A Snort for the Ills
“Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.” ― Andre Gide
When I saw Buck Owens at the House of Blues in Los Angeles in the 1990s, he kept sipping from a cup in between songs saying that he was drinking some medicine for a cold. As his playing got looser and looser…about an hour into the show and during a mid-song hootenanny, he looked left, off-stage…walked over and dragged a bewildered Dwight Yoakam into the chaos. Buck threw an acoustic guitar around Dwight’s shoulders and with a smile on his face commanded him to perform…pointing at him like a circus ringleader. I was near the stage and saw the grin on Dwight’s face as he went over to the pedal steel player and shouted above the din: where are we (in the song)? What key is this in? Ever the professional, he fell right in line, and even took a solo as they came to the bridge.
When the song was done, he took the nearest mike and looked right at Buck saying, “You look like you’re feeling real fine Buck,” and then looking to us, the audience, continued, “Is Buck telling you that the stuff he has been drinking is medicine? Ha, do you believe him??”
There is a history of alcohol being used as medicine for our ills. Medicine shows in the 1800s sold healing tonics that were nothing but hard booze (my doctor has a collection of these in his office) and old movies often show grandpa and granny taking swigs of a jug with an “X” drawn across it. There is a fantastic Betty Boop cartoon from the 30s where her, Koko and Bimbo are selling “Jippo” to an enthusiastic crowd. In fact, not only was liquor so often used as a medicine option, during the prohibition it became the only legal distribution model for anyone needing a tight fix during an era of dryness. And the government finally decided to put a stop to it.
100 years ago today, President Warren G. Harding (vampire?) signed the Willis-Campell Act…known as the Beer Emergency Bill or the Anti-Beer Bill…that made it unlawful to use alcohol as a method of medical treatment. It was actually a little more nuanced than that, directly outlawing the use of beer while allowing "spirituous and vinous liquors" but severely limiting prescriptions and threatening severe governmental prosecution to pharmacists and doctors who continued to use spirits as common ailment cures.
As you might imagine, the authors of the bill, Republican Senators Frank B. Willis of Ohio and Rep. Philip P. Campbell of Kansas, did not look like the sort of people you would want to share a cocktail with…as they road atop the puritanical sentiment of their day…much like some in their party are still barking about medical marijuana use now. Things are always changing, things are always staying the same.
A Rare Interview With Robert Crumb on America, PC Culture and Trump
Thank you Josh Rosenthal for this sensational, thorough check-in interview (warning: you do not want to open and close this article too many times or you will suddenly be blocked by a pay wall…).
JOHN COLTRANE’S SPIRITUAL JAZZ MASTERPIECE, A LOVE SUPREME, CERTIFIED PLATINUM IN THE U.S.
Incredible to think that this piece of genius could go platinum…56 years after its initial release!
Glamour, gossip, sex, scandal: Man Ray’s portraits captured Paris between the wars
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is displaying a whale of an exhibit with this Man Ray venture. Including photos of “Marcel Proust on His Death Bed” and Man Ray’s portrait of the artist James Joyce…which is worth the whole visit right there…it just might be worth a trip to Virginia to check this exhibit out!
More dinosaur tracks uncovered in renowned Colorado site
“The fossilized tracks are those belonging to creatures of the same family of Brontosaurus — resulting in the round steps that people have walked with for decades, extending across an ancient seabed.”
The Huntington Acquires Archive of Author Pico Iyer
I was introduced to Iver’s writing through his introduction to The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen (sorry I never finished it, Ethan!). The Huntington continues to add to its amazing collection from literary giants, with Iver’s archive now resting along with Jack London’s papers.
To Clean And Tidy Up Matter
By: Fernando Pessoa (as Alberto Caeiro)
To clean and tidy up Matter...
To put back all the things people cluttered up
Because they didn't understand what they were for...
To straighten, like a diligent housekeeper of Reality,
The curtains on the windows of Feeling
And the mats before the doors of Perception...
To sweep the rooms of observation
And to dust off simple ideas...
That's my life, verse by verse."
In the early 80’s I went with Dan Einstein and Al Bunetta (who managed JOhn Prine)to see John open for Merl Haggard at a county fair in Watsonville (near Santa Cruz). It was quite a scene. Lots of real cowboys in attendance. Each member of Merl’s band had a fifth of Jack Daniels at their feet. By the end of their set there were empties everywhere. I was shocked and amazed. And I never forgot.