Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Rams Head On Stage, 12/15/2016

Table 102, Row A, Seats 2 & 4

 

Rams Head has a row of 4-person tables, each of which is right in front of the stage and perpendicular to it. Table 102 is just left of center; we had the rear two seats, which were just about as good as the ones we had for their show last December.

 

No real news here. Another great two hours of musical entertainment from the crew.

 

Highlights – killer start with “Every Day Will Be A Holiday”, the Stones’ “Happy” (with a touch of “Dancing In The Street” tossed in), “Don’t Waste My Time”, and “Love On The Wrong Side Of Town” … a crowd whistle-along to “Jingle Bells” at the end of “Talk To Me” (with him joking that “You won’t get anything like this at Bruce’s shows”) … more Christmas material than last year, including “Santa Claus Is Back In Town” (a new one for me), “Please Come Home For Christmas”, and a valiant attempt at “O Holy Night” … “I Don’t Want To Go Home” and the closing “Havin’ A Party” during the encores … classics “Walk Away Renee” and “The Fever” (of course), not to mention “Without Love” and “This Time It’s For Real” … enthusiastic crowd despite some empty seats (for the first of 3 area shows in 3 nights)

How Trump’s White House Could Mess With Government Data

The title is pretty much self-explanatory

 

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-trumps-white-house-could-mess-with-government-data/

Comic of the Day #4 – December 15, 2016

Non Sequitur – Weirdest Thing To Happen This Year

http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2016/12/15

Democrats search for a path back into rural America’s good graces

Great take by Dan Balz on the unfortunate outcome of this year’s presidential election. Quick takeaway:

 

“Democrats ought not to believe that their problems have been caused primarily by the actions of a foreign government. There’s too much other evidence that they have lost touch with parts of the electorate and will need to take stock as they begin to try to regain ground.

 

“As much as anything, the 2016 election highlighted the degree to which Democrats have lost favor among voters in rural and small-town America. Heading toward Election Day, Democrats dismissed the possibility that there were enough white, working-class voters in these nonurban areas to overcome their advantages with African Americans, Latinos, unmarried women and highly educated voters.

 

“The election proved them wrong.”

 

Meanwhile, Clinton and her campaign prefer to blame their loss entirely on the Russians, James Comey, the headwinds of a change-oriented electorate, etc., etc., rather than taking any responsibility for the weaknesses of their candidate and overall strategy. I admit to having had somewhat mixed feelings about the Trump nomination, feeling that he was one candidate that Hillary could actually beat. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-search-for-a-path-back-into-rural-americas-good-graces/2016/12/10/8bc92fea-bef8-11e6-ae79-bec72d34f8c9_story.html?utm_term=.d203f26b030c

Mary Chapin Carpenter w/ Rose Cousins – The Birchmere, 12/7/2016

Table 125 – dead center, second row of tables in the raised rear section. (We had the number I82 and they started at I57, so were the 26^th group to get in.)

 

As was the case at Wolf Trap this summer, it’s good to see Mary Chapin Carpenter playing with a full band again. Longtime bandmate Don Dixon prowled the stage with his electric bass, while Jon Carroll and Johnny Duke impressed with their solo work (piano and guitar, respectively), especially on “I Feel Lucky” and “The Bug” near the end of the main set. (Drummer Nate Barnes was great throughout.) I was also delighted that they included “I Know You Know”, which is my favorite track from her latest album. She did change a few lyrics in light of recent events: “We doctor the receipt” (from my all-time favorite “Stones in the Road”) is now “We posted a tweet”, and a different “celebrity” (no longer a musician) has his hand on her thigh in “I Feel Lucky”.

 

Setlist

 

Rose Cousins started with a 45-minute opening set accompanying herself on guitar and piano, with mostly self-written material somewhat reminiscent of Mary Chapin in her more contemplative moments. (She joked with the audience at one point that doing happy, upbeat material was “not her job”.) I wasn’t terribly surprised when she mentioned that she was from Prince Edward Island, since her voice reminded me of fellow Canadian Kathleen Edwards. The north-of-the-border connection was further strengthened by her one cover, Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind”.

Two views of the Adam Eaton trade

Boswell’s take is classic:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/new-stats-hard-facts-nats-play-the-numbers-game-in-deal-for-adam-eaton/2016/12/07/840406cc-bccd-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.e2f3a3802f36

 

And one from Eddie Matz of ESPN:

http://www.espn.com/blog/washington-nationals/post/_/id/2090/inside-bryce-harpers-wow-heard-round-the-world

Carrier

Most of “The Establishment” has reacted to PEOTUS Trump’s recent Carrier intervention with some combination of horror and disdain. However, two of the Post’s economic columnists whom I respect have a different take:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/12/02/give-him-credit-trump-carrier-deal-puts-shareholder-obsessed-ceos-on-notice/?utm_term=.635b8d7e1f6c

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/when-bodyslamming-big-companies-is-good-for-america/2016/12/02/97800202-b735-11e6-b8df-600bd9d38a02_story.html?utm_term=.c7201a05a57e

Why I’m not sorry to see Harry Reid go

Headline from today’s Post: “Clinton and Biden get in on Reid’s Senate send-off: Festivities this week to mark Nevada Democrat’s decades of service”

 

Please forgive me if I don’t join in the hosannas. It’s hard to complain with a straight face about the recent election of a “post-truth” President while also celebrating one of the most bald-faced liars in the history of the U.S. Senate.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/15/harry-reid-lied-about-mitt-romneys-taxes-hes-still-not-sorry/?utm_term=.33d97ee8b5dc  

#133 I’m Still Standing – Elton John (1983)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHwVBirqD2s

 

Great song for these times.

Sharon Jones

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/sharon-jones-powerful-soul-singer-with-throwback-style-dies-at-60/2016/11/19/641b523a-ae71-11e6-8b45-f8e493f06fcd_story.html

 

By the time I got to the theater Saturday afternoon, I was pretty sure there was going to be bad news.

 

I was driving up to Germantown to meet some friends for a showing of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, listening to The Gamut on the radio. (Wonderful station – check it out on the Internet, or on 820 AM Frederick, 98.3 FM Reston, or 103.5 HD3 Washington if you’re lucky enough to be within listening range.) I was initially delighted to hear “100 Days, 100 Nights” by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. The next song (which I didn’t recognize) also sounded like them, but I decided it was probably someone else, as even such eclectic stations as The Gamut rarely play two or more songs in a row by the same performer. That was followed, however, by Jones’s unmistakable cover version of “This Land Is Your Land”.

 

Bad sign – when stations that actually care about music do something like that (The Gamut actually played 6 Jones songs in a row), it generally means “tribute”, and I did know that she’d had a recurrence of the pancreatic cancer that had previously been in remission. Sure enough, after I arrived at the theater and finished typing her name into the Google search box on my phone, the dreaded “Trending” label appeared.

 

Although Jones left a legacy of several fine albums, her dynamic retro-soul persona was most compelling when experienced live. I was lucky enough to have seen her at the Lincoln Theater in February of 2014, one of the first shows I saw after my retirement the previous month. She joins an almost unbelievably long list of famous figures, musical and otherwise, that we’ve lost in the past week and a half – Leonard Cohen, Leon Russell, Robert Vaughan, Gwen Ifill, Mose Allison. (Apologies to any I missed.)

 

Favorite songs:

100 Days, 100 Nights

I Learned The Hard Way

This Land Is Your Land

Without A Heart

Stranger To My Happiness