Imagine

Imagine what life would be like with John Lennon still in it.... Not that he's not surviving through his message of love and peace and through the genius of his music.... No, I mean, really alive and breathing the same oxygen as you and I.

The music he would be creating.... The love he'd be sharing with the world in interviews.... Two sons, knowing their father's love and growing up with him...

I hate this day.... Every year.

Here's a friend, Gary Landau, from 1981. He wrote and performed this. Gary is a Beatle fan and fellow Lennonite. He, as well, was/is heartbroken by the loss.
Goodbye, John - Gary Landau 1981

I seem to have stumbled upon the biggest DOUCHE-BAG in the USA - Rep. Joe Barton of (duh) Texas.... Go figure!

I can't believe this guy. What's that I smell? Oh, the smell of his rotting BP shares!

Ronnie James Dio July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010

Wendy Dio said on Ronnie's official site:


"Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever."
Ronnie James Dio Wikipedia

R.I.P. Holy Diver..... You're never the Last in Line.

So STOP SAYING IT!

If you want to KEEP saying it, help us to get back to it!

Need I say more?

Chris Whitley - Living with the Law

I bought this cassette tape in 1991 from a Musicland. I had heard "Big Sky Country" on a local radio station that is no more....

Love this album and it's always a go to when I'm not sure what mood i'm in.

Here's 2 from Living with the Law.


Big Sky Counrty

Phone Call from Leavenworth

Christopher Becker Whitley (August 31, 1960 – November 20, 2005) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.


Highly acclaimed by critics, Whitley achieved modest mainstream success, but had a devoted following. Whitley's style was rooted primarily in blues, but drew on an array of influences and was constantly changing. In 2001, the New York Times described his arc as "restless, moving into noise-rock and minimalist jazz evoking Chet Baker and Sonic Youth as much as Robert Johnson".

In fall 2005, Whitley cancelled his tour due to health issues. Dan Whitley, his brother, revealed on November 11, 2005 that he was "in a comfortable warm home with hospice care at his disposal". Later that week it was revealed that Whitley was terminally ill with lung cancer. He died on November 20, 2005; his brother, Dan, and daughter, Trixie, publicly announced his passing.

Although Whitley wasn't a mainstream act, his passing resonated throughout the music community and garnered coverage and press throughout the world, ranging from Time, the New York Times, and National Public Radio to a tribute mention at the 2006 Grammy Awards.


Daniel Delgado, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Hornsby, Tom Petty, Don Henley, Iggy Pop, Alanis Morissette, John Mayer, Gavin DeGraw, and Keith Richards all count themselves admirers of Whitley's music.


"[When] Chris Whitley died...with him went a big part of modern American blues music. There aren't many fighters for the cause, and Chris never gave up on his mission. His somewhat prostrated place in pop culture earned him a sidebar of an obituary, but to those who knew his work, it registers as one of the most underappreciated losses in all of music." – John Mayer


"Chris Whitley, my friend since 1988. The deep soul he was gifted with is the soul that challenged his life journey. I will forever remember his beauty." – Daniel Lanois

Faroese artist Teitur wrote "Legendary Afterparty" (from The Singer) as a tribute to meeting Whitley.

New York songwriter Matt Keating, a neighbor and close friend of Whitley for several years, wrote the song "They Came in May," in memory of Whitley. The track appears on Keating's 2008 recording, Quixotic.

Peer and critical praise

"I feel more passion for his music than I do for my own. I have a fervent, religious devotion to the magic that Chris Whitley makes." – Dave Matthews

"[That] boy...plays like three men." – Robert Lockwood, Jr.

"The notable constant has been the quality of craftmanship, and the consistent question of how Whitley's combination of super songs, muscular-but-poetic lyrics, athletic voice and rock-god guitar work hasn't earned him a wider audience." – Detroit Free Press

"The post-Hendrix explosion of whammybar wankers hasn't produced a single axeman who can compare to Chris Whitley. His eerie, bluesy voice and American gothic tunes frequently draw attention from the fact that he picks like a pissed off Doc Watson jacked through a Marshall stack" – RollingStone.com

Michael Jackson 'Death Investigation Complete, Doctor Faces Charges'

The LAPD investigation into the death of Michael Jackson has been completed, according to reports. Detectives are expected to present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney within weeks.


TMZ reports that the investigation was "exhaustive" and "extremely thorough", and that Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, is likely to face criminal charges.

Dr Murray is reported to have been with Jackson in the hours before his death on June 25th last year.

It's about time.....

(courtesy of  Robert Benson)

Happy New Year to all!!!!

2009 was supposed to be a year of hope, ended up being the year to cower to the REAL powers that be, The Corporations! So much for REFORM and REBUILDING, huh?
Here's hoping 2010 is better and that Obama and his fellow Dems grow balls.....

Ronnie James Dio diagnosed with Stomach Cancer

Found this piece if news a couple of weeks ago....

Ronnie has been diagnosed with the early stages of stomach cancer. We are starting treatment immediately at the Mayo Clinic. After he kills this dragon, Ronnie will be back on stage, where he belongs, doing what he loves best, performing for his fans.



Thanks to all the friends and fans around the world that have sent well wishes. This has really helped to keep his spirit up.


Long Live Rock and Roll, Long Live Ronnie James Dio"

This was a quote from his website.
 
Here's a gem from the early days BEFORE the likes of Rainbow, Sabbath, etc.
 

1964 - Ronnie Dio & the Prophets

29 years ago today....

...this photograh was taken.

This is John Lennon signing his latest release, "Double Fantasy" for a fan named Mark David Chapman. Chapman would shoot and kill John in about 5 hours after this meeting.

Remember John.

Here's THE album that has Chapman's forensically enhanced fingerprints and John's autograph.

Salt Lake City DJ, Treasures one Of Lennon's Last Autographs

(courtesy of Robert Benson http://www.collectingvinylrecords.blogspot.com/)
Local DJ has held onto record, with one of ex-Beatle's last signatures, for 29 years.



By Ben Fulton
The Salt Lake Tribune

After more than 40 years working in radio, a person is bound to collect lots of memorabilia along the way.

Wooly Waldron, who now works weekend shifts for 103.5 The Arrow, is no exception. Except he tends to lose track, or just plain lose, items that would make most music collectors rabid.

His five original Elvis Presley 45 RPM records pressed on the original Sun label were sold years ago. Waldron also once owned a hen's-tooth-rare radio promotional copy of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." Hell if he knows where it is now.

The one collector's item to which he's held tight was one he did not even remember he had, until he rummaged through his old records almost 10 years ago.

"It was one of those finds that just sweeps over you--a 'Wow' kind of thing," Waldron said. "Once I discovered where it was, I knew I wasn't getting rid of it."

Pulling the vinyl LP sleeve from his original copy of John Lennon's 1980 album "Double Fantasy," Waldron saw the ex-Beatle's famous cartoon signature, plus the call letters KCPX, the Salt Lake City dual-band station he worked for in 1980.

The album was mailed to Waldron by record executive friend Bert Keane, who accompanied San Francisco DJ Dave Sholin into Lennon and wife Yoko Ono's New York City home for a Dec. 8 interview. Later that day, and after a Rolling Stone shoot with photographer Annie Leibovitz that preceded Lennon's interview with Sholin, the pop star was murdered by Mark David Chapman.

Waldron opened the signed LP just weeks after Lennon's assassination, recalling that it was meant as a possible promotional item for the station to be given away to some lucky caller. The record evokes memories of that year every time he handles it, Waldron said, especially now that the 29th anniversary of Lennon's death is fast approaching.

"I knew I couldn't do anything with it. Beatles fans were still reeling," Waldron said. "For fans and people in the music business, it was very much like the Kennedy assassination. You knew where you were when you heard the news and remember it today."

So the album stayed stashed away for almost 20 years. Today, Waldron no longer keeps it at home, but stored in a safe at an undisclosed location.

Waldron has shown the signed LP to a select few people, mostly family and radio station colleagues.

"He took it out of his satchel briefcase one day and I damned near passed out," said Sue Kelley, program director at 103.5 The Arrow. "It's a museum piece."

Waldron said he still has no definitive plans for the record, except to hold onto it until he does. "Maybe I'll donate it to charity for an auction," he said. "After all these years, I'm still thinking of promotion."

SOURCE: http://www.sltrib.com/

'Double Fantasy'

"Double Fantasy" is the comeback album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, released just three weeks before Lennon's death on Dec. 8, 1980. In the aftermath of the murder of Lennon, who was mourned worldwide, the work won the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. A copy of "Double Fantasy" signed by Lennon for Mark David Chapman, his murderer, who was later sentenced to life in prison, sold in 2003 for $525,000 -- the most valuable single record in history.

Source: BBC News

Will you still eat what he vows not to?

(courtesy of seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Food safety lawyer chooses what he WILL NOT eat...EVER!

So what won't you eat if you spend your days focused on horrific food-poisoning cases?

Turns out William Marler's "Do Not Eat" list is short and sweet.

• No raw oysters or raw fish.
• No sprouts. "It's like a petri dish," Marler said of the way they're grown.
• No bagged leafy greens. The greens from dozens of fields are mixed together, so there's more chance of contamination. It's better to buy whole heads of lettuce.
• No hot dogs.
• No unpasteurized juice or milk.
• And no hamburgers. "My growth industry lately has been frozen, preform patties," he said. Scrap meat from thousands of cows gets mixed together at processing plants, so there's no telling what you're getting. If you don't cook them all the way through — which most people don't — any bacteria might survive.

As for the organic craze, Marler isn't convinced the food is safer. Some in the organic community, in fact, are fighting food-safety legislation under consideration in Congress because they think the regulations unfairly burden small farmers.

"The local and organic people need to pay more attention to food safety," he said. "They say if you can look a farmer in the eye, he won't poison you. I say bull."

Maureen O'Hagan

Marilyn Monroe

I have just recently become a huge fan of the late MM. It wasn't until recently that I was struck by her pristine beauty.

Here is MM early on in her career. Quite possibly still Norma Jean at this point.

I love the movie "The Seven Year Itch". Really is a great flick, and MM plays the bombshell exactly as she should. After seeing the MM biography on the Biography channel, I became even more sad that she left us so early. She really was a troubled soul as far back as her childhood. Very sad.

This is one of my favorite photos of MM. Just a touch of innocence. Fresh, young, powerful! And she knew it!

Scare yourself silly all year long!

Enjoy the link to one of my favorite sites. This documents the fall of western civilization, one Walmart shopper at a time!
BEWARE! You may lose your faith in humanity.....or your lunch......or both!
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/index.php

Something to look forward to...