Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi
An evening pause: This was I think the song that made her career. Its shallow environmentalism, from the still naive 1960s, seems appropriate today on Labor Day.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Bob:
I’m not so sure that environmentalism was all that naive back in the 60s. I remember how bad air pollution was really becoming, the press to clear cut all of the remaining old growth redwoods left (which wasn’t many), the stench of a local paper mill whenever you got within 5 miles of it, open landfills that were equally pungent, and river pollution that was so bad one even caught on fire. So in general the initial environmental movement was necessary and a good thing imho.
The problem of course is the nature of any bureaucracy to grow and expand and continually justify its existence which has led to ever more stringent regulations well past the point of reasonableness. For example, in California we now live under particulate air pollution standards that are so strict that a dust storm in the Gobi desert today can trigger Spare the Air alerts in a few weeks time if the jet stream happens to align correctly. Protecting us from harmful emissions is one thing, but to define that such that even Mother Nature cannot meet the standard is quite another, and THAT is our problem.
i liked it because of her voice and the accompanying music.
The line “Don’t it always seem to go?
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” applies to many more things in life.
judd: I did to, which is why I posted it. It is a nice song, with some very clever lyrics, performed well, all reasons why it made her career.
God, I absolutely HATE her, her whiny voice and this song!