I’ve been answering comments this week but not posting due to my eldest son’s upcoming wedding. It’s a considerable distraction and I hope to get back on track next week. I do apologize for the lapse in new posts, though and beg your indulgence. I’m taking notes as usual, so while I may miss out on the hot story du jour, (which is really not my goal to report anyway), I should have some that break but go nowhere. I prefer them and hope you do, too.
The wedding is Saturday. Thanks for your patience. Oh yeah, speaking of hot news, did you guys hear that Michael Jackson passed away? You think that would get some bloody ink, now don’tcha’? Sheesh!
I’m sick of the GOP denying its racist roots and applying PR tactics in an attempt to mask its current ludicrous attempts to appeal to any other demographic than WASPs. There are a gazillion examples, historic and current. While the Democratic Party isn’t exempt, its record of fighting racism has been a part of its agenda for 40 years. Let’s also identify the GOP’s disingenuous “Party of Lincoln” claim, which technically stands but overlookswhat both parties represented then and now, as what it is, bullshit. Lincoln may not have started out as the “Great Emancipator” but through years of gut-wrenching struggle and monumental conflict, the forge of history tempered his feelings to provide the legacy that survives him…a legacy that’s scurrilous to associate with the current Republican Party. Lincoln’s ever-evolving views on race are well documented.
"Isolation" by Justine Beckett (Click for artist comment/info/purchase)
In modern society, we seem connected. I’ve long contended that as technology provides more ways for us to quickly communicate, we in fact tend to spend far less time exchanging truly meaningful information. In essence, these tools provide the “illusion” of communication as we “amble through” life rather than actually participate in it. The more we seem to communicate, the greater the potential for isolation becomes.
An example is public cell phone use. We bustle about conversing with others OUTSIDE our immediate situation and totally miss that which surrounds us…perhaps right next door, across the street or a floor above. Even as we have more ways to keep in touch, isolation grows. It can be tragic, manifest in many ways.
When Rufus was 3, his parents divorced. He lived with his mother in Montreal, Canada through his youth.
Rufus Wainwright
Playing piano at age 6, Rufus was touring with “The McGarrigle Sisters and Family” by age 13. High school was in upstate New York and he later studied piano in Montréal. Wainwright has dual citizenship.
It’s a little early for Friday Night Concert Clips, but my son just reminded me of an artist we saw open for Martin Sexton last year at a club that’s been a staple at Ohio State ever since I can remember, currently called Newport Music Hall (back in my day, it was the Agora). Of course Martin Sexton’s amazing live but I’ve yet to find a decent quality live clip of him to post. I keep looking.
Ryan Montbeau came as a total surprise to us. We Googled him and found his My Space page, which is great. He’s one of those rare musician/writer/singers who can entertain as well alone as when accompanied by other talented players.
Could it be that the transparency touted by Barack Obama during the election is an illusion? Could my hero be resorting to (and I don’t say this lightly,) Goebbels-inspired propaganda techniques polished to a blinding gloss by the Neocons/Republicons? Say it ain’t so, B.
At Wednesday’s virtual Town Hall meeting certain of the press corps cried “foul,” most notably CBS’ Chip Reid and columnist Helen Thomas, who objected to Obama’s format in which he responded to pre-selected questions, a practice that indeed has a deeply disturbing ring to it. It went like this:
Partially due to sloth and also to Terms of Use posted at Mashable.com, rather than interpreting/editorializing their article, click above and you can enjoy it as I did. But check out the video first.
It appears that recent rumors of the demise of Jeff Goldblum were greatly exaggerated. They had fun with it on Comedy Central’sColbert Report.
One U.S. cable network claims to have “the best political team in the business,” another says it’s “the place for politics,” and yet another calls itself “fair and balanced,” when in fact, it’s the official mouthpiece of the Republicon Party. Conservatives chronically gripe about “liberal media bias,” the “liberal media elite,” yet their “News” outlet of choice is far and away the most slanted, the most biased of any of the cable bigs. But since their SLOGAN says it reports…we decide, since they CLAIM to be “fair and balanced,” it MUST be true. After all, it’s on TV.
While ideologically different and at times, polar opposites, there is common ground among cable news operations. I still can’t park my remote at any for extended periods because they all suffer the same malaise, just in different ways. And Fox is so extreme that it seems a sick skit.
Al Franken is Minnesota’s senator elect, according to a unanimous 5-0 decision handed down today by Minnesota’s Supreme Court, most of whom are appointees of Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota’s Republicon governor, who had refused to certify election results in the face of sustained challenges by the incumbent, Republicon Norm Coleman. I hear a train a comin’…
What do you call a health insurance company that deliberately “deep-sixes” sick policy holders and intentionally confuses others to limit claims and maximize profits?
I’m sick of the GOP denying its racist roots and applying PR tactics in an attempt to mask its current ludicrous attempts to appeal to any other demographic than WASPs. There are a gazillion examples, historic and current. While the Democratic Party isn’t exempt, its record of fighting racism has been a part of its agenda for 40 years. Let’s also identify the GOP’s disingenuous “Party of Lincoln” claim, which technically stands but overlooks what both parties represented then and now, as what it 
