Sorry, I missed making a Post on “911” on the 11th due to the fact that I was in the middle of having some dental work done on the 10th and 12th…..  I don’t enjoy visits to the Dentist, and this one turned out to be a Lu-Lu with many problems (still going on as a matter of fact)…..  So-o-o, I didn’t even realize “911” had come and gone until the 13th…..  The unfortunate thing about “911”, in my opinion, of course, was that I believe it could have been prevented…..  At that time (and I think it is still going on), all the involved government agencies that had access to relevant information refused to work together (i.e., share information), they worked for their own glory and to justify their own existence…..  We, as American citizens, paid dearly because of it…..  Then, what our Government did in retaliation, and what is still continuing, is shameful…..  It’s all a disgrace to those people who where killed and injured in the 911 attacks and the American public….  The rest of the World has not failed to see this…..  We are making more enemies abroad daily because we have our noses stuck in over a 120 different countries around the World…..  Most of this intervention on our part, is not for Humanity or “Justice for All”, but, for the preservation of “Big Business” and Oil companies…..  You have the right to disagree, but, to me, it’s a sad, sad situation, and, I don’t see it changing, except for the worse, anytime in the future…..  I hope I’m wrong…..

I didn’t even notice until around 2:00pm…..  I spent the morning out during errands and shopping and wondered why everyone seems a bit off – Even the drivers seemed extra stupid, and, in Oklahoma that’s really hard to be!…..  Luckily, I got all my business taken care of and am now safely holed up in my apartment for the remainder of the day and night…..  I do have some projects I’m working on, but, I’m being extra careful – Just can’t trust Friday the 13th!……  Anyway, why take the risk?…..  Have a safe one….. eh?…..

It looks like the CD is about to bite the big one……  Most of the new releases are “Digital Albums” only…..  Check Amazon.com …  I’m not sure that I’m quite ready to totally give up hard copies of my music…..  Just what is an “Artist” supposed to autograph at a concert – your ass!…..  Memorable, yes, but, definitely not permanent, and I don’t particularly think I could bring myself to the point of hanging my butt on the wall on display for all my friends to admire/criticize/make jokes, etc. – You get the picture, and, it’s NOT pretty…..

Where are the songs of protest or social change?

Some of us are old enough to remember when Rock and Roll was just starting and what it meant to you as adolescents and how it changed your lives. But I’m speaking of particular songs or pieces of music.

Are there any musical pieces now that have been substantial enough to change peoples minds about life or tell the story of an event that made everyone sit up and take notice about something? For example 1968 Steven Stills wrote For What It’s Worth about the Sunset Strip Riots, 1970 Neil young wrote the story of the Massacre by the National Guard at Kent State Ohio. Even thinking back to 1917 the ballad Over There.

Today I don’t hear any songs and I use the term loosely that tell about the days that we live in now. It seems to me that the hits of today are just over produced noise without saying anything important or the rappers just saying how much they have or how you are not as good as they think they are.

Does music still mean anything or is it just background noise for people to watch the world go to Hell to?

Have a SAFE one – Do no Labor – Have FUN – And, did I mention to make it a SAFE one?…. I want everyone back in the MR Community groove come Tuesday – GOT IT!…. O.K., DO IT!…..

Since we still don’t seem to be getting a huge response to the resurgence of the Blog…. Yeah, I know it takes a bit of time (eh?)….. S-o-o-o, in my infinite World of Boredom and Personal Stupidity, I decided to start writing jokes… Watch out!…. Here It Comes….

An old Bluesman died of frustration today…. Seems his long and great recording career was based on the basic three chord Blues progression…. Poor Soul woke up today and could only remember ONE CHORD…. Sad story but true….

All right, let me have it…. If you’ve got a better one – Let’s hear it!…..

As I told our newest member, Maj7b5, we usually stay away from politics on this Blog…. Boy, am I having to eat those words, but, this came to me in the form of an e-mail to be forwarded on and on…. I hate to do e-mail chains, but, believe this as something important enough to be read and considered by the MR Community…. If you want, copy it and spread it out by e-mail to anybody and everybody…… ( I left it mostly in it’s original e-mail form)…..

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. At least 20 if you can. It has to stop somewhere. In three days, most people in The United States of America will have this message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

*Congressional Reform Act of 2013

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make these contracts with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive this message.
Don’t you think it’s time?

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

If you agree with the above, pass it on.
If not, You must be in Congress! (I added that!)…..

Yep, I jammed with Jimi in downtown Seattle (Ha!)…..

I try to stay away from Politics as much as possible, but, this one just got to me in the wrong way….. Yes, it was a very sad event….. The taking of a life for no other reason than being bored, but for the President of Australia to blame the incident on our “Lack of Gun Control” is nothing short of severe shortsightedness and stupidity!….. Maybe he should check out the multiple countries where anyone 6 months or older carry firearms and know how to use them?…. Maybe he should consider that you can kill a person with nothing more than a dull pencil if that’s all that’s available?…. If they had made up their mind to kill someone – They didn’t need a gun to do it – They would have found any of hundreds of ways to commit the crime!….. I know it’s an old, old saying, but, Guns do not kill – PEOPLE DO!…. The human mind is capable of some very horrific acts of violence…. I’m sorry, I don’t think us, as American citizens, should be the “Fall Guy” and be classified as Barbaric, insane killers….. I, personally, decided a few years back, that I no longer desired to travel outside of the U.S. for this very reason…. I don’t feel endangered or scared to walk our streets in America…. I feel that we live in one of the safest (if not, the safest) country on the face of the Earth…. So – UP YOURS – Mr. Australian President…. Maybe you should take a deep, long look into corruption and violence in your own country before you start pointing fingers….. What’s that saying, “He who cast the first stone” (something like that)….. I’m removing my “Soapbox and stepping down”…..

Thanks to everyone for inviting me into your little community  I will try to offer something noteworthy from time to time.

selection of my nick name was influenced by my sudden involuntary freedom (lay off) so with a little anger and a lot of joy I chose Maj7b5 which can be compared to pleasant (G6) and rebellious (M7b5). I have always been a bit of a rebel against corp. ethics or lack of.

If you haven’t heard it listen for the M7 b5 to end a jingle or in sit-com music.

Have a great day, my pleasure to join the Blog.

Yep, I just approved a new member for the MRambler Community….. He was a fellow band member in Terraplane in the mid ’70’s….. Hopefully he will bring in some new, off-the-wall, screwy ideas that our little group of mainstream misfits are famous for, and will forgive me for spelling his last name wrong for the past 35 years (Ha!)….. Darrell, I would recommend you get yourself a c-o-o-l username to be displayed when you Comment or Post….. Something like, “Fingers”, “Jazzman”, “Engineer”…. I’m sure you can come up with something better than that (I hope so, anyway!)…..

YOU ARE NOW APPROVED TO POST AND COMMENT ON THE BLOG…. If you have any problems with Posting, Commenting, or the general workings of the Blog, don’t hesitate to e-mail me or call…. We have been having a few annoying problems lately that I think are due to a recent update of the Blog program…..

Anyway, WELCOME….. And, all you MR Community members get off your butts and send out a short “glad to have you on the Blog” note to this Post….. (NOTE: We are a small group, Darrell, and don’t just let any bozo in… In Fact, you’re the first new member that we have approved in years…..)

As far as the topics – Anything goes and everyone is encouraged to voice their opinions, no matter how bizarre. Just expect that you could be “Hammered” severely depending on the content, but, all in good fun…..

No wonder people find it hard to understand our American version of English in the proper context…. As Gallagher once said, “We drive on Parkways and we park on driveways”….. That’s about as American as you can get – Absolutely no sense!……

I recently purchased an Epiphone Les Paul 100, basically a lightweight body with all the Les Paul electronics…. It plays as good, if not better, than the outrageously priced Gibson models… I signed up for the Epiphone newsletters…. In the most current one, which is their 140 anniversary issue, they are giving away a one-of-a-kind Epiphone guitar and a signed copy of the Epiphone history book….. Here’s the rub…. You HAVE to be on Facebook, or sign-up on Facebook to enter…. I’m sorry, I don’t care for social media, I have a social life with lots of friends, and I don’t care to get involved with a bunch of I-Me-Mine Yo-Yo’s that think the World should know how great they are….. If you click to NOT share on Facebook – you don’t get entered…. Keep your damn guitar, Epiphone!…. It’s a shame that you do make such a great product, but, forcing people to join Facebook…. Sorry, you just lost any future sales from this little known guitarist…. Wake up People, the almighty dollar DOES NOT have to be the bottom line! Where’s my Strat?…..

Went to the movies to see the “film” of Clapton’s 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival…. It was great, EXCEPT, the left channel was missing from the soundtrack…. Come to find out, the whole thing was streamed from the internet from fathom.com who, apparently have control of a huge amount of musical concerts that are broadcast to the theaters on a one time only basis…. The theaters apparently have the biggest DVR known to mankind that converts the signal into a super big screen format…. This is the second one I’ve been to…. The first was a Grateful Dead concert which was screwed up from the word “go”….. The video was all grey scale with a touch of light green…. The soundtrack was from some Bruce Springsteen documentary…. They tried to correct it by pausing the playback…. It was weird seeing a DVR time bar across the bottom of a huge theater screen and the double bar pause icon at the top….. Of course, someone shouted out, “Okay, who’s got the remote”…. They never got it corrected, handed out free passes, and refunded the ticket price…. In all my movie going life, it’s the first time ever I attended a movie that “blew-up”… If this is the future of movie going – you can have it…..

Anyway, back to “Crossroads” – Lots of old and new guitarists – Here’s a Line-Up …. Keith Richards, although not listed, appeared also…. Clapton looked very surprised when he walked on stage, made a joke at Clapton’s expense, and went into “Key to the Highway”… Keith looked as if he was really enjoying himself…. I believe he’s going to outlive us all… Like I said, the concert was great, except for the crappy sound, which is fathom.com’s fault…. Everybody should get on their site and complain….

Today the music world has lost a legend. JJ Cale has passed away at the age of 74 The Tulsa, OK. Native was best known for such songs as Cocaine and After Midnight both hits for Eric Clapton. Neil Young once said that he was the best singer, songwriter, guitar players after Jimi Hendrix. After midnight we gonna let it all hang out.