Ramblin man

* rant on* Well I am gonna ramble. Ramble on & on & on. I will undoubtedly show my ignorance here, but I am not in shock that we are in this financial mess. I mean what is the stock market but a giant casino? Everyone knows the house always wins. So the media coverage that the news outlets are giving this crisis is making the little guys nervous and they are pulling out their money and putting it under their mattresses and in mason jars in their back yard. I say it is time to stop the madness. I am sure the $700b dollars will not help. We have now privatized gains and socialized losses. It is a win/win for any bigwig that has the mucho dollars to go nuts and start buying up the little guys. I have very little in the stock market and I really don't care about this mess. I feel we have been living off of the motto " the business of America is business" for too long. We need to get back to manufacturing and creating jobs-in the private sector- that doesn't charge " what the market will bear".
Up here in my little bubble, the GM plant will close Dec 23rd. This is not good news for the people that support the economy I live in. What you are not gonna hear on the news is that these workers made an insane amount of money for unskilled labor due to labor unions. I am talking in the neighborhood of 50-75k for standing on a line and WATCHING parts go by. A great gig if you can get it. I have heard from people that work there that on Sundays you were making time and a half, some around $47 an hour and they have a contest to see who could go the slowest. So...that's why a stinking Chevy SUV cost $30,000 for a piece of crap. The unions complain that all the jobs are going to other countries and they are not paying them well. IF you are in another country and you are used to making $20 dollars a day and GM comes in and wants to pay you $8 an hour-more money than anyone you know has ever made-you are gonna work you butt off and try your hardest not to get fired. There are waiting lists in Mexico for these jobs and the slackers get fired. No guaranteed jobs. You gotta show up and work hard. OF course, GM doesn't lower their prices, they try to cover their losses from the plants in the U.S. that are still losing money.
I am just saying, I don't have all of the answers, I might not have any. I just know if I was in charge and I ran a company into near bankruptcy, I would not get several million dollars when I got fired. I also know if I had a company and the workers wanted to make 50k to sleep on the job, sabotage the line so they could all take a break to play cards and have contests to go slow so they would have to be there for more overtime, I would move that company to Sri Lanka or Canada or Mexico to escape the piss poor workforce I had been forced to have. * Rant off* Yeah, probably Mexico for the carnitas, margaritas and senoritas"


S-minimum wage-F

You gotta dig this

It is a dry, sultry indian summer here in my little piece of Ohio. No rain for the last 12 days and a thunderstorm rolls in unexpectantly while I am watching this video. They look, at times, like they are playing on someones coffee table with that huge picture in the background. Dig this, while I stall.
Dig it man,
SF
p.s. I started doing this about 11pm-took me 2+ hours to figure out how to embed a video. Y'all are in trouble now. More to come-including my favorite post pop band from New Mexico.

Midwest windstorm & other debris

A week and a half ago, or so, we had a windstorm by the name of Ike roll through here like an uninvited relative crashing on your couch. For seven hours the wind whipped like it was gonna tear the roof off of the sucker, bending trees and blowing all manner of debris all over Indiana, Kentucky and my little slice of heaven here in Ohio. Shingles were flying and trees were toppling and the kids were afraid. Really afraid. I have always liked storms and thunder and rain and impending tornadoes. So I took them outside and showed them that there was really nothing to fear as long as you were aware of your surroundings and didn't do anything stupid, like crawling on your roof to inspect the damage while the wind is blowing 78 miles per hour. Right about that time a huge tree fell about a block away. I though it was pretty cool. The kids...not so much.
None of this bothered me until the electricity went out around 2:30. You see this was a Sunday and after we get home from church I settle in for a day of football on T.V. and watching my fantasy football scores on the computer. The lights flickered a couple of time and I had to reboot the computer 3 times but I never expected this tragedy to rain down on me. So after the realization that the football was done for the day I did what any sane man would do. I drove around looking for a hotwing joint with HD T.V.'s and electricity. I found none. It seems that the closest television that worked was just north of Nashville and I wasn't about to drive that far just to watch football. Well... I would've had the wife let me and we had a full tank of gas, but I really needed to stay with my family in this time of need.
So it starts getting dark and the wind dies down and I cannot find a "C" cell battery to save my life. I mean we really needed to listen to the radio for weather information and possibly some football scores, but mostly weather info. I made an adventure out of the night and we all slept in the downstairs den ( until my back and neck started hurting-I went upstairs to sleep in bliss ) with candles in the fireplace and all around the kitchen. We played UNO Attack and Go- Fish and told stories until the little ones fell asleep.
Well that is the end of day 1 of the "Big Wind" story and I will return with part two of the story when football is over. As I type this U.S.C. is getting their hat handed to them. You didn't know this would be the first installment in the MY BORING LIFE series.
Break like the wind,
SF

Too much to mention

No time tonight but some random things that made the hit list this week. Facebooking is outta control. Hurricane Ike blew through here like nobody's bidness, I can't write a new song to save my life until I get the one I am working on to "tape", my job is sloooowwww and I am pretty sure my back has suffered yet another slipped disc. This time we are going for the lower back, it seems. I have had a herniated disc in my upper back-i.e. neck for about 2 years. It makes my hand shake like I got the DT's. The lower one seems to make me numb and limp to the right all day.
The recap of this week will be about three posts and one rant. I hope all three of you can hold out and join me on my wild ride into the docudrama/comedy that is my life. I just wanted to let you know what is going on with a short note. So...now here is a picture that might make you smile. Or vomit.

Cheers,

SF

Guided by Voices & other political games

GBV-GBV-GBV-GBV-GBV-GBV-GBV-GBV....etc

I first heard of Guided by Voices in Memphis about 1993. Supposedly they were great friends with the Grifters whom I had run sound for a couple of times when they were a Band Called Bud. I did not get the lo-fi, DIY lack of production at the time you see, because I was in school for production. I had yet to be introduced to the anti method. Sure I loved Sonic Youth's music and I was enthralled with Nirvanna's Nevermind months before it hit. I had R.L. Burnside & J.R. Kimbrough play my restaurant in 1992 on alternate weekends. I got them. They were scary, devil dogs at your door blues instead of the happy blues of Beale St. But cool pop that didn't take the time to polish itself to a high sheen... I did not get it. I did not get it until I had an intense, albeit brief, affair with the Breeeders. No Aloha showed me that pop does not have to be approved by the masses & doesn't have to sound like pop. That led me to seek out the popopolis of Dayton, OH and read all I could about it. I found out that the Breeders are an offshoot of the Pixies & that Brainiac, Swearing at Motorist, David Poe were great music makers. But the scene is now more concerned with the speed metal and 80's cover bands . When I moved here there was no way I was getting a gig here that I would be happy with. I need a pop sensibility, some punk spunk, a little prog noodling and singer/songwriter ideas in the vocals.

All of that fit the first album I heard, all of the way through, by Guided by Voices. BEE THOUSAND. I am not a Dayton homer and I will tell you that I really do love Do the Collapse but the one that did it for me was BEE THOUSAND. I was struggling to actually play my guitar and I had a crappy 4-track. They sounded like me with better songs & better ideas. I used to put down 30 seconds of guitar and bass but I never did anything with it. It kinda mirrored my life. I am now getting closer to getting my ideas, musically and lyrically, closer to each other. Same thing with my life . This album was the inspiration.

A friend, a really close friend, told me recently that I have great, achievable ideas but I don't follow through because I get distracted with the next idea, therefore nothing gets done and all of that brain energy goes to waste. So, as of now-well last month-I am trying to focus on the matters at hand. I still don't care about the actual matters at hand ala CNN or NBC, CBS,ABC or FOX network. If a presidential candidate could give us great change, he/she would have started it from the position they had previously. Nothing is instantaneous.

Maverick and Goose or Obiden/Joebama?

On that note I will tell you the best two things I have heard so far from the presidential race. --Overheard-I can't decide which one is funnier-Joebama or Obiden and If McCain is a Maverick, does that make Palin a Goose? I am Forty and you cannot convince me to vote for someone who is not older than my parents --still. Maybe next go round. I also , in the large wake of 911, cannot of sound mind, vote someone in who might or might not have been brought up as a Muslim. I might have considered the other ticket had they put Colin Powell on the ballot. From what I understand he doesn't want to be on there, for whatever reason. I think he actually knows what he wants for the country and would not compromise his priciples, aka politics as usual.

What I really wanna know is why, when I go to the polls, there are about 20 people on the ballot for president but all you hear about is the dem/rep candidate. It seems like ratings to me and no one wants to spilt the vote, but I would vote for Ross Perot if he were running on the same platform he did 16 years ago. It seems as if we are stuck with the guys who have the most money and really nothing to lose in every election. I will give my undying vote to someone who says they will change the election process for the better.

I however will not vote for the gut that just says he will make change and doesn't say if it is for better or worse-he just says CHANGE!. I won't vote just for the sake of change.

I say vote for Uncle Bob,

SF

Lack of Posts

Dude...Football is on. AAron Rodgers is looking good. Vikings offense is looking bad. I don't care either way because I am out of the office pool by 1 game. I should've homered the titans and made a sleeper pick on the Falcons. There is $55 bucks up for the taking and I am out by 1 stinking game. I am posting this while watching the game, so I will update as it goes.

In other news I went to the job I had 2 yeas ago to get some salsa and dip. Seems as if the manager that made me wanna leave was fired for stealing and blaming it on the kitchen. Sooooo.... that's why I never got my full bonus. I would love to see the real numbers. I am gonna call the HNIC-head nucklehead in charge- and find out if'n I can get my old job back for a hefty raise and Sundays off. I doubt it'll happen, but you don't know if you don't ask.

Packers win with AAron Rodgers. I'll stay up and watch the first half of the second MNF game-if I can. AHHH...Mike & Mike & Ditka. What a combo. I am sleepy already.

Happy Football season to all,

SF

GO CARDINALS

Out with the old...

Well we finally broke down and got rid of the family truckster. I have a minivan no more. For now anyways. We leased a Dodge Caravan (in homage to a band I was in ) and the lease came up last week. We were only a couple of thousand miles over the limit. We drive around alot. It was a minivan with DVD and seating for my family of 5 and 2 extra seats for us to haul various friends, dogs or to separate sisters who are bugging each other. We went from toddler car seats, to booster seats to just regular seat belts in the Caravan. We've been to Memphis, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida & all points in between. I don't think they will ever really get the sand outta that thing. It's time had come when we realised that we would have to put a couple of hundred dollars in tires, possibly a new transmission, a new rack for the rack and pinion steering and yet another automatic door opener housing. Thanks, but no thanks. The warranty was out and there are a bazillion Dodge Caravans out there on Dodge lots. I tried to bargain with them on the buyout price and they would not budge. When I turned it in, the Dodge salesman was just shaking his head. He already had a lot full of used 05 caravans that had been turned in and 16 more on the back lot he had no room for. I pity the fool. She served us well and she will be missed.
We now have a new Suzuki Grand Vitara. We have not named her yet but she will be loved like any other member of the family. We got as good of a deal as any other gut that sells Suzuki's for a living might get. We also opted in for the bumper to bumper 100,000 mile warranty with no deductible. We are set for 7years and it will most likely be the first car my oldest drives to high school.
I am gonna trick it out with tinted windows, a new stereo, custom rims ( I'm thinking 20's) and a big ole T sticker on the back wheel cover ( for Tennessee ). The best part about this is because we got such a great deal, Suzuki cut me a check back to cover going over the miles and the turn in fee. It cost me less than $100 to drive off the lot and to turn in my gently used heap. To beat all the payments are less and it gets better gas mileage. Win/Win. I know my family misses the space, the DVD player and the acceptance that a minivan affords, but the will make due, for now, until I have to turn in my truck ( Awesome Kong II ) in April and then I am sure we will get minivan pangs again.
Until then I am proud to say my southern family has an SUV and A big ole truck riding around the suburbs of Ohio with a big orange T on the back of them. I might just get a Bochephus sticker for the little lady.
4x4x4x4
SF