Wednesday, August 03, 2005

THE YOGA OF YOGI

My main inspiration this morning was Frank DeFord's ode to Yogi Berra on NPR's Morning Edition.

As an Okie kid in the '60s it was basically mandatory that you idolize Mickey Mantle. (As well as astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper, but that's another ball game.) And indeed, I loved Mickey. But there was something endearing about his funny-looking teammate with the funny name also.

I got to see the Yankees play in 1962. They were up against The Los Angeles Angels, who at the time played at Dodger Stadium. Mickey didn't have a great game that night, but I was thrilled when Yogi hit a home run.

Here's a page of quotes attributed to Yogi. But remember: he never said half the things he said.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

MORE NEW MEXICO BLOGGERS

I'm plugging a plug here, but if not for conservative blogger Mario Burgos I wouldn't have known about the new New Mexico Matters blog and would have missed perhaps the very first use of the adjective "Terrellian" in the history of the state's blogosphere.

I do have to take issue with this statement:
Terrell is the kind of guy that's just as interested in the goo goo dolls as he is in politics ...
In truth, my beautiful niece Lauren likes The Goo Goo Dolls (or at least she used to), but I've never really been been a fan. (I do like The Rev. Al Green though -- better than I like most politicians -- and Fan Man just announced he's coming to The Santa Fe Opera on Saturday, Sept. 17!)

Maybe I'm not navigating the blog very well, but I can't seem to find who is responsible for New Mexico Matters. In one early post the blogger describes himself (herself?) as "a non-blogger with a blog."

Well, whoever you are, here's a Terrellian welcome to the Bizarro World of bloggery.

Also, frequent commenter on The New Mexican web site -- and on this blog, Ed Campbell has started a blog of his own called Eidard. It's basically a liberal/progressive blog with a focus on national and international issues. Do check it out.

The New Mexican is offering free reader blogs. Check that out HERE

Monday, August 01, 2005

TERRELL'S SOUNDWORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, July 31, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
I Fought the Law by The Clash
The Police Are Just Doing Their Jobs by The Goblins
Skull Ring by Iggy Pop
I Wanna Know About You by The International Noise Conspiracy
Sittin' Pretty by The Datsuns
Green-Eyed Loco Man by The Fall
Midnight Blues by The Detroit Cobras
Mystery Girl by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Naked Pictures of Your Mother by The Electro Six
Right On Woman by The Fleshtones

Loose by Buick MacKane
Two Timing Touch and Broken Bones by The Hives
Cherry Bomb by Joan Jett & L7
Raunch City by Texas Terri Bomb
Joe's Head by The Kings of Leon
Poison Ivy by The Von Bondies
Give me Some Truth by John Lennon
Dirty Diamonds by Alice Cooper

Bold Mauader/Land of Spook by Drywall
Space Age Love Song by The Flaming Lips
Freeze the Saints by Stephen Malkmus
We're Desperate by X
There's a Black Horse by John Doe
Girl of My Dreams by Beck
Black Letter Day by Frank Black & The Catholics
Gilligan's Island by Manic Hispanic

Revolution Blues by Neil Young
Hijack by Paul Kanter & The Jefferson Starship
Your Children Sleep Good Tonight by Otis Taylor
Two Steps from The End by Robert Cray
Wedding Dress by Mark Lannegan
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Saturday, July 30, 2005

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, July 29, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell


OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Hey Sheriff by The Backsliders
There Ain't No Good Chain Gang by Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings
Country Girl by June Carter with Homer and Jethro
Jemima Surrender by The Band
Eight Weeks in a Barroom by Marti Brom
The Heart of a Clown by Cornell Hurd
Queen of the Silver Dollar by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
I'm Lonesome For You Annabelle by Durwood Haddock

Back on the Corner by John Hiatt
Cold Roses by Ryan Adams
My Rosemarie by Stan Ridgway
The Combines Are Comin' by Joe West
Gone in Pawn (Shake Sugaree) by Po' Girl
Selling the Jelly by Noah Lewis' Jug Band

My Toot Toot by Doug Kershaw & Fats Domino
Jambalaya by Professor Longhair
Me and Dennis McGee by BeauSoleil
Tear-Stained Letter by Jo-El Sonier
Diggy Liggy Lo by John Fogerty
Give Him Corn Bread by Beau Jacques & The Zydeco Hi-Rollers
Half a Boy and Half a Man by Queen Ida
Zydeco Around the World by Rockin' Dopsie

Looks Like Rain by Bob Weir
Please Don't Stop Loving Me by Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton
Who Made You King by Grey DeLisle
Private Thoughts by Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
When You Leave by Loudon Wainwright III
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

Friday, July 29, 2005

GRUBESIC


My story in today's New Mexican about state Sen. John Grubesic's latest confrontation with law enforcement can be found HERE.

The actual police report on the incident can be found HERE.

Henry Lopez's first-day story on the incident is HERE.

The Associated Press account of Grubesic's March dealings with police is HERE..

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: A TRIUMPH BY HIATT

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 29, 2005

They don’t make many songwriters smarter, tougher or more consistent than John Hiatt.

And Hiatt hasn’t made many albums smarter, tougher or more consistent than his latest one, Master of Disaster. Indeed, this ranks up there with Crossing Muddy Waters, his under-rated acoustic album from about five years ago.


As we’ve come to expect from Hiatt, this record is soulful, rootsy, full of tales to astonish and dripping with the singer’s wry humor and hard-earned wisdom.

And on this one, he’s got a great band to boot. Produced by Memphis music guru Jim Dickinson (who plays keyboards here credited as “East Memphis Slim“), Master features Dickinson’s sons Luther on guitar and Cody on drums (they’re the core of the North Mississippi All Stars) plus Muscle Shoals titan David Hood on bass. (Speaking of musical families, he’s the father of Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers.) Some tunes feature a funky horn section.

The title song deals with a guitar picker who lost at love and became a heroin addict.

The verses are in first person (“Eight ball pounding in my lungs …”) though Hiatt steps back to third person for the chorus.

“The Master of Disaster/Gets tangled in his Telecaster/He can't play it any faster/When he plays the blues/When he had the heart to ask her/And every note just shook the plaster/Now he's just a mean old bastard/When he plays the blues.”
There’s no great, disastrous Telecaster solo on this song, just a sweet greasy sax.

Sometimes Hiatt and band rock hard . The ominous “Love’s Not Where We Thought We Left It” almost screams for a Lindsey Buckingham guitar solo.

But they do a good job on the softer acoustic songs too, such as ‘Howlin’ Down the Cumberland” and the automobile ode “Thunderbird” (“From the old Volkswagon/Back to the Model T/A lot of men died so you could ride with me In my Thunderbird”)

“Wintertime Blues” is a cool near jug-band romp with some of the funniest lyrics on the album (“Three hours of daylight and all of them gray/The suicide prevention group has all run away“). Is it just me or does this melody consciously make reference to “In the Summer Time” by Mungo Jerry?

“Back on the Corner” has a similar feel. With Luther’s slide guitar and a subdued Dixieland horn section, this sounds like a long-lost tune by The Band. And the first bridge is hilarious:

“Used to take seven pills just to get up in the morning/From seven different doctors with seven different warnings/I’d call ‘em up to say that I’m coming apart/They’d say call us up later when the fireworks start”
There’s pure country in “Old School” (featuring “T-Bone” Tommy Burroughs on fiddle). And there’s raw soul. It’s not hard to imagine Al Green singing “Find You At Last.”

The emotional centerpiece of this album is the acoustic “Cold River,” a sad tale of a couple of drifters (he’s a pool shark, she’s a truck-stop hooker) who abandon their baby while making their way to Chicago.

Hiatt tells the story matter-of-factly, noting the couple’s justification. (“Tell me which one of us rounders/ would you trust this baby to?”) Though the narrator sings that, “some Texas woman found him,” a listener isn’t sure whether this is true or just wishful thinking. You don’t know what happened to the infant, though the couple makes it to their destination: “That night they slept like babies/in Chicago town.”

In some ways Hiatt reminds me of the masked luchadores pictured on the front and back covers and on the lyrics booklet. When he crawls back in the ring you know it’s going to be a thrill. It may be all show biz, but the bruises are real.

Also noted

*Here Come the Choppers
by Loudon Wainwright III. This album has the most impressive band Wainwright ever assembled for a record -- including Bill Frisel on guitar, Greg Leisz on a variety of strings, Jim Keltner on drums.

It sounds great. But I just wish the songs were as strong as the musicians here -- and as strong as Wainwright is capable of writing.

To be sure, there are some potential Wainwright classics here.

“Hank and Fred” is about the singer learning of the death of Mr. Rogers on the day he visits Hank Williams’ grave in Montgomery, Ala. I still don’t quite get the cosmic connection between the great country singer and the mild-mannered kid-show host, but when Wainwright sings that he cried, it’s real and it somehow makes sense.

There’s “No Sure Way,“ a sad song about riding the subway under the World Trade Center shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. “
The walls were tiled, I hadn’t noticed/ They seemed so antiseptic and clean/But we knew what we were under/The lights were on/that seemed obscene.”
Like any decent Loudon album, there are some good family album tunes. Here there are songs about his grandparents, “Nanny,” an up tempo tune about his beloved outspoken, gin-and-tonic-sipping granny who took him in after he got busted for drugs as a youth. “Half Fist” deals with his grandfather, Loudon Sr., who died before he was born.

And there’s “When You Leave,“ a heartbreaking, guilt-ridden song about divorce and leaving his kids.
“Who would have thought or could believe/Things go so badly when you leave/The skin you saved is growing slack/And those you left don’t want you back.”
But too many songs here are forgettable or downright dumb -- such as the near-7-minute title tune, which about enemy helicopters destroying Los Angeles.

So keep your sidemen’s phone numbers Loudon. And call them back when you’ve written a worthy set of songs.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: TOUGH QUESTIONS

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 28, 2005

Back in late May when the appointment of Tommy Rodella as a magistrate judge in Rio Arriba already had kicked up a controversy, Gov. Bill Richardson said the public stink over the appointment had prompted him to start “tightening up the vetting process” for potential judges.


“We’re checking references, spending more time in interviews with applicants and asking tougher questions,” Richardson told me following a May 28 news conference.

Last Friday, just before he stalked out of another news conference when the questions about Rodella — who resigned last week after a meeting where Richardson expressed his unhappiness over the handling of a drunken-driving case — Richardson repeated his claim that he now spends more time with magistrate applicants and asks tougher questions of them.

However, at least three of the 21 applicants who were passed over last month for the new Santa Fe magistrate position said this week their interviews with Richardson were short and the questions weren’t that tough.

The applicant who go the job was Sandy Miera for the Santa Fe magistrate position. Miera worked as executive assistant for District Judge Daniel Sanchez. She’s also the daughter of Santa Fe County Democratic Chairwoman Minnie Gallegos.

One of the applicants, Andrew O’Connor said Richardson asked him only one question: “Is there anything in your past that would hurt me politically if I appoint you?” Richardson, O’Connor said, explained that what he meant by that was whether he’d ever been arrested or had any DWIs.

He said he tried to tell Richardson about his work as a public defender and the fact he had graduated from Vanderbilt University, O’Connor said, “but he cut me off.”

Another applicant was P.J. Liebson, a teacher and former librarian who holds a certificate in paralegal studies from the University of New Mexico. (She’s also a published author of murder mysteries under the pen name of P.J. Grady.)

Liebson, who said her interview lasted about five minutes, said Richardson asked her how she would handle DWI and domestic violence cases. But the next question was even deeper.“He asked me about electability,” she said. “I told him I was a registered independent. I think I might have lost the job right there.”

Another applicant said her interview with Richardson lasted only five or 10 minutes and that the governor seemed mainly interested in her view on DWI enforcement.

Tony’s view: A former chief justice of the state Supreme Court, Tony Scarborough sees some irony in the recent Rodella flap.

Scarborough, now in private practice in Espanola, recalled the controversy when Richardson in 2003 demanded the resignations of all six members of the 11-member commission who were appointed by his predecessor.

Those commissioners filed a legal challenge, asking the state Supreme Court to block Richardson, arguing the governor has no power to remove members whose terms had not expired. However, by a 3-2 decision, the high court ruled the governor could oust those members.

Opponents accused Richardson of trying to consolidate power and enlarge the influence of the governor’s office.

But in demanding Rodella’s resignation last week, Richardson usurped the power of the very Judicial Standards Commission he’d stacked, Scarborough said.

“It’s like he handpicked the jury, then took the case away from the jury and decided himself,” the former justice said.“Too bad the commission and our Supreme Court lack the guts to stand up to the governor and remind him of the separation of powers doctrine,” Scarborough said.

Richardson, who defended his appointment of Rodella for months, changed his tune after news broke of Rodella driving from the Espanola area to the county jail in Tierra Amarilla on July 4 to deliver release papers for an acquaintance who’d been arrested on DWI charges.

Rodella told me last week that Richardson didn’t ask him to quit. The governor insists that he did — though his spokesmen have acknowledged a governor doesn’t have the constitutional authority to force a judge to resign.

Scarborough — who stepped down from the high court in 1990 for an unsuccessful race for governor — expressed sympathy for Rodella.“I’m not close to Tommy, but I felt sorry for him,” Scarborough said. “What he did wasn’t all that bad. I think he’s just motivated to help people.”

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

  Sunday, March 24, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell E...