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Thanksgiving Weekend Butler: Thank YOU! What Steve Jobs knew (and Elon Musk doesn’t). A getaway movie. Getaway music. A mind-teasing poem. Recipe: a bird after turkey. And more.
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Published: Nov 23, 2022
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Weekend
THANKSGIVING: THE ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE
A young man entered Club Q, in Colorado Springs, wearing a military-style jacket and carrying a long, AR-15-style rifle and a handgun, and in just a few minutes, he killed five people and wounded eighteen. His choice of location wasn’t accidental: Club Q is a gay club that attracts families, straight and gay, for Sunday brunch to watch drag performers.
Richard Fierro (in the photo, above) and his family were at Club Q to celebrate a friend’s birthday and watch the drag show, which included a performance by his 22-year-old daughter’s best friend. Fierro is ex-military — when the shooting started, he hit the floor. Then he saw the shooter. “I had to do something. He was not going to kill my family. I ran across the bar, grabbed the guy from the back and pulled him down and pinned him against the stairs. He went for his weapon, and I grabbed his handgun. Then I just started hitting him. The back of his head was my target. And as I’m beating the back of his head, I’m yelling to people, ‘Call the police! Let’s go!'” [Watch his emotional account.]
A drag queen in high heels went by. Fierro shouted, “Kick him!” The best line in the press coverage: “”A drag dancer stomped on the gunman with her high heels.”
As I make a gratitude list and write a few people to tell them how much I treasure them, a stranger — Richard Fierro — tops the list. He’s on many gratitude lists, I bet, but I’m extrapolating, thinking what I can learn from what he did. And I’m thinking about the David Bowie anthem, “Heroes.” These lines, especially:
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes just for one day
We can be heroes
For a well-trained military vet, there’s no learning to be done — you’re trained to run toward trouble, to be a hero. For the rest of us, training and muscle memory aren’t sufficient. We must consciously train ourselves. To be kind. To help. To acknowledge people who acknowledge us, whether we know them or not. Basically, to serve others, because all the happiness in the world comes from serving others and all the misery in the world comes from craving only your own happiness.
I’m a shitty Buddhist, but I’ve learned enough to be grateful for the opportunity to serve you, my readers, and to wish you, in a world that sometimes seems to wish you only ill, every possible joy.
WHO CAN YOU TRUST? NOT BOB DYLAN’S PUBLISHER
from AP News:
Bob Dylan’s publisher is offering refunds for a $600 special edition of his new book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” acknowledging that the allegedly “hand-signed” copies were not individually inscribed.
“To those who purchased ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’ limited edition, we want to apologize,” Simon & Schuster announced in a statement posted Sunday on Instagram. “As it turns out, the limited edition books do contain Bob’s original signature, but in a penned replica form. We are addressing this immediately by providing each purchaser with an immediate refund.”
Simon & Schuster’s statement came after days of complaints from customers, who through social media had compared their copies and found the autographs suspiciously alike. The books had arrived with a letter from Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp, vouching for the signature’s authenticity.
MARION WILLIAMS: IT WASN”T JUST ME
In my Marion Williams review, I wrote: “Something happened at her concert, something magical and, I want to say, chemical, because I was flying as I walked home. And I stayed high for weeks.” Imagine my delight when I received mail from Howard Cutler, a classmate and friend: “I had the same experience you did — an experience that I’d never had before. The tears just poured out of me and I could in no way explain why. It wasn’t grief. It wasn’t joy — or maybe it was both, but it was definitely abounding grace.” For believers, agnostics, maybe even atheists… consider this CD for your gift list.
THEY COULD BUILD A STADIUM. THEY’D ALREADY BUILT A PRISON
From The Times (London):
The company that built the venue for the Qatar 2022 World Cup final also constructed a prison used in China’s mass detention of Uighurs in Xinjiang province
THE BEAUTY PART: JUSTIN VERNON (BON IVER)
Filmed in Iceland. YouTube viewer comment: “This song exists in that sliver of space between beauty and pain, something temporary and transparent, a feeling you want to grab but can never quite name.” Yes. That, and more. [To watch, hear, and feel, click here.]
THEY KNEW
COLETTE: “Me, my body thinks. It’s smarter than my brain. Feels more finely, more completely than my brain. When my body thinks… everything else is quiet. At those moments, my whole skin has a soul.” [To read about her on Head Butler, click here.]
THOMAS PAINE: “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”
TWITTER: “Willie Nelson is 89. If marijuana is a gateway drug, it’s running out of time.”
ELON MUSK HAS NO IDEA HOW TO RUN A COMPANY. STEVE JOBS DID.
In 2 minutes and 20 seconds, watch Steve Jobs tell you how how it’s done.
WEEKEND MOVIE: “THE HARDER THEY COME”
Let everybody eat too much turkey and fall asleep on the couch watching football. I’m going to time travel to 1972, and the release of “The Harder They Come,” the first full-length feature that originated in Jamaica. It’s a myth-busting drama that substituted violence, marijuana, politics and the music business for endless beaches and picturesque waterfalls. The soundtrack was an anthology that’s been called “the Sgt. Pepper of reggae.” It featured Jimmy Cliff and Toots & the Maytals and a bunch of obscure talents singing their hearts out in a desperate bid to make some kind of mark on the world. It was filmed on the cheap and looked grainy, but that wasn’t a flaw — this kind of film should look as if were made by insurrectionists who stole the film and then took over a lab to develop it.It started playing at midnight. A cult formed immediately. Escape America’s lockstep Thanksgiving weekend. Read my review, stream the movie.
WEEKEND MUSIC: EVEN FURTHER AWAY THAN JAMAICA
Amadou and Mariam are from Mali. I have long pressed them on you for one joyous song. [To read why and hear it, click here.] This song, from Folila, is different: slow, gorgeous, a trip to Mali and much further. [To watch and listen, click here.]
THE WEEKEND POEM
from Kabir: Ecstatic Poems
Brother, I’ve seen some
Astonishing sights:
A lion keeping watch
Over pasturing cows;
A mother delivered
After her son was;
A guru prostrated
Before his disciple;
Fish spawning
On treetops;
A cat carrying away
A dog;
A gunny-sack
Driving a bullock-cart;
A buffalo going out to graze,
Sitting on a horse;
A tree with its branches in the earth,
Its roots in the sky;
A tree with flowering roots.
This verse, says Kabir,
Is your key to the universe.
If you can figure it out.
WINTER’S COMING (NO, IT’S HERE!): CONSIDER A HEATED VEST
This heated vest operates on a battery pack that holds a charge for 8 hours. Has 5 heating zones and 3 heating levels. 40% larger heated area than the traditional heated vest. $88, [To buy it from Amazon, click here.]
THE WEEKEND RECIPE: A BETTER BIRD THAN A TURKEY
from Bistro: French Country Recipes for Home Cooks
Chicken with Tarragon
(serves 4)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon safflower oil
1 free-range chicken, about 4 pounds, cut into 6-8 pieces
1 chopped carrot
1 chopped shallot or 1/2 chopped onion
a sprig of thyme
3 sprigs of flat leaf parsley
a bunch of tarragon
3 tablespoons sour cream
coarse sea salt
freshly ground pepper
Melt butter and oil in a large pan with a lid. Turn heat up until butter/oil sizzles, then add the chicken pieces and brown them (about 5 minutes). Remove chicken, season well with salt and pepper.
Add carrots and shallot/onion to the pan and cook, stirring, for a minute. Return the chicken to the pan, and add water until it’s half-covered.
Add thyme, parsley and a few sprigs of tarragon. Cover. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, strip the leaves from the remaining tarragon, chop them finely and set aside. Add the stems to the cooking chicken.
Remove the chicken from the pan and put in a serving dish. Remove and discard the tarragon stems.
Raise the heat and cook the sauce until it’s reduced by half. Strain and return the sauce to the pan.
Stir in the sour cream and the chopped tarragon.
Heat briefly (don’t boil) and pour over the chicken. Serve immediately.
