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The Famous Story of Willie O at the Clark Gas Station

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\\ Jeeze, I think I only rode with Willie Overstreet once or twice. I remember Jim Raab telling me about this, if my memory serves me well. Jeff tells it here with vim and gusto. I recall the Clark Station as being on Humbolt, say, by a ledge. I believe it was Willie who introduced me to the idea of doo rag,  which was useful to me mere weeks ago.

Red sails on the horizon

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One of these days I want to take a look at Dylan's latest record, The Tempest. Again he creates from whatever's at hand, including bits and pieces of others' music in time. I like The Tempest. It may not be great across the board. But some numbers are more than great - they are unimaginable without there being a Bob Dylan. But anyway for the Dr Bop Mog Sat Night Fish Fry that is tonight I am gonna look at Red Sails  in the Sunset - an old Tin Pan Alley piece done by Bing, Kate Smith, Fats, Eddie Duchin - ton o people. Dylan's Beyond the Horizon conjures that Red Sails mood. (Red sails in the sunset, way out on the sea) Oh, carry my loved one home safely to me (She sailed at the dawning, all day I've been blue) Red sails in the sunset; I'm trusting in you http://mog.com/m/track/8155343?ci=20000  Bob Dylan (Beyond the Horizon) http://mog.com/m/track/39133495 Louis Armstrong http://mog.com/m/track/7533577 Jimmy McGriff (the cover made this a final...

Peace in the Valley

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Source: bodleian.thejewishmuseum.org via Jack on Pinterest It will be tame wolves Assad must take a pregnancy, oh yes And wild beasts Must be lit by children It will not change I, changed from this creature that I am, oh yes. http://mog.com/m/track/9332049?ci=40000 Web: You can take lyrics of Peace in the Valley, put into Google Translate and change eg. to Arabic, then back again for to see in between and over again.

Bill Monbouquette at Mission Hill Little League Dinner

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Last week I was able to attend the annual Mission Hill Little League Trophy Award Ceremony and Dinner. Red Sox pitching great Bill Monbouquette was there as the featured guest speaker. My friend Dennis Pultinas (Marquette, Class of 1974) had asked me to come by to do a little A/V work, featuring "Monbo Time" by the Remains, a tribute to Monbouquette. Bill was a great inspiration speakers. The kids were great as always. I am posting here Dennis's heartfelt introduction to Bill, and a transcription of some notes I took. Introduction for Bill Monboquette: Mission Hill Little League October 14, 2012 As an 8 yr old boy growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1961, the Boston Red Sox were very important to me.  The morning paper would have in the bottom corner of the front page what they called “the Scoreboard”.  It listed the scores of all the games played the day or night before.  Checking this out was the first thing I did when I woke up in the morning.  The...

Dr Mog Bop Lecture #4567: The bawling blues swamp guitar

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There is a style of electric blues guitar. It is one of chords more than stinging single notes. It’s about trembling tremolo, and monotonous vibrato, of really seriously bent major-and-minor blues notes, that really conjure an evocative mood. Mood is a big thing for me. John Fog-arty did a riff on the tremolo style – a lot of people call it bawling guitar - that came to stand for a sort of swamp sound. Where did it come from? Fog-arty worked in the warehouse of Arhoolie records, I believe. And had access to Roebucks Staples records , and some others, who were creating this music within a music, and Fog-arty was taken by it, and took it out in those days on the Fillmore rock circuit. It was described as a swamp thing. This style, chord-heavy, is out of the margins of the most classic blues guitar, but quite significant. None was greater on the bawling blues guitar sound than Roebuck Staples, center, leader and progenitor of the Staples Singers. He early on got an electric guitar, ...

Hahvad Stadium Haiku

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In October, thinking I have never been to Harvard Stadium, an old concrete bowl by the Charles that Van Morrison made immortal in  Brown Eyed Gir l making love in the green grass behind the stadium...I head out via subway.  Old Harvard Square to go. The essential American Fall Saturday event to encounter. Once there I tweet.  I sat next to Cornell band, and that sort of set the tone. # hahvad  This day is my homage to damon runyon author of  hold them yale # hahvad  stadium watching football literally. See it arc in the air. #Hahvad stadium; twenty 11 yearolds ready to receive field goal kick in stands. Scurry. Scatter.Pounce on the ball. #Hahvad stadium; listen, yo, the glockenspiel # hahvad  stadium: these teams have good sense not to use heads when tackling. Priceless the education. # hahvad  stadium: i think harvard band is playing dreaming is free. Tha...

Col. Roosevelt

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Theodore Roosevelt's legacy has risen and fallen several times since his death in 1919. Be that as it may, his work was great enough to get him a placed on Mount Rushmore along with our greatest presidents - being the only one from the 20th century so enthroned. Even after all these intervening ears, only cousin Franklin Roosevelt has vied with Theodore Roosevelt for confirmation in the pantheon presidential beyond Rushmore. The book at hand here considers a Roosevelt who had to leave the Republican Party that had quickly started to undo progressive measures Roosevelt had enacted after h, following the near equivalent of two terms, left the White House. Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) lived a god-awful long time ago, but still is figure of interest. He is of special interest to dyed in the wool history buffs and some politically obsessed others. From wealth but a Progressive at heart, he tried to divert the Republican Party from kowtowing to big capitalist interests. It is the ...