Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain, sometimes in a circular motion at close to 200 miles per hour, with a two-mile-side footprint. Mercy, this is awful.
Of course, all natural disasters are awful, and every time they happen, you are reminded anew of how each variety is awful. The sight of bare trees, stripped of their leaves and branches, sometimes even their bark, always freaks me out, as do photos like this, a classic of the genre — a half-destroyed room, where the doors of a cabinet have been flung open, but the glasses inside stand untouched.
Sometimes these things end better than you’d think. I recall a twister in Indiana that tore off a roof and destroyed a room. When the occupants rushed in, they found their baby sitting in her high chair in the middle of it, covered with insulation but otherwise unharmed.
Not so much in Oklahoma, I’m afraid. As I’m sure everybody will already know by the time they read this, at least one elementary school was destroyed, and perhaps two.
Which makes today’s accomplishment by dumb ol’ me — I had my first taste of rye whiskey, and friends, it was sublime — look pretty punk. It was this stuff. I’ve never sampled the stuff, because rye? Who drinks rye? Characters in old novels, that’s who. But boy, was it good. I had about a teaspoon, then drove home in heat that just kept climbing. It was 87 when I got home, so what the hell? A bike ride. Ten miles in 50 minutes was all I had the energy for, but I got ‘er done.
Not much bloggage today, but I enjoyed this: What your state bird should be. He has a point. Many points.
Fucking Apple. Ai yi yi.
More 80s today, but by the weekend? Highs in the low 60s. Because that’s how we roll now.
Dexter said on May 21, 2013 at 12:44 am
I was never dedicated to it, but I sometimes had a bottle of Old Overholt Rye in my liquor cabinet. It was a nice change.
My wife, when we were dating and partying, would down a few shots of Old Overholt and dance on a table top. That was a long damn time ago. I never had a friend or acquaintance who liked rye…I wonder who in the hell drank it besides me.
I started watching the cable networks when the twister neared Moore. After May 3, 1999, when “regular” homes were levelled, people re-built with steel-backed sturdy brick construction. Levelled again as if they had lived in tents.
51 dead as of now. Just horrible and sad.
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Joe K said on May 21, 2013 at 1:47 am
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/05/19/how-much-gm-truly-stole-from-american-taxpayers.aspx
Not just apple.
Looks like I got out of Fayetteville Ark in time today,
Pilot Joe
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Sherri said on May 21, 2013 at 2:25 am
Apple is one of the most aggressive at avoiding taxes, but they aren’t alone. The NYTimes did a good article on the tax avoidance strategies of the big tech companies last year: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html?pagewanted=all
Apple borrowed money to pay out its most recent dividend rather than bring money back into the US and pay taxes on it.
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Brandon said on May 21, 2013 at 4:50 am
Apple is going for over $400 a share.
==
Tonight, Bad Girls All-Star Battle, hosted by Ray J, on Oxygen.
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alex said on May 21, 2013 at 6:42 am
Having worked outside all weekend, it’s quite obvious to me that Indiana’s state bird is the mosquito.
As for whiskey, it all tastes the same after the first glass.
As for GM, the right-wing media don’t see the forest for the trees, but then they never do.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 21, 2013 at 6:55 am
Bulleit Rye is a nice change of pace from Evan Williams from time to time. But I have to admit I first tried it because I was fascinated by the bottle, the glasswork, which is to say the marketing. The second and subsequent occasions have been because of the taste. Even so, I can’t claim to be immune to marketing. I will say, as much as I love the village of Loretto & nearby Nerinckx KY (and Trappist on down the road to the west a few miles), Maker’s Mark is insanely overpriced. You can put it next to Heaven Hill in a blind taste test, and I can hardly tell them apart. The scanner can, tho’, with the red wax running you three to four times as much.
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David C. said on May 21, 2013 at 7:02 am
Apple’s tax shenanigans are legal, so they bother me, but they bother me less than the wealthy hiding income in secret overseas accounts. That is clearly illegal. If I was President, I’d sent the Navy to the Cayman Islands for a little gunboat accountancy. Turn over the records, or you’ll really wish you had. Lather, rinse, repeat until every tax haven was closed and every tax cheat was in Leavenworth.
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brian stouder said on May 21, 2013 at 7:40 am
Gordon Lightfoot’s plaintive question remains: does anyone know where the love of God goes…
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 21, 2013 at 7:54 am
…when the winds turn the minutes to hours.
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Deborah said on May 21, 2013 at 8:04 am
I met Tom Bulleit, the great great grandson of the guy who started the brand of bourbon, at the time (late 80s) he had just started distilling under the old brand name. It has since been sold to Seagrams. I designed exhibits for the Labrot & Graham Woodford Reserve Distillery visitor’s center in Versailles, KY that’s how I happened to meet the guy. I like Bulleit bourbon, haven’t tried the rye yet. I like Templeton Rye which is hard to find for some reason.
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Suzanne said on May 21, 2013 at 8:04 am
I’m always kind of amazed at the silence of the anti-gov’t crowd after a mess like Moore. The National Guard is always called in as well as all sorts of first responders, who, without government funding, wouldn’t exist. Then who you gonna call? Ghostbusters?
Sad all the way around, especially those who lost everything including loved ones. There have been plenty of tornadoes in Indiana over the years, so bad tornado stories always scare me.
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Pam said on May 21, 2013 at 8:05 am
As for the state birds, here in Ohio, I see cardinals all the time, but no Indigo Buntings. Where are they hiding those?
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Deborah said on May 21, 2013 at 8:15 am
The state bird article was funny. New Mexico has an apt one, the roadrunner, but my favorite bird around here is the mountain bluebird. The male is positively cyan colored, gorgeous.
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Dorothy said on May 21, 2013 at 9:17 am
I had no idea what the Indigo Bunting looks like, Pam, so I just checked them out. I’d have a hard time figuring out which was which if one was perched beside a common sparrow. This morning while I did the dishes a rust colored fuzzy bird was preening on one of my many trellises in my perennial garden. I thought it looked like a mockingbird but the color was wrong. I don’t recall seeing one of those before. I love listening to the birds and looking at them, but am quite fearful if I’m near them. Fluttering wings, sharp beaks – the stuff of nightmares to me!! But we put out two hummingbird feeders, a suet feeder (in the fall and winter) and three different bird seed feeders. We’ve stopped for awhile because of a persistent raccoon and/or opossum who keeps knocking them down. At 3:00 this morning one of my dogs was going apeshit down in the lower level right by the sliding glass door. I went down to check it out and found one of the lids of the metal storage bins where we keep the seeds had been opened. And Mike keeps a bungie cord stretched over the top of the two containers! I keep saying it’s time to get a gun and we never do. I’m tired of them interfering with our stuff.
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LAMary said on May 21, 2013 at 9:46 am
My cat Albert has been trying to become a semi-outdoor cat for years and a couple of months ago I gave up on fighting it. He rewarded me with several dead rats and two dead moles. Then he got a thrush. I love listening to the thrushes here. I can’t really tell the cat that four legs are fine, two legs aren’t.
We get a lot of birds here. The mockingbirds, doves and crows are the most dominant. We also have hawks and falcons and owls, but the noisiest bunch is the large parrot flock. They’re all descendants of escaped pets, or at least that’s the story. The group that hangs out around here must have 30 or 40 loud specimens.
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coozledad said on May 21, 2013 at 9:59 am
Just wait until the parakeets take over the internet switching stations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ68F7S1_dI
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Connie said on May 21, 2013 at 10:11 am
I was horrified by the story I heard this morning about the children who died in their school. They were in their designated shelter place when the roof collapsed on them. They would probably have been rescued OK, except the broken water pipes filled the small space with water and they drowned. Not often I get tears in my eyes listening to the car radio.
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Julie Robinson said on May 21, 2013 at 10:12 am
Albert needs Disco to call him a baaaaad kitty. I have tears streaming down my face from laughing. You must watch it to the end, when Mr. Roboto starts coming out.
On a more serious note, even after watching the coverage, I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around a tornado that is 1 to 1 1/2 miles wide. The last I heard the death toll had gone down due to double-counting, but it’ll be a miracle if it doesn’t rise again. Also frightening: apparently the buildings put up with stronger walls after the last tornado were also destroyed.
Sherri, fingers crossed for your appointment today.
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Deborah said on May 21, 2013 at 11:11 am
Now I want a parakeet.
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Deborah said on May 21, 2013 at 11:27 am
Jenine, from the comment in the last post, you’re right, Albuquerque has some good points, I haven’t spent much time there usually just passing through from the airport to points north. Our land in Abiquiu is in the poorest county in New Mexico, Rio Arribba. There are dilapidated trailers near new million dollar homes, it’s an odd mix of poverty and wealth. Santa Fe too has a really ugly commercial strip, Cerrillos Rd, horrible traffic, I curse and swear whenever I have to drive that way. I’ve said this before, that Santa Fe outside of the plaza area is not very walkable. I’m on a tear about walkable places, the car is king in so many towns and cities and it’s a real shame.
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adrianne said on May 21, 2013 at 11:30 am
Jesus H. Christ, but these Tea Baggers are clueless. In the wake of the killer tornado comes this gem from one of Oklahoma’s two U.S. senators: Disaster aid to the tornado victims should be offset by cuts to other parts of the federal budget. No, disaster aid doesn’t work that way, Senator Coburn.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/oklahoma-gop-sen-tom-coburn-will-seek-to
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Charlotte said on May 21, 2013 at 11:52 am
Connie — that did me in too. I had to turn the radio off, and switch to Pandora. The Israel Kawakami station — sunshine broke in the Paradise Valley this morning, everything is green for the first time, blue skies and white pelicans and Israel Kawakami singing “May the Circle Be Unbroken” in Hawaiian. Those poor babies — and everyone in Syria — and everything else awful in the world. Really. One of those mornings I just had to look around, and remind myself of where I was, and that it’s not all just awful.
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beb said on May 21, 2013 at 12:14 pm
I have a friend who lives down south, nearly avoided a tornado and yet felt that government relief was wrong, because if it was a real community it would be able to pick itself up and rebuild all on its own. I can’t help thinking rebuild with what? Tornadoes don’t leave a lot standing…
I can’t tell whether Sen. Coburn (R-OK) is opposed to disaster relief in general or just in cutting funding to other government programs? He’s retiring so he won’t face election again but I wonder how well his philosophy of relief will play among his constituents.
I suppose Matt Taibbi will get around to the perfect horrid tax avoidance schemes of Apple. It does suggest that Steve Jobs may have been a visionary but he was also a scoundrel and a theft, maybe even a scallywag. Currently he’s written about the money laundering schemes of HSBC. Despite committing actually crimes the DOJ is going to let them off with a fine equivalent to five weeks income. If we don’t start sending these white-collar criminals to prison they’re going to trash the economy again!
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Sherri said on May 21, 2013 at 1:19 pm
Julie, I think it’s Jolene with the appointment today. I’m fine, though I always like well wishes!
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Julie Robinson said on May 21, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Thanks for setting me straight, Sherri. I probably confused you because both of you come up with such great links.
Trying again: Jolene, fingers crossed for your appointment today.
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Prospero said on May 21, 2013 at 1:43 pm
DavidC@7: gunboat accountancy? Outstanding phrase.
Randolph and Mortimer Koch have invaded Detroit. I’m sure they went through rigorous legal processes to turn this property into an immense toxic dump. That’s not a natural disaster, but it’s a disaster for sure, that could have been prevented by a few honest politicians.
I’ve been through two tornados, in GA years and years ago, and actually watched one out the back door of the bar I was tending. It was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard and mor eerily menacing than outright scary. That funnel was puny compared to the OK storm. It still did immense damage.
SC has the Carolina Wren for its state bird. Any state have bluejays? That would be my personal choice, for their, um, assertive behavior at our feeders. How many states were so lazy they made the trite choice of cardinals? Lotsa them.
Dodgers CF Matt Kemp announced before a game he was donating $1grand for every HR he hits this season to tornado relief in OK, then went out and homered. I know, he’s really rich, but this is still pretty classy.
I doubt today’s designer ryes bear much resemblance to the whiskey all those cowboys bellied up to the bar for. Seems as if those bottles always cost 4bits. I’ve seen these modern versions at more than $50 a fifth (or whatever that is in metric).
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adrianne said on May 21, 2013 at 1:55 pm
Oh, and I’ve always remembered this one: New York state bird is the bluebird.
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paddyo' said on May 21, 2013 at 2:01 pm
When I was reporting for The Nation’s Nicepaper, I went to Moore, OK in the early 2000s to do a “pre-season” story about tornado preparedness in the place where people had to be pretty good at it. I remember seeing a number of vacant lots, greened over with grass, as well as broad openings in the trees — think a barber’s clippers on “crewcut” setting — where that epic 1999 tornado (F5, 300 mph winds) had blasted through.
In one of those vacant lots sat a small, bunker-like building, hardly much bigger than a garden shed, with a small billboard proclaiming it to be a “tornado-proof” above-ground shelter and giving details for how to order your very own. I don’t recall now whether the inventor sold many, but I can’t imagine any of them would’ve survived yesterday’s monster.
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Peter said on May 21, 2013 at 2:15 pm
Sick humor – but on a different subject – a well known French far right activist decided to go out with a bang – he shot himself in front of Notre Dame’s main altar: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-france-suicidebre94k0qz-20130521,0,6499579.story
I wouldn’t have sent it except for the first comment – “Attention, American far right activists. This person is your role model.”
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Brandon said on May 21, 2013 at 2:27 pm
@Charlotte (22) Have you ever heard Israel Kamakawiwo`ole sing “Over the Rainbow”? He had a beautiful voice.
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Prospero said on May 21, 2013 at 2:46 pm
When Asshat Coburn starts in about paying for disaster relief by cutting other fed spending, because everything must be paid for, somebody must ask him loudly and publicly how the Shrubco tax cuts were paid for. Oh, and that little expedition in Iraq, that never made it to the fed gov books until adults got elected. What a tool. At least he’s willing to consider aid for his home state. He was one of 36 GOPer senators that voted flat no on Sandy aid. Dickhead. And when the whole business of pay-go came up, there was Coburn to vote against it. He didn’t demand cuts to pay for the bank bailout either, though he voted for the spending. Whited sepulcher. Giant pile of bullshit hypocrisy.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rachel-maddow-runs-down-tom-coburns-record
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coozledad said on May 21, 2013 at 3:01 pm
Prospero: The old French fascist is typical of rightwads. Can’t even do the correct thing without making a gooey mess for someone else to swab up.
Try and think about other people when you off yourselves, dirtbags. If you must spray your filthy brains out, do it in the damn woods, and make sure you have a backstop.
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coozledad said on May 21, 2013 at 3:03 pm
Sorry. That was directed to Peter. I need some heavy lenses.
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Sherri said on May 21, 2013 at 3:27 pm
Money for X must be offset by cuts elsewhere is just the new Republican wording for new new taxes. They realized that saying that no disaster aid didn’t go over well, so let’s have disaster aid, but cut “waste” elsewhere. Oh, like maybe pesky regulators and inspectors who might have caught problems in West, Texas before the explosion…nobody likes regulators and inspectors.
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mark said on May 21, 2013 at 4:21 pm
Yes, how dare anyone suggest that we consider cutting any current spending to fund disaster relief. There is no need for any sacrifice to be made by anyone when we can simply borrow the money and let the next generation pay it back.
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beb said on May 21, 2013 at 4:31 pm
Mark, the money spent on rebuilding Oklahoma will be paid back in 5-10 years. Without federal loan money no one in Oklahoma will have money to rebuild. The economy will tank for a decade and everyone will suffer. A loan today keeps the economy going. It’s a win all the way around.
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mark said on May 21, 2013 at 4:39 pm
beb- Nobody is suggesting that we not help Oklahoma. Some of the help will be in the form of grants and non-loan relief, which must be paid for in some way. When we already owe ten plus trillion dollars at the federal level, and have seen historically large budget increases at everything from defense to student loans during the last decade, it is not unreasonable to consider dealing with an emergency created by a natural disaster by examining existing spending.
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Sherri said on May 21, 2013 at 4:42 pm
There’s been an enormous transfer of wealth to the top 1%, in no small part aided by the tax policies of the last 30 years. Additionally, corporations pay a much smaller share of the tax burden than at any time since WWII, which corporate profits are soaring. Is it so insane to ask that the beneficiaries of the policies of the last 30 years contribute to the common welfare?
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Sherri said on May 21, 2013 at 4:42 pm
I meant “while corporate profits are soaring”, not “which.”
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coozledad said on May 21, 2013 at 4:53 pm
Believe me, when the first federal dollars hit Oklahoma, you won’t be able to swing a dead infant without hitting a Republican whore.
http://wonkette.com/517100/tenn-rep-stephen-fincher-pocketed-9-million-in-ag-subsidies-says-jesus-hates-food-stamps
I’ve been trying to figure out just what it is up the Republicans’ asses. Who pissed in their soup that they live lives of such rancid, thieving misanthropy?
But it’s the wrong way of thinking about it. These people were born miserable, and the fact that anyone else wants to get on with their lives, or have a government that helps people in the face of trouble and want just jumps up their guts and eats them steadily, like Brillo for shite.
I hope no one ever spends any money researching the cause of their endemic misery, either, because, in the great scheme of things, they seem to deserve the fuck out of it.
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Prospero said on May 21, 2013 at 5:15 pm
It’s pretty obvious that federal disaster aid in OK will put all kinds of people into paying jobs, so it should amount to stimulus, although Keynes never intended terrible hardship as necessary to bring about economic stimulus. In the long run, it takes a moron not to see that direct federal disaster aid cash is a good thing for the American economy on the whole, and the OK economy in particular.
Alabama’s state bird is the yellowhammer. Guess that explains why the student body at Red Elephants (Bama’s real sports nickname, of which they are obviously embarrassed) basketball games chants “Rammer jammer yellow hammer”. I always thought they were all just loaded. Now if there is a bird name to explain the first part of “Rock chalk jayhawk” let’s hear it. The guy is Right about too few raptors, though. I’d like to see SC be redtail, really. They are profuse on the coast. Although we also have brown pelicans, herons, cranes, egrets and many variety’s of bulls and plovers, all in abundance, of which I’m particlarly enamored. We have butterfly landscaping at our swimming pools, which draws dragonflies so no mosquitos, and hummingbirds. Correct about the GA bird too. Thrashers are beatiful at rest, more amazing in flight with all sorts of white flashing in the tawny brown. Unusual bird coloring, and a very fast and nimble aviator. Some state needs to claim the redwing blackbirds. And there should be a place for the wood stork. And what about the ugly-faced, otherwise stately turkey vulture.
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Charlotte said on May 21, 2013 at 5:16 pm
Brandon — “Somewhere” was what I was sort of hoping for — but Pandora offered up the really lovely “Circle be Unbroken” (although it took me a bit to figure it out). All good.
So, sunshine today. Went to walk the 5 blocks to pick up my beater town bike that had it’s annual spring back-tire flat. Took me 2 hours! Ran into all sorts of people I hadn’t seen in months — small town life.
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Prospero said on May 21, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Holy shit.
Cllassic case of hypocrisy. GOPer congressman collects millions annually in farm subsidies, but says taking food stamps to feed your family is stealing, and he quotes the Bible to justify his claim. And people in TN vote for this schmuck?
Sort of like this dickwad. And this guy is an anesthesiologist for God’s sake. Probably the highest paid non-surgical specialty.
Sounds like a nice day, Charlotte.
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Brandon said on May 21, 2013 at 6:12 pm
@Charlotte: I should check that song out.
@coozledad, prospero: As I’ve said before, never mind Kansas, what’s the matter with Tennessee? Didn’t some other “legislator” from that state get caught pleasuring himself out the window of a moving car?
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Sherri said on May 21, 2013 at 6:15 pm
Pros, that reminds me of the Anne Lamott quote: You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.
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Brandon said on May 21, 2013 at 6:34 pm
It was this guy:
http://www.timesnews.net/article/9057802/former-mount-carmel-vice-mayor-arrested-again-suspected-in-26-indecent-exposures
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Prospero said on May 21, 2013 at 6:44 pm
Sherri@45: I like that. I’ve been wondering all day how many fudagelicals and teabangers have swallowed their tongues to avoid saying that the tornado is God’s will because God hates (fill in the blank). I’m sure I know what Fred Phelps says, but all those Christian Coalition aholes are pretty silent.
For a serious belly laugh, check out the Great Climate Change Denier Inhofe explaining how Sandy aid he voted against and OK aid he supports are totally different. Jesus, what a jerk, Mr. Sheep. I mean, he’s having a hard enough time explaining the enormousness of the storm, when ten years ago he would have blamed it on gay rights supporters, and in the absence of bigotry, he’s faced with science.
An interesting Asia Times sports story about Americans playing professional hoops in Iran. And an AT sports story that has nothing to do with wickets, bowlers and tries? Tres unique.
But Brandon: We love the sinner, hate the sin, right?
Our TeeVee remote got misplaced for a couple of days. It became obvious that our beautiful up to date Samsung flat screen doesn’t work for crap without a remote. the controls are infinitesimal and marked more or less invisibly without a flashlight. Changing channels requires cycling through the entire gamut. On our cable, moving from Family Guy to Mad Men Sunday was an incredible pain in the ass. Soes this asinine design accomplish anything other than making the boox look extremely sleek and prompting people to buy backup remotes to keep handy? Seems strange to me.
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Prospero said on May 21, 2013 at 8:11 pm
Maybe all those would-be GOPer sleuths could look into this. They don’t hate our freedom. They hate our bullying and arrogant interference in their worlds. This is nauseating while some GOPer assholes are faking emails and feeding them to the Associated Press. The fake emails are now the beef in the Benghazi burger.
Who thought this was a good idea
http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/dying-social/
And check the link at the bottom of the page about Shrubco IRS going after NAACP. Going after the NAACP for criticising Shrub is a far cry from investigating the legal tax status of organizations that were not what they claimed to be. And yep, those teabanger organizations got those designations form Shrubco IRS, solely to allow anonymity of the donors, the only benefit it would have brought them. Keeping cash sources secret is much a pillar of GOP political strategy as is vote suppression and severe gerrymandering.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 21, 2013 at 10:30 pm
Hi. I’m a conservative Christian. I think my faith is relevant to how I vote, not always, and probably not with the consistency I should try for. I think all bills will be paid, someday, and there’s a moral component to what bills we choose to defer, and how (long) we choose to defer them, but I also recognize that on some occasions you just dive in, get the job done, and sort out the bills later. That doesn’t constitute an ongoing program of governance, but it’s a reality that defines my life on some days, and when it shapes national policy for an event or two it doesn’t cause me great political discomfort. Oh, and the whole “never let a crisis go to waste” concept in politics makes me wince, no matter who is opportunizing, left or right.
Apparently, a bunch of you are concerned that people like me haven’t given an account of our general approach or specific programatic principles in the immediate aftermath of the Oklahoma tornados. Sorry to have let you down, but I hope that this, 30 hours later, will suffice to mitigate your concern about our so-called “silence.”
(Let the scatological retorts begin.)
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 21, 2013 at 10:33 pm
Oh, and Peter? I’m not sure that comment really needed repeating. Have you ever cleaned up, metaphorically or pragmatically from a suicide by gunshot? There’s no agenda, no politics, no posturing involved. You either put on gloves and pick up the Clorox bottle, or you don’t. But the mystery of why certain people at certain points eat cold steel isn’t any more polemical than it was when Pappy did it in Ketchum, Idaho. Despair is a terrible thing, and I wish it on no one.
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basset said on May 21, 2013 at 10:51 pm
I’m just now seeing Dexter’s comment from yesterday:
“Jim Morrison was a poet for the ages. Robby and John were great complements to The Doors sound. Ray was not a world class musician, but he had great technical and song-organization skills: he knew the beat, he knew when to expand, he really glued the thing tight and together.
The Grateful Dead and The Doors were as far apart as here and Jupiter.”
Not in the sense I originally meant… that both of them were more about the act and the image than about the music or the songwriting. “Not a world class musician” isn’t the half of it; neither the Doors nor the Dead were/are anything special on their instruments, no matter how many hippies insist that Garcia’s stoned noodling had some kind of cosmic import, and Morrison wasn’t anywhere near a “poet for the ages” or much of any kind of poet at all.
Sophomoric free association was more like it, what I heard always reminded me of an artsy teenager who’s just gotten high for the first time and is trying really hard to be deep. “No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn…” Yeah, right.
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beb said on May 21, 2013 at 11:09 pm
Jeff – WTF? Who has been worried by your lack of comment about the Oklahoma tornado? I certainly haven’t because I assumed that your response would be towards helping people. Jesus told us to love one another like ourselves, that’s enough reason to help. As for how to pay for disaster relief we should have a rainy-day fund, paid into each year for disaster relief because you know bad weather happens. At Lot. And frequently. But of course the such a rainy day find would require a tax increase which for some reason is rule number 00 of the Ten Commandants: ‘Thou shalt never raise taxes.’
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Dexter said on May 21, 2013 at 11:57 pm
People need Connectors
Writers, heroes, stars, leaders
To give life form.
A child’s sand boat facing
the sun.
Plastic soldiers in the miniature
dirt war. Forts.
Garage Rocket Ships
Ceremonies, theatre, dances
To reassert Tribal needs & memories
a call to worship, uniting
above all, a reversion,
a longing for family & the
safety magic of childhood.
Jim Morrison
This is just a random sample of the work/words of Jim Morrison, who died, fer crissakes, at 27. About all the pop songs of the 1960s were “sophomoric” , and that includes the simple words penned for tunes by Macca. The Doors put out more music in just four years than anyone, music that captivates new fans generation after generation. These songs were huge hits and the albums sold millions. If you don’t like pop and rock from your youth, if you hate sports and those who love sports, that’s your choice. I hated country music as a young man, it made me want to puke. As a mature adult, I realize music is music, and rock, blues, jazz, country, and classical all offer bits to be borrowed back and forth to form the next hits. Oh well. I just wish I could have been there the other day when Tom Waits jumped up on stage with the Rolling Stones and sang “Little Red Rooster”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gc-2pm6GoU
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Dexter said on May 22, 2013 at 12:26 am
The Rolling Stones are touring now. All sorts of artists are jumping up on stage with them. This is my favorite: Dave Grohl grabs a guitar, and well, you’ve GOT to see this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rAfpg9pVrg&feature=player_embedded
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