Ace of Spades

This is only one of two songs I’m aware of I have performed publicly.  It takes the death of a very close friend to get me on stage.  He had been a drummer for several bands I had hung out with since high school.  Every show he did that I was at, for over 30 years, I’d yell for this song.  He didn’t particularly like doing it. So, he always promised me he’d do it shortly after his funeral.  So, for his funeral, I did it for him.  I’m not going to post me doing it, as we just winged it.

Many years before, I was watching Black Oak Arkansas at my favorite dive in Richmond, KY.  I was a regular there, they knew me.  I was front row in a very small, very tight, pit.  Their entire show I demanded to hear this song.  Finally, for their final encore, Jim “Dandy” Mangrum announced “this one’s for the asshole up front”. That was ME!  They absolutely tore it up.

Here’s the original.  Pretty much the first original thrash metal song ever recorded.

The Challenger Explosion

On January 28, 1986 I was attending college at Eastern Kentucky University. It was between classes so I was at the run down old house I rented at the time with a bunch of guys watching one of those old very large floor tv’s. Shuttle launches had become very routine and weren’t always televised. So, I sat down to watch the Challenger launch with most of mind set on whatever class issues I had coming up. This video probably looks a lot like what I saw at the time because I was watching CNN.

I did go to class, but I didn’t concentrate very well. I absolutely LOVED the Shuttle program and was pretty much convinced that due to the lagging public interest, this might every well have killed the entire program. As it was, it did shut down the Shuttle program for a couple of years.  They redesigned the shuttles, and they finally retired them in 2011.  From that point forward, NASA has had no capability of putting a man in space at all.  However, in 2011, I made it a point to take my son and go watch what was thought to be the last Shuttle launch.  Congress funded one more after that tho.  Nothing compares to being up close and personal ( about seven miles ), to a Shuttle launch.

Her

Spent the morning watching Her with my wife.

It’s a lot better than I expected.  Sure, it’s a romantic drama, which is Hollywood-speak for chick-flick.  But, it’s very sci-fi in a subtle way.  It borrows a lot from the king of all sci-fi, 2001: A Space Odyssey, in that a computer suddenly develops human-like emotions.  And, in both, is not a terribly good outcome for the human.  There’s a constant lesson in that coming from Hollywood, don’t let digital media be your primary stimulation.  And of course, they pipe that message to you digitally, for a price.  I give Her all thumbs up.  I can’t even really say why.  It’s not exciting, it’s not loud, it’s not pretty, and at times it’s very uncomfortable.  But, it’s one of those movies where I just kept watching like a train-wreck.  It probably hits a lot of people a lot closer to home than it was given credit for.

Things Tom Petty don’t want you to do

Saw this, loved it, stole it:

<a href="http://www.sodahead.com/entertainment/five-things-tom-petty-dont-want-you-to-do/question-4677458/" title="Five Things Tom Petty don't want you to do">Five Things Tom Petty don&#8217;t want you to do</a>

Public OpinionPoll Results

Definitely my favorite Tom Petty video, and possibly song:

Honestly, I never enjoyed the stoner Tom. That stuff is remarkably boring musically. The edgier Tom was musically a LOT more fun.

Daily coffee may protect against melanoma

Those daily cups of coffee may do more than just provide energy, they may be protective against the most common type of melanoma, says a new study from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Analyzing data from 447,357 non-Hispanic white subjects from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, researchers found a 20 percent lower risk for malignant  melanoma for those who consumed four or more cups per day, compared to those who did not drink coffee.

That’s one thing I shouldn’t ever have to worry about.

Obama’s workforce record

This is how I like to do things here.  Read this and see if you get where I’m coming from.  First I’ll usually start with a statement of opinion.  In this case, it’s the argument that Obama’s socialist agenda has not helped the working class.  Then, I usually dig into some data to confirm or repute what I think.  In this case, there would be two sets of data I think pretty much sums up the entire issue, the workforce data and earnings data.  Do more people have jobs?  And, if so, are they making more?  That was the whole point of Obama’s last two State of the Union addresses.  Let’s look, shall we?

Workforce, there were 154,210,000 civilian workers in January 2009, when Obama took office.  As of December, 2014, there are 156,129,000.  That’s an increase of about .33% a year.  Let’s look at how some other presidents fared since 1948, when they actually started tracking this stuff:

PresidentAverage Annual Workforce Growth
Ford2.77%
Nixon2.73%
Johnson2.17%
Carter2.09%
Kennedy2.01%
Eisenhower1.87%
Reagan1.79%
Clinton1.38%
GHW Bush1.09%
GW Bush0.76%
Truman0.53%
Obama0.33%

So far, Obama holds a very special place in the rankings for all Presidents.  He’s dead last.  Granted he’s improving right now.  But, I don’t think he’s going to improve enough in this area to move out of dead last.  His philosophy is anti-private sector.  The things he does is geared for government sector.  In his world, the federal government stimulates the private sector with jobs.

So far, after being the first President to actually have TRILLION dollar budgets, that hasn’t worked too well.

Deflated balls

Ok, so the NFL has decided, several days after the game is finished, that 11 of 12 of the Patriots footballs used during their 45-7 romp of the Colts were deflated.  In theory, helping them by making it easier to catch and hold on to the ball during a sometimes torrential downpour.

That seems overwhelming, case closed.  The Patriots should forfeit their next game.  Only problem is, that next game is the Super Bowl.  Ain’t gonna happen.

How much trouble would it have been to have checked the balls BEFORE the game, and DURING the game.  If a ball was found to be inadequately inflated, pump them up right then?  We do it during youth games.

The Patriots have been busted cheating before.  So, this Super Bowl championship, if it gets to that, will be tainted.

The NFL is a joke.  It runs around worrying itself to death about image, while overlooking very obvious silly things like assuring game equipment is adequate.  If a player had worn an unapproved headband, the NFL would have been all over it.  It’s a playground where very wealthy people make very wealthy money.  How the hell it’s still a non-profit is the biggest joke of all.  If Obama wants to tax the wealthy, strip all professional leagues of their tax-exempt status.  Since he could care less about following laws, all he would have to do is sign an executive order.  That’d go a lot farther to balancing the budget than his goofball state of the union directorates.

 

Charlie Sexton

OK, got a quick synopsis of all things Charlie Sexton in my life. Won’t take much, but still fun. When Beat’s So Lonely came out, I was in college, and partying like a fool. This was my #2 go-to song.

When we partied at Smith-Ballard, that song got played probably twenty times a night. I got complaints, but that was just tough. If I was drinking bourbon, you heard Beat’s So Lonely.

Which led to

In 1986 the rumor came out David Bowie was going to be touring with Stevie Ray Vaughan. That didn’t happen. So, the rumor then became that Charlie Sexton was going to be the lead guitarist for the Glass Spider tour. Now, in those days, you didn’t have the internet, you didn’t have much of anything for news outside of magazines and MTV was still relevant. So, having no real David Bowie pipeline in Appalachian Kentucky in 1986, I had to go with my gut. Being in college and being broke, I was forced to decide between Pink Floyd or David Bowie fronted by my favorite guitar player of the year. I went with Bowie/Sexton. Sexton decided not to tour. So, I wound up with:

David fronting Peter Frampton. Although probably a far superior guitarist, he wasn’t my favorite guitarist of 1986. That kinda put a damper on the show for me. When my date asked when they were going to play “Rebel Yell”, we had to part ways. That was pretty much it for Charlie and me for about 30 years.

So, this weekend my wife decides we need to watch a movie that screams not-me. It goes on and on and on and never really seems to be going anywhere. Eventually stumbling on this scene:

The roomie doesn’t say much. And basically gives the impression of being a burned-out rocker. But, he looks incredibly familiar. I hate that feeling usually. Finally my wife fills me in on the secret. It’s Charlie Sexton. He’s apparently alive and well.

That aspect of my life apparently found satisfactory closure.

Keep Moving Forward

Disney always has some Easter eggs in their movies.  Some are very, very, subtle.  Some, not so much.  This is probably one of the most overt, but probably overlooked ones they ever did:

How many people here can name the original author of that quote?  Don’t feel bad, I had to look it up.  But, on this 19th day of January, 2015, you should know.

Martin Luther King, Jr. – Keep Moving forward

Nowhere could I find a direct connection of King’s influence on this movie.  But, I seriously believe that’s where it came from.   If you think I’m full of it, perhaps your time could be better spent watching Disney’s blockbuster hit in theaters right now.