For years, Rush Limbaugh has had a following that shocks me with their loyalty since the man has had so many lies caught and published. I suppose if you only listen to him, you never hear the contradictions to what he says. Media Matters for America has posted an interesting article you may want to check out. It starts: Rush Limbaugh, the marauding Frankenstein's monster of the Republican Party, is on the loose again, causing all kinds of political damage with his signature off-balance swings. But as has become his custom recently, the pain from Limbaugh's rampage is being felt by his creators -- his enablers -- inside the GOP. The article is a long one and only someone dedicated to hearing the whole story will read it, but it is better than my trying to paraphrase the whole thing.
Olbermann had a special message on FISA. You can see the text or watch the video on YouTube.
in video. We need more people who can make sense and speak analytically.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
THEN AND LATER
Tonight a delightful presentation of before and afters of Jazz forced me out of my cocoon at home to a neighboring town library. In 1977 Peter Appleyard introduced a, then, 26 year old trumpet player from Canada (with a full head of hair) to an American audience. He played a very melodic When It's Sleepy Time Down South. In 2001, a second introduction at a Bern Festival shows him with his hair nought but a fringe around the lower edge of his scalp up and barely over his ears. Later, in 2005 you can hear him swinging with John Allred, the trombonist on Limehouse Blues. It's like time lapse photography!
We were later treated to Stephane Grappelli and Django Rinehart, who with three more musicians started the Hot Club of France. Since Django returned to his beloved France (because he was not happy in the USA) he may not be as familiar to Americans as Grappelli later became. Django died in France in1953.
We were also treated to Dave Brubeck, an example from 1961 playing what was an indescribable jazz form in 5/4 time can be heard here.. Having been classically trained as a student of the French Composer Darius Milhaud, he brought a wonderful new window to Jazz as New Orleans and Dixie merged with some of these new expressive musicians. Dave composed Take Five and played with the wonderful Alto Saxophonist, Paul Desmond, who died all too early at age 53 in 1977. Brubeck is now in his 80s is still playing beautifully. Here in 2005, on YouTube he plays Rondo a la Turk.
There is little out there in the cold, wide world to drag me out of the warm and fuzzy space in front of my computer on a cold night, but Jazz at Lincoln Library did it. To be with about 25 jazz lovers, near my age and older, who can listen to music that is melodic, rhythmic without the drums overpowering everything else, and not listen to music generated out of stoned heads, at decibels that permanently wipe out ear drums, is Heaven on Earth to me. I am learning to appreciate YouTube more than ever as I consider how much of my own interests of the past do I want to spend precious time in my life archiving.
For a treat, listen to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald doing Summertime. An encore of the same tune demonstrates what a real voice, controlled and not wandering all around the tune as it was written, can be sung to move an audience. This was in Berlin in 1968 in concert.
We were later treated to Stephane Grappelli and Django Rinehart, who with three more musicians started the Hot Club of France. Since Django returned to his beloved France (because he was not happy in the USA) he may not be as familiar to Americans as Grappelli later became. Django died in France in1953.
We were also treated to Dave Brubeck, an example from 1961 playing what was an indescribable jazz form in 5/4 time can be heard here.. Having been classically trained as a student of the French Composer Darius Milhaud, he brought a wonderful new window to Jazz as New Orleans and Dixie merged with some of these new expressive musicians. Dave composed Take Five and played with the wonderful Alto Saxophonist, Paul Desmond, who died all too early at age 53 in 1977. Brubeck is now in his 80s is still playing beautifully. Here in 2005, on YouTube he plays Rondo a la Turk.
There is little out there in the cold, wide world to drag me out of the warm and fuzzy space in front of my computer on a cold night, but Jazz at Lincoln Library did it. To be with about 25 jazz lovers, near my age and older, who can listen to music that is melodic, rhythmic without the drums overpowering everything else, and not listen to music generated out of stoned heads, at decibels that permanently wipe out ear drums, is Heaven on Earth to me. I am learning to appreciate YouTube more than ever as I consider how much of my own interests of the past do I want to spend precious time in my life archiving.
For a treat, listen to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald doing Summertime. An encore of the same tune demonstrates what a real voice, controlled and not wandering all around the tune as it was written, can be sung to move an audience. This was in Berlin in 1968 in concert.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
CELEBRATE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY
The history of St. Valentine's Day goes back before the days of Chaucer in which age it was meant for lovers. Sso how is it that mother's, children, friends and lots of non-lovers expect cards? Until relatively recently the Catholic Church recognized 11 martyred St. Valentines. Everyone wants to get into the act!
Cards get pretty ridiculous, like: If I was a bat, I'd hang around with you if you would be my Valentine. Or, Like the paper clip said to the magnet, "I find you attractive". Regardless of the trivia, flowers, lace, roses, candy, and all the stuff that has become a part of the Holiday, the best you get from me today is:
Cards get pretty ridiculous, like: If I was a bat, I'd hang around with you if you would be my Valentine. Or, Like the paper clip said to the magnet, "I find you attractive". Regardless of the trivia, flowers, lace, roses, candy, and all the stuff that has become a part of the Holiday, the best you get from me today is:
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
URBAN DICTIONARY
There is an Urban dictionary which will send a word daily to its subscribers, for free. It is always amazing to me that words pop up daily that are so expressive. One of them is UDI (Unidentified Drunken Injury). Another recent one is that the country is in the grip of Obamania!
Should you hear someone say 'udder warmer'...you may not quickly guess that it refers to 'condom'. Another concept is a B Dinkadink. One must be careful not to confuse it with a B Donkadonk.
Apparently the English language isn't expressive enough and new words are constantly being invented. I don't know if they are universal or limited to specific urban populations. Many people have their own foreign languages to converse with in public to have a private conversation. My sister and I could do that on the subway and in stores, in Greek. Sometimes foreign words can be embarrassing. The Greek word for lentils sounds obscenely close to someone saying, intercourse (more common word, actually, for this function)-yes.
That ploy backfired for a couple once in England as I was in a subterranean area waiting for a lift. People were all standing before one as it was apparently the second was out of order. A couple standing before the one out of service were saying, in Greek, "we will stand at the front of this one and pretend we don't know it is out of order and then we can squeeze right in before all these people when the other comes." Since I understood them, I motioned with a sweeping arm when the lift arrived, for them to pass before me, saying in Greek, "After you". They had the good grace to look a bit embarrassed but moved in front of me anyway.
Having recently read that 1 in 7 living in the United States is foreign born, I wonder why we have to press one to speak in English. I know there are lots of places for which one presses 2 to speak in Spanish, but how many more numbers must we add in the future. It is difficult enough that there is a whole dictionary of shortcuts in chat, writers who speak in archaic English or with such erudite words as to need a dictionary handy to read them. Be ahead of the curve by checking out the Urban Dictionary.
Should you hear someone say 'udder warmer'...you may not quickly guess that it refers to 'condom'. Another concept is a B Dinkadink. One must be careful not to confuse it with a B Donkadonk.
Apparently the English language isn't expressive enough and new words are constantly being invented. I don't know if they are universal or limited to specific urban populations. Many people have their own foreign languages to converse with in public to have a private conversation. My sister and I could do that on the subway and in stores, in Greek. Sometimes foreign words can be embarrassing. The Greek word for lentils sounds obscenely close to someone saying, intercourse (more common word, actually, for this function)-yes.
That ploy backfired for a couple once in England as I was in a subterranean area waiting for a lift. People were all standing before one as it was apparently the second was out of order. A couple standing before the one out of service were saying, in Greek, "we will stand at the front of this one and pretend we don't know it is out of order and then we can squeeze right in before all these people when the other comes." Since I understood them, I motioned with a sweeping arm when the lift arrived, for them to pass before me, saying in Greek, "After you". They had the good grace to look a bit embarrassed but moved in front of me anyway.
Having recently read that 1 in 7 living in the United States is foreign born, I wonder why we have to press one to speak in English. I know there are lots of places for which one presses 2 to speak in Spanish, but how many more numbers must we add in the future. It is difficult enough that there is a whole dictionary of shortcuts in chat, writers who speak in archaic English or with such erudite words as to need a dictionary handy to read them. Be ahead of the curve by checking out the Urban Dictionary.
Monday, February 11, 2008
WHY THE WORLD FOR WOMEN CHANGES SLOWLY
In one common experiment, the Goldberg Paradigm, people are asked to evaluate a particular article or speech, supposedly by a man. Others are asked to evaluate the identical presentation, but from a woman. Typically, in countries all over the world, the very same words are rated higher coming from a man. Since the provocative findings of an early study by Goldberg (1968), researchers have addressed the possibility that evaluations of others and their work may be prejudicial against women. Goldberg obtained evidence which appeared to indicate that raters of a series of articles (attributed to male or female authors) showed a degree of bias against the work of females. Goldberg's subjects were female students, and Goldberg's conclusion was that females are prejudiced against other females.
In most states, polls show Hillary Clinton ahead of Barack Obama among voters making $50,000 a year or less -- many of whom say the economy is their top concern. Yes, the New York senator who appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine as Big Business's candidate is winning economically insecure, lower-income communities over the Illinois senator who grew up as an organizer helping those communities combat unemployment. This absurd phenomenon is a product of both message and bias.
Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks has a lot of fun with the clip featuring progressive writer Naomi Wolf and Fox News anchorman Shepard Smith. Shepard Smith talks over her, points a finger and says, "Don't go Fox on me!" There were then, on TYT, jokes made about the newscasters on Fox not giving news but giving propaganda and how frightened they would be to have to go look for another job which would actually require them to find and present actual truth and news.
Women are still underpaid in comparison to men. A recent study on ABC suggested the bias which exists against women being hired. Men and women being asked the same questions and giving the same answers were perceived differently.
It was very gratifying to see that MSNBC suspended David Shuster from further broadcasting because of his perjorative remark about Chelsea Clinton. While I did not read the NY Times chastising of Chris Matthews for his biased statements against Hillary Clinton, I understand that there was one. It is about time the media polices its own for perpetuating biases against women and, all I can say is, shame on the women who allow it and help keep it going out of their own fear that they will somehow be different if they are seen as equal and different from men. Remember, in the Stepford Wives, it was a women who turned all of them into robots, not a man! In A Knight's Tale, Rufus Sewell equates women to cattle. The brotherhood of men should be ashamed that their view of women has evolved so little in several centuries.
In most states, polls show Hillary Clinton ahead of Barack Obama among voters making $50,000 a year or less -- many of whom say the economy is their top concern. Yes, the New York senator who appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine as Big Business's candidate is winning economically insecure, lower-income communities over the Illinois senator who grew up as an organizer helping those communities combat unemployment. This absurd phenomenon is a product of both message and bias.
Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks has a lot of fun with the clip featuring progressive writer Naomi Wolf and Fox News anchorman Shepard Smith. Shepard Smith talks over her, points a finger and says, "Don't go Fox on me!" There were then, on TYT, jokes made about the newscasters on Fox not giving news but giving propaganda and how frightened they would be to have to go look for another job which would actually require them to find and present actual truth and news.
Women are still underpaid in comparison to men. A recent study on ABC suggested the bias which exists against women being hired. Men and women being asked the same questions and giving the same answers were perceived differently.
It was very gratifying to see that MSNBC suspended David Shuster from further broadcasting because of his perjorative remark about Chelsea Clinton. While I did not read the NY Times chastising of Chris Matthews for his biased statements against Hillary Clinton, I understand that there was one. It is about time the media polices its own for perpetuating biases against women and, all I can say is, shame on the women who allow it and help keep it going out of their own fear that they will somehow be different if they are seen as equal and different from men. Remember, in the Stepford Wives, it was a women who turned all of them into robots, not a man! In A Knight's Tale, Rufus Sewell equates women to cattle. The brotherhood of men should be ashamed that their view of women has evolved so little in several centuries.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
MILD ANNOYANCES OF LATER LIFE
Many people suffer greatly today from poverty, starvation, homelessness, even in the USA. They don't know where their next meal is coming from or whether there will be a roof over their heads tomorrow. It has been said that lightening doesn't strike in the same place twice so I may be safe. I struggled and suffered through those problems when I was young.
I now worry about the toilet paper roll running out, forcing a trip to the basement to replace it, or worse, find the last roll has been used up after descending the stairs. Paper towels run a second in that race, as well. My worries are apt to be more about paying my bills on time ( it is against my very soul to pay interest on a charge). Once my problem had been which bill is going to give me the most grief or charge the most interest because I can't pay them all this month! I worry about whether I will be able to eat all the food I bought, when I mistakenly went grocery shopping while I was hungry (against my own rule). I dislike throwing food out that was bought fresh but is no longer edible due to my poor planning. Why does this bother me? Does it matter whether it gets thrown out or that I eat what my body neither wants nor needs? Of course not, but my mother's admonitions (which I ignored through most of my childhood) are stored in my long term memory bank, and though she has been dead for over 20 years, her voice still lives in there. So much for long term storage in my brain.
When I was very little, I guess I was a bit precocious. People would see this 3 or 4 year old, chubby little girl speaking her mind on every subject, freely, (a habit retained to this very day) and say, "Oh, isn't she cute!?" Now I am a 'senior-senior' and am around middle aged people who look at each other after they have met me and say, "Isn't she cute!" Now the phrase strikes me like fingernails on a blackboard. No one who knows me would describe me as 'cute'. I'm called cute because I am apparently an oddly, precocious, old lady who likes computers, because I write a blog, still work, don't wear house-dresses or aprons, keep up with lots in the world, and still love to learn....an oddity in their view of what I should be. I think I'm expected to be tired and retired!
Because of my Mediterranean genes with somewhat unwrinkled skin (and that I never smoked), I am usually presumed to be younger than my birth date; people expect me to be much more active than my old bones care to pretend. However, I guess if I am being referred to as 'cute' by ANYONE, I must have come full circle in life. What's next?
Second childhood is simply when your short term memory stops working and you are left with memories only of your past. That seems useful, as when a grandson has a school paper to write and is asked to interview someone who lived through WWII, like a grandparent. I was able to recall rationing much more clearly than I was aware of in the 40s! No wonder Grandma Moses took up painting in her 80's. It was all there, clearly, on that black or white board in her head, for nearly total recall. It is rather fun to have images, long forgotten, popping back up in my head clearly again. It is like a head full of old movies. When the projection stops, I shall be no more.
I now worry about the toilet paper roll running out, forcing a trip to the basement to replace it, or worse, find the last roll has been used up after descending the stairs. Paper towels run a second in that race, as well. My worries are apt to be more about paying my bills on time ( it is against my very soul to pay interest on a charge). Once my problem had been which bill is going to give me the most grief or charge the most interest because I can't pay them all this month! I worry about whether I will be able to eat all the food I bought, when I mistakenly went grocery shopping while I was hungry (against my own rule). I dislike throwing food out that was bought fresh but is no longer edible due to my poor planning. Why does this bother me? Does it matter whether it gets thrown out or that I eat what my body neither wants nor needs? Of course not, but my mother's admonitions (which I ignored through most of my childhood) are stored in my long term memory bank, and though she has been dead for over 20 years, her voice still lives in there. So much for long term storage in my brain.
When I was very little, I guess I was a bit precocious. People would see this 3 or 4 year old, chubby little girl speaking her mind on every subject, freely, (a habit retained to this very day) and say, "Oh, isn't she cute!?" Now I am a 'senior-senior' and am around middle aged people who look at each other after they have met me and say, "Isn't she cute!" Now the phrase strikes me like fingernails on a blackboard. No one who knows me would describe me as 'cute'. I'm called cute because I am apparently an oddly, precocious, old lady who likes computers, because I write a blog, still work, don't wear house-dresses or aprons, keep up with lots in the world, and still love to learn....an oddity in their view of what I should be. I think I'm expected to be tired and retired!
Because of my Mediterranean genes with somewhat unwrinkled skin (and that I never smoked), I am usually presumed to be younger than my birth date; people expect me to be much more active than my old bones care to pretend. However, I guess if I am being referred to as 'cute' by ANYONE, I must have come full circle in life. What's next?
Second childhood is simply when your short term memory stops working and you are left with memories only of your past. That seems useful, as when a grandson has a school paper to write and is asked to interview someone who lived through WWII, like a grandparent. I was able to recall rationing much more clearly than I was aware of in the 40s! No wonder Grandma Moses took up painting in her 80's. It was all there, clearly, on that black or white board in her head, for nearly total recall. It is rather fun to have images, long forgotten, popping back up in my head clearly again. It is like a head full of old movies. When the projection stops, I shall be no more.
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