“Happiness runs in a circular motion,
Thought is like a little boat upon the sea,
Everybody is a part of everything anyway,
You can have everything if you let yourself be.”
A song of prayer written by Donovan after his trip in 1969 to India with The Beatles (with Graham Nash and Paul McCartney’s brother Mike on backing vocals).
Do Blurbs Actually Work?
Sean Penn on the Ground in Ukraine Filming Documentary About Russia’s Invasion Variety
‘GO F*** YOURSELVES:’ The defiant final words of 13 brave Ukrainian soldiers defending Snake Island — just 40 miles from Romanian border in the Black Sea — before Russian navy opened fire and killed them all.
ZELENSKY TO PUTIN: I’m no Nazi — I’m Jewish. “Putin’s address and justification wasn’t meant for Western ears. It was aimed at Russians and ethnic-Russian Ukrainians with long memories and long grudges from World War II. In the run-up to World War II, Ukraine — which at the time did not include as much ethnic-Russian territory — had suffered through the Holodomor, a deliberate genocidal famine imposed by Joseph Stalin. The Soviet leader wanted to suppress the kulaks, but more importantly the western-leaning Ukrainians that chafed at the Soviet occupation. Estimates of casualties from the imposed famine of 1932-33 runs as high as 3.9 million. By June 1933, 28,000 people were dying each day, while the Soviets expropriated millions of tons of Ukrainian wheat. As a result, when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in his surprise war of June 1941, ethnic Ukrainians rallied around the Germans as liberators — but only at first. Rather than take advantage of the Ukrainian hatred for the Soviets, the Nazis imposed the same racial policies in Ukraine that they imposed on other Slavs in eastern Europe. Still, some collaboration took place among ethnic Ukrainians, and that has not been forgotten among Russians.”
Stewart Brand, 83 years young and still Curious.
Frankly, I don’t understand people who go quiescent intellectually as they get older. In a way, getting older — you get more control of your time, and you have more savvy on how to do things and how to make things happen, who to call when you have a question, and all that stuff. So, your ability to investigate stuff, especially with the internet now, is going up all the time. Why would you let curiosity fade?
And many don’t. You’ve probably noticed that people you know in their 70s are different from people that you knew in their 70s when you were a little kid. When it was over, they were settling down to play golf or whatever it was. Probably a whole lot of people you know in their 70s and 80s are hard at it, in some cases, just hitting their stride. That’s a change that has occurred in my lifetime. That is a total treat, and as near as I can tell, that one is permanent. I think that’s with us now. People will live longer and thrive longer.
The health span, as it’s now being referred to, instead of life span — health span, meaning how long you can be really engaged and productive and alive to things. I think that’s very good in terms of long-term thinking because people who are older have a longer “now.” Their future may be getting shorter, but their past is personally and significantly long. They’ve seen a lot of stuff come and go, and they’ve seen a lot of skills that possibly they had time to pick up that they can now deploy.
All of that makes at least the kind of intellectual life that we both seem to enjoy that much richer. So long as your genes are supporting your brain cells, and whatever other medications and stuff we can do medically, it’s possible for me to carry on in ways that would not have been possible a century ago. So, there you have it. We are living longer, and we’re finding ways to keep the human body and human brain functioning better, longer. Why would you not take advantage of that?”
Don’t Let The Old Man In
A self-described Midwestern socialist who campaigned for Bloomberg. A songwriter beloved by Republicans, who wrote multiple radio anthems criticizing the Republican party. A commercial-soundtracking 1980s icon who has collaborated on art shows with Miles Davisand Southern gothic musicals with Stephen King. John Mellencamp has always thrived in contradictions, and he makes his best music when he seems just out of step with the mainstream. In the mid-’80s, Mellencamp just happened to be what the mainstream wanted: a non-coastal elitist attacking Reagan-era greed while landing on every Midwesterner’s lake mixtape during heartland rock’s golden age. 1985’s Scarecrow, his commercial and critical peak, was the scruffy foil to the blockbuster sheen of Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. If Springsteen’s record felt like the dramatic, high-stakes movie version of small-town struggles, listening to Mellencamp was more like the documentary: an earthy and straightforward snapshot of well-meaning people just trying to get through another long day.
“Strictly a One-Eyed Jack” – Wasted Days.
The Gypsy King is dealing his cards
From the bottom of the deck
Hasn't won a hand, least ways not as yet
The table's getting angry
Some have folded up their cards
Others keep on betting
Even though they know they're playing a loser's game
Looking for the one-eyed Jack
Salome is frying chicken
And the smell of grease is filling up the room
John the Baptist, well he's left the game too soon
Salome has a frying pan in her hand
She'd like to take out the kind of man
That everyone is watching as she's going after
The one-eyed Jack
Some people want to party
Others are trying to leave
Some are telling stories
That are just impossible to believe
The long day's journey is turning into night
Salome looks crazy and she's higher than a kite
No one is in favor
Of the one-eyed Jack
Money and power is the name of the game
It started out as Spit In The Ocean
But things have rapidly changed
It will never go back to the way it used to be
Nature deals with no one, what's the cause
So many eyes will not see
It's the one-eyed Jack
I'd like to go somewhere safe
Watch the world as it changes
And become a folk singer
Sing a song that stops corruption and pain
But there's no reason for that now
We're a long way somehow
We'd better make a move or become the victim of
That lying one-eyed Jack
| Play "Simply A One-Eyed…" on Apple Music | |
I’m not for everybody,” John Mellencamp told NPR about his new album Strictly A One-Eyed Jack – a fair observation, and I say this as a longtime fan. I also saw this statement in some of the other reviews I read about the record that was released on Friday, January 21. It’s evident to me the heartland former straight rocker who turned 70 last October has found his sweet spot with roots music. He gradually embraced that style starting with The Lonesome Jubilee from August 1987, which remains one of my favorite Mellencamp records to this day. If you dig his previous records like Plain Spoken (2014) and Sad Clowns & Hillbillies, I think it’s a safe bet you will like his new album – unless perhaps you expect something new. avorite Mellencamp records to this day. If you dig his previous records like Plain Spoken (2014) and Sad Clowns & Hillbillies, I think it’s a safe bet you will like his new album – unless perhaps you expect something new.
