Musitorial – "For What It’s Worth"

 musitorial n mashing music, musings and editorials, music and song that evokes thought and commentary.

Today’s musitorial is inspired by a news article fresh off the wire. For the record, CNN says that paranoia among U.S. civil servants – those that have so far escaped dismissal in the Republican purge – is so pervasive that some prefer to have work-related meetings in person rather than online or on the phone.

Odd, isn’t it, that the very behaviours we have been indoctrinated to fear for so long as belonging to ‘closed’ societies such as the People’s Republic of China and Russia, we now witness as the very same kind of chill[1] evident in Republican United States.

“As the [T] administration fires thousands of employees across the government, federal workers have another reason to be on edge: the widespread access that [EM's] ‘government efficiency’ team has gained to agency computer systems.”[2]

“For What It’s Worth,” Buffalo Springfield, 1966, Lyrics by Stephen Stills, Columbia.

Lyrics excerpt

Paranoia strikes deep

Into your life it will creep

It starts when you're always afraid

Step out of line, the men come and take you away

Refrain

We better stop

Hey, what's that sound?

Everybody look, what's going down?

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Link to CNN article about civil service paranoia: https://tinyurl.com/5yx65d46

Link to Wikipedia on the song and Buffalo Springfield: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_What_It%27s_Worth

Link to lyrics, For What It’s Worth: https://tinyurl.com/43z9te28

Link to Wikipedia on Stephen Stills: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Stills

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[1] “Chill,” frequently expressed in relation with news media, is experienced in many fields of endeavour when even a faint prospect of censure tends to colour one’s ability to perform in a manner normally expected (e.g., report facts that may be contrary to an employer’s views).

[2] Article by Sean Lyngaas, Tami Luhby and Hadas Gold, CNN, February 17, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/5yx65d46

 

Musitorial - Blowin' on all Their Friends

Today’s musitorial recalls singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker (nee Ronald Clyde Crosby, 1942-2020). A string of records for MCA and Elektra followed Walker's move to Austin, Texas before he gave up on the mainstream music business and formed his own independent record label, Tried & True Music, founded in 1986.

Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" (1968) is perhaps his best-known and most-often performed song. It is about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap-dancing drifter Walker had met who, when arrested and jailed in New Orleans, insisted on being identified only as "Bojangles.”

Though I did not follow Walker’s music very closely, I do have a favourite, and I recalled it this past weekend as newscast after newscast focused on the confusing series of emanations from the American President, Donald Trump, and some of his minions.

I can’t help but think that the cabal of congressmen-now-White-House-secretaries-of-whatevers, indeed the nation, are going to find themselves in a deluge of trouble one of these days. The blowback from Trumps barrage of dismissive missives will come, of that I’m certain: to haunt him, his “team,” his supporters and indeed the nation one of these days.

Jerry Jeff’s song, “Pissing in the Wind,” (album, Ridin’ High, Universal Music Group, 1975) should satisfy the need for some accompaniment to the days news quite nicely.

Enjoy.

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Link to YouTube recording of “Pissing in the Wind”: https://tinyurl.com/wv9cyazh

Link to Wikipedia article on Walker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Jeff_Walker

 

“X” Marks the Spotlight

 

musitorial n mashing music, musings and editorials, music and song that evokes thought and commentary.

Today’s musitorial is once again inspired by Elon Musk and SpaceX (“advancing human spaceflight”) being in the news, again. According to the New York Times (a trusted news source), “Elon Musk and SpaceX Face Federal Reviews After Violations of Security Reporting Rules.”

American President Donlad Trump’s trusted advisor Musk’s company’s integrity is under scrutiny.

“…Musk and SpaceX are currently under scrutiny by three US military departments, as reported by The New York Times. The investigations focus on Musk and SpaceX's alleged failure to disclose meetings with foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, since 2021” (Business Today, Dec. 18, 2024).

But that’s all I dare say about that – you never know who (or what) might be listening.

It’s no laughing matter, of course, but I did burst out laughing when I moved my computer mouse’s pointer to shut down the article. There, common to all computer screens and internet users I suspect, is the little ‘x’ in the corner of the display signifying ‘close’ or ‘cancel.’ X!

Why would the self-styled world’s smartest man and President Trump’s most trusted adviser on all things computery rename the highly successful platform formerly known as Twitter, rebranding the platform as X – “close.” Stranger still, the space exploration company is named SpaceX – i.e., “space not”? Funny not.

Today’s musitorial pays homage to Sly Stone – Sly and The Family Stone, to be exact – and their song “Spaced Cowboy” (1971, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Epic).

“Yoo-hoo! Yodel ayde who?”

Lyrics excerpt:

I can't say it more than once
'Cause I'm thinking twice as fast
Yodel ayde lay da day

Everything I like is nice
That's why I try to have it twice
Yodel ayde lay da day
Yodel ayde lay da day, Yodel ayde lay da day
Yodel ayde lay da day
Yodel ayde lay da day, lay da day

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Link to SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/

Link to Business Today: https://tinyurl.com/4j8cm45u

Link to New York Times article: https://tinyurl.com/bdejrf9e

Link to Youtube version of “Spaced Cowboy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVGq_NxEHFk

Link to Wiki article on Sly and the Family Stone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sly_and_the_Family_Stone

 

Musitorial - "Waiting for the Miracle"

 

Musitorial n mashup of music, musings and editorials; music and song that evokes thought and commentary.

Musitorial, February 5, 2025

Today’s inspired song is “Waiting for the Miracle,” by Leonard Cohen (1934-2016). The below lyric excerpt came to mind while musing over the news this past weekend. The excerpt may say it all for you – the song, indeed the whole album (The Future) is a masterpiece. Cohen is a master, of course, and I’d expect nothing less. A tad depressing at times, but a master of thought and emotion.

There could be any number of things that sparked my ephemeral playback, and surely the same goes for many, many folks who are watching in amazement (not amusement) as political mandarins attempt to dismantle Western ideals of egalitarianism in our capitalist world. We watch and wait.

Of particular interest to me these days are the activities of the United States Department of Government Efficiency (acronym: DOGE). It’s sometimes fascinating ironic acronyms can be. DOGE, for instance.

According to dictionary.com, ‘doge’ is/was the chief magistrate in the former republics of Venice and Genoa. ‘Doge’ is also, apparently, “an internet fad or meme typified by an image of a dog of the Shiba Inu breed[1] accompanied by very short phrases that humorously represent the dog's imagined thoughts and use the wrong modifiers or shortened word forms....”[2]

My only connection with Genoa is via The Merchant of Venice, “a play by William Shakespeare that tells the story of a merchant called Antonio and a moneylender called Shylock. Antonio takes out a loan from Shylock on the condition that, if he cannot pay him back, he has to give him a pound of his flesh.”[3]

History has known many “Shylocks,” but few with so blatant an agenda as is evident in the world today. While I am not just referring to the unfolding situation in the U.S., for that cast of characters has provided me with yet another excuse for a brief musitorial, the point of which is the choice of the acronym DOGE for Trump-Musk’s oligarchs.[4]

In a previous musitorial, I made a point of pointing out the irony of Mr. Musk’s choice of “X” as the name and symbol for the reshaped uncensored social media platform formerly known as Twitter. I noted in that musitorial how often ‘X’ is used to denote ‘close,’ as in: close a computer program. So, to click on ‘X’ is to close it, to make it nothing. Wishful thinking on my part, I guess. Waiting for the Miracle.

I think the propensity to use DOGE is along the same lines: The Doge of Venice can be likened to the Trump-era oligarchs who will demand their pound of flesh (well, OUR pounds of flesh).

In the meantime, we wait.

Here’s an excerpt from “Waiting for the Miracle.”

Nothing left to do
When you know that you've been taken
Nothing left to do
When you're begging for a crumb
Nothing left to do
When you've got to go on waiting
Waiting for the miracle to come

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Link here to the lyrics of “Waiting for the Miracle,” and scroll down for a YouTube recording: https://tinyurl.com/yekdfabr

Link here to the Wikipedia entry for Leonard Cohen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future_(Leonard_Cohen_album)

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[1] Link to info about the Shiba Inu breed: https://tinyurl.com/29havrtm

[2] For a definition of Doge: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/doge

[3] For The Mercahnt of Venice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice

[4] oligarchy, “a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few.” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/oligarchy)