Waiting...

A soundtrack.

Sweet Homie El Obama

Mi amigo, y el gran poeta, Urayoán Noel, from Puerto Rico, and now up in Albany. Re-mixing Lynyrd Skynyrd, as only Ura can do, in benefit of Barack Obama.

Seems a good video for Election eve.

Yma Sumac Ascends

Yma Sumac, 'Peruvian songbird' with multi-octave range, dies at 86 (Los Angeles Times)

"It takes only a fraction of a second to succumb to her unique voice." - Bruce Springsteen.



"At night in my bedroom I hear the whoo-whoo of the little birds and I hear the dogs barking very sad. That's what I put in my records. I don't bark bow-wow, but I bark whoo, and I sing like the birdies." - Yma Sumac

Yma Sumac, 86; Postwar Sensation Had Unique Voice. (Washington Post)

h/t Liam.

Gabba Gabba Hey

MONDAY MORNING MADNESS.

Hat tip to Darren.

ALTERNATIVE GABBA GABBA

ORIGINAL & AUTHENTIC GABBA GABBA

Happy Halloween

Hoping your pumpkin patch is the most sincere. . . .

And that you don't get any rocks when you go trick-or-treating.

The Danger of Sarah Palin

I'm going to try this again.

The latest issue of The New Yorker features a good article by Connie Bruck, "Odd Man Out," about Chuck Hagel, the Republican Senator from Nebraska.

While Democrats may know Hagel for his opposition to the war in Iraq, and for accompanying Barack Obama on a trip to Baghdad in July, they may not realize that he's still very close friends with John McCain and served as Co-Chair of McCain's presidential campaign in 2000. It must be especially galling, then, for McCain to read what his friend has to say about the woman he chose as his running mate.

Hagel may be the only senior Republican elected official who has publicly criticized McCain’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. “I don’t believe she’s qualified to be President of the United States,” Hagel told me. “The first judgment a potential President makes is who their running mate is—and I don’t think John made a very good selection.”

For Hagel, almost as disturbing as Palin’s lack of experience is her willingness—in disparaging remarks about Joe Biden’s long Senate career, for example—to belittle the notion that experience is important. “There’s no question, she knows her market,” Hagel said. “She knows her audience, and she’s going right after them. And I’ll tell you why that’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because you don’t want to define down the standards in any institution, ever, in life. You want to always strive to define standards up. If you start defining standards down—‘Well, I don’t have a big education, I don’t have experience’—yes, there’s a point to be made that not all the smartest people come out of Yale or Harvard. But to intentionally define down in some kind of wild populism, that those things don’t count in a complicated, dangerous world—that’s dangerous in itself.

Marvin Gaye on the Election

Marvin had three Top-Ten singles from his great 1971 album What's Going On, and two more Top-Ten hits with "Trouble Man" in 1972, and "Let's Get It On" six months later.

In between, however, he released a two-part single called "You're the Man," which, unfortunately, didn't do that well, reaching only #50 on the pop charts. Originally intended as the title track for a full album, the project was eventually scrapped when the single didn't do well and the offer came up to work on the Trouble Man soundtrack.

The song more or less vanished for the next 23 years. Not until the 1995 box set, The Master, 1961-1984, did the complete version re-appear. (It's also available now as a bonus track on the CD of Let's Get It On.)

Too bad, because it might be one of Marvin's best songs. Released during the tumultuous 1972 presidential campaign that featured Richard Nixon running for re-election against George McGovern, "You're the Man" offers some stinging lyrics about the plight of African-Americans under the Nixon administration, as well as anger at all of the empty promises made to blacks by white politicians. That anger powers some of Marvin's most emotional and riveting singing, especially in the last part of the song.

I wish he were still around to see what was happening now. How would he react to Barack Obama and this election?


(Marvin Gaye/Kenneth Stover)

Talkin', talkin' to the people
Tryin' to get them to go your way
Tellin' us not to worry
That we won't be led astray
So blind, unsignified
Your opponents always lying
Think about the mistakes you make
I believe America's at stake
You know, busin', busin' is the issue
Do you have plan with you?
If you have a plan
If you have a master plan
Got to vote for you
Hey hey, got to vote for you
You're the man

We don't wanna hear no more lies
About how you plan to economize
We want our dollar value increased
And employment to rise
The nation's taxation
Is causin' all, all this inflation
Don't give us no peace sign
Turn around and rob the people blind
Economics is the issue
Do you have a plan with you?
'Cause if you've got a master plan
Got to vote for you
You're the man

[8 times, over scat singing:]
Don't you understand?
There's misery in the land

People marching on Washington
Better hear what they have to say
'Cause the tables just might turn against you, brother
Set around Election Day
Politics and hypocrites
Is turning us all into lunatics
Can you take the guns from our sons?
Right all the wrongs this administration has done?
Peace and freedom is the issue
Do you have a plan with you?
If you've got a plan
If you've got a master plan
Got to vote for you
Hey hey, got to vote for you
'Cause you're the man

[Repeat and fade:]
Got to vote for you

A Gershwin Friday: I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'

Don't panic! Barack Obama Sammy Davis Jr. analyzes the global economic meltdown and tells you how to survive the crisis. Forget Paulson - Sammy's going with the Gershwin Plan.



I got plenty of nothing
And nothing's plenty for me
I got no car - got no mule
I got no misery

Folks with plenty of plenty
They've got a lock on the door
'Fraid somebody goin' to rob 'em
While there out (a) making more - what for?

I got no lock on the door
That's no way to be
They can steal the rug from the floor
That's OK with me
'Cause the things that I prize
Like the stars in the skies - are all free

I got plenty of nothing
And nothing's plenty for me
I got my gal - got my song
Got heaven the whole day long
No use complaining

Got my gal - got my Lord - got my song

I ain't a-frettin 'bout hell
'Till the time arrives
I'll never worry long as I'm well
Never one to strive
To be good, to be bad
What the hell
I am glad I'm alive

I got plenty of nothing
And nothing's plenty for me
I got my gal - got my song
Got heaven the whole day long
Man, there's no use complaining

Got my gal - got my Lord - got my song

"I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'"
from Porgy and Bess
Music by George Gershwin.
Lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward.

How Democracy Works in New York

Over a million people in the City of New York voted for term limits for their Mayor and City Council members.

Not once but TWICE!

And the measure passed easily both times: 59%-41% in 1993, and 54%-46% in 1996.

One billionaire mayor decides he doesn't like the term limits.

Twenty-nine sycophantic City Councilmen say, "That's okay, you can run again. What do the idiot voters know anyway?"

At a time when many people are trying to move beyond their well-earned cynicism towards the political process in the United States, Michael Bloomberg lays a big steaming turd in the punch-bowl of Democracy.

So, go ahead, drink up. Isn't this the change you wanted?

If we're really lucky, George W. Bush will ask the Supreme Court to get rid of the term limit for presidents.

Don't think this is what Democracy looks like? Let the Monarch Mayor and City Council know. Even if you're not in New York. In fact, especially if you're not in New York. Because, in the end, this isn't about Bloomberg or New York or term limits. It's about respecting the democratic process.

Contact the Monarch: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

Contact Christine C. Quinn, Speaker of the New York City Council, who helped win over the necessary clowns for Boss Tweed. (Click on "Contact Speaker Quinn" for an email form.)

The Undecided Voter

How can anyone be an "undecided voter" at this point of the election? In this week's New Yorker, David Sedaris contemplates these people:

“Who are they?” the news anchors ask. “And how might they determine the outcome of this election?”

Then you’ll see this man or woman— someone, I always think, who looks very happy to be on TV. “Well, Charlie,” they say, “I’ve gone back and forth on the issues and whatnot, but I just can’t seem to make up my mind!” Some insist that there’s very little difference between candidate A and candidate B. Others claim that they’re with A on defense and health care but are leaning toward B when it comes to the economy.

I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?