Pophistory: music, movies, history, and life.
This short video, “Enough Time,” raises a question about how we let unimportant things take up our life. Even if you are “busy,” take a few minutes to watch the short video that stars Liam Ireson.
The video for “Enough Time” comes from a short story in the book, More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity
Leave your two cents in the comments.
One of the documentaries in ESPN’s excellent series 30 for 30, lets the viewer watch sports-related events on a single day in June 1994. In 30 for 30: June 17, 1994, director Brett Morgen adds no additional narration but pieces together clips from that day to give you the experience as if you are reliving the day, or for younger viewers, living it for the first time.
The day began with reporters waiting for O.J. Simpson to turn himself in for the double-murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. As the day went on, other sports stories began to be overshadowed by the O.J. Simpson disappearance and Bronco chase.
For example, Arnold Palmer played an emotional last round at the U.S. Open, the New York Rangers celebrated their Stanley Cup, the FIFA World Cup began in Chicago, and Bob Costas struggled to figure out how to cover an NBA Championship game as TV stations cut to the Bronco chase.
The documentary is no longer available in its entirety on YouTube, but it is on Netflix streaming. Below is the preview.
Vulture ranks “June 17, 1994” as the fifth best film in the 30 for 30 series. June 2016 Update: More recently, the 30 for 30 series took a fascinating in-depth examination of the life of O.J. Simpson in the five-part “O.J.: Made in America.”
Do your remember June 17, 1994? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
George Denis Patrick Carlin was born in Manhattan, New York on May 12, 1937. In honor of the birthday of George Carlin and the stuff that we get on our birthdays, here is one of his famous routines about “stuff,” which is both funny and true.
Carlin passed away on June 22, 2008.
What is your favorite George Carlin segment? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
The Library and Archives Canada and the Dawson City Museum in Yukon, Canada has made available newly discovered film of the famous 1919 World Series. As featured in Eight Men Out
The more than four minutes of baseball footage is probably the best quality video of the most infamous World Series in baseball history. British Canadian Pathé News filmed the scenes, and the film was stored in an old swimming pool-hockey rink before being found again in the Canadian archive in January.
The segment includes scenes from the first and third games of the series (starting with some clips of the third game). Among the scenes, at around the 3:06 mark there is a short clip of what legend reports as a bungled double-play ball by Swede Risberg after Eddie Cicotte made a great play in stopping the ball. For more descriptions of what is on the film, check out the story from the Society for American Baseball Research. To watch the film, check it out below.
Thanks to Sonja for telling me about the fascinating video.
Do you think the White Sox players should have been banned forever? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
The New York Times reported on a 51-year-old man who died in the custody of the New York Police Department in January 2014 from apparently hanging himself with the cord from his coat. One may easily imagine the despair one might feel being held in a jail cell. But without a suicide note one can only speculate what led to Edward Soto’s death. Still, the article gave some clues.
Police arrested Soto, who had a couple of previous arrests, for attempted burglary. But family members explained that Soto, who was living with his sister, had been acting erratic since his wife had died in March 2013. Soto and his wife Antoinette had been married seventeen years, and they had seven children. Family members explained that after his wife’s death, Soto talked of hurting himself. They implied that perhaps his latest actions stemmed from his despair.
It is a tragic story about loss and how difficult it is to recover from losing someone so close, especially a spouse. One of the best songs about this bottomless feeling of sorrow is Allison Moorer‘s “The Duel,” the title track to the singer’s underrated 2004 album.
Moorer wrote “The Duel,” as well as the rest of the songs on the album, with her then husband, Doyle “Butch” Primm. Within a year of the album’s release, the two would divorce, so it is hard not to hear some of the dissolution of their marriage in the dark edges of the album.
The album was a surprise to reviewers who liked Moorer’s earlier music that sounded more country. I understand those first impressions, but the album is deep, requiring repeated listenings to mine its jewels.
When I bought The Duel, I listened to it a few times before putting it away, unimpressed. But many months later, looking for a CD to play in the car, I picked it up again and began listening to it closely, as one does in a car. And I listened again and again, as the CD stayed in my car CD player for months. It was only after hearing the song “The Duel” several times that I eventually really understood what it was about.
In “The Duel,” the song begins with the singer standing in a cemetery as “a newborn atheist.” Eventually, the listener realizes the song is a conversation with God, and the singer is angry: “Even if you do exist / You’re far from almighty.”
By the end of the song, the singer explains that she does not know if she can go on. It is only in the song’s final line that we learn why the singer is so angry.
But one thing I’m sure of,
The King of Kings has lost his crown;
It’s buried here in marble town,
In the god forsaken ground,
With my only love.
Few songwriters are brave enough to go to such depths. And it is tragic that anyone like Mr. Soto has to face such unbearable heartbreak. We do not know if he had any conversations with God. But we can feel great sympathy for a man facing such pain alone in a jail cell.
As for Moorer, I do not know to what extent she felt the feelings in the song as her marriage came apart, but part of me is happy that she has never come close to this dark masterpiece again.
What do you think is the most depressing song of all time? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
