Bolognabrain

LADIES & GENTLEMEN… step right up for the latest and greatest news of the strange. You may not believe your eyes. Today we feature a pre-school where they drug the children to encourage them to take a nap. We have an Orlando drunk driver who throws up on the Highway Patrol car plus the story of the ugly hooker. Then there’s the good looker hooker who tempts weak men then robs them and, for those for whom money is no object, we have the $560,000 parking spaces in Boston. It’s news. It’s weird. It’s Weird Wednesday at Bolognabrain.com. C’mon in…

I was talking with my daughters last night about a newspaper story I read earlier in the day. The story concerned the local school board hiring Disney as a consultant specializing in customer service. It was the customer service aspect that stuck in my craw.

I hadn’t thought of parents of students as being customers. I don’t think of school as a business. Maybe it’s me, or maybe that is part of the issue with the current education system in America.

Both my daughters are involved in education. One teaches, although she has taken a couple years off to have and raise her children. The other is in administration at a major Florida university. They know something about the subject.

The newspaper article acknowledged that Disney is #1 when it comes to customer service, and no one does it better. I also understand there are issues confronting parents and school staff, whether it’s a teacher, a front office worker, and aide or an administrator. On top of that, when the issue includes “your” child, the importance and potential for misunderstanding escalates.

Maybe if we didn’t perceive the relationship as a service provider/consumer one, and more of a partnership, this issue might be simplified. Bolognabrain contributors have, many times, written about the lack of civility in our everyday lives, and suggested that if we were all simply nicer to each other, many problems would either never materialize in the first place or, simply go away.

As in so many circumstances, the key is communication. The old saying “you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar” is true. Approaching someone with an attitude will never get you as far as an approach with a smile and a genuine, “Can you help me?”

I understand frustration, and I don’t always follow my own advice. (See the recent post about Boiler Room sales calls to my cell phone) The truth is, there will always be jerks abusing the system. But we have the power to be nicer to each other.

When it comes to school there is, perhaps, no place more important for us to be nicer to each other. Is it not where lessons are taught and learned? Setting good examples for our children can only contribute to better understanding and communication in the future, and when that happens – we all win.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father’s day.  I ate a feast fit for a king and want to wish my partner in crime, Suburbanhobo, a happy Father’s Day.  He and I have been working together for several years on all kinds of different projects.  At one time we had a children’s Internet radio station called Castle By The Bay Radio.  I won’t bore you with the details but laws changed and we were forced to close it down.  We are very close to re-opening which makes the story of Pandora buying a radio station important. (at least to me)

Pandora bought a small radio station in South Dakota because broadcast radio pays a much smaller royalty rate than does Internet radio.  There is serious legal mumbo jumbo involved but here is a link if you wish to catch up.  Instead, I wish to talk about the bigger points.  Government gives preferable treatment to mega-media conglomerates while squeezing out small time entrepreneurs.  Even worse, they do it at the detriment of artists who create the music and are trying to survive.

It seems to me, art is not valued enough in America.  I think there are better ways of protecting artists while also giving access to more people.  We are using models that were designed for the last century.  Art should be paid for and supported.  But companies like Clear Channel should not be the only one to profit.

The performance rights groups that represent authors and composers need to take a common sense look at these issues.  Stop favoring large corporations and do a better job of representing artists.  But, in the mean time, Castle By The Bar Radio will back online before you know it.

Father’s Day

I don’t know when I became aware of this, but I think I get more joy from Father’s Day than I do from my birthday. It hasn’t always been that way, and I may have to re-think this statement in December when the celebration of my own personal holiday arrives. I think there are a number of reasons though, and as we prepare to celebrate dad this weekend, here are my thoughts on the subject.

First and foremost, I had very little to do with my birthday. On the other hand, I had a lot to do with the reason I celebrate father’s day. At my house, when someone has a birthday, we also celebrate the mother who actually gave birth. I think the same logic should apply to father’s day. And that brings me to the subject of my daughters… and their husbands, son and daughters.

A day to honor parents ranks high on my list of important holidays. In case you didn’t know, tomorrow is actually three holidays: National Hollerin’ Contest Day, World Juggler’s Day and my personal fave, Smile Power Day. I am working on creating a “Buy your favorite folksinger a cocktail day” but it seems to be generating limited interest.

But Father’s Day… there’s one I can sink my teeth in to. My daughters are two of the most intelligent, lovely young ladies I have ever known, and my pride in my girls knows no bounds. Besides the fact they provided me with so much material for the children’s songs, stories and poems I write, they are well educated, well-spoken women who are also wonderful mothers. My granddaughters and grandson make me beam with pride, and the little man in the oven, I’m sure, will follow in the footsteps of those brilliant children who came before him. Ok… the dads had something to do with it also, but in my “Book of Universal Truth” it’s my wife and I who are primarily responsible for the gene source that created these little darlings.

So to Dads everywhere, I sincerely hope you get a charge out of your Father’s Day this Sunday. To children everywhere, do something nice for the old man. Forget the wallet and tie shtick. A kind word and a pat on the back for a job well done will go a lot farther.

Welcome back to the wide, wonderful world of Weird Wednesday @ Bolognabrain.com. Your hosts have once again scoured the news centers of the world in search of stories to amaze and entertain you. Today’s menu includes: Sports idol Chad Ochocinco caught with his hands where they didn’t belong, an Iowa native who set off a firecracker while the bomb squad was trying to keep a real explosion from occurring, a woman who stabbed her paramour with a shoe’s stiletto heel, a Pennsylvania vampire, news of the tongue patch diet and more. Can you stand it? Join John and Darrell for a few minutes of laughs and levity. And now… on with the show.

I hate it when things that are supposed to work, don’t work. Let’s take the National Do Not Call List for example.

About two months ago, I got so fed up over the crap phone calls I was receiving, (not to mention the junk email, but that’s another story) I Googled the NDNCL and registered my cell phone and home phone numbers. Personally, I could do without a home phone number, as do many others, but we have an alarm system for the house, so you have to have a land line to notify the alarm company, so they can notify the police department, when the home invasion starts.

Now it seems as if I get more junk calls than ever. I hope these boiler room operators don’t have direct access to the Do Not Call List as a source for verified phone numbers. With all the stupid things the government is doing these days, they may be selling the list for all I know.

A couple days ago I received a call. The guy asked for Darrell, I said I’m Darrell and he proceeded to talk to me like a long lost friend. I finally pinned him down and he said he was returning my call from the Internet app I had filled out asking for more information about online college classes. Only problem? I never did that. I told him he was a liar and that liars go to hell.

A little while ago, just before I was inspired to write this article, the phone rings, I answer and you can hear all the voices in the background, all making similar calls. The young lady wants to be my friend. I tell her it sounds like she is calling from a boiler room where there are dozens of people calling hundreds of people who would prefer not to hear from them in the first place. She says, is some indistinct foreign accent “No, no, no. That’s not what this is. We have grants for people going back to school.” I told her I thought she was liar and that liars go to hell.

Then, before I wrote this piece, I went back on the “Net” to the National Do Not Call List and registered a complaint. I hadn’t done that yet. Now I think I will do it for every junk call I get.

I don’t know if the list is bogus and a resource for people who make a living annoying decent people who are just going about their own business, but just in case you always thought you should register your number… here’s the link: https://www.donotcall.gov/register/reg.aspx
I hope if you sign up you have better luck than me. And if, perchance, you are one of those people who make those calls, you should try to remove my number now. If you get me on the phone, I promise to make it the most unpleasant experience you will have today.

I havn’t climbed the lofty stairs to my soap box in a while but I certainly have the urge today.  I am utterly astounded at the Supreme Court over the last few years.  First, we find out that corporations are people. Now the government is welcome to your DNA after arrest for a permenant data base.  Although the majority opinion was shredded by Justice Scalia, still the damage is done.  Now the Obama administration has admitted getting all kinds of information from cell phone carriers and from the Internet to keep us safe from terrorist attack.  To some, the two issues may seem unrelated or only related under the guise of unreasonable search and seizure, but far more is at stake.  Due process and freedom of speech are impacted but the main issues are privacy, liberty and the roll of Government.

We don’t talk much today about liberty and we should.  Most people find a pitcher’s ERA or the prospect for their favorite NFL team much more titillating.  The erosion of our liberties should cause us alarm.  The government cannot wave a magic wand and save us from all future harm.  We will be attacked again and no amount of law enforcement will be able to eliminate that possibility.  Unfortunately, that is the price of freedom.

I think back to the television series The West Wing.  In the very first season a brief comment was made in the dialouge that serves as a warning for what is going on now in our country.  I will let you be the judge and maybe it will, once again, get us discussing liberty.

Traveling Band
I make no excuses for the life I live. I’ve been a musician the best part of my life, and I mean that in all ways it can be construed. I have traveled all over this great nation, played music from Florida to Massachusetts to California and lots of places in between. The truth is, at 62 years old I still love to throw my guitar in the car and go play. I don’t need a written invitation.

Then Old Mother Nature sticks her nose in my business and rains on my parade. I was supposed to drive from South Florida up to Daytona yesterday and play for a bunch of kids in a park. How cool is that? I would be going to Orlando today to play in a very posh, cushy country club tonight, and how cool is THAT? I am so multifaceted it is difficult to pigeonhole me; award winning published author and poet, storyteller, singer-songwriter, musician, performer, all around nice guy, and the list goes on and on and on. Damn.

So this storm, Andrea, burns me for last night, and I am leaving in a while to go play for the country club set this evening, but then I have to be back early to play in a library tomorrow afternoon and in a bar tomorrow night. It’s ok. I’m tough. I can take it.

It’s the old feast or famine story. When I’m not playing much I whine because I’m not playing much. When I’m playing nine gigs in seven days I whine because I’m not playing much. Just can’t please some people, I guess.

The thing that keeps all this so fresh for me is the variety of material I perform. When I play for kids it is all original music, poetry and stories. Sharing these tidbits that emanate from my mind is an absolute highlight of my life. When I play for adults, I do the 60′s/70′s James Taylor, Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, Gordon Lightfoot, Jimmy Buffet thing with the addition of 30′s/40′s standards, show tunes and novelty songs. God I love my life.

Wednesday night at the club where I played, there was a group of elementary school teachers. We talked. I will visit their school next year. I was just approached by an ecology group that wants to protect and save the Florida Panther. I will go play for them later this year. This job gives me the opportunity to interact with people of varied interests and focus and in turn, it makes my life more interesting.

Got a gig coming up, on Earth, that needs an acoustic guitar player? Call me. I’ll throw my guitar in the car and come play.

People who partake of particularly peculiar news stories, peruse Weird Wednesday on Bolognabrain.com without prompting. For the rest of ya’ll… thanks for checking us out. This week we have stories that include zombies, (always good for a laugh), a pervert taking pictures up a lady’s skirt. (that was no lady… that was…). cops who sold placebo drugs, then bust the buyers for having the real thing (still haven’t figured that one out), and Florida wildlife running free (this week that includes a kangaroo, a llama and a naked guy in St. Augustine). It’s all here, now. C’mon in…

Jean Stapleton passed away over the weekend at the age of 90.  She was an incredibly talented actress best remembered for her roll in All In The Family, as Edith Bunker.

Many people have forgotten what ground breaking and even controversial television that show was.  Yes, Edith played the dingbat and provided comedy relief, but she also provided stirring reality in a dramatic rape scene.  The show dealt with racism, homophobia and the Vietnam War in a way that made America laugh. All in the Family could probably not be made today.

Most people don’t know the show was based on a British program and originally cast for Jackie Gleason.  While that never came to fruition, it is hard to think of anyone but Carroll O’Conner in the roll of Archie.

I will never forget Jean Stapelton.  She will always be television’s First Mom and will be missed.