My Sick Mind

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller's Day Off It does, Ferris. It surely does. I've stopped and looked around a few times.  It's a nice thing.  Once, at the Grand Canyon, I had the fortuitous circumstance of being in the dark without the moon in the sky.  I laid on a block wall near the rim of the canyon, and once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see the Milky Way in all its glory, in the sky above me.  For a moment, I contemplated my place in the Universe.  It's a tiny place.   So, here I am, an old man of 58.  Marketing ignores me.  Women ignore me. I am left to my own devices.  I have idea whether I have 2 years left, 20 years, or 50.  It's part of the mystery of life.   It seems not all that long ago that I was a young man, full of dreams and habits of young men. It was long ago, but the "seems like" has been replaced by the r...

OK, so I decided I wasn't done writing about Keith Emerson. One of the things about being a fan of the so-called prog-rock movement of the 1970s was that it opened me up to other forms of music, specifically jazz and classical. It took me out of my little world of Top 40 radio junk and thrust me into a realm that I would not have otherwise been exposed to. It was fun.   A time before sampling and massive overdubs, there was an adventurous quality to it.  From one day to the next, you'd never know what was coming.  One day, Yes was interpreting Paul Simon's " America ," and another day, Focus was yodeling " Hocus Pocus " all over the place. Part of it was the innocence of the time, and another part of it was the necessity to find the stuff.  We had to hear about it though word-of-mouth or (God forbid) the radio, and then, travel to a local record store and hope that they had the damned thing.  Part of the fun was tracking it down. By the w...

I think it was 1972  - I was 15, and visiting a distant cousin in his family's Southampton, PA home.  Bored with the adults, I had wandered out to their garage, where there was a stereo system and a stack of albums. I remember listening to Thunderclap Newman's "Hollywood Dream," and Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" (thumbing through the newspaper that was inside the album cover) and ... Emerson, Lake, & Palmer's first album - the one with "Lucky Man" on it.  I'm not sure where the adults were, but I was having quite a time listening to some wonderful music. Perhaps that's where it started, I don't know; but at some point I decided that I loved the adventure of music.  Prior to that, I had been spoon-fed "pop music" on our local radio stations, and buying whatever records were available in the local W.T. Grant's record department - that is to say, the Top 40. If your musical tastes only go as hi...

I don't know what to make of the world today.  The recent terrorist attacks in Paris are the latest example of a world gone crazy.  The Hopi called it koyaanisqatsi - Life out of Balance.  That is precisely what is going on now. Changing your Facebook profile pic to the France flag colors is nice of you, but pointless.  It's exactly what they want you to do. You can pray, hope, and dedicate your life to ending terrorism in the world, and it won't make a damned bit of difference. Pragmatic? Maybe. Realistic? Yes.  Your prayers mean nothing to them. They don't subscribe to our religion, and the fact that you care so much only reinforces their desire to disrupt your life. Terrorism means that they have disrupted your life to the extent that you now have to arrive at an airport two hours prior to takeoff, can't take certain things on board with you, and your entrance to sporting events means that you are guilty until proven innocent.  That's what terrorism is. ...

I've watched the Republican and Democrat debates, and I've concluded that none of these people are qualified to run our country.  They are qualified to qualify, but as far as having the ideas and personality to lead a nation - it's debatable. They will tell you that their parents or their grandparents came from some sort of poverty or hardship, but the fact is that none of them have come from hardship.  Either they have been given some privilege in life or earned it.  Either way, they have no idea what an average American is going through.  And by average American, I mean a person living on or near the miniumum wage or on a fixed income like Social Security. They don't know how much it costs to shop for groceries, what cable television costs, or what their cell phone provider is charging them every month.  Put them on the spot and ask them those questions.  I'll bet you a week's pay (Mine, not theirs) that they don't know, or will stammer over the answer. I...

I just became a proud shareholder of the Ford Motor Company, so watch that stock tank over the next few months.  They do everything right, and when the company suffered, they didn't go to the government for a handout.  Rather, they solved their own problems. That's admirable. There's another opportunity in Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI).  I just bought a car (a Ford, coincidentally) and it came equipped with satellite radio. I used to think that I'd die before I would pay for radio, but this isn't radio.  It's customized programming over a satellite network. To call it radio is a disservice.  I'm converted, to the point that I am going to extend my free trial period for another year.  The company is growing, and since its merger with XM Radio, it is the lone provider of the product.  The only issue confronting the stock is that Howard Stern's contract expires in three months.  If he renews, expect the stock to gain substantially.  If he doesn'...

Cecil the Lion has been killed.  That's a big deal, as it should be, but as you may know ... killing lions and other "big game" has been a sport (sport) for decades - centuries - so it shouldn't have come as such a surprize to the Twitterverse that a lion was killed by a doctor on safari.  The Internet is acting like big-game hunting is a new thing.  That's sad. What is more sad (sadder) is that big airlines and Senators are jumping on the bandwagon, soliciting public opinion on behalf of an animal with a name. Cecil. It makes him seem more human.  The truth is, abominal humans have been killing lions, rhinos, tigers, and giraffes for a long time. It's about time you woke up. The Pope is coming.  You knew that, right? He's coming, and the city will be shut down for at least two days.  What's odd about that is that a church that pays no taxes will depend on a local government to provide security and transportation at the expense of its citizens - a.k.a....

Today was "Moon Day," or so they called it.  The day, in 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin landed on the moon.  I was there, as they say, if only watching on television. The space program was a big deal to me.  As a child of the 1960s (born in 1957 - my parents called my pacifier "Sputnik") the space program was the stuff of wonder for a child.  I have vague memories of the Gemini missions on TV, and more vivid memories of Apollo.  I would look back on the Mercury program of the early 1960s in the same way I would look back on the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and the Kennedy assassination(s), and remember with childlike wonder how such things could happen in America.  I saw it, but the child didn't process it. I guess you have to be my age (57) or older to have any sort of perspective on the Apollo moon landing.  I don't think you could have been any younger than that to have any real idea what was going on.  The 1960s were a turbulent ...

Today is Father's Day.  Each year since 1967, it has meant less and less to me - and more and more. Less, because I draw further away from my father, who died on April 3, 1967; and more, because I cling to the memories of the days we had together and they mean more to me with each passing year. I have vague memories of the first time he threw me a baseball.  I remember being on the side of our home - where my mother still resides - and for whatever reason, standing at the plate as a left-handed hitter and having him throw me a baseball.  I think I did it because my favorite player, Johnny Callison, hit left-handed and threw right-handed.  It didn't seem like that big a deal.  He didn't try to change me or encourage me to "hit righty" like the other kids, and that would be the hallmark of our time together.  Be yourself, kid. At some point in the early 1960s he bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder. A Webcor, if I remember.  It was a 4-tra...

Six years ago, I brought Thor home from the Gloucester County Animal Shelter.  It was the result of a month's old search for a replacement for my last cat, an 18-year-old who had eventually succumbed to kidney disease. The process was arduous.  I had no idea what I was looking for - only that I was looking for a cat who was looking for me. That is to say, I'd know it when I saw it. When I saw Thor (the name the shelter had given him) he was a 1-to-2 year-old cat, in a cage with a tag, saying that there was no record of how he came to be in the shelter.  Usually, they know.  Allergies, financial problems, or some other reason why the cats are there.  With Thor, no reason. I picked him out of the group - mostly because of his handsome features - and partly because he kept staring at me, and when the attendants handed him to me, he reached out with his paw and held it to my cheek.  The attendants were dumbfounded. "He's never done that with anyone!"...

While going through some old CDs, I stumbled upon an essay I wrote for college on April 3, 2003.  The title was particularly intriguing, and it might be the best part of the work - although I will allow you to be the judge.  I cannot recall for what or whom it was written or what grade it got. Since I haven't posted anything new here in a while ... here is something. Who is responsible for consumer negligence?   If we can define a negligent consumer as one who is irresponsible, then by definition it is not the company.   We also cannot always hold manufacturers responsible for so-called “foreseeable but unintended harm” caused by their products.   So, that leaves us in a legal no-man’s land of product liability, which seems to be precisely where we belong.           The 2003 version of the Porsche 911 Turbo is advertised as a car to “leave the rush hour behind.”   According to the company, the car ha...

"And with your courage and with your compassion and your desire, we will build a Great Society. It is a Society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled." - Lyndon B. Johnson,  May 7, 1964 That was just over 50 years ago, and I'd assume that Mr. Johnson had no idea of the so-called technological advancements that would take place over the next 5 decades.  Things like cable television, the Internet, microwave ovens, and digital photography that would contribute to our now Great Society.  yeah . The mid-sixties was a time when we concerned ourselves with issues like civil rights, gender equality, and free speech. In the mid-(I don't know)-14th year of the third millennium , we have other concerns.  Those of legalizing marijuana, same-sex marriages, and where to build our next casino.  It's very sophisticated - and selfish, in most ways. We walk around with earphones, heads down, oblivious to the rest of the "great socie...

One of the benefits of aging is perspective. It isn't always a good thing, though, because it exposes the current time to the past. In this case, my being a child of the 1960s has given me the perspective of what are called Aging Baby Boomers.  Good for me. I started to think (dangerous, I know) about the differences in our society between then and now.  We can rule out the obvious ones that even kids could come up with.  The one I focused on is the difference in the way we treat each other. The 1960s were a time of great social and political turmoil.  There were civil rights issues, protests against the war, and demonstrations demanding women's equality.  Those are all social issues, and to a large extent, have been resolved to the satisfaction of the people involved. We could say it was a "simpler time," but that is true of any era that we look back on.  Comparatively, the 1930s were simpler, and the decades prior, and so forth.  So...

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” - Genesis 1:26 Maybe it's that, or maybe it's something else, but I feel a responsibility to the birds.  Dominion, by its definition means sovereignty, and as such, imparts us with a responsibility to the animals the cohabit this Earth with us. Maybe it's the idea that we are all born to a place, and with some of us, it is impossible to leave that place.  The birds were here first, and as such, they have prominence over those of us who built houses on top of their houses.  We chased them from their place and forced them to live in our place. Maybe that's too simple. I have had a bird feeder outside my tiny condo ever since I have lived here, which is now going on its twenty-third year.  The pa...

Whenever someone complains about bad officiating in sports, I say that the problem with leagues expanding to more teams is that there is a need for more officials.  More officials means more bad ones and that means there will be more bad calls.  The same is true of television.   Back in the 1960s (where I come from) television was confined to three networks, PBS and a few UHF channels that you needed a special antenna to receive.  Now - there are hundreds of channels, all in need of programming in order to fill their 24-hour cycle.  From that was borne such things as so-called "reality" shows and programs that do nothing but follow people around for days at a time, editing their activities down to a half-hour and showing it on television.  From that, we have created television stars where otherwise would have been just regular people doing their jobs.  That is where the problems start.   People like the Kardashian's, those housewives a...

 Photo by me. Others available on my Flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25812594@N06/sets/72157632449563618/  This isn't a music review site.  Mostly, it is a place where I gripe about stuff that gets on my nerves.  Occasionally, I will stumble onto something that makes me happy that I want to share with people.  Having been raised in the 1960s and schooled on music in the 1970s, I trust my instincts, and you should, too.  So, here goes. Through an interesting chain of events, I became acquainted with a guitarist named Chris Baker .  He had been playing with some mutual friends in bands and jam sessions.  Through Chris, the magic of the Internet and its marketing appeal, I found Amenti Rover . For an old music-head like myself, it's refreshing to hear young people ( real young people, not young people who I consider young) who get ... really GET music, and what emotion, drive and spirit are about when it comes to what I consider ...