On this day of all days... give our last show a listen

My Name is August West

I posted a bunch of videos on facebook to celebrate Jerry's b-day today, but this needs a special place here. It could very well be the perfect video for Jerry's b-day. Be sure to notice Bobby teaching the song to Pete Townshend in the background. Also notice Townshend jumping around like an 80s new-wave fool. Also, listen to Jerry's playing... fantastic!

"Dark Star"

If you've got an hour and a half to spare and want to spare it by learning about our favorite song, check out this video: an in depth analysis of "Dark Star." Some of you might feel that an hour and a half dedicated to "Dark Star" might be a little much, but there are those of us who have dedicated a lot more time than that to this tune over the years. This guy, Dave Frank, is a jazz performer and lecturer. He spends this episode focusing on the version from Live Dead... & it seems like a good one to pick. He's also got episodes about Bill Evans, Frank Zappa, The Marx Brothers, Charlie Parker, & Keith Jarrett if you feel the need to watch more. Then you can read "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" & submit a short essay comparing the lyrics of the songs to Eliot's phrasing in the poem. Enjoy!

Dylan Week: Day 3: The B-Day (w/ Arsenal Goals of the Year)

For the big 70th birthday, I was going link y'all to some footage from Renaldo & Clara, but the only footage I could find sucks... of course, some would say that I may have found the entire film. I was able to find the Dylan/Dead rehearsals I promised though, so be sure to listen to them all today...all 4 1/2 hours of them! I'm listening to them now for the first time in years. I wish they'd done "Absolutely Sweet Marie" though. That songs seems tailor made for a Dylan/Dead collaboration. All in all, the rehearsals are just as hit or miss as I remember, but you need to listen to them anyway.

Speaking of Dylan memories, I distinctly remember sitting in Mr. Bean's (the teacher @ my high school, not the British comic character) English class looking @ his copy of Rolling Stone which was announcing Dylan's 50th b-day. The article was about how rock music was getting old & stately & I was thinking about how old 50 seemed to be. Now here we are 20 years later & he's still rocking out all year every year & still writing great stuff. The problem w/ this little memory is that I can't find any proof of that RS issue anywhere. I looked for it last night for a 1/2 hour... no dice. Maybe it wasn't a Rolling Stone after all. It's funny how I spent the last 20 years so certain that I'd read about his 50th in a RS; now I think I've been wrong. I wonder what other memories I have that are just plain incorrect. I mean, of course they're all open to interpretation, but flat out remembering things that didn't happen @ all is scary. What if everything I remember is wrong.

Maybe, in 20 years, when I look back on the Arsenal 2010/2011 season & remember that they came close to winning everything, but in actuality won naught, I'll be able to take comfort in the fact that my memories could be incorrect. It was a frustrating seas, over all. They finished 4th again (3rd the last couple years, but 4th has become their spot lately). The made it to the League Cup finals, they beat Barcelona in the 1st leg of their Champion's League tie, but then they lost the cup, were eliminated from the FA Cup & the Champion's League in the same week, & took a nose dive in the league... just as I predicted. They did score some crackers though, & here's the official Goals of the Season highlight reel. Enjoy... I'm sure Dylan is enjoying this today as he kicks back, blows out his candles, & watches Arsenal highlights.

Presidents' Day Snow Day

In England, there are always soccer games on bank holidays, but since we don't have that as a way to celebrate our former presidents, we'll do it w/ 8" of snow & a fun little list instead. It's been a pretty rough few days in the ol' homestead, but we're surviving & I think in the long-run, things will be much better. (How's that for a cryptic sentence that raises all sorts of questions but says nothing at all?)

Here's the Official Drifting Into Deep Water Top Ten Presidents of All Time. (Of course, we are also celebrating Nina Simone's & Vince Welnick's birthdays today, but we aren't listing the top 10 "Samba in the Rain" ... that would be silly). We're basing this list on 4 things (w/ a scale of 1-10 where 1 is low & 10 is high): looking presidential, thinking presidential, acting presidential, & all around coolness. A president can score high on all around coolness like Teddy Roosevelt or high on looking presidential like George H. W. Bush, but then very low on other criterion so we'll have to so we'll have to be very careful as we come to our determination here.

10)Millard Fillmore: Score - 26
He was an asshole No-Nothinger, but his name was Millard Fillmore. How awesome is that?
9) Martin van Buren: Score - 27
He was the 1st American born president & has a fictional street gang named after him... a gang known for assaulting Kramer & George. That's pretty cool. His stance on slavery was less cool, but better than many of his contemporaries.
8) Warren G. Harding: Score - 28
The G. is for Gamaliel... pretty cool name. He worked hard on his Anti-Lynching campaign & there are rumors that he had more than a little African American and Native American ancestry & that he was all about the orgies. Of course, there's also the Teapot Dome scandal... the coolest name for a presidential scandal ever.
7) James Madison: Score - 30
He wrote the Bill of Rights, his wife was the 3rd best gas station pastry maker, Dolly Madison,and his VP was named George Clinton!
6) Grover Cleveland: Score - 32
He served 2 terms but they weren't consecutive. That's pretty cool. Plus, as his name suggests, he was probably pretty adept @ explaining the concepts of "Near" & "Far."
5) Teddy Roosevelt: Score - 34
Kind of a macho tool, but he was our macho tool... like Hemingway & Randy Savage.
4) Abraham Lincoln: Score - 36
He saved the Union & reluctantly ended slavery. Although that wasn't his main goal, he was willing to listen to Frederick Douglass & realized Douglass simply had better ideas than he did. Just think about what might have been possible if every president was willing to listen to smart people all the time.
3) John Adams / Bill Clinton (tie): Score - 37
Where Clinton often came across as a sex-crazed hillbilly, his genious was in his ability to get stuff done & help the people who needed help the most. He was a great negotiator who was able to raise our political capital around the world.
John Adams was a bad-ass. He was briliant & always looking to listen to Abigale who was also briliant. Had it been posible for her to be President, she may have made the list too.
2) Thomas Jefferson: Score - 38
He wrote the Declaration of Independence. He understood the limits of presidential power while being more than willing to overstep them when a good bargain came along, & he understood the importance of an educated electorate in order to for a more perfect union. If not for his more than problematic relationship w/ slavery (& one slave specifically) he may have scored a perfect 40. Then again, his views on slavery weren't anything more than products of his time. The vast majority of the rich white land owners felt the same way... if not much worse. Of course, that doesn't completely excuse him, but I don't think he deserves the vitriol he gets for this
1) Franklin Roosevelt: Score - 40
Beat Hitler, instigated the New Deal, & was actually willing to listen to his awesome wife... a wife who had great ideas about war, women, & the working (& out of work) poor. Plus, the dude overcame polio to rise to the Presidency. That's just Bad-Ass... Teddy could never have done that.

Honorable Mention goes out to JFK & Woodrow Wilson
Knowing full well that this is the official list, you can still feel free to post your own top 10 in the comments section.