Here we are, looking forward to another round of Democratic primaries--in Kentucky, and in Oregon. And it will be another split: Oregon for Obama, and Kentucky for Portland.
It's no wonder we have that "not so fresh feeling." It's frustrating on both ends: that Obama can't close the deal in the last two weeks, and that Hillary, the energizer bunny, keeps on keeping on despite running on empty, the odds, and the excoriations and pleas of Dems and the pundits. ---o0o---
The use of the word Shadoobie is one of my favorite Rolling Stones vocal bits, almost right up there with the Woo-woos from Sympathy For The Devil...
Shattered
Shattered, shattered Love and hope and sex and dreams Are still surviving on the street Look at me, Im in tatters! Im a shattered Shattered
Friends are so alarming My lovers never charming Lifes just a cocktail party on the street Big apple People dressed in plastic bags Directing traffic Some kind of fashion Shattered
Laughter, joy, and loneliness and sex and sex and sex and sex Look at me, Im in tatters Im a shattered Shattered
All this chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter bout Shmatta, shmatta, shmatta -- I cant give it away on 7th avenue This towns been wearing tatters (shattered, shattered) Work and work for love and sex Aint you hungry for success, success, success, success Does it matter? (shattered) does it matter? Im shattered. Shattered
Ahhh, look at me, Im a shattered Im a shattered Look at me- Im a shattered, yeah
Pride and joy and greed and sex Thats what makes our town the best Pride and joy and dirty dreams and still surviving on the street And look at me, Im in tatters, yeah Ive been battered, what does it matter Does it matter, uh-huh Does it matter, uh-huh, Im a shattered
Dont you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough! You got rats on the west side Bed bugs uptown What a mess this towns in tatters Ive been shattered My brains been battered, splattered all over manhattan
Uh-huh, this towns full of money grabbers Go ahead, bite the big apple, dont mind the maggots, huh Shadoobie, my brains been battered My friends they come around they Flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter Pile it up, pile it high on the platter ---o0o---
A short film--a video performance of Neal Cassady's famous sex letter to Jack Kerouac. It is quite a letter. If you want to read it, pick up Neal's amazing autobiography The First Third, published by City Light books...
This is a pretty cool video...starting off with Bird watching Coleman Hawkins play and then Coleman watching Bird play. This is followed by various other luminaries like Ray Brown, Lester Young, Ella Fitzgerald, and Phil Harris dropping in and out, and ending with the whole band and Ella taking a couple of choruses to scat sing. I have to admit, also, that Phil Harris's trombone is spectacular...
Here is the rough rundown of who appears when and with whom:
Charlie Parker - Saxophone Coleman Hawkins - Tenor saxophone Hank Jones - Piano Ray Brown - Double bass Buddy Rich - Drums Bill Harris - Trombone Lester Young - Tenor saxophone Harry Edison - Trumpet Flip Phillips - Tenor saxophone Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals, Scatting
The Lineup(s):
0:18 - Coleman Hawkins, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, and Buddy Rich.
2:53 - Charlie Parker, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, and Buddy Rich.
5:15 - Hank Jones, Ray Brown, and Buddy Rich.
7:12 - Bill Harris, Lester Young, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, and Buddy Rich.
10:43 - Flip Philips, Harry Edison, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Harris, Lester Young, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, and Buddy Rich.
Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie play Dexterity on film. Bird has been my favorite saxaphone player since I first heard him when I was about 19. He doesn't disappoint in this filmed snippet.
Jack (and Jill) Jack Albertson Jack Bauer Jack Benny Jack Black Jack Brummet Jack Daniels Jack Dempsey Jack Haley Jack Kennedy Jack Kerouac Jack Kevorkian (a/k/a Dr. Death) Jack Klugman Jack LaLane Jack Lemmon Jack London Jack Lord Jack Nicholson Jack Nicklaus Jack Osborne Jack Paar Jack Palance
Jack Ruby Jack Sparrow Jack Straw Jack The Ripper Jack Warner Jack Webb Jack White Little Jack Horner The Union Jack ---o0o---
As Bob Dylan once wrote, "Sometimes The President of the United States has to stand naked." Allie's Creations took that literally, and offer a dress-up naked George Bush magnet set for sale here. ---o0o---
Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), joined the flood of Democratic complaints about President Bush’s speech in Israel:
“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement.” — Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee
Speaking at the Knesset, The President said “some people” believe the United States “should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."
"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
Barack Obama joined in, accusing President Bush of "a false political attack" Thursday after Bush warned against appeasing terrorists.
Speaker of the House Pelosi tore into the President, saying Thursday that Bush's remarks were "beneath the dignity of the office of the president and unworthy of our representation" at the celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary.
Even Senator Hillary Clinton took the time to lambaste POTUS: "President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy. This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address and certainly to use an important moment like the 60th anniversary celebration of Israel to make a political point seems terribly misplaced. Unfortunately, this is what we’ve come to expect from President Bush." ---o0o---
Dave Kolpack of the Associated Press reported today that a disgruntled flight attendant--Eder Rojas, 19--smuggled a lighter aboard an airplane and started a fire in a bathroom, forcing an emergency landing. Rojas was angry because he had been assigned to routes he didn't like. The Compass Airlines flight carrying 72 passengers and four crew members landed safely in Fargo, N.D. on May 7 after smoke filled the back. No injuries were reported. Read the entire sordid story here. ---o0o---
Washington, D.C. May 15, 2008 - A disgruntled former Obama staffer (e.g., fired staff member) recently disclosed to All This Is That Senator Barack Obama's secret plan to end the war. The plan? To increase troop levels in Iraq to 1.5 million troops, followed by a staged, and complete, withdrawal 60 days later. Some staffers believe that this will require reinstatement of The Draft. The SuperSurge [tm] plan was also confirmed by a former Obama fundraiser.
While Senator Obama frequently says he intends to immediately end the war in Iraq, he has not disclosed his exact plan of sending one million additional troops to Iraq. The blitzkrieg clean-up operation would be immediately followed by a staged withdrawal of 100,000 troops per month, ending the war during his first year in office. While the Obama camp is fully behind the Obama Surge, they are understandably reluctant to roll out details of the plan to a base that was strongly energized by his anti-war messaging.
According to an Associated Press article yesterday, datelined from The Vatican, "The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God."
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, says the vastness of the universe means it is possible there may be other forms of life outside Earth--even intelligent ones.
In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano, Funes says that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures.
The astronomer said that ruling out the possibility of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom.
Thanks to Jeff Clinton for the tip on this fine article...
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday almost told German Chancellor Angela Merkel to go to hell. Chancellor Merkel had earlier called on Latin American leaders to distance themselves from the wackjob Chavez. He backed off for using the word Hell, but went right ahead and called her a Nazi spawn--a political descendent of Adolf Hitler and German fascism. The leftist President said: "She is from the German right, the same that supported Hitler, that supported fascism, that's the Chancellor of Germany today." Chavez also said he might confront her about that statement if she attends an upcoming summit of heads of state from Europe and Latin America in Peru.
El Presidente has also commented on other world leaders over the last few years:
On President George W. Bush: "The devil."
Also on George W. Bush:"The devil came right here... And it still smells of sulfur today." ~ Chavez at the UN referring to the President of the United States.
On Sunday, President Chavez called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a "liar" who "shouldn't even run a corner store." President Chavez on President Bush:"You are ignoramus, you are a burro, Mr Danger... or to say it to you in my bad English: [switching languages] You are a donkey, Mr Danger. You are a donkey, Mr George W. Bush. [Returning to Spanish] You are a coward, a killer, a [perpetrator of] genocide, an alcoholic, a drunk, a liar, an immoral person, Mr Danger. You are the worst, Mr Danger. The worst of this planet... A psychologically sick man, I know it. "
On televangelist Pat Robertson: “That's why Pat Robertson, the spiritual adviser of Mr. Bush, is calling for my assassination. That would be much cheaper than an invasion.”
Chavez talks about the U.S. Secretary of State: "Remember, little girl, I'm like the thorn tree that flowers on the plain. I waft my scent to passers-by and prick he who shakes me. Don't mess with me, Condoleezza. Don't mess with me, girl. " He blew a screen kiss to Ms Rice and jokingly referred to her as "Condolence."
On former Prime Minister Tony Blair: "Don't be shameless, Mr Blair. Don't be immoral, Mr Blair. You are one of those who have no morals. You are not one who has the right to criticise anyone about the rules of the international community. You are an imperialist pawn who attempts to curry favour with Danger Bush-Hitler, the number one mass murderer and assassin there is on the planet. Go straight to hell, Mr Blair. "
He once called U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "one of the dogs of the devil," and described-President of Mexico Vicente Fox as a "lap-dog of the empire." ---o0o---
My friend Daryle Conners meets the Pope shortly before she interviewed him for her Vatican II documentary
Pope Benedict XVI admitted on Saturday that the Vatican's teaching against birth control was difficult as he praised a 1968 Church document that condemned contraception.
In a speech marking the 40th anniversary of the document, Benedict reiterated the Church's ban against artificial birth control as well as more recent teaching against using artificial procreation methods.
"What was true yesterday remains true even today [Pope Paul VI's 1968 "Humanae vitae]. The truth expressed in 'Humanae vitae' doesn't change; on the contrary, in the light of new scientific discoveries, it is ever more up to date," the pope added. "No mechanical technique can substitute the act of love that two married people exchange as a sign of a greater mystery," Benedict said.
Il Papa expressed concern that human life risks losing its value in today's culture and worried that sex could "transform itself into a drug" that one partner had to have even against the will of the other. Did he learn this from studies, or from the histories of his minions, the Priests? ---o0o---
This is definitely the coolest map and one of the most magnificent obsessions I've seen in a long time. Ben Fry has mapped 26 million separate road segments. There aren't enough roads in Hawaii and Alaska to clearly delineate those states, so he, regretfully, left them out. And you thought the map of McDonalds in the U.S. was comprehensive? For more details, check out Ben's website:
