Open thread 3/17/21
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! That has nothing to do with the photo, except that there’s a lot of greenery.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! That has nothing to do with the photo, except that there’s a lot of greenery.
Matt Walsh (who has Irish ancestry) of The Daily Wire posted several amusing, and very obviously sarcastic, tweets about “cultural appropriation” and the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. This prompted a humorless response from the official Twitter feed of the Irish Embassy in the U.S., thus demonstrating the prevalent lack of self-awareness among those whom the French call the bien-pensants. Today’s best example of comedy is the spat on Twitter between the very bright Candace Owens and the unspeakable Cardi B, whom no-one would describe, in cliched fashion, as the brightest of bulbs.
And isn’t it a grand day to embark in the motorcar and burn up some evil petroleum products en route to Covid shot #2? We’ll hoist a glass to Saint P when the deed is done.
Shoudn’t Megan Thee Stallion be … Megan Thee Mare!
Regarding Cardi B. and her colleague Megan Thee:
WAP is a mere musical bagatelle. It’s Cardi’s learned disquisition on DAP that is a true service to our Seuss-addled culture.
https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/2770652/cardi-b-breaks-down-the-reason-some-ladies-have-dap-dry-ass-pussy
Some Orange in that picture too. Somebody may be offended.
I have a prized memory of a speaker at a convention of former spirits consumers saying in a pronounced brough: “Me Pa was Irish and me Ma was Scottish… Which meant that half of me wanted to drink like a pig…and the other half didn’t wanna pay’fer’it.”
Well, being as it’s SPD, I suppose there should be a musical interlude.
I will suggest The Cranberries, Linger is highly appropriate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DltuL9EYr9M
The lead singer, the late Dolores O’Riordan had one of the most awesome female singing voices ever (Natalie Manes being her only real competition).
I swear I could probably listen to either one of them recite the phone book for hours.
There are other awesome singers, but those two just tickle something deep down inside the cortex.
I suspect it’s because they have that breathy quality that was so effective for Marilyn Monroe, but as a singing voice.
Here are two of Natalie Manes (Sixpence None The Richer)
Kiss Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hII0JXUJNDo
There She Goes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMfXeuv4kZE
DOH. Brain fart.
Well, that made me look stupid.
Leigh Nash, not Natalie Maines. Dunno why Maines’ name got stuck in my head.
Arrgh.
I have noticed that the view under trees with the sky peeking through is beautiful, such as you approach here, even if that particular tree seen from a distance is not so much.
Not much doing in Abq for St. Patrick’s beyond some Krispy Kreme doughnuts at the supermarket glazed a horrible dark green.
OBloodyHell:
The Cranberries were something else, fueled mostly by O’Riordan’s astonishing voice and songwriting. Their first album, “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?”, was one of the great debuts. I was fascinated with how O’Riordan could break her voice with such control for emphasis.
Some years ago I rented an odd indie film, “Sound of My Voice,” about a female cult leader who claims to be from the future. A couple of journalists have joined to expose the leader.
At one point a member challenges the leader in group to tell them something from the future. So she sings them a hit song from her time. It turns out to be the Cranberries’ “Dreams.” When someone points out the song was from the 1990s, she shrugs it off, says it must have been a future cover.
It’s a great song, yet vague, and a perfect song to bring back from the future.
___________________________________
Oh, my life
Is changing every day
In every possible way
And oh, my dreams
It’s never quite as it seems
Never quite as it seems
–“Sound of my Voice” – Maggie sings “Dreams” by the Cranberries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxohwbDfyUg
___________________________________
HuxleyBob says, check it out.
For St Patrick’s Day I read the Dubliners by James Joyce. I was going to comment “nuff said” but I wasn’t sure how to spell it so I googled it. First entry was Nina Simone’s album ‘Nuff Said! recorded 3 days after MLK’s death with several tributes to him. Also on the album – 2 covers of BeeGee songs. Small world.
Eva Marie:
“Dubliners” is a great book of short stories. Along with “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” it makes me wish Joyce had written more, less experimental, more accessible fiction.
Anybody in an Irish mood today could watch “The Dead,” a “Dubliners” story, adapted to film by John Huston as his last film. Quite remarkable. Huston went out on a high note.
Today I’ve been listening to Lester Young, the great tenor sax player, from Count Basie’s band, who influenced a ton of jazz musicians. Dubbed “Prez” by Billie Holiday with whom he had a long relationship. Platonic, she says.
Young is a classic player from the heydays of jazz, so he’s a base to touch. He was also the key influence on Brew Moore, a jazz musician I got to know as a kid because he was a friend of my stepfather’s. I heard Moore’s Copenhagen album, “Svinget 14,” a million times in those days to the point I knew the whole thing cold.
I still love that album. So I was curious to hear Young and see if I could connect the dots. So far, not much success. I can hear Young’s fluid, cool play in Moore, but for me Moore has a richness that I don’t find in Young. Maybe it depends on who you hear first. And Young did blaze that trail.
I’ve also been reviewing Moore and discovered one of the great cuts on “Svinget,” “Allt Under Himmelens Faste” is based on a Swedish folk melody. You can find enthralling chorale versions on YouTube:
–“Gustaf Sjökvist Chamber Choir – Allt under himlens fäste (Far Away Star)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsrrrpiSr1g
Then compare to Moore’s version:
–“Brew Moore – Allt Under Himmelens Faste”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqCWrvofHSU
He makes it swing so beautifully and with respect. I remember him as a kind, quiet man.
I loved the 1991 movie “The Commitments” about creating an Irish Rock band. Kind of a “Spinal Tap” vibe. The one song that was really good was “Mustang Sally”. I listen to it periodically.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_25Hpf3EOyU&ab_channel=BobLatino
Then there’s these guys:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTm1qwP3qg
My brother and I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine yesterday at Rite
Aid. I’ll let you all know what happens—it says it takes 28 days for “full-immunity”.
I believe we both had Covid in March. On Math 8th last year, my temperature was 99.9F (which was high—all my life my normal temperature has been about 97.4F, often 96.8F. So has my brother’s.) I was completely exhausted and achy, and had totally lost my sense of smell and taste. I didn’t know then that that last symptom was important, and I just thought that the fact that I couldn’t smell perfume was the final step in losing my sense of smell/taste that had started with a flu 40 years ago.
Anyway, my brother had similar symptoms, so we just weathered it out. The thought of going to a hospital last year and getting put on a ventilator regardless of symptoms was out-of-the-question: Even a year ago, we could see they were playing games with the situation.
So . . . do I (we?) already have immunity, or not??? How will our systems handle the vaccine??
At least you’ll have information from two very different people (yet who are closely related as brother and sister, he’s 70 and I’ll be 72 on March 30)—about the J&J vaccine, to add to the other info everyone is gathering.
By the way, neither of us felt the needle at all, and I’m hyper-aware of such things. I was really surprised.
Good luck to everybody.
“On Math” is “On March” in my comment above. (sigh)
Our family usually celebrated by watching John Wayne (NOT in a Western!) and Maureen O’Hara in “The Quiet Man.”
https://www.irishpost.com/entertainment/quiet-man-12-things-never-knew-iconic-irish-film-starring-john-wayne-maureen-ohara-157437
The short story on which the movie is loosely base:
http://dukefanclub.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/9/9/10994017/the_quiet_man.pdf
And just for the record: St. Patrick was a Welshman.
https://www.seanpoage.com/2020/03/17/saint-patrick-the-welshman-2/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-31912199
I loved the 1991 movie “The Commitments” about creating an Irish Rock band.
I am Spartacus:
So did I!
I watch that every five years or so. I love Jimmy Rabbit’s self-interviews. I love the conceit that the band is going to be a soul band. I love the foibles of everyone.
I’d like to know how much of an influence “The Commitments” was on Tom Hanks’ utterly charming little film, “That Thing You Do” about an American one-hit wonder band around 1965. I could watch Tom Hanks again after “Thing.”
For feel-good/feel-amused films it’s hard to beat “The Commitments” or “That Thing You Do.”
AesopFan:
OMG — even the pdf for “The Quiet Man”! You’re an online scholar after my own heart.
I never got over seeing Maureen O’Hara in “The Parent Trap” (1961) with Hayley Mills and Brian Keith.
I am Spartacus and Huxley, thank you for the reminder about The Commitments, a wonderful movie that I’d forgotten and will now hasten to rewatch. Huxley, very interesting insight about the equally wonderful That Thing You Do. On the general subject of Irish musicians performing American music, Mr Whatsit has discovered that there’s a whole genre of Irish musicians singing country music, often with unexpectedly compelling results. Maybe not so surprising, as it seems to me that traditional Irish music and our country music — at least in its vintage form — come from the same roots.
Minta Marie Morze, my husband and I received the J & J vaccine ten days ago. It’s too soon, of course, to say anything about immunity, and our experience would not be the same as yours anyway, as I’m fairly certain that neither of us has had Covid. But comparing notes with you on the shot itself, i thought it was unexpectedly painful, nothing like recent flu and shingles vaccinations where I barely knew there was a needle. I jumped, embarrassing myself and making the poor nurse apologize. No side effects whatsoever afterwards, though, not even a sore arm.
Mr Whatsit has discovered that there’s a whole genre of Irish musicians singing country music, often with unexpectedly compelling results. Maybe not so surprising, as it seems to me that traditional Irish music and our country music — at least in its vintage form — come from the same roots.
Mrs Whatsit:
When I visited Dublin in the 90s, I discovered I had come at the time of their Superbowl, so when the weekend arrived, all the places to stay within 50 miles were booked, so I drove south to Wicklow.
In the bar area of the hotel where I stayed, I checked the jukebox and discovered half the songs were American country classics — Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and the like.
When I got back to the US, I told my Irish friend about this and he shrugged. Of course the jukeboxes outside Dublin were half-country. Old news.
I think the pain level of most shots is a reflection of the skill of the shot-giver rather than anything inherent in the shot itself.
Neo, I think you’re right — at least nowadays. Mr Whatsit, who got his shot right after me, said he didn’t even feel it.
I saw in an earlier open thread that your mother taught you to handle shots by looking away from the needle. It reminded me of my grandfather — an old-fashioned general practitioner — who was giving me a shot one day when I was around 5 and told me, with great gravity, that what he did every time he got a shot was to stand on one foot, bite his thumb and close his eyes. He said this was so complicated to do that it kept him from noticing the shot. Figuring that if this method was good enough for my adored grandpa, it was also good enough for me, I did it for the rest of my childhood and later taught it to my children. It works. I don’t do it any more, of course, but I THINK of it, and am tempted, every time I get a shot.
Mrs Whatsit:
I do it for blood draws, too. And I do a modified version for MRIs, of which I’ve had something like twelve or so. It’s particularly good when one’s head is in that MRI tube about an inch from the top – keep those eyes closed!
I once unintentionally looked at a needle when a doctor was about to give me a spinal epidural steroid injection in my lumber spine. It was a mistake to look – that thing appeared to be about two feet long. Just now I did a search for a photo of one, just to see how large it really is. The answer is: not two feet, but really big.
huxley – I loved Parent Trap, and pretty much all of Hayley Mills’ early work (especially The Moon-spinners, In Search of the Castaways, and Pollyanna – a vastly underrated and misunderstood story IMNSHO). Didn’t see many of her later pictures. Probably the result of leaving home in 1970, where the theater was a block away from the dime store my dad managed, to go to college where I had no car, theaters were expensive, and time was short.
Probably missed a lot of good ones.
Maureen O’Hara was a great actress, but my favorite flick is one I never saw until just recently, after reading a story about movie swordfights that claimed the best fencer in Hollywood was the Irishwoman.
Check out “At Swords Point” a.k.a. “Sons of the Musketeers” (1952) – that’s “sons and one daughter.”
https://www.amazon.com/At-Swords-Point-Cornel-Wilde/dp/B083N3XFLD
On the Irish roots of American music: same with Welsh, Scots, and English folk songs. There are other sources, of course, but those are the primary ones.
I amuse myself sometimes trying to track down the chain of custody.
My funny story: AesopSpouse and I were in Germany a couple of years ago and were invited to an Oktoberfest celebration at a large venue. We were in a loft over the main floor, which was full of picnic tables loaded with wurst, bier, and so forth being consumed by the appropriately garbed celebrants (cosplay to the max!). The performer did a couple of German hits, and then announced one whose title I didn’t catch, but which elicited a great cheer, and everyone got up to dance to John Denver’s “Country Roads” — sung in English with a very distinct accent.
It was fun.