Bobby Womack and Ron Wood, 1975

There’s a fantastic Guardian interview with Bobby Womack online, conducted recently in his hospital room, after getting the all-clear from colon cancer:

…everything he says is fascinating, an endless stream of anecdotes with an impossibly starry cast drawn from what may be the most remarkable CV in music: he is, as Albarn notes, “like Zelig”. He formed his first gospel group with his five brothers before he had reached his teens. A few years later, their father kicked them out when they announced they wanted to play secular music. They were mentored by Sam Cooke, who moved them to LA and whose band Womack joined, touring a segregated America. “Sam used to tell me, whenever you got some money, you go get yourself a good ring and a good watch. Why would I need that? And Sam would say, you might have to get outta town quickly, before you get paid, and you can always hock that ring and that watch.”

He played with James Brown and Ray Charles and toured with a young Jimi Hendrix. He wrote It’s All Over Now, which the Rolling Stones turned into a global hit… He spent time as a session guitarist in Memphis, where he played with Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and on Dusty Springfield’s Dusty In Memphis. He also played on Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds, which didn’t impress him much either. “People say: ‘What did you think of Elvis Presley?’ I say: ‘He wasn’t shit. Everything he got he stole.’”

Here’s a great new site of Bobby’s history — I was so excited to see Bobby in Houston next weekend, but now they’ve postponed the show until June 30th. Still, I feel lucky he’s still coming!

Here’s a little Rdio playlist of his career I put together:

Comics: Philosophy & Practice - May 18-20, 2012 // University of Chicago

thenearsightedmonkey:

This. Was. SO. FUN!

Wow. What a lineup. Anybody know if the sessions were archived?

Cosmonaut iPad stylus from Studio Neat

Okay, heard about this thing a while back, but then realized you could get it on Amazon for $25. It’s awesome. Like drawing with a big fat crayon. And dig the packaging!

The Expectant Father and Bringing Up Bebe

I know what you’re thinking: oh great, he announces he’s procreating and now he’s a daddyblogger. Nah, it’s just that this is a place where I post what I’m reading, and honestly, I’m reading a lot of parenting books. (Also, you never know when this stuff will come in handy — I remember bookmarking parenting tips from Kottke and Boing Boing a few years ago, and now I’m glad I did.)

So, let’s make this quick.

The Expectant Father is as advertised: it’ll take you month by month through your wife’s pregnancy and tell you what to expect. In fact, each month so far I’ve read the list of symptoms in the “What she’s going through this month” section and my wife just nods along. Also, because this book boils things down so much, it actually doubles as a good reference for your wife.

Okay, I actually like Pamela Druckerman’s Bringing Up Bebe a lot, and I’ve been describing it as French Women Don’t Get Fat for parenting, even though I’ve never read that book, and judging by the reactions I get from using it as a reference point, it’s probably awful. The gist of Bebe is that French parents are anti-helicopter: they don’t make the kiddo the center of the universe, they see it as a little human who needs help joining the ranks of the rest of us, which translates to establishing firm boundaries, a strict sleep and meal schedule, saying “no” a lot and teaching them to wait¹, exposing them to lots of different foods and cultural experiences, and giving them lots of uninterrupted free time. (Sign me up!) This book also made me want to read/research Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile: Or, On Education and the work of Francoise Dolto, who unfortunately, has very little of her work translated into English.

OK, now for the mom and dad veterans out there — what parenting books should I read? Tweet at me.