Monday, March 4, 2019
Is crypto currency the new money?
Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes.

Dollars. Euros. Yen.
All money.
People take your money and give you things.

Crypto means secret.
The essence of crypto seems to defy the definition of money as being ‘generally accepted.”
The essence is to more robustly secure financial transactions against thieves; hackers.

I am in the middle of my first such online transfer and, as usual with me, need help.
Which I am getting in an hour.
If this transaction is typical, they ask for more detailed and personal information than is typical for online transfers.

In March 2018, the word cryptocurrency was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Crypto currency may not be the new money.
But it well may be the direction in which even consumer online transfers are going.

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Tagging Passing Time, Weather, and Dinner
Monday, March 4, 2019
My 326th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.

Time is 12.01am.
On Monday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 37* with a feels-like temperature of 30* with early snow.

Dinner is Roast Turkey breast with stuffing and gravy.

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Tick Tock : Marking Calendars and Deep Weather

326 posts to date.
Today we’re at the 6.52% mark of my commitment,
the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.

Today our winter-spring shoulder calendar features the kind of weather that drives New Englanders nuts.
As the calendar turns a page into March we anticipate the onset of nicer days.
And here is a snowstorm for us.
Yippee!
And in a couple of days we’ll be in dastardly cold weather.

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Question of the Day
Who was Fats Domino?

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Love your notes.
Contact me at existentialautotrip@hotmail.com

This from Sally C.

Dear Dom,

Such a strange and sad comparison you display today, with joy in the morning at one end of your post and the tragic story of Mechael Jackson at the other end.

I love the image of the scuplture of the woman fairly exploding with uncontainable joy.  How is it that she hasn’t leapt from the plinth and cavorted across the park and over the hedges?

At the other end of the spectrum, I feel nothing but profound sadness at the evident unhappiness of Michael Jackson, a man who – despite the insanely amazing successes he chalked up – denied recognition of himself, his race, his gender.  Such tormented confusion.  Why else would he have disfigured himself so, from a handsome young boy and man into the grotesque manniquin he morphed into?

On a completely unrelated note, I wish to congratulate you on your masterful story, “Dom’s, An Odyssey,” which I just finished reading.  A most cleverly arranged story arc – taking place over the course of one night at the restaurant, from the public dinner hours through the private-party hours, culminating in breakfast at the city’s greasiest spoon singing (or perhaps frying) its swan song.  Your idea to distinguish recent backstory and ancient backstory, using a different typeface or italics, from the progress of the single evening works perfectly.  Through it all, I see your evolution into an iron-like man, born to survive, dressed in the velvet of compassion and humanity.  I am humbled that you call me “friend.”  Thank you!

Sally

Web Meister Responds: Thank you, Sally, for the compliments. Your remarks re: MJ and the sculpture were incisive. Thanks for those.

And for those who ask what?
The book Sally refers to is “Dom’s, an Odyssey,” which addresses the question, Why did it take 6,000,000 Italians 100 years to assimilate into the American Mainstream?

An intimate look at Boston's North End in the 1950s when American society erupted with changes like Brown v Board of Education and the Warren Court; rock and roll, the transistor radio, and Elvis Presley; American military might and the Dulles brothers.

Changes like swapping the old superstars like John Wayne for the anti-social Marlon Brando, like the advent of television and electronic news, advertising, and "Father Knows Best."

And more changes, like feminism and Gloria Steinem; Senator Kefauver and Italian organized crime; cries for racial justice and CORE; like art and Leo Castelli and Abstract Expressionism.

In the middle of this maelstrom, how did the North End's entirely Italian-American population, dominated by 2500 hundred twelve-year-old children, handle sex, the Mafia, sports and numbers betting, food, and open rebellion from our parents and Italian ancestry?

Available as a softcover for $20.00 plus shipping and handling, $2.99.

Send a check and mailing address to Dom Capossela, 65 East India Row, Suite 31G, Boston, MA 02110.

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Elephant jokes to tell at a bar:
Why do elephants paint their toenails red?

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Answer to the Question of the Day
Who was Fats Domino?

Antoine "Fats" Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017) was an American pianist and singer-songwriter.
One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records.
Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 hits.

During his career, Domino had 35 records in the U.S. Billboard Top 40, and five of his pre-1955 records sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.

His musical style was based on traditional rhythm and blues, accompanied by saxophones, bass, piano, electric guitar, and drums.

His 1949 release "The Fat Man" is widely regarded as the first million-selling Rock 'n Roll record.

One of his most famous songs is “Blueberry Hill”.

Domino crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" which reached the Top Ten. This was the first of his records to appear on the Billboard pop singles chart (on July 16, 1955), with the debut at number 14.
A milder cover version by Pat Boone reached number 1, having received wider radio airplay in an era of racial segregation.
In 1955, Domino was said to be earning $10,000 a week while touring, according to a report in the memoir of artist Chuck Berry.
Domino eventually had 37 Top 40 singles, but none made it to number 1 on the Pop chart,

Domino's debut album contained several of his recent hits and earlier blues tracks that had not been released as singles, and was issued on the Imperial label (catalogue number 9009) in November 1955, and was reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino.
The reissue reached number 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.

His 1956 recording of "Blueberry Hill", a 1940 song by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis and Larry Stock (which had previously been recorded by Gene Autry, Louis Armstrong and others), reached number 2 on the Billboard Juke Box chart for two weeks and was number 1 on the R&B chart for 11 weeks.
It was his biggest hit, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956 and 1957.
The song was subsequently recorded by Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Led Zeppelin.

Domino had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop number 14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop number 4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop number 8), "It's You I Love" (Pop number 6), "Whole Lotta Lovin'" (Pop number 6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop number 8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop number 8).

Domino appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock! and The Girl Can't Help It.

On December 18, 1957, his hit recording of "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
He was also featured in a movie of the same name.

On November 2, 1956, a riot broke out at a Domino concert in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The police used tear gas to break up the unruly crowd.
Domino jumped out a window to avoid the melee; he and two members of his band were slightly injured.
During his career, four major riots occurred at his concerts, "partly because of integration", according to his biographer Rick Coleman.
"But also the fact they had alcohol at these shows.
So they were mixing alcohol, plus dancing, plus the races together for the first time in a lot of these places."
In November 1957, Domino appeared on the Ed Sullivan TV program; no disturbance accompanied this performance.

In the same year, the article "King of Rock 'n' Roll" in Ebony (magazine) featured Domino who said he was on the road 340 days a year, up to $2,500 per evening, and grossing over $500,000; Domino also told readers that he owned 50 suits, 100 pairs of shoes and a $1,500 diamond horseshoe stick pin.

Domino had a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walking' to New Orleans" (1960, Pop number 6), co-written by Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop number 14) in the same year.
He toured Europe in 1962 and met the Beatles who would later cite Domino as an inspiration.
After returning, he played the first of his many stands in Las Vegas.

Imperial Records was sold in early 1963, and Domino left the label. "I stuck with them until they sold out," he said in 1979.
In all, he recorded over 60 singles for Imperial, placing 40 songs in the top 10 on the R&B chart and 11 in the top 10 on the Pop chart, twenty-seven of which were double-sided hits.

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Good Morning on this Monday, the Fourth of March.

Today we broached the subject of crypto currency to which we plan to return.
We talked about a nice winter day, although snow coming early morning, and cold weather in the offing.
We posed the question, What is crypto currency?
We posted a great letter from Sally and presented another elephant joke. Oh well.
And finally we talked about Fats Domino. A great musician.
And now? Now gotta go.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Your Love