As you may know Prince has not exactly been a fan of online music, either for free or for pay. He once sued youtube to force removal of all uploads of his music. His music, his rules. Well that may be changing somewhat as Prince or apparently (hopefully) someone with his permission recently placed numerous uploads of new Prince music online for free and for purchase. Maybe this signals a permanent thaw in the Purple One's often frosty relationship with online music consumers. I was first hipped to this on a different board by a younger friend who is likely the biggest Prince fanatic I've encountered in quite a while. And that's saying something, I think. The rumor is that there is a new album that will be released later this year. I hope that's the case.
Anyway check these out and enjoy. Some of this stuff harkens back to his early 1980's Cars inspired rock-n-roll sound, with straight eighth chank rhythms and synths. Other music not only makes nods to jazz, for all intents and purposes it is jazz. Much would not have sounded out of place on seventies George Benson or Crusaders albums. No one is going to mistake Prince for Joe Pass anytime soon but he still remains one of modern music's most fascinating and eclectic songwriters and performers. I grew up with jazz enthusiasts and was proud and lucky to do so. I don't think they would have automatically rejected some of this music, which in and of itself, would be pretty high praise for someone like Prince, who is not and has not been considered a jazz musician. Some blues musicians and scholars have been known to make the claim that essentially all popular music descends from the blues one way or the other. The drastically reworked song "I could never take the place of your man" which has been turned into a Hendrix/Hazel workout complete with gospel type vocals certainly would seem to support that pov. I could not believe this was the same song. I don't know how long any of this music will be online so go download purchase it now.
The Midwest in general and Ohio in particular was a hotbed of soul and funk in the sixties and seventies. Ohio could boast musicians and groups like Bootsy and Catfish Collins, Slave, The O'Jays, Lakeside, The Dazz Band and of course The Ohio Players. The Ohio Players were led by guitarist and vocalist Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, who just recently passed away. As I've discussed before many people who like to write themselves into history argue that as black audiences lost interest in traditional blues, such music was kept alive by British or White American bands. Well there's something to that but it is also a fact that traditional blues morphed into soul and funk. Sugarfoot Bonner and the Ohio Players certainly are prime examples of that. A tremendous amount of their music has blues roots or is straight up pure blues ("The Reds"). Bonner himself was a hardcore blues guitarist when he first started out. Bonner was a bluesman for his generation. The Ohio Players grew out of the backing band for such greats as Wilson Pickett, Mack Rice and Eddie Floyd, none of whom were known as "blues" singers per se but all of whom had tremendous voices packed with blues feeling. Shortly after lead guitarist Robert Ward left to go on to a solo blues/soul career and almost singlehandedly keep the sound of the Magnatone amplifier alive, Sugarfoot Bonner joined the band, now known as The Ohio Players.
The band signed to Detroit based Westbound records, where like label mates Funkadelic they soon became known as much for their record covers (often softcore S&M) as for their music. Musically The Ohio Players created a potent melange of soul, funk, R&B, blues and jazz. They didn't get quite as far out as some of the Funkadelic or Hendrix stuff. The Ohio Players had an explicitly jazzier sound. I had heard some of their music on the radio or at relatives' homes but because of the record covers I generally wasn't able to get too many of their albums into my home as a kid. So as a result I was much more of a P-Funk fan than an Ohio Players fan growing up. I didn't really get into them seriously until late high school and college when I was more able to do what I wanted to do. The Ohio Players had more commercial hits after they left Westbound and signed with Mercury Records. At Mercury they had a more smoothed out sound and one with slightly more prominent horn breaks. Bonner took over most of the singing and became the band's most identifiable front man. His double neck guitar, outrageous outfits and especially his pleading drawling "awwwwwwwwwwww girl" vocals, were a signature. Bonner wasn't the first singer to use that vocal style (Bobby Bland anyone?) but he was one of the most popular. He influenced people like Lionel Richie and Larry Blackmon. I wasn't a huge fan of the drummer for some reason. I can't quite say why.
Their first big hit (at Westbound) was "Funky Worm", written by keyboardist extraordinaire Junie Morrison, who later joined Funkadelic. "Funky Worm" lived on in just about any rap song recorded between 1990 and 2000. The Ohio Players had hits with "Fire", "I want to be Free", "Sweet Sticky Thing", "Fopp", "Who'd She Coo?", "Far East Mississippi" and several other tunes. I love the bass line on "Pain". I don't know who started it but there was an urban legend that the scream heard on "Love Rollercoaster" was that of the cover model who was murdered during the recording session.Obviously untrue but in the pre-internet days this just added to the band's mystique. "What the Hell" sees Bonner turning up the amp and giving us a very lengthy memorable modern blues solo. Their early cut "You Don't Mean It" has the bass turned up a lot, which is just how I like it. The horn riffs on "Food Stamps" have an ever so slight resemblance to the horn charts on Al Green's "Love and Happiness". I'm sure it's purely accidental...
This is from the HBO's Game of Thrones Season Two Blu-Ray extras. The Blu-Ray and DVD sets will be released on February 19. As in one of the previous extras I posted, Rose Leslie as Ygritte provides a quick explanation of an important element in George R.R. Martin's world. In this case she discusses The Night's Watch, that legion of men who have volunteered or more likely been sentenced or exiled to the far north to keep out the Wildlings (or Free Folk as Ygritte would prefer) and provide early warning/defense against any invasion by less natural creatures.
Chris Kyle, a former US Navy SEAL, was the most dangerous sniper in the history of the US military. He had over 150 confirmed kills and multiple Bronze and Silver Stars. Kyle was wounded in combat. He completed four tours of Iraq and once killed a rocket launcher bearing insurgent from a little over a mile away. In short he was the best at what he did. When he left the military to be with his family he wrote a best selling autobiography, American Sniper, detailing his story. He didn't take any of the royalties from this book but instead donated them to the families of SEALS killed in combat. He also gave away the money he made from appearances or book signings. Kyle started a non-profit foundation, FITCO, to work with veterans suffering from disabilities, whether physical or emotional/mental like PTSD. Kyle did a lot of hands-on volunteer work with veterans. He was pretty dedicated towards raising awareness of the challenges that veterans face reintegrating into society and doing what he could to help veterans meet those challenges. Kyle was supposed to help work security at the Super Bowl but evidently decided to decline that opportunity in order to volunteer with a veteran he didn't know, Eddie Ray Routh, who was suffering from PTSD. The men went to a shooting range. Apparently, at some time on Saturday, Eddie Ray Routh murdered both Chris Kyle as well as a friend of Kyle's, Chad Littlefield. So a man who survived four tours of Iraq and an Iraqi bounty being placed on his head was murdered in the US. Kyle leaves a wife and two small children behind.
Now this isn't the first time this has happened to a combat veteran. And it definitely won't be the last. The news is full of stories where someone survives the war zone abroad only to return home and get murdered. Usually when things like this happen, people murmur words of sympathy and curse the evil person who took the life. But see, Chris Kyle was also something of a conservative who was quite proud of having served his nation in the Armed Forces. He also was not a fan of current gun control proposals or the current Administration. I haven't read his book yet but it's probably a pretty fair bet that Kyle was probably close to if not 180 degrees different from my political beliefs. So evidently that made it okay for some people to snark or joke about his untimely death. Whether it was the Mother Jones editor implying Kyle's death showed we needed more gun control because even SEALS aren't safe, random twitter users calling Kyle a hillbilly liar, saying his death was poetic justice or karma,alternet commenters calling Kyle a "mass murderer","psycho", "serial killer", or Ron Paul saying that "live by the sword die by the sword" there was an unseemly number of people that were eager to denigrate Kyle (and by extension all soldiers) after his death.
I am not a fan of an interventionist foreign policy. I did not and do not support the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. But once we're there, we're there. Chris Kyle did not commit war crimes. He killed people in a war zone who were trying to kill him or other Americans. He wasn't sitting in Langley dropping bombs on children and or writing memos claiming the right to kill Americans. He put his life on the line overseas to save soldier's lives. And upon his return he continued to look out for soldiers. He died trying to save a soldier's life. There are American veterans today who are alive because Chris Kyle was watching their backs. You may or may not think that makes him a hero, but there's no way that makes him a bad guy as far as I can see. But even if you do think that Kyle was a bad person for his politics or his attitude, I don't see why someone should crack jokes or make light of his death. Is that where we've come to as a nation? Someone politically opposed to us is murdered and we hurl insults and unfunny jokes? That's disgusting. I have family members who served in Desert Storm. I am very glad they returned safely. Another younger relative is at West Point now. In the unthinkable event of their murder I wouldn't have much nice to say to anyone who implied that their death was somehow karma for their "bad" deeds or politics. Even if you think that our foreign policy is wrong and needs to be radically changed as soon as possible, (and I certainly do) I just don't think you do your argument or yourself any favors by making fun of dead soldiers. Something has gone very wrong in our political culture when someone's death just invites more vitriol. Given time and experience Chris Kyle may have become a modern day Smedley Butler. Or he may not have. He may have stayed most comfortable on the right. Either way he (nor most other human beings) did not deserve to be murdered and then mocked after death. Again, it's not about if you agreed with his politics or not. It's just basic human decency. One of Kyle's last interviews from January 2013.
This was Ferrari's first novel. It's impressive. The book is longer than 600 pages. I don't think that Ferrari needed quite that much room to detail everything that happened. But the story hardly ever drags. The Book of Joby is as you might expect from the title, an epic, humorous and magical retelling of the The Book of Job from The Bible. It also nods to some other popular religious conspiracy books but that doesn't become apparent until later. As usual Lucifer is trying to find a way to destroy all creation. Lucifer remains convinced that man is God's biggest mistake. Due to his pride (he was the Morning Star after all) Lucifer thinks that God is simply too stubborn to admit that Lucifer is right. God remains an engaging being who has seemingly infinite patience for Lucifer's shenanigans. God reminds Lucifer that Lucifer has only won bets with God twice (Adam and Eve and Judas) and that both times Lucifer's victories rebounded to God's and humanity's glory. Eager to prove his creator wrong, Lucifer claims that God cheated in the Jesus situation. God responds that He never said Jesus would stay dead. Lucifer just assumed. The two immortal beings make another bet. Lucifer still insists that given time and resources he can make even the most righteous human despair and curse God. God says he can't. If Lucifer wins the bet, God agrees to wipe creation and start over using Lucifer's ideas, which primarily involve getting rid of that nasty little free will feature that humans have. Free will drives Lucifer crazy. God will pick the human whom Lucifer will get to test for about 30 years. Neither God nor any of His angels will interfere. Lucifer and his hellish subordinates can't kill the human or threaten to kill him but can do anything else.
The chosen child is one Joby Peterson, an unabashedly happy and optimistic nine year old with fantasies of being King Arthur, fighting the devil and doing good. Both God and Lucifer appear in Joby's dreams and obtain veiled permission for his role in what's to come. Starting immediately and ramping up through first puberty and later adulthood, Lucifer and his minions find many ways to attack Joby's self-esteem. They seek out every weak spot and exploit it. Whether it's preventing Joby from finding true love, causing a Joby led protest to go horribly wrong or telling Joby that only perfection may get God's love and entrance into heaven, Lucifer stays busy. The story's funniest parts are Lucifer's interactions with God or discussions (really more rants) with his own sullen subordinates in Hell. At a managerial status meeting, irritated by another devil's incessant table tapping Lucifer calmly tells the hapless employee that if he taps that table onemore time, his fingers will be the least of the appendages which he loses. I had a boss like that once. I still have all my fingers but it was touch and go for a while.
Joby grows into a mediocre sad man beset with self-doubt and riddled with hidden rage. But Joby has something secret which Lucifer didn't see. Joby is drawn to Taubolt, a hidden town that Lucifer and his agents don't know about. And something here hurts, incapacitates and can even kill supernatural evil creatures. This story seamlessly blends a very Western Christian understanding of free will with Arthurian legends and Biblical stories. It's a very enjoyable book. Lucifer constantly accuses God of cheating only to be forced to admit that no their agreement really didn't include the contingency that Lucifer didn't see but which God did. There's a lot here about missed opportunities and sacrificing for your children. Children play an integral role in this book. If you skim over the "silly kid stuff" you may miss some important things. I appreciated the lack of cynicism and anti-heroes. The Book of Joby shows cynicism, despair and pessimism masquerading as honesty to be bad, even demonic things. This book was a much needed break from morally gray stories. This book will touch people (especially religious folks) who enjoy seeing the good in life and like watching the butterflies and eating fresh summer strawberries. The good guys may not win, but they are the good guys. The bad guys don't have redeeming features, unless it's Lucifer's fondness for fine suits and accoutrement. He really is a man of wealth and taste. Lucifer's also incredibly mean, petty and short-tempered. Hell reflects Lucifer's vile nature as rival devils constantly attempt to one-up each other and replace Lucifer as King of Hell. Beyond The Black River by Robert E. Howard
One thing that Robert E. Howard often did in his stories, besides including an idealized version of himself, was to show his amateur yet deep knowledge of history. In one story Conan is tangling with Vikings but in another he's matching wits with barely disguised 16th century Spanish privateers. The effect is very intoxicating, especially as Howard's prose pours from the page and transmits you to a world that never was yet feels so true to life you'll swear you're reading and experiencing historical accounts. Beyond the Black River is one of Howard's best stories. Here Howard draws heavily for inspiration from the history of White/Comanche wars in Texas. He learned some of this from his mother and other female relatives. Howard also traveled extensively around Texas as a child and later as an adult, soaking up history from older ruins and forts. Beyond The Black River also appears to have been very strongly influenced by James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking tales. You could strip out the minor fantastic elements and this story would work just as well as a colonial America tale or as a Western. Some characters sound like Texans. Even the title hints at "Injun country", that zone in the American mind where the laws of the white man do not apply. Conan is roughly at the age where he's "getting too old for this s***" . Conan is serving as a scout for the Aquilonian military, which is overseeing a settlement expansion beyond the Black River (the previous boundary between Aquilonian hegemony and Pictish controlled lands). Howard's Picts were a fictional creation based on the indigenous Scottish/Welsh inhabitants but here they very much read as Iroquois or Comanche. Aquilonia is the age's superpower, something akin to High Middle Ages France/Britain. Obviously, the Picts aren't very happy about this expansionism and are fighting back in hit and run attacks.
Conan meets up with a slighter more civilized version of himself, a settler named Balthus. They find the body of a merchant who's been killed with sorcery by a Pictish nationalist and wizard named Zogar Sag. Zogar Sag has the power to talk to and even control animals and deadlier things that lurk in the woods and swamps. Zogar Sag could unify all the Pict clans. Conan gets the assignment to take out Zogar Sag. Conan agrees, even though he thinks the Aquilonians are greedy and overconfident about being able to take and hold land so far from home. Being Cimmerian, Conan has an atavistic hatred for Picts but he has a grudging respect for their fight against Aquilonian colonialism. Howard has Conan show a strong class consciousness and speak approvingly of land reform. Conan says, "This colonization business is mad anyway. If the Aquilonians would cut up some of the big estates of their barons, and plant wheat where now only deer are hunted, they wouldn't have to cross the border and take the land of the Picts away from them. " Conan himself was part of a successful Cimmerian attack against Aquilonian invaders when he was just fifteen. Conan, Balthus and a few others, including a Pict hating dog named Slasher (its previous owner and family were murdered by Picts) set out to kill Zogar Sag. But they find themselves making a last stand far from home while a Pict army attempts to overrun the Aquilonian fort and settlements and kill all of the settlers. Despite being action packed, this story is also somewhat philosophical as Conan spends some time ruminating on what he sees as the hypocrisies and savageries of "civilized" men. This short story is famous for its final quote, that of a woodsman looking at Conan. The quote pretty much expressed Howard's views as well. "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.
Black Science Fiction by John M. Faucette Jr.
John Faucette was a Harlem born black science fiction writer. He may have been best known for his allegorical novels Warriors of Terra (inspired by Harlem gang wars) and Crown of Infinity (inspired by Black experiences in America). Faucette, however, did not become wealthy from his writing endeavors. He had tremendous experience and frustration with racism in the publishing arena and more specifically with scarce black presence in science fiction. By his own admission he was not at the top of his craft and like many writers regardless of race had to deal with constant rejections. The foreword to this book drips with anger about the rejections. Evidently he took this very personally. I guess I would too after a while. Faucette's insistence on writing black heroes or mildly disguised allegories dealing with racism, slavery and colonialism added to his unmarketable reputation. Other times, publishing houses just weren't selling work by black authors. Period. Black Science Fiction is a self-published collection of short stories that are more or less exactly what they sound like. Often, not always, the protagonists are black. Faucette wrote that "I amno Hopkinson, Delany, Butler, or Barnes. But I try. I will always try. Till the day they bury me". This collection came about in part because of an uptick in interest in some of Faucette's older stories and the ability of the internet to link together like minded people. Faucette discovered people who actually liked his older works as well as younger writers who were self-publishing e-books and the like. So Faucette decided to publish short stories he had written over the years. He's deceased now but this is an interesting group of stories. The collection is highly uneven in quality. Faucette was correct. He wasn't the best writer. But he did have a great talent for "what-if" stories and an insight into the underdog's mind. He also didn't mind putting extremely frank erotica into a story, if he thought it necessary, sort of like Martin or Laymon. So this collection isn't really a group of stories for kids or prudes of any age. However as my brother reminded me it is probably just the sort of thing I may have read myself as a teen and "neglected" to tell anyone about.
Black Science Fiction is a little over 400 pages and contains about 40 short stories of varying length. Standouts include "The Redemption of Robert E. Lee" in which Pickett's Charge succeeds and leads to a southern victory and an attempt by General Lee to outlaw slavery; "Hitman for a Day" where due to overpopulation pressures, citizens can play a lottery and kill someone they hate; "The Outrage", where a security guard must defend aliens accused of rape from a human lynch mob; "The Slave and The Time Machine", where an enslaved African goes to the future and comes back with some little friends for slave owners to say hello to; and "The Promised Land" where a black secret agent who can pass for white discovers that the victorious Confederacy is creating a Final Solution for blacks out west. There are other stories here which I didn't like and a few which I positively hated ("Cinderella 3000") so YMMV. If you like speculative fiction writers with an idiosyncratic and occasionally rather perverse take on things, this book might be worthwhile. If you don't like a particular story, just turn the page. There's probably something better coming up shortly. Overall I'm glad I have it in my library.
One Shot by Lee Child
This is the book which the Tom Cruise movie Jack Reacher was based upon. I'm not enough of a Tom Cruise fan to go run and see his movies in the theaters. But I was intrigued by the howls of fury from Lee Child fans that Tom Cruise was playing the titular role. So when I saw this book on sale a few weeks back I bought it. Now I can understand why book readers would have been disappointed, even upset with Cruise taking the movie role. In the book Jack Reacher is a former Army MP who is a blonde haired, blue eyed giant of a man, standing 6-5 and weighing about 250#. Few people want to tangle with him physically. He consciously and subconsciously uses his size and muscle to subtly intimidate people. I don't think Cruise could have brought that element of the character to life visually. Though Reacher's size is an important part of his overall persona and how he is viewed by others, it's definitely not the most important thing about him. Reacher's primary tool is his brain. He's able to out think just about anyone he's up against. He's sort of a modern day Sherlock Holmes or Doc Savage. Reacher notices and remembers things which other people don't. He has quite the talent for living and moving off the grid. This second is somewhat less believable in a post 9/11 world but then again Reacher is ex-military with skill sets other people lack. He's a ghost. You can't find him. He finds you. The story opens in a small Indiana city with an unnamed man methodically shooting five people from his parking garage perch. He misses one shot and does not retrieve all of his ejected cartridges. All five people that he did shoot are dead. Obviously this is a skilled sniper.
The physical evidence all points to a former Army Sniper, one James Barr. James Barr tells the cops they got the wrong guy and to get Jack Reacher for him. But Reacher, who was engaged in empty sex with a beautiful woman, is already on the way to the city. He saw the news. He and Barr have history. Bad history. The case appears open and shut. The lead police investigator and DA are basically already congratulating each other as the trial appears to be a mere formality. Barr can no longer assist in his defense as shortly after being put in jail he was beaten into a coma. Barr's semi-estranged sister Rosemary doesn't believe her brother did it despite the abundance of evidence. Reacher is nothing if not a straight shooter and after talking to the police and DA he doesn't see much to shake their faith in Barr's guilt. But someone is shadowing Reacher's moves around town. Reacher becomes aware of this not long after the reader does. Someone wants to make sure that Barr is convicted. Eventually Reacher notices a few anomalies, things which other investigators wouldn't have. And he starts pulling a few strings. Hard. Even though Reacher would like to hurt Barr and doesn't always care about the exact letter of the law, his sense of honor, intelligence and quiet morality won't let him leave Barr to the tender mercies of the Indiana courts if Reacher is not convinced that's where Barr should be. Barr's defense attorney, Helen Rodin, is the daughter of the DA prosecuting the case. She, Reacher, Rosemary and a Reacher associate uncover a conspiracy. The shot-callers aren't happy. They play for keeps. They take increasingly deadly steps to take Reacher off the board. This was a very quick fun read. The author walks you through many ways in which people unknowingly leave evidence of who they are and where they've been all through the day.
Many people who are hostile to concealed carry or dismissive of an individual right to keep and bear arms like to say "No one needs a gun in today's society" or "Why does anyone need more than x" bullets. Well, recently in Detroit one suburban 56-year old great-grandmother found out that having a gun with a magazine of more than six shots can be pretty handy when you are in the process of being beaten and mugged. I'm glad she was able to defend herself. It seems as if she might need to spend some more time at the range, though. Just maybe. In any event it's an excellent example of how when it goes down hard, you really can't count on anyone but yourself. Feminism and fatherlessness killed chivalry. Most people don't want to get involved. An older woman can't automatically rely on anyone to come to her assistance if she's being attacked. I used to ride this bus WAY BACK in the old days when I went to U-D. It's the Wild West Side of Detroit. Of course it's a good thing this didn't happen in New York, as under the new law, magazines with more than a seven round capacity are illegal. We are definitely living in strange times. Incidents like this are why I am so vociferously in support of every law abiding person's right to keep and bear arms. We live in neither heaven nor earthly utopia. This world is unfortunately full of people who live to do wrong, some areas more than others, it seems. When a grandmother feels the need to be ready to come up blasting, something has gone DRASTICALLY wrong in our society. Watch the video below as the lady explains just what went down and how she reacted.
DETROIT (WJBK) -- When a local great grandma couldn't find a good Samaritan to fight off a mugger, she went for the next best thing -- her gun. At 11:30 Thursday morning on a bus near the University of Detroit Mercy, a guy in his early twenties attacked Ramona Taylor-Kamate.
"He said, 'Give me my bag auntie.' I said, 'I am not your auntie, boy, and this is not your bag.' So he hit me. So when he hit me, we started fighting," she explained. Taylor-Kamate said there were more men than women on that packed bus, but not one guy would help her. She traded punches with the punk, then he grabbed her purse and ran out on the sidewalk with grandma dragging along. She said other bus riders yelled he has a gun.
"He reached down like he was going in his boot. They already [said] he had a gun in his boot. So he reached down in his boot. When he reached down, I went in my secret compartment... and got my H&K out and I started shooting at him." She has a concealed pistol license and said she feared for her life. She fired her 9 millimeter handgun and emptied the gun. She said he ran away with her purse and did not appear to be hit. She had ten rounds in her magazine and one more loaded in the chamber. She fired all eleven shots.
You can pay Uncle Sam with the overtime Is that all you get for your money -Billy Joel "Moving Out"
During my time on this planet I've known several people who are doing much better financially than I am. I'm sure you have known people more successful than you are. Some of these people were born to it or inherited it. Others worked for it. Some were smarter and harder working than I was. Some have skill sets which I lack. Other people are just older and more experienced. Other folks simply happened to marry well. In any event very few of them liked giving money away, and certainly not to the state or federal government. I remember listening to a rant by a former friend, who having built an income in the high six figures, was outraged that to her mind, so much of it, too much of it was going to the federal government. It seems like it was a weekly event of listening to her whine about taxes and how it wasn't fair and blah, blah, blah. I've also known a few wealthy people who made it a point never to complain publicly about their taxes because they considered it gauche and something not likely to engender sympathy. I certainly didn't feel much sympathy or empathy for the friend I mentioned. This lack of sympathy often occurs because when you're living paycheck to paycheck you don't see how someone making high multiples of what you make can have too many financial problems. I look at some people making more than I make and think they have it made. But I also know some people who earn much less than I do and think I have it made. And I assure you that is so not the case. It's all relative. This feeling of "Buddy we've all got it tough" could be what golfer and California resident Phil Mickelson ran into when he complained about the high taxes he was paying, and specifically the increased taxes he would owe under the fiscal cliff deal and California's just passed 13% income tax rate.
“If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and state, my tax rate is 62, 63 percent,” Mickelson said. “So I’ve got to make some decisions on what to do.”Mickelson, who lives with his wife, Amy, and their three children outside San Diego, his hometown, said he planned to elaborate on his comments in more detail this week when the tour stopped in his backyard, at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif.
“It’s been an interesting off-season,” said Mickelson, who cracked open a window into his thought process last week during a teleconference. Asked if he has considered following his United States Ryder Cup teammate Steve Stricker, another 40-something golfer, into semi retirement, Mickelson replied: “You know, I think that we’re all going to have our own way of handling things, handling time in our career, our family, handling what’s going on the last couple of months politically. I think we’re all going to have to find things that work for us.”
In December, Mickelson, who was part of a group that had bought the San Diego Padres four months earlier, abruptly announced that he was no longer involved in the business deal. His reversal came shortly after California voters approved Proposition 30, which imposed a 13.3 percent tax rate on incomes of more than $1 million.
Asked Sunday if the election results played a role in his decision to sever his ties with the Padres’ ownership group, Mickelson replied, “Yeah, absolutely.” "I'm not going to jump the gun, but there are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and...it doesn't work for me right now."
"I'm like many Americans who are trying to understand the new tax laws. I certainly don't have a definitive plan at this time, but like everyone else I want to make decisions that are best for my future and my family. Finances and taxes are a personal matter and I should not have made my opinions on them public. I apologize to those I have upset or insulted and assure you I intend to not let it happen again".
Mickelson was, according to Sports Illustrated, the second highest paid athlete in 2012. Floyd Mayweather was #1. So even by the elevated standards of New York or Hollywood, Mickelson would remain rich even if the federal, state and local governments really were shaking him down for 63% of his total (not marginal) income. Perhaps he really should just keep his mouth shut and pay up. Never complain and never explain is often really good advice for an adult to heed. If you're paying a lot of taxes, you're probably earning a lot of money so what do you really have to complain about when all is said and done? Mickelson's net worth is estimated at or around $180 million. So it's not like I'm ever going to see Mickelson on my homeward bound expressway exit forlornly holding up a sign that reads "Will putt for cash. Please help".
So this raises an interesting question. There are as stated, very few people who like paying taxes. People at all levels of income complain about the bites various governments take whether they're getting clothing at goodwill or going shopping for suits in Paris and Rome over the weekend. Presumably Mickelson and his wife know better than anyone not in the IRS, how much he pays in taxes. Whatever his tax burden is, by Mickelson's reckoning it's too damn much. He has a right to say so. California's 13% income tax is by my standards, too high and could well be a reason why some people who have the ability may consider departing California for more pleasant (lower tax) locales. You need not be a right-wing free market fundamentalist to recognize that there is a point where higher tax rates do not result in higher revenue. Because all else equal people can and do decide to leave the political unit where high taxes are imposed or failing that work less. For a high tax area to succeed, it needs to offer some other super high quality services to go along with the higher taxes-high quality schools, high income potential, clean air and water, great roads, open space, responsive police and fire service. Does that sound like California these days? I couldn't say... But Mickelson should count himself lucky. Progressive talk show host and author Thom Hartmann thinks we should outlaw billionaires. Mickelson doesn't make that cut yet but if he keeps whining I'm sure some people might decide that a 100% wealth tax on anything over 1 million might be a good idea. On the other hand I am shortly due for significant pay raises and bonus, though the increases are sadly somewhat short of $60 million. I imagine that I will be rather po'd when I see how much of the increase in income goes to the federal government. Last year I remember going to my boss wondering if the check was correct. NO ONE likes taxes!!
Questions:
Was Mickelson right to speak out? Do you have any sympathy?
Was an apology necessary?
Is 63% of income going to government too high?
How much of his own money should Mickelson get to keep?
In Season Four Sam (Jason Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) sniped and feuded all season long about Sam's use of strange psychic powers, the disgusting things he was doing to maintain these powers and his closeness (that kind too) with the demon Ruby (Genevieve Padalecki) who claimed to want to help Sam kill the demon Lilith. Dean and Bobby (Jim Beaver) took drastic steps to try to "cure" Sam, including locking him in a supernatural detox tank, from which he escaped. The bad blood culminated in an ugly, vicious, lengthy knock-down dragout no holds barred sibling battle royale which the bigger, stronger and by now much angrier Sam won. Despite Dean's final warning Sam chose Ruby over his brother and went off to kill Lilith with Ruby's assistance. Well it turns out that sometimes big brother Dean really does know best. Trusting demons is never wise. Sam killed Lilith and got revenge for all the evil things she had done. But as Ruby triumphantly revealed to Sam, Lilith's death was the final seal to unlock the key to Hell. Ruby was a secret agent who was ordered to manipulate Sam into killing Lilith. Lilith was a willing sacrifice. By killing Lilith Sam unwittingly opened the path for Lucifer to invade the earth and set off the Apocalypse. Dean learns where Sam is and with Sam's help, kills Ruby. But it's too late. The Morning Star himself is entering our plane of existence The brothers mysteriously escape Lucifer's arrival. They don't know how they did it and the angels or demons don't know either. The brothers get more bad news. As things are in Earth so are they in Heaven. Just as Sam and Dean have a fractious relationship with Sam being a rebellious son to John Winchester while Dean was a dutiful son, Lucifer and Michael have the same exact relationship with each other and God. In fact each Winchester brother is destined to play a part in the Final Battle, on opposite sides! When Dean broke under torture in Hell and agreed to torture others, that was the breaking of the first seal and Sam's killing of Lilith was the last.
Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino), who has temporarily taken over a hapless human, is convinced that Sam is his true vessel. The angels also believe that Dean is the vessel for the Archangel Michael. The only drawback from Lucifer's and Michael's standpoint is that a human must willingly agree to possession by an angel. Sam and Dean vow never to agree. But eternal beings, whether devil or angel, have all sorts of tricks to wear down human resistance. Lucifer has near eternal patience. He is immortal after all. He confidently tells Sam that eventually Sam will say yes to letting Lucifer possess him. It's only a matter of time. It's a question of fate. And fate can't be denied, something that the angels and demons seem to be very insistent upon. Each side scoffs at the notion of free will. Neither bears much love for humans or cares that the Final Battle will at the very least wipe out half of humanity. So the brothers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The angels (with the notable exception of Castiel) are eager for the Final Battle to take place. As Zacariah puts it "We like our chances". God has evidently left the building. There are only a handful of angels who have ever seen God. Word on the celestial street is that God is dead. Castiel (Misha Collins) finds this impossible to believe and offensive to even imagine. Castiel starts a quest to find God since he can't accept that God would want the Apocalypse to occur. During this search Castiel angers his angelic superiors so much that they cut off his access to Heaven's powers.
This season was a bit uneven. I believe this was originally intended to be the last in the series. The ending certainly made it seem like that was the plan. Supernatural simultaneously gets caught in a bit of a rut but also takes some pretty big chances with maiming or killing off critical characters. The Winchesters are not only bad news for the bad guys but also often unfortunately bad news for their friends. Sam and Dean even split up for a while. Dean won't stop needling Sam about the Ruby situation and finally says he can't trust his brother. Sam is tired of Dean's snide comments as well as taking orders from big brother. Sam doubts he still has the judgement to be a hunter. And he's dealing with guilt both over setting Lucifer free and over his inborn rage. If you have a sibling, you've probably argued with him or her on occasion. Imagine that turned up to 10 here. The brothers do spend most of their waking moments together and that can be irritating. Nobody knows better how to get under your skin than a family member does. Sam and Dean illustrate that perfectly. The pressure is incredible. Only all existence is at stake.
Lucifer releases the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Pestilence, Famine, War and Death) to bring further misery and suffering to the world. And they all do just that. The thing is though, the Winchester Brothers still think it's their job to save the world. And when they put their mind to something, if you're in the way, you better duck. Even if you are one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or Old Scratch himself. There are ways for humans to fight angels or other immortal beings. And with the help of old friend and paternal figure Bobby Singer, mother figure Ellen (Samantha Ferris), her daughter Jo (Alona Tal), the irascible Rufus Turner (Steven Williams) and a few other hunters the Winchesters intend to make their last stand. As they frequently remind each other over Season Five, they're all they have. This is even more the case when other once friendly hunters learn of Sam's and Dean's role in bringing about this chain of events.
Supernatural is or was popular with some fan fiction writers and live action role playing people. The series gently mocks those folks and itself here with the depiction of a convention of Supernatural fans who have come to listen to Chuck (Rob Benedict) speak of his Supernatural series. Chuck is an amiable and nervous weasel of a man who just happens to have written down all of the adventures of the Winchesters in his best selling "fictional" series. He even knows what will happen next. Chuck is a prophet of the Lord. In the future the deeds of the Winchesters will be the basis for a new religion. But for now Chuck is content to preside over groupings of basement dwelling adults who are eager to dress up like the Winchesters, start online flame wars over what sort of leather jacket Dean wears or discuss "homoerotic subtext in the Supernatural books". Yeah. Sam and Dean aren't very happy with Chuck. But Chuck does become something of an ally when a real supernatural danger is revealed at the Supernatural convention.
The Winchesters travel from town to town, dealing with new threats brought on by the Apocalypse, resisting increasingly angry angels or demons who want their favored brother to say yes to their master, searching frantically for a way to stop or kill Lucifer, eliminating run of the mill supernatural threats in their spare time, and of course, trying to get some. This last was somewhat muted in Season Five as horndog Dean decides not to go pick up women on Valentine's Day, something Sam finds incredulous. Valentine's Day has always been ladies' man Dean's favorite holiday. He calls it "Unattached Drifter Christmas". There's a Terminator shout out. The angels decide if Dean won't say yes to possession by Michael, the best way to stop Lucifer is to go back in time and kill Sam and Dean's parents so that Sam will never be born. The angel tasked to do this just happens to be the female angel to whom Dean introduced the pleasures of the flesh. Other episodes give nods to HP Lovecraft. The brothers also run across the Antichrist, encounter pagan gods who want to stop the Apocalypse, and have the first of many chats with Death (Julian Richings), a charming cane bearing fellow with a dry British sense of humor, total disregard for all life, and a fondness for stuffed pizza. Season Five Trailer Season Five Fan Trailer(mixes images from Constantine) Season Five Intro
Amelie directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet
Amelie is a French language movie with English subtitles available if you are so inclined. I took French way back in grade school and later high school but outside of school trips to Toronto never had an opportunity to use it in real life and so forgot almost all of it. So it was fun to occasionally turn off the subtitles and see if I could follow the storyline. I usually got lost after a few sentences. Anyhow I had purchased the music soundtrack ages ago and loved the songs. But I never got around to watching the movie. My brother sent me the DVD a few months back and here we are. The story is incredibly predictable but I mean that as a description and compliment, not a criticism. It's about a woman (the titular character) who, if she doesn't take steps to change the path she's on, will become an old Eleanor Rigby type who really will die in the church and be buried along with her name. She's completely, almost painfully aware of this but is too scared to change. Her shyness and introversion prevent her from living life to its fullest. Amelie is a person who mostly reacts to decisions that are made by others instead of seeking to change her own destiny.
We see how some of her passivity got started in her childhood. Amelie (Audrey Tatou) had eccentric somewhat standoffish parents who misdiagnosed an issue which Amelie had as a young girl and as a result crippled her self-esteem and confidence. This was made worse when her mother died in a freak accident which Amelie witnessed. Both Amelie and her father are people who just want to be left alone in life. Amelie has a very active, almost hyperactive imagination. Amelie works in a cafe where a number of like-minded, well , losers, hang out. There's an oh so cool writer full of pathos and wisdom but who has never run across anyone who's read his (unpublished) work. There's a plain looking slightly overweight older woman who despairs of having love and hides this by claiming to suffer from every disease or condition ever discovered. Most humorously there's a bitter trollish fellow, who having been romantically dumped by another waitress, shows up every day in a jealous seething rage to tape record her imagined flirtations with other customers and dictate his own incredibly offbase insights about women's nature. He sees two women talking, assumes it's about him and records himself sneering "2:30 PM. Obvious female plot taking place. But I'm onto them.". All of the characters are introduced by the narrator who quickly details or shows their little quirks or activities in which they find pleasure, like skipping rocks across ponds or tasting roasted chicken fresh from the oven or arranging items in their proper order or a million and one different things which make us all so unique and human.
On the day that Princess Diana died, Amelie finds an old box containing toys, mementos and letters that belonged to a boy who lived in her apartment back in the fifties. Impulsively she decides to try to return these items to the man, wherever he might be, in the hope that by doing so she will bring happiness to the man's life. If she's successful then she will continue to try to help others (and live vicariously through them). Showing resourcefulness and grit she doesn't normally display in her day job, Amelie does find the man. She anonymously arranges the return of his childhood belongings. Amelie discovers that the man was indeed made incredibly happy by this act of kindness. In fact the man intends to try to make up with his estranged daughter. Amelie enthusiastically decides to take it upon herself to become a righter of wrongs, a sort of female Zorro. She sets things up so that the hypochondriac woman and the bitter man start to think of each other as attractive, tries to convince her withdrawn father to take some trips around the world, stands up to a bully and generally does her best to spread some joy among the people she knows, or even most memorably among people she doesn't know. There is a scene where she carefully leads a blind man to his destination, all the time telling him of all the wonderful things that are going on around him. After she leaves the shot of joy and love on his face, shot from a crane, is really something to see.
But while Amelie is watching others and trying to see how she can improve their lives, someone else is watching her. An older man with a degenerative bone condition who is known as the Glass Man, Dufayel (Serge Merlin) befriends Amelie. He paints original work of his own and reworks Renoir paintings. He's having difficulty finding the correct facial expression for a girl in a painting. Amelie gives him suggestions on what the girl might be feeling or thinking. Over time the girl in the painting becomes the vehicle by which Amelie is able to haltingly and with plausible deniability express some of her own deeper feelings. When Amelie sees a man her own age lose a photo album, she gets the book and intends to return it. But Amelie is physically attracted to the man, Nino (Mathieu Kassovits), which is partly why she was watching him in the first place. She starts a complex flirtatious but anonymous cat and mouse game with Nino that will involve long searches around Paris and disguised visits to Nino's workplace to casually inquire if Nino has a girlfriend. Her shyness keeps tripping her up though, even as Dufayel shows he knows more than he lets on. You can guess the rest I'm sure.
You might say this is a romantic comedy. Obviously there are romantic elements but actually that's really a very small, though critical part of the story. It's really about doing what makes you happy, trying to help people and make the world a better place, as none of us knows when we won't be here any more. Rather than a romantic comedy Amelie is really more of a magical realism type story. We see people's hearts beat more quickly when they are happy. Pictures and photographs talk to people looking at them and discuss the person after they've gone to sleep. When someone's heart is broken they turn to rainbow colored water and suddenly crash to the floor. This was a fun movie to watch and an excellent example that people are all the same no matter where you go. As I mentioned the soundtrack is sublime. I also enjoyed the director's use of color, which can be described as psychedelic and wondrous. The ending is superb. If you haven't seen this film, you're missing out.
