Blacklidge

Poncho & Lefty- Done by Willie and Bob

Great Debate on Rock Bands

Whiskey Fire, a blog that I list to the side, has a great little game running. It is about rock bands, which ones have caused damage to the genre. I loved it, and the comments especially. The link follows, check it out. http://whiskeyfire.typepad.com/whiskey_fire/2008/07/new-game-three.html

Muppets for the 4th

We Shall Overcome!

I Just finished watching a special on Pete Seeger. What a guy! He personifies America with his music and his story is about music, from the day he was born. 84 years later, he's still playing and singing in all sorts of places. Just watching those old clips of him reminded me of an old time America. It sort of took me back , maybe further that I can legitimately claim any memory of. His protests during the Vietnam War really meant something, in the long run. And always, it was the music that did the talking for him. His songs play softly in the background of our collective consciousness, "turn,turn, turn" and he will always have a large place in the history of our struggles for equality, our folk songs and our photographic view of the 40s, 50s and 60s. I looked up some info, mostly so you wouldn't think I was exaggerating. Of course, there was the little matter of the Communist afiliation, but that was a long time ago and remember, it's all about the music.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/seeger_p.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger

Seeger has been the recipient of many awards and recognitions throughout his career, including :

• The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1993)
• The National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts (1994)
• Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Honor (1994)
• The Harvard Arts Medal (1996)
• Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1996)
• Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album of 1996 for his record "Pete" (1997)
• The Felix Varela Medal, Cuba's highest honor for "his humanistic and artistic work in defense of the environment and against racism" (1999)
• The Schneider Family Book Award for his children's picture book "The Deaf Musicians." (2007)
• The Eugene V. Debs Award (1979)

There is also currently a petition being circulated to persuade the Norwegian Nobel Committeeto nominate Seeger for a Nobel Peace Prize

New creatures in the land

There are some new creatures dotting the land, at least here in Tucson. Since I think they originate in the fine retail world of Wal-mart, Target and Walgreens, which dominate the skylines of all of America, I'm sure these creatures are all over the place. From Sheboygan to San Diego, in front of houses, on top of them and in groups, giant Santas and Frostys show up each evening. That is strange enough but it is what happens in the daytime that is sort of spooky. Drive down any street in the nation, about 10:00 in the morning and all of the giants are in puddles. Puddles of snow men, Santa and, probably, in store for next year, the baby Jesus. I find it a little disconcerting. I guess it's just another way that Asian wholesalers have found for Americans to spend all of their extra cash(?). These are essential to the dream of all Americans, "Keeping Up With the Jone's".  I often wonder what people in other countries, think we do with the infinite variety of crap that they make and send to us. As they are toiling from dawn to dusk, making the weird variety of oddball things that we consume here, (probably for less than $1.00 a day), they must think we're all nuts.

McMurtry

The music from Brokeback Mountain has been nominated for an Academy Award this year. I  had forgotten how nice the music was in that show. Very stark, very identifiable the minute it comes on. It never really bursts into a big crescendo, just weaves it's way back into the story when necessary. Whether you like the movie or not, the music and the scenery is worth a shot.

There was one song in the movie, (well, part of a song), by one of the screenwriters kids. James McMurtry is the grown son of Larry McMurtry and his music has magic in it. Song after song, CD after CD, the words he writes are woven from experiences from broad spectrum of life. His website has all the info at http://www.jamesmcmurtry.com/. He mentions places and people in all of his songs that bring to life the whole tune. I haven't even heard some of the Cd's in awhile but the names of the songs stick in my brain. Levelland, about the gobbling of land across Texas and growing up there, is a good example. Too Long In The Wasteland is another favorite. We saw him here in Tucson, almost by accident, a couple of years ago. He and his band were playing at the Solar Cultural Center, a very funky, small venue, art gallery/stage place in downtown Tucson. Man, thank God for KXCI! I heard it on the radio in the afternoon and we went down to see what was going on. If he had been in Boulder or Los Angeles, you couldn't have gotten in without there being thousands of other fans there. This was an impromptu stop though, not much publicized, so we were there with no more than 100 other folks. Very good music night in the "Old Pueblo".

Company

Company is here, yeah! Since we're in Tucson, we get our fair share of company and that's great. This time it's our nephew visiting. Everybody's favorite, Ty. I only have one nephew on my side anyway but my husband is always trying to cabbage on to him and claim him as his nephew. I'm willing to share but I'm not giving him up! Anyway, there is always a lot of music when Ty gets here. He plays the guitar and so does my husband. They would like nothing better than to sit around and play and sing all day!We've actually been going and doing a lot of other things,too, but David's first choice is music,music, music!

We went to dinner on Friday night. Had a great meal at Capriccio's on 1st Ave. We've always wanted to try it but never had a chance until this week. It's been there a long time and the seafood and pasta is fantastic! The owners are totally hands on and it shows in the food and service. Sometimes there are so many new restaurants in an area that the great, long time ones get overlooked. Tucson,it's time to re-check this treasure, before it's too late! Good pasta should never be taken for granted!

Please pardon my messy house in these photos, it's such a small place that it gets messy just looking at it!