How About a Friday Night Rock Blog?

Hey all!!!

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I can't get into it here but the past 4 months have been trying, and things are rough.

Dark times, but I always remember the Tolkien line "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us" and so things go on. They always do.

I was listening to music tonight, along with old fights and Game of Thrones episodes, and I thought, why not a Friday night rock blog? Well, why not?

So have some fun.

Friday Night Rock Blogging
A few songs to set your weekend up.

I loved all the old Alice Cooper music, and when a living legend had a new tune on in 1989, well I was happy to give it a shot. It's not bad at all, try out "Poison":



I always search and search for live shows as I think it separates the actual singers from the charlatans. I LOVE this live performance of Tracy Chapman's song "Fast Car" by Chris Daughtry and Kelly Clarkson, you will too:


I am a huge fan of Jewel even though I am often brought to tears listening to her songs. I really liked this bit by Funny or Die where Jewel goes undercover and does karaoke. Of course, people know whats real when they hear it. It worth a look:


I am getting really old or whatever but I have been listening to more classical compositions as of late, I usually look them up based on films of course!

Here is "Gandalf Falls":


How about a symphony of music from "Conan the Barbarian"? If you can place the opening song to the film, I would be impressed:

Oh that is great!

Cinema AND music??? Great lighting and great filming? I will take it, and you should too:


I know I have had it on here before, but closing with Concrete Blonde's wonderful and sad "Joey":


Have a good night.

Wish Me Luck!!! Shark and Tuna Tournament!

Hey all,

The weather is looking dicey but I am on a boat for the Shark and Tuna Fishing Tournament this weekend in Newburyport:
http://www.newburyportsharkandtunatournament.com/

Wish me luck and hope I do not get eaten by a shark!

J

Tom Brady and the NFL Should Settle - Here's How

I am not getting into this mess in written form, I have STRONG opinions on it. Trust me. At this point I think it needs to end. Here is how.

August 14, 2015
For immediate release  5:30am EST

-Tom Brady -

 "After this process and a better dialogue with the NFL during the settlement talks, I have come to understand my role in this matter from a different perspective. I maintain that I never advised nor know about ball tampering at any time. That said, there were irregularities on the night of the AFC title game and in order to protect the game, these things must be taken seriously.
 After talks with the NFL, commissioner Goodell most especially, I accept that in order to bring closure to this matter and to maintain good faith across the league penalties must be levied and accepted. The NFL will shortly announce the settlement we have reached. I agree with the conditions and believe them to be fair and correct. After the announcement I will not answer nor address this issue again. Thank you."

-The NFL - 

For immediate release  5:35am EST

"Tom Brady is suspended for the 2015 preseason schedule for the irregularities found during the 2014 AFC title game. The NFL, during this process, has found that the process of investigation was incomplete in no small part to the absence of set ball testing parameters and a poor system of compliance. The NFL has already detailed the new ball testing protocol to be in place in 2015, and Tom Brady has been fined $100,000, all of which will be applied for payment of the additional personal and equipment required to implement this system in week 1 of the 2015 season. We consider the matter closed and will not respond to further inquiries."

One can dream.

Have a good night.

Friday Observations and Musings

Well well, hello. It's been some time!

I have been pretty busy here. I changed jobs again. I got a very significant new position (monster pay raise!) that is a major step up for me in my career. It's a great fit at a top 2 Pharmaceutical company and the program I am working on is one I truly think is where the best new medicines will come from, natural products. Can't say more than that, but I am excited.

Any excited has been damped with the news that the mother in law has inoperable kidney cancer. It came out of nowhere and she has already had serious issues even though she had no symptoms before. It's ugly and not looking good.

I had some plans to do some modifications to my Camaro "Christine" but until we get a better handle on how things are going to work out around here, it's not a time to have fun it feels like. After the longest winter in history, now it's a year without a summer.

Anyways.......

Just wanted to stop in and say a few things about this and that.

Friday Observations and Musings

- Can you believe this Greece thing? This has been going on for like 4 years!!!

- I am one that abhors central banks and being beholden to money and banking like it's some spiritual need above all else. You gotta love how they are operating right now though. For YEARS a few have told all that all these things were going on and they were dismissed as crazy. Now they are just right. What do I mean?

- Greece holds a referendum on the stupid bailout stuff, the people say they don't want it, and now the bankers are going to get what they want anyway. Democracy? Not anymore. It's not just Greece folks, we did it and are doing it too.

- LOVE China suspending stocks, making selling illegal, and pushing and endless load of "liquidity" at their bubble I mean market. This sick joke gets a shrug and is accepted now. Amazing. Check out this tweet from the always smug and annoying Mark Dow:

Hey, it's worked in the US for 6 years now. Not the argument asshat. Folks like this have contributed to the "new normal" of fake markets that are not priced in reality. As the donkeys say "only price pays" like those words have any meaning, but I am not one to not take free money from rigged markets. I don't pretend they are not rigged though, and if I could chose I would end all the support and baloney going on, even though it would cost me (fake) money. The others won't.

- No one writes better about the real angles of all this than "The Automatic Earth" and I would ask you all to swing by there and check out the new site. If you would like to donate a few $, that would certainly help. Check out this last post about the Greek drama.

- I see dumb China peasants losing their ass in the markets, Greek voters and especially youth being robbed of their vote and their futures, and a swath of people all over being passed by and over. I think of a quote from the great book "Robopocalypse":

"It is not enough to live together in peace, with one race on its knees."
- Archos R-14

Race, in this case is not regional or color based, but the division of have and have nots. And what the haves keep doing to stay there is getting old for many.

- Deflategate is a travesty, fuck the NFL with relish.

- I finally watched the series "Game of Thrones" and while I don't think it's the orgasmic masterpiece many do, I did like it. I LOVED Sandor Clegane, "The Hound":
Cannot Embed, click on over for a great video
"You lived your life for the King, your gonna die for some chickens?"
"Someone is."

- I got the new Galaxy S6 phone and I guess this whole era just passed me by. It's a phone. It does crazy stuff if you want, but I don't need it to. Looks nice though.

- I don't look at charts much at all anymore, no point really (all go up and to the right now, unless it's a commodity) but I did look at gold and silver today. Holy mother, what a mess both of them are. Totally ugly and broken. Long time readers know that I have a firm belief that when the fake money/debt gets called out (Greek debt is fake, almost all of it, it's not real as an example) gold and silver are going to roll or they could even go lower but you can buy a state with a little. From a technical look though, wow run away fast!

- Arianna Grande was not mad about United States obesity, she is just another millionaire pop star loser. Why our culture lavishes riches and interest in children that get naked on stage and lip sync I will never know, but hey it's their dime. I thought shows like American Idol and The Voice would show that just about anyone off the street can do this stuff, instead it's made it worse.

- John Snow had better come back next season or I may well lose my mind

- I so miss the Triumvirate of intelligence, wit, insight, and common sense that was Minyanville's Todd Harrison, Keven Depew, and Mr. Practical. Compare and contrast with the clowns of today, it's just unreal.

- All the apps and social media are going to rob many a person of quite a few years of their life that they are going to want back later on. You can't get it back.

- Read Neil Gaiman's "American Gods", you will not regret it.

- Read a book and get off the phone games and Netflix streaming poison to your mind. Better yet, go outside (prefer outside of a city) and do something, get real quiet, and listen. There is a whole world out there.

Maybe one song in the tradition of Friday Night Rock Blogging.

I actually heard this in blips and thought it was a joke song. When I gave it a chance, it's really sad and I like the tone of the music. Try out Tove Lo's "Habits (Stay High)" for something a bit different:


Have a good night.

Welcome Camaro 5 Readers!

Thanks for doing a google search and finding an answer to a puzzle that you should have worked out for yourself.

For that, I will create a new puzzle.

A great friend of mine (gone but not forgotten) solved the puzzle long ago.

Have a good night.

New England PATRIOTS!!!!!!

No words, just this:

AFC Title Game - "Once More Into the Fray"

Back in week 4 of this NFL season, I thought, I really believed the most amazing and dominant run in NFL history was over.

The Patriots were done. We were done. The Kansas City game cemented the end of all the Patriots have accomplished. Time goes on, time wears all things down.

I actually cried a bit after that game. To think Tom Brady would go someplace else next year made me sick. To think the best and most amazing QB I have ever seen (YES, I saw Montana in his best days) could no longer outrun father time made me hurt.

And then the Patriots closed ranks.

The rest you know. After another incredible run, the Patriots are playing in the AFC title game tomorrow. I have never been so proud. An epic confrontation against the Ravens last week should galvanize this team.

So, once more into the fray.....


Go Patriots!!!!

Deep Pocket Swiss Dropped the Euro Peg - MASSIVE ECB QE COMING!!!!!!!! OMFG! (panting, out of breadth!)

Deep Pocket Swiss Dropped the Euro Peg - MASSIVE ECB QE COMING!!!!!!!! OMFG! (panting, out of breadth!)
Look, I don't really look at this stuff too much anymore.

Overall I have confidence in how my money is MINE and protected (ever heard of cash savings?) and invested (ETF of S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have been fine) plus a few bonus ideas: (robotics, well angles I know about them) and I really don't chase money like the pimps on the street and sell you on a new era of bullshit built on baloney (which is just a big hot dog).

I am not a currency trader, but all the usual blowhard "QE IS GOD" folks like Joe Weisenthal and others (Many similar types have yet to weigh in, as is often the case on bad market days) say this means MASSIVE QE from the ECB next week. Hey, probably.

And I am sure to my bones that salami makers, BMW employees, Greek resort managers, and other Euro types are ready, willing, and able to go investment crazy because interest rates drop a whole, check the decimals folks, 0.02 or some stupid bullshit that makes no sense.

I mean, often times as a consumer I find myself saying "Shit! I could increase aggregate demand by a lot if only, if ONLY, I could buy that (TV, Car, House, condoms, stocks from CNBC) at a whole 2bps less than last fucking week!"

No one thinks like that.

So I hope the ECB does QE like a boss and buys 17 Trillion of all the Euro bonds because maybe, just maybe, you all out there that are asleep and allowing this shit to go on all the time so you are not bothered, may just wonder why that made no difference in anything that mattered. If everything is so great and wonderful, how can a US Fed hike of 25bps be "CATASTROPHIC". This is bad theater.

Money is free and it has been for 6 years. So what.

In case you have not noticed, if I blog, It's going to get nasty!

Have a good night.