On the Road Again.

That's us. And just in time, too. With all the rain of the past couple of days we were turning mildewy. We've been parked too long in high humidity and precipitation, and are longing for the land of single-digit dew points.

So today, we bid farewell to 2008 and hit the road for the first time in '09, and are heading for Texas, and then (oh yeah) New Mexico.

But first! We needed to stop off in Acworth, GA and get the new rear window graphic installed. It was past time to get the old one off..

...The dark parts were turning white, and the whole thing was dried out and brittle. Besides, few people knew what the hell they were looking at. When they finally figured out the jackrabbit, they missed the dog completely, which gave Buffy an inferiority complex.

With Margaret's new design, the ambiguity is right out the window, (no pun intended). It's right in your face..

Almost like a Greyound Bus, huh?

Thanks to a quick install by Les and his employees, we were on the road (again) in no time, beat the Atlanta rush hour, and got 2/3 of the way across Alabama before stopping for the evening.

The Alternative Anthem.

A couple years back, I wrote about Susan Werner's alternative anthem, "My Strange Nation". Recent events in America have shown that the optimism expressed at the end of the song was not misplaced, and when all is said and done, it really is a love song.

I just put it on my new MP3 player, so I thought I'd share it once more. Enjoy.

Gimme Some Truth.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are two of my favorite days of the week on Sirius radio . For two hours (more or less) each day, Vin Scelsa reprises the glory days of FM "freeform" radio, broadcasting live from his basement studio in the hills of northern New Jersey.

One song he plays, without fail, every single week is one that maybe we should hear on a daily basis during this political silly season:


Especially relevant for a certain campaign that will remain nameless here... but they like to talk about a bridge. ;-)

Even Mindless TV Can Rock.

Who watches "America's Got Talent"? We got kind of hooked 2 years ago. So tonight we'll see the final 5. If America votes intelligently....*

these guys are my pick to be standing at the very end.

Amazingly, differently, entertaining.

*"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."- Henry L. Mencken

Democrats Have Cooler Funerals.

Great Television.

When PBS began promoting Carrier way back before Christmas, I knew I wanted to see it. A documentary film crew was given unprecedented access to the nuclear attack carrier, Nimitz, and also to it's crew. The program is 10 one hour episodes.. we missed the first two hours on Sunday, but caught the hours 2 and 3 last night. All episodes are available online.

For someone who spent four years in the Navy.. without setting one foot on board a vessel of any kind, (until, with only a month left in service, spending about a half hour visiting the USS Repose hospital ship in Danang Harbor), I'm finding the whole program fascinating. I'm almost glad I had the shore duty I did! Aircraft carriers are like a small town of 5000 (!) diverse residents, most of them very young, crammed into about 4 acres. And for 6 months at a time, they can't get away from each other.

Tonight, the ship and crew enters the Persian Gulf.

All hands stand by.

BONUS: The sound track is awesome. Playlist on the website.

So You Wanna Be a Rock'n'Roll Star...

Who wanted to be in a rock'n'roll band when you were young? Admit it. We all did. In high school, a friend and I, who had no instrumental skills, but vocalized our asses off, got together with a band and performed in the Senior Talent Show... we did songs by this new group from the British Isles. The Beatles, I think they were called. We got two encores, even though the teacher running the show said we couldn't have any. Screw you man! The chicks were screaming.

That's how I got to know Jim Osterberg.

Jim Osterberg? Oh yeah, he goes by Iggy Pop now.

Anyway, it never happened for me, but one can dream... Problem is, when people dream the dream they don't think far enough into the future. I heard this song today while listening to Vin Scelsa's Idiot's Delight old-time freeform radio show on Sirius radio.. It's definitely not "work safe". Is it "kid safe"? I don't know; I don't know your kids...

Leave it to the Finns & Russians...

...to do Southern Rock right! Todd, this is for you ;-P



HT Steve Bodio, and/or whoever sent it to him, with info on the band at the link.

All In the Family

It was damn cold when I got up this morning, but by the time we got up to Moriarty and got the dogs out of the vehicles, it was damn perfect weather. This would be the only chance we'd have for a -truncated- family shot. Maya (that loooong dog from a previous post) on the left, Zuni in the middle, and well, what readers of this blog don't recognize Sandia? The people? It matters? Okay, Steve Garth, and Chris Mason (without whom, neither Steve or I would have these fabulous Spanish Greyhounds).

I would be an irresponsible owner if I didn't post at least one picture of the group chasing a jack, with Sandia prominently in the lead...

... and a solo shot of Sandia's backside, showing some pretty decent muscling..

..and after Sandia had run two, I leashed him up so Maya and Zuni could get some decent photo time ;-) Sandia's run way more than his littermates at this point which, depending on my or Chris's point of view is either a good thing or a bad. Time will tell. Today was his last rabbit until next Fall at the earliest.. so I guess I could have let him chase a third one. It was a great day out with good people and promising dogs.

We headed back to Edgewood for breakfast at the East Mountain Grill... something I was looking forward to all week. The best huevos rancheros I've ever tasted.. with green chiles, of course, and good black beans. We had to wait for Steve a bit, because he was hung up in the parking lot on the phone with Jermaine Dupri. Oh, these movers and shakers I hang out with.

And the Winner Is....

Unknown.. at least here in New Mexico. More than 24 hours after the polls closed, there's still no winner in the New Mexico Democratic primary. With only one precinct left to count, Clinton leads by a slim margin of 1092 votes. But.. there are still over 17000 provisional votes to be counted, so it could be weeks before a winner is determined. Kind of mirrors the national race.

Close enough that if we lived here we could have conceivably cast the winning ballots! Our South Dakota primary isn't until June. I originally figured it would all be settled by then. Now I'm sure we'll order up our absentee ballots. We, like you, can make a difference. But who will we make a difference for? Hmmmmmmmmmmm...


...I just don't know...

Tom Brady & the Heartbreakers?

Hey, this is almost like "live blogging" the Super Bowl! Except this is all you'll see here until the end of the game. Maybe.

I know it's only half time... (great show by Petty et al, by the way), and I know the Pats have the lead, but geez.... I don't like the way this game's going.

Fortunately, they have the human equivalent of the Cray Supercomputer as the head coach, so I assume the problems will be adjusted to during the halftime. History awaits.

As to the commercials? Worst I can remember. That Doritos ad with the giant rat? WTF??

Merry Christmas to All...

..or whatever your special holiday. As I mentioned the other day, we didn't get a card made this year, for a variety of reasons, none of which are important enough to go into here, so I just had a brainstorm. Our.. My Christmas Card to all readers... with thanks to Robert Earl Keen:

We're Global! ...and a mystery

This is pretty cool. Here are the last 100 visitors to this site, by location. Every continent is represented! The mystery is that nearly all of the non-US visits came from Google image searches that returned hits to this post from last year. Now what would be on the internet that would cause people from all over the world to search for the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds album cover? Did I miss something?

Shakey Jake.

Every small town... and Ann Arbor was once a small town... has unique, special characters. From the early 70's and beyond, that character was Shakey Jake Wood, street person extraordinaire.

Word reached us today that Jake died on Sunday. He was 82. Maybe.

I have a picture I took of Jake in 1974, at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival- In Exile. (It was held in Windsor, Ontario Canada that year). How Jake got over the border, and back, is still a mystery to me. Anyway, the picture shows him hawking the Ann Arbor Sun- the counterculture paper of the day. If I can find the original slide when we attack our storage locker Thursday, I'll scan it and put it up here.

HT to Margaret's son, Tony. RTWT- especially the comments!

"I Brake For Jake".

The Boy's Been Named!

Outtakes.

It's been some time since we mentioned the globe-trotting dancing guy, Matt Harding. In fact, I'd nearly forgotten he was linked here until our friend, Paula (the world's greatest bartender!) mentioned that she had followed the link recently. I decided to do likewise, and isn't this just perfect timing that he's released the long awaited outtakes video from last year's world tour. Without further adieu, here it is:



That damned rock wedged in the top of the 1000M fjord still creeps me out.

He's also going on another world tour, courtesy of Stride Gum. And we can't even get a damned dog food company to sponsor the Hare Brained Express!

Papa's Got A Brand New (Body) Bag.

When I heard that James Brown had died, I knew I wanted to put something here. He passed away this weekend, in Atlanta, where we happen to be. There was a brief bit on the local news Friday night that he was hospitalized with pneumonia, had cancelled two appearances, but was ready to go on New Year's Eve at BB King's in New York. So when word came the next day that he'd died, I was surprised.

This ends a long, turbulent career for one of the most, if not the most influential musicians, and showmen, of our generation.

Jody Rosen, in this article on Slate.com pretty much sums it up:

"But Brown's achievement is larger than his own oeuvre and the genres that it begat. Flip on the radio virtually anywhere on earth today, and you will hear the sound of the Brown Revolution, the blare of propulsive, polyrhythmic dance music. Beats have conquered the world, even the West, where polyphony was born and melody and harmony have traditionally held sway. No other musician—not Louis Armstrong, not Elvis Presley, not Bob Dylan—can claim so central a role in this momentous cultural shift. "Make It Funky," James commanded, and from Boise to Berlin to Bangkok, they have." RTWT.

It hardly seems proper to say Rest In Peace for Soul Brother #1, so how about:

R.I.F. (Rest In Funk) Take it to the Bridge! Hey!!