Wednesday, February 26, 2014

3826 My music so far

Wednesday, February 2014

"At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution,
once revealed, must seem to be inevitable."
 --Raymond Chandler--

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I've been building my Pandora music channel.  The following list is what I've given the "thumbs up" (forgive the dates; I can't figure out an easy way to get rid of them), copied from the list kept by Pandora.  Of course, this isn't everything I like, just what Pandora has offered me so far. 

I've requested a few specific things that Pandora apparently does not "stock", like David Bowie's  Ground Control to Major Tom, and a few others I can't remember at the moment.  I also have a few Mid-eastern things I like, but no go (even though Pandora has oodles of African stuff).

Well, this is a start.

    Rocky Mountain High (Unplugged) (Live) by John Denver
    02-26-2014
    Homeward Bound (Live) by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-26-2014
   You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones
    02-26-2014
    Hey Jude (Live) by Paul McCartney
    02-26-2014
    The Battle Of New Orleans(British Version) by Johnny Horton
    02-26-2014
    Here Comes The Sun (Live) by George Harrison
    02-26-2014
    I'll Follow The Sun by The Beatles
    02-26-2014
    I Call Your Name by The Mamas & The Papas
    02-26-2014
    Floating The Flambeau by Gaelic Storm
    02-26-2014
    Watermark by Enya
    02-26-2014
    Unchained Melody (1991 Version) by The Righteous Brothers
    02-26-2014
    My Girl by Otis Redding
    02-26-2014
    I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) by The Four Tops
    02-26-2014
    Apache by Jorgen Ingmann
    02-26-2014
    Walk Don't Run by The String-A-Longs
    02-26-2014
    While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles
    02-26-2014
    Long Long Journey by Enya
    02-26-2014
    Copper Kettle (Live) by Joan Baez
    02-26-2014
    Let It Be (Live) by Paul McCartney
    02-26-2014
    Chain Of Fools (Unedited Version) by Aretha Franklin
    02-26-2014
    Where Did Our Love Go by The Supremes
    02-26-2014
    Do You Love Me by The Contours
    02-26-2014
    Ring Of Fire by Johnny Cash
    02-26-2014
    The Joker by Steve Miller Band
    02-26-2014
    Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream
    02-26-2014
    Jumping Jack Flash (With John Lennon's Introduction) (Live) by The Rolling Stones
    02-26-2014
    Homeward Bound (Live 1969) by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-26-2014
    Sunshine On My Shoulders (Unplugged) (Live) by John Denver
    02-26-2014
    I'm Looking Through You by The Beatles
    02-26-2014
    Dream A Little Dream Of Me by The Mamas & The Papas
    02-26-2014
    Homeless by Kenyan Boys Choir
    02-26-2014
    Khawuleza, Hurry Mama Hurry! by Miriam Makeba
    02-26-2014
    What A Wonderful World (2007) by Israel 'IZ' Kamakawiwo'ole
    02-26-2014
    Conditional by Tracy Chapman
    02-26-2014
    Piney Wood Hills by Buffy Sainte-Marie
    02-26-2014
    Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) by The Beatles
    02-26-2014
    Dedicated To The One I Love by The Mamas & The Papas
    02-26-2014
    The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) (Live 1969) by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-26-2014
    North To Alaska by Johnny Horton
    02-26-2014
    Let It Be (Live At New York City) by Paul McCartney
    02-26-2014
    Leaving On A Jet Plane (Unplugged) (Live) by John Denver
    02-26-2014
    Mama Said by The Shirelles
    02-26-2014
    Dawn by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
    02-26-2014
    Brian Wilson by Barenaked Ladies
    02-26-2014
    The Retreat Song by Miriam Makeba
    02-26-2014
    Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Live) by The Band & Bob Dylan
    02-26-2014
    The Ballad Of The Devil's Backbone Tavern (Live) by Todd Snider
    02-26-2014
    Mbube by Solomon Linda's Original Evening Birds
    02-26-2014
    Guiss Guiss by Cheikh Lo
    02-26-2014
    Jho Avido by Dobet Gnahore
    02-26-2014
    The Three Bells by The Browns
    02-26-2014
    Let It Be by The Beatles
    02-26-2014
    A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation) by Marty Robbins
    02-26-2014
    You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by The Righteous Brothers
    02-26-2014
    The Sound Of Silence (Live) by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-26-2014
    Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival
    02-26-2014
    Go Where You Wanna Go by The Mamas & The Papas
    02-26-2014
    Ventures' Medley: Lullaby Of The Leaves / Walk, Don't Run / Perfidia by The Belairs
    02-26-2014
    Top Eliminator by The Darts
    02-26-2014
    Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealers Wheel
    02-24-2014
    Bad Moon Rising (Live At The Wiltern Theater) by John Fogerty
    02-24-2014
    Funny How Time Slips Away by Ricky Nelson
    02-24-2014
    The Sound Of Silence (Live 1969) by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-24-2014
    Blackbird by The Beatles
    02-24-2014
    Respect by Aretha Franklin
    02-24-2014
    Turn, Turn, Turn (To Everything There Is A Season) (Live) by Judy Collins
    02-24-2014
    Scarborough Fair / Canticle (Live 1969) by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-24-2014
    Blowin' In The Wind (Live) by Judy Collins
    02-24-2014
    The Wanderer by Dion
    02-24-2014
    It Always Will Be by Willie Nelson
    02-24-2014
    Good Hearted Woman by Waylon Jennings
    02-24-2014
    Hey Good Lookin' by Johnny Cash
    02-24-2014
    Stand By Me by Ben E. King
    02-24-2014
    Lonely Bull by The Challengers
    02-24-2014
    Mary Hamilton by Joan Baez
    02-24-2014
    I Say A Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin
    02-24-2014
    Reels: The Trip To Derrow / The Traveller / St. Anne's Reel by Barry Dransfield
    02-24-2014
    You've Got A Friend (Live) by James Taylor
    02-24-2014
    Blowing In The Wind (Live 1976) by Joan Baez
    02-24-2014
    Don't Be Cruel by Elvis Presley
    02-24-2014
    Can't Help Falling In Love by Chris Isaak
    02-24-2014
    I Feel Fine by The Beatles
    02-24-2014
    City Of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie
    02-24-2014
    The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Live) by The Band
    02-24-2014
    Nienafing by Rokia Traore
    02-24-2014
    Torin Torin by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
    02-24-2014
    The Click Song by Miriam Makeba
    02-24-2014
    Watermelon Man (1962) by Herbie Hancock
    02-24-2014
    District Six (Live) by Hugh Masekela
    02-24-2014
    Come Together by The Beatles
    02-24-2014
    Homeward Bound (Live In Central Park) by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-24-2014
    Tomorrow Is A Long Time by Judy Collins
    02-24-2014
    The Bargain Store by Dolly Parton
    02-24-2014
    I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash
    02-24-2014
    A Good Hearted Woman (Live) by Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
    02-24-2014
    Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys by Willie Nelson
    02-24-2014
    Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival
    02-24-2014
    Java by Al Hirt
    02-24-2014
    Fire And Rain by James Taylor
    02-24-2014
    Oh Very Young by Cat Stevens
    02-24-2014
    Tears On My Pillow by Little Anthony
    02-24-2014
    Denise by Randy & The Rainbows
    02-24-2014
    Down On The Corner by Creedence Clearwater Revival
    02-24-2014
    Creeque Alley by The Mamas & The Papas
    02-24-2014
    Light My Fire by The Doors
    02-24-2014
    Take Good Care Of My Baby by Dion
    02-24-2014
    Silhouettes by Rays
    02-24-2014
    Since I Don't Have You by The Skyliners
    02-24-2014
    Sleep Walk by Santo & Johnny
    02-24-2014
    Come Go With Me (Master) by The Del-Vikings
    02-24-2014
    Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers
    02-24-2014
    Motorcycle (Significance Of The Pickle) Song (Live) by Arlo Guthrie
    02-24-2014
    Up On Cripple Creek by The Band
    02-24-2014
    Statistician's Blues (Live) by Todd Snider
    02-24-2014
    Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels) by Jim Croce
    02-24-2014
    In My Life by The Beatles
    02-24-2014
    So Early, Early In The Spring by Judy Collins
    02-24-2014
    My Country Tis Of Thy Peo by Buffy Sainte-Marie
    02-24-2014
    An Gabhar Ban by Clannad
    02-24-2014
    Maid Behind The Bar / Sligo Maid / The Green Mountain by Craig Duncan And The Smoky Mountain Band
    02-24-2014
    It Ain't Me Babe by Joan Baez
    02-24-2014
    Wild World by Cat Stevens
    02-23-2014
    Blackbird / Yesterday (Love Version) by The Beatles
    02-23-2014
    Up Around The Bend by Creedence Clearwater Revival
    02-23-2014
    With God On Our Side (Live) by Joan Baez
    02-23-2014
    Scarborough Fair/ Canticle by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-23-2014
    Imagine by John Lennon
    02-23-2014
    The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia by Reba McEntire
    02-23-2014
    Stand By Your Man by Tammy Wynette
    02-23-2014
    If I Were A Carpenter (feat. June Carter Cash) by Johnny Cash
    02-23-2014
    Sweet Sir Galahad by Joan Baez
    02-23-2014
    American Pie by Don McLean
    02-23-2014
    A-Quiet Tear (Lagrima Quieta) by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
    02-23-2014
    Dunlap's Creek by Anonymous 4
    02-23-2014
    Tempus Adventus: Populus Sion by Gregorian Chant For Seasons Of The Year
    02-23-2014
    Time Of The Season by Guess Who
    02-23-2014
    The House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals
    02-23-2014
    She's Not There by The Zombies
    02-23-2014
    Until It's Time For You To Go by Buffy Sainte-Marie
    02-23-2014
    Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles
    02-23-2014
    9 To 5 (Live From London) by Dolly Parton
    02-23-2014
    Jackson (Live) by Johnny Cash
    02-23-2014
    Alley Cat by Bent Fabric & His Piano
    02-23-2014
    Highway Chile by Jimi Hendrix
    02-23-2014
    I Will Always Love You (Live) by Dolly Parton
    02-23-2014
    Harper Valley P.T.A. by Jeannie C. Riley
    02-23-2014
    I Saw Her Again Last Night by The Mamas & The Papas
    02-23-2014
    Time Of The Season by The Zombies
    02-23-2014
    When I'm Sixty-Four by The Beatles
    02-23-2014
    I Got A Name by Jim Croce
    02-23-2014
    Night Comes On by Judy Collins
    02-23-2014
    The Boxer (Live 1969) by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-23-2014
    For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield
    02-23-2014
    Suzanne (Live 1976) by Joan Baez
    02-23-2014
    Killing Me Softly With His Song by Roberta Flack
    02-23-2014
    Cat's In The Cradle by Harry Chapin
    02-23-2014
    Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles
    02-23-2014
    Veni, Sancte Spiritus, Motet For 6 Parts (Doubtful): Veni Sancte Spiritus by Josquin Desprez
    02-23-2014
    Poison Glen by Clannad
    02-23-2014
    The Maid That Sold Her Barley by Deanta
    02-23-2014
    Caribbean Blue by Enya
    02-23-2014
    Harvest Moon Jig by Aine Minogue
    02-23-2014
    It's All Wrong, But It's All Right by Dolly Parton
    02-23-2014
    I Walk The Line (Overdubbed) by Johnny Cash
    02-23-2014
    This Time by Waylon Jennings
    02-23-2014
    Welfare LIne by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson
    02-23-2014
    On The Road Again (Live From Austin, TX) by Willie Nelson
    02-23-2014
    I'm Yours / Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Straight No Chaser
    02-23-2014
    Save Us All by Tracy Chapman
    02-23-2014
    Walk Away by Ben Harper
    02-23-2014
    It's All Been Done by Barenaked Ladies
    02-23-2014
    Roll To Me by Del Amitri
    02-23-2014
    Gospel Ship (Live) by Joan Baez
    02-23-2014
    The Sound Of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel
    02-23-2014
    Prudentia Prudentium, Gloria: Gloria: Prudentia Prudentium by Gregorian Chant
    02-23-2014
    On The Road Again (Willie Nelson & Family) (Live) by Willie Nelson & Friends
    02-23-2014
    Have You Ever Seen The Rain? by Creedence Clearwater Revival
    02-23-2014
    Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin
    02-23-2014
    The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp (BBC Sessions) by Jimi Hendrix
    02-23-2014
    Down To The River To Pray (Live) by Alison Krauss & Union Station
    02-23-2014
    Newgrange by Celtic Woman
    02-23-2014
    People Are Strange by The Doors
    02-23-2014
    Something / Blue Jay Way (Transition) (Love Version) by The Beatles
    02-23-2014
    Hotel California by Eagles
    02-23-2014
    Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World by Israel 'IZ' Kamakawiwo'ole
    02-23-2014
    One Week by Barenaked Ladies
    02-23-2014
    Run-around by Blues Traveler
    02-23-2014
    Yesterday by The Beatles
    02-23-2014
    First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack
    02-23-2014
    Suzanne by Joan Baez
    02-23-2014
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3825 Blogs Coming Back!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

"Criminal: A person with predatory instincts
who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation."
 --Howard Scott --

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Blogs had been dropping like flies, as people's lives changed, or they moved to Twitter or Facebook.  I have a lot of sites I follow on feed lists, and as blogs tapered off, I just left them on the feeds list. Just in case, you know?

Well, in the past three weeks, four of my old favorites, unheard from in like two or three years, suddenly showed up in my reader!  Wow!

The brilliant young lady in Iraq has finished her studies and is now an (unemployed) engineer.  I can't wait to hear what she does next.  The slyly humorous bachelor somewhere in the mid-east seemed to have found the love of his life and dropped away a few years ago - and now he seems to be single again. I can't wait to see if he's perhaps wiser.

And so on.

I wonder why suddenly now?  It has awakened my curiosity about others.  Will the Arkansas teacher be back?  How about the lesbian drummer?  Or the Wisconsin gal who finally got her man?  Or the gay furry with the fascinating mind?  Will the American married to the Irani and living in Iran ever be back?  Will we ever hear again from the handyman with all the beasties?  Or the slob who managed to get her followers to send her gifts and money with all her sob stories - which infuriated me because half the stories were unbelievable, half were her own damn stupidity if true, many were copied from elsewhere, and half the pictures she posted as her own were straight out of magazines or off the internet (did she really not know people could use Google to find where she stole from?), and yet people SENT HER GIFTS!  And if anyone tried to call her on any of her shit, her sycophants would viciously attack to defend her.  Even though she infuriated me, I followed her bog because I just couldn't believe it.

One thing I like about following the blogs of others is that it illustrates so well how different the lives of other people are, how differently they think.
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3824 Confused

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

"Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man
who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own."
 --Sidney J. Harris--

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Confusing snow.  All the weather sites said "light flurries", and "total accumulation 1 inch or less."  A half hour ago, there was (were?) already three inches, and it was coming down fast and  heavy, big clumpy blobs, and I was rapidly losing the will to live.  Now, precipitation has stopped, the sun is out, the road has melted clear, and there's maybe an inch of new stuff left on the ground in shaded spots.

I don't understand.

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PeaPod is wonderful!  It keeps track of my prior orders, including stuff I bought on trips to the Stop & Shop, so all I have to do is check off stuff I want more of.  Delivery is slightly less than $7 (except that as a new customer, I get several weeks of free delivery) plus an optional tip for the driver, and I consider it worth that.  Daughter wondered if the items cost more, but I compared some old register strips to the PeaPod online prices, and they are pretty much the same.  Pistachios are cheaper, canned soup seems to run a few cents more, and so on.  In the aggregate it looks like no real difference in cost.

The only problem is that they don't have everything I would buy in the store.  Like they don't have the Quaker granola cereal, or Stacy's pita chips in the flavors I like.  I suspect they "PeaPod" only the most popular of the brands and flavors.

-----------------------------------------

I just noticed that my minivan is blue!  I've had it for 13 years.  When I bought it, it was a strange color mid-way between dark green and blue.  Half the people asked described it as green, half as blue.  I described it as blue-green.  But now, "suddenly", it's definitely dark blue.  Not even a hint of green.  Weird.
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Monday, February 24, 2014

3823 Evolution?

Monday, February 24, 2014

Just because there are questions doesn't mean there are answers.

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Yesterday morning I torqued up Pandora for the first time in ages, first time on this laptop.  I set up a channel and primed it with things like Barenaked Ladies, Simon & Garfunkle, Buffy Saint-Marie, Dolly Parton, Don McLean, Mommas and Poppas, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, a bunch of Irish stuff, and a slew of stuff from my youth.  Then I actively clicked "like" or "dislike" on what Pandora selected, to make sure Pandora had a wide sample of my taste to work from.

It started out pretty good, but oddly, after about 20 hours of play, Pandora has pretty much evolved (devolved?) to Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, and Johnny Cash, one after another, with occasional side excursions into other stuff I like (and don't like, e.g. trumpet instrumentals (ugh!) and Frank Sinatra (ugh ugh!!) thrown in.  Duh?)

I don't understand.  Yeah, I like Willie, Garth, and Johnny, but good grief!  Not exclusively!  And how many times do I have to click "dislike" on Sinatra and jazz before they get the idea?

Pandora's algorithms need some work.

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After something like four or five days of balmy sunny days rising into the forties and fifties, almost all the snow is melting away.  I actually had a surge of energy, got out and did some stuff.

Today we have been cast down again.  It's 36 F, and there's a strong nasty wind out of the north that actually hurts.  Oh well, not much longer now....

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LATER:  Ok, I figured out why Pandora keeps sending me Jazz and trumpets.  I've been clicking "Like" on everything from Hugh Masekela.  Check out "District Six".  Masekela isn't your usual jazz.
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