(1710) Evening all.

 

19. On last evening’s girlball

18. Just laffing, quite laffable

17. Ratcheting

16. Not Groundhog Day but Eternal Boomer Day

Publications such as Quora or Wired, MSN, are pure Wokerati but in Quora’s case, there’s the permanent, Groundhog Day type recurring nostalgia they never kick. Mind you, look at me with Sunday jazz, Baroque and 40s/50s movies … and with good reason.

There was this on Quora:

Joni Mitchell was quoted as saying that everything about Bob Dylan is a deception. “Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake,” she said. Do you agree with her and if so, why?

Joni is correct. Dylan, like Joni, was driven to be a star and to do so he forged a persona that was an amalgam of the other famous people he admired including folk singers and poets. He also set out to create an unconventional life for himself by choice, such as working in a carnival as opposed to an insurance office. He has been credibly accused of plagiarizing both lyrics and melodies. Much of what he does was ‘borrowed’ including his style of singing like a hillbilly (not many of them in Minnesota) but he would attribute it to “influences.” Blowing in the Wind is one song in particular that has come under scrutiny. I was in a Mexican Catholic church once where the congregants sang a hymn in Spanish that had the exact same melody as Blowing, a song that others allege was taken from one called No More Auction Block.

I am a great admirer of Joni Mitchell, a genuine original and musical genius, but Joni is also someone who cultivated a mystique and altered her persona with each new record. Joni and Dylan are not alone in this – Bowie, Donovan, Debbie Harry and many others could be expected to change both their wardrobes and appearance as well as their musical style with each new record. One of Dylan’s strangest personas came in the Seventies when he got involved in the Jesus movement and produced the record “Saved” and apparently allowed himself to be baptized in Pat Boone’s swimming pool. Oy. Our music stars are often not just musicians but they are our heroes: people who lead bigger, more interesting and exciting lives than our own. It’s part of what Dylan, Joni and many others have supplied to those of us living more conventional lives.

I’ve enjoyed some of Dylan’s work — the Desire album is one of his most musical, a collaboration with many genuinely talented musicians and it’s listenable. But at the risk of infuriating the people who idolize Dylan let’s be frank about his musicality. His guitar playing is fundamental, he’s a poor singer with an annoying voice and his harmonica playing is atrocious — in some ways this does make him a folkie, not a sophisticated musician. Many of his lyrics succeed because they are left so purposely vague that the listener can read into them what they want. He is not without his contributions but he is one of the most overrated singer/songwriters of all time.

……

Hmmmm, yes as far as it goes, plus he was “constructed” by the same agents who ran Zappa, flower power, The Who etc. … rebellious yoof. To my mind, the sad thing is those who could not move on from it all and I don’t mean into Floyd, ELP, prog … but nor do I mean into Kenny Rogers and the like … actually, I’m not sure what I mean.

I look at purple haired Boomers today welcoming Hamas and ask, “Why?”

And yet … and yet … derivative, essentially meaningless lyrics which are just phrase grabs and desolate emotion? Yes … but it still has something, je ne sais quoi … even that voice is necessary, the voice of the troubadour. Bad harmonica? Maybe. Definitive harmonica it was. Do I like him? Not that much. But he was certainly of that time and place, as the psy-ops forces people knew full well … the cabal.

 

Review:

“The wonderful Jacques Tourneur directed this 1957 noir, “Nightfall,” starring Aldo Ray, Anne Bancroft, Brian Keith, James Gregory, and Frank Albertson.

James Vanning (Aldo Ray) is on the run from some vicious criminals who have stolen a fortune from a bank. He and his doctor friend (Frank Albertson) had the misfortune to meet these men, who took the doctor bag instead of the $350 grand they stole! They believe that Ray, an innocent party, knows where in the Wyoming mountains the money is.

Back in the city, Vanning meets a model (Bancroft) and this is picked up by two of the crooks. He manages to get away and goes to Bancroft’s place; since the thugs know who she is, the two of them have to go on the run.

Tourneur’s themes here are similar to his other films, such as “Cat People,” “Out of the Past,” “Experiment Perilous” as three examples: Chance meetings and coincidence dominate a story where Tourneur uses flashbacks expertly. Here, two innocent people are drawn into a situation and being pursued.

Very absorbing story — in her early films, beautiful Anne Bancroft, a powerful actress, was cast in these young leading lady or ingenue roles, like Bette Davis when she first came to Warners. Bancroft brings an interesting, smoky quality to the role of a woman who has an unhappy past with men. Aldo Ray has never been a favorite of mine, but he is effective here. He looks like a character actor, though he played leads, and though he has a husky voice and appearance, there’s a gentle quality in his manner. James Gregory has always been good, and he’s good here as a detective who wants to get down to the truth.

The black and white photography is very striking and really adds to the film. Jacques Tourneur made some excellent films; though he obviously didn’t have a huge budget for this one and his star had descended somewhat, he still had what it took to make a strong film.”

(1158) Not quite afternoon all. (1229)

 

15. You have your union flag on today?

14. Tess Summers

13. Sassafrass

12. Some US news

11. The official far left

Just a note on Sillet … wrote for the Morning Star, died last year … communist thug. Now … Morning Star … not just a communist rage but one name for shaitan … always was. They don’t even hide it.

(0911) Bleah out there. (0935)

 

10. From TDS newsletter … headline only

All over the west now, from Canada to Oz.

9. IYE on Trump, Nietspe and that issue

Not quite clickbait but there are no photos of a line-up of wedding guests actually with Trump in them in this article. None.
I’d need to see the guest list for confirmation E was there. If DJT did actually invite Island man to his wedding then should DJT explain himself? Has he made a rod for his own back over his attitude to Bindergate?

http://web.archive.org/web/20250727182332/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14932515/Trump-lashes-CNN-new-Epstein-photos-young-kids-Ivanka-Eric-ex-wife-surface.html

8. From Stop The EU

7. Thune and Johnson deliberately doing this

… question is how to stop them.

6. There are things we see in passing

… highly significant things … but in passing … and yet we should not let them go by. Those who do think things through, particularly those of a certain age who know how it was, even ten years ago, fifteen, at the end of the 90s … well, pre-Blair at least … and we know full well how very wrong this thing is today … China + Sharia.

Difference from Russia? Well yes, if they perceive that the west plans to bring them down … what would you expect might happen? But they’re still vastly more western than either of the other two. More aligned, in many ways, with the underpinnings, not with globopsycho.

And this whole Shariah and Chinese court system must be nipped in the bud. Easier said than done.

 

This is 56 minutes long, like a slick TV doc, labouring to get to the points, loud mood music … you know the type of thing. Worth it? If you don’t know anything about this … yes.

(0332) Middle of the night here, trying for second sleep, shall resume battle here around 7 a.m., current thinking. (0547) Back again and think all the things needing writing are best done in Monday 1. (0739)

 

5. A comparative

4. Things we can’t report on

3. England

2. Steve at 1119

• Team Obama Concocts a Silly Scheme to Try to Rescue Themselves
• Google Silences Conservative Media
• Passengers Spring into Action After Deranged Man on Flight to Scotland
• More Evidence Directly Implicating Hillary Clinton in Russia Hoax – Comey, Brennan
• Media Not Reporting New Russiagate Developments Because ‘They Were Complicit’
• Trade Deal with the European Union-EU Will Invest $600 Billion
• Military Situation In {The] Ukraine On July 27, 2025
• Strength training’s cognitive payoff: How muscle fitness may shield against Alzheimer’s
• How China Silently Won Global Control in Less Than a Decade
• Much more.

1. Housekeeping and Op Ed

a. The definitions in the subheading:

I use “housekeeping” as meaning anything cyber, anything blog nuts and bolts … there’s one at Orphans right now.

b. DAD has cyber issues right now:

… and he did mention that it would be handy to have a MutR like me to run it by. I did not commit on that but shall ask him today, the mate, as I plan to phone, as by accident yesterday, my phone was turned off and that leads straight to “c” below, which is about age.

c. Generations:

A not bad analogy for the stages of life is not so much the rings of a tree but the tree itself. In this analogy, if we appear on the earth where the roots become trunk, then most people are believing in the same sorts of things, basically, our music is pretty much the same … the popular tunes I mean, e.g. Vera Lynn, Sinatra, Elvis but then it starts to divide over time, as the tree grows … Mods v Rockers v Skinheads, Beatles v Stones and as the trunk continues to grow upwards, branches start growing outwards in any which direction, sub-branches from them and so on, down to twigs, leaves, flowers.

Right … so we might have started from a common trunk, but now everyone’s at a different height, at a different point of branch growth … in fact, heading off in different directions … some drooping, some boldly reaching for the sky.

That’s as far as that tree analogy can be taken, perhaps. At this point, I switch to Generations as the model but even more importantly … age gaps, plus state of health differences. There’s something behind this and I might make it the next point.

d. Staying on top of it:

Increasingly as we age, we become less capable, coping less. I give the impression, apart from some memory fade, that I’m still coping, still capable of putting this blog and X content out, which is so … but only because I stick to the routine, the system, ruthlessly excluding side issues which can destroy and even wreck. This might be called increased brittleness and we might not even be aware how brittle we actually are … until something tests it out.

Not being one to do things by halves, I have three issues on the go just now … one of my choosing and two thrust upon me. The age gap factor does come into this, so if it does with me, then think how much more it’s a factor between, say, DAD and me.

The first of the issues was a week or so ago … I was asked by a friend to do something quite straightforward for someone his age, still adept and mobile … in fact, a bit like I was, immediately before my heart attack … I do remember building that boat, pretty fit, on top of it … then uggggh, it struck me down it did. I was phoning this supplier or that at the time, sorting this or that, dealing with govt etc. Piece of cake.

If I’d seen today’s me at that point, I’d assume I was still as capable as he was (the younger me). But what the younger me could never know was that the current me is not as capable and a very simple ask (in his eyes) suddenly balloons to huge proportions (in my eyes) and threatens to crash my entire today’s world (again in my today’s eyes). Not sure if you’re following my gist here.

See, that younger man is younger, inn he, therefore he can no way feel how it is to be older. He can observe all right, he can hear me explain … but feel it? Far too big an ask. Mind you, among those of the same age, there can be wide variations, as you know.

Incidentally, right at this moment, 0629, one part of the hardware here is beeping like crazy, flashing like crazy, it could bring down HQ, were there an actual issue. On the other hand, at this time … it’s generally the time when international and earlybird readers pile in and overload the site … what would be unusual is if it were to continue past 0900. 🍿🍿🍿

e. You can never go back to a former self:

For some weeks now, I’ve been revisiting part of my past and while that’s good in some ways, it is also not good, for the simple reason of “overloading”. As a person used to living in different time zones, operating in the middle of our night etc., it’s par for the course … but may well not be par for the course for the other end. Plus one more thing:

Raking over old coals is not a good exercise … all kinds of memories return and yesterday, as well as forgetting to switch my phone on … I was not making the effort to remember … I was retreating into the cocoon, the citadel a bit to tell the truth.

At the same time, a third issue, a house issue had arisen, current, ongoing today.

f. People who agree to something, then let you down:

… also lie about it, sneakily. This ties into the age gap thing again, the tree analogy. Now I need provide no examples for readers … you have your own, don’t you … you could list dozens these days … and as if that were not enough, I have about eighteen news items ready to go in the course of today’s blogging … all to do with people failing to observe protocols, procedures, as they were designed.

g. Be careful before interpreting something in the obvious way

… when what I’m putting to readers is actually about finding ways around the enemy’s moves, finding loopholes, finding unorthodox ways through it.

Yes, I’m referring to Orphans and monikers. Read the post … it only partly adds a burden … in reality, it does not change how readers there comment, technically, just an addition to their own text.

h. Pending civil war out in the world, esp. in Britain?

🍿🍿🍿

i. The citadel must remain calm:

If we plan to take on, to report on, to deal with, the insane doings of globopsycho out there, then the very last thing we need is hysterics within the citadel itself. Our inner citadel itself must remain a model of civility and calm. Call it an age thing but one needs histrionics like a hole in the head. Those who can see … will see.

j. You want the good news first … or the bad?

(0708) Well it’s not the HQ hardware … so that’s good. It’s the house itself, which is bad, as it raises bigger issues involving several people. Ho hum.

(0844) Sorted with the neighbour next door. Good. Quick … mechanical issue fixed.