#2 The Beatles : Rubber Soul
I feel somewhat like a cheat listening to this one to knock items off of a list because this is one of my favorite albums. But… I’m ticking things off the list…
Ah, the album that, had I been born two years earlier, my name would have come from (they couldn’t name me Michelle since my cousin by that name was born two years before me, see).
This is the album when The Beatles grew up and graduated from the whole Beatlemania phase and showed the world what they could do if they really put their minds to it. The had to grow up – bands like the Rolling Stones and The Who were taking center stage, and they weren’t singing about giddy relationships and the like. They recorded this at the time they discovered pot as well, which may attribute to the overall mellow mood throughout the album. Perhaps it made John Lennon and Paul McCartney realize that George Harrison actually had talent as well. Who knows, really. Obviously, The Beatles were better on drugs.
“Nowhere Man” and “The Word” are two classic examples of the expansion of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team into the “adult world,” the former being nothing about a relationship and the latter speaking about love in an transcendent way. “In My Life,” an absolute classic song, is probably the best simplistically-written Beatles song out there. They let George Harrison shine on a couple of tracks: “Think For Yourself” and “If I Needed Someone” are great tracks. Then again, George was my favorite.
So I don’t sound completely biased, I just want to take this opportunity to go on the record as saying “Run For Your Life” is one of the worst (and most disturbing) songs I have ever heard.
The pop band was disposed of wheb recording this album and a rock band emerged. The combination of pop, folk, and rock influences created this coming-of-age album which, in my opinion, is one of the best out there, even to this day.
Track listing (UK version):
01. Drive My Car
02. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
03. You Won’t See Me
04. Nowhere Man
05. Think for Yourself
06. The Word
07. Michelle
08. What Goes On
09. Girl
10. I’m Looking Through You
11. In My Life
12. Wait
13. If I Needed Someone
14. Run For Your Life
#1 Neil Young : Harvest
I am venturing to tackle this list, “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. I’ve listened to many, many of them before, but in an effort to really pay attention, I’m starting all over. I had originally planned to start at the end of the list, but I realized how much I really don’t want to listen to some of those. Then I thought about starting at the beginning, but I didn’t want to get stuck in certain musical eras. This is going to be completely random, meaning I open the spreadsheet that I made and click on a random square while not looking. I don’t think I can get more random than that.
The first album that was selected is Neil Young’s Harvest.
People hated on this album because of it’s commercialization, often criticizing Young for essentially selling out and going mainstream. I think this is one of his best works, but it is not without flaws. Sometimes it flows, sometimes it doesn’t (for example, the orchestra was not needed for “There’s a World,” but it was a perfect fit for “A Man Needs a Maid”). It can definitely symbolize the “coming of age” of sorts of the generation that left the San Francisco movement behind and grew up.
This album was intended to be a country album. “Out On The Weekend,” the opening track, is complete merger of country and folk music, and I find it glorious. The use of a slide guitar in some music tends to be borderline annoying, unless they do it right. On this album, it was done right. It definitely has it’s country music influence that is obvious, but I don’t think it should really be classified as a country album.
“Alabama” was probably the end all of the whole Neil Young vs. Lynyrd Skynard feud – they popularized the musical battles way before that whole East Coast/West Coast hip hop debacle. Completely facetious and I love it.
The tracks average about 3 minutes long, so if you’re looking for something you can lose yourself in, you have about an hour to do it. You’ve all heard “Heart of Gold,” Young’s best-selling single. If you like that one, do yourself a favor and listen to this entire album. It’s not the best well-balanced album out there, but when you’re listening, you tend to not pay attention to that. “Harvest” reaffirms the musical genius that is Neil Young.
‘Libertarian’ is the new trend.
I’ve been registered to vote since I was 17. That was when I joined the ranks of semi-adulthood and had the joys of the driver’s license bestowed upon me. It was also the time that, thanks to Clinton’s Motor Voter law, I was able to register to vote.
Always being one to put more stress upon myself than needed, I refused to send in that registration card without having a political party declared. My mom was (and still is) registered Republican, but she had trouble telling me why because she really had no idea why. She was never one to pay close attention to politics or what political parties stood for. My dad was (and still is because he never changed) registered Democrat, because, as he said, “everyone registered Democrat because we didn’t want to get drafted.” I, unlike my parents, wanted to put some thought into my decision. It could have had something to do with this teenage rebellion stage, but I really wanted to make a stand for something, and for whatever reason I thought I could make a stand by declaring a political party.
At first I registered as an independent. That seemed rebellious enough – “Independent.” I wasn’t going to let some old men in suits tell me how I was supposed to think because of the political party I affiliated myself with. No one understood, but they all applauded. I felt like I took my first stand against the establishment – whatever establishment I thought I was standing against as a 17-year-old. I didn’t know what party was aligned with Atlas Shrugged, and I was too worried about being a teenager to figure it out.
Three years later, I found myself living primitively (compared to what I was used to), high atop a mountain in Virginia, far away from home, in my room where I worked at a National Park, meaning there was no cable. I caught NBC on the television and decided to watch Jay Leno this particular night, and one of his guests was Larry Elder (back when he was still a Libertarian), promoting his book The Ten Things You Can’t Say in America.The things he was saying struck a chord …. made sense …. echoed my sentiments exactly. That was the day I learned of the existence of the Libertarian Party. When I went home a few months later, after much research (I always research everything), I changed my party affiliation. Of course, it wasn’t until 2004-ish until my voter registration card read “Libertarian” instead of “other,” but I digress.
Long story short, I have been a card-carrying, dues paying, angry, patient, liberty-minded, patriotic, opinionated big-L Libertarian for almost 10 years now. I have preached about the value of the Constitution and learned it backward and forward. I have read the words of and learned all I could about the Founding Fathers. I have been sitting here for the past 10 years along with others who were in this true liberty movement way before I was, and way before these “tea parties” started popping up.
So you’re going to have to excuse me when I get a tad bit miffed when I see people calling themselves “libertarian” when they didn’t know what “libertarian” meant before November of 2008.
Haiti Relief Charities & Information
From the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti:
Calls regarding the welfare of U.S. citizens can be made to the Embassy’s Consular Task Force in Port-au-Prince at 509-2229-8942, 509-2229-8089, 509-2229-8322 or 509-2229-8672.
The State Department has set up an e-mail address for people who are trying to contact their U.S. citizen friends and relatives in Haiti : haiti-earthquake@state.gov
You will need to include the following information:
- The full name, date of birth and passport information (if known) of the persons in Haiti you are trying to contact.
- Their contact information in Haiti; telephone numbers, email address, hotel name or address (if known).
- Your name and contact information, and your relationship to the person in Haiti.
- Any special or emergency circumstances.
The State Department Operations Center has set up the following number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti: 1-888-407-4747.
U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince
Tabarre 41
Route de Tabarre, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Donate via text message:
Text “Haiti” to 90999 to make a $10 donation to the American Red Cross Haiti relief effort.
Text “Yele” to 501501 to make a $5 donation to Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti charity.
Below is a list of U.S. charities actively helping the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. If you know of any that aren’t listed, please let me know and I will add it to the list.
Which two are the same? Which two are different?
Contrary to popular belief, there is a difference between fascism and socialism.
Contrary to popular belief, there is hardly a difference between President Bush and President Obama.
It was (and still is) a popular thing to call President Bush a fascist. People pointed to quite a few things to “prove” that he was fascist:
1. lack of regard for human rights
2. extreme nationalism (some thought he was “too patriotic”)
3. obsession with national security
4. protection of the corporate world
5. using religion in politics
6. fraudulent elections
7. controlled mass media (yes, some thought he controlled the media!)
Now it’s a popular thing to call President Obama a socialist. The arguments you are most likely to hear are:
1. his redistribution of wealth comments
2. that whole “clinging to religion” thing (“Religion is the opiate of the masses.” – Karl Marx)
3. cult of personality
4. desire to nationalize health care
5. cap and trade
6. fraudulent elections
7. controlled mass media
The fact of the matter is, after you take the political party out of the equation, there’s barely a dime’s worth of difference between the presidency of George W. Bush and that of Barack Obama (so far, at least).
So if President Bush was called a fascist and President Obama is called a socialist, how am I coming to this conclusion?
The only thing that George W. Bush had in common with a “real” fascist is that he was on the right. The only thing that Barack H. Obama has in common with a “real” socialist is that he is on the left. If you ask a true socialist if they consider President Obama one of them, they will laugh in your face. But let’s look at a few complaints people had with President Bush: