Hammer Mill Days

Hey, it's a nice day. Think I'll spend it in the courtyard. Or maybe on the road to Old Forge. Or not. Any suggestions? Kind of quiet around the Hammer Mill these days. Maybe it's just the dog days of summer howling a little louder than usual. Everyone seems to be taking a pass on everything, regardless of how little effort may be involved. Even Marvin (my personal robot assistant) couldn't be bothered to plug himself in to his wall recharger, complaining that it took too much energy. How does that make sense? Maybe in robot-ville, but no place else. I've done some minimal work on recordings this week, pulling together one mix, tweaking another, enhancing this, pouring chocolate sauce on that. Exhausting effort, as you might imagine. Tonight brother Matt and I will work on this again, with brother Marvin and brother mansized tuber standing by to assist. As I mentioned before, we're working on six new numbers that will appear in the next episode of Ned Trek, ...

This is a week for the books. Two major conflicts going to hell in a handbasket at the same time; god help us. One at a time ... Palestine. The IDF ground war has begun. At least "war" is what our media in the U.S. call this, but it's a very misleading term. This is an attack by one of the most powerful military machines in the world against an impoverished, stateless, poorly armed populace. Our television, radio, and newsprint journalists typically describe it as a conflict between Israel and Hamas, but the attack is on the Palestinian people, and it is they who suffer, with over 200 dead as of this writing. Four boys blown to bits on a beach, and Netanyahu is just getting started. The act of telling civilians in northern Gaza to flee their homes in itself is a flagrant violation of the U.N. charter. What does our constitutional lawyer, Nobel laureate president have to say? The same three statements he always makes in these circumstances: (1) Israel has the right to...

Is that the press again? The daily press - what did you think I meant? Stupid personal robot assistant! Okay, well, as some of you may have noticed, we posted an installment of THIS IS BIG GREEN yesterday, the July program. And if you did, in fact, notice, you would know that it's what used to be called a "summer replacement" show, or perhaps more accurately, a summer re-run. It's like when they ran The Prisoner as a summer replacement for the Andy Williams show back in 1968, while Andy was off to the Bahamas drinking margaritas or something of that sort. Just like that ... except that The Prisoner was "good" What are we doing instead of finishing our July show? Well, I wish I could say we were doing as Andy Williams does, but it's not the case. I could give you a raft of explanations as to why we couldn't finish our June show in time even for July, but then you would just laugh at me. So ... here goes: Wolves! Wolves used to wipe out whole v...

The Israeli war machine is cranking at nearly full bore now, with something approaching 100 Palestinians killed in several days of air strikes, a ground invasion and re-occupation of Gaza threatened, and I'm sure quite a bit else that doesn't rise to the level of mainstream reportage here in the United States. This is being characterized as a "war", albeit an "asymmetric" one, but I don't know how you call something a war when only one side has an actual military ... that is, the fourth or fifth most powerful military in the world. The other side has very primitive rockets that they obviously can't hit the broad side of a barn with. I'll be clear, for what it's worth: firing rockets into southern and central Israel is not only wrong, it's strategically idiotic. But this nearly uncontrolled act of violence is a response to the ongoing assault against Palestinians, from the massive crackdown in the West Bank on the pretext of the 3 Israel...

Could have sworn I left it around here someplace. Have you seen it, Marvin? Oh, right. You've deactivated yourself for the holidays. Sounds nice ... enjoy your break. How 'bout you, mansized tuber? Oh, yeah. He planted himself in the courtyard, out of earshot. Smart move. Wish I'd thought of that. What am I searching for? The lost month of June, that's what. It was here a minute ago, seems like, and now, POOF! Gone-zo. And with it, apparently, the June episode of our podcast, THIS IS BIG GREEN . Okay, well ... it's not quite as mysterious as that. Our promised June episode is still in production, and not quite finished. Part of the reason is that we are lazy slags, but aside from that, frankly, it's been a very complicated episode. A full-on, hour long episode of Ned Trek incorporating no less than six original Big Green songs. I am only now finishing out the songs, adding some incidental parts, mixing, etc. Working like a dog over here. (Well, a lazy kind of ...

Another year, another raft of execrable decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). As each was handed down, one phrase echoed through my mind ... "Thank you, George W. Bush." Sure, I know ... I'm still a victim of Bush Derangement Syndrome, as diagnosed by Dr. Krauthammer not so many years ago, right? Well, I see it more as a case of SCOTUS-itis, brought on by the re-election of a knee-jerk reactionary in 2004 who has locked in an equally reactionary majority on the Supreme Court for the foreseeable future. Lest you think I'm unfairly blaming Bush II, just consider - most Supreme Court vacancies occur according to plan. To the greatest extent possible, a justice now plans his/her (usually his) exit based on the likelihood that his/her successor will be appointed by a president who shares the Justice's general political orientation. (Hence Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's reported election night 2000 angst over the apparent election of ...

Process that track. Delete that wave. Get a little drunk and then dig your grave. I don't know, what is the work song equivalent of my current occupation? Most professions have been reduced to someone sitting in front of a computer terminal, tapping away and grimacing. Here at Big Green, we are no exception. As I am now demonstrating, by sitting in front of a computer and typing. And grimacing. Sure, I know, we should perform. I think that's a marvelous idea. Right now, our performances are our podcast, THIS IS BIG GREEN , which appears nearly every month right here on this channel (check local listings). We could haul our sorry, superannuated asses down to the local gin mill and slog through some of our hundreds (yes, literally hundreds) of songs, most of which have never been heard outside a small circle of friends, and I wouldn't rule that out. Maybe we'll do some Stage-It performances, or something like that. Who the hell knows? The main thing is (and this is im...