Wednesday 21 August 10:22:14 PM CDT 2024 : 1723149414


Monday 19 August 2024 12:21:40 PM CDT

I'll write about this all day if you let me. Suffice it to say that Ritchie Blackmore is the most massive musical talent in two centuries. I'm fairly certain that if Paganini were somehow or other transported from his own time to the present he would soon trade his Stradivarius for a Stratocaster. One or two of them anyway - he owned a few. Maybe he did and we know him as Ritchie Blackmore. His talents and contributions to music are too numerous and varied to discuss so I'll just tell you about today's selection of important cultural things.

On Stage is a sort of live album from 1977. Pin that date - I'll come back to it later. It's sort of a live album because it contains performances from several dates in Germany and Japan on the 1976 Rising tour. Brilliant producer Martin Birch (responsible for the 1972 masterpiece Made in Japan by Ritchie's former and briefly future band) put assembled On Stage from those recordings. I say sort of live because while many live albums are assembled from multiple shows Martin mixed the vocal track from one show with the instrumental tracks from another to produce Still I'm Sad. He also cut out the drum solo which makes it the only recording I've been able to find without it. For me it works better but he may have done it because otherwise the track at 25 minutes or so wouldn't fit on one side of a vinyl record.

Ronnie James Dio was just getting started and you could tell he had a bright future, just not with Rainbow. He was fronting the best lineup there was. One might argue that Roger Glover coming in later was an improvement and you may be right but by then they had lost Tony Carey and Cozy Powell.

Think I'd forgotten about what was so important about 1977? The first of what we now call PCs were just beginning to be made then. Apples and Ataris and such. That big rainbow over the stage (check out some videos of Rainbow shows back then - there's a bunch of them on Youtube) was about 40 x 30 feet and made with thousands of colored light bulbs (like computers LED technology was nothing like now) and was controlled by an early digital computer.

Okey-dokey, enough culture for now. Movie and book reviews - classics of course - may be in the future if time permits. Time doesn't permit as much as it used to for some reason or other.

Seems Blytheville is in bad shape these days. Not as bad as some but some of the small cities and towns around NEA aren't experiencing the same problems under similar economic and socio-political conditions. We all live in the same state in the same country so what is the difference?

What, Chris?

I can neither confirm nor deny that.

But I do know the answer. And no I'm not gonna say it. The Blytheville school board apparently decided the superintendent is saying the Superintendent acted inappropriately to say the least. Some of that stuff looks pretty inappropriate to me. OK, seems they put her in there about two years ago, little over. Wonder if anyone was keeping an eye on things or if all this stuff just happened. In private business we kept an eye on things, especially new hires. After over ten years if there was something for twenty dollars on a company credit card that accounting had a question about I got a phone call or an email real quick.

What, Chris?

Malicious attack on a profession? That's a - scuse me - weird way to put it. If what's in that letter can be proven her lawsuit probably won't go very far. But winning a lawsuit isn't the objective. What you want them to do is pay you some money to go away. I may have told this story before but here goes again. A NEA school district got all fashionable and hired an African-American superintendent. The school had absorbed a neighboring district that had gone defunct. The absorbee was predominantly black but even after the absorption the black population of the school did not increase by much - from 15% to 20% or so. But some people made noises and the school board went and hired a fashionably black super. Or was it stylish, as Harry would say? Anyway they got them a super from a big city - not a big city like Los Angeles or Chicago, more like Memphis but a tad bigger. He was an assistant super there, the way it works. You're a teacher, ambitious and clever enough to play the game, get to be something higher - something in administation. If you do it right you can make assistant principal, then move on to principal somewhere. Then assistant super, and one day you get 'the call'.

The call, what everybody wants. Minor league player, pitcher maybe, didn't quite make it to a major team but they got their eye on you. You work hard, stay out of trouble, stay visible. Maybe one day out get called up as they say.

Like when you're the bubble-headed bleached blonde in a small TV market, you make contacts, send out demos, network, make friends, do favors for people. One day you may get the call from a big city station, maybe even one of the alphabet news outlets. Seven-figure salary. The next... nevermind.

There are professions where you can do that and 'education' is one of them. Climb the ladder, spray resumes, make contacts, get people to speak for you. Someday you may get the call to leave Podunk, Pennsylvania and to to a big city.

The difference between sports and business (I got called out of the blue several times during my career but never took one because some things are more important) is once you get to the majors you have to continue performing our your gonna get sent back down. In the fake world of government bureaucracy and to a large degree business these days all you gotta do is get within reach of the next rung, stomp on the heads and hands of anyone below you.A

That's why you have so many nasty people in these positions. The stylish superintendent moved from the small big city to the small town and figured he had it knocked. He proceeded to alienate the majority of the parents of the students seemed oblivious to the reactions. He bought a big house - we're talking a 200K house in a town where a 100K is pretty up there - and he didn't pay cash. After a couple of years the population pretty upset and the school board decided to simply not renew his contract. Hey, he made a deal and if his performace wasn't satisfactory the contrator had a right to not renew it, right?

"No, you racists. You're getting rid of me because I'm black."

You freakin' moron, they only hired you because you were black. You screwed things up so bad they can't afford to keep you around.

They paid off the loan on the house and gave him a bunch of money and went back to hiring demonstrably qualified (as government schools go) administrators. Dunno what happened to the former super. There's always somewhere for that type to land even in business. Some of the losers I've seen go from job to job screwing up every time - in government the standards are even lower.

Now if you don't know by now that I believe government education sucks diseased donkey testicles you haven't been paying attention. I wish every parent could send their kids to private schools, homeschool, whatever keeps them out of the clutches of the government schools and the mostly low-quality personnel that infest them. School choice and new legislation in Arkansas and other states helps but many children are at the mercy of such cretins.

And aside from that I have no more to say. For now.

Tuesday 20 August 2024 11:23:49 PM CDT

I suppose career criminals have always for most part started early. Some like Walter White may turn to crime because of unfortunate circumstances later in life but with the majority seem to pursue a life of crime from an early age. This guy has been busy for a while. When I saw the headline "Convicted murderer arrested on Jonesboro drug charges" the reason I read it was because I wondered what a convicted murder was doing running around loose. So we find that this malefactor, aged 31, was arrested for drug trafficking and some other stuff like being a convicted felon possessing firearm.

OK, lessee. Back in 2021 when he was what, about 18? The news story said 20 but if he was 20 in 2012 he'd be 32 twelve years later. 2024 minus 2012 is 12. News on his most recent arrest says 31 so somewhere in there. Killed a guy in Forrest City back in 2012. Got 15 years. OK if he did the whole deal he'd still be in prison and not drug trafficking in Jonestown. Yeah, I know. The guy was 20 or so so it may have been a first conviction. So he gets parole and here he is. One thing about courts here in Craighead is they'll send you away for a good while.

Other crimes lately include a guy from Texas firing one of those AR-type weapons in Pocahontas of all places. Pokey is a pretty tame place. Then some more drug traffickers, this time from... hmm, Blytheville and Trumann. Imagine that. Sadly there was a pedestrian killed by a hit-and-run driver. The location they gave looks like a pretty crazy place for traffic. I wouldn't want to be walking in that area, and don't. Wonder if they had a camera or license plate reader around there - they gave a description of the driver including age as someone knows who it was.



Memphis has shut down their trolleys and they probably won't be getting up again ever. And making cuts to MATA buses. With the declining population the financial situation isn't improving and more taxes on what remains won't help - most of the population doesn't pay taxes. I believe even EBT card purchases aren't sales-taxed. Didn't I read something a while back about Jonestown wanting a trolley? I don't know if Jonestown makes the stats easy to get to but it would be interesting to see how they look. Here's what Memphis had to say:

Memphis Area Transit Authority has proposed a balanced budget of $67.8 million this year, which is about $18 million less than what MATA says its current level of service would cost. MATA to slash hundreds of jobs, bus routes and trolleys

The budget, if approved, would mean about half the agency's 512 employees would be laid off and several bus routes stopped.

...

MATA's revenue from passenger fares and advertising is only $3.7 million. To make up the rest, $30 million comes from the city of Memphis with smaller amounts from federal, state and county sources.
Now I may be confused here, lemme see, the city is offering them 67.8 million, they say they need another 18 to do what they're doing now. Call it 85 million. They're only getting about 34 million now and almost all of it is coming from the taxpayers. Then the city - that is the taxpayers - are gonna kick in another 33. Something here doesn't make sense.

People upset about not being able to change their driver's license to whatever sex they feel like like they are at the moment. Wait, that's in Misery - Arkansas already fixed it. Good to see they're dealing with it sensible. It allows them to do it if they've actually surgically altered but I guess you can only do so much. They're still the same sex actually, just mutilated.

The wind farm they're putting in down here is getting messier. Don't remember if I mentioned almost getting squashed by a big truck the other day. Maybe I should start saving dashcam video and save memorable events. I saw they plan to put up a radar tower to see when aircraft are approaching the windmills and turn on the warning beacons on top to the pilot will know they're there and not fly into them. You mean they don't just leave the things on all the time? Seems some people that live near them don't like them so they leave them off unless there's an airplane coming. We're told that aircraft collisions with windmills are rare but they might be rarer if you left the lights on. Then there's the problem of the lights attracting birds and there's already too many birds getting splattered by the things. Anyway they're gonna have stuff tore up around here for a while.

Another Dodge Charger story - no comment needed but some people gotta say something.

The Wynne School has their own police department now. No idea how it works and don't really care as long as they stay at the school. Went by Wal-Mart this morning and there was four cop cars at the Murphy station. Didn't see anyone being cuffed and stuffed so don't know if there was any lawbreaking or arrests, just people standing around a truck at the pumps and such. After a while the cop cars left.


Wednesday 21 August 2024 10:13:59 PM CDT

KAIT at least had a coherent headline for this. Actually the only Arkansas mentioned was Hutchinson - the names of any other Arkansas Democrat legislators in attendance at the donkeyfest are not in the articles. Democrats are pretty much irrelevant in Arkansas at the state level but it wouldn't suprise me if some of them were there.

Hutchinson said that despite feeling Democrats have a point with their argument contrasting Harris' background as a prosecutor and former President Donald Trump's status as a convicted felon, he still can't side with either candidate and will be writing in the name of another Republican on his ballot, though he did not say whose name that will be. (KAIT)
No Asa, you just hate Donald Trump. And you're trying to milk your disgraceful political carrier for just a little longer and if possible make some more money. If Trump is elected you probably won't kiss up to the new administration like you did before - more likely you'll drop the mask and become a Trump-basher and get a job on CNN or MSLSD. At least Arkansas is rid of you. Maybe when... nah, not gonna go there.


Okey-dokey. Tomorrow Jonestown day.












































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listing Side one No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Kill the King" Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio, Cozy Powell 5:32 2. "Medley: Man on the Silver Mountain/Blues/Starstruck" Blackmore, Dio/Blackmore/Blackmore, Dio 11:12 Side two No. Title Writer(s) Length 3. "Catch the Rainbow" Blackmore, Dio 15:35 Side three No. Title Writer(s) Length 4. "Mistreated" (Deep Purple cover) Blackmore, David Coverdale 13:03 Side four No. Title Writer(s) Length 5. "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" Blackmore, Dio 7:36 6. "Still I'm Sad" (The Yardbirds cover) Paul Samwell-Smith, Jim McCarty 11:01 Personnel Rainbow Ritchie Blackmore --- guitar Ronnie James Dio --- vocals Tony Carey --- keyboards, Orchestron Jimmy Bain --- bass Cozy Powell --- drums
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Remo Williams 49 minutes ago Black Dodge Charger huh? If it wasn't black before it's getting that way. Or the color burned cars get I guess. B That's the biz sweetheart. Reply +4(4+]-) DePloraBelle 33 minutes ago Stolen in Memphis and brought to Arkansas? Wonder where DeVandre was from. What difference, at this point, does it make? Reply +1(4+]-) Jessica Atreides Marshall 25 minutes ago Another criminal going to the Med. Or what we used to call it. Accident victims, murder victims, ODs. How many have job and insurance? I suppose a lot of the accident victims they bring in from outside Memphis are good productive citizens and their insurance can pay for them and the others. We have entered the time when all will turn against us and seek our lives. Reply o(+]-) 18 minutes ago Twisted Mentat That's why we pay taxes. @ It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. Reply 0G ]-)
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Mack Bolan 42 minutes ago Ass is the among the worst Trump-haters. His hate seems to be personal, because when Trump was elected he couldn't wait to get back to the swamp and get a position in the new administration. He was so certain that with his experience as a swamp creature he would get something, maybe even a Cabinet appointment, just like before. He came back to Arkansas empty-handed and has hated Trump since. For every action there is a reaction, for every good an evil, for every strength a weakness, and for every injustice there is somewhere a final justice. Reply 994 [-) Phantasm Lord of the Dead 31 minutes ago Yep. Trump did make some mistakes in letting some rotten apples in but Hutchinson wasn't one of them. I just wish he had stayed away but where else would he go? So we had to up with eight long years of him being governor. Quote. You play a good game, boy, but the game is finished. Now you die. Reply HG Belushi Speedball 25 minutes ago Iwas surprised he didn't go full-nazi during the Plandemic like the Democrat governors did. I still don't know why he didn't - maybe there were some people with some sense around. He'll do whatever he thinks will help him get ahead. Those who are inclined to suffer fools gladly should plan to spend a lot of time suffering. Reply HG Chemical Youth 29 minutes ago What made it worse was when he ran for president. Is he so delusional that he thought he had even a chance? Not just against Trump but Haley and DeSantis were way out of his league. I suspect it was just trying to maintain relevancy. Sorry Ass. Some people are like Slinkies -- not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs. Reply oG
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