Maggie's Farm

Chris' Excellent Adventure

We posted a nice photo of a boat shipper earlier this week. Our friend Chris was nice enough to bring his digital camera to document his picking up his boat this week from one of those mobile boat-delivery dry-docks, in Newport harbor. After which he sailed it down to CT. Flip through the photo series to get a feel for the process. The ship sinks until the boats can be floated off and unloaded. Who knew? Photo posted: Anti-Bush sign in Rhode Island - a Blue State for sure. Nice house, though.

Steely Dan and the Doobies

Dr. Bob has an interesting follow-up on these guys.

Shipping Boats

Never knew how this was done. Here is Super Servant 3 entering Newport, RI with a precious cargo of sailboats as the boating season begins up here in New England. This ship is essentially a mobile dry dock - submerges to load.

The Essential Rolling Stones

Hey you youth out there! Enough of that Jimi Hendrix stuff, and that semi-lame Jim Morrison. If you want to get familiar with the good stuff, the Brit blues guys really got a grip on white rockin blues. Too gritty and menacing to be pop. Despite the wonderful Yardbirds, the Stones take the cake. And they usually mix it up with some sweet ballads. As good as ZZ Top is, what would they be without the Stones?

As a lad, we heard the Stones before we latched onto the Beatles. Maybe it was just chance - we were the trendy bunch that used fake ID's to hit the hot NYC clubs during vacation, and it was our baby sisters who listened to the Beatles. Not that you could hear any of these guys in NY. (Soon, I will need to post my pop music essay.) LOVE The Beatles - everything they did in their very short, brilliant career. The Beatles were highly innovative pop, but the Stones rocked it nasty, which well-bred, mannerly kids got a big kick out of. Like the college kids today liking rap. At the time, we had not heard of Dylan yet - only the wierd granola folk-guitar kids had heard his first album - and we were all in love with Joanie Baez; we heard The Kingston Trio (Charlie on the MTA) and stuff like that as an alternative to the smarmy "greaser-pop" crap of the time (which I very much enjoy hearing now...once in a while..it's a bit one-dimensional). Motown didn't exist yet in our universe - that is another huge story. Still in love with Joanie's voice.

Gotta start with Out of Our Heads. The first Stones recording I heard. As I recall, I heard this before I ever heard Dylan. Man did it sound earthy and hard and real compared to the tripe on the radio, but I had never heard Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf or Robert Johnson. I would soon, and would finally become a Delta Blues fan. But they had studied those guys, and Chuck Berry too. Satisfaction, and The Last Time, and more good stuff.

Advance to 12X5, with the immortal Time is on My Side and It's All Over Now.

Like the Beatles, the Stones began with a lot of borrowed American songs but they used all that history as a foundation for their development and growth. It's still only 1965, but December's Children represents the real beginning of Jagger and Richard's song-writing. Get off Of My Cloud and Blue Turns to Grey. I understand that the Stones weren't fond of this album, but I was/am. It's an almost sentimental collection.

In 1966 came Aftermath, as the musicians took over from the businessmen. The UK version is much better than what I heard in my prep-school dorm in 1966. Think, Flight 505, the wonderful Under My Thumb. "Under my thumb, she's a siamese cat of a girl...."

On Between The Buttons - there are two versions of this album - the Stones came into their own, and began to claim their territory of blues-influenced edgy rock-pop. Ruby Tuesday was Beatle-ish, but Let's Spend the Night Together was fairly straight-forward Jagger & Richards. And it has Complicated, now used for TV ads. Relieved to know these guys aren't starving.

1969's Let It Bleed is my final Stones recommendation. Their masterpiece, with creepy stuff, druggy stuff, country stuff including my favorite Honky Tonk Women. Brian Jones died during this recording - I have no idea how Keith Richards has kept himself alive all these decadent years. Lucky. Same for Mick, I guess.

Since then we have had Jumpin Jack Flash and lots of other stuff, but this fine early stuff is what the Stones stand on today. Not one bit of this is old-fashioned.

A 1962 Farmall Model Super A.

A collector's item.

Dear Editor.

I feel offended by the Maggys posts about colleges, all the criticizing etc. It makes someone feel like they aren;t good enough if they didnt go to Harvard or UCONN or someplace fancy. I graduated college and I had a good job doing the books at a very important body shop in Waterbury but no benefits but they let me go for no reason even though I had a degree and I had to drive 6o miles to get there, and my mom paid for it by working OT at Kmart for 4 years plus her regular job in the school cafeterai with good benefits because a union job, plus financial aide from the State, and my Dad left for Vegas before they had Foxwoods many years ago, and now I can't find a job anywhere around here even though I'm not afraid of work. That farmer now he is a good guy and sounds like my gramps who was a chicken farmer and a turky farmer which are all big business now and not around here, and your blog is nice but lets get off this college thing. My whole family was very proud to have there first college grad and they had a big party about it at the Lithuanian Hall, and gramps drank some beer and gave a little speech about 3 genertions of Lithuanian farmers in Uncasville CT and now we finally had some education in the family and no more chicken-shit and dirt etc. and he said it in Lithuanian for the old ones and in English too, and about being ready to move to the city like Bridgeport or Boston or Providence or Worsester where the big money and important jobs are. Sorry if this is like a term paper.

Anonymus in Uncasville

Dear A in U:

I am sorry you feel that way. I do happen to know where Uncasville is, in eastern CT. Nice country. We don't want to disparage anyone, unless we do it on purpose. It sounds like college taught you to be easily offended, which is something they are specializing in these days. You sound like a fine young fellow, but a bit self-pitying, and your Mom is great, but it's not like 40 years ago when you could walk down to Wall Street with a freshly-minted degree and at least land a spot for life on the bond desk at Morgan Stanley. If you don't want to move away from your comfort zone in northern CT, then maybe you ought to consider something entrepreneurial or a franchise, etc.

Good luck to you,

Bird Dog

(note from BD: I think this email from Anon. illustrates exactly what is going on. Innocent kids like him get scammed into all sorts of expectations, while street-wise but unwise kids know they're just buying a piece of paper - but it looks better than no piece of paper. It's a damn shame. Soon, we will do a feature on college cheating and plagiarism, when we collect enough true stories to report.)

A Work of Art

1965 Farmall Model 605.

A fine, elegant machine; a masterpiece of industrial design. Other appealing items in background.

Rubber looks in decent shape.

Finally, an email from a young reader who gets it:

Hey Bird Dog,

I can't tell whether this is some East Coast liberal intellectual blog or a Christian conservative blog, or what it is.

What is your identity? What and who are you guys or gals? You seem so random.

Why can't you be a straight-forward one-dimensional brand, so you can be comprehended and get better traffic? You are too complex and diverse, probably, for the average hot-headed blog-reader. But I always do check in to see what you're doing.

Sincerely,

Susie (at Antioch College)

Dear Susie:

We are flattered to have undergrad readers like you. Glad you found us. Actually, our traffic is OK with plenty of international, which we like. We are just ordinary Yankee folk who like to write - and writing makes us think a little, because when you begin a sentence, you have to finish it. World affairs and politics are just one facet of life - it's good to be engaged, but it's not important in the end. Life is a big thing, and we are into it. L'chaim. Worrying about identity is for the young and the neurotic, and worrying about marketing is for salespeople. I don't think we will ever be uni-dimensional or easy to categorize. Listen to Maggie's Farm. We'll just be ourselves, and if you don't like it, you can leave us alone.

Good luck with your finals, and thanks for writing. And don't forget to take Geology before you graduate, or you won't know nuthin.

Sincerely,

Bird Dog

Masked and Anonymous (2003)

This is no immortal movie, and was panned by the genius critics, but it is a must for Dylan fans. The casting is notable, probably because everyone wanted to meet Bobbie: John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, etc. Goodman does his usual amazing job, but Dylan cannot or will not really act. He is just there, with his strangely charismatic, ageless, Chaplin-like presence and his cryptic comments. The sound track is worth owning, with the best Grateful Dead version of Baby Blue. Dylan's version of Dixie is haunting and beats any previous version hands-down. In fact, it replaces all prior versions.

The picture itself is a dark surrealistic ramble through a mythic nation torn by pointless civil war and egomaniacal politicians. Dylan's musings about the state of affairs are quotable and Dylanesque, whether he wrote them or not.

Phil Lesh

has written a book: Click here: Powell's Books - Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead (includes Grateful Dead Rarities CD and s

Welcome, Dr. Bliss

A long-time friend, Joy Bliss MD, has generously agreed to be our resident shrink - thank God - we need one here on the Farm. She is "The Analyst." She introduced herself, at my request, on the blog a day or two ago ("A New Member of the Farm"), and I've already gotten a couple of email requests for her phone number. For dates, not for shrink help. Plus the obnoxious but relevant question "Can she cook?" Please!...and no, she cannot cook worth a damn, in my experience, anyway. But she knows her way around Scotch whiskey. (Sorry Joy - can you handle the truth?) And - minor detail - she is married and unavailable, so quit it with those emails, please. Everyone wants a woman who can handle firearms.

I just reviewed her post for tomorrow on the subject of evil, and it is good. Too long, but good. She will be a great addition to the Farm - I promise.

Art

Balanchine

Toni Bentley reviews two new books on Balanchine:
"George Balanchine, the greatest dance innovator of the twentieth century, and possibly the most important in all 350 years of classical dance history since the language was codified in the court of Louis XIV, has just been subjected to a global celebration lasting an entire year in honor of the centennial of his birth, in tsarist Russia, in 1904. Now it is perhaps a good time, as he enters his second century of influence, to assess the many acts of heroism performed in his honor—and the attendant damage."   Read entire:  Click here: The New York Review of Books: The Master

Travel with Brains

Travel around the Med with VDH. Does that sound good enough?

I'm already packing, even tho I've been there before.

Yo shmucko editor,
Your blog is just one more fascist right-wing Bushitler rant. Shut it down before the government does. You jerks are a bunch of
stupid ----s. Get a job if you can do anything useful which I doubt, or mow somebodys lawn or clean there garage if you can handel that, and shut the ---- up. No one reads you anyway, you ---ing bunch of hatful unAmerican ----s. Plus you sound like ----ing Christian nutjobs. Hey - guess what? - religion is gone - gone - from Amerika. Gone. We are free from that happy horse----. Get real, schmuckos. We do what we want now.
Anonymous, in "northern California"

Dear Loyal Reader,
Whew... well, we do  love getting mail from our readers. It is deeply gratifying to know that decent, socially-appropriate, well-bred, sensitive, tolerant, well-educated folks like you are reading our blog. You are a testament to our gene pool and to our world-class educational system. I am sure you appreciate our poetry selections, and this kind of thoughtful debate on the issues of the day is just what the world needs. Just curious - do you happen to wear a pony-tail? 
Sincerely,
Bird Dog, Schmucko-in-Chief

This excerpted and paraphrased from a rare phone chat with the busy Yankee Farmer, who is a straight-talker and figures he earned the right to say whatever he wants after his winter in Korea, (with all expletives deleted - the LYF hasn't heard about PC yet, and never will):

The LYF is a passionate conservationist, as everyone knows. Meaning stay the --- off my farm. But he is pleased by yesterday's Senate vote permitting drilling in the ANWAR. Pleased because it is a victory of reason over pure emotion, a victory over what Bird Dog terms "sentimental environmentalism." The drilling will harm little. And we Americans love oil - don't try to tell me you don't slurp it up like Evian. He's got a tractor that gets about 2 miles/gallon, and needs a new quart of oil every two hours. Loves oil.

If people really want a pristine ANWAR, first quit your car and your heat and your electric. Second, chase those pesky Eskimos out of there. They don't recycle their beer cans and Canadian Club bottles, they shoot Rudolf in and out of season, harpoon whales for fun, shoot baby polar bears for target practice, eat cute seals when their check is late, and generally scare the wildlife and make a mess. Similar to what the LYF does in Vermont.

And since these poor, smelly, ignorant, pathetic folks are basically homeless - you can't call a snow pile a home or call seal fat food - they should be moved to government housing projects in Anchorage or Detroit, where they could enjoy the dignity this oppressed minority deserves, along with all of the blessings of civilization including 24-hour corner liquor stores, Planned Parenthood, the local Democratic Club, and McDonald's.

Now if you want to make some place pristine, start with Vermont or Massachusetts or Connecticut. Ski condos, houses, asphalt, schools, buildings, and too many obnoxious people. Who needs 'em? Who are these people, anyway? Get 'em out of there. And while you're at it, get rid of the darn Indians too and their filthy, polluting, corrupting casinos. Just leave the damn farms alone.

(As a qualified 1/8th Iroquois,  the LYF is ALLOWED to criticize Indians, but he would say that you immigrants are too scared to, aren't you? You land-stealing immigrants don't want to find an arrow or a stone ax in your chest while you're sleeping, do ya?) 

Dear Editor:

Your blog is kind of fun to read, because of the variety. It's good to have poems plopped in front of me - I read them. It's like college. But your blog seems like an oddball collection. Not entirely normal, I mean, like how come you don't have college basketball discussions.

Sincerely, (anonymous)

Dear Loyal Reader,

1. Why are compliments always followed by a "but"?
2. Oddballs? Every one of us.
3. College basketball? Well, we rarely cover business news. Kudlow does it better.

Sincerely,

Bird Dog

Dear Idiot Fascist Editor,

Your blog is an example of everything that is wrong with our country. It is about time the government began regulating these blogs like yours that are filled with hateful, venomous rage and anti-progressivism. You and your evil hateful types should be strung up and lynched before you destroy our country.

(Signed) Disgusted

Dear Loyal Reader,

Just be patient, "Disgusted." I can tell that you are a very caring, sensitive guy-or-gal. When the Revolution comes, you can string up all of us bourgeoisie on the lamp-posts, in a caring, sensitive manner, to the rousing tune of the Internationale. Like the Nazis did. But remember - We Are Armed.

Best wishes for a lovely, happy, freedom-loving, and prosperous day in our evil country,

Bird Dog