Egypt Station - A Review

Paul McCartney is not my favorite Beatle. That honor goes to the late George Harrison. For that matter, I'm not sure if he's even my favorite living Beatle. He and Yoko may be in a tie for 2nd place.

When I first heard that McCartney had released a new work - Egypt Station - I wasn't really all that interested in listening to it. It wasn't until after reading of his embarrassing escapade as described in Vanity Fair, that I had a desire to give the new album a listen. I thought, if McCartney felt that getting the word out that he had a new album was worth telling a story about a Lennon/McCartney group masturbation episode, then I'd check out the album on Spotify.

I thought, no matter how embarrassing the music is, it can't be as embarrassing as his pre-Beatle circle jerk session story.

I've listened to the album twice on Spotify. No, the album isn't horrible. Some of the songs are pleasant enough, but if you're looking for a memorable tune, look somewhere else. There's really nothing new - we've heard all this before. There are no surprises. No Lady Madonna, Hey Jude, Yesterday or even Helter Skelter.

These songs might have been passable had they been written forty-five years ago, but in 2018, the entire album is a stale, warmed over vanilla pudding.

After listening to the album for the 2nd time, I had to rinse the vanilla from my brain by filling it with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's Lick my Decals off, Baby. That certainly did the trick.

All Things Must Pass

On November 27, fortysix years ago, in 1970 when I was a mere 18 year old whippersnapper, George Harrison realeased his solo album, All Things Must Pass.
From the wikipedia article on the LP:
"According to Colin Larkin, writing in the 2011 edition of his Encyclopedia of Popular Music, All Things Must Pass is 'generally rated' as the best of all the former Beatles' solo albums".

I would go one step further, I would consider it the best of all the former Beatles solo or group albums. I consider it better than any Beatle LP.
Period.

The Dumbest Thing I've Ever Read on the Internet.

And that's saying a lot.

From The Guardian:  Imagine: Canadian dentist hopes to clone John Lennon using tooth DNA.

"A Canadian dentist is hoping to clone John Lennon using DNA from one of the singer's rotten teeth. Michael Zuk, who bought Lennon's molar at a 2011 auction, has begun sequencing the former Beatle's DNA."

Doesn't Zuk know that John Lennon has reincarnated?

Yoko Ono awards Lady Gaga LennonOno Grant for Peace.

Setting aside her tin-foil hat and replacing it with a black fedora, Yoko Ono presented the LennonOno Grant for Peace to Lady Gaga in Reykjavik, Iceland just days after Gaga gagged and vomited onstage in Barcelona.

According to an article published at the Huffington Post, Yoko said that "Lady Gaga is a power singer and songwriter that has used her strong position to correct prejudice."

I know I, for one, feel so much safer.

Music.

For the most part, folks seem to develop their tastes in music at a young age. Sadly, it appears that most people don't allow their musical tastes to evolve. I see far too many people from my generation reminiscing about the music that appealed to them during their teen years.

OK, I get it. It's nice to listen to those old Beatle songs, the beach music or the psychedelic music of the 1960's occasionally, but can't we give it a break? There is an overwhelming abundance of music out there from other times and places.



This is the great thing about Spotify. I have access to a universe of wonderful music, a good portion of it new to me. Traditional Japanese and Chinese music, Haydn string quartets, early Jazz and Blues, ....... you can even listen to Old Fart Music if you're so inclined.

My "new find" of the week is the hammer dulcimer work of Joshua Messick. It's not the sort of music you can dance to; it's unlikely it would have been rated highly on American Bandstand , but that's a positive,right?

3 1/2 Time-Outs Tuesday - the Recycled Edition.

Not knowing that LarryD had left the country last week, I posted a 3 1/2 Time Outs Tuesday. Since I was the only one to do so, I figure I can get by this week simply re-posting last Tuesday's post. One difference this week......I'm gonna wait until Larry posts his.

Update: When I re-posted this here, I had no idea that today is the 42nd anniversary of the Beatles' break-up. Coincidence?

1)
According to this story at The Smoking Gun, a 47 year old woman in Florida was arrested for prostitution for agreeing to have sex with an undercover cop in exchange for 2 double cheese burgers off the dollar menu at McDonald’s.

The arrest occurred on a Friday.......yet another reason to avoid eating meat on Fridays. Perhaps she might have been OK had the cops been out on Meat Free Mondays.

2)
Speaking of Paul McCartney (you did click on the link above, right?)
Sons of 3 of the Beatles are up for forming a band. Haven't sighed up either of Ringo's kids yet.

They should know their effort isn't necessary. After all the 2 dead Beatles have already reincarnated and will be, huh, stiff competition.

3)
It's being reported that Obama's accusing Romney of having ties to Big Oil. And as we all know, Big Oil Offed John Lennon. Doesn't this all tie in so well?

1/2
The European Court of Justice has ordered a Dutch wheelchair manufacturer to stop calling one of their electric models the 'Beatle'. The court said that many baby boomers might now be in the market for a wheelchair and might therefore be susceptible to such [false] advertising.

Three and one half Time Outs Tuesday - the Beatles edition.

LarryD may have forgotten that today is 3 1/2 Time Outs Tuesday but I haven't.

1)
According to this story at The Smoking Gun, a 47 year old woman in Florida was arrested for prostitution for agreeing to have sex with an undercover cop in exchange for 2 double cheese burgers off the dollar menu at McDonald’s.

The arrest occurred on a Friday.......yet another reason to avoid eating meat on Fridays. Perhaps she might have been OK had the cops been out on Meat Free Mondays.

2)
Speaking of Paul McCartney (you did click on the link above, right?)
Sons of 3 of the Beatles are up for forming a band. Haven't sighed up either of Ringo's kids yet.

They should know their effort isn't necessary. After all the 2 dead Beatles have already reincarnated and will be, huh, stiff competition.

3)
It's being reported that Obama's accusing Romney of having ties to Big Oil. And as we all know, Big Oil Offed John Lennon. Doesn't this all tie in so well?

1/2
The European Court of Justice has ordered a Dutch wheelchair manufacturer to stop calling one of their electric models the 'Beatle'. The court said that many baby boomers might now be in the market for a wheelchair and might therefore be susceptible to such [false] advertising.

No Imagination.

Note to J. Anderson Thomson and Clare Aukofer-

If you're going to try and convince us that your opinions on God are worth considering, do not quote John Lennon.....particularly not his overrated tripe "Imagine".

Regular readers of this blog are aware of my opinion of Mr Lennon.

Seriously. Take a look at the song's lyrics -

"Imagine there's no Heaven
it's easy if you try
No Hell below us
above us only sky......."

This is what passes for genius?

John Lennon ......a Less Than Favorable Memorial.

As a consequence of the Obama recession, I've found myself obliged to put in the occasional 16 hour work day. By occasional, I mean two or three days a week. Naturally, while working these 16 hour days, I've had little time or inclination to write posts for this blog.

Had I not been working this schedule, I might very well have written something on John Lennon commemorating the 30th anniversary of his death on December 8th. Perhaps that's just as well; I have long since lost any love or admiration I may have once had for the late celebrity.

In a previous post [Goo Goo Ga Joob.] I mentioned that my favorite version of Lennon's I am the Walrus was the version done by Frank Zappa. The Beatle's recording of the song was the brain child of producer George Martin; Lennon could never had done the song in a live performance as Zappa had done. Zappa's treatment is especially ironic considering the bad blood between Zappa and Lennon over John and Yoko's "performing" (I use that term loosely) with the Mothers of Invention at the Fillmore East in 1971. Recordings were made of the concert with Lennon releasing portions of the collaboration on his Some Time in New York City LP. - The release of the recordings by Lennon was in contraction to an agreement he had made with Zappa. Adding insult to injury, Lennon took writing credit for Zappa's King Kong which Zappa had previously recorded on his album from 1969, Uncle Meat.

I know my low opinion of John Lennon is not a popular one.....particularly with my fellow members of the Baby Boomer generation. True, the music of the Beatles was an important influence, back in the day. Hopefully, as we grow older, we also grow as individuals. I've gone from being in awe of the Fab Four, to indifference, to downright hostility to much of what John Lennon represented.

His assassination was, indeed a tragedy. However, over the years I've come to believe that, had a poll been taken during the Beatles' heyday, which asked the question, "Which Beatle do you believe is the one most likely to be assassinated?" we all know who would have been the....huh.....winner.

Goo Goo Ga Joob.

For reasons I can't quite comprehend, Pandora Radio has determined that, no matter what sort of "station" I create, a John Lennon tune is, apparently, appropriate.

Today, while listening to acoustic, folk music, the Beatles song , "I am the Walrus" came up. How that might relate to the type of music I had been hearing was beyond me.

Internet surfing, I'm surprised at the number of versions of "I am the Walrus" have been done.
My favorite is Zappa's take on it, but then again, I can have off-the-wall musical tastes.

Some of the other versions really blow my mind.

What could have possessed Bono to do this?

Perhaps we should have a contest.......hum......who has done the worst version of "I am the Walrus"?

Oasis?
Jim Carrey?
The Beatles?
this guy?
this kid?
the ukulele version ?

I believe we have a winner.

Goo Goo Ga Joob.

Hey, Paul......You Can Kiss Mine, As Well.

There really isn't much point in my writing a post on Paul McCartney's recent insult of George W.Bush ...... other bloggers have beaten me to the punch.
( see Paul McCartney, I.Q.’s and The Obama Mystique and Hey Paul McCartney--Kiss my ass! )

I will, however, post this wonderful photo of Sir Paul.

Meat Free Mondays.

Well known vegetarian and former Beatle, Paul McCartney traveled (by jet) to a European Parliament meeting in Brussels earlier this month to help in the battle against global warming. There are many in the global warming religious movement who argue that meat production produces far more greenhouse gasses than our use of the internal combustion engine. Some believe that worldwide food production creates 30% of all green gasses - with half coming from meat production.

McCartney says that if we all went without meat one day a week, we could save the planet from destruction. That's where the idea of Meat Free Monday comes from. (Heaven forbid that they'd pick Friday as the one day to abstain).

To help further the cause, McCartney has this video on his support meat free Monday website. Those of you who remember the days when Paul McCartney could write something worth listening to might not want to view this video.....it's not for the squeamish.



For more disgusting Meat Free Monday songs, go
here, - there and everywhere.

There is no Free Lunch.

In July of 2007, I did a series of satirical blog post using "phony" websites I had created and put online via the personal web pages (PWP) provided by my ISP. I made "news" sites, Canadian govt website and a Canadian Communist Party website.
Then, my ISP (Comcast) changed the format of the PWPs. You can still see the old pages, but I could not make new ones with the same creative freedom as before. I had to find a new website that gave free hosting....I thought I had found one called 12gbfree.com.
I created a few pages....news pages of Britney Spears marrying Bud Tugley and Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison reincarnating.
I guess 12gbfree went out of business because my pages cannot be accessed and the 12gbfree home page isn't available.
I have plenty of storage on my dumaguetecity.net website....I've decided to recreate the lost pages and store them there.
Here are some examples:
AL man wins GA lotto.
Dead Beatles Reincarnate.
Yoko to Taykastan.

Original blog posts:
http://sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com/2008/04/dead-beatles-reincarnate.html
http://sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com/2008/04/yoko-ono-travels-to-taykustan.html

A li'l help from me friends.

In a post from Monday, [That moment just before the pain begins.....] I published photos sent to me in an email from my friend, Mickey.
Today, I'm posting a YouTube video sent to me from my friend, Lowell.

How Big Oil Offed John Lennon.

I'm not able to listen to Rush Limbaugh's radio program as often as I'd like......usually only on the way to take J.P. to the baby sitter and then on to work.
Sometimes, like yesterday, I get lucky and can hear something really out of the ordinary during that brief time period.
Just before 2:00 o'clock yesterday, I listened as a self described liberal caller told of Big Oil's role in the assassination of Beatle John Lennon. The caller explained how Big Oil.....through it's agents, Reagan and Nixon....used Stephen King to kill Lennon because they (Big Oil) realized that had Lennon lived to 2003 he would have been able to prevent the current Iraq war, which Big Oil desperately needs to help keep gasoline prices high.
Here is the transcript of that call:

RUSH: Here is Ken in Brooklyn. Ken, welcome to the EIB Network, sir. You're next.

CALLER: Nice to be on your show, Rush, thanks.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: You know, for once I agree with something you said.

RUSH: What's that?

CALLER: I'm a typical, you know, quote, unquote, liberal. That we should open up more refineries and produce more, not drill more, not go into ANWR, not do a lot of things, but produce more, yeah.

RUSH: Well, how are we going to produce more? How are we gonna refine more if we don't have more to refine?

CALLER: Well, it goes back to the merger I think a year ago with the two biggest oil companies merging, made the biggest corporate merger in history. We have to realize that the man behind the curtain in our government is Big Oil. They own presidents; they rig elections; they are in complete control; they are aligned with the military. In fact, every time a war breaks out, gas spikes 50 cents a gallon.

RUSH: Hm-hm.

CALLER: And we have to deregulate. I mean, we have to unmonopolize the oil business. We have to not be under their thumb and not, you know, be the people ignoring the shoes and the cuffs behind the curtains, we have to stand up to Big Oil.

RUSH: Hm-hm.

CALLER: Now, that doesn't mean not producing more petroleum refineries.

RUSH: Uh-huh.

CALLER: But I think we're being strong-armed by Big Oil with high gas prices --

RUSH: Hm-hm.

CALLER: -- to make us say uncle for ANWR.

RUSH: Hm-hm. What do you mean, uncle for ANWR? What do you mean?

CALLER: I think they're raising the prices to make us cry "ouch."

RUSH: So that they can grab more oil to monopolize us with?

CALLER: So that they'll ply us away from resisting ANWR.

RUSH: I see, the lights are going off now. So this is all a ruse to get us to drill for more oil so we'll have even more monopolistic control over us?

CALLER: Pretty much, yeah.

RUSH: Okay. So you think Big Oil is pretty much unregulated, they get to do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it?

CALLER: Well, did anyone see a trial for John Lennon's murder? They own the media.

RUSH: I see your point.

CALLER: And, by the way, did you know Bill Clinton met with Stephen King in the mid-nineties in the White House?

RUSH: Stephen King or Stevie Wonder?

CALLER: Author Stephen King --

RUSH: Stephen King.

CALLER: -- and Bill Clinton met.

RUSH: That's right, I forgot, damn it, you're right.

CALLER: And Nixon and Reagan used him to kill John Lennon.

RUSH: Well, you can't leave Stephen King out of this.
CALLER: No, he's the evil ogre that haunts us in the middle of our dreams.

RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Nixon and Reagan used Stephen King to wipe out Lennon --

CALLER: (plug)

RUSH: -- and Monday Night Football so that Cosell would be able to announce the assassination.

(crosstalk)

CALLER: Like the Roman arena. And we never did see a trial.

RUSH: No, but I mean the lunatic that shot Lennon got sent up.

CALLER: A year-and-a-half after the murder he pled guilty behind closed doors. There was no trial.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: Yoko didn't complain. She used Nixon as the ace-in-the-hole.

RUSH: And Big Oil was behind this?

CALLER: Well, Big Oil wants that oil, and they knew John Lennon was the one thing that would have stood up to this war and united the public against it.

RUSH: John Lennon would stand up to which war?

CALLER: This war we're in right now. They had to plan 20 years ahead --

RUSH: You mean Big Oil working with Nixon and Reagan and Stephen King wiped out John Lennon back in, what was it, the seventies?

CALLER: 1980, December --

RUSH: 1980.

CALLER: On Jim Morrison's birthday, 1980.

RUSH: That's right. No coincidence there, either, is there?

CALLER: No.

RUSH: So you have 24 years ago Nixon and Reagan conspiring with Stephen King to convince some idiot to go out and waste Lennon because they --

CALLER: No, no, no, no, no. Stephen King --

RUSH: Well, because they knew 24 years later we'd be in Iraq, and only John Lennon could stop it?

CALLER: That's right.

RUSH: Okay!

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, that last caller, what was that last caller's name? Ken from Brooklyn. He was right about two things. He was right when he said that we haven't built a refinery in too many years, and he was really right when he said he was a typical liberal. I, ladies and gentlemen, had planned on offering -- because he was talking about oil and pollution -- I was going to give him a Rush PAC. I was going to give him a Rush PAC from Allen Brothers, great steaks and hamburgers and hotdogs, I was going to give him one of those just to be nice, but I gave up the plan halfway through the call because I figured all the guy would do is take it out and lay it at the grave of John Lennon and who knows what would happen to it then, so I decided against it.
END TRANSCRIPT

Yoko Ono Travels to Taykustan.

I'm not one to toot my own horn,but I have to report that after having read my blog entry Dead Beatles reincarnate and the subsequent I.N.N. story, Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono has announced that she will travel to meet the boy claimed to be the incarnation.
You can find a link to that I.N.N. story here- Yoko To Taykustan.

Dead Beatles Reincarnate.

There was a press conference held in Taykustan, yesterday, where holy man Hasunt ben Essay announced the return of dead Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison.
Ben Essay claims that the two souls have reincarnated and that he knows their where-abouts.
As usual, I.N.N. is ahead of the curve and has the story online.
A link to the I.N.N. story can be found here. Dead Beatles Return.

Update: Yoko to Taykustan.

Adios, Mr. Clarke.

It was the early 1970's and having been raised on T.V. , Beatles and the American public school system, my friend Dave and I were like so many of our generation....."progressive", "intellectual" and all too ready to abandon Western culture and civilization.
We were Buddhists; or, at least, believed ourselves to be.
We didn't actually practice Buddhism so much as read about it.
I bring this up because the recent passing of Arthur C. Clarke reminded of something from that time in my life. I wasn't a big fan of the genre, but I did like to read a Sci-Fi book occasionally.My friend, Dave, however, loved the stuff. I asked him to recommend his favorite Arthur C. Clarke novel.
Being the Buddhaphile I was, I heard his reply as "Childhood Zen." I was a bit shocked when I finally came across a copy and learned the title was really "Childhood's End."
I've always liked my title better.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Dies.

I was driving around town yesterday morning-paying bills-when I heard on the radio that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had died in Holland at the age of 91.
He was the founder of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement. He was made famous in the late 1960's when the Beatles and a crowd of other celebrities became his pupils.
I studied TM myself in the mid 70's. I drifted away from the movement when I realized that the TM technique was essentially no different then the meditation techniques taught in several disciplines and there was no need to pay to learn to meditate.The technique is pretty much the same as the one described in the Bhagavad Gita and The Cloud of the Unknowing.
On the plus side, I'd say that he was very influential in making meditation more commonplace in the West. But, on the negative side, he amassed a vast fortune and most of what he taught should have been given away for free.