Everythig I Know About Lexington & Concord Sung In 3 Minutes

Whether or not the attacker(s) intended it, there is clearly symbolic significance to the Boston Marathon bombing happening on Patriots Day; however, I could not tell you what that significance might be. Despite having lived in Boston for several years, I never really got into the whole Patriots Day thing. Perhaps it's because I know so little about the Revolutionary War. In fact, pretty much everything I know about it I learned from Schoolhouse Rock.

As great as the math and grammar segments of Schoolhouse Rock were, the American history ones are rather lacking. This is really just a bunch of names and phrases associated with the start of the American Revolutionary War rather randomly thrown out there instead of any sort of lesson. To be fair, history is much more complex than multiplication tables or grammatical rules, but wouldn't telling some sort of story have worked better. So really, it's not my fault that I'm woefully ignorant about our countries fight for independence; television failed to educate me properly.

At Least I Know Who Judy Collins Is

Long story short: It came up in Facebook conversation today that a friend didn't know who Judy Collins is. I said:

"A good rule of thumb: Every guest host of The (original) Muppet Show should be at least vaguely familiar to people of our generation. Judy Collins totally hosted and sang 'Send In The Clowns' with a Muppet circus in the background."

  
I had a really strong memory of that number, but it turns out my memory was somewhat wrong. I remembered the circus performers as puppets, and I thought there were more circus acts. In particular, I was sure there was a high-wire performer. It turns out, there are only clowns and they are some of the least puppety Muppets ever. They are really dancers/acrobats/mimes in masks.

I was confusing this number with Melissa Manchester singing "Don't Cry Out Loud" on The Muppet Show which features the same (kind of creepy, to be honest) clowns, but also has the puppet on the tightrope that I distinctly remembered being in the Judy Collins number.

I can't believe my memory is failing me like this. It's a slippery slope from confusing Judy Collins' and Melissa Manchester's Muppet Show appearances to no longer recognizing family members.

Mankato Girls

“Betsy was so full of joy that she had to be alone. She went upstairs to her bedroom and sat down on Uncle Keith's trunk. Behind Tacy's house the sun had set. A wind had sprung up and the trees, their color dimmed, moved under a brooding sky. All the stories she had told Tacy and Tib seemed to be dancing in those trees, along with all the stories she planned to write some day and all the stories she would read at the library. Good stories. Great stories." --Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown

"I'd like to sing a song of great social and political import."

The first great album in my life was Pearl by Janis Joplin & The Full Tilt Boogie Band. It was one of my earliest exposures to amazing rock music, and the record was played very often in our house while I was growing up. I still love it a lot and listen to it often. Janis Joplin had a magical talent: she could express devastating heartbreak and profound strength at the same time. The older I get, the more I appreciate her.

 

Raise Your Hand

Tonight, I need Janis Joplin to sing me to sleep. Tom Jones is just icing on the cake.

Ignore the Eastern European men at the end of the video.

My Childhood Is For Sale On Esty

It's amazing how much of my past can be found on the Internet considering the fact that almost half my life was spent before the Internet went viral. Here was today's reminder that your memories are just a Google away.

A friend was worried about me in the cold snap in Minnesota and suggested I get a lovely knit hat. Here are a couple he found--which I agree are quite fetching.

Their 70's retro look made brought to mind the only knit hat I can honestly say really stands out in my mind. My mother had a winter hat that my siblings and I hated. It was deeply embarrassing to be seen with her when she was wearing it. I thought my friend would appreciate it, but I didn't have a picture. So, I Google "hand knit brown hat with sequins" (yes, my mother wore a hand-knit brown hat with sequins--BIG sequins!) which got me an image that came very close:

Next, I tried "brown knit hat with paillettes". See? Watching every episode of Project Runway paid off, I learned the word "paillette". Admittedly, I had to scroll down, but there it was in all its hideous glory:

Thanks Mom!

When I was ten years old, my mother and I made a date to watch Bette Midler: Ol' Red Hair Is Back together. Somehow, in the middle of Iowa in 1977, she had become a Bette Midler fan. When she saw the commercials for the television special, my mom thought this would be the perfect way to introduce me to The Divine Miss M. I have a distinct memory of sitting in our TV room when this opening number began and laughing with my mother and loving it all.

No good, self-respecting gay is supposed to give any credit to the idea that mothers make their sons gay. However... I mean, really... How unhappy could she have been when I came out?