Music For Your Eyes

Some interesting musical video footage to be ogled at Music For Your Eyes...

Chuck Palmer's Incredibly Heterosexual "Hillbilly Holiday"

First saw this bizarre performance on Mr. Dante Fontana's Visual Guidance Ltd blog, and I had to go to YouTube to get it for the Listening Room.
It's the decidedly heterosexual Chuck Palmer and his equally lusty band the Rangers doing their ace rendition of "Hillbilly Holiday"...
Enjoy, music lovers and old-fashioned heterosexuals everywhere...

I Answer the Proust Questionnaire ...

Here are my answers to the Proust Questionairre...

- Your most marked characteristic? My heighth and body-build have been noted as being somewhat "imposing"

- The quality you most like in a man? A certain laid back, mellow ease

- The quality you most like in a woman? A free spirit and exceptional taste

- What do you most value in your friends? Loyalty, acceptance

- What is your principle defect? Emotional instability

- What is your favorite occupation? Making music

- What is your dream of happiness? Perfection within and without

- What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes? To somehow lose my wife and son

- What would you like to be? Happy with who I am in the moment

- In what country would you like to live? A newly established country on another planet

- What is your favorite color? I have often wondered if I am weird because I have never had a favorite color. They are all pretty pleasing, if you ask me, it all depends on context, right?

- What is your favorite flower? Likewise though I find most all flowers to be quite lovely, I would not go so far as to say that I have chosen a favorite.

- What is your favorite bird? Bats are pretty neat, but you just can't beat a peacock for gaudy scenery (If I were an eater of fowl I would have loved to give the following answer:
-What is your favorite bird?Chicken...fried, not baked.
Ha ha ha!

- Who are your favorite prose writers? Lester Bangs, John Updike, several more

- Who are your favorite poets? Charles Baudelaire, William Blake, Bob Dylan, Walt Whitman

- Who is your favorite hero of fiction? Andy Sipowicz

- Who is your favorite poster? There are a few, I wouldn't want to name just one

- Who are your favorite heroines of fiction? Aunt Bea

- Who are your favorite composers? Bach, Beethoven, Mozart...the usual suspects, as well as Glass, Reich and Stockhausen

- Who are your favorite painters? M.C. Escher, Salvador Dali, Man Ray

- Who are your heroes in real life? US Military, all firemen and most policemen, basically anyone who educates themselves for the sake of gaining wisdom and knowledge, whether they are successful as a result or not, they have enriched themselves on their own accord and that's worth emulating

- What is it you most dislike? A lot of the qualities I find in myself, I'm afraid. But I can't stand condescension, phoniness, excessive machismo, people who take too much for granted, a fightin' drunk...I don't like being talked down to nor do I appreciate false modesty.

- What natural gift would you most like to possess? Compassion

- How would you like to die? I'm not gonna die...But I'd like to leave this body behind while comfortably tucked into bed, eyes closed, lost in the middle of a heavenly dream...If I were feeling suicidal I would tell you that a lethal heroin overdose sounds wonderful...I'm NOT feeling suicidal, though, and I feel I should point out that I have never tried heroin nor do I ever intend to try it...unless, of course, I get suicidal and take the killer dose, which cannot really be classified as "trying heroin", since it's effectiveness will have rendered obsolete any future dabblings with the stuff. Beat it at it's own game...shoot it WANTING to die, then it can't really kill you, it can only deliver you to the afterlife...
Wow, that got a little bizarre...

- What is your present state of mind? Cluttered

- To what faults do you feel most indulgent? Procrastination

- What is your motto? I was not issued a motto at the time of my incubation and birthing period. I was born in a time before such motto placement had become mandatory. However, if I were to choose my OWN motto (ludicrous idea, that), it would probably be "Lord, Kill The Pain"

Beer, Barbecue and Bible study

In a world saturated with phoniness that often rears it's double-minded head within the ranks of those who profess to be Christians, it's refreshing to find a blog like Pauly's Beer, Barbecue and Bible Study. The author's introduction says it all:
Christianity is just about being real. We all have feelings, thoughts, wants, needs, lusts, desires, joys, sadness, likes, dislikes, opinions and ideas. God is familiar with all of them. I have always wanted to start a men's group in my home with the name "Beer, Barbecue and Bible Study". I'm not sure the church community is ready for it just yet.
Well, Pauly, the "church community" may not be ready for such integrity (and shame on 'em if they aren't) but personally I want to congratulate you for your candid introspection and your exceptional blogging (you make some nice crosses, too, I might add).
Check out Pauly's "About Me" entry:
I'm as screwed up and dysfunctional as the next guy. Thank God for grace. I like to write, I like to play, I am serious when I have to be. I prefer intelligent conversation and humor, and I think small talk is the pits. I think Jesus spent more time smiling and laughing than what we think. I'm 48 years old and facing my own mortality...I lost my Dad to cancer in 2004. I took it pretty hard, because we were close. I wound up in a deep introspective mode for quite a while...several months, as a matter of fact. I came to some conclusions: 1. There is a God, 2. I'm not Him, 3. I have a purpose. Those are the 3 biggies, but there's been a lot of life changing decisions I have made, most for the better. God's still working on me. I guess that's what these writings are all about.
Sounds like Pauly and I would have a lot to talk about...
Check out Beer, Barbecue and Bible Study.

Spazz Man

ArcadeNerds.Com - Spazz Man
One of the strangest things I've seen in a LONG time.

Bullet's Path

XM Satellite Radio Blogs

I've compiled a short list of XM Satellite Radio-related blogs. I thought there would be more out there, and maybe there are, but these are the ones I tracked down (these are literal blogs, by the way, not websites...otherwise I would have listed XMFan and the new XM411).
Can't vouch for the overall quality of these blogs, though a couple of them looked pretty well maintained. For the life of me I cannot figure out why the 90's on 9 has inspired it's own blog but not any of the other channels...
At any rate, here ya go, XM fans (and potential XM listeners):

XM Radio Buzz

XM Radio: The 90s On 9

| XM Living Blog | XM Living.com - Featuring XM Radio News, XM Forums, XM Living Blog, XM Radio Products and Reviews

? XM Radio News & Reviews: love xm radio (XM Radio Conversations) - News & Comments about XM Satellite Radio

This week on XM Radio - 05/15/06 - Beyondxm.com

From The Morning: Why People Hate Christians

I've been reading From The Morning for a long time now, and just came from reading his recent article about Why People Hate Christians...he's spot-on, in my opinion, about a lot of it. I just have to wonder how many people out there think that Christianity looks like what you see on the Trinity Broadcast Network and I just want to scream, IT'S NOT!
Then there are the times when you get involved in a conversation with another Christian and it turns out that this person buys into a great deal of the TBN BS. So you risk offending them when you speak your mind and criticize the heresy their buying into.
The Bible tells us to expect to be hated, darkness and light cannot dwell together...But I do wonder if people hate us for a legitimate reason (assuming there is one) or if they've even thought about why they have a negative reaction to us and what we believe...

Emptying My Photobucket

It's how I feel...why can't you leave me be? Who am I hurting?



Sad but true, there once was a time when I empathized with the guy in this famous Diane Arbus photograph (one of many favorites I have of her work).
No wait...who am I kidding? I was NEVER that dorky. I think I might have felt like I was at times...



I keep wanting to come up with a joke that associates the classic Abbey Road cover with the even more time honoured classic joke about Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? Alas, none of the results that I've so far come up with have produced even a modicum of entertainment value, so I won't bore you with them.



Here's the key to understanding the Karmic symbology utilized in this entertaining gif:
YOU are the one who is getting kicked...as such, YOU are also the one doing the kicking. Everything you do sends out shock waves that eventually come back to haunt you in one way or another. And it never ends, not in this life or the next...
Use that key and you will furthet enhance the humour value of an already very funny image...



Okay, that's it, boys and girlz...
Uncle JACkory is off to beddy-bye now.
Y'all come back now, ya hear...I'll have more of the same nonsense up in no time at all...

Dante Fontana and I: On The Same Wavelength...

I see I'm not the only one archiving favorite YouTube music videos on a blog...and furthermore, this Dante Fontana (what a cool name that is!) appears to have excellent taste in music, evidenced by his inclusion of Suicide's "Ghost Rider" as one of his selections. Well worth bookmarking, Mr. Dante Fontana's Visual Guidance LTD looks like it might just be worth keeping up with.
Other artists he's currently featuring include:
The Replacements
The Fall
The Ventures
Magazine
Rolling Stones (vintage, 1970's era)
Devo
Lou Reed w/ John Cale
Ultra-Vivid Scene
As you can see, an eclectic mix. Worthy of future investigations.

Truth or Dare

CLICK HERE TO WATCH Truth or Dare...
Funny, funny stuff.

The OFFICIAL Last Word on The DaVinci Code

Someone translate this text and e-mail it back to me at jackory69@yahoo.com
Lucky you...in landing on this blog you've stumbled upon the OFFICIAL FINAL WORD on The DaVinci Code...Can you handle it?
Okay, here it is:
We're all sick to death of hearing about it.
Those of us who have faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ have recognized it for what it is...the Gnostic heresy rearing it's ugly head in the 21st century. Those of us who regularly read the Bible know that it's already been addressed there and our faith is neither shaken nor threatened in any way by a movie/book that can't make up it's mind whether it wants to be taken as fiction or non-fiction. The Postmodernist dillemna played out for you right there, friends.
From what I've seen the critics are panning it left and right, so maybe the most memorable thing about it will prove to have nothing to do with it's "attacks on the church" but instead that it will go down in history as one of the few total failures ever produced by the likes of Ron Howard and Tom Hanks.
The albino community, I am told, is pissed at them, and with good reason, I believe. And yet DaVinci & Code are up there with American Idol and Natalee Holloway as "News Stories That Just Won't Go Away", a PR man's sweet dream, saving him time and money.
And that's about as much explanation you're gonna get out of me. Just respect me and hear me out when I say that the absolute FINAL WORD on anything remotely related to DaVinci Code is...
SICK TO DEATH OF IT ALL!
TIRED OF IT!
Leave it ALONE, see if it DIES!!!
Am I right, peoples?

? Insomnio ?

? Insomnio ?
I have no idea what any of this blog is about...don't even know what language it's written in. I only know that there's something about this photograph that just literally DOES IT for me...
I had to share.

Just like I have to share this:



Appreciate the wordplay on "Emerging", as in the Emegant/Emerging Church. No doubt these things really exist. O Mammon.
The Wittenburg Door

I defy anyone out there to stare at both of the following images for long periods of time without losing your mind, and if you can do that I need for you to tell me which is more mind-warping.

No Religion, Just Jesus

No Religion, Just Jesus...Yeah, I can sure get behind that.

Trickfan: A Cheap Trick Fan's Dream Blog

I personally know many people who think Cheap Trick were the best thing next to the Beatles. Okay, maybe not "many", but at least a couple, and these folks would find much to celebrate in Trickfan, a blog full of excellent quality photos of recent Xheap Trick gigs. I found it interesting.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yo, Stratman! You are dearly missed at Castaways. I just went back after a two month sabbatical.
I'm glads to know you check in every now and again. Hope you'll come back soon and often.

Monica Disappeared

Monica disappeared
She told me she might love me
I told her where to meet me
But when I got there
She was gone
Monica disappeared
I had become enraptured
By her cherubic face
Elfish, tomboy haircut
Mischievous smile
Law breaking smile
I should have known there was something lurking
Behind that smile
Some secret or some thing
Some One
Some lie she’d found herself caught in
Fly in a spider’s web, vulnerable
But it wasn’t hard to see
She was too hard to let anything hurt her
She might as well have hurt me
Monica disappeared
I never told you how
Her kisses left me breathless
The music of Cocteau Twins came alive
In her ethereal expressions
As our lips reluctantly let go of each other
Her sated smile told the story
Of happy endings and serendipity
The Fates had other plans
And maybe she knew it.
So somewhere in her heart or her head
She had conspired with the Great Unknown
To break my heart
And so she disappeared.

I seriously contemplated the possibility that something sinister had happened to Monica.Maybe she’d been killed, she did run with a rough crowd. Or kidnapped, hidden away in a madman’s basement, sold into oblivion.

Lost, flawed goddess?
The woman kept her fair share of secrets
And most likely a greater lot of lies she’d fed me
Cotton candy to a baby

Grim acceptance of the brutal reality
Brought home by her disappearance
And nailed shut by the knowledge

That I would never again, in my life,
Here and in the Great Beyond,
See her face, kiss her lips, relax in her embrace

Dance to Springsteen’s slow songs silently surrendered to sensuality and the staggered stagnation of sense and sensibility and I would drive all night just to buy her some smack…whatever she asked

Hear her voice, call her “mine”
Hear her voice call me “her’s”
Look into her eyes and wail and moan for the miles that separated us, sackcloth and ashes well worn in the years that followed
She’s as dead as if she’d stopped breathing
As if her heart had actually stopped beating.
The period for grief and mourning are long past
And yet I’m overcome by a tsunami

A Small Complaint About Keith Jarrett's Signature Hootin' & Howlin'

It's got to be noted...
Keith Jarrett is a phenomenal master of the jazz piano. His improvisations are playful bursts of fresh inspiration. Even when playing behind a soloist Jarrett's inventiveness refuses to be harnassed. His ivory-tickling is some of the tastiest in the genre.
But for all that it must also be said that Keith Jarrett makes some of the goofiest noises you're likely to hear as he's busting off the sweet riffage, to the point where it's almost impossible not to laugh. I'm not sure if that's a reaction he appreciates, but he should at least expect it.
His vocal ejaculations put me in mind of many things, few of which are the least bit pleasant.
For instance, immediately after twinkling a couple of ingenous trills over a mid-tempo groove he is likely to belt out an outcry remeniscent of an inebriated geriatric falling out of her wheelchair, moderately frightened (and frightening) but still happy as a clam as long as the tunes carry on.
I wonder if he makes these noises as some kind of test...like maybe he thinks his music is so damned good that noone's even gonna notice the gruntin'. On this point Mr. Jarrett would be in error.
I've also envisioned a crack smoking chimpanzee as I've listened to the squeals that emit from Jarrett's mouth as he becomes enraptured by the glory of it all.
One might wish to defend Jarrett's odd vocal mannerisms by pointing out that he is not the only globally recognized pianist with a mild case of Tourette's Syndrome---Glenn Gould also was quite inventive in the strangeness of his Bach-inspired glossolalia.
But that's just it, see?
When Gould grunted and groaned he sounded genuinely bizarre. It's an absurd experience hearing those weird sounds floating amidst the backdrop of the Goldberg Variations. Uncanny, I tell you, and not a little bit surreal.
But when Jarrett blurts his incomprehensible jibberish it sounds more like a clown with a head full of helium pointing at animals mating behinds cages in a zoo. Or maybe like a giant chicken walking across a hot stretch of asphalt pavement trying to get to the other side because that's just what chickens are paid to do.
The bottom line is that you simply cannot justify Keith Jarrett's annoyance factor by comparing it to the great Glenn Gould's similar proclivities.
Which all boils down to this one point:
Keith Jarrett would be well-served to put a muzzle on it. Yes, his virtuosity is astounding, but who notices talent when there's a sonic freak show trying to cut in?


Gotta love the Scottish bagpipe jig...gotta love the drone, like a cat with it's tongue frozen to an iced-over pole, makes you wanna throw on a skirt, get out in the middle of the floor and do a little hoe-down dance. You know, the kind that Jed and Granny Clampett used to do when Flatt and Scruggs came over for a visit and busted out a few bluegrass chesnuts.
You might as well.
You're alone. No need to get emberassed...
But somehow it's a sad truth that a bagpipe jig sounds woefully out of place without a pub full of friends to celebrate it with you.




This is ME when I was 11...
Okay, so it's NOT me, it's my son...
But it might as well be me.
He's got the look and the same taste in music...
Which is only partially true. Though he does share my fondness for the Beatles and classical music, he doesn't listen to much else yet. I'm sure he will. He's just now picking up the saxophone and I can help him learn to play that instrument, so I get a feeling he'll be getting into jazz.
Right now his current musical obsession is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. You don't have to believe me. Just check this out:
Tonight he stars in his 5th grade school musical in the lead role of Floyd, the "Phantom of the School Room" or something like that. It's a Phantom of the Opera knock-off, so he couldn't be happier. This is the third year in a row he's had leading parts in his school plays. He is a little ham, though.
The part this year required that he learn to play a few pieces on piano, chief of which is Beethoven's "Fur Elise", which he has quite mastered. He makes up his own melodies and songs and also likes to write short stories about his NeoPets. Quite a remarkably talented kid if I must say so myself.

"Ariel Besieged" from Bipolar Confessional

You'd be surprised at how much traffic this board actually gets...
Unfortunately an extraordinary amount of visits I get here are people looking for a photo of Alison Angel that I once posted while in a daring, cavalier mood... a mood that was not to last long, and the photo has been long gone.
Still, the matrix tells the folks who are looking for this particular shot of Angel through the Google search engine that it can be found here. I'm sure the vast majority, when they realize that no pics of the lovely Alison are forthcoming, leave this blog without reading anything.
I don't blame 'em... I mean, have you seen Alison Angel?
But no, guys, you won't find 'em here anymore. Sorry. Don't know what I was thinking.

I just finished reading a book called A Layman's Guide to Protestant Theology that I found immensely enjoyable and thought-provoking. I was especially intrigued with the theology of Karl Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (whose The Cost of Discipleship I read and enjoyed some months ago). I would like to read up on those guys... it's too bad the library in this small town is so chincy. They have Benny Henn but nothing by Niebuhr or Barth. Sad, I know.

Anyhoo, here's a poem that I wrote a few hours ago and just published in the Bipolar Confessional...figured I'd share it here as well. Perhaps one of Ms. Angel's fans might find in it some consolation at not getting the photo:


Ariel Beseiged

Speak to me from the ground
O Ariel, beseiged
You have been brought low
By the hand of the One
You once called "Beloved"
Speak, Ariel
Your voice ghostlike
Whispering out of the dust
His strategy was impenetrable
His siege works,
Year to year,
Crushed.

I hear thunder, loud clashes that echo in the stillness of this muggy, humid night, thirsty for rain, soon quenched, the hammer of Thor strikes like the flogging of a condemned man, back broken, beseiged
The earth cannot hold back it'e excitement at my coming...it shakes and quakes and re-arranges itself giving no consideration to the masses displaced on a whim, Behold, it's EARTHQUAKES I prophecy.
Great noise awesome ear-blistering cacophony the likes of which have not been heard since the advent of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless album, loud and bottom heavy, windstorm and tempest.
Let's re-cap: Thunder. Earthquake. Great noise...and to crown it all with glory:
Flames of devouring fire.
Imagine your destiny being as one condemned to the custody of flames of devouring fire.
I am NOT making light of this.
These flames and their intensity
Demand to be taken seriously
And so shall it be, amen, Selah and Shalom
These flames, this whole Apocalypse Now set-up
It's for all those you call "enemy"
Ariel
It's for all those who call you "enemy"
Ariel, but woe to you
I have already crushed them into fine dust
Like chaff blown by the wind
(But no answer there, my friend)
The ruthless hordes have scattered.
And the word came down:
Those who fight against my altar hearth
Stunned, amazed
Sightless, you will blind yourselves
Drunk and staggering
But the wine and beer aren't to be blamed
This euphoria is straight from the one called Yahweh
Who has now sealed the eyes of the prophets
And covered the heads of the seers.

May 17 2006 on Isaiah 29

Ariel Besieged

Speak to me from the ground
O Ariel, besieged
You have been brought low
By the hand of One
You once called "Beloved"
Speak, Ariel
Your voice ghostlike
Whispering out of the dust
His strategy was impenetrable
His siege works,
Year to year,
Crushed.

I hear thunder, loud clashes that echo in the stillness of this muggy, humid night, thirsty for rain, soon quenched, the hammer of Thor strikes like the flogging of a condemned man, back broken, besieged
The earth cannot hold back it's excitement at my coming...it shakes and quakes and re-arranges itself giving no consideration to the masses displaced on a whim
Behold, it's EARTHQUAKES I prophecy.
A great noise
Awesome ear-blistering cacophony the likes of which have not been heard
Loud and bottom heavy, windstorm and tempest.
Flames of devouring fire.
Their intensity
Demands to be taken seriously
And so shall it be, amen, Selah and Shalom
These flames, this whole Apocalypse Now set-up
It's for all those you call "enemy"
Ariel
It's for all those who call you "enemy"
Ariel,
But woe to you
I have already crushed them into fine dust
Like chaff blown by the wind
(But no answer there, my friend)
The ruthless hordes have scattered.
And the word came down:
You who fight against my altar hearth
Stunned, amazed
Sightless, for you will blind yourselves
Drunk and staggering
But the wine and beer are not to be blamed
This euphoria is straight from the one they once called Yahweh
Who has now sealed the eyes of the prophets
And covered the heads of the seers