One of the coolest things about the very cool Jim Rockford is that even though his legendary Firebird was blown up by a machine gun (fired from an airplane) in episode 1, it’s good as new for episode 2. Episode 1 guest-starred Lindsay Wagner; episode 2 had James Woods—and Abe Vigoda! (Plus a new actor playing Rocky, Jim’s dad.)

I have a 1/2-baked theory about a Van Halen song.

When It’s Love opens with Eddie on synth and Alex tapping drumsticks w/ nearly every note. The combination adds a mechanical sound to the synth, like the tapping is part of the synth keys themselves. (1/)
My theory: Eddie was using Alex to mimic the key clicks that accompanied older keyboards. For ex., early Hammond organs clicked this way, and though it was a defect, some musicians liked the sound and later organs included a feature to replicate it. (/2) dairiki.org/HammondWiki/Ke…

The Maytals 'Monkey Man' (official audio) #RIPToots The Specials, Monkey Man

When people talk about SNL, they don’t talk enough about band leader GE Smith, who spent much of the 80s and early 90s playing bodacious guitar and making ridiculous faces. This performance with Eddie Van Halen is a catalogue of 80s expressive excess. 1/
nbc.com/saturday-night… Look at how much fun they’re having! Look at how much they’re amazing each other! 2/

I have to disagree with @TimAlberta here. When I think critically about how Goldberg describes his sources, they smell fishy. He’s often vague about what knowledge they have, or the connection between that knowledge and what they say. For example,... Sometimes Goldberg says things like his sources “have knowledge of Trump’s views.” Which could cover someone in the administration, sure; it could also mean anyone in the press pool, or anyone who watches the news. 2/

You know how singers will occasionally say things like, "I think you know what I'm talkin' about" after a line? It's a simple way to both vamp b/t lines and to establish a connection between the singer and listener. In one song, Donny Hathaway does the opposite...

https://twitter.com/cjscalia/status/1299771661122760704

In "Thank You Master", he sings:

"I just gotta say much obliged to you, Master'cause the walls of my room was not the walls of my grave  *My bed was not my cooling board (y'all don't know what I'm talkin' 'bout)*."

He was right—so I looked it up.

One of the many frustrating aspects of French's argument is that even as he spends paragraphs discussing last term's case striking down a Louisiana statute regulating abortions, he suggests that overturning Roe is the only way SCOTUS could affect abortion law. 1/

https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1297545578642059267

That permits him to say that because only because 1 justice is on the record vs Roe, there’s no hope in overturning it. But as he says, the case under discussion *wasn't about overturning Roe* and came down to a bad opinion from Roberts (who reversed himself from ~2 yrs ago). 2/

From June '86-July '87, Eric Davis hit 47 HRs, batted .308, and stole 98 bases. (Not to mention his regular contributions to the highlight reel in CF.) "There was nobody else like him...at the time. There's been nobody like him since." - @dschoenfield
espn.com/video/clip?id=… Speaking of his fielding: here he is stealing two homers from Jack Clark.

The new High Fidelity series is a good opportunity to complain about how the movie remake doesn’t take advantage of the title. High Fidelity refers to a sound quality *and* romantic faithfulness, obv. But it’s also the name of an Elvis Costello song. The book's main character... is a big EC fan, and there are several EC references in the novel, including when his girlfriend mentions the album that includes High Fidelity (Get Happy--one of my favorites). In the movie, though, there’s no mention of Elvis C. Title: ruined!

Something similar happens...

All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah your honesty
One likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity, yeah (Did any rock band use “one” as a pronoun as often as Rush?)

I'm just realizing that Elvis released From Elvis in Memphis 50 years ago last summer, yet there wasn't a peep about the anniversary. That's crazy! It's a great record that develops the loose and soulful vibe of the '68 Special with material he hadn't recorded before. 1/ He had spent most of the ‘60s recording songs for his movies. And some of those songs were good. But In Memphis was a return to relevant and coooool music. I think it stands out for its soulful covers of country songs, like this Eddy Arnold one: 2/

Very sad to hear about Gertrude Himmelfarb's passing. I really admired her work; in fact, just the other day I smuggled a copy of Looking Into the Abyss from my mom's house and have been looking forward to reading it. Condolences to her family. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… Here's one of her more recent essays, about Benjamin Disraeli: washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standar…

Trubisky and the Bears O again put the Bears D in great field position! #MNF 28-3 at the half—Imagine what the score would be if the Bears had a good offense! #CHIvsWAS

Happy #ConstitutionDay! My father liked to point out that for all of the attention we give the Bill of Rights, the strength of those freedoms rests on the structure established by the seven articles. Our Bill of Rights is much less generous than the USSR’s was—on paper. But: He also reminded us that the Constitution is a limited document. It doesn’t contain all that is good, nor is everything in it necessarily good. That’s why the Founders provided a process for amendment. Again, from #ScaliaSpeaks:

Elton John - Mona Lisa & Mad Hatters

Billy Joel - Summer, Highland Falls

Oasis - Stay Young

Cheap Trick - The House is Rockin’

The Smiths - Rubber Ring

Replacements - Valentine

Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien

https://twitter.com/jchaltiwanger/status/1166877311167270912

Led Zeppelin - You’re Time is Gonna Come

The Who - Don’t Let Go the Coat

Van Halen - Women In Love

Queen - Who Needs You

Tom Petty - Time to Move On

Eagles - Pretty Maids All in a Row

Boston - Used to Bad News

🧵 Abortion-rights advocates are suddenly pushing the idea that the pro-life movement is racist.

They’re doing that so people won’t notice that, to use the terms of the left, abortion does disproportionate violence to black bodies.

For example:
thepublicdiscourse.com/2019/02/48594/ 2) In New York City, thousands more black babies are aborted than born alive each year, and the abortion rate among black mothers is more than three times higher than it is for white mothers.”
wsj.com/articles/lets-…

🧵The most heated intra-conservative battle since this spring’s Ahmari-French War is about…Walt Whitman?

In May, the Atlantic ran a (hyperbolic) essay praising Whitman as the poetic voice to help Americans recognize “our own best spirit.” (1/) theatlantic.com/magazine/archi… The poet and translator Sarah Ruden wrote a brutal rebuttal in @NRO. Here's an especially good zinger: (2/)
nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/…

Soon... That was a good show.

I used to dislike The Flame, even though (because?) it was the biggest hit for one of my favorite bands. Cheap Trick didn’t write it & it lacks the sly humor, great harmonies, and powerful guitars of them at their best. Also, it has cheesy synthesizers. On the other hand…(1/x)

https://twitter.com/RetroNewsNow/status/1148649823484174336

...I’ve come to appreciate that it includes a subtle nod to the band’s early days: it features a mandocello—a prominent instrument in an early CT song named, appropriately enough, Mandocello. That echo ties the song to the band’s heyday. Plus,… (2x)

On this, the 35th anniversary of Springsteen’s Born in the USA, remember that John Mellencamp’s mid-80s output holds up better.

They sang about similar subjects, but the latter’s fiddles and accordions are superior to lame keyboards and big dumb drums. Mellencamp also deserves credit for Jack & Diane's reference to Rebel w/o a Cause. When Jack "does his best James Dean / 'Well, now then, there, Diane, we ought to run off to the city,'" he's quoting a scene where Dean plays house w Natalie Wood. See 1:53

George Will starts a chapter of his new book with this passage from Scalia Speaks. amazon.com/Scalia-Speaks-… Not that Will doesn’t criticize my dad elsewhere, but the harshest treatment of a conservative judge comes from the index editor, who misspelled “Bork.”