In case you were wondering...

 I did end up doing the dishes, but not for the reason someone implied in the last post.

It's been difficult to sit down and write lately. I don't know why, but trying to harness my thoughts into coherent sentences has escaped me. My social media sabbatical has ended, but I've decided that railing against (fill in the blank) makes no difference in the grand scheme of things, so why do it? I'm sorely disappointed by the New York Times' poor handling of the current political climate, so I've become extremely selective in reading said paper. I seem to read just headlines and only occasionally read full articles in the various digital media that hit my inbox. 

*mental roadblock, back soon*

*4 hours later*

I'm cooking dinner and while I have a moment where I need not watch the stove, there's plenty of time left on the roast in the oven (15 minutes more), and I can come back to this without fear of anything burning. (it's happened before) 

The MITM sent me an article from the NYT today by a writer I read occasionally. I haven't read it yet, but I  did read a headline that gave me pause about the objectivity of the NYT. It seems as if the NYT is dabbling in whataboutism concerning President Biden. Yes, the man is 81, BUT he is not senile, he does not have dementia, he doesn't have Alzheimer's, and even more importantly, he has been faithful to the oath he swore on January 20, 2021 that he would "...faithfully execute the Office of the President, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." While I, and many other Americans, may not agree with every stance he has taken, I firmly believe that President Biden puts America's well-being before his own personal interests. I also believe that while he is not perfect, he is the man sitting in the Oval Office, he is the man who will stand against fascism, who will stand against white supremacy, who will stand against those who would turn our country into a theocracy.

I am old enough to remember stories of those men and women who fought in WWII against nazism and it makes me wonder how people of my generation have forgotten those stories and that history. This country is far from being a perfect Union, but we can continue striving to be a more perfect Union. 

Can we have better, younger candidates in the future? Of course, we can and we must encourage those who want to serve to do so. Can we right the wrongs of the past regarding civil rights, the rights of women, the LGBTQ+ community, and the Indigenous communities? We absolutely can and must do so. It must become a priority to fix our educational system which has been torn by political interests to the detriment of the children we are supposed to be preparing for their future. The systems that are in place regarding taxation have been eroded by too many years of privilege for the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class. At this point in our history as a country, we have to decide our future as a democratic republic or will we let this Great Experiment, as George Washington called it, succumb to ignorance, fear, and prejudice?

We have an obligation and duty as citizens to vote in every election, for every office, for every position, and measure that is on the ballot because if we don't we are spitting in the face of those who came before us and fought to form that more perfect Union.

It Keeps on Rainin.......

There's a line in the movie Crossroads when the devil's assistant, for lack of a better word, pulls up in a new car, no good skank at his side, and taunts Blind Dog Fulton, the one and only Willie Brown. Brown asks him, "Where Legba be at?" The devil's assistant says, "Legba? Where you been? He done changed his name to Scratch!!"

Well, I know the feeling. I changed my Google nom de guerre to CreoleBeBop! So this is MITM, now CreoleBeBop, doing a drive-by post on SavMarshMama's Blog.

Most of the time we live in two different worlds, alternate realities, shaped by nuanced sensibilities. We're usually sifting through the mega flow of information and digital shit trying to find someplace to anchor, to hunker down for a moment's respite. This becomes excruciatingly clear to me, from time to time, when I hear something spoken that I understand right off what the speaker intended, but others listening to the very same thing, miss the point entirely.

Here's an example - Babette Ory, the only daughter of the late great jazz trombone player Kid Ory, was interviewed by a podcaster trombone player. Kid Ory, for those who don't know, was at ground zero for Jazz - New Orleans early 1900s. He played with everybody, including Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Armstrong, you name it. He relocated from New Orleans to L.A. and had his own band. I saw him, many times in our neighborhood (Black South L.A.), at backyard parties. Back then, musicians like Kid Ory, couldn't stay in segregated Hollywood hotels, so they stayed with family and friends. Fuck Hollywood - then and now! The result of the situation was great for us. I remember a lot of backyard gumbos, red beans and rice, and crawfish boils accompanied by great music, joy, and celebration.  Sadly, the last time I saw Kid Ory I was wearing Mickey Mouse ears, eating caramel popcorn, and on the Riverboat Ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, California with my grandparents. Ory's paying gig at the time was The Disney Dixieland Band. Anyway, if you don't know anything about Kid Ory and Creole Jazz, listen to some of his music on whatever streaming music platform you can.

Back to Babette - So the rube wanta be hip podcaster asks Babette about her Dad, trying to get her to talk about Ory's trombone playing. Babette pauses to the point where you can hear the dead air, and says, "My dad and Barney Bigard were crawfishing in Santa Clarita." Another long pause.  Then, "Wrap your head around that!"  The podcaster stutters and tries to say something. She talks over him, "My dad didn't know how much money he was owed from the recording companies. Barney Bigard, who was playing with Ellington at the time, took my dad to the recording companies and helped him get paid some of what they owed him."  Another long pause. The podcaster says, "What type of trombone did your father play? Do you have it?"

I mean, come on. Different worlds, different realities. So much to unpack.  Santa Clarita is a community near L.A. that is now mostly an upscale white-flight suburb. Back when Ory and Bigard were crawfishing it was a Santa Monica mountains backwater nothing. I used to rabbit and quail hunt in the mother fucker.  Wrap your head around that. And yes, the recording industry ripped off Black musicians as a matter of course - even a groundbreaking player like Kid Ory. The rube missed the message Babette laid out. Fuck him.

So many great contributors to blues and jazz were jacked by the industry. Most of them didn't make a dime while others profited from covering their tunes. Take Big Mama Thornton for instance - Willie Mae Thornton, Big Mama, blues guitar player and singer who wrote You Ain't Nothin but a Hound Dog (gold mine for Elvis Presley), Ball and Chain (entre to fame for Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company). This woman could sing from deep inside her barrel house of a frame.  She could growl lyrics out the side of her mouth and melt the audience into pools of emotion where they stood. She died in a rooming house in Los Angeles and is buried in a pauper's grave at the Inglewood Cemetery.

SavMarshMama got me writing today. Odd, I feel fucking better already!

I was asked recently by SavMarshMama, after she read a post by First Nations, what cities that you absolutely don't like. Well here's a list of a few, in no particular order:

Macon, Georgia - seems they just can't get past cracker heaven

Bongor, Chad - has to be said, all the birds fly upside down in Bongor because there's nothing worth shitting on

Palmyra, New York - look it up, see how you feel

Al Jouf, Saudi Arabia - the middle of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere

Anything in Kuwait

Sfax, Tunisia - don't leave Tunis

Birmingham, UK - ex steel town with an attitude, sorta like Pittsburgh

Downey, California - please, would some other podunk L.A. suburb incorporate Downey so we can get it off the map.

I could go on, but you get my drift.

Oh yeah, the rain.  Still raining in L.A.  All the white-flight hillside communities are slipping and sliding into hell. Me, I live in the flats.  I'm gonna listen to some Kid Ory and drink a little wine.

Later.

On the mend, but that's not what I'm talking about today (actually, it's tonight, but WTF, right?)

 I made two mistakes recently (ok 2 that I'll share), the first being sharing something on Facebook and then, checking notifications later and being disturbed by some of the comments. The MITM chided me, and rightly so, that I was winding myself up and needed to remember WHY I was backing off social media.

So, I'm reminded.

Blogging is safe and even with disagreements, civil and kind.

p.s. My cold is almost gone, and I'm not experiencing any asthmatic trauma. I also no longer sound like a long-haul trucker after smoking 2 packs of unfiltered cigarettes.

I'm sick!

 It seems as if I've been coughing and wheezing for a month! It's really only been a week or a bit more, but yesterday I went to Urgent Care just to make sure I wasn't developing bronchitis or even worse, pneumonia! (although an overnight stay in Cedars-Sinai ain't all that bad) So after a 15-minute nebulizer treatment and a chest X-ray, oh yeah, and tests to make sure I didn't have COVID, Influenza, or RSV, I was sent home with prescriptions for yet another inhaler (2 puffs every 4 hours) and instructions to take 1 20MG tablets of Prednisone for 4 days! 

*Jesus wept*

I'm still coughing up a lung, as the MITM says, I still sound as if I'm about to take my last breath when I start coughing, but evidently, I'm getting better.

Getting old is a blessing, I know, but damn, it's a real chore some days!

Super Bowl Sunday or How We Spent the Day

 Sunday had four parades (Mid City, Thoth, Okeanos, and Bacchus) rolling down in NOLA, so as we were setting up for our combo Super Bowl, February birthdays, and St. Valentine's Day, we watched the parades! The only pics I have are for Mardi Gras, but seriously, are you surprised?

There was karaoke, musical chairs, tacos, birthday cake, cupcakes, more candy than anyone needed and that was just for the adults! I don't anyone has ever played mosh pit musical chairs the way super nana and Captain Choas did! Fortunately, there is no video of the twerking musical chair, and to be clear, no one was hurt during any of these activities! For the first time at a family party, the children were the best behaved!

When I get more pics I'll share them!

**********

I may be a California girl, but GEAUX CHIEFS!! It was an excellent, equally matched game, but the Chiefs pulled it off in the end! (to be fair,  I was in the minority, everyone else wanted the 49ers to win!)

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

 The Year of the Dragon is here! Let us hope that this year will be full of blessings and opportunities for all people of the world!

So we've had massive rain for days and now AN EARTHQUAKE!!

 Yep, Breaking News here in Lalaland! 4.6 earthquake in Malibu made things shake around here, but watching the news you would SWEAR this was another Northridge earthquake! Yes, we experienced a rolling sensation and could hear a rumbling sound, but so far no major damage reported anywhere. The concern around the basin is earth movement because of the saturated ground. We'll see what happens later today, but we can plan on experiencing aftershocks.

Someone wants credit for her IDEA!!!

 It has been brought to my attention that I DID NOT give credit where credit is due.

SUPER NANA did, in fact, suggest that I remove myself from social media to reduce my BP. I do humbly apologize to her if I inadvertently gave the impression that I was the sole instigator of the premise, as I was not! (her words, not mine)

The Repair Shop on Prime or How I'm Lowering My BP

 A recent visit to my GP found that my BP was waaaaaaay too high, and to avoid medication to lower it, we're trying a more natural/holistic method to accomplish that goal. I'm on a social media/network news/cable news avoidance experiment. I started this post on the third of this month, and now, 4 days later my BP has dropped by 30 points! Intellectually, I knew engaging with people over politics online wouldn't change anyone's mind and that like-minded folks already knew what I was sharing, so why engage? I realized after a day that I still heard/read about important matters that happened via a couple of political newsletters I subscribe to, but I wasn't constantly bombarded by events. It also dawned on me that important issues that do affect me, such as elections (local, state, national), and calls to my representatives regarding issues that are important to me can still be made. So, while I may check in on those other social media sites, I'm not posting.

So again, I'm back to blogging. Besides, when First Nations tells you "to post something whydoncha" you damn sure better do it!

Oh yeah, The Repair Shop reference is to a great little series out of the UK that I've been watching on YouTube! It's very calming and also damned informative. Also, the varying accents are fun to hear!

xoxo