The Day

 Election Day. Let's see if a Blue Tsunami really happens. We have been disappointed before. Let's hope this year is different. 

Shirt

 I can only wear this shirt once a year. 

Company

 Sometimes I have company when I get ready in the mornings. 

Liars and Hoaxes

A quote by Salman Rushdie that I find especially powerful, especially considering the trials he has faced in the name of speaking the truth...

"We can sing the truth and name the liars, we can join in solidarity with our fellows on the front lines and magnify their voices by adding our own to them." 

I intend to do all of this in this post.

As a public educator in the State of Texas it's important for me to let you know that not one student has ever been told by a school employee in any school to undergo transition surgery. The Governor of Texas is intentionally mis-leading you. The only incidents where this was claimed were revealed in a Texas Court of Law to be hoaxes perpetrated by political activists of a political action committee that supports Governor Greg Abbott.

School employees cannot even provide Tylenol or cough drops without written parental permission and a phone call home, much less engage in a complicated and expensive procedure to alter the gender of a student. This week I had to sign permission simply for my daughter to visit a pumpkin patch with a school organization. 

This is a deliberate and malicious attempt to undermine our public schools. As someone who has served as a public school teacher for twenty-eight years I find these preposterous lies offensive and patently stupid.  

Pegasus

 

Always like seeing The Pegasus atop The Magnolia Hotel in downtown Dallas. 

Soul

Found this 1976 issue of Rubber Soul at Black Cat Records. I had been looking for an original for awhile but you have to get lucky or be willing to shell out more than I'm willing. This is close enough for me. It is exactly the same as the 1965 pressing. Capitol Records used to change up some of the tracks for the North American releases, a practice unheard of today. The British version has the superior opener of "Drive My Car," one of the best album openers you can ever find. The North American version opens with "I Saw a Face." Not bad but not quite as good either. The US version also cut "Nowhere Man," "What Goes On" and "If I Needed Someone." The US versions adds "It's Only Love" to the track list. 

Capitol wanted to cash in on the folk-rock trend that was popular in the United States in 1965 so the American version sounds more subdued. The UK version is more upbeat. I actually prefer the British line up which I can stream any time. My CD version, bought years ago, follows the original UK track listing. So I was a bit caught off guard when I first played the record as I was so used to the British version. 

 

Black Cat

This past weekend we visited Black Cat Comic Books and Records south of downtown Dallas for the first time. Black Cat had been on my radar for quite some time but I'm rarely in The Cedars area. I believe it may have the best selection and prices for any small to mid-size store in Dallas that I've seen. We came away with five records, all reasonably priced. Much lower prices than the other record shops I usually frequent. Even my wife came away with two albums. Great shop. 

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Opening Bell

Hung out at Opening Bell Coffee this past weekend for an hour or so. Nice coffee shop located in The South Side at Lamar  

 

Train

One of the Holy Grails: 1957's Blue Train by John Coltrane. I own this on cassette, compact disc and finally now on vinyl. Original pressings are out of my price range but whenever I came across this record at record stores it was always some overseas pressing where the copyright had expired. I never could find an actual Blue Note edition. A few years ago Blue Note Records released a new remastered version as part of their Tone Poet reissues of classic Blue Note recordings. I found this one at Guestroom Records in Norman, Oklahoma. 

I first heard this album on cassette on a bus my freshman year of college. Despite already being a fan and playing jazz since I was 10 I had shockingly never heard John Coltrane play. As soon as the first track played my life was changed. This was an earth shattering record for me. Rightly or wrongly it became the definition for me what jazz should sound like. In 1991 I couldn't believe I hadn't heard this before and lamented what I had been missing in my musical experience up until that point. Most of the time I'll still stream it from my phone, but for special moments, the record will spin like life intended.  

 

Fools

Monday I posted a photograph of myself on Facebook (this photo appears in yesterdays blog post) taken right after I voted on the first day of early voting. Beneath the photo I wrote "go go Talarico." I didn't want to make some bold political statement. But I did kind of want to let people know that it's okay to vote for James Talarico. 

I got more "likes" than I usually do on one of my posts. But I guess just having the name Talarico on the post triggered some. Keep in mind this was a post that showed that I had already voted. There would be no convincing me to change my mind, the deed was done. Yet a few of my Facebook "friends" felt compelled to lecture me about the dangers of voting for Democrats. Some of these comments were respectful and I let them stand. But others were toxic and insulting. 

So, I did a little facebook purge last night. I will no longer tolerate toxicity on my social media accounts. Some of these people haven't interacted with my posts in years. And suddenly they felt triggered enough to make asses out of themselves. I deleted their comments and unfriended many. I'm no longer going to associate with MAGAs if I can help it. Sure, family members you gotta tolerate. And some friends, who actually care to be a part of my life, I'll continue to have relationships with even if we have serious disagreements.

One guy, the father of a former student, who had always been cordial in person in years past told me in a two party system you should pick one party and stick with them no matter what. I wanted to respond and say "do you belong to a cult?" Unreal. It still boggles my mind how anyone can support Ken Paxton or the president. So yeah, unfriended. Just over it. Bye Felicia.