Quiet storm

I am somebody

and the world belongs to me

Merry Christmas baby

Lovely parting gifts

What are we losers

I ain't no gotdamn loser

Do something

Cause you and I got to do for you and I

But I was cool

Happy talk

What it comes down to

I told him I would sing

Faithful to the end

Wishing you a happy landing

The natives are restless tonight

What's going on here my friend

The networks

The champagne room

I believe in you and me

Respect for Truth

Everybody's got a hungry heart

You Shouldn't Nuf Bit Fish

Somewhere there's a love

Never can say hello

Too late to change the time

Shake your body (down to the ground)

You walk around this town
With your head all up in the sky

Sometimes

I've been here before

Call it  deja vu

My name is clairvoyance and its all too clear 

Portuguese love

I ain't gonna let you go that easy

Be thankful for what you've got

But remember brothers and sisters 


You can still stand tall

If you don't believe

All the tears in my eyes

This is my promise to you

Sweet in the morning

Sack full of dreams

Can they learn to understand the world of love that I dreaming

What you see is what you get

All the things you are

For all we know

Are you gonna break your promise baby

Are you gonna break your promise to me

Divide and conquer

The truth, the whole truth

And nothing but

 the nekkid truth

America

God shed its grace on thee

Keep the children free

Hold it steady right there

 while I hit it

The morning after

Night and day

Work to do

Somebody's gotta win, somebody gotta lose

somebody's gotta play the fool

Come and get your love

Make you put your phone down

Ya Mama prolly think you out here missin

Play my funk

With a child's heart

Already knew that

We almost lost Detroit

Driven to tears

Mephistopheles is not your name

I know what you're up to just the same

Don't cost you nothing

Damn, we're in a tight spot

My maserati does 185

I lost my license, now I don't drive

Lucky I'm sane after all I been through
(Everybody say I'm cool, he's cool)

I can;t complain but
sometimes I still do

Cranes in the sky

Live Feed Joey Alexander October 2, 2016

The way jazz is supposed to be played at any age

This kid is truly special, who knows what will accomplish after he starts shaving

A horse with no name

At your best

you are love

Now unto him that is able

Get here

I don't want nobody fuckin wit me in these streets

Someone please call 911

As I recall, this is how we ended up with George W. Bush

Dubya wasn't elected because his fiscal projections were economically sound and balanced. He was elected because Al Gore was insufferable and nobody wanted to listen to him for the next four years.

Here's a clue, nobody gives a shit about the 10 point plan with interlocking implementation phases.

Even a vegetarian can appreciate a properly served steak.  Who wants a big plate of cold meat. Its the sizzle kid.

They say if you want to live like a Republican you better vote like a Democrat.

Now that the upwardly mobile have had a few years to recuperate from the cold hard presence of reality, the delusions of the pre-Bush years have set in again. Somebody better remind them that the VIP list is much shorter than they might imagine.

If it were me I would tell the biggest lie I could think up.  Then when they swarm all over me I would concede "I guess you sombitches ain't as stupid as you look huh, you can add and subtract.  Maybe you should practice those skills more often."

Then drop the mic and walk out! 

I ain't letting her go

She's all I got

Who's billy goat is this

Bigotry didn't start with the most recent contestant.  This shit has been going on for a long time.  And frankly, it is long past time for it to come to an end.  But that is not the hand we have been dealt.

What sets the current participants apart this year is that we are no longer relying on the delicate and understated signaling normally employed in these matters.  It has been just flat out full throated hog calling instead of the dog whistling you may be used to, just in case some of yall didn't take the hint.

Not to be inconvenient, but the question is not who loves black and brown folk the most now that it is election season.

The question is who's billy goat is this?  And somebody is going to have to claim ownership!

Let me understand this

You can have openly bigoted statements and behavior in your repertoire, but the only outrage is calling out that bigoted behavior.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist...

It strikes me that many of the journalists reporting on this story approach it as some kind of academic exercise with the outcome having no more import than the result of some video game. An issue to be exploited for whatever benefit it might produce.  And then its off to the next issue du jour, never having really comprehended the true consequence of the concept.

These people behave as if it most assuredly will not affect them if openly bigoted attitudes are somehow able to prevail again in modern American culture.  The impression is that you would be able to sit back in your easy chair and tut tut about the way they are treating those poor blacks/women/Muslims/immigrants/disabled/Mexicans/others but it won't impact me personally.  So why should I become personally invested in this discussion.

But for those in the affected groups there is no other way for it to be taken but personally.  And those who don't understand that are simply part of the problem.

...Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

He's got the whole world in his hands

I did not like George W. Bush.

I did not like his attitude.  I did not like, the way he carried himself. I did not like his swagger. I did not like the way he got elected on bullshit and innuendo. (Speaking of bullshit and innuendo, does that remind you of anyone else). I did not want to have a beer with him. I did not like the way he used his privilege to bypass all the rules the rest of us have to follow. I wasn't jealous of his privilege, I just didn't like the way he used it. There are people of privilege who occasionally use their privilege to benefit others who get a pass.

I did not like the fact that he was "formerly" a drunken substance abuser. I especially did not like the fact that he was now "on the wagon" and telling the rest of us who didn't get to party like it was 1999 about the dangers of having too much fun. It reminded me of my childhood when the whore mongers who occasionally showed up in church on Sunday morning "testifying" about the dangers of all the shit they had been doing for the past 30 years but here they were this morning to tell the youth that "ain't nothing out there" for you. And we would be sitting there thinking "Yeah motherfucker I guess not after your greedy ass has used up all of the big fun and now you in here telling everybody all the secrets" so that we have to explain.  No ma'am, we don't have none of that at our school, that must be them other schools.

But on 9/11, when that second plane hit the tower and everyone realized instantaneously that this was definitely an oh shit moment, my perspective on George W. Bush changed. The news coverage that day was hyperbolic enough that anyone who pays attention understands that the only thing the secret service would want to do that day would be to get the hell out of Dodge. A moving target is a difficult target and they would want to be wheels up and fast moving away from whatever godforsaken shit hole they happened to be in at that moment (apologies to Sarasota). I knew this was the protocol but as the day wore on and the hysteria began to subside the media started giving the POTUS shit for being MIA.

But on this day George W. Bush became "my president" too and it was the first time that I had ever rooted for his ass.  I remember thinking "run motherfucker, run".  Ignore those stupid sombitches in the media and run.  This man and his decisions are the only thing standing between us and a real shit storm of overwhelming grief.

From its very beginning, America is and was an amazingly uneven and offensively divided nation. And those on the bottom are subjected to unspeakable disadvantages while those on the top enjoy obscenely offensive advantages while those in the middle pick up the tab for everyone. But if these assholes somehow manage to topple the hierarchy of the United States government we all are going to be fucked six ways from Sunday. My sincerest hope that day was that Dubya and his coterie had successfully bugged out, busted out the super secret double naught spy equipment and had somehow managed to get this shit on lock down.

Everyone who experienced the horrors of that day, pretty much in real time, has certain things they remember about that day. One of the things that sticks in my head is my personal realization that despite my disdain for him, George W. Bush was the only president that I had and that I had better root for his ass with all earnestness that I could muster. All we needed in that moment was 2 or 3 Al Haig wanna be's to decide that their time had finally come and it would be a short walk to chaos from there. Besides, Dick Cheney did not strike me as the type of motherfucker you wanted to let loose on his own.  Upon leaving the presidency, at least Dubya had the decency to go sit quietly in a corner somewhere and STFU.  Also, this personal revelation provides me with perspective on these right wing sombitches constantly rooting for the failure of President Obama; not only are they unpatriotic but they are dim bulb stupid cocksuckers to boot.

The other thing that stands out in my head about that day was thinking someday there would be some sort of detailed account of what happened that day in and around Air Force One. I remember thinking I hope I am still alive when the real blow by blow account of what happened that day is released. Well it looks like I made it because the first of those accounts has been published by Politico.  It is full of holes and not very organized and you have to take it with a grain of salt as some of it is total bullshit excreted by well known bullshitters but it is a fascinating read.  I am most surprised by the praise heaped on Vladimir Putin and Russia's cooperation during those uncertain hours.  But Vladimir is nobody's fool and I am certain that he realized that there is nothing in nature more dangerous than a wounded she bear trying to protect her cubs.  He probably had an entire agenda of bullshit he planned to perpetrate on the world that day but I am certain the only thing going through his mind was "not today Satan."

Run motherfucker, run indeed!

All the caucasions to the back

The fifth labor of Hercules

Let the shit shoveling begin

Transformation

Water no get enemy

Toot blues

The board of racism

I have always thought that there should be clearing house to sort through any and all claims of a racial nature. A central authority, if you will, for sanctioning claims of racism by black people. I'm sure the Hispanics and the Asians will want to form similar bodies once they see the revenue potential.

The board would have authority to adjudicate all claims of racism by scoundrels who get caught with their elbows in the cookie jar and then proclaim the racist cookies made them do it.

This august body of authorities on race would include a few preeminent scholars, a couple of home boys and the obligatory token liberal white person. They would be the final arbiter of what is or isn't racial discrimination.

To fund its operations, it would have a copyright on all things racial. It would collect royalties similar to the way ASCAP collects music royalties from those who entertain their patrons with copyrighted music.

 "They didn't hire me cause I'm black".
"Excuse me brother, that will be twenty five cents for use of our trademark".

"You are charged with trafficking 350 kilos of cocaine, how do you plead?"
"They let them white boys get away it, they only targeted me because I'm black."
"In addition to your sentence, you sir will be required to pay restitution to the Board Of Racism."

"In my capacity as pastor of The Greater Denominational NoMemberHaving congregation I retain the right to speak for all black people on all matters at all times without exception.
"Pardon me reverend, we will be needing a cut of those tithes."

The proceeds would be collected and distributed to those with delinquent Cadillac payments as reparations for way too many years of actual bullshit.

Caucasion living

That's right, we bad

RIP Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor

Hey Lady

can I have a word with you

I'm a free man

and talkin bout it

Could this be the end

or just the beginning

Stop making a fool out of me

Lady cab driver

Ya betta hurry

Stubborn kind of fellow

Till it happens to you

Someone to watch over me

I have something I want to tell you

The force it's got a lot of power

I'm ready for my cloesup now Mr. DeMille

It's sweeter than honey when you bring the camera in nice and close

September in the rain

RIP Bobby Hutcherson

The epitome of class and touch, Bobby Hutcherson was a resident master the resident master of the vibes. His playing could wear a bow tie and tux or he could put a little grease on it if the occasion called for it.  I long ago decided that the vibraphone was my favorite jazz instrument.  And you really couldn't enjoy that instrument without coming to terms with Bobby Hutcherson.

Bobby Hutcherson didn't really make a big fuss, he was a great musician who mostly let his music speak for him.  And as a vibes player you don't want to always be out front, your greatest contribution is frequently to support the other musicians.  For 50 years he was a constant presence, he was always just there.  And like the air that we breath, you really don't take much notice until he is absent from your life.

And so it is we mourn the passing of yet another giant who has departed the physical world but left a legacy of music to carry us into a future that is just a little less bright today.

RIP Mr. Hutcherson, well done!

All the things you are

What's new

Landslide

Waiting on the world to change

And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

People on the street

Falling in love

Feeling good

We can make it if we try

Here comes the sun

Everyday I have the blues

When you see me worried baby, you know it's you I hate to lose

Blind paradise

Don't stop now

Pop pop pop

Goes my mind

Uhh ahh

Get it baby

The takeover

Breaks over

Let's go to work

I am your man

And if trouble comes our way

I won't run, I promise to stay

I want to make it with you

Hey, have you ever tried, really reaching out for the other side

...don't you fopp it up

...you've got to fopp it down

Fopped last night
and the night before
I had to fopp outside
and then I went indoors
fopped so hard I made the people roar
They stood back and gave me all the floor


Raise your leg
and then you hump your back, chile
do your thang
don't you give no slack
shake your hips
and then you turn around...

Just to keep you satisfied

Sooner or later

It had to happen girl

Funny you should call today

The program

Look up

Instead we choose to chase the things we know won't last

Everyday people

It's a shame

everybody is talking about memorials and marches but nobody is talking about revisiting open carry laws

Impressions

It's still rock and roll to me

Lester left town

Sweet freedom

Shine the light on me

Over and over

Nobody but me

Something's gotta give

This time baby

We won't be in and out of love

The greatest love of all

RIP champ

Find your strength in love

Goin down slow

In a sentimental mood

Perspective

provides one with the ability to see that which cannot be seen



To Scale: The Solar System from Wylie Overstreet on Vimeo.

Recognize

Wake up, little darling

I hate to see you leave with tears all over your face

Creep

Soul eyes

If its all the same to you

All you pundits out there can stop hyperventilating about Donald Trump.

There is no emergency here. America is working just fine. In fact, America seems to be working extra well these days. Isn't Donald J. Trump just exactly what the founding fathers had in mind. 

Just because America is not comporting itself with your preconceived self interest doesn't mean America is broken. It just means America has finally realized that they have been bullshitted for at least two generations and simply decided to vote some asses out of office.

Oh yeah it can get a little messy.  Strom Thurmond gave his people the segregation they demanded and ended up being one of the longest serving senators in history.  Turns out the only thing he was segregating was the loins of his black mistress. 

I think Trump is even more surprised than the rest of us to find himself in the current position.  He is, indeed, a world class con man for sure, but the current incestuous political system isn't exactly a free ice cream social either.  No matter who you vote for it always seems to be the same sombitches making the same decisions. Sometimes it just doesn't matter what flaws the new thing has.

When I was a school child, we were assigned to read this story that was anti communist or something. I forget the exact details, but essentially the story was about a man and his donkey. The man was very cruel task master who mistreated the donkey. The man overloaded the donkey's packs and beat the donkey severely if the donkey didn't not carry the packs swiftly.

One day the donkey was preparing to be loaded with packs for the day but instead heard the man running past him yelling "run for your life the communists (or something) are coming." But as the man ran past, the donkey just stood there. The man noticed that the donkey hadn't moved and came back to the donkey and admonished the donkey to run quickly or he would be lost to the communists. Wasn't he afraid of the communist? The donkey turned to the man and said he wasn't afraid of the communists, the communists packs were not any heavier that the packs the man placed on the donkey's back. The communists may be cruel task masters too but they couldn't be any more cruel than what he was already being subjected to.

I think of that story every time I hear about stupid Americans being taken in by Trump.

It's September

Don't the moon look lonesome

Think

Prince does not allow his music on the internet sooooo

perhaps this is a fitting tribute.

This is the day a lot of kids will finally grow up. 

Just think, if Prince can die, what the hell can happen to the rest of  us.

Hello Sunshine

That's two

Can't wait

Hold up wait a minute

In due time

Wild and peaceful

We've been here before

Come and go with us

Feel it

I guess nobody ever told you

Let it go let it go let it go let it go

You can't hurry up
cause you got too much stuff

When they see you coming ...


So pack light

I bet your love can make it better

The love I never had

Bill Henderson RIP

My radio sure was sounding good, and then they played two Bill Henderson tunes in a row.

But wait a minute, nobody ever plays two Bill Henderson tunes in a row?

Oh!

Shortly afterwards Google confirms what I have already determined, Bill Henderson has passed away at age 90.

Bill Henderson was one of the truly great old masters with a natural talent and, as I recall, not much in the way of formal training. He never really received the notoriety his talent deserved but from the first time I heard him, he was one of my personal favorites.  He was a master song stylist, but stylizing wasn't a crutch, he had the chops to bend a tune to his will with the best of them.

Some of his best work seemed to be on the projects of other artists.  And he used his Hollywood contacts to  develop a surprisingly robust film and television career, managing to make his mark in two performance arts (at 4:10).  So he had a pretty good run and my guess is he received a decent reward for his life's work.  But make no mistake, the world is a little less bright today because of this loss.

One by one it seems like we are losing the old masters much faster than we are able to create new masters.

This is one loss that definitely will not be replaced anytime soon.

RIP Mr. Henderson

Hello

Is it me you're looking for

Dreams do come true

All that you need

When the world is at peace

I'll be sweeter

Set it off

The diminished triangle blues for Manhattan

We are they

Arriving soon

Wrong way

Just say no

Tear it down

Winkin Blinkin and Nod

So now after more than a generation of winkin blinkin and nodding at the darker angels of American politics the elder statesmen of the party now feel compelled to admonish the party regulars to be cool.

Apparently not understanding that openly demonstrating their racial animus and economic insecurities is not something one does in polite company the goobers have been content to let the freak flags fly. No longer satisfied with allowing the elite to have control of their racism for fun and profit, the exploited are in open rebellion and with their newly found champion have damn year overtaken the asylum.

The everybody be cool message doesn't seem to be reaching the folks who are on the verge of putting the real source of party power out in the open for all to see.  Or maybe the message is reaching them but they are so tired of being bullshitted out of their rightful due that they simply don't care anymore what the rest of us are able to see. 

The question will soon become what happens when the forces of darkness issues a new ultimatum to those who depend on them for political power; embrace us in the light of day or we withdraw our support.

Will the party be content with returning to the days of being the loyal opposition with no real power or will they seek to make yet another accommodation but perhaps with a bit more sophistication and much stronger controls on the levers of power.

Maybe as a country we somehow manage to survive this latest threat to our very existence, but after all the histrionics are over the question will remain what have we learned

Tell me I'm not dreaming

Too good to be true

The trance

I want to be a sideman

A con man, an asshole and a gimp walk into a bar

Insert your own joke here

Together not alone

is how we break through

Bright lights big city

done gone to my baby's head

Are you really ready for love

or is it just the lonely talking again

I didn't know what time it was

It'll come

The road to Damascus

Really, a pissing contest with the Pope?

Well there's a winning strategy

Talk about your rewriting the book

They're writing songs of love

but not for me

Nasty girl

RIP Vanity (Denise Katrina Matthews)

While her music career was short lived and she did not really have much of an impact on the music industry, she had a major impact on me.  Her biggest claim to fame was as one of Prince's dalliances.

But she did set the stage for the sexy seductress songbird (I'm looking at you Beyonce).  It's only because of her that I know the word camisole.

Lawd, was that woman fine.

I even managed to finagle my way back stage at a Prince concert once.  But the girls were long gone before they would even think of letting me pass.

Reports are that she had things in her life figured out before she died.

I hope she was at peace.

Vote for me

and I'll set you free

Rap on brother, rap on

And the band played on

You can't win

 you can't break even

and you can't get out of the game

Love action

No guarantee

You know I wanna buy you diamonds

Soon as they increase my pay

Full of smoke

Band on the run

A missed opportunity

How to waste everyone's time when questioning a Fed chair

Wiffenpoof song

By hook or by crook

RIP Dan Hicks

Superbowl commericals sucked this year

Come on people, get your ass in the game
There was nothing worth celebrating this year

This is how you do a Superbowl commercial




Oh, I see what's happening here
We need to downplay the whole violence thing, especially the violence against women thing, since, you know, the incident(s).

Maybe we need to have everyone undergo a little sensitivity training

Jackson 5

Bohemia after dark

That's the way of the world

RIP Maurice White

Plant your flower and you grow a pearl

'nuff said










http://www.thirteen.org/soul/january-10-1973/

Pick up the pieces

Pick up the pieeeeeeeces

Slippin into darkness

I wonder who

taught her how to talk like that

I swear she must believe it's all heaven sent

Sleepless nights

Looking through the window

Swingmatism

and one blue mule

Arenita playita

Green and gold

Surely He hath borne our griefs

Question and answer

Smokestack lightning

Let a po boy ride

Don't you hear me talkin to you

Please come back to me

What's the matter with white people

Happy King day

Take Five

Night and day

Betcha wouldn't hurt me

It's a thin line between love and hate

Invitation

A little bit of Razzamatazz

Clouds

Guardians at the gate

Last Ray

Say you love me

Natalie Cole
gone too soon
RIP

Could it be

The ice you see