I have come up with a cool (I believe) handle for our newest member of the community.

WD 4.0

haha

It’ll be here at 11:57 am CDT!!!…..  You may ask, “What the Hell is he talking about?”……  And, I think I’ll give you the answer……  Here in Oklahoma, 11:57 am CDT today is the Official start of our Spring/Storm Season……  We had a “Rocky” Winter, although, not as bad as those poor souls North and East of us…..  Some Snow, Ice, Cold Temps, in other words, “Rocky”……  Well, now that it’s Storm Season, Mother Nature starts throwing those “Rocks” at us, along with Buildings, Cars, Trees, People, you name it…..  We, here at MR Central HQ, including PD Bob (Remember PDB?… He and Oscar have been complaining about being left out of the Blog so long, but, I’ve had to reject most of their scribblings on Moral and Profanity reasons….  I’m doing my best to civilize them, but, it’s an uphill battle, as anyone who has met them knows….) , we’re Battening Down the Hatches, preparing for the worst and praying for the best – a mild Spring (Yeah, like that’s going to happen…)…..  Wish us Luck and we’ll stay in contact as long as communications stay up and running……

Yep, anyone know any St. Paddy jokes?….  Here’s one I heard on the TV a few minutes ago…..  Mrs. Paddy was busy milking the cow…..  A fly kept bugging her, flying around her head and ears – just being annoying, which is a fly’s job, right?…..  She finally got the fly to leave her alone with a solid backhand swat, so, the fly flies up and into the the ear of the cow…..  A couple of minutes later, the same fly shows up in the milk bucket….  The moral of the story – Are you Ready? – is, “What flies in one ear comes out the Utter”…..  I didn’t say it was a good joke!…..  Anyone else have one…..  Oh, Yeah, Kermit the Frog says, “Once you turn green, you never want to go back”……  Okay, Okay, I’ll stop….  Happy St. Paddy’s Day to all…..

Can you believe it!…..  Seems there’s more of us Non-Looby’s (ask Anon) out there that want to stand up and be counted……  I, MRambler, hereby officially welcome “Shadowgraph” to our ranks of the Super-intelligent, Know-it-all, Been There – Done That Community who “Say what we mean and Mean what we say”…..  Don’t expect any slack, buttering-up etc….  When you get a compliment, you can be assured it’s the truth (although I’ve been know to apply a little “Butter” here and there (Ha!)…..

S-o-o-o-o, Let’s all give a big MR Central welcome to “Shadowgraph”…..  He’s a great addition to our Community and will bring it to the next Level (Whatever Level that is)……  Again, “WELCOME SHADOWGRAPH”……

Anon’s been giving me some flack over wanting to here some more of our new stuff…..  So-o-o, here’s the compromise that I came up with……  I wanted to put up “Rainy Day Women #12&35” that Weldon had done such a spectacular job of Editing/Mastering, but, the problem was that the AIFF Audio File was 102.6 MB, much too large for the Blog, so, here’s what I did, with apologies to Weldon……  I used iTunes to create an MPEG Audio File of the song (No, I did not replace/destroy the AIFF File), which, if you can believe it is only 9.3  MB – 93.3 MB smaller than Weldon’s excellent version…..  This fits in with Neil Young’s “Pono” theory on just how much we’re not hearing these days……  The MPEG version is passible and I’m including it in this Post, mainly to quiet down Anon and let HuskySooner hear it along with the rest of the MR Community……  And, I’m sort of proud of how it turned out myself (Is that being self-important or not?)…..

This will probably be the first cut on my first solo album (MRambler & Friends) with the album title of, “We’re All JoJo’s on This Bus”…..  MR (me) played the Single-String rhythm guitar, Slide Guitar, Lead Guitar, Harp, and Backing Vocals…..  Raj (our new MR Central member and life-long friend) played a second strumming rhythm guitar, Hofner Bass (Best Bass Player EVER!), Keyboard Trombone, and sang the Lead Vocals and Extra Backing Vocals…..  We used a Drum Machine for the Drum parts, so, it was just the two of us multi-tracked…..  Again, our thanks to Weldon DeBusk of Seattle, a friend of Jek’s and Anon’s, for wanting to even attempt the long, tedious job of mixing/mastering the work of a couple of JoJo’s like us…..  Just remember, when this comes out, it might just be on Neil’s “Pono” system in the quality it should be heard in……  I’ve got 10 originals ready to start recording and tons of notes and odds and ends of verses that I’ve written over the last 30 years or so to work from, so, the rest of the album will be all originals written by me and, “With A LOT of help from My Dear Friends”, it just might be a reality sometime in the future – No. 1 with a bullet (You never can tell…. eh?)……

Yes, Reviews, Comments, Smart-Ass Remarks are hereby requested from the MR Community…..  Just remember, “You have to be insane to stay sane in the World of today” (MR quote)……

Oh, Yeah – Here’s the, unfortunately, low resolution of Weldon’s Super “Ozone” mix of RDW…..  It really doesn’t sound that bad even at the low MPEG quality…..  Hope you enjoy it and give me some feedback….  Please and Thank You!….

This is the title of Neil Young’s autobiography…..  It came out a while ago…  I highly recommend every musician to read it…..  He discusses, in detail, his ideas on improving the quality of the music we hear by 90% or more as compared to what you hear on a CD or MP3…..  That, and his Electo-Volt Lincoln are two of his passions…..  Well, it looks like he’s finally got the ball rolling on the music thing and he needs our help……  Check out this link and see what you think:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003614822/ponomusic-where-your-soul-rediscovers-music

Yep, I’m for backing Neil all the way, of course, I can’t afford much, but, this may be just what the the record industry needs, A big “Kick-In-The-Butt” by a musician of Neil’s stature……  I hope he reaches his goal…..  I want to see how this plays out……  About time us musicians (and we ARE musicians) rebelled against the “Machine”……  They forced CD’s down our throat claiming they were “Better” than Vinyl….. Smaller in size, yes, but, Vinyl still has the highest quality in the reproduction of sound…..  I think Neil’s gonna make the world a believer and I say, “More Power to Him”….  If it works out, yeah, it’s gonna cost to change over, but, look at how the video moguls forced us through, Beta, Laser Disc, VHS, DVD, and now Blue Ray…..  This one’s not from some money hungry corporation, but, from a musician who believes in and loves Music, and wants to advance it for the benefit of all…..  “Long Live Rock” in REAL High-Fidelity…….

HuskySooner requested to hear some of the new music that I’ve been working on with the bands I’m working with……  I was going to upload “Rainy Day Women 12 & 35”, that’s going to be on my solo album, but, the Super mastered version that was mastered by Weldon of Seattle (He’s the MAN!) that I wanted to upload was too big of a file…..  I don’t want to upload my rough mix because Weldon’s mix blows it away by Miles and Miles., So-o-o, I’m giving you a track from “Eddie and the Kelvinators”, which is MR (me), Raj (our new MR member and life-long friend) and an another old friend from way back that we call EC (Eddie)…..  The cut is a song from the group “Free” called “Soon I Will Be Gone”……  Take a listen and give us a review – REMEMBER, this is a rough, quick mix, but, I think you’ll enjoy it…..  Here goes:

Forgot my manners – Comes with age, I guess…..  We do have a new member of the MR Community and we all need to give him a big old-fashioned welcome…..  I hereby welcome Raj to our community of malcontents, rejects, usurpers, and all around rabble rousers…..  WELCOME RAJ and hopefully you won’t live to regret it (too much)…..

During the “Cold War”, Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical attacks by Russia were a real threat…. The following is a tri-fold, card stock, six page, wallet size pamphlet issued to ALL Army personnel… This is the one I was issued in 1966…. It goes into detail of what to do when an attack is imminent, what to do during and after the attack if you survived…. Pretty serious stuff…. I’m going to put it back in my billfold…. With the arrogant out-of-touch Administration we have now, you never know if and when some idiot is going to push “The Button”…. It won’t matter which side does it – The results would be the same – “Bend Over and Kiss Your Ass Goodbye”…..

About that time of year, as soon as all this snow & ice melts!

Got toenail rot? Try soaking your toes repeatedly in vinegar until they smell and look like little gherkins.
A tip from Doc Boric.

……Whether it’s the “Weather”……  I’ve been feeling yucky as can be for the last two weeks or so and I think I’m going to blame the “Weather”……  We went from freezing cold Winter Weather to high 60’s and low 70’s with lots of wind and low, low humidity – Big fire danger, for about a week or so, and now, we’re back to the freezing cold and Winter Weather again, sort of……  Believe me, it’s been a roller coaster – Today and tomorrow – warm, Warm, WARM, then Sunday into Monday – Mid 20’s for highs and a Winter Mix predicted…..  Talk about messing with your allergies and all that – YUCH!….  I know I’ve been making quite a few “Weather” Posts, but, the “Weather” has been so screwy, and, it just seems to be getting weirder all the time – Along with our new influx of Earthquakes – It’s time to get out of Oklahoma, if you can…..  Actually this Post is meant to be the explanation of why I haven’t been Posting the last week or so…..  Blame it on the Weather (Ha!)…..  Of course, Some, or all, of you MR Community members are welcome to Post ANYTIME you like – Hint, Hint!…..  Anyway, I hope I get to feeling better, and, I look forward to a few Posts from ANYONE…… eh?…..

Since Friday!……  Yep, here in Oklahoma…..  Only a few of them were strong enough to be felt, in the 3 to 3.5 region, but, 61 of them?…..  We never used to have Earthquakes until about a year or so ago…..  So now we have to not only worry about being blown away from the sky by Tornadoes, but, have to worry about being swallowed up from the ground…..  Maybe both at the same time!…..  Wouldn’t that be something?…..  In your underground Tornado Shelter, and all of a sudden, you just start going down further – Great Thought and a Wonderful place to live – Anyone want to swap living quarters? (as long as it’s not some other location in or near Oklahoma (Ha!))……