George Harrison...
...today would have been his 64th birthday...
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An old Beatles song wondered, 'will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64', but George Harrison never got the chance to live that long. Like all of us, George was a sinner and a saint, sometimes a bad guy, but mostly a good guy, and along the way, with and without The Beatles, he put some Fine Work out there. So he's remembered on the day he would've turned 64. From everything I've read, George's existence within the Beatles wasn't really pleasant a lot of the time, because he was pretty-much dominated by Lennon and McCartney, and in my opinion, equaled and rose above them in the late '60's. George hated touring with a passion, and after the end of the Fabs' tour days in 1966, was the time that George really began to grow as a musician. The Beatles' 'Revolver' album, released in 1966, features three of his tunes, for example, instead of his relegated One Song Per Album as before.
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For me, George Harrison always struck a mood of melancholy with his Beatles' material. On the 'Meet The Beatles' album, for example, while Lennon and McCartney were writing not-so-silly love songs, George's One and Only tune on that album said, "oh go away, leave me alone, Don't Bother Me", which indicated that George was definitely His Own Person, even though Lennon and McCartney thot of him as a "junior member" and treated him accordingly. As time went on, though, his music got noticed...one of his songs, "Taxman", was so good, that it was positioned as the Very First Song on the 'Revolver' album. His ultra-sombre "Within You Without You" added a somberness of Conscience to the 'Sgt. Pepper' album. And while the Beatles were fighting amongst themselves in that 'White Album" year of 1968, George rose to the occasion with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", a song which basically asks, 'why are people the way they are?' In 1969, George's "Something" was a big hit single. George Martin, the Beatles' longtime producer has expressed regret that he didn't help fully develop Harrison's talents, because "Something" was such an Obviously Great Song.
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George's solo career went through a protracted dry spell in the late 1970's, but before and after that, he released some Really Great Music. "All Things Must Pass" stands as one of the Finest-Ever Record Albums ever made. "Living In The Material World", his 1973 album, features some nice stuff too, highlighted with his tongue-in-cheek History Of The Beatles..."Met them all here in the Material World, John and Paul here in the Material World, though we started out quite poor, we got Ritchie (Ringo) on a tour"...he recorded some fair-to-good music in the late '70s to the mid-'80s, having the occasional hit along the way ("Dark Horse", "Blow Away", "This Song", "Crackerbox Palace" and the really lovely "Blow Away"), but ol' George really Caught My Ear when "Cloud Nine", released in the late '80s, graced my eardrums. All of a sudden, there was life, excitement and enthusiasm; that's an album I'd Take To the proverbial Desert Island. It's a pop-rock masterpiece.
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George's next studio album would not be released in his lifetime. "Brainwashed", his final recorded document, consisted of songs he had been working on between 1990-2000, and although he recorded several tracks for each of the songs, he left it up to producer Jeff Lynne and son Dhani, to finish it up. I daresay "Brainwashed" contains some of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard; "Rising Sun" and "Pisces Fish" are downright inspirational. He deals with his soon-to-be Terminal Cancer with songs such as "Stuck Inside A Cloud" and "Looking For My Life", and powerful rock and roll tunes such as "Brainwashed" and "Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night". Although George did quite well in his solo career, he seemed more comfortable in a group role, and the playful relationship between the members of the Traveling Wilburys was warm, humorous, and fun. Can you imagine a group that featured Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan and Harrison himself? A music listener's "dream team"!
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The first George Harrison song I became Really Familiar With was "If I Needed Someone", from "Yesterday And Today", the First Beatles Album I ever owned, waay back in the sixties. The song added another dimension and a unique melodic structure to the album. There was a certain minor-key element of resigned acceptance...the line "had you come some other day then, it might not have beeen like this, but you see now I'm too much in love" was as deep and meaningful as any line Lennon-McCartney ever wrote. I've always been on the side of the 'Underdog', and have always felt that George's contributions to the Beatles have always been vastly underrated. But, George, a whole lotta people out there remember ya. Count me among them.
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Another George Harrison song which meant so much to me was 'Isn't It A Pity' (from the 'All Things Must Pass' album)..."Isn't it a pity, Isn't it a shame? How we break each others' hearts, And cause each other pain? How we take each other's love, Without Thinking Anymore, Forgetting to give back, Isn't It A Pity. I think that verse is the definitive statement of the human condition. You can't say it much better than that...

This post has been updated...The latest in my Bird Saga...
Every End Is A Beginning...
...and often "Letting Go" is the toughest decision of all...

You've probably heard of ongoing relationships where one partner, or the other partner, or both partners change(s), and because of all those changes, the relationship becomes difficult to maintain. Maybe it's my lot in life; maybe it's just me or maybe it's just the way things are. Perhaps some of it revolves around the realization that you just can't be the ideal match for that someone (or something)...maybe it's the realization that you just cannot figure out what your partner wants anymore...I'm not talking about personal situations between a couple, although, if that couple is married, and nothing works anymore, my advise would be just to get away from each other, divorce if you have to, because life is too short to be constantly frustrated at someone or something that you're close to.
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"Okay", you're wondering. "What's going on with him?" Well, okay, here goes: I've written in this blog about my little Meyers' Parrot, Jill. Over the last couple of months, her behavior changed; she didn't like being out of her cage the way she used to; she'd be ready after an hour to go back in the cage. Then she'd make it plain she wanted out of the cage, so I'd take her out...then after a while, she'd want back in. That would happen several times in an evening, which drove me NUTS. She'd chirp harshly, over and over 'til I'd reached the brink of insanity; I'd let her out, and then she'd want back IN. (AUGGGHHH!) Sometimes when she was on my shoulder and I tried to interact with her, she'd actually bite at me and give me a weird little "parrot growl", informing me that I was either doing the wrong thing, or doing too much, or she just wanted to go back in her cage. She'd be on my shoulder and if I barely moved my head, she'd growl. I know that birds rely on their instincts, and for the longest time I tried to tell myself that. I really tried to tell myself "she's just being a bird" but I never could come to terms with that growl. You know, the whole 'rejection' thing. It was actually getting to the point where she'd open her beak, bite at me, growl and then HISS, and when a bird does that, you are definitely doing something wrong. This was fast becoming an unhealthy relationship.
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All my life, I've had to tiptoe around in regards to relationships; I'm so afraid of rejection that I'll try extra hard over and over, trying to please my partner, resulting in mental exhaustion. In between those extra efforts, I get more nervous and more anxious and after a while, I begin blowing my stack, becoming Someone I Don't Want To Be. It's happened in my family, with my Dad and my Sister (we haven't spoken in almost a year); I've had it happen in my own personal relationships as well as on the job. I was bullied in school, afraid of everyone, and my own Dad Terrified Me. So I've grown into this shell of a person who is virtually Afraid Of All Relationships, Absolutely. Even my friends stress me out and I just have to get away. It gets lonely, very lonely in here, sometimes. No, I don't want sympathy; this is just the way it is for me and I have to learn to deal with it somehow. I grew to love, Really Love that little parrot of mine, and she rejected me over and over again, until it got so bad I was stressing heavily. Over a Bird. How about that.
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Little Jill is Here No More. I gave her up. Finally, last week, it all got to be too much. On my shoulder, she growled at me for the umpteenth time, and I got mad at her, and placed her back in the cage. "Get In There", I snapped at her. And all of a sudden, I knew Things Weren't Working and that there was Nothing More I Could Do for her. I made arrangements with the Bird Rescue guy that I got her from, and gave her back to him. She'll have a lot of birds around her, the Rescue Guy is very good with birds, and he wrote me in an e-mail that she flew directly to his shoulder, and it was like she'd never left. I must admit, that saddened me a bit. I felt jealousy. But, I'm the one who gave her up. So Jill is being well-provided for, in a place she's familiar with, by someone who's previously cared for her. It was hard, "Letting Go". Sometimes that's the only way you can make a situation any better. To part ways, to leave, to Quit, just to End Things. To Let Go. I miss Jill, but things between us were getting worse and worse. One of the last times I brought her out of the cage, she was on my finger and she actually reared back and took a look squarely at me, if she was trying to determine who I was. That was a strange moment, in which I realized we were both becoming uncomfortable with each other. That said, I'll always have good memories of Jill, such as when I took the photo below...
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I made arrangements to give Jill back on Tuesday...and gave her up on Saturday (Yesterday). And the days in-between were painful. Little Jill, in her cage, would hunch over and spread her wings for me, and I wouldn't take her out of the cage. I couldn't. I had to 'not handle' her, to create some emotional distance, which did make it easier for me to give her up. And every time she did her wing-thing (see photo below) in the last few days, it absolutely broke my heart to not take her out of the cage...I couldn't bear to anymore. And believe me, I wanted to...

Little Jill, wanting me to pick her up and give her some attention. How could anyone ignore that? I had to; it was tough.
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So I "let go"of my bird. And now comes the painful process of "getting past it." It's scary. Pure, undiluted grief and pain. "Letting Go". And so I must. "But this is nothing but a stupid BIRD", you might be thinking. Well...it's just that I Let Jill Inside My Heart, which I don't do very often for anything or anyone. She was my little girl. And the pain is tremendous. Although I've lived by myself for A Long Time, it's becoming more difficult to do as time goes on. A little 'presence of life' makes all the difference for me. And last night, my first night without Jill, was awful. I felt the walls closing in on me. The deathly silence, the intense loneliness...it was almost too much...
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Here's the newly updated portion of this post...
I bought a pair of Cockatiels to take Jill's place. They turned into the Cockatiels From Hell. The constant screeching and screaming they put forth was too much for me to take. They're back at the pet store. Maybe I have to learn to be a Better Person by myself before taking in another house guest. And I miss little Jill more than ever.

CD's: Retail or Recordable...
...which will last longer before the music eventually disappears?

Up-front, my eyes glaze over when I try to tackle something too complex. So I'll try to boil it all down here. On a site that I subscribe to, a sort-of 'tekkie' website, the debate was raging hot and heavy; which CD's last longer, retail or homemade? ('Homemade' meaning, here, a Blank CD that you record at home. A 'Recordable' CD is what I would call a home-made CD, by the way.) I would have to give the nod here to retail copies, since the music is actually stamped into the disc, and then covered with clear plastic. Since it's costly, prohibitive and yes, complicated to have a Pro-CD system at home, the CD scientists found another, more expedient way of recording CD's.

What they did, basically, was to invent a CD recorder for home use that would burn little opaque tidbit-blocks into your CD. The opaque spots on a Homemade CD, then, would correspond to the 'low points' stamped on Retail CD's. On a retail CD, the 'high points' of the stamp are responsible for the music you hear, with the little depressions being unreadable, and unique to the music on that CD. On Homemade CD's, the opaque spots are unreadable; the laser sees only the 'clear' portions in the CD 'groove'. Different ways of doing the same thing. Just keep your homemade CD's out of bright sunlight which may or may not be able to 'bleach out' the opaque portions, and your homemade CD should last a good long while.

Both Retail and Homemade CD's are coated with clear plastic, which prevents any kind of oxidation which, over time, would interfere with sound reproduction. Of course, all of this technology is still fairly new; there really isn't a 'timetable' of Actual Proven General Trends of CD sound vaporizing off the disc. And by the time that we do find out, the CD will probably be long dead as a music format anyhow. Confused yet? I wouldn't blame ya if ya were. I still kinda am myself...But Homemade CD's can (I said, "Can") last 10-15-maybe 20-years, from what I've read. CD's have only been available since the mid-80's, so the technology is still new enough, that nobody really knows how long CD's can last..


This isn't what they meant when they said you should invest in CD's...

Recordable CD's for home use have a capacity of 80 minutes, but you can't actually record that much onto a CD. My stand-alone burner (not hooked up to a computer) takes one minute and 10 seconds to 'finalize' the disc. (An example of how 'tekkie' I am: 'Finalize', to me, means the 'Final thing the CD Recorder does' before the CD is done'; I have no idea of what actually happens, although something happens...right?) Anyway, when I began recording on my stand-alone unit, I noticed that if I went past 79 minutes and a few seconds, the machine would stop automatically, with the words 'disc full' popping up on the L-E-D screen.

I haven't tried all the different CD brands, but I've used enough of them to be able to warn you to Stay Away from MEMOREX discs; it's a bummer to record for circa-80 minutes and then have a disc not be readable, and that's happened to me more with Memorex than any other brand. The most reliable brand I've found is FUJIFILM; most of the time, that brand works really well. I've also had good luck with MAXELL discs, and fair-to-middlin' luck with SONY discs. With a burn time of somewhere around 80 minutes, I can get Most of Two LP albums on one disc; if the albums are short (say, 15-17 minutes on a side), I can record up to two and a half albums on that disc. One British Group, the Dave Clark Five, recorded a whole bunch of songs that weren't even two minutes long; I crammed 32 of their tracks onto one Recordable CD. With an eye to the future, I've been recording LP's onto CD. It's amazing how heavy a box of LPs is. Maybe one of these days I'll downsize my vinyl. I said 'Maybe'. If I do that, I'll keep 'the good stuff' (well, my idea of 'good stuff'', anyway).
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So here I am, thinking I'm such a hotshot, using all of this newfangled CD recording technology; I'm hep, I'm with it, right? Well, no...I mean, mp3's and the like are out there, but I have a sneaking suspicion the CD is about as current as I will ever get. Case in point: I have a Panasonic CD player which has some sort of 'import jack' for mp3, and I cannot visualize using that anytime in the Near Future. Maybe I should just wait until there is a means to record my entire record collection on something the size of a Postage Stamp....

The Wide World Of Sports?
The Agony of Defeat, playing out over and over...
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Remember ABC's 'Wide World Of Sports'? Maybe it's still being broadcast; I don't know; I rarely watch The Big Networks anymore. One of the most memorable bits of film ever shot whas the opening sequence for 'WWS' which featured that ski-jumper who only made it about 3/4's of the way down the ramp before he fell off the edge, falling and falling and bouncing and careening all sorts of different directions at once. I'm pretty sure the guy wasn't seriously hurt, but that doesn't make me want to go down a ski jump, or get within 5 miles of a pair of skis...nooo, thank you.
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Are you ready? It's time to throw out the first pitch! Spring Training's already underway, and already, we have two big stories...first of all, there's the saga of Alex Rodriguez, one of the Best Players in History never to have Won The World Series. It's almost as if his legacy (or absence thereof) has somehow Jinxed the Yankees, who haven't won the Series since the year before Alex shifted his huge Texas Rangers salary to the New York Yankees, who ended up paying him Even More Money. Alex has been famous for not hitting in crucial World Series Game situations; in the regular season he can blast the ball out of the park at a whim, but something happens to him during the Series. It's as if he dries up somehow. He's sort-of a baseball bridesmaid...up until now, we only had A-Rod's huge salary to gripe about; how he makes something like $3,000 every minute of the year, whether he's 'in-season' or 'off-season'. Ah, but now, he's 'juiced' it up...yep, A-Rod, every kid's hero, with the Home Run Record In Sight, took Steroids while he was a Texas Ranger, in 2003, and who knows for how many years before that? So I guess joining the Yankees was incentive for him to quit taking steroids? Enquiring baseball fans want to know!
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A-Rod technically doesn't fall under any kind of suspension, since he (allegedly) stopped taking Steroids in 2003, the year before the Steroids Ban took effect...you know, the Ban which sent the Baltimore Orioles' Rafael Palmeiro (you know, the slugger who did Viagra ads) packing, his memories of baseball more tarnished than Bill Clinton's Presidency (and that's a lot). Makes me wonder if Viagra is 'sort-of' a steroid? (Thankfully, I'm not going to develop that thot any further...) I've watched A-Rod (A-Roid?) quite a bit, and it seems to me that he doesn't handle pressure very well. All you have to do is watch a Yankee/Mariners game...Alex came up with Seattle, and now that he's gone, obviously following the money, he gets booed louder than a tricked-out battalion of non-mufflered Harley Davidsons. Only, that might change this year...he'll probably get booed by everyone, whether in 'home' or 'away' games. In a way, I kinda feel sorry for him; it's as if he's playing under some kind of Extra Heavy Mental Load...although my sympathy is diminished when I remind myself that he's making too much 'more' money than the too-much money that all the other baseball players make. (Apologies for the errant structure of that last sentence...)
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BLOGGER UPDATE: The very day after I posted the following about Ken Griffrey, Jr., "A New Kid In Town", VOILA! Ken Griffey IS coming back to the Mariners. I guess this blog is more powerful and influential than I thought (ha ha...)...and welcome back, Junior...this season oughta be really interesting...

(And now, back to the originally-scheduled blogpost, already in progress...)

There's a New Kid In Town...no, wait, just a minute...Next Up is Ken Griffey Jr. When his Cincinnati Reds played an 'interleague' series at Seattle's Safeco Field last season, Mr. Griffey, Jr. reminisced about his playing days in Seattle as he was welcomed, even cheered by the Fans, even though he was on the opposing team. Aside: Seattle fans really needed something to cheer about last season, and they'll probably feel the same way again this year. Griffey had even 'intimated' (implied, suggested, what have you) that he'd like to Finish his career in Seattle 'cos he had such Fond Remembrances of being a Mariner. Well, this year, Junior's Contract with Cincinnati is up, but, what's that I hear in the distance? Ah, strange rumors about the Mariners maybe signing 'The Kid' for this year. Wait a minute, though...because the Mariners' new manager hesitated on signing Griffey, due to his propensity to get Injured, Griffey's considering joining the Atlanta Braves. So now, he, Ken Griffey, Jr. ("The Kid") has a choice between the two teams, or anyone else that wants him. I'm thinking tho, that if a manager doesn't want Griffey to perform a triple-axis, double-flip leaping catch in the outfield, injuring himself and short-circuiting his career once again, 'The kid' would make a HELL of a great DESIGNATED HITTER. Although, if I was Griffey, heck, now that I had a choice, I'd choose NOT to go back to the Mariners; why? It might be a case of More Money in Atlanta, but also, the M's clubhouse environment is POISON. Maybe Griffey, Jr. studied the M's abysmal season of 2008, and thot, "thanks, but no thanks", now that Atlanta beckons. One can also factor in the fact (factor the fact?) that Atlanta is just a hop, skip and a jump from where Junior now Lives, probably on a huge estate five times the size of Safeco Field.

One more interruption here: Right now, Fox Sports Northwest is featuring a "Welcome Back Ken Griffey Jr. night", and they're broadcasting a long-ago Mariners' Game in which he hit three homers. I would caution everyone that it ain't 1997, folks, it's 12 years on down the line, and it's best to adopt a 'Take What You Can Get' approach when watching Griffey this season; he, really ain't 'the kid' anymore...
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And now, that Magic Wonder of the Seattle Mariners, ICHIRO SUZUKI!!! (Insert crowd roar...wait a minute, don't...) A lot of his team-mates just Can't Stand Ichiro, you know, that little guy who dinks little ground balls here and there even though he is rumored to have Amazing Hitting Power which he can Turn On And Off At Will. Except for, say, a few triples and maybe 7 or 8 home runs in a season, I have not seen that power. Some people have accused Ichiro of padding his stats by hitting those little high-percentage, teeny-weeny ground balls. Personally, Ichiro's act, in my opinion, is Wearing Thin. Ichiro has the blinding speed of a ski-jumper careening off a ski-jump, but he's also been playing baseball a very, very long time, and his on-base percentage can only slump as he gets older and slower. A couple of years ago, I was watching a Mariners' game in which Ichiro got caught trying to steal second. Rather than letting the 2nd Baseman tag him out between the bases, Ichiro veered off and went back to the dugout, conceding the out. Later, he explained: "I don't like to be touched." I'll never forget that. And supposedly, that sums up Ichiro...aloof, non-supporting, distant, reserved. Not exactly what a coherent, cohesive clubhouse environment needs.

One more rude interruption: For so long, Ichiro has been the Mariners' "big star"; how's he gonna handle all the attention directed Griffey's way? That oughta be interesting to see. Okay, that's it, no more updates, I promise...
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Rumors are still floating that Ichiro had something to do with the dismissal of manager Jim McLaren a couple of years ago, when the M's were having a not-too-bad season; there were supposed to be all kinds of conflicts between Ichiro and McLaren that've never been spelt out, and well, I guess you know who won that battle. An article in the Sports Section today contained something about Ichiro's tendency to stay in a different hotel, away from his teammates; why? Well, he's just that sorta-quirky kinda guy. Now, I'm not the most gregarious person ever, and I'll admit I have a hard time with blindly following any kind of "rah-rah-ziss-boom-bah" logic, but if you're a member of your team, there should be some 'simpatico.'; so much for 'togetherness' on Ichiro's part, tho. After all, he's a big star. And he's been with Seattle for ages, theoretically all the while, alienating his team-mates. I'm still waiting for the Yankees to Buy Ichiro, but I 'spose that woulda happened by now if they'd really wanted him...
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With every new season, there's always hope that the mighty ship will be brought to the surface...
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Finally, how do I think the Seattle Mariners will do this year? Gosh, anything's better than last year. The M's would've lost to most slo-pitch softball teams last year. If the M's can make .500 this year (where you win exactly half of the games you play), that would qualify as a Minor Miracle, beyond my wildest expectations; I say that because supposedly, the Mariners' farm system, consisting of the Tacoma Rangers and who knows who else is rather 'thin' on raw talent. All that said, though, Welcome Back, Baseball, in spite of the fact that the sport has become forever tarnished by the Steroids scandal. Tarnished worse than, for example, Danny Bonaduce now, vs. Danny Bonaduce as a member of the squeeky-clean Partridge Family once upon several ages ago.
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Finally, you must be asking yourself, "why does he keep putting that annoying little 'dash' (-) between his paragraphs? I do that because, when I put a photo or other artwork in a blog entry, the paragraphs all tend to Mash together in one long unreadable paragraph. So I use the 'dash' to instead create short unreadable paragraphs. So now you know...

57 Channels and NOTHIN' ON...

...or, are you ready for the big signal switcheroo...?

I've heard a lot lately about the big switch to Digital TV, and how the Government is forcing television stations to comply. Okay, say I own a TV station and the Gov't tells me I've gotta convert, and I say "no." What are they going to do, ship me off to some media prison somewhere? Okay, I know that's a dumb observation, but still...let's say, just for conjecture, that our choices of Radio Station bands were about to be taken away. Imagine that the Federal Government, for whatever reason, has said that "As of June 30th, ALL radio stations have to convert to "FM". Huh? What? I know that the Federal Communications Commission permits radio stations to "simulcast" the same program at the same time over different radio frequencies and different bands. So, why, then, can't the Feds allow the same thing for TV stations (allow 'em to carry both digital and analog versions of their TV broadcasts)? Because THAT idea actually makes SENSE, and no one listens to me anyway. Instead, you'll have to spend a portion of your federally-approved "stimulus" bucks to go out and buy a converter, which will allow you to view the same prime-time-sitcom-garbage that you previously viewed before The Big Switch.

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Of course, if your old analog TV set is hooked up to "Cable", (theoretically), you have nothing to worry about. Just keep paying your Cable Bill, and Your Service Won't Get Interrupted. Snicker, snicker...what's not mentioned in the government's dictation is that Cable Bills Just Keep Going Up And Up and Up, and there's nothing anyone can do about that. Where I live, You Cannot Get TV Reception Any Other Way except for Cable-TV, the nearest TV station being oh, about a HUNDRED MILES AWAY. So I'm stuck with good ol' Charter Communications, the provider where I live. The Cable Company's rationalization for charging their ever-increasing rates is, "well, we provide you with a whole lot of Television Networks You Can Watch to your heart's content." Are you kidding? I have probably 70-plus channels I can watch, and I'll bet I've never watched an entire program on 90% of those networks. In short, I'm paying for channels I'd never watch, even if you lashed my torso to a chair and pried my eyes open, 'the lids being held apart with barbed toothpicks.

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I thought, with our increasing technology, things were supposed to get simpler...

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Chances are, the folks who are paying for TV converter-boxes who live in populated areas aren't going to be getting NEAR the amount of TV networks one can view on Cable. So instead, they're going to be paying for the privilege, thru their converter-box, of watching Fewer Channels, by Government Mandate. Or, they can convert to Cable, where they can get more channels, although they'll have to pay monthly, rather than the one-time, however-much-it-will-cost fee to buy a High-Def converter box. Of course, there's lotsa folks, like me, living in the 'toolies, who can't get TV at all otherwise, converter box or no, so basically, I and others like me are slaves to The Almighty Cable. Right now, this evening, I have had the TV on One Channel All Evening. I'm feeling adventurous this evening. Maybe I'll switch to another channel just for the heck of it. Or maybe I'll somehow delude myself into thinking I'm getting my moneys' worth by flipping thru all the channels, thinking, "wow, all this for ONE LOW PRICE", except that it's not really low. And I don't wanna watch most of those channels anyway. That's the wide wonderful world of Cable TV; as Bruce Springsteen sang a few years back, Cable TV consists of "fifty-seven channels and nothing on", once you've subtracted the number of Channels you watch the most. Pay for stuff you don't use. It's the American Way.

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I actually talked to a Cable-TV clerk once about All the channels I don't watch, wondering why I can't just pay for the channels I watch...and she informed me that Cable Rates would actually be More Expensive if that was an option, which of course it wasn't. In the end, though, it's me who's weak. After all, I can't live without TV, something which is way, waaay down on the list of Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs...

FOUR MORE YEARS!!!
...or, am I jumping the gun just a bit here?

It's in the Left Margin...a little clock which marks time until President Obama is re-elected, and it's not by coincidence that the clock is RED, which represents this country's economy right now, which is finding itself 'in the red', whirling down the drain, sinking fast, unless something is done. The President said today in a news conference that he wasn't counting on a big MESS being dumped on his desk, but it's a mess indeed, and something's got to be done fairly quickly, if not REALLY quickly...

The naysayers are out in force these days, and they're all over the news media, preaching that Obama is over-reaching, having to make concessions, that his "new" approach to things isn't really that "new" at all, and on and on, blah-blah-blahhhhh..... First of all, Getting Stuff Passed is NOT easy, especially when The President is a relative Newcomer to the scene. Secondly, there are still quite a few politicians of the 'other' party (the color that's 'not red'), who are gonna fight him tooth and nail, all the way; why? First, because Obama is Young and, second, he's a member of the party whose symbolic color IS Red. The old guys don't wanna be told what to do by a young guy. Believe me, that sentiment exists, tho no one in Politics will admit it. And the Other Party, most of it, anyway, is committed to Fighting Obama All The Way. They think it's fun to filibuster. (A 'filibuster' is basically a Congressional Session 'on steroids'.) This is the way politics work, and this is the way Politics ARE. I don't think there is any sort of "political honeymoon" for President Obama. He refused to take one. He was in Washington, D.C., a-wheelin' and a-dealin', two weeks BEFORE he became President. Which was Marvelous.

All right, okay, well, things could "tank" for Mr. Obama. If you look several months ahead on your 2009 calendar, can you really know what ANYTHING will be like a few months from now? Sorry, the Desk of the President doesn't come equipped with a Crystal Ball. But, I'm so glad we're not doing the "Republican" thing at this point in time. Honestly, We've All Had Enough Of That. And I like the way Obama is facing down the opposition. I don't want to hear the same old tired arguments, I want plain-talk, I want things to be done, and SO WHAT if we're taking a chance of failing? We were FAILING long before Prezzident George W. Bush hi-tailed it back to the Lone Star State. I listen to politicians run down Obama's ideas, and I'm just SICK and TIRED of all that crap. I WANT Obama to shake things up just a bit. So far, I'm Really Happy with our new Chief Executive. If he doesn't get everything he wants, at least DISCOURSE and EXCHANGE OF IDEAS are part of the scene, and for that, I'm enthused. Give 'em hell, Mr. President.


It'll take a superhuman effort to improve things 'cos Republicans are out there, armed with Kryptonite ...

Speaking of Politix, The DVD release of "W." (The George Bush Story), is this week and I'm tempted to get myself a copy. Although, it might have been more economical in the long run, to see it Once at a movie-house and then try to forget it. The DVD will probably cost upwards of twenty bucks, and I'll probably be able to bear seeing it only once. And, it does cost less to see a Movie at a Theater than the price of a DVD. So far, that is...
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Pass The Steroids...er, Cheerios: A-ROD, Alex Rodriguez, one of the most powerful hitters in history who hasn't been on a World Series Winning Team, says he took steroids as recently as 2003. Previously, he'd said he never took steroids. Remember Rafael Palmeiro of the Baltimore Orioles? He lied in similar fashion a few years back. And as a result, he ain't in baseball no more. Palmeiro was shunned in much the same way Barry Bonds was shunned last year. And we all know Barry Bonds ate Steroids the way most of us eat Cheerios. Back to A-Rod, though: Alex Rodriguez is basically the closest thing to a Human Robot I've ever seen. He's got a great swing, he's a good fielder, but he's never been able to Put It All Together And Be Any Kind of a Hero. In that regard, at least, he's (painfully) human.

Now, 'cos of Steroids, A-Rod faces the prospect of getting boo'ed everywhere he goes this year, and if you're a human being, which I assume he is, the negativity is gonna affect him. It's bad enough that A-Rod makes so much money that he could personally pay off our National debt (boo)..it's bad enough that he tanks whenever he's been involved in Post-Season play, (boo...) but now, we find out he's taken drugs. Boo. He's taken Steroids. Boo. He LIED about taking drugs. BOOOOOOO!!! Alex Rodriguez has Officially Set A Record for World's Most Overpaid Yet Still Unhappy Baseball Player In The History Of The Whole Wide World. Or, he will be, by the end of the Upcoming Baseball Season.)
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Back To The Real World For A While: Today, while driving around town, I saw a banged-up, but still-running Old Pickup Truck stopped at an intersection; I was right behind, and thru my windshield, I saw a bumper sticker which read, "MY KIDS THINK I'M AN ATM." Gosh. If kids go thru cash that fast, I Think I'll Just Stay Single.

Now, THAT'S a Whirly-Bird: Near the Dental Clinic, on the north side of Coos Bay (yep, the one that's taken All My Money), sits a little airport, and as I pulled in the clinic's parking lot, there it was, up in the sky, coming down for a landing and making a TON of noise. It was one of those huge orange-reddish Coast Guard Helicopters, the kind you see occasionally on CSI: Miami, and it was a Thing To Behold. Wow. That machine commands so much respect that I thought about Saluting as it flew by overhead. Those choppers are always going up and down the coast, looking for boats/ships in distress, and sometimes, they conduct training missions in the area. And they can really go FAST. I'd swear that one of those choppers is bigger than my HOUSE. And louder than Led Zeppelin. How about that...A chopper on steroids...

Infinite Peace In Rhythm: (That's the title to a song on a Carlos Santana Solo Album, I think...) I haven't been getting out on a regular basis for ages. One of the things I have done, though, is bring my acoustic guitar to a Drum Circle at a nearby Coffee Shop and strum chords while the drummers played their drums. A couple of drummers who showed up invited me to another drum circle, at a coffeeshop a little farther away, so I went tonite, with guitar in hand. Only, I didn't play guitar, instead spending the whole time drumming, mostly trying to hold a firm backbeat so as to let everyone else explore the rhythms; I have drum kit experience, so hand-drumming comes pretty easy.

People of all ages showed up, even some people older than me, which was comforting. It's a bummer to Always Be The Oldest Person at an event. One guy knew all sorts of technical terms for various African-rhythm time signatures, but no matter what, the rhythms always come back down to the backbeat. Two people brought Didgeridoos to the drum circle...Didgeridoos are long, tubular wood instruments, that when blown through, make a low, ominous droning sound, and they're easily 3 or 4 feet long...so could a Didgeridoo be thought of as a wood flute on steroids?
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Okay, folks, that's about it...this is one of those postings that just grew and grew, ending up a lot longer than I thought it would be, sort-of like a blogpost on steroids...

I've got the Blogging Blahs...
I can't think of anything to write about...

So I guess I'll write about THAT. Sometimes I'm absolutely bursting with different subjects to blog about, and other times, I find it hard to even Access this blogsite, 'cos if I do, I know I'll have to post something about something, and, if you've got the impression I'm Grinding This One Out, you are totally accurate. Blah, blah, blaaaaah...
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Well, okay, I could write about Experiences at the Dentist, since I'm doing a lot of that lately. In addition to the Dinner Plate in my head (my upper dentures), I now have a Soap Dish (thankfully, without the soap) adorning my jaw...that's right, I've got lower dentures, too. Before that, a couple of weeks ago, "yank! yank! yank! yank! yank!", that's right, I had 5 teeth pulled. I now have two teeth in my entire mouth, one each at the front corners of the jaw, which serve as anchors for the lower denture. Have you ever seen a Piranha from the front...two teeth stick up out of its jawline? That's how I look until I pop in the lower denture. It's alarming to be eating something, and have the upper denture fall down at the same time the lower denture slips upward, while you're trying to keep your tongue from burning by the hot food you're trying to eat. Talk about Alarm Bells going off in yer head...it felt like I was drowning in a sea of hash browns and country gravy. Thankfully, the dentist re-lined the upper denture...and things are now a little better. They don't slip. As much, that is. Tougher getting used to the lowers, tho. It's still a bit uncomfy to wear them more than a few hours. I think I have Water over my Troubled Bridges. Ack.
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As far as Political stuff, well, look...President Barack Obama, in my humble opinion, is doing his level best to Boot the opposition firmly in the ASS and get 'em to do something, anything, to get this economy going again. Today, Obama gave a speech in which he said the Republicans were expressing disdain over a Stimulus Package because it involves SPENDING. "ISN'T THAT THE IDEA?", Obama asked in a most direct and incredulous manner. Spending Money, after all, is pretty much the basis for ANY economy. Look...No One Person can do Everything Perfectly, but, dammit, I want a President to LEAD, and so far, from all I've seen and read lately, Obama is Leading. Congress sometimes is so damn monolithic and sluggish, and I think we've needed, for a long time, a leader to FORCE stodgy legislators to Do Something Different. Nothing is a 'sure thing'. Obama will make mistakes. My Dad, who I didn't agree with much, used to say, "Do SOMETHING...Even If It's Wrong." Yeah. Congress...DO SOMETHING, okay?
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If I see one more of those "FREE-TRIPLE-SCORE-DOT-COM" commercials ever again, I'm gonna spike my TV set into the ground! Those commercials feature about twenty different people, all saying the same thing. First Person: "What Is Free-Triple-Score-Dot-Com?" Second Person: "What Is Free-Triple-Score-Dot-Com?" Third Person: "Listen, You better tell me what 'Free-Triple-Score' Is or I'll put out a contract hit on you!!!" Fourth Person: "Why do I need All Three Credit Scores?" Fifth Person: "Why Do I need All Three?" Sixth Person: "Why The Living Hell Do I need All Three?" Seventh Person: "Cos One Score By Itself Ain't Enough, you IDIOT!" Eighth Person: "You Need All Three, you slimy piece of evolutionary-rejected pond scum!" Tenth Person: "Why isn't one credit score enough? Seventh Person: "Why Do I Need All Three?" Seventeenth Person: "'Cos without all THREE, your ASS is GRASS!!!" Thirty-Third Person: "Well, you don't have to YELL at me!!!" Ninth Person: "Isn't This The Most Obnoxious Commercial Ever?" Eighteenth Person: "Where Do I get All Three?" Twenty-Fourth Person: "How Much am I getting Paid for this?" Forty-Seventh Person: "Where the LIVING HELL do I get all THREE Damn Credit Reports, you Imbeciles?" Back to Third Person: "Free-Triple-Score-Dot-Com!" Twenty-Seventh Person: "Free-Triple-Score-Dot-Com!!! "Forty-third Person: "FREE TRIPLE-SCORE-DOT-COM, you illiterate birdbrained son of a BeeHive!!!" And it's about at this point in the commercial that I begin screaming at the TV, thusly: "Shut Up!" SHUT UP!!!" "SHUT THE F**K UP, DAMMIT!!!" Followed by me thinking, "Where the Hell is the Remote so I can mash the Mute button?" They've finally done it. They've made a commercial more irritating than "RING AROUND THE COLLAR!" P.S. I've used a little bit of linguistical enhancement in the above writing. No Small Animals were hurt in the printing of this paragraph. There. I feel a lot better now. Let's hear it for venting...
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You Can Call Me The Breeze: For those of you who may not know, Lynyrd Skynyrd's longtime keyboard player, Billy Powell died a few days ago; I guess he'd had heart problems. Powell was amazing to watch, because he could play piano in an almost pneumatic-hammer fashion, and within the context of a Loud Rock Band, he could match 'em all, pound for pound, on acoustic keyboards; his fingers would literally SMASH every single piano key, and notes would fly out of that keyboard faster than a Free Bird could Fly. If you wanna hear a crash course in Rock and Roll Piano, I can think of no better example than Skynyrd's version of "Call Me The Breeze", in which he gets a long solo break after the guitars are done, and he completes the first turnaround exuberantly, and then plays faster and harder on the Second turnaround of his solo, and even tho he's playing fast and hard, every single note rings out clear and true. Truly amazing. Fly on, Free Bird. Evidently Mr. Powell was severely injured in the 1977 plane crash that wiped out lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Allen Collins. Fly on, Free Bird, indeed.
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That's it. That's the post. No fancy pictures or graphics this time around. As a matter of fact, this blog needs some kind of Bail-out. Should I put a "Paypal" insignia up so you can donate to the cause? Easy Payments! Don't Delay! This blog is employee-priced! For a Limited Time Only!

Well, Someone had to win it...
A Super Bowl I didn't care about turned into a GREAT GAME...
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When I heard the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals were going to tangle in the Super Bowl, I figured Pittsburgh would win it, mainly 'cos they've Been There a whole lotta times before. I wasn't counting on it being a knockdown-dragout fight to the finish. It was one of those especially excruciatingly intense games; watching it in its entirety, every play, was like going on a Great Football Voyage, with both teams literally thrashing each other, until the game ended, with Pittsburgh coming out on top 27-23. I've watched a whole lot of Super Bowls that were 'turkeys', in which one team blew out the other, but that sure wasn't the case here. This game was an absolute MASTERPIECE.

Pittsburgh scored first; at one point, they led 20-7, and then Arizona came back and eventually took the lead, after which Santanio Holmes of the Steelers made an absolutely unbelievable catch in the end zone. Later on, with 30 seconds left in the game, Arizona had a chance to come back, and who knows what would've happened if QB Kurt Warner's throwing arm hadn't been snagged at the last second by a Pittsburgh defender. In this age of prima-donna athletes and ridiculous player salaries, The Athletes Ruled Supreme Today. This is one of the best football games I've ever SEEN. Both teams should be Really Proud of their performances. But someone had to win, and until the very end, this game was a toss-up. Coulda gone either way.
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Image...is everything: I went out to do some more photo-taking this past weekend, and managed to come up with some strange perceptions of nature; the photo at below left was taken from the Simpson Reef Overlook, with waves crashing on the reef about half-a-mile out, as seen through the fence which was thoughtfully installed so as to prevent vertigo-challenged individuals like me from doing an accidental swan dive into the ocean 60 feet below...

...the photo at above right pictures a kite someone was flying down on the beach; it looks like one of those precociously-pretentiously Photos That Aspire To Be 'Art'. Consider that the kite was about 50-60 feet up in the air, and I was above the kite, looking down from the Beach Overlook. While the legacy of Ansel Adams is surely not in jeopardy from my end, I think it's a rather cool photo. And an indication of how windy it was, which sent the January Chill Factor waaay down. Brrrrr...

A good photo, I'm finding, is more than anything, the result of being in the right place at the right time, and if the occasion presents itself, all you gotta do is press the button. I was sitting in my car, at the same old place I've taken dozens of photos already, thinking, "how am I going to get a unique photo here? Just then, three crows landed right in front of the car, and they're featured below...you can see a bit of 'reflection'; I was in the car and took the photo thru the windshield...



...shortly afterwards, I headed down the road a little ways, and even though I've stopped quite a few times at this location, I never noticed the "leaning tree" in the photo at above right. I've taken pictures here, but not this picture. Must be some really strong roots for that tree to maintain its location. The wind was blowing hard, and sent a chill thru my bones...note to self: Bring Warmer Coat Just In Case...

Finally, it was Sunset. If I'd had any sense, I would've gone home, because as the day progressed towards evening, it just got colder and colder. For a long time, I've been trying to get some really good pictures of a Sunset in which Clouds didn't get in the way, and I finally did! By this time I was freezing my ***** off, but it was worth it...although I couldn't really spend a whole lot of time getting ready to take these pictures, I did get these...so here's the Sun Setting Below The Ocean...



...obviously, I'm trying to get my cheap digital camera to do more than it can possibly do, so these photos are distorted a bit from what I actually saw; indeed, these look more like photos of a nuclear holocaust. With the world the way it is, one can hope these bizarre photos are the closest we ever come to witnessing such an event. Once the sun set, I hi-tailed home...after all, I had a little girl waiting for me...



Here's Little Jill, the Meyers' Parrot, feasting upon some Sun Chips I crumbled onto my shoulder. The thought comes to mind that she eats more chips nowadays than I do...chips just kinda don't go together with dentures very well...