Almost A Rock Star

Aw man! Justin Wells got my slot for The Last Waltz doing "Mannish Boy". Justin is a monster, he is indeed more worthy. #AlmostARockStar

So once or twice a month after playing at O'Neill's on Wednesday night, I go into Lynagh's, where the Old Farts Blues Jam played for several years, and do 4-5 songs solo at their open mic. A couple of months ago, I was talking to Tim the bartender/drummer & vocalist about Levon Helm's recent (fabulous) work. Tim sez, "I get to channel Levon soon, at The Last Waltz recreation." Local musicians have been, for the last 6 years, around Thanksgiving, staging a recreation of The Band's Last Waltz, with different musicians taking the place of the all-star cast of the original Last Waltz.

Then Tim sez, "We try to get different people every year, you should do the Muddy Waters "Mannish Boy" number. Check back in November."

Hell yeah! So I was in there last week, and he tells me, he thinks they could use me. He took my number and told me he'd call me Friday after meeting with the organizers.

So no call came in, I went in there tonight. Turns out the posters were already printed, and Justin Wells is doing the Muddy Waters. Aw, so close.

Justin is the lead singer and guitar player for Fifth on the Floor, a very good local band who had a very successful regional tour earlier this year. I played behind Justin once at Lynagh's, playing lead fills on the Strat and singing harmony behind his flattop and lead vocals. He is a good guy, a real performing personality, and a great musician. He's a big guy, well over 6 ft, with the long haired and bearded mountain man look going on. His stage presence is totally kick-ass, he is way more worthy. Still, I would have loved to have played Buster's once. It is a really nice venue. probably Lexington's best music club.

Tim offered to put me on the sitting-in list, I declined, I'll hang out with my baby instead. He said, maybe next year I would have another shot, and could maybe do "Further On Up The Road", which was one of the first songs I started doing in my musical career revival. I also do "Who Do You Love" and "Up On Cripple Creek" from The Last Waltz.

Ha ha. It's fun for me, at my age, just go get to know and play with some of the good and great young musicians in Lexington. A rock star gig at Buster's would be completely icing on the cake.

The First Junco of Winter

Cleaned and refilled my safflower seed feeder at the back of the yard yesterday. Scattered some safflower below the feeders and on both patios for the juncos. They only like to feed from the ground.

Within an hour, there was a junco in the crabapple tree by the lower patio checking it out. But I didn't see him eat any. Normally they are in flocks of at least a half dozen birds. Maybe he was an advance scout.

Don't seem to see to many birds lately. The goldfinches are there year round, and the crazy male cardinal is still rattling my screen and trying to get at the ficus in my office. The people two doors down the street who had several cats moved recently, maybe that will help the bird numbers.

The Cooper's hawk is still around as well. I haven't seen her in my yard lately, but I've seen her around the neighborhood.

Yeouch

Thursday night I'm walking my dog Dexter. Just taking our 6 o'clock stroll around the block (Lyon Dr and Ft. Harrod). There's a rabbit in the back yard but he doesn't see it -- he is at this point pretty oblivious to critters unless they trip his motion detectors. So we're out front on the sidewalk, he's running, running, running in the easement -- blam! Right into the next door neighbor's brick mailbox. Yeouch! You could hear the thunk. But, he must have a pretty thick skull, he just kept on going.

I guess I'll have to add that to my list of stuff you got to watch.

The Kingfish

So watched an Austin City Limits that was 100% Randy Newman, solo at the piano. That got me thinking of his song "Kingfish", which was recently covered by Levon Helm on his excellent album "Electric Dirt". I love the lines:

Who took on the Standard Oil men and whipped their ass,
Just like he promised he'd do?
Ain't no Standard Oil men gonna run this state,
Gonna be run by little folks like me and you.

Kind of reminiscent of what Occupy Wall Street (#OWS) is all about, isn't it? Here in Kentucky, we could substitute "Massey Energy" for "Standard Oil".

So I looked up Huey Long, aka The Kingfish on Wikipedia. All in all, sounds like we could use him today.

He was a populist. His motto was "Every Man a King". I think his speaking style drew comparisons to Hitler, but his song is pretty damn catchy.

I like this one too. It reminds me of my wondering, how much do the ultra-rich really want? (Answer, all of it.)

Huey Long was a demagogue, which I thought pretty much meant "rabble-rouser". But here's the definition from google. Note particularly the second, older meaning:

1. A political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.
   
2. (in ancient Greece and Rome) A leader or orator who espoused the cause of the common people.
   

So I wonder how long it took the old lizards to get "espousing the cause of the common people" redefined to be "rather than by using rational argument". Nice trick, that.

I think my impression of Huey Long from growing up was that he was tyrannical and dictatorial. I probably got that from seeing the movie "All the King's Men", with Broderick Crawford as the Huey Long inspired central character. But from the wikipedia article, it looks like FDR did a lot to portray Huey in that light when Huey decided to run against him.

Right now, I think the rabble are pretty much roused already. So the question is, can OWS harness that energy, that righteous anger at the appropriation of our democracy by big money and big business, via the internet and social media, to get some real change accomplished here? Or will it take someone like Huey?

Maybe in a second term, Obama could push for the things we need to fix this, like real campaign finance reform and a much fairer tax structure. But, even tho Barack is my BFF, from what we've seen so far, I doubt it.

Generative Grammars

So basically, all human languages are generative -- which means, there is no limit to the complexity of the statements that can be constructed. For example:

I saw the boy with the telescope who was watching the girl with the binoculars who was watching ... "

And, basically, this made our brains get big, but it is not hard tech.

I have written an interpreter and a compiler with a corresponding pcode machine, both of which are still in production and generating $millions of income. Both of them, it is so cool, when someone gives you logic 10s of times more complex than any you ever imagined, 100s of parentheses, and it just keeps pushing it up onto the stack, and then, it just works!

Not the Sharpest ..

I have been working full-time out of my home office since late June. The whole time there has been a very sporadic rattling of the screen in the window behind me. That window has a large burning bush in front of it. I assumed it was the wind blowing the burning bush against the screen -- although there would also sometimes be a bird chirping to accompany the rattling.

Inside that window in my office is the ficus that was originally given to me as a winter solstice present by my employees at Renlar, so sometime before 1995.

So a few days ago I finally looked around during the rattling and there is a male cardinal hanging on the screen. He looks like he really wants to get to that ficus -- not sure why. But he's been trying for 5 months now ?!?!?

Wind Advisory

From mid-morning to mid-afternoon. So didn't bike far. Out Keene Rd to Keene, back via 169 to 1967 to Military Pike and Parkers Mill. 22.1 miles, 1h40m, top speed 30.0 mph.

He Would Have Kicked Its Ass

Holy crap! Got home, turned on the back lights, let Dexter out. Looked out and saw ... a full grown possum 10 ft from the door. Got between them and ran the possum off into the bushes, thought Dexter was following me in, then into the bushes he goes! Possum got him on the nose. Finally got Dexter corralled and carried him in. Put some neosporin on Dexter's nose.

The last thing I need is my 16 YO dog fighting a possum -- although he has done some serious possum ass-kicking in his younger days. Phew -- thump, thump, thump. Definitely more excitement than I was expecting.

Borealis Maximus

So actually got some new yellow on my biking maps, and went the farthest north I have been. I took the Heritage Trail to Ironworks Pike, then east to Newtown Pike and north another 3-4 miles. Left (west) on Lemons Mill Rd. The northern maximum came at the intersection of Lemons Mill Rd and Lisle Rd (KY 1962 and 1963). Took Lisle back south to Georgetown Rd, then Ironworks to Yarnallton to Elkchester. 3h21m, 40.5 miles, top speed 31.5 mph.

The Heritage Trail is definitely one of the flattest routes I take around here. At the one hour mark I was just about to Ironworks Work and I had done 14.5 miles -- considerably above the 12-13 mph I normally average. Of course, I always get slower and slower the longer I ride.

Last week I spooked a female deer off the side of the road. This week I spooked a 6-point buck, just off Citation Blvd.

Music In

I feel like I've been doing better keeping up here -- except maybe for music in. Still need to figure out how to keep it from being quite so boring. Anyways, here's the Music In for August and September.

• "Cruisin with Ruben and the Jets", Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (1968). One of the guys I play music with started talking about this, I offered to burn it for him. Turned out I didn't have it, and it's not available in MP3 form. So, I got out the vinyl and used the USB turntable my kids got me a few years ago. It worked a lot easier than the first time I tried, and the quality was surprisingly good. The Mothers basically created an alter ego and recorded an album of doo-wop songs. Great fun, 4 stars.

  They brought back lead singer Ray Collins for this. I talked to him, along with Ian Underwood, who had just joined, and Jimmie Carl Black, when I saw The Mothers in the spring of 1968 at Changes Unlimited, a hippie club on Hill Street in Louisville. Collins had a beautiful, silky lounge lizard type voice. I looked him up on Wikipedia. There is a link to an article about him in the Claremont CA (where he lives) local paper. It says he quit The Mothers after a few albums because he wanted to be a serious singer like Nat King Cole and didn't like all the satire and snarkiness, and that basically nothing he did since ever came to fruition. He was the one who invited Frank Zappa to join Soul Giants, which became The Mothers. Crazy.
  

• Ollabelle, "Neon Blue Bird". Levon Helm's daughter Amy is in this band. This album is really all over the place. I put it in as Southern Rock. 3 stars, 4 stars for "Lovin' In My Baby's Eyes", a Taj Mahal song I think I'd heard before, and "Wait For The Sun".
  
• St. Vincent, "Strange Mercy". I don't know that it is about her music that I like so well. Just thinking about, it kind of reminded me of how Radiohead seemed to suddenly realize, we can do whatever the hell we want -- we are in complete control. Annie Clark seems to mix such diverse styles and orchestration, with mostly sweet, emo lyrics. I'm a fan-boy. 4 stars.
  
• Sunset Hearts, "Haunted Cloud". A Portland Maine 8 piece super group put together with members of 3 other bands. My nephew Max is the most excellent drummer. Lots of 80's sound, Beach Boys, many influences. Very nice tunes, an excellent effort, 4 stars.
  
• The Boxer Rebellion, "The Cold Still". Very nice alternative mostly guitar sound. I don't think a weak song. 3 stars, 4 stars for "Step Out Of The Car".
  
• Beiirut, "The Rip Tide". Very listenable, very consistent with their earlier work. Featuring Kelley Pratt, a Dunbar grad and friend of Erica's on brass. They are playing in Lexington this Wednesday, if I weren't playing I might have gone to see them. 3 stars.
  
• Ivy, "Long Distance", 2001. I had really liked this groups earlier "ApartmentLife" and then kind of lost track of them. At first I thought, this is just too peppy and emo, but then, of course it grew on me. I am such a sucker for this stuff. 4 stars.
  
• 50 tracks of flamenco from my friend Patrick that my daughter Christie wanted for her wedding. What a great genre this is! We saw a movie recently that had a great flamenco performance, an older (50ish) woman singing and dancing. I'll have to track that down.
  

OK, thats through September, the October stuff still needs more listens. Maybe that's why I wind up getting behind on Music In, because anymore I have to listen to most things 5-10 times before they're sufficiently burned in.

Experimental Philosophy

Interesting article in November Scientific American. A more scientific approach to philosophy, asking hundreds of test subjects to answer various thought problems. One interesting example on relativistic morality: if the morally ambiguous choice is fairly "here and now", then people decide with common sense, emotion, and "folk morality". If the choice is placed relatively far in the future, that apparently causes the mind's more "abstract thinking" modules to kick in, and decisions become more logical and abstract, if somewhat less "human".

Also, people who are more open to new experiences (liberals?) tend to be more open to moral relativism. So maybe there's a genetically selected difference between us right-thinking liberals and those backwards-thinking, inbred conservatives.

Clifton

Way overdid it today. I'm thinking, "Biking weather over soon, let's go for it!" -- mistake. So went to Clifton, the only place I've found where you can get down to the Kentucky River and then get back up without having to walk the bike. The road back up (heading south) is a long, gradual incline. Here's a view from between Lower Clifton and Old Clifton Roads:

So went straight out Old Frankfort Pike to KY 1285. Crossed US 60 north of Versailles at the cylindrical water tower. By the Woodford Reserve Distillery, then left up a long, bad hill -- there are two more smaller ones before you start the downhill into Clifton. Back in through Versailles and Huntertown Rd. 48.9 miles, 4h10m, 3 stops, top speed 36.5 mph. And I am dead.

Nonesuch

I liked Knotmuch Farm on the south side of Nonesuch.

I quit biking to Nonesuch, which is much closer to the Kentucky River in western Woodford County than I would have thought, a few years ago. Funny how time managed to erase the memory of how bad those hills are. At least I came from the north rather the south. From the south, just past Clover Bottom Baptist Church and south of Nonesuch, there is a nasty hill. Steep for 1/2 mile, you think you're done, you turn a corner and there's another 250 yards up. It is one of only two hills (the other is Fords Mill just north of Nonesuch) in my biking paths that I have to stand up to make it up. Riding the brakes, I did 36.4 mph coming down that hill (from the north). If my death wish were a little stronger, I think I could easily have hit 45 mph coming down that hill.

So I took Delaney Ferry to Mortonsville, then went south through Nonesuch to KY 33, then back in Keene Rd. 3h4m, 35.8 miles, top speed 36.4mph, 2 stops.

I am on page 897 of 1491 (in the iBook on iPad) into "A Dance with Dragons", book 5 of "A Game of Thrones". I remember once positing something to the effect that a book must have a minimum of 100 pages per narrative thread. I think if you apply that to this series, you will wind up needing a few million pages. So many characters. The fifth book is actually book 4b, with the fourth book being book 4a. Still a good read, but, it's almost like a book is the wrong technology for this much content. Not sure what the right tech would be.

Reaching the end of grilling season, made my baby mixed vegetables and salmon on the grill. For the shitake bacon effect, you have to cook the shitakes 15 minutes by themselves. Half way through, the Cooper's Hawk came swooping over the house and wound up somewhere in the trees of the neighbor to the left's backyard. It is such a rush when that big bird comes flying through our airspace.

Loki was Odin's Blood Brother

Beautiful weather. I was afraid it was going to be too sunny this morning, but it wasn't. Biked to Highbridge Park, then took a long-cut back: north on KY 1268 then south on US 68 to KY 33, then back 33 and Keene Rd. 3h20m, 43.1 miles, top speed 34.3 mph. A nice long stop at the park, which has a beautiful scenic overlook over the junction of the Dix and Kentucky Rivers.

That is such a pretty little park, and pretty much empty every time I have been there. My wife and I have picniced there, very nice.

I read the latest Steven Gould "7th Sigma" in Kindle format on the iPad. Very enjoyable, it reminded me of his first novel "Jumper". It really makes you remember and feel how much you would have enjoyed the book when you were 14. Teenage protagonist who is a master of aikido rather than a teleporter. Relaxing to read.

Then started the latest "Game of Thrones" book "A Dance of Dragons". 300 pages into 1500, I think we've been reintroduced to the characters of interest, maybe some stuff will start happening soon.

I had been buying all ebooks on amazon in Kindle format because they seemed to be consistently cheaper. This one (and the others in the series) not so -- same price in iTunes and amazon. So I figured I'd try the Apple version. Seems slightly inferior in that it didn't show up on my iPhone until I synced, whereas the Kindle books are there from the getgo. I think Apple is supposed to be fixing that soon.

Speaking of adolescent entertainment, "X-Men First Class" was very enjoyable, "Thor" not so much so. "Thor" just didn't work. I think it was because I am such a fan of Norse mythology, and have been for > 40 years. The relationship between Thor, Odin, and Loki is complex and an important theme in Norse mythology, and completely unlike what was represented in the movie. Of course, I'll have to watch it again to see if it gets any better.

Music out, a better crowd at the Wednesday night jam. My brother Mark and his wife Carrie came from Leitchfield, on their anniversary no less. He says they enjoyed it. I played and sang well.

Currently watching the 1994 miniseries of Stephen King's "The Stand" with my wife. Many young actors who later went on to successful careers. But, it reminds me how much I don't like Stephen King's stuff. Totally predictable, kind of preachy, blech.

Damn, I'm way behind on Music In. Plus have to sort out from what I had to reload after my C: drive crashed 9/2. We'll save that for another post.

Unknown Bird

Maybe overdid it a little today. Took a long cut -- Parkers Mill to Ft Springs-Pinkard to Old Versailles to Rosalie to Bosworth to Elkchester to Redd instead of Van Meeter to Elkchester to Redd -- to Old Frankfort. Then Paynes Depot to Waizenberger Mill through Midway to Spring Hill Station. Then KY 1685 back to Old Frankfort to Pisgah Pike to Military. 41.9 miles, 3h29m, 1 stop, max speed 33 mph. I thought about taking 1685 across US 60 north of Versailles, then coming back through Versailles from the north-west. Glad I didn't, pooped enough as is.

Saw what I think was a new bird I think west of Midway. It was a small hawk (smaller than 2 crows sitting near it on a fence), stripes across its tail, and a light head. I think this might have been a sharp-shinned hawk, which looks like a cooper's hawk but is smaller.

Bill O'Reilly was interviewed in parade magazine today. Talked about Lincoln, and, if he were around today, he'd be a Republican: "I don't think he wanted a social welfare system. I think he wanted people to be self-reliant ..."

Quel bull. I will reproduce again this Lincoln quote that I like a lot. It sounds to me like Lincoln believed in "social justice". Try to get a modern republican to say those words without their head exploding.

It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, “You toil and work and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.” No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.

–Abraham Lincoln, Seventh and Last Joint Debate with Steven Douglas, held at Alton, Illinois, Oct. 15, 1858.

I became aware of this quote because it is in Copland's "Lincoln Portrait", at around the 10:50 point. I have the Philadelphia Orchestra version with Adlai Stevenson narrating. Here it is with what sounds like James Earl Jones narrating. The quote is at around 10:05.

Jammin'

So played 6 straight tonight. Drippin' sweat when done. Somehow most of the audience decided to leave during this period. Somewhat discouraging. But I'm figuring it was just they had alarms set for 10:00 pm, of course, not that I sucked. I had my good friend and most excellent guitarist Ron Northrip behind me for the 1st three, and my good friend and most excellent guitarist King William (Allen) on the 2nd guitar for the 2nd three. I played:

1. "I Got Loaded", the Tab Benoit version. Struggled somewhat.
   
2. "Who Do You Love". Hadn't done this for a while, worked well. A good jam.
   
3. "Roadhouse Blues". Fuzzy (Steve) the harp player called it. It's fun to play and sing, but there is for some reason some serious anti-Doors sentiment at the jam.
   
4. "Stuff You Gotta Watch" (Muddy Waters, recently covered by Levon Helm) for the second time. Not too bad, the band seems to like it.
   
5. "I'm Ready", another Muddy Waters song, that I had been attributing incorrectly to Buddy Guy. Worked well.
   
6. "Rollin' and Tumblin'". A cross between the Cream and the Jeff Beck/Imogen Heap versions. This is the favorite of my friend Ron of the songs I do. He was on keys for it. Erik Shields the drummer calls this song, he likes it, I am honored, he is such a completely solid musician. It is a workout. If I'm not sweating when I start this song, I am when I finish.
   

My lead playing was mediocre. Need to practice more playing the faster stuff with an open right hand. I have been practicing more lately. I skip leads on any songs that really needs the rhythm guitar to carry the song, like "Rollin' and Tumblin'". Plus, in general, I think that there are too many solos in the jam format.

Allen the drummer was really kicking it tonight. It was (our alpha guitarist) Lindsay Olive's birthday (58), they played some of his jazzy compositions at the end, with the 2nd guitarist being our beta guitarist David Ponder. Really well done. David says he's going to come out more.

Widdershins

So this past Sunday, I biked a route that I have done many times before, but for the first time in the opposite direction. I went straight out Delaney Ferry. Then, south on KY 33 to Cummings Ferry to Pauls Mill to KY 33 south of Troy, which I have always done the other way. Then back in Keene Rd. 2h24m 30.1 miles. The stretch on KY 33 seemed less steep than coming the other way. And Pauls Mill near KY 33 I have often thought was odd, in that it looks flat but you pick up speed. Coming the other way, it is definitely a hill -- duh.

On Pauls Mill, I think I saw a red-bellied woodpecker, which would be a new one. It has a red mohawk.

Mist

Biked north this morning, Van Meter to Redd to Paynes Depot, west on Moore's Mill towards Equus Run vineyard, but then north again on Cane Run over I-64 to Ironworks Pike. Back in Yarnallton to Spurr past the prisons, then Greendale to Alexandria and home through the baseball park. 3h0m, 37.3 miles, 2 stops, top speed 34.2 mph. I had checked the radar before I left and it looked like I might get rained on towards the end, but I figured, what the hey? I did get misted on the last 1/2 hour or so. But neither the roads or my brakes got particularly wet, so it was kind of nice.

I saw a good sized red-tailed hawk on Greendale.

I finished reading "The Name of the Wind", by Patrick Rothfuss. An OK read I guess, but clearly part 1 of a 2000 page novel. The hero is telling his life story over 3 days, day 1 is done at no particular stopping point, so clearly this volume must be over. None of the characters seem very self aware, which seems kind of annoying. The protagonist is only supposed to be 15-17 years old (which you forget because he has so many superpowers) so I guess that's his excuse.

Went from there straight into "Circle of Enemies", the 3rd Twenty Palaces novel by Harry Connolly. Supernatural noir cheap detective fare, definitely popcorn for the mind. Reading science fiction, I feel like it's not totally escapist, that you do get new concepts, and real glimpses at possible futures. Fantasy, no such excuses. It is strictly escapist. I think that the 6 months I recently finished of working two jobs and working 7 days a week has left me fried to the point where escapism is mostly what I'm up for. Maybe I'll read something worthwhile -- maybe even non-fiction! -- before I retire in 3-4 years, maybe not.

I also finished the 2nd novel by Lauren Beukes, "Zoo City". Kind of more noir and magical realism than cyberpunk. A very good read.

Got "Thor" to watch on the Apple TV tonight, woo-hoo! Hard to believe Kenneth Branagh directed that. iTunes recently had his excellent mystery "Dead Again" (1991) on sale for $4.99, so we purchased and watched it. Great movie.

I've played OK at the jam the last few weeks. Had a good new drummer, Ken Baker, behind me last week. Called "Summertime Blues", "Rollin and Tumblin", and "All Along the Watchtower". Then got to do 3 more playing lead guitar behind someone else. I ducked out of there early, hit Lynagh's. Talking to Tim the bartender/drummer/singer about Levon Helm's recent work, he mentioned how he gets to channel Levon when they recreate "The Last Waltz", which some great local musicians have been doing for 6-7 years now around Thanksgiving. He said they try to get new people every year, and suggested I could maybe do the Muddy Waters "Mannish Boy" number!!! Holy crap, I'm not worthy! But, we'll see what happens.

Tropical Storms

Last weekend was 60's cold and rainy -- after having been 97 degrees 3 days before -- as Tropical Storm Lee met a Canadian cold front as it made its way to Ohio. At one point the low pressure cell was sitting over southern Ohio and dropping moisture from the Great Lakes onto us.

Tropical Storm Lee formed in the southern Gulf of Mexico, west of the Yucatan peninsula, and worked its way up the Gulf Coast until it decided to head north when it hit Alabame. Nate is there now. Lee was formed there a couple of weeks ago. At one point the NHC maps showed Lee crossing into northern Florida from the Gulf at the same time as an Atlantic hurricane made landfall in northern Florida. Could they join for a 2x hurricane? Lee decided to head north through Alabama, and the Atlantic hurricane (Katia?) stayed offshore, so we didn't find out. Unfortunately, I'm sure we will find out soon enough :-( I don't remember tropical storms forming in the Gulf like this. Double hurricanes, yeouch.

So I did walk Dexter yesterday morning and bike this morning with pretty much the same results as 2 weekends ago: 1/2 hour of knee pain walking, hours of knee-pain-free bicycling. Biked out Delaney Ferry through Mortonsville to McCowans Ferry. Back in on the west side Versailles bypass to Dry Ridge to Military Pike to Parkers Mill. 2h38m, 1 stop, 36.1 miles, top speed 37.4 mph. I must have been tired on some hilly stretch to let myself go that fast.

Finished reading "Darwin's Bastards", a collection of Canadian science fiction short stories, edited by Zsuzsi Gartner. I think it was a birthday (or solstice) gift from one of my children (Alexis?). Anyway, very interesting stories. A lot of them kind of fragmentary, seeming to stop in the middle of nowhere, missing the normal nice ribbons and bows of clear meaning. Post-modern maybe? Very enjoyable.

Started on "The Name of the Wind", by Patrick Rothfuss. A high fantasy, 1st book of the Kingkiller trilogy, rave reviews on the jacket blurbs. Going OK I guess.

So this is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Several people have posted that they would turn off their TVs to spare themselves the excesses of the punndits, etc. Not a problem for me as I never watch that kind of stuff. But the newspaper had a bunch of commentary, and several blogs I read did as well.

Clearly the loss of 2800 lives of people from all over the world was a tragedy. And the first responders to the twin towers did what they do for a living: they were heroes, putting the welfare of others above their own. The passengers of the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania did the same thing: they put the welfare of others above their own.

So how does America honor the sacrifice of those who put themselves in harms way, as well as the innocent victims? Aside from flag-waving and meaningless pontification, in my opinion, not so well.

This editorial by Louis Friedman compares how America responded to the Cold War vs the War on Terror. He summarizes:

We used the cold war to reach the moon and spawn new industries. We used 9/11 to create better body scanners and more T.S.A. agents. It will be remembered as one of the greatest lost opportunities of any presidency — ever.

We started 2 wars, and instead of raising taxes as had been done in the past for wars, taxes were lowered. Ask the rest of America to sacrifice to do the right thing? Apparently not. And now that the bill has come due, let's cut Medicare, Medicaid, the EPA, OSHA, and everything else that stands in the way of robber barons in industry and finance. Republican politics at its finest.

And this decade has seen the outsourcing of war-making to private corporations. How much are their lobbyists going to be doing to further world peace? Maybe, not much? Just has the outsourcing of prisons is leading to record incarceration levels as their lobbyists push for stricter and stricter sentencing to "fight crime". But NYC has figured out how to lower crime rates without putting half of your young adult males in prison, as detailed here.

I am an American exceptionalist. I believe that the USA is the greatest country in the world. Why? Because we are the melting pot that accepts the best and brightest from all over the world, and where any entrepreneur can become a billionaire. We've always had a "can-do" attitude, and the knowledge that if we pulled together and maybe sacrificed a little for the common good, that we could accomplish anything.

But, if politicians keep bowing to the ignorant conservative factions in the country over things like teaching evolution (we are the only country in the world where this is an issue), and responding to serious problems with knee-jerk lizard-brain reactions and flag waving, then we are throwing away our potential. Instead of a political discussion based on solving serious problems and promoting the common good, we have nothing but unbridled greed, and every billionaire and corporation for themself. Self-sacrifice? No way, some of these people don't belong to my country club!

This was another good post about 9/11. At the end, he says:

I can’t shake the feeling that, in ways we don’t want to admit, the terrorists have won something. It gave us fear, and the will to attack. It changed our hearts and minds.

So we now have The Bush Doctrine, which says we will attack first if we feel threatened. It used to be a point of national honor that we never struck the first blow. But now, we've become such cowards that if we are feeling threatened or uneasy, out come the cruise missiles. And, Osama Bin Laden said he wanted to bankrupt us. The paper today says that the cost of our 9/11 response is currently at $3.3 trillion. That seems low to me.

I know that the ties of clan, tribe and country are strong. But sometimes we forget that people from over 90 countries died in the World Trade Center towers. After 9/11, we had the entire world on our side, and then we pissed it all away.

We should also remember that the 9/11 terrorists primary justification for attacking us, aside from general dislike for our cultural imperialism, was the placement of US troops in their Holy Land (Saudi Arabia) in the first Gulf War. But do we try to do anything serious to get us off our foreign oil dependency that has led us to 3 mideast wars in the last 20 years? Of course not, not when it might upset the profits of the current energy barons.

So people will today and for years to come stop to remember loved ones lost, or just the fear and uneasiness we all felt on 9/11/2001. I wonder though, if we will ever have maybe 10 seconds of silence for the 150,000 civilian casualties in Iraq, whose blood is on the hands of our reckless leaders of the time -- no, whose blood is on all of our hands.

Wheels == Good; Feet == Bad

So took a half-hour walk with Dexter yesterday morning. Knee started hurting almost immediately, fought off limping the whole way.

This morning, biked 39.25 miles, 3h6m, Waizenberger Mill Rd to Midway, then Hedden to Big Sink and back through Versailles. 5 or so degrees cooler than last week, very pleasant, but tired at the end. But, no knee pain at all for the entire ride. So I think in retirement I'll start every day with a 2 hr bike ride.

That Arthotec seems to have quit helping with the knee pain. I'll check with the doctor, see what he says. If it isn't helping, might as well quit taking it.

So I'm sitting at the bar at Azur and someone asks me if I golf. "No???" I reply. They point out that I have tan forearms, a tan line at the wrist and hands much less tan. They had assumed golfing gloves. "No, biking gloves". I hadn't noticed at all. Great, a biking tan. Another couple of years and it will probably be like my soccer tan, where my shins and ankles tan pretty much not at all.

We've had a single hummingbird using our feeders for a while. Nice to see them again.

OK, on to music. Stuff added in June and July:

• Lykke Li, "Youth Novels" (2008). Classified this as Euro Pop rather than Chick Pop, despite the female lead singer. Has that Euro Pop peppiness about it. Nice tunes. 3 stars.
• The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, "East-West" (1966). I have heard this album mentioned as being seminal so many times, and had meant to get it for quite a while, finally remembered to pull the trigger. This does have some seminal 60's blues tunes. Patty Butcher does a bunch of these: "Walkin Blues", "All These Blues". Ends with a 13 minute "jam" -- very early for a jam to be recorded -- that is really, really not very good. 3 stars, 2 for the jam.
• Liam Finn, "Fomo". Very listenable alternative foo. More New Zealand alternative. 2nd generation rocker. 3 stars.
• Fitz & The Tantrums, "Pickin' Up The Pieces". Yet another retro R&B artist trying to recapture the glory years of Motown. Works really well. 4 stars.
• St. Vincent, "Marry Me" (2007), and "Actor" (2009). OK, I have to admit, I did a little bit of obsessing on Ms. Annie Clark, who is St. Vincent. Her orchestrations are compared to Kate Bush, very complex and odd. And seems really weird when she comes in playing very aggressive electric guitar. 4 stars for both albums, 5 stars for the track "Marry Me". I am such a romantic sap.
• The Civil Wars, "Barton Hollow". A little close to modern country at times, we'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say it's Folk. Some nice tunes, 3 stars.
• Bon Iver, "For Emma, Forever Ago". You think that the lead singer's mostly falsetto singing is going to get annoying, but it doesn't. Nice tunes, 3 stars.
• "Johnny Cash's America". $5.00 special at Amazon. A couple of old favorites I hadn't remembered: "Don't Take Your Guns To Town" in particular. Some of the overly patriotic songs got an honorary 2 star religous rating.
  One song was crazy tho (too bad it's religious). "Children, Go Where I Send Thee", from his 1977 christmas special. Kind of does a "12 days of christmas" thing. So for the special, there's Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash kicking it off; Carl Perkins, who was the band leader, dressed and with hair like an early 60's hoodlum 20 years later, sharing a microphone with Roy Orbison; Jerry Lee Lewis sharing a microphone with Roy Clark; the Carter Sisters; the Statler Brothers; and 5 other guys -- I have no idea who they are, although one might be Ronnie Milsap. Here's the video on YouTube, bizarre.
• Joss Stone, "LP1". A very workmanlike offering from Ms. Stone, who can at this point be relied upon to produce solid albums. 3 stars.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Stadium Arcadium" (2006). Recommended by Grant at Azur. A double album, 29 tracks total, and I think, not a single bad track. But, 29 tracks is a lot to digest, and after 5 or 6 listens, still only recognizing 1 or 2 songs. 3 stars.

That brings us up to the Unrated folder, currently at 87 tracks. My iTunes has passed 15,000 tracks. A few of times in the last few weeks, I felt like listening to classical while I worked. So just did search, for Mahler, or Tchaikovsky, or Borodin, or Beethoven, and then just listened to it all. Symphonies weren't in chronological order, the way I used to listen to them, but still, pretty easy and convenient.