Mel Washington's Beautiful Voice

 Before my son died last year, when we'd talk on the phone, he would often mentioned his friend Mel Washington to me.  I had the opportunity to meet Mel at my son's wake, and I've listened to many of his songs on the youtubes.  He has a beautiful voice, makes excellent music, and (as my son had told me in great depth) is a wonderful person.   My son Christopher was a good judge of character and didn't tolerate fools and miscreants.  He was friends with artists, craftsmen, chefs, business owners, tons of service industry workers, and myriad good human beings.  

If you've not heard Mel's work, you should take some time out of your evening or weekend, and enjoy his music online; get to know him.  If you live in or near the Holy City, you should see him live.  I don't think you'll regret it.  

We miss our son very much, every day, and some days are better than others... some harder than others. But talking to, interacting with, listening to, and appreciating the multitudes of excellent people who knew and loved our son is one positive way to keep him in our thoughts as we continue to do our best, each day.

Signal Boost:

https://www.facebook.com/melwashingtonmusic

https://www.youtube.com/user/melwashington

https://soundcloud.com/mel-washington

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1adYfKybPGfYhTFbxnGCIX

https://www.instagram.com/melwashington/

and to see him live, while you wear a mask, and socially distance...

https://www.bandsintown.com/a/156628-mel-washington

What Makes a Good Man - 2021 Edition

 Eight years ago, I created my first iMovie that included both John Goodman and the band The Heavy.  It also had references to Goodman diagrams, Benny Goodman, and other tangents.

https://justjoep.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-makes-goodman.html

Today, there was a wonderful story about Eugene Goodman, (link here) the Capitol policeman who lured away rabid insurrectionists from the House Chamber, up flights of stairs as the racist mob pursued him.  He's now deputy sergeant at Arms for the House, and escorted our 46th President, Joe Biden, and VP Kamala Harris to the inauguration today.  I love it when someone is good at their job, and they help others.  We need more Eugene Goodmans.  Less shamans, and less angry old guys sitting at folding tables with sad drumpf flags.  

Today was also a Fantastic Day, as Haircut 100 would say, much like it was in October 2008 when I made this post while living in Phoenix:

https://justjoep.blogspot.com/2008/10/fantastic-day.html

So this is somewhat of a recycled post of two old videos, combined with one new story, that are all part of the greater big picture.

If you're a "Q anon" supporter / enthusiast / believer, and you still don't think Joe Biden is legitimately elected, you need to DO YOUR HOMEWORK (as Q adherents LOVE to shout).  No, there's no lizard people running nations.  No, the election was not stolen just because a pathological liar repeatedly tweeted and shouted that it was - observers from Both Parties, as well as neutral and international observers all agreed, and re-counts verified, that the election was not stolen and there was no wide-spread fraud.  In the very few cases of individual voter fraud uncovered, there were mostly pathetic maga adherents who voted republican twice or voted for a dead relative.  And if you don't think Covid is real, please go out and get it to "prove everyone wrong", right after you get a legal medical directive to Not Treat You for anything resembling Covid.  You WON'T be missed.

Oh, you think the moon is real?

 

The last 4 years have seen a resurgence in people believing conspiracy theories, especially when their so-called leaders promote and encourage such asinine theories that have been disproven by science and in-depth investigation.  But it's very hard to argue with a "faith based" argument that is devoid of any scientific proof, acceptance, or knowledge.  So I propose a new tactic in dealing with willfully ignorant folks who embrace and defend their baseless conspiracy theories:  One Up them.

When someone tells you that the moon landings were faked, don't argue.  Laugh, and dismiss them with "oh, you're one of those people who think the moon is real?"  Double down on something even more ridiculous.  

Flat earthers?  "Oh, you're one of those people who believe we're on a planet called Earth?"

Lizard people, disguised as world leaders, who run our government?  (a Q-anon, aka Q-inane believes) "Oh, you think they're lizard people?  Everyone knows they're actually otters underneath those human looking suits."

Satan worshiping pedophiles who run a ring of human trafficking out of the basement of a Washington DC pizza restaurant frequented by Leon Panetta?  (another Q-inane core belief)  "Oh you think Satan worshippers eat pizza? Don't you know they're all lactose intolerant? That's why they rejected christ."

Don't argue with these devoted disciples.  Push them deeper into doubt.  Present a more ludicrous position that even the dullest knife in the drawer who abhors science and peer reviewed facts would have difficulty grappling with and trying to understand.

The 2020 election was stolen, and was actually a landslide victory for T****!  "Oh, you believe there was an actual national election last November?  All they did was have the NSA gather everyone's DNA and retina scans while they THOUGHT they were voting!  The otters controlled who won!!"

Comin Down The Mountain - Monday Morning Edition

 When my son was very little, a new band called Jane's Addiction started putting out amazing albums.  I consumed the recordings voraciously.  When we drove around in the 1975 Plymouth Valiant with more than 200K miles on it, we had a small boom box stereo on the front seat that played tapes and FM radio, since the '75's AM radio was broken.  Jane's Addiction was frequently in that boom box.  When we took our 1988 Honda Civic EX on road trips from South Carolina to OH and IN to meet relatives at holidays and vacations, Jane's was a mainstay in the tape deck (the '88 had no CD player) as well.  

Our little boy sat in his car seat in the middle of the back seat  - safest place in the car statistically - and absorbed every bit of music we played for him.  As I played drums on the steering wheel, he'd play drums on his brown car seat, and I'd smile as I'd catch a glance of him doing so in the rear view mirror.  We exposed him to a vast variety of music: hard rock, punk, classical (Chopin, Dvorak, Mozart), classical (Who, Led Z, Stones, Beatles), progressive, 70s, 80s, metal, grunge, goth, dark wave... if it was fun to dance to or had a difficult drum part or just touched the soul (as Chopin always does to me) then it got played, and Christopher drank it in, deeply.

Mountain Song, by Janes Addiction, was one of our favorites to play while driving on I-26, I-40 and I-75 through the NC, TN and KY mountains.  The '88 Honda Civic had a speedometer that went to 120 mph.  Christopher and I hit 115 going down the I-275 descent to cross the Ohio River from KY to IN while singing and drumming to this song when he about 5 yrs old.  We coasted down to 80mph as we crossed the river, protected by the bridge's steel super structure.  Unfortunately, a dozen Indiana State Troopers and a spotter aircraft saw us emerge from the bridge, and wrote us a ticket for 72 in a 65 mph zone before we could cross back into Ohio.  After the ticket, Black Flag was put into the Civic's stereo.  

Jane's Addiction "Mountain Song" from Andrew Doucette on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy this song as much as my son and I did, whether we were in the car, or drumming with two sets in the bonus room above the garage in South Carolina, or just hanging out in the living room.

I'm also attempting to use this song as a way to Jump Start my Monday morning... which appears to be suffering from significantly lethargic inertia.

It's OK, Had a Bad Day...

 

This has been running through my head a lot lately... and it's quite fun to play on my new massively expanded drum set.   Christopher, RIP.   I miss you son.

Red Tiger Striped Ludwig Standard Drum Set

 The Foo Fighter's RUN video has a red tiger striped Ludwig Standard drum set that looks like my kit, made in the early 60s in the US by Ludwig.  I'd never seen this set before...  

Taylor's normal set is a Gretsch ... so the old Ludwig was probably just what they had on the video recording set.  And for the record, Dave is and has always been a better drummer than Taylor.  Taylor is not bad, but Dave is a monster on the kit.  I thoroughly enjoy trying to emulate Dave Grohl's work, and work up quite a sweat when I do.

I Feel the Pain

 Dinosaur Jr - live.  https://vimeo.com/9771951

Dinosaur Jr: Feel The Pain - Live at The Bowery Ballroom 1/16/2010 from Edwin Samuelson on Vimeo.

The lighting for this show is really poor.  My son Christopher and Get Rigged / Pulse would have done so much better of a job.

Put on your red shoes...

 I was on my way home from getting some pet food on Wednesday night, when Sirius XM played David Bowie's Let's Dance on my car stereo.   It was the first time I sang along to any song with any amount of joy since Sunday morning, August 16th, when the coroner called me to tell me my son had died.  Put on your red shoes and dance the blues...