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The presidential hopefuls are slowing gaining steam as we plow past '06, into 07, with an eye on the big prize in '08. Each presidential hopeful has put his/her best foot forward, but who will rise in prominence in '07, and who will become burried in baggage and scandal? If the election...
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Most mistakes, whether on a personal level, or a public or political level, may be traced to an attitude of pride. That's why the best way to approach the coming year is with an attitude of humility, the attitude so poignantly portrayed in the song, Why Me Lord? by Kris Kristofferson. ...
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Well, now that you've heard the song, here's your opportunity to share your experiences and answer the question: Can faith, or devotion to Jesus, keep a spouse faithful? Is a person committed to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ any less likely to cheat in a marital...
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John Lennon, when he was alive, urged us all to Imagine. Can you imagine a world in which the Beatles actually claimed Bakersfield as their home town rather than Liverpool? What if, instead of calling London, I had just grabbed the local phone book to interview the Quarrymen, the band...
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When I released Bakesfield (This Ain't Life as it Should Be), arguably my biggest local blog n roll hit song of the year, some questioned my sense of civic pride and my love for this beautful city of Bakersfield. Well, I hope this here new song puts all rumors to rest and removes all doubts...
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To follow Jesus in '07, you will need to leave the worries and fears of '06 behind. To follow Jesus from the cradle to the cross, and beyond, you will need to suspend your doubt and cynacism long enough to take hold of the reins of faith. To follow Jesus through his death, you will...
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For my final Christmas blog post, I'd like to introduce the subject of Christmas as a romantic time of year. How many of you are in love this Christmas? How many are falling in love? How many are rekindling the flames of an old romance? What sorts of romantic memories do...
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There's one song I never seem to get tired of as Christmastime rolls around. It was a hit song penned by Johnny Marks that Brenda Lee turned into a timeless classic.
This year I decided to pay tribute to Peggy Lee and songwriter Johnny Marks by covering the tune myself. I...
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A world without Christmas would be a very sad world, as would a world without Easter. It seems like district trustees had their priorities straight, voting 4-1 Thursday to change the names of Kern High School District breaks to Christmas and Easter.
This is a small step towards...
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.............................................Well, if you haven't guessed by now, it's a freshly broken heart? How many of you have suffered one of these just before the holiday season? How many of you have had to take back a cornucopia of gifts because the one you bought them for...
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Merle Haggard's If We Can Make it Through December, inspired this blog post and its concomitant single-song "soundtrack." Merle's seasonal signature hit is a song about holding on through the storms of life. Merle Haggard has faced many a storm, many of his own...
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It is the centerpiece of the Christmas story? Is is merely a fiction that makes us feel warm and fuzzy during the Christmas season, or is it a miraculous historical fact? If true, the implications are ineffably profound: A holy God coming down to earth to walk among men and women; to...
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As a young man, I had, and have, more of the temperament of an artist than a construction worker. So the sight of me working as part of a construction crew with a bunch of hardened blue collar workers presented a rather sorry mental portrait. As a young college student, you do what...
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Walter Stormont, a friend and fellow band member asked me when I had written a particular song we were working on in the studio in late November. I don't him, "Two weeks ago," and he replied, with his signature wit, "Oh, then it's one of your old ones." Well, then...
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What do Johnny Cash, Bakersfield, Christmas and South Carolina share in common? Well, the answer is contained in the song you are about to hear, and so is the story. Let's just say that getting an all-expense-paid trip to South Carolina to be a keynote speaker on the subject of Music as a...
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Bing Crosby. Andy Williams. Burl Ives. Frank Sinatra. The Carpenters. These are a few of my favorite singers of classic Christmas songs. But every once in a long while, I'm ready for something new. How about you? If you are ready to hear a new...
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I've listened to nearly every Christmas song Johnny Cash ever recorded. There's something decidedly dark and haunting about every one. Though he loved to laugh and to have a good time, Johnny Cash was not a jolly old soul. But he was an old soul with deep convictions, deep...
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The song, You're Not the Kind of Ho (That Santa had in MInd) is based on my own personal experience. In the first verse, I draw from my father as a role model, reflecting on a situation I experienced as a youth, as I witnessed my father's refusal to allow a hooker to come in between...
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It's called Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. Poets identified it long before mental health professionals like myself analyzed the heck out of it. It may make for romantic muse, but once it gets you in its throes, it can be quite painful and disruptive. This mood disorder...
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I recall Christmas in June, 1969. That's right, June. That's when the real Christmas came for me and my brothers. That's when we discovered the guns that were to have gone with the Johnny West sets we received for Christmas in the Christmas of 1968. My mother had...
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Some parents sacrifice everything just to give their children a good Christmas. Other parents sacrifice everything, including their children at Christmas, just to get high on cocaine. This song addresses the issue of cocaine addiction and the price families pay during Christmas for...
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Before they Were the Beatles: My Interview with the Quarrymen
By psychologist, Dr. Bruce L. Thiessen, aka, Dr. BLT
For the past two years, Santa has been extremely good to me. Last year, I had the distinct honor and pleasure of interviewing Pat Boone. This year,...
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The lights seems dimmer, the Christmas tree, less compelling, and the Christmas songs seemed slower and decidedly more solemn. It was the first Christmas without George Harrison. The United States, and, indeed the entire free world was still reeling from 9/11. More than ever, we...
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Last year, I was walking in a one-hit wonderland. This original song of mine, featuring Michael C., was released on the internet last Christmas, and quickly climbed the mp3 top 30 charts at mp3000.org to finally sit at #21.
The song consists of a story involving a dialogue between...
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I do.
This original song features Bakersfield's own Michael C., who helped me take another original song, Black Santa to #21 on the top 30 mp3 charts last Christmas. It is connected to my DONATE 2 DOWNLOAD program, one of the simplest programs whereby you get something good for...
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I've decided that what has been referred to as the "war against Christmas," a characterization I have since abandoned for it's inherently incendiary nature, has become a little too bloody. So I've laying down my weapon in the so-called war, and becoming a Christmas Tree...
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Well, so far this Christmas, me and my Merry melodies have brought me more jeers than cheers. Now there's a blog site where the powers that be have gone to great lenghths to mock me and my music. Along with me and my music, Christmas itself has become their hapless victim. So I...
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It's a Wonderful Life is a Christmas movie that tells a tale of deliverance. It has important psychological and spiritual implications. As a psychologist, I don't hesitate to recommend it to patients who suffer from severe depression, often leading to thoughts of suicide.
...
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I'm sure that by now you've heard that, while other retailers are bringing Christmas back, Best Buy is digging in their heels and sticking to their anit-Christmas bias, officially banning the use of "Merry Christmas," it all of its ads, in favor of the more politically correct,...
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I didn't even bother to remember his name because at the time, I thought it was a big hoax. But apparently Chapman University, in Suisun, California had done their homework and determined that his story was legitimate. He was a special guest presenter at a staff meeting---a...
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I was too young to speak, let alone to capture the significance and profound sense of shock that gripped the world immediately following the news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
I do recall seeing the flag-draped coffin being carried solemnly by pallbearers on the...
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While so many other politicians and community leaders across the United States are caving in to political correctness as it concerns Christmas, Arnold is not likely to cross that line anytime soon. Just a couple of years ago, he officially reassigned the the name "Christmas Tree,"...
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We're all familiar with the stereotype of the bleeding heart liberal. But seeking to heal victims as a way of vicariously healing oneself knows no political boundary, or any other boundary for that matter. Co-dependents, as they are often called (though the concept is simplistic, and,...
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This just in:
You may have heard the rumors, and I'm here to confirm them. I recently had the exciting opportunity to interview the band from which the Beatles were born: The Quarrymen. I bet there are even a few Beatles historians that were not aware that this band is still...
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Some people consider it pseudoscience, a complex hoax designed by the conservative Christians to smuggle the Bible into the classroom. Some people, on the other hand, believe it to be a viable theory that is worthy of classroom consideration. Quite frankly, I don't care what...
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It seems like history is repeating itself again. Well, sort of. If Best Buy were an Inn, and Bakersfield were Bethlehem of yore, would Mary, Joseph, and the Christ Child be turned away, along with the shepherds, the wisemen and the three kings? It seems to me that there are no...
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Dear Diary:
Today I started turning my dream of writing a blog book/play/movie script on Buck Owens into a reality. I introduced people to the title: They're Gonna Put Me in the Movies: The Buck Owens Story. I hope nobody out there has already taken it, and I hope they won't sue...
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Elton John recently spoke out against religion, specifically religion of the organized variety, which he says promotes hatred of gays, divisive rancor, and war. Lately, he's been blaming the church for all of the evils in the world. In the process, I'm sure many religious folks...
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It was inevitable. The bubble of extremist liberal groupthink in the world of rock was about to burst. Ted Nugent, Pat Boone, and what remains of the Ramones, were growing weary of being the only pro-Americans to walk the face of the rock n roll planet. Now a brand new...
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Have you ever met somebody, judged them on the basis of their attire and general appearance to be of a particular political persuasion, and then, after speaking with them, found their views to be just the opposite of what you might have expected? Have you ever assumed someone with vastly...
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It's great to have a day off, but does anybody still remember why Veterans Day exists? We may be in the midst of an unpopular war, but that should not in any way diminish the value of those who have served this country with honor and distinction.
Recently, the much of the country...
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There is no American Dream. There are as many American Dreams as there are American dreamers. But where are all the dreamers these days? It seems like the United States has become a haven of naysayers. The cyanide of cynicism is the daily diet of the average American...
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It's hard to believe that just a couple of years ago, Saddam was captured, compliments of the U.S. of A. That was quite a a Christmas gift in '04, and just before the election. Now, it's two years later. It's almost Christmas again, and it's election time. And, just before...
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As America heads to the polls, many are fueled by anger and disillusion. Many who were once proud of the Red, White and Blue now hang their head in shame and/or clench their fists in anger?
Will our level of patriotism ever rise to the level immediately following 9/11? It is...
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I believe it's just a matter of time before we will see a major legislative bill passed that will allow foreign-born citizens to become President of the United States of America? Will a foreign-born be allowed to run in 2012? Will it be an Arnold/McCarthy Ticket? Will it be my...
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Let's face it. We live in a dysfunctional society, and we all come from dysfunctional families. How is that a recipe for adulthood and maturity? From a Freudian perspective, most of us become fixated at very early phases of development. Some become orally fixated.
...
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Look at all the hate speech scattered all over the blogosphere! Will there ever be harmony between those on the right and those on the left? Can we disagree while respecting, and, yes, even loving one another? My interstate/Bako/Sacto band, Practically Poetz recorded a song that...
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Bono's always been a man with a plan, and when it comes to fighting AIDS in Africa, I've found Bono's plan to be better than any I've seen yet. It's a program called RED and it has to do with merchants banding together to relieve the immense suffering of the people of Africa---suffering...
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Just when you thought it was safe to get out for the mid-term elections, and begin setting your sites on the '08 election, rumors of a John Kerry vote have begun to take float. Republicans, are you afraid of another Kerry run in '08? Vets, are you afraid he would win? Are...
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Bono is, without a doubt, one of the greatest humanitarians of our time. He's one of those rare individuals I like to call a true "rock 'n' role model." But there's a woman I'm sure he holds in high esteem, that started out with much more humble beginnings, and left an immense,...
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