Score Tied at 1-1

One of many things making life harder for me than I like it is that it includes events I write about and archive with the label SCOREKEEPING, referring to my opinion that more famous good people seem to be dying than notorious bad ones 

There's an excellent example of Score-Keeping in the news today. Last week, a media personality adored by MAGA named Charlie Kirk died from a gunshot wound. Today, it was reported that Robert Redford passed away at the age of 89 years. From my perspective, Robert Redford's work in the movie industry (as both an actor and director) added more to my enjoyment of life than every single thing Stink Bomber 47 has accomplished since he was a child pooping in his diapers. 

Based on what's been happening since last week, I'm pretty sure most members of MAGA are celebrating Redford's death as God adjusting the game of life's score-keeping to offset a 0-1 loss with a 1-1 tie.

Note: According to recent political media reporting, unmitigated hatefulness is a privilege reserved by MAGA monkeys for themselves.

Life's Unfair

Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Jimmy Buffett, Glen Campbell, Aretha Franklin, Peter Green, Nanci Griffith, Al Jarreau, Loretta  Lynn, Tom Petty, John Prine, Tina Turner, Townes Van Zandt, Warren Zevon.

I've been a record collector since I was a senior in high school, and over a period of years I bought stacks of records by each one of the artists named above. I loved the music they made, and I was sad every time one of them died. Their departures left empty spaces in my world. 

One of the things I hate about life is that so many people who made my life better were gone too soon, but a few assholes who keep things constantly fucked up seem to live forever.

More on Johnny Ace

As I've come to expect, Juanita Jean is offering an excellent summary of Ace McCain's pros and cons. 

Ace McCain

In summer 2000, I voted for John McCain in the Texas GOP primary, and was preparing to vote for him in the presidential election if he was the Republican nominee. He wasn't, and the country got eight years of Bush 43 instead.

I wasn't happy with McCain during those eight years, mostly because I believed he was too willing to support W after the 9/11 attacks. Still, when 2008 rolled around and Ace won the GOP nomination, I was on the verge of voting for him again. Then, Sarah Palin happened. That was such a stunningly terrible VP choice, it forced me to turn my back on Ace. Was I disappointed? More like betrayed, and extremely pissed off.

So Ace McCain will be on record as the last Republican I ever voted for (2000), and the last Republican I seriously considered voting for (2008). For all his faults, he was still closer to being a decent human being than any other Republican I can name offhand, unless Colin Powell is still a Republican. Is he?

Anyway, Ace's struggle is behind him now.

UPDATED MONDAY 27 AUGUST 6:10 PM from All Hat No Cattle.

Add another name to the list...

Mary Tyler Moore. Chuck Berry. Glen Campbell. Don Williams. Harry Dean Stanton. Those are a few of the people who died this year who did more things to make my life happy than any motherfucking Republican asshole could ever think about doing. Now we have to add Tom Petty's name to the list of the departed. Goddamn fuck.

Meanwhile, Pat Robertson lives on.

Harry Dean Stanton

Harry Dean Stanton was one of my all-time favorite character actors, and I'll always remember him as the best thing in the movie Dillinger (the version starring Warren Oates). I still use his classic line "Goddammit, things ain't working out for me today" from that movie. He also contributed the expression "slicker than snot on a doorknob" in the western The Missouri Breaks. 

I'll put it this way: Harry Dean Stanton was in the same class as Strother Martin. That's about the highest compliment I can think of. Anyway, he died this week at age 91, yet Donny Johnny and Mitch McConnell live on.

Threes

There's an old saying that goes something like this: Bad news always comes in threes.

Within the last few weeks, James Garner, Robin Williams, and Lauren Bacall have all resigned from life. I appreciated the work of all three, especially as I got older myself.
Lauren Bacall was one of my early movie star crushes -- what won me over was her cool attitude and that voice. We're big fans of Turner Classic Movies in my house, and TCM shows Lauren Bacall movies regularly. One of my favorites is To Have and Have Not, with Humphrey Bogart. Bacall and Bogart together is almost too much onscreen cool at one time, and Bacall establishes herself early in her film career as the kind of woman that males of all ages want to be in love with.

Anyway, Bacall is gone and the score is getting lopsided. Goddamn.

Jonathan Winters

Jonathan Winters, resigned from life at age 87 yesterday, was one of the funniest men I ever saw. There was a time when I'd change my plans to avoid missing one of his TV appearances. When I started this blog on 15 November 2009, I paid tribute to J.W. by choosing the URL trashytoad.blogspot.com. That came from a Winters routine in which he referred to "the great Trashy Toad of the Swamp." Guru and I were watching TV together the night one of his "characters" spoke the line. It broke us up, and stuck with me for decades.

And Limbaugh lives on.

Levon Helm

I first saw the name Levon Helm in 1968 when I bought an LP called "Music from Big Pink" by a group calling themselves simply The Band. I read a review of the album in Rolling Stone or a similar publication, and knew the group had first gained attention accompanying Bob Dylan in his concert performances, so I bought the record as soon as it was available.

Four of the five group members were Canadians, but the drummer was an Arkansas boy named Levon Helm. He had a distinctive voice, and most people have heard him as the lead vocalist on the rock standard "Up on Cripple Creek." I think he also sings on the group's best known song, called "The Weight." The Band split up in the late 1970s, and Levon Helm went on to a modest career as an actor. He had a memorable small part in "The Right Stuff" as an Air Force officer who shared sticks of chewing gum with Chuck Yeager, but his best performance was as Loretta Lynn's daddy in "Coal Miner's Daughter." His scene with Sissy Spacek (as Loretta), when he's seeing her off at the train depot, was perfect, and he should have won a supporting actor Oscar for that one.

The news today is that Levon Helm is in the final stages of a losing battle with cancer. For me, though, he'll live on every time I watch him telling his daughter Loretta goodbye on that railroad platform.

John Forsythe

John Forsythe died at age 92. The cause was officially pnuemonia, although he also had cancer. When my family first got TV, Forsythe was starring in a sitcom called "Bachelor Father." We only got the one local channel in those pre-cable days, so whatever shows came on that channel became favorites. John Forsythe had a distinctive voice that I envied, too. He starred in one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, "The Trouble With Harry," and was also in one of my favorite movies of all time, "In Cold Blood." Never what you would consider a superstar, John Forsythe did good work.