#but still very much enjoying the chaos of 70s Paul

[ohblahdo]

A very Paul story from The McCartney Legacy:

In the early hours of the next morning, June 19, the dozing McCartneys were awoken by a disagreement outside their hotel window. Rubbing his eyes to check if he was still dreaming, or perhaps tripping, Paul spotted the hotel manager, José Manuel Castillo, arguing with a group of nuns and sheepish-looking children. The visiting sisters had ventured down from the Casa de Beneficencia de Alcoy (a nearby convent and school) hoping to treat their orphaned children to a rare day out, only to be turned away. Pulling on a T-shirt and shorts, Paul dragged Denny Laine out of bed and ran outside clutching two guitars. And from facing eviction, the holy party suddenly found themselves the exclusive audience for an impromptu coastal concert with a former Beatle.

What do you do when a group of nuns and orphans invade your luxury birthday vacation? Invite them in and put on a show!

[rosyfingereddawnn]

That’s The Way

Pairing: Jimmy Page x Reader

Word count: 3.6k

Warnings: none, this is kind of an introductory/fluff chapter if you will :)

Story summary: Y/N Y/L/N, an ordinary seventeen-year-old girl, gets pulled into the world of rock and roll on a fateful night at the Marquee Club in London when she experiences the musical phenomenon of the Five Live Yardbirds. She grows up fast, navigating her way through the downfall of The Yardbirds, the legendary skyrocket of Led Zeppelin, era-defining decadence instigated by the ‘60s and ‘70s mindset of free love and personal gratification, and finding the courage to express how she fell deeply in love with one of modern music’s greatest guitarists.

Author’s notes (from Molly of rebel-without-a-zeppelin): Hi everyone! A little disclaimer on my part: this is the first story I’ve ever shared for public consumption. I’ve been toying with this idea in my mind for a very long time now, and I’ve finally mustered up the courage to share it with you all. I hope you like it. I am incredibly honored to collaborate with Syd on this project; this is truly our baby, as it has a very long, detailed, intricate plot, so saddle up for lots (and lots) of drama! This is also a sloooowwwww burn, like really, really slow lol. Over the course of the story, please feel free to send me your theories and comments; I would absolutely love to read them. Please enjoy, and happy reading!

---------

3 May 1965

The sound of a car horn beeped incessantly from the front of Y/N’s house. Dropping her backpack down on her bedroom floor with an annoyed huff, she sprinted down the steps. She never did get enough time to prepare, and it was no different today. With her friend Carolyn in tow, Y/N made a beeline for the front door, the click-clack of her Oxford shoes pounding across the hardwood floor. Y/N’s mum, who nonchalantly strolled out of the laundry room with an armful of freshly washed and folded bath towels, leant against the doorframe.

“Now remember Y/N: no drinking, no drugs, no sex. No going home with strange musician guys, nor are you allowed to go to their hotel,” her mum instructed calmly, knowing she’d receive an eye roll from the girl. Her stern expression at home on her gracefully-aged face, the girls receive the speech they get every time they go out.  “You too, C. Even though I’m not your mother, I still worry about your safety.”

Both Y/N’s mum and dad had a very protective instinct over their eldest daughter, just like their other three children. Even at Y/N’s healthy age of seventeen, she longed for the freedom and trust that her older brother had gained at her age.

“Thank you, Mrs. Y/L/N,” Carolyn replied with a little laugh.

“Mum! This is literally the fourth time I’ve been to a Yardbirds gig, and nothing bad has happened,” Y/N huffed. Her mum raised her eyebrows.

Lillian, Y/N’s little sister, walked into the foyer and surprised Y/N with a big, tight hug around her waist. Y/N gasped at the sudden contact, but chuckled when she realized it was her younger sister, and reciprocated the hug.

“I don’t want you getting hurt, Y/N. Boys are icky. And stupid!” Lillian said in a whiny voice, her face muffled by being buried in Y/N’s stomach.

Y/N ruffled her sister’s muss of dirty blonde waves affectionately, rubbing her back to soothe her worries. “I promise, I will come back perfectly fine! I won’t let any boys mess with me, Lil,” Y/N said with a smile, “And when I come back, I’ll tell you everything that happened.”

Lillian gazed up at Y/N with a similar smile, her small teeth shining a bright, pearly white and her chin resting on the taller girl’s stomach. “Okay,” she said, content, before releasing from Y/N with a stuffed animal tucked under her arm.

“Where’s Charlie?” Y/N asked, hoping she could say goodbye to her younger brother before she left.

“I think he’s riding around the neighborhood on his bike with his friends,” Y/N’s mum replied with a shrug. Y/N felt a little disappointed, but she figured she’d talk to him tomorrow at breakfast about her night out.

Thomas, Y/N’s older brother, continued to honk the horn rather obnoxiously, growing quite impatient. It’s a wonder the neighbors weren’t at arms, knocking on their door. He was forced by his parents to be Y/N and Carolyn’s chauffeur to the Marquee Club in London.

“We have to go, or else Tommy will have my head,” Y/N said as she started to open the front door.

“Wait!” her mum said, sloppily placing the towels down on a nearby counter to dash to the door and give Y/N a hug and a kiss on the head goodbye. Finally pulling away her weathered hands flew to Y/N’s shoulders, and gripping them firmly, she continued, “Be good. Love you.”

“I know, I will. Love you too,” Y/N smiled, before dashing down the steps and to the passenger seat of the car. Carolyn was in quick pursuit, following her to the car and taking a seat in the back.

“It’s about time,” Tommy huffed impatiently, tapping his fingertips on the top of the steering wheel as he put the transmission into drive.

“Sorry. Mum was giving me and C a safety brief,” Y/N replied apologetically.

“Why are you two still in school uniforms?” he snorted, shifting to look over at the girls; their studious appearance of white oxford shirts, sweater vests, plaid kilts, white knee socks, and smart oxford shoes would be quite out of place among the audience at the show.

“No time to change, just like usual,” she replied, turning on the radio, soft melodies pouring out at a low volume.

The three drove in silence, except for the sound of the radio playing, until Carolyn had dozed off on the somewhat lengthy car ride. Occasional small talk between Y/N and her brother permeated the quiet that fell over the group, but it picked up when they were only a few blocks away from the venue.

“You gotta stay safe in there, Y/N,” Tommy said, looking straight ahead. His teeth clamped down sharply on his bottom lip: a dead giveaway to the nerves he must have been feeling.

“I know, Dad,” Y/N joked, punching him lightly across the shoulder. Her bright smile wavered and fell when she saw his grim expression.

“I’m serious, you know. I don’t want my sister being pestered by some wankers in a blues band.”

Y/N smirked at her brother’s sudden defensive behavior. “I can take care of myself. Trust me. This isn’t my first rodeo. You should’ve seen the first Yardbirds gig we went to. Utter chaos...” The tilt of her lips signalled that she was joking, and Tommy huffed out a laugh.

Carolyn, stretching with a grunt, had miraculously woken up just as Tommy pulled up to the front door of the Marquee. Glancing at the venue with awe dancing in their eyes, Y/N and Carolyn disembarked from the car, walking closer with the façade of calmness and competency.

“I’ll be back later to pick you girls up. Have fun, but not too much fun,” Tommy rolled his window down as he said this, winking playfully.

Y/N waved to her brother as Carolyn thanked him graciously for the ride. Arms linked, Y/N and Carolyn entered the famous Marquee. Nervousness and anticipation began to pool Y/N’s stomach as she was greeted by the decadent atmosphere of the club: the smell of smoke, alcohol, and sweat hung in the air as her eyes were flashed by many people mingling about, dressed in typical mod clothing. Y/N and her friend looked at each other, feeling like aliens in their intelligent dress. They tactfully made their way through the crowd as they found their way to their usual spot, a small leather-upholstered booth set against the wall near the stage.

“Today might be the day, Y/N,” Carolyn said as they settled into their seats.

“I don’t know,” she replied, smoothing out her skirt, “the idea of that is both scary and exciting to me at the same time. We’ll just roll with the punches, I guess.”

“Which Yardbird do you have your eye on?”

Y/N smirked as she thought for a moment. “Hmm...I’m not sure. I guess they’re all pretty cute in their own way. What about you?”

“Yes, I agree. But I must admit, I do have a very soft spot for Chris Dreja.”

“I’ll pray for ya, C,” Y/N chuckled.

~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, backstage, five live Yardbirds were performing some pre-show rituals in the hopes of easing the preliminary anxiousness. Jeff, Keith, and Jim were peeking out the little sliver of curtain that allowed them to see their gathering audience.

“Look! It’s those two schoolgirls again!” Jeff pointed to the two teenage girls in school uniforms, chatting in their booth waiting for the show to begin. They were huddled together in conversation, legs daintily crossed as their faint giggles floated over to them. Jim couldn’t help but smile at the sound, though he recovered quickly, not wanting his bandmates to get any ideas.

“What’s wrong with that? They must like us,” Keith replied.

“I think they’re both really pretty, especially the one with the Y/H/C hair,” Jim pointed out, trying to be as subtle as possible.

“Yeah, maybe we should invite them backstage after the show… have a nice little chat,” Jeff winked at the singer and the drummer cheekily.

After taking a final glance at the two conversing girls, the three returned to the backstage area where Paul and Chris were. Jeff immediately enlisted Giorgio, their manager, to complete the agreed-upon mission. Jeff loosely draped an arm around Giorgio’s shoulder before bestowing the request as politely as possible. Not trying to be suspiciously polite, of course, because everyone in the band and its entourage were firsthand witnesses of Jeff’s temper and stubbornness. Yikes.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to do me a favor,” Jeff said to Giorgio with a mischievous smile.

Giorgio rolled his eyes, knowing this “favor” would have to do with scouting girls from the audience. “What d’ya need, Jeff?” he sighed exhaustedly.

“Don’t complain, please,” Jeff deadpanned. “There are two pretty birds in the audience, wearing their school uniforms. They’ve been coming to our shows for a little bit now, and they seem nice—”

“You want me to bring them backstage after the show?” Giorgio interrupted, somehow telepathically knowing, by routine, what the guitarist’s request would be.

“You finish that sentence like you know what I’m about to say.”

“That’s because I do, Mr. Beck,” Giorgio retorted sarcastically, “this happens a lot more often than you think it does.”

“Whatever,” Jeff grumbled moodily, knowing he was right, before walking back to the group of musicians in preparation.

~~~~~~~~

Y/N and Carolyn continued to gossip happily about what was happening at school, not a care in the world. They felt the stares of older men in the club, who silently disapproved of their knee socks being scrunched by their ankles, because that wasn’t the “proper” thing to do. But they didn’t care. Who are they to judge?

Every teacher scolded girls at school who did the same thing, because they didn’t want their long legs to be “tempting” or “distracting” any boys. A bloody nuisance, is what it is.

The girls were snapped from their thoughts by the sound of a heavy guitar tone being blasted through the speakers in an opening riff. Their eyes were stapled, almost transfixed to the stage as they took in the five sharply-dressed men in front of them, singing their songs and playing their instruments.

As much as Carolyn enjoyed The Yardbirds and music in general, Y/N had a rather deep connection to it, odd enough as it was. She could play the piano fairly well, so she understood where these musicians were coming from cognitively and creatively. From what she’d read in magazines about current popular musicians, like The Yardbirds for example, she liked the same music they did. Y/N understood dynamics, tempo, tone, key, and musical notation, just like they did. Perhaps she’d be able to get into an intelligent musical conversation with at least one of them one day.

Two straight hours of hits, obscure songs, and blues covers from The Yardbirds’ catalogue were played for the Marquee Club patrons, hypnotizing its drunk and high onlookers with polished musicality and instrumentation.

As the final song concluded, both Y/N and Carolyn, unbeknownst to the other, felt a sinking feeling of disappointment that fell like a pit in their stomachs. They wouldn’t have the chance to meet the band. No one from the entity had approached them yet, and momentarily the five live Yardbirds would be exiting the stage for the night.

After they said their goodbyes and thanks to the crowd, they disappeared behind the curtain. The main lights of the club brightened to signal that the show was over, as the voices of all the patrons raised in rave of the spectacular show they had just witnessed.

Discouraged, but still in light spirits at what they had just seen, Y/N and Carolyn stood up from their seat and headed for the front door. Y/N expected her brother to be waiting in front; it was late, so might as well not make him wait longer than he needs to.

Y/N and Carolyn were merely a few feet from the door when Y/N felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. Turning around to see a man with a dark beard already baring a jovial tight-lipped grin at her, the girl was quite surprised, maybe a little weirded out, but she reciprocated the gesture as genuinely as she could.

“Hello sir, what can we do for you?” Y/N greeted, discreetly nudging Carolyn to help her out and become a united front with her in front of this stranger.

“Good evening ladies, I was sent by Mr. Jeff Beck to offer you an invitation backstage to hang out with the band.”

Y/N’s stomach dropped and her face broke out into an obvious mad blush, much to her dismay. She was internally screaming. The Jeff Beck had spotted them in the crowd?! This had to be a dream.  Wait, this could be a complete drunken buffoon trying to trick them. Y/N remembered what her mother had said, and took the proper precautionary measure.

Y/N smiled in the most composed way she could. “Thank you for such a gracious invitation! Could I ask your name, if you don’t mind?”

“Giorgio Gomelsky, manager of The Yardbirds,” he replied, in a seemingly proud manner.

Okay, this was real. Y/N knew that Giorgio was definitely the manager’s name. She turned to Carolyn, who looked just as excited as she was.

“What are your names, dears?” Giorgio asked, pulling them out of their daze of what seemed like a fake reality.

“I’m Carolyn, and this is my friend Y/N,” Carolyn piped up, excited that she finally got an opportunity to speak to someone close to The Yardbirds.

She internally agreed to let Y/N handle the “diplomacy” part of the introduction, knowing that she was best at that. Carolyn knew her friend was quite shy, so she knew to step in when Y/N was starting to feel anxious. She noticed Y/N starting to fiddle with her fingers while talking to Giorgio in the most collected way she could muster; as excited as Y/N was, Carolyn knew she was growing very nervous.

“Well, it is certainly lovely to meet you both. So, what do you say? Would you like to meet the lads?”

After one final glance of excited mutual agreement, Carolyn replied, “Yes, we’d love to.”

Giorgio led the pair of girls back the way they came, through a sea of inebriated people, but this time through the backstage door. Y/N made an appoint to walk behind Carolyn, in an attempt to collect and relax herself. She was starting to sweat a little, her stomach doing flips and her hands becoming cold and clammy.

~~~~~~~~

“Our guests should be arriving any minute now,” Jeff said as he was placing his guitar back in its case.

Chris was standing and chatting with Paul in a corner when he turned around in surprise at the news. “Guests? What guests?”

“We had Giorgio invite two girls from the audience to come back here,” Jim replied, walking over to sit down in a metal folding chair.

“And why weren't we made aware of this?” Paul asked, as he walked to get another metal folding chair to place near Jim.

“It was their idea,” Keith replied, pointing two fingers between Jeff and Jim. Paul and Chris just nodded in recognition.

“I didn’t hear you disagree, Relf,” Jeff clapped back. He then told Chris and Keith to get some chairs for themselves and the two girls that would be walking through the door at any second.

Before Keith could respond, a couple knocks resounded in the room, signalling the arrival of the guests. Jacket lapels and ties were quickly straightened, even though each person was still glazed with quickly-drying sweat from the show they had just played, before the room fell unnaturally quiet as Giorgio opened the rather squeaky door.

The initial tension in the room that lasted a split second could be cut with a knife. Y/N felt her heart pounding in her chest, a cold sweat already running down her back, as five pairs of eyes landed on her, Carolyn, and Giorgio, warm smiles following suit.

She felt like internally combusting.

“Boys, this is Y/N,” Giorgio broke the momentary silence by introducing her, “and Carolyn.” Y/N smiled shyly and sent them a little wave, a dusty shade of pink seeping its way to her cheeks. Carolyn’s greeting was much more exuberant than Y/N’s, as she took the initiative to go over and shake all of their hands amiably. Y/N realized she had to follow her friend in order to make a good first impression.

Knowing that the boys wanted to spend time with the girls without being chaperoned, Giorgio left the room to attend to other business affairs.

Upon first glance, Y/N was the most beautiful girl that four of the five Yardbirds had ever seen. Perfect features, long legs, a calm, gentle, sweet demeanor… Just an absolutely angelic young woman; a vision.

Jeff had obviously recognized her beauty, from seeing her at multiple shows, but he thought she was way out of his league. He decided to focus on getting her to laugh and relax around them, because he noticed just how nervous she looked. She was turning pale right in front of his very eyes! Paul and Chris began to internally question themselves, how have I not seen this girl before? She is so gorgeous! Jim had been glancing at her sporadically throughout the show, soaking up her faraway presence. He noticed how her eyes glistened in childlike wonder as she watched them do what they did best: perform the Chicago blues.

“Well, it is very nice to meet you both,” Keith replied enthusiastically. “I’m Keith,” he alluded to himself, then pointing to the other members of the group while giving their names, “and this is Chris, Paul, Jeff, and Jim.”

“I mean, we know who you guys are, but it’s so lovely to finally meet you,” Carolyn replied. Y/N nodded in agreement.

“Come and sit down! Make yourselves comfortable. We don’t bite,” Jeff joked, motioning to the open chairs. The girls smiled and accepted his invitation, Y/N taking a seat between Jeff Beck and Jim McCarty, while Carolyn took a seat between Keith Relf and Chris Dreja. The chairs were arranged in a circular formation, so each person could talk to the other with ease.

“Tell us about yourselves!” Paul initiated, “I think Y/N should go first though, because you haven’t said too much yet,” he laughed at the last part. Y/N giggled (a little too idiotically for her own liking), but she felt herself become starstruck at how her name sounded coming from one of their voices.

Y/N clenched her cold, clammy hands in her lap as a method to ease her anxiety before starting with a smile. “Well, I’m from Saint Albans. This is our fourth time, I believe, coming to see a Yardbirds gig. Carolyn and I came to see you with Eric Clapton once, and then this is the third time with Jeff.”

“Oh, that’s fantastic! I guess I see where your favor lies in terms of guitarists,” Jeff responded playfully.

“I guess you’re right,” Y/N laughed, “I will admit that I love what you’ve done with the body of work. Clapton was a blues purist, which I respect, and he’s great, but I think your playing is much more interesting and unorthodox.”

Paul, Jim, and Jeff all raised their eyebrows at Y/N’s comment. They were impressed with how she understood their musicality.

“Are you a musician?” Jim asked Y/N.

“Not in your sense of the word,” Y/N chuckled, “But I’ve been playing the piano for most of my life, so I understand music. Probably more than your average female audience member,” she added with a grin.

“That’s so cool! Are you classically trained, or is it just a hobby?”

“Classically trained,” Y/N admitted to Jim shyly.

“Oh wow, so you’re the real deal,” Jeff added.

“I’m not a professional, so I’d say no,” Y/N laughed.

“You probably know more about music than all five of us combined!” Paul said.

“Well, I know that you know much more about the blues than me!” Y/N answered playfully.

“Okay, I’ll give you that,” Paul smiled at Y/N. She cursed herself in her mind for feeling weak at Paul’s simple sentiment, but tried to keep her composure as best she could.

The four of them, especially Jeff and Y/N, began to bond over their love for different musicians. Y/N expressed her love for Chet Atkins and his fingerpicking style, Scotty Moore’s lively soloing style, and Robert Johnson’s slide technique and open tunings, rendering the three men shocked at her knowledge on the subject. Y/N loved how easily Jeff could make her laugh, and how interested Paul and Jim were at whatever she had to say, significant or insignificant. Chris Dreja, who was in a little group with Keith and Carolyn, occasionally spaced out of his conversation to hear what Y/N had to say.

They bonded for about an hour and a half about everything and nothing, until Y/N abruptly realized that Tommy was probably waiting for a while outside for her and her friend. She apologized to the band profusely for such a sudden departure as she and Carolyn walked towards the door.

“Say you’ll come visit us again after the show?” Jeff called to Y/N as she turned towards him in the doorframe.

“Absolutely,” she smiled brightly.

---------

Thanks so much, hope you enjoy!!

Taglist: @y0uth--anasia @reincarnated70sbaby

[fullregalia]

20/20.

This year, in hindsight, was a real write-off. I had grand plans for it, and while I ushered it in in a very low-key manner since I was recovering from the flu, I’d expected things to look up. Well, you know what they say about plans (RIP, my trip to Europe). I got very, very sick in early February, and I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t COVID. Since March, the days have been a carousel of monotony: coffee, run, work, cook, yoga, existential spiral, sleep. My Own Private Year of Rest and Relaxation, if you will. Of course, life has a way of breaking through regardless; I attended protests, completed my thesis, graduated from grad school, took a couple of road trips upstate, and celebrated the accomplishments and birthdays of friends and family from a safe social distance. It was all a bit of a blur, and not ideal circumstances to re-enter the real world, or whatever this COVID-present is. 

Throughout it all, in lieu of happy hours, coffee dates, and panel discussions, I’ve turned even more to culture and cuisine to fill the the negative space on my calendar where my social life once resided. However, since a global pandemic ought not to disrupt every tradition, here’s my year-end round up of what made this terrible one slightly more tolerable. 

TV

After an ascetic fall semester abstaining from TV in 2019 (save for my beloved Succession), I allowed myself to watch more as the year wore on, and especially after graduation. I caught up on some cultural blind spots by finally getting around to The Sopranos, Ramy, Search Party, and Girlfriends. I wasn’t alone in bingeing Sopranos, it absolutely lived up to the hype and then some; this Jersey Girl can’t get enough gabagool-adjacent content, pizzeria culture is my culture!

Speaking of my culture, there was also a disproportionate amount of UK and European shows in my queue. Nothing like being in social isolation and watching the horny Irish teens in Normal People brood. I’m partial to it because I share a surname with the showrunner, so I have to embrace blind loyalty even though there was, in my opinion, a Marianne problem in the casting. Speaking of charming Irish characters with limited emotional vocabularies, I belatedly discovered This Way Up a 2019 show from Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan. And while Connell and Marianne are actually exceptional students, I found the real normal people on GBBO to bring me a bit more joy. Baking was abundantly therapeutic for me this year, and watching charming people drink loads of tea and fret over soggy bottoms was a comfort. I also discovered the Great Pottery Throw Down, and as a lifelong ceramics enthusiast, I cannot recommend it highly enough if you care about things like slips, coils, and glazing techniques. GPTD embraces wabi sabi in a way that GBBO eschews flaws in favor of perfection, and in a time of uncertainty, the former reminded me why I miss getting my hands in the mud as a coping mechanism (hence all the baking). Speaking of coping mechanisms, like everybody else with two eyes and an HBO password, I loved Michaela Cole’s I May Destroy You; though we’ve all had enough distress this year for a lifetime, watching Cole’s Arabella process her assault and search for meaning, justice, and closure was a compelling portrait of grief and purpose in the aftermath of trauma. Arabella’s creative and patient friends Kwame and Terry steal the show throughout, as they deal with their own setbacks and emotional turmoil. Where I May Destroy You provides catharsis, Ted Lasso presents British eccentricity in all its stereotypical glory. At first I was skeptical of the show’s hype on Twitter, but once I gave in it charmed me, if only for Roy Kent’s emotional trajectory and extolling the restorative powers of shortbread. For a more accurate depiction of life in London, Steve McQueen’s series Small Axe provides a visually lush and politically clear-eyed depiction of the lives of British West Indians in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Lastly, how could I get through a recap of my year in tv if I don’t mention The Crown. Normal People may have needed an intimacy coordinator, but the number of Barbours at Balmoral was the real phonographic content for me.

Turning my attention across the Channel, after the trainwreck that was Emily in Paris, I started watching a proper French show, Call My Agent! It’s truly delightful, and unlike the binge-worthy format of "ambient shows” I have been really relishing taking an hour each week to watch CMA, subtitles, cigarettes, and all.

Honorable mention: The Last Dance for its in-depth look at many notable former Chicago residents; High Fidelity for reminding me of the years in college when my brother and I would drive around listening to Beta Band; and Big Mouth.

Music

My Spotify wrapped this year was a bit odd. I don‘t think “Chromatica II into 911″ is technically a song, so it revealed other things about my listening habits this year, which turned out to remain very much stuck in the last, sonically. I listened to a lot more podcasts than new music this year, but there were some records that found their way into heavy rotation. While I listened to a lot of classics both old and new to write my thesis (Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Prokofiev, and Bach) the soundtrack to my coursework, runs, walks, and editing was more contemporary. Standouts include: 

Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee, which makes me feel like I’m breathing fresh air even when I’m stuck inside all day 

La Bella Vita by Niia, which was there for me when I walked past my ex on 7th avenue (twice!) and he pretended that I didn’t exist 

Fetch the Bolt Cutters by THEE Fiona Apple, because Fiona, our social distancing queen, has always been my Talmud, her songs shimmering, evolving, and living with me every year 

Shore by Fleet Foxes, for the long drive to the Catskills 

Women in Music, Pt. III by HAIM, because these days, these days...

Musicians have been reckoning with tumult this year as much as the rest of us, and the industry has dealt with loss on all fronts. I’d be remiss not to talk about how the passing of John Prine brought his music into my life, and McCoy Tyner, who has been a companion through good and bad over the years. 

Honorable mention to: græ by Moses Sumney; The Main Thing by Real Estate; on the tender spot of every calloused moment by Ambrose Akinmusire; Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers; folklore by you know who; and songs by Adrianne Lenker. 

Reading

What would this overlong blob be without a list of the best things I read this year? While I left publishing temporarily, books, the news, and newsletters still took up a majority of my attention (duh and/or doomscrolling by any other name). I can’t be comprehensive, and frankly, there are already great roundups of the best longform this year out there, so this is mostly books and praising random writers. 

Last year I wrote about peak newsletter. Apparently, my prediction was a bit premature as this year saw an even bigger Substack Boom. But two new newsletters in particular have delighted me: Aminatou Sow’s Crème de la Crème and Hunter Harris’ Hung Up (her ”this one line” series is true force of chaotic good on Blue Ivy’s internet). Relatedly, Sow and Ann Friedman’s Big Friendship was gifted to me by a dear friend and another bff and I are going to read it in tandem next week. 

On the “Barack Obama published a 700+ page memoir, crippling the printing industry’s supply chains” front, grad school severely hamstrung my ability to read for pleasure, but I managed to get through almost 30 books this year, some old (Master and Margarita), most new-ish (Say Nothing, Nickel Boys). Four 2020 books in particular enthralled me:

Uncanny Valley: Anna Wiener’s memoir has been buzzed about since n+1 published her essay of the same name in 2016. Her ability to see, clear-eyed, the industry for both its foibles and allure captured that era when the excess and solipsism of the Valley seemed more of a cultural quirk than the harbinger of societal schism.  

Transcendent Kingdom: Yaa Gyasi’s novel about faith, family, loss, and--naturally--grad school was deeply empathetic, relatable, and moving. I think this was my favorite book of the year. Following the life of a Ghanaian family that settles in Alabama, it captured the kind of emotional ennui that comes from having one foot in the belief of childhood and one foot in the bewilderment that comes from losing faith in the aftermath of tragedy.  

Vanishing Half: Similarly to Transcendent Kingdom, Brit Bennett’s novel about siblings who are separated; it’s also about the ways that colorism can be internalized and the ways chosen family can (and cannot) replace your real kin. It was a compassionate story that captured the pain of abuse and abandonment in two pages in a way that Hanya Yanagihara couldn’t do in 720.

Dessert Person: Ok, so this is a cookbook, but it’s a good read, and the recipes are approachable and delicious. After all the BA Test Kitchen chaos this summer, it’s nice we didn’t have to cancel Claire. Make the thrice baked rye cookies!!!! You will thank me later.

Honorable mention goes to: Leave The World Behind for hitting the Severance/Station Eleven dystopian apocalypse novel sweet spot; Exciting Times for reminding me why I liked Sally Rooney; and Summer by Ali Smith, which wasn’t the strongest of the seasonal quartet, but was a series I enjoyed for two years.  

Podcasts

I’m saving my most enthusiastic section for last: ever since 2018, I’ve been listening to an embarrassing amount of podcasts. Moving into a studio apartment will do that to you, as will grad school, add a pandemic to that equation and there’s a lot of time to fill with what has sort of become white noise to me (or, in one case, nice white parents noise). In addition to the shows that I’ve written about before (Still Processing, Popcast, Who? Weekly, and Why is This Happening?), these are the shows I started listening to this year that fueled my parasocial fire:

You’re Wrong About: If you like history, hate patriarchy, and are a millennial, you’ll love Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes’ deep dives into the most notable stories of the past few decades (think Enron and Princess Diana) and also some other cultural flashpoints that briefly but memorably shaped the national discourse (think Terri Schiavo, Elian González, and the Duke Lacrosse rape case).

Home Cooking: This mini series started (and ended) during the pandemic. As someone who stress baked her way through the past nine months, Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway’s show is filled with warmth, banter, and useful advice. Home Cooking has been a reassuring companion in the kitchen, and even though it will be a time capsule once we’re all vaccinated and close talking again, it’s still worth a listen for tips and inspiration while we’re hunkered down for the time being. 

How Long Gone: I don’t really know how to explain this other than saying that media twitter broke my brain and enjoying Chris Black and Jason Stewart’s ridiculous banter is the price I pay for it.

Blank Check: Blank Check is like the GBBO of podcasts--Griffin Newman and David Sims’ enthusiasm for and encyclopedic knowledge of film, combined with their hilarious guests and inevitable cultural tangents is always a welcome distraction. Exploring a different film from a director’s oeuvre each week over the course of months, the podcast delves into careers and creative decisions with the passion of completists who want to honor the filmmaking process even when the finished products end up falling short. The Nancy Meyers and Norah Ephron series were favorites because I’d seen most of the movies, but I also have been enjoying the Robert Zemeckis episodes they’re doing right now. The possibility of Soderbergh comes up often (The Big Picture just did a nice episode about/with him), and I’d love to hear them talk about his movies or Spike Lee (or, obviously, Martin Scorsese).      

Odds & Ends

If you’re still reading this, you’re a real one, so let’s get into the fun stuff. This was a horrible way to start a new decade, but at least we ended our long national nightmare. We got an excellent dumb twitter meme. I obviously made banana bread, got into home made nut butters, and baked an obscene amount of granola as I try to manifest a future where I own a Subaru Outback. Amanda Mull answered every question I had about Why [Insert Quarantine Trend] Happens. My brother started an organization that is working to eliminate food insecurity in LA. Discovering the Down Dog app allowed me to stay moderately sane, despite busting both of my knees in separate stupid falls on the criminally messed up sidewalks and streets of Philadelphia. I can’t stop burning these candles. Jim Carrey confused us all. We have a Jewish Second Gentleman! Grub Street Diets continued to spark joy. Dolly Parton remains America’s Sweetheart (and possible vaccine savior). And, last, but certainly not least: no one still knows how to pronounce X Æ A-12 Boucher-Musk.

[probablylisteningtoledzeppelin]

41 Years Ago: The Tragic Loss That Changed Led Zeppelin Forever by Jeff Giles Led Zeppelin appeared to lead something of a charmed existence during the early part of their career, enjoying blockbuster success with fans in spite of negative reviews from critics and quickly earning a spot near the top of the rock ‘n’ roll pantheon. But by the mid-’70s, they seemed to be suffering from a curse, as multiple setbacks kept them from capitalizing on the momentum they’d built – and on July 26, 1977, when singer Robert Plant suddenly lost his five-year-old son Karac to a stomach virus, it nearly split the band completely. The Plant family’s terrible tragedy came during what was supposed to be a triumphant American tour for Zeppelin. Two years earlier, the band had been forced off the road for an extended spell when Plant and his wife were involved in a serious car accident while visiting the Greek island of Rhodes. But even if the time off helped Plant recuperate from his injuries, it did nothing to prevent a series of disasters that dogged the tour, starting with Plant picking up a case of laryngitis that forced the group to push its first date back from February to April. Ticket sales were still strong, but the postponement had a ripple effect. As guitarist Jimmy Page later pointed out, the band’s equipment had already been shipped overseas, complicating any efforts to rehearse. “We didn’t have any instruments for a month,” he once lamented. “All the equipment was shipped over there five days before we were due to go. I didn’t play a guitar for a month. I was terrified at the prospect of the first few shows.” Once they were finally able to get out in front of fans, the problems continued to pile up. An April 1977 stop in Cincinnati was marred by violence when a group of ticketless fans tried to force their way into Riverfront Coliseum, and a “mini-riot” broke out after their June concert in Tampa ended up being rained out partway through the set. Things got even uglier the following month, when manager Peter Grant led a group – including drummer John Bonham – into the savage beating of a Bill Graham employee following their July 23 performance in Oakland, Calif. “There was an extraordinary amount of tension at the start of that tour,” a band employee later recalled. “It just got off to a negative start. It was definitely much darker than any Zeppelin tour ever before that time … The kind of people they had around them had deepened into some really criminal types. … They still had their moments of greatness (but) some of the shows were grinding and not very inspired.” After making their way out of Oakland, the band members made their separate ways to the next stop on the itinerary, a planned appearance in New Orleans. Shortly after arriving in the city, Plant received the devastating news, half a world away and helpless to join his son during his confusing final moments. “The first phone call said his son was sick,” said tour manager Richard Cole, describing a fateful pair of calls from Plant’s wife. “And the second phone call, unfortunately, Karac had died in that time.” “Karac was the apple of Robert’s eye; they idolized one another,” said Plant’s father in an Associated Press report announcing the immediate cancellation of the tour, which had been scheduled to run into August. Searching for answers about the sudden illness, Plant retreated home, taking comfort from his wife Maureen and daughter Carmen while Zeppelin went on hold. As Page later put it, “We were all mates. We had to give the man some space.” That didn’t mean Plant shut out his bandmates, however. “After the death of my son Karac in 1977, I received a lot of support from [Bonham], and I went through the mill because the media turned on the whole thing and made it even worse,” Plant told Barney Hoskyns. “I had to look after my family and at that time, as we regrouped, I applied to take a job at a Rudolph Steiner training college in Sussex. I wanted to just get out of it – to go away and forget it.” In a separate talk with Rolling Stone, Plant said “I lost my boy. I didn’t want to be in Led Zeppelin. I wanted to be with my family.” He also later claimed to have quit all of his chemical habits cold turkey. “I stopped taking everything on the same day,” Plant added. “The most important thing to me is my family and when I got off my face, I found it difficult to be all things to the people that meant a lot to me.” Plant was quite serious, at least for a time, about pursuing a new career in education, too. Admitting that “it’s not something that we, as a family, have been able to get over yet,” he told GQ in 2011 that “our family had always been close to the Rudolf Steiner Waldorf education in the West Midlands and I just liked the way it all worked. … I just thought there was something far more honest and wholesome about just digging in and putting the ego away in the closet. Because no matter what we say, entertainers are usually quite insecure, wobbly characters underneath – and maybe that bit of glory or that bit of expression or whatever it is compensates in some area. But I thought I should be rid of it. Yeah, I thought it was not a bad idea. Sometimes, I still feel like that.” In 2013, Plant remembered that “during the absolute darkest times of my life when I lost my boy and my family was in disarray, it was Bonzo who came to me. The other guys were [from] the South [of England] and didn’t have the same type of social etiquette that we have up here in the North that could actually bridge that uncomfortable chasm with all the sensitivities required … to console.” Zeppelin biographer Mick Wall took Plant’s comments a step further, claiming that the distance Robert Plant describes was even more profound — and that when Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones, and Grant declined to appear at Karac’s funeral, it created a rift that never truly healed. “Until then, Robert was still in thrall to Jimmy and what he had created with Zeppelin. After that incident, Jimmy no longer held the same mystique for Robert,” Wall claimed in 2011. “It was also the beginning of Robert having much more power over what the band did or didn’t do next. He truly no longer cared and therefore was ready to walk at any point if they didn’t fit in with him. And that’s the way it remains to this day.” But if Bonham stayed closest to Plant’s side during the months following Karac’s death, it was ultimately Page who talked him out of retiring from music. “I was thinking about leaving the group, but Jimmy Page kept me from doing it,” Plant said in an interview at the time. “He said without me, the band’s nothing. He wanted me to take a break until I felt ready for playing again. I realized that we are more than business partners. We are real friends. We have enough money to live a life without troubles, but nobody knows how long our fans can wait. They might forget us if we don’t play anymore. I don’t want this to happen to the band. Our friends kept calling us every day. They helped us through this.” To Zeppelin fans’ everlasting regret, the road ahead for Zeppelin wouldn’t last much longer; although they soldiered ahead for 1979′s In Through the Out Door, Bonham’s sudden death on Sept. 25, 1980 ended the band as a creative unit once and for all. And although it’s impossible to know what they might have accomplished together if he hadn’t passed away, the group’s final days found them in an artistic flux, struggling to move forward while coming to grips with what they’d been through. “In Through the Out Door wasn’t the greatest thing in the world, but at least we kept trying to vary what we were doing, for our own integrity’s sake. Of all the records, it’s interesting but a bit sanitized because we hadn’t been in the clamor and chaos for a long time,” Plant pointed out in 1990. “In ’77, when I lost my boy, I didn’t really want to go swinging around. ‘Hey hey mama, say the way you move’ didn’t really have a great deal of import anymore.”

[destinationstravelguide]

10 Amazing Places to Stay in London, United Kingdom London is one of the best places to stay in the world. The city offers a variety of accommodations, including hotels, bed and breakfasts, apartments, hostels and guesthouses. This blog post will highlight some of the best places to stay in London, as well as provide information on fun things to do while you are here! If London is just one of your stops on your tour of Europe, be sure to check out our list of the 9 best resorts in Europe that we’ve put together for you too! 1. London City London has a lot of different places to stay, but if you are looking for one of the best hotels in London we recommend staying at Vintry & Mercer. This five star hotel is luxurious, with a great location only minutes away from some of the best attractions in London. The Vintry & Mercer is within walking distance of London Bridge! This historic bridge is a must see while you’re visiting London! Saint Paul’s Cathedral is also within walking distance from the Vintry & Mercer and is best seen from London Bridge! Many people love to come see Saint Paul’s Cathedral because it is considered to be one of the greatest and most historic buildings in all of London! If you are looking for more things to do while staying at Vintry & Mercer, be sure to take a break from the city chaos with one of their relaxing spa treatments or have a meal at one of their delicious restaurants! The city of London is central to most of the other tourist attractions in the area. It can be a great place to stay if there is a lot you want to see while visiting the UK. However, it is much more serious and business like – meaning it lacks the charm and character you will see in other parts of town. 2. Covent Garden  Covent Garden is a great place to stay in if you’re interested in theater! This area is known for the Royal Opera House, which is one of the world’s most famous opera companies. If you’re looking to do something fun while staying at Covent Garden, we recommend going on one of the ghost tours! These tours will take you through all of the haunted spots that are still left over from days gone by. The best time to go on these tours is during November – this way you can see some great holiday decorations too! You’ll also want to try out some of the restaurants near Covent Garden if theater isn’t your thing. One spot that has quickly become popular with locals and tourists alike is Cow & Gate Restaurant! This restaurant offers French cuisine as well as traditional English fare – meaning there’s something for everyone! When it comes to a specific place to stay in Covent Garden we recommend Wilde Aparthotels by StayCity Covent Garden. These apartments can fit up to four people, making it a great option for families traveling in the area! The best time to visit Covent Garden is during springtime. The weather will be mild, so you’ll have an excuse to take full advantage of the best restaurants and attractions this area has to offer! 3. Marylebone If the best things to do in London are what you’re looking for, Marylebone might be a great place to stay. This area is best known for New Cavendish Street and Baker Street – both of which have lots of shops and restaurants that cater specifically to tourists! Marylebone is home to the famous Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum. This popular attraction is best known for their wax sculptures of famous celebrities and world leaders! There is also the Sherlock Holmes Museum in the northern park of Marylebone. This museum is best known for its interactive exhibits that allow visitors to immerse themselves in the world of Sherlock Holmes. The Holmes Hotel is a fun place in the area we would recommend staying! This unique hotel is decorated with Sherlock Holmes accents and is very modern and clean! It’s the perfect place to make you’re Marylebone stay complete! Marylebone is definitely a more low key place to stay. Besides the shops and museums there isn’t much else to do. But, if a nice relaxing vacation in a small part of town is what you’re after than this is a great option for you! The best time to come here would be sometime between October and December when this cute little town is decorated for the Holidays! 4. Westminster and St. James If Royalty is what you’re after, then these two neighborhoods are the choice for you! Westminster and St. James are the two cities on either side of Buckingham Palace and The Mall. Staying in one of these two neighborhoods will make spotting the palace very easy. Many people love to come see Buckingham Palace, specifically to watch the changing of the guard. The changing of the guard happens every hour on the half-hour. Big Ben is also right here in these neighborhoods! Big Ben is the giant clock in London that is featured in many books and movies Here you can also visit the Churchill War Rooms where you can see where Winston Churchill led the country during World War II. If these attractions sound like your cup of tea, then staying at one our recommended hotels near Westminster might be perfect for you! This way it’ll be easy access to all the fun things that this area has to offer. There are a few different hotels in the area we would recommend, the first is Hotel 41. This hotel is best known for its modern design with plenty of stylish features. If luxury is what you’re after than Hotel 41 is a great option. With its black and white color scheme, complimentary snacks, and view of Buckingham Palace you will be sure to enjoy your stay! Hotel 41 is a great option for anyone who is visiting London for the first time, and wants to be right in all the action! Another great luxurious option is the Great Scotland Yard Hotel. The beauty of this hotel is hard to beat! The best thing about this hotel is that it’s situated right next to the Victoria Embankment, which has tons of restaurants and shops. If you’re looking for a more affordable stay then we recommend The Sanctuary House Hotel. This hotel is very nice, and within walking distance from the big tourist attractions like Big Ben. There is also a nice pub near the lobby that offers delicious meals and alcohol. The best time of year to come to Westminster and St. James would be on Christmas Day! The whole city transforms into one big light show that will make your trip worth remembering for years to come! Summer is also a great time to come if you plan to be outside a lot enjoying the beauty of the city.  5. Mayfair Mayfair is extremely upscale and more exclusive than its counterparts. Because of this, there aren’t many budget friendly things to do or places to stay in the area. One of the top things to do in Mayfair is visit the shops on Regent Street. These shops are best known for their high-end brands like Louis Vuitton and Prada. Any shopaholic will be in heaven with these amazing high quality shops to look through! The restaurants in the area are also exquisite! With so many different cuisines like Chinese, French, Thai, and Indian there is something for everyone. But just like the rest of the activities in the area, these restaurants will cost you a pretty penny! Also in the Mayfair area is Grosvenor Square. This is best known for the beautiful red brick buildings that line it. The best time to come would be on December 26th, which is when they celebrate Boxing Day! This day has been celebrated since Victorian times and offers an extravagant shopping event with sales up to 70% off at many of London’s best stores. There are three places we recommend staying in Mayfair: 9 Hertford Street, The Ritz London, and Chesterfield Mayfair These hotels each offer something different so read below about each one for a better idea as to what suits you best! 9 Hertford Street is best known for their extravagant and traditional decor. They have a beautiful lobby that is lined with marble pillars, as well as an onsite restaurant with delicious food! The Ritz London offers guests a more modern and luxurious stay. This is best known for its beautiful rooms that are all equipped with a comfortable bed, as well as the best soap and shampoo you could ask for! The Ritz Restaurant is a highly-rated restaurant that is available to guests who stay in the hotel, giving tourist more motive to stay in the beautiful hotel. Chesterfield Mayfair offers guests lots of amenities like complimentary tea service in the lobby, luxury beds and pillows, a fitness center, full concierge services, and best of all…a free mini bar! If these attractions sound like your cup of tea than staying at one our best hotels near Mayfair might be perfect for you! 6. South Kensington 

[mitchbeck]

CANTLON'S CORNER: A FEW MINUTES WITH RICK LEY

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - For Rick Ley, his second appearance at the Hartford Whaler Alumni weekend, is something he relishes and enjoys. Ley, now 70, can reflect on a hockey career where he played with many of the game’s best and was a major part of the development of Hartford hockey at its inception. “Hartford is always about a new beginning for me. When I left Toronto and we're in Boston and we got to Hartford, everything was new. The building, the fans, and the community. It was hard to explain. Trying to find a new house, get your life settled, and we really took the place by storm. It's still is a very special place for me,” Ley, who resides in the greater Springfield area in the summer and Florida in the winter, said. He loves to come back to Hartford for the yearly weekend in July. “The Yard Goats do a first-class job in remembering the Whalers, and it's so fun to see all these fans again.” Ley’s junior career with the Niagara Falls Flyers (OHA now OHL), where he won two Memorial Cup titles in 1965 and 1968 and where he played four full years, he got to see some of the game’s greats in their early years of development. His goalie for his first two seasons was none of there than, Bernie Parent. For two seasons he played with Derek “Turk” Sanderson who eventually won a Calder Trophy and two Stanley Cups, Don Marcotte (Boston), Jean Pronovost (Pittsburgh), Phil Roberto (Montreal, St. Louis), and Phil Myre (Atlanta). Some played in the NHL and many like him took the plunge with the WHA. The wild, wacky World Hockey Association began with that first championship, The Memorial Cup, which was then a seven-game series. They beat the Edmonton Oil Kings in five games with a 4-1 win in Game 5. It was Game 3, on May 10, which was memorable for all the wrong reasons. A big hit by Edmonton’s Bob Falkenberg in the first period on the late Bill Goldsworthy got the passion going. Sanderson jumped Falkenberg in the second period off a faceoff and beat him unconscious and he was taken off on a stretcher. That ignited the fuse. Early in the third period, Ley and Ron Anderson were each given match penalties for stick swinging. The referees called the game with 3:30 left in the third period after an initial fight between Rosaire Paiement and Al Hamilton ignited a brawl that got so bad that the police had to come out on the ice to stop it. Ironically, the teams were given three days off prior to the brawl-filled game because the building was being used for an evangelical revival meeting. “That was a wild night to be charitable about it. I earned the game misconduct. Anderson hit me in the head. I never wore a helmet then in those days, it wasn’t mandatory and was frowned upon among the players then. I speared him in return and earned the game misconduct feelings were running high. So myself, and Jean Pronovost, who didn’t play the game because of a bad back, when all hell broke loose with the players and the fans coming on the ice, grabbed our sticks to put them in the locker room so the fans wouldn’t attack us with our own sticks. It was chaos until the police came on the ice. That finally ended it.” Ley and Niagara Falls went to the Memorial Cup tournament again in 1968 in his last junior season. He was the team captain. The series had its own uniqueness. The Estevan Bruins and Niagara Falls both wore the same Bruins styled jersey (before merch was big) for Game 1 in Niagara Falls. In Game 2, they played in the fabled Montreal Forum. His Niagara Falls team opted to wear the Montreal Jr. Canadiens uniforms, and in Game 3, which was back in Niagara Falls, they wore the uniforms of the St. Catharines Teepees and did so for the remainder of the series. With five minutes to go in their 8-1 championship-winning game, the head coach had the team put on their regular black and gold jerseys. Ley then started out his pro career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, fresh off the wake of what was their last Stanley Cup championship. Again, he skated with some of the biggest names in the history of the game. The late Pat Quinn, who would be his assistant coach in his last NHL coaching job in Vancouver, Jim Dorey, and the great, Dave Keon, would play with both of them with the WHA Whalers. The others included, at the time, the future Canadian hero of the 1972 Soviet-Canada Summit series, Paul Henderson, who scored the game-winning goal that allowed Canada to win the tourney. Tim Horton, whose name is now emblazoned across Canada with its national coffee and donut chain, Mike “Shaky” Walton, a top-flight scoring center, and Bob Pulford, a long time serving NHL executive, and a great goalie named, Jacques Plante. In the summer of 1972, after four years in the NHL, got a phone call and an offer he never expected. “There was some uncertainty at the beginning, for sure, it was all brand new, a lot of promises were being thrown around. Once they signed Bobby Hull in Winnipeg, we knew it was real. That was a clincher for lots of players then, to give it try.” He would count as his junior teammates, four players who would be joining him on the first New England Whalers team that originally called Boston it's home for the first two years of the franchise before moving to their new building in Hartford. The players included Tom Webster, the all-time New England Whaler leading goal scorer, and defenseman, Brad Selwood, who both played all seven WHA Whaler years together. Then several players who spent a few seasons with him like Paiement and Garry Swain. “The thing that made a difference for us, Hartford had one of the most solid backings of any of the franchises and was one of the most stable franchises in the history of the WHA along with Edmonton, Quebec City, and Winnipeg. We never had the problems some other cities had.” The team won the first Avco Cup, a trophy that wasn’t in existence the week before the final game, and it was a nationally televised championship-winning game that would be bumped at the end of the contest by CBS-TV for a tennis tournament in Montreal. “It was a different time then for sure and remember the Bruins had their AHL team, the Braves, playing in Boston then too. We knew we're number three, but we made the best of it, and in the end, it all worked out for us.” Those two years in Boston produced a host of hockey war stories. The story of team equipment being stolen, and the late John Cuniff, who had a friend who knew, the now late gangster, Whtey Bulger, who ruled South Boston. He remembers it well. “What was even worse in losing the equipment, it was all brand new! We had just gotten the goalies' stuff that was measured for their pads and everything, and we had a home game two days later. So, we show up for practice and holy crap, all our gear was gone. Some of the thieves weren’t too bright though, some were wearing our jerseys playing on the basketball court, so they found out quickly who it was and we got everything back the next day.” Then came the move to Hartford, then a brand new building, market, and city that they could call their own. They were not going to have to compete with the Giant Spoked-B and the legendary number 4, Bobby Orr, or the shadow that drowned them out on the Boston hockey landscape at the Boston Arena (now known as Matthews Arena). “Having Tommy Webster Woody (Selwood) and Jim Dorey helped make the transition easier. We all were familiar with one another in a new place. To have good friends then, so I was very, very fortunate in that regard.” The on-ice portion of the experience was equally different. “When you get there the roles changed a bit, the biggest thing is you got more minutes to play. In Toronto, I was the fifth or sixth defenseman, and then with the New England Whalers, I’m one of the top pairs, so that was a major difference.  You got some power play and penalty killing time that you didn’t get in Toronto. "The NHL owners never thought the WHA would last and the pay was very different too. My last year in Toronto I was making $18,000 a year. In Boston, my first year of the WHA, I was making $78,000.” The WHA was his highlight. He played in six of the seven All-Star games and was named a first-team All-Star in the first and last year of the league. In the final year, he was named WHA Defenseman of the Year winning the Dennis Murphy Jr, Trophy, named after one of the league’s founders. The 1976 All-Star Game was in Hartford, the first European and North American pro hockey series were major highlights. So was the infamous, "Brawl in the Mall" with the Minnesota Fighting Saints. The fight was instigated by Jack Carlson, who suckered a then young heavyweight, Nick Fotiu, who would also play for the NHL Whalers, that would set off a 35-minute slugfest. “That was even crazier than that Memorial Cup game. I'd never been a part of anything like that, but Jack, who played with me in Hartford, hit Nicky when he went into the bench. Nicky wasn’t a guy you wanted to have upset at you. We all saw it and went to help him. We never thought it would go that long.” Ley proudly defends the WHA. “The league was knocked around by people, but remember the NHL, five-to-seven years after the merger, saw that half of the top ten scorers in the NHL were former WHA players. We helped make the first real changes in wages for pro hockey players and the players today, who were not even born then, have no idea how much the economics of the game today can trace their roots right back to the WHA.” The Whaler part of his life would last nearly two decades from his years as a player in the WHA (1972-1979), and the Whalers first two years in NHL (1979-1981) before he retired as a player, to his becoming an assistant coach (1982-1984), then a scout, then coaching for their AHL affiliate in Binghamton (1985-1987). He went on to coach the old IHL for five years, four with Muskegon and one in Milwaukee, before returning to Hartford for his last two-year stint as head coach for the Whalers from 1989-1991. Those last two years, Ley has some regrets, especially when he took the "C" off Ron Francis' jersey, which landed him in Whalers hell that lasts to this day. Ley sat straight up in his chair as he wanted to explain that whole incident. “I’m glad you asked that. For years Eddie Johnston (the team's GM) and I, caught a lot of (crap) from fans about that. It wasn’t our call. Prior to the start of the season, the owner, Richard Gordon, wanted to see us for a meeting. He told us, in no uncertain terms, we had to trade four players before the season was over. Their contracts were expiring and their salary requests were going up and he couldn’t afford them. Ronnie and Ulfie (Ulf Samuelson) were the first two. "I was captain in my career. It was one of the hardest things I ever did, but we had no choice then. Richard Gordon was a pleasant man to talk to. He had a Ph.D., but he thought he knew everything. He knew nothing about running a hockey team. He was a terrible owner. "Remember, you never want to be in the foxhole with the foxes,” Ley said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Ley went off to join Vancouver and hooked up with Pat Quinn as an assistant coach from 1991-1994 and then the head coach from 1994-1996 before Quinn replaced him mid-season. He was a Canucks pro scout for two years before returning to where he started in Toronto as an assistant coach for eight years before retiring in 2006. The Whaler move nearly 23 years ago now is conflicting for Ley. “Of course, I have deep feelings for Hartford after spending nearly twenty years here. You hated to see it. The support for too many years wasn’t there, however, everybody wants a villain. I really can’t blame the owner. The salary increases in the 1994 CBA were like the WHA increase and the spike was so high some teams, like Hartford and Quebec, couldn’t handle that unless they were prepared to borrow large sums of money or raise ticket prices too high. It was sad all the way around.” What isn’t sad is for Ley and the fellow players and coaches to have a July summer day to celebrate his time with the Whalers. Read the full article

[365footballorg-blog]

Who infuriated Garth Crooks but still made his team of the week?

Manchester City hit Southampton for six to open up a two-point lead at the top of the Premier League, while Tottenham climbed above north London rivals Arsenal to go fourth.

There were impressive wins for Newcastle, Leicester and West Ham, with Liverpool claiming a draw at Arsenal.

Manchester United, Everton and Chelsea also enjoyed a winning weekend.

But which players shone to make it into my team of the week?

What happened in the Premier League on Saturday?[1]

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Goalkeeper – Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City)

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This was a monumental test of mental strength for Kasper Schmeichel and his team-mates. I noticed in the line-up during the minute’s silence before the game that Schmeichel was still emotional from the awful events that took place at Leicester City Football Club[2] last Sunday.

Nevertheless, it didn’t stop the Dane from producing a first-class performance against Cardiff and a clean sheet.

Their chairman would have been proud.

Did you know? In addition to his clean sheet and two saves, Schmeichel completed 25 passes against Cardiff, his second highest in a league game this season (26 v Newcastle).

Defenders – Wes Morgan (Leicester City), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Rob Holding (Arsenal)

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Wes Morgan: If ever a captain needed to keep his troops calm in an emotionally charged atmosphere then this was it. Wes Morgan was superb in defence against Cardiff and kept his team-mates focused on the job at hand.

Leicester also returned to a style of football that suited them.

No more tippy-tappy nonsense and the ball from side to side, but serious counter-attacking football. That’s Leicester.

Did you know? Morgan made 11 clearances against Cardiff, his highest in a single Premier League match since making the same number against Manchester United in August 2017.

Virgil van Dijk: There are some central defenders who are comfortable on the ball and some who prefer the battle. Vigil van Dyke can do both.

The Dutch international battled like a Trojan against Arsenal but was still capable of producing a touch of class on the ball regardless of the chaos and the pressure of the moment.

That’s one of the reasons Liverpool are doing so well. Is Van Dyke now the best central defender in the Premier League? I think he is you know.

Did you know? In Liverpool’s game against Arsenal, Van Dijk had the best passing accuracy (94.4%) of all players.

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Rob Holding: In a team very different from the one Arsene Wenger tried to create prior to leaving Arsenal, there is a particular player that has surprised me a great deal.

I’ve seen Rob Holding play for Arsenal but never better than when I saw him against Liverpool.

In a white hot atmosphere, the defender was cool on the ball and played with a confidence and assurance I hadn’t seen before.

I said Unai Emery would get it together at Arsenal, I just didn’t think it would be so soon. Damn!

Did you know? Only Granit Xhaka (97) attempted more passes for Arsenal against Liverpool than Holding (81) – the defender also won 70% of his 10 duels in the game.

Midfielders – James Milner (Liverpool), Paul Pogba (Man Utd), Felipe Anderson (West Ham), Erik Lamela (Tottenham)

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James Milner: James Milner has taken the early lead for my Footballer of the Year. I must say that Eden Hazard is a close second but the way Milner is leading Liverpool through some very tricky games is very impressive.

Against Arsenal the ball couldn’t have dropped in front of a more cool-headed but utterly ruthless professional.

Whatever happens between now and the end of the season I guarantee you Milner, 32, will be featuring in my TOTW on a few more occasions.

Did you know? Milner’s opener against Arsenal was his 50th goal in the Premier League with 14 of them for Liverpool, more than any other side he’s played for in the competition.

Paul Pogba: When you consider the entire Bournemouth team cost significantly less than Paul Pogba, you’re perfectly entitled to think that Manchester United should have played Eddie Howe’s Cherries off the park.

That perception couldn’t have been further from the truth but, with a swivel of the hips and a beautifully flighted cross, Pogba made the difference.

The France World Cup winner’s performances may not be pulling up any trees for United at the moment but they are saving Mourinho’s skin.

Did you know? Pogba created four goal scoring chances against Bournemouth, his joint-best such tally in a Premier League game this season (also four v Burnley).

Felipe Anderson: West Ham were beginning to make hard work of this game at London Stadium. Fortunately for the Hammers, Burnley seemed to make life considerably more difficult for themselves, much to the delight of Filipe Anderson.

The Brazilian has looked impressive on the ball this season, however, against Burnley he looked just as impressive in front of goal.

This was an important win for West Ham. They can’t be losing home games to Burnley.

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Did you know? Anderson netted more goals against Burnley (two) than he did in his first 10 Premier League appearances for West Ham (one). Anderson is the first Brazilian player to net a brace for West Ham in the Premier League.

Erik Lamela: Last week I told you that Erik Lamela had the ability to force Mauricio Pochettino to place Dele Alli onto the bench for a period of time.

The Argentine’s performance against Wolves simply reinforced what I already knew. If Alli knows what is good for him he should treat the challenge as a compliment.

Competition for places has always been in the best interest of the team and the player on the bench can learn a lot. Mainly how to win his place back.

Did you know? Lamela has had a hand in 11 goals in his past 12 appearances in all competitions (eight goals, three assists).

Forwards – Raheem Sterling (Man City), Alvaro Morata (Chelsea), Richarlison (Everton)

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Raheem Sterling: People who read my TOTW on a regular basis will know how good I think this lad can be. His performance against Southampton paid testimony to that.

However, the thought of Raheem Sterling stalling on this contract extension offer with Manchester City is ill conceived. I honestly think Sterling can be the next Cristiano Ronaldo but to become the best in the world you need the best teacher or to be amongst the best players.

City already have the best teacher and their players are developing fast. If Sterling knows what’s good for him he should stay where he is. At least for the time being.

Did you know? Against Southampton, Sterling became the first English player to both score and assist two goals in the same Premier League game since Theo Walcott did so for Arsenal against Newcastle in December 2012.

Alvaro Morata: I was so furious with Alvaro Morata I nearly didn’t select him for my TOTW. How does a player who is finding goals so difficult to come by, decide to showboat when presented with a glorious chance to get your hat-trick?

For a player who has a reputation for missing chances, he cannot allow hat-trick opportunities to pass him by with such scant disregard for the goalkeeper.

That said, Morata took both his earlier goals in a professional manner – but the Spain international does not have the finishing power to be so flash in front of goal.

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Did you know? Morata has scored four goals in his past four Premier League games – one more than in his previous 23 appearances in the competition combined (three).

Richarlison: Richarlison is clearly loving it at Goodison Park. His first goal was clinical and his second majestic. He went around Lewis Dunk as though he wasn’t there.

The Brazilian is becoming the sort of player he struggled to become at Watford. Richarlison was a good player at a good club at Vicarage Road.

He’s fast becoming a star at a big club at Everton.

Did you know? Richarlison has scored six goals in nine Premier League appearances in 2018-19, one more than his total haul from 38 games last season.

Now it’s your turn

You’ve seen my picks this week. But who would you go for?

Pick your XI from our list and share with your friends.

Pick your Team of the Week

Pick your XI from our list and share with your friends.

Select formationConfirm team

The Crooks of the matter

Last week we were all coming to terms with the terrible news that Leicester City had lost their chairman and talisman in a helicopter crash.

In time honoured fashion the football family came together to support those who have felt the most appalling loss.

The scenes around the King Power Stadium this week, where wreaths and flowers along with heartfelt messages from around the world were left, have touched everyone involved in football as the club begins its healing process.

Cardiff’s supporters who applauded the Leicester City players off the coach prior to their Premier League fixture was a wonderful gesture and one that represented the feelings of most football supporters across the globe.

The football club must now begin its rehabilitation and their win over Cardiff was a fabulous start.

References

^ What happened in the Premier League on Saturday? (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ the awful events that took place at Leicester City Football Club (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Football

Who infuriated Garth Crooks but still made his team of the week? was originally published on 365 Football

[thepunklounge-blog]

Joe Maddox , his musical journey and plans for the future

Let's start at the beginning... I think I always wanted to be a musician, even from preschool age. I remember loading up the record player with 7” inch singles whilst my Mum did the housework. I must have been 3 or 4. I loved all the stuff my parents listened to- Bowie, Lou Reed, The Faces, Mott The Hoople, that song ‘Black Betty’ by Ram Jam? I remember my brother and I both loved that. I also totally adored ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ when I was about that age too. Vivid memories! My Dad used to buy my brother and I a single every week from the newsagents- we both loved Adam Ant and I remember choosing ‘Puss In Boots’ mainly because we loved the cover. Apparently, we had a huge Adam Ant poster in our bedroom, but Dad had to take it down because he had a skull on his jacket that scared us. I can’t remember that at all, but my brother swears it’s true!  I always loved the glamour and style of rock n roll, and even though I was a pretty shy kid and am still pretty shy now, I totally love performing and have always known I could sing a little. Why the guitar? Originally, I tried playing the guitar at maybe 9 or 10, but a full-size acoustic was too big and it didn’t really feel too cool. Then my Dad got me a guitar and a Marshall amp from a mate he worked with. It was a black Les Paul copy and although it looked beautiful, I never really learned anything! I was 12/13 and was the victim of a short attention span. It wasn’t until I was 15 that I actually decided I wanted to be in a band for real and I thought I better learn to play something because, at that age, no one thinks about just being a singer! Once again, my Dad salvaged an old Olympic drum kit from a shed at his bakery and it moved into our garage. It was totally fucked but I played on it constantly and annoyed the hell out of the neighbours. I got pretty good and convinced my parents to buy me a shiny new kit. I wish I kept the old one now because it had a beautiful wood snare that I’ve since found out is worth quite a bit, but I liked hard rock and wanted a kit that was shiny…anyways, I played the drums for a few years in punk and grunge bands back in Gloucester and used to sing backup vocals and get up and sing one or two songs from the front of the stage. Essentially, I was like a West Country version of Peter Criss (although taller.) I didn’t rediscover guitar until I was 19 when my teenage bands had all split up. My mates went to Uni and I took a year out, so I bought a guitar and a ‘how to play rhythm guitar’ book that I only ever looked at once because it looked too hard, and I taught myself to play six open chords from a Beatles songbook and that was that. I was away! I’ve always wanted to be the front man; the singer and I knew I couldn’t do that playing drums. The guitar gave me an excuse to get out there and be the ‘main man’ but also gave me the security of something to hide behind, and a prop to swing about and look amazing with. Can you play any other instruments?  As mentioned above, I can play the drums but rarely do so nowadays. I still like to play from time to time. I also play the harmonica, which I used to do a bit in my old band The Breakdowns. I love the harmonica and I must be alright because someone said to me once; “you’re better than me, you can bend notes and everything!” Major influences? As a kid, I liked 70s rock mainly- Aerosmith, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Mott etc. but I got massively into the Ramones at about age 16- we’re talking mid/late nineties here when they were already calling it a day. Their music totally consumed my life and I had a couple of good school friends who got into them too. We formed a spoof band, ‘The RayMoans’ so we could open up for our ‘real’ bands, but the RayMoans soon took over us. We would churn out half a dozen songs a day sometimes in my mate’s garage when we should have been in school. We set out to write songs that were as simplistic as possible, but some of them I think are still ace! We recorded some demos and then a full-length album called ‘Ev’rybody’s ‘Appy’ which sounded like shit sonically because we recorded it live in a church. Very punk! Around the same time, I read the excellent ‘Please Kill Me’ by Legs McNeill and Gillian McCain which opened my eyes to everything New York punk and beyond. By the time I went to Uni, it was all Stooges, MC5, New York Dolls, The Heartbreakers, The Dictators, Television, Blondie and The Ramones…oh and Joan Jett & Cheap Trick! Nothing much has changed, to be honest. Successes and failures? My last band, The Breakdowns were together 10 or so years and we had good success and some near misses. Early on, we got approached by Richard Rashman, the guy that managed Busted and McFly and all those bands. He really loved our sound but deemed us ‘too risky’ to sign because we were too old! I think I was 25 or 26 at the time. Dougie, the bass player form McFly was a fan of ours and he recommended us. I often wonder if he still spins our tracks?! Doubt it….anyway, after that brush with stardom, we started advertising ourselves as ‘Zac Efron’s Favourite Band’ which was my stupid idea, but it kept getting quoted in articles and interviews. It was so stupid, but it worked. We had real success with our second full-length album ‘The Kids Don’t Wanna Bop Any More’ which got some good airplay, made Rolling Stone magazine’s ‘Albums Of The Year’ and topped a lot of online blogs and magazines album of the year charts. We toured Spain with it (we were already signed to a Spanish label) and did a full UK tour with Terrorvision. That was fantastic and was probably my first real experience of what it was like to play great venues night after night, plus Terrorvision were lovely and really liked us. We also played with bands such as Radio Birdman, Flamin’ Groovies, The Quireboys, Dogs D’amour and a few big rock festivals. As with everything though, we started to find it really hard. We kept putting out albums and singles and never got the break that I think we deserved. Part of that was because of our own apathy at times but we’d get frustrated as we’d get so close. It’s hard work when you put your whole energy into something that pays very little dividends. After we split, do you know what- we had more interest in us than we ever did when we were active! Everyone was genuinely sad and wished us all the best, told us they’d miss us! Imagine if they’d all bought our albums? I could be retired already! I’ve only been in The DeRellas a year and it’s quite different from my old band, partly because I still feel quite new and I’m playing a lot of songs that I wasn’t part when they were written and recorded. It’s been great fun though and since I’ve been on board, we’ve done two trips to Europe and played the Rebellion Festival amongst other things. We’ve been busy and I hope I’ve contributed positively to the band. Funny stories? There’s a story about two ex-band mates getting ‘robbed’ by a prostitute just off Gran Via in Madrid, but I shouldn’t tell that one in order to protect them. I have fond memories of touring Spain and remember one sensational night off where we decided to spend our quite large per diems on a visit to a late-night strip club. It must have been Madrid’s seediest night spot and when we got there, it was just the band, two Man City fans and lots of strippers! The girls were very keen to get us involved in their floor show, so like a true rock n roll star, I hid in the bogs for a bit. When I came out, my bandmate was on stage, with his trousers and pants around his ankles, being led around on a lead. I often wonder, “that coulda been me!” I think we spent a lot of money that night and all felt terrible the next day as we trekked 6 hours across Spain for the next show. There hasn’t been anything quite like that since I’ve joined The DeRellas yet although we did recently play a wild show in Liege where loads of young punks were at the front of the stage sniffing solvents and stage diving. That was a lot of fun to witness and has been my favourite DeRellas show to do date. It’s great playing to an active and appreciative audience. For those wanting to play your instrument or get into the business? If you want to learn to play the guitar, go to a guitar shop and try loads of guitars- even if you can’t play a note. Pick them up, find how they feel in your hands. Find a guitar that feels right, not just in how it looks, but how it suits you. The reason my early attempts at playing the guitar didn’t go anywhere I feel is because the guitar I had was too heavy. Also, watch loads of bands, loads of musicians and see what they do. Listen to lots of music and learn to play the songs you like. I don’t really consider myself a guitarist- I’m more a singer who plays the guitar, but I am good at playing by ear so if I hear a song, I can pretty much find the chords quickly and play along. If you can afford it, go get some lessons. I never did, and I’ve got lots of bad habits! Getting in the business? Do something that makes you happy, makes you motivated and drives you to be successful. Your chances of making a decent living out of music are probably slim- I know I can’t survive on being in a band alone so you’ve gotta enjoy what you are doing. Again, go and see other bands and buy their records. Find people who like what you like and write some songs, and if you can’t write your own songs, rip off somebody else’s songs but change them up enough so no one notices straight away, that’s what most people do anyway. Future plans? The DeRellas only have four more shows this year because we are working on new material for a new record. There’s probably half a dozen songs in the works at the mo which is exciting. We have a new drummer (Billy Chaos) and the sounds we are making are exciting! I love recording and being creative. Next year, there are more gigs around February/March in the UK, then Spain, Germany and Rebellion festival again. I want the new album to be out by the summer but that depends on how quickly we work. We are recording a few tracks in December, so we’ll be on our way. I also started writing songs for a solo project about a year ago that I’d like to commit to a studio soon. It’s all money and time though, isn’t it? Which guitar did you start with and which would you recommend to begin with? I don’t think the budget is important, I think having the opportunity to try loads of options is good. If you pick the wrong guitar, it may put you off playing guitar forever. I really started learning on an old Strat copy and through a shitty amp that I always had heavily overdriven. The guitar was probably worth £75. On the other hand, don’t go and spend a shit load on an instrument and find it’s not right for you and let it gather dust. That’s a crime! Maybe talk to friends who play and ask for a free tutorial or perhaps ask to borrow a guitar. What do you play now? I play a Gibson Les Paul Junior as my main guitar which I have had modded with a new bridge and stop bar. I play through an EX Soul Food overdrive pedal and a Fender Hot Rod amp. For me, it’s the perfect set up for what I do, which is trashy, tight power chord or first position chord rhythm guitar.  I’ve been playing that combo for a long while now. I love Les Paul Juniors because of the simplicity of them- plus I think they look fab. Mostly at home and for writing, I use an Ibanez hollow body through an Orange 20watt amp, or I simply write on an acoustic guitar. In fact, I probably play my acoustic more than any guitar I own. I think I have 7 guitars at the moment, but only regularly use three. Your dream setup? I think I have my dream set up, actually. If I was to change anything, I’d maybe use a vintage 2 x 12 extension cab with the amp and have a really old Junior- a 1957 or something, but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got. DeRellas Links: http://www.facebook.com/thederellas https://www.derellas.com/ https://twitter.com/thederellas Read the full article

[mebwalker]

Ozias Leduc, Église de Saint-Hilaire, détail (Encyclopédie de l’Agora)

« L’art enseigne, renseigne. Il révèle l’âme. Nul doute qu’il a le pouvoir d’ordonner en un cosmos le chaos de l’inconscient. D’un désordre, d’une souffrance et d’un déséquilibre, il conduit à la stabilité, à l’harmonie et à la joie. » (Ozias Leduc, tiré d’une lettre à Paul-Émile Borduas, 1943)

In a very recent post, entitled Comforting Thoughts, I inserted a link to an article published by the BBC. I am quoting, first, a paragraph from my post, and, second, the article published by the BBC. Nurses are overworked and there are families who do not or cannot, for lack of money or time, participate in the care given a mother, a father, a brother, and other members of their family.

In Comforting Thoughts, I wrote that

“We stayed with him [my brother] the entire afternoon and the little group returned to the hospital in the evening. I stayed home. I don’t want to know how much we paid in parking fees, but if members of his family did not help my brother, he would require the services of at least one professional twenty-four hours a day. A nurse came in to give him morphine and she obviously kept an eye on us, but he wasn’t alone.”

Researching Health Care, I found this article published by the BBC (UK). Home news from abroad. Doctors in Quebec earn approximately three times, perhaps more, the salary of a University teacher in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and they enjoy a lifestyle most of us can only dream of.

When I moved to Quebec, I could not find a doctor. I phoned and phoned and phoned. I was put on several waiting lists to no avail. The doctors whose office I called always had “more patients than he or she could handle.” I ended up contacting the University of Sherbrooke’s Medical School. A secretary made an appointment for me at a CLSC, Fr / En, a public clinic. I would see an intern. No problem! My intern was a fine doctor and he was supervised. When his internship was over, he asked his supervisor to take me as a patient.

And I am the only person facing this problem. Last week, I met a young woman who had waited 4 years to find a doctor and was sitting in the waiting area of a public clinic, or a CLSC waiting to see an intern. I reassured her. She had come to the right place.

An Aristocracy

As I wrote in my post, doctors were becoming an aristocracy. They work from 9 to 5 (9 to 17 hours) and they may be on call. Some doctors also ask that medicine not be discussed outside working hours: it would be too stressful. They need their rest and a private life. What about patients? Should people go untreated and nurses worked out of their chosen profession?

I once went to ask a Vice-President to help me resume my career. This Vice-President was not a bad person, but he told me that he could not wait to eliminate employees who were fragile. Did he also think universities could not accommodate the needs of persons who could not work 70 hours a week. Did he also think Insurance Companies should support people who fall ill because they have been overworked and intimidated into doing more than they can?

Ozias Leduc (Google)

Ozias Leduc (Google)

Ozias Leduc (Google)

Let us now go to the BBC.

Home News from Abroad: the BBC (UK)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43336410

“Doctors from the Canadian province of Quebec have shocked the world by turning down a pay rise.

Why would anyone turn down a pay rise?

For doctors from Quebec, the answer is simple: patient care.

An eight-year, retroactive deal struck in February would see about 20,000 of the province’s medical specialists and general practitioners receive an annual salary increase ranging from about 1.4% to 1.8% each year [bold characters are mine].

That would mean that the province, which subsidises the bulk of doctors’ salaries, would be on the hook for an additional C$1.5bn ($1.2bn, £840m) by 2023.

It is a fair agreement, according to the unions representing Quebec doctors, who pushed for the deal with the province.

But not all physicians are on board – more than 700 physicians, both GPs and specialists, have signed a petition from Médecins Québécois pour le Régime Public saying they do not want the rise, and they would rather have the extra money go to patient care and services. The group represents doctors in the province who strongly support public access to healthcare.

Their cry for fairer distribution of government funding comes at a time when the healthcare system is under intense scrutiny.

On Wednesday, an independent report commissioned by Quebec’s Health and Welfare Commissioner found that physician salaries had doubled between 2005-15, while the hours doctors spent with patients declined.

Meanwhile, the province’s nurses are fighting for better working conditions and salaries. A picture of a bleary-eyed nurse posted on Facebook went viral and was shared more than 50,000 times in January.

“I’m so stressed that I have back troubles, enough to keep me from sleeping. I don’t want to go to work because I dread the workload that awaits me,” wrote Émilie Ricard, who said she alone was in charge of caring for 70 patients in one shift. “I come home and I’m crying with fatigue.”

We, Quebec doctors…

“We, Quebec doctors, are asking that the salary increases granted to physicians be cancelled and that the resources of the system be better distributed for the good of the healthcare workers and to provide health services worthy [of] the people of Quebec,” read the letter.

This sentiment has struck a chord with people across Canada and abroad.

The letter was described as “utterly Canadian” by Washington Post reporter Amy B Wang.

In Kenya, the doctors’ letter was greeted with shock, especially since last year Kenyan doctors went on a three-month strike for higher wages.

“It is almost unheard of that a worker would complain of a high salary from their employer,” wrote an article in the Kenya paper The Standard.

At home, the Quebec doctors have been praised by officials, but some of their colleagues have kept mum.

“If they feel they are overpaid, they can leave the money on the table. I guarantee you I can make good use of it,” said the province’s health minister Gaétan Barrette.

Quebec’s physician unions have not commented publicly about the call for less than the agreed-upon pay rise.

In Canada, healthcare is public and run by the provinces, not the federal government, which means that salaries can vary quite a lot from province to province.

The average salary for a physician nationwide was $339,000, according to the most recent data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

In Ontario, Canada’s largest province by population, the average specialist made C$403,500; in Quebec, they made C$367,000.

Conversely, family physicians in Quebec made C$255,000, while in Ontario they made C$311,000.

The Quebec doctors’ rebuff of a pay rise has put them at odds with many of their colleagues in other provinces.

The Ontario Medical Association has been fighting for higher wages with the province for years.

The province has cut fees twice in three years and the association still has not negotiated a contract with the province.”

End of quotation.

Conclusion

Why should medical doctors be paid three to four times a university teacher’s salary. I suspect that many doctors, those who are doctors mostly for the money, were disgruntled when the Médecins Québécois Pour le Régime Public refused a rise in salary. They may have been motivated to vote Dr Couillard out of office? As for nurses who had to look after 70 patients, they may have believed that the premier was at fault. Not quite!

In Quebec, future doctors enter Medical School after grade 11 and + 2 years in a CEGEP. They can start earning money earlier than doctors living elsewhere. But so few are available that when one retires, his or her patients are devastated. Yet, between 2005-15, a physician’s salary doubled while nurses looked after 70 patients. What about the wages of an overworked nurse, old-age pensions, and disability benefits? A nurse’s salary does not double in ten years. As for disability benefits, they never go up. The amount is 60% of the salary one earns the last year one works. After 15 years, one’s financial security is endangered. At age 73, now 74, I had to take a mortgage to buy a one-bedroom apartment. But I’m not complaining.

The building had elevators and a reserve fund, etc… A kind friend told me that the decision to move was a “no-brainer.” She’s right. If one has the money, such a decision is a “no-brainer,” but if one lives on a small pension, the matter ceases to be a “no-brainer.” One has to be very careful.

—ooo—

I thank the doctors, the Médecins québécois pour le Régime public, who turned down a rise in salary and I am glad that the working conditions of nurses have been brought to the attention of the world.

Taking care of Jean-Pierre was a full-time occupation, and the nurse assigned to him was looking after other patients. She was a fine nurse, but she was probably relieved to see that members of Jean-Pierre’s family were looking after him. She did not want to neglect a patient. She told us about the little beds available to family and friends who preferred not to leave a dying relative. We were happy to learn that there were little beds for the family.

Jean-Pierre died graciously. He thanked the staff for the fine care he had received. He thanked the priest who administered the Last Rites and he told all of us that he had simply reached sa date d’expiration, his expiry date, which is a date all of us have to face.

  Love to everyone 💕

Tomás Luis de Victoria

O Magnum Mysterium -The Sixteen Christophers

Judith, Ozias Leduc, c 1914 (Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec)

© Micheline Walker 16 October 2018 WordPress

We, Quebec doctors… « L’art enseigne, renseigne. Il révèle l’âme. Nul doute qu’il a le pouvoir d’ordonner en un cosmos le chaos de l’inconscient.

[itsworn]

Petty’s ’70 Superbird Is The Ultimate Mope & You Can Win It!

What people think they want and what they really want aren’t always one in the same. Everyone says they want the best, but history is chock full of class-of-the-field products that sank to the bottom of the barrel. After the passage of time bestows the gift of clarity upon the misguided masses, it’s then and only then that consumers finally appreciate what they missed out on. It happened with Betamax. It happened with Paul’s Boutique. And most outrageously of all, it happened with one of the most coveted muscle cars of all time, the Plymouth Superbird.

To this day, audio/video nerds praise the picture quality advantages of Betamax over its peers, lamenting the fact that a technically inferior product like VHS won the home video cassette war. Likewise, music executives considered the Beastie Boys’ second studio record, Paul’s Boutique, a commercial flop in 1989, but nearly three decades later it’s considered one of the most innovative hip-hop albums of all-time thanks to its multi-layered sampling and hypnotic beats. Most alarming of all, while Plymouth dealers in the ’70s had to deconstruct Superbirds back to their Road Runner roots to move them off the lot, today’s hot rodders dream of reconstructing Superbirds from ordinary B-Bodies. With online forums running amok with questions on how to build a Superbird clone, isn’t it about time someone showed everyone how it’s done?

We think so, but more importantly, so does Smithfield Foods. As luck would have it, there are some real-deal car guys calling the shots at Smithfield, and the company knows that having a NASCAR driver make a cameo in one of your commercials isn’t the most effective way to plug a product. That’s why Smithfield Foods teamed up with Petty’s Garage to build the ultimate giveaway car for one lucky race fan. “NASCAR fans eat a lot of pork, so the sport has always been a good fit for our brand. At the same time, we’re a pork company that’s in the same space as Goodyear and Sonoco, so we had to come up with a creative way to help fans enjoy the sport even more,” says Bob Weber of Smithfield Foods. “You can’t be a huckster. You have to engage with fans by giving them something they really want.”

Most race fans would unanimously agree that a Pro Touring rendition of a ’70 Plymouth Superbird tribute car is definitely something they really want. For practical purposes, Smithfield wanted to deviate from the script a bit instead of building a bone stock clone. “We can’t give away a real Superbird, because whoever won it wouldn’t be able to afford the tax on it. We decided to build a clone from a Road Runner instead,” Weber recounts. “Our goal was to build an all-around performance car that you can throw your wife the keys to, and have her drive it to Albertsons. For this build, we wanted to send the message of how to build a car the right way, not like on reality TV. It’s turned out so nice that I want to keep it for myself!”

While many of the cast of characters who built original Superbird race cars for Richard Petty have long since retired from NASCAR, many of them still work for The King at Petty’s Garage. Naturally, there’s no one better qualified to transform plain-Jane B-Bodies into Superbirds, and this is actually the second time Smithfield Foods has executed this brilliant strategy. “Last year, we had Petty’s Garage build a replica of The King’s Hemi Belvedere to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his unbelievable 1967 season. It was by far the most dominant performance of any driver in NASCAR history, with Richard Petty winning 27 races total, including 10-consecutive races during the summer,” says Weber.

Smithfield Foods and Petty’s Garage conspired to build the Superbird as a follow-up to the ’67 Hemi Belvedere giveaway car, but with a slight twist. While the Belvedere proved to be a bit rowdy by design—with a lumpity 650hp motor, lots of roll cage, and no carpet in sight—the Superbird’s intent is to encourage its new owner to rack up lots of miles on the street. “The Belvedere was a very successful car, but this time around we wanted to build something that looks like a race car, but can be driven comfortably on the street. You could kinda-sorta drive the Belvedere on the street, but the Superbird had to have a nostalgic look as well as modern drivability,” Russ Stellfox of Petty’s Garage explains.

Before giving the finished car away at the season-finale 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup event of year at Homestead-Miami Speedway, plans call for showing it off on race weekends to whet people’s appetites.

That’s great news for fans, but it gave Smithfield Foods and Petty’s Garage an incredibly tight five-month window to finish the entire build. Undeterred by the immense challenge at hand, Petty’s Garage tracked down a solid 1970 Road Runner in December 2016. Although the ex-street racer appeared structurally sound by cruise night standards, a trip to the sandblaster revealed substantial sections of rotted-out sheetmetal. Over the next four weeks, the crew worked overtime replacing the floor plan, quarter-panels, rockers, trunk pan, and sections of the framerails with all-new AMD sheetmetal.

By the time late January 2017 rolled around, Petty’s Garage was elbow-deep transforming the ordinary B-Body into a modern winged warrior. Janak Repros provided all the fiberglass pieces necessary for the conversion, but building a Superbird is far more involved that slapping on a nosecone and wing, then calling it a day. “A Superbird conversion is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of fabrication work involved with panel-bonding all the fiberglass pieces to the steel body, then getting everything to line up,” Doug Murph of Petty’s Garage recalls. “We spent 80-100 hours on the conversion process alone. It took three full days to modify the hood. If you expect to just bolt these parts on and go, you’re in for a big surprise.”

With the clock ticking down in late February, the “aero-fied” Road Runner made its way to the paint shop. While final prep work is incredibly important to the quality of any paint and body project, it’s particularly challenging when that body mixes in substantial chunks of fiberglass. Cutting, welding, and gentle nudges with a hammer aren’t an option. Instead, tweaking fiberglass panels for proper alignment involves many, many hours of cutting, filling, sanding, and waiting for resins to dry. After finishing up the prep work, the Superbird was sprayed with three coats of R-M Petty Blue paint. In total, final prep work and paint consumed another 200 to 250 hours.

As soon as the last coat of paint dried, it was off to final assembly. At this stage in the game, there was only one month to go until the mid-May deadline. Like the last four-tire pit stop before the white flag, the Petty’s Garage crew hunkered down in an impressive feat of masterfully orchestrated chaos. In went a 392ci Mopar Performance Gen III Hemi, a Silver Sport Transmissions A41 overdrive, and a rebuilt Chrysler 8.75-inch rearend. On the underside of the chassis, the front and rear suspension received a simple yet effective blend of stock and aftermarket components. Factory torsion bars and Super Stock leaf springs team up with QA1 double-adjustable shocks and sway bars for an excellent balance of ride quality, stance, and handling. Reigning in the propulsion potential of the 505hp Hemi are big Wilwood brakes with six-piston clamps up front and four-piston units out back. Sticking everything to the pavement are General Tire’s all-new G-Max AS-05 tires.

While one team tackled the major mechanical hardware, other crew members circumnavigated the melee, hopping in and out of the cabin to button up the interior. Like the suspension, it’s mostly stock but with some key aftermarket enhancements that provide a much more enjoyable user experience. Auto Meter gauges housed in a Classic Dash instrument panel report the vitals, while a Vintage Air A/C system, an Alpine stereo, and a thick layer of HushMat keep the cabin nice and comfy.

By the time you read this, the Smithfield Foods Superbird will be touring the NASCAR Monster Energy Series race calendar, filling fans with fantasies of flat-footing that big, bad Hemi down the backstraight at Daytona. Fortunately, that fantasy (minus Daytona) will come true for one lucky fan at the season-finale race at Homestead. Best of all, entering the contest is as easy as it is delicious. In an era when society advocates forcing flavorless goo down your throat in the name of healthiness, Smithfield is doing the exact opposite. Anyone who purchases three delicious Smithfield Foods pork products—you know, the good stuff red-blooded Americans eat anyway with their grits and fried okra—at any one of Albertsons family of 2,500 grocery stores and texts a pic of the receipt to Smithfield is automatically entered to win. As with last year’s Hemi Belvedere giveaway, there’s a good chance that The King himself will hand over the keys.

And that, friends, is how you build a Superbird. At best, dearly departed video recording gadgets and hip-hop albums from the ’80s may inspire geeky conversations between fellow nerds, silly talk that other normal people don’t care about. In contrast, thanks to its racing pedigree, scarcity, history, and far-reaching technological innovations, the Superbird fills peoples’ imaginations with dreams of building exact replicas of the original, perhaps more than any other car ever built. The misguided masses overlooked these magnificent machines the first time around, but the passage of time has given them the clarity to finally appreciate what they missed out on. Potentially righting this wrong is as easy as eating some thick-cut bacon!

Recommended Reading!

Want to read more about how Petty’s Garage built A Superbird tribute? Here’s where to click next!

Part 1: Saving the rusty Road Runner donor car with all new sheetmetal from AMD: Superbird Clone Build Part 1 Part 2: How to clone a Superbird from a Road Runner using pieces from Janak Repros: Clone Plymouth Superbird Part 3: How Petty’s Garage does picture-perfect paint on the Smithfield Superbird: Petty’s Garage Paint Part 4: Final build-out of the powertrain, suspension, brakes, exhaust, & chassis: King’s Superbird Finish

Precise numbers are hard to come by, but many historians speculate that the Superbird slipped through the wind tunnel with a 0.29 drag coefficient. That’s right on par with the best late-models of today.

Macini Racing motor mounts position the Gen III “Scat Pack” 392 Hemi crate engine at just the right spot inside the engine bay. The factory camshaft provides plenty of vacuum assist for the Wilwood master cylinder, enhancing the Superbird’s street manners.

Fiberglass bits like the fender scoops and rear wing uprights can attach in a variety of locations. To pinpoint exactly the spot where they should go, technicians hopped over to the Petty museum, were they took measurements of real Superbird race cars.

The Superbird’s signature rear wing looks outrageous by today’s standards, however, wind tunnel testing proves the design positions the wing above the turbulent air coming off the rear windshield to maximize downforce. Harnessing the power of the Hemi are one of the first sets of General Tire’s new G-Max AS-05 rubber to be released to the public.

Getting the angle of the flat factory hood to match up with the swoopy Superbird nose isn’t easy. It involves cutting off the front 25 percent of the stock hood, and bonding a fiberglass edge to it. This can’t be any hood. It must be the hood off of a ’70 Coronet, which is quite pricy on the used market.

Fast Facts

1970 Plymouth Superbird Smithfield Foods; Smithfield, VA

Engine Type: Chrysler “Scat Pack” Apache 392ci Gen III Hemi small-block Bore x stroke: 4.09 inch x 3.72 inch Compression ratio: 10.9:1 Block: stock cast iron with piston oil squiters and four-bolt main caps Oiling: stock Rotating assembly: stock cast-iron crankshaft, powdered metal connecting rods with floating wrist pins, hypereutectic cast pistons Cylinder heads: stock, cast aluminum A319 alloy Camshaft: stock hydraulic roller, .591-/.551-inch lift, 288/292 degrees advertised duration Valvetrain: stock, 2.13-inch intake and 1.65-inch exhaust valves Induction: stock, sequential port fuel injection Ignition: stock, dual coil-on-plug Exhaust: TTi 1.75-inch long-tube headers, collectors, H-pipe, and intermediate pipe; dual 2.5-inch MagnaFlow mufflers Cooling system: C&R radiator, Spal dual electric fans Output: 505 hp and 495 lb-ft

Drivetrain Transmission: Silver Sport Transmissions A41 overdrive, bellhousing, flexplate, and converter Rear axle: Chrysler 8.75-inch rearend with 3.73:1 gears

Chassis Front suspension: rebuilt stock with QA1 sway bar and double-adjustable shocks Rear suspension: rebuilt stock with Super Stock leaf springs and QA1 double-adjustable shocks Brakes: Wilwood 14-inch discs and four-piston calipers, front; 12.88-inch discs and four-piston calipers, rear

Wheels & Tires Wheels: five-spoke Magnum 500 billet aluminum replicas, 19×8 (front), 20×9.5 (rear) Tires: General Tire G-Max AS-05 225/40R19 (front), 275/40R20 (rear)

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