Book 8 of 2012 – A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland

Imagine a presidential candidate is accused of fathering a child out of wedlock! Oh, yeah, we had that with John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. Only this candidate admitted paternity, the child was named after his best friend and he still was elected the 22nd president of the United States! The story of this scandal and others form the foundation of Book 8 of 2012, Charles Lachman’s  A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland. The book claims to reveal for the first time the true story of Maria Halpin the young woman, who according to the book was raped by the future president, give birth to a son,  had her baby taken away from her and  finally was thrown in an insane asylum when she tried to get the child back. While the book may be a little short on proof on all that went on it is still a fascinating read. It is easy reading and provided a look into the politics of 1880’s, as Cleveland rose for a one term sheriff of Buffalo, to governor of New York, and then candidate for President. He was even supported by several staunch Republicans!  Needless to say, I don’t think he’d have a chance of getting elected in today’s political arena!! Read More

So who are those people anyway?

Ok so have you ever thought who are those people on the banners at the top of this page? No, well the hell with you! I’m going to tell you anyway! The younger folks are my children and I’ll get to them later. The older pictures are my father’s side of my family.From left to right – first my father’s mother Charlotte Meyer Karn or Nana Karn as I knew her. She was a great lady very kind and she loved her family especially the grand kids. Along with her mother and sister Irma she came to America in September of 1912 from Dresden,Germany. Her father, Herman had come over the year before. She was 9 and Irma was 14 when they immigrated. Charlotte never had a German accent and Aunt Irma never lost hers!! She passed away in January of 1971 (1971 was not a good year for my family as my mother’s mother died in June of ’71). Read More

Book 7 of 2012 – The Genesis Secret – Tom Knox

 According to his website, Tom Knox became intrigued with the Turkish archeological site Gobekli Tepe several years ago. The site which is over 10,000 years old just felt like the basis for a good historical thriller only problem was Knox did not write thrillers at the time. When his finacial situation changed, he returned to the idea and after a couple of years of hard work The Genesis Secret was born. I picked up the book at last fall’s book sale at the Cinnaminson Library and it’s Book 7 of 2012 and it was a good one! Read More

Lunchtime with John Mayall and Albert King

On my way back from renewing my auto registration and taking the car through inspection I put on John Mayall’s classic album Turning Point. I only listened to the first three tracks though and was enjoying them. Those tracks appear on side one of the album, which through the years has been the lesser listened to side. Side 2 contains “Thoughts about Roxanne”, “California” and “Room to Move” three all time favorites. Anyway I was checking out Youtube and this is the first video that caught my eye because it brings together two greats John and Albert King! Here they are performing “Stormy Monday” Read More

Book 6 of 2012 – Eaarth – Bill McKibben

Book No 6 for 2012 is Bill McKibben’s book Eaarth:Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. The book is written in two parts for first tells us that the planet that we live on is not the same anymore. The climate has changed and made changes to the physical Earth leaving a new planet Eaarth!The second part gives us some hope for the future if we transition properly! One thing that he points out that in order to keep the Earth where it is now we have to reduce the carbon dioxide level to 350 ppm. You can check out Bill’s organization at 350.org! So if you are concerned about our planet check out this book!! Read More

Into the Night with Julian Sas ………………

So today the music of another blues rocker from the Netherlands comprised the soundtrack of my trip to Trenton! I listened to the new album Bound to Roll from Julian Sas and I like everything about it Julian’s vocals are strong as is his guitar playing. I’ll write more about the album later but for now, we go into the night with a performance of “30 days in the Hole” Read More

New Folk: Drew Nelson – Tilt-A-Whirl

So it has been a while since a new folk artist caught my attention, but that ended last week. I was reviewing the Roots Music Report and the album at No. 21 Tilt–Whirl by Drew Nelson caught my attention. So I went to MOG to check it out, they didn’t have Tilt-A-Whirl, but they did have his previous release  Dusty Road to Beulah Land, so I gave it listen and was impressed. (I read now that the album rose to the top on many Folk Charts).  Well yesterday I returned to MOG and Tilt-A-Whirl was there, I gave it a listen, and again came away impressed by the singing and song writing of this new artist! Drew is a Michigan born Navy veteran and has over the last few years toured with the likes of Melissa Etheridge, Edwin McCain, Josh White Jr. and John Gorka. Here’s what John Gorka says about Nelson’s music Read More

New to Me Blues Rock: Coen Wolters and Van Wilks

So over the last few weeks I’ve been using MOG and find that the site has a lot of great music almost as much stuff I like as Napster did! I really like the way they post albums for your taste based on what you’ve been listening to and tell you, that you’ll like this because you listened to that. In the last couple of days I’ve found two bands that I really like and had never heard of before. The first one was the Coen Wolters Band. The band hails from the Netherlands and is composed of Coen, Erwin van Gestel, Jeffrey van Duffelen and plays some great Texas type blues rock. I like both Coen’s vocals and his guitar wizardry! There’s a couple of good instrumentals on the album I listened to Broken Glass  which was the bands first non-self released album in 2005 on Cryingtone Records has been followed up by the 2006 release of  As the Crow Flies  which I am now listening to as I write and the first track sounds pretty good! Here’s some quotes about the band: Read More

Book 5 of 2012 – American Emperor – David O. Stewart

So most tines when I read non-fiction I start out well, then get bogged down and end up only reading a third to half of the book. Well, I decided to stick with Book 5 for 2012 American Emperor:Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America by David O. Stewart and I finally finished it tonight! I renewed the book from the library about three times! The book follows Burr’s life basically from the duel with Alexander Hamilton through to his death and focuses mainly on Burr’s plans to conquer the Spanish possessions in Florida and then invade Mexico and set himself up as Emperor. The book was a little slow in parts but overall it was well written. While I have read before about Burr’s treachery and his association with that weasel General James Wilkinson (see another non-fiction book setting on my shelf An Artist in Treason about Wilkinson which I have stopped about a third of the way through) I had not read much about Burr’s trial for treason which I found very interesting. A couple of other parts of the book that I found interesting included a discussion of the Louisiana Purchase most times I just think, oh Jefferson bought this area in 1803 and never think about the assimilation of the people  who lived there into the US! It was hard for the Creoles to adjust. The other was the time it took to get from place to place. The description of Burr’s return trip to Washington from New Orleans in 1805 took from July to November and the description of having to almost cut your way through the forest as you traveled made me realize what an ordeal it was to travel! It took Wilkinson three months to get from New Orleans to Washington for Burr’s Treason trial! Read More