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July 22, 2005
Vacation Stew, Part II
A roundup of a few more random thoughts, rants, and tirades:
1. Buddy Guy. Amazing. Just freaking amazing. One of the best performers I've ever seen... I hope I have that kind of energy when I am 69 -- and I wish that I had that kind of command over a crowd at any time during my life. Buddy put on an amazing show Wednesday night - owned the crowd from start to finish, made music with a guitar that few if any can match, and pretty much showed off why many (including Eric Clapton) call Buddy Guy the best guitarist who ever lived.
If you're a guitar fan, you haven't lived unless you've heard Buddy Guy playing "Voodoo Chile" and doing it, frankly, better than Hendrix did on his very best day. Other highlights of the show included Buddy stopping in the middle of a song when the crowd tried to finish a verse for him but fell apart in the middle,with a huge grin on his face and saying, "Y'all quit [mess]in' it up now. Let's try that again." Guy also did an extended walk through the crowd on a ten minute solo riff that left everyone screaming. Great show... and that's not just me saying so. My date hadn't ever even heard of Buddy before we went, but when we left she was raving about what a showman he was and how great his guitar work was. (Converted another one, I did!)
The opening act left me with one question, though: how come whenever white boys play "the blues," they really don't play the blues -- they just drop a couple of bluesy-sounding solos, add a little gravel to their voice, cover "Mustang Sally," and turn the amps up real loud... and then tell everyone they're a blues band? Don't get me wrong... the band in question were obviously three supremely talented musicians, you can't help but respect their ability and passion. It's just that I wouldn't call what they do "blues." Decent rock. Not blues.
2. Sugar Rush. Courtesy of Boing Boing, here's a fun little game to keep you occupied while I am away. You know that sugar makes little kids bounce off of walls, right? (That's why it's so much fun to give my friends' kids lots of candy and then go home.) Well, this game takes that phrase literally.
3. Don't forget about Karl "Treason" Rove. Despite Republican attempts to spin and lie (which have shamelessly been picked up virtually word for word by the conservative media -- so much for actual journalism from conservatives, huh?) and tell you that Valerie Plame wasn't covert, a State Department memo now confirms that Plame's identity was in fact classified secret. This is the smoking gun, kids -- proof that Karl Rove violated United States law, leaking the name of a classified covert agent, putting American national security at risk simply to extract revenge on a political opponent. Karl Rove is a criminal and needs to go to jail.
4. L.A. protests. Let me see if I get this straight: A guy tells his wife that he's going to kill her. The guy tells his 16 year old stepdaughter that he's going to kill the couple's little girl. The guy gets in a shootout with police in which he fires at them on three separate occasions. The guy uses his little girl as a human shield when gunfighting with police. And yet when the little girl is shot and killed, the African-American community (or at least its self-professed "leadership") in Los Angeles is protesting about the police?
[UPDATE: I had my facts wrong. See the comments for the correction and the mea culpa.]
This just confirms for me that there are a number of folks out there making a living out of selling professional victimhood. Jeez, where is the sense of responsibility for one's own actions? Sure, it's tragic that the little girl was killed. But a guy threatens his wife, tells someone he's going to kill a little girl, exchanges fire with the cops not once but three times, and uses a toddler as a human shield... and some folks want to sell that this is a case of overzealous police? Without so much as a word of criticism about the father? Disgusting.
5. Oh, Those Republicans! Just in time for the summer movie season, it's those crazy Republicans, doing what they do best: hyperbole and hypocrisy!
First up, we have Senator Orrin Hatch, who apparently believes -- or wants you to believe -- that the Messiah has been nominated to the Supreme Court, and anyone opposing the nomination of "John Roberts" is... well, you know.
"It's a little bit like biblical Pharisees, you know, who basically are always trying to undermine Jesus Christ."
But just when you think the Republicans couldn't get any sillier... wait! There's more! Rep. Don Sherwood (R-Pennsylvania) has an 84% "pro-family" rating from the Christian Coalition. Yep, they love that pro-family guy. You know, because Christian Coalition folks are all about family.
Don Sherwood, age 64, confirmed today that he's had a five year affair with 29 year old Cynthia Ore -- but denied that he's also been beating the hell out of her. Yeah, you gotta love those pro-family Christian Coalition types.
Comments
I'm still searching for the African-American outrage in the situation in Los Angeles. Especially considering a) African-Americans weren't involved and b) usually when African-Americans aren't invovled, they don't care.
None of the names there seem familiar and I would gather that the Latin communities in L.A. were the angry ones since it happened in their hood.
Posted by: Corey Long at July 24, 2005 05:44 PM
Serves me right for seeing Sharpton's name during a brief review of the news during vacation and leaping to conclusions. Corey's right, guys - I was way out in front of the bus on this one. I saw some TV interviews featuring African-Americans reacting with outrage (as well as some in the Latino community), but should have read more deeply into the Sharpton article before running my mouth off.
Corey's got me pinned, and I fully admit it - I posted without full info and it made me look like an ass. Just desserts are to leave the post up there along with Corey's correction, and let myself twist in the wind.
Posted by: Curmudgeon at July 24, 2005 06:27 PM
I undermine Jesus or as I like to call him Hey Zeus on a daily basis.
Posted by: Mileah at July 26, 2005 01:19 PM
