I hope nobody watched or streamed that demented orange POSs speech yesterday. There are other, more pressing matters to occupy ourselves with, like why can't we eat salads or fresh salsa with cilantro? Why is our food contaminated with cyclospora? Why did that POS remove the FDA  “Food Traceability Rule” and place us at risk?

ANYWAY, back to my form of reality (and therapy)…

Does anybody even know what “shindig” means?

The word originated in the United States in the mid-19th century. It’s believed to be a playful alteration of the older slang word shindy, which originally referred to a rowdy commotion or a street game similar to field hockey.

In modern, everyday use, it’s synonymous with words like “bash,” “blowout,” or “hoedown”. For example, you might say, “Are you going to the big neighborhood shindig this weekend?”

In the mid-60s, there was a TV show broadcast from Los Angeles called Shindig! It was a musical variety series hosted by DJ Jimmy O’Neill. I never watched it, maybe it wasn’t shown in my area, I dunno.

Most exciting for all of us who love him is that Leon Russell, the house band’s pianist, was often featured in solo performances.

(Learn more about Shindig! at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shindig)

I never get tired of wondering exactly how Leon went from THIS to the uber cool long-haired sunglass-wearing exuberant Master of Space and Time that filled stadiums. The butterfly definitely broke out of the chrysalis!

Check out Leon on the first song with Donna Loren (you can hear him before you see him, it’s unmistakably LEON) and something I’ve never seen before, Leon on organ with Bobby Sherman at 10:02.

And on another day with Aretha Franklin; I also always wonder what HE was thinking about…it’s a mystery.