Spacemen 3 - Amen

Pure Evil

I know it’s been awhile, I have been really busy with school but I miss you guys so I will try to be a better friend. So let’s get it started.
I really value the intelligence of my friends... but just in case the irony of this post is lost on any of you let me deign to explain. I know that we have vilified our beloved Miss California lately for doing nothing more then speaking her mind …ok her heart. And the movement to gather torches and chase her into the old windmill at the edge of town and set it on fire has gained a lot of momentum lately, the most vocal townspeople being my fellow Californians. Our beloved liberalism has us all locked stepped marching to our unified chants of anger and intolerance. Its not that I am a fan of Miss California (although I do love world peace) It’s just that we need to remember that need to preserve the right for her to speak her mind. If I was to walk up to some guy and attack his character and morality for wanting to marry another man who would be the asshole then…okay bad analogy, I am usually the asshole anyway, but I can admit it. Listening to my fellow Californians talk about tolerance knowing that they just voted repeal same sex marriage less than a year ago the whole affair smells of a hypocrite that is willing to be nice to you as long as everybody is watching. The Bro is the(alleged)Boston College Craigslist killer

"Just because you are different does not mean that you have to be rejected. "

"Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind."

Merry Christmas everybody, some of my "New Classic" Christmas favorites(no covers), I hope they will be for you too.

"He didn't take nothing from nobody,"

I just heard today that Doc Ellis passed. Doc Ellis was a pitcher in the Major leagues for 12 seasons from 68-79. Despite winning the comeback player of the year with the Yankees in 1976, a year in which he won 17 games, Doc Ellis’s best years were with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1968-1975 playing along side Willie Stargell, and the great Roberto Clemente. As a member of the 1971 Pirates, The first “all black” starting lineup in The Major Leagues, Doc Ellis won 19 games, was a starting pitcher in the 1971 All-Star game , and the Pirates subsequently won the World Series that year.
In an era that was struggling to identify its social norms and come to terms with its bigotry and racism. Doc Ellis was renowned among all that knew him as being uncompromising and outspoken. In 1972 he was maced by a security guard at Riverfront Stadium who said he "made threatening gestures with a closed fist"; Ellis said he was showing his World Series ring to prove he was member of the Pirates(some reports cite him as also carrying a half empty bottle of wine).
He was a hard nosed and fearless pitcher who prided himself on being able to intimidate batters;

“All hitters know they're gonna get hit. They just don't know when. The kicker for the truly good hitters is, you cannot hit me as many times as I'm gonna hit you. They take that hit to get six hits. But you gotta pop their ass so you can get an 0 for 4 on them one day. Don't get cocky now, motherfucker. The challenge is on. So let's get it on. Other guys might explain it differently, have different reasons, but that was mine. "

Doc`s loyalty and compassion were as equally uncompromising, committing his post baseball career to sobriety, and helping to counsel young baseball players, convicts, and the homeless. In 1990 he was essentially shunned by the Yankees organization for helping aspiring pitcher Pascual Perez.
Doc`s most infamous exploit was in the 1970 season a year that he won 13 games in a row, he pitched a “no hitter” (only 195 players in MLB have ever done this) in San Diego on acid. After some off days in Los Angeles, Doc woke up, dropped some tabs and went back to sleep. He was woken by his girlfriend who showed him the newspaper telling him he had to pitch that day. Doc took a shuttle down to San Diego and pitched a twilight game. Doc was diving off the mound and jumping up and down after each inning; he allowed 8 base on balls including hit batsmen, but was completely fixated on the strike zone.
Doc headed an alcoholism treatment center in the South Central Los Angeles community where he was raised. He succumbed to cirrhosis of the liver.
In the Los Angele Times Obit it was asked that all flowers and cards be sent to his sister; Elizabeth Grider, at 121 E. 139th St., Los Angeles, CA 90061.

"Until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death."

Today is the Anniversary of the day that Nick Drake met his demise. If you don’t know you need to make this part of your musical Cannon. Despite his limited commercial success during his life, since his passing his music has been extremely influential to other musicians such as; Paul Weller, The Cure, The Black Crows, R.E.M. among others. What I find to be the most amazing quality about his music is how timeless it sounds, the depth and structure are completely independent and do little to indicate his influences. His music seems to be more relevant now then in context of the music that was being played when it was recorded in the 70`s, and it will probably continue to preserve that quality for generations to come. None of Nick Drake`s albums ever sold more then five thousand copies while he was alive. In recent years there has been a documentary, exposure on a Volkswagen commercial, and he was voted among one of the 50 most influential English songwriters of all time (BBC.COM), therefore his music has regularly reentered the charts over the last ten years. I don’t usually like to highlight these days especially since it was never clear if his death was accidental or intentional, however I have always believed that even if someone meets their demise in what started out as "intentional", in light of the horrible consequences, it always ends up being a tragic accident, its especially true in this case Nick Drake was 26.(19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974)



In kind of a related way I heard this while watching TV last week, I thought you might enjoy it. I am not going to say that I was flipping through the channels, I like this show. Dont get me wrong I am not a biker, I never have been and I never will be. I have never tried to put to much energy in trying to portray myself as something I am not, Hell! It takes to much energy trying not to be the things that I know I am. But anyway, the show reminds me of a day when bikers were the crazy guys that made me nervous, lived in the cul de sac at the end of the block, no shirts on a Saturday night racing suicide shift, short pipe bikes down the street all night long, no grass in their yard, mean old dogs, flat black trucks, three piece patch, and you knew they were up to some crazy crooked shit! this was long before we passed the tipping point of every cube jockey and commercial sellout wanting to buy back part of their character and self esteem by blowing their tax return on a Harley. I am sure there are still bikers out there, somewhere, but I dont know any. It might have been a novelty at one time for a biker to have a “straight” job, but now it’s a farce, the mainstream and the flock have gutted the ideal.

"If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately. "

On this day in 1963 the then adolescent media circus had been working overtime for the last 48 hours covering the events surrounding the Kennedy assassination. Around noon the live coverage of the preparations to have the former president lie in state at the capitol rotunda were interrupted. Millions of TV viewers were shown live the transfer of Lee Harvey Oswald from the Police Station in downtown Dallas to the County Jail.

On this day in 1971 D.B Cooper parachuted out of the cargo hold of a 727. He had departed Sea-Tac airport at 7PM where he collected $200,000.00 and released all the passengers, who stated he "seemed rather nice," he ordered the flight crew meals and sat on the plane drinking bourbon and soda. Once over the forest of southern Washington he had the crew slow the plane to 200mph and drop to 10,000 feet, he then plunged into the dense cloud cover of the cold Washington night and into the imagination of a nation. His name is actually fictitious borrowed from an early suspect. D.B. Coopers`s actual name identity and whereabouts are still a mystery. There have been several suspects since, some with plausible credibility however, a partial DNA profile acquired by the FBI in 2007 from a ‘clip on’ tie that was left on the plane has since cleared all suspects furthering the mystery.

On this day in 1986 Abbie Hoffman along with 15 others including Amy Carter (the Daughter of former president Jimmy Carter) are arrested for occupying an administration building on the UMass Amherst campus. The occupation was in protest of the illegal recruitment of students on campus by the CIA. During the trial Abbie Hoffman called witnesses including former American military analyst for the RAND Corporation Daniel Ellsberg, former United States Attorney General William Ramsey Clark, and former Contra leader Edgar Chamorro, detailing the CIA's illegal and inhumane activities, all sixteen were acquitted. During the closing argument Hoffman quoted Thomas Paine; "Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow."