Fishbone. . .

(from wikipedia.com)
Fishbone is a U.S. alternative rock band formed in 1979 in Los Angeles, California, which plays a fusion of ska, punk rock, funk, hard rock and soul. Critics have noted of the band: "Fishbone was one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s. With their hyperactive, self-conscious diversity, goofy sense of humor, and sharp social commentary, the group gained a sizable cult following during the late '80s, yet they were never able to earn a mainstream audience."

Fishbone first assembled in 1979 with John Norwood Fisher (bass); his brother Phillip "Fish" Fisher (drums); Angelo Moore, who sometimes uses the stage name "Dr. Madd Vibe" (vocals, saxophones ranging from sopranino to bass, theremin); Kendall Jones (guitar); "Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II (vocals, trumpet); and Christopher Dowd, who sometimes uses the pseudonym "Charlie Down" (keyboards, trombone, vocals). Founding members John Norwood Fisher, Angelo Moore, and Walter Kibby remain with the band as of 2013.

Fishbone got started in 1979 as a "disparate, all-black oddball crew" when the members were in junior high school. The Fisher brothers, Jones, Dowd, and Kibby were all from South Central Los Angeles. and were included in a school busing program that sent them daily to the San Fernando Valley, where they met Moore, who was native to the area. After first using the name Megatron with Titus Norris on vocals, the sextet adopted the name Fishbone and formed a unique stew of different styles that became popular in the Los Angeles club scene and was a great influence on several subsequent alternative bands.[citation needed] They were close friends with Los Angeles bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Thelonious Monster. Fishbone were signed to Columbia Records in 1983 after being spotted at a club gig by producer David Kahne. Their first release was the 1985 single "Party at Ground Zero", followed by a self-titled EP, Fishbone. In 1987, in support of their first full-length album, In Your Face, the band performed "Jamaica Ska" in the Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon reunion movie Back to the Beach. Fishbone's first major international tour was as the opening act for the Beastie Boys.

Fishbone was mostly considered to be a ska and funk band in their early years, but later became more guitar-driven with a focus on rock and soul music. The 1988 album Truth and Soul brought Fishbone wide critical acclaim. With this album, the band also added left-leaning social commentary to their lyrics, covering important topics such as the breakup of families, early 1990s racism, fascism, nuclear war, and oppression in lower income housing projects. The album was highlighted by a hard rock-inspired version of Curtis Mayfield's classic "Freddie's Dead" from the film Super Fly. The music video, directed by Douglas Gayeton, became the band's first hit on MTV. That same year, the group toured with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and became nationally known in the burgeoning alternative music scene. Also that year, Fishbone and Little Richard recorded the Lead Belly song "Rock Island Line" for the tribute album Folkways: A Vision Shared.

The band added former Miles Davis sideman John Bigham on guitar and keyboards in 1989. The 1991 album The Reality of My Surroundings was a critical and commercial success, reaching #49 on the Billboard albums chart. One month before the album's release, the group played a memorable performance on Saturday Night Live of "Sunless Saturday," a song which later featured an MTV video directed by Spike Lee. The song "Everyday Sunshine" also became a modest hit on radio and MTV.

While the band retained their roots in funk and ska, the 1993 album Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear He's the Center of the Universe included songs with hard rock, punk, and heavy metal elements. At the time of the album's release, the band began to tear apart internally. Just before Fishbone joined the 1993 Lollapalooza tour, guitarist Kendall Jones, reportedly suffering from mental instability, quit the band and joined a religious group. Bassist John Norwood Fisher tracked Jones down in the belief that he needed rescue from the religious group, only to be charged with attempted kidnapping; Fisher was acquitted at trial. A benefit concert to help with Fisher's legal expenses featured Porno for Pyros, Primus, Tool, and Alice in Chains. Keyboardist Christopher Dowd left Fishbone in 1994 and released an album titled Puzzle in 1997 under the name The Seedy Arkhestra, with various guests including Jeff Buckley and N'Dea Davenport. The album included an anti-Fishbone song called "Flog Your Dead Horse."

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Quote. . .

. . . 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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More. . .

. . . 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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Highs. . .

. . . and Lows. . .

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


Highs & Lows
©2000 Raymond M. Jozwiak




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Connection. . .

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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Thinking . . .

. . . 'bout things. . . 

 

(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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Why. . .

. . . do you always paint. . .

. . . 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


Victim
©2013 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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