The Rolling Stones - Sitting on a Fence

Brian Jones has been gone so long there are probably people who consider themselves Stones fans who know little about him, but he was the real musical genius in the band. He was also an arrogant and abusive substance abuser, and his life was short. He plays the harpsichord in this bit of misogyny that's gentler than the Stones usually produced in this era.

Leonard Cohen - Banjo

Lenny sings the blues. From his 2012 album Old Ideas.

Krugman on European Austerity, Again

Yeah, I know I've been linking to Krugman a whole lot lately, but this stuff needs as much exposure as it can get.

Suddenly, Spain and Greece are being racked by strikes and huge demonstrations. The public in these countries is, in effect, saying that it has reached its limit: With unemployment at Great Depression levels and with erstwhile middle-class workers reduced to picking through garbage in search of food, austerity has already gone too far. And this means that there may not be a deal after all.

Much commentary suggests that the citizens of Spain and Greece are just delaying the inevitable, protesting against sacrifices that must, in fact, be made. But the truth is that the protesters are right. More austerity serves no useful purpose; the truly irrational players here are the allegedly serious politicians and officials demanding ever more pain.

Andy Williams - Can't Get Used To Losing You

This was always a favorite of mine. Years later I found out it was a Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman song.

Frank Sinatra - Here's That Rainy Day

As the Rolling Stones put it, you can't always get what you want.

Mitt Romney and the Infinite Sadness

Doing my part to help a video go viral.

Krugman on Romney and Economic Confidence

Can't have too much Krugman.

In fairness to Mr. Romney, his assertion that electing him would spontaneously spark an economic boom is consistent with his party’s current economic dogma. Republican leaders have long insisted that the main thing holding the economy back is the “uncertainty” created by President Obama’s statements — roughly speaking, that businesspeople aren’t investing because Mr. Obama has hurt their feelings. If you believe that, it makes sense to argue that changing presidents would, all by itself, cause an economic revival.

Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper - 59th St. Bridge Song/I Wonder Who

Feel like hearing some Hammond organ, so two songs from the Live Adventures album. A few bum notes to prove it's live, but mostly nice nice nice.

Charlie Parker - Love for Sale

I've posted this before, but it looks like the link is broken, so here you go. This recording is from near the end of Parker's short life.

Krugman on the Republicans' View of Workers

Dr K does what he does so often: state the obvious truth that no one else is quite saying. Here's the link.

Where does this disdain for workers come from? Some of it, obviously, reflects the influence of money in politics: big-money donors, like the ones Mr. Romney was speaking to when he went off on half the nation, don’t live paycheck to paycheck. But it also reflects the extent to which the G.O.P. has been taken over by an Ayn Rand-type vision of society, in which a handful of heroic businessmen are responsible for all economic good, while the rest of us are just along for the ride.

Paul Simon - Long Long Day

I've posted this song before, but not this version. Sometimes this is just how you feel.

Politicians Say Goodbye to Private Space

I don't usually link to a news article in the Washington Post, but this is interesting.

Researchers studying human interactions with computers find that nearly everybody has accidentally conveyed a message intended for a narrow audience to an uncomfortably broad one — sometimes by doing something as simple as hitting “reply all” on a company-wide e-mail.

Such issues are particularly explosive in the political arena. Campaign operatives seek to warn candidates that they are all but public nearly every second of every day. But experts say humans — no matter how smart, polished or famous — need private space and the more relaxed interactions that allows.

Mal Waldron - Warm Canto

Lots of interesting stuff going on in politics with the release of the Romney fundraiser video, but I dunno, my mind is drawn elsewhere. This is considered by some to be a lost classic of fifties/sixties jazz. Mal Waldron wrote and plays piano, with an all-star band supporting and enhancing.

Chet Atkins - Windy And Warm

This is the original 1961 version, not the later remake that's easier to find. There's a clip on YouTube of the writer, John D. Loudermilk, telling the story of how Chet Atkins asked him to come up with something that sounded like it was already part of the country guitar tradition. This was the result.

Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love

This version is from the reunion shows at Royal Albert Hall in 2005. Not bad, but can't re-create how ground-breaking the original was nearly forty years earlier. Which, come to think of it, would be true of most re-creations.

Bob Dylan - Duquesne Whistle

Some new music for a change, although admittedly by someone best known for sixties work.

Moby Grape - Can't Be So Bad

More late-sixties Bay Area music. Trippy visuals, as they say.

The Electric Flag - Easy Rider

Yes, the current political controversy over the attacks on Americans in the Arab world, and Romney's response, matter a lot and deserve attention, but...not today, folks. Here's a song that's short but sweet, featuring the guitar of Mike Bloomfield.

Krugman on Equivalency in Covering Economic Plans

I know I link to him a lot, but it's because he is often simply saying things that others are not. Like this, for instance.

1st Unitarian Church of Nashville TN - Amazing Grace (shape note)

For 9/11, something that reflects both sorrow for what has happened and hope for the future.

Krugman on Republican Intransigence in Congress, Again

If it sounds like a stuck LP, it sort of is, but you can't blame the messenger.

Put it this way: When Republicans took control of the House, they declared that their economic philosophy was “cut and grow” — cut government, and the economy will prosper. And thanks to their scorched-earth tactics, we’ve actually had the cuts they wanted. But the promised growth has failed to materialize — and they want to make that failure Mr. Obama’s fault.

Jon Stewart on Fox's Convention Coverage

H/t Digby.

The Daily Show
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nada displaces an equal amount of volume

Nothing today, sorry.

RIP Shulamith Firestone

Shulamith Firestone was one of the lesser-known luminaries of second-wave feminism in the US, but she was an original voice. It seems obvious, but people often forget that original voices are one of the necessary components of any effective social movement. She had left active political work, but she deserves to be remembered. The Guardian has the obituary.

Big Dog Speaks

Bill Clinton formally nominates Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. From the Guardian:

In an old-fashioned barnstorming speech to the Democratic national convention – much of it ad-libbed and considerably longer than the prepared text – Clinton boiled the differences between Obama and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney to a simple, essential point. 
The choice in November, he said, would be between whether voters wanted to be part of a "we're all in this together society" or a "winner take all, you're on your own society".

Teddy vs. Mitt

Regrets

Oops, sorry, for various reasons totally spaced yesterday. Fresh stuff later today.

Cream - Tales of Brave Ulysses (Live at the Whisky a Go-Go 1967)

The Children - I'll Be Your Sunshine

Goodbye, I love you.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Burning of the Midnight Lamp