Spinal Tap was a popular rock band that was planning to do another nationwide tour hoping to capture the past years glories. Unfortunately the music and fans had gone on leaving the band behind. Fewer and fewer people showed up for their concerts leaving them in a land of irrelevancy. Throughout their demise they bickered behind the scenes, pointed fingers at each other for the dismal reception they received, but it was common knowledge that never seemed to penetrate the group as it looked for scapegoats they were simply washed up.
They did though hold on to a few Kool Aid followers who wouldn’t accept reality. I thought of this when I saw the Boston Herald’s headline today something to the effect that Trump did OK in OK. Only those who lives are informed by the Herald and Fox News would believe that.
At least Fox News recognized that the turnout for Trump’s comeback had fizzled with the failure of people to show up. Commentators there noted the lack of attendees but said despite that it sounded like there was a standing room only crowd. We have now reached the point where the noise of a crowd is a substitute for actual people.
The Hate Fest in Tulsa was the first of the final tour of the Trump shows. The preliminaries had the usual reference to Hillary Clinton with the attendees chanting “lock her up, lock her up!” If that’s not a sign of playing a tune that has seen its day I don’t know what is.
Then the lap dog appeared. The most uninspiring speaker in America who has the charisma of an ice cube. I thought the preliminary act was suppose to warm the audience up? He put them to sleep as a scan of the sparse audience showed yawns and total disinterest.
Seeing so few people there after we were told over a million tickets had been requested was astonishing. Before the event began they were taking down the stage to handle the expected but no show overflow crowd. Someone suggested that Trump’s Silent Majority was in fact an Invisible Majority.
I suppose in one sense the Boston Herald was partially right. It wasn’t that Trump was OK in OK it was the OK people were OK in OK having the basic sense to avoid going into a Coronavirus incubator to support an act that has seen its day.
The the dying final act came out onto the stage. The half, if that, filled stadium came to life. Imagine that some of these folk had camped out for days prior to the event to get into a place that was so empty. The main event acted as if there were 13,909 there initially but eventually recognized the lack of attendees suggesting they were scared off by protestors even though they were peaceful and his supporters were carrying AK-15s and the police did a fine job making sure anyone who wanted to attend could do so.
His speech started of inspiring Americans by talking about himself and his ramp problem and his running ten feet at the end of the ramp asking his Hamlin-like followers not to believe what their lying eyes showed them and to live in his make believe world. Then to the mighty cheers of his followers he showed that he could drink a glass of water with one hand bravely taking not one but two sips.
That pretty much was the highlight. The rest was the usual, usual. The faithful walked out sullenly and silently somewhat disappointed realizing they were duped. You can be sure behind the scenes like with Spinal Tap there was much finger pointing.
Beam Me Up Scotty
Bone Spurs is now Seargent Schultz (” I know nothing”!) as far as the political firing of a US Attorney looking into Giulliani et al. “People give me things to sign, and I sign. I don’t get involved.” There’s Leadership!
And a most Happy Father’s Day to all of you fathers on here. I hope you all get calls from your kids.
Sex and sexy are good. Songs: “Sex is on Fire” by The Kings of Leon. . . . .and “The Fire Down Below” by Hollywood Nights and Still the Same poet, guitarist, piano player, Bob Seger. More songs: I put on a Leonard Cohen album this morning (greatest hits of a great poet) and the third song had the words “Father’s Day” in the lyrics. I thought of Spiritual Glue, some coincidence. I told some friends that little story this morning and one said, “Lynyrd Skynyrd”? which sounds like Leonard Skinner, and I said, No, but almost every day I play Lynyrd Skynyrd’s FREE BIRD, (live at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 2006, or live in Pittsburgh, December 27, 1976); as a lifelong keyboard guy, I’ve always admired Billy Powell, the piano/keyboard key for L.S., and last night I told some folks I always admired Ray Manzarek, piano/keys guy for Jim Morrison and THE DOORS, and a woman started singing, “Come on baby light my fire.”
Which leads me to Spinal Tap, Woodstock (a few hundred thousand crowd size and I knew a redheaded kid I worked with who was in the front row) and A COMPARISON OF DONALD TRUMP’S CROWDS WITH JOE BIDEN’S CROWDS:
Matt, it is true that the Tulsa Arena (Bok Center) was not full. I’d say at least 10,000 to 15,000 in a stadium with a capacity of 19,000. It is also true that throughout 2019 and 2020 (up till Covid-19 hit) Trump routinely filled or nearly filled stadiums, arenas, with capacities from 6,000 to 20,000 people. Also, many more were routinely standing outside. The Leftist MSM repeatedly highlighted the fact that Trump overestimated the number of people standing outside. For example, the Leftist fakes said Trump said 20,000 were standing outside (over the course of a day) while the Police Chief estimated the maximum at any one time was 3,000 standing outside.
No one denies that Trump routinely drew crowds from about 10,000 to 20,000.
NOW LET’S LOOK AT SLEEPY JOE BIDEN’S CROWDS:
Joe Biden’s last few rallies: Pittsburgh, April 29, 2020, Biden’s Kickoff Rally, fewer than one thousand.
St. Louis, early March: several hundred unenthusiastic people showed up at noon.
Detroit March 9: Attendance 2,000 uninspired, insipid reaction from the packed gymnasium (they picked the small gym knowing they could not fill a larger arena.) This is about the maximum Biden drew, for example On October 18, 2019, he drew less than 2,000 in Kentucky.
Philadelphia, March 10, HEADLINES: “Despite Coronavirus Concerns, Joe Biden Sets Philly Event Tonight; Axed Cleveland Rally On Super Tuesday” by Dominic Patten, Senior Editor, Legal and TV Critic
How many attended Joe’s much-heralded, widely publicized March 10 Philly rally? Answer: 200. That’s right: Two hundred people; His campaign figured they had to get the smallest venue possible, and still they were barely able to get 200 people inside.
So, I would not predict the demise of the Trump Campaign or downplay his appeal; Trump’s continuing enthusiastic support far exceeds the uninspired support for insipid Joe Biden.
I recall on election day November 2016 that many Hillary supporters were publicly mocking Trump’s supporters based on early polls. The lesson everyone should have learned from Hillary’s defeat is not to shout “Victory” until the bell rings, until the final votes are counted, until the referee blows his whistle, until the opponent is counted out until the curtain comes down at the end of the play. November 2020, the American people will decide. Trump will get 60 million votes; Biden, like Hillary, will get 60 million. A few million one way or the other, or a few thousand in several swing states, will decide the outcome. DO NOT COUNT YOUR CHICKENS UNTIL THEY HATCH. IT IS NOT “OVER” UNTIL IT IS OVER AND DONE.
P.S., Since before I was twenty years old, I always liked the joints in the Combat Zone, and later the Teddy Bear Lounge, and later joints in the D.C.-Virginia-Maryland area, and later still, Squires in Boston suburbs and that other place in Stoughton, because I always like live entertainment and I always liked dancing girls. Still do!
The place in Stoughton was where one of my first girlfriends was a stripper. It was on 138 and I am searching for the name of the place. Gi Gi’s? I think so. It was the winter of 1974-75 and I was working in Southie at the time. Back then the bar had no strippers and could become a nasty hangout. I was walking in with three friends and I had been moonlighting putting in HVAC duct work and had a few nasty cuts on my knuckles. They were bandaged up and I guess I looked like a part of the disreputable element. As we were walking in my friend Lenny, a fighter from the time he was born, asked how things were in Southie. The bouncers heard Southie and looked at my bandaged hands and said, “Oh, no. No one from Southie tonight.” and told us to beat it. What we didn’t know was that there had been several knifings in the bar recently and about a half dozen plainclothes were milling around. I tried to explain that we were not from Southie and we were just out for a good time. They said absolutely not. As we were walking away a guy and his girl were heading in and Lenny said to them, “Don’t bother going in. The place sucks.” The guy seemed not to hear all of Lenny’s advice and said in a most aggressive tone, “What did you just say to me?” and Lenny froze for two seconds and said, ” I SAID YOU SUCK!” Lenny ended up in jail, the guy he fought ended up in the Brockton Hospital ER with some serious head injuries and the rest of us ended up in the safe confines of the Erie Pub in Neponset. Never should have left Dorchester.
The place on 138 in Stoughton was called Alex’s (in the ’90s, at least), but I have no idea what it may have been called before then.
But that’s secondhand information. 🙂
My main reason for going out that way was for the pizza at Town Spa. I’m sure Alex’s changed hands on a regular basis. I left Boston in 94 but probably didn’t go out that way since the late 80’s.
Secondhand, huh?
Wonderful Story, ending up with the great Erie Pub. Stoughton’s joint was great, the dancers were all very nice, and the bartenders/bouncers friendly, and one day there was a guest star from Pennsylvania or West Virginia, and I got to talking with her for some time, and she was smart, and told me she had four brothers growing up . . .a good family . . .I related with three brothers and two sisters . . .I’ve said before the young women who worked as bartenders, waitresses, dancers in those clubs were our mirror images: we, the patrons, were the guys/kids who walked on the wild side, and those young women were the girls/gals who walked on the wild side . . .some were coeds, some dated and married friends of mine, some I came to consider my friends, too . . .
I’ve been to the ER three times and gotten stitches in my face twice and patched up otherwise . . .I never started fights, but I lost a few and took a beating once in a while, As Danny Ryan used to say: You win some, you lose some, and some are rained out . .
But, Abe, you bring back a story from our late teen years. We were standing outside Connors Tavern (it just had become Connors; before it was Moakley’s) on the corner of Savin Hill Ave. There were four or five of us; my younger brother, Tom Tucker (R.I.P, at English High then, quarterback, future Vietnam Veteran, Army radioman) and Billy Jenkins, one of our best fighters, but a real gentleman . . .Billy was indominatable . . . .When he got jumped by a dozen St. Mark’s kids and took a beating, the next week he went to every high school in the City, tracked each down, and gave each one a return beating . . .If you beat Billy, he just came back the next day to go at it again . . .
Anyway, that day, an older guy, mid-twenties, walked by us, he had a leather jacket on, looked like a strong enough, tough enough kid, and Jenks said to us, “Hey, was that Smith?” Well, the guy heard him, turned back, and said to Jenks in a threatening way, “What did you say?” And Jenks said, “I said is your name Smith or is it asshole?”
Of course, the fight ensued in the back alley (down South Sidney, in back of the buildings) and as usual Billy Jenkins in a fair one-on-one fight beat the daylights out of the older, bigger guy.
Life in Savie/Dorchester/Southie in the fifties, sixties, seventies . . .par for the course.
P.S. I hope Billy Jenkins does not mind telling me this true story . . .He too never started fights, he just stood his ground, a perfect gentleman and lifelong friend.
P.P.S., I’m going to tell all these stories anyway in my next book, due out in a year or two, “Jack, the Autobiography of Bill” by Billy C., just another Savin Hill Billy
Peace, fear no man, and fight the good fight.
wa-llahi! No Bill? Tell us about Tulsa. What’s the spin?
It was the largest political gathering in the history of our country, PERIOD!
By the way, if you have ever seen the original VCR tape of Spinal Tap, at the end there is a stunning blonde dressed up in leather briefs that does a dance. It is not part of the movie. The woman is someone that I went drinking with down in Scituate, a friend of my friends. I think that I spent time with her kind of puts me on the map. Don’t you think?
What’s wrong with sexy?
Ours go up to eleven.
Happy Fathers day.
I have been discovering actor Ian Mckeown on youtube
these days as he explains and performs Shakesphere.
Which brings to mind All of us are walking shadows that
strut and fret our hour upon the stage and are heard no
more.
It is a tale told upon the Oklahoma stage,
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Allen Ginsburg said it better when he howled
“ I saw the best republicans of my generation,
starving with madness ,
dragging themselves through the Southie Dawn,
looking for a democratic fix “
Just a reminder to everyone to check their birthmarks
http://www.sinor.ru:8104/~che/birthmarks.htm
Birthmarks Article
Note: This article by Dr. Ian Stevenson, published in an academic journal in 1993, provides amazing graphic evidence that physical traits somehow can carry over from a past life to a present life. It also give a sample of Dr. Stevenson’s thoroughness, and of his academic style. It’s not easy reading. But it is, in my opinion, the strongest proof yet of reincarnation.
The “forthcoming book” that Dr. Stevenson mentions, and on which this article is based, is now available. If you want to dig into this amazing work further, I recommend you get the shorter summary book, Where Biology and Reincarnation Intersect from Amazon.com (it probably is not in your local bookstore).
Following is the complete text of the article.
Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons
By Dr. Ian Stevenson