Hey. Where'd everybody go?

A dog, probably in New Orleans, during Gustav.

Hurricane Gustav, Sunday, 8/31

I tune in to WWL before noon, NY time. Mayor Nagin is having a press
conference. He's feeling better today, knowing that so many have
evacuated. (WWL's audio is ahead of the video, probably due to the
Flip4Mac plugin.) I also can watch the WDSU feed and see that it is
many seconds ahead of the WWL feed and appears to be in sync.) People
are hanging out in Uptown.

Tornados in Lafourche and Terrebone parishes. What a place to live.

Bill Nungesser, Plaquemines Parish President, is one fat man.
Sheriff: "Don't let this become another St Bernard..." Troublemakers
will be sent to Angola... Pres; "This is not nothing to fool with."
You mean it is isn't anything to fool with or don't fool with it but
not it isn't NOTHING to fool with...

DSU female anchor: "Do you known the percentage of people who would
have stayed...", meaning the percentage of people who stayed, not
WOULD HAVE stayed. They mean two different things.

People can get 10 sandbags per person in one of the parishes. How
much good could that do?

34 ft wave heights.

The DSU map has "Fl" over Florida but no other state abbreviations.
Sloppy. And Fl should be FL.

25 inches of rain possible.

Good traffic coverage by WWL.

Wind will start in NO at midnight.

Obama phones in to WWL. He wants to make sure everything that can be
done is being done. What position is he in to do that? Anchors
interrupt him, assholes.

It takes 2 hours to go from NO East to the twin span on i-10.

Obama on DSU now.

Bush on WWL. He's not going to the GOP convention. He's going to
Austin, San Antonio. He's calling it a "difficult situation". You're
on your own folks.

DSU: They show Barack Obama lower third as they show Contessa Brewer
in the CBD. Audio way ahead of the video.

DSU: If the contraflow began at 4am, why does it say contraflow
begins on the graphic? (It's about noon NO time.)

Aaron Broussard on WWL. 85 % of people on the West Bank in Jefferson
Parish have evacuated.

DSU reporter interviews a guy in a bar in the Quarter. He is staying
because he doesn't trust the government to take care of him. They
didn't last time, he says. He'd rather get shafted by Mother Nature
than the government. OK. Stupid but OK.

Angela Hill still on WWL. WWL meteorologist looks like a blond Tina
Fey with those glasses. The storm coming in earlier is great news?

WWL: Worst winds expected in Terrebone and Lafourche parishes.

DSU: Mary Landrieu on. Yes, get LA it's share of oil revenues. She
questions why people think it is strange that people say people
shouldn't live there but it's ok to live in coastal FL which gets hit
by hurricanes as much . I agree. If they had fixed things up after
Betsy, etc... "we would be in a great shape today."

DSU: "This is a very interesting right now development.' Idiot.

We lose audio on WWL.

DSU: He draws the path of Betsy and calls it similar when it went WAY
off the projected track for Gustav and only met in NO. ...You've had
good luck and good fortune?

No audio on the WWL feed still.

WWL audio is back, 1:36 NY time, but it's overmodulated.

Gov JIndal on now. 15,000 (assisted) evacuated out of NO by now. 2
trains out, that's all?

DSU has a split screen showing highway traffic but they don't say
where the highways are.

Gov Jindal lists the preparations which sound good. We'll see how
well they can handle it. He talks about the buses that didn't show
up. They have more capacity than there is demand. Let's hope. Pet
evacuations contractor didn't do what they were supposed to do either
but the state has made arrangements to cover that.

State police say 200,000 have left NO? Seeing minimal traffic flow in
NO. Things are working so much better now than they were with
Katrina, he says.

2:25 NY time: WWL still loud and overmodulating.

St John Parish President is expecting 96, 97 mph winds.

My computer is averaging 95% CPU use with two Quicktime windows open.
One fan is running constantly, the rear left. The rear right has not
come on since I had the board that had the faulty USB connector on it
replaced. Hope the computer doesn't overheat.

FEMA thinks it is ready for the storm.

3:39 NY time: WWL feed is starting to get jerky. Lots of users I'm
guessing. I close both streams to let my computer cool off.

I watch some on CNN. John King points to three canals, the London
Ave, the 17th St and the Industrial Canal, calling them all the
Industrial Canal. Is it too much to ask that newscasters give out
correct information?

CNN: 'No one understands the situation as well as (General Honore).
Apparently CNN too.

McCain on now (4:03 NY time). Obama beat you by several hours. It's
time to open our hearts, efforts, wallets..." He sounds stilted, the
same as Bush, out of touch. He's asking the Republicans to be with
the Americans. So, Republicans are so removed that they have to be
asked to join in? They are begrudgingly changing their plans. (Gee, I
wish that storm didn't get in the way.) RIck Davis of the RNC: "The
reason we are not able to give you a more notice..." Nobody knows how
to speak anymore.

Rick Davis: They will 'refrain from giving any political rhetoric' tomorrow.

Rick Davis: 'The President's full undivided attention is in the
Gulf.' Wouldn't it be ON the Gulf? His attention is in the Gulf? Is
he in the water?

Fox: Saw "uparmored humvees"... So they have "uparmored Humvees" in
the US. Do they have enough in Iraq?

5:52 NY time. Lafitte mayor mentions they have portable levees!
That's a cool development.

DSU reporters talk to people who are staying. They feel confident
they will be ok for no good reasons, (Car dealer feels ok in his
gut?!). I hope they talk to them after the storm. See if they sing
the same tune.

Billy Nungesser is riding house to house to try to get people out.
This man is a hero. 'If he can save one person, it makes it all
worthwhile.'

Some, who should know, are saying the storm may not be as bad we'd
feared. We'll see,

DSU anchor pronouncing it Gustav'. I'd pronounce it Gus'tav.

6:41 NY time: Chertoff is behind Jindal for this announcement. Cat 3 to 4.

Chertoff is patting everybody on the back for doing good planning.
Less than 10,000 left in NO.

..."Unconformed reports"... - Jindal.

Hurricane winds hit land early Mon morning.

7:12 NY time: CNN: The storm is still heading into the Gulf of
Mexico. Um, since it is already there where else would it go?

7:19 NY time: Good long press conference from Jindal.

Jefferson Parish evacuation went well - Jefferson Parish Sheriff. In
order to beat contraflow? Why would people want to avoid roadways
having twice the capacity to leave?

DSU doesn't mute the audio for helicopter traffic shots while they
have someone else is on cam in a split screen. It'd be a good idea.

7:33 NY time: DSU audio is out again.

CNN: "Obviously that's probably going to be cancelled..." Obviously.

7:36 NY time: CNN: "In 2003, as Katrina devastated"... Um, Katrina
was in 2005. Incredible how much nonsense there is!

I restart DSU stream and the audio comes back.

CNN: 90% of population have left Southern LA.

8pm NY time: NO is starting to look wet and dark.

Causeway is now closed.

DirecTV now has DSU on so I will watch that.

I now see that it is "contraflow", one word.

9 pm NY time: The airport is now closed.

Tornados happening.

Dry air? Over the Gulf? The DSU has personified the hurricane by
calling it "he". He becomes a tropical storm. He weakens, etc.

26 ft storm surge!

DSU banner says the Causeway will close at 7pm Sunday. It is now 9:20
NO time. Is there any point in showing that?

DSU weatherman is saying it is a Cat 3 now and it may be less than
they expected.

~10:30 pm: City Councilman Carter: 'Yesterday, people on the West
Bank weren't taking it very seriously. Then the mayor made his
announcement at 8 am. Then they started taking it seriously.' Um, how
many people were doing anything before 8 am. I think he meant they
weren't taking it seriously on FRIDAY.

SO MANY misstatements.

DSU anchor: "You're always a big supporter of crime." The other
anchor corrects her: "Fighting crime." So many....

DSU's Fletcher Mackel: "The only cars driving by are police cars and
national guard." As he started saying that we saw a taxi drive by.

Travers? Who's Travers? You mean Fletcher? Both the anchor and the
other weatherman addressed him.

Other weatherman Dan Milham who at least is capable of speaking in
proper sentences: "You wanna know exactly how much? I don't know
exactly how much." Well, thanks for sharing.

"Pretty earlier." You mean 'earlier'. (This is an example, as are the
others, of that well known New Orleans brain fog that makes people
say stupid things.)

Landfall before noon tomorrow, they say.

The cops are being understanding about people out in the curfew. THAT is nice!

DirecTV signal goes out at 11:12 NY time, as Ken was telling us what
the plan was for the police at midnight, though he didn't want to
tell us exactly what the plan was. Wouldn't want to the bad guys
know... Signal back at 11:17.

Idiot weatherman Ron Smiley, when asked why they can't tell the surge
height: "We would need something"... "we have that".... He goes on to
mangle some more English but doesn't explain why he can't provide
that info.

"Largest evacuation in US history."

Travers Mackel: 'As we all know, the Ritz-Carleton had severe
flooding damage in Katrina.' No, we didn't all know. Apparently,
there is a Fletcher Mackel and a Travers Mackel or maybe he goes by
two names? Oh my god. I just looked them up on the internet and it
turns out they are identical twins that both work for DSU!

They are still running the banner that says the causeway will close
at 7 pm Sunday. It's 10:34 NO time. What is the point?

They now have FL marked correctly but that is the map that has all
the other states two letter abbreviations. If they show the one with
Florida and mostly the Gulf, that one will probably have Fl on it.

Ron doesn't want to stay on a spot where there is a tornado warning
because they are assuming that all the people there have evacuated.
By that reasoning, why warn anyone at all? Why tell us about any
dangerous situations?

Ron, shut up every once in awhile. Your mouth is running overtime,
way ahead of your brain.

National Hurricane Center: Cat 3

Ron asks about the eye, landfall, type of storm and a few more
subjects all in one mangled, long question. Ed Rappaport, of the
National Hurricane Center, manages an answer.

The term "feeder band" is tossed around often without any
explanation. It would be nice to explain it every once in awhile.

Norman Robinson to Ed Rappaport: "It's always a joy talking to you."
It is? It didn't seem very joyful to me.

There's tension between the reporters and the police? That's the
first I've heard of it in this event.

Paul Folger has diarrhea of the mouth as he does a remote from downtown.

Polly Boudreaux of the St Bernard Parish Council: intense and
articulate. ...know with some assurity? Assurity?

The Weather Channel is saying this is the largest evacuation in the
history of the state. The state or the country? Both?

12:27 NY time: I go to bed.

Hurricane Gustav, Saturday Night, 8/30

I start Sat night at 11:30 pm (NY time)

New Orleans is being evacuated.

WWL has info on the scroll that says there will be no mail service on
Saturday in X, Y and Z parishes... This is 10:30 at night (NO time)
on Saturday night. How much mail gets delivered on Saturday night?

The storm of the century - Nagin.

What does the evacuation at 8 am or noon mean? You have to start
evacuating at these times or do you have to be evacuated by those
times?

More useless info: Nagin: every mile of wetlands takes absorbs 1 foot
of storm surge. So, do that mean that 200 square miles absorbs 200
feet of water? No. That's useless info.

WDSU (TV) stream is working well. WWL (TV) stream keeps stopping.

DSU anchor man: With the weather being as unpredictable, Anchor
woman: "And volatile." (That means the same thing...)

"Hope is not a plan." True.

"We hope that everyone that's watching is listening." Idiocy.

Anchor has a laptop on the desk but it's closed.

The state police want people to call to get a flyer? How the fuck are
people going to get it? In the mail? Are the state police going to
deliver it? Utter nonsense.

State policeman says he thinks the evacuation/contraflow is going to
go real smoothly. It's not the first rodeo they have been to. Un hunh.

Ah, contraflow will BEGIN at the times mentioned above.

The weather channel: "We're planning for the worst and hoping for the
best." Thanks.

Austin City Limits has the New Orleans Social Club on tonight. A
repeat in honor of Katrina I suspect. We're praying for you, New
Orleans.

Irma sings Look Up... as I sip on my McCormick Irish Cream. Here's to
you New Orleans. May you survive but the odds are sure against you.

DSU reporter: 'Pick the best car you have.' No shit.

150 mph winds. Gusts of 184. Jesus. Cat 5.

John Boutte' - Why. A powerful song. Why indeed. This bowl is sinking...

Henry Butler plays Big Chief.

music at Democratic convention, 8/27 & 8/27

8/27

Addicted To Love? after Clinton's speech. Just what are they thinking...

Joy To The World as they introduce Nancy Pelosi to nominate Joe Biden. Oy.

Ain't That America (Mellencamp) as they introduce Joe Biden.

Some Springsteen song after Obama comes on. We Are Family...

What is Hip after the benediction!!!

8/28

Love Train

U2 - It's A Beautiful Day. One tired campaign song.

7:22 pm Funny to watch the people dancing to whatever is playing now.
I'm watching on C-Span of course.

One ponders the power of all these people. I become emotionally
impressed by it all. (I'm still gonna vote for Nader though...)

I Know A Place (I'll take You There)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered. A love song. I don't think songs like this
are the very appropriate.

Live Performance
will.i.am
Accompanied by John Legend (piano), Agape Choir, and band
Very nice!!

Stevie Wonder will be on fairly soon.

Remarks
Ray Rivera
Obama State Director, Colorado
Watching the map, the East coast is hopping. Upstate NY is surprisingly active.

Earth Wind and Fire - Shining Star. This is getting to be like a 70s
hits station. Some cover of The Beatles - Across The Universe, David
Bowie?

Live Performance
Sheryl Crow
Singer/songwriter
I could care less.

A Change Would Do Us Good. OK.

The songs used in this political context are so unpolitical.They're
hopeful in spots but impotent as political statements. Oh for the
60s. Many then were too but many also had unmistakable political
content. So many of these used now are love songs, useful to one on
one relationships but not very appropriate for a wider political
context.

Live Performance
Stevie Wonder
1st song - weird. Doesn't sound quite in key.

"I gotta do this one"...Signed Sealed Delivered... I wanna hear Sir
Duke or whatever the one is that has that list of famous blacks where
he says " a black man"...

"I know Barack Obama's gonna set the country on fire." 40 years ago
that would have been literally true...

Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up!

They play Let The Sunshine for Al Gore's entrance.

Remarks
The Honorable Al Gore
Former Vice President of the United States
I listened to a little of it but two owls were hooting in the woods
behind my house and that was much more interesting...

Live Performance
Michael McDonald
I had the mute on the whole time.

Remarks
Susan Eisenhower
Granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Lots of people wearing red at this convention. I thought that was the
Republican color. I mean it doesn't belong to anyone but... Maybe
that is the strategy in having so many people wear it for Obama. Look
at all the those Republicans who are on Obama's side...

"Advance on the garrisons of hope or retreat to the hills of
despair." Geez. Here's someone who needs to get out of the military
mindset.

Retired Generals Tribute
Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration (Ret)
Accompanied by additional generals

The stadium looks pretty full!

Joe Biden comes out onto the stage and turns and is happy to see
himself on the big screen.

These people are here cuz they are willing to die for their country?
That's why they're there tonight? They're going to die? Geez, another
leap.

American Voices Program
Monica Early - Good Einstein quote!
Pamela Cash-Roper - Had the crowd in the palm of her hand.
Barney Smith - Had the great Smith Barney line. You KNOW he was
hand-picked because of his name. He's being used like a tool. No
differently than a Republican would do either.

Ray Rivera says look at the screen but it isn't showing his text
message results. Oh well.

Lennon's Power To The People. Using the original version! They've
used covers of other songs.

Some bad disco coming up. White folks getting down. Most, so far, have rhythm.

What is the music they intro him to? Surely it isn't something he picked out.
Introduction of Barack Obama Video
The Honorable Richard Durbin

'Those (elderly?) volunteers who want just one more chance to hope.'
Meaning they are going to die soon? They only get one more chance?
I'd think hope is unlimited.

Remarks
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA
Some cowboy crap after the speech.

The fireworks on the stage remind me of the Wizard 0f Oz.
The music makes me expect the giant spaceship to appear any second.
And it crescendos as they walked back off the stage making me think
something terrible was going to happen. It didn't so that is nice.

Democrats 1, Republicans 0

The Democrats had Alejandro Escovedo playing for them last night.
Good choice and a nice surprise! He played to a drum backing track
but the others were live. I am not familiar with the song.

I do have to wonder about their playing Disco Inferno after Hillary's
speech though. I remember the riots of the 60s. "Burn baby burn"
wasn't an impotent disco chant. It has since been turned into that
although the song is so old one would probably only hear only it at
weddings or bad parties (or bad radio). Let's hope anti-Barack people
don't jump on it and claim black folk want to destroy this country.
It doesn't take much to make an issue out of stuff like this.

But anyway, until the conventions or maybe the elections are over,
the Dems are ahead 1-0. (And with their being held one after the
other a running score won't really work... ) The Dems have played
lots of lousy music in this campaign but I haven't heard any John
Cougar Mellencamp recently (or Fleetwood Mac, but that was the
Clintons theme song). Let's see what atrocious music the Repubs play.
I'm expecting some cowboy crap to represent macho. Obama favors
late-60s Motown and 70s soul (and later black music) which is tolerable
but I think he may surprise us here and there. Having David Amram play
for some event outside the convention hall got me interested.

I also had to wonder about their playing Isn't She Lovely after
Michelle's speech Tues. It's about a baby... I think they used the
version without the baby gurgling in it and while it was meant as a
token of affection, some might be offended being compared to a baby
or just being thought of as good looking. Not a big deal.

$11 for a bologna sandwich at Blue Hill cafe at the Stone Barns Center, Pocantico Hills, NY

I was at the cafe at the Stone Barns Center in Pocantico Hills, NY
yesterday. Had a bologna sandwich. I haven't had a bologna sandwich
since I was a kid. I thought since this place is supposed to have
good food, even something like bologna would be good, and probably
good for you, unlike all other bologna.

That and a small (but tasty) apple cider cost $11!

I guess the Rockefellers are still making money at this place.

To be honest, I don't know what the sandwich cost. They didn't have
the price on the menu but how expensive could a bologna sandwich be?
I mean, even if the ingredients are from real quality animals? The
menu also said "feel free to take a beverage" from the cooler. That
should mean they are free. (Maybe it was and the bologna all by
itself cost $11...) It didn't have any price on it either. So how
expensive could a small, maybe 5 oz, container of apple cider be? Do
they make it on gold cider presses?

The sandwich was ok. I didn't like the pickled vegetables strewn on
it so I scraped them off. And the bologna was only a few THIN slices.
The bread was good though.

How the rich stay rich...

WFMU Radio Greats Weekend, Sunday, August 10th

Vin Scelsa
Sunday, August 10th, Noon - 3pm

Great Vanilla Bean and Jim Price segments.

Repeat of Vanilla Bean and RSM segment. Why?

Jones is good at theme sets, one of the best things about 70s and 80s
radio, that FMU, surprisingly, never did much of.

Vanilla Bean with Terry Folger -> music - awkward transition -> back
to radio theme. (My Old Guitar not a good song to have in there.)
Blue Danube Waltz nice.

Vin's gonna talk too much.

Capitol Theater, Passiac not Portchester.

Good ole Larry Josephson, one of my radio heroes.

Vin didn't know it was radio greats weekend.

Good Sgt Pepper's story (Bob Fass on BAI)

Jean Shepherd, Vin's other radio hero.

I remember WOR FM... (Am also remembering FM Guide...)

Jones is on Sirius? All FMUers should be on Sirius.

Hello Hello, first song Vin played on the first free-form FMU show.

Ken said on Wed that FMU shut down cuz they thought Woodstock had
stolen their idea. How about that for presumptuousness!

I knew he was going to say the Fugs, before he gave any clues.

Jones admits he is just doing Scelsa.

Larry Yudin (I need to look him up.), called it free-form. They were
already doing it out in SF. FMU copyrighted it? But didn't Tom
Donahue "create"it?

Vin was depressed. So was Jones. (I have been too. I wonder if that
is a pre-requisite to loving radio... FMU)

LIR got me through John Lennon's death. I still have those tapes,
very moving and the days that followed. Vin didn't know what to say.
Neither did the LIR DJs. Across The Universe was played at the
memorial in Central Park after the minute (5 minutes?) of silence.

NEW sucked then, in the early 80s.

I heard the Vin Scelsa FUV Artie Traum tribute where he played the
song The Hungry Dogs Of NM then too.

Gary Alcoholic died.

Jones explained why he doesn't do playlists.

Get to the point Vin... (talking about getting yelled at). Jeez,
there's more to this yelling story? (After telling teh Duncan, NEW
story).

I didn't like the change to New Wave at LIR either.

Vin owes his freedom to leave when he didn't like what was going on
to his wife.

Steinski
Sunday, August 10th, 3pm - 5pm
Not much of interest except at the end to hear some Mardi Gras
Indians explain the talk.

John Narucki airchecks
Sunday, August 10th, 5pm - 7pm
Awful. I guess you had to be there.

Hova & Belinda, plus R. Stevie Moore
Sunday, August 10th, 7pm - 9pm

Vanilla Bean with Evelyn, hilarious.

Nice to hear Stevie and Hova and Belinda. I took a detour to check
out any FMU videos on YouTube and found some with the Vanilla Bean
and Stevie in them!

Stork Club archives
Sunday, August 10th, 9pm - Midnight

Some beautiful things as always. Could have been current for all we can tell.

WFMU Radio Greats Weekend, Saturday, August 9th

The Hound
Saturday, August 9th, 1pm - 3pm
on Fool's Paradise with Rex

Jim sounds like a nice guy, considering the fracas we had on the
Yahoo group and having listened to him for so many Saturdays in the
80s and 90s. (I still don't know who the real one was...) Didn't
talked about the Circle Bar, or New Orleans. Hilarious chicken ad.
"You'll holler, chicken stay away from me....",

WFMU Radio Greats Weekend, Friday, August 8th

Thoughts on the WFMU Radio Greats Weekend

Andy Waltzer
Thursday, August 7th, 9am - Noon on This Is the Modern World with Trouble
Taped it. He said some things that relate to the essence of why we
love FMU and radio.

Best of Aerial View's Intro Collages
Thursday, August 7th, 8pm - 11pm
Taped it. Some amazing collages. All great soundbites. Someday, I
want to know who all the voices are. I know some.

A Salute to Great WFMU Listeners
Friday, August 8th, 6:15pm - 7pm

thoughts while listening to Bronwyn's show
- I have the a segment of a Bronwyn show where she goes into the
relationship between the DJ and the listener, probably where she
developed the listener prefix for everybody.

- Bronwyn also had a story where she was talking about the men of FMU
calendar and William Berger got a sexy growl from her.

- Haven't heard about listener Petey in a long time. I remember
seeing a movie he made and it was pretty good for kid.

Meredith Ochs
Friday, August 8th, 7pm - 8pm

Meredith has big boobs... Kelly says. I suppose. I've seen a pic or
two of her in her band the Damn Lovelys.

It takes too long for Meredith to come on...

He plays a clip from a younger Meredith. Girlish.

Too short. Not enough Meredith...

part 2

Mr Finewine sounds like he is annoyed with her.

Neal Adams
Friday, August 8th, 8pm - 11pm
on Pseu's Thing With a Hook

I don't like Pseu's music...

When do we get Neal, etc. Tired 80s music on now.

Neal is on. He sounds EXACTLY the same as he did then! Older but the
same shtick.

Mid to late 80s was when he was there. He remembers the prep for the
show, more than his show. Ramapo College WRPR station was where alot
of FMUers started out!

Ken got complaints about Neal, more than anyone else!

Mildly interesting talk about Pseu's and Neal's intro to radio. Not
that interesting though.

"That wonderful voice." Right...

Yawn, he plays some music he played when at FMU. As bad now as it was then.

Great Don Imus story.

Time for my clip? Yes.

Boo hoo, she can't get the clip to play. I pointed her to my
briefcase version but it looks like she won't play it.

One nice song about a girl being in love.

Played it! (my post) "There we go. Phased and with interference as I
remember it, as most of my reception was in those days. The phasing
was an effect of turning it into a RealAudio file. Ken sounds like
he's at the wrong speed. I probably recorded it on a deck that was
off-speed. This was recorded some time between 10/31/85 - 11/15/85."

She says it was recorded in 1986 despite my saying the above dates.

Anyway, I thank her for playing it. She thanked me profusely both on
the air and in the playlist.

Who visits and why?

I have been amused to see who visits this blog. Here are some samples.

Fairport, NY searched for ""radio greats weekend" wfmu"

medialightdesign.com of Louisville, Kentucky searched for "indian point youtube" I don't think I have any Indian Point YouTube stuff...

Someone from the Rajamangala Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani, Thailand, went here but I don't know why.

swbell.net Kansas, City, MO, searched for "amory lovins for energy secretary" Glad you found it!

Someone from Herstalne, Liege, Belgium searched for "blog album rockin' dopsie". Well alright. I didn't have much, did I?

Someone from Norfolk VA, searched for "charlie rose you tube amory lovins july 2008". Good! I highly recommend the show.

Someone from Tblisi, Georgia (ex-Russia) searched for "henry butler iko iko". Well, alright.

Someone from Raleigh, NC searched for "curley's barbecue in stores". Glad to have shared my opinion. Good stuff! How does it compare to NC BBQ?

Someone in Lansing MI searched for my pic of some wild strawberries. Cool!

Someone in Kingswood TX searched for Mark Hawkins, WWOZ DJ. Was it Mark? Mark Hawkins has been searched for alot on my blog. Could it be that he was interested to read what I said of him? He sure checked alot! (As did a few other OZ DJs...) This was 7/28. Jazz Fest has been over for a few months now... Vanity? Insecurity?

Someone in Tampa FL searched for a pic of an unknown bug I caught in a cup. Who would have thought?

Someone in Moscow (Russia) searched for "donald ramsey bass". Fans?

One from Savoy, IL and one from Lexington, NC, searched for "nothing like cold beer on a friday night, a pair of jeans that fit just right lyrics". Sorry to disappoint you. I hated Zac Brown.

Someone from Hopkins, MN searched for "Missy Bowen". (Another OZ DJ) Missy Bowen perhaps?

Someone from Lisbon Portugal searched for "jimmy buffet news e ilo ferreira." Sorry again. I was not impressed with Ilo Ferreira's performance. I've had a few visitors looking for info on him. They were probably all disappointed.

Someone from Destrahan, LA searched for Mark Hawkins. (OZ DJ)

Someone from Miami, FL searched for "dumpstaphunk tipitina's "dancing girls"" hmm. Did they have dancing girls? It might have made the music better...

Someone in Sao Paulo, Brazil searched for ""dr. michael white & the original liberty jazz band" blogspot". Cool.

Someone in New Orleans searched for "charles burchell new orleans".(Another OZ DJ) Could it be Charles? This was on the 4th of July, 6 weeks after Jazz Fest.

Someone in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia searched for "bruce daigreport". Well, alright.

These were some of the more interesting ones up to about July 1st.

Who you votin' for?

$12 turkey sandwich in NY

I went into NY yesterday. (NYC). I had lunch at a Greek deli near
where I had a meeting, on 7th, probably on the (NW) corner of 29th
st. A cute blond waitress took my order. I asked for a turkey and
bacon on whole wheat toast with a little bit of mayo. No lettuce. No
tomato. She gave me lettuce. OK, no big deal. The turkey looked green
in spots but I don't think it was. I just think those spots were
where the turkey had dried out. The turkey was dry. The bacon was old
and overcooked but had some taste to it. The toast was good and the
mayo was sparing. I had an ice tea to drink.

I didn't have time to finish it so I asked for the remains to go
which they gave me at no extra charge.

The bill, $12.21!

I used to work in NY about 10 years ago and had this sandwich all the
time. I think it cost me about 6 or 7 bucks with a chocolate milk as
my usual drink. I guess inflation has raisied the price to 12.

"That's NY, isn't it", the waitress told me earlier in some story I
didn't understand. She was constantly yakking with the frill cook who
was hispanic, in Spanish. So she speaks Greek and Spanish (and
English). That's NY for you.

WFMU Radio Greats Weekend!

From Friday 8/8, at 6 pm to Sunday 8/10 at midnight, WFMU will be
playing things from it's past. Should be some great stuff.

Listen in, wfmu.org

Smokey cars good in the long run?

I have this idea.

I saw a truck spewing smoke on my way up to Maine this past 4th of July. The smoke was so bad, you couldn't see past the truck, at all. A real driving hazard.

Anyway, I just realized a few things.

Cars and trucks (and buses, planes, jets, internal combustion engines...) spew out an incredible volume of gases (as opposed to liquids or solids, not gasoline. OK, gasoline gasses...). If people could see how much they create, perhaps they would drive less.

So, my idea is, create some sort of additive so that cars (trucks, etc) emit visible NON-TOXIC smoke. People will see how much they are polluting. Yes, it would be a driving hazard and harsh medicine but very dramatic. And that's what it takes to really get the point across that there is an incredible volume of toxic gases we emit but don't see. And since we don't see this, we don't think it is that bad of a problem. It's an invisible killer.

Now, what can be put in a car's gas tank that would make the exhaust smoke? I guess there are hobby kits out there.

Whadya think? Anybody want to pick up and run with this idea?

Road songs

Your tax dollars at work. (Thanks FMU)
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/roadsong.htm

Amory Lovins for Energy Secretary (or President!)

Amory Lovins shows us how to handle our energy future. One of the wisest voices out there.
7/15/08

See also his first appearance on Charlie Rose on 11/28/06, when I first heard him:

Cafe Tacuba on ACL tonight (in the NYC area)

Check out WLIW, Ch 21, tonight (midnight, Saturday night (actually
Sunday morning, 12/29)) for Austin City Limits. Cafe Tacuba is on.
(It's a repeat.) This is one of the best concerts I've seen on tv. At
one point the lead singer teeters on the edge of the stage, falls off
the stage, a girl in the audience immediately starts dancing with him
and pulls him back up onto the stage. They dance some more. During
the B part of the music, she bends him over her knee and kisses him,
one of the funniest live concert moments I've ever seen. A great
show. Great sound. Turn it up! (I hope you have your tv set up to
play through your stereo. It will sound great, as all ACL shows do.)

Blues Traveller is on first.

I now have a cell phone

I got my first cell phone a few days ago. I signed up for the AAA
plan with Consumer Cellular which charges $10/month and .25 cents a
minute. I don't use the phone much so it seemed like a good deal.

I got the phone a few days ago, having only ordered it on Friday of
last week so it came fast. It was alot smaller than I was expecting.
It is a Nokia 1600. It doesn't have a camera. I'm not paying for text
service but for some reason it says I have some text messages sent
and received (That has since been resolved. I erased the message
counter but the customer service lady, a nice girl, didn't know why
it had happened.) I have called them three times and I think I
bewildered two customer service agents who answered. One woman had no
idea what I was talking about when I asked her about the musical note
icon that appears when the screen dims. Both were patient and helpful
though the other guy I talked to seemed to be frustrated that I
wasn't up to speed on how this cell phone worked. (I have plenty of
computer experience so can get what I need out of geeks but I have
very little knowledge about how to use a cell phone.)

I have made a few calls. The first was to my sister who uses a
portable phone through an internet connection. It broke up a couple
of times but I don't know if it was due to her portable phone, the
internet connection or my phone.

I have noticed I get both two bars and four bars for reception while
sitting in the same chair. I looked up the cell phone reception on
MobileMedia's cell phone coverage page
(http://www.cellreception.com/coverage/) and some people have
commented that my area does get poor reception sometimes.

I am not impressed with the voice quality. (It's also hard to hear
sometimes. And totally inconvenient to adjust the volume while in a
call. That's BAD design.) I am not sure I want to put up with these
limitations. I also don't like having the keypad on the phone. Often
enough you have to hit keys while listening to a menu. Using a phone
that has the keypad on the base unit is much easier. I haven't found
any Bluetooth desk phones that I, in theory, could use with this
phone (if it had Bluetooth, which it doesn't.) That would be a good
accessory. Inventors, listen up.

I do see how people can be absorbed by the buttons on their phones.
You do spend a lot of time looking at them. These are really small. Too small. They are backlit too but the lighting isn't uniform. Bad design.

More later.

Impeachment

There are 35 articles of impeachment being offered. Constitutional
scholars have said many have merit yet the Democrats are refusing to
allow it to proceed.

What would happen if Bush were impeached? Dems fear a backlash but
wouldn't doing the right thing be more powerful?

I say impeach. He certainly deserves it. Much more so than Clinton
whose only offense was lying about having sex. Sending people to war
under false circumstances, and other offenses, certainly justifies
impeachment. I'd say it demands it. If we don't impeach him what kind
of country do we have?

And If we impeach, what will happen then? I don't know but feel that
not impeaching is unacceptable.

Does anybody care? Then we get what we deserve.

Report abuse of handicapped parking and tags!

Do you get mad when you see someone perfectly able park in a handicapped spot? Now you can do something about it.

There's this website where you can report people who might be abusing handicapped parking or placards. If you see something that looks wrong, write the info down (license plate number, time of day, location, handicapped parking tag number if you can see it). Then, when you're home go to this website and fill out their simple form. They will send a monthly report to each state's DMV. The DMV will determine if there is abuse and contact and possibly fine the person if so. You don't have to and shouldn't confront anyone. This is a great way to bring to justice people who abuse this important resource for handicapped people. People who need the parking are not punished.

For more info and to report people you suspect of abuse, here: http://www.handicappedfraud.org/