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Tuesday, May 23, 2017

My Desultory Tuesday

ultracrepidarian
adjective [uhl-truh-krep-i-dair-ee-uh n]
noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise.
Walk a mile or 12 in my shoes before you go all ultracrepidarian jackass on me.
~~~
Yesterday’s fortune cookie:
You are strong and "brace." Use those qualities to pull through.

Strong – yes. I’ll take it but brace? ‘the Hell?
~~~
From Donna's Little House of Sacrilege:

I was never fond of Mick Jagger. His stage theatrics always took away from the tune’s impact. Similarly, Roger Daltry’s mic swinging shtick. Didn’t add a thing to the music and just looked dopey. Dude, if you’re bored when not singing, walk to the back of the stage or go groove with Pete. Sheesh.

I look at vids now and wonder, about Jagger – not Daltry, what was I thinking?! Sure, Jagger's not a handsome (understatement!) guitar-god like Keith but his performances really aren't all that annoying.

It's clear to me now – I was an oppressively humorless, music purity freak at nine years of age.
~~~
Here’s something that’s puzzling me – Vonnegut – liked his books much more when I was in my teens and twenties. Why is this? He’s amazing so wut up? I’m rereading some of his early ones now and, while I appreciate his style and storytelling it's not mindblowingly revelatory as it was back then. Maybe I’m just too familiar? It’s not brand-y new?
~~~
Melania Trump – attractive sure but what's up with her eyes? They're two tiny, tilted slits. Is the tilt from an overly enthusiastic eye job or was she born with that comic book look? And if she wasn’t wearing six metric tons of eyeliner and shadow, would we even see that she has eyes?
~~~
Upbeat Facebook memes make me want to hurl and I'm more or less an optimist! They all seem written by a team of healthy, blond, rich daddied, twenty somethings who’ve never had more than a pebble in the path to their success.

Ummm. This could possibly be just me and my Live Through This mentality? (I swear, Courtney Love stole that title from me!)
~~~
Helen Mirren, speaking to Tulane University’s graduating class gave "Helen's Top Five Rules for a Happy Life.”  They’re all brill (so go read!)  but Rule No. 2 plus addendums are standing out big and bold this morning.
Rule No. 2: "Treat people just like people. ... Every single person, whether they have dominion over your life or not, deserves equal respect and generosity."

Addendum: "No matter what sex you are, be a feminist."

Addendum to the addendum: "Never again allow a group of old, white men to define the health care of a country that is" -- cheers drowned out the rest.
YES! Tell it!!!
~~~
And lastly, in my bean this AM (always makes me smile):
A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission) – Simon and Garfunkel
I knew a man, his brain was so small
He couldn't think of nothing at all
Not the same as you and me
He doesn't dig poetry
He's so unhip that when you say Dylan
He thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas
Whoever he was
The man ain't got no culture
But it's alright, ma, everybody must get stoned

4 comments:

  1. That's funny. I was the dssame way with my rock music in high school.

    I didn't read a lot in high school and rock musicians were my writers. They had to be at least facsimiles of intellectuals for me to get into them. Roger Waters, pre-Sedgehammer Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, John Cale, Captain Beefheart, Brian Eno...

    I've probably loosened up a little as I've gotten older. I still need a drop of profundity in my faves, though, and strutting showmen are just not my thing.

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    Replies
    1. Dude, I think our record collections have/had HUGE overlap. Though deaf now, I still get Eno's Baby's On Fire (Here Come the Warm Jets – one of my all time favorite albums. Every track's brill), Beefheart's Tropical Hotdog Night, the Velvet's I'm Waiting for My Man and so damn much more stuck in my head. Saw Cale live, solo at the Rat back in the early '80s. Man'o'man, Fear is a Man's Best Friend. JEZUZ he screamed it gorgeously!

      I could just go on and on. Profundity – oh yeah baby, BRING IT! :-)

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    2. I'm jealous about the John Cale concert. He hasn't gotten anywhere near me since I've started listening to him.

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    3. I just checked – doesn't look like he'll be in the U.S. anytime soon. :-(

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