This is awesome. Check out the Bass Player, Ray Brown

Love that smile. He is a happy guy, playing with the best. He takes a half-minute solo 8 minutes in, completely smooth and unpretentious.



Man, is this so good. This is exactly what I need right now.

The pianist is Gene Harris, another dude absolutely sick with talent.

Oh yeah.

Occupy Oakland in Photos

I can't believe that this Occupy movement has been going on for this long and this is the first visit I made to Zombietime for his excellent photo coverage of Occupy Oakland. He's a truly skilled photographer documentarian who always gets the most pertinent footage by embedding himself within the protests.

I mean, who wants to see pictures of police hitting a guy who asks for it? That happens everyday, thankfully, but it's sort of boring. Or, what about photos of cute protesters? Go to a Russian Bride site for cuties, for heaven's sake. Zombietime captures the essence of the movement from the inside actually exposing the audience to it. Pictures like this one with the man's comments really do speak a thousand words:

Even more disturbingly, all over the camp were signs that said 'Not a toilet,' because some occupiers basically relieve themselves wherever and whenever they feel the urge. Disgusted campers started putting up signs so that their particular tents wouldn't be on the receiving end of any effluvia.

The entire page is long but worth it and ends an update on the teargassing the city was forced into complete with video and news links. I don't know if mainstream outlets don't want to show drug use, buckets of human filth and words on like shit and fuck but how else can you really capture the zeitgeist of the Occupy Movement?

"Slurp up the banality of existence with a krazy-straw of resistance." Is the Krazy Straw a symbol of consumerist enslavement? Is this a failed chant committed to writing? I'll let you decide.

"Last week was free love"

The NY Post talks about some problems at the good ol' #OWS gatherings that we didn't really see so much at the Tea Parties.

A volunteer at the park admitted concern among protesters about STDs.

“We give directions to clinics if people ask for information regarding STDs,” said the volunteer, who identified himself only as “Captain” and added that pregnancy tests are also a hot item.

“Like anything else, it happens. People ask, and we do the best we can for them.”

Volunteers at the medical tent hand out cash, usually $15 or $20, so the randy radicals can visit clinics that cater to a low-income clientele, the source said.

Experts said it’s the right thing to do.

“My advice for the protesters would be to practice safer sex. It’s a lot cheaper to buy a condom than get treated for an STD,” said Dr. Lisa Oldson, medical director of Chicago-based Analyte Health, which provides testing services for labs nationwide, including STD Test Express New York.

This reminds me of a friend of mine who is a registered independent and what I describe as a Radical Moderate, i.e., someone who thinks the conservatives and liberals are all a bunch of asses. He is smart and working on his doctorate, but he worked construction for many years with older guys who came of age in the sixties. His contention is that the vast majority of men in all the protest movements of the sixties were really just about scoring sex with as many women as possible, and that was an integral part of the energy of the movement. He said that this is evident from the way that so many of them remembered all the political upheaval that went on from the peace movement to civil rights.

So nothing has changed. I suppose this week will be Free Love Week as well, and Analyte Health will be raking in even more dough for their services.

I am the 98%

...who don't care about immigration and who view the issue as a big distraction. Excerpt:

Actually, no major poll of the last year—no, not one of them—showed robust public interest in immigration. This month, CBS News asked respondents to name “the most important problem facing this country today.” Less than 2 percent came up with “illegal immigration,” while a dozen other concerns, led by “the economy and jobs,” of course, finished higher on the list. Over the summer, surveys from Bloomberg and Fox News found 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively, who identified immigration as a priority, with gas prices, the war in Afghanistan, health care, the deficit, education, and even nebulous concerns like “partisan politics” and “moral values” more frequently mentioned by the public.

Lost my friggin' leg

Screw it, they're good.