I still remember when I discovered folk music by myself. Crosby, Stills and Nash first album, then Neil Young's Harvest. The first songs I learned to play. Folk and popular music can be so powerful. The voice of Joan Baez still gives me the chills, Quilapayún singing "El pueblo unido" in front of thousands, or Springsteen singing "The River" live, so moving. Sure Rock'n Roll lets us express the rage and anger, but folk music brings our humanity on top and helps us connect.
And yes, sometimes, we need people like you to remind us.
Thank you, Noel. Love the Woody Guthrie section. My husband and I went to the Guthrie Center in Tulsa in December, and I was so excited to see his handwritten lyrics about asshole slumlord Fred Trump!
My mind is always buzzing after reading your posts. To have been in attendance for Guthrie's birthday celebration would be a pinnacle of joy for me. But now I digress as I believe there are entertainers in our country, who will pull people together. Only then, can we as a nation begin to heal. Thank again for your powerful thoughts.
Beautifully written, Noel. Flummoxed historians will look back on this era, where we have a brimming toilet of malignancy and a destroyer of worlds as president who routinely brags about “acing” a screening exam for brain damage that his physicians keep nudging him to take. It’s akin to announcing to someone one just started dating that you’ve aced 4 STD tests in the last year… it’s not the clarifying “own” you think it is, Combover Caligula.
Your article clicked something that I'm going to flesh out more: Donnie Dementia Diaper is a fairy tale villain, recognizable to us all from childhood! I figured out at least 10 classic villains that fit him perfectly from Midas to the wolf in Red Riding Hood. These cartoonish villains permit us to figure out moral boundaries, what is good and true, and what we have buried inside we are too cowardly to look at directly---our racism, classism, etc.
I forgot: "Mirror Mirror on the wall, who's the most popular president/handsomest/most cognitive/winninest/hunkiest/womanizer of them all?" and ursula who stole voices: Stephen Colbert, 60 Minutes.
I listed: The Big Bad Wolf who threatens to have ICE enter folks' homes and take them away; Rumpelstiltskin who makes impossible bargains: I'll take ICE away if you give me your voter rolls; Bluebeard, a wealthy, murderous aristocrat who tests the obedience of his wives, hiding a gruesome chamber of his former victims in his castle (Epstein Island and Zorro Ranch); the Pied Piper stole all the children (Epstein Island again); the Wizard of Oz who turns out to be a conman, small, liar behind a huge curtained picture of himself; Captain Hook obsessed with revenge against those who took his hand ("stolen election" of 2020) and hatred of young boys (like Obama); Hansel and Gretel's witch who baked and ate little children, frighteningly close to what we've heard/read about Epstein Island and Zorro Ranch). Any more you can think of?
I still remember when I discovered folk music by myself. Crosby, Stills and Nash first album, then Neil Young's Harvest. The first songs I learned to play. Folk and popular music can be so powerful. The voice of Joan Baez still gives me the chills, Quilapayún singing "El pueblo unido" in front of thousands, or Springsteen singing "The River" live, so moving. Sure Rock'n Roll lets us express the rage and anger, but folk music brings our humanity on top and helps us connect.
And yes, sometimes, we need people like you to remind us.
Thank you, Noel. Love the Woody Guthrie section. My husband and I went to the Guthrie Center in Tulsa in December, and I was so excited to see his handwritten lyrics about asshole slumlord Fred Trump!
My mind is always buzzing after reading your posts. To have been in attendance for Guthrie's birthday celebration would be a pinnacle of joy for me. But now I digress as I believe there are entertainers in our country, who will pull people together. Only then, can we as a nation begin to heal. Thank again for your powerful thoughts.
Beautifully written, Noel. Flummoxed historians will look back on this era, where we have a brimming toilet of malignancy and a destroyer of worlds as president who routinely brags about “acing” a screening exam for brain damage that his physicians keep nudging him to take. It’s akin to announcing to someone one just started dating that you’ve aced 4 STD tests in the last year… it’s not the clarifying “own” you think it is, Combover Caligula.
Your article clicked something that I'm going to flesh out more: Donnie Dementia Diaper is a fairy tale villain, recognizable to us all from childhood! I figured out at least 10 classic villains that fit him perfectly from Midas to the wolf in Red Riding Hood. These cartoonish villains permit us to figure out moral boundaries, what is good and true, and what we have buried inside we are too cowardly to look at directly---our racism, classism, etc.
I forgot: "Mirror Mirror on the wall, who's the most popular president/handsomest/most cognitive/winninest/hunkiest/womanizer of them all?" and ursula who stole voices: Stephen Colbert, 60 Minutes.
I listed: The Big Bad Wolf who threatens to have ICE enter folks' homes and take them away; Rumpelstiltskin who makes impossible bargains: I'll take ICE away if you give me your voter rolls; Bluebeard, a wealthy, murderous aristocrat who tests the obedience of his wives, hiding a gruesome chamber of his former victims in his castle (Epstein Island and Zorro Ranch); the Pied Piper stole all the children (Epstein Island again); the Wizard of Oz who turns out to be a conman, small, liar behind a huge curtained picture of himself; Captain Hook obsessed with revenge against those who took his hand ("stolen election" of 2020) and hatred of young boys (like Obama); Hansel and Gretel's witch who baked and ate little children, frighteningly close to what we've heard/read about Epstein Island and Zorro Ranch). Any more you can think of?
The Emperor...of "The Emperor Has No Clothes" fame.
Excellent writing. You never disappoint, Noel.
This is your best commentary, Noel.