Many thanks are extended to those who provided suggested alternative titles for this series last week.  A title that clearly, cleverly and completely explains the purpose of the diary, without being too lengthy, seems to present a daunting challenge. New ideas are still welcome, and perhaps after a few more weekly diaries, a poll of those suggestions will be offered on this site.  Please stay tuned.

As always, this writer is indebted primarily to the wikipedia site for much of the information that follows.

Many thanks are extended to those who provided suggestions for an alternative title for this series last week.  A title that clearly and cleverly explains the purpose of the diary, without being too lengthy, seems to present a challenge.  New ideas are still being accepted, and perhaps after a few more weekly diaries, a poll of those suggestions will be offered on this site.  Please stay tuned.

As always, this writer is indebted primarily to the wikipedia site for much of the information that follows.

Please note that there are many cover versions of this song to be found on various websites.  Narrowing down the list to four versions was very difficult.  Please feel free to add links to other favorites in the comments section.

The featured song this week was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, by its composer on November 6, 1967, and released on the subsequent album on December 27, 1967.  The genre of the original recording is listed as folk rock.  

The composer of this song had spent the previous year recovering from a motorcycle accident, sustained during the summer of 1966, residing near Woodstock, New York at the time.  Having exited the fast lane associated with touring, this composer became a family man and cultivated a growing interest in the Bible, as reflected in this song’s lyrics, as well as other numbers written around that time.  

No doubt, most readers correctly guessed the identity of this song several paragraphs ago, however, to avoid any further suspense, the featured song this week is Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.”

Bob Dylan’s original version of this song has been described as a masterpiece of understatement, as described by Andy Gill:

“In Dylan’s version of the song, it’s the barrenness of the scenario which grips, the high haunting harmonica and simple forward motion of the riff carrying understated implications of cataclysm; as subsequently recorded by Jimi Hendrix, … that cataclysm is rendered scarily palpable through the dervish whirls of guitar.”

Locating a copy of the original version of this song, as recorded on the Dylan’s album, John Wesley Harding, seems to be  next to impossible task.  It seems that, after hearing other versions of his song, his performances became attempts to imitate the interpretations of others.  I have included an image of the album cover, along with what I believe to be a link to the original studio recording.  Perhaps someone else might be able to translate the verbiage on the site and/or come up with a better video version of the Dylan original.  Here’s the link.  

During a September 2, 1995 interview, Bob Dylan described his reaction upon hearing the Jimi Hendrix version of this song, as published in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel:

“It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day.”

In a booklet included with his Biograph album, Dylan further commented, regarding Hendrix’ interpretation:

“I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this and ever since he died I’ve been doing it that way… Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.”

Hendrix rendition of this song is undoubtedly the best known of many to follow and was released on September 21, 1968 — its genre listed as psychedelic rock.  The single reached #5 in the British charts, and #20 on the Billboard chart. The song also occupies the #5 spot on Guitar World’s 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.  Hendrix’ version appears at number 48 on the Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs ever.  In 2000, the British magazine Total Guitar gave it a #1 ranking among the greatest cover versions of all time.

Without further ado, here is the studio version by Hendrix:

Here’s a very nice live version by Eric Clapton & Lenny Kravitz:

For those who are interested, there are versions available online by other artists/groups, including Dave Mason (who performed with Hendrix during his first recording session), Neil Young/Bruce Springsteen, U2, Dave Matthews Band, Brian Ferry, Pearl Jam, Grateful Dead, Ritchie Havens, and many others.

To conclude, here is the fourth version, an interesting live acoustic version of this song, as performed by Michael Hedges as Wolftrap:

What’s that, you say?

When playing the game of checkers, surrendering one piece to set up a subsequent double or triple jump may be well worth the sacrifice, remembering that losing a battle sometimes sets the stage for winning the war.

The Republicans had to be cognizant that the party that “won” the Oval Office in 2009-2013 would be holding onto the equivalent of a sack filled with animal droppings and an activated hand grenade.  They may well have calculated that no matter which party occupied the White House during the current term, there was a significant likelihood that the opposing party would prevail in 2012, and perhaps more importantly, the party controlling the Executive Branch in 2012 could be well-positioned to retain that power for quite some time to follow.  

The South Puget Sound area is reeling from shock, in the aftermath of an apparent ambush at a Lakewood/Parkland area coffee shop.  At approximately 8:15 A.M. this morning, a lone gunman (although there is some suspicion that a second person may have been involved) entered the premises, and opened fire on four Lakewood police officers as they were completing paperwork on their laptop computers, killing them all.  Neither of the two baristas nor any of the customers in the shop were physically harmed (except for the physiological impact of witnessing such a horrific event).  Updated details, as the story unfolds, can be found here.  If you wish to check out other nearby news sources, you can access the websites from area newspapers such as The Olympian (Olympia, WA), The Morning News Tribune (Tacoma), The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle), The Seattle Times (Seattle), and Seattle area television stations, such as KOMO, KING and KIRO.  

As stated in other recent diaries, perhaps this nation’s demographics are such that the white, male Christian ruling class is destined to suffer the ravages of diminishing power and influence.  Although this writer shares that fervent hope and allows that present conditions may portend such a monumental, seismic shift, this process will likely take far longer than we might want to imagine.

Despite the best efforts of the Reich Wingnut talking heads to encourage their minions to “get busy” and create hoards of newborn teabaggers, their relative numbers are likely to continue shrinking.

No doubt the so-called elite (aka GWB’s base) are assiduously studying the tactics applied by the Spanish conquistadors who, during their invasion and swift, easy conquest of the native populations in the Americas, demonstrated that it is possible for the few to control the many.

More recent examples of minority dominion would be exemplified by the lengthy rule of the whites in South Africa, who, at their peak in 1911, accounted for only 19-21% of the population (13.6% when apartheid was abolished in 1994) and by the extended reign of the Sunnis in Iraq, who comprised only 15 to 20 percent of the country’s entire population, yet dominated that country’s government and economy throughout the 20th century.  

And, closer to home, given their considerable power, one might reasonably conclude that large numbers are represented by the National Rifle Association, even though they comprise only about 1.3% of the U. S. population.  

As Aldous Huxley so presciently observed in his 1931 novel, Brave New World, in order to maintain control over the oppressed, one need only convince those at each rung of the socioeconomic ladder that theirs is by far the best lot of all.  

Here’s a multi-purpose video, appropriate for Halloween, but also for many other occasions and purposes.  It’s a suspenseful, but entertaining love story, complete with the requisite dark and stormy night, fashion and home decorating ideas, song and dance, a rags to riches tribute to Horatio Alger, and a reminder to atone for the excesses of this weekend, beginning on Monday (serving as a valuable trial run for your upcoming New Year’s resolutions).  

If you enjoyed Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, you will surely want to check out K. T. Oslin’s performance in the following…

Perhaps some or even most in Docudharma land were aware of Vincent Bugliosi’s book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, when it was published on May 27, 2008.  This masterpiece was essentially ignored by the Corporate Mainstream News Media.  Although Mr. Bugliosi tried valiantly to publicize the book, the MSM shunned him as if he were carrying the bubonic plague. Despite their shameful efforts, the book still sold 130,000 copies within the first three months of publication.

Mr. Bugliosi is perhaps best known as the assistant Los Angeles County District Attorney who successfully prosecuted Charles Manson for the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and six others. He subsequently authored, in conjunction with Curt Gentry, a book chronicling the Manson trial, entitled Helter Skelter, which became the best selling true crime book in publishing history, with more than 7 million copies sold.   Two additional true-crime books also reached #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list: And the Sea Will Tell and Outrage.  

Having placed three books at #1 on this bestseller list is an unprecedented achievement. No other American true-crime writer has had more than one book reach the coveted #1 ranking.

Mr. Bugliosi’s 2007 book, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was also a New York Times bestseller. A made for television adaptation of the book will be aired as a ten-part HBO miniseries, produced by Tom Hanks.

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder is being made into a documentary, slated for release in February, 2010.  Fundraising efforts are currently underway to cover marketing costs.  

Since the MSM will likely maintain their silence upon the release of the film, you can fill this void by sending this information along to anyone and everyone you know who might be interested.

Here is the link for a lengthy and detailed trailer of the film…

Learning only a few hours ago that the great Frederick Chopin passed away exactly 160 years ago today, the compulsion to create a memoriam in his honor was indeed compelling. Similar to the fate of far too many of our greatest musicians, his life ended early at thirty-nine years of age. Some of you may be very familiar with his work, and for some, perhaps you’ve never heard of him.  That said, there are few who haven’t heard his work at one time or another.  In the event that you might want to learn more about his life and his legacy, you can go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F…

As a child learning to play the piano, Frederick Chopin became my idol, and by junior high school, I was able to play some of his work, however, nothing more challenging than two polonaises (Military Polonaise in A Major, Opus 40 and the more difficult Heroic Polonaise in A Flat Major, Opus 53), and Fantasie Impromptu, Opus 66.  My piano teacher left town after ninth grade, so further formal training ended at that time.

Chopin’s music, perhaps more than any other composer (at least in my own estimation), conveys the entire range of human emotion and would likely touch the hearts of many who otherwise do not care for classical music.  Even now, his music, well over a century and a half later, conveys a freshness that suggests something much more contemporary.

Perhaps Artur Rubenstein conveyed it best when he said about Chopin:

Chopin was a genius of universal appeal. His music conquers the most diverse audiences. When the first notes of Chopin sound through the concert hall there is a happy sigh of recognition. All over the world men and women know his music. They love it. They are moved by it. Yet it is not “Romantic music” in the Byronic sense. It does not tell stories or paint pictures. It is expressive and personal, but still a pure art. Even in this abstract atomic age, where emotion is not fashionable, Chopin endures. His music is the universal language of human communication. When I play Chopin I know I speak directly to the hearts of people!

Crossposted at Booman Tribune

Alan Grayson has recently raised the ire of the corpatocracy and their volunteer army of teabaggers merely by simply stating the obvious, this being our obligation as good citizens, as defined by the Republican Party and the mislabeled “centrists” of the Democratic Party:

1. Don’t get sick.

2. If you do get sick…

3. Die quickly.

The Economic Royalist cabal has cried loudly, and in unison, demanding that Mr. Grayson apologize.  And even some in the so-called liberal blogosphere have joined the call for him to fall on his sword for his Holocaust reference. Although the numbers of dead (officially) are not yet as large, Big Money in this country has positioned themselves to realize a profit from the deaths of those inhabiting the “undesirable” class, those whose lack of wealth must surely be due to laziness and sloth.  Even the Nazis, to our knowledge, did not realize six and seven-figure tax-free payouts from those who were sent to the gas chambers. Fortunately, Rep. Grayson’s recent apology was not what his detractors had in mind, that of apologizing for the congressional inaction that continues while approximately 122 people per day die in this country due to lack of access to healthcare. In case you haven’t seen it yet:

Mount Vernon, Washington is now apparently soon to become the PROUD home of native son Glenn Beck.  In fact, their mayor has recently scheduled an event during which he will be presenting Beck with the key to the city later this month.  Some of those who are outraged have suggested changing the locks. The following newspaper article provides additional detail: http://www.seattlepi.com/local…

Just in case you might need a refresher regarding Babyface Beck:

Mount Vernon is a regional trade center, a county seat (Skagit County), and a logical stopping off point between the Greater Seattle area and many popular tourist destinations (i.e., the San Juan Islands, Whidbey Island, North Cascades National Park, and is approximately halfway between the Seattle metro area and the Canadian border).  The area also hosts the annual Tulip Festival every spring, which provides a reliable financial bonanza for the Mount Vernon-La Conner area.