Q NOTES # 844: Heat & Herschel

It's only early July and it's already hotter than hell in the afternoons. Considering both the political climate and the natural climate, I stand by my opinion that Texas is a shithole state. It will never be the worst U.S. shithole as long as Mississippi and Alabama are around, but Texas is leading in the group that also includes Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Over in Georgia, his advisers and staff people are talking about Herschel Walker's chronic lying and potential mental instability. This helps clarify why Donnie Duhmp sees Herschel as a kindred spirit.

James Caan first grabbed my attention in 1971, when he played Brian Piccolo in a TV movie called Brian's Song, with Billy Dee Williams as his Chicago Bears teammate, Gale Sayers. I still consider this one of the best TV movies I ever watched; it's definitely one of the saddest. Soon thereafter, Caan played Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, a tough mob guy who Donnie Duhmp tried (unsuccessfully) to emulate. Anyway, James Caan has retired from life at the age of 82, while Moscow Mitch (80) lives on.

An Even Swap

Robert Osborne died yesterday. I'd gladly trade every fucking Republican in Washington D.C. to get him back, and in a perfect world, I could do it.

Dave Brubeck

I first heard of Dave Brubeck on December 31st, 1961. Brubeck and his jazz quartet were the subject of a report by Walter Cronkite on the Sunday afternoon CBS show called "The Twentieth Century." My dad and I watched that show, which featured Brubeck's hit, "Take Five." My dad's a jazz lover, and even though I was mainly a fan of Top 40 pop music at the time, I immediately became hooked on jazz as performed by the Brubeck quartet when I heard "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk." A few days later my dad and I went to a department store and bought the group's "Time Out" LP on Columbia records, and played it over and over again in subsequent weeks.

Over the years, I've collected hundreds of jazz LPs and CDs by artists like Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Woody Shaw, and Herbie Hancock. I rarely play a jazz album now without remembering that afternoon when I first saw Dave Brubeck's combo playing "Take Five" on TV.

Brubeck resigned from life this week. Meanwhile, Limbaugh lives on.

Elizabeth Taylor

At one time, Elizabeth Taylor was considered the most beautiful woman in the world, and when I saw her in a movie called Raintree County, I recall agreeing with the description. Following that temporary boyhood crush, I never became a big Liz Taylor fan, but I was still disappointed when she went through her weight-gaining phase and was ridiculed in a sketch on Saturday Night Live. By John Belushi in a wig, no less.

Congestive heart failure. Age 79. And Limbaugh lives on.

Peter, Paul, and Mary

Back in the very early 1960s, "folk" was a hot pop music genre --- I was a fan of the Kingston Trio, who were making folk music popular. Also around that time, a folk group called Peter, Paul and Mary had a string of AM radio hits, and it was through their cover versions that I first heard songs written by Bob Dylan. Among the earliest vinyl LPs in my record collection were the first two albums by PPM on the Warner Brothers label. I played them until their grooves wore out. Later, I learned that Bob Dylan's songs as sung by Bob Dylan sounded very little like the PPM versions. And the M in PPM, Mary Travers, was more or less the epitome of sweet blondes for most of the decade.

Mary Travers has resigned from life. It doesn't seem possible that she was 72 years old. Where in hell does the time go ? And Limbaugh lives on.

Dysfunctional

It takes every ounce of patience I can summon to read through the headlines these days. For starters, Walter Cronkite died at age 92. I have to admit that during Cronkite's glory years, I was too young and carefree to spend time watching the 6:00 pm nightly news on CBS. My old man, a Texas version of Archie Bunker, didn't like him, so Cronkite must have been doing something right. When Tim Russert resigned from life, the mourning went on much longer than I'd have expected, so we'll see if Cronkite gets the same respect.

Here's the best argument I can make for population control: There are millions of people in this country who don't think Sonia Sotomayor is smart enough to sit on the Supreme Court, but think Sarah Palin is smart enough to be president. These people are permitted to vote in elections, a fact which explains nearly every problem this country faces today.

Scorekeeping 2009, Part One

The painter Andrew Wyeth died yesterday at age 91. I almost missed the news report, buried as it was among the stories on how the economy's going to hell. In my youthful days I dreamed about being a great artist, although my talent was minimal and I lacked the discipline to develop my modest abilities. I always tried to copy the techniques of professional artists, including those who drew for Mad magazine.

Anyway, Andrew Wyeth was an artist I admired for years, and if I could've forged a career in art, his work was what I'd emulate. I don't have the expertise to discuss Wyeth based on technical criteria -- I'll just say his paintings reflect a level of skill that even people who don't normally care about art one way or another can appreciate. Some of his watercolors and temperas are almost photorealistic in their detail.

My daughter the artist is a big Wyeth fan; last year she gave me his book Autobiography, a retrospective of his work from 1933-1993. I looked through it again this afternoon and was as amazed by his talent as if I were seeing it the first time. One of the hardest parts of getting older is realizing gifted people I admire are gradually disappearing from this world. Fortunately, many of them leave some of themselves behind on film, in print, and in picture books.

Scorekeeping update

Jesse Helms kicked the bucket, and on the blogs I check regularly, nobody seems too torn up over it. The current score is tied 1-1: George Carlin, Jesse Helms. Whole new ballgame.

RIP George Carlin

From today's local newspaper-

Carlin on religion: Something is wrong here: War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the resume of a supreme being. This is the kinda s--t you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude.

You know who I pray to? Joe Pesci. ... Two reasons: first of all, I think he's a good actor, okay? To me that counts. Second, he looks like a guy who can get things done. Joe Pesci doesn't f-k around.

Cut and pasted from a sidebar in today's article about Carlin's death. I never heard Carlin perform this particular bit, but something about it struck me as being hilarious, especially the part about Joe Pesci. Anyway, I decided it was worth saving for future reference.

More scorekeeping

George Carlin died. He was 71, which doesn't seem that old when you're my age. Carlin probably did more hard living in his younger years than I ever did. I wasn't what you'd call his biggest fan, but occasionally, I'd watch his stage shows on HBO and at his very best, he was one of the funniest comedians I ever saw. There was a lot of truth in his humor, and I especially liked his routines about people and their stuff. He understood the art of cussing, and could get more laughs with profanity than anyone other than Richard Pryor. I recommend his books Braindroppings and Napalm and Silly Putty as essential additions to a well-rounded library.

In my opinion, George Carlin contributed more to the betterment of society than Tim Russert ever came close to, but his departure won't be accompanied by anywhere near the public nailbiting and tearshedding that Tim received. So George Carlin is dead, and Limbaugh lives on.

Scorekeeping, June 3rd

A few days ago, Sydney Pollack died. In terms of sheer volume, he didn't direct as many great movies as Hitchcock, Peckinpah, or Spielberg (to name three), but his filmography is still substantial enough to justify putting him on the list of good guys I'll miss. The first of Pollack's movies I remember seeing was Jeremiah Johnson in 1972, which is one of the very best westerns ever filmed. I need to watch that one again sometime soon.

Next one to go was Bo Diddley, just yesterday. He was one of the greats of early rock and roll music. I only had to hear the first ten seconds of a Bo Diddley song on AM radio to know who I was listening to-- that's how distinctive his sound was. Whenever I heard him singing about how you can't judge a book by lookin' at the cover, it made me want to dance. And I can't even dance.

The End

The End

And in the end, the love you take
Is equal to the love you make.

Have you ever had the experience of a song melody running through your head, over and over, and you keep humming it to yourself ? Well, "The End" by The Beatles started playing in my mind yesterday and has kept it up all day today. Not a song really, but a fragment of one, at the close of the famous Abbey Road album. I think what triggered it was when I added the element at the bottom of the page.

Added 10:06 am on 02/13/08: In the preceding post, I commented on the death of Roy Scheider. As I think back on 2007, there were a lot of famous people who died, as there are every year. The ones that stick in my mind are Molly Ivins, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Ira Levin, Norman Mailer, and Jerry Falwell. Among those five, I'd have to say the score is 4-1 in favor of the bad guys. In this contest, the more points you score, the further behind you get... the object is to hope the other side scores more points.

Good news, bad news, sad news

Well, another good one bites the dust. Roy Scheider has died. He made some of my favorite movies in his day: The French Connection, Jaws, The Seven Ups, Marathon Man, Sorcerer, and 52 Pickup, among others. Meanwhile, Limbaugh and Coulter live on.

At Aggieland there's bad news and good news. The bad news is that Mike Sherman has already lost his first assistant coach, defensive coordinator Reggie Herring, who decided he'd rather coach linebackers for the Dallas Cowboys instead. We'll never know what Herring might've done with A&M's defense, but we'll see how well he does at Dallas. The good news is that Sherman apparently has a knack for picking quality assistants, if the NFL is after them before they coach a down. He needs to get on the stick and find a good one pronto.

The results of a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll provide an indication that the American people may not be as hopeless as they often appear. Asked to rank the steps the government could take to prevent or curtail an economic recession, the majority said the first step should be to end the war in Iraq. Giving tax rebates to the poor ranked at the bottom.

Spending money we don't have to buy stuff we don't need... someday, the bills are gonna come due.