Global Warming We Miss you

Today-sucks!

It is March 24, there is a major snowstorm south of Chicago-thank GOD!  So as we like to say here in Chicago-we miss global warming-screw AL GORE and his millions from carbon trading...The last 60 plus days here have been very wintery...which is good.  Our drought is gone, allergies are diminished, and it clearly makes you miss spring... Now with that-where the hell is spring?    We are about 60 degrees per day lower than a year ago-that btw is an once in the life time occurance.  Not normal...so global warming do your stuff-you seem to be blamed for cold, for heat-for everything-which proves we humans do not know squat...so summer-wherever you are I miss you!  LOVE BILL

Today's Tragedy-National Reflection Required

Today the US, for that matter the world is stunned with what happened to 26 innocent victims today.   The horror of it can't be adequately described in words.   The unimaginable sorrow that the parents, siblings, families, and friends of the victim's as well as their neighbors and community is beyond my comprehension.  My thoughts and prayers go out to all of them.

My question is how can our society continue to allow this string of mass shootings or in this case, mass execution continue to occur?   Every time this happens information becomes available that there were warning signs-Fort Hood, Batman Shooting, Columbine, Arizona-whether it was on you tube, their doctors, their parents-still nothing happened.  Why-because I believe that it is almost impossible to accept or believe that people-family for example-are capable of doing the harm and damage that occurs.  I am not against people owning guns, I am against automatic weapons, I am against guns that any police department is against.  I am against no background checks.  If someone wants hunting guns, no problem, if they want concealed weapons and pass a background check I am fine.  The question is can or how could a background check identify anyone who might be a potential lunatic?  With HIPPA I am probably going against what is even remotely possible.   My real issue is that after all of these shootings-nothing seems to change in any way at all, they just seem to be happening with greater frequency.  Perhaps this is an overall societal problem where we have "objectified" the human being via video games where explicit mass murder by individuals is rewarded in a virtual world, in movies where human life is again shown to be cheap in slasher movies, and other movie forms.  This is a systemic, societal problem which needs to be addressed, by whom I do not know-perhaps by every family, community, mental health doctors, and more.  My heart goes out to the victims and their families today.  When one see's the President of the US, wiping his tears, pausing on national TV then we have perhaps reached a point where the time for change is here.  

Fade to Black=the genetic rainbow

Hello!

Well tonight's troubling post is about dementia. My family has a wonderful genetic history. My Grandparent's for the most part lived to be 86 on average-which is a full, rich life. Unfortunately when you come from a large, diverse Irish family with 14 aunt's and uncle's and over 50 cousin's well the genetic rainbow blossoms and it sucks! I have had relative's-my aunt's, uncle's, and several cousins now die from the following-drum roll please-ALS, Parkinson's(before Michael J Fox made it popular), MS, cancer, stroke's, dementia, and luckily no car crashes! As I always have said, I can't win the lottery but when the DC sniper was shooting people and I was in DC-I would with my luck get shot-1 in 3 million. I also have a strong affinity for music and this next link is a song off of Glen Campbell's new CD, where Paul Westerberg from the Replacements(great solo work too) wrote the title song-Ghost on the Canvas, and this song-Any Trouble;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23M9sR97BM4

Great song, I am 55 hope I don't give my loved one's any trouble-take a listen to a great song, by a great talent who is reaching the end of his road-g'night-Bill

Beer

Tonight I thought I would write about my old friend, the demon BOOZE or as Homer Simpson would say-alcohol, the cause of and the solution to all of mankind's problem's! Now I am sure I have insulted numerous current and former relatives(divorced uncles) who have struggled with the demon. This song summarizes my thoughts on the topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YuLzmupBTMs

Anyhow I am amazed at the plethora of beer available today. First this concerns me-looks to me like the hype of cigars in the 90's-huge boom then huge bust-same is going to happen with beer. There are too many micro-breweries, too many brands in the liquor store for a product that has at best a 2 month shelf life. I am a huge fan of the following:

Fullers: http://www.fullers.co.uk/rte.asp?id=3
Wells: http://www.wellsandyoungs.co.uk/
New Glarus: http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/
Stiegl: http://www.stiegl.at/en/stieglat/

These are all excellent beers, ales, lagers, porters, stouts--notice no wheat or Belgium influence.
These are brewery's which either have been here a long time-three out of four or one which produces some outstanding beers that rank with the best in the world. Beer-my friend through me being thin, now thick--dooh@ Bill

Aimee Mann Rocks (and 'Charm's) Carnegie Hall | Billboard.com

Just saw this review of Aimee Mann playing Carnegie Hall over the weekend. Aimee is one of the great American songwriter's at a time when unfortunately pop music seems to be burying what is called "rock and roll". Aimee is a great talent, her solo album's are all excellent. I just did a post on the Kink's versus the Beatles and the relation to that post and this one is that Aimee is in my opinion a next generation songwriter whose influences can be seen from the Beatles, the Kinks, and others. Aimee has been very active is supporting those influences as evidenced by her involvement in tribute records-Badfinger-her cover of Baby Blue is excellent. She also covered One by Harry Nilsson on the For the Love of Harry tribute record which she did in the Carnegie Hall concert-again excellent cover. I want to ensure that while her "cover" versions are excellent, so are each and every one of her solo albums. I heartily recommend her CD's. Her husband, Michael Penn is also excellent, under-rated, and also under appreciated. If FM radio had some gonads-you would be hearing both of their songs on a regular basis. Check her out. Mr Bill



Aimee Mann Rocks (and 'Charm's) Carnegie Hall | Billboard.com

Earth Groaning-2012 Predictions

Today I heard on the radio here in Chicago that the earth appears to be groaning! Some are predicting it is the movement of the tectonic plates ala the movie 2012. You know that movie, it's where John Cusack breaks all human foot speed records by catching a plane taxing to take off in LA. I went to YouTube to see the video's that have the sound, sounds more to me like a barge moving down the Detroit River in Detroit. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hl2Q560V5P0

Now what's more interesting is when I watched the video turns out 1) part of the video was filmed in Windsor, Canada-on the Detroit River, next to Detroit-and it sounds like a SHIP HORN! NO SHIT. The good news with the search I did was I also found a map that shows the pending axis move of 40 degrees-again a 2012 like theory where the Earth will move and Chicago will now be on the Equator. Based on this I am cancelling my weekend trip to Fort Myers where I was going to start looking for a winter home. Based on this revelation I will actually have a year round summer home. Here is the for the new map of Earth--can't wait:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-l0SC3bRLn8

Finally this all lead to the new map of the Earth-another 2012 theory where again the world will change ALOT. Again for us in Chicago, especially the NW suburbs---I will soon own lakefront property. Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3tCQJ0mvrNU

2012's going to be an interesting year, first we now have proof that ship horns can be heard in Windsor, Canada. Next when the Earth shifts-I will have year round summer weather as well as it looks like I will be living on the Lake Michigan Beach-awesome! If the Earth is going to move 40 degrees as well as sink half of the US, well no wonder it is groaning.

Mr Bill

Kinks vs Beatles Debate or rather waste of breath

To all-I have been reading several blogs in the last week at the kindakinks.net site where several or rather a plethora of bloggers are stating that the Kinks are/were a better band than the Beatles. First I don't think any band had the impact of the Beatles. Next the by far best marketing or packaging of a band belongs to the Stones, yes Mick Jagger did go to the Economics school of London and learned alot! The Who are also a band to be more than reckoned with. That said to me Tommy is more than overrated, Who's Next a triumph that is in a class by itself. So what about the Kinks vs the Beatles? I don't think the issue is about the bands, its about the songwriters or in the Kinks case the songwriter. The Beatles, led by John Lennon were frankly unmatched by any band with regard to innovative, legendary pop songs-listen to a Hard Day's Night-if I remember John wrote 80% of that album. 1964 was important but with all due respect, while You Really Got Me was a game changer-it was one song. 1965 is when things started to change. We had Lennon still leading the Beatles with Paul starting to mature and breakout-in 1967 Paul would be the musical leader for the Beatles-listen to Sgt Pepper if you don't agree. Ray Davies frankly blew away the SONGWRITERs of the Beatles-they had two primary songwriters-with George providing "OK" songs per John and Paul. Ray Davies as UNCUT magazine wrote last year wrote, was unbelievable. A 21 year old wrote Well Respected Man, I'm Not Like Everybody Else, Sunny Afternoon, See My Friends, This Strange Effect, and much more. Ray and the Kinks had or rather DID not have the following going into 1966-solid management, access to the USA market, a album focused label,-all which resulted in music which is IMHO-which represents the best songwriting of the 1960's=or greater than the output of Lennon and McCartney. The Beatles had a brand, the Kinks-did not. The Stones-well the more I listen to anything past 1979, I wonder who the hell this band is, the more I listen prior to 1966, I hear a cover band that made it big with a Beatles song. As Andrew Oldman stated-All the Day and All the Night made his hair stand up, that was the Kinks, as Andy Partridge of XTC said, he still is trying to write a song like Autumn Almanac-a song few folks outside of the UK where it was a minor hit have heard. God Save the Kinks-Bill Cannon

PS thanks to JohnT as RMS high school for turning me onto this band!