ENVOY

Nothing but pain and shame in this world of men,
But I cannot fly away,
Wanting the wings of a bird.

I'M GONNA PUT IT ON

Feel them spirit

Feel them spirit

Feel them spirit

Lord I thank you

I rule my destiny

I rule my destiny

I rule my destiny
 

Lord I thank you

I’m gonna put it on

I’m gonna put it on

I’m gonna put it on

Good Lord help me

Wailers: Put It On (Link)

Wailers: Put It On (Link)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING (TAKE IT AWAY, MORRISSEY)

  This year I am deeply thankful for the earthly lives of my cats Eddie (l) and Felix (r) (nb., short “e” sound on Felix; he was named by Brazilians).   We "lost" these two family members earlier this year, but that’s not how it really works.  Eddie was in many ways the best and closest friend I ever had.  Felix was Jane’s best friend and guardian.  You couldn’t ask for finer companions with nobler characters.

  Andy, pictured below/right with Edie, is doing well a year after his last back surgery.  He is coming back all the way, I think, slowly but steadily and surely.  With everything he’s been through, he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself or overdo things.  It’s a smart decision. 

  The rationality and good character of our so-called pets – our cats, dogs, birds and fish – astounds me.  They are a round-and-round-never-ending drama-comedy event rivaling all the news, science, pseudo-science, art & literature, and mysterioso conspiracy theory websites combined.  Everything good in and for our family resides in this all-of-us-together place, and as far as the bad & the sad go, we need perforce to take the bitter along with the better.  Things once seemed easier, I think I recall, but I’m pretty certain they’ve also been more difficult.  

  Happy Thanksgiving.

  Take it away, Morrissey (Link)

and Andy Mackay: A Four-Legged Friend (Link)

ANOTHER JANUARY DREAM

You laid heaven at my feet 

And then you took it away

You melted my heart 

The same way heat melts candle

You really hurt my pride 

When you took me for a ride

And left me 

With more grief than I can handle

Someone will bring another dream for me  

Another Dream: Sandpebbles  (Link) 

GUN

I’ll never think of our moments together without nausea.

 

John Cale: Gun (Link)

REMAKE/REMODEL

 
The last several days I've been mentally composing, discarding and recomposing my thoughts on the pertinent subject, "Defining Incompentency Downward," which comes to mind whenever I see or hear fresh news reporting about the Obamacare roll-out.

It seems that my entire life, especially following college, has been spent trying to become competent at one thing or another, and once I attained it, putting that competence to work.

It hasn’t been at all easy, but a long time ago in high school (where whatever natural aptitude and talents I had were still sufficient to get me through what I now realize was "the audition") I first read Plato's admonition: “Hard is the good.” 

I believe that, and although it isn't a total surprise to me that I was once able to achieve competence in the academic study of art history at a fine graduate school (I was, after all, interested enough in the subject to choose risking long-term penury by pursuing it deep down the rabbit hole), the fact that I was ultimately able to become a competent lawyer staggers me because mystery, abstraction, and indifference reigned supreme for me in law school.

When I first heard President Obama say that key next steps in the Obamacare roll-out included a “re-roll-out,” “rebranding” and “remarketing,” my initial thoughts were: a) how superficial; b)how expensive; and c)  who's going to pay for this?

Throughout my career I’ve worked with skilled marketing and sales executives extending all the way from junior trainees to CEOs.   

None of these individuals were ever easy on themselves. Most were financially astute and hewed to the maxim “spend the company’s money as if it were your own.”   

I have witnessed and weathered my share of corporate difficulties, even disasters, but until the Obamacare capers and fiascoes, I have never seen such bottom-to-top incompetence and complacency  daily on display.  Serious drug abusers I have known (ironically, all in IT jobs) did far better work with more pride and attention to detail.

N.b.:  I am not forgetting the cur-like serial dishonesty (by-product of contempt, malevolence and perhaps sociopathy) attending the Obamacare incompetence, but that is a subject for another blog. 

Roxy Music: Remake/Remodel (Link)

John Lennon: Gimme Some Truth (Link)



Addendum:  An executive who formerly worked as a senior marketer for Pizza Hut told me this story one night.  At Pizza Hut, the biggest reluctantly pondered imponderable and existential internal corporate question was discerning why Pizza Hut made such lousy pizza.  Long study and massive expenditure ultimately revealed the answer: they had an oven problem. 

Pizza Hut ovens, which franchisees were required to purchase, simply could not produce good pizza.  The company devised a retrofitting plan, altering design, and solving the problem. 

However, on a parallel track, the company also ran a cost/benefit analysis comparing total re-engineering costs with the price of remarketing/rebranding; i.e., turning out the same vile product but simply promoting it (presumably) more effectively.

Pizza Hut's Remakers/Remodelers came out on top.   

And that is why Pizza Hut pizza is still beneath contempt.  


My wife always says: "These are the Dark Ages, but even in the Dark Ages people lived enjoyable lives."
 

Dave Edmunds: Get It (Link) 

VIVA ROXY MUSIC!