Certifiable. And with a TV show.

I think it was Dexter who mentioned the other day that Ginger Baker, like Roseanne Barr, is certifiable. He certainly is, and if “Beware of Mister Baker” rolls around on your streaming service, it’s worth your time to see just how much. My favorite was the thread where he complains that Jack Bruce and his lyricist held all the publishing copyrights, and Eric Clapton turned into God, and where does that leave ol’ Ginge? Broke and struggling, that’s where. Later, we learn he made a few million doing the One Last Tour thing, plenty for a gentleman well into his senior years to live out his life in comfort.

At least if he doesn’t go out and immediately buy 23 polo ponies and endow a veterinary hospital, that is.

Shorter above: Artists be crazy. But man, once you listen closely to the layers of rhythm Baker maintains on those old Cream tracks, and realize he was playing them all at once, and it’s almost forgivable. Unless you’re the guy he’s clubbing with a garden tool.

So, the week, it flies by. Helps when it’s only four days. The heat has not relented, but promises to by this weekend, when it will dip into the cooler 70s. Thank goddess our air conditioning is still holding out; it was of indeterminate age when we bought the house 13 years ago, but when I asked it to start up last weekend, it did. But I’m expecting the meltdown any year now, and it won’t be fun. Or cheap.

Meanwhile, speaking of Roseanne, of all the takes available for you to read, let me recommend but one — this one, from the Hollywood Reporter. Sample:

To say that Roseanne had skeletons in her closet does not accurately describe her situation. Roseanne had skeletons on her front lawn, with a massive neon arrow reading “SKELETONS” pointing to all the skeletons. It wasn’t even a “lawn” so much as an enormous pile of bleached bones.

For that reason, this whole sordid episode also represents a pretty spectacular failure by entertainment journalists to hold ABC’s feet to the fire. Since May of last year, story after story about Roseanne has treated her extensive history of public cruelty and racism as little more than a midgrade marketing challenge for ABC, if it was acknowledged at all. She was “controversial,” “outspoken,” you know, all the usual terms media types use to avoid calling a racist a racist — all this while she continued to pump out an unbroken stream of bananas tweets.

God, so true. “Controversial” may be my least-favorite word in journalism, and if you let me, I will drone on and on about it, but I especially hate it when it’s used as a euphemism for something like this, which is simply bald-ass racism. Kinda like Dinesh D’Souza, soon to be pardoned by our chief executive. That guy? Is a RACIST. He doesn’t even try to hide it, no he doesn’t:

When we look back on this era, those of us who lived through it may be asked what we did to stop it. I hope we all have a good answer.

With that, I am bowing out of what was, admittedly, a half-assed week around here. I have some balls in the air. When and where they fall I do not know, but I will keep you informed.

In the meantime, it’s now June! Summer! Enjoy it.

Posted at 9:11 pm in Current events, Popculch |
 

31 responses to “Certifiable. And with a TV show.”

  1. Deborah said on May 31, 2018 at 11:24 pm

    Nancy, please do go on about controversial, I’d like to hear more of what you have to say.

    I’m back in Abiquiu where internet access is sketchy but better than it used to be. I keep telling myself that I will go cold turkey on being “connected” but then I get curious about what’s going on in the world. It’s an obsession.

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  2. Dexter Friend said on June 1, 2018 at 5:09 am

    While watching a great basketball game from Oakland, and the Cavs leading by 4, the power cut off. I waited, then listened to the last action-packed minutes on a fading transistor radio. A total Cleveland brain-screw-up, a major fight…anyway, after 45 minutes of meditating over lighted tea candles, I hopped into the van to scout which ‘hoods were also down. The whole town was black, even Walmart, save for a few security lights inside. One traffic light worked…just the one. I shouldn’t have been out there, but drivers were very courteous and alert at black intersections, and I went back home. After 2 hours the power came back on just long enough to boot the cable box, then off again for 25 minutes. Hell of it was that it was Defiance and Paulding counties who were under alert. We’re in Williams County.
    I don’t care if Trump pardons Martha Stewart; she did time after she lied and obstructed justice, let her have a clean record, who cares?
    Blago? No matter how much people still may hate him, do you agree he should now be released from prison? I do, I think he should have his sentence reduced to time-served, though, and not be pardoned. The point has been made, free Blago, but make him wear his record as a criminal.
    Trump? LOCK HIM UP LOCK HIM UP

    Chazz Palminteri was on the radio, promoting the new musical version of “A Bronx Tale”, in which Chazz, as “Sonny” again, sings.
    I love the movie and watched it Thursday night OnDemand . What a night it would be to go see this new play in New York, then go to Chazz’s NYC restaurant. https://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-01-15-1452870198-8354910-chazzrestoaurant-thumb.jpg

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  3. Suzanne said on June 1, 2018 at 7:16 am

    Congressional Candidate In Virginia Admits He’s A Pedophile
    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nathan-larson-congressional-candidate-pedophile_us_5b10916de4b0d5e89e1e4824
    “A lot of people are tired of political correctness and being constrained by it,” so he just admits to being a creep.

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  4. Judybusy said on June 1, 2018 at 9:13 am

    Yeesh, don’t have time to find out more about Ginger Baker. He made one of my all-time favorite albums, Horses and Trees, which I’ve mentioned here. I couldn’t find it for the longest time, then lo and behold, the free music app that my library offers, Freegal has the whole album. The app is as glitchy as hell, but I really appreciate having that music available again.

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  5. ninja3000 said on June 1, 2018 at 9:32 am

    Baker, Moon, Bonham. Does anybody actually drum like this anymore? (Forget it, I know the answer.)

    “Fresh Cream” and “Disraeli Gears” must be listened to by anybody who wants to know what real musicianship is all about.

    Nice words of appreciation, Nancy!

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  6. Jeff Borden said on June 1, 2018 at 10:22 am

    When “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” premiered in 1974, advertisements asked, “Who will survive and what will be left of them?”

    I’m beginning to wonder in the wake of this terrible, awful, horrible *presidency, “What will survive and what will be left of it?” The Orange King is taking a wrecking ball to everything. Everything. And we’re not even halfway through his term.

    Can we be sure our allies in Europe and Mexico will return to the fold once this abomination is banished from our public lives? Can we be sure Americans will ever again have faith and trust in critical institutions of democracy? And can we be sure we will never again elect a profoundly ignorant, deeply troubled, racist, misogynist and thoroughly corrupt creature as our leader?

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  7. Suzanne said on June 1, 2018 at 11:04 am

    Sadly, Jeff, I’d say the answer to your questions is No. I posted at the end of yesterday’s comments about an interview I listened to with a Trump supporter. She still supports him because she voted for him precisely to distrupt things and that’s what he’s doing. I hear the same from several friends and relatives that voted for him. They wanted a distrupter. I don’t honestly think any of them considered what that could do, but they are getting what they want so they don’t care what other damage it does.

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  8. beb said on June 1, 2018 at 11:29 am

    Just in time to catch the blowback from Roseanne, Samantha Bee decided to call Ivanka Trump a “feckless cunt.” Pearls are being clutched, but seriously feckless cunt seems like one of the milder things one could say about the grifting daughter of a weasel.

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  9. Suzanne said on June 1, 2018 at 11:36 am

    Keep in mind, Beb, that Ted Nugent called Hillary a c*nt and has been Trump’s guest in the White House. So, the right’s outrage is a bit much.

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  10. Jolene said on June 1, 2018 at 12:24 pm

    WaPo reporter, Phil Rucker, pointed out on Twitter that the word that has gotten Samantha Bee in trouble appeared frequently on T-shirts that were sold and worn at Trump rallies during the campaign. Fake outrage.

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  11. Sherri said on June 1, 2018 at 12:47 pm

    I had to stop watching Samantha Bee a while back, not because vulgarity bothers me, but because I can only handle so much outrage even when I agree with it. I disengaged with Twitter this week and read some mind candy books: Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians trilogy. I screwed up my meds a few weeks ago, and have been working to get back to a more even keel.

    As for disruption, sure, I want to disrupt the status quo. But I have a clear idea of why I want to disrupt, what I want to disrupt, and how to disrupt that doesn’t involve just tearing everything apart just to watch it burn. I don’t think many trump supporters have thought much beyond “I don’t like what’s happening.” Others who have want to destroy everything because they’re convinced they will be on top in the ensuing rebuild. The wealthiest don’t care, because they’ll make money on the destruction and the rebuild, and think they’ve insulated themselves from the destruction.

    Trump doesn’t think, he just reacts to what makes him feel like the King of the World at this instant.

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  12. Scout said on June 1, 2018 at 12:55 pm

    The pearl clutching is typical of the right. It (anything, everything) is only wrong if a liberal does it.
    https://twitter.com/sallykohn/status/785633172771966976/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecut.com%2F2016%2F10%2Fthe-most-misogynistic-things-people-wore-to-trump-rallies.html

    IF we survive this hot mess with our democracy intact there must be new safeguards in place to avoid it ever happening again. For starters, candidates must be REQUIRED to release their tax returns, have an independent physical and psych exam, take a civics test and they must sign a contract asserting they will not profit off the office. Only if all the criteria is met can they be put on the ballot. I think if serious changes are made and we clean up our act the world might trust us again. Might.

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  13. Mark P said on June 1, 2018 at 1:30 pm

    Saying the right is hypocritical is like saying Ted Bundy was naughty. The right has used up that word, and now we need a new one.

    Did anyone see my comment on the last post about the Georgia Republican Party calling for the Democratic nominee for governor to release her income tax returns? Her campaign’s response was measured, but if it had been me, I would have let them have it.

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  14. beb said on June 1, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    Maybe peope are upset with Samantha Bee because she said Ivanka was “feckless” and they have no idea what that needs. Maybe they assume that means something worse than “cunt”

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  15. Mark P said on June 1, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    I didn’t mean let them have the returns, I mean call them out on it in forceful terms.

    Did anyone see Trump’s “press conference” about the NK meeting and other things that he knows nothing about? I wish the news media would quit acting like he knows anything about what he’s talking about.

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  16. David C. said on June 1, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    When the right latches onto something like the Samantha Bee thing, I always re-read Heather Parton’s “Remedial Hissy”. It was written nine years ago, but still fresh as a daisy.

    https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/remedial-hissy-by-digby-uhm-everyone.html

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  17. nancy said on June 1, 2018 at 4:07 pm

    The potty talk got all the headlines, but the funniest line in Bee’s screed about Ivanka was this: “Put on something tight and low cut and tell your father to f—ing stop it.”

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  18. Deborah said on June 1, 2018 at 6:03 pm

    Jeff tmmo, you probably already know this, there’s a fire around Philmont. 8,000 acres so far zero containment. It’s VERY dry and windy. If I heard right on the car radio some of the buildings have succumbed to the fire already. No scouts are there yet thank goodness. I thought of you as soon as I heard.

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  19. Deborah said on June 1, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    Jeff tmmo, https://www.abqjournal.com/1179398/ute-park-fire-grows-to-8000-acres-town-of-cimarron-under-mandatory-evacuation.html

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  20. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 1, 2018 at 9:42 pm

    Deborah, thank you; I’m hearing the major damage was to a new property, an older youth camp just west of the core section of the Philmont property we weren’t using much yet — but the entire staff at base camp, and the town of Cimarron are all being evacuated for air quality concern. The fires are directly upwind of Cimarron and the main area. Obviously, if they keep burning east, they’re basically going to cut the ranch in half, and all those trek crews converging from around the nation are going to get told to stay home . . . I just can’t imagine.

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  21. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 1, 2018 at 10:08 pm

    http://philmontscoutranch.org/About/FireInformation.aspx

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  22. Deborah said on June 1, 2018 at 11:18 pm

    Today was my husband’s birthday, as a joke I got him a bottle of the Bob Dylan, Heaven’s Door bourbon, but it didn’t get delivered in time which I suspected. When I ordered it weeks ago they said it wouldn’t even be released until May 28, so I knew it was a long shot getting here by June 1. I also found out that they sold out online but I made it and should be receiving the bottle soon.

    I heard on the radio today that it’s also Ronnie Wood’s birthday of The Rolling Stones.

    A friend of mine is trying to set up another Belfast trip in early October to see Van Morrison. I have to admit I’m tempted.

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  23. Deborah said on June 1, 2018 at 11:20 pm

    Hey, whatever happened to St. B?

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  24. Dexter Friend said on June 2, 2018 at 2:01 am

    Trump rally uniform: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeqJmzoUcAAKYjW.jpg

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  25. Dexter Friend said on June 2, 2018 at 3:34 am

    Roger Daltrey today said The Who was NEVER a rock n’ roll band, they were and are a ROCK band…he said there is a BIG difference. So I hung on his explanation forthcoming: nothing! He ne’er uttered what the damn difference is. Oh well….he also said as a kid he and his pals all dreamed of coming to America, as London and much of the Isles and Europe were so bombed out…he said “We were making peace and you were making war by the time we got to New York and Detroit.”
    He then said that the band members tried but couldn’t really comprehend just what young American men were going through , facing the military draft…didn’t understand how we could handle such a thing with images of Vietnam war atrocities shown on TV. Gave me something to think about; for me it was denial. I just KNEW that since my uncle went to Germany during the active Korean activities in the early 50s, why, I would surely go to Germany too! ( I never went to Germany…nope, I went to Vietnam) Anyway, I was never a The Who fanatic, but now I have an appreciation of their work and art.

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  26. basset said on June 2, 2018 at 10:31 am

    Dylan liquor… newspaper story here had a great headline, “It Ain’t Tea, Babe.”

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  27. Bitter Scribe said on June 2, 2018 at 1:59 pm

    What kills me about D’Souza is his utter lack of empathy for those who, like him, have dark skin. He thinks he’s a good minority, not like those lazy n-words, and life is just a matter of sucking up hard enough to the white folks. He’s pathetic.

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  28. Mark P said on June 2, 2018 at 4:39 pm

    Does Uncle Dinesh think the white power structure considers him anything but a servant? “Good boy, Dinesh, now bring me a mint julep and polish the silverware.”

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  29. Suzanne said on June 2, 2018 at 5:06 pm

    Michael Steele, former head of the RNC, seems to have figured out that he was the token dark guy for the GOP, if his Twitter feed is any indication. Maybe D’Souza will figure it out, too.

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  30. Heather said on June 2, 2018 at 6:21 pm

    Suzanne, I doubt it. D’Souza doesn’t seem like he’ll ever be self-aware enough to figure it out.

    Why should our allies ever trust us again? There’s nothing to suggest that this situation couldn’t reoccur even if we get rid of the asshole. If we survive this, we will need some sort of Constitutional amendment or other legislative mechanism to prevent this kind of blatant corruption and rule-breaking. I don’t know what that would look like, although requiring candidates to release their taxes and submit to a psychological examination is a good start.

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  31. Connie said on June 3, 2018 at 8:42 am

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/mh370-didnt-just-disappear-it-was-caught-in-a-swamp-of-corruption

    Malaysian corruption and Birkin bags.

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