Commentary
I usually avoid Hollywood award shows but made an exception for last Sunday’s Grammies when I learned of Joni Mitchell’s inclusion. It was one helluva show, and not just for the American icon.
Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life” duet with the late great Tony Bennett was perfect. Echoing the technology that won every award in the book for Natalie Cole (who recorded “Unforgettable” in 2012 with her long-dead dad Nat King Cole), Stevie Wonder sang and played live, trading verses with the immortal Benedetto on the big screen.
Between Ms. Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and the superstar duet, I was glad I had Kleenex handy.
Last year, Joni Mitchell was honored by the Library of Congress with the Gershwin Prize for popular song. She sang George Gershwin’s “Summertime” and later closed the show with what I consider her greatest work, “The Circle Game.”
Pretty good for an octogenerian who beat childhood polio only to suffer a brain aneurism 10 years ago requiring her to re-learn talking, walking, singing and playing guitar.
Olivia Rodrigo rang my chimes with the unintentionally ironic “Vampire,” a song I plan to extensively use on my new show.
“I used to think I was smart
You made me look so naive
The way you sold me for parts
As you sunk in your teeth
Soulsucker, dream crusher
Bleedin’ me dry like a (goddamn) vampire”
Ahem…On the broadcast, Ms. Rodrigo sang “dream crusher” instead of the hit version which rhymes a bit better with “soulsucker.” Get it? She also edited the blasphemy word for TV.
Mss. Mitchell and Swift and their friends propelled the Sunday show to its highest ratings since 2020, up 34 percent from last year at almost 17 million viewers. Understandable. Unforgettable.
Women dominated the ‘24 Grammies. Bueno. Even former first lady Michelle Obama beat Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for the best audio book narration.
If women can become a governing majority, the human species may yet stand a chance at avoiding self-annihilation.
Wannabe hip hop king T-Rump (Barbwire 12-27-23 and 1-31-24) probably lost sleep when he saw a show get great ratings that failed to mention him even once.
Save for, perhaps, Ms. Rodrigo.
GRANDPA BERNIE STILL BURNS BRIGHTLY. The great advocate for the little people kicked serious butt on Seth Myers’ Monday show, as did Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren who guested on Steven Colbert’s soirée.
Sen. Warren reiterated that T-Rump doesn’t want the bi-partisan border bill to pass. He thrives on chaos, presenting himself as the panacea.
She also blasted companies that artificially skyrocket grocery prices, still using the pandemic as an excuse.
Sen. Sanders decried the huge uptick in prescription drug prices. (More than 900 have risen since December.) He also reiterated his opposition to giving any money to the Israeli government until they stop their wholesale slaughter of Palestinian civilians. Bernie is uniquely positioned to make such demands. He’s a Jewish kid from Brooklyn.
GOING TO THE DOGS. Wall Street vulture Alden Global Capital just sold the Baltimore Sun to the boss of Sinclair Broadcast Group which owns more than 200 stations, including NBC-4 and FOX-11, among a dozen northwestern Nevada signals. (Barbwire 1-31-2024)
Alden bought a bunch of newspapers, eviscerated them, sold off their real estate and dumped the skeletons on main street. (After its merger, Gannett did the same thing with the Reno Gazette-Journal, selling off the RGJ building to the City of Reno for remodeling as a police station. Net profit: $7 million.)
Alden recently acquired 200 Greyhound depots and is closing many terminals in city centers, leaving low income riders to hitchhike.
Greyhound was started by the nation’s railroads who decided they weren’t making enough money on passengers. So they made the service awful and started an alternative across their parking lots: Greyhound. They thus kept passenger revenue and eliminated dining and sleeping cars, engineers, conductors and baggage porters — remaining jobs now handled by one beleaguered driver.
I haven’t been able to verify if Reno is slated for closure. Stay tuned.
SPEAKING OF SHUTDOWNS. T-Rump’s postmaster general is still doing his best to ruin the mail service and thus screw up voting. For the second time in less than 20 years, the Reno main post office on Vassar Street is facing evisceration.
The postal service will hold a public meeting in Reno next Tuesday, Feb. 13 about its new plan to ship all mail from eastern California and central and northern Nevada to Sacramento for sorting. Mail from Sparks to Reno used to take a day. T-Rump’s boy has already turned that into two days or more. Hey, who needs prescriptions anyway?
The forum is scheduled for the convenient hour of 3:00 p.m. next Tuesday (why no Zoom or streaming?) at the former Airport Plaza Hotel on Plumb Lane across from the Reno airport. It’s now known as the SureStay Plus, not exactly a memorable rebranding. I will link the URL of an online survey to this column at NevadaLabor.com/ Deadline: Feb. 28.
This is one serious debacle in the making, just in time to ensure that a lot of November mail-in ballots are creatively delayed and in jeopardy of not counting. The first thing T-Rump’s shill did in 2020 was to junk multiple millions of dollars’ worth of mail sorting equipment.
A union letter carrier mused how ironic it would be if USPS execs from Sacramento could not attend their own meeting because Donner Pass is closed.
ON THIS DATE: Betty Joyce Luffman, who would become my wife, was born.
We had 30 great years together. Remember her with laughter. Barbano.net/
Coming soon: T-Rump, the man who raps America, announces his hip hop back-up band. All naming suggestions welcome.
Vaxx up, stay safe, pray for Ukraine and almost 100 other currently war-torn lands.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbáno is a 55-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com and Barbwire.TV/ Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us “Vampire” lyrics slightly edited for clarity and cleanliness.
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