n the beginning was the Word. And the word was One word, yet the Word was three words; Rock and Roll. And we saw that it was Good. And the Word was spoken in the beginning by only one man, Alan Freed. And even though Alan Freed spoke the Word first, many there were to come to follow who would also speak the Word. And more and more came to speak the Word until the Word itself became known to all men. And many were that rejoiced in the Word. And there were those who spoke the Word with scorn and with derision, but they were few and they were like ants unto the ocean.
We were blessed to be there at the very beginning. The first born out of a new middle class in America. That new middle class itself born out of the death and destruction of World War II. The so-called G.I. bill, social legislation designed to reward the returning veterans for their sacrifice made it possible for these courageous soldiers to purchase a home or go to college or trade school. This new social class was also the first consumerist class and the economic clout it wielded was awesome. We throw the word 'empowered' around so easily today; it really had it's beginning in the 50's as the economic muscle of industrious Americans who then could fulfill their every material need. And, just as every action brings about an equal re-action, the first of the baby-boomers came into their puberty, the teen (as in between; between childhood and adulthood; the teen-agers) years. This demographic swelled like an oceantide; their numbers were staggering. Given to natural rebellious instincts as they sought to establish their own identity, they were not buying into the social norms of their adults. They sought to make their own way. And by sheer weight of numbers, they succeeded. Movies like "Blackboard Jungle" and "Rebel Without A Cause" sought to depict this boisterous, cocky, defiant, even at times self-conflicted element in our society. It was only natural that these young people wanted their own music, speaking their own language, if you will.
There are those who maintain that "Rock Around The Clock" was the first teen 'anthem', but a song by an obscure group, The Cheers, actually signified the beginning of the Rock era. Titled "A Black Leather Jacket and Motorcycle Boots" it was rushed into production following the movie "The Wild Bunch", starring a young punk named Marlon Brando. The rebellious youth culture had been born.
The convergence of Jazz, Rythm and Blues (also called 'race music), popular ('pop') swing and even country (called 'hillbilly') music were the genesis. Bill Haley and the Comets (who recorded "Rock Around The Clock") were a novelty roadhouse band playing nightly for $25 and tips in the oil-drilling areas of western Pennsylvania when they came to 'instant' stardom.
When Alan Freed moved from Cincinnatti, Ohio to New York to take on the night radio shift at WINS radio, he recognized the instant gut-level power of this new music form. Pounding on a telephone directory in the studio in time with the back-beat, one night he opened his microphone while beating on the directory exulting, "rock and roll", "rock and roll". It wasn't that long a time before the "Alan Freed Rock and Roll Revue" would be happening at the Brooklyn Paramount or Loew's Downtown (Manhattan) theatres. There would be the requisite teen-oriented B-grade movie followed by a dozen or so musical acts like Mother Maybelle, Ruth Brown, The Penquins, The Coasters, The Platters. Those would be followed by headlines such as, "Youth Mobs Dance, Destroy Theatre", or some such. Tearing out entire rows of seats so that they could dance was de jour. And Paramount and the other theatre chains didn't care all that much, their insurance companies paid for repairs while the $20 per seat tickets were equal to three to four day's grosses.
An exhilirating time for a young boy to be alive! Those days are gone now. They've been replaced by yak-yak radio, pre-packaged 'oldies' formats, computer-driven playlists and robot deejays doing totally scripted programming 24/7/365. I guess Elvis (Costello) said it best, "...you either shut up or get cut out; they don't want to hear about it. It's only inches on the reel-to-reel" (from "Radio, Radio" (cr) .
Today is February 1st; just 719 days until the end of the Bush Administration.
Next Up: Here are some links that you should check out.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
F W I W - Stop The Presses - Pat II
The regularly scheduled commentary, “Thank you for the music” will not be presented at this time in order that we may bring you the following:
We happened to run across some items on the web that we thought would be of interest to you.
Item One: How many times have you seen some news item that cites a survey (somewhere) that purports to show how people poll on an issue of interest? Then, you say to yourself, “Gee, nobody asked me about that!”
Or, something to that effect. Now, you can make your beliefs known! Better yet, you can even earn rewards (cash, too) saying how you believe. There is an organization that wants to know how people poll on various issues of importance; it’s known as PollingPoint . Here’s the beauty of the thing. Take as many or as few of their polls as you like, when you like. You’ll earn ‘points’ for each poll you complete. Take a lot of polls, earn more points, take fewer polls and earn fewer points. The points accrue, and, as far as we can tell, they accrue until you decide what premium you want to trade them for. Be advised, the cash ($100) is available in that amount only and you need to accrue 100,000 points. But, if you are highly opinionated, it shouldn’t take you too terribly long.
Item Two: We are tremendous fans of comedian Lewis Black. Of course, he has his own website www.lewisblack.com. Lewis is also a contestant on Comedy Central for “Comedian of the Month”. If we can enlist your aid, we would like you to vote for Lewis. Hopefully, you caught the interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” a few weeks back. It appears that Lewis has tapped into that level of frustration that we all feel when confronted with some of the idiocy in today’s world. We can identify with that feeling of, “If somebody doesn’t get this fixed in the next two minutes, I’m going to SNAP”! His take on sportscaster Rick Warren’s sexual fantasy (on-air, no less) about Ashley Judd is one of the funniest we’ve ever witnessed. Don’t know why it isn’t available on Comedy Central. Just thinking about it makes us…(excuse me, I have to roll around on the floor for a few minutes) weak. Please, do us a favor and support Lewis in his quest.
Item Three: Okay, we have to get political here (don’t we always?). There’s an item on “Slate”, the online magazine that sheds like on how we (America) could begin to reclaim Afghanistan from the Taliban. Of course, there are those who bristle at the premise of legalizing drugs, and/or supporting those who produce them, but this article makes some real sense. If implemented, it could reduce the money that goes directly to the Taliban, thereby reducing (1) the Taliban’s ability to purchase guns, grenades and other explosives and (2) the Taliban’s growing influence in southern Afghanistan. We urge you to read the article, since the Taliban is the organization directly involved with 9/11, not Saddam Hussein.
Item Four: This may seem a little like deja vu all over again, and you would be right. Actually, this is the entire text of Stop The Presses Part II.
We've been advised by the good people at Blogspot technical support that there were other instances where parts of postings did not upload to the server (computer). We've also been advised that they hope to locate the glitch (technical term for, "hmmmm, why'd that happen?") and fix same as soon as possible. And I believe them. They're really nice folks. We won't belabor the point; just know that we hope to have another posting up later today. Hopefully, it will be the aformentioned "Thank you for the music!"
Today is January 31st, 720 days left until the end of the Bush Administration.
Next Up: Thank you for the music!
We happened to run across some items on the web that we thought would be of interest to you.
Item One: How many times have you seen some news item that cites a survey (somewhere) that purports to show how people poll on an issue of interest? Then, you say to yourself, “Gee, nobody asked me about that!”
Or, something to that effect. Now, you can make your beliefs known! Better yet, you can even earn rewards (cash, too) saying how you believe. There is an organization that wants to know how people poll on various issues of importance; it’s known as PollingPoint . Here’s the beauty of the thing. Take as many or as few of their polls as you like, when you like. You’ll earn ‘points’ for each poll you complete. Take a lot of polls, earn more points, take fewer polls and earn fewer points. The points accrue, and, as far as we can tell, they accrue until you decide what premium you want to trade them for. Be advised, the cash ($100) is available in that amount only and you need to accrue 100,000 points. But, if you are highly opinionated, it shouldn’t take you too terribly long.
Item Two: We are tremendous fans of comedian Lewis Black. Of course, he has his own website www.lewisblack.com. Lewis is also a contestant on Comedy Central for “Comedian of the Month”. If we can enlist your aid, we would like you to vote for Lewis. Hopefully, you caught the interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” a few weeks back. It appears that Lewis has tapped into that level of frustration that we all feel when confronted with some of the idiocy in today’s world. We can identify with that feeling of, “If somebody doesn’t get this fixed in the next two minutes, I’m going to SNAP”! His take on sportscaster Rick Warren’s sexual fantasy (on-air, no less) about Ashley Judd is one of the funniest we’ve ever witnessed. Don’t know why it isn’t available on Comedy Central. Just thinking about it makes us…(excuse me, I have to roll around on the floor for a few minutes) weak. Please, do us a favor and support Lewis in his quest.
Item Three: Okay, we have to get political here (don’t we always?). There’s an item on “Slate”, the online magazine that sheds like on how we (America) could begin to reclaim Afghanistan from the Taliban. Of course, there are those who bristle at the premise of legalizing drugs, and/or supporting those who produce them, but this article makes some real sense. If implemented, it could reduce the money that goes directly to the Taliban, thereby reducing (1) the Taliban’s ability to purchase guns, grenades and other explosives and (2) the Taliban’s growing influence in southern Afghanistan. We urge you to read the article, since the Taliban is the organization directly involved with 9/11, not Saddam Hussein.
Item Four: This may seem a little like deja vu all over again, and you would be right. Actually, this is the entire text of Stop The Presses Part II.
We've been advised by the good people at Blogspot technical support that there were other instances where parts of postings did not upload to the server (computer). We've also been advised that they hope to locate the glitch (technical term for, "hmmmm, why'd that happen?") and fix same as soon as possible. And I believe them. They're really nice folks. We won't belabor the point; just know that we hope to have another posting up later today. Hopefully, it will be the aformentioned "Thank you for the music!"
Today is January 31st, 720 days left until the end of the Bush Administration.
Next Up: Thank you for the music!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
F W I W - We're baaaaack!
If the text looks a little strange, it will be because we are converting to a MAC-based system, and as much as we love working with the OS 10 system, we're still a little 'green'.
That said, let's jump right in!
The rest of my last rant will appear as soon as I can migrate it onto this system, edit same and upload.
For our first item, we need to enlist your support. If you've been watching the news lately, you've been hearing a lot about Iran and that country's so-called pursuit of nuclear (or as dubya would say, nucular) weapons. Alas, the little boy is crying 'wolf' once again. The last time he did, we sent troops into Iraq where we were quagmired almost immediately. Now, over three thousand young lives have been lost, countless thousands more are crippled for life and the situation in that country grows worse every day.
Now, the failed policy in Iraq is being debated in the public arena, so to divert attention, Bush and the same cabal of chicken-hawks are trying to make a case for invading Iran. Make no mistake. The Administration wants a pretext, any pretext, to send troops into Iran. And don't believe for a moment the pronouncements of the President's press secretary, Tony Snow.
Unfortunately, all this talk about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons is a sham. Big surprise, right? It should be noted that NOT ONE of the other nations in the area are as inflamed about this issue, except Israel. Of course, it is understandable that Israel should be so distressed. Iranian President Ahmed Armedinijad has been calling for the destruction of the Israeli state for years. Now that he has become President, it seems to have climbed to the top of his agenda. But, here's the kicker:
According to Jane's Weapons Systems (the ultimate authority on all war-making systems), Iran WILL NOT, repeat, WILL NOT, have nuclear weapons capability (including a delivery system) for at least FIVE, or possibly as much as EIGHT years! You'd think that Iran would be able to nuke Israel next month to hear the administration's arguments. Nuclear weapons technology is incredibly complex. There are websites out there that claim that the specs are out there and are amazingly easy to obtain. This is a myth. Go ahead, 'google' "nuclear weapons technology" and see what you can find that has the amount of specificity necessary to actually build such a weapon. Here's where you, my dear reader comes in.
I've been emailing Joe Scarborough (on MSNBC.Com) trying to make that case clear to him. He won't reply. Now Joe IS a political conservative, so it could be understandable that he would follow the White House lead on this story. But, it goes deeper than that. If you bring out the truth (in the previous paragraph), basically, there is NO STORY there. And, of course, nuclear weapons is a big story. Make it go away and the staff has to go looking elsewhere to find something to report on. Unfortunately, the only other game in town right now is the Iraq debacle and Scarborough and company are opined that that story is just a tad stale, so to speak. Help me, please! Go on the web to: http://www.joe.msnbc.com. When you get to his page, you'll find a link near the upper right-hand corner that invites you to email Joe. Click the link, then write your own email to him urging him to not be a party to this travesty. Quote this blog if you like, but it's more important that you make him understand that there are people out here who are dedicated to telling the truth, despite the blather that the White House and the commercial networks are spinning. And, don't do this for me. I'm a pretty old guy with fewer days ahead of me than behind. Do it for your children and for their children and your neighbor's children. They're the ones who'll have to live with the consequences of an all-out nuclear conflagration. Invading Iran or striking Iran will be just the spark that will set the middle east aflame and ultimately trigger such a catastrophe.
We're aware that you may have concerns over my credibility. Some weeks ago, we did assert that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf would be assassinated for allowing India to sign a nuclear agreement with the United States without objection on his part. We were, apparently, incorrect on the timing of such an assassination. We do, however, stand by our assertion that he (Musharraf) is living on borrowed time. There have been two such attempts since he ascended to power. Will the third time be the charmed? What do you think?
Which brings me to the next item. My email address has changed. Here it is: rbec4@mac.com
We hope to hear from you with your thoughts. Communication is best when it is two-way and we firmly believe in the principle that Thomas Jefferson espoused; namely that given the choice between a strong government and a weak press and a weak government and a strong press, his preference was for the strong press. Well said, Mr. Jefferson!
Next up: Stop The Presses! - Part II (conclusion)
Today is Tuesday, January 30, 2007; just 721 days until the end of the Bush Administration
That said, let's jump right in!
The rest of my last rant will appear as soon as I can migrate it onto this system, edit same and upload.
For our first item, we need to enlist your support. If you've been watching the news lately, you've been hearing a lot about Iran and that country's so-called pursuit of nuclear (or as dubya would say, nucular) weapons. Alas, the little boy is crying 'wolf' once again. The last time he did, we sent troops into Iraq where we were quagmired almost immediately. Now, over three thousand young lives have been lost, countless thousands more are crippled for life and the situation in that country grows worse every day.
Now, the failed policy in Iraq is being debated in the public arena, so to divert attention, Bush and the same cabal of chicken-hawks are trying to make a case for invading Iran. Make no mistake. The Administration wants a pretext, any pretext, to send troops into Iran. And don't believe for a moment the pronouncements of the President's press secretary, Tony Snow.
Unfortunately, all this talk about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons is a sham. Big surprise, right? It should be noted that NOT ONE of the other nations in the area are as inflamed about this issue, except Israel. Of course, it is understandable that Israel should be so distressed. Iranian President Ahmed Armedinijad has been calling for the destruction of the Israeli state for years. Now that he has become President, it seems to have climbed to the top of his agenda. But, here's the kicker:
According to Jane's Weapons Systems (the ultimate authority on all war-making systems), Iran WILL NOT, repeat, WILL NOT, have nuclear weapons capability (including a delivery system) for at least FIVE, or possibly as much as EIGHT years! You'd think that Iran would be able to nuke Israel next month to hear the administration's arguments. Nuclear weapons technology is incredibly complex. There are websites out there that claim that the specs are out there and are amazingly easy to obtain. This is a myth. Go ahead, 'google' "nuclear weapons technology" and see what you can find that has the amount of specificity necessary to actually build such a weapon. Here's where you, my dear reader comes in.
I've been emailing Joe Scarborough (on MSNBC.Com) trying to make that case clear to him. He won't reply. Now Joe IS a political conservative, so it could be understandable that he would follow the White House lead on this story. But, it goes deeper than that. If you bring out the truth (in the previous paragraph), basically, there is NO STORY there. And, of course, nuclear weapons is a big story. Make it go away and the staff has to go looking elsewhere to find something to report on. Unfortunately, the only other game in town right now is the Iraq debacle and Scarborough and company are opined that that story is just a tad stale, so to speak. Help me, please! Go on the web to: http://www.joe.msnbc.com. When you get to his page, you'll find a link near the upper right-hand corner that invites you to email Joe. Click the link, then write your own email to him urging him to not be a party to this travesty. Quote this blog if you like, but it's more important that you make him understand that there are people out here who are dedicated to telling the truth, despite the blather that the White House and the commercial networks are spinning. And, don't do this for me. I'm a pretty old guy with fewer days ahead of me than behind. Do it for your children and for their children and your neighbor's children. They're the ones who'll have to live with the consequences of an all-out nuclear conflagration. Invading Iran or striking Iran will be just the spark that will set the middle east aflame and ultimately trigger such a catastrophe.
We're aware that you may have concerns over my credibility. Some weeks ago, we did assert that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf would be assassinated for allowing India to sign a nuclear agreement with the United States without objection on his part. We were, apparently, incorrect on the timing of such an assassination. We do, however, stand by our assertion that he (Musharraf) is living on borrowed time. There have been two such attempts since he ascended to power. Will the third time be the charmed? What do you think?
Which brings me to the next item. My email address has changed. Here it is: rbec4@mac.com
We hope to hear from you with your thoughts. Communication is best when it is two-way and we firmly believe in the principle that Thomas Jefferson espoused; namely that given the choice between a strong government and a weak press and a weak government and a strong press, his preference was for the strong press. Well said, Mr. Jefferson!
Next up: Stop The Presses! - Part II (conclusion)
Today is Tuesday, January 30, 2007; just 721 days until the end of the Bush Administration
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