Filed under Chicago and Live Shows and Other Artistic Endeavors by Borch
Cowtown (The Musical The Opera)Welcome to Texlahoma, a quaint if not average town that knows only beef, dairy and football. Our story centers on a pair of cojoined twins who fall in love during the high school football half-time show and their subsequent struggle to get into the college of their choice.
Written by Hard Art Groop bassist John Elmquist and Jumpsuit, who split musical duties with HAG, Cowtown (The Musical The Opera) isn’t quite Orwell’s Animal Farm nor is it Oklahoma! It’s far too innocent and corrupt to be one or the other, what with songs about milk, football, eating meat, breathing meat, Siamese-twin-love… if there was a metaphor, I missed it, but I enjoyed all those puns, rhymes, and word-plays about cows.
US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wants viewers of internet video site YouTube to pick her campaign theme song - and the response, so far, has been music to her ears.
In a clear appeal to young voters, a YouTube video asks viewers to vote for Clinton's presidential campaign theme song on her website. The contest started May 16 and the number of songs was narrowed to 10 on Thursday - five initially suggested by the campaign and five write-in candidates.
They range from U2's Beautiful Day to Smash Mouth's version of I'm a Believer to Celine Dion's You and I.
"If they don't know who you who you are, they're not going to go out and vote for you," she said.
The five suggested songs that got the most votes:
- Suddenly I See, KT Tunstall
- Rock This Country! Shania Twain
- Beautiful Day, U2
- Get Ready, The Temptations
- I'm a Believer, Smash Mouth
The top write-in suggestions are:
- Are You Gonna Go My Way, Lenny Kravitz
- Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now, McFadden & Whitehead
- Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, The Police
I was trying to take a short nap a while ago. The Simpson's was on TV and a baseball announcer says "It's going, going, and just like America's credibility on the Global Stage, it's gone!" That woke me up. It was funny, sad and true. My usual browser won't work on the "improved" blogger, it might need an update or something. That's one reason for my absence as of late, another was my quest for a new (to me) car. I found a car online that I was fairly sure I wanted. I had to e-mail the girl who owned the car a lot to coordinate the undertaking of purchasing a car from someone over a hundred miles away. She seemed very nice and after a while she seemed like someone that would be very pretty. I finally got to see her when I went down to Dallas to look at the car. Man, what a DOG! LOL! No, not really, quite the opposite, she was a knock out! She was super cute, but pretty too. I'm glad that we had already kind of agreed to a price because I would probably just agree to whatever she said. BTW, I bought the car, of course.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Can't post pictures, can't save posts, must try to warn others.
Bartender I really did it this time Broke my parole to have a good time When I got home it was 6 a.m. The door was locked so I kicked it in She was trippin' on the bills I think she was high on some pills She through my shit out into the yard Then she called me a bum and smacked me real hard And in my drunkin' stooper I did what I should of never done Now I'm sittin' here talking to you Drunk and on the run
I'm sittin' at a bar on the inside Waitin' for my ride on the outside She broke my heart in the trailer park So I jacked the keys to her fuckin' car And crashed that piece of shit and then stepped away
You know Moe I'll probably get ten years So just give me beers til they get here Yeah I know the sun is comin' up And ya'll are probably gettin' ready for closin' up But I'm trying to drown my soul I'm tired of this life on a dirt road And everything that I love is gone And I'm tired of hangin' on
She got me sittin' at a bar on the inside Waitin' for my ride on the outside She stole my heart in the trailer park So I jacked the keys to her fuckin' car And crashed that piece of shit and then stepped away
(rap) I guess it's meant to be Romance is misery So much for memories And now I'm headed to the Penitentary See me on T.V. The next cop series I am a danger I guess I should've done something about my anger But I'll never learn Real things I don't concern I pour kerosene on everything I love and watch it burn I know it's my fault But I wasn't happy it was over She through a fit so I crashed that piece a shit nova
And now I'm goin' back again Back to the pen to see my friends And when we all pile out that county van They'll ask me where I've been
I've been at a bar on the inside Waitin' for my ride on the outside She broke my heart in the trailer park So I jacked the keys to her fuckin' car Crashed that piece of shit and then stepped away
I usually buy a few tomato plants around this time of year but I found some growing wild yesterday. Yep, I transplanted them into my garden yesterday. One of them is pretty big already. Now I just need a few pepper plants and that will be enough of a garden for me. Oh no! there's a cat in our backyard. He'd better get out before my malamute wakes up. That dog has made many a cat hit #9. Three cats, two possums and our neighbors pet chicken. They all made the mistake of getting in our backyard. I would just let Yoshi in but the logistics are too much. One of my little inside dogs is stupid and growls at her. Yoshi's not the type to let things fester, she wants to straighten things out here and now. The pecking order instinct is very strong in her. She looks like a wolf and is very much a pack animal. She still goes by the rules "Admit that I am dominant or we'll fight and see, if you win, I will respect your dominance over me." Even Bob and she had a fight like that, Yoshi just barely won (Bob was young). It was a pretty wicked fight but they needed to work it out, they get along fine now.
For 18 years Bob Macy served as the Oklahoma County, Oklahoma District Attorney. The Nation's leading death penalty prosecutor, Bob personally convicted over sixty murderers and sent 52 of them to death row.
FORMER OKLAHOMA CITY FORENSIC CHEMIST JOYCE GILCHRIST'S ANALYSIS AND TESTIMONY SENT AT LEAST ONE INNOCENT PERSON TO DEATH ROW
*Defense Attorney Files Suit to Investigate if an Innocent Man was Executed
*Alfred Brian Mitchell's Death Sentence Overturned - Re-sentencing Ordered Gilchrist has been repeatedly accused of false testimony and shoddy results in her work during the past 15 years. She has been involved in approximately 3,000 cases, including at least 23 cases where defendants were eventually sentenced to death and have either been executed or remain on death row. 11 of those people were executed during the past two years, including Marilyn Plantz and Randall Cannon who was executed on July 23rd - despite strong doubts as to his guilt because of Joyce Gilchrist's testimony.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Robert Macy, who often relied on testimony from Gilchrist, announced his resignation effective June 30, 2001.
Death Row Inmate Freed After Murder Charge Dropped Fired Chemist Allegedly Destroyed Evidence
POSTED: 10:57 am CDT May 12, 2007 UPDATED: 11:09 am CDT May 12, 2007
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A former Oklahoma death row inmate whose conviction was based largely on the testimony of a fired Oklahoma City police chemist walked out of jail Friday after a state judge dismissed a 22-year-old murder charge against him.
District Judge Twyla Mason Gray ruled that the case against Curtis Edward McCarty could not escape the taint of former police chemist Joyce Gilchrist and that Gilchrist acted in "bad faith" by losing and destroying evidence that could have been used to show McCarty's innocence.
"Frankly, all of the evidence that Joyce Gilchrist collected, if she inventoried it, if she stored it, if she analyzed it, I believe that it is so questionable that it is difficult to determine if it has any evidentiary value," Gray said.
McCarty, 42, was released from the Oklahoma County Jail at about 12:15 p.m. Attorneys and family members escorted him to a waiting gray mini van through a crowd of reporters who asked him if he thought he would ever be freed.
"Actually, I did," McCarty said. "It's kind of a hollow victory for everybody I think."
McCarty's lead attorney, Perry Hudson, said McCarty's release means he will finally be able to reunite with his terminally ill mother.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Redux Beverages LLC said its caffeine-loaded drink -- which contains no cocaine despite the name -- would get a new name but that the company would continue to fight for the right to bring back the "Cocaine" name.
The Las Vegas, Nevada-based firm said it took the action in the face of "threats" by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and state officials.
A statement said the company was "agreeing temporarily to cease distribution of the Cocaine Energy Drink until the legality of using the name 'Cocaine' can be firmly established."
"Obviously, we were forced to stop shipping the drink as 'Cocaine' for now, but we're not done fighting for our rights," said Jamey Kirby, founder of Redux, who added that a new name and label would be offered in the coming weeks.
"We've received tens of thousands of e-mails and phone calls from consumers expressing outrage and disbelief that the government can ban a perfectly safe product for no reason other than it has a racy name.
"We tried to contact Yves Saint Laurent to warn them that Opium perfume could be next, but they were too busy enjoying the freedom of expression guaranteed by the US Constitution -- a freedom we here at Redux, sadly, lack."
Legal troubles for the firm began on April 4, when the FDA issued a warning to Redux that it considered the drink illegal, saying it was being marketed as an alternative to an illegal street drug and making claims to treat or cure disease.
Later, the attorneys general of Texas, Connecticut and Illinois followed with similar allegations.
An FDA spokesman declined to comment on the case saying it was still under investigation.
Cocaine Energy Drink contains over 1,100 milligrams of caffeine, slightly more than a large Starbucks coffee, according to the company, and among the highest in the category.
It also contains taurine, an amino acid, and guarana, a stimulant from a South American plant, as well as vitamins and other ingredients. The makers have called it "the legal alternative" and it was competing in a rapidly growing market for energy drinks worth more than 3.5 billion dollars in the United States alone.
Redux claimed the drink had made inroads by taking market share from beverages including Red Bull, RockStar and Monster, which also are loaded with caffeine and other stimulants.
The company's website was recently revised, with the page normally offering sales of the beverage covered with a black band saying "Banned by The Man."
"The FDA came after us with the same regulation they used to halt the distribution of herbal ecstasy, which was a situation where drug users were buying their drugs over the Internet as herbal supplements," said Clegg Ivey, one of Kirby's partners at Redux.
"Apparently, the FDA thinks that users of the illegal narcotic cocaine might, in order to save money and avoid jail time, instead purchase cans of Cocaine Energy Drink."
"FDA agents reportedly said "Come on boys, lets go have a COCA cola." Coca leaf is the raw material for the manufacture of the drug cocaine!
(Pic is trash we found at the dump with names on it, note the evidence bag in the upper left corner, seems the cops did a little dumping of their own.) I got a call from work, they told me I need to call a certain county cop. I call him, he informs me that he found dumped trash with my sons name in it. I have three choices, clean it up, pay to have the county clean it up or he can arrest me right now. I tell him "We'll clean it up." So now I'm real pissed at my son. He comes home, we talk about it. The cop told me that my sons name is the only one that we could find. I tell my son (Who I am very close to, he knows I will only help him when he gets in trouble. There might be hell to pay later but we deal with the problem first.) His reaction surprised me, it was anger and outrage, not the reaction of a guilty soul. We found the place the cop described, it's a huge illegal dump that looks like it's been there for years. Right near the entrance we saw some trash that looked familiar. (Sounds funny but your own trash is easy to recognize.) Neither one of us has ever been there. It looked like someone grabbed a bag of trash from our front yard on trash day. I was expecting it to be all Sonny's trash but it was family trash. We picked up everything that was ours and then some but the huge dump remains. We figured the cops stopped looking as soon as they found a name, so we looked for about ten minutes and found about ten names. So now if they want to haul me off to jail they can but I'm gonna holler like a stuck pig. I'm calling a lawyer tonight, they are in for a (legal) fight. There is more to this story than meets the eye but I won't go into that right now. One possible explanation to this is that someone was looking to get credit card numbers or to get info for identity theft.
