Topsy Turvy Values
Well, it’s Summer and now that Grounds for Music is over Greg and I can finally enjoy it. Here’s my all-time favorite version of Gershwin’s “Summertime.” See if you like it. If you’re a little older you may remember it on the ol’ AM radio cruising around. I caught it a little later in time. Anyway, it’s the version by somewhat obscure R & B star Billy Stewart http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8OD56xaY_Y. His scat coulda given Ella a run for her money.
ok, now that you’ve dug on that, here’s another groovy tune . It’s called “Topsy” by Cozy Cole, and my older sisters had the ‘45. I —a little tyke who really didn’t know anything about big band or R & B— knew what I liked! Love YouTube for accessing old music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyTyKe6mlwo.
Speaking of Topsy, what upside-down values afflict us right now. We have a extremely dangerous speeder driving drunk garnering much p.r. and heavy hand-wringing while real artists who create to improve the world, beautify it, or at least make people think, get ignored per usual. When I saw small children placing memorials at the guardrail of the accident I almost threw up. His family surely didn’t deserve such a horrible and ignoble end. We knew the family—actually one of the brothers— of his passenger, the Iraqi vet Zach Hartwell. Met him when he was a little kid. But he fought and risked his life for our country, rather than publicize odd things put up his rectum, so he didn’t get the p.r. deserved just for coming home alive. What an ignoble end for him and a horrific and ironic trauma for his family. Something’s wrong in America for this juxtaposition.
Reminds me of the DROP program for municipal employees in the City of Philadelphia that morphed in a lucrative scam for Philadelphia city council members. It originally was to keep good employees from quitting, or they could give notice 4 yrs. ahead and the City could plan for their replacements. But it’s gotten all out of whack -should I say topsy turvy? Council members can quit for one day, then collect in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars to be re-hired. Some of these council people are drones who should have left years ago. Is Marge Tartaglione worth this kinda cash?? It applies to police and fire people too, but that’s a different ball of wax to me, and the $$ is far less if I’m not mistaken.
But the far far more damaging and insane is how the Republican Party is holding our financially-strapped country hostage to their fake no-tax dogma. Continually preventing very wealthy people from being taxed fairly, and at the same time demanding that jobs and services for the poor and middle class jobs be cut. Remember, during the ’50s and ’60s the top tax rate was much much higher and still the country thrived. Remember that this bankrupt policy had it’s way under W and look what we got: All that extra moola just brought us a financial free-for-(downf)all. Corporations and banks are holding onto $ 2 trillion. They say it’s because of uncertain times. But in reality they’re waiting (and paying out some of that 2 trillion) to defeat Obama so they can get everything they could possibly want from a GOP prez and Congress. So they are depressing this country’s future. And bad news for the rest of us—the other 98%. Pretty unpatriotic if you ask me. Meanwhile we’re still waiting with bated breath for some of these big shots to go to jail for this Ponzi scheme fraud. Re topsy turvy, let’s turn that economic pyramid upside-down for the benefit of the rest of us who got ripped off.
