The Winter Of Our Dissed Continent

A few years ago, I got some (bad) advice from a friend on a stock to buy.  I don't at all pretend to know anything about the stock market, but I figured, "what the hell;"  the stock was trading at about a buck a share, and my friend said it had a huge upside, as it was a drug for melanoma, and that's gonna do nothing but increase as time goes by, so the stock had to go up, right?  My broker guy laughed at me and said "sure, we can buy it, but you have to understand that something like that is really no different from going to Foxwoods" and putting some money on "red," or playing blackjack without Ben Affleck's card-counting skill, or something.  I took a flyer, at my friend's urging.  By the time I bought, it was up to almost three dollars.  Soon after, it went to over six bucks; the smart investor sells then, having doubled his money, and looks for something else, right?   I held, just knowing that it was gonna go through the roof--and it did.

If the roof was in a subway tunnel.  The stock immediately plunged, and is now trading in the 80 cent range; I still own some, and out of fondness and bemusement I periodically check on line to see how it's doing.  It's not doing well, going up a few cents and then down a few, stubbornly holding its place at 80-something cents.  And good for it, I say: we all should know our station in life, and not be ashamed of it.  Some of us are Xerox or Apple, some of us are Provectus, and it takes all kinds to make up this crazy old stock market world.

The other day, though, when I was checking it just for a laugh--and because I'm not making money from anything else these days, so I hold out hope from pretty much any quarter, or penny--I noticed one of the columns and columnists featured in the sidebar section.  Now this is a financial space, remember, so it's not given to featuring or playing to wild-eyed Leftys like me.  But this guy named Paul Farrell, who I assume is an economist of some sort, had a piece about how humans' activities have led to, as he put "Earth sinking," and us with no way to save it.  In the piece he excoriated Big Oil and The Koch Bros.--as you know, favorite whipping boys of mine--and basically gave credence to what 99% of scientists know, and that we all should believe, but don't.

"This is really cool," I thought (may have even ejaculated it, but that's another story); maybe there's a glimmer of hope after all.  Then I made the mistake of scrolling down to read the responses to Mr. Farrell's column.  If you've ever followed a trail ("thread," I think the kids call it) of responses to certain Internet stuff--not mine, obviously; who reads or comments on that shit?--then you've seen what happens.  People crawl out from under rocks, from the slime, fossils reconstitute themselves to weigh in and let the writer know just what a flaming, idiotic asshole he is for promulgating such ideas.  In this case, the most frequently repeated "fact" was that CO2 is not at all harmful and thus has no effect on Climate Change, or the warming of our frail planet ("frail" because of our assaults, not because of its own properties); any idiot, a number of first responders said, knows that it's not carbon that controls Earth's temperature.  "It's the sun, stupid."  That's a quote from a couple of these geniuses.

So, okay, the sun is just a giant thermostat floating in the sky, orbiting us periodically.  Oh, come on, you think these assholes know that we orbit it?  So who's controlling it, turning it up or down on, apparently, whimsical and capricious impulse?  Is it God?  If so, what a Prick: why would a deity do that shit?  Maybe it's Satan--yeah, that's it, Satan.  Well, Dante notwithstanding (if you get low enough), we know He likes it Hot.  Why then would he have dicked around with it, instead of just pegging it at "Max" and calling it good?  Probably 'cause those damned Liberals made him, and that must mean that They have the goods on The Prince Of Darkness, know where his bodies are buried, and thus can control him like a marionette.

Well, anyway, before I spiral totally out of control--and, yes, I could keep going, friends--let's get back to the fact that there are some songs, some music, to get between us and this horrible winter, whatever the cause (which climatologists have been warning us of for years), and to make life more bearable by their very existence (antecedent, Mark?).  Music is our salvation, and here are a bunch of "sun" songs to get us through this next stretch:

Ain't No Sunshine                                                                Rahsaan Roland Kirk
All Around the Sun and the Moon                                       Joy Of Cooking
Although The Sun Is Shining                                               Fleetwood Mac
As Long As The Sun                                                            Bill Morrissey
Big Red Sun Blues                                                               Lucinda Williams
Blame It On The Sun                                                           Stevie Wonder
Blister In The Sun                                                                Violent Femmes
Black Hole Sun                                                                    Paul Anka (fuck you, Soundgarden)
California Sun                                                                      The Ramones
Colors Of The Sun                                                               Jackson Browne
Don't Let The Sun catch You Cryin'                                    Dr. John
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me                                   Joe Cocker
First Day Of The Sun                                                          Darden Smith
Get In The Sun                                                                     Joan Armatrading
Good Day Sunshine                                                             Fabs
Sun Loves Moon                                                                  Nick Robertson
Sunlight                                                                                The Youngbloods
Good Day Sunshine                                                              Souvlaki
Happier Than The Morning Sun                                          Stevie Wonder
He Likes The Sun                                                                 Tanita Tikaram
Hello Sunshine                                                                      Aretha Franklin
Here Comes Sunshine                                                          Grateful Dead
Here Comes The Sun/ The Inner Light                                Fabs
Hunters Of The Sun                                                              John Stewart
I'll Follow The Sun                                                               Fabs
Lost Her In The Sun                                                             John Stewart
Lucky Old Sun                                                                     John Stewart
Miss Sun                                                                              Boz Scaggs
Morning Sun                                                                        Jesse Colin Young
Sitting In The Midday Sun                                                   The Kinks
Sun King                                                                               Fabs

So, anyway, all my life I've been accused of  being cynical, acidulous, acerbic, and bilious.  Yet listen to the songs: they're "full of moon" (cf Joni Mitchell, "The Last Time I Saw Richard").  Anyway, see ya Tuesday, noon till two, on WOOL.FM, or wool.fm on the webs.  And I haven't harangued you for a while:  If you're reading this, become a member.  Brilliance--or mediocrity--doesn't come free, you know.