Push It, Real Good

Push it, push it good, push it real good.

Closing out the bar ... push it, baby!

Oohh, baby, baby!

Push it good.

Push it real good.

Friday Random Ten

I haven't done a Friday Random Ten in a while.

I loaded up all 10,267 song titles, hit random play, and here they are.

5726 Wes Montgomery - Far Wes (some of the best and most stylish electric guitar playing, ever).

5820 Bo Carter - Pussy Cat Blues

9073 Ruben Ramos - Paloma Negra (hey, what can I say? I like Mexican music.)

1619 David Soul - Don't Give Up On Us (ok, who among us over 50 that doesn't remember this song!)

2958 The Fifth Dimension - Working on a Good Thing (Bones Howe was a fabulous producer).

4303 Michael Buble - Sway (of course, Dean Martin's version is far better!)

7951 Aerosmith - Janie's Got A Gun

1780 Asleep At The Wheel - Route 66 (I love this band, but I like just about any version of Route 66). Speaking of Route 66, I'm buying your next round on Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico, Anonymous (or as we like to call it, TucumCarrieCann!)

7475 Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers - I'm Not A Know It All

5437 Stevie Wonder - Living Just Enough For The City

Bonus track:

7962 Alice Cooper - Model Citizen

Miles Davis & John Coltrane- SO WHAT

Sort of the mood I'm in tonight.

So what.

She's No Henny Youngman

The problem with Ann Coulter is that she is a comic, not a journalist and most certainly not a pundit.

A comic will take things out of proportion and to the extreme, for a laugh. Everyone knows the comic is "joking" even if the premise of the joke may have some merit. If Coulter billed herself as a comic, and put her books out as comic commentary, the public would not be generally swayed to give her commentary credibility.

Comics come from all perspectives, conservative to liberal, and take cracks at famous people, including politicians. When they find weak spots, the comics heighten them and fabricate scenarios and opinions for the sole purpose of getting a laugh. The comic many times may not even share the opinion contained in the joke, but, most times, they do.

With Coulter being given the status of journalist and pundit (nd beyond, in some cases), even if only in a cursory loose way, she gets elevated among her partisan fans as having some relevance in the political and social world. People may laugh at what she says, and many go home feeling righteous about her nasty comments. A lot laugh and just write her off as a comic, but they still retain some of her underlying belief systems that allow her to make such statements in the name of intellectual commentary. Still others laugh uncomfortably, wishing they could figure a way out, liking her jokes, but disdaining her underlying premise.

That's why, if she just came out of the closet and admitted she is a comic, we could all get back to our daily routines, and not have to relegate to her any status above and beyond the world of comedy.

On A White, Sandy Beach

May 20, 1959 - June 26, 1997

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole aka Bruddah Iz

Tell Mama, Baby

For Anonymous ...

TeeVee, Or Not TeeVee

I stopped watching television local news, not because of any partisan leaning by the stations, but because when I would flip through to the four different channels offering the "evening news" at the 11:00 p.m. hour in Los Angeles (channels 2, 4, 7 and 13), none of them deviated from an apparent universal format. They all opened with the same lead story, they all went to commercial break at the same time, they all had the weather at the same time, the sports reports at the same time, etc. I was amazed at the cookie cutter format of my local news. It turned out to be the same for the 6:30 p.m. national news on the three network channels ... starting out with the same lead, taking the commercial breaks at the same time, and covering pretty much exactly the same stories.

I stopped watching television cable news when the Iraq invasion began, as it became obvious to me that no one on any of those channels, including the always trusted CNN, had the balls to actually go against this administration's "rah, rah, rah, let's go get 'em" version of the invasion. I feel lucky, in a way, because I have never subjected myself to the up and coming O'Reilly, Hannity, and others of the fabled FOX cable network, and I was easily able to identify the kool aid drinkers on CNN, MSNBC and the rest.

Of course, I had already been boycotting television programming on network for years, refusing to watch anything on ABC, CBS or NBC. I grew up in an era where you actually had a television "season" and shows were packaged and sold in 26 episode formats. There was the summer season that had re-runs and summer special fill-in shows, and then in September, back to the new season. In addition, shows were never pulled after just two or three episodes and shelved, because their viewer ratings weren't in the zillions. If that were the case, Archie Bunker would never have become a household name, and the Hawkeye/Trapper John shennanigans would not have become television legend. Hell, even the Partridge Family had a better run with worse ratings than say, Whoppi a couple of years back. Goldberg's show was funny, way funnier than say "According to Jim" or "Still Standing." Shows that I gave a shit about, like "American Dreams," "Joan of Arcadia," "Once and Again," and "My So Called Life" were axed without ever having more than two or three seasons in which to capture their audience, despite the fact that these shows wowed the critics.

And don't even get me started on reality shows, although I will admit to actually being addicted to two of them, "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race." I guess you would have to say we all embraced the reality show format when it first presented itself in MTV's "Real World" in New York. That show was interesting in that it focused on a household with different personalities, ideologies and behaviours, and forced them to come together is some fashion over a commonality such as a job they would all have to be responsible for throughout the show's series. None of the sucessive "Real World" participants ever rose to the level that the first group in New York did, and nowadays, the show is just a screen test for the latest party person and alcoholic.

I never watched a single season of "American Idol" until this most recent one (where Melinda Doolittle did NOT win), although I watched the final four presented in the very first season. Having grown up in the entertainment industry, I had to admit the final four had vocal talents, but what put me off in the first place was forcing the singers to have to perform that god awful song "A Moment Like This." It was obvious that the show's first season was going to try and tie in to it's publicity grind a songwriter's product, and I did not understand what that was all about. Fortunately, the subsequent seasons veered away from forcing a song upon the singers. I didn't watch the finals of any other seasons, but like most of America and the world, I started watching the first couple of weeks of auditions, where they showed the funny people who thought they could sing. But this season, I decided to actually watch the show to see how they were able to weed out the unqualified and get to those with fabulous pipes in the end. I still think Melinda was and is the best performer out of all the ones that I have had to listen to as the past winners of this program.

And, I have to admit to being a fan, now, of the show "So You Think You Can Dance." Apparently it is supposed to be their third season, but for the life of me, I thought last season where Benji won, was their first. Oh well. Because my background is more dance than singing, and because factually, you don't have to really have training if you actually have a naturally good singing voice, but you most definitely have to know dance to be able to follow a choreographer in any fashion, I was impressed very much with the talent pool that was pulled into this show. And even more so, amazed at the quality work of the different choreographers. While the dancers that are included in the top 20 include a handful that are not trained, and it has been fun to watch them step it up, so to speak, when they have to perform a dance routine that is outside of their speciality, it is clear that the top dancer(s) will end up being culled from the pool of those that are/have been trained. With all the ballet classes and jazz classes that I have taken since I was two years old, I never fail to find myself with toes fully pointed out whenever I am watching dancing of any form!

Cable television programming has offered better fare than "free" television as the networks are classified. I'm an unabashed fan of "The Shield," but like I mentioned way back in the beginning of this piece, there is no longer a 26 week format to television programming. Shows like "The Shield" and "Rescue Me," and even the ones on SciFi channel like the Stargate series and such, all run in six or seven episodes and call that a "season." The wait in between seasons for "The Shield" were more than six months! But even on cable, some really good shows get nixed, like my most favorite of all, "Farscape."

What is the point of this rant? I don't know. But last night's season finale of "Stargate Atlantis" was just a tad weak for me, and two seasons ago, I lost interest in "Rescue Me" despite the fact that I believe the show is well written and acted. I'm pretty bored with television as a whole, and the only real reason it is still on in my house is because I'm a sports pig. Yeah, I watch football, baseball, hockey, basketball, and an occasional boxing match! I used to get a kick out of WWF back in the 90's, but that's not really a sport.

Oh, and I am a sucker for an old western. Thank goodness for the Western Channel, where I can still catch shows like "Bat Masterson," "The Rifleman," (when I was 11 or so, I had a major crush on Johnny Crawford) and "Gunsmoke." I understand the "Law & Order" series (the original) is coming up on it's 18th season. "Gunsmoke" for all of you that give a shit, holds the record as the longest running television series, with 20 seasons under its belt.

(Footnote: Do not give credence to Wikipedia's assertion that "Gunsmoke" is the second longest running series, next to "Disney" programming. That's balderdash!)

All links courtesy of Wikipedia.

Just Moving The Meme Along

Bob is interviewing me.

It's interview time:

1. What is the one thing in life you feel most anxious about? Death.

2. If you were given a shopping spree for 1 day what would it be for? ($10,000 credit, doesn't have to be a store but can't pay off bills). With only $10,000, I'd probably visit Home Depot and the like and make over my apartment.

3. What would be your dream vacation spot? I still love NYC, and it still ranks up there as number one for me.

4. Which celebrity, past or present, do you most wish was still in the public eye? John F. Kennedy, just because.

5. Where did you lose your virginity? In Fresno, California, in bed with my soon to be first husband, about a week before our wedding.

Suck It Up, Paris

If Martha Stewart can do the time, Paris must do the time.

Remembering JFK 6/6/68

As it happened on television

The shooting was not broadcast live, but the resultant scuffle was recorded on audio tape by reporter Andrew West of KKRD, a Mutual radio affiliate. On the stage just after the speech, West had asked Kennedy a brief question about how he would go about overcoming Vice President Hubert Humphrey's lead in delegates to the Democratic National Convention (in a garbled response, Kennedy indicated a "struggle" lay ahead for the nomination). As West followed the Kennedy party into the kitchen area, he turned his tape recorder back on after hearing shouts that Kennedy had been shot.

CBS Television continued feeding live pictures of the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Room ballroom in the moments after Kennedy had left the ballroom's podium. For the next two minutes, CBS cameras panned the dispersing crowd of RFK supporters in the Embassy Room ballroom as well as another crowd of RFK supporters downstairs in the hotel's Ambassador Room ballroom. As microphones picked up the sound of supporters in the Ambassador Room chanting "rah rah rah", a CBS camera showed supporters in the Embassy Room reacting to the shooting that had just taken place, off-camera, in the kitchen pantry. As CBS's audio feed then switched from the Ambassador Room to the Embassy Room, the ballroom's northside service doors leading to the pantry could be seen swinging open while the sounds of screaming and chaos could be heard. The joyous crowd was now overcome with confusion and panic. CBS News correspondent Terry Drinkwater, standing at the podium where RFK had just spoken, asked someone what happened. An unidentified man answered: "Somebody said he's been shot".

Drinkwater then advised his CBS colleagues to "make sure we are rolling videotape". From the podium, RFK supporters called out for doctors and Kennedy's brother-in-law Steven Smith (with wife Jean Kennedy Smith at his side) calmly asked the crowd to leave the room. The first people Drinkwater approached were unable to provide any information; eventually, he and other newsmen were given some details from other individuals who had been witnesses to either the shooting or its aftermath.

Kennedy was shot twice in his back and once behind his right ear at very close range. A fourth shot grazed Kennedy's clothing. As Kennedy lay on the floor, bleeding heavily, West asked if anyone else was hurt. Five other people were wounded: William Weisel of ABC News (30), Paul Schrade of the United Auto Workers (43), Democratic Party activist Elizabeth Evans (43), 19-year-old radio reporter Ira Goldstein and 17-year-old Kennedy volunteer Irwin Stroll. Although not physically wounded, singer Rosemary Clooney, a great supporter of Kennedy's, was present at the shooting and suffered a nervous breakdown shortly afterwards (see: http://www.cincypost.com/2002/jul/01/rostim070102.html).

Kennedy was pronounced dead the next day.

I watched this as it was happening on television, as a 16 year old who lived in Long Beach at the time. I will never forget it.

"The Most Honorable Part Of The Sport"

"It's the most honorable part of the sport." Brett Hull regarding the longstanding part of hockey - fighting.

I was watching Don Cherry during the second intermission of tonight's Stanley Cup (game four) who called out the NHL for trying to package the sport to families in the United States, which belies the tradition of fighting in this Canadian sport. Cherry called NBC and others disingenuous when they allow such sports as Ultimate Fighting (and any one of a number of knock off shows), coupled with negative statements allowed in sports such as Kill The Quarterback in the NFL. Cherry feels that the sport should not be packaged as a family sport to mainly the US audience (because for Canadians, as Brett Hull put it, fighting is the most honorable part of the sport) , and challenged the NHL to bring it back to the adult level where fighting is expected and accepted.

I agree with him, too.

I hope Alfredsson is gone for the rest of the game. That was a cheap shot, in the literal sense.

Why Isn't It Troubling Congress, Or The American People, That Tax Dollars Are Being Used To Build Superbases In Iraq?

I am wondering where all the real outrage is in this country. For a while now, many of us knew that the United States was building super bases in Iraq. Hell, even I wrote about it here on January 4, 2006.

Now the government is slowly putting forth the meme that the United States will be a presence in Iraq for fifty years or more, likening it to our presence in Korea (which meme has been debunked by just about every blogger this side of the central time zone). Let's see ... first we had to invade Iraq because of 9/11, which of course had no relationship. Then it was because Saddam had those dastardly weapons of mass destruction, but heck, we would be in and out of Iraq in a couple of months and it won't cost the American people money because the Iraqi oil will pay for it. Of course, that was crap. Then it was we had to stay there to fight the insurgency, and once the government was formed, and properly elected by the people with their purple fingers, then we would be leaving. After that it was as Iraqi's stand up, the United States will stand down.

However, unbeknownst to the American public, Bush and his administration have been spending billions of tax payer dollars building bases, (five of them at the moment if you count the embassy in Baghdad), and none of them ordered by Congress or approved of by the American public! What's the whole point? Well, because Bush and his administration expected the invasion to be a cake walk and the oil ministry, which was the only building protected during the invasion, would simply turn over it's business to the big and strong Americans to run. American oil companies were already working on the privatization of the Iraqi oil, and contemplating the splits amongst themselves before they backed off of the project after witnessing the massive revolt of the Iraqi people (in the guise, of course, of "insurgency").

Congress has not approved spending on the bases, they are being done in secret and the American public is very much unaware of these bases. It is mind boggling the amount of money that is being poured into Iraq at the expense of our very own American people and on the heavily taxed backs of our middle class and poor.

And here I thought November 2006 was ushering in a new era of politicians who would not let Bush continue with this obscene war.

My mistake.

I'm mad as hell. Why isn't anyone else?