CLEANING OUT THE BLOG-ATTIC...
...I never know what I'm gonna find in there...
-
I realize that since I bought my digital camera a little over a year ago I perhaps have become more dependent on photos than is necessary. Or, I'll be surfing some obscure website and find a Really Weird Photo, and I'll 'save' it in case I can use it somewhere on down the line. I mean, face it, when you've put over 900 postings in a blog, it's difficult to stay fresh and exciting and original and trendsetting all the time. Or a little bit of the time, or at all, sometimes. But I try. Most of the time I fail miserably, but hey, give me at least a "B+" in effort. All I know is, many times my blogs are too wordy, and I know that when I read wordy blogs by other people, my eyes tend to glaze over. Heck, sometimes I bore myself when I'm writing my own blog! Hopefully that won't happen here, to either you or me. So it becomes necessary to weed out my pictures every now and then before my computer's memory becomes worse than my own. In the spirit of that sentiment, here are a few things You Probably Actually Could've Done Without...
-
Here is my computer. This menacing little machine is how I transmit my drivel. I must admit I'm spoiled by this lil' miniature electronic slave. Sometimes I'm a slave to it. It keeps calling out, "come on over here, big boy, and type anything you want!" (How can I resist?) It's an HP Pavilion dv6000, and was probably out-of-date two weeks after I bought it three years ago. I run Windows XP, the 'media' version. Note if you will, how I've worn the paint off my touchpad and left-click areas...you'll see another white speck above and to the right...that's where I've ground away another wear-spot from playing too much computer pinball. (The 'flippers' are the "Z" and "/" keys.) Cool, huh? I always fantasized about having a pinball machine someday, so in a sense, I now do. Ever Since I was a young boy, I played the silver ball...and I musta played them all...
-
Another one of my Little Electronic Slaves is my trusty old Transistor Radio which I bought at a Goodwill Store back in 2000 (or possibly before that). Now, is this "old school" or what? It takes one of those rectangular-shaped 9 volt batteries, and usually I can make it thru an entire baseball season (including spring training games) without having to ante up for a new battery. It doesn't get much use otherwise. I have a little cubbyhole just below my car radio, which is just big enough to slide my transistor radio into and there it stays until the Boys Of Summer come calling. Somehow Seattle Mariners Losses are easier to take when I'm out wandering in the sea breeze, radio in hand. Note that it's a "Gran Prix", one of the cheapee-cheapo brands that are knocked off by underfed but extremely industrious Chinese or Japanese workers toiling in sweatshops for something like 10-cents every two weeks. I imagine it cost maybe ten bucks new; I got it for a buck or two 9 years ago and it still works, so I'd say this little radio's been cost-effective. It has a little clip-thing on the back so I can hook it on my shirt pocket or T-shirt collar. I am not kidding when I say that I don't have to have all the latest gadgets and gizmos; who needs an Ipod or an mp3 player , anyway? This little device also receives FM stations; the antenna extends forth a little over a foot, and if you turn the radio in precisely the right direction, the signal is crystal clear. Yup, that's me, low-tech all the way. I remember how, for Christmases past, how I just HAD to have a transistor radio. Then, an AM-FM radio. Then, a Record Player. Then, a tape recorder. Although I have no technical background, I just love the Heck out of Electronic things. They're fascinating. (I know what you're thinking: "small minds are easily entertained". You might be right.)
-
Okay, now to change pace, we'll move to the great out-of-doors. Sometimes I like to try and get "arty" with my photographs. I try to compose my photos as best as possible, and although I'm no pro, I'm at least as good as some of the photographers around these parts who like to market the photos they take at trade fairs or other assorted community events. The title? "Plastic Chair In The Middle Of The Back Yard", because, well, that's what it is...if you look closely, you'll find that I've got a Really-GREEN Thumb when it comes to growing Dandelions. Whenever the Neighbor Kid needs money, he'll bang on my front door and offer to mow my lawn, so what can I say but 'who am I to get in the way of free enterprise?' Off to the right, out of the picture, is my really-really-rundown garage; I don't dare park my car in it. Whoever built it, put a wooden floor in it. It also contains old stuff left by the previous owner left, such as light fixtures, old car batteries, a rusted electric typewriter and some bent-outta-shape light fixtures. I suppose someday the neighbor-kid will knock on my door, wanting to know if I need my Garage torn down...then he'll have more yard to mow.
-
Sometimes I try to get topical out of some underlying need to prove to the human race that I can actually form some sort of cohesive, tangible opinion on matters which are Important To Us All. That said, although I was really absorbed in last fall's Presidential Election, I have no idea what President Obama has done since. I've read about gripes some have with his policies, but so far, no blantly offending sort of scandal has presented itself. anything brewing on any kind of scandal. Maybe this is the way people felt in the feel-good 1950's, perhaps? Or maybe I'm just ignorant, which is possible. Maybe I'm at the age where Everything Current is Rapidly Passing Me By, and that's entirely possible. So anyway, when I saw this intriguing little button on a website, it intrigued me and I'll bet my old college Journalism professor would've liked it. (Maybe this button was originally minted in the Nixon Administration? If not, then it might be from the Dick Cheney Collection...)
-
In the search for Essential Ingredients Of Blog Memorability, I try to utilize many different tactics...hey, if advertisers and speechwriters can do it And Get Paid For It, why can't I, as One Who Blogs Only To Satisfy My Own Free Will, use tactics of shock and horror to hook my reading audience (all 2 of them) so that they'll think, as they stare wide-eyed at what they're seeing on the screen, "Wow, This Blog Is One Strange Place!" So I will blatantly pander to the lowest level possible by including this photo, which kinda shocked me...
-
Here, Kitty Kitty...CHOMP!!! Most cats catch birds or mice; this one won't settle for anything less than a Human Torso, although it might settle for an entire tuna-fish or two. I found this picture whilst searching thru Craigslist. It's always amazing, the things people will post. But this reassures me in a way, because when someone else posts stuff like this, I realize that there's other imbalanced people out there besides me. Actually, I saved this photo just in case something relevant came up, but nothing has, so, well, it ended up here in the Blog Attic. Although, if you ever DO come upon a "Feline-o-saurus" (Felix Carnivorous) such as this next time you go swimming, perhaps it's because for breakfast, you had a big heaping bowl full of this stuff...

So there it is, folks, another edition of Dumb Stuff I've Posted In My Blogging Career. Now, at long last, I can delete all the photo-files posted here, which is good, 'cos I've got more photos of totally dumb and irrelevant stuff just waiting to be thrown up on this blog. Ah, ain't technology fun?

THEY'RE ALL GONE NOW...
Senator Edward Kennedy joins his brothers...
-
The wheel of destiny keeps turning; the Last Kennedy Brother died last night. Inasmuch as we could see Senator Edward Kennedy's death approaching since he was diagnosed with brain cancer last year, we could also see that he would never have a chance to be President; he campaigned so hard for the office in 1980, but I think everyone knew that he wouldn't be Chief Executive, ever. That's how I felt. In the back of my mind, I kept wondering, "yeah, but what about Chappaquiddick?" And I'm positive a lot of other folks wondered that, too. A news piece I saw said something to the effect of "after Senator Kennedy's unsuccessful bid for the Presidency, he re-dedicated himself to serve the downtrodden", etc. etc. What else could he do? He Had to re-dedicate himself. He had no choice. And maybe through the years, he was chasing some sort of mass approval he knew he'd never really acquire, no matter how many times he was re-elected to the Senate.
-
He certainly was one of the most televised members of Congress ever; it seemed as if he was always in the news, legislating this, promoting that, talking about whatever he was talking about. And every time I saw him on-screen, I wondered..."what about that night...?" I got the impression over the years that he had to keep pushing the envelope, fighting, legislating, speaking, debating and otherwise gesticulating as if he were trying to outrun Mary Jo Kopechne's ghost. That's the way it always felt to me. I respect the Kennedys; they're all brilliant, and John, Robert, and Teddy did many good things for our country. But, I had always figured that no assassination attempts were ever made on Teddy because there was no chance he'd ever be President. Yeah, that sounds pretty ignorant, I know. But that's how I felt. One Night Long Ago tarnished his legacy. How tragic.
-
Bill Clinton politically disfigured himself in similar fashion, although we all know Monica is still alive. But Bill Clinton basically Threw It Away. I Believed in Change; I voted for Clinton the same way people a generation earlier had voted for JFK. And Bill let me down, severely, and I lost all respect for him. And now, he's a joke, a buffoon, and that's tragic. And no matter what Bill Clinton does with himself in the future, it'll always be in the back of people's minds: "Monica, Monica, Monica." I've fallen out-of-step with the current political scene; maybe I'm just blindly assuming that our system of checks and balances will maintain itself during the Obama Presidency; I hope so, anyway. But...there's been NO SCANDAL. How refreshing. It's reassuring to know (or be able to hope) that Barack Obama is a Good Person. He Seems to be...
-
In the scope of things, while I may not feel a lot of personal loss because of Senator Kennedy's passing, it's just now hitting me that All Three Are Gone. John, Robert, Edward. They've been such important figures in this country's history, at least during the time I've been alive. I don't know if Edward Kennedy sustained his political momentum because of 'that night on Chappaquiddick' in 1969; nobody will never really ever know what happened, although I tend to believe his account; it's always surprising when the car you're driving plows into a huge pool of water. Maybe he underwent genuine shock, maybe he did dive down and try to look for her, but yet there's that big gap of time that it took him to Actually Report the accident to the authorities. Maybe he felt tons of guilt over it, and that's what kept him going, not being able to stop, lest the ghosts of the past catch up with him. Motivation comes in some strange packages, after all.
-
Remember that old song that goes..."Anybody here seen my old friend John...Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby...it's difficult for me to think of Teddy in the same way. I think in the end, he proved he was a fighter. And I grudgingly respect him for that.
-
Finally...yes, I'm aware that John F. Kennedy reportedly had his, shall we say, 'dalliances' as well. And were he President Today, he'd never hear the last of it. That proves, more than anything, how Times Have Changed in the last half-a-century.

GOING BACKWARDS IN TIME WITH GRUNGE...
...another Rock Variation I'm just barely catching up to...

-

When 'Grunge' music was happening in the Seattle area, and then spread to the rest of the nation and world, I must confess I Missed It All. I never had a chance to hear very much of it. I had never even heard a Nirvana album until 3 or 4 years ago. I found a 2nd-hand cassette of "Nevermind" (the one with the baby in the swimming pool on the cover) and listened to it more out of curiosity than anything else. "How depressing this music is", I thot. Despite all the news about group leader Kurt Cobain's demise, I honestly hadn't heard Nirvana, at all, before 2003. It's not because I don't like loud music; heck, I've listened to The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Soundgarden, The Dead Kennedys, and a group that called itself "X", as well as other sort-of punky, distorted, warped musical offerings by other similar groups. And having grown up on Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Steppenwolf and other heavy bands, I seem to have a need, still, to have my ears blasted out every once in a while. And I think I succeeded in doing that, listening to Nirvana. Plus, Nirvana's sound blasts obliterated some of that Waxy-ear-buildup I get from time to time. (Too much information, probably...)

-

I found a copy of this videocassette (pictured, left) a while back. Nirvana "Live! Tonight! Sold Out!", which came out in 1994. Maybe I have a fascination with Dead Rock Stars; it's almost as if I'm bringing someone back to life for an hour and a half so I can see what they were all about. So I subjected myself to the Sonic Onslaught of Nirvana. "Sonic Onslaught" is, I think, a very accurate descriptive phrase, because there ain't nothin' pretty about Nirvana's sound. Not At All. It's a fully saturated, raw, blistering type of music which was intense, bordering on uncomfortably-intense. Kurt Cobain, the guitarist, lead vocalist and chief songwriter, certainly seemed to have a lot of Demons he was dealing with, and what better a way to air out your gripes than with music that approaches the roar of a 747 taking off.

-

As I listened to this, I kept flashing back to the music of the Sex Pistols; they only issued one studio LP, back in 1977, and it was absolutely crammed to the gills with snarls, yells, overmodulation, frustration, anxieties, putdowns and rundowns, and I sensed a lot of those attitudes in Nirvana's music, too. The only difference, really, is that all of the Sex Pistols' songs were short and loud and very, very fast, whereas Nirvana dealt out the sonic anxieties in more deliberate fashion; the bass and drums work very well together, a bit more slowly in the tempo department, while out front, Cobain is screaming into the mike while flailing away on his guitar, coating every single note with absolute PAIN. Perhaps Cobain had felt the group had gone as far as it could go? Maybe he was feeling his group "sold out"? Perhaps he was feeling a lot of the pain which is implied in the music. Whatever the case, I'm sure Cobain was the voice of a generation, or at least part of a generation. Is there Actually That Much Angst in the world? There's probably more Angst out there now, since it's been 15 years since this video came out. Time is flyin' by, folks!

-

I've needed a second tv, for use in the bedroom, 'cos I can't do any late viewing on my "main" TV, which happens to be in the Bird Room. They go to bed Early. (6pm!!!) (Does anyone out there know how to re-adjust the 'bedtime of a bird'?) Anyway, while shopping at Goodwill, I found one of those little TV's with a Videocassette player installed into the chassis, just below the screen. It has no remote, and it doesn't even have that ultra-fast-rewind-gear that newer units have. If you rewind, you'll see the entire film backwards as it wears out the tape heads trying to get back to the 'start' position. So you gotta find another way to 'rewind tape', like they did back in yesteryear, in the long-ago hazy days of the late 1980s/early 1990s. So I ended up taking one small step Backwards into the primitive times of yesteryear...join me, if you will, as I go trippin' back to the age of the Video Dinosaur...

-

I ended up using something I've never used before: The Videocassette Rewinder. (Pictured at left) What a primitive concept, although it was undoubtedly a hot idea at the time...just think of it! You don't have to wear out your tape heads; let the rewinder preserve the life of your VCR! (How primitive that sounds now, don't it?) When you plop in the tape, it begins rewinding, although it doesn't sound high-tech at all (the tape whirrrrs by with thuds and clunks and bumps) but at least the tape gets rewound. Remember the old days when you rented a Videocassette, and there would be a big red sticker on it, with the words "Please Rewind". I guess that was a big deal, because, well, if you didn't, the next person to rent the video would have to risk wearing out his tape heads if he didn't have a rewinder.

-

So I've managed to accomplish the impossible here: I've expanded my horizons by regressing backwards In Time, something akin, perhaps, to someone who's driven Maseratis their entire life jumping behind the wheel of a Stanley Steamer. I think the point I'm trying to make here, is that I never owned one of the old VCR units that took hours and hours and a degree in physics to hook up to yer TV; my first unit was a DVD/VCR unit that I bought back in 2003. I hooked it up in a matter of minutes; I doubt that I spent more than half-an-hour on it. So, by regressing as I have here, I now have a better idea of what folks in the old days used to have to do before all this high-falootin' technology came along.

-

That's it for today's show, folks. Tune in next time when I try to replace my wristwatch with a portable sundial as I continue to regress thru my life at an ever-faster-pace...

TIGER WOODS IS A LOSER!

...how could he have let this one get away?

-

I don't keep up on Golf anymore, so while I know that the PGA's last major tournament was held this past weekend, I can't remember the name of the event...but, A Great One Has Fallen, at least according to blitzing, breathless, 24-hour-a-day intense coverage of Every Single Player's News (which is probably what the initials "ESPN" really mean). And, folks, it's a shocker! For the first time ever in his storied career, Tiger Woods lost a tournament after having been in the lead at the start of Sunday's final round. In short, Tiger had never 'given it up' on the final day of a tournament in which he was in the lead. Oh, my! Such a travesty! What I can't believe, is that afterwards, Tiger was seen on ESPN, almost being forced to apologize for Not Winning! Taken To Task for not playing well enough to get the Green Jacket, or whatever was awarded to the winner. And I'm thinking, "Tiger! Why are you so contrite? You came in SECOND, you BEAT a whole lot of OTHER GOLFERS, and you took home a hefty amount of hard cold cash!" I had been in Tiger's shoes, I would have said, "hey, everybody, I came in 2nd, made a lot of money, and, I GET TO PLAY GOLF FOR A LIVING and you don't!"

-

I notice the same thing during each Olympiad...the commentators are always saying how so-and-so HAD TO SETTLE for a 2nd place or a 3rd place medal. SETTLE? That sorta implies that they didn't really Try All That Hard. SETTLE? Hell, no...they WON the second or third place medal, beating a whole lot of people in the process. When I used to run marathons, I was a big, slow runner. But I got a medal for finishing. And I earned my medal just as much as some tiny, skinny ghost of a runner who weighs maybe 120 lbs. and finished in the Top Ten. I'd almost say that since it took me twice as long as the top finishers, that perhaps I worked harder...I finished later in the day, when it was HOTTER. In short, I "ground it out". I didn't settle for my medal; I EARNED it. Big difference there. And, I just have to accept the fact that I am just not Really Good at anything; at best, I'm 'somewhere in the pack, but that's okay; there's plenty of folks back there with me. I used to work at a radio station, and one day, the Chief Announcer, who was my boss summed me up thusly: "You may not have a lot of talent, but you're a good worker". Talk about 'damning with faint praise'...

Of course, if I'd been more successful in my life, maybe I'd think all the folks who didn't do as well as me were losers. But I've always had a problem with trying to live up to others' expectations, and I tend to root for the underdog. Plus, even at my thinnest, I was still a big, semi-flabby person who wasn't really good at very much of anything. I've had people tell me I'm smart, but so what? That doesn't mean anything other than people are constantly evaluating and judging each other, whether or not they'd care to admit it. I know a whole lot of people who I'm smarter than (I'd like to think so anyway), who did a lot better in life than me. But I don't want to be At The Top. I'd rather be on the Outside Looking In. I don't go for social frivolities; I was never much for company picnics or staff meetings or get-togethers or all the other dumb stuff people do, trying to make others (and themselves) believe they're Actually Having A Good Time. Bah humbug...
-

Well, there it is...a posting Early In The Week, something which hasn't happened lately. But this one didn't take long...I'd been stewing about this subject for a few days. I always blog faster when Eschewing Smartassed People's Negativities...(maybe That's what 'ESPN' stands for...

It's The TIME OF THE SEASON...

...for the sun to finally come out for a while...

-

Where I used to live (in North Idaho), every summer, there'd be two or three weeks in which temperatures were just plain old debilitating HOT with temperatures in the upper '90s or 100's. (I'd never make it in Arizona, I'm sure.) Down here in Oregon, it's been HOT in the Willamette Valley, in such cities as Eugene, Springfield, and Salem, among others. Here on the coast, it's been gray and dull a LOT this year. And, we've had some stifling Humidity this year. It's almost as if someone has attached a load of bricks to your back; the slightest movement makes you break a sweat, and yer clothes just kinda STICK to you. The first time I experienced this Oregon Humidity, I thot I was having a heart attack. And, I would venture to say that 75 degrees with a lot of humidity is virtually as difficult to put up with as 95 or 100 degrees with less humidity. Towards the end of this week, though, we've had some brisk ocean winds, blowing in some cooler air and sweeping the threatening storm clouds away. And the air feels lighter and I can BREATHE again. Perhaps atmospheric pressure really does put one under pressure.

-

Every year, towards the end of summer, there comes one day in which Everything Just Feels Different. Something about, perhaps, the angle of the sun, the color of the sky, whatever. Summer technically ends on Sept. 21st, I think, but long about mid-August, there just seems to be a day where Everything Is Somehow Different; Ma Nature's way of saying "hey, it ain't gonna be summer forever". Granted, the fairly constant cloud cover of late has blocked out the sun quite a lot, removing the sun from view for days at a time. But since about mid-week, the sun's been out morel, and on Friday, Everything Felt Different. The air felt lighter. I've been sleeping better. Maybe there is something to this Barometric-Pressure thing. And now is the time of year I look forward to; as things get progressively cooler inland, there's less fog on the coast, and honestly, September and October can be Glory Days indeed. Sunshine and cool temperatures; at times it almost feels like Morning All Day Long (not that I'd really know 'cos I'm never up in the morning, but you know what I mean...).

-

So anyway, I went out picture-taking today, and will post all of them on the Webshots site (http://www.webshots.com/), under the username 'digitaldave72' if you wanna take a look at 'em. But I wanted to highlight one of the pics I snapped today. I think I'm gettin' quite wily with the camera; more likely, though, I'm just Lucky sometimes. Near here are some small islands where Sea Lions hang out, and you can hear them barking from sunup to sunset, arf, arf, arf, all day long. Cape Arago, where I went today, is about a half-mile south of those "seal islands", and while taking pictures there, I heard a low rumbling sound coming from the ocean somewhere. I looked way out and there were a couple of seals heading towards the islands, and evidently what I heard was the low, loud call of a huge macho sea lion (perhaps in seal lingo he was saying something like, "hurry up, Doris, we ain't got all day to git there!). My little Canon Powershot camera really sucks up the battery juice when I'm trying to focus on faraway objects (maybe my rechargeable batteries are fizzing out on me), and the seals were quite a ways out there...so I followed the sound of the Lion's call, focused on two little black dots in the ocean, and came away with this photo:

-

-

How about that! With limited time to get this photo (due to depleted batteries), I got 'em, almost in the center of the picture. I'm proud of this! Of course, it's hard to make out very much detail here, since the Ocean is so large and the Sea Lions are so comparatively small. So, I went into my PhotoExpress program, made a cutout, which distorted the image, rendering it out of focus. Ah, but not to worry; I can 'sharpen' blurry photos, and the first time around, I got the photo to come out somewhat better. Then I sharpened the previously sharpened photo, and, voila! You can actually see the Male Sea Lion hollering at his mate; in seal-ese, he's probably yelling something like, "C'mon, no sandbagging, let's GO!"

-

-

Ah, isn't it wonderful? Domestic bliss in the Wild Kingdom. Arf, Arf, Arf. Oh, by the way, "Time of the Season" (the title of this post) is a song by The Zombies, who recorded it in 1967, and had been long-split-up by the time it became a Big Hit in 1969. Rod Argent, leader of the band "Argent" (who had a hit with "Hold Your Head Up") was a Zombie back in the old days.

EXERCISES IN MUSICAL RE-EVALUATION...
...sometimes an Old Dog like me can learn new things...
-
As all 2 of my regular readers have found out here in this blog, I've been thinning out the record collection; taking records I don't care all that much about and putting 'em onto CD before I donate 'em to Goodwill. And that's what I was gonna do with my R.E.M. albums. I was in the process of putting half-a-dozen of their records onto CD, but I had to re-think my strategy. Usually, I'll go thru a box of records, and think, "keep these", "give those away", etc. And I was gonna give all my records by R.E.M. away. At first, I felt I was justified. On their early albums, they rock pretty hard, but the singer just kinda mumbles his way through the songs, and I'm a person who values lyrical content just as much as the music itself. I don't like to really have to strain to hear my music. Put the lyrics out there! And that's why albums such as this one just confounded me:
-
R.E.M.'s first album, "Murmur", issued in 1983, is murky and imposing, much like the cover photo, at left. The songs rock, but lead singer Michael Stipe's vocals pretty much sound like "awwwwwwgh mmmmeeeelllllllt booooorage yaaaaaawonk", buried deep in the mix almost all the way through. I couldn't understand a thing he sang on this record. In addition, he's got a gravelly, quavering voice that appeals in a weirdly offhand way. The album, tho, left me wondering what R.E.M.'s appeal was all about, 'cos this album, which was one of the best-ever-rock-albums, as listed by Rolling Stone Magazine, sure confused me.
-
As time went on, I bought several other of the band's albums, for really low prices at 2nd-hand stores, 'cos after all, this wasn't a band I'd pay full price for (that's how I've managed to listen to so much different music over the years). I couldn't understand the vocals on their second album, "Reckoning" or on their third album, "Life's Rich Pageant", and at the time I got these albums in the '80s, I didn't know what to make of this band. And so those albums have been in my collection, along with other R.E.M. albums, virtually unplayed, for the last 15 years...
-
I started going to Karaoke in the '90s, and I heard one of the singers doing an interesting tune I'd never heard before, something called "Losing My Religion". Though lyrically vague, it is a great, great song. I looked up the tune in the Karaoke songbook and found out that it was by R.E.M.! When I went back home, I looked thru my R.E.M. albums, and no, it wasn't on them...later on, I bought a 2nd-hand cassette of "Out Of Time" and there it was! "Losing My Religion"! And I Could Actually Understand The Singer!
-
But back to the present...as I was spinning the R.E.M. LP's, converting them to CD, the more that I dubbed, the better the group sounded, and I found myself grooving on the music even if I couldn't understand the words. And within their music, the rawness of the vocals, combined with a mostly driving backbeat and cool little guitar riffs, just somehow appealed to me. It sounds like R.E.M. was the type of band that could do whatever it wanted, and suddenly, their music just somehow sounded Real all of a sudden, and although I put the LP's onto CD's, I'm keeping their LP's too. It's a tribute to a band that Does Sound Real, even if I don't know what they're all about.
-
I have the group's first 6 albums on vinyl, and with each album, they do become more understandable in the vocal department, and especially on their 5th album, "Document", they rock with a rage that a lot of bands seldom approach. They're not a heavy band, and they're probably not even a rock band; they're more of a heavy-pop band, and the closest band to them, in terms of sound that I've heard is U2, and as I researched the group last night, I found many others have made R.E.M./U2 comparisons, so I'm not totally off base here. I think U2 are great, so being compared to them is Really Something in my book. I went onto YouTube last night and dialed up some clips of R.E.M. in concert, and there they were, doing "Losing My Religion" to a throng of dedicated fans back in the '80s, and all of a sudden I sort-of "got" the band. So even tho I'd had a lot of their music for a long time, I didn't know anything. In a way, groups like R.E.M. passed me by.
-
The computer research I did on the band pointed out that they were forerunners to the "grunge" movement, and while I don't want to shallowly categorize a band, I can sort of see that, with the group's use of jangling guitars, high energy and a sort of 'unrefined' sound. So perhaps, without an R.E.M., there may have been no Nirvana or Pearl Jam? But there is also a lot of variety in R.E.M.'s music; in one song they'll hit you with overmodulated rock, and, next-up, there might be quiet passages and slow tempos, and perhaps the song that follows will sound all ear-friendly, catchy and poppy, but they never 'sell out'; their music just sounds genuine. It Just Does. They take a lot of chances, but maybe it's better to be real and take chances rather than put out Product and become bland, like a lot of other bands which have fallen by the wayside.
-
I don't pretend to understand this band in a conceptual sense; I only know that They Sound Real, and that's what counts. I found that I've got two used cd's and a cassette of their music, that I haven't HEARD yet (when you buy stuff cheap you tend to buy a lot of it and never get around to hearing it). In the late '80s, their drummer suffered an aneurysm, and due to that, among other factors, he left the band, and from what I understand, R.E.M.'s later albums have been inconsistent, but really, when a group that's been around for over 20 years loses a founding member, changes result. So what's my 'end verdict' on R.E.M.? I honestly don't know. I'll consider this a Topic For Further Research. But they're worth researching.
-
I've heard so much music, and these days, it's so much harder to keep up with everything; there's a lot of music which was recorded in my own formative years that I still haven't heard yet, so admittedly, I don't know hardly a thing about modern-day rock bands, although I hear some newer music when listening to alternative-rock-type stations. I do know that I really have always admired U2's commitment, purpose and drive, and I'm just about ready to put R.E.M. in that category as well. Maybe it's hard for me to learn new tricks, but I'm glad I finally sat down and listened to their music All Over Again. Ah, the thrill of discovery...
-
I know I'm pathetically Stuck In My Era. I have my favorite music which I cling to. But some of the Rolling Stones' albums of the '70s irritated me as well; Mick Jagger's voice was just Buried In The Mix while the band slam-banged away. In my opinion, they regressed in the '70s, and a lot of that was due to the production of such albums as "Sticky Fingers", "Exile On Main Street", "Goat's Head Soup" and "It's Only Rock And Roll". They all contain great songs which would sound better if the singer's mike had been turned up!

I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DO...
...I'm Not Gonna Watch Soccer And You Can't Make Me!!!

Oh, they're sneaky. Just when I think a rebroadcast of the just-concluded Seattle Mariners' game is gonna air, what does Fox Sports Network Do? They sneak in a SOCCER game. Soccer, as in, "I went to a fight, and a Soccer Game broke out." FSN thinks I'm gonna watch the Soccer Game 'cos I'm too lazy to get up and change the channel...FSN must know my remote's broken (do they?) There's just something awfully confining about watching guys run all over the place, trying to kick the ball, or failing that, trying to kick Each Other, since they can't use their arms. Arms were meant to use, only you can't use your arms unless you're the goalie or if you toss the ball from the sidelines. (Or, if the ref's not looking, you can sucker-punch the player who's covering ya...)

SPEAKING OF UMPIRES...AN ISSUE THAT REALLY STEAMS ME: Sometimes I think that Major League Baseball UMPIRES have way too much power. If they wanna see a pitcher fail, all the home plate ump has to do is reduce his strike zone to the size of a postage stamp, as was the case between tonight's Mariners/Tampa Bay Rays game. The Radio Announcers kept pointing out, over and over (as radio announcers are prone to do) that "the pitcher didn't throw all that badly; it's just that tonight's ump has a Very Small Strike Zone."Huh? What? I know that an Ump's judgments, to a point, will be subjective, but I must ask, why is one Ump's strike zone different than that of another Ump? Shouldn't there be more uniformity in Judging things? This actually STEAMS ME UP SEVERELY! I think the main qualifications for being a Major League Ump are":

1. You have to have a huge, monstrous, menacing image. (Umps on steroids?)
2. Be able to mis-call any pitch you so desire, 'cos you have absolute authority.
3. Have strong vocal cords so you can out-shout anyone who disagrees with you.

I've seen Major League Umps kick a player out of the game for something that player said when he was in the dugout...nowhere near home plate. I don't like Umps At All. In my book, if someone wants respect, they have to earn it. And Umps don't earn it. They just bully the players into stupefying submission. Your day is coming, Umps...'Instant-Replay' is already being used to review some home-run calls, and just about everyone who broadcasts baseball games has a little device that can actually pinpoint if the ball was a strike or not. The Fox Sports Northwest network's version of that is the "FSN Tracer". Finally: The Police have what is known as "The Thin Blue Line"...well, Umps have "The Thick Black Line". In other words, "Hey, Boy, that pitch was a STEEEEE-RIKE even though it was half-a-foot over your head! Why? BECAUSE I SAID SO!!!" (I admit that last bit of distorted logic is 'begging the question', but you get my drift...)

MAYBE I'M TOTALLY OFF-BASE HERE: Something else I've just started wondering about: Every NBA Basketball Court is the same size. Every Football Field is 100 yards long. So, why are Major League Parks all different sizes? Some parks are smaller ("Hitter's Parks"), and some parks, like Safeco Field in Seattle are Gargantuan ("Pitchers' Parks", although M's opponents don't have a whole lot of problems hitting home runs there...). And since Seattle never has that many consistent home-run-hitters in any given year, the size of Their Home Field tends to work against them. Everything else in baseball is standardized; for example, it's 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate to the rubber dealie on the pitcher's mound in every ballpark. All the bases are the same distance apart in every ballpark...

So why not work out some sort of "Average" set of Ballpark Dimensions? Add up the measurements of all the ballparks, divide by the number of ballparks, and there ya have it. Oh, wait...the air's thinner in Colorado where the Rockies play, and the ball really sails. Up thar in the thin air of Colorado, it's been found that Baseballs Dry Out altogether; the baseballs used in Colorado games are now actually kept in a humidifier! (Something about mimicking the 'natural moisture content' of baseballs used at lower elevations...) Maybe MLB should employ a meteorologist to help compute park dimensions? Anyway, I think all ballparks should be the same size; where the variables come in would be in all the differing elevations of all the ballfields. And that variable would (hopefully) even itself out over the course of a season. Or not...
-
That grand old man of the game, Yogi Berra, once said, "It ain't over 'til it's over". And so it is. This post is done. Although, I cheated a bit...to get my two posts a week, I had to post my unfinished portion of what I typed here, and I did that at 5 minutes 'til midnight. Then I went back to add the finishing touches...the photo above and this paragraph. I suppose if there were a 'posting zone', an ump would call me out. Or not...

WHEN IN DOUBT, TOSS IN A FEW PICTURES...
...or, how to fake a post when yer in a blogging drought...

-
Never fear...this blog still has some life left in it...I think. There is no really good reason I haven't been posting a lot lately. I'd like to think of it as a sort of "ebb and flow" type situation. Anyway, it's Friday night; here's my first post of this entire week (!!!), which means I've got time to cram in another post for my self-imposed quota of Two Postings Per Week. (That reminds me of a brand of canned almonds whose slogan is "a can a week, that's all we ask.")

-

So, how about some pictures? It's been cloudy and rainy quite a lot this summer; it's already August, and I haven't got my yearly sunburn yet. Of course, the temperatures have been nice and cool, in the '60s and '70s, while folks on the other side of the Coastal Range are languishing in high-90's and low-100's temperatures. When that happens, it gets really foggy here; something about cool air running into warm air. Come fall is when it's really nice here on the Oregoon Coast...September and October can be Very Stellar Months down here. But the Sun was Actually Out the other day; luckily I'd recharged my camera batteries...
-
Let's get right to it...here are some pictures for ya...I'll place captions ahead of the pictures for your Maximum Ease in trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing. The first two pix, below, showcase boats and buildings on either side of Charleston Harbor. Boats traveling away from where I took the pix then head into Coos Bay, and then, the Ocean. Whenever the sun shines down here, it feels like a holiday...'cos the sun ain't out a whole lot until later in the year...
-

-

I then turned around and shot the 'below left' photo, looking East/Southeast for a view up the South Slough of Coos Bay, and for quite a distance inland, the channel remains wide. And, of course, what's a Coastal Sunny Day without a shot of Mr. Seagull in repose? So there he is, below right...all 4 of the fotos above were taken from the Drawbridge which crosses the slough.

-

I've been stuck in traffic when the midsections of the drawbridge lifted upward to allow passage of taller fishing boats and other large watercraft, but hey, usually the temps, even on the hot days, aren't really hot and the sun makes everything shimmer, so it's all good...although, one night it was stuck as I was heading home. I live a couple miles north of this bridge, but to get home that night, I had to drive a 25-mile loop to get home. That Was Not Fun.

-

Every Sunset seems to have a personality all its own. And, some sunsets are shorter than others, because clouds on the horizon sometimes obscure the sun and it disappears sooner than if the sky was totally clear. But sometimes those cloudy sunsets can get really interesting, because the clouds seem to lend a weird mystical coloration to everything, such as in the two pictures below, where the sun is trying its damndest to stay visible as long as it can...a battle it lost this evening:
-








-
The Aftermath Of The Sunset can be seen in the picture at below left; in the foreground is a small creek that runs across Bastendorff Beach and enters the ocean, so you have fresh water near the salty sea, and in that fresh water, A Flock Of Seagulls take a bath before flying off to wherever Seagulls Go At Night.

So all in all, that brings to an end this posting on a Quite Inconsequential Day on the Southern Oregon Coast. And ,when I have an Actual Subject to post, instead of frantically slapping pictures here on the blog, you'll be the first to know...in the meantime, you can click on any or all of the above fotos and the pictures will get waaaay big.

HOW LOW...CAN YOU GO...?

...my eyes done popped outta my skull...

We're always checking each other out, whether we admit it or not. And like it or not, we're sighted creatures; we all have eyes and we use 'em, so in a way, I can't help it. When I see a lady wearing a low-cut top, or tight jeans, or the almost-nakedness of a bikini wearer, well, I can't help it. I notice. The best I can do is to Get Away from where I am, so I don't make a fool out of myself and/or embarrass the female I was gawking at. I am trying to be a good human being, after all, and that transcends anything carnal. Most of the time. But sometimes, things just seem to happen to me, right in front of my eyes, sending me into an almost instant catatonic state of brain-freeze...

I was sitting in a restaurant, waiting for my lunch on Clam Chowder Day (Friday), when in walked two young girls and an older lady (their Mom?) and they sat down in the booth in front of me. One of the young ladies was as skinny as a human being could ever hope to be, and were it not for the protrusion of her hip bones, her low-cut jeans would've slid off right in front of me. The top of her jeans, where they buckled, was only about two and a half inches above what I'll tactfully refer to as "no man's land". Plus, she wore one of those brief tops that are about 3 sizes too small, which revealed a good half-a-foot of her torso, from the bottom of the top to the top of the jeans. And I was amazed. Naked flesh in a restaurant. Oh my...

-

I wanted to look some more, I really did (and most likely, I probably did) (well, I did, okay? I stand accused...) The young lady sat down, removing her midriff from my view, which was just as well, because my food had arrived anyway. But...you can go to banks, grocery stores, Wal-Marts, just about anywhere, and they're all over the place! Young girls all dressed up in outfits that look like they were PAINTED on. You see 'em on TV, you see 'em in commercials, you see 'em in the catalogs...I'm no prude; I'm not disgusted...I just wonder if they're comfortable wearing such tight outfits in public. It's almost as if dressing like that is the female's way of saying, "I'd walk around naked if I could, but the law says I gotta wear clothes". Blame it on the fashion industry, I guess. (or the lack of a fashion industry?)

-

I can't get comfortable in tight clothes, and I never could. I need to let the air circulate; I need to let the roll around my middle hide behind something, and above all, I need to know that it's okay to bend over and pick up the quarter I just dropped on the floor without fear of rupturing the seat of my pants (admittedly, not a pretty picture). If females want to wear spandex-tight clothing, that's their business, and I certainly don't mind, but mingled in with the attractiveness of what I'm seeing is a feeling of uncomfortability at seeing a body imprisoned in clothes so tight, that the wearer most likely had to put 'em on wet, and let 'em dry as she wore 'em. And believe me, if I, an old goat, notices this stuff, then think about all the young hormone-driven teenage males out there; they're probably in heat all the time. Can you say "highly combustible"? I knew ya could...

-

I realize it's hypocritical to point out a problem without at least some idea of how to remedy 'said problem', and I think I've come up with a solution...bear with me here...maybe the young males who let the waistlines of their jeans sag down to their knees could perhaps donate the extra fabric to some female who can't breathe deeply because her clothes are so tight...? And then everyone would be happy. Otherwise, come bedtime, all the young girls out there sporting tight-fitting clothes will spend a major portion of their formative years contorting themselves in order to slide out of their outfits the way a snake sheds its old skin. "Uggggggh! Unhhhhh!"

-

Meanwhile, I'll just sit here in my T-shirt and jeans and thank my lucky stars that some enterprising individual, quite a while ago, had a bright idea: The Belt. You know, that strap-like thing that keeps my jeans from falling to my knees...