Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day, Y'all!

Samuel Cody

I was thinking of one of my long time heroes, Samuel Franklin Cody, today. He was a Wild West Show entrepreneur, actually and old friend of Buffalo Bill Cody and they were friendly rivals in later years. Sam went to Europe and became a successful showman there, but he had another passion. He invented and designed kites. He incorporated his Bat winged box kites into his shows and kept refining the designs. I've written in this blog quite a bit about him over the years. He offered his kites to the British Admiralty and was a commissioned officer. He is considered the father of the British Air Force. I ran across this video of him today from perhaps 1910? It isn't dated, but he did build the first aeroplane in Britain and held the sustained flight record for a few years. He built flying motorised kite boats and crossed the English Channel. All in all,  Sam Cody is a man who deserves a bigger place in history than he is given. One of the great innovators of aviation and a real showman to boot!

Curtis

Curtis Mayfield, live on stage at Montreux, 1987
If There's A Hell Below, We're All Going To Go

A Day Called X

Your retro Cold War Paranoia fix for a freezing Friday night! 

A 1957 CBS docudrama narrated by Paul Ford about the evacuation of Portland, Oregon in advance of an H Bomb attack. What makes this all the more fascinating is this is 1957 Portland and except for Ford's narration, all of the actors are actual Portland citizens. 

Death By Disco!

Why Does Shit Float?

Why do the ISIS militants dress their hostages in Orange Guantanamo Jump suits? Why did FOX choose to show the ISIS video of the execution by public burning of the Jordanian pilot on their website?  Why does almost very other civilised and responsible media outlet on the planet refrain from spreading these images? In FOX's case,  is it the sheer depraved need to use these images for propaganda purposes, to incite reactions and fuel hatred or simply the the utter irresponsible greed of ratings hype? Which trumps what?

Which ever reason, ISIS learned the value of media exploitation a long time ago. They use social media and carefully choose the images they decide to release to the world knowing full well where they will end up and the panic they will create.

In the video from the NY Times I have embedded here, musing from their lofty aerie, high atop the NY Times Bldg on Times Square, they dare to ask the question,  regarding the measles vaccine controversy, "how did we get to a point where personal beliefs can triumph over science?"

Well goddamn, New York Times, I don’t know. Maybe something about a decade and a half of “it would be irresponsible not to speculate” and “both sides do it” and “if everybody’s mad at us we’re doing something right” and “hey, we don’t tell you the truth, we tell you what six competing people each say is the truth, individually, despite that one of those people is having paranoid delusions, and one of them can’t find a sentence with a torch and a posse. and one of them thinks vaccines not only cause autism but also that Jonas Salk faked the moon landing, and one of them is a pet therapist, and one of them has a degree from the American College of Sexologists and only plays a doctor on the radio, and the last person runs the fucking CDC, but hey, who are we to judge?”

We have spent the past 20 years at least pretending that the most anti-science, anti-progress, anti-goddamn-reality people in the world have a right to have their absurd bullshit repeated without challenge or inquiry. We have put these people in Congress, in positions of immense influence in media, with the ability to make pronouncements that are repeated ad nauseum at volumes unthinkable to, say, anti-war protesters or those who want to raise the minimum wage. We have told ourselves this is not only necessary, to listen to people like this, but it is unavoidable. This is just the way the world works now, we have said, so that we do not have to take any responsibility at all for the institutions we run.

As far as I am concerned, most mainstream media has contributed to the deliberate dumbing down of America. Profits and the desire to save their obsolete asses has enabled even the most once noble media outlets to pander to who ever will help them meet their profit targets to keep their erudite nostrils above the water. If you are plugged into the internet, you realise that most media is a few bubbles off center and and a few beats behind reality. I won't even look at or use CNN as an information source. They censor and filter the news you see and hear and try to tell you what to think with out offending the craziest of their audience, because they know the crazies are the most profitable! If you want facts, do your own research...if you want to know what the crazies are really thinking, check out Alex Jones once in a while... 

Oops, I Did It Again...

Max Raabe und Palast Orchester

By The Way, I Peed In Your Soup......

History repeats itself. Anti-vac editorial comic from the 1940s.

It appears that we are viewing the rebirth of The Measles Liberation Front. Chris Chrisie is in England trying to establish his International Goombah Creds and in his first Press Conference had to cut it short because of the controversy regarding his non commitment in regards to measle vaccinations. He refused to answer questions and cancelled his interviews, attempting to deal with the British Press the same thug like way he tries to control the American Press. Didn't work. Head to walk back the comments he made in the USA 2 days earlier. 

This is only another glaring example of how politicians, like Rand Paul are pandering to the Bad and Fad Hysterical anti Science radicals of the libertarians and the Tea Party Movement and destroying America in the process. Paul is particularly dangerous because he presents himself as a "doctor". He is not a board certified doctor. He is a self certified doctor and tries to present himself as a medical expert to his deluded followers. I guess he is another graduate of the Ayn Rand School of Medicine.

For the record, his heroine, Madam Rand, died addicted to methedrine, and in spite of the bullshit she spewed, she was accepting and both Social Security and Medicaid.

We all know that there have been some problems with vaccinations over the last 200 years, but we have eradicated smallpox and measles and mumps which were serious childhood diseases were for all purposes, are a problem of the past. The latest to weigh in on the measles vaccination controversy was the serial drooler, Pat Robertson on the 700 Club, waxing nostalgic for the good old days when kids got sick, either died or got better and then came down with shingles when they lived long enough to become as senile as he is.

Again, his evidence is based on shaky anecdotal "I knew the mother of a friend" type of hearsay non reasoning.

I guess this is all about protecting our Freedoms! Right?

Okay, I hope you’re not eating while you read this. Seriously. 

North Carolina Republican Senator (you’re cringing already, aren’t you) Thom Tillis has decided that requiring restaurant employees wash their hands after going to the bathroom is an infringement on … FREEDOM! 

Tillis was discussing this idea with a friend, who seemed, I am fairly certain, a little taken back. 

Tillis said his interlocutor was in disbelief, and asked whether he thought businesses should be allowed to “opt out” of requiring employees to wash their hands after using the restroom. 

The senator said he’d be fine with it, so long as businesses made this clear in “advertising” and “employment literature.” 

And it would say something like, “Come to Starbucks, where we guarantee a little pee in your coffee.” 

Okay, so how is requiring the business to have their employees wash their hands any different than requiring the business to post a sign or advertise if they don’t? Unless, of course you quietly eliminate the advertising stipulation when no one is looking. 

Republicans: Guaranteeing the freedom to pee in someone’s soup! 

Joyeux Anniversaire, Monsieur Crumb!

Robert Crumb is 70 years old today and here is a little music he released with his buddies, Les Primitifs du Futur, here in France back in the mid 90's!

More Mark Mothersbaugh, Even

I have been an admirer of Mark Mothersbaugh since the 1970's when DEVO first appeared in Kent, Ohio. Mark was a pioneering art student at Kent State and musician. DEVO mixed humor, surreal conceptual social commentary with a naive, what ever it takes approach to music that still stands alone to this day. Mark recently has had a few gallery shows of his art work and a custom art book has been released called, MYOPIA. Mark went on to score music for television and many movies. The text for the book, Myopia, was written by Wes Anderson, who has worked with Mark on a few of his films. DEVO has gotten back together a few times in the last few years, but his friend and co founder, Jerry Casales died earlier this year.

I ran across this very recent video today of Mark talking about his approach to electronic music and his fascination with old analogue synths. He talks about his relationship with Robert Moog and how Bob Moog gave him his own personal early Mini Moog prototype back in the early 70's. I had a friend in Toledo who was an early synth freak who purchased the very first production Mini Moog from Moog Studios in Ithaca, NY in 1972. I went with him on a camping trip to Upstate NY to pick it up and met Bob Moog. 

I'm not writing a lot today because I am still pretty ill. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon. I'm walking on the edge of pneumonia and feel like crap. This was the most incredible bout of the flu I have ever experienced. I almost felt okay yesterday, but today seems to have been a relapse. OY VEY..... even my symptoms have symptoms!

Are you a jihadist?

Not Sure?

The French Government just published this handy chart to help.

Mystic Eyes

Buh-Byeee!
Does this mean it's Clinton/Bush in 2016?
cheezofrikin pizza.....

Der morgige Tag ist mein

From the 1972 film version of Cabaret.

Don't Drool On Me

After the fall out from the last few public appearances by Sarah Palin, most notably her debacle last weekend at the Iowa Freedom Summit, many of her former very best friends are desperately trying to wash the taint off of their hands. Palin is running out of options to make money stay in the public’s eye and she’s nothing if not an attention whore. But she’s 50 years old and her looks are starting to fade. That might sound sexist but there’s no way around it: Palin’s looks have been a vital component of her success. Americans are kind of shallow but American conservatives are really really shallow. Or did you think it was a coincidence that all the women at Fox News are pretty blondes in tight skirts?
The future is not looking too bright for Sister Sarah and her clan (other than the millions they’ve already banked). Personally, I hope she sticks around for another decade or two. She really is the embodiment of the American right wing: Shallow, proudly ignorant, intellectually lazy, tasteless, narcissistic, phony beyond belief and just plain annoying.

Even her trolling of the left is starting to get stale. The Tea Party has degenerated so far into lunacy, it’s incredibly hard to stand out as exceptionally crazy. Palin’s just not smart enough to generate any real outrage with any kind of consistency. Even Ann Coulter’s star is fading because of this and, love her or hate her, Coulter is way smarter than Palin.
I can’t think of a better spokesperson for conservatism.

So in the interest of keeping Sarah viable and useful to a politically progressive America, I would like to offer a few career options that just might revitalize her prospects!

1.Plastic surgery: If (at least) 50% of your appeal is a pretty face, going under the knife is your best bet. It worked for the Kardashians, right?
2.Degrading Reality TV: No one cares about the Palins talking about America or dancing on TV. But sooner or later, the Palins (already a white trash family) are going to figure out that people will pay money to watch them makes asses of themselves. It worked for the Kardashians, right?
3.A “leaked” sex tape: It’s a toss up if it will be Sarah or Bristol. It worked…ehhhh…you get the idea.
4.More “Victimhood”: Screaming about how everyone is out to get them will curry sympathy with the terminally stupid for a little while longer.
5.Country Music (God help us all): In a world where “18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses” is a hit song, anyone can sell an album to southern rednecks with no taste in music. But then again, I think I might prefer the sex tape.

Les Reels

A preview of the upcoming Chapitre V recording to be released in March. 

Totally accomplished traditional Correzien musicians who have their roots in the past and their imaginations in the future! 

The Storm Of The Century

One night crawling around my Avenue B apartment stoned and looking at all the different textures, I heard a gasping laughter. I froze, listening intently to the matted shag rug under the bed. Eventually, I realized it was my demented roommate Johnny Bubble in the living room. He was hooting and hollering. I found him on the sofa pounding his fist into his thigh, breathless from laughing so hard. Finally he pointed at the TV.
“Ahhh! The evil weather man!” was all he could say.
I sat down and looked. He was right. The weather man was cartoonishly evil. We stared transfixed for hours. We watched while burning our mouths on TV dinners of Salisbury steak and apple cobbler. We smoked Lucky Strikes and drank cold cans of 16 oz Rolling Rocks all with eyes glued.

Transfixed.

He was sooo fucking evil, yet no one seemed to notice over their own ridiculous fake cheer. But it was so obvious, his gleaming hatred of everything.
After a while we stopped laughing. It was beautiful, like an opera where he sang of his lust of wind and barometric pressure. “The storm of the Century,” he sang into the camera. Into our eyes and ears. Hypnotizing us to believe this was the pinnacle of evolution, crashing into our destiny. That we were here to witness it, this bright gift of the moment. A billion years of stardust fucking, coming down to this one blessed pinnacle of devouring destruction. All coming down to this. “The storm of the century,” we whispered to each other, long after the power went out. Long after we lost all hope of survival.

I Think My Appetite Is Coming Back...

After 3 days of the epic influenza....2 days spent in bed, one day against all common sense on horrific journey to Bordeaux to take my wife to see a specialist who is going to do a stem cell cornea transplant in her eye when a donor is available...Horrific? I had to get up at 6, my brilliant plan was to take the train and then a taxi to the university hospital so we could be there for the 11:15 appointment. We got off the train, only to be confronted by a massive taxi strike blocking the station and the mass transit! I somehow figured out how to find the bus that would take us to the hospital which was a massive complex, a maze of buildings with no indication of where we were to go. I have to thank all the very nice helpful people we met in Bordeaux who gave us instantly good direction. We got to the Opthalmology clinic on exactly on time, but we didn't get out until almost 5:30!

By that time, we had missed the return train I had counted on....and we got back to the station with only minutes to spare to catch the train to Perigueux that would connect with the last train to our little station, Condat le Lardin, where I had left the car. We didn't get home until 9:30 pm...Luckily, the dog didn't destroy the house. I didn't pull a Ratso Rizzo and die on the train. I thought that the entire experience would set my recovery back...but I woke up this morning feeling almost okay.  I actually have aching bruises on my ribs from coughing so much! 

Then my appetite began to come back and this video made my stomach rumble....