Observations

How pervasive is racism? Here is an example: "separate-but-equal" patron saints. I learned by reading Dear Abbey on May 10 that racism can rear its head in the most innocent of places and in the most innocent of ways. One of Dear Abbey's readers wrote that there is a patron saint for Hispanic police officers, Saint Sebastian. Dear Abbey: May 10, 2007

The implications for me are mind boggling. Why should there be a patron saint for one particular racial profile? Is this a throw-back to the Jim Crow days? Is this some kind of hoax, a cruel joke, or is this simply innocent-racism on the part of her reader?

I grew up Catholic and had never heard of any patron saint that served any one particular racial or genetic profile. I googled this subject and only found Dear Abbey's article. I searched wikipedia for Saint Sebastian to find out that he is simply the patron saint of soldiers and police officers--no distinction was made for race or creed.

I think Dear Abbey was the victim of some innocent racism. It's regrettable that she couldn't have tried a little harder to omit this innocent racism. I wish there were a way to stop this form of racism. I feel it is every bit as insidious as any other type of racism. Little slips like this one just serve to show people that some racism is acceptable.

I am not opposed to diversity. In fact I love diversity, but how far should one take it. In this instance I think the public would be poorly served by a police department that is divided racially or religiously. I feel this would not fit the wishes of St. Sebastian or any police officer.

I truly hope I do not offend anyone (how many acts of folly have started with such words), but the letter from Ron Fisher of Dallas has gotten me curious about "real" Methodism. I have absolutely no opinion about Intelligent Design, and I don't even know my own status as a "real" Methodist (I haven't given it enough thought I suppose). But I'm now curious; is there a rouge sect of Methodists that shun the concept of review committee or general consensus? Is this finally the age of Hard-Line Methodism?

Dallas Morning News--Letter to the Editor

John Wesley must be turning over in his grave
That noise is John Wesley turning over in his grave that a school with a Methodist name has professors who do not want an intelligent design seminar on campus.

For crying out loud, what if a creation seminar featuring God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit visited? No wonder the world laughs at today's Christians.

It is time for real Methodists to stand up and get rid of the nonbelieving liberal teachers and preachers – or change the name from Southern Methodist University.

Ron Fisher, Dallas

Funny Comic Strip--non sequitar

Twas My Last Gig Before Christmas

Twas my last gig before Christmas, when all through the house
Nothing was working, not even my best licks ala Son House,
My band mates were all playing with the greatest of care,
In hopes that someone in the audience would get out of their chair.
My fingers were nimble, my strings were not dead,
And I tried to play every note as it sounded in my head,
While Stanley the bassist laid down a groove that was phat,
Yet the listeners still seemed not to notice any of that...
When out in the parking lot arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the stage to see what was the matter.
Away through the audience I flew like a flash,
That’s when I noticed every single one of them was trashed.
The room on the left was still watching the show
Even though the lead guitarist had walked out the door,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than appregios his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now,Hendrix! now, Holly! now Dimebag and Vaughan!
On, Garcia! on Gatemouth! on, Blind Lemon and Walker (T-Bone)!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As lithe melodies that sing while played with a slide,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the roof-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of gear, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a tweakering, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I went back inside, and returned to the stage,
I was surprised to find St. Nicholas had taken my place.
He was dressed in black leather, from his head to his foot,
And his reindeer were all holding guitars in their hooves.
A modified Gibson, an ES 335, was hung on his strap,
And it looked like so beautiful, all shiny and black.
His eyes -- how they twinkled – as he plugged into my amp!
Then he looked at me and motioned me to come up the ramp.
He introduced himself as Riley and his guitar as Lucille,
And I stood there in awe as he started to wail.
And finally the whole audience rose to their feet,
as the bassist and drummer provided the beat.
He had a broad face and fingers like spaghetti
That pulled and bent out sweet notes a plenty.
He was chubby and plump, a hard rocking old elf,
And I cried because his tone was ringing like a bell.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word as he stepped off the stage,
And gave each of his reindeer a chance to play,
Each in his turn laying their fingers to the strings,
And playing their hearts out like angels that sing.
Then he sprang to the stage, and to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all shredded like Eddie Van Halen.
And I heard him exclaim, over the musical delight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Author: Clement C. Moore
(as corrupted by Randall “Pappy” Pappas)

A friend at the Guitar Player forum posed a very interesting question.

Kramer Ferrington. III Asked:

“So I was lying back in bed last night listening to Muddy Waters and I couldn't help noticing how different his band sounded to what is called "blues" these days.

So my question is... is "blues" still "blues"?

I mean, a lot of the stuff white guys do these days (and why does it seem to be mainly white guys playing blues these days?) has very little to do with anything from the past.

On the other hand, many black blues players still seem to be playing in much the same way as they used to, decades ago. Have the "blues" simply "moved on" or have they split.

Should the whole "British Blues" thing have been called something different altogether? I love all those guys dearly, but really, they eventually had very little in common with the stuff that was coming out of Chicago and the US in general. You'd be hard pressed to trace a clear line from, say, Elmore James to Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin.

I believe the dark, sweet sound of real blues vocalists got lost, somewhere in the mix. But when did it happen, and why? Can Paul Rodgers, for example, be considered a blues singer?

So yeah... is it still blues? Or is it something else altogether?”

I responded:

I don't have an answer, I'd just like to say, if not for all the white boys (WBs) that play the blues, I would have never heard of Muddy Waters, Otis Rush or any of the other greats.

The WBs did what WBs do, they/we innovate and assimilate. We get as many people as we can get to listen to the music that matters.

As long as someone's music is influenced by the "Blues", there will always be someone who will remember the likes of Son House or T-Bone Walker and keep their music and spirit alive.

Real Music is about emotion and energy! Not about bringing something new to the table! Although without innovation we'd never have any Eddie Van Halens. But even his music it still blues based in origin.

I think that what really happened is that this the WBs were paying tribute to the Blues and it was just easier for the Record Companies to call it the Blues plus it's always a cool marketing strategy. Who doesn't look cool in black shades?


View the Entire Topic/Thread at the Guitar Player Forum. The best place on the Internet!



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Someone on the guitar player forum asked a very good question:

His name was Ellwood, and he asked: "I started out playing electric guitar and never really spent much time at all playing acoustic. I've never really been interested in acoustic playing and I know lots of guys are. Does acoustic playing do anything good for an electric player other than make them stronger? I have no strength problems at all on guitar so other than that what if any advantages could be gained from an electric player playing acoustic?"

He is my response:

Overall, acoustic guitars have a better/fuller natural tone as opposed to electric guitars.

I started playing on acoustic and moved to electric. When I play clean I try for a timber that is close to the acoustic sound. When I play with distortion, I try to get as much definition from my chords as I would on an acoustic.

I think playing acoustic gives me a good tonal frame of reference for when I do play electric.

I have noticed that when I pick up an acoustic after playing electric, I can play without over fretting. But when I pick up the acoustic first and go to electric I fret way too hard on the electric.

I think its good practice to play on as many different guitars as you can afford

Click here to see the entire thread on the Guitar Player Forum

I saw the news today, oh boy. There was a picture of Mick and His Father. His father looked very proud. It was a good picture, but this is a sad story.


LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- The 93-year-old father of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, a former fitness instructor partly responsible for his son's athletic prowess on stage, has died of pneumonia in England, a spokesman said.

Basil "Joe" Jagger, a physical education teacher who helped popularize basketball in Britain, died at a hospital in Kingston, Surrey, Saturday, about a week after he was injured during a fall at his home.

His son, currently on tour with the Stones in North America, flew to England late last week, but returned in time for a show in Las Vegas Saturday night. Jagger, 63, was unusually chatty on stage, but -- as is his custom -- he did not mention any personal matters.

The elder Jagger gave his son his first taste of showbiz when he was a youngster, by casting him in a sports TV show. Footage survives of a young Mike -- as he was known then -- engaged in various healthy pursuits.

Joe Jagger maintained his keen interest in sports. He appears in the 2001 documentary "Being Mick," cheering on one of his granddaughters at a school sports event.

His Australian-born wife of 59 years, Eva, died of heart failure in 2000. They also had another son, Chris, who is four years younger than Mick.

Funeral details were not available, but Jagger Saturday mentioned the band's plan to fly to Boise, Idaho, for its next show, Tuesday.

Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed



Mick's Father Passes at 92

Dang!. I was creating a PHP guestbook and testing it for my website.

I made some kind of mistake and crashed my own damn website.

I need to hurry up and learn HTML and PHP, because I had to clear my Front Page extensions and republish my website.

Not hard to do, just very time consuming.

One more lesson learned the hard way.

Good news, I'm just about finished tweaking my website, I probably won't crash it again till I start programming with PHP instead of Microsoft Front Page.

I had been using a free Angelfire.com account for my website. Talk about cheesy, but at least it was free.

Now I'm using godaddy.com. So far I like it, it's not too expensive and thier service is excellent.

Currently I'm using Microsoft FrontPage to publish my website, but it can be a bit of a hassle with the FrontPage exentsion.

I really need to program it myself with PHP or plain 'ol HTML like everyone else does.

FrontPage is just so easy to user though.