I've Never Karaoked...

...but a band at a local venue is asking for volunteers to sing Tom Waits songs, and I'm tempted to give it a try. My problem is that I don't have the necessary years of cigarettes and bourbon required to pull off Waits's gravelly shouting without my being reduced to a coughing fit. I even know what song I'd choose, and for a little bit of showmanship I'd take a swig from a hip flask before starting to sing. Here's what I'd choose:



Lyrics:

Anywhere I Lay My Head (Waits)

My head is spinning round, my heart is in my shoes, yeah
I went and set the Thames on fire, oh, now I must come back down
She's laughing in her sleeve boys, I can feel it in my bones
Oh, but anywhere I'm gonna lay my head, I'm gonna call my home

Well I see that the world is upside-down
Seems that my pockets were filled up with gold
And now the clouds, well they've covered over
And the wind is blowing cold
Well I don't need anybody, because I learned, I learned to be alone
Well I said anywhere, anywhere, anywhere I lay my head, boys
Well I gonna call my home

I'm Nostradumbass!

My January 7 post on breaking ties to the Gillette corporation is kinda prophetic, ain't it?

Tift

Folk/Americana singer Tift Merritt was born in Houston, Texas, but was raised in Raleigh, NC. She's multi-talented - - writes songs, sings them, plays guitar, electric guitar, and keyboards. She's sexy and cute, rather than sexy and beautiful, if you can discern the difference, with a breathy voice and a feminine vulnerability that is endearing. She spent a bunch of years living in NYC, until she became pregnant with a daughter; after the birth she returned to NC, desiring to raise the little girl in a more relaxed atmosphere. Currently Tift is a single mom, raising the little girl by herself and taking her along to the occasional live music gigs - - Tift's touring schedule has been curtailed by motherhood, to a large degree.

Here's a few of my favorite Tift Merritt songs. We'll lead off with a paean to a mill town that died when a highway bypassed it:



Next, "All the Reasons We Don't Have To Fight." A bittersweet relationship song.



Next, the very first Tift Merritt song I ever heard, and instantly fell in love with: Trouble Over Me, from her breakthrough album Bramble Rose:

Here's one from 2017, Heartache Is An Uphill Climb, filmed in Wilson, NC, during a parade, Tift seemingly frightened by the climbing of the water tower - - I'd have been scared shitless, myself:



Tift also has a fondness for Motown-style soul, shown here in Good Hearted Man:



Finally, Tift doing her trademark song Bramble Rose, her sweet vulnerability on full display as she sings the song solo. The guitar, a Martin parlor guitar - - OOO-series, I'd guess - - is capoed up to sound almost like a mandolin. Tift has said that this song is a favorite with Eagles member Don Henley, who has played it in concert.

Mild, Pleasant Evening

The sort of night you'd want to be outside watching the sunset, preferably on the coast somewhere, such as Southport, NC:

Image via Surfchex Webcam service.

Breaking the Chains To the Gillette Corporation

It's no secret that the Gillette Corporation, which sells most of the men's razors and razor blades in the US, engages in monopolistic pricing practices of its products. The razors are overpriced, but the replacement cartridges are ridiculously overpriced, which has led to much hatred toward Gillette by working-class men, and the rise of "shaving clubs" that supply replacement cartridges a a lower price point than Gillette does - - but even those are no real bargain.

So when I found myself with an Amazon gift card from my sister as a Christmas present, I pulled the trigger on purchasing an old-fashioned double-edged safety razor. Blades for it are readily available, and at Amazon can be had for $6.68 for 100 blades - - seven cents per blade, if my arithmetic is correct. In comparison, 12 blades for a Gillette Fusion cartridge razor are being sold at Amazon for $39.99, or $3.33 per cartridge. That's just robbery, pure and simple. I typically shave three times a week, so 100 blades, if I change out a blade once per week, will last me very nearly two years.

And I actually tried the new razor for the first time tonight. I'd never used one before - - when I first started shaving most men were using Schick Injector razors, and Gillette's Trac II had just been introduced - - butterfly safety razors were viewed as "old man" razors, holdovers from the 1940's and 1950's. Damnation, though - - I haven't had this smooth a shave in years, my face is as soft as the proverbial baby's bottom, and there is no clogging issue as found in plastic cartridge razors. And the single edge is quite sufficient to accomplish this task - - no 2 or 5 blades to ensure a close shave. One does the trick.

On the downside, I nicked myself slightly on the chin, which indicates that a softer touch is necessary on the tight curves of my face ("But Bob, you don't have tight curves on your face!" Shut up.). So far I'm quite happy, though. I'll report further if necessary.

Not To Put Too Fine a Point On It...

...but it's just a matter of time before some leftist politician will try to be sworn in on a copy of The Communist Manifesto.

Newly elected Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema refused to be sworn in on a Bible, opting, instead, to place her right hand on a book of laws, including the U.S Constitution and the Arizona Constitution.

It would probably be best if there was a small list of acceptable books to swear an oath on, and an approval process for adding other books as necessary. Any book by Karl Marx or Adolf Hitler should be forever banned.

Funding the Wall Is Chump Chage, In the Greater Scheme of Things

Want to fund the wall fully? Simply divert all foreign aid for the coming fiscal year for the Wall. Problem solved.

I Wonder Which Would Have a Higher Body Count?

I'm pondering which would likely have the higher body count: a civil war to prevent the US from becoming a Communist country, or peacefully allowing the US to become a Communist country, with the body count coming down the line as Communism works its usual murderous magic?

A civil war at least has the advantage of killing Communists from the get-go, and possibly killing enough of them that they're never able to rise again. Letting Communism take hold peacefully will result in the death of the US we (the deplorables, the rurals, the white trash, the flyovers, call us what you will) grew up loving, with ourselves marked for gulags and firing squads by the Communist urban dwellers.

And yeah, I'm not willing to call them just Democrats or Liberals or Progressives or Democratic Socialists any more. They're fucking Communists, and we need to start calling them this - - even their propaganda wing, the journalists of the MSM. Fucking. Communists.

Well, On the First Day With Democrats In Charge of the House of Representatives...

...they've already filed impeachment charges against President Trump, proposed a bill to replace the Electoral College with direct popular vote for President/Vice President, and proposed a bill to prohibit the President from using the pardon power to pardon himself, his family, or members of his staff.

Oh, and one Muzzy Democrat Representative has changed the map in her office to eliminate Israel, replacing it with a fictional "Palestine."

Since I'm Now Banned On Facebook...

...for the next 30 days, I'll post here a bit to keep in touch with those of my online acquaintances who aren't on Twitter or MeWe.

I actually had just finished a five-day ban on Facebook for typing the words "tranny" (not a reference to automobile transmissions) and "muzzy" (slang for Muslim). Don't know if I was ratted out by other people on Facebook or whether Facebook has an algorithm that looks for such words. Anyway, today was my first and last day of freedom on Facebook for the next thirty days, as I typed the words "white trash peckerwoods" in a comment about the movie Deliverance only a few minutes after being able to post again. Within a half hour I was again in Facebook Jail, this time for a 30-day stretch. Still don't know whether it was a rat or an algorithm that got me.

So, thirty days from now when Facebook allows me to do things on my profile beside read it, I'll update my profile photo:

Mark Him Down As #1 On a Particular List.

"Rep. Eric Swalwell Thinks Gun Confiscation Will Work Out Fine Because Government Has Nukes."

It shouldn't be necessary, really, to say that Rep. Swalwell is both a Democrat and from California. He's a gun grabber, and ready to kill deplorable gun owners, or actually to have others do the dirty work for him.

Lafayette, the Debt Is Paid.

One of the oldest allies of the United States - - France - - has decided that the US under President Donald Trump is to be treated as an enemy:

Emmanuel Macron has called for the creation of a “true European army” to allow the EU defend itself from threats ranging from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin.

The French president has pushed for closer EU defence union since coming to power last year but has been so far met with limited success amid foot-dragging by other member states.

“We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” Mr Macron told France’s Europe 1 radio in an interview.

I've been less scornful of France in the past than other Americans because of the tremendous debt that our budding country incurred when France came to our aid during the Revolutionary War. It's quite probable that without that aid the Revolution would have failed, and we would still be subjects of the Queen of England. Even going to their aid during WWI and WWII didn't repay that debt, at least in my mind. Now, though?

Lafayette, the debt is paid. You're on your own from this point on, as far as I'm concerned.

Meanwhile, In Maryland...

...family members call on police to execute grandpa, who had become a bit of a nuisance.

Now that Grandpa is taken care of, we can divvy his stuff up, and we don't have to go broke putting him in a nursing home a few years from now.

Oh, you don't think there's potential for abuse in "red flag" gun confiscation orders? Just fell off the turnip truck, did you?

Musical Interlude

NC native Tift Merritt's paean to a dying mill town:

Arrival

Ordered Friday, arrived Monday. Fender Sonoran electro-accoustic guitar, $289. This one is in a color described as "surf green," which was the same color as a house I grew up in as a boy in Florida. I can't play a lick, but I'd like to at least learn a few early Jimmy Buffett tunes to strum, if nothing else.

Hurricane Day!

Hurricane Florence has washed ashore in North Carolina near Wilmington, and will be crossing the Carolinas throughout the day. I'll make updates throughout the day as long as power stays on. I'm also available on Facebook and on Twitter (@drawncutlass).

Update, 4:40 p.m.: woke from a nap. No rain, wind is gusting but not blowing steadily.

Update, 6:10 p.m.: rain finally arrives. Wind still mild.

Update, 3:00 a.m.: It's now the 15th, I woke up a half hour ago. We still have power, currently no heavy winds or rain. Checked on the cars outside, they are undamaged.

Update, 3:45 a.m. Sunday 16 September. Nothing much to report in the last 24 hours. We had gusting winds but not sustained wind conditions, and rain has been mostly moderate. Florence apparently spent herself slamming into the NC coast, and has been downgraded back to tropical depression status. Crossing my fingers and touching wood and saying a prayer that it stays that way.

Update, 12:01 a.m., Monday 17 September: *at work* So the hurricane weekend is now over, and I'm back at work. I violated the Union County curfew by driving around after 9:00 p.m. tonight, but no one stopped me, so...

We made it through well at the house. Never actually lost power, although it flickered at least once, my sister reports (I was asleep at the time). The storm itself came through our area on Sunday, with heavy rains but little wind. A lot of areas in the county flooded, and I was worried about our rental house, with it being bordered by a creek; but the creek provided enough quick drainage that our house was never in serious danger of flooding. A neighbor's house down the street required sandbagging to avoid damage, however.

This will be the last storm update.

Musical Interlude

Chris McDermott, Even the Devil Gets Right Someday. He's sort of goofy-looking, but it's a great song. Sounds like it would be fairly easy to learn on guitar:

O Noes, It's the Attack...

...of the Giant Pickle:

Regarding the Pederasts In the Catholic Church

Vanilla Extract Project, Update 1

The vanilla beans were bottled in rum on July 19th, it is now September 2nd, so just over a month in bottle, with the bottle shaken vigorously several times per week. Color is now that of dark rum or vanilla extract or tobacco juice; when the bottle is opened to smell, a strong vanilla aroma dominates. I'm happy so far.