Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely (or How the World Learned To Stop Worrying and to Love The Bomb.)

On February 25th, 1967 an American radio personality up in Seattle on managed to get a hold of Beatle George Harrison on the trans-atlantic telephone (it was his 24th birthday). He broadcast the conversation with George live on the air. During the conversation George said that they were back in the studio working on a new album. He went on to enthusiastically describe a new song that the Beatles had just completed only two days earlier, titled A Day in the Life. Finally, George played the song live from Britain over the long distance telephone wires for the benefit of the unbelievably lucky Seattle radio audience that was tuned into radio station KJR that afternoon. What they were treated to was yet another new mysterious Beatle composition that started out sounding vaguely acoustic and folkish, only to twice morph into a growing sonic crescendo of gargantuan proportions that resemble the take off of a Boeing 747 live in the recording studio.. The disc jockey was as stunned and speechless as the listening audience. The detonation countdown on the Beatle doomsday device was now initiated and the coming super nova was now unstoppable The buzz began to spread everywhere that something absolutely brilliant and wonderful, a once in a life time cultural event was about to explode on our watch. Radio stations started speculating about the coming Beatles album describing it in mythical proportions months before it was released. Even teen magazines such as “16 Magazine” which had more or less moved on to the Monkees contained psychedelic lifestyle photo shoots of the Beatles such as Paul McCartney conducting the Day in the Life orchestra in a butcher’s apron. Other music artists began a countdown watch for the next Beatles album. Print and broadcast media picked up on the fact that something of unfathomable cultural significance was about to happen, and there was again an up spike in Beatles related coverage. And that spring of 1967, the rivets that held together the structural vestiges of the cultural establishment, some that had successfully withstood the 1964 onslaught of Beatle mania, began to pop off. A catastrophic failure of the establishment was imminent. The San Francisco psychedelic city state which had been cooking for a couple of years on the national back burner began boiling over the cultural pot in which it had been stewing and enveloped the front page of the national consciousness, and even of the greater collective consciousness of the western world. And in London, a home grown psychedelic sub-culture was mushrooming and overtaking the British Empire and western Europe. In addition to the Beatles, it featured an up and coming band named The Pink Floyd and an American born phenomenon named Jimi Hendrix who was exploding across the island nation and set to sweep over the entire planet. As the release date of the mystery Beatle Album approached, news and print media picked up on them again and the chain reaction began to reach critical mass once again. On Am radio, an actual countdown began of the number of days until “we have that new Beatles album”. Then at the beginning of June it hit the public like a nuclear bomb embedding itself into the body politic of the world. Across the world, radio stations put the LP onto the turntable and let it play without interruption except to occasionally break in with “oh my God!!!” followed by their attempts to try and describe the cover to the listening audience or to even grasp the cultural significance of the event. Sergeant Pepper’s One And Only Lonely Hearts Club Band has left the building And thus was unleashed a second 1960’s revolution uprooting and toppling cultural institutions both great and small. It is hard to over state the sudden, immediate, and irreversible effect that the release of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band had on mass consciousness that golden and idyllic summer of love. It was art of the highest order Here is a home movie the Beatles made of the recording sessions for A Day in the Life. How many British celebrities can you spot in this movie?. A bit of documentary on the making of this masterpiece.

My Brother Almost Died Today

email from my brother: This morning at first light i took gerald, the old dumb ass to the river to go fishing and because of him I almost made the news....... BACKED MY BOAT DOWN THE RAMP AND TIED A ROPE TO MY BOAT AND THE OTHER END TO THE DOCK.....THEN FLOATED THE BOAT OFF THE TRAILER INTO THE RIVER.....THEN PARKED MY TRUCK AND RETURNED TO THE RAMP ONLY TO SEE MY BOAT FLOATING DOWN THE RIVER>>>> DUMB ASS GERALD UNTIED IT AND THREW THE ROPE IN THE BOAT...I DIDNT THIK AND DOVE IN ( LOST MY 300 DOLLAR GLASSES ) BY THEN MY BOAT WAS AT LEAST 150 FEET AWAY IN 35 ft OF WATER... WHEN I FINALLY GOT TO IT I COULDNT GET IN AND I FIGURED I WAS FUCKED......I MANAGED TO GRAB THE ROPE AFTER I GOT SOME WIND BACK AND KIND OF BREAST STROKED IT TO THE BANK WHERE I COULD GET IN.....CAN YOU SAY PISSED OFF ?????? I THINK THIS WAS HIS LAST FISHING TRIP WITH ME PERIOD.....AND HE STILL DRIVES A CAR NOT KNOWING WHAT THE HELL HES DOING.... I CAME ACROSS A HUGE BLACK BEAR SWIMMING ACROSS THE RIVER AND LEFT MY CAMERA AT HOME TODAY BECAUSE HE CANT TAKE A PICTURE WITHOUT FUCKING IT UP EVERYTIME....MAN THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SHOT OF A LIFETIME I CANT BELIEVE HOW OUT OF SHAPE I AM>>>>>NO STAMINA LIKE I USED TO HAVE

Impeach Bush and Cheney NOW

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind... ~Hosea 8:7 I call on the US House of Representitives to to IMPEACH George W. Bush and Dick Cheney NOW. I then call on the US Senate to CONVICT George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, thus removing them from office. They committed serial treason against the Constitution of the United States of America. They committed serial treason against the American people. They committed serial crimes against all humanity and against the planet itself. They are vile, serial liars. They are the worst sort of human filth. They HATE America and Americans. They HATE Freedom. They HATE justice, mercy, and rule of law. The despise meekness. They are both the fetid and befouled handmaidens of Satan. Matthew 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

WAR IS OVER (If You Want it)

WAR IS OVER (If You Want It)

A hearty and well deserved “Congratulations” to Barack Obama

Iowa, a red state that the IDIOT BUSH took in 2004 had a massive swing in to the left tonight, with more that twice as many people showing up to vote progressive liberal than to vote for the morally bankrupt Republican party. This includes FIVE PERCENT of the core of the republican party who abandoned them vote Democrat -- and almost ALL of the voted for the winner: Barack Obama. For those of you who are under forty, you about to see something that you have never experienced and therefore cannot conceive of: a massive all encompassing transformation of American and a totally repudiation and trash canning of what we have seen in this country -- especially the last eight years. Roosevelt did it in 1932. JFK did in in 1960. Reagan did it on a minor scale in 1980. And now, comes the tsunami. Fasten your seat beats; we are now officially entered into a revolutionary period of rapid transformation, and the agent of change won the Iowa caucus tonight. A hearty and well deserved “Congratulations” to Barack Obama! Let’s get this country back to hope. Let’s get this country back to a true spiritual basis of inclusion where all are treated as equals and all get a seat at the table of life. I believe that the hand of destiny is upon Barack. STAND UP FOR CHANGE -- THIS IS GOING TO BE A THRILLING YEAR THAT WILL BE ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS AS WE DUMP THE DISGUSTING AND UGLY REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION AND FILTH INTO THE TRASH CAN OF HISTORY, GIVE WAY TO THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, AND RISE TO AMD EMBRACE THE 21st CENTURY.

The Real CRAP FILLED FRAUD John McCain

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Late Show - George W. Bush: How'd He Do?

Barbershop Politics John McCain and Barack Obama somehow ended up at the same barbershop. As they sat there, each being worked on by a different barber, not a word was spoken. The barbers were even afraid to start a conversation, For fear it would turn to politics. As the barbers finished their shaves, the one who had McCain in his chair reached for the after shave. McCain was quick to stop him saying, 'No thanks, my wife Cindy will smell that and think I've been in a whorehouse.' The second barber turned to Obama and said, 'How about you'? Obama replied, 'Go ahead, my wife doesn't know what the inside of a whorehouse smells like.'

The Gay Marriage Countdown Flag of America

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." - The United States Constitution This flag represents the states of the U.S. that have extended marriage equality to all of its citizens. States where "equal protection of the laws" means just that. Equal. Where "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for all, isn't put up for a popular vote, in this "land of the free". States that recognize ALL people are created equal. This US flag is for you, and your beautiful, "true patriot" citizens. Thank You!!!

Stand By Me

Saturday Night Soup (37)

This week’s soup carries a sub-title of “To whom it may concern”. This past week I received a nice email from an apparent "Wunderkind" who is a university mathematics major. He is working on a paper whose subject ( I would roughly call it "Chaos Theory meets the I Ch’ing") is only tangentially related to what I am about to divulge . He told me that he enjoyed this blog, especially the signature “Saturday Night Soup” entries. He then asked me a question that I had not anticipated receiving (perhaps I believe myself to be too clever by half?) . He cut to the chase, wanting to know if I had encoded “secret messages” in the posts of that series. I know what those of you reading are likely thinking. I had the same two thoughts, either “oh oh – this person does what the voices in his head tell him to do” or "Uh, this person may have watched a few too many episodes of Blue's Clues" So I asked him to “Please explain how you found my encoded secret messages”. He laid out his cryptographically derived evidence for one of the posts in the series - Saturday Night Soup for the Soul (8). The methodology he has employed to “crack the code” was complex, based both upon the text where font size and colour sets it off for emphasis, and upon the music selections. As with the text where selected musical fragments are mixed together (as is prevalent in this particular Soup he chose as his example), he applied the same exact algorithm to the bits of lyrics and titles related to the fragments. The resulting message: uncannily accurate to the moment in time related to the post. So, returning back to his original question: “Have you encoded secret messages into the Saturday Night Soup blog entries?”. That is an EXCELLENT question. He goes to the head of the class. 1./2. John, I'm Only Dancing - David Bowie’s 1972 single is his homo-epic sung to his insecure and apparently jealous fictionalized boyfriend “John”, telling him to not worry about a girl he is hanging out with because they are “only dancing”. It was not released by the idiots running RCA because they felt it was a tad too something (could it be… homoerotic?). I have long fancied this song. Despite being 38 years old, it stands the test of time well. That, to me, is what great art is. Art that represents the best of its genre and time/place. Very little of popular culture stands that test of time. David recut the song in 1973 for the "Aladdin Sane" (a lad insane) LP. This version has more punch and drive than the original Joey comes on strong, Bet your life he's putting us on Oh lordy, oh lordy, you know I need some loving Oh move me, touch me.JOHN, I'M ONLY DANCING 3. John, Im Only Dancing (Again) - to be continued 4. Facination - to be continued 5. Hot Soup Jamming Fools - to be continued You can get your bowl of Saturday Night Soup for the Soul by clicking the jukebox. You asked what I am planning for my birthday om March 1st: Well - besides singing in the nude (do that all the time) I will probably walk across the street to Ricky’s and Andrew’s house. Andrew is his little boy whose b-day is the same day as mine. I will let myself have a 1.5 x 2 inch square piece of cake. No ice cream (may buy some Greek yogurt – or Geek yogurt - and call it ice cream). I will have a Dr. Appt on March 8th and do not want to eat a bunch of food and gain weight. Funniest damn thing – in December I gave away a TON of clothes - some with the tags still attached – that I thought I would never be able to wear again = to St. Vincent de Paul: Some truly beautiful stuff. And now, a month later, suddenly here I am. Somewhere in that action (giving away to the poor) and the reaction (something that seemed hopelessly impossible becomes easy) there is some cosmic or karmic hand at work. And I am just going with the flow while the river is full. Someday I am going to burn you a set of all the soup POD casts. You may find a piece of music hidden here at that that captures your heart and soul. I was wearing fricking 48's. Now they hang on me though still wearing 2 pairs that were cut smaller. But they are getting much too large. T'wuz 264 today at the dr.s office. I had him switch prescriptions from what he gave me last Thursday - these little round hard shell things I was supposed to cut in half. At one point one popped away as I tried to cut it with a knife on the bread board. I made a lunging grab for it and the entire open pill container went flying sending them all over the kitchen. That was Friday morning and I was not a happy camper for the rest of the day (frustrated). So I am now back to caps that are scored in the middle so they snap cleanly in half when you apply pressure. I think he is being investigated as being a pill pusher with vicodin (what he gave to me) so he is suddenly very reluctant to write a prescription which also horrified me as I am finally on the road and events appeared to want ot derail me (it’s a communist plot). About four years ago something terrible happened to a leg nerve during or after exercizing at the gym one night that was EXTREMELY painful when the nerve would suddenly sharply throb. I would almost fall over in pain (I fell into a desk credenza at work and nearly tipped the entire thing over). That was while my mom or sister was dying. Mourning their deaths, I did not exercise for a year, and then sat for two more years working 24/7 overtime on a major enterprise-wide software implementation. So now my leg and knee are really eff'ed up. It is probably the fifth lumbar of my spine. That is one of the MAJOR reason for doing this. Greatly reduce the amount of weight I carry. I will be disappointed in myself if I do not drop 80 pounds. That would put me at 200. I fricking look and feel great at 200. But I have it in my head to hit 179 which I LAST weighed in Junior High. Rick has four years of hideous pictures of me - all that I hate. These can be my "phatt and miserable" before set. I have not kept one of them. I hate them (but he has them all). I will take some intermediate ones when I lose about 20 more lbs (all my business suits will fit again). Luckily I have very good facial skin. Very smooth and clear. I drink a lot of H2O and use sun screen w/ hats as well. Sun ages one tremendously, as do bad foods, drugs, smoking, alcoholism, those insane and criminal tanning booths, excessive sexual indulgence, and having a generally bad and hateful soul. They always say that one ends up with the face one deserves - i.e. earned - meaning ugly souls end up ugly and beautiful and kind souls look wonderful even at 100. I truly have seen that in action. My mother looked so good up until the last 6 months. She had a golden soul. You would have loved her, had you visited. She would have been interested in you, your family, etc etc etc. She loved to laugh and loved people and just glowed. I hope I have inherited some of that from her, as it was a most attractive trait to my tastes in humanity. Thanks for dancing with me the past several weeks. Call on me any time you feel the urge. xoxx wr

Tony de Carlo's Dinner with the Dead

Tony's Dinner with the Dead "Tony, which 11 dead souls from history would you invite for a dream dinner? The menu includes a one hour cocktail hour with vegan whore's ovaries, followed by a nine course dinner at 8 PM sharp. After dinner: cigars, brandy, and a floor show. Explain each choice. 1. Lee Harvey Oswald....Wanna hear his side of the story. 2. Marilyn Monroe......Wanna find out 1). Whether she was murdered and 2) If those Kennedy boys did it. 3. Jesus Christ....Wanna tell him what people have done in his name, and ask him to do what he can to show the world that today’s version of Christianity neither represents him, nor reflects what he taught humanity. 4. Jackie O.......I want all the dirt on JFK 5. Vincent van Gogh.....Wanna ask him for artistic criticism and let him know he didn't have to kill himself because he was a closet case. 6. Abe Lincoln.......I want him to confess he's always loved men and admit that he is sorry that he married that nutball Mary Todd. 7. Princess Di...Even if she doesn't eat because of her anorexia, she’d be good to look at and be competition for Marilyn. 8. Rock Hudson.....I want to ask who he thought he was ever fooling. 9. Ronald Reagan....I want to let him know he got what he deserved....his golden years spent in Pampers. 10. Hitler........What the hell, he'd be fun to make fun of. What a freak show he was. 11. Roy Cohn Wanna ask him what hell is like. Above: Here is Hell, where Hitler and Roy Cohn share a little bungalow. Unfortunately, Roy will not be able to join us for dinner due to other pressing engagements Who would you all invite to your "Dinner with the Dead? ".

Species Narcissist Americanus and "09-09-09"

Nothing much to report, or to be more accurate, not much that I am going to report from the wide open road. That said, here is another de Carlo painting that I passed in between Burma Shave signs on I-95.   I finished this painting yesterday, and wanted to use my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give it the title of yesterday’s date. That’s my backyard and my garage in the background. I was considering adopting one or two more white Chihuahuas someone here is trying to give away, and this image helped convince me it probably wasn’t a good idea. “09.09.09” 24” x 36” Acrylic on Canvas At least I didn’t hijack a plane because of the date, like that nut in Mexico did,   TONY