John Lennon sings "mother" live at MSG

Mother by John Lennon

Mother, you had me but I never had you,
I wanted you but you didn't want me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Farther, you left me but I never left you,
I needed you but you didn't need me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Children, don't do what I have done,
I couldn't walk and I tried to run,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home...
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Song, defined by Nick Tosches

"And, of course, that is what all of this is - all of this: the one song, ever changing, ever reincarnated, that speaks somehow from and to and for that which is ineffable within us and without us, that is both prayer and deliverance, folly and wisdom, that inspires us to dance or smile or simply to go on, senselessly, incomprehensibly, beatifically, in the face of mortality and the truth that our lives are more ill-writ, ill-rhymed and fleeting than any song, except perhaps those songs - that song, endlesly reincarnated - born of that truth, be it the moon and June of that truth, or the wordless blue moan, or the rotgut or the elegant poetry of it. That nameless black-hulled ship of Ulysses, that long black train, that Terraplane, that mystery train, that Rocket '88', that Buick 6 - same journey, same miracle, same end and endlessness."


-- Nick Tosches, Where Dead Voices Gather

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Yakima's Bitter Harvest - a cover from Seattle's underground paper The Helix (1967)

By Jack Brummet, Northwest History Editor

This image is a cover from the Seattle underground paper The Helix, in 1967. Walt Crowley (whom I met a couple of times and exchanged emails with later) drew this cover and was--I think--one of the editors of The Helix. This cover is on the plight of migrant workers who travel to the northwest in the summer to pick fruit and vegetables in Eastern Washington.

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Hobo With A Shotgun, starring Rutger Hauer: movie poster and trailer

By Jack Brummet, Genre Film Editor

 Hobo With A Shotgun is a second movie spun off from the fake Grindhouse trailers (Machete was the first). This movie opens today in Austin and NYC, and will open slowly elsewhere around the country. Judging from the trailer, it looks like a fine movie in the grindhouse tradition of sleaze. Nuns With Guns is also supposed to be in production. . .

The best part: Hobo With A Shotgun stars Rutger Hauer.

"A train pulls into the station - it's the end of the line. A Hobo jumps from a freight car, hoping for a fresh start in a new city. Instead, he finds himself trapped in an urban hell. This is a world where criminals rule the streets and Drake, the city's crime boss, reigns supreme alongside his sadistic murderous sons, Slick & Ivan. Amidst the chaos, the Hobo comes across a pawn shop window displaying a second hand lawn mower. He dreams of making the city a beautiful place and starting a new life for himself. But as the brutality continues to rage around him, he notices a shotgun hanging above the lawn mower... Quickly, he realizes the only way to make a difference in this town is with that gun in his hand and two shells in its chamber."

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Send The President a joint -- it just might chill him down?

By Jack Brummet, Social Mores Editor,
with research by Mona Goldwater. Wingnut and GOP affairs editor

As a long-time scholar of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, I loved stumbling onto this 1970 flyer.  In the end, I don't think sending marijuana to the White House had the desired effect.  LBJ kept the war running full-tilt, until he was replaced by Dick Nixon in January, 1969.  As it turned out, Nixon kept the war running at high levels as well, until he achieved "peace with honor," or, more correctly, we bugged out of the mess we created and left them to sort it out. . .

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"I ain't marchin' anymore": The British poet Siegfried Sasoon throws down his rifle in 1917

By Jack Brummet, Poetry Editor

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon was a soldier and one of the best known poets of World War I.  He won medals for bravery on the Western Front, and wrote poetry about the horrors in the trenches, and the patriotic hypocrisy of those who wages what he believed was a pointless war.  After he wrote this letter, echoing what the singer Phiil Ochs wrote fifty years later "(I ain't marchin' anymore") in 1917, the British army, which considered the letter treasonous, rather than fight his protest, or try him, or give him a platform, declared him to have shell-shock (what we call Post Traumatic Stresst Disorder today) and tossed him out of the army.

Click to enlarge - This image, and the photograph of Sassoon,

is in the  public domain because its copyright has expired.

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Drawing: Man with gun hobo sign, camouflaged

Drawing by Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Photograph: Lyndon Johnson and S.O.D. Robert McNamara have an "Oh S**t!" moment

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor


Lyndon Johnson and S.O.D. Robert McNamara have an "Oh S**t!" moment.  They had a lot of those.

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Faces No. 206 - Sixteen sketches

By Jack Brummet
click to enlarge

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Mort: Notes on the decaffeination of Osama bin Laden:::::The ethical implications of celebrating even a monster's demise:::::Are we just as barbaric as the Romans at their worst?:::::Will the wingnuts try to frame this as a hoax?

By Jack Brummet, Unexplained Phenomena Editor

 

 

My friend, Jason Larsen, wonders if the very public and emotional celebration of Osama bin Laden's death shows our barbaric side?  My knee-jerk reaction was--come on, don't be a weenie, Jason.  But in fact, as a student of Roman history, yeah, it spooks me to the core.  Especially because I am one of the ones who, if not enjoying this, are feeling at least relieved, and even more guiltily, very glad it happened on BHO's watch.  My feelings about that are mixed--I've been a skeptic about President Obama's stances on war and gay marriage, and a couple of other issues.  I never thought we should escalate the war the way we have.  But I always thought we should crank up the CIA, Special Forces, and The Spooks in general in our efforts to eviscerate Al Qaeda (including cutting off the snake's head). I don't know if the massive troops deployments helped in this or not, but clearly the intelligence and counter terrorism operations and maybe even Black Ops, did lead us to this moment. Let's just not get carried away and have a jump the shark/Team America celebration about this. 

I wonder what my Buddhist friends (whose hearts I trust) think of this joyous celebration? It is a little unseemly yes, even barbaric--ala Rome--but like I just wrote to Jason, I think I would have been one of the street dancers on April 28, 1945, when Hitler decommissioned himself. Yeah I do feel sorry for his four or five wives and 24 children. I don't feel all that much joy, but a lot of relief. Is it misplaced relief? Or false relief? Probably. But it's something. A big something.

 

One of my Facebook friends wonders if the birther wingnuts will claim this is all cooked up.  Or that we kept his corpse in a freezer to pop out at just the right moment (which numerous "news" sites and bloggers have already postulated).  Trust me, The Company will have a iron-clad chain of evidence detailing the facts and meetings that led up to this, along with DNA, photos and video as it happened--none of which they will release unless their backs are up against the wall...or Julian Assange/Wikileaks gets their hands on it.

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Buddy Holly on the Arthur Murray Dance Party 12/29/57

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Obama Vs. Trump: What a great time for the Correspondent's Dinner. We most enjoyed seeing The Donald cringing under the kleig lights

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor

It was good to see The Chief tear into The Donald at the correspondent's dinner. Trump was booed and ostracized by the entire crowd, and Seth Meyers administered the coup de grâce. Trump was clearly and most deservedly pained.

illustration by jack brummet

BHO: “Donald Trump is here tonight. Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is prouder to put this birth certificate to rest than The Donald. Now he can get to focusing on the issues that matter. Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened at Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”

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