Chose “Better Man” by Pearl Jam (1994) as today’s theme music. While it’s focused on a woman’s predicament, the song is all about rationalizing decisions and choices. As we approach election day, what better song to summarize the challenge? Many who voted for Trump in 2016 because they couldn’t support Hillary Clinton for POTUS. That most of the reasons that she couldn’t be trusted were outright bullshit, they went with the flow.
Four years later, lot of them seriously claim they still support Trump. That’s why “Better Man” is dedicated to them.
This song seemed everywhere for a while, but it’s one of those that’s been put on the bottom of the pile. It doesn’t seem to get much air play these days. Did its mix of acoustic and electric guitars not age well?
“Fooling Yourself (Angry Young Man)” by Styx rose through my mind’s layers as I read political news from the right about how great Trump is. Absolutely everything, from this young man’s point of view, was brilliant. Trump, to him, is powerful and intelligent, returning the United States to a position of international prestige and influence.
COVID-19? Why, that’s overhyped, as Trump just proved, in the young (his claim – I don’t know how old he is, just his claims) right-winger’s mind. No worse than the flu and already going away. No, the greatest threat to America comes from “libtards” and their willingness to give everything away (he believes “Obama destroyed America and the economy”). Further, Trump’s recent sickness was really just a cover for him to rise up and finally vanquish the Dems and “libtards”.
Okay.
So, yes, reading him, I thought, “You are really fooling yourself.” I can’t say that he’s under a rock; no, he’s fooling himself with his conviction that everything on the “lamestream media” is fake news. I don’t understand how they — these right-wingers who insist everything is fake news — receives the real news. That’s an opaque process. So, I reiterate, he’s fooling himself.
Which brings me back to Styx’s 1978 song, “Fooling Yourself (Angry Young Man)” from theiralbum, The Grand Illusion. For my part, I think Trump’s claims about what he’s done is just grand illusion. Maybe it’s just me fooling myself.
Three songs have been jumping in and out of my attention stream during the preceding twelve hours. You may have heard of them: “Purple Rain” by Prince, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart, and “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summers. All were pop hits in their respective years, 1984, 1978, and 1979.
Each had a different reason for being in my head. “Purple Rain” was kicked into mind by a photo of Jacaranda trees in South Africa on Facebook. Purple dominated in beautiful fashion, stirring thoughts of Prince’s song. It’s a glorious, hopeful song from my perspective.
“Hot Stuff” came about from my spicy dinner burrito. I bit into something and my taste buds squeaked, “Hot stuff.” The song then gained traction from its use in the 1997 movie, The Fully Monty”. Four of the main characters are in line in the unemployment office during a low point in the movie. The song comes as background music, and they grudgingly start moving and dancing to it.
“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” just popped into my head, though. A spoof on the disco scene, the song was ubiquitous that year, heard on television and radio, a staple in humor from people on the streets to late night comedians.
While three strong choices are there as amusement for my head and theme song for the day, “Purple Rain” wins.
Honey, I know, I know, I know times are changin’ It’s time we all reach out for something new That means you too You say you want a leader but you can’t seem to make up your mind And I think you better close it and let me guide you to the purple rain
A few days ago, Twitter informed me they’d blocked me because I tweeted a fact-check article that said the story being shared on social media about mail-in ballots being found in a California landfill is false. I challenged them because I disagreed with their decison.
Here is the exact headline I used, as copied from the offending tweet:
Viral Image Falsely Claims To Show Unopened 2020 Mail-In Ballots In A California Dumpster
I didn’t link this headline to any article in this post. If you want, you can copy that headline and search for it, as I did. I found articles that came up, confirming what I had tweeted was true in USA Today, MSN, Checkyourfact.com, and other places, including my original source, mediabiasfactcheck.com.
Twitter doesn’t agree. They say that I violated their guidelines. Here’s their copied response from the email.
Hello,
Thank you for your patience as we reviewed your appeal request for account, @mwseidel1, regarding the following:
Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision.
You will not be able to access Twitter through your account due to violations of the Twitter Rules, specifically our rules around:
In order to restore account functionality, you can resolve the violations by logging into your account and completing the on-screen instructions.
Thanks,
Twitter
The Twitter mediocrity, sorry, bureaucracy, has made their decision. You can tell by the details included in their form letter that it was tediously thorough. They cited the violation — oh, wait, no, they didn’t.
Well, that doesn’t matter. They did cite the rule that I violated, so that I may look it up and learn my lesson from this incident, as I couldn’t find it when I checked their rules and guidelines before. The relevant rule is:
Well, they left that blank, too.
Surely, then, Twitter’s decision strikes me as a thorough, totally impartial, fair, and intelligent decision. Yes, that’s snark. They obviously did nothing of the kind and revealed how little their standards mean, as they couldn’t be bothered with citing anything. I’m too much of a peasant account for that.
In view of this response of theirs, I thought about my response. Should I waste more time fighting it? No, just delete it and go on. Sadly, Twitter’s decision is about the norm for customer service and modern organizations: damn capricious and with little thought.
I do keep in mind, however, that others who retweeted what Trump said often have their accounts locked for using Trump’s exact words, while Trump’s original tweet is just labeled with a mild warning.
As always, Twitter — like other organizations — speaks to power with one standard, and sneers at people like me, truly the mark of a wonderful corporate citizen and a worthwhile part of the social landscape. Sorry, more snark. Just couldn’t be helped. Their response just asks for it.
Musically, I’m living in the past. Not surprising, is it? The music from the past is more connected to me. I used it to celebrate, grieve, love, and learn.
I was also inundated by it in the past. I commuted everyday and took long road trips by car. Although listening to talk radio, sports, and books on tape competed for my attention, many hours were devoted to pop music, including rock.
I don’t commute much any more. COVID-19 has truncated my traveling opportunities. So, I’m less exposed to new music via radio. I could turn it on in the house, but I generally maintain silence through the day. I’m writing and reading, and not interested in distractions. Which is what all those things were on long drives and morning commutes: distractions from the tedium.
Anyway, this morning found me channeling the 1976 Doobie Brothers song, “Taking It to the Streets”. This is a response to the presidential debates last night. “Oh, you. Telling me the things you’re going to do for me. I’m not blind and don’t like what I think I see.”
I always like videos of live shows, when I can, so I’m sharing a 1982 video of their farewell tour. The band’s energy can often be vicariously experienced, and it makes me smile to see them all young and vibrant once again, you know?
Oh, no, Twitter. I’ve offended your sensiblities by sharing an article debunking false information being spread? Shame on me.
Yeah, really, shame on you, Twitter. No, no, calm down, Michael; I know someone could have overzealously and erroneously marked this, that this could be simple human error. I know that on an intellectual basis, but on more primal levels, my mind screams, “You don’t want the truth about false information being spread to be put out there? What’s wrong with you morons?”
Naturally, I declined the opportunity to remove the post Twitter found offensive. I read their guidelines to see how this violated them. It didn’t. Again, either someone misread the article, didn’t read the article and made assumptions about it, or inadvertently blocked.
Now — after ‘proving I wasn’t a bot’ by clicking on a box — the matter has been turned over to the bureaucracy. I’ve always hated the bureaucracy. I became a champion of fighting it in the military and continued it in my civilian life after retirement. Like other bureaucracies encountered in governments, banks, Facebook, Google (and Alphabet), whatever, I’ll probably never hear back. They won’t change and rarely admit error. Even less frequently, they apologize for their behavior. Will my account be unlocked? Don’t know. That’s up to them, isn’t it? The bureaucratic beast holds all the power.
Floof Post(floofinition) – 1. (Archaic) Correspondence delivery that depends on using animals in some way.
In use: “Floof post in the pre-electronic age included carrier pigeon and the famous Pony Express in the western United Floofs.”
2. A blog or social media entry whose subjects is about animals or includes extensive references to animals.
In use: “Floof posts about kittens, puppies, kids, and lambs, seem to dominate the web in popularity as people hunt relief from bad news in 2020.”
3. Vertical element used in fencing where animals such as birds and cats sit and watch the world.
In use: “Post turtle is a floof post used as a metaphor for someone in a position that doesn’t make sense; no one has any idea how the turtle got there, but he shouldn’t be there, and needs help.”
Not light music today. Looked at the news landscape and thought, there’s a lot of psychopaths out there, a realization that let the 1977 Talking Heads song, “Psycho Killer”, stream into my mind. A repeat song but it could be the theme music for an entire body of uncaring people who lack empathy and are willing to kill in the name of their love, you know? I liked it up, and it’s been almost three years since I last used it as a theme song. That gives me license in my mind (which is where I’m making up these rules in the first place) to use it again.
It’s 1979. Disco, technopop and technorock, progressive stuff which veers away from heavy guitars, proliferates. As a young man out in the world, I just went with the flow, primarily because, wife. On my own, my preferences veered toward Pink Floyd and The Wall, but it doesn’t have one good dance tune on it, does i?
One of the songs of that era bounced to mind this morning after a bleak review of the news. “Good Times” by Chic was all about the little things that constitute good times – making a rent payment, having a friend. It also savagely mocks the same theme, mentioning keeping your head above water and surviving, yeah, that’s good times.
Sounds perfect for 2020, doesn’t it? Survived the pandemic, good times. Made it through the wildfires and hurricanes, good times. Survived unemployment and hunger, good times.
Or, as the song lyrics originally said:
Temporary lay offs. Good Times. Easy credit rip offs. Good Times. Scratchin’ and survivin’. Good Times. Hangin’ in and jivin’* Good Times. Ain’t we lucky we got ’em Good Times.
“Bang!” by AJR came out earlier this year, and probably peaked before the coronavirus pandemic. It seems like a good song for 2020. Each day, things appear a little worse for many. People have become leery of the expression, “It can’t get any worse.” That seems like a personal challenge being issued to the fates. Like, there’s the pandemic. Hurricanes. Wildfires. Ongoing wars. Murder hornets. Now an asteroid is going to make a flyby that’s closer than some weather satellites, as it passes within 17,000 miles. Nothing is expected to come of the asteroid…but this is 2020.
At one point, when you’re down and it looks like more shit is going to happen, you say, “Fuck it. Let’s go out with a bang.” Make it memorable, you know? Go down without giving up. That’s what this song is all about in my head.
Bang, bang, bang.
P.S. Does anyone else despise the WP changes? Damn, are they aggravating.
