Righteous. . .

 . . . and true. . .

(from http://www.npr.org/2012/10/27/163728141/at-93-pete-seeger-keeps-the-fire-burning-low)
". . . Tall and lean, in faded Levi's and corduroy shirt, Pete Seeger still pretty much looks like he did when the young Harvard dropout met the man who helped him find his life's work: Woody Guthrie.

"I was working in Washington, D.C., at the time with Alan Lomax, the folklorist," Seeger says. "And in Alan's house I met Woody, and he found that I could follow him in any song he played. I had a good ear and I stayed in tune, played the right chord, didn't play anything too fancy. So pretty soon, I was tagging along with him."

Seeger says Guthrie taught him not only lots of songs but also how to play in saloons, get paid first, how to ride the rails — carefully — and that no matter the consequences, to stick with your beliefs.

In a spoken-word track on his new Guthrie tribute album, Pete Remembers Woody, Seeger tells the story of Guthrie's famous slogan.

"He went through WWII with a piece of cardboard pasted to the top of his guitar: 'This machine kills fascists,' " Seeger says on the recording. "He really wanted his guitar to help win the war against Hitler. When Woody went into a hospital in 1952 ... I put something similar on my banjo: 'This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.' ". . . "

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Home. . .

. . . is where the heart is. . .

 (from wikipedia.com)
". . . Woodrow Wilson is the only American President to select Washington to be his home following his final term in office. Late in 1920, Woodrow Wilson's second term neared its end, and Mrs. Wilson started to search for an appropriate residence. On December 14, Mr. Wilson insisted that his wife attend a concert and when she returned he presented her with the deed to this S Street house. Built by Henry Parker Fairbanks in 1915, the red brick house of Georgian style was designed by the architect Waddy B. Wood. The Wilsons installed an elevator and a billiard room, constructed a brick garage and placed iron gates at the entrance to the drive. Some partitions were changed and shelves were built for Mr. Wilson's 8000-volume library. Wilson, partially paralyzed from a stroke he suffered in 1919, spent his few remaining years in partial seclusion at the house, under the continuous care of his wife and servants. On February 3, 1924, he died in the upstairs bedroom and was laid to rest in Washington National Cathedral. Mrs. Wilson continued to live in the residence until her death in 1961. Prior to that time, she had donated it and many of the furnishings to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which opened the Woodrow Wilson House to the public in 1963. Included in Mrs. Wilson's gift to the American people are furnishings, portraits, books, autographed photographs of personages identified with events in Wilson's administration, a Gobelin tapestry, commemorative china, and early furniture owned by the Bolling family of Virginia. . . "

. . . and a piano. . .

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Storm. . .

. . . cloud

We're all hunkering down and the news (our beloved media once again) has informed us how much water, toilet paper, batteries, milk, fruit juice, bread and many many more things that would never occur to you to purchase before a storm or for any other reason, for that matter.

What would we do without them.

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Capital. . .

. . . idea

 (from Wikipedia.com)  
". . . In early 1791, President Washington appointed Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant to devise a plan for the new city in an area of land at the center of the federal territory that lay between the northeast shore of the Potomac River and the northwest shore of the Potomac's Eastern Branch. L'Enfant then designed in his "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States..." the city's first layout, a grid centered on the United States Capitol, which would stand at the top of a hill (Jenkins Hill) on a longitude designated as 0:0. The grid filled an area bounded by the Potomac River, the Eastern Branch (now named the Anacostia River), the base of an escarpment at the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line along which a street (initially Boundary Street, now Florida Avenue) would later travel, and Rock Creek.

North-south and east-west streets formed the grid. Wider diagonal "grand avenues" later named after the states of the union crossed the grid. Where these "grand avenues" crossed each other, L'Enfant placed open spaces in circles and plazas that were later named after notable Americans.

L'Enfant's broadest "grand avenue" was a 400 feet (122 m)-wide garden-lined esplanade, which he expected to travel for about 1 mile (1.6 km) along an east-west axis in the center of an area that the National Mall now occupies. A narrower avenue (Pennsylvania Avenue) connected the "Congress house" (the Capitol) with the "President's house" (the White House). In time, Pennsylvania Avenue developed into the capital city's present "grand avenue". . . ."

And for all it's architectural grandeur, significant history, natural beauty and political, governmental and international relevance one cannot help but think that all the shady, greedy, manipulative, unconscionable, corrupt game-playing that takes place there casting a tarnishing pall over all the aforementioned attributes that the city itself does possess.

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Broken

. . . record. . .

 

Mittster says, 
"The president's campaign falls far short of the magnitude of these times. And the presidency of the last four years has fallen far short of the promises of his last campaign," Romney said. "Four years ago, America voted for a post-partisan president, but they have seen the most partisan of political of presidents, and a Washington in gridlock because of it."

Now let's look at this carefully.  Here is a man who was a one-term governor and head of a 'global management consulting firm'  who conveniently espouses positions that appeal to any particular audience to whom he is speaking at any particular time, and running as the Republican party candidate, claiming that the sitting president is the "most partisan of political of presidents"(sic) and has caused gridlock because of it. 

Clearly this man does not live in a factual world.

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Television. . .

. . . and other things

Maybe it's me, but I don't like TV.  Mind you, I think the technology involved is simply mind-blowing and it has developed in technological brilliance exponentially during the past sixty some years.  But despite the glorious three-dimensional, high definition, digital 5.1 surround-sound audio, the quality content that one may very well expect to be delivered through this miraculous invention seems to be about as scarce as snow in July.

Louie C.K. though. . . pretty interesting. 

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So. . .

. . . some people. . .

. . . think that I'm more like them than I really am or that I'd ever hope to lead them to believe.  The victim is preoccupying my creative mind and the Fagen/Becker/Dan-funk spirit abounds.  Ah, but it doesn't quite abide like the Dude, who inspires abidity in anyone and everyone who cares to take part.

Yet the nine-to-fiver in each of us has become too comfortable with the status quo, much like our presidential candidates when it comes to accepting the $upport of the plutocorpocracy and Fishbone plays on-and-on in my surprisingly ignorant-yet-deprived musical mind which is seeking something DIFFERENT!!!??

Different, you say????

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