Ka-Choing… Yoing Oing Oing Oing!

#bullDogNATION’s Sunday BULLY Pulpit

♫♫(woof!) What you want?
(woof!) Maybe I got it
(woof!) What you need?
(woof!) You know I got it!
(woof!) All I’m askin’
(woof!) Is for a little RESTRAINT out in public

(just a little bit) Courtesy (just a little bit)

Out in public
(just a little bit)

People

(just a little bit)

Woof!

Hello! And to #bullDogNATION’s Sunday BULLY Pulpit where each week we gather together fur the Gospel and the Gossip according to Me! Or you. Come on in. You’re welcome to post your own opinion, pictures or comments on #bullDogNATION’s Sunday BULLY Pulpit. This week:

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand …”–Ancient Chinese Proverb

Ever been out and about just minding your own bully bidness when someone, (usually an adult) approaches and says “Awww… You’re so cute! Are you—  Friendly?“

Ka-Choing Yoing Oing!

CAUTION: Menace to society. Big time.

Oh nooo… Why.., just look at me! I’m a regular flesh eatin’ teenaged werewolf here, see..?

I'm a Lover. Not a biter.

Could’a been me who ripped the face off that woman in Connecticut! If I’d have been there. Magically morphed into a frustrated chimpanzee. Who snapped.

Clever disguise.

That’s why I’m always cleverly disguised, see, as That mild mannered English bulldog tethered inside this three wheeled getaway vehicle here, equally cleverly disguised– As a Pet STROLLER!

I always wanna say stuff like That, but I restrain myself. Why? Self-control. Because sarcasm is bad, kids. Bad.

Art Linkletter was the popular television host of a popular TV show in the popular 50’s and 60’s called Kids Say The Darndest Things.

I ought to be the bulldog host of a show called People Say The Darndest Things– About Bulldogs. Or You Don’t Know Bull!– About Dogs.  Or Are You Smarter Than ThatOne | English Bulldog? (Any TV movers and shakers out there? *Call me.*)

It’s exhausting. Fur Her! It takes a lot of psychic, physical and emotional energy to repel all that weighty not-goodwill that’s really at the heart of  most of these inquiries.

And more than a few of you are not even especially clever, either. We hear the same questions and comments over and over and over, time and time again. Here are just a few examples:

❝How much did you pay fur him?❞ ➠➠➠➠➠ How much is that gorilla in the window?

❝Does he have a lot of health problems?❞ ➠➠➠➠➠ Only if you consider ‘good’ a health problem.

❝He has a face only a mother could love❞ ➠➠➠➠➠ Sure you right. And I do!

❝He’s so ugly, he’s cute!❞ ➠➠➠➠➠ Thank you?

❝How’d you get him so buffed?❞ ➠➠➠➠➠ I owe my good looks to my mother and father. And precedents!

❝How do you get him so white?❞ ➠➠➠➠➠ ♫♫What’s genes got to do– Got to do with it? And perhaps an occasional bath?

❝Does he snore?❞ ➠➠➠➠➠Only when I’m sleeping.

❝Do you always have to lift him in and out of  your SUV?❞ ➠➠➠➠➠ I believe strongly in ‘No Dog left behind.’

❝Can he walk?❞ ➠➠➠➠➠ Yes, but the Thatmobile is so much more portable than a Mercedes.

❝Do you  surf/skateboard/do a stupid pet trick?❞➠➠➠➠➠ No. No.  And a little bit more–  NO! But if you hum a few bars…

Again. Restraint. I can’t actually say these things. I just think them. And write them in my blog. BOL!

❝Is he friendly?❞ This is the question that gets me every time People ask Her That. I’m a bulldog and even I don’t quite understand.

Do People as a general practice, routinely bring along unsociable, unfriendly, snarling, straining-at-the-leash, aggressive, biting, angry, drooling, snapping Real Cujo’s of ________*(insert your town’s name here)* to mix it up with the public to, say, Target or the public library or Barnes and Noble?

You wouldn’t bring your unruly child out in public on a bad day. Why do you think She or anybully else fur that matter, would bring an untrained, undisciplined, unpredictable, unrestrained, let alone unhealthy wild animal out in public? Does that even make sense?!! I’m a bulldog not a chimpanzee!

Ka-Choing... Yoing Oing Oing Oing!

It makes me wonder if any of the People who ask Her these rude and thoughtless (not to mention Ri-lick-cules) questions have ever been set upon on their way into the library or on the street by an “unfriendly” dog on a leash? Tethered to the inside of a blue buggy? With an AKC/CGC * patch in full display on the front?

So People, when you’re tempted to try to make idle conversation or innocuous small talk and you have neither the skills, the temperament, the knowledge about bulldogs (or any other breed of dog); you’re not “a dog Person,” or possess the social grace sufficient to speak intelligently on this or any other subject, here’s my advice to you:

Just say “Oh!” Followed by

“He’s cute. May I pet him?”

Then be on your way. And check the ill will energy, negative questions and derogatory comments at your door!

R–E–S-TRAI–N–T!

Find out what That means to me

R–E–S-TRAI–N–T!

Common Courtesy! Ow!

k tx!

Goodwill Energies I direct

Toward each and every one of you

Each and every day.

 

❝And there came to be evening and there came to be morning…❞

That’s life, today!

btw! BOL!

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Big Bad And Bobby Socks!

You know She loves Bugs Bunny. You also know is Her #2 favorite Bugs Bunny film of them all!

♫♪♫The five o’clock whistle’s on the blink,
The whistle won’t blow and whadd’ya think?
My Pop is still in the factory ’cause he don’t know
What time it happens to be.

Little Red bobby soxer is singing a Glenn Miller tune and skipping along through the woods in her red, hooded cape, bobby socks and oversized oxfords on her way to Grandma’s house to deliver a bunny rabbit fur Grandma “ta’ have!”

She’s loud. She’s a girl. She wears glasses, which, back in 1944 when this film was released, was the oh so not-so-subtle, politically incorrect way to say she’s an insufferable, nerdy bookworm.

The woods is a treacherous place full of predatory wolves who would love a ration free meat meal. Enter Big Bad Wolf.

He notices Lil’ Red and the basket complete with the rabbit inside. He races ahead of Red to Grandma’s house.

He removes Grandma’s note fur Red from the door, disguises himself in one of Grandma’s gowns, and hops into bed to lie in wait fur the unsuspecting Lil’ Red.

Like I said, the woods is a dangerous place full of wolves in Grandma’s clothing. Big Bad has to kick out four of them he finds already hiding in the bed ahead of him!

“C’mon, c’mon! Take a powder! He yells. This is my racket!” Once the interlopers are dispatched, Big Bad waits, eagerly anticipating Lil’ Red’s noisy arrival.

Even with the aid of those enormous glasses, Lil’ Red barely recognizes Grandma. She’s too preoccupied with getting through all the familiar lines of the story to register any alarm about Grandma’s changed appearance. Like I said, she’s a nerdy bookworm.

“Hey Grandma! That’s an’ awfully big nose fur you–  Ta’ HAVE!”

The 1944 audience watching this film in theaters would have laughed uproariously at this cartoon, with all it’s clever allusions to pop culture and references to the war.

The Great Depression was still preoccupying the collective consciousness of the American public. This cartoon would have been a welcome escape fur many from soup lines, unemployment, and households with husbands and fathers fighting in World War II.

The film would have also stirred the patriotic passions and pride of many Americans, particularly women, who where working to support the war effort here at home working in  factories and defense plants such as Lockheed which is referenced in the feature. That’s the reason Grandma wasn’t sitting around at home waiting fur Lil Red.

Audiences would have gotten a chuckle out of Lil’ Red’s muscular physique as well as her  familiar, obligatory uniform of the young bobby soxer.

Bobby soxers were the devout fans of Frank Sinatra. They were the Beliebers of their era, bursting out in public displays of hysterical screaming and crying whenever even so much as the name of Frank Sinatra was mentioned.

I think that’s why She loves Bugs Bunny and Warner Bros. cartoons. They’re still funny after all these years. And they teach so much!

Little Red Riding Rabbit is Her #2 favorite Warner Bros./Bugs Bunny feature. I’ll tell you about Her #1 WB favorite sometime. In the meantime, you’ll just have to be content with the bulldog retelling of this one. BOL!

Goodwill Energies I project
On each and every one of you
Each and every day!

“And there came to be evening and there came to be morning…”

That’s life today!

♪♫It’s My Birthday Too, Yeah!

Oh, tay! Now, let’s see…

Now, you do the math. ‘Cause, I’ll never
tell. BOL!

I’m glad it’s your birthday!

Happy birthday to you!

Goodwill Energies I project
On each and every one of you
Each and every day!

“And there came to be evening and there came to be morning…”

That’s life today!

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The Awful Grace Of God

“I’ve seen the Promised Land…”

April 3, 1968…

Even in our sleep

Pain, which cannot forget

Falls drop by drop upon the heart

April 4, 1968…

“I may not get there with you…”

…as he stood on the balcony of his motel room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was scheduled to lead a protest march in support of striking sanitation workers of that city, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

Until in our despair

Against our will

Comes wisdom

Through the awful grace of God

He was 39 years old.

“For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust of the injustice of such an act against all white people I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my own family killed and he was killed by a white man…”

Tame the savageness of man

and make gentle the life of this world.— Aeschylus

Image via Wikipedia

Goodwill Energies I project
On each and every one of you
Each and every day!

“And there came to be evening and there came to be morning…”

That’s life today!

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One Of These Things Just Doesn’t Belong

Hellooooo… Everybully!

once again to this week’s edition of Songs on Saturday!

This week… The Grrrrreat Debate!

One of these things just doesn’t belong…

Seems there’s yet another great Rap versus R&B debate raging. Does rap music affect the community more than R&B? Is R & B better than rap? Hmmm…

This recurring debate always makes Her think of Her Grandma. Her grandmother who was born in 1908. Her Grandma annually, deliberately and methodically relived the pain of the “disappearance” of not one but two of her sons, both of whom (in separate instances, six years apart) rose early in the morning to go to work at the steel mill in Charleston, South Carolina. They never made it back home and both men were neither seen nor heard from again.

She herself recalls the sneering, disdainful voices of men, (who knew if they were really police officers or not) as they reduced Her proud, educated  but physically small father into a puddle of mutter of “Yes sir” and “No sir” as She and Her family made their annual interstate journey by car from Bronx, NY to Charleston, SC to summer with the grandparents  and meet up with all the cousins there.

Her Grandma owned and operated a funeral parlor. Her Grandma’s venerated pastor, the Reverend Preleau, owned his church and  the corner grocery store. Grandma’s youngest son owned and operated the neighborhood juke joint. There was a church and a candy store on every corner.

There was a launderer, several obligatory beauty parlors; the obligatory numbers’ runners. Only time whites came into that little slice was to collect on the penny insurance policies everyone in the neighborhood seemed to have.

The teachers at the elementary school She attended, Mary Ford Elementary School, were surrogate parents. As were any and all neighbors sitting in pews or out on front porches, listening to Hers and her siblings and myriad cousins’ speech, and observing their behaviors. No one paid for child care.

Her Grandma’s neighborhood community was full of hustle and bustle and pretty much self-sustaining. Integration was not viewed as especially necessary– Opportunity was. Integration was not the topic de jour around Her grandma’s dinner table.

There was much more conversation whenever “colored” appeared on TV. People literally shouted from their windows to announce “Colored on TV! Colored on TV!” People stopped what they were doing and gathered to watch, mostly at Her Grandma’s house because back then owning a TV set was a luxury.

Her Mother and Grandma especially liked Moms Mabley, Nipsey Russell, Louis Armstrong, Judy Pace, Brock Peters, Flip Wilson, Nat King Cole, Bill Cosby, Diahann Carroll, Sammy Davis, Jr., Ivan Dixon, Georg Sanford Brown, Cicely Tyson, Harry Belafonte, Joe Tex, Jackie Wilson, Scatman Crothers— Mahalia Jackson.

They listened intently to Tony Brown, Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson, Dr.King, Malcolm X, John Lewis, and Thurgood Marshall.

But the music–  the music was ubiquitous.  It was always, always, always on. Ever present. Everywhere. Accessible to everybody! She says She can’t remember ever awakening to a day without music. The music galvanized the community.  It was restorative and painful; inciting and exciting. Calm and impatient. It was fun and upbeat. Sober and melancholy. Silly and serious but most of all it was wholly and completely and uniquely ours.

Dr. Martin Luther Jr. opened the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1964 with this address:

“Jazz speaks for life. The blues tell the story of life’s difficulties — and, if you think for a moment, you realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music!”

No one but a Black woman could sound like Aretha Franklin or Tammi Terrell or Gladys Knight or Chaka Khan. No one but a Black man could sound like David Ruffin, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson or Donny Hathaway.  R&B integrated and synthesized the best of jazz, blues, swing and gospel.  Anybody who wasn’t Black at the time could only try to imitate it and failing that, try to squelch it.

R&B will FOREVER be associated with the Civil Rights Revolution.  Indeed, R&B is its soundtrack. This is triumphant music, from “Patches” by Clarence Carter, to “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye and all the myriad voices before, during, after and in between.

To this day She can vividly remember where She was and what She was doing when She first heard “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud),” “Thank You For Lettin’ Me Be Myself,” “Hot Fun In The Summertime” “Respect,” “Ball Of Confusion,” “Respect Yourself,” “A Change Is Gonna Come,” “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler),” “Living For The City,” “Summertime” (Billy Stewart version)…  So, so, so many grrreat songs.

The power, the TRUTH, the authenticity of virgin instruments and real, passion filled voices influenced the consciousness of an entire nation and the world, and brought together an entire community who were largely collectively informed and encouraged by a uniquely shared experience– Like one big “Sunday go to meetin’.”

Rap music has its place. It speaks for a generation and an experience that is truth and authentic for many.  But it’s not spiritually or politically transformative. It’s not changing hearts and minds. It is not influencing the moral direction of an entire nation. It is not changing the world! All it does is shine a dim light on something. It does nothing to affect change. It looks after its own self interests. Rap’s focus is individual and narcissistic rather than universal and transcendent.

It invites others to merely listen to a chorus of complaints rather than empathize with them or it glorifies  goals, a lifestyle and gross consumerism unattainable fur the average Person. There is no narrative around growth and change. It’s all technique, technology and auto tune without the heart. Rap is the National Enquirier of “music” (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Rap says ‘If you buy this, I get money,’ while R&B says ‘If you feel like I do, we will all be free.”

R&B is voice. It is a soul.  It is a living soul– with voice.  It is connected to a history that traversed continents and centuries, took lives and liberties,  and required legislation and the law (gradually, in fits and starts), to change.

One thing is not necessarily better than the other, but to use a line from Sesame Street “one of these things is not like the other.” Oil is not like water however both may successfully fulfill a specific purpose.

The question is not which is better, R & B or rap, but rather which is more effective. And the Jeopardy answer is: What is– the one that performs best when the need is most great.

Goodwill Energies I project
On each and every one of you
Each and every day!

“And there came to be evening and there came to be morning…”

That’s life today!

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