What words can describe this performance of Lieutenant Pigeon and their British chart-topping song, Mouldy Old Dough?  To what genre of music does it belong?  It exists outside of any musical convention, though it does evoke 1920’s Honky Tonk piano, 18th Century military march, and a bit of rock.  But really, it stands very alone in terms of top pop chart hits.  It even took the British “experts” by surprise when it hit #1 1972.  It remains the only chart-topping hit to feature a mother (more accurately, a “mum”) and son.  Lieutenant Pigeon totally evaded the USA, but Mouldy Old Dough charted in several other countries and sold about 2 million copies.  The only reason The IP found out about them was because German bandleader, Werner Muller, released a version of Mouldy Old Dough on his “Learn to Love” compilation.  As soon as The IP heard it, he had to find out more.  But in truth, this video pretty much says it all.

Keep your eye out for Hilda’s witch hat (probably a pun on Broom Hilda).  Also, you will get a real kick out of the clothes and dancing of the crowd.  Nothing like a little fipple flute playing to get a song stuck in your head; and this one REALLY sticks.  The IP has been humming it a lot the last few days. 

WATCH VIDEO

Intarwebs Sources:

HERE

HERE

HERE

The IP uses the word “Evasion” to denote groups and musicians that actually had more success, often great success, on their own side of  the pond.  Let’s start with one that I’m sure a few of you pithecanthropes have heard of: Status Quo.  

It must have been something in the beer, or the fish n’ chips, or in the case of the Status Quo, probably both of those British staples along with a few tabs of acid to boot.  The below 1968 video has all the right ingredients for BEW: great sound, excellent camerawork, an interesting band, and vintage psychedelic clothes and visual effects (and an intimate set with people dancing cheek to jowl with the musicians).  The fact that it’s black & white makes it even more affecting.

Keep your eyes open for the “odd man out”  keyboardist, Roy Lynes, as he gazes both at the camera and into the ether.  The odd drumming style of  John Coughlin also deserves note.  This gig seems totally live and without backing tracks or lip synching; if that’s really the case, these guys are damn good.

Roy Lynes of The Status Quo Thiking About Matchstick Men

It should be noted that the song in this video, Pictures of Matchstick Men, actually did have success over here. But, for the most part, that was the last the USA really heard of Status Quo as they spent much of their long career evading the American charts.

Oh yeah, the song itself?  One of the most mesmerizing psychedelic rock tunes ever.  Really.

WATCH VIDEO

The IP will have more about the amazingly durable and chameleon-like band Status Quo and its relationship to Spinal Tap in the next post.

INTERNATIONAL

WTF?  The IP was listening to a report from the BBC last night about how upwards of 60,000 infants in China have melamine-induced kidney stones.  Again, WTF? 

It really struck The IP for a loop because he has a nice set of dishware made with that same chemical.  The company’s name was even a derivative of melamine: MELMAC.

The IP wouldn’t have taken the time to post about this but for the rule of threes:

a.  he owned products made with melamine

b.  he heard about the unfortunate Chinese kids on the BBC

c.   he recently saw an ad for MELMAC dishware in a 1951 Better Homes & Gardens

You can’t really appreciate MELMAC dishware until you see and hold it.  The IP likes it because it is a cool plastic polymer/resin that takes and holds color well and has a tactile substance, feel, and heft similar to pottery; it “feels” like actual dishware.  And the colors that were used were so perfect, so essential, that they remain a very real postwar palette.

Above is some of The IP’s Melmac. 

But why the fuck would melamine get into baby formula?  Seriously.  That’s like a double WTF? with a half-twist.  

The IP thinks many of his own clan remembers a similar bowl like the one above around the house.  Melmac is durable, stain-resistant, and color-stable.  Which is exactly why melamine might not be a good thing to have in baby formula.   In fact, all moms should breast feed their babies anyway.  Or at least give them breast-milk ice cream. 

God bless the Intarwebs.  Melmac! 

NATIONAL

The IP doesn’t know about you pithecanthropes, but he gets the feeling that the wheels are coming off McCain’s “Straight Talk Express.”  First, McCain obderately refuses (and eventually relents) to talk to the press, and Palin still remains in her prescribed (evil liberal media proof) bubble.  You wanna know why McCain doesn’t want Palin to talk to the press? 

“Well, you know, first Fannie and Freddie,

different because quasi-government

agencies there where government

had to step in because the adverse

 impact all across our nation, especially

with homeowners, is just too impacting.”

“Too impacting!”  WTF?  That’s not even a real word.  It’s a corporate bullshit word people use to “sound” interesting to stupid people.  Impacting?  Please.  Read more here. And this is REQUIRED READING!

LOCAL

It was kinda spooky the other day when, just one day after The IP mused about the possibility of an aircraft falling on his abode, an aircraft ACTUALLY CRASHED into a residential area near The IP; and it took off from the same PDK Airport The IP has posted about in the past.  WTF?

It’s a shame because the plane was a Piper PA-32-300 Saratoga, a pretty sweet ride:

Oh yeah.  The pilot died in the crash too, compounding the disaster. 

Blog at ya later!

What does it say when a person’s fear and paranoia about the candidate they don’t want in the Whitehouse are stronger than their convictions about the candidate they supposedly do? 

In fact, The IP has seen more NOBAMA signs than McCain/Palin signs.  Clearly, for these people, it’s a lot easier to hate Obama than it is to like McCain.  And let’s face it; McCain doesn’t bring much to the table of “change,” whether you look at his own past ties to corporate malfeasance or his almost-unbearable oratory.  God, McCain truly is a bad public speaker.  As a funny aside, an IP coworker said last week that when she sees McCain she feels like bringing him a bowl of soup.  “And an Afghan blanket” another coworker chimed.

He’s like that feeble granddad that you tolerate and care for simply because he’s old.  You tend to forgive his dumping of his first wife after getting back from Viet Nam because she was in a car accident and was no longer the “hottie” she was when he left.  But hey, you can never blame a man for scoring the Barbie Doll wife.  That’s the “American” way; trade in for the new model.  People are just like cars.  The IP thinks these NOBAMA types know this story, so they just concentrate on spreading the hate of Obama.

Of the dozens of annoying attributes one can ascribe to Right Wing Republitards, one of the worst is the habit of interjecting the simple, declarative sentence “This is America!” into a rant or dialogue.  A common form is to precede that declaration with a “You know” or end it with an “after all.”  These latter two forms of usage really drive The IP crazy because they insinuate that the listener or reader should damn well know what they mean by “This is America” and that if you don’t you must be un-American.

The BBC is doing a series on, of all things, this very country.  They’re sending out brave British reporters to interview various people about the Presidential race.  They are “brave” because they have to interview Republitard nut jobs and listen to them drone on and on about how great Palin is and then, at the end of their rant, they say:

“You know; this is America.”

The IP could almost hear the poor BBC dude’s mind churning, as if he was ready to say “In fact, mam, I do know this is America.  That is the whole point of us coming here to do this radio series.”

But the BBC loves to poke fun at our Republitards, and they’re having a field day with the whole Palin spectacle.  The BBC dude who was told in which country he was went on to interview (and shoot with!) a Palin supporter at an Arizona target range.  He had a field day getting the woman to say some pretty ridiculous things about how great shooting guns makes her feel after a bad day at work.  Even The IP thought is was a little unfair how disingenuous he was by leading her into his “God these American Republitards are loons!” line of questioning.  For BBC reporters, getting Republitards to say stupid things is like shooting fish & chips in a barrel (sorry).

Of course, the idea of shooting guns at work after, or better yet, during, a bad day is commonly taken to heart by many in this country.  Or even in a church; preferably a Unitarian Universalist church, because that’s where un-Americans are sure to be found.

This is an American (he’s the dude that killed the Unies)

The IP again confronted the “This is America” phrase this morning in an opinion piece in his local “newspaper.”  It was a embarrassingly myopic screed about how “we” should not care what other countries think about our potential Presidents, most notably, Obama:

 “This is America, after all. The greatest nation in history, no asterisk required.”

WTF?  (read the douchebag’s piece below if you want)

And believe The IP, or better yet, believe Haliburton, ADM, AT&T or any number of “multi-national” corporations if they care what other countries think of us and our president.  To think we can just not give a shit about the rest of the world is a common mindset among many Republitards.

But, after all, this is America!   

The IP likes that “free to live in your own way” part.  How quaint.  Why is it that a poster from the 1930s is more progressive than one you would see today? 

Who cares what world thinks of Sen. Obama?

Candidate’s overseas popularity off-putting to many Americans

By LUKE BOGGS

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Barack Obama has never been more popular. Obviously, I don’t mean here at home, where he’s been slipping in the polls for weeks — and going from heir apparent to underdog. No, I’m talking about overseas, where folks still can’t get enough of our freshman senator and his golden teleprompter.

In a new BBC poll, Obama was heavily preferred over John McCain by foreigners everywhere, from France to the Philippines, Canada to Kenya, Italy to Indonesia. Trouble for Obama is that other nations’ citizens don’t vote here. (Well, not yet anyway.) Even worse, Obama’s overseas popularity is actually off-putting to millions of American voters.

While our Hollywood stars, media members and other elites fret over what they think of us in London and Paris and Tokyo, a lot of Americans not only don’t care but also resent the fact that our actors, anchors and professors think we should.

This is America, after all. The greatest nation in history, no asterisk required. Our founders penned the Declaration of Independence, kicked out King George’s redcoats and came up with the Constitution. Two centuries into this experiment, we’re still not perfect, but we’re proud of our civilization and the freedom and prosperity it has helped bring to millions at home and abroad.

Don’t misunderstand: We like people from overseas. Nearly all of us are from overseas, if you go back far enough. We like visiting all those quaint little towns in England and Austria and elsewhere. And we love the food from all over: Italy, Mexico, China, Japan.

But, frankly, we don’t care who the fine people of, say, Berlin want as our next president. In fact, we would prefer that you all mind your own business. Elect your own presidents and prime ministers and premiers and whatever. We’ll handle choosing America’s next head honcho right here, thank you very much. (Turn it around, and I’m sure even our closest allies wouldn’t want us telling them who to elect.)

Is there a link between Obama’s foreign popularity and his stateside slump? I think so. While there are lots of other good reasons for Obama’s slide — from his textbook liberalism becoming more obvious to McCain attaching himself to Sarah Palin — I believe that, if Obama loses in November, key seeds of his defeat will be traced to his triumphant world tour in July.

By any conventional measure, Obama had an outstanding trip, with no major slipups outside an aborted visit with wounded U.S. troops.

Still, there was something unsettling about the tour, about all the meticulous staging and the adoring throngs. The trip wound up looking like, in McCain’s words, “a premature victory lap,” and Obama emerged as “the chosen one” mocked in GOP ads. Voters here were left to wonder, if Obama is this popular in Europe, what’s wrong with him?

Politics aside, global opinion is no great source of wisdom. In a worldwide poll out last week, less than half of those surveyed believed al-Qaida was behind 9/11. (No word on how many still think the world is flat.)

The late, great Lewis Grizzard once wrote a column for this paper lamenting the habit of some new Atlanta residents to begin telling the locals how to behave. As he put it, “They want to tell us how to speak, how to live, what to eat, what to think and they also want to tell us how they used to do it back in Buffalo.”

Just as folks from these parts still don’t care how they used to do it in Buffalo, most Americans don’t care how popular Obama is in Bogota, Bombay and Berlin. But please keep reminding us, all you pro-Obama pollsters and pundits. Tight as this race remains, John McCain can still use your unintended help.

Luke Boggs, an executive speechwriter, lives in Alpharetta.  

Perhaps more so than other genres of art, what defines the “folk,” “naïve,” or “outsider” genres is problematic at least.  Adding to the ambiguity of definition is the fact that those genres can be easily imitated, leading some critics to use the “pseudo” prefix, especially if the art is being sold on the street to tourists for quick cash.  The IP does NOT want to get into this particular debate.  He just wants to share some yard sale artworks he picked up at a yard sale about a month ago:

These paintings are on scrap pieces of wood and feature what the seller said were musicians that passed through the Panama City Beach area.  The artist goes by the name of “Big Chief,” which is generic enough to disappoint anyone wishing to find out about him on The Google.  OK.  Let’s look at the works individually.

This is, evidently, “Big Mon.”  WSM is a famous radio station in Nashville.

The IP doesn’t know what makes John sleepy, but here he is.

Mr. Cadillac Brown.  Pretty cool dude.

Perhaps a modern-day Seminole warrior? 

The IP wants to know what you think about these “Big Chief” yard-sale paintings.

000

WTNT44 KNHC 062044

TCDAT4

HURRICANE IKE DISCUSSION NUMBER  23

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL   AL092008

500 PM EDT SAT SEP 06 2008

AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT CURRENTLY INVESTIGATING IKE INDICATES THAT THE CYCLONE HAS AGAIN INTENSIFIED ITS OPINION REGARDING THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS.  THE PLANE REPORTED A PEAK INCREDULITY OF 118 KT AND FLIGHT-LEVEL DISDAIN OF 129 KT.  ADDITIONALLY…CALCULATIONS FROM A DROPSONDE RELEASED IN THE NORTHEAST EYEWALL SUGGEST NEGATIVE RHETORIC OF AT LEAST 110 KT. BASED ON THESE DATA…THE INITIAL INTENSITY OF DESPONDENCY IS INCREASED TO 115 KT.  WITH THE INCREDULITY OF IKE NOW INCREASING AND THE WATERS ALONG THE FORECAST TRACK WARM…ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING OF OPINION IS POSSIBLE UNTIL IKE REACHES CUBA IN ABOUT 36 HOURS.  

ONCE OVER LAND…WEAKENING OF NEGATIVE OPINION IS ANTICIPATED AS IKE HAS A FEW MOJITOS AND WILL LIKELY REMAIN GOOD-HUMORED UNTIL THE CYCLONE EMERGES BACK OVER WATER IN THE SOUTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO IN ABOUT 72 HOURS.  HOWEVER…ONLY A SMALL COMMENT FROM SOME FUCKING REPUBLITARD WILL KEEP THE CORE OF THE CYCLONE AGITATED AND LESS WEAKENING OF ANGRY OPINION AND TEMPERMENT IS POSSIBLE.  RESTRENGTHENING OF CONVICTION IS FORECAST ONCE IKE DEPARTS CUBA SINCE POLITICAL CONDITIONS APPEAR TO BE FAVORABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT.

IKE’S TEMPERMENT CONTINUES TO BE STEERED BY A LARGE MIDDLE TO UPPER-LEVEL SHEAR OF MEDIA RHETORIC OVER THE WESTERN WORLD  WITH AN INITIAL MOTION TOWARDS MCCAIN/PALIN OF 255/13. GLOBAL MODELS FORECAST THIS RIDGE TO SHIFT LIBERALLY DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS ALLOWING IKE TO MAKE A TURN LEFTWARD. IN 3 TO 4 DAYS…AS IKE MOVES INTO THE GULF OF MEXICO…

A SHORTWAVE TROUGH OF CLARITY MOVING OVER THE EASTERN UNITED STATES IS EXPECTED TO CREATE AN INCREASE IN SUPPORT FOR OBAMA/BIDEN WITH A WEAKNENING OF THE SAME FOR MCCAIN/PALIN TO THE NORTH OF IKE RESULTING A TURN TOWARD THE LEFT WITH A DECREASE IN IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE FOR THE REPUBLITARDS.  THIS SHORTWAVE TROUGH OF CLARITY IS THE CRITICAL PLAYER IN IKE’S EVENTUAL TRACK.

DYNAMICAL MODELS ARE STILL SPLIT INTO TWO CAMPS…WITH THE FUCKTARD MODEL SHOWING IKE TURNING RIGHTWARD INTO THE REPUBLICAN WEAKNESS…WHILE THE REST OF THE MODELS SHOW IKE BYPASSING THE FUCKTARDS AND TRACKING NORTH TOWARD MORE RATIONAL WATERS.  IT IS STILL MUCH TOO SOON TO COMMIT TO EITHER ONE OF THESE EXTENDED RANGE SOLUTIONS…AND ONLY A SLIGHT SHIFT RIGHT OR LEFT WILL MAKE IKE EITHER A REPUBLITARD DICKHEAD OR A STALWART LIBERAL.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INITIAL      06/2100Z 21.4N  69.7W   115 KT

 12HR VT     07/0600Z 21.2N  71.6W   120 KT

 24HR VT     07/1800Z 21.1N  74.0W   125 KT

 36HR VT     08/0600Z 21.2N  76.5W   120 KT…INLAND OVER CUBA

 48HR VT     08/1800Z 21.7N  78.7W    95 KT…INLAND OVER CUBA

 72HR VT     09/1800Z 23.0N  82.5W    80 KT…INLAND OVER CUBA

 96HR VT     10/1800Z 25.0N  85.0W    90 KT

120HR VT     11/1800Z 26.5N  87.0W   100 KT

$$

FORECASTER THE IP

From what The IP has heard on CSPAN, it’s becoming clear that McCain actually wanted Lieberman as his VP, but the Conservative Wing of the RNC said “No.”  

Which makes this convention somewhat like that of the DNC, where people must eat crow and sour grapes as they speak about others.  Lieberman.  Palin.  McCain.  They all have some weird shit to deal with, let alone dealing with being Republicans to begin with.

The alleged Hillary Nobamanazis are likely a smaller group than they seem, though I listened to one on Serius Satellite radio recently and boy, did she sound c-R-A-z-y!  That there would be that many crazy people like that would surprise The IP.  But who knows?

A Republican dude just repeated a bumper sticker that was allegedly said to be on Palin’s car, and even quoted by her:

VEGETARIAN:  “Old Indian Word for “Bad Hunter.”

The IP only spent a Summer in Alaska, but even that small time gave him some insight into the culture and ethos of the place.  It’s actually a good bumper sticker that makes one think about the whole idea of omnivorism, even if you disagree.

But it also plays into the R vs. B divide, where the latter drink the lattes and eat only veggies…whatever.  Sometimes they even think it’s just fine that anyone can marry anyone else.  You know, like we’re all humans, after all. 

The IP senses a train wreck coming on, at least in his mind and temperament.    

Tail wagging the dog?  Or just plain news reporting?  

And what’s up with THIS?

Oh Christ!!  This is just what we need.  McCain’s VP pick has an un-wed, pregnant daughter.  You might think that this situation would smack of hypocrisy for such Christian standard bearers, but watch them spin this into a Christian-oriented redemption (or at least they’ll try).  It’s all because she’s not having an abortion and she’s going to marry the impregnator.  The IP wouldn’t be surprised if the RNC and McCain planned this shit.  Just watch.  Palin will be hailed as a “devoted mother” who “sticks by her child” blah blah blah…and the daughter will be a sort of living object lesson for young girls, but nonetheless virtuous by her not having an abortion.  This Palin pick keeps getting more cynical every minute.  

What a pisser!!! 

Or maybe the McCain platform will collapse???    We’ll just have to wait and see…