actually atlanta. i just remembered this long forgotten little story from 1993.
back around '93 when i was playing in chris stamey's trio, we had two gigs booked in georgia. the first one was in atlanta and the second night was in athens. due to work, i had to drive down separately from chris. as i was coming into atlanta, i became lost and found myself somewhere near the carter center. and we were seeing the first sleet and ice which would almost cancel the next night's gig in athens. i just drove around and around. i was off the interstate, but i just was going in circles somehow. the only thing that cheered me was that i turned on the radio and i heard one of my songs! chris had gotten to town a good bit earlier and was in the studio talking to a dj. i'm sure this must have been a college station. he had kindly brought one of my discs to give to the station. afte the song, i heard chris' voice and my stress was lessened. very nice of him. he later covered one of my songs in a later band he had called alaska. was an obscure song called "love in return" on an EP i had out that year.
not sure why i thought of this, but made me remember how nice he was to me to help me out like that.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Stand for Nothing and You'll Fall for Anything
some thoughts on the alito's appointment to the supreme court and the failed filibuster attempt by the democrats:
so only 32 of the senate's democrats were in favor of a filibuster.
as of this writing, i haven't reviewed the list of those who didn't vote for a filibuster, but i imagine most of them were the ones who were part of the gang of 14 who agreed to never filibuster except under extreme circumstances. well, the time for that exception has come and gone. a little foresight on their part would have been nice.
it's one thing to regret one's vote due to how it may affect one's seat politically. i argue it's a bigger regret to have a missed opportunity to save the country from an erosion of freedom. the freedoms that we are seeing fritter away are the very ones that are invoked when our government authorizes war or waxes patriotic on independence day. how anyone in washington or across the country can miss that sad irony is a tragic blindspot.
in a related note:
bush and the current crop of conservatives are allowing the terrorists to win by allowing this country to melt our freedoms from the inside out. it is so shortsighted to think by allowing spying and certain tenets of the partiot act, we are saving this country. we have a military to fight those fights. let them do their job when it's authorized. but don't give our freedoms away.
i think it can be argued that it's as bad as "negotiating with terrorists" (as in "we will not negotiate with terrorists" they are so fond of saying) in that the u.s. is in a way unilaterally allowing terrorists to dictate how we live. i do not advocate negotiating with terrorists, i want to make that clear. but his solution is on par with that as far as eroding what we have stood for all these years.
what's that famous saying?
"stand for nothing and you will fall for anything?"
well, don't look now, but we have lost our footing under the watch of bush and cheney and it will have dire long term consequences for our twilight years and the best years of our childrens' lives if the other branches of government and the people themselves do not put a check on this naked grab for power. the separation of powers was set up for just this kind of scenario.
so only 32 of the senate's democrats were in favor of a filibuster.
as of this writing, i haven't reviewed the list of those who didn't vote for a filibuster, but i imagine most of them were the ones who were part of the gang of 14 who agreed to never filibuster except under extreme circumstances. well, the time for that exception has come and gone. a little foresight on their part would have been nice.
it's one thing to regret one's vote due to how it may affect one's seat politically. i argue it's a bigger regret to have a missed opportunity to save the country from an erosion of freedom. the freedoms that we are seeing fritter away are the very ones that are invoked when our government authorizes war or waxes patriotic on independence day. how anyone in washington or across the country can miss that sad irony is a tragic blindspot.
in a related note:
bush and the current crop of conservatives are allowing the terrorists to win by allowing this country to melt our freedoms from the inside out. it is so shortsighted to think by allowing spying and certain tenets of the partiot act, we are saving this country. we have a military to fight those fights. let them do their job when it's authorized. but don't give our freedoms away.
i think it can be argued that it's as bad as "negotiating with terrorists" (as in "we will not negotiate with terrorists" they are so fond of saying) in that the u.s. is in a way unilaterally allowing terrorists to dictate how we live. i do not advocate negotiating with terrorists, i want to make that clear. but his solution is on par with that as far as eroding what we have stood for all these years.
what's that famous saying?
"stand for nothing and you will fall for anything?"
well, don't look now, but we have lost our footing under the watch of bush and cheney and it will have dire long term consequences for our twilight years and the best years of our childrens' lives if the other branches of government and the people themselves do not put a check on this naked grab for power. the separation of powers was set up for just this kind of scenario.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
some thoughts on the sounds of christmas and a great cd mix
god rest ye merry gentlemen.
first off, best of the season to you from me, my kitty gypsy and john, paul, george and ringo
i had a lazy christmas eve morning. i did most of my shopping for my 6 family members (i have no children, this is my mom & dad, sis and her family) on the 23rd. and i taught one guitar lesson as a makeup for my beloved 7 year old student lindley. she had her pageant on thursday so had to reschedule. so when that was over, i walked the two blocks to the guitar store to get some strings and just to putter around and say hello to the guys there.
on the way home (again, most everything i need is walking distance here at duke's east campus neighborhood), i took a shortcut through a vacant lot with a nice meadow-like carpet of grass and some willow trees. as i passed under the trees and reached for the gate handle at the end of the picket fence, i heard that familiar whirring sound of startled doves in flight. but here on christmas eve, it just had a deeper ring to it. doves are a common symbol of peace, but there sure doesn't seem to be much right now and our country seems more militant than it's ever been.
as i came back home, i checked a few email messages and read the baltimore orioles fan blog site for offseason rumours, deals, etc. but the best part of the day thus far was listening to some christmas cd's. my stand alone cd burner doesn't burn worth a damn so it's only really useful now as a 2-disc cd changer. i've found it fun to put in two fairly similar genres of music and hitting shuffle.
today's mix was:
The Chieftains: The Bells of Dublin
and
Have Yourself a Jazzy Little Christmas (various on the Verve label)
and later in the day (in fact, on right now) another nice combination:
The Ventures Christmas Album
and
Booker T and the MG's Christmas album.
so i'm gonna relax maybe another hour, read some of the new tom petty bio or doris kearns goodwin's abraham lincoln bio. and then it's off to my folks' house in garner, nc for dinner and exhanging of gifts. and later i'll maybe watch "holiday inn" or "it's a wonderful life". very low key, but restful.
merry christmas, happy hannuka and happy new year.
first off, best of the season to you from me, my kitty gypsy and john, paul, george and ringo
i had a lazy christmas eve morning. i did most of my shopping for my 6 family members (i have no children, this is my mom & dad, sis and her family) on the 23rd. and i taught one guitar lesson as a makeup for my beloved 7 year old student lindley. she had her pageant on thursday so had to reschedule. so when that was over, i walked the two blocks to the guitar store to get some strings and just to putter around and say hello to the guys there.
on the way home (again, most everything i need is walking distance here at duke's east campus neighborhood), i took a shortcut through a vacant lot with a nice meadow-like carpet of grass and some willow trees. as i passed under the trees and reached for the gate handle at the end of the picket fence, i heard that familiar whirring sound of startled doves in flight. but here on christmas eve, it just had a deeper ring to it. doves are a common symbol of peace, but there sure doesn't seem to be much right now and our country seems more militant than it's ever been.
as i came back home, i checked a few email messages and read the baltimore orioles fan blog site for offseason rumours, deals, etc. but the best part of the day thus far was listening to some christmas cd's. my stand alone cd burner doesn't burn worth a damn so it's only really useful now as a 2-disc cd changer. i've found it fun to put in two fairly similar genres of music and hitting shuffle.
today's mix was:
The Chieftains: The Bells of Dublin
and
Have Yourself a Jazzy Little Christmas (various on the Verve label)
and later in the day (in fact, on right now) another nice combination:
The Ventures Christmas Album
and
Booker T and the MG's Christmas album.
so i'm gonna relax maybe another hour, read some of the new tom petty bio or doris kearns goodwin's abraham lincoln bio. and then it's off to my folks' house in garner, nc for dinner and exhanging of gifts. and later i'll maybe watch "holiday inn" or "it's a wonderful life". very low key, but restful.
merry christmas, happy hannuka and happy new year.
Friday, December 09, 2005
The Oriole's Best Leaving Baltimore?
my favorite shortstop in the american league says he wants to be traded after only two years in charm city. after the biblically disastrous '05 campaign (pitching injuries, palmeiro's steroid scandal, sidney ponson's alcohol arrests, brian roberts' heinous arm injury), this is the last thing baltimore needs. part of me wants to shout "suck it up miquel tejada! your first 3 years of your 6 year contract are rebuilding years." sorry. you should have known that coming in. you guys will be contenders in '07 - '09. hang in there! on the other hand, maybe this is a warning shot across the bow that their most talented player is on the same page as baltimore's most knowledgeable fans. it's time to open the wallet and at least try to be in the same poker game as the yankees and red sox. 8 consecutive losing seasons is asking a lot of your fans to say the least.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
December 8, 1980 revisited - Losing Lennon
the whole night, in reflection was just plain eerie. was the night of my first exam at ncsu as a freshman. the movie that night at stewart theatre was hard days' night. the film cans got mixed up and we saw help instead. by the time the movie was over, he was dead and none of us knew it. i didn't have a radio in my car and i still didn't know till the next morning. i went to bed with happy beatle dreams in my head, all of them still alive, for one final night.
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