Radio Free California Episode 2104, plus some notes and a bit of ranting.

 A fantastic week for new music, including Heather Porcaro, Steve Lukather, Weezer, Scary Pockets, Foo Fighters, Jordana, Rhye, Richard Hell, Palberta, Liquid Tension Experiment and much more including from ME! Enjoy!

Some notes about the last track:

I set the poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee to music on January 28, 1996. I had heard the poem a lot that awful day, especially from then President Reagan. Well, specifically, I heard the last two lines. I wanted to hear the whole poem, but to acknowledge that terrible day I left out the last line.

In those days I was just a poor musician and college student and didn't have access to facilities that would allow me to record it and over time I just set it aside. I would practice it from time to time as I really like the little riff I wrote, but that was that.

Then came February 1, 2003, another terrible and unexpected day. I had been working on my new album ("The Long Goodbye") in my home studio and suddenly felt the need to drag out the old song and record it. What you hear released as a single this week is that recording.

It's a single take - the first take. Me, my 12-string acoustic guitar and my voice.

I'm going to be releasing several unreleased songs as singles over the next couple of months. This was the first.

Cheap shots (it's a cold day where I live, so select the warm drink of your preference. Mine's Sake):

$1.3 BILLION... DOLLARS!!!

Freedom! Or at least steps in the right direction.

Trans formation.

Guilty, guilty, guilty. Lock him up.

This tweet should be required reading, and the photo attached (seen here) required in every classroom in America.

Still lying, after all these years.

Suddenly Fox "News" is against the very thing they were for mere weeks ago.

Yoko Ono's first number 1 single. Predicted by John Lennon.

Ya know, "Onward Christian Soldiers" isn't supposed to be about the US Military.

Getting that railroad back on track.

I have to admit, this is a pretty solid burn.

Addressing the distribution.

And because I love you and because you should see how a Chapman Stick is played by a master, here is the video for the Liquid Tension Experiment track in this week's RFC:

Radio Free California Episode 2103, plus a couple of notes about statues

 

What a great first real full release week for new music! Gary Numan finally says "hold my beer" and puts out his best work in decades, Danny Elfman debuts a song that he was going to perform at Coachella last year, a posthumous release from David Bowie, new music from stalwarts like Matthew Sweet and Sparks, new hip-hop from Cnow, Lost Boy and more, Band-Maid's long-anticipated new album, Woody and Jeremy, Beach Bunny, Wolves at Midnight, Finneas, covers by Pomplamoose and Stories, and so much more! 2 hours of new music - Enjoy!

++++++++++++++++++++++

I want to tell you a little story about a real estate developer named Harlan Crow. He's retired and the scion of a real estate development family based in Texas. I used to work for him. He is one of the founders of the conservative group Freedomworks. He is unbelievably rich. He is the only Billionaire I've ever shook hands with. In person, he's affable, friendly, and quick with a joke and makes fun of himself readily. When he retired he sent a video out to all of the employees showing how he was going to spend his retirement bullfighting in Spain. No bulls were hurt, he was thrown by bulls several times and the video was actually very funny.

If not for his politics I think I'd actually like the man. We actually discussed politics a bit the one time we met, and while he disagreed with everything I said he listened, and spoke with respect. He did say he agreed with me about Donald Trump. He had met him once and remarked to us all in the room that Trump is the reason that Real Estate Developers get a bad name.

I should also point out that Harlan Crow is a considerably more successful real estate developer than Trump, and worth probably 100 times as much, as I don't believe that Trump is worth more than about $50 Million. Trump is actually a pretty small fish in the real estate development world. He's just gaudy and loud. Crow, on the other hand, has built an amazing campus in Texas for his people, and treats his employees well. I actually enjoyed working for him.

The reason I bring up Harlan Crow is that like any other very rich person, he has his eccentricities. If I were rich I would have a couple as well. But one of his strange quirks is that he collects statues from fallen empires of the past century. He has built an enormous statuary garden full of statues of Stalin, Lenin, Saddam Hussein, and many others. I don't know why he collects them but I've seen them. It's an amazing, beautiful, haunting and even frightening collection.

And the reason that I bring this up is one of the seven deadly sins - envy. 

This brings me to Trumps executive order yesterday, ordering a National Park to be built with about 300 statues of famous Americans (well, mostly). It's a weird mix of names. Both Christopher Columbus and Sitting Bull are in there - which I'm sure wouldn't amuse Sitting Bull. Woody Guthrie AND William F. Buckley Jr. It's a surrealistic list.

I have to wonder where they plan to put it. Nowhere in the order does it say where it is to be built. It's far too big for Washington D.C. I can tell you that he expects to find himself in there someday.

But why a statue garden? Has Trump ever shown any interest in art whatsoever? In gardens? In bestowing any sort of honor on people he has disparaged publicly and often - such as Fredrick Douglas and Coretta Scott King? Do you think he even KNOWS who Lorenzo de Zavala even was?

Or does he just want to be responsible for a "better" statue garden than Harlan Crow?

I don't know, but I would not say this is impossible. One thing I am certain of is that the first name on the list, Ansel Adams, would have hated the whole idea.

Cheap Shots (Tequila Fannybangers today):

Trying to get out of jury duty.

No Ainsley, this is the definition of a Couch Potato.

The wheels of the bus roll over the...

It's his party and he'll cry if he wants to.

Gotta wonder how this guy sleeps at night.

And because I love you, I have to share with you Randy Rainbow's goodbye to the American Orange Shit-gibbon:

And here is Colbert's goodbye to Melania:

Radio Free California Episode 2102, and a few cheap shots

 

New music! This week featuring a great album of remakes by the late Chris Cornell, some fantastic funk from Cleveland Eaton, Plus more from Scary Pockets, Passenger, Foo Fighters, Trevor Beld Jiminez and much more! Enjoy!

Cheap shots (Hot Buttered Rum today - it's cold outside! Recipe below):

Welcome to Parler said the Spider to the fly. Traded on the Insecurities Commission.

Moving from dat bar to disbar...

Eugene Goodman. Hero.

They don't say it in the article, but Hakuho is perhaps the greatest Sumo Wrestler of all time. A total of 65 wrestlers had to withdraw from the tournament. Get better soon!

Take a Mulligan. Or would Bye Bye Birdie be more appropriate?

This is the twitter account of the guy who says he can't get onto social media anymore. So he's lying.

This is the twitter account of his cow.

I thought he was a terrible Governator, but this is a pretty good speech. And for those of you clutching your pearls at the comparisons to the Nazis, Fuck You. I'll take the words of a man whose father was part of it over people studying from a distance.

My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/blOy35LWJ5

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 10, 2021

While I'm perfectly fine with the Loser not attending the Inauguration of Joe Biden, it can be argued that this is also bad, for many reasons.

Accessory.

Explain. Oh - a disgruntled employee who discovered that the State Department's website has the same security flaw as Parler.

Dangling Chad.

An internet provider in Northern Idaho, in an effort to fight censorship, has censored a number of social media sites.

And because I love you, this is the song that will lead off NEXT week's Radio Free California:

And because I love you more, here's how to make Hot Buttered Rum:

Radio Free California Episode 2101

 

Lets try this again shall we? New music from Cody Fry, Phil Broikos, Liam Ghallagher, Special with Antuwan Stanley, Perry Farrel with Jim Morrison (yes, THAT Jim Morrison), Gordon Lightfoot and the latest meditation from Robert Fripp and more. A good start to the year. Enjoy!

The oldest person on this week's stream has a video:

And just because it's a new year doesn't mean we're not going to keep on giving out CHEAP SHOTS:

Lizard people?

Dick "I shot a motherfucking friend in the face" Cheny and Paul "Eddie Munster with an Ayn Rand Fetish" Ryan are trying to save the Republic? Damn.

The Devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for an election to steal...

Ferry 'cross the Mersey.

The King is dead.

Scotland goes into lockdown, but not for the reason you think.

We're going to need a new medal to give to people who deserve it.

Seems half-assed.

Admitting they can't win without the game being rigged.

I'm personally hoping for more Pedro Pascal doing Shakespeare, but I'm pretty sure that's not what he meant.

Hey hey! Ho ho! Paygo it has got to go!

And because I love you, Have some Antuwan Stanley and Cory Wong:

Dancing on the grave of 2020. The year in review.

January. Remember January, all of 120,000 months ago? This has been such a long fucking year that I had actually forgotten that Neil Peart of Rush died THIS YEAR. Then Kobe Bryant and his daughter 2 weeks later. Oh, and somebody got impeached.I got my identity stolen. My neurologist told be that New Zealand was hurting for doctors and he had been asked if he wanted to move there. I wonder what he thinks now, given the year we've had.

In February the first caucus in the nation, Iowa, was screwed up because some asshole posted the phone number where results were to be phoned in to on 4-chan. I made my first post about COVID-19 in this month, and I predicted a disaster. I wish I had been wrong.

By the first of March the response by the current administration to COVID-19 had already resulted in 6 times the number of deaths we had from Ebola. I discovered the first "Covid Hoaxers", who attended CPAC. The first super spreader event in the US was a bio-tech conference. The biggest dip in the Stock Market in history happened in March. By Saint Patrick's day, better known as my Grandmother's Birthday in my house, I was already sick of the phrase "new normal". Rand Paul got Covid. We ran out of masks.

In April I posted my first list of notable people we had lost to COVID. It was heartbreaking. By this point I was also working on a secret project as a fund-raiser for Nurses working the front lines.

In May I attempted to reason with the people heading our country into disaster. We were still at less than 100K dead but the numbers were horrific. It was the last time I did so.

In June I began to realize that there is an unreported story going on with COVID-19 in that the number of people facing long-term affects of the disease is actually the MAJORITY of cases in the US, and no one is saying a damned thing about it.

I celebrated the birthday of our country by writing a lengthy essay about how the current administration was turning the country of my birth into a Prison Camp. I also wrote my definitive guide to how to watch Star Wars, which now that Season 2 of The Mandalorian has finished I will need to re-do slightly. George Floyd died in May with a man's knee on his neck, but it s was July that the police decided to attempt to clear out cities of protesters, resulting in dozens injured and secret police roaming the streets.

Finally at the beginning of August my secret project came out, an album of new music recorded by artists in quarantine to raise funds for Nurses charities. The dickhead in the Oval office signed a series of executive orders that resulted in the removal of tax relief in 2021, evictions, an increase in Student Debt, a racist screed against China, and soon to follow, BREAD LINES. And the Senate never acted on it. I wrote my infamous "shut the fuck up" rant.

In September I finally left Facebook for good. I still do not regret the decision. California caught fire, prompting the actual sky in my city to turn ORANGE for 4 days (the photo below was taken at NOON on day 2). The US fell out of the top 25 industrialized countries. We're 28! We lost the Notorious RBG, prompting the Republican Senate to actually get off their asses and do something - subvert the judicial system by appointing a self-professed "hand-maiden" to the court.

In October my recurring cough decided to exert itself and I wound up in hospital, which was a humbling and occasionally frightening experience. I had to wait for someone to die to get a hospital bed. I voted.

November brought us the actual election, and it took time but the right guy one this time. Danny Elfman made a musical comeback and my own song for this year got nominated for an award. I went on a twitter rant that was culminated by me using the word "cunt" against a member of the current administration (a male, by the way) which got me suspended from twitter for a day. I won that award.

And December? I wrote a lengthy essay about how just having vaccines isn't enough, Wrote about how one of my songs wound up on the Dr. Demento show, and did a write-up of the best in music in 2020, this is the post right before this one.

I have been advised by a couple of people to not post a "year in review" because yeah, 2020 sucked for everyone and at first 2021 is probably going to be even worse. But I do these every year and I find it to be cathartic - the chance to dance on the grave of 2020.

I hope that your 2021 is so much better than 2020 was. Unless you were part of the problem. If so, fuck you.