(from Thomas Jefferson; The Art of Power by Jon Meacham)
". . . He had defined an ideal in the declaration (of Independence), using words to transform principle into policy, and he and lived with the reality of managing both a war and a fledgling government. A politician's task was to bring reality and policy into the greatest possible. accord with the ideal and the principled. . ."
(from The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, translation by John E. Woods)
". . . James (in the course of the meal) had asked him out of the blue what happened, exactly, when a body decayed - . . . "First of all, your guts burst," the director replied, propping his elbows on the table and leaning forward over his folded hands. "There you are lying on your wood shavings and sawdust, and the gases, you see, swell you up, blow you up until you're immense, the way frogs look when naughty boys blow air into them, until you're a regular balloon, and then your abdomen can no longer take the pressure and bursts. Bang! You relieve yourself noticeably -- the same thing happens to you that happened to Judas Iscariot when he fell headlong from the bough -- your bowels gush out. Yes, and after that you're actually socially acceptable again. If granted a holiday, you could visit your heirs without causing much offense. You stink yourself out, so to speak. And if you were to go for a stroll, you'd be quite a fine fellow, much like the citizens of Palermo who are hung up in the Capuchin catacombs near the Porta Nuova. There they hang dry and elegant, enjoying universal respect. All you have to do first is stink yourself out."
"To be sure," the consul said. "Much obliged." And the next morning he vanished. . . "
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods)
". . . he (Dr. Behrens, Director of the Bergdorf Sanatorium) could simultaneously listen to a patient's interior, talk about something else, and dictate what he had heard to his assistant. . . "Yes, yes, gentlemen, the damn libido," he said. "The whole affair is great sport for you, of course - it doesn't matter to you. Vesicular. But the direcdtor of a sanatorium gets a noseful, believe you - muffled -believe you me. Can I help it if phthisis is accompanied by increased concupiscence? Slight roughness? I didn't arrange things this way, but before you know what's happened you're running a cathouse. Diminished under the left shoulder. We provide analysis, a chance to talk things out - and a hell of a lot of good it does. The more the rhonchial pack talks things out the more lecherous they become. I advocate mathematics. Better here, the old sound is gone. Keeping oneself occupied with mathematics, I say, is the best medicine for cupidity. Prosecutor Paravant, who was severely afflicted, threw himself into math - he's busy squaring the circle these days and it has greatly eased his problem. But most of them are too full-witted or too lazy for that, God help them. Vesicular. You see, I'm quite aware that young folks go to the dogs all too easily here, and I used to attempt to take occasional measure against their debauchery. But then one day some lad or lover looked me straight in the eye and asked what business it was of mine. And since then I've been only a doctor. Weak rattling, top right.". . . "
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
My early education in Zappa took a great leap the first time I heard this song (and the LP Just Another Band from LA). Yes, it resembles in some ways what could be a high schooler's vulgar musical project and as Frank says himself in this version, many of the jokes are strictly from LA local culture of the period. But now (and maybe for different reasons than in 1972 and those sentimental as well as musical) it still has much musical, lyrical and humorous merit.
Well anyway. . . if you have 40 minutes to spare, our good friends at YouTube bring you this performance of Billy the Mountain . . .
[And yes, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (aka Flo and Eddie) and aka The Turtles perform the lion's share of this piece.]
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
(source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/pop-tart-gun-bill_n_2852472.html)
7-year-old Josh Welch was suspended from his Maryland school for two days for eating a toaster pastry as below:
"It was already a rectangle and I just kept on biting it and biting it and tore off the top and it kinda looked like a gun but it wasn't," Welch told Baltimore Fox station WBFF. "All I was trying to do was turn it into a mountain but, it didn't look like a mountain really and it turned out to be a gun kinda."
A Maryland lawmaker, who is among those who think that Park Elementary School may have doled out too harsh a punishment, has now introduced a bill to stop students who chew Pop-Tarts, or other not-ordinarily-dangerous materials, into the shape of a gun -- or who merely hold their fingers into the shape of a gun -- from being suspended again.
Senate Bill 1058 -- "The Reasonable School Discipline Act of 2013" -- has been given an alternative moniker by conservative website The Daily Caller: the "Toaster Pastry Gun Freedom Act".
Sen. J. B. Jennings, a Republican representing Baltimore and Hartford counties, introduced this legislation to prohibit students from being suspended for "mak[ing] a hand shape or gesture resembling a gun" -- the bill would also stop principals from expelling students who bring to school "any other object that resembles a gun but serves another purpose."
(source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/glen-burnie/bs-md-nra-gun-pastry-20130529,0,1321969.story)
At a fundraiser for Anne Arundel County Republicans, House Minority Leader Nicholaus R. Kipke presented Josh Welch with the membership, which cost $550, during a tongue-in-cheek presentation that involved a Pop-Tart fashioned into pistol and gun safety tips.
Josh said he didn't know what the NRA was or what it meant to have a membership, but chimed in when his parents were asked whether anyone else in his family belonged to the NRA. "Nope, only me," he said.
He also said: "Everyone keeps asking me why I did it," Josh said. "I don't know why I did it. ... I wish people would stop asking me about it. It'll probably go on for 45 years or something."
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