Chamblee54

Mick Jagger

Posted in Georgia History, Music by chamblee54 on October 29, 2013







There was a book at the Chamblee Library, Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger. The work is credited to a man named Christopher Anderson, who has a slew of best sellers to his credit. The copyright was issued to “Anderson Productions.”

When you write about Mickie, you have to post a few videos. One of the first to come up is “Waiting on a friend.” This was the first video that PG saw on MTV. One night in early 1982, PG rode his bike to an apartment on Buford Hiway. While he was there, someone said hey watch this, music television. The video was a favorite that first winter of MTV, even though it wasn’t really that good.

Mick Jagger has been a part of many lives the last fifty years. The stones were conceded to be number two to the beatles, but stayed together longer. The era of rock concert as megaevent coincided with the reinvention of the stones, after the demise of Brian Jones. He did after all start the band. Mr. Jones had become too much of a druggie to be relied on, and was fired. The book says that Mr. Jones was drowned, by a construction worker.

Ok, we are three paragraphs in, and we have not discussed Mr. Jagger’s pecker. Most of the book is about this instrument of undetermined size. The book says Mick stuffed a sock in his pants before shows. Mick has screwed thousands of women, and more than a few men. Whether Mick is a top, or a bottom, is left to the imagination.

The phrase “fuck Mick Jagger” is seminal. One night, the B52s were playing at a toilet on Ponce De Leon Avenue called the Big Dipper. The venue was later torn down, the ground decontaminated, and an animal clinic built on it’s site. After the show, one of the girls (either Kate or Cindy, or maybe neither, since this story is possibly an urban legend) was hanging out in the parking lot. “Beulah” was running his mouth, as he liked to do, talking about his hero Mick Jagger. Finally, the B52girl had heard enough. “Fuck Mick Jagger, one day Mick Jagger will come see me.”

The book goes into excruciating detail about the stones story. Mick grew up middle class, and was close to his parents. He bit the end of his lip playing basketball, and sounded different. While going to the London School of Economics, he connected with Keith Richard, and found that they both liked Chuck Berry. The Glimmer Twins started to hang out together, and played a few gigs at a nightclub owned by Alexis Korner. (Mr. Korner opened for Humble Pie and Edgar Winter at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium in 1972. He was ignored by the festive crowd.)

At this time, Mick had been introduced to sex by the other boys at his school. The first time with a woman was when Mick was an orderly at Bexley Mental Hospital. A nurse “yanked him into the linen closet where, surrounded by sheets, mops, and bedpans, Mick lost his virginity standing up”.

At some point Brian Jones came into the picture. Mick moved into a flat with Brian and Keith, and lived in picturesque squalor. At some point Mick and Brian bumped gooberheads, which left Mick confused. It is not known whether the lads could afford drugs at this point.

The story goes on and on. There are ugly moments, pretty moments, good songs written, lots of drugs, lots of sex. As Mick said in “Shattered,” “sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex and sex.” A few begin to wonder if he is capable of a one on one relationship, but those opinions don’t count.

One afternoon in 1978, PG was driving a truck in Decatur. He worked for a lady who did sampling projects, which means giving out samples to consumers. The product this time was Playtex Plus deodorant tampons. The truck was the rag wagon. There was an announcement on the last am rock and roll station in Atlanta. The stones were going to play the Fox Theater, and tickets were on sale now. The signal of the am station faded out at this point, with a gospel station preacher blocking out the rock and roll announcement. PG did not hear the location of the ticket sales. It turns out the tickets went on sale at the box office of the Municipal Auditorium, which was two blocks away from the rental facility of the rag wagon. Such is life.

In 1991, PG was walking to work and noticed an army of movie trucks. Mr. Jagger was appearing in a film, “Free Jack.” PG saw a scene filmed from his perch in the Healey Building, and stood behind a chair with the name “Mick Jagger” stenciled on. There were reports of a van rocking in Cabbagetown. On January 12, 1992, Georgia May Ayeesha Jagger was born.

Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger is not a bad book. It is easy to read, and does not skimp on slime. The phrase “cringe inducing” is used several times, which may be the result of a focus group. It is not worth $27.00, or $29.99 Canadian. The publisher is Simon&Schuster. The dalliance between Mr. Jagger and Carly Simon is dutifully noted.

Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This ia a repost.




Lou Reed

Posted in History, Music by chamblee54 on October 27, 2013

8b28501x

8b28505x

8b29940x

8b29961xa

8b29956x

8b29956xa

8b29956xb

8b29956xc

8b29956xe


It was the last sunday in October. For party people, it is time to get the glitter out of your head before it corrodes the medulla oblongata. For sober PG, it was the last day of freedom before another job assignment. For Lou Reed, today did not happen.

There are many things you could say about Mr. Reed. At a key point in his solo career, he issued Metal Machine Music, ninety four minutes of unlistenable noise. There was a model, of uncertain gender, on the back of his first solo album. A banana, wrapped in aluminum foil, decorated a strategic location. The album gave the world “take a walk on the wild side”, “satellite of love”, and “perfect day”.

Heroin was a friend of Mr. Reed for a while. Did anyone decide to try smack after listening to that song? Who knows. It is not known what substances he was recreating with the last forty years.

After a while, Lou Reed got married to Laurie Anderson. They gave a concert for dogs.

The story is that Mr. Reed was tough to interview. Since he outlived Edie Sedgwick by forty two years, Mr. Reed figured he didn’t need to be nice. One journalist reports “Lou Reed … was the most terrifying rock star I have ever interviewed. Partly it was his look that was so unsettling: all those amphetamines in his rock n roll years had taken their toll. His sunken cheeks, intense staring eyes and perpetually macerating jaw gave him the look of a malevolent praying mantis in a poodle fright wig.”

On May Day 1993, PG was asked to sing at a beauty pageant. He chose “take a walk on the wild side”. There are fifteen rounds of doo doo repeated four times. These groups of eight doos were known as a crock. New York City was changed to Ponce De Leon. Elvis was the MC. Since PG has a loud voice, he got Elvis to turn the amplifier down to one before his song. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

8b29979xa

8b29979x

8b29275x

8b29961x

8b29961xb

8b32699x

8b32729x

8b30324x

8b30324xa

Moon Zappa

Posted in History, Music by chamblee54 on October 23, 2013

3c28671x

3c30333x

3c30333xa

3c30505x

5a19812x

8b26542x

8b26546x

8b27085x


The current WTF Podcast features Moon Zappa. At no time does she say grody, gag me with a spoon, or boofoos. Today, she is the divorced mother of an eight year old, and buys quality apple butter.

Moon is the daughter of the late Frank Zappa. FZ did not do drugs, smoked Winston cigarettes, and spent all his time working on music. The four children, Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva, called the parents Frank and Gail. Mrs. Zappa stays busy these days selling her husbands music.

Once, Moon broke a finger in school. She called Gail, and waited. Eventually, the family Rolls Royce pulled up. Gail was driving, with Frank in the passenger seat. Frank quit driving when his first drivers license expired. Before taking Moon to the ER, they stopped to get Frank a burrito.

Gail and Moon were walking to the store one day, when Moon was very little. A car stopped, and tried to pick up Gail. Moon screamed “Fuck off pervert.”

Captain Beefheart was at the Zappa house one time. He had made a hole in the side of his nose with a pencil. When a finger was put over the other nostril, the nose became a whistle.

While listening to this show, PG was editing pictures from The Library of Congress. Some of these images appear with this feature.

8b27087xa

8b27087xb

8b27091x

8b27116x

8b27117x

8b27118x

8b27119x

8b27912x

Duane Allman And The Coricidin Bottle

Posted in Georgia History, Music by chamblee54 on October 23, 2013





Gregg Allman appeared on Live Talks LA, selling a book, My Cross to Bear. Yes, he was coherent. Mr.Allman says something about going through rehab seventeen times. No one argues disputes that he has had an interesting life.

The chat has a few parts left out. Dicky Betts and Cher are not mentioned. The title of “strangest dude I ever met” goes to Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson, aka the black guy in the group. Gregg says he used to listen to stuff by Roland Kirk.

The story of Duane Allman learning to play slide guitar is good. Duane was sick. Gregg came to see his brother, who was playing the guitar in a new way. It seems the doctor had given him some pills called Coricidin. You take the pills out of the glass bottle, soak the label off, and you have a guitar slider.

When PG was a kid, his uncle was a representative for the company that sold Coriciden. There were boxes of samples in the house, which all came in the glass bottle. PG had not heard that name for forty eight years. The spell check suggestion is Coincidence.

Not everyone at amazon was impressed by the book. “the book was so damged the binding and jacket were ripped that a did not read the book and will not buy an more nick malick.”

The visual multitasking element for this repost was pictures from The Library of Congress. There are two group shots, broken down into smaller images. One is a graduating class of a nursing school at Georgetown University. The photographer lists the date as between 1905 and 1945.

The other image is a line of people waiting to vote. The well dressed citizens are in Clarenden VA. The date is November 4, 1924. Several carry signs for the democratic presidential candidate, John W. Davis. He was nominated on the 103rd ballot of the democratic convention, and lost to Calvin Coolidge.





Brookhaven Arts Festival

Posted in Music, Trifecta, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on October 21, 2013

aa135

bb138

ca144

cb145


It was a lovely Sunday afternoon. The air was cool. The Falcons won. Before you knew it four o’clock arrived. It was too late to go the festival downtown. PG threw a few layers on, put air in his tires, and took off to downtown Brookhaven.

The Brookhaven Arts Festival is not that big. PG chained his bike to a telephone pole, and took off on foot. Before long, he heard the band, GLOW. They were playing “Joy to the world”. A few nights before, PG met someone named Jeremiah at a party. “You don’t look like a bullfrog”.

The stage was the site of a pre-Marta recording studio. A phantom mirrored ball spun overhead as the band played “Boogie Oogie Oogie”. GLOW is a gaggle of singers, backed by guitar, bass, and keyboards. The third number was “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The lady singer got higher than Freddie Mercury ever dared. Mama, life has just begun.

GLOW finished playing. The MC said the festival was over. PG started to ride down Peachtree View, past the site of the purple house. A parking garage is under construction now. The purple house had a purple van in front, with big green letters that said “Greedy Developers Suck”.

Dinner, at the Swallow and Suffer, followed the festival. There was an unexpected twist. PG got veal parmesan, instead of chicken fingers. Sometimes, you need to try new things. Uzi said the next step would be signing up for cable television.

PG had looked for the health department paperwork on the way in, and found an open Bible instead. The HD score was behind the cash register. You don’t see it until you are ready to leave. The score, eighty one, should have been ninety. The cook was wearing a watch. Nine points were taken off.

cd146

dd150

ee157

ff160

25 Things About Georgia

Posted in Georgia History, Music, The Internet, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on October 12, 2013

LBCB011-057ax

LBCB034-083bz

LBCE6-060az

LBCE7-025az

LBGPNS2-171az

LBGPNS2-171aza

LBGPNS2-171azb

LBGPNS3-213az


These daze, there is more media than messages. People need things to write about. One popular theme, at least in itp/otp, is lists about life in Georgia. A web facility that should know better, thought catalog, recently put out 25 Things You Need To Know About Georgia.

25TYNTKAG was written by Jeremy Populus Jones. He seems to be the CEO of something called GAFollowers. (@GAFollowers on twitter) From the fine print:
“GAFollowers was created on a “strength in numbers” foundation, finding a creative way to use free online social networking sites to strengthen the “bond” between people in Georgia to help better form this state. … GAFollowers is one of the largest twitter accounts in the state of Georgia that spans nearly every corner of the region.”
These lists about Georgia life usally have a few common comments. There is the heat, the bugs, the traffic, the multiple Peachtrees, and southern accents. They seldom mention the shameless corruption, religious mental illness, rampant obesity, or racial pandemonium. Lets take a look at 25TYNTKAG. Mr. Jones will be in blue, and Chamblee54 in green. The photographs today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
1. The weather here is just as inconsistent as your ex-girlfriend. Not really. It gets cold in January, hot in July. Your ex-girlfriend is staying out of this.
2. We call all interstates in Georgia, “The Highway”. Most people use the number.
3. Only in Atlanta is everything named “Peachtree” without a single tree with peaches around. Peachtree is all over OTP.
4. Terio and Honey Boo Boo were born and raised here. You couldn’t do this without google. Terio is a chubby kid who dances. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
5. “Knuck if you Buck” is the song we will always get hype to no matter the age. Yuck.
6. White girls wear Nike shorts with big t-shirts covering their shorts. (How many can you spot?) Maybe there was a sale on big t-shirts at Walmart.
7. Zaxbys is what you eat. The TC comments said this is not accurate. They mentioned a certain spelling challenged company, that specializes in overpriced chicken sandwiches. At least the son of Mr. Zaxby doesn’t run off potential customers with his big mouth.
8. We call it a “rag” not a “washcloth”. Do people up north say a woman is on the washcloth?
9. Going outside at anytime during the summer instantly guarantees a minimum a 7 bug bites. This is mostly true. Who is counting?
10. In Georgia when someone ask, “Where you from?”, people usually reply with a county not a city. In Atlanta, when you say “Where are you from?” it is almost always somewhere outside of Georgia.
11. The speed limit is 65 mph but if you’re not going at least 80 mph you’ll be ran off the road. This is also true on surface roads. In hilly Atlanta, there are few places to pass on two lane roads.
12. In Georgia it’s not a shopping cart, it’s a buggy. Do people really say shopping cart? At Kroger it is a bascart. The stores have a bascart corral.
13. We get more inches of pollen in a week than inches of snow in a full year. Pollen season hits in early spring. It is rough for many people. The rest of the year gets relatively little pollen. There is a good ice/snow storm every ten years or so. This one is probably true.
14. You say Georgia, we say Jawja. Others say George-ah. To untrained ears they sound the same.
15. Sweet tea is our water. Very few people wash cars with sweet tea.
16. The night has been a success if you ended up at Waffle House. This is especially true if you are scattered, smothered, and covered.
17. In Georgia it’s necessary to look at the weather before picking out an outfit. Items this are a reason not to number lists. Just think of what you have to say, write it down, and hope it is not copyrighted.
18. We pray that we get snow during the winters. The people who pray for winter storms are merchants. They have an inventory of batteries, milk, ice, and eggs to sell.
19. We are the creators of, “Turn Up”. You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip.
20. Here in Georgia white girls can twerk. No Miley Cyrus. Ditto reaction to number 17. What was PG thinking of when he decided to do this post?
21. You will usually be 30 minutes away from just about every destination that you’re heading to. 22. There’s a Waffle House in walking distance of every Waffle House. These two have been combined, for obvious reasons. Do people proofread these lists before sending them out?
23. Any dark soda is simply called “Coke”. Many say Cocola, without the second syllable.
24. We pronounce it “Atlanna”. Whatever. Sometimes the second t is audible, sometimes not. It definitely is not the ATL, except to radio shouters.
25. Braves, Falcons & UGA are the teams we really care about. Tech fans may disagree. Ditto taxpayers, who don’t care is Rankin Blank gets a new stadium.

LBP31-103bz

LBPE1-031bz

LBPE2-051cz

LBSCB17-094bz

LBT21-164az

LBSCB17-128bz

LBSCE5-86dz

LBSGP1-001az

LBT22-190az

David Frost Melts

Posted in Music, Trifecta, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on October 11, 2013

ea118

ed134

ft116

fu155

fv132

it097

iw090

kasympath

kw071

pj123

pk130

ps137

pt098

pu059

Flux

Posted in Georgia History, Music, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on October 6, 2013

af002

bf005

dt014

eg017

ff032

fw027

hd043


Mr. Lion posted a message on facebook about the Flux night event. He wanted to attend, but didn’t have anyone to go with. PG saw this, and realized that he needed to get out of Brookhaven. Messages were sent, phone calls made, and an agreement reached to meet at a midtown parking lot at 9:00 pm. In a bit of murphy’s law denial, a vehicle left Piedmont Avenue, heading south, at 9:15.

PG is a nervous suburbanite, and had no clue where to park. Turning past the dome, the barricades and crowds were evident, as were the lines of cars going nowhere. An illegal one eighty turn later, PG gave up, and parked at the dome.

The two men were soon in another world. Castleberry Hill is a downtown neighborhood, reclaimed by the trendy and prosperous. The old brick buildings were swarming with culture vultures of all persuasions. PG wondered more than once where these mobs of bug eyed youth came from.

The first stop was an elderly brick building. For this night, it was crawling with murals, music, and machines that shot out cannonballs of smoke. People were posing in front of the well lit murals, which made it easy for PG to cop a leftover image or two. Mr. Lion got into a chat with a director of the collective, while PG dealt with the heat by photographing unsuspecting young ladies.

Mr. Lion is an elitist, but not a snob. PG is an anti semanticist, with an aversion to labelism. It was noted that calling yourself an non labelist was an act of labelism. But, as they say in Alabama, hypocrisy is usually the cheapest argument. Despite this existential eggshell walking, the Mr. Lion managed to keep up with PG, who was up to his usual mischief. With few dogs to photograph, the focus was on humans. There was lots of barking and tail wagging.

“Can I have a picture of your makeup” ” Sure” ” Can I have some attitude” ” What” “You call that attitude” “How can I have attitude if I am having a good time”

The streets were often crowded. In best Atlanta tradition, it was tough to know if you were going north, south, to heaven, or to hell. In an effort to not miss anything, several streets were covered twice. Finally, enough was enough. Mr. Lion managed to remember the side street that led back to the dome. It is part of elitism to always know where to go. A rat should always have a hole to crawl into.

iq047

je055

kf056

lw060

md063

nt081

Twerk Off

Posted in Music, The Internet, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on September 28, 2013

LBCB115-009bz

LBCB117-038az

LBPE2-028as

LBSCB13-083az

LBSCB13-086az

LBSCB13-104az

LBSCB13-163az

LBSCB14-002az


There is a bit of likeme trolling on facebook this morning. It is a link, Miley Cyrus Points Out Something Wrong With America — And She’s Absolutely Right. It is from a facility called upworthy. These missives usually have a popup ad, encouraging you to like uw on fb. The message today was a poll. “It’s nice to be reminded of the good in the world. And it should happen more often. I Agree I Disagree” PG clicked disagree, and was sent through to the headline post.

Miley Cyrus has gotten attention lately. She performed at an awards show, and got people excited. PG does not pay to watch TV, and missed the spectacle. Maybe this is the best approach.

The message from miss achy breaky heart is not that great. She says that some nasty things are on television, but you can’t say fuck. This is the same observation about double standards that has been around since the top half of Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show. It is just as meaningless today as ever.

Calling someone a hypocrite is a cheap argument. Whenever someone says something, you can be sure that the standards of someone else are violated. Hypocrisy is in the eye of the beholder. Two wrongs do not make a right. Not everybody agrees with you. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.

LBSCB14-002bz

LBSCB14-002cz

LBSCB14-002dz

LBSCB14-109bz

LBSCB14-109bza

LBSCB14-119bz

LBSCB15-002cz

LBSCB15-100az

Cultural Appropriation

Posted in Music, Race, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on September 26, 2013

LBP31-103az

LBP31-133bz

LBP32-004az

LBP35-099az

LBP35-170az

LBP38-106az

LBP44-193az

LBP45-114az


While reading the Chelsea Handler book, PG started to think of things to write about. A list appeared on the back inside cover. A few of these have hit the innertubes already. Today, three more are going to be incorporated into one post. If this is not to your liking, you are encouraged to skip over the text and look at the pictures. These images today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.

This monolog will include items four, five, and seven. Number four is people who don’t like quiet. Number five is stupid phones. Number seven is a question. Is it cultural appropriation for white people to get upset about racism? All three items involve people making needless noise.

Some people don’t like quiet. Whenever there is a break in a conversation, they feel obligated to fill in the dead air. Whether of not they have anything worthwhile to say is beside the point. The idea is to not let there be any silent time.

This is more than dead air in a conversation. Some feel the need to listen to canned entertainment at all times. The earbud riders miss the background sounds of the world. Especially when in motion outdoors, there is a steady background of sound. Crickets, birds, wind make a pleasing aural backdrop. In addition, there is the sound of automobile tires whooshing against the pavement, getting louder and louder, then softer and softer. It is also good to hear these sounds if you are sharing a roadway with these steel behemoths. They are bigger than you.

Often the listening device of choice is a smart phone. They are not good for conversation, so many resort to text messages. PG, on the other hand, is a hold out. He has a twelve button stupid phone. The time cards are purchased every three months, and cost about seven dollars a month. If you get lost on your way somewhere, you can call for directions. With a bit of effort, you can send a text message. It is a handy device, even if you can’t play angry birds on it.

Angry birdbrains birds leads us to our final subject for this morning. Some white people just love to talk about how horrible racism is. Outside of defriending people who do not share their outrage, these people often do little, other than talk, to actually fight incorrect racial attitudes. Could it be cultural appropriation for white people to get so worked up about racism?

If any of these privileged characters were to read this feature, someone would probably say that PG does not understand cultural appropriation. Fair enough, as the uncertain umpire might say. The odds are that these self anointed progressives don’t understand cultural appropriation. CA has a fluid definition, like racism. It boils down to being something the accuser does not like.

There has been a lot of angry talk about race this year. A white woman filed a bad boss lawsuit. Her lawyer proceeds to slander the celebrity sister of her former boss, about saying the n word thirty years earlier. A cereal company makes anonymous comments about a commercial, and gets truckloads of free publicity. None of these incidents will make improve the lives of color. Mostly, people just want a cheap, easy way to feel superior to their neighbor. When you look at the history of race relations in amerika, you have to wonder what race started it.

LBP22-166az

LBP22-166aza

LBP52-035az

LBP52-094az

LBP52-110az

LBP52-119az

LBP30-118az

LBP31-094az

Hair

Posted in History, Music, Race, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on August 29, 2013

8d20393x

8d20252x

8d20251x

8d20259xa

8d20259x

13271x

8d20255x

8c29250x

3c24911xd

3c26753xb


There is a tasteful feature on the innertubes now, A Few Good Reasons Why White People Should Not Wear “Mohawks” or Dreadlocks. Yes, this is another polemic about cultural appropriation. If you want to skip the text, and look at the pictures, no one will get mad. Or get even. If you read the text, you might get odd. It is your choice.

The gist of the tract is
“When white people wear “Mohawks” or dreadlocks it twists those hairstyles into symbols of privilege rather than symbols of survival and resistance.” Little is known about why the Natives of Upstate New York wore their hair the way they did. Isn’t calling this hair choice “symbols of survival and resistance” playing into the game of misunderstanding non European cultures?
The tract is not well written. Maybe the author feels like using good grammar is appropriating someone else’s culture.

There is one part of the tract that had PG shaking his buzz cut head.
This is a free country. Can’t I do whatever I want? This country has never been free for people of color/non-white people. Certainly, you can choose wear your hair however you want. Historically, however, people of color have not been able to make that choice. This is not why the Bronner Brothers are multi millionaires. Black Americans spend more on hair care products than the gross national product of many African countries.
Both mohawks and dreadlocks are high maintenance affairs. After his struggles with shoulder length redneck curls, PG is not about to shave the sides of a beaver tail every day. And dreadlocks have always seemed to be just a bit on the dirty side. The rastas are welcome to wear dreadlocks, as long as they pass the spliff.

One thing PG has wondered was answered as a result of this polemic. Did the Mohawk tribe really wear their hair that way? When you type “Did the Mohawk… ” into google, the rest of the phrase to pop up is “Did the Mohawk Indians have mohawks?” Someone else has wondered the same thing. Wikipedia has more information.

The mohawk (also referred to as a mohican in British English) is a hairstyle in which, in the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaven, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair in the center. Though mohawk is associated mostly with punk rock subculture, today it has entered mainstream fashion. The mohawk is also sometimes referred to as an iro in reference to the Iroquois, from whom the hairstyle is derived – though historically the hair was plucked out rather than shaved. … The Mohawk and the rest of the Iroquois confederacy (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Tuscarora and Oneida) in fact wore a square of hair on the back of the crown of the head. The Mohawk did not shave their heads when creating this square of hair, but rather pulled the hair out, small tufts at a time. … Therefore a true hairstyle of the Mohawks was one of plucked-out hair, leaving a three-inch square of hair on the back crown of the head with three short braids of hair decorated.

They didn’t shave the sides of the head, they plucked the hair out. That does eliminate the need to shave the sides of your head every day. This is not the way the fashion conscious hair people do the modern mohawk. The question arises if this non authentic hairstyle is really cultural appropriation.

Wikipedia goes on to add that this do might not be an Iroquois invention.
“The hairstyle has been in existence in many parts of the world for millennia. For instance, the Clonycavan Man, a 2000-year-old male bog body discovered near Dublin in 2003, was found to be wearing a mohawk styled with plant oil and pine resin. Artwork discovered at the Pazyryk burials dating back to 600 BCE depicts Scythian warriors sporting similar mohawks. The body of a warrior occupying one of the kurgans had been scalped earlier in life and wore a hair prosthesis in the form of a mohawk. Herodotus claimed that the Macai, a northern Libyan tribe, “shave their hair so as to leave tufts, letting the middle of their hair grow long, but round this on all sides shaving it close to the skin.” Amongst the Pawnee people, who historically lived along in present-day Nebraska and Kansas, a “mohawk” hair style was common.”
Part of the polemic took a question and answer format.
“But, I wear my hair this way as a statement against oppressive cultures and governments. How is that racist?” “You can take a stand against oppression and dominant cultures without appropriating the cultures of the people being hurt by them. Appropriation actually enforces oppression, it does not stand against it. Appropriation is part of the problem, not part of the solution”
To paraphrase this, you can be anti racist without proudly avoiding high maintenance hairdoos. Especially one that bears little resemblance to the actual article.












There was a statement in yesterday’s post . “Black Americans spend more on hair care products than the gross national product of many African countries.” This was tossed out in a careless moment, which is not a good thing to do. Today’s post is an investigation. For purposes of this report, America’s gross national product is the republican party.

Finding out how much African Americans spend on hair care is more google intensive than this slack reporter imagined. Madame Noire has a feature, Black Women Spend Half a Trillion Dollars on Haircare and Weaves! Why? “Black women spend half a trillion dollars to keep our hairstyles tight, our weaves looking good and our “kitchens” tamed. Why do we do this?” The $500 billion figure might include pain and suffering. Target Market News is more conservative, reporting “Personal Care Products and Services – $6.66 billion”.

In the chatter about a Chris Rock movie, Good Hair, the phrase “9 billion dollar hair trade industry” is used. The Magazine Publishers of America report that advertising spending on “Hair Products & Accessories” was $1,242,700 in 2007.

The short answers are “a lot”, and “we don’t know”. It is probably less that $500 Billion. For the purposes of this feature, we will go with a conservative estimate. This would be Target Market News. Since not all “Personal Care Products and Services” are hair related, we will call our number Five Billion. This is probably a conservative figure, but for our purposes it will do.

The second part of the statement was “Black Americans spend more on hair care products than the gross national product of many African countries.” The numbers come from Wikipedia and the International Money Fund. There are sixteen African countries with GNP less than $5 billion. They include: Mauritania, Swaziland, Togo, Eritrea, Lesotho, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Liberia, Seychelles, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Comoros, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The last seven have a GNP less than the amount spent advertising hair products and accessories for Black Americans.

Today’s double feature about hair is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

3c26753xc

13266x

3c12768x

3c12768xa

3c12768xb

8d12538x

8d12538xa

3c24911xb

3c24911xc

Coat Of Many Colors

Posted in Music, Politics, Religion by chamblee54 on August 20, 2013








This feature was originally posted last august. The first part was about the 2012 election. At the time where Mr. Romney was taken seriously. Out of kindness to the readers, that part has been left out today. The pictures, from The Library of Congress, are a year older. Dolly Parton is a year younger.

When PG saw this, he thought about the song, “Coat of many colors”. The b side was by Porter Wagoner, “Coat of many sequins”. COMC is about a woman who is too poor to buy her little girl a coat at the store, so she makes a quilt. The other kids make fun of her, but little Dolly knows that the coat is really made of love. Mitt Romney never had a coat of many colors.
The song talks about a story in the Bible. PG had heard about the story, but didn’t remember the details. He must have been daydreaming in Sunday School when that story was taught. With the help of google, Genesis 37 appears, as if by magic. Pass the popcorn.

2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

Ok, hold on for a minute. Israel had at least two wives. The Biblical definition of marriage must be between a man and two women.
The story gets a bit weird here. Joseph has this dream, where he becomes the boss hog brother. The other brothers decide something needs to be done, that Joseph needs to die. Reuben tries to help Joseph, and has a plan to save him. Joseph is stripped of the coat of many colors, and placed in a pit, with no water. Before Reuben can sneak Joseph out of the pit, a camel caravan comes by. Twenty pieces of silver change hands, and Joseph is sold into slavery. The brothers decide to pull a cover up, and make it look like Joseph was dead. Reuben made another sandwich.

31 And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
32 And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.
33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.