Gary Beatrice Discography #6

And the year is halfway over already, which hardly seems possible. Slowly, ever so slowly, we seem - and by we I mean mainly the citizens who don't live in Trumpsylvania - to be turning the corner on the pandemic. This month Governor Scott (who I've trolled so brutally on Twitter in the past that some of his followers dog-piled on me), but who has done a fantastic job on the COVID front) lifted all the pandemic restrictions. So life, at least here in the #NotQuiteSuchAYankeeHellhole, is returning to normal. 

This month we're returning to our more free wheelin', unstructured days and it is a themeless month. If you're a fan of themes because I have three of them for future use. I know what you're thinking: there's only six months left in the year, and I don't know if I can handle a theme month every other month. Don't worry, one or two of themes will appear early next year. Yeah, someone had to say it: we're not stopping after one year, so just get used to the idea.

Bob Craigmile

John Fullbright - Jericho.

 

My Facebook pals know I've been on a John Fullbright kick lately.  I saw him once at the legendary Eddie's Attic here in Atlanta and he's just an unbelievable singer/songwriter from Okalahoma.

 

He looks like your 7th-grade math teacher but his lyrics are those of a true poet.

 

Finding not your childlike charms
If these thoughts I hold be true
I'll lay down my traveling shoes
And let the vines grow over me
Let the earth swallow my dreams

 

He is a bit of a renaissance musician, playing keys and guitar with soulful ease. His Oklahoma accent lingers and he sounds a bit like James McMurtry or Steve Earle in certain moments.  His singing is actually better than either of those guys. He can really cut loose on songs like this.

 

It makes sense I suppose that a guy from the desert hometown of Woody Guthrie (no pressure there!) would be namechecking a battle in an ancient desert that maybe didn't happen; certainly not the way the biblical narrative describes it. His battle is with a broken heart. 

 

Or is it? He refers to someone else but it's not clear if this is love or longing or frustration at his attempt to discover who he is.

 

Look inside yourself to see
Where these walls appear to be
Let your soul step out to breathe
Swallow whole your dignity

 

So give this and his other stuff a listen. 

Here he is letting me take his pic at the outdoor bar at Eddie's in 2016.

Dave Kelley

Frank Turner, The Gathering

 

Nothing will prevent me from making this great new Frank Turner song my May blog selection (narration, voiced by Morgan Freeman: “Dave was actually prevented from doing things many times. In this case he didn’t know that May was a theme month.”). Apparently he recruited Jason Isbell to play the guitar solo.

Pedro Carmolli

To all the followers of this discography.  I should tell you that I have been invited to contribute because of my incessant nagging Senior Scudder with random music trivia.  Therefore, my July submission will be an accumulation of those questions for the rest of you to solve or ignore. So here they are:

 

1) What rocker is credited with popularizing stage diving? Hint:  His name sounds like a bad soda

2) During the Monkees 1967 tour what legendary rock star opening act was booed off the stage?

3) What band chose a name that most closely reflected their financial condition?

4) What pistol named rock star had a hit with Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo?

5) What prolific rock star was once backed by the Caledonia Soul Orchestra?

6) What huge rock star played Eddie in the Rocky Horror Picture Show?

7) Rick Nielsen is best known as the lead guitarist from which US band and what is most significant about the guitar he plays?

8) What fictional Midwestern affiliate was found at 1530 on the AM dial?

9) This band holds the record for most #2 hit songs without having a number one. What is the band, how many songs hit #2 and what were they? I know this is a tough question so here are some hints: San Francisco Band although they sound like they are from somewhere else, the number of hits is the cube root of 125, and Green River is one of the songs. All of these songs were released around 1970. They had a total of 9 top 10 hits and still never got to #1.

10) Siblings Joni, Kim, Debbie, and Kathy formed a band which had a huge hit with the song We Are Family.  What was the name of the band and which sports team adopted that song as their team song?

11) Sensing her child’s gift for song, this mother of a country music star scraped some money together to get her child voice lessons. Supposedly, after 3 lessons, the teacher told the child to stop taking lessons and never deviate from his/her natural voice. Who was this country singer?

12) Who are the members of the 2 best selling rock and roll duos of all time? Hint: It’s not Sonny and Cher

13) Roberta Flack had a huge hit with “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” But the song was written by Lori Lieberman with this musician in mind. Who? Hint: this musician himself wrote an incredibly popular ode about 3 other musicians.

14) What band is named after an English agricultural pioneer?

15) What is the top selling(by album sales) Canadian Band of all time? Looking for a band not a solo artist.

16) This deceased musician/actor popular in the 70’s and 80’s was, confusingly, born in Arizona under the name Henry John Deutschendorf but you know him better as who?

17) What musician, before his untimely death, sang about the “steadily depressin’, low down mind messin’ working at the carwash blues?”

18) What is the top grossing band or individual from the following countries:

a) England

b) Ireland

c) Scotland (also Australia)

d) Wales hint: think Bond Movies

e) Iceland

f) Sweden

g) Canada

h) USA

I) Norway hint: Take on Me

j) The Netherlands Hint: Radar love

 

19) Match the one hit wonder song with the artist:

A) Brandy                                                        Mungo Jerry

B) Dancing in the Moonlight                            Billy Paul

C) 96 Tears                                                      Paper Lace

D) Me and Mrs Jones                                      Looking Glass

E) Play That Funky Music                               King Harvest

F) The Boys are Back in Town                         ? and the Mysterians

G) What I like About You                                 Wild Cherry

H) In The Summertime                                   The Romantics

I) The Night Chicago Died                              Brewer and Shipley

J) One Toke Over the Line                             Thin Lizzy

 

 

20) And now for my last and favorite question.  Gordon Lightfoot had a string of hits in the 1970's. One of them was "Sundown" about a tempestuous relationship he had with a woman.  One of the lines in the song is " I could picture every move that a man could make, getting lost in her loving is your first mistake." Clearly a warning to everyone else who may have had a relationship with this woman after he did.  The question is: What famous actor/musician didn't follow Gordon Lightfoot's advice and paid for it with his life?  "Sundown" went to prison for his murder.

 

 

I have sent the answers to Scudder to release as he sees fit.

 

Enjoy or despise,

 

PKC

Lynette Vought

Sam Phillips

Reflecting Light

 

How about a little waltz?

 

   This month, like most of you, I’ve been emerging from my house, seeing friends and family for the first time in a while. I don’t know if it is the same for you, but to me, the world is not as I left it. Highways and towns I’ve traveled through nearly my whole life don’t look the same. It’s as if I went into isolation in one place and came out through a slightly different door, to a world with a different moon.

 

    That’s the feeling that I get from the lyrics of Sam Phillips’ Reflected Light. It tells of finding strength during difficult times, emerging from it changed and entering a changed world. The struggles described in the song result in a rebirth of hope and resolve.

 

   Reflected Light was written in 2004, which doesn’t seem so long ago, unless you are a teenager. I missed it when it first came out and was unaware of it until just recently. At first it seemed like just a pretty melody with the normal conventions. But then, as it settled, the unusual turns it takes made the melody stick. It has become an anthem in the background of my reunions, as a theme of hope and gratitude for this new season.

Alice Neiley

I'm here to report that, though an hour later than I said I would be, my entry is present and accounted for! I heard so much amazing music this week that it was nearly impossible to choose (Chrissie Hynde, the leader of The Pretenders, singing a cover album of Bob Dylan songs, for instance), but I kept coming back to a tune that has kept my energy intact even when I've been completely out of gas this year, which has been often. Fuck I'm Lonely by Lauv&Anne Marie. This is in part a shout out to Kathy Seiler, not because of the subject matter but because of the funky beat, the clapping, the hint of R&B soul under a pop-ish gloss. The pop-ish gloss is what may be less appealing to some of you, as we are all...well...snobs (and I include myself in the snobbery), but sometimes a little bubble-gum is absolutely necessary, and when it's fueled be a real beat, and the lead up to the chorus is as good as this one -- I don't know I don't know how / I'm gonna make it... -- and it's SYNCOPATED and everything! Then, of course, there's the wordplay of it's just me myself and why / did you go. Very satisfying for my word nerd self. Overall, though, aside from the peppy beat and catchy melody, it's the contrast of the title that makes the tune extra excellent "Fuck I'm Lonely" -- like the music is trying its damndest to pull us out of something inevitable and repetitive...much like this past year or so...and I have to say, it's done an excellent job for me all of the 100+ times I've played it. 

Jack Schultz

I’ve been a James McMurtry fan for about 20 years, but lately I’ve come to appreciate him more than ever.  He’s an act that I desperately want to see live for the first time.  My contribution this week is Canola Fields, from his new album The Horses and the Hounds.  Many of his songs come from a dark place, so when McMurtry entertains a mildly happy notion, it can make you feel jubilant compared to his baseline shadows.  Canola Fields resonates for a man of a certain age.  We may have a lot of miles, we get dented and dinged along the way, but we are still capable of happiness, especially with love that has simmered over two meandering lifetimes.    Amongst the typical darkness emerge these hopeful, amorous lines:

“In a way back corner of a cross-town bus

We were hiding out under my hat

Cashing in on a thirty-year crush

You can't be young and do that

You can't be young and do that”

Gary Scudder

Japanese Breakfast, Boyish

As is well documented, I have the most limited, uncreative taste in music imaginable. Fortunately, I have much more musically astute friends and they have, over the decades, introduced me to many new artists. Kevin is one of those intrepid souls, certainly, and thus this month's selection is his fault, although unintentionally. We were on our way back from the Philadelphia Trip of Excellence, and KA tuned in the University of Pennsylvania station. Remember when radio stations (well, at least some radio stations) weren't tools of Corporate America and you could hear almost anything? Yeah, I don't remember that either, but there were the occasional little corners of the Radio Universe, usually college stations, that provided a wonderfully eclectic fare; I don't know if I would include the Franklin College radio station in that mix, but it does speak well of them that I was kicked off the air for crimes against the FCC and polite society. Anyway, we tune in the station and the first song is Neil Young's Tonight's the Night and then Joan Osborne's Ladder. Considering that I like that Osborne song - and, well, as all Right-Thinking Individuals know, Young's Tonight's the Night is the Greatest Rock Album of All-Time, I began to think that the fix was in. The next song was from a band that I didn't know (again, the advantages of college radio): Japanese Breakfast. The band is headed up by Michelle Zauner, who, besides being a singer/songwriter, is also an author. Many of you no doubt already know her from her book Crying in H Mart: A Memoir (which I just found out is being made into a movie, with Zauner providing the soundtrack). The song I want to talk about this month is Boyish, which is on their album Soft Sounds from Another Planet. According to Zauner the song is about "jealousy and sexual incompetence," although it feels even darker than that (although even at that level it would qualify as the Champlain College school song). It features ones of the great angst-ridden lines in recent music history (which would be a great theme in its own right):

I can't get you off my mind.

I can't get you off in general.

Seriously, why someone hasn't used that hook before is mystifying. The final lines ramp up the self-doubt:

I can't get you off my mind

You can't get yours off the hostess

Watched her lips reserving tables

As my ugly mouth kept running

Love me

Love me

Anybody who teaches at Champlain would immediately point out: "Oh my God, that's every Champlain College student at every party," except, well, it's almost every teenager ever (I may just be speaking for myself here because I can remember what a lady's man Jack Schultz was in high school). I also like their The Body Is a Blade. Oh, and it doesn't help that I can clearly imagine Japanese Breakfast playing at the Roadhouse (aka the Bang Bang Bar) in Twin Peaks.

Meditations #11

 Letting go all else, cling to the following few truths. Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant: all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. This mortal life is a little thing, lived in a little corner of the earth; and little, too, is the longest fame to come - dependent as it is on a succession of fast-perishing little men who have no knowledge even of their own selves, much less of one long dead and gone.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditation, Book Three

As the truly excellent Mike Kelly would opine, Marcus Aurelius is sharing some truth. I've referenced this notion before, but I thought I should also include a passage where MA lays it out so clearly. This is an essential concept in the Meditations, and I don't know if it is possible to live an intentional, meaningful life unless you've truly taken it to heart. Oh, and I can attest to the pain that I've suffered over the years because of a seemingly endless succession of "fast-perishing little men," almost all of them administrators.

Cool Ghoul

 My sister Beth just sent me this picture. Where she found it is anybody's guess. From the look of things it must have been my sister Lisa's birthday, not be be confused with the Drive-By Truckers song. Mainly I like the picture because of my ridiculously cool Cool Ghoul t-shirt. For those of a certain generation and geographic intimacy you'll know that the Cool Ghoul was the Saturday night creature feature host in Cincinnati. Most of my childhood centered around surviving until it was time for the late night Saturday monster movies.

Oh, and I wasn't smiling because I never smiled in any pictures growing up, ever. Draw your own conclusions about my childhood.

When I Used to Travel on the 4th of July

 I have nothing profound to say about this picture other than it makes me happy. Since I began my one travel picture a day challenge (a challenge to myself alone, the best kind) it has forced me to try and get fifteen years of travel pictures organized, mainly, in the end, because I want to print and frame more of them. I've posted before about all the odd places I've been on the fourth of July (that post is here on the blog somewhere) and this is a shot from Alexandria on that day.

Sadly, I don't think I have a high pixel copy of this one so it wouldn't print very well. Still, what a fun picture.

Meditations #10

 Put from you the belief that 'I have been wronged', and with it will go the feeling. Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Four

I don't think it's quite that simply, obviously, but nevertheless I believe that MA is on to something here. The last year has been an avalanche of injuries, or maybe it's just been an avalanche of perceived injuries. After my ex-fiancée summarily kicked me to the curb shortly before my sixtieth birthday I definitely let that eat at me. However, it's not like we were happy, and my folly in believing her in the first place would make a great case study in cognitive dissonance. So, was I injured or actually set free to find a better relationship (even if it's simply with the Criterion Channel)?

Oh, and having nothing to do with today's MA theme, this is my 2500th blog post. Or maybe it does somehow relate because it speaks to perseverance. 

Once Again Across the Lake

 OK, I know that this post is technically mislabeled as I tagged it Vermont, but I've never set up a New York label, but I had to tag it something. Recently a crew of us made another journey across Lake Champlain for dinner at Chez Lin & Ray's, the little family-owned place in Essex, New York. I'm heading over again this week when my friends Bill and Kathy arrive from Indiana. It is a great meal - and we love to support the local economy (even New York's) - but one of the best things about the trip is, well, the trip itself. The ride on the Charlotte ferry across the lake is wonderful, especially on the way back as you approach sunset.

Definitely head over to Chez Lin & Ray's!

Heading back to VT after dinner, with Camel's Hump framed.

And looking back towards the New York side and the sunset.

Meditations #9

 Among the truths you will do well to contemplate most frequently are these two: first, that things can never touch the soul, but stand inert outside it, so that disquiet can arise only from fancies within; and secondly, that all visible objects change in a moment, and will be no more. Think of the countless changes in which you yourself have had a part. The whole universe is change, and life itself is but what you deem it.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Four

Not surprisingly, this is one of the most famous passages from the Meditations, and not simply because he is jumping the gun on Hamlet ("There's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.") by over a thousand years. I've been thinking a lot about this passage lately as I struggle through a mountain of self doubts (revisiting Shakespeare, "When sorrows come they come not single spies, but in battalions."). In the end are these merely internal fancies? I suppose I'm more responsible for being alone (as my friends would agree, I'm undateable) than my polyneuropathy, but in the end I'm equally responsible for how I react to both. Truthfully, I haven't reacted well to anything over the last year, highlighted by too much anger and too much self-pitying. As MA reminds us, all we possess it this one moment, and I've thrown too many of them away lately.

Phanatics Abroad

 I'll eventually get around to posting about the recent trip to Philadelphia, the first time I'd been out of the state since the mad dash home from India at the beginning of the pandemic, but that will have to wait for a bit. In the meantime I'll post this picture: my excellent friend Kevin, the inspiration for the trip, doing something almost inconceivable - taking a selfie, as we waited for the Phillies game to start.

To be fair, KA bought the furry hat for his daughter and didn't actually wear it very long, and considering that we were sitting in the blazing sunshine that was a wise decision. Since I have been the victim of my hat thieves (chronicled elsewhere) I was down to my Montreal Alouettes hat.

Meditations #8

 Be like the headland against which the waves break and break: it stands firm, until presently the watery tumult around it subsides once more to rest.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Four

The more I've been depressed and beatdown I guess it's not surprising that it leads to me turning more and more to the Meditations. This is a particular passage that I've always been drawn to, although maybe not to my advantage. One of my failings over the years has been my inability to ask for help, to seek aid when I was at the end of my tether; I'm a little better about it now, although not great. In my seemingly endless parade of medical visits this year there have been a couple when I needed someone to drive me, and both times it was all I could do to actually ask a friend for a ride. This is absurd, of course, because I have amazing friends who are consistently supportive, but it's still an issue. Growing up I was raised to believe that asking for help was a sign of weakness - thus, I guess, my magnetic draw to this passage. However, if you're that "headland," then maybe you won't be let down, although I've let myself down enough over the years.

Meditations #7

 Adapt yourself to the environment in which your lot has been cast, and show true love to the fellow-mortals with which destiny has surrounded you.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Six

For some reason this seemed like the natural follow-up to the last two posts, while also recognizing my failure, all too often, to make it a reality. All the tests show that I fall on the Internal Locus of Control side of things, and thus I'm very much a "you control your own destiny" type of person. As SW will often opine in regards to something I say or do, and quoting Lawrence of Arabia, "nothing is written." However, there are times when you simply don't control where you go or who you are worth, but you can control your response to that moment, to that environment.

Abner

 I promised that I'd share more about my recent trip back to the Midwest to see my people, but that will have to wait for a bit; my summer class starts to night and I need to finalize a few things with the syllabus and my Canvas shell. On my last full day in Indiana we visited four cemeteries to visit graves and plant flowers, but that's definitely a longer post. In the meantime I'll just share this picture of the tombstone of Abner Scudder, the reason why the Scudders ended up in Indiana in the first place. He was wounded in the Revolutionary War, and, as recompense, received two-hundred acres in the wilderness of what would eventually be Indiana. 

And so, after stops in England and Salem and Long Island and New Jersey and North Carolina, we eventually made our way to Indiana. Some members of the crew, could be anyone, took the opportunity to get the hell out and not look back.

Meditations #6

 An empty pageant; a stage play; flocks of sheep, herds of cattle; a tussle of spearmen; a bone flung among a pack of curs; a crumb tossed into a pond of fish; ants, loaded and labouring; mice, scared and scampering; puppets, jerking on their strings - that is life. In the midst of it all you must take your stand, good-temperedly and without disdain, yet always aware that a man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Seven

This passage has really stuck with me lately, as I've been struggling mightily on multiple levels. On the one hand it's another one of those great MA descriptions of the general chaos and folly and pointlessness of life (at least an unexamined life), but, typically, it digs deeper. I was talking to a friend recently and I admitted to her that for the first time in my life I was scared, not worried or fretful or stressed, but actually scared. On so many levels my life is crumbling around me: physically (constant pain) and professionally (increasingly my students don't like me and my colleagues are dismissive of me) and emotionally (I'm alone, and I've given up on that front; enough pain is too much pain) and intellectually (the medicine I'm on for my polyneuropathy has left me tired, sluggish, and muddle-headed; I was getting so much writing done before I started it and now that's a distant memory - sure, I can walk better, but I can't seem to put two sentences together). So, what can one do? As MA reminds us, the power of release from life is always in our hands, but we discussed that in another Meditations post. Well, as MA tells us above, you take your stand. Now, if a "man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions," what are my ambitions now? Truthfully, I don't know. My professional ambitions, either through writing or taking students overseas (or even teaching classes that I like), seem to be fading away. This may sound cheesy, but I would like to be with someone, but I can't even begin to imagine that possibility anymore. Maybe one just tries to be of service. Last week I found myself volunteering on three different fronts: the Food Shelf and Techdren and the Islamic Society of Vermont (we'll be opening a free clinic at the ISVT and I'm definitely interested in volunteering there as well). Service to the greater good would be an answer that both MA and Islam would approve. Let's just start there.

Instagram, I Guess

 Several years ago one of my students came up after class and said, "Hey, I found your Instagram account." My response reflected the love and patience that has marked my award-winning teaching career: "You idiot, I don't have an Instagram account. Moron." As it turns I did have an Instagram account, which led me to paying a milk shake to said student by way of recompense. That Instagram account accounted for exactly one picture, which was of my suitcases sitting in my apartment in Abu Dhabi as I packed up to return to the States after my year in the UAE. Why did I have an Instagram account? Well, since I didn't remember setting one up in the first place the logic/illogic of setting one up in the first place has been long lost in the mists of time. In fact, I don't even remember the handle, so it would take some investigative work to track down that elusive picture of my suitcases. What is the point of all this? Oddly, I now have another Instagram account, whose handle I do know: scudder_gary. Now, why do I have it? The other day I was creating childish memes to survive a dreadful meeting at school and my stupid Meme Generator directed me to set up an Instagram account to continue my idiotic snarkiness (I don't know whether it was capitalism or a fail-safe for my mental health). As you know, I like challenges, so I've decided to post one travel picture a day on Instagram for one year. Plus, it helps me get my pictures organized. I've been running them off and framing them, and now I have a structured mechanism to force me to make sense of them.

Crete, Indiana

 More snippets from my recent trip back to the Midwest to see my people: a drive through Crete, Indiana. Why? I stumbled across the fact that Jim Jones, of Jonestown massacre infamy, was actually born in Crete, Indiana, a small town close to the border with Ohio. So, I took a long diversion as I drove from my brother's house in Indianapolis to my father's in Lawrenceburg. The picture is a little misleading because there are actual several houses in the sleepy town center of Crete. It's fairly close to the highest point in Indiana, which is 1257 feet above sea level. All of this makes sense, somehow, I just haven't figured out why yet.

It's hard to connect the dots between Crete, Indiana and Jonestown - or maybe it's not.

Camp Washington Chili

 I was out of town for a week and half (more on that later), which gave me a chance to get caught up with so many people who I hadn't seen in two years (making me a citizen of the planet, I guess). It would be messy, even by my messy blog standards, to try and tie the trip together in one post, so I'll divide this up into more manageable moments. One of my favorite moments was a trip to Camp Washington Chili, the establishment which routinely ranks near the top, if not at the top, of any list of Cincinnati chili parlors. And, believe me, if you're from the Natti these are important issues. Dave and I remembered eating there - and then we arrived we decided we maybe hadn't actually eaten there - or maybe we're both just really old. It's close to the University of Cincinnati, of which we're both graduates (his JD and my PhD), so it seems entirely plausible that we would have eaten there. Anyway, it was a great meal, and the debate over its merit vis a vis Skyline and Dixie and Empress, etc. continues. I was talking to my PT guy the other day about Cincinnati chili and my desire to devote an entire weekend to visiting different chili parlors to research this question. He said, "But how many chili parlor could you possibly visit in a weekend?" I was more than a little horrified by his horrified surprise at my answer of ten or twelve, and I clearly need to get a new PT guy.

Happily, Camp Washington Chili has survived as an independent chili parlor since before the US entered World War II.

A classic chili parlor.

The esteemed Dave Kelley and I discussed the pros and cons of the different varieties of Cincinnati chili - and the deeper meaning of reality - which is really the same question.

The Muslim Version of Waiting for Godot

 Almost every day, as my friends will wearily acknowledge, I post an update on Vermont's progress in getting the COVID vaccine on Facebook (drawn from the NPR website). I have to admit that I'm rather fixated on the site, which is updated every day around mid-morning. After a perusal I summarize the findings with some commentary and share the link (again). For example, from yesterday:

Today Vermont stands at 57.8% fully vaccinated, 71.2% with one shot, and 91.8% 65+ fully vaccinated - all three figures are first in the nation by a healthy (some pun intended) margin. That's a lot to celebrate, VT, but let's not get complacent. Talk to your neighbors and friends and wary family members and let's keep pushing. Go get your shots!!

Yes, Vermont, our odd little corner of America, is doing the best job of confronting the pandemic, even receiving praise from Dr. Fauci on several occasions. Theoretically we might even reach 85% fully vaccinated by sometime in July (and, as we know, 85% is a huge figure in reaching herd immunity). Sadly, far too much of the country, mainly focused in Trumpsylvania, are not getting their shots which they've somehow turned into a litmus test of their devotion to the cult. While Vermont might reach 85% in six weeks, states like Mississippi or Alabama or Oklahoma might not reach that figure for a year and a half or even two years (meaning, never). So, why do I plague folks with this daily update? Well, I guess it's opportunity, even in a limited fashion, to promote the effort. Unfortunately, even here, the numbers are reaching a plateau, which is troubling. Of course, even if we start to plateau now we're still so much better off than the rest of the country. This last Saturday we hosted a free vaccination clinic at the Islamic Society of Vermont (because that's apparently what I do, although I don't think of myself that way - but my weekend was dominated by Techdren, the Food Shelf, and the mosque). We were open from 9:00 a.m. to noon on Saturday and only two people showed up. Now, it could have been an internal issue (vaccination wariness from our largely immigrant population) or an external issue (some soft Islamophobia as non-Muslims refused to go to a mosque; hopefully that's not it because we're also in the process of opening a free clinic at the ISVT, so I can volunteer more), although the nice woman who ran the clinic says it's just a reflection of the numbers across the state: the big events aren't drawing folks any more and the transition is being made more to local pharmacies and doctor's offices. Still, it's two more people who are vaccinated.

Now, go get your shots!!!!

We still have the Ramadan lanterns up.

The gymnasium turned into a vaccination center. By the end some members of the crew were shooting hoops to pass away the time.