Greatest Song Evah - 3/10/23
I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock & Roll)
One of the most clever Chuck Berry rewrites, this Nick Lowe composition was originally recorded by his old Rockpile mate Dave Edmunds. Years later Lowe cut his own version - with instrumental backing from Huey Lewis & The News! - and truly made it his own.
The tale the song tells is very relatable. It’s somewhat of a universal feeling to realize that we often are not the same people we were when we were younger. The narrator is attending the wedding of an old female friend and looks back on her younger, more fun days when she would have never settled for the dullard that she’s marrying. Not to imply that the song is a sad dirge. It’s bouncy and there is a clear joy that’s felt in its nostalgia.
Lowe has only had intermittent commercial success on this side of the pond, but as either an artist or as a writer/producer he has been the man behind so many power pop classics. This one might be the best thing he ever did as a solo act.
Possible Side Category Inductee - DJ Kool Herc
Over the past several weeks I’ve thrown out a bunch of names who might be strong candidates for induction in one of the side categories. These suggestions have widely varied likelihoods of whether they will actually receive the honor, but there is one candidate whose chances stand out above all others, particularly this year. In this, the 50th anniversary year of hip-hop I would be willing to bet that the man who made it all possible receives his just reward.
It was 50 years ago that DJ Kool Herc, armed with two turntables and a microphone, made musical and cultural history. At a party he DJ’d in The Bronx, he introduced the now familiar foundations of hip-hop by isolating the instrumental breaks while adding the occasional catch phrase over the house mic. And just like that, a musical revolution was underway.
It is virtually impossible to imagine what the musical landscape would look like today without his innovation. I suppose it’s likely that someone else would have come up with a similar idea, but he was the one who did. There is a lot of attention being drawn to the anniversary, what with the extended Grammy salute, the recent PBS doc hosted by Chuck D, and the upcoming TV special curated by Questlove. A Hall of Fame honor for Kool Herc should be part of this as well.
SNL Preview
Jenna Ortega is the type of host that the show frequently hires - a rising young star who is clearly Having A Moment. After slowly making a name for herself in several popular horror films her budding stardom took a major step forward with her starring role in Wednesday. And the timing is perfect with the latest Scream sequel opening in theaters this very week.
Because she’s so young her image isn’t yet set in cement, so there are many different directions the show can take. With the show’s willingness to embrace the weird this season, there is a good chance that this will be a memorable episode. You can’t effectively portray Wednesday Addams without having a strong innate comedic gene.
3 Years Later
What was the moment when you realized that the pandemic was going to be as serious as the early warnings indicated it would be? For me, as I suspect it was for many others, it was March 11th, AKA Gobert Day, or if you prefer, Tom & Rita Day. In the preceding days there were whispers from some that serious steps such as shelter in place might need to be taken and that nonessential businesses ay have to temporarily close along with worries about future supply chain issues. And then suddenly shocker after shocker took place on a surreal day. Tom Hanks tested positive! Is no one safe? The NBA is suspending its season! Over the next few days every sports league similarly shut down and we were all working from home, making the same jokes about writing King Lear and watching YouTube tutorials on how to make your own mask.
Looking back on that time, it’s striking how much has and has not changed. We can look back and laugh at the memories of scrubbing down groceries as well as the fact that there were actually people branding themselves as Cuomosexuals. We collectively watched Tiger King! What were we thinking? We also learned that every movie that depicted people ignoring scientific warnings was all too accurate.
The depressing things we learned about ourselves truly are gut punching. Somehow, a deadly pandemic became politicized. In the Oval Office we had literally the person least capable of handling a crisis in charge. It makes one wonder what it would have been like had Hillary Clinton won. On one hand, we would not have heard brilliant suggestions to shine a bright light on the virus. On the other hand, I can only imagine the negative pushback that would come if a hypothetical President Clinton would have suggested that people mask up. I suspect the polarization when it came to combatting the virus would have been even worse.
What turned out to be the most depressing element of the aftermath was also the most predictable. When the lockdowns were most serious, who kept us fed? Who transported the goods, stocked the shelves, worked the registers? Yet it did not take long once life started returning back to normal that we heard the usual immigrant bashing and refusal to acknowledge that they deserve a living wage.
Who knows when we will face a similar situation. This time we lost more than a million people in this country alone. I am pessimistic about our collective ability to navigate the next crisis. So many people revealed their selfishness.
Fearless Oscar Predictions
Prediction #1: Nothing that happens in the show, from Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue to the awkward banter between presenters, will be as funny as this. According to TV listings, local news starts at 11. That’s so adorable. By the 3-hour mark, we may not have even seen any of the Big 6 awards yet. Why pretend otherwise? On a related note, this week The Ringer had some great suggestions, linked at the bottom of this section, for how to improve the ceremony while satisfying both the hardcore film fans and those only interested in seeing the big names & big categories. It’s unlikely any of these suggestions would ever actually be put into practice, but it’s good food for thought.
Prediction #2: The In Memoriam section will immediately be followed by people screaming “How could you have left _____ off????” It’s as much of a tradition as the swallows returning to Capistrano.
Prediction #3: Nobody gets slapped this year.
As for the awards themselves, the plethora of guild awards handed out in the weeks preceding the Oscars removes a lot of the suspense. By this time, many of the favorites are clear and true surprises, such as Anthony Hopkins defeating Chadwick Boseman are exceedingly rare. So, expect a final stop in the Ke Huy Quan Victory Tour.
I’m hoping that somehow we see a tie in the Supporting Actress race. A trophy for either Angela Bassett or Jamie Lee Curtis would be so wonderful to see, it’s such a shame that one of them will have to lose. And I’m begging that anybody besides Austin Butler wins Best Actor. Nothing against him, but voters have shown too much of a propensity to lazily award the trophy to an actor portraying a real person. Particularly in cases where the internet is full of clips of the person in question, it almost feels as if the academy is honoring an impersonation rather than the creation of an original character.
https://www.theringer.com/oscars/2023/3/6/23626817/academy-awards-2023-how-to-fix-the-oscars-telecast-show
Jim Boeheim
Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 consecutive seasons. Jim Boeheim came pretty damn close to matching that, manning the helm at Syracuse for 47 years. How long was he in charge? In his first season college basketball had neither a shot clock nor a 3 point line. And dunking was only just then legalized again after having been outlawed for almost a decade.
Boeheim was the last of the old guard Big East coaches from the conference’s glory years. ‘Cuse’s ill fit in the ACC likely played a large role in the school’s descent into mediocrity in recent years. They had fierce rivalries with their former Big East brethren; what real connection or history do the Orange have with the Tobacco Road powers?
Syracuse is a perfect example of the downside of the radical conference realignments that continue to take place. Longstanding rivalries have been diminished, and many of the conference lineups make little geographical sense. It was clear that ACC membership was making Boeheim even more miserable than normal. It was fitting that in his final postgame press conference he went out as cranky and cantankerous as ever.
And while I’m discussing college hoops let me note that my Fordham Rams defeated LaSalle last night in A-10 quarterfinals, leaving them 2 victories away from an invitation to the Big Dance. I’m warning you know that I’ll be very insufferable if they complete the task.
What The What Now?
I don’t know how well known this story is, but when I saw it the other day it blew my mind. The 70th anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s death was this week, and among the news nuggets surrounding that acknowledgment was the story of how the west learned of his death. A young Air Force radio operator stationed in Germany was manning his station listening to chatter. He intercepted and translated a Soviet communique discussing the news, therefore making him the first American to know about Stalin’s death. The name of that operator? Johnny Cash. It sounds hard to believe, but Rosanne Cash confirms that the story is true. All this time I had assumed that Kris Kristofferson was the Highwayman with the most notable military career.
That is amazing, and it reminded me of The Death of Stalin. I highly recommend it to anyone who has never seen it.
Another Week In The Books
I realize we are losing an hour this weekend, but please don’t let it be the hour you were planning on telling all your friends and neighbors about Tending The Herd. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!