Our first show of 2009 is 150% new and improved:

• Happy New Year!  Lets try to avoid the religious discrimination of last year.
• Vin: 2005 Sebastiani Cabernet Sauvignon
  
• Tune 1: The Chair by Luftwaffe
• Our New Year wishes, hopes, dreams, fears...
• Tune 2: Record Store Renegade by Bankrupt
• On Film: Happy-Go-Lucky

Show 149 barely squeaked into December with the following nonsense:

• We hope you have survived 2008 without too much damage, and we sincerely wish you the best for 2009!  We both hope (Rich) and pray (John) that our new president can turn this ship around.
• Tune 1: Rock Ronald Reagan
• Independent media and the "quality" paradox
• Tune 2: Two Mazurkas by The Four Bags
• On Film: A Thousand Years of Good Prayers 

For the 148th anniversary of our gathering, we present you with:

• If the shoe fits...toss it!  (Upon further review, the second shoe did NOT contact the president's head. I repeat, did NOT contact his head. 1st down, Iraq!)
• Wilco live (photos)
• Vin: 2006 Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir
  
• Tune 1: Silver Stone by Up the Chain
  
• On Film: Get Smart
• Tune 2: The Blood Club by Bryan Scary
• On Film (homework): Religulous

Hi folks, Rich here.  I'm sorry to report that I was sick as a dog on the day in which John and I were supposed to record this week's podcast, so we're going to have to miss a week.  I had a sinus migraine that would have killed a small Blue Whale, but I survived to Podcast again.

See you next week.

 Rich...

Attention all units, we have a 147 in progress on West Alameda.  Subjects are armed.  Proceed with caution.

• Christmas is coming and Griz from the Grizzly's Growls Podcast shares his list with us
• Tune 1: Blues for Ayman by the Greg Howard Band
• Bail out?  WTF???
• Tune 2: Kafka Love Song by Richard Potter
• On Film: Man On Wire

On our (roughly) 146th show, we celebrate:

• Vindication
• Pizza: NY Pizza & Deli, Gluten Free Pie
• Vin: 2005 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon
  
• Tune 1: Unemployed by Tuff Luvs
• General BS and recap of our recent adventures
  
• Tune 2: I Wanna Wrestle You by The Sumo Sisters
• On Film: I Served the King of England

We continue last week's discussion with Lech Kowalski, including his fascinating project entitled Camera War, found at http://www.camerawar.tv.  Our discourse includes:

FINALLY!  We're back, and in full force.  We're in a new studio and we're honored and privileged to have independent filmmaker Lech Kowalski with us!  This show includes:

 Hi folks, this is just a quick little audio status update to let you know what's going on with Bloodthirsty Vegetarians.  We look forward to seeing you soon.

John McCain was on David Letterman last night, and he asked the Senator some tough questions.  Tougher questions than the regular media often asks, so this is why I've titled this post, what I've titled it.

But more than that, Dave seems just to have changed.

I've been a fan of his for decades.  I watched his Late Night show, since it started on NBC, way back when.  In the weeks leading up to that launch of that show, I'll never forget the promo that I saw.  Dave was looking into the camera, and said something like, "Late Night With David Letterman begins Monday.... and I'm told NBC just gave us the go-ahead for COLOR!"

That's the Lettermanesque humor that I've always enjoyed, and have been know to try to copy.

Dave is still funny, and still sarcastic, but there seems to have been a change.  Maybe it was his near death experience from a few years back, or maybe it was his having his first child, but to me he seems different.

A few weeks ago, I tuned in for no particular reason, and his guest that night was the women (and I have forgotten her name) who is the Director for the United Nations program in charge of feeding hungry children around the world.

Obviously this is a serious and important topic, and Dave treated it so.  I don't believe he cracked one joke, or made even one sarcastic remark.  He treated it with the grave seriousness that such a topic warrants, and it was clear to me that beyond that, the fact that there are starving children in the world is something that bothers him greatly.

This new-and-improved Dave comes across as a person.  A real human being with feelings, instead of a sarcastic-comedy-robot (and I don't mean that as harshly as it sounds).

Whatever the reason, I find myself tuning in to watch Dave more than ever.  Yes, I have more time on my hands since I became unemployed, but now that I've discovered this new Dave, I intend to watch more frequently, as my schedule permits.  I might even have to get a DVR box so that when I return to work, I can watch his shows the following day.

Oh, and if it takes Dave asking tough questions of our politicians, to get real answers, then I'm all for it.  The corporate media doesn't seem to do it, and they're questions that need asking.  I say go get'em.

Let me preface this by saying I was never a huge Beatles fan, but I am a music lover and musician.

It seems that Richard "Ringo Starr" Starkey posted a video on his web site very recently asking his fans to stop sending in items to be signed, and requests for autographs.  Saying he "asked" them is being kind, however.

After I saw this video I was literally amazed at how wrong it was in so many ways.  Seriously, this is the video I would have released if I were purposely trying to alienate my fans, and everyone else in the world.

Doesn't he have "people" to warn him against this kind of thing?  Advisors, lawyers, SIX YEAR OLD CHILDREN?

No one is questioning his right to peace and quiet, and his right to NOT sign things if he chooses.  But this was the absolute wrong way to go about asking them.

 Did I say "asking them"?  He didn't even do that.  He "warned them with peace and love.."

 Is that even possible?  How about "I'm ASKING you with peace and love."

 And while were on the topic of peace and love, did any of that sound sincere?

 If you don't want to sign any fan mail, then don't.  Just toss it and be done with it, and don't put out the video.  I'm sure it's what most celebrities do, and I'm pretty certain that fans aren't surprised when they don't get a reply from their heroes.  I'm sure they expect it.

 But if you do want his autograph, you'd better hurry because you have less than four days!

Hi, it's me again, and I just got back from seeing Burt Bacharach at the Stanley Theatre, in Utica, NY.  I know I've written about seeing concerts in the Stanley before, so instead of talking about the theatre, I'll link to the previous story, and talk about this afternoon's concert.

As I suspected it would be, the show was awesome.  Every song in the guy's catalog was a hit, so it's not possible for him to play a concert and you not know all of the tunes being played.  Even though his music is really from the previous generation, I still love it.  As a child growing up in this area, we once had a radio station called WIBQ, and my dad had his FM dial GLUED to that station for the entirety of the 1970's.  The station played nothing but those kinds of standards, so even though Burt is before my time, I had a lot of exposure to him as a child (that just sounds wrong!).

As an avid watcher of people, it's always interesting to watch the people around me as they enjoy (?) the various concerts that I attend.  I have a pretty deep connection to music since I've been a musician for 30 years, and I need music like I need food.  For me it's impossible to hear music.... GOOD music... and not get into it and groove to it a little bit.  Which is why I was so shocked that the guy on my left DIDN'T MOVE during the entire performance.  I would have checked for a pulse, but if he actually WERE dead, that would have interrupted the show, and that didn't seem like a good idea at all.  Why go to a concert if you're not going to at least PRETEND to enjoy it?  And this is not the first time I've noticed this phenomenon.  I've been noticing it for years and am still confounded.

One nice surprise at The Stanley today was that they started serving Cycles Gladiator wines at their events.  I've come to love that wine in the last six months, and was thrilled that it is now being served there.

No matter where I go, locally, I seem to know a lot of people, and the other interesting happening today was that I overheard the woman in front of me talk about who her husband was, and he happened to be the guitarist who played in the band at my high school prom.  The even stranger coincidence was that I had found some video footage of that band from back in 1982 or 1983, and I emailed the guy not to long ago to talk about guitars.  You see the very first, GOOD electric guitar that I bought, was identical to the one I saw him playing at my prom.  I like the instrument so much, I bought one of my own and have had it for twenty five years.

I ended up telling his wife that story and she got quite a kick out of it.

It's a small world.

 Best...

Salvete Omnes!   Quomodo vales?

It's been a little while since I posted anything up here, so I thought that I would write a quick missive.  We've gotten a few more emails from fans wondering what happened to us.  All I can report at this time is that John and I are still alive, and I hope are going to produce some more shows in the future.

The sad news is that the great Paul Newman left us recently.  I know I am speaking for both John and me when I say that I was a huge fan of his acting talents, his driving talents, and his generous philanthropic nature.  I had the opportunity to meet the man in 1989 or thereabouts.  As some of you know, Paul was a talented race car driver.  I went to see the IMSA racing series at Limerock Park in Connecticut, and Paul was there driving for Bob Sharp Nissan, which he did quite frequently.  He was just walking around the paddock, and I walked up to him, shook his hand, and told him I was a fan.  He seemed like quite the regular guy.

Even though he won his first Academy Award for The Color Of Money, for me his best performance was in Cool Hand Luke, and for me, I'll always remember him that way.

I'm pretty sure that everyone is aware of the great work that he did, and continues to do with his Newman's Own line of fine foods.  The foods are amazing, and the proceeds go to progressive causes.  If you haven't tried any of their products yet, be good to yourself, and others, and try them.  He also has a line of Organic foods called Newman's Own Organics, and they can be found at the same web site as Newman's Own, and at finer grocery stores in your area.

Pottery classes go well for me.  I'm finally able to make things that almost look like pottery.  I'm really liking this, so far.

I guess there's not much more to tell, so be well, hang in there, and we'll see you soon.

 Rich...

I know all of you want to hear about this, so I thought I'd write a bit about it.

I've had two pottery classes, and I've gotten to the point where centering the clay is easy.  I said that out loud last night and several people gave me angry stares.

We began to practice the pulling technique, to make simple cylinders, and I'm doing OK with that, but need to work on it some more.  That was a little harder than I thought it would be, but I'll get it at the next lesson.

I have nothing new regarding the status of the podcast.  John and I haven't discussed it in a bit, but hopefully it's coming soon.

OK, I know some of you aren't going to be excited about this, but I'm about to start doing something I've wanted to do since grade school, and no, I'm not talking about dipping Cheryl Migliacio's pigtails in the ink-wells.  I'm going to start taking Pottery classes.