Jammin' With The Banned - adampayne's Blog - Bakersfield.com

Water: Bako is Conservative But Cannot Conserve

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:31:00 PDT

Daylight Savings Time ends this week. We roll back the clocks Sunday morning, November 1, 2009. My old computer asked me over a week ago about the time change, but the date was altered between the time of my initial purchase and this week's new date.

I only bring this up because in Sacramento City this means new watering rules for residential and commercial properties go into effect for the next six months on the day of the time change. In Sacramento this summer landscape irrigation watering (lawn sprinklers, driveway car wash days and other home outdoor water uses) was restricted to every other day water use. In the winter and early spring months watering is down to one weekend day per week. Link to story.

That is right. In Sacramento you only get to water at any business or residential location one day a week for the next six months. All this to conserve water in an area that gets on average 20 inches of rain per year.

Now down here in where-does-the-water-come-from-land we have no restrictions on water usage summer or winter. We do hear complaints all the time about the feds crimping all those big agribusinesses water allotments and hurting farmers in parts of the state that were never made for agricultural use. We hear about all that government regulation of waterways hurting the small farmer, but really what hurts the small farmer is his inability to garner the largest amount of federal aid when he grows crops that have not made the government commodity list of taxpayer hand outs.

Shucks, we here about running the Kern River through Bakersfield year around more frequently than we hear about any water conservation for this town. We hear about water rights litigation between water districts and townships, but save water?

We have averaged about three inches of rain per year for the past three years here in Bakersfield. Remember that huge storm that blew through the Bay Area and Sacramento all the way down to Fresno with over nine inches of rain getting reported in Santa Cruz? Hey, City Council and Bored of Supervising People, Bakersfield rainfall totals did not get beyond the trace level. We did get dried feces from all those mega dairies you all approved of earlier this decade swirling through the streets and alleys for two days. Thanks a bunch for that.

I Love Sam Cooke

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:55:40 PDT

Would spell check have made a difference for these political protest signs? I love the title of this clip: Teabaggers Untie.

Time Out, Toddlers!

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:17:51 PDT

Okay, you got me. I am at a loss over how to respond anymore to people who seem to hate everything our recently elected government tries to do.

You had your team at bat for for six years all by its lonesome this decade, and had the executive branch for another two on top of that stretch. You had Congress for the last six years of the previous decade.

Do you think all this tumult of failing credit, corporate malfeasance, job loss, war and pestilence happened the moment a Democrat was elected as President 10 months ago?

What did your team do for working people during all those years?

Your team covertly spied on the nation breaking the law in the process. Your team did away with all the oversight of banks and corporations. Your team went to war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. Your team eliminated the most revered legal concept of the individual that dates back 700 years and defied all modern definitions of torture at secret and offshore prisons. Your team couldn't manage disaster relief if their lives depended on it.

Your team lost, and lost badly just 10 months ago. Your team lost because it could not do the job. Your anger at the team in control today is irrational, misguided and does you and your neighbors much harm with the fallout from your red noise.

Maybe you do not understand the concept of elective government. The people elect representatives to get important public works done to solve social problems. Blocking all efforts to fix problems hurts everyone. An election will be happening next fall. You will have your opportunity to bring back all those people who were rejected this last election over their abysmal governing skills and failure to do the job.

Yelling and screaming and name calling just because this is a new team is really like having to hear an uncontrollable toddler scream at the top of his/her lungs simply because the little darling did not get their way.

I can only conclude that a longer timeout from the process is what you are demanding from the rest of the electorate.

Karl Rove & Why Americans Continue to Lose

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:19:40 PDT

No one on the right trusts Barack Obama. After being manipulated for eight years by Karl Rove it is understandable why conservatives bring their already hot blood to a full boil over the man and his party who got past the Rove election strategy of divisiveness at all costs. It is too bad that this appears all the Republicans have in their tank, anger and a propensity to split the nation into unmanageable sub-groups.

Are Americans people of faith? Karl Rove might suggest we are a nation of many religions that can used to pit one denomination against another for political gain. We have seen this play out in school curriculum, immigration and women's health with a fervor and zeal these past few decades that has resulted in tragic loss and no better understanding.

Is America a melting pot? Or do we use the Rove tactic to demonize one ethnic group against another while exploiting our lack of knowledge and understanding of differing cultures to instill fear and marginalize their votes.

Does the rule of law govern America today? Or has partisanship been taken to such extremes that tall trust in the system has been broken? Newly released documents detail how actively Karl Rove and his staff were in firing US Attorney David Iglesias. AP has the story of just how far a political appointment will go to ensure partisanship rules at all costs, and laws of the land can be ignored.

This was a very dangerous and illegal use of power for purely political motives. Much like the public disclosure of CIA agent Valerie Plame when her husband, former US Ambassador Joe Wilson, dared to challenge the truth of claims the former Administration had made publicly in the State of The Union Address with an op-ed that appeared in the NY Times.

Now I know why conservatives do not believe anything the government has to say on any major matter, Karl Rove made governing in America impossible by fabricating, distorting and manipulating every major policy issue of any import to make sure nothing would change for a very long time. Good for Karl and those staunch defenders of the status quo who have profited so immensely this past decade. Bad for a government of the people by the people and for the people who deserved positive changes after so many broken promises from the likes of Karl Rove.

Where the money goes in the health care scheme of things

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:52:14 PDT

I am not sure if any of you have heard of Stephen Hemsley. For those who do not recognize this influential American he is the CEO of United Health Care. In financial news for the past couple of years he was at the core of an SEC investigation into the backdating of stock options for employees of United Health Care.

United Health Care has had an unusually high volume of complaints from 2004 regarding their health insurance business. They were fined $4.4 million for violating California's prompt payment law. A subsidiary of UHC, PacifiCare, was fined $3.5 million for wrogfully denying 133,000 claims. Another UHC subsidiary, Golden Rule was fined $2.8 million for delaying claims. UHC was fined a record $2.2 million in a settlement for problems with claims processing and benefits coordination. UHC was fined close to $800,000 in North Carolina for delaying prompt payment of medical claims. UHC was ordered to pay $364,750 for denying 63,000 physician claims (52%)- without all necessary information. PacifiCare was fined $125,000 for more than 1,000 violations of state laws.

Jeepers, I guess that is why the the company is under an independent monitor through 2010.

Even with all those pesky infractions the health business has certainly been rewarding for Stephen Hemsley. With salary and stock options Mr. Hemsley earns 819,363.10 daily this year. With declining employer based coverage and all those legal judgements against UHC, the company still beat Wall Street expectations handily and earned over $859 million for the last reported quarter of this year, on revenues of over $21 billion. Expenses like the $12.6 million dollars to lobby against health care reform are small costs of doing business for this health insurance giant.

Enjoy the video from Brave New Films, while you enjoy supporting the Stephen Hemsleys of this nation. And then ask yourself why your premiums and medical costs continue to sky rocket while you oppose a government overseen option.

Steve Dalkowski -Ron Shelton's Take on a Bako legend

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:37:30 PDT

Ron Shelton has been to Bakersfield. You don't do movies like The Best of Times without spending some time here. He is better known as the director of Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump and Tin Cup. He was in the Baltimore Orioles organization for quite few years and wrote a great piece on a Bakersfield legend, Steve Dalkowski. Here is a unique story published in the Los Angeles Times today with serious local color written by Ron Shelton.

He was a little guy, which was shocking at first, with short arms, thick glasses and an easy smile. They called him "Dalko" and guys liked to hang with him and women wanted to take care of him and if he walked in a room in those days he was probably drunk.

He had a record 14 feet long inside the Bakersfield police station, all barroom brawls, nothing serious, the cops said. He rode the trucks out at dawn to pick grapes with the migrant farm workers of Kern County -- and finally couldn't even hold that job.

This was the legend; this was Steve Dalkowski, the hardest thrower who ever lived.

Many years ago, playing professional baseball in the bush leagues for the Baltimore Orioles, in the wake of the great players who preceded me -- Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, Jim Palmer and the rest -- the stories passed on by bus drivers and groundskeepers and minor league players and managers were not about the exploits of those Hall of Famers, they were about an obscure pitcher named Dalkowski.

Orioles manager Earl Weaver saw Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax and "Sudden" Sam McDowell and Dick Radatz and said, "Dalko threw harder than all of 'em."

Ted Williams stepped in for one pitch during a spring training game and walked away. "Fastest I ever saw," he said. Teddy Ballgame, who regularly faced Bob Feller and Herb Score and Ryne Duren, wanted no part of Dalko.

In Wilson, N.C., Dalkowski threw a pitch so high and hard that it broke through the narrow welded wire backstop, 50 feet behind home plate and 30 feet up. On a $5 bet he threw a baseball through a wooden fence. On a $10 bet he threw a baseball from the center-field fence toward home plate, over the 40-foot-high backstop screen.

He threw high and tight and ripped off a guy's ear in Elmira, N.Y. Or was it Appleton, Wis.? Or Stockton? When the legend becomes fact, print the legend, it is said in a John Ford movie. But with Dalkowski the mythology and the inarguable facts of baseball statistics are inseparable.

Look at the numbers and weep. In his first two seasons of pro baseball in the Appalachian and South Atlantic Leagues, he averaged 19 strikeouts and 18 walks per nine innings. Playing for the Aberdeen Pheasants in a low Class-A league in South Dakota in 1959, he averaged 20 walks and 15 strikeouts for nine innings. In the Eastern League, he struck out 27, walked 16 and threw an astounding 283 pitches in a game.

Then there was the time at Elmira when he was pulled from the game after throwing 120 pitches -- it was still the second inning.

Though he terrified hitters, he rarely hit a batter. Cal Ripken Sr., his catcher through much of the minor leagues (and one of my managers), said, "Dalko was the easiest pitcher I ever caught. He was only wild high and low, rarely inside or out -- but the batters didn't know that."

Weaver thought Dalkowski was overcoached and when he finally made it to double-A Elmira after nine years in the remote outposts of the minors, he persuaded Dalko to "take a little off the fastball."

Dalkowski still threw in the high 90s, maybe higher, and for one brief stretch pitched better than any kid ever dreamed. In a 52-inning span, he struck out 104 batters with only 10 walks and a single earned run.

He finished the 1962 season with the triple-A Rochester Red Wings and the following spring made the Orioles' roster, his nearly decade-long journey in the wilderness finally over, it seemed. That's where the retired Williams stepped in -- and out -- of the box against him. That's where scouts and reporters gathered to buzz about the phenomenon, only to see this explosive arm die in a whimper, fielding a bunt by Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton of all people -- the same Bouton who would later write the classic "Ball Four."

Dalko picked up the bunt, flipped the toss to first . . . and his arm went dead.

From his earliest days as a baseball and football star in New Britain, Conn., Dalkowski's real problem wasn't controlling a baseball, but controlling the bottle.

Playing baseball in Stockton and Bakersfield several years behind Dalko, but increasingly aware of the legend, I would see a figure standing in the dark down the right-field line at old Sam Lynn Park in Oildale, a paper bag in hand. Sometimes he'd come to the clubhouse to beg for money.

Our manager, Joe Altobelli, would talk to him, give him some change, then come back and report, "That was Steve Dalkowski." And a clubhouse full of cocky, young, testosterone-driven baseball players sat in awe -- of the unimaginable gift, the legend, the fall.

Altobelli, a career minor leaguer with some big league experience, was finishing out a career in Rochester when Dalko finally made it to triple A. He was assigned to be Dalko's roommate with the mandate to "help mature the kid."

Joe said he loved Dalko but he never saw him except at the park -- he was out drinking all night all the time. But come game time, somehow, Dalko showed up and threw his 100-mph heaters.

This relationship -- the veteran who loved a game more than the game loved him, and the God-gifted rookie who was otherwise a lost soul -- was the inspiration for "Bull Durham," though nothing specific in Altobelli or Dalkowski's character is applicable.

Dalko pitched before radar guns, so nobody is really sure how fast he threw. But the Orioles took him to the Aberdeen Proving Ground, a military test site near Baltimore, and lined him up 60 feet 6 inches from a tube that judged wind speed. Without a mound, in sneakers, Dalko fired away for nearly an hour, his pitches registering in the mid-90s.

Some guess his fastball from a mound approached 110 mph. We'll never know.

When Dalkowski's career ended, after he'd bounced around trying for a comeback with his aching shoulder -- he threw more than 90 mph with a bad arm -- he submitted completely to whatever solace the bottle held and began a lost journey that led him to the migrant farmworker fields of Bakersfield.

Wandering the streets of L.A. years later on Christmas Eve, he was rescued and reunited with his wife from Bakersfield who thought he'd been dead for years. She died shortly thereafter and finally his family from Connecticut discovered he was still breathing, barely, and brought him home.

Racked with alcoholic dementia, Dalko has been in a New Britain home for 15 years. He attends minor league games, a celebrity now. He gets out of the home for family picnics. He is, if you can use the term, at peace, according to his family.

Dalkowski will be inducted today into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals -- its Hall of Fame -- along with Roger Maris and Jim Eisenreich, during an afternoon ceremony at the Pasadena Central Library.

But what lingers is not the drinking or the abuse or the desperation. We've seen that and know these same demons touch us at times.

It's the gift from the gods -- the arm, the power -- that this little guy could throw it through a wall, literally, or back Ted Williams out of there. That is what haunts us.

He had it all and didn't know it. That's why Steve Dalkowski stays in our minds. In his sport, he had the equivalent of Michelangelo's gift but could never finish a painting.

Writer-director Ron Shelton ("Bull Durham," "White Men Can't Jump," "Tin Cup") spent five years playing infield in the Baltimore Orioles' minor league system.

It costs how much for Development League Basketball?

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:38:58 PDT

Couldn't help but notice the article in today's on line edition of The Bakersfield Californian discussing the new business model for the NBA D-(as in development) League. As I understand the math, the lowest ticket, which will include access to a cigar room, access to an open bar, a dinner meal and a D-League game will run more than $140. Suites, which accommodate a party of up to twelve people, are being sold at roughly $1,900 per game.

Good luck, Stan Ellis and David Higdon! Maybe a game and dinner with a hefty cover charge for 550 of your friends out on Rosedale Highway is a great way to network these days. Have you guys thought about just going old school, and putting a polo field or fox hunting grounds for your friends to enjoy at reasonable rates here in the area? Or, have you considered an opera season this year as a way to patronize and entertain your peers?

You certainly have announced the riff-raff will not be attending this season.

The morning paper

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:41:34 PDT

Early mornings I pour the java to better putter from chore to chore getting the space properly prepped for my mid-afternoon iced-coffee extravaganza that allows me to keep going until a reasonable hour before hitting the horizontal button for the night. In between I peruse online news sources for interesting stories (well interesting to me) to pad my brain while the flavored caffeine kicks in. This morning I hit the trifecta in the on-line edition of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The First story finds news that student fees at all CSUs might go up by 20% to help cover an $813 million budget cut for the coming year.

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said he will also ask for layoffs, unpaid furloughs and a range of other measures Tuesday to save the university system $584 million.

"It's nothing short of a mega-meltdown financially," Reed said.

If you interested in more of the gory details you can check the story out at sfgate.com.

The next stories are pure fun, because the characters are so strong.

Charles Barkley on the golf course. By the time he reached the No. 6 tee, Charles Barkley realized the gallery was in danger. So, when he spotted two spectators obliviously wandering down an adjacent cart path - about 100 yards away, left of the fairway, outside the ropes - Barkley offered a loud, friendly warning.

"Y'all better pay damn attention," he shouted. "That's right in my wheelhouse."

Sicko- The campaign to keep America from health care reform

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:42:22 PDT

I just saw this clip from the Bill Moyers Journal. This clip is an interview with Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive at CIGNA, one of the largest health insurance companies in America. The health insurance industry in America knew everything Michael Moore depicted in the film Sicko was accurate.

A lot of people have expressed very strong opinions against Michael Moore on this blog site for a number of years. If Michael Moore doubters/naysayers dare to watch this clip you will find the cause of your hostility toward Moore and his message on health insurance. You were manipulated by very powerful public relations firms paid by very powerful insurance companies to discredit Michael Moore.

Want to know why health care costs so much in America? Much of your hard earned money spent on health insurance premiums goes to big public relations firms who lie to you 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The loud constant lie has more impact than the hard fought truth.

And the proof is in the clip.

AARP publishes 8 myths about health care reform

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:45:08 PDT

Oh, no!!!! Not another health care rant from the loony liberal!!!!! No, this is not my rant. This was on my e-mail today from AARP, not a liberal organization by any stretch. Given that tonight will have the President speaking about health care reform while ignorant protestors swamp a local television studio I thought that this AARP report might be useful to those who still have a rational thinking process, and are not part of the health care reform choir.

8 Myths About Health Care Reform

And why we can't afford to believe them anymore

By Karen Cheney, July & August 2009

Americans spend more on health care every year than we do educating our children, building roads, even feeding ourselves—an estimated $2.6 trillion in 2009, or around $8,300 per person. Forty-five million Americans have no health insurance whatsoever. These staggering figures are at the heart of the current debate over health care reform: the need to control costs while providing coverage for all. As John Lumpkin, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Health Care Group for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says, "There is enough evidence that it is now time to do something and to do the right thing." The key is to focus on the facts—and to dispel, once and for all, the myths that block our progress.

Myth 1: "Health reform won't benefit people like me, who have insurance."
Just because you have health insurance today doesn't mean you'll have it tomorrow. According to the National Coalition on Healthcare, nearly 266,000 companies dropped their employees' health care coverage from 2000 to 2005. "People with insurance have a tremendous stake, because their insurance is at risk," says Judy Feder, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. What's more, in recent years the average employee health insurance premium rose nearly eight times faster than income. "Everyone is paying for health increases in some way, and it's unsustainable for everyone," says Stephanie Cathcart, spokesperson for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). "Reform will benefit everyone as long as it addresses costs."

Myth 2: "The boomers will bankrupt Medicare."
If you're looking to blame the rise in health care costs on an aging population, you'll have to look elsewhere. The growing ranks of the elderly are projected to account for just 0.4 percent of the future growth in health care costs, says Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change. So why are health care costs skyrocketing? Ginsburg and others point to all those fancy medical technologies we now rely on (think MRIs and CT scans), as well as our fee-for-service payment system, in which doctors are paid by how many patients they see and how many treatments they prescribe, rather than by the quality of care they provide. Some experts say this fee-for-service payment system encourages overtreatment (see "Why Does Health Care Cost So Much?" from the July-August 2008 issue of AARP The Magazine).

Myth 3: "Reforming our health care system will cost us more."
Think of health care reform as if it's an Energy Star appliance. Yes, it costs more to replace your old energy-guzzling refrigerator with a new one, but over time the savings can be substantial. The Commonwealth Fund, a New York City-based foundation that supports research on health care practice and policy, estimates that health care reform will cost roughly $600 billion to implement but by 2020 could save us approximately $3 trillion.

Myth 4: "My access to quality health care will decline."
Just because you have access to lots of doctors who prescribe lots of treatments doesn't mean you're getting good care. In fact, researchers at Dartmouth College have found that patients who receive more care actually fare worse than those who receive less care. In one particularly egregious example, heart attack patients in Los Angeles spent more days in the hospital and underwent more tests and procedures than heart attack patients in Salt Lake City, yet the patients in L.A. died at a higher rate than those in Salt Lake City. (Medicare also paid $30,000 for the L.A. patients' care, versus $23,000 for the care of the patients with better outcomes in Salt Lake City.)

Myth 5: "I won't be able to visit my favorite doctor."
Mention health reform and immediately people worry that they will have fewer options—in doctors, treatments, and diagnostic testing. The concern comes largely during discussions of comparative effectiveness research (CER): research on which treatments work and which don't. But 18 organizations in a broad coalition, including AARP, NFIB, Consumers Union, and Families USA, support CER—and believe that far from limiting choices, it will instead prevent errors and give physicians the information they need to practice better medicine. A good example: Doctors routinely prescribe newer and more expensive medications for high blood pressure when studies show that older medications work just as well, if not better. "There is a tremendous value in new technology, but in our health care system we don't weigh whether these treatments work," says Feder. "Expensive treatments replace less expensive ones for no reason."

Myth 6: "The uninsured actually do have access to good care—in the emergency room."
It's true that the United States has an open-door policy for those who seek emergency care, but "emergency room care doesn't help you get the right information to prevent a condition or give you help managing it," says Maria Ghazal, director of public policy for Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs at major U.S. companies. Forty-one percent of the uninsured have no access to preventive care, so when they do go to the ER, "they are most likely going in at a time when their illness has progressed significantly and costs more to treat," says Lumpkin. Hospitals have no way to recoup the costs of treating the uninsured, so they naturally pass on some of those costs to their insured patients.

Myth 7: "We can't afford to tackle this problem now."
We may be in the middle of a recession, but as Robert Zirkelbach, spokesperson for America's Health Insurance Plans, says, "the most expensive thing we can do is nothing at all." If we do nothing, the Congressional Budget Office projects that our annual health costs will soar to about $13,000 per person in 2017, while the number of uninsured will climb to 54 million by 2019. Already more than half of Americans say they have cut back on health care in the past year due to cost concerns. Roughly one in four of us say we put off care we needed, and one in five of us didn't fill a prescription. Clearly, the urgency is greater now than ever before.

Myth 8: "We'll end up with socialized medicine."
Some experts favor a single-payer system similar to Medicare or the health program offered to federal-government employees. Yet all the proposals being discussed today would build on our current system, Feder says—which means that private insurers and the government are both likely to play roles. Says Lumpkin: "There are many ways to solve our health care problem, but we will come up with a uniquely American solution, and that solution will be a mixed public and private solution."

Karen Cheney is a Philadelphia-based writer who specializes in money and health care issues.

County Layoffs, did the light just get turned on?

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:24:40 PDT

Could not help but notice the comments in the "County authorizes layoffs" article found in today's local paper. Here's a choice one from Jim Fitch:

"These are real people. These are real lives," he said of the employees. "It hurts. I stay up at night thinking about what's going to take place."

This comment comes from the painful reality that nine positions were "deleted" from the Assessor's department, which resulted in six layoffs.

Jim, where have you been for the past two years? Did you think all those small business closings and major layoffs at shuttered department stores, real estate offices, title companies, car dealers, home builders, newspapers, television stations and oil fields somehow were about robots being retired? All the people in all those areas were "real people" with "real lives" too.

Jim had another great line while pleading with the BOS about sparing his department from suffering a loss of manpower:

"I don't like to think I'm a revenue generator," Fitch told the board. "But I am."

I hate to burst your bubble, Jim, but you and your department are not revenue generators, and to boldly state before the public that you think you are shows not only ignorance of the highest order, but also an arrogance that defies description given our market situation.

Jim, your salary, and your department's budget, exist solely due to the revenue the tax base here in the area provides. When all those houses lose all that value due to exceptionally poor planning with the resulting glut of homes in this vicinity sinking to levels not seen in more than twenty years, and all those businesses close or shrink to the point where the tax money they now produce is a small fraction of what was formerly available there is very little revenue produced. And you and your department are not the engine driving the money car into the Kern County garage.

Based on your comments to the Supervisors, the wrong people did get cut. You and your boss should have been the first to go. And in my humble opinion every other department head should also be eliminated first before the grunts have to suffer the axe.

Art Prevails

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:58:56 PST

I received a terrific gift not long ago, Remember That Night David Gilmour Live At The Royal Albert Hall on DVD. I'm a big Pink Floyd fan, and did get an opportunity to see them in Sacramento about 20 years ago minus Roger Waters at Hughes Stadium. It was an amazing show. Timeless really, a 1989 Delicate Sound of Thunder tour, which Floyd seems to always personify at each marking point along the journey.

Watching this DVD of David Gilmour without the giant albatross of Pink Floyd expectations by audiences is a real treat. He has some unlikely guests, Graham Nash and David Crosby, to accompany the band and bring a new perspective to some old classics. The great guitarist from Roxy Music, Phil Manzanera, is part of the band along with longtime friend and Floyd mate Rick Wright, who only last September passed away suddenly after losing the battle against cancer.

This DVD showcases the last major tour David Gilmour undertook in 2006 to promote his On An Island cd and to pay some final homages to Pink Floyd's original songmaster, Syd Barrett. The concert footage is wonderful and David Bowie makes an appearance singing Comfortably Numb and Arnold Layne. Enjoyable high fidelity concert sound and vision.

The real treat for me with this 2-disc DVD set, however, are the three documentaries included on the second disc. You feel like a guest on tour with very unpretentious and cool people you would like to hang out with. It is striking to also see a real commitment to very worthy causes from David Gilmour and crew. There are special humorous, inspirational and touching moments throughout the documentaries. I don't want to give away great surprises but the use of wine glasses and an appearance by an old chum rehearsing in a separate sound stage at the same studio facility as David Gilmour's group is very cool.

For much of the world this music still is the right stuff, and retains the power to cast wonder over audiences in the east and in the west. David Gilmour and his music remain a very special gift people should indulge in more frequently. Here is a link to David Gilmour's website. He has released a separate set on DVD and CD from the tour's last destination, Gdansk, Poland. Check it out.

Car Glut

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:20:00 PST

Cars. Cars. Cars. If you thought there was a small problem with the economy, check this link from The Guardian.co.uk. Someone said a picture is worth a thousand words. There are thirteen pictures of very large areas filled with new cars from ports and factories around the world. Car values are going to go through the floor, and there is no basement to stop the fall. How low will low be?

Think a tax break is going to spur car buyers? How upside down are car buyers from a year or two ago?

Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:48:12 PST

The coffee brews behind a Utopia video I watch/listen in amazement at. Todd Rundgren and his band mates put on quite a show for the gathered in Detroit at the Royal Oak Theater 28 years ago. One World, Back on the Streets and Just One Victory really standout in the hour long set. The sky clears a bit and the aroma from the french roast fills the head cavities. Hello It's Me takes over the sound system. Damn, fresher than this hot cup of coffee.

I saw a brief show on VH1 last night where the gathered music pundits were bemoaning the lack of metal gods installed in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. I guess Dee Snyder and the other toastmasters probably have a point. When you see some of the inductees who have been enshrined while leaving others out who have made considerable impact over a long time, it seems some big name omissions really stand out, but not necessarily just the metal ones.

It is really funny to see Louis Armstrong in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, or Billie Holiday. Influences be damned, these two and many others have nothing to do with rock unless you're some kind of six degrees of musicality separation freak, which I guess Dave Marsh and Jann Wenner must be. It is really strange to note that Del Shannon is inducted to the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. I liked Runaway a lot as a kid, but I liked a lot sappy stuff with good beat and a distinctive voice. I think the Seeds made more of a definitive rock statement with Pushin' Too Hard, but I'm not on any crusade to see the Seeds with Sky Saxton nominated.

Quick questions!!! Do really big album sales and phenomenal popularity over a long career mean an artist should be enshrined? Is a very short career with really big creativity that spawned a host of imitators worthy of induction?

Here is the major criteria from the Hall:

-Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Criteria include the influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll.-

This year Metallica finally beat out Jethro Tull. The California metal monsters will be inducted on April 4, 2009. Their black album, Metallica, is a seminal record with awesome songs of creep, torment and angst set to a thunderous backdrop of sound. They have had some decent records over their 28 year career, Kill 'Em All stands out, as well as Justice For All, but the rest seem pretty mundane and at this stage of eardom, unlistenable. I think when all is said and done Lars, James, Kirk and cursed bass player to be named later will be more remembered for Napster railing and lawsuits than for most of their catalog. Oh well, congratulations Metallica!

There are three major artists who I humbly believe deserve to be in any Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. You probably figured by now I would be lobbying for Todd "Runt" Rundgren, who not only deserves to make it on songwriting and performance alone, but was one of the greatest producers of rock records for many years. In his very early twenties he was hired by Albert Grossman, The Bob's manager, to be the house producer for his record label Bearsville. Many of you also know that he produced and performed extra-world guitar work on one of the 1970s best selling albums, Bat Out Of Hell. Meatloaf and Jim Steinman owe their careers to Todd Rundgren. Check out Todd's catalog sometime. Great stuff, very quirky but very amazing. He had the LP era's longest running side with the Initiation album clocking in a more than 30 minutes in length. No record had ever been cut with such precision and mastery to get close to that type of time length. Artist, producer, engineer and incredible live performer who played every type of music brilliantly.

Another artist who needs to get in the Hall before it loses all credibility is Alice Cooper. Yes, he borrowed some of the early cross-dressing stuff from the Brits who do it for fashion, and he was not what Frank Zappa envisioned when he signed Alice to Straight Records, but the guy redefined the rock stage show and the anger and frustration of the outcast in rock for many years. For simply writing School's Out, Alice Cooper should be in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.

Oh, and since Metallica finally got the best of Jethro Tull, the Hall should recognize one of the most influential British bands that defied categorization with a broad use of folk, blues, jazz and classical influences to make great records and masterful live shows for more than twenty years. Give Ian Anderson and his crew some love. They didn't make the stupid Grammy categories or have a vote 20 years ago.

Who would you nominate? There are some great bands and artists who began more than twenty-five years ago looking for a little help from their friends.

Oops, coffee is calling.

Big West Big Loss What's Your Take?

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:24:09 PST

Well, this refinery closure has been brewing and stewing for quite some time. I have my own personal opinion on why the refinery is being forced to close.

I believe the major oil companies want it gone to drive up prices. We currently see with this severe economic downturn much less usage of gasoline and oil related products. The Washington Post just reported today that oil prices for light sweet crude, not the Bakersfield stuff of heavy and sour, have dropped to just over $41 a barrell. This inconceivable price, from the projections of $200 per barrell just nine months ago, tells the real story of why this refinery is being shut down in our global economy. This is about restricting the amount of product being refined to drive up falling prices. This is a cartel acting in collusion against the best interests of the people dependent on jobs and fuel supply.

What do you think?

More Southern Obits

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:35:10 PST

No, the very recent death of Billy Powell probably was not as big a loss to American culture as the passing of John Updike, but in a curious way Billy's early exit from stage Earth resonates more with many of us boomers. Updike's Rabbit ran to the halls of academia, while Billy's tight tinkled runs on the piano filled out a thunderous southern sound that reverberated throughout the mainstream.

Last week I pulled out some Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes, and played a few on the drive to a gathering for my sweetie. She remarked that I was playing the Bakersfield National Anthem when Free Bird came on. Maybe there are still a bunch of dudes i-podding, boom-boxing, car stereo blasting many of Skynyrd's classics today. Since I don't do bar hopping or a whole lot of partying these days its hard for me to tell.

I can tell you from the moment I heard these guys in the very early 1970s I knew I really liked them. I was even a Neil Young fan, and loved Sweet Home Alabama with the pointed response to Young's blistering Southern Man, "A southern man don't need you around, anyhow!" I was also a big Allman Brothers fan, but thought Skynyrd had a toughness that the brothers Allman lacked.

No one would have guessed at the outset of their separate careers how closely these two bands would become intertwined through dramatically tragic and random circumstances. Death has way of sealing the deal.

There is an exceptional documentary on Tom Dowd that is available on DVD. It is called Tom Dowd & The Language Of Music. Some of you may know who Tom Dowd is. Before I watched this amazing documentary of this sound engineer/producer, I remembered his name in the recesses of my memory being a name on a few records I owned. I had no idea how many records until I saw this documentary. I won't ruin the story but this man of humble means and extraordinary talent brought the best in American music to disc and beyond. Billy Powell makes an appearance, as does Greg Allman. Fitting.

Tom Dowd was the man who figured out how to record a live show and make it sound great. He knew how to record music in any setting. There was a reason The Allman Brothers Band/ At Fillmore East, Eat A Peach and Lynyrd Skynyrd's One More ~~For~~ From the Road all became the standard of excellence as recorded live shows. If you're tired of angst on the telly and radio do yourself a favor and check out this DVD. You will definitely learn a lot about American music, a little history, and much about the man who passed away in 2002 who made music sound great in every setting.

Like Tuesday, Billy and John and Tom are gone but will always be with us.

Back To School

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:18:45 PST

I saw a number of stories on the percentage of California's high school graduates going to college after their 12th year graduation. Here is a link to channel 29's story here locally, that aired a night or two ago. Jose Gaspar gets the credit.

No surprise Kern County falls below the state average in this regard at about 44% moving on to a college while the state average is at 48%. Kern County is close to the average, but the average is startlingly low. Actually, having only 48% of our state's kids go on to college from the 2003 to 2007 high school graduating classes is terrible.

I saw this story originally in the Sacramento Bee a few days ago. If you want to check out how your local school, anywhere in California, is doing on this score, or how counties and their schools fare, here is the link to a cool database the Bee has linked to to give you all the information.

We have a story in today's paper concerning the lack of a skilled and educated workforce being seen as the major obstacle facing local employers. Here is the story if you missed it.

Bakersfield Junior College is back in session. I live near the college and can attest to a lot more traffic this week as a result. Much of the time the swell of students occurs for the first month and then gradually subsides to modest traffic in a mopnth's time. We'll see this year. B.C. announced they have nearly 17,000 students enrolled for this semester.

As an old geezer these days, I have over the last few years taken a class or two offered by the junior college. I talk to people who also have attempted to retrain or get those necessary courses done to complete either a certification or program choice. The word on the street is that it is really difficult to score required courses at times people need them offered. In my humble opinion B.C. is tapped out on a resource level.

Given Kern County's close to 12% unemployment rate and low median income average for the county residents CSUB (at a modest price) is out of reach for a lot of local students and adults.

I think we need to expand Bakersfield Junior College and create another campus, probably somewhere in the south area of town that could use an economic boost.

Maybe all this news is just the same-old same-old, and requires no consideration or action. Maybe all this news is another alarm bell going off that our priorities are really screwed up. Really, do we want to continue to keep building prisons for thrown away youth? Or couldn't we try to invest in schools where needed skills can be obtained at costs our population can afford?

Amazing Year

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:11:09 PST

What an amazing year! I see Dick Cheney in a wheelchair, with Joseph Biden on his right, move to the limo and off to the inauguration of Barack Obama as our nation's 44th President. Cheney gets wheeled out. There might be a trace of justice in the world, after all. "Oh, by Jingo."

The Arizona Cardinals will be in this year's Super Bowl. The downtrodden have risen to the upper echelons of the world.

No one a year ago would have given a chance to a black rookie Senator from Illinois, or the Arizona Cardinals, to have risen so far so fast to sit atop the world. There is much to rejoice and celebrate today, because in spite of all gloom and doom of today's economic and political climate miraculous events still occur here in this great nation of ours.

Now is the time to to move forward and reach out to our neighbors in friendship. To help those less fortunate and down on their luck or circumstance. I found a profound message on my e-mail this morning. It came from an old workmate of mine. The message came from BornAgainAmerican.org.

I invite anyone reading this to check out this link. I think many of you will be surprised and maybe moved to do something great this year. You might make new friends, and find renewed purpose in being alive here and now.

NFL Strange Season Continues

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:44:30 PST

Why does the NFL give the Most Valuable Player award before the season is officially over? Is Peyton Manning the MVP of 2008 while sitting in one of his luxurious homes filming yet another round of commercials this winter? Or, are there players still making a difference in the playoffs, and hence extending their team's season after putting up stellar stats all year long, more deserving of an MVP award? Peyton Manning already has this year's Most Valuable Player award, but the real MVP of this season has to be Kurt Warner.

I hope you saw one of the biggest playoff upsets in history tonight. The Arizona Cardinals beat the heavily favored Carolina Panthers in a rout tonight 33-13 on the Kittens home North Carolina field.

Kurt Warner was Michael Jordan tonight. He simply dominated the game.

The Cardinals still have a shot to win it all.

Just imagine the two teams with the worst regular season records being opponents in this year's Super Bowl. It could still happen.

NFL 2008/2009: A Strange Season

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:55:56 PST