Greatest Song Evah 9/22/23

Lido Shuffle

Everything about this week’s selection screams 1970s, and I mean that as a high compliment. In your head, aren’t you already picturing the instrumental break as transitional music as the sport you’re watching leads into a commercial spot? Or hearing this as the instrumental bed underneath football highlights? This song is simultaneously of its time and timeless. It’s not easy to do both.

This is a perfect example of the type of slick production often found in 1970s rock. In fact, many of the studio pros that play on this track would go on to form the footprint of Toto. It comes from Silk Degrees, the album that really established Boz Scaggs as a solo star, years after his initial splash as the singer in the first incarnation of the Steve Miller Band. Although Lowdown was the big hit at the time, Lido Shuffle is the one that’s lasted.

The reason why it’s remained a classic after all these years is that it has the kind of hook that forever embeds itself into your brain. From the keyboard solo to the “whoa oh oh oh!” chorus, every element seamlessly fits together. Some of the more technically flawless 70s music leaves me a bit cold - the perfection can sand off the emotion - but this one is an absolute keeper.

When Is It Too Much Rest?

Is it possible that the phrase “load management” will soon be a thing of the past? Shortly after the NBA instituted new rules that require a minimum number of games played to be eligible for postseason awards, the league has now also introduced additional penalties to teams if they excessively rest star players. I like this in theory, but I want to see how it plays out.

I can see both sides of the issue. On one hand, as the talent level of the league continues to exponentially rise, players need to push themselves beyond reasonable limits in order to compete. That takes a lot out of a guy, which necessitates occasional rest. On the other hand, it’s tough to tell a fan who might only be able to afford to attend one game a year that they’ll be watching a key player sitting in street clothes.

The new rules are also meant to discourage the recent trend of sitting perfectly healthy players for tanking purposes. It’s all meant to let fans and broadcast partners alike know that in any game they should reasonably expect to see the players they want to on the court and not on the bench. Proper rest is still vital, however. It won’t be surprising if rather than sit an aging star for a game that coaches will instead cut down their minutes in individual games. It’s still the goal of each franchise to have their important players feel relatively fresh come playoff time.

The mass resting of starters that the Spurs & Warriors perfected always reminded me of an out of the box strategy that Bobby Valentine used to employ when he was managing the Mets. Rather than rest one guy on Monday, another on Tuesday, etc. he would instead sit as many as 4 of his regular starters in the same game, usually one started by the #5 guy in the rotation. His theory was that instead of slightly weakening the lineup each game, it’s better to instead keep the main intact most nights and then significantly weaken the lineup once every several days. If you can steal a win on of those days, great. If not, it’s not as if you were expecting a win on the day your worst pitcher starts. It was an interesting strategy, I don’t recall any other managers trying that out.

End of digression - the days of NBA players going the full 82 games were becoming as rare as a 200 inning starting pitcher in baseball. It will be interesting to see if forcing players to play more will have an adverse affect on their abilities to remain healthy. It’s worth mentioning that for the most part players hate sitting out; it’s usually done under orders from front offices and medical staffs.

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

I’m sure all of us have rolled our eyes at times while watching a movie or TV show. “This is preposterous! No one in real life would ever act like this!” If we’ve learned nothing in the last eight years it’s that there is nothing a fiction writer can think up that’s too implausible for the stupid times in which we live.

This happened over and over during the pandemic. Standard tropes played out in real time. Scientific warnings ignored? Check. People foolishly placing themselves in danger? Check. People irrationally assuring themselves that they’re smarter than the experts? Check.

We’re reaching new levels of absurdity. The ability to enjoy comic books and superhero stories always necessitates a certain suspension of disbelief. But not because having superpowers is unrealistic, it’s because there’s no way that Clark Kent could fool someone by simply putting on a pair of eyeglasses and forming a small spit curl in his hair. The latest round of John Fetterman discourse proves otherwise.

As he continues to recover from his stroke, his speech has noticeably improved. Conspiracy theorists are convinced that Fetterman has been replaced with a body double. This makes perfect sense, you can’t walk down the street without coming across several 6’8” men who could be easily recruited to serve as Fetterman doppelgängers. It couldn’t possibly be standard stroke recovery. Side by side photos work as perfect proof. Yep, slightly different facial hair is the smoking gun. Good thing that Encyclopedia Brown was there to crack the case and expose Bugs Meany as the phony junior Senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

History Repeats Itself

The above is one of the most famous photos of its era. It’s difficult to find a clearer example of pure unfiltered hatred than this image from Little Rock, Arkansas as protestors hurled vitriol at 9 students who merely wished to attend school. I often wonder what has become of people such as those photographed here or the multitude of others who spilled similar levels of bile outside of camera view, especially since the Civil Rights Era was recently enough that many are still alive. Which ones eventually saw the errors of their ways? Which ones continued to live on simmering in a stew of their own hatred? Which ones went on to own the Dallas Cowboys?

It’s a question worth revisiting in the current atmosphere. It’s sad to see such hatred directed towards the migrants. How is this image different than any from the Jim Crow era?

I won’t pretend to say that I know a solution to the migrant issue, but this certainly isn’t it. It all comes down to an unwillingness to look at the migrants as people. Greg Abbott uses them as a political prop, rather than work with federal authorities and other states to fairly divide the burden. And to greet people who escaped from desperate situations with cries of “we don’t want you here!” is awful. Whatever happened to there but for the grace of God go I? Do you really want to look back at your life decades later and see that this is how you treated others?

1 Down, 1 To Go?

Rumors of an imminent deal, are just that, rumors, until it’s actually signed, but it sure looks like there is a light at the end of the tunnel regarding the WGA strike. After months without any talks the sides sat down and starting bargaining this week, to apparent progress. Odd how things can move in a positive direction once people actually speak to each other. A big difference is that 4 studio heads sat in on the negotiations this time. I have to believe that the prolonged work stoppages are starting to negatively impact bottom lines, causing the powers that be to put their collective feet down and demand agreements.

Even if a tentative deal is reached within the next few days, we’re still a long ways away from turning the lights back on in the entertainment machine. The actors are still on strike, after all. The hope would be that the terms of a deal with the writers could serve as a framework for a deal with the actors as well.

Finally, the conversation returns back to the talk show hosts who attempted premature returns for their shows before the blowback from their peers forced them to reverse course. If only Drew Barrymore had shown a bit more patience her reputation would not have suffered so. Perhaps I’m projecting because she has never seemed to be a person who bares ill will but I truly believe that she was trying to do the right thing by her staff and get them working again. She just didn’t think things all the way through.

Who Saw This Coming?

Who knows what artifacts will remain when alien visitors come to our planet and sift through the rubble of our long gone civilization. I do hope that one of their findings will be a recording of the Tonight Show episode in which Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton had a serious discussion about their Bored Ape NFTs. It speaks so much about the decline and fall of the human race.

No matter how much people attempted to explain the value of NFTs, it never made sense to me. Where is the tangible value? The comparison of owning a print of the Mona Lisa vs. having the actual Mona Lisa wasn’t good enough to convince me that it wasn’t a massive grift. Well, it now appears that every every NFT skeptic had the correct instinct. Studies show that 95% of NFTs are essentially worthless. Great job, everyone. Your digital photo is now as valuable as your old pet rock.

Equinox Time Already?

Hope you have all had splendid weeks. Thanks for reading, and see everyone once again on Monday.