WHAT A DOOFUS!

 

 

http://www.politicususa.com/john-boehner-admits-house-republicans-put-china-troops.html

I have a hard time believing the Weeper of the House really said this. If this is really how the Republican Congress prioritizes things, then I think it's time to do what we can to see that the next Congress is controlled by Democrats.

LOOKING FOR THE LOST CHORD... AND FINDING IT

WAKIN ON A PRETTY DAZE by Kurt Vile  (Matador, 2013)

To be honest, I was somewhat underwhelmed by Kurt Viles' last album, "Smoke Ring For My Halo" (Matador, 2011). There were a couple of songs that completely wowed me ("In My Time" and the title track) but I didn't care as much for the rest of it. To my way of thinking, that album sounded like a talented guy finding his way musically who maybe wasn't there yet. But based on what I saw as Vile's potential from those songs I liked so much, I decided to give his newest one "Wakin On A Pretty Daze" a try.

I'm pretty much wowed by this one from start to finish. It is without a doubt the best thing I have heard this year so far, and one of the more amazing records I've heard in a long time!

This time Vile uses a full band sound throughout, and the lengthy tracks allow the songs to stretch out a bit. And they stretch out into some pretty far-reaching places.

The moods range from a dreamy meditation on love and responsibility ("Too Hard") to an uptempo driver brimming with confidence ("Was All Talk) to beautifully-constructed pop ("Snowflakes Are Dancing" and "Never Run Away") to steady, muscular psychedelia ("Girl Called Alex" and "Air Bud"). There are other goodies mixed in, like the lovely and languid nine-minutes-plus opening track "Wakin On A Pretty Day" and the capstone of the album, the lush ten-minute "Goldtone".

Vile is ably assisted by his band, The Violators, over the course of the album. He and his two compadres create some beautiful sounds, and there are lap steel contributions by guest contributor Farmer Dave Scher in "Girl Called Alex", "Too Hard" and "Pure Pain" that elevate those songs from "good" to "great".

While there is lots of talk about Kurt Vile as a songwriter (and he is very good at that), attention should be paid to his skills as an arranger and musician. There aren't many people around lately who do all those things all at once as well as does, and "Wakin On A Pretty Daze" showcases his considerable talent in astounding fashion. Some people may find his ultra-relaxed vocal style to be an acquired taste, but once you listen to the way he uses it as an instrument in these songs, I believe you will be sold on it. This album is a total package, and for me it's pure satisfaction.

Check out the dreamy passages in "Pure Pain"... most of the last several minutes of "Was All Talk"... the high atmospherics of "Snowflakes Are Dancing"... the instrumental entirety of "Too Hard"... the four-and-a-half-minute mark in "Air Bud" when the music busts back in and then for the minute or so after that... There really is so much ear candy on this record that it's hard to describe it adequately.

"Sometimes when I get in my zone you'd think I was stoned but I never, as they say, touch the stuff. I might be adrift, but I'm still alert, concentrate my hurt into a gold tone... golden tones."

Those are the words of a young musician who is searching for the lost chord. And it in some places on this record, I believe Kurt Vile finds it. Listen to his work, and you will see what I mean.

A QUIET INTENSITY

FIELDS by Junip (Mute, 2010)

I was interested in the music of Nick Drake and Alexi Murdoch, and when I looked up some of their albums on Amazon I noticed Junip's "Fields" as one of the records in the list of ones also purchased by those who like those other artists. The more I started to read about Jose Gonzalez and Junip the more interested I became, so I purchased "Fields" without having ever heard a note of it. What a great find!

I was pleasantly surprised by the first two tracks, "In Every Direction" and "Always"... simple songs played beautifully, with nice textures and atmospherics. The next track, "Rope and Summit" was even better... it just cooks right along in determined fashion.

But for me, "Without You" is the highlight, worth the price of admission all by itself. It starts off quietly, then builds, and builds some more until it's at a high level of intensity... swirling keyboards, excellent acoustic guitars, and a melody that stays in my head for days at a time. It is space rock at its finest.

And after that song, the rest of the disc was like 'gravy'. I was completely sold.

After repeated listening, I can find no clinkers on this album. Gonzalez has a beautiful, quiet voice that works wonderfully for his songs and for the band's stylings. It sounds like Gonzalez is playing a nylon-string guitar in places, as the guitar sound often has soft tones. The drumming and rhythms are patient and understated. Junip's music works as introspective folk music, as electronic music, as mood music... it works in any way you want it to.

And any way I look at it, it burns with a quiet intensity. It's mellow, but it has a lot of things bubbling away under the surface that help make for a relaxing yet intense listening experience.

And to make it even better, this version of "Fields" came with Junip's two previous ones (the "Rope And Summit" and "Black Refuge" EPs) included in a nice 3-disc package. The EPs are also great!

It turns out I'm a bit late to the party, as "Fields" was released in 2010 and I only got it about a month ago, but I like to say "better late than never"! This is a band to watch out for, and a band to listen to!

CHICKEN LITTLE SPEAKS!!!

And as long as the NRA has as much influence as it does in our nation's politics, there is nothing to worry about.  Does it have too much influence?  I believe it does.  Should it have so much influence?  I don't believe it should.  Is money in politics one of our nation's biggest issues today?  Yes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-silver/senate-gun-control-fail_b_3118301.html

POLITICS IS TOO DEPRESSING...

... at least for now!  It just seems like we get through one manufactured crisis and then another one begins.  The guys on the right side of the aisle ain't gonna budge for nothin'.  It's a bummer.

So it's time for some sports talk!  LOL

I've been busy with work, playing music, doing lots of things.  But I am still here and will post some political things in the near future.

I'm excited about my University of Oregon Ducks mens basketball team getting into the NCAA tournament! They were only seeded #12, and maybe should have been as high as a #8 or #9...  but that's OK.  They choked at the end of the regular season, and that's probably what resulted in the low seeding (although they were still given a #12 despite rebounding nicely to win the Pac-12 conference tournament this past week!)

How far will they go in the tourney?  Probably not far.  But I am happy they are there!  They play Oklahoma State this Thursday.  Go Ducks!

The Seattle Mariners are doing well in spring training.  Sure, it's only spring training, but new Mariners Mike Morse and Kendrys Morales are hitting well.  General Manager Jack Zduriencik brought them in this winter to boost the anemic team offense.  I'm hoping they can carry the good hitting into the regular season here in a couple weeks.  Also, Justin Smoak is a guy who has been something of a flop for the M's so far, but he's still young...  and he is also having a very good spring.  So is young catcher Jesus Montero.  The team should finish 81-81 or better this year.  I'm thinking the could win at least 85 games, and while that won't get them to the playoffs yet, it will represent an increase in wins.

Two years ago they were 67-95, last year they were 75-87.  This time I think they brought in enough help to allow for at least a ten-game improvement.  If they are still in the race by the time of the July 31 trading deadline, look for them to deal some of their "prospect" players for some veteran help to boost them for a stretch run.  And after the 2013 season, look for a good-quality free agent player or two to sign with Seattle.  Better times actually are just around the corner!  8-)

NO EXPLANATION NECESSARY

NO EXPLANATION NECESSARY

JOKES AND LAUGHTER

Why is it that a lot of our friends on the right seem to think that when a lefty doesn't have a lot of filters and just says what comes into his or her head, it's a bad thing?  Especially if it is something said under the guise (or within the actual mantle) of humor?   Why are such instances usually made out by right-wingers to be some sort of punishable offense, or worse?  Could it be due to jealousy?  The right wing has finally started to catch up with the use of internet technology for staying in the game, but they still seem to be light-years behind the left when it comes to the use of humor.

I think what Bill Maher said about Donald Trump's ancestry was pretty rude, enough so that I don't believe I need to repeat it here.  But I also think it was a statement based on gut feelings many lefties have about Donald Trump, so in a sense Maher was expressing what I consider popular opinion.

Thus, if Trump is going to sue, then he should not just sue Bill Maher, but he should also sue you, sue me, and sue every American who laughed out loud at what Maher said.  And by now we all should know Trump is the kind of man who would do just that, if he could.

How about when a right-winger doesn't have a lot of filters and says whatever comes into his or her head?  Many on the right have no problem with that, and don't bother to police such inflammatory statements because the person saying it has spoken to the heart of what many of them seem to think.  It seems to be kind of a "Well, somebody had to say it" thing.  But what really seems to make righties angry is when a filter-challenged lefty says something a lot of people believe is funny about one of them, something a lot of people laugh at and start repeating. Then those who are ideologically similar to the offended person band together like policemen against a cop-killer.

It seems to me those on the left who push this envelope in public statements are basically comedians, like Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.  The ones who do it on the right are people whose purpose is to be serious and to be taken seriously; they are ones who often run for office nowadays, or they are talling on the radio, or they are busy trying to write books.  

From my view, this begs a question:  If FOX "News" is so popular among conservative television viewers, why are there not also some popular right wing comedy shows on the tube?   The right wing does have Dennis Miller on board, but honestly, does he really count, with all his obscurity and his off-the-wall references?   I mean, I think he's far too cerebral to be an "everyman" comedian for "Joe Six-Pack".

So, "why aren't conservatives funny?"  The following linked article is interesting, and worth a read.  It examines Dennis Miller's slow decline, talks about how comedians may be replacing the media when it comes to being our nation's "watchdogs", and discusses how certain political ideologies/philosophies may not be compatible with comedy:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2012/on_political_books/why_arent_conservatives_funny039432.php

Do we on the left have better senses of humor than many of our right-wing counterparts do?  One-to-one and among friends, I don't believe this is necessary true at all.  The differences I see are more on a national level. 

In partial fairness, I think a lot of things the angry conservatives say ARE flat-out funny...  but unintentionally so, which makes the uber-seriousness of  right-wing politics far more worrisome to me than entertaining.   It seems to me a lot of right-wing public figures don't know how to be funny on purpose, unless they are Herman Cain (who does have a sense of humor, but whose views are so far to the right that I believe he would not have been elected president even had he been totally serious about it).   Anyway, when someone like Maher or Stewart cracks a joke about conservatives, particularly one that really calls them out on something, they don't tend to tolerate it well.

Kudos to Bill Maher in general, even if he does have a tendency to let himself run unchecked at times.  I don't really find him any worse in that regard than, say, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Allen West, or any number of right-wing pundits and/or politicians.  Both sides generally have their cranks and makers of wild statements.  But the left tends to do it far more often with a smile or a laugh. 

I don't see Ann Coulter running around suing people over jokes from lefties about her Adam's apple.  Nor do I see Barack Obama running around suing people over the derogatory jokes and memes (maybe numbering into the millions by now) circulated around the internet by those who dislike him. 

This is because Coulter and Obama have at least the following in common:  they realize that a certain level of recognition, or "celebrity" if you will, elevates them into what is basically "public domain".  Trump has elevated himself to that level, but I do not believe he has really grown up enough to accept what goes along with his celebrity status.  So, grow up, Donald.  Take it like a man.  Bill Maher may have overstepped his bounds and may not have been within the realm of common decency with his comment, but you need to suck it up.  Deal with it. 

And besides, I could care a lot less about Donald Trump's ancestry.   What I really want to know (and what the nation really wants to know) about The Donald is known only to him... and to his hairdresser.

WHAT HAPPENED?

At what point in our history did people start referring to this viewpoint with epithets such as "communist", "socialist", "fascist", etc.?  I used to hear some of that stuff about "they're going to try and take away all our guns" stuff around my house when I was 12 in 1969 and taking my Hunter Safety courses from local NRA members, but not a whole lot...  and my dad was extremely conservative when it came to guns.  I also didn't hear this kind of talk during the days when I used to go out target-shooting and plunking around in the hills around town when I was in my early to mid-twenties.  Now there is even a radio program called "Gun Talk" that pushes the NRA's views with a vengeance.  So when did the NRA turn away from being an organization for sportsmen and into the political monster it is today?  And spare me the stuff about it turning into what it is now about the time "the liberals started trying to take the guns away", etc.  You still have your guns and you are likely to always have them, so give me a break.

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"Preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge, it's common sense."  - Ronald Reagan, State of the Union address, January 25, 1984

This is a good quote from one of the most revered politicians (by Republicans) in our history.  He often missed the mark, but even the blind squirrel finds the nut once in a while.  Nowadays, anyone who would say something like this would be tarred by right wingers with names like "tree hugger", "environmentalist whacko", etc.  Common sense doesn't include ending all logging and locking up all the forests as wilderness, just as it doesn't include destroying our environment to satisfy our thirst for energy by doing things like fracking, strip-mining, drilling and drilling some more.

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“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  This world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.  This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.  Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”    - Dwight D. Eisenhower  

The more I think about this quote, the more I think it proves Ike was one of the last good Republican politicians.  

http://www.alternet.org/story/149700/rachel_maddow%3A_in_america_today,_republican_president_dwight_d._eisenhower_would_be_bernie_sanders_in_the_u.s._senate 

I think Rachel Maddow makes some good points here.  Do those who doggedly adhere to the dogma of today's Republican party even have any historical sense of how far rightward their party has gone?  Those "good old days" they want to "take the country back" to seem to be the 1950's...  yes, THOSE days, when the tax rate under Ike for the top American wage-earners was 92%!  Today's Republicans seem to have created a faux-historical "Father Knows Best" utopia, in which they seem think people didn't pay taxes, there were no Democrats, etc.