jason100x

Best Albums of 2011

2012-01-10T13:31:00.001-08:00

Another year has passed and its hard to believe that we are in 2012! That means it's time for me to do my annual Best albums list for 2011, a year that turned out to have quite a few good releases.

1. Robbie Robertson-How To Become Clairvoyant (Not that I was expecting a bad album, not at all, but this surpassed my expectations. Very emotional disc)
2. Tom Waits-Bad As Me (another solid, twisted Tom Waits release)
3. Warren Haynes-Man In Motion (great soulful solo disc from the Allman Brothers guitarist)
4. Daryl Hall-Laughing Down Crying
5. Anthrax-Worship Music
6. Duran Duran-All You Need Is Now
7. Gregg Allman-Low Country Blues
8. Chickenfoot-III
9. Allison Krauss And Union Station-Paper Airplane
10. The Cars-Move Like This

The iPod Touch

2011-11-29T09:31:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I finally got around to picking up one of the new iPod Touch units. I had an earlier iPod, the red and black U2 edition that came out in 2004. This one, however, is a big leap forward. It is a virtual portable home entertainment unit. What a great little device! I am able to download and catch up with the podcasts I listen to like G. Gordon Liddy's show and Joe Rogan's show and even watch tv shows like American Horror Story and Ice Road Truckers. I've downloaded books onto the unit and was able to read free ebooks on publishing and the writings of Confucius. All that and having more than 4000 songs!

Colds and Flus going around

2011-11-29T09:22:00.000-08:00

I don't get sick very often. Someone I once knew gave me the useful advice to take a shot of rum straight when I feel those beginning sensations of getting sick. For the most part, that solution has worked well. Last week, I started feeling sick during the day at work and had no access to rum until I got home and by then the sickness was well-entrenched. That one was a rough one and knocked me out for the most part. I've shaken off the actual sickness but am now contending with a case of laryngitis and have no voice. It's been weird going around the last week with no voice, having to whisper. Oh well, it seems to be a rough season!

Borders RIP

2011-09-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

Well, the time has finally come. The end of Borders has just about arrived. Even though I've only known about the retail chain for fifteen years, it has been in existence for about forty. They had an excellent selection of books and certainly a fair percentage of my large book collection came from a Borders store somewhere. Up to the early part of this year they had five stores in Manhattan and another store in the Glendale part of Queens that I shopped on occasion. Now there are only two in Manhattan and the Glendale store, all in the last stages of liquidation. As I write this, the store in Penn Station has two days left and the remaining stores pretty much should be done within the week.

Marvel's New Universe

2011-08-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

I've been rereading my old New Universe comics. These hold up real well. The New Universe was Marvel's creation (actually Jim Shooter, then Editor-In-Chief of Marvel) to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Marvel Comics (or more specifically, of Fantastic Four #1 that is considered the launch of the Marvel Universe that continues to this day). The New Universe was an ambitious release of eight comic series, all of which took place in their own self contained history with nothing to do with the other titles published by Marvel. It was meant to take place in 'real" time, meaning a twelve issue monthly run would be the equivalent to an actual year, unlike the regular comic universe where ten years of a comic can still not equal to a year in the character's life.

It's hard to believe, but it is now 25 years since the launch of the New Universe. I remember how it was a pretty big deal and some friends and I went to the local newsstand to see how many of the titles we could pick up. I was too late to get Star Brand #1, which was the series that launched the line but I did find most of the other first issues as they came out. The titles were: Star Brand, Spitfire And The Troubleshooters, Justice, DP 7, Psi Force, Marc Hazzard: Merc, Nightmask and Kickers Inc. I have issues of all eight series. Nightmask didn't catch my interest and I never made it past the first issue. Kicker Inc. struck me as a lame Fantastic Four knockoff, sort of if the Fantastic Four played football and I didn't go far with that series either. Star Brand was not a great comic by any means but I ended up with a fair number of issues. I did like Merc, the main character didn't have super powers but was just a well-trained soldier, who was as the title stated, a mercenary. Spitfire was sort of an Iron Man knockoff, albeit a female lead. It was a good series and I still have most of the issues. I liked Justice about a New York cop who gained superpowers due to the same "white event" that led to Star Brand getting his powers. That's another comic I stuck with to the end. DP7 and Psi Force were both variations of the X-Men but I liked both series a lot. They were my favorites of the New Universe line. I stuck with them to the end. DP7 had the benefit of being written by Mark Gruenwald, one of my favorite Marvel writers and one of the writing heavy hitters until his untimely death about fifteen years ago. He stuck it out to the end of DP7.

It was not a good sign when, a year after the launch of the line, four of the eight series were cancelled and no new series came into being. Spitfire, Nightmask, Kickers Inc., and Merc all got the ax. Star Brand went to bimonthly status and Jim Shooter was gone as Editor-In-Chief of Marvel, strongly rumored to be out because of the less than stellar success of the New Universe. He has an interview about the whole situation here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010509182726/www.comicbookresources.com/features/shooter1/index3.shtml

A last ditch effort was made to save the line with the introduction of the one-shot issue, The Pitt that featured a supposed nuclear strike (that turned out to have been caused by the powers of Star Brand by accident) destroying the city of Pittsburgh, leading to World War 3 and the subsequent one-shot, The Draft and then the four-issue limited series, The War and tying together all of the remaining series. The angle didn't work as the line limped on to cancellation in early '89. Entertaining stuff however, an idea with lots of potential that didn't live up to its promise it still is worth checking out in the back issue bins. All can be had for cheap. Funny how my friends and I thought that Star Brand #1 was going to be worth a fortune!

Airboy/Eclipse Comics

2011-08-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

I dug out my old issues of the comic from the late '80s Airboy. It ran fifty issues from 1986 to 1989 and is kind of lost in the shuffle of comicdom. Too bad. It doesn't deserve to be. Airboy wasn't Marvel or DC, it was a smaller comic company called Eclipse. I used to like Eclipse, they put out a lot of quality comics, they were small but they got talented writers and artists. Airboy was written by Chuck Dixon who was one of my favorite Batman writers. I used to read quite a few of their comics back in the day. I lost touch with their comics by the time I went to Emerson and I just recently looked them up to see what happened to them. They had a bad flood that ruined a lot of inventory (unlike Marvel or DC, they added to their income by selling back issues of all of their comics). That, coupled with Image coming out in the early '90s, with Spawn to compete directly against Marvel and DC, squeezed them out of the market and they faded away. Too bad. I still have a lot of their stuff.

E-Readers

2011-07-07T09:46:00.002-07:00

A few months ago I picked up the Kobo e-reader from Borders. It's a small, light unit and can store a considerable amount of e-books on it. The battery life lasts quite a while, actually I've gone a few days without charge and I read a lot. The screen isn't great though and you can get a headache reading for too long a time. When I saw a coworker's Barnes and Noble Nook Color, I knew I had to get one. So now I've had it for two weeks and I love the picture on it. Reading magazines, especially those like Reader's Digest and Guitar World, which have lots of color pictures, couldn't any better. The online capability is easy to access when one is in a Wi-Fi spot (not so with the Kobo). It's easy to download books. The only flaw with the Nook color is the battery life, not nearly as long as the Kobo. Of course it has a lot more going on, it's almost like a tablet.

Role Playing Games

2011-07-07T09:46:00.001-07:00

I was going through some of my old role playing games that remain in the basement of my parents' house and was reminded about how much fun they used to be to play and collect the accessories (modules, guidebooks). They bring me back to the mid-'80s and were a great tool to expand one's imagination.

I ended up collecting so many role playing games at the time that some of them I never played with anyone. They just looked nice or I was simply interested in comparing their game play to other games. The ones I played to some degree or other were:
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (of course)
Star Frontiers (probably the game I played the most)
Middle Earth Role Playing Game by ICE (probably the best designed system I've seen; their modules were works of art, especially with the mapping of the lands)
Indiana Jones (this one was a lot of fun)
Marvel Super Heroes (this was probably runner up to Star Frontiers in terms of how much I played it with my friends, we had a lot of fun with this, and since I was a big comic collector at the time, the modules and supplements made good references to events in the comics)
Paranoia (a game involving rebellion in a brain washed society)
James Bond (yes, there was an RPG based on the Bond films, it had very nicely done modules based on some of the movies)
Boot Hill (a trip to the old west)
Dr. Who (my favorite show at the time so it was an easy call to get this game)

Then there were the games I bought or acquired by trading with people that I never got to actually play with people but were in my collection:
Traveller (I always wanted to get more into this game, it looked like it had well developed universe to play in but it was more difficult to find supplements and modules than many of the other gaming systems)
Man, Myth And Magic (sort of Roman Empire meets King Arthur's Court)
DC Heroes (like with the Marvel game, this one had a lot of good supplements) Gamma World (the aftermath of a nuclear war)
Top Secret/Top Secret SI (spy stuff like the James Bond game)

I think that's pretty much it for what I had. By about 1987 the people I used to play RPG's with moved on and were more focused on video games. With no one to play with my interest waned as well but it's still fun to pull them out from time to time. Some of them I don't have anymore, they were lost over time but many I still do.

Justice is finally served

2011-05-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well, the US (as far as we know if you don't believe the endless conspiracy theories) finally tracked down the hated Bin Laden and put an end to him. As Jim Lampley excitedly yelled out when George Foreman, a heavy underdog, knocked out undefeated Michael Moorer at the age of 45 to win the heavyweight championship, "It happened! It happened!" It needed to happen and it's an operation that ranks with the great military operations. That his death occurred doesn't solve the dilemna of terrorism but it is a strong step in the right direction and sends an important message that those who think they can harm the US and its citizens and get away with it, are wrong. Bin Laden could not be allowed under any circumstances to get away with the acts of violence against this country that he was partly, maybe even mostly responsible for. Another major player in the terror atrocities of 9/11, Ayman Al Zawahiri still remains unpunished and should meet the same fate as Bin Laden at some point.

It boggles my mind, however, that there are people who would justify these acts of extreme terrorism. They downplay what happened or take the attitude that "America had it coming", an attitude that I find despicable and unacceptable. On a particular forum that I frequently contribute to had a discussion about Bin Laden's demise. I posted:
"Oh, I am sure there will be plenty of conspiracy theories about this one. This is great news, though. The only good terrorist is a dead one and now he will be able to join Hitler, Stalin and other reviled figures on the roller coaster ride to hell. Next stop, Ayman Al Zawahiri!"

To which some person from Iceland responded:
"And who will be next after him, and after him and after him...Ohhh, just kill em all right?" (Brilliant, as if Bin Laden should just be allowed to get away with contributing to the murder of thousands of innocent people)

I responded:
"If they conduct mass carnage for their demented purposes, then yes exactly."

He came back with this lame distraction from the point about whether US policy in Iraq since 2003 was mass carnage as well. Unfortunately that post was removed from the thread. We went back for awhile with some threads that were removed and then he backed off from his sympathetic toward Osama views. I finished with this before the thread was closed:

"Sorry then that I don't want to hug those who would try to destroy my country or inflict pain on my countrymen. There was no justification, I don't care how many pretzels someone might twist themselves in to try, there is NO justification to turn a great plaza like that with its skyscrapers into a hole in the ground. With Bin Laden's money he could have used it for great good, unfortunately he had other purposes in mind. Hurray for him leaving this earth, too bad it didn't happen before Sept. 11, 2001."
__________________

The Kobo ereader

2011-04-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of the fact that Borders is closing some of their stores to finally delve into the realm of ereaders. I picked up a Kobo ereader for $60, which was a real bargain. I have so many books that my shelves are overflowing and I have books lining the floor. It's a big mess. Therefore it's nice to have a unit that sort of acts like an iPod of books. I can store hundreds (and if I get an SD card, thousands) of books on this unit. Nothing beats having a book in your hand (and I read a lot of nonfiction which sometimes involves flipping back and forth between text and endnotes) but it was nice on a long bus ride like I took today to have to only carry this little and very light ereader. The Kobo also comes with a hundred classics already preloaded so I was able to reread Sun Tzu's Art of War. Add in something like a nine hour lasting battery and this unit was quite a steal at $60!

Philadelphia

2011-04-23T15:45:00.001-07:00

Tuesday I was off from work so I took the bus down to Philadelphia as I try to do once or twice a year. This year I might head down there more than two times as I would like to go to the Museum of Art and also see the inside of the Eastern State Penitentiary . It's a nice city to go to for a day trip, very pedestrian friendly, and while not New York City in terms of things to, has quite a few places in its own right. It has a lot of great architecture as well.

The Reading Terminal Market is probably the single most impressive collection of eateries that I've ever seen. It has farm fresh food, much of it from Amish farms. There are several places that make some really impressive Philly Cheese Steaks (I went to Carmine's this visit). The Famous 4th St. Cookie has the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had and it is easy to get overwhelmed by all of the other kiosks in the market. There's Chinese food, Amish food, Middle Eastern food, just about anything imaginable. Next time I go I plan to take advantage of the Jambalaya.

Then there is the Italian Market, hidden away in an out of the way section of the city in South Philly. That is the location of the famous Cheese Steak competitors Pat's, King of Steaks and Geno's. Both are very good. I've been slightly favoring Pat's but maybe I'll give Geno's another shot in my next visit. There is so much more in the Italian Market. It should also be called the Latin Market as there are many eateries of Latin American descent.

My recent visits have not even involved going to the real tourist places in the city like Independence Hall and the US Mint but I went to those places when I was a kid. The Bourse is an interesting mall in that Independence district, I believe one of the earliest malls in the country. It's certainly a city well worth checking out.

Jonah Hex

2011-03-09T13:42:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I went to the comic book convention at the Pennsylvania Hotel and came across a trade paperback collecting early issues of DC's 70s Jonah Hex comic, many from DC's western anthology title Weird Western Tales and a couple from the 1977-1985 Jonah Hex comic. I have a bunch of issues of Jonah Hex and Weird Western Tales sitting in a box and reading the trade paperback made me pull out my collection. Those hold up very well.

A good Western comic, Jonah Hex tells the story of a Confederate soldier who is hideously scarred (the answer to how he became scarred is in issues 7 and 8 of the Jonah hex comic and I don't have those issues) and becomes a gunfighter in the old west with a plethora of recurring characters including the father of his late Civil War friend, who believes Jonah was a traitor to the Confederacy and led to the death of son and will stop at nothing to exact vengeance on Jonah Hex. This isn't a super hero comic. Those out there who might think that super hero comics are beneath them but like a good story could do a lot worse than to try the Jonah Hex comic.

There was a movie released last year that was supposed to be a big summer film but flopped, based on and titled Jonah Hex. i didn't see that movie yet but will soon. Anyway that trade paperback featuring those early issues was one of the best $8 I've spent in a long time. I only hope DC puts out more volumes like that one collecting more of those issues as they have actually gotten quite expensive. I might shell out some money soon for certain key issues like 45, where Jonah gets married and issue 92, which is the last issue from 1985.

Interestingly enough DC cancelled Jonah Hex and replaced it with a series called HEX where he is taken by some dimensional vortex to a Mad Max-type setting in the future. I collected all 18 issues of that series back in the late '80s and I plan to dig them out of my parents' basement when I go back to Connecticut in a few weeks and reread them. I am aware that there is a more recent Jonah Hex comic that I believe is currently running but I haven't read those issues yet.

Lulu.com

2011-03-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

I have been researching possibilities for becoming a published author (samples of my work are posted in earlier blogs). There is the normal and probably most common method of publishing by finding a good agent. Then there is another possibility, that of self-publishing. Those of you out there who are writers would do well to check out lulu.com. When I have some expenses taken care of that I need to get taken care of, I will likely shell out some cash and have some copies of my books published. I have a book by someone else that was published by lulu and the quality of the printing job is very good.

Teena Marie

2011-02-28T07:53:00.000-08:00

This is a little late as she died two months ago but I wanted to say a little something on the very talented R&B singer Teena Marie. Now anybody growing up in 1984 was familiar with her monster hit, "Lovergirl" as that song was inescapable. For many years, though, she slipped under my radar. I was aware that she had critically acclaimed albums but I just didn't get around to checking her out. Then when I got an XM Radio one of my most frequently played stations was XM 64 The Groove I heard her song, "Square Biz", which is one of the catchiest songs I have heard, with an amazing groove. Unfortunately, though, it took her death and the comments I read in the retrospectives on her career for me to finally check her albums out. The shame is that most of her albums are out of print and her catalog was allowed to disappear. On Amazon.com many of her albums are very expensive, partly from being out of print and partly due to interest in her on account of her death.

I was able to pick up two of her early '80s albums on Motown, Irons In The Fire and It Must Be Magic, both of which are really good, especially It Must Be Magic. That album is one of the catchiest albums I have heard. "Square Biz". the title track, "Revolution" and "365" are all songs that stay in the head once you've heard them. Now I have to get her Columbia albums, which are out of print. Emerald City sounds particularly interesting as it adds more of a hard rock sound to her music. I was able to pick up two compilation albums of her Columbia years, Funk Biz and Love Songs. Both are full of really good songs that slipped through the cracks. She had an amazing voice and I wish I could have gotten heard some of those songs earlier. "Love Me Down Easy" in particular is a great song that I've been listening to over and over again.

Lawmakers' Occasional Stupidity

2011-01-26T11:41:00.000-08:00

This news article that I read in the morning paper got me really angry:

"Carl Kruger thinks too many pedestrians are being injured because they aren't paying attention while crossing the street. As a New York state senator from Queens, every year since 2007 he has proposed a law making the use of an electronic device while crossing the street a crime. Cross the street in a major city in New York while using your cell phone or listening to your iPod and he wants to fine you $100.
"Tuning in and tuning out can be a fatal combination on the streets of New York," Sen. Kruger said.
Kruger's bill is S1945-2011. It is one of over 4,000 bills that have been submitted in the State Assembly and State Senate so far in 2011. Only about 9 percent of submitted bills passed both houses in 2009-2010, and the governor signed about 82 percent of them into law. This bill may not have much of a chance of passing but it has a chance."

That said, Shame on State Senator Carl Kruger. He should be thrown out of Albany for wasting the taxpayers' money! This proposed law actually made me very angry.

I live in NYC and when the weather is nice I enjoy taking walks all around the city and I listen to my Sony Walkman or my XM Radio and I also pay attention to my surroundings, including looking both ways when I cross an intersection. Listening on my headphones is an activity that I enjoy very much. It would be ridiculous for me to have to stop at every intersection, take my headphones off to cross just to avoid problems with the legal system just because out of the million or two million or even more people who walk with headphones there are some idiots who don't pay attention and a few people pay for their stupidity with their lives. People should be looking both ways before heading across an intersection (I even look both ways crossing a one way street just in case there is some fool backing up without looking in a car), they can still not look even if they are not wearing headphones. That doesn't mean I should have to suffer for it. I've lived in urban areas where I am a pedestrian for almost twenty years and I've regularly used portable devices that whole time and haven't been hit by a car yet and hope not to be in the future! That's maybe hundreds of thousands or millions of intersections that I've crossed.

The Top 10 Albums of 2010 (As I see Them)

2011-01-14T08:45:00.000-08:00

1. Jeff Beck-Emotion & Commotion
2. Robert Plant-Band Of Joy
3. Sade-Soldier Of Love
4. John Mellencamp-No Better Than This
5. Iron Maiden-The Final Frontier
6. Neil Young-Le Noise
7. Bruce Springsteen-The Promise
8. Phil Collins-Going Back
9. Taylor Swift-Speak Now
10. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers-Mojo

I counted The Promise since, though recorded thirty-plus years ago, the material was entirely or almost entirely unreleased. The Jeff Beck is the new album that I played the most this year, and while he always has some good stuff mixed with filler, this time out he made an even more consistent album. Robert Plant and John Mellencamp have both been very impressive of late with their career turns toward tackling Americana. Mellencamp’s career has always been strongly informed with old style Americana music but lately his albums have no trace of modernity and could have been recorded in the fifties or sixties. Iron Maiden always impresses me with their consistency. They are one metal band that continues to be at or almost at the same level they were at their peak. I liked their last album, A Matter of Life And Death more than The Final Frontier but the new album is still very good and has some excellent tracks that make fine additions to the Iron Maiden catalog.

Current pop music is no where near as interesting to me as pop from, oh say the ‘80s. Too much relying on Autotune, too many songs that try to be catchy and simply end up annoying, listening to a Top 40 stations these days requires a bottle of aspirin nearby. That said, I have been very impressed with Taylor Swift. Although there are some modern production touches on her album, the songs could have come from a good country/pop singer in the late ‘70s and “Mine” is one of the rare recent pop hits that I can’t get out of my head and don’t mind that fact. Phil Collins makes the cut with a respectable album of Motown cover tunes and this album is certainly better than his Testify album from 2002. He brought out some of the Motown players like bob Babbitt for authenticity and the whole thing works as well as covers albums go.

This is the first year in a few years where I was able to come up with a Top 10 new release list with a full ten releases. The last few years I struggled to come up with even seven or eight choices. I’ve bought a lot of music but it’s always stuff from prior years. In fact, I left one purchase off, the Michael Jackson outtakes album, that I guess counts as being number 11. It has a few decent songs but too many appearances from lame performers like Akon and too much Autotune gave the album a less than stellar impression.

Also, there are some albums that would most likely make the list but I never got around to picking them up like the new Joe Satriani and Steve Lukather had a solo album that I wouldn’t mind checking out but didn’t get in 2010. I am sure the Satriani would have made the list.

The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas

2011-01-14T05:32:00.001-08:00

Another year has come and gone and it always seems that my goal with a new year is to increase my knowledge significantly. Well, that again is the goal this year but this time part of my plan is to refine things that I've already learned by rereading some of the better books in my collection. One subject I am currently going back to is the Spanish Civil War and the most fascinating book on that subject is The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas, a very large, very detailed and very thorough volume that I've read a couple of times before, although not for a number of years. I am rereading it again and, while a very complicated book, it will make one masterful on the subject.

The Civil War of Spain lasted from 1936-1939 and involved the Nationalists, led by a cabal of military officers and eventually primarily by Generalissimo Francisco Franco and the Republicans, who were made up of Communists and Anarchists and many other coalitions who were never totally unified. The complexities of the war consist of the fact that there were so many sides involved, each with their own agendas and ideologies. Also, the war became a practice ground of sorts for the looming Second World War. Hitler and Mussolini provided aid to the Nationalists and the Soviets and many other nations provided aid to the Republicans. Eventually after much bloodshed, the Franco forces came out victorious leading to a dictatorship that controlled the nation for the next four decades. The book is a very intense read but I would highly recommend it for anyone with an interest in those times.

Mini Discs

2010-11-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

There was a thread on the Steve Hoffman forums asking the question of why the Mini Disc music format didn't succeed. It did have a decent shelf life. Here in this post I attempt to answer that question as I was a long time user of MD's, still use them from time to time.

Mini-discs as an overall format stuck around for quite a long time. Not as long as cassettes or CD's but they hung around. I remember when they launched in 1992 with huge displays in the stores and a lot of prerecorded albums available in that format and it was around 1994 when I bought my last player in the store (I ordered more players on eBay after that) and J&R Music World still sold blank MD's until about a year or two ago. I contemplated getting a Mini Disc player when they first came out but they were expensive and the individual prerecorded discs were expensive, 16.99 or 18.99, I don't remember exactly but they never seemed to be on sale. That might have been why the prerecorded format never caught on in terms of having a chance at replacing CD's. I didn't hear much about MD's for awhile after a year or two and even thought they had become another example of a technology that had slipped away when in 1997 a friend told me he picked up a player and really liked it. I ended up getting my first unit in 1998 and then a few years later when the MD-LP format that allowed more than the 74 or 80 minutes.. At least until the iPod became available in mass quantities, the MD-LP concept seemed to breath new life into Mini Discs as new units seemed to come out frequently. Then as MP3 came out, the final nail seemed to be placed into MD's. I still see them from time to time on the train and I still use my S-1 unit when I go on vacation, it's a very well made portable unit that can take a lot of abuse.

Stephen A. Douglas

2010-11-09T08:37:00.000-08:00

To understand Abraham Lincoln, one should look at the life of his nemesis and in a way, stepping stone to greatness, Senator Stephen Douglas. Douglas, while four years younger than Lincoln, was a major force in Illinois and later United States politics at an earlier point than Lincoln. When the two debated in the election for Douglas's Senate seat in 1858, Douglas was considered the masterful debater and Lincoln the uncouth upstart. Those debates have been studied over and over again as a model of two masters of the craft of debating. Douglas won the election, winning his third term in the Senate over Lincoln but Lincoln made an impact on the country and was able to capitalize on that to win the Republican nomination for President in 1860 and subsequently the general election for the Presidency. There are countless books on aspects of Lincoln's life both in print and out of print and there are countless general biographies of him but a single biography of Douglas is hard to find. That said, I managed to track down Robert Johannsen's massive bio of Douglas, first published in 1973 and subsequently in 1991. At 874 pages plus massive endnotes and index, this book is as much a definitive biography as we are likely to get. It goes into great detail about those turbulent times in the mid 1800's as tension over slavery threatened to rip to USA to pieces. Douglas died just as the Civil War was beginning but not before he put aside his rivalry with Lincoln and the two worked together, Lincoln as President, Douglas as a powerful Senator who still commanded a considerable amount of respect in the country.

Bruce Lee vs. Mike Tyson

2010-09-26T16:59:00.001-07:00

I am a member of the boxingscene forums and have had much fun discussing topics there over the years. I took a long break from posting there but in the last week I've been going back and building my post count up. Sometimes debates can be quite heated on there and when I am in the mood I am up for a good debate. Going through some of my history there, I thought I would post a debate with a guy named leff, who made the mistake of questioning my opinion on what was meant to be a fun hypothetical discussion. He asked for proofs on what can't be proven since one of the relevant parties in this discussion was only about seven years old when the other one died. He sure got a detailed answer from me! This is from four-and-a-half years ago:

ME (just chiming in in the spirit of the threat):

Bruce Lee would move around Tyson and frustrate him enormously, then take out his legs and drop him and stomp his face in when he was down.Tyson was great but had trouble with movers.

Leff:and your proof on lees fighting abilitys are?

ME:What the hell are proofs? Who can PROVE anything? It's a theoretical discourse. The only thing you can PROVE are facts and given that Bruce will never fight Tyson, there are no facts, one can only make theories based on what they have read about or seen regarding the fighting styles of either person...

Leff (here's where he gets a bit smug and pompous, just right to be taken apart):uuuum

you know evidence that lee could fight at all dont exist,
kinda does that tyson could.

pluss lee 130
tyson 215-220

get it?

Me (this is where he got more than he bargained for):

Yes I do get it.

First of all, unfortunately I did not know Bruce Lee, he was a bit before my time. I can only go by what other people say about him and what I've seen in documentaries and I've read his book. Is it possible that he didn't know what he was talking about? Maybe, yes, look, maybe he had someone else ghost write the notes that became Bruce Lee's Fighting Method and all the other books that have been issued under his name. Yes, maybe one day we'll find out that he was a farce. Maybe we will learn that the fights that I've heard about in interviews didn't happen and were all made up;that he really didn't know what he was talking about, that the possibility as remote as it is, does exist. Then tyson would turn his jaw bone into powder and knock his head off his shoulders if they were to actually fight.
But the point here is that this whole thread is a what if as are many of the threads on this forum. Of course there are many variables that can affect the outcome of a fight(so and so could come into the fight drunk, so and so could have the flu, so and so's mother may have died the night before, etc). But when you add to a thread, you are placing your opinion and to place an opinion you have to work with what you know. I believe that it was Tyson who said that everyone has a plan until they get hit. So anything can happen.
Since I put my opinion down I based it on what I know about Lee andTyson. Yes, Tyson when he was motivated is one of my all time favorites and yes, I've seen most of his fights. If Tyson fought Lee in the boxing ring with gloves no less, he would bring his weight to bear on Lee and the odds of Lee even surviving or coming out uninjured are in question. I'm basing my opinion on Lee knowing what he was talking about and having been in many street fights. If he wasn't and like I said before if that wasn't true, then that changes everything. But assuming that he did know what he was talking about and was an experienced street fighter, and I am talking about a fight on the street, (maybe I didn't make that clear in my other post, not in the ring, which I am here), Bruce wouldn't fightTyson's fight, he would use fast footwork and stay out of Tyson's range (and yes, I know Tyson could potentially kill him with one punch). He would fight dirty on Tyson when he saw an opening, if he could flick a finger jab to the eyes or he would, as I said in the other post kick him in the knee. The dirty fighting is what i think would tip the scales towardBruce and neutralize the size advantage. But, like I said there are always variables.
If we base everything strictly on size, Dempsey 187
Willard 245
Dempsey TKO Round 3 with seven knockdowns in the first round alone. Granted the size between Tyson and Lee is even more distanced than that, but I already said how I think Lee would neutralize it in a street fight where they both have the opportunity to face off ie no sucker punches.

That was fun!

Controversies And Commanders

2010-09-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

As those of you who know me are aware, I read a considerable amount on American History with a particular emphasis on the American Civil War. I have read well over 100 books on the subject and find books describing specific battles in detail and biographies as the books on the subject I enjoy reading the most. That said, sometimes it's good to come across a book that has a slightly different twist. Eleven years ago I found one of these books and pull it out and reread it from time to time. It's written by one of my favorite Civil War writers, Stephen W. Sears and is called Controversies And Commanders: Dispatches From The Army Of The Potomac.

It's not a massive tome describing the history of the Army of The Potomac like it sounds it would be but is rather is a compact little series of ten thirty or so page essays. The battle descriptions take a back seat to descriptions of drama behind the scenes and descriptions of some fascinating character. Stephen Sears rehabilitates General Joseph Hooker for his performance in the battle Chancellorsville, a battle which damaged his reputation, and while it didn't finish him as the top general in the Army of the Potomac, it did leave him on thin ice and he would be removed as top general close to two months later right before the battle of Gettysburg. Sears, a biographer of General George McClellan, is no admirer of McClellan, and its McClellan who dominates most of the essays in the first half of the book until President Lincoln finally loses patience with him and removes him. There is a detailed essay on the intrigues by many of the generals in the Army of the Potomac to remove McClellan's successor in the essay titled, "The Revolt Of The Generals". Again, it's politics, not battles that dominates this book and there are few more political generals than Daniel Sickles, described in the fascinating essay, "Daniel Sickles, Political General" about the man who killed the son of the author of the "The Star Spangled Banner" for love triangle reasons and managed to avoid prosecution and become one of the generals in the Army of The Potomac who ran afoul of the commanding general at that point, George Meade and engaged in much feuding with him. One of the most fascinating essays is the "Raid On Richmond" about the Union cavalry attack that included an instruction to kill Confederate President Jefferson Davis, a note that added to a lot of controversy and led to questions on who sanctioned that order. There's an essay on the controversy surrounding General Phil Sheridan's relief of General Warren just a few days before the end of the war. Great book that I cannot recommend any higher. Anyone looking for a description for how adults in positions of respect and power behave in situations of incredible pressure could do much worse than to read this book.

Machete

2010-09-18T16:15:00.001-07:00

About three-and-a-half years ago, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez teamed up for the ambitious film, Grindhouse, which I saw in the theater. That film consisted of two films paired together with trailers to fake films that was intended to invoke the spirit of the old b movies from the 70's. The whole thing was long but I found it to be a fairly enjoyable experience, if not a masterpiece. It wasn't intended to be a masterpiece so it accomplished its goal of being a fun homage. I know there were a lot of people who didn't like it at all. One of the trailers was for a movie called Machete and it was that trailer, which featured the great Danny Trejo in the lead, that got the biggest response from the crowd when I saw the movie. So well did that trailer go over, that it was decided to make it into a film of its own. It was one of those rare times where a trailer was made for a film that did not exist and a film had to be subsequently built around that trailer.

Well the movie that was made opened a few weeks ago and I went to see it. I don't go much these days to the theater to see films, not like the old days when I used to see movies all the time it seemed. I recommend it, its not for everyone, of course. It's more of an entertaining action film rather than a literary film or some sort of high drama. Danny Trejo is "Machete", a former Mexican federale, who runs afoul of Steven Seagal, a drug dealing federale and the fun ensues. There is a great cast in the film, with Jeff Fahey as a particularly oily campaign manager (and much more) for Robert De Niro's racist state senator, Lindsay Lohan as Fahey's daughter. Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodriguez are very easy on the eyes. Don Johnson plays a sleazy redneck sheriff-type. I'll be picking this one up on DVD, too bad its not doing better at the box office. It could have a fun sequel.

Bara Hack (Part Two)

2010-09-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

A year or so ago I made a post on here about the Bara Hack site in Pomfret. Well, two months ago I finally got the chance to go there for the first time since that day back in 1983 when I went on an elementary school trip. A friend of mine came across the caretakers of the site and they gave us an invitation to come and see the place, an offer which we gladly accepted. Well, there were no haunted sightings while we were there. In fact what we felt was a strong sense of peacefulness. It's a very relaxing place. The girl who is the caretaker explained that the voices that people have heard there are actually people in houses off in the distance as the place sits in a valley and there is a sort of echo there. You can't see any houses with all of the thick overgrowth as the place is quite deeply situated in the woods but apparently sound travels well there.

The Idiot at work is no longer there

2010-09-11T10:59:00.001-07:00

Since I haven't updated this blog in awhile and I had made in the past here some detailed posts about an annoying problem at work, the guy who wouldn't stop trying to make problems, I decided to post an update. Three weeks ago he was finally fired. He proved the adage, "give an idiot enough rope and he'll find a way to hang himself". Well, this guy certainly did that. He was warned time and time again to knock off his crap, crap that I've gone in much detail about in prior posts. He received so many warnings. All he had to do was shut up and stop trying to make problems. After coming in to work drunk and belligerent, he still had a job, he just received more warnings. He and I had some explosive conflicts and I warned him very strongly to stop and he might quiet for a few days but would be right back to trouble making in a week or two .

Finally one day he hid the keys that I needed to open everything up in the morning and that was it. He wanted a confrontation, he got one. I didn't yell, I just persistently asked him why he felt the need to engage in this sort of garbage. At first he tried to be sarcastic but he didn't know how to deal with my relentless persistence and finally took a punch at me to try to scare me off. It didn't work. I kept after him and finally he threatened to slit my throat, a threat I recorded on tape. Finally there were no more chances for him. His luck ran out and he was finished. Now he has to find a job at a place that will tolerate him and I am sure few places will tolerate him as much as the company he used to work for did.

Philadelphia

2010-09-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

Thursday I took the New Century bus to Philadelphia, something I try to do a few times a year. It is a grand old city that I like because I can cover a fair percentage of it on foot in a day. The Reading Terminal Market is a stellar eatery with farm fresh foods from the Amish farms in Pennsylvania. Their Philly Cheese steak is unbelievably good with top notch bread and fresh provolone cheese. A visit there is not complete without having Chocolate Chip Cookies from the Famous 4th Street Cookie. Then I walked over to the Eastern State Penitentiary, I haven't gone inside yet I usually have a lot of places to see when in the city and decided not to spend the time going through but maybe next visit I'll go in. I just walked around the perimeter which is a fun thing to do. It's on a big hill with a view of the downtown skyscrapers and there is large garden around the perimeter. Then I walked over to Ritenhouse Square, which is one of the better downtown city parks I have seen, it's like a cleaner version of NYC's Union Square. I recommend anyone with a free day to visit the city and explore.

I am back

2010-09-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

After a long break from here devoting my attention to writing my various books and other pressing concerns, I am back here. I am going to maintain the effort to keep the blog up and keep communicating about what's going on as I see it to those few (or many?) who might be reading here. Keep your eyes peeled, I have a lot to discuss in these here parts...

The Pinnacle of Audacity

2010-01-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

I recently finished a very interesting book by Timothy Johnson called A Gallant Little Army: The Mexico City Campaign about the campaign by the American of General Winfield Scott to end the Mexican War by capturing Mexico City and holding it to force the government into a surrender. The Mexican War was during the late 1840's and was quite a polarizing war in American contemporary opinion (in the same manner as Vietnam was and the current Iraq was is). There were many who felt that the United States was bullying Mexico into giving up land. There were many who felt that the Mexicans barely took advantage of the land in question (the current Southwest of the United States) and the settlers who were growing in numbers in the region and who had stronger ties with the United States rather than the Mexicans. The causes of the war, the details of the entire Mexican War and its consequences are covered in the excellent book, The Mexican War by K. Jack Bauer.

Anyway, A Gallant Little Army concentrates on the offensive by General Winfield Scott deep into the Mexican interior to capture Mexico City. I called this blogpost The Pinnacle of Audacity because it was an extremely audacious move to take a small army (around 10,000-12,000 men, give or take at various points in the campaign) in the days before armored vehicles and air support deep into the interior of a hostile country to fight much greater numbers. The fact that his army pulled off their objectives against the hostile army of General (and President) Santa Anna, against the attrition of disease and hostile bands of guerillas is one of the more amazing achievements in American military history. The book is rather short but tells its tale in an engrossing and informative manner. I would highly recommend it for anyone with an interest in history. It's published by the University of Kansas press, who are rapidly becoming one of my favorite publishers with many high quality, educational titles.

The fallout from Mayweather-Pacquiao and the state of boxing today

2010-01-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

Even though it's now old news and this post is a few weeks old, I posted on a forum my views on the Mayweather-Pacquaio boxing matchup that was an extremely highly anticipated fight. Now that fight is officially off and both fighters are moving on to different fights, there has been that speculation that boxing is "dead" again so in this post, I responded to those views:

I don’t believe, as a prior post stated, that boxing is dead at all. Granted, it is in one of its overall slumps, and there have been many of those over the years, but there are still many good fights out there and in fighters like Manny Pacquiao there are still superstars. If there are not many superstars then there are at least many talents who can generate attention and also make mostly great or very good fights like Israel Vasquez, Shane Mosley, Edwin Valero, Juan Manuel Marquez and Arthur Abraham. On the other hand, boxing has major problems. The heavyweight division is in a major slump, given a lack of major talents and the top two fighters who are brothers and most likely are not going to fight each other. Also no one wants to watch another Valuev-Ruiz fight! I am sure not too many people are over enthused about a Holyfield-Botha fight in 2010! I’ve always felt that boxing was damaged by the lack of it on network TV. Now the major fights are either $55 pay-per-view extravaganzas or on one of the major pay cable networks. There is no more ABC’s Wide World Of Sports, which used to be a big deal to me as a kid. The necessity of having cable has cut into boxing’s potential audience. Despite that all, boxing is alive and, if not as well as in some of its eras, then at least functioning and still the only sport, besides to a lesser degree UFC, that I watch or pay any kind of attention to.That said, on to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, it would be a shame if this fight were not to take place. This would very likely even top the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight in terms of pay per views ordered and it is a very compelling matchup. I hear a lot of people saying that they think Pacquiao would destroy Mayweather. I especially heard those kinds of comments when I was at a bar to watch the Pacquiao-Cotto fight. I guess its within the realm of possibilities but I don’t agree with that assessment. I even slightly favor Mayweather in this fight. If I had seen Mayweather come in and fight Marquez with any sign of ring rust when they fought recently, I probably would have favored Pacquiao if and when they fought, but Mayweather fought a pretty much textbook perfect fight against a top level opponent, the only complaint that could be had is that he didn’t knock him out. Marquez was coming from a lower weight class but so has Pacquiao and he has done tremendously (I even thought that Pacquiao would have been better served to take a tune up fight at welterweight, rather than jump right into the De La Hoya fight but he proved that it wasn’t necessary). Yeah, Pacquiao has a much better “warrior’s mentality” and one has to have respect for the quality of opponents that he is fighting one after another but Mayweather has quite a few solid wins against tough opposition as well even though he would probably happier not risking his face and taking more tune up fights. Pacquiao has shown tremendous power at welterweight, knocking a solid welterweight like Cotto around, a great chin and has one of the best cornermen in Freddie Roach. Mayweather can fights at some uncanny angles and I think his footwork can throw Pacquiao’s plan to bludgeon him off. Remember, Pacquiao had a hard time catching Cotto after pretty much winning the fight in the first five rounds when Cotto decided to survive, not win. Floyd is a master at the backpedaling and using his opponents’ forward movement as a trap to get some shots in and then continuing to throw his opponent off balance. With his excellent defensive skills, he can do this all night and win enough rounds to give him the decision even if he pisses off the crowd. Floyd also has more power than people give him credit for so he might end up nailing Pacquiao with some good shots, even if I doubt he would be able to knock Pacquiao out. If there is a KO, the chances are much higher that Manny will score it but I seriously doubt a top notch Mayweather will give him the chance to. I’ve watched a lot of Floyd’s matches that I have on videotape and on youtube and I am extremely impressed with the manner that he uses footwork and angles. It will be intriguing if the two camps sort out their issues and this fight does happen to see how it ends up. Will Pacquaio be able to gain the leverage he needs to get inside and hurt Floyd and sap his ability to stay in the fight or will Floyd make Pacquiao look like an angry bull fighting an experienced matador? If the fight doesn’t end up happening there are still plenty of interesting fights coming up, Mosley-Berto, possibly Hopkins-Green or Dawson, the end results of Showtime’s Super Six Series for the unified Super Middleweight championship and maybe in the future the winner of the Mosley-Berto fight to battle either Pacquiao or Mayweather.

Dealing With A Moron

2009-12-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how a man can be considered a grown man, have 46 years of age and yet continue to consistently act like such a jackass! Even though this man is a husband and father, he is below a third-grader in terms of level of maturity.
He laughs like a little kid when my coworker and I are doing our work. He snickers and makes comments like, "They are actually working!" Then he hides behind one of the large columns that are downstairs. That in itself gets too silly to even get mad about but it does grow tiresome. It grows tiresome to watch a 46 year old man giggling and smirking and trying to hide as he giggles like he stole a bunch of cookies. Just today, he watched as my coworker counted the number of boxes on the pallets I was unloading off of a truck and laughed. He watched her, looking her up and down and laughed very hard at her, in an effort to mock her work that she was doing, and to make an attempt at intimidation.
I have a Bachelors of Science Degree in Mass Communication, not a degree in Special Education, something I would need to even try to get through to this guy. Even someone who studied special education would have a hard time getting through to him. Heck, even the Vice President of Operations refers to him as a "lunatic". Not exactly a ringing endorsement from the upper echelons within the company. Yet he continues to have his job. I just don't get it. So many nice, able-bodied people out there who would love to have a job and they have to hold on to this guy.

An Idiot at work

2009-12-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

I have been having a problem at work. This is not any small problem nor is it a problem with an easy solution. It is definitely a problem that one doesn’t just learn how to deal with in school.
I am dealing with a mentally ill fool. I am not a psychiatrist so I can not even begin to make a diagnosis for him, although I can suspect there are some inadequacy issues such as probably “Napoleon Complex” (height inferiority), possibly sexual frustration issues (given the amounts of times he keeps talking about men doing each other in the rear end but yet is married to a woman and comes from a very macho Eastern European culture), and there is the fact that he wishes he were a boss, liking nothing better than to tell people what to do when his job is merely to run the elevator and make sure that cars are parked properly in front of the loading dock.
He has worked for the company for sixteen years, originally dealing with the garbage and then moving on to running the elevator. His name is Ion. Since I started working for the company many years ago, I have been witness to many of Ion’s various tirades, from his bragging about how he was a Nazi to his hatred and contempt for people of black and Latin American descent. There were his tirades about how Americans were weak and soft. He has been punched out and beaten up many times. I can count at least three times that I’ve seen him beaten up badly and have no idea how many more times that’s happened to him in the past. Oh, and did I mention, he is a nasty drunk? He has come to work drunk on multiple occasions and even used his mechanical jack to hit the wall once, putting a hole in the wall. One may ask, how has he kept his job all these years?
Good question, and it’s one that I have only part of the answers for. He knows how to kiss the rear ends of many of the people in higher positions. He runs and helps those people that he feels he may need when he gets into problems at some point. That should not be enough to make up for the negative aspects to him but it is. For the record, he has been fired twice (that I am aware of) but both times was saved by someone in a higher position with power to save him. That has merely served to send the message to him that he can get away with anything and that his job is secure.
I had some clashes with him when I first started working there, once even almost coming to blows but then I learned not to pay him any mind, that something was wrong with him in the head and in my limited dealings with him, had no major problems after awhile. I wasn’t perceived by him as a threat and I was a white male so he left me alone, except when he dropped off pallets of work for me and then was civil enough to me. For a long time, he calmed down with the racial comments and the tirades over stupid things. As I am in charge of receiving, it was eventually decided to move me down to the actual loading dock of the company and have me receive down there. That makes sense as receiving should be down in the area where merchandise is received rather than up on the sixth floor. Ion didn’t like this, as his main base is down in the loading dock and I suppose he perceived me being down there as a threat to him. Rather than have a break with me, though, he continued to be civil to me, showing displeasure more in the form of jokes and “friendly” advice that I should be upstairs. He was even more displeased when I was assigned an assistant who happened to be female. If there’s one passion that Ion has more than his racism, it’s his sexism. He took it fairly well, covering up his annoyance with jokes and “friendly” criticism.
Perhaps it was problems at home, perhaps it was anger over the pay cut he received like just about everyone within the company received last year or perhaps it was the combinations of blows to the head and alcohol abuse catching up with him but Ion turned more hostile, harking back to when I first encountered him. His comments to my female coworker became much more menacing, crossing the line into clear sexual harassment. He started making it clear that, in his view, he didn’t feel a woman should be doing a “man’s work” and she should be gone. Then he said that getting rid of her was going to be his project. He also started bad mouthing me. Behind my back, of course as to my face he was still friendly.
Friday, June 26th, Ion came in very drunk to work and grew more drunk as the day went on. This day stuck out as it was the last day before the annual vacation shut down where the company closes completely for a week and partly for two weeks. The people who could have controlled the situation and gotten rid of him were not around and by the end of the day, he had sexually come on to one of the (male) drivers who was there to do a pickup, touched my coworker’s cheek and told her in the elevator how she was the only woman for him, and vented to me with tears in his eyes, how no one likes him and he is “going to get even one day”. Not to mention that when he drove home, someone witnessed him driving his car on the wrong side of the street.
This was brought to HR’s attention and they felt that he should be gone but there were still forces within the company who felt that he was enough of asset as to warrant saving. By this time he and my coworker didn’t even have the pretense of being civil and I was straining to keep civil with him. I had to endure his stupid tirades and warned him over and over again (maybe 50 times) to get over things. It never worked. Finally this came to a blow between him and me and we were no longer on good terms. Ion’s own boss, the Shipping Manager, had enough of him and washed his hands of him but couldn’t get him fired so the corporate solution was to move Ion under my control. I was made Loading Dock Manager and was now his boss but I don’t have the authority to fire him so the gesture is meaningless. I am in the process of learning the various tasks that make up his job to get ready for possibly removing him in the future and have to endure his mocking attitude, which resembles the actions of a third-grade girl. Obviously I view him as beneath contempt at this point and pay him little mind but still one should not have to deal with this crap. If a fight broke out between us, I know I could finish him very quickly but we have to settle our issues in a more mature way and he is so far off the deep end of the pool mentally that there cannot be a “settlement” to this issue. He needs to go and that’s the bottom line. My coworker certainly has more than enough material for a lawsuit but her husband also works for the company and once the entanglement of court cases come to fruition, one never knows where they might end. I could leave but then he is still around and can make life hell for other people and would even view the fact that I am gone as a victory of sorts. No, the only solution is to get rid of this nut job and only time will tell when that is going to happen. As of this post, the issue becomes a matter of public record.

Todd Rundgren

2009-10-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

Who has incredible guitar chops like a Joe Satriani, writes some of the most perfect pop songs, has a versatile powerful voice and produced one of the biggest albums of all time, not to mention many other albums? None other than Todd Rundgren. I've been listening a lot to him lately. As good as the material that I was aware of by him is, I've discovered even more gems with the purchase of his double-cd greatest hits, The Definitive Rock Collection. There are some truly great songs here.

What's amazing about Todd is his sheer versatility. He can write a perfect pop song like "Courage", from last year's Arena (an excellent album and one of the best albums of that year, in my humble opinion) or 1978's Top 40 hit, "Can We Still Be Friends?" (one of the greatest pop songs ever). He can go strangely experimental, his 1993 album No World Order. I haven't heard this one yet but I've read a lot about it, especially songs like "Fascist Christ" and some moments where he raps! He can write great hard rock songs like "Mercenary" from Arena (a song I can't stop playing recently) and "Love In Stereo" with his band Utopia. His 2004 album, Liars is almost a dance pop record, not far removed from later Everything But The Girl in sound! He is a record producer who has produced albums from bands like Cheap Trick and Psychedelic Furs, and the enormously successful Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf. He can do it all folks and do it as well as anyone. His double-cd 1972 album, Something/Anything? is considered a genuine classic album. I am not familiar with every song Todd has yet but I am working on that and I don't even like every song that I have heard but his good songs are as good as I've heard from anyone. Of the songs that I've recently become familiar with, "Compassion" is standing out. This should have been a big hit in the early '80s, a perfect pop song with a very strong contemplative hook, and a really top notch vocal performance, this song from his 1981 album, Healing, is one that I've played over and over again in the two weeks since I first heard it. Plus, I can't get it out of my head.

Many years ago, in Boston, at the music store Nuggets, I picked up Todd's 1991 album, 2nd Wind for 2 dollars. It was one of the best $2 I ever spent. "Change Myself" is another great pop song. "Who's Sorry Now" is another amazing standout in his career and the bonewrenching performance on "If I Have To Be Alone" is one of my favorite vocal performances ever. Great stuff and highly recommended!

Excerpts From The Grand Tour

2009-09-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to feature a few snippets from my book, The Grand Tour, the story about a fictional rock band called The Extrations that existed from the mid 1970's until 1982, broke up and then reunited in 1987. Patrick Bolo is the bass player of the group who starts the novel finding his girlfriend dead from an excess of drugs.

Though he didn’t know it yet, the girl lying in bed next to Patrick Bolo was dead. In fact, he didn’t know much in his semi-comatose state. The night before was filled with heavy drinking. He hadn’t had as much cocaine as he usually did. The effects of that on one’s system were powerful. Patrick Bolo had a long sleep. It was three in the afternoon and he and the girl next to him, Jenna McAllister, had settled in ten hours ago. The sunlight blaring into the messy, trashed hotel room had not even awakened him.
He stirred with an intense urge to piss. Ugh, he thought, my head is killing me. I should just piss myself and spare the effort to get up. He turned over to see Jenna’s short dyed pink hair stop her pillow. Her face was turned the other way. The blankets had all fallen off the bed and he could see her naked body. His memory started coming back to him. He could see the screaming crowd at the concert last night and the fun he had with Jenna when they got to the room. He couldn’t enjoy the fun at the time, being too clouded in the head at the time. Thinking back though, he started remembering the fun. What fun that was. Ow, he held his head grunting. Getting out of the bed was difficult. He noticed the sunlight as he rose and it hit his already screaming head like an explosion. He staggered out of bed and crashed into the fretless bass that he kept in his hotel room. Ahh, shit, he said to himself as the bass fell. Damned thing cost three thousand dollars, oh well. His clumsiness had caused him to crash into the bass countless times before. The thing still played amazingly. He staggered his way over to the bathroom.
Coming out of the bathroom he felt as if something was amiss. He was not quiet moving around the room yet why was Jenna not even reacting to his noise. He looked at her face, turned as it was to the opposite side of him. He stood over her and turned her face toward him. Her eyes were closed but her mouth was open in a strange way. Open as if she was gasping. He noticed how still she was. He touched her arm. Cold to the touch. He felt her wrist for a pulse, there was none. His foggy head cleared real fast at this point. His heart started racing. Fuck, fuck, what do I do? He paced back and forth. Now he felt his asthma kicking in. He couldn’t breathe and he couldn’t think. He grabbed his bag and pulled out his inhaler. Puffing on it frantically, he hoped that maybe she was playing a joke on him. Maybe he had too much to drink last night and was still in la la land. He checked her again. No change.
The question was now what? Should he talk to the other band members or call for emergency help right now. He was too fucked up to handle all this. “Ahhhhh”, he yelled out in his room. He threw some jeans on, his boots and a t-shirt. He grabbed his hotel keys and ran out of the room to find the other band members and see if they could help him figure out what he couldn’t figure out himself. This was not a good way to start off a day.
He raced down the hall to the suite where the rest of the band used as their communal lounge. He knocked hard. Walter Engle, the burly tour security chief, answered the door. Walter said, “Hey, finally awake-“. Patrick’s face stopped him from saying more and he moved aside allowing Patrick entrance to the large room with the view of Jacksonville, Florida. Only Brian Hertwell and Eric Mitchell were in the room with Walter. Brian looked up from his game of solitaire, Eric fooled around on his brand new shiny blue Gibson guitar. Brian stated with a look of some bemusement, “it seems something has your attention. Is it that you need more coke?”
“Shut up, man, this is serious!”
“Okay, I’m sorry, Pat, you don’t look too good anyway. I wouldn’t look too good anyway if I had as much to drink as you had last night.”
“Look, I think the girl I came up with last night is dead. Dead or extremely fucked up, I don’t know what the hell to do. I can barely walk.”
Eric said, “You definitely look like you’re fucked up.”
Brian rose from his chair, “Let’s check up on this girl and see what’s up here.”
They rose from their seats and walked with Patrick to his suite.
From the room they heard a scream. Just as they reached the door, a fifty-ish maid ran from the room, her face filled with terror. Brian catches her, “What’s wrong?” He knew the answer already; he just wanted to hear her say it. The maid looked at all three of them frantically, “She’s dead! The girl in that room is dead! Oh my God, what happened?” She ran down the hall before anyone could try to stop her and calm her down.
Brian checked on the girl. There was no pulse. She was going cold. He turned her face over. The eyes were closed. She most likely died in her sleep. Around her mouth were traces of vomit. That’s the cause of death he guessed. Vomit in the sleep. Although he had nothing directly to do with the situation, Brian felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. At the moment, he wanted to forget about his own involvement with her.
“Fuck, she’s definitely done for”, he said in a flat tone. Patrick simply collapsed into the corner with his head in his hands. He then lifted his head only to put a cigarette in his hand and light it. Then he buried his head in his hands again, the cigarette sticking out from between two fingers.
The maid was quietly watching the whole scene in a silent horror, the shock finally hit her and she screamed again loudly and ran out of the room. Brian said, “Well, Patrick, I hope you can get yourself in condition to talk to the police.”

Class (As In Common Decency)

2009-09-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

When I went for the job interview a few weeks back, I was convinced that the corporation, a major producer of cameras and other electronic products, was the perfect example of a professional corporation. They had good benefits, good investment/401k elements and a no yelling policy in which all employees were meant to be treated in a respectful basis. Sounds good, right? Every silver lining must have a cloud somewhere.

They talked with me for two hours and I seemed to say all the right things. It was as smooth an interview as I ever had and I thought I was on the way to getting the job.......or at least getting a notification that I didn't. You see, it looks like my strong impression about this place being professional and respectful was dead wrong. They didn't even have the decency to call me and tell me anything and when I looked up the position on the web, it was listed as no longer available. So I am not even worthy of a notification phone call? I sent an email to the HR person I met with and, after almost a week, have not even had that email responded to. Just a lack of class! And of respect!

On a similar note, my coworker recommended I join a search engine called iRazoo.com. By searching you can earn points and eventually acquire rewards for accumulating enough points. Fair enough. I wracked up quite a few points in searching over a few days until I went to log in yesterday and was informed that my account was banned. When I inquired as to the ban, I was responded very quickly and told that there was a one account per household rule and that with my coworker being on her computer and me being on my computer, we somehow violated this rule. I explained the situation and was given a very unhelpful response offering me and my coworker a simple choice, my email to log in or hers. I responded that that was impossible, we are two different people and have two different emails but are not doing anything wrong on here. I never received the courtesy of a response. Needless to say I won't be using iRazoo ever again. Just like the HR Dept. of the place I interviewed with there was no decency in how this was handled. Again no class.

The Cult

2009-09-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

Friday night I saw the great '80s hard rock, or acid rock (as lead singer Ian Astbury refers to it as) band The Cult play an excellent show. I saw them last year and they were very good too and I am not sure which show was exactly better, but this show was different in that they performed their entire 1985 album Love, which took up a bit more than half the set. I've been very familiar with their music in the past but, other than a couple of songs from Love, not familiar with the whole album.

This is a very good idea to play a good album from a band in their entirety. I've noticed Cheap Trick did it a number of years back, playing their first three albums separately in three separate shows. I've read about other examples of this but The Cult performing Love, was the first time that I've seen a band play a show like this and it made me really appreciate how good the album is. Last night I picked up the two-disc remaster, copied it to a minidisc, yes, Minidisc! Now I'll begin the process of familiarizing myself with all the songs on the album. "Phoenix" is really turning out to be a standout track!

I would recommend anyone to see The Cult on their current tour or any time that they are out, if you like hard rock, or course.

Summer is just about finished and it's the end of an excellent outdoor concert season

2009-09-09T10:00:00.001-07:00

As one can feel in the air the beginning traces of the end of summer and the kicking in of autumn, I can say that this year had some excellent outdoor shows. I have never seen so many good outdoor concerts in one summer season. That's one great thing about living in New York City, there are so many parks to catch a good show in on a perfect summer evening. The season started with Ian Hunter down by Battery Park City. The former Mott The Hoople member put on a very good show in June with some vocal assistance from none other than Joe Elliot of Def Leppard. I wasn't familiar with much of his music before but was impressed with the set. Then there was a performance of Miles Davis' excellent On The Corner album in the same park. Some of the actual players on the sessions, including Michael Henderson were playing at the show.

There was Don Byron's tribute to Junior Walker at Madison Square Park featuring the annoying woman who bothered us to move from where were standing with just twenty minutes left in the set. I believe I have another blog post describing that event. There was the Robert Cray Band playing a real good set at the Bandshell in Prospect Park. Bad weather that evening but well worth dealing with for the show. Jackson Browne was there a few days later. I got to see him for a fourth time and that was a perfect evening.

One of the more unique concert experiences I have ever had was seeing the Czech Republic band, Plastic People of the Universe in the outdoor park in Lincoln Center. They were a very different yet very entertaining sort of rock band going back to the sixties. Between them and their opening act, whose name escapes me, they made for an excellent evening.

The outdoor season closed out with the legendary John Fogerty, performing at South Street Seaport from his excellent new album, Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.

Also I saw Night Ranger, the wonderfully talented Vanessa Bley (at my friend's benefit show with some other good acts) and will be seeing The Cult on Friday but those were or will be at indoor venues so they don't fit the summer vibe of this post. All I can say is that I hope next summer is this good!

Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

2009-08-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right. I mean that massive series of tomes called the Decline And Fall of the Roman Empire that takes up so much space on library bookshelves. I've read the adbridged version before but finally decided to accomplish my goal of reading the whole darned thing. All two million-something words of it.
These books were written in the late 1700's and still hold up as one of the most comprehensive history books ever. Not just is it incredibly thorough but just an amazing piece of prose. Gibbon's long flowing sentences are full of humorous sarcastic references to various emperors and even criticize religion. The battles between Paganism and Christianity are fascinatingly described in these pages.
I am on volume 3 of the total of 6 volumes so almost halfway toward completing the whole thing but one point I can take away from reading the volumes is that we really don't have it too bad in the US now overall. With all the problems we have here, reading this set shows how things can be a whole lot worse! Especially with an Emperor like Honorious!

Bara Hack

2009-08-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

Back to the supernatural! Today's topic is about a small "lost" village in the town of Pomfret, CT. This small village hidden deep in the woods is regarded as one of the more haunted places in a region full of haunted places. Check out these pictures: http://travel.webshots.com/album/550901996NLFLhN

Way back when I was in fourth grade I went with my class on a field trip to the place. We walked around the whole site and it certainly felt creepy but there was nothing other than the ambiance to make anyone feel scared. Nonetheless it was a very interesting, peaceful place. Other people have had very strange experiences and there are all sorts of websites if you do a search that have information about the place. Well worth checking out for those with an interest in the subject. It is on private property so that "visitors are not welcome" but for anyone who makes the trip there, please feel free to post findings, etc.

Idiots At Concerts

2009-08-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

The night before last I went to see Night Ranger at the BB King Bar and Grill in Times Square. The concert was fine but we had this drunken idiot in front of us. This guy who looked like Patrick Moraz from Yes, wanted to constantly fist bump with everyone around him to the music. Then he was air guitar playing and wanted to air guitar with different people around him. I just shook my head when he looked at me but he kept coming to me for some reason. Finally I shot him a real ugly look and he finally backed away but he was falling all over people around him. He fell on some poor girl at the table in front of him. I am surprised her boyfriend didn't knock him out but this guy continued acting obnoxious.
Towards the end of the show, during "Sister Christian" he was pumping his fist in the air to the chorus and almost hit someone in the eye. Then for some reason he felt the need to remove his shirt, an act which finally brought security over. They made him put his shirt back on and signalled to the bar to cut him off from drinks. During the last song, he was jumping around so much that finally security grabbed him and took him away. I wish they had done that a lot sooner. An idiot like that has the potential to put a damper on a good show. It amazes me how some people even if they have had plenty to drink, they seem to think everyone around them is entertained by their antics.

Terror And Consent by Philip Bobbitt

2009-08-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

There is a lack of books that deal with a clear plan to deal with and defeat terrorists and terrorism as a general concept. Now during the Cold War, there were many books that prposed strategies for how this nation should deal with the Soviets and their allies. Strategies of Containment was one example of this. There are plenty of books that deal with terrorism and get down to its root causes and give biographical sketches of the major players. I have not found a good book that gives a concise strategy to dealing with terrorism until now. A few days ago at the Strand bookstore, I discovered a very detailed, well-presented tome called Terror And Consent. I am in the middle of reading it now and, it's an extremely thought provoking title with ample information and excellent endnotes. It's not from a left or right perspective but just makes for an informative read. If you want more infomation on it, here is the Amazon description with reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Consent-Wars-Twenty-first-Century/dp/140007701X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250011138&sr=1-1

Myrtle Beach, SC

2009-08-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

I just got back from my eagerly anticipated vacation from Myrtle Beach. For those who haven't been down there, you could do a lot worse than to go down there for vacation. Even more the hotel could not have been more perfect. I was there four years ago and stayed in the exact same hotel, the Best Western Carolinian but this time was even better. The room was incredible, a full suite with a 12th floor view over the ocean. If there is one thing missing that Virginia Beach has, it's a boardwalk with water fountains and benches to sit on but otherwise the two beaches are pretty much dead even. A very good trip!

Silliness at Work

2009-07-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing that I am now on vacation. For the last two weeks I have been dealing with a problem that it so ridiculous and asinine that it's almost impossible to describe, especially when I consider that this is not an elementary school student but a 46-year-old man! Well, it has to do with water! Yes, water and bagels! We have a Poland Springs water dispenser to provide water for anyone who would like to have a nice cup of water, especially in the hot summer time. That includes employees as well as drivers making deliveries. Now the elevator guy at my workplace suddenly decided that it was his place to be the "water nazi" and tell people like our regular UPS driver (who is one of the nicest people I know) that they can't have any water; that it's for employees only. Now when the rest of us overruled him on that point, he became quite belligerent, making lots of comments day after day and only shutting up occasionally, sometimes when someone, like myself, really lay into him. Now I don't want the workplace to be contentious. I just want to do what I have to and go home. I really don't feel like raising my voice.

Then this particular elevator guy started on my coworker, who is a woman, saying that women shouldn't be working in a loading dock, that women should just be cooking and cleaning. Luckily for him, she doesn't want to make problems or he could have a lawsuit on his hands but her patience is rapidly running out like mine is. Then every Friday we get bagels with cream cheese and lox, paid for by the company. This same guy is starting in with the same crap that he engaged in regarding the water, basically taking it upon himself to decide who gets a bagel. Amazing, huh? In an era where many people are out of work and unable to find a job, this guy continues to take for granted that he has a job and continues to push this crap and get away with it. Sooner or later his luck is going to run out if he doesn't cut the childishness. He's gotten away with a lot but there are limits, if it were my choice he would have already been out the door but I don't have the power to make that call. Well at least now I get a break from that, for the next week at least.

Ghosts

2009-07-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

I have been starting to put together material for an eventual book I would like to write dealing with the question, "Do Ghosts Exist?" And, if they exist, what are they? Are people who witness them just imagining things, are they spirits, are they a link to some parallel dimension, or are they just some random form of energy, or some form of "psychic imprint"? Obviously I most likely won't get a definitive answer to any of these questions but I will try to get as close to an answer as possible.

Now , there is the question that is often asked of me when I tell people of this project, "Do I believe in ghosts?" Well, for now, I have to answer, "I don't know". I haven't actually seen one and I would certainly prefer to see one with my own eyes before I could answer with a definitive "yes" but I know of enough credible people who have seen something that they can't explain to answer with a definitive "no". I have had a strange experience that I can't quite explain but there were enough variables that it could be explained as something other than a ghost or spirit. I'll go into that a paragraph down. Now, the term ghost is a blanket term for various entities. There are so called poltergeists, supposed spirits that can make things move, there are ghosts in the form of people who sometimes react to humans and sometimes go as if there are no humans witnessing them. Then, there are the so called "orbs" or balls of light that are said to resemble spirits. This is what my friends and I may have come into contact with a few years back.

We were at a church that is one of the more notoriously haunted places in Connecticut, a state that has many supposedly haunted places. Photos are included at the top of this blog. The church is surrounded by a cemetary. My friend snapped a few photos in the cemetary and, while we were looking at those same areas as photographed, we saw nothing but on the pictures there were some weird, unexplained bits of light that look similar to the photos of the orbs that I have seen. We thought that they might have come from reflections of light, something like that but no, in the end, we couldn't logically explain where these small "orbs" came from. Again, none of saw anything bizarre with our naked eyes. Anyway, I have to wrap up this blog now so I will post more of ghost stories and adventures in trying to solve this mystery.

Jackson Browne

2009-07-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

Last night I saw Jackson Browne play at the Bandshell in Prospect Park. This is the fourth time that I've seen him play and he was excellent as always. It's pretty amazing that the guy is sixty years old and pretty much looks and sounds the same as he did 37 years ago on his first album. It didn't hurt that he is coming off of what I rate as one of his best albums, 2008's Time The Conqueror. Unlike some other acts he felt very confident in the new material, playing just about half the songs from the album. No one matches Jackson in the area of introspective, reflective songs and the title track, "Time The Conqueror" is evidence of that. I was hoping that Jackson would perform two of my favorite tracks from the new album, "Live Nude Cabaret" and "Far From Arms Of Hunger", which I believe are two of the best songs he's ever done. During the course of the show, he did a nice job of blending somewhat obscure songs from his catalog, performing the hits and showcasing the new album in a more than two hour set. It's a tour well worth seeing.

Robert Cray

2009-07-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

Friday night I attended another excellent outdoor concert, this time at the bandshell in Prospect Park. Robert Cray was the performer. For anyone not familiar with his music, Robert Cray is a stellar blues guitarist with a fine voice, who has been around for a long time. His Strong Persuader, went double platinum and was one of the standout albums of 1986, yet for some strange reason, even though he continued to make very good albums (Some Rainy Morning from 1994 is an example), he slipped below the commercial radar. He has albums that when I look him up on Amazon.com, I never even heard of them. It's too bad as he has a very respectable catalog and is well worth cehcking out.

He performed about 17 or so songs, which was a very impressive feat as the weather changed from decent to all out rain and even a thunder storm. Throughout the set, Robert played like the experienced professional that he is. He was backed by his very capable band, with some great basswork and keyboard work accompanying him. They will be touring with Eric Claption in the fall.

Excerpt from Two Fisted Power

2009-07-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

As I'll be doing from time to time, to showcase some of my writing, I am making this post feature a snippet from my writing. In this case, it will be a sample of my book, Two Fisted Power. Two Fisted Power, about an aging former boxing champion making a comeback, is finished and in the rewrite stage, with a ready for publishing date soon. I have to decided whether to push this book along the agent route or get some copies published independently on lulu.com or some other related self-publishing service before going the agent/major publishing company route. Anyway, here goes:

Andrew Davis threw his first connecting left jab in five years. It slammed hard into the face of Otis Brubeck, knocking him back. That’s it; the power was still there, he thought. That was a major relief. He followed that jab with a second jab, connecting with Otis’s chin, then followed with a right uppercut, which felt as if it nearly broke Otis’s neck. Otis fell into the ropes. Andrew went low with a left right combination to Otis’s midsection. Otis threw a right hook and Andrew was able to backstop and move out of the way. Good, his reflexes hadn’t slowed a bit. Andrew feinted with a left and as Otis tilted his head back, threw a straight right back into his jaw, then followed with another one two combination into Otis’s midsection. Another right uppercut and the weakened Otis Brubeck fell in the middle of the ring.
Referee Chaz Englehart began the count as Andrew walked to the neutral corner. He had seen this many times before. Otis struggled to get up, fell back down and the count reached ten. Andrew Davis, former world heavyweight champion winner by first round knockout. At ten, Andrew jumped up and down. The crowd broke out into cheers. Andrew leaned into the ropes and looked around the arena. He felt a sense of vindication. Before the fight he had felt a certain element of trepidation even though he had been in the ring many times before. Perhaps that was just natural on account of being away from the ring for so long.
Andrew looked around at the crowd. A first round knockout. It was good to be back. He had achieved many first round knockouts in his day, but this meant more to him because of how long he was perceived as being out of the game. He looked into the crowd and saw someone holding a sign with black market saying, “Andrew Davis, next heavyweight champion”. Another sign said, “the four time heavyweight champion”.
There was a thought, four-time heavyweight champion. In his excitement, he almost forgot about his opponent. He looked over at him. He was just getting up now, a little groggy, but seemingly okay. Andrew went over to him, put his hand on his shoulder and said, “good fight, man.”
“Yeah, while it lasted.”
There was nothing more for Andrew to say under the circumstances so he walked away. Jimmie Olbert, one of the broadcasters for the sports network ran over to Andrew with his cameraman and put a microphone in his face. “Hey Andrew, how does it feel to be back? That was a very impressive win, by the way.”
“Well, Jimmie, it felt like old times. I feel great. I did what I wanted to in the fight, I controlled the pace, and I scored a knockout. I knew coming in to this fight that if I didn’t knock him out convincingly that my skills at my age would be in question. It was absolutely important that I put him away and that I put him away in convincing fashion.”
“You did great, it was like 1985 all over again. Now, tell me, is there a plan to move all the way up to the heavyweight championship?”
“Oh yeah, certainly. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t hungry again for one more shot. I’m going all the way to the top.”
“Now that was an easy opponent, but how do you think it will be different when you step up in competition?”
“I’ll be ready, I have twenty years of skills developed as a pro. At this stage in my career, there isn’t much I haven’t come across yet.”
“I guess it’s not a stretch to say that you feel ready for a title shot now.”
“Not quite yet. I still need to get some cobwebs out.” Andrew’s trainer and good friend, Bill Engle, walked over and stood at his side. He added to the discussion, “I’ve been saying all along that when Andrew came back he would be a monster. He might be a bit older but he hasn’t lost a step.”
The crowd was applauding Andrew. That felt good; better than anything he had felt in a long time. Andrew walked back to the dressing room knowing that this fight went as well as he could have expected, if not even surpassing his expectations. This was a good idea, having a few easy tune up matches scheduled in local under cards to get the cobwebs out before stepping up to the real competition. It reminded him of the days beginning all those years ago fighting in county fairgrounds and small clubs, gaining all of that vital experience that he would need when he made it to fighting in arenas and fighting for championships. When he was starting out, he fought all sorts of opponents. He would take any one who came along and agreed to fight him so that one night he might have to fight some out of shape, overweight pug and then two weeks later a fighter with far more wins than losses. Eventually he stepped up to face the big undefeated contenders on his way to the inevitable title shot.
The crowd here gave, for the most part, a standing ovation. There were a few in the crowd booing, another aspect of the day that brought memories floating back to Andrew. All those wins. All that blood and media attention. It was good to be back.
In the dressing room, Andrew sat down on the chair. He smiled and said to Bill, “I didn’t even break a sweat in that fight. I feel like I could go for a few more fights.”
“This fight was low enough on the card that I think we could go for some more fights.”
Andrew laughed. Then he turned serious. “I can win in the ring. I wouldn’t even be doing this if I didn’t feel I could accomplish something in there again, but you know as well as I do that this is just the beginning. I think this’ll be the easy part.”
“Yeah, WBF is not too crazy about you coming back.”
“They were the ones who made it a pain in the ass for me to get my boxing license back, weren’t they?”

Andrew Davis was a former world champion who had the reputation coming back in fights that he was behind in. His epic 1985 battle for the WBF Heavyweight Championship against Rico Rosales saw Andrew hitting the canvas twice, seemingly behind on the scorecards and coming back and winning the championship, knocking Rosales out in the tenth round. It was the crowning achievement of his life to win that belt. He wasn’t the favorite of the committee of the WBF and wasn’t one of the media darlings so he had to earn his way to that match, beating contender after contender. Andrew knew that he wasn’t going to get a free ride out of anything. Hard work and hard work alone would get him to where he wanted to be.
Andrew knew that the key here was to keep fighting and winning. He had no problem starting out at the bottom again. Like Jaheim Evans said, he could have gotten a bigger level comeback fight, one that would be shown on one of the cable networks and get his comeback some exposure. To hell with that, he didn’t want to owe anyone anything; he just wanted to get his break and earn his way to the shot. If he kept winning fights, those scumbags in the WBF and all those other corrupt powers that be wouldn’t be able to ignore him. That was the key to keeping his comeback bid alive and prove all those people wrong who said he couldn’t comeback and be competitive after this time.

Andrew called a local promoter, Jim Fowley, who he had known over the years and had him line up a fight in Columbus, this one was to be only six days after the last fight. It was, of course, against another no name scrub, but that was what Andrew wanted. Someone else to be ready for a rapid knockout and give Andrew a chance to get rid of that ring rust. Bill Engle told him that he didn’t see any sign of ring rust in the last battle (well it really wasn’t much of a battle), the last fight, but Andrew felt that he needed to get another few fights in, while his comeback was still obscure. Word would travel soon about his path and it would then be harder to set up these obscure fights and the pressure would be on to step up. Then the fun would really begin.
The opponent was Taye Jefferson, a local carpenter who fought more or less only on weekends. His record was 20 wins and about 35 losses with 15 knockouts. He was about 280 pounds at six foot three, a big guy, perfect to test Andrew’s hooks and straight crosses and see if he still had the power. If he couldn’t put this guy away fast then maybe the comeback was a bad idea. It wasn’t about winning the fight, Andrew knew he could beat this pug easily; it was about the speed of the knockout. There would lay the test.

Annoying People at Concerts

2009-07-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

The night before last I went to a free outdoor show in Madison Square Park. The concert was Don Byron and his band doing a tribute to Junior Walker. A pleasant summer evening, perfect weather to enjoy a good show. Now my friend and I got to the show early, about ten minutes before the 7 o'clock starting time. We prefer to stand at these shows rather than to sit down so we purposely go to the very back. Now when I go to shows in Rockefeller Park downtown, most people stand so that doesn't seem to be an issue. I noticed at the show in Madison Square Park that most people were sitting rather than standing. Nonetheless, we stood way in the back to be respectful of those who are sitting on their picnic blankets. There were a few other scattered people standing also but not many. Most of those standing were, like us, near the back, not near the stage. Now at 8:10, 8:10!, we hear a very annoying voice behind us. This Gilda Radner looking woman comes up behind us and asks us to move, that she can't see the show. Now I am caught quite off guard by this. I could understand her asking us to move when the show started but waiting until an hour and ten minutes into the show!? Plus the show was wrapping up soon. It was done by 8:30. My friend got heated with her and she was angry but finally scurried off when she realized that we weren't moving. Her nerve irritated me and left a bit of a cloud on what was, otherwise, an excellent evening. I don't think at all that we were out of line and there were plenty of closer places for her to sit where she wouldn't have had her view blocked.

Best Albums of 2008

2009-07-17T08:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know we are now well into July of 2009 but I was going through some of my old posts on a music-related forum that I am a member of and came upon my Top 10 album list for 2008. Since I wasn't writing a blog then, I figured that I would post the list here for the approval or disgust of any readers here.

in order)1. Jackson Browne-Time The Conqueror
2. Metallica-Death Magnetic
3. John Mellencamp-Life, Death, Love And Freedom
4. Steve Winwood-Nine Lives
5. Guns n' Roses-Chinese Democracy
6. SMV-Thunder
7. Van Morrison-Keep It Simple
8. Lindsey Buckingham-Gift Of Screws
9. Todd Rundgren-Arena
10. Elvis Costello-Momofuku

Journey, Nickelback and the Concept of Corporate Rock

2009-07-17T08:26:00.001-07:00

I have been seeing in some of the music forums that in threads bashing Nickelback, Journey comes up as a point of comparison. I thought I would use this space to add a particular post I wrote not too long ago describing my views on this subject.

I don't like Nickelback. I've never heard a song from them that I would remotely care to hear a second time. They aren't terrible, there are many acts that are more offensive to my ears, I just find them mind numbingly bland. The only reason that I can even remember how "You Remind Me" goes is because I heard it so many times when it was a hit (not by choice). Their other songs I can't even remember how they go, not even that monster hit, "Rock Star". Someone may think Nickelback is great and good for them, I am glad they can get some enjoyment out of them. Now the point comparing them to Journey came up in another thread a few years back, one that degenerated into immense acrimony, so rather than hash up the point of "which act is more generic sounding", I'll say this, and of course it's my opinion and nothing more.

The difference between Journey and Nickelback to my ears is that, and I mean Journey when they had their big success, not the pre-Infinity material, is that in Steve Perry they had a soulful singer influenced by Sam Cooke who brought a distinctive sound to the songs. In Neal Schon they had a guitar player who came up some great solos that enhanced the songs even further and often played off very well with Steve Perry's voice in a way that added depth to the songs. The finale of "Why Can't This Night Go On Forever" from Raised On Radio comes to mind as an example. Steve Smith is a really good drummer, Jonathan Cain has come up with some very distinctive keyboard lines "Whos Cryin" Now" is a perfect example. Ross Valery adds depth to the music with his bass playing, his basslines on "Don't Stop Believin" come to mind. With Nickelback, I don't hear that. I can forget their songs within five minutes after I hear them. Now obviously Journey is not going to be everybody's cup of tea, and I don't expect them to be but I was just trying to articulate what I see is the difference between the two bands and why I like to listen to one and not the other.

George Lynch And Dokken

2009-06-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Imagine my surprise when, last night, I walked into the J&R Music Store only to see none other than George Lynch, formerly of Dokken, on a stage with his guitar, giving a guitar clinic. It was already in progress when I came into the session. He talked a lot about his career and played some solo instrumental versions of some of his songs. He had an excellent solo about fifteen years ago called, I think, Sacred Groove. At least when I was there he didn't play any of his Dokken material, I am sure given his not so cozy association with Don Dokken, that there are some bad memories there.

George must be praised as one of the best guitarists of the '80s metal scene and it was certainly a pleasant surprise to find him there, even though I wish I could have seen the whole session.

The A-Team

2009-06-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

Recently I finally accomplished a goal that I am sure I share with a lot of people out there, or maybe not these days. In the '80s it would be something to brag about! I finished watching the five seasons of the A-Team and have now seen every episode of the series! The real irony is that I rarely watched the show when it was airing with new episodes. Then when it was in syndication I started to watch episodes but that was when the show was long off the air. The wondrous creation of DVD's finally allowed me to catch up and see all of the shows.

It was a production of the great Stephen J. Cannell, maker of shows ranging from Renegade to the excellent Rockford Files. Not really a cerebral show, it based its entertainment factor more on fun plots, over the top villains and a cast featuring none other than the late, great George Peppard as the smooth leader Hannibal. There was the real star of the show, a fresh off Rocky 3 Mr. T as BA Barracus. Face and Murdock rounded out the cast. One point that always sticks out to me is that they should have kept Amy Allen in the cast. I read somewhere that George Peppard didn't think it was a good idea to have a girl regular on such a "masculine" show. I think it was a big mistake to get rid of her as not only was she a strong female character but she was also easy on the eyes. The shows with her overall are better than the ones without her except for the Hulk Hogan appearances in the fourth season, the Rick James/Issac Hayes episode and the infamous Boy George episode. Other than those shows, it's probably better to stick to the first two seasons featuring Amy Allen. The only mistake with her was that bad haircut she received in the second season. I don't know what anyone was thinking giving her that. In the first season she was perfect.

Chickenfoot

2009-06-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Last week I picked up the debut album from the new band, Chickenfoot. Despite the awful name of the band, I knew this album had potential. It's a music "supergroup" made up of Sammy Hagar, who between Montrose, Van Halen and a lengthy and at times very underrated solo career, Joe Satriani, one of the guitar greats, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.
Sammy Hagar had a couple of real top notch solo albums in the early '80s in Standing Hampton and Three Lock Box. I just recently bought these albums and have been playing the heck out of them. Why they didn't become even bigger hits than they did is a mystery to me. With that great Keith Olson early '80s production they fit right in with the pop rock scene of the time with bands like Journey, Night Ranger, Foreigner, etc. In 1997 Sammy had an excellent comeback solo album with Marching To Mars, where he vented on some songs about the acrimonious split with Van Halen and that gave the material a certain edge rarely heard from him. Unfortunately he released an album in 1999 that was terrible and I wasn't too crazy about the material I heard from later albums and sort of lost track of Sammy.
Joe Satriani is the reason I got into playing guitar in the first place back in 1989. I bought both Not Of This Earth and Surfing With The Alien and was extremely impressed with how he made great songs out of guitar instrumentals. Later that year Flying In A Blue Dream came out and was a worthy followup to those earlier albums, despite a few vocal tracks that we didn't really need, to put it mildly. Joe's had a very solid solo career and has released many albums by now, none of them are bad and most are really good.
When I heard that these two were working on an album together I became very curious, especially to hear how Joe would sound in a band context. I have to say I've been playing this album all week at the exclusion of almost everything else. Sammy, particularly in his more recent career, has written some cringeworthy, corny lyrics. Try "Shag" or "Sympathy For The Human" from 1999's Red Voodoo for examples of what I mean. There are some lyrics on Chickenfoot that aren't very stellar. Now lyrical content does not have to be quite Bob Dylan or Van Morrison but I shouldn't be cringing at certain lines either. That said, the songs are so good they more than make up for what are at times awkward lyrics. The album is a heavy, perfect summer record, the type that used to come out quite often but that we rarely get anymore. The rhythm section is very tight and Joe Satriani, while he doesn't let loose with technique like he does on his solo albums, holds back just right within the band context and adds little musical elements to the songs that enhance the song without taking the risk of overwhelming it. He comes up with some killer riffs, especially on "Get It Up" and "Avenida Revolution". Sammy Hagar is 61 years and sounds great. His voice has held up tremendously and he really lets loose on some of the tracks. I don't know what the single off Chickenfoot is but "My Kinda Girl" would have made a very good choice if it is not the single. It would be a good summer single that would probably have had a chance on the charts back in 1989 or 1990.
Those who know me know that I am much more of an '80s guy than I am with the current pop/rock scene. I like great hooks and grooves and melodies and I don't hear as many of those in this day and age. That said, I can wholeheartedly recommend Chickenfoot as an excellent, fun record and probably next to Dylan's Together Through Life and the new Depeche Mode, the best album of the year so far.

Nixonland by Rick Perlstein

2009-06-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

I am reading an excellent book called Nixonland by the author, Rick Perlstein. This massive tome, something like 750 pages plus ample helpings of endnotes, is easily one of the best descriptions of the mid '60s to early '70s in America that I have come across. The book frames that period of time in the manner of the battle between the radical counterculture (Black Panthers, hippies, student radicals, war protesters and other groups) with the so-called Silent Majority for control of the country. Starting with the Watts Riots in LA in 1965, the book goes into enormous detail about the increasing deterioration in the social order that occured in the US and how Richard Nixon, viewed as a loser by his party based on the 1960 presidential election, the failed 1962 California Gubernatorial election and his rejection by the GOP in the 1964 presidential election, gradually build up his support and used the ongoing turmoil to appear as the candidate for law and order and win the White House in 1968. If you have time on your hands and want to learn more about a turbulent time, I highly recommend Nixonland.

The New Dr. Who

2009-06-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

I have been getting the episodes of the new Dr. Who series from Netflix and not long ago finished season three. I have been discussing the show with my friend and we both liked the original series. The original series is a classic show with some very compelling episodes mixed with some not so spectacular episodes. It had a twenty-six year run so there were bound to be some duds in there but some of the stories, like Inferno, Genesis of the Daleks, War Games, Planet Of Evil, The Caves of Androzani, Brain of Morbius and many others are great television and great science fiction, if you like that sort of thing. Of course the joke that always applied to Dr. Who is that the special effects were rather underwhelming, to put it mildly. Styrofoam boulders and aliens with cheap looking masks made the show seem more comical than intended.

Now, the new show changed all that. The special effects look really good. Sets look more impressive and the aliens look a lot better. That said, there is something missing from the new show. I watch the episodes and am fairly entertained but not incredibly so. In the first three seasons there hasn't been one single episode that I would refer to as a classic. Episodes may not reach the lows of the worst shows of the original series but they come nowhere near the highs. Not too long ago I pulled out Tomb Of The Cybermen from the original show from all the way back in 1967 and that holds up very well. No, it doesn't have incredible special effects but it works well as a low budget horror movie. That coupled with a good story gives it an edge that I haven't seen the new show come close to.

Neil Young Archives

2009-06-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

The Holy Grail of the music industry has finally arrived! At least Volume One arrived! For close to twenty years the massive Neil Young career collection, referred to as the Neil Young Archives, has seemed to be a rumor or postponed so many times that its release seemed improbable. On that account, I was quite surprised to find that the first volume arrived in stores so I actually bought it.

This is only Volume One, and I think there are supposed to be four volumes eventually released. Volume One covers the beginning of his career in the mid-'60s all the way through to 1972. The fact that this set is eight discs just covering those years shows how prolific he has been in his career. I am not crazy about the digipack storing of the individual CD's in the set(I bought the CD version, not the more expensive DVD or Blu-Ray versions). It's easy to scratch the discs when removing them from the digipacks as opposed to using jewel cases to store the set. Also I thought the booklet that came with the set would have more information. For a set this vital, I thought there might essays or comments from Neil rather than just a list of who played on what song. Those are the negatives and they are outweighed by far by the positives.

Three live albums are included in the set, 1969's Live At The Riverboat, 1970's Live At The Fillmore East, and 1971's Live At Massey Hall. All three are well worth checking out if you like Neil's music. There are moments with him playing solo (the Riverboat set has him in a very intimate setting with lots of casual banter) and there is the more intensive material with Crazy Horse (check out the epic version of "Down By The River" from the Fillmore East set). The other five discs cover his early stuff with The Squires, Buffalo Springfield and the period covering his albums, Neil Young, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After The Gold Rush and Harvest with unreleased material, alternate takes, etc. There is so much material here that I haven't even had the chance to check all of it out yet. Also, I like the outer packaging. You can store the set on your bookshelf as a cube or the set folds out into a longbox, depending on how you want to store it. Overall, a big thumbs up to the Neil Young Archives, Volume One and I am looking forward to the other volumes in the series. Hopefully it won't be a long wait until Volume Two!

The First Post of a New Blog

2009-06-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

This is something that I've been thinking of doing for awhile. After a few weeks of thinking about how I am going to format this blog, I finally decided to get it going. I will be posting my views on here about books that I read, music that I listen to, movies and TV shows that I watch and other random thoughts that might come to mind. There will be a lot of obscure topics discussed on here as I always have something different in mind. Please feel free to comment on what I discuss. Back and forth discussion is what keeps the world interesting.

Now, a little about me. I am a writer by trade who has written three books, two of which should be published in the near future (hopefully by a major publishing company, independently on lulu.com, if not), the other a long way from being completed. I will discuss these books and even include samples in the course of this blog. I have a few screenplays that I enter in contests on occasion. I am into exercise. Pushups, crunches, weight lifting, medicine ball work, pull ups and shadowboxing all make up elements of my workout routine. One of the benefits of living in New York City is that I can go on long walks and always notice something new and unique. I play guitar and bass. It was twenty years ago last month when I started playing guitar and I took about a ten year break from it but am recently getting back into playing again. I have a little recording studio in my apartment that I sometimes toy around with.

It will be fun to pull out obscure albums and tv shows that people rarely watch and discuss them and read the comments anyone out there might have.