Lofi Girl (originally known as ChilledCow until 2021) is a French YouTube channel and music label established in 2017. It provides livestreams of lo-fi hip hop, synthwave, jazz, and lofi house music (an electronic music subgenre that blends traditional 4/4 house beats with low-fidelity production techniques and a nostalgic, vintage aesthetic) 24/7, accompanied by a Japanese-style animation of a girl studying or relaxing in her bedroom with a cat on the window. The Lofi Girl animated character is officially named Jade, and in this picture, she is wearing over-the-ear headphones sporting her new Bob-cut hair sitting at a desk with dual monitors, looking out a large window at a city skyline under a starry night sky. She is killing it softly wearing a gray tunic tee that provides coverage over her lower body while she is seated lounging at home and it features a standard crew neck with a loose-fitting hoodie, and elbow length short sleeves. Jade spends most of her time studying for her exams and she loves learning about new things, as long as she can have background noise to concentrate. Jade has a ginger orange tabby cat named Pocky that enjoys looking out of the window. Jade and Pocky disappeared last night, and it is thought they were abducted by aliens. A blinking blue light was spotted coming from the building opposite Jade’s home and police are still gathering evidence and investigating if that had anything to do with her disappearance. The sky took on a strange orange glow just before that happened.
Around 931 B.C., the unified nation of Israel split into two separate nations following the death of King Solomon, and this was driven by high taxes and the harsh policies of his successor, King Rehoboam. Solomon was Israel’s third King, the 17th of 19 sons of king David. He possessed great wisdom and reigned during Israel’s golden age. He excelled as a diplomat and statesman, securing peace and immense wealth for his kingdom through strategic international alliances and trade networks. Through his diplomatic and political alliances, he accumulated 700 wives and 300 concubines as marrying daughters of foreign monarchs and chieftains was a standard Ancient Near Eastern practice to seal peace treaties, non-aggression pacts, and trade routes. In his old age, these foreign wives turned his heart away from the God of Israel. To please his wives, Solomon built high places and altars for pagan deities such as Chemosh (the god of Moab), Molech (the god of the Ammonites), and Ashtoreth (the goddess of the Sidonians) East of Jerusalem. (on the Mount of Offense). These sites accommodated practices like burnt offerings, incense, and detestable customs associated with surrounding cultures, sending a message that the God of Israel was merely one among many gods. The Book of Deuteronomy warned kings not to acquire great numbers of horses, not to take many wives, and not to accumulate large amounts of silver and gold and Solomon broke all three of these rules. Because of his disobedience, God announced that the united kingdom of Israel would be divided and torn away from his dynasty after his death (during the reign of his son, Rehoboam who was born to his wife Naamah the Ammonite). Naamah came from the neighboring nation of Ammon (descendants of Lot), making her one of the few foreign queen mothers in the history of Judah.
King Solomon initially ruled over a united kingdom of all twelve tribes of Israel, but due to his idolatry, God prophesied that ten of the tribes would be taken away and given to his servant, Jeroboam. Jeroboam was the son of Nebat who was an Ephraimite from Zereda and an industrious servant or superintendent whom King Solomon that was placed in charge of the labor force for public works, including the fortification of the Millo in Jerusalem (a 23-foot-thick limestone structure protecting Jerusalem’s primary freshwater source the Gihon Spring). The Northern Kingdom of Israel was comprised of the ten tribes under King Jeroboam, which Ezekiel referred to as Oholah representing Samaria. The Southern Kingdom of Judah was composed of the remaining tribes under Rehoboam, which Ezekiel referred to as Oholibah representing Jerusalem. After Jeroboam conspired or rebelled against Solomon, Solomon tried to kill him, forcing Jeroboam to flee to Egypt under the protection of Pharaoh Shishak. When King Rehoboam succeeded Solomon, a delegation led by Jeroboam asked him to lighten the heavy forced labor and taxes imposed by his father. Rehoboam told the people he would make their yoke even heavier and discipline them with scorpions. Ten northern tribes rebelled and recalled Jeroboam from Egypt to be crowned as the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria). Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to Rehoboam, forming the southern Kingdom of Judah (capital: Jerusalem). Rehoboam mustered 180,000 soldiers to retake the north, but he turned back after the prophet Shemaiah delivered a divine command not to fight their own brothers.
The prophet Ezekiel tells an allegory of two sisters named Oholah and Oholibah to condemn the spiritual unfaithfulness of Israel and Judah and to warn of Jerusalem’s coming destruction. Oholah the older sister represented the northern kingdom of Israel and its capital, Samaria (meaning “her own tent”, signifying self-invented worship) because Samaria abandoned God’s designated temple in Jerusalem and instead created its own rival places of worship, such as the golden calves set up at Dan and Bethel under King Jeroboam. She lusted after Assyrian political and military alliances, adopting their idols. God delivered her into the hands of the Assyrians, who executed her and destroyed her nation. Oholibah the younger sister represented the southern kingdom of Judah and its capital, Jerusalem (meaning “my tent is in her”, referring to God’s actual temple residing there) the Tabernacle and the authorized Temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem where God’s covenant the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments presence resided. Despite witnessing Samaria’s destruction, Oholibah acted even more corruptly by chasing political and religious alliances with Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. In the story, the sisters’ political alliances and adoption of foreign gods are framed as spiritual adultery and prostitution. Because Jerusalem failed to learn from the fall of Samaria, God announced that He would turn her former political allies specifically the Babylonians and their confederates against her. This prophecy pointed to the Babylonian siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, when the city and Solomon’s Temple were burned and the population was taken into exile.
Ezekiel says that these two sisters Oholah and Oholibah lived in Egypt when they were young and they became prostitutes and they became his wives and gave birth to his children. While Oholah was his wife, she continued to be a prostitute having sex with everyone, so he gave her away. They ripped off her clothes, then captured her children and killed her. Her younger sister Oholibah saw what happened to her sister, yet she becomes more depraved and a bigger tramp, wanting even more sex, and doing vulgar things. She let everyone see her naked body and didn’t care if they knew she was a prostitute, so he turned my back on her also. In Ezekiel 23:20 it is written, “There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.” The comparison to donkeys and horses is an extreme, shocking way to describe how much these cities desired political and religious alliances with powerful empires like Egypt and Assyria. The comparison with animals is meant to disgrace what Jerusalem admired. Egypt’s strength looked desirable, but the desire itself was low and corrupt. The nation God had rescued from Egypt kept looking back to Egypt for help and kept returning to the sins tied to its youth. Research shows that size does matter for most women and they would prefer a penis size that is long enough to satisfy them, but shorter than a donkey.
I entered the corridor wearing a surgical mask and gloves not knowing what I would find in this underground hallway of the cellar. I pressed my back against the damp, mold-covered concrete wall in this deteriorating basement after I made my way through the rusted chain-link fence. I navigated my way across the wet floor with debris scattered everywhere and stopped under the exposed wiring which was overhead. There was an old gritty, dark rusted utility sink filled with murky stagnant water that had two mostly submerged vintage medical syringes which looked like they could have been used on an elephant sticking out of it. The extreme moss growth, dramatic lighting and shadows, and wet floor created an eerie aesthetic, but it was the perfect place to hide contraband, and I knew this had to be the place where my cellmate hid the loot from his bank heist. He had this habit of talking in his sleep, and a slip of the tongue in the dead of night completely changed the game for me. I herd him describe it as, “a basement so creepy that not even spiders would enter.”
The spare key was under the mat, exactly where my mother had left it twenty years ago. My mother valued convenience over security, and although Pine Bluff, Arkansas has repeatedly ranked as one of the least safe small cities in the U.S. the sheriff lived next door and that prevented criminals from targeting the house because a marked patrol vehicle was parked outside most of the time. Pine Bluff was a nice place to live when my mother inherited the single-family ranch-style home from her Aunt in 1975, before the decline. The house was passed down to me in my mother’s will, as I didn’t have any siblings and I was her only living relative. I need to figure out what to do with all of her stuff, and I had no idea that she still owned this place. I do remember going there when I was young, and I have memories of bother my mother and my father being there. I already have my own house and my own family, and we like where we are living, so maintaining another property would be a huge burden for me, and I am not sure that I even want it. The house was listed at $28,000 in 1975 and I could probably sell it for $70,000 in today’s market. The IRS would grant me a “stepped-up basis”, resetting the tax cost basis of this inherited asset to its fair market value on the date of the original owner’s death, which erases past unrealized capital gains, meaning this house would be entirely tax-free for me if I sell the property right away.
It is funny how some towns and cities collapse when one business leaves and others decide to follow suit. It is fascinating although often devastating the economic chain reaction known as an economic domino effect or urban disinvestment cascade. When an anchor business closes down, it sets off a predictable cycle that can quickly hollow out a town’s local economy. Large employers or popular retailers act as “anchors” pulling hundreds or thousands of people into an area daily. When that anchor leaves, neighboring businesses (like coffee shops, lunch spots, gas stations, and dry cleaners) instantly lose their core customer base. Their revenue drops below a sustainable threshold, making it impossible to stay open forcing them to close or relocate. If the departing business was a major employer (like a factory, mill, or corporate headquarters), its closure leads to immediate layoffs or employee transfers. Workers either move away to find new jobs or sharply cut back on non-essential spending. When commercial spaces sit vacant, the perceived value of the entire commercial district plummets. Landlords struggle to find new tenants, leading to neglected maintenance, boarded-up windows, and an environment that feels unsafe or uninviting. Remaining business owners decide to break their leases early or decline renewals to protect their brand image and customer base. Everyone loses when municipalities shrink, groceries, healthcare facilities, schools, and entertainment options often close or scale back as populations drop. Low home prices typically signal low demand, meaning a house may lose value or become difficult to resell later. Some rapidly shrinking areas face high crime rates or abandoned commercial and residential buildings. Local governments struggle to pay for aging roads, water lines, and public safety with a shrinking tax base.
Pine Bluff, Arkansas is widely recognized as one of America’s fastest-shrinking cities, but it was once a busy hub for manufacturing and commerce. Decades of industrial and manufacturing job losses, business closures, and a shift in retail away from the downtown core and local malls have drained the local economy. Some people choose to stay because property values and housing costs are very low, and the laid-back southern atmosphere that the city provides. The city was hit hard in the late 1990s, when the St. Louis Southwestern Railway closed its massive Cotton Belt Machine Shops facility, which built and repaired locomotives and cars. The broader forestry and lumber industry suffered steep declines following housing market contractions and economic downturns (such as the 2008 recession), which depressed local wood and pulpwood demand. The paper and manufacturing industry in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, has not disappeared, but it has undergone major corporate ownership changes and restructurings. Walmart left Pine Bluff in 2004, followed by Sears. Increased violence, robberies, and thefts in the 1980s and 1990s steadily drove shoppers away from the Pine Bluffs mall, which shut down in 2020. The rise of online shopping driven by Amazon along with the Covid-19 shutdowns also drove profits down.
Lake Königssee in Schönau am Königssee, a municipality in Germany is fed by glacier meltwater carrying tiny, suspended mineral and rock flour particles, which are ultra-fine, silt-sized grains of minerals like quartz and feldspar. Quartz and feldspar are the two most common rock-forming minerals on Earth, but they differ significantly in their chemistry, how they break, and their crystal shapes. These microscopic particles are too small to sink to the bottom, so they stay suspended and scatter sunlight in emerald-green and turquoise hues. The water is exceptionally pure and renowned for its extreme clarity remaining a crystal-clear vivid green. The Lake Königssee meltwater stems from the Watzmann Glacier and its surrounding permanent firn ice fields (deep accumulations of multi-year, partially compacted snow that serve as the crucial transition stage between seasonal snowpack and solid glacial ice), most notably the famous Eiskapelle (Ice Chapel) a small glacier at the foot of the Watzmann mountain. The glacier and its permanent ice structures sit in a natural, bowl-like catchment area directly beneath the massive Watzmann East Face. As the ice and winter snowpack melt, they form a glacial stream known as the Eisbach. This stream flows down the rocky glacial valley and empties into the lake right at the St. Bartholomä peninsula. The peninsula has no road connection and is accessible only via electric passenger boats across Lake Königssee or through a challenging mountain hike.
Lake Königssee is famous for being the deepest and cleanest lake in Germany. It is 4.8 miles long, 1.06 miles wide and 620 feet deep. It was created by glacier activity during the Würm glaciation ice age, which ended roughly 11,700 years ago. The lake sits within a Jurassic rift surrounded by steep limestone cliffs. It is Germany’s third largest Lake, and it is located near the Austrian border being only 18 miles from Salzburg, Austria and it is about 99 miles from Munich. The Berchtesgaden National Park Administration has banned municipal wastewater discharges into the lake, and they utilize an advanced closed ring-sewer system and underwater pipeline system that diverts all human sewage entirely away from the lake’s basin piped away from its pristine depths. Rather than treating wastewater locally and releasing the effluent into the alpine lake, this pipeline collects all organic waste and wastewater from highly trafficked tourist hubs and forces it back to the mainland for treatment. The Alps act as the largest freshwater reservoir in Europe, supplying roughly 40% of Europe’s fresh water for drinking, agriculture, and industry. Recent tends show less snow but more rain in winter and less water in summer, with drought episodes becoming more frequent, especially in the southern and south-eastern Alps and this decrease of snow and the melting of glaciers reduces the amount of stored water.
In August 1688, a devastating boat capsized on Lake Königssee during a sudden thunderstorm, causing around 70 to 71 pilgrims to drown when they traveled by raft. The regional pilgrimage known as the massive annual Glockner or Pinzgauer pilgrimage originated in the late Middle Ages as a collective vow to God. The local communities promised to make these difficult mountain journeys in exchange for protection against the devastating waves of the Bubonic plague and wolves. The pilgrims routinely traversed difficult alpine terrain to reach religious sanctuaries. A small red cross at the base of one of the cliffs marks the spot of this tragedy.
In 1909, Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria the de facto ruler from 1886 to 1912, for his nephews, King Ludwig II and King Otto banned all combustion engines on the lake. He had a great passion for hunting, and he managed roughly 130,000 acres of woodland and organized large-scale hunting parties across Bavaria. Luitpold enjoyed quiet, so he banned petrol- and diesel-powered motorboats from Lake Königssee, as they disturbed his hunting. He ordered that only electric, rowing, or pedal-powered boats be used to protect the quiet alpine atmosphere. The rule was created for quiet, but it made Lake Königssee one of the cleanest, purest, and most unpolluted bodies of water in Germany, and this rule has remained in place for over a century.
The steep rooks beside the lake are a great attraction for mountain and rock climbers while the flat part serves as a nature and cycling trail. The boat ride is famous for the legendary echo stop that is made midway across the lake right in front of the Echowand (Echo Wall), a massive, sheer vertical limestone cliff below Mount Watzmann. The boat captain or musician plays a short melody on a trumpet or flugelhorn out the window. The music bounces back, creating a clear echo that repeats several times thrilling the tourists. The limestone cliffs drop perfectly vertical and smooth straight into the deep water, allowing the production of sound waves that don’t scatter, and you can hear them bounce directly back up to 7 times depending on the weather. On the evening of the 28th of January 1968, JH from Salzburg braved the icy weather and drove his Volkswagen Beetle over the lake, even though that was forbidden. JH disappeared and the police discovered his tire tracks leading to a break in the ice. In 1997, the vehicle and driver were discovered, lying on the bottom of the lake. With the purity and low oxygen content of its waters, this unusual memorial will most likely remain there for many decades to come.
The Hailee Steinfeld song ‘Most Girls’ was released as a standalone single on April 28, 2017, and it is an empowerment anthem that rejects the backhanded compliment of being told you are “not like most girls”. It peaked at #58 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and went to #30 on the UK Official Singles Sales Chart. Hailee Steinfeld co-wrote this with Ryan Tedder, Zach Skelton, Jeremy Dussolliet, Tim Sommers, and Asia Whiteacre. The track was initiated by Canadian singer-songwriter Asia Whiteacre, whose full name is Anastasia Laura Whiteacre. In November 2016, the day after the U.S. presidential election when Trump was elected to his first term, Whiteacre felt a strong need to create a positive, uplifting “girl power” record that devolved into men complimenting women by putting down their entire gender, as if it was a good thing to not be like other girls, but she didn’t feel they intended any criticism. as they just didn’t realize what their words actually meat when they said them. Following the global success of her platinum-certified breakout hit ‘Starving’, which she co-wrote for Hailee Steinfeld, Whiteacre wanted to craft a follow-up record centered around female empowerment. To build out the track, she scheduled a session that combined multiple writing and production forces, teaming up with the songwriting and production duo Jeremy Dussolliet and Tim Sommers (of the hip-hop group Kinetics & One Love) to construct the core lyrical message and melody. Ryan Tedder the multi-Grammy-winning frontman of OneRepublic, and his frequent production partner Zach Skelton were brought into the room to co-write and drive the track’s distinctive commercial pop production.
Steinfeld explained that she wants to be like most girls, because people were complimenting her by telling her she was not like most girls’ for a very long time. She understood there’s been this golden standard or rule that in order to be special you have to be different to other women. Instead of treating “most girls” as a standard to avoid, this song reframes being like others as a badge of honor. It celebrates individuality, variety, and the shared strength of women. The track opens by pushing back on the idea that being unique requires putting other women down or separating oneself from womanhood. The lyrics point out that women express themselves differently, whether they are wearing sweatpants, tight jeans, or dresses, keeping their lives private or going out to party, and that all choices are valid. The song explicitly notes that while feeling good in your own skin is wonderful, it is also okay to change your body if you want to, because true confidence comes from feeling like a queen. The chorus reinforces that differences do not divide women; rather, most girls are smart, strong, hardworking, and unstoppable.
Some girls, feel best in their tiny dresses
Some girls, nothin’ but sweatpants, looking like a princess
Some girls, kiss new lips every single night
They’re stayin’ out late ‘cause they just celebrating life
You know some days you feel so good in your own skin
But it’s okay if you wanna change the body that you came in
‘Cause you look greatest when you feel like a damn queen
We’re all just playing a game in a way, tryna win at life
Most girls are smart and strong and beautiful
Most girls, work hard, go far, we are unstoppable
Most girls, our fight to make every day
No two are the same
I wanna be like, I wanna be like most girls
I wanna be like, I wanna be like most girls
I wanna be like, I wanna be like
(Stayin’ out late ‘cause they just celebrating)
I wanna be like, I wanna be like
(Stayin’ out late ‘cause they just celebrating)
I wanna be like, I wanna be like
Some girls, like to keep their physique real private
Some girls, wear jeans so tight ‘cause it feels so right, yeah
Some girls, every day searching, keep the page turning
Sleepin’ in late ‘cause they just celebrating life
You know some days you feel so good in your own skin
But it’s okay if you wanna change the body that you came in
‘Cause you look greatest when you feel like a damn queen
We’re all just playing a game in a way, tryna win at life
Most girls are smart and strong and beautiful
Most girls, work hard, go far, we are unstoppable
Most girls, our fight to make every day
No two are the same
I wanna be like, I wanna be like most girls
I wanna be like, I wanna be like most girls
I wanna be like, I wanna be like
(Stayin’ out late ‘cause they just celebrating)
I wanna be like, I wanna be like
(Stayin’ out late ‘cause they just celebrating)
I wanna be like, I wanna be like
Most girls (yeah)
Most girls (wanna be, wanna be, wanna be)
Most girls, our fight to make every day
No two are the same
I wanna be like
Most girls
I wanna be like, I wanna be like most girls
I wanna be like, I wanna be like
(Stayin’ out late ‘cause they just celebrating)
I wanna be like, I wanna be like
(Stayin’ out late ‘cause they just celebrating)
I wanna be like
(Stayin’ out late ‘cause they just celebrating)
Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme is to find a song that mentions girls.
October 11 celebrates International Day of the Girl Child, proclaimed by the UN in 2011 for the 130 million girls denied access to school and the 650 million women affected by child marriage. This observance and recognition day grew out of the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, which called for a comprehensive platform to advance women’s and girls’ rights. It’s purpose is to recognize girls’ rights and highlight the unique challenges, discrimination, and inequalities they face globally, such as lack of education access, forced child marriage, and gender-based violence. This day calls for more than just an acknowledgment of the barriers that girls face, particularly those in developing nations. Progress is rarely accidental or automatic, as it requires deliberate action, collaboration, and persistence across generations. It’s a shared responsibility to keep pushing forward, ensuring that advancements in human rights benefit everyone, so we must continue to strive together to make the world better for all of the girls that are suffering in today’s world.
Last week we had Crisp Autumn Weather where the theme was to find a song that was written or performed by someone who was born in the month of October. This week the theme is to find a song that mentions girls. Take some time to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this music challenge, and even better, read as many of them as you can as you will probably find many enjoyable songs and it is quite possible that you will learn a thing or two. Share your music with others and post a video, try do some research and let everyone know something about the song that you post. Tell everyone why you like the song, whether it was a hit, or what you think the song is about. Show the lyrics, let’s all listen to our favorite songs and explore some new music. Try to find a song that fits the theme, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.
Suggestions
• If the song you select does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• It would be good if you could post the lyrics to the song of your choice, as this is helpful for the people that want to follow along with the music. Warning: Bloggers make posts at their own risk, and since song lyrics are copyrighted, you may be asked to take them down from your post if you don’t have permission. It is highly unlikely estates or artists will sue regular people (although it has happened) especially if the bloggers that do this are not making money from their site, but an artist or a publisher can ask you to remove the lyrics from your post. I am not a lawyer and there are no rules for Song Lyric Sunday, as we are all here to have fun and hopefully get to listen to some good music.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due. It would also be a good idea to give credit to the singer and the band associated with your song.
• Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be, but please try not to include too many videos as that just makes it take longer for me to look at all of the other posts.
• Link to the YouTube video, or you can pull it into your post, so others can listen to the song.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts. Have fun and enjoy the music.
This week I will be writing about the Hailee Steinfeld song ‘Most Girls’, and next week, I will be writing about the song ‘Land Ho’ by The Doors. The upcoming prompts will be:
October 18, 2026 – Song about fishing, a mariner, sailing, seafaring, or ships
October 25, 2026 – Song about the American West, or one that mentions cowboys, a sheriff, an outlaw, horses, cactus, or tumbleweeds
November 1, 2026 – Song written or performed by someone who was born in the month of November
November 8, 2026 – Song that references image, picture, scan or view
1. What is frutti di mare?
This is the hay that a gay horse eats.
2. What is a rum truffle?
Something a pirate drinks when he is having a symbiotic relationship with tree roots.
3. What is a spicy wedge?
This is when your underwear migrates into your crack as you move, walk, or sit.
4. What is cock-a-leekie?
This is a venereal disease (VD), more commonly called a sexually transmitted infection (STI) or sexually transmitted disease (STD).
5. What is baked Alaska?
This is an icy northern State wrapped in warm political ambitions.
6. What is a battenburg?
This is what the Titanic did just before hitting the iceberg.
7. What is pease pudding?
This pudding is used to appease someone craving sweets.
8. What is laverbread?
Laverbread traces how genetic traits passed down through generations to see how you were bred.
9. What is a Welsh oggie?
A Welsh orgy involves a lot of sheep.
10. What is crempog?
This is a crematorium for pretty old gangsters.
A spotlight shines on an empty stage after the legendary bassist for The Who John Entwistle died of a heart attack on June 27, 2002, at age 57, in Las Vegas, just hours before the band was set to launch a U.S. tour. His heart attack was induced by cocaine use, complicated by severe preexisting heart disease and he suffered from high blood pressure. John Entwistle was staying at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Paradise (Las Vegas), Nevada while checked into Room 658, and he was found dead by Alycen Rowse, a local stripper and companion who had gone to bed with him the night before. When Rowse woke up around 10:00 AM and found him cold and unresponsive, she attempted CPR to resuscitate him and then she called paramedics. Sadly, the paramedics were also unable to revive him, he had been living on borrowed time. John had been married twice, first to Alison Wise who he married in 1967, and they stayed married for over 20 years and later to Maxene Harlow from 1991-1997 when they divorced. John Entwistle was living with Lisa Pritchett-Johnson who was Joe Walsh’s former girlfriend at his 42-acre Cotswolds estate, Quarwood, in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, and she had been his partner for 13 years at the time of his death.
Before The Who’s scheduled 2002 North American summer tour, bassist John Entwistle passed a basic medical examination required by insurance underwriters to clear him for travel. While the screening noted high blood pressure and high cholesterol, it only met the bare-minimum requirements for the tour’s policy. Because it did not include a more rigorous physical or an electrocardiogram (ECG) scan, a hidden, critical condition went completely undetected. According to his authorized biographer, Paul Rees, an ECG would have revealed that three of his arteries were severely blocked, a condition requiring urgent triple bypass surgery. His son Chris Entwistle drove him to the airport to catch his flight to Las Vegas for that that tour which consisted of 40 cities, and hundreds of thousands of tickets sold. John Entwistle joined the band in 1962, which was then called the Detours before anyone outside of London had heard of them. Keith Moon called him the ox, because his bandmates leaped around the stage and smashed their instruments, while Entwistle stood completely still on stage like a constant immovable object. This nickname was also associated with his incredible physical endurance and capacity to party hard alongside (and sometimes outlast) drummer Keith Moon, despite maintaining his musical precision. He acted as the calm, solid foundation of the band while a chaotic storm raged around him on stage. He even wrote an instrumental track for The Who titled ‘The Ox’ in honor of the moniker. John Entwistle also earned the nickname ‘Thunderfingers’ because of his astonishing technique and the incredible speed, power, and blur of his fingers across the four-string fretboard of his bass guitar. He was given this nickname by Roger Daultry for his fast, aggressive, and treble-rich sound that treated the bass like a lead instrument rather than a background rhythm tool that technically should not have been possible on the instrument at that speed, with that accuracy.
John Entwistle lived like a 1970s rock star, a man who couldn’t imagine the money running out, living an over-the-top, eccentric lifestyle. He owned multiple homes in England and the United States. He had a collection of hundreds of bass guitars; antique suits of armor displayed in the rooms of his estate in Gloucestershire. He owned macabre self-painted artwork, and real human skeletons positioned around the master bedroom to surprise visitors and a staff to manage properties he barely visited. He was obsessed with taxidermy (exotic fish he caught in the Caribbean that hung from his ceiling), custom-built cars even though he never passed a driving test and didn’t hold a driver’s license, and unique home furnishings that fit his darkly humorous, Gothic taste. By the time 2002 arrived, after
the lawsuit settlements resulting from a tragic December 1979 crowd-crush incident at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum where 11 fans died from suffocation, the solo careers that hadn’t matched the band’s commercial scale, and decades of extraordinary spending, John Entwistle’s fortune was largely gone. Entwistle was facing severe cash-flow problems and financial strain when he died, despite owning valuable property and assets. Close accounts and family members revealed he had accumulated significant gambling debts and burned through a £1 million tour advance before The Who’s 2002 U.S. tour even began. Unlike bandmate Pete Townshend, who earned massive songwriting and publishing royalties, Entwistle did not have the same recurring publishing income and needed to keep touring to support his lifestyle and cover alimony payments.
Kenney Jones, former drummer for the Small Faces and Faces, joined The Who in December 1978 following Keith Moon’s death. The Who officially broke up in 1982, then reunited in 1989 for a 25th anniversary tour, then split again, then reconvened whenever there was a reason or an offer that made sense. Pete Townsen found out first, then Roger Daltry, then the crew, the promoters, the arena engineers, the thousands of people who had traveled to the first show expecting to see one of the greatest live bands in history. The Who did not cancel the tour, but they did go through a period of genuine grief and deliberation, before Townsend and Daltry announced they would honor the dates. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey resumed the tour four days later on July 1, 2002, at the Hollywood Bowl. They brought in Pino Paladino, a respected professional session bassist who learned the parts and played them with technical precision. It was a tough choice, but they faced the prospect of losing an absolute fortune and putting a large crew out of work. They went on stage in front of tens of thousands of people and performed as the Who and Daltrey and Townshend embraced each other when they walked onstage. “Tonight we play for John Entwistle,” Daltrey told the crowd. “He was the true spirit of rock & roll, and he lives on in all the music we play.” They played without the man who had made the Who what they were, a musician so good he made the extraordinary look like nothing at all, and he became one of the most influential bassists in rock history. The Who never sounded the same without John Entwistle who had no idea about the problems with his heart, but high blood pressure is a family trait as his mother had it, and so does his son Chris. His total estate had a substantial gross value in property and memorabilia; the cash crunch and crippling death duties/taxes forced his son to sell Quarwood and liquidate parts of his collection. In the video below, Entwistle stands perfectly still on the stage, while Daltry swings his microphone around and Townshend does his windmills and then smashes his guitar.
Written for the Great Minds Think’s Friday Challenge, which is hosted by Rohini and Sarah and this week we were asked to chose from five different prompts and I selected, “A spotlight shines on an empty stage.”
My name is Jim and I identify as a 73 years old male that is living in Central Florida. I am retired and I write to keep myself busy. When I decide to write, I look for challenging prompts without restrictions. I love research, getting to the bottom of things and I enjoy learning about new things. I am watching a bunch of different things on TV at the moment like East of Eden on Netflix and Mobland on Paramount +. I have a few health issues, and as my time here is running out, I am not looking forward to achieving anything. I have written three books and none of them have been published mostly because I got tired of the rejection process, but I do enjoy talking about my books. My first book was a history book meant to be a coffee table book where you could open it up to any page and read a short story that relates ton water. My second book was an adventure book where the main character was a step-cousin of Jesus, and it is filled with conversations and stories. My third book was on mathematics, and I wrote it to help students make sense out of calculus.
The picture created by ChatGPT does not look much like me, as the top of my head is bald, I don’t have a beard or a moustache, I don’t wear glasses, and I don’t wear a wristwatch. The three books that I wrote all have different titles than what is shown in this picture.
Written for Reena’s Xploration Challenge #451 where today she asked us to describe ourselves, our life or both in a paragraph of 6-10 sentences and then use it as a prompt to generate an AI image or a logo.
