Jim Alfredson

Whoa.

I think I need another Leslie.

I try to meet everyone halfway but some people are just assholes. This public service announcement brought to you by the Internet.

Had a fun gig with Jeff Shoup, Trent Harris, and the inimitable Freddie Cunningham tonight. We played for the incoming football class at MSU. I'm not a big sports guy, but I gotta say that Coach Dantonio is a class act. Friendly, complimentary, and super nice.

So we took Sushi to the Ingham County Animal Shelter today. While I know this is the best thing, as they only have 8 cats right now so they are confident he'll find a new home soon and they do not euthanize (unless the animal is violent, which Sushi definitely is not), I still feel awful. Even after I came home and found new urine on one of my Hammonds, thus ruining the finish in that spot, probably for good since cat pee is extremely acidic. And on the plastic bin that my wife's wedding dress is in after I've already cleaned pee off that bin twice. And in the corner that I've also cleaned multiple times. And on the almost new porch chair pillows we bought this summer. This is after I spent an evening this weekend cleaning most of these spots and others in the basement.

Ugh. Why do I feel bad about giving him away when he's ruined at least $1000 worth of our stuff, not counting my baby grand piano that he also peed in (that now needs all new bass strings)?

I know it's not his fault; he probably wasn't neutered early enough. I don't know for sure since he was a stray when he came to us. I feel bad for the little guy; he's super cute. But living in a house where you're constantly afraid he's going to pee in or on something and ruin it is no way to live.

From the Yamaha Montage Development Story video on YouTube. "We wondered if the audience's energy and thoughts could be absorbed by this curved surface and translated into performance power."

YES! THE ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE POWER! I SHALL USE MY CURVED YAMAHA MONTAGE TO READ YOUR THOUGHTS, YOUR INNERMOST DESIRES, AND TO CONSUME YOUR VERY SOULS! KNEEL BEFORE YOUR MASTER!

We're having fun in the studio re-arranging some familiar tunes. Become a fan of organissimo on FB to keep updated on the release of the new album.

I think bearded Paul is my favorite Paul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCrkk1FsFAw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSX_7ejc5u8

"And so even if Hope was a contrived thing—a mechanism that popped up out of Pandora’s Box by dint of levers and springs—it was by no means bad...False, machine-made Hope could make real Hope—that was the true Alchemy, the turning of lead into gold."
Neal Stephenson - The Baroque Cycle

Nails it.

The sound engineer forgot to put a mic on his ass. That's why nobody could hear him.

Inspiring. Thank you, Bowie, for your final gift.

Snyder needs to go... to jail. And his hand picked DEQ lackey can be his cell mate.

My ultra talented and beautiful wife is featured in this magazine for her paintings. The interview is an interesting look into her creative process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkefglL9c4c

"But today, to be sick in private, to die in private, seems almost revolutionary. They say Bowie bucked trends (and in the process invented new ones) — well, he’s just bucked one of the most powerful and nauseating trends of our era: the victim-therapeutic complex which demands that we keep nothing private, that we advertise our failures and fragile mortality to a watching, sadness-hungry world."

A great photo and story from Pat Metheny about Bowie.

No.

“I was asked to do this by the Lord,” said Bundy, a Mormon, as some of the militia members nodded in understanding. “I did it how he told me to do it.”

And the Lord didn't tell you to bring snacks? Hmmm...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wawSCvuGj4o

“Although for most things this is trivial – like, for example, the boiling point of mercury – but for bigger questions of political and philosophical import, the knowledge people have often comes from faith or tradition, or propaganda, more than anywhere else.”

A great overview of the Obama Administration's accomplishments. The question the author asks at the end is pertinent to the 2016 elections: "Still, that raises a question: If the Obama brand of change is so great, why haven’t more Americans embraced it? Does he have a larger “Everything’s Amazing, Nobody’s Happy” problem?"

My answer is that the rightwing has successfully convinced people over the last 30 years that government is bad. And when they are in power, they do everything in their power to prove it.

"Flint started drinking water from the Flint River — but ended up contaminating children with a poisonous heavy metal. Governor Rick Snyder has declared a state of emergency, and the federal government is investigating.

Why on Earth did they do this? Austerity. Aside from the obvious humanitarian disaster, this is a stark demonstration of austerity's false economy. Trying to be cheap on Flint's water supply will end up costing the state of Michigan (and probably the country as a whole) a ton more money than it would have to fix it properly in the first place."

But clean water is socialism!!! It's the population of Flint's fault for not paying their bills! (I've actually read that argument more than once.)

http://theweek.com/articles/597755/how-michigan-literally-poisoned-entire-city-save-few-bucks