Category Archives: Misc

RIP John McCain…

Well…I have mixed feelings about John McCain but there was enough good and, compared to the normal repubs today, that I can say that I admired some of the things he did and his service to this country…and that makes him human in my eyes and that is not a bad thing. There are many, many tributes on the internet and in the news today so I won’t repeat any of them here…I’ll just say Rest In Peace, Mr. McCain…the Senate will be a much worse place with you gone…

Oh, one last thing….striking out at the idiot trump from beyond the grave, McCain made it perfectly clear he didn’t want trump or his family or his minions anywhere near his funeral….asking Obama and GW to do the eulogy…mavericky to the end….

It’s “Sharknado” day….

Well…I almost forgot that today is the day that the final “Sharknado” movie is on…and I will be glued to the tv with a cocktail at 8 tonight…yeah, I know…this whole series is probably the most ridiculous set of movies that I have ever seen and this one is the 6th and last of the series…I’m not sure what has attracted me to these movies that are so bad they are….no, they are not good but I do get a few laughs from them and all of the cameos they contain….and this one is supposed to have time traveling sharks in it so the premise is even more absurd than the past ones…I may have to go back to watch the last one before the new one just to remember what happened in the last one…or not, since they will spend the first part of the new one explaining it….whatever it is…it is a guilty pleasure that I look forward to….

RIP Aretha Franklin

Well…another sad day for music fans…Aretha Franklin died this morning…my best memories of her are from when I was a kid listening to AM radio here in GR and Aretha and all of the greats from the 60′s were played every day…and throughout my entire life, every time I heard her voice it made me smile….but, it wasn’t just her music that made her great, she was a tireless champion of civil rights who worked beside MLK to make this country a better place for all, not just the few…RIP Aretha, I’ll miss you…

Neil Young show for free Tuesday night…

Well…just read a bit of good news a minute ago…Neil Young is going to put on a free livestream of his concert from Detroit Tuesday night…it a solo show and I think it will probably be something like the one he did a few months back from his little hometown in Canada….that was a great concert and I am going to be watching this one, too…I’ve seen Neil almost a dozen times now and have never come away disappointed…and, to be able to see him sitting on my couch with a cocktail is pretty darn cool…have even figured out how to connect the computer to my big screen…even cooler…

No politics today…

Well….I am still feeling just gutted by Anthony Bourdain’s death and that has pushed most everything else out of my thoughts today…so, no politics…I know it’s important but I need time for reflection…when I started watching the new season of “Parts Unknown” I noticed a weariness in Anthony that I hadn’t noticed before…like everything that is happening in the world had become too much. Maybe I’m reading too much into it or projecting my own weariness into it…I don’t know…I do know that I felt a kinship to Anthony….that he was always trying to be a better person than he was…the same road I have gone down the past twenty years or so and yet realizing that it only matters to me…and I’m not sure if that is sustainable over the long term….all I know is that I’ll miss him and the show….it really did make you understand that people are people around the world and that the differences between us are not to be feared, they are to be savored and enjoyed…and if you let it, you’ll be better for being exposed to the rest of the world….I’ll miss him….

RIP Anthony Bourdain

Well…damn, I really hate doing these…not sure if you’ve heard yet, but Anthony Bourdain died last night in France where he was working on a show for CNN. It appears that the cause was suicide and that makes it even worse….I can understand the depths that you can sink to that makes the world so black that it seems to be the only way to stop suffering…and this is the thing…depression can hit anyone…even people who are rich and successful….he leaves behind a young daughter….RIP Anthony…..

Add another one to the B-3 count…

Well…just sitting here watching PBS and the groups from the 60′s that they are showing and just saw something that made me laugh…the Young Rascals were on and lead singer was playing a Hammond B-3 and it looked brand new…and now the Beach Boys are on with the same thing…a brand new B-3…at least they looked brand new…not like the ones I see modern groups playing that look like they have lots of miles on them…so add another one to the B-3 count….

Another pair for the B-3 count…

Well…yeah, I know…it’s been a couple of days since I did a political one and it is going to be one more…there is a lot going on but my brain cleanse is not done yet so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for one of those….right now, I want to do one on a topic that I haven’t done in quite a while…my obsession with the Hammond B-3 Organ and the groups that used them. Yesterday, while I was killing some time and trying to not use any data, I was going through my antenna channels and ran across some old bands on PBS and immediately my eyes looked to the stage and my ears perked up when Eric Burdon was on and his band had a B-3 and even had the Leslie speaker that is supposed to be used with it…right after that, Procul Harum came on and they too had a B-3…and if you remember their big hit “a whiter shade of pale”, you will remember the organ solo in the middle that is clearly a B-3…so, add a pair to the B-3 count…

RIP Stephen Hawking…

Well…just read the news that the physicist Stephen Hawking died last night at the age of 76. He was one of the longest lived people who was diagnosed ALS in his 20′s….I remember reading his “A brief history of time” when I was young and enjoyed being able to understand both relativity and quantum theory from it….he will be missed…RIP Stephen….

A little food…

Well…sitting here watching the US in the gold medal game for curling and I though I’d do one on food since I haven’t really talked about that lately. Have been working on pickling some vegetables lately and I think I am becoming addicted to them…started out with pickled red onions that are great on brats…and basically anything else you put onion on….and yesterday, I used the same recipe (with added dill) to pickle some cukes that I sliced like regular dill pickles…the flavor came out great with the raw cuke taste being cut really well by the little bit of sugar that is added…just can’t stop eating them and that made me think of other veggies to pickle. So, either today or tomorrow, I am going to pickle some carrots since I have a three pound bag that needs to be used….not sure about the carrots but I’ve give anything a try if it will help me eat more veggies…and I can use some of the 40 quart jars that are just sitting around here….