Tuesday, March 30, 2010

not pandora!!!

everyone who watches rupaul's drag race on logo probably knew this days ago. but, now i have seen yet another travesty! pandora box, my FAVORITE has been sent home! nooooo!!!

they had to transform an old geezer into their drag mothers. tatiana picked an old man who couldn't walk in high heels. haha he also lectured her about the gay pantheon when he found out tatiana (i know she's a guy, i can't remember her real name) didn't know who oscar wilde was!

yes, it used to be real work to be a homosexual, say the old queens (well, i don't know if they're always queens as one had heavy facial hair, but they were queens on this show). but, seriously, how can anyone not have at least heard of oscar wilde? don't we still have schools in this country?

WHO is voting for kate?

tonight, when watching dwts, i was horrified to find that kate gosselin was not in the bottom two. meaning there was NO WAY they could send her home! what? she did AWFUL with her dancing. no surprise as she spent more time arguing than practicing.

the bottom two were shannon doherty and pamela anderson. pam actually got good scores from the judges and shannon was doing pretty well. i worried for shannon because i don't think she has many fans, but how can she have fewer than kate? plus, shannon's dance was so much better than kate's that it's difficult to find a comparison that doesn't sound like hyperbole.

WHY would anyone vote for kate? i thought people in mental institutions didn't have access to phones.

as far as the "mom" vote, how well, pam is a mom. just because she held it down to a reasonable number of children is no reason to be prejudiced against her. i'm not sure about shannon (and i'm not looking it up), but it's possible she's a mother as well. plus, her dad was there and that was sweet.

the only thing that makes it a little o.k. that shannon was unfairly sent home early is the fact that her dance partner wasn't going to be able to continue due to injury. so she would have needed to change partners. unlike kate, shannon was happy with her partner and was relunctant to continue without him (although, she probably would have).

kate tried to get her partner FIRED! like anyone else would have been able to magically instill within her the ability to dance. although, if she'd remove the stick, she might do better.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

the forbidden kingdom, traveling into a legend

i suppose it'd be the dream of any fan of kung fu movies to find themselves IN one. that's what happens to one kid who's a big fan of such movies as "the bride with white hair" (which i have seen). but, what you really need to know about this movie is it has jackie chan and jet li.

so, anyway, our normal american teenager (who has no kung fu as jackie chan's drunken character sadly points out) has to return the monkey king's magic staff before he can get back to his day-to-day life with his mom in boston. fortunately, his traveling companions have kung fu for days and they endeavor to teach him.

there is also a cute girl (who has good kung fu as well) on this journey. she is an oprhan named golden sparrow. she has a real grudge against the jade warlord who is the one they'll have to go through in order to return the monkey king's magic staff. golden sparrow has a nice jade hair ornament especially for stabbing the jade warlord. it has a sparrow right on it, just so he can look and ponder as his long life ebbs away. golden sparrow also provides music for the journey as she has an ornate lute (i guess?) that belonged to her mother.

the jade warlord hasn't failed to notice that there's someone wandering about with an overly ornate golden staff. he also has noted that this person doesn't seem to be local and is trying to pass weird green paper as payment for his drunk friend's bar bills. the jade warlord sends some folks out. well, he sends one person out. she just has an entourage.

so, our lady nemesis was raised by wolves. these weren't your normal wolves because she really is quite well groomed. she has long white hair she can use as a weapon. she has a whip. and she has a magic bow. i suppose her main drawback is that she's a bit grouchy. particularly toward men.

jackie chan and jet li have a very extended fight sequence that is very interesting. jackie chan commented at the time that it was very easy to do a fight scene with jet li since, for the past 10 years, he's been doing fight scenes with people who ... well, we all know.. he's been doing fight scenes with chris tucker. lol

hilariously, he has a similar scene with our teen protagonist. only he actually picks him up and throws him at the opposition at one point. otherwise, he pushes him to and fro... the kid is fine with this because he knows good and well HE can't fight. also, jackie chan's character is drunk 100% of the time, so there's no use in complaining.

this movie starts a little slow, but if you like kung fu movies, you will really like it. another interesting thing, it's a very pretty movie. :)

happy birthday, lady gaga!

get out your armadillo shoes and your soul-stealing wig, it's time to celebrate lady gaga's 24th birthday! :) i do believe fuse plans to honor her by doing another lady gaga "takeover" day tomorrow on their station.. i think she may even have as many as nine videos now so this should be entertaining!

happy birthday to gaga!

imposter, are they trying to tell us something?

the first time i saw imposter, i was sick with bronchitis. i had some cheap antibiotics that were making me sick and NO cough medicine. so i was miserable. after rewatching it, i really saw pretty much 99% of the movie the first time. and my stomach started hurting this time, what's up with that?

anyway, this movie is based on a philip k. dick story (i almost wrote andy dick, lol). for some reasons, the makers of the movie decided to add (point out) that he wrote the story in 1953.

why would they say that? it's science FICTION after all. shouldn't he have been thinking of yet unimagined stuff? is something about this movie reality now?

anyway, here's what it's about... we (as in us earthlings) are at war with alpha centauri. the main character is spencer oldham played by gary sinise. this dude has a real grudge against the alpha centauri because during his lifetime they've killed his father (in a very brutal way in a pow camp) and they've bombed the shit out of earth cities. so, being a genius and all, he channels his efforts into weapons to fuck up the lives of the biologically superior enemy.

he and his team are about to unveil a badass weapon and so the earth chancellor is coming to meet with him and other science-types. there's going to be a fancy reception and all. he and his lovely wife are guests and they'll get to shake the chancellor's hand.

due to the enemy's constant desire to fuck with earth people, a lot of cities are under domes. areas outside the domes are .... well, they are pretty well destroyed. although there are a few areas where there are people (who may be pretty sick) living. but, like all people, the people outside the dome have a desire to survive and thrive. so they have developed a variety of survivial skills.

meanwhile, the alpha centuari have these needle ships that can sometimes get through the domes. particularly in areas that are not as well protected....

needless to say, our scientist and his wife (who is a doctor in charge of a v.a. hospital... it's a lot nicer than the current v.a., fyi) go out to stroll around in the woods even though that may not be the safest thing in the world. however, they are both back to go to work bright and early.

but, instead of being happy that his great big bomb is almost ready to c-i-l-l the enemy, our military scientist gets all weirded out talking about the regrets people who worked on the hiroshima bomb had, etc. fortunately, someone is there to notice and arrest him before he can waffle right into a peace protest.

turns out, the creatures who inhabit alpha centauri are really good at building "robots" using "synthetic dna". they can make them look like humans, bleed like humans, and act like humans. these things can take on the identity of a human (perhaps one in a position the alpha centuari can exploit) to the degree the robot sincerely believes they ARE that person. but, it doesn't matter what the robot thinks. when they get close to their pre-programmed target, things begin to happen automatically. the robots carry, in their hearts, a bomb. a really big bomb.

humans are onto them, though. we have a neato machine that burrows into the robot/human chest and removes the heart. then the bomb (as long as its target isn't there) can be disarmed. the robot/human will be screaming about their assumed identity the whole time making it a bit nerve-wracking until the thing is definitely proven to be what the head of earth security says it is.

the head of earth security, btw, has been wrong. oppsie-daisy. so, like i said, a lot of those involved are pretty well filled with doubt about executing someone for no reason. the alpha centauri don't pick hoodlums who you might not mind seeing go. they pick people who haven't done anything wrong... such as our main character oldham not only has no criminal record, he's never even had an infectious disease (does that mean something different than i think?).

anyway, it would be a pretty boring movie if things went as planned, so our possible robot possible human manages to escape and embarks on a race against time to prove he is who he says he is. we, the audience, don't find out for certain until the end, of course.

this is a good movie. watching it when not knowing the ending and again with knowing the ending makes for an interesting viewing experience. there are also some interesting sci-fi gadgets along the way.

but, back to what is it that no one could have imagined in 1953 that should just be taken for granted now... let's see...

there are some things that are basically cell phones only they are video cell phones. sometimes you even can get a video operator (wow). i don't know for sure if those were in the book or if the people were just using video payphones and the like.

the citizens of domed cities are carrying a corkscrew-like thingie in their bodies that gives their i.d., plus various information like outstanding warrants, where they work (in oldham's case that just comes up as "classified"), if they've had infectious diseases, their age, if they are married, etc. if you know someone's stem cell code, that can be punched in and you can pull up their file that way as well (such as oldham has his wife's info pulled up as he has her number). if someone is standing right there, however, you kind of wave the cell phone at them and the info pops up.

i guess the current equivalent to this would be computerized files and you can find out quite a bit about people in a fairly short amount of time. it's not as quick as the movie, but it's much quicker than 1953. also, as everyone knows, it's possible to get implants. however, as far as i know (not far), there's nothing everyone has that can read these things.

there are high speed trains everyone rides to work that are pretty nice. some places have this, i suppose. riding trains to work was very common in 1953, so it's natural that's in there.

in the movie there's something called a full body pet scan. the patient can lie on a table fully clothed and these beams bounce over them producing a picture of their body. it can show from the innermost systems out. if a person has one a few years apart it can detect whatever changes may have ocurred in various systems. this test basically tests everything.. your blood, your skeleton, your organs, your respiratory system... even the endochrine system that gary busey might attempt to rip from your body if you insist on annyoing him.

i'm not too surprised a sci-fi writer came up with this because it's based on the idea of an x-ray that has been around plenty of years now. we don't have nearly that kind of thing yet, but we're much closer (or if we do have it, it's not known to me.. again, i can be mistaken).

there are dna scans to get into secure areas. i am not sure what the closest thing to that would be from 1953. but, biological based security has been discussed for many years as the most foolproof possible as codes can be guessed or stolen. i don't think there's anything that goes so far as to test dna on the spot, but there are handprint and eye and finger scanners as well as voice scanners. so, i figure they are working on that.

let's see what else...

security for the domed city can watch for certain stem codes and monitor when they pass checkpoints. this makes it a lot harder for people to be on the run from the law. haha this is in minority report as well so it's definitely an idea phillip k. dick was thinking about. i believe that we probably have things similar to this, at least in some cases. this degree of monitoring seems to be a feature of a lot of science fiction. but then again, science fiction has monitoring during wartime to refer to. the germans went around asking for people's "papers".

so obviously keeping an eye on folks is a good idea (if you fear enemy infiltration or you just want to rule with an iron fist). however, most of us aren't really aware of how much we may or may not being watched because ways have been developed that are very inconspicous or we have gotten used to or, and this is the most important thing, ways that seem to be for another purpose (and ususally are), can be used for survelliance (although sometimes this would never be used unless the person was wanted for something pretty serious). still, this is something that has (from what we see) kept pace with technology. perhaps there's some degree of watching people we don't know about... i think it's possible, but not common. there are an awful lot of us, after all, and most of us are doing pretty boring things day after day. can you imagine at nsa, "that's the third time he's rented that movie in 15 years, by my calculations he could have bought it two years ago and broke even"? haha

in the hospital, they have synthetic organs. i think that comes up in science fiction a lot as well. but, we are getting along with being able to do that. as far as we know, we're not yet at the point where we can order just any old thing from a warehouse.

there's the robot/human (we do see a prototype early in the movie during a demonstration of the bomb removal). interestingly, a persistant conspiracy theory is that there are clones, synthetic humans, and human robots. this is pretty prevalent among some people. and one thing that's brought up in the movie that is also brought up with the people who follow this line of thought: these things cannot steal the soul of the person that they are replacing. although, if you go along the yellow brick road with me for a quick second, it's said that the soul can choose to inhabit a clone... if it wants. it's also said some very pure souls will not ever chose to do this, so their clones are much less convincing. i'm not exactly certain that this is what is reality now. but it's just something i thought about.

there's also a device they have that scans a building to see if there are people in it and where they might be. there's a similar device in minority report. i figure such a thing as this exists at this point although it may not work in the manner of the one in the movie... and it might not display the information in the same manner.

this device draws power from the dome to operate. so, being able to draw power remotely is a different idea. i don't know if this can be done or not at this time. given we can do this with phones, we may well also have the ability to do it with electricity. although, if we do, i can see why it's not rolled out to the general public.

anyway, it is an interesting movie. :)

p.s. i have edited this... i have to turn off the automatic word thingie because it is typing some weird stuff!

twilight, we go sleep now

i watched twilight yesterday. i don't have all that much to say about the movie. if you've read the book, you've seen the movie. if not... it's pretty much what you'd expect.

however, the greatest thing about twilight is by the time it's over, you're sleepy. in fact, i got so sleepy i forgot all my problems and dozed off. i was sleeping peacefully for the first time in DAYS. then my sisters rolled up all of a sudden and totally STRESSED ME OUT!! you wouldn't think just two people (well, three, but my niece generally behaves herself) could swarm into a house and throw your whole world into chaos. but they can.

fortunately, they played twilight again later in the day so i got another nice nap. this time no one bothered me afterward and i had a nice long sleep. so, for that, i am grateful to twilight.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

metropolitan, in the early 90s rich kids of our generation had no fucking clue

DOWNWARD MOBILITY is mentioned in this movie as some of a group of recent college graduates (preppies who give themselves the more specific moniker "uhbs") as they worry that their failure is inevitable. some have trustfunds while others only HAD one until the entrance of the evil stepmother.

this movie is slow as hell. but, it is a different look at young people than we normally see. these particular kids are trying very hard to "behave as expected." they long for more rigid social conventions (i guess this is a way to yearn for structure).

when one girl takes off with the group slut and a guy no one really trusts, two other male group members who like her want to travel out of town to rescue her. so, they try to rent a car. they go to pretty much every car rental company, but they don't have enough cash. when they find one cheap enough, they don't have a driver's license. they realize inability to even do that is maybe part of their problem.

they do eventually go in rescue the girl. she is fully dressed and reading a book. oddly, no one else in the room is doing anything like that. so, i am not sure...i think i missed something... was she WATCHING? did they all just decide to parade around in hopes that she'd decide to get naked, too. when her rescuers show up, the sleazy guy calls her a "flat chested prude" and says they can take her.

i'm sure they had just as much trouble getting home as they did getting there in the first place.

ice-t is in the movie breakin'

i watched the movie breakin' this morning. there's some scenes at an underground street dancing club where dancers (or groups or dancers, what have you) vie for supremacy. who should be there providing musicial inspiration, but ice-t. i think this movie is from 1984.

i should've watched this movie a long time ago. first, it's somewhat entertaining. second, there has been a number of different comedies reference this movie. third, it provides a nice retrospective on some of the dance-inspired fashions on the 80s.

remember capezios? i think they still make these, actually, as i'm pretty sure they're just dance shoes. i had a pair of capezios in the 80s. i am not a dancer. my roommate in college studied dancing and she dancy clothes, so she stuck with the capezios way longer than i did. (i will say they are comfortable shoes) although, she didn't fully indulge in some of the things that were more trendy. i do think she wore her hair in a ponytail for our entire freshman year though (she wasn't my roommate yet, but we were dorm neighbors). haha anyway, no one cares about me and the wayback machine..

back to the movie... so this chick is waitressing at the type of place that seems only to exist in the movies... (imagine mel's diner california-style) and she's also taking a very exclusive dance class (cuz they tend to be economical). she is friends with this gay black guy and he is friends with some "street dancers". he takes her to watch his friends and, long story short, they make the dance group a trio rather than a duo and convince people of the legitmacy of the style.

given that type of dancing has pretty well taken over at this point (variations of it) on shows like america's best dance crew, so you think you can dance, and step it up and dance.... i suppose it makes a good point. one of the characters "turbo" does a dance with a broom that's pretty cool. the dance "crew" we're concerned with are known by real names and street names: tony/turbo, orlando/ozone, kelly/special k. INTERESTING NAME, kelly. haha

here's the weird thing about dance... it seems to be kind of a difficult way to make a living. if you study, say, ballet... this is a very competitive art and look at someone like mary carey. she studied from a very early age until her injury at 19 and now all of those years of ballet have done what for her? i suppose if she hadn't gone into porn she could have been a ballet teacher (i know they offered her such a job on the first sober house, but even in california i would think most parents would think twice before getting mary carey to teach their young children). for less formal types of dance, it seems some people do make a successful career about it.... but, i'm not sure of all the opportunities they may or may not have. there doesn't seem to be nearly enough jobs to warrant the HUGE numbers of people who go through dance classes, especially since some of the so-called dance classes are more interested in $$$ than in talent.

it seems like a lot of the people we see dancing (unless we seek out dance somehow) are in videos, so it's people like britney spears. is britney the best dancer ever? or is the whole package (looks, singing, figure, permissive parents who allowed her to be marketed as a sex symbol when she was underage, etc.) that makes her successful? (not taking away from whatever dancing talent she may have... i am just saying, it's not JUST her dancing).

speaking of dancing... bad segue... i have a showtime preview and TWILIGHT is coming on in half a hour. oh, you know i gots to see that. expect a rant. love shampoo

brief personal update... i have a new television

well, i went yesterday and got myself one of the new-fangled flat screen televisions the kids today are talking about. i got it at a local place and it's a brand new 2010 model. yay! i was momentarily seduced by a 42 inch model, but i got a 32 inch one. it was expensive enough and i don't have a ton of money or a very big interview either.

also, my sister and i were able to bring it inside. my nephew came by and hooked it up. then my cotton picking direct tv thingie didn't work. but i called them and sorted that out and i am watching the tv as i type.

i guess this is not news to most people, but my tv has this "freeze" thing (i don't have dvr or tivo or anything) so i can freeze pictures and look at them. the audio continues on as the show continues on, but that's still pretty neat.

this is a widescreen, so it has these bars alongside everything that's not widescreen. that's a little different. but i like to watch movie in widescreen format, so if i were to hook a dvd player up to this, well, then i would be in business.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

two more fucking things...

my rabbit jumped on my keyboard... after a lot of trying, i have been able to fix it. of course, i am VERY STRESSED OUT.

my sister confirmed she threw away the paper. this was a pad of paper i took to the hospital for daddy to try to write on. i didn't tell her this, but she probably wouldn't have believed me. she said all sorts of stuff like, "i guess i don't have any integrity because i threw away the paper." and "i'll try not to throw away any more paper!" when she was leaving.

this was after i was yelled at for about an hour straight because all roads always lead back to how i'm not doing things to suit anyone else and, if i would, i'd be able to "have a life". (this has been said to me from junior high school onward, and i will say, in between then and now, i have done a lot of different things... a lot of the time, they weren't paying attention when i told them what i was doing... since the paparazzi wasn't following me around, they assumed i was pathetic.)

but it's not the paper. well, it is the paper. but it's just why would someone come into another person's house and throw away something that wasn't trash? they're whole thing is IT'S OUR HOUSE, TOO!!!!!!!!! but, i actually live here and i have stuff i personally bought and i am currently using in this house. for someone to just decide, "oh i'll just throw that out." is INSANE. any time i disagree about anything.. be it something of daddy's they want to ditch or whatever else, the it's our house too gets yelled at me. (sigh) i fear even if i buy it that won't go away.

i am so stressed out. a thing a day has broken. i've heard IT'S OUR HOUSE TOO a million times even though no one gives a shit about it until it's time to burst in and ransack the place. but, i have to be so grateful.

i had one xanax left and i just took it. i'm sorry. i am in so much pain. i coughed for a really long time at the bank and then i got emotionally beaten down. then there's the fear that anything and everything could be in the trash. anything and everything they could decide they want. i just hate this so much. i hate it.

i got a huge lecture that if my brother ever does anything (hahahaa!!!!!) it has to be all ready for him to get to work "because he's a man." well, if he can't check the antifreeze on a car which was sitting in the driveway, i don't know what could be faster and easier than that, honestly. someone has to want to do something first.

right now, he's following some band around and that's all he cares about. the great thing about this is he got some flack from my sisters who felt that he was forcing himself on the band or something. they also called him a "groupie" pretending they didn't know the word for "roadie." he told me this was why he tried to avoid them growing up. that was pretty funny.

i just can't bring myself to hurt people like i have been hurt. i should get out my old "persuasion" textbook from my days of studying all things, but i can't bring myself to.. also, it's hard to do anything when no one pays any attention.

i'm sorry there's still no one to talk to and it's late. this is such a difficult time.... i even had to put my bunny back in my home because he was being just a little too crazy and i couldn't take it. (sigh)

my television has passed away...

i tried to watch tv today to soothe my nerves and i found that was impossible.

more family crap today. i got beaten down pretty badly. i am so sick of people talking at me. it's just so depressing. i feel so stupid. i think my one sister is lying to me... it makes me feel really bad. i have been told my father didn't want me to have the house because "in six months it wouldn't be worth anything." well, it's been six months.... and it has not yet fallen to the ground. i asked my sister to stop saying that and said he told me something else (he wanted me to have the house). why would she keep saying that to me?

i keep getting told "you had more opportunity than anyone" and that basically, i fucked up. well, i graduated from college. so, there was that. i have worked in jobs in my field that paid decently, but they were.. well, extremely stressful. except for going to college, i don't know what else i've had... i am sure they could give me a list of the ways i've fucked up and generally been a rotten as hell excuse for a human being. but, then they "love" me "dearly." i suppose that's why no one ever calls me or comes to see me without bitching me out the entire time they're here.

i hope my parents aren't seeing this mess....

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

real life right now, frustration and grief and a sore throat

we are trying to close on the estate. i am sick as heck.

as if that wasn't stressful and awful enough, every one of my siblings were here today. my brother strolled in dragging a slice of pizza around like it was totally fine to eat it in the living room not on a plate on anything else. like he couldn't have done that in his fucking car or while he was hanging out with his buddies for seven hours.

all this time, i was in the house with my sisters who any second my back was turned would throw away, prowl through, or move something. i had some BLANK PAPER sitting on the bookcase in the hall. i told them both i wanted to keep it. well, it's GONE NOW. then, they both were wearing these stupid gloves and my one sister HAD TO TOUCH everything in the house. even stuff that was clean she had to take it out and put those nasty ass dirty gloves all over it.

then, she INSISTED on taking my mother's polaroid camera down and opening it up and then dropping it on the floor. i told her not to do it. she thought there might be film in it. that damn camera has sat in the closet since 1975, i doubt there's any fucking film in there. and there wasn't. instead of holding it over the bed, she had on those gloves and was holding it between her knees they thought it was hilarious that she dropped it. if i'd dropped it, i would have owed them money right on the fucking spot. and yes, of course, she brokei it.

then i do have stuff around here because i fucking live here. every damn thing had to be inspected. "that's mine, put it back. that's mine, put it back. ARGH!" but, she still insisted on opening it and reading it. there were random people between us so i couldn't snatch it away. TRUST ME, i would be in so much trouble if i did that shit.

but the paper, a little tablet of paper sitting on the bookcase bugs me. why in the world would they throw that away after i told them both i wanted to keep it? i know my stupid brother didn't take it. but, why would anyone throw something like that away? it wasn't dirty or anything. it wasn't old. it was just sitting there. but, they want to get rid of everything. they insisted on being on opposite ends of the house and i had to run back and forth between them. so, there's no telling what else of mine is gone. and they wonder why stuff like this makes me a nervous wreck.

they come in immediately telling me to move stuff. and i am like "well, it goes here." and my sister is all "this will be like pulling teeth." who cares where i keep stuff? who fucking cares? i just do not get it. in this case, we were talking about one little bitty key.

but, my one sister when she starts filling up trash bags, she wants to take everything in the house (that she doesn't want for herself or her son or her son's wife) and throw it out. so far, her son has gotten a car, a picture of my father's military unit, and probably will get a picture of MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS because "they like antiques." well, so do i. but, many of the antiques from here have disappeared.

i have tried to write some non-personal articles, but i am so stressed out over this garbage that i can't stand it. it is so tiresome. any little thing that i want has to be a huge ass debate. even if I BOUGHT IT we have to come around to should i even keep it or "free myself" from having so many possessions. and yes, it was "two against one!" a few times. well, isn't it fucking ALWAYS two against one?

they think because i tend to be disorganized that i don't know what i have or where anything is or that anything goes. well, that's not true. but none of them really know that. still, when i go to a house someone with a fever tried to vacuum that same day (or any house really) i don't go in barging around pitching a fit about getting rid of everything and dragging every dusty thing i can find all over the place.

i also don't stroll around eating a pizza. my sister would literally kill anyone who brought pizza into her living room. i don't care if you had the largest plate known to mankind underneath it. but, it was fine that my brother did that. then, she asked him to take something outside for me and he got smarty pants and i wound up doing it. he started bitching, but i reminded him that I didn't ask him to do it. because i basically don't ask him to do ANYTHING.

and they've been talking together about me and everything else like they do (and they wonder why i tell them i feel left out and unequal). they planned all this, especially my no-show brother. he has become interested in some local band of all damned things in the world.

but, they never come up here just to visit or anything. it's always an agenda of some sort. i try to be nice and i am pititfully glad that if my family pays any attention to me since they are the only family i have. but they all have kids and stuff, so they are somewhat better i guess. there might be some families that can make the whole thing work where they have three much older kids and one younger kid.. but we can't. maybe because mama died... i don't know... my father was kind of in denial about the reality of the situation.

my brother made some remarks about his lawnmower today (i don't have one, daddy sold the one we had) and i thought for a brief instant that he was going to mow the yard. then, i realized i was delirious and that was NOT GOING to be happening. he claimed daddy "didn't like" how he did it and that's why he didn't mow the yard for daddy. well, i think daddy "didn't like" the fact that the yard only one get mowed about once per year if it was up to my brother and, in reality, it has to be mowed about once a week.

my brother's son came up here one day, daddy said and made several trips to town (which i do not doubt and i now know why that'd be) while he was here. i don't know if he even got the yard mowed. my father was not a patient man. if you were supposed to be mowing the yard, you'd best be doing it and not wandering around in town meeting up with this one and that one. anyway, i think my brother wants me to HIRE him to mow the yard. hahaaahaha. i hope it does not come to that.

my father's will is basically one paragraph long. it's better than nothing, but he told my sister he thought we could "share and share alike." well, the problem with that is everyone has to want to be fair. hope springs eternal, but i am an absolute nervous wreck. sorry to bitch so much... i just have to tell someone.. i don't know what to do and i may have to go through more of the same tomorrow.

on top of everything, the TOILET stopped up today. so, it was the PERFECT DAY to have four extra people here. AARGH!! my sister called when i was leaving to get a plunger and she wanted me to try some nonsense with hot water. i told her that i was just going to get the plunger (this took 20 minutes to go through over and over). although, she wound up having the unclog it because i couldn't. then my other sister re-clogged it. that toilet has really, really had a workout today.

and i have to add here that the problem with these stupid gloves people want to wear, they pick up every nasty thing in the world. but their hands feel clean and they just keep obsessively touching stuff. it drove me crazy. i feel like every single thing in the house has to be crammed into the washing machine now. and i REALLY feel up to that.

i think things got out of hand when i had to come in here and sit down. my one sister had a diabetic fit, but i fed her. so, they went from having to go eat to staying FOREVER longer. i think they were waiting for my brother who they wanted to just make sure got his precious stuff. my sister insisted i give him half the sheets we own for some unknown reason. i am sure they will get thrown in the trash. well, after she handled the crap out of them with those nasty ass gloves beause, the gloves cost like 30 cents a pair, so you wouldn't want to change! they had a huge box of them... i mean, you could literally see the dirty on the gloves because they were just finding the nastiest stuff to get into.

and it turns out there is black mold in the semi-finished spare room. people should never build stuff onto their houses if their spouse dies. my father built that stupid carport in because he and mama had talked about it. mind you, my father was able to do the work himself so this should have been a cost efficient project.

but, it has been one thing after another with that room. some stupid fool my friend invited to the only party i ever got to have threw buttered popcorn (and it was A LOT of popcorn) all over the room (when i had to leave for a minute). he was such a fucking asshole. i didn't even know him.

then there were the termites. then this and that and the other thing and now... black mold. more work and money (proportionally to the usefulness of the room) has gone into that stupid thing. it was actually finished at one time, but it's had to be torn out and redone a few times... all it's really any good for at this point is giving the dryer a place to live.

i actually have a list of problems with the house (that was why i wanted the paper i was bitching about two hours ago). haha

i doubt anyone will actually read this. but, if you did. thank you... you're the best. :)

conspiracy, lady gaga, mind control and the occult

i have things going on in my personal life, but i have been thinking about these subjects for a while now. so, to distract from my real life.. i'm going to take a stab at an article. i've been reading a lot of things about lady gaga that are a bit... well, they seem rather heavy handed.



to quickly go over why i think i am even vaguely qualified to write about any of this.... i studied behavior modification in college (along with other types of psychology). mind control techniques derive from behavior modification and classical conditioning. in fact, we learned the principles behind what was referred to as "brainwashing." since that time, i have learned of various documents that have been declassified. in reading, i'm coming across things i learned about as well as experiments i knew about (these were not mind control experiments, but they were psychology experiments) that linked into this information.



i also found out about the mkultra congressional hearings as well as some sort of apology that bill clinton issued to some victims of mind control. then there's the canadians who successfully sued dr. ewen cameron and the cia for his "psychic driving" experiments (where he proved he could wipe out people's memories and replace them with something else, such as he convinced one poor man he'd killed his mother... this man had killed no one and his mother was alive and well). dr. ewen cameron is also known as dr. white. he was VERY respected in his field in his day. (the doctors involved in mkultra tended to go by colors there... drs. white, black, green, and blue. i am not sure who dr. blue is, and there is more than one dr. green.)



of course, there are people who will tell me to tighten my tin foil hat. wtfever. they can go to the cia's fucking website and do some reading. they should find some surprises there. well, unless the whole thing has been changed since the last time i checked it... in which case, this stuff IS online and not just at wacky "conspiracy theory" (i guess even when it's proven it's a theory to some people) website. it's highly unpleasant reading and there's not proof for every little thing being alleged. there is, however, proof that some of these things really did happen to both children and adults. mind control, unfortunately, is real.



fortunately, mind control of this type is not easy to accomplish and it's even harder to keep in place. full-on mind control requires quite a time commitment because the person under control has to have a handler to keep them under control. if they are left to their own devices, their programming could break down, their original personality could reassert, their mental problems could overwhelm them, or they may find themselves literally unable to cope. it's possible those problems have been corrected and they have an easier and better way, i suppose. the information we have access to is at least twenty years out of date. i'm just hoping i'm right about this and it IS still hard to do.



certain people like cathy o'brien and cisco wheeler DID have full-time handlers. so, for some people, it has (and probably is) happening. if you don't google these women, their names won't be familiar to you. whether they could have functioned as entertainers under public scruntity is difficult to say... from cisco's writings there were people who were programmed for more public lives than she had, but even these people are not exactly household names.



there's one particularly awful scene where cathy o'brien (when writing the book) realizes she was just sitting in a very dangerous situation waiting for someone to come see her after being told some troubling things, but because of the mind control, nothing was going on in her mind at all as she waited. she was regularly drugged, overworked, and underfed to keep her in a more suggestible state. she very rarely ventured out on her own and when she did, she had been very specific directions on what to do.



however, even with all of that in place, cathy's programming broke because she already had DID. when exposed to an extreme trauma, she created another alter split on her own which wrecked havoc on her internal system causing her to be labeled "damaged goods." of course, the bulk of the programming cathy was put through would have been done in the 1950s-1970s. they might be using different and more reliable techniques now. but, what they used on her worked by using DID to create compartments in the mind (and to encourage the child to split their personality), so it's logical that this very serious mental illness might work against them considering the type of trauma (no one is being mind controlled to do pleasant things all the time) they endure.



if the person disassociates again to cope with whatever is going on, it's not possible (as far as i know) to undo that disassociation. even though these people are considered, to some degree, expendable... creating a person like this took a lot of work and not every person can endure it. so, i would be surprised if they're doing things like this to get someone to sing pop songs.



what most people writing about this don't seem to realize is that it's possible to brainwash someone who DOESN'T have DID. you won't have this and that alter, but you can make them be obedient to you for however long you need them to be. when you're done with them, you don't have to worry so much they'll attract attention by wandering around acting like a four-year-old when they're 35 (i.e., a child alter in control).



so, i guess that's a long way of saying that, while i believe it's POSSIBLE to create a mind controlled pop star, is it really NECESSARY to create one? what if there's an easier way to get what you want? plenty of people long for fame and many will do ANYTHING for fame. from these, it would be possible to choose the easiest to manipulate people (who'd be less likely to blab later about whatever you wish to keep secret). not only would they be easier to deal with, they'd be more creative.



people under full mind control are often pretty smart and creative people BEFORE they're put through the rigors of programming. even the kindest (torture-free) form of brainwashing includes isolation and food deprivation. as a cover, some are made to act stupid and ditzy so that no one will take them too seriously. i don't know that they have much control of this if they really are under full mind control. things stored in the memories of other alers usually will not be available to them.



i suppose an example of this would be anna nicole smith acting like she didn't know what a video camera was when she put on clown make up for her "fans." (a truly pitiful bit of tape). despite what howard k. stern said, i don't think anna was acting. she seemed to think she was younger than the ten-year-old girl that's shown on the tape with her. she's pregnant at the time, but she thinks the baby is the doll she's playing with.. when the little girl tells her about the baby in her "stomach", anna just looks confused. in anna's case, she may have been HEAVILY drugged. unfortunately, there's no way to know for sure any more.



this FINALLY brings me to lady gaga. i really don't think she is under full mind control. she consistently interviews the same. she also doesn't fall into verbal traps. her personality when she performs is different, but then, she was a performance artist. whether she's under any mind control at all, it's difficult to say because if she's been hypnotized, done any sort of heavy behavior modification program (e.g., scientology), she would be abnormally suggestible allowing someone to get her to do some things unquestioningly. another factor is drugs that were HEAVILY prescribed to kids starting about twenty years ago and getting worse by the year. i don't know if gaga herself takes or took any such thing. i do think it's possible she is not under mind control at all.



however, she does seem to KNOW ABOUT mind control. i think this is why some people believe she's mind controlled herself. but, that doesn't really make much sense to me. there are plenty of ways she could have found out about it and it's not hard to imagine she would have found it interesting. then there's the drug issue, even if lady gaga was never given anything for a.d.d. (or whatever) she most certainly knows people who were. it's possible she's referencing this type of thing as well.



lady gaga does have an educational background that would allow her to be particularly well versed in what various symbols meant and how to use them in her work. so, it's possible she has another motive than the most obvious thing for what she places in her videos and concerts. for example, after watching a few lady gaga videos the SAME THING is easily seen in other videos (where it's done much more subtly). perhaps she wants everyone to notice this. particularly since she has to know that we've had three generations grow up with tv and two with mtv. isn't it about time we began to understand the things that flash across screen?



as far as lady gaga's involvement with the occult, i think she is interested in it. whether this interest is purely academic or not, i don't know. i haven't seen her do anything to draw people into it, but i haven't seen everything she has done. however, just because she wears horns on her head doesn't make her a devil. haha



everything lady gaga does is carefully planned and very deliberate. although she does come up with some of the ideas herself, she has talked about working with other creative people (who are her team). also, of course, this is all business so there are other people (executives) who have to be happy with what she choses to do and who may have her do specific things for whatever reason. such as some of the skimpy outfits she's worn.. i'm not sure that's her idea considering they brought her to tears when they were trying to get her to pose for more scandalous cd cover shot. it looks like they may have compromised... she got her choice on cd covers and they got almost naked lady gaga on various award shows.



there is an interpretation of lady gaga's video "telephone" (which also features beyonce) done by vigilant citizen. it has been reprinted all over the internet and attracted a lot of comments. v.c. believes lady gaga is a victim of project monarch based on some of her actions and that the video and song refers to some of this. the video doesn't seem to go with the song, so i do agree there. and v.c. makes some good points about the VIDEO. but, people need to realize, the video is not lady gaga.



pretty soon, i think we're going to know exactly where lady gaga falls on the mk scale because they seem to be pressuring her to act more outrageously. she's been specifically mentioning her vagina lately (such as asking boy george to sign it). also, someone had a screenshot of an old interview where she's talking about something with friend requests (my space?). the last question was "best reason to accept a friend request." her answer "pedophilia." i don't know what to think about that, honestly.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

sober house, it will be a damn miracle if anyone fails to relapse

so, I have watched nearly two episodes and so far it's, predictably, the kari ann show. and it's not even good for HER. she's on drugs and she is being kari ann.

jen, ever professional, is yelling and cursing at kari ann to leave. now jen is whipping up the drama with the other residents (like they need that).

however, kari ann is not able to completely take the show off the rails by herself because dr. drew is definitely bringing back shifty's worthless ass. I would rather they pick up a random person off the street than bring him back.

at this point, i'd rather see fucking conaway back (and I really don't want to see him again). because one thing he never did: smoke crack on the roof. although, that may only be because he can't figure out how to get up there.

I see shifty has gotten yet more disgusting since last time. if dr. drew wants to "help" him it shouldn't be on a tv show because it seems to me shifty only realizes he has a problem when it's on tv.

however, there was some discussion about shifty's deal with jen last season. but these poor people are so happy kari is gone. wait til they see what they have in store for them.

I tried to give shifty a chance. I even overlooked that awful "butterfly" song (momentarily, there is no forgiveness for that), but he just wants some attention. and he's getting it.

jen will be overjoyed. she's saying she must be "tough on him this time."

winter dance party 1959, the conclusion (CORRECTIONS)

so, now i have the details... who was ON the tour? buddy holly and the crickets (not the regular crickets, but tommy allsup, waylon jennings and carl bunch until carl got frostbite then just the other two). the big bopper. ritchie valens (who does have a "t" in ritchie which i did not know). dion and the belmonts. and frankie sardo.

this was one fucked up tour, i'll say that... for one thing the dates must have been arranged by a crazy person (or santa claus) to maximize driving through the chilly nights of the northern midwest. surely everyone knows, but i'll say it, the surf ballroom show was added about three days before they played it. it wasn't supposed to be on the tour. you'll see why it was added, they had so much free time and all (sarcasm).

fabulous tour dates for the lamented winter carnival of 1959 (tour of wisconsin, iowa, and minnesota... i know the plane was flying to a north dakota destination, but it was across the way from some town in minnesota. and hell, if you're flying around in fucking early february why not go to the coldest state we fucking have? especially at night. not blaming the victims, just... would it have been the end of the world if this fucking tour made a little sense? i'll stop bitching, here it is..

tour dates all end in 1959, obviously
1/23 george divine's million dollar ballroom (milwaukee)
1/24 eagles ballroom (kenosha, also featured debbie stevens)
1/25 kato ballroom (mankato, mn)
1/26 fournier's ballroom (eau claire, wi)
1/27 fiesta ballroom (montvideo, mn)
1/28 prom ballroom (st. paul)
1/29 capitol theater (davenport)
1/30 laramar ballroom (ft. dodge)
1/31 national guard armory (duluth, mn)
2/1 riverside ballroom (green bay)
2/2 surf ballroom (clear lake)
2/3 (whoever was left played a show in i don't care minnesota... i don't know how much longer the tour continued after this, hell, if the guys who planned it are still alive it's STILL going on)

(i was wrong about the following sentence, the plane didn't take off until 1 a.m. on 2/3/59. it was found around 9 a.m. and the coroner arrived at 11:15 a.m. on 2/3/59... sorry about the confusion. i found the coroner's report.) the plane actually crashed on 2/2/59 (wrong, it was 2/3) even though most people did not know about it until 2/3/59. it's kind of hard to believe, but back in the day i guess rockers played shows at decent hours because the fucking coroner arrived at the scene at 11:30 p.m. (wrong, it was 11:15 a.m. the day after the show) so, they played the show, flipped coins, exchanged banter, went to the airfield, loaded up, took off, crashed, got found, correct people were notified and the coroner rolled up all before midnight (wrong again, sorry, but the plane did crash shortly after 1 a.m., i think) and i get the impression it was a night show so all that sounds fucking exhausting. (the bodies were identified by carroll anderson, the man who drove them to the airfield, btw.)

oh, speaking of the coin toss... well, these were the early days when people still called it "rock N roll" so, you know... there weren't that many controversaries yet. anyway, there is a debate about the fucking coin toss. o.k., one site has the statements from the parties in contention. one guy wrote a fucking novella about it and another guy wrote like four sentences.

here goes the mc for the show, bob hale, says he did the coin toss right after buddy holly hired the plane which was before the end of the show. he says he says goodbye to "the boys" as carroll anderson drove them to the airport in his car. the other guy was tommy allsup who was the guitar player for the crickets. he says it was right after the show, ritchie asked him about the seat again, so they flipped for it. he says they used a 50 cent piece which he still has. he says no one else was around. i find his story more credible because the plane was hired FOR THE CRICKETS and he didn't ramble on about "why don't we just remember the boys". but, like i fucking know. hell, for all anyone knows maybe there were two different coin tosses for some reason. apparently, the makers of "la bamba" believe allsup because it's tommy who is tossing the coin with ritchie in the movie (although it's at the airfield because it's a fucking movie).

there is also the completely stupid rumor that the plane was named "american pie". it's wrong (duh). the plane wasn't named anything because it was a small plane meant to ferry people around the area. and before the song (or the movie, i guess, although the movie is totally non-buddy holly related) there would be no reason to name a plane something like that. in fact, it would be bad for business. people eat pies. do you want to make them believe your plane is something that might be eaten, like by death? i don't think so. yeah, i take branding seriously.

but, i do have some numbers for ya'll. plane tail number was N3794N. model 35, serial #D-1019. manufactured 10-47. purchased by dwyer 6-58. the model name was beechcraft bonanza (possibly beechcraft bonanza galaxy... dammit that sounds like it would fly, doesn't it?). here is a picture of a plane just like it www.buddyhollyandthecrickets.com/WDP/beechcraftbonanza.html

the same site has some color photos taken by fans of buddy holly, j.p. richardson, and ritchie valens at other shows on this tour. here are a couple of pages... http://www.buddyhollyandthecrickets.com/WDP/stpaul.html and http://www.buddyhollyandthecrickets.com/WDP/ftdodge.html

more details about the plane people... the plane company was dwyer flying service which was mostly the owner jerry dwyer. it was in MASON CITY, iowa. sorry, lost my mind there for a minute, but synch bloggers would point that out for you.

the pilot was roger peterson, age 21 (you know, back in the day, they just let young people do all sorts of things.. but no FUCKING WAY would i get on a plane flown by some kid at night in winter in iowa, but then i can think 'that's what buddy holly did and he died' and they didn't have that advantage).

dwyer saw the takeoff (he'd been elsewhere previously) and tried to raise peterson on the radio. when he couldn't he got into another plane (i guess he had at least two) and soon found the crash site which so happened to be in a field owned by albert (and delbert) juhl. the aforementioned coroner (or acting coroner) was dr. ralph smiley.

word of this got out.. as it would, but they kept people away from the crash. it seems they left things kind of as is until they could take some daytime photos (this turns out to be wrong due to the plane not being found until daylight... hours after the actual crash) because i saw one of those with dead bodies and stuff. so sad. the pilot, peterson, was the only person who was still inside the plane. he had to be cut out of it.

i know now why people are coming up with elaborate reasons why the plane crashed. it hit the ground HARD. final conclusion... welllll, i don't think they know why exactly. but they decided that peterson must have thought they were going up not down. it was determined the engine was working so that wasn't it.

a quick aside... you know what DID survive the crash? their fucking luggage! and because people will do things like this, someone placed it in a neat little stack and took a picture of it for the records. that's sad, too, i think. because someone's personal possessions become sort of meaningless after they die. but, what else can you do but collect the luggage and put it in a neat pile? yes, their families would want it... but still... the only people who it would be really important to didn't need it any more.

anyway, back to weird stuff about the crash... they were traveling happily along and hit the ground. the plane had been banking into a turn and the rate of climb was forever stuck at 3,000 feet per minute. except it was descending 3,000 feet per minute... not ascending. the airspeed indicator was stuck between 165-170 mph. landing gear was up. radio transmitter was set to mason city and was working. new gauges had been installed in this plane and peterson didn't know them... i really do not know what they looked like, but i am sure the exact instrument panel is on the internet somewhere.

so, anyway, peterson was making this turn and he banked and instead of pointing the nose of the plane up he apparently pointed it down. so the crash reflects that... there wasn't any hesistation or anything. it hit left wing first digging a long furrow into the earth. then the body hit and bounced. when the wing tore off and the plane hit again its passengers were thrown from the plane. buddy holly was found 12 feet southwest of the crash, ritchie valens was found 10 feet south of the crash. for some reason we don't know the direction (i know now, it was northwest) the big bopper took, but he went 40 feet into another field (a picked corn field, actually). so, i guess that's why people thought he was "going for help." the plane traveled 570 feet after first impact.

finally, to prove that the police don't pay too much attention to things that get rockstars killed... a certain envelope marked "charles hardin holley rec'd april 7, 1959" (where the fuck was it from february 2nd to april 7th, and interesting date.. 4-7, hm) turned up in the cerro gordo county sheriff's office back in february 1980. it contained buddy holly's eyeglasses, j.p. richardson's watch, a lighter and some dice. apparently, these items were returned to the families. i don't know that the same people were at the sheriff's office in 1959 and in 1980. but i would doubt it. i guess it's possible that the items were laying in the field until april and they were turned in at that time.

plane parts scattered for 540 feet across the field. of course, the plane itself and its bigger parts were dragged off to be examined, but there were things here and there you know.. like guns and eyeglasses. (the coroner's report says the gun was in buddy holly's overnight case... this makes me wonder about the gun story ... were there two guns? i am not sure.

i don't know... this is a weird story and a sad story... and i don't really want to look into much more because, by now, how much weird shit has happened? it just never ends. maybe it was just a plane crash, but it was a damned convenient plane crash that, had it not happened, could have spared us all a lot of crappy, crappy music.

ps... I fixed the links... I wrote this on pc and edited on cellphone... so hopefully that doesn't make it too wonky...

I don't know why I can't fix the links. they are from a site called: buddyhollyandthecrickets.com (i apologize for my mistakes previously... i was just looking for something else and i found more information... however, the info about this crash is rather confused because i found the information i posted previously in more than one place.)

when you find yourself adding bongos, stop and think wtf you are doing

i cannot even...

o.k., adam lambert has this song called "whattya want from me" (or some other grammatically tortured crap). because this has bugged me ever since i heard it, i must share: this is an unreleased pink song... it's pretty obvious once you know because he uses her phrasing exactly.

well, apparently everyone else in america appreciates the fuck out of the song because now we have the UNPLUGGED VERSION (you know for the people who can't handle the hard rock sound of adam fucking lambert) with BONGOS! oh, and it's slower. it may also be in b&w, but i don't think so. i think i am confusing him with pink herself now.

argh. also, this jason bieber kid needs to be concerned that he is 16 and his voice hasn't changed. seriously. he's got a song where ludacris raps a bit about a girl he loved when he was 13 (a girl ludacris loved). yeah, ludacris probably seriously believed this kid was about 12.

p.s., i know i resisted the urge to post about 30 seconds... but.. the bongos... it was the bongos!

forever the sickest shampoo

well, shampoo has bronchitis!

i've started a few longer posts, but hit abort on them because they were stupid.

now, my ever-present insomnia has kicked in so expect some weirdness like...

is it against the law these days to play rock videos or something? i mean, seriously. i have been flipping between the music channels and i am seeing the same few videos over and over. i will try my best to refrain from posting in detail about them, but i can't promise anything. haha

antibiotics should be otc for people like me, i swear. actually, my local pharmacy should just carry a "shampoo is sick again, same old same old" kit for me to pick up prn.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

buddy's gun and the winter dance party of 1959

back in 1959, rock and roll was still fairly new, but it was growing in popularity. it sounds as if fans were kind of here and there around the nation. so, to make the most of this new genre (and to make some $$$ in the dismal winter months), a winter tour of some of the top acts was organized. later, i'll post the particulars of whoall was on this tour and whereall they went, but for right now... i'm really only concerned with a few of the folks on this tour.

now, buddy holly and many of the other people performing around the country were from warmer climates than say, iowa and north dakota. perhaps this is why they had such an unsuitable tour bus. or maybe they just didn't have a lot of ready cash. the bus they hired, had problems relating to the cold weather. one poor dude even got frostbite ON THE BUS. this probably saved his life because he was in the hospital along about the time buddy holly and richie valens were taking turns filling in on the drums right before they died.

anyway, sick and tired of every stop taking way too long to get to (due to breakdowns and bad weather), buddy holly decided he would hire a plane. i'm not sure if it had been originally intended for him and the crickets (who were down a man). but, the plane only held one pilot and three passengers. by now everyone knows those passengers were buddy, richie valens (only 17 years old), and the big bopper a.k.a. j.p. richardson (28 years old with a pregnant wife at home).

here's another thing i thought was sort of a recent phenomenon... the big bopper was not only a rocker, he was a d.j. i don' t know if he ever brought two turntables and a microphone on stage with him, but before the winter dance party, he'd even earned a world record for playing over 1,000 records in a row in one marathon broadcast.

like so many other people we've heard of who have passed away at a young age lately, the big bopper was suffering from "flu-like symptoms" or, well, he full on had the flu. he wanted to get where he was going and get some sleep before the next show. he asked waylon jennings for his seat on the plane that fateful night. after some joking around that no one wants to come back to haunt them (j.p. said he hoped the bus broke down, waylon said he hoped the plane crashed), waylon gave up his seat on the plane and moved to the bus. waylon was in the crickets at that time, btw.

many years later, richardson's son jay (the baby the big bopper's wife was carrying when he died) confronted waylon jennings on his tour bus to finally get some answers about his dad. given all celebrities are overly sheltered half the time and thrown to the wolves the other half, people offered to throw jay off the bus until waylon realized who he was. apparently, finally talking about it was helpful, for both of them.

meanwhile, richie valens ASKED to ride on the plane because he'd never ridden on a small plane before. a winter night is maybe not the greatest time to pick, but richie was only 17 years old and, i suppose, if any of them really thought they were in danger they would have stayed on the ground.

then there's the pilot whose name i can't recall just now... (i'll look it up the next time). there are a few important facts about him i do recall... he was only 21 years old and really wasn't certified to fly totally off his instruments (as in at night when looking at the window wouldn't help much). added to that, he apparently had been somewhat misinformed when it came to the weather. i am going to have to look into this more, but i think it is possible he may have been familiar with the airfield he was flying to... whatever the case, the cause of the accident would eventually be ruled "pilot error."

but here's the point of this particular post.. two months after the plane crashed, the farmer who owned the field it crashed into, found a gun. specifically, buddy holly's gun. this has led to some WILD SPECULATIONS over the years amongst... i'm not sure who is talking about this reguarly, i just heard about it.

to back up a second, buddy holly had recorded six songs not too long before he died, that some people believed reflected depression in his personal life. the songs are about love gone wrong (you know, the subject of 45% of all songs) and love lost (the subject of a 55% of all songs). some people take this to mean buddy holly was hella upset about the state of his recent marriage and the the fact he hadn't married his high school sweetheart.

so, taking a detour into crazyland, they decide the fact he had a gun on him meant he had probably committed suicide on the plane and then bullet had then gone over and killed the pilot dooming the other passengers. there's one teensie tiny problem with that.. the PILOT was autopsied after the crash. he had not been shot. i know forsenic science in 1959 was much more primitive than it is now, but i am pretty certain they could tell if someone had been shot or not.

even though buddy holly wasn't autopsied, several people who saw a lot of dead bodies given their line of work, saw him. even though he couldn't have been in good shape, they probably would've noticed if he'd shot himself in the head. i'm just guessing that and i suppose i could be wrong...

also, i have to wonder if buddy holly was even depressed at the time. and, if he was, if he was so depressed he'd kill himself in front of other people dooming them to (at best) travel with his gruesome remains or (at worst) to die. i mean... that is a pretty severe type of thing that doesn't really fit the rest of the story...

the family of j.p. richardson had to move his grave a few years ago and they took that opportunity to have someone examine his body. he had been found 40 feet from the crash site, leading some to believe he'd been alive and had tried to go for help. a forsenic anthropologist confirmed the injuries richardson had received were consistent with having been in a plane crash. the same expert also said that richardson, like everyone else on the plane, died on impact. oh, and no one had shot him.

a sad aside, jay richardson saw his father for the first time during this examination. fortunately, the big bopper had held up pretty well over the years. jay was born three months after his father died. however, everyone found out that the funeral home had done a good job of trying to hide j.p.'s injuries, but that he did indeed have many, many bad fractures. he had compound fractures of both legs and his skull was fractured just to name a few.

so, what is the point of buddy holly's gun? well, hell, the dude was from texas. it might have been nothing more than that. however, the idea that he could have taken a gun out and discharged it while everyone else in this SMALL metal container hurtling through the night is nuts. only people who have never been around guns can really believe that. let me say, NOTHING ELSE sounds like the action of a gun. so, i would think if anyone hauled out a gun on a small plane.. it wouldn't go unnoticed. i don't know... this seems like an overly complicated way to explain why the plane crashed.

i'm not sure if this is 100% of a crazy theory or if there's some logic behind it somewhere. i'm also not sure why finding a gun leads to all this strange speculations.. maybe some think for it to be found by itself it couldn't have been in a bag or a coat pocket or whatever gun-storage place there may have been?

waiting for k

shampoo is about to reembark on a $ making scheme... wish poo luck hehe

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

buddy holly, early life and basic facts (also, a bit about musical genres)

charles hardin holley was born september 7, 1936 and died february 3, 1959. his nickname had always been "buddy". when his name was misprinted without the "e", he decided to use the stage name buddy holly.

buddy was born on labor day in lubbock, texas to lawrence odell holley and ella pauline drake holley. his family was interested in music and he learned to play the piano, guitar and violin. at age five, he won a talent contest.

in 1949, buddy holly recorded his first song, a cover of hank snow's "my two-timin' woman" on a borrowed recorder while he attended hutchinson junior high school. there he meant bob montgomery. they formed a duo called buddy and bob. they were influenced by bluegrass music and played local events and talent shows. buddy then attended lubbock high school where he sang in the choir.

buddy holly was active as a musician, singer, and songwriter from 1955-1959. he and the crickets recorded both in nashville and new york. although he could play several instruments, buddy played a fender stratocaster with his band.

after seeing elvis perform in 1955, buddy decided to add rockabilly to his music. this gradually evolved into rock music.

rockabilly used, among other things, what was called "hillbilly music" (later called country music). obviously, hillbilly music wasn't that well regarded at the time and, by the 60s, rockabilly had died out. it was revived in the late 70s and early 80s and now is a small subculture.

buddy holly died in a plane crash in grant township, cerro gordo county, iowa. he was only 22 years old.

in 1986, buddy holly was inducted into the rock & roll hall of fame.

early rock and roll, as played by buddy holly, was a mix of hillbilly music, western swing, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues. this style was played mostly in the southern united states (in the 50s). appalachian folk music also influenced buddy holly (e.g. bluegrass).

western swing is a specific type of swing music that was popular in the southwestern united states. like most dance music, it had an upbeat tempo. rural, cowboy, polka, folk, new orleans jazz, dixieland, blues, and jazz swing were all represented in this genre mostly played by musicians who perhaps were not specifically educated in music. they were playing what sounded good to them. when bebop began to be popular, it became part of western swing as well. most songs were in 2/4 time.

the texas playboys is the only western swing book my brief search turned up that i think i have heard of... i think this was the kind of music that was played more than recorded. there were some musicians in this genre who refused to let their music be labled "hillbilly music" (as far as i know, "hillbilly" has never been anything approaching a term of respect, so no surprise). the heyday of western swing, was pre-wwii.

another popular form of music around the same time (but lasting longer) was boogie woogie. despite the fact we've all heard "boogie woogie bugle boy", a PIANO is a big part of the boogie woogie sound. (not too convenient for an army to tote around a piano, i'll admit). most boogie woogie songs, as anyone should be able to clearly hear, are in common time.

blues, folk, gospel, ragtime and honkey tonk music all had their influences on the boogie woogie sound. in 1916, george w. thomas published sheet music for "new orleans hop scop blues", an early example of boogie woogie. however, the boogie woogie sound was very regionalized, so there were variations all over north america.

the term "rhythm and blues" was originally a marketing term used in billboard to replace the term "race music." shortly after that, they named a chart after it (the chart had been called the harlem hit parade), these changes happened in 1948 and 1949. the fans of this type of music in the late 40s were black clubgoers living in cities. the bands they were listening to were usually made up of a piano, two guitars, a bass, drums, a saxophone, a singer, and backgroung singers. although the vocalist sang with emotion, the performances were well-rehearsed and polished (probably due to jazz influences). unlike western swing, in other words, these were professional musicians who WERE educated in music.

as defined in the late 40s, rhythm and blues was jazz-based music with a heavy backbeat. by 1950, the term was being applied to blues records as well. in the 1960s, the rhythm and blues style began to be seen in rock and roll, but what was called rhythm and blues in the 60s now began to include electronic blues, soul, and gospel music. by the 70s, soul and funk were listed on the rhythm and blues charts. contemporary r&b emerged in the 80s (after the death of disco).

contemporary r&b singers have a distinctive style derived from changing notes when singing syllables. this is called "melisma". besides r&b singers, singers of arabic music also sometimes use this style. this particular style comes from ancient times and is thought to originally have developed in the middle east. it was used in religious ceremonies to induce trances in the listeners. if mariah carey used to hurt your ears with her vocal gymnastics back in the day... this could be why.. (seriously, i could not listen to some of her early songs, owie). another type of r&b is smooth r&b.

overall origins of rhythm and blues are jazz, blues (especially electric blues), gospel and traditional pop. from rhythm and blues are derived funk, ska, rock and roll. musicians who led to the creation of rhythm and blues are cab calloway, leroy carr, and count basie. perhaps they influenced the rhythm and blues visual style as well... bands dressed nicely and maintained a "cool" throughout their performances.

one of the biggest early rhythm and blues hits (that also had a dance) was "the hucklebuck" by paul williams. it stayed at number one in billboard for most of 1949. the dance was considered risque. (this makes me think of the club in walk hard where people go to "dance provocatively" haha.. i wonder if this dance is the inspiration for that...)

an early female rhythm and blues singer was ruth brown. her hits included "(mama) he treats your daughter bad", "teardrops from my eyes," and "what a dream." around the same time, fats domino charted with "ain't that a shame."

in 1955, little richard began to dominate the chart with hits such as "tutti frutti" and "long tall sally". james brown, otis redding, and elvis presley all took note of these songs. also in 1955, ray charles shook up the rhythm and blues sound by adding spiritual music to the mix with his hit "i got a woman." (this made some people a little bit uncomfortable at first, but it quickly caught on)

as more and more people began putting out rhythm and blues hits, acts began to crossover to other billboard charts. in 1954, the chords "sh-boom" made the top ten. they were followed by the charms and "heart of stone."

chuck berry hit the scene in 1955 when he reworked a country song ("red ida") into his smash hit "maybelline". this song not only crossed over, it became a hit among white teenagers looking for something new.

chuck berry was one of the performers in the top stars of 56 tour. headliners were al hibbler, frankie lymon and the teenagers and carl perkins. this tour was extremely succesful. possibly by 1956 all of these rhythm and blues stars had been featured in movies: chuck berry, little richard, fats domino, big joe turner, the treniers, the platters, the flamingos (and probably more).

elvis presley crossed over ONTO the rhythm and blues chart in 1957, gaining unprecedented success among rhythm and blue fans, when "jailhouse rock/treat me nice" and "all shook up" cracked the top five. like others of the time, elvis made it to film as well and, as we all know, went on to become a matinee idol. however, this kind of explains to me why jailhouse rock was so different from some of his later movies.

when jazz pianist nat king cole decided to try his hand at rhythm and blues. he was rewarded with huge hits like "mona lisa" and "too young". if fact, he was so well like that many of his songs became hits again when his daughter natalie added her vocals.

up until this major rhythm and blues labels had been savoy, king, imperial, speciality, atlantic, chess. at the close of the 50s, sam cooke started his sar label and berry gordy started motown.

chubby checker's "the twist" and sam cooke's own "chain gang" started to change the rhythm and blues sound for the 60s. the miracles "shop around" brought the motown sound into the mix. not to be outdone, stax records presented the memphis sound with the mar-keys hit "last night."

the new rhythm and blues sound of the 60s specifically influenced british blues, mod and beat music. specific bands emerging with this new sound (non r&b bands, i mean) were the animals, the yardbirds, the rolling stones, the who, and the beatles.

meanwhile, in jamacia, ska was being created... as we all know, ska became popular outside of jamacia in the 80s-90s.

contemporary r&b (sometimes called urban contemporary after the radio format that also includes hip hop) features a polished production style. up until the early 90s, the saxophone might make an appearance on tracks, but it seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of vocalists for now. unlike more traditional rhythm and blues, the backbeat is less important and may even be provided by a drum machine. although, it seems that there seem to be some changes afoot in this area. so we shall see quickly enough....

this is just an overview of things i found ... i was trying to put buddy holly in context of his times. i felt r&b was interesting because it changes so much. although, i know for a fact, some of its early incarnations are still around and still popular. given the unprecedented availability of music, hopefully we'll see even more innovation in the future.

she who sleeps under the diet

a subject of more than one manga storyline (which has probably since become an anime), is the sleeping psychic underneath the diet building.

i believe this derives from shinto shrine maidens beliefs when the shrine maidens went out to fight oni (japanese demons, which are a bit different than the western idea of demons). some even enslaved oni in service to their family. the anime zenki is about this (and zenki used to be the name of one of my computers).

the sleeping woman underneath the diet building had a young appearance, but she was not young. she had been there an improbable amount of time and she secretly guided the fate of japan. she always had personal attendents and, iirc, they dedicated their lives to her for a certain period of time. there was no leaving for the attendants.

getting to the sleeping woman and asking her questions was a major plot point... especially since the diet often did not want to listen to her if her words were contrary to what they themselves always wanted to do.

i suppose this is a rather ancient idea... but it's interesting one... especially since it did not seem that she could ever leave the diet building. so, i wonder... how did she get there in the first place? did she appear from thin air at the base of japanese power?

shintoism is only possible to practice in japan and if you're japanese. not that i was really thinking about converting. hehe but, that's an interesting idea similar to druidism.... otherwise there seems to be quite a bit of difference between the two. especially since i'm pretty sure you have to be a man to be a druid.

oddly, i know less of druidism than shintoism. but then again, blame anime. (and the fact that druidism is a mystery religion.)

michael jackson, a ladies' man?

apparently, i have missed the most important episode of "good morning america" ever filmed. i just read on wesmirch that three of michael's bodyguards say they drove him around to meet his multiple girlfriends.

they say, "men know men." they don't believe the pedophile rumors and they do believe michael was really interested in his numerous women he was seeing on the downlow.

this begs the question... why didnt michael just marry one of these women at some point? maybe they answered that question.

of course, at the point, with michael being dead anyone can say anything about him. not that this is necessarily the worst rumor ever to come out about him, but i'm just saying.

did i ever tell you about the time that i picked up my drunk slut friend from her rendezvous with michael jackson? it's a fascinating story, i'll tell you that. haha

some future posting ideas...

well, i have begun research on another round of posting...

it all started with the idea to do a post about buddy holly. i guess every time i see crazy ass gary busey i think of buddy holly because gary just loved him so much.

i saw the movie a long time ago. before, in fact, gary's motorcycle accident. i can't watch it now.. because it's losses on top of losses... gary couldn't do a performance like that ever again after his brain damage.

i can't imagine losing three major acts all at once like that... how kids must have felt with buddy holly, richie valens, and the big booper all dying in an iowa plane crash. buddy holly was 22 years old and i think richie valens was even younger (they're showing la bamba on one of the music channels, maybe i'll watch it). this happened in 1959.

in 1956, there had been a big tour of mostly r&b stars: the top stars of 56 tour was headlined by al hibbler, frankie lymon and the teenagers (they made a movie about him, too... he had a lot of ladies), carl perkins (his song "blue suede shoes" was on the r&b charts in 56). also performing (for at least part of the tour, maybe all of it) were chuck berry, cathy carr, shirley & lee, della reese, and the cleftones.

one of the shows had 8,000 seats/capacity. 50,000-70,000 kids tried to attend the concert. traffic was tied up for seven hours due to this... i guess i see why the adults got annoyed with the "darned kids and their loud music!" can you imagine trying to get home for work among a bunch of teenagers trying to get to a concert. and since it was the 50s... you know, they had hot rods back then... i'm just saying..

so, this has morphed into an idea to do some posts about various singers from back in the day... just whoever turns out to have an intriguing story.

i may also do a post on cab calloway since daddy once said about him, "he was really going big, but he just quit." the reason? the mafia wanted their cut (according to something my father heard cab saying), so cab calloway decided it might be safer to be obscure. fortunately, janet jackson had used cab in one of her videos or i might not have ever heard that interesting little story. "really going big" was my father's highest praise for an entertainer, btw.

researching it, i've already run across so many famous names that it's crazy. so this may turn out to be rather involved... but i'm going to try! :)

is shorty the new sweetheart?

i had fuse on today and they were playing the top hip-hop list. at number 9 was sean kingston and his ode to shorty (if you've never heard of this song, it's called "replay"). he confides that "shorty" (a pretty girl shows up later to represent this lady) is "like a melody" that he can't get out of his head. it's almost as if his ipod is stuck on replay (hm, that doesn't sound good at first, but i assume sean kingston only puts songs he thinks are super awesome on his ipod).

he likens shorty to a poster girl and says she's a "dime", etc. so, sean likes shorty a lot is what i'm saying. he's even going to cook her something nice. (awww..)

romantics of the world can only hope that sean is singing to a real girl (maybe even the girl in the video!) and that their love will always be the illest ipod playlist ever (i believe the young people use "ill" to describe things positively these days, i'm trying to be modern to suit the ipod).

but, "shorty" is a bit of a strange word to become an endearment. nothing's wrong with it and, as far as i know, it doesn't have any negative connotations. but, it must be the new sweetheart because this isn't the only song to "shorty" that is out right now.

here's what i'm wondering, what about tall girls? are they still shorties? does the guy have to be taller than they are? or could any girl potentially be called a "shorty"?

i know "shorty" has been around for a while, but busta rhymes once referred to himself (i mean himself as a child) as a "little shorty". so, this indicates it's not always been just for girlfriends. pf course, that may have been back in the late 90s when ipods were not yet dangling from ears around the world.

most commonly, i guess i have heard it applied to girls/women (depending on the ages of the people involved) whether referring to a group or an individual. it seems that it may have come to mean a guy's special girl more recently, but i'm not sure about this... i don't know... it does sound kind of cute.

Monday, March 8, 2010

best makeup or the only 2010 oscar winner i actually saw

once upon the time, when shampoo was tangentially in the biz (haha) shampoo saw the movies and watched the academy awards and had opinions about them. i just read the list and... well... i suppose it's fine. the list i read didn't have EVERY award, but it had most of the ones that people care about. and i've seen one: Star Trek. it won best makeup. i suppose it deserved that, but i really could not say as i didn't watch the broadcast and i don't know what else was nominated.

some of the other movies sound really sad. :( shampoo can't handle too many sad things just now.

i noticed that sandra bullock won, so that means she won the razzie and the oscar just like a million blogs have speculated about for months now. so, i suppose that's nice for her. congrats, sandra. i'm sure you're reading this. (waves) j/k

my sister saw the blind side, and she liked it. so, take that for what it's worth.

look da bunny!!

i now have an avatar! my first ever! yay!

i love bunnies. <3

love,
shampoo

Sunday, March 7, 2010

i have some issues with the razzies...

o.k., here is my thing! getting to complain about crappy movies! sign me up! but, i am disappointed! with a few glorious exceptions, some of these are... well, i know for a fact there is way worse stuff that needs to be called out. but anyway, here we go (let me know what you think!)

worst picture: transformers--revenge of the fallen (i haven't seen this, no idea. the first one was silly.)
worst actor(s): the jonas brothers (all 3) for jonas brothers: the 3d experience. (mr. mouse is pissed! and i'm sure they were awful, so this razzi i agree with 100%!)
worst actress: sandra bullock for all about steve (oh, there has to be someone worse than sandra... but, then again, i haven't seen it)
worst screen couple: sandra bullock and bradley cooper for all about steve (still haven't seen it)
worst supporting actor: billy ray cyrus for hannah montana: the movie (YES! i haven't seen it, but billy ray has negative charisma, and can't act... so perfect choice)
worst supporting actress: sienna miller for g.i. joe--the rise of cobra (they made a g.i. joe movie? obviously i haven't seen it, but "perfect catch" has the NEW sienna miller if this one isn't working out)
worst prequel, remake, rip-off or sequel: land of the lost (what? i thought this one was funny. maybe i have poor taste in movies, but i like it)
worst director: michael bay for transformers--revenge of the fallen (wow, is this movie this bad?)
worst screenplay: chren kruyer, robert orci and alex kurtzman for (guess what) transformers--revenge of the fallen (i feel bad putting this one, writers get so little recognition)
worst picture of the decade: battlefield earth (haven't seen it because it's an ode to scientology)
worst actor of the decade: eddie murphy (what?) for adventures of pluto nash (i liked this one), i spy (forgot this one was even made), imagine that (what is this?), meet dave (i thought this one was o.k.--not super awesome, but o.k., but i saw it free), norbit (this did look horrid) and showtime (again, what is this?)
worst actress: paris hilton (is she an actress?) for the hottie and the nottie (haven't seen), house of wax (i thought she did all right in this), and repo--the genetic opera (never heard of it)

first, how could miley cyrus not be mention in this somewhere? it surely can only be because about half of her scenes are with billy ray cyrus who could make paris hilton look like ... crap, i don't have any examples, but a good actress. haha

sandra bullock showed up at the razzie awards with dvds of all about steve so people could rethink their decision. haha, sandra

o.k., so i did at least listen...

well, that celebrity crime scene: john lennon came on while i was typing. since i wasn't really lookng at the screen (and seeing john), i decided to listen.... sort of...

here are a few things i thought were especially weird...

dude who shot john lennon (i am not allowed to say his name, but his initials work out to 13-4-3) had $2,200 on him. this is super weird to me.

also, the doctor who attended john lennon said after they tried everything they could (they thought perhaps they could save him even though he died in the police car on the way to the hospital) that they had to be particularly careful afterwards. first, he wanted to make sure EVERYTHING related to john's treatment was packed up and destroyed (no souvenirs) particularly the linens they'd used. i think he may have personally attended to that detail, so that makes me wonder if someone was really trying to get their hands on something. also, he had to make sure that no one talked about john.

even after all of these years, he did not say very much about john. i don't think that is a bad thing. unless there is a VERY GOOD reason for things to be told, john has a right to privacy.

the police said the guy who shot john didn't act much like the usual homicide suspect, but they felt he was "trying to set up an insanity defense." he even made it sound at one point that he was just supposed to shoot someone, other times specifically he was supposed to shoot john. in fact, he put it off earlier that day because john had been really nice to him. (so sad)

the police believe this guy is definitely the shooter and not a patsy. that is one way to do the manchurian candidate thing, there's a patsy and a real shooter. this just seems to be a one-man operation. i read that sean lennon thinks his father was killed by someone other than the person who pulled the trigger, so to me, that says a lot. he's heard much more evidence than i ever will. even though he's been raised by yoko's crazy ass, i'm sure* he's reasonably intelligent (*note: this is a figure of speech, i don't actually know this, haha, perhaps i should have said "i hope"?) and wouldn't be saying such things if not for a good reason.

anyway, hopefully one day there will be justice for john lennon. may he rest in peace.

the "talking dog"

there is a cell phone commercial where a woman is shipping her little boy in a pet carrier to save money on airline tickets. she asks him if he's o.k. and he resignedly replies, "I have a coloring book." then she asks the guys at the place where you check in your live cargo if they think this is a bad idea. she claims she needs the money she'll save on the plane ticket to pay her cell phone bill. they tell her about a cheaper type of cell phone. then, as he's being place on the conveyor belt, the little boy says, "i'm itchy." and the guys are all, "is that the talking dog?"

i don't know... this commercial is just a little too strange to me. i mean, stay home! go without a cell phone! maybe shampoo's ill mood is showing again... what do you think (about the commercial)?

shampoo is in a bad mood today!

hey, take everything shampoo rants with a grain of salt. i'm in a foul mood today! i swear! it has been a day! hahahaha

but, i'm trying to do some posts that i had taken notes on and never gotten around to in that when you blog on a phone, your posts gotta be short. so, i can ramble endlessly like i like to do.

robert smalls a.k.a. the luckiest man ever?

o.k., robert smalls bio doesn't start off with what you'd think was pure luck as he was born into slavery. but, about midway through, his life starts to get awesome!!

he was born april 5, 1839 in beaufort, s.c. he was born at 511 prince st. he worked in the master's house at 512 prince st. when he was old enough. his mother lydia had been raised in low country gullah culture. she was owned by john mckee.

in 1851, robert smalls went to charleston to work for henry mckee. he held several jobs such as street lamp lighter. he also worked at the charleston docks as a stevedore, rigger, sailmaker, and finally, as a wheelman. a wheelman is a position on a steamboat. someone likened it to the pilot. it really is not the same thing, however, slaves were not allowed to be pilots. so, in this case, perhaps robert smalls was qualified to hold the position of pilot. but, generally speaking, the pilot plots the course (harder than it sounds given some of the rivers had various obstacles) while the wheelman steers. often they will be at their positions at the same time. the pilot can steer, of course, but the wheelman can't always pilot.

if you read frederick douglass "narrative of a life", he explains in detail about holding public jobs while a slave. he was responsible for finding a job and sometimes, his master would take part of his pay (although he could have taken all of it, but in douglass's case he didn't). douglass's master didn't have really anything for him to do and this was a common practice. so, smalls could have been doing something similar. another thing is, these days, we think of slaves every second having someone standing over them. that really was not always the case. sometimes, they were able to travel around a bit (such as around charleston, in smalls' case). douglass talks about this as well.

christmas eve, 1856, smalls married hannah jones, a hotel maid. she was 14 years older than him. she already had a daughter. they had two children together. their daughter lydia elizabeth, was born in 1858. their son, robert, jr. (1861-1863) died in childhood.

in 1861, smalls became wheelman on the confederate ship, the planter. then, may 12, 1862 robert smalls freed himself from slavery. apparently, he knew in advance that the white officers were going ashore. he and the other slaves on board had arranged for their family members to meet them at a nearby dock. they backed out of the wharf at 3 a.m. on may 13th and made for the union barracade. the first ship he encountered, the uss onward, nearly fired upon the planter. (this was a pretty daring feat, btw, made possible partly due to the fact smalls had a captain's hat.)

fortunately for smalls and union forces (which, despite what most people think apparently needed all the help they could get because wait until you hear whatall was ON the planter), the planter was simply captured. what did it have on it? well, two guns, four artillery pieces, a lot of explosives, a code book, maps of the harbors. and it had smalls who provided a lot of information. he told admiral samuel dupont everything he knew about the harbor's defenses.

congress later passed a bill giving smalls and his crewmen the prize money for the planter. smalls received $1,500 (around $35,000 now). he met lincoln later in may 1862. smalls then went on to serve in the union navy until march 1863.

major-general david hunter told smalls and manfield french to convince lincoln and secretary of war edwin stanton to allow blacks to fight with the union forces in port royal. the 1st and 2nd south carolina volunteers, made up of 5,000 black volunteers.

april 7, 1863, smalls piloted the uss keokuk, a union ironclad, when it attacked ft. sumter. this attack failed. in december 1863, smalls became the first black captain of a u.s. vessel.

as for the planter, december 1, 1863, it was caught in the crossfire and captain nickerson, the ship's commander, decided to surrender. fearing he and the other blacks onboard would be shot, smalls took over and piloted to safety. here is where i say, there is something else going on with this story... some spy shit or whatever. i am sure smalls really did what he said he did, but someone else was making sure he succeeded. because he regularly seemed to get by, like, five forts unscathed. and get left on a ship alone with all kinds of valuable shit (hmmm...). there was hella double agent shit going on back in the day.... so i'm figuring that he was quite smart to not let himself be captured right here, all's i'm saying. due to again delivering a valuable ship to the union navy, smalls was allowed to be the commander of the planter.

after the war, smalls bought his master's old house and moved in... the master's wife was quite "confused" at the time (no fucking doubt, some hardcore stuff went down in charleston). so, she stayed until she died. she was pretty old anyway. smalls' mother also lived with his family.

in 1866, smalls and richard howell gleaves opened a store for freedmen. in april 1866, congress passed the civil rights act (over andrew johnson's veto) and ratified the 14th amendment. now able to vote, etc. smalls became a republican and urged his fellow blacks to "vote republican and thus bury the democratic party so deep that there will not be seen even a bubble from the spot where the burial took place." ( yes, republicans have always said stuff like that. although, the former slaves thought the republicans had freed them, so .... oh i don't know, republicans use dirty tactics, perhaps that will be another rant.)

smalls was a delegate to the RNC several times during the reconstruction (read: hellish martial law) era. he was in south carolina's house 1865-1870 and their senate 1871-1874. then he was in the u.s.'s 44th, 45th, 47th, and 49th congresses.

during consideration of a bill to reduce and restructure the u.s. army, smalls introduced an amendment that would make "no distinction" based on "race or color" upon enlistment. congress pretended not to hear him. if this sounds a little familiar, it did eventually pass. but not while smalls was around.

now to something called the compromise of 1877. this settled the 1876 presidential election so that hayes (republican) won. but, he had to remove troops occupying south carolina, florida, and louisana. he also had to put at least one southern democrat in a cabinet position. (hayes appointed david m. key of tennessee as postmaster general). another railroad was to be constructed to replace the one pretty well destroyed in the war. (hayes said fuck that and this didn't even begin to happen until 1930... it doesn't appear to be finished in 2010.) there was to be some sort of industrialization in the south (again, hayes feigned deafness, and this didn't get started until 1930.) this bullshit is what got everyone sick and tired of the republicans tactics and their "waving of the bloody shirt" and the democrats were eventually put in for a while to straighten out this mess.

somewhere along the line, smalls got accused of taking a bribe. charges were eventually dropped. i'm not sure if there was any truth to that or if it was politics as usual. and i wouldn't be surprised if it was by his own party, but i don't know.

smalls was appointed u.s. collector of customs and held this office from 1889-1911. he died february 23, 1915 at age 75.

he had served in south carolina's 5th and 7th districts in the u.s. house of representatives. he held office from march 1875 to march 1879 and july 1882 to march 1883 and march 1884 to march 1887. he is the last black person to have served for the 5th district. i don't know the demographics of that particular region, but when south carolina elects you, you STAY elected for a long period of time. i think strom thurmond was in the senate about 80 years, seriously. so, i guess what i am saying is perhaps only about four people have held that seat since him.

anyway, it's a little amazing that with only his wits and a captain's hat, smalls acccomplished all of this. but, i thought his story was interesting ... no matter what you make of it. :)