It was a hot week in July with the Republican Convention to avoid like a plague, it’s all over the media so one really can’t ignore it completely. Baseball’s All Star break means no baseball til Friday ( yesterday), when the often disappointing 2024 SF Giants take the field again. There is the Summer Olympics in Paris coming up soon to brighten our summer and I’ve contented myself with watching PGA golf , a sport I gave up playing 35 years ago. Last week’s finish to the Scottish Open was smashing with native son Robbie MacIntyre sinking a dramatic putt on the 18th green to win it. There’s the British Open to pass time this weekend…where do my blues come from ? watching JD Vance speak to accept the VP nomination from Republicans. I gave it about three minutes watching the phony opportunist ramble while a split screen showed Trump with a huge white bandage on his ear mugging like Mussolini. So much absolute bullshit spewed about the working class , Unions, manufacturing jobs, end of inflation, stemming the tide of immigration ( a surprisingly huge matter with ignorant, xenophobic Republicans) O the bald-faced lies ! Vance did a Ronnie Reagan 180 degree turn politically . Reagan was a serviceable president of Screen Actors Guild, then shortly thereafter becomes a mouth piece for Right Wing oligarchs and eventually a Union buster. When Vance speaks of Unions he makes me wanna puke. That weaselly motherfucker will screw trade unions the first chance he gets. The reality of this sordid situation is Silicon Valley is trying to buy the White House and they are very close to succeeding. The Big Tech billionaires groomed and transitioned a “never Trumper” into a MAGA darling in short period of time , then used their obscene wealth to twist Trump’s arm into naming Vance the Vice Presidential running mate in the 2024 election. MAGA, a Reaganism, really means Make America White again. It’s already pretty great.
I have been warning people for many years about the evils of greed driven Silicon Valley and now I think people have become aware but maybe too late. I’ve told whoever will listen that Big Tech is as insidious as Big Oil , Big Tobacco, and Big Pharma. Not damage in terms of human health and Earth ecology, but complete control of politicians and the economy…almost absolute power… and the time is almost here, as is an eventual robot takeover IMHO… They have almost normalized robo-taxis , driverless cars for hire in SF. I was a naive , relatively prosperous SF cabbie when smart phones were invented and with GPS utilized to illegally bring down the global taxi and livery industry via “ride shares” actually unlicensed , unregulated underinsured gypsy cabs. They termed that nefarious operation “disruption” Now , if you happen to notice, we are a planet of humans addicted to staring at phones for gratification . That mass addiction and distraction was designed by Silicon Valley with China and Russia using that smartphone technology to mess with us in any way they can... What happened at first in San Francisco was uber and their technology were limos, Lincoln town cars and the Public Utilities Commission gave them notice to cease and desist , which they completely ignored. Meanwhile SF Mayor Dirty Ed Lee welcomed big Tech in to take over The City with open arms . legs, and palms. His daughter had financial interest in lyft and Dirty Ed did nothing to stop the illegal gypsy cabs. The motherfucker encouraged them, despite the SF cab bosses backing him to get elected Mayor with a campaign of “ Run, Ed, Run !” The late Dirty Ed turned around and fucked those taxi bosses good !… then the PUC reversed itself and allowed gypsy cabs to operate… the fix was in ! On a national level, Attorney General Eric Holder was corrupted and took no action against the crooks and racketeers of uber/lyft, NYC Mayor Bloomberg, a man of integrity, said “NO Ubers in NYC !” but was overridden by corrupted NY Guv Andrew Cuomo, California Guv Jerry Brown was likewise bought and sold by Silicon Valley venture capitalists and thousands and thousands of fully licensed and insured drivers were left to twist in the wind and their families went down with them…ruination for yours truly as well, defaulted credit cards loss of an apartment I had for years … genuine poverty visited me and other intrepid cabbies who had to scrape and hustle using all the taxi driving savvy we possessed to survive until the 2020 Pandemic when I personally retired from driving and survived on those fat checks from Joe Biden… but I’ll never forget getting fucked over by Silicon Valley and those corrupted Democrat officials. I was a longtime FDR Democrat and am now a moderate Independant.
News , Blues, and Hues: ( in Herb Caen parlance) Nominated For Oblivion: the odious phrase “dodged a bullet” a phrase that’s been used for many years in football broadcasting that always made me cringe. I just despise that expression and anyone who stoops to use it as a descriptive. In light of Trump’s assassination attempt, “dodge a bullet” takes on a new literal meaning. Actually, in 2024 gun crazy America , aren’t we all dodging bullets ?… Repubs drinking cocktails and beer at their convention and going outside the Convention Hall to play cornhole. Closeted Republican gays ? no a bean bag toss game called “cornhole” I don’t care how much they try to change the word it’ll always mean anal intercourse to me …heh heh heh heh heh…San Francisco Mayor London Breed, most likely on her way out, has stepped up politically, using a recent Supreme Court decision to begin a campaign of aggressively and forcefully clearing homeless encampments from SF streets, making criminals out of the downtrodden. So much for compassion and humanity , like a true pol she’s clinging to her office at all costs… I’m never going to buy into “Smashburger” a concept began in NYC bodegas of taking perfectly good hamburger patties and chopping them to bits on the griddle with a spatula and topping them with cheese and into a bun.., What the fuck you chopping it up for ? it’s already ground beef…recent burger “ surveys” say Habit Burger Grill is better than In ’N’ Out. Nonsense ! I’ve tried Habit and Shake Shack and they are both very good, but In ’N’ Out gives you the best fast food burger for your buck… IMHO the very best Nor Cal burger stand is Super Duper Burger for quality and deliciousness plus all the pickles you can eat… If you don’t mind paying $22. for a cheeseburger, garlic fries, and a Strauss dairy milkshake…Reads: Just finished John Steinbeck’s The Moon Is Down from 1942 , a small Euro town is occupied by Nazi style troops, though no countries are mentioned in Steinbeck’s thought provoking literary treatment of small townspeople responding in their own way to oppressive forces… Also at Fairfax Library scored a book with a “ Lucky Day” stamp w/ a four leaf clover sticker. A librarian’s fun gimmick of putting an extremely popular book up on the shelf for first come first served patron. It was a copy of James by Percival Everett . By plucking that book off the shelf, I jumped 177 places on the waiting list. Everett is a marvelous and prolific novelist who conceived of the story that became the outstanding film American Fiction. James is a brilliant take on Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from Jim the slave’s POV. Everett portrays Jim and other Black slaves as highly intelligent and literate, faking it as ignorant to survive in antebellum America. Just a fabulous read ! James was first recommended to me by my pal, KPOO DJ Autumn King.
Summertime Blues Views: Eight Men Out (`1988) Director /writer John Sayles tells the true story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox who were corrupted by gambler Arnold Rothstein to fix that year’s best of nine World Series. The ballplayers were screwed financially by cheapskate team owner Charles Comiskey and felt they had no choice but take the bribes. Eight players were banned from baseball for life for being in on the “Black Sox Scandal”…judgement passed down from by rigid , puritanical Kennesaw Mountain Landis, then baseball commissioner. The irony is that 100 years later Major League Baseball is deeply in bed with gambling interests. The “purity” of todays baseball is pure horseshit. The zenith of hypocrisy…Criss Cross(1949) A Film Noir by Robert Siodmak , a director who fled Nazi Germany for Hollywood. This one has Yvonne De Carlo as the femme fatale and Burt Lancaster as the sap who is obsessed with her. To complete the triangulation, Dan Duryea plays the gang boss who sports black shirt and white tie. Siodmak employs late 40’s LA , the Angels Flight, streetcars and cool convertibles that you slid across to get out curbside. Lots of great camera angles, car chases, shoot ‘em up action, explosions, and corny cops and crooks patter. Even John Doucette, the prolific, unknown movie and TV character actor that you’ve seen a hundred times appears as a crook. It’s a wonderful Noir that if shown at a festival , say at the Castro Theater, there would be lotsa audience laughter at the characterizations of the nine crooks involved in an armored car heist…Midnight Run(1988) Robert Deniro and Charles Grodin in a buddy “ action comedy” picture going coast to coast on trains , planes, buses and automobiles. It’s the kind of flick you can watch over and over and be entertained… Cotton Comes To Harlem (1970) director Ossie Davis takes the Chester Himes tale and turns it into a colorful comedy laced with slapstick with Godfrey Cambridge as detective Gravedigger Jones and Raymond St. Jacques as his partner Coffin Ed Johnson with Redd Foxx as a fun character. I’ve read tons of Himes short stories, many of which are bleak portrayals of imprisoned Black men in the 1930’s so this is a comedic departure… a lightweight technicolor Harlem spectacle that is amusing. BTW my band Frumious Bandersnatch did a local SF TV show for kids in ‘68 with Godfrey Cambridge, who was delight to work with . Godfrey treated all the kids and band members on set with humility , humor, and compassion. A real mensch of a human being. He was gay man…The New World (2005) Terence Malick’s take on Captain John Smith and Pocahontas legend and the 17th Century Jamestown colony. Some marvelous photography and Colin Farrell as Smith and 15 year old Q’orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas. The actors and makeup of the Algonquin “naturals” is excellent… Horizon : An American Saga Part I (2024) I’m always game for a well done Western, and this is Kevin Costner’s two part- six hour vanity project as director, producer, writer and actor , in which he sunk 38 mil and it tanked at the box office. It wasn’t that bad. Saw it on discount Tuesdays for six bucks at the Fairfax with its luxury lounger seats. There were three other attendees for the screening. Horizon has some pretty good cinematography of Monument Valley, good depictions of Apaches in the Southwest , shots and action in Montana and Wyoming, some good acting and gritty dialogue in spots also some not so good acting and casting. It is not a turkey and holds interest as entertainment. Costner puts a montage at the end of Part I as a sort of preview of Part II ,which apparently will not make it to theaters. Streaming only. This move reminded me of David Caruso ( NYPD Blue) and Pernell Roberts ( Bonanza) who quit hit TV shows for unrealized movie stardom. In Costner’s case, he was already an established movie star with a hit TV show Yellowstone, when he split the series for his Horizon ego project. Big mistake. Yellowstone creator /show runner Taylor Sheridon can crank out great movies with ease ( Sicario, Hell Or High Water, Wind River) Costner should have stuck with Sheridan…Streaming : Hard Knocks New York Football Giants Off Season. Interesting look at management maneuvers of an NFL team with NFL Films footage and Liev Schrieber as narrator. Giants owner John Mara( son of Wellington) is none too happy losing star running back and fan fave Saquon Barkley to the Philly Eagles. Bet the Giants GM’s head will roll.
Songs Of The Day:
Summertime Blues- Eddie Cochran
Catfish - David Denny
Summertime Blues- Blue Cheer
Rocky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh
Wee Wee Hours -Chuck Berry
Attitude Check- The Lloyds
( all available on You Tube)