Y'all

Have a great weekend, y'all.


TS

Ichiro

As I remember it Ichiro appeared out of Japan, where he was already a legend and star, in his late 20s.

He dressed in Seattle the first time in 2001, joining a team destined for greatness--a team that never quite achieved its destiny, though it was very good and won 116 games that sad summer and fall while setting an all-time Mariners' attendance record.

He stayed over a decade in Seattle, too long, but the Mariners never bounced back from the breakup of the team. He moved on to the Yankees.

Today he added another footnote to his absurd career, this time as a 41 year-old playing out the string with the Miami Marlins.


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Memory

When you're feelin' funky
and I mean kinda blue,
you put this on and let it play through.

BTW, that's Ron Carter on bass.


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Email Beat Down

(Collage by Buddy Dooley)

When a moderate attacks a genuine radical and subsequently runs for cover under the "I mistakenly thought we could have a conversation" blanket, topped with a bouquet of American exceptionalism, this is what transpires.

Most often, those desiring a "conversation," particularly in the political arena, merely want to assassinate you.

Sam, Chomsky killed you in self-defense, and he didn't start your mess.  Let it go.


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Tzara

Tristan Tzara was born Samuel Rosenstock in Moineşti (a small town in Romania, some 200 miles north of Bucharest) on April 16, 1896. At the time, Romania was still using the Julian calendar. By the modern calendar, his birthday would be April 28, which, as Hentea points out, happens to be the day when the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrates the martyr Dada. (This is not a Dadaist joke.) Although he was born into an affluent middle-class milieu, Samuel lacked something important: a country. Until the end of the First World War, Jews in Romania were rarely citizens, even when they were born there, even after several generations. Those who did gain Romanian citizenship – for example, decorated war veterans or influential financiers – were naturalized on an individual basis, through a complicated legal procedure. Young Samuel must have found that unbearable, because around 1915 he decided he should have in his name what he didn’t have in real life: Tzara (“country”).

A TLS review of a new bio of Tristan Tzara.

To Make a Dadaist Poem

Take a newspaper.
Take some scissors.
Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem.
Cut out the article.
Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them all in a bag.
Shake gently.
Next take out each cutting one after the other.
Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
The poem will resemble you.
And there you are--an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.

Tristan Tzara


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The Racket

Memorial Day commemorates soldiers killed in war.  We are told that the war dead died for us and our freedom. US Marine General Smedley Butler challenged this view.  He said that our soldiers died for the profits of the bankers, Wall Street, Standard Oil, and the United Fruit Company.  Here is an excerpt from a speech that he gave in 1933:

Remembering Gen. Smedley Butler.

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Indeed

A memorable quote from Harper Lee, forwarded by Talent, Oregon's RP Thomas.


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The Future

I went out tonight for the first time since my back pain started to disrupt my routine a couple of weeks ago.  It was nice to get out of my pad, into the sunshine and fair weather.

I sat with a budding journalism student on the patio of a nearby bar--conveniently about as far from home as I'm able to walk these days.

I learned the kid is going through a divorce, poor guy.

Making small talk, I mentioned to him that I was once a journalism student at Oregon, and he wanted to hear my memories of that experience.

I told him about the time John Kenneth Galbraith lectured in my class and everybody subsequently greeted him.  A highlight for me, right?

The kid had never heard of JKG, which sparked my curiosity.  I ticked off the names of a dozen other writers that I imagined a modern student of journalism might know.

He didn't know them.

He was enamored with the New York Times however, so I went there. He knew David Brooks.  But Maureen Dowd drew a blank.

Before hobbling home, I told the kid to forget journalism and read history.

I should demand payment for such wisdom.


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The Mindful

Thanks to Tom Clark's Beyond the Pale.  A must-see blog entry.


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TV Tonight

On the boob tube tonight.

Trailer at YouTube.






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Them and the Other

It has long been said (maybe the renowned sociologist Vance Packard said it first) that Madison Avenue’s advertising campaigns pivot around man’s conscious or subconscious fears. Fear is the catalyst. Indeed, man’s fears, insecurities and regrets are what make possible the Art of the Sale.

Examples of fertile ground: The fear of not fitting in, the fear of missing out, the fear of driving an unworthy car, the fear of drinking an uncool beer, the fear of municipal drinking water, the fear of emitting “morning breath,” the fear of vaginas smelling like, well, vaginas. You name it, and a sharp-eyed marketer will find a way of making it scary.

Which reminds me of an old joke, but I'll spare you.


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35 Years Ago

Mt. St. Helens was very, very angry.


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Good Question

Thus, we take another step deeper into the tragedy of U.S. intervention in the Middle East that has become a noxious farce.

The article by Jeff Faux.




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Charles Lucas

Charles Lucas at Fine Art America.


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$15 and a Dream

Why in the hell not?

These two ought to be the Demos in '16.  Leave Hillary out of the picture.

It's not a world-beater, but certainly better than the Kochsuckers from the right.


TS