Freddy's Open Mind

Freddy Closes His Mind For Repairs

2013-05-17T20:05:00.001-04:00

I started writing this blog in August of 2009. Seems like a short time in many ways, but I feel like it's been 1,000 years. I've really become a different person. In the 4 years I've been maintaining this, there have been plenty of changes and many of them I've documented along the way. I always kept you "in the loop" about what was happening with me and how I was seeing the world. I've been over the top. I've been subdued. I've been sarcastic. I've been (at least I hope so) funny. But above all that, I have been honest.

I'm on my third job in that time frame. That's after being at a job for a stable 16 years. I stopped taking prescription medicine. I've started taking "non-prescription" medicine at times. I went from feeling underwhelmed by adult life, to embracing the moment as often as I could (and then going back to the old way). I stopped idolizing grown men chasing balls (yeah, I laughed too) and started idolizing the universe. I stopped following a religion. I started searching for god, or at least the concept of what god could be. Not limiting myself to the rules of a book, what could god be? If there was a god, it must be vastly beyond our comprehension, not caring and not caring if we care. I stopped merely loving my family and started to try and experience my family. To be a part of it.

I now realize, even through the eyes of a "history of slight mental illness" (my nod to Breakfast Club fans), that my happiness has nothing to do with anyone other than myself. But even realizing it and still not being able to put that truth into action is a curious way to react to a fact you know about yourself.

I should be more grateful to be alive. Maybe I'm not even grateful enough for the life I've lived, which I've never put an abundance of care into, at least not on my own behalf. My life is sharing a second with the rest of you in the eternal vastness of time that has passed and time that will be. One of my favorite topics to talk about, you didn't ask? Well, that's easy; would anything exist if there wasn't a life to exist in it? Not sure why I wrote that....well, OK....I am VERY SURE of why I wrote that, but here nor there....just thought it would be nice to share one of my favorite topics; existence.

For four years some of you, at least a few of which I'm certain, have been able to lay your eyes and ears on my favorite stuff. Movies and music mostly. They have become my passion after stopping the athletic portion of my life. I love to share how I feel about a movie or a band. It's (music/film) art to me. I have a great appreciation for what it must take to be a working professional musician, actor, comedian, etc. I hope I've turned some people on to some new stuff. Come on, I gave you The Monkees!!!! THE MONKEES!!!! Who else can make you reconsider how you feel about The Monkees? Nobody. N-O Body.

Regrets? I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention.I did what I had to do, and saw it through without exemption. I did it my way. :-) In four years time I've written, not to benefit you or anyone else, but to feed my ego. To give it nourishment, like each of us do every day. I wrote because I enjoyed expressing myself, so don't misunderstand, but I do realize that I enjoyed the bit of the "fame" it brought. And by fame, I mean any time someone tells someone else how good they are because of something they have done. I wrote to get you to tell me "good job!" Just like you do at your job or with people you admire or when you talk about an accomplishment to others. We all want a little validation and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It was much easier to get when I was younger. It came through being a wise ass and making people smile, or it came through hitting a baseball. Now, I have to be a wise ass among a sea of wise asses on the internet. Everyone clawing at mattering. Putting fucking cat pictures on Facebook, like this one;

It's a gawdammed disgrace. That's what it is. We wanna be happy, so we let it pass. We let it evolve into us and some of us let it become who we are and our validation. Our ego. Not our true selves. Not who we were born to be, but were knocked off track by adults downloading all their shortcomings and insecurities, hopes and fears into our little impressionable heads. We got hardwired by this brainwashing and the culture. We become a part of that machine and pass the same things down to our children.

Well, with that ray of sunshine I am putting the blog on SLEEP mode. Reading some of the stuff above should let you know that this is just a part of the things that I've been living for the past four years. I no longer care if anyone knows what I think (oh, yeah?), unless it's in a discussion. In a discussion I get feedback and can learn something new to think about. I've grown a bit bored of expressing (talking about?) myself and I'm ready to exchange ideas or probably more likely, to simply think about things and make some decisions and settle on the world.

For all of what I have just written, oops, I did it again. My ego has a full tummy and needs a nap.

Freddy

Cell Phones: I Hate 'Em

2013-04-18T18:52:00.001-04:00

I just hate a cell phone. I recognize they are a necessity in today's world of hustle and bustle, but they seem like such an impossibly arrogant and self-serving tool of rudeness. Yes, I have a cell phone, and it's come in handy many times. I'm not going to begrudge anyone for having a cell phone, but there are certain aspects of it, apart from the obvious good things about them, that rub me wrong.

I'll start by saying that it's smart to have one. You never know when you may meet an emergency and the phone will come in handy for calling the police, firefighters, an ambulance or someone to help when your car breaks down. I think it's great for kids to have access to them when they are out and about, especially teenagers. People with jobs that involve traveling all the time also benefit from them. So, it's not as though I don't "get" what good they can do, it's all the other junk that overwhelms my feelings.

Walking around with an earpiece and talking loudly is rude. You are out in public, not in your house, turn down your voice please. Others, often times, can't see you have a microchip hanging out of your ear and they answer the phone user with an "excuse me" and the phone person gives them that disgusted look and points at their ear. Well, piss off. Stop walking around like you are talking to yourself and maybe you won't get bothered you douche bag.

There is also nothing like holding a conversation with someone in person and then a phone rings. Gotta answer it. Serve the master! Don't let it go to voice mail, nooooo.....too damn important for that. Nothing says "I don't give a shit about what you are saying." more than answering a phone call in the middle of a conversation with a person sitting across from you. "Oh, sorry, I WAS gonna listen, but I'd rather talk to this person. You may sit until I'm finished."

And for crying out loud, turn down the friggin' ring tone. Not everyone thinks it's hysterical to hear "Baby Got Back" every time someone calls your dumb ass to ask where you are or let you know that Krogers has a buy 1 get 1 free deal on asparagus flavored Ramen noodles.

I just think the over use of the cell phone has made us less social in situations that imply being social and has shut us off from interaction with others out in public. Sorry, as much as I don't really LIKE people in general, we are social creatures that often times have to deal with one another. Here's an example of what I'm talking about; don't talk on the damn phone when someone is taking your order at a restaurant. It's rude and I hope you get a tumor. Furthermore, how about NOT calling someone when you are ordering. It's all about you, I know, but the person you are talking to and the waiter/waitress/counter person are trying to get on with their lives you inconsiderate pud. I'm not talking out my ass here, I know people who do that and I've been a victim. Call me and then immediately put me on hold or start talking to someone else? I'm hanging up.

In closing, I just wanted to bitch. So, there it is. Finally (patting myself on the back), someone is speaking for those of us who are not on the phone 24/7, acting like a prick.

Oh...yes!!!! Found this after writing and Darryl Rhoades nails it! He rips cell phones and then an audience member starts using theirs during the show. Can't make that shit up!

Neil DeGrasse Tyson: An Astrophysicist Of The People

2013-04-13T14:14:00.002-04:00

Usually, my posts involve music, movies, and things that interest me about the human condition. Over the past few years, I've really grown to love learning about science and the universe. Quantum theory is a lot of fun to learn about, but at a certain point, there is a lack of connection because I'm not capable of understanding some of the mathematics that are behind the theories. So, I have turned my attention more towards the universe and how interesting it is in all its vastness, glory, and mystery.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson has inspired me to expand my mind on our origins in the same way that Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris challenged me to expand my mind to conceptualize what life could be like without a deity. It's one thing to hear that "there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on the entire planet Earth" and it's another to have someone explain what that means in a practical way. It's all so vast that we sometimes get arrogant about our place in the universe. We can feel as though we are separate from the cosmos, and special in regards to it. Nothing could be further from the truth, because we are a part of the universe. That is inspiring to me, not depressing. Some folks push past the realization that we are OF the universe by ignoring knowledge and filling the gaps in understanding with a god. I do find that a bit depressing. At the edge of understanding, you will find god. But that only lasts until we finally do understand. Through the centuries, Galileo, Newton and others were content to reach the edge of their capacity for understanding and left it to a god from there. Then others came along and added on to what was known and once again, god was pushed further down the line to a new edge. Not to debate the existence of god, that's something I don't have an answer for, but I do know that it's simple and shallow to just assume what we don't understand has to be given over to a god or gods.

Tyson loves to talk about how much a part of the universe we are. That's inspiring to me. To know that all of this that surrounds us, is, indeed, us! It's like when I finally figured out that people in Iraq, Russia, China, Africa and everywhere else on earth are me. They are the same as me, they just live somewhere else. They are not separate from me, they are my cousins that share a common place in the cosmos. The most common elements (that are not inert, like helium) in the universe (hydrogen, oxygen, carbon) are exactly the same as the most common elements in the human body. Is this an accident? No, because we are the universe. We are star dust. We have been exchanging atoms with the universe since life began on this planet. The atoms in us right now were in something else before us and something else before that and so on. That's fascinating and inspirational. In that way, we truly are immortal. We've always been here in some capacity. For billions of years....all that we are now has existed and will continue to.

Back to Tyson though. This guy is one of about 6,000 astrophysicists on the planet and he is the only one that has really struck a chord with the mainstream popularity wise. He speaks in an excited tone and offers up the universe in a way that is interesting and full of possibility. He isn't dry and doesn't drone on with huge words and abstract language that is beyond the common persons understanding. I can't recommend him enough to those who are truly interested in grasping the universe outside of the usual dumbed down notion of the cosmos and our place in it. His take on the existence of life in the universe is interesting and exciting in that the vastness of the cosmos implies that life is bountiful and just because we have not seen evidence of it in the VERY, VERY small area we have explored and reached out to makes it no less likely. He says we only really understand about 4% of what there is to know about life, our universes origin, matter, energy and so forth and that leaves a lot of room for exploration and discovery for what is likely to be hundreds of years. Or, with the development and exponential increase in computer power, perhaps it's just decades away when we will have a really firm grasp on how the universe works. Hell, it's likely that there are many universes, especially when you start listening to Tyson talk about the theories of dark matter and dark energy and how empty space is anything but empty!

The Testimony of Neil DeGrasse Tyson

So, if you dig this sort of thing, but can't deal with the dry wit of Carl Sagan, the often beyond comprehension language of Susskind or Hawkins, or the long winded, sometimes dull explanations of Brian Greene (all of whom I like, but don't hold a candle to what Tyson brings to the table in the way of communication) then give Neil DeGrasse Tyson a shot at needling your mind and moving you towards a greater understanding of the universe and what it means to be a member of all that exists!

Shooter Jennings: Treading His Own Ground

2013-03-20T19:02:00.000-04:00

There is always a danger in being the son or daughter of a legendary figure. Hank Williams Jr. is a country music icon, but he didn't build his fame until he stepped out of his father's shadows and started doing things his own way. Early in his career he just covered his father and lived off the name. Waylon Jennings shadow looms large in country music. He is an icon and broke a lot of ground in Nashville that country artists to this day should still thank him for. The toughest situation Shooter Jennings could have put himself in would have been to go into country music and try to live off his dad's legacy, but he didn't. He did an about face and ran towards hard rock, playing music that was closer to Metallica and Guns N Roses than anything his father ever did. He left Nashville and went to LA, where he would have to learn the music business away from his father's considerable influence. He formed a hard rock band called Starrgun, recorded a pretty solid record that was never formally released, and was even asked to front Velvet Revolver.

He left that behind though, as he decided to return to his roots and pursue his music along the lines of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Neil Young, with a bit of the old country twang mixed in. What resulted was a record contract and a first album, "Put The O Back In Country" that yielded a hit (Fourth of July) and got some notoriety from critics. After that, he continued the hard country sound and released "Electric Rodeo" which saw him make significant progress as a song writer, with several really great songs that will be classics for him years down the road. His third album, "The Wolf", didn't fare very well and from my perspective and just lacked the hardcore authenticity of his first two recordings.

In my opinion, his album called "Black Ribbons" entrenched him as a serious artist with something to say. It is an eclectic mix of progressive, southern, and hard rock with some country splashed on it. It's a concept album that attacks the nature of our government and society as we move towards living in a country with less privacy, less individuality, and less concern about our culture. It was an eye opening experience for me and I would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of progressive rock and has a penchant for exploring the darker side of power through conspiracy type entities such as the NWO and Illuminati.

Next came "Family Man", the first album with his new record label and once again, Shooter showed growth lyrically, but also in the arrangements of the music. He really has found a way to melt country and rock together without it coming off as contrived. He has the chops. He has developed an integrity through his music that comes with having to go on the road and not getting support from hit radio. He rips Nashville and the music machine at every opportunity and can do so with gravitas. He knows what he's talking about. He knows what his father went through and he damn sure isn't done beating that drum. "Family Man" is about Shooter. His personality. His outlook. His ties to his family, past and present.

Which brings me to the actual album I want to write about, but have now spend hundreds of words getting to. I'm not sure if anyone will hang with me any longer, but so be it. Shooter's latest record is called "The Other Life" and it is peppered with references to his father, country musics past (what's new, he name drops quite a bit, but it never seems out of place), and his world view.

"The Other Life" kicks off with a very Pink Floyd-ish sounding "Flying Saucer Song". The song drifts along until it hits a keyboard groove with bongos echoing in the background, which leads to a decidedly southern rock tinged tune where he laments the loss of his heroes (A Hard Lesson To Learn). The third song is maybe the weakest of the album, but that's not to say it's bad. Any song that takes a shot at Jimmy Swaggart while boasting about chugging whiskey and being a "nighttime rambler" is tailor made to be on a Shooter album. From here the album takes off and I'd say it damn near hits greatness, in my estimation. He and Patty Griffin team up to perform "Wild & Lonesome", a throwback tune that is a bit reminiscent of George Jones and Tammy Wynette.....heavier on the Jones though.

The next song is "Outlaw You" and it just abuses the city boy cowboy, black hat wearing, boot scootin' frauds that have overwhelmed modern country music radio. The music sounds tailor made to be a hit, but the words guarantee it won't be played on any mainstream radio station. He reminds the listener that country music at its core is very American and rebellious, by recalling the tribulation that his father went through in trying to wrestle control from the labels and give it to the artist.

Next up is a really nice piano ballad called "The Other Life" which will be the last of the soft side from Shooter on the album. A great "whiskey drinkin'" song which is belted out with a world weary sadness. From here we move on to "The Low Road" where Shooter throws some reality at you. It's nice to try to smile and take the hide road, but now and again, you gotta smash someone in the mouth with a "Skeletor" lunchbox and take the low road to deal with life and its' problems. "Mama, It's Just My Medicine" is a really kick ass tune that has country layered beneath some strong guitar and synth work. If the original Lynyrd Skynyrd were still making albums today, I'd like to think that this song would be their sound.

"The Outsider" should be a hit. In another dimension maybe it is. It's pure country without any trickery musically and lyrically, Shooter creates an anthem for those who don't want to conform to an ideal of what they should be. It's a song for those who like to make their way through life on their terms and won't apologize for doing so. The album ends with two sort of weird tunes. "15 Million Light Years" is a duet with Black Oak Arkansas' Jim Dandy. It's very distinctive song and their voices play off of each other well and it has a "end of times", dark feel to it. The song expresses concern over the direction of humanity, but it also offers a glimmer of hope that we'll get our shit together....maybe today, maybe tomorrow....or maybe it's 15 million light years away.

The final tune is likely to be the most hard hit by mainstream critics and first time listeners. In less capable hands, "The Gunslinger" would come off as contrived. Instead, it sucks you in with Shooter's cadence and flow. In many ways this is a rap song. It's full of braggadocio and pointed lyrics, but really does come through as authentic. It's a song that I'm guessing Kid Rock will hear and say "Dammit, I wish that was mine". Shooter puts the world of music on notice with this one. Just leave him alone to do what he does. Don't start no shit and there won't be any shit. Musically, it starts out slow and develops into a crescendo of guitars before giving way to a smoky saxophone and synthesizers, which pull the listener in and carries you through to the end of the album. The album is book ended and let's the listener know that it's an experience, not just a collection of songs thrown together. A very satisfying experience that seems to gain my appreciation a little more with each listen.

I have had this album on non-stop since buying it on Monday night. In my opinion, it's his best work and he truly touches on so many different types of music and subject matter that it's simply not possible to catch every reference, nod, wink, cloaked riff, and gut shot. It delivers all of that. It's the best new album (not just a collection of tunes, this one is cohesive) I have heard in quite some time. Shooter is making his way, and not on the coattails of his father. In fact, I think he has Waylon in his pocket and he pulls out that card when he feels necessary, but he is his own man, making his own kind of music. It's hard to pin down. It's hard to categorize. It's just music. Really good music.

I'm with you Shooter. Keep bringing the goods!

"New" Replacements Music!!

2013-03-10T16:01:00.000-04:00

Alright anyone who knows me very well at all knows that I'm fanatical about the Replacements. They were (are?) a rock band from Minneapolis that had their hey day back in the mid-80's. They were influential on quite a few alternative, alt-country, and grunge bands that would begin to emerge around 1990 or so. I don't need to go into their past, I've probably done that enough already in other articles. All you need to know is that I love this band.

Last year, Slim Dunlap, who was a guitarist for the last incarnation of the band (replacing the beautiful mess Bob Stinson) had a stroke. A bad one. Being a struggling musician doesn't always afford a person with access to great health insurance (does being anything give you that access though?) and his long hospital stay put his family in a major league financial bind. So, his friends and fans swooped in to lend a hand.

People donated via Pay Pal and that was great, but the real big money help would come in the form of an effort by musicians who had a genuine interest in helping a good man out who was down. Musicians like Steve Earle, Joe Henry, Lucinda Williams, The Minus 5, Tommy Keene, Jakob Dylan, Lucero, The Jayhawks and many others recorded some of Slim's songs and they will be pressed into vinyl 45's and sold at auction on EBay. Following the auctions, they will be released in a more commercial form.

That's not the end of the story though. The story continues with Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson coming together to record a few songs to release on a limited edition EP. That EP included a song submitted by former Replacements drummer Chis Mars (who is also a fantastic and successful artist) and by virtue of having three of the four original band members on the EP, it was easy and non legacy threatening to slap the Replacements name on it. Mars also released a song called "When I Fall Down" (in my opinion it's among his best work as a solo musician) that he made available on the 'net with proceeds going to the Slim fund.

The EP is called "Songs For Slim". I don't really want to review it. It's not as if this is a comeback album in any traditional sense. They knew their loyal fans would want some fresh Replacements music and it was a great thing to do for a friend in need. How good it is really shouldn't matter. Personally, I was instantly drawn to "I'm Not Sayin'" which is a cover of a great Gordon Lightfoot song. Of course, they rock it up, but it's very much a Replacements tune. It has the lyrical twists of a typical Westerberg song and a supped up tempo that was a big part of the Replacements "sound". There is a really solid version of "Lost Highway" which was made famous by Hank Williams, and a fun, loose cover of Slim's "Busted Up". "Everything's Coming Up Roses" (which was Ethel Merman's signature tune) taken from the Broadway musical "Gypsy" in 1959, is on the EP as well and gets the Replacements tongue in cheek, "we'll try anything once" treatment. The other song was submitted by Chris Mars and it's a cover of Slim's "Radio Hook". Chris throws a little juice into the song and steers it away from the ever so slightly psychedelic direction that Slim recorded it with.

It's not "vintage" Replacements by any stretch. They can't reproduce that. Most of us can't find the inspiration or motivation in us that we had when we were teenagers or in our early 20's. Trying to duplicate that would basically reduce them to caricatures and if there is anything that Paul Westerberg probably would like to avoid, it's turning the Replacements into a critical dart board.

I'm more than happy with the effort and I'm likely in the majority of Replacements fans with that feeling. It's good to know that these guys have matured and grown enough to be comfortable settling back into old roles, even if for a short time to help out a friend. It may not seem that way in regards to Chris Mars, but I have to think that would be inaccurate to believe. Mars helped out and even made it in to do some backing vocals when Stinson and Westerberg got together to record a couple of songs for their retrospective disc a few years ago. He also provided the artwork for the "Songs For Slim" EP and apparently may do so for each 45 record that is released, although I'm not positive on that.

The Replacements members all have their places in life now and I'm just happy they saw fit to help out their friend and in doing so, gave me a few new songs to enjoy. By the way, the fans who purchased the Special Limited Edition EP deserve a pat on the back. 250 records raised over $100,000 to help with Slim's medical bills and home care. That's awesome! Now, the EP is being sold on Amazon and through other vendors and even more money can be raised to help out Slim. I've met Slim and got to spend some time listening to him talk about music at an in-store he did in Louisville when he toured with Son Volt. I even got to go on stage (in a drunken stupor) and "play" his guitar at the BBC. Why did I get to do that? Because, I can't play a lick and that's what he wanted!

Slim Dunlap

The Pope Quit? Good.

2013-03-05T20:57:00.000-05:00

So the pope quit? You know, usually, I'd rip him for almost anything, including quitting, especially when it hasn't been done for 600 years. I still might, my post isn't over, but I am willing to cut him a break for one little reason; sometimes, you gotta know when to let it go.

How many 142 year old drivers do we have on the road holding up traffic? How many ancient folk are in front of you at the ATM and they can't quite remember their PIN number, even though it's probably their birth date. Some of them still use coins. Nothing is more annoying than a person who uses coins. Especially if they are in front of you. I haven't used a coin for a purchase since a Pepsi was .50!

Sometimes you gotta know when to quit and if he felt like he couldn't hold up his end of the bargain by doing his World Tour and all that bit,well, good for him. He's like Andrew Dice Clay and Richard Nixon, he knew when to hang 'em up.

I don't want to imply that I'm giving him a free pass on being a guy that covered up child abuse, but he's out, so that's that. If there is indeed a Bible god, Ratzinger better hope he's saved up a few "Hail Mary's", because he might need 'em. I'm sure Christopher Hitchens is smiling up at him right now. Maybe the next pope will be a stand up guy that cares more about the human being than protecting the church. At least I hope so.

Good bye Ratz, I'll catch you in the line to hell. I hear it's a sell out!

Oh, why not! Here's a couple for the road!

Times They Are A Changin'........again?

2013-03-02T00:49:00.001-05:00

I'll be damned if I have not started feeling an old feeling again. Back a few years ago, I went through some abrupt changes personally. Changed the way I thought about people, dumped my religion (not necessarily the concept of god.....because well, I don't know shit), stopped drinking (to get drunk), started taking illegal drugs (all natural), stopped caring who thought what about me, and started trying to be a bit more personal and open with my immediate family (as I still struggle with those outside of my house...but I want to do better, so I will.....eventually). I stopped taking medication and decided to start accepting some responsibility for being alive. I think it has served me well. I've been through it ALL on this blog before, but it never hurts to give a bit of background when writing one of these things. You know....for those uninitiated to the philosophical inconsistency of the person known as Freddy.

Time is winding down folks. For all of us. Accept it. Embrace it. Deal with it. Every second that passes is one less. We are on the clock.

"This is game time, champ. You’re in. You’re in, playing, right now, and the clock is ticking."

Johnny B. Truant

I've known this for awhile, but sometimes, reading it in someone else's words makes a helluva difference. Words that are blunt and real and resonate with me. I have to shake this shit up! I've wanted for a very long time to take a crack at doing 5 minutes of stand up, just to see if I could get through it, be funny, and then see how I felt about it afterwards. What has stopped me? Me. And why would I do that? There isn't a union I have to join. I don't have to take out a student loan and get a degree. I don't have to ask mom and dad for permission. I have stopped myself by not working towards doing something that I really want to do. Out of fear. Fear of others judging me. Laughing at me (for the wrong reasons). Thinking me strange. Well, you know what? Fuck what anyone else thinks. I'll know if I should ever do it again by just doing it once, won't I? Maybe I won't like it, but that doesn't mean I should deny myself. Do I want to be dying and have someone ask "If you could do one thing that you didn't do in life, what would it be?" To have an answer for that sucks. Think about it for a second. If that question is asked and you don't have an answer like "build a rocket and fly to the moon", then you have wasted some time, my friends.

I feel a shift in my mind lately. I don't know exactly why or where it's going to take me, but I'm about ready to get off the roller coaster. I'm about ready to do more writing and honing my skills.

I have a damn near perfect occupation that allows me not to feel trapped (other than about a 6 week period during the spring) by "the man". I make enough to hold up my end of the bargain at home and have the freedom to live my life free of the demands of a person or company that believes they own me 24/7.

My time is drawing to a close and I'm gonna do me. After all, it's really all I have, isn't it?

I'mma keep it cool, and I'mma do me

It is what it is and that's how it's gon' be

Until I get there

And yeah I got flaws, I know I'm not perfect

But all ups and downs, will soon be worth it

When I get there

"Til I Get There"

Lupe Fiasco

One Week The Beatles. The Next The Monkees. What Gives?

2013-02-01T19:19:00.000-05:00

Let me begin by saying that as a younger person I was really into the Monkees. Originally, they were a little before my time. I was born in 1968 and that was right when they were finishing up their run of popularity and success. They had a hit show for two years and had several chart topping albums, actually outselling the Beatles in 1967. My "turn on" came with Saturday morning reruns and catching them on occasion on the local UHF channel of variety known in Louisville as WDRB-41. I liked the songs and loved the zany, slap stick humor. Lots of winks, nods, and nonsense. I'm sure growing up on that humor along with Sunday morning Abbot & Costello, late night Monty Python, as well as The Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy shaped my personality in many ways.

Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith

In the mid-1980's the Monkees enjoyed an MTV fueled comeback (they won the final version of Friday Night Video Fights over Bon Jovi) and I got a little interested again and bought the newly issued "Greatest Hits" and enjoyed them again for a short while. They never really entered, in any serious manner, my mind as a musical group that demanded any sort of respect. They had some hits and had a funny TV show. Other than that, I simply didn't consider them "valid". This despite their having won two Emmy's, selling 65 million records, and at one point holding the #1 record simultaneously in the USA and Britain (a rare feat).

Yes, that is Peter Tork with George Harrison. He played banjo on a Harrison album.

Through the process of "Album Night", to which I've spoken of before, I had the pleasure of rediscovering them and truly learning about the nature of The Monkees. I never realized how much respect they garnered from serious musicians such as Jerry Garcia, John Lennon, Glenn Campbell and others. I didn't realize (but should have) the influence their music had on the people who make music that are close in age to me. Paul Westerberg, Michael Stipe, Bono, and even Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols were Monkees fans. I won't dwell on the topic of why they have always been the butt of rock n' roll jokes, but writing about them without setting things straight would pull the rug of credibility out from under the gushing I am going to do over their film "Head".

John Lennon and Michael Nesmith hanging out at the Sgt. Pepper sessions.

The Monkees were manufactured in Hollywood. No doubt. They were thrust upon the public and into fame through a television show, not playing bars and paying their dues. I can see where this would cause resentment among those who did and didn't chart as well as the Monkees. The Monkees were NOT Milli Vanilli. They were no lip syncing hit makers. They sang. They wrote songs. Yes, they played instruments. They did less playing on their first couple of albums, but eventually won creative rights to make their own album their way (after ditching Don Kirshner) and produced "Headquarters", in which they played all instruments with the exception of bass on a couple of tracks and the french horn. They were legit after the fact. That is, in my opinion, their best collection of songs and it's featured in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In other words, if you must discount them, do so because of who they really were, not for what they were not. If the Monkees were not a valid rock band because they were "Made On TV", what does that make any American Idol success story? You know, the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, The Byrds, and MANY other artists didn't play instruments on every track either. They used session players at times also, just like the Monkees. The prevailing opinion among a lot of music people is that they belong in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame and I happen to agree with that based on what I've learned about them.

I watched the film "Head" twice this past week and just got the blu-ray version in the mail today along with other "counter culture" type films like "Easy Rider" and "The Last Picture Show" as a part of the really nice BBS Collection from Criterion. Admittedly, I was under the influence of "frodis" during both viewings and that's sort of the point. It was directed by Monkee co-creator Bob Rafelson and written by Rafelson and Jack Nicholson after a long frodis session with the Monkees and Harry Dean Stanton. The psychedelic tone is prevalent through most of the film.

The film is one long stream of consciousness that directly connects beginning and end. The movie deconstructs the Monkees image and exposes how they act and react as caricatures. They played heightened, unrealistic versions of themselves for the TV show and were never allowed to show their humanity. They were not supposed to be thinkers who had something to say about the time in which they lived. They were not supposed to show emotions like confusion or anger. They were not supposed to be apathetic about what was happening around them (although if you watch closely, you can see it all over Tork and Nesmith at various times in their TV shows). "Head" changed that and with the help of Nicholson and Rafelson, the Monkees image was torn off and you got a glimpse of them as human beings. It's not quite as obvious in doing that as say Pink Floyd's "The Wall", but it's there. Yes, there are people underneath the "star" exterior. The film works in that way, but it also bears repeated viewings because of the other messages and subtext that is running throughout the film about commercialism, the nature of reality, self-awareness, war, idolization, and political grandstanding. Yes, the Monkees seemed to really "have something to say" as their title song suggests. The movie doesn't knock you over the head with its messages (it gets most heavy in the subject of warfare), but it throws them at you. If it sticks, think about it. If not, move along with the film. One thing leads to another and that "another" usually leads you back to the "one thing". Such is life. If you watch it, the ending is a bit confusing, but know that what I just wrote in the last two sentences sort of help you understand.

I am certain that you don't have to be high or tripping to enjoy the film, but it's made with a psychedelic mindset and I feel that the most value is probably procured from having your mind a bit more open and askew when taking it in. Context also helps. This is a movie that captures a unique time in American history and is best seen threw the time period. It's not a linear film with a preconceived plot line and it doesn't shoot for character development. You should know the characters going in. There are some really great songs on it too. I'll link up a couple from You Tube at the end of this. If you take a notion to watch it, look for appearances from Rafelson, Nicholson, Annette Funnicello, Dennis Hopper, Sonny Liston, and Frank Zappa among others.

I guess to close this up, I'll just say that I am sorry that I misunderstood the Monkees and underestimated their influence. Were they a "great" band? No, not in my opinion. Were they are really important band? No, not really. But they were entertaining and fun. Their music fit the era and some of it was actually a little deeper than given credit for. Take in "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (co-written by Carole King), "Randy Scouse Git" (written by Micky Dolenz), "Daddy's Song" (written by the great Harry Nilsson), and "Last Train To Clarksville" (Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart). Those songs deal with conformity, abandonment, war, and the anti-septic nature of suburbia. The Monkees were a piece of rock history that was ahead of its time. Developing music and video into a non-variety show setting, and doing so without having come together organically. A lot has happened to mimic what they did, especially in the past 25 to 30 years. The influence of the Monkees phenomenon continues to impact music and television today.

This song is "Randy Scouse Git". It has a biting chorus and has a Mama Cass and Beatles mention in it! Note that Nesmith is not featured individually in the video. He is in full "I don't give a shit mode". Really great song!!!

This is "Circle Sky" from the movie "Head". Yep, they are playing their instruments.....see!

The "Porpoise Song", which begins and ends the film "Head". Cameron Crowe uses this song in "Vanilla Sky".

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: Still Amazing

2013-01-17T18:37:00.000-05:00

This may not be a post that anyone under the age of 40 cares about, and yes, I do take into consideration that anything I write is apt to not be cared about. I continue to write though. Enough has been written about the Beatles and Sgt. Pepper over the years and it would be silly of me to try to find some new angle to come from on it. I would like to say that I listened to it again last night and it still resonates with me, perhaps more than it has in the past.

When we talk about this album, it must be within the context of its time. We are used to eclectic instruments and complicated engineering in our music. We are used to grand and colorful cover designs. We don't think anything of veiled sexual, social, and/or drug references in our modern music. We are used to seeing grown men with long hair that dare to walk off the beaten path. So, when considering the album now, it can't be given the same measure of respect it was given in the late 1960's, but those who understand context should be able to appreciate it or all its greatness.

The album changed the perception of what a rock and roll album could be and what was acceptable to mainstream music listeners. It was an album made by music lovers for music lovers. It's no one trick pony. You get it all here. It runs the spectrum of music and each song is vastly different from the next, yet retains a familiar flow.

The Beatles are among the most culturally significant figures of the past forty years. They had a great effect on how music is made and thought about. Their influence is felt all through rock music. They also impacted how we dress, wear our hair, and talk. They erupted in the mid-60's and art through music blew up with them and brought an entirely new way to be creative. The shackles were off and what a glorious time it was for music.

Being able to understand the impact of that album helps me appreciate it all the more. Paul McCartney really shines on this album. His voice was at its best, his bass lines drive much of the music, and his songwriting was peaking. John Lennon was a major player on the album also, along with producer George Martin. Ringo Starr and George Harrison made their contributions ,but this album was truly a showcase for what "could be" from the creative genius of Lennon and McCartney.

If you own it, perhaps it would be a good time to put the headphones on, stretch out and let the world outside go on without you for 40 or so minutes. Let the album wash over you and carry you without regards to what is the standard now. The world of music went from black and white to color when this album was released, sort of like Dorothy opening up the door after the tornado on the Wizard of Oz!

We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,

Who gain the world and lose their soul-

They don't know-they can't see-are you one of them?

When you've seen beyond yourself-then you may find, peace of mind,

Is waiting there-

And the time will come when you see

we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.

Within You, Without You (Harrison)

No Red Meat For A Month! Can I Do It?

2013-01-14T19:01:00.000-05:00

I have decided that on January 15th, I will start an attempt to not eat a single morsel of red meat until at least February 15th. One month without red meat. That would be a first for me, at least since the time I had power over such decisions. At one time my cholesterol was a robust 370 and with medicine I got it down to the mid 200's. I have since stopped taking medication (it made me feel terrible) and I'm pretty sure my numbers are probably out of control.

Since I do not currently have insurance to go have myself check out, I will start to deal with my health by curbing my diet away from the things that harm me most.

If I pull this off, sweets will the next item on the agenda and then I may foray into the area of eating certain kinds of foods to try and develop a taste for them. I have been asked by a friend to document my thoughts on how I'm doing and feeling as this progresses. I will do so as the situation merits it.

Wish me luck! It's all a part of "Keep Freddy Alive Until He's 50" campaign!

UPDATE #1 (1/17)
Well at midnight I'm three full days into it. I've not had an honest to goodness craving yet. Been eating chicken and fish. Maybe this won't be so hard?

UPDATE #2 (1/22)
So, maybe this is not going to be as hard as I thought. One week down with three to go and I don't miss red meat at all. No cravings at all for it. Substituted chicken on my pizza and that has worked out well.

UPDATE #3 (1/28)
Nothing to report. I've not eaten any red meat or had any episodes of hysteria where I went ape shit and knocked down a couple of double quarter pounders....yet. I can say this. Two weeks in and the joint pain in my knees and shoulder have subsided. Not saying it's directly because of the no red meat pledge, but it's an interesting coincidence. I've had that stiffness and pain for several months and now it's gone. Hmmmm......

UPDATE #4 (2/7)
This has been about a boring ass self-imposed event. I'm truly glad that the joint pain in my shoulder and knee are gone, but this hasn't been much of a chore. I have 7 days left and I can't see those being a problem. I haven't had any craving. I haven't missed it really. The other night we were gonna get pizza and I thought it would be nice to get an all-meat artery clogger, but didn't want to blow what I had going on. So, I just got bread sticks. Trying to figure out what I may try to cut back on or out next.

Johnny & The Monkey: A Tale From Louisville

2013-01-04T17:09:00.001-05:00

I have a friend that I have known for about 30 years that I want to tell a story about. To protect this person, I'll call him Johnny. He's a good dude. He likes people and is generally a friendly person. Johnny likes to do some of the stuff I do. Watch sports, laugh with friends, eat, and get in a really good feeling zone sometimes. Johnny has a favorite beverage and to protect the beverage and "Johnny", we'll call the beverage "whiskey and coke". Although I'm pretty sure that Johnny doesn't enjoy the whiskey and coke as much as he used to, this story takes place at a time when he really loved his little beverage.

I'm sitting at home on an autumn Friday night some years ago. At least ten years back (now that I think about it, it was at least 14 or 15 years back as neither of us had kids at the time), as I lived at my old address. High school football had the playoffs going on. How do I remember that? I'll tell you how. Johnny called me and told me he was bored at the football game (no shit, you're a 35 year old man at a high school football game) and to come get him. I was reluctant, knowing that getting Johnny early in the evening could mean that I too would be out looking for beverages, even though it wasn't what I had planned. I politely tell Johnny no and go back to whatever I was doing. Probably watching soft core porn or Father Knows Best.....I don't remember which.

A couple of hours later, the phone rings again. Guess who? Yep, you're right kids, it's Johnny. He tells me that he is at a restaurant across from the stadium (we'll call that restaurant "King of Burgers" to protect the identity) with no ride home and I have to come get him. I know that he would do the same for me, (but not really since he left me stranded at work with no way home at least twice in our lifetimes) so I throw away the tissue and(....ah, yeah...OK, I remember now....soft core porn....that's what I was watching...)I get off the couch, get dressed and go pick up Johnny.

I pull up to the ~~Burger King,~~ King of Burgers, expecting to have to go inside to get him, but Johnny, most graciously, was waiting outside to be picked up. Well, he wasn't REALLY waiting, it was more like wandering. He was trampling around in the landscape shrubbery in front of the ~~Burg~~....King of Burgers and there were at least two police cruisers in the parking lot. Johnny looked a little like he wasn't completely sure where he was or what he should be doing. I pull up and ask Johnny what the hell he was doing and he walked over holding half a cheeseburger and half assed surprised to see me says "Hey.....Freddy....what's up!!!???" Really? What's up? Hell, he just called me to come get him. I lived in Okolona, did he think I was just crusing ~~Burger Ki~~....shit....King of Burgers on a Friday night? (you know....he probably did, I wasn't much of a party dude, even when the wife and kids were out of town)

Johnny gets in the car. I don't remember what kind of car I had, so, we'll just call it "car". I maneuver around and get us on Preston Highway. Johnny has obviously abused his whiskey and coke privileges for the evening and will not shut the fuck up. Not even for a second. He's not annoying me (I love when he tells stories and babbles, he's good company in that way), he's hilariously just running on about this, that, and whatever else. Suddenly, he shuts up and stares across me and out my window as we come to a stop light at Preston and Outer Loop.......

"Freddy!! It's a monkey!!!!! Look, it's a monkey!!!!

A gawdammed monkey!!!! Look!!!"

I, sensing that indeed, there may well be a monkey out my window, given the urgency in Johnny's voice, turned my head quickly. What I didn't see was a monkey. I saw a mini-van. I saw a woman in the drivers seat. I saw a little kid in the passenger seat looking back at us. I definitely didn't see a monkey.

"Did you see it?!!!"

Nope. Didn't see it. I started laughing and said "Just how drunk are you?" I then answered myself internally, "At least drunk enough to mistake a child for a monkey on Preston Highway after 10 pm on a Friday night." Johnny gathered himself, but really did think he saw a monkey in that car. It didn't take a lot of convincing otherwise, but still....I had a grown man in the car with me who was seeing monkeys.

To make a short story long, I must tell you the conclusion of the story to properly top it off. All stories need a good ending and Johnny was gracious enough to give it to me.

We go to my house, because he decides he is really tired and is going to fall asleep. I try to talk him into watching some TV with me because I wasn't tired. He insisted that he was going to fall asleep. I let him have the couch (ha ha) and went back to my room. Shut the door. Went to sleep.

BANG---BANG---BANG---BANG!!!!

"Freddy, wake up. It's Ga...(whoops).. Johnny! Wake up and watch some TV with me! Wake up! Come on gawdammit!"

It hadn't been an hour. The once sleepy giant had risen from a short autumn slumber and was ready for some TV. I, had not been tired, but was now firmly in dreamland, woke up. So, I got my ass up and we sat and watched television.

And that is the tale of Johnny & The Monkey. Every word is true except for the parts I made up.

Chicken Wings Are Bad Ass!

2013-01-04T16:24:00.002-05:00

Alright, I confess.....I thought that the drumette section was a small chicken leg. That the wings I was eating included small chicken legs. Yeah, I probably shouldn't admit it, but it's not like anyone thinks I'm a genius anyhow. So, there you go. I didn't know that the drumette was not a leg attached to the wing. Sue me. You probably didn't know that dinosaurs used to be birds. So suck on that. No, wait.....dinosaurs and birds....no, birds used to be dinosaurs. I'm pretty sure that's true. I saw it in a movie or learned it in college.

Back to the topic at hand though; chicken wings. Damn, chicken wings are really good. I'm not eating a chicken wing right now, I'm just kind of free thinking about wings and writing whatever flows into my head. Whoops.....got "Who's Next" on the turntable. Gotta go flip it. Look at this for a second....

Alright, I'm back. What did I miss? Oh, right. Chicken wings. Damn, chicken wings are really good. The meat is so tender and satisfying. I guess it's white meat, with some dark mixed in there, but hell, I don't care. I just know that chicken wings are really good. I'm a hot sauce guy though. Gotta have some hot sauce with the wings. Frank's or Louisiana are great, inexpensive hot sauces. They have kick, but a great flavor. I don't want hot for the sake of hot. I want it to taste good AND make me start to sweat like I was Lindsay Lohan's father getting a phone call from an UNKNOWN number. Hey, don't get me wrong here, buffalo sauce is good, but it just doesn't have the proper kick and it over powers the chicken. Yeah, I've thought about this quite a bit, why do you ask?

I think I'll go have some chicken wings tonight with my friends. My friend Greg introduced me to chicken wings in college and I've been a fan ever since. Joey likes 'em too, but he's a lightweight. He'll stop after a satisfying 10 or so. He doesn't go to the "I'm never eating again!" stage. I'm not addicted though. As great as chicken wings are, they are not addicting. It hasn't been a gateway food either. You don't move on to harder foods just because you enjoy chicken wings. The chicken wing is good enough.

No, don't give me any bullshit about "boneless" wings. Those are not boneless wings.....they are just chicken fingers with a different name. Just like our corporate culture, ain't it? Trying to make a sale off the back of someone else. Dragging the good name of the chicken wing through the batter like that! They made the horrible marketing decision by calling them chicken "fingers", don't take it out on the wing and try to steal their part of the market. Appalling and egregious! Get lost with that "boneless" wing.

Well, that's it. I have hit the bottom of any sort of creative matter that I had in my head. Probably enough to fill a thimble and now it's gone. I'm reduced to writing about my delight for the flight apparatus of a non-flying bird as a source of nourishment. And a good day to you.

If chicken wings are good enough for Axl, they're good enough for you!

New Year's Resolutions & Predictions 2013 Style!

2013-01-01T09:46:00.000-05:00

Like most everyone else, I don't keep my New Year's resolutions. I'm not even one who really, in any formal way, makes many. Here I am though, writing while the rest of the world is sleeping, still passed out in a pool of stale beer, blood, vomit, and semen, waking up next to someone they don't even know, or puking their mixed drinks and 'lil smokies from the night before. I am going to make a couple of resolutions and predictions for 2013 with no intention of working very hard to achieve the goals.

RESOLUTIONS

* ~~Lose 25 lbs~~

* Lose 5 lbs (at least this might happen accidentally)

* Stop worrying about what's gonna happen tomorrow

*Do 5 minutes of stand up at an open mic (this is now 3 years running)

*Deal with my fear of flying

PREDICTIONS

*I won't do any of my resolutions

*THIS dude that looks like an Asian Ricky Gervais will be long forgotten by 2014

*The world will end on 12/31/13, as the calendar on my wall runs out on that day.

*Abe Vigoda lives on!

*Joan Rivers continues to not realize she's been dead for six years.

*Miley Cyrus comes clean and admits she is also Hannah Montana.

*Hardee's will continue to be in business for some reason.

*Arrested Development returns, is hilarious, and nobody watches.

*I am going to be forced to board a plane for work reasons and it will crash.

*The last seconds of my life will be brutally horrible.

*Nothing matters much from here now does it?

Happy Birthday Paul Westerberg!

2012-12-31T15:07:00.000-05:00

I have a lot of "favorites" when it comes to music. I don't think I've ever just targeted one band or one person as the tip-top, but Paul Westerberg is about as close to the top as you can get with me without seeing much competition.

He came out of Minneapolis with his post-punk/pre-grunge, highly influential alternative (when it really was alternative) college rock band The Replacements in the early 80's. Westerberg rapidly grew into an outstanding songwriter and a pretty damned good guitarist. When The Replacements broke down (definitely not "up") he was already well on his way to doing his own thing and continued to write great songs and wear his heart on his sleeve.

He never became a big commercial success by today's standards, but his influence is felt through a thousand bands and he is well respected in rock circles among other musicians and critics. His 53rd birthday is today and I felt like writing a little bit about him in celebration. His influence on my musical tastes can't be measured. Opening my mind up to The Replacements allowed me to drive myself to all sorts of music I may not have otherwise heard. It was like "Freddy, there's a lot of music out there, don't miss it!" The years wear on and Paul isn't releasing as much music to the public as he did in years past, but that's OK. Like The Band, Waylon Jennings, Beastie Boys, The Beatles, and Roger Waters, their music that is already out there is more than enough to satisfy me for the rest of my life. The music is not to be disregarded after a listen. It's timeless for me. I just go back to my LP's or IPod and visit my friends when I'm lonely for one of their songs.

Happy Birthday Paul!

"First Glimmer" on MTV!

"I'll Be You" by The Replacements

"Dyslexic Heart" from the Singles soundtrack

"Love Untold" on Letterman! (Tommy Keene on guitar!)

New Year's Musings On Music I Found In 2012

2012-12-31T10:50:00.003-05:00

Personally, 2012 was an OK year. I don't keep up with "time" very well and one year seems to slip into the next for me and then I don't remember exactly when something happened. Anyone else let time slip away like that? I suppose it's just natural as you get older, to lose track of when certain events happen. I need a better filing system in my programming. Freddy 6.0?

I had some great times with family and friends last year and just keep plowing ahead towards the final destination. I have to say though, that there are a few things that were not of 2012 that I'm glad I found for the first time during this year. While others are listing their favorite "this" and "thats" from 2012, I'm going to list a few albums that I experienced for the first time in 2012, but were around way before this year.

Pieces Of A Man: Gil Scott-Heron (1971)

A wonderful find for me. I heard Gil Scott-Herson's name on a superb documentary about Bill Withers called "Still Bill" (which I highly recommend to music lovers and you can find it on Netflix, or watch on You Tube by clicking the link) and decided to find out why Withers and his wife were so keen on him. I listened to several songs on You Tube and was sold. This will be painful and hard for some to take, but I believe this album is better than Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and makes at least as good a statement on the plight of those on the bottom rung of socio-economic status in our country. There are five or six standouts on the record and "Home Is Where The Hatred Is" is among those, along with "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "Lady Day & John Coltrane". If you like soul or R&B, I'd be hard pressed to recommend any album in that line of genres to you ahead of this one.

********************

Seed Of Memory: Terry Reid (1976)

This is a fantastic album and honestly, my music loving life would be worse off having not heard it. Terry Reid is the guy who turned down Jimmy Page to be the lead singer of Led Zeppelin. One of rocks great blunders, but it gave way to this hidden gem, called "Seed Of Memory". The sound is definitively "70's", but as much as you can hear the well that Reid draws from (Neil Young, Byrds, etc), you can really hear where he was influential to those who came after him. His voice is so good and with the songwriting on this album, it bears repeated listening.

********************

The Band: The Band (1969)

It depends on when you catch me, but this may be the best album I have ever heard. Over the years, I had heard several songs off the album, but never took it in as a whole until this past year. Lyrically and musically it just delivers with an eclectic batch of tunes that weave into one another seamlessly. The voices of Danko, Manuel, and Helm are earthy, real, and at times, beautiful. It's hard not to love an album with "Up On Cripple Creek", "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down", "Whispering Pines", and "King Harvest" on it. George Harrison once called them the best band in the universe and after hearing this album I can see why he thought so.

*******************

Pacific Ocean Blue: Dennis Wilson (1977)

An unheralded classic that is getting its due now more than it do when it was released. Most of the record is a departure from the Beach Boys sound that he helped create, though you will find some moments here and there that recall the Beach Boys at their best. I think this album has some great songs and it's a shame that it didn't receive more acclaim at the time. Perhaps the momentum from a hit album could have saved Wilson from his downward spiral. There are some beautiful songs on this one, including "Thoughts Of You" and "River Song" (co-written by Carl Wilson with a bit of a Beach Boys feel), but my favorite is probably "Dreamer".

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2013. I'm sure, like any other year, it will have its ups and downs, but try to take it all in stride. It's just life we are living and I believe we only get one shot at it. With that, I'll say enjoy your family and friends, don't sweat the small stuff (and really, it's ALL small stuff), and find some good music to soothe your heart, mind, and soul whenever possible.

12/21/2012: I'm Still Here, Now What?

2012-12-21T13:42:00.000-05:00

Alright then.....thanks for nothing. Fuckin' Mayans. All this build up for the past four or five years and here I sitting in a warm house with my little ones safely tucked in and me in my pajamas with the feet in 'em typing on my computer. Where is the mayhem? Where are the meteors? Where is Planet X? I was ready to embrace the horror and this is the devastating scene from my back yard as winds whipping at speeds of up to 50 MPH struck!?!?

I know I should be thankful, but I am decidedly NOT thankful. I've invested some time and effort into this day coming. I was ready to have the last laugh and now I have to deal with the aftermath of nothing happening. How do I come back from this?

For the past two years, I watched about 37 You Tube videos and kept up with 11 blogs that laid out, in perfect detail, the end of times. They couldn't all be wrong, could they? Why would they tell lies and deceive me? I took them to heart and just stopped caring about what I ate and what I did. Does anyone know how awesome that is? To just not care! Oh, how grand it was. I put Elizabeth Taylor and Chris Farley to shame. Chicken wing Wednesday. Steak Saturday. Sundae Sunday. Muncho Monday. Saturated fats at every one of the six daily meals I had! I super sized everything. I haven't had a glass of water or a piece of fruit in 23 months! I did a reverse Jonah Hill!! Do you appreciate how hard it's going to be to lose the 100 lbs I carelessly gained?

I also quit my job! Can any of you even know where I was in life just a couple of years back? I was living the dream in middle management. Working hard to make sure the last line of defense between the company and the customer was up to par. Getting groused at by people who weren't my boss. Had my own office with a window that over looked shelving full of awesome internal engine parts. Two weeks of vacation time every year! Managing people who could barely make it in sober if they made it in at all and then having to hear shit if I couldn't get them to work like they were on a southern cotton plantation in 1855. I had it made. I was going places. Hell, after 16 years, I had $7,000 in my 401K and would have been able to retire comfortably at the age of 149. I was living a dream!

For the sake of full disclosure, honesty, and transparency, I did some things that in retrospect probably weren't so smart now. You have to know though, that I would never do these things if I didn't think the world was coming to an end.

1) Told my kids that every sneeze took a week off their lives and they need to hold it in.

2) Tipped a stripper $600 last May for grinding on my Pepe' and had to take my wife to Sizzler for our 20th anniversary. (hell, I didn't think it would matter, you would have done the same)

3) Watched "The Walking Dead" straight through on Netflix. Now what?

4) I was asked to co-host a late night Internet radio show a few weeks ago and told the guy ; "Saw off a chair leg and sit on it you asshole, don't you know the world is ending?" (kind of wish I hadn't done that now)

5) I left the lights on, the heat blasting, and all of my water faucets running for the past month. I'm guessing those bills are going to have to go on a payment plan.

6) I've been littering, speeding, driving without a seat belt, jaywalking, and tearing tags off of mattresses for months and never paid any of the tickets I got.

7) ~~I've been stealing my neighbors Wi-Fi and downloading scat porn using his accounts.~~ I mean, one of my other neighbors has been stealing that neighbors Wi-Fi and downloading scat porn using his accounts.

8) Before turning in last night I called and told my cousin her husband had been sleeping around on her and he had another family living in the Highlands. It's not true, but a great end of times practical joke.

9) I used my kids college savings to buy a Mickey Mantle rookie card, and then set it on fire. (I always thought it would be cool to be able to spend money like that)

10) I purposely got hooked on heroin. It felt great. Not really sure what to do about that now.

11) I haven't paid taxes for three years and sent a certified letter to the IRS yesterday mocking their inability to collect.

12) I bought $13,000 worth of furniture on a "Pay Nothing Until 2013" deal.

As you can see, I put a lot of stock in this Mayan calendar thing. I feel jipped this morning. It's not fair. I did what any normal person would do upon finding out the world was ending. If anyone would like to help me out, I really would like to know when the NEXT end of the world deadline is so I can start planning now. Perhaps this hasn't all been a wash and I'll just have to shine all this on for a little while longer. Oh, well, at least I enjoyed myself! What the hell have you done while I was having fun over eating at strip club buffets, having promiscuous and unprotected sex with men and women I met on the street, sharing needles, watching reruns of Different Strokes, choking the life out of stray kittens and giving my kids bad life advice for laughs!?!?

Don't you judge me!

Sandy Hook, Connecticut: Sadness, Anger, Hopelessness

2012-12-14T19:03:00.000-05:00

This probably isn't the time to write this, but I'm pissed off and sad and I damn well want to vent.

We have almost thirty dead people in Sandy Hook, Connecticut today and twenty of them are kindergarten students. The shooter? He's dead too, along with six to eight other adults. We don't know much about the shooter and really even the particulars of how it happened. What we do know is enough for now. Twenty dead children. Twenty dead kindergarten children. Twenty children around the age of five.

First, I'll deal a little with my anger. There is no justice for this. How can there be? Even if the shooter were still alive and I could be alone in a room with him and a hammer, where would the justice be? Am I angry those children are dead? Of course, but my anger is more immediately aimed at nothing. I'm just angry, because I know that no justice can be done. Those twenty children and the their families have forever.....FOREVER been destroyed. That's beyond our control and it angers me.

My sadness obviously comes from place in my heart that is touched because I'm a parent and even beyond that, these folks are my fellow human beings. I can't imagine the terror, the distress, the hopeless feeling, and the helpless feeling that has to be hanging around the necks of those parents right now. That's a pain that will never heal. Fade? Yeah, time does have a way of lifting a burden, but their hearts will never be the same. That makes me sad. Nothing anyone can say or do can make it better for them. I'm also sad that those children will never get to experience life. The good, the bad.....all of the shit that goes along with being a human being. They will not get to experience it. The thrill of competing in a sport, learning an instrument, getting a scholarship to college, having fun with their friends, their first kiss, their first true love, their first child..........none of that is in the cards for twenty children today. Yeah, there are thousands of kids dying every single day. Circumstances mean that there is loss of life in our world, but this wasn't a loss, it was a theft. A human being, likely a broken human being, stole their lives. He stole hope. He stole the future. He stole love. It's been replaced with grief, sadness, anger, and confusion.

For those of you with children, try for just a very brief period to imagine your child's last moments. The terror, the fear and confusion that had to be rolling through their minds. Calling out for you and then being silenced. You having to go to the school and come to the realization that your child has been stolen from you. It only takes a few seconds for my eyes to tear up. I can stop my pain, those parents can't.

I'll make no bones about it, because I never have before; I don't care to pray for them. That implies that I would be believing that some greater entity cares enough to comfort us and the families or cares enough to usher those children into heaven. I don't believe that. I do not wish to feel better by believing it's a part of some grand plan. We just live and die. Looking to a god for comfort in times of death only serves to push the truth away, when we should embrace it. The truth is that life is very precious. Every second that ticks away is one less second you have to be here. The truth is not comforting, but that's the way it is. I don't begrudge anyone who believes or prays. If that happens to comfort you, do that.

I've done my best to make sure my children understand that death is always with us. That may seem a bit odd or cold, but I don't want my kids to take anything for granted. I don't dwell on it, but when things like this happen, it's a good time to help them understand that the world is mostly beyond our control. As free human beings, we do things. We do some marvelous and breath taking things, but we also have the capacity to do great harm. I do my best to tell my children how much I love them at every chance I get. I'm sure they get tired of hearing it, but it's important to me that they know I love them. Love and truth are the most important things about our humanity in my opinion. Those are the only things that can ever unite us and help us understand each other.

So, I'll turn into a preacher for a minute if you will allow me. I want to preach love. We should love as much as possible. It's not always easy, but it's the only thing that can truly change our world. We can't always agree. We can't always believe the same things. We can't always do the right thing. We can't always love. We can try though. If you want the world to change, then change yourself. Do your level best to put the ego aside and love people. Put aside petty differences with your friends and family and let them know you love them. Show love to others in how you treat them and the world around you. It will come back to you, even if it's not apparent immediately. Love now and it will make life easier on you down the line.

The bottom line is, we will never be able to make sense of this, because there is no sense to be made. There can be no justice for this, because the incident was so unjust. We can only learn that life is short and we need to do all we can to appreciate and love one another. This happened to all of us. Not directly, of course, but those people are us, they just live in a different town.

I hope I have not offended anyone. This is for me anyhow. Just wanted to pull some stuff out and express how I feel. Take care and give an extra hug to your loved ones. Let them know you appreciate them.

**Perhaps I will address the gun issue and all that later. Right now, I just don't care about it as much as I do the bad feeling I have in my heart and stomach for the people in those families and that town.**

2012 Man Of The Year

2012-12-11T08:35:00.000-05:00

Making cake for the hungry. My kids were hungry for cake.

Each and every year, major publications and news organizations announce their "Man of the Year". Sometimes the "Man of the Year" is not even a man. Hell, sometimes, it's not even a human being. That is where this blog comes in. You get it straight here, without influence from the "Jersey Shore" or hipster crowd. Freddy's Open Mind is a blog for the people. I will not bow to pressure from shameless self promoters, celebrity agents, networks, film studios or record companies. I will not cave in to the demands of the political elite! This blog hits upon the toughest issues facing our world today and is a vital part of my news cycle.

The "Man of the Year" must be an individual force, who is not afraid to be on the cutting edge of thought, even if those thoughts, more often than not, lead to inaction. My readers deserve a true representative that they can look up to and use as a beacon of hope for themselves and their children.

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, circus clowns of all nationalities, I present to you;

Freddy: 2012's Man of the Year

Wondering if stuff in florescent lights really cause cancer.

That's right. Your humble blogger (sounds like a bad job doesn't it? blogger) wishes to accept on behalf of himself, the Freddy's Open Mind 2012 Man of the Year Award. It's not every day that I receive an award. Hell, it's not every lifetime that I get one. I have been here, writing a bunch of bullshit that few see and even fewer read, and it makes me proud that I continue to tell myself that someday, someone will read one of these articles and it will make a difference. Perhaps 100 years from now, when someone finally gets around to cleaning up the Internet (what a vile and disgusting place), I will get my due. Yes, some over paid nitwit in Washington D.C. will be hired to take a bunch of trash out and he'll discover this site as he is headed for the dumpster. He'll read so many great articles about "douche bags", Sammy Sosa, mix tapes, hell, and Star Wars that he'll be inspired to publish my work and celebrate it as "great lost art"! Seriously, is there any way that "You Might Be An A-Hole" isn't put into the National Archives at some point? How can any reader walk away from "Soccer Suuucks" and not be touched to his or her being?

Not realizing I don't have to get married again because I caught a bouquet.

Why did I choose Freddy for Man of the Year?

This has been a big year for me. I broke away from a job I had for 16 years (really disliking the last year or so of it), went from being a sarcastic, discontented pud to just being a pud (progress, right?), and have reduced my carbon footprint by working at home. Yes, I'm helping to change the world. I watched "Tree of Life" and didn't hate it. I listened to some YES songs and didn't hate them. I foiled a plot by evil ground hornets to infiltrate my yard and terrorize my children. I did try to watch "Super Troopers"again and continue to hate it and still have not made it to the end. I committed myself to lose 15 lbs and even though I gained 10 lbs, I made a commitment to do something and that felt good! Over the past 12 months I have managed to not say "Hot enough for you?". I have also not watched a single second of "Jersey Shore" and I couldn't pick a "honey boo boo" out of a lineup of two. I am also one of only 15 or so people who realize that we are not literally going over a cliff if DC doesn't come to a budget agreement. In 2012, I stopped using prescription drugs and started using drugs for recreation and man....do I feel great! One of my greatest ongoing accomplishments is that I am a lot a hearty and brave soul, much like Lou Gehrig. No, I'm not battling a disabling disease, but I have now gone 31 consecutive years without being in a fist fight. Those are admirable accomplishments for me and I've decided to recognize that by bestowing my highest honor upon myself. Congratulations to me and may I have a stellar 2013!

Hypochondria: My latest disease!

2012-12-02T17:22:00.000-05:00

Hypochondriac: an excessive preoccupation with and worry about one's health

I have come to the conclusion, after some six or seven years of worrying about having a crippling disease or being on the cusp of a major instantaneous health crisis taking my life, that I may be just a bit of a hypochondriac. Not full blown, mind you....just a little nuts in that regards.

There are several people in my life, a few former co-workers, and some friends who can probably attest to my weakness, which I put out there for consumption from time to time. I'm pretty certain that my mother always worrying that one of us was going to get some fatal disease plays into my mentality, along with this new found fear of death. And that's strange, because I've never given much of a piss about when I was going to die. Now that I actually enjoy who I am....I kinda don't wanna die yet.

I'm the kind of person who has been tough on their body. Not necessarily overly abusive, but didn't really take care of it properly, even when I was in the athletic phase of my life. I eat too much of the wrong foods and rarely eat the right ones. I used to get a lot of exercise, but that's been non-existent over the past few years. I used to drink quite a bit and don't anymore,but of course I fear that just that short time has done damage that can't be reversed. Factor in that I'm now 44 (just like ol' Hammerin Hank) and every ache and pain gets in my head.

When I was at my former job, my buddy Joe used to laugh at me all the time about it. He claims that I've beaten cancer eight or nine times, from my various trysts with headaches, back aches, and "other" pains. I've probably had the most success in beating back brain cancer. At least four times I've been convinced I have a tumor based on a perpetual ringing in my ears and various minor headaches. I also, apparently, have cured myself of bowel cancer by eating oatmeal and wheat bread for a couple of days. I petitioned Lance Armstrong to allow me to be the new spokesman of the "Live Strong" campaign and wanted my own colored wrist band. The reality was, I would have these various pains and after a couple of days I would always figure out what I did to cause those things myself or they just went away because they were just friggin' headaches!

I've probably had about two dozen heart attacks in the last two years alone with another 50 or so heart episodes. Throw in a couple of strokes and I'm a miracle of the human body. I just keep on going. No medical treatment or anything. I just don't eat bacon and cheese for a couple of days and I'm cured. I know exactly what causes the "heart attacks", but keep doing it anyway. Coincidentally, these heart attacks always happen when I'm alone. Go figure, right? Sort of like that guy who says he talked to god or was picked up by aliens. Always alone.

Most recently, I defeated diabetes. Headache? Check. Sluggish? Check. Thirsty a lot? Check. Urine smells like maple syrup? (a bonus by the way!) Check. I went with this for two days (even breaking the terrible news to Nancy) before I figured out that I had not drank a cola or any tea for two days and was having caffeine withdrawal. As you can see....I'm a full blown moron. I told my cousin Chris about this and before I even got to the part where I was gonna tell him I figured it out he blurted; "Caffeine withdrawal?" Wise ass. I should have called him and saved myself two days of angst and planning for my ultimate demise at the hands of sugar....that cruel, vile substance.

Oh, and I don't want to forget my shoulder and neck pain I have been experiencing for three weeks. I've been asking everyone what could be causing it. Heart episode? Rotator cuff tear? Some other life ending plague? No, none of the above? I forgot that a few weeks back, I worked my ass off (which I'm proud to report is all gone now) in the yard and used my left arm and a hand saw in an odd motion TRYING to cut some limbs off a tree. A few days later, I had kind of forgotten about that and the pain started getting severe. Whamo! Shoulder cancer! This arm is coming off! Then, just a couple of days ago, it all occurred to me that I had done this while working in the yard. Whamo! Dummy!

What doesn't really help me at all, is looking up my symptoms on the Internet. Not a week goes by that I am not self-diagnosing myself with Ebola, hook worms, sickle cell anemia, polio, or a ruptured gall bladder on Web MD or on some other idiots blog.

Don't think I'm making light of any of the above. I have friends and relatives that have suffered (or are suffering) from these various illness' and diseases. I worry for them and sympathize for what they have gone through or are going through. I just thought I'd give you a little taste of what the mind can do, if you are not familiar with its power already! I always go to the worst possible place when I am sick or hurting now. The thing is, it's not going to get better. I'm not going to suddenly pull a "Benjamin Button" and start feeling better as I work my way back to my quality athletic time period (which lasted about 10 years) or my sexual peak (which lasted about ten minutes). No, it's all over but the shouting physically and I'm trying to grasp that mentally. I truly feel like I am smarter and wiser than ever. I am more patient, forgiving, loving, and caring. Hooray for me....but the sad thing is, now that I am evolved into the human being I have always needed to be, I don't quite have the physical prowess to use those attributes to their fullest potential, and that is some bullshit.

The incredible irony, which is not lost on me, is that I am once again self-diagnosing myself with a disorder that's probably (see, I can't even admit that it's not) not real! My mind is like Charlie Sheen; it's WINNING!

Feel free to add any comments that you wish. I'm kind of interested in seeing if other people go through this stuff or am I truly an idiot in the wilderness!

Whoa.....What the f*ck?

2012-11-13T15:53:00.000-05:00

Jeebus! You ever woke up in the middle of the night and thought "Oh shit.....I'm gonna die!"?

None of us are gonna make it out alive and that's a sobering thought when you get right down to it. Most of us put off thinking about our demise, but there are a few of us (like myself) who can't get through a day without examining it a little bit.

My cousin says he likes to "take death out of his pocket" and give it a look over every day, so he can remind himself to not stress out and take most of life with a grain of salt. Not a bad idea for those of us who are prone to slipping into Neverland, a place where death is always happening to other people. Hell, let's be honest; a lot of people NEVER take the time to really contemplate their mortality. It's just not in us to think about our death, when we are so geared to survive.

As I have outlined here before, and earlier in this post, I consider death quite a bit. Not so much "where I go" after the deed is done, but what is it going to be like. Once you are gone, that's it. Poof! See ya. No getting a long last look. No thinking "Hey, I'm dead!" or whatever. One second you are tossing chicken nuggets down your throat, walking the dog, sitting at your desk, or watching Cheryl shake her thang on Dancing With The Stars, the next you are into the abyss.

Sorry if I'm depressing you, I don't mean to. It's just that I have a little wish list that I would like to get done before the clock strikes midnight and the movie ends. I guess you could call it a "bucket list" if you were so inclined, and I'm not. This is just a small sampling of stuff I'd like to see, do, or experience before I "check out".

*See Star Wars episodes 7 through 9. I said the same thing about the prequels when I was young and after seeing those, I kind of wished the Grim Reaper would have grabbed me up outta my seat about 30 minutes into Phantom Menace. If there is a hell, Jar Jar Binks will be my companion for eternity. Can I have the weeping and gnashing of teeth instead? Please?

*See the final episode of The Walking Dead. This is a new addition to my addictions, but now that I'm involved in it on the same level I was with "Lost", I have to know how it ends. I don't want to be like Abe Lincoln. He never did get to see the end of "Our American Cousin". What a jip!

*See the Louisville Cardinals win another basketball championship. Come on, dammit. It's over due.

*I really don't want to jump out of a plane before I die. With that said, I avoid flying as to not wind up in that situation.

*I don't want to ever be able to do my "celebrity freebie"! You know, every couple seems to have a "Get Out Of Jail Free" celebrity that their mate says they can have sex with free and clear. At this point in my life and with the body I have "accumulated" over the years, it would probably be just as disgusting to actually have sex with that "super babe" as it is for me to even imagine it. Once you can't even imagine yourself looking good enough for someone else to want you, it's time to sack up the potatoes and keep things to yourself.

*I'd love to live long enough to see marijuana be legal in Kentucky. I can stroke out after walking down to the store and picking up a pack of "Really Lucky's".

*Play a round of golf with......ehh....screw that. I don't want to play a round of anything with anyone.

*I would like to see the Grand Canyon.....and every gawdam rock in it. That should buy me some time.

*It'd be great to see how my kids are doing in their 30's. Will they be dirty bums? Will they make an impact on society? It's more likely they will just be living a life like everyone else, trying to get by, having kids, working, and that sort of thing.

All of the above could be a moot point. Remember, December 21st is fast approaching and the Mayan calendar is running out. Stock up on bread, eggs, and milk, it's French Toast time baby!

A related post:
Have Some Fun At My Farewell Party!

Reading The Tea Leaves? I Suck At It!

2012-11-08T17:40:00.000-05:00

Well, as you can see by my election prediction, I suck at making prognostications. The bottom line is, the old standby arguments and evidence of the past no longer holds true. The demographics are changing. The Republican party has long relied on white males to win elections, but that demographic is going to be a minority group in the next 10 years or so.

The Romney machine did the best it could to get its voters out, but let's face it, when you have a party that doesn't truly distance itself from politicians like Rick Santorum, Todd Akin, Sarah Palin, Richard Mourdock, and Michelle Bachmann (you might be shocked at some of the things these people, and other people in the party said about women, rape, slavery, and sexual preference, but I decided not to post the insanity) . Social conservatism as it is defined by the right wing of the Republican party is hurting their chances of getting a presidential election to go their way for a long time.

Latinos and young working women voted about 70-30 for Obama. The young people and black Americans came out to vote again. Conventional wisdom says that it would be very unlikely that the youth vote would turn out. The old ways of thinking about politics have changed. 2008 was not a fluke, it's the standard. This is the Democrat vote. The GOP can't beat it unless it makes some changes.

I believe they really need to TRULY be the party of fiscal responsibility. It's hard to be critical of Obama and his free spending ways when Bush and the GOP majority buried us in debt and pissed away a surplus that Clinton and Gingrich had built. Cutting taxes constantly is simply stupid when we have a disastrous budget deficit. Ronald Reagan raised taxes to help with a spend deficit and when things got to moving a bit, he gave the economy a jolt by cutting taxes. We are in for a train wreck with our economy and neither party is taking it seriously enough. The GOP can really set itself a part by offering a plan that makes cuts where they can be done without hurting people, eliminate fraud and waste, raise taxes on the wealthiest 20% for a specific period of time, freeze spending or roll spending back to a previous level, and place ridiculously high taxes on American corporations that take jobs overseas and then bring products back to sell to us. Give business an incentive to come back to bolster the middle class work force. Stop making shareholders the leading indicator if our economy is doing alright.

To deal with the changing demographics, the Republicans are also going to have re-evaluate their process of opposing abortion, immigration, and gay marriage. Now, I don't mean to say that anyone should abandon their principles, but the approach has to change. Stop trying to reverse Roe vs Wade. Third trimester abortions are illegal and that's a good thing, but a woman's body is her own and regardless of how any of us feel about abortion, a person's rights are their own. Not everyone believes life begins at conception. Not everyone holds a religious belief on it. Let it go and work hard to make abortions less likely by being understanding, educating, and offering alternatives. Gay marriage is a civil rights issue that the GOP is wildly on the wrong side of. Trying to amend the Constitution of the United States to deny two consenting adults the same rights as everyone else? Absurd. Again, you don't have to support it, but I would think the sanctity of marriage would better be served by working towards helping more people stay married or not get married in the first place. 50% of all marriages fail and someone thinks that gays will hurt marriage? Nonsense. How can you say you want less government and more freedom and then work hard to legislate people's behavior? That creates less freedom and imposes more government into our lives. Be the party that wants government to do what it needs to do to protect us, build infrastructure, give block grants to states to help the poor and then get out of our way and let us do what we do. Build, sell, and buy.

Anyhow, as a registered Republican, I want the party to be relevant. I think it's important to have more than one party, but we are quickly moving away from that. Personally, I've pretty much become a libertarian. I believe that the party must move in that direction. Move towards promoting personal freedom. Move towards making tough choices in regards to our economic situation. Be a party that can really appeal to people in all walks of life. Change and adapt or die. It's simple evolution. Which many Republicans don't buy into anyhow.

Well, there's that.

Presidential Election: President Obama vs Mitt Romney

2012-11-03T23:04:00.001-04:00

I suppose I will go out on a limb and make a prediction on the election. Just to make sure that I'm clear from the onset, I will be casting my vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. I made that case awhile back on this blog and nothing has changed for me on that. I don't believe that Romney or Obama are candidates who represent the sort of real change it's going to take to get our nation back on track from a fiscal standpoint or an international one. Gary Johnson is the type of leader we need. He is a candidate that is willing to talk about the issues facing our country in an adult manner. If Gary Johnson had been given just half the media attention the two mainstream candidates have been given and he had been in the debates, I am of the opinion that we would be looking at a real three way race. Instead, the Democrats and Republicans keep the power on lock down and the nation is worse off for it.

That said and out of the way, I believe Mitt Romney will win the White House on Tuesday. I admit that I am not some political prognosticator and I've never been good at figuring out what polls and such mean. We've seen polling off time and time again over the past couple of decades and I feel like they could be off again this time as the dynamics of the country continue to change. People are more cynical about politics these days and the ability to reach people to do polling is getting more difficult, especially when trying to identify who will actually go out and vote.

An example of this is the recall election for governor from a couple years back in Wisconsin. The polling had it a virtual tie, but the final vote was a 7 point win for Scott Walker. That's some major league ~~fucking~~ fudging up right there.

I posted this (below) on an online forum today and this is all my "reading the tea leaves", and comes from no real experience in doing so. Take what I say with a grain of salt, as I'm simply interested in politics and the dynamics of the race.

The polls, however, ARE showing it close in Florida, yet nobody is campaigning significantly there at this time, but they are going nuts in Ohio. The RCP (realclearpolitics.com) average in Florida is closer than Ohio and Wisconsin, so it seems like THAT would be the battleground state that Romney would be hammering on, but again, it's not.

The time they are spending in Ohio and Wisconsin really says that those two states are in play more than Florida. Follow me.....Florida is a 1.4 on the RCP to Romney. Wisconsin is a 5.4 for Obama and Ohio is a 2.9 for Obama. From looking at the polls, it doesn't seem to make sense that Obama would be making 3 stops in Wisconsin today. If he really had it locked down, why is he there just as many times today as he was in Ohio?

Given that, it's likely that those two states hold the keys (Wisconsin/Ohio) and are really in play, despite the polling suggesting that Obama has a lead. A bigger lead in those two states than in Florida, yet Obama is doing most of his campaigning there. If Romney can't win the White House without Florida, and it's really just a 1.4 lead for him, it seems like he'd be spending a lot time there, but he's not.

There has to be something that is running that dynamic and I'm interested in trying to figure out what that is. Do they have internal numbers that are showing the reality of the race and the public polling is off? Hell, RCP has Virginia a dead heat, yet there is little action there.

You can also look at where they are spending their money and see how it could play into what the campaigns are seeing. Romney is spending roughly 5.5 million on ads in Ohio and about 5 million in Florida. Obama is spending almost 6.5 in Florida and 9.5 in Ohio. The highest spending PAC for Obama is outspending the highest PAC for Romney in Ohio. PACs for either campaign are not spending much in Florida at all. In Wisconsin, Obama is spending over 3 million and Romney is spending 1.5. By virtue of the spending, it looks like it's all about Ohio for Obama, as he is spending nearly double what Romney is in the state.

Romney is also making trips to New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. He's making trips to Democrat leaning states when Florida and Virginia tied? Either Romney is sunk and trying to throw "hail mary's" all over the place, or he is sitting comfortably in those two states.

Can you see how that is sort of strange? Are the polls off like they were for the Wisconsin recall? The polling there had it a dead heat, but Walker won by 7 points.

In watching a couple of speeches today, Obama has been wildly negative on Romney, while Romney is talking about getting to work on November 7th. Obama's crowds are very small compared to '08 and Romney is getting a lot of people out. Definitely anecdotal, but just part of "reading the tea leaves" that I find interesting.

UPDATE: Romney is going to Virginia twice on Monday and Bill Clinton will be in Pennsylvania for 4 rallies. Obama will be in Virginia and Ohio. It's probable that the candidates are going to hit as many stops as possible and we will likely see each of them stop in as many as 3 states on Monday.

With all that in writing, I will go a bit further and predict the battleground states and the electoral margin. I think Romney will win Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, Colorado, and pick up a big upset in Wisconsin. I believe Obama will take Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota.

Electoral Count? Romney 295 Obama 243

As a reminder, please do not take this as any sort of endorsement of Mitt Romney from my end. I just thought it would be fun to make a prediction. No matter how it turns out, it will give me a topic next week!

I'm Crushing This Morning: Concrete Blonde

2012-10-27T10:57:00.000-04:00

I'm having a big of a crush on a band this morning and plan to spend an hour or two digging their music. Singer Johnette Napolitano has been a favorite of mine for almost 20 years. We had an assistant baseball coach at Lindsey Wilson College (John H.) who was into music and knew that I listened to quite a bit of stuff off the beaten path. He had a CD of Concrete Blonde's called "Bloodletting", which had their only hit "Joey" on it. He loved that song, but considered the rest of the record a bit dark for his tastes, so he gave it to me.

I started listening to it.....A LOT! I listened so much that the guys I shared an apartment with started liking it. Then they started pulling it off the shelf and it was getting played even when I wasn't around. It truly is an amazing record and one that I recommend to any music lover. A pop sound, but there is an undertone of darkness to the music and definitely in the lyrics. Relationships, alcohol abuse, suicide, all of it is right there.

Some years back, a college buddy of mine (Joey W.) ventured up from his hometown, which is in the Land of Lincoln, and attended a Concrete Blonde show with me at a night spot here in Louisville. I can't remember the name of the place, but that's not important. They were pretty damned good and the crowd was into it. There was some tension in the band though and at one point, the guitarist (James Mankey) got pissed off at singer Johnette Napolitano and told her to play the guitar if she didn't like what he was doing and he walked off. She sang a few songs by herself, one a heart piercing cover of "Mercedes Benz" made famous by Janis Joplin.

Joey and I got to watch the band disintegrate before our eyes, but since then they have played together quite a bit. They even did a mini-tour commemorating the re-mastering and re-release of the Bloodletting record. Anyhow, I really dig their music and thought I'd write about them this morning and share a few songs that I think some of you may dig. They have released eight albums, the best of which are the aforementioned "Bloodletting" and "Mexican Moon".

"Someday?" from Walking In London

"Caroline" from Bloodletting

"Joey" Live on Dennis Miller from Bloodletting

"Mexican Moon" from Mexican Moon

"Heal It Up" from Mexican Moon

A REAL SHOWCASE FOR HER SOARING VOICE

I hope you listen to a few tracks and enjoy it! Even if you don't, I'll make up for your displeasure!

What Has Happened To My Republican Party?

2012-10-11T17:28:00.000-04:00

Though I've never voted for a Democrat for president and am a registered Republican, I've been called a "liberal" and an "Obama supporter" from time by a few people who know damn well I'm not and I'd really like to address something as a matter of curiosity. This isn't in anyway supportive of the Democrats and/or liberals, it's about the GOP....the party I had voted with for a long time.

I've never been a Democrat, and if a Republican (or former one now) can't stand up and call out the party, who can?

Why are regular Joe Republicans still so clingy to the party? This really isn't meant for the radical right. Those people have a worldview that believes an authoritarian or theocratic government would be best. Even though I don't subscribe to that in any way, I can understand that they hold this view and may do so for a variety of reasons including how they were brought up, social philosophy, and religious beliefs. I'm talking to you guys who don't have that world view, but still can't seem to get out of the grasp of the Republican party.

I am a registered Republican who feels like the party just doesn't want my kind any longer, and that being the way it is, I don't care to give them my vote in certain cases anymore. Voting is an important right and candidates should earn a vote, not be given it by default. I will vote for the best candidate from now on, and if there is not a suitable candidate, I wont' vote at all. No more giving my vote up based on a false idea or an outdated notion of what it means to be a Republican or a conservative. No more voting on the "lesser of two evils" as if that is an acceptable way of electing the people who should be serving our interests and not the other way around.

Just look at the past year alone. All of this stuff coming out about Republicans (and really does it matter if its at the state level or not? it is still a reflection of the party) who advocate/support/believe in trying to rewrite history in regards to slavery being a blessing for black Americans, marginalizing a portion of rape victims, advocating a return to Biblical "morality" by killing gays or unruly children, and basically a strong desire to create a theocratic government based on fear, hate, and a "us vs. them" mentality that has no use for anyone that isn't a "true believer". Basically, the hard right wants what the Muslim theocracies have. They can distance themselves from that, but what do you think a government that was based strictly on Biblical teachings would look like? It would see people thrown in jail for all sorts of reasons that had nothing to do with harming others, but simply harming others sensibility (or lack thereof).

We have seen George W. Bush go from "compassionate conservative" to a non-vetoing, big spending,torture enabling, war mongering, corporate slave,lying puppet. Then we had the audacity to hammer away on Obama for being un-American and a socialist. Obama has been a continuation, in many ways, but that shouldn't let Republicans off the hook for slamming him when they didn't mind it under Bush and don't seem to mind the same types of beliefs and behavior from Mitt Romney.

Think about the people who ran for the GOP nomination; Santorum, Bachman, Perry, Cain, Gingrich. All of them with the exception of Gingrich (perhaps Cain) are supporters of theocracy and Gingrich is right with them, despite being the only one that god didn't call to run. Look at what these people have said and what they ran on and try to explain why they were popular at different times. Their words and beliefs are firmly anti-woman, anti-gay, and basically anti-anyone who isn't making over $75,000 a year. Why were social moderates and libertarians (who are the true conservatives in many ways) like Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, and John Huntsman dismissed very early on in the process? They were marginalized by the radical right.

Regardless if you are a social moderate or a fiscal conservative, this party doesn't fit you anymore. It's not YOUR party. It belongs to those with a radical right wing worldview. Again, that's OK for them, but how on earth can anyone who cares about human beings, fiscal responsibillity, and liberty over corporations, status, and religious dogma continue to support a party that doesn't hold their values any longer.

What has happened to the party of Lincoln? A man who thought all human beings had merit and were important. What happened to Roosevelts GOP military policy of a strong defense; "walk softly, but carry a big stick"? What has happened to the smaller, less intrusive government that Goldwater touted? What happened to the optimism and big tent philosophy of Ronald Reagan? What happened to "helping a person to help themselves" by giving them the tools they need to succeed?

All that has seemingly been replaced by loyalty to party over country, preemptive and aggressive military policy, big spending, the want to legislate morality, litmus tests for Republican candidates, and throwing people to the wolves without a safety net and calling it empowerment and freedom.The Republican Party through all of the above is beginning to limit itself on who is acceptable to them. The demographics of the country is changing towards a more diverse population, where the white male is no longer the majority. The country is becoming more secular. People are beginning to value liberty and freedom again, after having had it taken away piece by piece over the past 12 years. The base of the GOP is becoming marginalized as we move into the future. What will we have then? Just the Democrats? What's that going to look like? Having just one real alternative to vote for and even that isn't very appealing. Will we move towards a rise in libertarianism? If the Republican Party is dying and being overrun with radicals, I certainly hope an alternative that is acceptable arises in the name of freedom and a government for, of, and by the people!

And for those who are not Republicans; when the hell did we stop being creative in our problem solving? Why only two ways? Why keep going back and forth between failed ideologies and ideas? Why the demonizing of anyone who dares talk about a different way of doing things? Why the fear? Go back and read the words of Jefferson, Franklin and many others who dared to think differently when drawing up our style of government and governing documents. Neither party is very close to living up to the ideal of America. Why are we as Americans, not Republicans and Democrats, allowing career politicians, charlatans, and opportunists to rule us when they are supposed be doing the work of the people? Instead of us telling them what we want, they tell us how it's going to be and sell it all on safety, security, and the demonizing of free thought and expression.

Why are we not outraged? Why are we not passionate? Why are we not giving a damn about the country and the people (US!) who live here?

Struggling With Faith? Do Something About It!

2012-09-30T18:11:00.001-04:00

For most of my life, I have been a believer in the Christian god. I was brought up on it and like others, I really got scared of the whole notion of hell and someone listening to my every thought. How bad I must be to have "sinful" thoughts as often as I did. I never even considered that everyone else has stupid stuff go through their minds too.....I thought it was just me. I wrestled with hell a lot, but I never allowed myself to even consider that I might be wasting my time with all that worry.

A few years back, I started exploring my faith. I looked at Christianity with a critical eye and I began to research other religions. Then, I read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins and it occurred to me; What if there isn't a god? What if I can just live my life without the guilt and torment? What if I could be a happy human being?

From there, I felt like I should look into my questions. I had never really gave not believing a fair chance. How could I? I was raised up on Jesus watching me all the time (not just in December when Santa has his critical eye on me) and fear of damnation. I was in church at the time and came to a point where I felt like I was being hypocritical by attending Sunday school in the morning and then reading Dawkins and Sam Harris in the evening. I stopped going and decided I would put the Bible to the test, so I started actually reading it. I wanted to test it against modern morality and ethics and see what god really said about how to treat people and it didn't hold up. I still continued to pray a couple of times a day for Jesus to help me along and show me the truth. Obviously, he didn't have much to say. My relationship was a one way street with my imagination.

I continued to study religion and atheism and finally a little voice in my head said; "There is no god." Along with my losing religion, I was also dumping my penchant for certitude. Rather than proclaim myself an atheist or whatever, I decided that I just didn't know. With a gun to my head, I'd bet on there NOT being a god, but otherwise, hell, I just don't know. Nobody does.

OK, it's taken me four paragraphs to get here, but what I wanted to say is that it's alright to have doubts. It's natural and you should welcome those doubts. If you don't, you are shutting off your mind, your intellect, and reason. If you believe a god gave you those things, then certainly you can see why it should be imperative that you use your intelligence and exercise critical thought. If I had to suggest some reading for a Christian who was wrestling with his faith, I would first suggest the Dan Barker book "godless". Barker is a former evangelist, Christian song writer and record producer. His book outlines his journey from being on fire for god to firing god. It speaks in a easy going manner to the recently converted and/or those who are starting to become unsure of their faith.

I'd also suggest "Letter To A Christian Nation" by Sam Harris. He makes a great case, in a very short book, against religion as a whole. He mainly focuses on Christianity, because it is the prevailing religion in the USA, but he does so in a way that tries to allow the reader to take their belief into account in context with Islam or any other religion. His first, full scale book is called "The End of Faith" and it's also worth a persons time. It would be easy and probably cliche' for me to tell someone to run out and buy "God Is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens or "The God Delusion" by the aforementioned Dawkins. Those are great books and for someone who has recently lost their faith, I'd recommend them as great guides to strengthen your decision and resolve. You Tube is a great resource to hear anyone speak that I've mentioned to this point. Learning about the universe, quantum physics, consciousness, and critical thought have been so satisfying after spending much of my life tuned out to those things.

Don't let anyone talk you into or out of your faith if you are wavering. Explore it for yourself. Use your mind and reason. Read the Bible. Really read what god says. If your faith is meant to be, it should stand up to the scrutiny of your mind and what you learn. You wouldn't be afraid to read Lee Strobel's "The Case For Christ" or "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brendan Manning, so don't be afraid to read some of the stuff I've mentioned. Be fair to god and yourself. It's been a very satisfying journey for me personally and I wouldn't change it for anything. If you are struggling with your faith, go ahead and do something about it. Either way, you should come away feeling proud that you came to your decision on your own terms, without indoctrination.