Tag: rip

The Wednesday Afternoon Music Express, Special Memorial Edition Presents: Alvin Lee

It appears that Alvin Lee finally made it home. 🙁

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZRV6fwUZwBk

Alvin Lee, the guitarist and singer of Ten Years After, has died.

A statement posted on his official website read: “With great sadness we have to announce that Alvin unexpectedly passed away early this morning after unforseen complications following a routine surgical procedure.

“We have lost a wonderful and much loved father and companion, the world has lost a truly great and gifted musician.” — More at Music Radar

 

Hugo Chavez dead of Cancer at 58

Sad News, even if the man was a sworn communist:

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President , the fiery populist who declared a socialist revolution in Venezuela, crusaded against U.S. influence and championed a leftist revival across Latin America, died Tuesday at age 58 after a nearly two-year bout with cancer.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, surrounded by other government officials, announced the death in a national television broadcast. He said Chavez died at 4:25 p.m. local time.

via News from The Associated Press.

He leaves behind two daughters and a wife. My condolences to his family. I will say one thing; as mach as I disagreed with the man’s politics, I did admire the fact that he stood for what he believed in, and was willing to take it to his grave.

May he rest in peace.

Update: Now a Memeorandum Thread.

 

The Saturday Night Music Express – Special Memorial Edition – Presents: Stone Temple Pilots

Los Angeles (CNN) — Aaron Swartz, an Internet savant who at a young age shaped the online era by co-developing RSS and Reddit and later became a digital activist, has committed suicide, a relative told CNN Saturday.
He was 26 years old.

A prodigy, Swartz was behind some of the Internet’s iconic moments, soaring to heights that many developers only dream of. At the same time, he was plagued by legal problems arising from his aggressive activism, and he was also known to suffer depression, a personal matter that he publicly revealed on his blog.

Related:

Others: AlterNet, Mashable!, Guardian, The Daily Caller, The Verge, VentureBeat, Towleroad News #gay, The Raw Story and Gothamist,  New York Times, Hullabaloo, Althouse, Guardian and Brad DeLong,  Crooked Timber, The Agonist, The Atlantic Online, Guardian, Balloon Juice, The Lede,Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Gawker, TechCrunch, Althouse and Lessig Blog, v2, The Reality-Based Community (Memeorandum)

The Early Morning Music Express Presents: Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitarist and composer whose collaborations with Western classical musicians as well as rock stars helped foster a worldwide appreciation of India’s traditional music, died Tuesday in a hospital near his home in Southern California. He was 92.

Mr. Shankar had suffered from upper respiratory and heart ailments in the last year and underwent heart-valve replacement surgery last Thursday, his family said in a statement.

Mr. Shankar, a soft-spoken, eloquent man whose performance style embodied a virtuosity that transcended musical languages, was trained in both Eastern and Western musical traditions. Although Western audiences were often mystified by the odd sounds and shapes of the instruments when he began touring in Europe and the United States in the early 1950s, Mr. Shankar and his ensemble gradually built a large following for Indian music.

His instrument, the sitar, has a small rounded body and a long neck with a resonating gourd at the top. It has 6 melody strings and 25 sympathetic strings (which are not played but resonate freely as the other strings are plucked). Sitar performances are partly improvised, but the improvisations are strictly governed by a repertory of ragas (melodic patterns representing specific moods, times of day, seasons of the year or events) and talas (intricate rhythmic patterns) that date back several millenniums.

Mr. Shankar’s quest for a Western audience was helped in 1965 when George Harrison of the Beatles began to study the sitar with him. But Harrison was not the first Western musician to seek Mr. Shankar’s guidance. In 1952 he met and began performing with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, with whom he made three recordings for EMI: “West Meets East” (1967), “West Meets East, Vol. 2” (1968) and “Improvisations: East Meets West” (1977).

Mr. Shankar loved to mix the music of different cultures. He collaborated with the flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and the jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane, who had become fascinated with Indian music and philosophy in the early ’60s. Coltrane met with Mr. Shankar several times from 1964 to 1966 to learn the basics of ragas, talas and Indian improvisation techniques. Coltrane named his son Ravi after Mr. Shankar. — New York Times

News Roundup Here

The Thursday Morning Music Express Presents: Dave Brubeck

I will not lie to my readers, Jazz is really not my thing. I am a rock and roller. However, I always show mad respect to the great ones in music. Jazz is an American thing, and we invented it, and people overseas wanted to sound like us. This was back, when America was a great Nation and people around the world wanted to be like us.

Enjoy the music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJE92phKzI

Dave Brubeck, the pianist and composer who helped make jazz popular again in the 1950s and ’60s with recordings like “Time Out,” the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and “Take Five,” the still instantly recognizable hit single that was that album’s centerpiece, died on Wednesday in Norwalk, Conn. He would have turned 92 on Thursday.

He died while on his way to a cardiology appointment, Russell Gloyd, his producer, conductor and manager for 36 years, said. Mr. Brubeck lived in Wilton, Conn.

In a long and successful career, Mr. Brubeck brought a distinctive mixture of experimentation and accessibility that won over listeners who had been trained to the sonic dimensions of the three-minute pop single.

Mr. Brubeck experimented with time signatures and polytonality and explored musical theater and the oratorio, baroque compositional devices and foreign modes. He did not always please the critics, who often described his music as schematic, bombastic and — a word he particularly disliked — stolid. But his very stubbornness and strangeness — the blockiness of his playing, the oppositional push-and-pull between his piano and Paul Desmond’s alto saxophone — make the Brubeck quartet’s best work still sound original.

Outside of the group’s most famous originals, which had the charm and durability of pop songs ( “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” “It’s a Raggy Waltz” and “Take Five”), some of its best work was in its overhauls of standards like “You Go to My Head,” “All the Things You Are” and “Pennies From Heaven.” — Source

Others Remembering — Left and Right: BBC, Gothamist, Los Angeles Times, The Maddow Blog, Gawker, Truthdig, Stinque, The Week, Blazing Cat Fur, Balloon Juice and Althouse, The Atlantic Online, Los Angeles Times, Outside the Beltway, Gimme Noise, The Democratic Daily, The Reaction, Power Line and The Volokh Conspiracy, FIRST DRAFT

In Loving Memory: Ada Arlene Quinn

I just recently lost a family member and I got permission from her daughter Sandy to post this tribute.

arlene
Ada Arlene Quinn – My second cousin or my grandfather’s, Brother’s Daughter

Arlene, as we called her,was my Grandfather’s Brother’s Daughter. This would be on my Mother’s side of the family.  She was born on August 30, 1946 and passed away on October 8, 2012. She was one of the strongest women than I know, outside of my own Mother. I will always remember the kindness that she and her parents, showed to my family, when we would go to Dalton, Georgia every year.

This music video, which happens to be a personal favorite of mine, is dedicated to her, and the legacy of love that she leaves with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Rest in peace, Arlene and save me a place at the throne; I will be with you in a little while. Angel

My continued prayers for the Quinn family, during this very difficult time.

Here’s the video:

Breaking News: Arlen Specter has died

Some sad news to report on a Sunday.

NBC News Politics:

220px-Arlen_Specter,_official_Senate_photo_portraitFormer U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Republican-turned-Democrat who played a key role in many Supreme Court nominations, has died. He was 82.

His son Shanin Specter says his father died Sunday morning at his home in Philadelphia, from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He had battled cancer and other health problems.

Specter served 30 years in the Senate, a Pennsylvania record.

In April 2009, he startled fellow senators when he announced he was switching to the Democratic side because he did not think he could win the nomination for a sixth term in the increasingly conservative GOP. He wound up losing the 2010 Democratic primary to then-Rep. Joe Sestak, who narrowly lost Specter’s seat to conservative Pat Toomey

 

 

I will not write negatively about someone who has died. The man stood for what he believed in. In the wave of the Tea Party movement, Spector became a pariah. Something I know too well about. He tried switching sides, and was not wanted. Spector was from a different era, when politics and Conservatism were not as ugly as they have become in this new era of Sound Bites, and new media.

May he rest in peace, and my prayers to him family in this hour of mourning. Praying

Update: Kudos to the commenters over at DailyKos for showing some serious class on this subject. Applause

Sad News: Church van crash kills two Baptists in TN

So sad to get news like this:

Two people were killed and 12 others injured Sunday morning when a van carrying youth from Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Maryville, Tenn., collided head-on with an SUV while returning from a weekend retreat in Gatlinburg.

The driver of the van, Jeff Trussell, and teenager Courteney Kaliszewski were killed. Ten passengers ranging from middle school to college age were transported to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Two of those were transferred to Children’s Hospital. According to local media, at least two Lifestar helicopters and three ambulances transported the victims.

The driver of the SUV, 21-year-old Tyler J. Schaeffer of Seymour, Tenn., crossed the center line of Chapman Highway in Sevier County and struck the van head on, causing it to catch fire. Strangers stopped to help rescue passengers in the church van and offer aid until emergency vehicles arrived.

via ABP: Church van crash kills two

🙁

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. — (Psalms 116:15 KJV)

May they rest in peace.

My Thoughts on the situation in Egypt and Libya

I remember seeing this news breaking early this morning, before I finally drifted off to sleep. I remember thinking to myself, “oh crap…” and thinking, here we go again, another situation in the middle east.

At first, I heard it was over a lamely produced Movie trailer, which was produced by someone claiming to be a Israeli Jew — who might not even be a Jew after all; then I hear it might be a coordinated attack in retaliation over the number 2 of Al-Qaeda’s being killed.

Meanwhile, an couple of Americans are dead today. Their bodies being drug through the streets in some God-forsaken Country. What does our President do? Act like some aloof jackass, who cannot be bothered with the situation.  As for Romney, he takes advantage of the Situation and points out that this President’s foreign policy has been a utter failure. In response, the media tries to portray Mitt Romney as not ready for Prime time. A typical tactic that was used on John McCain as well.  Not to mention the fact that the media is coordinating to try to tear down Romney in this election.

I could sit here and yowl on about this shows that America and Judeo-Christian Values are under attack by Islam and Muslims.  However, I believe most of you, that read this blog already know this. Whatever the cause of these American Embassies being attacked, it is a tragic thing.

However, as a Non-Wilsonian Conservative, allow me to float this idea. Could this be a piece of living, in color, proof that the United States of America ought to just withdraw from these Countries and not have American Embassies in those Country? Perhaps that this is one of the signs that America needs to stop kowtowing down to the United Nations and stop trying to be the world’s policeman. Perhaps we should stop getting involved in the affairs of other Nations. Perhaps we should being to restrict our immigration polices more and stop allowing a free flow of Muslims into this Country.

Perhaps we as a Nation need to take a second look at the practice of Islam and how it is intolerant to other Religion and to criticism; and possibly pass laws banning the Religion in this Country, on grounds it is threat to Nation security.  After all, this attack happened one day after the 11 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in NYC and at the Pentagon, and Shakesville, Pa.

Again, is it wrong to ask such questions? I am not hating on any religion of any sort. I am looking at the protection of our Republic and all I really know, is that foreign citizens have killed Americans working abroad; this is unacceptable and something needs to be done. However, with the current leadership in the White House, nothing will be done, at all. Yes, I know, Military has been dispatched;  at this point, that is nothing more than window dressing and buttocks covering by the White House. The truth is, that once again, leadership in the White House has failed us.

This is why we must vote differently, come November.