#song featured: it's my job - jimmy buffett | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fahrni · 1 year

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Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

Just poured my first cup, letting it sit a spell while I get started. Kolby and Gracie are chillin’ at the moment, which is nice. It means I don’t have to get them to leave the cats alone. Even though Flynn usually starts the loud morning play fest.

The leaves have started falling off the trees and early mornings have been extremely cool. It’s really nice and is a signal to me fall is coming. 🍁

However, Charlottesville weather is unkind and likes to play mind games. This is fake fall. Next week daytime highs are forecast to be in the 90’s. Ugh. 🥵

I hope you enjoy the links.

Rolling Stone

Jimmy Buffett, the singer-songwriter known for his enduring anthem “Margaritaville” and businessman who transformed the 1977 song into an empire that encompassed restaurants, resorts, and more, has died at the age of 76.

RIP Jimmy.

amo

One interesting choice we’ve decided to stick to throughout the years and on to this new project is to have the app infrastructure (networking, authentication, data synchronization and persistence, feature data backends, etc.) done using the same technology as the backend (in Rust, see more in Production Environment) and shared across iOS and Android.

I like this choice. I’ve tried to sell this idea inside WillowTree but I think we’ll be doing more React Native going forward. Look, if your primary business is not shipping applications it makes sense to use cross platform tooling. From what I’ve seen of our React Native work it’s quite good and you can’t tell the difference.

If you are an application developer and want to get some shared code across native platforms, Rust is a good alternative to languages like C and C++ — even though I still really love C++. 😁

Using Rust for all that common code just feels right to me.

Jennifer Sandlin • Boing Boing

According to Pizzagate conspiracy theorists, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Pizza Hut boxes are encouraging Satanic ritual abuse

I watched the YouTube video linked from the piece and boy do these folks have to do a bunch of mental gymnastics to make this stuff up. It is crazy. If the entire Q phenomenon did anything it was to create a legion of complete nut jobs.

Heck we all thought al-Qaeda was a threat to our nation. We’ve been able to screw things up from the inside with things like the Orange Menace, the GOP, and Q. No outside help necessary.

Denise Yu

Your job title says “software engineer”, but you seem to spend most of your time in meetings. You’d like to have time to code, but nobody else is onboarding the junior engineers, updating the roadmap, talking to the users, noticing the things that got dropped, asking questions on design documents, and making sure that everyone’s going roughly in the same direction. If you stop doing those things, the team won’t be as successful. But now someone’s suggesting that you might be happier in a less technical role. If this describes you, congratulations: you’re the glue. If it’s not, have you thought about who is filling this role on your team?

This is why I wanted to become an Engineering Director at WillowTree. Turns out I was good at team building but horrible at all the management stuff, like reviews.

Now that I’ve gone back to an engineering role I can focus more on team building from a technical perspective, which I love. Sure, I do day-to-day coding, but I also help other grow and do whatever needs doing.

Keri Blakinger • The New York Times

The first time Tony Ford played Dungeons & Dragons, he was a wiry Black kid who had never seen the inside of a prison. His mother, a police officer in Detroit, had quit the force and moved the family to West Texas. To Ford, it seemed like a different world. Strangers talked funny, and El Paso was half desert. But he could skateboard in all that open space, and he eventually befriended a nerdy white kid with a passion for Dungeons & Dragons. Ford fell in love with the role-playing game right away; it was complex and cerebral, a saga you could lose yourself in. And in the 1980s, everyone seemed to be playing it.

My brothers, their friends, and I were part of that nerdy set who played D&D in the 80s. I have wonderful memories of that time in my life. An easier time. The 80s was a great time to be a teenager and D&D contributed heavily to that greatness.

Tim Hardwick • MacRumors

Apple will receive all of TSMC’s first-generation 3-nanometer process chips this year for upcoming iPhones, Macs, and iPads, according to industry sources cited by DigiTimes.

Isn’t it wild to think Apple will take the entire capacity of a chip manufacturer? Heck, I think Intel is finally at 10-nanometer and is expected to move to 7-nanometer this year — maybe they already have, I’m not sure.

It makes me wonder if Intel could get to the point that they’re manufacturing chips for Apple?

Thomas Ricouard

I’ve seen countless of tweets and stories lately about modern iOS architecture. I’ve been a huge fan of trying new architecture on iOS, and in the past I have worked with Redux / TCA like architecture because I believe unidirectional data flow is the only way to have a good & robust architecture.

Thomas is a super smart fella and is worth a read. He’s the author of the excellent iOS Mastodon client, Ice Cubes. He’s done an amazing amount to work in the area of SwiftUI performance tuning. Give his piece a read.

George Wright • BBC

Canada has issued a new travel warning to its LGBT citizens planning to visit the United States.

This doesn’t surprise me. Our nation, as a whole, has taken so many steps backwards. Most of the nation wants to move forward but the GOP wants to take us back. They hate women and want them to stay home and be baby making machines, they want to exterminate trans folks, they’re racist, and they’d like to destroy the planet in the name of capitalism.

Meanwhile the sane people want healthcare for all, would like to see an educated America, let the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities exist and be first class citizens, amongst other things.

The choice has always been easy for me. I believe in people and want the best for everyone. We’re all so much better off being a diverse nation.

Sam Gold • lickability.com

SwiftUI is really good. (Stop booing me, I’m right.) However, there comes a time when you may look at your app and think, “this reeks of SwiftUI.” System-provided list layouts, the same typography, the same colors as every other app.

It’s always been a bit hacky to do a good job of theming an iOS App. Especially if you want to support dynamic text in your app, which you most definitely should.

I’m always on the lookout for articles that try to solve this problem.

This article isn’t about that as much as it’s about how to make your app shine in multiple ways.

Yahoo

Managers should not use the budget cuts as an “explanation” for compensation decisions for individual employees and instead should emphasize that the employee’s own “impact” determines “rewards.”

This guidance feels so scummy. Just say you had to do because of budget cuts. Sure, folks will be pissed off they’re missing their raise because of the cuts but do you think allowing them to believe they didn’t get a raise because of their lack of performance is better?

Maybe the goal is to get people to quit? If that is the goal, I think this is a good way to do it. Nice work.

Xe Iaso

WebAssembly is a compiler target for an imaginary CPU that your phones, tablets, laptops, gaming towers and even watches can run. It’s intended to be a level below JavaScript to allow us to ship code in maintainable languages.

I love they this article uses the term imaginary CPU. That imaginary CPU is a computer program that interprets the WebAssembly and executes it on your particular platform. Yes, in almost all cases, it’s going to be a JavaScript runtime.

If you’d like to learn more about WebAssembly you should read the official docs but I’d also encourage you to read my colleagues work on the subject. I’ve mentioned Nish Tahir before. The man’s pretty much a genius and can make a computer do anything he wants with any language. Oh, he can also handle DevOps as well as anyone. A real glue engineer if ever there was one. WillowTree is really lucky to have him.

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spicycreativity · 3 years

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Soft-Shoe Shuffle - Ch 5

Chapter: 5/12 Additional Notes: See Ch 1 for more information. Read on AO3 under "WizardGlick." Any formatting/italics errors are holdovers from AO3 that I was too lazy to fix. Chapter Content Warnings: N/A; ask to tag Excerpt: Janus slid a few inches down in the chair, feeling as wrung-out as he did when he used to stay up all night braiding and weaving his influence into Thomas’ thought patterns. “I certainly won’t hold this over your head. Figuratively.” He slid down a few more inches. “If you want to avoid falling out of the chair, I suggest you put the footrest out,” Logan said. “The handle is on the left side.” “Yes, because I’ve never sat in a recliner before,” Janus muttered, balancing his weight on his heels so he didn’t slide out of the chair. Note: The cake is a lie metaphor

It's my job to be cleaning up this mess And that's enough reason to go for me It's my job to be better than the rest And that makes a day for me

Janus awoke to the sensation of something poking the underside of his wrist and a deep conviction that it was going to be one of those days. Mild pain in his wrist aside (what was that?), a sticky sense of malaise clung to his skin like saltwater and pressed into him harder than his blankets ever could.

Janus opened his eyes. Remus had evidently tucked him in, because he was under his blankets with his arms crossed over his chest like a corpse. He was still wearing the onesie and his gloves, and his hat rested on the nightstand beside him. Janus examined his right wrist and found that Remus had slipped a folded piece of paper into his glove, the corner of which was poking Janus in the wrist.

Adjusting his pillows as he went, Janus sat up and pulled the paper out of the glove.

There once was a Snake with a fast wit

Who fell for a Side with dad habits

Poor Janus was sprung

And hoped Patton was hung

So they could make love like two rabbits

"I'm going to kill him," Janus said evenly. He kept his wits about him when disposing of this new poem, merely flicking his wrist and sending it up like flash paper. It disappeared in one satisfying flare of white.

Janus nodded once and hauled himself out of bed. He didn't like that he'd fallen asleep in the common room not once, but twice now. It wasn't his style. He was the puppetmaster, the Lord of the Lies, the doorkeeper who dressed like an 1870s oil baron and took his coffee black like his soul. He didn't fall asleep on the couch.

At least it had been Remus to take him to bed. Janus wasn't sure what he'd do if he woke up in Patton's arms.

It didn't matter. Janus could rehabilitate his reputation today while he lounged around until he felt better. First of all, he had to get this accursed parrot onesie off.

As much as it pained him, he changed right back into his usual outfit. The stiff starched cotton was never the most comfortable even on the best of days, but today it chafed irritably against his skin.

He would have preferred a nice set of fleece-lined pajamas, but his fragile pride simply wouldn't let him go out like that. Not when he had already displayed such weakness in front of the others.

He slunk out of his bedroom and down the hallway in stocking feet, walking toe-heel to muffle the sound of his footsteps.

Logan gave him a curt nod from the couch as he passed; Janus tipped his hat in reply.

He passed the dining room table and rounded the corner into the kitchen. He had been aiming for the coffee pot, but stopped short at the sight of Patton seated on the floor with his legs pulled up to his chest and his forehead resting on his knees. It was the same position he had been in the night Janus found him in front of his door, and it made Janus go hot with worry.

Janus stared. Patton's shoulders rose and fell with his breathing, slow and even. He wasn't crying, then. Janus coughed into his fist.

Patton looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. "Oh, hey, Janus," he said like it was the most normal thing in the world for him to curl up on the kitchen floor on the verge of tears.

"Good morning," Janus said, going for the coffee maker for the sake of having something to do with his hands. "Please try to convince me you aren't upset about anything."

"It's nothing," Patton said.

Janus was more than content to leave it at that, since he didn't care about Patton's feelings. He poured ground coffee into the filter and shoved it into place with a little more force than was strictly necessary. His eyes fell on Patton when he turned to fill the coffee pot at the sink. Patton, with his shining eyes and quivering lip.

Fuck.

Janus poured the water from the coffee pot into the reservoir, slid the coffee pot into place, gently pressed the button. He stared at the coffee maker until the first drops fell into the coffee pot, tugging at the fingertips of his gloves. It would be so easy to just turn around and go back to the living room. He could even drop a hint and send Logan in. So why couldn't Janus move?

Oh, he knew why.

He set his jaw and turned around, staring down at Patton. "I'm great at consoling people," he said in a voice that came out wrong, all accusatory and angry.

"You don't have to," Patton said, not meeting his gaze. "It's not your job."

"No, I-- That's not what--" Excellent. Janus just loved getting tongue-tied like some flustered adolescent would-be Romeo. Good thing he wasn't defined by his silver tongue. "Feel free to jump in here."

"I don't want to tell you," Patton said in a low voice. "I don't want to make it your problem."

"Like I won't get it out of you one way or another." Janus sat down and crossed his legs, the better to look Patton in the eye without looming over him. Behind him, the coffee maker hissed and gurgled.

"I miss Roman and Virgil, that's all. I'm worried about them."

"I'm sorry I asked."

It was meant to be a joke, but Patton only looked more anguished. "I'm sorry! It's not your job to-- I don't want to make you feel like I blame you for what happened…"

Janus braced himself. "But…?"

"But nothing," Patton said. "I'm sorry; I know I'm being silly."

Ugh. Janus remembered the stab of guilt that had struck him when he'd realized that he might have hurt Remus. How panicked he felt at the idea that Remus might be angry with him. The fear in knowing that Remus' anger would be justified. A nauseating wave of empathy hit Janus with the force of a speeding semi-truck striking a pixelated frog. "Patton, you don't blame yourself do you?"

"I don't know." Patton's voice nearly cracked. He swallowed hard and looked, beseeching, at Janus. "I'm the one who… You know." He waved a hand, presumably to indicate 'morphed into a giant frog-man and tried to kill Thomas and his friends.'

Janus stood at a crossroads. Telling Patton it wasn't his fault would be tantamount to admitting his own guilt.

And hadn't he pushed Patton to the breaking point? Hadn't he aligned the pieces on the chess board? Hadn't he-- His head spun and his stomach dropped. Hadn't he puppeted Roman on his makeshift stage and cast him aside when he was no longer needed? Hadn't he?

But then again. Hadn't it been worth it? Janus would take all the turmoil of the past few days a thousand times over if it meant Thomas would listen to him . Janus had done what he'd had to do, and it had been a net gain for him.

Janus stood at a crossroads, and he walked straight between them, kicking up dust and rocks beneath his feet.

"It was an accident," he said to Patton. "Sometimes, things just happen and it's nobody's fault."

"I guess," Patton said, though he didn't look all that convinced. "You're probably right. You're usually right. You're really smart, Janus."

Janus waited for the other shoe to drop: some insult about his character or choices, but nothing came. Patton tilted his head. "Thank you," Janus choked.

He stood and wheeled around to face the coffee maker but nearly lost his balance and had to clutch the countertop for support. He would keep it to one cup of coffee today and spend the rest of the day hydrating and, more importantly, not having hard emotional conversations with people who made him want to re-examine his entire moral compass.

Not that Patton made him-- Oh, who was Janus kidding? Janus would walk one thousand miles through the desert on his knees if Patton asked him to.

So long as he could complain about it the whole time.

"I'm waffle-y sorry for being such a downer," Patton said. "Want me to make you breakfast?"

Janus stared at the drip-drip of the coffee as it fell into the pot. "Why do you do that?"

"Why do I do what?"

"Cook. It seems like a lot of work when you could just…" Janus snapped his fingers.

Patton either chose not to point out Janus' hypocrisy in brewing coffee or, more likely, didn't think to mention it. "Well, honestly, I like the work," he said. "It feels personal and… Well, it feels like love ."

Janus swallowed hard. "Oh," was all he could think to say. He stared at his warped reflection in the half-filled coffee pot.

"So," Patton said. "Can I make you breakfast?"

Janus lurched forward, putting more of his weight into his hands where they connected with the edge of the counter, and let his head hang. What was wrong with him? Words circled his head in a whirlwind and evaded all his attempts to string them together into complete thoughts.

“Janus?” Patton prompted. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine ,” Janus snapped, acting on pure instinct. He turned around and forced himself to look Patton in the eye. “Sorry.” The word felt foreign and uncomfortable in his dry mouth. “Yes, Patton. I would appreciate it very much if you made me breakfast.”

Patton took this behavioral change in stride, perhaps even with a knowing look in his eye. Janus realized with a creeping sense of unease that Virgil had probably been equally skittish when he’d made the move from Dark to Light. But Patton didn’t comment on Janus' disgusting predictability. He only smiled and said, “Great! Do you like blueberry pancakes?”

Janus didn’t, not really, nor was he particularly hungry. Janus said, “Yes” and forced himself to smile.

“Perfect." Patton half-turned away before turning back to Janus. “Oh, yeah! Logan said he had something he wanted to ask you.”

Janus manifested a coffee mug onto the counter (the same black and yellow ouroboros one that Patton had visualized for him) and reached for the coffee pot. “Trying to get rid of me?”

“No!” Patton yelped. “I’d actually really like it if you stayed in here with me. Not that I can’t be alone with my thoughts! Because I can and I’m fine. But you’re still kind of an unknown and that scares me and I’d like to get to know you better-- Oh, gosh, um, not that you scare me! I don’t think you’re scary. Unless you want me to think you’re scary? I know Virgil kind of had a whole complex about that. N-not that I think you and Virgil are necessarily anything alike!”

Someday, Janus was going to let Patton keep going just to see how deep he would dig himself. But today was not that day. Today, Janus wanted to sit down and take care of this exhaustion before it turned into something worse. “Patton, relax.”

“I’m relaxed!” Patton said, his shoulders hiked up nearly to his ears.

“I was just teasing you.”

“I knew that.” Patton flushed and pushed his glasses up. “Forget I said anything, okay?”

“Already forgotten.” Janus smiled, actually smiled to reassure Patton that he wasn’t angry. Because he didn’t want Patton to be scared of him. Pain bored into the back of Janus’ skull like a railroad spike propelled by dynamite. Two aspirin jumped into his hand before he even realized he had summoned then. He swallowed them with a mouthful of piping hot coffee and only just managed not to cough.

“You okay?” Patton asked.

A thousand sarcastic misdirections died on Janus’ lips. “Just a headache.”

Patton nodded.

For a moment, they stared at each other with eyes locked. It was Janus who turned away, covering his face under the pretense of swiping his hair out of his eyes. “I’d better go see what Logan wants.”

He fled the warmth and earnestness of Patton’s presence and the trenchant blade of his own desire. When he reached the living room, he forced himself to calm down and took a seat in one of the recliners that stood perpendicular to the couch so he could face Logan. “You had a question for me?”

Logan vanished the book he was reading before Janus could get a good look at the cover. Damn, that could have provided useful insight into Logan's interests. “More of a request for information, to be perfectly clear," Logan said. "I’m interested in Remus.”

“Well,” Janus said, seizing the opportunity for a bit of fun, “I’m not so sure he feels the same way about you, but I suppose I could make an inquiry.”

Logan kept his face blank but Janus could tell from the way his irises twitched and his cheeks darkened that he had understood the joke and was choosing not to acknowledge it. “I’m sorry; I should have been more clear. What I meant is that I am interested to know more about Remus as an individual. A ‘person,’ if you will.”

“I will.” Logan raised an eyebrow and drew the corners of his mouth down in an expression of tense irritation. “You don’t like being teased,” Janus said out loud.

“I don’t find it conducive to productive conversation, no.”

“Well, far be it from me to want to impede scientific advancement.” Janus touched his fingertips to his chest. “Did you have any specific questions about Remus?”

“Yes.” Logan leaned in, a new spark in his eyes. “I was curious about his behavior last night. He was only interested in staying when he felt that he wasn’t wanted-- When he was considered ‘intrusive.”

“Yes.”

“Is that behavior inherent or learned?”

Janus thought for a moment. Logan didn’t like sarcasm. He didn’t want to be teased. So Janus steeled himself and told the truth. “I don’t think it’s my place to tell you.”

Logan nodded, head bowed in disappointment. “I had feared you might say that. In that case, Janus, I have a favor to ask of you.”

Janus tried not to wince. He was tired. He really wasn’t in the mood to navigate the potential minefield of Remus as a topic of conversation. On the other hand, he could use all the favor he could get for the inevitable moment that Roman and Virgil emerged and protested his newfound position in the Light. Logan could be a strong ally in that conflict. “Oh? Let’s hear it.” He settled back in his chair and stared at Logan over the top of his coffee mug. At least the headache had receded a little, now only flaring up when he turned his head too fast.

“I am more than happy to speak to Remus directly. In fact, I would prefer it. However, last night demonstrated that Remus is unwilling to engage in social situations where his presence is desired. His rapport with you suggested that this may not always be the case. So I drew the tentative conclusion that you may be able to act as liaison between Remus and me until he feels comfortable conversing with me directly, assuming that time does come. If he really doesn’t want to talk to me, I won’t force the matter.”

Janus took what Logan had said and distilled it to its core: “You want me to arrange a meeting between you and Remus.”

“Yes. Please.”

“Anytime soon?”

“Logically speaking, there’s no hurry,” Logan said, his face neutral. Too neutral.

Janus considered this. “You’re excited,” he said, a smile growing on his face. Ugh, he was excited that Logan was excited. Since when did he care about Logan’s personal growth?

Logan swallowed hard, the line of his jaw sharp and tense. “...Yes,” he said finally. “I am excited. And I don’t wish to impose, but I would prefer you spoke to him sooner rather than later.”

Really, what Janus said next was selfish. “I’ll talk to him today.” It was selfish because it was for his own benefit. Really. If he was responsive to Logan’s desires then Logan would view him in a more favorable light and be more likely to defend him against Roman and Virgil when the time came. That was all. Janus didn’t care about the happiness of pawns and puppets.

Yet still his chest filled with inexplicable warmth and light when Logan smiled (yes, smiled) and said, “Thank you, Janus.”

Janus slid a few inches down in the chair, feeling as wrung-out as he did when he used to stay up all night braiding and weaving his influence into Thomas’ thought patterns. “I certainly won’t hold this over your head. Figuratively.” He slid down a few more inches.

“If you want to avoid falling out of the chair, I suggest you put the footrest out,” Logan said. “The handle is on the left side.”

“Yes, because I’ve never sat in a recliner before,” Janus muttered, balancing his weight on his heels so he didn’t slide out of the chair.

Logan stared at him, eyes calculating. “You may do yourself harm if you hold that position for very long. Ergonomically speaking, the best position for optimal back health is reclining.”

“If you’re going to insist…” Janus scooted back up and pulled the handle, holding up his coffee so it didn’t spill as the chair shifted.

Logan tilted his head. “I wasn’t insisting. I gave you information so you could make an informed decision about how you wanted to sit.”

“...Thanks.” Janus took a long drink of coffee, thought for a moment, and manifested a book that he thought might catch Logan’s attention. He made a show of finding his place in it, and sure enough, Logan shifted like he wanted to say something. Janus looked at him over the top of the gilded hardback copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra; the most audacious thing he could think of in the moment. He had to balance it with one hand, as the other was still holding his coffee mug, and the spine dug painfully into his leg. He looked at Logan and raised his eyebrows in expectation.

Logan shook his head to indicate he had nothing to say. He summoned his own book, the one he had been reading earlier and, with a look of faux innocence that ill-suited him, turned the cover toward Janus just long enough for him to observe that it was an old chemistry textbook before laying it open on his lap.

Janus sniffed and turned the page in Thus Spoke Zarathustra , not at all embarrassed at having been caught out.

Breakfast meant facing Patton again, which meant dizzy butterflies in Janus' stomach. At least Logan was there, and his presence helped mitigate whatever sinister magic powers Patton had that made Janus go all warm and soft and giddy in his presence.

Janus cut his pancakes into smaller and smaller pieces and drank orange juice like his life depended on it while Patton and Logan revisited an old argument about whether Thomas should adopt a puppy (or several).

They left Janus out of it, which he appreciated for once. Today, he was more than happy to half-listen and dismember his pancakes. It was easier to eat when Patton wasn’t paying attention to him, anyway; the nervous nausea receded like the tide in the absence of the moon of Patton’s focus.

When Janus had downed his fourth glass of orange juice and realized he was bored, he forced himself to tune into Patton and Logan’s argument so he could find a place to strike and excuse himself. There were other, more aggressive ways to command attention, but he wasn’t in the mood to raise his voice or ‘accidentally’ drop his fork, so he waited with his hands folded in his lap.

And waited.

Finally, he abandoned propriety and interrupted. “Do you plan to finish anytime soon or do you intend to hold me hostage here all morning?”

“Oh, sorry, champ.” Patton turned to him, eyes wide and beseeching. “We usually all just talk over each other.”

"Oh, please do call me that again."

"You don't like it?"

"No, I love it. Can't you tell?"

"Sorry, Janus." Patton smiled. "Don't worry, though! I'll find a nickname you like."

"Anything's better than 'reptilian rapscallion,' I guess," Janus muttered. "Anyway. I have business to attend to."

"Okay!" Patton said cheerily. "But one of these days it's gonna be your turn to wash the dishes!"

Janus tipped his hat and sank out. They could have that argument another day.

He found Remus in the living room making a Jenga tower out of chicken bones.

"Business or pleasure?" Janus asked, trying not to sway into the coffee table. It was hard to tell with Remus.

"You drunk?" Remus asked, placing another chicken bone on the tower.

"Hammered," Janus said. He perched himself gingerly on the arm of the couch, though what he really wanted was to collapse with his head in Remus' lap. In any case, a little flattery was in order. "I got your limerick."

"And?"

"It was horrifying, thank you. I burned it."

Remus nodded his approval. "So did you miss me or what?"

"I need a favor."

"From me?" Remus puffed out his cheeks. "Who pissed you off? I haven't heard Roman's dulcet declarations from yonder curtain yet."

"I thought we'd moved past Shakespearean sonnets."

"Sorry, Snakespeare." Remus shrugged. "Some habits are hard to break."

"Mmph." Janus rested his elbow on his knee and his forehead in his palm. He just had to finish up here and then he could have the rest of the day off.

"Sooo who do I need to threaten and/or maim?" Remus asked.

Janus squeezed his eyes shut. "Actually, there's no violence involved. It's a real favor, Remus."

"Well, now you have my attention." Remus shifted on the couch, the beads of his shirt rattling. "Are you dying? You have to tell me if you're dying. And let me watch. And dissect your body. And use your skull as a goblet. Ooh, and--"

"I'm tired." Janus lifted his head and came nose-to-nose with Remus, who was peering at him with his eyes opened as wide as they could go. "And I need you to talk to Logan."

"Oh, yeah? Ol' Tight Ass getting on your nerves? Need me to scare him a little?"

Janus pressed his forehead into Remus'. "No."

"Ooh, you're warm."

Janus tugged at his collar. "It's not like I'm wearing layers or anything."

"So why do I have to hang out with All Time Lo?"

Janus usually cloaked his dealings with Remus in a few layers of reverse psychology and the occasional double entendre for good measure. Today, he just said, "Please."

Remus frowned and drew back. "You're sure you're not dying? Pope John Patton III isn't slowly poisoning you, is he?"

"He doesn't have the guts," Janus said. Remus' eyes lit up so he quickly added, "And I don't want to see yours."

"Aww."

"And if you really want to know… Logan wants to talk to you. As a person."

"And what does this have to do with you?"

Janus sighed and finally gave into his desire to flop over onto the couch. He ended up splayed over Remus' lap with his limbs twisted at uncomfortable angles, but couldn't be bothered to right himself. "Logan asked me to ask you because he rightfully guessed that you wouldn't respond to a direct invitation because you have a complex about showing up where you're not wanted unless I'm involved."

"And you said yes because …?"

"You're right, it's not like me at all to want to have something over someone else." No use showing his whole hand unless he absolutely had to.

"Do you like it over there?' Remus asked. "Is it better than…" He waved his hands.

If Janus owed any side honesty, it was Remus. So he sighed and made an effort to speak plainly; no filibusters about the subjective nature of 'better' and 'worse,' no cryptic half-answers. "I want it for you, Remus. It's tense and it's uncomfortable, but this half-acceptance feels more like home than you could ever conceive of from the shadows. It is better. But it won't be enough until you're there, too."

"Jesus, Janus." Remus fake-gagged a few times. "They're turning you into one softboiled snake." But he shifted and gently arranged Janus' head in his lap, placing Janus' hat on his own head. He ran his fingers through Janus' hair and smoothed his bangs out of his face. Like Janus, Remus preferred to disguise his intentions, usually with irony and shock value. They understood each other in that regard. But now, Remus spoke in calmer tones, and lowered his voice. "Hey, Janus?"

"Yes?"

"If you really do have a thing for Patton--"

"I don't--"

"If you did. I really do hope it works out for you. And I know… There's a change involved with crossing over--"

"I won't--"

Remus placed his hand over Janus' mouth. "I just hope it works out for you, that's all. And I'll talk to Logan. Since you asked."

Janus knew better than to lick Remus' hand. Instead, he kissed it.

"Ew!" Remus yanked his hand back and made a show of wiping it off on his pants. "Save your love and affection for the Guilt Trip Tour Guide." He grabbed Janus by the shoulders and sat him up, placing his hat back on his head. "Now where's Logan?"

"You're doing it now?" Janus coated his disappointment in a veneer of skepticism; he could have easily fallen asleep in Remus' lap if Remus had held still for a few minutes longer.

"Might as well rip the Band-Aid off," Remus said. "And a few layers of skin, too. Did you know that your top layer of skin is called the horny layer?"

"Charming," Janus said.

"I aim to please," Remus said. He stood and did a little shimmy.

"Guaranteed to satisfy," Janus agreed.

Remus sank out, leaving Janus alone on the couch. He forced himself to get up before he fell asleep, and walked over to the curtain to listen for a few seconds. There was no sound of screaming, no sound of Remus cackling in fiendish delight, so Janus had to assume that everything was going smoothly.

He sank out and chose to manifest back in the Light Sides' living room. Now he could relax, because he certainly wasn't worried about how Remus' interaction with Logan would go.

"Hi, Janus!" Patton said, springing up from the floor.

If Janus had been startled by this, he would have jumped and gasped, but since he wasn't, he remained still. His heart rattled against his ribcage until he could feel it in his stomach. He took in a breath so deep it made his lungs ache and sat down on the couch. "Patton."

"What are you up to?"

"...Training for the Olympic canoe slalom."

Patton blinked. "So you have time to talk?"

"I suppose…" Janus said, trying to telegraph his irritation without making Patton think that Janus was mad at him. It was a delicate operation, and Janus must have erred too far on the side of caution, because Patton's smile never faltered for a moment. "Great."

He sat down next to Janus, and the inches between their bodies pierced Janus' heart like a deadly insult. But he knew better than anyone that it took more than desire to breach a gap. "I hope I'm not in trouble."

"Of course not!" Patton said. "I'm not-- I mean, I don't think I-- Oh. You're teasing."

"Good of you to notice."

"Um, anyway. I wanted to, um… I wanted…"

"Take your time. I've got all day." Though he played it off as such, the yawn that Janus stifled behind his hand wasn't fake.

"I want to talk about philosophy with you!" Patton said all in one breath.

"Oh," Janus said. He studied the back of one gloved hand. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"We can start small."

"I take it you had something in mind?"

Patton nodded vigorously. "Ends and means."

Janus swallowed. "Well," he said, feeling for all the world like he had just walked into a trap. "By all means, start us off."

"Um," said Patton. "Well. Um." He cleared his throat. "Ah."

"Fascinating. Go on?"

"I'm trying to think of an example that doesn't involve," Patton dropped his voice to a whisper, "murder."

"That's probably a good idea."

"Okay, I don't know, let's say I had this really awesome recipe for strawberry shortcake. And, uh, Logan was trying to make one from scratch for Ro-- For your birthday."

"Mmhm." Janus raised the corners of his lips in what was supposed to be an encouraging smile while he feverishly tried to figure out where Patton was going with this. Preferably before Patton got there, so he could steer the conversation as needed.

"And say Logan was making a real mess of it, and I knew you would be disappointed to receive a not-so-good cake for your birthday. So I go into the kitchen and try to nicely hint that Logan should use my recipe, but he's not having it. Now, I really want you to have a nice birthday cake, so I finally snap and tell Logan that he's no good at baking and he needs to listen to me. And he gets upset and doesn't come to your birthday party, but I make you an awesome strawberry shortcake and you really enjoy it. And all the guests have a wonderful time, even though a few of them really miss Logan and wish he was there."

"Ah, yes," said Janus. "Rousseau's famous strawberry shortcake thought experiment." He rubbed his thumb across his temple a few times. The sooner he helped Patton get to his point, the sooner he could finally relax. "What's the question?"

"Since everybody at the party was happy, including you, the birthday boy, did the ends justify the means?"

Janus squinted, but Patton's face was the very picture of innocence. "It's Logan's fault," he said slowly, "for letting his emotions cloud the bigger picture. If he had just listened to you in the first place , no one would be upset."

"So the ends justified the means because the result was good?"

"Sure. You knew that your plan was the better one."

"So you could say that I was entitled to behave in a way that hurt Logan? Because I knew better than he did?"

"That's what I said," Janus snapped. He took a deep breath through his nose. Patton was behaving with picture-perfect decorum, so Janus had no need to lash out like a cornered animal. "I'm saying Logan shouldn't be hurt. He should think for 3 seconds and realize that he was standing in the way of the greater good."

"But he is hurt," Patton said. "I hurt him. There's no 'should' about it."

"What do you think, then?"

"Obviously I think I should apologize to Logan!" Patton said. "I had no right to hurt him like that."

"So you don't think there's any end result that would have justified those means."

"That's right," Patton said, nodding so hard that his glasses slid to the tip of his nose. "Being mean is a bad means. And maybe someone smarter than me has already said it in better words, but I don't think anyone has the right to hurt another person, no matter what the end goal is. Um, e-especially over something as small as cake."

Janus' first choice of response to this was a new thought experiment involving murder. But that felt a little mean-spirited, even for him and oh, the ends of winning a debate against Patton wouldn't have justified the means of playing dirty to do so. Janus buried his face in his hands. "What if you didn't care about Logan?" he murmured into his gloved palms. Pain pulsed through his head.

"What?" Patton said.

Janus moved his hands so only his mouth was uncovered. "What if you didn't care about Logan? What if you thought he was a pompous ass whose only relevance to you was as an obstacle between you and making a really awesome cake ?"

"My answer hasn't changed," Patton said. "And it's not going to."

"What if you explained yourself and Logan humiliated you in front of everyone ?" Janus used his fingertips to apply pressure to his browbone, but the pain only increased.

"His wrong wouldn't negate my wrong," Patton said gently. He rested his hand on Janus' knee.

Fireworks exploded behind Janus' eyelids. Why did it have to be Patton ? And why did Patton have to be right? He'd even gone to the trouble of presenting his point in Janus' preferred terms, even if his debate skills left something to be desired. "You can go ahead and give me the lecture if you want," Janus mumbled. Shame burned bright and hot inside him and flames danced along the seams of his clothing, pinpricks of irritation on his skin.

"Janus, look at me." Patton's thumb rubbed small circles on Janus' knee.

Janus dropped his hands. The light flashed into his eyes and made him flinch. "Go ahead."

"I don't want to lecture you," Patton said. "I mean, a part of me does. But I realize now that I can't just do that. The only authority I have over you is the authority you want to give me, and I have a feeling that's not much."

Janus scoffed. "You'd be surprised." He looked at Patton's hand and clenched his own into two fists. "I'll… I'll think about apologizing to Roman. I'm getting good at it, these days."

Patton jerked his head up and something seemed to click for him, an unasked question answered. "You apologized to Logan."

Janus nodded, but no happiness touched his heart at the look of approval in Patton's eyes. He just felt shaky and sick and very, very tired. "I didn't mean to, but…"

"You realized you'd hurt him?"

"It helps that he didn't mock me to my face." A particularly intense wave of pain flashed from the base of Janus' skull to his temples and he winced. On impulse, he dug his fingers into the side of his head just beneath the brim of his hat. It didn't help.

"Does your head still hurt?" Patton asked.

Janus nodded. No sense lying now, not about something as petty as this, and especially not now that Patton had a floodlight on him. If Janus was playing 4D chess, he was doing so on the 20 yard line of Patton's football field and he kept. getting. tackled. "It's getting worse."

"Do you usually get headaches like this?"

"No."

"Well," Patton patted Janus' knee and withdrew his hand. "It's been a stressful few days."

Janus blinked, staring at the spot where Patton's hand had been. His thoughts came slow and syrupy.

"Patton?"

"Yeah?"

Janus struggled to keep his eyes open. The gentle honey-toned lights of the living room might as well have been high wattage LEDs beamed straight into his retinas. He blinked away tears. "I'm sorry." Patton gave him a sad smile. Janus continued, brushing away a tear that clung stubbornly to his upper lashes. "I pushed you to your breaking point on purpose. I used you. I-- I tried to push you down for the sake of pulling myself up." Pain flashed through his head and he squeezed his eyes shut against it. "I don't even know if I'm doing this right," he admitted. "I'm sorry I hurt you, but… Hurting you got me what I wanted."

"Hey, kid-- Janus, I think you'd better call it a day," Patton said. There was a nervous edge to his voice that Janus didn't have the mental bandwidth to try to decipher. "Try to sleep off that headache, okay? We can talk about this later."

The pain was so all-consuming, so violent in its demands for Janus' full attention that he wasn't even capable of defending his pride. A vague, hollow shame made its home in his chest. He stood, joints protesting, but Patton stopped him before he could sink out.

"You don't have to go."

Janus nodded and sank back down onto the couch, slowly, so Patton had time to stand up and get out of his way. It made sense. It wasn't like Patton was going to stroke his hair and share his warmth just because Janus wanted it.

Even if he asked.

Patton said something that Janus didn't quite make out before he slipped into unawareness.

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #moceit #patton sanders #janus sanders #spicywrites #spicywrites soft-shoe shuffle #song featured: it's my job - jimmy buffett

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blackkudos · 4 years

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Bill Withers

William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded several major hits, including "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Use Me" (1972), "Lean on Me" (1972), "Lovely Day" (1977), and "Just the Two of Us" (1980). Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for four more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Early life

Withers, the youngest of six children, was born in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia on July 4, 1938. He was born with a stutter and has said he had a hard time fitting in. Raised in nearby Beckley, he was 13 years old when his father died. Withers enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 17, and served for nine years, during which time he overcame his stutter and became interested in singing and writing songs.

He left the Navy in 1965 and he relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 to start a musical career. Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he debuted with the song "Ain't No Sunshine", he refused to resign from his job because he believed the music business was a fickle industry.

Career

Sussex records

During early 1970, Withers's demonstration tape was auditioned favorably by Clarence Avant, owner of Sussex Records. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned former Stax Records stalwart Booker T. Jones to produce Withers' first album. Four three-hour recording sessions were planned for the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. Just as I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks, "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands" as singles. The album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar. On the cover of the album, Withers is pictured at his job at Weber Aircraft in Burbank, California, holding his lunch box.

The album was a success, and Withers began touring with a band assembled from members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. Withers won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for "Ain't No Sunshine" at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards in 1972. The track had already sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in September 1971.

During a hiatus from touring, Withers recorded his second album, Still Bill. The single, "Lean on Me" went to number one the week of July 8, 1972. It was Withers’s second gold single with confirmed sales in excess of three million. His follow-up, "Use Me" released in August 1972, became his third million seller, with the R.I.A.A. gold disc award taking place on October 12, 1972. His performance at Carnegie Hall on October 6, 1972, was recorded, and released as the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall on November 30, 1972. In 1974, Withers recorded the album +'Justments. Due to a legal dispute with the Sussex company, Withers was unable to record for some time thereafter.

During this time, he wrote and produced two songs on the Gladys Knight & the Pips record I Feel a Song, and in October 1974 performed in concert together with James Brown, Etta James, and B.B. King in Zaire four weeks prior to the historic Rumble in the Jungle fight between Foreman and Ali. Footage of his performance was included in the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings, and he is heard on the accompanying soundtrack. Other footage of his performance is included in the 2008 documentary film Soul Power, which is based on archival footage of the 1974 Zaire concert.

Columbia Records

After Sussex Records folded, Withers signed with Columbia Records in 1975. His first album release with the label, Making Music, included the single "She's Lonely", which was featured in the film Looking for Mr. Goodbar along with "She Wants to (Get on Down)". During the next three years he released an album each year with Naked & Warm (1976), Menagerie (1977; containing the successful "Lovely Day"), and 'Bout Love (1978).

Due to problems with Columbia and being unable to get songs approved for his album, he concentrated on joint projects from 1977 to 1985, including "Just the Two of Us", with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., which was released during June 1980. It won a Grammy on February 24, 1982. Withers next did "Soul Shadows" with the Crusaders, and "In the Name of Love" with Ralph MacDonald, the latter being nominated for a Grammy for vocal performance.

In 1982, Withers was a featured vocalist on the album, "Dreams in Stone" by French singer Michel Berger. This record included one composition co-written and sung by Withers, an upbeat disco song about New York City entitled "Apple Pie." The album was not released in North America, although it contains several songs about America.

In 1985 came Watching You Watching Me, which featured the Top 40-rated R&B single "Oh Yeah", and ended Withers’s business association with Columbia Records. Withers stated in interviews that a lot of the songs approved for the album, in particular, two of the first three singles released, were the same songs which were rejected in 1982, hence contributing significantly to the eight-year hiatus between albums. Withers also stated it was frustrating seeing his record label release an album for Mr. T, an actor, when they were preventing him, an actual singer, from releasing his own. He toured with Jennifer Holliday in 1985 to promote what would be his final studio album.

His disdain for Columbia's A&R executives or "blaxperts", as he termed them, trying to exert control over how he should sound if he wanted to sell more albums, played a part in his decision to not record or re-sign to a record label after 1985, effectively ending his performing career, even though remixes of his previously recorded music were released well after his 'retirement'. Finding musical success later in life than most, at 32, he has said he was socialized as a 'regular guy' who had a life before the music, so he did not feel an inherent need to keep recording once he fell out of love with the industry. He has also stated that he does not miss touring and performing live and does not regret leaving music behind. He seemingly no longer suffers from the speech impediment of stuttering that affected him during his recording career.

Post-Columbia career

In 1988, a new version of "Lovely Day" from the 1977 Menagerie album, entitled "Lovely Day (Sunshine Mix)" and remixed by Ben Liebrand, reached the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, leading to Withers' performance on the long-running Top of the Pops that year. The original release had reached #7 in the UK in early 1978, and the re-release climbed higher to #4.

At the 30th Annual Grammy Awards in 1988, Withers won the Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Song as songwriter for the re-recording of "Lean on Me" by Club Nouveau. This was Withers' third Grammy and ninth nomination.

Withers contributed two songs to Jimmy Buffett's 2004 release License to Chill. Following the reissues of Still Bill on January 28, 2003, and Just As I Am on March 8, 2005, there was speculation of previously unreleased material being issued as a new album. In 2006, Sony gave back to Withers his previously unreleased tapes.

In 2007, "Lean on Me" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014, Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex & Columbia Albums Collection, a nine-disc set featuring Withers's eight studio albums, as well as his live album Live at Carnegie Hall, received the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album (sharing the award with The Rolling Stones' "Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1965.") The award was presented to Leo Sacks, who produced the collection, and the mastering engineers Mark Wilder, Joseph M. Palmaccio and Tom Ruff.

In 2005, Withers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In April 2015, Withers was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Stevie Wonder. He described the honor as "an award of attrition" and said: "What few songs I wrote during my brief career, there ain't a genre that somebody didn't record them in. I'm not a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people could identify with. I don't think I've done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia." Later that year, a tribute concert in his honor was held at Carnegie Hall, featuring Aloe Blacc, Ed Sheeran, Dr. John, Michael McDonald and Anthony Hamilton recreating his 1973 concert album, Live at Carnegie Hall, along with other Withers material. Withers was in attendance and spoke briefly onstage.

In February 2017, he made an appearance on MSNBC on Joy Reid's show to talk about the refugee crisis, as well as the political climate in America.

Personal life

Withers married actress Denise Nicholas in 1973, during her stint on the sitcom Room 222. The couple made headlines following reports of domestic violence. They divorced in 1974.

In 1976, Withers married Marcia Johnson, and they had two children, Todd and Kori. Marcia eventually assumed the direct management of his Beverly Hills–based publishing companies, in which his children also became involved as they became adults.

Withers died in Los Angeles on March 30, 2020, from heart complications.

Discography

Studio albumsLive albumsCompilation albumsSinglesOther appearances

A The original version of "Ain't No Sunshine" did not chart on the UK Singles Chart until 2009, 38 years after its release.

Accolades

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are bestowed by the The Recording Academy. Withers has won three Grammys from nine nominations.

Honors

1972: NAACP Image Awards: Male Singer of the Year

2002: Honorary doctorate from Mountain State University

2005: Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee

2006: ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Heritage award

2007: Inducted into West Virginia Music Hall of Fame

2015: Inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

2017: Honorary degree from West Virginia University.

#07/04 #03/30

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benr3y · 5 years

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tag meme thingy

hi i was tagged by both @crumpy-lumpy AND @wlwpigeon bc im cool and have friends

Nickname: kev, kevvie, kevvo, kebab, kiev, kunt

Zodiac: gemini sun, aries rising, virgo moon

Height: 5’3

Hogwarts house: slytherin

Last thing I googled: the lyrics to honeydukes bc i was listeninb to joey and mary kates vers from i ship it sgihdgdjvdvjg bc im GAY or whatever

Favorite musicians: ninja sex party, starbomb, twrp, evelyn evelyn, teen suicide/american pleasure club, tally hall, frankjavcee, bill wurtz, jack stauber, louie zong, two door cinema club, creature feature, hozier, tom waits, studio killers, in love with a ghost, vocaloid shit, vaporwave shit & a Whole lotta musicals

Song stuck in your head: honeydukes as Mentioned before

Following: 807

Followers: 239 on this blog f

Do you get asks: to be honest it depends which blog but usually its rare

Amount of sleep: tonight i got like 8 somehow

Lucky number: 69

What are you wearing: school uniform vomit

Dream job: idk lol

Dream trip: europe somewhere, probably scandinavia bc like All my friends are there or like, japan but honestly i just rly wanna travel anywhere so idm

Instruments: guitar and a bit of ukulele

Languages: english, learning japanese thru school and a bit of danish online i suppose (and a bit of russian but very little)

Favorite songs: starlight brigade by twrp ft dan avidan (i liked it BEFORE it was popular.. shud up) and margaritaville by jimmy buffett

Random fact: uhhhgh idk kiwi did a fact ab avi so i also have a bird hes a cockatiel named blue and he and kiwis bird are gay and dating

Aesthetic: bright neon colours that hurt ur eyes, glowy things, vaporwave, futurefunk, tropical landscapes, flashy colours that Could give u a seizure

Architecture: what does this MEAN

not tagging anyone bc i dont have friends ebbbbbbbrbrb

#🐻

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americanahighways · 4 years

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It’s been a while since anyone has seen live music. That all changed last weekend at Pala Casino in Pala, CA, near San Diego when Honey County, one of Rolling Stones’ top ten country acts you need to know in 2017 took the outdoor stage and played to a socially distanced, masked, but still-there-to-have-a-good-time crowd.

Pala Casino did an excellent job ensuring the audience and the band were able to enjoy a fun night of music in a safe environment. Chairs were set up on the lawn in groups of 2 and 4, all spaced at least 8-10 feet apart. Crewmembers all wore masks and patrons were required to mask up unless they were at their seats. The bar was open but limited to one person (or small group who came together) at a time at the bar. People got up and danced at their seats and there was even a small party of four or five women line dancing in the back away from the crowd.

Honey County is a country duo made up of Dani Rose on vocals and keyboard and Sofie Lynn on vocals and rhythm guitar. The band is currently based out of Los Angeles but Rose hails from Virginia and Lynn is originally from Texas. The band has played at the CMAs and performed “Country Strong” with 150 line dancers at last year’s Stagecoach in honor of the lives lost at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Their songs have been featured on NFL commercials, HBO’s True Blood, CW’s Roswell and three episodes of Yellowstone.

They opened the show with “High On the Radio” and the set included originals “Cigarette” and “Los Angeles” among others as well as covers like “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere (Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett) and a beautiful cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”. They also played their hits “Cigarette” and “Los Angeles.” They closed the show to a crowd pleasing rendition of Shania Twain’s “Man I Feel Like a Woman.” It was a healing for the collective unconscious.

Opening the show was Tony Suraci as The Highwayman. Suraci and his band cover songs by Americana legends Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kistofferson, and Johnny Cash. Suraci has the unique ability of being able to mimic each of these legendary performers to a tee. If you close your eyes during “The Highwayman” you can see each of these performers onstage as Suraci easily switches from one voice to another. If you ever get a chance to catch this show I highly recommend it. You will swear you are at a reunion of the original Highwaymen.

Setlist for Honey County High on the Radio Sale of the Summer Hey Bartender Cry Wolf Dreams Baggage Claim 5 O Clock Somewhere Never Knew You At All Juice Girl Crush Got it From My Mama Country Strong Love Someone Los Angeles Little White Church Cigarette Adore You Nobody but you WUT House Party Encore: Man I feel like a Woman

Show Review: Honey County Played Live Distanced Show at Papa Casino @honeycounty @tonysuraci @palacasino #americanamusic It’s been a while since anyone has seen live music. That all changed last weekend at Pala Casino in Pala, CA, near San Diego when Honey County, one of Rolling Stones' top ten country acts you need to know in 2017 took the outdoor stage and played to a socially distanced, masked, but still-there-to-have-a-good-time crowd.

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tyleroakley-obsessed · 4 years

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Today’s Memphian To Meet is Jared “Jay B” Boyd aka DJ Bizzle Bluebland. He’ll be broadcasting live from Central Station’S lobby this Sunday at noon, just in time for a perfectly Memphis brunch playlist. Catch the stream on social media via I Love Memphis accounts on Facebook and Twitter (I’ll share the link) or on Memphis Travel’s Instagram Live. Photo provided by the artist. This set is the last of the Memphis Music Hub DJ Series —details on that here. See DJ Spanish Fly’s old school Memphis hip hop set (in 360° Smell-O-Vision Magic!) here. Read more about DJ Alpha Whiskey’s all-ladies soul set here and see her 360° broadcast here. Get to know DJ Memphi$ Jone$ here and watch his set here. I’m extra excited about this Sunday’s DJ Dance Party, because Jay B is a friend of mine, a fellow writer, and a very cool Memphian that you need to meet. Get to know him a little better with our quick Q&A below, then plan to tune in on Sunday on social media at noon. Sunday Brunch! With DJ Bizzle Bluebland! This Week! Holly: What can Memphis music fans from around the world expect during your set on Sunday 5/3 at noon? Jay B: It’ll be similar to my typical Sunday fare at Eight & Sand [the lobby bar at Central Station]. I’ll be the finale of this series, so I want to make sure I encompass all of what folks have heard throughout the series. Like the other DJs who spin at Eight & Sand, I love my records. So, you’ll hear some of the Memphis music from my collection that have become staples of my sets. Some of it is rare, and some is not necessarily hard to find but a bit off the map. You probably won’t hear your favorite Al Green or Isaac Hayes joint, but you’ll definitely hear them, their collaborators, and some other selections adjacent to the marquee Memphis music. Holly: What does your DJ set theme mean to you? Jay B: It’s a Sunday afternoon set, so the energy is soulful. It’s warm, and fulfilling, like the family meal you eat after church. That uplifting, sanctified energy is in there, but you’re unwinding and easing into your week. So, you get an excuse to indulge a bit. Jay B. with Joyce Cobb at Central Station. Photo provided by the artist. Get To Know Jay B Holly: Where are you from? How long have you lived in Memphis? Jay B: I’m a born and raised Memphian. From the Southeast area of town, but I went to school further out East at White Station. After graduation, I went to college, not too far away, at Ole Miss, before landing a job in Mobile, Alabama. I’ve been back in Memphis for almost a year-and-a-half. I’m grateful to be home, and back in my element. Holly: Tell us about your “day job”…I bet most I Love Memphis readers are familiar with your great work. Jay B: I’m a news reporter at The Daily Memphian, writing about general news, arts and culture. Anyone who might be familiar with my writing, may know me most for my features about Memphis music history and its culture. But in a very short career, I’ve covered everything from crime scenes to capital murders to naval ship christenings with Warren Buffett’s daughter to luncheons with Jimmy Buffett and all sorts of things. You never know what might come across your desk, and it never fails, the stories I never would pick for myself are always the most rewarding. I think learning on the fly has made me a well-rounded individual. Holly: How did you get started as an artist and as DJ? Jay B: I think I started planting the seeds of becoming an emcee as a kid. I would carry around a little Fisher-Price boombox with a mic, rapping and singing. I’d perform all-the-time in preschool and elementary. In middle school, I started recording my own songs. And in high school, I had a pretty good run, as a part of a group produced by C-Major, who’s now an integral part of Memphis’ Unapologetic crew. I learned to DJ in college, as a staff member at Bridge Builders summer conferences. It was a way to keep the students energized each week. So, I brought it back on campus at Ole Miss, and flourished with the skill on my own college radio program. And I really love records, so spinning records helps me pay for that habit. Holly: How has Memphis music inspired your artistic career? Jay B: I’ve always been one to pay homage to the creators in this city. When I was young, it was all about Memphis hip-hop. In college, my cousin Andrew Love, a seminal horn player in Memphis soul, passed away. It spurred my interest in owning all the records he played on. I’ve been buying records weekly ever since, and I’m still not close to that goal. But it has kept me deeply engrossed in Memphis soul, its labels, its producers, and its stories. Jay B. and Memphis soul producer Dan Greer. Photo provided by the artist. Memphis Inspiration Holly: How has Memphis as a city inspired your artistic career? Jay B: Being home has been revolutionary for my morale. It’s certainly made me a better record collector. But the proximity to the artists who wrote, engineered, produced and released this music has given me perspective, care, and, in some cases, ownership over the media. I feel like an ambassador and an advocate for the artists and their material. Not only am I able to play a song, if I’m doing my job right, I’m able to tell you a bit about how it came to be. That feeds my spirit. And because Eight & Sand is all Memphis music all the time, the other DJs really push me. I get record envy. So, I can’t slip. I have to keep digging for records, relationships and stories! Holly: Favorite Memphis music artists or genre and why? Jay B: I learned from guys like DJ Leroy, Memphis Jone$ and Witnesse, through the years, to have a deep appreciation for “boogie” music. It’s the groovy, funky, post-disco vibe that most people would never associate with Memphis. And Memphis is, by no means, a hub of the style. But like most things, particularly in the realm of music, we bring our own flavor to the party. It’s glam, it’s sometimes hokey, it’s over-produced, and can tend to be cookie-cutter, stuck in a time we’ve all moved on from. It just reminds me to hang loose and not take things so seriously. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jared “Jay B.” Boyd (@jaredjaybboyd) on Mar 8, 2020 at 4:26pm PDT DJ Bizzle Bluebland at Central Station Holly: You’ve done sets at Central Station before. Tell us about that. Jay B: From the time Central Station opened, I’ve been in Eight and Sand every Sunday. That’s my home bases, as far as my DJ career is concerned. I had given up DJing after college, and was considering jumping back into it. The guys at Eight & Sand were privy to my love for Memphis records, and asked if I’d be interested in the gig. It’s been incredible. Since October, we’ve brought in Cut Chemist, Spanish Fly, Dante Ross, Case Bloom—all these guys I would’ve never been able to spin records with otherwise. The dudes who aren’t from Memphis have had an immense respect for what we’ve been building, and they love the Memphis music. Holly: During non-pandemic times, how can Memphians enjoy the DJ Bizzle Blueband experience? Jay B: Every Sunday at Eight & Sand, I’m in the building, spinning classic Memphis records, chatting with visitors to Memphis and hanging with locals. I love the lounge atmosphere. I try to think of it like a sort of Sunday Soul Brunch. DJing In A Pandemic Holly: How have you been coping personally and professionally during the pandemic? Jay B: I’ve been making it okay. News is still a busy business. I can’t complain, at all. My work is essential, and I’m still able to make a living. So long as that is the case, I have been clinging to the perspective that I shouldn’t allow myself to complain. As far as music goes, I’ve been recording my mixes and uploading them to the web. It’s given me an opportunity to be more creative, playing music from outside of Memphis, and more experimental styles I wouldn’t typically play with a live audience. Holly: How can people keep up with your projects? Jay B: I’m @JaredJayBBoyd on Twitter and Instagram. My articles can be found on Daily Memphian’s homepage most every day. I’m DJ Bizzle Bluebland on MixCloud, where I host my own mix show “Nervous Wreck Radio.” I continue to co-host the “Beale St. Caravan” on NPR, which is syndicated internationally, sharing the stories and sounds of Memphis and the Mississippi Delta worldwide. And, if you need one hub to find all that, and other side projects, my website www.JaredJayBBoyd.com keeps it all under one tab. Jared and me after a press conference on May 2, 2019—exactly one year ago! Just For Fun: Meet Jay B 1. What’s always in your bag/on your person? I have to keep a phone charger, business cards, my Beats headphones, and my computer, in case any news breaks. I don’t want to get caught slipping. 2. Guilty pleasure? YouTube. I can spend hours, at a time, watching interviews, talk shows and news features about the nerdiest topics. 3. Go to outfit? Black denim pants, white Nike Cortez sneakers, an ironic vintage t-shirt promoting a band I’ve only heard once or twice. 4. How do you drink your coffee? Black, no cream, no sugar. I’m enjoying a cup of coffee right now, actually. The beans were imported from Ethiopia and roasted in Memphis by my friend Bartholomew Jones. 5. Favorite song(s) right now? My friends at Shangri-La Records laced me with a pack of records yesterday. It’s already changing the way I’m listening to music and formulating mixes. But I’m going to have to keep the titles to myself, until they hit my mix show. 6. Go-to order at Eight & Sand after a DJ set? The chicken sandwich called “The Birdie” is the best in town. But I’m vegan these days. So, I’ll grab an order of fries over at Bishop and bring them over to the bar to chill. MEMPHIS MUSIC HUB DJ SERIES Sunday Brunch SUNDAY, MAY 3 AT NOON Live on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Rebroadcast in 360 next week. Are you a home owner in Memphis, with a broken garage door? Call ASAP garage door today at 901-461-0385 or checkout https://ift.tt/1B5z3Pc

https://ilovememphisblog.com/2020/05/memphian-to-meet-jared-boyd-aka-dj-bizzle-bluebland/

#I Love Memphis

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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Culture, especially popular culture, always has some relation to the conditions that surround it, and these days, there is no shortage of music that reflects our economic reality.

But that reflection isn’t always quite what you’d expect. During the Great Depression, which saw widespread homelessness and US unemployment reaching 25 percent, popular films showed the very rich drinking cocktails in formal dress; cheery songs like “Pennies From Heaven” charted. And in the post-2008 decade of recession, instability, and income inequality, blockbuster acts spent a lot of time telling us the incredible time they were having.

The real story of the past decade has been harder to hear. A decade ago, as some Americans remember all too well, the US economy began to crumble, and took the rest of the world’s markets along with it. First housing prices started to slide, revealing a nation caught in a deflating real estate bubble. Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers came next.

The cascade of damage was worldwide, but it took on an especially fierce pitch in the world’s largest economy: Beginning in late 2008, the US was losing more than half a million jobs a month. By 2009, the Great Recession’s first full year, national unemployment reached 15 million people, or 10 percent — the first double-digit rate since the early 1980s. Trillions of dollars of wealth disappeared from the economy, and 4 million Americans lost their homes in just two years.

Meanwhile, the nation’s biggest songs in the year after the crash were numbers by Flo Rida, Chris Brown, and Coldplay that had little to do with economic strain. It takes any cultural form — movies, books, visual art, whatever — months, sometimes years, to respond to social, political, or economic change. But pop music has less lag time than most other genres.

(In previous centuries, folk songs about hangings or train crashes could appear almost instantly. And it wasn’t for nothing that Public Enemy’s Chuck D once called hip-hop black America’s CNN.)

By the end of 2009, though, the biggest-selling singles were songs like Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” and various party-hearty numbers by the Black Eyed Peas. And so it went, into the teeth of the recession.

Lady Gaga performs “Bad Romance” during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009. Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Popular music, of course, becomes popular partly because it takes people away from their lives. Be it the blandness of affluence or the pain of personal difficulty, there has always been an element of aspiration and fantasy to popular culture.

But from Woody Guthrie singing about the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression’s devastations in the 1930s to rock and soul bands of the ’60s and ’70s writing about war and civil rights to British punks shouting about unemployment and the working class to rappers spitting about injustice and racism, popular music has always also delivered social critique — much of the time including economic issues.

What we see in the decade following the 2008 stock market crash, though, is a relatively tame popular music world in which best-selling artists and left-of-the-dial “alternative” musicians share an apparent lack of interest in the nation’s economic state.

“Most people in the mainstream music world — whether it’s pop, indie, or country — don’t want to offend any of their fans,” says Margo Price, a country singer-songwriter who has been outspoken about economic structures. “Their big labels don’t want them to, either.”

After the pain of the ’08 crash, the nation experienced an economic recovery that shifted a massive amount of income from the poor and middle class to the very rich. The big banks got bigger; huge bonuses returned. Just two years after the crash, the nation’s Gini coefficient, the standard measure of wealth distribution, was at 46.9, making the US among the most unequal of modern democracies.

We can call the past 10 years the decade of inequality. So what, then, does the music of inequality sound like?

Part of the paradox here is simply that monetary wealth gives musicians — at least, the tiny minority experiencing material bounty — something to sing about.

Musicians are not unique here: In the years since the Reagan administration, a reveling in what used to be called heartless materialism has become de rigueur. (The shift in personal style from an old-school rich man like Warren Buffett, who made his early fortune in the 1950s, to Donald Trump, a product of the gilded ’80s, is hard to miss.)

Artists singing about how much wealth they had accrued fit cleanly into a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous culture. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Marvin Gaye were filthy rich, but it’s hard to imagine them crooning about their money and mansions. Nor can we imagine Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, or Liz Phair posing in a bath of diamonds, as Taylor Swift does in the 2017 video for “Look What You Made Me Do.”

Many of the songs about luxurious possessions and lavish lifestyles — the sonic equivalent of Keeping Up With the Kardashians — are the descendants of “Mo Money Mo Problems,” the 1997 Notorious B.I.G. song. But in many cases, there seem to be no serious problems besides having too many women or possessions to choose from.

Notorious B.I.G. performs at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago in September 1994. Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

“When inequality is high, it’s driven by the superrich, because [the poor] can’t go lower than zero,” says Keith Payne, a University of North Carolina psychology professor and author of The Broken Ladder, a recent book on wealth disparity. “People feel poorer but aspire to higher standards. This leads to a risk-taking kind of life: People are more likely to gamble, play the odds, use drugs or drink, commit crimes. It also orients people to the very wealthy as opposed to the poor.”

These are the classic tropes of hip-hop, a musical style that, Payne points out, surged in ubiquity in the same years as the rise in inequality. A mixtape of conspicuous consumption and runaway consumerism could be assembled from songs like Post Malone and Ty Dolla Sign’s “Psycho” (“got diamonds by the boatload!”), Lil Uzi Vert’s “Money Longer” (“money got longer, speaker got louder, car got faster”), and Lil Pump’s “Gucci Gang” (“Spend 10 racks on a new chain / My bitch love do cocaine.”)

The style became so ubiquitous that the satirical trio the Lonely Island parodied the genre of gold-plated gloat with “I’m on a Boat,” a 2009 rap song featuring T-Pain that makes “yacht rock” numbers like Christopher Cross’s 1980 hit “Sailing” look modest and egalitarian.

More cutting is Lorde’s 2013 song “Royals,” which seems to be aware of how mismatched the music is to the times: “But every song’s like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom / Bloodstains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room / We don’t care, we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams …”

Lorde performs “Royals” onstage for the 56th Grammy Awards on January 26, 2014. Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Part of what looking across the genres shows you is that the big-selling, celebrity-driven mainstream of just about every style of music offers very little social or economic critique. If that’s what you’re looking for, look to the edges.

Mainstream country music, a genre rooted in the rural red-state South, is no stranger to poverty or songs about risk-taking. But it very rarely deals with inequality, says Payne, a native of Kentucky. “The only economic theme is, ‘We grew up poor, but we didn’t know it at the time, and now we’ve got everything we need.’ That’s the theme of countless country songs,” he says.

The country songwriters interested in exploring economics more assertively don’t find a receptive industry, whether radio, country labels, or other gatekeepers. “They are so scared of coming out on an issue that offends Trump America,” says R.J. Smith, a music journalist and author of a recent biography of photographer Robert Frank. What you get, instead, is “good short story-ish songwriting about how people are living, but with little sense of why poverty happened.”

To the extent that there’s been a consistent protest, it comes, curiously, from the fringes of country. Despite its recent political and cultural conservatism, country has been the music of the poor and working class since the days of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. And the alt-country movement, which has co-opted the folk tradition, continued the grit and social criticism of the old days after the big-hatted mainstream moved into formula and political reaction.

This has led to what we could call empathy songs and plutocrat songs: The empathy song looks at the plight of someone crushed under the economic wheel, sometimes speaking in his or her voice; the plutocrat song is typically more overtly political, targeting the damage done by the very rich.

Honorary Americana artist Billy Bragg (who is British but has made several albums of Woody Guthrie’s music with alt-country pioneers Wilco) began performing Guthrie’s “I Ain’t Got No Home” after the ’08 crash. (The song is explicitly class-based, describing a “rich man [who] took my home and drove me from my door.”)

And Margo Price’s songs are among the strongest economic critiques post-Great Recession: Numbers like “Pay Gap,” “About to Find Out,” and “All American Made” (“And I wonder if the president gets much sleep at night / And if the folks on welfare are making it all right”) sometimes combine feminism with scenes from the class struggle.

Veteran singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III worked in a vaguely country-folk tradition with his 2010 album, 10 Songs For the New Depression. The songs alternated from despairing to lighthearted (the number “House” is both), and name-check Alan Greenspan and John Maynard Keynes. (One cheeky number is called “The Krugman Blues.”) Peter Himmelman’s “Rich Men Rule the World” is a brutal song in the same vein.

Loudon Wainwright III performs in Copenhagen in December 1976. Jorgen Angel/Redferns via Getty Images

Two classics from the edges of country actually predate the Great Recession, perhaps because the rural South never quite caught the postwar boom like the rest of the nation did. James McMurtry’s “We Can’t Make It Here,” from 2005, tells of a struggling, wounded Vietnam veteran, empty storefronts, a failing bar, and the pinch of a stagnant minimum wage. (The novelistic vision is appropriate for the son of Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurtry.) And while their most recent album is more about race and politics in general, Drive-By Truckers’ 2005 album, The Dirty South, is a forceful look at American poverty and inequality, highlighted by the song “Puttin’ People on the Moon.”

“In our hometown,” Drive-By Truckers leader Patterson Hood says of Florence, Alabama, “the economy collapsed in the early ’80s: During the so-called Reagan boom years, we were like Flint, Michigan. They closed the Ford plant, and there was a domino effect.”

Along with the songs of the late Merle Haggard, Bruce Springsteen’s work serves as a template for bands like the Truckers. The Boss has written some of the best work about the way economics shapes and limits lives — songs like “My Hometown” and the Dust Bowl-inspired Ghost of Tom Joad LP. He has not quite matched these since; his energies have largely been elsewhere. But the 2012 Wrecking Ball LP, with songs like “We Take Care of Our Own” and the Wall Street-dissing “Death to My Hometown,” is a solid stab at addressing what much of the country has been through.

And while the late, great soul musician Charles Bradley largely sang about racism and his personal travails, his “Why Is It So Hard,” from 2011, may be the single most emotionally powerful recent song about poverty and income inequality.

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Hip-hop, too, gets more political and anti-capitalist around the edges. The Coup, the Oakland hip-hop group led by Boots Riley, released a 2012 album called Sorry to Bother You, which would eventually lend its name to the new breakout movie. The album takes a far-left stance on issues of economics and inequality, heavily informed by Riley’s communist beliefs, with songs like “Strange Arithmetic” (“Economics is the symphony of hunger and theft / Mortar shells often echo out the cashing of checks / In geography class, it’s borders, mountains, and rivers / But they will never show the line between the takers and givers”) and “WAVIP” (“I am with the people on the bottom, fella / We gonna riot, loot, rob till we rich as Rockefeller”).

Meanwhile, much of mainstream hip-hop went from fierce anti-racist politics, decades ago, to celebrations of hedonism. Music historian Robert Fink of UCLA points out that in the years after the stock market crash, the nation experienced its first black president, who was widely popular, especially with black people. When Obama was replaced with a man with a reputation for antagonizing black people, alongside a rash of police killings of young African-American men, politically minded hip-hop and R&B artists increasingly focused their attention on Black Lives Matter and related movements, rather than economics.

“I can’t think of a single hip-hop song about people getting subprime mortgages or that kind of thing,” Fink says.

“There is very little in the mainstream music business about economic hardship,” says music historian Ted Gioia. “Are Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift trying to shake things up?” Some artists sing about race and gender, he says, but economics has largely been overlooked in the slick and commercial pop mainstream.

Gioia characterizes the lip service the music industry pays to social issues as a decades-old problem: MTV and the rest of the business largely slept through the AIDS crisis in the 1980s; this time, Gioia says, economic inequality has become the forgotten issue.

But some artists have made an end run around these forces.

One of the most realized looks at the Great Recession and its discontents may not be a political piece of hip-hop or an angry piece of outlaw country, but rather a musical. Hadestown was an off-Broadway “folk opera” in 2016, relocating the story of Orpheus and Eurydice in a post-apocalyptic Great Depression with a wink toward the present. It’s based on an album by folk singer Anais Mitchell that includes contributions from Ani DiFranco, the Haden Triplets, and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.

Finally, there was a four-disc compilation in 2012 called Occupy This Album: 99 Songs for the 99 Percent. The styles and quality range quite widely, from Michael Moore singing Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” to songs by Yoko Ono, Toots and the Maytals, and Nancy Griffith. (The video for “United Tribes,” a song by Thievery Corporation with rapper Mr. Lif, captures the energy of the movement it emerged from.) Still, it’s hard to miss that many of the songs are old, or only obliquely related to Occupy itself.

One reason songs about the recession and inequality are hard to find may be psychological. The Brooklyn musician Pauline Pisano lost her job as a web designer when the recession hit, and has struggled financially since. But it wasn’t until an NYU course and an exposure to the books of David Graeber that she focused on economic matters and the corrosive effects of debt. (“I feel like the people who cheated won,” she says now. “And for the people who played by the rules, the rules changed.”) She’s since led a musical tour of the South talking to people across the political spectrum about the subject, and her work has been politically energized.

“I was hit by the recession very heavily — why didn’t I put that in my art?” Pisano asks. “Maybe I thought, ‘This is just the way things are.’”

As crucial an issue and as destructive a force as inequality is, it’s not a natural driver for songwriting. “Inequality is the ultimate abstraction,” says Keith Payne. “Art is not typically about abstractions — it tends to be about concrete images. Inequality is neither wealth nor poverty, but the distribution of resources. And who wants to sing about that?”

One glaring irony here is that the past decade has also seen the vast majority of musicians struggling even more than they did previously: The collapse of the sale of recordings has made most of them all too aware of income inequality, especially when they compare themselves to one-percenters of the past (the Eagles) or present (Lady Gaga).

Alan Krueger, President Barack Obama’s chief economist, gave an important speech about the way the winner-take-all economy devastated many rock musicians in 2012, and there are few signs that the musical middle class has been restored.

The larger issue here — the lack of genuinely popular songs about the biggest economic event since 1929 — is pop culture’s claims of being a democratic art. What if popular music does not really express and describe what the mass of Americans is experiencing? And in an era when the phrase “check your privilege” has become commonplace, does it matter if the biggest hits are being made, in many cases, by fantastically privileged people?

Taylor Swift, for instance, comes from a long line of bank presidents; her father relocated to Merrill Lynch’s Nashville office and later bought a share of a record label to help her career. (See also “Uptown Funk” producer Mark Ronson, from one of Britain’s wealthiest families.)

”If it becomes clear that our popular culture is a rich kids’ project, it loses its legitimacy,” UCLA’s Fink says. “Even more than in Britain, we have Horatio Alger pretensions here.” Once we get a sense that our popular culture is the preserve of the very rich, it’s not quite “popular” in the democratic way we typically use the term.

But it also may be that the unpopularity of a president who himself comes from the plutocrat class will finally focus musicians and their handlers on inequality and other pressing issues. “I think that we are living in a very dangerous time,” says Price. “People as a whole are distracted by social media, celebrities, unattainable wealth.”

But things can change, and Price believes they might: “We’re in a turning point right now, and musicians and visual artists have a chance to move mountains with their words. If they would only use them.”

This article was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Original Source -> How music has responded to a decade of economic inequality

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bigjoesound · 6 years

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Mac McAnally Inducted Into Alabama Music Hall Of Fame : MusicRow — Nashville’s Music Industry Publication — News, Songs From Music City

Mac McAnally Inducted Into Alabama Music Hall Of Fame

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Lorie Hollabaugh • February 5, 2018 •

Mac McAnally is among the newest inductees into the Alabama Music Hall Of Fame. The service was held Saturday night (Feb. 3) in Florence, Alabama, and McAnally was known for his contributions as a composer, performer and master of numerous tools, together with folk artist Odetta, songwriter Walt Aldridge and session ace Eddie Hinton, that were honored at the event as new AMHoF members.

The service was recorded for broadcast in the spring by Alabama Public Television, and comprised two live performances by McAnally having an abysmal Muscle Shoals house band. The honor is the Most Up-to-date in a string of accolades for its talented singer/songwriter, Who’s already a part of the Mississippi Musicians Hall Of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

“Mac is validity personified,” Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board of Director member Judy Hood noted. “He’s as good as it gets personally and professionally. He’s a treasure and it’s all about time we threw a party to observe him.”

“The specific music community that’s Muscle Shoals is among those blessings of my entire life,” says McAnally, assigning his history of recording and creating at Alabama’s famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. “To sit at the foot of (manufacturer) Rick Hall, (manufacturer) Terry Woodford and (manufacturer) Clayton Ivey, each of the players I got to use, altered the course of my entire life in a major way. So to get this award, and for it to happen there, is really a huge deal. I’m genuinely grateful for everything that’s transpired there.”

After quitting high school in eleventh grade, McAnally became a in-demand session participant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. At age 20 he released his first record, which contained the Top 40 pop hit “It’s A Crazy World.” He gravitated into a all-purpose job for a producer, session musician and songwriter. As a manufacturer, McAnally has worked with Jimmy Buffett, Ricky Skaggs, Restless Heart and Sawyer Brown, among others. As a session guitarist, pianist and backing vocalist, he has worked with Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Amy Grant, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Jimmy Buffett. McAnally has been a touring member of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band since 1998.

Hits from McAnally’s extensive catalog include “It’s My Job” and “Coast of Carolina” (both recorded by Jimmy Buffett), “All These Years,” “Thank God For You” and “This Time” (all listed by Sawyer Brown), “Two Dozen Roses” (listed by Shenandoah), “Old Flame” (listed by Alabama) and “Down The Road” (listed by Kenny Chesney as a duet with McAnally).

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from big joe sound http://bigjoesound.com/mac-mcanally-inducted-into-alabama-music-hall-of-fame-musicrow-nashvilles-music-industry-publication-news-songs-from-music-city/

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surveys-r-us · 7 years

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Another one

What is your name? Or what should your name be? Breaking Inside - Shinedown How is your life going? Art School Wannabe - Sorority Noise What is your nickname? Follow You Follow Me - Genesis What is your theme song? Give Me One Reason - Tracy Chapman What is your best friend’s theme song? Drink You Away - Justin Timberlake How is your life going to turn out? Sisters - Radical Face Will you get married? One Headlight - The Wallflowers Will you have kids? Just Stay Here Tonight - Augustana What will your job be? Snap Yo Fingers - Youngbloodz Did you/will you finish school? Headstrong - Trapt Who is your best friend? Another is Waiting - The Avett Brothers Who is or will be your significant other? Nolsey - Sorority Noise Who do you like? For You I Will (Confidence) - Teddy Geiger How will you die? Young Hearts - Strange Talk How do you feel right now? Do You Remember - Jarryd James What is your favorite song? Shadow of the Day - Linkin Park How could you describe your parents? Walk Right In - THE ROOFTOP SINGERS Your best friend[s]? He Can Only Hold Her - Amy Winehouse Your teachers? Read My Mind - The Killers Your significant other [or crush…]? Lean On Me - Bill Withers Yourself? Use Somebody - Kings of Leon What is your best feature? Accidents Will Happen - Elvis Costello & the Attractions What will you be / should you be, profession-wise? Acoustic #3 - The Goo Goo Dolls How could you describe this survey? Look to the Stars - Semi Precious Weapons What makes you angry? Seven Devils - Florence + the Machine What makes you sad? Lost in My Mind - The Head and the Heart What makes you happy? Falling - Mike Posner What makes you dance? Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top What is your favorite color? Dangerous - Big Data feat. Joywave How would you describe yourself? Divided - Half the Animal Who is your worst enemy? Not a Bad Thing - Justin Timberlake Who do you hate? The Mess I Made - Parachute Who do you love? Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers Who do you lust after? Different Colors - Walk the Moon

Finish the Sentece

I wish: Sometimes a Fantasy - Billy Joel I want to: Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around - Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers I want to kill: Tighten Up - The Black Keys I want to eat: Ain’t Even Done With the Night - John Mellencamp My head: Don’t You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds I am: Collide (Acoustic) - Howie Day My best feature is: Suit and Jacket - Judah & the Lion My eyes are: Dreams - Fleetwood Mac My hair is: Steal My Sunshine - Len My face is: It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere - Alan Jackson & Jimmy Buffett You should: So Alive - The Goo Goo Dolls

Random

Words of advice: Show Me - Kid Ink feat. Chris Brown How do others see me? Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) Styx How do I see myself? For the First Time in Forever - The Script

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blackkudos · 6 years

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Bill Withers

William Harrison (Bill) Withers Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded several major hits, including "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands". Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for four more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Early life

Withers was born the youngest of six children in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. He was born with a stutter and has said he had a hard time fitting in. Raised in nearby Beckley, he was thirteen years old when his father died. Withers enlisted with the United States Navy at the age of 18 and served for nine years, during which time he got over his stutter and became interested in singing and writing songs. Mr. Withers left the Navy in 1965. Using the $250 he received from selling his furniture to IBM co-worker Ron Sierra, he picked up and relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 for a musical career. Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he debuted with the song "Ain't No Sunshine" he refused to resign from his job because of his belief that the music business was a fickle industry.

Career

Sussex records

During early 1970, Withers' demonstration tape was auditioned favorably by Clarence Avant, owner of Sussex Records. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned former Stax Records stalwart Booker T. Jones to produce Withers' first album. Four three-hour recording sessions were planned for the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. Just as I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks, "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands" as singles. The album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar. On the cover of the album, Withers is pictured at his job at Weber Aircraft in Burbank, California, holding his lunch pail.

The album was a success and Withers began touring with a band assembled from members of The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band: drummer James Gadson, guitarist Benorce Blackmon, keyboardist Ray Jackson, and bassist Melvin Dunlap.

At the 14th annual Grammy Awards on Tuesday, March 14, 1972, Withers won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for "Ain't No Sunshine." The track had already sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in September 1971.

During a hiatus from touring, Withers recorded his second album, Still Bill. The single, "Lean on Me" went to number one the week of July 8, 1972. It was Withers' second gold single with confirmed sales in excess of three million. His follow-up, "Use Me" released in August 1972, became his third million seller, with the R.I.A.A. gold disc award taking place on October 12, 1972. His performance at Carnegie Hall on October 6, 1972, was recorded, and released as the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall on November 30, 1972. In 1974, Withers recorded the album +'Justments. Due to a legal dispute with the Sussex company, Withers was unable to record for some time thereafter.

During this time, he wrote and produced two songs on the Gladys Knight & the Pips record I Feel a Song, and in October 1974 performed in concert together with James Brown, Etta James, and B. B. King in Zaire four weeks prior to the historic Rumble in the Jungle fight between Foreman and Ali. Footage of his performance was included in the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings, and he is heard on the accompanying soundtrack. Other footage of his performance is included in the 2008 documentary film Soul Power which is based on archival footage of the 1974 Zaire concert.

Columbia Records

After Sussex Records folded, Withers signed with Columbia Records in 1975. His first album release with the label, Making Music, Making Friends, included the single "She's Lonely", which was featured in the film Looking for Mr. Goodbar. During the next three years he released an album each year with Naked & Warm (1976), Menagerie (1977, containing the successful "Lovely Day"), "Bout Love" (1978) and "Get on Down"; the latter song also included on the Looking for Mr. Goodbar soundtrack.

In 1976, Withers performed "Ain't No Sunshine" on Saturday Night Live.

Due to problems with Columbia and being unable to get songs approved for his album, he concentrated on joint projects from 1977 to 1985, including "Just the Two of Us", with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., which was released during June 1980. It won a Grammy on February 24, 1982. Withers next did "Soul Shadows" with the Crusaders, and "In the Name of Love" with Ralph MacDonald, the latter being nominated for a Grammy for vocal performance.

In 1985 came Watching You Watching Me, which featured the Top 40-rated R&B single "Oh Yeah", and ended Withers' business association with Columbia Records. Withers stated in interviews that a lot of the songs approved for the album, in particular, two of the first three singles released, were the same songs which were rejected in 1982, hence contributing significantly to the eight-year hiatus between albums. Withers also stated it was frustrating seeing his record label release an album for Mr. T, an actor, when they were preventing him, an actual singer, from releasing his own. He toured with Jennifer Holliday in 1985 to promote what would be his final studio album.

His disdain for Columbia's A&R executives or "blaxperts", as he termed them, trying to exert control over how he should sound if he wanted to sell more albums, played a part in his making the decision to not record or re-sign to a record label after 1985, effectively ending his performing career, even though remixes of his previously recorded music were released after his 'retirement'. Finding musical success later in life than most, at 32, he has said he was socialized as a 'regular guy' who had a life before the music, so he did not feel an inherent need to keep recording once he fell out of love with the industry. He has also stated that he does not miss touring and performing live and does not regret leaving music behind. He seemingly no longer suffers from the speech impediment of stuttering that affected him during his recording career.

Post-Columbia career

In 1987, he received his ninth Grammy Award nomination and on March 2, 1988, his third Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Song as songwriter for the re-recording of "Lean on Me" by Club Nouveau on their debut album Life, Love and Pain, released in 1986 on Warner Bros. Records.

In 1996, a portion of his song "Grandma's Hands" was sampled in the song "No Diggity" by BLACKstreet, featuring Dr. Dre. The single went to Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold 1.6 million copies and won a Grammy in 1999 for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

In 2007, "Lean on Me" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

On January 26, 2014, at the 56th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex & Columbia Albums Collection, a nine-disc set featuring Withers's eight studio albums, as well as his live album Live at Carnegie Hall, received the "Best Historical" Grammy Award (in a tie with The Rolling Stones' "Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1965.") The award was presented to Leo Sacks, who produced the collection, and the mastering engineers Mark Wilder, Joseph M. Palmaccio and Tom Ruff.

On April 18, 2015, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Stevie Wonder. Withers was stunned when he learned he had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. "I see it as an award of attrition," he says. "What few songs I wrote during my brief career, there ain't a genre that somebody didn't record them in. I'm not a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people could identify with. I don't think I've done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia."

On October 1, 2015, there was a tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in his honor, featuring Aloe Blacc, Ed Sheeran, Dr. John, Michael McDonald and Anthony Hamilton recreating his 1973 concert album, Live at Carnegie Hall, along with other Withers material. Withers was in attendance and spoke briefly onstage.

On February 12, 2017, he made an appearance on MSNBC to talk about the refugee crisis, as well as political climate in America.

Personal life

Withers married actress Denise Nicholas in 1973, during her stint on the sitcom Room 222. The couple divorced the following year. In 1976, Withers married Marcia Withers née Johnson and they had two children, Todd and Kori. Marcia eventually assumed the direct management of his Beverly Hills-based publishing companies, in which his children also became involved as they became adults.

Wikipedia

#Bill Withers #07-04

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