Muffin Bottoms [not] Just another WordPress weblog

09/01/2011

Enjoy yourself; it’s later than you think.

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,News,Tech — admin @ 5:48 am

Wake up people, Connecticut Light and Power, United Illuminating and others left you in harms way and things are far worse than you can ever imagine.

CL&P and UI are sure going to have to answer to this once everyone’s safe. It’s painfully obvious there was fraud and negligence involved. We the people should’ve known better after Exxon Valdez, Enron and BP, but what have we done? Remained asleep, simply shifting our addictions from Netflix and Blockbuster to Redbox and Hulu!!!

— Anon.

I refuse to blame the linemen in this. UI and CL&P have become mulitnational conglomerates that don’t care about our nation, our saftey, or our comfort. People, our lives have been enangered this whole time. WAKE UP. I refuse to merely give Malloy a hard time, this is not about (R) or (D) it is about privatization of water, oil, electricity and life.

You know, most of my European and Asian friends just ask me constantly how I can keep admitting publickly after all these years living in the laughingstock of the planet that I’m an American. You know, I really don’t have an answer.

Maybe I’ll just sing ’em a Lee Greenwood song and tell them to STFU

This blog entry started as many posts on my personal facebook. Here are the earliest comments. My first impulse is to develop this into one cohesive essay. But frankly I don’t want to take the extra time required to form that. I’d rather put this out there raw like this and get the dialogue going.

Please discuss.

—————

Bob — (fictitious first names only, sorry)  I noticed all the trucks in my area are from Michigan. Heard something on the news about it being cheaper to hire crews from out of state than to pay its own employees overtime. There’s you days long power outage!

Gloria — My brother was talking to some of those out of staters while they were just sitting around. Apparently they were waiting for someone to tell them what to do. So, even when we HAD the willing linemen, no managers were organized enough to use them consistently. Argh.

Andrew — hopefully you will get it soon. I know Groton Utilities has just finished their area and pretty soon they are going to start helping CL&P customers. Also I know some companies in Canada are lending a hand as well. They have driven down to help out. Last I heard CL&P still have about 400,000 customers state wide without power

Agnes — Linemen rock. You nailed it.

Donna — we were down a bit over two days. My sister in Saybrook is hearing restoration by Sunday…i didn’t notice where our linemen were from, Wichita? ‘Dit-dit-da-dit’….’

Grace — Private enterprise can’t run health care and they sure can’t power my home right. The Stockholders come first

This is all so dark, I must drop a metaphor on ya…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSm2llQLCH4

The music is Carl Sigman and Herb Magidson. 1949. I honestly don’t know if I like Keb Mo’s version or Taj Mahal’s better. Or maybe Manu Chao. Guy Lombardo?

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Enjoy+Yourself%22+%28It%27s+Later+Than+You+Think%29&aq=f

08/06/2011

What people have been saying about my song “Frybread.”

Filed under: Academic,Food,Humor,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff,Pop Culture — admin @ 6:24 pm

I just want some frybread now!!! Congrats and awesome!!!!

— Kim Bruso

how can you be my nanna, if you won’t make me frybread?!

— Joanne Stamp Packer

Here’s what some are saying about my folksong named “FryBread.”

Way to go Marco!!!

— Charly Lowry

We loved hearing it live last night Marco, good luck!

— Frank Nerkowski

HOORAY!

— Carolyn Hester

“Fried bread Fried bread make me some Fried Bread. Good enough for us Yakama NDN’s to listen to.”

— Roy Dick

OMG. Frybread!!!! The song is quite endearing, Marco! I just did a search for the song on youtube and watched the video. Now I’m hungry!

— Maria Madole Bareiss

Hey, hey, Marco! I am very happy for you. Thanks for keeping the faith in fighting for justice.

— Paul Wozniak

“I gotta admit, all the while I was doing yardwork over the weekend, I found myself singing the chorus to frybread. In fact, it was weighing on my mind so much, that once I finished, I immediately went inside and taught it to myself on the piano”

— John Carta

killer, marco. this is great news.

— Chris Castle

Yeah, baby!!! I love to see my friends– esp. former students– achieve success. In part, that is a measure of satisfaction for me. In fact, I shall take full credit for your nomination… j.k.

— Denise Sweet

Right On Marco!!

— Ed Stasium

You’re 100% bad ass!!! Congrats, man.

— Ben Parent

Congrats!

— Juliette Tworsey

i love frybread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

— Supertorch9

Very COOL! Congrats!!!

— Rick Rumpel

sweet brother! good luck to ya!

— Daniel Rodriguez

Congratulations Marco! 🙂 thats awesome!

— Michael Kickingbear Johnson

Congratulations!

— Dennis Kinsey

Good for you Marco! You deserve to win! I’m voting for you.

—  Michael Bucher

Congratulations Nyro and Marco!

— Takako Yoshioka

Totally awesome. I am a Southern California Native myself. I wish you the best with the Nammy’s. Each and every year there is wonderful artists there.

— Ashton Haze

“I’d recommend you point your web browser at the following address: http://www.frucht.org/roberta.html (check out the Fry Bread song) But then, what the hell do I know,…….. I’m just a sheepherder.”

— Bo Peep

Listen to this song here:

https://www.reverbnation.com/marcofrucht/song/8025975-frybread-chorus

or search for it in your Spotify or iTunes account.

Also, I would just love it if you would consider going to the http://www.nammys.org site soon and vote for this song and so many other positive and uplifting tunes. 😉

🙂

07/18/2011

TALKING GUITAR METHOD:

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff,Tech — admin @ 12:18 pm

I was telling a friend a trick for mastering parts that seem counterintuitive and at about the same time I notice another friend says the following:

“testing out the speed trainer in guitar pro for the next gary moore lick.”

I just know when I find myself mixing up [2] and [3] finger with each other a lot that’s my signal the piece might’ve been written on piano or violin first, or that it might’ve been 5 or 7 positions higher or lower before performing it.

One great trick is to find a couple other positions to start the same exact passage; maybe 5 or 7 positions higher or lower.

Here’s the best trick I can ever give away:

Pick half a dozen notes that include something you’re finding difficult to memorize and find those same notes all they way down on the open position. 0,1,2,3,4ish frets. Play the thing over and over there for a few minutes and then go back to where it’s performed, it might suddenly come easy as if you unlocked something magically.

Believe it or not I learned that from a Fernando Carulli book written in the late 1700s.Ooh, PS:

There’s a reprint of the same book at:

http://notenversand.eu/komponist/carulli_fernando/carulli-gitarre-schule-ue276.htm?pg=1

Nice!

06/10/2011

Blogging a Poem I Wrote That’s Disappearing From The Net

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,News,OpEd,Poetics,Tech — admin @ 7:11 am

Untitled

by Marc Frucht

What profits a man
Who has almost everything
Yet still he must
Steal from the poorQué beneficia a un hombre
Que pudo tenerlo todo
Pero él guarda el robar
El más pobres del pobre

[ref]=[http://web.archive.org/web/20050122085604/http://www.sondra.net/al/vol6/62Frucht.htm]

This was first published at Autumn Leaves which appears to be going away.

Two more poems archived at the following URLs:

http://www.frucht.org/whyweclash.html

http://www.frucht.org/secondblackmesamemory.html

————————————–

http://www.reverbnation.com/marcofrucht

05/17/2011

My Quahog (Is Hoggin’ The Beach:) Lyrics to a song I should publish soon!

Filed under: Academic,Food,Humor,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff — admin @ 8:26 am

Lyrics to My Quahog (Is Hoggin’ The Beach)

by marco capelli frucht

Not copyrighted yet, so please (don’t) steal…

My quahog is hoggin the beach…

He’s eaten up every and each

He eats all the snails and inhales the quails

And even the sandcastles shovels and pails

My quahog is hoggin the beach

My quahog has eaten the trees

The bushes and all of the bees

The birds in the air and the crabs in your hair

And even the dogs are now empty of fleas

My quahog is hoggin the beach

My Quahog has eaten the shops

The ones witgh the moms and the pops

He didn’t stop there he bought walmart fair share

Even firmed up the rights to the breathable air

My quahog is hoggin the beach

[SPOKEN] This song in case you couldn’t tell is called

“My quahog is hoggin the beach”

My quahog has ate up the land

He never even needed a hand

All the farms and the shores and the 5 and dime stores

With quarries and worries and slurries and hurries

So listen to my story you must understand

[SHOUTED] BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE AND HE EATS ALL THE SAND!

My quahog is hoggin the beach

My quahog is now after you

He’s willing to start with your shoe

Next is your ankle and both of your knees

But after your soul will no longer be free

I hear he’s got eyes on a child or two

My quahog is hoggin the beach

[SPOKEN] I have a question for you: would you rather be chowder or stew

This is my quarrel with clams

They multiply faster than yams

They consume and consume

Until then they presume

And take flight for your room

Eating all your perfume

[SPOKEN] Like a Quahog will do: You know how they are

When he chases your shoe and consumes it like stew

As soon as he reaches the coast with the beaches

For any and eaches.

My quahog is hoggin, the…

beeeeeeeeeeeeach.

2 good places to hear this song are:

http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/song_details/8376861

or:

http://soundcloud.com/atizine/my-quahog-is-hoggin-the-beach

And a good place to watch a homemade music video I did of it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn8TKn4tv1U

05/04/2011

METACOMET’S HEAD ON A STICK IN A PLIMOTH PARK FOR 20 YEARS: Roots Of Our Racism.

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,News — admin @ 6:23 am

The blood lust of so many of my “countrymen” (and women) this week over news of Osama Bin Laden’s death frightens me greatly as a human being but also as an army signal corps veteran.

There should be somber reflection and subdued “joy” regarding Osama Bin Laden’s demise.

There should be a search for closure and catharsis throughout the land perhaps, and especially among those who lost loved ones but there should not be all this demonstrative applause and neo-patriotic joy. A real Warrior prays for and seeks peace only killing as a last resort and necessary “evil.”

All this armchair warrior behavior gives me great pain. Not to mention I find it rude because come on now! It shows very bad form.

A songwriter friend of mine named Spook Handy puts it this way:

WORSE, HOWEVER, IS THAT HE BROUGHT OUT THE WORST IN SO MANY AMERICANS. PEOPLE I KNOW, FRIENDS AND EVEN RELATIVES, ALLOWED THEIR DARKEST DEMONS TO RULE THEIR RATIONALE AND EMOTIONS – COLLECTIVELY PRETENDING THAT WE DIDN’T KNOW WE WERE WRONG TO TEAR APART IRAQ, TORTURE PRISONERS AND DISREGARD THE SPIRIT OF BOTH THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION AND GENEVA CONVENTION.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/spook-handy/thoughts-on-osama-bin-laden/10150560528145654

My friend Lucy put it this way:

IT RATHER BOTHERS ME THAT ONE OF THE SEALS COMMUNICATED TO HIS SUPERIORS THAT ‘GERONIMO’ (OSAMA BIN LADEN) HAD BEEN KILLED IN ACTION.

GERONIMO WAS A GREAT NATIVE HERO. WHAT AN INSULT — OF THE GREATEST MAGNITUDE!

WHY WASN’T THE CODE NAME COLUMBUS, HITLER, STALIN, CUSTER, JACKSON, OR SADDAM USED ?????

Shepard Smith and Christiane Amanpour are both very excited about this new path that the United States is

taking now that Seal 6 team took Bin Laden and four other peoples’ lives away two days ago. If you follow their careers with any kind of discerning eye you will see they do not go anywhere that they can’t make low millions of dollars and high hundreds of thousands of dollars exploiting death, war and conflict. Falluja, Palestine, Tokyo, Britain, New Orleans or a vote count in Florida or Ohio. Doesn’t matter. If there’s conflict, if there are people grieving dead relatives, they will be there with their teleprompters and microphone. “How does it feel, Mrs. Metacom, to see your dead husband’s skull rotting on a pike at the gates to your neighbor’s village?” “This just in, we have a 9 year old grieving his dead dad, Metacom junior, please speak clearly into the microphone, your dad is dead, you are in shackles, they are beating your mother nearly to death and tonight they’ll be boating you down to Bermuda to be slaves, how are you feeling right now?”

And here’s some of what Rabbi Lerner has to say about all that:

The task of spiritual progressives at this moment is to reaffirm a different consciousness —

to remind ourselves that we are inextricably bound to each other and to everyone on the planet.

The struggle against terrorism will not be won through killing, no matter how many people

we assassinate. It will only be won when we in the West can show genuine love, caring,

and generosity toward everyone else on the planet.

http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/tikkuns-spiritual-response-to-the-assassination-of-osama-bin-laden

Last word goes to my friend Rachel who asks this!

What does this say to our children?
Did you know Native Americans historically
serve in the United States Armed Forces
in higher numbers per capita than
any other ethnic group.


04/23/2011

I miss Junji Shimanuki. He was a great guy.

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,Music and Stuff — admin @ 1:40 pm

Ordained monk.

Nipponzan Myohoji order

colleague of Jun San

Helped build Grafton Peace Pagoda.


“Junji’s austere lifestyle, the open simplicity of his spiritual practice have earned him wide respect in Indian Country.”

stood in strength and peace

with traditional Navajo and Hopi

several years.

Many don’t know this, but he insisted people teach him to build a single man’s Hogan where he lived for many years at Black Mesa.

..experience, ..equanimity, ..dignified heart

Also, I used to love letting him borrow one of my 1960s guitars because his heartfelt versions of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman” and John Lennon’s “Imagine” in a very thick Japanese accent were so much fun to sing along with and enjoy immensely.

I miss you even more today than many years ago when you passed away Junji. Rest In Peace.

http://www.8thfire.net/Day_178.html

Adding the following for historical purposes:

Jan 9 1992, 4:47 am

SPRITUAL WALK: 1992 AND BEYOND

NA MU MYO HO REN GE KYO

I  am  Junji  Shimanuki, a Japanese Buddhist  monk  of  Nipponzan

Myohoji. I come to offer a message to those who would here.

Our Teachers tell us that a great time of change is upon us,  and

that  we  must move forward with true compassion  to  meet  these

challenges.

It was the Most Venerable Fujii Guruji’s belief that the American

Indians  who  have  preserved a spiritual  way  of  life  against

humiliation  and oppression have a mission. He believed that  our

mission is to liberate humanity from the danger of  annihilation,

to  correct the wrong doings of the United States, to show a  way

to  break through its deadlock and to see that the cruel  history

will never be repeated. Fujii Guruji had high expectations of the

Bodhisarttya practice of the American Indian people.

It is in this spirit that I began to organize a ” Spiritual Walk”

to  begin  in  San  Francisco, Jan 1,  1992,  and  to  arrive  in

Washington  D.C. on October 12, 1992, the “International  Day  of

Solidarity with the Indian People of the Western Hemisphere.”

I  had hoped to organize an Indian walk… like the Longest  Walk

of 1978. I spoke to many native people and groups. Of course they

said  it  was  a good idea but many of  these  organizations  are

currently  focusing on their community. There are so many  things

to be done and everybody is doing their best.

We must move forward in this. This “Spiritual Walk” will  include

all  People  of  the Four Colors. WE WILL  WALK  AS  A  SPIRITUAL

OFFERING TO CORRECT THE EFFECTS OF COLONIZATION AND GENOCIDE UPON

AMERICAN INDIAN NATIONS.

We will do our best to speak out, to educate the American public.

1992  is a time for All People To Walk On This  Beautiful  Mother

Earth…   to  correct  the  injustices  done  by  the   American

Government not only to the Indian Nations but also to the world.

We  are a small group of people who have committed  ourselves  to

walk 5400 miles across the United States. We go through 17 Indian

Nations to gather prayers, spiritual strength and unity.

We  will  be  passing through California,  Nevada,  Arizona,  New

Mexico,  Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota,  Minnesota,

Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio, Pennsylvania, New  York,  New  Jersey,

Delaware, and Maryland.

We could use any support along the way including,  accommodations

and  food, organizing visits to schools, churches  and  community

groups,  media outreach, organizing gatherings or prayer  vigils,

or joining us in our walk for what ever time is possible.

For more information and a detailed itinerary please contact:

Nipponzan Myohoji, 82 Flora St. S.F. CA 94124 (415) 822-9471

04/10/2011

Liner Notes and Back Cover of Chiapaneca Rekkid. Enjoy!

Filed under: Academic,Music and Stuff,News,Pop Culture — admin @ 6:45 am

A

Chiapaneca is a tone poem

It is December 22, 1997.

A paramitlitary group called “Paz y Justicia” rapes and murders dozens of women and children

at a prayer meeting in Acteal, Chenalho, Chiapas. One paramilitary chooses to leave. He

picks up a little girl, Marcela saving her from harm. But later he is found out in the act

of helping her escape to the neighboring village and they hang him after much torture.

Aggressively they search for little Marcela but give up after a time.

There are other witnesses they weren’t able to kill.

Undetected, a guitarist sits in the bushes; waiting for them to leave. He remembers

everything he has seen.

Dedications: RIP Matt Chew, __________ [Censored], my Dad, John Ross, The Bees, Alma and you.

i dig local musicians.

UPC: 700261324746

Poet, Producer and Writer Marco Capelli Frucht wishes the four Sledge Grits

girls all the continued success that can possibly come along to match their

amazing skills and talent!!

ShoutOuts: Snark tuners, Page Capos, SIT strings, Zinky amps and the only new

guitar purchases anymore are Navatone and Godin.

Recording Studios acknowledged:

Lite Straw, Pwop, Dirt Floor.

http://www.oilpanalley.com

http://www.frucht.org

Oasis Disc Manufacturing

B

Frybread was written near Black Mesa Arizona

(Ch)Fry bread, frybread, make me some frybread

How can you be my Nana if you won’t make me frybread.

Frybread, frybread, make me some frybread,

How can you be a Nana if you won’t make some frybread.

Make me some frybread, chop up some peppers,

Make up some frybread- add some beans and cheese

How ’bout some frybread ‘n lettuce n’ tomatoes

Make it any kind of bread but make some fry bread please.

(ch)

I’ll herd the sheep for you I’ll chop the wood.

I’ll mud the roof if you’ll only make frybread

I’ll sweep the floor auntie, I promise I’ll be good.

I’ll learn a song for you but please make some fry bread.

(ch)

Wheat flour or white flour

Use any kind of flour

Heck even Jewish rye flour

But make some frybread please.

(chorus, repeat and fade…)

This song dedicated to all of Bob and Bonnie’s children.

Shouts to my Nana, my Bubbe, Ana Egge and Mrs. Laurie, (my 5th grade

English teacher at Groton Heights.)

04/02/2011

“Say what you mean.” — Bar Colby

Filed under: Academic,Pop Culture,Tech — admin @ 6:46 am

Attention well paid experts in your own field: when you say something is “kind of,” “kind of like,” or “like” you’re often carrying absolutely no added meaning — please don’t say it! Or at the very least please refrain from using it three times in the same sentence. It makes you sound very inarticulate or dare I say stupid.

😛

I mean, I was like furious, and you know, I mean I was like looking this over and I was like is he saying anything? He really doesn’t seem to be saying a single thing. Really? Really. Really. I was like, really? Really??

For example the following passage: “You know, it’s like when I saw people using [NOUN] with [NOUN] like with [NOUN,] they would have to write up a lot of like glue code, like a lot of just kind of redundant, the same thing over and over again and I was like, oh, let’s just get rid of that so they can write like I’m really — It’s actually kind of similar in the sense that this lets you maintain your [ADJECTIVE] state, whereas, [NOUN] will reshuffle the UI to match that state. One of the cool things you can do is you can say like just kind of reducing the kind of junk code you have to write that kind of obscures your intent”

can better read as follows:

“I saw people using [NOUN], [NOUN] and [NOUN] all written with glue code, so redundant. I cut all that while still managing to maintain [ADJECTIVE] state. One cool thing you can do is remove any junk code which obscures your intent.”

And yes, I obfuscated the descriptive terms because it really doesn’t matter who keeps doing this, just please cut it out!!

03/19/2011

Please Watch ‘Broken Rainbow’ Now That Someone Placed It Online.

Filed under: Academic,Mundane Or Sublime,Tech — admin @ 8:03 am

“Either things that we make will overtake us or nature will take over.

“Earthquakes, floods, rain, severe drought, severe winter, lightening destructing, wind destructing.”

— Thomas Banyacya.

Interpreting for Martin G., David M., and the other Elders deep inside the Kiva on an important day in the early 1970s.

My friend Gil T’s mother Laura Nyro wrote the soundtrack song “Broken Rainbow” for this movie.

I did not know him or his mom when I first heard this song.

I didn’t know them when I first saw this film either!

I was surprised and delighted to learn that the woman who wrote “Eli’s Coming” for Three Dog Night was the same woman who wrote this song for Roberta Blackgoat, Pauline Whitesinger, Kee Shay, Katherine Smith — and essentially she wrote it for all of us.

Please watch this movie if you can.

I wish copies of this movie were given to each of the people who are filmed in it. That’s not how the movie industry works though, is it? Roberta got to watch it eventually because Kee Shay went and got a copy on VHS from someone. And then he started showing it to all kinds of people who couldn’t watch it otherwise. Kee even showed it to me when my microbus was stuck in a wash one February day. I’m so thankful I got to watch movies at his house like you wouldn’t know. The places I was living that year didn’t have VCRs, internet, television, electricity or anything. For better or worse. I remember Roberta explaining to me that she is so famous she’s been quoted in dozens of books, and so many movies, but no one gives her copies of any of them. Please help me vow that when we make movies and books about people we will at least give as many free copies to the people we “mined” for them, as we do to our cronies who we hope will help us climb up the ladder over.

I will never take electricity for granted, I will never take water or air for granted. I hope to never take you for granted!

Sometimes I will but I’ll stop myself, because I have in fact vowed that I will never take all this for granted.

That is important. Especially because of the people in Japan who die so that I can type this on a battery powered laptop, recharging in an electrical outlet in a nice warm Starbucks when the weather is sunny and cold.

It’s important because of people in Arizona who die so that Uranium 238 can become Plutinium 239 and I can keep plugging in my laptop any time the battery starts getting low.

I will never take any of these things for granted. I was taking them for granted when a 9.0 Earthquake hit and people were making it so important that they call it an 8.9 instead of a 9.0. I was taking all this for granted when a Tsunami hit and people were trying so hard to say it wasn’t quite as bad as the one in Sumatra; and when many reactors began melting down and exposing radioactive rods as people were trying to say it’s not as bad as Three Mile Island and focusing so much important energy arguing whether this is worse than Chernobyl or not.

Does it matter whether it’s worse or better?

People are dead, plants and animals are dead.

I have the electricity I need and want.

That, my friends is what matters.

When I eat bison chili, or smoked cornbeef, or brisket there is ceremony I can do to thank the animal who gave his life so that I can be nourished and sustained.

We’d better find ceremony to remain thankful for people in Japan who gave their lives up not just under nuclear bombs, but in/near power plants so that we can have electricity at a low subsidized rate.

Ceremony must include people in Arizona who will mine our Uranium, Coal, Molybdenum and Gold so that our way of life can stay maintained.

Broken Rainbow – Part 1 of 7  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iN3zdpdgvY

Broken Rainbow – Part 2 of 7  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ7Dua4RZNA

Broken Rainbow – Part 3 of 7  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBOUBKDvzhQ

Broken Rainbow – Part 4 of 7  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69-XEN1BTpY

Broken Rainbow – Part 5 of 7  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtMri7I8D4Y

Broken Rainbow – Part 6 of 7  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9LctAViabA

Broken Rainbow – Part 7 of 7  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmhRdYZ0S8c&feature=related

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