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(The Rolling Stones - 1971 with Mick Taylor, guitar - Heading off to France shortly)

Something to go along with your post-Thanksgiving weekend - a live concert (via the BBC) from Leeds University on March 13, 1971.

Aside from this being one of the last stops on their infamous "Goodbye To Britain Tour" of 1971, I don't think any other explanation is necessary other than turn up the volume and enjoy the show.

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(When the collective psyche was overrun by Pokemon)

Only ten years ago - the Friday after Thanksgiving 1999. In retrospect, not much has changed, if you discount the Christmas ads starting just before Halloween, the lines forming in front of shopping malls and Walmarts before midnight - the twenty-four hour shopping, the conspicuous consumption, the unemployment, the numbers of bankrupt stores.

No, in 1999 it was considered an event, the real conspicuous consumption would take place ten days before Christmas as it always had. In 1999 consumer confidence was high, the stock market was barreling towards 10,000 and online shopping was a nice idea, but would never replace good ol' retail.

Lou Miliano (CBS News): “This is no longer the busiest shopping day over recent years. Most purchasing has been done ten days prior to Christmas. This has become more of an event. And with unemployment down and stock prices up and consumer confidence strong, retailers are hoping it’s an event that leads to a 5-6% increase in sales.”

Black Friday hadn't been invented yet - the world was dealing with Pokemon and the dreaded Y2K, just around the corner.

Times change, and in strange ways.

Various days this weekend worldwide (and tomorrow in the US) is Buy Nothing Day. This video uses clips from John Carpenter's "They Live" to terrific effect.

Open Thread below... And Happy Thanksgiving.

You Tube has a great many schmaltzy versions of the old Norwegian hymn "We Gather Together"; this one played on a vintage Gibson ES 125 is just lovely.

And yeah, you're forgiven if Roseanne Roseannadanna's version pops into your head. Happy Thanksgiving.

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(1947 - People dressed differently back then, even to get a turkey)

Thanksgiving 1947 - two years after the end of World War 2 and a little over 2 years before the beginning of Korea - that mid point in history where the world is at an uneasy calm while pretending to be normal.

Morgan Beatty: “Around the world today, the news reflects a hard discipline upon the people. In London, the Council of Foreign Ministers tries desperately to achieve a basis for peace. But as they worked, these foreign ministers, their government spoke in alien terms, through news events that hardly seem accidental. In France, the Communist controlled Federation of Labor has called out a million and a quarter French workers out of her six million. And not a striking union among them will listen to government proposals to go back to work. The French government has, with dramatic suddenness pointed a finger at Moscow. Not with mere paper charges but by direct action. Nineteen Soviet citizens in France have been deported for taking too active a part in French internal affairs. Today the Soviet government, stung to the quick, demanded that the French government produce the missing nineteen without delay at the Soviet Embassy in Paris. Supposedly that’s quite impossible now, because the nineteen are believed to be in Berlin.”

Thanksgiving sixty-two years ago and the broadcast News Of The World with Morgan Beatty. The world was, for the most part, a different place.

Well, we don't get formal to buy a turkey anyway . . .

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(A Heaping Helping of Americana today)

Since it is Thanksgiving and a traditional American holiday, I thought I would toss out a large helping of Americana by way of a concert with The Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Howard Hanson, featuring all American composers of the early 20th Century - most of whom you've probably never heard of before.

The concert (actually two concerts - one from April 1945 and the other from February 1953) features music by Quincy Porter, Bernard Rogers, John Alden Carpenter, Aron Copland, Leo Sowerby and David Diamond.

Almost an hour of unfamiliar music. I understand it goes well with stuffing and cranberry sauce.

Happy Thanksgiving from the crew at Newstalgia!

Careful which turkey yer slaughterin' there, you betcha.

And Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Crooks and Liars, we sincerely thank you for your readership and support over the past year....

Open Thread for football, parades, food, gratitude, etc....

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November 25, 2009 CBS David Letterman

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Watching President Obama make the traditional Thanksgiving Day turkey pardon today, I couldn't help thinking ... what if?

What if the wingnuts' wildest fantasies come true, and they ride back into the White House on the wave of right-wing populism now sweeping them? What would this day look like then?

And then I realized, of course, that we already had the answer.

So I made a little mashup fantasy of the view from Planet Wingnuttia. Enjoy. And Happy Thanksgiving.

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Just for fun on this Thanksgiving day, it's been just over a year since we posted this video of Sarah Palin's turkey pardoning fiasco.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody...you betcha'!!

Some Guy's Blog: Happy Thanksgiving!

James Fallows has been posting on how our myopic media manufactured a failure out of Obama's China trip

Angry Bear: Another Reagan myth bubbling back to the surface

cab drollery: They Knew

The Sardonic Sideshow: Has the American Dream drifted north?

onegoodmove: The Right Side of History (h/t reader Geoff)

Guitarist Michael Hedges died nearly 12 years ago in an automobile accident near San Francisco. It was reported that he was returning home after visiting his girlfriend over the Thanksgiving holiday, so I thought this might be a good time to remember his amazing work. I am thankful for the beautiful art that he was gracious enough to share with the us while he was here.

American history is brought to life by adorable children in this truer-to-life-than-you-likely-read-in-your-history-books reenactment of the first Thanksgiving.

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(J. Geils Band - Straight up, Traditional Rock n' Roll from 1975)

A bit of straight-up Rock n' Roll tonight. The J. Geils Band recorded (at least I think so) at the Augusta Civic Theatre on October 24, 1975. I'm doubting the recording date because I'm only going off notes from other websites as my original King Biscuit Flour Hour tape box says only 1975 and doesn't list venues. So . . .any clarification from J. Geils fans out there would be most appreciated.

At any rate, it's a short set but a good one and a little something to go with a Saturday night before Thanksgiving.

In a preview of his weekly address, President-elect Barack Obama addressed the nation on the occasion of Thanksgiving, nearly one hundred and fifty years after President Lincoln called for the last Thursday in November to be set aside to acknowledge our blessings. For more information, visit http://change.gov.

Good morning.

Nearly 150 years ago, in one of the darkest years of our nation’s history, President Abraham Lincoln set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving. America was split by Civil War. But Lincoln said in his first Thanksgiving decree that difficult times made it even more appropriate for our blessings to be – and I quote – "gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people."

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