ADVENTURE TIME!

My hat don't hang on the same nail too long
My ears can't stand to hear the same old song
And I don't leave the highway long enough
To bog down in the mud
Cause I've got ramblin' fever in my blood

I caught this ramblin' fever long ago
When I first heard a lonesome whistle blow
If someone said I ever gave a damn
They damn sure told you wrong
I've had ramblin' fever all along

Ramblin' fever, the kind that can't be measured by degrees
Ramblin' fever, there ain't no kind of cure for my disease......etc.
(Written and sung by Merle Haggard).

I'll be back...when the ramblin's done.

TENDING TOWARDS THE PECULIAR

"We’re not going let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers," Neil Newhouse, the Romney campaign’s pollster, said last week during a breakfast discussion at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, sponsored by ABC News and Yahoo News. He said that fact-checkers brought their own sets of thoughts and beliefs to their work. Link
cf. “The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.” George Orwell
Cartoon Tom Toles, here

Tending distinctly towards peculiar, for me at least, was the reaction of a majority of The Great Unwashed from both sides of the political divide, to the speech/performance of Clint Eastwood at the Rebublican Convention last week, it ranged from determined po-facedness to outright nastiness. I guess I have to excuse native-born Americans, who weren't, unless exceptionally lucky, brought up on a diet of The Goons, Monty Python, and Spitting Image. The only response to Clint Eastwood's contribution to the Republican Convention anywhere near my own reaction, after having watched a video recording, was at a blog called Corrente: Two Cheers for Clint Eastwood. ...Anyway, Clint's monologue reminded me of the photograph (above left) - we found the old seat in the foyer of an abandoned theatre somewhere in Texas.


And....spotted in (would ya believe?)Sweetwater, Texas:



From elsewhere on our past travels: messages (from the Twilight Zone?):







"I gess they're hart is in the write plase" (hat-tip to husband for the caption - and he changed name of the BB-que joint to protect the innocently spell-check-less ):


Must I?



Seen in a local supermarket carpark. Erm....in time honoured tradition ... "You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment."




This (below) wouldn't seem peculiar in some locations - but in deepest bible-thumping, Tea-partying Texas it stood out like a sore, topless thumb. Evidence of a Texas Resistance Movement?



The Beetles, in a field in the middle-of-nowhere:

PLANTED PLENTIES

Ray Bradbury left us earlier this summer, but his stories will never leave, they'll echo on, seeded for decades to come. Some tales will set succesive generations trembling, some will leave them curious and wondering. A select few, very special examples, could cause serious re-thinks of previous attitudes.

Two of Ray Bradbury's stories, later adapted to short TV dramas watched recently, reminded me of something that self-help guides, philosophers and the like have often dictated, but without the same impact: that attitude is everything. The two stories in question paint pictures, far more effective than mere paragraphs of instructions.

First story The Toynbee Convector:
The inventor and time traveller at centre of the tale comes from a time of imminent environmental collapse - and an economically and creatively stagnant late 20th century society. In his time machine, The Toynbee Convector, he travels forward one hundred years. On returning to the 20th century he shows evidence in films and other records of his trip. One hundred years hence man had managed to develop a beautiful world - better life style, and a restored natural environment.

Initially, the people, unable to disprove validity of the records brought from the future, are inspired by the prospect and begin projects likely to fulfill the vision and create the world the time traveller has seen.

A hundred years later, that more perfect world has come to pass. On a day the public has been told to expect to see the young time traveller arrive to meet his aged self, the time traveller recounts his story to a reporter, during the first interview he has ever granted. He reveals what really happened many years ago: "I lied."

Suspecting that the world's people had it in them to create a better world, he brought them the illusion of one, to give humanity a goal, and a hope. The imagined future became reality. After his admission, the time traveller dies, but leaves with the reporter proof of what he has told him, expecting the reporter would tell people the truth. They would understand that they had actually saved themselves. But the reporter decides to maintain the illusion, destroys the evidence the time traveller left for him to reveal.


Second story, The Day it Rained Forever, tells of three men who have been living in an old hotel in an Arizona desert ghost town for more than 20 years. Oppressive heat, dust and constant drought is the norm, rain comes at most once a year, and is eagerly awaited as the story opens. This particular year has been exceptionally hot. The men bemoan their fate constantly; one of them retires to his bed and intends to remain there, without sustenance until he dies. Towards evening, with no prospect of rain appearing on this day when it was historically expected, a car approaches. The woman driver, a lady no longer young stops her vehicle, and in the process damages the already aged and battered car, which is carrying a covered oddly-shaped object on the roof rack.

The woman introduces herself and chats to the two men. They invite her into the hotel for a meal. They seem to immediately start feeling better, spruce themselves up a bit, and over dinner she tells them she is a musician. She waxes lyrical about her love of music. The object atop her car is a harp. They bring it into the hotel and she plays - a beautiful melody. As she plays she seems to become younger, more beautiful. The attitude of the two men changes from depressed to uplifted. The woman goes to the third man, who hopes to die, and offers him soup. He refuses. Later it starts to rain heavily. It's as though the changed attitudes of the two men had caused the helpful and much wished-for change in the weather.

These two tales, were placed one after the other, on a DVD, part of a set we have: The Ray Bradbury Theater. It took a moment, but I realised that their message was one and the same: a change in attitude can change many things.

Mr Bradbury was something of a philosopher, just like another story-teller, Aesop long before him, was he not?

PS: for more about Ray Bradbury, and his natal chart, see my post from 2009.

PPS: Heading of current post was (kind of) suggested by yet another of Mr Bradbury's titles Colonel Stonesteel and the "Desperate Empties":

SEPTEMBER SPINS

WELCOME SEPTEMBER!

"Outside the leaves on the trees constricted slightly; they were the deep done green of the beginning of autumn. It was a Sunday in September. There would only be four. The clouds were high and the swallows would be here for another month or so before they left for the south before they returned again next summer."
~ Ali Smith, The Whole Story and Other Stories

(Photograph: old door found in Nacogdoches, Texas; from husband's camera )





Definitive version of September Song, for me, is Frank Sinatra's - but it's always good to hear how some other artists have tried to "make the song their own". There's a long list of them at YouTube, a selection follows:

Ever wondered who Lotte Lenya (of Mack the Knife fame was?)

Now … Jenny Diver … ho, ho … yeah … Sukey Tawdry
Ooh … Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown
Oh, the line forms on the right, babe
Now that Macky’s back in town.

I assumed it was a name made-up to fit the rhythm of the song, but as I searched for unusual versions of September Song I came across the version below, then discovered via Wikipedia that

In 1956, Louis Armstrong recorded the song "Mack the Knife", both as a solo number and as a duet with Lenya. Armstrong added Lenya's name into the lyrics, in place of one the characters in the play. Other recordings of the song, most notably Bobby Darin's in 1959, have continued this tradition.
Lotte Lenya (1898 – 1981) was an Austrian singer, diseuse (i.e. performer of monologues), and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) and as the sadistic and vengeful Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love (1963).

Lou Reed's unusual version of Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's
September Song:

And a rather classy jazzy interpretation of it by Sarah Vaughan and Wynton Marsalis:

Husband suggested this as the best Big Band version - Stan Kenton's Orchestra :

Chet Baker's rendition is wistful and lovely:

Finally - I do like Jeff Lynne's unstudied, unpretentious version. A commenter at YouTube mentions that the lovely guitar solo is George Harrison's - I wanted to hear more of THAT!

**PS~ We ought never to forget that.....

VOTING DILEMMA 2012

Dilemma: A situation that requires a choice between options that are or seem equally unfavorable.

There are still more than two months to go before citizens of the USA will have to decide how to vote in the presidential election on 6 November. For me, and from what I read online for many others, it won't be an easy decision. Oh, for those who have Democrat or Republican engraved on their hearts it won't be difficult. For those who prefer to engage head over heart, in this important instance, it will be a choice between evil, lesser evil, or in some fortunate states an alternative with no chance of winning. The alternative vote has an advantage - of proclaiming that the voter has had it up to here with lesser evilism, and with mainstream media blocking all mention and discussion of alternatives. Alternative voting, some of us think, would be a tiny first step out of the mire into which this country has been led.

As of yesterday, in Oklahoma, on the ballot for for president there'll be a choice between only the "two evils", no alternative, no write-in facility. All hope of Libertarian Gary Johnson being placed on the ballot was dashed by underhand dealings of local authorities, to ensure that Gov. Johnson would not be included under either Libertarian or Americans Elect headings. The Green Party allegedly didn't meet the (strictest in the country) requirements for ballot access here. My only choices will be to vote for one of the two evils or to leave the Prez space blank and vote as liberally as possible (actually, not very liberal at all) down ticket. Result for Oklahoma is a foregone conclusion anyway in this reddest of red states - Republicans need have no fear of losing here.

I'm a comparative newcomer, probably thought by some to have no right to voice opinions on US politics, even though I'm now a US citizen. But, but...I brought all my worldly wealth to this country - admittedly not a fortune - but a reasonable sum, harvest of my own working life and the working lives of my parents. I invested it in a home here, combined with my husband's input. I consider myself to have equal rights with native-born voters to voice an opinion. I'm first to admit, however, that others have a far better grip on the US political situation, due to years of having watched it develop. With that in mind, I saved some points made in recent articles and comments at The Smirking Chimp website. These were chosen to present a brief assessment from both sides of the "how to vote 2012" debate, for those who sport no R or D engraving on their hearts.

Clips from a piece by Brent Budowsky ...Last Stand for Liberals:

Today Republicans have an enthusiasm advantage, a turnout advantage, a money advantage, a voter suppression advantage and a media advantage, which is why I warn Democrats so severely........

Given my disappointments in the Obama presidency, why do I believe that a vote for Obama and Democrats in Congress is the most urgently needed vote in my lifetime, and, I suggest, in many lifetimes? Because for those of us who stand truly in the tradition of Jack and Bobby, Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez, the suffragettes and muckraking journalists who battled Gilded Age corruption, defenders of the earth and opponents of those who put poisoned food into the bellies of little babies, 2012 can be described as our last stand..........

If Obama is reelected with sufficient Democrats in Congress, we can continue the modest but real advances since 2009 and the preservation of 120 years of steady progress that created the great national consensus that lifted many of the poor out of poverty, built the great middle class that remains threatened by descendants of forces that hated both Roosevelts, and built what was correctly called the American Century, which is the true American exceptionalism..............This election is the last stand for liberals and Democrats. Our champion Obama is not fully our champion. Our party in Washington sounds an uncertain trumpet. But make no mistake. If Republicans win they will turn back the clock to 1890 and destroy a long legacy of progress.
.

On the other side of the debate:

Comment from AntiSpin beneath a piece by David Swanson titled Obamobedience

.....The Democrats will never give up their growing allegiance to the One Percent until and unless they have reason to fear that they will lose an election unless they do so, and the only way they will learn that lesson is actually to lose one.

But more important, there will never be a less dangerous time for the people to teach the Democrats that lesson. Things are not going to get better by themselves. Unless we take action, it’s going to get worse every four years, forever. The Republicans will continue their rightward march into fascism, and the Democrats will continue right on their heels. As each successive election rolls by, the threat of a victory for Republicans will become more and more dangerous than it is now.

We have no choice. We are in the position of a cancer victim who wants to go on with life as usual, living on to a comfortable old age without having to get the necessary treatment, because “the alternative is worse,” – uncomfortable surgery, painful chemotherapy, dangerous radiation treatment. But we all know that his life will not go on as usual – he will die – and in the interim his condition will keep on getting worse and worse for as long as he puts off those painful treatments.

We are fools if we think that we can avoid the fearful consequences of rejecting the reelection of a Democratic president. And those consequences will become more and more brutal the longer we wait. Every time we reelect a Democratic president “because the alternative is worse” we will get a more Republican “Democratic” presidency, and the Republicans themselves will go on becoming more and more Republican (read “fascist”) as well.

The sooner we get on with the treatment, no matter how painful it will be, the better, because it’s going to be a hell of a lot more painful four years from now, and ever more painful eight years, twelve years, sixteen years from now. Or we can put our fingers in our ears, shut our eyes and go on humming “nah na nah na nah, nah!” until our very civilization is flushed down the drain forever.

AND A comment from HC Jack Shaftoe a comment beneath piece by "mewkitty" titled If you're not voting for Obama

Okay, so "when" will it be time to start moving off the dime we are stuck on?

Any argument rooted purely in "fear" and speculation of "avoiding a potentially worse" situation is irrational and little more than avoidance behavior. At some point the masses who continue to "vote for the lesser of evils" instead of starting the slow and painful process of shifting support to "alternatives" will come face to face with a traumatic national situation, scrambling around trying to figure out, "How could we have let things go so far without having made any attempt to initiate change"?

Shifting facing the music ever forward into the future, frozen in the headlights, avoiding the only possible rational alternative (shifting power to alternative coalitions), is deadly and assures no possibility for any kind of change whatsoever.

It is perfectly rational to acknowledge that given two choices one is less desirable than another but irrational, irresponsible, and delusional to believe that this is the only alternative. Such rationalizing based on fear of short term impacts guarantees that over the long term continued decay and a fixed path with absolutely no possibility for a change in path.

Locked into "lesser of two evils" is nothing more than fear and capitulation or more simply put, cowardice.

Finally.....


"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do."
~~ Wendell Berry.

Arty Farty Friday ~~ Roger Dean & Album Art

Album covers from the days of long-playing records (the 33rpm vinyl jobs) are a lost art form, along with index cards, paper files, accounting ledgers, blotters and the like. Modern man wouldn't count files and ledgers as art forms but for me, in their own sweet way, they are. Things of the past, things one could hold, appreciate, feel. They are fondly remembered.





Which brings me to an artist celebrating his birthday today, 31 August: Roger Dean. I have to admit I was unfamiliar with the artist's name, but do recognise his work, once pointed in the right direction.




Dean's father's army career meant that he and the family spent much of his childhood abroad, in Cyprus, Greece and Hong Kong. His family settled back in England in 1957, when Dean enrolled in the Canterbury School of Art. By 1968 he had graduated from the Royal College of Art, with credentials in design and architecture as well in painting. One of his designs, the sea urchin chair, was featured in the movie A Clockwork Orange.

Roger Dean's work really began to be noticed, though, around 1971 when he embarked on paintings and design work for use on album covers for then famous rock bands. Much of the artwork he produced then has since become iconic in its genre.

Copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner.

A wee bit of astrology ~~~

Roger Dean was born in Ashford, Kent on 21 August 1944. His time of birth isn't available, the chart is set for 12 noon. Unless born before 7:00 AM Moon would have been in early Aquarius; otherwise in late Capricorn.



That's quite a striking chart! A lot of Virgo: Sun/Jupiter, Mercury, Venus all in the sign of the perfectionist, with Mars conjunct creative Neptune in Libra, almost certainly in harmonious trine to natal Moon, which I'm betting was in early Aquarius bearing in mind the artist's attraction to futuristic-cum-fantasy subject matter.
Dean, along with many of his generation, has a Grand Trine in his natal chart linking the creative Neptune/Uranus trine to a personal planet - in his case, natal Moon.

ROLE CALLS

Casting for a real-life character in a movie must be difficult enough, but easier than casting a fictional character from a famous and often beloved novel or set of novels. The real-life character provides a definite template to match, factual evidence of personality, voice and appearance. Even then, though, choice of actor for the role doesn't satisfy everyone; a really bad choice could sink a movie. Brilliant choices ? Let's see......Kirk Douglas as Vincent Van Gogh; Colin Firth as King George VI; Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote; David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow; George C. Scott as Patton; Sean Penn as Harvey Milk; Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo; Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II. Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher....and on, and on.

Casting actors for fictional roles, characters previously well-known to the public through famous novels, has to be a trickier matter. As we read we develop mind's-eye impressions of the novel's characters, led by the novelist's outline descriptions, character-type being revealed from the story-line. But impressions are going to be subjective, depending on the reader's own background, experiences and knowledge.

I'd already been thinking along these lines the other day when I read a post at Nourishing Obscurity - a blog which carries political opinions opposite to my own, but along with a variety of other interesting bits and pieces. The post in question discussed preferences for different actors who have played Ian Fleming's James Bond.

My earlier thoughts had been about casting choices in a couple of movies/mini-series, adaptations of novels, we'd watched recently. Clint Eastwood's portrayal of Robert Kincaid in the movie version of Robert J. Waller's short novel The Bridges of Madison County seemed fine when I saw the movie years ago, and once or twice since. I've read the book, twice, since then though, and now suspect that Eastwood wasn't exactly right for the part. Height, build and age-wise he was near, but his hair should've been longer. However, the "mystical, shaman-like, primitive" quality described in the novel more than once, was completely missing in Eastwood's portrayal - it's just not in him. I can't name an actor any better equipped to play Kincaid though, so I guess, as concluded in the Bond discussion mentioned above, there simply isn't anybody who could fit completely, tick all the boxes. Fiction's like that!

“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.”
Winston Churchill.

Another favourite novel of mine, A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute was first adapted as a movie, sinfully skimpily, back in 1956. Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch played leading roles of Jean Paget and Joe Harman. Much as I loved Peter Finch, he just wasn't right as Joe....nowhere near! In 1981 a TV mini-series presented an excellent and total portrayal of the novel, with Helen Morse and Bryan Brown in the leading roles. Bryan Brown was exactly as I'd imagined Joe from the novel, and Helen Morse a rather better version of Jean Paget, according to my imagination.

Then there are "hybrid" roles: characters who have actually existed, but in times and places where reliable records are often absent. Around such characters myths and legends have grown up over the decades rendering them almost fictional. I'm thinking here mainly of characters from the Old West: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are good examples. These two have been portrayed numerous times, hardly ever in similar vein. Most recent(1990s) examples of actors playing Doc Holliday were Val Kilmer in Tombstone and Dennis Quaid in Wyatt Earp. I saw both movies when they reached TV screens. I still have difficulty choosing between these two very good but very different versons of Doc Holliday who, for me was always these movies' most interesting - and malleable - character.

An actor of exceptional talent and emotional insight, even when their physical appearance isn't in accord with either the real-life person's or fictional character's (as described by the novelist), should still be able to convince us that he/she truly IS that character. Any examples of that? I doubt that it happens very often in movies or TV these days. We've become so visually-oriented. Possibly in a stage play where close-ups aren't possible such a phenomenon survives. Radio, long ago, was the medium through which a "homely" looking actor could play a handsome debonair rascal, and actresses "of a certain age" could still play sweet young things. I miss radio - well, the BBC's version of radio anyway.

If there's anybody out there - how about sharing some of your own examples of good and/or bad casting?

MISCELLANY... touching on a Sun Virgo astrologer, fashion police, lifeboat heroes, photography.

Continuing a monthly trawl through astrologers with birthdays in zodiac sign where the sun currently resides: Virgo Sun astrologers proved to be rare. I found only Liz Greene and Louis MacNeice. The latter born 12 September 1907 in Belfast, Northern Ireland was a poet and scholar, rather than an astrologer proper, but he did write a book on the subject. My post on him is HERE .

Liz Greene was born on 4 September 1946 at 1:01 PM in Englewood, New Jersey (see chart at Astrodatabank)

American professional astrologer and author, Jungian psychologist and lecturer; one of the most highly respected astrologers of the 20th century. Greene has been awarded the Regulus Award for Theory and Understanding, 1989, recognizing the work with other disciplines and philosophical models. She relocated to England and then to Switzerland. With Howard Sasportas, she founded the Center for Psychological Astrology in London. Her books include "Saturn, A New Look for an Old Devil," "Star Signs for Lovers," and "The Outer Planets and Their Cycles." After Sasportas died of AIDS, she teamed with Charles Harvey as co-head of the Center.

Does she match the pattern I've been trying to establish (i.e. that best astrologers have Air (mental acuity) and Water (emotional intelligence) prominent in their charts)?
She does: 5 planets in Air signs (Libra and Gemini), a Water sign (Scorpio) rising.




Glancing down the long list of tags on my Blogger dashboard I noticed fascism and fashion adjacent....the fashion police ("never wear white after Labor Day, don't wear socks with sandals, don't wear back bra under pale shirt", etc )come to think of it are really distant cousins to outright fascists!





Among some photos we took during the time husband lived with me in the UK, in Bridlington, on the East Yorkshire coast I noticed this:



We found the gravestones of James Watson (43), David Purdon (38) and Robert Pickering (34) in the grounds of the town's Priory Church; they represent a very sad story of men who sacrificed their lives attempting to save the crew of a brig "Delta". In February of 1871 a terrible storm and gale, often referred to as the most notorious and best remembered of all the gales on the Yorkshire coast, caused the destruction of several vessels and deaths of many seamen and lifeboat crews around Bridlington Bay. A report of events is available at Flamborough Lifeboats website. The gravestones in the photograph commemorate three of the crew of the lifeboat Harbinger, David Purdon, one of the three, had also built the boat, three other crewmen of the Harbinger perished too.


The report of that storm reminded me of the raw courage lifeboatmen everywhere have always displayed, often with little recompense. They, along with firefighters are the TRUE heroes of our times, and of times long past.

A man of courage never wants weapons.
~Author Unknown

Painting by J.T. Allerston, see also HERE.



Words of my husband, aka "anyjazz" on photography:

A friend once described the difference between "taking pictures" and being "a photographer": You have to have the eye.

Taking a picture often catches the moment, a photographer catches the mood, the aura, the personality, the action. A picture shows you Grandma Hattie in her best dress. A photograph shows you how she felt that day. A photographer knows how to use the medium to capture more than the image. The elements.

Think about that: The Elements.

Color, balance, texture, design, rhythm and detail all are parts of most photographs, illustrations or paintings. These are basic elements of visual arts. There are probably others. Start with these.

In some photographs there can be seen action, story, drama, emotion, mood. Some others record a moment, predict an outcome, ask a question, decide an argument, set a course.

In some photographs the subject matter alone can be an element of its beauty or worthiness. In another photograph, there may be no identifiable subject at all but other elements, color, action, mood are there. In a sports photo for instance, the subject can be quite secondary to the excitement, the event, the action.

Sometimes it is just a picture of a baby, sometimes it is a picture of the future of mankind. Both pictures are wonderful but one is just an image of a child while the other is a legend.

Physical elements: Color, balance, texture, design, rhythm and detail. Intangible elements: action, story, drama, emotion and mood.

If a photograph combines several of these elements then it is likely an exceptional photograph.

A website carrying daily doses of all manner of wonderful photographs is Fluidr.com

Below are some of the husband's own work - shots he particularly likes:

"Some years ago I attended a couple Pawnee Powwow celebrations in Pawnee, Oklahoma. This gentleman posed for a picture. He was a distant relative of mine, loosely connected through marriage. A sort of ex-father-in-law from an ex-marriage of an ex-marriage...or something like that. He was a full blood Pawnee, I understand. His name was: Chauncey Gardipe. He and I actually got along rather well to the best of my memory.
This is a scan of an old print. I shot it with my old workhorse Pentax K1000 and some tri-x film. You can now tell how long ago it must have been. 40 years probably."

"I remember this shot very well. I was at Lac Gustav in Northern Quebec. The wind died for a moment and I got a shot in while the water was smooth as a mirror. The logs are the remainder of an old dock that had been replaced with the one next to it. Knowing what it really was kept me from seeing that it was a beautiful optical illusion."

"Bored but Quiet"

"2016 Obama's America"......& A VP Who Got Into the Game - The Music Game

A new film reaching a wider arc of cinemas this weekend is: 2016: Obama's America I wasn't surprised to find that it's not on the schedule at our local movie theater, but it's being shown in Wichita Falls, Texas, some 50 miles away. Having read a few reviews I've decided it'd be a waste of gas and cash better spent on a (hopefully) upcoming trip further afield.

For anyone curious about the movie I'd recommend a very fair review by a moderate Republican writer, Mike Ghouse at the Smirking Chimp website: 2016 Obama’s America - A disgustingly dishonest film. I'm no fan of the President, as anyone who reads my posts will have gathered. My own feelings do not stem from anywhere near the same place as the opinions of Dinesh D'Souza, this movie's creator, quite the opposite end of the political spectrum, in fact. This film, polished propaganda, the wide release of which was obviously timed to coincide with the Republican convention, appears to be critical of the President for reasons which I see as irrelevant. His record over the past three and a half years alone offers material enough for two movies.



SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.......

Thoughts of the likes of Joe Biden, Paul Ryan, Dick Cheney writing a beautiful melody boggles the average mind. There was a Vice President in the USA who did just that, though: Charles Gates Dawes - today is the anniversary of his birth on 27 August 1865. He died in 1951.

A banker, politician, self-taught pianist and composer, in 1911 he wrote a piece originally known as Melody in A Major. It became a kind of signature tune for him when he later became President Calvin Coolidge's VP. 40 years later lyricist Carl Sigman added words to the melody and VP Dawes' work morphed into the pop song It's All In the Game, the only number one pop single in history written by a Vice President of the United States. Tommy Edwards sang the hit version in 1958, since then many other artists have recorded it.

The melody (arr. Kreisler) performed by
Ivry Gitlis, violin; Shuku Iwasaki, piano.

The smooth-as-silk voice of Nat King Cole with the pop song version:

Charles Gates Dawes was US Vice President between 1925 and 1929, VP Dawes must have been quite a character. According to Wikipedia:

"Dawes' Vice Presidency was one of the most disastrous on record. Soon after his election he sent an insulting letter to President Coolidge informing him that he would not be attending cabinet meetings. This is believed to be the beginning of a feud between the two which brought the Vice Presidency to its nadir for the 20th century.

Having insulted the President, he then proceeded to publicly insult the entire US Senate. The inauguration of the Vice President was held in the Senate Chamber in those days, and the VP would give an inaugural address before everyone headed on to the outside platform where the President would take the oath. Dawes made a fiery, half-hour address denouncing the rules of the Senate, the seniority system and many other things that Senators held dear.

Everyone was so shocked at the speech that President Coolidge's own inaugural address was completely overshadowed, leaving him even angrier at Dawes than ever before."

For his work on The Dawes Plan, a plan to enable Germany to restore and stabilize its economy after World War I, Dawes shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925. The plan was deemed unworkable and replaced with The Young Plan, with harsher provisions against Germany. Later in his career Dawes became US Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

A rapid rundown of his natal chart for any passing astrology buffs:
Charles Gates Dawes was born 27 August 1865 in Marietta, Ohio. astrodatabank has time of birth as 3:32 PM with a "C" rating (accept with caution)....this birth time gives Capricorn rising, and while not completely reliable is entirely appropriate for a banker and politcian.



The aggressive, critical and outspoken character he obviously was can be seen as connecting to Mars (aggression) conjunct Mercury(communication) in Virgo(critical), squared by Jupiter(excess) in its own sign of Sagittarius(outspoken). His natal Sun in critical Virgo also. Uranus sextiles his natal Sun - here may reside the rebel.

His natal Moon was in passionate Scorpio, and in harmonious trine to Venus (the arts) in Cancer which links to his musical talent.