Ramblin' with Roger

Review: Gilbert’s Halloween Mix

I participated in a CD exchange with about a half dozen folks, presumably with a Halloweenish theme. Most of the folks have their own blogs, and most of the CDs came so close to Halloween that I didn’t have time to give them a decent listen. I figure that the bloggers can comment on their own work. (I found a lot to recommend on Greg’s, Kelly’s, Lefty’s and especially Gordon’s discs.) I WAS fascinated that Gordon and Gilbert both picked William Shatner, Gordon and I both picked CCR, and Lefty and I both picked the Rolling Stones and Howlin’ Wolf, but they were different cuts. Kelly and I both picked Thriller by Michael Jackson, but mine was just the extended rap.

But the one CD that continues to command my attention (OK, to haunt me) is the one from this guy Gilbert. I couldn’t read his last name on the envelope, and I tossed his address after I sent a copy of my CD to him.

NAME: Gilbert
BLOG NAME: none that I’m aware of
NAME OF CD: Cowboys horror mix: Be very afraid
NUMBER OF CUTS: 23
RUNNING TIME: 1:19 (that’s one hour, 19 minutes)
COVER ART: Photograph of Barbra Streisand, who does not appear on the album
SONG LIST:
1. Spiders and Snakes- Jim Stafford
2. Boomshakalaka-Dumb and Dumber song (by Apache Indian, I have read)
3. I Play Chicken with the Train-Cowboy Troy
4. I Believe I Can Fly-William Hung
5. Peanut Butter and Jelly Time-Buckwheat Boyz
6. Run, Joey, Run-David Geddes
7. It’s a Small World After All-from Disney
8. No, No, No-Yoko Ono
9. We Built This City-Starship
10. Men in Black-Will Smith
11. Spice Up Your Life-Spice Girls
12. Hooked on a Feeling-David Hasselhoff
13. Macarena-Los Del Rio
14. I Wanna Sex You Up-William Shatner
15. Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades-Timbuk 3
16. Enter Sandman-Pat Boone
17. Disco Duck-Rick Dees
18. Achy Breaky Heart-Billy Ray Cyrus
19. Mr. Roboto-Styx
20. Common People-William Shatner
21. Mr. Jaws-from the Dr. Demento Collection (probably Dickie Goodman)
22. Da Da Da-Trio
23. Dueling Banjos-Lester Flatts & Earl Scruggs
ALREADY REVIEWED BY: Cut #4 has bee (see below)
GENERAL THOUGHTS: I get it, I GET it, Gilbert. These songs are all so bad, they’re scary. Well, it’s more of a mixed bag for me.
THINGS I PARTICULARLY LOVED: 8, 23. Then there are those innocuous dumb songs (e.g., 1, 15). 3 is sorta funny, as is 20.
ON THE OTHER HAND:
9- I’m quoted in an article entitled ALL THOSE BAD SONGS SAY SO MUCH (May 12, 2004 ALBANY Times Union):
“The WORST song ever, worse than `Honey,’ worse than `Having My Baby’ (is) `The Men in My Little Girl’s Life,’ by Mike Douglas. It went to 6 in ’66 (see the 666, sign of the Antichrist?) Of course, [that was] way before the MTV/VH1 era, for which `We Bilked This City Outta Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is a pretty good choice.” (Roger Green, Albany)
That latter reference was to the FantaCo parody, Sold Out #1, one of the two comic books I ever co-wrote. The comic read: “We bilked this city on black and whites”. So my disdain for the Starship track runs ver-r-ry deep, maybe because the root group (Jefferson Airplane) was so removed from that corporate rock sound.
12 is a perfectly good song by B.J. Thomas (#5, 1969), turned into that “oo-ga-cha-ka” song by Blue Swede (#1, 1974). Naturally, Mr. Baywatch picked the Swedish version to cover.
13, 18-I don’t do any cult dances; that includes the chicken dance, the electric slide and these two.
17- ’nuff said
And most particularly, 4: Lefty threatened to punch Gil out over this song. Gordon seconded that emotion. And these are peaceful guys!
I should say that on a scale of 1 to 1000, with 1000 being the angelic choir, and 1 being a jackhammer waking you up in the middle of the night in the next room, this is probably a 2, only because the instrumentalists, unlike the fallen Idol candidate, is in tune.
OFFICE FRIENDLY: If you don’t mind your ears bleeding occasionally
ONLY VAGUELY RELATED: Mr. Jaws is a descendent of that music pastiche started back in 1956 with The Flying Saucer, which, for some reason, I find that I own on a beat-up 45.

Rock Meme-Neil Young Hits the Big 6-0

Yes, Neil made it to 60, despite that real health scare of a brain aneurysm earlier this year.

He may very well be my favorite living artist. I have, in one form or another, at least two dozen of his albums, from Buffalo Springfield, to CSNY (and combinations thereof), to his range of solo works. He changes phases like a chameleon, and I’ve gone with him through most of them: folk-rock to rock to rockabilly, electronic to grunge. I have his current album, Prairie Wind, on my Christmas wish list (along with other geezers such as Macca, the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder).

Here’s a recent interview.

I knew that Neil is a big train enthusiast, and I ALMOST made a mixed tape of train songs to send to him. Ultimately, I didn’t, but only because I thought it was a bit too geeky.

Artist/Band: Neil Young (b. in Toronto, 11/12/1945)
Are you male or female: Man Needs a Maid
Describe yourself: We R in Control
How do some people feel about you: Mystery Train
How do you feel about yourself: Like a Hurricane
Describe what you want to be: Campaigner
Describe how you live: Don’t Let It Bring You Down
Describe how you love: When You Dance, I Can Really Love; Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Share a few words of wisdom: Rust Never Sleeps

One (Not So) Simple Question: Conventional Wisdom

All I want to hear from you fine folks is one (or more) example(s) of “conventional wisdom” that proved not to be the case. Your favorite(s), particularly the ones you believe many people STILL believe. (Is this motivated by statistics in my Veterans Day post? You betcha.)

Example: Lincoln did NOT write the Gettsburg Address on the back of an envelope while riding on the train from Washington to Gettysburg.

Example: Bra burning at the first significant feminist rally in Atlantic City. Didn’t happen. There WAS conversation about doing so, but the organizers couldn’t get a fire permit.

Veterans Day 2005

One of the fundamental roots of the American political process is that ultimately, we have civilian, rather than military, leadership of the military. We HAVE had former military leaders (Jackson, WH Harrison, Grant, e.g.) as Presidents. The last person to come from that tradition, Dwight David Eisenhower, warned us against a “military-industrial complex”; that warning proved to be too true.

It is the job of the military to fight wars. It is the duty of the civilian leadership to ascertain those rare times that we should fight those wars. In the run-up to the war in Iraq, from September of 2002 to April 2003, I was at a demonstration against this potential conflict nearly every week. Certainly, I was informed by some of my pacifist acquaintances of the impropriety of a “war of choice.” But I was also persuaded by people who had fought in the military: World War II veteran George HW Bush (“41”), who chose NOT to go into Baghdad during the Gulf War and Vietnam War veteran Colin Powell, who helped lead the Gulf War effort. (Powell has recanted his February 2003 testimony before the U.N.)

During the buildup to the war, perhaps in January 2003, CBS News reporter Bob Simon, who was captured during the 1991 Gulf War, did an opinion piece for CBS Sunday Morning. He said, essentially, that the U.S. has over 100,000 troops in Iraq, Saddam Hussein is (reluctantly) letting the inspectors go wherever they want looking for the WMDs. Why not keep the status quo? Just keep looking until they’re found?

Of course, that was not the intention of the “chicken hawks” Bush, Cheney and those around them. They wanted to invade Iraq, and seemed to have used 9/11 as the excuse.
I haven’t found a more recent poll, but in a Harris poll in February 2005:
47 percent believed that Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001, up six percentage points from November;
44 percent actually believed that several of the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis, up significantly from 37% in November (most of the hijackers were Saudis);
36 percent believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded (down slightly from 38% in November).

As much as I opposed the war, I was also of the opinion that those military leaders that wanted 300,000 troops were probably right. But the administration wanted to win the war on the cheap, so they found someone to agree with their numbers, around 135,000, launched the war, toppled Saddam, and W infamously declared “Mission Accomplished.”

Meanwhile, those opposing the war were forced on their heels with three little words: “Support the Troops.” War opponents were bending over backwards showing that “we support the troops”, if not the particular mission. But opposing the war was tantamount to treason, even more so than during Vietnam, the last war I actively opposed.
I look at things this way: the troops are supposed to fight when and where assigned. They should avoid egregious errors (My Lai, Abu Gharib). But the decision to deploy falls on the civilian leadership.

The parallels with Vietnam came out very quickly, and I’m not sure I bought them early on, but now, I’m more inclined to:
VietNam: A long, and largely, secret relationship, going back to 1956.
Iraq: A long, and largely, secret relationship, going back to at least 1983.
VietNam: The rationale is to stop the spread of communism there, lest we fight it at our front door.
Iraq: The rationale is to stop the spread of terrorism there, lest we fight it at our front door.
VietNam: Our broader involvement was based on a big lie. (Gulf of Tonkin resolution, 1964.)
Iraq: Our broader involvement was based on a big lie. (9/11 and Iraq, 2001 onward.)

So on this Veterans’ Day, I recognize and honor the great valor of those who have fought in wars, even as I mourn again the idiocy that got us here.

(The picture above is of my friend David and me at an antiwar demonstration in mid-February 2003.)

Ramblin’ Thoughts-11/10/2005

Ramblin’ Roundup: Things that won’t generate a whole posting, but that are on my mind:

HEALTH AND WELFARE

Lydia’s persistent cold- 3 ½ weeks of varying conditions: runny nose, cough, sneezing. She was home for a week, has been to the doctor twice, Is now on antibiotics. Yet she is generally in good spirits (except on Tuesday, when I think she had teething pain).

A friend of mine had an episode of TIA. I must admit that I had no idea what TIA was, unless it was referring to the Travel Industry Association of America or the Toy Industry association. Best wishes to Deb.

One of the members of my church choir was hit by a truck on Central Avenue (Route 5) in Albany last week. She had to have hip replacement surgery and will require quite a bit of rehab. A speedy recovery to Lucille.

I’m happy to note that my minister is out of the hospital, after having some neurosurgical procedure. Joe’ll be back in the saddle in a couple weeks.

Benjamin: my friends from choir, Britany and David had a baby on Friday, a boy weighing about 6 ½ pounds and measuring at 2o inches. Family was already home on Sunday. Bethany is now a big sister. I’m very happy for them all.

In re: birthing, our birth class teacher Emily is on the front cover of today’s Metroland. The daughter of one of my co-workers goes to school with Emily’s son Arlo, something I didn’t know until today.

Darrin & Suzy-my boss and his long-time girlfriend are engaged to be married next year. Congrats.

Give blood- that’s what I did yesterday, time #111.

A story even too too wacky for Greg Burgas!

POLITICS

Election Day-yes, the incumbent mayor won in Albany, but only one of his three picks for school board. And my friend Judy was one of the winners, no doubt because of my lawn sign. (Does ANYONE vote as a result of lawn signs?)

My friend Mark wrote: “Is it just me, or is there something ironic with having both of the following headlines in the same box on MSNBC?

WP: Bush orders ethics training for staff (which is no longer on the page—hmmm)

Cheney urges exemption to torture ban for CIA
I have a PDF of what purports to be Rosa Parks’ funeral service, which I will e-mail to anyone woho wants it. It’s nice.

CULTURE AND OTHER STUFF

A science fiction/comic book/fantasy/rock & roll covention in Springfield, MA this weekend, featuring Leonard Nimoy, Peter David, John Wetton and John Hebert.

And speaking of comic book artist Hebert, he writes: “Go to the attached and check out the cast and crew notes…look for a familiar name in both of which, then go to the production photos and look very closely…you may see a familiar face and vehicle…..”

A bit late for Halloween, but there’s always next year: How Zombies Work

Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian- this is a relatively recent segment on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion radio show. She kicks butt, as one would expect a librarian to do.

JEOPARDY!-there’s a woman on from Salt Lake City who won for five days. (They’re now in the college tournament for two weeks.) It took Alex all of four days to invoke the name of SLC resident and 74-day champion Ken Jennings. Please make him stop.

It’s Don’t Bring Your Dogs to Work time.

Rock & roll feuds: Yoko Ono apologized to Paul McCartney for suggesting his music is vapid. Mike Love is suing his cousin and former fellow Beach Boy Brian Wilson over some fool thing having to do with Beach Boy album given away in relationship to Wilson’s SmiLE album.

Everything you need to be a working actor

Scanner-I bought one from a church sale a week and a half ago for $3; still haven’t gotten around to installing it. When/if I do successfully, there are things I want to share with you all.