizen with admirable instincts and beliefs, who accepts the responsibilities of being a citizen. It’s just that I think his music is derivative mostly, and the lyrics generally are sadly banal, and frequently clumsy. Still, blind pigs and truffles:

    a very good Mellencamp song.

    Funny Mike Luckovich cartoon take on Newt’s campaign hiatus:

    http://comics.washingtonpost.com/11_editorialcartoons_mike-luckovich.html

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  45. Connie said on May 3, 2012 at 5:39 pm

    Just for Nancy: 100 disturbing clown images. http://mitchoconnell.blogspot.com/2012/03/clown-art-top-100-most-disturbing.html I kind of miss the scary clowns sidebar you used to have.

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  46. Prospero said on May 3, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    Fallen on hard times; the Blind Melon bee-girl:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa0LulnKVV0

    In her salad days:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VhA3jxyk18&feature=fvwp&NR=1

    Even Mellencamp never lifted a song so obviously as Blind Lemon robbed the Dead on this one.

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  47. brian stouder said on May 3, 2012 at 8:59 pm

    Prospero – here’s a non-sequitur for you.

    Back in the day, I heard THIS song, by Stone Temple Pilots:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEZbAbd_cJ0

    and went right out and snapped up the Stone Temple Pilots album that contained it. I love Pearl Jam; always have. I thought – Pearl Jam is grunge/Seattle/new stuff, and STP is, too, right? and Eddie Vedder referred to those guys a time or two, and so how could it miss?

    And, it was terrible, except for Sour Girl.

    Usually, if I like a song then I’ll like the album; and STP is the exception that proved the rule. (I still own the album, and still love this song. And the odd video is strangely affecting)

    (I love love love Florence and the Machine; got her new album for my birthday, and it is sublime)

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  48. Minnie said on May 3, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    Sue, I have to wonder about those folks’ survival instincts. Big’uns eat the litl’uns, fight or flight, run away, run away.

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  49. Dexter said on May 3, 2012 at 11:23 pm

    J.Bo.- at #28 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTiBv99MYDk

    This asshole is flat out nuts. It’s hard to recall anything I have ever heard that is more offensive.

    Also, I was busier than ever and had to leave the Cubs-Redlegs game broadcast in the bottom of the eighth with the Cubs sailing along and the Redlegs just about dead. Later I heard the Cubs rallied to tie and won on a Scott Rolen sac-fly in the tenth.

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  50. Bill said on May 3, 2012 at 11:39 pm

    Dex: I think you mean the Reds rallied to tie and win in extra innings. The Cub’s closer (Marmol) walked in the tying runs. There is a huge hue and cry about why the Cub’s manager didn’t pull him after he walked the first two batters. Mrs. Bill called it when Marmol came on in the bottom of the ninth. Damn Cubs!

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