Ultimate WHEN EVERYONE WENT DISCO playlist.

1. Kiss--I WAS MADE FOR LOVIN' YOU
2. James Taylor--DAY TRIPPER
3. Cheap Trick--GONNA RAISE HELL
4. Elton John--VICTIM OF LOVE
5. The Rolling Stones--MISS YOU
6. Dolly Parton--BABY I'M BURNIN'
7. Paul McCartney and Wings--GOODNIGHT TONIGHT
8. Barbra Streisand--THE MAIN EVENT
9. Ethel Merman--I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU (1979)
10. George Jones--I AIN'T GOT NO BUSINESS DOIN' BUSINESS TODAY

11. Daryl Hall & John Oates—PORTABLE RADIO

12. The Rolling Stones—EMOTIONAL RESCUE

13. Barry Manilow—COPACABANA

14. Jack Jones—WIVES AND LOVERS (1979)

15. Isaac Hayes—DON’T LET GO

16. Frank Sinatra—NIGHT AND DAY (1977)

17. The Beach Boys—HERE COMES THE NIGHT (1979)

18. Aretha Franklin—IT’S GONNA GET A BIT BETTER 

19. Daryl Hall and John Oates—BEBOP DROP
20. David Naughton—MAKIN’ IT
21. J. Geils Band—COME BACK

Rebecca Traister on the deficits of Joe Biden.

Excerpt from Rebecca Traister’s article for NEW YORK magazine: https://www.thecut.com/2019/03/joe-biden-isnt-the-answer-for-president-in-2020.html
Biden carries himself with the confidence of a winner, despite not having won, or even come close to winning, either of the previous presidential primaries he’s entered. He is the guy whose self-assured conviction that his authority will protect him from rebuke has always preceded him into any room, whose confident sense of his own entitlement repels potential objection like Gore-Tex repels rain. He is the gaffe-master, the affable fuck-up, and also, oddly, the politician who’s supposed to make us feel safe. He is the amiable, easygoing, handsy-but-harmless guy who’s never going to give you a hard time about your own handsiness or prejudice, who’s gonna make a folksy argument about enacting fundamentally restrictive policies.

For his whole career, Biden’s role has been to comfort the lost, prized, and most fondly imagined Democratic voter, the one who’s like him: that guy in the diner, that guy in Ohio, that guy who’s white and so put off by the changed terms of gendered and racial power in this country that decades ago he fled for the party that was working to roll back the social advancements that had robbed him of his easy hold on power. That guy who believed that the system worked best when it worked for him.

Biden is the Democrats’ answer to the hunger to “make America great again,” dressed up in liberal clothes. The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie has in fact argued that Biden’s racial politics have offered a form of Trumpism on the left, a “liberal cover to white backlash.” To that I would add, he has provided liberal cover to anti-feminist backlash, the kind of old-fashioned paternalism of powerful men who don’t take women’s claims to their reproductive, professional, or political autonomy particularly seriously, who walk through the world with a casual assurance that men’s access to and authority over women’s bodies is natural. In an attempt to win back That Guy, Joe Biden has himself, so very often, been That Guy.

Now it seems, That Guy is widely viewed as the best and safest candidate to get us out of this perilous and scary political period. But the irony is that so much of what is terrifying and dangerous about this time — the Trump administration, the ever more aggressive erosion of voting and reproductive rights, the crisis in criminal justice and yawning economic chasm between the rich and everyone else — are in fact problems that can in part be laid at the feet of Joe Biden himself, and the guys we’ve regularly been assured are Democrats’ only answer.

Giving reality a middle finger, Las Vegas still loves machine guns and Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson slot machines are still available in the wake of LEAVING NEVERLAND, the Cirque du Soleil show still runs at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and the MGM Grand Hotel still believes “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” is an eternal banger that must not be pulled from its music PA playlist.

And the Mandalay Bay-based massacre of innocent country music festival fans means nothing.  You can shoot machine guns from the ground (one business is called Battlefield Vegas) or from a helicopter (which at least travels into the desert before allowing customers to fire away).

As the late David Brenner said (in a different context referring to performing in clubs, but relevant here): “You can do anything in Vegas.”

The Mueller Report is complete and ready for the Attorney General

Excerpt from POLITICO’s Breaking News story:

Regardless of what the public ultimately gets [to read], Mueller’s probe has already left a footprint on American politics that will not soon fade. 

Trump and his team have had to repeatedly confront serious questions about the president’s relationship with former associates and aides who Mueller charged with federal crimes. And after Mueller accused Moscow of orchestrating an expansive disinformation campaign during the election to help the reality TV star — confirming the findings of American intelligence agencies — the White House has had to answer constant queries about the president’s personal indebtedness to Russia.

Together, those revelations have created political and legal challenges for the Trump White House that will last beyond Mueller’s eventual report, no matter what it says. 

And Mueller’s report is hardly the last word on the matter. Federal prosecutors in New York are examining Trump’s inauguration and campaign spending. States have launched probes into Trump’s real estate projects and personal finances. And House Democrats have demanded documents from a plethora of people in Trump’s personal, political and business orbit.

In honor of poet/author Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s 100th Birthday

Here’s a reading of a famous poem from Ferlinghetti’s A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND:
https://youtu.be/n4KA7FSje3A

Falling James explains what poetry is/isn’t for you.

Not posting the link here, but LA WEEKLY stalwart Falling James wrote an article where famous local poets/authors recommend local readings and venues.  These places tend to be more pedigreed than not.

So let’s turn the floor over to Falling James deigning to define what isn’t poetry to him:

For those who crave to hear more artistically ambitious poetry and short fiction performed live, there are nonetheless a dizzying variety of places where subtle wordplay is appreciated, although one sometimes has to search carefully to discern the more adventurous and experimental spoken-word artisans amid the overriding clamor of actor types and comedians manqué shouting over one another in telling their personal anecdotes at generic storytelling events.

New reading of old poem YOU GET SO ALONE

https://youtu.be/ML94vf5SWiA

R.I.P. drummer Hal Blaine—His Greatest Hits

From Wikipedia, a list of Number One hits (in various genres) that session musician Hal Blaine played drums on:

Blaine played drums on the following recordings that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100:

"Johnny Angel" – Shelley Fabares[15] "He's a Rebel" – The Crystals[2] "Surf City" – Jan & Dean[16] "I Get Around" – The Beach Boys[5] "Everybody Loves Somebody" – Dean Martin[5] "Ringo" – Lorne Greene[17] "This Diamond Ring" – Gary Lewis & the Playboys[17] "Help Me, Rhonda" – The Beach Boys[5] "Mr Tambourine Man" – The Byrds[2] "Eve of Destruction" – Barry McGuire[18] "My Love" – Petula Clark[17] "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" – Nancy Sinatra[5] "Monday Monday" – The Mamas & the Papas[5] "Strangers in the Night" – Frank Sinatra[5] "Poor Side of Town" – Johnny Rivers[19] "Good Vibrations" – The Beach Boys[5] "Somethin' Stupid" – Frank & Nancy Sinatra[5] "The Happening" – The Supremes[20][1] "Windy" – The Association[5]

"Mrs. Robinson" – Simon & Garfunkel[5] "Dizzy" – Tommy Roe[17] "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" – The 5th Dimension[5] "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" – Henry Mancini[17] "Wedding Bell Blues" – The 5th Dimension[17] "Bridge Over Troubled Water" – Simon & Garfunkel[17] "(They Long to Be) Close to You" – The Carpenters[5] "Cracklin' Rosie" – Neil Diamond[5] "I Think I Love You" – The Partridge Family[17] "Indian Reservation" – The Raiders[17] "Song Sung Blue" – Neil Diamond[5] "Half Breed" – Cher[17] "Annie's Song" – John Denver[17] "Top of the World" – The Carpenters [5] "The Way We Were" – Barbra Streisand[5] "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" – John Denver[5] "Love Will Keep Us Together" – Captain & Tennille[5] "I'm Sorry"/"Calypso" – John Denver[17] "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)" – Diana Ross[17]

Revised Poem: THE COVINGTON BOY AND HIS AFTERMATH

supposed good boy

from good family

visiting nation's capital

wears his big red

I'm-with-stupid-leader cap

stands toe to toe

with man of different race/religion

boy's face wears superiority smirk

as his stature rapidly shrinks

while the man staying true

to his spirituality

is the real Great American

>

but the story does not end there

zealous conservative adults use bad boy

as symbolic nuclear weapon

aimed at The Washington Post and CNN

to cease those discouraging facts about

the leader who shouldn't be leading

and who, in a more courageous world,

ought to be playing golf for years

in a country-club prison

far from non-security cameras

restrained from orchestrating perpetual hate

in generations old and young

New Poem: 2020 FORETOLD

both parties have paid almost two years of rent

on the National Electoral Battlefield

so let the cable news speculation run rampant

and allow the online and print media to join in

with lots of chatter about electability

also please don’t impeach the President

because it messes up the timetable

> 

brush away any Green New Deals

plus talk of Medicare For All

not to mention Free College Tuition

keep Incrementalism alive by

dry repeats of “how do we pay for this”

> 

smash the hopes of young voters,

children and teens taking Civics classes

and the yet-to-be-born

> 

teach them how the concept of Change

doesn’t mean real change for the better

> 

instead, it’s merely a shiny buzzword 

used by a minority party

as a giant crowbar 

to separate power

from the majority party

R. Kelly and Donald Trump demonstrate meltdowns as crisis management

Portion of Gayle King’s interview with R. Kelly:

https://youtu.be/07yZF2lM1y0

President Trump at this year’s CPAC:

https://youtu.be/xeAxdxAxdmU

Holding on to what’s left of their bases.

After viewing the entirety of LEAVING NEVERLAND

Here's the brief review I posted on the Letterboxd.com site:
Dan Reed’s meticulous—If overlong and stuffed with too many drone-shot location scene transitions—forum given to Wade Robson, James Safechuck and assorted family members to describe the vast distance between Michael Jackson the beloved all-around entertainer and Michael Jackson the sexual abuser/psychological destroyer of young children.  The horrors of Part One are echoed in Part Two by the Michael-requested perjuries (following other boys coming forward with their anecdotes of damage)  plus Robson and Safechuck’s efforts to cope with the psychological fallout from being repeatedly used/discarded by the self-coronated King of Pop.

Thoughts after viewing Part One of LEAVING NEVERLAND

Certainly the stories of Wade Robson, James Safechuck, their starstruck stage mothers and other family members are powerful and sad examples of victimization—the kind of behavior celebrities (not just pedophiles) can get away with since they know that any kind of acquiescence to gifts/vacations/backstage access/job opportunities provided by Stars will elicit disbelief from jurors  if the Star is tried for sexual assault/misconduct.

There will be people who will watch LEAVING NEVERLAND and continue to listen to Michael Jackson/Jackson 5/Jacksons recordings, compartmentalizing.  A few may pause for occasional reflection about how an abusive, powerful stage father did no favors for a son who imprinted his dubious/exploitative/deeply selfish notions regarding power, desire, misogyny, overriding parents/authority figures, etc. onto the psyches of his chosen “best friend” boys for years/decades afterward.

One question remains.  How many adults who may have been molested by Michael Jackson will speak publicly—by name—to corroborate Robson and Safechuck’s stories?