The month for everyone with a mother.
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Listening to John Denver on my new Amazon Echo…
If you have ever listened to AM radio driving through rural West Virginia, about once an hour you are going to hear “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, essentially the national anthem of WV.
I have spent time in the Shenandoah River Valley, and it is in Virginia. On its journey to become part of the Potomac River, it briefly crosses the extreme tip of the panhandle that is part of WV only to justify the Union annexation of a part of Virginia without the consent of the legislature in Richmond – but the bulk of the residents of WV have probably never been to the panhandle unless they work in a government facility named after Robert Byrd.
There is some strong urge built into humans to want to have a sense of group identity, even when it is based on a lie. The authors of the song had never been to West Virginia.
Wikipedia reminds me that the B&O railroad runs through the panhandle which was very important during the civil war.
Dixie was written by an Ohio native in his New York apartment.
The FBI investigated the Kingmen’s $50 cover of “Louie Louie” by a group of Portland teenagers for as long as Robert Mueller investigated Russian collusion with the Trump campaign… and reached the same conclusion – that there was no evidence. The FBI spent 2.5 years and lots of tax money looking for evidence that the song was obscene as it had been alleged.
Decades after they concluded their investigation, the obscenity was found in plain sight. The teenage drummer had dropped his drum stick during the single session recording and when he did, he dropped the F-bomb. The kids didn’t have enough money to record the song a second time and had used a single microphone that picked up the drummer in the distance.
Listen to the 1963 hit and focus on the @0,54 mark. You will hear it and once you do, you can not “unhear” it… you are better at investigating than 1/4 decade of a highly paid team of top FBI investigators! 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJmtHxbNjt4
Salon Magazine MAY be kaput
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/salon-media-announces-5-million-131321765.html
That would be pocket change for Vladimir Putin
YouTube seems to be moving advertisements so they follow the video you are watching, which means the advertiser only pays if you watch the entire video. If this is right, perhaps this will cut down on the 20 minute selfies and computer voices reading unlicensed copyrighted material.
Regarding the “In the News” article on KPFA FM Berkeley, CA…
Probably much more politics at Pacifica than any other group of stations – fighting about local versus national control of the loose network of stations.
When I lived in Houston in the 1990s the Pacifica station there was almost all music and very little politics… at least during the non-work hours when I was able to listen. As a person that likes a wide variety of music, I listen often and just turned it off when the socialists interrupted the music. It was the opposite of its sister station, WBAI in NYC that is mostly socialists and very little music.
I share all this because next year marks the half-century anniversary of its bombing. As far as I know, KPFT remains the only US station that was bombed by domestic terrorists to silence it. … so freedom of speech was a freedom we must all defend and it pre-dates Facebook and Twitter.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/KPFT-was-bombed-for-the-first-time-45-years-ago-6256126.php
Enjoy your Memorial Day and honor those that made the ultimate sacrifice for defending our Freedoms, including but not limited to Freedom of Speech.
And free cheese
WNZK-AM in Dearborn Heights Michigan has an interesting feature I had not noticed until now. There have been a few AM stations that have entirely different transmitters located very far apart for daytime and nighttime operations, but WNZK has the distinction of operating on a different frequency after dark. It is on 960 MHz during the day, but switches to 680 MHz after sunset to protect a Canadian radio station in Quebec
This may be the end of progressive talk radio
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/444232-bill-press-to-end-his-daily-radio-show
(The WordPress database was clobbered again, so a few comments were lost)
Grumpy cat has died
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/business/media/grumpy-cat-dead.html
..but one less father. The father of KFI’s Tim Conway Jr. has passed away. Better known than the son, the son has a good local show:
https://kfiam640.iheart.com/featured/tim-conway-jr/
“Listen to Tim Conway Jr. Weekdays from 6 PM – 10 PM on KFI AM 640!”
[That would be 9 PM – 1 AM ET for all you readers in Pineville, Hooterville, Mayberry and points beyond. 😉 ]
I MAY have completed my move to Pineville NC.
You MAY have heard there was a special election in the 9th Congressional district of NC. Because Republicans have no party discipline, something like 8 people ran in the primary. Mister Bishop, sponsor of the HB2 gay bathroom bill in the NC Legislature won handily and has a September match with a fairly moderate Democrat.
However, since I am now in Pineville, I am now in a gerrymandered “voting rights” district represented by Alma Adams, widely known for her extensive hat collection. District 9 is just a faint memory.
Alma, with her 900 hats and 40 point victory margins, looks like a winner. You should be well represented.
I can’t wait for my free cheese!
I know you have a passion for trains. Recently I rode on the California Zephyr from Osceola, IA to Denver, CO with my 9-year old son. On our return home to Minnesota, I saw that the Curbside Classic website had just published a great feature on the Zephyr: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/trackside-classic-1949-70-california-zephyr-a-silver-thread-across-america/
I was again in Denver last week, and I saw one of the Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives at the Forney Museum of Transportation. On my return, I saw that Curbside Classic had just published a feature on the Big Boy: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/trackside-classic/trackside-classic-1941-union-pacific-4-8-8-4-no-4014-amazing-things-happen-in-wyoming/
My taste in trains goes more to complex switching yards, train dispatching, interlockings, and more the business of freight rather than passenger trains. Google News told me about the Big Boy restoration, but I will be busy for a few days.