Earlier today I expressed my, um, less than fond regards for noted musician Michael McDonald. I was then made aware that Mr. McDonald is a fierce Obot, who has taken fan displeasure in speaking out for Pres. Obama. So, in expiation, some of Mr. McDonald’s oeuvre. BUT, only with the Doobie Brothers; I can go a lifetime without listening to “Sweet Freedom” again.
***
I Keep Forgettin’
***
Takin’ it to the Streets
***
It Keeps You Runnin’
***
Black Water
***
Real Love
***
One Step Closer
***
Minute by Minute
***
Manhole Covers
by Karl Shapiro
The beauty of manhole covers–what of that?
Like medals struck by a great savage khan,
Like Mayan calendar stones, unliftable, indecipherable,
Not like the old electrum, chased and scored,
Mottoed and sculptured to a turn,
But notched and whelked and pocked and smashed
With the great company names
(Gentle Bethlehem, smiling United States).
This rustproof artifact of my street,
Long after roads are melted away will lie
Sidewise in the grave of the iron-old world,
Bitten at the edges,
Strong with its cryptic American,
Its dated beauty.
***
Light ’em up, and chat on!
The Obama Diary 
You are forgiven:)
Sweet Freedom is NOT my favorite…though I admit to always singing along… “I Keep Forgettin’…well, that’s a whole ‘nuther animal:)
I’m not, but that’s hysterical.
this critical situation almost certainly results from the following exchange:
she: how do you like my new dress/hairdo/shoes/toenail polish?
he: you look fine. let’s go already.
she: (silent fuming)
he: what’s the matter now?
she: I’M FINE!!
🙂
This is the original “no win situation.” Every man knows this, that no matter what you say, you’re wrong. 😛
what??!! noooo!
here’s what you say: ‘you look lovely. your new dress/ hairdo/ shoes/toenail polish –just icing on the cake! if i don’t notice those things, it’s because i’m just gazing at your lovliness.’
must be said with an absolutely honest heart and expression! any touch of irony and you are DEAD! 🙂
You could always go with: “This is my ‘I’m so stunned by your loveliness I’m speechless’ face.” Ducks and runs for the hills!
🙂
my friends (female) and i talk about this all the time–and we’re well into our 6th and 7th decades! seems so obvious to us–completely avoidable misery! just say ‘you look lovely’ with a sincere smile, and all will be well.
Totally agree, susanne. The sincere smile will boost reception, but clinching the deal is the use of an endearment. However, under NO circumstances speak a name. The wrong one could do untold damage to all the previous good intentions!
What she wants to hear is that she is sexy and pleasing to you…
and more importantly…that you mean it….
bingo!
And also that when she tries hard, you notice. What’s the use of all the effort if you just ignore it.
Sorry, but he did this song proud.
Damn. I hate that. This one.
Ashford and Simpson, bitchez!!!!
We’re even now, aren’t we? 🙂 I love them, too:)
hey lib, i’m a fierce obot too, and i promise you don’t have to listen to me sing! 🙂
Hah!
My favorite station here is KUSC, the local classical station. Every Saturday they have a program called “Arts Alive”, which surveys arts in my fair burg. One of the regular features is “Ask The Dean”, where the dean of the USC music school is asked a question from a listener. Today it was about singing. Specifically, are some people just hopeless at singing. The dean said there *are* some people who will probably never be able to sing; for example, cheer leaders who have just shredded their vocal chords in their careers. But he said that in a career of teaching singing, there was only one person he encountered who he couldn’t teach to sing on key.
I’ll have to tell my missus that so that she can take hope.
we’re all about hope here 🙂
I can, more or less, depending on the song, sing on key. Unfortunately, I have shredded my vocal cords thanks to a really, really bad case of a cold coupled with a sinus infection, which resulted in a 6 week laryngitis. Not that I was any great singer before, particularly according to a sister (all-state vocalist in high school) and a cousin (opera singer). 😆
‘he said …there was only one person he encountered who he couldn’t teach to sing on key.’
/with great apprehension/ He didn’t give my name on air, did he?
No, it was a man. No names, though.
Phew! My secret’s still safe – what a relief! 😉
My daughter’s singing teacher said the same – she never did meet my dad – he added the truth serum to “tone deaf”
I always liked Michael McDonald singing, now if you tell me he’s a dam Republican, well I will change my mind.
He’s an Obot:) You’re safe…Loves PBO!
🙂
If your dog is barking at the back door and your wife is yelling at the front door, who do you let in first?
The Dog of course … at least he’ll shut up after you let him in.
,,,,
byeee
I’m going to zip my lips because you really really really really don’t want to know what’s running through my mind right now.
Even with your lips totally sealed, NW, I can hear it all the way from Austin to Seattle 🙂
I’m with you! amk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry. That was distasteful.
A man speaks frantically on phone, “My wife is pregnant, and her contractions are only two minutes apart!”
“Relax, is this her first child?” the doctor queries.
“No, you idiot!” the man shouts. “This is her husband!”
😀 😀 😀
The one preceding this one ….. no comment 🙂
Was Karl Shapiro high when he wrote that poem? Because ‘Manhole Covers’ makes no sense.
Answer: probably.
Great album. Blue eyed soul.
So. The latest GiGi shiny object is the revelation of “Cuban Twitter”. Because, you know, Cuba is a fountain of freedom.
Thank you Mr. McDonald for being an “Obot,” but no..noooooo…no, no, no, no, no. What he’s doing is not music. No…no….no. That is an assault on the ears.
ha! LL you crack me up! 😀
Found this article while browsing. http://rt.com/news/supervolcano-buoyancy-yellowstone-eruption-237/
I. Am. Dying.
Change.
Never heard of a child’s being denied baptism because of the marital status of their parents.
My friend had trouble baptizing her first child (29 years ago) because they were’d members in good standing with offerings (Catholic church). I think it was offerings – it was some monetary reason. They left the church and never went back.
If you’re not registered in a Catholic parish, you don’t usually get to line up marriages or baptisms there, since you’re not part of their parish, although they’ll make exceptions.
Not sure in your friend’s case, but if parent(s) want to have their children baptized in the Catholic church, it usually means they want to have them raised in the Catholic faith, which means attending church, receiving religious instruction, etc., after baptism. I would never personally question anyone’s motivations in this matter.
There’s no fee for a Catholic baptism, although – like in most churches and other places of worship at baptisms, weddings, etc. – a small monetary gift of your choice is usually presented to the priest for conducting the sacrament.
Nobody follows you around after that to see if you’re attending church or putting money in the collection basket – that’s your decision and there’s no tithing. And you can attend any Catholic church without registering – many people do.
I have friends and family who didn’t like the way a priest confirmed something to them (although they knew the answer before the meeting), and they never went back to church again, and – thus – the bad press.
I consider practicing or not practicing any religion a personal choice, in any event!
Well, I was pretty surprised by her story. Not what I would have expected certainly. I know her parents were religious, but she has not practiced since then. It could be a case, as you suggested, that she kind of knew what the answer was going to be, but didn’t like it anyway. I completely agree about the personal choice aspect of it. To be true faith it can’t be anything else.
My sister and a very close friend were the ones I was thinking of, when I came up with that premise. They always blamed the church, even though they knew going in they weren’t meeting the criteria. Each to their own, of course.
My religion is the one I was baptized into and raised in, which I continue to love, but I consider that a gift (and, obviously, my choice to keep it and what it means to me – nobody’s holding a gun to my head!).
To me, my faith is between me and God. Nobody’s talking me into it or out of it at this point, and I feel the same about everybody else’s choice or non-choice! I really want to add an Amen here, but I’ll leave it at that. 🙂
Employer to applicant: “In this job we need someone who is responsible.”
Applicant: “I’m the one you want. On my last job, every time anything went wrong, they said I was responsible.”
🙂
Lots of good stuff to read on the Internet today! I’m really liking the Democrats messaging about the Koch Bros cutting jobs and buying elections. It’s a simple, clear message that workers can understand. And it comes after the message about Romney and Bain was so prominent in 2012. I remember a study the Dems did for 2012 and people just didn’t believe that the GOP actually meant what they said. This is a matter of educating the low info voter. They are the ones benefiting from ObamaCare too. I like it a lot.
This was an article from a couple of weeks ago
And this one from today talks about the ads Dems are running.
I feel so enthused about this election!!
TME, it became clear several weeks ago just how coordinated the branding of KOCHS = GOP = EVIL by the Democrats is going to be – with Senator Reid leading the charge. We can expect this messaging to become ever more intense in the months leading to 4 Nov 2014 and rightly so – it’s the TRUTH.
We face an enemy within that is just as, if not more so, dangerous than any enemy the great American experiment in democracy has faced since the day Jeff Davis resigned from the US Senate to lead the traitorous slave owners and dealers of the Confederacy. We have ZERO reason to think that what the Kochs and their fellow plutocrats are striving to do is to enslave the vast majority of Americans because their actions prove that that is just their agenda.
#TrustBarack … He knows exactly what this battle is all about.
I like it because it’s clear and simple. There has always been a mistrust of the rich by the poor and once those voters understand how it is working it will be powerful. And I just love that ObamaCare is helping those same people at the same time. The ads mentioned in the article are local for that state and very effective. It builds on the Romney/Bain theme. They don’t make boogy men out of them, it’s plain and simple. I like it.
The strategy is brilliant.
The way for democrats to win the mic-terms despite an avalanche of billionaires money in republicans’ coffers: make that money TOXIC. Make it so toxic that people will look at the avalanche of republican adds on tv with disgust. And will vote democrat.
Oh, and not only it’s necessary to make people aware of the undue influence of big money brokers, but it should be coupled with lots and lots of publicity about the new Ryan budget, which happens to be WORSE than the one he presented in 2012.
This is great! I know Sen. Harry Reid was severely criticized, even by so many people here at TOD, about his reluctance to nuke the Senate filibuster rule. Some accused him of being weak with no backbone. I respectfully disagreed. I think Sen. Reid is one of the most astute and courageous politicians. Political pundits were absolutely sure that he would not win re-election in 2010, but he did. In the 2012 he publicly challenged Mitt Romney’s veracity about paying taxes and courageously stood up against the media efforts to demonize him. He is now out there, basically alone among elected officials, publicly exposing the nefarious plans by the billionaires Koch Brothers who are razor- focused on destroying
“I think Sen. Reid is one of the most astute and courageous politicians. Political pundits were absolutely sure that he would not win re-election in 2010, but he did. In the 2012 he publicly challenged Mitt Romney’s veracity about paying taxes and courageously stood up against the media efforts to demonize him.”
IN_DEEDS, nath, he has done so and continues to do.
He may be ‘alone among elected officials’ but not AMONG US!!
Will post that tweet again as it is necessary for everyone to grow to understand the scale of evil we are battling.
#DEMSDominate2014
YES WE MUST
sorry, nyt. dems are not ‘seeking to make villains’ of these oligarchs. they made themselves villains. dems are just reporting on that fact.
Exactly the part that jumped out at me, Susanne. I always seem picky, but honestly I wish people (both Dems and others) would be more careful of how they share info when they write to educate. Many times I would retweet a seemingly supportive message or an article and change my mind because of (what I consider) an ill-chosen word or expression. Many a time I see ‘supportive’ articles for our side that contain subtle indications that the writer doesn’t really believe us, or has included outright slaps, while pretending to praise. Frustrating, because it’s not often their ‘fair and balanced’ favour our side.
thank you soooo much for saying this! i’m infuriated by the way praise contains underhanded snark when the msm reports on the president. and i completely agree that we, who are trying to make positive statements, need to be very careful about our choice of words and phraseology. picky or not, it’s important, imho 🙂
And the media does it 99% of the time when they are supposedly supporting a democratic issue – they seem to be able to attack the President without providing the snark against the GOP
This!!!!
twitter has totally f…ed up the me page.
Oh, did you finally get the new page? Eh, I’m used to it now.
Yes, I got new me coupla days back. It’s horrible. Soon they will be mucking up their FP too, I guess.
Is matt santos character taken from Obama? The similarity is telling.
I’ve read somewhere , a few years ago, that it is indeed the case. Aaron Sorkin was impressed by Senator Obama who was a rising star in the democratic party. It obviously inspired him … I’ve also read that the character of Josh was inspired in part by Rahm Emmanuel. I don’t know if the latter is true though.
Are you watching Season 6 ? The story line about Santos was my favorite… Excellent scenes with the tandem Josh/Santos…
Thx LP. I don’t know which season it is. santos has just won the nomination on the floor. Leak in WH about some secret rocket. Josh feels the dem WH is screwing his candie.
Yes, the dialog peppy and the acting is very good. Though oliver babish could have done better as the WH counsel instead of his usual hollywood schtick.
teann is still obsessed with that plane?
I’m SURE that CNN is going to get mocked at the Correspondents Dinner this year. I hope the President himself does something about that. Although it’s a pretty sensitive subject obviously.
Ask the DalaiLama. He follows no one.
G.W. Bush says he is not a great artist, well that’s okay G.W., you weren’t a great President either, not even a good one.
But I’m sure Fox will put G.W. up there with the greatest artist of all time. That’s what Fox do best…..Lie.
he’s one of the greatest con-artists of all time, that’s for sure!
So G.W. is not a great artist, but he’s a great con-artist. I agree. And so is that awful VP Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
horrid, horrid monsters. they almost made me ashamed to be an american, but then we had an election 🙂
And then we had a second election! 🙂
🙂
Charles Gaba projecting 8Mil Obamacare QHP by 4/15. Looks like we’ll have 9Mil by May 1. http://acasignups.net/14/04/05/my-back-envelope-projection-415-900k-more-qhps-8m-even
There’s some serious brick shitting going on:) That’s wonderful news!! On BOTH counts!
Go 9 mil. My number.
Great, a fucking Democrat.
What possessed Moran to say this? What does he expect to gain from this, knowing how most people feel that congress is not earning their current salaries?
Most Members of Congress are millionaires, before they get there. Some don’t make it until after. I rest my case.
LL – Thanks for the piece – and I love that poem!
Try making ends meet off of $7.25 an hour Congressman Moran.
Or even the proposed $10.10.
Seems to me that the number of days working in Congress should be divided out with their yearly income to come up with a per hour amount. That would probably be even more shocking.
Whoa…..
Jim Moran
Net Worth: From $1,001 to $15,000
Rank: 404th in House
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.php?CID=N00002083&year=2012
Who pick Kentucky and Connecticut to make it to the championship game? Not to many I am willing to bet. Monday night it will be Kentucky and Connecticut.
How did PBO do with his bracket?
honestly, i have no idea how he keeps up with sports, on top of all the domestic and foreign issues he’s juggling every day! whatever makes him smile, though–hope his bracket is a winner!
susanne POTUS bracket was not a winner, he pick Michigan State to win the championship, Michigan State didn’t make the finals, they were knock out by Connecticut. After that game Connecticut tweeted POTUS and told him that they were sorry for busting his bracket, but he can jump on their bandwagon if he likes. Hopefully Connecticut and Kentucky will give us a good exciting game Monday night.
thanks for filling me in, anniebella. i don’t even try to keep up with sports, and i have way, way less on my mind than the president does!
The states of Kentucky and Connecticut. How about that?
I enjoy the interview FLOTUS did with the student Nene Sy.
Round and round she goes, and where she stops, nobody knows. Every now and then, I check in on CNN to see if they’re still covering the missing plane story, round the clock. The look on Don Lemon’s face each time as he anchors his special reports never changes. He’s pretty sure he’s covering the story of the century, and will be up for some broadcaster award or something when he’s done. The CNN powers that be seemingly have convinced him of that.
To me, it’s a case of how many times can you ask the same question of the same people, over and over, round and round, without running out of the studio, screaming.
I swear they’ve all gone mad, and they are trying to drag us with them. Click.
I totally agree with you Jacqueline. Every time I turn to CNN, they are discussing that plane. I wonder if their ratings will begin to take a hit for their continuous coverage?
Wonderful stuff – big fan of Michael McDonald, and a giant fan of our precious President!
r.i.p.
‘ Peter Matthiessen, a roving author and naturalist whose impassioned nonfiction explored the remote endangered wilds of the world and whose prizewinning fiction often placed his mysterious protagonists in the heart of them, died on Saturday at his home in Sagaponack, N.Y. He was 86. ‘
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/peter-matthiessen-author-and-naturalist-is-dead-at-86.html?hp
Years ago, I went to a writing conference at Weber State in Utah and Matthiessen was the keynote author. I haven’t read a whole lot of his works, but what I did was pretty good, sort of a blend of James Michener and John Muir. I think his stories being about the wilderness was the reason Weber State– close to some beautiful mountains– was chosen as the location for this conference. It looks like I need to read some more Matthiessen again.
The Snow Leopard, in my library for years and years, will never part with it. Thank you, Peter Mattheissen. Go with God.
Long-time lurker and big-time Obot, posting for the first time.
Do not forget perhaps the greatest Michael McDonald song of all, even though it’s a solo piece. A lovely statement of solidarity this is:
Welcome and Happy Sunday, Lucy. Pop on over to Early Bird Chat if you’re still around.
thanks for de-lurking!
Moooooorning!
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/04/06/early-bird-chat-201/