Category Archives: Media

Lee “Scratch” Perry ► Monday Musical Appreciation

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Celebrating his 81st birthday today is the Grandfather of Reggae and the father of Dub Reggae, Rainford Hugh Perry, aka Lee “Scratch” Perry.

Back in the days before the word Reggae even existed — when it was still called Ska, or Bluebeat, or One Drop — Perry apprenticed at Kingston’s Studio One. There he performed a number of chores for owner Coxone Dodd, including selling records. During his short time there he managed to record some 30 songs for the label. However, Perry and Dodd didn’t get along, so Perry moved on to Joe Gibbs and Amalgamated Records. That relationship, rocky as it was, lasted longer. However, Gibbs’ money woes had him strike out on his own and Perry started up his own label, Upsetter Records in 1968. According to the WikiWackyWoo:

His first major single “People Funny Boy”, which was an insult directed at Gibbs, sold well with 60,000 copies sold in Jamaica alone. It is notable for its innovative use of a sample (a crying baby) as well as a fast, chugging beat that would soon become identifiable as “reggae” (the new kind of sound which was given the name “Steppers”). Similarly his acrimonious 1967 single as Lee “King” Perry Run for Cover was likewise aimed at Sir Coxsone. From 1968 until 1972 he worked with his studio band The Upsetters. During the 1970s, Perry released numerous recordings on a variety of record labels that he controlled, and many of his songs were popular in both Jamaica and the United Kingdom. He soon became known for his innovative production techniques as well as his eccentric character.[1] In 1970 Perry produced and released The Wailers track “Mr Brown” (1970) with its unusual use of studio effects and eerie opening highlighting his unique approach to production.


Perry produced some of the earliest tracks for the Wailers, before they signed with Island Records. Chris Blackwell took the original tracks, removed the rough edges, renamed the band Bob Marley and the Wailers, and nothing was ever the same again.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I worked for Island Records Canada in the mid-’70s, where my first contact with Lee “Scratch” Perry and Dub Reggae was the amazing LP Super Ape by The Upsetters. I loved Dub Reggae from the start because it was like Psychedelic Reggae. The fun was trying to identify the original tunes that Perry Dubbed up. It’s one album from that era I still put on and CRANK it up to 11.

Perry’s career has had its ups and downs over the years, including a December 2015 fire at his Secret Laboratory Studio. According to Rolling Stone:

Lee “Scratch” Perry‘s “secret laboratory” studio in Switzerland burned down Thursday, destroying the dub legend’s collection of studio equipment, art, stage costumes and music. “Something very very sad happened. I forgot to [put] out a candle and my whole secret laboratory burned out,” Perry wrote on Facebook, “My whole life collections, arts, my magic hats, my magic boots, all my crazy show outfits and costumes: king, pope, general, magician… All my electronics and studio equipment and my magic mic, books, musik, CDs… Everything gone.”

On Facebook, Perry also posted photos of himself standing in the burnt-out ruins of the studio, which lent its name to Perry’s 1990 LP From the Secret Laboratory. Perry also noted in his letter, “I am so sad and my wife is so mad.” As a result of the fire, Perry is asking fans to provide specially made costumes for his upcoming trek; fans who contribute an outfit will be placed on the guest list and given backstage access when the Upsetter’s trek comes to their town.

This was Perry’s second fire. In 1981 he torched his earlier Black Ark studios himself, the episode eventually blamed on a mental breakdown.

I had the extreme thrill to see Perry perform live at DubFest in Hollywood, Florida, in September of 2009. I never thought I’d have the opportunity to see him because he spends most of his time in Europe. But, I was able to knock him off my bucket list on the same day I also saw Bunny Wailer live.

Lee “Scratch” Perry is still going strong and he’s already tweeted out his own birthday greetings.

You can find many biographical details on the interwebs, but Not Now Silly is all about the music. Here’s a small sample of the hundreds of tracks that Lee “Scratch” Perry has produced and recorded over the years, starting with one of my all-time favourite Reggae tracks:










Hair Today; Gone Tomorrow

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This video is dedicated to —

Oh, hell. Just watch.

I miss Pops every day.

At the same time I was fighting the The Hair Wars, I lived 4 houses south of David Palmer, original drummer for The Amboy Dukes, which would practice in his garage on Gilchrist Street in northwest Detroit.

David Palmer, far left

David and I went to the same school, of course. When I was getting kicked out for having long hair — and then no hair — David also had a run-ins with the administration of Coffey Jr. High over the issue of his hair length.

To see the current condition of
Coffey Jr. High, click HERE.

At this point, The Amboy Dukes had already had a hit, or two. So David showed up with a note from his lawyer. It said (translating legal lingo into English), “David Palmer is in Show Biz. Today’s Show Biz requires long hair. Forcing Master Palmer to cut his hair could negatively impact his earnings. We’ll sue.”

The school, which had been fumbling with its hair policy ever since The Beatles invaded these shores, decided to fold. They agreed that Palmer need not sheer his locks, but would have to keep it inside his shirt collar. From that day on Palmer wore his hair beneath the collar of his psychedelic shirts, while wearing a wild tie to hold it all together.

It was always fun to be walking behind him as we were leaving school at the end of the day. The second he crossed the threshold he’d reach around and, with one motion on the back of his neck, would sweep his hair out of his shirt, where it would cascade down to the middle of his back.

Here are a few of the Amboy Dukes greatest tunes, starting with them miming their biggest hit:



It’s too bad about that douchenozzle Ted Nugent, though.

The Beginning of the End of McCarthyism ► Throwback Thursday

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On this date in 1954 brave journalists at CBS began curing ‘Merka from the cancer of McCarthyism.

Millions of words have been written about McCarthyism and I won’t even begin to sum them up. If you are unfamiliar with these shining beacons of truthful journalism [Hey! Millennials!], I’ve taken the opportunity of  quoting just a few of those words:

Fred Friendly; NYT obit

A big, imposing man who hurled ideas and opinions around like Olympian thunderbolts, Mr. Friendly, as both producer and president of CBS News, stood at the center of some of the most influential and contentious moments in the early history of television journalism. His work included the best-remembered documentary ever produced, Mr. Murrow’s dismantling of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his demagogic anti-Communist campaign inside the United States Government.

He also produced Mr. Murrow’s other groundbreaking documentaries including ”Harvest of Shame” in 1960, an expose on the hardships of migrant workers.

Later, as president of CBS News from 1964 to 1966, he clashed frequently with the network’s management over his efforts to get more news on the air. His often caustic criticisms of what he maintained was the television networks’ lack of commitment to quality news coverage continued through the years.

Edward R. Murrow; NYT Obit:

The ever-present cigarette (he smoked 60 to 70 a day), the matter-of-fact baritone voice and the high-domed, worried, lopsided face were the trademarks of the radio reporter who became internationally famous during World War II with broadcasts that started, “This. . .is London.”

Later, on television, his series of news documentaries, “See It Now,” on the Columbia Broadcasting System from 1951 to 1958, set the standard for all television documentaries on all networks.

President Johnson, on learning of Mr. Murrow’s death, said that all Americans “feel a sense of loss in the death of Edward R. Murrow.”

He was, the President said, a “gallant fighter” who had “dedicated his life as a newsman and as a public official to the unrelenting search for truth.”

How about that?

We’ve gone from a president praising journalism to one who undermines it as fake news when he doesn’t like it.

It wasn’t all that long ago that this reporter was railing against Emperor Trump’s ironic use of the word McCarthyism. We’ve come a long way from the truth-teller journalists of a bygone era. We now have an Oval Office distracting from uncomfortable back-channel contact with the Russians by fake accusations against President Obama.

Let this be a teaching moment.

Let the cowardly GOP see this and realize that they are on the wrong side of history by supporting the Madness of Emperor Trump. Let them also realize they’ll either be hailed as heroes if they stand up to this crazed man, or quislings if they don’t, just like during McCarthyism.

Watch “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy” from See It Now:

Finally, let this be a teaching moment for the mainstream media. We all know that Fox “News” won’t provide the heroic journalism the fact-based community is looking for. Who will? Lately, it’s been The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, which I’ve only begun watching regularly recently. (Prior to this it was hit or miss.) Check out this blockbuster from last night:

The real question is how can the truth penetrate the FAKE NEWS FOG created by Emperor Trump so that the average ‘Merkin [Read: Fox “News” viewer] begins to see him for what he really is? When will the truth cure ‘Merka from this cancer? Just like what Edward R. Morrow did 63 years ago today.

This Is Not Watergate! This Is Treason!!!

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Today’s Trump Twitter Tirade

Emperor Trump sent out a series of deranged tweets this morning that not only upped the ante, but — IRONY ALERT! — just ensured never-ending investigations up his colon all the way to his lyin’ mouth.

First things first: Because Emperor Trump is always deflecting from the bad news he knows is coming, we need to ask, “What’s next?” If you’ve been paying attention, you know the answer. More Russian bombshells. However, while we’re waiting for that shoe to drop (how many shoes does this crazy MoFo have?), let’s examine the overarching, grand irony in this series of tweets, fresh this morning from the Trump Toilet.

[For greater context, read Did Roger Ailes Dupe James Rosen, Or Did Rosen Dupe ‘Merka? and Is Michael Flynn A Traitor? Is Trump? The GOP? Watergate Redux?, found elsewhere in the Not Now Silly Newsroom.]

Let’s take Trump’s Tweets one by one in chronological order followed by the Truth Trump Won’t Tell™:

IRONY #1: Strange that Emperor Trump would jump to McCarthyism because 1). McCarthyism is defined as the wild accusation against someone without a shred of proof; 2). Roy Cohn — Trump’s lawyer and mentor — taught him that a good defense is a nuclear offense, a trait we’ve seen from this tweeting man/boy over and over again. Additionally, Cohn was McCarthy’s chief counsel when that drunkard was destroying good people during the McCarthy hearings without a shred of evidence. See the parallel?

What else you got, you mendacious piece of horse manure?

IRONY #2: He was the fucking President, you idiot — a job you don’t seem to understand. It was his job to meet with the Russians. It was not the job of Jared Kushner, General Mike Flynn, Jeff Sessions, Casey Page, Paul Manafort, or Roger Stone. (Did I leave anyone out?)

What else you got, you soon-to-be-former Emperor?

IRONY #3: Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Not only did Emperor Trump just admit that a court gave law enforcement permission for “wire tapping”, which makes it legal, but this is hardly the first time.

In those stories linked above NNS tells the inside baseball story of how President Lyndon Baines Johnson tapped the campaign plane of candidate Richard Nixon to determine whether treason had been committed.

The short answer is yes. Treason was committed when Nixon used Anna Chennault to approach the South Vietnamese — where U.S. soldiers were dying — and tell them to hold out to get a better deal from Nixon after he was elected. The South Vietnamese walked away from the Paris Peace Talks and people on all sides of this war continued to die.

See the parallel? Was Trump using many people, not just a single Anna Chennault, to go around President Obama and tell them not to worry about the sanctions just imposed because Emperor Trump could make them all go away?

If so, this would be treason.

LBJ obtained audio evidence of Nixon’s treason, but decided it would be hard to explain why he had tapped Nixon’s plane, so he gave the information to Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey to use as an October Surprise. Humphrey was too honourable to do so and eventually lost to Nixon (who, in case you need reminding,  eventually quit rather than face impeachment).

See the parallel? We have already learned from previous leaks that President Obama’s administration had a ton of info on Trump/Russian connections. However, Obama was too honourable to use it against him and didn’t want to be seen meddling in the election (unlike the F.B.I., but that’s another story for another day).

Does Cheetos Jesus have anything else?

IRONY #4: Lawyers can make a good case out of anything. However, they need proof to win. Where’s the proof, you lying sumnabitch?

We already know your spelling is atrocious, but it’s “tap” not “tapp”.

IRONY #5: Spelling aside, for Trump to thumb the words “very sacred election process” is the height of hypocrisy. Trump did nothing but shit all over the “very sacred election process” from the minute he threw his toupee into the ring, through the rest of the campaign, and beyond his inauguration.

That during this “very sacred election process” he also got all that extra help from the Ruskies [allegedly, of course], is the ALMOST the biggest irony of all.

IRONY #6: The biggest irony is that Emperor Trump just guaranteed there will be Senate and Congressional hearings about all these issues until the cows come home, or the pigeons come home to roost, whichever comes first. Pass the popcorn.

BUT, WAIT! THERE’S MORE!!!

The Twitterer-in-Chief also had time for some serious business this morning:

IMPEACH TRUMP NOW!!!

Krazy Kat ► Saturday Morning Cartoons

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A hundred years ago Krazy Kat was turning the battle between cartoon cats and cartoon mice on its head.

Krazy Kat and Ignatz the mouse came from the fevered imagination of George Herriman and first appeared in the comic strip The Dingbat Family. And, you thought Archie Bunker invented the word?

Krazy Kat jumped to [his? her? it’s never made clear and both sexes are used at times] their own strip in 1913 and lasted until Herriman’s death in 1944. What made this cartoon so unusual is that first, like Little Nemo in Slumberland, Krazy Kat takes place in a dreamscape of surreal imagery and plots. [Unlike Nemo, the art is minimalist.]

Next, Krazy Kat is a love story. Krazy is madly in love with Ignatz. Ignatz hates Krazy with a passion. That’s why Ignatz is always throwing bricks at Krazy’s head. Occasionally, Offisaa Bull Pupp, who is in love with Krazy Kat, prevents this and arrests Ignatz. However, when the brick connects, Krazy misinterprets this as demonstrative love (not unlike some abused women, now that I think about it). That only make Krazy love Ignatz all the more.

The George Joseph Herriman WikiWackyWoo says:

More influential than popular, Krazy Kat had an appreciative audience among those in the arts. Gilbert Seldes‘ article “The Krazy Kat Who Walks by Himself” was the earliest example of a critic from the high arts giving serious attention to a comic strip. The Comics Journal placed the strip first on its list of the greatest comics of the 20th century. Herriman’s work has been a primary influence on cartoonists such as Will Eisner, Charles M. Schulz, Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Bill Watterson, and Chris Ware.

According to Comics Alliance:

But what makes Krazy Kat so noteworthy, and what makes a contender for the title of best comic strip ever made, is the way that Herriman worked within the confines of this repeated premise: the way he stretched it out over his beautifully drawn (and constantly shifting) Southwestern landscapes set in a fever dream version of Coconino County, Arizona. Herriman played with language, turning dialect and multilingual puns and malapropisms into a poetry that is purely American in the way that it forms a melting pot of Southern, Creole, Mexican, and Navajo cultures. He employed meta-fiction and self-effacement to create a constant sense of charm and whimsy. There is nothing else like it, though many have tried to replicate its achievements.

I fell in love with Krazy Kat back in my college days when I started researching the history of comic strips. However, I only recently learned that there were animated Krazy Kat cartoons. Enjoy:


View vintage Krazy Kat comic
strips at The Comic Strip Library.

Tom & Jerry ► Saturday Morning Cartoons

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Tom & Jerry are the prototypical cat and mouse cartoon characters: Mouse irritates cat. Cat chases mouse. Mouse bests cat. Repeat ad nauseum.

Tom & Jerry were created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who went on to invent some of the most memorable cartoon characters under the name Hanna-Barbera Productions. These include The Flintstones, their historical opposites The Jetsons, Yogi and Boo Boo Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Top Cat, Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, and Josie and the Pussycats, among man others.

Tom & Jerry were also among those early cartoons created specifically for the big screen in the days before tee vee. They were short films distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to be run between its feature films. As the WikiWackyWoo explains:

[Tom & Jerry] cartoons are known for some of the most violent cartoon gags ever devised in theatrical animation such as Tom using everything from axes, hammers, firearms, firecrackers, explosives, traps and poison to kill Jerry. On the other hand, Jerry’s methods of retaliation are far more violent due to their frequent success, including slicing Tom in half, decapitating him, shutting his head or fingers in a window or a door, stuffing Tom’s tail in a waffle iron or a mangle, kicking him into a refrigerator, getting him electrocuted, pounding him with a mace, club or mallet, causing trees or electric poles to drive him into the ground, sticking matches into his feet and lighting them, tying him to a firework and setting it off, and so on.[1] Because of this, Tom and Jerry has often been criticized as excessively violent. Despite the frequent violence, there is no blood or gore in any scene.[2]:42[3]:134

And, of course, Tom & Jerry were the inspiration for Itchy & Scratchy, who took it one step further.

TRIVIA ALERT: Tom and Jerry were originally called Jasper and Jinx, in their first appearance, Puss Gets the Boot:

Tom And Jerry – 001 – Puss Gets The Boot (1940) from Girish Kumar on Vimeo.

It was not all fun and games. Like so much in the mainstream media in the ’40s and ’50s, Tom & Jerry reflected the times in which they were made. In later years some of these cartoons would deemed racially offensive. I’ll let the WikiWackyWoo tell the unpleasant tale of Mammy Two-Shoes, who appeared in the cartoon above.

Like a number of other animated cartoons from the 1930’s to the early 1950’s, Tom and Jerry featured racial stereotypes.[6] After explosions, for example, characters with blasted faces would resemble stereotypical blacks, with large lips and bow-tied hair. Perhaps the most controversial element of the show is the character Mammy Two Shoes,[39] a poor black maid who speaks in a stereotypical “black accent” and has a rodent problem. Joseph Barbera, who was responsible for these gags, claimed that the racial gags in Tom and Jerry did not reflect his racial opinion; they were just reflecting what was common in society and cartoons at the time and were meant to be humorous.[9] Nevertheless, such stereotypes are considered by some[who?] to be racist today, and the blackface gags are often censored when these shots are aired.

Saturday Evening Puss – Mammy Two-Shoes rarely showed her face

From Mammy Two-Shoe’s very own Wiki:

In the 1960s, the MGM animation studio, by then under the supervision of Chuck Jones, created censored versions of the Tom & Jerry cartoons featuring Mammy for television. These versions used rotoscoping techniques to replace Mammy on-screen with a similarly stocky white woman (in most shorts) or a thin white woman (in Saturday Evening Puss); Randolph’s voice on the soundtracks was replaced by an Irish-accented (or, in Puss, generic young adult) voice performed by actress June Foray.[3][5] Paul Mular, head of Broadcast Standards and Practices (BS&P) at KOFY-TV (Channel 20) in San Francisco in the late 1990s, believes this was an overreaction to calls for racial sensitivity as the original Mammy was inoffensive.[3]

However, Tom & Jerry cartoons are meant to be enjoyed. Sadly, the Not Now Silly Newsroom cannot share with you any examples of entire vintage Tom & Jerry cartoons. Those Warner Bros. must be pretty powerful brothers.

All I discovered had either been sliced and diced, had awful wrap-a-rounds added from later tee vee incarnations, or more recent overdubbing of voices and, I believe, music. But, every video found were nothing but truncated versions or mere snippets.

Apologies in advance, but some of this is still vintage Tom & Jerry:









Putting the Kill in Kilmeade ► Fox News Snark

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Unretouched photo by author of Brain Brian Kilmeade

It’s no secret I am an obsessive Fox & Friends viewer, even the inferior-in-every-way weekend edition.

I watch it alternating between raucous laughter at just how stupid the average Fox “News” viewer is to buy that crap and sheer horror at just how stupid the average Fox “News” viewer is to buy that crap.

No one on the Curvy Couch makes me laugh as much as Brian “The Brain” Kilmeade.

TO BE FAIR: Sometimes he is intentionally funny — like the class clown sitting in the back of the room. He’s jocular. That may come from his past life as a sports reporter, aka jock supporter. I get the impression that in locker rooms he would have been a towel-snapping-grab-her-by-the-pussy type.

At other times Kilmeade says something horribly racist, or sexist, or homophobic, or just plain stupid. The Wiki has an incomplete list, as does NewsHounds (my former employer). There’s no need to dwell on it because it’s all over the innertubes.

The Not Now Silly Newsroom has never covered Kilmeade before, ‘cepting tangentially in the fondly remembered Headlines Du Jour series. Yet, Kilmeade fascinates me in a way that no other Foxy Friend does.

Lately my guilty pleasure is following Kilmeade’s Facebook Live videos. I’ve even programmed my phone to give me a noisy notification when it happens, so I can watch it no matter where in the world I happen to be.

Clearly I need help, but that’s another topic for another time.

Here’s what I’ve discovered by watching F&F on my tee vee while watching Kilmeade on my phone:

The notification always goes off during a commercial. While the other Foxy Friends are preparing for a serious interview on the set that would be spoiled by a goofball’s constant interjections, Kilmeade is sent out into the hallway to cool his heels. That’s when my phone goes off and I get the notification that Kilmeade has launched another Facebook Live. He uses this Time Out to pimp his Fox “News” radio show called “Kilmeade and Friends,” in a desperate attempt to make it appear he actually has friends.

On the Facebook Live comment threads I’ve made several trolling remarks in the past, but they were clearly negative. Only the slowest of his slow fans have taken the bait on the comment threads. However, today I changed tactics. I didn’t go negative.

When Kilmeade mentioned James Rosen, I wrote:

Then Brain Brian Kilmeade — biting the hand that feeds and clothes him — started to whine about his crappy, boxy shirts that he admitted Fox “News” supplies for FREE. That’s when I snarked:

This is how Kilmeade’s Facebook Live went over the air clouds in real time. Listen for mention of both of my comments:

They got my name wrong. It’s Headly!!! Not Heedly!!!

It’s been a fun day so far.

Reprise Records Launched ► Monday Musical Appreciation

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On this day in 1961 Frank Sinatra launched Reprise Records, the first record company owned by an artist.

Sinatra started his recording career at Columbia Records, but eventually moved to Capitol. However, after 7 years Sinatra was dissatisfied with his latest contract negotiations with Capitol Records. The sticking point wasn’t money.

Sinatra wanted to own his masters and Capitol was not having it. That’s when he decided to look for a new deal. At first he tried to buy Verve Records, where Frank Zappa later started his recording career. However, Norman Granz wasn’t selling. It wasn’t a total loss. Sinatra was able to steal Mo Ostin, one of the executive directors at Verve, to help him head up the new concern.

Reprise didn’t have a smooth launch. Not only did Sinatra still owe Capitol 2 LPs and a single before he was free, but Capitol exacted other revenge.

“As soon as Frank started Reprise, we began to exploit our whole Sinatra catalog, because we weren’t going to have him anymore,” [Capitol President Alan] Livingston’s quoted as saying in Charles L. Granata’s Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording. “We had so much Sinatra product on the market that Reprise couldn’t get off the ground!”

Forced to discount its new-release prices to compete with the slew of budget Capitol titles, Reprise found it difficult to gain traction, and as Livingston gleefully noted, the label was rumored to be in financial straits not long after its launch. Compounding the problem was that unlike the biggest labels of the day, Reprise didn’t own and operate its own recording studios, adding a major chunk of overhead to an increasingly besieged operation.

Sinatra, meanwhile, remained in demand as a recording artist — and unlike most pop stars, he was also a proven commodity as a movie star, which made obtaining the rights to distribute his work an appealing prospect even for a studio forced to sign over creative control and ultimate ownership of his master recordings. Enter Warner Bros., where top execs enthusiastically pursued a deal that would bring Reprise into the Warners family while making Sinatra a member of their film stable. In the summer of 1963, Warners purchased two-thirds of Sinatra’s Reprise stake.

Years later, when Warners absorbed Reprise, it gave Sinatra a seat at the table. That’s when he got the nickname Chairman of the Board. It also gave him oodles of money, the sale pegged to be around $80 million.

The first Sinatra LP on Reprise was Ring-a-Ding-Ding! and according to the Blog Critics web site:

It would continue his commercial popularity by reaching number four on the Billboard Pop Album Chart.

The original idea was to issue an album without ballads, which was very close to the concept that Capital had used to put together Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session, which they had issued two months previous, after he had left the label.

The music comes very close to returning Sinatra to the big band idiom of the 1940s. It is finger snapping light jazz, with a beat. While Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn wrote the title song specifically for the album, Sinatra mainly recorded older songs from the Great American Songbook.

Sinatra eventually went back to Capitol Records for his Duets albums in 1993 and 1994.

As great as his music, Sinatra’s greatest contribution to the industry may have been his hire of Mo Oston, who eventually went on to run Warners. At both companies, he signed artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, the Fugs, The Beach Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Prince and many more. Later Ostin went to work for DreamWorks records.

Here is Sinatra’s first Reprise LP, released 56 years ago:

Crank it up and D A N C E ! ! !

Is Michael Flynn A Traitor? Is Trump? The GOP? Watergate Redux?

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Three Amigos

Alleged traitor Michael Flynn, Emperor Trump‘s National Security Advisor (a position that does not need Senate approval) has been revealed as a modern day Anna Chennault. If true, this could actually lead to the impeachment of Agent Orange, if the dominoes fall the right way.

First, who is Anna Chennault? I previously wrote about her in my longer exposé Did Roger Ailes Dupe James Rosen, Or Did Rosen Dupe ‘Merka? Here’s a quick sketch for those who have forgotten their Watergate history:

Chennault helped Richard Nixon commit treason against the United States during the 1968 election. During the ’60s she was one of what was known as the China Lobby. In 1968, when Nixon was running for POTUS, he had Chennault carry a message to the South Vietnamese government. President Lyndon Johnson had been trying to broker a peace deal in Vietnam. Chennault told them to hold out and they would get a better deal after Nixon was elected. This scuttled the Paris Peace Talks and the war in Vietnam continued until 1973.

There is no longer any debate that these events happened, but it took decades for them to be confirmed. Now the only debate is whether it was treason, or just a contravention of the Logan Act.

Two Amigos

It’s taken only a few months to ferret out the new! improved! Anna Chennault. Step right up Michael Flynn. Just the headlines since late Thursday tell a story. Don’t drill down unless you want to be shocked. OH MY!!!

CIA freezes out top Flynn aide  • Michael Flynn’s Debacle • The scandal over Mike Flynn’s secret talks with the Russians, explained • Just how much trouble is Michael Flynn in? •When it comes to his contacts with Russia, Michael Flynn has bigger problems than the Logan Act • Flynn Is Said to Have Talked to Russians About Sanctions Before Trump Took Office • National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, Security Risk • Reports: Trump Adviser Michael Flynn Discussed Sanctions With Russia in Potential Violation of Federal Law • Democrats call for Michael Flynn’s dismissal after reported Russia talks • Nancy Pelosi Demands The Suspension Of Mike Flynn Over Russia Ties

Suspension? I’d be screaming for a House investigation.

Here’s why: Emperor Trump should be impeached if he knew Flynn was going behind President Obama’s back with Russia at the very same time Obama was applying sanctions for the hacking that helped elect Trump. It won’t take decades to confirm collusion. All the involved parties are STILL HERE.

What has convinced the entire Not Now Silly Newsroom that Emperor Trump knew all about this is how he pretended he didn’t know anything about this when asked about it on Hair Force Whine [jump to 1:12]:

We know that Emperor Trump watches — and tweets about — the latest news obsessively. It requires more than simple credulity to believe him when he says, “I don’t know about it. I haven’t seen it. What report is that?” When pressed he makes a promise. “I said I haven’t seen it. I’ll look into it.”

Right. But he can take shots at Saturday Night Live and Nordstrom’s.

Let’s see a show of hands. Who believes he will really look into it? It takes ignorance, willful or otherwise, to buy that pile of bullshit.

Let’s not forget how many times Emperor Trump has confounded conventional thinkers with his undisguised — and inexplicable — love for the Russian Prez.

The New York Times makes the point in Trump Will ‘Look Into’ Reports That Flynn Discussed Sanctions With Russia:

Even as Mr. Trump professed his lack of knowledge of the episode, administration officials were scrambling to contain the fallout of the latest revelations about the embattled former three-star general, who has been criticized internally for his judgment and for staffing the National Security Council with military officers instead of trained civilian personnel.

Perhaps a bigger concern for Mr. Flynn is his relationship with Vice President Mike Pence, who sometimes has had to defend him in public.

As much as we now know about Watergate, one of the unknowns is just exactly what Nixon’s plumbers were looking for that fateful night they were caught trying to bug the DNC in the Watergate hotel. There have long been suggestions they were looking for the Anna Chennault Treason Dossier (which was already in Herbert Humphrey’s possession. But, that’s another story).

Let’s also not forget that there’s a dossier in the slow-motion Emperor Trump-Russian scandal. While the most salacious allegations in that document have not been confirmed, it’s now generally acknowledged that the rest of it is pretty solid. The Russian government may indeed have blackmail material on Trump.

Nixon tried to pass Watergate off as a “third rate burglary,” but eventually it took down his presidency. How long before we learn the truth about Flynngate? Or, will Flynn fall on his sword to protect Pence and Trump?

More importantly: During the Watergate hearings, the GOP showed great courage during the bipartisan questioning of Nixon’s aides to determine whether the president had committed “high crimes and misdemeanors”. Today’s GOP capitulated to Emperor Trump, proving it supports party over country. Is there anyone left in the GOP with enough courage to call for a bipartisan investigation?

Bob Marley ► Monday Musical Appreciation

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Read: The Day I Met Bob Marley

He was born Robert Nesta Marley in 1945. By the time of his 1981 death of melanoma, he was known worldwide as the Honourable Bob Marley, OM, and given a state funeral by the Jamaican government.

Starting in relative obscurity in Trenchtown, Jamaica, with The Wailers, Marley’s career lasted less than 20 years. By the time he died of cancer as a solo artist — at the far-too-young age of 36 — there were few places in the world where Bob Marley‘s name was not known, especially by people of colour and the downtrodden.

This tribute song makes the point far better than I could.

Scoot Irwin, friend to the Newsroom, reminded this writer of Marley’s upcoming birthday on the weekend, making today’s choice for a Monday Musical Appreciation a no-brainer. Then, as if by Jah, before Not Now Silly even began preparations, a news story came in unbidden over the transom. It turns out that some of Marley’s earliest live recordings were rediscovered and cleaned up. In the Guardian article ‘Spine-tingling’ lost Bob Marley tapes restored after 40 years in a cellar we learn:

The 13 reel-to-reel, analogue master tapes were discovered in cardboard box files in a run-down hotel in Kensal Rise, north-west London, the modest lodgings where Bob Marley and the Wailers stayed during their European tours in the mid-1970s.

The tapes – known as “the lost masters” among elements of Marley’s huge fanbase – were at first believed to be ruined beyond repair, largely through water damage. Yet after more than 12 months of painstaking work using the latest audio techniques, the master reels have been restored, with the sound quality of Marley – who died in 1981 but would have been 72 on Monday– described as enough to “send shivers down one’s spine”.

The tapes are the original live recordings of Marley’s concerts in London and Paris between 1974 and 1978, and feature some of his most famous tracks including No Woman No Cry, Jammin, Exodus and I Shot the Sheriff.

These were among Marley’s first concerts after going solo, recorded with the Rolling Stones mobile unit, said to be the only 24-track mobile studio in England at the time. Shows on these tapes include the London Lyceum (1975), Hammersmith Odeon (1976), and Pavilion de Paris (1978). There’s no word on whether these shows will be released commercially.


Live, with special lyrics name-checking President Barack Obama

Recently one of Marley’s earliest interview was released online. While the sound quality is not that great, it’s still wonderful to listen to a musician just on the cusp of international fame.

Bob Marley also popularized the Rastafarian religion, adopted by so many people who know and care nothing about Emperor Haile Selassie, whose name was Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael. Ras was his title, which roughly translates as “head” or “ruler.”

The shame of Marley having died so young is that we were deprived of the songs and collaborations that would have come.

There’s an entire school of thought (on which NNS is reserving judgement) that Bob Marley was assassinated by the CIA, because his brand of pan-Africanism was perceived dangerous to The Powers That Be. [Read: White people.]

As we are fond of saying here in the Not Now Silly Newsroom: It’s in the grooves. Here are some Bob Marley tunes you should never be without . . . and they’re not the ones that most people know, nor are they all political. However, the first one should give hope to all opposed to Emperor Trump.

Crank it up and D A N C E ! ! !