7/4

Thank you! I think I'd empty the room and set up a nice studio.

Thank you! I haven't seen Manny in a while, but I hang with his boss all the time. I just gave him a ride to the store yesterday.

WTF, after all these years, I find out it's Shepp, not sheep. Uh oh...that's why they were laughing. I thought they were just in a good mood.

the story...

Even peach fuzz, eh? I don't think I'd use an electric device for such a sensitive operation. Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Catch my drift? Know what I mean? Eh?

I wish blades were that cheap today! It's a spin of Escalator Over the Hill this morning...

January 10, 2008 Ken Nelson, Record Producer Behind Bakersfield Sound, Dies at 96 By BILL FRISKICS-WARREN Ken Nelson, the record producer behind the twangy Bakersfield Sound made popular by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, died on Sunday at his home in Somis, Calif. He was 96. He died of natural causes, his daughter told The Associated Press. Although best known for his work with Mr. Owens and Mr. Haggard, Mr. Nelson also helped reinvent country music when 1950s rock ’n’ rollers like Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins began supplanting perennial hitmakers like Red Foley and Eddy Arnold on the country charts. Rather than treating the big-beat incursion of Mr. Presley and Mr. Perkins as a threat, Mr. Nelson, then the head of the country division of Capitol Records, saw it as an opportunity to take rural music in a more sophisticated direction. First he persuaded a rising singer named Sonny James to record “Young Love,” a smooth romantic ballad, which topped both the country and the pop charts in 1957. He also recruited the Jordanaires, the uptown vocal chorus that had already backed Mr. Presley and Mr. James, to sing on “Gone,” a No. 1 country hit for the crooner Ferlin Husky, which reached the pop Top 5. Both “Young Love” and “Gone” became prototypes for the Nashville Sound, which would give country music more mainstream appeal. Meanwhile, Mr. Nelson had signed several young rockabilly acts of his own, most notably Gene Vincent and Wanda Jackson. For Mr. Vincent he produced the hiccupping “Be-Bop-a-Lula,” a Top 10 hit on the pop, country and R&B charts in 1956. With Ms. Jackson Mr. Nelson cut the raucous “Let’s Have a Party” in 1960. A musical omnivore who briefly oversaw the Capitol label’s jazz division as well, Mr. Nelson recorded a broad array of music under the country rubric in his nearly three decades there. The harmony duo the Louvin Brothers, the swing-inflected band of Hank Thompson and the colorful Maddox Brothers & Rose all came under his direction. Known for being a hands-off producer who let his artists record with their touring bands instead of insisting that they work with studio professionals, Mr. Nelson consistently supervised a roster of acts whose music demonstrated how durable and elastic the country genre could be. Kenneth F. Nelson was born on Jan. 19, 1911, in Caledonia, Minn. Placed in an orphanage by his mother when he was an infant, he spent his childhood in Chicago, where he would go on to work in a music store and, later, at a radio station, WJJD. Promoted to music director at the station, Mr. Nelson did everything from announcing broadcasts of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to scouting talent for its “hillbilly” variety show, “Suppertime Frolic.” After serving in the Army during World War II, Mr. Nelson returned to Chicago and WJJD. He also began producing sessions for Capitol, eventually moving to Hollywood in 1948 to work for the label full time. By his retirement in 1976 he had produced around 100 chart-topping country hits, including “The Wild Side of Life,” a No. 1 record for Mr. Thompson for 15 weeks in 1952. Mr. Owens and Mr. Haggard accounted for more than three dozen of Mr. Nelson’s No. 1 recordings. Many of these were unvarnished, emotionally direct performances that reached beyond country audiences to influence rock acts like the Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Mr. Nelson’s wife June died in 1984. He is survived by his daughter, Claudia Nelson, and three grandchildren. A co-founder of the Country Music Association, Mr. Nelson was president of that organization’s board in 1961 and 1962. In 2001 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He published an autobiography, “My First 90 Years Plus 3,” last year.

seems like just yesterday...

All day again? OK! It's a great day...many important people were born on January 10...Max, Mike Stern, Rod Stewart, our very own Patricia and others.

ah...but the party begins again in 22 minutes.

It's only moments away, but they're already celebrating this day in Europe, Asia, Africa and in between. Happy Birthday Patricia!

He'll never work as a doorman again.

Breaking up is hard to do.

January 9, 2008 Man Cuts Off, Microwaves His Own Hand By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 6:18 p.m. ET HAYDEN, Idaho (AP) -- A man who believed he bore the ''mark of the beast'' used a circular saw to cut off one hand, then he cooked it in the microwave and called 911, authorities said. The man, in his mid-20s, was calm when Kootenai County sheriff's deputies arrived Saturday in this northern Idaho town. He was in protective custody in the mental health unit of Kootenai Medical Center. ''It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived,'' sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. ''He put a tourniquet on his arm before, so he didn't bleed to death. That kind of mental illness is just sad.'' It was not immediately clear whether the man has a history of mental illness. Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Johnson would not say whether an attempt was made to reattach the hand, citing patient confidentiality. The Book of Revelation in the New Testament contains a passage in which an angel is quoted as saying: ''If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink the wine of God's fury.'' The book of Matthew also contains the passage: ''And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.'' Wolfinger said he didn't know which hand was amputated.

Yum. Lard.

She's past her freshness date.

January 9, 2008 Spears Family: Dr. Phil Crossed the Line By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 1:44 p.m. ET NEW YORK (AP) -- Britney Spears' family says ''Dr. Phil'' McGraw crossed the line by not keeping his mouth shut after making a house call on the singer last week. Lou Taylor, a business manager for Spears' mother, Lynne, and younger sister, Jamie Lynn, appeared on NBC's ''Today'' show Wednesday and said McGraw had betrayed the family's trust by talking to the media about Spears' mental health after showing up at the 26-year-old pop star's hospital room on Saturday for a visit. ''The family basically extended an invitation of trust for him to come in as a resource to support them, not to go out and make public statements,'' Taylor said. ''Any statement publicly that he made, because he was brought in under this cloak of trust, (is) just inappropriate.'' Taylor said McGraw was invited to the hospital by Spears' family, but ''he was not invited to make this part of a public display or part of the media.'' McGraw said earlier this week that he was shelving plans for a show on Spears' latest breakdown. He said Spears' predicament was ''too intense'' for him to go on with the show. Taylor said the syndicated TV psychologist broached the idea of the show to Spears' handlers, who eventually decided that such a show would be ''detrimental'' to the family. McGraw representative Theresa Corigliano did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages by The Associated Press seeking comment. Mental health professionals also criticized McGraw this week, saying he went too far by showing up at Spears' room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles as she was about to be discharged. McGraw fired back at his critics in an interview with ''Entertainment Tonight'' on Monday. ''Somebody needs to step up and get this young woman into some quality care -- and I do not apologize one whit, not one second, for trying to make that happen,'' he said. Spears was hospitalized Thursday night after a child custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline resulted in an hours-long standoff with police. On Friday, a court commissioner gave sole physical and legal custody of 1-year-old Jayden James and 2-year-old Sean Preston to Federline.

Same here....we'll miss you while you're gone. :tup

Fortunately, I could remember what the hell his real name is.

But now, music to shower and shave to: FRETTIN' FINGERS: THE LIGHTNING GUITAR OF JIMMY BRYANT

Uh oh...yesterday, today was tomorrow, yesterday was today and tomorrow was later as well as the future. Next thing you know...today will be yesterday, tomorrow will be today and yesterday will be history. This has to screw with the composers who think they're writing tomorrows music today. What will they do next week? It should bother the critics, but they seem to have their minds made up.

http://www.jeffblakedesign.com/music/

He had time for this: http://www.myspace.com/jeffblakemusic yet...no time..................................................for us. sniff.