Music Between Friends
Divides are everywhere
In the last flurry of optimism before our American translation of Guy Fawkes Day, where we continued wearing the masks we’ve pretty much always worn, I watched the stream of Chappell Roan’s appearance on SNL. Her performance might have been upstaged by a semi-surprise guest — semi because word even leaked out down here in red body state South Carolina.
And while I loved seeing Maya Rudoph’s doppelganger, I'll take Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” to my memory bank. Someone remarked that they’d never seen an SNL audience sing along with such verve and enthusiasm before, and though I haven’t done a statistical study or polled the millions in our 50 states plus Puerto Rico, I think that’s right. At least no one much sang with Neil Young when he did “Rockin’ in the Free World” or The Clash when they did “Straight to Hell.”
Is everything divided, or at least ironic these days?
When did you last see the Hughes Brothers’ 1993 classic Menace II Society?
In a key, but very low-key, scene, Caine and his grandparents watch the 1939 classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. This would be hilarious if we hadn’t been living in the 90s or now. I have no idea about the wonders of life in Watts then, now, or forever, though when someone disses someone else by mentioning Ron O’Neal in the putdown, the…
