Oklahoma: cradle of songwriters

Wow. JJ Cale passed away. Mostly known as a writer of hits for other performers, Mr. Cale was from Oklahoma.

Which for such a small state has a strong musical pantheon.

Start of course with Woody Guthrie.

Then consider that Lee Hazlewood was an Okie too. Who? You know, the "these boots were made for walkin'" guy.  His music was covered by Rowland S. Howard,  Vanilla Fudge, Lydia Lunch, Primal Scream,  Einstürzende Neubauten, Nick Cave, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Beck, The Tubes, Thin White Rope and Slowdive.

How 'bout if we hop over to Hoyt Axton next. Yep, he was an Okie. Wrote songs that were hits for Three dog night and Steppenwolf. "Jeremiah was a bullfrog Okie"!

Heck, Wallis Willis, who wrote "swing low sweet chariot" was an Okie.

Not impressed yet? OK, let's kick it up a notch

Jimmy Webb? Okie! You know, the "by the time i get to Phoenix" guy. His songs were covered by
Glen Campbell, The 5th Dimension, Thelma Houston, The Supremes, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, Art Garfunkel, Amy Grant, America, Linda Ronstadt, R.E.M.,  Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand, and Carly Simon among others.

Then there is the great Leon Russell. I love this guy.

St. Vincent (Annie Clark) is an Okie. I just assumed she was (gasp) Canadian!

So is Dwight Tilley!

Was disappointed to find out that Wayne Coyne, the frontman of the amazing Oklahoma band Flaming lips was born in Pittsburgh! We'll still count him as an honorary Okie though (just like me).

And people I'm not even getting into the slew of modern country "artists" from here (Vince Gill, Toby Keith, Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks, et. al).

That is a very strong line up.

Rasslin'

As a kid, I was never big into cartoons. I loved rasslin'.  You know, old school, with these guys:

The WWF boom of the 80's was terrible for me because the rasslin' was so terrible. Hulk Hogan couldn't/wouldn't work. It was all gimmicks and 'roids.

But here's a  human interest story about two really bad wrestlers from the 80's; Jake Roberts and Dallas Page.

Turns out that yoga is not just for sissies anymore!

Nice to see these two old farts can still get over on gullible internet scribes.

Link-O-Rama

In homage to the great, masterful, Mungovian Monday's Childs, here's a Friday Angus link-o-rama


1. Will we ever learn to separate skill from luck? Not in Spain apparently.

2. Japan is winning the war against deflation. Or are they?

3. Chris Christie embraces the police state. Nice touch to blame libertarians in advance for the next terrorist attack.

4. The eternal sunshine of the spotless president. Obama's "protect whistleblowers" policy disappears from the web.

5. Have we discovered the origins of the friends and family discount? Wrong! Zap!

6. A petition against the MOOC. Sadly, this is not a satire. "Tenured professors are people too".

Would you rather get bit by a Pit Bull or a Shih Tzu?

Easy one, right?

Well after reading this story, you might want to think again.

A poor lady ended up in a medically induced coma and losing 3 limbs because of a friendly nip from her Shih Tzu.

Imagine what the dog could do if it was mad!

Of course this story comes from Canada, so maybe Shih Tzu is Canadian for Great White Shark?

Crime Pays: example # 10305

People, I give you the Ryan Braun (can his nickname really be the Hebrew Hammer? really?) guide to making it filthy rich in falling baseball.

1. Juice like a mother

2. Sign a lucrative contract extension based on your juiced performance

3. Serve your time right away when finally nailed so as to minimize your salary loss

4. Enjoy your $21 million a year for 5 years thereafter

All the other stuff, "betting his life" he never juiced, going after the poor sample collector, that was just for grins. Don't let it distract you from the master plan, which has worked to a T.

As I was man'splainin' this to Mrs. Angus, she asked me how in the world the Brew Crew would be obligated to make good on the extension when the HH was caught juicing.

Good question.

I guess that "caught juicing" is not part of the morals clause of MLB contracts.

But it should be.

Can we at least put Lil Ryan's 2011 MVP award in a closet somewhere with Reggie Bush's Heisman?

The Code in Aviation

An email from a frequent reader/listener, and really smart person, provoked by the recent Roberts-Munger podcast on "The Code" in sports. 

What follows is a LONG post, with a lot of links and videos.  But it is remarkable (remember, I didn't write it; I'm just reproducing it, redacted a bit).  Save it for sometime when you have 20 minutes to really think about it.  Fascinating.  And quite a commentary on how air travel is much less planned, and much more of a spontaneous order, than many people think.  I am most grateful to the anonymous person who sent the email; great stuff.

[Your] show made me think about aviation. It's a profession THICK with your conception of how law, legislation, equipment, and code interplay. There is much I could say about this. Thought you might be interested in just a little bit since there are connections to both your podcast topic and (possibly) the Asiana accident that's in the headlines these days. The evolution of aviation provides an example where
1) "The code" proved faulty
2) Intervention was required to change it, and
3) Change was successfully adopted/embraced with measurably better results.

Much more after the jump...

Monday's Child

1.  Hooking Up:  A cost benefit analysis.  From a woman's perspective.  Once you don't need to marry up, you can hook up.  At that point, men are really just an elaborate life support system to keep a penis alive.

2.  I posted about this before.  I will likely post about this again.

3.  Pwning P-Kroog....

4.  STOP frying those eggs, dag-nabbit!

5.  Long.  Funny how that is now usually followed by "but," as in "Long, but worth reading."  Anyway, this is quite long, AND it's worth reading.

SO....much more after the jump!

It's enough to make you want to break your arm

You might want to break your arm, just to get aholt of some of these drugs.  Apparently.


Now we know what Angry Alex does on weekends...

Creation vs. Diversion

I used to think AirBNB was cool, but now that Thomas Friedman has slurped it in the Times, I'm not so sure. One interesting thing in the piece was how the AirBNB founder confuses his company's revenue with new economic activity.

Surely most of AIRBNB's revenues are actually just diversion, no? I'd guess that at least 75% of their revenue is just diverted from hotel/motel revenue.

This is a common mistake. "look how much NAFTA increased trade", "Look how much the new stadium will boost the local economy" are examples of this kind of erroneous thinking.

Creation vs. diversion is an important and often overlooked distinction.

I just had a great stay in an AirBNB property in Brooklyn, but the Staten Island Hilton Garden Inn lost the revenue that AirBNB generated.

 

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