Web Log Archive 8/21/05 through 9/3/05
Saturday, September 3rd, 2005
Although I started out kinda dreading tonight's gig, it's been
kinda fun practicing the last few nights. I've been trying to remember half the
songs I've forgotten and I've been trying to learn a few that I never really
knew (although that sure never stopped me from playing them in a half-assed
manner). Tonight I made a pretty rough recording of Here
Comes The Sun for Charlie and Ernie to practice with. The bride requested it
for the first song after the ceremony when everyone will be buzzing. [Although
the recording is nothing to brag about, I sure like the sound of that
MXL990 on the voice! I mean, that microphone only cost about $50!]
In a previous lifetime, I played several gigs a week and I remember
one stretch where I played eighteen nights in a row! Now...I'm not saying it
ever sounded like anything but my fingers sure were warmed up! Last night, after
(only) about two hours, my left hand was griping so I figured it was wise to
stop.
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
In a world offering so little certainty, it is comforting
to hear (and it brings me no small pleasure to announce) that, by acclamation,
.
Thursday, September 1, 2005
"If anyone is telling you that Iraq is getting in the way, well that's hogwash," Mr. Allbaugh said from Baton Rouge, where he was clinging to a bad cellphone connection.
"The Department of Transportation has provided more than 400 trucks to move 1,000 truckloads containing 5.4 million Meals Ready to Eat -- or MREs, 13.4 million liters of water, 10,400 tarps, 3.4 million pounds of ice, 144 generators, 20 containers of pre-positioned disaster supplies, 135,000 blankets and 11,000 cots." Alfred...from yesterday's speech, which the Times called "one of the worst...of his life".
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005 Happy Birthday, Kirsten!
This Saturday I'm doing a (wedding) gig in Sausalito with Charlie and
Ernie.
It was a good excuse to (re)learn one of my favorite standards. The
post is a rough & spacey version...one-take stuff with which Charlie and
Ernie can play along and 'practice' the chord changes I conjured. Hey
Kenny (long lost buddy)! You too, guy!
[F major.]
I don't know how the news from the New Orleans area could get any worse...though
I have a feeling it will.
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
Have you ever tried to explain to someone,
especially to a non-native-English speaker, the difference between 'affect' and
'effect'? I am only able to do it by resorting to examples. Although I am always
sure about which ought to be used when, I have not yet been able to formulate a
rule by which I can 'educate' someone.
It is said that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts is a crazed
grammarian. Well then...I say he
can't be all bad!
Monday, August 29th, 2005 Happy 90th Birthday, mom!
If there were no limits, there would be no meaning.
To my
genius son I cede
higher powers of discernment than my own. But even he can not be
persuaded that Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro
Baptist Church in Kansas is a man
in earnest. Yet, I fear, 'tis so. Fred, in his 76th year, is the infamous proprietor
of the family of Web sites in the mode of www.godhatesxxx.com.
For 'xxx' substitute 'faggots', Catholics, Episcopalians, Canada, Australia, Sweden and America (among many). Mr.
Phelps has just made fresh headlines by dispatching a busload of his congregants
to demonstrate at the Tennessee
funeral for two fallen GI's back from Iraq. His 'point' is that God is
punishing America for tolerating homosexuals. Come to think of it, Fred is
not so very much farther out than 'mainstream' Pat
Robertson, whom the Times calls a 'garden-variety
crackpot' with his Age-Defying
Protein Pancakes.
But
Fred, unlike Pat, is not bereft of humor and, like a broken timepiece,
may even be 'right' on occasion. Take, for example, his screed
that "Fag priests and dyke nuns is the order of the day for Kansas
Catholics. They deserve the sick, perverted leadership that now dooms and damns
them." Fred's words for the Pope, himself,
are not even that generous! And, in an open letter to Cindy Sheehan (in
answer to her question for Bush: "Why did my son die in Iraq?"),
the good Reverend, calling our President a "Hell-bound hypocrite",
writes that "Asking Bush a question like that is like asking an
orangutan to teach table manners."
Sunday, August 28th, 2005
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." H.L. Mencken 1880-1956
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Then it was the corn's turn.
[After canceling the
celery
when I squealed] he began by ringing me up for twenty-three ears of it!
I didn't make this up: "What is important is that Iraqis are now addressing these issues through debate and discussion -- not at the barrel of a gun," he said.
Friday, August 26th, 2005
I have heard people say (and it does seem) that no sooner do we adjust to one situation, than it changes and we must adjust to another. We seek equilibrium, for nothing seems more elusive. Many of us cling to unfulfilling situations because unfulfilling beats strange every time.
"I married an amazing man who is educated, intelligent, beautiful, volunteers with kids, is the lead man at his job and is respected by his peers, co-workers and superiors. He is...in prison." Say what?
The British Office for National Statistics found that, while Monday was usually the bleakest day of the week, the worst day for suicides in the 9-year period was January 1, 2000 — a Saturday.
Thursday, August 25th, 2005
Ah...what'd I tell ya? Like the undertaker (for Marley) bragged to the maid in A Christmas Carol: "I always know!"
Wednesday, August 24th, 2005
Even
in a world awash in weird stories, this one about ONJ's
missing boyfriend stands out. For now, put aside any titter
about her 'boy-toy' ('cuz she's allowed to have one). What kind of a missing
person's story is this? Anyway?
He was last seen on a fishing boat on June 30th and the next anyone pays attention is when he fails to show up for a "family event" on July
6th? That's a week, people! Nobody missed this dude for a whole week?
I mean, he's Olivia's long-time main squeeze [and a hunk, though I don't go that
way] and he gets to go bye-bye on a fishing boat? Not even cell phone contact?
His 'personal items' were still on the 'sport fishing vessel' and the captain
didn't notice that one fewer fisherman got off than got on? On July 11th,
somebody finally notices his car covered with tickets in the marina lot? And ONJ
didn't start barkin' about all this till five (or six) weeks later?
Somethin'
don't pass the smell test! Big-huge fight? Major falling out? Faking his own death?
Pitched himself overboard (to get away from her)? Yup!
Weird!
The pinko liberal press is at it
again! Pat Robertson was misinterpreted, of course! He says,
"It happens all the time." He didn't say, after all,
that we should assassinate Hugo Chavez! Nuh nuh nuh! He merely said we should
'take him out'..."kidnap him", for example.
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005
One wonders how far Pat Robertson's Christian supporters will be willing to ride along with him. While it may have been somewhat amusing when he, along with Jerry Falwell, blamed America's tolerance of homosexuals for the attacks of 9/11, there's nothing so funny about his latest jeremiad. God save us from the righteous!
Monday, August 22nd, 2005 Forty years ago today, I arrived in California.
These last sixty years must be the most exciting period through which our species has yet lived. Think of it! From the transistor radio to the color television to the VCR to the DVD. From the Brownie Hawkeye to the 35 mm SLR to the digital camera. From the pocket calculator to the digital computer. From push-button phones to cell phones. Vitality enhancements from vitamins to Viagra. Odor fighters from Ban to Beano!
Sunday, August 21st, 2005
Color me superstitious, but I think it's
flat-out risky for Alfred to ever-more-explicitly
make this bone-headed
argument about "fighting them over there so we won't have to fight
them here!"
I mean, this doesn't sound so much like a plan as it does like a wish. As
in, "We're fighting them over there while we hope we won't have
to fight them here."
[To be fair, with every other rationale for this disaster now in
tatters, what else can he say?]
