UPDATE: After deciding this weekend to block Politico from riding on Air Force One, White House staffers called numerous outlets to ask one to fill the primary print slot for the out-of-town pool rotation. Each of those outlets declined to step in.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
WAS THIS WARRANTED
This video shows Ben Braver. He's a democrat who is running for the Florida State House. Today he was arrested and thrown to the ground by police.Because he heckled JD Vance.
Is this what free speech looks like under Trump?
"In Alabama, the same state where 30,000 people attended a Trump rally in a 30,000-person stadium in August 2015, there were swaths of empty seats at the 10,000-capacity athletic center where Mr. Trump spoke on Friday" www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/u...
Trump: "Annie 'Trannie' Andrews is running against our wonderful Darline Graham for the Senate in South Carolina ... Trannie is not for South Carolina, and South Carolina must show, in the upcoming Election, that it is not for her."
Only you can make all this change in me, for it's true you are my destiny, when you hold my hand, I understand...that I'm (ten days--zounds!) late again....
In what will come as quite a shock to my loyal readers (all three of them), my introduction to this week's tune was...a greatest hits package that I picked up for a dollar at our local library sale. The one oddity, though, is for a band for which I knew many of their biggest songs I had never heard this week's tune (to the best of my ever-diminishing recollection) before. As the saying goes, better late than never....
The Platters formed in 1952 in Los Angeles, and after a slow start had a string of hits over the next sixteen years that would immortalize them. Unlike last week's band (the Drifters), the Platters were very shrewd about their musical career, and in 1956 they incorporated giving each band member a twenty percent stake in their fortunes. Like so many do wop groups of their era, the Platters have had numerous incarnations, with at the very, very least twenty-four people having been in the band at one time or another (and about a gazillion lawsuits over who owned what from all the personnel changes). Unlike many groups of their era, though, they have always had one woman in the band making for some coed harmonies. The Platters have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. For their career (near as I can tell--their discography is kind of all over the place), they released twenty-four studio albums, well over one hundred (!) compilations, and fifty-four singles (with four number ones and thirty-four more charting on the Billboard Hot 100). While all of the original members are performing at The Great Doo Wop Concert in the Sky, if you'd like to catch them live they'll be playing next month through December in various cities and venues....
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was released in 1958 (at least the Platters version--it's been covered by numerous different artists) on their rather forgetfully entitled album Remember When? The single would reach #1 (with a bullet!) here in America as well as in the U.K. and Canada (so many cool kids in the British Empire!). I have no idea where the album charted as no one seems to think their album history all that important (though Wikipedia did note they were the first rock and roll band to have a top ten album...without noting which fucking album it was).
Fun Fact: "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was originally written by Jerome Kern (music) and Otto Harbach (lyrics) in 1933 for the musical Roberta. Kern's widow hated the Platters version so much she sued to stop its distribution...until she was informed how much sweet, sweet cash she stood to make from a number one record--at which time she dropped the lawsuit. Money talks and bullshit walks, as the saying goes....
Since time immemorial, folks have been writing about the heartache of losing a lover, and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is one more brilliant addition to that ever-expanding list. The Platters weave the tale of a young man very much in love who's being warned by his friends that he's going to get his heart broken, though he's telling his friends that's just so much bullshit...until she breaks his heart and he realizes that he did indeed let smoke get in his eyes from the flames of love. Tony Williams delivers a stunning vocal that captures the exuberance and ultimately the searing pain of love, surrounded by a light melody, some strings, and some wonderful harmonies from the rest of the band. It's an absolute gem from an era that is all too quickly being forgotten...except by emaycee and his Friday Night Jukebox (see also, "just so much bullshit" from above)....
Lyric Sheet: "Now laughing friends deride/Tears I cannot hide, hide/So I smile and say, when a lovely flame dies/Smoke gets in your eyes..."
The average American gets paid just enough so he doesn't quit his job, and works just hard enough so he doesn't get fired.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." Source unknown
Uncle emaycee Wants You For the Coming Class War! Enlist today....
Capitalism: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can exploit his labor, become filthy rich, and keep the poor bastard living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of his life.
