Jockey Full of Bourbon

I stood 20 feet from Ralph Stanley...

...sang O Death if that doesn't put me a bit closer to heaven, I don't know what would. a transcendent experience.

some pics from the show: Ralph Stanley and His Clinch Mountain Boys @Oktoberfest, Christ the King Church

 

more pics at flickr

 

because music posts need music, here's a totally unrelated song.  funniest bluegrass song ever <u>and</u> shoutouts to Ralph and to Bill Monroe. 

09-The Bluegrass Widow

Dan Savage' itgetsbetter project in YT

updated 20100924@15:40 - what this post needs is a theme song.  take it away,  Ms. Jill

 

 

Dan Savage has done many good things (remember Santorum?) and spearheaded many worthy causes, but the itgetsbetterproject is likely to be his crowning achievement. take a bow, Dan. in memory of Billy Lucas, the many more suffering today, and of all of us who made it out alive. *

* I'm not LGBT, notthatthere'sanythingwrongwiththat, but I can't help thinking that the itgetsbetterproject also applies to the nerds, the weirdos, the outsiders, the do-not-fits, all of us great unwashed who look back on our high school years as far from "the best times of our lives"

If you're gay or lesbian or bi or trans, and you've ever read about a kid like Billy Lucas and thought, "Fuck, I wish I could've told him that it gets better," this is your chance. We can't help Billy, but there are lots of other Billys out there—other despairing LGBT kids who are being bullied and harassed, kids who don't think they have a future—and we can help them....READ MORE about the It Gets Better Project, in Savage Love, here: http://bit.ly/bYtxBd

via YouTube - itgetsbetterproject's Channel.

[this is sad] Justin Townes Earle Heading To Rehab

via www.americansongwriter.com

"If you’ve been following the saga of singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle, you know that he was arrested for battery, public intoxication, and resisting arrest last week, following a show at Radio Radio in Indianapolis.

Earle, who was released on bail, announced today that he will be suspending the remainder of his current tour dates, and will be checking into a rehab facility."

so sad to hear;  JTE just released his best album to date, Harlem River Blues.

 

 

01 - Harlem River Blues

 

 

05 - Wanderin'

 

 

from the Color Me Surprised Department

Sanchez will lead the combined company, while Six Apart CEO Chris Alden plans to leave. Six Apart cofounder Mena Trott is joining the Say Media board, which isn’t otherwise changing. (As Business Insider, which first reported rumors of a deal, noted, the two companies already share some investors, including prominent venture-capital firm August Capital, which should make for slightly less awkward post-acquisition board meetings.) The management structure of the combined company hasn’t otherwise been set.

The companies say they’ll have a combined global audience of 345 million. Some critics of such figures note that online-advertising companies often cite the potential audience for advertisements they place, rather than the actual number of people who see ads sold through their networks.

via www.reuters.com

where in this world's does such a merger make any sense?
definitely my time in TypePad is going to be limited.

what is the time? it is grinding time~

Grinderman 2 is here.  on the first few listens, it comes across a bit milder than Grinderman - not as dissonant and electrified.  more melodic and a bit tender.   the influence of NC & The Bad Seeds is noticeable, same as Grinderman had a marked influence on Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!

 

funny song.   yes, it is about what you thought it was about

02 - Worm Tamer

this one is kinda sweet - I hate the "eeevil" chorus

 

 

06 - Evil!

 

memento mori

'tis a somber occasion, let's begin with an appropriate quote

"Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him"

VOX is done, over, finito, joined the choir invisible.  starting to stink a little, to be frank.

why this place mattered is that in a virtual world where about 95% of blogs that are started are abandoned, we (we know who we are), beat those odds.  we lasted, we endured; sure we took blogging breaks, went through manic posting periods, times when we struggled to find anything to say, but came back to this, dare I say, community.

the reason we beat the dismal odds is because of what I've come to believe is the lifeblood of blogging - comments.  as hokey as it seemed, the [this is good]  in its 8-9 language variations, gave  us a jumping place from where we could let folks we heard/like what they wrote about. [tig] took the worry away from "I don't know what to write in a comment, I just liked it/made me laugh/made me think".  and after [tig] came short comments, and replies, and replies to replies, and non-sequiturs, and some of these threads became things of legend.

I know we are all trying to keep in touch in the varied blogging platforms we are heading to - and that is good. but as far and wide as we take our blogs, remember the thrill of getting your first notifications that someone had left a comment in your post: wherever your blog lands, look for new folks writing interesting things and let them know you think [tig]

VOX is dead, long live blogging

20100911

september 11 2010, the day is almost over here where I am.  the ninth anniversary of *that* day.  that day at the time we thought we'd never get over, never forget.  yet we got over it, we let some of it recede.
one moment hasn't lost its power, its punch to the gut - crowded around a TV on the breakroom, watching live video of one smoking tower and seeing the second plane hit.

changes of the last nine years, so much has changed, so little accomplished.  Guantanamo, Abu Ghreib, rendition, extraordinary circumstances, homeland, Patriot Act, two wars without meaning, end, or winners. worst have been the effect in our psyches; we no longer dare to question, to stand out, to refuse.

the good doctor felt this change, the chill down the spine, earlier.  from 2003:  "We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer."

Mickey Mouse And The Goodbye Man by Grinderman.

 

the entire album Grinderman 2: Enter the Wolfman is streaming in Grinderman myspace this week in advance of the album release next week, Monday September 13 in the UK and Tuesday September 14 in the US. w00t!

Bukowski was a jerk! Berryman was best!
He wrote like wet papier mache,
went the Hemingway
weirdly on wings and with maximum pain
We call upon the author to explain

as Nick is prone to, he namechecks poets in several songs. in We Call Upon the Author, who is this Berryman? understand he'd been a suicide went the Hemingway, but what about weirdly on wings and with maximum pain ?

it didn't take long to find out: when poet John Berryman decided to discard his mortal coil by jumping on the Mississippi river from Minneapolis' Washington avenue bridge one freezing January morning, he missed the river, hitting first the concrete pier and ending in the mud where he suffocated. I get the maximum pain. I do.

three more songs that reference Berryman:   Stuck Between Stations, Mama Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air Burning?, and most striking, John Allyn Smith Sails by Okkervil River, a biography of Berryman that by its end is intertwinned with Sloop John B.

The devil and John Berryman Took a walk together.
They ended up on Washington Talking to the river.
He said I've surrounded myself with doctors And deep thinkers.
But big heads with soft bodies Make for lousy lovers.
There was that night that we thought John Berryman could fly.
But he didn't So he died.
She said You're pretty good with words But words won't save your life.

And they didn't. So he died.
He was drunk and exhausted but he was critically acclaimed and respected.
He loved the Golden Gophers but he hated all the drawn out winters.
He likes the warm feeling but he's tired of all the dehydration
Most nights were kind of fuzzy But that last night he had total retention.

But I came softly, slowly
Banging me metal drum
Like Berryman
Bed-wet poet fears
That better man drink taller beers

By the second verse, dear friends My head will burst, my life will end
So, I'd like to start this one off by saying "Live and love"
I was young and at home in bed And I was hanging on the words some poem said
In thirty-one I was impressionable I was upsettable
I tried to make my breathing stop, my heart beat slow
So, when my mom and John came in, I would be cold
From a bridge on Washington Avenue, the year of 1972
Broke my bones and skull and it was memorable
It was half a second and I was halfway down
Do you think I wanted to turn back around and teach a class
Where you kiss the ass that I've exposed to you
And at the funeral, the University cried at three poems they'd present in place of a broken me
I was breaking in a case of suds
At the brass rail, a fall-down drunk with his tongue torn out and his balls removed
And I knew that my last lines were gone while stupidly I lingered on,
other wise men know when it's time to go
And so I should, too
And so I fly into the brightest winter sun
Of this frozen town, I'm stripped down to move on
Dear friends, I'm gone
Well, I hear my father fall
And I hear my mother call
And I hear the others all whisper, "Come home"
I'm sorry to go
I loved you all so
But this is the worst trip I've ever been on
So, hoist up the John B. sail (Hoist up the John B. sail)
See how the main sail sets (See how the main sail sets)
I've folded my heart in my head and I wanna go home
With a book in my hand
In the way I had planned
Well, this is the worst trip I've ever been on

I'm starting to read Berryman's Dream Songs.

here is Berryman reading from them

the title of this post is from Berryman's Dream Song 63

Bats have no bankers and they do not drink
and cannot be arrested and pay no tax
and, in general, bats have it made.
Henry for joining the human race is bats,
known to be so, by few them who think,
out of the cave.

Instead of the cave! ah lovely-chilly, dark,
ur-moist his cousins hang in hundreds or swerve
with personal radar,
crisisless, kid. Instead of the cave? I serve,
inside, my blind term. Filthy four-foot lights
reflect on the whites of our eyes.

He then salutes for sixty years of it
just now a one of valor and insights,
a theatrical man,
O scholar & Legionnaire who as quickly might
have killed as cast you. Stormed with years
he tranquil commands and appears.

we are all busy setting up new virtual homes, but when you get a chance would you stop over at the Vox Diaspora blog, http://voxdiaspora.wordpress.com and leave your new address as a comment in the post "welcome-fellow-dispossessed-voxer"? you don't have to have a wordpress account to leave a comment; you do have to leave a name and email( not visible)

thanks muchly

Six Apart is shutting down its free blogging service, Vox, and as Mike points out this announcement is really about cleaning up for an upcoming merger with VideoEgg. With 250 million uniques worldwide spread across thousands of blogs and a growing ad business, Six Apart isn’t a failure. But, like Slide and like Digg, it hasn’t lived up to its promise either. And products like Vox are a big reason why: As blogging was getting more open and commenters more mean spirited, Vox was intended as a clean, well-lit place in the blogosphere. It had a great UI and some nice features like a “Question of the Day” to get reluctant new bloggers up-and-writing. But then it just sort of withered.

via techcrunch.com

poor bebeh VOX. never know what hit it

APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE

to all of you nice people who are following me. this is an incorrect URL and I am waiting for TypePad to delete as I've requested.

if you'd kindly set your pointers to the correct blog, http://jockeyfullofbourbon.typepad.com/blog/
and the correct profile

http://profile.typepad.com/mariser2

thanks in advance

 

the movers are still working, but please come on in.

there's got to be a place to sit down....somewhere. Unfortunately I can't put on any music - either lost in transit or who-knows-what-happened. at least the cocktail shaker made it. can I fix you a drink?

howdy.
 I've moved my blog to to Wordpress and Typepad.

for Wordpress:  I'm at http://mariser.wordpress.com

NOTE:  for all of you moving to Wordpress,  Typepad, Blogger, or yer own hosted domain, be sure to check the exVoxer blog RedScylla setup:  http:voxdiaspora.wordpress.com it is a central location to collect the blog addresses of exVOXers now at wordpress scattered to the winds.  please leave the address of your wordpress new blog in the comments so it can be added to the blogroll.

for TypePad:  I'm at http://jockeyfullofbourbon.typepad.com/blog/. You can follow me on TypePad by visiting my profile.

update 20100902 21:00 -  well fuck.  I'm more observant than I thought.  prescient even.  the original publication of this post predated the official announcement that VOX is over by a few hours.

like many others I am saddened.  I've made good friends here and have spent a lot of time using VOX's blogging platform, and am was very comfortable here.

MOVING FORWARD  - I have not yet decided if this is my last VOX post, but I do want to let my friends, fellows, peeps, cobloggers, know where I can be found:

-  I have a wordpress blog,  http://mariser.wordpress.com  which is functional and where I've moved many of my VOX posts (not the most recent ones, though)   I may at some point set it up to point to my own domain (dormant as of right now) http://www.mariser.org

- I can be reached at email - (username)@gmail.com

OF INTEREST -   I will be more than happy to help anyone with the upcoming transition.  I highly recommend reading the guide that  blog friend and all around outstanding pal Ross has written on how to move your blog posts to another platform before starting the process of transfering/starting over. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't notice things for weeks, months.   no surprise me it took this long for me to note the footer of every VOX page reads:

Brought to you by Six Apart, creators of Movable Type, Vox and TypePad.
Six Apart Services: Blogs | Free Blogs | Content Management | Advertising

Vox © 2003-2008 Six Apart, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

2003-2008  sad, struck down at such an early age. so much potential  [moment of silence]

        .....................................................................................................................................................

at least we know now when Six Apart decided to pull the plug.  memento mori, VOX.

Grinderman 2 - almost here

Mickey Mouse And The Goodbye Man by Grinderman.

 

the entire album Grinderman 2: Enter the Wolfman is streaming in Grinderman myspace this week in advance of the album release next week, Monday September 13 in the UK and Tuesday September 14 in the US. w00t!

"Bats have no bankers and they do not drink and cannot be arrested and pay no tax and, in general, bats have it made."

Bukowski was a jerk! Berryman was best!
He wrote like wet papier mache,
went the Hemingway
weirdly on wings and with maximum pain
We call upon the author to explain

as Nick is prone to, he namechecks poets in several songs. in We Call Upon the Author, who is this Berryman? understand he'd been a suicide went the Hemingway, but what about weirdly on wings and with maximum pain ?

it didn't take long to find out: when poet John Berryman decided to discard his mortal coil by jumping on the Mississippi river from Minneapolis' Washington avenue bridge one freezing January morning, he missed the river, hitting first the concrete pier and ending in the mud where he suffocated. I get the maximum pain. I do.

three more songs that reference Berryman:   Stuck Between Stations, Mama Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air Burning?, and most striking, John Allyn Smith Sails by Okkervil River, a biography of Berryman that by its end is intertwinned with Sloop John B.

The devil and John Berryman Took a walk together.
They ended up on Washington Talking to the river.
He said I've surrounded myself with doctors And deep thinkers.
But big heads with soft bodies Make for lousy lovers.
There was that night that we thought John Berryman could fly.
But he didn't So he died.
She said You're pretty good with words But words won't save your life.

And they didn't. So he died.
He was drunk and exhausted but he was critically acclaimed and respected.
He loved the Golden Gophers but he hated all the drawn out winters.
He likes the warm feeling but he's tired of all the dehydration
Most nights were kind of fuzzy But that last night he had total retention.

But I came softly, slowly
Banging me metal drum
Like Berryman
Bed-wet poet fears
That better man drink taller beers

By the second verse, dear friends My head will burst, my life will end
So, I'd like to start this one off by saying "Live and love"
I was young and at home in bed And I was hanging on the words some poem said
In thirty-one I was impressionable I was upsettable
I tried to make my breathing stop, my heart beat slow
So, when my mom and John came in, I would be cold
From a bridge on Washington Avenue, the year of 1972
Broke my bones and skull and it was memorable
It was half a second and I was halfway down
Do you think I wanted to turn back around and teach a class
Where you kiss the ass that I've exposed to you
And at the funeral, the University cried at three poems they'd present in place of a broken me
I was breaking in a case of suds
At the brass rail, a fall-down drunk with his tongue torn out and his balls removed
And I knew that my last lines were gone while stupidly I lingered on,
other wise men know when it's time to go
And so I should, too
And so I fly into the brightest winter sun
Of this frozen town, I'm stripped down to move on
Dear friends, I'm gone
Well, I hear my father fall
And I hear my mother call
And I hear the others all whisper, "Come home"
I'm sorry to go
I loved you all so
But this is the worst trip I've ever been on
So, hoist up the John B. sail (Hoist up the John B. sail)
See how the main sail sets (See how the main sail sets)
I've folded my heart in my head and I wanna go home
With a book in my hand
In the way I had planned
Well, this is the worst trip I've ever been on

I'm starting to read Berryman's Dream Songs.

here is Berryman reading from them

the title of this post is from Berryman's Dream Song 63

Bats have no bankers and they do not drink
and cannot be arrested and pay no tax
and, in general, bats have it made.
Henry for joining the human race is bats,
known to be so, by few them who think,
out of the cave.

Instead of the cave! ah lovely-chilly, dark,
ur-moist his cousins hang in hundreds or swerve
with personal radar,
crisisless, kid. Instead of the cave? I serve,
inside, my blind term. Filthy four-foot lights
reflect on the whites of our eyes.

He then salutes for sixty years of it
just now a one of valor and insights,
a theatrical man,
O scholar & Legionnaire who as quickly might
have killed as cast you. Stormed with years
he tranquil commands and appears.

a good sweet year to y'all

forwarding address

we are all busy setting up new virtual homes, but when you get a chance would you stop over at the Vox Diaspora blog, http://voxdiaspora.wordpress.com and leave your new address as a comment in the post "welcome-fellow-dispossessed-voxer"? you don't have to have a wordpress account to leave a comment; you do have to leave a name and email( not visible)

thanks muchly

Six Apart and Vox—How Promise Gets Squandered

Six Apart is shutting down its free blogging service, Vox, and as Mike points out this announcement is really about cleaning up for an upcoming merger with VideoEgg. With 250 million uniques worldwide spread across thousands of blogs and a growing ad business, Six Apart isn’t a failure. But, like Slide and like Digg, it hasn’t lived up to its promise either. And products like Vox are a big reason why: As blogging was getting more open and commenters more mean spirited, Vox was intended as a clean, well-lit place in the blogosphere. It had a great UI and some nice features like a “Question of the Day” to get reluctant new bloggers up-and-writing. But then it just sort of withered.

via techcrunch.com

poor bebeh VOX. never know what hit it

APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE

to all of you nice people who are following me. this is an incorrect URL and I am waiting for TypePad to delete as I've requested.

if you'd kindly set your pointers to the correct blog, http://jockeyfullofbourbon.typepad.com/blog/
and the correct profile

http://profile.typepad.com/mariser2

thanks in advance

pardon the mess

 

the movers are still working, but please come on in.

there's got to be a place to sit down....somewhere. Unfortunately I can't put on any music - either lost in transit or who-knows-what-happened. at least the cocktail shaker made it. can I fix you a drink?

how to find me at Wordpress and at Typepad

howdy.
 I've moved my blog to to Wordpress and Typepad.

for Wordpress:  I'm at http://mariser.wordpress.com

NOTE:  for all of you moving to Wordpress,  Typepad, Blogger, or yer own hosted domain, be sure to check the exVoxer blog RedScylla setup:  http:voxdiaspora.wordpress.com it is a central location to collect the blog addresses of exVOXers now at wordpress scattered to the winds.  please leave the address of your wordpress new blog in the comments so it can be added to the blogroll.

for TypePad:  I'm at http://jockeyfullofbourbon.typepad.com/blog/. You can follow me on TypePad by visiting my profile.

updated - I'm not observant

update 20100902 21:00 -  well fuck.  I'm more observant than I thought.  prescient even.  the original publication of this post predated the official announcement that VOX is over by a few hours.

like many others I am saddened.  I've made good friends here and have spent a lot of time using VOX's blogging platform, and am was very comfortable here.

MOVING FORWARD  - I have not yet decided if this is my last VOX post, but I do want to let my friends, fellows, peeps, cobloggers, know where I can be found:

-  I have a wordpress blog,  http://mariser.wordpress.com  which is functional and where I've moved many of my VOX posts (not the most recent ones, though)   I may at some point set it up to point to my own domain (dormant as of right now) http://www.mariser.org

- I can be reached at email - (username)@gmail.com

OF INTEREST -   I will be more than happy to help anyone with the upcoming transition.  I highly recommend reading the guide that  blog friend and all around outstanding pal Ross has written on how to move your blog posts to another platform before starting the process of transfering/starting over. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't notice things for weeks, months.   no surprise me it took this long for me to note the footer of every VOX page reads:

Brought to you by Six Apart, creators of Movable Type, Vox and TypePad.
Six Apart Services: Blogs | Free Blogs | Content Management | Advertising

Vox © 2003-2008 Six Apart, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

2003-2008  sad, struck down at such an early age. so much potential  [moment of silence]

        .....................................................................................................................................................

at least we know now when Six Apart decided to pull the plug.  memento mori, VOX.