Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion (1975)

 

 

Aerosmith Dream On (1973)

"The past is gone..."

 

The Rolling Stones: You Can't Always Get What You Want ('69)

 

 

Rachel Platten - Fight Song (Official Video)

I like this song a lot; despite the generic singer, and despite the fact that the utterly generic, utterly corrupt Hillary Clinton campaign co-opted it.

 

Like a small boat
On the ocean
Sending big waves
Into motion
Like how a single word
Can make a heart open
I might only have one match
But I can make an explosion

And all those things I didn't say
Wrecking balls inside my brain
I will scream them loud tonight
Can you hear my voice this time?

This is my fight song
Take back my life song
Prove I'm alright song
My power's turned on
Starting right now I'll be strong
I'll play my fight song
And I don't really care if nobody else believes
'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

Losing friends and I'm chasing sleep
Everybody's worried about me
In too deep
Say I'm in too deep (in too deep)
And it's been two years I miss my home
But there's a fire burning in my bones
Still believe
Yeah, I still believe

And all those things I didn't say
Wrecking balls inside my brain
I will scream them loud tonight
Can you hear my voice this time?

This is my fight song
Take back my life song
Prove I'm alright song
My power's turned on
Starting right now I'll be strong
I'll play my fight song
And I don't really care if nobody else believes
'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

A lot of fight left in me

Like a small boat
On the ocean
Sending big waves
Into motion
Like how a single word
Can make a heart open
I might only have one match
But I can make an explosion

This is my fight song
Take back my life song
Prove I'm alright song
My power's turned on
Starting right now I'll be strong (I'll be strong)
I'll play my fight song
And I don't really care if nobody else believes
'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me

Know I've still got a lot of fight left in me

 

Songwriters
Dave Bassett, Rachel Platten

 

 

Cleaning Up

Spent 6 hours tonight cleaning up my apartment: Primarily getting my books in order.

 

KT Tunstall - Suddenly I see

The 2006 KT Tunstall song (ab)used in the 2008 Hillary campaign.

 

Donald Trump's entire Republican convention speech

Donald J Trump a week ago. Truth telling versus platitudes.

 

Democratic National Convention - Our Fight Song

Love this song, even this DNC version of it. Gives me goosebumps. So sorry, though, that the triumphant message of spirit has been co-opted by such a corrupt political sheep as Hillary Clinton. The true message of the song has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton or any of the politically expedient things she allegedly "stands for."

 

p.s. Reminds me of the 2008 song that was played constantly during her then-campaign: "Beautiful Girl," by K.T. Tunstall. Another GREAT song completely co-opted for an utterly corrupt purpose.

 

Democrat Convention 2016

Watching the Democratic convention tonight, I was struck by how many of the speakers hearkened back to, and focused on, past civil rights battles as if they were still going on today. I agree that 1954 (Brown vs. Board of Education) through 1965 were watershed years for civil rights, addressing major issues of inequality.

Today though? Today, the Democrats are touting the rights of low-life creeps like Michael Brown (Ferguson) or Trayvon Martin (Florida), both of whom were proven to have beaten the men who ultimately shot them in self-defense. Not to mention the case of Sandra Bland, which is often brought up in left-wing circles as yet another case of alleged "police brutality." Watch the YouTube video on the Bland police stop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuPvDMN73hQ . (Bland yells and curses at the cop until he arrests her; she later kills herself in her cell. Hillary Clinton later publicly cites Bland as an example of police "brutality.")

Personally, I'm with Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks rather than scumbags like Michael Brown and Sandra Bland. Democrats today have completely lost touch with what is truly meaninful when it comes to civil rights. They're glomming on to '50s/'60s battles that, while important then, have already been fought and won. There's nothing bold about, in 2016, declaring yourself in favor of civil rights.

Today, perhaps, the Dems, in their alleged concern for "social justice," should be focusing on why young black men are killing other young black men at such alarming rates. The Left alleges that the police are out to get young black men... But who's actually killing the "young black men"? Take a look at the murder stats. And take a look in the mirror, Black Community. Fix yourselves before you blame white people for, in 2016, allegedly subjugating you. You're fucking yourselves up, and have been doing so for a long time.

Paul Simon for Hillary Clinton - DNC

Which is more past its prime? The Democrats or Paul Simon? Appropriate that Simon performed tonight. Both he and the Democrats had their heyday in 1968.

 

Free - All Right Now (1969)

Trump closed out his Republican convention with this 1969 song by Free. Not sure why! :)

 

 

There she stood in the street, smiling from her head to her feet
I said, "Hey, what is this?"
Now baby maybe, maybe she's in need of a kiss
I said, "Hey, what's your name, baby?
Maybe we can see things the same
Now don't you wait or hesitate
Let's move before they raise the parking rate"
All right now baby, it's all right now
All right now baby, it's all right now

Let me tell you now

I took her home to my place, watching every move on her face
She said, "Look, what's your game, baby?
Are you tryin' to put me in shame? "
I said, "Slow, don't go so fast
Don't you think that love can last? "
She said, "Love, lord above, now you're gonna trick me in love"
All right now baby, it's all right now
All right now baby, it's all right now
Yeah, it's alright now

Let me tell you all about it now

Took her home to my place, watching every move on her face
She said, "Look, what's your game?
Are you tryin' to put me in shame? "
"Baby", I said, "Slow, slow, don't go so fast
Don't you think that love can last? "
She said, "Love, lord above, now you're gonna trick me in love"
All right now baby, it's all right now
All right now baby, it's all right now

 

The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want (TV Show '69)

Someone needs to interview Trump about his constant playing of this song, including at the conclusion of the Republican National Convention Thursday night.

 

Heart - Magic Man (1976)

Heart means nothing to me; this is purely for Ginny.

 

Which is the cutest car in the lot? MINE, of course! :)

Today, I just drove for the first time since 2007.

 

 



Trump and the Stones: Tell Me (1964)

I'm puzzled (but utterly charmed) by the song that Trump has been playing for the past year at his rallies: 1964's "Tell Me" by the Stones. It's a completely ridiculous political theme song. But it's also a touching personal song from when someone was 15 -- played at rallies when the now-69-year-old man is running for office but still wanting to share something true about himself. 

 

 

Bay City Rollers, 1975, Top o' the Pops

40 years later, I STILL think this a great song.

 

Good Things About Having a Car

I haven't had a car since February 2007, when I sold my Ford Contour weeks before I moved to New York City. Didn't need a car in NYC. But once I returned to Austin in 2010, I could have used one. I never felt comfortable enough financially until now to get one. Here's why I've hated riding the bus in Austin so:

I hate many bus people. The city buses are full of nasty cursing, stinking, puking, asshole-ish people. I now won't have to be around them.

I hate some bus drivers. The ones who stop and take breaks (either pee or Coke) in the middle of their route.

I hate all of the added time at the bus stops. There might be a given time on the schedule, but very rarely does the bus arrive/depart at that time. Once I get my car, it'll be about 10 minutes from home to work. On the bus, it's almost always 45 minutes or more with all the wait time.

I love to swim. Aside from living at my mother's house for 3 months in 2010 when I first returned from NYC, I haven't been able to swim. Sure, I could lug a lawn-chair on the bus, but... no. I used to swim all the time in the summer before NY, and I look forward to it again.

I look forward to being able to buy toilet paper and taking it home without idiots on the bus making dumb-ass comments about it: "Whooo! Toilet paper!"

I look forward to driving home from the grocery store instead of hauling two bags of groceries onto the bus and then walking another half-mile to my actual home. Fall/Winter/Spring are relatively OK, but from May through September, I used to curse everyone I knew who never offered me a ride while I was sweating my way home, stopping several times to catch my breath.

I look forward to being able to buy a bookshelf or a foot-stool or a stereo component or ANYTHING. I've always had to buy things online and have them delivered.

I look forward to buying beer on sale at the grocery store instead of paying a jacked-up price at the convenience store closest to my house.

I look forward to listening to music that I want to listen to.

I look forward to meeting family members for birthdays and holidays without feeling like "the loser of the family" who has to be picked up for an occasion.

Well put together

I was looking up Newt Gingrich on Wikipedia, since he might be Trump's running mate. Here's Gingrich's current wife, Callista. (Gingrich met her on Capitol Hill in '93 while she was an intern, married her in 2000.)

What struck me so much about this photo: The woman was born a year AFTER I was (me in '65, Callista in '66). I'm 50, and still feel and dress like I'm 30. This woman is only 49 yet looks like she's 65: Put together like a wealthy 65-year-old: the hair, the makeup, the pearls. I could not even conjure up the facial expression necessary for this look.... (Don't get me wrong: I think she looks good. But... as a woman of her exact generation, she's like a foreign entity to me!)

 

 

Black cop after Trump rally (March 2016)