IT WAS NINE YEARS AGO TODAY...

...George Harrison was taken away...
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It's probably ironic, or most likely not, that my computer is blaring out a mixed-up version of The Beatles' repertoire right now. Today is the 9th anniversary of George Harrison's death, and what better way to remember him and his fellow 'Fabs" than by listening to their music. So, I've put all their 'remastered' CD's into my computer and it's playing a random-selection of Beatles' Tunes...this way, I can get sort of a cross-reference of all the different musical styles they played...and, if there was a person who'd never heard The Beatles at all in his life, he'd have a hard time believing that "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "All You Need Is Love" were done by the same band.

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I can take all of the Beatles' repertoire on CD's, and hold it all in one hand. A whole career being boiled down to the size of a small safety-deposit box. The Beatles are now on "i-tunes" and there, the group's music doesn't exist in tangible form; for a price you can buy a tune or an entire album, or all the albums, and how much tangible space does all that music take up? I think we're talking about maybe an amount equal to perhaps two or three pin-points; someone told me once that computer files "are there, but they're not there", which is probably the closest I'll ever get to answering that.
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George was my favorite Beatle. I play a little bit of guitar, and the most fun I have is when I help to back someone else up; swapping chords and phrases and although I can't play it very well, I'm almost complete when I have guitar in hand. George was like that, he Loved Guitars. Perhaps John and Paul wrote the great majority of Beatles' tunes, but George put his touch on a lot of them. Without him, things wouldn't have been the same. Beatles' producer George Martin looks back with regret that he didn't work with George to develop his songwriting. Harrison's "Something"(Abbey Road album) astonished Mr. Martin, and John (Lennon) called it "the best song on the (Abbey Road) album."
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My Fav0rite "George" Beatle-tunes are "If I Needed Someone", "Taxman", "I Need You", "Don't Bother Me", "Here Comes The Sun", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" "Savoy Truffle" and "Something". After the Beatles, George's "All Things Must Pass" blew me away and still does. Like his former bandmates, George's solo output was a bit erratic, but when he was good, he was Really Good...solo albums such as "Living In The Material World", "33 and 1/3", "Cloud Nine" and "Brainwashed", his last-ever LP, are finely-crafted bodies of work.
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There are those who review records for a living, who can write more eloquently than I, and they probably have all kinds of insights that I'd never be able to generate over three or four lifetimes, but even though John Lennon and Paul McCartney were/are so gifted, I like the minor-chord, odd experiments George threw into every one of his songs, and some of Lennon/McCartney's tunes as well. On "Revolver", for instance, on George's tune, "I Want To Tell You" (another of my favorite Harrison tunes), George inserts a dissonant chord which somehow supports the song. I read a Harrison interview where he says he invented that chord, and maybe so. It certainly takes the song into a different arena. He said he was trying to come up with something that would express the angst he wanted in that particular part of the song. It's out of tune, but not really, but certainly unexpected. It makes you pay attention!
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On "Meet The Beatles", most of the songs are bubbling with exuberant force, or given softly-lush treatments, but on "Don't Bother Me", George's first original, there's a somber element that immediately makes it stand out; it just 'feels' different, and while I of course, dig the entire album (although I wouldn't miss Paul's rendition of "Till There Was You"), the first time I ever heard George's first stab at songwriting, "Don't Bother Me", it really smacked my eardrums. We're talking 1964 here, and "Don't Bother Me" stands on its own; it gives the album a little extra degree of depth. He later said that "All Things Must Pass" consisted largely of songs that John and Paul didn't want on Beatles albums...so instead, those 'rejects' came out to play on "All Things Must Pass". And they didn't sound like rejects at all; it sounded like those were songs that were Aching To Be Heard. And, if you ever get the chance, listen to Harrison's "When We Was Fab" on the "Cloud Nine" album in which he delves into his Beatle past, both in word and music, even down to that Sitar-bit at the end. It makes me smile, and takes me back.
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So, as the Beatles' music plays on my computer, I think back over the years how much good music I've been exposed to. I kinda think that if the Beatles had never come along, we'd never have been able to hear The Stones, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, Freddie and The Dreamers, and so on and so forth. And perhaps American Groups such as The Beau Brummels, The Rascals, Jefferson Airplane, Love (Arthur Lee's Group), Paul Revere And The Raiders and so many others might not have ever taken the stage. Music would have metamorphized somehow, but I venture to say that it probably would've evolved a lot differently without The Beatles' opening up all sorts of doors everywhere.
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Usually I use italics for this ending-part of each post. "Why", you ask....? Well, I was just trying to get a different slant on things. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

YEAH, I SAID IT, DIDN'T I?

...or, stuff like this doesn't happen in a Perfect World...

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I've written about Oregon Coast weather fairly frequently since I moved here So Very Long Ago. I've been telling those in higher-up areas where it snows year in and year out, that, "I hardly ever see snow down here and by 10am, it's usually ALL GONE!" Yeah, I said it. I've made fun of the TV Weather-people here, saying how they all freaked out when it snowed anything over one-sixteenth of an inch. Here in this blog, I've marveled in large part, at the substitution of Winter Rain for Winter Snow, saying all the while that rain may be gloomy, but "at least I don't have to shovel rain". Yep, I said it. I've said over and over that it can rain all it wants to; it's better than experiencing Snow; and I suppose, over time, I thot life was snow-proof here on the coast.

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All I can say to that is, in A Perfect World, I would always be right. In a Perfect World, once I've gotten used to something, it would never change. In A Perfect World, I would keep my mouth shut and listen more. In A Perfect World, we wouldn't have to hear "Feliz Navidad" during the Christmas Season. In A Perfect World, there would be no TV commercials. In a Perfect World, Sarah Palin would stay in Alaska, trying to find that spot that she once saw Siberia from. Of course, in a Perfect World, I would never get so easily side-tracked as I did here.

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Back to reality; at least my own version thereof...it had been fairly c-c-cold the last few nights; I've had to fire up the space-heaters more than usual, have been wearing socks to bed (too much information, probably). Other than that, tho, life's been predictable, everything was happening as it should, life was my version of Perfect, or at least, as close as it can get, I thot, leaving the house thru the back door, and THEN I was met by this scene...oh, Lordy...

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These fotos were taken about 1:30pm. Wet, gloppy snow all over my vehicle. A little over an inch deep. Yesterday afternoon, it rained with Forceful Vengeance deep into the night. Mother Nature thought she'd play a trick on me...she made the rain turn to snow while I was asleep (she's crafty), the snow had not disappeared after 10am, like I used to gloat, and what's more, the snow was still on the ground when I got home this evening. Waah, waaah, waaaah. I hate snow. That's all there is to it. Obviously, the World wasn't perfect today. I made a deal with Mother Nature; I said she could 'snow' all she wanted as long as it was gone before I came out to get in the car. Obviously, that wasn't any sort of binding agreement..."HEY! YOU! MOTHER NATURE, GET BACK HERE!! YOU GOT SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!"

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This blog-post touches upon something, though. What would your idea of a perfect world consist of? In my Perfect World, John F. Kennedy would've been President up thru 1968; John Lennon would be coming out with a Greatest-Hits CD, consisting of material he'd recorded between 1980 and the present; I could tune in every day to an "All-WKRP In Cincinnati" TV station; Chocolate wouldn't have any calories; gasoline would revert back to the 27.9 cents-per-gallon figure it was when I began driving, the Seattle Mariners would be world champions, having won the last 4 World Series, and there would be a way to clamp shut, by remote control, the mouth of the annoying, loud-barking mutt my next door neighbors continue to feed. And...in a perfect world, I would've had the ability to make different decisions whenever a 'fork' came along. Too late for that, huh?

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Yogi Berra, the still-famous catcher of old, once said, "If You See A Fork In The Road, Take It". The "Fork" move in Chess puts two of your pieces in jeopardy at the same time; no matter which one you move, you're gonna lose a piece. And if your King happens to be blocked, You Lose! The trick is not to get blocked...

IN MEMORY OF A PRESIDENT...
JFK, 1917-November 22, 1963...



Stamp out violence...

NEW & EXCITING HORIZONS IN MEDICINE...
...no, you won't find any of them here...
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There's an asthma remedy that's being touted in the TV commercials these days. I think it's a 60-second commercial, though I'm not sure. lt begins by bragging about how great this asthma medicine is so great at relieving the tendency to have sudden attacks, and since I've known folks with asthma, I'm glad that there's another additional something out there for them. As the commercial continues, a man and a woman alternate disclaimer after disclaimer..."This medicine can provoke asthma attacks"...this medicine increases the possibility of making the patient grow a third ear...this medicine should not be taken if you have symptoms of 'this', 'that', or 'something else'. What I'm getting at is, why would someone with asthma consider taking this stuff; you've gotta BREATHE, after all. Why would an asthmatic begin taking something that could make them have an attack? Maybe that's a worst-case scenario; let's hope so.
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I've never had asthma, but I've had symptoms of Gout. Lord, have mercy, those symptoms are awful. Everything they say is true; gout attacks can get so bad that sheets or blankets can cause pain. Just lately, I've been seeing commercials for a Gout Medicine. I think it's great that, after all these years, Gout is being widely regarded as something that is a severe issue, especially during flare-ups. The issue I have with this particular medicine (again, I can't recall the name of it) is more 'expense-related'. Anytime you see a prescribed-drug widely advertised, that's gonna be one mighty expensive drug (gotta pay those advertising costs!), and will be so unless, if ever, it becomes a Generic Drug. If you think you are suffering from Gout, what you do is have a blood test, which will reveal the amount of Uric Acid in your system. Then find a rheumatoligist who'll work with you, to determine how much "allo" you need to take each day.
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If you have gout symptoms, ask your doctor about ALLOPURINOL. It's a Generic, it's highly affordable (often $10-$15 for a month's worth), and it's the Real Deal. It is said that allopurinol can actually bring on Gout Symptoms for the first couple of weeks, but if you've ever had a severe Gout attack, it's a case of "Give me anything! Drop an Anvil on my head! Whatever!!!" Allopurinol has never caused me one iota of pain. I'm now taking 600mg of Allopurinol Daily and have had no trouble. It's a lifetime commitment; you have to keep Gout at bay by medicating every single day for the rest of your life. Good thing Allopurinol is cheap! Another weird thing about gout: One of the Royal Families in England or Europe had it, and that's the reason why gout was known as the "rich man's disease". All I can say to that is, "Where's The Money?"Actually, the Green Dragon (left) is indicative of how it feels when Gout is shooting your joints with Arrows of Uric Acid. Please, gout people, bypass the fancy and costly medication on the TV commercial, and set your sights on Allopurinol. It's one of the oldest drugs in existence; it's been manufactured in one way or another since before 1900. Time to stop all the medicine-stuff now; if I go much longer, the AMA will persecute me and prosecute me for practicing without a license.
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Recently, The World's Most Stupid-Ever Commercial has begun airing on the Telly...it's for something called the GYRO-BOWL. It consists of a bowl which is somehow mounted into a swivel device which Makes Snacking So Much More Fun! If you've got, say, a Gyro-bowl full of Oatmeal (which tastes like reptile brains), you can tip the bowl any way you want to and the glop you're eating Won't Fall Out. It's basically a bowl over a bowl from what I can see, and it's obvious the inventor had waay too much time on his hands. Who's gonna take a bowl-full of peaches, oatmeal, reptile brains or whatever and EAT IT IN THE CAR while Mommy drives the Brat with the bowl to Daycare so she can get some relief from all the trouble her kid is causing her. Or Maybe instead she's driving a Piglet home from school and the little Pig cries, "Wheeeeee...Wheeeeeeeee....WHEEEEEEE.....!!!" All The Way Home. (oops, excuse me, I think I've accidentally bumped into a Geico commercial...) This is where Oatmeal comes in handy...since it has the texture of wet cement, you can STUFF a bunch of it into the little pig's yap. There's always a solution, huh? I wanna see a commercial featuring a guy standing on his head, eating from this contraption.

Another difference between Costly Drugs and Generics: I pay $30 a month for Generic "Ambien". Before that, I was taking "Lunesta", Not available as a generic; a little bottle cost me $100. That would be ironic; taking a sleep med that costs so much that you lose sleep over it! Lunesta also leaves an odd rain-gutter taste in your mouth. Ackthptf.

AN OBITUARY OF SORTS...

...one of the boys of summer is gone...

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Blogger's note: the image at the end of this post might upset some of you; it's not graphic, but it does assault the senses. If you're easily upset, don't scroll past the first picture you see below...

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I've never liked the word "goodbye". How can someone be there one moment, and gone in the next? A man I've respected a long, long time has left the building. And still the world keeps spinning, and so we have to carry on. Unfortunately, as the days pass, the ones who are gone recede further and further into the past, and in a hundred years, we'll all be gone, and whoever's left then will have to carry on, and so on, and so forth...
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Dave Niehaus, longtime announcer of the Seattle Mariners, passed away yesterday from a heart attack. Gone, just like that. Oh, but he had the heart of a lion, and now that heart has been stilled. He's been a part of my life for the past 15 years, and for many other fans, longer than that. He, in my opinion, was the voice of Summer. The world was still okay, because Niehaus was on board for another season. He touched a lot of people that he never knew or met.
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"My, Oh My!!!"..."Swung On and BELTED"..."GET OUT THE RYE BREAD AND MUSTARD, GRANDMA; IT'S GRAND SALOME TIME"...no one will ever do it like Dave Niehaus did it. Some people stand out; some people are Bigger Than Life, and Dave Niehaus was one of those elite few. I'll listen to the upcoming season and more after that, but not in the same way. Whoever's in the Mariners' Broadcasting Booth next year has some Mighty Big Shoes To Fill.
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Goodbye, Mr. Niehaus.
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Just recently, I came upon a situation which I'm still trying to put into perspective. Life can get really harsh for creatures here on the ocean. Recently I saw three crows chasing a seagull, and the gull looked none too happy about it. I wonder what became of it. I see pelicans preying upon unsuspecting fish, ready to swoop in like a Kamikaze death squad. I see Seagulls in their role as scavengers, making a feast out of some poor creature washed up on the beach...so goes life...so goes death...we all get 'washed up' sooner or later, I guess.
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A few days ago, I came upon a deceased seagull in a parking lot near the ocean. Evidently, it had just died, for its feathers were still waving in the wind and it looked like it could spring back to life at any moment. Life takes its toll on the gulls down here, and some look so beaten-up by the weather (and indeed, by each other), that they look motley and ragged. But this particular seagull seemed to convey an image of peace and stillness, and perhaps personifies in a way, what the arrival of death is like. After all the pain, there's peace. After all the suffering, the journey is over. And it's in that spirit that I've displayed this photo: (Again, don't scroll down if you're easily shocked...)
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I don't know if this gull got into a battle with another gull, or if it was soaring overhead and its little heart just gave out. I was taken by the tranquil look on its face. No more competing for food and suffering through cold winter winds for this bird. And maybe that's what the end of life is like...no more awful people to deal with, no more bad memories, no more antagonism; life is just Over, and that's it. The dying's the hard part. With death, it's over. Just Like That.
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I don't like it when things are "over". Why do things have to end? I'll never get used to that part of the Life Cycle. It may not be over 'til it's over, but when it's over, it's Done. Finito. We're all just Hanging In There. And I hope it's not over for me for a long, long time.

A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL BLOG POST...
Caution: This Posting may induce Mental Whiplash...
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When I can't think of anything to post, I just toss a bit of this and a bit of that into the blog-vat, and this is what bubbles to the gooey surface. Such is today's posting. You've been warned.
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DON'T MESS WITH MY BASEBALL! One of my favorite nights to watch Major League Baseball has been on Sunday Night, and that's been due to the excellent degree of rapport between announcers Jon Miller and Joe Carter. They kid around good-naturedly during the course of the game, and it's obvious both men, who've broadcast together over 20 years, have a high degree of respect for each other, and I've enjoyed listening to 'em for a long time. I've learned a lot about Baseball from these guys, and I'm kinda attached to them. In appreciation of that, ESPN axed both guys today, as if it's the announcers themselves who directly reflect ratings. While it may be true that Miller and Carter aren't the most photogenic announcers ever, they're A Good Team. I have enjoyed every game I've heard them broadcast. And this is just too bad. Smooth Move, ESPN...(Not!)
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GOODBYE WINDOWS VISTA! I couldn't take it anymore. After trying to get comfortable with "Vista", and failing, I'm now running Windows 7, and it is so much easier to navigate. Plus, unlike "Vista", you can't accidentally delete your Recycle Bin! The Windows 7 defrag doesn't hide the details of what it's doing to your computer like that of Vista, plus Windows 7 Runs a whole lot faster than Vista. I've been told that Windows 7 is a lot like the allegedly-simpler-to-run Mac computers. In short, I think the tekkies who designed Vista were the kind of tekkies who specialize in fixing things that aren't broken. Anyway, Windows 7 is as enjoyable to run as the long-lamented Windows 95 (I'm carbon-dating myself there, aren't I?)
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WHAT KIND OF 'REHAB' IS THIS? Okay, okay, I admit to being voyeuristic when given the chance. While observing sweet young things in bikinis can be difficult in person (I don't like to stare and embarrass myself or whoever I'm trying to look at), I can now accomplish this by watching TRU-TV's "Rehab Party at the Hard Rock Hotel", which features bikinis galore. Only, what kind of Rehab is this? They serve A-L-C-O-H-O-L. Maybe it's "Rehab from being sober too long?" And I frankly admit, if you're looking for a quality program to watch, this ain't it. Self-Evaluation department: Since women my age seem to get older and older all the time, I guess I'm turning into a hopefully-not-too-dirty Old Man. One thing in favor of the program: it makes having Expanded Basic Cable almost worth paying for...
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IT'S THE RAINY SEASON: With the intense rain down here on the Oregon Coast, come the intense winds. Most of the time, I never feel a lot of wind around my house, because there are many trees between me and the coast which act as sort of a shield. So I'm all set. Right? Well, a by-product of the winds is "ZAP! Electricity off, In The Dark." And there I was, caught in the dark. After bumping my head and stumbling around my house like a temporarily-blinded Godzilla, I found that when it's dark, it's not exactly the best time to go looking for the Flashlight. So I guess I wasn't set after all. On the flip-side, this is the best time of year to go wave-watching. Crash! Boom! Bam! Watching the big waves is akin to seeing a Really Good Fireworks Show, only the explosive effects are generated by Nature.
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I THINK I'LL WAIT FOR THE PAPERBACK: It's been brought to my attention that former Prezzident George W. Bush has a book out, titled something like "Points of Decision". So did he "decide" anything worth writing about? He was the "decider", after all. I thot that Bush Senior sounded idiotic with his "thousand points of light" speel. Bush Junior was lucky to have anything like a Pin-point of light every thousand days. George W. Bush would need to have the best ghost-writer around to elevate his musings to something resembling "Green Eggs and Ham". Rumor that "Points Of Decision" is being printed up by the good folks at Golden Books. His book will probably be a million-seller and how do I know this? Easy: Dick Cheney and his cronies will buy a million copies and sock 'em away in a storehouse. This book will probably become as essential in its own way as the plunger, or perhaps as innovative as trying to consume an ice cream cone by smashing it into your forehead. I have it on good authority that the working title of Dubya's book was "what I did during my 8-year vacation". Reading this book will add as much to your life as having cavities filled without novocaine, or perhaps chugging a bottle of cod liver oil while pirouetting in circles across your freshly-waxed green-and-red tiled floor. Don't slip! CRASH!!!
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For anyone who may have missed the point, "Golden Books" specialized in Books for Kids. So why did Bush wait two years before coming out with his book? He needed time to collect enough cliches to string together...

ANOTHER BASEBALL SEASON DONE GONE...
...is that all there is? Is that all there is...?
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Do you remember that phrase, "Is That All There Is"? Do you remember who sang it, and what year it came out? Should your memory fail you, the answer's at the end of this post. And now on to our regularly scheduled blog...
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Another World Series has ended. At least the team I was rooting for won. I'm still finding it hard to believe that the Texas Rangers were so totally and thoroughly pummeled. And thrashed. And so Frisco wins game 5, and all of a sudden It's All Over. I feel rather blindsided here. Right now, it's little consolation to me that the whole thing will get started again next year. I'm about to go through Baseball Withdrawals. I watch or listen to at least 75% of Seattle Mariners games, plus Sunday Night Baseball, and I'm always looking for a game if the M's have an off-day, although every day was an Off-Day for the M's this past season. But that's a lot of Baseball Watching. I'm not prepared for this. I wish I had "ESPN Classic" which airs Old Ball Games. That way I wouldn't have to quit Baseball in Cold-Turkey fashion. A sad Cry for Help Indeed.

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During the playoffs and World Series, two commercials which really bug me kept getting aired over and over again. The first was a Pepsi "Max" spot, where two big burly guys are in a diner and one introduces the other to Pepsi "Max". As the guy drinks his Pepsi, the other guy records him on a camera-phone. Next thing you know, both of them are crashing thru the diner's front window. What's the point of the commercial? Is it a satire? Or just a really dumb commercial? I thot maybe one guy got too chummy with the other guy and that ticked him off and a fight ensued. I heard this commercial is modeled after some movie. Anyone have an answer? Please leave it in the Comments section. Otherwise this thing will never make sense. And maybe it still won't.
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The other playoffs/World Series commercial that bugs me, depicts a young guy sitting in a TV control room, putting Movies on the air. Or maybe he's a projectionist in a movie house. Anyway, in this spot, an agent-type guy approaches and shoots the kid in the NECK with a poisoned dart...the kid falls to the floor, BOOM, and the agent-guy then sweeps a pile of film canisters into his black bag and hi-tails it out of there. Is this the kind of commercial that formative young (or, old like me) minds should be exposed to? The camera shows a closeup of the kid's face, eyes bugged open, with the dart in his neck as his head strikes the floor tiles. This bothered me to no end, having to see that over and over! It's an ugly picture, and a commercial that has no taste or subtlety whatever. C'mon, Madison Avenue, you're better than that!
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So I guess I'll have to start watching football in earnest. Who would've thought years ago, that the World Series would be played when the football season is halfway over? There are a couple of Football Things that are Ticking Me Off; one of them is the whole Brett Favre mess. For the last couple of seasons, he's done the same ol' song and dance; he says he's gonna retire, and then he doesn't. He tried playing Sunday with what, a fractured ankle? Is it time for someone to say, "Brett, It's Over and You Need To Accept that." Or is the coach scared of telling Favre? Who benches Brett Favre? And yet that's gonna have to happen soon. Even in good years, Favre's quarterbacking style involves slingin' that ball right in there so someone can intercept it. Favre is great at times, but he's awfully headstrong and takes a lot of chances he shouldn't take.
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I'd also like to know why The Seattle Seahawks keep relying over and over on QB Matt Hasselbeck, game in, game out, year in, year out...? Is he really that good? I haven't seen it. And the Seahawks are on their way to yet another losing season this year. Don't look for 'em in the Super Bowl anytime soon. I remember watching Kareem-Abdul Jabbar play in his last season; he still had the desire to play, but it was easily to tell he was getting Too Old To Play top-level Pro Basketball; he just wasn't cutting it anymore, and I kinda feel the same way about Brett Favre and Matt Hasselbeck. The longer their teams quit sticking with them, the more things will remain the same ol' same ol'. Let me say that I Admire Brett Favre. He's a tough guy. And that might not be enough anymore. Sad indeed.
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Is that all there is? Is that all there is? If that's all there is, my friend, then lets' keep dancing, lets' break out the booze and have a ball...Peggy Lee did that song in 1969. One of the strangest songs I've ever heard; it's an excellent mood piece.