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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
Live free or die!
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June 06, 2003
Springtime for Elvis
I must say that this is perhaps the most beautiful spring that I remember ever in life. Most minor personal problems melt away when it is 70 degrees and their are fresh flowers blooming. Indeed about now would be a good time to hunt down a copy of Grandpa Jones classic recording of "The Air, the Sunshine and the Rain" for a little non-denominational giving of thanks.
Springtime has apparently been good to Elvis Costello as well. From Rolling Stone:
Elvis Costello will release his twenty-fourth album in September. Recorded in three weeks in New York, with Kevin Killen co-producing, the album will be more lavishly arranged than 2002's rock & roll-minded When I Was Cruel.
Costello wrote most of the songs after last year's Cruel concerts -- still in his sweaty stage clothes, he would play piano for two hours in a white heat of composition.
It appears that getting rid of the dour ex-wife and getting engaged to a hot young jazz singer has stoked his creative fires. This sounds like some inspired record making, always a good thing. It's pretty cool to think that right after the show in Indianapolis last October, and greeting us eager fans at the back door he may likely have been going straight back to the hotel to write a hot new song.
Ah, springtime, what beauty- warm showers, fresh flowers and the promise of an early harvest of a new Elvis album. Life is good.
posted by Al at 6/06/2003 04:40:00 PM
June 04, 2003
Martha Stewart gets screwed
Martha Stewart is getting screwed. Generally I don't give a rat's ass about Martha Stewart one way or the other. I would not be likely to ever buy a copy of her magazine, or the pastel linens at K-Mart or whatever kind of crap she's selling.
Still, this bunch of indictments is abusive as hell- and a good argument for scrapping most of the insider trading laws. She's a good, successful American business person who has done nothing substantially wrong. She has a unique big name celebrity CEO status, and some prosecutors plan on making big names for themselves by taking her down. This works much like street thugs who make their names based on what big shot playa they murder.
Martha Stewart stands accused primarily for the "crime" of selling off four thousand measly shares of stock after getting a call from the CEO a day before bad news hit the street. What was said between them? No one else knows. They just know that she talked to the guy on the phone.
The intolerable vagueness and arbitrariness of insider trading laws comes out perfectly right here. If Waksal specifically told her that the FDA had just rejected their big new drug, then she was getting illegal "insider information" and might spend years in prison for acting on his advice.
On the other hand, legal talking heads suggest that if he just called her and discreetly noted that he was selling off a bunch of HIS stock and did not explain specifically why, there'd be no basis for accusations of wrongdoing. And why should there be?
What if Waksal said that he was selling his stock, and added that she probably should too- with no further explanation. Is that "insider information" that Stewart should be ruined and go to prison for? Is that even bad behavior at all? I don't see it.
Over a lousy $200,000 stock sale Ms Stewart has estimated losses already in her own stock in the several hundred million dollar range. She had to give up a prestigious position on the board of the New York Stock Exchange. That's before they start in with whatever they actually decide to do with her in court.
Folks, the federal government is absolutely destroying this woman's life and business- threatening her with prison, for what? She is not even accused of any form of fraud. She's not stealing money from the kitty. She's not been playing funny with the books.
The whole point of trading in stocks comes from pitting your knowledge and judgment against that of everyone else in the market. There's no such thing as a "fair" marketplace. You have all the bits and pieces that you know from public records, from personal dealings with the company perhaps, or having a cousin that works in the warehouse. If your info is good and some prosecutor wants to make a name for himself, then you can be indicted for insider trading, as Martha Stewart could attest.
Then the feds turn loose their whole arsenal on this one person for a year and more, leaning heavily on every person with any feasible connection to her to say what they want to hear. Gee, I'm not real surprised that they've come up with some people who will say whatever they want to hear. What, you didn't co-operate with your own lynching? Well, there's some MORE FELONIES!!! It is not obstruction of justice- anything she may have done here was more like obstruction of INjustice.
Essentially, Martha Stewart has been nailed as a scapegoat for the real fraud crimes of the likes of Enron. She had nothing to do with anything like that, but these laws are way too difficult for experts to understand, much less the general public. For the vindictive playa hatas, it doesn't make a difference anyway. They're just happy to see her taken down.
Maybe I WILL go buy some damned pastel Martha Stewart brand sheets.
posted by Al at 6/04/2003 03:15:00 PM
Can Bowie make a living?
Says here that Moody's Investors Service is thinking about downgrading David Bowie's bond rating. He got a great deal of publicity in 1997 for offering bonds based on future royalties for his music.
I don't know jack about the specific situation with Bowie, so I don't know most of the relevant facts of this particular story, nor do I claim expertise in the bond market. I'm sure Moody's analysts are way ahead of me there.
There's a lot more to a musician's earnings than retail music sales, however. Bowie would have various forms of songwriting income especially that would not be impacted by a slump in retail music sales. This would likely be especially true of an older artist way past his hit making prime. What, is his new album only going to sell 2 copies instead of 3?
For starters, he'll have songwriting royalties based on the airplay of his songs. At this point, I'd suspect this would be several times what he gets from the mechanical songwriting royalties for record sales.
Also, he has money coming in for licensing the songs and the recordings for commercials. I think I've heard "Heroes" in some kind of ad. He could exploit the hell out of the catalog that way. I fully expect to hear his voice in some slamming commercial declaring, "Wham, bam, thank ya ma'am." There is also licensing the songs and recordings for use in movies, which is probably largely legally indistinguishable from licensing them for ads.
Then there is the live arena. Bowie has suggested that in light of the phenomenon of P2P, he suspects that musicians may have to make their living from giving actual live performances, treating studio recordings as advertising. That's probably way overstating the point, but that's not so bad. Many struggling artists in fact make their actual living from playing live- and this experience cannot be downloaded from the internet. Someone of Bowie's stature will be a big money concert draw for as long as he can walk out on a stage, even if he never has another hit.
I wouldn't worry too overly much about musicians making a living, then. There's a lot more to the pie than royalties from the labels for retail music sales- if your artist actually manages to get paid for those.
posted by Al at 6/04/2003 01:21:00 AM
Spare the rod and...call the cops?
THIS CASE from Florida makes a perfect small example of the modern perversion of time tested successful child rearing techniques. Short version, a 12 year old boy purposely stomped in a mud puddle, which splashed muddy water on bystanders. The boys was arrested, handcuffed and held by police for a couple of hours.
Arrested and taken to jail for splashing in a mud puddle? If I were the twelve year old, I suspect my reaction would be entirely negative. I would take it as pure bullying by The Man, harsh and arbitrary treatment that would only breed permanent resentment- as it should.
Obviously being hauled off to jail would tend to be a tremendously traumatizing experience in numerous ways. It's not likely to be a positive training experience.
Yet what do you do with the boy? Let's assume for the sake of argument that he really made a mess of several people's clothes. That's just unacceptable. Talking to him and wagging a finger might reasonably be seen as insufficient to make the point to the boy. There must be something stronger, yet short of absolutely calling in the fuzz.
Solution: A simple old fashioned spanking. Let the assistant principal earn his pay. Or invite Dad to come administer the punishment. A half dozen good swats on the bottom with a paddle communicates that there are serious consequences to your actions. Even mild attacks like this on another's person will not be tolerated. Judiciously applied corporal punishment could help in a great many cases by getting the child's attention before it gets to the point of them doing much worse things.
A simple ass whipping will hurt your pride a little, which is the point, but will not produce all the drama and trauma of calling in the cops. It's not a perfect solution to all child problems. Spanking can be easily overused or flatly abused. Used judiciously however, corporal punishment has been shown to be very useful in the real world.
"Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." (Proverbs 23:13,14)
posted by Al at 6/04/2003 01:01:00 AM
June 03, 2003
Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre
On this day in history, June 3, 1989, the Chinese military opened fire on a crowd of peaceful protesters in Tiananmen Square. They directly slaughtered hundreds of non-violent young people on live television just to make the point that they were in charge.
Hell, this is the least of the offenses of this evil group. (Tibet springs to mind.)Yeah, the Chinese government should be in the front of the line for the next spot that opens up on the Axis of Evil.
About now would be a good time to hear Solomon Burke singing "None of Us Are Free".
posted by Al at 6/03/2003 10:07:00 PM
June 02, 2003
The Marquis de Sade has a spanking comin'
Now here's a birthday boy who would properly enjoy his birthday spanking: The infamous Marquis de Sade was born this day June 2, 1740 in Paris.
Among several earlier stints in prison, de Sade spent 11 years in prison, freed finally in the mass releases of Bastille Day in 1789.
He did most of his writing while he was locked up, naturally. He was too busy on the outside debauching. Fortunately for us, the authorities of the day didn't have enough sense to figure out that letting him personally indulge his appetites would do them far less damage than causing him to channel that energy into books and plays to stir the public imagination.
As it was, he wrote bunches of books and plays and stuff. His best known works include 120 Days of Sodom and Philosophy in the Bedroom, which involved extreme sex games and torture mixed with harsh philosophical musings.
You can download copies of some of de Sade's work RIGHT HERE. Learn how to play "kick the chair".
I find that the sex parts wear thin after a while. The more interesting aspect is his pure iconoclasm. He really didn't put truck in authority nor tradition. He was pure high intellect id. He must have been just a heck of a funny guy.
Good advice from the good reverend
When conflicted rookie cop Julien Lowe asked his preacher on The Shield what you should do when the man you are isn't the man you want to be.
HIS WISE ADVICE.
posted by Al at 6/02/2003 01:21:00 AM
June 01, 2003
Sgt. Pepper's anniversary
It was 36 years ago today that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on June 1, 1967. There hardly seem to be words left to say about this watershed of modern music. They sure came up with a good batch of songs.
For the jaded lover of Sgt Pepper whose ears have grown weary of the beautiful but overfamiliar Beatles album: Help is here! Dig on the Big Daddy album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. They perform the entire album song for song- 50s style. Dig the doo wop harmonies and the Jerry Lee Lewis-ized "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Especially dig the Buddy Holly take of "A Day in the Life". Besides being surprisingly musically effective in their own right, these recordings will let you somewhat hear the Beatles album again with new ears.
posted by Al at 6/01/2003 04:13:00 AM
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