A Week of Loss Makes for a Study in Contrasts
Plus: The Week in Good News
I’m really late getting this posted here (written for Facebook a week ago). Maybe I should switch it around and write for here and post to FB. Hmmm….
From July 26:
Two men who were considered major influences in their respective industries died this week, and they could not have been more different. On the surface, Ozzy Osbourne gave the impression of a mad man with uncontrollable demonic tendencies. In his private life, he did fight the demons of drug abuse, but he was also a devoted father and a philanthropist with a sweetheart personality, who was held in admiration by almost anyone you ask in the music business.
Hulk Hogan took a Saturday afternoon mainstay - cheesy professional wrestling - and helped transform it into a multi-billion-dollar (still cheesy) entertainment industry. In his private life, he didn't even attempt to hide his demonic side. He used racist slurs and treated Black wrestlers abysmally, opposed unionization of a sport that treated its participants like cattle, was abusive to his wife and daughter, made millions from a lawsuit that put Gawker out of business after they publicized a video of Hogan having sex with a friend’s wife (in the same video as the racist slurs), was hated by other wrestlers, and took steroids regularly.
Seeing these two men in memes together this week has made me gag.
I was a college student when the groundbreaking Cosby Show gave us Malcolm-Jamal Warner (I watched every week). Of the five talented young people who played Bill’s kids, he was the one who continued to perform and to find new and different ways to express his creativity - acting and directing, but he also played the bass guitar and wrote poetry. He won Grammy awards for both - Traditional R&B Performance (2015) and Spoken-Word Poetry Album (2023). From all accounts, in his private life, he was a soulful and sweet man who supported other artists and friends throughout his too-short life.
Chuck Mangione was a composer, bandleader, and musician who played flugelhorn and trumpet. He released 30 albums during his career, but the recording most of us of a certain age will recognize is the 1977 jazz-pop single “Feels So Good.” It’s a breezy tune, but Mangione actually had real jazz chops. He got his start with Art Blakey, and as a teenager, along with his brother, played in sessions with Dizzy Gillepsie and Miles Davis. You could probably count the number of Top 40 pop instrumental hits on one hand (ok, maybe two). Herb Alpert comes to mind, and John Williams (the Star Wars theme was also a big hit in 1977), but also Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” (#25 on Billboard in 1961). Not a bad group in which to find yourself. Thank you, Chuck.
I didn’t know much about Connie Francis (who died on the 16th) until I spent some time reading about her this week. She was the first woman to have a #1 Hit on Billboard’s Top 100 - “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” in 1960. (How is it even possible that no woman before her hit #1?) Between 1958 and 1964, she sold more than 100 million records - one of the best-selling musical artists in history - before those terrible British boys took over the airwaves. I think my favorite recording of hers was “Where the Boys Are,” probably because as a teenager, I loved the movie, but also because her voice on the recording reminds me of Patsy Cline. She stopped singing for a couple of decades after being raped at knifepoint, beaten, and left for dead, and after losing her brother to gun violence. She suffered from undiagnosed PTSD for years, was hospitalized, and attempted suicide, before receiving the right diagnosis and treatment that worked. Everybody has a story, and hers is pretty remarkable. She lived to 87.
The Week in Good News
1) The NYT reports that donations to NPR, PBS, and local stations around the country have surged after Congress cut $535 million in funding. (You can join NinePBS in St. Louis for $5 per month - ninepbs.org / NinePBS Passport - and get all their programming, new and old, streamed to your television.)
2) The population of bighorn sheep in Texas has declined in recent years by 50 percent, most likely due to pneumonia caused by bacteria they picked up from domestic sheep and goats and exotic sheep, all brought to the area by humans. Last year, Texas Parks and Wildlife relocated disease-free bighorn sheep, some of which were pregnant, from Elephant Mountain to the Franklin Mountains in El Paso. CBS reported last night that the herd has been spotted, with young lambs in tow, so it’s lookin’ good for the bighorns.
3) Last Friday, for the first time ever, I scored an 11 out of 11 on the NYT News Quiz. (Ok - personal good news.) I’ve been taking the quiz weekly for years, and I’ve made it to 10 before, but never a perfect score. (Last night I once again only got 9 right, but question 9 was beyond my worldly understanding. Yep. Go look.)
4) St. Louis County Library offers ALL of LinkedIn Learning’s classes on their website free of charge (some of them will even come with certifications). You can get a County Library card even if you live in one of the munis with its own library (such as Ferguson or Kirkwood) AND even if you live in the City of St. Louis or in St. Charles County. Those last two are relatively new, so check out their websites for details.
I’m a little late with a “morning” musing today due to an early-morning power outage that thankfully lasted less than an hour, plus a class on PowerPoint at the library (which I will put to good use for my upcoming 50th high school reunion), and then a walk through the Henry Shaw Cactus and Succulent Society’s plant show, where of course I bought a new plant.
My weather app tells me the temperatures should be a bit lower starting on Thursday. Please let it be so. Lonnie Quinn on CBS last night said that while most of the country is suffering with high heat and uncomfortable humidity, Seattle may have the most comfortable weather anywhere right now. It feels like the universe is trying to tell me something.
Have a good week.
Beth
