dark

Dopes and Change

I am just looking forward to this new Album ... odd, a friend of mine tried to turn me on Wilco when YFH came out ... hate to admit I didnt get it at the time but I eventually got turned on to them years later via live stuff ....now I like just about everything (a few exceptions). I suspect the new CD will be the same for me .... some stuff will resonate immediately and other stuff will have to grow on me ....in the end Tweedy and Wilco dont owe me anything except to honestly express themselves and I think that's a given that they will do just that.

Course any song by the Foo is a driving song

Foo Fighters

That song is soundtrack for driving

Foo Fighters

That song is soundtrack for driving

Lovely song... after several listens the melody is firmly etched in my mind.... trying to to imagine the full band performance

Varies on the person I was trying to turn on to Wilco and its cool since there is so much variety to tap into

No .. it is not spring here in Midland MI ... I work for a minor league baseball team and we have 10 inches of snow on the field and opening day is April 7th ...

Yes thats true I didnt stay true to the thread .... but maybe I thought those lyrics worked .. who doesnt like Steak and Potatoes

But...it doesn't work

From Neil Young Reactor

T Bone

Got mashed potatoes

Got mashed potatoes

Got mashed potatoes

Ain't got no T-Bone

Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes

Got mashed potatoes

Got mashed potatoes

Got mashed potatoes

Ain't got no T-Bone

Got mashed potatoes

Got mashed potatoes

Got mashed potatoes

Ain't got no T-Bone

Ain't got no T-Bone

I only pasted the first 3 stanzas ... the rest of the song is just those lyrics over and over

Wish I had a recording of this but I used to be in a quasi bluegrass trio called "Joe Bobs Revenge" and we did a bluegrass version of Skid Rows 18 and Life

Gadhafi still needs to pay the piper for Lockerbie as well. I hope to see him in the Hague sooner rather than later. Or unable to travel there due to reasons related to mortality.

The preferable option would be for the bastard to be killed by a Cruise Missle .. its fitting justice for his life of evil and a trial is just too damn slow

Remember, many of those benefits that are being attacked now were granted at the expense of higher pay. There were trade-offs. Public sector workers had to play catch up for decades in the area of annual income compared to the private sector. We have witnessed a deterioration of those benefits the past decade even before the current bout of austerity fascism that is sweeping the nation. My take home pay is actually lower than it was four years ago due to increased medical deductions, pay freezes and increased state and federal taxes, etc. I'm not building a 7.7 million dollar mansion in Tampa anytime soon.

Aye but your Union Leaders maybe building a Mansion in Tampa

Alright the issue with Unions is multifaceted ... we are bankrupt, the unions have played a role in this....The Unions are so intertwined with the Democratic Party that when they negotiate with Democrats its a conflict of interest ...Public sector union members have better benifits and wages than many of the people who are paying their wages .. Unions promote and encourage the lowest common denominator ..poor employees are protected and the excellant employees arent rewarded .... the need for Unions in this country has waned from the early history of the unions .....I was a former Government Worker (22 Years) who benifited in many ways from the Union but in the end the Union helped contribute to me being an unproductive worker and I was was still one of the hardest workers.

I was a unionized Government for 22 years. The union through negotiations gave me a pretty decent living and very good benifits. The Union also created a workforce that promoted mediocre behaviour (and I am being kind). Looking back I know that merit based work places is the only way to have productivity and efficency. I hope my pension is still there but I am not counting on it. The Unions need to see that the times have changed and they need to make concessions or we all go down.

I wasn't directing my post at anyone in particular. I was reacting to comments I had read here and elsewhere. Part of the appeal of democracy (and hopefully they will have it) is that no one knows what will happen. There's a lot of space for imagination and possibility. Would you prefer that the Egyptian people were still saddled with Mubarak?

No I wouldnt want them to be saddled with Mubarak ..... my pessimism comes from being really excited for the pro democracy developments in Lebanon several years ago.. I was very hopeful that democracy would start to bloom in the Middle East only to have it hijacked by Hezbollah and Iran

I assume you are refering to me. So be it.

I may be pessimistic here, but history does not lend any reasons for optimism. Doey eyed joy and optimism are simply naive.

But Realpolitik is what it is.

Might be refering to me as well .... I want to be optimistic but I am very realistic about the prospects this ends badly .... the track record in the Middle East with Democracy isnt a good one .... Lebanon and Gaza are examples .....Lebanon's elections were hijacked by fundamentalists from Iran and in Gaza it was Hamas which is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood

I would ask "If you were a tree what kind of tree would you be"

Mubarak was certainly a despotic, authoritarian, totalitarian dicatator. But consider in the 30 years he has ruled after Sadat was assassinated, Egypt has been friendly if not quite a full ally of The United States and has been at peace with Israel. The coming regime will more than likely be neither.

 

We've supported the Arab dictators for 65 years because they feared us less than they feared the Soviets and would nominally support us. Now they are scared to death of the fundamantalists and are trying to walk a tight rope.

 

Lovely that the Egyptian people seem to be on the verge of a popularly elected government, but, if we are truly realistic here, it must be recognized that this will not be to our advantage.

 

We've spent our treasure and the lives of thousands of young men and women all over the world in the last 7 decades, and the world largely despises us. We are the demonized where we were once lionized. Maybe it's time to bring our men and women home, cut off the spigot of cash being sent in aid and try to rebuild.

I agree with much that you have said ...... but as far as the world largely despises us I disagree, I think much of the world envys us. I think those that despise us have over the years due to Soviet and other influences have a perverted view point of us. The Islamic World, at least the fundamentalist sects despise us due to their evil hatred of Israel and our support of Israel, in addition they see us as decadent, to which I say F em. This is not to say we havent made some tragic errors over the years over that have contributed to some in world hating us. Your point about us spending our treasure and the lives of thousands of our young men and women is precisely why Europe, some of Asia and others enjoy freedom.

We are entering to a great unknown with what has happened in Egypt ... I would like to be optimistic because I want all people to live in peace and freedom but as we can see by the two recent democratic elections in the Middle East (Lebanon and Gaza) I am greatly concerned we will end up with something very poisonous.

well they dont eat a whole lot of sausage over there so I am guessing its going to be real messy

My take is there is cute little puppy named democracy being born there but in the end it will be a ravenous wolf

Yeah, I love democracy as much as the next person, but we're going to watch a lot of sausage being made before Egypt sits down for a barbeque.

Kidsmoke,

Most importantly sorry for the loss of your dog

and welcome on board to Deb from a newbie myself

So true, so true. Those of you who take issue with this decision, I do see your side of the argument. This was my action, and I have outfitted myself in a black leotard and tights to best facilitate any tarring, feathering, and riding out of town on a rail that might be deemed necessary.

Here's the deal. The original thread was, as Gogo has stated, "borderline". I have no problem with newbies and am in fact a huge promoter and welcomer of newbies. I read through the original thread when it was reported to me. I gave it a fair amount of thought, and ultimately decided that it did, in fact, seem to be a self-promotional thread designed to promote (and eventually sell) a book. Our Rules and Regulations do specifically prohibit the use of these forums for purposes of advertising things for sale, a policy I suspect our membership would appreciate more if there were greater awareness of how much spamming we mods actually deal with. But we do our job so seamlessly (yay mods, you dedicated workforce!) that much of this effort is invisible to the VC masses.

So anyway, I invisibled the thread, which does also invisible all responses to it. I then pm'd the OP to explain my decision, which resulted in a lovely and long conversation with Deb, the poster, during which conversation it became very clear to me that her intentions had not been the typical "Hey you're all going to be interested in this product I am producing for sale, since you are Wilco fans!" She suggested clarifying her initial comments to the board, and I encouraged that and welcomed her to Via Chicago.

 

She has done that, with finesse, and I consider the matter finished and I'm glad to have things clarified and very much look forward to getting to know her, another obviously smitten and impassioned Wilco fan. So, you all be on your friendly-and-civil-best-welcoming-behavior toward Deb, and please resist the urge to show all your warts at once.

 

So are we done here? (Hi Deb, are you enjoying getting to know the gang? )

 

In other news, my beloved 15-yr-old Dog Curly, The much-mourned Bella's (d. Oct. 2010) constant companion, abruptly dropped dead today, out in the yard in the afternoon sun. We're down to a one-dog household, from 3 just a couple of months ago. February is not off to a grand start.

 

Ok, tar-and-feather if you must. It won't be the first time. I'm merely pure human. (Perhaps with a smidgen of monkey remaining.)

I like how there's millions of dollors of vintage equipment in there and all they spring for is IKEA furniture.

Nels uses an IKEA desk leg to manipulate his strings

John has been on the couch since they bought it. Don't hate.

Then you are saying we have to just accept what ever album they record ... thats crazy talk

It's a IKEA couch. Too much risk of breakage if they try to move it.

maybe if they gently nudge it and make John get off of it

Obviously from the Feng Shui of the room this new album will thrill some, and alleniate others. If they would just turn the couch slightly to the west it would be a perfect album.