RIP Bob Dorough

I read this afternoon that Bob Dorough, a musician famous mainly for creating Schoolhouse Rock hits like "Conjunction Junction," had died at the age of 94. As someone who grew up with Schoolhouse Rock tunes in the 1970's and 80's, I was sad to hear about Dorough's death. He was truly a talented man to come up with those songs that helped kids learn through music. Those songs certainly helped me and, even now, I can quickly distinguish between a adverb, a conjunction, and other types of words thanks to Schoolhouse Rock. But "Conjunction Junction" has got to be my favorite song from the many offered during the early Schoolhouse Rock days. It's so great in many ways. Catchy, great lyrics, hobos, a rail yard, spoken word parts throughout, ducks and drakes! NY Magazine actually ranked "Conjunction Junction" as Bob Dorough's SECOND best Schoolhouse Rock song behind "Three Is a Magic Number." Jen Chaney, the author of that NY Mag list, is crazy if she thinks any Schoolhouse Rock song, particularly the lame "Three Is a Magic Number" should come before "Conjunction Junction." RIP, Bob Dorough.

Equal Treatment

Like a lot of people, I've been reading about the case of the two black guys who were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks store because they asked to use the bathroom at the store even though they hadn't bought anything and then refused to leave the store. I was very near this particular Starbucks store when I visited Philly last summer and met some friends for lunch at a restaurant near Rittenhouse Square. I'm not surprised the cops were called on these two guys especially given the location. That's a high-rent area of Philly and there aren't a lot of non-white folks living around there. (There are non-white folks working in the area though.) I have no problem with a store enforcing a policy that allows paying customers to use their bathroom facilities. I also have no problem with a store asking people to leave if they're loitering for a long amount of time (even though the Philly guys were only in the store for less than 15 minutes). No one should go to Starbucks or any other coffee shop and just take up space for paying customers. However, if you're going to have a policy like that, then enforce it against everyone, not just black folks. Kick out the white women, Asian men, Latinas, red-headed stepchildren, whoever if those people aren't paying customers. If two white dudes were hanging out in a Starbucks and wanted to use the bathroom but didn't buy anything, call the cops on them too. Equal treatment!

Yea!

I read today that Andrew Sean Greer's book Less won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Yea! Good for him. I blogged about Less after I read it and it's a great book. I highly recommend it. I've been reading Greer's work since The Story of a Marriage years ago and, hopefully, with the Pulitzer win, he'll start getting the kudos he deserves.

Yuck

In a week of more shenanigans from Donny T. bitching about the Feds coming down on his crooked attorney (Note to Donny: It's not a break-in when the law enforcement people have warrants), I read that Taylor Swift has remade Earth, Wind & Fire's great song "September." As the late, great Amy Winehouse asked, "What kind of fuckery is this?" Taylor and EW & F shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence. I listened to about three seconds of Swifty's version and shut that shit down. Yuck. Everyone can't sing every song. For example, I love Harry Connick, Jr., but his version of Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" is pure garbage. He should have left it alone. The same goes for his version of "Danny Boy." Terrible. But I can forgive Harry for those minor mistakes because he has so many other great songs and he's a talented guy. If you ever get the chance to see him in concert, do it.

In other music-related news, I heard Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" on the way home from work today and, while I love the song, I grew tired of hearing it in the 1980's when it was a hit. I can listen to it now, but for years. When I look back at performers from the 80's like Phil Collins and Eddie Money, I think these folks would never have made it in today's music business. They don't have a "look" that can be marketed no matter how talented they are. The music industry didn't used to be so concerned about marketing a person based on their level of attractiveness. The industry was more concerned about the talent of the performer and/or musician. I wish that were still the case. There are so many people in the music industry today with little to no talent who are marketed to be successful because they have a look people like. Plus, with Auto Tunes, no one even needs to know how to sing anymore.

The Alienist

I've been watching The Alienist series via On Demand and I've got one more episode to go. A co-worker suggested I check it out even though she and I have different tastes in movies and shows in general, but after watching the first episode, I found it interesting enough to ride it through. What's particularly fascinating to me is the whole immigrant/turn of the century/New York experience. I'm not crazy about the main story line of poor, immigrant children being murdered by a serial killer, but seeing how the alienist and his team track the killer is interesting. I hope if there's a second season that the plot changes and that Dakota Fanning is replaced. She's a terrible actress. She overacts in every single scene she's in. (Sorry, but it's true!) In the final few episodes, I feel like the writers went overboard a little with the alienist falling for his housekeeper (who, I believe, was supposed to be of Native American descent) and then flipping out after she's killed by a crooked Irish cop. The kindly white doctor falls for the woman of color who not only cleans his house and cooks his meals but also doesn't speak (yeah, okay) and then she's killed by an Irish drunkard. Plus, to add a little more spice to this diversity stew, let's throw in a black handyman and some Jewish detectives just to round out the cast. Oy!

Cry Me a River

I did a blog post last week about how extra security at schools is fairly common in urban areas, yet when it's suggested at suburban schools, all hell breaks loose. I read an article today about some of the kids at the Parkland school in Florida complaining about the clear backpacks they have to carry now and how their school is a prison now. Cry me a river, kids. These techniques are being implemented to try and keep kids safe. As I said in my earlier blog post, I went to a public high school in Detroit in the 1980's and we had to walk through metal detectors to get to class each day. But I guess that's supposed to be expected for an "urban" school, right? Suburban  (i.e. white) schools aren't supposed to have those kinds of things, right? Give me a break. There are bad people everywhere, in the cities, suburbs, rural areas, wherever.