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...
