Feed My Fish Until I Get Back, Please .. "Ten Fish Going In"

Election Day

 
 "Time , time ,time ... What has become of me ?" (Paul Simon's "Hazy Shade of Winter")

  This blog was spared the rhetoric of the election .Today , as it is over, I can be glad I don't have to review it all too much. I did write this note on election after going to the polls . I can't remember an uglier election. The negative ads permeated the airwaves with the support of the "Super Pacs" . I don't know if this is the election they paid for or not.

     I goose stepped in and voted like the rest of you Nazis in the longest voting line of lifetime and the worst election, and to add to it ,a masquerade ,a fraud filled with sound bites that mean nothing while democracy fades.I handed my drivers license and they refused it opting to hear me yell my info at them as if they were hard of hearing or just your run of the mill "Ferners" to the "Claghill family"as I came down from the mountains to deal with the city slickers. I commented ,"So it is illegal for you to read my license."I hadn't gone there to have a jive conversation with bureaucrats , I hate this bullshit. This might be the last election for me with either outcome."Common Sense" has become one of those dinosaurs that used to exist...Wait a minute did this country ever have any "Common Sense". If there are any questions just play a flag waver.The power of this country is that we are stupid enough to push the red button ,turning it over to people we don't trust and who don't represent us once they are elected. "Have one doubt and they call it treason.." (Try To Make it Real Compared to What ?")The Constitutional Convention of "1968" never happened and they are still pretending that this mutant "Corpocracy" works.

   The presidency has too much power ,power that has accumulated from Lyndon Johnson on.The presidency has to be taken down a couple of notches .I doubt that he will volunteer to lose power any more than the congressmen will accept term limits.If Obama wants to dance in the middle of the street that is his prerogative but that would probably be a suicidal dance.He isn't stupid but half of this country doesn't agree with the other half, the Republicans don't agree with each other , and the Democrats don't agree with each other.It is even deeper than racism.
 
Incidentally , about fighting for the right to vote , about the military incursions where people have lost their lives in what has become the unilateral aggressive policies of the US. The wars called Viet Nam ,poverty, drugs , through Afghanistan are not defensive or protecting anything. Certainly not protecting my right to vote ,my freedom, the "American Way", and all that "Superman" flag waving bull that gets a knee jerk from too many people.I would like to be protected from the Prince Georges County Police and I don't even live in Prince Georges County.We have a police state that is beyond the crime of being black.They apply their boots to the neck of the rest of the people as well,that is the other 88% of us.I still maintain that the intrinsic systemic problem is not just coming from totally Republicans or Democrats. "Systemic Corruption" is universally abusing all American's civil rights and has ruined this American illusion of Democracy.

An Unforgettable Eyeful and Again This Year

Earlier ,last Monday morning , 9/11/12 I wrote :

 "Unforgettable Eyeful E 11" It was a dark day in spite of the clear blue sky just like today.The Afghan Culture is one with child brides in the tradition of Muhammad and the wife whom he married when she was six years old ,Aisha .He supposedly consummated the marriage when she was nine and he was 54. This subjugation of women continues to this day throughout the entire Third World Islamic Countries including India and Pakistan in spite of current laws prohibiting the abuse of children. This is a fact that the US cannot change with vengeful wars , the propagating of corporate democracy ,or forcing our pseudo - Christian morality which is seen as evidence of the infidel to the Muslims.We have to recognize the mood of this country that was vengeance after 9/11 and the mistake of our vitriol at that time.It is time to leave Afghanistan.


Later ,the next day :

Yesterday the attack in Libya was supposed to be in response to a film "Innocence of Muslims".I have tried to view that film and found it very disjointed .The one thing that is prevalent in the news on Youtube as well as the film clips are the commercials that one has to go through to get to the bad film.I will try later to see what exactly is so insulting that men would take up arms and kill about but I am afraid that I am biased and see groups of religious zealots as generally nuts.This is certainly on a par with the earlier riots over the cartoons of Muhammad.

Again , I want to emphasize that the entire Muslim population of the United states might be growing but the more reasonable ,actual count was about 2.6 million in 2010 . This is a very small percentage of 360 million people. The continued Molly Coddling of the Islamic faith with the "Politically Correct" responses by our media sources is insulting. I just don't get it . I have been wished "Happy Ramadan" by CBS while they don't seem to want to mention the word Christmas ,opting for "Season's Greetings".(Those of you that know me know that I am not a deist at all. I am a researcher , a student of Barbara Thiering,who is also not a deist .Some of you know me as "Zoot_Bruno",my Yahoo flip name which I kept even as a commentator on the 18th Dynasty and my Qumran research. I don't take any of this as the word of god or written in stone,in fact ,to quote myself , "What is written in stone is not written in stone.")

It has been suggested that the riots now continuing in Egypt as well could have been planned for the 9/11 date.Yesterday , I noted that our media had played down the date after replaying the films for ten years,after reading the names of the three thousand and showing the reading live for ten years,after showing ceremonies of the attacks for ten years . Yesterday , I didn't see one post pertaining to the event of 9/11 on Facebook, Not one . The only people that noted it were the people who killed that diplomat last night in Libya.

What I have seen of this film seems a bit foolish , childishly mocking , and hard to take seriously at all. I doubt that it will ever become a film and it hardly represents the US Government or it's policies toward Islam.It also seems funny that so many Muslims have noticed this film and pretend to have viewed it ,being taken aback by it,considering it has only been out for a short while . Nobody here noticed it because it is made so bad.The only place it has been available is Youtube.Is there a Google search mechanism for bad movies? Is that all the Muslims are searching for?

Incidentally , my earlier post about Muhammad and his wife ,Aisha , the six year old,are facts . I would be honored if I could be killed for bringing the facts to light to uninformed Americans. I didn't write it mockingly but in protest of the abuse of the women of the world , the female children specifically, a protest written from a free country ( at least on paper so far ).

America has wasted it's resources and good young men in the Middle East too long . If we need another base , why not just build the damn airport in the middle of Israel and get it over with .If they don't like it it ,pull out of fucking Israel too. Quit Molly Coddling the Muslims like they are children ,pull out of and stop supporting Pakistan,India, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt , Jordan , the Palestinians , and the rest of the African tribes and nations that are so backward as to bite the hand that feeds them. They are not supporting the US or us.

   Still later in that week I wrote in response to the continued riots of people pretending to wear their god on the sleeve as an excuse for their ridiculous stand and expecting the rest of the world respect their idiocy :

        Why is there a need to defend Muhammad ? Do all these people have computers ? Have they all seen this stupid movie that I can't seem to stomach for more than a few seconds ? Again , I just don't "Get IT! "

  Look, we are living in a reactionary age . America is reacting to instead of leading the world . We have gone backward since the Reagan era ,since the Islamic Fundamentalist took hostages in Iran . The right wing, "Christian Fundamentalist" thought that they were the answer or perhaps ,once again , the climate of this country made them the answer. This answer was to show that the American Christians can be more primitively intolerant than the Muslims. Maybe they succeeded .

  All the crime shows on television these days continue to repeat that same plot that involves ,'They shot one of our own.." so throw law and order out the widow ,kill the perpetrator . We are aggrandizing and being entertained by plays that repeat the idea of officials who represent law and order being out of control. The Wearing of emotions on the sleeve ,responding to metaphors as if they are real,and negating social order is exactly what we are witnessing in the riots of Libya and Egypt right now . It has become entertainment . This is backward ,counterproductive.

  The imitating of the violent attack on the consulate of Libya and further acts of violence should be equated with a plague of children murdering adults who suggest that there is no Santa Claus. Free speech is not up for grabs . There should be no apology for a film or any other form of art ,bad as it may be to anyone . There have been worse works by people called art ,including some of my own paintings and music.This attack was coordinated and probably not committed by a mob of irate religious idiots who were told about yet another cartoon in the world that pointed to their idiocy.

  I want to remind you that historically monotheism has bread intolerance from it's inception . In the first Theocracy of Akhenaten  , the first law of monotheism was enforced by penalty of death ,namely that there would be no other god than the Aten and that worshiping Akhenaten , the self proclaimed son of god ,was the only way for the citizenry of Egypt to achieve reincarnation and the acceptance of the Aten through the new concept of his new version of the cult of Atenism . This very first commandment of Moses ,"Thou shalt have no other god before me "continued the same promise and threat as did Constantine's Edict of 323 , and the canonization of the Qur'an , mythically in 651 though the oldest Qur'an we have is from 150 - 160 years after the death of Muhammad(632). There is no evidence of Qur'ans having existed before the ninth century.

   This main tenet of all the Abrahamic faiths also happens to be the main argument between the three.While all speak of one god , they all seem to be different incarnations.Referring to redacted text from times long ago before the earth was even allowed by religion to go around the sun has no logic.If America is trying politically to get back to some better time ,responding in kind to people trying to get back to the "Dark Ages" is a big mistake and going a bit too far. 

To me, an infidel , a non believer , a person who does not accept monotheism or any of the tenets ,myths, miracles,or unsubstantiated promises of the organized religions , this is ridiculous.
 
The image of Santa Claus not as a jolly fat white man but as a dark Arabian -Jewish - Fagin or "Witchy" kind of character is the correct analogy of an insult that has brought about so much calamity(This same caricature ,ironically ,could well be used to depict Muhammad as well). Suggesting that Santa Claus can't fly up and down chimneys, that there are no flying reindeer pulling his sled ,and that he has no red suit is an affront to children everywhere and they should rise up and kill the parents who would embrace this notion.  Again ,"The imitating of the violent attack on the consulate of Libya and further acts of violence should be equated with a plague of children murdering adults who suggest that there is no Santa Claus."

   There has to be a better way . Leave them , no more corn ,no more money , no more Billions of dollars per country . Don't sell them any more guns . Yea ,right..Even though the United States is the biggest seller of weaponry in the world ,holding 80 % of the market . 50 % of what the US sells is going to Saudi Arabia . A large percent of the other thirty is going into other Middle Eastern countries . The US corporates are the only entities profiting from this business .

 
 

1St Amendment Still Up for Grabs

http://uploadingit.com/file/uiau6fbnju9weok6/Fire%20Inside%20Dark%20Matter%20B.jpg

The1st Amendment is a problem to corporate greed so watch out for those that would stifle voices,for instance Ron Paul at his own party's nomination event.The illegal arrest of the 26 year old former Marine in Virginia who posted remarks on Facebook is another terrible example of the abuse of the 1st Amendment right to free speech.He was set free as there were no legitimate charges there.The question remains as to how far he will take his possible litigation against a police state.

    Corporate entities have been fighting Union labor since Unions were invented. The Union force has dwindled considerably not to mention the factories of Pontiac and other empty cites , for example in Michigan. The Republican Party takes pride in putting union workers in their place. This includes teachers, police , and the government organizations. The first major crack down was on the air traffic controllers in the first few months of the Reagan administration. The current Republican platform is not one that is interested in protecting the American worker at all . Their platform openly is continuing down the path of "Trickle Down"( Voodoo) economics.Dismantling the regulations that have protected the citizenry from the greed of monopolies , the excesses of commercial banking (now deeply a part of investment banking), and the inequality of citizens economically that were once made equal in the voting booth has been achieved by corporate strength in campaign donations.

   One by one the corporations and conservatism have been dismantling our democracy.

   The first amendment cannot be taken for granted . Servicemen and even those that have retired ,our veterans are subject to scrutiny and the individual worker also is tied politically to their place of employment especially if it is a conglomerate. What you might write or even "Like" on the inner space of the Internet ,including Facebook , is open for discussion and approval by your employer. In that Facebook is a relatively new medium ,only popular for a few years so far, this is an ongoing situation.

   So they take away another Marine , so what ? So they take away a former Marine , so what ?  Boy,.. Marines?  It makes you wonder who is next . Who me ?

This cam recording is worthless after a minute yet it does illustrate the moment of this guy's arrest  by our current police state.
     http://youtu.be/7KzIIik8ygs

Odds and Ends

The painting is named "Shattered Hammer Nebula C"
(Here is a closer examination link in the actual size ) :
  "Blow up"

      I was surprised to see the more recent resurgence of angel myths but the idea is strong and does predate monotheism. Speaking of monotheism, I don't believe that Akhenaten was the son of god or that the Aten is the only god .I personally don't believe in the other gods of Egypt ,Rome ,or any incarnation of deity or mythical spirits. Akhenaten's heresy, a religious revolution from the top, was also a political move against the powerful cult of Amun Ra but the results was to outlaw all the other temples of Egypt in favor of his "One true God". His was the first theocracy,the initial step into monotheism , and the first introduction of intolerance which continues today in every form of monotheism,each of which include an angel mythology and explanations of their purpose in the various dogmas.The Taliban are a modern continuation in this tradition of intolerance and morally subjugating people in the name of a superior knowledge of the nature of existence. The subjugation of women is the first step to subjugating men in all the male oriented - monotheist dogmas from Judaism on.In reality the basic principal of "Do unto other as you would have them do unto you" is universal and a ten commandments was never necessary. The first commandment is necessary in monotheism."Thou Shalt Have No Other God Before Me"also happens to also be the first commandment of Akhenaten punishable by death.Incidentally,denying the Nicene Creed also was punnishable by death.The Council of Nicea (about 325) under the Emperor - Pope Constantine dictated the edict to the Cardinals who were threatened with death if they didn't agree with the Creed's dogma. Created by Constantine,this was similar to Akhenaten's laws of intolerance and brutality disguised in the will of his imaginary god who also preached love .The Nicean Creed became the center of the new Christian monotheism that survived the Roman persecution ,outlasting their Essene Jewish root cult who also had planned to take over the Roman Empire.The Essenes failed in their plans but ,after Constantine, the Christians were successful and never looked back.

     It is interesting to me that there was an cartoon picture to depict a fantasy woman as an angel posted by a young woman who was defensive of her belief in "Angels". The Essenes didn't allow a women in the Temple much less married men or non-celibates until the few years that Jesus acted as their Priest-Pope-King , also considered a heresy ,but that is another story."You've come a long way, Baby."

      As for "Coming a Long way,baby".... I recently came across the report of a study of Sambian men.The Sambia believe that seman is the essence of manhood and all Sambian boys must injest quite a bit of it. When they start to develope a manly phisique their elders say , "See, it's working!"Now the adolescent boys get fellated by a new crop of prepubescent boys. So what is the rate of homosexuality among Sambian men? Roughly 5 % which is about the same level of homosexuality found in Western societies.By the time a Sambian reaches his twenties ,95% of them marries a Sambian woman in spite of his initial introduction to sex.So,even if a society urges us to participate in a specific sexual practice during our formative years,this doesn't necessarily determine our adult desires.(I have paraphrased from "A Billion Wicked Thoughts"Sai Gaddam and Ori Ogas 2011)

     The gay population of the entire world might be as much as 5 percent.Political pandering doesn't change the actual percentage of minorities.What does change the importance of minorities is that under fifty percent of the entire actual electorate come out to vote and in some communities there might be as little as 25 percent participation.Minorities that coordinate and come out to vote thus become more powerful to the candidates.One has to wonder what became of the majority rule idea that was the heart of democracy.

     Our Democracy has changed a lot in recent years. The repeal of the Glass Steagall Act in 1999 ,a regulation which separate Investment and Commercial Banking ,has brought a similar outcome of greed that made the stock market crash in 1929.After 2008 the Glass Steagall should have been re established but the regulations are weaker and the banks are still gambling and making a lot of money at it,that is when they aren't losing a lot( 2 or 3 billion by Chase last week). Congress fell to the pressure big money interest and second guessed their own regulation in that long fought mistake. The Supreme Court was also was re guessing at a law enacted by congress a long time ago, a congress that knew they could be compromised by corporate money.The Supreme Court under the pressure of big business in the decision of January,2010 made corporations individual citizens and made it possible to donate undisclosed amounts of money to campaign funds.These two main points will be hard to get around as the congress is bought and sold by the banking industry and corporate entities.This problem is across party lines.Plutocracy is now out of the closet and Democracy is off the table.

Mini Rant ,Corporate WWII,and Gun Control

"A mini rant".. (haha , indulge me ) I don't see the revolutionary scenario to be far fetched . Part of the the original intent of the the right to own weapons,as opposed to bearing arms against fellow citizens ,may well have been in remembrance of the tyranny imposed on the colonies by England.Before the Constitution or the second amendment were invented,the Declaration of Independence, in the early sentences established, "..endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." It would seem that this early statement tried to provide and establish another check to whatever government was to come about in post revolutionary America.Historically,revolutions can come from both the left or the right ( and even the top about 3200 years ago )but a prerequisite these days is having munitions and the willingness to counter those forces, police or military who are enforcing the oppressive or unjustly severe government on the part of any ruler or ruling party. If our democracy is compromised , if the corporates really have created a plutocracy, and our votes have no meaning , then revolution will be put on the table. A new "Constitutional Convention" might be a start but recognizing the problem is the first step in any delusional or physical addiction.Going to war ,policing the world ,waving the flag , and supporting government policies that do not represent the people of America is not the resolution but a group of diversions. Currently, as an example of what may not be the will of the citizenry or really enacted in the protection of our citizens, I would like to point out that the current "SOPA Bill" will be exercising a new form of censorship on the our Internet in the guise of combating supposed "Piracy'. This bill is primary endorsed by corporate strength and could be compared to what happened last year in Egypt when their Internet was actually shut down during their revolution by an American company.China's censorship of their Internet is also analogous. Corporate WWII Corporations ,as a community put Americans to work in the WWII effort but were financed by the US Government.It was not a donation by those corporations who sometimes,like Ford Motors, sold to the Germans as well. The United States corporations also provided arms, locomotives, trucks, boots and many other items to its allies throughout the war under Lend-Lease. A total of $50.1 billion was spent: $31.4 billion to Britain, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to Free France and $1.6 billion to China.The defeat of Japan began demobilization and the return of the U. S. people and economy to civilian production. However, substantial military production continued for the "Cold War" between the U. S. and Russia following WWII. Our country came out of the depression after the war swinging .The industries that made the tanks , planes , and war supplies provided the American wealth that supported Europe and helped to rebuild the war torn world. Without reiterating the obvious list of military involvements since WWII ..In the Reagan administration the US went from the largest creditor nation to the largest debtor nation. The enormous corporations have survived and thrived and now have succeeded in controlling policies of our government which have included the bank and industry bail outs of the last four years and the compromising of our democracy.Corporate interest are communicated to congressmen by lobbyist and backed up by campaign support in the millions of dollars.Congressmen are supposed to be our representatives ,our elected lobbyist ,representing their individual state's constituents. The current conservative Supreme Court has recognized corporate campaign financing as a right ,similar to the individual rights of American citizens but no American citizen donates money to finance even two minutes of political ads for their candidates on television.The decision of January 2010 was in favor of corporate interest and not the interest of the American individual.It has insured plutocracy and compromised the "one man ,one vote" system that was the promise of our representative democracy. The only way to overturn this bad decision is for congress to create a new law but there is no Bill on the table and won't be in this election year.It may never be anything other than a campaign promise like the promise of term limits which comes up every once in a while but goes nowhere. Gun Control Issues and Texas These three very informative articles on the subject and your area reveal some of the problems of becoming a cowboy. Gun ownership is an American deal as are the questions of legislating regulations governing our rights.Americans own an estimated 270 million firearms – approximately 90 guns for every 100 people.The low ranking of Texas laws in comparison to other States might have a lot to do with the lack of age restrictions.There is a lot going on down there including Mexican Cartels and the open prairie kind of paranoia.The thing is police everywhere won't help you till after you are shot ,stabbed ,or robbed and then it is too late. http://www.lcav.org/statistics-polling/gun_violence_statistics.asp Carrying a gun increases risk of getting shot and killed http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17922-carrying-a-gun-increases-risk-of-getting-shot-and-killed.html Gun violence and gun control in Texas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_and_gun_control_in_Texas

There Is No Democracy

The last time I had this much trouble voting I coincidentally moved out of that county.This time I am very close to not voting in the general election. I don't think I have ever felt this abandoned by this country ever before . Even when Nixon was President I felt some hope that there might be a better time ahead . Carter came out of the woodwork and I had never heard of him ,Clinton was the same , and now Obama.I have come to a place where it doesn't matter to me anymore .The only thing I am doing is voting against the other party. My party doesn't represent me . I don't know who they represent but it sure doesn't seem to be the constituency.



I have no idea why the medical bill has been more important than the aesthetic value of or at least the illusion of democracy in America.There is no more illusion for me. It is over. All I can do is watch the concept fail as the people are urged to wave their flags and go to war.It is analogous to Communism in Russia. The idea seemed good on paper but the practice came down as a totalitarian regime.Many times it looked like the totalitarians had a leg up on democracies because they didn't have to answer to the people . Now American democracy doesn't answer to the people.



I didn't vote today though I went to two different polling centers. At the first I had a good conversation with an older man working the polls for the Democrats. While we were speaking a woman came up and complained about the new redistricting which she didn't know about,something about Van Holland's district being changed . I went in to vote and found that I couldn't vote at that particular place. I went to the out of the way place designated for my neighborhood and gave my address,full name,repeated my name several times, having to spell my last name again and again , then was asked to reiterate my age to them.At this point I was tired of playing this game . I suppose they might have given me a blood test but it was all a ridiculous charade conducted by petty authoritative little people. Who would impersonate me ? Drive to the out of the way polling place,give my address,spell my name several times .. I mean , to add to the supercilious , there is this bureaucratic nonsense. Intrinsically ,I already was questioning the reasoning of voting in the primary for a candidate who has spent too much money on the expensive paper in my mailbox and the intrusive phone calls to warrant the position they are running to control.I didn't really want to endorse any of the candidates.The only ones I knew anything about I didn't like anyway.I did walk out , to hell with it !



If the charade is exposed to light , the parade is off . Yes, the last time I had so much trouble was in 2002 and I voted for Johnson in Prince Georges County who was indited and sent to jail this year (ten years later),his wife soon following after. His campaign was about cleaning up the PG County Police force. That didn't work but at least I moved to another county but we are all in the same county , the same state , the same country , and the same world . Everybody wants to get in our boat and our boat is taking on water.



There is no more democracy. Somebody should have warned the Egyptians ,the Iraqi, and even the Libyans. I wonder who would warn them ? Could we count on Halliburton or the big oil companies ? Gee, what a great example of a rhetorical question !

Little Gigs

When I see the advertizements for individual gigs on Facebook from other musician friends it only reminds me that we are in a much different era. Professional musicians are papering the house instead of going from town to town entertaining the locals.Yea , yea , there are the shows , those venues of indifferent bigness but that is another illusion that really doesn't support many people for very long.Musicians were traveling across this country long before I ever went to work. Road life was a way of life and being a musician was also a means of support as well as an art.When did it change? I don't know ,it was a gradual thing like the climate of the world changing or the cowboys vanishing as the trains took the cattle across the country instead of trail driving men.Where did the cowboys go ? What did they do ? I might find out ,or maybe I won't.



This morning I woke up thinking of gigs ,past gigs .For some reason I was hung up remembering singing "Can't Turn You Loose" in front of a band(the Otis Redding song)and it wouldn't stop playing round my mind. That wasn't my usual fair ,really ,yet it was fun and exciting to see the crowd moving to the rhythm . Each gig has it's character , the individuals , the weather conditions, the load in and out, as well as the excitement of the audience's reactions as a whole and individually.I can float thorugh decades of gigs in my memory ,entire eras that are gone now . Somehow this morning ,I found myself remembering DC in 1964 playing the stringed bass at the "Brass Rail"with Charlie Hampton and Philly Joe Chavis.Buck Hill often sat in with us .Steve Novacel stopped in and I would switch to piano and Charlie picked up his alto or flute. The club was a nice little jazz scene five nights a week. On NY Avenue there were clubs in a row that sometimes I would peek in or have a beer between sets. There was another place called "New York ...Something" that had other musicians from out of town . It was before the rock thing took over everything . I would catch strange combos ,combinations that seemed unlikely like violin ,trombone , and piano .Such strange combos that I had to wonder how they did it . A Duo with Violin and drums seemed kind of brutal.



Ten years later ,I remember a violinist , Morgan Bear, who was a local booking agent here ,booking society music . He sold continuous music for the four or five hours they palyed and that would get down to strange combos ,too,as the musicians had to leave the stand occasionally. The trumpet players lips would fall off . Even the drums and bass had to stop sometime but the music went on . Out of Morgan's office there was another fellow ,Tommy Miropolis, a drummer who used to work for Liberace . He gave me some work . I played pop music then ,mingling in jazz ,but popular songs and what were becoming soul oldies.It is ironic that another agent there, Gene Donati , wasn't interested in pop and wasn't even booking any acts ,didn't give me a contact at all , but it wasn't too much longer that his jobs became so pop oriented that the pop format became known as a "Donati gig"to the musicians in DC. When I met them , they looked down their noses at popular music in favor of the standards ,two beat, and maintaining the society and political jobs of Washington DC.



One morning Miropolis called me and asked where I was playing. I didn't think too much about it at all and told him , "The Back Alley" a place I had been for a little while playing solo piano and singing. I played five or six nights a week there .There used to be other guys too.One of the guys was "Trey Hur", who played a knuckles O'Toole kind of bar room piano of real old songs. He once was a winner on the "Gong Show". My pop format kind of overtook the sing along thing somewhere along the way.I never papered the house or solicited friends to come to my scene as I met new friends and entertained the local people who lived in which ever part of town I found myself for a few months.Schmoozing on the phone with owners and maintaining contact ,over time ,I would go back again and again ,as I did in the "Back Alley". That afternoon , as I started at happy hour , I noticed Morgan Bear's man,Tommy walking through the place . He didn't stop to say hello but seemed in a hurry. I knew he was trying to cop the gig . I did speak with the owner later who quipped ,"Friend of yours? ..Yes, ,with friends like that ,pal.." Anyway , while I maintained contact with Tommy , I didn't mention my gigs to him anymore but Gigs come and go.



One time when I was out of work Tommy gave me a contact ,a position at a strip club to make a few bucks. I went out in the afternoon and met cab drivers at the hotels across town and told them that I would give them two dollars for each man they brought to the club. Later , I would be outside the club ,sometimes acting as a doorman ,but paying off the cabbies as they came and went . The "Show Palace" was on 11th Street when it was a strip mall ( haha .. real strippers , that is ) .There was a comedian-MC introducing the girls ,doing schtick between acts ,saying things like ,"Oh Newark , yea ..and he would have a joke about Newark or what ever town . The comedian was Jay Leno and he was doing the same act he does now,really.He was a nice guy at the time and seemed genuinely interested in you when he spoke with you ,just as he seems to be at the distance of TV.The girls were very attractive and were dressed in very little between their exotic dances.They tantalized and came to the tables to speak with customers who often bought them drinks .They ordered champagne but the waiter would bring ginger ale and charge the customer for champagne.That was like working at a carnival and I didn't do it very long and didn't keep touch with the Morgan Bear office too much after that.

New Plastic

I am still in a fog about resolution ,pixels per inch, and the print size of my composites. I attempted to gain a higher resolution by redoing a few paintings ( of which this one was one of the eight experiments I tried )from the original default 72 pixels per I have used for ten years to 400 per and finally settled at 1000 per inch . What I ended up with was a photograph that comes out to be an inch by almost two inches. I wanted a photograph that I could blow up to 24 X30 or even more . I did print one on my computer and it came out about ten inches long and confused me even further . Ah well,it's always something . I am planning to get help tomorrow by having maybe fifteen paintings digitally photographed in as high a resolution as possible which will make it possible for me to start over in a way and hope for a light at the end of the tunnel ,that is printing in poster sizes .

The Deprivation of Pleasure

So "Chicken Little " had a yen to go to the other side of the road. Somebody asked,"Why do you want to go there?" It had been recognized that the sky wasn't falling , but after all,the chicken replied,"There is just something over there.., something that draws me.The responder quipped ,"Could it be the grass is always greener over the septic tank," and then stabbed Chicken Little in the neck,plucked the feathers ,cooked and ate it.



I pull my punches on Facebook even when the straight lines are set up like Bing Crosby setting up Bob Hope in a "Road " movie.Facebook and it's format has continued to change for the worse. Now the little box where comments can be written closes after a couple of lines . You can't see what you have written . It forces one into a corner like "Tweeting" ,using a limited number of words. Tweeting like a twit,like a child without a thought to completing a sentence or maintaining a complete thought,and never communicating in adult terms.We are censored at every turn and now we do it to ourselves even without "Big Brother" looming over our shoulder. Cable television is expensive and censored to politically protect the sponsors. There should be a disclaimer at the end of every broadcast ,"No sponsors were harmed in the production of this show".All the good words are removed as if we don't know them ,or as if children don't know them.We can laugh and point back at the fifties shows and the June Cleavers and the separate beds but today we have it worse as complete subjects are off the table , complete thoughts are taboo,adults thoughts are all seen as pornography instead of adult reasoning.



Yesterday I saw a link,shared from a woman in Italy who I have been in touch with.The photo was shocking as was the entire article on the genital mutilation of as many as 4,000 girls each year in Italy and many are not reported at all .In Italy, the law prohibits this practice but there are physicians in the community that, for a fee, practice female circumcision. In many European countries,the mutilations are performed in the centers of vaginal aesthetic surgery or in those where they are doing piercing and tattoos. It is mete and right that people realize what this practice means. This practice landed in Italy in the 1980s and only in 2006 the law was established that forbids it, but it is not enough, we need an awareness-raising campaign!There are more than 50,000 in Italy (and millions in the world) women do not have the right to a sexual life.



In the photos attached to the article we noted two practices: the almost total removal of the clitoris and part of the large and small lips .One of the shots was the excision of labia majora, labia minora, clitoris and stitching of surrounding external female genitalia leaving only the vagina in a partial way that serves to allow the flow of the menstrual cycle and urine.After a groom has sexual relations with his wife ,she will then will be sewn together again after pregnancy (the first photo in the article).



This barbaric practice makes women seriously impaired and reduced to a mere sexual object for the pleasure of men through this introduces pain into their relationship. Many women complain but there is nothing to stop this continued abuse, because even if it is true that these practices are unknown to our culture, all the issues that concern the violence on women are dismissed and relegated as not important.Perhaps this is the reason why there is still silence on this barbarity because female pleasure is not considered important even in the western world.Don't forget the Afghanistan women of 1998 who were being murdered and whipped in football fields by the Taliban sometimes for merely being seen without their burkas. There was no protection for those women ,no European or American governmental intervention or sanctions. It took a couple of American buildings coming down to help these women as a byproduct of revenge



The mutilation that results in the deprivation of pleasure is predominantly a product of some Muslim sects .I could not re - publish the photos anywhere I can think of without being associated with child abuse myself. In our country we are often ,ironically,not telling the truth and not recognizing problems though we know they are there. We are engaged in a prudish pontificating ,for instance laws that govern abortion and the right of women to control decisions about their lives and bodies, and censoring of our very ideals in the name of what has become known as political politeness. Even though we see politicians kissing babies and making statements that are seen as trying to gain votes without caring,we are adopting this same practice becoming politicians ourselves. We are accepting censorship on television ,being spoon fed pap ,and tweeting , not writing or communicating in complete adult thoughts.It is as if we should be considerate of the guy in the car behind us traveling at sixty miles an hour who is texting , reading , and driving at the same time. It isn't really caring for diverse cultures or being considerate of other people in the world .



I couldn't sleep this morning , thinking about a comment from a friend in Facebook, a fellow musician who was ,for a moment expressing that Facebook depression, the idea that the friends all seem to be so happy, so content , and having such a good life.All those smiling faces of husbands I don't know from women friends, wives, I don't know of men friends, and children's faces I just don't care about one way or the other. They are like eight by ten glossies of a band , an act ,or that joke about the promotional demo where "Hell" seemed a lot better than the real thing.Another one of my musician friends ,Cyndy ,was mentioned in his status report as having just come back from China . To the commenter , this seemed like a romantic trip. To me "the road" looks a lot better from a distance of time.There was a lot of mundane boredom that happened on the road.One plastic hotel room after another ,the noisy plane , the waiting for everything , the long car trips, the time spent between shows in towns that rolled up the sidewalks at twelve. I mean ,where do you think the sex and drugs came from before rock and roll? It was boredom and depression on the road. Hey , Charlie Parker was a pig and he passed his habits on to others that were affected by him like Chet , Miles, my friend Bennie Harris,and uncounted legions of would be musicians,who thought that getting high was a prerequisite to blowing.At least the self indulgence of drugs created a little independence from what has become the music of elevators,a beat behind every commercial,and playing what is expected... or did it ??? The hands in the air with the two fingers splayed at rock concerts does seem an awful lot like a "Seig Heil" in 1933 Germany to me.Nope , you can have it and you can have China ,too.



China was and continues to be a mistake.Nixon was wrong , America was wrong. (Now there is a novel idea.. Here is another one:the founding fathers were fallible and never imagined 380 million people being subjected to plutocracy.)We should never have gotten involved with China. When did the "Red" come off the name of "China"? Miranda spent time traveling through China as an advanced student of Qigoing .She found that people across the country were going to the toilet in holes .The beautiful ,new Chinese cities didn't really house the people.When I see that American movies are produced in China , I think they are saving money just as other corporates have that have left the mainland.The Hollywood Corporates are the same folks that are going to censor the American Internet in the spring in the guise of saying that the "SOPA" Bill is to keep China from stealing American products over the Internet. This is not the case. The truth is that they will be censoring America just as China is censoring the Chinese Internet. China ,for the Chinese,is not romantic at all,but for Americans ,it is an illusion just like the movie industry wants ,like the corporates that own this country are dictating.



Hey , but I can't write that ,it may be too adult and greener over the septic tank.I am also overdrawn on my number of words.I wish I could go back to sleep.Let's get back to "Little Red Riding Hood" and forget "Red China"and female mutilation in Arabia.After all, this isn't politically correct and , even though I wouldn't have let Mary Tyler Moore sleep in a separate bed,"Leave it to the Beaver".