New Vault Song - "Friend of the Devil"

Check this one out. NOW!
Songs from the Vault - 9/21/2008

First - geez, Barry, you can do so many different types of music (I've had "The Night That Tito Played" on the brain for a couple of weeks now) and incorporate different styles into straightforward pop, let's hear more of it! This one is in the same vein as "Some Kind of Friend" but the melody (as he says in his notes) is much darker. MMMmmmmmmmmmm.........

Second - the timing on this song was eerie.
Here's an excerpt from Barry's notes from the page:

"Friend of the Devil" is very far away from the feel-good songs I'd been
recording. Adrienne Anderson's lyric is angry and outraged. My
melody represents the ups and downs of being betrayed.

Just a few days ago I blogged on a recent event where my family and I felt betrayed by someone we didn't think was capable of it, and in a way we dared not imagine. Yes, the visual of Lucifer falling crossed our minds.

"Golddigger" was my previous favorite of the Vault songs, this one has replaced it. The lyrics are perfect - hey, how about putting those up in a frame on the Vault page? (Someone tell me if it's kosher to transcribe them here....? Please?)

If this song were available as a special on iTunes, I'd buy it in a shot, no kidding.

Muchos gracias to B & TPTB - this one is really great and (for me) the timing was perfect.

MUAH!!!

A Good Question: Is There a Good Answer?

Scooter posted a comment on Hurricane Ike recently with her usual piercing, no-nonsense insight.

Why are the "persons of prominence" silent to the victims of Hurricane Ike when they poured out so much support for victims of Hurricane Katrina?

Read the rest here - with photos that don't lie.

I don't know about anyone else but I would truly love to hear a from-the-heart answer to that question.

I have friends and family in the area that are surviving by their wits and chopping destroyed houses into firewood because they have to heat water to drink. This is in the middle of the 4th largest city in America, kids.

No, really, I'd like to hear an answer. More than that, I'd like to see another example set of those who have more giving to those who have been harmed again. I'm supporting the Red Cross in these relief efforts, but I don't have the reach of some of the people who gave 7-figures to Katrina victims.

Any time you're ready, I'm listening.

Some Kind of Friend

"...I thought we were friends
I guess when reality sets in it all depends."

"Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall."
--William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure Act 2, Scene 1

I started this post a million times in my head and deleted them all because I didn't think it applied to Barry or his fans. But finally I found the connection. Bear with me, I'm a little raw.

We elected our city council this week. One of the winners in my district ran a standard negative campaign - twisting facts to suit his POV, lying about his opponent, etc. What's the big deal, you ask? This candidate and the election as a whole in this city was supposed to be different. We organized ourselves as neighbors and friends, campaigns were supposed to be civil. But not for this dude. There were no boundaries, all actions were fair. The candidates in this election were all neighbors and colleagues in civic activities, even friends. This guy turned on a "friend". The opponent in question ran a very clean campaign, answered every query with diplomacy no matter how rude it was, and refused to resort to name-calling or lying, or even pointing out someone's faults. It was already hard enough to cast a vote in this election between people you consider to be close friends without hardball tactics.

Now here's the worst part of all: on his blog this morning, he spelled out step by step how he used his civic group, and his neighbors in achieving his election goal. His wife, well-known for charity work in the city was not doing charity: she was buying votes for him by pretending to do good deeds in public, as was he. He used the ploy of "keeping the public informed" to trick people into thinking he was more qualified than he was. And he admitted this in public to the world!

I'm going to change my name to Charmin because my family and I were wadded up by the handful, dragged across our "friend's" hairy rectum and tossed down the bowl.

There's a lot of crap in Manilow World now as well. When you sit at a computer it's so easy to look at the words and forget that you're really talking to people, not a machine. Some people even forget that Barry is human. Some jerk edited Barry's Wikipedia page last night to include a very disturbing (and untrue) detail in his biography. I managed to find my way in and edit it out in the wee hours this morning. I hope Barry's friends and family didn't see it.

No one has such a surplus of karma points that they can squander them on treating fellow human beings poorly. No matter what religion or other philosophy you subscribe to, there's a line somewhere that says your actions will always come back to you at one time or another. My former friend achieved his goal - but at what cost? His neighbors will never trust him again and should the day come that he or his family are in need, there will be fewer people to turn to. When you sacrifice relationships with people for a goal, you may actually get what you want, but that's all you'll ever have. And if you don't get what you want, you'll really have nothing.

Sometimes people ask about those of us who keep our real identities private, "What are you hiding or something?" The answer to that is a resounding, "HELL, YES!!" I don't want to be involved in backstabbing or anything else dehumanizing. Keeping my name private seems to be the key. Please remember that even online, we're talking to people. Treat each other kindly, even if you don't like each other. Just avoid someone you can't stand if that's the best you can do, it's better than open hostility. It's going to be hard, because it's an election year and passions run high but I'm positive it's worth the effort.

I'm off to mourn my lost friendships and have some good quality time with my daughter. She's known nothing but kindness for her almost 3 years and I'm going to make that last as long as I can before that inevitible lesson about life.

"Here at the Mayflower" -- Complete?

Someone had a field day breaking up the Mayflower CD into different parts. You have the main version, the Limited Edition with "Shadowman", the UK edition with "Life Has its Ups and Downs" and "I Don't Wanna Know", and then the bonus disc with three more cuts, two of which were not included on any of the previous editions. That last bonus disc is a hot commodity on Ebay. I'm not saying what I paid or how much blood was shed getting my hands on it. But I have seen them sold for over $100 USD a pop. For a 3-song bonus disc!! Maybe that marketing idea could use a tweak next time.

I think that's all of it. If there's any other tracks I've missed, comment or shoot me an email. The only thing that's partially off in my collection is "Shadowman". My copy of Limited Edition was a promo copy, so the bar code was punched. Problem is, it also punched the CD, so the last verse and some of the instrumental is cut off. Oh well, the search continues.

So I got the idea to incorporate all of the "bonus" material into one major playlist. I got the idea from trying to compile an "ideal" Barry concert for the serious fan and from watching the first TV special where one of the sequences seemed to foreshadow the Mayflower album. (Texas_Fan even suggested that "Sandra" would have fit the Mayflower theme as well - nice catch, I hadn't thought of that when I first posted!)

I said it in an earlier post and I'll say it again: no matter how much we beg and cry and whine and moan about what song we want to see on an album or in a show, it is a lot harder to make songs "fit" together than it looks. We're not talking about just shoving tracks onto an iPod they have to make some kind of sense and fit a pattern. I could see why some of these tracks were set aside as "bonus" material: at times they repeat the theme of other songs already there so one of them had to go. (I'm guessing here, I could be wrong.)

So here's my hopefully complete track list of all of the Here at the Mayflower discs. This is how it plays on my iPod when I play the album all the way through.

Elevator Operator: Do You Know Who's Livin' Next Door?
Apartments 3B and 5N: Come Monday
Apartment 3E: Border Train
Elevator Operator: Life Has Its Ups and Downs
Apartment 2H: Turn The Radio Up
Apartment 2G: I Hear Her Playing Music
Apartment 4J: Talk To Me
Elevator Operator: She Should'a Been Mine
Apartment 5F: I Don't Wanna Know
Apartment 6C: Not What You See
Elevator Operator: Freddie Said
Apartment 1A: Some Bar By The Harbor
Elevator Operator: The Walking Wounded
Apartment 2H: Say Goodbye
Elevator Operator: They Dance!
Apartment 4G: The Night That Tito Played
Apartment 5F: I'm Comin' Back
Apartment 6C: I Miss You
Elevator Operator: They Dance! (Extended Mix as a Reprise)
Apartment 3E: Welcome Home
Apartment 1A: Shadow Man

OT - It's the Least Wonderful Time of the Year

Seven years ago today I was a newlywed of 4 1/2 months living in a different city. I was spending the morning at home, waiting for a contractor to put in a new front door on the house. While doing my delayed morning routine the DJs on the radio announced a plane crash in Manhattan and the World Trade Center had been hit.

No one knew what was going on. It's unlikely that a plane would randomly crash into a building like that due to equipment failure, but it wasn't impossible. I snapped on the TV and every channel was showing live footage of smoke billowing out of the top of one of the towers. Verbal diarrhea ensued from broadcasters with not much to say but obviously in love with the sound of their own voices.

Then, in just a second or so, in absolute silence because there was no microphone on the live footage, the second plane banked in to the shot at full throttle and exploded the second tower.

That's what I remember the most. Watching live at the moment when everyone realized for sure we were under attack.

Pete was scheduled to go on a business trip in a week or so. I called him to turn on the news. It was already on in the main atrium of his office building. I can't even remember what I said. His asshole boss tried to insist on him flying even though we were all scared to death. The company eventually cancelled all business flights before he had to go.

I called my folks. My dad's family and part of my mom's were from NYC and we still have relatives there. The twin towers were a usual stop when we trekked into the city to visit and dinner at Windows on the World was non-negotiable. Dad hadn't heard the news yet. I couldn't tell him. "Just turn on the TV...." I choked out, and hung up.

I called the office manager at work.
"Have you seen the news??"
"Not yet, but a runner from admin just came in to tell us. We're turning it on now."
"Is anyone flying today?"
"Just Eddie."

Eddie: the one doctor in the department on travel today was a first-generation American whose parents were from Palestine and who had an Arabic last name. Eddie was going to have a bad trip. It was only hours after the initial strike that word came in we were dealing with Islamic extremists.

I shooed the contractor back to his truck when the work was finished and headed in myself. Every last person in sight in the medical center was in as much shock as if that attack had happened there. The only aircraft in motion were Air Force fighters. Even the ambulance choppers were grounded. The hospital honchos, up to the president himself were running around with government people; no one knew how widespread this attack would be and our city could be a tempting target. They were planning to convert the specialized hospital into a Level One trauma center, hoping they wouldn't need to.

Every drop of blood stored in a plastic bag was being rerouted to NYC by the Red Cross. Our hospital alone had over 100 major surgeries scheduled over the next two days and they were not elective - the patients couldn't wait for blood. Every able-bodied employee, volunteer, and visitor queued up in a treatment center to roll up their sleeve and donate. I did too, even though I always get dizzy afterwards.

This hospital is an international treatment and research center. The staff is from every corner of the globe. Not a whole lot of work got done. Everyone's face was ashen from the horror of watching people jump out of the buildings. The staff tried to turn off the TVs but riots almost ensued in the waiting rooms. The worst shock of all was on the faces of my friends and colleagues from the Middle East. Every religion has their nutjobs and bad press but now the spotllight was on them as Muslims. Many wanted to make signs to wear that said "I'm a Muslim and I didn't do it." Normally there isn't a lot of conflict between employees of different ethnicities or religions. It's just one of those places where you get used to being around people different from you or you won't do well there. I didn't recognize the woman who was sitting in the cube next to mine - because I was used to seeing her in her hijab. She confessed that she took it off in shame, even though she had done nothing to be ashamed of. But now she felt naked without it.

No one felt like eating but I gave blood earlier so I crawled downstairs for a sandwich. The little man who ran the soup-and-sandwich kiosk - a Chaldean Catholic who escaped from Iraq - wasn't charging for his lunches today. His family had been attcked by Saddam Hussein's regime and he empathised with his new American neighbors who were blindsided that morning.

That following Sunday was the first day of my volunteer job as a Sunday school teacher that academic year. I was teaching junior high kids about Church history. Oh yeah, my first lesson plan got tabled. Instead I spent the week getting some quick lessons in Koran and Islamic history from my work colleagues, Omar and Aisha. Come Sunday, I had never seen a more scared, shocked, and unsure-about-life room of kids in my life. They had already guessed I would be saying something about the attacks. Starting with a quickie true/false pop quiz I got the teens asking questions and looking at Islam and its followers as a whole, not just the caricature that the extremists made it out to be. I couldn't do a complete history, and even if I wanted to, I wasn't qualified. But I could make the point that the kid named Muhammad who sits next to them in algebra class and plays shortstop on the baseball team wasn't going to blow up their house.

The end of the class was something I hadn't done before. We always make sure that the kids get a chance to read their Bibles or learn something from it but this was one hard lesson.

You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father...
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? ... if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?

--Matthew 5:43-48
NAB

The above is a mandate. Not a suggestion, an idea submitted for your consideration, or an agenda item up for discussion. If you're a Christian, this is what you're supposed to do. That's it. I am no saint, believe me. And this is one area of the practice of my faith that I really suck at. But I was commissioned to set a good example for these kids, not flaunt my weaknesses. So the class ended with a sincere prayer that these extremists would see the light of their own faith and change their ways. It was the hardest thing I ever did.

Like it did for the rest of the nation, the shock wore off and we got used to knowing that Islamic extremists were after us again. My feelings on war vs negotiation in this are very mixed. IMHO, most people are torn in half over that question if they are very honest with themselves. Islamic extremists have a long history in attacking the US. It predates 9/11, the attack on the USS Cole, the airline hijackings and bombings through the 80s and even the Iranian Revolution and the hostages taken in 1979. The first time the USA got hit by this type of extremism was in 1783 by the Barbary pirates. (Sources: The Barbary Wars on Wikipedia, Victory at Tripoli on Amazon.com)

These pirates took the same tack that the terrorists do today: their interpretation of the Koran demands that they attack any "infidel" and enslave anyone they captured. (There's a more exact quote from Thomas Jefferson's correspondence on one of the Wikipedia articles.) So, again, IMHO, our politics aren't the issue - the terrorists' politics are. Jefferson and Madison realized quickly that paying tribute/bribes wasn't going to last long and negotiating was a joke. It was more effective (and cheaper!) to just raise a navy and bomb the ever-lovin' shit out of them. It worked for a while - Islamic extremists left America alone for nearly 200 years.

But is that the right tack for today? The world is a different place, even if our enemy's way of thinking isn't. Does America or the world really want to go the distance and take the measures that it will require to get these extremists to back off, at least for another 200 years? Weaponry today is more advanced than James Madison ever dreamed of; I think even he would have a hard time with that question. In addition, the USA is more ethnically diverse than it was then. Many of our own citizens would be torn over seeing their ancestral homelands attacked, justified or not. Deciding to go to war sounds a lot harder once you see the pictures of your colleagues' relatives who still live over there.

I don't have the answers. I'm just sad that so much of the world I grew up with is gone and pissed that the solution isn't cut-and-dried, even for me. The art I included at the bottom shows the jumble of thoughts and feelings better than this diatribe did.