From the Desk of…
I don’t know if anything that happened was as important this week as the Grammys.
That’s not something I expected to ever say.
You had a delightful performance from Tracy Chapman with Luke Combs doing “Fast Car,” which I have a lot of thoughts about but most of them are better said in this New York Times piece.
That’s also a rare sentence at best.
You can watch the performance here.
But then, my stars, Joni Mitchell. Joni Mitchell, who anyone who knows me knows I love Joni, Joni Mitchell coming out and doing “Both Sides, Now” like that. Just thinking back on it has me tearing up. Naturally, I can’t find a clean recording of it yet, but this will have to do.
Anyway, on to the actually important happenings in the world. You know, the wars on and such.
In a positive update from last week, the union at Kaleidoscope Youth Center has been voluntarily recognized. Hooray for workers! This is how it should go more often, I think.
In tech news, Twitter alternative Bluesky is now open for everyone! It’s not without its problems, but it’s not owned by any apartheid profiteers… that I know of. I’m there, FYI. Speaking of Elon, here’s the story of how one plucky shareholder and thrash metal drummer cost him $56 billion.
You know, pro- is the opposite of con-, so what’s the opposite of progress? Despite the many, many rightward compromises that the Democratic Party has made on immigration, the Republican Party, hellbent on incompetence and malfunction, has instead decided to reverse course on the issue, and also to fail to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary, and also lost a standalone Israel aid package they put forth. You know, I may be a simple country fella, but I reckon these folks ain’t particularly interested in things like “bipartisanship” and “compromise.” Maybe that’s something that Democratic Party leaders and elected representatives should keep in mind. It was A.R. Moxon who put it thusly:
Meet me in the middle, says the unjust man.
You take a step toward him. He takes a step back.
Meet me in the middle, says the unjust man.
Makes you think! By the way, presidents aren’t above the law.
In local news, the big Intel project has been delayed due to “market challenges and the slow rollout of U.S. government grant money.” Fingers crossed that’s what’s really happening. We all remember Foxconn in Wisconsin, right?
BREAKING NEWS: ROVING GANGS OF ARMED DRUG DEALERS OPERATE WITH IMPUNITY IN ANDY GINTHER’S COLUMBUS! Two known members of the Columbus Division of Police, also known as the CPD, also known as the CDP, also known as The Baseball Furies, have been arrested for, get this, stealing cocaine and giving it to their teams of pushermen throughout the city. Which reminds me… did we ever get an update to all those people who got shot in the Short North last summer? (No) Maybe one place to start would be holding these gangbangers to account for their violence against the people of our fair city. Unlikely to happen as long as Mayor Ginther is there to lick the soles of the FOP’s boots!
Speaking of accountability, and pivoting to a more serious tack here, locals may remember when Casey Goodson was murdered in 2020. The trial against Jason Meade, then a deputy in the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and working with the U.S. Marshals, is underway, and it has come to light that Casey “was holding a bag of sandwiches in one hand and his keys in the other at the time he was shot.” We knew that locally, but it’s good to have in the record. Meade, charged with two counts of murder and reckless homicide, shot Goodson in the back five times. As the Sheriff’s Office did not have body cameras, there exists no footage. I have yet to find any evidence that corroborates the claim that Goodson was turning around, let alone anything that corroborates the claim that he was pointing a gun at Officer Jason Meade. To me, this is open and shut; however, I’m aware of how the United States justice system works. Stay tuned: I’m sure we’ll all find out the rationales for mistrials and not guilty verdicts soon enough.
The Brain Dump
putting a gun to my head and shouting PERSONA but then it's a real gun and i just die
i would be so incredibly mad if i thought i got away with murder and then columbo was like "just one more thing"
they should invent a train that goes from columbus to cleveland
one thing that would be really funny is if king charles
i respect AC/DC because they have never tried to change or evolve as artists after reaching success. they invented what AC/DC songs sound like and then just have done that for fifty years. good for them. no one is clamoring for the AC/DC nu metal or baroque pop album.
Maybe it’s a sign of brain health that there’s slim pickings at the dump. Maybe it’s a sign of my being too busy to post. Impossible to know.
At the Movies
Okay. At least I saw a movie made this century at the theaters this time.
Groundhog Day (1993), dir. Harold Ramis ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ❤️
the patrician's Scrooged
Not without problems, but not every romcom starts making me dwell on the futility of self-serving hedonism in contrast to the joys of self-improvement and using those improvements to benefit one's community. It's a movie about attaining self-actualization and using that attainment to aid other souls in their journeys.
And also about stealing a groundhog and driving a truck into a gravel pit to explode it to death.
It's easily one of those movies where it feels like the plot should've been done well beforehand, not unlike It's a Wonderful Life, but it really has become the pop cultural shorthand for any time loop story, and that's a testament to its quality.
they should've done a Caddyshack and had the groundhog dance to Kenny Loggins, that would be funny I think
Boyz n the Hood (1991), dir. John Singleton ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ❤️
man. man
Fruitvale Station (2013), dir. Ryan Coogler ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
devastating
Sometimes, you don’t need a lot of words to review a movie.
One Picture
Hey, remember this? This was eight years ago.
In closing,
Each and every day, people are out here struggling. That’s probably why the Grammys resonated with me so much this week. Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell, their performances weren’t simple entertainment; they were powerful expressions of resilience and reflection and hope. Their words carry the weight of struggle and the burden of understanding. Songs such as these can armor our spirits against the troubles until we reach the end of the tunnel, no matter how long and dark they be. As Pete said, the whole world feels this way.
Until next time, listen to your favorite songs. Save their melodies to your heart.
Wow, that Fast Car performance is really remarkable. Thanks for writing about it; I somehow missed this. I should probably start watching the Grammy's.