Chamblee54

This is a blog post about blogging. If this does not appeal to you, then skip to the pictures. They are from a square dance, held at a home in McIntosh County, Oklahoma. This event was in 1939 or 1940. They were originally in color, but look better in grayscale. The Library of Congress is a wonderful use of big government.
PG is a compulsive bookmarker. Whenever anything catches his fancy, he adds the url to his bookmarks. When the bookmark tab has 91 entries, it is time to sort them out. There is a variety of folders on the desktop, but the top rung for bookmarks is “frequent”. It is accessible by cntl+alt+F (gimme an F), and has the sites that PG wants to see on a daily basis. With this cleanout, four sites were added to the frequent folder.
Mayberry is a return to the frequent folder. The previous version of this blog, Large Tony, was a favorite before it graduated a couple of years ago. Mayberry is about the life of a man named Tony, who lives with his Granny in the Tennessee mountains. Tony recently announced he is back to posting something everyday. There is a meme floating by now, called the 30 day blog challenge. Tony has combined a few of the lists to come up with 64 topics. If he follows through on this, it will be highly entertaining. ( PG signed up for a blog every day challenge once called NABLOPOMO. Yes, that sounds a lot like NAMBLA. PG tried a month of NABLOPOMO, and decided to leave it alone. He still gets emails about it.)
The next blog to be promoted is A Philosopher’s Blog . With the miracle of alphabetization, APB is the number one blog in the frequent folder. PG got into a bit of a comment skirmish here recently.
Mr. Magus71 ( is that pronounced MAGOO, like the cartoon character?) If you spell checked your comments, they would make more sense.
Mr. chamblee54, Wow. You were born in 1954 and you’ve resorted to critiquing my spelling on hastily posted comments and also to name calling? Are you blogging from your mother’s basement?
And what exactly is the spell check problem besides me spelling avarice with an “E”–once, do you see in my post above? Perhaps you don’t understand military lingo. Or German names of cities?
Also, I have a bad connection and short time in Konar Province, Afghanistan. I race to make posts while the screen moves up and down on me and sometimes i lose entire posts when i hit “Post Comment”. Actually, I’m a very good speller–but a search and peck typer.
But thanks for being such a jerk. Merry Christmas.
chamblee whatever your age is: Seriously, spelling is a non-issue.
And if you’ve watched this site for a while, m simply doesn’t misspell excepot in instances such as he’s described above. Watch this site more closely for some who would present non-facts as facts. Or define words in unique ways. This thyme you merely gave magus a easy way to avoid responding to my explanation of his misundertanding of my 24/2010 11:57 post.
So their you goes. Apply your spell-grammer-cheker to this reply if you want something to do.
This quote is from the Wikipedia page for Jim Backus “He was the voice of the near-sighted cartoon character Mr. Magoo. In 1952, he had a brief scene in Don’t Bother To Knock with Marilyn Monroe. Years later, when Backus was a frequent talk show guest, he would recount the time Monroe urgently beckoned him into her dressing room. Once there, she exclaimed in her breathy voice, “Do Mr. Magoo!”[citation needed]”
In addition to Mr. Magoo, Mr. Backus was Thurston Howell III on Gilligan’s Island, and the father of James Dean in “Rebel without a cause”.
chamblee, I think you have left the Riemann sheet on which the rest of us are dwelling. To understand Magus, I would not look to Jim Backus but rather to Magi, Zarathushtra, etc.
Good times.
There are two more blogs that were made frequent clickees. Blog for democracy says it is a progressive political voice. The election season is over, and BFD and her BFF, peach PUndit, are not going to have the yukkfests they had in 2010. ( Or maybe they will. Georgia politicians seem to be frustrated rock stars, without the makeup artist.) Recent stories here include pregnant women shackled in Georgia prisons, and a Macon legislator’s comment about Republican laundry.
Palestinean Pundit is another internet outlet that tells tales not heard on Fox news. It is frequently written in Arabic, and often does not provide links for it’s stories. Nonetheless, whether you are concerned about the targets of Israeli guns, or want to “know thy enemy”, the Palestinead Pundit has some stories that should be getting more attention in America.
The lead story as this post is written regards Christians in Gaza. Most people assume the occupied territories are 100% moslem, but this has never been the case. The story starts: This is a very alarming article written by a well-known human rights activist in Gaza. Basically it is a threat against all Christians in Gaza (a very small number) that they will be targeted if a death sentence against a convicted killer of a Christian in Gaza is carried out. It threatens to target all Christians in Gaza and calls for driving them out!
The Christians in the Middle East have been having a tough time lately. In Iraq especially, as the secular Baath regime was replaced with fueding factions of Islam, the Christian community has been under attack. Many Iraqi Christians have fled the country. The ever vocal Christian community of America, with it’s intense support of Israel, have been strangely silent about the security of Christians in the Middle East.
Another story not widely reported in the USA is the return to Iraq of “charismatic” Shia leader Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr. He has been out of Iraq for four years, coincidentally the time when the “surge” was “pacifying” the country. “The son of revered Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, Sadr had reportedly been pursuing religious studies in the Iranian holy city of Qom.”
The headline in PP is “The Electric Drill Team is Celebrating: Sayyed Sadr Returns to Iraq after Four Years outside Country”, with a picture of Mr. Sadr, beside a portable electric drill. The use of the drill, applied to the temple, is the trademark execution technique of the shia militias.

The following is a repost . PG has not changed his mind on this “eternal” subject in the last year. Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” One of the pictures is Atlanta Stadium, later known as Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. It was built when PG was 11 years old, and was the original Georgia home of the Braves and Falcons. It’s shortcomings became apparent, and it was replaced. On a saturday morning in 1997, the stadium was blown to bits, with PG as a witness. In less than a minute, the field of dreams ( many were nightmares) became a cloud of dust over I75/I85. There was little speculation about the soul of Atlanta Stadium.
At roughly this time six years ago, PG was at a memorial service. A lady who grew up near PG had passed away. The service, in a Methodist Church, was full of talk about life after death. This talk did not give PG comfort, and served to remind him of why he does not go to church. Some, of the family of the deceased, did find comfort in the talk about life after death.
PG was trolling the blogosphere, looking for good words to put between pictures. He was tired of a number of subjects. None of these subjects were going to go away, although others can be expected to tire of reading about them. Then he found a post in Making Chutney about the ultimate subject that will not go away…life after death.
PG decided a while back that life after death is a better descriptive than “eternal life” or, G-d forbid, “Salvation”. Jesus Worshipers are obsessed with life after death. It is mentioned at almost all gatherings of Jesus Worshipers. PG finds the whole matter annoying.
So anyway, the New York Times published an op ed piece, written by Charles Blow.  It seems as though the “Pew Forum”…which may or may not comment on deodorants…published a survey. The bottom line of the study is that 70 percent of Americans said that they believed religions other than theirs could lead to eternal life.
Gee, thats big of them.
Who says that life after death is a proper matter for a religion to discuss? And even if it is, why do Jesus Worshipers talk about life after death ALL THE TIME? Also, does a belief in life after death justify the rudeness and shouting that Jesus Worship is known for?
Jesus Worship is the dominant religion in our culture. Many people see other religions through the priorities of Jesus Worship. It is a surprise to many to learn that not everyone is as concerned about life after death as they are. Or, that many simply do not agree with the Jesus Worship plan for life after death.
PG decided a long time ago that the correct answer to the question ” Where will you spend eternity?” is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. The use of cusswords is optional.

At Senior Citizens they had a quiz the other day. I lost by one point. The question was where do women mostly have curly hair? Apparently, the correct answer was Africa . I’ve heard that Apple have scrapped their plans for the new children’s iPod after realizing that iTouch Kids is not a good product name. My wife told me I was no longer romantic, so I booked a table for the two of us on Valentine’s Night. Problem was she sucks at snooker & eight-ball. You can say lots of bad things about pedophiles but at least they drive slowly past schools. A biker goes to the doctor with hearing problems. “Can you describe the symptoms to me?” asked the doctor. “Yes. Homer is a fat yellow lazy bastard and Marge is a skinny broad with big blue hair.” A buddy of mine has just told me he’s getting it on with his girlfriend and her twin.I said “How can you tell them apart?” He said “Her brother’s got a moustache.” Being a modest man, when I checked into my hotel on a recent trip, I said to the lady at the registration desk, “I hope the porn channel in my room is disabled.” To which she replied, “No, it’s regular porn, you sick bastard.” The Chinese discovered how to weave prayer mats out of plastic explosives … prophets are going through the roof !!

Juan Cole at Informed Comment posts today about a document release from Wikileaks. The document is a cable sent by April Glaspie, the ambassador to Iraq, about a meeting with Saddam Hussein on July 25, 1990. This was shortly before his invasion of Kuwait.
In 1990, Iraq was recovering from a horrendous war with Iran. That war started Sept. 22, 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, possibly with encouragement from the United States. ( At the time of this invasion, Iran was holding Americans hostage in the American embassy. The United States was not pleased with Iran.) Iraq failed to get a quick victory, and the war became a bloody quagmire, with hundreds of thousands of casualties.
In 1990, Iraq was rebuilding, and Kuwait was flourishing. Oil was being over produced, driving down the price. Kuwait was accused of “slant drilling”, i.e. drilling under the border, and stealing oil from Iraq. At one point, a meeting was held between officials of Iraq and Kuwait . “Saddam…sent his foreign minister to Kuwait to meet with the Emir Al Sabah, the former leader of Kuwait, to try to resolve some of the… issues” between Kuwait and Iraq, Piro will recall. “And the Emir told the foreign minister of Iraq that he would not stop doing what he was doing until he turned every Iraqi woman into a $10 prostitute. And that really sealed it for him, to invade Kuwait. He wanted to punish…Emir Al Sabah, for saying that.”
On July 25, 1990, Saddam Hussein summoned to American Ambassador, April Glaspie , to a meeting. The cable is Ms. Glaspie’s account of the meeting. PG cannot see a green light for invasion in this account of the meeting. Many say Ms. Glaspie could have made much more explicit the dire consequences of invading Kuwait.
The transcript of the meeting has been declassified for some time. It is available on the website of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation. It is worth noting that this transcript is not sworn testimony, and could contains lies and mistakes. It is also the POV of Ms. Glaspie, and Mr. Hussein may have gotten a different idea of what was said. Perhaps, to Mr. Hussein, it was a green light for an invasion.
The invasion of Kuwait, eight days after the meeting, on August 2, 1990, set in motion events that affect us to this day. A coalition was formed to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. There was talk of going to Baghdad and deposing Mr. Hussein at the time. The military action stopped after driving Iraq out of Kuwait, reportedly at the request of Saudi Arabia. Twelve years later, the United States attacked Iraq, and drove out the Hussein government. We are still there.
Historycommons.org has a timeline with a wealth of information about the progression of Saddam Hussein,  from ally to next Hitler. The comments section for the post by Juan Cole at Informed Comment is the source of several links in this story, and has a lively commentary about this matter. Pictures for this post are from The Library of Congress

Those fun loving unicorn hunters at Lake Superior State University, in sunny Sault Ste. Marie Michigan, have issued their annual list of banished words. In the spirit of the new decayed decade, PG presents the banished words in a poem. Pictures are from The Library of Congress
The viral wow factor turned epic fail
A backstory a-ha moment
Facebook BFF female or male
Mama grizzlies don’t pay the rent
The American People and not a tourist
Google the clothes I’m just sayin’
Man up Live life to the fullest
Refudiate those who don’t win

It is new years day. The desktop is littered with word documents, where a post was started and allowed to languish. One use of this rainy day is to recycle a few of these thoughts.
Mike Vick has been through some changes. He was the most exciting athlete of his graduating class. (perhaps not the best phrase to use in this case). Drafted by the Atlanta Falcons, he took the birds to the NFC championship, and signed a nine digit contract. The next step was prison and disgrace, a convicted dogfighter. ( This is a field day for hypocrites, as carnivores became champions for animal rights.) Falcons owner Rankin Blank did what he had to do, and released Mr. Vick from his contract. The Philadelphia Eagles gave the man a second chance, and Mike Vick is now having a spectacular year. As long as the Eagles don’t play the Falcons in the post season, PG wishes Mike Vick well.
It seems as though the Judge who accepted Mr. Vick’s guilty plea placed him on probation, after he was released from Federal Prison. A condition of his probation was that he could not buy, sell, or own a dog. Now, Mr. Vick is telling a sob story about wanting a dog for his daughter. “Vick said in his interview with the Grio that his daughters miss having a dog, and that the hardest thing for him is “telling them that we can’t have one because of my actions.”
This is a high profile case, and lots of people are talking about it. Should Mike Vick be allowed to own a dog? Should Eddie Long be allowed to Preach? Should the faceless moneymongers at Goldman Sachs be allowed to play with our economy? The list goes on and on.
One of the delights of the internet is liveapartmentfire . LAF is the product of a TV reporter, who likes to tell tales out of school. A recent post discusses his habit of writing stories that rhyme. He did a few before the invention of rhymezone, an internet tool for creating rhymes. (With ads from yellowbook360, beyond yellow) The comments should not surprise anyone.
to be the first commenter//on this seventh day of winter//to make known my feelings//above the squawks and squealings//with a video to embed//like a luncheon spread//rising up out of the fog//into a coffice written blog// chamblee54
Doug’s rhythmic post//sure pleases me the most//nearly as much as buttered toast//on a frozen Monday.///He casts tweets to the wire//blogs at Live Apartment Fire//reports, comments, raises ire,//often brings the fun-nay//.As for me, oblivious of parameters,//Something’s way wrong with my pentameter//And when it comes to rhyme,//I’ll take Kuralt, Osgood, and Newman anytime.//jcburns

BloggingheadsTV put up a year in review diavlog this week. One of the chatters, Conor Friedersdorf, moonlights for Andrew Sullivan , and had this to say: “In what must be one of the gloomiest Bloggingheads yet recorded, Michael Brendan Dougherty and I discussed the big stories of 2010. The clip above is our lament about the three ongoing wars that the United States is waging and the alarming erosions of civil liberties that have characterized the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.We discuss the film The Social Network , the meritocratic elite, and the commodification of friendship here.”
The word commodification ( spell check suggestion:humidification)has crept into the national conversation recently, and has PG asking a rude question. It deals with pronunciation, and how this affects meaning. Is this word pronounced kuh-mod-uh-fahy, where you make a commodity of friendship? Or is this phrase pronounced kuh-mohd-uh-fahy, where you make a commode out of friendship? Is there really a difference between the two concepts?
Getting back to the diavlog, one of the themes was the erosion of civil liberties by our government, and how BHO has not been any different from the Presidents before him. PG contributed a comment.
This was a great dv. I was going to write something for my blog, but realized that this was worth paying attention to. One rule of multi tasking is that you don’t write things while listening to conversations involving thoughts. I switched gears, and got some serious work done on visual photos.
One of my concerns about the election of BHO was that he was a glib politician, telling people what they wanted to hear. Once he was in office, the new boss would turn out to be the old boss. BHO would exploit the erosion of liberties that previous adminstrations had effected.
With regards to liberties and war, this has been the case. The idea that a government would say out loud that it has the right to kill citizens that it labels “terrorist” is appalling.
Somewhere in this dv…and I don’t feel like going through the whole thing to find a dingalink, get over it Bob…one of the actors said that even if BHO doesn’t follow through on this newly proclaimed power to label and eliminate, that the next POTUS could take the precedent and become the tyrant we have feared. ( In the case of the P woman, it would be a tyrantess.)
The Greenwald-wired dustup doesn’t seem to be getting much attention, but should. There are too many fishy things about that story. I have long suspected that Bradley Manning is taking the fall for many others. It would be interesting for this affair to go to trial, and see exactly what the evidence is against Mr. Manning. If the only thing the government has is logs of IM conversations…which can be easily faked…then it would seem the government does not have a case. It might even be that Private Manning is innocent, or be found innocent in a trial.
And what was a private doing with access to all of that data? Mr. Friedersdorf suggests sanctions for over classifying information. When you have too many items classified, then you have too many people with access to this data. chamblee54

One thing that is accepted without question is the year starting at midnight on December 31. That is, in some cultures. Jews have a new year in September, China celebrates some time in January, and the fiscal year is whenever the bean counters say. If you ask google “why does the year start january first”, you get 436m options.
The earth runs on a cycle, based on it’s annual trip around the sun. The winter solstice is the longest night of the year, and in many ways the logical end of the year. The celebration of Christmas, a few days after the solstice, is not a coincidence. The question today is, why do we start a new year a week after Christmas, or ten days after the solstice?
The top ranked answer at google is from catalogs.com. They talk about Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII(13), but never quite say why January first is the big day. It does end on a helpful note: “Calendars are a way that grownups organize time, but clearly not all grownups do it the same way. Happy New Year, therefore, whenever it happens for you.”
Lifeslittlemysteries continues with the talk about Caesar and the Pope. It is noted that January 1 was the day that Roman officials started their term of office. In England and her colonies, the new year was celebrated in March until 1752.
The rest of the google results do not look promising. PG does not know the answer to this. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

There has never been a politician like Lester Garfield Maddox. He was elected Governor of Georgia (with help of a quirk in the state constitution) in 1966. PG was 12 at the time, and saw the spectacle of the next four years with amazement.
Before we get started on this, we should remember a couple of things. Lester Maddox became notorious when he shut down his restaurant, The Pickrick, rather than serve a black customer. He was a segregationist, which means he did not want black people to have the same rights as white people. Looking back for 2010, it seems incredible that civil rights legislation was needed 46 years ago, so that 30% of Georgia could eat in a restaurant. PG does not condone the actions and attitudes of Lester Maddox, or the people who supported him.
There is style, and there is substance. While the substance of Lester may have been horrible, the style was a sight to behold. He could ride a bicycle backwards, and did so whenever a crowd was there to watch. ( PG saw this at halftime of the Peach Bowl.) He was on The Joe Pyne Show and The Dick Cavett Show, and walked off of both.
This section from a previous post tells a bit of the story. The Governor was speaking to a group of reporters. He was announcing the appointment of a Black man to the Selective Service Board in some Georgia town. The reporter said it was the first Black man to serve on a draft board since reconstruction. What did the Governor think about this?The Governor said “Gee”
The screen returned to the Channel Five newsroom. The men at the desks were all laughing. The weatherman looked up at the camera and said “Thats a tough act to follow”
Whatever you might say about Lester Maddox…and there is no shortage of bad things to say…there has never been a public official that entertaining. As for being a tough act to follow, the next Governor was Jimmy Carter.
As for the weatherman, PG saw him  in a parking lot once. It was raining heavily. The “Gray Ghost” looked at PG with an ironic smile, as if to say “I am sorry”.
In 1970, the Governor of Georgia could not succeed himself. Lester ran for Lt. Governor, and spent the next four years feuding with Governor Jimmy Carter. Lester ran for a second term in 1974, and was trounced by George Busbee.( The slogan : “Elect a work horse, not a show horse.”) When Jimmy ran for President in 1976, Lester made a point of badmouthing Jimmy. In his own way, Lester Maddox helped Jimmy Carter get elected President.
There is a youtube video of the appearance of Lester on the Joe Pyne show. (Another guest that night was Culius Jeezer, who claimed to be 2000 years old). A video of the time Lester was on the Dick Cavett show has not emerged. ( Mr. Cavett has gotten old. He discusses the night Lester was on his show in this video .) Another guest that night was Truman Capote. After Lester walked off the show, Mr. Capote said, in his own inimitable way, ” I ate at his restaurant one time, and all I have to say is, it was not finger licking good”.
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.

The United States is in a period of almost unprecedented stability, in the office of President. The last time a President did not finish his term was 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace. Gerald Ford assumed the office. It is note worthy that Mr. Ford was appointed to the Vice Presidency, after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. This was the first, and only, time the 25th amendment was used, to designate a successor Vice President.
When reserching this feature, PG typed Nixon into the google search engine. The top result was NixonNow , a watch company. Their website advertises “The Beastie Boys Time Teller”. In all the watches displayed, the time was 10:09.
Getting back to Presidential stability ( not related to the mental capacity of the person serving ), it has been 36 years since a President did not finish his term of office. The only longer period of Presidential stability was at the start of the republic. George Washington took office April 30, 1789. The first President to die in office was William Henry Harrison, who passed April 4, 1841. This gives us 52 years of Presidential stability, the longest span is the history of the republic.
With the exception of Mr. Nixon, death has been the only way out of the White House, before your term ended. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached, but neither was removed from office by the Senate.
There have been eight Presidents to die in office. All but one ( Zachary Taylor) were elected in years ending in zero. This “zero factor” was in effect between 1840 and 1960, and seven Presidents in a row elected in zero years died in office. The “zero factor” guaranteed a White House death, roughly every twenty years. Such an abrupt transition is not good for smooth governance.
The “zero factor” was defeated by Ronald Reagan. He was elected in 1980, shot in 1981 and recovered, and served two full terms. There were many concerns about Mr. Reagan’s age before his election, and may have suffered early stage Alzheimers while in office. The winner of the 2000 election, George W. Bush, served two uninterrupted terms.
PG found a Playboy magazine article about the “zero factor” once. It was published before the 1980 election, and PG found it in 1983. The writer interviewed the Press Secretary for an also ran candidate, who said they were not concerned about the “zero factor”. The Press Secretary interviewed was Jim Brady. He served as White House Press Secretary, and was shot in the 1981 attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life.
The constitution provides for Presidential elections every four years. They can be lively affairs. However, when the election is over, the results are respected, and the winner allowed to serve. ( This is a contrast to the chaos seen in Iran. After the shabby election of 2000, maybe a bit of dispute was in order.) This system of regular elections, and frequent changes in power, is in contrast to the historic pattern of strongman rule, where the new ruler takes power with the murder of the old ruler. However corrupt the american system is, it is better than that.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

The facebook friend posted the cheerful news that 179 cups of brewed coffee would kill him. PG was fascinated by the concept of caffienating himself to death (headed to an early coffice). A doubleclick on Death by Caffeine put him closer to his fate.
PG was not the first person to see this test. It has been tweeted 668 times, with 40k on the f-like chart. It has tabs for USA, NZ & Australia, and UK & Europe. Asia and Africa are not important . The field below says “pick your poison”, you enter your weight, and click on the tab which says “kill me”.
The “pick your poison” has an impressive selection. Starting with “180” and ending with “Zun Energy Drink”, this is a selection to wake up the most jaded of amphetimites. Arizona caution energy shot, bawls geek beer, cougar energy double shot, foosh energy mints, venom mojave rattler, and slim fast cappucino delight shake all vie to send to excessive user on a one way trip to the pearly gates, presumably without a rocket. To a detoxed fuddy duddy like PG, this is heady stuff. (NZ & Australia have the options of Big Cock and Mother. UK & Europe balance matters with Pussy Energy Drink.)
With so many ways to die, one should think of taste and economy. ( What is the plumbing like in the pearly gate waiting room?)The first choice for PG is caffeinated maple bacon lollipop. 170.62 Caffeinated Maple Bacon Lollipop + You = Death. Next, native Atlantan PG needs to check out coca cola classic Gulp down 395.65 cans of Coca-Cola Classic and you’re history. Finally, for something that PG drinks everyday, it is iced tea . ( PG uses the cheap stuff sold at Kroger. Lipton and Nestea may have different results.) 290.43 cups of Iced Tea + You = Death.
The terminal dosage quotient is a feature of energy fiend . EF appears to be sponsored by the energy drink (e.d.) industry. Press release spawned posts for new drinks are listed on the left side of the home page. On the right are ads. You can Make Money! with energy mints! If you drink water, you are not mandrating. There is also a test for Caffeine Addiction.
The Addiction quiz is sponsored by Ammo Energy shot…no jitters, no crash, no kidding. There is a picture of a squirell, standing on his hind legs, drinking coca cola with a straw. The quiz is 15 yes/no questions, like “Do you have a hard time remembering the last time your favorite soda gave you a buzz?”or “Do you have a special refrigerator specifically for energy drinks?” The results … “Congratulations – you have completed Addiction Diagnosis. You scored 0 out of 16. Your performance have been rated as ‘Failed'”
Pictures for tonight’s amusement are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library” .

A webpage called CaptainsDead has a download of a David Bowie concert, that can only be called a Christmas present. Most Bowie live recordings are pretty dull. While the Thin White Duke is renowned for his concerts, they tend to be live events, that depend on staging and costumes as much as music. This show, from 1974, is different. Focusing on material from “Diamond Dogs”, the sound he produces comes close to matching the studio sound, and in a few cases surpasses it.
The next move for Bowie in 1974 was the “white soul” sound of “Young Americans”. He is moving in that direction in this show, even while he lingers in the glitter apocalypse. This tour included a stop at the Fox Theater, the first Atlanta show for Mr.Bowie. On the way to Florida for the next show, the truck with the sets and costumes crashed into a swamp full of rattlesnakes. The show in Tampa was performed in street clothes.
Maybe it is time for a Chamblee54 tribute to David Bowie. The Falcons and the Saints is on the box, and hopefully the Falcons can quit fumbling and score some points. The Georgia Dome has not hosted that many concerts…hopefully, the era of concerts in football stadiums is fading away. (The Saints wound up winning. At least PG did not have to see the obnoxious “Rise Up” commercial.)
The first album by David Bowie that PG heard about was “Hunky Dory”. At the time, Mr. Bowie had generated some buzz by admitting that he fancies blokes, or some uber british expression for being queer. In time, this would be seen as more publicity stunt than brave confession. The RCA debut got some good reviews, but not much else.
The next year produced “Ziggy Stardust”, a concept album. At about this time he did a tour of the United States, with costumes and onstage antics that generated even more publicity. More and more people started listening, some in spite of his outrageous image, and quite a few more because of it. He broke up his band, the spiders from mars, and announced his retirement. The band learned about this while standing on stage behind him. Mr. Bowie, for all his genius, is not always a nice man.
In 1974 there was an album, “Diamond Dogs”, about the decadent urban life in the scifi future. A stage show based on this album…the source of the download mentioned above…marked a return to the concert stage. The next year gave us “Young Americans”, and the year after that “Station to Station”. Every year was a different sound and vision.
Meanwhile, the artist was not doing so good as a human being. According to all reports, he was doing mountains of cocaine. (There is a story of going to meet the parents of Ava Cherry, one of his girlfriends. He shows up at 3am, and does coke on the dining room table.) There was an interview in Playboy( or maybe it was Rolling Stone ) where the first thing he says is, don’t believe anything I say. He went on to say that he admired Adolf Hitler. Have we mentioned the physical appearance of David Bowie in 1975? He looked like he was dead, and nobody bothered to tell him.( By contrast, in recent photo collections of rock stars, Mr. Bowie looks pretty good for a man who is 63 y.o.)
This was the era of Rocky Horror show. At one point, Riff Raff sings ( Tim O’Brien wrote the show, and gave himself some darn good lines ) Frank n furter, it’s all over, your mission is a failure, your lifestyle’s too extreme.I’m your new commander you now are my prisoner we return to transylvania prepare the transit beam While this may not have been directed at David Bowie, he took the hint.
We interrupt this David Bowie tribute with an emergency announcement. The new orleans quarterback likes to make these silly little passes when he is in trouble. The falcons just intercepted one, and ran it back for a touchdown.
So David Bowie saw himself at a dead end, and possibly a dead life. He moved into a little apartment in West Berlin, on top of a garage. Brian Eno offered his assistance, and a series of electronic albums was the result. The next few years saw rock and roll, dance music, and finally, crap. PG bought a Bowie album in 1984, the first time he saw it on sale, and was immensely disappointed. The last David Bowie album that PG got was a free cd that was given to people buying a magazine.
Around 1981, MTV was born, and radio was suddenly obsolete. A visual artiste like David Bowie was a natural for video. Unfortunately, many of these videos are not available for embedding in blogs. Ashes to Ashes was a staple of early MTV. Boys Keep Swinging , off the “Lodger” album, is a return to the gender bender Bowie of younger days.
David Bowie continued to do tours, and PG got to see two of the shows. In 1987, something called the “Glass Spider Tour” came to the Omni. ( In a later interview, it turns out Mr. Bowie was extremely unhappy during this tour, and close to suicide at some points.) The Glass Spider was this mass of lighting effects that hovered over the stage, and was used to best advantage during “Scary Monsters”. The show featured Peter Frampton on guitar, and had a pack of dancers. ( One apparent female took her drag off during the finale.) A good time was had by all.
In 1990, another retirement tour came to the Omni. This one had movies projected on a screen behind the stage, and featured guitar hero Adrian Bellew. The night had the feel of a contractual obligation. David Bowie is too professional to give a bad show, but this one did not have the fire of “Glass Spider”. PG had a new set of contact lenses, and his eyes were painfully dry most of the night.

This is a repost.
Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Tag some others who might enjoy this. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Re-post as “my life according to (band name)”Pick your Artist: David Bowie
Are you a male or female: The Bewley Brothers
Describe yourself: Quicksand
How do you feel:Always crashing in the same car
Describe where you currently live: Life on Mars
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Width of a circle
Your favorite form of transportation: Queen Bitch
Your best friend is: Young Americans
You and your best friends are: Kooks
What’s the weather like: Changes
Favorite time of day: Eight Line Poem
If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Scary Monsters
What is life to you: Panic in Detroit
Your relationship: Fame
Your fear: Sound and Vision
What is the best advice you have to give:Somebody up there likes me
Thought for the Day: Hang onto yourself
How I would like to die: Ashes to Ashes
My soul’s present condition: Moonage Daydream
My motto: Andy Warhol

When you type world in the address bar of the browser here, the number one option is worldclassstupid . Written by a sixfooteight man in Brooklyn, wcs chronicles the world, and makes observations like “Virtue is its own reward.Vice can find a paycheck. “
On xmas day, World read a column in the New York Times about the top ten words for 2010. There were more than ten, which means a few were at the bottom, or off to the side. The post, titled ive-got-last… , focuses on three of these words.
mansplainer: A man compelled to explain or give an opinion about everything — especially to a woman. He speaks, often condescendingly, even if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about or even if it’s none of his business.sofalize: A marketing term created for people who prefer to stay home and communicate with others electronically.coffice: A coffee shop habitually used as an office by customers, who mooch its space, electricity, Wi-Fi and other resources.
Coffice sounds a lot like coffin. This may be one reason why starbucks is closing shops, to beat the last minute rush. Sofa lies could be untruths spoken in the living room. “He said he would put down the remote, but that is a sofalie”.
A look at the source shows a few more good words, as well as bad, and in between. The web version of this post has an ad for something called The Town, with a picture of nuns holding machine guns. Maybe it is the grammar police. Maybe the armed sisters should confiscate the vuvulezafrom the language. This plastic device was a soundtrack feature of the World Cup, and hopefully will be forgotten by 2012.
The list part of the post has 33 words, starting with Belieber( a Justin Bieber thing) and ending with weird (an acronym of Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. As Hunter S. Thompson noted, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro). They have groups, like pop culture, the oil spill, politics, and things.
A few of these phrases are worth noting. Star whacker is not related to Christine O’Donnell. It is a person who murders famous people, which is considered to be bad manners. Halfalogue is the overheard half of a phone conversation, frequently on a cell phone in public. Poutrageis outrage that is not to be taken seriously, because the pouter is not a serious person.
A certain celebrity, who will not be named, is given blame for mama grizzly and, of course, refudiate. PG saw a public performance by this overexposed celebrity, on behalf of a “mama grizzly” who wanted to be Governor of Georgia. The would be mama g, bless her heart, had the charisma of a doorknob, and lost in the runoff.
Enhanced airport paranoia gave us porno scanner and enhanced pat down. The certain celebrity had a few things to say about GZM, or ground zero mosque. Finally, the high point of the year may have been the morning a man saw a double rainbow. Pictures for this commentary are from The Library of Congress.