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Americana Music from Texas’ Chis Beall – Gin Mill Hymns

Gin Mill HymnsChris Beall.’s 2013 release is titled Gin Mill Hymns. Now if I see an album with a title like that, and read that the musician resides in Austin. Texas, I’m gonna give it a listen!! Visions of Ray Wylie Hubbard, Slaid Cleaves and a dozen others dance in my head. The only other thing that would make it a certainty that I would listen is if I saw that the album was produced by Lloyd Maines. What I got was an album that’s full of great songs some really personal like :”Dug Down Deep” about his father, a Texas motorcycle racer’s crash in Missouri and his miraculous recovery. coupled with blues classics like Mississippi John Hurt’s “Spike Driver Blues”  Chris says his influences include David Grissom, Tom Petty, Will Hoge, Neil Young, John Mellencamp. But when I listen to the first and second tracks on the album “Half a World Away” and the aforementioned “Dug Down Deep” I hear a little Greg Trooper in his music. And I even think he stole his hat! read more

Today’s Reads – Feb 8, 2014 – The Bible and Camel Bones and the War on the Poor and Middle Class

Ok so it’s been a while since I posted some new reads but here are a few that caught my eye today. The first one is from Juan Cole and discusses the writing of the Bible based on Archeological studies. I think it shows that while maybe inspired by God, the Bible was written by people who wrote it based on THEIR frames of reference!!

Camel Bones and Jerusalem: Archeology Shows Bible Written Late, Full of Errors 

from Truthdig,com and Informed Comment

A new paper by Israeli archeologists Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef, [pdf] posted at the University of Tel Aviv web site, is bad news for biblical literalists and far right wing Israeli nationalists who use the Bible for support.

The Hebrew Bible’s oldest chapters– Genesis, Exodus, and even Judges purport to discuss events thousands of years ago. The custom in Western biblical scholarship is to date Abraham to e.g. 2000 B.C. This dating is based on nothing more than counting generations (“begats”) backward and assigning an arbitrary number of years to each generation. In fact, Genesis is replete with myths and assertions of people living hundreds of years, and was only historicized in this way by 19th century positivists. read more

Today's Reads – Feb 8, 2014 – The Bible and Camel Bones and the War on the Poor and Middle Class

Ok so it’s been a while since I posted some new reads but here are a few that caught my eye today. The first one is from Juan Cole and discusses the writing of the Bible based on Archeological studies. I think it shows that while maybe inspired by God, the Bible was written by people who wrote it based on THEIR frames of reference!!

Camel Bones and Jerusalem: Archeology Shows Bible Written Late, Full of Errors 

from Truthdig,com and Informed Comment

A new paper by Israeli archeologists Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef, [pdf] posted at the University of Tel Aviv web site, is bad news for biblical literalists and far right wing Israeli nationalists who use the Bible for support.
The Hebrew Bible’s oldest chapters– Genesis, Exodus, and even Judges purport to discuss events thousands of years ago. The custom in Western biblical scholarship is to date Abraham to e.g. 2000 B.C. This dating is based on nothing more than counting generations (“begats”) backward and assigning an arbitrary number of years to each generation. In fact, Genesis is replete with myths and assertions of people living hundreds of years, and was only historicized in this way by 19th century positivists.
But here is proof that the Bible was written late and projects later developments into the distant past: it alleges that people had domesticated camels four millennia ago in what is now Israel. And that assertion, folks, is simply not true. That is the finding of Sapir-Hen and Ben-Yosef.
E.g. Genesis 24: 64 says, “Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from the camel.” If this encounter happened circa 2026 BC, it was happening a thousand years before anyone was riding camels
Continue Reading at Truthdig.com or at Juan’s website  Informed Comment read more

New Age- World Music from Adam Hurst – Nightfall

NighfallSo at Number 23 on the Echoes Music Chart for January of 2014 is Nightfall from Adam Hurst. Now of the 25 artists/albums listed there is really only one artist whose name I recognize and Adam is not it. Moby is really the only artist whose name I’ve known for more than a few months! Artist’s whose music i have recently explored include: Bombay Dub Orchestra(7), David Helpling and Jon Jenkins (10) and Darkside (9).

Adam HurstAnyway I went to Spotify to hear what Adam’s music sounded like. The above picture, which is the cover of his album Elegy gave me my first clue!! Cello music!! duh! So I turn on Nightfall and was immediately entranced by his music! When I went to read his biographies at various sites, I read this description read more

This Day in History – Feb 3, 1900 – The 34th Governor of Kentucky dies from shooting!

William J Goebel On February 3,1900, William Goebel, the newly elected Governor of Kentucky died after serving four days in office. Goebel had been shot by an assassin the day before he was sworn in as the 34th Governor of the state. Goebel remains the only state governor in the nation to be assassinated while in office. John Connelly of Texas and George Wallace of Alabama both survived assassination attempts. From Wikipedia:

Goebel’s abrasive personality made him many political enemies, but his championing of populist causes, like railroad regulation, also won him many friends. This conflict of opinions came to a head in the Kentucky gubernatorial election of 1899. Goebel, a Democrat, divided his party with self-serving political tactics at a time when Kentucky Republicans were finally gaining strength, having elected the party’s first governor four years previously. These dynamics led to a close contest between Goebel and William S. Taylor. In the politically chaotic climate that resulted, Goebel was assassinated. Everyone charged in connection with the murder was either acquitted or pardoned, and the identity of his assassin remains uncertain…… read more

It’s Eva Cassidy’s Birthday! Let’s listen to “Fields of Gold” and marvel!

Eva Cassidy (February 2, 1963 – November 2, 1996)

On this day in 1963, Barbara and Hugh Cassidy became the proud parents of a little baby girl, Eva. That little gill who began to sing and play guitar at the age of nine and by the time she was 11 was playing in a local band in and around the suburbs of Washington, D.C.grew up to have one of the my beautiful, soulful voices that I have ever heard. Then in 1996, at the age of 33 she was gone another victim of cancer in Eva’s case the cancer was melanoma. When she died, she was relatvely unknown outside of the Washington DC area. But in the DC area that knew her…. read more

Life’s Intrusions… a flat tire and a trip to the Veterinarian for Liam!

So I had a couple of life’s unexpected intrusions into my music listening this week. The latest was this morning when the front end of my car started to shake and rumble horribly. I hadn’t gone far so I turned around, and almost made it back home. But I knew I had to stop and pulled to the curb a block from home and checked. The front  passenger tire had blown and was now off the rim. I checked in the trunk for the spare,. It was there, as was the jack. What was missing was the lug nut wrench. After a couple of calls I decided, the best option was to call AAA and have them change the tire. They did their usually good job and a service truck was there within the hour! Now I am sitting at STS waiting to get two tires. While the good thing is that I have two books that I am reading on the iPhone,(Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin and The Mayor of MacDougal Street)  the bad news is that I forgot my headphones! read more

Sunday Reads Jan 5, 2014 From Obama’s Plan for use of Aliens to Destroy America to a Resignation in Klingon!

Jim GarrowOk so It must be those people believe that what they read in The Globe and the Star and Weekly World News is real, that believe anything the comes out of the mouth of Jim Garrow!!

From Right Wing Watch: Jim Garrow Reveals Obama’s Secret Plan To Use Aliens And Canadians To Plot Against America

Jim Garrow today appeared on Erik Rush’s radio show to promote the Operation American Spring rally, where he predicted that President Obama will try to distract Americans from his supposed scandals…by claiming that he is now in touch with alien life.

This must be Obama’s Plan B, as Garrow previously claimed that Obama almost launched a devastating nuclear attack on the US with the goal of killing 90% of Americans in order to help George Soros make money. read more

This Day in History – Jan 3, 1888 and 1871 – Drinking straws patented and a process to make margarine – Who knew!

MARVIN STONE

On this day in 1888 Marvin C Stone patented the drinking straw!! Stone, the son of Chester Stone, was born in Portage County, Ohio in 1842. Chester was well-known for his inventions of many machines including the cheese press and washing machines With Marvin the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. He started inventing things at an early age.

.Prior to his invention of the drinking straw according to Wikipedia….

…. people used natural rye grass straws, which were undesirable because they imparted a grassy flavor in beverages. In response to this, Marvin C. Stone made the first drinking strawprototypes by spiraling a strip of paper around a pencil and gluing it at the ends. Next he experimented with paraffin wax-coated manila paper, so that it would not get soggy when used. This first model was 8 1/2 inches long and had a diameter just wide enough to prevent things like lemon seeds from getting lodged in the tube. Marvin Stone patented his invention on January 3rd, 1888. By 1890, his factory was producing more drinking straws than cigarette holders. In 1906 a machine was invented by Stone’s “Stone Straw Corporation” to automatically wind the straws. Read more read more

This Day in History – Jan 2, 1890 – Alice Sanger a new staffer appears at the White House – 1962 The Weavers don’t appear on Jack Paar!!

On this date in 1890 – let’s see that’s 124 years ago……President Benjamin Harrison appointed Alice Sanger as the first female member of the White House Staff.. From History.com

During an otherwise uneventful presidency remarkable only for allowing Congress a free-for-all in spending public funds, Alice Sanger’s appointment may have been an olive branch to the growing women’s suffrage movement that had gathered momentum during Harrison’s presidency. In 1890, two of the most influential organizations involved in the women’s suffrage movement, the American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association, combined forces and became the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). NAWSA represented a coalition of women’s suffrage activists, social reformers and temperance advocates. Their demands included stronger female property rights, employment and educational opportunities for women, improved divorce and child custody laws and reproductive freedom. Read More read more