Brilliant! – Page 8

Barrence Whitfield & The Savages redux

Posted on July 16, 2025July 16, 2025 by Mike

Yes, I know I posted a jubilee of praise for the mighty, mighty Barrence Whitfield not terribly long ago, but for some reason I got to ambling through my Barrence YewToob playlist earlier today and, as is his/their usual wont, Barrence and the boys just blew my doors in all over again. In consideration of any poor deluded fools who have no interest in grooving to the extraordinary rock ’n’ roll stylings of the Round Mound Of Beantown Sound* and his band—a soul-blighting malady I can neither comprehend nor overlook—I’ll just tuck the vids below the fold.

Continue reading “Barrence Whitfield & The Savages redux” →

JAZZ cat!

Posted on July 10, 2025July 10, 2025 by Mike

Actually, I’d call this number from jazz/R&B/pop/rock legend Ben Sidran more blues than it is anything else, but that’s probably just me. See what you think, bearing closely in mind Rule #1 with all things musical: Always go with what your heart tells ya.

The brilliantly understated piano and guitar solos work together with the likewise spare but quite tasteful fills from the tremolo-soaked Stratocaster and that perfect Hammond B3/Leslie pairing to juice this modest piece right on up to genuine “earwig” status. Sidran’s laid-back vocal stylings are just the icing on a VERY tasty cake; he and his backing musicians play so far behind the beat here that they’re in serious danger of having it come around behind to lap their asses.

Sidran has been kicking out the jams since about 1960 or so, winning his spurs with an insanely wide variety of fellow artists. To wit:

Ben Hirsh Sidran (born August 14, 1943) is an American jazz and rock keyboardist, producer, label owner, and music writer. Early in his career he was a member of the Steve Miller Band and is the father of Grammy-nominated musician, composer and performer Leo Sidran.

Sidran was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He was raised in Racine, Wisconsin, and attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1961, where he became a member of The Ardells with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs. When Miller and Scaggs left Wisconsin for the West Coast, Sidran stayed behind to earn a degree in English literature. After graduating in 1966, he enrolled at the University of Sussex, England, to pursue a PhD. While in England, he was a session musician for Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton, and Charlie Watts.

Sidran joined Steve Miller as keyboardist and songwriter on recording projects, appearing on the albums Brave New World, Your Saving Grace, Number 5, and Recall the Beginning…A Journey from Eden. He produced Recall the Beginning and co-wrote the hit song “Space Cowboy.” In 1988, he produced Miller’s jazz album Born 2B Blue. He has also produced albums for Mose Allison, Van Morrison, Rickie Lee Jones, and Diana Ross.

Sidran returned to Madison, Wisconsin, in 1971 and has spent most of his life there. He taught courses at the university (on the business of music) and beginning in 1981 hosted jazz radio programs for NPR (including the Peabody Award-winning Jazz Alive series) and TV programs for VH1 (where his New Visions series in the early 1990s won the Ace Award). While hosting that series, Sidran frequently expressed his desire to “demystify the world of jazz; jazz musicians are just like the rest of us, only more so.”

As a musician and a producer he has released over 35 solo recordings.

And even that catalog of achievement, remarkable as it is, is but the tip of the Ben Sidran iceberg. There’s a way-cool backstory for the above embed, specifically the title shared by both song and album.

The original idea for Rainmaker was to throw a party in a Paris recording studio in honor of my 80th birthday. I saw it as a way to celebrate the survival of so many things, including myself, a life without borders, and my friendship with so many musicians abroad.

I imagined that it would be a blues record, so I began by writing some original blues songs and revisiting some of my favorite classic blues too. But as often happens, what we discover is not necessarily what we were looking for, and in this case I found myself writing songs that felt dystopian, not all of them traditional blues forms, and not what you might imagine as “party music”.

But by the time we finished recording at Studio de Meudon with new and old friends from America and France, the record had found its own sound. Somewhere between tragic and celebratory, shaggy and polished, broken and healed, I guess you could say that Rainmaker really is all about surviving in the modern world.

“Just like the rest of us, only more so.” Yeah, you sure said yourself a mouthful there, Ben.

HUGE: SCOTUS Rules AGAINST Nationwide Injunctions by District Courts

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Barry

This morning.
The Trump administration can now legally ignore the district court nationwide injunctions.

The district courts can rule adversely on a case, but it cannot be applied across the country.

The recent EO defining birthright citizenship that was nuked by a district court injunction is now back in force (SCOTUS did not rule on the constitutionality of that).

BIG WIN!

HUGE WIN! Supreme Court Rules Nationwide Injunctions by District Courts EXCEED Congressional Authority — Clears Path for Citizenship Crackdown

Op’m de do’, Richit!

Posted on June 25, 2025June 25, 2025 by Mike

Had an old favorite of mine pop into mind just a short while ago, an immediate hit which, upon its release, speedily ascended all the way up to number one with a bullet on the Billboard charts for Count Basie & his Orchestra back in 1947. It’s a novelty number (remember those? Don’t hear too many of those nowadays) I haven’t heard in way too many years, and had damned near forgotten about completely. So without further ado, here t’is.

I do declare, you just can’t help but dig those rib-tickling vocal stylings of R&B legend “Sweets” Edison, which I hasten to assure one and all I surely do. More from the notes included by the fella who put this one-of-a-kind chart-topper on Yew Toob.

Open The Door, Richard! (McVea-Clarke) by Count Basie & his Orchestra, vocal by Harry “Sweets” Edison, Bill Johnson, and the band

All five posted versions of this short-lived novelty sensation made it into the top-10 on both the pop and R&B Billboard weekly record charts: Count Basie (#1 pop), Dusty Fletcher, Jack McVea, Louis Jordan and The Three Flames.

Huh. Much as I’ve always admired the incomparable hit factory Louis Jordan’s amazing work, I don’t believe I ever heard his version of “Open the door, Richard” before. Gonna have to get cracking right away on filling that yawning chasm in my musical education straightaway.

Bomb, Bomb, Iran…

Posted on June 21, 2025June 21, 2025 by Barry

The president tweeted (X’d?) a few minutes ago that three of Iran’s nuclear plants were bombed. Our airmen went in and are out.

Presidential address at 10pm tonight…

Update: That was Truth Social, not X

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER

Posted on June 17, 2025June 17, 2025 by Barry

Says President Trump in a two word post just after the following:

We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.

the AMERICAN Conservative

Funny ha-ha

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Mike

Swiped this ‘un from our boy Ken, just ‘cuz it got a snicker out of grouchy old me.

Heh. Also, *snort, chortle!* On reflection, I suspect the main reason this groaner got me to giggling so was the reminder of how overjoyed I was back when Madeleine began to show the first early signs that her early-toddler-years fascination with godawful puns was beginning to wear off at last.

Straight, White and Vindicated: Supreme Court Drops the Hammer…

Posted on June 7, 2025 by Barry

This 9-0 Supreme Court ruling sends a loud and clear message: the DEI house of cards is starting to collapse. First, it was academia. Now, it’s the workplace. The tide is definitely turning – and not a moment too soon.

Do not give up. Do not listen to those that say we can not come back. They are at best a disservice to America, and at worst, on the other side.

SCOTUS 9-0, No dissent

Inflation Drops to 2.1%, Personal Income Tripled Expectations, U.S. Trade Deficit Drops by 46 Percent

Posted on May 31, 2025 by Barry

It’s so unexpected… It so exceeds expectations…

And yet, these fools that claim otherwise will never, never ever, look at the results of Trump policy term 1 before the deep state shut down the economy to stop the growth lest the average American figure out the con game they are playing.

Read The Good Economic News

And let’s add this bit – growth will allow us to get out of debt, reduce/eliminate the deficit – growth is the key to future wealth – And Trump knows all this…

And 3.8% is just the beginning

Before the cabal of commies ended the Trump miracle Term One I predicted we would end up with growth in the 5-6% range, and that is where we were headed before they shut it down.

Trump is prepared this time, he knows their tricks, and it shows.

Now you know…

Posted on May 25, 2025 by Barry

Why Trump is going to eventually crack even harder on China and use economic leverage to run the communists out of the America’s.

Keep your enemy in their hemisphere…

Cuba is a strategic battleground for China against the USA

10 minutes to the start of the greatest motorsport event in the world!

Free testicle installation

Posted on May 21, 2025May 21, 2025 by Mike

“Little Marco” Rubio: another more or less run of the mill, MOR Repugnicrat who suddenly found he had hisself a pair of heavy, clanking Big Brass Ones© swingin’ after taking a cabinet position in the Trump v2.0 admin.

MUST WATCH: Rubio Makes Van Hollen Look Like a Fool During Senate Hearing
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Tuesday morning. According to the State Department, he was there to discuss the FY26 Department of State Budget Request. Having watched most of the hearing myself, I think he was just there to have old white people and Cory Booker act like condescending jerks.

A few things stood out. One, some of these senators are incredibly ignorant about the way the world works outside of the United States and don’t need to be on any committee related to foreign policy. Two, Rubio is a thousand times smarter than most of these people put together — if it wasn’t so satisfying to watch, I’d be suffering from secondhand embarrassment for some of these senators after watching the secretary wipe the smug smiles off their faces with his facts and inability to be shaken.

But the exchange that stood out the most was the one between Rubio and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) — you know, the senator whom no one knew existed until he boarded a flight to El Salvador to wine and dine a human trafficker, wife-beater, and gang banger.

Rather than use his time to actually ask Rubio questions — even crazy Tim Kaine managed to actually do that — Van Hollen spent seven minutes berating the Secretary on everything from USAID to revoking visas from students with ties to terrorism and, of course, his favorite topic: Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

He even attacked Rubio personally. “I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you as Secretary of State,” he said at the end of his remarks.

Rubio — after asking committee chairman Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) if he could respond, given that Van Hollen never actually asked a question — didn’t miss a beat. “Your regret voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job.”

Good as that is, it gets even better from there, if you can believe it. Marco Rubio is probably the last guy in the world I ever thought I’d say this about—meek, soft-spoken, and diffident as he’s always come across—but whatever he may or may not have been before, clearly Rejuve Rubio ain’t about to take a nickel’s worth of shit from anybody now, much less a slithering Swamp critter like Chris “Bend Me Over & Make Me Love It, Nancy” Van Hollen (D-Rumpswab). Who knew? Rubio went from “polite, pliable, pushover” to “full-bore firebrand, stay back from cage 20 ft” in zero (0) seconds flat.

Basically, then, this Van Hollen dimbulb made the classic rookie error of bringing a knife to a gunfight, whereupon “Little Marco” wasted not a single moment before implementing the appropriate countermeasures upside CVH’s punkin’ haid, to the delight of rubbernecking loafers, passersby, idlers, and avid, season ticket-holding fans of Team MAGA!™ alike. Well done, Secretary Rubio sir, well done indeed.

For CA

Posted on May 18, 2025May 19, 2025 by Mike

So after noting WRSA’s post of what has got be one of Bob Dylan’s best-ever compositions (nota bene: I am NOT, nor have I ever been, a huge fan of Dylan’s), it occurred to me that I really ought to return the favor with what I think to be a considerable one-up: what has got to be the most beautiful version of said composition you’re ever gonna hear.

Gorgeous, simply gorgeous, si? So gorgeous, in fact, that you can practically hear your heart breaking. As perfect an example of the soul-stirring power of truly good music as you could ever hope to hear, this one is—especially on that last verse, when the vocal harmony line joins in and transforms the song from “pure genius” to “choir of angels” levels of beauty. Everyone involved with this arrangement, performance, and recording ought to be damned proud of their work on it.

Return to normalcy

Posted on May 16, 2025May 16, 2025 by Mike

Whatever “normalcy” means nowadays, if anything.

Let Freedom Ring! Trump Restores Liberties, Exposes Fake News, Makes Liberal Heads Melt: WOW Is it FUN!
I have been quite upfront about my alleged visit to the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

These days, I sleep well knowing that Joe Biden and his Marxist myrmidons are gone. I no longer lie in bed fully dressed until 7 a.m. in case the FBI kicks in my door and throws me into a cell without my Constitutional right to a speedy trial. In fact, I actually sleep well and wake up early to gleefully read what Trump said or did after I finished my Manhattan and fell asleep peacefully watching “Sons of Anarchy.” Why can I and other Constitution-loving Americans sleep peacefully? Because Trump is back, and so is the law of the land

Here is the sick part: all Trump has done is to re-establish the normalcy that We the People have come to expect. The fear of being tossed into solitary confinement in a D.C. gulag is, for now, not likely to happen to any American. Trump did that.

We peaceful conservative patriots no longer have to worry that we may be imprisoned for daring to speak freely, like that commie prag from the pinko ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s.

That Marxist, ice cream-churning swine doggy was far more aggressive than I allegedly acted on January 6, and yet he knows he won’t spend a minute in jail having the guards beat the potato salad out of him. But he is too stupid to thank Trump for that freedom.

The only thing better than sleeping peacefully, drinking less to drown the anxiety, and once again enjoying my Constitutional rights, is watching Trump make the faces of liberals melt like those Nazis in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

I have spent much of my adult life in New York City, where I learned a phrase we didn’t have in Detroit, where I grew up: ball busting.

FACT-O-RAMA! Ball-busting, (also called “chopbusting”) is an East Coast phrase meaning, to make fun of someone/something.

Trump is a ball-busting ace. He knows what to say to make the liberals jump, jive, wail, and weep, and it’s wildly entertaining.

I love waking up to see men in dresses screeching like the little girls they wish they were over a joke Trump made hours after I have fallen into a peaceful sleep.

I laugh like a marijuana-chomping hyena (where it’s legal for hyenas to eat the doobies…) when my few remaining libdolt friends send me Facebook messages screaming, “YOUR president said men can’t have babies! How do you feel NOW, Nazi!?”

I couldn’t be happier with Trump back in the White House.

Said a mouthful there, Kev. Of all the many fine and wonderful things Mango Man© has done for America That Was this time around, the copious flow of shitlib tears just might be at the top of that ever-lengthening list. Another edifying consequence:

“We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the U.S.,” a Wednesday New York Times headline read.

Sure, plenty of well-known Democrats (mostly from Hollywood and the media) vowed to leave the U.S. in the event of a second Trump presidency: Sharon Stone, Cher, Barbra Streisand, Raven-Symoné, Whoopi Goldberg, Elon Musk’s gender-confused son Xavier Wilson, and even Cardi B rank among those who’ve at least hinted at that kind of radical action. But few of them have actually done anything about it.

But even the New York Times knows that nobody takes the vague premonitions of actors, entertainment media figures, and models seriously. To have three Yale professors who actually study the tragic events of the past century leave the U.S. because they think their country is going in the direction of Nazi Germany — well, that’s sensational.

The New York Times piece was a video opinion by history professors Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore who are married, and philosophy professor Jason Stanley, in which the threesome explained that they’d relocated to the University of Toronto, and they thought the U.S. was turning into a fascist state with President Donald Trump as its burgeoning supreme leader.

As I’ve said for a long time now, I could easily wish Trump really was the fascist dictator shitlibs love to weep, wail, and tear their hair out in great hanks about. If it drives idiots like those mentioned above from these shores for good, hey, that’s a plus far as I’m concerned. If this is fascism, then bring it on—all you want of it, plus some.

Buncha clowns, clowning around

Posted on May 16, 2025May 16, 2025 by Mike

Our old blog-bud Ken Layne has posted the coolest friggin’ GIF you’re ever gonna see; hopefully it’ll work properly over here as well, although if it doesn’t, don’t hate me ‘cause I’m beautiful, y’all. If not, you can always check out the original here, number 5.

*Send in the clowns, there ought to be clowns*

Now THAT’s what I call a RODEO, bubba!

Update! Nope, no joy, looks like; just a static image instead of an auto-repeating animation like it’s s’posed to be. Ah well, go check it out at Ken’s joint, you’ll be glad you did.

Tariffs are going to KILL us ALL

Posted on May 5, 2025 by Barry

According to the anti-Trump pro-China “media”, republican rino’s, and everyone from the Wall Street Journal to Fox News.

In spite of the fact that during term one Trump put tariffs in place and the effect was exceptional – American prosperity rose rather than declining as it had been – the China enablers (bought and paid) continue to push the old business school canard that tariffs are bad.

And here we are, April has ended with the market going ballistic and up, not down as predicted. Jobs, real ones not government fakes, continue to defy expectations. Billions of new investment is on the way. Countries are at the table now to work out deals for access to the American market, deals that will save their economy while bolstering ours and ridding us of the China problem. There will be announcements soon.

Between DOGE finding and eliminating the theft of your money, Trump cutting other federal funding, and tariffs replacing other taxation (your income tax) the goal is to eliminate income tax for the vast majority of American citizens.

The border is closed – no more budget dwindling illegals crossing, and the worst are being sent home with the remainder to come. The big drain on the budget will get eliminated.

We are still alive, and the plans are in place to make our lives considerably better and far wealthier, while enhancing freedom and liberty, the true underpinning of prosperity.

They said I would be homeless, begging for soup, and regretting my vote for Donald Trump.

Trump’s economic punchline is simple: relief for the middle class, deregulation of markets, and a rollback of the bloated federal bureaucracy.

Trump added that another facet he’d like to avoid connected to trade is allowing China to “make hundreds of billions of dollars and build more ships and more Army tanks and more airplanes,” when we could be making those dollars to benefit the U.S’ relationships with foreign nations.