#The Richman Group

[alexpopovic]

Alex Popovic featured in Urban Land Institute Article

Alex Popovic was recently recognized for his time as a US Marine Force Reconnaissance Scout/Sniper and his time in servicehttps://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7128471745056960513/

[4mrplumi]

ZERO (i) : SCAVENGERY . (ms/next)

-> plot synopsis - you don't think you're as odd and horrifying as the news makes you out to be. but you have never much cared for the validation of others, and certainly not theirs.

-> batfamily x serial killer reader. playlist (wip) ask 2b added to taglist

-> tw; gn reader, guns, referenced assault, violence, toxic relationships, eventual fem love interest, bug taxidermy, unhealthy coping mechanisms, murder, sociopathic tendencies, full on master list.

> a/n; horribly in love with the idea of a self-sufficient classy mean judge. reblogs and interactions appreciated!! a lot (●'◡'●)

in fact, you are grateful for their ignorance. you do not need their recognition, their thanks.

you won’t say you’re not petty, not childish, not absurd and not disgusting for what you’re doing, but you’ve heard it innumerable times before, and don’t mind it now. in a matter of days, the limits you’ve placed on yourself have become the bane of your existence.

bright, technicoloured posters with you favourite bands and characters hang on the walls, music playing merrily on a small portable speaker you’d bought with your self-earned pocket money. it all provided the perfect image of a regular teenager, to the extent that you weren’t really creating a civilian identity like your family, but living through it. normally.

it makes you giddy, and you know it shouldn’t, to be so unsuspecting. your grades are mediocre, but your teachers praise your work, you’re not popular enough to go be invited to every party, but enough to be friends with three quarters of the grade, not dedicated enough to a franchise to know it super well, but still enjoy it through multiple perspectives. normal, exceptional, and normal.

that’s what makes it all the more rewarding to do what you do. since being adopted at eleven, you’ve pieced together the caped identities of the monolith you call your family with lovely colour-coded pin boards and pictures. you know they escape into the night to fight not criminals, but fight crime, beating and getting beat in the process.

you think it’s tedious, but you never comment. there’s not much you remember prior to coming into the manor, except the raw experiences from fleeing cheerfully down unkempt, spray painted, molding stairway chambers with your friends away from an angry neighbour, laughing the whole way down. sharing fries for one among six to seven people, since money was hard to get by and harder to go around and listening to the one person who could afford school talk about it. pushing your friends on the swings and them tying your laces in return, since the swings were too far from the ground to push yourself, and scratchy velcro was for “sissies”.

you could say your childhood was rugged, but fairly kind for a gothamite. you weren’t given the life of a gilded richman’s son like tim, or the hard street crime life of jason. you weren’t raised by assassins or masters like damian and cassandra, not clever and determined like duke, not gifted with athleticism like dick. normal, incredibly. lucky, even.

you cannot think of anyone when you think of family. you considered your group of friends (acquaintances does your relationship better justice, but at ten, everyone was a friend if they didn’t wear a badge and a cap) family, but you knew that’s not what the word meant. they’d go back home to fighting parents, single mothers, thieving fathers, earning siblings or aging aunts and uncles. you would go home to a quiet one-room apartment and a poor quality mattress.

it’s not fair to say you weren’t cared for. the neighbourhood considered you their darling child, your friends’ parents sending you food, aunties reading you stories and elderly residents providing comfort when you wanted the rare support of an adult. but you had no family because by your accord, you would have to return home to them for someone to be family.

it’s the opposite now. you return home from school to bruce wayne and his entourage of misplaced children, but your interactions are stiff as stone. you go out to diners and have the most soulless conversations, stay in the house and refuse to partake in their exchanges.

because you are different. their morals are aligned to your guardian’s, of justice and strength and so on, so on. your morals are aligned with your survival, no one else's, selfish, scavenging. you cannot get along on a base value, because you don’t belong to their nest of canaries. you are, as a silly buzzfeed quiz at five in the morning said, a shrike.

yet still, you seeked the warmth of family. the resurgence of that feeling you once had in your old life. you could never return, having now experienced the fruits of luxury, having lived too far from “home” for far too long, with the added weight of a bruce wayne shaped shadow that followed you. the immense danger it would bring to yourself and those around you would be preposterous, unimaginable, but no more horrifying than the awkwardness you'd receive from you old not-family. scrutinising stares, untrusting glances, forced waves. no, no, it wouldn’t do. you don’t want to feel miserable. 

it’s enough that your presumed family already gives you those looks. sneers from damian, concerned glances from cassandra, brief unease from dick, ignorance from tim, you could go on and on and on. and you’re not stupid. you only have yourself to blame.

your vanity, as the buzzfeed quiz had said, in curling cursive font that sometimes turned to boxes on the ui, presented itself as a horrifying ignorance. unlike a peacock’s gushing beauty, your pretty-factor extended only as far into first impressions. when someone gets closer, enough to see the white of your eyes, they shrink away.

crude comments, satirical dismissal, and sharp judgement are things that have, in air quotes, made you unlikable. when watching a documentary about bug-taxidermy on one of the tvs, damian had walked in and commented on the generous “inhumanity” of it. instead of justifying the practice with explanations of how ethical it was, you’d scoffed and called him dramatic. he antagonised you, and you couldn't care less.

mean things left your mouth without hesitation, “who cares” and “you’re doing too much” at the simplest things. but you didn’t do it on purpose. growing up, kindness was reserved only for people in your circle, barterers of goods and generosity. you were polite to the old ladies who brought you food, nice to the new kid who looked at you for guidance, and offered support to people who’d offered that to you too.

you had no obligation to be kind to the wayne household. they had done nothing for you, other than pulling you out of a blood stained alley and providing you a home you didn’t ask for. you weren’t let in on their family bonds and not given the chance to create mutual trust with them, and were not keen on it after their whitewashed kidnapping either. 

perhaps you had the frayed edges of low-class living from gotham’s alleys, but you also had firmly set, stich, stern and strict guidelines about your behaviour. you would not make the first move, and you would not do more than fulfill debts. one favour for another, never more.

that’s what makes your secretive secret side job exhilarating. you have no need to do what you do, except for a sense of duty. the term itself, obligation, is unfamiliar, exciting. like many, but not the majority, the batman and his menagerie’s morals seem too high standing for the crevices of gotham’s underworld. only the red hood can relate, and even he is too far from the truth in your eyes.

death was a permanent solution to the wrongs of people. but you could not simply just wipe out a criminal from the street and call it a day. the only striking similarity between you and bruce wayne, was that the two of you didn’t fight criminals, but fought crime. you snuffed it out as it started hinting at the surface, not waiting for a track record or a ticket list on a license. nothing was forgiven, because you were not obliged to forgive.

you did not forgive, but did excuse. the theft of food, the death of someone too touchy, the fractured ribs of a parent too cruel, were excused. because like you, the suspect, the criminal, was also simply bartering. a favour for a favour, a wicked death for a wicked life. they would be let off from your radar, until someone else got to them. you were not obliged to save them. you are duty-bound only to rid. 

out of habit really, you resorted to violence. seeing a lady bothered by a fellow too close a few months back, you did what came naturally without the supervision of domineering adults and officers and shot him point blank. for a second, the woman stilled, painted in blood from the spray that arced to her, before screaming in horror and fleeing, without so much as a glance in your direction. 

you were unperturbed by the lack of thanks, with a hint of humour at the thought, since it meant you were not indebted to her and she was not to you. 

but it’s the realisation that comes shortly after, that a fine or a scolding would not similarly scare away the man, and he was now well taken care of. and you think of the other scummy people hiding gotham’s crowded basements, and think of their freedom. it makes you angry, it always has, truly it does. death was not an uncommon occurrence in gotham, the murders and abductions, cruelty and pain all as abundant as the trash, poverty and crime within the city. why was it only an offense when it came to the people who perpetuated it?

comfort does little to save victims. a bag of cash and a pat on the back will not rid them of their memories, sadness, or their losses. you are neither sympathetic nor can you relate, but you are angry. have been angry. on their behalf. the world is a rotten and sick place, and this city is especially so. and while batman is a poor janitor, the red hood one too late, and the monolith of your family too distant, you are decided. you’ll wash this place clean like a broken truck, knowing it’ll never work again, but look pretty as it remains.

and you, a good-for-nothing, always scorning, useless kid, are unsuspecting. you are grateful for their ignorance. you do not need their recognition or their thanks.

> a/n i think this is a solid part one for a prologue bit. the crow choir series is getting a bit neglected because i want to think over its intricacies a bit better. in contrast, this is a very kick and throw kind of plot line, more fun to write for.

i've been super nervous to post on tumblr but am enjoying it. hopefully will upload the next bits soon, interactions so very very appreciated! esp ideas in comments or asks, because it makes me feel like i'm not wiling away the time i should use for other things (T_T) overall just feels nice too.

thank you for reading!!

[glowinggator]

Any ideas of what a first date would look like with Rocky? 👀

(Side note, I adore your writing style so much!! ^^)

A/N: Awe, thank you so much!🧡 Sorry for the late reply, school has officially started back up again, but I'm glad I was able to get this out! I remember in one of the livestreams Tracy said that he'd see nothing wrong with taking you to 7/11 for a date, which let's be real, is my ideal man. Enjoy! 

Extravagant; Theatrical; Moonstruck. These are but three of the most common words to describe Rocky. Despite his handpicked friend group -- or more bluntly, his small group of people willing to stick around -- Rocky tends to draw quite a bit of attention. Very little of it is good, but still: words like that are thrown around with ease. As such, one might assume that Rocky's perfect date would be to some extravagant place where the music never stops and the night never ends. 

But… they would be wrong. 

Because despite his tales of grandeur, Rocky's life has taught him to enjoy the simpler things. Car rides down the streets of Saint Louis, hopping through abandoned streetcars, pocketing snacks from the big convenience store down the lane… that's what Rocky really looks forward to. 

And let's face it: Rocky would love to take you out to a fancy dinner and a movie, but this cat just doesn't have the funds for it. Closest he could get would be the Little Daisy during daylight -- Miss M's always makes sure he's at least somewhat fed -- but he knows all too well that Ivy would leap at the chance to get him back for all the times he's teased her about Freckle. 

(He's sent her off on a few wild goose chases before to grab a bite with you, though. Pancakes can't be beat,  you know.) 

But loving Rocky, you know that money isn't everything. Every moment spent with him is memorable. Many of your date nights are just the two of you hanging out together, whether it be driving around or completing a run for the Lackadaisy -- any moment spent together is so damn good that it's hard to call it anything but a date. Your friends don't quite get it, but that's alright. 

For your first ever date though… he tried pretty damn hard. 

He hopped the fence of some richman (it was Sedgewick, although he'll never admit to it) to steal some flowers for you, tying them together in orange and blue ribbons. You still have their petals saved, pressed into books and stored in mahogany boxes along with all of the letters he's ever written to you. 

The rest of the day is spent in each other's company, driving, talking, and occasionally stopping to dance in the streets of Saint Louis. You can't say you were much of a dancer before meeting him, but he has an infectious energy about him. 

He eventually convinces you to let him sneak you into a movie -- he refuses to let you spend a dime on him, even if you're well-off. You can't tell if he likes the thrill of sneaking in, or if it's out of some chivalrous obligation. Likely both. 

All in all, the night is one of the most magical you've ever had. No price tags for rose colored glasses, or awkward lapses in silence. Just the two of you, taking every moment as it comes by. 

He insists on driving you home that night, just to make sure you get in safe, still thrumming with excitement. Neither of you really want the night to end, but alas. 

(It's not like the two of you don't see each other daily.) 

(He short-circuits when you press a kiss to his cheek before darting out of the car. His voice cracks a little when he says he'll see you tomorrow, hands slipping off the center console when he leans out to shout. You can't wait to see him again.) 

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Fredi Washington

Fredericka Carolyn "Fredi" Washington (December 23, 1903 – June 28, 1994) was an American stage and film actress, civil rights activist, performer, and writer. Washington was of African American descent. She was one of the first Black Americans to gain recognition for film and stage work in the 1920s and 1930s. Washington was active in the Harlem Renaissance, her best known role being Peola in the 1934 film version of Imitation of Life, where she plays a young light-skinned Black woman who decides to pass as white. Her last film role was in One Mile from Heaven (1937), after which she left Hollywood and returned to New York to work in theatre and civil rights activism.

Fredi Washington was born in 1903 in Savannah, Georgia, to Robert T. Washington, a postal worker, and Harriet "Hattie" Walker Ward, a dancer. Both were of African American and European ancestry. Washington was the second of their five children. Her mother died when Fredi was 11 years old. As the oldest girl in her family, she helped raise her younger siblings, Isabel, Rosebud, and Robert, with the help of their grandmother. After their mother's death, Fredi and her sister Isabel were sent to the St. Elizabeth's Convent School for Colored Girls in Cornwells Heights, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

While still in school in Philadelphia, Washington's family moved north to Harlem, New York. Washington graduated from Julia Richman High School in New York City.

Washington's entertainment career began in 1921 as a chorus girl in the Broadway musical Shuffle Along. She was hired by dancer Josephine Baker as a member of the "Happy Honeysuckles," a cabaret group. Baker became a friend and mentor to her. Washington's collaboration with Baker led to her being discovered by producer Lee Shubert. In 1926, she was recommended for a co-starring role on the Broadway stage with Paul Robeson in the play Black Boy. She quickly became a popular, featured dancer, and toured internationally with her dancing partner, Al Moiret.

Washington turned to acting in the late 1920s. Her first movie role was in Black and Tan (1929), in which she played a Cotton Club dancer who was dying. She acted in a small role in The Emperor Jones (1933) starring Robeson. In 1933, Washington married Lawrence Brown, the trombonist in Duke Ellington's jazz orchestra. That marriage ended in divorce. Washington also played Cab Calloway's love interest in the musical short Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho (1934).

Her best-known role was in the 1934 movie Imitation of Life. Washington played a young light-skinned Black woman who chose to pass as white to seek more opportunities in a society restricted by legal and social racial segregation. As Washington had visible European ancestry, the role was considered perfect for her, but it led to her being typecast by filmmakers. Moviegoers sometimes assumed from Washington's appearance—her blue-gray eyes, pale complexion, and light brown hair—that she might have passed in real life. In 1934, she said the role did not reflect her off-screen life, but "If I made Peola seem real enough to merit such statements, I consider such statements compliments and makes me feel I've done my job fairly well." She told reporters in 1949 that she identified as Black "...because I'm honest, firstly, and secondly, you don't have to be white to be good. I've spent most of my life trying to prove to those who think otherwise ... I am a Negro and I am proud of it."[7] Imitation of Life was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, but it did not win. Years later, in 2007, Time magazine ranked it as among "The 25 Most Important Films on Race."

Washington's experiences in the film industry and theater led her to become a civil rights activist. In an effort to help other Black actors and actresses find more opportunities, in 1937 Washington co-founded the Negro Actors Guild of America, with Noble Sissle, W. C. Handy, Paul Robeson, and Ethel Waters. The organization's mission included speaking out against stereotyping and advocating for a wider range of roles. Washington served as the organization's first executive secretary. She was also heavily involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, widely known as the NAACP. While working with the NAACP, Fredi fought for more representation and better treatment of Black actors in Hollywood because she was one of the few Black actors in Hollywood who had some influence with white studio executives. Aside from working with those organizations to fight for the rights of Black actors, Washington also advocated for the federal protection of Black Americans and was a lobbyist for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which the NAACP supported.

Despite receiving critical acclaim, she was unable to find much work in the Hollywood of the 1930s and 1940s; Black actresses were expected to have dark skin, and were usually typecast as maids. Directors were concerned about casting a light-skinned Black actress in a romantic role with a white leading man; the film production code prohibited suggestions of miscegenation. Hollywood directors did not offer her any romantic roles. As one modern critic explained, Fredi Washington was "...too beautiful and not dark enough to play maids, but rather too light to act in all-Black movies..."

Washington was a theater writer, and the entertainment editor for The People's Voice (1942–1948), a newspaper for African Americans founded by Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a Baptist minister and politician in New York City who was married to her sister Isabel Washington Powell. She was outspoken about racism faced by African Americans and worked closely with Walter White, then president of the NAACP, to address pressing issues facing Black people in America.

In 1952, Washington married a Stamford dentist, Hugh Anthony Bell, and moved to Greenwich, Connecticut.

Fredi Washington Bell died, aged 90, on June 28, 1994. She died from pneumonia following a series of strokes at St. Joseph Medical Center in Stamford, Connecticut.

[thenameofthismanisjerryharrison]

16 Things You Never Knew About Talking Heads. Article from Making Music, August 1986.

David Byrne was born a Scot. He entered the world in Dunbarton on May 14, 1952. When he was two his father took the family to Canada to pursue his career as an electrical engineer.

Martina Weymouth and Chris Frantz share a military background. Tina's father was in the Navy, Frantz was raised as an army brat in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Byrne eventually chose the Rhode Island School of Design to study (where he met Frantz and Weymouth), principally because he "liked the graffiti".

'Psycho Killer' was written by Byrne in an experimental mood to see if he could pen a song with someone else's style. He was actually following Alice Cooper having just listened to 'Billion Dollar Babies'.

Frantz and Byrne first collaborated in a university band they called The Artistics (frequently dubbed The Autistics because of the high volumes they used). Weymouth was a fan.

One of Byrne's earlier bands had been a duo with friend Mark Kehoe. They called themselves Bizaldi. Byrne played violin and ukelele and they worked on Sinatra songs.

Chris Frantz's first instrument was trumpet. He swapped to trombone when he decided he couldn't supply the required wind power, and converted to drums.

When Tina Weymouth was 12 she used to be a member of Mrs Tuft's English Handbell Ringing Group touring American churches dressed in Elizabethan costumes and playing English folk songs and medieval melodies.

Adrian Belew was invited to join the Heads in early 1981. But they told him he could only play if he didn't use any effects.

Eno first met the band in the spring of 1977 when they were playing on a date with the Ramones during a British tour.

The name "Talking Heads" was taken from a TV guide in May 1975.

Jerry Harrison first rose to fame as a keyboard player for Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers.

Weymouth, Byrne and Frantz moved to New York looking for a bassist to complete their line up, expecting the city to be littered with them. After a depressing lack of success, Weymouth eventually bought a bass.

Lou Reed used to invite the band to his apartment, mainly, it would seem, to spend the first hour of every conversation insulting David Byrne.

Chris Frantz described the making of the "Speaking In Tongues" album as the easiest and most agreeable experience he'd ever had with Talking Heads.

Byrne picked up the phrase 'Burning Down The House' from an audience chant at a Parliament-Funkadelic concert.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

The Modern Lovers - Sword in the Stone, Boston, Massachusetts, 1972

People! It's 2024 — and there's still no definitive boxed set collecting the complete works of the original Modern Lovers! This seems like a major oversight ... there are probably an array of dumb business reasons it hasn't happened, but some enterprising reissue label has got to put all the puzzle pieces together in chronological / cleaned up form, telling the story of this still-so-unique and ahead of its time band. The demos, the live recordings, all of it. Paging Numero Group?!

Until then, why not enjoy a new-to-me audience tape of the gang in their hometown of Boston, playing the Sword In The Stone coffeehouse on Charles St. One more stoney night — another killer Modern Lovers recording comes from the Stonehenge club up in Ipswich.

It's a bit unclear what the actual date for the Sword In The Stone gig is, but I'm thinking it's late in the year, after the band went out to west coast to record demos with John Cale (and apparently hang out with Gram Parsons). Prove me wrong! This is the classic quartet — Jonathan Richman, Jerry Harrison, David Robinson and Ernie Brooks — and they sound terrific. Messy, brilliant and beautiful, with Jonathan leading everyone across the astral plane. The only bummer is that the "Plea For Tenderness" here is only a fragment, and the tape ends before the final song, which I'm guessing was an epic jam on "Roadrunner." Otherwise, a sweet trip back to the Old World.

Ernie Brooks: At some of the early shows Jonathan would set up an easel, and he’d place his drawings on it. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the drawings, but I have a copy of a poster that he drew; it’s of the Modern Lovers—a cartoon of the four of us with a heart flying over the band. It’s got the highway in the background and stuff. And he had this picture of a girl in the suburban town in Massachusetts where she lived and a picture of the hospital she ended up in, and while pointing to the drawings he’d recite the lyrics before he did the song. 

Photo: Jeff Albertson

[beardedmrbean]

Police have released images of pro-Palestinian activists who attacked a man with an Israeli flag in Manhattan on the anniversary of Hamas’s brutal surprise attack on Israel, officials said Thursday.

The four suspects, one sporting a cast on his arm, played a role in jumping Todd Richman as he showed his pride in Israel at Union Square Park on Monday as mass protests marking the first anniversary of the deadly terrorist attack were held across the city.

Richman, 54, said he was walking with the flag near Union Square just before 4 p.m. when he was accosted by several demonstrators who mocked him before they got physical.

“I just was just walking by,” Richman told the Daily News Monday. When he was assaulted, Richman was wearing a Star of David necklace and a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “BRING THEM HOME NOW,” a reference to the remaining hostages who were kidnapped during Hamas’ attack on Israel.

“They started telling me, ‘Long live Oct. 7. Happy Oct. 7. When’s the next Nova Festival?’ And then they just started banging drums in my face and I was literally just walking down the street doing absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. Unbelievable.”

Seconds later, he said, someone snatched the flag out of his hand.

During the ensuing scuffle, a man wearing a white T-shirt and black jeans struck him with a flagpole, cops said. A second demonstrator, a woman in a black bucket hat, black sweater and red sweatpants, struck him in the face with a tambourine.

Richman suffered a cut to his face during the attack and was treated at the scene by EMS.

“They ripped [the flag] away from me,” he said, “and then the guy hit me in the face and threw a tambourine and they hit me in the face with a flag.”

No arrests have been made in the Union Square attack. Meanwhile, also in Monday’s protests, down by the New York Stock Exchange seven pro-Palestinian activists were arrested for fighting with cops trying to pen them into a barricaded area a half block away.

One of the arrested protesters, 20-year-old Abdultawab Elrais of Rochelle Park, N.J., is accused of kicking an NYPD captain in the chest, police said. He’s charged with obstructing government administration.

Officials said the pro-Palestinian protesters could not stay in front of the stock exchange because demonstrators had spray-painted there in the past.

Pro-Palestinian New York City demonstrators marked the Oct. 7 anniversary with massive protests at Washington Square Park and Morningside Heights, matching wits with cops and college officials who were trying to stay ahead of the crowds.

On Oct. 7, 2023, the terrorist group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures. Hamas took 251 hostages back to Gaza, and a year later some 64 are still detained while 117 have been freed and 70 confirmed dead.

Israel, in turn, launched an invasion that has since resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of whom were women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which operates under the jurisdiction of Hamas.

If captured, the four suspects sought for the attack on Richman could face assault charges. The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is also looking into the attack.

Cops are asking anyone with information regarding these four individuals to reach out to Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

[pepsiboyy]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ hi there !!

my name is apollo, my pronouns are she/her and i am nineteen years old <3

a small blurb about me i guess is that i am in college studying film !! i work in retail (unfortunately) !!

i have been a fan of the triplets since about mid 2022 (not that long, i know, but i still love them the same <3) and if you couldn't tell, i am the biggest chris girl ever ): i love that man so bad

i listen to a variety of music but lately it has been a lot of alex g, hotel ugly, kendrick lamar, brent faiyaz, chase atlantic, odetari, removeface, kanye, lil skies, and tommy richman !!

i also do enjoy kpop, i love love love ateez, txt, nct, bts and i dabble in songs by other groups !!

my dms and inbox are always open !!

i hope you enjoy my page !!

xoxo, apollo <3

➥ BACK TO NAVIGATION

[popmusic101]

2024: Year in Review

A total of nineteen songs hit #1 this year! That's seven more than in 2023, so a bit more variation and movement on the charts this year.

‘Die With A Smile’ spent the most time in the top spot, lasting a total of nine weeks, with 'APT.’ spending the second longest amount of time at seven (non-consecutive) weeks.

As you'd expect, given that 'Die With A Smile' and 'APT.' were the two longest charting tracks, Bruno Mars, who appears on both, managed an impressive sixteen weeks in the #1 spot. Lady Gaga and Rosé, Mars' two co-singers are the runners up, with nine weeks and seven weeks at #1 respectively.

Aside from Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish both also achieved two separate #1 singles this year with 'Not Like Us' and 'Luther' for Lamar, and 'Birds of a Feather' and 'Guess' for Eilish.

Surprisingly the gender split of the artists to reach #1 in 2024 was pretty equal with eleven men and eleven women (note, I am including featured artists here). The men spent 39 weeks in the #1 spot while women spent 32 weeks, so fairly close all in all.

Of the nineteen #1 singles this year, eighteen of them were from solo artists (or two solo artists singing together), while Wham! was the only group to achieve a #1. And admittedly, Wham! are just a duo, so no bigger bands actually had a #1 hit which is a bit of a surprise. Do listeners prefer solo artists and/or duos now, or will we see more actual bands at the top of the charts in 2025?

My personal rankings of the 2024 #1’s are:

Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us

Benson Boone - Beautiful Things

Tommy Richman - Million Dollar Baby

Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga - Die With A Smile

Ariana Grande - We Can't Be Friends

Billie Eilish - Birds of a Feather

YG Marley - Praise Jah in the Moonlight

Beyonce - Texas Hold Em

Hozier - Too Sweet

Jack Harlow - Lovin On Me

Gracie Abrams - That's So True

Rosé and Bruno Mars - APT.

Sabrina Carpenter - Please Please Please

Kendrick Lamar and SZA - Luther

Eminem - Houdini

Wham! - Last Christmas

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You

Charli XCX - Guess (feat. Billie Eilish)

Taylor Swift - Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)

A few more fun facts: Teddy Swims' 'Lose Control' spent the most time on the charts without reaching #1. In 2024 it spent a crazily impressive fifty-two (out of fifty-three weeks total) in the charts and peaked at #3.

After that Sabrina Carpenter's 'Espresso' which was arguably the song of the summer (figuratively speaking given our southern hemisphere) spent thirty-five weeks on the charts without reaching #1, peaking at #2.

Shaboozey's 'Bar Song (Tipsy)', Noah Kahan's 'Stick Season', Post Malone's 'I Had Some Help' (feat. Morgan Wallen), Chappell Roan's 'Good Luck Babe!', Dasha's 'Austin', and Djo's 'End of Beginning' were all also major 2024 songs that couldn't quite reach the #1 spot.

Taylor Swift's 'Cruel Summer' is an unusual case where the song was initially released in 2019, peaking at #20 on the charts. However it spent thirty-nine weeks in the 2024 charts, peaking at #7 (although it peaked at #3 in 2023 where it also spent many many weeks in the charts). In my opinion it's one of Swift's best songs and deserved to reach #1, far more so than the dire 'Fortnight'. If 'Cruel Summer' had been a #1, I would have honestly rated it at an easy #2 on my rankings of the years #1's, second only to Kendrick's 'Not Like Us'.

Anyway, that's a lot of rambling. Let's all hope for some great new #1's in 2025! Happy New Year!

[omegaremix]

Omega Radio for January 6, 2024; #366.

Flipper: “Sex Bomb” Alternative TV: “Still Life” Orange Juice: “Breakfast Time” Patti Smith Group: “Revenge” Damned, The: “Ignite” Magazine: “Because You’re Frightened” Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers: “That Summer Feeling” Adicts, The: “Viva La Revolution” Pylon: “M-Train” Pere Ubu: “Non-Alignment Pact” Ian Dury & The Blockheads:“I Want To Be Straight” DEVO: “Uncontrollable Urge” Abwarts: “Computerstaat” Thin Lizzy: “Cold Sweat” Gun Club, The: “Ghost On The Highway” New York Dolls: “Chatterbox” Swell Maps: “International Rescue” Wipers: “Youth Of America”

Bonus classic punk broadcast.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2024/08/15/greg-kihn/http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

Greg Kihn

"They don't write 'em like that anymore"

And they surely don't.

Greg Kihn and his band were on Beserkley Records, famous up to this point for the initial Modern Lovers album, partially produced by John Cale, the group contained David Robinson, long before he had success drumming for the Cars, and Jerry Harrison, and this was 1976, before "Talking Heads 77" with "Psycho Killer" was released.

"The Modern Lovers" was a legendary punk album when the Ramones had no sales traction, only press, and we read the press incessantly, when if you were a little left of center you could still be noticed, being off the radar screen was not anathema, never mind being lost in the sea of songs of today.

And it's not like you ever heard "The Modern Lovers" on the radio. You had to buy it to hear it. I read about the record, the band that had already broken up, so much that I finally laid down my cash.

And I was titillated and surprised.

Now when the history of punk is written, and in truth it's been written time and again, mostly by acolytes, it should be noted that the two breakthrough icons of early punk, the progenitors, were both Jewish, Joey Ramone and Jonathan Richman. And that's important, because their lyrics evidenced a Jewish sensibility, a sense of humor, the perspective of an outcast looking in. And despite being basic, the music possessed an intellectual quality absent from today's hit parade. Where you were coming from, what you were saying, were very important. As was attitude. And no one but the critics and a few insiders got it. Believe me, even with their third album and "Rockaway Beach" almost no one was listening to the Ramones, and Richman went in such a wacky direction, an acoustic folk singer rendering his tunes around the summer campfire...

But when you dropped that needle on "The Modern Lovers"...

All the ink was about "Roadrunner," the opening cut, but the essence of the album came at the end of the first side, with "Pablo Picasso."

All I can tell you is, "Pablo Picasso was never called an a**hole." "Pablo Picasso" was a secret handshake, if you knew it you were on the inside, if you didn't...you didn't have a clue.

"The Modern Lovers" was a club. And it has continued to get praise over the decades, but in truth few people know it, and they should, but it's hard to understand sans context. This was at the height of AOR, bands in spandex taking themselves seriously, meat and potatoes, and then came THIS?

I've seen Jonathan Richman many times. I thought his inclusion in "There's Something About Mary" would break him wide, but that did not happen. Just like Graham Parker in "This Is 40." However Parker had his moment, on Arista, even though the first two records on Mercury were the best.

So, why not?

Well, when you see Jonathan Richman, when you listen to the records you wonder if it's a put-on. But it now appears that this is who he really is, just like another Jewish musician, Gene Simmons. But Richman looks inward, Simmons outward. But if you want to know which way the wind blows, you'd be better off listening to Richman.

All of which hipped me to Beserkley Records.

And I went to see the Rubinoos at the Whisky.

If it was on Beserkley, there was thinking involved. Matthew "King" Kaufman wasn't only in it for the money, although you could hear the influences of Zappa in the records he released.

But no one expected Greg Kihn to be the breakthrough. For him and his band to be all over MTV. It would be like some influencer on Threads being as well-known as Taylor Swift, but unlike the stars of today, EVERYONE KNEW THE LYRICS TO JEOPARDY!

But that came later. And got a second life when Weird Al reconstructed it as "I Lost on Jeopardy," one of the pinnacles of the comedic performer's oeuvre.

And the thing about "Jeopardy" was that keyboard, a direct descendant of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." "Our love's in jeopardy, baby"

Because she's absent, can't be found in those pre-cell phone days.

Once again, today the script has been flipped. If you're a male on the hit parade you cannot show weakness, vulnerability, but that's what made these records great. Greg Kihn wasn't that far removed from you and me.

But "Jeopardy" came later, '83, before that there was "The Breakup Song."

It started with a guitar riff and sound which Bryan Adams would amplify into his breakthrough on "Run to You."

"We had broken up for good just an hour before" A straight derivation from the sixties. As typical of Beserkley records. They were referential to that era when we'd all grown up, our formative years, especially those Top Forty singles we knew by heart.

They didn't write 'em like that anymore, even in 1981, never mind today.

"We've been living together for a million years"

Unlike our parents we didn't get married, we needed no piece of paper from the upstairs choir keeping us tied and true.

And when you break up, it does feel so strange out in the atmospheres. Not sure I'd heard that word in a song before or since.

So Greg Kihn and his band were not a typical MTV breakthrough, they'd put out albums previously, unheralded and unknown. But they were in the right place at the right time, and with exposure, they made it.

And then it was over. It always is. And then what do you do?

Some go back to college, some fall into drugs, others rob 7-11's and...

Greg Kihn became a deejay. We knew this. But we didn't hear him. Because radio was local, you may not remember that when Howard Stern was syndicated across the nation that was a huge breakthrough.

And now Greg Kihn is dead. As are two other members of his band. That's what you check first these days, whether the members are even alive, never mind whether they get along and go on the road together.

Furthermore, they say Kihn had Alzheimer's. I didn't know. Maybe it was somewhere, maybe it was secret. But that long goodbye is such a bizarre way to go. You fade away and you don't radiate.

And I'm not sure Kihn's music will either. I mean it's amazing what licensing can do for you, look at "My Sharona" and "Don't Stop Believin'," placements made them legendary.

And you can read the facts in the obituaries, but they won't give you the feel.

Even at this late date, at the turn of the decade, from the seventies to the eighties, we still believed.

Music drove the culture. Forget Patti Smith, how many people listened to "The Modern Lovers" and started a band!

There was something to dig your teeth into. And it was all rooted in what had come before, rock and roll.

These songs had more than one chord, they had changes, choruses, and it was surprising that Greg Kihn was the Beserkley artist to strike lightning, but he did.

And for a while there, at the advent of the internet, everyone was around. You could look them up, eventually on Wikipedia, see where they'd been, maybe even follow them on Facebook.

But that era is ending. It's the final chapter for our heroes, and then us.

And Greg Kihn was a hero. Do you know how hard it was to get a record deal, never mind have a hit, two? Nearly impossible. People didn't sit at home with no skills and believe they'd become household names. Maybe you had fantasies, but you knew it was unrealistic.

But there were some who picked up the guitar after seeing the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan," who played in high school bands, and then stuck with it. It wasn't glamorous, they were falling behind while their brethren were building careers, never mind families, but this was the path they needed to go down, to stick to.

And the audience was ready for you. All those people who couldn't follow the artistic path, they bought records, went to the club, music was the grease our world functioned on. The most nimble and influential art form.

And sure, we can all bow our heads in prayer when an icon dies, Freddie Mercury, Bowie, Glenn Frey... But they lived above us, we couldn't reach them, they were gods.

But Greg Kihn was us just one step removed.

But it's Greg Kihn and the rest of the two hit wonders, legendary album makers, non-stars, who not only fill out the canon, but our hearts.

It's always weird when you find out about these passings. You power up your phone, you're surfing the news, or you get an e-mail, and then your entire past is laid out in front of you.

And we think back and say... They don't write 'em like that anymore.

Definitely not.

-- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=c2a78763bf6ad15c359742df134489f5 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=c2a78763bf6ad15c359742df134489f5

[protoslacker]

It's the poetry of everyday speech. I always think of Wegman as being in the same group as Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. It's really about the weirdness of normalcy and the weirdness of conventions. I mean, it's the freewheeling 1970s and here's Wegman writing about looking for an ironing class . . .

Doug Eklund in Met Museum Blogs. No Dogs Allowed: How William Wegman Broke the Rules of Conceptual Art

[sleepyendymion]

Every time I bring up The Muppets (2011) someone inevitably says “oh yeah, like the song man or muppet” and I love that song, but there’s so much more to that movie than a man having an existential crisis about being a muppet.

Muppets under the cut :)

I’m not going to explain the entire plot, you can either watch the movie yourself or read about it on Wikipedia.

First let’s talk about Jack Black. The cast of this movie is incredible, with Jack Black playing himself. We learn that Jack Black, as himself, runs an anger management group that Animal is a part of. The muppets need a celebrity guest so they can raise money for the telethon and instead of just asking him, they straight up kidnap him. During the telethon he’s an unwilling participant in a barbershop quartet cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. You should really go listen to it, it’s actually really good.

Speaking of covers, we also get a cover of CeeLo Green’s hit song Forget You which is sung by Camilla and the Chickens. Camilla as in Gonzo’s chicken wife. It’s entirely chickens. It’s incredible.

A knockoff version of the muppets, calling themselves the Moopets, sing their version of Rainbow Commection which is very reminiscent of the Vegas life style.

The villain of the movie, an oil tycoon named Tex Richman, has an amazing villain song titled Lets Talk About Me. In the movie the song is shortened, but in the extended cut of the song we learn why Tex hates the muppets so much. Here’s some of those lyrics:

I recall a heartbreaking story

About my own tenth birthday party

Should've been a glorious day for me

I'd have been happy as can be

But the Muppets were there,

To put on a show!

They started to dance,

They were telling their jokes!

I didn't laugh,

I didn't know how!

Then my friends,

They all turned around,

And they laughed at me!

They laughed at me!

I hate you, Muppets so!

I was gonna talk more about this movie and how much I love it but I don’t really have the energy or the words to describe how much I love it. You should just go watch it, or at least listen to the soundtrack. The muppets are truly amazing and they never miss

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Frank Black - Wetlands, New York City, June 13, 1994

A nice surprise – Frank Black is taking his second solo LP, 1994's classic Teenager of the Year, out on the road in 2025 for an, er, 31st anniversary tour. And he's even coming to Denver! I might have to go. Way back in my own teenage-hood, this record was a big one for me and my friends, and seeing Frank at McCabe's Guitar Shop right when it came out was an important experience.

Teenager of the Year holds up! When so much of the alt-rock world was angstily navel-gazing, Frank was writing wildly imaginative speculative fiction in miniature form, covering topics (Climate change! Space travel! The Three Stooges!) that no one else was with wit and concision. These songs were also catchy as hell, overstuffed with hooks and harmonies. Freedom rock, baby.

The Teenager of the Year band was pretty killer, too — bassist Eric Drew Feldman (Pere Ubu, Captain Beefheart, PJ Harvey, etc), drummer Nick Vincent and guitarist Lyle Workman. Appropriately, it's these very same musicians who will be joining Frank on tour next year.

So let's listen to an old tape of the group during the TotY tour, playing at that long-gone jam band haven Wetlands, way down in Tribeca. A lot of the new album is played, along with a lot of the self-titled debut, along with some excellent rarities like the Jonathan Richman tribute "The Man Who Was Too Loud," "Oddballs" and many more.

[beardedmrbean]

A package of new bills announced Monday targeting antisemitism on college campuses will make it easier for the state to sue schools that don’t do enough to stomp out hate.

Democratic politicians are looking to adjust the legal standard to make it easier to sue colleges and universities that allow discriminatory harassment to go unchecked — and ensure the schools are complying with civil rights laws.

The first bill, dubbed the ACCESS Act, would bring the legal standard in line with the 2019 rules that allow employees to sue their employer for allowing discriminatory harassment in the workplace.

“The ACCESS Act is intended to push colleges and universities to be more proactive in preventing and responding to incidents of harassment and discrimination — not just antisemitism, which we have seen more and more since the horrific attacks of Oct. 7, but hate and bias of all kinds,” the bill’s Assembly sponsor, Micah Lasher (D-Manhattan), told The Post.

“The state of New York must use every tool at its disposal to protect our kids, and that’s what we are doing with this legislation,” Lasher continued.

The bill is sponsored by state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-Queens) in the upper chamber.

Another bill, carried by Assembly member Nily Rozic (D-Queens) and state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Queens), would require every campus to have a dedicated coordinator to ensure compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“By ensuring every New York college and university has a dedicated Title VI coordinator, we are reinforcing the fundamental right to an education free from bias and intimidation and that allows students to be students,” Rozic said.

“This legislation is about strengthening protections, ensuring accountability, and fostering a safer, more inclusive learning environment for all students,” she continued.

The legislative package is backed by the UJA-Federation, Anti-Defamation League and StandWithUs.

“We have seen an alarming number of antisemitic incidents on college campuses, and it is critical that we have appropriate measures in place to ensure that no student feels unsafe due to their identity. We are grateful for the sponsors’ leadership on this important issue,” wrote Scott Richman, regional director of New York and New Jersey at the Anti-Defamation League.

Just a week ago, the US Department of Education announced it’s investigating five universities, including Columbia, for allowing antisemitic harassment to fester on campus.

One group recently claimed that 72% of Jewish students on college campuses feel unwelcome because of their religious identity.

That report gave Cornell University and the New School “F” ratings for how they addressed hate against Jewish students.

[micromontage]

Right now I'm listening to the "Hot Hits Deutschland" playlist in ascending order (#50-#1) and will be writing down my thoughts to every single hit. accompany me on this adventure . covering 50-40 here

#50: Nemo - The Code ... I do like the little ostinato in "this story is my tru u u u u uuuuuth" that's clearly an homage to Mozart's "Queen of the Night Aria" from the magic flute, and the orchestral blasts in the "Ooohh" parts juxtaposed to the pauses right after in the beginning. Listening back to it I realize I don't mind the instrumental in itself. It does feel like everyone who worked on this track specifically found it a good idea to have the passionate singing that sounds like a beginner actor auditioning for an emotionally loaded role that's household to pop music broken up by fast rapping parts that vaguely reference some form of hardship without explicitly naming it at all. The song works as a standalone single only by showcasing what awaits you on the rest of the album, except that there is no album but rather a Felix Jaehn Remix and an orchestral version of it. A short pivot onto the artist's spotify page reveals that their discography of the past 4-5 years consists exclusively of singles. Hailey is a much more appealing song than The Code thanks to its groovy and fun bouncy drums arrangement and the tasteful play of pronunciations. Ultimately The Code is a high energy song fit to underscore your comeback after a life of listening to prime time radio hits and feeling adventurous. Do note the synth that matches the singing, it's cute! 3/10

#49: Taylor Swift - Fortnight ... She understood the mantra "why do more when you could do less and still achieve the same results?" and attacked the wide open niche of a target group of people who only pay attention to buzz words that are her fans. She has understood long ago that if you keep a couple core elements in your projects you can safely remove all the little things and details that make a song interesting rather than make an effort to pull in new fans who may have higher standards. I've honestly heard much better stuff from both Taylor and Post Malone respectively. 1/10

#48: Tommy Richman - MILLION DOLLAR BABY ... Oh this one I immediately found a liking to. Listen to this, I only wish they had brough in some more sections and variety into this, but at least this track knows what it is and what it's trying to do. 8/10

#46: Sabrina Carpenter - Espresso ... Nice hook, nice groove, nice synth solo, nice details, nice structure, it got me moving, sound of the summer, clearly emulating Dua Lipa. 5/10

#45: Djo - End of Beginning ... I should really listen to Beach House again. Oh but that part toward the end was cool! 3/10

#44: Post Malone ft. Morgan Wallen - I had some Help ... He has really leaned into that pop-country stuff since the last time I listened to anything of Post's. It's mostly the guitar melodies that make me think of Nickelback, but overall I don't have many thoughts for this track. 2/10

#43: Floyymenor, Cris Mj - Gata Only ... A standard dembow rhythm based latin summer track with especially noticeable robot voice and a moody dark reverb, not only on the vocals but also the synth that sets the tone for the entirety of the song. I can really appreciate that even though this track is the one most lacking in instruments, it makes up for that with its longer playtime, standing out among the rest of the hits yet

#42: Peter Fox, reezy - Toast 🍸 ... Good track that plays in the club at the more somber hour of a warm night that's meant to celebrate the friends we've made that are here to enjoy one another's company. It only gets good at the bridge, otherwise the intro is rather rocky with poorly wedged anglicizations, along with the rapped verse in the middle and the key both are played in. The use of emoji in the title is new to me. I'm not against it, but I can't defend its use here since it feels, for a lack of better words, uncalculated. 3/10

#41: Lay Bankz - Tell Ur Girlfriend ... Concise, its chorus really shines through. 7/10

#40: Beyonce - TEXAS HOLD 'EM ... Fun! Got nothing to criticize here really. The last part was reallllyyy good and refreshing. 8/10

That's it for now! maybe more later)