Of thee I sing

I did not see the self-fluffery at the Lincoln Memorial yesterday and I don’t care about it. But NPR asked people for their personal anthems this week, so I’m going to give you a few of mine. These are songs I believe are representative of the United States, both good and bad.

You decide for yourself which is which.

  

Two songs related to the Woodstock happening, which took place 50 years ago (next month). This one, by Country Joe and the Fish, comes to my mind much more often than I’d really like. That’s because it’s still so relevant. All of it.

And here’s Eva Cassidy singing Joni Mitchell’s account of the festival.

I just love everything Sweet Honey in the Rock does. Here they are singing “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder”, a recording made for Ken Burns’ game-changing series, The Civil War.

I ask you, where would we be without The Village People? Or the “YMCA”?

It was apparently a Thing at weddings in Kentucky in the 90s.

People usually think of Billie Holiday when they hear “Strange Fruit”, but for me, it’s Nina Simone.

This is a somewhat different take on “We Shall Overcome”. I can remember driving to a record shop in Vienna about 25 years ago to buy Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeño Band’s CD when I heard one of the cuts on the radio. This is stellar, but you have to ignore the visuals.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about CSN&Y’s “Find the Cost of Freedom”. Not so much an anthem as a sad fact. I heard them do this at a concert back in the last century and it’s stuck with me ever since.

But finally—Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”. I saw Arlo and Pete at the Greek Theatre back in the 80s; this isn’t that performance, but it brings back memories.

Crank up the volume and let these songs speak to you about America.

Tanks for the memories

The Twitters-dot-com have been on #TankWatch2019 ever since Il Douche announced (too late for cooler heads to gainsay him, as they did last year) that he’ll have “Abram [sic] tanks” and “the brand-new Sherman tanks”, “the best tanks ever” (even though Shermans haven’t been in use for more than 60 years, and they weren’t even the best tanks of WWII) at his ego-stroking rally today.

It’s not quite as good as #UnwantedIvanka, although she actually made an appearance in the current hashtag:

However, for my money, this video totally wins the Interwebz:

Exclusive video of Sherman tank practicing for the Fourth of July parade #TankWatch2019 pic.twitter.com/gF8PGGW4TY

— Terry Moonrocklicker (@terry_go_online) July 2, 2019

I myself have watched it about 20 times, and it cracks me up again and again.

The entire thread is good, too. E.g.:

Also, the suggestion that [General] Sherman should ride one of the Shermans was extra primo good.

Happy Independence Day, folks.

Military madness

Right, Imma try to get this out of my system before tomorrow. First #UnwantedIvanka and now the latest shenanigans out of the White House as Il Douche—unrestrained by congressional Repugs and lusting after a military parade ever since Bastille Day 2017—co-opts Independence Day as a “Celebration of Me-Me-Me”.

Taking over the Lincoln Memorial to stage his rally isn’t enough. He’s adding “Abram [sic] tanks” and “the new Sherman tanks” (which haven’t been in use since the 1950s); military flyovers; reserved seating for toadies and donors; and now silent but uniformed stage appearances by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to show how his military loves him.

I’m expecting Katyusha rocket launchers to be announced momentarily.

Anyway, one of my colleagues DM’d me on Monday to say he was hearing really loud music—the office is pretty close to both the National Mall and the White House. He wondered if it was prep for the rally. I immediately replied, “Is this it?”

(I hope this converts—YouTube has flagged it as being questionable.)

I was so fast, he wondered if I just have it on the web version of speed-dial. I told him, “It’s my jam.”

Well, it isn’t, really. But I’m wondering if some of the military bands dragooned into spending tomorrow performing for a Nazi rally aren’t practicing it. Just in case.

Unwanted

With nothing but the cachet of her daddy’s position, the unelected “special advisor” to the Chaos Monkey tagged along on the series of photo-ops that was the G20 meeting last week. The First Airhead, dressed like a refugee from Laura Ashley, inserted herself into meetings and photographs as though she was an actual contributor. Basically, she was at a battle of wits only partially armed.

The expressions of gobsmacked disbelief on the faces of people who are actual statesmen and diplomats told the whole story. The quintessential moment may have been the conversation among Justin Trudeau, Theresa May, Emmanuel Macron and Christine Lagarde, into which Her Vapidness tried desperately to insert herself, with eyes on the camera all the time.

This pretty much defines cringeworthy.

Then there was this actual photo, that pretty much looks like a nightmare version of Take Your Idiot Daughter to Work. The side-eyes are cherce:

Well, the call went out over Twitter under the hashtag #UnwantedIvanka to find us more instances where she might have showed up to flog her brand, and the Twitterati responded like troupers. Just as they did four years ago with Nicolas Sarkozy. Viz:

  

In many cases, given Il Douche’s utter disregard for standards of government and his core purpose to amass wealth for the kleptocracy, it was hard to know whether the pictures were real or photoshopped.

This one, for example, is an actual shot from the op at the top, with individual facial expressions called out:

You’ll note that Bonespurs is looking at the airhead’s butt. That’s the level of our leadership.

I confess that when I saw coverage of G20, this is what I thought was going on:

Also, given the performance at Osan Air Base in Korea, the actuality of this may not be far off.

There are probably many, many more #UnwantedIvanka memes by now. Take a look for yourself.

Gratitude Monday: in the kitchen

Since I no longer come home from work pissed off and exhausted from collegial shenanigans, and I now have time during the day, I’ve embarked on culinary experimentation.

It has become my custom since early in the year to have homemade pizza on Friday night. I’ll make a batch of dough that’s supposed to produce two pizzas, divide it into six balls and freeze five. Then on Thursday, I put one of the balls into the fridge to thaw overnight, and it’s all ready for my Friday night yum-fest.

Usually I use the master bathroom counter as my proofing oven—it can get to 85°F there, which is absolutely perfect for raising dough. Not so much when the AC is on. So two Fridays ago when I needed a new batch, I wrapped the daylights out of the bowl and set it out on the patio. Whoo—that worked a treat. Highest, fluffiest, most elastic pizza dough yet. Yay!

So last Thursday I thought I might try another yeasty thing. I made cinnamon rolls:

The patio was my proofing oven, and it worked fine. I kept a close eye on a visiting squirrel, but it didn’t seem at all interested.

The result was okay—the bread part seemed a little tasteless, so I’ll have to experiment. But definitely edible, and my breakfasts for the next many days are now sorted.

So I decided to tackle pavlovas with passionfruit curd. I’ve been lusting after passionfruit anything since that heavenly passionfruit soufflé I had in Dublin in May. And since I found where grocery stores hide frozen passionfruit purée, I had some on hand. I still have on hand some lemon curd from the last time I made pavlovas, so I reckoned if the passionfruit stuff didn’t come out well, I could fall back on that.

Well, readers, it came out well:

And with a splodge of whipped cream (which I may have whipped just a skosh too long):

The curd isn’t as delicate as that soufflé was, but it was grand all the same. Pavlovas are super summertime desserts, and I have five more and a half-pint of curd to get me through the current heatwave here in the District They Call Columbia.

This is what I’m grateful for today: exploring what I can do with a few ingredients, and boldly going where I have not ventured before. I'm thinking sourdough rolls are on the horizon.