Sunday, December 31, 2006

MERRY NEW YEAR ! ! ! !


From all of us @ ALE ProCo,
have a safe and pleasant celebration tonight.
Blessed Be All, keep your fluids pure.
Most of all,
DO NOT ARGUE
when someone wants to take your keys.
Some people do care about others.
Doctor Strangelove

Monday, December 25, 2006

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. . . . . . . JAMES BROWN IS DEAD.



I heard about this last night, but could not get on to post about it. He will be missed by many of us that have worked in music, or just listen to it.

This story is from the Associated Press:


'Godfather of Soul' James Brown Dies
Dec 25, 9:46 PM (ET)

By HARRY R. WEBER

ATLANTA (AP) - James Brown, the undeniable "Godfather of Soul," told friends from his hospital bed that he was looking forward to performing on New Year's Eve, even though he was ill with pneumonia. His heart gave out a few hours later, on Christmas morning.

The pompadoured dynamo whose classic singles include "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)" died Monday of heart failure, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. He was 73.

"People already know his history, but I would like for them to know he was a man who preached love from the stage," said friend Charles Bobbit, who was with Brown at the hospital. "His thing was 'I never saw a person that I didn't love.' He was a true humanitarian who loved his country."

The entertainer with the rough-edged voice and flashy footwork also had diabetes and prostate cancer that was in remission, Bobbit said. Brown initially seemed fine at the hospital, Copsidas said. Three days before his death, he had participated in his annual toy giveaway in Augusta, and he was looking forward to his New Year's Eve show.

"Last night, he said 'I'm going to be there. I'm the hardest working man in show business,'" Copsidas said Monday. He said Brown planned to perform during a two-week tour in Canada after hitting Times Square.

Brown was himself to the end, at one point saying, "I'm going away tonight," Bobbit said at a news conference later Monday.

"I didn't want to believe him," he said.

A short time later, Brown sighed quietly three times, closed his eyes and died, Bobbit said.

One of the major musical influences of the past 50 years, Brown was to rhythm and dance music what Bob Dylan was to lyrics. From Mick Jagger to Michael Jackson, David Bowie to Public Enemy, his rapid-footed dancing, hard-charging beats and heartfelt yet often unintelligible vocals changed the musical landscape.

He was one of the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.

"He was an innovator, he was an emancipator, he was an originator. Rap music, all that stuff came from James Brown," entertainer Little Richard, a longtime friend of Brown's, told MSNBC.

"James Brown changed music," said Rev. Al Sharpton, who toured with Brown in the 1970s and imitates his hairstyle to this day.

"He made soul music a world music," Sharpton said. "What James Brown was to music in terms of soul and hip-hop, rap, all of that, is what Bach was to classical music. This is a guy who literally changed the music industry. He put everybody on a different beat, a different style of music. He pioneered it."

Sharpton will officiate at Brown's funeral service, details of which were still incomplete, Copsidas said.

Brown won a Grammy for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for "Living In America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.)

He even had a brief but memorable role on the big screen as a manic preacher in the 1980's movie "The Blues Brothers."

Brown, who lived in Beech Island, S.C., near the Georgia line, had a turbulent personal life that included charges of abusing drugs and alcohol. After a widely publicized, drug-fueled confrontation with police in 1988 that ended in an interstate car chase, Brown spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program.

From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, "Please, Please, Please" in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" and often tried to prove it to his fans, said Jay Ross, his lawyer of 15 years.

Brown's stage act was as memorable, and as imitated, as his records, with his twirls and spins and flowing cape, his repeated faints to the floor at the end.

"He was dramatic to the end - dying on Christmas Day," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a friend of Brown's since 1955. "Almost a dramatic, poetic moment. He'll be all over the news all over the world today. He would have it no other way."

His "Live at The Apollo" in 1962 is widely considered one of the greatest concert records ever. He often talked of a 1964 concert in which organizers made the mistake of having the Rolling Stones, not him, close the bill, remembering Mick Jagger waiting offstage, nervously chain smoking, as he pulled off his matchless show.

"To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one's coming even close," rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told the AP.

Brown routinely lost two or three pounds each time he performed and kept his furious concert schedule in his later years even as he fought prostate cancer, Ross said.

With his tight pants, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince. And the early rap generation overwhelmingly sampled his music and voice as they laid the foundation of hip-hop culture.

"Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me," Brown told The AP in 2003.

Born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, Brown was abandoned as a 4 year old to the care of relatives and friends. He grew up on the streets of Augusta, Ga., in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it, learning how to hustle to survive.

By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 3 1/2 years in reform school for breaking into cars. While there, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B.

In January 1956, King Records of Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later "Please, Please, Please" was in the R&B Top Ten.

Brown is survived by his fourth wife, Tomi Rae Hynie, one of his backup singers, and at least four children - two daughters and sons Daryl and James Brown II, Copsidas said.

---

Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Greg Bluestein in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Blessed Be to "THE Godfather" of not only soul, but of all music.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

She gave too much

So, let's get this right:

  • School holds food drive to help the local food bank.
  • A student brings in more food than other students.
  • The teacher sends food back home so that the other students "would not feel bad for not bringing as much food".

I say the whole warm & fuzzy Poli.-correct bullshit has gotten WAY out of hand when a little girl tries her best to help others & gets repremanded for doing so.

TorontoSun.com - Toronto And GTA - She gave too much

Blessed Be, & Merry Yule!
Dr. S.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Happy Holiday Video - Charlie Brown Christmas

I saw this & laughed, giggled, and then realized how silly some people are around this time of year.

I am not one for the whole "It's the holiday season, let's be nice for a while to each other".

I subscribe to "You are alive, they are alive, we all need to at least try to be nice to each other regardless of 'the season', all year, and just deal with it".

The time of year should not be the whole or only reason to be nice to the others that you encounter. Do it to be nice, it sometimes will make you feel good. Regardless of the season, the phase of the moon, or how the outlook is for your favorite team, at least try to be nice to others that share this planet with yourself.

OK, enough of the rant. Anyone that has watched the tv show 'Scrubs' will enjoy this:
- Charlie Brown Christmas -
Performed by the Cast of Scrubs


Happy Holidays! Dr. S.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

I NEED A WARM BED!

If any of you that has known me for a while, I have had a waterbed for a very long time. I made it for twelve years with my old mattress. Then I got a new one three years ago for christmas. It died last year & the warranty had expired. [The company is not in business anymore anyway].

SO I ASK:

If anyone out there knows of a functional, [read DOES NOT LEAK], queen-size water bed mattress that would not cost me an arm & a leg, write an email or post a comment.
With the cold weather lately, I have been reminded how nice it is to climb into a warm bed after being in sub-zero temps. That, and it is also cool in the hot days of summer when I shut off the heater.

And I am getting tired of sleeping on a futon mattress using comforters as padding. I will be damned to spend $220+ to replace the bladder of my bed when I paid $32.00 + a 12 pack on the whole bed itself back in '90.

So, if you want to help someone in need, do it. If you want to feed hungry kids, do it. And if you feel like helping out the Childrens Home Society. Please do it, they need all the support they can get.



But if you find a queen-size waterbed mattress that is either cheap or free. Let me know.

Blessed Be, and please don't scream at people without prevocation. Just be nice, and tell others to do so too. At least for a few weeks. People need to relearn how before our lives explode into chaos.