The Writer's Life: The Writer's Life 7/24

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

The Writer's Life 7/24 - Performances

In his op-ed piece on 1969 in today's NY Post, F. H. Buckley mentions one of the The Rolling Stones' greatest tracks, Gimme Shelter, stating that it is about "Vietnam and the betrayal of Keith Richards' girlfriend." At the time Richards was married to actress Anita Pallenberg, who had an affair with Mick Jagger, with whom she appeared in Performance (1970). I wasn't aware that the song was about the war. I thought it was about the general fragility of life, of how things can change dramatically in an instant "... just a shot away." I ran a search on interpretation of the tune and found these comments at songfacts.com. Jagger: "That song was written during the Vietnam War and so it's very much about the awareness that war is always present..." Richards, from his memoir Life, edited slightly by yours truly: "... there was this incredible storm over London, so I got into that mode, just looking out the window and looking at all these people with their umbrellas being blown out of their grasp and running like hell. And the idea came to me... My thought was storms on other people's minds, not mine..." The creative process is fascinating, at least to this writer.

The Chinese have erected a building that includes a 350 foot waterfall, which will be in operation only occasionally and for only ten to 20 minutes at a time, as it requires a lot of electricity to run. Here's a pic:

Poncedeleon is enjoying the fountain of youth - Daniel, 26, that is. Last night he made his MLB debut with the Cardinals and pitched seven no-hit innings vs. the Reds. He was not involved in the decision. His team lost despite his stellar performance. The young hurler has made a remarkable recovery from a life-threatening injury. In a minor league game in 2016 he was struck in the head by a line drive and rushed to the hospital, where he had emergency surgery. He spent three weeks in recuperation. Kudos, kid.

When people leave a job, it is standard operating procedure to take away access to their former place of employment. The left is up in arms about the threat to take away the security clearance of people who are no longer working for the government. Why do they still have it? Those folks are lucky they are not suffering maximum security. Their actions are detailed in the number one book in America:

It was quiet today at the floating book shop. My thanks to the woman who bought a Debbie Macomber romance in hardcover, and to Ira, who purchased a pictorial, Terminal Bar: A Photographic Record of New York's Most Notorious Watering Hole by Stefan Nadelman and Sheldon Nadelman. The latter tended bar there for ten years and took pictures of the clientèle, which included drag queens, thrill-seeking tourists, pimps and prostitutes and midtown office workers. It was located directly across the street from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. It closed in 1982.