Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 155

J.J. Cale, Animated

Surprising tribute at NYT to J.J. Cale who died last July in its annual year-end magazine feature--complete with animation online.   And how he wouldn't compromise to be a true star.  Here's one of the greatest albums of the 1970s, which I literally wore out:

Chestnuts Roasting by the Fire

What happens when Dame Peggy Noonan returns home on Christmas night and curls up by the fire with a few drinks in hand and taps out a column of reflections on the year 2013.   Hightlights:  Mike Huckabee had a few more grandkids (yes, one is nicknamed "Huck") and Matt Drudge has finally discovered prayer.   Also, thank god, Obamacare still sucks.

Democrats are so concussed they've barely noticed that people do want health-care help, and it will probably have to be national in scope. Looking at it this way, Democrats have won a 30-year argument. They should wake up, get out from under the albatross of ObamaCare and start trying to create something that will work. With Republicans, who now have new credibility on the issue.

It Was 50 Years Ago Today...

More or less that the Beatles released "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the USA, sparking Beatlemania a few days later.   Here's the isolated harmonies/hand claps/ reverb track.   Below that the isolated rhythm track.

CNN Hits Greenwald Again via the Dersh

Dana Bash puts Glenn Greenwald on to discuss Snowden's latest--then, after he signs off, they put on Alan Dershowitz, who says Glenn has "never met a terrorist he didn't like," with no chance for Greenwald to reply.   So Greenwald had to do it on Twitter, calling Dersh a cartoon relic of the McCarthyist days.  

Getting Randy for Christmas

Cartoonist Mark Fiore animates a visit from St. Ayn on the day after Christmas, where she teams with Rand Paul and Ted Cruz to piss on the "moochers."


Saint Ayn Rand visits the day after Christmas! from MarkFiore on Vimeo.

Beatles, Christmas, Fifty Years On

They did an annual "Christmas Record" every year, starting in 1963, just weeks before conquering the U.S.  It was 50 years ago today (more or less), and the band could surely word-play...Here it is, with the boys all weighing in:

"Inside Bobby Dylan," A Surprising Angle

According to the popular view, Bob Dylan, acoustic folk/protest star, suddenly decided to go rock 'n roll in 1965.  The new "Llewyn Davis" film chronicles the early 1960s world of the New York folk scene, ending with a glimpse of the Bobster as he was about to break through, on the folk scene, in 196, a year after coming to NYC.  So it may surprise many to learn that Dylan actually "went rock" in that very year, albeit briefly--and even did it for his first single on Columbia.

It was for a track that didn't make his second, star-making album, Freewheelin',  a song he wrote called "Mixed Up Confusion."  It flopped as a single and since it didn't make the album was forgotten or ignored for twenty years.  One version later surfaced on his Biograph compilation, a guitar-heavy track, and now I've discovered an alternate take, with a rocking piano.  "I'm hung over, hung down, hung up." This song probably reflected Bob's real passion at the time--for rock 'n roll, more than folk.  It just took a few more years for him to commit...

The Late, Great, Johnny Ace

That was the title of the song by Paul Simon, and here's another  by Dave Alvin  paying tribute to songster Johnny Ace, who died on this day in 1954 in one of the most famous rock 'n roll tragedies--accidentally shooting himself between sets at a gig by playing a gun game (some say Russian roulette, others claims he fired the gun at himself bragging that he knew it wasn't loaded).

Ten Thousand Carolers

Quite a story:  A girl, age 8, has only a few days to live in the town of West Reading, in eastern Pennsylvania. Leukemia.  She has a bucket list and one item was for a night of Christmas carols in front of her home. Well, surely a few dozen would turn out to help.  Actually a few more than that:  10,000 in this small town.  I could live without attributing the record warm weather to God, but okay. SAD UPDATE:  The girl passed away on Christmas morning.

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Another "Ode" for Christmas

As some know, I have been chronicling the global phenomenon of "Ode to Joy" flash mobs (even got Bill Moyers to spread the word) in recent months, as it's tied to our new film about the Ninth Symphony and its cultural and political influence.  A new one last night in Japan, here is conclusion.  Below that, one I've just found from earlier this year, also in Japan (Shinjuku, Tokyo).  As always:  singing the German.