I'm going to the city. Gonna breathe that city air.

  I mentioned the other day that I finished that Hank Williams biography and it thoroughly bummed me out. For whatever reason, it's put me in a melancholy mood as we move through this last weekend of January 2021. Being depressed these days is a drag, partly because I know it's just my own brain wiring messing with me but mostly because I can't get stoned. Anyhow, here's this week's News.

 It was a pretty good week, more or less. Plenty to write about and something to explain, which is always fun. Monday was another slice of Today in the Biden Administration, but Wednesday and Friday were the fun ones. I tried to explain the whole GameStop-short stock business even though, as I note, I've never been able to wrap my head around how it actually works. Sort of like matrices in algebra or baking, it just plumb evades me.

 As far as that goes, it is entertaining as hell to see regular stock gambler types lose their shit because the hoi polloi is forgetting its place. Frankly, they should be thankful that we don't live in a just universe which would mean they'd be strung up by their own intestines, kept alive by medical science, and pelted repeatedly with pecans. That being said, people whose opinion on these matters I trust are saying the joke's starting to a bit long in the tooth and it's possible it might start causing some real danger.

 Of course, that just casts into sharp relief how flat dumb our economic infrastructure is. But that's beyond me and I won't pretend that it isn't. It'll be interesting to see where all this goes from here but I'm not going to act like I'm qualified to give a proper prediction nor give thoughts on what should be done.

 The other bit of crazy that's taken up this week's news is newly elected Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene showing the entire world that, yes, she is loony as a coot and probably shouldn't be allowed around sharp scissors, much less high-powered weaponry or the laws of the nation. She's a 9/11 truther, and I'm amazed there is still a healthy group of those dickholes. She's also a believer that the Parkland and Sandy Hook were "false flags," and that just shows a rotten, black soul. The one that got me, though, was the suggestion that the wildfires regularly bedeviling the West are caused by space lasers operated by International Jewry so as to clear land for high-speed train projects.

 That's just dangerous goofy. That Boebet woman's a thick-skulled crook who'll probably get busted for using campaign money to keep her restaurant afloat. That weird Nazi fanboy from North Carolina is going to lie himself right off the planet. But Greene's a danger to her fellow Representatives. I don't trust gun enthusiasts I don't know well enough to know that they know what they're doing. This woman is a prime example of gun nuts you don't trust. I'm not kidding. If she gets through her 15 minutes without shooting one of her colleagues, I'll be shocked.

  Anyhow, I'm tired and all I got to talk about still is that I've been playing The Shadowrun Trilogy with some of the player-mad scenarios modded in. One of these days I'm going to write about what it's like coming back into gaming before the days of open and encouraged modding, but today's not the day.

No matter how I struggle and strive, I'll never get out of this world alive.

  The problem with being a politics geek, that is paying attention to the whole scene as a form of enjoyment, is that sometimes I can't get away from it. I'd rather not write about that scene but I'm probably going to. It's just too heavy on my soul and I can't wait until tomorrow's news.

  I finished that Hank Williams biography and I'd rather write about that. That was depressing as hell. That poor bastard came into this world with all the cards stacked against him but with an amazing talent, one I don't know if anyone's been able to reproduce, yet he managed to make his life even more miserable and maybe even not worth living. Everyone he knew, even his momma, was trying to make a buck off him regardless of what it did to him. To be fair, though, he made life miserable for everyone in his circle and pretty much fucked over every last one, one way or another.

 And the really sad thing is it was probably all necessary for his music to be as powerful as it is. You feel the misery in a song like "Your Cheatin' Heart" or the resigned despair-cum-black humor in "I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive." Nothing he did felt fake or put on, except maybe those goofy Fred Rose-written songs like "Sittin' The Woods On Fire." Even the stuff he didn't write. It still blows my mind "Lovesick Blues" had the impact it did. It wasn't a new song. Hell, even his arrangement was borrowed from another singer. But that tune was like an atomic bomb in country music and blew everyone's mind. And no one since has even come close. Not Elvis, not Garth, not George Jones or Merle Haggard. 

 Even guys like Lefty Frizzell and Ray Price show their clay feet, musically speaking. Dying young is sometimes the best thing an artist can do for their legacy and no one did it better than Hank Williams. Maybe James Dean, I don't know. John Coltrane? I don't know, I've never been keen on him or the modal-type music he brought to jazz. I'm not educated in jazz enough to say. Robert Johnson? Maybe, but that just brings in the question of just how much myth and legend pays into the musical impact. It's a necessary part, sure, but it doesn't need to overpower it.

 So, instead of that - which is pretty much what I wanted to say anyway - a quick look at the goofy shit going on in these United States. Seems the pro stock market gamblers got all pissy and banded together to stop the Reddit bunch from their shenanigans. And, like what the rascals were doing, the conclusion between the various investment firms is perfectly legal. It's just shitty.

 So, yep, a sure sign that the entire basis for our economic health is solid as a rock and not at all a bunch of vacuous bullshit designed mainly to let the filthy rich get richer. It's pretty wild, actually. Like so much else the past few years - and since COVID sat on our head -it's showing how much in our society is held together by spit and inertia. So much of it collapses the first hard breeze comes along and things are set up that the shit falls on the poor so the rich don't feel a lick of worry.

 And if you try to change that, people who're just up against the wall as you are will slit your throat with glee. Go figure. So what are my favorite Hank Williams songs? "Honky Tonk Blues," "My Sweet Love Ain't Around," "Honky Tonkin'," "Long Gone Daddy," Jambalaya," and "I Don't Care (If Tomorrow Never Comes)."

 And, of course, "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." Ain't that the damn truth.

We had to be drunk when we said we'd stop drinkin'.

 I'm near the end of that Hank Williams biography by Colin Escott. He's married to Billie Jean Jones, so about two months are left in his life. Pretty sure he's cut every song he's ever going to record and "Jambalaya" is his bullet right now. Legend goes "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" was Number One when he died, but that's not so.

 Swear before God, this may be the most depressing thing I've read in I don't know how long. I know a lot about Hank Williams. Indeed, I wrote a thesis on his impact on Southern culture and pop music way back when. Nevertheless, this book has plumbed some depths even I didn't know existed. That poor bastard was a mess by the time he left, and much of it had little to do with his alcoholism. His back problems, spina bifida occulta, can lead to incontinence, so Ol' Hank went out pissing and shitting himself. I knew that, but I thought it was due to being a drunk. Goddamn.

 Don't get it twisted, he was a full-on drunk and had been since around 14 or so. My father and grandfather both were alcoholics, so what I'm reading is awfully familiar. He'd do just fine for weeks at a time but inevitably fell off the wagon. And when he drank, he drank himself into a coma, not just occasionally, but every time. He wasn't a fun drunk, either, and would get mean as a rattlesnake when he got plastered. Fortunately, he couldn't handle his liquor so it didn't take long.

 His story is a pretty damn sad one. As a working musician, he only had maybe a half-dozen years and only just over four of those were recorded. He was a pain in the dick to work for and with, but if promoters or A&R men or whoever could take advantage of him, they did. Miss Audrey was a harridan and couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, but goddamn, she put up with a lot of shit. More shit than she deserved, that's for damn sure.

 I didn't know he flirted with movies, either, but he did. He was signed to a contract with MGM but ducked the film, which was... well, I don't know. One of his undeniable strengths was his ability to hold an audience in the palm of his hand - when he was sober, anyway - so maybe it would've worked. Probably not, though.

 It's often wondered how things would've been had Ol' Hank not been such a nightmarish drunk, but I don't know if you can separate that from him and he'd still be Hank Williams. His appeal was partly based on the pure misery and heartsick in his voice. Buddha's First Noble Truth in human form. Hank Jr. was, as my doctor said of me, disgustingly healthy and is a big bear of a man. Apparently, he was a 10-pound baby, so he was big from the start. Hank III is a healthy lad, too, though his vocal semblance to his grandfather is superficial and mostly a put-on. He sounds more like Wayne Cochran, in any event.

 Anyhow. I don't know where to go from here except I'll be glad when I finish that damn book. I love me some Hank Williams and find his story fascinating, but it is depressing as hell. Video game-wise, I've been fooling with the Shadowrun computer games along with the Ultima series. For those who don't know, it's from a tabletop RPG where the sitting is a cyberpunk world after - and partly caused by - magic reentering the world, along with elves and dwarves and trolls and all that. A fun RPG in a rich world with turn-based combat and an isometric top-down view. Check it out.

 That's a good place to twist it off, I think. As always, if I come up with something interesting, I'll come back. And, as always, it probably won't happen.

And I'm in the middle of it all.

 I've been struck by laziness today. That's it, that's the whole statement. Anyhow, this week's News. Frankly, it's been another easy week on that front. Monday and Wednesday were ruminations on Joe Biden's inauguration and what, if anything, the Trumpist dead-enders were going to do. Luckily, I suppose, they wound up doing much of nothing, not in Washington and not across the country.

 Friday we got on with things and looked into why this whole filibuster business is such a big deal. I hope I got it all right because, honestly, it all seems more complicated than it needs to be. That's Washington, D.C., I suppose. I'll say it again, I see this the same way I see the Electoral College. I don't have strong feelings one way or another but I'm not hearing a good argument for keeping it.

 For whatever it's worth, I figure the EC will last longer than the filibuster. The former would be a booger to get rid of, despite what people seem to think. Again, the last four to six years have proven to me how little most folks understand how elections and politics work, much less the actual to and fro of government. I'm guessing it's because they really haven't paid attention at all is why they seem to think things happen instantly with the wave of whoever's hand. It's getting tiresome and I ain't going to lie about it.

 So much for all of that. While it may not be as knee-slappingly hilarious while at the same time pants-wetting terrifying as the Trump Era, it's obvious there's a market for explaining to the Great Washed how shit actually works. Since I'm good at that, golden.

 I've been reading a pretty interesting biography of Hank Williams by Colin Escott with William MacEwan and George Merritt. I'm not familiar with the other two, but I've long been an admirer of Escott's music journalism. Anyhow, Hank Williams was a rotten bastard in addition to being the first Avatar of Country Music. It's sort of understandable, given his youth and the situation he came up with. He had spina bifida occulta which means he had serious back pain his whole life. I know what that's like, and my back's got nothing that seriously wrong with it.

 Apparently, he became a full-blown alcoholic at a very early age, and I know what that's like, too. Living with one, anyway, and that explains how much shit the people around had to put up with when he got on a bender. It's also an interesting insight into the world of country music, circa the 1940s and '50s. Eddy Arnold was bigger than Hank by the end of the '50s, for example, and the music was already moving towards that pop-friendly crooner style people seem to think only happens sporadically.

 It's also interesting how one song - in this case, "Lovesick Blues" - can turn a fanbase on to the extent that he's considered, well, the first Avatar of Country Music. Still and all, I love Hank's music and he's one of the few performers I can think of where everything he put on wax is killer bee. It's that intangible element, his way of singing with pure emotion so that you know he's been reading your mail, that made him so great and makes his songs still among the best pop music ever created.

 I don't know what else. Been messing with the Ultima series a lot, particularly the Lazarus remake and U6 Project. Ultima V was hard enough, but it's damn near impossible on the Dungeon Siege engine. I will say IX isn't as wretched as its reputation. It's not a great game, sure, but it's a perfectly acceptable late '90s third-person CRPG. It does wreak havoc with continuity but I hate to break it to you, Ultima's always played fast-and-loose with its own history. Again, assume it's a Many-World Interpretation deal and it's all good.

 In any event, according to Ultima Online, that's pretty much the situation. The smashing of Mondain's gem and all that. I say it means you can do with it and since EA owns it, fuck them, they're bastards. I've been piddling with the Ultima world. It's still a lack of ability to wrestle out a narrative. Worldbuilding is easy, telling a good story is a booger.

 Anyhow. It's 11:30 so I might as well post this and get on with the evening. Hopefully, I can shake off this muddy-brained mood I've been in. I know what the problem is. It's a lack of stimulation. How to fix that without being social or getting stoned, I don't know.

Rockin' chair money

 It's been a rough week. If you haven't heard by now because you don't follow politics - and if that's the case, why in God's name are you reading this blog - but Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away yesterday evening. She died because of complications from pancreatic cancer she'd been suffering for years. She was 87 and while I'm not going to go into detail about her career - there's good and there's bad - but do know the left lost one of their strongest allies on the Court, the right is almost tumescent with glee, and shit is about to get wild.

 I did a deep-ish dive last night about what her death means for life in Washington, D.C., how a new justice will be chosen, and what kind of monkey wrench this will throw into the election. We'll get a little more into that in a bit, but let's get the rest of this week's News linked up. Mother Nature giving us the finger was the main theme this week. Monday talked about the Pacific Northwest's burning and Wednesday tagged it by talking about how Hurricane Sally kicking the shit out of the Alabam and Florida Gulf Coast.

 We also touched on the accusation made by a former nurse at a Georgia ICE facility that the weird fuckers there were removing the uteruses of detainees without their consent or knowledge. Before the news about Ginsburg's passing knocked it out of the cycle, it was starting to get a little traction in both the halls of Congress and the corporate media. I hope it doesn't get buried and forgotten because that is some truly horrific shit. If we decide as a culture that we're fine with that, I don't know if I want to keep up with it anymore. It's bad enough we're fine as a society with being shot dead by cops because they feel like it.

 Anyhow. RBG and the Supreme Court. Mitch McConnell didn't wait until her body was cold before announcing his intention to fill her seat as quickly as possible. Senators like Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham basically said they were lying about supporting the McConnell Rule back in 2016. Hell, Graham's even on video saying "use this against me".

 We shouldn't be surprised at any of it. Anyone who thinks anyone in the GOP has any integrity or honor deserves what they get. Furthermore, the idea that politics is a game for the dainty should be buried. Although it's unprecedented and reveals the party's screaming hypocrisy, there is nothing about Trump trying to shove a new justice in before the election that isn't allowed by the Constitution. That's politics, baby.

 Some Republican thinkers are pointing this out, though those same ones will squeal like stuck pigs when/if the Democrats do the same thing. There's been talk if Trump does nominate a justice and the Senate does vote them through with quickness that Joe Biden should pack the courts if he wins the election. One of the reasons we have nine justices is at the time it was decided we had nine U.S. circuit courts. We've got 13 now.

 I'm not sure about how I feel about it, but I do know the Republicans would throw a screaming na-na while the corporate press ruefully shakes its collective head and complains about "cancel culture." One thing I do find interesting about this is conservatives using the argument that a 4-4 Court might cause a Constitutional crisis if there's something hinky about the election. Number one, it tells me they're shaky on the idea that Trump will win reelection and, two, they intend to make something hinky happen.

 But it also tells me they don't feel as if everyone's on the same team, because by any other measurement, Republicans would have a solid 5-3 majority. Chief Justice John Roberts, for example, has made a few decisions lately that while they do follow the letter of the law, they go against Republican interests. This too is not without precedent. Nominated by Dwight Eisenhower, Earl Warren headed one of the most radical courts of all time with regards to civil rights. Brown vs. The Board of Education, Miranda vs. Arizona, and Loving vs. Virginia were all under his rubric and it wasn't odd to see billboard throughout the South that said "Save America, Impeach Earl Warren."

 Maybe we're looking at that sort of thing with Roberts. Liberals would do well to not put too much faith in him - you'd think they'd learn their lesson in this post-Mueller age - but an argument has been made that he'd rather not be known as a full-on Republican toady. The Court has always been a fairly conservative entity, but that doesn't necessarily mean Modern American Conservatism.

 But it's all too early to tell. Likely as not, Trump will have a nomination in the water by the end of next week. He floated some names earlier in the week to troll the libs, like Cruz and pencil-necked fascist Tom Cotton. He said at one of his rallies tonight he plans on picking a woman and the mainstream party apparatchiks seem to have a hard-on for Amy Coney Bennett, a judge on the Seventh Court of Appeals.

 Time will tell. One way or another, it's about to get weird, stupid, and ugly, and it started out pretty deep in all three. Get a helmet, neighbors, and buckle up.

Listen to the rain a-fallin'. Can't you hear that lonesome sound?

 I was supposed to have some Actual Paying Work to do tonight. However, I was told to hold off on it for reasons beyond my control, so I find myself with a free evening and no idea what to fill this space with. I've gotten to like the idea of doing a quick check-up of Gibberish on working nights, mainly because it gives me an excuse to be lazy. And if there's one thing I love above all others, it's being lazy. Mainly because I'm incredibly good at it.

 So we'll gonzo it tonight and see what we can shake loose. The country's still insane. Joe Rogan - who I never got, partly because I make it a policy to ignore people who claim the moon landing was faked - is spreading rumors that the fires out in the Pacific Northwest are due to left-wing activists, which means the current All-American Enemies Black Lives Matter and Antifa. This comes on the heels of police and firefighters in the area, as well as such radical lefties as the FBI begging people to stop spreading rumors.

 And people are still trying to debate this down. One argument I see is it's "understandable after Antifa lit so many fires in cities while protesting, despite there being not only absolutely no evidence for that but, indeed, plenty of evidence at least a few were started by right-wing agitators. Another one I saw said it was something COINTELPRO, which might be even dumber. I'm not completely sure how that's supposed to work.

 The fires happen every year, but Americans can't remember past the week before. The Pacific Northwest has had a particularly dry summer, but Americans don't take climate change seriously. There have been a few folks attempting arson for completely apolitical (usually because they have loose screws), but Americans don't want to believe anything that doesn't fit their Narrative.

 This is just another iteration of the rank Dumbness that has taken over the country. Dingbats who have no inner life are rubbing their blue-vein throbbers of the idea of getting violent against people they think won't be able to fight back. While all this is going on, we're being told that we need to reach out to people who don't share our ideological viewpoints, which means liberals/leftists shouldn't give conservatives any guff. If it's any consolation, I don't even pretend to understand.

 Moving on. Today is Hank Williams' birthday. I am a huge fan of his music and long have had a fascination with his place in pop music and American culture. Like my brother said, he's one of those hinges of society. He made songs that were designed to be enjoyed by everyone, so they were, plus he was a mean-ass, hard-drinking miserable redneck bastard, as earthy and Too Real as they come.

 He didn't live long enough to grow out of it but he also didn't live long enough to start making shit music, either because his well was dry or his hard-living caught up to him. The very real pain and misery in his life came through in his vocals, regardless of how jaunty the tempo or amusing the lyrics. And the songs? The songs are fucking great, some of the best ever written.

 So, I dig me some Hank Williams. I've written two, count 'em, two 20-plus page papers in college on Hank Williams for non-musical classes. The one music appreciation class I took, I wrote a 10-page paper on ol' Hank. He's kind of like Otis Redding or Sam Cooke; it's a shame he didn't live long enough to produce more music and we've heard all we're probably going to hear, but it's all such concentrated awesome, there's just no chaff. Like with Elvis or the Rolling Stones, who both had some stinkers.

 Okay, what else. Joe Biden did a Q-&-A with voters tonight. Apparently, he did so well the wingnuts are saying he must've got the questions beforehand. This means the guy they've been saying has dementia for the past six months is still sharp enough to memories a bunch of rather complicated answers. Sure. I really shouldn't be surprised at how quickly and effortlessly conservatives change their tune - it was beyond a doubt way before Trump became president - it nevertheless gives me a sad chuckle every time it happens.

 Speaking of which, with all this talk of cancel culture and repression of free speech (or telling racists to fuck off), I'm reminded of the Free Speech Zones during Bush Jr's second nomination. None of this is new. The Hoover government sent the Army on World War One vets who were protesting. McCarthyism destroyed life after life, career after career, and with the full backing of a cowed United States government. Palmer raids, the MOVE bombings in Philadelphia. The Whiskey Rebellions and the Free State of Jones County. None of this is new.

 The Constitution doesn't give you rights. It tells the government what it can't do, and even then, almost every amendment has been circumvented, explained away, or outright ignored. The only actual right you have is the freedom to think whatever you want to think, and far too many of us don't want to put the effort into it.

Sunday, February 2, 2020

 I don't know how the weather is wherever y'all are, but today's one of those days that almost makes rural Northeast Mississippi worth the effort, even if it's just in knowing the summer's going to be a booger. Even now, it's going be nasty before the week's out. But for the nonce, let's all just enjoy it.

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

 Man, yesterday's Gibberish got 15 hits. I know that doesn't sound like a lot because it really, really ain't - and I'm not even sure how much traffic Blogger sees these days, comparatively - but it's the most I've gotten in one day on one post since I started writing again. Is it because I had "Christmas" labeled? I guess so. And, of course, the News at the WordPress sight scored a goose egg.

Hank Williams - "Mind Your Own Business"

One of my proudest moments as a scholar was talking a teacher into letting me write a term paper on Hank Williams. I still think it's one of the best things I ever wrote.

"Move it on Over" - Hank Williams

 This was Hank's first real big hit, reaching #4 in 1947. It's also the cover that turned me into a Hank Jr. fan.

Hank Williams - "Rockin' Chair Money"

This is another one that was fattened up & released after his death. However, since the original was a better quality recording, it doesn’t sound quite so weird.

Hank Williams - "Low Down Blues"

 This was later released in 1952 with extra musical accompaniment added to it, but it sounds awful weird.

Hank Williams - “I Don’t Care (If Tomorrow Never Comes)”

Hank Williams - Honky Tonk Blues

 Remember what I was saying yesterday about steel guitars? Well, this but even more so.

Hank Williams Sr... I Saw The Light - 1948

 Maybe Hank Williams died for our sins. You ever think of that?

Hank Williams - "My Sweet Love Ain't Around"

 It's Hank Williams' 96th birthday. This may be my favorite song of his that isn't "I Saw The Light".