Vanz Kant Danz...

One of my favorite bands has always been Creedence Clearwater Revival... and especially John Fogerty for his song writing skills... what a talent...  Fogerty and Creedence parted ways over whether or not John should have top billing in the band (John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival)... the split was a very bad one which resulted in John not talking to his bandmate/brother, Tom, for the rest of Tom's life...

John Fogerty (foreground) and brother, Tom over his left shoulder

John wanted a clean break from the band as well as from the recording company with whom he was obligated for more songs and albums... in exchange for his release, Fogerty assigned all rights to the CCR library to Saul Zaentz, owner of Fantasy Records.


Zaentz later sued Fogerty, claiming that the chorus to a Fogerty song (The Old Man Down The Road) was identical to that of a CCR song that Zaentz owned (Run Through The Jungle )... During the law suit, Fogerty showed up at court with a guitar, and demonstrated to the judge and the Court, that the two songs were indeed different compositions, and that the primary reason that the two songs sounded similar was because he had in fact written both compositions...  Needless to say, Fogerty won his case.


He wrote and recorded this song, in part, to document the event, and is mocking Zaentz...



I really like Fogerty's work... his compositions are more simple than those of Steely Dan, yet, there are great subtle trills and fills within his songs... I seem to discover new licks every time I listen to them...


This is one of my mostest favoritest Fogerty songs...





This next song was probably just a filler on the first CCR album, but Fogerty does an outrageous LIVE performance here... 'embedding' was disabled for this video, but you can find it HERE...  Go there... listen and watch... I think it's worth the time...


I hope all is well with you... that things are going well for you... that you are happy...

~shoes~

"Turn It Up Thursday..."

"Steely Dan"

I have really been in a funk... so much going on... So much happening... I guess I am having difficulty just processing everything...

I am tired... I am drained... emotionally... physically... in every which way....

When i feel like this, I feel drawn back to music... it's easy for me to get lost in it... I just love it so... I wish I were a better musician...  I know just enough about it to get myself in trouble when i can't follow chord changes...

So, I'm down... depressed?? I'm not sure... Dejected?? I don't know why...

Anyhoo... back to music... One of my favorite bands of all time is Steely Dan... even though technically, they aren't a band... it's an ever changing group of musicians that are corralled by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker... Two of their songs always seem to uplift my mood... my spirits...

Did you know that the source of the name of the band was from "The Naked Lunch," by William Bourroughs?? Did you know that it was the name of a metal dildo that belonged to one of  the characters in the book??

Anyhoo, one of my favorite all time Steely Dan songs is 'Show Biz Kids'...  Their songs are SO complex... so mysterious... 

So enjoyable... These do sound MUCH better LOUD!!! So, do turn em UP!!!

My other all-time favorite Steely Dan song is 'Pretzel Logic'... and I found this COOL live recording... it's right down there...

I love the way that Michael McDonald jumps in and sings that part... Did you know that he has been one of the many who have performed in Steely Dan?

I stepped up on the platform...

The man gave me the news...

He said, 'you must be jokin', son...

Where did you get those shoes?'

Anyway... I hope I re-discover my Muse...

~shoes~

"In Memory Of A Friend..." Updated...

I've known Jane for quite a few years... she was married to a colleague in the College of Business at Alluvial Flood Plain State University...


Her husband always had a ton of "good ideas"... just none were very focused... he was like a toddler on Hawaiian Punch... just all over the place.   Jane was a sweet heart.


One day, I was having lunch in the Union, and she and her husband were in line ahead of me, and she turned to speak to me... and I told her how much I loved what she had done to her hair.  It was really nice... really attractive...


"It's a wig," she told me... and I immediately knew that I had just put my foot in my mouth...  I felt so bad... I've had a history of saying the wrong things at the even more wrong times... but I didn't know.


Jane was a mortgage banker... well liked... well respected... her husband was a... well...


He moved away looking for a better job... more money... an opportunity.  Jane didn't want to move... she stayed here with her job and her friends. 

Jane died Sunday...

There's so much more I could write... but, it doesn't really matter. Do take care of yourself... do the exams... 

~shoes~

I just returned from her funeral... the choir sang this during the exit... how appropriate... it is SO something she would have selected...

"WARNING: POLITICAL POST"

A Colossal Train Wreck!!!!

One of the more famous trainwrecks involved an engineer by the name of Casey Jones...  he was from Jackson, TN, and died in a train wreck near Vaughn, MS in 1900...

But I am going to write about another train wreck... 

_______

It seems that the primary part of the president's health care reform law that was forced through Congress on a late Christmas-Eve vote has been removed from the law by the Obama administration... you can read about it HERE.  This part of the law was the part that was supposed to make the plan cash-heavy, would pre-fund the plan for the first ten years, and then would pay for the second ten years.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said from Day-One that the cost of this health care train-wreck was being understated.  It will be interesting to see how the Super Committee, a committee appointed by the president after the August 2nd vote on the debt ceiling responds to this news.  If you remember, their purpose is to come up with the budget reductions to finance and pay for the new debt ceiling.

_______

In an another insane moment in this country's declining history, Michael Moore, movie director , this past Friday called for the police of our country to come and join the Occupy Movement, just like the Egyptian Army did in Cairo... quote:

MICHAEL MOORE: My last word here out in the hallway just outside of [Lawrence O’Donnell’s] studio is that the police need to join us. In the same way the Egyptian army joined the people in Freedom Square there in Cairo. This is my appeal to the New York Police Department, the police departments all over the country. You are working class people. You’re not paid enough. You have the most dangerous job in the country, and these rich bastards on Wall Street they have ruined your 401(k)s, your pension funds, your future, your children’s future. Money that should be going to having better law enforcement has gone to needless wars in other lands.

So, my appeal to the police is you are us and we are you, and join us. It’s fun. We’ll even let you beat on a bongo drum. That’s my last word. Thank you.

Is Moore aware that the Egyptian Army fired upon and killed over 30 Egyptians in the  last couple of weeks?  Is it because the Egyptians killed were not Muslim (but instead Coptic  Christians) that this slides under Moore's radar?  Do those people at Occupy Wallstreet know that Michael Moore is worth over $50 Million?  Isn't he part of why they are 'protesting?'


... and then what about this?

_______

United States Attorney General Eric Holder and his 'Operation Fast and Furious' that's just gone amok!  You can read about this HERE.  The Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that is supposed to control and regulate the purchasing and sales of firearms, just one of their reasons to exist... was running guns into Mexico.  I recall when the news of this was first breaking, the mass media was reporting that the primary source of firearms in Mexico were local, legal, firearm distributors who were all in compliance with the existing Federal and State firearms laws.  What hypocrisy!!

 _______

And, lastly, Warren Buffett, etal who claim, that as millionaires, they they are paying less than 17% income tax on their earnings...  Below, you will find a tax table that is from the Tax Policy Center... you can see the full link HERE:  







According to this table, the top 1% of all taxpayers should be paying 30.4% of their earnings in Federal Income Taxes.  My question to Buffett would be, what tax manipulations are you pulling off to only be paying 17%? 


Now, it is possible that most of Buffett's (and other millionaires' income) consists primarily of dividends, which would be taxed at a lower rate of 15%.  BUT, one needs to remember that corporate dividends are taxed BEFORE being paid by the corporation to the share holders at around 35%.  This means that each $1,000 of dividends is reduced by $350 before being paid to the stock holder, where it is then taxed a second time at 15%... 15% of $650 is $97.50, which results in a net to the investor of  $552.50.  This makes the effective tax rate on dividends almost 45%...  that sounds like a Hell of a lot to me...

It seems that we replaced this...

With this...

The lunatics are indeed running the asylum...

~shoes~

"Thursday..."

It is Thursday,

Isn't it??

Oh, What The Fuck...

Today has been interesting so far... it is currently 10:06AM, Shoes Time... and I came within a breath of telling a student that I thought he looked just like Chaz Bono... 

I didn't think it would end well, and I just don't feel up to fighting that battle today... so I passed.

But there's always next week...

A student phoned me at home this morning at about 7:00 AM... he wanted to tell me that he wouldn't be in class today because he 'was in Oxford shacked up with a girl...'


The person who came up with this line must have been a marketing professional...

This below SO fits my demeanor today...

So I've been on a ZZ Top kick here lately... you know, the little ol' band from Texas... on of my favorite albums of theirs is 'Fandango!'  I have a great deal of trouble selecting my mostest favoritest song on this album, but I have to go with these two for now...

'Down At The Balinese'

'I remember Ruby...

She always dressed in Red...

Wearing Skin tight pants,

Lordy, how she could dance

With that rag wrapped around her head...'

Mexican Blackbird

If you have good speakers with your computer, just turn 'em up and enjoy!!!

Oh well... I had best get back to work...

~shoes~

BoyShoes and Other Stuff...

Boy Shoes...

So... I have this son... BoyShoes as I affectionately refer to him... He has this rather insane sense of humor, and one never really knows what he's going to say or do next. I honestly have no idea from where this trait comes...


For example, here are three text messages I've received from him recently...


'So I had a dream I beat the shit out of Hitler last night. Not going to try and even figure that one out...'

I have no idea where this comes from, but BoyShoes is greatly subject to a great deal of 'free association'... so who knows... really...


Hank, Jr., referred to the president as being like Hitler, and the news media goes insane... yet just a few years ago, stories about someone calling Bush, "Hitler" would invoke news and calls of freedom of speech and such, and play it down.  Let Hank, Jr., say it, even during one of his less than stellar moments, and all Hell is raised.


I was looking for a picture of Hitler to use with BoyShoe's text message and found this image above... and it sums up my position quite well.


So... then he sends this one a few days later...


So, I'm thinking about being Casey Anthony for Hallowe'en Dress like a woman and carry around a baby doll with a bag taped over its head. Too much you think??


A couple of years ago, BoyShoes told me he was going to a Hallowe'en Party as Jesus... complete with a crown of thorns, etc... I told him that I didn't think that was a good idea... but, he wasn't gonna listen to his Dad...

It's Fun To Stay at The Y.M.C.A...

... and then I get this one Saturday night...


'So I'm reading this real nasty slogan on the wall. And i quote, 'my grandma can't wrestle, but you should see her box.'

A boxing Grandmother...

What were you expecting??

For some reason, I'm wanting to see more photos!!!

Needless to say, BoyShoes is always good for some laughs!!

~shoes~

"Happy Birthday, Mom..."

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

On this date, October 7th,  in 1912, my Mother, Evelyn Ruth Ohl, was born...  Mom would have been 99 today...  Mom was born in a small German settlement in South West Illinois... Mascoutah.  

I've posted these photos of my Mom before... 

I can remember my Mom holding her purse 

exactly the way she is  holding it in the photo above.

My Mom loved Life as much as anyone I've ever known... I can't even begin to express how large of a hole there is in my being because of her loss.. because of her not being here...


I believe that I received the compassion about others... a sense of fairness that I have from my Mom.  Girl Shoes has told me that when she sees some photos of me, that she sees her Memom looking back at her.  Some times I feel that I look a great deal like Mom... other times I feel that I look a great deal like my Grandmother Brown... a woman that I never knew.

I miss you, Mom... each and every day...

With each and every day that passes,

you just get further and further away from me.


I hope you know how many times 
a day I think of you...

I do love you so...

Your son...

~Jim~