After the crash...

My five-year-old Dell computer crashed a couple of days ago - total hard disk failure. I ended up buying a new computer, and it's taken me a while to restore all my backed-up data, and reload programs.

This new machine is a screamer, with six gig of RAM, quad core processor, and a 640 gig hard drive. Price? $750! I can't believe how the prices have gone down so much and how powerful the machines are becoming at those low prices.

I'll be back blogging now.

T.

Prick up your ears! Winwood's back!

Holy moley!! I have just listened to Steve Winwood's new album, "Nine Lives." Five friggin' stars children! I've always loved the man's voice, and his B-3 licks cook while never being overblown. I could go on about this album, but here is a review that says it all. (Be sure to click on the "more" link to read the whole review).

This album has: Top-notch musicians just playing their asses off, great new songs, Winwood in full voice, and fabulous engineering and production quality.

Need I say more?

T.

Lives in the Balance

Hi all.

Back from our place at Tahoe with my daughter and her family, and then some more time with them down here at home in Alameda -- love those grand kids!!! They flew back to Seattle on Saturday, so now I have some time to blog again.

I was out walking my dog today, listening to my MP3 player on "shuffle" when what to my wondering ears should appear, but Jackson Browne singing "Lives in the Balance." I was truly stunned by just how relevant and powerful the song is today, even though Jackson wrote it in 1986. Here are the lyrics, but do yourself a favor and try to find it in your music collection or online and listen to it as performed by Jackson and his always-fine musicians.

I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war

And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say the names

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

More on black presidents on film and TV

A few posts ago I presented my theory about how Dennis Haysbert's portrayal of President Palmer in "24" has served to generate acceptance of the idea of a black president in a wide, diverse viewing base.

Others apparently have been thinking similar thoughts. Here is a very interesting article about the subject. I particularly enjoy John Stewart's quip that he made as host of the Oscars this year. All due respect to the great Morgan Freeman as president in "Deep Impact" (1998), but Stewart's point is well-taken. This is why the Haysbert performance was special -- it literally transcended race. Viewers simply said to themselves "shit, this guy is one kick-ass prez!"

WTF @#$%$#&*@%!!!

Okay. Someone sent me this and it's driving me nuts!! Join the club.

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HOW SMART IS YOUR RIGHT FOOT???

Just try this. It is from an orthopedic surgeon............

This will boggle your mind and you will keep trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't. It's preprogrammed in your brain!

1. WITHOUT anyone watching you (they will think you are off your tree...) and
while sitting where you are at your desk in front of your computer, lift your
right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.!!!!!!!!!

I told you so!!! And there's nothing you can do about it! You and I both know
how stupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try it again, if you've not already done so.

Send it to your buddies to frustrate them too.


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Strange, no?

~ Tom