PicoBlog

This essay is a sort of prologue to the series of articles I’m preparing about the great mid-century drummers from New Orleans. I explicate a simple musical connection between the brass bands of New Orleans, a beloved hit from 1957, a stone-cold jazz classic, an era-defining Sixties song, and an immortal pop/R&B track. The connection is a New Orleans parade beat, which, thanks to drummers Earl Palmer, Vernel Fournier, and Idris Muhammad, brings these disparate strands together.

Last week I spoke at a press conference on behalf of the Environmental Working Group and California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel in support of AB 418, a bill that aims to eliminate harmful chemicals from our food. You heard me right. We are still struggling to eliminate harmful poisons from our food. This bill is important, despite it being a one-state piece of legislation. The hope is that other states will follow suit — and that Congress will step in and establish federal mandates as well as retool the FDA, which has behaved shamefully in this situation.

During her Hollywood heyday and beyond, a be-turbaned Pola Negri sometimes referred to herself in the third person as just “Negri,” and she took her artistry very seriously while also playing up any publicity angle: walking a pet tiger on a leash, dating Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino, and engaging in a supposed rivalry with fellow Paramount diva Gloria Swanson that was nearly entirely cooked up by journalists. It is difficult to account for her stardom today because so many of her American silent films are lost, a fate she shares with Swanson.

The police in my once sleepy hometown of Holly Springs were forced to shoot a suspect in front of the Target in Grand Hills Place shopping area in the early hours of April 4. Per the police scanner, a man in a grey jacket was reported to Holly Springs Police (HSP) as being in front of the Target, acting suspiciously. That man ended up being 23-year-old T… ncG1vNJzZmiZoJm2rbjOp2WsrZKowaKvymeaqKVfpXyxu8uimp5lmaPDsLjVnptmq5ikvLW1zaBkoqZdosZuu82cnA%3D%3D

But after eating a superb tavern pie at a local supper club, cut into little squares, and bedecked with home-made sauerkraut and sausage, I developed my own version because the pizza was so insanely delicious. I had to make it at home. More about that buddy of mine on Ask Me Anything this Friday.  I love using smoky chunky Krakowska from Kramarczuk’s in Minneapolis, one of the best old world meat purveyors in the country, but even supermarket bratwurst will work.

A new year, a new annual horoscope to review and obsess over. If you’re anything like me, you will be spending January reading through them with interest, cross-checking from multiple sources, analysing what they mean and what events – possible or actual – they are referring to. Most horoscopes tend to be personal and self-reflective in nature – think careers, relationships, travel, beliefs, emotional and physical wellbeing. But what if horoscopes centred around the astrology of politics and society – the communal and the collective – became more mainstream?

When I took US history in (a private, all boys) high school in '76, my teacher referred to Ulysses S. Grant as "Useless S. Grant". He was what we call today a "functioning alcoholic". Somebody told Lincoln that Grant (a thoroughly competent killer) drank on the battlefield, to which Honest [sic] Abe replied "Find out what he drinks and send a barrel to all my other generals." As President, he enjoyed riding a buggy down Pennsylvania Avenue behind four galloping Clydesdales after getting totally 'faced.

The Scott Ritter comment said it. SHE was the brains behind the Kavenaugh smear with the "mousy" witness coached by Meryl Streep! Also, all these rodents in Washington in China's pocket. Pelosi, Swalwell, and of course McConnell whose wife is daughter to the biggest container ship company in China! They got a $25 MILLION dollar cash wedding present! McConnell NEVER votes against China! Expand full comment ncG1vNJzZmibn6u2pb%2FTnqmimV6owqO%2F05qapGaTpLpwvI6bnKysXZm2orrNnmSfnZmjwLWxyKdkpp2dmsBuwMSrpGakmaK2tb%2BMp6awZ5Okuq6xza2q

Things change as you grow older. Sometimes, maturity is reflected in increased responsibility (this winter, for the first time ever, I’m on track to finish a stick of lip balm before losing it) but my favourite part of getting older is finding comfort. You start to do what you want to do, not what you think you should do. You wear what you like and listen to what you enjoy rather what you’ve been told is good.