Wimpy Badger - Front Page

HEAD SHOTS

KNUCKLEHEAD — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:07:10 GMT

Tonight it`s all about building.
Building a Family

Building a Web.
This spider builds up four radii to make itself more impressive, though, to me, it`s impressive enough by itself.

Building a Fossil
I took a few years to allow this bobcat to decompose naturally behind the shed.
I then poured dirt, gravel & concrete over it & sprayed off excess with a hose .
I had it hanging on the railing for a few years.
When I moved, I set it against a tree stump till I could hang it somewhere, but before that happened, the neighbor`s dog ate it.

Building an Insurance Claim
A car flipped on the highway, taking out a hydrant & came to rest on a utility pole.

Building a Postcard
The World Famous Malibu Pier at sunset with a bank of fog beyond, fingering it`s way up into the hills.

Building Knowledge
I convinced my little friend Nicky, that Santa Monica Mountain King snakes were friendly.

Building Confidence
Although Nicky was confident that this local Black Tarantula was harmless, he preferred I hold it.

Rebuilding our Heritage
A huge Tipi (about 20' tall) down the canyon from my yard.

Building an Eyebrow
First find a sunset.
Make sure to locate one with a contrail in the sky.
Have a lagoon close by that is emptying on the outgoing tide.

Building a Collage
Proceed to a favorite spot.
Take many pictures.
Enlarge one for a background.
Paste all your images onto it.
Post it on a blog.

Building a Pad
Take an image from your collage that will make the viewer smile & post it also.

Building a Path
First take a picture of a cloud formation that unusually looks like a foot print.
Now that you know what it looks like, find a formation with two feet, & proceed.
You know the rest.

Building Beauty
Plant a Rose bush, & wait.

Building a Hive
First find some swarming bees. (approx. 20,000)
Stick your head into the outdoor cupboard they`re in.
Take some pix of the buzzing mass.
Run like hell.

Building a Chariot (for Blen Hur)
Take a shot of a Red Spotted Blenny
Take another shot of a large Apple Snail shell
Open PhotoShop.
Put them together.
You`re off to the races.

Building Clouds
First build a pond.
Put water in it & photograph the reflection of the sky.
Do it on a cloudy day.
You`ve done it again.

Building a Fantasy
Use your imagination.

Building a Future
Be nice to animals.

Building Symbiosis
I don`t know how, but it looks like this.

Tuesday Music: Modern and Almost Modern

Shahryar — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:41:37 GMT

Apparently I have a block against music of the early 90s. As you might recall, I'd gotten up to the late 80s, then for some reason, did a review of some songs on my iPod, all from the 50s and 60s. Then I skipped a week. Today I'm posting some fairly modern songs I like, instead of going back to 1990-91. Ah well. Consider this a tour of modern music that old fogeys might like.
This is Mika, a young British lad born in Lebanon. This song was a pretty big hit in 2007. I thought he was going to be a bigger star than he is. Might be the promotion or lack of it. Who can tell what the kids are going to like these days! Not me, that's for sure.

The funny thing about me writing about "contemporary" music is that I put in something like this....from FIVE years ago!!! This is an oldie to a 14 year old. The Arctic Monkeys, just about my favorite current band, from Sheffield, England.

As if 2005 isn't ridiculous enough for "modern music", here's a 2003 song from Outkast that was as big as a song can be, getting to #1. You know it, you love it, here it is again.

Los Angeles hip-hoppers, The Black Eyed Peas, also got to #1 just this past year with this party song. It's got a clever melodic thing going on in the phrasing of the title. FYI, I might have gone to parties like this when I was younger but I wouldn't now, if only because I'd be uncomfortable hearing people asking "who's that old guy?"

Caution: Earworm straight ahead! These guys are ridiculously old too, with the lead singer being 41. The guitarist is 45, for God's sake! But this song is a hit now and it's horribly catchy. You've likely heard it already. If you have or haven't, give it a listen maybe two times through and you'll have a hard time getting it out of your head. From San Francisco!

Well, isn't this interesting! I do lookups for some of these people I don't know much about, like Belle and Sebastian here. I knew they were from Glasgow but I didn't know they were produced by Trevor Horn. You remember Trevor. Of The Buggles (Video Killed the Radio Star) and the producer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood! Belle and Sebastian are especially good for oldsters because the sound is so polite.

Another pleasant tune for old people, Owl City is really just one guy, Adam Young from Minnesota. The video shows a room conveniently stocked with all sorts of retro knickknacks, perfect for appealing to grandma and grandpa. It's either current or just dropped off the charts, so it counts as new.

Here's a nice young woman from Barbados. Sorry about the ads, by the way. It's the new, coming thing. This particular tune was a big hit recently...in 2005!! It seems like it was only yesterday. In the 5 years since, she's been transformed into a scary looking 22 year old.

Muse, from England. A cool little fact is that the singer, Matthew Bellamy, is the son of the rhythm guitarist of The Tornadoes, who did "Telstar". Muse (and the Arctic Monkeys) play the heaviest music that this particular oldster can enjoy. The fact that I consider either of those groups "heavy" at all must amuse youngsters. I was looking for a different song of theirs but my old man's brain couldn't remember any of the lyrics and thus couldn't locate the song.

Mea culpa Monday

flagpole — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:08:15 GMT

I done fucked up. it's all ML's fault, probably, but I can't find her to blame her properly. I'll make her pay.....

HEAD SHOTS

KNUCKLEHEAD — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:24:16 GMT

A little trip to another world is what I`m proposing we do tonight.
Once I wake this lazy little clown sleeping in a bed of coral.

DOPEY IN A CORAL BED

NEON PREDATOR

RED SPOTTED BLENNY

YELLOW TANG

DOPEY

DOPEY IN A CORAL BED

TOMATO CLOWNFISH

TOMATO CLOWNFISH 2

GREEN EYED HAWKFISH

CLEANER WRASSE

MAROON CLOWNFISH

FLUFFY

BANGAII CARDINALFISH

HAWKFISH (DETAIL)

PINEAPPLE WELLSI

SIX LINE WRASSE

CORAL BANDED SHRIMP

BLUE LEGGED HERMIT

REVERSE GOLDENTAIL EEL

TOMATO CLOWNFISH 2 or 3

COPPER BAND BUTTERFLY FISH
(With Green Bubble Coral)

Tuesday in the trenches ~ BNN, Open Thread

masslass — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:52:30 GMT

There's a reason I'm putting this out here:

General Motors Co. said Monday it will recall 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac compact cars sold in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to fix power steering motors that can fail.
The recall affects 2005 to 2010 Chevrolet Cobalts, 2007 to 2010 Pontiac G5s, 2005 and 2006 Pontiac Pursuits sold in Canada and 2005 and 2006 Pontiac G4s sold in Mexico.
The automaker said the vehicles are still safe to drive and never lose their steering, but it may be harder to steer them when traveling under 15 mph.
GM spokesman Alan Adler said it will take time for the automaker to get 1.3 million new power steering motors from the supplier, JTEKT Corp., and GM will notify car owners when the parts are available.
Adler said the failures are rare and the cars can still be driven until motors can be replaced by dealers. Drivers will see a warning light and hear a chime if the power steering fails, but they could be surprised when the steering becomes more difficult.

Okay gang, this has been ticking me off for awhile now. Toyota has been taking a hell of a beating for 15 deaths in the past 10 years related to this problem. Which, btw, could all have been averted if the 15 drivers had firmly stepped on the brake! Do you have any idea how many recalls the 'big three' have issued over the past ... years? I'll tell you.. a ton. It's long past time for some perspective.. and enough of the time wasting hearings in DC. Don't we have a more important things to hold hearings on?

Nine House Democrats indicated in an Associated Press survey Monday they have not ruled out switching their "no" votes to "yes" on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, brightening the party's hopes in the face of unyielding Republican opposition.
The White House tried to smooth the way for them, showing its own openness to changes in the landmark legislation and making a point of saying the administration is not using parliamentary tricks or loopholes to find the needed support.
Democratic leaders have strongly signaled they will use a process known as "budget reconciliation" to try to push part of the package through the Senate without allowing Republicans to talk it to death with filibusters. The road could be even more difficult in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi is struggling to secure enough Democratic votes for approval, thus the effort to attract former foes.
The White House said Obama will outline his final "way forward" in a Washington speech Wednesday, and he is expected to embrace a handful of Republican ideas for making health care more efficient.
Few in Washington think those gestures will be enough to persuade a single House or Senate Republican to embrace the legislation...

eenie weenie jelly beanny beennnennnen

flagpole — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:36:19 GMT

Und zo, almost blew it again.

Sadness rules inside the crease: Canadians cheat their way to the GOLD (bastards should never have been allowed to learn the fuckin' game).

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympi...

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2...

And Canada's not the only one:
http://videocafe.crooksandliar...

We will be serving serious psychotropic substances plethorically, in both solid and liquid states, of various levels of viscosity.

HEAD SHOTS

KNUCKLEHEAD — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:35:28 GMT

Hey, everybody,
Hope you`ve had a nice week.
Here are some images to keep your heads active.
Here`s a link to go with that image of my beautiful friends, on a trip to Lithuania.
http://www.sacredsites.com/eur...

MOTHER & DAUGHTER

KENDRA ON THE "GREEN PATH"

SURF HIGHWAY

THE 420
(ON SCHEDULE)

SPEEDWAY

SERPENTINE

KNUCKLEHEAD with 46 KNUCKLEHEAD
(CIRCA, 1974)

CANYON TRAIL

LATE IMPRESSIONISM

SPRING WALK

ROADTRIP TUNE-UP
(by my friend DAVID MANN)

"PROWLER", ROLLING

KICKING BACK

CALIFORNIA, ROLLING HILLS

DAMSEL FISH

HEDGE HOG

ORCHIDS

PURPLE WORT

BLUE PUCKER

BLACK DIAMONDBACK

LIONFISH

MAROON CLOWNFISH

Tuesday Music: My iPod

Shahryar — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:25:26 GMT

Taking a break from the chronological review of the pop world, here's a glimpse of my iPod. It's chock full of 50s and 60s stuff. I put it on shuffle and listed what came up. Some of these might be repeats but they're goodies so here we go!
The Hollies made it to the Hall of Fame. Took long enough! Allan Clarke, the lead singer, had an affair with Marianne Faithfull way back when, as she relates the story in her autobiography. Her biggest complaint seems to have been keeping quiet when his wife showed up.

After the Beach Boys car and surfer phases were over they moved to odder music, like this one. From the Wild Honey album. Check it out if you haven't heard it. It's a classic.

These youngsters were even more popular than the Big Three or Faron's Flamingos, to name a couple of other Liverpool groups of the day.

"Uh, hi Dad"..."uh, hi, Rick".."uh, hey Dad, is it alright if I invite some of the kids over Saturday night?"..."uh, I guess so, but you better ask your mother"..."uh, ok, Dad"

More of The Move. Hooray! One of my favorite unheralded bands of the 60s.

Speaking of popular, this "cat" could really move the crowd. If it had been Elvis and not Buddy who perished in 1959 we'd always imagine a more glorious career for The King than what actually happened.

And who doesn't love a good double suicide song? This is probably the best of the genre!

I love this Conway Twitty song. My band covered this in our shows. So moody!

Hank Ballard was a sweet guy. I met him briefly in the 80s and thought he was kind and generous. And he could rock, too!

I was trying to decide between this and Substitute. I liked the Substitute video because Roger's shirt was so cool!! But I like this song better.

well, lots more on my list but that's enough for today!

HEAD SHOTS

KNUCKLEHEAD — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:47:13 GMT

You may be all "Seeing Red" with the way things are going, but here`s a different way to look at it.

RED RIBBONS

SEEING RED

ON THE EDGE

LIGHTFOOTED DANCER

D`REDHEAD

RED SPIRAL HOUSE

RED TYED
(My friend Matt)

RED KISSERS

ICE CREAM DREAM

STARRY EYED REDHEAD

BIG RED MACHINE

I RED THIS
(Mystery note)

LOVE GARTER

RED BED

BROMELIAD

JAM THIS

RED SMILE

Right or Left. You choose

Badger5 — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:29:09 GMT

Joe Stack is the REAL Joe the Plumber

Joe Stack is a terrorist and he scares the hell out of me. He should scare the hell out of you as well.

Joe Stack's manifesto, now widely circulated on the web, is a screed like few others because as you read it, you know this is a man resolute in his upcoming actions, a clear intent to kill and maim people representing the government as his last and only method of bringing light to issues of taxation, corporatism, the loss of freedom, apathetic representatives who feed their own instead of citizens and generally a system so overindulging in every respect that no one will ever be free from its pressures, ever consuming reach and singular attention to its own perpetuation.

He sounds like a tea partier.
He sounds like a leftist.

He sounds like a libertarian.

He sounds like any of us.

What scares me is that in these days of falling esprit de corps and growing hostility toward the ever-widening gap of regard and tolerance between what some see and opposite goals between left and right, I have to wonder how long will it be until this sort of terrorism unleashes itself on a regular basis. Tensions are high on all sides; gun toting fools and devotees of anarchy are chomping at the bit for a reason to deploy their wares and philosophically idiotic actions.

What also scares me is that the movers and shakers of the right and the left are now primed to blame each other for Joe Stack. They will both miss the clear fact that in his manifesto, Joe crosses the lines drawn and is crying out for both sides to listen to the dangers of governmental largess, corporatism and slowly fading freedoms that ALL AMERICANS ARE SUFFERING FROM, sans the rich and powerful who are at the center of this storm.

Let us remember that it was a Republican of note, President Dwight D. Eisenhower who warned the people of the burgeoning Military-Industrial Complex. Let us see that not just the M-I-C is a danger, but any swath cut from our fabric of society by corporate power in any discipline be it healthcare, labor, transportation or financial which leaves us, the working class, with less power, fewer choices and fewer monetary resources is eventually going to lead to a nation of have and have-nots. And in today's scale of the two, if you make less than $500,000.00 a year, you're a have not. This has been true in every culture, which fancied itself as civilized relative to the world it saw around itself.

Let the memory of Joe Stack also teach us that freedom is fleeting at best. Our founding fathers knew this fact and hoped that an active, flourishing, free and MASS INGESTED press (media here forward) was THE essential component in insuring that our government be wisely and knowledgeably managed by a population that is active and informed, free from the influences of special interests or the tyranny of politicians.

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Thomas Jefferson, 1812

People want to pay less tax. Or, at least, they want the tax they pay to be used judiciously and without corruption. This is possible, but relies on you and me. It depends on a new spirit of honesty that seems lost in America. We all too often close our eyes and turn away when we see graft, corruption or out and out theft of monies in government funded programs, agencies and other expenditures.

We allow our own legislators to rake millions into our own voting districts while we scream angrily at the legislator across the border for doing the same. It seems that most of all, hypocrisy is now a staple of all political movements, left and right. We support this system by blindly re-electing the same people decade after decade thinking, "it's not MY guy who's the problem". Well folks, it IS your guy who's the problem. Send them home. But don't make the mistake of putting in the next guy who is merely a different face in the same philosophical jacket. If a politician takes one penny from any source other than an individual citizen, they are beholding to that party, period. Stop pretending otherwise.

Tea Party hopefuls owe corporations. The entire movement, founded by the true frustration and senses of inequity of individuals, is now designed by corporations, funded by corporations and manipulated by corporations. It's funny that a supposed plank of their platform is anti-corporation. No, this is not surprising at all; the plank is there to suck in the gullible and hopeful that somehow, this time, this movement will be different. Sadly, it isn't and never will be. It is bought and paid for by concerns whose real agenda is to further the enrichment wagon for themselves at the expense of the working folks now duped into willfully ignorant soldiers, ready to die for the planks they think will be addressed were their cause to come into power. They only need to look back over the last 10 years of history and learn the lesson of the religious right and how it was used and discarded when it lost its usefulness to the true powers that be, the rich and powerful. The desires of the mass of Tea Party people will be frustrated and denied. The status quo will be served, not the people. The game is already over. The republican or tea party politician that takes one penny from any source other than an individual citizen, is beholding to that party, period. Stop pretending otherwise.

How many Tea Party advocates realize that the Boston Tea Party they so closely hold as their symbol against tyranny was actually a revolt against corporate favoritism? The East India Company (Elizabeth I's first corporation) was granted tax exempt status on tea sold in the Americas. As a result, the locals who sold tea (AND WERE TAXED) could no longer compete. They lost business and their livelihoods. They reacted by destroying the tax-free tea of a corporation as their protest against this unfair taxation and corporate favoritism.

Liberal concerns owe corporations, of sorts. Unions, political groups, socially concerned special interests hold the same power over the left and control their message, candidates and bills that are introduced in the same way that corporations control the right. MONEY. The democratic politician that takes one penny from any source other than an individual citizen, is beholding to that party, period. Stop pretending otherwise.

Slowly, I hope, the masses are realizing where the trouble with our government truly lays. INDIVIDUAL people of both the left and the right need to finally put the pieces together and realize that it is MONEY, CAMPAIGN INFLUENCE, MANIPULATION and out and out DECEIT that drives our elections, policies of those elected officials, appointed judges and media "professionals" and ultimately the repercussions on our society as a whole.

The time has come for us to stop arguing about right and left. The time has come for us to start thinking about our nation as a culture made up of nearly 300,000,000 people where 98% are average workers with the same bills to pay, the same hopes for our children, a desire to be secure in our old age and to live under a government than cannot take all we have from us and to live under a capitalist system that cannot do the same. The other 2% makes all the rules, and they DO NOT make rules that restrict themselves.

Joe Stack shows us that the most basic desires of the tea partiers and the left ARE THE SAME separated only by powers above us whose key to survival is manipulation of all of us through clever marketing, deceit, behind the back tactics forged in "smoke-filled rooms" of power and arrogance which see the common man as merely a tool to be used and tossed away.

Joe Stack shows us that capitalism is good, but greed is evil. Greed is its own master. It serves only itself. Capitalism is not greed; capitalism is hard work and the benefit that it creates. Greed is usury, a practice banned by the very bible we as a nation supposedly subscribe to as our moral compass and most other religions around the globe and throughout history. How can we allow this to go on any longer?

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
-Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.

A government is always necessary. People are flawed and left on our own make too much trouble. The rule of law is essential. In the words of one song by Roger Waters, never more accurately described. . . "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up". But whose rules shall we live under? Ours, the masses, which are made to benefit and protect each of us and a clear intent of our founding fathers? Or, shall we live under laws written by the 2% that benefit and protect the 2% with the 98% paying the bill for it all?

At the time of writing this, there is a republican who has begun a campaign to unseat Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Russ Feingold's campaign has an average contribution of $50.00. He has promoted citizen's civil rights and campaign finance reform. A man who is worth between 58 and 130 million dollars and who has not paid a dime of income tax for 9 or the last 10 years is challenging him. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 2/16/2010]. Shall we all guess together what sort of tax cuts Mr. Wall will favor?

Research this. . . How many American corporations pay NO FEDERAL TAX at all? According to the Government Accounting Office, MORE THAN 2/3rds of corporations pay no tax at all! How many citizens pay no tax at all? Want to bet about 2%? Simple logic. . . Corporations and the rich pay for most campaigns. Corporations and the rich get payback for those payments in the form of legislation. Who do you think the legislation benefits and protects? You? ROFLMAO!

We need government. We need police, we need fire protection, we need schools, we need healthcare, we need energy, we need food, and we need housing. We argue how much influence (read taxes) our government should or should not have over these needs. For a long time, we have been taught that this argument is what makes the difference between right and left. And in the past, this probably was true. Not anymore.

Now is the time that individual persons of the left and the right need to come together and realize that the battle line is between the haves and the have-nots. Until we have a government free of corporate and exceedingly wealthy individual money, power and manipulation, there will never be a tax break that comes to us, the working class. Never will there be decisions made based on that the people need or want. There will only be minor placations ($300.00 tax rebates) and lip service to quell a very angry and very justified mass population.

The pie is only so big on any given day. Our slice is getting smaller and smaller and our contribution to the pie through our labor and commitment is getting larger and larger. Ask this. . . In the last 30 years of Republican campaigning and passed legislation that has indeed cut taxes, exactly whose taxes were cut? Yours, Mine? Nope. Think about corporations and that 2% for the answer.

Joe Stack made a bad decision to take the lives of others to make his point. All terrorists do. But what he said was true, "Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes... isn't that a clever, tidy solution."

How many more must die to feed the hubris and extreme avarice of the rich and powerful?

I Thank you.

Tuesday Music: Surely There's Something Here

Shahryar — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:06:06 GMT

As we moved into the later 1980s the music world was getting away from me. We had Whitney Houston, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Richard Marx, Miami Sound Machine....not my cup of tea. Some of the tunes today were big enough hits and some...well you have to dig a little but there's always good music, somewhere!
I didn't know that! A couple of guys from Bauhaus formed this group, Love and Rockets. Look at that hairdo! I gotta get me one of those.

Here's a much beloved tune. These fellows seem like nice lads, don't they? There are 11 of them in the group. UB stands for "unemployment benefits". This particular tune, a classic, is a Neil Diamond song. Everyone knew that, right? One of my favorite albums is this old Neil Diamond thing with Red Red Wine, I'm a Believer (you knew he wrote lots of Monkees hits, right?) and a bunch of other goodies. I saw an album that was Neil Diamond's biggies from the early years, like 1966 and 1967. I also saw one that encompassed the years 1966 through 1990, which is 23 years too many.

Oh boy! Well I like the Pet Shop Boys just fine but combine them with Dusty Springfield!! Here they are at some kind of awards show, doing this big hit. My bass player and I wrote Dusty's management a letter in the 70s, offering to write for her. Nothing came of it and it wasn't until this song here that she had a comeback of any sort.

When we were in Los Angeles there was this guy named Kim Fowley who liked to put projects together. One of his projects was the Runaways, which worked out pretty well! Joan grew up a little and ten years later recorded this gem.

Also from the L.A. area, Jane's Addiction strikes me as a group of guys I don't want over for dinner. I don't know why. I just get the feeling crockery would get broken.

From Australia, this was a huge hit. Peter Garrett, the singer, got into politics and became Australia's Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. That's a nice sounding gig.

Joy Division was a popular British band but the lead singer, Ian Curtis, was awfully messed up, an epileptic who got depressed. There's a pretty good movie about him and the group, called Control. Anyway, he killed himself and the rest of the group reformed as New Order. This is my favorite of theirs.

I admit I've never really been a Morrissey fan, thinking that the Smiths sounded as good as they did because of guitarist Johnny Marr's great tone. Lately I've paid more attention to the lyrics, though, and am appreciating the group.

The New Zealand band Split Enz was one group I did like. The key to their sound, for me, was the pop sound that the Finn brothers brought to the group. When the Finns left to form their own band they had their biggest success.

278 years later . . . and still indispensable

pfiore8 — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:19:36 GMT

George Washington's Tear-Jerker
Washington then opened a letter from a sympathetic congressman, but soon appeared to grow distracted. As his men wondered what was wrong, Washington pulled out a pair of glasses, which even his officers had never seen before. "Gentlemen," he said, "you must pardon me, for I have grown not only gray but blind in the service of my country."
The officers were stunned. Many openly wept. Their mutinous mood gave way immediately to affection for their commander.

Precedent fixed on true principles
On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. "As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles."

Meet George Washington: Rare Facts & Curious Truths About Our First President
An interesting fact: Washington disapproved of political parties as being potentially divisive of people and inappropriate for a president
Washington wrote thousands of letters explaining his beliefs and positions; he kept daily diaries and journals with records of his activities; and he maintained written accounts of all his expenditures. These documents provide unusual insight into his thoughts and feelings and a unique window into life during the 18th century, the operation of a plantation, and conditions during the wars in which he served.

from Letter to Newport RI Hebrew Congregation
If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.
The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy-a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants-while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.
May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

HEAD SHOTS

KNUCKLEHEAD — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:26:53 GMT

How about going back to the days of black & white or

SILENT MOVIE

60 `S ROCK

COMET FLY BY

LUKEY

PRISON LETTERHEAD

A GIFT DRAWING
(white chalk on black board)

A TILE DETAIL

WAR ORPHANS

ANTIQUE ROSE SHOW

SCRIMSHAW BOX
(lid bottom)

SCRIMSHAW BOX
(lid top)

STILL LIFE

COTTON GIN TRUCK

TERI
(surfer girl)

BEADED BAG

ELVIS
(I took the trouble to shoot this framed picture I have, with the flash reflection at the headlight)

BATHROOM ZEBRA

BATHROOM ZEBRA PRINT

ATOMIC CLOCK

CARNIVORE 1

CARNIVORE 2

Snowmeggedon

Pa Mom — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:17:09 GMT

Thought I would share some of our winter with you.....

Snow last night:

Isn't it pretty?
Don't think we'll be sitting here soon:

Doesn't look so bad from a distance:

Sunset Saturday over my neighbors barn:

And another:

Sunset over the tree line:

And now to warm you up a little. A taste of summer/spring:

Tuesday Music: Guilty Pleasures and Rants

Shahryar — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:44:42 GMT

I'm mad at Prince! Ok, the Beatles don't have songs on iTunes for some reason but at least you can see tons and tons of their stuff on youtube. Prince has made it impossible to see his videos so no Raspberry Beret, which ticks me off! And **** Bryan Adams too. Bryan Adams! Who does he think he is? I like his music, he fits in here but I wanted to use Summer of '69. So **** you, Bryan! Now on to some great performances and some very guilty pleasures.
My granddaughter once asked "who's the bald man who looks like a lady?" Aww...anyway, Annie Lennox is, I think, insane. If you saw her recent performance with Aretha Franklin you know what I mean.

Kenny Loggins is, in my opinion, underrated as a rockabilly great. This rocker is one of my two favorites of his, the other being I'm Alright, used in Caddyshack. We had the same manager, although that didn't seem to help me much. ;-)

Here's Tina Turner when she was only 45. The woman's 70 now and still has it.

Did I say guilty pleasure? What the heck is this? Not for the faint-hearted.

Shaharazade and I always call Cyndi Lauper "twice the talent that Madonna ever was". Ok, not always....only when we're talking about Cyndi Lauper. She didn't write Girls Just Want to Have Fun but she did write this one, or co-write, whatever that means.

Now, to prove what a nice fellow I am, here's a tune sure to please....

You knew it was coming. Here it is.

Now I'm depressed. What a great story this was...until I got to the end. I knew that two of the Thompson Twins, Tom Bailey and Alannah Curry, had taken their earnings, moved to New Zealand and were living the dream life, away from the pressures of the modern world, on a farm they'd bought. Had a couple of kids and everything was wonderful. Ummm....until they split up in 2003.

While I'm saying **** you to Prince and Bryan Adams, let me say that here to Huey Lewis. He sued this dude, Ray Parker Jr. for this song when any critical observer can just as easily listen to the Lewis song this is supposedly ripped off from, and find the influences that Lewis used! Holland-Dozier-Holland should have sued Huey! This is another guilty pleasure, although not to the degree that that New Edition one is.

HEAD SHOTS

KNUCKLEHEAD — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:41:49 GMT

It`s been raining here since 5:00 AM.
I love it.
We are not up to our daily requirement allotment of water so it`s great.
It`s also cool since I can stay home & not visit my projects for a few days.
I do need the rest since I have a horrible cough.
I failed to use a dust mask for a few minutes last week while showing some of my workers how I wanted something done.
And before anyone blasts off on me, yes they had masks.
Anyway here are some "Head Shots" like my Head Cold.

LOW STONE WALL

BEACH FIELD MEMORIAL
(RIP Dusty)

KENDRA & THE KAMEL

FIELD STONE

WOODEN FENCE

STONE WALL

FENCE RAIL LILLY

FIELD OF FINGERS

LIZARD-SKIN FENCE

MALIBU FIELD
(By Kendra)

MALIBU FIELD
(By Knucklehead)

BRONZE FIELD HORSES

FIELD HUNT
(Misdirection)

CAPTURED

FIELD HOUSE

TILTING FIELDS

MALIBU FIELDS

FORCED LANDING FIELD
(Wounded On Board)

JANUARY SUNSETS (Field Of Color)
(Please click & go to "original")

Tuesday Music: Lots of Brits, New Wave

Shahryar — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:54:18 GMT

And then we danced! The early 80s had a lot of entertaining music and these tunes are the kinds of things I was listening to. We'd moved to San Francisco and frequented a club called Echo Beach. These tunes seem like the modern era, thanks to MTV. I didn't get a deja vu feeling exactly, while I was putting this together, but the memories are stronger than any of the previous weeks.
Well, well, well. The things you learn from Wiki! Here's ABC, the British band, doing Poison Arrow. This band was produced by Trevor Horn who was one half of the Buggles. You know, Video Killed the Radio Star. That Buggles album is terrific and if you like that single and don't have the album, get it! Anyway, ABC was some group that was being interviewed by a guy from a fanzine. The group and the interviewer hit it off, they made him the lead singer and then recorded this!

I mentioned last week that the Sex Pistols destroyed the equipment belonging to the other band on the bill. Well, one of the guys in the other band turned out to be Adam Ant! He's had mental health problems in his older age but here he is, in his prime.

The Bananarama girls sure looked wholesome, didn't they? I remember first hearing about them because one of the guys in The Specials liked them. That was Terry Hall, who started a new group called the Fun Boy Three. That group is singing backup on this Bananarama tune.

Speaking of having problems when you grow up! Doesn't everbody know about Boy George picking up trash in Manhattan as part of his cocaine bust? And his 4 months in gaol (he really must have an Oscar Wilde fetish) for assault. Gee. Once upon a time he was a cute young boy, sort of.

I like this Cure song because it's so stripped down, almost like a rockabilly tune. Did you know that Robert Smith, the singer, hasn't changed his hairdo or makeup in the quarter of a century since this? And he's now about twice as wide as he was then.

Right...so speaking of Trevor Horn of the Buggles, he also produced Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Rumor has it that this is essentially a Buggles song with Holly Johnson of Frankie singing. It sounds like it. The group received the coveted BBC banning which helped the success of the record a great deal!

Sometimes artists are the last to know if their work is good or bad. I know lots of artists who fall in love with a painting, or a song of theirs, even though there's something missing. And often their "throwaways" are their best work. So Philip Oakey wrote this tune, hated the production, thought the song was so bad that he got the record company to make it the last track on the album. Then he fought with the label when the execs wanted to release it as a single. He called this a "poor quality filler track" and insisted a poster be included with the single because otherwise the fans would feel ripped off by the substandard single. Ha!

Well, yes, not that you mention it. I was listening to a lot of British music at the time. But here's a classic from Los Angeles. Danny Elfman grew up to be one of the most famous composers for the movies. He did all those Tim Burton scores, like "Nightmare Before Christmas". We saw his rock (?) group, Oingo Boingo when they were The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo and were more of a performance art group. They new waved it up and recorded this song which was a hit in L.A.

Soft Cell, doing Tainted Love. Did you know (I didn't!) that this song was written by one of the Four Preps? Yes, the group that was famous for doing pleasant, soft numbers like 26 Miles Across the Sea and I Was a Big Man (yesterday, but boy you ought to see me now)!

Shaharazade and I go out so infrequently these days that it's surprising when I think of how often we'd go to clubs in our younger days. We saw Wall of Voodoo in East Los Angeles at some club whose name I've long ago forgotten. All I remember from that show was the drum kit (lots of unusual noisemakers), the different sound the group had from other groups of the day and one comment by singer Stan Ridgeway. He clearly was trying to say something nice about East L.A. and all he could come up with was "I like your murals".

HEAD SHOTS

KNUCKLEHEAD — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:41:04 GMT

Friday again, & time to try & thrill you with a bunch of stuff I shoot.
Nothing is sacred to me, I shoot everything & anything.
This first one I shot, fearing I wouldn`t get home in time to honor my personal little project of shooting every sunset of January.
It`s shot from the truck just before turning onto Point Dume, where I live.
Flag knows that spot.
BTW, I did make it home a few minutes later in time to shoot a few more.
HOME TURN

SAVE THE CHILDREN

INFRA RED

VILIJA`S SURPRISE

TUBE ANEMONE

PURPLE ANEMONE

LAWNMOWER BLENNY

FALSE RIPPLES

ARMORED TRANSPORT

GIANT CUP
(In my reef)

MUSHROOM TESTER

WHITE CLOUD

YELLOWFEATHERS

TIGHT TIGHTS
(Starfish in my reef)

NICE OUTFIT

BALLERINAS

HEAD SHOTS

KNUCKLEHEAD — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:02:09 GMT

Good evening everyone.
A little something for you all.
First a nymph from my gardens.
GARDEN NYMPH

NEON RETREAT

LITTLE GREEN SURFBOARDS

FLOATING WATERDROPS

RIPPLING TELEPATHY

TRANSPARENT DIMENSIONS

BIRD OF PARADISE

COCONUT`S BUDDY

FINN
(New grandson)

ALL THE LEAVES...

BOXCAR WILLY

HATCHING OF MAN

LADY & THE BLUES

RETURNING FISHERS

WRASSE , BUBBLE CORAL

FORE REEF

Tuesday Music: 1975

Shahryar — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:19:37 GMT

You saw the list yesterday, the one with Barry Manilow, the Captain and Tennille, Olivia Newton-Fig, the Carpenters and so on. Today's stroll will not include any of them, due to my insistence that I have to like something to post it!

1975 was, in retrospect, the last year of the 60s in music. Heavily influenced by what had come before, often performed by the same people. Soon it would be all disco, punk, new wave.
Llet's get this out of the way quickly. I'm an ABBA fan. I think their songs are musically very clever with lots of hooks and well thought out instrumentation. Uh-oh. I sound defensive. Oh well! Here they are doing their big hit, SOS.

This English group, Hot Chocolate, was originally signed to Apple Records and was produced by the Animals' producer, Mickie Most. What a great song to play pinball to! For you youngsters, pinball was the Wii of its day. And not this crazy pinball of today where you have to get 60 million points for a free game. No sir. Points were tough to come by. 1200 was usually good for the replay.

It's interesting how much music from 1975 still revolved around the British "invasion" era. 10CC included Graham Gouldman who wrote For Your Love (Yardbirds) and Look Through Any Window (Hollies). Also in the group was Eric Stewart who'd been in the Mindbenders (Game of Love, Groovy Kind of Love). This hit song came a decade after that.

What a nut! Look at this guy! He looks like a nut! And Cher, in the introduction, is about an equal partner. This is Elton at his peak, I think. The vocal is terrific. We all know he played with T Rex, right? Now he's Sir Elton John.

I think this John Lennon song must have been influenced by Elton John's music. That's a guess. This pretty much did it for John until he came back in 1980. He was off to being a stay at home father.

Meanwhile Paulie was making hit records. This was back when he could still write a song. Most of this Wings stuff sounds better to me than his dirgy songs at the end of the Beatles.

Maxine Nightingale didn't much like this song at first. She preferred disco, which is funny because....well, never mind. I bet she liked this a lot better when it went into the top ten.

Paul Carrack is the lead singer here for Ace, on this big hit. Do any of you watch that Jools Holland show on Ovation? Holland was the keyboard player for Squeeze and when he left Carrack took that spot. And with Squeeze Carrack was the singer on Tempted (by the fruit of another). I think it's a pretty good career when you can sing on two songs, for two different groups and have both of them be so recognizable.

nazareth love hurts
The things you can learn by using Wiki! I knew that this Scottish group had a big hit with a Roy Orbison tune but now I see it's not an Orbison number at all, although he did record it, but an Everly Brothers number, written by longtime Everlys writers, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant.

Reggae had broken in the United States, finally, and here's the king of it all with my favorite of his.