Speaking of "O's" And Diners

[Posted by reader_iam]

So, while I was out and away from the 'net and the tube, people started talking about the new Hillary spoofspot:


There's apparently some stunned backlash to this Althouse exegesis, mostly due to the connecting of onion rings with vaginas and (lengthwise-sliced) carrot sticks [to phalluses--like, you all hadn't already figured out what parallelism was missing in this sentence; still, for the record]. Well, I think that part of it is a bit of a stretch, though very funny. I think I'd be pretty safe betting that onions rings--the food, people, the food--have been one of Bill Clinton's favorites forever. After all (or should that be: on the other hand), remember the 1994 decorating of the White House's 22 Christmas trees (scroll down)? And just today, Bill's name came up in connection with onion rings in this story, "How to Eat Like a Politico in N.H." Also, saying that Bill Clinton--at least in this spoof video--is a better actor than Hillary is a distinction without a difference and I can think of LOTS of examples where he's done better--and even she, for that matter. But the areas covered in #1 and #2 bear some thinking about.

Or they might, if I weren't busy imagining Hillary taking on the role of Jack Nicholson in this famous diner scene...


... and trying very hard NOT to imagine her in this :
.

Oh, my. Please pass the onion rings.

Update: And now I'm thinking of that Psychodots song, from back in '94, which referenced a president's wife. (OT, but what a great show that was, up in Philly, when they played during an Adrian Belew solo tour.) An excerpt from "Moaner":

She’s a president’s wife
But no we’ve never met
Once I saw her get angry
Something I’ll never forget
Maybe it’s only a dream
And I don’t want to be mean
But I’ll be willing to bet
She’s a moaner
A mo-o-o-oaner
She’s a mo-o-o-o-o-oa-ner
Don’t ask me how I know (she’s a moaner)
From her head down to her toes (she’s a moaner)
She’s a moaner
A mo-o-o-oaner
She’s a mo-o-o-o-o-oa-ner
Don’t ask me how I know (she’s a moaner)
From her head down to her toes.

LOL. Dialing that one right up.

That "Sopranos Theme Song" Spoken Intro

[Posted by reader_iam]

In one of the drive-by posts that constitutes blogging for me these days, I made reference Sunday night to the spoken intro of the A3 song which, over the past eight years, has morphed into the "The Sopranos Theme song." Of course, it didn't start out that way. David Chase found it--who knows when, precisely--and having chosen it, set it on a different path entirely. (Or was there a dance involved? Who knows? Remember, David Chase first pursued a different path.)

Anyway, while Googling tonight for some related information, I discovered this blog, and specifically this post, which opened with the spoken word intro to the A3 song. Though I have no illness attached to the memory, I had pretty much the same early reaction that this blogger had when first encountering the "Sopranos Theme Song." Bob (the blogger of this post), however, has a lot more to say, and about more of the song choices.

As for me, I'm still in drive-by mode, and I didn't find, at least yet, precisely what I was seeking in my Google travels. But I do think it's fun--"fun"--in context to contemplate the story and person of Eric Dolphy, among other people and topics.

I also want to give a nod to Amba, who was interested enough to look for that spoken intro (which I deliberately had not provided, out of curiosity about others' curiosity), and on one of whose posts I commented, in part: "But I do think the Shakespearian/Dickensian prism is not the one I'd choose... . I'm not sure I'd even use literature as the primary referent... ."

And after three days of drinkin' with Larry Love
I just get an inklin' to go on home
So, I'm walkin' down Coldharbour Lane
Head hung low, three or four in the mornin'

The suns comin' up and the birds are out singing
I let myself into my pad
Wind myself up that spiral staircase
An' stretch out nice on the chesterfield

Pithecanthropus Erectus already on the CD player
And I just push that remote button to sublimity
And listen to the sweet sculptural rhythms of Charles Mingus
And J.R. Monterose and Jackie Mclean
Duet on those saxophones

And the sound makes it's way outta the window
Minglin' with the traffic noises outside, you know and
All of a sudden I'm overcome by a feelin' of brief mortality
'Cause I'm gettin' on in the world
Comin' up on forty-one years

Forty-one stoney gray steps towards the grave
You know the box, awaits it's grissly load
Now, I'm gonna be food for worms
And just like Charles Mingus wrote
That beautiful piece-a music, 'Epitaph for Eric Dolphy'

I say, so long Eric, so long, John Coltrane
And Charles Mingus, so long, Duke Ellington
And Lester Young, so long, Billie Holliday
And Ella Fitzgerald, so long, Jimmy Reed
So long, Muddy Waters, and so, long Howlin' Wolf

(Wo-wo-woke up this mornin')

Woke up this mornin'
Got yourself a gun
...

(P.S. Only slightly OT, I enjoyed dipping back into my old, dusty copy of Mingus' autobiography, Beneath the Underdog, late Sunday night/early Monday morning. The thing is, you sort of have to maintain a similar mindset to that required for reading Salvador Dali's depictions of his own life and work. Fact and truth and all that jazz don't always neatly overlap--and as for expectations and prisms?

Fuhgeddaboudit.)

"... So I'm walking down Cold Harbour Lane

[Posted by reader_iam]

... the sun's coming up ... I just push that remote button ... and I just hear the sweet, sculptured rhythms of Charles Mingus ..."

I wonder if people so enamoured of the "mystery" of "The Sopranos" have ever really listened to the whole of the A3 song (or to Charles Mingus, for that matter, not an accidental reference in the full-length song, as were not the other references in the set-up) and followed those threads.

Well, have you?