New Jimi Hendrix Stamp Misses the Beat

With great anticipation, I bought a sheet of new Jimi Hendrix stamps at the post office today.  Must admit disappointment.  The artist rendering just doesn't do it for me.  Artistic license maybe, but the resemblance isn't quite there, and the color palette doesn't seem authentic to psychedelic art of that era. 

 And what are those bizarre lines around his face?

If I were in charge....it would look more like this:

IMO, for the music icon series, the USPS should stick with photographs.  They did a much nicer job on the Ray Charles stamp:

Hope they do a better treatment with the upcoming John Lennon stamp.  Here's one of my favorites:

 And if they need an idea for the Jim Morrison stamp, how about this?

At the rate it's going, postage will be up to 69 cents before we know it.

Andy Shallal for Mayor

Andy Shallal, an Iraqi American, owner of hip local restaurant chain Busboys and Poets, and all-around good guy, is running for mayor of DC.  This jaded former political operative is not easily impressed, but after hearing him speak at a private fundraiser, I put a yard sign in my front window.

Andy's the sort of candidate that's in short supply  -- someone with integrity, honesty, real-world experience, not a career politician beholden to special interests, a progressive who walks the walk.  The mission statement for his restaurants is this:

Busboys and Poets is a community where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted...a place to take a deliberate pause and feed your mind, body and soul...a space for art, culture and politics to intentionally collide...we believe that by creating such a space we can inspire social change and begin to transform our community and the world.

andy4dc.com

Madame Tussaud's at the Mansion

It was a little scary. I'd never been this close to really good wax figures. When I first walked in the room, they looked so real it was startling. But the true test is, do they look alive up close? Yes...eerily so. And from every angle. I swore I could see them twitch.

selfie with The Duke

The Beatles in wax (with John looking a bit like Dave Mason)

Friendship

With social media, we can now claim to have thousands of friends.  But how many of them are true friends? Most of the people we call friends are merely acquaintances or activity partners. We may have some common interests but we don’t really share an emotional bond. 

10 Character Traits of a True Friend

1. Honest.  They are truthful and not afraid to tell you when you’re wrong. 
2. Supportive. They are there for you through thick and thin. They won’t disappear when the going gets tough. 
3. Good Listener.  They allow you to express yourself without interrupting or judging.
4. Sensitive.  They're sensitive to your feelings and needs. 
5. Loyal.  They don't talk behind your back and will defend you if others do. 
6. Humble.  They don't try to “one-up” you. 
7. Helpful.  They help you when you’re feeling sick or depressed. 
8. Available. They make time to get together, talk on the phone, etc. 
9. Positive.  They aren't overly critical or drag you down. 
10. Respectful & Considerate.  They respect commitments.

Thoughts on Friendship

True friendship isn't about being there when it's convenient.  It's about being there when it's not.

 It's not how many friends you can count, it's how many you can count on.

 Hard times will always reveal true friends.

 In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends. ~MLK Jr.

 It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.  ~Marlene Dietrich 

Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.  

~W.B. Yeats

Destiny?

I'm always interested in how exceptional talent gets discovered.  I often ponder the question:  can a person have a gift and not know it?  What if a potential violin prodigy grows up never having played a violin?  Will she go through life unaware of her talent?  Or will the inner drive be so powerful that she'll somehow find a way to express it?  Or, will destiny ensure that she's given the opportunity to play one?  What if Jimi Hendrix had been raised in a remote part of the world with no guitars?  Or if McCartney had never met Lennon?  Would they have still discovered their songwriting talent?

I ponder this question with Olympic ice dance gold medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who met at ages 8 & 9 at their neighborhood rink.  They both knew immediately, even at that young age, that they were meant to be skating partners.  They've trained and competed together for 17 years.  It's an amazing story.

Meryl started skating at age 5 because she lived beside a lake and wanted to be able to skate on it in the winter.  What if she'd grown up next to a desert instead?  Would she have ever discovered her talent for skating?  And Charlie's parents gave him skating lessons so he could skate with his friends.  What if his friends had been into bowling?  Or what if his parents hadn't had the money to pay for lessons, or didn't live near an ice rink?  Would he still have found his way onto a pair of skates?

Certainly, much of their success goes to their dedication to the sport -- long hours of practice and major sacrifice.  But their exceptional talent was discovered, in the right place at the right time with the right opportunities.  That's the part I ponder.

How much of our lives are governed by destiny, how much by circumstance, and how much by choice?  Will an uber-gifted person somehow discover his gift, regardless of his means or circumstances?  Or are there people walking around out there -- perhaps even you or me -- with a gold-medal talent that they aren't aware of?  What do you think?

In Praise of Hometown Press

Like most everyone, I'm enthralled by the Olympic gold-medal skating couple Meryl Davis and Charlie White.   Their skill, speed, and agility on the ice.  Their charisma and grace off the ice.Their 17 years of growing up together, training together, competing together.  I saw the mainstream coverage, but I wanted to know more.  How did they start?  What drew them to skating and to each other?  Who first recognized their talent?   I wanted to dig down to the very beginnings of their journey to gold.  

with their first coach

After much searching, I found what I was looking for.  Not from NBC, CNN, or the like.  From an obscure article on a hometown website called Observer & Eccentric.  OK, O&E is owned by Gannett.  But it has a decidedly micro-local focus that delivers depth and details only a hometown paper can. So kudos to them and to all hometown media outlets for giving inquiring minds what they want to know!

Here's the article. 
First skating coach for Charlie White and Meryl Davis looks back on pair's career

Counterfeit Medicine

Medicines Made in India Set Off Safety Worries

Is that drug you're taking real or fake?   Why are we importing our pharmaceuticals from countries that are known counterfeiters? 

• India, the second-largest exporter of over-the-counter and prescription drugs to the US, is coming under increased scrutiny by American regulators for safety lapses, falsified drug test results, and selling fake medicines. Over 40% of our over-the-counter and generic prescription drugs come from India.
  
• The World Health Organization estimates that one in five drugs made in India are fakes
• Counterfeit medicines at a pediatric hospital in Kashmir are now suspected in hundreds of infant deaths.  And the Uganda Cancer Institute received shipments of anti-cancer drugs from India that turned out to be counterfeit and inactive, with forged labels.
• One widely used antibiotic was found in a govt. lab test to contain no active ingredient. The test was kept secret for nearly a year while 100,000 useless pills continued to be dispensed.
• The crucial ingredients for nearly all antibiotics, steroids and many other lifesaving drugs are now made exclusively in China, home to some of the largest counterfeit manufacturing operations in the world.
   
  Read the article here.

Angelique!

Eve

Spirit Rising

One of my most-admired living persons was in town tonight in support of her new album, Eve, and book, Spirit Rising.

Angelique Kidjo gave a high-energy, crowd-pleasing performance at GWU's Lisner Hall. She sang with power, inspiration and emotion a range of songs -- including Pata Pata (in tribute to Miriam Makeba), -- and invited the audience to join her on stage at the end of the show. Between songs, she spoke passionately about the need to empower and educate women in Africa and around the globe. And nobody's got her dance moves! Here are a few clips from (sorry) the back of the theater.

Click here for a recent article about her in the NY Times.

Her NY-based drummer, Daniel Freedman, kept me enthralled and nearly stole the show. 

In keeping with tonight's theme -- here's Toni Childs's haunting Zimbabwe  ...and an alternate 12" version of Toto's masterpiece
along with and an interview with Toto's David Paitch on the making of his enduring #1 hymn to the continent.

Beatles 50th

It was fifty years ago today... At 8:31pm, on this day in 1964, the Fab Four performed their first full concert in America, right here at the now-defunct Washington Coliseum.  It was the largest venue they’d ever played—with the promoter jamming 2,500 temporary seats right up to the lip of the stage to accommodate 8,100 fans.  The historic site is being converted to (sigh) luxury condos / mixed use.

Deadheads Invade the Mansion

Tom Constanten and a houseful of tie-dye at the O Street Mansion, 
DC's best-kept secret and a wonderful concert venue.

(TC is former keyboardist for the Grateful Dead and holds a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University)

Esperanza Spalding

Ace of bass and scat singer extraordinaire
singing for those who have no voice
Close Guantanamo Now
 Lincoln Theater, U Street

Gipsy Kings

The amazing Gipsy Kings on their 25th Anniversary tour, in support of their new LP "Savor Flamenco," Grammy-award winner for Best World Music Album.
The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
Listen to their new album here or this 1987 classic:

To Birmingham, with Love

As I rode the rails on Amtrak's Crescent heading south to Birmingham, Alabama, these ominous tunes kept running through my head:

 But I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the people I met...

Kevin, rescuer

Tom,  peach schnapps bootlegger

Gregg Allman at Iron City

BB King at Iron City

...the hot blues oozing everywhere,

from headliners in clubs and breweries...








to local bands in juke joints & galleries

Tim Boykin at Gip's Juke Joint

Debbie Bond at Daniel Day Gallery

There's even a park dedicated to the Temptations where their music is played 24/7                                           

The kind folks at the Alabama Theatre gave me a backstage tour of this restored 1927 gem

The Sorceress

and there was a lot to love at the art museum:

Diane Arbus

a Bouguereau!

So, I was whistling a different tune on the way back north.  Not quite Dixie, but...
                                              

MMXIV

It's 2014, time to come out of hibernation. Everyone should have a witness to their life. This is mine, for now.

2011 Concerts

Just some of the shows I was fortunate to see this year. Long live rock (and prog, and jazz, and fusion...)

Robert Plant & Band of Joy  - DAR 2-1

Stanley Jordan - P&G NY - 3-1

Oz Noy & Jerry Marotta - P&G NY 3-1

Rush - MSG 4-10

Rush - Baltimore 4-22

Jon Anderson - TLA 5-4

Eric Burdon - BBK NYC - 6-8

Robin Trower - Birchmere 6-22

Confronting Death, Onion Style

Passing Of Ohio Man Forces Nation To Confront Death For First Time


MARION, OH—Following the passing of 82-year-old Joseph Howerton Saturday, the American people were, for the very first time, forced to confront the reality that death is an inevitable part of life that one day awaits us all.

While sources confirmed that the nation's 311 million residents were aware of death as a basic concept, the demise of Ohio retiree Howerton reportedly marked the first instance in which death became fully real to the U.S. populace, and not simply an abstract idea removed from their own lives.

"When I heard that [Howerton] died, it suddenly occurred to me for the first time that, 'Oh, my God, everybody dies, and once they do, they don’t come back,'" said Philadelphia real estate agent Tom Marsh, 52, describing a reaction shared by every other person in the country within hours of the news that Howerton had passed away. "Sure, I'd heard about people dying and seen it in movies and books and stuff, but I never had to come to grips with it until now."

"We're all going to end up like Joseph Howerton," concurred Phoenix-area factory worker Tami Weiss, 31, shaking her head slowly in apparent shock. "My parents, my friends, everyone. Even me."

finish reading here

Faith Restored

I bought a phone off of Craigslist from a guy named Alex. His ad stated "brand new in box" so, not wanting to muck up the packaging, I didn't open the box til I got home. Turns out there was no packaging, and several of the accessories were missing. The phone was not new -- it was worn, damaged, and not working.

Buyer Beware is the motto for Craigslist users, and I knew I had no recourse other than to ask for a refund and hope that Alex had a shred of decency. I lucked out. He refunded my money, and in doing so, restored my fragile faith in humanity. At least for the time being. Thanks, Alex.

Yet, what does it say about our society when someone becomes a hero just for doing the right thing?

Town Without Pity

How can we keep love alive, How can anything survive, When these little minds tear you in two
No, it isn't very pretty what a town without pity can do

And dig this instrumental version from the late great Ronnie Montrose

Change We Wanted to Believe In

Candidate Obama promised "change we can believe in." A fresh start with the Arab and Muslim worlds based on mutual respect. A healthcare public option. The closing of Guantanamo Bay. The repeal of Bush tax cuts for the rich. Comprehensive immigration reform. It seems we were all duped. See more broken promises here:

politifact's obama-meter

President Obama and his Democratic colleagues have left many of us disappointed and disillusioned. It's no wonder the U.S. ranks #120 in voter turnout.

Pilgrimmage to the Beacon

Trip to NYC to see the Brothers at the Beacon.  A musical nirvana that should be attempted

 by every blues fan at least once in their lifetime.

If you can't get to the Beacon, then enjoy this video of the Brothers at the Fillmore in 1970.  Technical difficulties, horrible camera work, but southern rock at its best: