Small Talk: Out of Genoa

[peacheslatour]

17 hours ago, Snaporaz said:

Yes!  Like a bad penny or herpes, you can't get rid of me easily.

Thanks to peacheslatour for reaching out to me, and to Petunia13 and boes for the nice messages.  Petunia's idea worked, so thanks for that, too!  I feel like I've been gone for ages.  How many of Cupid Stunt's avatars did I miss?

Hi Love. Great to see you back.

[jpagan05]

I got to take care of this little sweet potato for two nights while some friends had their house tented for termites. This is Paco. He went home this morning and I miss him. He small-spooned me in bed. I need a dog.😢

[peacheslatour]

36 minutes ago, jpagan05 said:

I got to take care of this little sweet potato for two nights while some friends had their house tented for termites. This is Paco. He went home this morning and I miss him. He small-spooned me in bed. I need a dog.😢

Yes, you do. What a sweet looking good boy.

[Snaporaz]

What a cute face!

[Cupid Stunt]

Roky Erickson, Legendary Psychedelic Musician, Dies at 71

Roky Erickson, lead vocalist and principal songwriter for the psychedelic band the 13th Floor Elevators and one of the leading lights of Texas rock, died Friday in Austin. He was 71.

Erickson’s death was confirmed by his brother Mikel to Bill Bentley, who produced the all-star 1990 Erickson tribute album “Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye,” which included performances by R.E.M., ZZ Top, Doug Sahm and other stars.

“Roky lived in so many worlds, you couldn’t keep up with him,” Bentley told Variety. “He lived so much, and not always on this planet.”

Erickson specialized in a stormy, nightmarish brand of rock. His otherworldly original songs were often inspired by his favorite horror movies (a collection of his lyrics was published in 1995 by Henry Rollins’ book company 2.13.61). His intense, piercing yowl was the focal point of the Elevators’ seething 1966 single “You’re Gonna Miss Me.” A magnum opus of garage rock, it was featured on Lenny Kaye’s influential 1972 compilation “Nuggets.”

The band released four albums of churning psychedelia for Lelan Rogers’ independent label International Artists between 1966 and 1969; its first two collections, “The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators” and “Easter Everywhere,” are acknowledged classics of psych-rock.

After the band folded — due in no small measure due to Erickson’s drug habits and escalating mental illness — the singer embarked on a lengthy solo career that was interrupted by periods of institutionalization.

He released a scathing series of singles flashing horror and sci-fi imagery — “Red Temple Prayer (Two Headed Dog),” “The Interpreter,” “Starry Eyes,” “Bermuda,” “Don’t Slander Me” — during the ‘70s and ‘80s, and issued several solo albums, one of which, “Roky Erickson and the Aliens,” was issued by CBS.

Erickson’s battle with mental illness was chronicled in the affecting 2007 documentary “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”

In later years, he toured regularly, backed by such acts as the Black Angels, and could often be found performing on his favorite holiday, Halloween.

Born Roger Kynard Erickson in Austin, Texas, on July 15, 1947, Erickson was a high school dropout who formed his first group, the Spades, at 18. The group scored a local hit with the single “We Sell Soul,” and cut the original version of “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”

The 13th Floor Elevators teamed Erickson with the aggressive guitarist Stacy Sutherland and Tommy Hall, who played an ululating, amplified jug. Their debut “Psychedelic Sounds” LP included their signature hit and “Fire Engine,” which became a signature tune in the early repertoire of the New York punk band Television.

The Elevators were a popular Austin act but fell apart thanks to Erickson’s instability, brought on by literally dozens of LSD trips. He was committed to psychiatric hospitals in Austin and Houston, undergoing involuntary electroshock therapy.

He groped his way back to performing in the ‘70s, and some of his best recordings of the period were produced by his Austin contemporary Sahm and Creedence Clearwater Revival  bassist Stu Cook. He toured backed by the Austin bands the Explosives and the Aliens (which featured another jug player, Bill Miller).

The ‘80s proved fallow for Erickson, who was sidetracked for a time by charges, later dropped, that he had stolen mail from his neighbors. He lived for several years with his mother in near destitution.

But projects like the Sire/Warner Bros. tribute album and the ardent fandom of younger rock musicians kept him in the public eye; a strong 1995 album, “All That May Do My Rhyme,” was released by Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey. He appeared at the ACL festival in Austin that year for his first live date in 20 years.

After slowly weaning himself off medication employed to control his schizophrenia, Erickson worked U.S. stages regularly. He became a semi-regular at the South By Southwest Music Festival, and in 2015 he reunited with surviving members of the 13th Floor Elevators at Austin’s Levitation Festival, which was named after an Elevators song.

His survivors include brothers, Mikel and Sumner, and son Jegar.

-- Chris Morris, Variety

[valleycliffe]

americas got talent  cody lee  he is blind and autistic

[Cupid Stunt]

• For 18 years, I thought she was stealing my identity. Until I found her  -- For years, a white woman named Lisa Davis was paying the price (sometimes literally) for tickets issued to other women named Lisa Davis living in NYC. -- " Finally, the DMV told me that I wasn’t the victim of identity theft; there was simply another Lisa S Davis with the same birthday in New York City. Our records were crossed. When cops run a license, they don’t check the person’s address, signature, or social security numbers. They check the name and the birthday, and both the other Lisa S Davis’s and mine were the same. We were, in the eyes of the law, one person, caught in a perfect storm of DMV and NYPD idiocy." -- In fighting all of these improperly filed tickets, Davis learned that most of them issued for bullshit “broken windows” misdemeanors in predominately minority neighborhoods. -- "It was then that it became clear to me: the reason for the tickets wasn’t that these Lisa Davises were petty criminals. The reason was likely that they lived in highly policed areas where even the smallest infractions are ticketed, the sites of “Broken Windows” policing. The reason, I thought, was that they weren’t white. That could have been the “proof” I offered to the judge. Brownsville’s population is less than 1% white. It almost couldn’t have been me. My neighborhood, though fairly diverse (and cheap) when I moved there in the early 90s, is now 76% white. I have never heard of anyone getting tickets in my neighborhood for any of the infractions committed by the Lisa Davises in neighborhoods of color. I felt there was only one thing to do. I had to find the Lisa Davises, to untangle myself from them, to talk to them about being Lisa Davises, and to see if they agreed with my supposition: that the real “crime” they had committed was being non-white."

• These fake images tell a scary story of how far AI has come -- Five years ago, the technique for deepfakes was invented. Here’s what we’re capable of now. -- This Person Doesn't Exist

• How Many Bones Would You Break to Get Laid? “Incels” are going under the knife to reshape their faces, and their dating prospects. -- It's extra to put the persecution complex under the knife.

• The photo that prevented a nuclear war ... after nearly starting one.

• Rihards Vidzickis is a Latvian master woodworker (and materials scientist) who specializes in making dugout canoes and other rustic works out of wood. It's tempting to skip ahead, but watching it is almost meditative and there are little woodworking tricks throughout that are really clever (like using wooden pegs for depth-finding while hollowing the canoe out), while providing ample evidence of the old adage “measure ten times, cut once."

• This Southern City Has the Most Homeless Students in America

• R. Kelly charged with 11 new sex-related counts in Chicago

• US documents expose Argentine dictatorship’s grisly crimes

• U.S. biologists probe deaths of 70 emaciated gray whales

• Exhibits, panels, opera, more for Stonewall 50th anniversary

Edited June 1, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, valleycliffe said:

americas got talent  cody lee  he is blind and autistic

That was lovely. Thank you valleycliffe!

[Cupid Stunt]

• Lego tagging in Berlin

• Baseball finds itself with a real numbers problem

• Hawaii hiker who spent 17 days lost in the forest says she was irresponsible and unprepared

• The Uncertain Future of Sweden’s Floating Libraries -- "The Stockholm county library boat (or bokbåten), visits 23 islands, including Möja, in the Stockholm archipelago, for one week twice a year. It carries around 3,000 books and a rotating staff of three to four librarians. When it docks, island residents have about one-and-a-half glorious hours to come aboard the motor ship, browse its treasures, and borrow anything they’d like. Each island has one library card and, in a delightful detail, there are no penalties if a book isn’t returned six months later."

• New Zealand’s 1st ‘well-being budget’ targets mental health

• The Collapsing Crime Rates of the ’90s Might Have Been Driven by Cellphones -- Did technology disrupt the drug game … Or organize a better business model?

• Apple Is Finally Killing iTunes

George Clinton Is Retiring From Touring, Reflects on Five Decades of Funk -- One Nation Under A Groove is weeping …

• Teen Vogue explains capitalism -- And not a minute too soon … Teen Vogue continues its run of excellent, progressive political reporting with Kim Kelly's potted explanation of capitalism: "the reason many millennials haven’t been investing in mutual funds or building up their own financial nest eggs isn’t because they’re too broke, or that they lack personal responsibility -- it’s because they think our current economic system, capitalism, will cease to exist by the time they are in their 60s." 

You want to know all about puffer fish courtship … 

[PatsyandEddie]

Lost my eldest feline  statesman, Gizmo, last evening at the tender age of 18 years. Heartbroken. 💔

Hug your fur babies close. 

[pearlite]

34 minutes ago, PatsyandEddie said:

Lost my eldest feline  statesman, Gizmo, last evening at the tender age of 18 years. Heartbroken. 💔

Hug your fur babies close. 

I'm so sorry to hear this, Patsy.

We lost our dear old GirlCat, at 22, in April.

[boes]

1 hour ago, PatsyandEddie said:

Lost my eldest feline  statesman, Gizmo, last evening at the tender age of 18 years. Heartbroken. 💔

Hug your fur babies close. 

I'm so, so sorry to hear that!  

[Cupid Stunt]

(((Patsy))) 

I'm so sorry.

[peacheslatour]

I am heartily sorry P&E. I gave both of my monsters big hugs for your Gizmo.

[AngelKitty]

So sorry, Patsyandeddie. I'm dreading that day for my little Nelson who recently turned 18.

[jpagan05]

10 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

• Hawaii hiker who spent 17 days lost in the forest says she was irresponsible and unprepared

9 hours ago, PatsyandEddie said:

Lost my eldest feline  statesman, Gizmo, last evening at the tender age of 18 years. Heartbroken. 💔

Hug your fur babies close. 

The other hiker mentioned in that article sadly was found dead. According to coconut wireless, he committed suicide.

I'm so sorry @PatsyandEddie and @pearlite. It is just the worst.

[PatsyandEddie]

Thank you for your kind vibes my most wonderful  preverts. Lots of (((( hugs )))) to all. 

[Snaporaz]

Much love to @PatsyandEddie and @pearlite.  How can such small beings leave such big empty holes in our hearts?  🌈

[Cupid Stunt]

My parents, Nana, my grandmother, and Aunt Trinket (the three ladies each lost brothers during Operation Overlord, starting June 6, 1944), and are in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day --

• D-Day’s landscape in 1944, and today

• Going Back: Faces of the men who fought at Normandy

• D-Day’s 24 hours changed 20th century, and Europe, forever

• Skywriting is the only good thing the advertising business has ever done for anyone

• Eiji Tsuburaya made Godzilla come alive — and it changed film forever

• How California became far more energy-efficient than the rest of the country

• What happens when someone wants to go it alone on fixing the climate?

Street art by Swoop -- Coney Island, NYC

[peacheslatour]

On 6/2/2019 at 7:08 AM, pearlite said:

I'm so sorry to hear this, Patsy.

We lost our dear old GirlCat, at 22, in April.

I just saw this, pearlite. I'm so sorry, it's so not fair that we have them for such a short time. 

[AngelKitty]

I don't know if anyone here would remember Blake's 7, but the actor who played Kerr Avon died of an unnamed short illness at 78. I saw this news on SyFy Wire and I don't know how to link to the article. I had quite a crush on Avon and recently found the episodes on youtube. I have to admit I modeled one of my AI programs in my sci-fi novel on one of the computers in this series.

I've always hoped it would get remade in these days of remakes.

[Cupid Stunt]

• How The Rainbow Became A Symbol of LGBTQ+ Pride

• The story of D-Day, in five maps

• Larry the Cat, UK’s “chief mouser,” caused a brief headache for Trump’s security team

• Schools Are Deploying Massive Digital Surveillance Systems. The Results Are Alarming

• World marks 30 years since Tiananmen massacre as China censors all mention

• Thousands of Japanese women join campaign to ban workplace high heel requirements

• I don't know when or how to post about gun violence and domestic terrorism, but it is a constant in our lives -- Virginia Beach shooting: what we know

• Mass shootings transform how America talks, prays, prepares

• Virginia Beach shines light on victims
• Virginia governor calls special session to take up gun control measures in the wake of Virginia Beach shooting

Banksy -- Queen Elizabeth II as Ziggy Stardust, London

Edited June 4, 2019 by Cupid Stunt
One more thing ...

[PatsyandEddie]

Good work Larry 😸

[Shicklove1]

On 5/31/2019 at 9:06 PM, jpagan05 said:

I got to take care of this little sweet potato for two nights while some friends had their house tented for termites. This is Paco. He went home this morning and I miss him. He small-spooned me in bed. I need a dog.😢

He is gorgeous I understand why you would miss him I would too 

[Cupid Stunt]

• The concept of road diets is an alternate approach to dealing with road congestion. The typical solution to heavy traffic on roads is to widen them with more travel lanes. The problem with that approach is it increases demand (Induced Demand) -- Instead of two lanes of traffic jam, you get four lanes going nowhere. A proposal by mathematician Dietrich Braess. known as Braess’ Paradox, is an explanation for a seeming improvement to a road network being able to impede traffic through it. Dietrich Braess noticed that adding a road to a congested road network could increase overall journey time, and it has been used to explain instances of improved traffic flow when existing major roads are closed. It has been suggested that in theory, the improvement of a malfunctioning network could be accomplished by removing certain parts of it. With a road diet approach, you might turn a four-lane road into three lanes: two travel lanes and a turn lane in the middle. Pedestrian and bike usage tends to increase as well (b/c that extra street can be converted to bike lanes or sidewalks), speeding decreases, and car travel times are largely unaffected. The video by Jeff Speck shows four different approaches to road dieting.

• This political strategy that actually works to help any state or city pass clean energy policy

• D-Day’s 24 hours changed 20th century, and Europe, forever

• Naomi Wolf went on the BBC to promote her new book, only to learn on air that she had made a major historical error -- Wolf is correcting that error, but she says she stands by her book’s larger argument -- Outrages author Naomi Wolf stands by view of Victorian poet

• USDA crop progress: Corn planting just two-thirds complete -- I grew up on a ranch, so the crop report is essential, and this strikes me as a huge deal. I should note that the people who know what they are talking about on this subject aren't losing their shit over this … yet, My concerns aren't about a corn shortage (there's surplus corn and soybeans being stored nationally from 2018 depressing grain prices; It's a tariff/trade war thingy). I'm worried about how many farmers will go under because they can’t plant alternate short season crops with the 2019 market wiped out and ain’t ever coming back. Just the other day China halted big purchases, and last year Brazil and others (including Russia, which I am sure is just a coincidence) eagerly stepped in and filled the void. On top of that, I don’t think people fully appreciate just how fundamental the corn crop is to so much of our manufacturing and economy. Beyond the obvious foodstuffs and beverages, corn is also a key component in everything from cattle feed to pet food to ethanol for cars to vinegar and on and on and on. Almost every product will be more expensive -- It also factors in to a wide number of industrial products made from corn. Hang on to your wallets. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

• And if you're not already aggravated, this oughta' do it -- Pfizer had clues its blockbuster drug could prevent Alzheimer’s. Why didn’t it tell the world?

Banksy, London

[pearlite]

Ah, Cupid, Naomi Wolf... A highly qualified huckster, but not much of a scholar. Her errors/omissions are actually significant here, in publication terms.

Normally, I could care less, but for PLL and I, it's our business, and as I'm watching PLL cleaning up a piece for publication [on Queer Astrology & political theory--and believe me, that's an area where you're going to be going down some arcane avenues], and watching her go through the same endless checking and re-checking of sources as I've done repeatedly, I find Wolf's brazen sloppiness annoying. Okay, finished now.

On a lighter note, I decided to try making a rock garden under a very old [75 yrs] pine tree out front--evergreens mess up soil, and I read that I should mix perlite with the basic soil. I thoroughly enjoyed going to the hardware store to buy those little white balls of piffle.

[Cupid Stunt]

4 hours ago, pearlite said:

Ah, Cupid, Naomi Wolf... A highly qualified huckster, but not much of a scholar. Her errors/omissions are actually significant here, in publication terms.

Normally, I could care less, but for PLL and I, it's our business, and as I'm watching PLL cleaning up a piece for publication [on Queer Astrology & political theory--and believe me, that's an area where you're going to be going down some arcane avenues], and watching her go through the same endless checking and re-checking of sources as I've done repeatedly, I find Wolf's brazen sloppiness annoying. Okay, finished now.

I gave up on Naomi Wolf years ago. Whenever I see her books in a store I grab a handful for the science fiction section.

There have been issues with fact-checking in book publishing for so many years, primarily because of budgetary constraints, and there are few repercussions to the publisher or author -- Jill Abramson, Gay Talese and Doris Kearns Goodwin come to mind. The main issue is the majority of non-fiction books aren't fact checked, and everyone relies on the author to do their own research, fact-checking and to tell the truth.

The flaw in that logic is a bottomless chasm.

Craig Silverman, author of the Regret the Error blog and book, moved to the Poynter Institute (presently, another writer is reporting Regret the Error blog). His former blog is a collection of un-fact-checked madlibs, editorial mayhem and Authors Gone Rogue. Great fun. 

Quote

On a lighter note, I decided to try making a rock garden under a very old [75 yrs] pine tree out front--evergreens mess up soil, and I read that I should mix perlite with the basic soil. I thoroughly enjoyed going to the hardware store to buy those little white balls of piffle.

Our many moons ago cat could open any door, and close it behind her, One day I went out to the potting shed, opened the door to find Pickles stretched out on an open bag of perlite, covered in the stuff. Water was the only thing that took the perlite off. She would do the same thing with packing peanuts, and then deposit them all over the house.

Good luck with your rock garden, pearlite.

[lovemesomejoolery]

6 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

• The concept of road diets is an alternate approach to dealing with road congestion. The typical solution to heavy traffic on roads is to widen them with more travel lanes. The problem with that approach is it increases demand (Induced Demand) -- Instead of two lanes of traffic jam, you get four lanes going nowhere. A proposal by mathematician Dietrich Braess. known as Braess’ Paradox, is an explanation for a seeming improvement to a road network being able to impede traffic through it. Dietrich Braess noticed that adding a road to a congested road network could increase overall journey time, and it has been used to explain instances of improved traffic flow when existing major roads are closed. It has been suggested that in theory, the improvement of a malfunctioning network could be accomplished by removing certain parts of it. With a road diet approach, you might turn a four-lane road into three lanes: two travel lanes and a turn lane in the middle. Pedestrian and bike usage tends to increase as well (b/c that extra street can be converted to bike lanes or sidewalks), speeding decreases, and car travel times are largely unaffected. The video by Jeff Speck shows four different approaches to road dieting.

• This political strategy that actually works to help any state or city pass clean energy policy

• D-Day’s 24 hours changed 20th century, and Europe, forever

• Naomi Wolf went on the BBC to promote her new book, only to learn on air that she had made a major historical error -- Wolf is correcting that error, but she says she stands by her book’s larger argument -- Outrages author Naomi Wolf stands by view of Victorian poet

• USDA crop progress: Corn planting just two-thirds complete -- I grew up on a ranch, so the crop report is essential, and this strikes me as a huge deal. I should note that the people who know what they are talking about on this subject aren't losing their shit over this … yet, My concerns aren't about a corn shortage (there's surplus corn and soybeans being stored nationally from 2018 depressing grain prices; It's a tariff/trade war thingy). I'm worried about how many farmers will go under because they can’t plant alternate short season crops with the 2019 market wiped out and ain’t ever coming back. Just the other day China halted big purchases, and last year Brazil and others (including Russia, which I am sure is just a coincidence) eagerly stepped in and filled the void. On top of that, I don’t think people fully appreciate just how fundamental the corn crop is to so much of our manufacturing and economy. Beyond the obvious foodstuffs and beverages, corn is also a key component in everything from cattle feed to pet food to ethanol for cars to vinegar and on and on and on. Almost every product will be more expensive -- It also factors in to a wide number of industrial products made from corn. Hang on to your wallets. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

• And if you're not already aggravated, this oughta' do it -- Pfizer had clues its blockbuster drug could prevent Alzheimer’s. Why didn’t it tell the world?

Banksy, London

Thank you for the many pics of Banksy's art.  Mr. Lovesmesome and I love it!

[Cupid Stunt]

Royal Mail stamp commemorates British Commandos on Normandy's Juno Beach during the D-Day landings

• D-Day 75th Anniversary -- The Associated Press is documenting stories of the surviving D-Day soldiers, their fallen comrades and those working to keep the memories alive today.

• ‘War is ugly’: For French vet, D-Day’s lessons are timeless

• Massive boulder closes Colorado highway "indefinitely"

• IKEA'S Robotic Furniture Doubles Living Space With The Push Of A Button

• Photo of Sikh man's 'fantastic' rainbow turban for gay pride goes viral: 'Awesome message'

• Climate change could pose 'existential threat' by 2050: report

• Does climate change violate children's right to life, liberty and property? A U.S. court may decide

• BirthStrike: The people refusing to have kids, because of climate change

• Japanese minister: High heels for women at work are 'occupationally necessary and appropriate'

[Cupid Stunt]

15 hours ago, lovemesomejoolery said:

Thank you for the many pics of Banksy's art.  Mr. Lovesmesome and I love it!

; )

For you and Mr.Lovesmesome ...

Banksy Sets Up Amongst Venice Street Vendors to Share a New Multi-Panel Painting

[pearlite]

Juno Beach was an integral part of Operation Overlord:

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/d-day-what-happened-to-the-various-canadian-regiments

[lovemesomejoolery]

4 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

; )

For you and Mr.Lovesmesome ...

Banksy Sets Up Amongst Venice Street Vendors to Share a New Multi-Panel Painting

Thanks for the article - we shall both read this evening! 

[peacheslatour]

You know what I wish? You know how the Hallmark Channel does that ridiculous Christmas In July thing? Why can't Siffy or someone do a Halloween in June or August? It's not fair, I tells ya.

[Cupid Stunt]

New Orleans music legend, Dr. John, dies at age 77 

Dr. John, the six-time Grammy Award winner whose gritty voodoo-inspired stage persona and whimsical way of speaking were as beloved in New Orleans as his piano-playing, has died. He was 77 years old. A family statement released by his publicist says Dr. John died early Thursday (June 6) of a heart attack.

Dr. John, whose given name was Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. and who was also called Mac, was born in New Orleans, a place that schooled him in the jazz, R&B, rock and roll, jump blues, funk and Mardi Gras Indian sounds that would come to shape his music. Mr. Rebennack was a man whose style and outlook were shaped, too, by voodoo, that mysterious and mystical spiritualism that developed from the city’s Afro-Caribbean roots. And in New Orleans, that meant he stood out so much he fit right in.

Mr. Rebennack was born big and a month late -- The Times-Picayune’s Records of the Day column, published Nov. 27, 1941, lists the birth of M.J. Rebennack, a boy, at Baptist Hospital -- which gave his mother license to call the young tot her “Thanksgiving turkey,” according to “Under a Hoodoo Moon,” Mr. Rebennack’s autobiography (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994). His earliest years were spent with his family shuffling from home to home until they landed in the 3rd Ward, and it was his grandfather who first introduced the would-be pianist to music.

In an early memory recounted in “Under a Hoodoo Moon,” Mr. Rebennack writes that he would listen to his grandfather, who performed in minstrel shows as a younger man, sing: “I been hoodooed/ I been hoodooed / Somebody done put a jinx on me.” His aunt Andre, who was tuned into what was hot at the time, became his first piano teacher, playing “St. James Infirmary” and “Everybody Loves My Baby.” The music stayed with him, and a version of that song later landed on “In the Right Place.”

As he grew up, Mr. Rebennack would favor nightclubs, drugs and trouble-making over schooling, picking up a musical education instead as his ear turned to New Orleans’ natural teachers on stages and in barrooms around the city, like the Pepper Pot and the Cadillac Club. In those hazy venues and in local recording studios, he met Professor Longhair, Papa Celestin, Dave Bartholomew, the Basin Street Six, Walter “Papoose” Nelson, Roy Montrell and others.

As helpful as that kind of studying was, Mr. Rebennack ended up getting kicked out of Jesuit High School, but he spent much of the 1950s recording and playing guitar with Professor Longhair, Art Neville and Frankie Ford, among others. The switch of his focus to guitar in his adolescence after playing piano as a boy came because “every guitarist I knew could get work easy,” Mr. Rebennack told Smithsonian magazine in a 2009 interview. But strumming a guitar wouldn’t last. “Around 1960, I got shot in my finger before a concert. A guy was pistol whipping Ronnie Barron, our vocalist. Ronnie was just a kid and his mother had told me, ‘You better look out for my son,’” he told the magazine. “Oh god, that was all I was thinking about. I tried to stop the guy, I had my hand over the barrel and he shot.”

The next year, he was busted on drug charges and was sent to federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, according to Mark Kemp’s “Dixie Lullaby: A Story of Music, Race and New Beginnings in a New South” (Simon and Schuster, 2007). When he got out in 1965, he booked it to Los Angeles, where Mr. Rebennack became The Nite Tripper, cultivating his infatuation with voodoo and his own offbeat mysticism while also serving as a session musician for artists like Sonny & Cher and Frank Zappa.

A reluctant frontman, Mr. Rebennack was convinced to pick up that mantle by his conga player, according to the Smithsonian interview, and he borrowed the name “Dr. John” from the story of an 1800s “free man of color … and a gris gris man.”

His first album, 1968’s aptly-titled “Gris-Gris,” was intended “to keep New Orleans gris gris alive,” he told the magazine. The Mardi Gras, West African and psychadelic chanting sounds were a hit with the long-haired hippies Mr. Rebennack knew in California, and the album ranks on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album launched a long career in which the Nite Tripper and Mr. Rebennack would converge, most obviously in the man’s New Orleans-centric patois that, when transcribed, may confound an English educator but would delight a listener. When interviewed, he was asked what he hoped to still achieve in his career, he said, “"I’m tripping through the shortcuts of existence to feel it and that’s good."

But in the 1970s, Mr. Rebennack was taking no shortcuts. His musical oeuvre grew to include another handful of records like “Dr. John’s Gumbo,” a collection of covers of New Orleans standard that helped introduce the world to Mr. Rebennack’s hometown sounds and is also listed on Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums, and he worked with Allen Toussaint and The Meters to produce the funky “In the Right Place,” which gave him the Top 20 hit “Right Place Wrong Time.” His work garnered no shortage of fans around the world, including his fellow musicians, which prompted opportunities like a performance at The Band’s final concert in 1976 and session work or collaborations with The Rolling Stones, Neil Diamond, James Taylor and Carly Simon, Lou Reed, Leon Redbone, Van Morrison, Christina Aguilera, B.B. King, Ringo Starr, The Black Keys and dozens of others. Mr. Rebennack’s work also been widely sampled, like on Beck’s “Loser” and P.M. Dawn’s 1991 “Comatose,” according to Rolling Stone.

The 1980s saw Mr. Rebennack come to a reckoning point with his addiction to heroin. He told Bomb Magazine in 1990 that he had been on methadone maintenance for about five years and that, in 1989, he’d entered rehab. “I’m doin’ what I do to try to stay clean. But dope fiend, heroin addict, junkie, the idea’s that I’m recovering from it. And I enjoyed it,” he told interviewer Stanley Moss. “There’s a lot of beautiful sides to life I was missing when I was out there ripping and running. I’m real grateful to be clean again.”

His 2008 album, “City That Care Forgot,” offered his gritty meditations on Hurricane Katrina and the official response to the disaster that wreaked havoc on his hometown. “None of my work has been as aggravated or disgusted as this record. I had never felt the way I do now, seeing New Orleans and the state of Louisiana disappearing,” he told Smithsonian magazine in the 2009 interview. “We've given the world jazz, our kind of blues, a lot of great food, a lot of great things. It's so confusing to look at things these days.”

In his most recent years, Mr. Rebennack partnered with trombonist Sarah Morrow, who served as the art director of his backing band, The Nite Trippers, after moving up from a role in his previous band since 2012, for about three years. In honor of Mr. Rebennack’s deeply influential well of music, which over the years grew to include nearly three dozen of his own albums, the Saenger Theatre hosted the sold-out “The Musical Mojo of Dr. John: A Celebration of Mac and His Music,” a sold out tribute for and featuring the man himself. Guest artists that night included Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty, Widespread Panic, Mavis Staples, Terence Blanchard and Jimmie Vaughan.

In 2016, Mr. Rebennack unveiled a new band, The Gris-Gris Krewe, which replaced Morrow as musical director with Roland Guerin and featured drummer Herlin Riley in its ranks. 

In fall 2018, a two-story mural of Dr. John popped up on Toledano Street. The artist MTO captured the good doctor at the height of his trippiness, decked out in furs, feathers and Mardi Gras Indian beadwork. Look for the painting at the corner of Toledano and Dryades streets.

[Petunia13]

On 6/2/2019 at 8:32 AM, PatsyandEddie said:

Lost my eldest feline  statesman, Gizmo, last evening at the tender age of 18 years. Heartbroken. 💔

Hug your fur babies close. 

I’m sorry for the loss of your baby ❤️ 🐈 💗 

Sending some prayers for you and Gizmo. 

[Cupid Stunt]

• Good News! -- Today is National Doughnut Day … Why are there are two of them?

• Old News -- Isn't every day a Straight Pride Parade? … The show must go on … Boston mayor can't stop Hetro's Are Upset Parade over values

• Stormé DeLarverie and the Mythology of Stonewall

• Sports News -- 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup matches start today

An aerial view of Omaha beach, Normandy, June 6. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

• D-Day 75th anniversary commemorations

• Tariffs on Mexican products could cost American families up to $900 each.

• Beyond Meat's home in the meat aisle sparks food fight

• How many Americans live on $2 a day? The biggest debate in poverty research, explained.

• 'No way to stop it': millions of pigs culled across Asia as swine fever spreads

• People eat at least 50,000 plastic particles a year, study finds  -- Gluten and sugar free!

Banksy -- Melrose and Spaulding, Los Angeles

• Plenty of dodgy content is still allowed. -- YouTube finally banned content from neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and Sandy Hook conspirators 

• In White Country Music Gated Community News -- Lil Nas X isn’t an anomaly — black people have always been a part of country music -- Get over it!

Edited June 7, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Cupid Stunt]

• Eugenie Le Sommer of Les Bleus is off to a strong start with first goal of the World Cup -- Keep up with the matches -- FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019

• 'End where we began': Paradise teens graduate after wildfire

• ‘The Boys of Pointe du Hoc’: the Reagan D-Day speech that moved a nation

• From loss to liberation: Germany’s evolving postwar attitude

• On D-Day anniversary, ‘America First’ doesn’t sit well on the beaches of Normandy

• People Used to Tell Me ‘You Could Be a Knockout’—My Mistake Was Listening to Them -- You've always been a knockout.

• Jim DeRogatis broke the R. Kelly story in 2000. Now he’s compiled a damning case against Kelly. -- “We thought we’d nailed the story. And we thought he would stop hurting young women. And it continues for 19 years after that.”

• The Census Question -- The U.S. census -- a count of every person in the country that takes place every decade -- is an often overlooked linchpin of America’s democratic system. Required by the U.S. Constitution, its results determine how many congressional representatives each state receives. It also dictates how the federal government allocates almost $900 billion a year in federal spending. Even a 1% undercount can cost a state millions of dollars.

• Barnes & Noble sells to hedge fund Elliott for $475.8 million

• Unusual symptoms pointing to brain cancer turned into something completely different

• Human rights in the US are worse than you think -- From police shootings to voter suppression to arrests of asylum seekers, a new report finds US human rights are abysmal

• 50 years after Stonewall, the NYPD finally apologizes to the LGBTQ community-- When you know better, you do better … eventually.

• Staggering homeless count stuns LA officials -- The truth of the matter, Skid Row is everywhere

• Playin' Chicken! -- The Russian destroyer Udaloy forced the USS Chancellorsville to maneuver to avoid collision in the Philippine Sea. The Russians were sending a message –- check out the guys sunbathing on the flight deck of the Udaloy.

Jef Aerosol -- Butte-aux-Cailles neighbourhood Paris

Edited June 8, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[lovemesomejoolery]

3 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

•  

Jef Aerosol -- Butte-aux-Cailles neighbourhood Paris

Love this!

[Cupid Stunt]

Sunra, Montpelier, France

• Macron at D-day ceremony: fulfil the promise of Normandy -- “On behalf of France, I bow down before their bravery,” Macron said before bestowing five of the veterans at the ceremony, all now in their 90s, with the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest award. “We know what we owe to you veterans: our freedom. On behalf of my nation I just want to say: thank you.”

Icy and STD

• We Don’t Need the NYPD to Apologize for Stonewall -- Instead, how about addressing police violence against queer and trans people in 2019?

• Boston “Hetros Are Upset” Parade Names Alt-Right Gay Provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos as Marshal -- “I might technically be a sequined and perfectly coiffed friend of Dorothy’s, but I’ve spent my entire career advocating for the rights of America’s most brutally repressed identity—straight people—so I know a thing or two about discrimination …"

• Moo.

• It's rattlesnake season!

• Stressed out? Your dog may feel it too, study suggests

• After bill passes, New York may become the first state to ban cat declawing

• To stop a virus, California has euthanized more than 1.2 million birds. Is it reckless or necessary?

• 7 startling facts about the crisis facing our oceans

• Arctic melt: Threat beneath the ice

• 414 million pieces of plastic found on remote Australian islands: Study

• Schools reckon with social stress: ‘I’m on my phone so much’

• Germany wants access to citizens' data. That's sparked fears of a sinister past

• Confronted with multiple errors in his new Trump book, a testy Michael Wolff says, 'You have to trust me' -- If it were that simple.

• The tooth fairy economy, explained

• Jupiter at opposition: Monday is the best night of the year to look at the gas giant -- The planet is like a mini solar system inside our own. At opposition, it shines extra bright.

[jpagan05]

@Cupid Stunt There was a six inch centipede crawling up my bedroom curtains about four  months ago. I slept on the couch and walked around in clogs until my cat and husband found and killed it a week later. Terrifying!

On 6/6/2019 at 10:44 AM, peacheslatour said:

You know what I wish? You know how the Hallmark Channel does that ridiculous Christmas In July thing? Why can't Siffy or someone do a Halloween in June or August? It's not fair, I tells ya.

Agreed! Plus they replace my beloved Golden Girls with Christmas Craptacular right after Halloween until the middle of January. Bastards. @peacheslatour I remember you saying you didn't have Netflix. There are some great scary series and movies year round. That and a few of their other series make it worth it for me. Have you seen Black Mirror? Sooooo good!

[Cupid Stunt]

1 hour ago, jpagan05 said:

@Cupid Stunt There was a six inch centipede crawling up my bedroom curtains about four  months ago. I slept on the couch and walked around in clogs until my cat and husband found and killed it a week later. Terrifying!

AAAACK! SIX INCHES! Too many legs ... 

I'd grab Melvin (resident cat who relishes eating bugs), point him at the centipede (food gets his attention)), shake the centipede out of the curtain and jump on the bed.

On ‎6‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 3:44 PM, peacheslatour said:

You know what I wish? You know how the Hallmark Channel does that ridiculous Christmas In July thing? Why can't Siffy or someone do a Halloween in June or August? It's not fair, I tells ya.

1 hour ago, jpagan05 said:

Agreed! Plus they replace my beloved Golden Girls with Christmas Craptacular right after Halloween until the middle of January. Bastards. @peacheslatour I remember you saying you didn't have Netflix. There are some great scary series and movies year round. That and a few of their other series make it worth it for me. Have you seen Black Mirror? Sooooo good!

Hallmark Channel annoys me when they start broadcasting their schmoopy Christmas movies starting Halloween evening, 

Speaking of holiday creep, I just received my first Christmas catalog -- For needlepoint projects and supplies, Getting an early start on gifts or decorations make sense, but I've never received a Christmas catalog so early in the year before.

[Cupid Stunt]

• Michigan advances to CWS with 4-2 upset of top-seeded UCLA  -- Great game, but disappointing for this alum. Next year.

• ‘Dorm chef’ still cooking up culinary buzz

• Animal rights activists score win at Barcelona zoo

• German police: "Guardian angel" pigeon protected speeder

• Armed Neo-Nazis Get a Police Escort to Disrupt Detroit Pride -- A little white supremacy and public urination go a long way. Fucking Nazis.

• Too much Dolce Vita can get you banned from Rome

Detail of the roof in the nave. Gaudí designed the columns to mirror trees and branches.

• Spain: Unfinished Gaudí church gets permit after 137 years -- If you have the opportunity to visit Barcelona, Spain. the La Sagrada Familia Basilica is a rare thing of beauty.

• There Are Two Types of Airport People -- And both of them drive airport personnel mad. Thank you, Homeland Security Theater.

• Pope laments ‘culture of insults,’ decries church propaganda

• Bishop faces backlash after tweet about Pride Month -- Pontifex on line two …

Chris RWK collaboration -- Robots Will Kill -- Brooklyn, NY

• Provo to get its first stand-alone Starbucks near BYU campus -- Get your caffeine on in the 21st Century. Now, about the magical underwear …

• Ghana’s new lifesaving drones: like Uber, but for blood -- They’re helping sick people in emergencies. But some think they’re a $12 million mistake.

• The slippery genius of the Cinderella story

• US can label nuke waste as less dangerous to quicken cleanup -- Hooray for nobody! There are still questions that the Department of Energy doesn't have secure containment for that 'less dangerous' waste. What, me worry?

• Online Rx startups offer convenience but also raise concerns

Edited June 10, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[valleycliffe]

is

do you think this trend will be very popular?  lacey shirts and shorts for men...

[lovemesomejoolery]

47 minutes ago, valleycliffe said:

is

do you think this trend will be very popular?  lacey shirts and shorts for men...

I sure hope not.  I don't even like this look on females, unless they're five years old and under!

[Cupid Stunt]

4 hours ago, valleycliffe said:

is

do you think this trend will be very popular?  lacey shirts and shorts for men...

Sweet Fanny Annie! It's worse than I thought ... I saw the lemon yellow (with a black thong) version at a movie premier last week.

Mashable says they are the RompHim for Summer 2019.

Cam Newton in a RompHim at Coachella 2018

Edited June 10, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Cupid Stunt]

• World Meat Free Week -- It's simple really ... By 2050 the developed world will need to reduce their meat consumption by 50%.

• Creole cuisine queen Leah Chase gets New Orleans sendoff
• Famed New Orleans chef who fed civil rights leaders 
• Legendary Queen of Creole Cuisine, Leah Chase, dies at 96

• Plastic straws and bags no more: Canada aims to clean up its act

• Highly processed foods look more and more unhealthy. The reason why may be hiding in our guts. -- Crying salty Frito tears

• Kansas GOP leaders: Food assistance policy breaks state law

• Oregon is poised to set a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. That’s a huge deal. -- A “cap and invest” bill would link it to California’s carbon trading market.

• Near-record 'dead zone' forecast off U.S. Gulf coast, threatening fish

• Burning Man waits for US decision on big changes at festival

• Made in China? Iceland’s sweater-knitters are unhappy

Skewville roller paint graffiti -- You Are Not In Kansas Anymore  

• California utility proactively cuts power because of weather

• 3 million US students don’t have home internet

• Capitol flag flap in Wisconsin over gay pride rainbow -- Of course you're upset. Get to the back of the line. -- Reuters Photos: White nationalists disrupt Detroit pride parade

• Minority employees are often asked to work 'double duty'

• Americans' perception of LGBTQ rights under federal law largely incorrect

Brazilian street artist L7m -- Vannes. France

[Capricasix]

“Ratio” is the number of replies (indicated by a 💬 without the ellipsis) versus the number of retweets (indicated by the square arrows) and likes (indicated by the heart icon). Getting “ratioed” on Twitter is when a tweet has a high number of replies compared to likes and retweets, and it’s generally not a positive thing!

[bannana]

1 hour ago, Capricasix said:

“Ratio” is the number of replies (indicated by a 💬 without the ellipsis) versus the number of retweets (indicated by the square arrows) and likes (indicated by the heart icon). Getting “ratioed” on Twitter is when a tweet has a high number of replies compared to likes and retweets, and it’s generally not a positive thing!

Thank you so much @Capricasix.  I used to use twitter just for fun under a pseudonym but now I am using it professionally, but still learning!  That is very helpful. 👍

[Cupid Stunt]

• Good Morning! Many breakfast cereals still contaminated by weed killer, environmental group says

United States' Alex Morgan, left, encourages Thailand's Miranda Nild, right, after the Women's World Cup Group F soccer match between United States and Thailand.

• US defends itself after humiliating Thailand at Women's World Cup -- No men's team would be admonished for celebrating after giving an opponent a shellacking, In World Cup play points scored determine match placement in the bracket.
• How the US women’s soccer team 13-0 World Cup win against Thailand became about pay equity -- The US women’s team scored more goals in one game than the men’s team has in every World Cup since 2006 combined.
• Beyond World Cup, U.S. team eyes bigger trophy - support for women's game

• What Hong Kong’s massive protests are really about -- The fight over an extradition law and democracy in China, explained.

• The war to free science -- How librarians, pirates, and funders are liberating the world’s academic research from paywalls.
• Science is often hyped-up and poorly communicated. Researchers can fight back.
• The More Gender Equality, the Fewer Women in STEM -- A new study explores a strange paradox: In countries that empower women, they are less likely to choose math and science professions.

Decrim NY, a coalition behind decriminalizing prostitution in New York, has worked for months to persuade lawmakers to support their efforts.

• Bills to Decriminalize Prostitution Are Introduced. Is New York Ready?  -- Is anyone beyond the Pro's and John's?

• Jon Stewart rips lawmakers for not showing up to 9/11 responders hearing

• Michigan doctor faces trial over misdiagnosing epilepsy

• A US government agency forced open a gate in the private border wall

• Charles Pierce: “Male Actress” and Diva-Worshipper Supreme

• People are sick of drinking.

• Meet the Nine Dogs Competing to Win the Title of World’s Ugliest Dog -- Don’t let the mean-spirited title fool you. The goal of the World’s Ugliest Dog contest—which is held every year in Petaluma, California—is to get more dogs adopted. 

• He Tried to Plug a Wasp Nest. He Ended Up Sparking California’s Biggest Wildfire. -- Yup. A spark is all it takes.

Samina -- Figueira da Foz, Portugal 

Edited June 13, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[peacheslatour]

I love Jon Stewart.