Inventory of Life (Vers Libre)

Upon taking an honest, introspective inventory of life
Do we not encounter a nearly palpable awareness
Of our multiverse’s magnitude and magnificence
The, perhaps, divine omnipotence and omnipresence

Do we not frequently behold such enormity and ubiquity
Interwoven within each rainbow’s dazzling technicolor
Upon fragile flower blossoms glistening with dewdrops
Coexisting beneath the dawn’s early light sunbeams

Hear it within the awakened songbird’s impromptu symphony
The ocean’s surging roar and waterfall’s ceaseless rush
A busy at play, carefree child’s timeless, uninhibited giggles
Our euphoric oohs and aahs; as well as the contented sighs

Feel it within the comforting warmth of a loved one’s held hand
The beating heart’s pulse coursing; circulating subcutaneously
The temperate, summer sunlight cast upon our welcoming faces
The temperamental, winter storm antithesis; its cold shoulder chill

Sense the fragrance at rain shower’s end
The saline scent of the brisk sea breeze
The sweet smell of freshly cut blades of grass,
Our aromatic, home baked, daily bread

Taste the perspiration of an honest day’s work
The character of both joy’s and sorrow’s tears
The distinctive flavor of kisses that unite and invite
The spiciness of life’s shared attributes and diversity

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Going Out In Style (SundaySongSeries)

The members of the American Celtic punk band, Dropkick Murphys, reknown for supporting the working class, labor unions and charitable causes, are also our Week #116 tour guides thru the vast expanse of Sunday titled tracks.

On this occasion, via their performance of Sunday Hardcore Matinee, they’ll be attaining musical velocities that’ll likely transcend the speed of sound.

BTW, that Going Out In Style title, above, is also their album title.

Either playback the clip onsite or over @YouTube (offsite option just in case anyone is experiencing any playback issues).

Our next musical adventure takes place seven days from now. Hope you’ll be clickin’ back at that time. Till then…

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Innocuous Inoculations, Anyone?

There needs to be a show of faith regarding the vaccine R and D’ers, who, to date, have discovered three efficacious, innocuous inoculations; all fully capable of halting, dead in its tracks, the rampaging coronavirus.

After all, it’d be highly unlikely that ethical experts, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, would ever intentionally BS us re this literal life and death matter. After all, for them to do so would run the grave risk of sickening and/or deep-sixing the first expected vaccine recipients; namely:

The very hospital personnel, who are so desperately fighting, 24/7, on the COVID-19 frontlines.

Naturally, we’d be far more trusting souls, were America’s heading for the exit signs prez not an unscrupulous psychopath and pathological liar. His debilitating mental illnesses have been manifesting themselves in our own symptomology; inclusive of our difficult to fight off skepticism and trepidation.

Alas, the most efficacious, innocuous inoculation against the Disease of Deceit has yet to be discovered. So far, social distancing and isolating from sicko political wannabes, doth remain our best defense.

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Masses Mass Murder the Masses

Let’s not bog down this blog with the particulars to this TRUE story; mainly because that’d only divert our attention from the larger issues at hand.

Cutting to the chase scene, science based leader, purely in the interest of public safety / public health, attempts to rein in religious services, a.k.a. the documented, superspreader events of a ferociously contagious, deadly pathogen. Faith based judges rein in said leader with their ruling that his pandemic protocols infringe upon the rights of the people to worship in whatever manner they see fit!

Issues:

• WTF kind of “religious leaders” would ever file a lawsuit, for the express purpose of winning the right to knowingly sicken / sicken to death their congregants?
• WTF kind of “judges” would rule in favor of clergymen who, in essence, are little more than premeditated, mass murderers?
• Whatever happened to the Commandment, Thou Shalt Not Kill?
• Why would a technically legal judicial ruling not, bare minimum, include an attached caveat to sternly warn the victorious “vicars” that their masses could easily wind up mass murdering the masses!

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Unsung Hero (BlogCast)

02/11/21 Update: Throughout most of George Harrison’s career, he had been known as “The Quiet Beatle”. Seeing how his videos have been getting yanked from this BlogCast, how I’ve had to seek replacements to restore 3 out of the 4 clips below, he has certainly been living up to that reputation. My best advice to my listeners / readers is to click fast while they last…

Scant months after the spring 1970, Beatles disbandment, George Harrison released his solo album, All Things Must Pass, ATMP (on this very day, fifty years ago).

My local FM station’s late afternoon DJ, Jim Curtis, immediately opted to air it, in it’s entirety, and, upon my ear-witnessing that bygone broadcast, four things became abundantly clear:

• John, Paul, George and Ringo, recording / performing, individually, could now offer their mourning fans four times the musical output; a consolation prize that was truly groovy (slang-wise and in the vinyl sense, too).
• For far too long, songsmith Harrison’s talents had been underappreciated and inordinately eclipsed by the Lennon / McCartney songwriting team.
• Had the Beatles continued recording together, all 18 of those ATMP tracks could’ve fit in, perfectly, on their albums. Alas, one can only imagine how John, Paul and Ringo’s instrumental and vocal interpretations would’ve enhanced / changed the final mix.
• I needed to get this musical masterpiece into my life / record library, ASAP (and did so scant days later).

Upon spinning this album in its entirety, late last evening, I decided to blog about it on its golden anniversary; to feature, in Side 1 thru 4 numerical order, each lead off track. It’ll be up to you whether you listen to all four songs in their entirety OR choose just one or two, OR merely sample ’em, etc.

Seeing how Harrison’s songs amply speak for themselves, my commentary will be minimal.

I’d Have You Anytime

This Harrison / Dylan collaboration, at face value, serves as a let’s take our friendship to the next level appeal to that special someone. Yet, the lyrics could also be interpreted as George’s clever way of re-introducing himself; his own appeal to fans to accept him in his new soloist role.

What Is Life

Could this track be considered the sequel to Lennon / McCartney’s All You Need Is Love? The resounding chorus, “Tell me, what is my life without your love; Tell me, who am I without you, by my side” doth ring true.

Beware of Darkness

The couplet, “Watch out now, take care, beware of greedy leaders; They take you where you should not go”, admonishes average Janes and Joes to never empower ideologues who are little more than PTDs (Politically Transmitted Diseases).

I Dig Love

We get a glimpse of Harrison’s less serious side. His whimsical, lyrical reversal, “I Love Dig”, doth prove so Lennonesque, too. Obviously, George spending all those years with John served him well. Even better, this track ends this post on an upbeat, playful note.

If you’d like to track thru past BlogCasts, they’re all neatly archived within both my BlogCast and Music categories. Check ’em out at your convenience.

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Kevin’s NO-COVID-19 Party Tutorial

Stateside, today is Thanksgiving. In normal times, this would be The Day, which kicks off the year ending, party hearty, holiday season.

However, the raging pandemic hardly qualifies as “normal times”.

Our clip (both above and offsite) showcases the Home Alone Kevin McCallister; the go-to guy for defending our homes against unwanted, uninvited, undesirable home invaders; such as the deadly Corona-V.

Without a doubt, America’s pandemic prevention go-to guy, Dr. Anthony Fauci, would wholeheartedly declare the McCallister M.O., the safest party scenario, imaginable.

But, setting aside this lighthearted approach, let’s get dead serious.

I’d be wrong, Wrong, WRONG, DEAD WRONG, to throw a party, inclusive of attendees, who reside outside your normal, social isolating, Home Alone (together) group. To do so, would be akin to throwing a Super Spreader Event. In a very short time, you’d be suffering the heartbreak of witnessing the needless suffering and death of kinfolk and friends; perhaps even wind up on your own death bed, too!

I’m sure we’d all concur, to cause anyone to needlessly kick off would be a helluva lousy way to kick off the holidays.

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Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do?

Let’s pay a call on, CORRECTION, call out a high end auto manufacturer’s recently aired and streamed commercial.

Now, don’t ask me to name this big biz entity by name. The tone deafness of the ad, itself, proved to be such an enormous distraction, I cannot recall, for the life of me, the specific corporation.

And, even if I could remember, I’d never want to afford this insensitive entity any additional publicity; not even via my barely noticeable website.

That said, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of the ad:

Young, money grubby hubby ushers wifey out to the driveway (presumably on Christmas morn), to present to her two… mind you… TWO, luxury, showroom-new, gas guzzler SUVs; one red, the other blue. She promptly goes gaga, and assuming the blue one is hers, instantly takes ownership. Meanwhile, he glumly deadpans the ad’s allegedly humorous punch line; (words to the effect) Oh well, I suppose I could learn to love the red one.

Aside: Let’s hope he’s not scarred for life; so much so that it’d take decades of psychoanalysis for him to get over his “disappointment”.

The tone deafness of this scenario is toxic.

First of all, HIS and HERS vehicles? At $60,000 a pop? REALLY? WTF kind of relationship do these stick-figure characters have, anyway? I mean, they cannot get along well enough to carpool it to work for an hour or two each day? Of course, that’d be assuming they’d ever do a lick of work that’d go beyond managing their fat, Fat, FAT stock portfolios; oh, say, by phoning up their stockbroker(s) for speedy, greedy chats?

Far be it from me to begrudge “successful” people their materialism-centric “lives”; their getting off on such dubious “pleasure”; but my gawd, let’s keep everything down to earth!

This IS 2020 after all! That godforsaken pandemic has been, literally, snuffing out lives and livelihoods. Average Janes and Joes are not making their rent / mortgage payments to keep roofs over their kitchen tables; are having a tough time paying their utility bills to “fire up” the requisite cook tops / ovens to prepare meals for said tables; are purchasing cheapo grub to toss into their cookware that’s being heated up by said contrivances.

To bottom line real life for the edification of this avarice driven, tone deaf auto manufacturer and his like-minded, mindless Madison Avenue admen:

When the underemployed and out of work, working class don’t earn enough to readily pay their bills, their drab soundtrack of life does not contain the notes Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do.

But then, again, you don’t sing Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do, either.

Were you to ever, truthfully, set that above-mentioned, tone deaf ad to music; it’s dreary “lyrics” would go:

Dough Dough Dough Dough Dough Dough Dough Dough

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Goodbye! GET LOST!

Donald J. Trump has been experiencing hallucinations; the strange voices, within his noggin, which delude him into the belief that he’s been denied a second term due to “widespread voter fraud”.

Nope, not even for a nanosecond, would he ever consider that his loss, in part, is due to his own monumental incompetence and contemptible conduct. To flesh that out, his abject negligence, re COVID-19 containment, has, SO FAR, caused over 263,000 people to die on his watch.

Indeed, just about all that’s rattling around within his mucked up head is his stop, at nothing, compulsion to reinstall his Fascist régime EITHER for four more years OR for forever (likely the latter). He’s even been making highly irrational and illegal demands that Michigan trash multiple millions of legally cast ballots; inclusive of mine.

However, our bipartisan State Board of Canvassers had a far better idea. Just yesterday, in a move that was tantamount to swatting his grubby, power grabbing paws and admonishing not so fast you effing Fascist, they voted to certify our 2020 election results:

• Joe Biden / Kamala Harris = 2,804,040 • 50.6%
• Donald Trump/Mike Pence = 2,649,852 • 47.8%

And that simultaneously secures our state’s 16 electoral votes for Biden / Harris and submerges subversive Trump.

As a lifelong Michigan resident and nearly half century long registered voter, I take pride in how my cast ballot, along with the 2,804,039 others, have helped empower the Biden / Harris team. And that could not have proved a more timely, more powerful statement, too!

It also pleases me, no end, that Michigan has played such a pivotal role in shutting down despotic Donald’s (attempted) nationwide ballot box coup d’état!

In the larger sense, We the People, who know what the Real America is all about, at least for the time being, have managed to stare down and halt Fascism; dead in its tracks!

Albeit 3 weeks late, let the transition from depravity to decency rock ‘n’ roll!

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Bye-Bye Bygone Blessed Bliss

Our clip, above and offsite, features Bob Dylan’s released on March 27, 2020, composition, Murder Most Foul; his lyrical assessment of American culture and, of course, the John F. Kennedy assassination; the shots heard around the world, on this very day in 1963. I’ve linked us to detailed accounts of this tragic event, which had influenced the songsmith’s lyrical analysis.

My having witnessed, in real time, the disturbing, gruesome reportage “hemorrhaging” from Dealey Plaza / Dallas TX to my family’s Black and White Zenith™ TV, I can say, with certainty, that assassin had not only shot JFK, he had also blown away my childhood; i.e., my blessed, blissful naiveté.

And tears still welled up my decades older eyes, today, as I reviewed the clip, below, and offsite.

Yep, I had been forced to grow up way too soon; in real time, too; so much so that as my glance averted from that bygone television screen to the living room window; to behold the daylight dissolving into the literal and metaphorical darkness, I wound up concluding:

America will never be the same, again!

Quite the pessimistic (albeit prescient) assessment from a once-upon-a-time, carefree boy, huh?

Regrettably, my prediction of America’s demise has been coming true, too.

Post JFK, a hefty percent of the contemporary American electorate no longer expects excellence in governance; has actually begun to bank on mediocrity; so much so they routinely embrace and empower crooks, cronies and crazies. With many a régime change, we’ve been witnessing an increasingly perilous procession of un-presidential profligates.

Of course, there have been two notable exceptions, namely, the learned and honorable Presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.

Hmm, were there such a thing as locatable, alternate realities, it would not be surprising to discover one where JFK had survived; where an alternate electorate had never, ever installed Donald J. Trump; where Americans would’ve booed and hissed at the mere whiff of that asshat and aspiring Fascist; so much so that, back in 2015, he’d have promptly done an about face and scampered back up that downward moving escalator.

Hmm, considering how words such as “promptly” and “scampered” would hardly describe Donny, in any reality, that certainly would’ve been a rare treat to behold!

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Mellow Melody (Sunday Song Series)

Jay Clark and Greg Horne treat us to their performance of Sunday Afternoon. In so doing, they also become our Week #115 tour guides thru the vast realm of Sunday titled tunes.

Either view the clip, above, or click over @YouTube (offsite option to, hopefully, benefit anyone experiencing playback probs).

Our next musical adventure ventures onward seven days from now. Hope you’ll be back. Till then…

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