Can you guess the composer?

Okay, let’s have a little fun.  Here is a tune that I know that you know.  Question is, who wrote it?  I have been giving people this test for years and only one person knew the answer without having to look it up.  There are lots of versions, but I like this one by Harry Connick, Jr.
If you  knew the answer without looking it up let me know – now be honest!  I will reveal the composer in my next post.
This is a really nifty song, structure and chord wise.  I learned it for guitar and was amazed at how many chord changes there are for such a seemingly simple song.

“Collapse”–a challenging watch.

A while back (December 2009) I read several reviews of the then just released documentary “Collapse.”  They were all favorable, with some squirmy reservations, so I dumped it into my Netflix queue.  I wasn’t paying attention to the queue and “Collapse” eventually migrated to the top and got delivered about a week ago.  I was not that enthused about watching it, but I figured I might as well check it out rather then return it unwatched.

I’m glad I watched it.  It is very difficult to describe but it is basically a weird, passionate, educational, scary, riveting  82 minute rant by a guy named “Michael Ruppert.”  He got his start on the conspiracy beat in the seventies by outing the CIA on its drug dealing and he’s gone on from there.  I guess you could say that the cornerstone of his current views is the world’s dependency on oil, and the eventual collapse of life as we know it.

Here is a quote from the SF Chronicle review of December 2009, which should give you an idea of the tenor of the movie:

And that's exactly his belief: There will be no tomorrow because of our alarming dependence on oil, which is about to dry up, and because our economic system has become one big pyramid scheme. Electric cars are a smoke screen, clean coal is a joke and ethanol is an even bigger joke. You better start saving organic seeds, because they'll be the real currency when (not if) the apocalypse hits.

Ruppert may seem like a kook, but he's the Cadillac of conspiracy theorists - looking and dressing like the guy who does your taxes, while delivering his beliefs in nonpartisan assaultive bursts that defy the possibility of selfish interest. Who would want to buy this guy's book or visit his Web site? After hearing 82 minutes of Ruppert, who would want to do anything except hug the kids extra tight and start tilling whatever land you have in the backyard?

What that quote says is true but don’t let that deter you.  Everything he says makes perfect sense to me, but it’s something I suppress because of the enormity of its consequences.  

An excellent review of the movie is Roger Ebert’s take.  It’s pretty comprehensive, but here are a couple of short quotes from the review that I think are right on:

I have no way of assuring you that the bleak version of the future outlined by Michael Ruppert in Chris Smith's "Collapse" is accurate. I can only tell you I have a pretty good built-in B.S. detector, and its needle never bounced off zero

And

I don't know when I've seen a thriller more frightening. I couldn't tear my eyes from the screen. "Collapse" is even entertaining, in a macabre sense. I think you owe it to yourself to see it.

Tom says, “check it out.”

Never pass up a Miles article…

Probably the one universal, unifying figure shared by me and all my friends, and even extending out to “good acquaintances,” is Miles Davis.  I could just go on, and on, and on, and on, and on about how Miles and his music guided my life and my love of life.  (Notice how I used the term “guided” rather than something like “influenced.”)  My early age 15-18 year old LP collection was a quarter Miles for sure.  It would have been a higher percentage, but there were only so many Miles platters I could find and/or afford.  Mind you, you had to make room for a lot of Ray Charles, Trane, Bill Evans, and the like.

So, I stumbled across this great Miles article moments ago, which I just had to share with you all immediately.  I usually don’t use this blog to refer to articles any longer than a screen page in length.  However, this one deserves reading.   There are so many great observations about Miles in the article that I can’t take the time to list them all.  That is why you need to read it.

But as teasers try these: 

Kind of Blue “is the most singular of sounds, yet among the most ubiquitous. It is the sound of isolation that has sold itself to millions,” says Richard Williams in his recent study The Blue Moment.

The pianist Keith Jarrett once observed: “I think that Miles would have preferred to have a bad group playing bad music rather than to play as he did before.”

Tom says check it out.

The dilemma–How can we solve it?

Many of us on the left have commented on the sad fact that the right wing/Republican propaganda machine is very effective.  They lie and lie and somehow get away with it.  We constantly take the “reasonable” position, which says that the truth and the true facts will win out in the end.  Know what?  I don’t believe that any longer.  The problem is that rebutting the lies takes ten times more thought and effort than promulgating the lies.  Here is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.  I don’t expect you to read it all – I couldn’t do it myself.  The point is that even though Media Matters is meticulous in their rebuttal, few will really take the time to read it, especially the folks who are being duped by the right wing propaganda machine. 

There are lots of analogies to our dilemma.

• Pulling the thread that unravels the sweater is easy.  Knitting it back together takes a long, long time.
• Knocking down a house of cards takes no time at all.  Building it takes time, attention to detail, and steady nerves.
• Starting ugly unfounded rumors about someone is easy.  That someone getting back his or her reputation is really hard and often impossible.

Frankly, I don’t know what to do about this.  The closest I can come for now is to say we need someone on our side who can do this.

Life indeed does go on…

Leading up to the elections I became more depressed each day.  But fortunately, in a parallel arc were my beloved San Francisco Giants.  The closer they came to their Holy Grail of a World Series victory, the less attention I paid to politics and the downers the world will always have to offer me.  And you know what?  I felt the best I have felt in a long time.  The Giants winning it all on election eve was perfect timing.  I had not watched even one MSNBC show, or any other “news” show since the playoffs began with us facing down a tough Braves team in an always-dangerous “best of five” series.  It got even more intense with the best of seven series with the heavily favored Phillies, which we won in six!  At that point I had not even a glimmer of interest in the whole political landscape.  And when we made it to the Big Show, my focus was Giants, Giants, Giants, 24/7.  I was listening to all the local sports talk radio shows, whereas a month earlier I was listening to Stephanie Miller’s podcast every day, with Keith, Rachel, and Jon Stewart sprinkled in. 

It was a great ride culminating in a parade yesterday that only San Francisco could conjure up.  Crowd estimates range from 500,000 to a million.  People were coming down from the far reaches of NoCal, with lots of old Giants hands like me coming with their children and grandchildren.  My Dad took me and my younger brothers to see the Giants in 1958 when they played that first year in tiny Seals Stadium (and many more games after that after they began to play at Candlestick park.)  [Now we play at AT&T Park, downtown, right on the Bay]   If my son Jesse, (also a devoted, knowledgeable, Giants fan) had not had to work and if my daughter and grand kids were not up in Seattle, I would have probably taken them all to see it live.  As it was, I watched the parade on TV.  Seeing that many people just blissing out was undeniably infectious.   Believe it or not, there was not even one arrest. 

I’m reaching the final arc of my life now, and the above events have made me realize that the so-called big things in life are not that big, and the so-called small things are often unnoticed  miracles. I’ll still follow politics, and even comment on things from time to time, but I’m definitely going to ignore the downers and look for those miracles.

^^^The coolest and beautiful yard in the world^^^

~ Tom

p.s.  Spring training is only about 4 months away…