Without Guile

I am a notorious insomniac. I would explain it but Doug Stanhope says it better (except the drunk part) I completely identify.

WARNING get rid of the kids before watching this video. It contains BAAAAAAD words.

Yeah, the Carnival, being almost 40, 1 am, 2 am and here I am.

Not many people tried out my scavenger hunt, but that’s okay, I was just trying to engage and find something we could do together. If you want to try it, just check out my last post (best if you read it from my home page because many of the answers were found by 2 people and you won’t see them there).

So what that said.

1. Is Billy Gibbons and the band is ZZ Top.

For this one I went to this site:

http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608001816/ZZ-Top.html

I was going to ask a question about ‘The Warlocks’ which I had remembered was the early name of the band ‘The Grateful Dead’ and I was thinking of tying it to ZZ Top. Well the article mentioned ‘Lady Wild and the Warlocks’ so that blew that idea. This is a clear indication about how my mind works.

This vid is the Moving Sidewalks, great garage music. It was this song that earned them the chance to open for Jimi.

2. “Looking at You” from their album Witness.

We all have our MOG origin stories, Viv Akauldren is mine. I did a search for this band over a year ago and I stumbled on electricmonk’s page. Here’s the link that held the answer;

http://lost-in-tyme.blogspot.com/2007/01/viv-akauldren-discography.html

This isn’t off of Witness but a great tune to give you a feel for the band.

3. Al Ferrier

Al Ferrier was a drunk and a pill popper then he ‘was saved’. It was Carleton Basco who gave him two gospel tunes. One was “Help Me Please Jesus” and the other was ‘Help Me Keep The Faith’ which became the title of an Al Ferrier album.

Here’s the link;

http://www.rockabillyhall.com/AlFerrier.html

I opened up a Funk War with this tune.

No matter how many times I listen to that tune it just gets better and better.

4. La Lupe was a school teacher as was Celia Cruz.

This was a Wiki question. Fairly easy if you read the entry. And what a voice. Here is the link;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Lupe

Dig this track, tell me it doesn’t get your feet moving and I will say you are BRAIN DEAD.

Too freakin Cool.

5. June 1, 1967, it was same day as Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released.

Imagine the competition. This was another Wiki question and here is the link;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie_%28album%29

I am a Bowie superfreak but this record doesn’t do anything for me. I guess it’s okay but overall I think it is just plain cheezy. Check out this track off the record;

6. PAL Studios, The Tornadoes and the extra credit was Pulp Fiction, ‘Bustin’ Surfboards’.

One of my son Baylor’s favorite songs is ‘The Gremmie, Part 1′, he just digs surf music. What can I say but, “That’s my boy!”

This is the link I got my info from;

http://www.tornadoesband.com/WordHTML/chargeflier(Mine).htm

And here is the track that appeared in Pulp:

7. “The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins” and Leonard Nimoy.

What a freakin trip this video is.

If you did your search right hopefully you wound up at this site;

http://www.maidenwine.com/catalog_02_bilbobaggins.html

Check out the video It’s worth it for the cheese factor alone.

8. Ken Nordine’s web blog.

http://www.wordjazz.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=4&Itemid=9

If you don’t know who Ken Nordine is I suggest you introduce yourself to some of his material.

How about this to get you started;

Did you like that? If you did, go tell Sam aka fistula spume, he posted this gem;

Nordine is a genius. Run, don’t walk, and seek out everything he has ever recorded. I command you, DO IT NOW!

9. Lumberton, NJ or Smyrna, DE.

This is the link I was looking for;

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tnews/NewsItemDisplay.php?Tip_AttrId=%3D10348

When I was in the service I used to drive 13 to Smyrna and then hang at the rest stop there. Across the the street was a travel agency called Tranquility Travel.

It was the sign behind the pagan death god that would have given the ‘exact’ location before Lumberton, NJ.

10. Camera Obscura and John Cale.

This was and I quote Dale a “softball”.

Another Wiki search, but you had to hit 2 pages before you found the producer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_Obscura_%28album%29

This is Konig. Teutonic to the core. I just love this record.

Hopefully you had a good time looking this stuff up, and who knows, maybe you learned something new. And that kids, is all I was hoping for.

Maybe someone will turn this into a quiz to test your OQ or Obscurity Quotient.

An honest to goodness Internet musical scavenger hunt.

Hit that red button up there now.

I came up with 10 questions to test your Internet searching mettle. Many of the questions will take you to specific sites on the Web. Some of the questions require you to read into the site to find the answers.

So here they are and good luck. Post your answers in comments when you find them all or when you finally give up.

1.This guitarist played in a band called ‘Moving Sidewalks’. In the late 60’s they got to open for another famous guitarist, Jimi Hendrix.

Name the guitarist and what band is he now affiliated with.

2. Viv Akauldren was a band out of Detriot. Jeff Tarleton was touted as a ‘new Jim Morrison’ by Spin Magazine and NME.
They released 4 albums in their 6 year career.

On one of their albums they covered an MC5 song.

What is the song and on which album did it appear?

3. Organist Carlton Basco penned a funk number called ‘Don’t Chain My Soul’. He is also credited for being “the best thing that ever happened to me.” by this born again rockabilly performer.

Who was that performer?

4. The famous Salsa singer ‘La Lupe’ was a flamboyant personality. She could sing Son, bolero, and boogaloo. Before becoming a singer she had another job.

What was that job and the name of another famous Latin songstress who had the same job as La Lupe before becoming a singer?

5. David Bowie’s very first album featured songs that would appear on a later record titled ‘Space Oddity”. Unfortunately he picked a bad release date. Unfortunate because of competition for the airwaves.

Find the release date and another band who also released a record on this date.

6. The recording bug bit Frank Zappa when he worked for this studio in Cucamonga, CA. He worked with a surf band while there. This was just prior to the Mothers he later recorded with.

Name the studio, the surf band and for extra credit name the title of the blockbuster contemporary movie this surf bands music was in and the song that was used.

7. Ricky Nelson (of Ozzie and Harriet fame) hosted a TV show that was considered a ‘beachy’ version of ‘American Bandstand’. On this show he introduced another actor who sang one of the most campy songs ever recorded in fact it was designed to push “your funny button”.

Name the song and the actor who sang it.

8. Find the origin of this quote,

“Maybe the moment
is blogging a blog,
no longer merely
a bump on a log
millions of bloggers
say hey look at me
I’m getting with it
which me should I be.”

9. In 1988 Live Skull released an EP titled ‘Snuffer’. The album cover featured a pagan god statue that appeared in the 1955 Lana Turner movie ‘The Prodigal’.

Find the last known where abouts of this statue or the city where the ‘Snuffer’ picture was taken.

10. Christa Paffgen had a strange and wonderful career in music. With out exception her former band is probably one of those bands everyone cites as a huge influence. She died in 1988.

Find the title of the last studio album she recorded before her death and name the producer on the record.

That it folks. Happy hunting. I left you with just enough clues to get you started. Don’t rely on Wiki for everything.

Shi is the word for the number 4 and is slang for Death (Die) which is shortened from ’shikyo’. Shi is also found in these words;

brain death = noushi

apparent death = kashi

accidental death = henshi

after death = shigo

I was going to post something on my perceived safety and how after 6 and a half years I can’t say much has changed. Who knows, maybe I will comment on it if the need presents itself.

Instead I feel compelled to say something about another milestone in our nations history.

Not to long ago our dear friend annieander had me riffing and waxing nostalgic about my time in the Navy. I won’t bore you with details so lets just say I’ve been pining for my service days and have been generally hyper sensitive to military affairs for about a week.

Hopefully, you are aware of the news about the latest body count of military personal in Iraq. If your not just Google your favorite news source with the number 4000 in the search. I am sure you will find something. Read up.

Before you guys start quoting the numbers of other conflicts, I want to assure you I have already seen them. 4000 seems like a drop in the bucket compared to WW2 and even Vietnam. I say for the Iraqi conflict, 4000 is 4000 to many.

We got a used car salesman pitch, we laid down the cash, and then the terms were changed.

The Vice Presidents response to Pres. Bush’s comments on the updated death toll were this;

“The biggest burden is carried by President George W. Bush”

He then reminded the public that U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.

‘Soulless’ is the word that first comes to my mind.

Today it was business as usual in DC. Meetings and hand shaking, a bit of back slapping then adjourning for coffee and tea. Admittedly, Dick probably didn’t want any extra attention drawn to the subject so he kept quiet almost altogether.

I am trying not to rant, so I will wrap this up.

I don’t think there is anything more demoralizing to a soldier than to lose a comrade in battle. Sometimes it breeds bravado, but that eventually burns out and then you got nothing left. More often then not it gets you face time with your own mortality. Doubly so if you were there when it happened.

When and if you pray, pray for the survivors, it is them and the families of the dead that are carrying the heaviest burden not the President.

This recording was made just 4 days after Sept. 11th. You may notice it has a lot to do with preparing for war and little about the loss of life we experienced that Tuesday. This is the beginning of that pitch I mentioned earlier. You can find the transcript here;

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010915.html

This what I want to say when you guys get around to asking me, ” What took you so damn long”? Truth is, the 5th, it scared me. It is such a broad topic with a ancient history (I mean it, really old). There is a bunch of U.S.C. (United States Code) law that hinges on the 5th. In short I felt it was too big for me to handle , so I just didn’t handle it. I chickened out and turned tail.

Well I finally conquered my fear and decided to trim the scope on the 5th. I will be looking at one important facet of this legal behemoth. It is the passage that states, “… nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,”. So with that being said lets reacquaint ourselves with the 5th Amendment;

“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. “

Wow that is a mouthful, no wonder it freaked me out. Anyway the history behind the provisions that the 5th contains can be traced back to pre Norman England (where many of the ideas incorporated in the Constitution originated). The ‘right of a Grand Jury’ was voted on by the first Assembly of elected members in the New York colony, dated 1683. The saying, “nemo tenetur seipsum accusare” or ‘no man is bound to accuse himself’ has it’s beginnings in the early days of the Catholic Church.

This is a great segue for the first item I was going to discuss.

The privilege against self-incrimination is a personal right. It is one of the few laws that doesn’t apply to corporations. Another thing is this right can be invoked at any time in criminal proceedings, from the time of arrest, to the time the indictment is handed down, to the time of sentencing the 5th Amendments power can be called.

Okay, stop me if you have heard this one before;

You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand?
Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand?
You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. Do you understand?
If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. Do you understand?
If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Do you understand?
Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?

This last set of questions are commonly known as your ‘Miranda Rights’. This is where the 5th comes into play everyday in the US. By refusing to answer any questions you are in effect invoking the 5th, but it no way will stop the police from taking you in and detaining you for an crime or offense as there is often physical evidence and witnesses to corroborate and justify your detention. In fact contrary to belief ‘Miranda Rights’ don’t always have to be read and it will not always constitute a ‘mistrial’ later when the case comes to trial. Usually, ‘Miranda’ is read when the police intend on interrogating a suspect. In the case of urgent public safety, questioning will commence until such danger is deemed over, at which point ‘Miranda’ will be read and the judge will decide what can be used in court as evidence later. It will not protect you from answering questions like name, address, and date of birth and it will not stop the police from taking a blood sample should the need arise.

If there is one aspect of the 5th Amendment I would like you to take away from this little diatribe, it is this.

If you are being questioned under oath and at some point you evoke the 5th, understand you will have the juries prejudice. This means that there is a feeling on the part of the jury to rule against innocence. If you say I plead the 5th the jury will harbor feelings that you got something to hide. Though it is your Constitutional right, you will look guilty in the eyes of the jury. Just ask the Enron executives and Alberto Gonzales.