Amanda Knox: JailBait, or JailBreak??

(jail)BREAKING NEWS
Amanda Knox's prior conviction just overturned!
(--> USA wins again! <--)


Live Motörhead: "Jailbait"
You can download the studio version here

Here are the headlines that I've come up with so far:
"Foxy Knoxy Bounced From Box"
"Foxy Knox Walks Free From Cell Blocks"

Note that at about 4:15 in above video, Motörhead also plays their song "America." It's about how you can't get good meth in Canada; you have to bring it up from the USA for any proper Canadian tour.
As I said: AMERICA wins again!

OR, you can celebrate her freedom with the Irish rather than the British.


Live Thin Lizzy- "Jailbreak"
And you can download (a non-live version of) the above track here

This song title is a bit more accurate as a descriptor of Knox, yeah?, since jailbait causes, rather than suffers, jailtime. Of course, her boyfriend also went to jail... well, he's her ex-boyfriend now... and he's been freed too.

So I'm not sure if she can qualify for "jailbait" status-
What do you think?

Na Woo Woo, Nuh Ow Ow: Pro Baseball, Pro Edition

Did you know that currently, only 4 Major League baseball teams lack a mascot? (MGX indicated this to me.) The Cubs, of Chicago, Illinois, are one of these four teams. However, they do have a sort of unofficial mascot. Well, really, he's a superfan: one Ronnie "Woo-Woo". So called because he's prone to shouting "woo".



Download Wilson Pickett's "Land of 1,000 Dances"

So, this Wilson Pickett song may have a "woo or two" in it. It definitely has some "huh", "ow", "uh" action. And it has the famous
"na, na na na, na nuh na na nuh na nana"
starting about :35. You know, what they play at baseball games all the time.

(Do they play music at pro football games? Could you even hear it outside? If not, how do the players get pumped up- other than steroids?)

Ronnie "Woo Woo"'s been attending games from about 1959, which is before my mother was born (hey Ma!).
While his demeanor and devotion to attendance have gained him fame in the Greater ChicagoLands area, his life has not been all sun and roses: no, far from it. He's been homeless (but still attended games, thanks to generous other parties), and later, a fundraiser was held for him so he could get a new pair of dentures.

Poor guy was born prematurely, which shows you: he's a fighter, he's always been a fighter.

He was even struck by a car outside the game once, and had to go to a Masonic hospital, which would frighten me.
What if they make you join up?
Or, worse, what if you ask to join, but they become cryptic all of the sudden, and then your pain meds start getting reduced, and you know, it gets pretty painful. All this, simply because you wanted a sweet ring like these:







Or, mayhaps, this is the ring you always wanted :

Tell the World I Feel Proud About 'Cha

To force a smile onto your face, a handful of reasons for minor celebration in Philadelphia this week:

1) You can now stream (at www.tsopsoulradio.com), all hours and all days, the famed "Sound of Philadelphia".

The Sound of Philadelphia (aka TSOP) is associated almost entirely with Gamble and Huff and their label Philadelphia International Records (aka PIR).


Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, "Tell the World How I Feel About 'Cha Baby"

Philadelphia International Records, of which I have spoken to you before, is proudly displaying their archives, like a musical peacock.

Some of this stuff, I imagine, is otherwise only available on vinyl or even 8-track.
I have already streamed it on my IPhone; it was easy. I had to download an app called Shoutcast, which lets you stream podcasts on a smartphone, more or less.

This is all part of a big push to re-release and promote the great catalog of Philadelphia International Records. This is a back catalog that rivals Motown, no question.
(Do you demand Proof? Scroll my PIR-related archives, or listen to the Shoutcast player embedded above.)


2) The scaffolding is off Philadelphia's city hall, finally. The word "finally" is called for, since this eyesore has been clouding my view of Philly's literal centerpiece for years. As soon as you thought it was down, you realized that it had merely rotated to another side! Scaffolding, of some form or another and on some side or another, has been up since the 80's.
Like the cleaning, the construction of the building dragged on for decades (more info here).
But now both are complete, so tip your hat to Penna and Phila.



3) The hurricane passed without much incident. Sort of a funny thing to note, that an absence, a non-entity, is worth celebrating. But that's how people think, isn't it? People compare purely imaginative "events" (what could have been [= what did not occur] ) and judge which would be really better.

Which of these "never happened" events is better?: if I would have had one samurai sword in 1997,

or two smaller blades in 1999?

Well, it's sort of stupid to even ask. And all such comparisons of purely fictitious entities are just as ridiculous.
You can't respond, "well, the hurricane really might have been worse,"
because in fact, the hurricane really (REAL-ly) Was Not.
There might be degrees of being, but there are not degrees of non-being; that is, there is no meaning in describing things that are not real, as "almost real." And it is yet more foolish to then judge the goodness of these non things, to pick one nothing as "more" something-good than another nothing.

Allergic to People? Then "Be Your Own Pet"

I was just wondering, can cats be allergic to people? Why not, right?


"Wildcat!" by Be Your Own Pet

Think about it:
when my allergies are really bad, I rub my face a lot. Putting pressure on my nasal passages feels good.
(Ironically, putting pressure on them relieves pressure.)

Now think about THIS: cats rub their faces on things all the time. Margeaux's cat, which is now our cat (because we moved in together, which is great), not only demands that I rub her face, but if I am remiss in my face-rubbing-duty, she will rub her own face on anything: a table leg, say.

That darn cat seems to have a lot of pressure to relieve. Either she is highly stressed (...hiiighly doooubtful...) or allergic to humans.
These are the only two options.

Speaking of two options, here is another video of the same song.

(another Be Your Own Pet clip)

Now, this one is more fun, but distinctly more odd. As video background, it has what I'm guessing is Eraserhead (ne'er seen it). This plays for 30 seconds before the music starts, and then, hey wow, more clips!
Crazy clips! from the movie Freaks, more from Eraserhead, something with Brigitte Bardot in it (she's racist), and something which has to be a Russ Meyer film.

Sprang Thang: The Blackbyrds' "Thankful 'Bout Yourself"

It's pouring down rain again -- Spring has Sprung, I guess -- but let's bracket that, and listen to and download some summer something.


The Blackbyrds on YouTube

Download the Blackbyrds' Thankful 'Bout Yourself.mp3
This song is the kind that will go on the Cosby Show mix, "Hello Jello".

Speaking of BlackByrds, what is going on with all the bird deaths lately? Could it be....
a sign of the impending apocalypse?!?!?!
Clearly a rhetorical question.



Margeaux and I saw a dead bird by my house; I saw two more by Villanova's main chapel; the three ladies-who-lunch next to me are talking about seeing some too. I think it is fair to hazard that they saw different birds than the ones I saw. Which means that there is a minimum of four dead birds, seen by 5 different people -- clearly we have an epidemic on our hands.

But what kind of epidemic? Avian Bird Flu? Maybe the birds flew too much and died of exhaustion?: but what were they flying away from? The planet's impending doom, perhaps?
Or something more sinister?...?

Aren't birds supposed to get born, not die, in the spring?
Well. Anyhow.

Fire Dance With Me- Ohio Players

Well, as of noon, I am done with the semester.
In full. In toto. In-joying myself.

Margeaux will be done tonight too. Which requires that I present another helping of the mix I am preparing: Hello Jello!, the The Cosby Show-inspired mix I mentioned last time.


on YouTube - Ohio Players: Together, from their album FIRE.

Ayo! Si muy caliente, y fuego mas fina!
Please note the almost NSFW cover art. Scandalous.


I am not sure if I will put this very song on the mix yet, but certainly some Ohio Players song will go on there. The YouTube clip doesn't have to be the exact song yet, since I am just trying to let you know what type of sounds to expect.

The clips are just a taste,


just a teaser,


of what greatness and grandness is to come.

Maybe "Fire" will go on the mix, that is a big one; maybe "Ecstasy" would be better for this mix than "Together." "Ecstasy" got a li'l more bounce to it; but then, "Together" has those horns. Brass instruments will be big on this mix,
because it is going to be deeply funky.

High On Jello

For a mix I'm putting together, inspired by The Cosby Show, called Hello Jello!



My lady friend Margeaux loves The Cosby Show, so I am making this mix for her. Still crafting it though: I will post songs that have the right sound here first, until I shove the full, fully finished mix on you.

And what is that "Right Sound?" It will be dentist-office funk: smooth (or even shmoove) jazzy things. Describable as slinky maybe. "Easy, not Cheesy." (that should be trademarked, yeah?)
The songs are having fun, without being outright silly. Loose-limbed, they will make a nice background as we shift into early summer.
Sade could go on there, although maybe she won't. Why?: because I want it to sound Cosby-era, so 70's and 80's gems.

( Although technically Sade's 1st US single came out at the end of 1984*, to me, Sade feels like 90's music. And although technically Cosby show started just a few months before that**, since I don't remember watching it much [although I did watch it plenty- when I watch it now, I can recall the plots as they are unfolding], it feels 70's-80's to me. )

* had to look it up
** also had to look that up, believe it


Enough about the mix; how about the song and band?

The Commodores do "Brick House": you know that song. It would totally play at a wonderful summer wedding reception:





The Commodores also had Lionel Richie in their band for a minute. Weirdly, after he left, they got more mellow. Once he was gone, they started to sound, well, like Lionel Richie. Before that, they were this hard-driving 'fonk' machine.

De La Soul sampled this song, on the Stakes Is High album. That is a feloniously undervalued record, like all of their records (except for 3 Feet High... And Rising: that gets about the right amount of praise).

( First De La album I ever bought- a little late to these fellows... 2000? also, I have it on vinyl, AND, after the above Commodores song, De La Soul came next on my iTunes random. F'serious! )

What I was initially leaning toward putting on Margeaux's mix was the Commodores song, "Girl, I Think the World About You" (obv), which I will:

1) maybe still put on the mix
and
2) maybe put up on to Youtube, where it cannot yet be found. Can it really be all that tough to post to YouTube?

De La also sampled"Girl, I...", for "Hey Buddy;" so you can see where their heads are at, right?
Tricky sampled The Commodores too!: info for the samples got drawn from this detailed site, Sample Spotters. 19 songs- nineteen- are listed for sampling (just the drums) from a single Commodores track.
Wow.

Together Soon: Teddy & Sharon ( & Harold ?! )

This one's a duet.
From the random selection on my IPhone which I brought to Portland- and will shortly bring to Houston.



Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes: Hope That We Can Be Together Soon
AKA "Teddy Pendergrass Feat. Sharon Paige: "Hope That...."
Teddy and Harold had a little spat, see- Harold founded the group, but by the time they were successful, well see, Teddy was doing all the lead singing.
(And How!)
Teddy wanted his name added to the existing group-name, which would have produced the titular monstrosity of
"Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Featuring Teddy Pendergrass".

"No dice", says Harold; Teddy says "I quit".
But not before recording this song with Sharon Paige (and the rest of the Blue Notes); she too was a Blue Note at the time, so this track really only needs the title "HM & BN: 'HWCBTS'",
not "TP FT SP (AKA HM & BN FT TP & FT SP): 'HTWCBTS'".

Clarifying, I'm sure.
I think we all learned a lot today.