Under the Bridge

There's an old Rodney Dangerfield routine that goes something like this:  "He worked for the bank for 30 years, Vice President - very adjusted man...church goer, never smokes, drinks or, gambles. Then you read about these guys. One day they pick up an axe, and wipe out the whole family. The next day the cops come around, 'What happened here? What kinda man was he?' 'He was a quiet man, a very quiet man'."

Because of the political dichotomy in the country, the majority of Americans stay silent, yet boil under the surface, ready to explode. We're in an environment where the preponderance of people can't say anything anymore without getting shouted down by the fringe minorities of both sides. The politically correct Left will shut you down if you aren't woke enough. The MAGA (Make America Great Again) Right acts like guests on the defunct Jerry Springer Show. Although many members of the GOP aren't "deplorables" as Hillary Clinton referred to them, some MAGA are. The same could be said about ANTIFA. Both sides are confrontational with no room for discourse, in person or online. It also seems as if everyone talks relentlessly about politics these days which is much different than thirty years ago. It puts me on the defensive. 

If somebody tells me that they're a Democrat, I wonder if they're voting for candidates representing the Squad's values. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the shining light of the movement. She doesn't characterize my values nor does Bernie Sanders, although they have some good ideas such as Universal Health Care and make the billionaires pay their fair share of taxes. They are Socialists. It says so on Bernie's party affiliation. Conversely, if somebody tells me that they're a member of the GOP, I wonder if they're RINOs (Republican In Name Only), or, MAGA. Either or, it doesn't make me happy that out of over 300 million people, we can't get better candidates running for higher office. Like the presidency. 

I hated the 1990s. I was in my thirties for most of it, and as the country went through radical transformation culturally, so did I personally. As the dominance of three media networks with all of their influence on society eroded into the niche broadcasting environment we have today, I too was morphing from early adulthood to something that was supposed to be more mature. At almost 70, except for the aches and pains, I still feel like I'm in my teens mentally. But in my thirties, I was tired of myself, especially my career as a scribe, and needed a break. If you didn't live through the 1990s, or want a retrospective of it, look no further than Chuck Klosterman's The Nineties. It's an outstanding book. 

Bill Clinton was the 42nd President from 1993-2001. Except for a few peccadillos, I thought he was an excellent Commander in Chief. Especially the way in which he balanced the budget. He was a fiscal conservative while ushering in a centrist political agenda. In the early part of the decade, MTV in the classic music video format was dying. So was I from self-inflicted psychological and financial wounds. My friends were moving on and I wasn't because of poor choices. What always kept me going was listening to music. A year before Bill and Hillary moved into The White House,  Red Hot Chili Peppers released their fifth studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. I had the Compact Disk and used to listen to it while on the Stairmaster.

One track on the album is "Under the Bridge", written by frontman Anthony Kiedis. It's a song about loneliness, homelessness and drug abuse. Despite its dour subject matter, it's a great song. Kiedis has been significantly influenced by writer Charles Bukowski, and I don't know this for a fact, but he may have created the song title from a Bukowski line from his novel Women: "Many a good man has been put under the bridge by a woman." It sounds like something "Slick Willie" should have written. Although I liked President Obama, I preferred the leadership of Clinton. I didn't mind Bush the Elder either, but never voted for him. I've never voted for a Republican, and the way things are going, I doubt I ever will. 

Walk on the Wild Side

I still use AOL as my primary email provider. I'm not trying to be retro cool. It's the same address I've had for over thirty years and it's good enough for me. I have a Gmail account for professional purposes, but seldom use it. There's not a lot of interest in a writer almost 70 years old. When I access my email on my Chromebook, I go to the AOL homepage and the first thing I usually do is check out the rotating slide show that highlights the important news of the day. Recently, the big celebrity story was about Cardi B deciding not to have her butt implants removed. She took Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" to the next level. 

Cardi B is one of the top performers in the music industry and has been so for almost a decade. You may be familiar with her from her duet "W.A.P." (Wet Ass Pussy) with Megan Thee Stallion. I prefer double entendres such as Blondie's "The Tide is High". Same meaning. Same message. Just a different way of saying it. Last week, the AOL homepage carousel featured a story about a dustup in the music industry between Moby and Kinks founders Ray and Dave Davies. In a recent interview, it appears that Moby takes umbrage with the lyrics to "Lola" and calls it transphobic and unevolved. It was 1970. Why the animosity? Dave Davies took to the music media to rebut in places such as Rolling Stone magazine. Now it's front page news. So much for current events.

"Lola" was controversial in 1970 and temporarily banned from the airwaves by the BBC in Great Britain, not for the trans references, but because of commercial product placement. The lyrics, "Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man", were deemed okay. Mentioning Coca-Cola was too much for the censors and it was taken off the air. Only after the Kinks changed Coca-Cola to cherry cola was the song able to reclaim air time. "Lola" was an international success, with a peak position of #9 on the U.S. singles charts soon after release. Although some British radio stations banned "Lola" for its lyrics, it remains one of the top songs in Rock and Roll history. I wonder how Moby holds up?

In 1973, Lou Reed had an AM radio hit with "Walk on the Wild Side". Off his second solo LP Transformer, it was a top 20 single of the year. Produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, it was groundbreaking and risqué, according to Wikipedia. I wouldn't know. It was just a catchy tune to me. The first stanza goes something like this: "Holly came from Miami, F.L.A., Hitchhiked her way across the USA. Plucked her eyebrows on the way, Shaved her leg and then he was a she." The song's name was derived from the 1962 movie Walk on the Wild Side, which itself was an adaptation of a Nelson Algren novel. Jane Fonda was one of the actors in her second starring role playing Kitty Twist. 

Renée Richards is the first transgender person I was aware of. Renée made headlines in the 1970s from being the first trans athlete competing on the professional women's tennis circuit after sex reassignment surgery. Before the transition from male to female, Richards was an incredible multisport athlete - in high school, in college, and in the Navy. I was in high school and didn't really know what to make of it all when Richards made the nightly news from taking her case to the New York State Supreme Court. Richards wanted to play tennis, professionally as a woman, and won. As a result, Richards played in both singles and doubles competition at the U.S. Open. She went on to a brief but successful professional tennis career. 

This past week, the International Olympic Committee banned transgender women athletes from women's events. “Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females,” is the official statement from the IOC. The sex of the athlete will be determined by a mandatory gene test. I agree with this ruling. Once in a while, you get an outlier such as Olympic swimming phenom Katie Ledecky that can compete with men on a limited basis, but it's few and far between. It's not a level playing field. I don't like to side with the Trump agenda, but I do with this issue. In my opinion, trans people can serve in the military, can be a good parent, but can't play women's sports. It's not fair to women, who were born women. It's a stacked deck and just not fair.

I downloaded the MP3 file of "Lola" from iTunes. It's in mono sound. That's the way we used to listen to music on the AM radio. It has some sagacious lyrics: "Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola.". Maybe Moby should give it another listen.

Living on a Thin LIne

The last time I heard The Kinks perform "Living on a Thin Line" was when it piped over the soundsystem at Bada Bing, Tony Soprano's strip club in the HBO series The Sopranos. It's an incredible song by an incredible band. The critics claim it's one of their best. I know I like it. When I was in college, The Kinks had a big album, Low Budget. It was their 18th LP and they cranked out records for almost two more decades. I forget who sat at the bar during the episode, but they knocked back drinks as topless women with pasties danced to the tune about the death of a culture and the changing of a nation. I get a sense of déjà vu now when I listen to it.

The current political climate in the United States is reminiscent of the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939. A precursor to World War II, it pitted The Republicans (socialists, anarchists, and communists all backed by the Soviet Union) against The Nationalist rebels (an alliance of fascists, conservatives, monarchists and traditionalists supported by Nazi Germany). Although over 35,000 anti-fascist volunteers from the International Brigades (including George Orwell) joined The Republicans, they lost from a variety of factors that are too vast for this brief. At the end of the war, Francisco Franco became dictator of Spain and remained in power until his death in 1975. 

I don't have the apolitical blues. I'm angry. I'm a registered independent, lean left of center, and caucus with the Democrats. It's the lesser of two evils, but I believe in voting because I believe in The Republic. I voted for Jimmy Carter my first eligible presidential election and haven't missed one since. I was a card carrying Democrat for thirty years until I got fed up. They're a circular firing squad, and because of their blunders, a narcissist white nationalist masquerading as a real estate mogul was elected Commander in Chief. For the second time. Plus, Trump got the popular vote this past election. Nice job DNC. You bungled the job. As a result, the MAGA movement remains strong, running on an agenda fueled by Project 2025. 

According to Google, "Project 2025 is a political initiative published in April 2023 by the Heritage Foundation with the goal of reshaping the U.S. federal government by consolidating executive power in favor of right-wing policies." Russ Vought, the lead architect of the project is currently head of the Office of Management and Budget. This is the office that executes Trump's agenda among other duties. Pam Bondi, the U.S. Attorney General supports Project 2025. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is also in the fold. The left compares him to Heinrich Himmler. I don't go that far. I don't see any gas chambers, only detention camps. Kurt Vonnegut once wrote: "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country." Most aren't my high school classmates. They're much younger.

If you follow the "fake news", Project 2025 is probably familiar to you. If you follow Fox News, you're probably familiar with it, too. After all, Project 2025 is the agenda of the White Christian nationalist movement. Only 10% of the country identifies with this crusade, but do they ever pack a punch. With an additional 20% of the country agreeing in sympathy, they're still a minority, but growing by the day. I'm not a hardliner on the issues. Closing the Southern Border is a good idea. Concentration Camps are not. 

I live in crunchy granola Ithaca, New York. Ten square miles surrounded by reality is the tagline for our liberal community. Lots of tie-dye shirts and black socks with Birkenstocks. The electorate here prefers communists and socialists to candidates with agendas that actually work. We finally have a Democrat legislator in Congress after years of GOP rule. Josh Riley is our representative. I voted for him twice and believe he's doing a great job. If you read the Ithaca subreddit, all the protesters and agitators want to vote him out. You get voted down if you dare say one thing positive about him. Why? Because Riley reached across the aisle on a couple of issues and also supports Israel. I know it's a small sample size, but it's a microcosm of bicoastal elitism. Snap out of it. 

The musical Cabaret takes place in Berlin circa 1931 during the decadent years of the Weimar Republic as the Nazi Party gained power. Most of the play is set in the Kit Kat Club, a popular nightclub. According to Google Gemini, "the cheerful music often underscores the bleak political reality, serving as a chilling reminder of how easily people can become complacent as totalitarianism takes hold." Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey starred in the film adaptation in 1972. I remember watching it when HBO was called Home Box Office. The end of the story "culminates with tragic consequences to those who ignored the danger."

Life is a Cabaret, old chum. 

Left of the Dial

"Left of the Dial" is a song by The Replacements off their album Tim. It's also hipster slang for where College Radio stations are found on your radio. You can stream just about any radio station you want nowadays, so it's an antiquated expression unless you still listen to terrestrial radio like I do. I'm fortunate that I live in a college town, Ithaca, NY, where both Cornell University and Ithaca College are located. Both academic institutions have radio stations, WVBR and WICB, and I have them pre-programmed on my favorites list in my car. I've stopped trying to keep up with modern music, but still enjoy some of the newer indie artists. What I've discovered on both of my local alternative college radio stations, is that it depends on the DJ as to what the playlists are, and how much I enjoy them. It's hit and miss.

I'm having a difficult time warming up to the popular recording artists of this era. I don't know if the music is inferior to decades past, or maybe it's me. I enjoyed music from as far back as the 1930s while I was growing up, and as I got older, I listened to bands much younger than my contemporaries. It was about 2010 that I noticed a big change where everybody started sounding the same. 

With female singers, it seems like there's a chanteuse of the month, one hit wonders that are like Madonna on steroids. I have no complaints with Madonna. If you haven't listened to her singles, you don't know what you're missing. She's a bona fide superstar and rightfully so. Just listen to "Borderline", or ,"Material Girl". Madge started it all. They don't call her "The Queen of Pop" for nothing. Yesterday I saw a photo of Dua Lipa in a sequined string bikini. I know she's won some Grammys, but I don't know if she's just hanging onto her career, or this is de rigueur for all the singers and starlets. She's great looking, but posing near naked in your twenties or thirties is no feat. Try doing it in your sixties. 

I've tried watching the Boy-Bands that top the charts and I just don't get it. It's like watching a futuristic version of The Osmond Brothers. Back in the day, when New Kids on the Block and N'SYNC debuted, I thought it was the end of Western Civilization. I was wrong. They've had staying power and catapulted some members to movie stardom, along with continuing to fill arenas. But I never enjoyed The Osmond Brothers. When they first hit the scene, I was listening to Led Zeppelin II, Who's Next, and Alice Cooper's Killer. "Sweet and Innocent" didn't quite cut it. They can sing and dance and fill the theaters in Las Vegas, but I'm staying on the sidelines. 

Some family bands from the 1960s were great. The Cowsills, The Jackson Five and The Beach Boys. The only song the Osmonds did that I liked was a cover of "Deep Purple" by Donnie and Marie. Originally performed in 1963 by Nino Tempo and April Stevens, Donnie and Marie had a rendition for their television show back in 1976. It hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. At the time, the only Deep Purple I was listening to was "Smoke on the Water". 

About fifteen years ago, my late father and I did a road trip to Ohio. We made a stop in Canton at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When we were finished, we drove to Cleveland and toured the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. My father wasn't musically inclined because of a hearing impediment. Most of his musical tastes stemmed from his high school and college years: Johnny Mathis, Julie London, Frank Sinatra and The Platters. The only album he ever owned that I can remember was Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame wasn't his thing, but he knew my proclivity towards it. Another sacrifice he made for me.

When we got into the museum, there was one huge wall festooned with album covers of the 100 best Rock albums by their estimation. I've owned 85% of them at one time or another in various formats: 33 1/3 RPM Vinyl, 8-Track, Cassette, Compact Disc and MP3 files via iTunes. Many I've bought multiple times as each format became obsolete. I spent a small fortune on music industry offerings throughout the years. It was money well spent.