226 years ago today, Uranus was discovered

Today in 1781, William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus. Herschel, a German-born astronomer, was not the first person to observe the seventh planet from the sun, but he was the first to correctly identify it as a planet. Prior to Herschel, Uranus was believed to be a star.

That's 226 years of really lame jokes.
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Danger: Police In Area!

Click to enlarge

Click here to go to October22.org.
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Video: Van Morrison emerged from seclusion to sing with The Band at their Last Waltz

The Band somehow talked Van Morrison out of his curmudgeonly retirement to play with them at their November 1976 farewell, The Last Waltz. And play he did. This was an all-star show, but Van Morrison blew the doors off the concert hall. He may have been performing for the first time in years, but he owned the stage, and according to people who attended this last, great Band show at Winterland, he turned the show around with a spirited performance and set the stage for the great acts to follow.






According to the Wikipedia, Morrison considered skipping his appearance right up until the last minute, even refusing to go on stage when his name was called. His manager, Harvey Goldsmith, said he "literally kicked him out there." The Band, his old neighbours in Woodstock, even had a shared experience of stage-fright.

At the concert, Van performed two songs, one of them being this version of "Caravan", from his 1970 album Moondance. Greil Marcus wrote that "Van Morrison turned the show around...singing to the rafters and ...burning holes in the floor. It was a triumph, and as the song ended Van began to kick his leg into the air out of sheer exuberance and he kicked his way right offstage like a rocket. The crowd had given him a fine welcome and they cheered wildly when he left."
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Video: Rod Stewart and Faces play Stay With Me

One of the best live shows, I've ever seen was a Faces concert in 1972. That is approximately the vintage of this YouTube video.


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Karla Bonoff, Kenny Edwards, Chris Brockett & The Wasted Bullets, and The Drunks of Hazzard

I went to a couple of rock shows this week that couldn't possibly have been more different. On Friday, we were comped in to a show by Karla Bonoff and Kenny Edwards. My friend Dave Hokit's law firm sponsored the show. You may know Bonoff's work--she has had tunes in a lot of movies, and has been widely covered. She had some hits that you might recognize in the 80s. She has a fantastic voice with every bit of power she ever had. Alas, I am just not a fan of her music--it's just too Hallmark-poppy. I liked hearing her, but didn't much like the songs.

Kenny Edwards, however, put on an excellent set with folksy, rootsy tunes that could have almost come from the Anthology of American Folk Music. He is a long time associate of Bonoff and Wendy Waldman. In the last five or six years, he has begun performing his own songs, which are sad, funny, and often moving. He is also a member of the band Bryndle (Wendy Waldman, Karla Bonoff, Andrew Gold, and Edwards), where he co-writes songs and sings a few on each record. He was the opening act for Karla Bonoff, and played about 20 minutes. It was the highlight of the show for me. He is a facile guitarist and also played electric bass and mandolin. I am going to search out his hard to find CD...



Chris Brockett and The Wasted Bullets opened up a show on Thursday night at The Rendezvous. Chris played a short set with some of his own tunes and some great covers, including a Johnny Cash cover in which he was joined by the Drunks of Hazzard. Brockett was nervous about his guitar playing, but it didn't matter. His voice sounded great, and he put on a moving, and oh so humble show. I hope I can see him perform a longer set soon. Keep it coming, Chris!

The Drunks of Hazzard are Fraser Thompson, Tony Ravo, Eric Gingrich, and Mike Chavez--artists, designers, and a programmer in the game world. You can find some posters of their gigs here. This band is a gas to watch and hear. And for some reason, you get thirsty listening. After their Thursday night gig, my stomach hurt from laughing so much. Each of their faces are a unique mirror of the music. Tony Ravo and Fraser Thompson mainly front the band. Fraser, in particular, is a joy to watch. His frantic facial expressions and wild limb movements while he plays and sings (most lead vocals and lead guitar) are worth the price of admission. His face can be puzzled, amused, and demonic all at the same time and watching him bounce around the stage only amplifies the music.

I have seen the Drunks play four or five times, but this time they were the most rehearsed I'd ever seen, and they broke out six or seven new songs--most as sick and hilarious as the great old tunes. The audience was convulsed in laughter. I want to try and post some of their lyrics in the near future. If you live in Seattle, try to show up at one of their sporadic gigs. And, hey, Drunks! Isn't it time to put out a CD? I could already name 12 songs that deserve inclusion. I have some low-quality boots of them, but I need an actual CD. Thanks, Drunks!

Other recent music postings on All This Is That:

My Favorite Rock And Jazz Shows (1966-Last Weekend)
More Shows I've seen over the years
The Surprise At The Divorce Crocodile CD Release Party
The Divorce Releases New CD - Seattle Release Parties
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Alien Lore No. 99 - Professor says humanoid ETs walk among us

An article in The Canadian tells us how aliens walk and live among us. This may be news to some. "It all began in 1972, with a voice in his head, leading him to scientific breakthroughs in his own medical research in immunology which brought him special recognition by his peers.

"Professor Hernandez knew the ideas were not his own, because he had no background in developing them. The ideas came from a beautiful [ed note: of course she was!] extraterrestrial woman who said he could call her Elyense, which he changed to LYA for short. She met him several times on the University Campus before she went any further.



"LYA wore a dark pantsuit of some very fine material that the professor could not quite identify. She had dark eyes and wore dark hair shoulder length. She walked our streets and breathed our ambient air with no difficulty. She even drank fruit juice with him at a sidewalk lunch table as they talked. She was obviously far better educated than Hernandez, and he was considered one of his country's foremost scientists. "

"LYA told Mr. Hernandez that there were many space-races far more advanced than men of Earth who were also coming here for exploration, observation, and study of our humanity about to enter a point where we would either join others in space travel and exploration, or we would eliminate ourselves in a suicidal employment of our primitive technology. We had become a society of some interest to many."

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Happy 50th Birthday Osama bin Laden!

If Osama bin Laden is actually alive, he celebrates his 50th birthday today. "Friends in the Taliban prayed for his long life. The al-Qaida leader’s long silence has fueled speculation that the world’s most-wanted fugitive may have died, though many in the international intelligence community reckon Islamist militant Web sites would circulate word of his death."

According to Reuters, "a long silence [since then] has fueled rumors that bin Laden is unwell, or dead, though the United States fears that the al-Qaida network he founded is rebuilding its base in Pakistani tribal lands, and has forged ties with affiliates in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East."

The United States has a longstanding offer of a $25 million reward for any information leading to the arrest or death of bin Laden, but leads on his whereabouts have been almost non-existent. Can one of you attorneys also explain to me how you can offer $25M for the death of someone....without even so much as an indictment? How does presumptive innocence figure into that?

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Priests to Purify Archeological Site After President Bush Visit

Mayan priests will hold a purification cermony at a sacred archaeological site, Iximche, to eradicate bad vibrations following President Bush's visit to Guatemala next week, Mayan sources told the Washington Post.

"That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," said Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan organization.
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Poem: Changes 39/Obstruction

1

A dangerous abyss lies ahead
And the inaccessible mountain behind.
You are attached to the earth

By ninety square inches of shoe
And confronted by obstructions
That can't be solved directly.

2
Going leads to obstruction

And adversity and coming

Meets with praise.

Sometimes you must go out
As difficulty compounds difficulty
And meet the trouble.

3

In the midst

Of great obstructions,
Your friends arrive,

And you no longer act
Of your own volition but seek danger
In the service of a higher cause.

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Photographs: Five UFO Crash Landings

The first UFO crash photo is by me. One is definitely from Worth1000.com. The others, who knows?? Click them to enlarge. . .

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That's no blood clot: The new Dick Cheney cover-up

X-ray by Bethesda Naval Medical Center

A source within the White House told All This Is That on Wednesday that the "blood clot" in Vice-President Dick Cheney's left leg does not exist. The blood clot is a cover story for what doctors actually found. Naval Surgeons Dr. Roy Benson and Dr. Daniel Fitch found something far more insidious than a blood clot.

X-rays reveal what appears to be a metal object lodged in the Vice President's leg. Cheney has no record of previous surgery on his legs. The surgeons alerted the White House which, in turn, sent in a phalange of Majestic medical experts along with an artifact recovery squad and counterintelligence experts (who immediately halted all communications from within the hospital and sealed off Bethesda Naval Medical Center).


U.S. Navy Surgeons Dr. Roy Benson and Dr. Daniel Fitch

According to our source, a similar device was recovered from alien crash victims at Roswell, New Mexico, as well as from victims in the Carp, Ontario UFO crash. The device has been recovered from other humans and cattle infected with a virus of unknown origin. Sources speculate that the object seems to be a receiver and transmitter, utilizing frequencies unknown to us. It is not known whether the Vice-President was pitching or catching, whether he is part of an alien hive, or the unwitting victim of an implantation.

Device recovered from Roswell, NM UFO crash victims
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The Scooter Libby Pardon

As soon as Scooter Libby was convicted of lying, the calls from Republicans for a pardon began. However, as the loyal fall guy, Libby is not ready for a pardon. His case needs to wend its way through the appellate courts now, which may take years. And it's not like the President has the political capital to pull this off right now. . .although, we have seen him pull other suicidal moves over the last 6+ years (such as nominating Harriet Meiers for ther Supreme Court, nominating Bolton as the U.N. delegate, deficit war financing, and plunging into his new "surge" in Iraq). If he does decide to pardon Libby, he would likely do it the morning of January 20, 2009. . .that blessed day so many of us are awaiting. If the pardon did come on that last day, we would see George Bush exit the Presidency as he entered it: under a massive firestorm of protest and anger. It would make a fitting bookend to this failed Presidency.

There are at least two impediments to a pardon for Libby:

1) George Bush's already tarnished "legacy." We know he thinks about this, and we also know not many Presidents have ever resurrected their legacy in their last 20 months in office. A pardon would only garner approval from the Neo-cons and the far right.

2) Perhaps even more importantly, there is the Dick Cheney problem. As Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told the jury last month in his summations: ""There is a cloud over the vice president." We know that Libby painted Cheney, his former boss, as the puppeteer, pulling strings in a campaign to defend the administration's case for war in Iraq and discredit a critic. And yet, so far, he seems willing to be the scapegoat and fall guy for Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. As he begins facing serious jail time, you wonder if he won't take a scorched earth position.

Vice President Cheney's recent health problems have led to speculation that he might actually resign. Who knows what effect that would have on a possible pardon? Surely Condi Rice would become VP. She at least seems untarnished by this fracas. And with no one to bring down politically or legally, the President's counsel would tell Libby's lawyer to pound sound when they came calling for a pardon.

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