Almanac for March 1st

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for March 1st: https://ko-fi.com/Post/March-1st-G2G11BFHPY

The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser, February 7, 1926

Artist Birthday #1: Kesha
Kesha at Dorothy Surrenders

Artist Birthday #2: Jensen Ackles

Bummer March 1st

March 1, 1846: 49-year-old newspaper editor John Hampden Pleasants dies of his wounds after being shot in a duel with Thomas Ritchie, editor of the rival newspaper in their shared home of Richmond, Virginia. The two agreed to a duel after Pleasants took offense to Ritchie calling him an "abolitionist." Now, both men were abolitionists; they both favored ending chattel slavery in the United States. However, at that time in the South, "abolitionist" was considered an insult, and the two disagreed, often quite fiercely, on the timetable of when complete abolition of slavery should be accomplished.

March 1, 1932: Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of the famed aviator, is abducted from his nursery in the home of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh in Hopewell, New Jersey. The toddler’s body is found on May 12, 1932. 

A German-American, Richard Bruno Hauptmann, is tried, convicted, and executed for the crime, but questions about his factual guilt remain. His widow maintained his innocence until her death in 1994.

March 1, 1962: American Airlines Flight 1 crashes shortly after takeoff from what is now John F. Kennedy International Airport. All 87 passengers and 9 crew members died in the crash. Linda McCartney’s mother Louise Eastman is among the dead, as is 1952 Olympics sailing gold medalist Emelyn Whiton. Also aboard the plane were 15 paintings by Abstract Expressionist Arshile Gorky. 

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My Top 100 Songs 2024: Top 20

19. "Folsom Prison Blues - Live at Folsom State Prison" Johnny Cash

18. "Gin House Blues" Nina Simone

17. "pocket poetry" Sara Diana

16. "Helter Skelter" The Beatles

15. "Cherub Rock" The Smashing Pumpkins

14. "Joke's On You" Charlotte Lawrence - this is on the soundtrack of the Birds of Prey movie and therefore somewhat Joker-related, and therefore included on my Folie à Deux playlist

13. "Want You Bad" Bite Me Bambi - ska cover of the Offspring song from the year 2000

12. "I Want a Little Sugar In My Bowl" Nina Simone

11. "1979" The Smashing Pumpkins - probably my 2nd favorite SP song, lyrics-wise. It genuinely captures, impressionistically, the feeling set of teen years fading into dawning adulthood

10. "Malibu" Hole

9. "Pink Pony Club" Chappell Roan

8. "Already Gone" Kelly Clarkson - I very specifically associate this song with fictional Vicky in "A Broken Man & the Dawn."

7. "Drunk In Love" The Dan Band - this tongue-in-cheek Beyoncé cover slotted nicely into the Destiel playlist

6. "Poet" Bastille - I know I've been listening to this writing-themed song at least since September, when I shared in this Linda Pastan post. 

5. "Spider Pig" Hans Zimmer

4. "Cruel Summer" Taylor Swift. I came late to this song, but I was hung over from watching Good Omens season 2 and the line "Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes" pulled me in. (The Aziracrow of it all, yes, but also Gabriel and Beelzebub. I thought Gabe and Bub made a nice celestial couple.)

Taylor Swift really is a very talented lyricist. The more lyrics I learned, the more I liked this.

3. "Crazy For You" New Found Glory - Madonna Louise Ciccone was coming up in too many of my playlists, so I banished her and made a playlist exclusively of Madonna covers. This happens to work for Destiel playlist too

2. "Ava Adore" The Smashing Pumpkins - these are my favorite Billy Corgan lyrics; there’s a lovely symmetry to them. I love the guitar parts, and I love Ms. D’Arcy Elizabeth Wretzky’s bass part at the end. 

1. "Joyride" Kesha

My Spotify Wrapped 2024

Happy Spotify Wrapped release day 2024! What was your top song of the year? Mine was "Joyride" by Kesha, surprising no one, since I already wrote a blog post about my obsession with this fun pop song.

Is 128 times a lot of times to stream one song? My top song last year was one that I listened to 49 times. 

Kesha wasn't my top artist, though. 

My #1 artist was The Smashing Pumpkins. 

Rounding out my other top songs are tracks from ZZ Ward, New Found Glory, and Taylor Swift. But I'm not just a music girlie: I'm also a podcast girlie. These were my Top 5, including of course Disaster Area. 

Now let's dive into my Top 100, which I'll divide into several posts over the next few days for easier readability. 

100. "Headless Horseman" Kid Kasino, Shea - an electroswing version of the Bing Crosby-Disney tune with a female vocalist; Halloween playlist

Of course, I was in Sleepy Hollow, New York in October. Here's my photo of the Headless Horseman Bridge.

99. "Talking Body" Tove Lo - on the Daniel Brühl playlist

98. "Piano Mashup: Moonlight Sonata/L'Interludio Ambivalent/Ain't Misbehavin'" Alicia Keyes - on the Reading playlist

97. "Siva" The Smashing Pumpkins - the 1st SP song I ever heard and still one of my favorites

96. "Cruel Summer - triple j Like A Version" G Flip - Sapphic cover of the T. Swift hit

95. "Unspoken Word - Intro" The Soil - wordless vocalizing, on the Reading playlist

94. "Oysters In the Pits" Hans Zimmer - Rush soundtrack/Daniel Brühl playlist

Sidenote: more about oysters

Does the mention of oysters make you think of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, specifically "The Walrus and the Carpenter?" Coincidentally, the next-most listened song is...

93. "The Lobster Quadrille" Franz Ferdinand. Not the Franz Ferdinand you're thinking of. This is from the soundtrack of theTim Burton movie Alice in Wonderland (2010).

92. "Lover Please" Melissa Etheridge - my go-to karaoke song

91. "Captain Speaking" Ghettobillies - short spoken word track that I don't remember how I stumbled across 

Tune in tomorrow for 90-81. What was YOUR top track of 2024?

The Song I'm Obsessed With Right Now

The song I'm obsessing over in August 2024 is "Joyride" by Kesha [Sebert].

I know the Kesha song "Supernatural," from her previous album Warrior, is about ghost sex. I know it isn't about the CW tv series of the same name. Still, this gave me an idea.

Borrowing an image from this Tumblr post, I overlaid some of the "Joyride" lyrics.

I reblogged the unedited Jensen Ackles pic from Bunny Jones. This is Bunny's art blog.

Then, borrowing an image from this Tumblr post, I made the complementary one for Castiel. 

I reblogged the second unedited image from diana2095. They're not active on Tumblr anymore, and haven't been for years, but their archive of Destiel fics is still there if anyone is interested.

Want to know what else I've been listening to? I made this "August Summerween" playlist. I'm not ready to fully lean into my extensive Halloween playlists yet -- I save that until September. But I did lean a little bit into the end of summer/autumn-ish vibes, with a hint of dark lyrics and lowercase-s supernatural references. 

Of note: The playlist includes a song-poem called "The Slitheree-Dee," performed by Shel Silverstein. You may remember it from Chapter 5 of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. While Silverstein wrote and arranged the version heard on Spotify, according to Alvin Schwartz's notes, it appears to have been based on an older folk song. 

Here is a drawing I drew in my 1999 sketchbook based on Stephen Gammell's 1981 illustration. 

Also on that now-deleted playlist: A song from the Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes film soundtrack. I haven't seen the movie, but I finished reading the book in July. I've heard there's another Hunger Games prequel to be released in 2025.

Songbirds and Snakes came out in 2020. I was quite slow to read it.

Lastly, you may also note the tracks "Murnau" and "Pentagrams" from the Smashing Pumpkins album that dropped on Friday, August 2. Those are the favorites on first listen. Those could change. It's a very new album.