Monday, March 26, 2012

I've been involved. . .

 with an audio-visual production that's taking up waaaaaay more time than I thought it would, and I've gained an amazing amount of respect for people that do this for a living!

I've also learned that if you have any old photos that you value, and you're intending on digitizing them, that the sooner you get to it, the better results you're going to have.  "Back in the day", when I was taking pictures with my 35mm camera, and I had to take them in for processing, I was offered the option of having them printed on "Kodak paper", for an extra 25¢ (I think!) a picture.  Because I didn't have a lot of money, a lot of the time I'd skip the extra expense, because you never knew, at least at my level of photography, how they were going to turn out.  Well, despite the fact that I have always taken pretty good care of my pictures, always keeping them away from the light, and in photo books, the ones printed on stock paper have faded, and some of them, drastically!

If you're in college, or have a kid in college, you might want to investigate this article.  I warn you, it is not a short read; it has a ton of links to be investigated, but it is a very scary expose of  the growing involvement of "Big Brother" on campus.  I guess that I shouldn't have been suprised, but I was. http://tinyurl.com/c8ja85c

Luckily, the politicians are still behaving themselves, hoping you'll forget what they have or haven't done or accomplished in the last 2 years.  And, of course, since the media is owned by just a few big corporations who support both parties, they are not out there investigating what kind of crap these guys have been up to, lately.  So, once again, just on principle, I urge you guys to vote a strict anti-incumbent ticket, because it should be obvious to everyone that the Congress and Senate, as is, is broken; they are not taking care of the business of the country.

"NEW" GUITAR PLAYERhttp://tinyurl.com/cvsqfec   This 28 year old Texan is obviously an "old soul", and has been playing since he was 12 years old.  He was on Eric Clapton's 2010 "Crossroads Festival" video.  Enjoy!

OK, it's time for me to get back to my "little" project.  Until next week. . .

Monday, March 19, 2012

A "hard left" from the usual. . .

"Girls", no matter what age, are the most wonderful of God's creations, at least to most of my gender!  No doubt about it, these mysterious and magical creatures are capable of bestowing great happiness, or inflicting immense pain on us; inspiring us to heights that we didn't realize we were capable of achieving, or plunging us to depths that we didn't know existed, and the best of them seem to be sprinkled with just a touch of fairy dust.  And I met one, last night!

Keep in mind that yours truly, while having lived what I consider to be a really good and happy life, have been "flying solo" for the last 18 years, so. . .

I was visiting with one of my very best friends, down in Oregon, and we were out wandering around a combination street fair and farmer's market.  Bobby's one of those guys that can pick up seemingly any  instrument, and have beautiful music flowing from it in a very short time.  Understand, this is a trait that I find extremely irritating, because I have had to work hard, to make progress on one instrument!  When I met him, back in the winter of '67, he was already a pretty good guitar player, but since then, he not only continued to develop his abilities on the guitar, but has also acquired considerable facility on the piano, harp (and no, I'm not talking about the harmonica!), violin, cello and, much to my disgust, the penny whistle, which I find to be an annoying instrument, but which, I guess, has a place in Irish music.  However, to watch him play duets with himself, one inserted in each nostril, I do have to admit, is quite entertaining.

It was dusk, that time of day between light and dark, when the color hovers between dark blue and purple, and the sky was clear and full of diamonds.  We just kind of flopped down on the grass, by the edge of the river and were indulging in a favorite pastime of ours, people watching, when one of Bobby's friends asked us if we could run an errand for him.

Unfortunately, Bobby was scheduled to perform in just a few minutes, so the task fell to me, so he threw me a handful of keys and told me to take his car.  A few minutes later, I found myself in a driveway, beside his car, trying to figure out which key it was that would permit me entry, and finally finding it, inserted it, only to have it snap off in the lock.  I'm standing there thinking, "Oh, great!" because the car is blocking the alley, and I look behind me to find a guy driving some kind of convertible (I can't tell what kind, because his head and shoulders are protruding from a car cover. . . Don't ask!), and tapping his fingers, in aggravation, on his steering wheel.  A couple of minutes later, in frustration, he just pulled into a parking space, and walked off.

So, I'm headed off to find out if my friend has an extra key, and walking in front of me, is a girl in an emerald green (my favorite color; the first time I remember seeing it, it was on a little '40 Ford coupe, and looked about 3 feet deep!) full length dress.  Her hair was a gorgeous dark auburn, and pulled up in kind of a haystack, doubled over and bunched.  Entranced, I walked by her and glanced at her face, and couldn't help but exclaim, "Freckles!", a spattering of which were under both eyes, and sprinkled across her nose, and I could not help but notice her skin color, which was that kind of golden brown that is particular to just a few redheads.

She smiled and looked over at me, and. . . Holy crap!  Set in this beautiful, heart shaped face, her eyes were this, I don't even know how to convey the beautiful dark gold color, with a kind of lighter gold wavy line around the iris, and I was just . . . Lost!  Completely forgetting what I was supposed to be doing, we proceeded on down the street, talking, and entered an artists' loft, where another friend of mine, KC, from Ashland, was displaying her stained glass work, and we separated, with me headed upstairs to see KC, while she was looking at other stuff downstairs.  KC's studio had an open window, overlooking the first floor, and while I was telling her about "the girl", I heard her voice from below, telling a friend of hers about me and saying, "He was just going all 'New York' ", and I burst out laughing, and woke myself up!

Now, I've got to tell you, that was a 5:00 a.m., this morning, and those of you that know me, know that I'm not a morning person, and describing me as being "New York" is about as far from the truth as anything could be, but waking up laughing is a real treat, and I decided to just get up, savor the feelings that were running around inside my head, and go ahead and enjoy the day.

For your audio treat for the day:  http://tinyurl.com/7wqgelu  I've been hearing this song as "bumper music" on the Coast to Coast AM radio program for the last couple of months, and although I'm not usually too fond of this song, this version of it has completely changed my mind about it!

Have a great week, folks!





Monday, March 12, 2012

I can't believe I did it!

Before I get into "it", here's a treat for your ears:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgmHkSED2cY  Jonell Mosser is an incredible talent, who sings some wicked blues.  I became acquainted  with her work through a demo album called, "Around Townes", a cover album of Townes Van Zandt's work, that she did back in 1996.  A couple of years ago, I discovered a video on youtube, a duet with Mati Haskell, called, "Blessing" (available on Amazon, and well worth the 99¢!), that still sends shivers down my back.  Unfortunately, the video has been removed, but these 2 ladies can really sing!  Take a couple of minutes, and enjoy yourself before reading on. . .

OK, I have a confession to make; back in 1998/9, I actually gave money to a politician!  And not just any politician, but one who is now pushing to involve our country in yet another "police action". like North Korea (which is still continuing), or Vietnam.  Yes, I decided that John McCain was a straight shooter (no pun intended!), and that I would support him in his bid for the Republican nomination for president.  Now, in my own defense, I still believe that he would have been a better president than George W. Bush, but, c'mon. . . Almost anybody would have been!  McCain now seems to be the main instigator for getting us involved in Syria, and I have little doubt that although our county's financial situation is dire, that we are going to get involved.

President Obama and Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, are itching to take action, but are looking toward NATO and the United Nations for the authority.  Congress also seems to want to get in there, but are threatening the President with impeachment, if he doesn't come to them for permission!  http://tinyurl.com/753sf7h 

Agreed, what is going on over there is horrendous, but there are a lot of horrible things going on in nations all over the globe, but if nothing else, we should have learned, over the last 25 years, that there are consequences to sticking our noses into other country's business.   Of course, our government has the audacity to claim that all these military actions are in our "national interests", but when it comes right down to it, what they are actually interested in, is preserving the profits of "big business", at the cost of thousands of young lives, and hundreds of billions of dollars, and the welfare of our nation.

While I'm ranting on the stupidity of government, are you aware, that with millions of families  losing their homes in the past couple of years, that the current administration now wants to provide financial bailouts for investors that bought multiple homes for investment purposes, before the housing crash?  
http://tinyurl.com/7yf77r2  It sounds outrageous, to help out the "buy and flip investors" who helped drive up the cost of housing, during the real estate boom, but the government, banks and mortgage companies have decided that empty houses are in no one's interest, and therefore, the taxpayers should bear the cost of helping everyone out. . .

I looked for something lite and happy to end this post with, but the only thing I could find, was an article that is fairly ironic, after the above examples of our government's "big heartedness":  http://tinyurl.com/779xz63  It seems that a former marine wants to adopt a bomb sniffing dog who served our country in Iraq, and for some stupid reason, is being refused.  If you'd like to sign a petition to help her in her efforts, go here: http://www.change.org/petitions/help-speed-up-sgt-rex-s-adoption

Until next week. . .


Sunday, March 4, 2012

Forget 2012; 2013 is LOOMING!

There has been a lot of talk, over the last 37 years (that I have been aware of, although the intensity of the talk has greatly increased lately!), about the upcoming date of December 21st, 2012, and the end of the Mayan calendar, and what it means for both man and the earth (google it; either the date or the calendar).  Should the cataclysmic event happen, and nobody seems to know what that might be (although there is an abundance of speculation out there), we wont have to worry about February of 2013, when an asteroid, approximately 190 foot long, discovered by Spanish astronomers, will pass within 17,000 miles of the earth!  http://tinyurl.com/885ozzh  That is approximately 3/4 of the distance from the earth to the moon, and there is the possibility of it hitting either the earth or the moon; it's a short article, about 2-3 minutes to read. . . Give it a shot!

Luckily, the pols continue to be somewhat quiet, except for their silly season oratory, in which they continue to tell us how much they do for us, and care for us, and how responsive to our wishes they are, and what they are planning on doing for us (more like to us!). .  . So listen to what Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says: "In the commercial context, we allow a decent amount of lying. It's called puffing. 'You won't buy it cheaper anywhere,' " and "So maybe we allow a certain amount of puffing in political speech as well. Nobody believes all that stuff, right?"  They call this, "Freedom of speech"; I'm not sure that is what the framers of the Bill Of Rights were talking about.  Again, is it any wonder that the people have so little respect for our politicians?  'Nuff!

 Last Saturday, in an attempt to bring something "new" into my exercise program, I dipped back into my high school football days, and dredged up "squat thrusts", of which I did 5; HUGE mistake, for which I've been paying ever since, and although the "bill" is almost fully paid, sitting in front of the computer is not the way that I want to spend my time, so today's post is going to be short!  And, by the way, I've decided that I will not be adding this exercise to my repertoire!

So, I'm outta here with only 1 comment: "Getting older is not for pussies!"