Review: The Kinks the Journey Part 1 and 2

Posted: November 19, 2023 by John Ruberry in culture, entertainment
Tags: , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

A journey, indeed it is. The Kinks are celebrating their 60th anniversary. 

A big part of the revelry is the release, on BMG records of two double-CD or vinyl anthologies, the Journey Part 1, which was released in March, and the Journey Part 2, which was issued last Friday.

And in case you missed it, here is my rundown of my choices for the Kinks best 10 albums, which includes a look back at their momentous career. 

The Kinks emerged from North London and a year later they were at the forefront of the second pack of the British Invasion–or the beat groups, if you are reading this in the UK. Among those early hits were the power chord classics “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night,” and “Till the End of the Day.” The Journey Part 1 kicks off with first two, The Journey Part 2 starts with the third one.

Looking at the compilations from the vinyl version, each side is represented by a theme, which I just couldn’t make sense of, so let’s just move on. 

Each cut was selected by the Kinks–the surviving members are Ray Davies, rhythm guitarist and principal songwriter, his younger brother Dave, the band’s lead guitarist and occasional songwriter, and drummer Mick Avory. Among the many hits on the Journey, you’ll also encounter some rare tracks and alternative recordings.

Both are collections are essential collections for rock listeners with eclectic taste, and more importantly, a those with a strong sense of intelligence. 

If you only have a bit of time and you want to know which compilation is best, then go with Part 1. A crucial reason is that amazingly, there are no songs from my choice as the Kinks’ second-best album, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), on it. You’ll find “Australia” and “Shangri- La” on Part 1. Of the Kinks often maligned 1970s”theatrical” period, the best of that bunch is Schoolboys in Disgrace. Part 1 has songs from it, Part 2 does not.

The second collection delves surprisingly heavy into the Preservation Part 2 album, which even many Kinks fans dislike. Preservation Part 1 contributes a song to the Journey Part 1. Although through the flaws, I am a fan of both. Critics hated them, although the stage presentation of Preservation was better received by them. Preservation tells a civil war between a womanizing real estate developer-turned politician Mr. Flash (liberals will see him as Donald Trump, conservatives as Bill Clinton), who is challenged by the seemingly morally righteous Commander Black, a Jerry Falwell Senior-type character. 

If you are British, you can think of Preservation as a 20th-century replay of the English Civil War, when King Charles I and his cavaliers battled Oliver Cromwell and his Puritans.  

The Journey Part 2, includes some of the best tracks from Preservation Part 2 including a previously unreleased version of “Money Talks,” along with “He’s Evil,” and “Artificial Man.” Sadly, one of the worst songs from the second Preservation, “Scrapheap City,” which is flatly sung, literally, by Maryanne Price, is also on the Journey Part 2.

What were the Kinks thinking on that one?

While the Journey Part 1 has no live tracks, Part 2 does, three live cuts recorded in 1975 at the New Victoria Theatre in London, “Everybody’s a Star (Starmaker) one of only two good songs from the loathsome Soap Opera album, “Slum Kids,” a solid Preservation outtake, and another song–not one of the goods ones–from Soap Opera, “(A) Face in the Crowd.”

On the flipside, the other good song from Soap Opera, the 1930s-style “Holiday Romance,” follows the live tracks. You can think of “Holiday Romance” as the Kinks’ answer to the Beatles’ “Honey Pie.”

If you’re a Kinks fan–or of you think you might become one–then here’s a song for you, “I’m Not Like Everybody Else,” the B-Side of their hit “Sunny Afternoon.” The first track is on the Journey Part 1. The A-Side is on Part 2. 

Is “Lola,” perhaps the best-known Kinks song besides their power chord nuggets, included on the Journey? Yes, it’s on Part 2.

One more bit of bad news–the Journey ends abruptly. There is no talk of a Part 3, and there are no songs from the Kinks post-theatrical era on Part 1 and 2. Some of those stellar albums omitted in these collections include Sleepwalker, Low Budget, Misfits, and Give the People What They Want. What’s the heck is with that? Contractual disputes with record labels?

Back to the Journey: Even with one collection being a bit better than the other, both compilations contain plenty of pleasing gems. Back-to-back, they are ideal road trip albums, a great complement to any journey, either cross town, cross country, or as a companion to your life’s journey.

God Save the Kinks!

John Ruberry, who saw the Kinks live twice in Champaign, Illinois in the 1980s, regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Five Fast Thoughts Under the Fedora: A Good Start, A Calendar oddity, A Bit of Luck for Next Season, Celtics Still Proving me Wrong, DeSantis goes there.

Posted: November 19, 2023 by datechguy in under the fedora
Tags: , , , , ,

The first of the three David Tennant Doctor Who specials meant to try to get the views they chased away to tune back in prepare for the 60th anniversary of the show is due out this week but for the Red Nose day children in need business in England there was a short special that came out yesterday:

It was not only hilarious but had several little things for the folks who have been gone:

  • Julean Blech as Davros who played him in opposite both Tennant and Capaldi
  • Reference to the Mark Three travel machine, vs Mark 4 in the premiere Davros episode
  • Reference to Genesis of the Daleks
  • The joke about messing up the Canon (in reference to the actions of Chibnall)

It’s a promising start.

Thanksgiving comes very early this year meaning that Advent, the beginning of the church year will not be starting the Saturday after thanksgiving as usual, but the week afterwards. So technically we have a full week between Thanksgiving and the start of the shortened Christmas season but the start of the shopping season still begins on the 24th.

The media and the admin keeps insisting that the economy is doing fine. The events of the next two to six weeks will tell us if they are right or if they are full of it.

In my tabletop baseball league my team which has been overachieving has dropped out of 1st but is still solidly in the playoffs. But no matter how it ends I’m looking good for next year.

Both unanimous winners of the MVP Ohtani in the AL and Acuna Jr. in the NL are currently on my roster so no matter what happens the rest of this year, It going to look pretty good for me next year.

But I think Ohtani would look much better in a Redsox Uniform next year. It would be the best marketing move to bring the Redsox fans back to the stands.

Will they have the balls to do it?

The Celtics with Porzingis and Jrue Holiday have gotten off to an incredible start and it has become apparent that Holiday has more than adequately replaced Marcus Smart both in terms of defense and in terms of intentional fortitude.

At least one writer has suggested that Philadelphia go after Smart to shore up their defense as they chase Boston, but no matter what the situation there is no question that I was completely wrong in terms of the effect of this trade.

The Celtics and the Bruins both with incredible starts are making a serious move to win over the Boston/New England fans who are walking away from the Pats. If they can follow through they might just do so.

Both the media and the Trump campaign have gone all in on the idea that Ron DeSantis is finished both to serve their own purposes as both fear him but despite this DeSantis continues to pull in money and continues to make the fight.

Yesterday he made the case for him over Trump noting some basic facts that people ignore

“As a lame duck with poor personnel, and the distractions, it’s going to be hard for him to get this done,” DeSantis said. “My candidacy is lower risk, because we’ll run Biden ragged around this country, but high reward because you get a two-term conservative president who’s going to stand for your values and deliver for you for eight full years.”

And on CBS he played the age card rather effectively:

Trump is still my 2nd choice and if he’s at the top of the GOP ticket next November he’s have my vote no prob but anyone who is discounting DeSantis is deluding themselves

Update: Here is one more

What happened to caring about babies?

Posted: November 18, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in abortion
Tags: , , , ,

Democrats have been weaponizing the abortion debate and successfully turned it into a choice of either supporting women’s rights or stripping women of those rights. Having been subjected to the advertising onslaught in Virginia, the idiots that the Republican Party put in charge of campaigning have zero response to this.

Zero.

I saw NO effective counter ads, and the ads I did see were bland, “vote for me because I’m a veteran/good person” style ads. These are fluff and filler ads that don’t sway people.

Since Republican leadership can’t figure this out, I will humbly suggest the following ads that might help reframe the abortion debate:

  1. Play a nice slow song, showing a mother cradling her baby. Now overlay a dark figure of (insert politician here) saying “If the baby is born after an attempted abortion, we’ll place it in a bucket and consult with the mother about what to do next.” Cue to a frame saying “We can all get behind protecting mothers and stop politicians from murdering babies.”
  2. Show a black mother with two kids looking a little frazzled. A white lady in a suit walks up and asks if she needs help. She says yes, and the white lady recommends she abort her children in the future. Cue to a frame showing “40% of abortions are from black women. Let’s stop this racist practice. Make our politicians care about taking care of kids, not killing them.”
  3. In the background show a woman and a man crying in a doctor’s office. Have the speaker voice say “Some couples want babies but just can’t have them. Instead of making adoption easy, politician (insert name) wants to kill off healthy babies.” Add a split screen showing another woman on a operating table crying. “Abortion creates two broken couples. We can all get behind expedited adoption laws to make them both whole again.”

This was just me daydreaming for an hour on actual, useful ads, plus a bit of time using these three scenarios when my pro-abortion friends bring up “women’s health” issues. I dated a young lady that had an abortion before I met her, and even 4 years later, she was still bothered by it.

Republican leaders lose on abortion because they refuse to roll up their sleeves and talk about the evils of abortion. Get off your stupid high horse and fight back. Talk about the genocide abortion is causing in the Black community. Push for expedited adoption rules and break the stranglehold the state bureaucracy has on adoption. Highlight the politicians that are totally cool murdering kids after birth. Yeah, its ugly, but Democrats are doing the same to you, and if you fail, millions of innocent children die, and part of that blood is on your hands.

BTW, the cute picture at the top: that’s the best Bing AI would generate. I tried to show a donkey holding a uterus, or put Planned Parenthood on the clinic, and the AI wouldn’t let me. One more sign that Satan is deeply entrenched in this debate.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Side note: The overwhelming majority of abortions (86%) are by single women, and a large chunk (nearly 40%) were from Black Americans.

The Seven Faces You will Encounter in Debate, online and off and how to deal with them.

Posted: November 18, 2023 by datechguy in oddities

It’s my experience over a long life that you will find seven different types of people when you debate a subject of some importance that you have a strong opinion on. Here are my suggestions on how to deal with such people:

  1. The ignorant

One must remember when dealing with the ignorant that ignorance about a subject is not the same as stupidity. In fact it worth remembering that just about everybody is ignorant about more things then they are knowledgeable or even informed about.

The way to deal with ignorance is to provide information. How they react to that attempt will give a clue if you’re dealing with the willfully ignorant (who want to avoid a moral or difficult subject to avoid having to make a choice) or the uninformed. One must remember that being informed doesn’t automatically mean they will come to your point of view

  1. The stupid

There are some people who are simply not able to grasp certain things. When dealing with the stupid no amount of information or argument will have an effect so unless you wish to provide evidence on an argument within a social media timeline one is better off not wasting the short valuable time you have on earth getting worked up over an argument with them.

  1. The indifferent

There are people who simply don’t care about the things you do. Maybe their priorities are different than yours, maybe they have personal issue that override anything you might care about or maybe they just want to be left alone.

In this case one should remember that freedom of speech also means the freedom to not listen to your speech. It doesn’t matter what the issue is, if people don’t want to listen to you respect that choice. If the issue is their own imminent life & death (and I mean life or death NOW not in a month or a year or 30 years) you might press a little harder but odds are that won’t be the case online so if people want their space give them the freedom to have it.

  1. The different perspective

These tend to be the most interesting while at the same time being the most frustrating people to deal with in a debate. They are people who will look at the same facts as you and come to a completely different conclusion from them. Except in the case of mathematics one must remember that this is totally legitimate. Perhaps they have more or different information than you. Perhaps they have a different background or family history or give more weight to one part of the fact trail than another. Or perhaps they just look at things differently because by definition they are different than you as everyone else in the whole world is.

These are the people that I find most enjoyable to deal with because you can learn from their perspective and they keep you honest because as I like to say, if your argument is worth anything it should be able to stand up to critique. I find these folks are rare and while fun online are even more fun in person over a good lunch.

Stockpile such people as they are a great treasure.

  1. The mercenary

These are the anthesis of those who I just mentioned. They tend to have an agenda that is usually paid, in fact said agenda might be their primary source of income. No amount of information or argument makes a difference here and the best move is to simply disengage.

Occasionally if it’s an issue of sufficient importance you might take the trouble to expose the financial motive if possible but be wary as you don’t know if this is the only way this person feed their family and who are you to take the food out of the plate of this person’s kids?

Oh, one more thing about a mercenary. Depending on the issues you might find one who is on your side. That doesn’t make them any less of a mercenary so be wary in terms of trust because by definition they are only a higher paycheck away from betraying you.

  1. The Fanatic

The fanatic carries a religious or religious like belief in what their worldview. Usually based in Marxism or some kind of sexual or gender ideology or occasionally in actual religion. No amount of facts is likely to change them and you will beat your head against the wall doing so.

Furthermore such people are the most dangerous, particularly online as they are the type who will give you actual bodily harm in the service of said fanaticism and belief it as righteous. Beware of them and when possible disengage and block them.

But do pray for them, because there is one irony about them. If they are in such a bubble and manage to escape it by either the pressure of reality or the grace of God they often become the bravest warriors to stand with in a time of danger.

  1. The Malicious, dishonest and/or dishonorable

There are some folks who are just evil. Who life for the sake of lying, who hate for the sake of hating or take joy in the discomfort of others. Such people just want to wind you up for their own amusement.

Avoid them like they were the plague because they are.

One quick closing thought, remember that you do not always know who online is real and who is not. Act accordingly.

Older Entries
Newer Entries