My sister used to be a huge Janis Joplin fan, right down to drinking a lot more SoCo than my parents know (they don’t read this blog!). She left an old tape of “Pearl” in my car and I’ve listened to it about 50 times since I found it under the passenger seat. The whole fucking tape is awesome. I drive an old car and only have a tape deck in it.
Also too, open thread.
JCT
Ah, my beloved aunt who died way too young at 51 was a huge Joplin fan. She was my babysitter and I grew up listening to all of it … thanks for the nice memory DougJ.
Wally Ballou
Maybe the worst umpiring call in postseason baseball history was made in the Cards-Braves game some 15 minutes back, and the game is still halted as Atlanta fans are raining litter down on the field.
Granted, it’s only baseball and not the all-important National Helmeted Slabs of Meat Crashing Into Each Other League, so I doubt it’s of interest here, but…
Hill Dweller
Brutal summer heat yields to seasonable temps, just as election looms. Is it real, or rigged data from pro-Obama Weather Service? –David Axelrod(on twitter)
eemom
I like Janis too.
However, I prefer Kris Kristofferson’s own version of Bobby McGee. [ducks and runs]
Josie
Love Janis Joplin. Here, for a nice contrast, is a musical number my sister-in-law from Boston sent me. It’s good to have eclectic tastes in music, don’t you think?
http://www.onetermmore.com/video.html
Steeplejack
@Wally Ballou:
I’m watching, and I thought that was a bullshit call too. The fan reaction was bullshit also.
Ah, game resuming now.
SBJules
I first saw Janis as part of Big Brother & the holding company at UCSB(University of CA Santa Barbara. They were the opening act and Janis stole the show!!
realbtl
Saw both of her performances at Monterrey Pop. Quite the entertainer in her early years.
Jewish Steel
Humblebrag or hipstercred?
gbear
Last night I did the paperwork to adopt a cat that I’ve visited a couple of times at the MN Humane Society on the other side of Minneapolis, and I drove thru 45 minutes of rush hour to go pick him up tonight. When I got there, they told me that this afternoon he’d started throwing up and was now down in the sick ward until a vet can check him out tomorrow. They had my phone number but didn’t bother to call me to let me know that I couldn’t bring him home tonight. I hope that Edward is going to be OK but I’m more pissed at the Humane Society for not having it together enough to let me know he was sick. Fuck, I’m pissed off right now. I’ve been hyped about the new kitty all day.
I’m listening to Love Forever Changes right now but I’ll watch the Joplin link later.
Fluke bucket
A great way to start a Friday night. thanks
Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ
@realbtl:
Awesome!
Liquid
So, Ed Schultz is having the former host of Reading Rainbow, Geordi La Forge, on as a guest.
sydney
“We want a Jedi, not a Sith”, Haaa!
The Dangerman
@Wally Ballou:
It was a brutal call, but the worst call in postseason history has to be the foul ball in a Twins/Yankees game a few years ago. Luckily, it was the visiting team that got fucked that time (the Twins); if it had been the Yankees that got shafted at home, they may have had to build a new stadium.
They will have to go to a replay system eventually.
ETA: Gotta love youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKxd2afENKA
realbtl
@Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ:
She was something to see then. Unfortunately I also saw her just a BB&HC were breaking up and again just before she died. The deterioration as a live performer was sad. She still had it sometimes but you could see the drugs taking it away.
Mike in NC
Back in my 20’s I went through a phase where I drank Southern Comfort. No way would I now touch the stuff.
quannlace
Ha! Moi, aussi. My car’s from the ’90’s. If I’m in a friends car that’s only 1-2 years old, I feel like I’m in fucking Star Trek.
sharl
@gbear: Damn that sucks. I hope kitty gets better, and it works out for you both.
trollhattan
There have been many. many posthumous albums, but I don’t think any top “Pearl” for its combination of superlative performance and cruel reminder of our loss.
Allen
In my never so humble opinion, “Pearl” isn’t the best Joplin album. As I recall the Kristofferson version of “Me and Bobby McGee”, from the “The Silver Tongued Devil and I”, is better. Bought the “The Silver Tongued Devil and I” in the dollar rack at the Payless drug store in downtown Spokane in 1971.
MattR
@The Dangerman: Jeffrey Maier?
gbear
@sharl: Yes, I hope it’s just a blip and he gets better quickly, but I also don’t want to bring a questionably healthy cat home and put my 12 year old tort Halley at risk.
hitchhiker
Janis fans might enjoy this 1970 interview with David Frost. That woman was so far ahead of her time it’s not even funny.
gbear
@trollhattan: I kind of like the Big Brother albums when Janis was just a hippie in a hippie band before all the record execs started forcing her to record with ‘professional’ musicians. I think they put too much pressure on her musical direction, and she broke. I like about half of Pearl a lot but would rather listen to her on Kosmic Blues or Cheap Thrills.
trollhattan
@Allen:
“Cheap Thrills” takes the best-of award, for my money. You want energy? That’s energy.
Hungry Joe
I saw Janis in San Diego with the Full-Tilt Boogie Band a few months before she died. She was … so-so. Clearly addled.
How cool is this: John Scalzi, on his Whatever site, posted a picture of his daughter Athena holding three books … one of which (ANYWAY*, the one on the left) is mine.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/09/26/for-nerd-day-at-her-school-athena-recreates-a-classic-of-the-form/
Okay, Scalzi and I go way back, but still …
PeakVT
@Jewish Steel: He didn’t say whether it was an 8-track or not, so I vote for humblebrag.
eemom
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedez-Benz…..
Know what is the best thing about this thread, DougJ? The folks who remember Janis are even older than ME.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@MattR:
That was my first thought. Grrrrr.
trollhattan
@Hungry Joe:
Scalzi’s kid looks like a hoot–great pic!
JGabriel
__
__DougJ @ Top:
O Lord, won’cha buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all have Porsches. I must make amends.
.
The Dangerman
@MattR:
That’s up there, too. I think that one is, at least, a defensible “mistake”, though.
That one and this one tonight should be Exhibits A and B for a replay system.
I may change my mind this one being the worst call because it was a 1 and done game. At least the others you had some margin for recovering from a call.
Oh, well, sucks to be a Braves fan (which I’m not).
MattR
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Did that call create the Yankees dynasty?
@The Dangerman: As a lifelong Baltimore Orioles fan living in the New York City area, it is gonna take quite a bit to get me to move Jeffrey Maier from number 1 :)
redshirt
Yankees – Sox ’99 “Phantom Tag”. Awful. Crowd also responded by throwing trash for 15 minutes or so.
jharp
When I hear Janis Joplin tunes it reminds me of my wife’s company Christmas party where some sexy good looking lady with a cool name in a silver jacket karaoked “Piece of my Heart”.
And it’s been about 10 years ago and my wife left the company 9 years ago.
Hungry Joe
@trollhattan:
I met Athena when I visited Scalzi last year. She’s an amazing kid. I made the customary Oh,-child-of-a-friend,-“How-are-you-What-grade-are-you-in?” noises, then dropped my guard and found myself in a serious, intelligent conversation with a really interesting person.
Allen
@trollhattan: Yeah, I kinda like “Cheap Thrills” a lot too. Could have used a better band, but then I
didn’t buy it for the band, but for Ms. Joplin. One of the great things about 12″ LPs was the cover art
muddy
The CD player broke in my car so I use the tape deck with one of those adapter tapes, plugged into the iPod shuffle. I like that because I never have to pick what tape to play, and every song is a good car song. If I don’t want that song, hit next. It’s great for safe driving, and all the music is favorite.
PsiFighter37
My flight to San Francisco got canceled because the crew didn’t show up.
Seriously.
Really pissed off right now.
redshirt
9/22/01 – Boston, The Fenway. My sweet 88 Honda Civic was stolen from her oh-so-rare free parking spot in the Fenway. I was shocked – I thought we had come together as a country, and yet here I am without my sweet ride. I had to travel for business the next day and so I left Boston not knowing where my car was, though gone, I was sure. Bye.
I returned to no news of my Honda. More days passed – 5 of them, in deed, and I got the call the car had been found on blocks in Roxbury. With 3 parking tickets. LOL. I fought the tickets and won, but had to pay a tow fee, storage fee, and a disposal fee. $400. I ask the guy I’m paying “My car got stolen and I’m paying you $400 – how’s that right?” He says, “I hear ya Buddy, but I still got to have $400.” Fork over.
I finally found my Civic in the City tow lot, a huge sprawling asphalt hell. There she was, looking good. But upon inspection, she was stripped – the engine was gone, the front axle was gone, the steering wheel and drivers seat was gone. And yet, all my stuff was unmolested. My basketball. My dictionary. My glovebox in order, the shoes on the floor where they ought to be. And even my cassette tapes, so many tapes, untouched in their carrying case.
I had a strange respect for the people who stole the car and stripped her – professionals, who took everything of value from the awesome little car, and left everything that was personally mine. I bet they made a nice profit. They’re probably good business people too.
Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ
@redshirt:
Great story!
Yutsano
Stupid question: if you owed $63K to the IRS and knew you hadn’t done what you needed to resolve it, what would your next action be? If you said go on “vacation” in Mexico, you now know what I dealt with today. Oi.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Yutsano: I know I’m gonna be poorer soon, so I might as well enjoy myself. I would do Italy or Japan, though.
trollhattan
@PsiFighter37:
That’s teh suck. American Airlines, perchance? The whole works is circling the drain.
redshirt
@Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ: They took my sweet cassette deck too, of course. I just had it installed like 5 weeks before. Tragic.
PsiFighter37
@trollhattan: United. Busted my ass to get out of work early. All I have to show for it is $30 worth of worthless NJ Transit train tickets. I was only going out until Sunday afternoon, so now the weekend trip is kiboshed.
First stop for me when I get back to Penn Station is Whole Foods to grab some brew with high ABV.
NotMax
Harking back to someone else who was a musical contemporary of Joplin, I note that Scott McKenzie died this past August.
Too long a tale to unfold here at the moment, but will just say that he stalked me (not in any sexual or angry or vindictive or personally threatening way, but stalking it still was) for a couple of years back in the 70s, beginning after I emceed a concert of his.
redshirt
@NotMax: More details please?
Steeplejack
@PsiFighter37:
They might have missed a connection, just like regular customers do.
An ex-girlfriend used to be a flight attendant, and she had occasional weird things in her work schedule, e.g., work from A to B, “deadhead” from B to C, work from C back to A.
trollhattan
@redshirt:
Lord, “welcome to the hood.”
Neighbors across the street on their first night in their new house awoke to find an unknown to them Mustang parked at their door. It had four space-saver spare wheels held on with one nut each, not much of an interior and no plates. They called the cops who said yup, stolen car. Top of the engine was gone as well, so a flatbed must have dropped it off in the middle of the night with nobody noticing.
Welcome to the neighborhood!
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@MattR:
Nah. I was watching the Yanks beat the Dodgers in ’77 and ’78 when I was living in LA. They’ve got a long history of being insufferable.
I moved to Baltimore and turned into an O’s fan just in time for the ’79 Series. That little kid really pissed me off, screwing up a ball in play and sinking the O’s.
trollhattan
@PsiFighter37: What a PITA. Big weekend in the Bay Area. Were you coming out for Fleet Week, big-ass sailboat races, or just because?
Two teams in the Playoffs. Must be earthquake season.
MattR
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I guess I should have said the most recent iteration of the Yankees dynasty. If they lose that game and then lose that series to go out in the first round of the playoffs two straight years and lose again in the first round the following year (like they did) would Steinbrenner have broken up that team including the core that led them to dominate the rest of the 90’s and early 00’s?
Ed or Edna Dane Defender of Donuts
I’ve been listening to The Dandy Warhols lately. Here is one song of theirs for Balloon Juice listening, amusement purposes >.>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suazwrc2RPU
dubyabee
I’m currently on my 3rd copy of “Pearl”, my second of “Cheap Thrills” and my second of “Live in COncert”. There’s a half gallon jug of Southern Comfort in the kitchen that still has a couple fingers left in it.
Yeah, I’m a Fanboi…. So?
danielx
Saw Janis at the State Fair Coliseum in Indianapolis and she was too awesome, as the kids say now, or possibly said last month – can’t keep up with it nowdays. Watching her sweet talking an obstreperous stagehand gave meaning to that phrase about having their hearts and minds follow….
kindness
I have 5 huge cases of cassettes out in the garage that I haven’t listened to in probably 10 years. Mostly old Dead shows but a bunch of studio work from artists. I bet most those tapes have drop outs in ’em by now.
imonlylurking
@redshirt: My car was stolen as well-1998 Geo Metro, probably one of the few 4-door automatics with air conditioning.
The thing is, the air conditioning didn’t work. The police said somebody probably stole it as a ride, not to strip, and it would turn up eventually. It did-I don’t remember how much I had to pay to get it out of the lot. I was able to get the ticket waived since I had reported it stolen.
The really funny thing was-the thieves made me a swap. They took an afghan I had left in the back seat and left me a two-cd set of the Temptations singing Christmas carols. (Did I mention my car didn’t have a CD player? And I happen to love Christmas music? And I didn’t have that particular recording?)
I still have the car. And the CDs.
Schlemizel
@eemom:
I love Pearl deeply & have since the first time I heard her voice. Bobby McGee was maybe the worst song she ever did. It was popular because it was so MOR. She couldn’t have gone on singing like she did with BB&HC, nobodys voice could last under that strain. But Full Tilt Boogie was the right sound for her and you can hear what her future would have been had she not died.
There would have been occasional sludge like McGee to feed the beast but damn the rest of that album is a revelation.
Its a shame Kristofferson isn’t putting out new stuff too.
WaterGirl
@redshirt: What an emotional roller coaster ride that must have been.
You’ve got your shock from having your beloved car stolen, you’ve got the days of not knowing – always fun. Relief and happiness that the car was found, followed by the frustration dealing with the stupid bureaucracy, not to mention being out 400.00. Then you find your beloved vehicle has been stripped, you must have landed back on shock. Appreciation that they left your stuff. Respect, possibly grudgingly, for them taking only what would make them money. The odd realization that these people who stole your car showed some humanity by leaving your stuff. Not to mention all the stuff I left out. I imagine an experience like that could leave quite an impact.
dance around in your bones
Janis can still raise the hair on the back of my neck and give me goosebumps, too.
redshirt
@WaterGirl: Yeah. Exactly. There’s a girl involved too – Michelle – but I didn’t mention her for the sake of brevity.
Nikolay
@imonlylurking: This didn’t happen to be in Washington?