He's still going on about Tom and Jerry

This morning I woke up already sweating. I know I complain about the heat a lot, but damnit, give me an hour in the morning to not look like I was just running wind sprints in a sauna. That’s enough to make me happy*. I did get to watch Tom and Jerry again this morning though and was pleasantly surprised that I remembered the first episode I saw completely, and the second episode I had never seen before. Anyway I was watching the show and thinking about how those episodes (which more or less ran from 1940-72) really lasted for a couple of generations, teaching wave after wave of children what sort of damage a cartoon mouse was willing to unleash on a intently cruel cartoon cat**. That lasted until my childhood at the earliest, ad I’m sure it continued awhile after that. But watching this morning I realized that this show is so grounded in what American life was like during that time, that it might well be completely unintelligible to children growingup in the last 10 years or so. I mean, how many kids know what a milk jug looks like today, or what a Murphy Bed is. Seriously, if you’re not getting a Murphy Bed, there goes like half of the gags that show ever employed. I think they managed to work Murphy Beds into the spaceship episodes later in the series! Though, come to think of it that’s probably the one place they’re still being made. I had this lengthy rant prepared about how great Tom & Jerry is for never trying to modernize or adapt like the Scooby Doo Franchise (case in point), but then I checked out imdb and discovered that was incorrect. So now I don’t know what to believe, other than that I’m sure those new ones are terrible and a surprising amount of classic cartoons aren’t going to be familiar with general pop culture in 40 years. The Flintstones. The Jetsons. Looney Tunes. Corageous Cat & Minute Mouse. Those Scooby Doos where the Harlem Globetrotters are working with Batman and Robin and Don Knotts on a mystery? Who’s ever gonna take enough drugs to write something that harebrained again? They’re going to be Punch and Judy. And who cares about that shit? I don’t know, it’s just kinda getting to me today.

King Sunny Ade is Nigerian, and before you go dismissing this as some crappy post about world music, hear me out. I really don’t like world music. With a few exceptions, I don’t care what sounds good in Sumatra, and it’s not ethnocentrism that drives me to dislike these musics, it’s just that I spend enough of my goddamned time trying to discern what I like out of the hundreds (if not thousands) of genres and subgenres that are readily available in this country that I really can’t bring myself to give a toss what a couple of instruments I can barely pronounce sounded like when they screech. Listen, it’s obviously popular somewhere, and if you happen to enjoy it, more power to you. But to ham on about how overlooked Quechua is in this country, you should be punched in the face. If you’re expecting to turn a whole new group of people onto your shitty Iranian Apala (or worse, Dancehall) don’t get upset when it isn’t their bag.
That said, I dig the King. It’s heavily guitar based, which probably explains its appeal to me, and just has a general rhythm that one can’t help yo relax around. He and his rival Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey (seriously), brought their music out of Africa in the mid-to-late 70s, releasing literally hundreds of albums. If you ever get the chance to see video of him performing live you’ll get a picture of what a rock star this guy is in certain parts of the world. Anyway, I pretty much only listen to him in the summer, in the car. It’s lighthearted and fun, and goes well with Mexican beer for some reason. The first two of these songs are part of a medley and could be played as such.

Bombibele Horojo – King Sunny Ade

Oro Towo Baseti – King Sunny Ade

Adena Ike – King Sunny Ade

But Juju Music here

*not true.

** What the hell did he want to Jerry, anyway? Assumably he wants to eat him, but who ties dynamite to a small critter they want to eat? I mean, wouldn’t he constantly be painting the front of the family*** stove to look like a mouse hole? Or just feed him 3 lbs of rosemary and then put him in a pot? I’m just saying Tom was either a terribly inept carnivore or just a sadist.

***Who lived in this house, anyway? The characters run from “old lady’s feet” to “not as old lady’s feet” to “maid’s feet”. What kind of old lady wants a cat that can use a hammer?

also, what the fuck was up with that dog? how come he was only involved sometimes? or stuck up for Jerry sometimes and didn't give a shit others? Was he Swiss?