Friday, August 12, 2005

Ain't that a BITCH! - It's (the last??) Jazz & Blues Friday


Jazz & Blues Friday is online at mpomy.com. Is this the end? No more spectacular downloads of tasty musical rarities? I'm sure it's not as bad as all that, but you can count on a little break in this department.

Best bet is to go out on top. I'm not sayin' that this is the end, but this could be the last Jazz & Blues Friday for a little while. That bein' said, it's Johnny "guitar" Watson, who you'll find in the 'blues' section of your local record shops, but at the time of this masterpiece from Bremen (2/13/77), it was all funk!


Johnny, like so many other great artists, left us too soon, but not before he created a wealth of GREAT recording and influenced and performed with Frank Zappa. Enjoy and play this one loud.

Jazzz & Blues Fridays at mpomy.com

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Canned (...or jarred? or pickled?)





So, just wondering... which is freshest?

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Veni, Vidi, Sadie



She came, she saw, she conquered! Big time thanks to Sadie, Dorothy and Woody for letting them come across country to play. We had the Wiggles on the iPod, we had screamin when there was no nap (but Em was unstoppable with the Ella Fitzgerald - Em one, Sadie nuthin!), we had Cheerios flying thru the air, we had Pop-Pop at Azure with hippest outfits you can get, we even mixed in some Phils!

It was all good, especially after napping reintegrated into the routine. So it goes to prove, no matter how bad you got the blues, there's nothing that the love of a good niece can't cure.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address



I'm reading this fantastic biography of Lincoln by David Herbet Donald, and I just got to the point where he gives the Ggettysburg Address. No matter what else may be going on in your life, you can not help but be moved by these words. For no reason other than that, I offer this short prayer for a 'new birth of freedom' in its entirety here:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Jazz & Blues Fridays - Here's Mud In Yer Ear



It's been quite a day, and I don't mean that in a good way. For this reason, I stick with the blues for a second week in a row. Even if you're not feeling the weight of the world as it comes crashing down, you should still check out Jazz & Blues Fridays at mpomy.com.

We're going all the way back to THE pioneer of the electric blues guitar. Without MUDDY WATERS, you got no Stones, you got no Hendrix, hell, you got no rock'n'roll.

This is from a club that, I believe, still exists in DC, called The Bayou. The date is 10/27/81, which is toward the end of Muddy's run, he can still burn on the slide guitar. And that voice is as soulful as ever. Enjoy!

Brought to you by Jazz & Blues Fridays.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Happy Birthday, John T. Scopes



This is John T. Scopes of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. He was born on this date in 1900. At the age of 25, he had the courage to stand trial rather than give in to pressure. He taught high school students evolution and was fined for telling the children the truth about science. His case was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court, but the legal niceties represented only the beginning of this tale.

Today, science continues to come under attack. Our President has recently said that he favors the teaching of Intelligent Design so that children can be exposed to another side of the story. Forget for the moment that this "alternative narrative" has no basis in scientific method or fact. Even right wing conservative-psycho-wack-job Charles Krauthammer says that teaching faith as science is wrong.

People like John Scopes knew that science could bring us closer to finding truth, especially about who we are and where we come from. To offer "intelligent design" as part of a science curriculum basically undermines all of science. "We don't need empirical proof! We don't need objective evidence! It's all too complicated to have happened without the deity's guiding hand, despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence of such hand. So why bother with trying to cure MS or cancer or AIDS. Let's just leave it up to that all-powerful whatever, right?"

John T. Scopes knew better. Happy birthday Mr. Scopes.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

She's too cool for school (... also too young)

Oh yeah, she's cool alright. So cool that she can fly clear across this great country of ours and land right at MPOMY/Beckerantz world headquaters for a little visit. I'm talkin' about the coolest niece there is - Ms. Sadie Wood.

Thanks to the recent move, she'll be able to stay with us for a few nights (now that we've got the space for her and her folks) and then it's off to the burbs to hang out with Mom-Mom. We are going to have one tasty time!!

Monday, August 01, 2005

Remember When Recess Was Fun??



Well, this guy's so happy he can't see straight. Of course, back in my youth, "recess appointment" often meant meeting upper classmen to get a good going over before classes resumed. This continued in college, except it wasn't so much the older students, as the people in my grade. I'm thinking of the so-called "get hammer" play.

The significance of all this to our brand spankin' new UN ambassador? Well, I guess it's just a whole new sort of butt-kicking. How delightful.