uh belated a bit but....
Happy New Year
I feel flat Busted just like Johnny Cash in this classic recorded at Folsom Prison
Johnny Cash - Busted
That song was recorded one cold January day in 1968, and not released until just a few years ago.
Now 40 years later ... a concert will be held this weekend at Folsom Prison again, this time featuring the lone surviving member of the Tennessee Three, drummer Fluke Holland.
Oddly enough, in a punitive country now going broke supporting a bloated prison industrial complex, The Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison album still is a brisk seller. Busted is from a German import version. The entire album has caught the imagination of a nation for decades, and continues to be one of Cash's best known works.
People obviously want to pay tribute and still cash in on that homegrown honest success, including ex-Beau Brummels frontman Sal Valentino.
His voice was heard on 60's hits like Laugh, Laugh, or Wolf of Velvet Fortune... and now in the new millennium he's even done some time in an Austin TX studio recording Johnny Cash's quintessential prison song...
Sal Valentino - Folsom Prison Blues
taken from the album "Come Out Tonight"
by Sal Valentino
(Fat Pete Records)
Buy at Amazon
Yo kids...
Speaking of Prison...
Whoa, did ya hear the latest ...
It's been a few weeks since I dropped by to update the site...and fer some reason
the world keep son churning...
One interesting story to hit my radar this week was the sentencing saga & law suits of one Jose Padilla ( not a latin musician but a guy aka Abdullah al-Muhajir)
A court room thousands of miles away in Miami on Tuesday hosts the sentencing hearings for convicted "terrorist plotter" Jose Padilla, but he and his mother, with the help of Yale legal scholar Jonathon Friedman have also started legal proceedings right here in San Francisco.
San Francisco's Federal Court became part of an intriguing and intertwining legal legacy last Friday, when a suit was filed against a Berkeley Law Professor. Padilla ( one of the few "evil doers" ever convicted in the wake of the Bush Admin's post-9/11 Homeland Security craze that swept the US), is angry at Boalt Hall's John Yoo... and wants a symbolic dollar in damages ( although his lawyers want their full fees of course).
Padilla, a U.S Citizen who was born in Brooklyn and once claimed membership in Chicago's "Maniac Latin Disciples" street gang was later termed an "illegal enemy combatant" after the government announced a "dirty bomb" plot in 2002. Thus began a long & winding legal odyssey in which precedents were few and far between, many challenges were filed, some initial charges were dropped, then reinstated, and evidence seldom matched allegations. All along, Padilla's rotating cast of legal representatives claimed the case was an overblown example of overdue process, in which torture was employed on US soil "as part of a systematic program" that "intended to break down Mr. Padilla's humanity and will to live". Eventually, Padilla was convicted by the Feds last August.
But the story doesn't stop there...
(more after the jump)
Yoo is being sued because while working for the The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel , he wrote the memoranda and legal opinions that supposedly formed the basis for Padilla's detention. According to the plaintiff, Yoo's actions directly violated Padilla's constitutional and statutory rights, and they cite as evidence Yoo's own book "War by Other Means: An Insider's Account of the War on Terror". In it they claim direct evidence of Yoo's personal responsibility for the series of recommendations and OLC opinions that Yoo made on the Government's behalf.
Yoo, one of the chief architects of the Patriot act, isn't your typical Berkeley campus liberal. He earned his keep in D.C as a law clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, and has vigorously argued against Congress restricting the President's options in regards to torture. "
They can't prevent the President from ordering torture" adding that '
It's the core of the Commander-in-Chief function"
The suit was filed here in San Francisco for jurisdictional reasons, as a similar complaint from Padilla filed in South Carolina was tossed out. Cynical legal observers suggest it is still a frivolous claim, even in nutty San Francisco, and without solid legal grounds, the Federal judiciary is likely to toss it out again.
Padilla's sentencing hearing, which begins Tuesday, because of numerous disputes regarding the legalities of his lengthy detention could last several days .
The desperate attempts to build a case against the gov't, the appeals process, various precedents set, and legal bickering on the other hand, will continue for years I imagine...
Anyhow, I as I was mentioning up top, I'm sorta busted currently, and likely gotta get my financials in order
Seems this whole holiday end of year party party party... gift giving & traveling thang has tapped me out.
How am I gonna get me a terabyte, if I can't afford a simple bite to eat eh?
Especially if I keep getting lead into death trap little dives all over town with jacked prices & lousy grub.
Take this joint I was dragged into across from the Makeout Room.
Looks innocent enough, then ya notice the sign... or lack there of.
No Sign = Bad Sign
Yer supposed to know about the place before you go or something, and you'd only know it was there if you are already a trendy asshole.
Nothing like a super "hip" restaurant ... a place where y'know people talk about the tapestries and wooden shit hanging on the walls because the food is tiny, and a rip off.
Apparently the specialty is keeping people out, ala Spago or some crap like that...
However, unlike Spago, this ain't Hollywood and this is the Mission, where one of the earth's better taco's can be had within a 2-3 minute wait for less than $2-$4 at almost any conceivable hour of the day until like 3 am.
Why would I wait outside for 30 minutes for your multi dollar faux Turkish-Taco Fusion ?
I guess they want to appear exclusive, then really just overcharge my cold humiliated ass for corn smut.
Yep... that's one of the specialty dishes, Huitalacoche...
(aka as that black mold you cut off the tops of corn ears. Stupid white people are gladly paying phat checks to eat that here...)
Anyhow if you really want to try corn smut, I suggest you save yer dough and head across the bay via Bart to Fruitvale to the magically homey & friendly environs of El Huarache Azteca ( located at 3842 International Blvd. betwixt 38th and 39th aves).
The guy who runs that place is a true gentleman, he'll get someone to hand make you tortillas to go, even after he's technically closed.
Plus the whole tab, with numerous drinks is like way less $20 for 2 people.
but, L*l* or whatever they call it, on the other hand, is simply a centrifuge for the cliche'd type of carpet bagging cash hungry dickwads that have been ruining the Mission for the last 20 years...
Not only were the pretentious staff pretending to be busy when they weren't...
But it was a scam...
So that leads me to this next dive that opened up on 16th in the Mission recently
They have this beer called Allagash that's quite good...
It's hard to find in Northern California, or on the west coast for that matter...
But I'm used to drinking it for $3 - $4 a pint in LA.
The owners must have thought it was cute, by naming their joint after a religious order that generally takes a vow of poverty.
Then selling goes about selling a bottle of Allagash beer for $22...
That's like at least 2 or 3 x what anyone would ever pay for such a thing ...
Here's some things I think are sorta exciting right about now:
Last year, the Orpheum was abuzz as a certain late night Tv host brought his shtick to town for a solid week of shows. Currently the writers strike has been sapping the comedy out of late night television, it was nice to note that David Letterman's "Worldwide Pants" outfit did their own deal with the writers to get 'em back doing what they do best.
I refuse in my couch potato moments to watch any scab t.v, and hope you'll do the same...
Which is why I whole heartedly recommend y'all tune in to Mr. Letterman's program this week while the competitors languish in their writer-less arrogance. In fact to sweeten the pot, on Wednesday January 9th, Letterman has one of SF's lesser known entertainment assets on hand as a musical guest, that being the mighty guitarzan Chuck Prophet.
He started somewhere outside of Danville with a teenage rapscallion act known as Bad Attitude, who were fixtures at joints like The Berkeley Square and Ruthies Inn.
Somehow, after a lot of broken strings and hearts and contracts, he made his roundabout way to the Ed Sullivan theater, only 45 or so years behind the Beatles & The Stones...
Mr. Prophet and his bandmates are chugging off in various directions away from their beloved and high rent Bay Area abodes until around springtime.
Wherever he goes though, he'll steal your show, whether yer Ann & Nancy of Heart draggin' him into a casino gig, Aimee Mann bringing him up onstage at Bimbo's last month, or a sloppy Xmess cover band combo including the Parker Bros, Tippy Canoe & Spiral Stairs, Chris Von Sneidern & plenty o' pals all jammin' on behalf of the SF Food Bank at the Makeout Room a few weeks later.
Watch out folks ...
He's a real rambling storytellin' troubadour from the mystical old school that never was and a perpetual stoner teenager making adult rock for the young at heart. He's done the sideman thang backing up folks like Warren Zevon, Cake, Penelope Houston and even Jewel, but he's best when left to his own devices.
His latest album Soap & Water has been getting some airplay here and there, from Innsbruck to Indiana, Belgium to Brooklyn, Santa Rosa to Satellite Radio.
The road is long & winding, and that ain't nothing new.
In fact it's been so long, I believe he played on the David Letterman show before...
it was back in the hazy 1980's...
When Green on Red, Chuck's prior band that eventually put out numerous nefarious albums was picking up steam...
I'm not sure about all the details, and likely neither is Chuck. He's since gone all what they call "Clean & Sober", but that just means there musta been a lotta dirt to dig out from under...
The episode was vaguely recounted in a Dream Syndicate track in which Steve Wynn recounted tale of Prophet's then bandmate Dan Stuart:
"Well, he lost a lot of friends in San Francisco
made a fool of himself on the Letterman show
in Dallas, Texas, he was thrown for a loss
when he passed out face-first in the barbeque sauceoh, he's got a drinking problem
likes to let his hair hang down
oh, he's got a drinking problem
till there's no one else around
Here's some free tuneage....
Don't say I didn't never do nuthin fer ya:
Chuck Prophet - Doubter Out of Jesus ( All Over You)
Download the rest of the new album here
Here's an older mp3, the title cut from his previous album
Here's a spooky lil' track found on the album Hurting Business...
Chuck Prophet - Rise
This one is a bit late this year, but hey there's always next year, it was recorded at an acoustic songwriter showcase Chuck did some years back. The original studio version appears on his album Homemade Blood, but here it is all live and shit, from a link I found at Soft Communication...
Chuck Prophet - New Years Day
anyhow
I gotta go folks
it's late
they want at work... get this... before NOON!!!
my god....
it's practically turning into a prison
keep on rawking in the Free World!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment