Neither
Here Nor There
(a Web Log)Neither
Here Nor There
(a Web Log)
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
So this cowboy appeared before
St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.
"Have you ever done
anything of particular merit?" asked St. Peter.
"Well,
I can think of one thing," offered the cowboy. "On
a trip to the Black Hills out in South Dakota, I came upon a gang of bikers who
were threatening a young woman. I directed them to leave her alone, but they
wouldn't listen. So, I approached the largest and most tattooed biker, smacked
him in the face, kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring and threw it on
the ground. Then I yelled, 'Now, back off or I'll kick the crap out
of all of you!' "
Impressed, St. Peter asked, "When
did this happen?"
"A few minutes ago."
Courtesy of my baby sister.
Monday, August 30th, 2010 Thirteen Years Ago Tonight, people in North America learned of the car crash that killed Princess Diana
OK...I'm
wrong a lot, but
a story broke last Friday out of Las Vegas that I find hard to accept...as
reported. Doubtless, you've heard it: a sixty-seven year-old woman,
Billie Jean James, had been missing for four months. Then, her corpse was
discovered in her own house...under a pile of garbage. See...Billie
Jean was a 'hoarder'...the type of person that has recently
spawned a couple of documentary ('reality') TV series. She had a hard time throwing anything
out and continued to go on shopping sprees. But...I don't care how much
crap someone leaves lying around. After only one week, a dead mammal
stinks! After two weeks, that stench would overwhelm all competing odors.
The police had conducted an extensive search which included the use of
cadaver-sniffing dogs...and the very room where her body was 'discovered'
had been searched.
This is so none of my business, of course, but the police have been saying that her husband is not a suspect. But neither was Scott Peterson. The coroner's report is pending. Maybe the story is true as reported. We'll see.
This case is loosely similar to the case of 38 year-old Mariesa Weber who, in October of 2006 died in a freak accident in her Florida home. Her body was discovered two weeks later. Mariesa had, evidently, lost her balance, slipped and become wedged behind a bookcase. Her chest was compressed, rendering her unable to breathe. Fliers were sent out, the news media were notified but it was the stench of her rotting corpse that led, at last, to a resolution.
Sunday, August 29th, 2010 My Mom's 95th Birthday
Courtesy of my big sister
Saturday, August 28th, 2010
Glenn Beck is an ignorant, divisive, pathetic figure...a small man with a mean message...a provocateur who likes to play with matches in the tinderbox of racial and ethnic confrontation. He seems oblivious to the real danger of his execrable behavior. He is an integral part of the vicious effort by the Tea Party and other elements of the right wing to portray Mr. Obama as alien...separate and apart from ordinary American life. Facts and reality mean nothing to Beck and there is no road too low for him to slither upon. Abe Lincoln and Dr. King could only look on aghast at this clown.
Friday, August 27th, 2010
A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.
The fortunate man is the one who cannot take more than a couple of drinks without becoming intoxicated.
The unfortunate wight is the one who can take many glasses without betraying a sign; who must take numerous glasses in order to get the kick.
Jack London (1876-1916)
I've noticed that the people who are undone by alcohol are the people who can 'handle' it.
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
It is ninety-two degrees at 8:20 PM in the room where I am typing this! Too hot to play music! Too hot even to type on a computer! I am soaked with perspiration.
The weather has gone from chilly to suffocatingly warm within forty-eight hours!
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
From a statement by Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas
The debate (over building a mosque near
ground zero) should have provided the conservative defenders of property
rights with a perfect example of how the right to own property also protects the
1st Amendment rights of assembly and religion by supporting the building of the
mosque.
The fact that so much attention has been given the mosque debate,
raises the question of just why...and driven by whom? In my opinion it has come
from the neo-conservatives who demand continual war in the Middle East and
Central Asia. They never miss a chance to use hatred toward Muslims to rally
support for ill conceived wars. The claim is that we are in the Middle East to
protect our liberties is misleading. We’re supposed to believe that
abusing our liberties here at home and pursuing unconstitutional wars overseas
will solve our problems. The nineteen suicide bombers (on
9/11) didn’t come from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iran. Fifteen came
from our ally Saudi Arabia, yet we invade and occupy Iraq where no al Qaeda
existed prior to 9/11.
It is repeatedly said that 64% of the people, after
listening to the political demagogues, don’t want the mosque to be built. What
would we do if 75% of the people insist that no more Catholic churches be built
in New York City?
This is all about hate and Islamaphobia.
We now have an
epidemic of “sunshine patriots” on both the right and the left who are all for
freedom, as long as there’s no controversy and nobody is offended.
Political
demagoguery rules when truth and liberty are ignored.
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
Saturday, August 21st, 2010
"Doctor" Laura Schlessinger has been in the news lately for saying 'nigger' eleven times on her call-in program. She is among those individuals (Sean Hannity is another) who disturb me to the point that I am unable to listen to her say any word even once without lunging for the channel changer. Her shtick involves belittling anyone who's naive, desperate or masochistic enough to call in for advice. What she DOES bring to the dial is chutzpah. Most people I've met over my many years---even the most case-hardened---will summon a modicum of humility---or, at least, sensitivity---when confronted with a fellow human being in distress. Most people will put-a-sock-in-it long enough to hear out a troubled soul. But Laura (a self-conferred 'Doctor') displays only a brusque, dismissive know-it-all demeanor which grows ever harsher in proportion to the evident misery of any individual foolish enough to solicit her help.
Regarding the caller who evoked Schlessinger's 'luxuriating' in the racial epithet and which, within days, evoked a promise (or threat?) of retirement ('to regain my First Amendment rights') from the talk-show host:
She (the caller) is a black woman whose white husband's friends regularly say 'nigger' in her presence. Predictably, the 'Doctor' berated the caller for being too sensitive...particularly since she (the caller) had chosen to marry a lily-livered louse. As in: what did you expect? Time to get over it! Yeah...she told the caller that if she was gonna be so touchy, then she 'shouldn't have married outside of [her] race! '
What surprises me is that anyone is surprised at how downright mean and ugly Laura Schlessinger can be! And...NO surprise...Sarah Palin has come to Schlessinger's defense here. [Sarah's dumber than she's mean.] What these women share (with hundreds of bloviators in the media spotlight) is the lack of any self-criticism...or even restraint! If something they say doesn't 'go over'...or is shown to be outright false...it's never their fault! If anyone calls them out on something they've said...both complain that their 'free speech' rights are being abridged! To be fair...Schlessinger [meaner than she's dumb] did sort of apologize the next day although, within hours, she went on Larry King [who's just plain dumb] to decry the 'special interest' groups that want to muzzle her. Now...I think she was simply shocked at all the attention garnered by her remarks. After all...she's been shitty to people for more than thirty years. Why, now, did anyone bother to remark on it?
Commentator John Ridley (An African American) on NPR put it well:
"She shouldn't be mocking or
belittling the problems she's supposed to be helping. Rather than just being
offensive, the N-word served as a speed bump and drew attention to other things
she said that were truly troubling. Unless Congress is enacting a law against
Dr. Laura, nobody is touching her First Amendment rights. Anybody has a right to
complain about what somebody else says. This is not a First Amendment issue,
this is a 'you can dish it out, but you can't take it' issue."
Friday, August 20th, 2010
People in the 'News Business' are likely to tell you that August is a 'slow month' and perhaps that helps to explains why, over the last few days (mixed in with tales about a half-billion eggs having been tainted with salmonella bacteria), a top story has been that 'a growing number' of Americans (now up to about one in five) believe(s) that Barack Obama is a Muslim...and not a Christian. The White House promptly trotted out a junior level spokesman to say that "President Obama is a committed Christian, and his faith is an important part of his daily life. He prays every day, he seeks a small circle of Christian pastors to give him spiritual advice and counseling, he even receives a daily devotional that he uses each morning."
I'm sure this message is intended to be comforting to the population at large but I, for one, hope that it's not true. I hope that his association with 'Christian pastors' is only 'for show'.
I hope (and prefer to believe) that the President's profession of Christianity is merely a lie he has to tell in order to be electable and/or remain sufficiently 'mainstream' to govern. I hope that the President does not believe that he has a powerful invisible imaginary friend somewhere...one who listens to him and billions of other superstitious people worldwide.
Thursday, August 19th, 2010 Happy Birthday, Randy
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
Fishing is boring unless you catch an actual fish. Then it is disgusting.
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
High School Reunion
Rachel, Clare and Samantha hadn't
seen each other since High School. After rediscovering each other via a reunion
website, they arrange to meet for lunch in a wine bar.
Rachel
arrives first, wearing beige Versace. She orders a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Clare
arrives shortly afterward...in gray Chanel. After the ritualized kisses she
joins Rachel in
a glass of wine. Then Samantha walks in, wearing a faded old
tee-shirt, blue jeans and boots. She shares in the wine.
Rachel explains that after leaving high school and
graduating from Princeton in Classics, she met and married Timothy, with whom
she has a beautiful daughter. Timothy is a partner
in one of New York 's
leading law firms. They live in a 4000 sq ft co-op on Fifth Avenue, where
Susanna, the daughter, attends drama school. They have a second home in Phoenix
.
Clare relates that she graduated from Harvard Med School and became a
surgeon. Her husband, Clive, is a leading Wall Street investment banker. They
live in Southampton on Long Island
and have a second home in Naples, Florida
.
Samantha explains that she left school at 17
and ran off with her boyfriend, Ben. They run a tropical bird park in California
and grow their own vegetables. Ben can stand five
parrots, side by side, on
his willy.
Halfway down the third bottle of wine
and several hours later, Rachel blurts out that her husband is a cashier at
Walmart. They live in a small apartment in Brooklyn and have a
travel
trailer parked at a nearby storage facility.
Clare,
chastened by her old friend's honesty, confesses that she and Clive are both
nurse's aides in a retirement home. They live in Hoboken and take vacation
camping
trips to Alabama .
Samantha admits
that the fifth parrot has to stand on one leg.
Monday, August 16th, 2010
Nothing attracts
the mustard from wieners
as much as the slacks
just back from the cleaners.
Shake and shake
the catsup bottle
first none'll come
and then a lot'll.
Richard Armour (1906-1989)
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
Who troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind and the fool shall be servant to the wise.
Proverbs 11:29
Saturday, August 14th, 2010
A few years ago, during a discussion of my rising blood pressure...and unwillingness to treat it with pills, I told my doctor that I was less afraid of dying than of living too long. [Witness, for example, Jack Lalanne.] My doctor replied, simply, that 'yes...there are worse things than dying'.
On August 6th, Historian and NYU Professor Tony Judt succumbed, at age sixty-two, to motor neuron disease, a variant of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS...Lou Gehrig's disease). Beginning on February 11th, 2010, he dictated a series of 'short reflections' describing his deteriorating condition. What follows is an excerpt from the first of his 'reflections'.
This cockroach-like existence is cumulatively intolerable
even though on any given night it is perfectly manageable. “Cockroach” is of
course an allusion to Kafka’s Metamorphosis, in which the protagonist wakes up
one morning to discover that he has been transformed into an insect. The point
of the story is as much the responses and incomprehension of his family as it is
the account of his own sensations, and it is hard to resist the thought that
even the best-meaning and most generously thoughtful friend or relative cannot
hope to understand the sense of isolation and imprisonment that this disease
imposes upon its victims. Helplessness is humiliating. Imagine the mind’s
response to the knowledge that the helplessness of ALS is a life sentence
(we speak blithely of death sentences in this connection, but actually
the latter would be a relief).
I suppose I should be at least mildly
satisfied to know that I have found within myself the sort of survival mechanism
that most normal people only read about in accounts of natural disasters or
isolation cells. But the satisfactions of compensation are notoriously fleeting.
There is no saving grace in being confined to an iron suit, cold and
unforgiving. The pleasures of mental agility are much overstated. That way lies
futility. Loss is loss, and nothing is gained by calling it by a nicer name.
Friday, August 13th, 2010
"In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end."
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805-1859
Thursday, August 12th, 2010 Happy Birthday, Michelle!
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
"To the fucking asshole who just told me to fuck off: It's been a good 28 years! I've had it! That's it! " Steven Slater
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
"People who vote against this today are voting against me and I will not forget."
Ted Stevens, 1923-2010
Monday, August 9th, 2010 [It's 8, 9, 10!] The Thirty-Sixth Anniversary of the Resignation of Richard Nixon
I screwed it up real good, didn't I?
Bureaucrats
have a vested interest in...chaos.
By the
time you get dressed, drive out there, play 18 holes and come home, you've blown
seven hours. There are better things you can do with your time.
I
wish I could give you a lot of advice, based on my experience of winning
political debates. But I don't have that experience. My only experience is of
losing them.
I've never
canceled a subscription to a newspaper because of bad cartoons or editorials. If
that were the case, I wouldn't have had any newspapers to read.
You won't have Nixon to kick around
anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.
[Spoken 11/7/62, on the occasion of his loss to Jerry Brown's father in the California Gubernatorial Election.]
RMN (1913-1994)
Sunday, August 8th, 2010
Saturday, August 7th, 2010
The
Republicans are “betting on amnesia,” Obama confidently told the claque
at a recent fund-raiser. “They don’t have a single idea that’s different
from George Bush’s ideas.” But it’s Obama who’s on the wrong side of that
bet, to his own political peril.
Betting on amnesia is almost always a
winning, not a losing, wager in America. Angry demonstrators at health care
town-hall meetings didn’t remember that Medicare is a government program, and
fewer and fewer voters of both parties recall that the widely loathed TARP was a
Bush administration creation supported by the G.O.P. Congressional leadership.
So many Republicans don’t know Obama is a natural citizen — 41 percent in a poll
last week — that we must (charitably) assume some of them have forgotten that
Hawaii was granted statehood. The G.O.P. chairman is sufficiently afflicted with
amnesia that he matter-of-factly regaled an audience with the counterfactual
observation that the war in Afghanistan, Bush’s immediate response to 9/11,
began under Obama.
The president is also wrong
when he says that every single current G.O.P. idea is a Bush idea. Many are not.
And those that are not are far more radical.
Rather than wait for miracles or
pray that Bushphobia will save the day, Democrats might instead start playing
the hand they’ve been dealt. For Obama even to stipulate that the G.O.P. has
ideas about how to deal with this crisis is generous. Consultants are telling
Republicans to advance no new programs at all, given how far a simple no to the
president has taken them thus far, and they are following orders. But what we
can discern of the Republican “ideas” lying in wait almost makes Bush’s
conservatism actually seem compassionate.
In the theoretically more sober
Senate, the G.O.P.’s rightward shift is arguably even more drastic. The
pernicious Bush economic orthodoxy — tax cuts as a magic elixir to both create
jobs and reduce deficits — remains gospel even as two veterans of Reaganomics,
Alan Greenspan and David Stockman, have gone public over the past week to
disavow it. But factor in the Senate’s rush to xenophobia, and Bush, who pushed
hard for immigration reform, starts to look like Nelson Mandela.
Given this spectacle, Obama and the Democrats are,
if anything, flattering the current G.O.P. by accusing it of being a carbon copy
of Bush.
Friday, August 6th, 2010
How many late model cars must be parked in your driveway...
How much money must be nested in your bank accounts...
How secure must be your retirement...
How healthy, well-adjusted and prosperous must be your offspring...
How radiant your own health...
How blessed with loyal friends...
How faithful your lover...
How peaceful...how well-appointed your home...and your neighborhood...
Before you find the leisure & the luxury to agonize about whom someone else may marry!
I don't get it!
Those of us who believe in minding our own business should take comfort. Religious bigotry is in decline. The demographics of our society are morphing...more quickly than most of us had foreseen. There is no going back. Same-sex couples will enjoy the legal protection to which they are entitled.
Next up: the legalization of marijuana. How bizarre that booze is legal and pot is not! I say that people should be allowed to be lazy and stupid...especially if they are already allowed to be violent and stupid! Vote YES on Proposition 19! [Vote NO on all the other Propositions!]
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 Barack Obama is Forty-Nine Years Old
Among the stipulations of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is that "All persons born...within the Unites States...are citizens of the United States and of the State in which they reside." Lately, some lawmakers (and right-wing-radio hacks) have proposed the nullification of the 14th Amendment for fear that 'undesirables' will use it...and reach American soil (illegally, if necessary) for the sole purpose of gaining citizenship for their progeny. Such 'Anchor Babies' might be 'planted', for example, by Al Qaeda members in order, in time, to undermine American society.
It turns out that this fear is not without precedent. During the post-Civil War debate leading up to the passage of our 14th Amendment, this very argument was made except, in those days, the fear was not of Al Qaeda or of Mexican laborers but, rather, of Chinese, Australians and Africans. Here's a rather humorous excerpt from a speech by Senator Edgar Cowan (1815-1885) of Pennsylvania...preserved in the Congressional Record of May 30th, 1866:
Is it proposed that the people of California are to remain quiescent while they are overrun by a flood of immigration of the Mongol race? Are they to be immigrated out of house and home by Chinese? As I understand the rights of the States under the Constitution at present, California has the right, if she deems it proper, to forbid the entrance into her territory of any person she chooses who is not a citizen of some one of the United States. She cannot forbid his entrance; but unquestionably, if she was likely to be invaded by a flood of Australians or people from Borneo, man-eaters or cannibals if you please, she would have the right to say that those people should not come there. It depends upon the inherent character of the men. Why, sir, there are nations of people with whom theft is a virtue and falsehood a merit. There are people to whom polygamy is as natural as monogamy is with us. It is utterly impossible that these people can meet together and enjoy their several rights and privileges which they suppose to be natural in the same society; and it is necessary, a part of the nature of things, that society shall be more or less exclusive. It is utterly and totally impossible to mingle all the various families of men, from the lowest form of the Hottentot up to the highest Caucasian, in the same society.
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
Their
'sound' had been called "a
rusty pipewrench to the teeth". The band's
whimsical front man Makh Daniels (at far right in the picture at left) recently
wrote, "The last couple years have been kinda rough
and for most of us, you hit times in your life when shit is basically spiraling
out of control and you try to reign it in but it just doesn't ever seem to work
so you drink it away. Basically you dig yourself further in the hole because you
don't know any other way. A lot of the lyrics, while not being a concept record,
have a lot of the same themes of loneliness and depression and substance abuse
running through each song. I think us as a band getting together and writing
these songs and writing these lyrics got out a lot of bad dark shit that has
been under the surface for all of us. Like an exorcism of sorts. I hope maybe
this record will connect with some people who are goin' through the same kinda
shit."
If you've never been present at a live appearance of the Heavy Metal (make that 'Blackened Death Metal') band Early Graves...now you never will. With its 'sister band', Funeral Pyre ("A metal band with no ambition or hope. We have given up on people and life."), Early Graves was traveling south on Interstate 5 early Monday in Oregon on its way to a gig in Reno, Nevada, when Funeral Pyre guitarist Justin Garcia fell asleep at the wheel of the bands' van. By the time the vehicle had finished rolling over, Makh had gone to his early grave (at age 28).
But Makh's legacy is well-preserved and represented on YouTube. Check out, for example, the live rendition of Faith Is Shit. Or...whatever this one's called.
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
As was the case when his fellow nonagenarian Art Linkletter died in May of this year, the passing of Mitch Miller on Saturday was marked by comments such as, 'Gee! I didn't realize that guy was still alive!'. For six long television seasons, beginning in 1961, Mitch Miller produced 'Sing Along With Mitch', a program wherein the lyrics to a popular tune were flashed on the screen as a bouncing ball (or Ballantine Beer logo) marked each syllable in synchrony with the played (and sung) notes. It was not (even) as sophisticated as The Lawrence Welk Show which, I confess, I sometimes watch (in its reprised format on Public Television). For Lawrence Welk (say what you will...and there's plenty to say...about his retrograde hiring policies [no contracts] and social 'values') managed to attract and retain some very talented musicians over his many years on TV. Welk's showcasing of such talents as Norma Zimmer should rank as a public service.
But Mitch Miller (1911-2010) simply played to the cheap seats. He himself later acknowledged that he was less than prescient as to where pop music was heading in the turbulent 60's. Of Rock & Roll, he said, 'It's not music...it's a disease!'
Sunday, August 1st, 2010
Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Friday, July 30th, 2010 Arnold Schwarzenegger is Sixty-Three Years Old
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen and I'll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities.
Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.
The problem with drinking:
If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget;
If something good happens you drink in order to celebrate;
If nothing happens you drink to make something happen.
There is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands on a clock.
Charles Bukowski (1920-1994)
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
I drink only to make my friends seem interesting.
By the time a bartender knows what drink a man will have before he orders, there is little else about him that is worth knowing.
There is
luxury in self-reproach: when we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a
right to blame us.
Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness.
Don Marquis (1878-1937)
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
While
BP has certainly earned the opprobrium it has received in the wake of the Gulf
oil disaster...I, for one, wonder many American BP bashers even remember
Union Carbide's accidental release of
methyl isocyanate in
Bhopal, India on the evening of December 2nd, 1984. I wonder how many American
BP bashers are aware of the scale of that disaster and how little
compensation has ever been tendered to its victims.
More than half a million people were exposed to the deadly chemical and the lowest estimate of the number of immediate fatalities in the aftermath is 3700...four times the number who died at Jonestown. Really...it's too vast and horrific a subject to Blog about...but the next time you hear someone ranting about Tony Hayward's insensitivity and BP's blundering...ask them to visit Bhopal.net.
An excerpt from Bhopal.net: Union Carbide abandoned its factory uncleaned and full of cancer and birth-defect-causing chemicals, which have since contaminated the water supply of some 30,000 people, many already affected by the gas. As a result we are seeing epidemics of cancers, kidney problems and damaged births. The rate of birth-defects in the affected communities is ten times higher than in the rest of India. Union Carbide and its owner Dow Chemical refuse to clean up or accept responsibility for the contamination, contending that “polluter pays” laws do not apply to them.
Monday, July 26th, 2010 Mick Jagger is Sixty-Seven
"I'm surprised they stayed on for as many songs as they did! [Bassist] Jared [Followill] was hit several times during the first two songs. On the third song, when he was hit in the cheek and some of it landed near his mouth, they couldn't take it any longer. It's not only disgusting — it's a toxic health hazard. They really tried to hang in there. We want to apologize to our fans in St. Louis and will be back as soon as we can." Kings of Leon's manager Andy Mendelsohn, referring to the band's Friday night outdoor concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. The band was barely three songs into its appearance when a flock of local pigeons registered its disapproval (by defecating profusely on the quartet).
"We couldn't believe what The Postelles and The Stills [the two bands who opened for the Kings of Leon] looked like [once the birds had their way with them] after their sets", commented Mr. Followill [who, according to the scuttlebutt on the crowded perches above the bandstand, was the favorite target of the aerial bombardment]. "We didn't want to cancel the show, so we went for it. We tried to play. It was ridiculous!"
A spokesbird for the flock would only say that its members objected to the bands' altitude!
Sunday, July 25th, 2010
Fifty years ago today, Connie Francis recorded what would, two months later, be the #1 single in the country: My Heart Has Mind of Its Own. Actually, she recorded the song dozens of times during three separate studio sessions...but the version that would go on to top the charts was created on this day in 1960. It was Connie's second #1 of that year. The first was 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool', recorded in the Spring. For those born after 1980 (or so), Connie specialized in singing with herself...something she did better than, perhaps, anyone else! She came of artistic age when multi-track recording was, if not in its infancy, still in its toddler stage.
I've long felt that My Heart Has Mind of Its Own is among the best pop tunes ever written. The song is gender-neutral and its theme is universal. It can be served up as a simple pop tune or it can be seasoned with R&B...and Country. One of its authors, Howard Greenfield, was openly gay at a time when being 'open' was not commonplace. Mr. Greenfield was an early casualty of AIDS, which killed him before his fiftieth birthday.
Just for fun, I've made a home recording of it that has turned out rather well. My version makes use of three different guitars (two acoustic, one electric) and three MIDI tracks...one of which commands a so-called Occitan Bass from my JV-1080 synthesizer.
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Not making this up!
"I use them on airplanes, after a chili meal, and even on my dog. Some customers have even told me that it's saved their marriage! "
Kim Olenicoff, estate planning attorney, sailor, entrepreneur and the inventor of Subtle Butt, one of now dozens of odor-absorbing undergarment accessories.
The market for such item is, by accounts, booming!
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 Gregor Mendel was born on this day in 1822
A policeman pulls a blonde over after she'd been driving the
wrong way on a one-way street.
Cop:
Do you know where you're going?
Blonde: No, but wherever it is, it must be bad because all the cars
are
leaving.
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
Prosopagnosia is the inability to recognize faces (while eyesight is otherwise normal). This condition has been documented both as inherited (as many as one in forty people!) and as the result of a brain injury.
Phonoagnosia is the inability to recognize voices (while hearing is otherwise normal). It is believed to be a far less common condition than prosopagnosia but its true incidence is hard to determine because, especially in its heritable form, people are often unaware (until far along in their lives) that they lack an ability that most others take for granted.
Agnosia is a general term which means 'inability'. Amusia (musical agnosia...'tone deafness', inability to distinguish between audible frequencies) is a (fairly common) form of agnosia. I can often detect this form merely by listening to someone speak. What's perplexing is that many people who have this deficit seem to enjoy music and may even (attempt to) play an instrument!
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Monday, July 19th, 2010
Breaking news from the other half:
Fiorina spokeswoman Julie Soderlund said it makes sense for the Fiorinas to be a two-yacht family, given that the boat-loving couple have [has?] divided their [its?] time between California and D.C., near where their grandchildren live.
Sunday, July 18th, 2010
For the first time in the twenty-five (or so) years that I have been growing tomatoes, this year I managed to grow all my plants from seed. It seems that the highest germination percentage is realized from controlling the temperature at which the seeds sit in their dirt. So I got a few of those peat flats and put a seed (or two) in each section...then I kept the flats indoors near a sunny window. I reckon this year's germination rate to have been about 95%! That's far better than in years past when I would leave the seeded dirt outside all night...where the temperature might vary over a range of twenty degrees (or so).
The cloud in this silver lining is that I now have at least a dozen more plants than room in the ground (to plant 'em in). To keep them away from the deer, I've been putting homeless plants in the back of my truck while I figure out how to not let them go to waste.
The other important factor in producing good seedlings enters the 'equation' after the seeds sprout and poke their first leaves above ground. They must have a certain amount of disturbance (call it 'wind') or else their stalks will not be strong enough to support their leaves. For this, I use an electric fan...I turn it on for fifteen minutes (or so) at least twice a day. Everyone knows, of course, that as tomato plants mature, they are unable to support their own foliage and must be 'staked' or caged.
More tomato
growing adventures soon...with photos! Who says my Blog is boring?
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
"I don't take a lot, but I take it when it's called for.
I make love a couple of times a week, and I take the Viagra when I'm going to be making love.
I would say at 84 it helps. It's God's little helper."
And I would say, "EW!!! "
But Los Angeles motorist Rodney King said it best for all of us when he said, "People, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids? It's just not right. It's not right. It's not going to change anything. Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we're all stuck here for a while. Let's try to beat it. Let's try to work it out."
Friday, July 16th, 2010
Con men, wishing to give nothing for something, prey upon those wishing to get something for nothing. Anonymous.
You can't cheat an honest man. W.C.Fields
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
The Valentino of all self-lovers....is the former Braveheart. [But] if he really were that great, he’d have figured out that the lady owns a tape recorder.
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 Happy Birthday, Alexander!
Sara
Stocco lost her ring while she and her fiancé, Adam Segar, were boating on
Lake Minnetonka.
Aware of the
lake's reputation as the "the singles bar of lakes"
Stocco decided to wear her ring to keep other guys away.
[!]
To prevent the ring from getting oily while
applying sunscreen on her fiancé, Stocco put the prized bauble in her mouth. It
was then that matters took a turn for the worse.
"I started
talking or something and it bounced out and bounced on the floor of the boat,"
Stocco recalled. "It would have just stayed there, but someone left
the front door of the boat open and it just bounced over the edge and me and
Adam just stood there watching it go down in shock."
And now...for the rest of the story!
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 Big O is Twenty-Six!
Tonight I'm posting a rather silly song...recorded with some others in the Spring of 1977 featuring 'The Legendary' Nicky Hopkins on grand piano.
As with the previous two
selections I've posted from those sessions [If You
Were Mine and Light], I'm having to rely on
Executive Producer Ken McDonnell to credit the musicians other than
Nicky. You see, tracks were overdubbed and mixed a few weeks after I
did my part (of writing the song and doing the vocals). I'm sure I was off
somewhere serenading a bunch of drunks (for $75 per night) when the final mixes
were done.
I now even have (thanks to Ken) the master multi-track tapes but the sound engineer failed to take (or keep) detailed notes as to who played what...and when.
Kenny tells me that the musicians were recruited from an incarnation of The Quicksilver Messenger Service and that the lead (bottleneck style) and rhythm guitars were played by John Cippolina. As can be expected, Nicky's playing is crisp...and beautiful.
The song
is just for fun. It's called Knockin'!
Monday, July 12th, 2010
Sunday, July 11th, 2010 Seven-Eleven!
Not making this up! Last week I received an email from a gentleman in South Korea. So far, I can't actually pronounce his name(s). I even asked my now-UCLA-graduated daughter for some help [she's studied Korean and has even spent some time there]. Mr. Park (as I'll refer to him here) wants to reissue Songs For a Rainy Day in CD format with his own artwork for the Asian market.
Mr. Park is an executive with Beatball Music (check it out...it's been translated), a company which specializes in reissues of vinyl records from the 60's & 70's. He and I had a brief telephone conversation a few days ago during which I learned that his English is lots better than my Korean. I steered him to David Rubinson, the executive Producer of Rainy Day and David has since steered him to Sony Music in New York, which owns the rights to the ten recordings on that album.