The inside reference is of no relevance to my response to your "insipid" evaluation. If jazzy musical complexity is your standard, fine! Maybe you'll delight in the music of John Zorn https://youtu.be/RYis3q0vv7g -- probably a distant relation but don't invite us to the same jam sessions.
I don't know that "insipid" is anything more than an expression of taste, which is, of course, indisputable. The two songs you reference have more complicated chord structures than MRYBA,"but if that's your standard then, say "America the Beautiful" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is more "insipid" than MRYBA, which has a nice iii / ii chordal progression. If it's lyrical content, well, the same sorts of arguments would apply and would suggest a bias against religious themes in music. Is "Amazing Grace" insipid?" My guess is that your judgment -- which I can't dispute because it is purely a matter of taste -- is based on associations and over-familiarity. As it happens I wrote a defense of "Kumbaya" back in 2006. https://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2006/08/someones_dissin.html
Here's part of that:
The song had cross-cultural bonafides that lifted it out of the ordinary when it appeared on the scene during the folk boom of the 1950s and 1960s. It's gentle call for divine presence struck a spiritual but non-sectarian tone.
The Weavers, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and many others covered "Kumbaya," and it turned out to be perfect for campfires, hootenannies and guitar masses (giving rise to the expression, "Kumbaya Catholics"). Perhaps too perfect.
Chicago folklorist Paul Tyler says that the song "became banal at the hands of non-African-American camp counselors and church youth workers--include me in that number--who stripped it of any rhythmic integrity." (more from Tyler below)
The stately melody turned into vanilla dirge. And, in the backlash, "Kumbaya" came to represent shallow goodwill based on nothing more profound than the humdrum participles that differentiate the verses ("someone's sleeping, Lord..." "someone's praying, Lord..." and so on)
Plug the word into a news database and dozens of knowing references a month to "Kumbaya," many using it as an adjective (a "kubayah speech," "the kumbaya approach," "those kumbaya" moments) as well as repeated imaginary descriptions of disputing parties joining hands to sing, well, you know.
RightWingStuff.com sells T-shirts and other products featuring a cartoon of a drill sergeant grabbing a long-haired peace protester around the neck and shouting, "Kiss my kumbaya, hippie!"
This makes it difficult to sing the song without irony and to find its authentic and deeply satisfying groove. "Kumbaya" so easily becomes a parody of itself that, in real life, folkies and camp counselors now avoid it, too.
If you sing it, you must be clear that it's only to make fun of those who sing it -- a deep hole for a little song to find itself in.
Free air is a fun idea. But I gave up on gas station air pumps many years ago because they were frequently broken, filthy, or required more change than I had. I bought a couple of little portable compressors for my car and they both broke from cheap plastic components. So, I bought a $60 compressor to keep in my garage. Convenient, works great, always clean and dry, warmer than outside in the winter, and ready for the tools I told myself that I would buy someday.
I was in favor of legalization of cannabis, but I am opposed to the rampant promotion and dramatic expansion of products. I am quite sure that we will be needing to address the negative effects before long. As to the Illinois rules, I can't imagine getting the entire system more wrong. In addition to the IPI complaints there is the complete failure of the social equity component that has yet to award a single license. The state really could not have done more to overburden and drive out the potential minority participants and to give the previous 'medical' providers a bigger head start. I hope no one buys Pritzker claims of the super job he has done on this.
I am in favor of abortion rights. As I have said before, a definition of when a life begins is the essential requirement. The Congress must pass a federal law that defines an embryo or fetus as a person after a specific time (24 week or whatever). Prior to that point government would explicitly not have the right to interfere in a woman's medical decisions. In fact, this might be expanded into the more libertarian view that the government does not have the right to interfere in anything that a person chooses to do to themselves - including drug use (where law enforcement has many negative societal impacts).
It has nothing to do with when life begins, it has to do when the fetus develops the capacity for mind, sentience, as that is what differentiates a being from an object. Beings have rights, objects do not. As women are beings, they have the inalienable right to control their own lives, which includes abortion, without any state interference until the fetus becomes a being and thus has rights. Prior to that point, the fetus is but an object, incapable of experience, as are other collections of cells in her body and cannot be used as an excuse to control her life. Abortion is protected by the Ninth Amendment, as it protects unenumerated rights.
The concept that only beings have rights is already applied to brain dead individuals. Brain dead individuals are legally recognized as no longer existing and incapable of suffering, experiencing, of making any decisions and so others are granted the authority to make the decision of whether to leave them on life support or take them off.
The standard of "being", that mind must exist to experience anything, applied to the fetus is consistent with existing law and concept of rights.
Glad to see that the GOP gov candidates will have some debates. Wish there was a way to have Pritzker face a similar forum that might pierce his relentless 'feel good' branding campaign that has already been running since last fall.
No question. My concern is that, historically, large political advertising budgets were somewhat counterbalancing because they ran contemporaneously with opposing messages. Pritzker is the first politician that I can think of that (in the last election and in this one) has deployed a long-term brand management type of campaign. The campaigns began long before the 'election season', are predominantly warm and fuzzy messages, and spend more than half of the airtime praising the desired constituent group (nurses, union labor, etc) and positioning Pritzker as a regular guy. Marketing people agree that 'feelings' (vs feature and function) brand management can be very successful if consistently delivered over a longer time.
Did not realize that "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" had its origin in black culture. Reminds me how a number of white blues fans reacted to a set by a local hard soul singer Johnny Sayles, who apparently was very fond of "Michael." When he first did sets in the north side blues clubs he always included "Michael." He always turned it into a sing-a-long,, which the crowd easily did because it is simply so familiar, even among hard core blues fans. Now after reading your post I realize why he always used "Michael," because he could always get a rousing response with the most familiar song. However, his use of "Michael" did not last long, as he learned the tastes of the north side blues fans. I confess, I actually missed "Michael" in his later sets.
A year or two after the Highwaymen had their "Michael" hit, there was a radio commercial where a soundalike group sang "Michael wore a Cricketeer" .... Cricketeer being an inexpensive line of suits and jackets for teen boys. The commercial was very popular.
You killed CNN+! Only a day after you trashing them the parent company pulled the plug. I am humbled by your power and influence. Or maybe your ability to channel the streaming desires of the general public.
I read the article in the Trib today about the Reader, the dispute, and the protest by the editors and staff. I understand the principle the editors are standing up for and their desire to move forward to the non-profit model. But I question their pragmatism and judgement. What made them think it was a good idea to pick a fight with one of the two people that controlled their future just four weeks before the paper would be re-established as a non-profit with a new board? And how do they think a protest in front of his house will improve his disposition? I can imagine his perception of their position - "We know you put several million dollars into saving the paper, and preparing a sustainable future, but now you need to shut up and go away. But you can donate more money to the non-profit on your way out because we need it". I agree with Eric's assessment of the situation, but practical businesspeople deal with decision makers as they are not as one wishes them to be. They would have been better served by holding their noses for a month. (I also agree with Eric that protests in front of people's homes are wrong. They are more about intimidation than communication.)
On reading the '420' article in the Trib today I was reminded of another fallacy sold by proponents of the Illinois cannabis laws - that legalization would reduce the harm to low-income communities. But selling marijuana without a license is still illegal in Illinois. Which means the low income, street dealer still risks significant fines and incarceration (up to 30 years). Holding more than an ounce is also a felony. https://marijuanaandthelaw.com/state-laws/illinois/
The illegal market in Illinois is estimated at $2 billion in 2021 which is 25% more than the much higher priced legal drug, therefore much higher volume. All of the sentence reductions and expungements for past charges, is bizarre social justice pantomime by politicians, since a person could be arrested and jailed for the same actions (holding, selling, growing) today and face the same onerous fines and prison sentences.
They're geniuses, clearly.
or Ella live at Mister Kelly's. I still need to catch the 2021 documentary about Mister Kelly's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFUS4RhMYJs
The inside reference is of no relevance to my response to your "insipid" evaluation. If jazzy musical complexity is your standard, fine! Maybe you'll delight in the music of John Zorn https://youtu.be/RYis3q0vv7g -- probably a distant relation but don't invite us to the same jam sessions.
I don't know that "insipid" is anything more than an expression of taste, which is, of course, indisputable. The two songs you reference have more complicated chord structures than MRYBA,"but if that's your standard then, say "America the Beautiful" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is more "insipid" than MRYBA, which has a nice iii / ii chordal progression. If it's lyrical content, well, the same sorts of arguments would apply and would suggest a bias against religious themes in music. Is "Amazing Grace" insipid?" My guess is that your judgment -- which I can't dispute because it is purely a matter of taste -- is based on associations and over-familiarity. As it happens I wrote a defense of "Kumbaya" back in 2006. https://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2006/08/someones_dissin.html
Here's part of that:
The song had cross-cultural bonafides that lifted it out of the ordinary when it appeared on the scene during the folk boom of the 1950s and 1960s. It's gentle call for divine presence struck a spiritual but non-sectarian tone.
The Weavers, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and many others covered "Kumbaya," and it turned out to be perfect for campfires, hootenannies and guitar masses (giving rise to the expression, "Kumbaya Catholics"). Perhaps too perfect.
Chicago folklorist Paul Tyler says that the song "became banal at the hands of non-African-American camp counselors and church youth workers--include me in that number--who stripped it of any rhythmic integrity." (more from Tyler below)
The stately melody turned into vanilla dirge. And, in the backlash, "Kumbaya" came to represent shallow goodwill based on nothing more profound than the humdrum participles that differentiate the verses ("someone's sleeping, Lord..." "someone's praying, Lord..." and so on)
Plug the word into a news database and dozens of knowing references a month to "Kumbaya," many using it as an adjective (a "kubayah speech," "the kumbaya approach," "those kumbaya" moments) as well as repeated imaginary descriptions of disputing parties joining hands to sing, well, you know.
RightWingStuff.com sells T-shirts and other products featuring a cartoon of a drill sergeant grabbing a long-haired peace protester around the neck and shouting, "Kiss my kumbaya, hippie!"
This makes it difficult to sing the song without irony and to find its authentic and deeply satisfying groove. "Kumbaya" so easily becomes a parody of itself that, in real life, folkies and camp counselors now avoid it, too.
If you sing it, you must be clear that it's only to make fun of those who sing it -- a deep hole for a little song to find itself in.
Free air is a fun idea. But I gave up on gas station air pumps many years ago because they were frequently broken, filthy, or required more change than I had. I bought a couple of little portable compressors for my car and they both broke from cheap plastic components. So, I bought a $60 compressor to keep in my garage. Convenient, works great, always clean and dry, warmer than outside in the winter, and ready for the tools I told myself that I would buy someday.
I was in favor of legalization of cannabis, but I am opposed to the rampant promotion and dramatic expansion of products. I am quite sure that we will be needing to address the negative effects before long. As to the Illinois rules, I can't imagine getting the entire system more wrong. In addition to the IPI complaints there is the complete failure of the social equity component that has yet to award a single license. The state really could not have done more to overburden and drive out the potential minority participants and to give the previous 'medical' providers a bigger head start. I hope no one buys Pritzker claims of the super job he has done on this.
I am in favor of abortion rights. As I have said before, a definition of when a life begins is the essential requirement. The Congress must pass a federal law that defines an embryo or fetus as a person after a specific time (24 week or whatever). Prior to that point government would explicitly not have the right to interfere in a woman's medical decisions. In fact, this might be expanded into the more libertarian view that the government does not have the right to interfere in anything that a person chooses to do to themselves - including drug use (where law enforcement has many negative societal impacts).
Good luck in getting that passed, or anything else like that passed.
It has nothing to do with when life begins, it has to do when the fetus develops the capacity for mind, sentience, as that is what differentiates a being from an object. Beings have rights, objects do not. As women are beings, they have the inalienable right to control their own lives, which includes abortion, without any state interference until the fetus becomes a being and thus has rights. Prior to that point, the fetus is but an object, incapable of experience, as are other collections of cells in her body and cannot be used as an excuse to control her life. Abortion is protected by the Ninth Amendment, as it protects unenumerated rights.
The concept that only beings have rights is already applied to brain dead individuals. Brain dead individuals are legally recognized as no longer existing and incapable of suffering, experiencing, of making any decisions and so others are granted the authority to make the decision of whether to leave them on life support or take them off.
The standard of "being", that mind must exist to experience anything, applied to the fetus is consistent with existing law and concept of rights.
Fine. So, when does 'being' begin? It's the same difference. There must be a standard for sentience and when it is recognized to exist.
Here are a couple of scientific articles about when that might be:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/201429
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1440624/
Glad to see that the GOP gov candidates will have some debates. Wish there was a way to have Pritzker face a similar forum that might pierce his relentless 'feel good' branding campaign that has already been running since last fall.
Well that ought to come in the fall. RIght now there is no plausible challenger for JB in the primary so not much point in debating.
No question. My concern is that, historically, large political advertising budgets were somewhat counterbalancing because they ran contemporaneously with opposing messages. Pritzker is the first politician that I can think of that (in the last election and in this one) has deployed a long-term brand management type of campaign. The campaigns began long before the 'election season', are predominantly warm and fuzzy messages, and spend more than half of the airtime praising the desired constituent group (nurses, union labor, etc) and positioning Pritzker as a regular guy. Marketing people agree that 'feelings' (vs feature and function) brand management can be very successful if consistently delivered over a longer time.
Did not realize that "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" had its origin in black culture. Reminds me how a number of white blues fans reacted to a set by a local hard soul singer Johnny Sayles, who apparently was very fond of "Michael." When he first did sets in the north side blues clubs he always included "Michael." He always turned it into a sing-a-long,, which the crowd easily did because it is simply so familiar, even among hard core blues fans. Now after reading your post I realize why he always used "Michael," because he could always get a rousing response with the most familiar song. However, his use of "Michael" did not last long, as he learned the tastes of the north side blues fans. I confess, I actually missed "Michael" in his later sets.
The rings video was mesmerizing.
The guy is REALLY good. That is no cheap trick.
A year or two after the Highwaymen had their "Michael" hit, there was a radio commercial where a soundalike group sang "Michael wore a Cricketeer" .... Cricketeer being an inexpensive line of suits and jackets for teen boys. The commercial was very popular.
Eric, I need your advice on how to fill out my tweet ballot. Should I vote for the best tweets, even if they have no chance of winning?
Always!
I feel better about my 2016 and 2020 votes now.
You killed CNN+! Only a day after you trashing them the parent company pulled the plug. I am humbled by your power and influence. Or maybe your ability to channel the streaming desires of the general public.
I read the article in the Trib today about the Reader, the dispute, and the protest by the editors and staff. I understand the principle the editors are standing up for and their desire to move forward to the non-profit model. But I question their pragmatism and judgement. What made them think it was a good idea to pick a fight with one of the two people that controlled their future just four weeks before the paper would be re-established as a non-profit with a new board? And how do they think a protest in front of his house will improve his disposition? I can imagine his perception of their position - "We know you put several million dollars into saving the paper, and preparing a sustainable future, but now you need to shut up and go away. But you can donate more money to the non-profit on your way out because we need it". I agree with Eric's assessment of the situation, but practical businesspeople deal with decision makers as they are not as one wishes them to be. They would have been better served by holding their noses for a month. (I also agree with Eric that protests in front of people's homes are wrong. They are more about intimidation than communication.)
On reading the '420' article in the Trib today I was reminded of another fallacy sold by proponents of the Illinois cannabis laws - that legalization would reduce the harm to low-income communities. But selling marijuana without a license is still illegal in Illinois. Which means the low income, street dealer still risks significant fines and incarceration (up to 30 years). Holding more than an ounce is also a felony. https://marijuanaandthelaw.com/state-laws/illinois/
The illegal market in Illinois is estimated at $2 billion in 2021 which is 25% more than the much higher priced legal drug, therefore much higher volume. All of the sentence reductions and expungements for past charges, is bizarre social justice pantomime by politicians, since a person could be arrested and jailed for the same actions (holding, selling, growing) today and face the same onerous fines and prison sentences.
Love the April Hope adventure!