Independent music, and the bloggers that make it.
Doc is looking for some help promoting his band Conquistador. They have a new album out (you can check out some tracks at mp3.com) and want to generate a little blogging buzz. I say no problem. I’ve seen them perform and I thought they were great. So help a blogger out and support the band won’t you?
I just heard John Entwistle has died in Vegas.
Shame. Good bass player, good band.
From the “What were they thinking?” department.
Why are they even trying to sell the DVD?
As the Sam & Dave tour rolls along it’s fun to read some of the interviews.
Dave has not changed one iota, and still seems to be in the throes of ADHD. It somehow seems less endearing and more “Ha, ha, look at the silly monkey” now. For Dave it’s still about more bang for your entertainment buck. “You bought a ticket to a show, and I’m gonna give you a show!”
Sammy on the other hand, just seems like a tired old rocker who just wants to get onstage and get his groove on.
Questions like, “Who would win in a fight, you or Sammy/Dave?” seems to be as deep a line of questioning as anyone is interested in asking. Then again, who really wants to hear what either of these guys has to say anymore?
It is however, almost a guarantee that I will be there, waxing nostalgic, waiting to see Dave perform on the big stage again though. I’ve seen them both perform with Van Halen and as solo acts. The Red Rocker (Hah!) holds no interest for me, and my only interest in Dave is to see if he can still pull it off.
On a related note, I seem to remember Eddie Van Halen saying, “If people don’t dig this, I’ll take up tuba” when referring to the music he was making with ex-Extreme frontman Gary Cherone. I sure hope he’s enjoying his time in that polka band now.
If followed carefully, this formula should ease suffering and speed us all along on our paths to enlightenment.
With that you can make whatever change you need to in life.
The current furor over the San Francisco 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitultional is a bit funny. It’s already become a highly charged political and religious debate.
I don’t see this as removing God from our society. There are some instances where its use is purely banal, but this is one instance where we as citizens, in all our wide-ranging beliefs, are asked to offer up our allegiance to this nation as a nation under God.
God, as it’s used here, is not a generic term for divinity, but refers to the Christian God, and we as a nation, as a people, should not be bound by ideas of this nation under any one particular divinity.
The pledge as it was originally written by Francis Bellamy in 1892 reads as follows:
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
It wasn’t until 1942 that Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance. One year later, in June 1943, the Supreme Court ruled that school children could not be forced to recite it. It was in 1954 that Congress, after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, ‘under God’ to the Pledge. This change made the Pledge both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.
It was in 1955 that a bill (H.R. 619) was introduced into the House. A representative from Florida addressed Congress with the following:
I sincerely hope that the Senate will give its prompt approval to this proposal. In these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, we should continuously look for ways to strengthen the foundations of our freedom. At the base of our freedom is our faith in God and the desire of Americans to live by His will and His guidance. As long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail. To serve as a constant reminder of this truth, it is highly desirable that our currency and coins should bear these inspiring words ‘In God We Trust’.
Through its passing Congress mandated the use of ‘In God we trust’ on all currency. A year later those words became the official national motto (H.R. Res. 396). Why?
I understand the reasonings behind wanting to reaffirm religious faith along with patriotic pride. I understand why the addition of the words ‘under God’ were not a big deal in 1954, and why its possible removal is a sensitive issue to many people now. I don’t see this simply as some sort of politically correct move though. This is not PC revisionism. This is righting a wrong from 1954.
If we take into account that it was a campaign by the Knights of Columbus and that the KOFC are “Catholic gentlemen committed to the exemplification of charity, unity, fraternity, patriotism, and defense of the priesthood”, then the Congressional amendment to change the pledge can be seen as respecting an establishment of religion and violating the first amendment of the Constitution.
I have no problem with this decision. I have no problem if the next step is to remove the words ‘In God We Trust’ from our currency, or to ask that government organizations not use prayers to begin their sessions. These things don’t threaten me. This is not a dissolution of spirituality or religion in our society. This is asking our government to respect that we, its citizens, are varied in our beliefs and theologies, and don’t necessarily ascribe those beliefs to the God that the US government feels the need to profess belief in, and then abuse when political agendas or elections are on the line.
The reactions of those calling this ridiculous are themselves being overly sensitive and ridiculous. To say that an attack on the word ‘God’ in government is like attacking motherhood and apple pie is an unacceptable analogy. I prefer having a government run by men and women who can represent my viewpoints, but that can remain clearly secular as a whole.
References:
“It’s going to to cost you like a hundred and twenty dollars,” he said in this faded, unplaceable, european accent.
“WHAT?!”, I responded—shock and disbelief on my face.
I had been petting their free-roaming, friendly dog, waiting patiently behind other customers, and now it was my turn at the counter and I just wanted to have some flowers delivered. Nothing extravagant, just an average arrangement. I could have easily taken care of it online, but I decided to get out and support the locals for a change. Granted this wasn’t going to be a local delivery, but this is what florists do isn’t it?
“Ah, well, I have to wire it in, and there is a charge for that, and then the delivery charge, why don’t you just buy something here and take it over yourself?” he continued, stepping up his effort to talk me out of my plans.
“Because I’m not going there,” I offered up, starting to show my impatience. “That’s why I said delivered. But you’re telling me it’s going to cost me a hundred and twenty dollars to do that?”
“Well no, not that much really. More like sixty/sixty five.”
“You know what? Skip it. Thanks for your time.”
“No no no. Wait. Let me see what we can do. How much did you want to spend? Maybe forty/forty five for a nice arrangement?” he begins, and starts to write out the breakdown for me. The price of the arrangement, the wire fee, and the delivery fee. Totals up about sixty dollars. “And the tax on that would be…”
“About 4.80”, I said before he even grabbed his calculator.
“4.75”, he said, all done with his calculations. One of the other florists looked up and said, “Wow, you’re good with tax.” I just turned to her and smiled, hiding my disdain for even being there at that point. “You don’t even vaguely grasp the concept of math without a calculator, do you?” I thought. How hard was that to guesstimate? I decided to just get this overwith as quickly as possible and get out of there.
“It’s going to Cathy…”
“Kathy, that’s with a K right?”, he asks.
“No, Cathy with a C.” I countered, watching him try to turn his already started K into a C, and placing my pocket-warmed credit card on the counter.
“I prefer cash if you have it.”
“I’d prefer it if you’d just shut up and die already, how’s that?” was the scene as it played out in my head. “I don’t” is the reality of the words as they passed between my tightened, smiling, patient lips.
As we finished up, he thanked me for my business, mentioned I looked familiar, and wondered if I had been in before. I hadn’t. “Well I hope you’ll stop in again sometime”, he said with a smile. I still had the sound of tinkling bells ringing in my ears as the shop door closed behind me.
Never.
Later in the day the phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Whatsa matter, you forgot how to spell my name?!”, was the frst thing I heard, followed by a bit of chuckling.
Jackass.
And people wonder why someone would choose to shop online.
Dan opens the the Hivelogic Showroom, and introduces POSTMASTER to the masses. Centrally hosted for now, but desktop and locally hosted versions coming in the future.
I had a 1973 Riviera boattail, 455-4 barrel. The thing would scream from a standing start, and burn rubber if you floored the gas. Nothing got away from me.
And it was in this car that we, my two best friends and I, found ourselves tailing a limo headed from Nassau Coliseum into Manhattan. The limo naturally didn’t want to be followed, and began to try and speed away. I just chuckled to myself. They had no idea what this car is capable of, but I did.
There’s a section of the Major Deagan Expressway, just as you enter Yonkers, that is fairly straight and open, not to mention police free. Many’s the night I would pin the needle on this road and get a feel for what my cars could do.
So here we were now in a high-speed chase just starting to tip past 90. A cakewalk. I pulled up alongside the limo at 100 and we just waved and smiled. We were beaming with pride. We knew there was no getting away from us. Now they knew it too. We figured they were having as good a time trying to elude us as we were having chasing them. As we entered the city, things naturally slowed.
We wound our way through the constantly active streets of Manhattan till we came to the Berkshire. The limo pulled up to the front entrance, and we, surprisingly, managed to park directly across the street. We hurriedly hopped out and ran over to catch the limo’s exiting passengers. We never stopped to think that we might have seemed like lunatics. We were just some fans.
And out they came. Robbin Crosby, Warren DeMartini, and Bobby Blotzer. Three fifths of the band Ratt. They were cordial. We talked about the show, the chase (fun for them too), took pictures [pic], and had them sign autographs. The most talkative and friendly was the drummer, Bobby Blotzer. He just seemed to enjoy hanging about with his fans. We did later remark that we thought he was pretty coked up, but we went away happy and let them all get to their hotel rooms and waiting females.
We leisurely drove back home to Yonkers and reminisced about our little adventure all through the night and days following. I always thought having these little memories is so much better than, “Dude! I got so wasted that night I can’t remember a thing. It was Great!”
Fast forward — I come to bury Crosby, not mock him.
So long Robbin, thanks for the memories.
psst…
You got photoshop 6?
I started making some grungy brushes and figured I’d share. You interested?
Oh, and talk about a brush fetish — VBRUSH
