Black Music Month: Daily Songs for June 2023

If we are going to be strictly technical, I have been working on reading for Black Music Month for about a year. I am almost done, but I am finishing up one book and some movies.

I nonetheless just posted the last of the songs.

Toward the end of Queen Sugar, Nova was talking to a class about music, and mentioned Blues artist  John Lee Hooker tracing the path of modern music from the ring shout, a tradition that had just played a role in an earlier episode.

I started envisioning a month where I started with a ring shout and then had other milestones in music. I thought about things like Sister Rosetta Tharpe's influence on rock, and Robert Johnson pulling that boogie-woogie line from piano and playing it on the guitar. I thought about Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald and scat, and DJ Kool Herc and Gil Scott Herron. I had just read an article about Lara Downes and Florence Price, and I was remembering other things like "Rocket 88" and the use of distortion.

I thought there were some pretty cool things to include, though I was worried about whether I would have enough for 31 days. Two things changed my course.

First, I wanted to know more about John Lee Hooker and what he had said about the ring shout.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/110q3b5/john_lee_hooker_and_his_origin_of_the_blues_flow/

He made a flow chart. It was a little more complicated than I was expecting, and not quite as linear. Also, it focused on the blues, but it's not like the blues didn't influence rock or other genres. 

It felt like coming up with good example songs was going to be a lot harder.

Then, in trying to understand the ring shout better, I found a book, The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History From Africa to the United States, by Samuel A. Floyd Jr.

Well, that book mentioned everything I was now wondering about, and more, but it also reminded me how much I don't know. I will need to take another crack at it, after I have read more history and more about music. Maybe in about three years.

The month I originally envisioned could still happen at one point. This time, it was just trying, and often feeling like it wasn't good enough, but that trying mattered to me.

I did let myself skip the days I was away from home without any guilt. 

I am going to do more notation on this song list than I ever have before. If they are not all accurate, I tried.

6/1 “Plantation Dance Ring Shout” by Georgia Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters
(This is a ring shout, and I loved it.)
6/2 “Doin' The Shout” by John Lee Hooker
(I just liked the reference here, and getting in John Lee Hooker early.)
6/3 “Stars and Stripes Forever”
(march)
6/4 “The Entertainer”
(ragtime)
6/5 “When the Saints Go Marchin' In” by Rebirth Brass Band
(New Orleans brass band)
6/6 “Tiger Rag” by The Original Dixieland Jazz (“Jass”) Band
(New Orleans jazz)
6/7 “Bourbon Street Parade” by Louie Armstrong and the Dukes of Dixieland
(Dixieland)
~ San Diego ~
6/11 “Jesus Lover Of My Soul” by Isaiah D. Thomas
(hymn)
6/12 “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” by B.B. King
(spiritual)
6/13 “You Are Not Alone” by Mavis Staples
(gospel)
6/14 “Throw Me Anywhere Lord” by Georgia Sea Island Singers
(this was an attempt to get a ring shout plus a "cry")
6/15 “Raggy Levy” by Jake Xerxes Fussell
(work song)
6/16 “East St. Louis Blues” by William Brown
(early blues)
6/17 “Down Hearted Blues” by Bessie Smith
(the blues)
6/18 “I'm a Man” by Bo Diddley
(mainstream)
6/19 “The Virgina Reel” by The Bucket Band
(reels and jigs)
6/20 “Dipper Mouth Blues” by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
(vaudeville)
6/21 “Yellow Rose of Texas” by Lane Brody and Johnny Lee
(coon shout)
6/22 “The Crave” by Jelly Roll Morton
(minstrel)
6/23 “Can the Circle Be Unbroken” by The Carter Family
(hillbilly)
6/24 “Waiting for a Train” by Jimmie Rodgers
(hillbilly)

At this point, I thought I was done, though I see I missed dance games and jug band. That's embarrassing. Regardless, perhaps my earlier ideas influenced my choices, but the next connections made sense.

So I went from a hillbilly train to a gospel train, by someone who had a big influence on rock. 

There had been a section in the book on "chariots" turning into cars in songs, and I kept remembering Dizzy Gillespie performing “Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac” on The Muppet Show (though that wasn't the version I used).

Then, with the two different ring shouts, even though I thought it was more "gospel" I started remembering the end of Alvin Ailey's Revelations, and that's why I used a (different) version of "Move Members Move".

There was also quite a bit in Floyd's writing about the often sexual nature of the music, which correlated with African musical traditions. Because of that, I knew I was going to end with Hooker again, and specifically with "Boom Boom",

However, in the time I was reading this, there were two other books. One was The Wrecking Crew by Kent Hartman. While it was not specific to Black music history, it introduced me to "What'd I Say", which clearly fit, and hey, there's some call-and-response.

The book I am still reading is Black Diamond Queens by Maureen Mahon, and Big Mama Thornton had a musical influence, while herself being influenced by the blues tradition. It all fits!

6/25 “This Train” by Rosetta Tharpe
6/26 “Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac” by Dizzy Gillespie
6/27 “Ball and Chain” by Big Mama Thornton
6/28 “Move Members Move” by Rosie Hibler and Family
6/29 “What'd I Say” by Ray Charles
6/30 “Boom Boom” by John Lee Hooker

There is one other thing. While things like minstrel shows and coon shouts did happen and were part of the musical evolution, I did not know if I could find anything I could bear to post that would fit that description. I at least had to look. 

Jelly Roll Morton played in minstrel shows. It was actually fairly common for a lot of musicians of color at the time, often darkening their own faces. That was not the end of his career, and I could live with using one of his songs.

Searching on "coon shouts", there was a hit on "The Yaller Rose of Texas". Okay, I remembered a song where that was "Yellow". I had it in a piano songbook with a lot of different songs. 

I also remember a series of fashion dolls named after songs, including a "Yellow Rose of Texas" doll. She was fair-skinned and blonde, with a yellow dress and hat and a red rose accent. ("Lady of Spain" was dressed in red with black lace.)

So a song that originated with "black face" performers about a "darkie" going to see the mixed-race woman he loved was literally whitewashed, becoming one of the top 100 country songs of all time and the theme for a soap opera starring Cybill Shepherd and David Soul. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Rose_of_Texas_(song)

That is surprisingly not surprising.

Episode 2555: A new hope

If anyone is wondering how many published posts there are on this blog, there you go.

I have written before about common dream themes I have. The most common have been dreams where I just can't progress.

One way that happens is that there will be things like upside down staircases or blocked passageways. Sometimes, I will work a way around that, and then the passage will get longer or new obstacles arise, which then kind of bleeds into the other type of dream, the ever-expanding task.

I first started having this dream when I was working at McDonald's. As it would be time for me to wake up in the morning -- and I was not ready to wake up -- I would dream that there was a line of cars in the drive-through. I had to serve them all before I could get up, but the line wasn't getting any shorter.

Later this would change to a line of customers at K-Mart or Burlington Coat Factory. Because of how it would happen I always associated it with being too tired and needing more REM sleep. As it has become just things to do, not quite so tied to customer service, I associate it more with just feeling like I am never done. Tiredness remains an issue, but it no longer seems to be as much about keeping me asleep.

Regardless, I don't know if this constitutes a psychological breakthrough, but the other night I was dreaming about going through paperwork, sorting out what could be recycled and what needed to be kept...

AND I MADE PROGRESS!!!

It's not exactly that I got done, but I could see things becoming more organized and there were no new piles appearing.

I still have a ridiculous amount of projects going on, but it is not unreasonable that I might feel like some progress has been made, and that I am actually getting somewhere.

How amazing is that?

I haven't dreamed of my teeth falling out for a while either, or being naked, so I guess I am doing pretty well.

Kaepernick

It turns out I did not finish that thing I thought would be finished. I will write more about that eventually.

While I like grouping similar posts together, I have about 166 books, movies, and plays in the spreadsheet that I can write about; there is no shortage of topics.

You may be thinking, 166 seems kind of specific to use with "about". You are not wrong. There are some things that I did not put in the spreadsheet. I did not think I would want to write about them, or that they would fit my usual categories. Sometimes I am wrong.

In fact, I did not even review I Color Myself Different by Colin Kaepernick, illustrated by Eric Wilkerson, back when I read it.

One of the issues I run into with children's books is that I don't always feel like I have anything useful to say about them. I know some are great, or like different things about them. I find some not great at all, but still something that children might like. Is it worth reviewing some of those where I am more indifferent?

I Color Myself Different is based on a real event in young Colin's life when his class was drawing family pictures, and he used a different color crayon for his skin versus the rest of his family. Then the teacher is really affirming with him and with all of the other students, everyone is unique, the end. I mean, it is affirming but also pretty easy, and I didn't want to make a point of just saying, "It's fine."

With some of my more recent writing about children's books, it has reminded me that there is a need for lots of "fine" books, and I have also been more aware of how more kids might need that affirmation.

(Plus, people will literally go and put one star reviews for his books because he is himself, clearly without ever reading the books. "Fine" may actually have some value.)

On the other hand, I was extremely moved by the graphic novel, Colin Kaepernick: Change the Game. 

It was illustrated by Orlando Caiceido and written with Eve Ewing, whom I love. 

I was always going to want to read it, but it got my attention because of articles about the book and how Kaepernick was accusing his parents of racism.

I was pretty sure that was being interpreted more harshly than he intended, and probably more harshly than his parents received it, but I was curious.

I did know Kaepernick was adopted and raised by a white family. 

I did not know that he could easily have played pro baseball, or that he was raised in Turlock. Turlock was in my mission. I was never assigned there, but I have been there, and some things made a lot of sense.

It covers a time of Kaepernick needing to find his own path while in high school. He is being recruited more for baseball than football, and getting a lot of encouragement in that direction, but it isn't really what he wants.

There are not a lot of students of color at the school, but that is his friend group, and you can see that they need each other.

As he speaks out against casual racism and catches flak, you can see the seeds for his later path, and understand the need to make the choices that he did.

Along the way, his parents are baffled by his desire to grow his hair longer, and get it braided, and irritated with some of his social choices, like taking a Black girl to a dance instead of a nice white girl. They don't say it in those words, but you know in the background there is a sense of frustration with their son acting all Black.

I am sure they didn't even think it in those words, though the admonition to not act like a thug comes up.

Teenagers have a long history of frustrating their parents, even when everyone looks alike. However, when we don't talk about or examine the racism, we are more likely to fall in line with it.

That may hurt people you care about personally, but it does worse damage than that.

So really, both books are important. I liked one a lot better than the other -- the children's book is probably only for children -- but they are both important.

And I added a review.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58563479-i-color-myself-different

7 (or so) calls to get to know my life

Friday was intense. 

The exact number of phone calls was not seven, but some could be combined. That number just kind of goes with the recent theme.

The day started with my cell phone completely dead. I don't think there had been any warnings, except that I occasionally had trouble with my multi-factor authentication, which is the main thing I use the phone for. I use it for my work network, and one web tool. Sometimes I was not getting codes texted for the tool, but it is a tool that acts up a lot, so I was not blaming the phone.

Maybe that was a sign. 

I discovered its death as I was trying to log in to the work network. This started the first sequence of calls, trying to find a workaround for logging in. There were two calls with tech support, and then three calls getting authentication set up on the landline, but I was mostly able to work, a couple of times having coworkers look things up in the tool, because I did not have time to reset that.

Okay, it was Friday, so as long as I could make it through the day, I would have the weekend to try and replace the phone. I just needed to make it through to 5:30 PM. 

At about 4:50, the landline rang. 

We always worry when the phone rings that it might be something with Mom. Usually it's a survey or political ad or sales call that we are not interested in, but this time it was actually about our mother, who had been sluggish all day; did we want them to send her to the hospital?

I was working, and in fact on a call that required looking up and figuring out many things. One sister was fielding that call, but I am generally the one who deals with issues like this. 

I really wanted medical advice. 

Wrapping up my call, I was going to try and get a hold of our mother's primary care provider. I had her number stored in my phone. Rats.

I was able to find the number and get the call in just at 5:01 PM, when they switched to the answering service. I was not feeling very hopeful. While I carefully confirmed all of the information for the service, the landline rang again. It was Mom's provider.

I started to get some clarity here. She'd had a video visit with Mom earlier, and had left instructions for the facility, which included not transporting unless the family wished it. I think around shift change someone decided they should ask if the family wished it. That may not have been clear, because I was not on that call.

The provider had sent me e-mail asking if we could talk, but of course I had not read it because technically I was still working. Even then I had not finished logging the work call.

There was terrible guilt about dereliction of duty, but also, it's my mother; there is always guilt there.

Mom is in the POLST registry. Part of her expressed wishes are no resuscitation. I agree with that. I am glad we went through it when she could still understand the decisions and think clearly about them. What this really brought home is that there a lot of things that are short of resuscitation and may or may not be good ideas.

For example, one possibility was that a small infection was going into sepsis. That sounds horrible, but if that is a part of the body shutting down, that would probably be something to allow.

We decided to wait until Saturday to see how Mom was. They were also going to contact the hospice team to see about checking in, just in case. They were going to call me.

In fact, during this phone call, the other line was ringing in. That was not the hospice team, though; that was still the facility, wanting to know if they should transport. I gave that call back to Julie, and ran back to my desk.

There were still fifteen minutes left on my shift. I finished logging the one call, checked some other things, but was also paying attention to the conversation I could hear out there. 

About 5:29, the phone rang again. This was from hospice. Fortunately, the clock finally flipped over, and I was able to take that call with only parental guilt, no work guilt!

That was also the official start of the weekend. Unless things were dire, they would probably not be able to make it until Monday. I didn't know if it was dire, but we had decided to wait and see. I would call them after checking, and message the primary, and there was nothing else to do that night.

No, there was. I had to tell the other sister. The one who doesn't live with us. That was another phone call.

We have had some pretty busy weekends recently, and I had been looking forward to not having much to do for this one. A lot of errands had built up in spite of that: the phone issue, my new glasses were ready, we had not shopped, but also, I really needed to see Mom.

We were going to go Sunday anyway, but this was just a day earlier, to see.

She was fine. She was talking to a friend. She'd had her breakfast. I took an INR reading, and that is still all over the place. As I left I wished I'd thought to get her temperature, because she had a slight fever the previous day. Regardless, there was no sign that on the previous day she had been sluggish and weak and not wanting to swallow anything.

Inability to swallow is one of the last things that happens in the full progression of Alzheimer's. That made the phone calls more alarming, but this wasn't it.

There was one more round of phone calls, messages, and entering test results. We have groceries again, and I don't have to take off my glasses to read now. 

I have a working phone again. It's the same number, but I need to replace my contacts. At some point I need to set the network authentication back to text, but it hasn't happened yet.

Friday was more stressful than usual, but those biggest stressors -- work (and perfectionism), Mom (and a sense of helplessness), and trying so hard to be responsible -- that's kind of how it always goes, just intensified.

That may explain the chronic tiredness. Probably.

More diverse children's books

Having just finished with Andrea Davis Pinkney's work, and being not quite finished with a different section of children's books (which I will probably write about next Friday), this seemed like a good time to clear out other books that I have been reading over the time period where I could not blog.

I have written before about the value of diverse books and authors, so there are probably no surprises in me seeking them out. However, having read more than usual in a shorter time period, I did want to take a moment to go over potential quality issues.

Some of them are much better than others.

I don't worry about that too much. 

I saw once that you should read 1000 books to your child before kindergarten. There is room for many different books in there, and it is good that there will be variety.

If I were starting now, I imagine that I would start with a small library of board books, and I would keep checking out more books from the library. As I discovered ones that my child responded to more, or that I thought should be repeated, I would purchase those, but I would keep going through lots of different books.

Here are some options:

We Are the Change: Words of Inspiration From Civil Rights Leaders

Various children's books authors and illustrators have selected quotes that inspire them, and created a nice collection for older children.

Goodnight Racism by Ibram X. Kendi, illustrated by Cbabi Bayoc and Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky 

Goodnight Racism is going to work better as a bedtime book, and can be a good way of introducing some issues early and gently. Antiracist Baby is probably more for the parents.

My Fade Is Fresh by Shauntay Grant, illustrated by Kitt Thomas

A celebration of different styles, but also acknowledging that sometimes you just want simple, and can be really happy with that.

Love In The Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, illustrated by Yas Imamura

Based on a true story, I am not sure that young children will relate, but it does give a gentle introduction to internment. Also, there is nothing wrong with adults reading picture books.

The Most Beautiful Thing by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Khoa Le

Really gorgeous and heartfelt. While this is specifically about a family of Hmong refugees, it should be relatable for other families with fewer financial resources.

Robert's Snow by Grace Lin

A very cute Christmas story with wonder, adventure, and a cozy ending.

Once Upon A Book by Grace Lin, illustrated by Kate Messner

Having loved Lin's artwork for Robert's Snow, it is interesting to see her working with someone else. In this case the books is more ambitious, but even though it is about getting absorbed in books, I did not find it as spellbinding.

Ramen for Everyone by Patricia Tanumihardja, illustrated by Shiho Pate

Good lessons on the joy of cooking, learning from mistakes, and individual tastes. There is even a recipe included.

Kookum's Red Shoes by Peter Eyvndson, illustrated by Sheldon Dawson

One of the best written, in terms of carrying a theme and making it resonate, but also one of the most heartbreaking. There is still goodness that comes out of the heartbreak, because of compassion.

7* Television shows to get to know me

I have written about a lot of these before. There are at least seven posts about Queen Sugar, and a whole slew about Jeopardy! from back when my episode aired and when they were having different hosts. So, if some of this seems familiar, well, these shows really are important to me.

The Electric Company (1971-1977)

I did watch Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Sesame Street, and I appreciate them, but they (especially Mr. Rogers) moved a little slow. The approach of this shortest-lived one worked best for me. We had rock-like music with The Short Circuit, Spiderman, and a guy whose name and personality were both "Crank"... this was the show for me. I can't even tell you how many of the songs I can still sing.

The Muppet Show (1976 -1981)

Even though Jim Henson was more associated with Sesame Street, I could imagine him working well with The Electric Company, and a lot of my reaction to The Muppet Show is the same. One big difference is that at the time I had no idea how many of the songs were from Broadway musicals. It is again a source of vivid memories, and it holds up. If The Electric Company was teaching me phonics, maybe the Muppets were getting me ready for pop culture.

The A-Team (1983-1987)

In retrospect, they stretched plausibility pretty hard on this one, but it was still so fun. That was one of the worst things about the movie (which had a lot to choose from for "worst"); they drained all of the elements of fun away from Hannibal, who loved what he was doing, especially when a plan came together. 

I guess the best thing about the movie is that finally there was something worse than Season 5. 

I also must note, Dirk Benedict was even more charming as Face than as Starbuck.

Jeopardy! (1984 - present)

I started watching a lot of shows that I lost track of in between the start of me working and the invention of DVRs, but this is a show that I actually discovered at work, in the break room at K-Mart, 1989. That started my desire to be on the show, which it only took 22 years to realize. (I did miss many episodes before DVRs.) I miss Alex, and I really wish Mayim Bialik would never, ever host, but I still love the show.

Once Upon A Time (2011-2018)

Two fairy tale shows started around the same time, and I watched both of them. One of them took a turn to where I was almost hate-watching it at the end, and was relieved that it did end. The other took some interesting approaches, but I ultimately kept liking it, and liking that it believed in redemption, and in supporting each other. Enemies could be transformed. Some people hated that about it, but it worked for me.

Queen Sugar (2016-2022)

This show will always hold a special place in my heart.

At the start it was that there was grief and parental loss at the right time, and attempts to protect and take care of things (and avoid having any weaknesses) in some very different characters. That is still important, but as they went through and dealt with different issues -- again, treating each person as important -- it really spoke to my heart.

Emergency! (1972-1979)/ CHiPs (1977-1983)/ Barney Miller (1975-1982)*

This is where the "7" is questionable, but these kind of go together.

Most of those meaningful shows are things that I watched when they were originally airing. With these, well, I saw at least some episodes back then, but it has been rediscovering them decades later that has been a lot of fun. I thought about only mentioning Emergency!, because I have some feelings about copaganda now; my affection for old cop shows is a little embarrassing. Regardless, I have really enjoyed watching these shows years later. I have seen every episode of each of them. Only a few are really terrible.

I will have more to write about Barney Miller soon.

More children's books about Black people

As important a contribution as the Pinkneys make, they are not the only authors and illustrators working on it.

Here are some other recommendations:

For younger readers:

Some of these may work better for your 8-10 year olds than your 5 year olds, but these two should be fine for any ages.

I Am John Lewis by Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos

Of course John Lewis has four graphic novels out, plus one Pinkney book about a young boy he inspired, but this book is probably the easiest introduction, and then they will be glad to find more options.

Bunheads Misty Copeland and Setor Fiadzigbey

This is not just by Misty Copeland, but about her, so can be of special interest to children who love dance.

Speaking of the arts...

Focused on the arts

Exquisite: The Life and Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade and Cozbi A. Cabrera

Feed Your Mind: A Story of August Wilson by Jenn Bryant 

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song by Gary Golio and Charlotte Riley-Webb 

All three of these artists have some pretty mature content, but children who are interested in poetry or plays or musical performance can be inspired by other figures learning to express themselves, and the ways they developed their craft.

Other historical figures

Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshall by Vanda Micheaux Nelson and R. Gregory Christie

Because Claudette by Tracey Baptiste and Tonya Engel

Two very different people, but both real. Especially in the case of Reeves, reading can challenge the tendency to view history through a white lens.

Harriet Tubman: The Biography from University Press

This is not a picture books, so it is for early chapter readers, but it has a good overview of Tubman's many accomplishments.

For a broader view

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson

This book is one illustrated poem celebrating Black Americans through slavery and segregation. The powerful book won a Caldecott medal, a Newberry honor, and a Coretta Scott King award.

7 Movies to get to know me

Continuing with media that has been important to me -- specifically movies -- there is only one place to start:

Star Wars (1977)

I cannot even begin to explain how much it meant to me as an impressionable five-year old.

It may well have been the first movie I saw in a theater, because we didn't go often, and when we did it was the drive-in. The only movie I am really sure that I had seen before this was a showing of Disney's Robin Hood at my church.

But I remember desperately wanting to see Star Wars, and hardly being able to wait, and how exciting it was that they showed it at school two times, so that I saw the movie three times!

Plus, I was madly in love with Han Solo.

I loved that movie. If I would have been perfectly happy with it as a standalone movie, I can live with most of the additions.

Ball of Fire (1941)

Getting cable was huge for me, and not only for MTV, but also for classic movies on the Disney Channel, and I loved this one. Speaking of fairy tales, this was an updated Snow White story, with the seven dwarfs being seven professors working on an encyclopedia, and one of them was Gary Cooper. It is so light and fun when you consider that the plot kicks off with the arrest of a gangster with the victim of a mob hit in his trunk.

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Despite my romantic nature, I don't like a lot of romantic comedies, because they often prolong the plot by making people jerks, which I don't really love. This one I adore.

End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones (2003)

I liked the Ramones early on, and not long before this came out I realized I loved them, and The Clash, and yet, I didn't think I really was a punk, and had some mixed feelings about that. This film was great in a lot of ways, but one thing it really helped with is reconciling my aversion for the Sex Pistols with my love for punk. I no longer felt a conflict.

(Of course, that all worked out as everyone started dying, but nothing's perfect.)

Pane e tulipani (2000)

I remember requesting this for me, and then my family watched it while I was doing their taxes. A few days later I got to watch it, and I just loved it. So many Italian films are really sad. They are often sad in beautiful ways -- I love Il postino -- but not everything has to reflect despair! But you need your necessities like your bread, and then your beauties like your tulips. Also, it hadn't been too long since I had been in Venice, so there were good memories with it.

Coco (2017)

This movie sure broke me. It destroyed me in the movie theater, and a week later when I saw a different movie and congratulated myself for not falling apart, it triggered a flashback and I was crying over Coco again. 

At the time, I was caring for my mother full-time, and Grandma Coco slipping away cut close to the bone, and still does. However, I love that connection. There is a bit at the end where a you get a family portrait but the dead and the living are together, and I believe in that. Someday Coco will hurt me less, and it will still be a good movie.

Shall We Dansu? (1996)

I love dance movies, though some have been really disappointing, especially since about 2006 on. As easily as I could put Dirty Dancing (1987) or Strictly Ballroom (1992) here, I am going with this one. It is so sweet and charming, and kind towards its people; even the private investigator's assistant is worthy of care. That is the thing that matters most to me now.

Spotlight on Andrea Davis Pinkney

Three times now I have focused on different illustrators, reading as many of their books as possible. 

Generally I have found a wide variety of material, with some that I like much better than others, but it reminds me that a job is a job, even for creative types.

This is the first time I have done it for a writer, and to some extent I have found the same thing.

I came to Andrea Davis Pinkney via two of those illustrators.

I had read one of her books already, because it was illustrated by Sean Qualls in 2019 and 20. Then, when I was going through the works of Ezra Jack Keats, I discovered a book about The Snowy Day by Pinkney. Reading more about her, I saw there were multiple collaborations with her husband, a lot of history which is of personal interest to her (and me), and a lot of Black pride, but also some things that were probably corporate assignments.

One thing I learned is that reading someone's entire oeuvre is practically impossible. Even with an excellent library system and inter-library loan, you will see references to work that just can't be found. Over the fifteen months I was working on this, her Goodreads listings kept changing. 

For example, one work that suddenly disappeared was an untitled Frederick Douglass biography. It disappeared just after I had read Dear Mr. President: Abraham Lincoln Letters From A Slave Girl, which had supplementary historical information. It occurred to me that it had probably been something like that, a feature in a book rather than a book in itself.

That was part of a series, like the two She Persisted titles and Peace Warriors. Also disappearing were several Cheetah Girls titles and a book by Ossie Davis, Just Like Martin, that I can only assume she edited. (Still there is a specific edition of Misty of Chincoteague, which I have read, but not the one she worked on.)

Those were things that I found interesting about the process, though the important thing is really the books. For that, I found the range interesting.

I have not previously read many board books, but I can see the value of repeating those positive messages while a child is young, and letting them see something other than white faces in books, so they are growing up seeing themselves. Representation matters.

Then you see that continuing, with stories of lives in different eras, and different levels of fame, and facing different situations. There is a lot of variety, and that makes sense for books released over thirty years.

I was initially surprised by the length of some of the books. In between the picture books and the chapter books, there are some that are more like historical reference. One of these ended up being my favorite, Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound.

My least favorite ended up being Teen Business Blasts Off!, a profile of several contenders in a contest for teen entrepreneurs. I suspect that was the most corporate, and yet I can imagine teens who would find it very valuable, and inspiring. Even more, if taking those jobs means that not only are you working regularly, but that you regularly get to collaborate on projects that are very meaningful to you, that has its own worth.

It is also easy to get a strong sense of family and community. In author's notes, Pinkney often refers to her parents and extended family, and one can also imagine some of the inspiration being driven by her children, especially on the work that collaborates with her husband.

Right now I am wrapping up something else with children's literature, but after I will see how many of the works of Brian Pinkney I can find. After all, I have a head start now, already have read about a third of his listed books.

Then I think I will move on to Brian's father, Caldecott Medal winner Jerry Pinkney, and Jerry's wife, Gloria Jean Pinkney, because it seems to be an interesting and talented family. And then, I will probably also be reading some more Patricia C McKissack, based on some collaborations with Brian.

Works by Andrea Davis Pinkney (with Brian Pinkney unless otherwise specified)

Board Books

(Bright Brown Baby)
Count to Love (2021)
Bright Brown Baby (2022)
Peek-a-You (2022)
Hello, Beautiful You (2022)
Baby Boy You Are A Star (2023)

(Family Celebration)
Shake, Shake, Shake (1997)
I Smell Honey (1997)
Watch Me Dance (1997)
Pretty Brown Face (1997)

Picture Books

Seven Candles For Kwanzaa (1993)
Mim's Christmas Jam (2001)
Fishing Day (2003)
Sleeping Cutie (2004)
Peggony-Po a Whale of a Tale (2006)
Our Special Sweet Potato Pie (2007, with Cathy Ann Johnson)

Picture Books about Black History

Alvin Ailey (1993)
Dear Benjamin Banneker (1994)
Bill Picket: Rodeo Ridin' Cowboy (1996)
Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and his Orchestra (1998)
Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuoso (2002)
Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation (2008)
Meet the Obamas: America's First Family (2009, not illustrated, lots of photos)
Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride (2009)
Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down (2010)
Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song (2011)
Because of You, John Lewis: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship (2022, with Keith Henry Brown)

Longer History Books

Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters (2000, with Steven Alcorn)
Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America (2012)
Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound (2015, not illustrated, lots of photos)
Peace Warriors (Biography Profile Series #6) (2016, not illustrated)
A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of The Snowy Day (2016, with Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson)
Martin Rising: Requiem for a King (2018)
She Persisted: Harriet Tubman (2021, with Gillian Flint)
She Persisted: Ella Fitzgerald (2023, with Gillian Flint)

Short Chapter Books

Hold Fast to Dreams (1995, not illustrated)
Solo Girl (1997, with Nneka Bennett)
Raven in a Dove House (1998, not illustrated)
Silent Thunder (1999)
Dear Mr. President: Abraham Lincoln Letters From A Slave Girl (2001)
Teen Business Blasts Off! (2010, not illustrated, lots of photos)
With the Might of Angels: The Diary of Dawnie Mae Johnson, Hadley, Virginia, 1954 (2011, not illustrated)
Bird in a Box (2011, with Sean Qualls)
The Red Pencil (2014, with Shane Evans)
Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It (2020)

Anthologies

Be Careful What You Wish For: Ten Stories About Wishes (2007)
The Creativity Project: An Awesometastic Story Collection (2018)

A different kind of break: 7 books to know me

In terms of topics that I am interested in, I am seeing so much ignorance and malfeasance that I am having a hard time stringing thoughts together. I can get a sentence here and there, but paragraphs may be asking too much.

To some extent, I do question the value of this blog, and what my audience is and if I am saying anything that is valuable to anyone that will read it. Previously, it felt like enough that I was getting my own thoughts straight, but I am questioning that now.

Maybe I am not getting my own thoughts straight.

Anyway, back on World Book Day (March 3rd) I responded to a thread for introducing yourself in seven books. I responded to that, but I have seen other, similar threads asking for seven movies or shows or albums.

(I have written about albums before, but it was ten: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2020/05/ten-albums-that-influenced-me-and-how.html) 

Anyway, for the next few weeks, this is just going to be about getting to know me through pieces of media that are important to me.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol is my favorite book. Yes, I enjoy holidays, but I feel most passionately about its message of caring for others as what we most need to do.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down by Ralph Abernathy
I loved Abernathy's voice, and I valued the perspective that came with his telling years later, and with all the grief that comes with reading about King, it was good to read someone who got to live and age, even if that came with disappointments. Also, reading it was so vivid for me that at night I dreamed about marching. That's how deeply it got to me.

A House of My Own by Sandra Cisneros
I was already very fond of Cisneros here, so the insight that came with this was precious, and it gives me other authors to read, but the biggest things was some of what she wrote about death.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I feel a little bad that this list does not have Jane Austen or L.M. Montgomery (and Anne Bronte is really good), but if we take all of those novels, this is probably my favorite of that set, and it was the first of them that I read, which probably plays a role.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri
This is my comfort reading. I read it when I was about Heidi's age, and sometimes just going back and reading about the mountain or the kittens or the goats is what I need. Similar feelings for Jane of Lantern Hill, though I found that much later. Cozy housekeeping I guess.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Getting bitten was an early phobia of mine, so vampires came in bad dreams (then emotional vampires as I got older), but I get the appeal. Also, the way the book is written and the way the action moves... I love it. Wilkie Collins has a similar vibe.

Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway
I read so much more nonfiction now, but I am reading for information and may not fall in love the same way. This is beautifully written with a beautiful concept of balance and healing, and yet is also pretty practical. My favorite permaculture book.

I would also like to give an honorable mention to The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama.
This was read in a book club and it had been a while since I had read any fiction. It felt like a vacation. I do read a lot more non-fiction now, but sometimes it is just good to read a story.

Children's books for hard times

In August I just happened to come across multiple children's books that were really about processing grief. I was very touched by them. I had thought about writing about them, but it did not come up previously. 

I recently read one more, but it fills a different niche.

The truth is, the three from August are almost too sad, except there are lessons there that might be needed. 

In the Shadow of an Elephant by Georgie Donaghey

First a young elephant loses its parents and herd, and father and son humans come to take care of it. Eventually the human father dies, but the elephant is there for the human, as the human was for the elephant. 

Thursday by Ann Bonwill

Thursday was her favorite day, and then it became the day when her parents told her they were getting divorced, not only ruining Thursday, but upending her life and changing the things that had made Thursdays good.

For children who have not even had to consider those possibilities, those books may be more than they need. Because of that, The Shadow Elephant by Nadine Robert may be the most helpful.

We don't know why the elephant is so sad, though we do learn what is upsetting the mouse. Regardless, we see the value of empathy and compassion and how helping someone else can help us too.

While Everything Will Be Okay by Anna Dewdney is not anywhere near as devastating, the simple rhymes about things going wrong but not staying terrible may be more to the point. It provides a pattern for building resilience.

But then, when there is death or divorce, those other books can be really needed.

There need to be lots of different kinds of books available. There need to be books about different topics and treated in different ways, showing different characters, and aimed at different audiences.

I am going through a lot of different books for young readers now, some of which I will be writing about soon, and some of which will happen a little later, but I feel pretty comfortable saying this now:

Children do not need to be protected from books. 

The people who pretend that is a need are a much worse danger.

News you might be able to use

This week I learned of someone's car being stolen from the a dealer's lot after having been dropped off for service. 

(I do not know the victim, but I know the victim's roommate.) 

It is common practice for there to be a drop box for keys so you don't have to drop the car off during service hours. Not having your car is inconvenient, and that is a way of making things more convenient.

This drop box was emptied of all of the keys overnight.

This is apparently a new thing: drop boxes are being emptied or raided or removed, and lots of cars are being taken this way.

This does of course lead to an even greater inconvenience, which can be exacerbated by risks of home robbery if you left your garage door opener in the car, or identity theft if you left your registration.

We were appalled and upset on behalf of one person that got their car stolen, but the conversation with the police made it sound like a trend. They also made it sound like because it is property crime that the city (Beaverton) would probably not be pursuing it, but that Washington County might.

The reason I am writing about it is because then there was this comment in the conversation, "And you don't hear anything about it on the news."

That seems like good information to have. If nothing else, businesses should be notified and maybe post signs advising that people shouldn't drop their keys off, or so they secure the drop boxes better, or hire night security.

It could make a good news story for consumer protection: don't leave your registration in the glove box! Don't leave your garage door opener in the car. Maybe don't leave the door between your garage and your house unlocked. Maybe -- no matter how inconvenient it is -- find a way to drop off your car during business hours.

I have not watched much local news for a while, so I was not sure if it wasn't being mentioned. 

Searches weren't too encouraging. There was nothing on that method.

The top results were a story about a car thief who found a child in the back seat, so came back and lectured the mother. Seriously, it's like that's the only car theft story that anyone cares about.

I did also find a story through KGW about Portland mayor Ted Wheeler creating a task force, and the cops were going to work with cancer doctors at OHSU to understand tracking. (Frankly, I am not sure that knowledge will correspond, but okay.) I also did find some articles about dealer thefts, but those were all about forcing locks. There was one about key thefts, but that was about the keys for the cars for sale being stolen, and not the cars. (That sounds more like a really annoying, expensive prank.)

Now, there is always the possibility that the issue was misrepresented by the police, in terms of how common it is, or how likely to be pursued; they will tend to spin things in a way that facilitates budget increases.

That is all the more reason that you need a press that questions and reports. It does not feel like we have one.

I had been thinking about that more for national issues, but your backyard matters too.

Anyway, if you are getting your car worked on, careful with that drop off.

May Daily Songs: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

I usually wait to post about the songs until after I have played them all, but I don't know that it's really necessary. It may very well feel weird enough that I never do it again, but I thought I'd at least try it.

Therefore, there are only dates by the songs already posted. There are 31 total, taking us through the end of May. I currently have no intentions of changing the order, though there is not any special pattern to the order. Well, I did start with James Iha because he is probably the most famous of these Asian-Americans, by which I mean United States residents of Asian descent.

That was one change this year. Previously I have not paid a lot of attention to country of origin. That means I did not use anyone based in Japan or Korea (last year I did) and I even left out those Asian-Canadians that I had really liked last year.

I also did not use any Pacific Islanders from islands that are not US, so no New Zealand bands.

There are a lot of ways of viewing how to organize these heritage months. They can all have merits in different ways, so it can be good to change it up from year to year.

But yes, it means I am sorting people based on race and country of origin.

Another thing I did differently this year was focusing on individuals rather than bands. That left open the possibility of using Smashing Pumpkins and Linkin Park. As it is, James Iha and Mike Shinoda both have a fair amount of solo work.

It also means I have a Jonas brother in here -- which makes me cringe a little -- but DNCE is not included for him; it's for JinJoo Lee.

There continue to be recurring favorites, but I think my favorite new discovery is Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. Having some previous familiarity, I am starting to really enjoy Kishi Bashi. 

I also wish I had known about Only Won's "12 Days of Dim Sum" for Non-White Christmas.

I don't know what I will do for December this year, but I enjoy seeing how things develop.

UPDATE: I am never doing this again. 

I did a check and noticed that I had "Dreaming Awake" by Low Leaf listed twice. That must have meant I counted wrong and needed another song! Who got left out? Okay, I will use that Mountain Brothers song. Problem solved? Nope.

I think the extra listing of Low Leaf was when I was rearranging some songs, but had not affected the number. I thought I had counted again and only gotten 30, so that adding an extra song was appropriate. Since I moved Mountain Brothers in to fill the Low Leaf duplicate, that means that the list goes into June, or that I am removing one. Listening to the remaining songs, I am taking out "Faded" by Zhu. I am okay with that, but I wish I had not posted until the month was over.

Minor, but still annoying.

Daily Songs:

5/1 “Beauty” by James Iha
5/2 “Rush” by Ravenna
5/3 “Are We There Yet” by DUMBFOUNDED
5/4 “Ordinary Pleasure” by Toro y Moi
5/5 “Tenderness” by Jay Som
5/6 “When We Swam” by Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
5/7 “Sutures” by The Slants
5/8 “Rest Before We Go To War” by Ogikubo Station
5/9 “Cake By The Ocean” by DNCE
5/10 “Carry On Phenomenon” by Kishi Bashi
5/11 “Ray” by Clones of the Queen
5/12 “Magic” by The Linda Lindas
5/13 “Hummingbird” by Run River North
5/14 “Kawika” by Jake Shimabukuro
5/15 “50 Thousand Deep” by Blue Scholars
5/16 “Ready” by MILCK
5/17 “Passionfruit” by Yaeji
5/18 “Dreaming Awake” by Low Leaf
5/19 “Always Need You” by Melissa Polinar
5/20“Galaxies: The Next Level” by Mountain Brothers
5/21 “Strings” by Asobi Seksu
5/22 “Shivers” by Katherine Ho
5/23 “Kitty Party” by Awaaz Do
5/24 “Nobody” by Mitski
5/25 “Boyish” by Japanese Breakfast
5/26 “A Thousand Cuts” by Ruby Ibarra
5/27 “Butterfly” by UMI
5/28 “Promises I Can't Keep” by Mike Shinoda
5/29 “Hard Glance” by Bodysync
5/30 “Turn This World Around” by Only Won & Larissa Lam
5/31 “No Turning Back” by CHOPS

Don't Forget to Vote!

I know, I thought I was done.

I keep seeing reminders about the election, though, even though my ballot was turned in two weeks ago.

I guess it is also a reminder that we are connected to each other, and need to care about each other and be aware of each other.

It sounds so simple and obvious, and yet there is evidence that it isn't.

Don't let the fascists win.

Movies: The Woman King and Till

I am not putting these two movies in opposition to each other. I will do some comparison on the roles they fill.

I mentioned last week that I was delaying this post because I wanted to watch one more movie first. If anyone was wondering, that was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The Dahomey Agojie had some influence on the Dora Milaje, and I didn't want to watch the movie and find all of these meaningful connections that would have made sense to mention.

That was not really an issue. I also finished The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with its own Dora Milaje cameo. For all three movies and the series, what I thought of most of was grief. That is never too far from my surface. I might write more about that later, but for now I am going to finish being mad at "The Actor".

One thing all three movies share is that they would be good for the actor to see. His inability to imagine a Black woman dressing elegantly and speaking with sophistication may indicate he has not watched enough films that were centered on anything other than white men.

The majority of the films that would have been available for his viewing -- especially as it pertains to his Oscar voting -- would center on white men. Some of his comments indicate an aversion to watching anything that doesn't center him, but I think that is a big part of how he became an ass. It's worth addressing.

The Woman King barely has any white men in it, even for villains. In Till there are friend groups and family and even a whole little town that are all Black. That is real life; Till is based on a true story, while The Woman King has a historical background, even if the story lines for the main characters are fictional. It is good to see that there is more to life than our own experience. It makes for a terribly small world if you won't.

Having watched them, I can see justification for at least nominating Gina Prince-Bythewood for Best Director, regardless of whether she would have won or not. (Honestly, I think having twice as many Best Picture nominees as Best Director nominees makes for some weird mixes.)

The case for a Best Picture nomination would be exciting action with clear cinematography, where everything could be tracked and comprehended. That includes some things that could have easily been too gratuitous if they were shot differently. One aspect of that -- which I only know from seeing a blurb -- is they did not really have a stunt pool at the filming location. Part of the preparation for the film included finding and training a stunt crew (which comprises most of the cast) from scratch. That is an accomplishment. Meanwhile, for as much sense as it makes to focus on the action, the film never loses its place emotionally.

I know there can be many arguments made for many movies, but there is a tendency to default toward the established white guys, and the 2023 nominations showed that. The overwhelming success of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once can belie that, but no, there hasn't really been that much done to counteract #OscarsSoWhite.

Of the two, The Woman King is a more enjoyable movie than Till, feeling more rousing and appealing to some unlikely audiences.

Till is probably more needed.

That's not a contest; we can see more than one movie per year. There are ways in which The Woman King is more fun, and everyone with any advance knowledge of Till can foresee that there will be emotional pain in the viewing. I want to take some time to make the case for Till.

Maybe the biggest argument is that Carolynn Bryant just died on April 25th. When I posted about "The Actor", she may not have been buried yet. This is our history, and fairly recent history at that. There are real people depicted in that movie that are still alive.

There is good directing here too. The cinematography is beautiful, and there is a mix of the subtle and the not. For example, Emmitt Till had a slight stutter. There is a scene where you can kind of hear it; it's not distracting, no one makes a big deal out of it, but you know.

When his mother first sees the body, there is no holding back. She had fainted earlier, learning that his body was found. As they arrive to view the body, a wheelchair is on hand, just in case. It is needed, not because she is unconscious, but because her wailing and sobbing is overpowering.

As uncomfortable as her grief is, that is our past, and there are too many examples that also make it our present.

Add Jordan Neely to that list.

Maybe what we most need to hear is something said by Mamie Till-Mobley at the end.

"One month ago I had a nice life in Chicago. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South, I said, 'That's their business; not mine.' Now I know what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all."

We need to know to not be complacent just because it isn't us this time.

I remember when the movie first came out, a white woman approached a Black woman telling her that she had to see this movie. The Black woman tweeted about seeing those pictures in Ebony, with them being regularly re-published. 

I think the other woman's motive was showing herself to be a good ally: "I saw that Black film! I got it!"

It's good that she saw it, because we are the ones that need to see it. And maybe it goes down easier hearing a Black woman warn against the complacency. There's a lot of room for improvement.

Till is a movie that can remind us. 

It does hurt.

Spotting school board fascists

My sister recently saw a Facebook post about how you can recognize the more fascist candidates by how many signs they have. For that, the clear winner is Jeff Myer, running for Beaverton School District.

We laughed, but there is an element of truth. The original comment was about being more likely to get corporate sponsorship. That is true, but also, volunteer efforts are more coordinated on that side. They often have a sense of mission against those live-and-let-live heathens, and know they are surrounded by wickedness, so they work hard at it.

When you actually do believe in living and letting live, it is easy to think that the rest of the world is that way. Well, maybe a lot are, but they often get apathetic about school boards and things like that. If you really want people to be able to live well, apathy won't do it.

As it is, having read about Jeff Myers', I see those signs (all over!) and get irritated. Someone who hasn't read might think, Well, a lot of people like him; he's probably pretty good. Then, if they do vote, and they see the other candidate's name is Justice Rajee, all of that might render a subconscious influence when what we really need is consciousness.

There are a few other commonalities that I think are worth pointing out.

Transparency

That is the current key word that the fascists keep throwing around. The repeated use helps give the impression that we have been lied to, and they will fix that. The most obvious contradiction is when they keep saying "You can check the site," because so much information is up there. That belies a transparency issue.

The other problem with that -- which may require a little more digging -- is that when you do check on the candidates' statements, there are some pretty clear lies shrouded in vagueness. I spent some time checking claims for candidate Bart Rask at https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2023/05/do-they-know-or-care-that-they-are-lying.html. 

Vague lies are the opposite of transparency.

One friend suggested "transparency" was a replacement for "all kids", remembering that last time around there was more of a focus on the danger of CRT to the self-esteem of white kids. 

It may be instructive that after Newberg voted in several fascists, an unvaccinated teacher showed up to school in blackface as a "Rosa Parks" style stand against the way she was marginalized by not being vaccinated. She spoke about "all kids" being marginalized in some way. (Though you could argue that the white kids texting about a slave auction, speculating on bids for their classmates of color, and calling for another Holocaust were not acting like they felt marginalized.)

I did see comments worrying about the self-esteem of white kids, but what we saw was that was not really a problem. Students learning about a racist past did not make them feel evil, but increased their awareness of the past and present.

This year the focus seems to be more on what a poor state the schools are in, having missed two years of learning. 

I think most people will know that their children have not missed two years worth of school as we enter into the fourth year of the pandemic. However, the candidates have two goals here.

One is their belief that any attempts to prevent contagion are a wasted effort, which goes along with their general conservative bent (even though that is not exactly how conservatism used to operate, and one reason why I use "fascist" so much).

The other reason that is important is that calling it "2 years of learning loss" is that it does not give credit for the efforts that were made and the learning that was accomplished. It is an insult to the work of the staff and the students, but fascists need to put others down; no one else has any good points. (We will explore this more later.)

You will also see many references to involving parents. That sounds good, except they don't mean that there should be information online and meetings and volunteer opportunities; that already exists. 

They mean that parents have to explicitly say "yes" to sex education. This would make sense if the schools were truly teaching 10-years olds sexual positions, which they are not. The majority of what they are teaching is how to set boundaries and recognize and seek help for abuse, and how to respect other people. I don't deny the importance of knowing how to navigate puberty, but those other parts are essentially anti-fascist, so that's what they really hate.

The most blatant lies are about the comprehensive sex education, and that's not a coincidence.

They make their platform sound good, but you don't have to look that hard to see the problems. You do need to look at least a little.

Public schools are so important, and so many of the people campaigning for the fascists are not even sending their children their, opting for home schooling or the Heritage Academy. They care, but in ways that are ultimately destructive.

So we need to care for good.

Related:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/05/school-board-elections-dont-let.html

April Daily Songs: Top Songs 1991 - 1994

I know I said I was going to write more about the movie from last week today, but I realized there is one more movie I have been meaning to watch that could be relevant. I will watch it this weekend, and the movie post will go up next week. 

For now, some music.

After going through each year of the 80s, I started thinking about the 90s.

Decade transitions don't happen neatly on the zeroes anyway -- that is part of why I included both 1980 and 1990 in that round -- but I thought that at least for the first few years, I would like to explore.

My not particularly scientific method has been typing "top songs" paired with whatever year I am working on, and then listening to any I don't recognize, as well as noting the ones I like. Part of what makes it less scientific is that there is usually at least one song listed twice, and sometimes different songs pop in and out on different searches, but you do get an overview.

I'm not saying there weren't any 80s songs that I didn't recognize, but the number spiked as we got further into the 90s.

That was partly expected. I had mainly gotten my music knowledge from music videos, not listening to the radio much. I would have been watching less as I went off to college anyway, followed by not watching at all during my mission, but there was another change happening with the 1992 introduction of The Real World. 

Advertisers did not love the unpredictability of music channel programming. Sure, people tune in a lot, but might easily channel surf if they catch a video they don't like, or that has been overplayed. There were attempts to resolve this with programming blocks like Club MTV, Yo! MTV Raps and Pop-Up Video, but just being able to sit and watch videos was going away. 

After my mission, I ended up pretty disconnected from contemporary music. I would sometimes find bands I liked through other people, but even then I was often wrong about where they fit into the timeline. New to me did not mean new to everyone else.

For 1991, most titles were familiar. For a few that weren't, once I listened to them, the memory came back.

Some of my selections for 1992 are songs I remember hearing around Fresno, but that was later. Their popularity transcended years (especially "Jump" and "Rump Shaker").

I was not listening to contemporary music (except for those streets) from February 1993 to August 1994, so you would think that 1993 songs would have been less familiar.

I recognized nine 1994 titles and only liked four of them. Some that I listened to did sound familiar later, and some were not terrible, but it was mainly not fun. It was also the first year where I needed to repeat a band for that year. (That was Green Day, as is only right.)

Part of what helped me fill out 1994 was two covers of older songs for movie soundtracks. That was Wet Wet Wet covering The Troggs' "Love Is All Around" for Four Weddings and a Funeral and General Public covering The Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There" for Threesome. I did not know those covers existed, but I haven't seen either of those movies.

And Elton John and Kiki Dee did a version of Cole Porter's "True Love" in 1993; who knew?

In retrospect, I missed a lot of 1993, but I also remember writing home and asking my family to please grab two songs for me because I realized I would want to hear them again. They got me Snap's "Rhythm Is A Dancer", but they could not find me Culture Beat's "Mr. Vain" because I got the name wrong. If I'd seen a video for it, I could have read it off. 

(It took me years to find that one.)

The best find was Digable Planets, charting in 1993 with “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”. 

The weirdest discovery was "Stay" by Shakespears Sister. That was from 1992, so I don't know how I missed it.

Most irritating was Tim McGraw charting twice in 1994 with hopelessly saccharine "Don't Take the Girl" and offensively racist appropriation on "Indian Outlaw"; that's what's crossing over?!?

The runner-up for most irritating was Lisa Loeb. That Geico commercial really nailed her, but at least it is shorter than the song.

I should probably listen to more Toad the Wet Sprocket (having previously only known "All I Want") and Meat Puppets.

1991

3/22 “The Motown Song” by Rod Stewart with The Temptations
3/23 “Real Real Real” by Jesus Jones
3/24 “Romantic” by Karyn White
3/25 “Rush Rush” by Paula Abdul
3/26 “Every Heartbeat” by Amy Grant
3/27 “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss” by PM Dawn
3/28 “I've Been Thinking About You” by Londonbeat
3/29 “Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)” by Roxette
3/30 “Now That We Found Love” by Heavy D
3/31 “I'll Be There” by Escape Club

1992

4/1 “Jump” by Kriss Kross
4/2 “Tennessee” by Arrested Development
4/3 “Rhythm Is A Dancer” by Snap
4/4 “Jump Around” by House of Pain
4/5 “Rump Shaker” by Wreckx-n-Effect
4/6 “Just Another Day” by Jon Secada
4/7 “Friday I'm In Love” by The Cure
4/8 “Please Don't Go” by KWS
4/9 “Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough” by Patty Smyth feat. Don Henley
4/10 “Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg” by TLC

1993

4/11 “What Is Love” by Haddaway
4/12 “I Don't Wanna Fight” by Tina Turner
4/13 “Insane In The Brain” by Cypress Hill
4/14 “If I Had No Loot” by Tony! Toni! Toné!
4/15 “Boom! Shake the Room” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
4/16 “Linger” by The Cranberries
4/17 “Regret” by New Order
4/18 “Mr. Vain” by Culture Beat
4/19 “Whoomp! (There it is)” by Tag Team
4/20 “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” by Digable Planets

1994

4/21 “When I Come Around” by Green Day
4/22 “Another Night” by Real McCoy
4/23 “I'll Stand By You” The Pretenders
4/24 “I'll Take You There” by General Public
4/25 “Love Is All Around” by Wet Wet Wet
4/26 “Fall Down” by Toad the Wet Sprocket
4/27 “Sour Times” by Portishead
4/28 “Backwater” by Meat Puppets
4/29 “No Excuses” by Alice in Chains
4/30 “Basket Case” by Green Day

School Board Elections: Don't let the fascists win!

My Sunday blog and this blog seem to be colliding more lately. Sunday I posted about being caught off guard by school board elections.

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2023/04/maintaining-hope-and-motivation-in-dark.html

Last time they were happening, I wrote ten posts on this blog and at least two on the other. I was alarmed to find strong organizing efforts in multiple (I think 27) Oregon school districts. They were running candidates who were against COVID mitigation efforts (this was in 2021, before there was even a vaccine). They were also strongly against any teaching of Critical Race Theory, meaning -- of course -- not the legal field of thought but any social or historical teaching acknowledging that there has been racism and that it is wrong.

Also, they were against supporting queer kids, before "Don't say 'gay'" was a thing.

(Although they do not self-identify as fascists yet, I will use that term for convenience.)

They're back.

They don't seem quite as strong as last time, which is nice, but they can still do a lot of damage.

I am most familiar with Beaverton and Hillsboro school districts. Between the two, only one of seven candidates won, fortunately. Newberg did a lot worse. Shortly after the election, they had several racist incidents (including a teacher showing up to school in blackface to protest vaccine requirements) and responded by banning the Pride and Black Lives Matter flags.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/newberg-oregon-school-district-sinks-to-new-low-after-blackface-mock-slave-trade-scandals

There are residents commiserating on a message board over there about voting them out this time. Good, but keeping them out in the first place is better.

I appreciate that the Hillsboro fascists have a web site that makes identifying their candidates easy:

https://communitiesforsensibleschools.org/  

Since their candidates are Terri Kam, Shawnna Arns, and Bart Rask, then the candidates who are least likely to create an environment hostile to poor students, students of color, and queer students (plus teachers, scientists, and non-Trump voters) are See Eun Kim, Ivetta Pantoja, and Patrick Maguire.

I hate doing it that way -- voting against candidates more than for them -- but when you have candidates passing off hate as morality and transparency, there is good reason for it.

It is also inspiring some excellent candidates. As many people as there are who seem like they don't know or care, others are responding and volunteering and organizing.

For Beaverton School District I am excited to support Justice Rajee for Zone 6.

The difference does not seem as extreme for the Zone 3 candidates (I ended up choosing Maham Ahmed) and Zone 7 is uncontested. 

That is part of what I mean about the fascists not seeming quite so strong this time. 

With the other Zone 6 candidate, the difference is very clear, but I think I want to address that Sunday (preparedspork.blogspot.com). That will focus on spotting the fascists.

For now, I want to address one other thing that I find interesting but am not sure what it implies.

I had heard third-hand that the water board was getting politicized. I am not sure that is true. 

Both Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue District and Tualatin Valley Water District have some atypical candidates running alongside the more conventional candidates. Yes, that does mean brown men running alongside white men, but it is not merely that. It is that you have an electrical engineer running against a someone who has been a paramedic and volunteer and on the budget committee for the fire district in that race.

I tried comparing other races, like Banks Fire District. Even with at least one candidate who does not seem to have any relevant experience, there is nothing really striking. The position for the Forest Grove Rural Fire District seems to be uncontested.

It makes me wonder what is going on in Tualatin Valley?

Those four candidates do seem to have ties to Intel and to the refugee community. They mention concerns about diversity and poverty, which I like. 

However, the similarity spread out over different positions in unconnected races does not seem likely to be a coincidence. I don't mind that, but I would like to know more about what is happening. If someone is organizing, that can be fine, but who is behind it, and what are the larger goals?

Please tell me it's not Scott Presler. He seems to be focusing on voter registration now, but there are always more.

I hope for more clarity on that to come. For now there is plenty of clarity on schools, and I implore you to actively vote against fascism. Study the candidates. Talk to your friends. Vote.

What happens in our schools is vitally important. What happens on the national stage matters, but it's not all that matters.

Election day is May 16th, and ballots and voter guides are already out.

www.washcovotes.org

The "Actor": Dissecting his words

You may already be aware of Entertainment Weekly interviewing four anonymous Oscar voters: an actor, a director, a marketing specialist, and a costume designer.

https://ew.com/awards/oscars/2023-oscars-secret-ballot-academy-awards-voters-share-juicy-picks/

I know I am not the only one who was frustrated with the actor, but the other written pieces I have seen seem to be more that it happened, without analyzing why.

Here is my take.

I will note starting out that because the interviews are edited -- which makes sense -- there may be wrong impressions, but comparing all four interviewees the actor seems to be the most freely critical, often with longer quotes but still no substance.

He also uses "wokeness" unironically, which is its own strong indicator.

Where he spoke most out of turn was regarding three snubs: Gina Prince-Bythewood and Viola Davis for The Woman King (Best Director and Best Actress, respectively) and Danielle Deadwyler for Till (Best Actress). 

(You may notice a common thread.)

I will not fault the actor for mentioning them, because those were big topics of conversation beyond the interview; it would have been weird not to mention them. However, sometimes you can know things, or you can not know things but be aware that you don't know.

I want to stress that the impression this man gives is one of incredible ego, and very critical of others already. (And he's an actor!) However, the largest amount of disrespect was shown to Black women. That is completely predictable based on everything known about misogynoir and intersectionality... but he does not know.

Here is the convenient thing about privilege: he misses glaringly obvious things, and still thinks he is smart. Privilege lets you think you are better than you are, which, frankly, tends to curb efforts and result in mediocrity.

The Actor on Deadwyler:

She was good. I mean, who wouldn't be good in a part like that? The strong, wronged mother. But you look at the real Mamie Till, she's not wearing all of these incredible gowns and beautifully made-up. I thought it was a confusing message. If they'd really [made a movie about] that woman, who was not used to being in the public eye and wore house dresses, she [wouldn't have] had one incredible outfit after another. The ego behind this pushing her to be a movie star was too blatant for me.

He seems to be under the impression that Mamie Till-Mobley was a housewife, or perhaps a maid. She was working in an office. Not only was it common at the time for professional women to be dressed up, but that was a common strategy of those working for civil rights (though that was about to get much more visible).  

They cover that in the movie, and why the NAACP thought she would be a great asset, so that shouldn't be too shocking, unless he did not watch the movie. I mean, he sounds like he watched it, but he admits to not seeing The Woman King.

I have a funny feeling he didn't see Selma.

The Actor on Davis:

It's like, come on. I think Viola Davis is talented, I didn't see Woman King, but I'm a little tired of Viola Davis and her snotty crying. I'm over all of that. 

I admit I haven't seen everything Viola Davis has done, but I don't think she does it that much. It gets attention, because it is giving up staying "pretty", which has historically been expected of actresses, but which is not how real crying looks. I guess my real issue with it is that I wonder if he has ever actually seen her cry or he heard a reference to it once and that is the impression that he kept.

He got even worse about her:

"When they get in trouble for not giving Viola Davis an award, it's like, no, sweetheart, you didn't deserve it. We voted, and we voted for the five we thought were best," he finishes. "It's not fair for you to start suddenly beating a frying pan and say [they're] ignoring Black people. They're really not, they're making an effort. Maybe there was a time 10 years ago when they were, but they have, of all the high-profile things, been in the forefront of wanting to be inclusive.

It would still be condescending without the "sweetheart", but that does make it more condescending.

Certainly, there hasn't been that much effort toward equity to be that tired of the effort yet, but also, I am not sure that she got that mad.

I admit, I do not follow show business that much, so I could have missed it, but there apparently was an Instagram post that is really pretty tame, and largely a show of solidarity with Gina Prince-Bythewood:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CoYTBIzPXUc/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=28917d42-581c-4d3d-a35d-e681cb9177fd

Where does "banging a frying pan" come from? Are you just interpreting a Black woman not going out of her way to show how okay she is with everything as "angry"? Are there any stereotypes you are not going to embrace?

As it was, finishing that quote is probably his low point:

Viola Davis and the lady director need to sit down, shut up, and relax. 

It is not even necessary to know her name or to have seen the movie to dismiss her.

Dude, I don't really know that you are white (I have my suspicions),  but I do know that you are an ass. You have been coddled too much by your privilege, and you believe your own hype.

I wish you a better understanding. That will probably only come the hard way. I am at peace with this.

I would like to give the movies some individual attention, so next time!

What are you doing?

The last post ended with a question: what are we going to do?

As I have been thinking over some of these topics, I have been thinking that "What are you doing?" is a reasonable question. It's an important question to ask yourself, and it's a reasonable question to ask me.

My hope is that as I answer the question for myself, it may help others in their own planning.

I really don't feel like I do much. I don't do any organizing. The last time I marched was 2017, but not that one. 

I don't do much in the way of volunteering.

I do try and keep up with direct giving. It is not that I am against 501(c)(3) charities; I have a regular payroll deduction to one to take advantage of employer matching. However, I also know that with organized charities there can be a lot of bureaucratic delays and attempts to weed out the undeserving that limit the ability to help. 

When I was trying to get my mother onto Medicaid and myself out of foreclosure, it seemed like every application that I went through needed to be completed three times due to poor instructions or pages being lost after being sent or something. It was an inordinate amount of stress and labor from someone already on the edge. If sometimes someone just says they need money and I send them some through Paypal, that seems better.

While I do periodically give to new or different people, I am also aware that I tend to keep giving to the same people over and over again, mainly because of health problems that incur repeated costs. Because of that, I am keenly aware that what I do is of limited usefulness. Having a better health care system and a more equitable economy would be vastly superior, but what is in my power is $40 via Paypal.

I had calculated how much I thought I could reasonably give, but I keep giving more as more needs pop up. It has become somewhat of an exercise in faith for me. When I got my tax refund, I was feeling good because I would have more to give and still be ahead, but still more needs popped up. After paying my bills I had $10.10 to last for a week, but it did last. 

I am not exactly recommending this, but it feels like my path and I rely on intuition a lot.

Otherwise, I am constantly reading and studying, trying to be better informed. I share that knowledge freely, through the blog and conversations. I am not sure if I really influence anyone beyond my sisters, but there is an influence there.

I have trained for other things. I became a Master Food Preserver about 23 years ago, and spent time teaching canning classes and answering questions at farmers' markets. About 15 years ago I trained for Community Emergency Response, and was ready to be called on, though it never happened.

I try and be aware of others and considerate of them.

I wear the mask. It is true that does more to protect others from me than me from others, which is frustrating, but if for no other reason than to signal to other immune-compromised people that I care about their safety and ability to participate in society, I will keep wearing it.

I used to do more. There were times when I had more money and could be more generous, and there were times when I had more energy. I used to see more people needing encouragement and respond to that more frequently. There are probably people I am missing now, and I hope other people are spotting them.

I used to do a lot of work on making dolls for a local children's hospital, but that program has gone away.

I mention those things because circumstances change, and continue to do so. I have been through three bad unemployment/underemployment times, and two periods of bad burnout. Even as some resources were depleted, others were recovered.

As much as caring for my mother depleted me emotionally and financially, there have been strains from the Trump presidency and the pandemic that have worn down many of us; that is not just me.

With so many people burned out, we are all going to have to be kind to each other and look out for each other. A lot of the best people do not have much to give right now, but don't count yourself out.

My resources are limited, but what I do is consistent with my values. That is important to me.

What I do will also not harm my cause. Even if I cannot help as much as I want, I do not harm. That is important to me.

(Refer back to Dunking.)

Can I do more? Can I do differently? That is something that is worth asking regularly. 

I am starting to think maybe I should try doing some sort of letter writing. Would it be effective? Worth the effort? Do I even have the capacity for that effort? Or would that require dropping something else?

It's worth asking.