Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

May 3, 1919: Folk singer-songwriter Pete Seeger was born in New York City. His best known songs were "We Shall Overcome" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" - "Turn! Turn! Turn!" He viewed folk as a vehicle for political protest and he was a key inspiration to Bob Dylan and many others.



On July 26, 1956, the House of Representatives voted 373 to 9 to cite Pete Seeger and seven others (including playwright Arthur Miller) for contempt, as they failed to cooperate with House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their attempts to investigate alleged subversives and communists.  Pete Seeger testified before the HUAC in 1955.

In one of Pete's darkest moments, when his personal freedom, his career, and his safety were in jeopardy, a flash of inspiration ignited this song. The song was stirred by a passage from Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "And Quie Flows the Don". Around the world the song traveled and in 1962 at a UNICEF concert in Germany, Marlene Dietrich, Academy Award-nominated German-born American actress, first performed the song in French, as "Qui peut dire ou vont les fleurs?" Shortly after she sang it in German.  The song's impact in Germany just after WWII was shattering. It's universal message, "let there be peace in the world" did not get lost in its translation. To the contrary, the combination of the language, the setting, and the great lyrics has had a profound effect on people all around the world. May it have the same effect today and bring renewed awareness to all that hear it...




May 3, 1945: USS Aaron Ward (DM-34) was pummeled by six kamikaze strikes near Okinawa. The crew battled against raging fires and exploding ammunition to keep the ship afloat. A kamikaze propeller can be seen lodged in her superstructure, just forward of the 5"/38 guns.




May 3, 1950: Happy birthday to pop star Mary Hopkin, born in Pontardawe, Wales. She’s best known for her 1968 UK #1 hit, Those Were The Days released in the UK on 30 August 1968. After winning the ITV talent show, Opportunity Knocks, she was signed up by Apple Records. Her early hits were produced by Paul McCartney.

18 yr-old Mary Hopkin on The Ed Sullivan Show, October 27, 1968:




Futuro House around Christchurch, New Zealand, 1975. The Matti Suuronen-designed prefab structure operated as a "Space Bank" during the 1974 Commonwealth Games.




Sydney Jay Mead (July 18, 1933 – December 30, 2019) was an American industrial designer and neo-futurist concept artist. He made designs for science-fiction films such as Blade Runner, Aliens, 2010, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Tron, Elysium, Tomorrowland.

MICHAEL: Once again Blade Runner is a good example: There was no clear break between the old and new. There were still rotten, worn down buildings from our time mixed with futuristic architecture.

SYD MEAD: The example we used was Cuba and the Philippines. Their society essentially stopped in the 60s and they therefor have a culture of old cars. They have to work for a long time and are repaired over and over again. The same principle I applied to the cars in the film. I took a very clean design and undesigned it – industrial design in reverse. It was fascinating making something that was very well proportioned and sleek and turning that into a left-over of itself.

MICHAEL: Now in the 50s and 60s future visions were very positively charged. Whereas in the late 70s Star Wars introduced the used look to SciFi and in the 80s BR portrayed a dirty, worn-down future. Can you explain where this change came from?

SYD MEAD: Well, this is a well known social phenomenon. There’s an old saying in journalism: Bad news travels much faster than good news. It is always more entertaining to hear bad things and not be a part of them. Eventually each form of storytelling includes this mechanism in order to enhance the drama of the futuristic visions.

Syd Mead

May 3, 1985: Max Zorin writes Stacey Sutton, the heir to Sutton Oil, a check for $5,000,000 for the company.




May 3, 2007: Madeleine McCann (aged 3), went missing from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal. She has never been found despite a massive police hunt and the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history, and the tireless campaigning efforts of her parents. In 2020, German prosecutors stated they believed she is dead. I forgot what that genetic mutation is called in her right eye.





Hey, Dems - Have you memorized the new talking points yet? You'd better. If you get caught spouting the old ones they will destroy your entire life. Here are the latest eternal truths. Get these out on your lawn immediately if you know what's good for you.




Not sure why Rocketman (Supreme leader Kim Jong Un) is trending but never forget his Boss Hog cosplay while launching a submarine...


Fresh meat for a Virginia class sub. He does have a rather large surface navy. Famous last words...

"Their submarines just aren't going to be able to be as survivable as their land-based forces," said Vann Van Diepen, a former U.S. government weapons expert who works with 38 North. "And they'll have a hard time deploying enough missiles at sea to make a big difference."

New Submarines and Nuclear Drones: Why Is North Korea Developing Its Navy?

Teflon Don delivering pizzas to FDNY during court recess. What a guy!




Words for the Weekend...


This beautiful, hidden 20 ft. plunging waterfall about 300 feet off the trail was discovered in 2006. Mossy Grotto Falls is the proposed name by local waterfall hunter Zach Forsyth. If you take the Eagle Creek trailhead and hike several miles past Punch Bowl Falls and through a tunnel you'll enter a lush green wonderland beyond belief with many waterfalls. Like out of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Most people stop at the Punchbowl and go back, totally unaware of what lies further down the trail.

A Dance At Dawn

In fernshaw's hush, where shadows crawl,
And fallen babbaloobies sprawl,
Lagopodous tread through morning rain
She'll dance to gökotta's song again.

The weekend is here and I have many outside chores to ponder on which to tackle first. It's going to take a lot of sprezzatura to do any of these jobs.

Sprezzatura
A certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.
Sprezzatura has also been described "as a form of defensive irony: the ability to disguise what one really desires, feels, thinks, and means or intends behind a mask of apparent reticence and nonchalance".

My weekend word is "fudgel" (18th century): to make a big show of working hard whilst actually doing very little. That sounds like a politician. LOL.

Bonus word: Dunno if this is true but I heard a favorite word of the Scots: "Flenched", used for weather that promises to improve but never actually does.