First Think, THEN Ink.

You must have heard about this already, but if you didn't, there is this Quincy Jones Interview by David Marchese

The top dishes in this incredibly juicy article:

1. Michael Jackson thieved a bunch of music and didn't properly pay or even credit the writers.
2. Hillary Clinton was disliked for the secrets that she kept.
3. John F. Kennedy was killed by Chicago Mobsters associated with Frank Sinatra.
4. The Beatles were the worst musicians in the world. "Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard. And Ringo? Don't even talk about it."
5. Paul Allen of Microsoft can play like Jimi Hendrix.
6. Donald Trump is " a crazy motherfucker. Limited mentally — a megalomaniac, narcissistic. I can’t stand him."
7. Ivanka Trump dated Quincy.
8. Oprah Winfrey doesn't have the chops to be president.
9. Current Music isn't as good because the mentality of those making it aren't as good.
10. Bruno Mars, Chance The Rapper, Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Mark Ronson are the best out there currently.
11. Marlon Brando had sex with James Baldwin, Richard Pryor and Marvin Gaye.

This leads to a whole lot of other questions that perhaps he's saving for a memoir. Questions like: Why didn't he stop MJ from stealing all that stuff? What secrets is Hillary keeping? How did the mob get Lee Harvey Oswald involved in the assassination of JFK and was Jack Ruby on their payroll? How did those dates with Ivanka go? Why didn't Q think of a single woman to name when it came to talented musicians? And then the Brando thing, which he probably couldn't answer in detail.

Finally, there was also this exchange:

Marchese: Are we in a better place as a country than we were when you started doing humanitarian work 50 years ago?

Jones: No. We’re the worst we’ve ever been, but that’s why we’re seeing people try and fix it. Feminism: Women are saying they’re not going to take it anymore. Racism: People are fighting it. God is pushing the bad in our face to make people fight back.

When I did my 30 Day Music Challenge and got to Day 27 on Grammy Day. I selected "We Are The World," the anthem for famine relief in Africa with that all star group of singers. And, of course, Quincy Jones was there as a producer (he's got a story about that in this interview, too).

But what I didn't share in my post at the time, was that I hadn't heard the song in several years, and I just started crying because it seemed like the atmosphere of the country is so different now than even then, and that we have to do so much more work just to get back to THAT place.

We have to keep fighting back.

One of my favorite quotes from the infinitely quotable, brilliant philosopher/comedian George Carlin is the following:

“When you’re born into this world, you’re given a ticket to the Freak Show. If you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.”

To me, that quote makes three distinctive statements. The first, obviously, is that Americans get to observe a lot of ridiculousness: behaviors that are rooted in privilege, in wealth, in nonsense that could only be done if you don’t have to worry about having potable water to drink, proper food to eat, clean air to breathe, ground to walk on that doesn’t contain land mines. These are your classic #FirstWorldProblems. And wow! The nonsensical stuff happening is simply staggering, though, admittedly, we’re the ones frequently involved, which leads to the second statement.

( As front row ticket holders... )

The Marquee of CBS Television Studio 50, from February 9, 1964, eventually to be renamed
"The Ed Sullivan Theater"

and this weekend...



A small tribute from CBS to this 50th Anniversary of the appearance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show

Interesting side note - As for that marquee with other guests, Broadway star Georgia Brown was on the telecast to perform a scene from the musical Oliver! She was playing Nancy in that production and playing the Artful Dodger was a young British chap named Davy Jones... So, a Monkee appeared on the same episode of the Ed Sullivan Show that introduced the Fab Four!

( The impact of The Beatles... )

http://tennessean.com/government/archives/04/03/48099754.shtml?Element_ID=48099754

Above is one of the more inane examples of why life really sucks right now.

Here's the thing. When people are unhappy, even the least little thing will annoy and provoke them to anger. It sure seems like there are a lot of unhappy people around here.

The joys of reality television and glossy gossip magazines can only divert the general population for so long. Eventually they'll come back around to their homes and/or the news stories of the day, they'll get depressed about the state of the world and the state of their personal lives and not really feel capable about doing anything to change it. Maybe they'll write to their representatives. Maybe they'll go shopping. Maybe they'll pray. The Status Quo wins again and the march towards the inevitable continues, unabated.

"Control the things you can," says the adage, but people are discovering that there's less and less that is in their control. Doesn't such frustration mean that we are heading for a new wave of violence? After all, when there are fewer and fewer choices to be had in their lives, frequently reactions explode, people are hurt, or worse, and those that remain have to clean up the mess... one more story for Tom Brokaw's final year on the air.

I still can't help but feel that in this time, the early part of this new millennium, we weren't supposed to be having a debate about "free speech." I mean, I thought we settled that in 1790! Why aren't we focusing on things that can help take us to the next level up? Why aren't we working to discover solutions to benefit the world as a whole become a more wonderful planet for everyone, rather than trying to alter one of the few things that had been working for over 200 years?

The United States has a history of doing insidious things to other countries in order to get what she wants. It goes all the way back to before this country was a country, and no one can deny it. Are the chickens coming home to roost? Or is there a way for us to play a positive role in the world again, as we did during the World Wars?

Or perhaps, that's actually what some are hoping for: another world war to allow the USA to demonstrate that military might, to boost the economy (since every war has done exactly that), and to make us look like heroes to our allies again, instead of being street-tough thugs who can run over countries the way we ignore the United Nations.

Our current Middle East policy will assuredly cost us thousands of lives, both military and civilian. It's already done so. But there will be no change in that. There's no battle if there's no "us v. them."

Admittedly there is no us v. them. We're all humans and we're all here. But the competition is what helps to create this illusion, this game that's being played to manipulate feelings, to control money, to inspire patriotism, to keep everyone in line. This is why Christianity has come to the fore so strongly! We are nothing like those heathens! Bombs away!

I guess I'm sounding like some sort of conspiracy theorist, but the timing sure is perfect.

Let's be fair. The other side is using the very same tactics to keep their people in line. To them, we are the reason their lives are miserable. They are being taught to hate all the things we stand for. So the game is on.

Back stateside, if we didn't have to take up such issues as a clearly unconstitutional bill (that passed the House by a fairly wide margin) to assess fines for "dirty language" against media outlets and the performers who appear on them, maybe we would have time to ask some questions. For example, no one has spoken of the communications breakdown that took place with the CIA that might have prevented 9/11. That's the dirty language that everyone should be calling for today. Instead, we have to rally the troops and defend the Constitution.

Lyndon Baines Johnson was another non-elected President from Texas who got us buried hip deep in a war that seemed crucial to the United States at the time, but probably shouldn't have happened. Sure, Vietnam seemed like the thing to do, since the US was trying to prevent a "Domino Effect" of communism across Asia. Just as, at the time, moving in on Iraq was the very thing needed to do in order to prevent more devastation and disaster across the Western world. All those Weapons of Mass Destruction could be used against us at any moment.

Back in the 1960s, we were simply not prepared for what was going to happen. There was no good way out of the situation, and patriotic pride refused to let politicians do an about face while there was an opportunity to do so with a minimum of human sacrifice.

This time, instead of a swamp, it's a desert, but the war is basically the same. We are attempting to "rescue" a group of people who want no part of our efforts. It is a no-win situation. Even if everything went according to plan (assuming there is a plan), we would still be despised by the people of that country, seen as carpetbaggers, outsiders, the enemy.

So, we are offering Iraq the freedoms that the USA has become famous for, while we are attempting to take those very same freedoms away from our own society. It's enough to make Alanis Morissette sing.

The truth is we aren't actually trying to "rescue" those people. We have our own agenda, our own vested interest in seeing things go the way we would like, just as we did in Vietnam. And we've got the $Billions and the cannon fodder to make sure that it does.

But checkbook diplomacy got us to where we are now. Forget your party lines. Every administration has screwed up in the Middle East. That may be due to the power and arrogance that the US has, being the strongest country in the world, dealing with these disorganized dustbowls. Why not just drop nets and carry everyone away to some island? Or might the rest of the world raise an eyebrow at that?

The future for all of us is in dialogue. It's in breaking down the barriers that we have constructed... not by force, but by word. No one is leaving, not the Christians, not the Jews, not the Muslims, not the Spanish, not the Iraqis, not the Americans. We are all here. Until we can get something bigger than a Mars Rover up there, we all have to share this place. We need a new policy. We need a change. We need it now.