And There Goes Maude...

The very funny and talented Bea Arthur passed away today of cancer at the age of 86. New York Times writer Bruce Webber wrote a nice retrospective here. When you think about revolutionary television roles, most actors would kill for one. She had two. I still watch the Golden Girls and I still laugh my ass off. Maude was a great show also. Remember the theme, song by the late great Donny Hathaway:



Maude TV Opening Theme - video powered by Metacafe

My Sunday in a Dreamworld of Magic and Drinking til I'm Sick.

I cannot watch one without the other.

For My Chosen Brothers and Sisters...

Mad Men for Purim...

Worlds Collide!

Check this video lineup
There are at least 4 Oscar wins in this group:

A True Citizen of the World

Peter Gabriel opened my world when I was younger. His music and world view have influenced me deeply. The grand musician, visual visionary and one of the major consciences of the world. He introduced me to Amnesty International, Nursat Fateh Ali Khan, Youssou N'Dour, Tony Levin and a number of other great musicians. His label, Real World, is always on the vanguard of artistic and technological advancement. He still holds the torch for artistic expression and freedom with his protest about the Oscar cuts to his nominated song.

A true legend, Happy Birthday Peter Gabriel.

A video of one of his signature tunes:

Comedy/Sadness

After getting my Texas dry scalp back in shape at my wife's salon (she owns a few local ones: Avant Salon), I watched David Letterman joking around with the pilot of U.S. Airways Flight 1549. Then I see the news about the terrible Continental Flight 3407 accident. It shows how unique the landing in the Hudson River was and the thin line between life and death. My sympathy goes out to the families of the victims of Continental Flight 3407.

Elegant Lady

The First Lady of the United States: Michelle Obama. This is a great picture from the new Vogue cover story on Michelle. I really like this part of the article:

Mrs. Obama herself describes it this way: "We want entertaining in the White House to feel like America, that we are reminded of all the many facets of our culture. The Latino community, the Asian-American community, the African-American community.…Hip-hop, spoken word—we want to bring the youth in, for them to hear their voices in this."

She sees the White House as a national classroom. "We want to make sure that our young people remember and understand what classical music is, who some of the great American artists are," she says, to give one example. And: "I am excited about the potential of the White House kitchen being a learning environment for the community. The current chef, Cristeta Comerford, is the only female chef in the history of the White House. She's a young Filipina woman, a mother with a young child, and I am excited to get to know her and for her to know us as a family. If you think about all the kids interested in finding out about all of the inner workings of the White House—I'm hoping that we can build a team to reach out."

I Hope I Never Make This Hall of Fame....

This really brings back the stupidity of the infamous and also the unbelievable forgivably (yes I made up this word) of the American public. Come down the sordid history of some of our lovable cads....

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Inside the Mind of a Musician.

Last night I saw Shawn Colvin in concert with my wife and some friends. She played a solo gig and she was wonderful. As I was listening to her, I couldn't help but think about the 40th Grammy's in 1998 when she was interrupted by 'Ol Dirty Bastard. Tonight the 51st Grammy's will be televised and it always makes me feel strange. I have been playing music since I was 7 years old. The first college I attended was Berklee College of Music. I lived was a working musician for 8 years in New York City. When I moved to Austin in 2000, I played with a number of people in this scene. I have to admit, I always thought one of the projects I was involve with (or my own stuff) would have a chance to be widely known. I realize that those ideas might have been grand illusions, but I really believe my talent and the talent of my friends. I still believe. After a 6 year hiatus from regularly with a group of musicians, today I am meeting with some guys to get it started all over again. Music and the industry has always been inside me and it is all I ever really wanted to do. I have kept diaries of past tours and recording sessions. I have backtracking tapes of a radio show I did on WBAI in New York. I have hundreds of great pictures.

The main point of this mind ramble is I want to do a complete music blog that really gets inside what it means to be a musician that had some success and still believes in his talent. I have never really read any blog about the insights of being a professional musician. The trials, the glory and the PITA (Pain in the Ass) moments. What is it like rehearsing a tune? Arranging, writing, gigging, buying equipment, recording sessions, personality traits of bass players, guitar players, vocalists? Being a black musician that loves rock music when the commercial public and even organizations (BRC) don't how to market that? The irony that major black rock artist didn't and still can't get together as one coalition? The economics in all of industries of music and entertainment that are creating major issues with content and ownership (how really this started in the early 1990's)? All of this and more. I want to make this blog a total unique experience that musicians and lay people can get into. I have been wanting to do this for years, I just have to plan how to include audio and video and date segments. Should I do this with this blog? Should I do it with another blog? A separate website? I'm not sure how to make it work, but this is what is inside of this musician.

Favorite News Story of the Day, So Far.

I don't condone violence against women. I have had a great aunt and a co-worker killed in domestic violence situations. I have to say, this incident sounds ridiculous, from my own Austin American-Statesman:

Man accused of choking girlfriend with Wii controller

By Isadora Vail | Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 01:45 PM

An Austin man has been accused of trying to choke his girlfriend with the cord of a Wii video game controller after she became angry that he had eaten all of her Girl Scout cookies, according to an arrest affidavit.

Christina Alvarado told Austin police that she woke up her boyfriend, Daniel Alvarez, 21, Monday morning after discovering her cookies were gone, according to the affidavit.

Alvarez became upset that Alvarado woke him and began to yell at her, according to the affidavit. Alvarado told police that Alvarez got her into a choke hold that lasted several seconds before she was able to hit him in the eye to break free, according to the affidavit.

The two struggled until they ended up in the living room, where Alvarez grabbed a Wii controller, according to the affidavit. He put his knees on her chest to pin her down and strangled her with the cord of the video game controller, according to the affidavit.

Alvarado was able to free herself and call 911. Alvarez fled the home but was arrested soon after, according to the affidavit. Alvarado had a faint mark from a cord around her neck, shortness of breath, trouble speaking and was coughing when police arrived, the affidavit said.

Alvarez remained in the Travis County jail today with bail set at $40,000. He is facing second degree felony charges of aggravated assault with serious bodily injury, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Permalink | Categories: Police

Barackstock

I like this play on words better the headline on the Huffpost, Obama-Stock. I had the TV i picture in picture mode. I peeked into the performances while watching the NFC title game (as of right now, it' Arizona 32, Philadelphia 25).

The performances were pretty good. I still don't get Josh Groban. The speakers were great also. I like Tiger Woods talking about his father and his military service. It Garth Brooks was enjoyable. I have to admit I am tired of John Legend. Pairing Usher with Shakira and Stevie Wonder makes you realize how awesome Stevie Wonder really is. U2 was well, U2. Springsteen with Pete Seeger was a very classy way to end it. Near the end, 44 got up and put the mode in perspective. He reminded us about the problems we will deal with after the parties. On the fashion tip, everyone looked great. I dig Beyonce's chocolate Sgt. Pepper's jacket. The Boss looked great. I love the military jackets with the mandarin collar. I think will.i.am tries to hard with his fashion. He is like a black Jeremy Piven, forcing his way to be fashionable:

Favorite news story of the day, so far.

I guess you can only go so far with the "Idol" thing. Since I live in Austin, I might need to really investigate these allegations and interrogate the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

'American Idol' sues Texas strip joint.

Why I Stayed Home on New Year's Eve.

I was in Las Vegas from Friday December 26 to Tuesday December 30 (yes, I got married..) We stayed at the Mirage and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. On Monday December 29, we saw this little white dude walking around in an all-white leather jumpsuit. Surrounded by his security detail, he strolled with a swagger. Then I walked by the bike.


Yes, it was Robbie Knievel. He jumped the volcano at the Mirage, so we stayed home to watch. This was how it looked on Fox.



This video has a better angle, but no sound.



This stunt, down the street at the Paris Hotel was baaadassss! This was performed by Robbie Maddison.



Oh yeah and we stayed home to avoid morons like the ones hassling the reporter just doing her job.

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Brownington Post

The new Tina Brown news portal is The Daily Beast. I am not quite sure what to make of it. It's kinda clunky, but very smart. Almost too smart for it's own good. Ms. Brown surrounds herself with talented, opinionated commentators sure to rise up the ire of liberals, conservatives, trendsetters and the intellectual elite.

The 1st scoop the site got was the splendid commentary by Christopher Buckley and his reasons for voting Obama in November. What did he get for his intellectual honesty? The door hitting him in the ass as he leaves the magazine his father founded. (By the way, I know I am slow, but I didn't know that Christopher Buckley wrote the book Thank You for Smoking. I enjoyed the movie so I have to read the book.)

Ms. Brown wrote her own piece about Obama. I think she engages in the subtle racial digs that sports commentators fall into when describing black athletes. There is a tendency to describe the black athlete as natural or raw talent, while using smart, intellectual and hard-working to describing white athletes. Better lucky than smart Tina? Really? A commentator on Tina's post wrote this and I agree:

PhDiva:

"Sure, Tina. The black guy couldn't possibly be running the must
economically successful campaign in American history. He couldn't have the
best ground game of any democrat in recent history. He couldn't have
defeated Hillary Clinton and the most powerful democratic machine of the
late 20th century because voters actually supported him. No, he's not
smart, gifted, organized, or presidential. He's just lucky. Can you
imagine anybody describing a white politician who has accomplished as much
as Obama in this way?..."

It was 13 years ago today, That Mr. Simpson Barely Got Away

But not today O.J.!

OJ was found guilty of 12 counts of robbery and kidnapping in Nevada yesterday. It was 13 years to the day that he was acquitted of killing his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I felt sadness and I wondered how it leave race relations in America. It also highlighted the class warfare that at times transcends racial issues. Now 13 years later, we have a black man in great position to become the next president and our government has signed a new rescue (bailout) plan for $840 billion dollars. I believe race is still an issue, but class might be surpassing it. The bailout, to me, is about wall street bankers taking stupid risks, mortgage companies taking stupid risks, consumers taking stupid risks, house flippers taking stupid risks. Why? The American need for more. More house, more money. Keeping with the Britneys, Sex in the City shoes, the Entourage lifestyle, everyone wanting to be the playa or big baller. Most of us want to be in the exclusive, VIP, high-end part of life. I am guilty as anyone. I believe this is such a chance in history to re-evaluate who we are as Americans and what the purposes of capitalism and government. I just feel this is a great opportunity for America the lead and be revolutionary again. I have no reason for it, it is sometime I just really believe.

Big City Snob

Why can't Austin have a sushi place open past 10 PM on a Tuesday night? When I get out of work late because my internal clients forget about end of month billing, I need a stiff scotch and fine raw fish. I know it's hard to remember deadlines when the end of the month keeps changing from the 30th and the 31st. Especially after about....oh, I don't know...


TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT YEARS!

Johnny Walker Black, take me away......