Hold This Thought

The 40-minute LP is the limit of man's attention span.

Make sure you listen to (in no particular order):

-- Brian Wilson, "That Lucky Old Sun"

-- Felix Cavaliere and Steve Cropper, "Nudge It Up A Notch"

-- Oasis, "Dig Out Your Soul"

-- Rodney Crowell, "Sex and Gasoline".

If you get a chance, read Robert Stone's wonderful appreciation of Dr. Albert Hofmann. This man inspired a lot of great music. God bless him.

A prophecy come to pass?

Allen Drury was a reporter in the New York Times' Washington bureau who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1960 for "Advise and Consent," still the greatest novel about the doings and undoings in Powertown USA. He was a passionate anti-Communist and highly critical of liberal group think long before Ronald Reagan made his presence known here. That in itself is a commentary on how far the New York Times has fallen over the years, although Drury left The Times after the success of "Advise and Consent."

In the last few days, I've been reading one of Drury's subsequent novels, "Anna Hastings," the story of the rise to power of a Washington newspaperwoman. Like its famous predecessor, the book is rich with the kind of detail about Washington that still rings true more than 30 years after he wrote it.  Warning to Senator Obama: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

But given the increasing evidence of how the major media has largely sold its historic birthright to ensure Obama's election, it was startling to read this passage from Drury circa 1977:

"It is a different language: words do not mean the same. Partisanship, vindictiveness, personal antipathies, deliberate slanting, deliberate suppression of opposing viewpoints - censorship, in fact, though the word is vastly abhorred by those who practice it - all these now masquerade with a bland self-righteousness as honesty, lack of bias, fairness, compassion and objectivity.

"When challenged hard enough, those who argue this will eventually admit that perhaps these terms no longer apply; but, then they ask, why should they? What is the advantage of really being honest, unbiased, fair, compassionate and objective? Are not the times so evil that we of the media must be partisan, vindictive, personal, deliberately biased, deliberately censorious and suppressive of the other fellow's point of view? How else are we to defeat the monsters of our age?

"It is an argument ... that forms a perfect circle - a circle that is rolling the media inevitably toward destruction of the First Amendment and with it all those who so loudly claim its easy protections as they busily violate its honorable intentions. We think a monstrous reaction could come, from a people made so cynical and so hopeless by the media that not even the media itself will be able to withstand the withering wind, consuming all institutions of stability great or small, good or bad, that its members have unleashed."

A bit apocalyptic perhaps, but Drury was like that in his later works. Then I click on Drudge and see the latest plummeting newspaper circulation figures and read about the latest layoffs in the newspaper industry. Newspaper readers, it seems, have no loyalty anymore. The traditional TV network news programs are losing viewers too, as Americans opt for their favorite cable news networks and divide into warring camps. It seems we don't even share a love of country anymore and certainly not a common language. How far we've fallen since my father's generation.

Of course, the bias and cynicism of the news media aren't all to blame, but they deserve much of the "credit." What is truth, after all, if even news reporters don't report what they really see. Now, as Drury warned three decades ago, the bill's come due. Some say we have more media than ever, but I see chaos.

 

 

It's a bird, it's a plane ...

It's SuperObama. Is there nothing this man can't do? Now actor Daniel Craig, out promoting the new James Bond movie, says Obama would make a better 007 than John McCain “because—if he’s true to his word—he’d be willing to quite literally look the enemy in the eye and go toe-to-toe with them."

So much for Joe Biden's worries that America's enemies will test Obama in his first six months in the White House. We've got 008 in Washington (Get it? Like Election Year 2008). John McCain, says Craig, "would probably be a better M [because there's] a kind of Judi Dench quality to McCain.”

From reading and watching much of the media, you wonder why we're even going through the formality of an election since everyone in America is going to vote for Obama. Why not just declare him president by popular acclamation?

After Election Day, those claiming to have voted for Obama will be as common as Baby Boomers who say they went to Woodstock. The first-ever mega-festival drew a huge crowd, but if every Boomer who has since claimed to have been there had actually gone, the entire Eastern Seaboard would have been a muddy, messy campground.

Unless, of course, Obama doesn't live up to his advance notices, which admittedly would be tough for anyone. Then look for a flood of "Don't blame me, I voted for McCain" bumperstickers and Oliver Stone's plans for a gutsy new movie, "O."

Welcome to the gulag

A voter asks Barack Obama a question on a rope line and tells the candidate he doesn't like the answer he's hearing. John McCain picks up on his answer, and the voter -- now known universally as Joe the Plumber -- gets his 15 minutes of fame.

But wait. Now the vicious left with Obama's allies in the media are in overdrive to destroy the guy. Publishing his home address on the internet, poring over his business records, doing everything in their power to ruin him, his business and his life. Just because he asked a question of a political candidate. The KGB would be proud.

A businessman in a Washington, D.C. suburb dares to display his support for the McCain-Palin ticket and is instantly accused of disrespecting African-Americans because he is opposing Obama. He takes the sign down. Opposition will not be tolerated in the new America.

These are scary times, my friends. As usual, the voices of tolerance are the most intolerant, and they're emboldened because they know they're coming into power. These are the people who have imposed politically correct speech codes on campuses nationwide and periodically make a pass at restricting our constitutionally-guaranteed right of free speech, usually in the guise of hate crime laws. But they don't hesitate to viciously go after anyone they disagree with, posting anything online they can think of (just ask the Palin family) and circulating it as widely as they can. Then their friends in the used-to-be-respectable media pick it up as if it were gospel.

The internet gives distance and anonymity to many of these cowardly character assassins. In South Korea, these kind of postings have become such a problem that a number of recent high-profile suicides are attributed to it. Be prepared. Many of these people will stop at nothing to silence those who disagree with them.

 

Fear works

Here are my current thoughts on the "financial meltdown."

Where's FDR?

Where's Reagan when you need him, talking about that bright shining city on a hill?

Where's FDR, telling the American people they have nothing to fear but fear itself?

Where's JFK, asking us what we can do for our own country?

Where's Teddy Roosevelt, commanding the nation and the world at his bully pulpit?

Instead, as we face what we're being told is perhaps the worst financial crisis in U.S. history, we have a parade of gloomy Gusses, from President Bush through John McCain to the various front men (and women) in the U.S. Congress. Not even Barack Obama has risen to rhetorical heights of any kind.

Come on, people, you are our leaders -- or want to be. So lead. Inspire us, motivate us, make us feel good again about being Americans. Instead of tagging on at the end of your remarks, as Bush did the other night, that we're great, we're Americans, blah, blah, blah, come out swinging. Bush didn't even end his address with "God bless America."

The 24/7 media fans the flames to higher and higher intensity, throwing around words like "crisis" and "Great Depression" like so many leaves in the wind. Just as every whispering breeze is now another Hurricane Katrina, now every bounced check is a "financial meltdown." We are certainly faced with a very serious economic situation right now, but I, for one, would like to see a little more reasoned discussion and a little less rush to daylight.

Where is America's leader at this time of crisis? Stand up, Mr. President (or Mr. Wanna-Be President), and tell it to us straight: "Look, ladies and gentlemen, we're in a helluva financial mess, and now we have to clean it up. There'll be plenty of time later to point the finger, but let's get going. Americans have met plenty of challenges like this head-on, and we've always won. We'll win again. You can count on it -- because we're Americans. That's why people flock to this country from all over the world 'cause in America you're the master of your own fate. So now we need to work out a plan that we can all live with -- not too much government, but more than some of you will like. But a lot less than many of you want, too. Keep your faith in your bank, and pay your bills. We WILL prevail. God bless you and your families, and remain confident that God will continue to bless the United States of America."

I'm not sure if any of our major candidates could deliver that speech with a straight face. Too bad. I wonder what President Palin would say.

So this is what I'm listening to

Lindsey Buckingham's Gift of Screws is a must listen in the days ahead, but I need to wade through some of my new vinyl and CDs first. I just ordered some movie soundtracks including the 3-CD re-recording of Miklos Rozsa's El Cid score.

Saw Paul Weller last Saturday night, Rodney Crowell next month with a small acoustic group, J.D. Souther the day before the election.

Weller was Winwood with guitars up front instead of keyboard. But he played keys, too. Wild. He came back for three encores. The last time to send us home, he sat down with his lead guitarist, they were both on acoustics, and the bass player came out and played cello. And they did was a four-minute acoustic version of All You Need Is Love, which we all sang lustily there -- and out into the night.

New vinyl -- Steve Miller's Journey to Eden, Antonio Carlos Jobim's Stoneflower, first Illinois Speed Press album, The Ship (folk record produced by Gary Usher), Odetta sings Dylan (first album of Dylan covers), Full Circle (the second and final album made by the remaining Doors after Morrison's death), the Alan Bown (1969 - a psychedelic melodic British horn band I like), the usual old stuff.

Best new CD - Sex and Gasoline, by the afore-mentioned Mr. Crowell. Tied for first: Brian Wilson's That Lucky Old Sun (first BW album with consistently adult lyrics since Pet Sounds).

Other new CDs that I am heavily into -- Felix Cavaliere and Steve Cropper (this one is red hot), Elvis' Fun in Acapulco, Dino Valente's solo album, Dick Farney (the Brazilian Sinatra), the usual old stuff.

Pride of Georgia

No, we're not talking Ty Cobb here.

Thanks to longtime Washington writer Cynthia Grenier for pointing out that Gori, Georgia, under bombardment this week by the Russian military, is the birthplace of Joseph Stalin. For those who don't remember Papa Joe, he was the brutal Communist dictator of the Soviet Union from approximately 1924 until his mysterious death in 1953. Sad to say, he was much beloved by many "fellow travelers" in the United States and other Western nations, many of whom were unrepentant in their support of him until their own deaths.

The New York Times even won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for coverage out of Moscow sugarcoating Stalin's excesses, although both the Pulitzer people and the newspaper have finally distanced themselves from that one in the last five years. Never too late, I say.

Stalin was responsible for the deaths of anywhere between 10 million and 30 million of his own people, depending on which historian you choose to believe. I prefer to go with

20 million which is the number Robert Conquest, to my mind the most distinguished Stalin biographer, has arrived at.

It's clear that in the post-Communist Putin era Stalin's illustrious place in history has been forgotten. How quickly they forget.

Good lovin'

Here's one out of the blue: Felix Cavaliere, the voice and genius behind The (Young) Rascals, is back at age 65. He has a new album out with Steve Cropper, the 66-year-old Memphis guitarist who co-wrote "In The Midnight Hour" and other gems -- and, perhaps more importantly, played sweet guitar on all of them, too. "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" anyone?

The CD is called "Nudge It Up A Notch," and if you're a person who still plays a vinyl record every now and then, the cover alone is worth the price. But this is killer stuff -- and it revives the long-defunct Stax label. Like "Lonely Too Long" and "People Just Got To Be Free"? Cue up "If It Wasn't for Loving You" or "Impossible," and you're time-traveling back to AM radio circa 1966-67.

In honor of the late great Isaac Hayes, grab Felix's and Steve's new CD -- and a copy of "Hot Buttered Soul" if they have one.

 

The Front Page

Whenever I get a little sour on the newspaper industry, I watch one of my favorite films, "His Girl Friday," directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Not only is it the greatest newspaper movie ever made, it is absolutely one of the funniest films period, thanks to the screenplay by Charles Lederer which leans heavily on the original play, "The Front Page" by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. For anyone who has worked in a newsroom, a really competitive newsroom, it's a dream come true.

Which, in fact, is what I have been doing for more than three decades now. Working in a competitive newsroom. Both as a reporter and an editor, I've done my best to feed that competition, too. For many of those years, I've gotten up virtually every morning and looked at "my" front page to compare it with my competitor's. Early in my career the bad guy was the Northern Virginia Daily in Strasburg, Virginia; until a few months ago it was The Washington Post. How did "we" do versus "them"?

Every morning when I was a news editor at The Washington Times I looked at my paper and logged on the Internet to look at the front-page images of The Post and the New York Times just to see what each of us thought the most important stories of the day were and how much weight we gave them. Our best days were the ones when we didn't have any page one stories in common with our competitors.

Primarily the competition was over breaking news stories, but having a news feature or analysis topic first on page one was nearly as satisfying. For the number two paper in town it was also good business strategy.

These days, though, I find myself looking at -- and comparing -- websites. How does any website I'm associated with stack up against its competitors? And the competition isn't just newspapers anymore. How much weight does the Drudge Report give a story versus how The Huffington Post plays it, as opposed to the New York Times and Human Events? Now newspapers, aware they're no longer the only "news" source in town, are scrambling to keep as big a piece of that market as they can.

For me the habit of a lifetime has changed as well. I'm not sure the change has sunk in quite yet, especially since a daily print newspaper is still part of my reading diet. But these days the competitive side of me checks the Internet first.

Hope for newspapers at last

What better day than July 4 to celebrate the rich history of America's newspapers -- and the bright promise of the future. Say what? That's right: Let's talk about the exciting, positive days to come for U.S. newspapers.

While everywhere you turn it's doom and gloom in the nation's newsrooms, Peter Vandevanter and his colleagues at MediaNews Group in Denver are pursuing a fascinating possibility -- the so-called individuated newspaper, that is, a paper that is personalized to each and every user. From the Good Morning, Fran (or whatever your name is) on the front page to the story selection -- and the ads -- throughout. And it's a paper delivered to your doorstep or your computer or your printer or your cellphone or your Blackberry or whatever each morning -- and, at least as far as electronic delivery is concerned, updated throughout the day.

Sound impossible? Don't tell that to the attendees at the recent Second Annual Global Conference on the Individuated Newspaper. Vandevanter, who has long championed the idea, was the force behind the gathering, but cutting-edge attendees like Eduardo Hauser of DailyMe.com, Dan Pacheco of PrintCasting.com, Jeff Kline of Accrisoft, Gregor Dorsch and Michael Stangl of German software innovators Syntops, Richard Miller of NewspaperDirect and media consultant Bill Ostendorf will tell you that the future is now.

Other supporters include academic revolutionaries like Vin Crosbie of Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications and Randy Covington, director of Newsplex, a global newsroom of the future, and a journalism professor at the University of South Carolina.

The only real question in an industry hemorrhaging money is who will have the courage to do it first.

Dean Singleton, the CEO of MediaNews Group, sounded mighty interested. In his opening remarks to the conference, Singleton admitted that no one knows if the individuated newspaper is the absolute new model for newspapers, but he sure wasn't ruling it out. Just think, he said, "The publication will give readers exactly what they want combined with advertising about things they are interested in." Not bad, eh?

Okay, media types, let's get going. The future looks good, but we can't wait forever.

See the video.

  

It's all about me

Other than perhaps the day in 1963 when he famously declared himself a jelly doughnut ("Ich bin ein Berliner"), President John F. Kennedy's most remembered quotation came in his inaugural address of Jan. 20, 1961, when he urged his fellow Americans: "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."

It was the kind of uplifting challenge that symbolized the opening of the anything-is-possible 1960s and rightfully has been in the history books and on the lips of many Americans ever since. Baby Boomers even like to believe we've practiced what he preached.

Now a new Camelot is at hand. Comparisons between JFK and Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama have been rife for months. Expect them to increase. Just today a photo caption in the New York Times describes Mrs. Obama's dress as having "a Camelot reference."

Mr. Obama's charisma and his sunny prescription of hope in a fairly dismal time are viewed through the lens of the aging Left and their don't-know-any-better younger allies as a reincarnation of the youthful Kennedy bringing an end to the dark ages of the Eisenhower presidency. Students of history realize, of course, that it was the triumph of style over substance, but that's another story.

What a difference 47 years make though. Now Mr. Obama and his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, will spend the next five months turning Mr. Kennedy's deathless quotation upside down, offering every kind of government prescription possible and then some. In the age of no-responsibility, the new mantra is, "Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country can do for you."

Doesn't ring quite as true, does it? Oh well, don't worry: No one's going to drop that line in a campaign speech this summer or fall.

 

Two masters

Sinatra-Jobim.  Self-explanatory.

All hail the electric violin

"When I Was Young" by Eric Burdon and the Animals remains one of the most disturbing songs in rock 'n' roll history, with its thundering fuzz intro and the wailing electric violin of John Weider. It demands to be played loudly. Mr. Burdon's transformation from blues shouter to psychedelic shaman was shocking even at the time, but the New Animals he had put together for the trip were a stunning musical outfit.

While they produced at least three major hits with "San Franciscan Nights," "Monterey" and "Sky Pilot" and three highly eclectic albums, nothing Mr. Burdon and the New Animals recorded matched the power of the band's debut single. From the moment I heard "When I Was Young" on AM radio, I was forever a fan of the electric violin.

Mr. Weider, of course, went on to the legendary English band Family, taking the place of bassist/violinist Ric Grech who had joined Blind Faith.

Next on the scene was perhaps the most famous rock violin song of all, "White Bird" by San Francisco late bloomers It's A Beautiful Day. Violinist David LaFlamme built his entire career on that one song, which is all most people have ever heard of his band. Unlike the sonic blast of the Animals' song, "White Bird" took the listener aloft, hypnotically swooping and soaring for several minutes. The song from the moment of its release has been a '60s standard.

Unfortunately for the members of It's A Beautiful Day, the unforgettable character of their first song also eclipsed several other strong entries in their catalog, including the rocket-ride instrumental "Don and Dewey" that opened their second album.

The English version of It's A Beautiful Day, if you will, was the remarkable folk-rock unit Curved Air which debuted in 1970. This time the electric violin was in the capable hands of Darryl Way, and his tour de force was entitled "Vivaldi" after the master violinist of nearly three centuries earlier.

Like Mr. LaFlamme's work with It's A Beautiful Day, Mr. Way's contribution to Curved Air was omnipresent and equally hypnotic, especially with lead singer Sonja Kristina's gypsy-like vocals (no parallel to Stevie Nicks intended). The band's first three albums are indispensible for any fan of the era's music.

Of course, there are countless other examples from the period, especially when one factors in the rise of country rock. Even blues perennial John Mayall drew on the talents of the fantastic Sugarcane Harris to put a little electric violin in his sound, and it was around that time that Jimmy Page started drawing a bow across his electric guitar for extraordinary results.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to cue up "When I Was Young" one more time. A little more volume, please.

 

 

A party that stands for nothing

Official Republican shock at the loss this week of one of the party's safest House seats is amusing at best. Are these political professionals so removed from reality that they don't realize the Republican imprimatur is the kiss of death across the country? Maybe they need to talk to a few more people beyond the Beltway that aren't on their payrolls.

This was in Mississippi, too, which actually has one of the most effective Republican leaders around in Gov. Haley Barbour. His handling of the aftermath of Katrina versus that of officialdom in Louisiana is a lesson in good governance.

We're not even talking about the desert that George W. Bush has made of the conservative movement. It's painful to watch so-called conservative leaders clinging to the last vestiges of the Bush presidency and perhaps even more so witnessing their growing allegiance to John McCain's candidacy. When that nomination is settled in Minneapolis-St. Paul this summer, it will effectively mark the end of the Reagan Revolution once and for all.

Mr. McCain is now courting liberals and independents with a distinctly soft-left message, so his nomination also will further blur the distinctions between Republicans and Democrats. With the two parties then virtually identical in their positions, except perhaps for the GOP's continued endorsement of the Iraq war, the contest will boil down to which one has the most attractive candidate, and that's Barack Obama hands-down.

Peggy Noonan puts it beautifully in today's Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Bush has squandered the hard-built paternity of 40 years. But so has the party, and so have its leaders. If they had pushed away for serious reasons, they could have separated the party's fortunes from the president's. This would have left a painfully broken party, but they wouldn't be left with a ruined "brand," as they all say, speaking the language of marketing. And they speak that language because they are marketers, not thinkers. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.

Sad but true.

Cut out the middleman

The modern American political "debate" is a predictable affair. Telegraphed questions, pre-planned answers, practiced one-liners and occasionally a glimpse of something that matters. These days the quick answer is to blame the moderator(s). Remember the Des Moines Register editor who never asked the Republican contenders about illegal immigration just days before the Iowa caucuses, even though polls showed it consistently as one of the most important issues to voters.

But it isn't just the moderators: They're bit players really.  It's the process of politics as practiced today -- scripted most of the way. 

No Lincoln-Douglas debates; no Clay, Calhoun and Webster bashing out the slavery issue in real time on the floor of the Senate.

Something historic may be at hand, with the report that Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are considering  "holding joint forums or unmoderated debates across the country in front of voters through the summer." You mean, one-on-one -- talking about what they think is important rather than just responding? The ability to challenge or at least politely question each other?

Call me naive, but this idea offers real possibilities. Now let's see if the candidates (and, more importantly, their handlers) follow through on it. May the best man win.

 

The movie you haven't seen yet

Reading through the lists of new films coming for the summer season in The New York Times and elsewhere, it's the usual fare of gross-out comedies, cheesy remakes, widescreen comic book recreations and sordid downer flicks. U.S. "war crimes" get prominent billing in "Battle for Haditha" and "Standard Operating Procedure."

Kevin Costner is coming with the politically timely "Swing Vote," about an apathetic loser who finds himself the lone voter who will decide whether the Republican or Democratic presidential candidate wins the election. Expect a twist ending since failure to throw it to the Democrat (even as played by Dennis Hopper -- can't clean that boy up) is sure to be a killer with the critics. 

One can't help but wonder how a widescreen film about battle action in Iraq with clean-cut American men and women beating back the bad guys -- and no politics on display -- would fare. Big screen thrills, sincere emotions, GIs playing with happy local kids, good guys winning although they lose a few comrades along the way, even an Al Qaeda operative or two as the real heavies. Imagine a film that makes you proud to be an American and proud of what this country stands for.

My guess is it would be a box office bonanza if made by some talented action director like Ridley Scott ("Black Hawk Down" is a good prototype) or the director of the last James Bond film, "Casino Royale."

Of course, no self-respecting Hollywood director who wants to keep his career is going to touch that film -- without at least a hint of Bush-bashing and a heavy dose of moral ambivalence -- and you know the critics will hate it.

But can you imagine the impact a blockbuster movie like that might have on the American psyche, giving us all a sense of the tough job our fine military is doing, slowly, steadily winning a war that many said was unwinnable? You know what I'm talking about, the kind of movie Hollywood made during World War II.

Why, tell me why?

Back and forth, back and forth. Rev. Jeremiah Wright says; Sen. Barack Obama responds. Blah, blah, blah. If you're a political junkie, you've seen, heard and read it all by now.

I just have one question: What is Mr. Wright up to?

As columnist Bob Herbert put it very succinctly in The New York Times, "The question that cries out for an answer from Mr. Wright is why -- if he is so passionately committed to liberating and empowering blacks -- does he seem so insistent on wrecking the campaign of the only African-American ever to have had a legitimate shot at the presidency."

Clearly, this isn't helpful to Mr. Obama in the upcoming North Carolina primary -- unless you think that state's Republican Party is running a campaign highlighting the Wright-Obama connection for nothing.

But we haven't heard the end of Mr. Wright who clearly is relishing his moment in the national spotlight for which Republicans, in this screwiest of political years, should give great thanks.

Enough Katrina already

Is it me, or do other people agree that we have done enough to help New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina? This is one natural disaster that just won't go away. How many more unaccounted billions of taxpayer dollars need to flow into the city before it's enough? The answer is as elusive as a cure for AIDS.

Now Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, in his continuing pander tour to traditional Democratic constituencies, is getting in the act. According to the senator from Arizona, the Bush administration blew it, and he'll make sure it never happens again. Talk about piling on. Is Katrina the political gift that keeps on giving, or what?

I still want an explanation for all those school buses sitting in water instead of transporting people to safety.

Conservatives aren't likely to jump the reservation over Mr. McCain's comments. But how about some people from New Orleans standing up to tell us about all the exciting things THEY are doing rather than more talk about more government? Enough is enough.

On the turntable this week

The Dave Clark Five -- Finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month, the Fab Five gave the Beatles quite a run for their money in 1964 and '65. These guys were a lot more than "Glad All Over." Personal favorite: the "Having A Wild Weekend" soundtrack from the DC5's only film which marked John Boorman's debut as a director. It's a noirish classic of sorts, look it up, AKA "Catch Us If You Can." And don't miss Tom Hanks' induction speech for the band: He really captures what it was like to be a kid in the '60s.

Early Belle and Sebastian -- Scotland's greatest band?

Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire and Let's Live for Today by the Grassroots -- Two great albums that share the same producer/songwriter in P.F. Sloan, and as result many of the same songs. But what a difference a few voices make.

Jackie Gleason presents Music, Martinis and Memories -- Hey, it's always Happy Hour some place in the world, isn't it?

Thanks to Steve and Andrea for the Grand Funk T-shirt. That's one band I don't play too often, but out of sight, out of mind.

Remember when it was all about Bush

Say what you will about the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, at least the candidates are focused on each other and their differences. Not too long ago the hallmark of Democratic Party politics was who could spew the most vitriol about President Bush.

Arguably that worked in the 2006 elections, but it proved to be a classic be-careful-what-you-wish-for victory. Democrats now in control of Congress have done virtually nothing to curb Mr. Bush's efforts in Iraq and elsewhere. In fact, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, the president's approval rating is up, although a deeper reading of the numbers should dispel any Republican hopefulness.

Sens. Clinton and Obama have gotten the message, though. Gone are Cindy Sheehan and the MoveOn.org crowd. The two Democratic contenders are running against each other instead of Mr. Bush, and voters are the beneficiaries. As muddled and mixed-up as things are these days, it's important to know what a candidate stands for rather than just hearing a chorus of "no's" about the other party's guy.

In a visit to eastern  Pennsylvania this weekend, I heard no talk of the current administration with Tuesday's primary bearing down. Instead, the mostly Obama crowd I was with was talking about their candidate's positive message and what a healthy change they felt that would be for the country. We'll see.

Of course, Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential candidate, will be joined at the hip to Mr. Bush by Democratic operatives come the fall. But in the meantime, it's nice to be debating the issues and looking to the future instead of picking through the entrails of the past eight years.

 

The Mugabe two-step

Kudos to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for criticizing the inaction of African leaders in the face of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ongoing theft of elections in his benighted country. His fellow kleptocrats on the continent have been reluctant to criticize Mr. Mugabe because of his historical status as the "freedom fighter" who liberated his country from colonial rule. The truth is many of them share his dictatorial tendencies and don't want a world spotlight drawing attention to what they've been up to.

Mr. Mugabe has systematically taken his country, once one of the most prosperous in Africa, down to the level of Haiti, and much of the world has looked the other way. Now he's stealing another election.

Following Ms. Rice's strong comments yesterday, so-called mediator Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, stepped down after doing virtually nothing. It will be interesting to see if any other African leader is willing to increase pressure on Mr. Mugabe to release election results that are sure to spell the end of his reign.

As Ms. Rice put it bluntly, "Where is the concern from the African Union and from Zimbabwe's neighbors about what is going on in Zimbabwe?" Indeed.

Pope Benedict XVI in remarks at the United Nations today called for more first-world aid to Africa, echoing similar comments by President Bush on his recent trip there. But unless African leaders show that they are interested in bettering the lot of their own people and not just their own bank accounts, it's ridiculous for taxpayers to throw more good money after bad.

Stones clean it up - but never stop

Martin Scorsese's "Shine A Light" is unquestionably one of the most visually satisfying concert films ever. The camera hangs lovingly on every power chord from Keith Richards' guitar, and Mick Jagger's Energizer bunny-like performance leaves the viewer exhausted by show's end.

But the first few minutes of the film showing the Stones meeting with former President and Mrs. Clinton and their extended family (the concert was a fundraiser for the Clinton Foundation) will have most rock fans reaching for their barf bags. Yeah, I know the '60s were a long time ago, but no Stones fan wants to see the band behave like just another group of political suck-ups.

And what happened to those salty lyrics, guaranteed to offend women and all racial and ethnic groups? Gone were the offensive lines in "Brown Sugar" and "Some Girls" and the Kennedy verse in "Sympathy for the Devil." Have the bad boys gone good? Oh, Keith, say it isn't so?

Of course, Mick does drop the f-bomb and some other choice profanity -- even though the audience knows the ex-president's 12-year-old nephew and other youngsters are on hand for the show. Cursing apparently is still protected speech for the politically correct. Just watch those dicey social observations, boy.

Oh well, guess these days there's no place for a street-fighting man.

Obama gets the big picture

While his political opponents quibble over his language, Barack Obama is absolutely right about one thing: Americans are in a bad mood these days. We're in a war that, no matter which side you're on, seems never-ending. The economy is the worst it's been in years with no end to bad news in sight.

Baby Boomers, worried about their impending retirement years with their faltering pensions at risk, now face seemingly uncontrollable health care costs which in many cases are putting their very jobs at risk. Fewer and fewer companies, with the other economic strains at work, are enamored with the thought of paying the health bills of an aging work force -- and its family members.

Young voters are just coming into that world, and job and economic security must seem like oxymorons to them.

Accordingly, in this election cycle, Mickey Mouse-gotcha politics isn't sticking like it has in recent years. Mr. Obama misspeaks. His minister is a racist. His wife says something many people don't like. So what? In years past, things like that could derail a candidacy. Not this time. This election cycle, despite far more media coverage than ever, when every throat-clearing is turned into a potential gaffe, it appears that American voters are not going to be distracted. They want a change. Call it hope, call it what you will, but don't call it business-as usual.

Mr. Obama is charismatic and well-spoken. He offers an intangible feeling that better days are ahead. His message, trite as it may seem to some, is resonating across traditional party, class and racial lines. Is he too naive? Too inexperienced?

Hillary Clinton and John McCain personify business-as-usual. They've both been in Washington for years now and done little, if anything, to alleviate -- or prevent, for that matter -- the problems we now face. So much for experience, one might reasonably conclude.

Much can and will happen in the months until Election Day, but as Ms. Clinton has already discovered to her dismay, there's something happening here that traditional political strategy can't cope with. Call it the times we live in. Short of a stunning upturn in the American psyche, Mr. Obama will ride that wave into the White House. And no amount of gotcha is likely to change that.