These images show some views of my music studio, which is set up in an 11'x19' open loft above our main living space. You get to it via a bridge from the master bedroom loft on the other side of the building. I'm into rock, blues, metal, and I dip a bit into almost everything else. I just like to play, frankly. Even music I don't like to listen to is fun to play.

I use multi-tracking techniques to record music one part at a time; I play drums, bass and guitar, and I also sing, though I'm more into instrumental work. Generally, I'll use a drum machine to lay down a basic beat, record a bass track, record rhythm and lead guitars, go back and lay down a real drum part, and then - sometimes - add vocals. I use a 24-track dedicated recorder and an analog Mackie 32-channel board for mixdown; then a Behringer analog mixer to remix the recorder's output back through the Mackie main board for post production work. I use a 2 GB Mac mini to record and burn CDs of the final mixes. I'm always up for a jam session, too; local musicians are always welcome.

Last night I finished reading Surprised By Hope by NT Wright. I have to say that after reading this book, things like what you will see below suddenly have much, much more meaning. I offer these videos below with no comment or explanation. They are what they are.

1) AWOL Chain of Command
a. It is well documented that the officials topping the chain of command for response to a domestic attack - George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Myers, Montague Winfield - all found reason to do something else during the actual attacks, other than assuming their duties as decision-makers. 
b. Who was actually in charge? Dick Cheney, Richard Clarke, Norman Mineta and the 9/11 Commission directly conflict in their accounts of top-level response to the unfolding events, such that several (or all) of them must be lying.2) Air Defense Failures
a. The US air defense system failed to follow standard procedures for responding to diverted passenger flights. 
b. Timelines: The various responsible agencies - NORAD, FAA, Pentagon, USAF, as well as the 9/11 Commission - gave radically different explanations for the failure (in some cases upheld for years), such that several officials must have lied; but none were held accountable. 
c. Was there an air defense standdown?

3) Pentagon Strike
How was it possible the Pentagon was hit 1 hour and 20 minutes after the attacks began? Why was there no response from Andrews Air Force Base, just 10 miles away and home to Air National Guard units charged with defending the skies above the nation''s capital? How did Hani Hanjour, a man who failed as a Cessna pilot on his first flight in a Boeing, execute a difficult aerobatic maneuver to strike the Pentagon? Why did the attack strike the just-renovated side, which was largely empty and opposite from the high command? 

4) Wargames
a. US military and other authorities planned or actually rehearsed defensive response to all elements of the 9/11 scenario during the year prior to the attack - including multiple hijackings, suicide crashbombings, and a strike on the Pentagon. 
b. The multiple military wargames planned long in advance and held on the morning of September 11th included scenarios of a domestic air crisis, a plane crashing into a government building, and a large-scale emergency in New York. If this was only an incredible series of coincidences, why did the official investigations avoid the issue? There is evidence that the wargames created confusion as to whether the unfolding events were "real world or exercise." Did wargames serve as the cover for air defense sabotage, and/or the execution of an "inside job"?

5) Flight 93
Did the Shanksville crash occur at 10:06 (according to a seismic report) or 10:03 (according to the 9/11 Commission)? Does the Commission wish to hide what happened in the last three minutes of the flight, and if so, why? Was Flight 93 shot down, as indicated by the scattering of debris over a trail of several miles?

6) Did cell phones work at 30,000 feet in 2001? How many hijackings were attempted? How many flights were diverted?

7) Demolition Hypothesis
What caused the collapse of a third skyscraper, WTC 7, which was not hit by a plane? Were the Twin Towers and WTC 7 brought down by explosives? (See "The Case for Demolitions," the websites wtc7.net and 911research.wtc7.net, and the influential article by physicist Steven Jones. See also items no. 16 and 24, below.)

8) What did officials know? How did they know it?
a. Multiple allied foreign agencies informed the US government of a coming attack in detail, including the manner and likely targets of the attack, the name of the operation (the "Big Wedding"), and the names of certain men later identified as being among the perpetrators.
b. Various individuals came into possession of specific advance knowledge, and some of them tried to warn the US prior to September 11th.
c. Certain prominent persons received warnings not to fly on the week or on the day of September 11th.

9) Able Danger, Plus - Surveillance of Alleged Hijackers
a. The men identified as the 9/11 ringleaders were under surveillance for years beforehand, on the suspicion they were terrorists, by a variety of US and allied authorities - including the CIA, the US military''s "Able Danger" program, the German authorities, Israeli intelligence and others. 
b. Two of the alleged ringleaders who were known to be under surveillance by the CIA also lived with an FBI asset in San Diego, but this is supposed to be yet another coincidence.

10) Obstruction of FBI Investigations prior to 9/11
A group of FBI officials in New York systematically suppressed field investigations of potential terrorists that might have uncovered the alleged hijackers - as the Moussaoui case once again showed. The stories of Sibel Edmonds, Robert Wright, Coleen Rowley and Harry Samit, the "Phoenix Memo," David Schippers, the 199i orders restricting investigations, the Bush administration''s order to back off the Bin Ladin family, the reaction to the "Bojinka" plot, and John O''Neil do not, when considered in sum, indicate mere incompetence, but high-level corruption and protection of criminal networks, including the network of the alleged 9/11 conspirators. (Nearly all of these examples were omitted from or relegated to fleeting footnotes in The 9/11 Commission Report.) 

11) Insider Trading
a. Unknown speculators allegedly used foreknowledge of the Sept. 11th events to profiteer on many markets internationally - including but not limited to "put options" placed to short-sell the two airlines, WTC tenants, and WTC re-insurance companies in Chicago and London. 
b. In addition, suspicious monetary transactions worth hundreds of millions were conducted through offices at the Twin Towers during the actual attacks. 
c. Initial reports on these trades were suppressed and forgotten, and only years later did the 9/11 Commission and SEC provide a partial, but untenable explanation for only a small number of transactions (covering only the airline put options through the Chicago Board of Exchange). 

Original Story

This is what makes a great rock & roll guitar sound: an irresistible riff; a solo or jam that takes you higher every time you hear it; the final power chord that pins you to the wall and makes you hit "play" again and again. Every song here has those thrills. But these are rock's greatest guitar moments because of what's inside the notes: hunger, fury, despair and joy, often all at once. You hear the blues, gospel and rockabilly that came before, transormed by the need to say something new and loud, right away. Rock & roll has been the sound of independence for half a century. The guitar is still its essential, liberating voice. These are the 100 reasons why.

The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time

1. "Johnny B. Goode," Chuck Berry

2. "Purple Haze," The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)

3. "Crossroads" Cream (1968)

4. "You Really Got Me" The Kinks (1964)

5. "Brown Sugar" The Rolling Stones (1971)

6. "Eruption" Van Halen (1978)

7. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" The Beatles (1968)

8. "Stairway to Heaven" Led Zepplin (1971)

9. "Statesboro Blues" The Allman Brothers Band (1971)

10. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Nirvana (1991)

11. "Whole Lotta Love" Led Zeppelin (1969)

12. "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968)

13. "Layla" Derek and the Dominos (1970)

14. "Born to Run" Bruce Springsteen (1975)

15. "My Generation" The Who (1965)

16. "Cowgirl in the Sand" Neil Young with Crazy Horse (1969)

17. "Black Sabbath" Black Sabbath (1970)

18. "Blitzkrieg Bop" Ramones (1976)

19. "Purple Rain" Prince and the Revolution (1984)

20. "People Get Ready" The Impressions (1965)

21. "Seven Nation Army" The White Stripes (2003)

22. "A Hard Day's Night" The Beatles (1964)

23. "Over Under Sideways Down" The Yardbirds (1966)

24. "Killing In The Name Of" Rage Against The Machine (1992)

25. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" The Rolling Stones (1971)

26. "How Blue Can you Get" B.B. King (1965)

27. "Look Over Yonders Wall" The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965)

28. "Where the Streets Have No Name" U2 (1987)

29. "Back in Black" AC/DC (1980)

30. "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" Bill Haley and His Comets (1954)

31. "Keep Yourself Alive" Queen (1973)

32. "Sultans of Swing" Dire Straits (1978)

33. "Master of Puppets" Metallica (1986)

34. "Walk This Way" Aerosmith (1975)

35. "1969" The Stooges (1969)

36. "Interstellar Overdrive" Pink Floyd (1967)

37. "That's All Right" Elvis Presley (1954)

38. "Stay With Me" The Faces (1971)

39. "Black Magic Woman" Santana (1970)

40. "I Can See for Miles" The Who (1967)

41. "Marquee Moon" Television (1977)

42. "Hideaway" John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (1966)

43. "Holidays in the Sun" The Sex Pistols (1977)

44. "Dig Me Out" Sleater-Kinne (1997)

45. "I Saw Her Standing There" The Beatles (1963)

46. "Miserlou" Dick Dale and the Del-Tones (1962)

47. "Panama" Van Halen (1984)

48. "London Calling" The Clash (1980)

49. "Machine Gun" Jimi Hendrix (1970)

50. "Debaser" Pixies (1989)

51. "Crazy Train" Ozzy Osbourne (1981)

52. "My Iron Lung" Radiohead (1995)

53. "Born on the Bayou" Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969)

54. "Little Wing" Stevie Ray Vaughan (1991)

55. "White Room" Cream (1968)

56. "Eight Miles High" The Byrds (1966)

57. "Dark Star" Grateful Dead (1969)

58. "Rumble" Link Wray (1958)

59. "Freeway Jam" Jeff Beck (1975)

60. "Maggot Brain" Funkadelic (1971)

61. "Soul Man" Sam and Dave (1967)

62. "Born Under a Bad Sign" Albert King (1967)

63. "Sweet Child O' Mine" Guns n' Roses (1987)

64. "Freebird" Lyrnyrd Skynyrd (1973)

65. "Message in a Bottle" The Police (1979)

66. "Texas Flood" Stevie Ray Vaughan (1983)

67. "Adam Raised a Cain" Bruce Springsteen (1978)

68. "The Thrill is Gone" B.B. King (1969)

69. "Money" Pink Floyd (1973)

70. "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" Smashing Pumpkins (1995)

71. "Take It or Leave It" The Strokes (2001)

72. "Say It Ain't So" Weezer (1994)

73. "Summertime Blues" Blue Cheer (1968)

74. "La Grange" ZZ Top (1973)

75. "Willie the Pimp" Frank Zappa (1969)

76. "American Girl" Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976)

77. "Even Flow" Pearl Jam (1991)

78. "Stone Crazy" Buddy Guy (1970)

79. "Silver Rocket" Sonic Youth (1988)

80. "Kid Charlemagne" Steely Dan (1976)

81. "Beat It" Michael Jackson (1982)

82. "Walk — Don't Run" The Ventures (1960)

83. "What I Got" Sublime (1996)

84. "Gravity" John Mayer (2006)

85. "You Enjoy Myself" Phish (1988)

86. "I Ain't Superstitious" Jeff Beck (1968)

87. "Red" King Crimson (1974)

88. "Mona" Quicksilver Messenger Service (1969)

89. "I Love Rock N Roll" Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (1981)

90. "How Soon Is Now?" The Smiths (1985)

91. "Drunkship of Lanterns" The Mars Volta (2003)

92. "Memo from Turner" Mick Jagger (1970)

93. "Only Shallow" My Bloody Valentine (1991)

94. "Money for Nothing" Dire Straits (1984)

95. "Omaha" Moby Grape (1967)

96. "New Day Rising" Husker Du (1985)

97. "No One Knows" Queens of the Stone Age (2002)

98. "Under the Bridge" Red Hot Chili Peppers (1991)

99. "Run Thru" My Morning Jacket (2003)

100. "Vicarious" Tool (2006)

And I wanted to say to any of my readers who think I just abandoned my blog, please come back!!! I want to keep educating, informing, and updating.

................................

Lots happened over the time that I did not update. The country is still being installed with cameras, especially in Washington, and in Philadelphia. America's version of the Reichstag's building fire in Germany took place in Texas at the governor's mansion a few days ago. Ireland is about to vote on EU dictatorship. And, most of all, the Bilderberg Group held a meeting in Chantilly, Virginia, this weekend in which dozens of political leaders and major bankers met from around the world. The members, I might add, included Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama. Both of which, can now be considered treasonous under the Logan act. 

I plan to change things up a bit, here at Unbent. I may be adding another writer, so there will be even more posts, more consistent posts, and more points of view. I also plan to record a podcast, that I will submit to iTunes after a few months. If you want to listen to the weekly podcast, the website is www.doingmypart.mypodcast.com. Nothing is up yet, and won't be until next week or so. I will keep you posted!

Thanks, 

-MR

At 7 pm on that day, a switch will be flipped to light the 18-story M&I building in Milwaukee in the shape of Les Paul electric guitars. M&I, a financial services company, is honoring Les Paul as part of the company’s sponsorship of the Classic Rock Stage at Summerfest. Nice.

In addition to the guitar lighting event, M&I is creating a virtual birthday card for Les Paul with the help of musicians and fans nationwide. Video birthday wishes will be edited into a virtual birthday card to be shared with Les Paul at the June 20 guitar event and donated to the "Les Paul's House of Sound" exhibit at Discovery World for the public to enjoy.

If you are interested in participating in the virtual birthday card, you can upload your video tribute to http://dropbox.yousendit.com/MIBank. And, if you happen to be around Milwaukee in late June, please join in the righteous festivities:

June 20 - "The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy" book signing at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops on Downer Avenue.

June 20 - Les Paul will throw out the first pitch at the Milwaukee Brewers game.

June 20 - 18-story guitar lighting at M&I Bank and video birthday card for Les Paul.

June 21 - "Les Paul's House of Sound" exhibit launch at Discovery World.

June 21 - Benefit concert at The Pabst Theater. Music Legend Les Paul Performs "An Evening with Les Paul and Friends."

June 22 - "Les Paul's House of Sound" exhibit opens to the general public.

With all the weather in Waukesha, one can understand.

Happy Birthday, Les Paul.

A tip of the conservative ball cap to soul to soul.

Enjoy the photos of Les at Irridium where he plays every Monday, pictured with Joe Berger and Les' son Russ Paul, and a good look at the special custom "Les Paul Personal" guitar in Les' hands. Photos by me Jon Hammond, thanks and Happy Birthday Les!
Sincerely,
Jon Hammond
*Member AFM Local 802, Local 6 / ASCAP

Enjoy the photos of Les at Irridium where he plays every Monday, pictured with Joe Berger and Les' son Russ Paul, and a good look at the special custom "Les Paul Personal" guitar in Les' hands. Photos by me Jon Hammond, thanks and Happy Birthday Les!
Sincerely,
Jon Hammond
*Member AFM Local 802, Local 6 / ASCAP

The man whose name graces Gibson and Epiphone guitars the world round turns 93 today. The story of how he helped to come up with the idea of an electric guitar is fascinating to say the least, as this excerpt from a PBS tribute to him explains:

Along the way, he kept tinkering with his instrument.

Hollow body electric guitars were being developed and commercially manufactured as early as the 1920s, but they were prone to distortion when amplified. When he was still in his Waukesha band shell days, Paul often found his acoustic guitar drowned out in a band.

"He was an early innovator," says Alan di Perna, West Coast editor for Guitar World. "There were other people who were technical innovators, but they didn't play like Les did."

By 1941, still only 26, Paul had fashioned a workable solid body guitar he dubbed The Log, since it was essentially a four-by-four block of solid pine with a tailpiece, two pickups and a Gibson neck mounted on it. Later, for appearances, he fixed two side wings from an Epiphone guitar so it would actually resemble a guitar.When he approached Gibson Guitars about the commercial potential of The Log, Shaughnessy reports, they told him it was "nothing but a broomstick with a pickup on it."

In 1952, Gibson launched their first solid body electric guitar, and the endorsement of Les Paul has made him a legend over the years in which the guitar bearing his name has been sold. If my Les Paul wasn’t suffering from a broken string at the moment, I would gladly strum “Happy Birthday” as a tribute to one of the great innovators and inventors of history.

Amazingly, Paul performs 2 shows every Monday night at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City. Forget the Rolling Stones – here is the ultimate example of musical performance longevity!

1) For ti år siden gjorde jeg:

Hmmm... for ti år siden, var jeg ti år, så jeg husker det egentlig ikke. :P Gikk vel de siste dagene på skolen før sommerferien tenker jeg.

2) 5 ting på å-gjøre-lista mi i dag:

Laste inn alle bildene fra speilrefleksen
Se Dr. Who episoden jeg ikke rakk å se i går
Lese videre i Don Quijote
Fôre fiskene i akvariet
LEGGE MEG TIDLIGERE!!!

3) Snacks jeg liker:

Paprikachips!
Stort sett det meste som smaker surt og syntetisk :P
Yoghurtnøtter
Gulrøtter
og Piel de Sapo melon! *sikle*

4) Ting jeg ville gjøre dersom jeg var milliardær:

Iallefall kjøpt alle CD'ene jeg syns mangler i samlingen min
og alle DVD'ene
Og eget studio med Pro-Tools må man jo ha - Skikkelig bra flygel, et trommesett, en Gibson Les Paul og en Ampeg Dan Armstrong i plexiglass må jo også være på plass, - og sist men definitivt ikke minst, et Hammond orgel av den gamle gode sorten på 300 kg! (man må da få kunne leke seg med litt god gammeldags 70-tallsrock!)

og heeelt sikkert sånn fred-på-jord og alt det der (bare for å ha tatt det meg :P )
5) Steder jeg har bodd

Bor i Bergen, men kommer opprinnelig fra Hardanger. Ellers har jeg vært på ferie mange steder...?

6) Disse folka vil jeg vite mer om:

Må vel bli Kristine og Nuztorad det da ;)

<<Wiiii... Clin clin, clan clan>>, fue lo que el doctor Chapatín le dijo a mis padres que había escuchado salir de mi virginal boca al momento de "traerme" a este mundo. Como ven, desde que nací ya traía el penetrante feedback y los poderosos riffs rockanroleandome en el cabeza.

La guitarra... Oh, la guitarra. Instrumento de violenta sensualidad. Cuántos de nosotros hemos deseado asar un par de malvaviscos con las cálidas llamas de una Stratocaster, o lengüetear el electrificado sexo de una Les Paul hasta extraerle las más orgásmicas notas, o, ya de perdida, golpear a nuestra madre con una Yamaha de la Sala Chopin... Pero bueno, <<al toro>>, como decimos en los tendidos de la Plaza México, la revista Rolling Stone ha publicado en su más reciente edición una lista de las 100 más Grandes Canciones de Guitarra de Todos los Tiempos. Valdría la pena hacerse del ejemplar, pero mientras tanto... Les dejo la lista para que le echen un ojo (les adjunté un video a los primeros 5 lugares). Para ver la lista completa con sus respectivas reseñas, visiten www.rollingstone.com

No. 1 "Johnny B. Goode", Chuck Berry (1958).

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No. 2 "Purple Haze", The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967).

No. 3 "Crossroads", Cream (1968).

No. 4 "You Really Got Me", The Kinks (1964).

No. 5 "Brown Sugar", Rolling Stones (1971).

100 Tool - “Vicarious”
99 My Morning Jacket - “Run Thru”
98 Red Hot Chili Peppers - “Under the Bridge”
97 Queens of the Stone Age - “No One Knows”
96 Hüsker Dü - “New Day Rising”
95 Moby Grape - “Omaha”
94 Dire Sraits - “Money for Nothing”
93 My Bloody Valentine - “Only Shallow”
92 Mick Jagger - “Memo from Turner”
91 The Mars Volta - “Drunkship of Lanterns”
90 The Smiths - “How Soon Is Now?”
89 Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - “I Love Rock N Roll”
88 Quicksilver Messenger Service - “Mona”
87 King Crimson - “Red”
86 Jeff Beck - “I Ain’t Superstitious”
85 Phish - “You Enjoy Myself”
84 John Mayer - “Gravity”
83 Sublime - “What I Got”
82 The Ventures - “Walk — Don’t Run”
81 Michael Jackson - “Beat It”
80 Steely Dan - “Kid Charlemagne”
79 Sonic Youth - “Silver Rocket”
78 Buddy Guy - “Stone Crazy”
77 Pearl Jam - “Even Flow”
76 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - “American Girl”
75 Frank Zappa - “Willie the Pimp”
74 ZZ Top - “La Grange”
73 Blue Cheer - “Summertime Blues”
72 Weezer - “Say It Ain’t So”
71 The Strokes - “Take It Or Leave It”
70 Smashing Pumpkins - “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”
69 Pink Floyd - “Money”
68 B.B. King - “The Thrill is Gone”
67 Bruce Springsteen - “Adam Raised A Cain”
66 Stevie Ray Vaughan - “Texas Flood”
65 The Police - “Message in a Bottle”
64 Lynyrd Skynyrd - “Freebird”
63 Guns n’ Roses - “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
62 Albert King - “Born Under a Bad Sign”
61 Sam And Dave - “Soul Man”
60 Funkadelic - “Maggot Brain”
59 Jeff Beck - “Freeway Jam”
58 Link Wray - “Rumble”
57 Grateful Dead - “Dark Star”
56 The Byrds - “Eight Miles High”
55 Cream - “White Room”
54 Stevie Ray Vaughan - “Little Wing”
53 Creedence Clearwater Revival - “Born on the Bayou”
52 Radiohead - “My Iron Lung”
51 Ozzy Osbourne - “Crazy Train”
50 Pixies - “Debaser”
49 Jimi Hendrix - “Machine Gun”
48 The Clash - “London Calling”
47 Van Halen - “Panama”
46 Dick Dale and the Del-Tones - “Miserlou”
45 The Beatles - “I Saw Her Standing There”
44 Sleater-Kinney - “Dig Me Out”
43 The Sex Pistols - “Holidays in the Sun”
42 John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - “Hideaway”
41 Television - “Marquee Moon”
40 The Who - “I Can See for Miles”
39 Santana - “Black Magic Woman”
38 The Faces - “Stay With Me”
37 Elvis Presley - “That’s All Right”
36 Pink Floyd - “Interstellar Overdrive”
35 The Stooges - “1969Åç
34 Aerosmith - “Walk This Way”
33 Metallica - “Master of Puppets”
32 Dire Straits - “Sultans of Swing”
31 Queen - “Keep Yourself Alive”
30 Bill Haley and His Comets - “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock”
29 AC/DC - “Back in Black”
28 U2 - “Where the Streets Have No Name”
27 The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - “Look Over Yonders Wall”
26 B.B. King - “How Blue Can You Get”
25 The Rolling Stones - “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
24 Rage Against the Machine- “Killing in the Name”
23 The Yardbirds - “Over Under Sideways Down”
22 The Beatles - “A Hard Day’s Night”
21 The White Stripes - “Seven Nation Army”
20 The Impressions - “People Get Ready”
19 Prince and the Revolution - “Purple Rain”
18 Ramones - “Blitzkrieg Bop”
17 Black Sabbath - “Black Sabbath”
16 Neil Young with Crazy Horse - “Cowgirl in the Sand”
15 The Who - “My Generation”
14 Bruce Springsteen - “Born to Run”
13 Derek and the Dominos - “Layla”
12 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”
11 Led Zeppelin - “Whole Lotta Love”
10 Nirvana - “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
09 The Allman Brothers Band - “Statesboro Blues”
08 Led Zeppelin - “Stairway to Heaven”
07 The Beatles - “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
06 Van Halen - “Eruption”

*Información y fotos, obtenidas de rollingstone.com

Throughout the years you have had an array of guitars, pickups, amps, cabinets, etc... I saw you in 2005 and thought you had some crushing tone. Les Paul customs with “Dimebuckers” in the bridge. I ran out the next week installed it in my guitar and have been rocking it since. The past few months I feel like my tone could be better though, and I was thinking about trying out EMG's. Should I stick to the “Dimebucker” in the bridge or test out the 81's?

Dear Dimebuck-enier,

Republicans do not want John McCain to be their nominee. He has only been able to become the front-runner because the field was so divided and because he’s a media darling. We can see just how unpopular McCain is in the heartland by his performance in the Kansas caucuses today. Kansans resoundingly rejected the Arizona senator, and McCain’s big wins so far have mostly been in blue states — states he won’t win in November if, heaven forbid, he’s the Republican nominee.

Republicans want and need an alternative. Some people think Mike Huckabee provides an alternative to McCain. But Huckabee, who now tries to sound like Ron Paul when he talks about abolishing the IRS, raised taxes in Arkansas and vastly expanded spending in that state when he was its governor. Huckabee is no alternative at all. Ron Paul, on the other hand, has never voted for a tax increase, never voted for an unbalanced budget or for an unconstitutional war or government program.

At stake here is not just the Republican nomination — which McCain still has not locked up — but the future of the Republican Party and, much more importantly, the future of our liberties. We have to organize in every single state, including the ones that have already voted in the primaries and caucuses, to continue the fight to take back the Republican Party and to ensure that Ron Paul’s principles, the principles of Washington and Jefferson, prevail. For the sake of that cause, Ron Paul’s campaign continues, all the way to the convention.

-Ron Paul group

The manager of an Orlando condo building where Deborah Jean Palfrey, also known as the D.C. Madam, owned a unit disputes the alleged suicide notes that were published in the media - after witnessing examples of her handwriting going back years Joe Strizack concludes, "That is not her signature."

Joseph Strizack-Condo Mgr/DC Madam on the Alex Jones Show

Love Connection? Abramoff and the D.C. Madam

Gorbachev: US could start new Cold War

May 7th is the anniversary of the world premier of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Where would Die Hard have been without it? Go watch the movie again. Anyway, No. 9 was Beethoven's last symphony and by the time it was performed, he was completely deaf, something which I may experience. In classical music, I'm more of Mozart guy than Beethoven. Still, if you were going to throw one piece of music out to the cosmos as the best example of what human beings could produce, you could do worse than Ludwig's musical version of Friedrich Schiller's ode "To Joy".

• The good news in Wisconsin sports is that Packers will go unbeaten for the 16th straight week this Sunday.
• What kind of cops do we have in this county? Good ones.
• The Clarke Hotelle's façade has been falling off. You know what? Gray block is not all that attractive. I realize that old post cards are not always an accurate measure of the color of a building, but check out the Clarke Building on the right in this post card from 80-90 years ago. Though the colors of the card give an overall pinkish, sunset tint, I find the cream coloring and shades of brown much more attractive than the battleship gray of later years.
• 
• Whatever they decide, they had better get the right mix of permits before they open.
• Anybody taken the eastbound exit off of I-43 at Moorland and encountered the roundabout? What a joy that must be at whatever passes for a rush hour for that interchange. I'm not sure I like those things.
• Sound Off has a caller going postal over the postage stamp's 1¢ increase coming on Monday.
• I'll take "Zsenak for $25,000", Alex.
• Muskego is waffling on their opportunity to get a Super WalMart. My advice to WalMart is to go to the corners of West Avenue and Les Paul in Waukesha and start digging.
• The Waukesha County Register of Deeds Office will have a Democrat versus a Republican. This should be a non-partisan, non-elective, civil service position. How do we fix that?
• Current Carroll College students are not wild about Carroll University. I'm guessing graduates of Carroll College are not wild about Carroll University. I suspect it comes down to a formula: Administrator's current position + "University" = More $$$ + Better Resumé.
• Two visitors who winter in Mexico, the West Indies or even as far south as Peru were over for breakfast this morning as I had a couple of male rose-breasted grosbeaks on the feeder finishing up the cracked corn there.
• Go adopt this cute dog.
• This is what happens when Democrats govern your state.
• Mark Belling not only has more about the Diamond Jim Doyle Disfunction known as the Wisconsin state government, he's even got some kind words about the Waukesha County Historical Museum's Les Paul non-exhibit:

The reason Les Paul is working with a group to do a major project at Discovery World in Milwaukee is because the guitar pioneer is convinced plans to build a Les Paul museum in Waukesha are going nowhere. Indeed, the Waukesha project is a joke. The local historical society recently canned the woman who was in charge of fundraising because no funds were being raised. The group is in over its head.

Les Paul is 92 years old. If he waited until the Waukesha group found enough sugar daddies to pony up $3 million, he’d have to live to be 127. Les did the math.

• I ate at Alexis on Broadway last night. I want to encourage all Chronicle readers to patronize the retailers on Broadway this summer during the road construction there, even if you don't normally. It's going to be a tough summer for them, business-wise. WCTC will be fine, thery're tax-supported, as is the Post Office. The Y will be fine because they already have your membership fees. Cox Plumbing doesn't do much of a walk-in business, I suspect, so they'll be OK. But Alexis, the Mexican restaurant, the video store, the flower shop, the auto parts place, the hair dresser's, the dollar store, the Frame-Up place and the two gas stations could be adversely affected by the number of people avoiding Broadway.
• I would give Alexis a boffo review but my meal was only lukewarm to tepid, which is a pet peeve with me. It should be hot when it hits my table. I think I've had this complaint with their food before. No, introverts don't send food back to be reheated unless it still has ice crystals. No, it's too late to change. Old dogs/new tricks. If I get sick today, at least I already have a doctor's appointment at 10:00 for my neck problems and my failing ear. Getting old sucks.
• On the other hand, getting old makes you appreciate clean, cool sheets, as it's time to take the flannel ones off for the season and new socks which don't fall down as soon as you put them on.
• It's Israel's 60th Birthday against all odds. It seems appropriate to celebrate this event and tie the whole post together with this: Leonard Bernstein directs "Ode to Joy":

I participate, and so should you. 

The SPP is the brainchild of business and political elites who wish to advance North American integration. In June of 2006, the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) was launched, and is the only formal advisory board in the SPP. The NACC represents private corporate interests, and through the SPP, transnational corporate rights are being further empowered. In February of 2007, the NACC made 51 proposals to SPP negotiators. They are essentially formulating policy and using the SPP to lay the foundation for a North American Union. The NACC is now actively promoting energy privatization in Mexico. It is the multinational corporations who have the most to gain from the SPP.

Bruce Campbell, the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, lays out just how the SPP structure operates. He said, “Business conveys its demand, the politicians respond, consensus is reached, and civil servants implement. This takes the privatization of public policy-making to a new level.” Stuart Trew of the Council of Canadians said, “These corporate recommendations are going directly to the respective bureaucracies, and they are being pushed heavily.”

Before the Leader Summit, the NACC released a report where they stated, “Our most critical request to the leaders is for them to ensure that the SPP remains a dynamic and effective path forward for trilateral and bilateral co-operation.” There was some fear that this agenda might be further stalled or replaced with something else. Not to worry, because here is what Bush had to say about the NACC’s recommendations, “I’m looking forward to hearing them, and I’m looking forward to implementing them.” Mexican President Calderon also said, “we need to work within the North American Competitiveness Council, where the three leaders agreed we fully need to support the work of this Competitiveness Council.” It sounds like the SPP is back on track, and the NACC and corporate interests will have even more clout.

Recent national polls reflect that the majority of Canadians and Americans wish to retain their sovereignty and reject the secrecy surrounding the SPP. I guess most people think it is a big deal when powerful and influential corporate elites and politicians meet in private, plotting the destruction of the country. Dismantling of the borders will allow for the freer flow of goods and cheap labor, which will increase corporate profits at the expense of our sovereignty and prosperity.

The big loser of the SPP summit is transparency in government and the will of the people. The transfer of power from our elected representatives to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats is being further accelerated. We must continue to resist the North American Union and the complete corporate takeover of the continent.

Dana Gabriel. infowars.com

This has been a fast-pace week. For those of who you have been busy to keep up, let me summarize:

• President Jimmy Carter said calls for a new 9/11 investigation "sound good"

• President Bill Clinton said he didn't agree with the Bush investigation into 9/11 (he also said 9/11 was not an inside job, but he didn't say it wasn't intentionally allowed to happen or that the U.S. air force was not stood down)

• 9/11 truth was discussed again in the Japanese parliament

• Conservative Arizona state senator Karen Johnson said she is a 9/11 truth seeker

• Anti-war icon Tom Hayden encouraged people to keep on pushing for an investigation into 9/11

• And a BBC anchor who reported on WTC7's collapse early agrees there may be a 'conspiracy

Indeed, the truth is coming out so quickly that the neocons are starting to panic. For example, the disinfo boys trotted out a ridiculous psyops wherein Al-Qaida's No. 2 supposedly says that theories questioning the official version of 9/11 are propagated by Iran.

And White House speech writer and arch neocon David Frum violently assaulted a 9/11 truth activist for simply asking him some questions.

Is the tide starting to turn?

Cari amici, dopo un lungo silenzio, ritorno alla carica con un'iniziativa di Terre des hommes, spero abbastanza non convenzionale da meritare la vostra attenzione: da oggi è partito il primo TDH Video Music Contest.

Protagonisti:
- l'ormai mitico Superhero di TDH in versione rock;
- la mitica les paul della Gibson come premio;
- le band italiane, emergenti, affermate, alternative... e anche composte da un solo artista ;-) con la loro musica, la loro creatività e i loro video (rigorosamente equipaggiate di SuperHero);
- un blog: www.tdhcontest.org
- e ovviamente i bambini, al centro dell'impegno di  Terre des hommes dal 1960.

Come si fa a partecipare?
1) Si realizza un video su una propria canzone o brano musicale originale
2) Nel video deve essere presente il SuperHeroTdh, scaricabile alla pagina download SuperHero
3) Si inserisce nel video, in forma scritta o orale, la frase "La musica dà voce ai bambini, amplifica la loro voce con la tua musica!"
4) Si fa l'upload del video realizzato sul proprio spazio YouTube entro il 30 maggio 2008, inserendo le tag: Video music contest, Terre des hommes Italia, Gibson, Epiphone.
5) Si segnala il link dell'upload all'indirizzo g.didonato@tdhitaly.org specificando anche nome, cognome, indirizzo e telefono.

Selezioni, votazione e premio
I video segnalati verranno embeddati nel blog www.tdhcontest.org dove i visitatori potranno votare il loro video preferito fino alla mezzanotte del 30 giugno. Il video che avrà raccolto più voti sarà proclamato vincitore e riceverà in premio una chitarra Epiphone Les Paul Studio, offerta dalla Gibson Foundation.

Anche i visitatori potranno fare la loro parte per sostenere i progetti di TDH Italia facendo una donazione on line nell'apposita sezione del sito.

Se poi volete partecipare con il passaparola, abbiamo preparato un video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93QSJxjDeBM, sì proprio quello in alto) e un banner (chiedete e vi sarà dato).

La sfida è aperta... e le sorprese per chi partecipa non sono finite. State sintonizzati su www.tdhcontest.org e grazie per l'aiuto che riuscirete a dare a Terre des hommes anche in quest'occasione

Sure, on the surface it may seem as if Gibson has a point about patenting a “simulated concert experience” and Guitar Hero being just that, but the patent is very detailed in what this experience entails. My father explained to me that the claims are where the case gets determined, so allow me to list a couple. Firstly, claim 3 reads, “wherein the musical instrument is a guitar whereby variations in striking of strings on the guitar by the user produces changes in the level of the audio portion of the pre-recorded musical performance”. Secondly, claim 15 states, “wherein the musical instrument is a guitar”. Now, I play guitar and can tell you from first hand experience that Gibson knows exactly what a guitar is because they make some of the highest quality in the world. This highly revered company in the industry knows the plastic controller used in this game is precisely not anything close to a guitar. And if they wanted to stipulate that anything in the likeness of a guitar cannot be used then that’s exactly what they should have done, but they didn’t. Instead, they very specifically talked about how the strings would be used and diagramed a clear sketch of an electric guitar.

Does Gibson really believe that they are going to fool anybody into thinking that they were talking about anything other than a fully functioning guitar in their description? They are an instrument maker that guitarists know fully focus on their guitars and customize them perfectly to enhance the player’s usability and sound. The only reason they would create such an invention would be to complement that coveted Gibson playing experience using a real guitar, not to replace ebony fretboards with some cheap imitation made of colored buttons.

The facts just seem to point towards Gibson trying to get more of a piece of the pie in the Guitar Hero phenomenon. Their assertion of creating Guitar Hero just doesn’t add up to their image and purpose. Without a doubt the idea was close, but there are too many discrepancies that Gibson needs to admit to themselves and all the people who believe that a game controller can have any valid resemblance to a real Flying-V.

-George the Opinionated One

La Gibson Les Paul fue diseñada por el músico e inventor Lester Polfus, más conocido como Les Paul, muy popular en el momento cuando trabajaba para Gibson. Diseñó una guitarra de cuerpo semi-sólido, con un tablón en el centro donde estaban montados el puente, el mástil y las pastillas o micrófonos. De hecho, el prototipo, conocido como "El leño" por esa característica, se considera el primero de una guitarra de cuerpo sólido a partir de la guitarra española. En un principio, la firma Gibson rechazó el modelo, pues no veía mucho futuro comercial a la idea. Sin embargo, la firma Fender, que luego se convertiría en su mayor competencia, lanzó al mercado en 1949 la Telecaster, en un principio conocida como Esquire, primera guitarra eléctrica con cuerpo sólido, con bastante éxito en las ventas, por lo que se decidieron a fabricar la guitarra diseñada por Les Paul. Sin embargo, las ventas iniciales de este modelo comparadas con otros de cuerpo semi-sólido como la Gibson ES-335, enfocada al blues fueron bastante pobres, y la firma estuvo a punto de retirarla del mercado.

Pese a todo, a finales de los años 1950, la guitarra gozaba de notable popularidad, y era utilizada por bastantes músicos de rock 'n' roll. La introducción de las pastillas humbuckers de bobina doble diseñadas por Seth Lover en 1957 -en sustitución de las tradicionales single coil P-90- dio el empujón definitivo a las Les Paul, cuyas ventas y reputación se han mantenido a lo largo de casi cinco décadas. Las Gibson Les Paul fabricadas en 1957 con tapa dorada y pastillas modelo P.A.F. (Patent Applied For) se cuentan entre las guitarras más caras de la historia, junto con los modelos de 1959, considerado el mejor año por la mayoría de expertos. Una Gibson Les Paul Standard de 1959 puede valer cientos de miles de euros, y es raro encontrar alguna en venta, ya que han alcanzado un carácter de inversión u objeto de coleccionismo más que como instrumentos musicales. También existe una linea de Les Paul Slash Signature

Famosos usuarios de este modelo son Bob Marley, Stephen Marley, Marcelo Mota de Ámen Jimmy Page de Led Zeppelin, Mick Mars de Motley Crue, Robert Fripp de King Crimson, Billy Gibbons de ZZ Top, Mark Knopfler, Iñaki Antón de Extremoduro ex Platero y Tú, Mick Jones de The Clash, Steve Jones de los Sex Pistols, Pete Townshend de The Who, Alex Lifeson de Rush, Jim Adkins de Jimmy Eat World, Tom Morello de Rage Against the Machine, Billie Joe Armstrong de Green Day, Frank de Mägo de Oz, Rafael Bittencourt de Angra, Zakk Wylde, Daniel Johns de Silverchair, Robin Finck ex Nine Inch Nails y actual Guns N' Roses, William Blanco de Banana Split Keith Richards y Mick Taylor de Rolling Stones, Ace Frehley de KISS,Nick Mancuso de Red Obssesion ,Slash ex Guns N'Roses y actual Velvet Revolver, Noel Gallagher de Oasis y Joey Tempest de Europe y Juan Valdivia, guitarrista de Héroes del silencio, Masafumi Gotoh y Kensuke Kita de Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Adrian Smith de Iron Maiden, Randy Rhoads de Ozzy Osbourne; también Jack White del grupo White Stripes, Joe Perry de Aerosmith, The Raconteurs, Kirk Hammett de Metallica,Sergio Toloza de Viejas Locas, Leathermouth, y The Edge de U2. Eric Clapton también popularizó su uso, aunque hoy día se le identifica más con la Fender Stratocaster.

DISEÑO y SONIDO

El pesado cuerpo de la Les Paul está formado en la mayoría de los modelos por una base de dos piezas de caoba, que le da un timbre cálido y denso, y una tapa de arce combada, que aporta mayor definición al sonido. Otra particularidad es el mástil, que aparece encolado en vez de ser atornillado como los modelos Fender. Éste es también de caoba, y puesto que se trata de una madera porosa y relativamente blanda, presenta un perfil cercano al de una guitarra española, mucho más grueso y cuadrado que el de una stratocaster, por ejemplo. Esto también hace que el mástil sea el punto débil de la guitarra: es muy difícil sustituir un mástil encolado, y la caoba puede romperse con más facilidad que el arce empleado en otros mástiles.

El sonido de la Gibson Les Paul es lleno y con predominio de las frecuencias medias-graves. Esto, junto a la mayor duración de la nota (sustain) que proporciona el conjunto de sus elementos, y la facilidad para estirar las cuerdas (bending, debido a que su mástil es más corto que el de otras guitarras) la han hecho muy popular entre los aficionados al rock clásico, y una de las guitarras más vendidas desde la invención de la guitarra eléctrica. Los acordes suenan bien empastados, y las líneas melódicas presentan un carácter oscuro y cálido que señala la filiación original del modelo a un famoso músico de jazz.

Una desventaja es que los trastes más agudos son difíciles de alcanzar en comparación con otras guitarras que también tienen un recorte. Esto se debe a la anchura del cuerpo y lo obsoleto del diseño.

MUCHO MAS...

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