Deadheads

What do you get for the deadhead that has everything? Get them, Tid-Dye duck tape.
Wrap you pipes with the same tape that Bob Weir uses.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

From The Ralph Rumpelton Collection.

Superman Red, Superman Blue

This was my favorite comic when I was a kid. When all my comics were gone I held on to this one. Over the years, I don’t know how but it got lost. I found a copy online a couple of weeks ago. They had only one left and I got it. I can’t believe my luck.
It came in the mail a couple of days ago and I brought it to work. Some of my friends are into comics. Once they saw this, they didn’t want to give it back to me. (lol)

A Charlie Brown Christmas (The Meaning of Christmas)

Triple Steak Stack

I went to Taco Bell the other day for dinner. They have the Triple Steak Stack which is excellent. It’s steak chopped up with melted cheese, on a soft flat bread. Put some hot sauce on it and your ready to go.
I drive up to the window and notice they changed the menu. I didn’t see the steak stack on there. So I asked if they had it. They said they don’t sell it anymore. I was in a panic. I drove all the way there to get one and they don’t sell it anymore. I had to get something else which wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the steak stack. Then when I went up to pay, I heard the girl on the mic say, “we don’t sell that anymore.” Everybody is asking for it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an Occupy Taco Bell movement going on soon. The only way it’ll end is if they bring back the Triple Steak Stack.

Justice Legue Of America

When I was a kid I bought comic books all the time. Always DC. I didn’t really buy that many Marvel comics. I always thought they weren’t superhero enough. They were always making some kind of dumb comments.
 I just started buying “Action Comics” and “Justice League Of America.” Everything is new, as of now, there is no JLA, they’re just meeting one another. The Green Lantern said something that I’ve been saying for a long time. He meets Batman and ask him what his superpowers are. Batman say I don’t have any. Lantern says, “Your just a guy in a bat uniform?” I’ve been saying that for a long time, he’s not a real super hero. He’s more like a glorified James Bond.
Later on it, it’s Green Lantern, The Flash, Batman and Superman fighting some alien robots. Flash says to Lantern (talking about Batman), “What’s his powers?” Lantern says, “He don’t have any.” Flash ask Batman what he’s doing here. Batman says, “I keep everybody focus.”
 What is this? You got a bunch of people running around with superpowers and they can’t focus! This reminds me of the 70’s Yankees. Batman is the Billy Martin of the club trying to get all the prima donnas to work as a unit.
Another thing. It seems like the Green Lantern has a hard time concentrating. When he doesn’t his ring powers becomes unstable. Just what we need a guy running around with a power ring he can’t control.
Now I want to talk about the style of the artwork in the comics. I don’t like it. It all looks like the Heavy Metal comic book artwork. Most of the color is in blue and there’s fighting going on in each panel. I find it dark and very hard on the eyes.

A Little Christmas Movie

I made this movie last year for a music group I’m in on Yahoo.
The song “Hooray For Santa Claus” is from the great, great movie “Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.”
The song never gets played on the radio. If I owned a radio station, every Christmas this would get played.
BTW, there’s two Grateful Dead references in this movie.

Billy Joel > U2

I heard on the radio that Billy Joel is giving these Town Hall concerts. It's
part song, part question and answers. Somebody asked him about U2. He said he
was at a U2 concert and found out that they have a band underneath the stage
supplementing.
This is the first I'm hearing of this but I wouldn't be surprised if it was
true. I remember seeing BTO back in the 80's. I had this really big telephoto
lens. From where I was sitting, I could see a guitar player hiding behind the
amps playing with the band for the entire concert.
I think if bands were going to do something like this, they should just have
the other musicians on the stage. I think people realize that what you do on
record a lot of times can't be done on stage without other musicians to fill in
the music.

Tonight's The Night

Neil Young's "Tonight's The Night."
From the Ralph Rumpelton Collection.

Christmas Music

Since I work in retail, I’ve been hearing Christmas music non-stop. I wouldn’t mind it if they mixed it up a little, but they play the same songs by different singers over and over. I must hear “Rudolf The Red Nose Reindeer” fifty times a night.  There’s one version by Dean Martin where he calls Rudolf, Rudy.  No wonder Rudy has a red nose, him and Dino been drinking down at the bar. If Rudy is to drunk to drive, I’m sure Dean’s nose will be red enough to take the lead.
Then there Sammy Davis Jr. doing “Jingle Bells.” He sounds like he’s pissed that he has to do the song. On one of the chorus he says, “Everybody.” This usually means the backup singers are going to join in. Nothing. It’s just him singing.
When you think about it, the scariest one is “Frosty The Snowman.” If I was building a snowman, and put a hat on it and it came to life, I’d take the first train out of town.

"One Size Fits All"

On the left, Cal Schenkel original album cover. On the right Ralph Rumpelton’s microsoft computer painting.

J&R Music World

One of the big things I miss about working in Manhattan is going to J&R Music World. J&R is one of the only stores that have a deep catalog. Go to any other music store and they only have the latest releases and maybe one of the popular albums. J&R has all the CD’s.
I also learned all my Classical music stuff from J&R. They had their own separate store for Classical. I became friends with the people that worked there and they told me about composers and the music. They also had a big budget section. Most of my Classical stuff is on the Naxos label. For a budget label they got high reviews.
Jazz had it’s own floor with a big budget section. This is where I found out about Chico Freeman. I got a bunch of his CD’s for $1.99.

Jose Reyes and The Mets

What’s the point in watching The Mets anymore? They let Reyes go to Miami (with their ugly uniforms), now they trade Angel Pagan. Pagan wasn’t no Mickey Mantel but he was an exciting player with a career .280 average.
Here’s my theory, when The Mets  have a lousy season this coming year, they can say, “at least it wasn’t with the same guys.”

Dave Brubeck

Am I missing something with today’s music? Drum machines, samples, samples of samples, auto tune mics, American Idol where people are stars in 5 minutes.
 There’s noting like live, real music.

Grateful Dead - "Europe 72"

From the Ralph Rumpelton Collection.

Dune

When I worked in Manhattan (1980 -2001) I did a lot of reading, mostly on the Long Island Rail Road.There used to be this guy who had a table out on the corner by J&R Music World (by City Hall). He had paperback books for one dollar.
Even though I read the “Dune” series, I picked this up for one dollar. It was printed in 1965. I bought it for the cover. I love those Sci-Fi covers from the 60’s and 70’s.

Don't Tell Me

Ever meet people that think they know it all. No matter how little they know on a subject, they act like they’re experts.
I was over somebody’s house and the discussion was about baseball. We’re talking about Fenway Park where the have the Green Monster. The “know it all” says, “The outfielders should play in so if the ball goes over their head’s they can catch it off the wall for an out. Everybody just ignored him cause what he said was wrong and stupid. The more people ignored him the more he kept on yelling “Catch it off the wall, catc it off the wall.” People were trying to be nice to him but finally somebody yelled at him, “You can’t catch it off the fucking wall for an out. Once it hits the wall it’s like hitting the ground.”
 That shut him up for awhile.

Jerry Garcia

Smoke them if you got them.

Bigfoot

"Why’s it called Bigfoot? It should be Bigfeet."
                                             Zapple100

Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant

CD Show and the Revolution

 I went to my local CD Show today. They have it about every two or three months in the American Legion. Even though I knew how to get there I used my GPS that I bought last month. If I followed it, I would have ended up in another town. If I had more time I would have followed it just to see where it would have taken me. It might have taken me to the place via New York City.
The CD Show is in one room and it’s pretty well packed. They get a good crowd there. If you go early in the morning, there’s no room to walk. I try to go a couple of hours after it opens.
You get these people that have to look at every single CD. They don’t move. They pick up the CD’s read the back, the front, they put them down. I hate getting stuck by those people. I don’t understand why they do this. You can’t like every artist. If you don’t like them, move on. Anyway, I found this table that had Jazz CD’s. There was no price on them. I was going to ask the guy how much they were but he was talking to this lady. Not about music but about revolution. I didn’t want to interrupt them  cause if they did seize power they might have thrown me in jail for derailing the revolution. The guy  that own the table looked like he was in his 60′s with long grey hair. The lady looked like she was in her 40′s and looking for a cause. I didn’t know if they wanted to take over the government or the room. I felt out like yelling out “I like Fidel and I like his beard.” Instead I said, “I don’t want to interrupt the revolution, but how much are these CD’s? They guy said five apeice. So I picked up Art Farmer  “The Perception” and Charlie Haden Quartet West “In Angel City.”
 
 I got on the Art Farmer now. It’ nice and mellow. In the winter time when it gets dark early, I like to listen to Jazz and relax. Summer is Rock music and winter is Jazz and Classical. This way I get to listen to a lot of different music.

Bob Dylan’s other Judas Moment

Everybody know the time somebody in the crowd yelled out “Judas” to Dylan cause he went electric and Dylan said to his band, “play fucking loud.” There was another time somebody yelled out something to Dylan that got him pissed.
Dylan was doing “All Along The Watchtower” and changed the words around a little. He  sang:
“”There must be some kind of way out of here,”
Said the joker to the thief,
My feet really hurt
I can’t get  no relief”
Then somebody in the crowd yelled out, ” Get some Dr. Scholls.”
Dylan stopped singing, turned to his band and said, “Let Jimi have the song.”

Jimi Hendrix and the Gay Connection

What does Hendrix have to do with the gay crowd? The color purple, is the color for gay pride. In the Teletubbies, Tinky Winky is purple. Everybody thought Tinky Winky was gay because he’s purple. The name don’t help either. Where does Hendrix fit in with this. One of Hendrix’s biggest songs is “Purple Haze.” There’s a line in it that goes, “Scuse me while I kiss this guy.” The gay crowd heard the song, love it and adopted purple as their color.

NBA Lockout

Who cares.

Bob Dylan on Simpsons

Sha Na Na Teen Angel Sep 23, 1970

While my friends were into Led Zeppelin, I was into Sha Na Na. They thought I was so uncool, but what did they know. I didn’t bow to peer pressure and like what everybody else liked.This was the band!
If there was one band I could be in this would be it. I love the 50′s music. Just give me a guitar, stick me in the background and I would be in heaven.
BTW, Sha Na Na’s “The Golden Age Of Rock And Roll” is now out on CD. Life is good.

The Kryptonian Klap Is…………………..Fake!

When I first posted about “The Kryptonian Klap,” I tried to find it online in another site to see if it was real. I couldn’t find it. The cover looked so good, I thought it was real. Keith  ( http://worldofkeitho.com/ ) went looking for it  and couldn’t find it. The reason we couldn’t find it listed anywhere else is because it’s a fake.
Here’s the first cover
:
On the Kryptonian Klap cover, most of this cover is what Superman is holding in his hand.
Now, here’s the original cover it was inserted to
:
Put them together and you get this:

Was I ever wrong. I was even looking on Ebay to see if they had it. it would have made a great story.

Lois, and the Kryptonian Klap

Do you believe this comic!? If something like this came out today there would be a major uproar over it.
First of all, I didn’t know Superman could get sores. He has a super immune system to fight this kind of stuff.
Then I got to thinking, this isn’t regular klap, it’s kryptonian klap. One of Superman’s enemies had to infect Lois someway to give it to Superman.
But wait, I didn’t know Superman and Lois, you know………………did it.
Or maybe, Lois is just a Superhero groupie. She gets around more then Herman Cain.

Bob Weir

After they dug up Bob Weir, Ratdog went out on the road.

Frank Zappa

I saw this Frank Zappa tribute band the other day. It wasn't what I expected.

Grand Pa Munster and Donald Fagen, Brothers?

“Discussing Where To Put The Little Black Dots On The Paper”

Mozart, Garcia, Beethoven, McCartney and Zappa discuss the fine art of songwriting.

"Beach Boys "SMiLE""

I’ve been listening to this. The sound is excellent and a big improvement over
some of the boots.
I have to ask, how would this have been received back in the 60’s? No matter
how far out they got, it was still the Beach Boys. I don’t think the young hip,
out of sight audience would have gone for it since it was The Beach Boys.
A lot of The Beach Boys image problem was The Beatles. They wanted to keep up
with The Beatles. The Beatles are changing and so should we. The Beatles started
off as a Rock band, then when Epstein managed them, they got cute. So The
Beatles could have went back to being a Rock band since it was in them.
The Beach Boys started out as a Pop, Rock vocal group. Change for them was
didn’t come easy.
Now, what would have happened if they listened to Mike Love and sang about
Surfin’ and girls? There were still bands that did this stuff in the late 60’s
and had hits. Maybe the Beach Boys could have weathered the hippy storm till it
blew over.

Superheroes

Messing around online and came across an old comic book cover, “Superman vs Spiderman.” They made it look like it was an even fight. Are they kidding. Superman would destroy him in 2 seconds. He could burn him with his x-ray vision. Fly around him so fast it would start a hurricane and take Spiderman away. Blow a cold blast of air on him and freeze him. Or he could just punch Spiderman in the head and knock his head off his body.
 Then I got to thinking, some superheroes aren’t superheroes. They might be nice guys, but not superheroes. Batman has no powers. He has a nice car and some fancy gadgets, but no super powers. Same for Captain America. He even uses a gun. How many superheroes use a gun.
Green Lantern, no super powers but a nice ring.

Sean Lennon

Here’s a good one. Sean Lennon down on Walls Street. The guy is worth 45 zillion dollars. He’s not even in the one percent, he’s beyond that.
Good thing he comes from a mother who’s family is in the banking business, and who’s father was a Beatle or he would have to get a real job.

Gaucho

From The Ralph Rumpelton collection.

“Religion and Comic Books”

I was watching “Decoded” last week and they mention Rosicrucianism. I knew I heard that before but couldn’t remember where. Then I realized, they always had ads in the back of the comic books back in the 60’s. I always wanted to mail away for one of their books becuase it looked so mysterious.

Elvis and Bob

“Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan are like potato chips. Once you hear one song, you can’t stop”.
                                                                                      Zapple100

Phone Bill

I’m going over my phone bill. Every time I look at it I want to get rid of the phone in my house. For the month I made seven dollars worth of calls. My bill came out to almost fifty dollars.
I got a deal on my cell phone, I pay twenty dollars every three months for two hundred minutes and you can roll it over. I don’t make that many calls in a year.

Antiseptic Mouth Rinse

                                                               The lighting was just right.

William Shatner Covering Black Sabbath

Superman, Lois Land and Pat Boone

 
The only way I can see Superman being piss is if in the song it says Clark Kent is Superman.

Bob Dylan caught stealing again

There’s a big stink going on about Bob Dylan copying his paintings from somebody’s photographs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/artinfo/did-bob-dylan-rip-off-cla_b_985296.html
How would Bob Dylan feel if he knew I was stealing his paintings for my computer paintings.
The original:
and mine:

Hard to tell them apart.

“Met Fans Are Cry Babies”

I was listening to WFan (radio station) in the car before. Caller after caller kept on saying that Citi Field is too big. That’s why the Mets didn’t win this year. They kept on saying that they should build the team around the stadium. Get a lot of speed and slap hitters. Finally the host, Steve Somers said what I was think, get a good team and you’ll win. Play good baseball and stop making rookie mistakes like they have been doing all year.
It’s not like when The Mets are up, they keep the fences back and when the other team is up  they move them in. It’s fair for both team. The Mets just weren’t that good this year.
Now Jose Reyes. This guy must be a big fan of Wade Boggs. Takes himself out of the game so he can win the batting title. Doesn’t anybody have any pride anymore.

Bettie Page dances to the Seeds

Bettie Page dancing to The Seeds’ “Can’t Seem To Make You Mine.”
Pure sexy!

Bob Dylan "Simple Twist Of Fate

I always argue with my friends about who’s a better songwriter. They say Lennon and McCartney, I say Dylan. I know it’s a matter of taste but more singers sing Dylan songs then Beatle songs.

Frank Zappa Quote

“Rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, in order to provide articles for people who can’t read.”

Backstage with Bob Dylan

Ponzi Scheme

I was talking to a couple of people the other day about Social Security. They all said the same thing, “it’s a ponzi scheme.” So I asked them what a ponzi scheme was. Either they gave me the wrong answer or they didn’t know. It just goes to show that people repeat what they hear on TV.

Superman Red, Superman Blue

 
I had this comic. When all my other comics were gone, I saved this one. Don’t ask me what happened to it. I went to look for it one day and it was gone.
Superman finally had enough. He wants to retire. He wants to sit on the couch and watch baseball all day. He’s a big Yankee fan. Remember Bucky Dent’s Home Run. Don’t ask which one cause there was only one that counted. When the ball was in the air, all of a sudden it took off and went over the fence. Clark was in the stands for that game, exhaled and then ball went over the fence.
Superman decides to fix the world. He wants it so he never has to work again. He splits himself into two, Superman Red and Superman Blue. Ones a Republican and one’s a Democrat. They argue all the time and nothing gets done. No, what really happens is the two of them fix everything that’s wrong in the world.

 

When every thing is done, Blue marries Lana Lang and Red marries Lois Lane and moves to Kandor. This was back in the day when comic books looked like comics. They had great artwork and look at all that dialog. It wasn’t just looking at the pictures, there was a storyline there.

Carl and the Passions - "So Tough"

Carl and the Passions microsoft computer painting.

“She’s A Lady”

Can you imagine this song being released now.
“She’s the kind they’d like to flaunt and take to dinner.
Well she always knows her place.”
Women group would be up in arms. Equal rights went right out the window with this song. (lol) But since it’s Tom Jones, he could get away with it.



Well she’s all you’d ever want,
She’s the kind they’d like to flaunt and take to dinner.
Well she always knows her place.
She’s got style, she’s got grace, She’s a winner.
She’s a Lady. Whoa whoa whoa, She’s a Lady.
Talkin’ about that little lady, and the lady is mine.
Well she’s never in the way
Always something nice to say, Oh what a blessing.
I can leave her on her own
Knowing she’s okay alone, and there’s no messing.
She’s a lady. Whoa, whoa, whoa. She’s a lady.
Talkin’ about that little lady, and the lady is mine.
Well she never asks for very much and I don’t refuse her.
Always treat her with respect, I never would abuse her.
What she’s got is hard to find, and I don’t want to lose her
Help me build a mountain from my little pile of clay. Hey, hey, hey.
Well she knows what I’m about,
She can take what I dish out, and that’s not easy,
Well she knows me through and through,
She knows just what to do, and how to please me.
She’s a lady. Whoa, whoa, whoa. She’s a lady.
Talkin’ about that little lady and the lady is mine.
Yeah yeah yeah She’s a Lady
Listen to me baby, She’s a Lady
Whoa whoa whoa, She’s a Lady
And the Lady is mine
Yeah yeah yeah She’s a Lady
Talkin about this little lady
Whoa whoa whoa whoa
Whoa and the lady is mine
Yeah yeah She’s a Lady
And the Lady is mine.

“The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life”

I wonder what Cal Schenkel thinks of me doing the Zappa covers on the computer?

Dunkin’ Donuts

 I was at Dunkin’ Donuts the other day and saw something funny. Not only was it funny I see it a lot.
 Somebody will order a dozen donuts. They’ll tell the person behind the counter what types of donuts they want. When they get up to the twelfth doughnut, they can’t make up their mind. They just stare at the doughnuts and it takes them a minute to pick the last one.

Surfin' Bird

Harvey Has Left The Building

My cat, Harvey “In The House” Mandel was put to sleep today. Harvey was 18 years old and I never took her to a vet. She was healthy as a horse. Not sick once. She also had her claws and never scratched anything. She could have done real damage to my speakers if she wanted to, but she never laid a pawn on them.
Last couple of weeks she hasn’t been eating. Harvey has no teeth but that never stopped her from eating. The one thing she loved to do was eat. All I had to say was “Harvey, do you want to eat” and her ears perked up and she went right to her dish. Lately when she ate, it was like the food was getting stuck in her mouth. She would paw her face like she was trying to get it out. She also just laid around all day.I knew it was the end of the line for her. So the other day I bought a cage for her to go in when we went to the vet. I thought it was going to be hard to get her in the cage, that was no trouble, but she cried all the way to the vet. When the vet looked at her, she said it was cancer. I had a feeling it was something like that cause the right side of her face was all swollen. It felt like a rock. Doctor said two choices, operation and there was no guarantee, or put her to sleep. I knew what had to be done. It was really hard to do, but I look at it like this, she had a 18 year good run.
It’s funny how I got to know Harvey. I live in a co-opt, there used to be a lot of wild cats around. The lady that lived upstairs from me used to feed them. One night I hear a cat outside my door. I looked outside and saw a small cat. It was winter time and the cat was hungry, so I gave her some bologna. The next night she was back, so I kept on feeding her. Next thing you know she’s a indoor-outdoor cat. Then the co-opt didn’t want the cats around so they set up traps for them. Little did I know there was a cat lover in the building that set his own traps. When he caught them he sent them to the animal shelter. They didn’t take Harvey cause she was too old. So he put her picture in the co-opt news letter. I got in contact with him and got Harvey back now as an indoor cat.
It’s funny how the rolls reversed over the years. When Harvey was an outside cat, I would watch her from the inside. Over the years Harvey would wait for me by the window when I came home from work.
Harvey would jump on the bed and sleep on the bed by me. When Harvey wasn’t feeling well I would lay down on the floor by her.
Harvey “In The House” Mandel, RIP

“The Lone Onion Ring (Hi – Ho Silver)”

I went to Burger King the other day. When I got home and poured out my fries, there it was, “the onion ring.” When I was a kid this use to really freak me out. I hate onion rings and it was like this onion ring invaded the holy sanctuary of the French Fries.
I used to wonder how it got in there. The rings had their own home and the fries had theirs. Did one ring, climb out of the pot and sneak it’s way over to the fries? Was the onion ring kidnapped and being held for ransom?
It didn’t even look right. The fries were smooth and the rings were all crisp. There is no way they should ever mingle.

"One Size Fits All"

“One Size Fits All” is the last great Zappa studio album. After this album, he broke up the band of, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ruth Underwood, George Duke, Chester Thompson and Tom Fowler. What came after this was basically comedy music, with the exception of his Classical stuff.
Zappa always had comedy in his music. In the later years it changed to mean comedy, not smart comedy.

Zappa Cartoon

 
Here's the original cartoon by Jean Sole that later became the cover for 'tis the season to be JELLY.

The Three Stooges

We got a new channel on cable “Antenna TV.” They play a lot of old stuff. On Saturday night they have something like three hours of “The Benny Hill Show,” followed by three hours of “The Three Stooges.”
One thing I notice about “The Three Stooges,” every time they have a chase scene where the bad guys are running after The Stooges, nobody ever looses their hats. Everybody wears fedora hats, if their hat falls off, no matter what’s going on, they stop to pick it up. If somebody running out of a room and their hat falls off, they stop to get it, no matter how many guys are chasing them.

'tis the season to be Jelly

I like the Old Mothers better than the 80′s Mothers. The original Mothers, or up to the band that had Ruth Underwood and the Fowler brothers were more in tune with the music. The 80′s band with Ike Willis and Ray White were good but it sounded like they were more controlled by Zappa and had to do it exactly by the numbers.

Piquantique

My favorite Zappa band,
Ian Underwood (woodwinds/synthesizer), Ruth Underwood (percussion), George Duke (keyboards), Ralph Humphrey (drums), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Tom Fowler (bass), and Jean-Luc Ponty (violin).
Zappa is best when he has Jazz thrown in to his music and you can’t go wrong with George Duke.

Next Friday

Had a discussion at work Monday night. Somebody said they were doing something
next Friday. So I said, "the Friday coming up you won't be here." He said, "It's
the Friday after that." I said, "The Friday coming up is next Friday." So we
kept on going back and forth, then other people chimed in and said I was wrong.
My reasoning is, last week was last Friday, the Friday coming up is the next
Friday.
His reasoning is, the Friday coming up is this Friday, the Friday after that is
next Friday.
To me, if Friday is next in line, it's next Friday.

Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow

         

Whenever I mention Frank Zappa to someone, they say something like, (in a drugged out voice) “Light up another one.” I got past the point of telling these people that Zappa was against drugs. No matter what you say to them, they won’t believe you.
I once heard an edit of “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” on the radio. I couldn’t believe how bad it was chopped up.

Cat Mother - "Last Chance Dance"

I bought this album in the cutout bin long time ago. Never heard of the band before, I just bought it cause I liked the cover. I've been waiting for the longest time for it to come out on CD. I was lucky enough to have a friend on the net who burned me a copy from the album.

This is a microsoft computer painting of the album

"After The mudflap"

I found out that Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush” album cover was taken on Sullivan Street and 3rd. I was in Manhattan and decided to go down to the Village and tried to recreate the album cover.
The building has changed. The grates were gone and I wasn’t going to wait for a little old lady to walk by. It was too hot.
So here it is, “After The Mudflap.”

Sheik Yerbouti

While I got to admit, this is a funny album, this is where I started to lose interest in Frank Zappa. First thing that turned me off is that he started recording digital. Crappy cold sound, too sharp and you couldn’t feel the bass. I don’t know how people thought that digital sound was good. It’s made for stuff like iPODS where you can turn it up and the bass won’t distort the tiny speakers.
Zappa’s lyrics started getting 3rd grade level. He was always sarcastic, now he just starting writing bathroom humor.
I liked his Classical music. I think if Zappa lived, he would have left Rock music and just write Classical. That’s what he always wanted to do anyway.

"Bridge Over Troubled Water"

Bob Dylan “Saved”

Bob Dylan “Saved”

 

My friend was telling me that “Saved” was Dylan’s last great album. I was going to comeback with a witty reply but I was laughing too hard. I bought the CD awhile back from the cutout bin. Took it home, played it once, didn’t think too much of it and put it away. So I thought, let me listen to it again. Not as bad as I remembered it to be. Not as good as “Shot Of Love” either.
What I’m really waiting for is some Bob Dylan live concerts DVD’s. His religious phase concerts in Toronto was filmed.  I like to see an official release of that. At the time he was making his religious albums, he had a hot band with him. They should open the vault a little and let some of this stuff out.

“Wake Of The Flood”

 


“Wake Of The Flood,” my first Grateful Dead album. When I was in High School, I heard the cool people talking about The Grateful Dead. I had no idea who they were. I went out and bought it. I hated it really bad. I thought it was boring and nothing good about it. I could see why people thought this was so good. I put it away and didn’t play it for a long time. Then I started getting into The Dead and gave it another listen. Since by that time I knew something about the band, I started to understand the music.
I feel that they more you know about a band, the people in it and what they’re trying to do, the more you understand the music.
I always wanted to try the “Wake Of The Flood” computer painting. I looked at the album cover and thought it was going to be a lot of work. I figured, what the hell, let me give it a go. I see touches of “The Grand Wazoo in the painting. All in all, I thought it came out alright.

Three Jabroni’s and two other guys

 The Miami Heat, three super stars and two who cares, lost to a real team. Three guys who can’t figure out how to play together lost to a team that had team work.
 No way Miami should have lost. The got the better team. They got the bigger ego’s. They were making fun of a sick guy who burned their ass in game five.
  Ever see when they show a team picture of The Heat, they only show three guys. Me and my brother could have been the other two and nobody would have noticed.
 I bet they’re laughing in Cleveland. James didn’t want to play with The Cav, they weren’t going to win. I’ll go to Miami and not win there.
 I could imagine what went on in the locker room of The Heat after the game. The finger pointing, making excuses and the crying.
 There’s that old saying, “There’s no I in team.” Maybe they should have hung that in The Heat locker.

Nancy Sinatra

1940, Born on this day, Nancy Sinatra, US singer, actress, (1966 UK & US No.1 single ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’). With her father Frank she became the only father and daughter team ever to score a UK No.1 single with the 1967 hit ‘Somethin’ Stupid’.

Anthony Weinergate

This couldn't happen to a nicer guy. He reminds me of a person who know everything and he's right and everybody's wrong.
So he comes on TV and lies. Says his account was hacked into. It's possible, stuff like that happen. But then they ask him if the picture of his crotch is his. He says, he don't know. This is where it starts to fall apart.
There's three things here;
1. account was hacked into
2. he sent the pictures
3. not sure if the pic of the crotch is his
Now I can understand if the picture was  taken straight on, you might not know. If you are in  a gym and some perv has a camera taking pictures, you don't know the pic was taken so you might not recognize yourself. This crotch pitcher was taken looking down. So you know if you took the picture. After you took it you would probably look at it to make sure it came out good.  Yet Weiner says he didn't know.
Since he said he didn't know if it was him or not, it also meant it could have been him. What's he doing with pictures of his crotch on Twitter? You mean he wasn't smart enough to make a fake account if he wanted to do that.
If you use math you could have figured out he sent the pics:
hacked 33 1/3 %
did send 33 1/3%
don't know if it's him (this means, it's him) 33 1/3%
Add them up 33 1/3% hacked, 66 2/3% sent them
Here comes the best part. He's not sure if some of the girls he sent the pictures to were over 18.
There must be something in the water in New York. First Elliot Spitzer, now Anthony Weiner.

Bob Dylan – “Shot Of Love”

(painting by Ralph Rumpelton)

 One of my favorite Bob Dylan albums. A lot better then “Slow Train Coming.” “Shot Of Love” doesn’t have the Jerry Wexler production so it’s more natural sounding. This album has it all, Rock, Blues, and Lenny Bruce.

The End Of The World Has Come And Gone

Here’s what I don’t understand about all this end of the world stuff. People were giving their money away. I read that some people were even sending Harold Camping money. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a good life for him.
Lets look at this logically. The end of the world is coming. If you really believe this, why would you give your money away? No matter who you gave it to, they’re not going to be able to spend it cause it’s the end of the world. Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep it in case it don’t come.

Harry Nilsson "Pussy Cats" microsoft painting.

Learning To Type

Learning To Type

About ten years ago, when I got my first computer, I had no idea how to type. I figured since I was going to be at the computer I would have a lot more fun if it didn’t take me fifteen minutes to type one sentence. I didn’t want to use the “hunt and peck” method. Just using the index fingers and pecking away.
My friend had a CDR that taught  you how to type. It gave exercises, and you did the same thing over and over. I thought this was really boring. If I was going to learn to type, I wanted to learn while I was doing stuff on the computer. I didn’t want to do exercises for hours.
This lead me to the picture above. This is the original thing, it’s 10 years old. I drew out the keyboard (or most of it), black for the left hand and red for the right. Numbered the fingers and  leaned  it up by the monitor. I would look at the picture then the keyboard while I typed. After awhile I got the hang of it. If somebody asks me where a letter is on the keyboard, I can’t tell them, but when I’m typing my fingers go there. I got to the point where I can type without looking at the keyboard. For me, this was the best way to learn to type.

Today the part of John Lennon will be played by Mr. Ed.

“It’s Been Real”

What does that mean? Your talking to somebody for awhile, then they say, “It’s been real,” and they leave. Not, ‘nice talking to you,” “see you later,” they say, “it’s been real.” I just look at them and say “yea.”
How do they know if it’s been real. Maybe he’s talking to somebody who is not telling him the whole truth. Then he say’s “it’s been real,”  and the guy is thinking, sucker.
I know people that love to talk. You can’t ask them “how you doing” cause they’ll give you a twenty minute answer. The same person that gives the twenty minute answer to “how are you doing” will come over to me at work and talk to me when I’m really busy. I won’t pay any attention to him and he’ll just keep on talking. Don’t some people take a hint. If I’m not answering your question, it’s means I’m not listening to you.

Microsoft Computer Paintings

I’ve been on a roll here.  When inspiration strikes, I get going.

Happy Mother's Day

Quah

 My favorite Jorma Kaukonen album.