Friday Random 10+1 (New Year's Edition)

Here's what my iTunes DJ wanted to hear on the first day of 2010:

Mister Me Live on XM/They Might Be Giants/TMBG.com

Novocain/Building A Better Spaceship/Building a Better Spaceship

Want/Disturbed/The Sickness

How Can You/Embassy/EP + More - Part 3 - Slave Cut (Comp)

Descarga Inez - Jose Conde Y Ola Fresca/Various Artists - Music Resource Group/Independent Music Awards Winners 2008

Story of Isaac/Suzanne Vega/The Right Way and The Way That Was Not So Right

Sound It Off/Mates Of State/Team Boo

Over Yonder (Jonathan's Song)/Steve Earle/Songwriter Sessions @ WPLN Nashville

Little Red Corvette/Prince/Prince Live at Coachella (Disc 1)

Mercy/Duffy/Rockferry

Soft Fun/Grin/The Very Best Of Grin

Grin, Nils Lofgren's first band, was a local group in my area of Maryland when I was growing up. Here's a clip of them from a 2004 reunion gig in Rockville, Maryland. Nils is still smoking on guitar!

Happy New Year!

2010 is here (on the west coast now)! We made it through one more decade. Here's to better times to come . . . .

The definition of morality

Yes, the year of 2009 is at an end, and the first decade of the aughts is also over. It's been a wild ride, with some amazing wonderful as well as some utterly horrid things happening. But if there is one New Year's resolution I'd like to see made, it would be that somehow a sense of morality would be the underpinning of the way we live our lives and treat each other.

When I heard Pat Buchanan say of the underwear bomber:

...frankly if that means you have to deny him pain medication because he's badly burned, I think you go ahead and do that. I'm not arguing for torture, but I am....  arguing for hostile interrogations of this fellow, because our job is to protect American lives. It's not to make sure his Miranda rights haven't been violated.

. . . that to me is an entirely immoral and evil statement. Yet morality has been defined lately about whether you don't oppose abortion (immoral) or if you support gay marriage (immoral). Morality has become not about what you do to others, but about stopping others from doing things you don't believe in. To me it is our job as HUMAN BEINGS to uphold the rights of everyone, regardless of who they are. But the assholes like Buchanan, who is a chicken hawk who never dirtied his hands in a war when he had the chance, use morality like a bludgeon, and they should be called on it.

Mr. Buchanan, who would Jesus deny pain meds to?

A present you can make book on

Tom Tommorrow's web site is my browser's home page, so my grand daughter was introduced to his characters Sparky and Blinky at a very young age. When I heard he had produced a children's book starring these two, The Very Silly Mayor, I knew what at least one of her Christmas presents would be. And, as you can see, it was a good choice:

Oh, and grandpa likes it too!

From the aggravating to the sublime:

After all the political and social BS that has been buffeting us this year, there is something reassuring about a cliche-ridden tradition such as decorating the Christmas tree. And nothing warms my weary soul more than my six-year-old grand daughter.

Lots of familiar ornaments reappear.

Sometimes help from Mom is necessary.

We got new lights: LED low energy use ones. They actually look very charming.

Tinsel hanging is serious business.

My grand daughter and wife did some temporary Christmas artwork. Merry Christmas, everyone!

What Happened?

Here's the deal, real plain and simple:

Millions of people gave and worked and voted to get Obama elected President.

Joe Lieberman gave and worked and voted to KEEP Obama from being elected President.

The people want a public option and Medicare buyin for those 55 or older.

Joe Lieberman doesn't.

Joe Lieberman gets what he wants.

The people get screwed.

And Rahm Emanuel is a royal cocksucker.

Pretty simple, eh?

Dave Alvin and Christy McWilson play the North coast

I'm definitely not posting as much as I should. Was it realy a week ago that singer/songwriters Dave Alvin and Christy McWilson played here on the Northern California Coast?










Alvin, who formed a rock-a-billy group with his brother Phil called The Blasters 30 years ago , has been recording and touring with a backing group called "The Guilty Women", made up of some of the best singers and instrumentalists you've probably not heard of, such as Laurie Lewis, Nina Gerber, and Cindy Cashdollar. One of these guilty females, Ms. McWilson, joined him for an acoustic set at a local venue.

Alvin says there are "two kinds of folk music: quiet folk music and loud folk music. I play both." Armed with his guitar and a smoke cured baratone voice, he proved that quote very handily. His songwriting shone on tunes such as "California's Burning" and "Downey Girl", with a simple lyrical clarity that recalled early Springsteen or a contemporary Woody Guthrie, but his finger-picking guitar playing was riviting. By turns delicate or hard edged, he played in a style that was unique and mesmerizing, and the audience responded heartily.


McWilson gave ample voice to some of her own compositions (such as the lovely "Potter's Field"), as well a holding her own up against Alvin's vocalizing. They were utterly different in there styles, yet complimented each other wonderfully.

This was both of their last times this year to take to the stage, but keep an eye out for them next year. Alvin promised another album and tour with the Guilty Women, and that would be a real treat.

Quote for the Day (Comedian Philosopher Division)

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There’s no use in being a damn fool about it. -W.C. Fields

I gotcher Xmas fer ya, right here: