BROTHERS OF THE DOOBIE VARIETY

Who of course, are neither brothers nor doobies. But, listening to this CD at lunch today, brings to mind how they were actually two different bands. Now this bootleg recorded in Tokyo, Japan in 1979 shows the difference between the two of them. Two thirds of the songs are good old rockin' Doobie Bros. songs, the other third are Michael 'the man who killed the Doobies' McDonald songs. I remember after probably 2 albums into the MM version of the band, I stopped buying their albums. They were a kick-ass rock band, and became a wimpy-ass R&B band, due to MM's songs.

But if you see them now, after the break-up and reunion, and now sans MM, they're back to being a kick-ass rock band, who play mostly their songs, and not his.

Which is as it should be in a perfect world...

BRINGING THE PORKCHOPS HIMSELF

When Will Jesus Bring The Porkchops? by George Carlin: Well, I had read it recently, though hadn't posted yet, so I guess this is a good time as any.

With the cover a spoof of of DaVinci's 'The Last Supper' with George sitting at the left hand of Jesus (waiting for the porkchops, natch) this book is another of George's irreverent look at life, people, and the English language. Hard to describe, he jumps from topic to topic, much as in his stage show. You can almost hear some of the different voice tones he uses for pieces that were taken from some of his stage bits. And he starts the book with his Modern Man shtick..."I'm a modern man, digital & smoke free; a man for the millennium...'; and now he is truly a man for the millennium, and all ages, his voice silenced but his unique outlook on life most probably will live way past you or I.

So George, I hope you finally got your pork chops, even if you had to bring 'em yourself...

RIP: GEORGE CARLIN

Someone near and dear to my sense of humor. Remember him on TV doing his 'hippy-dippy weatherman' routine; later in college 1971/72 got to see him live, at the height of his '7 words' (in)famousness. What a guy, always enjoyed him on his HBO specials, still own many of his early vinyl albums. Sorry to see him go, he was such an ornery cuss I figured he'd live forever...

INFO BELOW PILFERED FROM REUTERS: (For those of you who don't know him)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71. Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems, died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.
Known for his edgy, provocative material developed over 50 years, the bald, bearded Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine called "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 1978 case, Federal Communications Commission vs. Pacifica Foundation, the top U.S. court ruled that the words cited in Carlin's routine were indecent, and that the government's broadcast regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children might be listening.
The Grammy-winning Carlin remained an active presence on the comedy circuit. Carlin was scheduled to receive the John F. Kennedy Center's prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in November and his publicist said Carlin performed in Las Vegas this month.
His comedic sensibility revolved around a central theme: humanity is a cursed, doomed species.
"I don't have any beliefs or allegiances. I don't believe in this country, I don't believe in religion, or a god, and I don't believe in all these man-made institutional ideas," he told Reuters in a 2001 interview. Carlin told Playboy in 2005 that he looked forward to an afterlife where he could watch the decline of civilization on a "heavenly CNN."

"The world is a big theater-in-the round as far as I'm concerned, and I'd love to watch it spin itself into oblivion," he said. "Tune in and watch the human adventure."

SOME THOUGHTS ON FLYING

In airplanes, that is. Took a trip to Greensboro, NC on business earlier this week; flights up were good(thanks Delta); flights back were hell(thanks U.S.Air). But this flying brought some thoughts to mind.


Starting out with the trip to the airport, from driveway to parking space was exactly 53.6 miles. Oddly enough, I pulled intop said parking space at exactly 5:36. Weird, huh?

So now they load planes by something called 'zones' (a great Hawkwind album by the way) which apparently are just random groups of people seated in random seats all through the plane, which backs up the line into the entry tunnel. Makes no sense, compared to the old way of loading the plane from the back to the front, which caused less trouble since people had a smaller chance of being in each others way, and I'd bet was faster.

So then they give you pre-flight instructions on seatbelts, as if it was a 21st century invention!

Now, I can remember riding in cars as a kid where there were no seatbelts in the back, so back in the day, seatbelt instructions were probably helpful. But I should think in this day and age that anybody who can afford to fly probably at least knows what seatbelts are and how to use them.

Which reminds me of another old tradition (like getting actual food on the plane) that seems to have fallen by the wayside. I remember when flying as a kid, whenever the pilot would land the plane smoothly, the passengers would clap. Yeah, really. Of course, judging by my last trip, out of 4 landings, there was only one I would have clapped for, and one was downright crappy!



Though as my Dad used to say, "Any landing you walk away from is a good landing", and since hew was in the R.C.A.F. (though not a pilot)during WWII, I guess he'd know.



As for me, you couldn't pay me enough to fly U.S. Airways, no matter how patriotic-sounding their name is...

BEER - IN THE NEWS

A-B Board to Weigh InBev Bid
Looking at valuation, says the Financial Times.
The Anheuser-Busch board is meeting in person this week for the first time since InBev made its unsolicited, $65-per-share bid for the company last week, reports the Financial Times.
From the story:
The directors will weigh a variety of options for Anheuser, the 150-year-old brewer of Budweiser beer. But in a sign that Anheuser may not unequivocally reject InBev's advances, insiders say its advisers will focus the board's attention on the valuation of InBev's bid. At $65 per Anheuser share, they may argue that the bid is too low for a brand that InBev has called "iconic".

 

On the other hand, from the way A-Bs market share has been slowly eroding, maybe the word they're looking for is laconic!!

FOREVER...+ A PENNY...

 Yes, there's a reason it's called a Forever stamp...and yet someone I work with was adding a penny stamp because "the postage went up recently".

 So, just in case you have one of these stamps and aren't sure:

Yes, they're good...duh...forever!!

I TAWT I TAW A PUDDY CAT!

Really, I did taw a puddy cat, I did, I did!

RIP: ROADHOUSE GRILL

 Apparently killed off by a bankruptcy court judge last month. I noticed ours was closed, but it looked like it was being renovated. Then a friend told me they had stopped by and there was a chain on the door. So I had to check it out, and found out the whole chain had been shut down, apparently shortly before a deal to sell the restaurants was able to be finalized. Too bad, they were a great place to eat, good food, cold beer, great steaks. And, up until recently you ewere able to throw peanut shells on the floor - after eating the free peanuts first, of course.

 So, next steakhouse I eat at, I'll be raising a glass in memory of Roadhouse Grill, maybe someday you'll be back...

TWO MORE BOOKS

Visions Of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich: Stephanie Plum, 'fugitive apprehension agent', has lost her Christmas spirit. Then she finds him in the guise of a man who appears in her kitchen. Diesel is apparently looking for a toymaker who has skipped bail. Throw in some elves and a slightly off-kilter family, and Stephanie is in for a Christmas she'll never forget. Somewhat funny, and a good little holiday tale for someone who likes humor in their Christmas tales, or detective tales for that matter.

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett: Here we have the 1 millionth Disc World novel; oh, wait a minute, it's only the 20 somethingth - it just seems like there's a million of them. Be that as it may, this is one of the better ones that I've read. The King of Lancre invites the Magpyr family of undead to visit, and they take over the Kingdom. But, except for family servant Igor, they're all very modern, especially the Count who doesn't believe in vampire superstitions! At least not until he runs into the 3 witches (Nanny Ogg, Agnes, & Perdita - who we've met in other books), & the Reverend Mightily Oats and learns that sometimes you really DO have to play by the rules. Quite a good read, and better than many of the Discworld novels, some of which get a little too repetitive, and don't seem as humorous as they should be.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 On June 10th, 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded. Interestingly, the building in Akron, Ohio where the first AA meeting was held actually had 12 steps leading to the front door.