Alby's Latest Posts
DL Open Thread Monday, Oct. 23, 2023
Anyone who’s raised children recognizes Donald Trump as an overgrown toddler. The lies he tells are the sort of incompetent falsehoods even small children outgrow. After his attorney Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to election mopery, Trump claimed – and apparently expects people to believe – “Ms. Powell was not my attorney, and never was.” I […]
Song of the Day 10/22: Jimmy Cliff, “Trapped”
For Gaza. Jimmy Cliff released this song as a single in 1972, the same year he starred in “The Harder They Come,” the movie and soundtrack that made Jamaican music mainstream, but it got surprisingly little attention at the time. Produced by Cat Stevens, whose “Wild World” was a big hit for Cliff in the […]
Song of the Day 10/20: Tom Jones and the Cardigans, “Burning Down the House”
I thought Jan. 6, 2021, made clear what the MAGA Republicans wanted to do to Congress, so the current House fire is no great surprise. I blame voters for handing them the matches. The Talking Heads’ funkiest tune, inspired by a Parliament/Funkadelic concert, became their highest-charting U.S. single, No. 9 in 1983. But the song […]
Song of the Day 10/19: Vince Taylor, “Brand New Cadillac”
Americans might be forgiven for thinking British rock and roll began with the Beatles. The Merseybeat sound they represented seemed to grow from meager roots – skiffle, the craze that dominated the late ’50s and early ’60s in England, sounded like jug-band music to Americans. The British reaction to Elvis Presley and the rest of […]
Song of the Day 11/18: The Grateful Dead, “Touch of Grey”
The media hasn’t had time to remind you lately, what with a couple of wars and a couple of Trump trials and Republicans In Disarray Chapter XII, but Joe Biden is older today than he was last week, which is the last time they checked in on that emerging story. Robert Hunter was not yet […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023
The hospital bombing in Gaza has convinced his handlers that Joe Biden won’t meet with Arab leaders in Jordan on his Middle East trip today. I’m not sure how yet, but the media is sure to conclude this is bad news for Biden. The Previous Guy, meanwhile, is bad news for everyone he comes into […]
Chump Change
Among the many MAGAfestations I don’t understand: Why do people give their money to a guy who claims to be a billionaire? Isn’t the whole point of being a billionaire that you have 1,000 million dollars, an almost inexhaustible supply, and so would never have to take anything from anybody? Why do people with one, […]
Song of the Day 10/17: Sly and the Family Stone, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”
Sly Stone, much to my surprise, is still alive. Now 80, he’s released a memoir, titled after his No. 1 hit “Thank You ((Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” something I learned when this CBS Sunday Morning piece turned up in my YouTube feed. The book is the product of hundreds of interview sessions with Ben […]
Comment Rescue: The Case for BHL
Found this in the trash folder. From “Deeds,” whose comment ended up there because he or she used more than one screen name. I have consistently asked for someone to make the case for why BHL should be governor. This weak sauce is what the answer is: “Let me answer Alby aka the fat guy […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023
The media news-scape is cluttered with war porn, but not so much that it pushed the Trump porn out of the picture. Horse-race stories about the House speakership round out the only news that fits. The big Middle East news is that Joe Biden will travel to Israel and Jordan on Wednesday. He’ll probably find […]
Song of the Day 10/16: Mickey Dolenz, “Shiny Happy People”
Rock is deep into its post-modern phase. How else to explain 78-year-old Mickey Dolenz, the last surviving Monkee, releasing an EP of R.E.M. covers? Well, maybe as time being a flat circle – R.E.M. was one of the first bands to cite the Monkees as an influence. “Shiny Happy People” might be the song that […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Oct. 16, 2023
Whatever you think about the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you have to admit that U.S. media picks and chooses its obsessions, and that dwelling on those stories stirs the deranged to action. Which is how you end up with a landlord stabbing a Palestinian woman’s 6-year-old child to death in that hotbed of ethnic strife that […]
Song of the Day 10/15: Madness, “Michael Caine”
Iconic British actor Michael Caine announced yesterday on BBC Radio that, at 90 years old, he’s retiring. “I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well, I am now. I’ve figured, I’ve had a picture where I’ve played the lead and it’s got incredible reviews. The only parts I’m likely to get now are old men.” […]
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