Andrew Sandoval recommended watching this, so I am. Chuck Berry, age 46, at the BBC Theatre in 1972. Berry always traveled alone and played with pickup bands. Here he was backed by a band called Rocking Horse.
Note: Chuck Berry’s recording career began when he was 29, the age John Lennon was when the Beatles broke up.
On the Criterion Channel I’m watching Dracula, from 1931, but not the familiar American film with Bela Lugosi. It’s the Spanish version, filmed on the same Universal studio sets at the same time but, appropriately, at night. NPR has the story on this unique production.
I remember agonizing over spending $80-$100 for single Criterion releases on LaserDisc thirty years ago, and those prices were 20% off. An annual subscription to the Criterion Channel is $90, so when it was announced, of course I signed up immediately.
As stated in reply to a comment from tastewar, I am giving a listen to Dark Was the Night: A Red Hot Compilation. The album was produced in 2009 to raise money to fight AIDS.
In 1991, Prue’s friend Cynthia O’Neal founded Friends in Deed* with Mike Nichols to provide direct support for AIDS patients. The story of Friends in Deed is told in Cynthia’s memoir, Talk Softly, dedicated to her sons Max and Fitz. Prue says that Max has since passed away.
* The organization is now part of The Big Groups.
Joe Pera the person talks about Joe Pera the character in this interview.
Like the Charlie Brown holiday specials are just endlessly re-watchable every year. – Joe Pera
https://www.pastemagazine.com/comedy/joe-pera-talked-with-you-interview/
This week the PBS Newshour had a segment on the alarming rise of Christian Nationalism. Florida governor Ron DeSantis preaching like a televangelist and saying “putting on that full armor of God” unsettles me. Do I believe he Believes? Sure, as much as I believe that Trump believes in anything but himself.
The “God is White and Guns are Good” movement really scares me. Here is another discussion, with an Evangelical Christian pastor’s views.
Campus Crusade for Christ, now called Cru, is an organization that was started by former candy salesman Bill Bright. My past involvement with CCC gave me an early view into what’s been going on politically with Evangelical Christians over the past 50 years.
Campus Crusade’s growth was built upon the old multi-level marketing model. “Bring a friend who will bring a friend.” There were two adults, unaffiliated with the school, who were in charge of the campus operation — a man for the boys and a woman for the girls. The more I met with them and, especially, their boss who coordinated activities across multiple campuses, the more I began to get a sense of the organization’s conservative views.
Before attending a retreat where we would meet students from another college, who belonged to InterVarsity, we were warned against the organization’s “liberal” views. After meeting some of the other kids, I wished InterVarsity would open a chapter at my school to compete with Campus Crusade.
The more I saw of Campus Crusade for Christ, the more I realized there was more Crusade than Christ in the organization. After several years I walked away and never returned. I was deeply in love with a girl who had also come to question Cru’s messaging. She got me into Campus Crusade, and she left around the same time that I did, but for a reason that was paradoxically both the same and the opposite. She felt the organization wasn’t sufficiently committed to the Word of God. As I was letting go of my faith, she was looking for a greater religious experience and joined a Charismatic Christian group. I attended a couple of meetings with her, but they were too much for me. Kinda like this, but with a white congregation. 😉
https://youtu.be/mCF_xzxhxME
More about a subject I first posted two years ago. Beware of cosmic rays!
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221011-how-space-weather-causes-computer-errors
