Belfry-lite

[image description: A faded art nouveau poster with difficult-to-read type showing the portrait of a mustachioed man with a very full beard made of pickles. His eyebrows and hair are green, and he wears a little small top hat with a pickle on (for?) its band. Text reads “GÜNTHER GHERKIN small god of Pickles 237”]

• • • • •

He’s not a joke god.

People sometimes assume he must be a joke, because they think pickles are funny, and don’t understand the complex history of food preservation and keeping people alive through the long winters; they don’t see how essential pickles and pickling were to proper nutrition, to babies seeing the spring still hale and hearty, to mothers who lived.  They don’t know.

He knows.  That’s enough.

His faithful also know.  They may not have been there when the brine was bottled, when the rules were written, but they’ve read the holy scriptures, the cookbooks and instruction manuals, and they understand what he is to them, and what they are to him.  They keep his practices.  They remember his traditions.  And they pickle, and they pickle, and endure.

Snow cats ⛄️

Anyone can be cool but not Cordell Jackson Cool.

Originally from Pontotoc, Mississippi, Cordell Jackson (July 15, 1923 – October 14, 2004) is thought to be the first woman to record Cramps-sounding demos since the late-’40s and produce, engineer, arrange and promote singles -now collector’s items- by her or other acts on her own r'n’r music label, Moon Records, since the mid-’50s, strumming on her guitar and making music reminiscent of the Cramps and the Velvet Underground before the world was even officially introduced to R’n’R.

“…Young Cordell learned how to play the guitar, piano, and upright bass. At the age of 12 she was performing on her father’s radio show (…) she’s known for playing her trademark Hagstrom electric guitar.

…started a new life in Memphis. In 1947 with the purchase of her recording equipment, Cordell became a woman of many firsts: Jackson wanted to sign with Sun Records label [the first company to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash], but was unable to break into the label’s established group of male artists…

…In 1956 Jackson founded Moon Records and released her first single under her Moon label, “Bebopper’s Christmas.” In her home studio she served as an engineer, producer, and arranger, releasing and promoting singles. Artists under Cordell’s label consisted of herself and a small group of rock and roll, rockabilly, and country performers that she recruited from several Southern states. Jackson made music history as the first female recording engineer in the United States. She is counted as the first woman to write, sing, accompany, record, engineer, produce and manufacture a record…”

http://makingmusicherstory.blogspot.com

Throughout the 70’s, 80’s  and ‘90s Jackson remained active in the music scene. Tav Falco’s Panther Burns and Alex Chilton helped create new interest in her career in the ‘80s by covering some of her Moon label’s old singles like “Dateless Night” and “She’s the One That’s Got It”. She appeared on MTV and on various national talk shows in the ‘90s, as well as in  films and even a beer commercial with Stray Cats’ frontman Brian Setzer.

“Rock-and-Roll Granny”, as she was nicknamed, performed with various artists, such as Miriam Linna’s The A-Bones and released her only solo full-length album to date, “Cordell Jackson: Live in Chicago” in the mid-’90s.

Moon Records label was the oldest continuously operating label in Memphis at the time of her death in 2004.

In case all this got you interested, here’s how she really sounded (and by god, can I hear The Cramps all over her sound):

Cordell Jackson with The A-Bones (1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbRVPYTU7Xo

Live in Chicago (1995): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWSWPjW6Ff0

“Memphis Moon Rock” by Cordell Jackson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRGrQCzOg8o&app=desktop

They see Carol finally breaking free from being gaslighted by the Kree as “emotionally underwhelming,” never realizing that a climactic, emotional showdown with her abuser would be giving him exactly what he wants. Being in control of her emotions? Choosing not to react to a provocation? That’s strength most male comic fans don’t understand. They see masculine-coded strength as the only valid kind. Carol not being angry and putting Yon-Rogg down in a shonen-esque battle doesn’t make sense to them because it’s not what they would have done.

They see a woman struggling to work through lies she’d been told as “bad narrative structure,” when in reality the movie was never about building Carol up from nothing, but about her realizing her true potential through seeing past those lies. Carol’s character arc parallels many women attaining social consciousness, throwing off patriarchal lies they’d been conditioned to accept about who they are and what they can do. Her story isn’t about attaining power, but about embracing her true potential that had been deliberately hidden from her.

They see Carol’s emotions not lining up with the lies her abusers told her about being too emotional as “bad writing” or “bad acting,” never realizing that that was exactly the point. They only understand defiance as impassioned, outward battles of will and pride, not understanding that quiet, steadfast refusal to bend to others’ designs of who you should be is strength too.

His little girl, maybe 9, replies, “Mmm, I think I want Captain Marvel.”

Dad makes a face, and says, “How about you choose a real super hero and not a little princess?”

Me and my coworkers were about to smack down on this man when his wife makes a FACE and says, “Honey, you get Captain Marvel.” Then she turns to her husband. “Shut the fuck up, Greg.”

And that has become our new motto for dealings with mysogenists at work.