Sentimental Sunday

When I was teenager I had a raging crush on Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits. I kind of forgot about him for years but then I read this interview and I'm crushing on him all over again.

Deep Tweets

Don't have to be cool to rule my world...

AFRAID TO LOOK & be blinded by the awesome RT @pourmecoffee: Every Prince hairstyle since 1978, drawn by @gary_card pic.twitter.com/M04sic9HB2
— Liza Sabater (@blogdiva) February 9, 2014

Think you better slow your Mustang down

I'm still moving slow this week. So have some funky music.

Just ask the axis

I've been meaning to post this for a while. I'm told it won't be available for free forever. If you're a fan of the 60s music scene or the man, this PBS Jimi Hendrix documentary is well worth a couple hours of your time.

Note: At some point it stopped and said that the end of the excerpt but I just clicked through the popups and it started up again where it left off. [photo via The Guardian]

I do not count the time

The clock in my car is always wrong. By always, I mean every single car I've ever owned. By wrong, I mean inconsistently. It's not always by the same amount of minutes in any single car in any given week. I don't find it a problem. It's all relative.

It's the singer, not the song

Something for a Saturday night. Previously unpublished photos of the Rolling Stones taken in 1965. Many more at the link.





They were so young then. Almost innocent.

Sweet Jane weeps

And the world weeps with her. Another musical icon of my youth -- gone. He wrote a big part of the soundtrack of my life. The music world will never be the same. RIP Lou Reed.





Adding, I'm wating for the man. Also too, Lou Reed's last tweet, just six hours before his death.

Cheating and Lying Blues

Getting down to the roots. This guy is new to me and I didn't want this song to end. And even if you hate the blues, watch this vid for the old school dancing.

Christmas spirits

With the all the mayhem going on, didn't really get into the Christmas spirit this year until just this afternoon when Mike Finnigan posted his rendition of a classic Christmas carol that he did for the TV show ER in the 90s. Which happened to be one of my favorite shows back then. I probably heard it live.



He's such a great musician. Feel lucky to be internet friends with him.

Meanwhile, if you're pining for a White Christmas and live somewhere where that's just not going to happen, then you can do what I do. Live vicariously through the twitpics.

These days I'm just as happy to see it with my eyes and not feel it with cold, wet feet. [photo by knck1es]

But I do love snow. It's so magical. I've never quite believed that no two snowflakes are really not alike, but every single one is a work of art.

[Andrew Osokins photo and more photos at the link.]

And if you still want more, National Geographic has a whole archive of historic macro snowflake photos.

Fly on little wing

Dozed off before I posted this last night, so a belated tip of the hat to Jimi Hendrix who would have been 70 years old yesterday. This was always one of my favorites.



Wish he was still with us. So many of the best performers of that era died too soon. On the other hand, they could have all ended up like Elvis, which would have been just as tragic.

I want to just show you, what my politics are

My tweep Hudsonette posted this on the twitter today. It's one of my top five favorite songs of all time. Cream was one of the few groups I never saw in person back in the 60s, much to my regret. But I played the hell out the album. Think I wore it down till you could see through it.

This is from a concert in 2005. I usually avoid the return tours of the 60s groups. I want to remember them in their prime. And it makes me feel old to see them get old and trade on their former glory. But even though Jack Bruce lost a little vocal strength, this is a great reprise of the original. Certainly Clapton hasn't lost a bit of his musicality.

Angry patriotism

Haven't heard this new Bruce Springstein album yet and the reviewer is bit hyperbolic but the quotes from the Boss are good.

"A big promise has been broken. You can't have a United States if you are telling some folks that they can't get on the train. There is a cracking point where a society collapses. You can't have a civilisation where something is factionalised like this."

(Internet is dicey here tonight so the videos won't load but archiving for future listening.)

"Pessimism and optimism are slammed up against each other in my records, the tension between them is where it's all at, it's what lights the fire."

The album is the last on which Clarence Clemons, the legendary saxophonist from the E Street Band, played on before he died last year. "When the sax comes up on Land of Hope and Dreams," Springsteen says, "it's a lovely moment for me."

RIP Clarence. He was one of the greats. Be worth buying the album just to have his last gig.

If you want a lover

Rainy Friday night here and my belly is full of Indian food. Finally. Been craving it forever and can't get it in the little city. Been such an ugly couple of days in politics. Don't feel like blogging about it anymore tonight so some music. This was on the soundtrack of some TV crime show I was watching last night.



I love Leonard Cohen. He's held up well over the years.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Springsteen in Philly

Here's something fun for a Sunday morning. Bruce Springsteen played a rally in Philly yesterday. Atrios has some nice pix at the link and you can see the whole 45 minute show on video here.

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]

US Vets refused the right to vote?

expatbrian

Almost. Secretary of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, James Peake, continues to refuse to allow non-partisan groups from helping vets register to vote. Like everything else being revealed about the real treatment our vets receive when they come home, this is a national disgrace.


Peake, if this order stands, you're nothing but a pig just like your boss.

Wounded vets and amputees who have no mobility and thus cannot get out of the VA hospitals to register are shit out of luck. Because Peake will not allow even The League of Women Voters to assist them to register. His reason? It would interfere with the quality of their medical care! I guess Peake hasn't been following the news which has told us repeatedly that there IS NO quality medical care in the VA facilities.

What is the real reason? These vets, like all the Iraq and Afghanistan vets are volunteers, every one. We must assume that they supported the war. Why not let them register to vote? Um, it couldn't be that the administration is worried that these tens of thousands of wounded vets might be having second thoughts about the war, could it? That maybe now that they have been there, seen it up close and personal, experienced the truth of the Iraqi horror, that they might vote for someone who promises to end it? That maybe they will vote for anyone who might spare their buddies from possibly becoming victims like them?

I don't know the reason. I'm just a dumb old fart with a computer. But I do know that we should be bending over backwards to insure that our vets have access to every single American right and priviledge that they have volunteered to fight and die for. And, as I understand it, despite administrations attempts to manipulate it, voting is still an American right.

Vet news. Who cares

expatbrian

Just a few stories that rarely make the news. I thought it would be nice if we at least knew what was going on with our vets, even if we can't or won't do anything to help them. We are truly a disgusting nation.

VA rejects presidential directive to help wounded vets register to vote. That was a Clinton directive of course, not a Bush one. And their bullshit reason? Because using its staff resources that way would interfere with their mission of offering quality care to their patients. Quality care?? And by the way, they won't let outside groups or even individuals to come in and help either.

McCain joins McBush in attacking and denying veterans. No wonder they don't want wounded vets to vote. Who would vote for this turncoat anyway?

US soldiers forced to launch campaign to convert Iraqis to Christianity. It's a direct violation of the Constitution's Establishment clause in the First Amendment, which prohibits military personnel from promoting any form of religion, but who cares? We gave up the Constitution years ago. The marines are doing it too even though Iraqis are horrified at the sacrilege. Now, that's winning hearts and minds!

Attempt to arrest John Bolton for war crimes fails. A former ambassador was physically blocked from approaching Bolton in his attempt to make the arrest.

Home foreclosures in military towns are 4 times the US rate. GI's were targeted during the subprime lending boom because of their low credit. Now, as their mortgages double, they are forced out of those homes. Foreclosures are up nearly 500 percent in some military towns.

1/3 of the US female soldiers in Iraq suffer sexual assault. But the VA won't recognize their trauma or treat it as PTSD. I guess they're just supposed to "buck up" and quit whining.

Military mental health insurance too low to cover costs. It doesn't really matter that soldiers suffering from PTSD have to wait months to get a doctor's appointment, because their insurance won't cover the treatment anyway.

So, in summary, get over there and fight for us but when you get back, don't assume we're going to fix what happened to you when you were there. Don't bother us about your wounds or your nightmares or your screwed up heads. And if your a woman, especially don't bother us just because you got raped a little bit. You probably asked for it anyway.

If you lost your house when you were gone, that's your problem, not ours. Serves you right for listening to the bullshit ads we made to sell you the house in the first place.

And don't talk to us about your constitutional rights to vote. If you're well enough to vote, you shouldn't be in the VA hospital anyway, crybaby.

Remembering the Old Rockers

expatbrian

I'm not the only big fan of old rockers who posts some of the good old songs. Artist Bob Rini over at 9 Pound Hammer does it often. Check him out. Its worth the click. I went looking for a little Van Morrison but there are very few videos featuring him. But I did find this nice Morrison tune as sung by another great old rocker.

I admire those who are still mounting the stage, still entertaining us, even as time has mellowed their voices and adjusted their hairlines. And I support our veterans - even the musical ones. Enjoy Joe Cocker and "Into the Mystic".