Painting: Ronald "Dutch" Reagan

click to enlarge

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A random (but good) collection of Paul McCartney videos...

His band Wings performs Jet (with their strongest band lineup):




Band on the Run:




Paul sings Please Please Me:





Paul Tells A Raunchy Joke:






Drive My Car:






Sgt. Pepper/and a smoking version of The End



The studio version of Band on the Run:


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Rudy Giuliani & Republican Family Values

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

It almost snaps my brain-pan from its moorings to hear Rudy Giuliani come out against gay marriage. . .or try to speak with any authority at all on marriage period--straight or gay.

Rudy Giuliani was curb-stomped in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination. . .and yet, he seems to be pondering a comeback. NY Governor David Paterson is extremely vulnerable right now, and Giuliani may well swoop in and attempt to grab the job like a shark circling a wounded dolphin. In Monday's New York Post, Giuliani hinted that, if he did run, same-sex marriage would be a flagship issue.

Paterson introduced a bill that would, if passed, legalize same-sex marriage. In an interview, Giuliani came out very strongly against that idea, and said that it could galvanize New York Republicans in 2010. "This will create a grass-roots movement. This is the kind of issue that, in many ways, is somewhat beyond politics," the former New York City mayor told Post reporter Fred Dicker. "I think gay marriage will obviously be an issue for any Republican next year. . ."

He later said that that same-sex marriage "will be something that Republicans don’t have to use -- this is something that will bring a lot of people to the Republican Party because it’s such a basic challenge to what people believe is the way society should be organized."

Of course, an open attack like this will open up the subject of Giuliani's execrable conduct of his own family life. He's working on Marriage No. 3, and is estranged from his children. At least one of them, I remember, didn't even vote for him in the primaries. . .they voted for Obama. As his flame-out for the Republican nomination demonstrated, Giuliani just doesn't get a lot of traction on anything (except possibly "9/11"). He has gay friends. He has been known to dress in drag. One of his gay friends (in fact Rudy lived with two gay men when he was between wives in the 90s), Howard Koeppel, told the New York Post that Giuliani said that if same-sex marriage were to become legal in New York, "he would marry us himself."

It's hard to understand why we are even still talking about this. Rudy Giuliani, who moved his girlfriend into Gracie Mansion while his wife and children were still living there, who married and divorced his own cousin, and turned his back on his children, is just about the last person we should look toward for any wisdom about marriage. Or politics. Or national defense. However, that being said, I welcome Rudy to run for governor or for President again.
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Painting: Three Nudes

click to enlarge
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Awesome White Album Era video of The Beatles's Revolution

It is so amazing to hear this song now with its dense layers of piano, bass, guitar, and top of his game Ringo. This is such a departure from the early music. Its density is an amazing leap from the earlier mono/4 track songs. I think playing music after The Beatles must have sometimes feel like writing a play in the 17th century after Shakespeare's departure...



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Oprah shouts on Twitter & Shaq notices

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poem: if we were us

If I were me
What would I do?

Would I see you
And you see me?

If we were us
Could we let it be?
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Nixon's back pocket speech in the event of a moon landing disaster

click to enlarge

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing out an article and link to the speech I discuss below.

It was interesting to read the excerpts of the speech Dick Nixon would deliver in the event of a disaster during our moon landing. Only a few other speeches like this have slipped out over the years.

When FDR was commander-in-chief, he had a speech prepared in the event that the Normandy beach landings, a/k/a D Day, failed. Other events have triggered back pocket speeches over the years. Mostly, the President (or whoever) has not had to deliver them. But you can bet that every President has had a few of them drafted, waiting in their back pocket.

You may or may not recall an episode of The West Wing where President Bartlett's daughter had been kidnapped. His speechwriter Toby handed him a copy of the speech he would give when he daughter was safely released. The President asked him "what about the other speech?" Toby, said, yeah, he had written that one too. Bartlett asked for a copy. And then read it. He approved, but never had to use it.

Neil Armstrong memorably spoke “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” as he stepped onto the moon. But Nixon's two hundred and some other words, written in the event of a disaster, have been hidden away in an archive until now. Richard Nixon’s speechwriter, Bill Safire sent a memo to White House chief of staff Bob Haldeman, on July 18, 1969 – just days before the landing, that included this very brief speech Nixon would have delivered had something gone terribly wrong during our first moon landing in 1969:

If Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin had been stranded on the Moon, unable to return to Michael to the orbiting Apollo 11 command ship, Nixon would have called their widows, of course, and then addressed the nation.

“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace,” he would have told the watching millions.

"These brave men know there is no hope for their recovery but they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice."

“These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

“They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

“In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.”

If you have any, or know of any other back pocket speeches, send them to us! One that comes immediately to mind was JFK's speech following the disastrous invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
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4/20

An annual 4/20 gathering at the University of Santa Cruz - click to enlarge

According to the Wikipedia: “A large celebration is held every year on 4/20 at the University of Colorado's Boulder campus, with attendance reaching more than 10,000 in 2008. University police have tried various methods to prevent the gathering, including photographing students participating in the event, but the crowd has grown every year. In Dunedin, New Zealand, students at the University of Otago and other cannabis law reform activists meet under a walnut tree on the Otago University Union Lawn on Wednesdays and Fridays at 4:20pm to openly smoke cannabis in public in what they consider an act of protest. In 2008 a member of the Dunedin group was arrested and others were issued trespass notices after attempting to openly smoke cannabis at one of the regular 4:20pm protest meetings. "

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The Free Music Archive

I have found so much great (and free and legal) stuff from WFMU over the last couple of years--stereo demo records, music that has slipped into the public domain, recordings of strange bands, Frank Ackerman's UFO music, the soundtracks from instructional recordings, esoterica, ephemera...novelty records, and mainly just the offbeat and interesting. While the focus is music, my favorite finds and downloads include "78 RPM Records, jazz, psychedelia, hip-hop, electronica, hand-cranked wax cylinders, punk rock, gospel, exotica, R&B, radio improvisation, cooking instructions, classic radio airchecks, found sound, dopey call-in shows, interviews with obscure radio personalities and notable science-world luminaries, spoken word collages..."

Now, WFMU has joined with Seattle's (and NYC's) KEXP, Portland's KBOO, and other music companies, web sites, and blogs, to form the Free Music Archive, "a social music website built around a curated library of free, legal audio. It's a work in progress, and your participation will help us continue to grow."

Sign up, and check out these samplers Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, , and then explore the rest.
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An interview with John Doe of X on X and rock and roll

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Where are they now? -- The banjo pickin' boy on the porch in Deliverance

Billy Redden in 2003 at 49 years of age

What ever became of the boy who played the banjo (The Wikipedia describes him as the "creepy banjo kid") on the porch in 1972's Deliverance?

As it turns out, Billy Redden, the man who may be the most famous banjo player of all time, can barely play at all.

In 2003, Redden appeared in Tim Burton's movie "Big Fish." It was his first movie since his appearance in Deliverance. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Burton on Dec. 23, 2003: "I never forgot that image." The spooky and haunting Redden appeared in one of the key scenes of "Deliverance." 

Redden said he did not mind being a hillbilly icon in the film, but he was embarrassed by what he--unintentionally, hilariously--called the film's "love scene" (a violent rape that turns the sylvan rafting trip into a nightmare). Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty starred in the film. Voight claimed that Billy is the son of an unholy union between his mother and his brother). I find no confirmation of that, but I've never believed much that emerges from that rabid Republican's mouth.

Billy Redden in 1972 - click to enlarge

Tim Burton eventually located Redden in Clayton, Georgia, where Redden works as a cook, dishwasher and part-owner of the Cookie Jar Cafe. "Big Fish," drew the attention of media as far away as London and throughout the United States. "Quite a few people have come in to meet me," Redden said.

Burton gave Redden the banjo he used in the film,and a video about how to play the banjo. Redden said he would give it a shot.

Redden's performance on that porch, in the Dueling Banjos is one of the most memorable and creepy movie scenes ever. After that scene (and the Ned Beatty "love scene"), you knew anything could happen in this bizarro hillbilly world. I might have some cousins in that film. Billy and I might even be related, when you think about some of Our People's breeding practices back there (and maybe even out here). We're not quite in the "I'm My Own Grandpa" camp, but who knows?

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