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July 31, 2005
Long John Baldry
There was a time when certain members of the vast staff at KIW were young.
6'7" Long John Baldry
There are some memories associated with that youth, one of which is the golden remembrence of a four day trip through the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee in the spring of 1975.
This remarkable mountain odyssey was undertaken by two eighteen year-olds who proudly and frequently referred to each other as “wild man”, which was, at that moment in time, the cleverest, most hippest (yet macho) moniker imaginable.
The soundtrack to the epic North American journey referred to above, was played and replayed on the 8 track stereo sound system in the 1969 light blue Buick in which the journey was accomplished. That soundtrack consisted of two remarkably well-crafted record albums put out a couple of years earlier by an English fellow named Long John Baldry.
According to KIW's music department, those two albums, 1971’s It Ain’t Easy, and 1972’s Everything Stops For Tea, rank among the very best folk/rock/blues recordings of the 1970s. This, in spite of the fact that the records were out of print even at the moment of the 1975 Tennessee voyage.
This brings us to the good news and the bad news.
The good news is, that Warner Brothers – after thirty years – will be releasing new versions of both It Ain’t Easy, and Everything Stops for Tea, in September, 2005.
The bad news, is about as bad as bad news gets.
On Thursday 21 July, 2005 at roughly 10:30 pm – just as one KIW staffer was strolling up Robson Street, on one of those routinely-spectacular Vancouver BC summer evenings – Long John Baldry died, a few blocks over, at Vancouver General Hospital.
That KIW staffer remembers that at roughly 10:30 pm on that particular night, he passed by a beggar sitting on the sidewalk holding a cardboard sign on which the beggar had written “HIV +.” The KIW staffer nodded at the beggar, who nodded back.
No one on the vast staff at KIW ever met Long John Baldry. We suspect that Mr. Baldry was a kind man. Lots of people say that he was.
Thank you Long John Baldry, for the delightful music that you created. You gladdened our hearts. The Smokey Mountains of Tennessee will always echo with your songs.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 23 July 2005; p.A5; "Blues legend boosted some of rock's greats"
Posted by williamfrick at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2005
A political story
A Marine Corps Major who fought in Fallujah, is trying to become the first Iraq war veteran to serve in the United States Congress . . .
wish him good luck
"The only way I know how to support the troops is by going over there." [...] "All the chicken hawks back here who said, 'Oh, Iraq is talking bad about us. They're going to threaten us' -- look, if you really believe that, you leave your wife and three kids and go sign up for the Army or Marines and go over there and fight. Otherwise, shut your mouth."
Major Paul Hackett, Democratic candidate to fill the Cincinnati congressional seat vacated by Rep. Paul Portman (R), responding to his Republican opponent's charge that he should "stand with the president" by "supporting the Iraqi war effort and our troops that are over there."
Salon.com, 26 July 2005; "Dogfight in Ohio"
pdf version of Salon.com article
New York Times; 27 July 2005; "Veteran of Iraq, Running in Ohio, Is Harsh on Bush"
Posted by williamfrick at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2005
China needs Chicks
Chinese population policies are resulting in a nation with few women. The social ramifications of this are worth considering.
Vancouver Sun; 22 July 2005; p. A7;"Lack of baby girls could destabilize China: report"
Posted by williamfrick at 11:17 AM | Comments (3)
July 20, 2005
Wedding Crashers
A joyful, ridiculous, profound movie.
Posted by williamfrick at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2005
Venezuelan music
Venezuela's National Assembly recently passed a law requiring that at least 50 percent of all music played on the nation's radio stations be of Venezuelan origin.
Worse things can happen to a country.
Seattle Times; 18 July 2005; p.A2; "Law makes Venezuelan music mandatory - but also popular"
Posted by williamfrick at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)
global warming debate in U.S. Congress
"My primary concern about your investigation is that its purpose seems to be to intimidate scientists rather than to learn from them, and to substitute congressional political review for scientific review"
U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee Chairman, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert writing to fellow congressman Joe Barton. Rep. Barton, a Texas Republican, has initiated an investigation of three respected scientists who have documented unusually rapid warming of the earth.
Seattle Times; 18 July 2005; p. A6; "Global-warming debate heats up between legislators"
Posted by williamfrick at 9:39 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2005
someone actually reads that spam?
A Nigerian court has convicted a Nigerian woman of defrauding a Brazilian bank of $242 million. It is the West African country's biggest international fraud case. So far.
Seattle Times; 17 July 2005; p. A11; "Lagos, Nigeria, Woman convicted in huge fraud ring"
Posted by williamfrick at 1:43 PM | Comments (0)
love & war (cont.)
"That's probably the worst part about being over there. Your wife's cheating on you, you know she's been spending all your money the entire time, and there's nothing you can do about it. You think about that more than you do a bomb on the side of the road."
Pvt. Ray Hall, 21, Iraq war veteran and current resident of Fort Hood, Texas. Pvt. Hall is married to his high-school sweetheart from Duluth, Minnesota. She is an airman first class stationed in San Antonio.
Seattle Times; 17 July, 2005; p. A6; "Troops' struggles in Iraq include failing marriages"
Posted by williamfrick at 1:04 PM | Comments (1)
9-year-olds get even smarter
Last year (2004), 9-year-olds in the United States posted their best scores in reading and math in more than three decades.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 15 July, 2005, p. A9; "9-year-olds make solid gains in reading, math"
download article (.tif format)
Posted by williamfrick at 9:05 AM | Comments (0)
It's not the questions . . .
"Don't lay it on me, Captain Crisp. It was not the questions that caused the problems. It was the answers."
Col. James Pohl, the Army Judge hearing Pfc. Lynndie England's trial on charges of abusing prisoners in Iraq.
Col. Pohl was responding to Pfc. England's attorney, Capt. Jonathan Crisp's argument that it was Col. Pohl's "line of questioning" that led to the mistrial in England's case in May 2005.
At the May 2005 hearing, Col. Pohl declared a mistrial during the sentencing phase (after England had agreed to plead guilty to abusing prisoners). It was during the sentencing that Col. Pohl's questioning of England's immediate supervisor, Sgt. Charles Garner, indicated that England may have reasonably believed she was following orders when she engaged in the acts of abuse, thereby invalidating her guilty plea.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 8 July, 2005; p. A5; "Abu Ghraib trial judge won't step down"
Posted by williamfrick at 8:08 AM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2005
Go ahead and worry . . .
"If one of my patients frequently said one thing and did another, I would want to know why. If I found that he often used words that hid their true meaning and affected a persona that obscured the nature of his actions, I would grow more concerned. If he presented an inflexible worldview characterized by an oversimplified distinction between good and evil, allies and enemies, I would question his grasp of reality. And if his actions revealed an unacknowledged - even sadistic - indifference to human suffering, wrapped in pious claims of compassion, I would worry about the safety of the people whose lives he touched.For the past three years, I have observed with increasing alarm the inconsistencies and denials of such an individual. But he is not one of my patients. He is our president."
Justin A. Frank, M.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center, Teaching Analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, former president of the Greater Washington Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and author of Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.
Dr. Frank makes a convincing case that first, the discipline of "applied psychoanalysis" (meaning the application of psychoanalytic principals to anyone outside of the psychoanalyst's own "couch") is a traditional arm of psychoanalysis, dating back to Freud himself. For example, within the halls of the George H.W. Bush Center for Central Intelligence in Langley, Virginia, psychoanalysts are currently reviewing and evaluating histories and audio and videotapes of world leaders (or anyone of interest to the CIA) in an effort to gain an understanding of that individual's psychology from afar. These evaluations are legitimate and quite accurate.
Second, Dr. Frank persuasively argues that George W. Bush is a real mess. An individual so psychologically damaged - so unstable - that he is a danger to this country. He analyzes what is known of Bush's childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, twenty years of alcoholism, and subsequent "born-again" religious fundamentalism. The public record created by Bush's fishbowl existence since assuming the presidency lends easily to analysis of his current state.
The verdict? Bush was a child who's early development was severely arrested due to parental neglect and the trauma of losing a sibling. He was a child with untreated attention deficit disorder who never learned to concentrate. Hence, he has a propensity for impulsive, unthought-out decisions. Not surprisingly, as an adult Bush developed an alcoholic personality. But when he quit drinking (and by the way, even when alcholics enter treatment only 1 in 10 is ever successfully abstains) Bush never treated the underlying issues that led to his alcohol abuse.
Hence, Bush likely has the damaged brain function common in 20-year alcoholics. As well as the rigid, narrow, world-view of someone fearful of changing his routine lest he start drinking again. Bush's smirk belies an underlying pleasure at inflicting pain (or death) upon others. He is a man profoundly fearful at his core, who has projected his fearfulness onto the U.S. populace.
If one-tenth of Dr. Frank's evaluations hold water, Bush's character is a threat to the United States. The vast staff at KIW collectively estimate that close to 75% of Dr. Frank's observations are relevant and accurate. The dramatic events (i.e. economic reversal, terrorist attack, alienation from the world community, war, social division) that the U.S. has experienced since Bush took the office of the presidency in 2000, belie the reasonableness of this concern.
Be concerned.
Posted by williamfrick at 9:38 PM | Comments (2)
July 14, 2005
Conspiracy Theory Rock - 1998
This 1998 cartoon, "Conspiracy Theory Rock," lampoons the fact that the major media in the U.S. are controlled by the very biggest of big business. The video was shown on "Saturday Night Live" during the March 14, 1998 broadcast.
Um, suprise - it was edited out of reruns!
You can watch the cartoon here
You can download it here
Posted by williamfrick at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)
Marriage
"Marriage can be whatever you define it as. For example, I don't feel like I need a piece of paper that says I own her and she owns me. I think signing a piece of paper doesn't mean anything in the eyes of God or in the eyes of people. The thing is, if you are together and you love each other and are good to each other, make babies and all that, for all intents and purposes you are married."
Kentuckian, Actor, and current resident of South France, Johnny Depp.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 14 July, 2005; p. E-1; "Depp forges career on his terms, with a clear conscience"
Posted by williamfrick at 11:40 AM | Comments (1)
July 11, 2005
A Real Texan
There are some posers. Some guys who like to wear Texas on their sleeves. Some guys who think that prancing around in a pair of pointy boots is all that it takes to be Davy Crockett. 
Mr. Maury Maverick
There are some cheerleaders who think that spouting a bunch of rah-rah words makes them patriots.
In other words, there are some people giving Texans a bad name these days.
Then there's this guy. Mr. Maury Maverick. His grandfather made the word maverick what it is today. This guy was a real Texan. Read about his life here.
Seattle Times; 9 February, 2003; page A25; "Maury Maverick Jr. fought for underdog"
Posted by williamfrick at 12:31 AM | Comments (1)
July 8, 2005
:)
People's consumption behaviors are altered by tiny little smiles. No joke.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 8 July 2005; p E1; "Smile! But make it snappy for best results"
Posted by williamfrick at 10:28 PM | Comments (2)
July 6, 2005
Nature vs. Nurture (cont.)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 6 July, 2005; p. A4
Posted by williamfrick at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
July 3, 2005
morality?
"What is moral, is not of the divine. But rather, a purely human matter. Albeit the most important of all human matters."
Albert Einstein, a guy with a well-put-together brain, speaking in 1954.
Seattle Times; 3 July, 2005; page L1; "Airing their beliefs"
related story is here
Posted by williamfrick at 3:33 PM | Comments (0)
Who owns the Internet?
“There have been strong opinions that essentially allowing the United States alone to check this process is not right given the nature of the Internet today.”
Masahiko Fujimoto, of the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, reacting to the United States' decision to retain control, indefinitely, of the 13 main (or root) computers that operate the Internet.
The U.S. had previously promised to internationalize control of these computers. On June 30, 2005 The U.S. announced that it will not honor that commitment.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 2 July, 2005; p. E6; "Nations react coolly to U.S. retaining control of Internet"
Related story is here
Posted by williamfrick at 1:35 PM | Comments (0)
July 2, 2005
A Muhammad Americans should hear . . .
Johannesburg Skyline
This snippet was recorded from the webstream of a talk radio station (720 AM) in Johannesburg, South Africa on 21 January, 2005.
It's not pleasant to listen to.
But does this caller have a better understanding of what is going on in Iraq, than the current U.S. government does?
Posted by williamfrick at 10:44 PM | Comments (2)
July 1, 2005
Warren Zevon
For Warren Zevon fans, here is the best version of Mr. Zevon’s music that we've ever heard.
This collection of Mr. Zevon’s live performances spans nearly thirty years.
This show - recorded in the fall of 1996 in Aspen or Denver or somewhere in the altitudic mists of the North American Rocky Mountains - is perfect. Warren is obviously letting the muse pass through him. His band sounds practically symphonic. We have never heard Mr. Zevon’s music delivered so beautifully.
If you’re at all a fan of this brilliant, singularly-unique life form. A man who’s now come and gone. Do yourself a favor and listen to this 1996 performance.
After all, you can sleep when you’re dead.
Posted by williamfrick at 4:33 PM | Comments (0)