I’ve posted here before about Japan’s demographic death spiral, and about what I view as some of the strange preoccupations and deformations in Japanese society—the preoccupation with childish cutesy cartoon characters and superheros, adult cartoons and MANGA, no one noticing tens of thousands of old people dying alone at home in a country that is, you’d think, very close-knit and family oriented, the phenomenon of young people withdrawing from life and not leaving their apartments and homes, young people living sexless lives, and “leftover women,” yet, the prevalence of “love hotels” all over Japan, etc.
And now here is a concrete illustration of some of this weirdness
The ongoing Canadian wildfires are causing serious air quality issues here in upstate NY. The daytime sun is slightly veiled by smoke, filtering the light to a baleful orange.
Wikipedia says that 9.3 million acres of burned so far making it by far the worst wildfire season in Canada since records have been kept. The only explanation I’ve heard about why this is happening poor snow coverage over the winter.
Would seem that Vermont is pretty much within the vortex….
This smoke is coming from eastern Canada–a big surprise to those of us in the west who are used to smoke coming down from their western states. Alberta just lost 140,000square miles of timber. I guess it will be good places to house the illegal immigrants–affordable housing, etc.
they probably have failed to clearcut sufficiently, and so an errant spark can set a blaze,
A week or so ago we here in CO had smoke from Canadian fires. Very bad air quality. Didn’t see a word about it on National news. Only the East Coast counts. Well and the West Coast too.
We have grey skies from Canadian wildfires in southeastern Ohio.
I had a blast phone call from the mayor last night advising everyone in New Haven to stay indoors (or at least avoid jogging and similar forms of exercise outdoors) because of poor air quality due to the Canadian wildfires. The NWS report for Tweed-New Haven Airport has the text “Widespread haze. Areas of smoke.” with an icon of a cityscape clouded by smoke. The current air quality index is 162 (“unhealthy” and color-coded red, according to the EPA); the primary pollutant is “particulate matter.” If I look outside, I can definitely see haze as well as cloudy skies. Of course the WaPo is blaming the Canadian wildfires on “record heat and climate change”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/06/02/canada-wildfires-record-heat-climate/
Alberta just lost 140,000 square miles of timber.
==
Only if the burned timber accounted for 2/3 of the province’s land area.
om,
what facts did Carlson get wrong?
Here in SE Washington (state) smoke from Canadian forest fires (BC usually) and poor air quality are a common summer thing, supplementing smoke from CA, OR, and WA wildfires.
What happened to Canada’s beaver population that has always been tasked with keeping the forests damp? Don’t say it doesn’t work, grew up fishing backwoods beaver ponds in Maine. Always moist and green, never a forest fire.
Facts? Like who actually is responsible for blowing the Nova Khovkha (Deniepro River) dam.
stan, do try to distinguish between facts and opinions.
Fact. Russia controls the dam and has controlled it since early spring of 2022.
Tucker has no facts about who blew up NordStream pipeline. Opinions he has many.
Kind of like your absolute statements about all Democrat voters.
Tactical military advantage for Vlad to blow up the dam.
Let’s all pray… with Roseanne… for Lindsey, who has a very big demon in a very dark place. Yes, he’s better than most Democrats, but that’s the lowest bar in human history.
He would kick an ass or two, that’s what Brian Boitano’d do.
What happened to Canada’s beaver population that has always been tasked with keeping the forests damp?
Castor canadensis has a number of natural predators that include coyotes, mountain lions, wolves, wolverines, Canada lynx, bobcats, foxes, and black bears. It may be that the number of (nonhuman) predators has increased north of the Maine border. Here’s a June 6 post on the number of beavers left in the world: https://a-z-animals.com/blog/beaver-population-by-state/
I suspect that orthodontists disapproved of a beaver as a role model for human front teeth.
Just curious. Why aren’t the Northeastern states requiring everyone to wear masks until the smoke clears. After all, if the mask can block a virus (it couldn’t), it can block smoke particles, which are much bigger than a virus? Could it be, they don’t want the clueless to finally realize how ineffective masks are?
Of many points in Tucker’s new commentary, highlighting MSM corruption was his most salient. It’s a frequent theme, and bears repeating with each new issue that illustrates their dishonesty. Over the past several years, they have become a perfect reverse barometer.
cb:
Yep military minds agree it is better to attack through a flooded area than not.
Maroon.
Maybe the dam just failed. I believe there were recent reports of high water and overtopping. While it is an obvious target isn’t it just as possible it failed somewhat like California’s Oroville Dam did?
As opposed to Tucker here is another series of interpretations, stan,cb, Boned Looser:
Russia is still responsible, if they were so f’n stupid not to open the sluices and lower the pool. Dams have those things to let water out.
Why Russia can’t have or keep nice things, Tucker?
Long and detailed read: “Russia could simply have lifted the floodgates at any point, if they wanted to effect a huge flood down stream and release of the reservoir. This is the same famous argument used in the Nordstream case. If Russia wanted to turn off the Nordstream to Europe why would they destroy it if they can simply turn it off at their end?” https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/portmortem-analysis-on-kakhovka-dam?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
RE: Intelligent Design i.e.
The idea that God created the Universe and all life–and that our Universe and all in it–including human beings–therefore have a purpose, as opposed to the idea that our Universe and all in it all just came about due to the random collisions of molecules, and that the Universe and all in it, therefore, has no purpose.
These animations about the actual form and function of some of the parts of the cells in our bodies i.e. “molecular machines” are, I happen to think, a powerful argument in favor of intelligent design.
Wow. that’s pathetic. We know Ukraine fired rockets at the dam in the past. You think like a Democrat. The possibility of error has never crossed your radar.
I get it. Your opinion disagrees with his. News flash! That doesn’t make him wrong. Try to wrap your brain around that. I realize it may be far beyond the limits of your ability to think. But try.
Sad. Stupid. Mean-spirited. Hubristic. No way to go through life. Try harder.
cb:
But of course if Russia just opened the sluices in a typical Chernobyl fashion there would be no question about their culpability? Or not, Tucker?
They were in control of the dam. You do understand that basic fact?
They still occupy what is left of it and the left side of the Denipro River (floodplain). You understand that too?
Sheesh.
stan:
Put on your ciphering cap. Read some history, specifically what quantities of explosives are necessary to breach a dam, specifically the British air raids on dams in WWII. Think hard, read a bit, here’s a clue, thousands of pounds of HE (High Explosives).
Oh, by the way (BTW) your Russians blew up structures on the North end of the dam (a bridge) to prevent the Ukrainian Army from crossing there. That was when Russians fled the Kherson region. I could opine, like Tucker, that that action weakened the dam.
You are an ignorant, arrogant, “f.”
And BTW, I ain’t no democrat, but you make me ashamed of a type of “conservative.”
Thank you, that was fun!
And now a riddle for the maroons.
Q: What was James Chadwick’s favorite biscuit?
A: The Fig Neutron.
om ~ I have expressed no opinion on the subject. There are 3 possible explanations. Either side could have done it or as detailed in article above, it could have been a natural occurrence (deteriorated infrastructure) with explosions coming from mines being washed about. The proverbial ‘fog of war’ is dense, eh?
Om, two thumbs up and a big chuckle. A terrific joke, physicsguy will get it but the rest of the crew here..?
cb:
Thousands of pounds of explosive were required in WWII. Antipersonnel mines use ounces, antitank mines use a few pounds; IMO, mines washing downstream in the bedoad of the river and detonating against the base of the dam (?), nope. Mines floating into the sluices and blowing them open? Nope. I’m pretty sure that naval (sea) mines use hundreds of pounds of HE. Did Russia or Ukraine deploy naval mines in a freshwater reservoir, not the same body of water as the Black Sea, unlikely IMO, but then we are talking about Russians, Tucker.
Could have been a crazed Azov Nazi (Ukrainian) with a RPG, eh, stan?
Who controlled the dam yesterday and today? Russia. You seize it, you are responsible for it.
stan:
Who spent last winter dropping missiles onto Ukrainian cities and power facilities to “freeze them” and ruin their potable water supplies? Might be the same “orcs” that would blow up a dam or so mismanagement it to cause it to fail.
That might be a clue.
Cipher on that stan.
Did you know there are social spiders which live in colonies?
Did you know social spiders have “personalities,” aggressive vs passive, which can be operationally measured by spider researchers?
Did you know that there was an academic scandal a few years back which wiped out a decade of social spider research?
I got totally sucked into this video. It’s such a great story, that some spiders have personalities and individual spider personalities can influence the spider community.
But [SPOILER ALERT] …
The lead researcher, Jonathan Pruitt, faked the data! And he had been faking data back to his doctoral dissertation.
So Pruitt destroyed his own reputation. He had been a fast rising academic star, but he is now a high school science teacher. He put the reputations of anyone who ever worked or studied with him under a cloud. The ~6000 studies citing Pruitt have to be reconsidered.
A. Collier is devastating in her recounting, but is nonetheless somewhat understanding in the end. The pressure in academia to produce papers, especially breakthrough papers, and certainly not replication papers is extreme, so the Pruitt scandal should not be surprising.
And who knows how much other fakery there might be, but remains undiscovered.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive,”
Personally, I think it’s a damn accurate observation.
But as Faron Young and whoever wrote the sing observes, “But who wants to be strong.”
At least not all the time.
It’s complicated.
huxley is right about CW music. “The worst musical mistake I made was to look down on Country.”
When I was young, I couldn’t get past Glenn Campbell and John Denver — not exactly the leading icons of the genre.
What changed for you?
For me, the decline of melody and song in pop music left me hungry. And then various county sirens and pluckers got to me.
But I wonder if life and loss aren’t truly required? I had a roommate at university from Greece. He said all the country tunes in the US sing about the same things his Greek pop music he grew up with in Athens does.
Back in my hippie days there was “Old & In the Way,” a Jerry Garcia bluegrass project, which included the astonishing Vassar Clements on fiddle, and John Hartford’s “Aeroplane” New Grass album. These two opened my mind.
Over time rock/pop musicians began to incorporate country and my ears got to hear it better. Then, as you say, the decline of melody and lyrics in rock/pop got to me. After I flipped conservative, the country worldview seemed more natural.
Plus, as much as I love the Beatles, the Stones, etc. I wanted to hear some new (to me) music. Which has also driven my interest in French music.
The Cowboy Junkies and Gillian Welch/’David Rawlings, while not strictly country, were important as well.
Ain’t but two kinds a’ music worth listening to: Country ‘n Western.
(Though I suppose one could say the same about Rhythm ‘n Blues… Bluegrass ‘n Hillbilly? Baroque ‘n Classical? Rock ‘n Roll?)
miguel cervantes on June 8, 2023 at 9:55 am
As I listened to the news this evening I had a similar thought, except mine went to the (tin foil hat?) view that perhaps it was actually started by Chinese agents, suspecting or knowing the weather pattern might send the smoke into the US as well.
Or from a flare dropped from an unobserved Chinese balloon.
R2L
Or space aliens. Smokey The Bear is now a “furrie.”
Speaking of two kinds of music, how about bluegrass ‘n psychedelic rock.
Molly Tuttle channels Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit” Northampton, MA 3/4/23
He has great info, but he talks too much.
I’ve posted here before about Japan’s demographic death spiral, and about what I view as some of the strange preoccupations and deformations in Japanese society—the preoccupation with childish cutesy cartoon characters and superheros, adult cartoons and MANGA, no one noticing tens of thousands of old people dying alone at home in a country that is, you’d think, very close-knit and family oriented, the phenomenon of young people withdrawing from life and not leaving their apartments and homes, young people living sexless lives, and “leftover women,” yet, the prevalence of “love hotels” all over Japan, etc.
And now here is a concrete illustration of some of this weirdness
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u90AN5QpbXE&t=218s
See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tevZWERsKE
The ongoing Canadian wildfires are causing serious air quality issues here in upstate NY. The daytime sun is slightly veiled by smoke, filtering the light to a baleful orange.
Wikipedia says that 9.3 million acres of burned so far making it by far the worst wildfire season in Canada since records have been kept. The only explanation I’ve heard about why this is happening poor snow coverage over the winter.
Not just upstate:
“NYC’s air pollution among world’s worst as smoke from Canadian wildfires set to linger”—
https://nypost.com/2023/06/07/nyc-to-be-clouded-by-canadian-wildfire-smoke-through-sunday/
We have grey skies from Canadian wildfires in southeastern Ohio. That makes this a huge smoke plume!
Canadians!
What would Brian Boitano do?
Continued (with relevant maps & photos):
https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/everyone-should-avoid-outdoors-100-million-americans-under-air-quality-alerts-canadian
Would seem that Vermont is pretty much within the vortex….
This smoke is coming from eastern Canada–a big surprise to those of us in the west who are used to smoke coming down from their western states. Alberta just lost 140,000square miles of timber. I guess it will be good places to house the illegal immigrants–affordable housing, etc.
they probably have failed to clearcut sufficiently, and so an errant spark can set a blaze,
DH found a video that I think will make everyone here smile just a little bit!
Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13GTbEW0bco&t=4s
A week or so ago we here in CO had smoke from Canadian fires. Very bad air quality. Didn’t see a word about it on National news. Only the East Coast counts. Well and the West Coast too.
We have grey skies from Canadian wildfires in southeastern Ohio.
I had a blast phone call from the mayor last night advising everyone in New Haven to stay indoors (or at least avoid jogging and similar forms of exercise outdoors) because of poor air quality due to the Canadian wildfires. The NWS report for Tweed-New Haven Airport has the text “Widespread haze. Areas of smoke.” with an icon of a cityscape clouded by smoke. The current air quality index is 162 (“unhealthy” and color-coded red, according to the EPA); the primary pollutant is “particulate matter.” If I look outside, I can definitely see haze as well as cloudy skies. Of course the WaPo is blaming the Canadian wildfires on “record heat and climate change”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/06/02/canada-wildfires-record-heat-climate/
If you can’t get enough of Turdaloo, he’s giving a live update on the situation, courtesy of PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/watch-live-trudeau-gives-update-on-canadian-wildfires-spreading-smoke-across-canada-and-u-s
huxley will be pleased to know that he’s speaking in French.
When it comes to foreign policy and specifically Ukraine Tucker once again shows he is a maroon. And bonchie? Who knows?
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/06/06/tucker-carlsons-first-episode-melts-twitter-heres-what-he-said-that-will-have-heads-exploding-n757322
Alberta just lost 140,000 square miles of timber.
==
Only if the burned timber accounted for 2/3 of the province’s land area.
om,
what facts did Carlson get wrong?
Here in SE Washington (state) smoke from Canadian forest fires (BC usually) and poor air quality are a common summer thing, supplementing smoke from CA, OR, and WA wildfires.
Sugar ain’t good for you anyway. G’bye cookies. https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/06/girl-scouts-offer-special-patch-to-girls-of-all-identities-who-attend-pride-parades-complete-lgbt-themed-activities/
What happened to Canada’s beaver population that has always been tasked with keeping the forests damp? Don’t say it doesn’t work, grew up fishing backwoods beaver ponds in Maine. Always moist and green, never a forest fire.
Facts? Like who actually is responsible for blowing the Nova Khovkha (Deniepro River) dam.
stan, do try to distinguish between facts and opinions.
Fact. Russia controls the dam and has controlled it since early spring of 2022.
Tucker has no facts about who blew up NordStream pipeline. Opinions he has many.
Kind of like your absolute statements about all Democrat voters.
Tactical military advantage for Vlad to blow up the dam.
Let’s all pray… with Roseanne… for Lindsey, who has a very big demon in a very dark place. Yes, he’s better than most Democrats, but that’s the lowest bar in human history.
He would kick an ass or two, that’s what Brian Boitano’d do.
What happened to Canada’s beaver population that has always been tasked with keeping the forests damp?
Castor canadensis has a number of natural predators that include coyotes, mountain lions, wolves, wolverines, Canada lynx, bobcats, foxes, and black bears. It may be that the number of (nonhuman) predators has increased north of the Maine border. Here’s a June 6 post on the number of beavers left in the world:
https://a-z-animals.com/blog/beaver-population-by-state/
Just for fun: when TV commercials were only in black and white: here’s Bucky Beaver and Ipana toothpaste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0po-g28uTg&ab_channel=tvdays
I suspect that orthodontists disapproved of a beaver as a role model for human front teeth.
Just curious. Why aren’t the Northeastern states requiring everyone to wear masks until the smoke clears. After all, if the mask can block a virus (it couldn’t), it can block smoke particles, which are much bigger than a virus? Could it be, they don’t want the clueless to finally realize how ineffective masks are?
Good questions: REPORTER: “Is it believable that Russia would destroy a dam, flood ethnic Russian villages and cut off the water supply to Crimea? That seems about as logical as blowing up one’s own pipeline, doesn’t it?” https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/06/reporter-asks-john-kirby-claims-that-russia-destroyed/
Of many points in Tucker’s new commentary, highlighting MSM corruption was his most salient. It’s a frequent theme, and bears repeating with each new issue that illustrates their dishonesty. Over the past several years, they have become a perfect reverse barometer.
cb:
Yep military minds agree it is better to attack through a flooded area than not.
Maroon.
Maybe the dam just failed. I believe there were recent reports of high water and overtopping. While it is an obvious target isn’t it just as possible it failed somewhat like California’s Oroville Dam did?
As opposed to Tucker here is another series of interpretations, stan,cb, Boned Looser:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zYeTWqaF9Y8&pp=ygURdGVsZWdyYXBoIHVrcmFpbmU%3D
The Telgraph Ukraine A daily (weekday) one hour podcast.
Correction to the title:
Ukraine: The Latest The Telegraph (UK)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zYeTWqaF9Y8&pp=ygURdGVsZWdyYXBoIHVrcmFpbmU%3D
Crassy:
Russia is still responsible, if they were so f’n stupid not to open the sluices and lower the pool. Dams have those things to let water out.
Why Russia can’t have or keep nice things, Tucker?
Long and detailed read: “Russia could simply have lifted the floodgates at any point, if they wanted to effect a huge flood down stream and release of the reservoir. This is the same famous argument used in the Nordstream case. If Russia wanted to turn off the Nordstream to Europe why would they destroy it if they can simply turn it off at their end?” https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/portmortem-analysis-on-kakhovka-dam?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
RE: Intelligent Design i.e.
The idea that God created the Universe and all life–and that our Universe and all in it–including human beings–therefore have a purpose, as opposed to the idea that our Universe and all in it all just came about due to the random collisions of molecules, and that the Universe and all in it, therefore, has no purpose.
These animations about the actual form and function of some of the parts of the cells in our bodies i.e. “molecular machines” are, I happen to think, a powerful argument in favor of intelligent design.
See “Your Body’s Molecular Machines” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_tYrnv_o6A&t=8s
and “Mind Blowing Animations of the Machines Within Your Body ” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SGoDIkscXg
Om,
Wow. that’s pathetic. We know Ukraine fired rockets at the dam in the past. You think like a Democrat. The possibility of error has never crossed your radar.
I get it. Your opinion disagrees with his. News flash! That doesn’t make him wrong. Try to wrap your brain around that. I realize it may be far beyond the limits of your ability to think. But try.
Sad. Stupid. Mean-spirited. Hubristic. No way to go through life. Try harder.
cb:
But of course if Russia just opened the sluices in a typical Chernobyl fashion there would be no question about their culpability? Or not, Tucker?
They were in control of the dam. You do understand that basic fact?
They still occupy what is left of it and the left side of the Denipro River (floodplain). You understand that too?
Sheesh.
stan:
Put on your ciphering cap. Read some history, specifically what quantities of explosives are necessary to breach a dam, specifically the British air raids on dams in WWII. Think hard, read a bit, here’s a clue, thousands of pounds of HE (High Explosives).
Oh, by the way (BTW) your Russians blew up structures on the North end of the dam (a bridge) to prevent the Ukrainian Army from crossing there. That was when Russians fled the Kherson region. I could opine, like Tucker, that that action weakened the dam.
You are an ignorant, arrogant, “f.”
And BTW, I ain’t no democrat, but you make me ashamed of a type of “conservative.”
Thank you, that was fun!
And now a riddle for the maroons.
Q: What was James Chadwick’s favorite biscuit?
A: The Fig Neutron.
om ~ I have expressed no opinion on the subject. There are 3 possible explanations. Either side could have done it or as detailed in article above, it could have been a natural occurrence (deteriorated infrastructure) with explosions coming from mines being washed about. The proverbial ‘fog of war’ is dense, eh?
Om, two thumbs up and a big chuckle. A terrific joke, physicsguy will get it but the rest of the crew here..?
cb:
Thousands of pounds of explosive were required in WWII. Antipersonnel mines use ounces, antitank mines use a few pounds; IMO, mines washing downstream in the bedoad of the river and detonating against the base of the dam (?), nope. Mines floating into the sluices and blowing them open? Nope. I’m pretty sure that naval (sea) mines use hundreds of pounds of HE. Did Russia or Ukraine deploy naval mines in a freshwater reservoir, not the same body of water as the Black Sea, unlikely IMO, but then we are talking about Russians, Tucker.
Could have been a crazed Azov Nazi (Ukrainian) with a RPG, eh, stan?
Who controlled the dam yesterday and today? Russia. You seize it, you are responsible for it.
stan:
Who spent last winter dropping missiles onto Ukrainian cities and power facilities to “freeze them” and ruin their potable water supplies? Might be the same “orcs” that would blow up a dam or so mismanagement it to cause it to fail.
That might be a clue.
Cipher on that stan.
Did you know there are social spiders which live in colonies?
Did you know social spiders have “personalities,” aggressive vs passive, which can be operationally measured by spider researchers?
Did you know that there was an academic scandal a few years back which wiped out a decade of social spider research?
–acollierastro, “a scary science data story”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlas3TOi_CQ
I got totally sucked into this video. It’s such a great story, that some spiders have personalities and individual spider personalities can influence the spider community.
But [SPOILER ALERT] …
The lead researcher, Jonathan Pruitt, faked the data! And he had been faking data back to his doctoral dissertation.
So Pruitt destroyed his own reputation. He had been a fast rising academic star, but he is now a high school science teacher. He put the reputations of anyone who ever worked or studied with him under a cloud. The ~6000 studies citing Pruitt have to be reconsidered.
A. Collier is devastating in her recounting, but is nonetheless somewhat understanding in the end. The pressure in academia to produce papers, especially breakthrough papers, and certainly not replication papers is extreme, so the Pruitt scandal should not be surprising.
And who knows how much other fakery there might be, but remains undiscovered.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive,”
https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/oh-what-a-tangled-web-we-weave/
om:
Today I went down the rabbit hole of “It’s a great life, if you don’t weaken” and wound up at:
________________________
It’s a great life, if you don’t weaken
But who wants to be strong?
–Faron Young, “It’s A Great Life (If You Don’t Weaken)” (1955)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuZgDsvtF-s
________________________
Is that a great song or what?
The worst musical mistake I made was to look down on Country. So much fun. So much depth. And they can play.
The title is actually a longstanding quote of “interesting” origin:
–“It’s a Great Life If You Don’t Weaken”
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/01/11/weaken/
Personally, I think it’s a damn accurate observation.
But as Faron Young and whoever wrote the sing observes, “But who wants to be strong.”
At least not all the time.
It’s complicated.
huxley is right about CW music. “The worst musical mistake I made was to look down on Country.”
When I was young, I couldn’t get past Glenn Campbell and John Denver — not exactly the leading icons of the genre.
What changed for you?
For me, the decline of melody and song in pop music left me hungry. And then various county sirens and pluckers got to me.
But I wonder if life and loss aren’t truly required? I had a roommate at university from Greece. He said all the country tunes in the US sing about the same things his Greek pop music he grew up with in Athens does.
https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/warmington-cops-suspect-arson-caused-wildfire-in-at-least-one-part-of-quebec
What changed for you [about Country]?
TJ:
Back in my hippie days there was “Old & In the Way,” a Jerry Garcia bluegrass project, which included the astonishing Vassar Clements on fiddle, and John Hartford’s “Aeroplane” New Grass album. These two opened my mind.
Over time rock/pop musicians began to incorporate country and my ears got to hear it better. Then, as you say, the decline of melody and lyrics in rock/pop got to me. After I flipped conservative, the country worldview seemed more natural.
Plus, as much as I love the Beatles, the Stones, etc. I wanted to hear some new (to me) music. Which has also driven my interest in French music.
The Cowboy Junkies and Gillian Welch/’David Rawlings, while not strictly country, were important as well.
Ain’t but two kinds a’ music worth listening to: Country ‘n Western.
(Though I suppose one could say the same about Rhythm ‘n Blues… Bluegrass ‘n Hillbilly? Baroque ‘n Classical? Rock ‘n Roll?)
miguel cervantes on June 8, 2023 at 9:55 am
As I listened to the news this evening I had a similar thought, except mine went to the (tin foil hat?) view that perhaps it was actually started by Chinese agents, suspecting or knowing the weather pattern might send the smoke into the US as well.
Or from a flare dropped from an unobserved Chinese balloon.
R2L
Or space aliens. Smokey The Bear is now a “furrie.”
Speaking of two kinds of music, how about bluegrass ‘n psychedelic rock.
Molly Tuttle channels Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit” Northampton, MA 3/4/23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OWjYoridqk
Molly Tuttle, Rolling Stones’ “She’s A Rainbow” Ossipee Valley Music Festival 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFwd8dxJYYA