Day 9: 10 Albums

ABC: The Lexicon of Love

Day 8: 10 albums

Roxy Music: Manifesto

Day 7: 10 albums

French pop

Various Artists: Musique D'Express (French pop compilation from Express clothing stores, circa 1990)

Vanessa Paradis: M&J (1988)

Mylene Farmer: L'Autre (1991)

Day 6: 10 albums

Manu Dibango: Soul Makossa

Day 5: 10 albums

Isaac Hayes: Shaft--Music from the Soundtrack

Day 4: 10 albums

The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops

Day 3: 10 albums

ABBA: ABBA

Day 2: 10 albums

Kraftwerk: Computer World and Electric Café

Day 1: 10 albums

One of my sisters-in-law challenged me to name 10 albums that have influenced my musical taste & upbringing. One record per day over the coming 10 days. No explanation, no reviews, just the cover art.

I'm not sure I can limit myself to just 10, so we'll see where we end up.

Blondie: Parallel Lines and Eat to the Beat

In love with love ... and Debbie Harry

Face It by Debbie Harry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I confess that I am puzzled by some of the Goodreads reviews I have read of this book. Lackluster? Unemotional? Really?! This is a memoir by *Deborah Harry.* There is nothing lackluster about her! Some of us are more expressive than others, and I've always thought (rightly or wrongly) that Ms. Harry had a sly, ironic, even Cheshire Cat-like quality that perhaps is read as "flat affect." But it's all in the arch of her eyebrows, the curl of her smile. The quip. The wry observation. It's subtle. It's sublime.

And, yes, I am a fan.

But a fan who knew very little about Ms. Harry post-1990. And even pre-1990. For example, I did not know about her time in New York on the Downtown Scene. Sure, I knew she came up through the punk era, was there at CBGB's, was mentioned in the same breath as Patti Smith and Tom Verlaine, but I really had no idea how deeply involved she was with the people and places of that lost era--her memories of which certainly made me emotional at times.

And I didn't know as much about her career after Blondie broke up in the early '80s, despite owning copies of KooKoo and Rockbird, despite watching her in concert at Gay Pride in New York in 1990 (at least that's what I recall--she sang "Sweet and Low," I'm fairly certain), and despite seeing and hearing Blondie in concert at the Palace Theater in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, for one of my birthday celebrations in the early 2010s. (Debbie, the gods bless her, actually smiled for the camera when I tried to take her picture!) There have been movies, plays, and TV shows; recordings with the Jazz Passengers; the showcase at the Carlyle (for which I would have moved heaven, earth, and Delta Airlines to have been in the audience); the activism; the friendships.

And while reading this book, I couldn't believe that it's already been 20+ years since Blondie regrouped in the late 1990s and recorded the album No Exit (an album that now appears to be out of print). Time flies when you're sleepwalking through life in pointless meetings and unsatisfying relationships. (Thankfully, one of those scenarios has changed over the years. Hint: It's not the pointless meetings.)

There is certainly more than I want to know--more details about Parallel Lines and Eat to the Beat, Blondie's two best albums (in my opinion) from the Early Era; more details about the transition from Eat to the Beat to AutoAmerican, which seems drastic even now, although it was probably something completely normal in the evolution of the band; more of her thoughts on the reaction to KooKoo, which even now seems mixed, despite it being something of a quirky, musical milestone in pop history. More, perhaps, about what she likes to read and listen to and whether she still paints. And some pics of her dogs would not be amiss.

It may be the case, as Harry notes, that some of the Early Era was a blur because the band was so busy. It may be the case, as Harry notes, that this would be a better memoir if she'd kept a journal over the years.

Nevertheless, I was enchanted by her girlhood in New Jersey and somehow making the decision after high school to become an artist (of a genre to be determined) in New York in the 1960s--and, despite all odds, actually accomplishing it. I felt moved by her losses over the years and about her coming to terms with childhood trauma. I was entertained by her storytelling and (sorry, Debs!) her inherent nerdiness (comics and the space program, oh my), something you would never think possible in the life of an Icon of Cool like Debbie Harry. I felt pride in her inherent, unapologetic Americanness, a quality as post-modern Americans we dismiss too easily.

So if you found this book "unemotional" or "lackluster," I don't know what to tell you. I rarely give a book 5 stars, and the rational being in me might not award this one with that many. But my emotional self values this book and Debbie Harry's revelations more than 4 stars, maybe even more than 5 stars.

Maybe you had to be there--and I really wasn't, as I was marooned in Mayberry in the '70s and early '80s. Maybe you had to want to be there, which I most certainly did but didn't know how to. So this memoir is one way to get a taste for an era I lived through and yet still somehow don't know very well at all. As a result, I'm grateful to Debbie Harry for sharing her life stories with us.

View all my reviews

Snow way

40 years ago today: 20 inches of snow in eastern NC :: WRAL.com: Meteorological spring is here! But as many of you know, just because it's meteorological spring on the calendar, snow isn't out of the question.

Freshman year at East Carolina University. I remember "borrowing" plastic trays from the cafeteria in Jones Hall to go sledding on College Hill. Hiking to the Stop-n-Go (better known as the Rip-n-Run back in the day) to buy soup and other stuff, like carob bars (which I was oddly into at the time). And the first time I ever witnessed "thunder snow."

Working 9 to 5

... to make sure none of his friends, family members, old Apprentice guests, cronies, and enablers get 5 to 9 years in prison.

I'm still driving around Montréal

Or perhaps Paris ... at least in my own mind ....

Je reviendrai

Sometimes when I'm driving around the aesthetic dissatisfaction that is the 401/427 corridor in suburban Toronto, I tune the radio to Ici Musique, Radio-Canada's French-language music channel. While driving around listening to Francophonie and world pop sounds, I like to pretend I'm actually in Montréal.

Hearing something like this--"Ascenseur Tropical" by Quebec electro-pop group Le Couleur--almost makes me believe I am there.

Orange Face Killa #2: Maybe It's Maybelline

Orange Face Killa #1: Cover Girl

So let me get this straight ...

So ... people should be judged on their ability to do the job and not on their sexual orientation says the possibly entitled, possibly straight, and possibly quite white lady.

And a straight man is a stronger supporter of LGBT rights than an actual gay man ...

And a straight civilian is a stronger supporter of LGBT rights in the military than an actual gay veteran ....

Got it.

Now repeat after me:

"People should be judged on their ability to do the job and not on their race/gender."

"A man is a stronger supporter of women's rights than an actual woman."

"A white guy is a stronger supporter of African-American rights than an actual black person."

How does that sound to you?

To me, it sounds both insane and hilarious, but also just really, really, really stupid. And more than a little pathetic. And thus we have The Cult of Bernie Sanders. Or at the very least The Russian Troll Farm of Bernie Sanders.

* * *

And while we're at it ... "[Bernie Sanders] was supporting trans people since 1976, too."

That may well be true, but that seems like a fairly random date that makes the statement seem factual--but is it? According to Wikipedia, in 1976 Bernie was bankrupting the Liberty Union party while trying to get himself elected governor of Vermont.

Or does reality even matter anymore?

Thus here are 15 other Bernie facts and accomplishments that you might not know about. (With apologies to Chuck Norris. And Jesus.)

• When Vladimir Lenin was born premature, Bernie selflessly suckled him at his breast until Lenin started the October Revolution. (Which was Bernie's idea.)
• Bernie knows how to create cold fusion but keeps the secret to himself because Burlington's a nuclear-free zone.
• The late Steve Jobs lives in constant fear (even in the afterlife) that Bernie's Mac will crash.
• Bernie was Truman Capote's original choice to play Holly Golightly in the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Tru thought Bernie had the right touch of madcapness, joie de vivre, and melancholia that captured Holly's essence.
  
• Bernie makes onions cry.
• When Bernie Sanders gives you the finger, he's telling you how many seconds the Oligarchs have left to live.
• Bernie wrote all the lyrics to Lennon-McCartney songs--except "Revolution," of course.
• Bernie doesn't wear a watch. He decides what time it is. (Hint: It's always 1968 o'clock.)
• Bernie knows exactly how it feels to be a woman in America. Is he a woman? Is he trans? No. He just knows.
• Bernie can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
• Bernie can speak Braille, Cobalt, Klingon, and Egyptian Hieroglyphic.
• Bernie actually died after his recent heart attack, but the Grim Reaper can't get up the courage to tell him. (And because Medicare for all.)
• Every miracle that we think Jesus performed--walking on water, turning water into wine, fishes and loaves, etc.--Bernie did first and did better. 
• Bernie taught RuPaul how to sashay, chanté.
• Bernie knew Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was Bernie's friend. You, sir, are no Frederick Douglass.

* * *

For the record, I'm not in the tank for South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Not yet anyway.

Oh, I like him. I think he's thoughtful, well spoken, and a highly conscientious, perhaps even moral, person. (Who can say what secrets lie within any of us at this point?) I like the fact that he is a religious person and a veteran, even though I am neither of those. It's a refreshing change in public life.

Do I think he's qualified to be president? No, not really. He seems awfully young, but it's more that I am concerned he's very untested in the cutthroat world of Washington politics. I think he would learn and would learn quickly and that he is wise beyond his years. But I'd prefer to see someone with a little more seasoning with Pete at most as vice president or at least as a member of Congress first.

For the record, I'm not really in the tank for any of them at this point. And with the Iowa caucuses now done (I guess ...) and the New Hampshire primary up next, this is a problem for me. And I suspect it's a problem for many others, too.

I am Sackashit Fierce!

Oh, honey, that sounds like a dare.

Cryptkeeperella, I know you see yourself as all Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS, but even the Nazis didn't last forever. And they had plans for a thousand year Reich, when y'all can't even get through Infrastructure Week without falling on your asphalt.

And they didn't see the end coming either.

Your daily mob boss affirmation #3

 "I think you did a good job on her" 

Via Twitter by CNN reporter Jim Acosta, 28 January 2020. The alleged president was commenting on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's abuse of National Public Radio reporter Mary Louise Kelly.

Your daily mob boss affirmation #2

“Get rid of her .... Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. O.K.? Do it.”

Marie Yovanovitch taking the oath before testifying in the impeachment inquiry against Donald J. Trump,
15 November 2019, by Terry Sewell. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

As originally reported in The New York Times, 24 January 2020