Mojo. Fred has it.

After a few days off, here's a pair of photos with French guitar player Fred Chapellier from a show with Billy Price here in Pittsburgh.

If anyone saw this in the five minutes it took me to correct the spelling of Fred's last name, I apologize.





This just in! Billy Price links to this blog! If anyone would like to see more photos of the Syria show, leave a comment and I'll find a spot for them...

Old habits die hard. Really

After receiving several shotgun e-mails from someone I'd loosely describe as a radio-driven Conservative, I'm wondering out loud where shouting starts and discussion ends. I believe that what passes for discussion has over the past generation deteriorated into a shouting contest. I'd also be ignoring the obvious if my own liberal political bias didn't get full credit.
Someone in a discussion I remember but can't place said the reason liberal radio fails is because it's willing to entertain discussion and try for consensus, making boring progamming. The reason conservative media succeeds is because the talent tells the audience how and what to believe and isn't shy about the process. Listeners eat up someone who tells them that if things were only how they used to be, life would be better.
What a crock.
Right now the US - and the world at large - seem to be heading for a series of meltdowns. The obvious indicator - gas prices at retail are hovering at $4 per gallon.
Great. Let's do something.
Drill for more so the vehicles we collectively operate can keep rolling. Pump crude out of the ground into pipelines that connect to refineries that are already running at capacity. Keep ervery car in the US on the road no matter what the mileage or efficiency and smile while doing it. Drill anywhere that has hydrocarbons buried close by. Yippie! Gas for everybody!
But lets slow down for a quick second.
The US is refining everything we can with the facilities in place, the pipes are full, the dollar is sinking against foreign currencies creating more expensive imports, and demand on producers is rising worlwide. Suddenly India and China - the folks that WalMart sources a goodly chunk of their buying from - have cash to bid up the price of commodity imports.
In the end, we've gotta find a way to do more with less. There just isn't any way around it. If we all need to drive tiny cars, and build nuclear power plants, let's get it on. The Third World may not be for much longer.

In case you tuned in late...

Seen - on a wall at the Kennedy Presidemtial Library in Boston

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then ... we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal." [September 14, 1960]

Now go do something useful.

It was forty years ago today

No, Sgt. Pepper didn't teach the band to play.
June 5, 1968 was the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles after claiming victory in the California Democratic primary. Jack Kennedy was four and a half years gone, Martin was shot in Memphis sixty days earlier and in some corners hope for the future was fading fast.

What came next?

The debacle of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago with Richard Daly's police trying to restrain the political underclass, the rise of Richard Nixon, descent into the hell of Viet Nam and perhaps the end of polite political discourse.

What could have been?

Jack Kennedy lives and completes two terms?
Bobby elected in 1968?
Martin as Bobby's VP?
Bobby completes pullout from Viet Nam?
Regan retires as Gov. of California
Oliver North stays an obscure Marine Lt. Colonel
Rush Limbaugh stays an obscure DJ in Pittsburgh

and so on....

Hot Dog

Can someone explain the food service mentality to me? I've here to tell ya' that food service window-trons will be the death of me.

Today's Gripe: I've been known to eat a hot dog or two, and in the area of the office a local chain called Brighton Hot Dog has set up a franchise. I suspect that I've eaten there for the last time in a while
Each and every one of the times I've stopped at their New Castle Road store, it seems to take an inordinate length of time to be served at the drive-in. While their shingle says something like "Please be patient, all food cooked to order" I haven't got a clue what takes the wage slaves inside so damn long to wrap a couple of dogs and put them in a bag. If they did indeed cook dogs to order, the line would back up to the next county. One thing though - they seem to have apology own to near-science... as in "sorry it took so long" If they recognize a problem too, why not fix it and quit being sorry.
That could be enough, but after the apology, the order was wrong. Not just ketchup for mustard, but chili, pickles and onions for mustard. If I wanted the things dressed, I'd have ordered 'em that way. The topper becomes a vehicle accident that I'm called to cover. No delays and no going back

Where do they find a whole store full of these idiots? At least one inquiring mind wants to know.