Category: Uncategorized

Then, someone gave me that first American Recording, produced by Rick Rubin, that came out in 1994. And I was hooked. I figured the second disc, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as his backup band, would be a big hit in 1996. It was well-received, but only got to #170 on the charts. By the time I bought the third album in 2000, which features Nick Cave’s “The Mercy Seat”, I had started picking up some of Johnny’s earlier work as well, Folsom Prison and San Quentin.

I was slackjawed when I saw the “Hurt” video from the fourth album, and cried when I saw it again after Johnny died in 2003.

Subsequently, I picked up the American Recordings box set. Fans of Johnny might want to pick up his daughter Rosanne’s new album, “Black Cadillac”. The video that comes with the disc, and which can also be found on her website really enhances the listening experience.

In my office, we refer to the man as “John R.”, because the title of this piece is the name in which the songs he wrote were copyrighted.

Never did see the movie “Walk the Line”, and I REALLY wanted to, but it’s available Tuesday on DVD.

Regardless, I’ve been listening to a lot of Harrison music, including an album friend Fred put together of George’s songs with the Beatles. See if you can identify them. They are in chronological order, and I’m thinking the running times might help. (To reveal the answers, just block over the white space.)

Notes: These are the songs written and sung by George that appeared on the Beatles CDs. So no “Cry for a Shadow”, the early Harrison/Lennon instrumental. No Carl Perkins covers, such as “Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby” or Lennon/McCartney songs, such as “I’m Happy Just To Dance with You”.
The list does include the songs on the Anthology albums, at the point they would have appeared on a Beatles album, had they been released at the time. It contains only one version of the song; thus, no Anthology “Taxman”, only Revolver “Taxman”.. It includes songs from Anthology 3 that George ultimately performed on his solo albums.

Because I’m a blogger, people sometime say to me, “You ought to write about X.” Usually, except on those occasions four times a year (your chance is coming next month) when I allow readers of this blog to boss me around, I usually decline. Sometimes, it’s because the topic doesn’t interest me.

More likely, though, I DO care about the topic. (I’m very opinionated.) I just don’t have very much to say, or much to add to the existing discussion.

For instance:

How do I feel about the controversial Tom Toles cartoon? The Washington Post was right to publish it.

What do I think of the publication of the Danish cartoon depicting Islam in a bad light? They had the right to publish, although from what I’ve read and seen, the Danish papers were rather paternalistic in telling the 2% of the population Danish Muslims, “This is the way we do things here.” I thought some of the other papers publishing was unnecessarily incendiary.

What do I think of the violence from that? I’m against it. (Duh.)

What do I think of Google defying a Dept. of Justice subpoena? I’m in favor, and shame on Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft.

What do I think of Google censoring its search services in China? I find it troubling.

Are you worried about mad cow or anthrax? Not especially.

How about the avian flu? I feel as though I should be worried about it, but I know our government will protect us.

And that’s it. Nothing pithy. No attempts (however poor) to be funny or clever, or except in the last example, snarky. Snarky – a word I never used before 2005.

Conversely, I am interested in all sorts of things, such as:

Wolfgang’s Vault: Bill Graham and his concert promotion company produced more than 35,000 concerts all over the world. His first venue, the legendary Fillmore Auditorium, was home to many of rock’s greatest performers – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Prince – and the list goes on and on.

“Graham taped thousands of live performances and stored the tapes in the basement of the BGP headquarters.

“These tapes and the concerts they captured lay dormant until the Bill Graham archive was acquired by Wolfgang’s Vault (Bill Graham’s given first name was Wolfgang) in 2003.”
Opinion: access to this music is very exciting. There’s also a bunch of stuff for sale – Graham was a pack rat – such as vintage posters, t-shirts and tickets.

Youtube.com is low-resolution source of re-edited movie trailers and other video items. From a wire story: “Brokeback Team America” – This clip marries the audio from Brokeback Mountain trailer to scenes from Matt Parker and Trey Stone’s puppets-only flick.” Other titles listed: Sleepless in Seattle (stalker movie), Shining (“Jerry Maguire-ish candygram), Brokeback to the Future (Marty and Doc Brown’s tale re-edited). I found a performance of Let It Be from the movie of the same name. 6700 uploaded videos.
Opinion: Could be lots of people’s favorite waste of time, such as Mike.

I love word play.

I was inclined to follow Mark Evanier’s thinking on Dubai, but I was mystified. Why is THIS where W threatens his VERY FIRST veto EVER, when the war in Iraq and at least the trial balloons re: our policy towards Palestine under Hamas are more likely to inflame Arab sentiment?
Then I saw this: White House Has Ties to Dubai Firm Taking Over Ports. Then all was made clear.

At school, we had music class every day with Mrs. Joseph, starting in 4th grade. We used what I knew then was an ancient music book. The songs included A Capital Ship, La Paloma, Rule Britannia, and Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean. I did not know we sang so many seaworthy tunes.

There was also Hail Columbia, Kookaburra, Goober Peas, and The Yellow Rose of Texas, among others.

Then there was Shortnin’ Bread. I HATED Shortnin’ Bread, not so much for what it was, as much as the need for certain people in the class – not my friends, but some others- to sing it TO me, leaning in my direction. (I could be paranoid, but not for the five years we sang this song.) But I sucked it up, and got through it.

One day, when I was in 5th grade, Mrs. Joseph announced that we could sing anything we wanted. One kid asked for an unfamiliar page. I turned to it, and, of course, it was that Stephen Foster classic, Old Black Joe. I had no idea the piece was in the book! What would Mrs. Joseph do? What would I do? Quickly I decided that if we sang the song, I would walk out of the room. (To where, I had no idea.)
Mrs. Joseph gets to the page, and she says, “Hmm, let’s sing something else.” Walkout averted.

I’m pretty sure it started by reading the sides of the packages when I was a kid.
Riboflavin, I discovered, was Vitamin B-2! Niacin, Vitamin B-3!

So, I was quite excited to find out that Sunday was the 100th anniversary of breakfast cereal. On February 19, 1906, William Keith Kellogg incorporated the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. He and his older brother, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, while working at a Battle Creek sanitarium, accidentally invented the process for making cereal flakes. W.K.’s company, of course, became Kellogg’s.

Personally, I like to mix my non-presweeted cereals. They must differ by grain and by shape. Cereal generally comes in
Corn
Oats
Rice
Wheat
and is shaped like a
ball
flake
oh
pellet
square (or rectangle)

So, among popular cereals:
Cb- Kix
Cf- corn flakes
Cs- Corn Chex
Oo- Cheerios
Rp- Rice Krispies
Rs- Rice Chex
Wf- Wheaties, raisin bran
Ws- shredded wheat, Wheat Chex

So, if I start with a Ws, say Spoon-Sized Shredded Wheat, I can add an Rp, an Oo, and/or a Cf, e.g., but not a Wf (because it’d be two wheat cereals) or Rs, because it
would be two squares.

I don’t mix pre-sweetened cereals, as I recall Rory and her friends did on Gilmore Girls. Some of the sweetened cereals of my youth have changed their names. Sugar Smacks are Honey Smacks. Sugar Pops are now Corn Pops.