Wisdom of the Sages
Episode IX
September – Autumn 2010
Hello People of the World;
It seems that the punch to the face I gave the Sun has paid off in cooler weather of late. See? You have to rap some folk on the beard to get some respect. Anyways, I hope you are enjoying the cool weather.
You’re welcome.
Let’s get started, shall we?
1:[ First Item of the Month: Chicago may have had the first woman police officer in the nation. Cool, ain’t it? Now, this is a Chicago “Thing” I could support. Not, Goat Curses or Stupid Hotdog Eating Ritual or Sports Teams. I could support that Chicago may have had the very first woman police officer. It seems more historically important and gives others a better view of the city than a championship ring, don’t you think?
2:[ I had recently reread “It’s Superman!” , Tom DeHaven’s reimagining of the Superman Mythos by Way of the Great Depression. One of the characters is a police lieutenant that loves music. I dare to say Jazz music but looking into the names that are dropped by the character noticed that, they where not many Jazz musicians among them and this name-dropping was mostly done to root the story in the 30’s. One of the songs named was “Deep Elam Blues” by the Stanton Brothers.
So, I wiki-ed it and looked it up on YouTube and found that this was more bluegrass inspired than jazz inspired. However, I was immediately charmed by the riff and jangle of the tune. It was stuck in my head for days and for some reason I kept placing the words “smuggler’s blues” in it instead. So, I looked up “Smuggler’s Blues” by Glen Frey and gave that another listen and wouldn’t you know it: the melody is near identical.
I would not say Glenn Frey plagiarized “Elam” but he did pay homage to the song. However deliberate is up to you to decide.
My Bonnie mentioned that she noted the same thing when she listened to Nine Inch Nails’ “F^ck You Like an Animal” (Yeah, you read that right. Bonnie listens to NIN.) and noted that the riff was familiar but un-place able. Until she heard, quite by chance, “The Hustle” by Van McCoy and realized the “F^ck You Like an Animal” riff was a slowed, processed version of the riff from “The Hustle”. Neat.
Can you name other songs that have done this?
3:[ I am 1 for 4 in my “Top Ten Movies I Want To See in 2010” List. With “Kick-Ass” and “Predators” being such disappointments I hinged a lot of hope on “The Expendables” to bring my score to 50% with “Inception” being the best movie I have seen so far this year.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been plenty of really good movies this year that were not on my list: “Despicable Me” and “Toy Story 3” are up at the top of the Best of 2010 list. If these two do not garner Best Picture nominations (Not Best Animated Picture, mind you) then something is wrong with the Academy’s new system…
CLICK the link for the reviews of both INCEPTION and, ugh, THE EXPENDABLES.
So, now I recently saw “The Warlords” on DVD and now feel better being 2 for 5 on the list. UPDATE: Now I am 3 for 6, (50%!) after seeing Anton Corbijn’s “The American” which was very good, very methodical and European. (Translation: boobies) All in all, it is a nice caper film.
4:[ So, recently, I bought a 5-Pack of Paper:Mate Pencils. I like mechanical pencils because your do not have to sharpen them and you can control the level of detail in a pencil sketch. Now, the “improvements” on these new pencils are the non-dry-out erasers. Most of us know that erasers have a tendency to dry out and crumple apart or dry out and become a smudging stick.
But with these new non-drying-out erasers, well… all I have to do is keep these pencils in my pocket for a few hours and viola, the erasers are rubbed down to nothing and are completely useless! Shoot, I put one of these new pencils in my pocket and carried it for about 5 days before I had occasion to use it and I noticed that, never using it once, that the eraser was already down past half. Dang.
5:[ Again with the coffee trend. Why is it that even when there are two people behind the counter, there is only one doing everything for the long line that forms? I saw it again today. The guy as usual talking to a pretty customer while the lady co-worker gets it all done. Sheesh!
6:[ So, on the train this morning, I had occasion to eavesdrop on a conversation between two ladies on the express to the Loop. Now, I never intended to eavesdrop because they sat across the aisle from each other with one of them right in front of me and proceeded to chitter like they were at the bar.
Let me tell you something folks, and I think I told you this before, that no matter what group of people you leave they will almost always begin talking about you the moment you are away, almost every time. They will begin talking behind your back once you wave so long to them. Really. Believe it.
And believe me, just because you haven’t seen some of these folks in years, they will speak badly about you as these two ladies were doing in front of me on the train, talking crap about some sorority sister from years ago. So, be careful whom you interact with, people.
Sooner or later I tuned out the best I could. Still I could not tune them out completely. These were the nasally, all-questioning type of voices you associate with high school and post-high school girls these days. (Which would be a terrible generalization had I not heard this for myself the last 10 years.) Anyways, I noticed that after a time they begin speaking so fast that it seemed like a bunch of gibberish after a while. It was funny. It went a little something like this:
“Giegheigheigheigheihgg
Like, ihteihteiothehrteuhtethotuhuehtfhbjkfbla
Like, tehtowuhteouht
Like, like, otetwohteotheouthuethjafg;eijgb;wgublguEBG,
Like, urghiu Like, toiejt
Like, awiheuwhfjefjfrbfrybflajfbcrincuni.
Yeah, see you later!”
Then, one of them got off the train and the other moved to sit next to the guy she got on the train with. And you know what? They immediately started talking crap about the gal that just got off the train. Am I the only one who notices this?
7:[ And now Wisdom of the Sages presents:
An Ever-growing List of Thing That MUST Stop!:
+ Celebrities that abuse/mistreat/rape women and then tend to be forgiven for it. Being famous does not put you above the law.
+ Evoking Michael Jackson to gain forgiveness. I find it despicable to evoke the dead to progress your ideology.
+ Adding Zombies to EVERYTHING! Seriously, this needs to stop.
+ Ironic Hipster Cool. Dude, it must end….
If you have something you wish to voice an end to, please forward your idea and I’ll give you a shout out in next month’s WoS.
8:[ Many of you (Well, two of you.) noted that I seem to be more loose and genteel now with WOS. I think it is because I cut the material down from 25 – 30 items to 10. That’s a lot less pressure to comment on things that interest only me. As you can see I’ve even numbered the items this month for your benefit. There was a time when I simply added anything and everything to the list and sometimes it totaled up to around 30 items that I pressured myself to comment on, at most times sounding like a crotchety old man.
With ten items there is less to comment on. Therefore I can give myself some room in commenting on the news of the day.
9:[ From the “This Just In” file: I just picked up the Native tales comic compilation “Trickster” from Half-Price Books. It is a collection of Native American tales illustrated by comic book artists. I thought I would give it a try and let you know what I think about it by CLICKING HERE.
10:[ Last Item of the Month: You know, there used to be a time in my life when I thought that I could afford to buy a car, a used car. I’d look through newspapers and weekly ad circulars and think, “Yeah, I could afford to pay that much a month” or “I think I could buy one outright.”
And this was when I was working for scraps back on the rez. My, how times have changed. Now, when I look at a car on the lot I begin to think “Hmm, I wonder how comfortable it would be to live in that for the rest of my life…”
That will do it for this month.
Well, I’m going to try numbering the items I cover in WoS for a while to see how that works out. Let me know what you think. Let me know what you think about the items I write about. Heck, let me know what you think about stuff in general. I’ll listen or read what you have to say.
Enjoy the cooling weather and I’ll look for you next month.
Until Next Time, “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
© 2010 Ernest M. Whiteman III
