Rita Butar Butar - Bintang

Judul Album : Bintang 

Artis : Rita Butar Butar 

Tahun Rilis : 1981 

Music Director : Rinto Harahap 

Produser : Rinto Harahap 

Produksi : Lolypop Records

Etnis Batak di Indonesia memang dikenal punya bakat alam sebagai penyanyi hebat. Ciri khas penyanyi dari suku ini adalah kemampuan mereka menjangkau nada-nada tinggi dengan mulus dan tidak terdengar 'menyakiti' telinga. Salah satu penyanyi asal Batak yang dikenal dengan nada tingginya yang luar biasa adalah RITA BUTAR BUTAR. Ambitus penyanyi asal Pematang Siantar ini memang mencengangkan. Jangkauan vokal 5 oktafnya mampu mencapai nada tinggi (bahkan sangat tinggi) sampai ke nada F7! Tidak heran RINTO HARAHAP yang mengawal karirnya sejak awal selalu memberikan lagu yang mengharuskannya meniti nada-nada tinggi dan selalu dilahapnya dengan sempurna. Lihat saja lagu-lagu semacam SEANDAINYA AKU PUNYA SAYAP, WANITA, HATI, AIR MATA atau AKU TAK INGIN MENGEMIS LAGI. Nyaris semua lagunya memang membutuhkan kemampuan tersendiri untuk menyanyikannya. Termasuk ketika merilis album BINTANG, Rinto masih mendaulat Rita untuk membawakan lagu semacam itu. Hasilnya cukup menggembirakan. Meskipun tidak berhasil secemerlang SEANDAINYA AKU PUNYA SAYAP yang berhasil menjadi alltime hits, tapi album ini cukup diminati penikmat musik, dan menghasilkan juga radio hits SENDUNYA HATI INI. 

Track List:

1. BINTANG

Rinto Harahap

2. SUDAH SURATAN

Rinto Harahap

3. SENDUNYA HATI INI

Pance Pondaag

4. PELANGI CINTA

Gophur

5. BISIKAN HATI

Anto

6. SETIA JANJI KITA

Budi Thimas

7. RINDU

Nuri Gemuri

8. BEKUNYA HATI INI

Ram Sagita

9. WANITA DAN AIR MATA

Rudi Rampengan

10. HARI INI BAHAGIA

Azis A.

11. KATAKAN PADAKU

Arche Rampengan

12. ASMARA

Monthy

BINTANG

Bintang, mengapa kau tertawakan diri ini

Oh jangan pikir aku tak sanggup sendiri

Bintang, jangan kau tertawakan diriku lagi

Oh akan aku buktikan nanti padamu

Walau kini aku sendiri

Aku yang mau

Bukan karena aku ditinggal pergi olehnya

Walau ada tangis di hati

Akan kusimpan

Biar senyum ini menemanimu malam ini

Bintang, masih ingatkah kau dulu jadi saksi

Oh dia ingin diriku ini miliknya

Bintang, masih ingatkah apa jawabku dulu

Akan aku buktikan dulu cintamu

Ira Maya Sopha - Kumenanti

Judul Album : Kumenanti 

Artis : Ira Maya Sopha 

Tahun Rilis : 1985 

Music Director : Raidy Noor 

Produksi : SB Records/Irama Tara 

Distributor : Varia Nada Utama Records

Dari banyaknya penyanyi anak-anak di era 70an yang meneruskan karir sampai dewasa, IRA MAYA SOPHA adalah contoh yang berhasil eksis selain beberapa nama saja yang juga 'lolos' seperti CHICHA KOESWOYO, DINA MARIANA, ADI BING SLAMET atau NOURMA YUNITA. Menginjak masa remaja, album-album Ira ada di genre pop melankolis dan melejit saat ditangani oleh POMPY. Upaya perubahan terlihat ketika album KUMENANTI diproduksi. Kali ini Ira bekerjasama dengan RAIDY NOOR sebagai music director dan dibantu oleh sederet musisi sekaliber BAGOES AA, HERMAN GELLY, UCE HARIONO dan WACHID AJIE. Di deretan komposer juga ada nama JAMES F. SUNDAH, BARIN RD, DAVID MESSAKH atau RAIDY dan RAZI NOOR yang menyetorkan lagu-lagu yang berbeda dari yang sebelumnya dibawakan Ira. Hanya saja untuk kepentingan pasar sepertinya Ira memang harus lebih berkompromi. Lagu KUMENANTI garapan hitsmaker pop melankolis OBBIE MESSAKH tetap diusung sebagai ujung tombak. Dan alih-alih aransemennya digarap berbeda untuk menyesuaikan dengan keseluruhan lagu di album ini, lagu KUMENANTI tetap diaransemen sebagaimana umumnya lagu-lagu pop melankolis ala Obbie saat itu, bahkan secara khusus di lagu ini ditampilkan permainan gitar EDDY SYAM yang sangat lekat dengan genre ini. Tentu saja karena saat itu lagu yang dipromosikan hanya lagu andalan saja, maka lagu-lagu pop kreatif yang sebenarnya kuat seperti DISINI atau BUNGA BUNGA REMAJA menjadi tidak terdeteksi. Upaya perubahan pun sayangnya tidak berhasil, dan ironisnya lagu KUMENANTI juga tidak mampu berbicara banyak di pasar pop melankolis yang persaingannya sangat ketat. 

Track List:

1. KUMENANTI

Obbie Messakh

2. DOI

Cherry LZ

3. KAN KUSAMBUT BAHAGIA

Johny Lisaholet

4. BUNGA BUNGA REMAJA

James F. Sundah

5. PUISI CINTA

Cherry LZ

6. CINTA PERTAMA

Meddy Emde

7. MENTARI

Addie Permono

8. PANDANGAN

Barin

9. DISINI

Raidy Noor & Razi Noor

10. GENGSI

David Messakh

KUMENANTI

Malam yang sepi

Di kamar yang sunyi

Ada getar rindu ingin jumpa kamu

Kau di sana dan aku di sini

Terpisah jarak yang semakin jauh

Kukecup mesra bingkai kenangan

Yang masih tersisa dari masa silam

Kau lihatlah diriku di sini

Setia menanti sampai kau kembali

Ku menanti, ku menanti

Kuncup bunga yang telah layu

Bersemi kembali

Ku menanti, ku menanti

Kekasih datang di sini

Melebur duka

12 Lagu Terbaru 12 Bintang Terpopuler

Judul Album : 12 Lagu Terbaru 12 Bintang Terpopuler 

Artis : Various 

Tahun Rilis : 1987 

Produksi : Keyboard Records 

Distributor : Atlantic Records

Album kompilasi lagu-lagu baru dari penyanyi-penyanyi terpopuler menjadi trend di industri musik Indonesia di paruh akhir 80an. Strategi yang cukup jitu mengingat para penyanyi yang terangkum dalam album-album semacam ini adalah nama-nama yang berada di jajaran depan, sehingga menarik minat para pembeli kaset yang selama ini hanya mendapatkan satu penyanyi saja dalam satu album. Terlebih pada masa itu sangat lazim di sebuah album seorang penyanyi hanya berisi satu dua lagu yang terbilang catchy dan potensial hits, sementara sisanya adalah lagu-lagu yang sepertinya hanya sekedar pengisi kuota. Sementara di album kompilasi semacam ini, masing-masing penyanyi seperti 'bersaing' menampilkan yang terbaik agar bisa menarik perhatian. Tidak semua album semacam ini berhasil mencetak penjualan tinggi memang, karena kalau sudah urusan pasar akan sangat banyak faktor yang menentukan. Seperti di album 12 LAGU TERBARU 12 BINTANG TERPOPULER terbitan KEYBOARD RECORDS yang menghadirkan jagoan-jagoan pop melankolis seperti RATIH PURWASIH, DEDDY DORES,  RANO KARNO, TWIN SISTERS, IIS SUGIARTI, ADE PUTRA, NELLA REGAR, IYUT BING SLAMET, HANNY TUHETERU, ADI BING SLAMET, NIA ZULKARNAEN dan ANGEL PFAFF. Deretan komposer yang menyumbang lagu juga terbilang meyakinkan seperti POMPY, DEDDY DORES, DEDDY DHUKUN, ADRIADIE, MANTHOUS, FERDY FERDIAN, DADANG S. MANAF atau HANNY TUHETERU. Lagu melankolis AKU MENANTI dari RATIH PURWASIH dijagokan untuk menarik perhatian pasar. Sayangnya meskipun lagunya 'sangat Ratih' tapi tidak cukup kuat menembus persaingan. Yang berhasil menjadi radio hits justru duet DEDDY DORES & DAGMAR yang menyanyikan lagu manis SENADA DALAM CINTA. 

Track List:

1. AKU MENANTI

Pompy

Ratih Purwasih

2. SENADA DALAM CINTA

Deddy Dores

Deddy Dores & Dagmar

3. GADIS MANIS

Rudy Rampengan

Rano Karno

4. DOI SAYANG

Adriadie

Iis Sugiarti

5. BEGITU SAJA

Manthous

Ade Putra

6. KUMISNYA JEJAKA

Ajie Indra

Nella Regar

7. RAGU

Ferdy Ferdian

Iyut Bing Slamet

8. SATU DI ANTARA SERIBU

Hanny Tuheteru

Hanny Tuheteru

9. HATI BERBUNGA

Tigor Gipsy

Twin Sisters

10. SIAPA

Deddy Dhukun

Adi Bing Slamet

11. KEMBANG MERAH

Dadang S. Manaf

Nia Zulkarnaen

12. CINTA YANG PUTIH

Dadang S. Manaf

Angel Pfaff

SENADA DALAM CINTA

Biar daun-daun kering

Layu berserakan

Biar ranting-ranting patah

Terkulai di bumi

Biar burung-burung berhenti berkicau

Hati kita berdua tetap bersemi segar dan bernyanyi

Walau mega-mega putih

Di angkasa sana

Berubah menjadi hitam pekat dan menghilang

Hati kita tetap putih dan berseri

Tak setitikpun noda melumuri cinta yang kita bina

Senada cinta berdua

Senada kita bersama

Sampai akhir dunia ini

Walau bintang ak berkelip

Walau bulan tak bersinar

Hati kita kan selalu bercahaya

Anita Sarawak - Gayamu Biar Sederhana

Judul Album : Gayamu Biar Sederhana 

Artis : Anita Sarawak 

Tahun Produksi : 1979 

Tahun Rilis : 1984 

Music Director : S. Atan 

Produser : S. Atan 

Produksi : EMI Singapore 

Distributor : Virgo Ramayana Records

Penyanyi asal Singapura ANITA SARAWAK memang tidak hanya kondang di negaranya saja. Karirnya juga mulus di Malaysia dan juga di Indonesia, sebelum kemudian hijrah ke Amerika dan menjadi penyanyi di Las Vegas selama 20 tahun sejak tahun 1985. Di Indonesia sendiri karir Anita cukup mapan pasca pernikahannya dengan BROERY PESOLIMA di tahun 1981. Secara khusus Anita juga merilis album di Indonesia dengan membawakan lagu-lagu ciptaan komposer Indonesia BAWALAH DAKU PERGI yang mencapai sukses besar dengan superhits TRAGEDI BUAH APEL. Sejak itulah album-album lama Anita yang belum edar di Indonesia kemudian dirilis, termasuk album rilisan 1979 GAYAMU BIAR SEDERHANA yang dirilis di Indonesia pada tahun 1984. Album ini sendiri di negara asalnya berhasil melejitkan lagu DENGARLAH INI CERITA dan juga AYAM DEN LAPEH yang merupakan lagu berbahasa Minang dan populer di Indonesia lewat suara NURSEHA dan juga kemudian oleh ELLY KASIM. Sayangnya kehadiran album ini di Indonesia tidak dipromosikan sebagaimana mestinya, boleh jadi karena label yang mengedarkannya juga bukan label yang saat itu menaungi Anita di Indonesia. Maka tidak heran lagu-lagunya juga tidak berhasil populer di sini. Album ini juga tidak memuat seluruh lagu di album versi aslinya, hanya ada 7 lagu dari 11 lagu yang ditampilkan di Side A, sementara di Side B justru berisi lagu-lagu dari BROERY.

Track List:

(track 1-7 Anita Sarawak, track 8-13 Broery Pesolima)

1. PERASAAN

S. Atan & Haron Abdul Majid

2. GAYAMU BIAR SEDERHANA

S. Atan & Haron Abdul Majid

3. SELAMAT HARI LAHIR

S. Atan & Haron Abdul Majid

4. SEMENJAK AYAH PERGI

S. Atan & Haron Abdul Majid

5. AYAM DEN LAPEH

Abdul Hamid & Nurseha

6. MASIH ADA JALAN PULANG

S. Atan & Haron Abdul Majid

7. DENGARLAH INI CERITA

Copyright Control & Haron Abdul Majid

8. PESANKU

Onny Suryono

9. BAYANGAN

10. SERULING SENJA

11. TANASE

12. CUMBU RAYU

13. MINGGU PAGI

14. CINTAKU

GAYAMU BIAR SEDERHANA

Andai engkau cinta kan diriku

Jangan pula kau mengubah cara

Dengan gaya pakaian dan lagak yang sega

Untuk memikatku

Hati ini lebih menghargai

Kejujuran dan kesetiaan

Biar saja gayamu serba sederhana

Engkau tetap kuterima

Hey usahlah engkau curiga

Sekali aku bercinta

Tak mungkin aku durhaka

Bahagia derita bersama

Namun aku akan mengenangi

Jika engkau tetap sederhana

Tidak perlu gayamu yang luar biasa

Cintamu kuhargakan

The Best Dasa Tembang Tercantik LCLR 1977 - 1990

Judul Album : The Best Dasa Tembang Tercantik LCLR 1977-1990 

Artis : Various 

Tahun Rilis : 1993 

Produksi : Prambors, DD Records, Hemagita Records, Aquarius Musikindo 

Distributor : Aquarius Musikindo

Ajang tahunan LOMBA CIPTA LAGU REMAJA (LCLR) yang diselenggarakan Radio Prambors Jakarta memang fenomenal. Dimulai dari penyelenggaraan pertama di tahun 1977,  ajang ini berhasil 'mengubah' arah bermusik anak-anak muda masa itu sekaligus melahirkan nama-nama komposer baru yang kelak mampu berbicara banyak di industri musik tanah air seperti JAMES F. SUNDAH, CHRIS MANUSAMA, BAGOES AA, BASKORO, HARRY SABAR, IKANG FAWZY, DIAN PRAMANA POETRA dan masih banyak lagi. Lagu-lagu hasil ajang ini sangat khas baik struktur melodi maupun kalimat-kalimat dalam liriknya yang rata-rata menggunakan bahasa puitis dan bahkan lazim menggunakan bahasa Sansekerta. Sayangnya setelah penyelenggaraan di tahun 1983, ajang ini mengalami hiatus dan bangkit lagi di tahun 1987 dengan spirit baru sesuai perkembangan industri musik. Di era ini LCLR menghasilkan nama-nama seperti EDWIN SALADIN, YOVIE WIDIANTO, DIAN HP, DIDI AGP, BRAM MOERSAS, WIWIE GV dan DEDE ANWAR POETRA. Album-album kompilasi berisi lagu-lagu terbaik LCLR memang sudah sering dirilis dalam berbagai versi, tapi album rilisan AQUARIUS MUSIKINDO tahun 1993 ini bisa dibilang yang paling 'berwarna' karena mewakili berbagai era LCLR dari mulai LILIN LILIN KECIL, KIDUNG, APATIS, sampai KERAGUAN, JUJUR, SALAHKAH AKU dan MENEPIS BAYANG KASIH. Saat album ini dirilis, LCLR juga kembali mengalami hiatus setelah penyelenggaraan tahun 1990 dan baru diselenggarakan lagi di tahun 1996 yang sayangnya menjadi penyelenggaraan terakhir sampai saat ini. 

Track List:

1. LILIN LILIN KECIL

James F. Sundah

Chrisye

2. KIDUNG

Chris Manusama

Pahama

3. KERAGUAN

Edwin Saladin & Adelansyah

Trie Utami

4. SUARA HATI YANG DAMAI

Sam Bobo

Vina Panduwinata

5. JUJUR

RH. Bramanthio W.

Bram Moersas

6. DALAM CITA DAN CINTA

Oetari S.

Dhenok Wahyudi

7. SALAHKAH AKU

Rully Chairul & Adelansyah

Titi DJ

8. DALAM KELEMBUTAN PAGI

Baskoro

Jockie Suryoprayogo & Dhenok Wahyudi

9. APATIS

Ingrid Widjanarko

Benny Soebardja

10. KEHIDUPAN

Michael P.

Louise Hutauruk

11. KHAYAL

Tommy WS

Purnama Sultan

12. MENEPIS BAYANG KASIH

Iszur Muchtar & Gita Gartina

Rita Effendi

MENEPIS BAYANG KASIH

Malam kian kelam

Berjalan ke ujung hari

Ku masih di sini, di remang bayangmu kasih

Kucoba mengerti

Apa yang tengah terjadi

Ku harus sadari akhir perjalanan ini

Kisah cintaku

Aku harus mencoba

Untuk menepis semua

Kenangan yang terindah

Kala segalanya masih penuh asa

Semuanya ini

Hanyalah sepenggal kisah kehidupan

Bagi kita berdua

Kan kukenang dirimu

Dan semua yang ada padamu

Walaupun ku tahu 

Kau bukan milikku

Oh selamat tinggal kasih

Usman Bersaudara & Heidy Diana - Warung Tegal

Judul Album : Warung Tegal 

Artis : Usman Bersaudara & Heidy Diana 

Tahun Rilis : 1989 

Music Director : Usman Bersaudara 

Produser : Judhi Kristiantho 

Produksi : JK Records

Kelompok asal Surabaya USMAN BERSAUDARA mengalami masa keemasan di era 70an lewat sederet hits yang mampu menarik perhatian penikmat musik tanah air seperti OMONG KOSONG, KASIH MAMA, SORRY BOY, WULANDARI dan masih banyak lagi. Banyak yang membandingkan kelompok ini dengan KOES BERSAUDARA karena akar bermusik mereka sama, terlebih personel-personel USMAN BERSAUDARA adalah juga personel NO KOES yang notabene kelompok bentukan NOMO KOESWOYO pasca hengkang dari KOES BERSAUDARA. Sayangnya di era 80an nama mereka mulai memudar seiring dengan membanjirnya wajah-wajah baru dan bersinarnya para penyanyi solo di industri musik dibandingkan kelompok band. Meskipun tidak serta merta hilang karena sempat merilis beberapa album di era ini, tapi mereka sudah tidak sekuat era sebelumnya dalam menaklukkan pasar. Termasuk saat mereka digaet JK RECORDS untuk merilis album berjudul WARUNG TEGAL. Mengusung musik riang dengan lirik merakyat dan jenaka, strategi JK untuk meraup massa juga terlihat dengan 'menyandingkan' Usman Bersaudara dengan HEIDY DIANA yang merupakan jagoan JK di lagu-lagu riang, meskipun porsi Heidy di album ini sebenarnya sekedar pemanis. Strategi yang ternyata tetap tidak mampu menembus pasar.

Track List:

1. WARUNG TEGAL

Sofian

feat. Heidy Diana

2. SALAM RINDU LEWAT ORARI

Usman

3. BUAH HATIKU

Mamo Agil

4. KASIH MAMA

Dadang S. Manaf

5. BUJANG CARI JODOH

Sofian

6. GUDANG ASMARA

Sofian

7. KENANGAN MASA LALU

Said

8. CINTAKU DI DOMPETKU

Mamo Agil

9. CINTAKU KAU ANGGAP DUSTA

Usman

10. MIKIRIN JODOH

Dadang S. Manaf

WARUNG TEGAL

Gelas kaca loyang besi (ya bung)

Ditaruh di atas meja

(Komplit semua ada di situ)

Bicara sambil bercanda (ya bung)

Perut lapar, perut lapar ke warung Tegal

(Paling enak warung Tegal)

Warung Tegal kaki lima (Ya bung)

Makanan rakyat semua

(Enak, boleh nyomot asal kontan)

Harga murah dan meriah (ya bung)

Tinggal pilih tinggal pilih semua ada

Mau minum apa (kopi susu) (teh poci)

Mau makan apa (nasi tempe) (nasi tahu)

Mau lalap apa (pete jengkol sambel terasi)

Duh aduh enak sekali

Jagad Ariani - Goblok

Judul Album : Goblok 

Artis : Jagad Ariani 

Tahun Rilis : 2003 

Music Director : Liliek MS & Ansori Akbar 

Produser : Khamim Huda 

Produksi : Perkasa Project 

Distributor : MGM Record

Besar dari panggung-panggung festival menyanyi pop dan dangdut, JAGAD ARIANI kemudian mantap terjun ke genre dangdut setelah merilis album pertamanya DINDING KACA bersama ZEIN TAMARA yang beroleh sukses komersial dan juga mendapat penghargaan PENYANYI DUO TERBAIK di ajang ANUGERAH DANGDUT TPI 2002. Meskipun duetnya bersama Zein Tamara punya prospek bagus, Jagad kemudian melenggang sendirian sebagai penyanyi solo. Diawali dengan album GOBLOK yang digarapnya bersama LILIEK MS dan ANSORI AKBAR, serta EKO SAKY yang menggarap hampir seluruh lagu di album ini. Berbeda dengan debutnya DINDING KACA yang mengusung genre dangdut klasik, Di album solonya ini Jagad mengambil genre rock dangdut yang memang saat itu sedang digemari pasca suksesnya ALAM. Lagu GOBLOK berhasil mencuri perhatian penikmat dangdut dan mengangkat nama Jagad, disusul beberapa radio hits seperti GILA, MULUT dan ANGGUR TERLARANG. 

Track List:

1. JAGAD

Eko Saky

2. GOBLOK

Eko Saky

3. GILA

Eko Saky

4. TANTANGAN

Khamim Huda & Kuntet Mangkulangit

5. SAMA SAMA MAU

Eko Saky

6. MULUT

Eko Saky

7. SATU JARI

Khamim Huda

8. ANGGUR TERLARANG

Eko Saky & Maulana Syafei

GOBLOK

Putus pacaran denganmu

Buat apa aku harus frustasi

Rugi... rugi...

Putus hubungan denganmu

Buat apa aku harus patah hati

Yeaaaah...

Kamu nggak sayang padaku

Buat apa aku harus sayang kamu

Rugi.. rugi...

Kamu nggak cinta padaku

Buat apa aku harus cinta kamu

Masih banyak orang lain

Dan pasti mau menjadi pacarku

Masih banyak orang lain

Buat apa pusing mikirin kamu

Kamu... kamu...

Nggak pacar-pacaran

Nggak cinta-cintaan

Kalau hanya bikin pusing kepalaku

Ditinggalin kamu, diputusin kamu

Buat aku nggak ada ruginya

Nggak sayang-sayangan

Nggak suka-sukaan

Kalau hanya merusak fikiranku

Ngikutin caramu, nurutin maumu

Sama juga bunuh diri

Goblok!

At the Backyard Fox Café...

 

... you can talk about whatever you want.

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"The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear challenges to the admissions process at Harvard and the University of North Carolina..."

"... presenting the most serious threat in decades to the use of affirmative action by the nation's public and private colleges and universities.... In the latest case, groups backed by a longtime opponent of affirmative action, Edward Blum of Maine, sued Harvard and UNC in federal court, claiming that Harvard's undergraduate admissions system discriminated against Asian American students and that UNC's discriminated against both Asian American and white students.... The challengers in both cases, Students for Fair Admissions, urged the justices to overrule the court’s 2003 decision on affirmative action, which upheld the University of Michigan's use of race as a plus factor and served as a model for similar admissions programs nationwide...."

NBC News reports.

"Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work."

Said Gustave Flaubert.

I'm reading that this morning because it popped up in the end of a New Yorker article about — of all things — Led Zeppelin:

If the predetermined task of rock gods and goddesses is to sacrifice themselves on the Dionysian altar of excess so that gentle teen-agers the world over don’t have to do it themselves—which seems to be the basic rock-and-roll contract—then the lives of these deities are never exactly wasted, especially when they are foreshortened. Their atrocious human deeds are, to paraphrase a famous fictional atheist, the manure for our future harmony.... [S]urely all kinds of demonic and powerful art, including many varieties of music, both classical and popular, have been created by people who didn’t live demonically. What about Flaubert’s mantra about living like a bourgeois in order to create wild art? In Led Zeppelin’s case, the great music, the stuff that is still violently radical, was made early in the band’s career, when its members were most sober. The closer the band got to actual violence, the tamer the music became.

Yes but who is the "famous fictional atheist" and how can I reverse the paraphrase "atrocious human deeds are... the manure for our future harmony"? Oh, I managed to do that.

It's from "The Brothers Karamazov," spoken by Ivan, who's famously atheist:

“Oh, with my pathetic, earthly, Euclidean mind, I know only that there is suffering, that none are to blame, that all things follow simply and directly from one another, that everything flows and finds its level — but that is all just Euclidean gibberish, of course I know that, and of course I cannot consent to live by it! What do I care that none are to blame and that I know it — I need retribution, otherwise I will destroy myself. And retribution not somewhere and sometime in infinity, but here and now, on earth, so that I see it myself. I have believed, and I want to see for myself, and if I am dead by that time, let them resurrect me, because it will be too unfair if it all takes place without me. Is it possible that I've suffered so that I, together with my evil deeds and sufferings, should be manure for someone's future harmony? I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion, and the murdered man rise up and embrace his murderer. I want to be there when everyone suddenly finds out what it was all for.”

The NYT tries hard to get Temple Grandin to talk about vaccines and the fear of autism, but she won't go there.

They get an interesting interview out of her anyway — "Temple Grandin Wants Us to Think Differently About Kids Who Think Differently" — but it starts off incredibly awkwardly: 

During the pandemic, there has been a lot of discussion about who’s vaccinated and who’s not, and historically, a fear of autism is one of the things that antivaxxers — I will make only one comment: I have two Pfizers and a booster and a flu shot. That’s all I’m going to say.

Well, if it’s OK, I have another couple of questions about vaccines and autism, and you can choose if you’ll answer or not. That’s a subject where that’s pretty much all I’m going to say. I am glad that I have my vaccinations. I don’t have to worry about going to the hospital. I’ll leave it at that.

In the past, you’ve expressed openness about people who felt skeptical about vaccines because of — No comment.

Is it your understanding that the concern that certain parents have with vaccines is — No comment.

OK, I’ll move on for now...

There's a footnote at "In the past, you’ve expressed openness about people who felt skeptical about vaccines":

In a 2013 interview with The Times, when Grandin was asked about mothers of autistic children who suspect links between vaccines and autism, she replied, “I have talked to maybe five or six of those mothers, and that’s the reason I don’t pooh-pooh it.”

The interviewer David Marchese moves on to some other things, but comes back to what I assume is the whole reason for choosing to interview this well-known public figure now:

There are specific studies debunking the idea that vaccines have a causal relation to autism, A 2011 analysis of more than 1,000 research articles concluded that there are no links between immunization and autism, right? No comment. No comment. No comment. 

You don’t think it could be useful for people to hear your opinion? No comment. No comment. 

I got it. You better get it. Because I’m not discussing it. 

Have you gotten in trouble for talking about this subject before? No comment. I’ve had my two Pfizer shots and my booster. If they require a fourth shot, I’ll be first in line, thank you. 

Again Marchese retreats into other material, and after a while — showing amazing doggedness — he tries again:

I realize that maybe earlier I should have just asked this question bluntly: Do you believe vaccines can cause autism? I’m not discussing that. I will give you one thing about vaccinations: I listened to the news, and a doctor was complaining about having heart-attack patients die because they could not get into the emergency room because the hospital was so full of unvaccinated Covid people. And then I talked to this person that was not vaccinated about, you know, maybe all these people filling up this hospital killed some heart-attack patients. He said, I never thought about that. That I will talk about. 

But why not vaccines and autism? I don’t want to talk about that. 

I’m curious about your reluctance. I’m not discussing it. OK. There are certain things I don’t talk about because it interferes with stuff I care about. It’s that simple.

He really wanted her to get into that. I am going to guess that he had an idea for an article that it might be possible to write: Maybe Grandin would give people reason not to dread autism and perhaps to advise us that it ought to be understood in a positive light, as part of the rainbow of human diversity.

But, good lord, how many times should a reporter pressure the interviewee to talk about a subject she's put off limits? It's interesting to print the entire sequence, so that we, the readers, live through the experience of a reporter not taking no for an answer. 

I've been interviewed a few times by a reporter who kept coming back to something he seemed to already believe and wanted me to say, so I like the transparency! And Marchese never comes out and states what — if anything — he's trying to get her to say, so this interview is much better than what I've gone through.

"When the snow melts in the spring, fields can get so muddy in the plains of Eastern Europe that Russians have a word for it: Rasputitsa, or 'the season of bad roads.'..."

"If Russian President Vladimir Putin orders his forces to invade, analysts believe it would come before the spring thaw. 'The best time to do it is winter because it's going to be a mechanized advance and the mechanized divisions need hard frozen ground'... At a news conference Wednesday marking his first year in office, President Joe Biden warned Putin against an invasion, threatening a strong response by the US and NATO, but waffled over what would happen if Russia made a 'minor incursion,' in an awkward statement he sought to clarify afterward. 'The Russian dictator has not been subtle or secretive about what he wants. He might as well make the national anthem the Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R.,"' wrote Max Boot, in the Washington Post. 'He definitely wants to resurrect the Soviet empire, thereby undoing what he has called "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century. And that requires bringing back into the fold the second-largest former Soviet republic (by population) — the independent state of Ukraine.'"

From "Putin confronts the mud of Ukraine" (CNN).

*** 

From a 2011 post of mine, collecting mud quotes: 

"We sit in the mud... and reach for the stars." — Ivan Turgenev 

"I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French." — Charles de Gaulle 

"Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance..." — Thoreau 

"My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery - always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring, diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What's this passion for?" — Virginia Woolf

Russian, French, American, British.

ADDED: Thank God we have a mentally competent President. He understands the seasons — "First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.... Yes, there will be growth in the spring!"

At the Snowfall Café...

... you can write about whatever you want. 

"What's Up With The Ignorant Tattoo Style?"

I learned a lot from this fascinating video:

 

I became aware of this phenomenon yesterday, when I saw this and this at the subreddit r/shittytattoos.

Here's video of the "[c]reator of the famed Ignorant Style tattoo style, Fuzi... a street art legend."

And here's an Instagram collection of Ignorant Style tattoos.

I'm pretty amused by the concept and, especially, the name — though I think most examples of this sort of thing are a mistake. Many years ago, probably in the 1990s, I saw a young woman on campus that had a tattoo of a bathtub on her neck. Just a dark line drawing of an old-time claw-footed bathtub with the pipe extending upward for the shower head. I felt so bad about it. And I love bathtubs. But now I can see that it was an early example of the Ignorant Style!

ADDED: Back in 2009, I blogged about a tattoo artist that did things that he might characterize as Ignorant Style. It's at least adjacent to Ignorant Style. I said "I love these scribbly tattoos!" You can see a lot of his things at Instagram, here.

"Could we have had a more unsuitable man in charge? Sloppy, lusty, blind to details..."

"... just look at the piteous footage of Boris Johnson as he apologised to the Queen last week, nearly weeping, entirely out of self-pity. Nobody, he moaned, told him the massive party he had personally attended was 'against the rules.' If it wasn’t a 'work event,' he said, he couldn’t 'imagine why on earth it would have gone ahead.' I can tell him why: it went ahead because no one at Downing Street ever gave a toss about the rules. Not a single one of the scores of entitled, cashmere-hoodie-toting Tinder-swiping gin-in-a-tin-chugging junior staffers who flocked to the basement disco gimpfest the night before Prince Philip’s funeral gave a second thought about what was happening in the rest of the country. It says everything that even when Johnson came out of hospital, one of the earliest things he did wasn’t to tell Carrie to tone down the fire-pit heart-to-hearts; he went to what one MP described as a 'welcome back' party in his garden. He ignored Covid and nearly died from it but came back and still ignored it and licked everything. Who does that?"

From "Keeping up with the Johnsons is exhausting — life is lived at 10,000 miles a minute" by Camilla Long (London Times).

I do enjoy reading The London Times. The writing is different from what we get here in America. Apparently, in the U.K., a classy paper will print the word "gimpfest." And every other sentence makes me want to diagram.

"To celebrate his birthday, he had also brought along his mandolin, foie gras and champagne...."

From "French adventurer, 75, dies in attempt to row across the Atlantic/Jean-Jacques Savin, a former paratrooper, wanted ‘to laugh at old age’ but got into difficulties off the Azores" (The Guardian).

I don't much celebrate birthdays — do you? — but I don't think I'd even consider celebrating my birthday while alone, and if I did, I might come up with the idea of champagne and some special food, but not of picking up a musical instrument and serenading myself. 

It's so charming — don't you think? — that mandolin, foie gras, and champagne. I look to see — when was his birthday? Did he get to that birthday before the deathday popped up in the timeline of fate? Yes, he did. His birthday was January 14th. He died on the 21st.

"Some senators get so whacky in the national spotlight that they can’t function without it."

"Trump had that effect on Republicans. Before Trump, Lindsey Graham was almost a normal human being. Then Trump directed a huge amp of national attention Graham’s way, transmogrifying the senator into a bizarro creature who’d say anything Trump wanted to keep the attention coming. Not all senators are egomaniacs, of course. Most lie on an ego spectrum ranging from mildly inflated to pathological. Manchin and Sinema are near the extreme. Once they got a taste of the national spotlight, they couldn’t let go. They must have figured that the only way they could keep the spotlight focused on themselves was by threatening to do what they finally did last week: shafting American democracy."

Writes Robert Reich in "Where egos dare: Manchin and Sinema show how Senate spotlight corrupts" (The Guardian). 

Is it "whacky" or "wacky"? The author of "Common Errors in English Usage" says:

Although the original spelling of this word meaning “crazy” was “whacky,” the current dominant spelling is “wacky.” If you use the older form, some readers will think you’ve made a spelling error.

But the OED has the oldest example as "wacky," in 1935, though "whacky" also appears early on, in 1938. "Wacky" looks predominant, but "whacky" is also good. Still, a "whack" is a hard hit, so you might think about whether you want that image infecting the meaning which is just "Crazy, mad; odd, peculiar." 

The OED tips me off that "wackier" appears in John Irving's "World According to Garp." I'm printing it here because to me it's much more interesting than Reich's going on about the mental aberrations of Sinema and Manchin:

There was also a bad but very popular novel that followed [spoiler deleted] by about two months. It took three weeks to write and five weeks to publish. It was called Confessions of an Ellen Jamesian and it did much to drive the Ellen Jamesians even wackier or simply away. The novel was written by a man, of course. His previous novel had been called Confessions of a Porn King, and the one before that had been called Confessions of a Child Slave Trader. And so forth. He was a sly, evil man who became something different about every six months.

I like the phrase "drive [them] even wackier or simply away." There must be a Greek word for that structure, the intentional and surprising lack of parallelism ("wackier" being an adjective and "away" an adverb).

"Curriculum transparency bills are just thinly veiled attempts at chilling teachers and students from learning and talking about race and gender in schools."

The ACLU tweets, quoted in "The ACLU Suddenly Reverses Its Support For Transparency/The long-time civil liberties organization continues its partisan transformation" (Inquire).

The ACLU tweet links to this NBC News article, "They fought critical race theory. Now they’re focusing on ‘curriculum transparency.' Conservative activists want schools to post lesson plans online, but free speech advocates warn such policies could lead to more censorship in K-12 schools." From that article: 

[T]eachers, their unions and free speech advocates say the proposals would excessively scrutinize daily classwork and would lead teachers to pre-emptively pull potentially contentious materials to avoid drawing criticism....

“It’s important we call this out,” said Jon Friedman, the director of free expression and education at PEN America, a nonprofit group that promotes free speech. “It’s a shift toward more neutral-sounding language, but it’s something that is potentially just as censorious.”

"But his themes are part of the inheritance of modernity, ones that he merely adapted with a peculiar, self-pitying edge and then took to their nightmarish conclusion..."

"... the glory of war over peace; disgust with the messy bargaining and limited successes of reformist, parliamentary democracy and, with that disgust, contempt for the political class as permanently compromised; the certainty that all military setbacks are the results of civilian sabotage and a lack of will; the faith in a strong man; the love of the exceptional character of one nation above all others; the selection of a helpless group to be hated, who can be blamed for feelings of national humiliation. He didn’t invent these arguments. He adapted them, and then later showed where in the real world they led, if taken to their logical outcome by someone possessed, for a time, of absolute power. Resisting those arguments is still our struggle, and so they are, however unsettling, still worth reading, even in their creepiest form."

From "Does 'Mein Kampf' Remain a Dangerous Book?" by Adam Gopnik (The New Yorker).

In this short article, Gopnik uses variations on the word "creepy" 5 times: "not so much diabolical or sinister as creepy.... The creepiness extends toward his fanatical fear of impurity.... Creepy and miserable and uninspiring as the book seems to readers now.... Putting aside the book’s singularly creepy tone.... it contains little argumentation that wasn’t already commonplace still worth reading, even in their creepiest form."

That suggests that, if we readi the book, we will feel an instinctive revulsion against the writer, even as the writer was endeavoring to inspire revulsion against designated others. Is it good to rely on this instinct to deliver us from evil?

"The indictment [for seditious conspiracy] describes some Oath Keepers’ belief that 'the federal government has been coopted by a cabal of elites actively trying to strip American citizens of their rights.'"

"That [Stewart Rhodes, the leader and founder of the Oath Keepers], the leading defendant, graduated from one of the country’s most élite law schools, Yale, is more than just a fun fact. He developed his views on the Constitution as a law student eighteen years ago, and won a school prize for the best paper on the Bill of Rights. His paper argued that the Bush Administration’s treatment of 'enemy-combatants' in the war on terror was unconstitutional. Rhodes wrote that 'terrorism is a vague concept,' and that 'we need to follow our Constitution’s narrow definition of war and the enemy.' The argument would have found much support in liberal legal-élite and civil-liberties circles.... [I]n order to convict the defendants of seditious conspiracy, the government will have to prove that they planned their storming of the Capitol with the purpose of opposing the lawful transfer of Presidential power.... Rhodes’s seeming belief that his plan for January 6th was resistance to an unconstitutional process may seem wholly unreasonable.... But, if the case goes to trial... [s]ome jurors may find it difficult to convict Rhodes and others of seditious conspiracy if they find that sincere views about reality informed the defendants’ purpose.... Such an outcome might have the effect of adding legal legitimacy to the big lie.... Now that talk of potential 'civil war' occurs not only among extremist groups but in the mainstream press, a public trial of alleged seditionists will showcase the central fissure that could lead us there."

Writes Jeannie Suk Gersen in "The Case Against the Oath Keepers/Members of the group face seditious-conspiracy charges for their roles in the January 6th insurrection. Can a sincere belief that the election was stolen protect them?" (The New Yorker).

Gersen highlights the risk the government is taking, forcing public attention onto the seditious conspiracy charge: Americans will put effort into understanding the defendants' arguments, some unknown segment of us will agree with them, and many more will think the government has overreached because it cannot prove that they were insincere.

Why Ayn Rand is trending on Twitter under the heading "Sports."

I thought this was odd:

 

But I clicked through and saw that it was no mistake:

Yes, I blogged Aaron's bookshelf gesturing — back on January 4th... in happier days....

Aaron Rodgers points out his copy of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand to Eli and Peyton Manning during Monday Night Football. pic.twitter.com/2qSOcSSb3m

— The Recount (@therecount) January 4, 2022

Micky Rainbow - Tarik Tambang

Judul Album : Tarik Tambang 

Artis : Micky Rainbow 

Tahun Rilis : 1983 

Music Director : Ian Antono 

Produser : Senjaya Wijaya 

Produksi : Musica Studio's

Kehadiran MICKY KOMARUDIN a.k.a. MICKY RAINBOW di industri musik memang cukup mengejutkan. Di usianya yang saat itu belum genap 8 tahun, dia tampil dengan genre musik yang tidak umum untuk anak-anak seusianya; Rock. Bocah ini beruntung tumbuh di lingkungan musik, karena kedua pamannya (LILI SENJAYA dan DEDEN SENJAYA) memang aktif sebagai pemain band di Bandung. Bakat bernyanyinya sudah mulai terlihat sejak dini dan mengarah ke genre rock sehingga akhirnya oleh paman-pamannya diarahkan ke genre ini dengan membawanya manggung di berbagai tempat. Potensi Micky akhirnya diendus oleh Musica Studio's yang lantas mendaulat IAN ANTONO untuk menggarap album pertama yang diberi judul TARIK TAMBANG. Album pertamanya ini ditanggapi cukup bagus di pasaran, dan lagu NYANYIAN ANAK YATIM berhasil mencuat menjadi hits, boleh jadi karena sesuai dengan kondisi aslinya yang memang sudah ditinggal meninggal sang ayah ketika masih dalam kandungan. Materi lagu yang diciptakan NICKY UKUR ini padahal terbilang 'berat' untuk ukuran penyanyi anak-anak. Tapi intepretasi Micky di lagu ini memang keren. Suaranya yang masih terdengar plos khas anak-anak tapi mampu melengking menjangkau nada-nada tinggi dengan tarikan ngerock. Nama Micky cukup diperhitungkan sebagai penyanyi anak-anak yang berhasil dengan image rocker cilik sesuai yang diharapkan, bahkan di album ketiganya Micky berkolaborasi dengan penyanyi idolanya ACHMAD ALBAR. 

Track List:

1. TARIK TAMBANG

Ian Antono

2. NYANYIAN ANAK YATIM

Nicky Ukur

3. HOP HOP HURA

Rullie

4. GERSANG

Yosep Amien & Deden Senjaya

5. LIBURAN SEKOLAH

Dinka P.

6. UNTUK INDONESIA

Rullie

7. RINDUKU PADA AYAH

Yosep Amien & Deden Senjaya

8. MAMAKU SAYANG

Deden Senjaya

9. PANTANG PUTUS ASA

Lili Senjaya

10. TOKOH IDOLA

Yosep Amien

NYANYIAN ANAK YATIM

Ketika tangisku hadir

Ke atas dunia

Belai kasih sayang ayah telah tiada

Jangan selalu kau menangis, Ibu

Secepat inikah pagi

Membawanya lari

Secepat inikah angin

Menjemputnya pergi

Mengajak ayah pergi jauh sekali

Memang tiada yang kekal abadi

Bagai kehidupan yang kan silih berganti

Uuuu... kuatkan iman kami

Hadapi coba ini

Tuhan sampaikan rinduku

Untuk ayahku tercinta

Here's a place...

 ... where you can write about whatever you want.

"[S]ince around 1980, English speakers have been more given to writing about feelings than writing from a more scientific perspective."

"From around 1850 on, [researchers] found, the frequency of words such as 'technology,' 'result,' 'assuming,' 'pressure,' 'math,' 'medicine,' 'percent,' 'unit' and 'fact' has gone down while the frequency of words such as 'spirit,' 'imagine,' 'hunch,' 'smell,' 'soul,' 'believe,' 'feel,' 'fear' and 'sense' has gone up. The authors associate their observations with what Daniel Kahneman has labeled the intuition-reliant 'thinking fast' as opposed to the more deliberative 'thinking slow.' In a parallel development, the authors show that the use of plural pronouns such as 'we' and 'they' has dropped somewhat since 1980 while the use of singular pronouns has gone up. They see this as evidence that more of us are about ourselves and how we feel as individuals — the subjective — than having the more collective orientation that earlier English seemed to reflect."

Writes John McWhorter, in "Don’t, Like, Overanalyze Language" (NYT), discussing a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that purported to detect a "surge of post-truth political argumentation" and a "historical rearrangement of the balance between collectivism and individualism and — inextricably linked — between the rational and the emotional.” 

McWhorter thinks the authors of the study are overdoing it, because, he says, often "the process by which language changes is that something starts out being about objective observation and drifts into being, as it were, all about me." He focuses on the question: "Why would this have happened to such an unusual extent since 1980?"  

And he guesses that it's a matter of increasing informality, which naturally entails being "more open about the self, less withholding about the personal, more inclined to the intimate." In that light, it's hard to believe the researchers think they've shown a move from individualism to collectivism. 

Something McWhorter doesn't talk about is that some people adopt a rationalistic tone for rhetorical purposes. They're not actually more rational, just trying persuade other people by posing as reasonable and unemotional. Ironically, that's an emotional move, and it can work if we respect the speaker's sincerity and good will, but it can stimulate wariness and irritation if we mistrust the speaker. And it's entirely rational to mistrust all speakers in the American political discourse that's developed in the last 40 years. In that light, it's not surprising that speakers have been abandoning the less effective rhetorical strategy.

"One of the first killer jokes in the stand-up act of Louie Anderson was about the meanness of older brothers."

"Imitating one of his own in an intimidating voice, he warned that there was a monster in a swamp nearby. With childlike fear in his eyes, Anderson reported that he avoided that area 'until I got a little older and a little smarter and a little brother.' Pivoting to the future in an instant, he adopted the older brother voice, pointing to the swamp and telling his sibling: 'That’s where your real parents live.'"

From "Louie Anderson and the Compassion of America’s Eternal Kid/He displayed an empathetic humanity that he shared offstage with his friend Bob Saget. The loss of both comics represents the end of an era" by Jason Zinoman (NYT).

When you think of the 1980s comedy boom, the first artist that comes to mind for many is Jerry Seinfeld and his clinically observational brand of humor. For others, it might be the rock-star flamboyance of Eddie Murphy or Andrew Dice Clay. But in the days of three major networks, the culture incentivized a warmly inclusive, rigorously relatable comedy that could appeal to a broad mainstream and, at its best and most resonant, had an empathetic humanity.

The outpouring of love for Bob Saget... was in part...  because of a vast audience that saw him as the friendly paternal face on “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”... Anderson fit seamlessly into an equally idealized role as our culture’s eternal kid. There was a boyish innocence and sweetness to Anderson that never left him, even when he was playing a mother on “Baskets,” a remarkable and sincere performance....

I haven't kept up with network sitcoms, so "Baskets" was news to me. I enjoyed this, showing clips from the show, him getting made up as Christine Baskets, and his very sweet account of how he's bringing his own mother back to life:

And here are Saget and Anderson in a podcast conversation (recorded last May). 

ADDED:

What is the controversy about this magazine cover at British Vogue?

Consider the question for yourself before reading the criticisms.

At Instagram, British Vogue says: "The nine models gracing the cover are representative of an ongoing seismic shift that became more pronounced on the SS22 runways; awash with dark-skinned models whose African heritage stretched from Senegal to Rwanda to South Sudan to Nigeria to Ethiopia. For an industry long criticized for its lack of diversity, as well as for perpetuating beauty standards seen through a Eurocentric lens, this change is momentous."

At CNN, a writer based in Nigeria says: 

Why are the models depicted in a dark and ominous tableau, the lighting so obscure to the point they are almost indistinguishable on a cover meant to celebrate their individuality? Why were they dressed all in black, giving a funereal air, and an almost ghoulish, otherworldly appearance?

Why were they sporting strangely-coiffed wigs? Many of these women wear their natural hair normally and it would have been great to see that reflected on a cover celebrating African beauty. Additionally, on the cover, the models' skin color appeared to be several shades darker than their normal skin tone.

The photographs were taken by Afro-Brazilian photographer Rafael Pavarotti, and the images -- published in numerous glossy magazines over the years -- are consistent with his visual style of presenting Black skin in an ultra-dark manner....

But the lighting, styling, and makeup, which purposefully exaggerated the models' already dark skin tones, reduced their distinguishing features and presented a homogenized look. Was this the best way to celebrate Black beauty?...

Should we ask what's the best way to celebrate black beauty or what's the vision of the artist/photographer? Pavarotti is black, so to push him back and say he's doing it wrong is to reject a black vision, to put him in a lower position than all the photographers whose vision is respected. And yet, the artist and model relationship has long been a matter of critique, and Pavorotti shouldn't get special immunity from criticism. 

Many online critics felt the images were fetishized and pandering to a White gaze, ironic, considering the editorial team behind them consisted almost entirely of people of African descent. 

Ghanaian writer Natasha Akua wrote in a private message on Instagram: "When I saw it I immediately was shocked ... I feel like I know what statement he was trying to make visually but turning these black models into this strange tableau straight out of a horror movie just felt instinctively wrong." 

"Why darken their skin beyond recognition?" she asked. "To make some statement about being unapologetically black? Unapologetically black means being who you are and does not require this manner of hyperbole." 

"I find the lighting and tones beautiful," Daniel Emuna wrote. "But my personal complaint is that publications and brands are constantly communicating that the deepest darkest hue in complexion represents the truest essence of Blackness or even Africanness. This is clearly a mark of the white gaze."

"[State voting] laws — like that recently passed in Georgia — are far from the nightmares that Dems have described, and contain some expansion of access to voting."

"Georgians, and Americans in general, overwhelmingly support voter ID laws, for example. Such laws poll strongly even among allegedly disenfranchised African-Americans — whose turnout in 2012, following a wave of ID laws, actually exceeded whites’ in the re-election of a black president. In fact, the normalization of ID in everyday life has only increased during the past year of vax-card requirements — a policy pushed by Democrats. And Biden did something truly dumb this week: he cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election in November now that his proposal for a federal overhaul has failed: 'I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit.' No sitting president should do this, ever. But when one party is still insisting that the entire election system was rigged last time in a massive conspiracy to overturn a landslide victory for Trump, the other party absolutely needs to draw a sharp line. Biden fatefully blurred that distinction, and took the public focus off the real danger: not voter suppression but election subversion, of the kind we are now discovering Trump, Giuliani and many others plotted during the transition period.... And why have they wildly inflated the threat to election security and engaged in the disgusting demagoguery of calling this 'Jim Crow 2.0'? The WSJ this week tracked down various unsavory GOP bills to suppress or subvert voting in three states — three states Obama singled out for criticism — and found that they had already died in committee. To argue as Biden did last week in Georgia that the goal of Republicans is 'to turn the will of the voters into a mere suggestion — something states can respect or ignore,' is to add hyperbole to distortion...."

Writes Andrew Sullivan, in "How Biden Lost The Plot/Listening to interest groups and activists is no way to get re-elected" (Substack).

Powerslaves - Powerslaves Special Edition

Judul Album : Powerslaves Special Edition 

Artis : Powerslaves 

Tahun Produksi : 2001 

Produser : Gumilang Ramadhan 

Produksi : Kama Records 

Distributor : BMG Music Indonesia

POWERSLAVES adalah band asal kota Semarang yang terbentuk di tahun 1991. Setelah malang melintang di panggung-panggung musik dan festival, mereka kemudian dilirik major label dan merilis album pertama METAL KECIL di tahun 1994 dengan hits IMPIAN yang langsung menempatkan nama mereka ke deretan depan band rock potensial. Sampai akhir era 90an nama mereka cukup kokoh lewat album-album METAL KARTUN dan KERETA ROCK N ROLL yang meskipun tidak segemilang album pertama tapi tetap mendapat tempat. Memasuki era 2000an mereka comeback lewat album selftittled POWERSLAVES di bawah label BMG setelah lepas kontrak dari WARNER MUSIC. Formasi personel sudah berubah dibandingkan formasi awal. Ada HEYDIE IBRAHIM (vokal), ANWAR FATAHILLAH (bass), ANDRY FRANZZY (gitar) dan EDOT EDUARD (keyboard). Sementara posisi lowong di drum diisi oleh additional drummer yaitu RERE. Single JIKA KAU MENGERTI berhasil menjadi hits dan membuktikan kalau mereka masih punya taji di industri musik. Untuk menggenjot penjualan, album ini kemudian di repackaged dengan judul POWERSLAVES SPECIAL EDITION yang menambahkan lagu baru HEY dan dua versi lagu KAU DAN AKU (versi rap dan versi rock). Di lagu-lagu baru ini mereka menggamit AGUNG YUDHA sebagai additional drummer. 

Track List:

(semua lagu ciptaan Powerslaves kecuali track 4 Cat Stevens dan track 8 Tees & Powerslaves)

1. MATAHARI

2. KAU DAN AKU (RAP VERSION)

3. TEMANI

4. FATHER AND SON

5. JIKA KAU MENGERTI

6. SEMARANG

7. HEY

8. PULANG

9. BER217AN

10. ADIK MANIS

11. ANDAIKATA

12. KAU DAN AKU (ROCK VERSION)

KAU DAN AKU

Menyatulah hati

Bagai dunia tercipta

Di hari terakhir

Tuhan memberi berkah

Terciptalah di jiwamu

Menyatulah di hatimu

Maka cinta terpadu

Walau hanya sewaktu

Dua hati menyatu

Kau dan aku

Gelombang hasrat

Yang takkan pernah terpisahkan

Dua insan

Selamanya, yang terbias di dalam angan

Yang menyatu

Kau dan aku wujudkan semua impian

Di dunia

Miliki diriku, satukan harapan

Maka cinta terpadu

Dua hati menyatu

Lalu jiwa tercipta

At the Friday Night Café...

 ... you can write about anything you want.

"I’m an African-American man, so I speak plainly. It was a Black theater. You yelled at the screen, and folks would talk."

"A major component of Black existence is forced comportment in white spaces. There is a comfort derived from taking off the disguise, if just for a few minutes in the cinema." 

Said Cyrus McQueen, a stand-up comedian, quoted in "The ‘Shouting Back’ Theater Abruptly Closes, and Brooklyn Mourns/A rowdy movie house suddenly goes dark, inspiring an outpouring of dismay and reminiscences" (NYT).

The theater closed last Sunday, taking regulars by surprise.... Dean Fleischer-Camp, a filmmaker, said that his favorite movie experience ever involved people “screaming, laughing, singing” and “throwing popcorn” during a 6 p.m. screening of “Drag Me to Hell.” Lincoln Restler, the newly elected councilman whose district includes Downtown Brooklyn, shared a picture of a moving van parked outside. “For the shouting-back-at-action-movie experience,” he wrote, “there was no place better!”