Dirty Blues Sunday #5 - Irene Scruggs

Dirty Blues deals with topics that are considered taboo in proper society. Such music was banned from radio and only available on a jukebox in the blind pigs and juke joints of our nation. It was dancing music. Saturday night at the juke joint music.

Irene Scruggs (born December 7, 1901 – died probably July 20, 1981 in Germany) was an American Piedmont blues and country blues singer.

Using the pseudonym Chocolate Brown she recorded tracks with Blind Blake. To avoid contractual problems she was also billed as Dixie Nolan. By the early 1930s, Little Brother Montgomery took over as her accompanist on recordings and in touring.

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises. Good Grinding · Little Brother Montgomery with Irene Scruggs

The Magic Tampon - MAGIC GOOGLE FINGER

I am amazed and know not what to say. - Hermia, Wm. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 3 Scene 2

I wrote about the Tampon Fairy and the Magical Tampon Toss and then I saw Melissa Harris Perry wearing tampon earrings.

I thought 'Tampon Arts and Crafts." So I did the magic google thing. I am still laughing.

Tale of Tampon Fairy, the Golden Knight, and the Magical Tampon Rite

I am repeating this story in solidarity with Sisters in Arizona prisons who cannot get tampons at all or more than 12 pads per month. They get fined for bleeding on their uniforms. I say GENERAL STRIKE. Nobody wear pads or tampons. Bleed the fuck all over the mofo's prison. We are as tough as British women, right? 

Once upon a time . . . 
Guns are okay but the tampons must go! 

State troopers are confiscating tampons, maxi pads and other potential projectiles from those who are entering the Texas capitol to watch the debate and vote on a controversial anti-abortion bill. Guns, however, which are typically permitted in the state capitol, are still being allowed. Several people tweeted that troopers were taking the objects before allowing entrance into the gallery:

Stand with Texas Women. 

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God bless prochoice men. Bless them just standing there in their socks with a sign.

And now for the Magical Tampon Rite.

Dirty Blues Sunday #4 - Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith earned the title of “Empress of the Blues” by virtue of her forceful vocal delivery. She often sang without a microphone and her voice could fill the largest hall. Bessie Smith danced, acted and performed comedy routines with her touring company. She was the highest-paid Black performer of her day.

Bessie Smith, aka Elizabeth Smith, was born April 15 1898?, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She died September 26, 1937, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, from injuries sustained in a road accident. It was said that, had she been white, she would have received earlier medical treatment, thus saving her life, and Edward Albee made this the subject of his play The Death of Bessie Smith (1960).

Empty Bed Blues is the song I think of when I hear her name. Bessie Smith did not scorn the Dirty Blues. These songs were standards in every blind pig and juke joint in the South and North.

Bessie Smith sang with most Jazz and Blues musicians of the era. Bessie Smith with Orchestra (Louis Armstrong -- cornet, Fred Longshaw, harmonium) -- St. Louis Blues, Parlophone ca 1935 (British re-edition of the US Columbia, MX 140241 from 1925)

Bessie Smith's only film appearance 1929. This is the complete film co-starring Jimmy Mordecai as her gigolo boyfriend. This film fell into the public domain in 1958 due to lack of copyright renewal.