Thursday, December 31, 2015

Stuff from "Some Assembly Required"

Some stuff from "Some Assembly Required"  --  please follow link to original.
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http://ckm3.blogspot.com/

Money is handy; keeps you from having to do everything yourself.
Frankly Speaking: The vigorous low pressure system that helped spawn devastating tornadoes in the Dallas area on Saturday and triggered massive rains across half the US is set to become a monstrous storm over Iceland by Wednesday - probably one of the strongest on record. “The Icelandic coast and near off-shore regions are expected to see heavy precipitation hurled over the island by 90 to 100 mile per hour or stronger winds raging out of 35-40 foot seas. Meanwhile, the UK will find itself in the grips of an extraordinarily strong southerly gale running over the backs of 30 foot swells." The storm will also draw a surge of warm air over the Arctic, raising temperatures at the North pole to 32 degrees, 50 degrees above normal.
Is this global climate change in action? Probably - it is most likely that conditions now in play will generate rapid changes to global and, in particular, North Atlantic weather patterns. "It is impractical to wait for a scientific consensus to develop before reporting on these emerging issues. Waiting, at this time, would be irresponsible as it would result in a general lack of awareness of the overall threat. ... "we have more than enough indicators at this time to show that something is quite dreadfully wrong."
And This: The media are agog over the exposure of the private voter information of 191 million Americans on-line. Yes, it is troubling that such information was so poorly defended. It should be far more troubling that such databases exist. You do not have any meaningful privacy, so don't get too excited.
Clip & Save: The United States has not won a war since World War II; good thing it doesn't pick on someone its size.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

The Modern Jazz Quartet 1956 - England's Carol #1

Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday's - whatever works best for all of you.  Here's a wonderful carol for the season



Milt Jackson (vib), John Lewis (p), Percy Heath (b), Connie Kay (ds)
Album:"The Modern Jazz Quartet / At Music Inn" 

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Miles Davis - Bye Bye Blackbird



Miles Davis — trumpet 
John Coltrane — tenor saxophone 
Red Garland — piano 
Paul Chambers — bass 
Philly Joe Jones — drums

Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen & Christian McBride - Bye-bye Blackbird. Composed by Ray Henderson.


Julie London & Bass Duet Bye Bye Blackbird


Bye Bye Blackbird : Peggy Lee.


RAY ANTHONY and ELLA FITZGERALD Live TV 1955 Pete Kelly's Blues


BIX BEIDERBECKE - THERE'LL COME A TIME



Frank Trumbauer, Cm-sx/ Bix Beiderbecke, c / Bill Rank, tb / Jimmy Dorsey, cl, as / Chester Hazlett, as / Rube Crozier, ts / Min Leibrook, bsx / Matt Malneck, vn / Lennie Hayton, p, cel / Carl Kress, g / Harold McDonald, d.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The Revolt of the Anxious Class

This from Robert Reich - follow link to original
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 http://robertreich.org/


The great American middle class has become an anxious class – and it’s in revolt. 
Before I explain how that revolt is playing out, you need to understand the sources of the anxiety.
Start with the fact that the middle class is shrinking, according to a new Pew survey.
The odds of falling into poverty are frighteningly high, especially for the majority without college degrees. 
Two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Most could lose their jobs at any time.
Many are part of a burgeoning “on-demand” workforce – employed as needed, paid whatever they can get whenever they can get it.
Yet if they don’t keep up with rent or mortgage payments, or can’t pay for groceries or utilities, they’ll lose their footing.
The stress is taking a toll. For the first time in history, the lifespans of middle-class whites are dropping.
According to research by the recent Nobel-prize winning economist, Angus Deaton, and his co-researcher Anne Case, middle-aged white men and women in the United States have been dying earlier.
They’re poisoning themselves with drugs and alcohol, or committing suicide.
The odds of being gunned down in America by a jihadist are far smaller than the odds of such self-inflicted deaths, but the recent tragedy in San Bernadino only heightens an overwhelming sense of arbitrariness and fragility.
The anxious class feels vulnerable to forces over which they have no control. Terrible things happen for no reason.
Yet government can’t be counted on to protect them.
Safety nets are full of holes. Most people who lose their jobsdon’t even qualify for unemployment insurance.
Government won’t protect their jobs from being outsourced to Asia or being taken by a worker here illegally. 
Government can’t even protect them from evil people with guns or bombs. Which is why the anxious class is arming itself, buying guns at a record rate. 
They view government as not so much incompetent as not giving a damn. It’s working for the big guys and fat cats – the crony capitalists who bankroll candidates and get special favors in return.
When I visited so-called “red” states this fall, I kept hearing angry complaints that government is run by Wall Street bankers who get bailed out after wreaking havoc on the economy, corporate titans who get cheap labor, and billionaires who get tax loopholes.
Last year two highly-respected political scientists, Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, took a close look at 1,799 policy decisions Congress made over the course of over twenty years, and who influenced those decisions. 
Their conclusion: “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
It was only a matter of time before the anxious class would revolt.
They’d support a strongman who’d promise to protect them from all the chaos.
Who’d save jobs from being shipped abroad, slam Wall Street, stick it to China, get rid of people here illegally, and block terrorists from getting into America.
A strongman who’d make America great again – which really means make average working people safe again.
It was a pipe dream, of course – a conjurer’s trick. No single person can do this. The world is far too complex. You can’t build a wall along the Mexican border. You can’t keep out all Muslims. You can’t stop corporations from outsourcing abroad.
Nor should you even try.
Besides, we live in a messy democracy, not a dictatorship.
Still, they think maybe he’s smart enough and tough enough to pull it off. He’s rich. He tells it like it is.
He makes every issue a test of personal strength. He calls himself strong and his adversaries weak.
So what if he’s crude and rude? Maybe that’s what it takes to protect average people in this cruelly precarious world.
For years I’ve heard the rumbles of the anxious class. I’ve listened to their growing anger – in union halls and bars, in coal mines and beauty parlors, on the Main Streets and byways of the washed-out backwaters of America.
I’ve heard their complaints and cynicism, their conspiracy theories and their outrage.
Most are good people, not bigots or racists. They work hard and they have a strong sense of fairness.
But their world has been slowly coming apart. And they’re scared and fed up.
Now someone comes along who’s even more of a bully than those who for years have bullied them economically, politically, and even violently.
The attraction is understandable, even though misguided.
If not Donald Trump, then it will be someone else posing as a strongman. If not this election cycle, it will be the next one.
The revolt of the anxious class has just begun.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Gene Ammons - Richard "Groove" Holmes Trio Live 1961 ~ Exactly Like You



Gene Ammons - Tenor Sax
Richard "Groove" Holmes - Hammond B3 Organ 
Gene Edwards - Guitar
Leroy Henderson - Drums

Gene Ammons 01 "Hittin' the Jug"



Gene Ammons (ts) 
Tommy Flanagan (p) 
Doug Watkins (b) 
Art Taylor (d) 
Ray Barretto (cga)

Milt Jackson Ray Brown Monty Alexander Clark Terry at Montreux '77. 03. Red Top



Ray Brown - bass 
Milt Jackson - vibraphone 
Clark Terry - flugelhorn
Eddie Davis - tenor saxophone
Monty Alexander - piano
Jimmy Smith - drum

Friday, December 11, 2015

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Miles Davis " Bye Bye Blackbird " 1955



Miles Davis – trumpet John Coltrane – tenor saxophone Red Garland – piano Paul Chambers – bass Philly Joe Jones – drums

Freddie Hubbard - Joe Henderson - Cantaloupe Island - 1985



Freddie Hubbard, tr
Joe Henderson, ts
Herbie Hancock, p
Ron Carter, b
Tony Williams, dr

Take the A Train - Oscar Peterson, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie


Jazz At The Philharmonic 1957 Little Jazz Roy Eldridge


Art Pepper Here's That Rainy Day




Art Pepper-You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To




Steve Gadd Band - Leverkusener Jazztage 2015 - fragment




Steve Gadd - drums
Walt Fowler - trumpet, flugelhorn
Larry Goldings - keyboards, Hammond B3 organ
Michael Landau - guitars
Jimmy Johnson - bass

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Joe Morello Quartet featuring Art Pepper - Yardbird Suite



Art Pepper (alto sax), Gerald Wiggins (piano), Ben Tucker (bass), Joe Morello (drums)

Art Pepper - Joe Morello Quintet 1957 ~ Pepper Steak



Art Pepper - Alto Sax
Red Norvo - Vibes
Gerald Wiggins - Piano
Ben Tucker - Bass
Joe Morello - Drums

Art Pepper Quartet - Birks' Works



Art Pepper (alto sax), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Philly Joe Jones (drums)

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Terror Attacks


I'm late making a comment on the latest terror attack, the one in San Bernadino, not the one against Planned Parenthood.  That said, the one against Planned Parenthood has not been called a terror attack, and none the rhetoric against Planned Parenthood, LGBT folks, death threats against women who dare to speak up, etc., is considered "terroristic speech".

I think the latest attacks are insane.  Killing co-workers is a meaningless act of stupidity.  It is neither strategic nor tactical.  It does however convince folks to go out and buy weapons for self defense.

I think that's a good thing.  A good thing if they learn how to be safe, how to use the weapon correctly, and how, and when, NOT to use deadly force.

I support gun ownership by eligible citizens.  I'm a gun owner.

As a senior citizen with somewhat limited mobility, I can not run.  I'm also a member of a minority that many Right Wing "Christians" despise.  There are many preachers hereabouts who support DEATH to ALL LGBT folks.  So, I fear deranged extremists of ALL stripes.

I understand that many folks I knew back in the Northeast will think me misguided (at the very least), but these folks who want to deny me my right of self defense also complain bitterly about the Police.  If they will not defend themselves, and have no faith in the Police, what in hell will they do if something happens to them.  That's not the same as going out LOOKING for trouble, nor is it, "hey you kids, get off my lawn"  --  BANG, BANG.  Those are also INSANE acts.  Self defense is just that, not some vigilante act.

Please think about defending yourself and your family, if it should come to that. 


   

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Dr John's Best Ever version of "Such a Night" piano blues


Benny Carter - Things Ain't What They Used To Be



Benny Carter - A Gentleman And His Music
Benny Carter-alto saxophone
Joe Wilder-trumpet and flugelhorn
Scott Hamilton-tenor saxophone
Ed Bickert-guitar
Gene Harris-piano
John Clayton-bass
Jimmie Smith-drums.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Thankagiving


Have a happy Thanksgiving day.  Never mind all the crap in the world today.  There's always been crap in the world, years ago we just didn't know about it.  Today just be thankful.  Forget about Pilgrims, Native Americans, good guys, bad guys, etc., etc.  Just focus on things YOU are grateful for.  Some of us have to search a bit, but there's always something.  I'm thankful for my sobriety, my partner, our dodging a bullet when we nearly lost our house, the fact we have a roof over our heads, and much more.

Find something, and be grateful for it.  Life has NEVER been "fair".  Just for today, forget about your quest, your activism, and just give thanks.  No need to invoke any deity  ---  unless you want to..

Using words that once really meant something, and could again, "Have a nice day".

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Nonconformity and Freethinking Now Considered Mental Illnesses

 I find the following rather strange, amazing, insane, etc.  How controlled are we to become?  Is there no more room for the "wild goose"  --  who once tamed is never the same?  Will young creative people have to hide their creativity?  Also, who are these guys working for?  How much repression must there be?

The following from: http://theunboundedspirit.com/nonconformity-and-freethinking-now-considered-mental-illnesses/  --  Please go there, they have lots of good stuff.

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Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.
The DSM-IV is the manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental illnesses and, with each new edition, there are scores of new mental illnesses. Are we becoming sicker? Is it getting harder to be mentally healthy? Authors of the DSM-IV say that it’s because they’re better able to identify these illnesses today. Critics charge that it’s because they have too much time on their hands.
- See more at: http://theunboundedspirit.com/nonconformity-and-freethinking-now-considered-mental-illnesses/#sthash.GfDWFJfi.dpuf
New mental illnesses identified by the DSM-IV include arrogance, narcissism, above-average creativity, cynicism, and antisocial behavior. In the past, these were called “personality traits,” but now they’re diseases.
And there are treatments available.
All of this is a symptom of our over-diagnosing and overmedicating culture. In the last 50 years, the DSM-IV has gone from 130 to 357 mental illnesses. A majority of these illnesses afflict children. Although the manual is an important diagnostic tool for the psychiatric industry, it has also been responsible for social changes. The rise in ADD, bipolar disorder, and depression in children has been largely because of the manual’s identifying certain behaviors as symptoms. A Washington Post article observed that, if Mozart were born today, he would be diagnosed with ADD and “medicated into barren normality.”
According to the DSM-IV, the diagnosis guidelines for identifying oppositional defiant disorder are for children, but adults can just as easily suffer from the disease. This should give any freethinking American reason for worry.
The Soviet Union used new “mental illnesses” for political repression.  People who didn’t accept the beliefs of the Communist Party developed a new type of schizophrenia. They suffered from the delusion of believing communism was wrong.  They were isolated, forcefully medicated, and put through repressive “therapy” to bring them back to sanity.
When the last edition of the DSM-IV was published, identifying the symptoms of various mental illnesses in children, there was a jump in the diagnosis and medication of children. Some states have laws that allow protective agencies to forcibly medicate, and even make it a punishable crime to withhold medication.  This paints a chilling picture for those of us who are nonconformists.
Although the authors of the manual claim no ulterior motives but simply better diagnostic practices, the labeling of freethinking and nonconformity as mental illnesses has a lot of potential for abuse. It can easily become a weapon in the arsenal of a repressive state.
- See more at: http://theunboundedspirit.com/nonconformity-and-freethinking-now-considered-mental-illnesses/#sthash.GfDWFJfi.dpuf

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Maceo Parker plays Marvin Gaye "Let's Get It On"


roy hargrove quintet - strasbourg saint denis



roy hargrove - tp
justin robinson - as
gerald clayton - p
danton boller - b
montez coleman - dr

Benny Carter - Things Ain't What They Used To Be



Benny Carter-alto saxophone
Joe Wilder-trumpet and flugelhorn
Scott Hamilton-tenor saxophone
Ed Bickert-guitar
Gene Harris-piano
John Clayton-bass
Jimmie Smith-drums