I couldn’t tell you what year it was when I bought Herb Jeffries’ Devil Is A Woman, but it had to be in the mid to late ‘90s, when I was neck deep in ironic acquisitions—mass-produced thrift store kitsch paintings, boxes of ‘50s vacation slides, vanity pressed gospel and lounge organist albums purchased for their endearingly cheap cover art but almost never listened to. I’m sure a fair many DM readers know that whole drill.
 

 
One night back then, a friend was over for company and cans of cheap beer, and he played DJ with one of my crates of weirdo records. Most of it was boring dross, as was to be expected, but soon enough, lo, a gem didst shine out for us. It was, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, the aforesaid Jeffries LP, sporting a K-Mart price tag of 77¢, probably purchased for more like a quarter.
 

 
As soon as the needle settled into that thick old slab of Golden Tone Hi-Fidelity vinyl, a potent, red-blooded, exotic rhythm underpinned a horn section’s dramatic spy-movie stabs, and then the delightful vocalist entered the fray, crooning in a huge, unlikely wail and a surely fake, vaguely Mediterranean/Caribbean/somethingorother accent,

YOU’RE NOT HUMAN WOMAN YOU’RE A DEBBIL DOOOOOOOOOOON’T BOTHER MEEEEEEEE!

I’ve searched for a freakin’ hour, dear reader, and unless my Google Fu is just totally garbage today, the entire song is nowhere to be found online. The 30 second sample on Last FM is crystal clear and representative. Also there’s this:
 

 
The rest of the album is similarly filled with eye-widening delights, so there my friend and I sat, two newly minted fans of - who? Jeffries’s name is set in uncommonly tiny type on the cover, which may be just as well, as it’s misspelled. But off I went to find more, and so I did. Not only more recordings under his own name, but I learned that this odd pop singer was also pedigreed as the golden Jazz voice atop Duke Ellington’s very large hit “Flamingo.”
 

 
And it gets weirder - Jeffries initially became known in the ‘30s singing for the Earl “Fatha” Hines orchestra (he’s the lone surviving member of both Hines’ and Ellington’s bands), and improbably parlayed that into a career as a singing cowboy in low-budget western films with all African-American casts. Well, all African-American save for Jeffries himself, whose background, in reality Irish/Sicilian unless he’s still bullshitting, was a matter of some chicanery throughout his career, and it seems like no two bios are in exact agreement on the matter of his ethnicity. His astonishing passing himself off as black in everyday life during the segregation era - how that might sit in relation to blackface performance is a discussion I’d love to hear from people better informed on such matters than I - earned him the nickname “The Bronze Buckaroo,” from the title of one of the films. This film, in fact.
 

 
Per his Wikipedia biography, Jeffries discovered his birth certificate in 2007, learning then that his birthdate is September 24, 1913, making this performer with a crazy back story a centenarian as of today. And so we salute and congratulate Herb Jeffries on his 100th birthday. Here’s a short documentary celebrating his career, showing him spry as a damn kitten and in full possession of his faculties even in his nineties.
 

“In my insides, it really hurts if someone doesn’t like me. It’s silly.”

Listen to Janis Joplin’s final interview—where she shows a more vulnerable side—with Howard Smith of The Village Voice on September 30, 1970. This was recorded just four days before Joplin died from a heroin overdose at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood.

Joplin talks about rejection and why some women may have disliked or been intimidated by her strong female rock persona. 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:

Kozmic Blues: Incredible footage of Janis Joplin, live in Germany, 1969

‘Raise Your Hand!’: FANTASTIC Tom Jones & Janis Joplin duet, 1969
 

Via The World’s Best Ever

 
Oh, boy. In another sign that we live in a country of “Two Americas” in which there’s just no way in hell we’re ever going to get on the same page, the CEO of AIG, a man named Robert Benmosche, stated that the widespread irritation over bonuses.
 

was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitchforks and their hangman nooses, and all that—sort of like what we did in the Deep South [decades ago]. And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong.

 
Hilariously, the Wall Street Journal‘s headline for the article that contained this nugget of wisdom is “At AIG, Benmosche Steers a Steady Course.” Ooooookay. Did you guys read the article?

It’s almost useless to get into any details of how shockingly wrong and entitled this is. But let’s start with this: Benmosche is a very powerful person! He’s the boss at one of the largest financial concerns in the United States. It is to be taken for granted that he counts among his friends and acquaintances many powerful people in the worlds of commerce and politics. If Benmosche wants something to happen in order to aid his company, there’s a very good chance that it will happen, because he can exert his will over the social polis far more than other people can.

The true crime here is the unfair playing field that benefits men like Benmosche so lavishly—in a democracy, it is the right of the people to complain about precisely such things. There have been no reports of CEOs being lynched, beaten, denied their civil rights. None of those things ever happened. It wouldn’t take a conspiracy nut to point out that almost all of the people who committed the vast financial crimes of the 2004-2008 period were never dealt with by the courts for the systematic fraud they perpetrated.

How much time studying the civil rights movement would it take before a person realized how wrongheaded this analogy is? Ten minutes? Two minutes? There’s no part of the civil rights story that would strike any reasonable person as being somehow fertile ground for metaphors about how mistreated Wall St. CEOs are. The whole point of the civil rights story is that African Americans in many southern states were systematically oppressed by what amounts to a police state. It wasn’t simply that the Klan was active; it was that the Klan was operating with the approval of the local constabulary.

If you don’t know this, then you are disqualified from making observations about the meaning of the civil rights era. If you do know this and you do venture to compare the lot of highly compesated Wall St. titans to the systematic deprivations African Americans experienced on a daily basis in the South before about 1970—and to some extent still to this day, and not just in the South—well, then you’re a horrible human being, pure and simple.

Ezra Klein’s report in the Washington Post blog Wonkblog does the service of reminding us of a few further outrages uttered by powerful Wall St. figures since the crash of 2008.

For example, widely loathed Gristedes owner and recent NYC mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis said last year, “New York is for everybody; it’s for the poor, it’s for the middle-class, it’s for the wealthy. We can’t punish any one group and chase them away. We–I mean, Hitler punished the Jews. We can’t have punishing the ‘2% group’ right now.”

Or this, from The Daily Beast:
 

“It’s a war,” [Blackstone Group CEO] Schwarzman said of the struggle with the administration over increasing taxes on private-equity firms. “It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.”

 
Klein had some illuminating insights about how such language makes it into the public sphere:

I was in an off-the-record meeting with top Wall Street folks where similar comparisons to Nazi Germany were tossed around. It really was a meme on Wall Street that the singling out of the wealthy for criticism — and, more to the point, taxation — had a direct historical precedent in Nazi Germany, where the Jews were first demonized, then taxed, and then, well, you know. The sense was that the rich in general, and Wall Street in particular, weren’t just being criticized, but that they were being turned into a dangerously despised minority.

That’s the context of Benmosche’s comment. I would bet he’s made the same point a number of times in private rooms to appreciative nods. When you say and hear that kind of thing often enough, however, you forget how insane and offensive it is — and then you say it to the Wall Street Journal.

The sad thing is, I could almost understand it if such utterances were cold and calculating attempts to sway public opinion (which would be very ill advised, if such they are). No, what’s even more disheartening is that they really seem to believe the bullshit they say.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Rep. Eric Cantor:  Craven toady of the rich; man on the wrong side of history
We’re all slaves for the wealthy, here’s more proof

 
Youtuber Absolute Destiny created this hilarious montage of infomercials mixed with The Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want.”

Who knew this maudlin song was a paean to consumerism???
 

 
With thanks to Brian Braun!

 
While I love the above knitted Divine sweater (I’d probably wear it) by designer James Long, I hate the one below. The sleeves! Oh gawd those hideous sleeves!

And when I say “I’d probably wear it,” I’d probably wear it if I had an extra $1300 to burn ‘cause that’s how much these “high-fashion” sweaters cost. Holy crap!
 

 
Via WOW

 
A new ad for Dewar’s Scotch whiskey uses Charles Bukowski’s famous poem, “So You Want to Be a Writer,” to hawk their booze. The reading is quite beautiful, the kind of pathos-rendering performance one wishes they had first heard outside of an advertisement. Now, I’m way past caring about hearing my favorite song in a commercial. First of all, no one is dumb enough to think the artist or band is actually endorsing a project. Secondly, making money off of music is really difficult, so I’m pretty sympathetic to whatever artists or their surviving family have to do to make ends meet. This Dewar’s ad however, rubs me the wrong way, and I can’t quite figure out why it’s so different.

Maybe it’s because music is capable of being such a passive experience, while this kind of poetry requires a more focused engagement. Yes, we’ve all gotten wasted, put on the headphones, and listened to ABBA with a fevered intensity (or maybe that’s just me?), but most of the time, we have music playing while we commute, clean the house, type away at work, take care of the kids, or do whatever mundane task the day requires of us. Most music is art that we can fit into the nooks and crannies of our lives—a soundtrack—but this kind of poetry requires a bit of space, and a bit of time.

Or maybe It’s because this poem has always rubbed me the wrong way, as an anthem of creative onus. I’ve always felt it odd that someone would list off the many “wrong” ways to make art, as if it’s some sort of orthodox religion. And the idea that art should only be produced in a flash of inspiration or passion has been argued against by so many artists. Sometimes things take time, first drafts, second drafts, 134th drafts. Sometimes the failures and near-misses of creation are what’s necessary to really transform a project into something great. Sometimes creation is a schlep. Sometimes ideas and work needs to age (like a good whiskey!).

Or maybe I just don’t like the ad because I think Dewar’s is terrible Scotch?
 

 
Via Open Culture

 
Last year, Lu Qing was unpacking some women’s clothing for her fashion outlet business Yuekou when her grandfather, Liu Xianping, came in and started giving her some unsolicited advice about what piece went with what. So she suggested that he try some of the clothes on. Before they knew it, the entrepreneur (also known as Ms. Lv) had him in front of her camera—and on her website, as a model.
 

 
The images of Liu Xianping wearing miniskirts, tights, dresses, fur-lined coats, and even long-haired wigs have become an international sensation. According to the New York Daily News, “The foxy grandpa says he’s just happy to help his granddaughter with her business.” Lu has said that her grandfather’s involvement has greatly enhanced her business: “Since the pictures came out, we’ve had a huge number of website visitors, and are selling five times as many clothes as before. . . . Previously, we sometimes sold less than 10 items a day, and were feeling depressed about the business.”
 

 
Liu’s sassy attitude, long legs, and slim physique have attracted the attention of other stores, who have inquired about his modeling for them. As he told China Newsweek: “Why unacceptable for someone like me to wear women’s clothes? Modelling for the store is helping my granddaughter and I have nothing to lose.”

Damn right, Gramps.
 

Liu Xianping in a ‘Gangnam Style’ pose
 
After the jump, more of Liu Xianping’s modeling poses…..

 
On September 20, the National Geographic Channel’s television show Diggers excavated a time capsule that was buried 30 years ago. Jobs was in Colorado attending a International Design Conference in Aspen when he buried the time capsule.  The 13-foot-long tube was intended to be unearthed in 2000, but changes in the terrain obscured its exact location — until now.

The time capsule contained a mouse for Apple’s 1983 Lisa computer—widely acknowledged as the first mass consumer product to feature a mouse. In addition to the mouse, the capsule was also found to contain a fascinating jumble of artifacts from the early 1980s: an eight-track recording by the Moody Blues, a Rubik’s Cube, a June 1983 copy of Vogue Magazine, a Sears Roebuck catalog, and a six-pack of Ballantine beer. The beer is thought to have been intended to reward the crew tasked to dig up the capsule.
 

The contents of the time capsule: What mysteries lie within?
 
According to Harry Teague, who was on the design team that buried the capsule, “When we buried the capsule in 1983 at the IDCA conference titled ‘The Future Is Not What It Used to Be,’ it was scheduled to be unearthed in twenty years. We had no idea it would be thirty before we would finally get around to digging it up. I’m sure it’s loaded with things of cultural and historic import, but the mouse from one of his new Apple Lisa computers that Steve Jobs threw in at the last minute has to be one of the more iconic items.”

The full contents of the time capsule will be revealed on a future episode of Diggers.
 

The time capsule before its burial in 1983—is that Steve Jobs?
 
Here you can hear the presentation given by Steve Jobs at the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen:

 
via designboom
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Steve Jobs: Apple Key-note Speech 1984
‘Look, I’m on television!’: Steve Jobs preps for the big time

 
From @chunklet on Twitter comes this wonderful but unsourced (and possibly unsourceable?) news clipping detailing pioneering rock guitarist Bo Diddley’s views on weighty matters such as romance, cuisine, pharmacology and cows.

Alcohol and Drugs  Only drink Grand Marnier, and that’s to keep the throat from drying up in a place where there’s a lot of smoke. As for drugs: a big NO!

Food  Eat anytime, anything you can get your hands on. I mean it!

Health  Whenever you get to feeling weird, take Bayer aspirin. I can’t stand taking all that other bullshit.

Money  Always take a lawyer with you, and then bring another lawyer to watch him.

Defense  I can’t go around slapping people with my hands or else I’d go broke. So I take karate, and kick when I fight. Of course, I got plenty of guns - one real big one. But guns are for people trying to take your home, not some guy who makes you mad. I used to be a sheriff down in New Mexico for two and a half years, so I know not to pull it right away.

Cows  If they wanna play, and you don’t wanna make pets out of ‘em, and you can’t eat ‘em - then get rid of ‘em!

Women  If you wanna meet a nice young lady, then you try to smell your best. A girl don’t like nobody walking up in her face smelling like a goat. Then, you don’t say crap like “Hey, don’t I know you?” The first thing you ask her is: “Are you alone?” If she tells you that she’s with her boyfriend, then you see if the cat’s as big as you. If you don’t have no money, just smell right. And for God’s sake don’t be pulling on her and slapping on her. You don’t hit the girls! If you do this, you can’t miss.

Hearing  Just don’t put your ears in the speakers.

I think we can all agree that a girl don’t like nobody walking up in her face smelling like a goat, and it really can’t be said often enough.
 

 
While you’re busy rethinking your life, enjoy some Bo Diddley…
 

 
A few years ago, I was walking past a skateboard park in South Orange, New Jersey and I noticed that several of the teenage mall rats skating there had mass-produced tee-shirts of 70s and 80s punk bands that were not quite right. In the case of one kid wearing a Clash shirt, it wasn’t even the band’s logo or anything even remotely like it, it merely said “The Clash.” In Helvetica!

It was one of the stupidest tee-shirts I have ever seen, and although I don’t hold it against that lad for trying, his attempt to be cool was a wee bit inept. Helvetica, in case you didn’t catch it the first time.

Urban Outfitters is currently offering a “one of a kind” “Vintage Men’s Punk Leather Jacket” with hand-painted almost logos of The Clash, G.B.H., Sex Pistols and Crass. WHO PAINTED THIS?

You can buy this vintage slice o’ insta-rebellion for a mere $375! Leave it to the Urban Outfitter’s crew to turn a crappy coat not worth $3.75 in a thrift store into a beauty like this one. Hurry, there’s only one!

Via Rachel Haywire