The importance of real life perspective.

One of the sites I read a lot is Foreign Policy magazine.  They do have informative and interesting articles, but tend to lean a little bit too much to what even they call “the Ivory Tower”:  Academics who have a tendency to make flowery pronouncements without benefit of street realities, and then are puzzled as to why both politicians and the proletariat don’t just fall at their feet.  A good example is this “special report” I’ve been reading-  13 out of the tinderbox ways to save the economy.  It is 13 separate articles which they preface with: “Debt-ridden and hidebound, Europe may be on the verge of a painful breakup. America is still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis. Even China and India -- the new engines of global growth -- seem to be sputtering these days. Worse yet, the usual wonkish prescriptions don’t seem to be working anymore. So we asked 13 of the smartest people we know to give us their one out-of-the-box idea for fixing the global economy. Here’s what they recommend.”
They lead off with business editor Paul Kedrosky’s plan to institute a systematic, measured “Jubilee year” in which worldwide debt at all levels is written off.  Thought process being that while debt is necessary to capitalist economies, the amount we have is so unsustainable that something has to be done- a reset button, if you will.  I can follow that to a point, and the point is his as well- it is not a permanent fix, as debt will and will need to rebuild.  Where I find fault is that his, and any of these other fixes are only temporary in nature.   Follow me:  Modern industrial-financial progress is made possible by two things- the Market and Insurance.  Capitalism at its base is the transfer of goods and services, usually with the help of an exchange medium (i.e. money).  Neither the stock market or insurance transfer a product.  Thus they are a parasite on the system.  However, they have allowed the SCALE of economy that we are now tied to, and cannot untie ourselves short of all joining a Mennonite community.  Thus, a Jubilee year, or any other solution, is just pumping the water out of a basement that was never built to keep water out.
Next up was “freelance economist” Dianne Coyle, who isn’t the only one to suggest a WPA style program, on an emergency basis.  But you know, I wonder if this isn’t time to expand the idea.  Again, follow- what if you established a “National Infrastructure Corps”, by eliminating both Unemployment and Welfare, automatically enrolling these people in the NIC to learn construction and trades, and work the training off in building schools, roads, bridges.  The work would be paid for in unproductive funds no longer going to UEB and Welfare, the ones that learn the best would have the opportunity in private sector, and those that didn’t care for the work would be that much more motivated to go find something they DID like.  Of course, I’m sure that the liberals would be scrambling to put forth “right to not work” legislation to sink it.
Tech forecaster Paul Saffo suggests we find a way to collect “better data” with which to figure out what the economy is doing.  He says that we’ve been beating ourselves by thinking of the global economy as an “equilibrium” economy.  (it isn’t; the market and insurance alone assures that.)  He wants to be able to forecast its dynamism by establishing a world database that would be “ an institution with the analytic resources of Wall Street players, the reach of Google, and the openness of Wikipedia. “  Yeah, but if it has these attributes, how do you guarantee the ACCURACY of the data? It’s easy to say that it would “ serve a purely informational role with no policy responsibilities”; harder to see that those who DO have those responsibilities don’t feed it fudged numbers, like Obama’s unemployment numbers that look better until you add in those who’ve given up job searching altogether.

Barney Frank, of all people, is next with a proposal for a Ron Paul/George Sorous like neutering of Defense.  And actually, he has a part of something here.  He is spot on when he says,  “many of my conservative colleagues have opposed the idea of reducing our military budget on grounds that I refer to as "weaponized Keynesianism." They claim that government spending doesn't create jobs -- unless it is for the military. Many opponents of cuts in military spending now argue against them not in terms of national defense, but on the grounds that they would cause job losses. “  I would like to think I am not the military isolationist that the aforementioned gentlemen are; however, there is entirely too much waste being vacuumed into the Pentagon, and that has to stop.

Menzie Chinn and Jeffry Frieden suggest a small raise in the inflation rate will do the trick;  I am not convinced that this will do anything but pay someone else’s debts with my money.  Justin Yifu Lin suggests the WPA idea anew, but as a global project working in the third world- and I say, if I don’t want my efforts militarily expended there, why do I want my development money going there?  By the time we get them on a par with where we are, we’ll be on a par with where they were.
I really find it hard to believe that a blogger with a 30 year old degree in business from IPFW should have to tell such a famous and allegedly intelligent economist as JK Galbraith that he’s full of shit, but here we are.  He proposes a $5 raise in the minimum wage.  “a high minimum wage would be a self-enforcing deterrent against abusive employers seeking cut-rate help. Jobs for the undocumented would dry up. Those who hold onto their jobs -- the vast majority of low-wage workers and especially those with U.S. citizenship, English fluency, experience, and skills -- would gain a big advantage.”  He bases his support of this moronicy on three items. #1- “Would this hurt competitiveness? Not at all. That's an issue for manufactured goods and traded services like insurance and banking, sectors in which everyone already earns far more than $12 an hour.”  Hello, asshole?  I work in a manufacturing job in which NO ONE is making $12 an hour, and if they did, 90% of the jobs would be in China in a heartbeat- including mine.  You might want to look around and see that not everyone works a nice cushy union job before you pour forth such excrement.  #2- “Would prices go up? Some would. But rich people can afford it -- and workers would have extra income to pay the higher prices, so most of them would come out ahead. Women in particular would benefit because they tend to work for lower wages. With more family income, some people would choose to retire, go back to school, or have children, making it easier for others who need jobs to find them”.  Again, this justification discounts the entire strata I live in, and is a nice solution for the wealthy.  Just the kind of thing that idiot occupistas would support.  #3- “Most of all, a big jump in the minimum wage would be a reparation. It would be a payback to those who have suffered from the economic crisis: the working population. It would be an act of justice.”  Thank you, so much, JK, for gifting me with the loss of my job.  Kiss my ass.
The other ideas involved:  Seed money to small entrepreneurs, instead of pissing $500 bil down Solyndra’s toilets; stopping the “gaming” of the world’s exchange system (including, but not limited to, China); a surtax on private consumption over $500,000 (another lovely steal-from-the-rich plan that would fall flat as the wealthy turn savings into offshore investment –nod-nod-wink-wink);  Breaking the cycle of unemployment-to-poor-health- to poor-education- to unemployment by teaching people how to take care of themselves better (Can we wake up here? Please?  People don’t not take care of themselves do to lack of knowing how to- there are resources EVERYWHERE.  They don’t take care of themselves because they don’t FEEL LIKE IT.  Diet, exercise, checkups, are all things readily available.  Motivation is the problem, and no program will solve it.);  redesigning cities to be greener by being denser packed, thus eliminating the need for polluting public and private transportation ( and ensuring we all pay Selling New York prices for the least hovel); and the brilliant idea of one Daniel C. Dennett:  “We academics have long summer vacations and even longer sabbaticals -- glorious big chunks of green time in which to write books, spend months on end studying various phenomena, or just see the world or build a boat. We don't just enjoy recreation; we re-create ourselves.What would it take to create a system of allocating work that maximized green time for everyone? “  Now there’s a helpful idea- but what else would we expect from one of the “Four Horsemen of New Atheism”?

For your next special report, FPM?  How about ideas from people who might have a clue, who fight against total economic loss every day, and for whom bankruptcy is something more than an intellectual exercise to be done on some random “green” day?

Out the bedroom window...

I was achy from just laying around all day yesterday, so I decided to stretch out with a walk with Scrappy.  Just as I was finishing "armoring up", I caught a movement out the window...

There was a third, but I never did get her in...

By the time I got my jeans on, two had left- but there's always one who sticks around to graze...

So then we went outside and tried some more...

After which we stopped harrassing the deer and just went for the walk...

Can't help but think of poor Mynx having to sit by the pool while we enjoy all this!

New Years Party...

...is over at the Cap Blog.  If you are too lazy to click the link just off to your right side, then click here to see the terrifying results.

A Long December

… and there’s reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last…

This morning I am just done with the fourth playing of this song.  I watch the video every new years, and in the name of being transparent and not afraid to be real in front of you, tonight/this morning I shall explain why.

You don’t meet singers, not really.  They graze your life with a glancing blow, a chunk of soul chips off for you to see, and you say to yourself, that singer/writer/performer seems like he really knows me- but it’s just that you never know yourself.

“Smell of hospitals in winter, and the feeling that it’s all a lot of oysters-but no pearls…
“When all at once you look across a crowded room and see the way that light attaches to a girl…”

Sad thing is, no one can look at that chunk of soul of yours and say, “Yes, that’s a part I knew”, or, “I see where that fit in.”  Pictures hung on trees, thrown in the air, dissolving slowly in the water.  But where she was attached to you, no one sees anymore.  Why does it leave such a chunk missing from you, year after year?  And if you cannot answer, for sure no one else can.

Who was she?  Does it matter?  I knew her little better than you do.  But she was real, she could talk and touch and care, and her mind lived in a miasma that made her unsure of that very fact.  So, I guess at some level, I do this every year so that someone remembers she was real, and lived, and mattered- even if she doesn’t anymore.

“My problem is, that I have no walls.”  Doesn’t seem like a big deal- until you know someone, and can see what that phrase means to them.  No black and white, no reality set in stone.  Just the sun always coming back up and whatever thought floats past your minds eye at the moment.  That was Darla.

“I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower, makes you talk a little lower, about the things you could not show her…”

Life doesn’t wait for those stuck in amber, sinking into tar pits- or wedged between verses of a song.  Maybe I do this to convince myself that I threw a line to someone with no means to catch it, because it was all I could do.  What could I do?  What would you do?  You move on, and watch the calendar slip remorselessly by, year after year.

“..and it’s been a long December, and there’s reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last… I can’t remember all the times I’ve tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass..”

I’m not sad, not really.  I don’t blame myself.  In a way, it’s appreciation of what I have and others do not.  It’s that no matter what happened to her, in my memory she did not slip through the cracks, and knowing it could not possibly matter to her.  It’s the calendar remorselessly slipping by.

“I can’t remember the last thing that was said as you were leaving, and the days go by so fast…”

Now, you know.  Not the facts, but the important things.  No lies. nothing to hide from stranger’s eyes.  Just me, holding a piece of soul shaped like a picture that I throw up into the air once a year, wondering if anyone will see it and care where it fits.

New year's eve.

Well, we are moments away from leaving for the festivities.  By the time we return, I'll have (tried to) consume a six pack of selected crafty beers I bought this morning (which I hope to dissect over on the cap blog), and will be ready for the annual crying my way through Counting Crows' A Long December video- and praying for the person I knew long ago who's wedged into the second verse.  I just checked the Death Clock, and it's moved my date of demise from day after Christmas 2012 to 13 days from now on my sister's birthday.  (Hey Pete!  Happy birthday!  If you've got nothing better to do, Chris' funeral is...)  Thanks to Oklahoma's late bowl game last night/this morning, I slept the majority of the afternoon to prepare.

To all who survive, Happy New Year!  I'll probably give you an ill-spelled rundown sometime early next year on how it went.

The Great seventies countdown week 5

A piano sits alone upon the stage of our imagination.  In a dream world where everything is possible, a man two years gone comes back for us.  As the lights go down, Larry Knechtel begins the notes of a song that brings the audience to a hush, and the show begins.

250- Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel, 1970, PP #1.  I actually learned this song from Roy Clark doing it on Hee Haw.  But once you hear the power of that last verse, you know which one you will remember.

249- Somewhere In The Night, Barry Manilow, 1978, #9.  The fourth single off the lp Even Now, a cover of Helen Reddy's hit (which we'll see later on.  The first time I heard it, it was one of those "I can name that tune in 2 notes" moments.

248- 25 Or 6 To 4, Chicago, 1970, #4.  What it was- a really good horn-powered song about the creative muse.  What it was "made into"- a song about doing drugs.  Yeah, anytime I sit cross-legged on the floor, that means I'm high.

247- Gypsy Woman, Brian Hyland, 1970, #3.  Certainly seems to be 1970 week so far.  I was surprised to see that this song was composed by Curtis Mayfield.

246- We're All Alone, Rita Coolidge, 1977, #7.  Boz Scaggs recorded the original (which we'll hear later on) on Silk Degrees.  Frankie Valli then did a decent cover that flew under the top 50, before Rita's version first taught me to love this song.  Which is a bit surprising, considering how much I disliked her Your Love (Is Lifting Me Higher) a few months before.

245- It's A Miracle, Barry Manilow, 1975, #12.  Barry's second hit; for years, Barry for me was the "big four"- Mandy, I Write The Songs, Could It Be Magic, and this one (his first four hits).

244- Vehicle, The Ides Of March, 1970, #2.  Any one out there name the band that lead singer Jim Peterik founded after Ides split up?  That's right, Survivor!  I saw this dud at a BTO show at Pierres years back.  Great guitarist.

243- Tears Of A Clown, Smokey Robinson And The Miracles, 1970, #1.  The run of 1970 rolls on with Smokey's all time best.

242- Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee People), Paul Revere And The Raiders, 1971, #1.  Back in my "Daniel Boone" days, this was the ONLY song I wanted.  Never did get it.

241- Midnight Blue, Melissa Manchester, 1975, #6.  Sadly, the best memory I have of this song was on Dickie Goodman's parody Mr. Jaws, when the announcer protests as the shark he's interviewing tries to eat him and the shark's "answer" is the clip from this song: "Wouldn't you give your hand to a friend?"

240- The Closer I Get To You, Roberta Flack and Donnie Hathaway, 1978, #2.  Seems like the only songs of Roberta's I really liked were the duets with the late Mr. Hathaway.

239- It's Over, Electric Light Orchestra, 1978, #75.  This song, which like anything by ELO charted higher in Ft. Wayne, was playing as I drove home from my last day of High School.  I know that the tears in my eyes made me blow off at least one stop sign that morning.



238- My Eyes Adored You, Frankie Valli, 1975, #1.  Actually a Four Seasons group effort, it was REJECTED by their label, it was sold to Valli for $400.  He shopped it around till he found a SENMI-intelligent record exec (Larry Uttal at Private Stock), who none the less wouldn't release it unless it was just Frankie's name on the label.  Dr. Phil, if you would...

"Of course, Chris.  All together now... WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!??!"

237- Dirty Work, Steely Dan, unreleased, 1972.  Sung by David Palmer, who sung lead at early SD concerts because of Donald Fagen's stage fright, and went on to write Carole King's Jazzman.  Off the first lp by Fagen and Walter Becker, former members of touring Jay and the (F***ing) Americans, whom Jay described as  "the Manson and Starkweather of rock 'n' roll", referring to cult leader Charles Manson and spree killer Charles Starkweather.



236- This Masquerade, George Benson, 1976, #10.  My first foray into jazz vocals.  Just plain smooth.

235- Love So Right, Bee Gees, 1976, #3.  Just now slipping down the charts over on Time Machine.
 "Ah, I could take it in my stride, start living for the moment/ maybe half the things we sought were never there/ simply open up our eyes and break it down to size, it isn't really fair. "

234- Fire And Rain, James Taylor, 1970, #3.  The power of this song is in its biographical nature, especially the last verse and its "sweet dreams and Flying Machines".

233- Your Own Special Way, Genesis, 1977, #62.  Ther was pre-Duke Genesis and post-Duke Genesis.  For me, the best was pre, when they were the most famous progressive rock band who nobody knew a song from.  This was their first US chart single, from Wind And Wuthering.




232- Hopelessly Devoted To You, Olivia Newton-John, 1978, #3.  The long, hot summer of Grease.  Incomprehensible to me that this wasn't #1.

231- An Everlasting Love, Andy Gibb, 1978, #5.  The first time Andy didn't hit #1.  Not exacty sure why, this was a great song.

And just to make this all flow together..

230- After The Gold Rush, Neil Young, 1970, unreleased.  And we end the show much the way we began it; a lone man walks up to a lone piano and begins to play a song from 1970...

Step into my time machine week 88

Welcome to a very special episode of Time Machine (actually not all that special, but I do have a special treat), the lid lifter on the 1977 season!  This week, we have singing dogs in the birthdays and singing chickens in the movers and droppers; a #1s of yesteryear featuring a “I didn’t know he could sing” act; the connection that leads from a somber Elton John to the wild and wacky antics of Aerosmith; a new butt in the grandpa chair (or two); Two songs race for the top at blinding speed; and more positive proof that nobody wants to share a birthday with Jesus.

But first, let me introduce the New Years special.  I got to thinking (since this week’s NEW #1 manages it), how many songs led off the new year with their first week at #1? Truth is, half of the #1 songs from 1950 to 1977 (28 years, leave yer shoes on) managed the feat.  So I ranked them according to weeks at #1, and with a little personal editing, came up with the top ten (or so) songs that christened the new year with their first week at #1!.  To lead things off, here is the eighth place tie on the list:
#8 (tie)- I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Jimmy Boyd, 1953.  The oldest of the lot.  Man, you give a guy milk and cookies…
     (tie)- Wonderland By Night, Bert Kaempfert Orchestra, 1961.  A recent member of the Great Sixties Countdown, a wonderful trumpet solo that was one o’ me mama’s favorites.
     (tie)- There I’ve Said It Again, Bobby Vinton, 1964.  Another of mom’s faves, from her all time best guy.
     (tie)- Got To Be There, Michael Jackson, 1972.  Young Michael really gets a chance to shine here.
     (tie)- Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress), Helen Reddy, 1974.  A recent member of the seventies countdown.
     (tie)- Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Elton John, 1975.  Sure don’t hear this as much as the Beatles’ original, do you?
     (tie)- I Write The Songs, Barry Manilow, 1976.  And that’s the start of this countdown.

And on to the start of this week’s countdown.  Nobody wants their birthday next to Christmas- you usually get combined presents.  And so too songs, apparently.  4 songs hit the hot 100 this week, and only one of them noteworthy- a song that will spend all of the second month of 1977 at #1 on my own top ten list that I would start in a couple weeks- 10cc with The Things We Do For Love, coming in at 82.  It was a little busier for those turning 40 this week- Rod Stewart and the Faces with Stay With Me; Apollo 100’s Joy; Joe Cocker’s Feelin’ Alright; and an act with a similar vocal style to Joe (boy, am I gonna get it for that one!), the debut of the Singing Dogs’ version of Jingle Bells.  Turning 45 is Don Ho’s Tiny Bubbles and Gimme Some Lovin’ by Spencer Davis’ Group.  And two 50th birthdays, one famous, one just for Laurie.  Gene Chandler’s Duke Of Earl turns 50, as does Jimmy Dean’s spoken word-letter to Russia, Dear Ivan.  Blow out the candles…

#6 (tie)-  REDACTED- you’ll just have to wait till we hit #1 this week.
#6(tie)- You’re So Vain, Carly Simon, 1973, two weeks at #1.  You probably thought this countdown’s about you..

The big dropper this week was the Little River Band’s It’s A Long Way There, falling 40 to just catch hold at 98.  The big mover was the Henhouse Five Plus Too with In The Mood, clucking it's way to a 15-spot climb to 79.

This week, we had another repeater at #49, but that’s okay.  Because, since I picked 49 because of my age, so let’s just move the magic number to 50.  Here we find Al Stewart’s Year Of The Cat.
Cat was the first of 5 chart hits for Al, but not the end of his story.  Noted for his Historical songs (and if you haven’t youtubed Palace Of Versailles yet like I told you WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???), he has released 7 studio lps and 23 live discs since Midnight Rocks in the early 80’s.  The most recent of the studio records is 2008’s Sparks Of An Ancient Fire (which has been on my Amazon wish list for two years now), and he recently sang a duet with Albert Hammond on his re-recording of It Never Rains In Southern California on Albert’s 2010 Legend lp.  Apparently he’s a bit chincy on bio data, all I could find was he married in the mid nineties and the couple and their 2 daughters live in Marin County, California.

#4 (tie)- Why, Frankie Avalon, 1960, 3 weeks at #1.  I’m guessing he sang this to Annette.
#4(tie)- I Feel Fine, The Beatles, 1965, 3 weeks. One of two on the list for the Fab Foursome.

Three songs enter the top 40.  At 38, up 7, are the ever-rowdy boys of Foghat with Drivin’ Wheel.  At 35, up nine, is Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band with Night Moves.  “Started hummin’ a song from 1962… ain’t it funny how the night moves… when you just don’t seem to have as much to lose… strange how the night moves…  with Autumn closin’ in…”  AHEM. Moving up 8 to #34 this week, the song that will spend the first month of 1977 at #1 on the newly minted Martin top ten, Barry Manilow’s Weekend In New England.

Looking into the #1s in yesteryear this week, I saw someone I never knew sang- Fred Astaire.  Fred would probably have said, “That’s because I can’t,”  from what I’ve read, but he did have a #1 song on this week twice.  The first was 1932’s Night And Day.  A Cole Porter tune (referenced in Little River Band’s Reminiscing-  “and that Porter tune [Night and day…] Made us dance across the room…”), it was in the stage and screen versions of The Gay Divorcee, which marked his first performance without sister Adele and first with Ginger Rodgers.  The second was the non-vocal Nice Work If You Can Get It, in which he danced and played the drums(including with his feet), backed by the Leo Reisman Orchestra, from the movie A Damsel In Distress in 1937.  While I won’t say his voice was exactly enchanting, watching him dance to those songs was absolutely amazing.  In a day where “that dude can dance” is multi-reality-show cheap, that dude, when dancing MEANT something, could DANCE.

#2 (tie)- We Can Work It Out, The Beatles, 1966, 4 weeks at #1.  Can’t say that either of the Beatles’ tunes are among my favorites, but even a bad Beatles song is usually pretty good.
#2 (tie)- The Twist, Chubby Checker, 1962, 4 weeks.  Come on, baby…

Three songs go into the top ten, three go out.  Living Thing falls from 10 to 12; Rubberband Man snaps back from 4 to 13; and Love So Right drops from 6 to 18.

Oh, and before I forget, She’s Gone is gone, and the new tenants of the grandpa chair, at 21 weeks apiece, are Firefall’s You Are The Woman (currently at 32) and Steve Miller’s former top dog Rock’n Me (at 43).

Debuting at #10, up one, are the Sylvers with Hot Line.  Standing not-so-tall this week is Burton Cummings with Stand Tall dropping 4 to #9. That song that you love to listen to the Chik-fil-a cows dance to, Brick’s Dazz, climbs one to #8.  And that brings us to six degrees with Elton John.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word was from the double lp Blue Moves, a more somber record for Sir Elton.  Among the acts to pitch in here were a pair of brother horn players- Sax playing Michael and trumpeteer Randy Breckler.  The Breckler boys had been around a while at this point.  Randy was a founding member of Blood Sweat And Tears on the classic debut lp Child Is Father To The Man.  Both had been on a ton of jazz projects, their own bands Dream and Breckler Brothers, as well as rock and roll offerings such as Blue Oyster Cult’s Agents Of Fortune.  They also were both featured on the AOR hits by Aerosmith, Same Old Story and Train Kept A’Rolling.  Both these were on their Get Your Wings lp, which gave them their first top 40 hit with Sweet Emotion.  They then released Same Old Story, which failed to chart, so they reached back in the back of tricks to re-release Dream On, which was on their debut album and flamed out at #59 in ‘73.  Let loose again in 1976, it hit #6, so they tried the trick again.  Walk This Way  was off the Toys In The Attic album, and did not chart the first time.  They re-released it a few weeks back, Time Machine time, and this time it is at #15 on this week’s list.

Mr. Humperdink moves a notch up to #6 with After The Loving.  Now comes the two songs bent on making a mockery of proper procedure.  Stevie Wonder blasts his way up 9 to #5 with I Wish;  Rose Royce does likewise to #4 with Car Wash (a song also currently doing the commercial circuit).  Rod Stewart continues to hang around, Tonight’s The Night slipping but one to #3.  You Make Me Feel Like Dancing also slips to #2.  That leaves me with the New #1, and the redacted-tied for #6 song in our special countdown…


Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis with You Don’t Have To Be A Star!!!!

And now, We here at TM are proud to present the top of our special countdown… drum roll please….

#1- At The Hop, Danny And The Juniors, 1958, 5 weeks at #1!!!!
Feel free to add the harmony chorus here, my friends.  See you New Years Eve for the seventies countdown, and then right back here in 2012… or 1977, if you prefer.