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My Latest Song…. “The Cost Of Freedom”.

It only took 27 years from the time I started it to finishing it this week! I’m pretty sure this is one of the ones I came up with while riding my bike the ten miles from Mesa College to my house when I lived in San Diego. The ** indicates the bit that has been floating around all these years. It didn’t have any specific meaning attached to it when I wrote it; I just liked the way it sounded. Last week, at band practice, one of my band-mates was talking about a song with freedom in the lyric. I started riffing on this song, and Chris, our drummer turned guitarist, started playing this way cool funk riff that fit PERFECTLY! I had never thought of putting a funk vibe to this thing! This is why I love working with other people. Forces you to go outside your own limited box.

After band practice, I was driving home listening to some Conservative talk radio. When they are not talking about guns or horrible government,socialist Obama, or the 51% of the country that are freeloaders, they like to talk about “the gay”. As it happens, the story of the Boy Scout who was denied his Eagle badge because he is gay, even though he did everything required to earn it, was the topic of discussion. I happened to tune in when a fevered religious type caller was going on and on about the “homosexual agenda” and proclaiming that we gays are all abominations.

Now, I normally don’t let this kind of thing bother me, as it doesn’t much matter what other people think about me and being gay. They fear what they don’t understand. But, since my creative juices were flowing, and his comments did strike a nerve, I came up with the rest of the song in retaliation to his negative rant on the drive home. I  try to stay away from bashing or commenting on religious beliefs – I’m agnostic, and believe everyone has a right to believe whatever religion they chose – but this caller rubbed me the wrong way. And helped me finish my 27 year old song, “The Cost Of Freedom”.

? ** You gotta count the cost of freedom
You gotta count the cost
You gotta count the cost of freedom
What you learned and what you lost

Was it not you, who told me
You gotta pay if you want to be free
Was it not you, who said
You never loved unless you bled **

You gotta count the cost of freedom
You gotta count the cost
You gotta count the cost of freedom
What you learned and what you lost

Was it not you, who told me
You’ll be saved if you but believe
Was it not you, who said
Succumb or your soul is dead

You gotta count the cost of freedom
You gotta count the cost

Yes I confess I’m a sinner
Can’t change as it’s what must be
But I have love in my heart
And that’s the thing that will set me free

You gotta count the cost of freedom
You gotta count the cost
You gotta count the cost of freedom
Who you love it’s worth the cost

Was it not you, who told me
You gotta pay if you want to be free
Was it not you, who said
You never loved unless you bled

You gotta count the cost of freedom
You gotta count the cost ?

PS. Happy eighth blogaversary to me! Will post something on that tomorrow.

Biting The Hand…… UPDATE: Or, Happily, Not.

This is something I wish I would have created on my satire web site AlteredNews.Com. But no! It’s real!

AIG, you remember, that company that helped get Wall Street into the mess that created the Great Recession, may sue the Federal Government because it argues the bailout terms were too punitive!

The board of A.I.G. will meet on Wednesday to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government, court records show. The lawsuit does not argue that government help was not needed. It contends that the onerous nature of the rescue — the taking of what became a 92 percent stake in the company, the deal’s high interest rates and the funneling of billions to the insurer’s Wall Street clients — deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the taking of private property for “public use, without just compensation.”

Where to begin?

the taking of what became a 92 percent stake in the company

Which has been sold off and AIG is now a privately owned company, thank you.

the deal’s high interest rates and the funneling of billions to the insurer’s Wall Street clients

Oh No!  You had to pay back your clients… How Horrible! Scandalous!!!!

Note to the greed idiot board-members, especially those long term members…

This is YOUR MESS!  YOU OWN IT!!!!

The cost of the bailout for the company may have been high, but I’m kind of thinking the cost of not taking the bailout, which was bankruptcy, would have been far far worse for these stockholders. It saved your and other peoples  assets, asses! Pressure to join the original lawsuit is being brought by former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg, the guy who directed the company to go into the risky and ultimately faulty credit default swap business in the first place. Why are you even listening to him anyway???? Oh, he still owns a large stake in the company.

Note that there were two lawsuits file by Greenberg, because one apparently is just not enough! One of those got thrown out.

A spokesman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Jack Gutt, said, “There is no merit to these allegations.” He noted that “A.I.G.’s board of directors had an alternative choice to borrowing from the Federal Reserve, and that choice was bankruptcy.

A federal judge in Manhattan agreed, dismissing the case in November. In an 89-page opinion, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer wrote that while Starr’s complaint “paints a portrait of government treachery worthy of an Oliver Stone movie,” the company “voluntarily accepted the hard terms offered by the one and only rescuer that stood between it and imminent bankruptcy.”

That point can not be made strong enough… They had a choice – either agree to the bailout, or go bankrupt! The Government didn’t force them to take this deal, they chose to do so.

AIG, up to this point, has done a very good job re-emerging from the bailout.

Overseeing that comeback was a new chief executive, Robert H. Benmosche, a tough-talking longtime insurance executive. Mr. Benmosche has won plaudits, including from government officials, for his managing of A.I.G.’s public relations even as he helped nurse the company back to financial health.

But he and the rest of A.I.G.’s board must now confront an equally pugnacious predecessor in Mr. Greenberg.

The board needs to look Greenberg in the eye and just say thanks, but no thanks. You’ve already done enough damage to our shareholders and this company. Pure greed must not win out over good common sense.

“The A.I.G. board of directors takes its fiduciary duties and business judgment responsibilities seriously,” said a spokesman, Jon Diat.

I hope so.

Hat Tip: SlashDot.

PS. Just a reminder of the poisonous business mentality that festered at that company, even during the bailouts – The Bonus Scandal.

 

UPDATE:  The AIG boardmembers have wisely decided not to join the lawsuit!

Yay!    Common sense wins out.

And I started to wonder – Why would Greenberg want AIG to join the lawsuit. After all, if AIG joins, and they win whatever monetary judgement would be split up amongst the AIG board / shareholders and Greenberg would get less.  Greenberg could be trying to get his old job back. I think it’s more likely that this case is a loser, and he knows it. Bringing in AIG would mean a large third party would be sharing the cost of the lawsuit, and Greenberg and his other company would not be on the hook, at least not as much, for the cost of paying for a failed lawsuit.

I can prove none of this, but, knowing the level of pure greed through which these guys operate, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

Do You Understand The Words Coming Out Of My Mouth?

Ann Althouse posted a discussion on the “lost art” of lip-synching, brought about by the recent release of the film version of the musical Les Miserables. Funny thing is, when I came across this whiny little news bit of former American Idol loser Adam Lambert being a total queen on the subject, I was going to post something along the same lines on facebook yesterday, but never got around to it.

Worst lip-synching movie ever?

Mad Max – 1979 US release.

OMG… What a horrible job they did on that. And why? It’s not like the actors were speaking Japanese or something. After I found out that the dub was a US release, and that there was an original version with the original voices out there, I longed for many years to find that version. It was released stateside in about 2001, and it’s soooo much better than the dubbed one.

The other thing that really really bugs me is the modern predilection of putting mood music in every single scene. You know, music can be a very effective way of conveying mood. But to have it in every scene???… It’s almost as if the director doesn’t trust the actors enough to convey emotions so that we the audience can perceive them, and gee, I guess they think we need help with music cues telling us how to feel every frame. Nobody understands subtlety anymore!

In the movie “Heat”, during the final 15 minute pursuit, with detective Al Pacino chasing villain Robert DeNiro across an airport tarmac, there is no music except at the very end. It was wonderful!

Try finding the soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcocks “The Birds”. Guess what… There isn’t one! He didn’t have any music in the whole movie! Except This!

What a fantastic scene! And that is the most music that is in this movie!!!

One Day At A Time….

Remember this guy?

If you recall, after this went viral, Ted Williams was quickly hired by a media firm, and then, just as quickly, got into trouble due to an immediate relapse. For a while, it certainly looked like he was not going to make it.

I’m very happy to see that, after the shock of the sudden fame and the pressures that must have fallen on his shoulders, Mr Williams has found the balance in his life to stay sober and utilize his talents, and finally found the success we hoped he would.

And he’s giving back too. He’s formed a charity to help those who are in the same situation he was.

I’ve not had to deal with addiction myself, and don’t know first hand what it’s like to try and wrestle your life from the grips of addiction. Unfortunately though, I know of too many friends and relatives who have. And some have died from it. Maybe my fight against myself, punishing myself for being gay, trying to force myself to have straight feelings and attractions, and dealing with the stigma that existed in the 80’s is similar, but I doubt it. That’s a different type of personal torture I imagine.

We live in a throw-away society, and, unfortunately, we do the same for people that we do for our belongings. If they are not “useful” to us, we throw them to the curb, sometimes literally. I’m very happy that Mr Williams is on a good road. Nice to see good news break out of the usual insane asylum styled stuff we’re typically offered.

YouTube Banter! Tellin’ It Like It Is… Will Be!

just LOL .. im 50 and about dead and? love to listen to this and you kids are arguing about shit…

before you know it time will make you 50 too and you will be like WTF happened i was so young..

hahahaha

I love it…

fucking kids.

Somethimes, Good Things Happen! Part 387,279

Sometimes, things come together without planning.

My duo group, Taylor-Martin, my project with Jim Rust, has grown! With the addition of Jorge Apsey, we are now a trio, and Laurel Canyon is born! As the historical name implies, we are modeling our sound after the bands that came out of that area – CSNY, Byrd’s, Buffalo Springfield. Tons of acoustic guitar, and all the harmonies you would expect.

I’m really looking forward to playing these songs!

Now, for the challenge. For the moment, we’re a cover band, and i have absolutely no problem with that. I love playing other peoples songs. But we do intend on presenting new material as well. I’ve written many songs in the past that had some harmonies in them, but now I’ll have to sit down and write stuff with three part harmonies as an integral part of the song. My problem here is that I like wordy and complicated lyric structure; stuff that Paul Simon and Neil Finn typically write. I’ll have to tone that down to make this work. There might also be some songs in my back catalog that I could adopt to the trio-harmony format. Will keep everyone posted on the progress.

Here is a song we’re working on!

How “Cool” Is This!

An “I Was There” moment!

Many parts of the U.S. are experiencing very unusually cold weather. Here is a blerb about the current weather in the mid-west:

“White Christmas… Again!

Earlier in the day, a glaze of ice from freezing rain led to numerous accidents in Oklahoma City.

Euclid has brought the second white Christmas in a row to Amarillo, Texas; the last pair of back-to-back White Christmases there occurred in 1894 and 1895!

After thunderstorms and hail in the morning, Dallas-Ft. Worth saw its first accumulating Christmas Day snowfall since 1975 this afternoon.“

Ha! I grew up in Dallas, and was there when this happened! I was ten at the time! It was awesome!!!!

Of course, as an adult, snow can be not nearly as awesome, especially if you still have to go to work, and have to shovel your car out a blanket of the stuff, or have to drive in it… Not worried about my driving, it’s the “other guys” of course! But, a a kid, experiencing snowfall when you live in an area that very rarely gets some is so exciting!

And yes… I do blame Global Warming!

Remembering A Friend. Kevin Kirby.

Kevin Kirby passed away on Christmas day last year, at the all-too-young age of 42.

He was a great guy, extremely smart and with a wicked sense of humor. We were going to get together at our house for the annual Dr. Who Christmas special, and got the horrible call from his brother John just an hour before we were to kick things off.

What hell that evening was.

Of course, the gathering was all but called off, but after consulting with each other, we decided we would get together after all. There was no joy in it though. We had to do something, and we all agreed, as much as anything, we needed to be around each other. It was, maybe, the first wake for our friend and brother. We got to share what comfort between us we could, and help each other start to deal with our loss.

It’s a year later, and the latest installment of the Dr Who Christmas Specials is set to be shown to a select crowd. A few, including Kevin’s brother John, are now living too far away to make it to this gathering. But the biggest absence will still be Kevin, because unlike the others, there is no chance he’ll gather with us again.

That’s maybe an odd way to put my feelings.

Maybe I should just say this.

Kevin Kirby – You were a great friend. We will always miss you.

More reflections on Kevin’s passing here.

PS. There were other more serious pictures of Kevin, but, knowing him, he would have yelled at me for posting the more serious stuff. Plus… He liked cake! 😉

Snow Fall! Journalism Success… And Fail!

Here is the latest web offering from the New York Times. It’s being touted as the future of web content, and will supplant blogs and newspapers as our source for information.

Layout wise, it is impressive. But are they expecting us to want to read, or, for those of us wading in the blog-pool, produce, a story or narrative on this scale? For most of us bloggers, it’s like asking a guy with a 16mm movie camera and no budget to go out there and make a Ken Burns Documentary, or, if the next one is even slicker, The Hobbit!

They don’t get it at all. The reason we like blogs is that there isn’t all the huge production and links to all sorts of sidebars to the story, we like focusing on the main points without too many distractions. Coincidentally, that is why newspapers worked for so long. You read what you wanted, and skipped what you didn’t. Within an instant, you can turn to the comics if the news of the day is not to your liking. The best blogs also work in this manner.

Yes, Snow Fall is an impressive technical piece of work. But I got bored with it very quickly and moved on to something else.

Another critique here.

Shoe… Meet The Other Foot!

Remember when Liberals were horrified and vilified the Bush administration when various law enforcements organizations had investigated and sometimes even infiltrated various civil rights organizations on the grounds that they could be aiding or participating in terrorist activities?

It even happened in our neck of the woods.

Well, turns out, the current administration is still doing the same thing! I wonder if those who made such a huge fuss over those violations during the Bush years are going to be as vocal now since it’s their guy who is doing it.

Note: I was against it then, and I’m against it now. Unless there is some specific reason to suspect this, or any other group exercising their legal right to protest, stop with this waste of resources and unconstitutional invasions of privacy.