Lady Gaga's CD

I love Lady Gaga's CD, "The Fame." I've had it for around three weeks. At first I was just listening to bits of it on my Ipod at the exercise place. My headphones are not the greatest. It's hard to hear things beyond a tinny and superficial way. So I wasn't getting into the CD.

But the last couple days, I put the actual CD on, and while I've been working on other projects, I just let it play. I've listened to it six or seven times and love it. I'm definitely getting familiar with the songs beyond just the two (so far) hits.

The two big hits (so far) are "Just Dance" and "Poker Face." For these two, I have heard them on the radio. But I don't listen to the radio so much that I get sick of things. They are both excellent.

The other songs (there are 12 others) are great too. Among my favorites are "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich," "Boys Boys Boys," "Brown Eyes," and "I Like It Rough." But I actually like all the songs. The CD speeds by and it all hangs together in a nice way.

"Brown Eyes" is the softest song and a pretty one. "Boys Boys Boys" is the funnest song, just for the sake of fun. "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" starts off three songs about money and fame, including also "The Fame" and "Money Honey." Lady Gaga even says she's into "material," so she might be called the New Material Girl. But I hope not.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... And Spring

Bowing and pranams all around ... namaste, have a nice day.

Here's a movie, "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring." It's Korean. I don't think I've ever seen a Korean movie before. It is definitely a good one. Have you ever heard of it? Do you ever look at the foreign titles at the local video store? I wasn't looking for it but saw it and decided to risk $1.89 to watch it. Good choice.

This is a movie like I always think I want to see. A movie without a clear plot. The conflict throughout is man against himself, and even then it's more like man accepts himself, then overcomes himself to experience his real self. There's guns and sex and murder and unpleasant things aplenty, but it's all part of the person's development and tangential to the story in a way it wouldn't be in other movies.

You can tell by the title and by the sequential nature of it -- seasonal vignettes -- what's going to happen, which is OK. You just want to see whatever growth, whatever acceptance, whatever regrets, etc., are going to come about.

There's an older man and a child, who grows, on a small lake, in the middle of the lake, in a little house. They have a wooden dock surrounding the house, out there floating. They have a rowboat and they're back and forth to the shore continually. They do various Buddhist rituals, and that's their religion. It's very interesting that their bedroom is not walled off from the rest of the interior of the house but they have a standing door that they use. I'm thinking I need one of those kind of houses. No walls, but still have doors. It seemed appealing.

The young man grows, makes mistakes, learns about suffering by suffering. The old man seems quiet, not exactly disappointed but expecting all this. He doesn't jump in continually to help correct the young man's mistakes, but does offer some guidance, especially when he's a tiny kid. The kid's tormenting little animals and learns a lesson that stays with him till the end.

They go through the seasons. There's a girl on board for a while. This is where the sex happens. The young man is growing up and has to learn.

As for the appearance of things in the movie, it's all very beautiful. It plods along in places where you'd expect them to cut it and let time lapse more quickly. But it's all OK. You see him crawling up a hill in excruciating detail, for example. It's a movie to think about.

Several quite unexpected things happen. At least from my point of view. It's a movie worth finding.

W.

I was overjoyed to finally be rid of George W. Bush. So it took some doing to decide to watch the movie W.

I read the reviews and pretty much figured what it was going to be. And it turned out to be all that and more. But however good it was, it's not one I want to see again. It's one I would definitely recommend renting, not buying. I want to be rid of Bush, not to see him on my shelf for future entertainment.

One reviewer said it was a fairly sympathetic portrayal of Bush. And I think that's true. He's shown as loud, a big hick, a dunce, consumed with a desire to please his dad, and all the rest. I never thought he was that much of a brain, but I think he is probably smarter in real life than the movie showed. So as much as I dislike, I think I would've gone for an even more sympathetic portrayal, in the sense of keeping it closer to the facts.

You could feel some of those moments where it wasn't according to facts. Like where Bush made some of his more well-known verbal bobbles, like "Is our children learning," "misunderestimating me," others like that. They seemed to me to be in different contexts than they were in actual history. But that's OK. It's necessary to do a certain telescoping, stylizing to make it into a movie of coherence and not just a documentary.

I liked it how Bush kept calling Cheney "Vice." I don't know if he really did that, but it lent itself well to the dumb kind of portrayal Oliver Stone was going for. We definitely know he had nicknames for people, so it didn't seem unbelievable.

Even though there was some sympathetic stuff, there's no way that watching the movie made me long for or like the Bush administration any more. He was disgusting, rotten to the core, and his administration was criminal. Good riddance to bad rubbish. May your name be trompled on in the dust of revolted history and all that. But despite Bush's own sorrows as a leader, it made you long for more intelligence in this country, that we wouldn't elect a crumb like that, just because he was the first George Bush's son. How stupid the whole political scene was in 1999 and 2000, that we had to get this twerp and all the other twerps he brought with him.

One other thing. The portrayal of key figures in his administration was interesting. Cheney, just as sour and miserable as real life. Condi Rice, I think she got a severe portrayal. She seems amused but also very admiring and supportive of this dunce. It makes you wonder what makes her tick. Colin Powell tries to be a straight arrow but is bent by the persistence of the ideologues. Rumsfeld, virtually not there. Wolfy, seeking every in for ideology.

Good movie. Provokes thoughts. Provokes a lot of sorrow. Great ending.

1960s Psychedelic Hippie Culture and Music

There's some nice things at 1960s Psychedelic Hippie Culture and Music, album reviews, articles, and so forth.

Now that the '60s has basically slipped into faded memory mode, we can put some of our disagreements behind us and enjoy the music. Myself -- a right-winger if ever there was one, obviously preferring the records of The Spokesmen, Sgt. Barry Sadler, and Victor Lundberg -- have learned to like these other artists of the era, druggies and slackers. Just kidding.

The blog has a track by track rundown of Revolver. It gives some basic trivia, mostly familiar to Beatles' fans although I hadn't heard that bit about Paul doing "Good Morning Sunshine" inspired by the Lovin' Spoonful. There's a lengthy post on Electric Ladyland, which I didn't read. I love the album, of course. I remember reading a guy's "desert island" picks one time, which I believe was in Discoveries, and Ladyland was, I believe, his top pick. It's quality, plus, if you're going to be on a desert island you naturally want longer albums!

There's lots of albums! Lots of possibilities for this guy's blog. Check it out. I know I will be.

(Concerning Barry Sadler, his track "Ballad of the Green Berets" actually was pretty great. Number 1! It's corny, but still good. The only track by Victor Lundberg I have is his "Letter to My Teenage Son," which has to be one of the worst things ever recorded. It's corny in another way. The Spokesmen's "Dawn of Correction," I have never actually heard (unless I've heard it on the radio unknown to me or have completely forgotten it), although I've had the 45 and just got a nice copy of the LP a couple days ago. I still haven't gotten around to it. "Eve of Destruction" has good meaning, in my opinion, and I'm still reluctant to listen to these "me too" guys. They seem to me like musical Freepers, even though I read the other day there's some connection to Danny and the Juniors, songwriters, whatever. I've gotta go!)

The Nashville Sound

My picture isn't very good, not square, but it's good enough for today.

That is an album called "The Nashville Sound," an LP on Design Records, DLP-634. I saw a couple Design discographies online, 1 and 2.

This album has been in my room here for quite a while, unplayed and ignored. But today I noticed a name on it that sounded interesting, "Rocky Bill Ford," and wondered who he might be. I looked him up, and sure enough, there was some information on him. And there's even a CD with his complete recordings, which, who knows, I might have to get someday.

It says over there that "Little is known of William A. Ford whose prime income came from his work as a barber in Houston. He met Peck Touchton and his band as a place called Betros’ Dine and Dance on Studewood and asked to sit in, saying he was looking for a band to back him on some songs he had written." One guy remembered that on his left hand, he’d injured his index finger, couldn’t use it at all. So he played guitar with three fingers, open chords all the time. "He was easy going; ambitious, but not too ambitious. He knew that nobody could make a living playing music…None of us quit our day jobs.”

And yet here a couple tracks from Rocky Bill Ford have been there on my floor, maybe a year! Never heard by my mortal ears!

I'm about to listen to this album...

1) Patsy Cline - A Stranger In My Arms -- Nice, slow swinging country sound. "We have lost the flame that warms. Though I hold you while we're dancing, you're a stranger in my arms." She goes on to say that every story has an ending, and this is it. And once it's over it's over, because lovers can never be friends. Having said all that, she'll still dream about him. But she knows he'll never want her, because...he's a stranger in my arms. Sad song, nice clear sound, good band.

2) Patsy Cline - Dear God -- She goes to church on Sunday and makes vows that she breaks on Monday. The rest of the week she does as she pleases, then on Sunday she prays on her knees. She's not worthy, but she prays, to turn back from the path she's trod. "You'll never be sorry, dear God." There's a mournful steel guitar on this one, and an accompanying fiddle. Slow, sorrowful song.

3) Carl Belew - Too Much To Lose -- A real sweet sound to the instruments, also a slow, sad sound. Carl's voice is very silky and touching. The woman he sings to is "Too Much To Lose," and he'll never be free. He's hoping she doesn't grow tired of him. He'll love her forever, "How can you say that we're through. Can't you see that I need you? And you're too much to lose." Nice, simple country track. Very pretty vocal and instruments.

4) Carl Belew - A Wasted Love Affair -- A rockier song, more nasally, rockabilly vocal style, traditional country though. "I'm wastin' my time with a wasted love affair." Mid speed, not too fast. Good guitar after the first verse. "I know I was untrue, dear, I know I made you blue, and all the happiness I've ever known was when I had you. Now you're gone and it's no use dear, to ask if you still care. I'm wastin' my time with a wasted love affair."

5) Rocky Bill Ford - At My Expense -- "You've had your fun at my expense." Generic country, with an interesting voice, mildly nasally but maybe his normal voice. The instruments are a lot like your average Ernest Tubb song. He has a nice voice, a soft edge, some reserve. "You can shed a tear, or you can shout for joy, but you have seen the last of this foolish boy." He can't forget the mistakes, since first they met. Good workaday kind of country song.

6) Hank Locklin - I Always Lose -- "I'm all alone, I always lose." Sorrowful song, a path that leads to ruins, hard luck is waiting. Each time he tries, he always loses. Good strong voice, again, a workaday song. Some of these songs sound very tossed-off, a good excuse to do a song. This one has an extensive instrumental mid-section, with a good full combo. Then here he comes again. "Deep down inside old dreams still linger. They haunt me so, I keep the blues. All through the night, I wake up crying. I can't go on, I always lose." Not a real slow song, but mid pace and marching alone. Hank has a pleasant voice.

7) Hank Locklin - It's So Hard To Say I Love You -- Fiddle introduction, then a little falsetto by Hank. Quicker paced song. He's loved her since he first met her. Instrumental middle, quick finger work, I think that was a guitar, then snappy fiddle. "It's so hard to say I love you, it's so hard to tell you how I feel." It seems his dreams will never turn out real.

8) Ferlin Husky - Road To Heaven -- Slow song, not quite as clean sounding a recording. Singing of heaven, can't be more than heaven as long as there's only one you. "Love is the highway to heaven," and it's the password to heaven, and she's someone he loves, and the password. I lost my train of thought. The road leading to his love is the only road to heaven is the upshot of this. The recording quality on this track is below the others, a muddy road to heaven. But it's good. It sounds like a message from somewhere beyond.

9) Ferlin Husky - Holy Not A Holiday -- Bemoans that Christmas has gone from "holy" to a "drunken holiday." It's holy, holy, not a holiday. It's sad that children have to watch their parents get drunk. He wonders how his Savior feels when he looks down and sees people fightin' and cussin' as they celebrate his birth. Because it's "holy, holy, not a holiday." Ferlin asks us to think what we're doing. Look to this day as a sacred one, not just another Christmas Eve. "So stop and think there, dear brother..." A mid pace, cool song, very sincere sounding, I love it.

10) Rocky Bill Ford - Since You've Gone -- Clean guitar opening on a slightly slower song. "You'll never know how it hurts to see you go." This guy's voice is cool, nasally and about to lose control, pitch or something. It has a very loose feel to it, like a guy doing it on the first take to save money. A nice piano bit in the middle, then guitar fills in after that. The recording quality is mid level. Next verse: Speaks of his dreams and hopeless schemes, seeing her smiling face, and wondering why she said goodbye, if time could but erase, heartaches and sighs, and all your selfish pride, since you've gone there's nothing left for me. Another workaday country song from the output of Rocky Bill Ford!

Some of these budget LPs I've had around for years, but have never listened to them. I used to wonder where the tracks came from. But obviously they were just tracks like "Now That's Music," tracks someone licensed to put out budget LPs with. Maybe not top of the line hits. But really, how much could it cost to license a couple tracks from Rocky Bill Ford? You wouldn't think it'd be much. But Patsy and Ferlin were big stars, and I know Carl was fairly well known. Hank Locklin, I've had or have a budget record by him. He was probably best known in the strictly country realm, guessing.

Anyway, that was a fun listen. The country sound of that time is very simple, the guys playing the instruments know their licks so well they're asleep in the sessions, and there's nothing especially challenging to sing about. Man leaving woman, woman leaving man, crying, sad, wanting you back, that's it!