. . . from Bertrand Russell confronted me today. . .
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always
so certain of themselves, but wiser men so full of doubts.”
. . . which really struck me. In the past twenty-some years that I have been writing and attempting to market (in some form or fashion) original material, it occurred to me that this is exactly what stopped me from starting this process much, much earlier. So after reading this Russell gem, I believe that it was actually not insecurity that prevented me from jumping head first into a musical pursuit, it was actually wisdom.
But to take this another step, I always felt that wisdom comes with age, simply because the longer one lives, the more experience he attains by virtue of mere longevity. But if what Russell says is true, my late-found self-confident could be nothing more than foolishness.
. . . or could there be a happy middle-ground in there somewhere?
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. . . from the "Is This Really News???" department. . .
(from the Associated Press)
". . . Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman hung out Thursday with North Korea's Kim
Jong Un on the third day of his improbable journey with VICE to
Pyongyang, watching the Harlem Globetrotters with the leader and later
dining on sushi and drinking with him at his palace. "You have a
friend for life," Rodman told Kim before a crowd of thousands at a
gymnasium where they sat side by side, chatting as they watched players
from North Korea and the U.S. play, Alex Detrick, a spokesman for the
New York-based VICE media company, told The Associated Press. . . "
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Just look at the morning paper
And tell me what you see
Is something very wrong
Or maybe my eyes deceive me
Somewhere in the local section
A buried paragraph
Someone who had the time to care
And the character to act
The higher the highs
The lower the lows
The older I get
That's the way that it goes
The more that I think that I want
The less that I need
Because I realize how precious
And how short
This time with you may be
When you're young and your biggest worry's
What game you want to play
Such innocence is just surpassed
By the naivete
Take good with the worst
And better
You know they're not the same
Youth somehow brings them all together
Different they are
But subtle the shades
The higher the highs
The lower the lows
The older I get
That's the way that it goes
The more that I think that I want
The less that I need
Because I realize how precious
And how short
This time with you may be
Youth really
Is only wasted
If never
You've tasted
All the bitter
As well as sweet
I hope you don't misunderstand me
Or what I want to say
It's nothing revolutionary
Ignorance won't make this go away
Nobody likes a busybody
Nobody knows it all
There's one thing I can tell you certain
Take none for granted
Short or the tall
The higher the highs
The lower the lows
The older I get
That's the way that it goes
The more that I think that I want
The less that I need
Because I realize how precious
And how short
This time with you may be
During our semi-regular and all-too-frequent dinner-time discussions regarding our government, political parties, facts and the lack thereof, the tendency of the general population to latch onto the emotional aspect of an issue and cling to it like a dog with a bone to the detriment of the general population resulting in polarization and inaction, we inexplicably found ourselves discussing Radiohead. Logical, right?!
These primarily political discussions generally result in Russell or myself getting particularly boisterous, always a result of passion since we are always both sitting firmly on the same side of the issue.
But Radiohead!? Really???
Now talking about polarization, my perception is that one either loves or hates Radiohead, while Radiohead commands a large and fiercely loyal audience and for that I certainly give credit well deserved. My issue with Radiohead is strictly subjective, as matters of taste most certainly are, in that I find my scant experience with Radiohead takes me back to the 80s, a musical period that I perceive to be chock-full of heavy reverbed, emotional English crooners belting dirge-like, string-heavy and unintelligible ballads which I find neither intellectually challenging nor emotionally satisfying.
I'm just saying. . .
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(from http://abclocal.go.com/)
". . . Neil Heslin, a 50-year-old construction worker who said he grew up with guns and had been teaching his son, Jesse, about them. "I'm here because of my son.". . . Heslin said he supports sportsmen and the Second Amendment right for citizens to have firearms. But he said that amendment was written centuries before weapons as deadly as assault weapons were invented. . . ."
(from wikianswers.com)
". . . When were assault rifles first made?
Depending on the meaning of "assault rifle" they might have been made as early as the second world war. The Browning Automatic Rifle, or "BAR" fired a large caliber cartridge at a pretty rapid rate, but it was a very heavy weapon, and was assigned to the "weapons squad" in an infantry platoon. Later in the decade, a much lighter 45cal machine gun with an open metal stock was issued to the troops. It fired huge cartridges at a rate of about six rounds per second, making a noise that gave its name, the "burp gun." There were earlier rapid firing machine guns used in the first world war and as early as the late 19th century such as the "gatling gun," but none were anything that one man could carry onto the battlefield and fire "from the hip" or from the shoulder for that matter. . . "
(from http://brainshavings.com/the-right-to-keep-and-bear-what/)
". . . So does our Constitution recognize your neighbor’s right to park a brand new M-1 Abrams main battle tank in his driveway? Should we permit gun shops to hold tent sales offering great low prices on military-grade flamethrowers and nerve-gas-tipped artillery shells? Must the U.S. Government allow you to carry a “suitcase nuke” to avoid violating your fundamental Constitutional rights, even if you might trip while carrying it and level a city block? . . ."
(from http://columbiaacs.blogspot.com/2007/11/right-to-bear-ye-olde-arms.html)
". . . The Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms as such arms existed at the ratification.
Arms in 1791
Let's look at arms – specifically, guns – as they existed at the time of the ratification.
Guns in 1791 WOULD
...be made by a gunsmith.
...have rudimentary rifling.
...be single-shot weapons.
...be loaded through the muzzle.
...fire by means of a flintlock.
Guns in 1791 WOULD NOT
...have interchangeable parts. (Popularized in 1798)
...be revolvers. (Invented in 1835)
...be breachloaded. (Popularized in 1810)
...use smokeless powder. (Invented in 1885)
...use a percussion cap, necessary for modern cartridged bullets. (Invented in 1842)
...load bullets from a clip. (Invented in 1890)
Courts can't wish the Second Amendment away, but they can construe it in a manner that works in today's society. . ."
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. . . yourself as a victim
When you should take
The bull by the horns
Don’t let it happen
Don’t let it happen to you
The situation’s well
Within your control
Your grip’s more firm
Than you thought it would be
You’ve got to grab it
You’ve got to grab it like the
Big brass ring
Big brass ring
Drama comes nat’rally to you
When you lose control
Drama comes nat’rally to you
When you lose control
It isn’t necessarily
Required to happen
Cards may seem stacked
But you still can overcome
With a commitment
You’ve got to mean what you say
What benefit to you enjoy
From all these actions
Do you derive
Some pleasure
From your place
Beneath that Cuban heel
So far below that lofty
Big brass ring
Big brass ring
You favor being far below the underdog
To hold distinct advantage in the game
But do you comprehend the gravity at hand
Any integrity you may possess is
Well hidden from view
It’s up to you
How it will be into the future
No matter what has taken
Place back in the past
Yes you can do it
It’s no impossible task
You can be sure though
That it’s never gonna happen
‘Til you wake up
And see the
Spotlight isn’t always
Meant for you
But you can always catch the
Big brass ring
Big brass ring
The captain (Beefheart, that is), was indeed a talented individual. He was creative, eccentric and daring. But genius is a very strong word. . .
ge·nius
noun \ˈjēn-yəs, ˈjē-nē-əs\
1 [count] a : a very smart or talented person : a person who has a level of talent or intelligence that is very rare or remarkable
▪ Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton were great scientific geniuses. ▪ a musical/artistic/creative genius ▪ You don't have to be a genius to see that this plan will never work.
b : a person who is very good at doing something
▪ He was a genius at handling the press.
(by By Rob Chalfen from http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2010/12/captain_beefheart_facts.php)[excerpted and inverted by me]
". . . 1. his 1970 & 1982 music videos, both rejected by tv as too far out, are both in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art.
2. In 1976 I interviewed Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys, who very enthusiastically claimed Don as a key influence. "A case of the punks!"
3. Zappa helped jumpstart his career, incorporating him into his touring ensemble, though complained Beefheart couldn't cut the arrangements. Several of Zappa's sidemen later defected to the Magic Band.
4. in the mid 70s he wandered in an aesthetic wilderness - his label dropped him, he fell in with some sharp operators connected with the band Bread (!) and tried to record 'safe' pop. His Magic band left him, and he toured with a pick up group. One older cat Ellis Horn had played clarinet with Lu Waters Jazz Band in the 40s and had a feature playing 'Sweet Georgia Brown" on an old albert-style clarinet, upturned at the bell. "He sucked up a cosmic particle into his horn," opined Don.
5. opening acts, in Boston at any rate, included Mississippi Fred McDowell, the NY Dolls, Larry Coryell, Bonnie Raitt/Dave Maxwell, Dr. John & a trained monkey vaudeville act. "Did you like the Dolls? Oh, balls!"
6. Zappa produced the Magic Band's masterpiece, Trout Mask Replica, in 1969, initially as a sort of Folkways-type anthropological field recording at the band's commune. Later Don insisted that it all be re-recorded in the studio, convinced that Zappa had been trying to do it on the cheap. (some of the home tapes made it onto the record anyway) . In the studio, he refused to wear phones, syncing his vocals with the band only via the faint leakage through the thick plate glass.
7. he composed implausibly complex solo guitar pieces like modern acid madrigals.
8. ran his band as a sort of hothouse commune/cult of domineering personality, one veteran later describing the experience as "my Vietnam". He communicated musical ideas via cassettes of his piano playing, singing and late night whistlings over the phone. The musicians were then expected to transcribe these fragments verbatim, and assemble them perfectly into intricate 4-dimensional musical constructions.
9. claimed shamanistic & supernatural abilities; on one occasion the drummer in my band, following around Don & Dr John, witnessed the glass panes of a hotel lobby mysteriously turn opaque as they passed. He was a life-long defender of the rights of animals & wildlife.
10. in the late 60s fused delta blues, beat poetics, Dada/Surrealist techniques, avant jazz, R&B & the kitchen sink into a metaphysics of the imagination that tore a giant hole in the ozone of pop-artistic possibility. Like an American Van Gogh he seemed to open up new landscapes of consciousness as much as of music. . . "
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