Music Friday: "Wishlist"

I heard this song the other and was reminded of how much I liked it. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I was naughty this past week and didn't provide a Music Friday post. Bad blogger...

Jennier Rubin has a good op-ed piece in The Washington Post that should be read to figure out what extreme right-wingers and FauxNews is up to: "The GOP Is No Longer a Party. It's a Movement to Impose White Christian Nationalism." 

Here's a significant ¶ to read: "In a real sense, the MAGA response is an effort to conserve power and to counteract the sense of a shared fate with Americans who historically have been marginalized. The right now defines itself not with policies but with its angry tone, its malicious labeling and insults (e.g., "groomer," "woke"), and its targeting of LGBTQ youths and dehumanization of immigrants. Right-wingers' attempt to cast their opponents as sick, dangerous and -- above all -- not "real Americans" is as critical to securing power as voter suppression."

Who the hell is using the term "groomer." That's sick. 

The rhetorical dark arts that the right wing uses reminds of one of the better books I've in the past couple of years: America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee. 

Check Your Head by the Beastie Boys turned 30 this year. I would argue that it is the group's best album. 

NPR has a feature on the album: "Why Beastie Boys' Check Your Head Album Still Matters 30 Years Later." 

Random Notes from a Crank

I haven't grown a beard during the pandemic because my job required me to be masked. I work in a public setting, and I was perfectly fine with wearing one for safety and for the safety of others. 

It's science, people. Water droplets travel widely when a person is unmasked. 

Now that masks are optional at my place of work, I've been contemplating growing a beard. While it's only spring, summer will fast be upon us, however. I've never had a beard during the summer. What to do? 

If I do grow one, I'll eventually cut it off and have a Zappa-like 'stache. 

Chance and luck plays into our lives all the time. 

A few weeks ago, I saw a call for proposals come across my email, and it intrigued me. So I wrote one to see if I could write an article for what was proposed.

It got accepted. So now I need to work on something this summer. Past me was not thinking of future me. That future me has work to do. 

If the pandemic taught me anything beyond the obvious, it's that an old coach-speak maxim is true: "Excuses are like assholes. Everyone has one, and they all stink." 

I've been slow on releases of new music over the last two years, but I'm looking forward to the new album by Delta Spirit. 

The new album from Father John Misty hasn't grown on me yet. 

Music Friday: "Wee-Dot"

I need to get to posting more than just Music Friday posts. I'm slacking. 

Regardless, here's a classic from the Art Blakey Quintet on their live album, A Night at Birdland. 

Music Friday: "Too Much Information"

Talk about a song connecting to the fancy word called "prescient." 

The Police were on it way before we got too disinformation at our fingertips all the damn time. This tune is from my favorite album by the band, Ghost in the Machine.

Music Friday: "Currency"

I haven't listened to the Black Angels in a good while, and this song is playing as I'm typing this. It's from the band's album Death Song.