Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, February 27, 2022
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38 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Fun Sunday challenge.
Introduce the rest of us to an unknown or obscure performer that has passed unnoticed beyond a cult following. Can be contemporary or from the past. Post the first song/performance that led to you discovery and a favorite.
Mine, Eva Cassidy
First heard her recording of Paul Simon’s “Kathy’s Song”
Favorite, Autumn Leaves
Cassidy performed mostly in the Baltimore/Washington area in the 80’s and early 90’s. Her life was cut short by cancer in her early 30’s.
@Sleeping Dog:
A screenwriter friend of mine gave me a copy of Cassidy’s CD about ten years ago. Hi favorite song was her rendition of “Danny Boy.”
@Sleeping Dog: I don’t know how obscure he was, perhaps I was just uninformed, but there was the stand-up comedian Bill Hicks. I never heard of him until after his death but he was funny and radical.
@Sleeping Dog: Nice, thanx for the gift of her voice.
I just found out that Volodymyr Zelenskyy won the Ukrainian version of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2006. He can totally bust a move.
Hey Ya cover by Obadiah Parker. Spend some time with it.
And, while the artist is not so obscure, Peter Gabriel’s cover of The Book of Love is a great piece of music.
@Sleeping Dog: We were big fans of Cassidy’s
I’ll venture The Good Rats. An A-level band that never made it out of the Northeast and ended up as old men playing biker bars and strip clubs. They could rock. And they could do more.
@Sleeping Dog: Kind of a reverse of this is Harry Nilsson. Everyone knows a whole bunch of his songs but not many know the name.
@Sleeping Dog: @Joe: @MarkedMan:
When I was living in Cambridge, we used to go see Ruthie Ristich at Ryle’s in Inman Square all the time. Great voice, but she never made it really big. You can catch her on Youtube.
@CSK:
I remember Ryle’s! But Ruthie, not so much. That must have been after I left the area. When I was in college we’d go to see Spider John Koerner at the Back Room at Idler in Harvard Sq. After moving to Mpls, I got to know John from the neighborhood. Good times.
Well, this is an interesting catch phrase for this conflict:
https://twitter.com/achkhikvadze/status/1497967269833543699
@Sleeping Dog:
Oh, Lawd, this is taking me back. Ruthie was a regular at Ryle’s for years and years. Didn’t Spider John do shows at The Plough & Stars, too?
Attention Jen and Sleeping Dog:
Governor Sununu has ordered all New Hampshire state liquor stores to stop selling Russian booze.
This is known as “taking a firm stand.”
@CSK:
Yes, John did play at the Plough and Stars, along with several other places. As I recall, he lived in Cambridge during the early 70’s, so he picked up gigs all around the metro. If he could get there by subway…
Did you ever find your way to the concerts, sponsored by a guy named Peter Johnson at the Odd Fellows Hall on Mass Ave?
@Sleeping Dog:
I never did. What did I miss?
@CSK: Virginia’s state-run liquor stores are also pulling Russian-produced brands off the shelves.
Reasons to celebrate today:
Magomed Tushayev, a general responsible for particularly brutal anti-LGBT massacres in Chechnya was killed in Ukraine when his armored regiment was ambushed near Hostomel.
@CSK:
They were generally poorly promoted affairs, so easy to miss. I was told that Peter was an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, had no reason to work and loved folk music. He seemed to know everyone and brought all sorts of obscure folkies to town. I believe that was where I first saw the New Lost City Ramblers, the then local, bluegrass mandolin player, Jack Tottle was a regular. He had Dave Van Ronk in one night, old blues guys that had been brought to NY by the Greenwich Village folkies, Peter would bring them to Cambridge.
Seldom more than 30-40 people there and after the show was over it turned into a party.
@CSK: I laughed out loud last night when I logged onto Facebook and saw the huge “ALERT” from the state liquor stores announcing that. For some reason, it struck me as hilarious.
My husband asked what was so funny and I told him, and then said that if this was to become a standard response I hope to gawd that we never get on the wrong side of Scotland. 😀
@Mikey:
The movement is growing!
@Jen:
I laughed when I saw it, too.
@Sleeping Dog:
Johnson works as a counselor now at Right Turn in Boston.
@CSK:
Is there any of the trump vodka still around?
@Kathy:
Apparently there’s a place in California where you can buy it for only $999.97 for a savings of $500.02.
@CSK:
Imagine the savings if it were to be poured down the drain.
Former Democratic House Representative and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard on Friday night said she finally found where she belonged—at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference.
Well, she must have struggled for years as a Democrat when the whole time she was really a right wing conservative. or maybe she just has figured out the way to maximize her grift. As bad as some of the lunatic fringe is, people like her are worse.
@Kathy:
I’m relishing the savings of not buying it at all.
@senyordave:
Hillary was right about her, too.
@CSK:
You’re a fount of information.
@Sleeping Dog:
Well, as a character in one of Robert B. Parker’s novels observed of Spenser, “You know more shit that don’t make you any money than anybody.”
Story of my life.
Kosovo wants into NATO and would like to be our 51st state,
Somehow I doubt they qualify.
Dee Snider of Twisted Sister:
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-The Moon, maybe) just got ratioed all to heck by the Dictionary:
https://twitter.com/Dictionarycom/status/1498033493561032710
@Jen:
Well, I have absolutely no idea WTF Higgins is talking about,either, but I think he’s trying to be witty. And trying to own the libs.
If so, epic fail.
@Joe:
I love that version. I love the original. (I prefer Andre 3000.) It is an incredibly infectuous and catchy song in this weird time beat. And Benjamin is so compelling in it.
The original Hey, Ya was once my favorite song of the century so far. I still love it tons and top three or so, but I’ve come to The Best Of You by Foo Fighters as my #1.
That song also has a lot of off the wall interpretations / covers you can chase down the rabbit hole.
Anyway, that Obidiah Parker cover is righteous. It is a reinterpretation.
Just seen on my Yahoo headlines: The reasonable real conservatives who attend CPAC just voted FG as the number one GQP banner carrier for 2024 with 59% of the vote in their straw poll. Ron DeSantis is second choice at 28%. What a great time to be Republican and conservative! A golden age if ever there was one!
@Mikey: And he thinks anti-maskers are going to be able to figure out which is which? Really?
I am getting the feeling that Putin is way out in front of the Russian oligarchs on Ukraine.
“We’re on board for tough sounding rhetoric for internal consumption, but if my western Europe assets are gonna get seized and you are going to relegate Russia to an isolated nation, we have a problem.”
It would not surprise me at all if Putin had a sudden health failure in the near future.
Most oligarchs prefer money and power over slightly expanded Russian boundaries.
Putin essentially is the figurehead of the oligarchs. That is the basis of the current Russian state.
I think Putin is walking a very narrow branch that might suddenly snap.
Some very influential and rich Russian people are going to lose billions very quickly. Going to lose their Italian villas, their London townhouses, their French chateaux, their access to Western banking systems, their yachts. Their $10,000 a night purchased flesh.
The loss of Europe as a playground for the oligarchs is going to weigh heavy. The loss of a substantial chunk of their worth and their earnings is going to weigh heavy.
If I were Putin, I would be very paranoid of every meal served to me. He is killing the Golden Goose for folly.