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Tuesday, October 27, 2020

FUSION OF STATE AND CHURCH

This blog site has officially shifted to: 


New SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY


I will maintain this current site, but only until the end of the year.  Then, this blog will become my testing ground for new books I will be drafting, plus a few jokes and photos of general interest.


From Worldometer:


           DAY USA  WORLD  Brazil     India   South Africa
June     9     1093    4732         1185      246         82
July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835       130
Sept     3     1094     5886         830     1083       174
            9     1208     6222       1136      1168         82
Oct      8       957     6420          730       967       160
          12       316     3757          203       710         83
          13       843    5006           354       723       165
          14       970    6075           716       694       123
          15       873    6106           734       835       158
          17       638    5639           461     1032         38
          18       448    4040           215       578         63 
          19       442    4392           321       594         21
          20       952    6169           662       714       164         
          21     1225    6849           571       703         85 
          22       973     6470          503       683       102 
          23       903     6526          566       656         48 
          24       784     5599          398       575         53
          25       442     4629          237       463         24
          26       529     5095          288       505        40

Summary:  If tomorrow this decline holds, maybe this next wave we're in will not be as bad as feared.

As expected, Amy Barrett was confirmed and sworn-in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.  By coincidence I was reading the latest issue of FREE INQUIRY, where the editorial and first two articles reported on the separation of church and state issue.  While all the commotion during her hearings was about what her presence will do for the future of Obamacare and Rosie vs Wade on abortion-rights, very little was discussed about religion.

She is a member of a cult-like Catholic faith called People of Praise:

  • Headed by an all-male board of governors.
  • Only established in South Bend (she got her law degree from Notre Dame, and her family since the beginning has been with this church) in 1971.
  • They share financially, materially and spiritually.
  • She was a trustee for a private Catholic school that adhered to scripture and Christian tradition.  But so do all Catholic institutions.
  • Marriage is between a man and a woman.
  • Sex outside of marriage, straight or gay, is not in keeping with "God's plan for human sexuality."
With that backdrop, here are the views of FREE INQUIRY.  A particularly key point is that this magazine went into publication before they knew about Amy Barrett becoming the 6-3 decisive factor for conservatives.  The contents were already appalled about the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision made on 30 June 2020 in the case of Espinoza vs Montana Department of Revenue, now forcing the American taxpayer to pay for religious indoctrination.  I can imagine the consternation now.  The October/November issue should be a hoot.

Here is the background presented by Robyn Blumner, CEO and President of FREE INQUIRY:

  • First, she went into the story of how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2015 and 2016 obstructed over 100 federal judges to be confirmed on the nomination of President Obama.  This allowed President Trump to now appoint 193 such judges, plus, of course, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court.  THEY ARE ALL LIFETIME POSITIONS.  There are 179 on the various courts of appeals and 673 in the district courts.
  • The courts are where the culture wars are fought.  The Christian Right, with 3,400 allied attorneys, has spent $50 million/year for decades now supporting the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).  Funds are donated from Christian Right supporters like the DeVos Foundation, from Amway success.  Betsy DeVos, Trump's Secretary of Education is from this family. 
  • ADF believes:
    • Life begins at conception.
    • God designed marriage for one man and one woman for life.  They somehow ignore polygamists Abraham, Jacob and Solomon.
    • God creates each person with an immutable biological sex--male or female.
  • The expectation is a TSUNAMI of upcoming legislation to link church/state matters, prevent abortion, eliminate LGBTQ rights and enhance the economic position of churches in areas such as taxes, zoning and such.
The first article by Paul Fidalgo is titled:  New Supreme Court Ruling Decimates Church-State Separation.  The bottom line is that with the Espinoza vs Montana ruling, taxpayers must now also fund religious schools, where they have complete freedom from  influence by state and federal authorities.  Says Fidalgo, this ruling sets us on a dark theocratic path.

There is the beginning of an op-ed by Tom Flynn who goes further into that Supreme Court Ruling.  And, remember, Ruth Ginsberg was still active then.  To quote Flynn:

Let's be frank about what Espinoza represents:  It's a stunning triumph for the historical-revisionists view (much promoted by the religious Right) that government action should never in any way burden religion.

With November 3 just a week away, FREE INQUIRY also went into some detail about Women Suffrage at 100, with one point being that women could vote from 1920, except for African-American and Native Indian females.  It has a been long struggle to gain equal rights just to vote, and the nation is not quite there yet.

Game #6 of the World Series begins at 8PM EDT (2PM Hawaii).  Song #64 will come from two films popular when I was in college:

I loved the 1961 movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's, from the novella by Truman Capote.  The movie got five Academy Award nominations, and the song won the Oscar.  Rotten Tomatoes rated it 88/91.  Minor aside, but Mel Blanc, the voice of Donald Duck and Porky Pig, played one of Holly Golightly's (Audrey Hepburn) date.

Blake Edwards directed the flick, while Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer wrote the song.  While the Hepburn version was never marketed, the instrumental by Henry Mancini got the most plays.

While I much rather favor Moon River (in this version, sang by Monica Mancini, daughter of). I nevertheless select Tonight as #64.  That was from the original cast recording of West Side Story (this is the full one hour album) featuring Carol Lawrence and Larry Kent, with the song composed by Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins, who also directed and choreographed the show.

Rotten Tomatoes gave West Side Story 92/84 ratings.  Tonight from the film sung by Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood (voice of Marni Nixon).  Somewhere from the play also was close to being #64.  The movie won ten academy awards.  Interestingly enough, Moon River won an Oscar in 1962 and none of songs from WST were even nominated.

I guess the reason why these songs were the most memorable had to do with an outing.  In my senior year at Stanford I was dating a girl who arranged for the car, dinner reservation and theater premiere seats in San Francisco for the movie, and paid for it all.

Hurricane Zeta was weakened while over the Yucatan Peninsula and became a tropical storm.  However, it should re-strengthen into a hurricane and make landfall somewhere over Louisiana tomorrow:


In the South China Sea, Category 3 Typhoon Molave will make landfall just south of Danang at around 87 MPH.

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Monday, October 26, 2020

LIFE IS STILL WONDERFUL

I avoid showing the Worldometer data on Mondays because they are always abnormally low.  There is no doubt both the USA and World are into a new COVID-19 wave this Fall. 


I just this weekend, through sheer negligence, lost my keys and driver's license.  I won't share the details, for they are both trivial and embarrassing.  So I'm doomed, right?  


Wrong.  Sure, during this time of pandemic it's bad enough trying to renew your driver's license.  But replacing a lost one?  While at this moment I don't know what to do, I'll get some help and solve this problem.  The keys?  I've got another set and will make triplicates because I am getting forgetful.  The good news is that, even with Trump and the coronavirus, the world is not coming to an end.  For one, I'm healthy, and life is good.  Got my papaya and breakfast delivered this morning, and two more meals coming today.  Plus, I just received a call saying she would deliver the fob to my room this morning.  In case you didn't know, a fob is that tiny device you place at the entrance of a door to let you in.


Many others on Planet Earth are not doing as well as me.  They've lost their job, might get evicted and worse.  For example, how would you like to be this tree?

Although I'm finding it more difficult with age, I can still walk on a golf course, and am scheduled for Ala Wai on Wednesday.  There are others who are not so fortunate:

Also too, unlike the 43.5 million in the world who got infected with this coronavirus, I'm fine.  Here is close to the most boring video you will ever see.  However, imagine being someone who can't breathe because of this ailment:


Yes, life indeed is wonderful.  About what I misplaced this weekend?  I could just as well have lost my whole wallet.  I would still recover from that, but the effort to return to normalcy would have been ten times more complicated.  I'm very fortunate.


Which leads to favorite song #65 from these three:

On this day when I'm looking for the silver lining, no way that The End of the World can prevail.  Not that Skeeter Davis (Mary Frances Paneck) is singing about doomsday, for she is merely sad about a romantic breakup.  This song peaked at #2 on Billboard in 1963, a huge transition year for me.  In fact Billboard rated TEotW as #3 for that year.  She was the first female country music solo vocalist to achieve major stardom.  It was played at her funeral when she passed away in 2004.


In 1965 Burt Bacharach wrote What the World Needs Now is Love for Dionne Warwick, who turned it down.  He then went to Gene Pitney, who also rejected it for some financial reason.  So it was Jackie DeShannon who recorded it, reaching #7 that year.


In 1969 Jackie and her brother Randy Meyers, with Jimmy Holiday, composed Put a Little Love in Your Heart.  It hit #4 on Billboard that year.


There is something in my heart for both songs (so they are duo #65), as for some reason, they were somehow connected to a summer workshop for teachers I co-directed at the University of Hawaii in 1973.  Earth 2020, Visions for Our Children's Children, was sponsored by NASA Ames Research Center, and the whole project involved a lot of traveling, opening up my eyes to the environment and future of our planet.  This led to me teaching Environmental Engineering, directing the campus Environmental Center and prepared me for the energy crisis, which came in the fall of 1973, and started me off into an entire career on renewable energy and climate change remediation.


Typhoon Mojave at 80 MPH is headed for Vietnam, while Hurricane Zeta also now at 80 MPH, will roll over the Yucatan, then head for the general region of New Orleans.  Here is the path of Zeta;


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Sunday, October 25, 2020

OLIVER

This blog site has officially shifted to: 


New SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY


I will maintain this current site, but only until the end of the year.  Then, this blog will become my testing ground for new books I will be drafting, plus a few jokes and photos of general interest.


From Worldometer:


           DAY USA  WORLD  Brazil     India   South Africa
June     9     1093    4732         1185      246         82
July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835       130
Sept     3     1094     5886         830     1083       174
            9     1208     6222       1136      1168         82
Oct      8       957     6420          730       967       160
          12       316     3757          203       710         83
          13       843    5006           354       723       165
          14       970    6075           716       694       123
          15       873    6106           734       835       158
          17       638    5639           461     1032         38
          18       448    4040           215       578         63 
          19       442    4392           321       594         21
          20       952    6169           662       714       164         
          21     1225    6849           571       703         85 
          22       973     6470          503       683       102 
          23       903     6526          566       656         48 
          24       784     5599          398       575         53

Summary:

  • On Friday, with 85,000 new cases, the USA broke it's all-time high for one day by 10, 000.  Yesterday, it was 79,449.
  • Several countries in Europe also hit new highs.  France, for example, with one-fifth the population of the U.S., yesterday had 45,422 new cases.  That would be the equivalent of 227,110 new cases in the USA.

I was planning today to have a posting on God in China.  I've personally had a potentially serious religious encounter in Hangzhou.   The punchline was supposed to be that there is a God in China and his name is Xi Jinping.  I might still do this sometime in the future.

But today, someone sent me something about police officer Oliver.  This is worthy of a Sunday:


Oliver Davis is a 9-year old living in Kansas City.  His mother says Oliver thinks he is a real police officer, and that in a discussion of how they are there to help people, it was his idea to pick up flowers to hand them to patients at his grandmother's nursing home.  He asked if it was okay to also give them a hug.  Two years later, he continues to visit two nursing homes each week in Overland Park, spending 2-3 hours, purchasing the flowers with his own money.  He has now handed out 15,000 flowers.  To quote this article:

"We have people cry when they hug him and not want to let him go," Davis said. "We have to pry him out of their arms."


Finalists for my favorite song #66:

Moonglow came from the 1955 movie Picnic, featuring a sterling cast:  William Holden, Kim Novack, Rosalind Russell, Susan Strasberg, Cliff Robertson and Arthur O'Connel, directed by Josh Logan, but only got 50/54 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes.

Memory, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is the song from 2019 Cats (only 20/53 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes), was sung by Grizabella and originally recorded by Elaine Paige.

Music of the Night was originally sung by Sarah Brightman as Kristin from Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 Phantom of the Opera.  Here with Michael Crawford.

I Dreamed a Dream came from the 1980 musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which opened in Paris.  Rose Laurens was the original Fantine, with Patti LuPone taking over when the show moved to London in 1985.  The movie was crucified by RT reviewers with a 33 score, but audiences bestowed an 84.  Ann Hathaway actually did the singing in the film.    But the version I most identify with, earning #66, is the audition by Susan Boyle in 2009.


Tropical Storm Zeta is heading for the Gulf of Mexico, with landfall expected midweek anywhere from Lake Charles to the Florida Panhandle.


Let me end with President Trump, the Village People, YMCA and Saturday Night Live last night.

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Saturday, October 24, 2020

QUEEN'S GAMBIT and Pinkblack

This blog site has officially shifted to: 


New SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY


I will maintain this current site, but only until the end of the year.  Then, this blog will become my testing ground for new books I will be drafting, plus a few jokes and photos of general interest.


From Worldometer:


           DAY USA  WORLD  Brazil     India   South Africa
June     9     1093    4732         1185      246         82
July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835       130
Sept     3     1094     5886         830     1083       174
            9     1208     6222       1136      1168         82
Oct      8       957     6420          730       967       160
          12       316     3757          203       710         83
          13       843    5006           354       723       165
          14       970    6075           716       694       123
          15       873    6106           734       835       158
          17       638    5639           461     1032         38
          18       448    4040           215       578         63 
          19       442    4392           321       594         21
          20       952    6169           662       714       164         
          21     1225    6849           571       703         85 
          22       973     6470          503       683       102 
          23       903     6526          566       656         48 

Summary: not good.


It is rare that Rotten Tomatoes reviewers and audiences both rate a movie or series at 100%.  Well, a special treat just appeared on Netflix.  Here are the two films I just saw:


                                          Rotten Tomatoes       My Grade

                                      Reviewers  Audiences

Queen's Gambit                    100           100            ?

Blackpink: LUtS                      85            98            B+


Queen's Gambit is a mini-series with seven episodes of around 46 minutes each.  I've watched three so far, and, while entertaining, not quite yet close to those 100% ratings.  Maybe it will get better.

The story begins with an 8-year old girl losing her mother in a car accident, with a father who had earlier been pushed away for good.  So she ends up in a spiffy orphanage.  In those days (50's?) they gave the residents (all females) a vitamin pill and tranquilizer every day.  It was there that she became an addict.

A janitor teachers her chess, and she was so good that he invited the high school chess club head to play with her.  At the that point she must have been around 13 or so, played the chess club (all males) simultaneously, embarrassing them. 


She subsequently got adopted, where, again, the husband sort of disappears, essentially abandoning the family, with her new mother not particularly supportive about chess.   But Beth Harmon (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) begins winning chess tournaments, all against male opponents, and winning real dollars.  Her mother takes note and becomes her planner for future competitions.  At the end of episode 3 she loses, for the first time, to a superior U.S. champ (right).  You know that in coming chapters she will beat him, then on to the Russians, who dominate the world.  Four more episodes to go.


Earlier this week I featured BTS, a Korean boy group, who at that time had songs ranked #1 and #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Blackpink is not quite at that stage of success (reached #12 with Ice Cream--teaming with Selena Gomez), but, like in LPGA golf, the women are coming.  Their Netflix documentary, Light Up the Sky, tells us all about them.

To appreciate Blackpink, you need to go back to YG Entertainment, which was established in 1996.  They were the ones responsible for Psy and Gangnam Style in 2012.

According to the film, YGE from 2009 recruited throughout the Orient, placing 30 or so trainees in a dormitory and trained them to sing, dance and become socially compatible, finally whittling them down to four in 2016:

  • Jisoo, from Korea, represents Dior
  • Jennie, born in Korea, but spent five years in New Zealand, Chanel
  • Rose, born in New Zealand, Saint Laurent
  • Lisa, from Bangkok, Bulgari and Celine

Blackpink symbolizes femininity with a dark mystery.  Kia Motors and Samsung, particularly Galaxy, are among a host of national and international companies, like Pepsi and Adidas, paying them to sell their products.  They first became popular in South Korea, than toured Japan in 2018/2019, then on to the USA last year, becoming a huge hit at Coachella.  Like all Korean stars, they with fanfare donate large sums to worthy causes.  Remember, YG Entertainment runs their lives.


Favorite song #67 represents that key song providing mental peace to comedians who teamed with famous singers:

RaBYBwaDM was written in 1918 and immediately became a #1 hit for Al Jolson.  Dean Martin actually came out with it first in 1950, but the Jerry Lewis' 1956 release did better, reaching Billboard's Top Ten.  From Wikipedia:

After their partnership ended with their final nightclub act on July 24, 1956, the boys went on to successful solo careers and neither would comment on the split nor consider a reunion. They were occasionally seen at the same public events, though never together. On two occasions, in 1958 and 1961, Martin invited Lewis on stage, but the split was too serious for them to reconcile. Later in September 1976, Sinatra surprised Lewis by bringing Martin on live stage, reuniting them after 20 years apart[40] and then in 1989, Lewis attended Martin's 72nd birthday.

And here is why this song made Lewis' life:

After his partnership with Martin ended in 1956, Lewis and his wife Patty took a vacation in Las Vegas to consider the direction of his career. He felt his life was in a crisis state: "I was unable to put one foot in front of the other with any confidence. I was completely unnerved to be alone".[33] While there, he received an urgent request from his friend Sid Luft, who was Judy Garland's husband and manager, saying that she couldn't perform that night in Las Vegas because of strep throat,[33] and asking Lewis to fill in.

Lewis had not sung alone on stage since he was five years old, twenty-five years before, but he appeared before the audience of a thousand, nonetheless, delivering jokes and clowning with the audience, while Garland sat off-stage, watching. He then sang a rendition of a song he'd learned as a child, "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" along with "Come Rain or Come Shine." Lewis recalled, "When I was done, the place exploded. I walked off the stage knowing I could make it on my own".[33]


Thanks for the Memory was composed by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin for The Big Broadcast of 1938 (this is the whole film), where this tune was sung by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross.  The song won an Oscar and became Hope's signature tune.  He hosted the Academy Award Ceremony 19 times, solo and in a team.  Dorothy Lamour also released her version and is many times mistaken as the female voice on Bob's record.  Bing Crosby also released this song, in 1956.


Bob Hope was also linked to another popular song, Buttons and Bows, from The Paleface in 1947 with Jane Russell.  Dinah Shore, however, released the most popular version the following year, hitting #1 on Billboard.

Even before this #67 song, Bob Hope in 1933 was the star of Roberta on Broadway, where unknowns like Fred MacMurray, Ray Middleton and Sidney Greenstreet appeared.  Also, a singer on this show, Dolores Reade.  She ended up marrying Hope, and they were together for 70 years.  He passed away in 2003 at the age of 100, but she went on for 102 years.

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Friday, October 23, 2020

JOE BIDEN WILL BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE USA

 This blog site has officially shifted to: 


New SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY


I will maintain this current site, but only until the end of the year.  Then, this blog will become my testing ground for new books I will be drafting, plus a few jokes and photos of general interest.


From Worldometer:


           DAY USA  WORLD  Brazil     India   South Africa
June     9     1093    4732         1185      246         82
July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835       130
Sept     3     1094     5886         830     1083       174
            9     1208     6222       1136      1168         82
Oct      8       957     6420          730       967       160
          12       316     3757          203       710         83
          13       843    5006           354       723       165
          14       970    6075           716       694       123
          15       873    6106           734       835       158
          17       638    5639           461     1032         38
          18       448    4040           215       578         63 
          19       442    4392           321       594         21
          20       952    6169           662       714       164         
          21     1225    6849           571       703         85 
          22       973     6470          503       683       102

Summary:  Bad, very bad.


Joe Biden won the first presidential debate last month.  All he had to do was survive standing, even if he lost the debate itself to Donald Trump.  Surprisingly enough, most polls show that Biden beat Trump in the second showdown last night.  

CNN had eleven undecided North Carolina voters watch the proceedings, and asked them at the end who won.  Nine picked Biden and two said no one.  Not materially significant, but just the overwhelming difference was convincing.  One interesting comment by a non-committal person who was leaning to voting for Trump was that, if Amy Barrett is confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice, he would then comfortably vote for Biden, for he has the better character.

For Fox News and Trump  fans, the performance of the President was a relief.  They felt good that he was not as insane as they thought he was.


The one key October surprise that probably helped Trump beat Hillary Clinton four years ago was FBI Director James Comey announcing eleven days before the election that he was re-opening the case against Clinton.  This is exactly what Trump is trying to do.  That is, get his FBI director or Attorney General to indict Hunter Biden now.  First, if that actually happens, voters will largely dismiss the matter as politically instigated by Trump against his opponent.  Plus, Trump has so many legal and character flaws that nothing he can do can particularly, on balance, reflect that badly on Biden.

If nothing particularly monumental comes up over the next 11 days, Joe Biden will become President of the USA #46.  The next key question is, can Democrats take over the Senate?  If Biden wins on a landslide, that would be the major factor to reverse the course of what has happened these past four years.  Trump further said during this second debate that Republicans will this year win the House.  He not only is a serial liar, but also seriously delusional.

Can't leave without a Trumpism or two.  In the debate he again excoriated wind energy, something that he loves as much as Pelosi and masks.  Watch this clip.  Now I truly understand why.  Hard to stop at one.  Here, a second outcome to be expected with a Biden victory:

Favorite song #68 has to do with cowboy songs.  While I long have not identified with country and western music, after watching Ken Burns' PBS series on the subject, my attitude has completely reversed. I'm now trying to learn a few of these songs for my future karaoke career.

So the finalists are:

Disney had a miniseries in 1954 starring Fess Parker as Davy Crockett.  The coonskin cap  became something even I owned.  An American hero, Davy Crocket was a colonel in the militia, became a Congressman and died at the Battle of Alamo.  While Fess Parker released this song, on came Bill Hayes, with Archie Bleyer, and they were the ones who hit #1.  In Back to Future, it is the Parker version that you hear.

Bill Hayes was more an actor than singer, having initiated the Days of Our Lives character.  He and his wife Susan Seaforth, who was also in the series, were on the cover of Time in 1976.  They started the daytime soap opera genre.


I Fall to Pieces was released by Patsy Cline in 1961.  My link to her is that I have a niece who is a professional Patsy Cline impersonator.  Cline was involved in a major car accident just when this song was becoming popular.  Nevertheless, she made it to the Grand Ole Opry and the following year recorded Crazy, written by Willie Nelson. 

Willie Nelson did not write Always on My Mind, which was first released by Brenda Lee and Elvis Presley in 1972.  However, Nelson's version in 1982 won a Grammy.  My equally favorite version  came from the Pet Shop Boys in 1987, commemorating the tenth anniversary of Presley's death.  Their version reached #4 on Billboard, edging Nelson's at #5.  Elvis' only got down to #20.  I identify with this song because it kept coming  back, and relates to my relationships, in the past and now.

I just wrote about High Noon, and need to make a correction.  I previously said that Frankie Laine sang the song in the movie, which won the Oscar in 1952.  It was Tex Ritter.  However, the Laine record sold more and reached lower on the charts.  As I think about it, though, I remember more the Ritter record in my youth.  Remember his son, John?  Anyway, I might only be slightly exaggerating to say that Tex acted in around a hundred cowboy films.

I mention Riders in the Sky, but will only say little at this time except that it will return later in December.  The song was written in 1948 and tells a folk tale of the west with visions of:

...red-eyed, steel-hooved cattle thundering across the sky, being chased by the spirits of damned cowboys. One warns him that if he does not change his ways, he will be doomed to join them, forever "trying to catch the Devil's herd across these endless skies".  


In 1982 Tammy Wynette and Billy Sherrill wrote Stand By Your Man in 15 minutes, winning  her a second Grammy,  It currently stands at #1 in the Top Country Music Songs.  This photo came from a PBS program featuring Johnny Cash and Tammy.

#68 is Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line, which he wrote in 1956, becoming his first #1 hit on Billboard C&W.  In 1970 came a film I Walk the Line, with Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld, which had nothing to do with Cash's life, but featured a soundtrack of his songs.

Walk the Line was a 2005 biopic (Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 82/90) of Johnny Cash, played by Joaquin Phoenix, with Reese Witherspoon as June Carter.


Phoenix's performance in the film was startling.  He won an Oscar for Best Actor,  The soundtrack is in my iPod, and I can't tell the difference between Cash and Phoenix.

Ring of Fire is an equally momentous song, written by Carter watching Cash's descending into drug addition.  They sang Jackson as a duet, but did not write it.


I earlier reported on the 1956 serendipitous conjunction of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and John Cash with Sam Phillips at Sun Records.  I saw the Million Dollar Quartet in Las Vegas.

In that Vegas show was an exotic girl, who has long been a mystery woman.  More than half a century later, here is the story of Marilyn Evans, the simple girl from Fresno who Elvis brought to the session.  After two marriages, Marilyn Knowles-Riehl at the age of 71.

What has all this to do with Johnny Cash?  Well, he was there.

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