Muddy Waters

I just finished Can't Be Satsified: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters by Jim Gordon. It was a fascinating book. Muddy, along with Johnny Cash, are two singers that I will always wish I had a chance to see live. So I thought I'd just post this video from You Tube of Muddy performing at the Newport Jazz Fest in 1960.

Scary, Very Scary

I've decided the worst aspect of a McCain Presidency is the fact that this woman would be just a heartbeat away from being the President. Does she even listen to herself? Now we now why the Republicsns don't let her do much press.

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Neko Case Videos

This week's 13 continues my last post. I was talking about Neko Case and figured I'd follow it up with 13 songs/videos of hers.

1. Maybe Sparrow


2.Furnace Room Lullaby


3. Behind The House


4. Brown Eyed Handsome Man


5. I Was Your Favorite


6. Buckets of Rain


7. The Tigers Have Spoken


8. Blue Blue Baby


9. Don't Forget Me


10. That Teenage Feeling


11. John Saw The Number


12. Things That Scare Me


13. Dirty Knife

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• Neko Case Covers Harry Nilsson, Performs New Songs At Bumbershoot

Neko Case

Neko Case is an amazing singer. Singing backup behind her in this video is Kelly Hogan, another pretty amazing singer.

New Additions to IPod

Ipod has just come out with some new additions. It's called Genius. You can take a song from your playlist and when you activate genius it will play songs from your Ipod that are in a similar vein as that song. Even cooler it will add a sidebar to your Itunes when you click on an artist of similar songs that you don't have.

Also your songs can be arranged in a grid format with a picture of the artist with a listing of how many albums and songs you have by said artist, click on it and you can see all the albums.

Pretty cool.

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• Create a Genius playlist on the iPhone and iPod touch

New Theresa Andersson Album

Ok, after two death posts in a row I needed something bright and cheerful and fun. And this song "Na Na Na" by Theresa Andersson is just that. Her new album Hummingbird, Go!came out this week and the whole album is filled with music like this. Anyone reading this blog for very long will know I've been championing Theresa for a long time now, but I have to say that if you were going to start with anything from hers this would be the album. Over at my other site Voices to hear I posted a review of the album.

And yes,she pretty much did everything on the album. Live she uses this set up you see in the video to start off her shows. She does a few songs solo from the new album before her band comes out to join her.

Gregory McDonald Dies

Image via WikipediaGregory McDonald, the creator of the series of novels starring the journalist Maurice Fletcher or as he was better known Fletch, died of prostate cancer on Sept 7. This information went under my radar until today when I was reading the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly. The Fletch novels are not great mystery stories, but are very well told stories that entertained me years ago when I read them. Please, if all you know of Fletch is the horrid movie do yourself a favor and read the books.

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• Gregory McDonald, R.I.P.

Earl Palmer Dies

The legendary drummer Earl Palmer died yesterday after a lengthy illness. He was 84 years old. Palmer was born in New Orleans and started his career as a tap dancer with his Mother on the black vaudeville circuit. Palmer helped create the early sound of rock and roll with Fats Domino, Little Richard and Smiley Lewis. His playing on "The Fat Man" features the strong backbeat that has become part of the rock and roll sound. In 1957 Palmer moved to California and played on more people's albums than I have space to list. A partial list includes: Ricky Nelson, Ray Charles Eddie Cochran, Frank Sintra, The Monkees...he played on The Righteous Brothers' hit "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'".

He is quoted as saying "I've been asked if people could borrow my drums because they like their sound. What the hell, they think the drums play themselves? I said, 'You really want 'em? Really? Okay. Cost you triple scale and cartage.'"

Fats Domino "The Fat Man"

Old School Fridays: Road Trip Songs

Driving down the road, windows wide open, this song blaring out of the speakers. It doesn't get any better than this. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers "Running Down A Dream."

This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participantsIf you want to join in on the fun

Save The Superman House

This post is being put on my other blog Life in 4 Colors also.

The house where Jerry Siegel created Superman is falling down. The city of Cleveland where the house is located has done nothing to save this house, where one of the most recognizable literary figures in the world was created, so Brad Meltzer is trying to save it. He's organized a group called The Siegel & Shuster Society to this end. Go to this page and read more about it.

Their auction is only half done and they've already raised $53,000, more than their goal of $50,000. Go check out their auction, or if your pocket book isn't quite that big go buy a t shirt.

Superman is an American Icon and his history needs to be preserved.

McCain and the Economy

Obama Ad

How Many More Will Die?

Casualties in Iraq
The Human Cost of Occupation
Edited by Margaret Griffis :: Contact

American Military Casualties in Iraq
Date	Total	In Combat
American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03):	4161	3376
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) (the list)	4022	3268
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03):	3700	3070
Since Handover (6/29/04):	3302	2743
Since Election (1/31/05):	2722	2481
American Wounded	Official	Estimated
Total Wounded:	30642	Over 100000
Latest Fatality Sept. 17, 2008
Page last updated 09/17/08 7:12 pm EDT
List of U.S. Servicemembers killed since 5/1/03
Put a Casualty Counter on Your Website
U.S. Wounded
Daily DoD Casualty Release
320,000 Vets Have Brain Injuries
War Veterans’ Concussions Are Often Overlooked
How Many Servicemembers Were Wounded?
18 Vet Suicides Per Day?

Norman Whitfield Dies

Norman Whitfield, writer and producer, died today at the age of 67. Whitfield was a writer and producer of many of Motown's biggest hits during their heyday. He wrote many of his songs with Barrett Strong, including what is probably their biggest hit "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" by the Temptations.

New Look

I've changed the layout of this blog, as if you couldn't tell, and dropped a lot of what was on the sidebar. It may not seem like it, the sidebar is still pretty long, but I really did drop a lot. I can't decide what to put on my sidebar, one minute I want to put a lot of stuff for everyone to check out and than the next I realize that the sidebar is about a mile long. So I'm not sure, I might end up adding more to it or I might end up deleting some more. What do you all think? Long sidebar? Short sidebar? Or don't care?

I'm still having problems with a lot of the layouts taking to my blog, but this one worked and I actually kind of like it, so I'll stick with it for the foreseeable future. What does everyone think?

New Kristy Lee Cook

This is the new single from Kristy Lee Cook from last year's American Idol show. I don't think she ever lived up to the potential I saw in her try out when she sang "Amazing Grace." I like this song and the album is ok. Pretty much standard for that generic country pop that seems to be everywhere.

Out of Order

I apologize for the confusing layout of this blog, for some reason it's going crazy. I can't get my right sidebar to post no matter what layout I use. Everything goes to the bottom. It's driving what little sanity I have away. If anyone has any suggestions I'll be glad to listen to them. I'm quitting for the night, before my head explodes.

Blog Blast For Peace

Don't forget about the Blog Blast for Peace coming up on Nov. 6. Go to Mimi's blog to get all the details. It's a good cause and everyone should blog for peace on that day.

Ike and Houston

How bad was Houston hit? I've seen some news from the city, but I can't tell how bad the city was damaged by the hurricane.

A Response to Dick Cheny During Katrina

From the pages of the aforementioned Oxford-American is the story behind the shouted out comment in the above video. I was always surprised that when President Bush finally showed up to tour the damaged areas caused by Katrina, or when Dick Cheney did, why someone didn't react angrily to them, after being ignored and forgotten by our government, why the press only ever shows people thanking them for their help, when they should have been asking where the help was. Maybe there was more, but the press didn't seem to care about the ones that didn't think things were going great. No one from the press even followed after Dr. Marble (the voice in the video) to ask why he did what he did.

Hurrican Ike Aftermath

I saw this picture and it just grabbed ahold of me. This is an AP picture taken by Tony Gutierrez.

New Oxford American

Every year I enthuse about the music issue of the Oxford-American, but that's the next issue to come out. This issue, the one that I just picked up at the newstand today, is subtitled "3 Years After-New Orleans and the Gulf Coast-In Their Own Words".

I'm still reading this issue, this is one of those issues of a magazine that I know I'm going to keep and go back years from now to read, but I can tell you now that it is amazing. The stories are about people the went through Katrina, people that went back to the city, why the city matters, stories that will make you stop and think, stories that will make you cry.

I can't recommend this issue highly enough, if you want to know even what a tiny bit of what if felt like to go through Katrina, to come back to the city, pick up this issue.

The Top Ten Singles of ALL Time

According to Billboard Magazine these are the top ten singles of all time:

1. The Twist by Chubby Checker


2. Smooth by Santana featuring Rob Thomas


3. Mack The Knife by Bobby Darin


4. How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes


5. Macarena by Los Del Rio


6. Physical by Olivia Newton John


7. You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone


8. Hey Jude by the Beatles


9. We Belong Together by Mariah Carey


10. Un-Break My Heart by Toni Braxton

Ike

We're safe from Ike, save for tropical winds and rain the main hit from Ike is going to be Texas and it looks like Gavelston and Houston. You know when one of these storms form in the Gulf you wish for it to miss you and hit somewhere else, but you really don't want it to hit somewhere else like Houston. There needs to be some sort of empty area that it can hit, but with more and more being built that's becoming less of a chance. The only good thing, and good is a relative term here, is that the storm should hit only (and I know just typing only it's more than just only) be a cat 2 and not the 4 it once was forcasted as. My thoughts and hopes are with the people of Texas right now, may they come out of this safe.

Sarah Palin and the Bridge to Nowhere

Much has been said about Sarah Palin opposing the bridge to nowhere in Alaska. Listen for yourself:

New AP Presidental Poll

The newest AP Presidential Poll shows McCain 48% to Obama's 44%. But there is a 5% margin of error in the poll, so I think this think is still running pretty much neck and neck.

Palin's Veto

Check out this article about Sarah Palin. She opposes abortion but she doesn't want to help places that aid teenage girls that need a place to stay.

Old School Fridays: Girl Groups

Like Thursday Thirteen I missed last week's installment of Old School Fridays, no internet due to Gustav. But I'm back this week for the theme of girl groups. My pick is Sleater-Kinney. This group was founded by Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein. Janet Weiss rounded out the trio as the drummer. The group was named after the street where they had some of their first practice sessions. All three played in former groups before joining together. The group never achieved a huge commercial success but were a critical favorite for their existence. The group went on a hiatus in 2006, from which they still remain, with no word on their coming back. This is "Dig Me Out" from the 1995 album of the same name.



This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participantsIf you want to join in on the fun

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Musical Artists Deserving Bigger Fame

Missed last week because I didn't get internet back up for a few days after Gustav. But I'm back this week with 13 Musical Artists that I think should be bigger.

1. Gina Villalobos


2. Drunk Stuntmen


3. Shannon McNally


4.Will Hoge


5.Theresa Andersson


6.Lily Holbrook


7.Erin Toland


8.Matthew Ryan


9.Carolina Chocolate Drops


10.Susan Cowsill


11.Alejandro Escovedo


12.Brian Stotlz


13.Amanda Shaw

Remebering

You've Got To Be Kidding!

I know it's still too far out to predict accurately, but look at the path they've got it going on. I don't believe it.

I'm Back!

Back home. I've actually been home for a few days, but had no internet service until today. Things are well, no damage. I'll talk more about my travels and Gustav later, I have to clean out my refrigerator since we didn't have power for three days. Thanks for all the kind thoughts and nice words. You've all been missed.