The Rolling Stones - High and Dry

This was a very interesting period for the Rolling Stones.

Okay, that's all I have to say.

Herbal Essences Shampoo

Shampoo is an Indian word, imported into English by the cousins during their ascendancy there. I like the Herbal Essences shampoo myself, mostly because it seems mild enough, has a good smell, rinses cleanly, and is often on sale.

There are many different formulas for the consumer to choose from. Again, I always get the one that’s on sale, having no real preference. My condo has two bathrooms, and I keep a bottle in each shower.

I’m currently stocked with:

1.   Herbal Essences Citrus Lift, which is said to contain essences of tangerine, lemongrass and aloe vera. It is described as a “shampoo for dry or coloured hair,” and it is claimed that it will make hair “radiant and soft,” and

2.   Herbal Essences with Camellia Hot Oil, which is said to contain rose hips, vitamin E and jojoba. This one will is a shampoo for dry hair, which will make hair weighty and strong.

I use them in some kind of disorganized alternation, so I can expect hair that is radiant, soft, weighty and strong. Who wouldn’t want that?

If I had more hair, perhaps I could better gauge the results. As it is, all that I can report is that my hair, all quarter inch of it on about thirty percent of my head, is clean. In the style of Californians, I am in the habit of taking at least one comprehensive shower every day, so I value that. 

Eddie Harris Quartet - Movin' On Out

In the post below, where you read, "The Electrifying Eddie Harris," now read "Eddie Harris/High Voltage."

This is Eddie really having some fun with a good crowd.

That Roland Space Echo, by the way, was a real beast to handle. It had about a mile of recording tape in it, and keeping it all on the beam was a challenge. "Delicate," you'd have to call it. I obtained one in the mid-1990s, and I never could get it running. Did I get it as partial payment for a law gig? I don't recall paying for it, which would have been a stupid thing to do at that point, for a used, semi-non-functional one. I asked in a shop about getting it running, and the guy kind of rolled his eyes towards the ceiling and said that it would be "expensive."

This is one of my favorite albums.

Eddie Harris - He's Island Man

I wasn't a big jazz guy in the Sixties (or the Seventies, for that matter). I came to jazz later on. I liked Wes Montgomery, sure, and Jimmy Smith, but they were playing instruments that I loved (electric guitar and Hammond B3). Somehow, though, I loved Eddie Harris.

I don't recall how I even came to purchase it, but I got a copy of "The Electrifying Eddie Harris," and that was that, I was a fan. I played the hell out of that album. I had this one too, and then a few more. Somehow, Eddie Harris spoke to me.

Even now, I'd say that he's a very good player, with good tone, but one of the greats? I'll let the real jazzbeaus decide, but I don't think that 'Trane or 'Bird have anything to worry about. Eddie's strong point was that he was adventurous, he took chances. He used devices that were cutting edge, like the Roland Space Echo. He went out of his way to get some tone that he liked. I liked it, too. And he played with a sense of humor, I always like that.

This is a great cut.

Politiphobia!

I’m one of those Pollyannas who prefers wondering why we all can’t just get along to strapping on my tools and doing the hard work. This is especially true of politics. I don’t engage with politics at all, I never have. Instead I just stand back, observing and complaining. That’s why I let others carry the flag of political blogging, except, of course, for occasionally indulging myself in bitter recriminations. Political blogging would require real reporting, which is hard work. Besides, there are plenty of people who are doing it much better than I could.

I read an article recently that included a description of a condition called “politiphobia.” I saw myself being accurately described, and I’m afraid that it was less than flattering.

The article referenced a book called, “Stealth Democracy: American’s Beliefs about how Government Should Work,” by John Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse (2002).  The book described politiphobes as people who basically don’t like politics because it’s messy and inefficient. They tend to believe that “. . . obvious common sense solutions are out there for the plucking.” The authors suggest that a high percentage of Americans are in this group.

That sounds suspiciously like everything that I’ve ever written about politics. I usually accuse politicians of being inefficient at best, mostly self-centered at the expense of their constituents, sometimes borderline treasonous, and often criminally minded. I wonder, from my safe distance, why things like universal health care cannot be instituted immediately. That would, after all, bring many very important advantages to the entire population, by offering us all health security and reducing the nation’s overall expenditure on health care. It would raise our standard of living, extend our lives and raise our country’s GDP as well. Who wouldn’t love that? Except of course the current crop of profit driven providers of health care and medicine, etc.

Low cost education? We’ve had it before, why can’t we have it again? Publicly funded political campaigns? Does anyone in the country like the way that campaigns are currently funded? It is readily apparent that these things, and other wonderful things, are possible, because so many countries have already done them. Why can’t we do them here in the U.S. of A.? It’s a scandal! I’m outraged!

Politiphobia is essentially a negative emotional reaction to events in the political sphere that lacks any positive element of engagement. I saw myself being described, and I was not happy about it.

The major problem, besides greed I suppose, would be bringing these wonderful things about within the confines of what is still a somewhat democratic society. Who should decide these optimal solutions to our challenges? How should they be implemented?

There is, evidently, a body of thinking that envisions a cabal of non-self-interested, rational decision makers, humans that are called, it seems, ensids. That was a new one on me. The word ensid is not in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (1681 pages; almost a quarter of a million words). Google does not produce any definitions, although it is easy to find mentions of encids in books and articles from the field of Political Science. But how would they be chosen, these ensids? And by whose authority would they act?

Would they be politicians? Technocrats? Autocrats? Computers? To whom would they be accountable, if anyone?

Longing for these things under the flag of “we should just do it!” doesn’t seem like a proper plan for human progress. Trusting any of the entities listed above with authoritarian power would really be a terrible idea. We are left, sadly, with continued reliance on the imperfect system that has gotten us into so much trouble already. Not, perhaps, a good result, but there you have it. Hoping for the best may be optimism or it may be a form of insanity. As usual, I wish us all luck.

Maybe we should hire an ensid to tell us what to do. 

Donald Trump: The Hitchcock Movie

The Donald and his mom, Mary Trump.

He looks remarkably like her, the shape of the face is the same, the nose, the wide-spaced eyes. And, of course, the hair.

Mary crossed the river before closer hair analogies were possible, but look up later pictures of her and compare them to current pix of the now geriatric Donald, with his spectacular comb-over. Mary's spectacular optical-illusion comb-over was very, very similar. Disturbingly similar.

It all reminds me of a particular movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in which a disturbed young man dressed up as his own mom and brought considerable mischief to his co-actors. What's the dynamic here? Trouble, boys and girls, trouble with a capitol "T." Go ahead and elect him, at your peril. It's your right! Vote your conscience! No one can stop you at this point! But I'll tell you right now, if Donald gets elected, and the dollar is destroyed in the resulting, inevitable catastrophe, causing me to lose the value of my hard earned bank money, such as it is, I'll hold it against you forever, and forever curse your smoldering bones, from a distance.

Cream - Anyone For Tennis

Good song; fun video. But wait, what's this all about?

If I recall, and I should check this, "Anyone for Tennis?" was Cream's first single. Even if it wasn't, it's a pretty strange cut. If I were ever to interview Eric or Ginger, one of my early questions would be, "what were you thinking?" Throw the dogs off the hunt? Freak people out? Just a big tease? What the . . .

But, a good song, and a fun video.

(And a hearty RIP for Jack Bruce, who has left the building. Fare thee well, b'hoyo.)

Post Google note: Nope, not the first single. That would be Wrapping Paper in 1966. Anyone for Tennis was released as a single in 1968. It was written for, and used in, a movie. That's why it's such an outlier in Cream's catalog.