1984 (1,8) The Lottery

Continuing his walk in the prole quarters, Winston comes across a group of men getting into a heated argument over the lottery and whether any number ending in ‘7’ has ever won. Winston can only mourn in his thought that hope rests only in the proles:

The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory.

This is all the more pathetic because Winston knows, as everyone in the Party knows, the Lottery is a ruse, as lotteries always are.

1984 (1,8) The Lottery

Continuing his walk in the prole quarters, Winston comes across a group of men getting into a heated argument over the lottery and whether any number ending in ‘7’ has ever won. Winston can only mourn in his thought that hope rests only in the proles:

The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory.

This is all the more pathetic because Winston knows, as everyone in the Party knows, the Lottery is a ruse, as lotteries always are.

An Aggressive China

It looks like China is starting to get aggressive anent the Japanese, and the Japanese seem to have taken a weak pose, as though intimidated by a bigger, stronger bully. This does not bode well for our future.

( article )

An Aggressive China

It looks like China is starting to get aggressive anent the Japanese, and the Japanese seem to have taken a weak pose, as though intimidated by a bigger, stronger bully. This does not bode well for our future.

( article )

Jerry Leiber

"I knew all about Leiber and Stoller. They were those bad white boys who wrote the blackest songs this side of the Mississippi. I loved what they did."

-- Ray Charles

Jerry Leiber died this week at 78, being born just two or three years before Elvis. I know the songwriting team because they played a significant role in helping to consolidate Elvis's place in rock and roll legend, writing some early key songs for him.

I'm a little surprised that there was not a bigger news splash about his passing, but I wonder if the thinking is that Stoller, who was born in the same year as his partner Leiber, will probably die soon as well, and so the media are going to save their big obit guns until he passes, marking the legendary team together, which seems fitting enough.

_ _ _

Listing the great rock ‘n’ roll songs that Jerry Leiber wrote, mostly with his partner Mike Stoller, is listing rock ‘n’ roll: there’s “Hound Dog,” which Big Mama Thornton recorded, powerfully, and then Elvis Presley rerecorded, definitively; “Jailhouse Rock,” also Elvis; “Yakety Yak,” “Poison Ivy,” “Charlie Brown,” and almost two dozen more Coasters classics; “Stand By Me” (with Ben E. King); “Spanish Harlem” (with Phil Spector); “On Broadway” (with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill). Leiber was a senior at Fairfax High in Los Angeles when he and Stoller first started to collaborate, and the two of them wrote fleet, funny R. & B. songs that became, thanks to millions of white teen-agers, cornerstones of what was not yet quite rock ‘n’ roll. Leiber and Stoller took race out of the equation by putting race in it—as Leiber, in 1990, told David Fricke of Rolling Stone, “I felt black. I was, as far as I was concerned. And I wanted to be black for lots of reasons…. We lived a black lifestyle as young guys. We had black girlfriends for years.” Leiber died yesterday at seventy-eight; he is survived by his songs, and will be forever.

-- Ben Greenman at The New Yorker

Jerry Leiber

"I knew all about Leiber and Stoller. They were those bad white boys who wrote the blackest songs this side of the Mississippi. I loved what they did."

-- Ray Charles

Jerry Leiber died this week at 78, being born just two or three years before Elvis. I know the songwriting team because they played a significant role in helping to consolidate Elvis's place in rock and roll legend, writing some early key songs for him.

I'm a little surprised that there was not a bigger news splash about his passing, but I wonder if the thinking is that Stoller, who was born in the same year as his partner Leiber, will probably die soon as well, and so the media are going to save their big obit guns until he passes, marking the legendary team together, which seems fitting enough.

_ _ _

Listing the great rock ‘n’ roll songs that Jerry Leiber wrote, mostly with his partner Mike Stoller, is listing rock ‘n’ roll: there’s “Hound Dog,” which Big Mama Thornton recorded, powerfully, and then Elvis Presley rerecorded, definitively; “Jailhouse Rock,” also Elvis; “Yakety Yak,” “Poison Ivy,” “Charlie Brown,” and almost two dozen more Coasters classics; “Stand By Me” (with Ben E. King); “Spanish Harlem” (with Phil Spector); “On Broadway” (with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill). Leiber was a senior at Fairfax High in Los Angeles when he and Stoller first started to collaborate, and the two of them wrote fleet, funny R. & B. songs that became, thanks to millions of white teen-agers, cornerstones of what was not yet quite rock ‘n’ roll. Leiber and Stoller took race out of the equation by putting race in it—as Leiber, in 1990, told David Fricke of Rolling Stone, “I felt black. I was, as far as I was concerned. And I wanted to be black for lots of reasons…. We lived a black lifestyle as young guys. We had black girlfriends for years.” Leiber died yesterday at seventy-eight; he is survived by his songs, and will be forever.

-- Ben Greenman at The New Yorker

JIm Carrey's Love Note to Emma Stone

Jim Carrey says his oddly creepy video “love note” to Emma Stone was a joke — a way of drawing attention to his TruLife website — but it showed that even in the hands of a comedic genius, some jokes just fall flat.

The star of “The Help” didn’t quite know how to react, posting a message on her YouTube page wondering if she should be “very flattered” or seriously worried by Carrey’s comments.

-- Bill Zwecker for The Chicago Sun Times

Awww, I feel for you, dude. But, hey, at least you are rich and famous, not to mention tall and white, so I'm sure you can get a girl like Emma Stone, just not someone who is perhaps now more famous than you are.

And, look, Kathy Griffin gives Bieber a love-video!

I was considering who I might desperately send a love-video to, but my disillusionment runs so deep, I cannot even imagine a happy love affair anymore. I probably cannot do better than to spend more time in books.

JIm Carrey's Love Note to Emma Stone

Jim Carrey says his oddly creepy video “love note” to Emma Stone was a joke — a way of drawing attention to his TruLife website — but it showed that even in the hands of a comedic genius, some jokes just fall flat.

The star of “The Help” didn’t quite know how to react, posting a message on her YouTube page wondering if she should be “very flattered” or seriously worried by Carrey’s comments.

-- Bill Zwecker for The Chicago Sun Times

Awww, I feel for you, dude. But, hey, at least you are rich and famous, not to mention tall and white, so I'm sure you can get a girl like Emma Stone, just not someone who is perhaps now more famous than you are.

And, look, Kathy Griffin gives Bieber a love-video!

I was considering who I might desperately send a love-video to, but my disillusionment runs so deep, I cannot even imagine a happy love affair anymore. I probably cannot do better than to spend more time in books.