Bolognabrain

Since I was a pre-teen, I have loved Monty Python.  I loved the show when it used to appear on PBS and then I loved the movies.  Long ago, when I was on the road with my band Used Toys, we actually carried a copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Since those days Monty Python has made their way in to main stream culture with a Broadway hit based on their comedy.  Now the legendary comedy troop may have a reunion of sorts.  John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones have all signed on to do the movie Absolutely Anything.  It is rumored and Moviefone is reporting Eric Idle may join the cast as well.

The movie is set to shoot this summer in England and Robin Williams is also to be in the film.  The Monty Python members say it is not really a Monty Python film but for fans of the group, our hopes are high.

Not long ago I wrote a post on our sister site MusicFanCam.com about watching Weezer on Guitar Center Sessions.  That show is featured on one of the channels that is exclusive to Direct TV.  Often, that same channel will feature full length concerts from artists and in the past it has even had full coverage of Farm Aid.  Recently, I checked out a show from a legitimate southern rock band called Blackberry Smoke.

Blackberry Smoke only has two albums out but the band is outstanding.  They hail from Atlanta, Georgia and have been touring like madmen across America, and beyond, with the likes of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Zac Brown Band.  The lineup features Charlie Starr (Lead Vocals, Guitar), Richard Turner (Bass, Vocals), Brit Turner (Drums), Paul Jackson (Guitar, Vocals), and Brandon Still (Keyboards).  Their material is strong as is their performances.  They are lacking the obigatory third guitar player or second drummer that makes up southern rock tradition but they still have plenty of harmony guitar parts to make up for it.

The band will be playing Southwestern Ohio in June 2012, with my old buddies, 32 Below, at JD Legends in Franklin, Ohio.  Get your tickets early and check out their full schedule and their new DVD at their website, Blackberrysmoke.com.

It’s no secret that I enjoy reading. I find it a very relaxing pastime. I learn new things, exercise my imagination and in some small way I support literacy. I buy books. That’s putting your money where your mouth is.

One way I support literacy is by utilizing the services of my local library. Sometimes I just borrow books, books on CD, music CD’s or movies on DVD, but other times I browse the used books offered by “The Friends of the Library”. Last week I was looking for something new to read and noticed they had a BOGO going on. I love these buy one get one deals and I picked up a novel by Arthur C. Clark, the author who wrote 2001 – A Space Odyssey, and The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

To compound my support, after I finish these two books, I’ll donate them back to the library, allow them to be re-sold and spread the joy while bringing in a couple bucks to support the cause.

It is a shame that libraries and schools are getting their budgets cut and having to do more with less, year after year. In schools, more and more Media Specialists are being sent back to the classroom because they can’t afford a full time library professional. Here in Broward County Florida, with its 1.8 million residents, I was shocked last year to discover that the main library, the one in downtown Fort Lauderdale is closed on Saturday and Sunday and doesn’t open until noon two other days a week. It’s not because people don’t want to take advantage of what is offered. It’s because there doesn’t seem to be enough money in the budget to keep the doors open and staff the place. I think that’s a travesty.

When I read the newspapers and watch the news on television, and you may recall I am a news junkie, I’m constantly amazed at what our city, county, state and national leadership thinks is more important than our schools and libraries when it comes to spending our money.

Let’s spend a couple million putting cameras up at intersections so we can take pictures of people running red lights. Let’s pay a bunch of people to sit around and pretend they are doing something so they can justify a job; people who are inept to begin with and can’t be fired because they work for the government. Let’s pave paradise and put up a parking lot.

I have had a love affair with libraries since I was a kid in Middletown, Ohio. On rainy Saturday mornings you could find me curled up in a corner at the library on First Avenue with a good book. Those are memories I cherish, and I somehow think kids today are never going to know those feelings because of Xbox and video games. They are losing the ability to get lost in a good story by a great writer. So many activities are vying for a kid’s time, it is hard to justify the hours it takes to read and absorb a book, no matter how important it may be.

Personally, I started the Arthur C. Clark book first. That means I have to read it as fast as I can. I can’t wait to re-visit the adventures of Porthos, Athos, Aramis and their good friend d’Artagnan. One for all and all for one. W3KBABF4XC7D

Huffington Post, Bleacher Report and FOXSports.com have all attacked Steven Tyler’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.  One even called the version obscene.  Now, I have certainly been critical of Steven Tyler in the past but it wasn’t that bad.  It was a raspy and rock and roll rendition and a rock singers version of Jimmy Hendrix playing our song.  Let’s face it, Steven Tyler is a brilliant rock and roll singer and could never win the contest on which he now sits in judgement.  To win that contest you have to have a clear voice more suitable for karaoke.  The performance was not dis-respectful as was Rosanne’s nor did he butcher the words.  It was rock and roll.  The writers of the articles above may not have appreciated the rendition and may have preferred someone else’s but get over it. The one thing about writing a blog about everything is I can write about sports if I want and being a sports-fan, I sometimes do.  But if you write a blog about sports maybe you should leave music to someone else.

I have struggled like many Americans during this recession.  My brother swears that 20 years from now it will be remembered as a depression.  I must confess that I have thrown the occasional dollar towards big lottery jackpots and dreamed about what I would do with all of that money.  In all of my imagined plans I always use part of the wealth towards charitable causes.  The truth be told, I have a tough time wrapping my head around an 80 million dollar jackpot so I am stunned when someone loses a billion dollars.  I have been reading about former banker, now prisoner, Allen Stanford.  The story includes lavish luxuries like jets, mansions, women and a Ponzi scheme reminiscent of Bernie Madoff.  Now he is in prison and not even afford an attorney.  But still I can not comprehend blowing a billion dollars.

That kind of money could do so much good for so many and still leave the person in charge of the money quite comfortable.  It seems to me that disposing of that kind of cash with nothing to show for it takes a person with a complete void of morals.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying I am the morals poster child but I am saying I could do more with a million dollars than piss it away and have nothing to show for it.  If anyone wants to put that to the test, just send me a billion dollars.

I was driving the other day and noticed one of those designer thingamajigs that surround license plates. The message said “Honk if you play Scrabble.” I honked. She rolled down her window and gave me the finger.

I was watching tennis. The Australian Open is going on and I love the Major Tournaments. A player hit a ball that tipped the top of the net then fell over. He raised his hand to the opponent signifying he was sorry. Yeah, right.

Speaking of which, I watch the news on television in the morning because I want to catch the weather forecast before I go to play tennis with my buddies at 7:00. I sometimes wonder what is the difference between partly sunny and partly cloudy.

The other day, I was getting a sandwich at a restaurant. I was told I could add cheese for 50 cents more. I said ok, and then asked them to hold the tomato. I didn’t get a discount for that. What gives?

I was thinking about what a wonderful relationship I have with my two daughters and it occurred to me, why is it good to be Daddy’s girl, but bad to be a Momma’s boy?

I was at a 24 hour convenience store the other day and I wondered why they had a lock on the door.

While researching this article, I found a few other examples of the crazy things we see, say and do. One I liked made note of the fact that we put men on the moon before we considered putting wheels on luggage. Why is a bra singular and panties plural? Then there’s the whole litany of questions like “If pro and con denote for and against, what is the opposite of progress? If corn oil is made from corn and vegetable oil made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from? If electricity comes from electrons where does morality come from? And perhaps my favorite, if an asteroid is outside the hemisphere, why is a hemorrhoid in your butt?

For a great collection of 350 more questions designed to make you scratch your head and go hmmmmm… click here.

Earlier this week their was an outpouring of protest over the proposed laws that would enable corporations to block URLs for copyright infringement.  Many top sites on the Internet went black as a form of protest.  You may think that it is no big deal but the truth is it would change definitions of what is a search engine and leave the Internet in the hands of corporations with no due process.  This law would not only affect what I do but it would affect what material is available on the Internet.

Way back in the day, the large record companies were up at arms against new technology that was enabling music to be shared.  The destructive path that they pursued left music fans angry at the record companies and made some stars go independent.  The bottom line is they made a situation worse rather than better.

I am a musician and I believe in copyrights.  I don’t download pirated movies or songs.  But pursue the people and companies that break laws through the courts.  I do not trust corporations to make decisions for what material should be available and how, especially since they have a financial stake in those decisions.  By definition that is clearly a conflict of interest.

The Internet belongs to all of us not corporations.

Tomorrow we will begin a software update.  This update will not affect our new stories and we hope that you will continue to visit often.  It will however affect our videos on our older posts.  We will have to do the codeing by hand to fix all of these and it will probably take a couple of weeks.  We thank you for your patience as we experience our growing pains.

We also have a new privacy policy in place.  Don’t worry, we will not be selling any information to a banker in Afghanistan who wants to send you 25 million dollars that he has stashed away.

Once again, we thank you for your continued support.  Tell your friends and family about Bolognabrain.com and follow us on Twitter @bolognabrain.

I’m not the biggest Facebook fan, although I go on it a couple times a week. Some people, it seems, live there. I’m not one of those people. The other interesting item is I have “Real friends” who are my friends on Facebook, and then I have Facebook friends who may or may not be my “Real friends.” Do you follow me?

One of those maybe, sorta, kinda friends is, genetically, partly Native American, and I believe that is a beautiful thing. My issue is she never, and I mean not once, ever, writes anything that doesn’t have to do with her ancestry. So I’m considering unfriending her, because as much as I appreciate what she does, who she is, and where “Her People” came from, enough is enough.

It has me thinking about this whole (Fill in the Blank/American designation. I’m not convinced it does anyone any good. African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Irish-Americans… ad nauseum. I believe, if you live here, we should all just be Americans. Take pride in your heritage but be an American. I can’t help but imagine that these tags separate and alienate us rather than bring us together.

When the pilgrims settled here they were looking for something better than what they had back home. That something was called The New World, and it was formally named America after explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Where did all those names come from anyway; Asia, Europe, Antarctica? I guess we’re lucky Vespucci’s first name wasn’t something like Cinderblock. Otherwise, Canada, The United States and Mexico would all be in North Cinderblock and Chili, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador would all be in South Cinderblock. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Those pilgrims and our Founding Fathers didn’t anticipate that we were all going to break into separate, hyphenated nationalities. They thought we would all be Americans, living in the home of the brave, land of the free.

My personal ancestry is that central European mish mosh, but it’s not something I dwell on. I’m from Ohio. My parents were from Kentucky. My kids and my wife are Floridians. But more important… We’re all Americans.

Thinking about Martin Luther King, yesterday, I can’t help but believe he might have had similar feelings. It’s not a race issue and it’s not rejecting your past. It’s embracing who we are and the noble things America has historically stood for. C’mon people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together; try to love one another right now.

America likes a good story and I get that.  But I will admit that I grew tired of the non-stop Tim Tebow coverage this past week.  I have not seen anything like it.  Front page coverage on newspapers and sports networks running continuous expert analysis of everything Tim.  He is certainly an exciting player to watch but he led his team to 7 wins and 5 losses in the 12 games that he played and that is hardly lighting it up.

Now, I guess it is all over at least for this season.  Last night Tom Brady delivered one for the record books as the Patriots crushed the Broncos.  It was rumored that a magical cloud appeared above Foxborough in the shape of a goose egg, signifying how many games were left in the Bronco Season.  Last week I joked about wanting to see lions let loose on the field but after the coverage this week I have decided to write some additional headlines to close the media feeding frenzy week on Tim Tebow.  So for anyone sick of everything Tebow, vote for the headline that you want to see.