Monthly Archives: March 2021

General

Coronavirus Diaries 30

Last night President Biden offered a time-table for when we may begin to return to some normalcy regarding COVID-19 (the linked to article is written by Stephen Collinson and Maeve Reston and presented on CNN.com):

‘I need you’: Biden asks Americans to do their part to help country emerge from Covid crisis

Specifically, he eyed July 4th as potentially the point where enough people will have received the vaccine (whichever one they are able to get) and when we should be able to get together in at least small groups.

He also implored people to not go out and mingle as we’re still not out of the woods, so to speak, and the danger of variants of COVID remains high.

Yet down in these parts its Spring Break time and there are an awful lot of people running around in largish groups.

Brittany Chang for businessinsider.com has the following article…

Travelers are flocking to Miami for Spring Break despite COVID

We truly are a frustrating species, aren’t we?

I mean, we’re so very close now to getting every adult vaccinated and yet we can’t help ourselves.

I fully expect to see the rates of COVID infection rise quite a bit starting at the end of March (a two week incubation period) and then remain rather high through April.

I hope, though, I’m proven very wrong.

General

Incredible…

…and not in a terribly good way.

Ron Dicker wrote the following article, which appeared on huffingtonpost.com…

Banned Uber Attacker Says She’ll Take Lyft. Then Lyft Bans Her.

Not to spoil the entire article, but a few ladies took an Uber ride, apparently one of them refused to wear a mask and the driver insisted they all do, things got really heated and the driver decided he no longer wanted to take them anywhere.

Things escalated when he stopped somewhere to drop them off and they refused to leave the car until their subsequent ride appeared. They claimed it was a bad neighborhood and perhaps it was, and further than the driver told them if they didn’t leave he’d drop them off on the freeway.

The rider who didn’t have the mask then coughed on the driver and pulled his mask as took his cellphone. I’m assuming that was a quick thing and he got it back.

Anyway, the rider offered her version of the events and claimed she would never use Uber again and would use Lyft and Lyft… well, the article’s headline pretty much tells you what they think about these potential clients.

I’m often appalled by the way people act nowadays, though I suspect its something that’s always been the case but because of the proliferation of cellphones and the ability to film virtually anything at any time, we’re seeing examples of things that simply wouldn’t be known and/or forgotten quickly.

Instead, they’re filmed and posted online for posterity, and the people involved… well… they get to live their bad behavior for the rest of their lives.

What the riders did was appalling, there’s no two ways about it, and I have full sympathy with the Uber Driver and what he had to put up with.

Too many people out there are taking COVID-19 far to unseriously and, by doing so, they are risking the lives of others who are taking the virus seriously.

The Driver wasn’t asking the riders to do anything extraordinary. Simply wear your masks. That’s all.

But it was a bridge too far for at least one of them and something that should have been a minor matter blew up into sheer crazyness.

I wonder if somewhere down the road, when the passengers of that Uber ride are a little older, they will realize what they and the attention -negative, I imagine- was not worth it.

Take a breath, people. Think through your actions.

I suppose they’ll have to get around with Taxis or public buses from now on, unless they get their own cars.

Hell of a thing to do for something as simple as respecting your driver’s eminently reasonable request.

Music

The Rolling Stones… and David Bowie?

It seems someone on the inside in The Rolling Stones organization has released to the internet a number of “vault” songs created by the group but to date not released.

Included among them is the original demo of It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It) which features David Bowie…!

Interested in hearing this demo? Click here:

The Rolling Stones – It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It) Demo (feat. David Bowie)

I found out years ago that this song was originally something Mick Jagger and David Bowie worked on and that Jagger, and The Rolling Stones, wound up taking the song for themselves. I don’t believe it has a “co-written” by David Bowie credit nor, to be frank, do I know if indeed Bowie had that strong a hand on it.

However, the fact that a demo like this one exists where he’s doing some background singing does make the whole thing more intriguing.

Having said that…

David Bowie and Mick Jagger formally collaborated/co-sang on only one song, a remake of Dancing In The Street…

The song -and video- were created very quickly to be shown on Live Aid back in 1985 and the video, which at times has Bowie out of synch with the words, shows it. Plus there’s a sense of just filming them dancing around without seemingly giving much thought to what they were doing.

I point this out because though David Bowie in his career lent his voice to do some wonderful songs with other artists, including the excellent backgrounds to Lou Reed’s Satellite of Love…

…and Under Pressure, the beautiful duet he did with Queen…

…I felt like his sole (until that demo showed up) work with Mick Jagger showed that not all duets worked. The fact is that Mick Jagger’s voice is so in your face that Bowie’s singing/vocals seemed to be pushed far to the back and mostly obliterated. When the two sing together, all I seem to hear is Jagger!

So too it is with the demo of It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It). I don’t believe this version of the song was ever intended for release, at least not until now (I’m assuming this release wasn’t an illegal thing, but who knows), but I’m hard pressed to hear where exactly Bowie is in it.

Maybe I’m just getting deaf in my older age…!

Still, a fascinating relic of times past.

General

Coronavirus Diaries 29

Is it -possibly!- time to start getting… excited?

In an article written by Jordan Williams and appearing on theHill.com, we find…

US picks up vaccination pace, averaging 2M doses per day

President Joe Biden promised that he would have 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days, a number that some scoffed at but, if this pace continues -or increases- and according to the above article, we could have that number of vaccinations a full month earlier!

My wife, who is a first responder, already has had her two Pfizer shots. My eldest daughter also received her first shot and my younger daughter is eligible to get a shot as well, given she too works for a first responder. I will be getting my first shot come Sunday. I’m guessing it will be the Moderna vaccine as the Pfizer vaccine tends to be administered in hospitals and my appointment is at a pharmacy.

Good news for us personally, but my good fortune is also everyone else’s. It means more and more vaccines are becoming available and the chances of getting one is increasing with each passing day.

Better yet, the infection numbers are lower, though it doesn’t mean one should let down their guard. Provided a COVID mutation doesn’t screw up the vaccine effectiveness, there is evidence of the so-called “herd immunity” starting to occur.

Ridiculously, two states, Texas and Mississippi, have decided that the worst is over and ended mask mandates and eased other COVID restrictions.

To this, President Joe Biden said…

While there’s plenty of reason to be hopeful given the good news of late, it’s also not the time, I would think, to let one’s guard down and it certainly isn’t the time to think its over.

It’s not.

We are close, but we aren’t there yet.

Even after I get the second shot of my vaccine, I intend to continue wearing masks at least until the infection rates truly become minimal and a good portion, perhaps up to 2/3rd, of the U.S. population has the vaccine.

Hopefully this will be the case by later in summer, give or take.

When that does happen, I can’t imagine what it’ll be like.

Euphoria, I’m sure…

It should be something!

Movies

Problematic films…

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s post about Dr. Seuss books whose printing will be discontinued due to questionable stereotypical caricatures (you can read that here), Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is set to host a new series in which they present, and explore, 18 classic films which, in this day and age, may be viewed as problematic in the way they depict certain events/people.

The New York Post offers a story regarding this, if you’re curious:

TCM examines “problematic” film classics in new series

The 18 films they will present are:

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Rope (1948)

The Four Feathers (1939)

Woman of the Year (1942)

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

Gunga Din (1939)

Sinbad, the Sailor (1947)

The Jazz Singer (1927)

The Searchers (1956)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

Swing Time (1936)

Stagecoach (1939)

Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959)

My Fair Lady (1964)

The Children’s Hour (1961)

Psycho (1960)

Dragon Seed (1944)

I’m familiar with almost all the films and have seen a number of them.

The ones that stick out, to me, are Gone With The Wind, a magnificent, epic film that nonetheless perpetuates the idea of a “noble” Confederacy in its Civil War loss. Its tough, especially these days, to view this bucolic vision and ignore the fact that the Civil War, and the Confederacy, were about keeping the hideous institution of slavery. Not to mention, in the novel -though they kept that from appearing in the movie- Rhett and several of the male characters within it were members of the KKK!

I noted before that when I went to High School I went to a boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida and was rather shocked to see trucks with Confederate Flag stickers on their bumpers or on the side of the cars.

This has changed over the years and my most recent excursions to Jacksonville, taken within the past year, have shown the city has moved on. I don’t recall seeing a single car with a Confederate flag on it.

Similarly, I remember in one of my first years in College attending a film appreciation/analysis class and we were offered different movies across different genres and for musicals we were given the Astaire/Rogers musical Swing Time.

When I saw the film, I recall it was an animated, rather typical musical and, truthfully, I didn’t think much of it afterwards, forgetting most of the story.

Many, many years later, it was on TCM and I wrote about my incredulous reaction to the blackface “Bojangles” number in the film.

Now, maybe close to twenty five years or so had passed since seeing Swing Time but it sure does show how with the passage of time opinions of things can change.

I don’t recall when I originally saw Swing Time in that class, likely in the mid to late 1980’s or very early 1990’s having any issues or even thoughts about the Bojangles number and the blackface employed. Mind you, it was wrong then and it remains wrong now -the use of “blackface” is deeply offensive- only back then I suppose I was so sheltered and/or oblivious that it didn’t register to me at that time.

However, when I watched the film again for the first time since then back in 2020, that scene totally shocked me and, worse, I couldn’t believe how it didn’t do so back then.

Anyway, there you have it. If you’re interested in seeing any of these classic films with problematic elements and want to hear interesting analysis about these elements, TCM is the place to go!

Books/Literature, General, Movies

Dr. Seuss in the (negative) spotlight…

Over on CNN.com I found this article by Amanda Watts and Leah Asmelash concerning…

6 Dr. Seuss books won’t be published anymore because they portray people in ‘hurtful and wrong’ ways

Basically, these six books feature stereotypes, particularly of Asian and Black people, which sadly were somewhat the norm in caricatures back then but which are now looked upon quite negatively.

The books in question, taken from the above link, are:

  • And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
  • If I Ran the Zoo
  • McElligot’s Pool
  • On Beyond Zebra!
  • Scrambled Eggs Super!
  • The Cat’s Quizzer

I’m quite familiar with Dr. Seuss’ most famous books, like Green Eggs and Ham, and of the six titles they’re not going to print anymore I’m only familiar with And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street and McElligot’s Pool.

The others I’m unfamiliar with.

As I mentioned before, this sort of problem has reared its head with other works of the 20th Century: They present caricatured stereotypes which by today’s standards are very hard to take.

I recall plenty of Warner Brothers cartoons featuring questionable depictions of Black people. And who can forget that Walt Disney won’t release Song of the South, the film which features one of their most recognizable songs –Zip A Dee Doo Dah– because the entire film features a depiction of the antebellum South that is, to say the least, extremely out of date -and that’s being kind!

I suppose this is a sign that as a society we’re growing and coming to understand how hurtful some of the stereotypical depictions of people can be.

We can’t change the past, certainly, but we can work to make things a bit better today and tomorrow.

General

CPAC 2021

As if things couldn’t get more crazy with this year’s Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC), some eagle-eyed observers noted their stage seemed to have a hidden Nazi symbol on it…

Of course the people who were behind the display deny they meant for any sort of Nazi insignia and, truthfully, I want to give them the benefit of the doubt… but even so, I don’t know what to think.

If they did intend to put in, and hide, such a vulgar symbol on the stage, it would be… pretty disgusting, truthfully, and it seems a hard thing to think someone would dare to hide a symbol like that in such an event.

On the other hand, we are talking about Trump and what’s left of the Republican party, which for the past four years have uttered countless dog whistles of encouragement to the far right fringe and this could well be another example of just that.

It’s sad that we’ve gotten to the point where its hard to give people the benefit of the doubt in cases like that.