And Still More Notes From The Road

• IRONY ALERT: I had to get something from the trunk of the car and needed to move the First Aid kit. I managed to slice open on a sharp edge of plastic. It bled like a stuck pig. Good thing I had a First Aid kit.

• After I went through Dayton, Ohio I caught an earworm of Randy Newman's tune that lasted for hours;

• The sweetest sound you'll even hear is "I'm going to let you off with a warning."

• Many signs warning that bridges ice up before the roadway, but I didn't see any ice.

• Cigarette smoking in restaurants is still allowed in South Carolina.

I'm kipping for the night. I have about 8 hours driving ahead of me tomorrow.

Night, night.

More Notes From The Road

• South Carolina is the shredded tire capital of 'Merka;

• Dixie Chicken by Little Feat, the live version, is one of the all-time great driving tunes. Eight times in a row was overkill;

• How did I upload 10,000 tunes and forget Frank Zappa???

Michigan seems like a dream to me now. Canton? A nightmare.

Notes From The Road

Here's what I learned today:

• A smartphone is useless if the Starbucks finder doesn't work;

• Sixteen hours of tunes and only one clunker;

• There are some really shitty drivers out there;

• I can't drive forever.

Taking a rest break for some shut eye.

The Mark Koldys-Johnny Dollar Comment of the Day

A thread from Johnny Dollar's CABLE NEWS TRUTH sewer on my birthday

The Flying Monkey Squad™ is at it again. 

The Flying Monkey Squad™ has, once again, started with an observation and, working backwards, created another Bogus Conspiracy Theory™. Then Johnny Dollar, aka Mark Koldys, allows the use of his sewer about CABLE NEWS TRUTH to disseminate their bullshit.

Wash, rinse, repeat. It's the same old pattern I've put up with for the last year of obsessive cyber-stalking by The Flying Monkey Squad™.

It's so nice that The Flying Monkey Squad thinks I am important enough to continue to cyber-stalk. You'd have thought li'l ol' me wouldn't be worth their time, but they just can't quit me.

Who is obsessed? They claim it's me. I say it's them. Who you gonna believe?

Take a look: Ashley Graham, aka Grayhammy, is quoting my emails from 10 years ago and making unfounded assumptions about it. He also quotes an exchange from somewhere with Johnny Dollar, aka Mark Koldys, from 2011. Check out that obsession!!! The NSA could use a few pointers from Ashley Graham on obsessive cyber-stalking.

Yet, this is his latest feeble attempt to discredit me.

That MoFo Grayhammy has proven once again that he simply doesn't understand how a nom de plume works. I created the character of Aunty Em Ericann SEVERAL YEARS before I was approached to write for NewsHounds. When I started writing for NewsHounds, I simply kept the nom de plume. Using a nom de plume to write under is not a lie, just ask A.A. Fair. In fact, in today's political climate it might be wise to use a nom de plume, right (he asks of the piece of shit hiding behind the sock puppet) Grayhammy?

Case in point: Ashley Graham and Mark Koldys tried to discredit me as a NewsHound writer by exposing my sex life. They sweep that inconvenient fact under the carpet. Exposing my sex life and Aunty Em's nom de plume proves why a political writer would need a nom de plume in this age of personal destruction, a tactic at which The Flying Monkey Squad™ excels.

Grayhammy claims, without proof, that I lied to my family and friends when I created the performance artist I named Aunty Em. Several hundred people knew I was Aunty Em, including my family, my friends, and Flo and Eddie, among many others. How much of a secret could it really be? Whenever I called up contacts for NewsHound research I'd introduce myself as "Headly Westerfield, writing for NewsHounds under the name of Aunty Em." AGAIN: How much of a secret could it really be?

The Flying Monkey Squads™ conspiracy theory falls apart right there. They know that, of course. Which is why they know they are lying about me when they continue to bring it up.

Having said all that: Johnny Dollar continues to prove that he is the enabler, and often instigator, of the The Flying Monkey Squad™. I cut enablers no slack. I wonder why a grown man -- a former Michigan prosecutor -- would act that way. I'm sure his parents taught him better than that.

Above: a mother's adoring eyes.
Far left, Grumpy Cat, aka Mark Koldys, aka Johnny Dollar, the fearless leader of The Flying Monkey Squad. You'd have thought his mother (pictured here with Brother Bruce and brother Ken) and father would have taught him to not be such a mendacious piece of shit.

I need to point out that Grayhammy also drags Patrick into his discussion. What's so HIGH-LARRY-US about that is for the longest time The Flying Monkey Squad™ kept accusing Aunty Em of being this person named Patrick, along with dozens of other sock puppets, even tho' the only name I was using online at that point was Aunty Em. When The Flying Monkey Squad™ finally exposed Aunty Em's identity they also proved I wasn't Patrick. Or have they? Bwah-ha-ha!!!

Regardless, now I am being accused of directing this Patrick -- telling him what to say. Aside from a few exchanges on various forums on the innertubes, I don't know Patrick. Nor do I tell him what to tweet. From what I have seen of Patrick's tweets, nobody tells him what to tweet. He tweets what he wants to tweet and much of it is unpleasant. But, I have no connection to Patrick. I never have. Nor do I feel a need to denounce someone I do not know. However, The Flying Monkey Squad™ loves to play guilt by association.

LAUGH OF THE DAY: "You've inspired a hammytweet." And, sure enough, as if on cue, there was a hammytweet tweet about Chicolinis:

Remember when Headly Westerfield use 2refer2others as Chicolini? It was back when he called himself Anti-American..oops, Aunty Em Ericann
— Ashley Graham (@Grayhammy) June 8, 2013

I can't wait to see what chicken entrails Johnny Dollar, aka Mark Koldys, Grayhammy, and the rest of The Flying Monkey Squad™ examine next to come up with their next Bogus Conspiracy Theory™ concerning me. Sadly I am leaving for my Sunrise to Canton Road Trip For Research first thing in the morning, so I may not be able to see what those assholes get up to for the next few days.* However, you can bet it will be a doozy. Hilarity ensues.

* h/t to my innertube tipster. You know who you are.

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Les Paul ► The Man Who Made Rock and Roll Possible

Not Now Silly celebrates the birth of the man that made it all possible: Lester William Polsfuss, better known as Les Paul.

Les Paul didn't invent the guitar, which falls into the family of chordophones.Those go back several thousands of years to India and China. Modern descendants include the lute and violin, not to mention the guitar as we now know it.

Les Paul didn't even invent the electric guitar. That happened in 1931 when George Beauchamp invented a magnetic pick-up for the Ro-Pat "Frying Pan" lap steel guitar. Les Paul didn't get around to inventing his solid body electric guitar until 10 years later and even then it was just a 2x4 with the electronics hidden inside. It was so ugly, and Les received so many negative comments on it, he disguised it by hiding it in a dummy guitar.

Les Paul didn't even invent overdubbing, although he perfected it and popularized the technique.

Yet, Les Paul is often credited with inventing all three. The New York Times 2009 obituary stated:

Mr. Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar alongside leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar, although there are other claimants. With his guitar and the vocals of his wife, Mary Ford, he used overdubbing, multitrack recording and new electronic effects to create a string of hits in the 1950s.

Mr. Paul’s style encompassed the twang of country music, the harmonic richness of jazz and, later, the bite of rock ’n’ roll. For all his technological impact, though, he remained a down-home performer whose main goal, he often said, was to make people happy.

Nothing I could write would explain it any better than the wonderful documentary "Chasing Sound," which intercuts contemporary footage of Les Paul performing at the Iridium Jazz Club -- which he did right up to his death at the age of 94 -- with historic footage and music telling Les Paul's life story. Watch:

I've also put together a Les Paul Jukebox for your listening pleasure:

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Happy Birthday Frank Lloyd Wright

Dateline June 8, 1867 - Frank Lloyd Wright is born in Wisconsin. By the time he died at the age of 92, he would be considered the greatest architect that ever lived.

By 1956 Wright was so famous that the What's My Line panel had to be blindfolded when he Wright appeared before them. And, as usual, Dorothy Kilgallen was the smartest person in the room.

If you were to remove all the buildings from the equation, Frank Lloyd Wright still lived lived a life that can hardly be believed. At the height of his initial fame, with a wife and 7 children, he ran away with a client's wife. While in Europe he was denounced from pulpits across the country and he lost all commissions. People thought his career was over. However, he eventually returned to the States with Memeh Cheney and started all over again from the bottom.

Wright built Taliesin and restarted his career, reaching new heights. Then one tragic day in 1914, while Wright was off working on a building, a male servant set fire to Taliesin during a lunch Mameh was hosting. As people fled the smoke-filled dining room, Julian Carlton hacked seven people to death with an axe. Among the dead was Mameh Cheney and her two children. Wright was shattered.

But, it's all about the buildings. It didn't hurt that Wright was a consummate salesman and his #1 product was Frank Lloyd Wright.

More than anything else Frank Lloyd Wright changed the way all suburbs looked. His beautiful Prairie Home was copied tens of millions of times over by bad architects to become the ranch-style house that crowds out good architecture in our suburban landscape.

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John and Yoko and Frank and Flo and Eddie

John Lennon and Yoko One perform with Frank Zappa and The Mothers

Dateline June 6, 1971 - Frank Zappa and his newly formed Mothers play a notorious gig at the Fillmore East. This was the second night of a two night stand. As he had done previously, Zappa had a surprise for the audience: an encore set backing up John Lennon and Yoko Ono, just beginning their sojourn in NYC that ended so tragically.

The inner-sleeve from Lennon's release

The minimalist cover as released by Zappa

Zappa had arranged for the night to be recorded, as he increasingly did for all live performances. He came to release the night's performance by The Mothers as "Fillmore East - June 1971." It was the latest chapter in the band's "Touring can make you crazy" phase, which culminated in the movie 200 Motels. During the evening's entertainment Flo and Eddie, alternatively playing both groupies and Pop Stars, document Vanilla Fudge having sex with a mudshark at the Edgewater Motel, meet Bwana Dik, reprise a few classic Zappa tunes, and eventually agree to sing their big hit song -- WITH A  BULLET!!! -- "Happy Together."

Then Zappa sprung John and Yoko on the audience instead of the encore:

~~ Rare footage of Frank Zappa, Flo and Eddie and John and Yoko ~~

Frank Zappa turned the portion of John and Yoko's performance over to him after the show. As was his wont, Lennon turned the tapes over to Phil Spector, who remixed the tapes and released it in 1972 as Side 4 of the "Some Time In New York City" double-record set. Frank Zappa was extremely unhappy with the results and lawsuits were threatened before it all got settled to everyone's satisfaction. Frank Zappa tells that story:

Howard Kaylan tells the story from his point of view in his recently released autobiography Shell Shocked [reviewed here]:

If our first Fillmore show [...] was wonderful, our second was transcendent. When the concert ended and the audience stood, waiting for their encore, it felt as if a herd of elephants had entered the auditorium as the world's most famous couple walked onstage. The resulting jam was recorded by both Frank and the Fillmore and was released on two different albums. John released it as the 4th LP [sic] in his Some Times In New Your City compilation on Apple, although he took writing credit on every song, including Frank's iconic "King Kong," which h renamed and tried to publish. Frank's lawyers had to sue John's lawyers to straighten the entire thing out, and it really wasn't all that great anyway, but at least I can say that I am among a handful of people, right alongside Paul McCartney, to ever share a writing credit with the immortal John Lennon. So there.

Zappa got the last laugh. He eventually released his own, remixed, versions of those recordings on the Playground Psychotics CD. He gave the songwriters the proper credits, but renamed one of the tunes "A Small Eternity with Yoko Ono."

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