George Aar

Damn! It's unbelieveable what all is posted on utube now. I've been fooling around there, looking up all sorts of (what I thought were) really obscure tunes, only to find out that they're ALL there. I can't seem to think of anything song ever recorded that's not already up. Check out this one for anyone with fond memories of 1968, it has it's timeframe written all over it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udc6GyFb0rc

Year of the Cat?

WHY? Probably for the same reason that David Copperfield doesn't fly through the air when he goes out for groceries, or make the Statue of Liberty disappear and hold it for ransom...

Oh, and here's another piece that I've always enjoyed (here performed by the Man himself), that sorta qualifies as "classic": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O7qZnqflxM Listening to this, I immediately realized that Gershwin musta gotten at least a little inspiration from the "stride" pianists of the day, James Johnson, Fats Waller, and maybe even Art Tatum. And here's another one from Tatum - when I heard this for the first time, it brought me to tears, not sure exactly why even, as I never even liked "The Wizard of Oz". There must be something more that Mr. Tatum was able to communicate than just words can explain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSts6kS8Xk0...feature=related

I'll bet that your "three Bs" don't include Butterfield, Bishop and Bloomfield do they? (they were favs of mine when I was a lad - "The Three Bs of Blues") About the closest I get to true "classics" in music is "The William Tell Overture", which I think is about the coolest piece of music ever written. Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, yeah, I can listen to them, but they really don't "reach" me. I used to have a roommate who was absolutely stoned crazy for Rachmaninov and - to a lesser extent - Tchaikovsky. But anyone with less than a hardcore Russian heritage was suspect in his book. Taste is an odd thing. You know I like Willy Nelson a bit. But, I don't really think of him as C&W. He's much more of a Swing or Jazz musician than Country, IMHO. But Waylon Jennings, though I'm sure he was a wonderful human being, wasn't much of a musician at all. Geeze, he wrote the SAME song over and over again. (Just try it sometime, sing the lyrics of any of his songs to the music of any of the others, it all fits perfectly, basically it was the same song with slightly different lyrics). And I'm kinda surprised that you, being schooled in music, don't care for the jazz genre. Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Django Rhinehardt, Miles Davis, and all the others. These guys didn't just PLAY music, they lived and breathed it. They sweated it out of their pores. I can't imagine anyone NOT loving that stuff. It's just so good. I think I can relate to the mood you may be in right now, and the type of music you're inclined towards. Have you ever listened to Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" album? It's a collection of swing-era and some modern "love" songs (and songs about what happens when love goes wrong). She did it just a few years ago. I really identified with a lot of what she put into that album. But then, I've always had a softspot for Ms. Mitchell, -'cept she reminds me too much of my horribly misspent youth...

Oh! And "Manhattan Transfer", I LOVE "Manhattan Transfer" Speaking of which: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNNzarG15tU...feature=related For an old lady, she still had some chops, huh?

The words and music were by some Russians, IIRC. I always found the song a bit too sappy and maudlin. Also, it seemed more than a little incongruous for a 17 year-old (or however old she was, she looked pretty young) singing a song reminiscing about days gone by. But, I remember liking it at the time. I find most all pop music to be pretty banal, boring, and just regurgitated crap (ESPECIALLY C&W, which should be a capital crime to perform IMNSHO). Hence, I just don't listen to any of it. I've got a pretty good selection of old jazz standards, listen to Steely Dan or Spiro Gyra or other Jazz/rock fusion sorta stuff, but that's pretty much it. Anything else makes me ill. Have you noticed how those "killer" bands of our youth seem to have lost a lot of their lustre as well (or is it just me)? I listened to an old "Led Zeppelin" album a while back and was stunned at how really vapid and empty their music was. As a kid I'd always thought it was SOOO "heavy", but now I realize it was just loud and obnoxious. Not a lot else going on there. Maybe I"M just too old?

Yes, Hap, The roads are subsidized by federal funds as well. Funds the Feds derive from THEIR fuel taxes. And then there's the license tabs, excise tax on tires, and a few other things I spose. But with the reduced amount of gasoline being consumed, Washington State is ALREADY crying poverty with regards to road construction and maintenance, because of the sharply reduced tax revenue from the gas that people are now NOT burning. So who's really paying the bill? Motorists or the arrogant, petulant, privileged little snots who slash tires and block roads as if it's a birthright? Maybe you don't have the pleasure of seeing firsthand what these clowns are actually doing on our streets. Just Google "Seattle Critical Mass" and look at the very videos these meatheads think are supporting their "cause". I've got little use for the jerkoffs, Sorry.

Well, the cops actions speak for themselves I think. But the "Critical Mass" participants are doing their best to .... off everybody else in the world, if what goes on in Seattle is representative. This past week there was a near riot amongst the cyclists because a car was trying to drive down the same street THEY were on (The NERVE, eh?). The civic-minded cyclists managed to dent up the rig pretty good as well as busting out the front and back windows. Somebody remind me again, just how much road use tax are those bicylces paying?

WB Tom! Yeah, I know we don't sing from the same hymnal, but it's been kinda lonesome here without ya. Good to "see" ya!

And for anyone who's interested in critical thought: http://www.skepdic.com/ctinfo.html

One of my favorite movies. I loved the scene with the meat cleaver and his hand Ever notice that if you describe the movie to anyone who hasn't seen it, they always get a real worried expression on their face? It seems like it was a simpler time, now, doesn't it? I don't think it did at the time, though...

Damn! Has it only been 25 years? By the looks of those two, you'd think it'd been 35 or 40. Yikes! The years have not been kind. (O.K., so I ain't lookin' so hot either, sue me) "I LIKE the way you say that, did you know that?"

Funny, it was the whack-o political stuff that first started to crack my Wayfer veneer as well. I remember when "The Marxist Minstrals" book was being touted, I was absolutely incredulous that anybody could buy that line of Bravo Sierra. But I wasn't so cracked that I didn't stick around for another 6 or 8 years. There was also a huge truckload of basic Wayfer doctrine that I was "holding in abeyance", waiting for the day when Noah's Ark, the six-day creation story, miraculous healings, and various and sundry other Tall Biblical Tales would finally make sense to me. That day has yet to dawn. (I'll bet my flag pin is bigger than yours, Juan)

And remember the concept the Walter C#mmins floated in "The Renewed Mind" class? That of the "enlarged mind" or some such tripe. You know, the idea that once you've heard enough "wurd" your mind becomes enlarged so you can understand larger, more convoluted concepts. I guess the idea that "enlarging" one's brain basically boiled down to becoming increasingly (and toxically) CREDULOUS never occurred to any of us. But that's what it was. Simply talking us out of any innate skepticism we may have had, and reassuring us that the crap they were selling us was the REAL deal. They didn't try to do it all at once. No, no, no. Just whittle away ever so slowly at your doubts and convince you that any skepticism is really pretty evil, unrenewed, and definitely NOT what GOD would approve of. Just believe the good Doctor, HE knows what's right...

Dateline did their show on him tonight. What a great guy. But guys like him always make me feel so inadequate. Like they're doing it right - and I'm not. And there's probably more truth than poetry in that. How ironic though. One of the few that really seems to have figured out how to live life to the fullest, and his is cut short. With all the jerkoffs and goofballs around that live long - pointless - existences the one in a million who seems to get it right, and this happens. Too damned sad...

I dunno, I've been smokefree for over 22 years now, and I can't say as I miss it a bit. Smokers don't realize how bad they smell, and how bad everywhere they spend any time smells, their car, their house, their furniture. All of it has the ugly stale smell of smoke hanging on it. And then there's the slime that coats all of their stuff as well. It's just an ugly habit, I'm sorry. And I can't imagine that there are wonderful health benefits that one derives from the habit that couldn't be accomplished in a more benign manner from a less destructive sort of drug. Geeze, maybe you could take nicotine tablets or somesuch. I think you're kidding yourself BB if you believe that you'll somehow avoid the ills of smoking. Maybe you will, but I've seen too many put into an early grave making the same bet...

It just doesn't get any better than this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=06ufU7jn0ZM Gawd, I miss him...

I thought I did once. But then she took the van and left town. Now I'm kinda doubting her divinity...

Worse yet, I was told that my baby girl was possessed. Yes, my beautiful 2 year-old babydoll. And they didn't even have the guts to tell me to my face. Some busybody broad went behind my back and told my job coordinator (WayBuilders) about her suspicions. So I get called into the WB office - along with my immediate supervisor (what the hell did HE have to do with anything?) and I get a long drawn out spiritual analysis of my life - from a guy who had only met me in passing and had never even been to my home. Yet here he was, passing judgement on the minute spiritual affairs of the Aar household - all on the say-so of some nosy, gossiping, tattletale broad, who ALSO had never been to our house or ever known me. So all weekend I'm sitting, staring at my little baby girl and wondering if there's any truth to what they were saying, and imagining all sorts of evil stuff about my own sweet little girl - and wondering if I was responsible for allowing the Devil to harm her in some way. What a dispicable pile of crap to dump on someone. I'll never forget THAT crap, not ever. I got good and mad after I thought about it long enough, and went in to Mr. B#der's office on Monday and got in his face about it. Naturally, things got turned around again, and I was informed that I just wasn't spiritual enough to comprehend what was REALLY going on and I'd better get meek to what the MOG was telling me or I'd REALLY be in for it. Well, I didn't get meek. I left his office and called B.S. on all of it. It turns out, that my baby was doing something pretty common for little girls. When she'd get really excited about something, she'd forget to breath, and just pass out. It was kinda freaky to witness, but it's something LOTS of little girls do, and they grow out of it rather quickly (so I was told by none other than Mrs. V.P.). And, sure enough, I don't remember her ever doing that after another few months, or maybe a year. That was probably the last time I ever paid any mind to anything that some "spiritual" sort of geek was trying to sell me. I think I finally grew out of that last vestige of credulousness. Sure took long enough...

Gee, I got mine too! The latest issue of "Kiss My Whip", the S&M quarterly. Gosh, it's just great! Wanna borrow it when I'm finished WD?

Mr. Z, To explain some of your less-than-warm responses to your initial invitation, I think maybe you'd need to understand the depth of disgust many of us hold for WayWorld stuff. It seems that maybe you're just not aware of how screwed-up an organization TWI really was/is. Or, maybe we've all been horribly "tricked" by the "adversary"? And, as is commonly practiced amongst the true believers, you seem to assume that we should all be interested in Bible stuff. And - if not - then that must be due to some lack on our part. You know, it might be that the a-priori assumption that there's something special about The Bible is where the error really lies. REALLY, that IS a possibility. Anyway, just trying to show why your initial post might have met with such palpable animosity. And please do continue to post here, if you like. Maybe just go a little slower till you figure out what we're all made of? Shietsurei shimasu,

Sheesh, I'm still using the PC we bought from a Micosoft geek in '95! (it has had a few upgrades though)

It's always so easy to sit back in one's comfiest chair and pontificate about how the doer of deeds should have done better, isn't it? And, as the saying goes, when you're up to your azz in alligators, it's sometimes a little difficult to remember that your objective was to drain the swamp...

bingo!