Mother Jones: Kevin Drum: Republicans Don’t Care About the Deficit
As Drum and Krugman point out the Republicans don’t care squat about the deficit and why should they they created most of it and since it makes government look bad and they hate government why is it a bad thing!
Ok so the other night I discovered the world of Pandora. Yeah, I knew what it was but had never really tried it on my first go around I started a blues channel and put in the names of some of my favorite blues musician. Several tracks by artist’s whose names I knew came on followed by one I didn’t Jimmy D. Lane the track was “It’s Time” from the 2007 release of the same name. The track sounded pretty good so I checked out the full album and out it on the iPod, bottom line the album and the artist is great, I love both the guitar work and has vocals. I’ve listened a couple of times and will write about the album after a couple of more listens!
So I said the other day that yeaterday I would listen to the new Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa album Don’t Explain, which I did on the way home from Target last night, but the main album I listened to yesterday was the new Nick Moss album Here I Am. Ah, and so far Nick is well maybe number 2 out of now four new albums!
So over the last few days I’ve been listening to several new blues albums including: Don’t Explain the new release from Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa, Peace Meal from Carolyn Wonderland and Choice Cuts from Big Pete. I have been enjoying all of them, but after the first listen of each album, the favorite is Big Pete’s Choice Cuts ! And after a second listen Carolyn Wonderland’s Peace Meal is a closing in. I wonder, if after a second listen tomorrow to Don’t Explain, it will be a three way tie. But let’s start with the album that broke first out of the gate and that’s Choice Cuts. Choice Cuts is currently number 17 on the Roots Music Report’s Blues Chart. Big Pete is Dutch blues vocalist and harp master Pieter “Big Pete” van der Pluijm Since being handpicked at 23 for a European memorial tour to honor the music and memory of legendary harmonica player and vocalist Lester Butler (the Red Devils and Thirteen), Pete has become one of the premier next generation blues performers in the Benelux region.
From the first John Hart book I read Down River I was a fan and so are lots of others. Hart is the only author in history to win the best novel Edgar Award for consecutive novels. (Down River and The Last Child) He has also won the Barry Award and England’s Steel Dagger Award for best thriller of the year. So I was excited when I found his new book Iron House in the library last week and Book 34 for 2011 Iron House did not disappoint! Here’s a quote from Bill Ott’s Booklist Review:
Ok so the soundtrack for today continued this afternoon with some more jazz this time from drummer Art Blakey and his album Live at Slug’s N.Y.C. The album was recorded at Slug’s in New Your (duh) in August of 1968 and features along with Blakey; Billy Harper on tenor saxophone; Bill Hardman on trumpet; Julian Priester on trombone and Ronnie Mathews adds the piano. CDUniverse says this about the album “While longtime Blakey fans will likely opt for performances released on bigger labels, jazz neophytes may enjoy this disc”. Well I guess I’m a jazz neophyte because I enjoy this CD. Today I only got to listen to the opening track “Hey World” (It was a short trip!) and all I can say about Blakey drumming is wow!! So check it out!
So this morning was a jazz morning I listened to a good mix of jazz on the iPod including tracks from Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith. But as I listened to Chet Baker I thought how I always can recognize Baker’s trumpet and that it’s funny how some musicians are distinctive even when playing the same instrument as others! Another one is Carlos Santana you always know when it’s his guitar! So does anyone else have a musician they can always pick out!
So I hate November and December and parts of January! I hate the cold weather, but most of all I hate the darkness at 5 o’clock! I don’t like to run at night in the dark, and as a result there has been a decline in my running in the last two weeks! But today after eating a late lunch it was either run in the dark or let another day go by without running! So I donned my reflective vest and used the flashlight on my cell phone and took off on a run. Yes, I run with the flashlight for two reasons. First to be seen by cars and secondly to see the road ahead, especially, when there’s no street lights! The slightly over 5 mile course that I plotted out on Runner’s World avoided crossing any major streets and had two climbs one up Pancoast Street and the second up Harper Blvd as I looped back and then down Pancoast. The only bad part of the course is the short stretch up and then down Fairview from Pancoast to Harper. The bad thing was that for a stretch along there leaves had been blown out into the street covering the whole shoulder! Luckily on the way down when cars were coming up behind me, no cars were coming during that stretch! Anyway the run was good and I averaged around 9:30 a mile and completed the course in 48:25. Now that I’ve seen that the course is not bad in the dark I’ll modify it a little to get it down to around a four mile run and maybe I can convince myself to do it twice a week after work!
