"What’s the most memorable place you’ve cried in New York? (Be specific!)"

The NYT is soliciting stories about crying in the city. Fill out the form they have at "New Yorkers, Where’s the Best Place to Cry in the City? To help us report an upcoming article, we want to hear about all the places you’ve cried — subways, sidewalks, stoops, saunas and beyond."

I know from listening to pop songs over the years that the best place to cry is in the rain.

You cry in the rain so no one can tell you're crying. Similar but importantly different is "Raindrops" by Dee Clark. There, the man is crying, but he's in denial: "Oh no, it can't be teardrops/For a man ain't supposed to cry." It's not raining at all.

And here's Flight of the Conchords playing with the same idea:

There's also the situation where it really is raining and you nevertheless are perfectly aware that a person is crying. Most notably: "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain."

The movie I'd like to see is "My Dinner with Robert."

I'm picturing a "My Dinner with Andre" style conversation in a restaurant, and it's Billy Corgan and Robert Smith.

My dream is inspired by something Corgan said in the Popcast podcast at "Billy Corgan Unloads After a Lifetime of 'Mocking, Bullying, Laughing'" (NYT)(audio and transcript):

[W]e were told at some point in the early 2000s that those types of songs with those types of themes were no longer relevant, and off they went. That it was too complicated. The Cure had the same problem. I’ve been friends with Robert [Smith] for many years, and we would sit there somewhere in the early 2000s over a Chinese meal and lament, like, what the hell happened? This emotionally resonant music just seems like it’s been shoved aside by sociopathic influencers with kind of one-note music.... When they sold out alternative ethos for pop domination — in essence, celebrating Rihanna as an alternative star and wiping Siouxsie [Sioux] off the map — that to me was the great betrayal of the alternative ethos. So suddenly all the things that make alternative music so beautiful — the messiness, the dissonance, the out-of-tune guitars — it was like, nah, that’s just too messy. We don’t have time for that anymore. I started literally comparing the guitar in interviews to the saxophone....

There they are, Corgan and Smith in a Chinese restaurant, puzzling out what the hell happened. It's the Wally/Andre situation. There was an art form. It was vital and they were in the center of it, and where are they now? What happened? 

"Would You Listen to A.I. Music? Maybe You Already Do.... If you were to hear A.I. music, would you recognize it as something made by a machine?"

That's a NYT article. It asks you to listen to a song — by "Diane Butler" — that is machine-made out of a million real country songs.

“I listened to it, and I was like, oh, my God, this is my anthem. I’m obsessed with the song,” said Ms. Stamatis, a 38-year-old mother of three in Denver. “I was sending it to all my friends.”

Eventually a message came back from one of those friends: “It’s an A.I. bot. Stop listening right now.” Another texted: “I can’t believe you guys got catfished by an A.I. bot.”

I read that yesterday, but I didn't blog it, because it didn't quite cross my bloggability line. But I'm blogging it now, because Meade just sent me this:

So was he tricked? No, he says he knew it was A.I. He saw it in the middle of the night and wanted to preserve it. He forgets exactly why. 

The NYT article is mostly about whether streaming services ought to have safeguards that exclude A.I. music or at least bonk you over the head with the fact that it is A.I. music. But I think what's really important is that we, the humans, remain engaged in search for truth. It's absurd to ask machines like Spotify to do the work of detecting the work of music-making machines. We end up with a world of machines interacting with machines, and what is left for use to do? Consume the music that one machine or the other has decided is good for us? Well, isn't it good that the bearded cowboy thinks we'd better call our mother before it's too late and we're the ones left crying?

BUT: On the other hand, the machines can make this music so fast and affect emotions so quickly that the streaming service is entirely overrun and we won't use it anymore or, worse, we'll become fools for everything artificial. 

"Will you meet me in the middle? Will you meet me in the air?"

Sunrise, this morning, we thought there was a folk group with a strumming guitar.

Playing at Meadhouse.

For hours he would ride. On the range far and wide. When the night wind blows up and slow....

"Rocket From the Tombs never recorded any songs, never toured widely and broke up after less than a year."

"But in that brief time, it laid down a whole new approach to rock.... Propelled by Cheetah’s hard-charging guitar work and drawing influence from proto-punk bands like the MC5 and the Stooges, Rocket From the Tombs burst onto the Cleveland music scene in late 1974.... The band drew the attention of avant-garde groups charting a similar course in New York City, and in July 1975, it opened at a Cleveland show headlined by one of them, Television. As the urbane New Yorkers saw to their horror, the band members were as chaotic as their music. True to the punk ethos they were pioneering, their copious drinking and drug use fueled fights onstage and off. Cheetah fell on his back during the opening song and played the rest of the set supine. 'A lot of very nasty things got said — everything came to a head that night,' he wrote in the liner notes for a 2002 collection of Rocket From the Tombs songs, 'The Day the Earth Met the Rocket From the Tombs.'"

From "Cheetah Chrome, Guitarist for Pioneering Punk Bands, Dies at 71/He played with Rocket From the Tombs and the Dead Boys, whose snarling nihilism opened the door to an entire music genre in the 1970s" (NYT).

What would "One Day More" from "Les Misérables" mean to President Xi?

Behind the scenes at the @WhiteHouse #StateDinner with President @realDonaldTrump, First Lady @MelaniaTrump, President Xi, and Madame Peng—With guests in the beautiful East Room… pic.twitter.com/kDhBrIWajI

— Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) September 25, 2026

I'm reading "Reading with Xi Jinping | Les Miserables" in the People's Daily Online,  April 23, 2022. This is about the book, of course, not the musical:

“I developed a keen interest in French culture and particularly French history, philosophy, literature and art when I was a young man,” Xi said in a speech... When reading Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Xi found the moment when Bishop Myriel enlightens Jean Valjean to be quite moving. Great literary works like this possess a remarkable ability to stir the heart and literature is the vehicle of ideas, Xi said.... When Jean Valjean stole the Bishop's silverware, the bishop was not angry, but gave him also the two silver candlesticks which he had not stolen. And he said: "Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God."

 An image from the 1935 movie: 

ADDED: Speaking of the People's Daily Online, here's the front page. I think this is the kind of press coverage Trump would like:

 

Bring on the pandas!

Giant panda ties between China and the United States go back a long way. In April 1972, two giant pandas -- Ling Ling and Xing Xing, arrived in the United States following the visit of then U.S. President Richard Nixon to China in February the same year. More than 8,000 Americans welcomed Ling Ling and Xing Xing in the rain. In their first month on public display, they attracted more than one million visitors. Giant pandas have since helped foster friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.

Why we're listing to "Undun" this morning at Meadhouse.

There is a Bob Dylan connection:

"Undun" was written by Bachman after hearing Bob Dylan's "Ballad in Plain D," which included the phrase "she was easily undone." Bachman's song tells the story of a girl he had seen at a party who, after dosing herself with LSD, slipped into a coma.

But that's not it. It started with that Fetterman-and-shorts post at 5:50 a.m. In the comments, Temujin said:

"After the 1997 Asian financial crisis South Korea realised that it was overly dependent on heavy industry, notably shipbuilding and carmaking."

"Ministers decided that the creative industries might successfully diversify the economy, after a team of economists pointed out that the film Jurassic Park alone had generated the same profit as selling 1.5 million Hyundai cars. They got behind everything from media and the arts to food and drink. A campaign for traditional Korean food supported restaurants, chef training and marketing. It has helped Korean food to travel alongside the 'K-wave' of pop culture. Kimchi is spreading like sushi and ramen did a generation ago...."

From "All points east — how the West got hooked on Korean and Japanese culture/K-pop titans BTS are taking on the Grammys, manga is on the London stage and Japanese literature is breaking records. What’s driving the boom?" (London Times).

We're told that BTS is very popular because of their "mix of pop, hip-hop, R&B and electronic music, with lyrics about mental health and social pressure," and it made me wonder what the group is saying about mental health and social pressure. So, the world being what it is, I said to Grok, "All I want from you is about 10 quotes from BTS songs that are 'lyrics about mental health and social pressure.'"

Click through if you want to know.

Socialists in shorts.

I'm reading the NYT article "Is the Democratic Party Facing Its Own Tea Party Moment? A string of primary wins by progressive candidates has revealed the strength of a high-energy insurgent movement but also its potential limitations," which you can read for yourself at that gift link.

It's a topic I'm following, and I've recently blogged about. I said it a week ago: "The socialists are to the Democratic Party what the Tea Party was to the GOP."

So right now, all I want to do is put up something I cropped from one of the photographs:

"Dr. Abdul El-Sayed tried to attract young voters," and he did. They came toddling in wearing shorts, shuffling in slides and sneakers.

If I were a NYT essayist, I'd muse that they are showing us what real, human, embodied and, yes male power can look like.

ADDED: After publishing this post, I dashed off a question to Grok, "Can the males wear shorts and slides to the revolution?" Answer:

"There was so much vulnerability and yearning there. It was heartfelt and pure girl power. Arlene on that song was inspiring. I wanted to record a record like that."

Said Ronnie Spector, about "hearing 'Maybe' for the first time on her grandmother’s Philco radio as a teenager."

Quoted in  "Arlene Smith, Whose Song ‘Maybe’ Helped Define Doo-Wop, Dies at 84/With the Chantels, a groundbreaking female vocal group, she tugged heartstrings with the indelible hit and paved the way for a wave of 'girl groups'" (NYT gift link).

At that point, doo-wop — born of city street corners — was dominated by male acts like the Penguins (“Earth Angel”), Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers (“Why Do Fools Fall in Love”) and the Del-Vikings (“Come Go With Me”).

Despite the fact that a few pioneering Black female groups like the Teen Queens (“Eddie My Love”) and the Bobbettes (“Mr. Lee”) had hits before the Chantels, the record industry “didn’t know what to do with us,” Ms. Smith later said in an interview with the site ClassicBands.com.

"Maybe" is the subject of Episode 65 of the great podcast "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs." Excerpt:

"The Korean supergroup BTS has pulled its blockbuster album 'Arirang' from Grammy Awards consideration, in protest..."

"... of the new Asian Pop Music Performance category....The Recording Academy has been cooking up new categories for years. It started out with 28 in 1959. We’re up to 100 now.... Some reflect true genres and discrete markets. But most are the malignant offspring of the record business’s historical segregation, which divided Black and white artists into separate genres and markets, even if they were playing sonically similar music.... After a song from 'K-Pop Demon Hunters' won big this year, Asian Pop was created...."

Writes Dan Charnas, a professor at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYT, in "Pop Music Is the Problem" (NYT gift link).

Here's how I'd frame the question: Why don't the Grammys have a category called White Pop Music?

There are 2 directions to go with that question. You could say it's white supremacy or you could say it's anti-racism.

"The gig also made me remember what rockstar fandom, as a young girl, had been: a gateway drug to the opposite sex and sexual attraction in general."

"I remembered chasing Sting (as part of a mob of 14-year-old girls) as he rode with the other members of the Police in an open-top Jeep down Hammersmith Broadway in 1978. I remembered ogling his poster in my bedroom.... Aged 58, I felt as though I was somehow repeating a level on the multi-player game of life that I’d previously completed at 14: sexual and emotional infatuation with a rock star as a prelude and initiation to the real thing...."

From "A moment that changed me: I’d lost my libido – then I saw Richard Ashcroft on stage and it came bursting back/I was nearly 60 and hadn’t had sex in 10 years. And I was fine with that. But seeing the Verve’s former frontman reminded me how much fun it is to fancy someone" (The Guardian).

"Once you hear it, the ‘Gen Alpha melody’ is everywhere."

A WaPo headline aptly states. Here's a gift link to the article, and here's the viral video it's talking about:

I couldn't watch the whole thing because I was so grossed out, not that somebody put those 4 notes together first and deserves compensation for everyone else copying but by how inane and tedious all that music is. (I know, I'm old, it's not for me.)

"Three stages keep the dancers moving and the listeners happy all day with a diverse mix of sounds including Latin soul by Orquesta SalSoul del Mad, roots rock veterans The Rousers, bluegrass..."

"... from Bigtooth, and of course fest favorites like VO5 and Steely Dane…and that’s only a small sample of the local bands; the fest also features tour stops by The Band Feel, Toronzo Cannon, Kelli Baker Band and others. Food and artisan vendors are also on offer, as well as kids' activities hosted by Canopy Center. Find the full schedule below and updates at atwoodfest.com...."

I'm quoting from the middle of the page at "CANCELED: AtwoodFest" (Isthmus).

At the top of the page: "Our community and our Marquette neighbors witnessed another horrific officer-involved shooting just blocks from our festival grounds, leaving us in deep pain and justified anger. In acknowledgment of what has happened far too often in our community and our country as a whole, this year's AtwoodFest, themed 'The Heartbeat of the Neighborhood,' is canceled...."

A musical interlude....

... in 3 parts:

"And a few women describe the experience of 'leg hair harassment' or a term coined online as 'sunehara,' referring to the discomfort of being forced to see their colleague's leg hair."

From "Tokyo urges men to wear shorts to work, but some women say it's 'leg hair harassment'" (BBC).

Akifumi Funatsu, the director of Gorilla Clinic, says he has noticed more clients coming to the clinic not just for cosmetic reasons, but as a matter of "social etiquette when wearing shorts." He thinks women believe that "men should have less leg hair," which has prompted them to seek laser hair removal so as not to offend those around them.

Gorilla Clinic — I get it. A man is a gorilla if he's hairy. The BBC is reporting on a survey taken by this men's hair-removal business. Who came up with this idea that it's "harassment" to have to see a man's hairy legs in the office? I'm skeptical. It's just aesthetics. 

Anyway, as long as I'm talking about men in shorts, here's some video from the AC/DC concert last Sunday at Camp Randall, the UW football stadium a few blocks from our house. It was kind of funny to be lying in bed, falling asleep and hearing the live performance, which was pretty quiet by the time it reached our house:

"Obviously, Paul Simon’s Graceland is a huge influence on this. I do genre parody..."

"... and this is definitely mostly Graceland.... It’s a stunning masterpiece. But the lyrics are essentially him singing over Ladysmith Black Mambazo and then singing about how he’s depressed because he got divorced from Princess Leia and he’s awkward at Upper West Side parties. It was sort of loosely influenced by that, but he has these elliptical kind of lyrics; they’re hard to pin down sometimes. So a lot of the influence came from the visuals of the 'Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes' video and his performances with Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Saturday Night Live. There were a lot of 'a dorky white guy in front of an African choir' images. And I was definitely influenced by Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel...."

Says Kyle Gordon, interviewed in Vulture at '"Everyone Was Laughing at Me the Entire Time. It Was Awesome.'"

I highly recommend "Under African Skies" "Mr. Jambo":

"Well, I couldn’t speak his language and I couldn’t understand a word / But I knew his meaning was what I decided I had heard."

For reference, here's the 1987 Paul Simon video, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes":

"The artist Edward Gorey (1925-2000) ornamented his correspondence with elaborate drawings."

"Each year, the Edward Gorey House on Cape Cod runs an all-ages envelope art contest. This year’s theme is 'The Utter Zoo.' You have until Dec. 1 to submit envelopes decorated accordingly. The website suggests 'a compilation of creatures, a bestiary, a compendium of the fictional, plausible, cranky, vengeful or just highly undomesticated.'... My favorite winners from last year are the ones from little children who seem deeply imaginative but not necessarily artistically gifted in the classic sense. A friend told me recently about taking a singing class with a guy who couldn’t hold a tune but who was so passionate that the teacher gave him a solo in the class’s final presentation. Of course his performance was the one the audience found the most stirring...."

Writes Melissa Kirsch, in "The Good List: 6 Things to Add Some Delight to Your Day" (NYT).

Click on that link for winners from last year. Lots of great stuff, mostly by the artistically gifted. As for singers who can't hold a tune but are powerfully passionate... reminds me of the early years of "American Idol." It's highly amusing... up to a point. And these days, what's the problem? All the singers are auto-tuned.