Brianland

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Love  Is    

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Love is missing someone

            when they leave the room

                        just for a minute

Love is living in an electric 3-D high-resolution wide-screen technicolor heaven

            after living in a world of out-of-focus rabbit-ears

                        in blurry black & white

Love is hugging the other person’s pillow in the morning after they get up,

            feeling their warmth against the sheets

                        and pretending you’re them

Love is writing each other

            love note horoscopes

                        every morning for life

Love is going through everything

            with the other person beside you

                        whether they’re there or not

Love is being so excited every time you get ready to leave the house together

            it’s like you’re packing on a plane trip to Paradise,

                        only you’re just walking around the block together

Love is being on a roller coaster ride

            pushing a shopping cart

                        in a grocery store together

Love is getting under the covers first in the winter

            and lying on the other’s side to warm it up

                        before they crawl in

Love is taking a lot longer

            to find your clothes again

                        than it took to get them off

Love is being in bed together

            and there being only one person

                        there

Love is speaking in sound language

            only two people

                        know

Love is laying pillow-to-pillow

            unable to sleep

                        because you can’t stop looking

Love is watching someone’s eyes close

            and holding their hand

                        until you feel them dreaming

Love is waking up in the middle of the night

            looking over at the person asleep beside you

                        knowing the world is safe, and going back to sleep sweetly

Love is the other person feeling the same way.

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Some other poems . . .

Be The Invincible Spirit You Are

A Song of Enid I Sing

The Boys Who Grew From Northern Lands

The Carolyn Cassady Birthday Poem 

A Shakespearian Cassady

The Royal Woods of Cassady County

Smokin’ Charlie’s Saxophone 

Where Wayward Jekylls Hyde — The Mighty Bama-Rama Rap

The Ballad of The Profiteers

Sittin’ On My Roof In New Orleans

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by Brian Hassett       karmacoupon@gmail.com       BrianHassett.com

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“I mean, tickets come to about a dollar per supergroup.”  Ian Tyson, in Festival Express. 

same idea  +  inflation  =  last night

hearing, “Come and get it, but ya better hurry cuz it’s goin’ fast.” 

my momma always said, “Life is like a multi-act rock show;  You never know what you’re gonna get.”  You think you want a crunchie Country Joe, but it turns out the one shaped like a Zombie was the tastiest. 

The show was sort-of a set of 4 retreads followed by three real groups.  The tour hired a backing band to support the one living member of Badfinger, and Mitch Ryder (who billed himself as “And The Detroit Wheels”, proving there are no actual Detroit Wheels), and Felix Cavaliere trying to pass himself off as The Rascals.  Country Joe was the only act who went solo. 

“Badfinger” opened in the bright afternoon light at 7.  The only surviving member Joey Molland appeared to have consumed some liquid courage, but he really seemed to be driven to honor and deliver for his former group, like the way a sports team who loses their star player then raises their play to that of their missing leader.  3rd-string ‘Finger Mulland had certainly rehearsed the backing boys, and it just pointed out how tragic it is that the founding duo hadn’t survived.  (he did credit them for the songwriting)  If one member of the group was this powerful in performance (and he was) it just makes you sad for the power in this band that once was and is now lost to the ages. 

Mitch Ryder opened with Lou Reed’s “Rock n Roll”!  Then a “C.C. Rider/ Jenny Takes A Ride” medley.  I’m glad I’ve now seen him and can cross this off the list of ‘things to do”!  It was like your weird uncle doing karaoke at a family picnic.  And of course it was still daylight and with the “Toronto The Good’s” somnambular audience it was a little … pathetic and sad.  And there we are, stuck in 3^rd row center for The Old Geezer’s Revue and I’m goin’ “Oh-oh, this could be really bad.” 

Then one of the chocolates I’m looking forward to – Country Joe McDonald – comes out, he has 20 minutes, and spends the first five reading us a Globe & Mail article!  And remember kids, drugs will Not affect your judgment in later years!  (j/k, cuz he actually Was making a good point about our lack of progress in the use of language. which connects to his f*ck cheer.)  The guy’s got an Arlo Guthrie-sized arsenal of catchy acoustic songs that can win over any audience on first listening, but what does he do?  Pull out two hardcore psychedelic songs from The Fish days and attempt to play them solo on acoustic guitar!  One was “Flying High” from the classic “Electric Music For The Mind and Body”.  The neatest part of his 3-song set, was during Fixin’ To Die, not only did he leave the “1, 2, 3 what are we fightin for” to the audience, but he left it alone and the old Toronto hippies sang the entire chorus.  I took this as a good sign. 

This was one of the funniest moments – the 2 hour delay for the geriatric road crew to wheel out and plug in a single B3 organ for Calavliere!  Ya think about the set and staging and costume changes that take place in the middle of any single song in 21^st century touring rock acts, and here’s these guys with about the only set-change in the entire night and can’t hook up a keyboard to save their lives. 

Felix was as lame as an act can be, really.  This may have worked in a small club, but he has the warmth of an elderly Soprano.  The one cool thing he did — like other older artists with an enormous repertoire of music in their heads (unlike these young pups today 🙂  when he did “Groovin’” he wove it into The Temptations’ “My Girl” and “Just My Imagination” before bringing it back to “Groovin’”  — the songs-within-a-song that us old Deadheads appreciate!  And oh man!  of course he closes with “Good Lovin’” – I know some of you are not big Dead fans, but I came to this show in part to hear the original guy do the original version of a song they climaxed many a fine night with, and not for nuthin but my GAWD!  the Dead brought out the power in this song – several points where myself and everyone else would normally be leaping in the air.  But this was flat as a blown retread.  At a karaoke family picnic. 

End of the warm-up acts and the house band;  the real full acts came on. 

The Zombies were amazing — the hit and/or surprise of the night.  This Colin Blunstone singer … kind of a Jon Anderson, light and ethereal, but more like Martin Short on Broadway in his stage dramatics and beaming smiles to the back row of the theater.  He looked genuinely ecstatic to be playing.  When I came to today, the first image I had from last night was him singing with his arms stretched out, every finger splayed, and beaming this radiant smile that electro-shocked to life the sleeping grey army! 

Which may be a good time to mention the bikini and apple-green mini-skirted go-go dancers that surrounded us!  Man, without them the audience woulda sucked!  But who was gonna tell these nearly-naked babes to sit down and stop dancing?!  So, “They started it, officer.”  And everybody was standing and dancing from The Zombies on!  Great and unusual stuff in Toronto I imagine.  And there was Rod Argent!  Legend of the Creem Magazine era!  Doing these wailing Keith Emerson / Jon Lord / Rick Wakemen organ solos. 

“Time Of The Season” — the first single-song peak of the night, and the following “Hold Your Head Up” was the second!  And ya just know, with this style of music, these guys are gonna take it.  It’s such a great hand-clapping, chanting, soloing anthem!  Can’t believe I actually experienced Argent/Zombies doing that song.  Also – non-Argent Blunstone was as joyously beaming for this as for the Zombies’ material.  And – his voice is still great.  That’s the biggest potential loss for these aging musicians, but the Zombies, Turtles, Leslie West and Joey M all still sounded strong and rich. 

The Turtles open with Zappa!  The band came out first and played “Peaches en Regalia” (and it’s been playing in my head ever since) the catchy instrumental that’s also on the classic “Live at the Fillmore East ‘71” that features some of Flo & Eddie’s best Mothers.  Then they come out, do a hint of a routine about American Idol, then right into Turtles hit “You Baby” and “She’d Rather Be With Me”.  Happy poppy stuff.  Then, “This was our first hit,” It Ain’t Me, Babe.  Their version brings so much more buoyancy and dancing and hit-singleness to it than Bob ever does.  (and there’ll be two more Dylan songs in the final eight of the night)

Then this bizarre thing happened – and it led to the core musical moment of the show – Flo / fuzzy-haired Mark Volman strapped on an electric guitar, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play, obviously set to do some song, then goes to the mic and says, “We used to play with Frank Zappa,” and I don’t know, maybe it was the enthusiastic response he got, and he goes on, “and we were in a little movie with him called 200 Motels,”  cheer.  “Okay, we’re going to do a medley from that!” and then walks back and takes the guitar off – obviously Not what he was originally planning to do. 

So they go into a Medley of 200 Motels!!??  Could they pick a more obscure and inaccessible suite of music?!  The movie has Never come out in any form on VHS or DVD, and the l.p. sold about 12 copies (of which I have one).  So they do, like 10 minutes of crazy Motels music, including “the hit single” Magic Fingers with the super-fast lyrics and big Zappa guitar solo, which their Dennis Dunaway look-alike guitarist took it to the moon!!  These turtle-muthers using only the best-of-the-best hired guns.  Mystery Roach and She Painted Up Her Face may have also been in the medley;  no Lonesome Cowboy Burt.    

Then the wonderfully silly “Elenore, you’re my pride and joy, et cetera.”  And finally, “Happy Together,” which of course, they’ve got so down at this point, and can work every nuance – which is so bizarrely contrasted to Felix not being able to deliver his own hit.

Power trio Mountain closed – the salient moment being the best “Blowin’ In The Wind” I’ve ever heard.  He plays it once subtle “acoustic” sounding (on the electric), then puckin’ stomps the foot down and plays this thrashing Mountain hard-rock version (think Metallica) of “Blowin’” – thunderous on the Mountain!  THEN he brings it back down to the “acoustic” and THEN drops it lower to a cappella, THEN drops it further to just the audience singing, before wrapping it back up.  From cacophony to choir, by the most Mountainous one! 

and yes, they played a phat Mississippi Queen to climax the show. 

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For more Adventures in Music — you may want to check out the (Route) 66 Best live performances ever captured on film.

Or take the New Orleans Jazz Fest ride.

Or how The Grateful Dead came to play my 30th birthday.

Or the night Dylan showed up at Springsteen’s show at Shea Stadium in New York.

Or Paul Simon doing Graceland in Hyde Park in London.

Or Furthur came back and reprised the Dead at Madison Square Garden.

Or when the Dead, Janis, The Band and others took the Festival Express train trip across Canada.

Or the night I was hanging with Dr. John’s band in Toronto.

Or here’s the day I finally “got” Bob Dylan. 

Or the night we all lost John Lennon. 

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by Brian Hassett      karmacoupon@gmail.com        BrianHassett.com

The Tour Set-List . . .  opening act:  Pegi Young (8 songs, with a 3-piece band)1st set – acoustic, Neil solo on guitars, banjo, upright piano, organ/synth.  

From Hank To Hendrix – w/ harmonica,  Harvest Moon (’92!)  the only non-oldie he plays,
* Ambulance Blues – On The Beach
Sad Movies – never on an album, played live on 1976 Euro. tour.  about the Glendale Theater in Toronto.
* A Man Needs A Maid –  piano/synth   Harvest / Decade  (last played live in 1976)
No One Seems To Know – unreleased, solo acoustic from 1976
Harvest – Harvest / Decade
* Journey Through The Past – on upright piano (from Time Fades Away)
or    After The Goldrush
Mellow My Mind – Tonight’s The Night – banjo
Love Art Blues – (1976) only on bootlegs
* Cowgirl In The Sand — in Toronto & Chicago (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere)
Love Is A Rose – Decade (from ’74)  in this slot in all but the 2 shows
Old Man –  banjo?  Harvest / Decade   (was doing Heart of Gold here)

2nd set:  electric:

Ralph Molina:  drums (Crazy Horse)
Ben Keith:  guitar, peddle steel, dobro (Stray Gators)
Rick Rosas:  bass (Bluenotes)
Pegi Young & Anthony Crawford:  backing vocals

*  The Loner  –  1^st album / Decade
*  Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere – 2^nd album
Dirty Old Man – Chrome Dreams II
Spirit Road – Chrome Dreams II
Bad Fog Of Loneliness  — from After The Goldrush period (1970)  Performed live in 1970 as a solo piece and later recorded for Tonight’s The Night (but not on
the disk).  Also performed once in 1989 with the Restless, and on every date of the 2000 Music In Head tour.
*  Winterlong – Decade (from 1969)  peddle steel
* Oh Lonesome Me – After The Goldrush (1970) (written by Don Gibson in 1957)
The Believer – Chrome Dreams II
*  No Hidden Path – Chrome Dreams II (14 min.)  concert highlight

encore:
*  Cinnamon Girl – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / Decade
*  Like A Hurricane  — Stars & Bars / Decade  (Toronto)
or
Tonight’s The Night  — Neil on piano – only on opening night of tour

Harvest and Everybody Knows…:  3 songs each;  Chrome Dreams:  4

same set list as rest of tour, except for adding . . . Try!

Then after he finished it at the piano he went back to the acoustic guitar seat and starts playing Harvest, then someone in the audience yells something about the Woodstock song, and he stops and begins talking about Woodstock.  Then said something like, “That wasn’t right,” about the last song he played, and gets up and goes back to the piano and does No One Seems To Know.

He plays After The Goldrush instead of Journey Thru Past.

Heart of Gold.  Then to close, the highlight of the set for me, the acoustic Cowgirl.  Beautiful.  Have we only heard this before on Four Way Street?  Sure brought back memories of ’70s sounds & places.

intermission was from 9:30 till 10:00 for those wanting that info.  He came on about 8:30.  Show over about 11:20.

2nd set all same as tour … until … after/during Cinnamon, the winged key drops down, but they never go to it, and he goes into a transcendent Cortez, the highlight of the electric set no doubt.  The audience was up by Cin and we had a groove.

It was mood & vibe vs. thrash & burn.

I’m originally from Winnipeg but in NYC the last 25 yrs and I dunno about this Canadian sit-on-their-hands routine.  Dudes, during No Hidden Path, everyone was sitting like in church.  NO reaction.  Neil had nothing to feed off.  He’s thrashing, and people are watching television.  Very weird.  It didn’t go anywhere near the manic descriptions I’d read from shows thus far.

Ultimately I’d wanna see the acoustic set in Toronto — it was fairly church like reverence — and the electric set in a NYC energy setting.

People were up for the encores, but not for a minute of the entire second set.  It’s just weird.  I’m not used to the non-reaction, non participation of the audience.  Acoustic, yes.  Electric, to me, requires I dunno some modicum of motion on the part of the audience.

But all n all it was still probably my best Neil show since ’78 Rust.  The arc of the career, the acoustic and then electric.  But then add the theater intimacy instead of the arena drive-in.

There’s tons more, but just wanted to get something in — especially with the set changes.

There was a brief “blizzard” that blew thru town in the afternoon, white-outs, really bad, but gone in 20 minutes.  Just weird.  In fact there was a total power failure in a section town that ended about 2 blocks from the venue.  He talked about how global warming hadn’t hit Canada.  I think that’s what brought “Mother nature on the run in the 21st century” into the middle of the set.

Dirty Old Man and The Believer both worked So Much Better live than on the disk.

And he introduced Pegi as “my soulmate” which was nice.

Numerous times he picked up a red telephone on the drum kit as though he was getting a call.  Incoming messages from planet Neil.

His sense of humor was evident throughout.  Dylan needs to spend more time with Neil.

The Riverboat Yorkville Toronto homecoming.  And it felt like family.

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For more Adventures in Music — you may want to check out the (Route) 66 Best live performances ever captured on film.

Or take the New Orleans Jazz Fest ride.

Or how The Grateful Dead came to play my 30th birthday.

Or the night Dylan showed up at Springsteen’s show at Shea Stadium in New York.

Or Paul Simon doing Graceland in Hyde Park in London.

Or Furthur came back and reprised the Dead at Madison Square Garden.

Or when the Dead, Janis, The Band and others took the Festival Express train trip across Canada.

Or the night I was hanging with Dr. John’s band in Toronto.

Or here’s the day I finally “got” Bob Dylan. 

Or the night we all lost John Lennon. 

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by Brian Hassett      karmacoupon@gmail.com        BrianHassett.com

That was the most fun i’ve had at a game, well other than the Sabres-Sens playoff, in about … whenever my last Rangers game was!  🙂  I mean, seriously, it restored my faith in hockey. 

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Hey and get this — I’ve now pegged my Rangers fanship to at least 1969/70!  cuz by 1970-71 Eddie was wearing the mask, and when I became a fan, he never wore one.  That’s WHY he was the coolest player in the league.  So that had to be at least ’69/70!  And how amazing that every other element of my life is somehow rooted in the sixties! 

It started with the mask.  There’s was something in the back of my head, I’d seen a picture from 70/71 wearing the mask.  Then just looked it up:  confirmed in 2 sources it was 70/71.  And I’d been a fan for a while before he did that.  So it could very well date to 68/69.  But wow, man!  I cracked the sixties for absolutely sure!  I never saw him be anything BUT maskless.  When he finally put one on — I couldn’t understand it and hated it, but was still Eddie.  Without all the equipment of today, a goalie was much more recognizable.  I used to watch him on HNiC and replicate his saves over and over, and that’s where I got my goaltending from.   All my life I’ve tried to be Eddie Giacomin.   And that’s not a bad thing.  And man —  I don’t want to sit anywhere but the upper-deck 400s again!  That is my home, as much as the front rows of a Grateful Dead show used to be.  I felt more at home in New York in those seats than anywhere else I was in NYC.  It’s almost like the last spot in the city that hasn’t gotten phucked yet.   “It’s a sit-down comedy show”   My favorite line from the whole trip was, “Hey Crosby, si’down!”   

It was just the comic New York tone it was delivered in.  It’s the intangible you can’t quantify.  Just a natural civic gift.  The whole Garden used to be that way — and for sure, I haven’t felt that in YEARS!  Because i’ve never sat in the 400s before.  But I know that everything below it and in the boxes ain’t the same.  That one night there was how I always remember the Rangers being — everything the Rangers are to me.  Educated but funny fans.  The perfect pitch of a precise tone. 

Because New Yorkers have So much else going on in their lives, they can be as passionate about this as they are about a hundred other things.  They can be super smart, super into it, and not Really care cuz their lives are so filled with so much else that is amazing and overwhelming. 

They’re as passionate as other fans, but they’re so much deeper.  

And then this — the sense of humor — 

Canadians per capita are way funnier than Americans. 

Then you add in — “the sit-down comedy show” of “the blues” in MSG, and all the funny and twisted American fans I know. Okay.  So maybe it’s not Canada that makes us funny — it’s hockey.   Hockey makes people funny.  Or …

hockey attracts funny people.

Where I grew up in Winnipeg could we lost Every Year to Gretzky or Calgary, so what the puck?!  How can you not just love and laugh?  Plus, we were pretty comical and goofy to begin with.  So that’s where this comes from. Just as Giacomin led me to goaltending, the Winnipeg hockey attitude led me to not taking the results too seriously.   Maybe that’s why NYC worked so well for me.  Passion with humor.   And that brings us back to the 400 section.   And how everything outside of the Garden has been destroyed except for ONE old Rangers bar.  And how the Garden as I knew it was largely now.   But here was this place.  This one place.   For decades I’ve called them, “sacred places,” and have been searching them out, from abandoned mansions to cliff ridges to caves to roof tops to waterfalls to concert pits . . . and “the blues” are like the last blocks of the Lower East Side below Houston that aren’t phucked yet.  The last little island.  Except it’s a ring around a rink.   I wanna be in that top circle again.  That rooftop of hockey.  It’s so funny.  Isn’t that what Jesus and every other channel said.  What the top circle really is.  It ain’t money.  It’s the spiritual source.   And it humor and passion are tickets.   Which makes that section of MSG during Ranger games one of the sacred places on earth.   And that I’m serious about. 

For a great Rangers’ line-up printable one-sheet — go here.

For more hockey stories . . . check out the time I snuck onto the Penguins team bus during the playoffs.

Or the description of Blue Heaven at Madison Square Garden.

Or this amazing primer of Everything You Need to Know about hockey at the Olympics.

Or the complete printable Olympic team rosters with positions, stats, jersey numbers and everything for all the main teams.

Or there’s this nice printable one-sheet of the Penguins playoff roster.

Or a similar printable one-sheet for the Red Wings playoff roster.

Or a riff on how Canada’s flagship broadcast Hockey Night In Canada has suddenly become good again.

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by Brian Hassett           karmacoupon@gmail.com              BrianHassett.com

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If you’re a fan of funny films and/or sixties music — boy is there a new movie for you!  The comic docu-drama “My Dinner With Jimi“, features master Hendrix, The Beatles, Brian Jones, The Moody Blues, Donovan, Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison and numerous others, all seen through the eyes of the writer, humorist and lead Turtle, Howard Kaylan, aka Eddie from Flo &, and the singer of many hit songs you’ve sung in your car, from “It Ain’t Me, Babe” to “Elenore” (“You’re my pride and joy, et cetera”).  He was the Abbie Hoffman of rock stars.  A prankster rebel with a microphone and band.

In 1967, their hit “Happy Together” knocked “Penny Lane” off the top of the Billboard charts, and The Turtles’ energized comedy-pop harmonies were the talk of Musicville.  So, they go to England for a tour, and on their first night end up hanging out with their Fab Four heroes, and ultimately having dinner (and lots of drinks) with Jimi Hendrix until dawn.

Of course you’re going, “Sure.  How does somebody portray Jimi Hendrix?!”  But that’s just one of the many home-runs of the film, because the actor, young unknown Royale Watkins, is Hendrix.  Plus there’s all these other funny acting cameos, including ‘Norm’ from “Cheers”, that insane, off-center comedian Taylor Negron, John Corbett from “Sex & The City” and “Northern Exposure”, and in the lead roller-coaster role of the narrating Turtle, Justin Henry, who was the little boy in “Kramer vs. Kramer”.

The film’s set in 1967 during the pivotal transformation period in the history of rock n roll and popular music – when the troops stormed over the bridge from lip-synching on variety shows to igniting guitars on Monterey stages, from the ubiquity of Tiger Beat to the birth of Rolling Stone, from matching ties and suits into the psychedelic uniforms of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — a bridge that the film’s writer himself crossed, going from the poppy Turtles into Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention.  This was the moment in rock n roll when it all went kerflooey — the Human Be-In, the Summer of Love, Monterey Pop, long hair, and “Are You Experienced?”  Nothing had gone wrong yet, the blush of youth was still rosy, and here were the architects of the future of music all partying together in the underground clubs in England.  Now in a film.  Written by a key player, and produced by Rhino Records, quality incarnate in the music business.

In fact, the movie itself is like the polarity of the era, with the first half set in the paper Tiger Beat home-of-The-Monkees L.A., and the second half in the surreal, edge-cutting speakeasy lairs of London.  And every bit of crazy dialog is based on real events;  a composite of months on the Sunset Strip, and a magical night with the Mount Rushmore of rock.

The movie’s been years in the making and is currently distributed on an ad hoc screening basis, but now that it exists this will be an eternal prankster’s delight as it eventually shows up at midnight screenings and on late-night movie channels.  “What in the hell is This?!” will be said many more times in the future because of this movie.

You’re eventually going to see it, but this is where you first heard about it.

This is not an outsiders take on the ’60s.  It’s “Spinal Tap”, written by a real rock star, about other real rock stars, set in the halcyon daze of 1967.  How can this not be great?

This is a working free live stream as of February 2023:

https://tubitv.com/movies/498101/my-dinner-with-jimi

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Here’s a review of the brilliant surreal masterpiece interpreting Bob Dylan — I’m Not There.

Or here’s the “comeback” documentary of Johnny Winter made just before he left the building.

Or here’s the Scorsese’s Rolling Stones concert film — Shine A Light.

Or here’s a fairly unknown but perfectly offbeat comedy — Lucky Numbers — with a comedic Travolta, Lisa Kudrow, Tim Roth, Michael Rapaport, Richard Schiff, Michael Moore and many others.

Or here’s from the London premiere of On The Road in the courtyard of Somerset House.

And here was the world premiere of the new shorter version of On The Road at the Toronto Film Festival.

Or here’s an overview of all the Beat movie dramatizations ever filmed.

Or here’s a review of the lost footage of the historic roc n roll train trip that was finally released as Festival Express, starring the Grateful Dead, The Band and Janis Joplin.

Or here’s a bunch of films I reviewed on IMDB.

Or here’s a master list of Brian’s Hot 300 movies including all sorts of cinematic riffs and tips. 

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by Brian Hassett            karmacoupon@gmail.com                    brianhassett.com

I know you’re all smart enough to make your own choice.  For me, I was a Clinton supporter, as I have been since 1992, but will be casting my Democrats Abroad vote for Barack Obama.  I think Obama can win the Presidency in a landslide, bringing independents, Republicans, and new voters into the party.  Most Democrats I know don’t even want to vote for Hillary.  She will unite and invigorate the other side and drive up their vote against the Democrats in more races than just the Presidency.  Further, I don’t trust her ethics or judgment or morals – based on how she’s run her campaign.  She played her now-common election-eve fake tears routine again yesterday, and is on the morning news shows today claiming she won 4 states so far, still taking credit for states that don’t count and didn’t even have the other candidates on the ballot.  If she can’t be honest or play by the rules of her own party in an open primary, why on earth should I believe she’d be ethical in the White House with the doors closed and the shades drawn? 

One of her perceived strengths was that she’d been vetted and was still standing.  But the problem is what her husband has been up to the last 7 years.  I don’t trust that guy as far as I could throw him, and with him being unsupervised the last several years, I have no doubt he’s been up to some shady shenanigans.  I think the numerous recent news stories on this are just scratching the surface.  And we can’t afford to have the White House consumed for the next 4 years with fighting off more Clinton scandals. 

I hope and assume you watched the “Yes, We Can” Obama video (dipdive.com) that’s now found it’s way onto the Obama website and mainstream news shows.  To me, the Barack-star appeals to the better angels of our nature.  If you read his books, you know he is a thoughtful, passionate, worldly man.  He’s fair minded, and he’s honest.  And he’s older than Bill Clinton, JFK or Teddy Roosevelt were when they became President, so it’s not like he’s too young for the job.  In fact, he has more experience than Bill Clinton did when he ran for the same job, so for the Clintons to be claiming Obama’s not experienced enough reveals more about their never-ending hypocrisy. 

If he runs his White House like he ran his campaign, it will be both ethical and inspiring – almost the polar-opposite of his opponent.  He has an unlimited ceiling of potential, both in the numbers of votes he receives as well as being a positive inspiration to the nation and the world.  His appeal is so broad, the phrase “Obama Republicans” has already entered the political vernacular.  Although, I sort of like “Obamicans”. 

This is a vote that I’m very happy to be casting; it makes me feel proud to be an American again, and be very hopeful for the future.  For once this is not a hold-your-nose vote for the lesser of two evils, but rather for someone who inspires, who plays by the rules, shows excellent judgment on a daily basis, and will be a tremendous voice for our nation, both at home and abroad. 

The Clintons are going to pull every dirty trick in the book to steal this nomination.  The only way we can stop them is with our votes today. 

So, vote like you mean it!  The revolution will be televised. 

=  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =

You can read this and 50 other Political Adventure Tales like it in my 2020 book Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy — Adventures in Politics — 1980–2020.

For one of the most historic events in American history — check out my Obama Inauguration Adventures.

For how Woodstock promoter Michael Lang used my reports in his book — check out how Obama’s Inauguration was like Woodstock.

For an account of the most jubilant night in the history of New York — check the Election Night 2008 Adventure. 

For a night in New York that started out just as joyous — check out the Election Night 2004 Adventure.

For the kind of creations that got us across the historic finish line — check out my poem and video for Where Wayward Jekylls Hyde.

For an on-the-campaign-trail adventure — check out the physical altercation I was in the middle of with Al Franken at a Howard Dean rally in ’04.

For my tribute to a great political reporter — check out my Tim Russert tribute.

For a full listing of great reporters and news sources — check out my Political Sources Primer.

For how well these sources work — check out my 2012 election predictions.

… or here’s the 2008 projections — in both, I’m over 98% correct.  😉

=============================================

Brian Hassett  — karmacoupon@gmail.com

BrianHassett.com

or you can join in the jam on Facebook here

https://www.facebook.com/Brian.Hassett.Canada/

The moment:

It was between 10 and 11PM on Saturday night, the night of the South Carolina primaries.

The race was a projected victory for Obama at 7:00:01, as soon as the polls closed.  Obama announced he would make a speech at 9PM, giving Edwards and Clinton two hours to make their concession speeches.  Edwards made his.  Bill was picked up live from a rally somewhere congratulating Obama on the win (for about a sentence) and then right back into his Hillary sales pitch.  Hillary is seen leaving the hotel for a car to the airport.  No speech?  Shortly after 9:00, Obama lays down one of his master oratories (see here:      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iVAPH_EcmQ   )  and everyone’s blown away.  “Is it me, or is this guy getting better every speech?”

And I keep thinking Hillary’s just going to nail it, too, wherever it is she’s heading to – must be something big!  But it turns out it’s just some regular whoring campaign rally — and she goes right into her stump speech like South Carolina never happened!  She never thanks her staff or supporters or volunteers or anyone in South Carolina.

And then the next day she says she’s going to Florida to accept “victory” there.

Here is my dispatch from the morning after . . .

I just thought I’d high-five my Obama friends — tremendous victory last night.  He proved you can play clean and win big.

I’ll tell you this, some things that I demand of my party’s leader are civility, statesmanship, being a team player, playing by the rules, and being the steady guiding father (or mother) of the party.

Not only did the Clintons run a, shall we say, indelicate or undignified SC campaign, they were blown out on the scoreboard, and were not remotely gracious in defeat.  How was she so busy after 7:00 that she couldn’t stop at the podium at her headquarters for 5 frickin minutes?  “Congratulations to a great campaign by Barack, thanks to everybody in SC, and now it’s on to Super Tuesday.”  Not only was it ungracious of her, it’s bad politics — and not becoming of someone who wants to be the leader of the party or the country.  Win or lose, I demand that my standard-bearer be gracious in both victory (when it’s easy) and defeat (when it reveals the quality of your character).

I first heard yesterday, then read the stories on it today, that Hillary is planning to challenge for both the Florida and Michigan delegates to be seated at the convention, despite having signed on earlier to stand with the party that no candidate will campaign in nor accept the delegates from those two states.  Everybody pulled their names off the ballots in Michigan — except Hillary.  And now she’s planning to go to a “victory” rally on Tuesday night in Miami.  Not with my vote she’s not.

Rough n tumble politics are part of the game.  But to play any game you have to first play by the rules. To me, sportsmanship is paramount, whether in hockey or politics.  For quite a while I’ve been rationalizing different things the Clintons have been doing.  I have no problem with them getting blown out in S.C. — that happens in some states in every election — but for her to not step up and be gracious and “Presidential” in her defeat, for her to just “issue a statement” and run out of town after the loss like a pampered brat who can’t stand not getting everything her way is immature in the extreme.  And then to have that drunken W.C. Fields of a husband stumble out this morning and play another race card, dismissing Barack’s classy and compelling victory as just another Jesse Jackson, and then have this followed by her wanting to suddenly count Florida and call it a victory — well, I’m sorry, but that is not how the leader of my party behaves.

You can now count me as a former Clinton supporter.  I’ve gotten on the Obama bandwagon, I’ve got 6 cold ones in my bag, and I’m saving the seat next to me for Teddy Kennedy who gets on tomorrow.  And we’re going to Party the right way!

=  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =

You can read this and 50 other Political Adventure Tales like it in my 2020 book Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy — Adventures in Politics — 1980–2020.

For one of the most historic events in American history — check out my Obama Inauguration Adventures.

For how Woodstock promoter Michael Lang used my reports in his book — check out how Obama’s Inauguration was like Woodstock.

For an account of the most jubilant night in the history of New York — check the Election Night 2008 Adventure. 

For a night in New York that started out just as joyous — check out the Election Night 2004 Adventure.

For the kind of creations that got us across the historic finish line — check out my poem and video for Where Wayward Jekylls Hyde.

For an on-the-campaign-trail adventure — check out the physical altercation I was in the middle of with Al Franken at a Howard Dean rally in ’04.

For my tribute to a great political reporter — check out my Tim Russert tribute.

For a full listing of great reporters and news sources — check out my Political Sources Primer.

For how well these sources work — check out my 2012 election predictions.

… or here’s the 2008 projections — in both, I’m over 98% correct.  😉

=============================================

Brian Hassett  — karmacoupon@gmail.com

BrianHassett.com

or you can join in the jam on Facebook here

https://www.facebook.com/Brian.Hassett.Canada/