Johnny's Garden

Happy trails, friend

The community is still reeling from Larry Robinson's murder. Everywhere I go, people are just shell shocked. I have never seen anything like it in my thirty four years in town. Maybe because it was so senseless. Mostly because everybody that knew the guy loved him.

Leslie and I joined the candlelight vigil last night. Many hundreds of people, the largest outpouring I have ever seen for such an event since maybe John Lennon. Pulled people out of the woodwork, many I hadn't seen for a long time, many I didn't know at all. Debbie Ramsey said something this morning that was very true; Larry was sort of an unusual character in our area because he had a base in both Temecula and Fallbrook and that is rare around these parts. Never noticed that he worked right next to the Dorado restaurant before...

I wasn't going to necessarily write about this tragedy again but Brent sent along this link to raise donations for the family. I don't know the family's financial position but I imagine they could use a little help.

We all know that life is cheap but until it hits home we never reflect on exactly how cheap. You hear about people being murdered for a pack of cigarettes. Larry Robinson met his fate for a cheap Gibson Les Paul worth about seven hundred bucks and some neon guitar strings, or so I was told.

As a guitar player I couldn't imagine holding such an instrument, this instrument of death. Perhaps it was quickly sold so that somebody could obtain a fix? Who knows? We can only hope that the perpetrator of the crime finds swift justice. But it is hard to imagine that a guy could murder a stranger for a cheap Les Paul. May it never play in tune...

I wasn't in Larry's inner circle but counted him as a friend. It is so common, almost trite to talk about those that have passed as kind, generous, loving and humble. Yet this man was genuinely all those things and more.

I think that Larry may have been born into the wrong age. I can envision him as a crooner, singing ballads and sea shanty's, cowboy songs around his campfire in more noble times. He was that close to making it big but the window got small at the wrong time. He carved out a pretty good life and worked his ass off as a musician. He loved his wife, family and music. Pete said that Larry was a believer at the vigil last night but we never discussed such matters.

It was such a joy for me to watch him perform with his son and daughter at the Women's Club a few years ago. He was rightfully proud of them.

We have to honor his memory. The pain runs deep for many.

Ring of Fire

http://www.10news.com/news/employee-tied-up-beaten-during-apparent-robbery-at-temecula-music-store-dies-from-injuries-03232013

Vigil for Larry Robinson at Pete's Music in Temecula tonight at 8:00.

Funky Revelation

If he was murdered it had to be by somebody who had never met the man. The guy I knew never had an enemy. Had to be some random predator who couldn't see beyond his own selfish tunnel; who dropped in to a foreign and gentle universe and turned the lights off in a most gruesome way without realizing the precious nature of the beautiful man and unwitting victim.

We will miss his impish grin, his throaty baritone, or was it a tenor? I always get confused.

He read the blog regularly, always had a kind word, loved the music, was a voice of encouragement to me in my music making and otherwise.

This was an awful, barbarous act, and I am sure totally unnecessary. May his spirit find instant peace and sanctuary, he lifted our own hearts and spirits with his playing and singing countless times.

Our hearts fall into darkness with your absence Larry. You will be sorely missed. You were just a beautiful cat, in the very best sense of the word.

You stupid fucks, you have to knock off a lousy music store. You couldn't fucking rob a bank, you fucking fucks.

Maharajah of the Bayou

Jonathan Hill sent me a trailer for this new documentary that delves into the life of the late New Orleans pianist, James Booker.

Doctor John called  him"the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced." The movie premieres this month and is titled Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker. I am not that familiar with the artist but the trailer clip looks (and sounds) really intriguing.

Nights in White Satin

Beat on the Brat

Orrinthology

Orrin Hatch was a hoot the other day. The elderly Senator from Utah said that Obamacare was designed to fail so that the dreaded dems could usher in  (egads!) single payer socialized medicine.

That President of ours is sure crafty. And prescient. How did he ever figure out that the Republicans would vote 36 times (so far) to repeal the program?

The latest fiasco was Ted Cruz's baby. The amendment sought to “establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to provide for the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.” The vote failed.

Ahead of the vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) put out a statement trashing Obamacare for being too expensive and "not working" in the way that was promised by Democrats.

"Three years later, the President's health care law remains a job-killer that grows the government and slows the economy, which is why it’s important to repeal the whole thing and replace it with commonsense reforms that lower costs and that Americans actually want," McConnell said.

Kind of funny that it isn't working. Not surprising, since you have tried to kill the infant program at every turn, of course the patient is not well.

Now Obama's opponents have embarked on a paper cut strategy to bleed the program to death. The House bill left out nearly a billion dollars in funding for insurance exchanges as well as funds for the IRS to prepare to enforce the law's tax rules.

The Senate voted 79-20 to scuttle the Obamacare 2.3% sales tax on medical devices. The tax, which took effect in January, would have raised $29 billion towards the costs of the healthcare law. The Cruz amendment would also strip out the money for Pell Grants, for historically black colleges and $2 billion for community colleges.

There are at least eight other similar GOP budget amendments. They include one by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) to prevent new Obamacare spending, one by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to repeal Obamacare's funding sources and one by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) to prevent the use of funds for marketing Obamacare.

Two different amendments — #326 from Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and #417 from Sen. Coburn — would eliminate many of  the subsidies that help ensure Americans can purchase health care on the state-wide insurance marketplaces.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)’s Amendment #408 would “reduce the federal matching rate for Medicaid expansions,” which could threaten funding for the provision and dissuade states from opting to expand their Medicaid pools.  Coburn  wants to “prevent the federal government from making an unrealistic promise to States to fund any State’s expansion of the Medicaid program at a higher level of federal reimbursement.”

Sen. Richard Burr's (R-NC)  Amendment #357 seeks to “delay implementation of the President’s health care law for 2 years.”

This sort of obstruction is similar to what the Republicans are doing filibustering and blocking a simple vote on federal judges. President George W. Bush has two of his D.C. Circuit nominees blocked by Democratic filibusters, but he also succeeded in winning confirmation for four appointees to the appeals court. Obama can't get any cooperation at all. Obama is the first president in 50 years who failed to make an appointment to the court during a full term.

"Republican presidents have been hugely successful in packing the D.C. Circuit with extraordinarily conservative judges, and they don't want any more jurists on the bench to dilute that ideological power." Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way.

This sort of childish behavior is totally unconscionable, needlessly adversarial and the favor is sure to be returned one day. For sure. People have long memories. Government can't work this way for perpetuity. But don't even consider working with this Obama guy for one damn minute. It is all about regaining power, some way, some how. Even if you have to employ some scorched earth tactics in the process.

Don't shoot your parents, burn your house down and then complain about your plight as poor orphans. It is no wonder the american public see you in the light that they do. Nobody is fooled by your slash, burn and obstruct philosophy. The election is over, it was a referendum on a lot of things, including healthcare. If you want to stop government dead in its tracks, we are in for a long four years and they will be no good for anybody.

The Nazz

Iraq Returns

I haven't done much politics this week. Guess it's time to alienate some people.

First Iraq. Perle and Wolfowitz aren't necessarily retreating but ex Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz points out that he wasn't really the war architect in Iraq anyway. In this interview with the Sunday Times, Wolfowitz says that the Iraq job was bungled, we excluded too much Iraqi leadership, and the U.S. military made some grave tactical errors.

“I don’t want to get into the finger-pointing business but we had sort of forgotten everything we’d learnt 30 years before about counterinsurgency . . . this was not the kind of war you win by overwhelming force.”

Wolfowitz called for Saddam’s overthrow during the 1991 Gulf War and was the first senior official to advise Bush, days after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, to seek regime change in Iraq. Wolfowitz denied that he was “the architect” of the Iraq invasion. “It wasn’t conducted according to my plan.”

Wolfowitz was one of the first people to call for an invasion and overthrow in Iraq, ostensibly to combat the flimsy weapons of mass destruction narrative, a thesis that proved to be both incorrect and seemingly concocted out of a false report of nigerian yellowcake uranium, if my memory serves me correctly. U.S. officials  accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, but no evidence of a meaningful connection was ever found.

When that all turned out to be hogwash, the mission turned into one of liberating the Iraqi people. Well that job has been done, we overthrew a petty tyrant of one of the few places in the middle east where a woman could go to school, wear what she wanted to wear and the mullahs and imans mostly shut up. Like Tito, Hussein presided over a religiously divided people and largely kept them from each other's throats.

Just make sure Saddam's boys had their liquor and their porn, let them conduct a few public beheadings and he largely kept to himself. What has been accomplished in 10 years in Iraq?

Financial cost (from Wiki):

The financial cost of the war has been more than £4.55 billion ($9 billion) to the UK,[337] and over $845 billion to the U.S. government. Critics have argued the total cost to the U.S. economy is estimated to be from $3 trillion [338] to $6 trillion [339], including interest rates, by 2053.
A CNN report noted that the United States-led interim government, the Coalition Provisional Authority lasting until 2004 in Iraq had lost $8.8 billion in the Development Fund for Iraq. In June 2011, it was reported by CBS News that six billion in neatly packaged blocks of $100 bills was literally air-lifted into Iraq by the George W. Bush administration, which flew it into Baghdad aboard C‑130 military cargo planes. In total, the Times says $12 billion in cash was flown into Iraq in 21 separate flights by May 2004, all of which has disappeared. An inspector general's report mentioned that "'Severe inefficiencies and poor management' by the Coalition Provisional Authority would leave no guarantee that the money was properly used", said Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., director of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. "The CPA did not establish or implement sufficient managerial, financial and contractual controls to ensure that funds were used in a transparent manner."[340] Bowen told the Times the missing money may represent "the largest theft of funds in national history."[341]

Casualties :

On 14 March 2013, Brown University released a report on their project entitled Costs of War about the Iraq War, five days before its tenth anniversary. The report only includes figures from direct war-related violence. It places total deaths of the war from during U.S. involvement at about 190,000 people. 70% of the deaths (134,000) were civilians. U.S. losses totalled 4,488 military personel and 3,400 security contractors. Coalition losses included 319 deaths. Allied Iraqi military and police suffered 10,819 deaths. Approximately 36,400 were Sadaam loyalist forces or terrorist insurgents. Figures include 62 humanitarian workers and 231 journalists.

There is a scathing open letter to Wolfowitz written by his one time deputy Andrew Bacevich that is worth reading. Bacevich seems to think that the whole war was orchestrated by Wolfie in order to attain personal power and to assert United States global power.

Wolfowitz seems to deflect these criticisms, says that the war can't be judged yet, even the returns from Korea aren't fully in as yet. He thinks that it is a mistake for "war weary" americans to not continue the charade now over in Syria. In an opinion he wrote for Fox he thinks our failure was not pursuing a counter insurgency strategy four years earlier.

Richard Perle doesn't even think it is reasonable to even ask if the invasion was worth it.

“I’ve got to say,” Perle responded, “I think that is not a reasonable question. What we did at the time was done in the belief that it was necessary to protect this nation. You can’t a decade later go back and say, well, we shouldn’t have done that.”

I was interviewed by the newspaper at the start of the war, at the local V.F.W. no less. In a room full of soldiers, I was quoted as saying that wars are easier to start than get out of and wondered if we knew what we were in for. Sadly Iraq today may be in a worse state than pre invasion. We have installed a Shia Iranian proxy and we are reminded of the religious civil war by the daily partisan bombings. I believe that the returns are in and that history will look upon the whole debacle as a huge waste of human and financial resources. Rather than an affirmation of American power it points out the need to restrain it and use it much more judiciously than we have in the past.

The old men plan and strategize with their foolish dreams of victory and global conquest and the young men simply die.

God Bless The Child

Vernal Viernes

I was talking to a friend yesterday about a recent conversation that she had with her psychiatrist. He didn't sound well and he told her he was feeling sick because so many of his patients were sick. Of course, that is what psychiatrists do, they treat people that are mentally ill, a challenging and difficult job to be sure. Sort of goes with the territory.

Then he told her that the reason that they were sick was because they couldn't handle the recent daylight savings time change. Apparently more people react to it than you would think. Interesting, I know about December depression but had never considered that our circadian rhythms were so sensitive that an extra hour of dark could throw us off track.

Although it makes sense.

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I think that I may have to stop drinking alcohol. Not that I drink in any fashion to excess, I don't. The problem is that I have developed a serious allergic reaction. First it was beer, now beer and wine. I immediately clog up and develop respiratory problems. I have tried benadryl and it doesn't seem to work. Wild Bill sent me this link today which sort of explains things. Still have to do the vodka and Bushmills test in order to be totally scientific.

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Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational, The hidden forces that shape our decisions, continues to amaze. We may think that we are acting rationally but the degree with which we can be manipulated is astounding and empirically proven in this delightful book.

You learn about anchors and decoys, the difference between social exchanges and market exchanges. I am not finished so I am not going to go into the experiments too deeply but really recommend you read it.

If nothing else, he tells you how to pick a public toilet. Pick the one that seems like it would get the most traffic. In reality it probably gets the least traffic since we mostly all process these types of decisions the same way. My actuary friend Mike says that you always pick the toilet on the end because there is only a 33% chance of someone pissing on your foot. The whole science of behavioral economics is quite thought provoking. It reminds me of BigDave telling me to always turn left when entering the parking lot because 70% of the people will instinctively turn right.

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D & R took us out last night to a great dinner at Vincent's. She asked an interesting question. You can get an image of yourself  by looking in the mirror and we carry one around internally. How old are you chronologically in the one you carry around internally?

I would say subtract 13 years, I'm 42, although my wife still thinks I act like I'm twelve.

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The accent mark ordered some tea from these people and got this reply today. A tea liberally steeped in yogic bliss...

Greetings,

Your tea has been gently hand picked by artists of the leaf and our farmer friends from around the world. We've tasted and tested every brew in our San Francisco Lounges to be sure this blend is perfect.

Before packaging, we meditate positive, tea-infused inspiration over every hand-blended shipment. Our entire team does yoga together, enters a state of bliss, and then marches your package to the local post office where the postmen and women receive it with absolute reverence (and a bit of jealousy). We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at Samovar Tea Lounge, and can't wait to connect with you over a pot of tea.

If you ever need more tea or more bliss, visit us at our tea lounges or online. We await your return at www.samovarlife.com. And, if you like what you get and want to find out more, join our email list or forward it to a friend: www.samovarlife.com/signup.

Sincerely,

Samovar Tea Lounge
The biggest little tea company in America

Moondog

Chaharshanbe Suri

It is the time of Nowruz, the Persian festival of new year. Traditionally persians of all religious persuasions mark the holiday by jumping over fire, while reciting the words "May my sickly pallor be yours and your red glow be mine." Here in Southern California, at roughly 4 a.m. Wednesday, was the moment of the vernal equinox, when the sun crosses directly over the equator, ushering in spring.

The fire jumping rite, Chaharshanbe Suri, is an obvious relic of early zoroastrian traditions which reach back at least 1800 years bce. Zoroastrianism was a belief system founded by Zoroaster, also known as Zarathusra and thought by many to be the world's first monotheistic religion. Plutarch put the date of Zoroaster back at least to 6000 bce.

Zoroaster saw life as a struggle between truth (aša) and lies (druj).  Zoroaster worshipped the uncreated god, Ahura Mazda, who was the embodiment of aša and the lord of light and wisdom. When Zoroaster was 30, he received a revelation. While fetching water from dawn for a sacred ritual, he saw the shining figure of the yazata, Vohu Manah, who led Zoroaster to the presence of Ahura Mazda, where he was taught the cardinal principles of the religion of good.

Zoroastrianism has always been associated with fire and the cow. It influenced a multitude of other religions and philosophies including, islam, plato, the bahai faith and judaism.

It is interesting how the old religion manages to seep into the new religion in different cultures. Shinto rites still exert a major influence in Japan, the yule log and much nordic imagery is evident in Christmas celebrations and the old Bon practices still reverberate in Tibet.

They create a cultural rubric that underpins and often integrates more recent belief systems in a non threatening way. It is interesting and delightful how we humans can create an amalgam out of various myths, religions and creation stories and move seamlessly through the potpourri without skipping a beat.

The last five days of the persian year are known as Hamaspathmaedaya, the feast of all souls. Faravahar, the guardian angel of humans and the spirits of dead comes back for a reunion. According to Wicki:

Much of the symbolism of this act links to astrological connotations associated with sign of Pisces or Esfand, or the 12th House related to the subconscious mind, hidden resources, hidden problems, social responsibility. The human has to face his ultimate fears and does so by jumping over the fire. That cleansing act is necessary before the advent of the Spring at the Vernal Equinox. Wednesday is chosen because of its ancient association with being the fourth day of Mercury or Kherad, and Mercury being the messenger of Gods.

It is fascinating how different cultures celebrate the solstice and equinox. I was at Chichen Itza once for the Festival of the Serpent on September 23rd with about 20,000 mayan compatriots, feasting on corn and mango.

The pyramid was constructed so that the serpent of light, Kukulkan would appear on the side of the pyramid and descend into the ground, burying the life giving power. I watched just such an event, which is reversed in the spring.

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Our appreciation for these types of celestial events continues today. There was an article in the paper the other day about the famed Salk Institute in La Jolla. Architect Louis Kahn designed the building so that a river of life would be illuminated at the precise moment by the vernal and autumnal equinox's.

I found this picture online and hope to take my own next equinox!

Bitter water

Warner Springs Ranch has been sold. It has a quite interesting and rather sordid history. The Ranch was originally a village inhabited by local Cupeño indians who lost control of their holdings when forced to work for the Spanish missionaries who had conquered their land. They were supposed to keep ownership under Mexican law but their rights were somehow disregarded. For the Cupeño's own historical recount, read this.

"The word Cupeño is of Spanish derivation, adopting the native place-name Kupa and appending Spanish — "eño" to mean a person who lives in or hails from Kupa. The Cupeños, however, called themselves Kuupangaxwichem, or "people who slept here." The Cupans were one of the smallest native American tribes in Southern California. It is unlikely that they ever numbered more than 1000 in size. They once occupied a territory 10 square miles in diameter in a mountainous region at the headwaters of the San Luis Rey River in the valley of San Jose de Valle. Many of the Pala Indians trace their heritage back to Cupa. Today, more than 90 years after having been expelled from their native homeland, the Cupeños call Pala, California home and live as one among the Luiseño tribe. Before 1810, the Cupans had very little contact with outsiders — Spanish or otherwise. The land they had lived on for countless generations, including the medicinal hot springs and the village called Cupa now is controlled and used to the exclusion of the Cupans by Americans who displaced them. As the Spanish, Mexicans and, later, the American trailblazers grew in number in the region, the Cupans began to work in serf-like relations to the newcomers.Discontent quickly spread among the Cupans. The pioneers who trekked west through the southern route did so on a trail that ran directly through the Cupan territory. To add insult to injury, American officials in San Diego concluded that a reasonable source of revenue would be a taxation upon the Indians of the backcountry. The Cupans were assessed a $600 tax that with great resentment was finally paid by the villagers.Tensions mounted and shortly after California was made a state in 1848, a Cupeno named Antonio Garra attempted to unite Southern California Indians against all foreigners by organizing a revolt. Garra, his son and a renegade American sailor were able to unify many of the Indian tribes of the region. But just moments before a grand attack was to commence, a pro-American chief leading the Cahuilla tribe opted out of the coalition to sue for peace. This dissolution of unity was Garra’s undoing and within days, Garra was executed and the village of Cupa was burned."

In 1830 a fur trader from Connecticut named John Warner left Connecticut and headed to California, passing through this valley. By 1844, he had become a naturalized Mexican citizen and changed his name to Juan Jose Warner. He received the Rancho San Jose del Valle Mexican land grant, establishing a successful cattle ranch comprising over 47,000 square miles.

From 1849-1861, the ranch served travelers on the Gila River Emigrant Trail which was part of the Southern Trail. This was the only trading post between New Mexico and Los Angeles on a wagon road developed after the Mexican–American War. Many newcomers arrived on this trail, further decimating historic indian land and holdings. This trail later was also used by the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line, from 1857-1861.

When California became part of the United States, the Cupeño, many of whom worked at Warner Ranch, were heavily taxed. The Warner Ranch had a very negative reputation for severe mistreatment of Indians. The natives revolted but were ultimately put down.

Cupa Basketweavers

I remember being picked up hitchhiking in the early seventies and meeting an old cupeño man at his squalid home. He spent over two hours telling me how his tribe had been wronged and about the curse that the Indians laid on John Warner, something that has been quietly talked about in the area for many years. The pain of the forced removal has never left the tribe.

In 1880, John Downey, a former governor of California, took possession of the ranch and became the sole owner. He started proceedings to evict the Cupeño, the rightful owners, in 1892. The tribe challenged his actions but lost in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1901, who were sympathetic to their claims but said that the Cupa took too long to file.

Warner Ranch House, circa 1894

The Cupeño then tried to raise money to buy the property but unable to, were forcibly removed in 1903 and sent to the reservation at Pala.

Removal from Cupa

I am not sure about the efficacy of the curse but the history of the area and the hot springs has been pretty turbulent. Many people have tried to make a go of the place and it always ends up seriously screwed up. I remember sneaking in to the hot springs one night many years ago as a kid. Warner Springs Ranch has been mired in litigation and squabbles seemingly forever.

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Cupeño tribe at Cupa

The Pala Indians, who took in the Cupeños, historic owners of the land, put a recent $13 million dollar bid in to buy the homeland back. Yesterday a bankruptcy judge chose to accept a lesser bid of $11.75 million dollars from the Pacific Hospitality Group. The Cupeños are shit out of luck. White man screwed you once again.

Marching Powder - Tommy Bolin

Primal soup

I was messing around and created this picture a few months ago.  I posted it here.

For some reason it has gone viral, especially in Russia. I am getting so many hits on it from sites in Russia and around the world.

Wonder what the hell they are doing with it? Ecstasy parties on the Volga, perhaps?

Who knows, glad that they are enjoying it. Here you see the source image.

I tried to print the image on a transparency and the printer said no way yesterday. Blue Heron Blast, blowing up in the Ukraine.

Mad Man Drum

Funky cold day that never really formed properly and slunk back into its own rabbit hole. Got a call after coffee. It was the dentist's receptionist. There was an opening, could I come in a bit earlier for my cleaning? Well over a year overdue, I said sure.

I am not really a dentalphobe per sé but my hygienists have remarked that I have a quite muscular front lip that fights it all the way. Couple that with the sound of the power equipment and I just want it to be over. I steeled myself with some early medicine and antibiotics. People that have plastic parts in their heart like me have to be doubly careful, the mouth being one of the serious gateways to cardio perdition.

The backup dentist is named Isaacs and he was doing the cleaning himself. I asked him if he was tribal? I had seen him once before but had forgotten to ask. My jewdar wasn't really connecting. He said no, the surname was Welsh, as was his family. I was interested in the etymology, got back to the office this morning and looked it up.

Isaac - Hebrew: Laughter
First name variations: Ike, Zach, Isaak, Yitzchak, Isak, Itzak, Isac, Ishaq, Isiac, Issac, Izak, Issaic, Issiac, Isaack, Isaakios, Isacco
Last name origin & meaning:
Jewish, English, Welsh, French, etc.: from the Biblical Hebrew personal name yishāq ‘he laughs’. This was the name of the son of Abraham (Genesis 21:3) by his wife Sarah. The traditional explanation of the name is that Abraham and Sarah laughed with joy at the birth of a son to them in their old age, but a more plausible explanation is that the name originally meant ‘may God laugh’, i.e. ‘smile on him’. Like Abraham, this name has always been immensely popular among Jews, but was also widely used in medieval Europe among Christians. Hence it is the surname of many gentile families as well as Jews. In England and Wales it was one of the Old Testament names that were particularly popular among Nonconformists in the 17th–19th centuries, which accounts for its frequency as a Welsh surname. (Welsh surnames were generally formed much later than English ones.) In eastern Europe the personal name in its various vernacular forms was popular in Orthodox (Russian, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian), Catholic (Polish), and Protestant (Czech) Churches. It was borne by a 5th-century father of the Armenian Church and by a Spanish saint martyred by the Moorish rulers of Cordoba in ad 851 on account of his polemics against Islam. In this spelling, the American family name has also absorbed cognates from other European languages, e.g. German Isaak, Dutch Izaac, etc. (for the forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988). It is found as a personal name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. is used as a family name among families from southern India.

New one on me. Welsh nonconformist, my kind of people... My grandfather Israel's middle name, Itzhak. The cleaning proceeded as these things do, I learned about the mouth being the dirtiest spot on the body. He asked me which spot and I said the brain. Last week the regular dentist, my pal Ron, said that I was literally getting long in the tooth like a horse and I was wondering for a second if they were going to try to put me down.

I managed to leave mostly intact but not before indulging in one more linguistic kerfuffle with Dr. Isaac. I asked him the plural of calculus, not the math, the hard stuff on the teeth. He said that there wasn't one. Calculus is like dirt, it is a word for the aggregate, he tells me. There is no smaller unit, dirt's dirt. 

I disagreed and offered calculi, as either the singular or the plural I didn't remember which? We agreed to disagree. I looked it up.

From Wicki: 

A calculus (plural calculi) is a stone (a concretion of material, usually mineral salts) that forms in an organ or duct of the body. Formation of calculi is known as lithiasis. Stones can cause a number of medical conditions.
Some common principles (below) apply to stones at any location, but for specifics see the particular stone type in question.
Calculi are not to be confused with gastrolith (never!)

Wicki goes on to discuss various forms of calculi, which you can study at your leisure and to your heart's content if it is in your interest.  I'm through with the issue, forever. But we did discuss the salivary duct so I know there can be no confusion about geography. Robert Sommers, tasked with spreading the english language throughout the land and the outer provinces.

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I never found my sea legs after that. Did something I never do, stopped at the colonel for a greasy box of original recipe. Not bad. The corn and potatoes, thank you. Decided to drive up to Temecula and cruise the antique malls. It was a bummer. People's shit, make that the detritus of our age, is getting more crude and distasteful every passing second. Never had a twinge this side of revulsion at any of the shops. Afraid we are in for a bad run.

I had an appointment back at the shop and decided to stop at the library. Picked up a recent book that compiles slave escape accounts of the 19th century that will be next to read on the list. Also Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational.

Wandered into the Bottom Shelf and bought two books by the great Lynd Ward, in good condition, God's Man and Gargantua. Ward (26 June 1905 – 28 June 1985) wrote books without words, a brilliant woodcut artist who ended up in Virginia and whose main inspiration were the german artists Frans Masereel and Otto Nückel.  If you are around the gallery and you have never read God's Man you need to take the time.

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Kerry called. Why didn't I do a blog about the NCAA brackets? Why don't you, I ask him? None of my readers give a shit about sports, well, hardly. I can't, I don't have a blog, he tells me. Not my problem.

He says that I have been pulling my punches politically of late. Well no shit, I've offended paying customers, I almost shut the blog down, did shut it down, and now I'm not edgy enough for you? Sorry. God forbid if I should have to worry about something so mundane as paying my bills this month.

I called Cam to see how he was doing. He sounded broker than me and I decided not to whine.

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I just read a book called Facing the wave, A journey in the wake of the tsunami (Pantheon 2012) by Gretel Erlich. Erlich arrives in japan shortly after the 2012 tsunami and Fukushima disaster. A student of japanese poetry and I assume Zen, the author recounts people's reactions to the incredible events in a very pretty and poetic way. You quickly get a sense that these people have made their peace with the chaotic history of natural disasters that regularly hit japan.

I wanted to like the book but I couldn't. It was almost patronizing to me, a romanticization of a terrible tragedy with a whole bunch of Basho thrown in. I like Basho as much as the next guy, frankly Joshu even better, but I couldn't help thinking that her approach fit her own narrative and I would have been more interested in an unvarnished telling without the roshi's window dressing. Don't have to soup it up. An interesting account of a strong and enduring people. Well intentioned but culturally voyeuristic.

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We must move forward. Life is but a dream!

Mary McCaslin

morning grounds

Bruce the locksmith had these words of wisdom at coffee this morning; If you meet an asshole in the morning, he's an asshole - if you meet them all day long, maybe you're the asshole.

Myopic Man - google glass

Rod sent me this. Lots of hits on the video from Google, the Google Glasses technology will be here and omnipresent before you know it. They will be adopted without a backwards glance and soon non glass wearing citizens will be viewed with suspicion.

Somehow the whole proposition leaves me a bit nervous and cold. Reminds me of one of the old Schwartzenegger films. Why not just be done with it and stick the damn chip inside your brain? Because that's surely the next thing coming.

Slick technology. Call me old school. I might be the last hold out. Still don't even have a television.  Do we really want to let technology in this close to our central axis? Are people ready to be always on? Will they have the strength to say enough? Remember that every technological benefit has a human tradeoff. Are we asking the right questions about the psychological ramifications of these types of choices?

A wearable computer is of course merely the first iteration, are you ready for the always on net feed and then who knows what farther down the bionic cyborg highway?

" Glass..."

Don't Mess up a Good Thing

Scarlet Letter

I think that one of the problems of being a drive by commenter on present day reality is how easy it is to grab the low hanging fruit in order to make one's point and assault the "other side." Johnny has blonde hair, Johnny is an asshole so we can now positively infer that all blondes are assholes, reductio ad absurdum.

Having said that, the airing out of the most extreme examples of a philosophical base can be instructive when one is interested in projecting how people might act if they were truly given free reign to actualize their battle plans, something that thankfully rarely occurs in our divided and polarized world.

As an illustration, I point to an article I read today in Alternet. Christian Right Group: You Don't Have the Right to Have Sex Outside of Marriage, Society Should "Punish" It. The Family Research Council apparently doesn't believe that unmarried people have the right to have sex.

Family Research Council senior fellow Pat Fagan appeared alongside Tony Perkins, the head of FRC, on Washington Watch yesterday to discuss his  article which claims that Eisenstadt v. Baird, the 1972 case that overturned a Massachusetts law banning the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people, may rank “as the single most destructive decision in the history of the Court.”
Fagan argued that the Supreme Court decision was wrong because it effectively meant that “single people have the right to engage in sexual intercourse.” “Society never gave young people that right, functioning societies don’t do that, they stop it, they punish it, they corral people, they shame people, they do whatever,” Fagan said. 

I recognize that I constantly harp on conservatives that preach the notion of limited government and then try to burrow into the most private and intimate behaviors of people that they may consider immoral or theologically suspect. I also recognize that it is in the interest of society that young people  not engage in sexual activity until they are emotionally and psychologically capable of making responsible decisions.

What bothers me is that conservatives rarely go after these extreme FRC people with their 17th century calvinist notions, they leave it to the liberals to point out the ridiculous absurdity. Now if we look at what Fagan says he starts off not talking about young people, he says "single people." And I think that while the difference is fine, we can get a real clue into his thinking. We are not talking about young people, we are talking about unmarried people and that is an entirely different quarry. What we have here is a bunch of people telling other people how to live and what to believe.

Shame, corral, punish people, much like they do in the Islamic world, hopefully without the stoning. The Supreme Court basically ruled that it is okay for unmarried people to screw and it is still bothering these people. Fascism, actually. Religious fascism. I am sorry gentlemen, but you are not going to roll back the sexual revolution, hard as you try.

Now it is preposterous to assume that all Republicans support the wackjobs at the Family Research Council. Sort of like saying that all Democrats are marxist, tree hugging vegans who want to declare a literal war on meat eaters and capitalists. But it would sure be nice to once hear a clear thinking Republican tell these people that they are all wet and to back off. I won't hold my breath.

California Scene Paintings

Phil Paradise, Ranch Near San Luis Obispo, ca. 1935. Oil on canvas, 28 x 34 inches. The Buck Collection, Laguna Beach, California.

I saw Gordon McLelland in Pasadena two sunday's ago and he urged me to visit this new exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.  Gordon is a noted author and a seminal figure in the renaissance of appreciation for California art, a man I have known and done business with since the middle seventies. He tells me that they have really pulled out all the stops for this one, securing a stellar group of paintings out of private collections that will likely never be exposed again to the public at large en masse. A must see.

Gordon curated the show and is going to be giving a talk regarding the paintings this sunday, March 24th at 3:00. I am going to try to make it. The following blurb is from the museum website:

Part of the larger Regionalist art movement of the 1930s-1960s era, California Scene Painting—a term first used by Los Angeles Times art critic Arthur Millier—describes representational art that captured scenes of everyday life in California. Through the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) assisted struggling artists by providing them with wages to create artworks for government buildings and public places intended to uplift the nation's spirits amidst the Great Depression. California Scene Paintings from 1930 to 1960 documents much of this period in California history through works that depict local city and rural scenes, particularly in and around Los Angeles and San Francisco, which were rapidly expanding during that time.

Characterized by a sense of humanity, the works in the exhibition typically include people or representations of man-made creations. The California Scene artists related what they saw around them: people going about their everyday lives, factories, a growing car culture, ranches and agrarian communities. Despite a shifting interest toward abstract and non-objective art during the 1950s, practitioners of California Scene Painting continued to create artworks documenting developments in California history, such as the building of freeways and the formation of California beach culture.

The exhibition features close to 75 artworks, including oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and prints created in the decades when this was California's most celebrated type of art. Some of the works in this exhibition were included in 1930s and 1940s exhibitions of Regionalist, American Scene, and WPA art in major museums across America. Works by key artists are featured in the exhibition, including Phil Dike, Emil Kosa Jr., Phil Paradise, Millard Sheets, Paul Sample, Ben Messick, Rex Brandt, and Dong Kingman. A large format book, titled California Scene Paintings, accompanies the exhibition and visually documents artworks from this period and connects them to California's history.

This exhibition is curated by Gordon T. McClelland. This exhibition is supported by Mark and Janet Hilbert, Hilbert Properties, Bente and Gerald E. Buck, Simon Chiu, George Stern Fine Arts, and The Historical Collections Council of California Art. Additional support is provided by E. Gene Crain, Whitney Ganz, William A. Karges, Pamela and Glen Knowles, Diane and Van Simmons, Michael and Mandy Johnson, Jeff Olsen, Fred Thompson, Bonhams & Butterfields, John Moran Auctioneers, and Claremont Fine Arts.

Pasadena Museum of California Art490 East Union Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 626.568.3665 info@pmcaonline.org
MUSEUM HOURSWednesday–Sunday12–5pm The Museum is closed July 4th, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and New Year's Day.
ADMISSION $7 for Adults$5 for Seniors and Students Free to Members Free the first Friday of the month (all day)Free the third Thursday of the month (5–8pm)
*Special offer with the Pacific Asia Museum on Colorado and Los Robles: Attend both museums in the same day and receive 50% off admission at the second museum when you present proof of entrance.
LOCATION AND PARKING The museum is located one block north of Colorado Blvd. between Los Robles Ave. and Oakland Ave. Free parking is available on the ground level of the museum and additional public parking is available across the street on Union.

waiting

Waiting for my upload

Genya Raven in Goldie and the Gingerbreads

As much music is on YouTube, well there's some songs that haven't been uploaded yet that I miss hearing and would love to share with you. Lost my vinyl, somewhere along the way. The blue Flying Burrito Brothers album, the song Hand to Mouth, believe that it was Rick Roberts. Another one I miss is my favorite David Bromberg song, Young Wesley. Not available. Genya Raven, Cobblestones and rollingstones, they play it on garage radio and it kicks.

If I was not so technologically inept I would track down the discs myself and figure out how to upload them. Be my guest.

Hotrod Hades

Unavailable

I bought a cool drawing last week. An early and large (21 x 23") pen and ink illustration from the creator of the Ratfink, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Got to meet Roth at a reunion once with Griff but never had any original art. This one is from 1963. This might have been illustrated by Wes Bennett, a disney artist who worked for Roth at the time.

The thing is pretty cool, with the suds in her hands. It is big with the frame, a big piece. I found the catalogue page that it is featured in, 1964. My older stepbrother David Fisher lived near Horace Mann in San Diego and was a member of the rats or the finks, I don't remember which. David turned me on to the whole culture which was really big back then in 64 or 65. Maltese cross era.

Lost David in a motorcycle accident but he was a real, major inspiration to me. Mountain man, order of the arrow indian dancer, outlaw biker, the koolest of the kool. My first idol. Always a great brother.

If you are into the hotrod thing, come check it out, stop by the gallery. It is for sale.

We had a big bike gang in town yesterday, with colors. Didn't look too malevolent. Hung out at the pub. Lots of christian bike gangs around too.

Seeing lots more colors around these days. We were behind a guy from the Road Whores the other day, a pretty neat sobriquet and a great patch. Couldn't grab a picture and the guy almost crashed.

Pali Gap

Ramble on Rose

The weekend had its highs and lows, along I suppose with some muddling middles. Friday night was the Michael Maas art exhibition at the Library.

Dave Blackburn, the chap on the guitar, was playing some beautiful ambient stuff synthed through a pod to his computer. Dave is my sometime guitar teacher and I had this satori realization about how lucky I was to study with such a wonderful player and person.

He sent me a file of a part of the composition, which may or may not work for a soundtrack of a movie/video project he is working on, fittingly titled Rob's tune or something like that. I need to devote myself once again to the instrument but feel like that might be a luxury I can only enjoy when I feel considerably richer and not so tied to the grinding wheel.

The art show was interesting. Work from Maas's own collection. Modern and contemporary stuff, some of it pretty good, my favorite two figures in black with one's almost spastic hand held up in a fan shape.

Michael and Carmen are a very good addition to our little burg. They are a conduit for some fresh artistic impulses. Very nice people.

I had a nice chat with Carol, Drew and Noreen. Turned out that Noreen is from Allied Gardens and that we went to the same junior high, Lewis and got into trouble at some of the same places. Also turns out that we went to a lot of the same concerts, saw Traffic, It's a Beautiful Day, etc. Who knew?

Noreen regaled us with tales of some of the amazing shows that she saw in San Diego; she meets Janis at 15, who invites her in to the show, where she sits front row with a tape recorder. Saw Hendrix do the Star Spangled Banner and then split.

Carol saw the same Stones tour with Stevie Wonder in Chicago, 1972 that I saw at MSG. I saw Mick's birthday resplendent with rose petals. Stevie playing drums on Satisfaction and Uptight, really damn well.

It was also great to see Marlo and Ron Miller, who still read the blog. Marlo used to work at Esmeralda bookshop in Del Mar and I thought she was the best bookseller that I ever met. Seriously. She has the same love for words that I do and I appreciate them both very much as I do the rest of you who take the time to read me.

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If the Santa Margarita River looks deeper it is because I screwed up. Left a hose in the new Mexican Blue Palm brahea armata  last week and forgot to turn it off. I am sure that the gophers are none too pleased. I flooded their network but we are located right over the water table so there was practically no surface water. can't wait to see the bill.

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Big food weekend. Sushi. Dinner at Tekila friday with Bob and Lois. Mole was good, chicken was a bit rubbery.  Scrambled eggs and hongos yesterday morning at home with good sourdough. We stopped off yesterday at cousin Stanley and Tracy's. Saw Richard. Then off to the beach where we ran into R& L. We walked over to the State Park in Cardiff and feasted on a couple of duck burritos at Bulltaco. These things are so good. Their habañero sauce is out of el mundo.

I had the 400mm lens out and took a few non noteworthy shots of the smallish surf. We wandered down to a Surfing expo with a whole bunch of cool booths. Met this guy who has a proprietary product, Soloshot that allows a surfer, skier, (surveillance suspect?) to be remotely video'd by way of a chip in a velcro wristband. The camera stays on the subject, wherever they may move in a certain area, pretty cool technology, the potential number of applications are limitless.

I saw a film guy approach a booth asking permission to film and interview and enjoyed listening to the quick banter of two young but very seasoned new media types. Tweet. Check. Tumblr. Check. Facebook, on and on. Check, check. Kids are way plugged in. I'm kind of plugged in.

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Hit veegees on the way out for a mini eclair. We all are going to die someday, get over it.

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Lena said that the blog has been rather hard and clinical lately, too many numbers, not enough whimsy. I think in a nice way she is telling me to lighten up.

Ended up at Bill and Jean's for corned beef, cabbage, Bushmills and dice. A fine Irish repast. A happy birthday yesterday to sister Liz.

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Mike Reardon posted this lovely photo of Oceanside on the Fallbrook Shutters site. I thought that I would purloin it it is so good.

Oceanside Reflections ©  2013 Michael Reardon

Pearly Queen

Walks like a duck

Now I don't make this stuff up, I merely report what looks curious to me. I alluded to some of the more hostile and strange goings on at the CPAC conference in D.C. but just had to come back to the subject when I read a little bit more about it today.

From CBSnews.com:

Suggestion to segregate black Republicans draws controversy

A Towson University student's suggestion that black Republicans segregate themselves from the rest of the party generated waves of controversy at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.
During a panel that focused on attracting more minority support to the GOP, two black conservatives identified themselves "Frederick Douglass Republicans."
That label prompted Towson student Scott Terry to reply that a more appropriate moniker might be the "Booker T. Washington Republicans," who would be "united like the hand, but separate like the fingers," according to a video of the exchange posted by liberal blog ThinkProgress.
He also said slave-owners centuries ago should have been commended for "feeding and housing" their slaves.
After the panel, the blog reported that Terry asked, "Why can't we just have segregation?"
Terry, who was sporting a Rick Santorum sticker and claimed to be a direct descendant of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, told ThinkProgress he'd "be fine with" a society in which African-Americans were permanently subservient to white people. He also said African-Americans "should be allowed to vote in Africa."
At one point, when challenged on the heritage of the GOP by a female onlooker, Terry responded, "I didn't know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public."
One of the black Republicans approached by Terry said in a statement that, despite Terry's "racially insensitive remarks ... I further explained to him the Frederick Douglass Republican message, which he embraced, bought a book, and we left as friends."

Here's a bit more of the story from Think Progress:

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — A panel at the Conservative Political Action Committee on Republican minority outreach exploded into controversy on Friday afternoon, after an audience member defended slavery as good for African-Americans.
The exchange occurred after an audience member from North Carolina, 30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said “For what? For feeding him and housing him?” Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry’s outburst.
After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, “why can’t we just have segregation?” noting the Constitution’s protections for freedom of association. Watch it.
ThinkProgress spoke with Terry, who sported a Rick Santorum sticker and attended CPAC with a friend who wore a Confederate Flag-emblazoned t-shirt, about his views after the panel. Terry maintained that white people have been “systematically disenfranchised” by federal legislation.
When asked by ThinkProgress if he’d accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites, he said “I’d be fine with that.” He also claimed that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa,” and that “all the Tea Parties” were concerned with the same racial problems that he was.

There have been some updates on the story, much of the conservative ire now being directed at the african american woman reporter who dared question the speaker. I find it interesting that the black speaker didn't react at all to Terry's questioning why things can not be kept separate. People wanted to make nice to this guy, enough room for everybody in the GOP big tent, including apparently white supremacists.

Multiculturalism has been a favorite bugaboo of the right for the last several years and most anybody with any sense could see who the real enemy was. Consider the anti hispanic tirades that occurred on the first day of the conference. The elephant in the living room that no one wanted to talk about. Are all or even most Republican's racists? Of course not.  But how do republicans reconcile themselves with these disparate and toxic members of their base? I think it is fair to say that they can be accused of being overly polite to the small percentage of their membership that wants to ship the blacks back to the motherland. K. Carl Smith said that he and the white separatist left as friends. Those kind of friends nobody needs...

Uncle Sam says

Veering Right

San Diego, a long time conservative bastion, now has a plurality of registered democrats and has elected a dem for mayor, for the first time in recent memory. Meanwhile, our media outlets are trending more and more conservative. You would think that the local paper would try to serve the whole electorate? Think again.

The San Diego Union Tribune is pretty much unreadable at this point. The editorial page is to the right of Atilla. The society section is peppered with weekly pics of the Lynch and Manchester families carousing out on the town. Lots of feel good stories about their cronies. And now their very own television network. "Hey, this newspaper stuff is easy, lets start a television station, too. We'll fill the airwaves with conservatives and hot chicks."

The paper is constantly shilling for Manchester's conservative pals and pet projects, any semblance of journalistic integrity and balance is long since out of the barn. Anybody who dared question the stewardship of the fishwrap was quickly cast over the side. Just ask Tim Sullivan. Not that the paper was ever good but who thought that it could ever get any worse? To make matters worse, they swallowed up the North County Times and killed it, so it is pretty much the only game in town.

Manchester's major domo, CEO John Lynch, used to be the President of the Catholic Broadcasting Network and was founder of the Broadcasting Company of the Americas, the company that owns radio stations XX1090 and 105.7 The Walrus amongst others. He was fired from the company by partner Viejas a couple of years ago and entered a period of protracted litigation. Lynch has been accused of some nasty dealings and bullying, as well as welshing on his mortgage in the past but that is neither here nor there.

Today the U.T. puts a front page story up about one of their boys, Robert Herring, starting a new conservative news channel, One America News Network. As if Fox News wasn't enough.

The new channel will air news and political talk shows that offer "substantive contrarian viewpoints to a plethora of left-leaning shouting-style political news programs," HBC said in its press release Thursday.
"The network's studio talk programs will debate the role of government, protection of civil liberties, fiscal responsibility, along with highlighting political corruption and government waste," it said.
One America News Network's "political talk shows will tackle a number of subjects that are being ignored by media today," says HBC CEO Robert Herring, who flashed his conservative credentials in 2005 when he offered $1 million to Florida man Michael Schiavo to give up his right to decide the medical treatment of his brain-damaged wife, Terri Schiavo.

Herring Media currently highlights the lifestyles of the rich on its Wealth TV network with shows such as "Cheese Chasers" and "Beyond the Gates." They landed an interview with Rep. Michelle Bachmann at CPAC yesterday.

Herring says that the new network will fill the void left by other conservative news networks, such as Fox News, "known for a lot of opinions, screaming, but no substance or facts."

"We want to change that. We want to have people who have views from the center and the right, give them a platform, an outlet, where they can express their views and their views stand on their merit or fall on the lack thereof," says Charles Herring.

Uh, great Chuck. What about the rest of us? What are we, chopped liver?

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Back to XX1090. When I heard that they hired arch conservative  J.D. Hayworth to try to resuscitate the Lee Hacksaw Hamilton's fading morning sports talk show, I had to double take. Didn't Viejas just sell its stake in the station to JMI, a company ostensibly owned by Democrat John Moores? Why would Moores put a man like Hayworth on a sports show, a Republican ex congressman from Arizona with extreme views on everything from the guest worker program, doma, anti senior, pro war, civil rights (7% rating from the aclu) reproductive choice, partial birth abortions, pro electronic surveillance without a warrant, drilling, etc,. etc. He advocates an "Americanization" program to teach people the "right" way to live. Identifies as an evangelical christian, fine. Here is his voting record. There's also the little problem he had with the shady informercial.

Mr. Hayworth certainly has the right to his views, just as I have the right not to listen to him. But one has to wonder why you put a polarizing figure like him on a sagging sports show with a dinosaur like Hamilton. The one time I did listen in, he was calling San Francisco pitcher Lincecum a "freak," assuming it is because of his long hair, or was it the past marijuana use? Are we back to that?

I rarely listen to terrestrial radio any more anyway. Satellite radio has channels for every taste, without the commercials and they don't shove right wing politicians down your throat. Occasionally I like to check out local sports. I haven't been able to listen to XX1090 in the morning since the demise of the Scott and Billy Ray show. Kaplan may have been a sexist pig but he was at least funny.

Lee Hamilton is pretty awful. Very knowledgable but his approach is dated and canned. A palpable lack of sincerity. He has an obligatory 15 minute recitation of cliche's that is guaranteed to put you to sleep in every segment and you get the feeling that he never listens to a word anybody else is saying. He likes to start these little populist fan pitches that never go anywhere. My favorite part of the show is when he starts coughing. I can understand why the station had to do something.

But why on earth would John Moores hire this Hayworth guy? Maybe he resonates in a red state like Arizona, he won't here. Will be interesting to see if he sticks to sports. From what I've heard, I kind of doubt it. This guy will be the nail in the coffin for me in regards to ever listening to XX1090 again.