Sign of the Month - October 2015

A Planned Parenthood #PinkOut. Notice the men in the crowd who came to help out. Real men, gay and straight, heart women.  

Women vote. Do the Republicans know that Women have the vote? 

Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House? The "rape is just a method of conception" guy? Oh hell no. 

Rock'n'fucking'roll's Greatest Rhythm Guitarist - Bede's Beat

John William Cummings, better known as "Johnny Ramone," was born on October 8, 1948. The original members of The Ramones each took the surname Ramone to display their solidarity, unity and equality. The name was suggested by Dee Dee, who had heard that it was the surname that Paul McCartney used when he checked into hotels.

In a Guitar Player interview, collected in The Guitar Player Book, Johnny stated: "I guess that before me, people played downstrokes for brief periods in a song, rather than the whole song through. It was just a timing mechanism for me."

On the topic of The Ramones' songbook, Johnny often said that every Ramones song has everything a "regular" pop song has, only it's played really fast without any solos, so they simply end up being short.

On September 15, 2004, Johnny died of prostate cancer. He is buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Joey Ramone, who developed lymphoma, predeceased Johnny in 2001, Dee Dee Ramone died of a heroin OD in 2002. DeeDee's gravestone isn't far from Johnny's. The last of the original Ramones, Tommy, died, also of cancer, in 2014.

The best way to appreciate Jonny's artistry is to listen to the Ramones live. The "solos" that appear on Ramones records were actually overdubbed by either Ed Stasium, Walter Lure or Tommy Ramone. This is the oldest known footage of The Ramones performing at CBGBs on September 15, 1974:

Here is what was once extremely rare footage of The Ramones practicing a set, filmed at "the Fifth Ramone", Autoro Vega's NYC studio on February 3rd, 1975.

The most famous of The Ramones' live recordings is "It's Alive!" -- a full concert recorded on New Year's Eve 1977 at the Rainbow Theatre in London. The Ramones recorded four full concerts during their 1977 tour of the UK. The band's priority was to provide their fans with an accurate portrayal of their concerts, at which they played every song they'd recorded very very fast. To achieve this, they wanted to use a single, complete concert. Sire Records wanted to hedge its bets and cull the best performances from each concert and edit them together to form a "complete show". After 10 rows of seats were thrown at the stage after The Ramones left the stage for the last time at their New Year's Eve performance, and the London and UK musical press proclaimed it one of the best performances ever held at The Rainbow, Sire decided to use the entire New Year's Eve concert for a double-LP release. A little less than half-an-hour's worth of the New Years' Eve performance which was released on LP was also filmed;

October 8 is also the birthday of Tucker, who has done so very very much to keep we wanderers in the wilderness intact and in contact -- you may have noticed a few of us squatting all over Plum Street. Happy Birthday, Tucker!

BEDE ! WHERE ARE YOU ?

I cannot find the extra columns you made for me. I am still searching. We need a new Bede's Beat. And I worry about your raggedy ass. I worry a lot because I heart you.

"Yeah now, if I have to swim a river, you know I will.
And if I have to climb a mountain, you know I will.
And if he's hiding up on a blueberry hill,
You know I'm gonna find that child you know I will.'

Tune in! Turn on! Please do not Drop Out! Hat tip to Timothy Leary.

Strange Fruit Redux

 Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey

October 2 at 11:05am ·

As I scroll through the news this morning I am saddened to read the details of the horrible tragedy in Oregon. My heart goes out to the citizens of Roseburg -- especially the families and loved ones of those murdered.

The recent spike in mass shootings across the nation is truly troubling. Whether the perpetrators are motivated by aggressive secularism, jihadist extremism or racial supremacy, their targets remain the same: Christians and defenders of the West.

While this is not the time for widespread panic, it is a time to prepare. I would encourage my fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to think about getting a handgun carry permit. I have always believed that it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.

Our enemies are armed. We must do likewise.
https://www.tn.gov/safety/article/handgunmain

This guy is straight out calling for religious war. Of course, his moldy old balls will be safe in such a war. He so white and Christian, he shine.

The last time Christians did this in the South the Ku Klux Klan was founded and the death toll was so large, they wrote a song about it.

Folks Christians want to kill now are expanded: gays, women who have abortions, Muslims and Secularists, whatever that means. Some of the Christan Irregulars are already burning and shooting and marching on Washington with guns. Two Planned Parenthood arsons in the last month. How long before we see dead Doctors and the funny fruit again? Australia was right to expel Troy Newman. Hate speech and rabble rousing kill people.

I warn you, child... if I lose my temper, you lose your head!

I pictured to myself the Queen of Hearts as a sort of embodiment of ungovernable passion - a blind and aimless Fury. — Lewis Carroll, in "Alice on the Stage"

There is nothing in the world like bipolar rage. I feel electric with it today. This was not the time for one more man to do me sexual dirt. Grrrr.

I was in love with Pope Frankie. He lost me completely with the Kim Davis shit. Back to hating my church with a vengeance again. Some of us Catholics have gay family and friends. Thanks for nothing, Frankie.

You know how it is when you find your lover has feet of clay. I will recover. Much as I hate to send clicks to the NYT, read more HERE:

ROME — Pope Francis met privately in Washington last week with Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who defied a court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, adding a new element to an American tour that saw Francis attract huge crowds and articulate left-leaning positions on poverty, immigration, the environment and inequality. Vatican officials initially would not confirm that the meeting occurred, finally doing so on Wednesday afternoon, while refusing to discuss any details.

I found a new genius of an editorial cartoonist who also has a BLOG:

Confused and Conflicted Am I

My heart hurts, my mind is befuddled, and I see no solution. I love Pope Frankie. I hate the Roman Catholic Church.

I am a Roman Catholic, baptized and confirmed. I wish the RCC would stop working so hard to manipulate me into sanctity.

I left the RCC behind when I was 13 years old. I made occasional check-backs to see if there was any change in their sexual and cultural insanity. In the Mass I went back to, a priest's homily contained the priest's observation that homosexuals 'deserved AIDS for their sin.' Left again and did not go back until this year.

I know this: the Vatican hired a Fux Snooze public relations guy when Benedict was Pope. They needed a whitewash desperately.  The RCC's poisonous pedagogy has closed nine parishes in Philadelphia.

And then Pope Frankie appeared. And I love him. I exhibit clearly that I love him and why I love him HERE. I love him especially when he tells it like it really is to his own. I feel proud to be a Catholic. I have not felt that in a long dry time.

And then critics of the RCC point to reality. Nothing has changed. The Magisterium takes no responsibility for their own doctrine. They begin to blame the laity for going the way they sent them. Some Catholics are intolerant and cruel, but it is all lay Catholics fault because we are not praying hard enough. Or praying correctly. I pray fervently often. Are you saying that I can pray religious insanity and zealotry of others away? I will work on that as soon as I have prayed my own away.

Caro Frankie, are you telling me that my not praying is why some priests stuck their dicks where they did not belong and Krol and Bevilacqua kept the dirts out of jail? My not praying hard enough caused Savita Halapavannir to die a miserable painful death? My not praying hard enough is why the Magisterium is not hearing the laity? Who is the Church. Its priests or its people?

I swore this oath below when I was a child and I meant it. Now the adult-me is trying to comfort the child-me who was earnest and believed what the RCC taught me. I was made to swear to things as a child that the adult me does not believe for a moment, I could repudiate my baptism but my inner child would scream in pain. In a very real way, Catholicism is me, my family, my culture. And I cannot run away from myself.

During the rite of Confirmation, the candidates stand as a group for questioning by the presiding bishop:

Bishop: Do you reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises?
Candidates: I do.

Bishop: Do you believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?
Candidates: I do.

Bishop: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?
Candidates: I do.

Bishop: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who came upon the apostles at Pentecost and today is given to you sacramentally in confirmation?
Candidates: I do.

Bishop: Do you believe in the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?
Candidates: I do.

Bishop: This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord.
All present: Amen.

We Won't Have John Boehner to Kick Around Anymore

John Boehner has resigned. This post has musical accompaniment below.

Man is a stone drunk. How can you tell? John the Roofer said "Drunks don't cry; they vomit through their eyeballs." It is always crying time for the Boner. I know from personal experience that drunks do not see well. That is why John cannot tell when he looks in the mirror that he is bright orange.

I say it is time to regularly and randomly drug test Congress. Start with Steve 'Cantaloupe Calves' King. I will add a link to a White House petition to drug test Congress maybe. I don't know why I persist. I never get more than a hundred signatures.

Do these assholes in Congress think we cannot tell an addict or a whackjob when we see one?

Here is what Sydney Blumenthal thinks below. I am glad somebody in the Red White & Blue Bubble is thinking.

Who did not know Boehner was a drunk? The USA is like a big dysfunctional alcoholic family. Nobody talks about the drunken Elephant in the room.

"Boehner is despised by the younger, more conservative members of the House Republican Conference. They are repelled by his personal behavior. He is louche, alcoholic, lazy, and without any commitment to any principle. Boehner has already tried to buy the members with campaign contributions and committee assignments, which he has already promised to potentially difficult members. His hold is insecure. He is not Gingrich, the natural leader of a "revolution," riding the crest into power. He is careworn and threadbare, banal and hollow, holding nobody's enduring loyalty. Boehner is beholden and somewhat scared of his base. He twitches when they make gestures that might undermine his position. His impulse is to hand out money. His aim is to recreate DeLay, Inc, with Jerry Lewis, who will be the new chairman of Appropriations. But Boehner is neither feared nor loved. He's a would-be DeLay without the whip. He's the one at the end of the lash. Which means he will be under great pressure and find it hard to sustain a moderate, reasonable strategy of restraint."

JEBYA SPEAKS!

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warned America is “creeping toward multiculturalism” during a campaign stop Tuesday, and said he worries about areas where the assimilation process is “retarded.”

In response to a young woman’s question about how to empower immigrants as Americans, Bush said at an event at a Cedar Falls, Iowa diner that multiculturalism should not be the goal.

“We should not have a multicultural society,” Bush said. “When you create pockets of isolation, and in some cases, the assimilation process has been retarded, it’s wrong. It limits people’s aspirations.”
- By KATHERINE KRUEGER

Creeping toward multiculturalism? When did we leave it behind? Both my Grand Mothers were immigrants. Neither of them spoke English or needed to. They lived in ethnic enclaves. I learned more than one language to talk to them. I would go back in time to live in those ethnic enclaves in a heartbeat if I could.

I am not giving up the bodega and their Dominican Beef Stew with Rice and Peas. I am not giving up sight of the beautiful women in native dress at the mosque on the corner. Such colors. I am not giving up the ladies of the Hood View and our late at night on the pavement sometimes drunken multicultural discussions. I am not giving up having my choice of cuisine done by Thai, Ethiopian, Greek, Korean, Polish, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese cooks in small family owned places. I am not giving up the Gay Pride Parade or dancing in the Gayborhood.

I live in the City of Brotherly Love. I do not want to live in Whitebread City with you Jebya. Not ever. Fuck you Jebya. Eat my stromboli.

OMG GOP WTF? - Tongues in the Sauna - UPDATE BELOW

Get your mind out of the gutter, cher Reader. I know what you were thinking when you read the title. You thought I provided some more Filth and Dirt. Well, not this time.

This woman is a GOP candidate for Senate in Alaska. She is attempting to convert(?) someone in a sauna by singing in tongues.

What is there to say? 2016 cannot come fast enough for me. Many thanks to gtoSnipey for preserving this after she made it private and erased all the comments.

She is back with more and better batshittery. Alaska sent us Palin and this woman. Maybe it is something in the water?

Bede's Beat - Gloomy Sunday

Szomorú vasárnap was composed by Rezső Seress in 1933.

While the title of Seress' composition was translated into English as Gloomy Sunday, it was popularly known in both the U.S. and the U.K. as "the Hungarian suicide song" due to innumerable press accounts of people who cited the song in their suicide notes. 

The song was even locally banned by several radio stations in the interest of "public morals." Seress himself committed suicide in 1968,

Marozsán Erika: Szomorú vasárnap (Gloomy Sunday)

The first person to sing Gloomy Sunday in English was Paul Robeson in 1936,

Robeson's English-language version was quickly followed by many others, perhaps most famously, that recorded by Lady Day:in 1941:

Gloomy Sunday has been recorded in may different styles and remains part of the soundtrack -- and an essential entry in the songbook-- of the 1930s and 1940s, and is still performed to this day.

Charlie Adams: Gloomy Sunday

Björk: Gloomy Sunday

The Elephant in the Womb - A Poem for Asa Hutchinson

We're Baggers GOP.
We want to control your pu^^y.
We want to be like it's 1853.
Please elect us hopefully.
- timalways wrote this. 

"Governor Hutchinson has no business telling women in Arkansas where they can and cannot go for cancer screenings, birth control, HIV tests and other care," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

 In August, Hutchinson said the state would cut off contracts with Planned Parenthood because its values did not represent those of the people of Arkansas.

The Arkansas contracts involved services including nurse practitioners, pharmacy and family planning and were delivered through the Arkansas Medicaid program. No state funds were used for abortions, except in the case of incest, rape or when the life of the mother was at stake.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, and Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Editing by Sandra Maler)

If I wanted a legislator in my womb, I would fuck a Republican Governor. Best way to fuck Asa Hutchinson? VOTE! 

You can get the TShirt HERE and wear it in his face. I make no money at all from sales. 

Kim Davis? Spit Spot.

Happy Belated Birthday, Charlie Parker - Bede's Beat

Editor's Note: Bede was lost and now he's found. Huzzah!

It's a musical cliche to say that Charlie Parker changed the way we listen to music forever. It is also true.

In honor of his birthday, August 29, Bede's Beat presents a comparative listening set comprised of three of Parker's recordings of the same song -- Ray Noble's Cherokee -- which vividly illustrates the impact which Parker had upon the way we hear music and understand rhythm and harmonics today.

from 1941 with The Jay McShann Orchestra, the big band that first brought Parker to national attention:

from 1943, an home-recorded take on Cherokee -- This is bop at its birth:

from the famous Massey Hall Concert in Toronto in 1953, along with Dizzy Gillispie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach:

As a final point of comparison, here is the original recording of Cherokee by the composer's own band, The Ray Noble Orchestra, from 1938

SIGN OF THE MONTH - September 1, 2015

Works for me. Republicans have the rape and breeder slavery of women in their party platform. Republicans have contempt for women.

Trump: “Excuse me, you DROPPED to your knees?”
Brande: “Yes."
Trump: "It must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees."

"Rand Paul in Kentucky...wants the government to intervene if a woman gets pregnant because of rape or incest...to force a woman or a girl in that situation to give birth to the rapist's baby or to their relative's baby, no matter what she or the girl or woman's doctor wants."

Last week, Paul Ryan gave an interview in which, defending his position that there should be no excuses for abortion, he referred to rape as a "method of conception."

DUMP TRUMP the Fecal Lump - #RegisterOnlinePA

Thanks to @GovernorTomWolf, registering to vote in PA is now as easy as clicking this! #RegisterOnlinePA

VOTE! Get the Republicans out of the Pennsylvania State House. Help Tom Wolf pass a real budget. 

Art by Hanksy in New York City. 

Feel the Bern!

Magnificent Bernie has magnificent friends. Vote! Vote in every election from dogcatcher to POTUS. Your life and the life of your country is in your hands. Vote!

Wisconsin Walker Gets Cheesed - Sign of the Month - August 2015

Scott Walker came to Philly. What can I say? We have our own unique style of political dissent - Urban Uncouth. You pick the sign you like the best. I am laughing too hard to choose.

Who is the big guy on the left with the big head and the big gun? Given the sentiment in the tweet below the picture, maybe he is Scott Walker's security? This is the best election ever.

Ethan Booker‏@Ethan_Booker

Scott Walker cut in line at Geno's to order a cheesesteak with American cheese and no onions. He's not getting out of Philly alive.

VISITORS - Do not go to Geno's or Pat's for cheesesteak. Only tourists go there. Go to Jim's Steaks on South Street. And if you want to try something new, go to Tony Luke's for the roast pork and escarole sandwich. So good.

Go Obama! It's your birthday. Go Obama!

This great portrait comes from this interesting "conservative" Blog. I think it is meant to ridicule Obama. I just love it. 

MOLON LABE - Asshats on Parade

GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is in favor of using federal troops and the FBI to stop women from having abortions.

"I will not pretend there is nothing we can do to stop this," Huckabee said Thursday at a campaign stop in Jefferson, Iowa.

Women who remember the bad old days before safe legal medical contraception and abortion are still alive and we vote, Hucksterbee.

Those were deadly days for women. My Mother and my Sister had illegal abortions. Hucksterbee would send federal troops to do what to my Mother and Sister? Incarcerate them? Enslave them? Just slut shame them? What, you asswipe?

You think real men who love and respect women will allow anyone to do such to their Mothers, Sisters, Wives and Daughters?

Art by Favianna Rodriguez.

Monkey Business

This is worth watching. Never underestimate the humanity of animals. Or vice versa.

Bernie is going to be POTUS and this is the reason. - OMG GOP WTF?

You do not even have to listen to the words. Just watch the faces. Watch Greenspan sneer. Watch the legislative assistant laugh. Watch Greenspan's weasel words when he is made to confront his abject failure.

Oh Mr. Greenspan, what a surprise it is that people steal. Who woulda thunk it? Anybody with common sense would have known people steal. My Dad would have been better than you at handling the economy.

Get it that Republicans are still peddling 'trickle down' economics and 'deregulation.' Republicans are still bankrupting states. Bernie told them off in 2003. Go, Bernie, go!

Art Deco and More at the New York Public Library

I found the New York Public Library Digital Collections. What a great resource for everyone. 

"The site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more."

The images come from the Collections for Designers - Ornament and Pattern: Pre Victorian to Art Deco. 

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Art & Architecture Collection, The New York Public Library. "1. Foliage; 2. Foliage; 3. Flowers and foliage" The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

The material in the collections is a treasure chest of graphic and abstract design. I spent a long time just poking about and I have not exhausted the resource yet.

The provenance of the abstract Tulips.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Art & Architecture Collection, The New York Public Library. "[Multicolor tulip shapes; on purple field.]" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1930.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Art & Architecture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Cretonne imprimée." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1926. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-ae3e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

SCOTUS COMES OUT FOR MARRIAGE!

I always cry tears of joy at weddings. Clears and purifies the heart and the sinuses. Go Hillary!

Richard and Mildred Loving 1967

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival... - Chief Justice Earl Warren

I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry... I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about. - Mildred Loving

Brock Davis Plays with His Food.

My favorite part of catering was creating beautiful tablescapes with flowers, drapery and artistic whimsey. I loved making the food look beautiful on the plate. That work has given me an appreciation of Food Art wherever I find it, on the canvas or on the plate.

You want to go to Brock Davis website, if only to see the Banana Peel Trucker Hat.  

OMG GOP WTF? - And what rough beast, its hour come round at last...

George P. Bush looks like Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush had a baby, because they knew neither one of them would win the election, but their offspring might. Badda Bing. 



Hat tip to Yeats. 

The Gay Banditos Prevent Abortion

Hat tip to Lewis Black.

Art from the WPA

The Library of Congress possesses a treasure trove of the finest examples of American graphic art ever silk screened and printed.

I selected a few of the posters created by WPA artists for your enjoyment. Then as now, the government is not shy about giving us good advice. You can see more of these incredible posters HERE:












You can purchase prints of many of these posters. There is more than one Zoo poster. You want to see them all. I had a hard time selecting which one to use here.



The Federal Art Project (FAP) was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Works Progress Administration Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created posters, murals and paintings. Some works still stand among the most-significant pieces of public art in the country. - Wikipedia





Did you know that Philadelphia once had a municipal acquarium?