...where the left and right brains rock...

Top 45 45s

2010-03-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Part 1

mp3s may be the new 45s, but I, like many, still define a song as a single or 45. And, like Dave Marsh in his voluminous labor of love "The Heart of Rock'n'Soul: 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made", there's usually a story... (in no particular order except where noted)... "Summer Madness" Kool and the Gang (live) You can feel the heat rising off the asphalt on a scorching, humid summer day in the inner city. This aural masterpiece soars with a simmering majesty that lifts the primarily instrumental track beyond music to meditation. "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" Darlene Love. Maybe the most powerful vocal performance ever recorded. When Darlene embellishes the crescendo with her pleading "Baby, please come home, then pushes to the edges of the universe with "please...please...please", my body tingles and my eyes fill with tears...every time....wherever you are, you know you'll find a way home. "Keep Searchin' " Del Shannon. While his Runaway is rightfully acknowledged as one of the most memorable songs in pop history, for me, "Keep Searchin' " captures the desperate ride for understanding and acceptance set on the backdrop of the blue-washed California coast. The top down, the crisp dusk breeze in the hair, the brooding at the wheel--none better. "Soul and Inspiration" Righteous Brothers. Into each life, according to Dr. Wayne Dyer, many teachers appear. One such individual helped guide me through a very difficult period with her understanding, empathy and support. The Righteous Brothers timeless please defined our relationship.

"Get Down Tonight" KC and the Sunshine Band. Cliche, perhaps, but KC's dance floor classic changed the music in my life. The infectious rhythm, the frenetic organ, the brass enhancements, coerced me to the dance floor forever. And, the chorus? Well, that should be the basis for a life philosophy!

More to follow...

2009-03-19T08:24:00.001-07:00

Random thoughts and bon mots:

Could Belinda Carlisle play Priscilla Presley in the next Elvis biopic?
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney--what exactly is torture?
The incredulousness of Bernie Maloff: "As the years went by, I realized my risk and this day would inevitably come," he said. "I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for my crimes." If he knew the risk and knew the day would come when he would face arrest and court, why did he not stop? Unfortunately, his contrition rings hollow.
With resources likely to reach a more competitive level, is capitalism on the downside? Such a system functions effectively with unlimited resources. Such a system does not work well when resources are increasingly limited.
Why is socialism such a bad word in the American vocabulary? One need not be a card-carrying socialist to recognize that some ideas such as a national health plan offers a practical solution to a present and growing problem. To seek health care for all is far from move to the left--it's a pragmatic solution to a national crisis. Perhaps, if the issue is framed without the socialist context (unlikely given the fervent nature of conservatives to attach perceived negative references to anything not fitting their narrow, restrictive ideology), America can move toward a sensible national health plan.
Conservatives should be outraged that AIG seeks to dispense millions in bonuses to executives who oversaw the company's demise. After all, conservatives preach responsibility. Shouldn't AIG execs accept responsibility for thier company's performance?

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Thought - Rewards?

2008-02-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

What belief system would logically subscribe to a concept that a higher power, one that they believe created the universe, Earth and life, will somehow say, “Good job…you have killed your fellow man and destroyed the habitat that was created for you. You will be rewarded.”?

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Matchmaking...

2007-09-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

If commentator Bill O’Reilly teamed with actors Jason Biggs and Elizabeth Shue to start a traveling circus, might attendees expect a O’Reilly Biggs Shue?

If Miami Vice producer Michael Mann hooked up with comic Buddy Hackett, model Heidi Klem, comedienne/actress Margaret Cho and former Milwaukee outfielder Rob Deer...they could form the soup company of Mann Hackett Klem Cho Deer...

If former NBA player Manute Bol and Jerry Rice entered the food business, could the company be called Manute Rice?

If Mr. T and basketball legend Larry Bird decided to enter the car business, the duo could make T Birds.

June 6, 2006

2006-06-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

In all the hubbub surrounding the significance of 06-06-06 on the calendar, what is so blantantly absent from the conversation is the observation that a date is simply a man-made construct.

Nature does not measure time, per se. Simply, nature just is. The sun rises, the sun sets, no days, weeks, months or years are assigned to specific events by nature. Yes, the earth does revolve around the sun in a specific time period (year) and revolves on its axis in a specific time period (day). But man chooses to assign the names and the numeric references.

If man wanted, today could be December 15, 1234. Or August 126, 45,649. Frankly, 2006 happened billions of years ago. In fact, 2006 occurred, well, 2006 years after the big bang began yielding. Nature does not celebrate designations in time. As the German writer Thomas Mann noted, "Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols."

06-06-06? Just man-made assignments of time. Oh, and have a great day!

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Are we alone? Leave Tom alone!

2005-08-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

While Tom Cruise was recently taken to task in the blog, media and talk show circuits for his expressed belief that alien life exists in the universe, look beyond the tone of his remarks and his outspoken support of the controversial philosophy of Scientology and evaluate his assertion on its merit. You might be surprised.
When a German newspaper reporter asked Cruise, the star of Steven Speilberg’s remake of the H.G. Wells classic, “War of the Worlds”, if he believed in alien life, he replied, "Are you really so arrogant as to believe we are alone in this universe?
"Millions of stars, and we're supposed to be the only living creatures? No. There are many things out there, we just don't know."
While Cruise’s abrasive, borderline narcisstic, manner might be offensive to many and convenient fodder for the easily offended, at least, as a society, we’ve moved beyond the stage where such views earn a death sentence. In 1600, Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno publicly expressed the then-heretical notion that there were countless other worlds out there containing life. He was burned at the stake.

Then, in the 18th century, conventional wisdom swung markedly in the other direction. Many astronomers confidently speculated that every star—200 billion alone are estimated to exist in the Earth’s galaxy, the Milky Way--had planets with life. Will Herschel, who discovered Uranus, boldly cogitated that the sun was populated with life.

While we know our sun does not possess life, with an estimated 80 billion to 120 billion galaxies in the universe, more than 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (pronounced 20 sextillion) stars—or suns—likely are present.

The statistical probability that even a few of these stars (when you’re dealing in sextillions, a few could be millions!) might possess planets that can harbor life as we do or do not know it is highly likely.

But, as Enrico Fermi supposedly mused one memorable day in the 1940’s while talking with a group of atomic scientists, “So? Where is everybody?”

His simple allusion to the absence of contact from other life forms morphed into Fermi’s Paradox. To conclude that life must not exist simply because contact has not been made in a form that we understand, in scientific terms, is a radical inference.

While we can see stars in the universe because their light is bright enough to travel across galaxies to be visible in our sky, planets do not emit but merely reflect illumination. We cannot see planets outside our solar system. Thus, the presence of planets must be inferred based on aberrations in the fluidity of rays.

Our telescopes, while progressing at an incredible pace, are still very limited when viewing the universe. At one point, scientists thought five moons circled Uranus. When Voyager sailed past in 1986, ten more moons were discovered.

Uranus is only 1.7 million miles away. The nearest star is 24.7 trillion miles away. So, the nearest star is nearly 10,000,000 times further away than a planet that we thought, at one time, with our most powerful telescopes, only had five moons. Even at our astounding technological pace with telescope development, we have so far to go.

The Greenbank Equation—developed by Frank Drake in the 1960’s-- attempts to quantify the probability of extraterrestrial intelligent species (ETIS) in the universe. While assumptions factor into the complex equation, optimistically, 25,000 ETIS exist in the universe. Conservatively, two are present. Carl Sagan conjectured that millions of technologically advanced civilizations may be present in the universe.

Take Cruise to task for his tenor. But, don’t burn Hollywood’s most bankable star at the veritable public opinion stake for expressing a thought that just might have signficant merit.

After all, 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars might not be mere stars. Who knows how many might be suns.

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Jessica Simpson...please!

2005-08-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

Only in the United States could a clueless doorstop such as Jessica Simpson enjoy the ability to live the life of affluence.

Why do we give this No Child Left Behind poster child the time of day?

Simpson ("I don't even know who Lance Armstrong is.") is singular proof that intelligent design is merely the desperate rantings of the scientificly-challenged.
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Tonya Harding limericks

2005-04-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

In a creative spurt inspired by St. Patrick's Day, a few choice limericks celebrating one of Oregon's favorite citizens, the always exciting, unpredictable, daughter of the trailer park, Tonya Harding!

Limerick 1
From triple axel to three ring circus
Tonya’s life—what is today’s new purpose?
Whacked Kerrigan in the knee
Defeated Paula Jones in three
Wrestling a transvestite? Saints preserve us!

Limerick 2
Duck! The spinning hubcap is flying at this writer!
Unlike Paula Jones, this reporter doesn’t want to fight her
Now it’s TVs in the squared circle
Your were so hoping it was Urkel
Isn’t she Piper Laurie? Oh, no, he’s Rowdy Piper!

Limerick 3
Your skating life was once the province of so much jewelry
Then, for some reason, your existence devolved into tomfoolery
Your wedding tape may rot
Paris Hilton you're not
But that's what happens when you marry a guy named Gillooly

Limerick 4
Tonya, you had a fight in a barSupposedly saved someone in a carYour life is a messBut this we must confessSuch perverse pleasure we get from afar!

Limerick 5
Tonya, your life is oh so surreal these days
Wrestling, boxing, spinning hubcaps-all such a daze
What happened to the skate?
Where you were first rate
Or was that just a teenage, hormonal phase?

Michael Jackson

2005-03-15T15:25:00.000-08:00

What a sad state of affairs for Michael Jackson.

One of the truly amazing performers of our generation, a singer, dancer and composer of virtually unparalleled combined excellence has been reduced to a mere caricature of himself.

Although I watch little television, I remember a scene a few years ago on an MTV special that seems to sum up the challenge facing the gloved one. He was featured on an awards show where many young artists shared how much he influenced their careers. They effused about his great 1980's albums--Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad--about his dancing, about his breakthrough videos, about the young Michael fronting the Jackson 5. And, here was Michael in the background, furiously executing his signature popping moves.

While the young performers were acknowledging him as a legacy artist, he was actively trying to say with his increasingly, passionate dancing that he is here, now, current, hip.

Unfortunately, as an artist, he is not. Party guests never request songs beyond the three aforementioned albums or the J5 megahits in the early 1970's. As an artist, he has not recorded anything relevant for at least 15 years. And, his legal problems, grotesque surgeries, fading skin color and bizarre public behavior are quickly pushing aside his artistic achievements.

Admittedly, his popularity at such a young age and ability to surround himself with an entourage devoted to his every wish seriously skewed his view of life. Reality checks are few and far between for Jackson. Whatever advise he is receiving appears to fall on deaf ears.

Sad. One of the most incredible, scintillating performers in pop music history will likely be remembered more for this off-the-field antics than the achievements in entertainment. Sad.

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Martin Luther King Jr.

2005-01-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

Dr. King, thank you for providing a spotlight on one of the greatest injustices in American history--the treatment of a group of people as a separate class. Maybe, we will someday learn that lesson when we approach foreign affairs, when we deal with each other, when we interact with our family and friends.

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Ashlee Simpson and the Orange Bowl

2005-01-09T13:41:00.000-08:00

With utter incredulity, I viewed the last minute or two of Ashlee Simpson's performance at the Orange Bowl on January 4. After hearing what passed for primal utterings of a prehistoric banshee, is there any doubt why she lip synced her effort on Santurday Night Live?

A bright spot

2004-12-14T22:52:00.000-08:00

Our son is a curious, intelligent, free speaking individual. After saving money from performing household and yard chores plus funds from gifts, we encouraged Cameron to open a bank account.

While opening his account, our seven year old noticed that his funds were insured. “Does that mean you’ll pay me if you lose my money?” he asked the banker.

She chuckled and replied that the bank hasn’t lost any money lately. “Well,” said Cameron, “if you going to pay me $100,000, you can go ahead and lose my money.”

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Random thoughts...we'll never know...

2004-12-14T22:48:00.000-08:00

After celebrating a family graduation at a high end restaurant in one of San Francisco’s tallest towers, several of us waited for the elevator to descend to the parking garage. The up arrow indicator and the down arrow indicator were lit on the control panel.

A gentleman with a trophy blonde at his side approached the elevator. After waiting for a few seconds, he sighed noticeably, advanced to the panel and pushed the lit down arrow.

I guess we’ll never know if his push retrieved the elevator faster.

* * * * * *

One of the wonderful benefits of riding a bike to work everyday is the ability to see human idiocy played out as series of impromptu vignettes before you on an asphalt stage.

The other day, as I turned right on one of the two busy streets that lead into our neighborhood of 500 homes, a beat-up, old Chevy truck turned left to enter the tract. A young lady in a silver sedan turned, saw the truck about 200 feet away and proceeded, turned right in front of the vehicle.

The truck driver immediately pressed the horn consistently while choosing not to slow down. The young lady, after negotiating the turn leaned out the window and yelled, “Slow down!” Frankly, the truck was not barreling at a high rate of speed, but he caught up to hear at the intersection a short distance. Failing to even stop at the stop sign, he veered around her on the left and turned right in front of her.

Two silly and dangerous movies in one incident that could have ended in a needless accident. Why?
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2004-11-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

A CATHOLIC BOY

Frankly, the basis of most religion is fear. I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools for 12 years. Fortunately, for the times, Serra High School perceived that the teaching of other religions—Judaism, Buddism, Hinudism—was a valuable addition to my education.

As a Catholic, we were taught that we were born with sin, original sin. Although we had done nothing in life yet, we already had sin that needed redemption. Wow, what a concept! A just-born child, who was yet to walk, talk or appear on The Apprentice already possessed sin.

If you didn’t comply with the Church doctrine, you might go to hell. And, no one wanted to spend eternity in fiery damnation with a cackling, horned creature.

2004-10-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

What has America become...

A place where a no-talent like Paris Hilton becomes a celebrity...
A place where notoriety and infamy pave the road to fame...
A state of mind that encourages humiliation, embarrassement and downright disdain for entertainment...
A public arena where ripping an opponent somehow makes you a more viable candidate for political office...
A media realm where the louder you shout, the stronger your argument...

2004-10-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

Dick Cheney...wow!

Which of the below might be true?

Dick Cheney is a pathological liar
Dick Cheney thinks the American people idolize him to the points where they will accept his word--particularly if he sounds authoritarian enough--on Iraq or anyother subject
Dick Cheney thinks the American people are so scared of another terrorist attack (or their own shadow) that they will believe just about any assertion about an Iraq-Al Quieda connection, the war in Iraq, the war of terror or the coalition
Dick Cheney does not have a very good memory (never met John Edwards before!)
Dick Cheney does not believe journalists will research his statements for accuracy
Dick Cheney lives in a fantasy world where his beliefs and assertions--regardless of the presence of facts to the contrary--govern his public statements

If any of the above are accurate, the American people should be extremely concerned that Cheney works in our government, represents our country and brokers decisions that impact our everyday lives (i.e., energy commission meetings in 2001). Beyond mystification that sounding resolute, strong and authoritarian substitutes for accuracy, fairness, honesty and integrity.

2004-10-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

Why aren't more faith-based people rabid environmentalists?

Many faith-based people lean toward conversative attitudes (i.e., the Religious Right), which often extend beyond hot-button political issues, such as a woman's right to choose and prayer in school, to economic and envionrmental policies. So, often, the views do not embrace a conservation perspective, but support or fail to address views and actions that lead to the continued employment of fossil fuels, the deployment of a military strategy to retain and extend access to needed resources, and business practices that endanger communities and place sensitive natural areas at risk.

If people with strong religious convictions truly believe that the earth is a gift from a higher power, then, would they not undertake every effort to nurture and preserve our home? If nature is indeed, as they profess, the higher power's creation, why are they not screaming at the top of their lungs to treat the earth with the respect attendant to that view? Why do they not treat earth with respect for its gifts, instead of treating it as bounty to be exploited for selfish pursuits?

2004-10-05T08:39:00.000-07:00

Orwell as GM

When a baseball team struggles, general managers render noble pronouncements such, "There's plenty of blame to go around for our performance this year, starting with me." Then, they dismiss everyone around them to show the fans they mean business and seek improvement--except themselves!

Most recent case in point--the dismissal of Bob Melvin as Seattle Mariners' manager. Despite Ichiro's record-breaking season, Melvin simply did not have the horses to compete in a tough division. He didn't sign Rich Aurilia, whose mediocre performance coerced his release in July. He didn't decide John Olerud, Edgar Martinez and Jamie Moyer had another quality year when they were clearly on the downside of their illustrious careers. Despite apparently available resources, he didn't fail to sign a significant free agent in the off-season.

Yet Bill Bavasi, who is responsible for those activities, cleaned house. Except for his room. Will Melvin's dismissal revitalize the Mariners? Unlikely. Unless his successor has a young pitching staff that suddenly blossoms into the next Atlanta Braves. Unless upgrades at numerous positions are executed. Unless the American League West competition quickly loses its competitiveness.

Melvin's communication skills were lauded by his players. His on-field strategy was solid. Perhaps, he can be criticized for failing to "his mark" on the team. But, smart leaders work with the strengths and personalities of their team and shape their style to optimize the performance of that team.

Funny, too bad we couldn't see two equally rare events in this memorable 2004 baseball season--the single season hits record and an enlightened baseball leader walking the walk instead of talking the talk.

2003-09-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, well, almost all of the time, you need to see something up close to appreciate the experience an individual is having and the choices they have made. Sounds obvious, but, how often do we invest the time to truly develop those conclusions?

Case in point, I'm in Tacoma this weekend playing baseball and my wife's cousin was kind enough to let me stay in his room off-campus at the University of Puget Sound. I think I benefitted most from the arrangement. Well, free room and board is cool, but seeing his reality, meeting his friends, eating in the student union, eating at a local restaurant, watching an indepdendent film and sleeping in quarters that might be banned if city inspectors did not turn the other cheek at college student housing allowed me great insight into the choices he made to attend this university and to see the exceptional choices he has made with his friends and roommates.

I understand his view more clearly and the probability in family decisions regarding his college experience is they may not understand what I have seen and experienced. The judgments and comments may not be made from his point of view but, rather their own experiences. And, I may not even try to communicate what I have seen because they will not comprehend what they have not seen.

And, yes, I think his friend, who is a girl, likes him (she's very cute, down to the earth, and an interesting conversationalist). And, I think he likes here. Who knows? Maybe she will join him someday in the West Indies. But, that is a whole separate reality!