Music Friday: "Right On Through"

I'm late again. I thought about posting on Friday like regular, but it slipped my mind. 

Then with our last travel baseball tournament of the season this weekend, I didn't get to it until today. We played at Noon and 6 on Saturday and then had to travel back for a 8am game on Sunday. No rest for the wicked. 

As I was walking the dog tonight, this song came across on shuffle. I haven't listened to Wide Swing Tremelo from start to finish is a good while. I need to because I had forgotten about this song. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: White Bean & Avocado Salad

I made an improvement on a previous recipe because it's more simple and does not make as large a batch. I cut down on the number of beans to accentuate the avocados. 

Ingredients
2 cans of Great Northern beans (or something similar), rinsed and drained
2 avocados, cut into makeshift cubes
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
3-5 TB of extra virgin olive oil
A healthy bunch of cilantro, chopped
Half of lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Process
Rinse and drain the beans. Dump the beans into a large bowl and add the vinegar. Cut up the avocados and add to the bowl. Squeeze the lime over the mixture and add the olive oil and cilantro. Season with salt and cracked black pepper.  

Music Friday: "Fireline Road"

Here's a song with lyrics that'll get your attention. 

A classic tale told by James McMurtry.

Random Notes from a Crank

I finally got around to reading David Frum's fine article in The Atlantic. In the magazine, it's title is "How Much Immigration Is Too Much?" On the Interwebs it's titled "If Liberals Won't Enforce Borders, Fascists Will."

To me, Frum is on the mark about the US immigration policy being supported more by nostalgia and not asking hard questions. As he states, "But immigration needs to be thought of as a system, not a symbol [like a stupid wall]. And the system is not working. No intentional policy has led the U.S. to accept more low-wage, low-skill laborers and fewer cancer researchers. Yet that is what the United States is doing." 

And as he gets to the close of the article, he offers this point: "More than any other area of government, U.S. immigration policy is driven by nostalgia--by ancestral memories of a world long gone. Give me your tired, your poor...

This is no way to think about the problems of today. These are new times, calling for new thinking." 

In another article in The Atlantic, this time in the May issue, a Professor of Linguistics describes how the language is changing in a way that is a bit odd. Check out "Why Grown-Ups Keep Talking Like Little Kids." His analysis brought up some syntactical changes people have been making all the time.  

The last three times I've walked the dog the song below has played with my iPod on shuffle. It is one of my favorite Lucero tunes. However, I'm trying to understand what the universe is trying to tell me.




As I watched the White Sox-Cubs game tonight, I thought about the cities that have two baseball teams, and I asked my son which of the sets of teams he'd root for: 

• New York: Yankees or Mets
• Bay Area: As or Giants

My son went with the Yankees and Giants, and I went the Mets and As. 

Music Friday: "Heartbreak Beat"

I'm late again, damn it. 

Regardless, I heard this old tune on a Sirius XM station yesterday, and I had forgotten about it. I haven't heard it in years. 

It's such an 80s song. 

Music Friday; "Right Place Wrong Time"

In reverence for Dr. John's passing, today I"m going with what is arguably his most famous song. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The past month has featured one disappointing series finale and a movie as a series finale. 

The much talked about Game of Thrones series finale shows what the last two seasons have been, a foray into HBO fan fiction. I was a bit surprised that Jon offed Danerys, but I don't get the logic of Tyrion's claim that Bran the Broken has the "best story." The best story of all is Jon Snow's. 

All in all, the last season was rushed.

And Martin still hasn't published the last two damn books. 

With much anticipation, I watched the Deadwood movie. I enjoyed it. It didn't end with a neatly wrapped ending, but we can assume that Hearst gets off on the murder of Charlie Udder because based on historical accounts, he did just fine for himself. It was nice seeing the bastard get beat up though. 

Regardless, it was a pleasure to watch those Deadwood characters again. 

Pacific Standard has a great article outlining that trickle-down economics is a scam: "The IMF Confirms That 'Trickle-Down' Economics Is, Indeed, A Joke."