Unstable . . .

. . . Boehner . . .

Do ya' think? . . .



(from http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/11/21863224-boehner-lashes-out-at-conservative-groups-on-budget-deal?lite)
Republican leaders defended a modest budget deal that would maintain government operations through 2015 amid conservative opposition that could scuttle the legislation in the House.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, lashed out at conservative advocacy groups that have encouraged GOP lawmakers to oppose a budget framework unveiled last night by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

"They're using our members and they're using the American people for their own goals," an animated Boehner told reporters at the Capitol. "This is ridiculous."

Republican House Speaker John Boehner delivers a message to advocacy groups opposing the bipartisan budget framework agreement that was reached this week.

Ryan and Murray, the top budget officials in their respective chambers, announced an agreement that would set baseline spending levels for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years. The agreement calls for spending levels slightly above the cap established by the automatic spending cuts known as the "sequester" through a combination of reforms, cuts and new, non-tax revenue.

Conservative groups had been girding themselves against the deal before its details were finalized, mostly because the spending levels exceed sequester levels. The Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity and Heritage Action -- each of them well-financed conservative advocacy groups that hold some sway over Republican primary voters -- have begun lobbying furiously against the modest government funding agreement.

"By having a budget agreement that does not raise taxes, that does reduce the deficit and produces some certainty and prevents government shutdowns -- we think is a good agreement," Ryan, the architect of the budget agreement, said after a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans.
Of the package's prospects for passage, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee added: "We feel very good at where we are with our members."

Chuck Todd reports on the budget deal presented by Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray.

The Republican leadership's struggle to manage its restive conservative flank is a familiar storyline to any observer of Congress over the past three years.

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Cash . . .

(from http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/legal-and-management/5820021/lost-johnny-cash-album-out-next-spring)
There's new never-before-heard music coming from Johnny Cash. Cash's estate is releasing "Out Among the Stars," an album he recorded with Billy Sherrill in the early 1980s that was never released by Columbia Records, then disappeared when the company dropped Cash in 1986. Turns out Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, stashed the tapes - along with just about everything else that came into their possession. . .

. . . Columbia paired him with Sherrill, a producer and Country Music Hall of Fame member who was then the president of CBS Records Nashville. One of the main architects of country music's so-called countrypolitan sound, Sherrill helped push the genre toward pop sounds and conventions - and away from Cash's more independent-minded ways.

The pairing came at a time when Cash was at a low ebb in his popularity. The music on "Out Among the Stars" is taken from 1981 and `84 sessions, at a time when country music was going through great change.

It was clear record company executives didn't think much of the outcome. They put out a few more Cash albums after the recordings were made, but never used the music from those sessions before dropping him. Sherrill backed Cash with a band that consisted of fellow Country Hall of Fame member Hargus "Pig" Robbins and a young friend of Cash's named Marty Stuart. . .

. . . [It] was recorded during some of the most difficult years of Cash's life. He felt like he'd lost his legacy and he was still dealing with the fallout from personal problems including infidelity and drug addiction.

He soon met producer Rick Rubin, though, and wrote a coda to his career that gave his life something of a mythic quality.

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Working . . .

. . . at our passion. . .

. . . MUSIC!!. . .


The Ditty is progressing nicely, thank you.  And working with the fine gentlemen of OHO continues to be technically, creatively and personally enriching for me.  Jay, David (and Bill of The Bratt Studio) possess the focus of a mother eagle on its prey and exhibited rare and precious mettle in the task at hand . . . nurturing The Ocean City Ditty (by Jay Graboski) to a snappy and rocking maturity.
Coming along well, don't you think? . . .


O - C - E - A - N   C - I - T-Y   
O - C - E - A - N   C - I - T-Y
On your mark get set
Disconnect that internet
Every girl and boy
Breathing in the joy
Not a care at last
Sit outside and bask
In rays of summer's bliss 

Crabs and fish and shells
Feel your tension spell
Fries and pizza pie
Smiles won't be denied
Everything is cool
in 2 1 8 4 2
Feel the sparkle in your eyes

Catch a wave and ride
Cars and motorbikes
Bikini babes in the sand
Vibin' to rockin' bands
Ocean City

From Memorial to Labor Day
We beckon you to play
To a boardwalk beat
Miles and miles of beach
Your memories to take
Currents dance and sway
leave your footprints in the sand

Fireworks at night
Give your love a kiss
Sail and fish the sea
Here life is a beach
in Ocean City

Now is the time that's right
For you only live once
Time does drag when it's all work and no fun
The ocean gateway calls you
Sport your shorts and shades
It's so divine to dine at life's buffet
It's almost heaven and
There's so much more we can say

Catch a wave and ride
Cool cars and motorbikes
Bikinis on the sand
Dance to rockin' bands
Ocean City


Ocean City Ditty
written by John P. Graboski






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The Last . . .

. . . person to give credit to the current U.S. Senate, would be ME . . .

. . . but . . .

Signs of progress began to emerge in U.S. budget talks on last Tuesday, as top Senate Democratic negotiator Patty Murray said that she sees a path toward an agreement to ease automatic "sequester" spending cuts.

Murray, asked if there was now a path forward in her talks with her counterpart, Republican Representative Paul Ryan, said: "I believe there is."

The lawmakers are racing against a December 13 deadline for a deal, as Republican resistance to including new tax revenues continued to be a sticking point, according to a Democrat on the negotiating committee headed by Murray and Ryan.

House and Senate negotiators were putting the finishing touches Sunday on what would be the first successful budget accord since 2011, when the battle over a soaring national debt first paralyzed Washington.

The deal expected to be sealed this week on Capitol Hill would not significantly reduce the debt, now $17.3 trillion and rising. It would not close corporate tax loopholes or reform expensive health-care and retirement programs. It would not even fully replace sharp spending cuts known as the sequester, the negotiators’ primary target.
(thanks to Reuters and the Washington Post)

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Why . . .

. . . Christmas? . . .

. . . Why not ALWAYS . . .



Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.
-Oren Arnold

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Stuff . . .

(http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/5812320/gene-kellys-singin-in-the-rain-suit-up-for-sale)
A memorabilia collector is selling the gray wool suit Gene Kelly wore as he joyously danced in a downpour in the Hollywood musical "Singin' in the Rain."

The suit is expected to sell for more than $20,000 when Heritage Auctions offers it up Friday in Dallas. Memorabilia collector Gerry Sola has had the suit for more than four decades after buying it for $10 at a 1970 sale of MGM props and wardrobe items following the sale of the studio to financier Kirk Kerkorian.

"I think it's one of these pieces that people are really excited to see go up on the block," said Margaret Barrett, director of the entertainment and music memorabilia department at Heritage Auctions. "Even if you've never seen this movie, you probably know the scene. You've seen Gene Kelly dancing around, singing in the rain, swinging on that lamp post."



(from http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylans-newport-guitar-sells-for-nearly-a-million-bucks-20131206#ixzz2n4N8FrP3)
Epic rock memorabilia brings epic money: Bob Dylan's sunburst Fender Stratocaster, first unsheathed at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, sold at auction for a record-breaking $965,000 on Friday, according to the Associated Press.

Dropping nearly a cool million on an axe might seem excessive, but this guitar is one of the most iconic instruments in music history. Dylan's three-song Newport performance is the stuff of legend: Many folk diehards booed the set, viewing the switch to amplified rock as a sell-out (and labeling Dylan a traitor to the folk movement).

Despite the historical importance of the instrument, Christie's auction house wasn't expecting such a massive price: pre-auction estimates for the guitar (which also included the original leather strap and hardshell case) were between $300,000 and $500,000. Within the case itself was another hidden gem: early-draft lyrics to three Dylan tunes ("Absolutely Sweet Marie," "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and two others). Those pieces were estimated between $3,000 and $30,000 by the auction house.

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Brew . . .

(from www.wikipedia.com)
". . . Recording sessions took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio over the course of three days in August 1969. [Miles]Davis called the musicians to the recording studio on very short notice. A few pieces on Bitches Brew were rehearsed before the recording sessions, but at other times the musicians had little or no idea what they were to record. Once in the recording studio, the players were typically given only a few instructions: a tempo count, a few chords or a hint of melody, and suggestions as to mood or tone. Davis liked to work this way; he thought it forced musicians to pay close attention to one another, to their own performances, or to Davis's cues, which could change at any moment. On the quieter moments of "Bitches Brew", for example, Davis's voice is audible, giving instructions to the musicians: snapping his fingers to indicate tempo, or, in his distinctive whisper, saying, "Keep it tight" or telling individuals when to solo.

Davis composed most of the music on the album. The two important exceptions were the complex "Pharaoh's Dance" (composed by Joe Zawinul) and the ballad "Sanctuary" (composed by Wayne Shorter). The latter had been recorded as a fairly straightforward ballad early in 1968, but was given a radically different interpretation on Bitches Brew. It begins with Davis and Chick Corea improvising on the standard "I Fall in Love too Easily" before Davis plays the "Sanctuary" theme. Then, not unlike Davis's recording of Shorter's "Nefertiti" two years earlier, the horns repeat the melody over and over while the rhythm section builds up the intensity. The issued "Sanctuary" is actually two consecutive takes of the piece.

Despite his reputation as a "cool", melodic improviser, much of Davis's playing on this album is aggressive and explosive, often playing fast runs and venturing into the upper register of the trumpet. His closing solo on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" is particularly noteworthy in this regard. Davis did not perform on the short piece "John McLaughlin". . . "

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