RIP, Don Cornelius

by: hhex65

Thu Feb 02, 2012 at 09:00:00 AM MST

So maybe it wasn't an illness, I don't know how you go out like that. The first one who updated about this was saying that they thought he had killed dancing, ruined it. See, Don Cornelius realized it was You or I who mattered, not the professional dancers; it was about being part of something and having fun-- not being judged for prizes. You can't get me to understand why people complained about Soul Train. RIP, Don Cornelius.

When I first heard it I felt like I should go out, like, and do some kind of special American celebration or figure out why people complained about him it was who cared about every form of public dancing, pride and fun. Then many people complained that he died from suicide and they were saddened. Who among Americans gave us such celebrations? I don't know that people have even realized it but him it was who cared most of all about spreading the simple pleasures of dancing in public. When did American celebrations just become a symptom of an illness? When did the Soul Train derail? RIP, Don Cornelius. RIP, the 1970's.  

Nominalism

by: hhex65

Wed Feb 01, 2012 at 09:00:00 AM MST

There are others. I mean, I'm almost comfortable with the L.A. Lakers just from its overexposure, alliteration and euphonious quality. But I still remember they were the Minneapolis Lakers before moving in 1961. That name made sense. Then there is the case of the Arizona Cardinals and the St. Louis Rams. I suppose Rams is a generic team name, signifying toughness or something-- they were originally from Cleveland anyway. But it sucks that St. Louis can't have 2 teams named Cardinals anymore.

Kudos to Oklahoma City for renaming the SuperSonics to the Thunder, I think they're reaping the benefits of this wise move. And I'm happy with the new Winnipeg Jets and the Titans of Tennessee. It just sets the balance of the universe right when this happens. I think of Browns/Ravens/Colts and all that-- it can get sorted out.

In the MLB only the L.A. (trolley) Dodgers seems weird to me, just perverse in some way. I guess I can think of them as the L.A. (car) Dodgers instead, that makes sense.

Elsewhere in the NBA, I'll never get used to the Washington Wizards-- but at least they changed their uniforms back to more of a Bullets style. Of course they are awful now so it hardly matters. Memphis Grizzlies seems like a stretch but I suppose there are bears around there, just like there are probably hornet nests in New Orleans. Or the name could be simply a signifier of ferocity or speed, that's fine.

In the NHL... I don't know. I can't get with any teams in warm weather areas, so whatever. I really only follow the "Original Six" teams: Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm a purist that way.

This perplexity can apply to band names too, sometimes. I was in a band that I thought was done with when I left but it turned out that some of the people kept the band name going in a slightly changed form to exploit the earlier work. But I didn't hold on to the trademark, I was more a player than an owner ultimately. Do I really want to see The Coasters when, presently, the guy with the longest tenure in the band joined in 2001? Hold on to those trademarks, I guess that is the lesson for today.

the new zip and pour modulus

by: hhex65

Mon Jan 30, 2012 at 22:40:10 PM MST

I mention he's from Kingston only because, during my research, I stumbled on the fact that Chung's mother is the Jamaican singer Sophia George who had a Top-10 hit in the UK with the track "Girlie Girlie" in 1985. Not only that, the song "Girlie Girlie" was the theme song to Adam Sandler's very first star vehicle, 1989's "Going Overboard."

Question...Adam Sandler is a Jets fan but he was raised in New Hampshire for a time-- who must he say he wants to win Super Bowl 46?

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR ANSWER VIA TWITTER
hashtag:
#sandlerbowl3WhatWouldAdamDosponsoredbyBreimanAutoplexnygpatsXLVI
WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED SUPER BOWL EVE
ONE ENTRY PER HOUSEHOLD

pwn3d

by: hhex65

Sat Jan 28, 2012 at 23:50:24 PM MST

rock

by: hhex65

Tue Jan 24, 2012 at 01:39:04 AM MST

Well, the NFL season is over but it won't leave a huge whole in my life this time for I do have other interests. For one: I plan to re-watch most of the 6 seasons of the Rockford Files. I love that character. There's probably no other TV character that I still feel as warmly about even though they aren't, never were or will be, real. Maybe Hawkeye from M*A*S*H, I haven't watched that in a while. The shit just found him. He would take a case about some little thing and it would turn into a big mess. Rockford would just chug ahead doing mostly the right thing, often against his own instinct of self-preservation, until he solved the case by doing the unglamorous legwork. I like the show because the "good" people in it are usually 65/35 good-bad, practically real. He never ranted about "common pond scum, how it blocks the sun and strangles the depths of the pure waters"-- he wasn't a creep or a vigilante.

His fee was 200-a-day plus expenses.

Someone asks him:
Q: Don't you trust anybody?
A: My father...but he's bonded.

Visually it conveys a pastiche of run-of-the-mill Los Angeles, there's a lot of driving, people eating tacos and drinking beer. It was the time when Prop 13 just was kicking in. Rockford lived on the beach in Malibu in a trailer, that spot must be worth a billion now. I wonder if he held onto it? (...I've been informed that Rock didn't actually own the land at 28128 Pacific Coast Highway or at 29 Cove Road-- he just parked his trailer there and paid rent on the spot or something. I did find a real estate listing in that area going for about $3.9 million, however.) He was neither naive nor casually cynical but understood well the humanity of others, for him empathy was not a weakness. I suppose it was something like a Chandleresque update but since it was TV all the dots got connected in G-rated fashion.

And that theme song, it was a radio hit. That arrangment really influenced me in a deep way. The TV-jingle chamber group of drums, bass, harmonica, dobro and electric guitars, flutes, French horns, trombones with a Minimoog as the lead voice. Real instruments. It featured a faceless guitar solo that I later found out was done by Larry Carlton who played on records by Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, and the Partridge Family, among others.

As much as I like knowing details about commercial music recordings I sometimes wonder if I don't like hearing music better when it is unattached to any specific ego or story. That could be why I never really enjoyed the music video era. Not very Rockford of me, though, to be so bitter and judgmental.

you cannot petition the Refs with prayer

by: hhex65

Sat Jan 21, 2012 at 10:00:00 AM MST

video fireplace

by: hhex65

Fri Jan 20, 2012 at 09:00:00 AM MST

ravens is fleetwood mac

by: hhex65

Wed Jan 18, 2012 at 22:20:42 PM MST

After Peter Green left The Mac had a series of people up front singing and playing including Danny Kirwan, Christine McVie, Bob Welch, Bob Weston, Dave Walker, Bobby Hunt & Doug Graves until they finally hooked up with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks in 1975. Then they had huge success culminating in the 1976 multi-platinum LP "Rumours."

After Dilfer the Ravens were QB'd by Kyle Boller, Troy Smith, Steve McNair, Anthony Wright, Jeff Blake, Chris Redman and Elvis Grbac with varying results. Then finally in 2008 the estimable Joe Flacco took over. In his rookie year he took the Ravens to the AFC championship. They've made the playoffs ever since. Now they again have a chance to go to the Super Bowl, the NFL equivalent of recording "Rumours." But will the Bass and Drums of the Ravens cede some power to the offensive side? Will they let creativity flow so a "Rumours" can happen?-- or will they kneecap Joe Flacco and remake "Penguin" once again? Let's see:

McVie would never have undermined Stevie Nicks publicly like that. He wanted the whole team to win.

CFL

by: hhex65

Wed Jan 18, 2012 at 10:00:00 AM MST

The CFL (an eight team league) had two teams with the same name for a while. They had the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Even though the "spelling" was slightly different it was confusing and attracted general ridicule.

The Ottawa Rough Riders went out of business in 1996 but a new Ottawa team is supposed to be up and running in a couple years. Falling attendance and financial mismanagement were blamed for their demise.

Example: in 1995, Ottawa drafted Derrell Robertson of the defunct Las Vegas Posse with a fourth round pick in a dispersal draft of teams that folded after the CFL attempted to expand into the United States. Unfortunately, Derrell Robertson had died the previous December in a car accident.

I like the CFL: its humanity, the open-field free kick, the front-center goal posts, the positioning of two kickers in the end zone to defend a field goal attempt, three downs, the kicker advancing the ball, and the forward motion of the backfield. It's a different game, really; not a substitute or alternative.

irrational negativity

by: hhex65

Tue Jan 17, 2012 at 01:55:54 AM MST

Sure, LeBron is a villain but I'd bet he'd never say that stuff. Denver realized Carmelo would leave so they dumped him and got some pieces back. The Cleveland fans would have gone nuts if LeBron had been traded and so in the end they got nothing and the fans went nuts. In fact, the Cavs got a $14.5m trade exception for him but they let it expire without doing anything with it. Denver made the playoffs last year and they look good now. They have good depth, at least. Nurse that hate, it'll kill ya.

On This, The Holiest of Days

by: hhex65

Fri Jan 13, 2012 at 23:17:13 PM MST

The religion of Luck bears some resemblances to religions of the past:

• The Daba religion of the Mosuo culture is based on the worship of a guardian mother goddess.


• The Iroquois League operated by The Great Binding Law of Chance, composed in the year 1000.


• Leibniz' The Monadology describes Monads as units generated by continual flashes of the Divinity; these Monads are individually programmed to act in a predetermined way, each program being coordinated with all the others.

We respect the ultimate divinity Luck and seek to be one with it.

so mad I could spit

by: chill

Wed Jan 11, 2012 at 09:00:00 AM MST

Then one day people just got used to it but even now people say that is what makes music just a hobby again. They're very wrong, and this statement proves something of their lack of understanding about what music is. The creation of an idea is all about what the song gives the listener and what they will remember by it. Not the details of what you want the listener to experience but just the chance that the listener will bring the music to life.

You know to hear complaints all over creation about what the song sold, that is pathetic because selling still functions. It's only the form of records that are gone and some people can't stand that it gives more people the will to realize that music provides the listener the idea of making things to remember certain times; once it was on cassettes now it is with files.

To see what I mean about it listen carefully and literally to songs about what people have done for love, look at when and where the songs were recorded-- is that what you remember about the song?