Oh Brother!

There are greater injustices in the world for me to complain about, but this one just jumped out at me.

Tim Russert's son, Luke, is now joining NBC as a correspondent at large for the upcoming conventions.

I'm sure he's a sweet kid and probably can string together an intelligible report, but I'm still dealing with the PTSD from the tsunami of Russert-mania after his death.

Can't we let it go, already?

My Week With Technology

Monday: After power outage (and subsequent 1.5 hours on phone), determine with help desk that the router blew out.

Tuesday: Screen on treasured iPod Touch starts intermittently not working.

Tuesday: Purchase new router and, after much consternation, get it to play nice (I thought) with the work machine.

Wednesday: Dan about jumps out window, which would not accomplish much since my office is on the first floor, when he realizes how awful this new Belkin G-series router is. I lose connectivity every few minutes, it seems. This kills my work connection, too, so I have to constantly log back into my VPN there. And scrolling through email? Forgetaboutit!

Wednesday: iPod problems persist.

Thursday: I will be taking the router back, getting an N-series (thanks, Ryno) and cashing in on the service plan I bought on the iPod.

Just waiting for the next thing to go wrong...

Godspeed...To The Prince of Darkness

Wow, what a year for political journalists and talking heads...

Poor Bob Novak (who had already had one hell of a week, producing a false story about McCain's veep announcement and hitting a biker in DC) was diagnosed with a brain tumor yesterday.

How awful...

Need New Router

Boy, life really has degenerated when a now-dead router has messed up my night. I got home to find that power seems to have gone out. It was already back on for me (but not for the folks using Cleveland Public Power...which is an odd shift, usually us Illuminating customers get the short end of the stick) but I had internet problems lingering.

After far too long on the phone with AT&T's service folks, we determined that my one-year-old Linksys router had bit the dust.

This fellow suggested a Belkin, so I'm going to go pick one up tomorrow and have a followup call scheduled.

Anyway, the psychic damage this did to me reminded me of this Pew poll...and the increasing list of "things" Americans can't seem to live without.

Looks Like I Picked The Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue

It's been hard to avoid an article about Cuil.com today, but it seems that their PR folks outpaced their server capacity guys...their servers are down on day 1.


Just imagining Lloyd Bridges in Airplane! right now...

Barry is the Acting President?

While there's also the potential for some fun wordplay, that's what Frank Rich thinks in today's Time's Op-Ed Page...

This one is sure to be the talk of the news cycle as people try to digest and put the first-term Senator's overseas trip into some perspective.

Looking forward to Barry's MTP appearance in a little while...

Quote of the Day

We'll keep this one in mind, Senator...I'm sure this line will come in handy one of these days.

“It is just amazing that someone would roll the dice on the economy for an ideological concept."

US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) on Republicans who voted against the housing bailout that passed the Senate this morning.

Fox News Announcement

Summary of the Current Veepstakes Contenders

No new news here, but the Journal has a nice summary collage of the current conventional-wisdom Veep choices. Here, of course, we're rooting for Gov. Palin.

Go Nanooks!

Brent Mydland, RIP

My favorite of the Grateful Dead keyboardists, Brent Mydland, died 18 years ago today.

After summer tour ended, Brent had to pay the piper for some of his addiction-fueled misdeeds and wanted to go out with one last bang, instead. He overdosed and died.

(While the fate of the dead Dead keyboardists is tragic, it is almost humorous how much their stories resemble those of the drummers in Spinal Tap.)

In my mind, this really was the end of the Grateful Dead. While the Vince years had a few highlights, the band just never seemed to get its footing after Brent checked out.

His case is a sad one because he was so damned gifted, but always seemed plagued by personal problems and feelings of inferiority...the latter of which were completely unfounded. He had more talent and soul in his pinkie than the rhythm guitarist will ever have.

I'm posting two versions of one of his more popular songs, Far From Me.

The first is from the second of two shows they played in Alaska in June, 1980. The next one is from Brent's second-from-last show, at the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park, IL, on July 22, 1990.

You can hear the degradation in his voice and spirits over the years, with the latter version being downright spooky. His voice is filled with pain and the insertion of profanity into the song speaks to something one just doesn't want to know about...

(As a little side note, this last show is interesting because I'm pretty sure my family was stuck in a traffic jam from this same show. We were on the way back from a vacation up around the Great Lakes and the World was very close to where I grew up.)

So long.

Far From Me, 1980-6-21, West High Auditorium, Anchorage, Alaska


Far From Me, 1990-7-22, World Music Theatre, Tinley Park, Illinois

The Neverending Drew Peterson Saga

Every now and then, I have to go back to the Chicago Sun-Times to see what's going on with the Drew Peterson affair. Luckily, they talk about it often enough on the Steve Dahl show, so I'm alerted to details in this important story.

If you'll remember, Drew is listed as a 'person of interest' in the murder of his young wife in Bolingbrook, IL, a suburb of Chicago.

In the last week, his neighbors, Paula Stark and Len Wawczak have gotten into the act, claiming to have worn a wire around Drew for several months as part of an undercover op with the Illinois State Police.

Yesterday, Drew had allegedly been mouthing off, claiming to have slept with Paula at some point.

Understandably, this upset their son, Lenny, who ran into Drew at the local barbershop.

What ensued in the parking lot is some real Jerry Springer material, with Len Sr. showing up, shoving Drew and getting arrested by the cops.

Here's a few of the verbal highlights:

Len Jr.: "Hey, m-----f-----, you ain't nothing but a murderer. I'll beat the f--- out of you. Say something!"

Peterson: "Hit me," putting his hands behind his back. "I'm going down."

Len Jr.: "Take the cool sunglasses off! I ain't Stacy, bitch! You sissy!"

Onlooker: "Knock his ass out!"

Len Sr. (now on the scene): "Say right now you f----- my old lady! I'll come around right now and drop you like you want!"

Len Sr (after his arrest).: "I wanted to let Drew know he's not going to mess with my family...If I knew I was getting arrested, I would have knocked the m-----f----- out."

Another Celebrity Obama Endorsement

This is great.

Dale Leo Bishop was executed in Mississippi the other day for the murder of Marcus James Gentry in 1998.

Just before the lethal injection, when given the opportunity to speak his last words, he suggested that folks cast their vote for Barack Obama in the upcoming election he won't be around to see.

For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice.

While this deathbed endorsement is timely and funny, it can never beat this one. That will never be topped.

Did Barry Jump the Shark?

The New York Times, this morning, was nowhere near kind to Barack Obama after his Berlin speech yesterday.

The news analysis noted that the speech lacked almost any real substance or detail and when it did (he suggested that the Krauts, as well as the rest of the EU, is going to have to pony up more troops in Afghanistan), it kind of slipped by the crowd, all decked out in their Yankees hats and waving Obama-supplied American flags.

David Brooks goes further on the Op-Ed page, calling him out for illegal use of optimism not grounded in reality. When used in tandem, these are good things, but without, as Brooks writes, Barack really seems to have jumped the shark.

Don't get me wrong, I'm going to be very happy to have a President I can probably be proud of in a few months. The cowboy routine with W was only attractive for a very short amount of time.

I just wonder what we're going to see when he's faced with making an actual legislative or military decision...something that forces you into some real choices beyond words in a speech. For him, they often seem to be a form of abstract art, where it can mean whatever the viewer/listener wants it to mean.

Oh, Will You Shut Up About the Damned Surge!

If a surgeon lopped off my arm during a surgery to repair a chipped bone in my pinkie finger, then was able to replace said arm with a Captain Hook stump three years later, should we give the doctor a parade or an Atomic Wedgie for messing me up in the first place?

It's beyond me why John McCain keeps running around talking about his support for the surge as if a) He actually has some operational authority over troop strategy in Iraq b) The idea really is evidence of a keen military mind and not just someone who legitimately got past the techniques taught in the first chapter of Playground Fights for Dummies.

He's at it again today, saying how his judgment is so great and Barry's is so poor based on their support for the surge. The problem, of course, is that if McCain is so keen on looking at historical wartime decisions, it makes perfect sense to look back at who got us into this mess to begin with!

Who displayed good judgment then, Mr. Man?

Who had a good read on our place in the world then, Senator?

Did "Al Queda in Iraq" even exist then?

God, I feel like Keith Olbermann, now.

Reflections Performs "Lonesome and a Long Way from Home"

As of the time of this posting, I have What is Dan Listening To set to Jerry Garcia's Don't Let Go, a commercially-released recording of his band at San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre in May of 1976.

I've had this for a number of years and recently dug it back out to enjoy some Garcia from that period.

Unlike the Dead, getting soundboards of his shows was a little more difficult...not sure if the sound folks were just different or what the story was, but hearing something so clear from a period where his creativity and quality were at such high marks has been a real trip.

I couldn't find anything posted of him performing one of my favorite songs from that era, Lonesome and a Long Way From Home, so I found a copy of a Garcia tribute band, Reflections, doing it.

Not quite as the good as the real thing, but it'll do for now.

Media Item of the Day

Cheesy Answers

By most accounts, today's McCain press event in a Bethlehem, PA grocery store was just the latest stumble in an inexplicably poor campaign.

I hadn't paid much attention to this until I was watching Mrs. Senor's CNN show and they showed him in front of the dairy aisle trying to explain his historically-inaccurate portrayal of the so-called Sunni Awakening.

While the toilet paper aisle might have been slightly more appropriate, if cliche, there was something poetic about where he chose to give such a cheesy talk.

With the great spring we had, watching to able Democratic candidates go after each other in the primary, McCain has been disappointing so far in making the November decision a difficult one.

While I might not have been going into it with the full intention of voting for him, he's not giving me much reason, either in the substance or style of his campaign, to give him a hard look.

See a Broad to Get That Bodiac, Lay'er Down an' Smack 'em Yack 'em!

David Zucker, the comedic geinus behind the Airplane! movies has now set his sights on Michael Moore and plans to put out a little comedy about the left wing soon.

This should be cool.

McCain May Be Funny, But the Women of the Political Press Are Funnier

MoDo's column today, citing the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet, has coined a new name for Barry's campaign plane that I hope really takes off (get it...takes off)...

O Force One.

Her column this morning on The One's overseas adventure, as usual, is worth your time.

That John McCain...He's a Funny Guy!

Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic has an item on the press credentials Johnny Mac is handing out to the second-stringers not invited over to Barry's Excellent Adventure.

One of My Favorite Billy Joel Songs

The other day, I was listening to a bootleg of Billy Joel playing the second-from-last concert ever at Shea Stadium.

It was pretty run-of-the-mill like Billy...which is to say it pretty much kicked butt.

He puts on one hell of a show, as I was lucky enough to find out in person last year. I have several bootlegs of his covering the length of his career and they're just great go-to music for me.

Anyway, Vienna was on my mind, so I thought I'd throw up a studio cut of it.

G'night....

My New Favorite Word

Locavore- Someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles. The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to produce their own food, with the argument that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better.

The New York Times has had a fetish for this food trend lately, with at least two front-pagers in the last few weeks. I also read an article in The American Conservative a few weeks back that makes the case that eating locally like this is also, contrary to the hippie stereotype, not solely the domain of the lefties.

By eating more locally-grown food (not only veggies, mind you, but also some good old beef and pork!), one may be able to reduce the influence of the ADMs of the world, as well as the Department of Agriculture and their stranglehold on the whole process.

I am not painting myself as anything close to an expert on this topic, but merely parroting what seemed to be reasonable-sounding arguments to me.

The Missionary Position

I read a pretty interesting book, The Missionary Position, Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice, by Christopher Hitchens, this weekend.

I've always kind of gotten a kick out of the author's magazine articles as well as his television interviews and debates, but had never read any of his books.

It's about Mother Theresa and takes a stand that I've never taken notice of anyone else defending...that this saint-to-be may not be so saintly after all. He equates MT with a slick televangelist who dupes the willing and the unwitting into supporting (both financially and through actions) their fanatical, often-destructive beliefs.

He cites compelling evidence that she was not the simple little Albanian farm girl the Church's PR folks would have you believe in. MT was as slick as they come when you talk about getting world leaders in line.

While I won't recount the whole book to you, a striking example of her method was the letter she wrote to the judge presiding over the (Charles) Keating Five trial in California.

Keating, a devout Catholic, had donated many of his ill-gotten monies to the Missionaries of Charity and, as the trial neared its close, got a letter on his behalf from MT requesting leniency. In it, MT feigned the bumpkin who does not understand "the matters you are dealing with," and only asked for the judge to do what Jesus would do.

When you contrast this letter with the comparatively sophisticated arguments she laid out when speaking to political or church bodies, one can be quickly disgusted by the faux naivte in the letter to Judge Ito.

Paul Turley, one of the prosecutors, later wrote MT back, informing her that the monies she recieved from the convicted Keating were stolen and asked her what Jesus would do if he found himself in posession of the fruits of a crime. He offered to put her in touch with the fleeced Americans, but never heard back from her.

He also takes considerable issue with her crazed opposition to contraception, finishing one chapter with the following:

(Her) call to go forth and multiply , and to take no thought for the morrow, sounds grotesque when uttered by an elderly virgin whose chief claim to reverence is that she ministers to the inevitble losers of this very lottery.

As with anything of this sort, particularly something written by an author with an axe to grind, I don't take it as the final world on her life or role on earth, but it was a strangely refreshing book for me.

If Barack Obama Was a Red-Headed, Teenage White Boy

This is what his European tour would look like...

Niiice...

Princess Diana Makes Stuffed, Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Yum, this looks good.

Come See Hockey At Wrigley Field

Despite the pleasure I derive from watching soccer, I've just never been able to get into hockey. I'm not sure why that is, but I'm not all that big a sports fan anyway, so it does not bother me.

However, there's a pretty good likelihood of my being tuned in on New Years Day, 2009, when the Detroit Red Wings face off against the Chicago Blackhawks, in an outdoor game at Wrigley Field.

I watched the outdoor game last year, up in Buffalo and thought it was really cool, so seeing a game from the Friendly Confines can only be better.

Tickets to the Winter Classic are going to be hard to come by (plus, figure you're looking at NYE-rate hotel rooms) so this one will be best enjoyed from the couch.

I Didn't Know There Were Many Black People in China!

While it's hard to figure out just how far into the true category this is when it's only being picked up by small media outlets at this point, the PRC has apparently told nightclub owners in Beijing that they are not to serve Black or Mongolian patrons.

This is easily the most politically-charged Olympics in my post-infant life so, while I don't think the story is impossible, it's also a fact that there are a whole lot of people out there who would have sufficient motivation and means to push stories that are both damaging and plausible, but also false.

And Now...A Woodstock Moment...Brought To You By Joe Cocker

A friend kept telling me about this and I couldn't figure out why it would be so funny since I knew all the words to A Little Help From My Friends.

I was mistaken, obviously.

Holy Attention-Deprived Douchebags, Batman!

I can almost understand people who paint their faces before a sporting event in the hope of riling up the crowd, whose energy might transfer to your team for a better performance.

But there's no excuse for anyone over the age of 11 to be dressing up to go to a movie.

The only possible exception is the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

So let it be written.

The Best Website I Have Seen in a Long Time

I think this is not the newest site in the world, so no need to tell me how cool you were for noticing it first, but Stuff White People Like is hysterical.

The Poll I'm Running on the Side

Take a sec, if you want, and vote over on the sidebar.

The truth is that I post stuff up here that amuses me, so I don't anticipate dropping the Dead off the roster here or altering much based on response...I'm just asking out of curiosity if anyone listens and enjoys the tunes at all.

Thanks!

Grateful Dead Perform "Maybe You Know"

I'm pretty tired and don't have much to say, but did want to throw up some more Brent Mydland stuff...

This is Maybe You Know from Tax Day in 1983 at the Community War Memorial in Rochester.

Mitt Romney Is Going to Mess Up His Pretty Hair

If he gets his nose buried any further up John McCain's ass, that is.

Yesterday, he credited the brilliant war strategist with being the person who"authored some time ago the philosophy that said a surge would work in Iraq."

"Authored the philosophy" that bringing in a whole boatload of people (who arguably should have been elsewhere doing things of more moral and strategic value) is one way to overwhelm an enemy?

I mean, that might very well be true, but it's a concept that can be grasped by any second grader.

Romney's argument also implies that McCain had a much more hands-on role than he probably did in planning the current tactics in Iraq.

Czech, Mate!

Friend Of McCain, Mike Murhpy, had a clever little quip on Race for the White House a moment ago.

Commenting on Johnny Mac's little historical blunder the other day, he said (paraphrasing):

I don't know what everyone's whining about. I still refer to it as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so I'm really out of touch!

Do You Have a Kiss for Daddy?

Stupidest news item of the day.

Not Sure If This Will Make The Grapevine on Special Report Tonight

The New York Times is reporting that Fox News Channel Managing Editor Brit Hume will step down after the 2008 elections...or at least take a lower-profile role at the powerhouse.

While everyone's leaving their current job is in some way inevitable, after the deaths of Tony Snow and Tim Russert, this is at least the third big media disappointment we've had this summer.

I was always a fan of his evening show, Special Report. While I occasionally do stray over to MSNBC's up and coming coverage, this was always a nice roundup of the day and his All-Star Panel usually acts as an appetizer, as it's just before supper time.

Brit is either an actual conservative or a pretty good actor. I suspect the former. His arguments, as a panelist, on Fox News Sunday, with Juan Williams are priceless (especially when he rolls his eyes, smacks Juan down, or incites him almost to screaming) and I hope he keeps this up as he eases into semi-retirement.

He's one of the few anchors/personalities on that network that I can tolerate and I'll miss hearing this in the evenings:

That's Special Report for this time, please tune us in next time, and in the meantime, more news is on the way— fair, balanced and unafraid.

La Fiesta de Brent Continues

I was out and about today and was in one of those 1982 moods.

I'm sure you experience this regularly yourself, so I don't have to explain.

So on the way out, I threw the Grateful Dead's first stop at the Garden during fall tour that year onto the iPod...for those keeping score at home, that would be September 20th.

Track 7 in the first set was a wonderfully-bluesy Never Trust a Woman, another one of Brent Mydland's tunes.

Since we're celebrating his stuff here in mid/late July, I figured I'd throw that up for all to enjoy.

That's your cue.

Yum Yum...Click Me To Laugh

The Sun Doesn't Shine on the Same Dog's Ass Everyday

But US Rep Charles Rangel (D-NY) has not seen a ray of light all week long.

First, the New York Times blew his cover last week on having four rent-controlled apartments in a nice Harlem building. This situation ranges somewhere between unethical and illegal.

(A story came out today that he's getting rid of the one used for campaign office space.)

This morning, the Washington Post goes after the House icon for soliciting donations for the future academic home of his papers...from businesses with interest in front of his committee!

As usual, the surprise would be if things like this didn't happen, but the timing just seems unfortunate for this sharpest dressed of Congressmen.

Cool Pictures of Hawaiian Volcano

Some crazy surfer dude paddled out into where the Kīlauea volcano is spewing into the ocean. He took some cool pictures and apparently sold them to the New York Post.

The water is 200 degrees in some points. He could practically get tea-bagged out there!

This Had My Toes Tapping Today

...as I worked my way through some actually kind of interesting analysis stuff...

I had on a show from 1991 at the Hollywood Bowl, but here's a close enough cut of Paul Simon, circa early 1990s, performing I Know What I Know.

An Interesting Note on Obama's NAACP Speech Tonight

Barry will be down in Cincinnati tonight speaking to the NAACP, which is having its annual convention down there this year.

(You'll remember that W dissed them in the run-up to the 2000 election after they ran an ad in Texas basically blaming him for the horrific dragging death of James Byrd, but that's another story.)

Anyway, he's giving his speech at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

That name of the venue chosen by the NAACP jumped out at me and, as best I can figure, Duke Energy is somehow related to what used to be known as Duke Power.

"Who cares, Dan?" you ask...

Well, that company was part of the landmark Civil Rights case, Griggs v Duke Power.

Argued in 1970, the Supreme Court ruled against Duke's hiring and placement strategies as it came to race. They ruled that if you are going to use educational achievement or aptitude tests, said measures must be reasonably-related to job performance. Until then, regardless of the intent of the practice, it had been resulting in disparate impact against African-Americans.

This leads to a much longer discussion I might post on here someday (I spent a great deal of time reading and thinking about things like this in a past life up in the frozen tundra), but I wonder if anyone else will make note of this little connection.

Ed Markey...Serious Thinker

John Tesh lookalike, Comrade Ed Markey (D-MA) was speaking to students in the Capitol the other day when he presented the well-thought-out proposition that Black Hawk Down was caused by man-created global warming.

While there's not a lot of serious dispute around the direction and broad implications of climate change, nor the proposition that the odds of a repeat would be diminished were Somalia the land of milk and honey, this kind of lie is pretty disgusting.

It'd be disingenuous of me to post this without acknowledging having read the Chicago Boyz (my new favorite blog) take on this, but let's not pretend that the place was a politically or ecologically stable place to begin with. While it's certainly plausible to argue that global warming could have exacerbated the existing problems, it's like crediting only my 30th cup of coffee today with the slight jitters I feel.

There are plenty of honest arguments to make about climate change without dumbing your arguments to children visiting the Capitol down to the point of outright deception. Markey's smarter than what he said suggests...and that's the problem.

A Little Perez Clip

clipped from perezhilton.com Separated at Birth Filed under: Separated At Birth > Australiastic > Russell Crowe Left: Australian actor Russell Crowe. Right: celebrity chef Mario Batali.

Oh, The Humanity!

The Chicago Sun-Times uncovers the real pain Americans are feeling with the economic downturn.

Really Cool Picture

This is from NASA's astronomy picture of the day...it was taken in Australia in January 2007.

Obviously, you notice the fireworks and then the lightning off in the distance, but in between the two is Comet McNaught. This is actually a composite of three photos.

Best Sports Team/City Name Combination...Ever

The Plain Dealer had an article about former Tribe skipper Mike Hargrove the other day...and his new, lower-key lifestyle, coaching a team in Kansas.

I giggled.

Since It's Going to Be Some Time Before We Have Hurricanes Named Althea, Cassidy, Peggy-O or Jack-a-Roe...

...I'll have to take this cheesy opportunity to post up a Dead-related connection to Hurricane Bertha, which is now down by Bermuda (where I almost made a move for a job onetime...remind me to tell you about that someday).

This is also from that April 1971 Fillmore East run that I've been yakking about a lot here, lately.

One can't help but imagine the Bermudian heads, dancing around, singing, "I am on my bendin' knees. Bertha, don't you come around here anymore. Anymore!"

Enjoy!

Looking Forward to MTP This Morning

Meow.

You're So Old Skool

I'm not linking up the most original thought in the world...I, as well as all three of my loyal readers, knew this before the Rev had his castration fantasy spread all over the news.

But the Chicago Boyz put Jesse Jackson's comments in perspective...

I Don't Know What the *** These ***holes Are Talking About

Guess I should watch it with the pottymouth...according to this blog-scanner...

The Grateful Dead...With The Beach Boys!

In the last week, I've been listening to the last shows at Bill Graham's Fillmore East in New York City in April 1971.

These are some classic shows not only for their historical significance but also because they have some downright scorching long sets.

On April 27, 1971, The Beach Boys joined The Boys for some solo numbers as well as sitting in with them.

I put together the joint renditions of Help Me, Rhonda and Merle Haggard's Okie From Muskogee. There's a little dead air for tuning in these, but stick around and don't leave before the miracle happens! It's really beautiful to hear Jerry's playing behind their pretty vocals.

One of the Good Ones

It was a bummer this morning to wake up and read about Tony Snow going down to colon cancer.

There's no shortage of people who have differences with his politics or association with Fox News, but I always got the impression that he was a true believer in what he was going out and speaking for...a quality that there probably is a shortage of when it comes to national politics.

Some of the Promised Brent...And a Rare Studio Cut

With the wealth of live Dead material out there, it's a sin to post any kind of studio stuff here, but I'm in the mood to act like a heathen tonight.

Here's pretty funny video, set to some old Tom and Jerry cartoons, of the boys performing Far From Me...my favorite Brent work and an A #1 F-U song, as well...

It appeared on the Go To Heaven album and was a staple for all of Brent's time in the band.

Enjoy!


You say you want to try again, wear it down between the lines
Well, I have a better end in mind it doesn't seem to really have you
Close your eyes to see though I know you don't mean to be
You are so far from me

There was something I had caught inside screaming hard to make it go
And tied me down low, it doesn't seem you really have to
Close you eyes to see, you've been all you'll be to me
Though I know you don't mean to be, it's just too late
And we can't relate at all

This is the last time I wanna say so long
This song is my last song for you
There's just nothing here to hold on to
Baby, nothing to hold on to

Jesse Scissorhands

Don't f-ck with this man of God.

He'll cut your balls off!

Later in the show, Ted Baxter left an implied threat out there for the Rev to come on Fox to talk...since they still have more damaging footage that they've not played yet.

This Guy is Running for the Senate in Minnesota

Funny little clip of US Senate candidate, Alan Franken...backstage at a Grateful Dead show on Halloween, 1980 at Radio City Music Hall, interviewing Brent Mydland...a dude I'll be posting more of in the coming weeks as we approach the anniversary of his untimely death.

BTW>> Far From Me and Easy to Love You are the songs Brent wants to play. Those are solo compositions of his...but Franken would rather hear the perennial Grateful Dead favorite, St. Stephen.

Good News on the Doorstep for McCain Campaign?

I've been accurately called out on being a bit heavy in my Obama postings here and light on the McCain stuff.

In my defense, I've found the latter campaign to be just plain boring. The distribution of real estate doesn't necessarily reflect my affinity (or disdain) for either of the candidates.

But...Bill Kristol's column in the Times today started to nudge that door open for my having a reason to pay attention to McCain.

He claims that it's just going to be a short matter of time before McCain invites the crazy Irishman responsible for his 2000 campaign (as well as gubernatorial campaigns of Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney), Mike Murphy, on board.

This would be a welcome change for Team McCain, in my opinion.

Part of the reason I've found him boring is that he appears led-around too much lately. I've not heard much of the candor that attracted me to his 2000 campaign.

As Kristol notes, Murphy is good at 'letting McCain be McCain.'

That can't be any worse than what they're letting him be now.

Time for a New Adjective

While I'm not arguing with the technical accuracy of the word, I'm getting kind of tired of the excessive use of the need for Shermanesque statements on the part of potential Veep candidates.

Ugh.

Viva Espana!

It's been a fantastic week for Spain, as far as the sporting world goes.

Last week, they won the European Football Championship and today, in an epic match that, including rain delays, spanned about 7 hours, Rafael Nadal dethroned Roger Federer, winning at Wimbledon.

While I won't get downright weepy (as commentator John McEnroe did), I will agree with him that it was, perhaps, the best tennis match I'd ever seen. Heck, the damned thing went on until after 9PM, UK Time!

The Spaniard is the first (male) player since the great Bjorn Borg to consecutively win the French Open and Wimbledon titles.

Woo Hoo

Wow, my first tomato of the summer has started to grow on one of the vines.

I thought this plant, in particular, was looking a little bit scrawny, but I guess I was wrong.

Cool to have them coming in already!

Funny FedEx Commercial I Saw During Wimbledon Yesterday

I Kind of Hope He Rots in Hell

While anyone can point to a few positive pieces of legislation Jesse Helms was involved in as well as private acts of benevolence, Jesse Helms often acted in the interest of mean-spirited people and deserves to be remembered as such.

I'm not interested in the death bed conversion to Bono's African causes or his seminal role in the Reagan Revolution because he was an otherwise-vile man and I'm actually kind of glad the earth is done with him.

The only disgusting event left is listening to people still in the spotlight singing his praises.

The New Republic pulls out a few golden oldies about the gratefully dead.

Target Practice for the Chicago Olympics

Chicago's bid for getting the 2016 Olympic Summer Games took a sour turn last night as there was a gun death reported at the annual Taste of Chicago.

It's too bad because Chicago really is a great city and it'd be a hoot to have the Games there. At the risk of making light of the sad violence situation in the City of Broad shoulders, I'm hoping maybe Daley can muster up one of his famous outbursts.

I'm tempted to go off on a gun rant here, but the argument has gotten kind of tiresome for me.

New Hunter S. Thompson Flick Coming Out

Well, I guess this is what I get for not frequenting The Great Thompson Hunt more often...I missed the boat on the upcoming documentary, Gonzo, about Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.

The New York Times reviewed it yesterday and I will have to get up to the Cedar Lee to check it out sometime after it opens here in the rust belt next week.

Just going on the review, it seems that the documentary might fall prey to the trajectory that the Good Doctor's career did...his public image later carried him much more than his earlier literary genius did. In his last 15 years or so, Thompson's writing, in my opinion really fell off and he had to rely on the (partially-fabricated) persona of a drugging, hard-drinking mountain man, rather than the astute observer of American life who many of us fell in love with.

It's a real shame, too. Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail '72 is one of my favorite books of all time. If you can cut through some of his fantastic side stories, it's really the most compelling campaign narrative I've ever read. To pull a McGovern staffer's quote from the review article, it was "the least factual, most accurate account" of the election.

All this said, I'll be sure to check it out. My only hope is that they don't waste time with hanger-on John Cusack, who seems to get his mug in every Thomson post-mortem I come across.

NFA

Here's a wonderful Not Fade Away coming out of Goin' Down the Road, from the Grateful Dead at Alpine Valley, in beautiful East Troy, WI, during summer tour 1989.

Always a favorite...

No Big Surprise

The Times has one of the first mainstream articles I've seen in a while making the argument that Google might share some characteristics with most other companies in the world...they occasionally tick their employees off.

The folks in Mountain View are having some trouble keeping people happy with their on-site day care offerings.

It's nothing terribly shocking, really. But I just thought it was kind of interesting to see some anti-Google editorializing when it came to their HR practices...given the land of milk and honey perception that was allowed to develop over the last few years.

New Word of the Day

Some people will have you believe that the wise person learns a new word a day or something like that.

Here's yours.

Blogounce- v. To make an announcement on a blog, rather than through a tradtional press release/availability.

I found this on John Battelle's searchblog today, in reference to some Google affiliate network changes and thought it was funny. As of now, when I search on the term, I only return results originating with John's posting, so hopefully this word will catch some steam.

This Made My Day

I was cruising the newspapers this morning and, when stopping at the Chicago Sun-Times, came across a banner ad for a place that takes me back...Moo & Oink.

Oh, if I could only get myself down to 71st and Stony Island today.

Now, in fairness, the parentals did not shop at this establishment, but the ads are downright priceless.

In the days since this young boy saw those ads on the Chicago television stations, they've grown quite a bit, even offering an online shop.

While this message will probably show as having been posted around 5AM, no matter when you read it...it's BBQ time!

"24" Star Parted the Ocean for Barack Obama

Dennis Haysbert, who played The Big Cheese on Fox's "24" said the other day that he helped pave the way for America's openness to having a black President like Barack Obama (whom Haysbert has donated 2300 smackers to).

Of course, Dennis is right. TV changes lives and it changes attitudes.

Once we're exposed to an idea, it grows on us and, if presented correctly, can change previously-held misconceptions.

My only question is why more people aren't taking the argument back further and putting the love where it really belongs.

What about Robert Guillaume?

"One of the Quintessential Dews"

That's how the poster on YouTube charactarized this scorching (Walk Me Out in the) Morning Dew, from September 18, 1987 at Madison Square Garden.

I couldn't agree more...Jerry goes out of his mind, and, if you're lucky, maybe you will, too.

Another Wonderful Decision That is Oh-So-Very-Cleveland

So the newspapers are full of articles about how, with rising fuel prices, people are not only opting for more fuel-efficient vehicles, but also opting for public transportation.

It's even happening here in Cleveland.

So what did the GCRTA decide to take its first step towards last night?

Yep, you guessed it...both raising fares and cutting service.

Having spent too much of my life in traffic jams in the San Jose area in the early 2000s, an area that was not able to foresee future needs for public transportation, I can only scratch my head at this decision.

While it's perfectly clear what their situation is today (the RTA budget is currently only funded 20% by fares), this is ridiculously short-sighted on their part.

As one of the posters beneath the article noted (and his slightly incorrect facts notwithstanding), it makes it more expensive for a group of friends near a rapid station to take the train downtown to an event in the evening driving and parking.