These Days: Tuesday, June 27th, 2017
Literature: I just bought two of my favorite book of poems, AA Milne’s “When We Were Very Young” and “Now We Are Six” -not dissimilar to his Winnie The Pooh stories, they are works of a lightening and bright imagination that mixes the real and the make believe where life has a sparkling sense of extended wonder, seen through the eyes of toddlers everything we take for granted in our less than magical world is pure light and breeze and joy. Written in the mid 1920s, the tail of the Victorian era as the Great War subsided and the old verities began to crumble, when I was very young the Victorian Age was ancient history but it was only 30 years in the past, it is the equivalent of the mid-1980s from here, but the world of nannies and changing guards, and pastoral elegance in London as young Christopher Robin traversed his tiny world, we look back at it the way we might a favored song from way back: with a shut of the eyes we are all very young again. The Victorian era was a golden age for a certain sector of society, not for the rest of it. For the rest of it, Robin’s glorious childhood could just as easily have been all child labor all the day, so to love the past is to close our eyes and become innocent again…
Literature: Twenty years ago yesterday, “Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone” was published in the UK and with the exception of… well, what Young Adult, or is that children’s, series of book has meant more to as many. Eventually more or less eclipsed by the movies (which aren’t as good) and soon to be revived by the play (which is perhaps better), Potter is an immortal story and, of course, a passion story for the ages. I do have one big problem with the books, since people come back from the dead all the time, death is a lot less important. That said, we lived through the crafting of a masterpiece as it was written. I will never forget the thrill of rushing to the bookstore on the day the book was written and buying two copies, one for myself and one for my niece, then racing through it to see who could finish it first.
Health Care: Back to drear reality, I don’t see how Mitch McConnell has a chance in hell of passing the Health Care bill, any state that uses Medicaid to cover their poor under Obamacare will be thrown out of office for abandoning their constituents. 15 Million people will have no health insurance and any Senator who votes for it will be chased out of town. It is lousy piece of legislation and a draconian horrorshow of epic proportions, even by the kill the poor overfeed the rich GOP standards this is an awful awful awful bill and it should be soundly defeated.
New York City: There is something so not quite right about the city today, between the homeless epidemic and the mass transit epidemic, between the inability to get where we are going and the horrors on the way of getting there, something just isn’t right. I get the sense we are all waiting for the other shoe to drop and the other shoe is crime, wants that starts going up, we will be just a rotation away away from the 1970s. The only thing missing will be the fun.
Old Music: I am coming closer and closer to My Aim Is True, though I may go right past it. I have two main talking points steady in my mind and I wonder can I maintain the story?
New Music: After a boatload of new releases between mid-April through mid-June, things have slowed down a great deal. The question is 4:44 on Friday, Jay Z is making it difficult to get your hands on if you don’t have Sprint and Tidal and I think he overestimates his position in the world of pop right now. O can see it stalling after another surge, especially if it isn’t any good and the excerpt I heard was pretty lousy: does any one want to be lectured yet again? How about a little fun, Hova?
Sports: Yanks won but so did the Red Sox and while Ellsbury is welcomed back, is it enough? Mets complete the sweep of the Giants.
Concerts: I have family visiting over the long weekend and invited them to see Pitbull on Saturday, ten nosebleed seats at $40 a pop, so not bad, right? I’m a huge Pitbull, though not Enrique Iglesias, fan…
More Concerts: I got a tix for Chance The Rapper at Forest Hills September 26th, and plan to get a ticket for Buckingham McVie later today. For $250 you can get a selfie with Chance which he will later tweet. How thrilling. Which explains why he wouldn’t take a selfie with me at Governors Ball:
Tweeted by Chance Package • $250
Selfie of you with Chance, Tweeted by Chance
VIP Laminate
Early Entry
First Look at Merchandise
Note: Does not include ticket to show. Each package is good for one person. No Refunds. Max purchase is 4.
