Well, it can't really be said that there was a clear winner in the poll that just wrapped up, the one where you pick the decade you'd live in if you could travel back in time up to 100 years. The 60s, 70s, and now were all tied for the favorites. It seemed that few people were willing to travel past that with which they are familiar.

Almost every objection to going back in time dealt with technology. We may not think highly of modern culture, but we sure like our toys. I'll admit, modern toys are nice, and if I did go back past the 70s, I'd miss the stereo equipment the most.

There were a couple people who voted for the first decade of the 20th century, but did not leave comments. That's too bad, as I would have liked to know what attracted them to that decade, but made the next decade such a flop.

While the Jazz Era would have lots of party advantages, it also had lots of syphilis. Between that and polio, I don't think I'd want to go back past the 40s. The 40s themselves had some fine music, women were dressed sexy with those great hairdos and the real stockings, and you'd have an opportunity to buy lots of land in Las Vegas at a very low price. The 50's had the birth of rock and roll as well as some of the best jazz ever, Miles Davis' band in particular. The 60's..... ah, one with forknowledge could have a great time in the 60s, especially if one live around Haight Ashbury. If I went to the 70s I could see a lot of my favorite bands perform, and even record them. If I chose to do this, I would at least go that far back. What would be the point in watching the 80s and 90s happen again, when they are so fresh in memory?

So my point is, I don't have a point. So there. New poll is in the sidebar.

BTW.... The remaining quiz answers have been posted below. I was really surprised that no one recognized the Richard Dreyfuss line, but even more surprised that someone got the Jimmy Stewart line. Way to go, Eden! That is, in my opinion, one of the funniest films ever made.

Awhile back, O'Tim posted a movie quote quiz in which I performed horribly. Emotionally scarred by this humiliating defeat, I will now have my revenge! Ha Ha! um... Ha!

In this contest, you do not name the movie the quote is from, but the name of the actor who said it! And without Googling or Yahooing or any of that searchy stuff, either..... ya knows it or ya doesn't....... hee hee.......hee.....oohhhhh, my precious...........

I've been crashing a pity party for Kurt Cobain lately, and I admit I'm not bringing any sunshine to the gathering. Not that sunshine would be appropriate for this particular gathering ........ we're talking Kurt Cobain here, not Red Buttons. Suffice it to say that I'm not exactly in line with Koz's description of me.

That would, no doubt, be due to my lack of sympathy. I've never felt as much sympathy for suicides as for the people they leave behind. In some cases, it's because I think they were selfish, like in the case of my friend Jeff. He had a family. He had lots of friends. He had three (count 'em) three children. His choice - and choice it was - wasn't unavoidable. I've certainly been down and out, to the point where I considered it, but only for one minute. I thought about the people who depended on me, not to mention the kitties, dog and snake that depended on me, and decided that I was obligated to persevere. Whether I lliked it at that moment or not.

I know, I know...... what about mental illness? Do we always know this is the case, or is it a handy way to offer an excuse? I think it is frequently the latter (much like alcoholism is often used as an excuse for stupid drunken behavior), especially since I've heard other excuses for Cobain's suicide. I think the stupidest was that he heroically killed himself because the music industry was "misusing" his music somehow. The person saying this crap was not lucid enough to say how that worked. Anyway, I'm sure the people making millions off of his memory in his absence are sorry they didn't treat him better. It's exactly the kind of whiny nonsense that you'd expect from someone who considers this whiner to be their generation's "voice."

It's interesting that generations only have "voices" when they're teenagers, and quite loud enough on their own. It's also interesting to note that at that time of their lives, when the "voice" is at his peak,  they are too young and inexperienced to have anything to say. Why doesn't anyone listen to us? Because you're young and dumb, that's why. The same reason no one listened to my generation when we were thirteen.

I mean, look at my generation. What was our big protest song? I Can't Drive 55. Ooh. There's some landbreaking stuff. Was Sammy Hagar the "voice" of our generation? There's an argument for having our generation spayed and neutered if I ever heard one, and I said as much at the time (can I get a witness, Hillbilly Tim?). No, I never heard anyone in my generation say we had a "voice", or even express the need for one.

I don't think that the next generation had anything deeper to contribute. Hell, they're less politically involved than MY generation was, and we were a bunch of lazy ass beer swilling doobie toking sucks. The last generation with anything real to say was in the 60's, for all the good that did. This youthful idealism doesn't hold. You graduate. You go to college and get a job, or just get a job. You start dealing with the daily grind. The bills. The wife/husband. The kids. The house. You still care about changing the world, but you're busy. You can change the world after you get the kids to bed. Ah, but then you need to unwind a little. You can change the world after CSI:Botswana or whatever the fuck. But then you're tired, and you have to work tomorrow, and little Artie has soccer. You'll change the world this weekend. After cleaning the gutters.

And you'll get older, and quieter. The younger ones won't want to know what you've learned. They're too busy trying to tell YOU what's up, and how things should be. No one's wiser than a 13 year old.

This is the same for every generation. The wars continue, the inflation, the crime, the music, everything. Only the technology changes. Life goes on as always, but the picture gets better.

So the "voice of your generation" was a marginal guitarist (let's face it, he was no "Slash") and heroin addict who was too weak to overcome his trying existence as a millionaire idol of millions. This is considered to be okay because he was mentally ill.

Good choice.

 

I was strolling across the Louisiana State fairgrounds in April of 2001, digging all the sights, sounds, and smells of the Jazz and Heritage Festival. I was having the time of my life. I was pleasantly buzzed, stuffed to the gills on crawfish, and learning more about music than I'd ever before learned in one weekend. As I walked along, I heard a beautiful ruckus coming from one of the side stages. This band was really jamming! Everyone in it was obviously putting their all into it, and the guitar player was really going for it. I stopped and found the stage, determined to watch the rest of the set and find out who it was. To my disappointment, that only lasted about four more minutes - I'd gotten there right at the end. When I asked someone nearby who I'd just discovered, she gave me a look that said she knew just from the question, let alone my northern inflections, that I wasn't a local, and said "That's Anders Osborne".

Within ten minutes, I owned his Ash Wednesday Blues disc.

Born in Sweden and coming to America via almost everywhere, Anders Osborne has become an indelible part of New Orleans. His style reflects the gumbo that is the richest music scene in America, by my reckoning. Take one part blues, one part jazz, one part rock, and sprinkle with funk, and you've got his band. This week you'll hear him with Doug Belote on drums, Tim Green on sax, and Kirk Joseph, an original member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, on sousaphone. That alone makes this band a bit unique. No one sounds quite like Anders.



I haven't had the fortune yet to see an entire Anders Osbourne show. He doesn't seem to do the southwest. He tours but also spends a lot of time writing songs, many of which  done by others such as Keb' Mo', Johnny Lang, Sam Bush, and Tim McGraw. When performing, he makes it clear that it is the song that is the focus, not him. While he's a terrific guitarist, his live performance isn't a series of solos. Tim green probably does more soloing in the boots I have than Anders does.

This weeks selection comes from an October 23, 2002 performance at a venue that, by my reckoning, seems to get a LOT of great shows - the State Theatre in Falls Church, Va. This show also featured Big Chief Monk Boudreax (the guy in the feathers below) but he isn't on stage yet during this song. This song is called Burning on the Inside, and features some interesting interplay between the guitar and the sousaphone. I hope you'll tell me what you think of it. Here it is.



In two weeks: One of the projects he embarked on in his 37-years-so-far career was an attempt to record music with monkeys.

Trolling the Underground will have to be late because of technical issues. The last two days it's been practically impossible to upload pics or write long passages. Things were just moving too damn slow, and some of the utility pages wouldn't even load! Today I have work and then school (yes, a Friday night class. Am I dedicated, or what?), and I'm doing some under-the-table work tomorrow morning. Plus I have a buttload of homework to do this weekend as well. I was trying to get it done ahead of time, like I did with the Thursday Thirteen. Rat bastids. Anyway, I know it's overdue. So there.

Without Googling (or any other internet searching - I'm watching!) name the TV shows that had theme songs performed by these artists..........

1. Johnny Western
2. Mike Post (two answers that I know of)
3. The Grateful Dead
4. John Sebastian
5. Frankie Laine
6. The Who
7. Barry Manilow
8. Jan Hammer
9. Johnny Rivers
10. Al Jarreau
11. Inner Circle
12. Jose Feliciano
13. Joey Scarbury

Answers as they come.

1.  Have Gun Will Travel (I saw this name in the credits, and that's where I got the idea for this quiz.)
   
2. Hill Street Blues (Paula)  It seems there are many more than just 2. Rockford Files (Eden's Husband) Magnum, P.I.G. and many others.
   
3.  Twilight Zone - 80s (O'Tim) How'd I know he'd get this one?
   
4. Welcome Back, Kotter (O'Tim)
   
5. Rawhide! (Frankie also sang the theme songs for Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Blazing Saddles) 
6.  CSI (Dawn)
7.  American Bandstand (Eden's husband. Let me guess.... Nod?)
   
8. Miami Vice (O'Tim) 
9. Secret Agent 
10. Moonlighting (O'Tim) 
11. COPS (Dawn)
12.  Chico & the Man (O'Tim)
    
13. The Greatest American Hero (Miss Cellania)
    

It had to happen on hump day. Two days later, I could have made a poll of it.

Reading the news today, I of course noticed the execution of serial nutjob Danny Harold Rolling (the name itself bugs me..... if you're going to use your middle name as well, then be formal enough to use your full first name. WTF is Danny Harold? That's like me calling myself "Joe Patrick the Troll".) Normally, I'm uncomfortable with the death penalty because I feel that one innocent (there's that word again) person executed is one too many. When we KNOW the person is guilty I'm a bit less sympathetic, although I think keeping him around and making his life farooking miserable on purpose would be  better from a punishment standpoint. I'm not interested in debating that, though, because I'm more interested in the way he went out. Singing.

I don't think I've ever heard that one before. You usually hear about the constant pleas of innocence, or the nervous tittering, or the hubris of Gacy's "Kiss my ass." The first thought I had when I saw that was, of course, "What song????" Unfortunately, they didn't say, but suggested that it was a hynm. That's a disappointment to me, because these last minute conversions  bug me. The time to find Jesus was before you raped the girl and chopped her head off, asshole. That would have been infinitely more helpful. But also, I'm disappointed because it isn't really memorable. I'd have preferred something like Muskrat Love or Walking on Sunshine. Maybe How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria (and then he could look at the guard and say "Ooh! Ooh! Let me up! I have a dance that goes with this!). Or, if the absurd isn't for you, there's always Folsom Prison Blues or Highway to Hell.

I, myself, would sing Deep Purple's "Highway Star", complete with the guitar solo, done note for note in "doo doo doo"s. Imagine my headstone:

Well, as many of you have pointed out to me, my blog has has accessibility issues for several weeks now. It's worse on the weekends, but happens throughout the week. The so called "help" forum has had people explaining all along that the servers are being updated, and that if we're patient we will have a bigger, better, more reliable service to show for it. They also told us that they will be finished making these "improvements" very soon, in fact.

As you know, this has been going on for at least three weeks. Many of us feel that the S.S. Very Soon has, in fact, sailed.

I noticed that no one commented about anything on Saturday, and thought that either the problem was back or those last few posts didn't have much longevity. Could happen. Then I spent Sunday morning drinking tea and changing the poll (below and in the sidebar). When I noticed that it didn't post, I knew. So I went back to the forum to see what's up, and here is what I found. This is a post from one of the "helpers". He's not a paid tech or representative of the company, he's a "volunteer" who serves in place of an actual liason to the company. He's one of those who has been giving us the news on the updates all along. I'm not going to post his name, as he's been around here before and I used to read his blog, and don't want to start anything personal. However, this is the message posted from Blogdrive's "volunteer liason", so to speak.

As has been explained before to any who'd paid attention, the cause of these issues is the resynchronization of servers and related maintenance to Blogdrive's data center. This is not a case of any Blogdrive administrators, owners, volunteers or likewise not caring. Quite the opposite, in fact, as attempts are being made to actually improve service. It is a bit of a growing pain to experience posts and updates showing up, then disappearing, etc. but it does happen.

I assure you, and I don't see what is so difficult in accepting this unless you are a total idiot, that no one at Blogdrive, either it's owners, employees, or volunteers, are keeping your entries from showing on purpose. No one is avoiding the problem, and perhaps the people who demand to speak to the owners should stop their lengthy ramblings, emails, trouble tickets, and yes, even phone calls, all for something that EVERYONE KNOWS is being worked on. I'm personally happy NOT to see Helpee, CBG and the likes in here all the time explaining what's going on, or engaging squeaky wheels and being prevented from doing what everyone is bitching about in the first place- trying to fix the problem. All is being done to end any inconveniences, and while it may seem frustrating to be told, again and again, to have patience, I promise you it is not as frustrating as saying it. If it's so appalling to you to be told the same thing over and over, stop asking the same God-damned questions.

Well, isn't that charming? The way I see it, I may not pay much for the service, but I do pay for it. When things aren't working right, I deserve real information and real deadlines. I don't deserve to be strung along.

Furthermore, I certainly don't deserve to go into a "Help" forum and be told to hold my farooking water.

If Blogdrive cannot provide the service it is charging for, people will leave. Customer retention requires, at all times, communication. This is not communication.

The fact that the person posting this tirade is not a paid Blogdrive rep is meaningless to me. Blogdrive allows him to moderate the help forum so that they don't have to pay someone to do it. That makes him officiall enough in my eyes.

So the question is this - can anyone, in good conscience,  recommend their blog service? I know we all have issues sometimes. Blogspot seemed to have one yesterday, as well. But are they this frequent, with such little regard for the customer? I want to know who does not think their provider sucks.

Because I'm just not there anymore.

   


When it comes to the law, everyone has a pet peeve. I expected as much, seeing as I do that America has just too damn many laws, with many failing to serve the many and others being just plain stupid. There were some good ideas put forth, and some good debate on at least one proposed change. There was no debate over changing marijuana laws. Of course, these are what one might call "small - sample statistics"!

The prohibition of marijuana seems to persist under the power of inertia alone. It simply remains an unpopular subject in government despite the noticable lack of credible evidence against it. While seeking suitable photos for this entry,I came across a very damning study, showing how marijuana changes the blood flow in the brain. It cited statistics for "moderate users" (70 joints/week) and "heavy users" (350 joints +/week). Seventy joints a week is MODERATE? For who, Tommy Chong??????? And if someone is smoking 350 joints/week, which is 50/day, I can only guess that their weed really sucks. Are you sure you're not smoking oregano???? This reminds me of the famous study that proved that marijuana is lethal, as it killed a lab monkey that smoked it. The monkey, it seems, perished after being forced to smoke over 50 joints in one hour. All they proved is that monkeys need oxygen as well.

Despite, or actually because of, these silly studies, one out of 136 Americans is currently behind bars. No, they didn't all get busted with pot. The unforgiving and ineffective drugs laws in America have merely insured that on top of all the killers, thieves, rapists, molesters, and embezzlers that deserve some time in the stripey hole we have a lot of ordinary people who chose to get high. These numbers would be worse if we didn't have a escape valve; the guy that raped your kid can be paroled to make room for the unparolable guy that had two sheets of acid. So don't worry, America. You're safe from him. Just keep the kids inside.

The other ideas were things like abolishing the death penalty, repealing the Patriot Act, repealing the "Torture Law", repealing laws restricting consensual sex between adults, repealing seatbelt/helmet laws, and repealing laws en masse as a prerequisite to making new ones. Only one person had a suggestion that entailed further restriction. Thus, I think that on the whole, the reaction can be summed up in one statement from the people to Washington, DC: "Stop telling us what's good for us, and with the extra time that you gain from that, start doing something good for us. Shit fer brains!"

I'd like to see a referendum on THAT.


New poll in the sidebar!!!

Many of these have more than one link..... don't miss anything!

Update: The Rio Grande Gorge link has been fixed.

1. Various mountain ranges.

2. National forests.

3. Balloon Fiesta!

4. Empanadas.

5.The Rio Grande Gorge.

6. Road Runners and Coyotes.

7. New Mexican food. Yes, it is different than Mexican food.

8. Magnificent sunsets.

9. Carlsbad Caverns.

10. New Mexican art.

11. New Mexican architecture.

12. New Mexican history.

13. ....and do I need to mention how great the weather is (unless O'Tim is here)?