Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 1/25: Melanie, “Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma”
Melanie Safka, a coffeehouse folk singer thrust into stardom with her set at the original Woodstock Festival, has died at age 76. Her popular success lasted just a few years, from 1970 to 1974, but she started singing in her teens and remained active until her death. Safka was singing in small New York clubs […]
Song of the Day 1/24: The Smiths, “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”
I’ve never understood why Donald Trump is so aggrieved. He’s no billionaire except by his own accounting, but he objectively lacks for nothing. So why does he playt this Smiths song at his rallies? He doesn’t already have what he wants? Do these lyrics really describe him? See, the life I’ve had Can make a […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024
Donald Trump won the New Hampshire primary, but in a way that allows any interpretation of the data you like. He got 54.6% to Nikki Haley’s 43.1%, which is far from a landslide. But the Northeastern state was probably Haley’s best chance at a victory. Or was it? Haley has vowed to stay in the […]
Song of the Day 1/23: Elle King, “Ex’s and Oh’s”
Singer Elle King, the daughter of former SNL comedian Rob Schneider, had a career-wrecking moment at the Grand Ole Opry last Friday during a birthday tribute for Dolly Parton. She took the stage, in her own words, “hammered,” couldn’t remember most of the words to a Parton song and slurred the ones she did recall, […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024
The surest sign that Trump is off his termite-infested rocker: The months-long effort to portray Biden as senile, when of course it’s Trump whose feeble mind is splintering. Last night Trump gave a highly technical description of Israel’s anti-missile defense system: “And they calmly walk to us, and ding, ding, ding, ding, boom, whoosh, boom. […]
Song of the Day 1/22: Tom Petty, “I Won’t Back Down”
Ron DeSantis said he’d never back down, but he didn’t say he wouldn’t back away, so that’s just what he’s done. He left the presidential race with a quote he attributed to Winston Churchill. In the best MAGA tradition, it’s fake. Tom Petty wrote this in response to an arsonist burning down his house while […]
DL Open Thread Monday, January 22, 2024
A week ago, Ron DeSantis said his second-place finish in the caucuses punched his ticket out of Iowa. To be fair, he didn’t say where he was going. Turns out it’s home. Best line about it: DeSantis should have been forced to carry his non-viable campaign to term. I suppose this doesn’t matter, because research […]
Song of the Day 1/20: The Shangri-Las, “Leader of the Pack”
Mary Weiss, lead singer for the ’60s girl group the Shangri-Las, died recently at age 75. The group had a strong chart run in 1964 and ’65, including this No. 1 hit from 1964. Unlike most girl groups, the Shangri-Las – two sets of sisters from a sketchy neighborhood in Queens – had a tough-girl […]
Song of the Day 1/19: The Honeycombs, “Have I the Right?”
Donald Trump apparently has never been a music fan. He’s never seen going to concerts, and we don’t hear about his Spotify playlists – a far cry from the days when we got regular reports of what was on Obama’s iPod. It’s Trump’s loss. If he had listened to more music back in the ’60s […]
Song of the Day 1/18: The Bee Gees, “Words”
Every MAGA accusation is a confession – why do you think they keep talking about mental health when we bring up gun violence? – which is why Fux News et al like to harp on Joe Biden’s mental acuity. It deflects from Donald’s. Trump has long gotten a pass because he’s been a logorrheic rambler […]
DL Open Thread Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024
Are Republicans capable of empathy? As my Magic 8-Ball says, signs point to no. First example: Testimony from a Pennsylvania woman whose son died in a school shooting last year. She testified in Harrisburg in favor of a proposed gun-control measure and was horrified that many lawmakers ignored her to watch their cellphones, and a […]
Song of the Day 1/17: Phish, “Farmhouse”
The venerable jam band Phish is coming to the Woodlands, the Dover Downs-adjacent campground that hosted the Firefly festival for a decade, for a four-day festival in August. Travel package tickets for the Mondegreen Festival go on sale tomorrow, weekend and camping passes Friday. Summer music festivals are pretty common now, and Phish was a […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024
What is Israel doing? Is it genocide? Ethnic cleansing? Forced migration? A crime against humanity? Such distinctions don’t matter. Even those who support Israel are in agreement: It’s wrong. But it won’t end until Benjamin Netanyahu is removed from power. The source problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. In Israel, two things are simultaneously true: Very few […]
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