tony
tony's Latest Posts
Avoiding the Leeches and Parasites
I just received yet another promise of becoming the next big hit if I would just take this guy’s seminar for a roll of Jacksons or a couple of Benjanins. And of course, he is an expert … … RIIIIIGHT ! This article is to warn those who actually make something … Specifically, those who […]
Frost on the Pumpkin …
… although pumpkins are not in season. Neither is this cold snap. Seems like nature is making up for last year. It was so warm last winter that we continually harvested the lettuce we planted in late August until the next summer when it was the heat that finally defeated the lettuce crop. Nature seems […]
Would Jimi Be Proud of what Abbie and Jane did ?
Propaganda … It merely means ( or used to mean ) to promote in a positive way. Advertising is propaganda. Political campaigns are propaganda. It tends to force a decision with only two possible options. It does attempt to sell happiness. Force an opinion. Speak the obvious. Yet – not all positive (or negative for […]
Happy Birthday to Bob and all that Texas Swing
Happy Birthday Bob Wills … I could not imagine a world where Bob Wills did not exist. Born this day in 1905 and forming The Texas Playboys in the mid-1930s The band led by Wills had a very original and influential effect of music of the time and even the coming era of Swing Music. […]
Sea Monkeys, X-ray Eyes and Whoopee Cushions
Back in the 60’s you could order all kinds of stuff through the mail from novelty companies with ads found in comic books. I usually ordered toy metal cars for fifty cents that were like “Hot Wheels” before “Hot Wheels” came on the market. They took usually 6 weeks to arrive. I even ordered a […]
Newspeak ~ It’s A Wonderful Thing to Destroy Language
Newspeak … According to the (real) dictionary – new·speak [noo-speek] noun ( sometimes initial capital letter ) an official or semiofficial style of writing or saying one thing in the guise of its opposite, especially in order to serve a political or ideological cause while pretending to be objective, as in referring to “increased taxation” […]
I miss my 2600 ~ Fortunately I have my ’78 Odyssey :-)
I believe strongly, that the ARP 2600 is arguably the greatest synthesizer ever created. I hope Bob Moog isn’t rolling over in his afterlife – I did run into Bob (literally) at a Nashville NAMM show when he first created his “MOOGERFOOGER” and got to spend a great deal of time with him – along […]
The Original Kansas Band Reunites –
I was just let know that the members of the “original” members of the band KANSAS will reunite for a show in Pittsburg, PA this summer – Cool ! I would like to be there … but my schedule this year looks like I will not be able to make the trek … “Original“ as […]
The Earth Loves to Swallow Things in Florida
Imagine this strange scene if you can – You live in a place where a huge lake will sometimes simply disappear overnight. Then at some time in the future – weeks or months – it reappears overnight. Sounds like something from a SciFi novel? Sure. Some alien planet … But I grew up with that. […]
SLD2 ~ The Perfect Balance of Bang for the Buck
Perhaps the best turntable ever made. Direct drive, baby !!! I sure loved mine – Reliable – precision … All it did was lift up at the end of a record to protect the stylus … Awesome ! Those component stereo days were sure a real pleasure. Sitting down and listening to an entire album […]
Invisible Airwaves Crackle With Life
… as thus was sung by the band RUSH in “Spirit Of Radio” – Radio was an interesting technology to catch on 90 years ago … it can be compared quite equally with impact on life as the internet is being realized today. Way back in 1922 on this day, yet another radio station came […]
Should we mean what we say, say what we mean or have plausible linguistic deniability ?
Who was Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa ? He may be best known for when he foiled a marxist student protest in San Francisco in 1968 by yanking the wires out of a amplifier system during an outdoor protest rally of these “students”. If you are from central California, you would know him as your Senator in […]
Happy Anniversary to Johannes Gutenberg
It is widely agreed by historians that this was the date of the first printed book by Johannes Gutenberg. The Holy Bible was the first book to be printed in 1455 AD. This technology of printing started a great change in the world. Printed paper made books possible to educate and enlighten people. Even start […]
Flying Time …
Time flies when you’re working your *ss off … Coffee brews rather quickly … Hours seem like minutes … …while doing what you love to do.
Burgergazm … An Amazing Experience in Nashville
Today we made a day’s trek all over town in a regular dash for provisions … First it was to McKay’s books … then to the best Asian Grocery anywhere to get basic ingredients for the month, Then to our favorite restaurant supply facility housed in an old WWII bomb factory building to get some […]
Yes, Chicken Little – The Sky IS Falling …
Comets, meteors and pretty much anything going on in the sky has always been fascinating to me. Seeing a full moon during the day when I was 5 years old or so left an impression. Up to then I thought it only came out at night. That hooked me. I remember Kohoutek When I was […]
Seeing Red
What is funny ? It depends on the person. You know what’s funny to you when you see it or hear it. Just as beauty – … comedy is in the eye of the beholder. Yet – clever humor is universal. Clever humor takes thought and intellect … There is a place in comedy for […]
This is what happens in Nashville when the weatherman predicts it might snow …
… bread … milk … and beer disappears from all the stores.
The Persistence of Verbal Decay
We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” “Political chaos is connected with the decay of language… … one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.” “Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want […]
The Fabulous Phasmatrope and the day a circle was made to be a square by law
There is a lot to being the first to do something. On this date today, In Philadelphia on February 5th in the year 1870, a theater audience saw the very first motion picture projection. This was what some people allowed the inventor to claim. 1870 was quite a long time before George Melies made his […]
Get that Aston Martin off me !!!
Apparently there is quite an exciting archeological find in England under a common automobile parking lot in Leicester. Leicester is a major manufacturing area for the UK. King Richard III and his story was immortalized by William Shakespeare and his burial location was lost to history thanks to Henry VIII having all the monasteries dismantled […]
Generation Gap VS Generation Bridge
There have been a lot of folks I am very pleased to have crossed paths with. One of the heights for me was Steve Allen laughing at a joke I told him … running into folks while doing regular life stuff can be quite interesting – like realizing I was sitting one evening quite a […]
Nashville Brand of Humor ~ Our Music City Personality
There is a running gag line in Nashville … “You’re so Nashville, …” It’s sort of like the old Joke that Johnny Carson liked to tell – “Today, it was so hot … “ To which the audience would all chant in unison: “HOW HOT WAS IT?” Johnny would react every time like it was […]
In this fast paced world ~ try rediscovering Chess
I am constantly bombarded these days with Skylanders, and more blasting video games via my teenage daughter’s Wii console … I have to confess that I also have a past life with various fast paced computer games such as Doom, Wolfenstein, Vice City and the like. I have always gravitated toward cockpit racing games and […]
We are only visiting this planet …
As the late, great musician Larry Norman once sang: “I’m only visiting this planet.” As it led me to think – he’s right. We are all just visiting. I am like an anthropologist creeping in to some lost village to observe and record … and then to return with my findings. And if I were […]
Another Example of the Destruction of Our Language
Yes – I like the cooking shows on those cooking networks … I am a big fan of “The Pioneer Woman” and Alton Brown’s “Good Eats”. Something that is driving me crazy with that network (which has two different channels now) is the overuse and misuse of the term “decadent” and “decadence”. Even the ad […]
I’m Fascinated by Shipping Containers
Ever admire something from afar? Like seeing a travel show about Tahiti and wanting to go there – but never get the time or can justify the cost of a trip there. I’ve been that way for a long time with adapted shipping containers. I’ve seen pictures from time to time. I’ve looked at web […]
January 21st 2013 ~ Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day !!!
It’s a big day in America … It’s National Squirrel Appreciation Day Most of us celebrated by looking for and gathering nuts in an attempt to survive the winter. American Squirrels are more important than most folks think – they are a nuisance to a lot of people but a great food source for many […]
The Challenge: Be Entertaining without Lying about it
__________________ Could Grover Cleveland be the greatest US President we ever had ? __________________ The most boring and unmemorable Presidents of the United States were the best Presidents we ever had. They should be the most remembered, but are not. This is simply a symptom of how we are taught and perceive reality – in […]
The Dog and the Shadow / Let Him Who Has Ears; Hear
– from Aesop A Dog, crossing a bridge over a stream with a fresh bone in his mouth, … saw his own shadow in the water and thought it was another dog, with a tasty looking bone that looked double his own bone in size. The dog immediately let go of his own bone, and […]
Tesla and his Amazing Energy Machines will Enable New Engergy Sources to Actually Work
Tesla is the perfect example of how better ideas can become a problem … A problem to established industries that would become obsolete if a better idea is made available to the public to use. If it was up to Edison, we would never had AC power. I believe the modern solar energy industry is […]
Watching Another Fall – In Real Time
According to British Historian Dr Adrian Goldsworthy, who specializes in ancient Rome, the fall of the Roman Empire was … … government failure. At a basic level the emperors and government officials of the Late Roman Empire had forgotten what the empire was for. The wider interests of the state were secondary to their own […]
S.A.S.E
A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.” “How can you write if you can’t cry?” – Ring Lardner
A Time Will Come …
A time will come … … when the whole world will go mad. And to anyone who is not mad they will say: ‘You are mad, for you are not like us.’ – Saint Anthony the Great ___________________ Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” – Albert […]
No More Movie Film ~ Drive In Movies are In Trouble
Well, it’s finally here … 35mm film prints are finally being phased out completely ! The problem is for the theaters still hanging on to their film projectors. Especially the Drive-In theaters … Bloomberg has a very interesting article about the transition to digital. Yep ! There’s still quite a few of those around the […]
2012 = A Year of Transition / 2013 = Some Still Don’t
Why are a lot of broadcasters and film makers still confused over HD standards ??? Take some of the cable/satellite networks for example … Taking a 4×3 standard definition source and stretching out the sides to fill in a 16×9 aspect ration is NOT HD ! All it does is make everything short and fat. […]
Goodnight Patti ~
Patti Page – One of the great voices of the 20th century. Ironic that “Tennessee Waltz” was the B-side of “Boogie-Woogie Santa Claus” in 1950…
Happy New Laws ~ Don’t be Ignorant !
While I completely understand the concept of law enforcement and how it protects freedom in a civilized nation … That said – Every year it seems to become harder and harder to be “a law abiding citizen” … You may be a criminal and not know it ! It’s not law enforcement’s fault – it’s […]
Whatever happened to …
Remember the famous line – “NT would destroy Unix” ? Whatever happened to that? I think it was uttered by the same guy that said computers would never need more than 640Kbytes of ram … Now, it’s all about flavors of the generic LINUX OS – because Unix is a trademarked flavor. Of course, there […]
The Dragon Year Comes to a Close / Hello Snake
A working holiday. Whenever I have the opportunity to work, that’s like a vacation to me. So, it’s been a nice vacations indeed. Like LT Cmdr Scott in the original Star Trek series who relaxes by reading technical journals in the ship’s recreation room while others waste time with card games – I can dig […]
Yes – it IS a wonderful life …
My favorite director of all time … Frank Capra ! He was a very young kid when his family sent his oldest brother to America from Italy to establish a “base camp” for the entire family to immigrate to America. They told him to not stop when he got to America – but get on […]
The Future of Science Enhanced Entertainment
First – there was Alice Cooper – Then KISS – Then Marylin Manson – Now Lady GAGA – What’s next ? Introducing the genetically engineered rock guitarist …