FGF -- Sly & the Family Stone

To aid you in your journey in the Wayback Machine, "I Want To Take You Higher":



Music education the easy way, click by click, meet Sly Stone and the band.

Let's See an Itemized Bill, Robert Spence

I'm not saying there's anything improper in attorney Robert Spence's billing the Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division board for $489,861 in legal fees associated with Lee's indictment last year on bribery charges. I don't have enough information to do that.

But as a criminal defense attorney myself, with so many friends in the same line of work, I am finding it hard to believe that a lawyer deserves that much for a case that didn't even go to trial.

As a customer of MLG&W, I want to see Spence's itemized billing for his services in the case; and I am calling on the Memphis City Council to demand the same and go over it with a fine-tooth comb.

If there are any improprieties, I want them reported to Tennessee's Board of Professional Responsibility for possible disciplinary action. There are two lawyers on the Council; and they should know what I'm talking about.

One Councilperson tells me "we can not cut the billing we can only approve or disapprove the billing. The net result might be a cut, but that has to come from the mlgw side." OK, even if that is so, without an examination in verified detail and the acceptance of the entire validity of this immense billing by the body charged with approving it, just disapprove it and see what happens.

I thought I was the lone voice in the wilderness on this issue; but, lo and behold, the Commercial Appeal's editorial board just weighed in on it.

Attorney Robert Spence's nearly half-million-dollar tab might be a place to start negotiations, but if the council fails to take a close look at the bill there's not even a faint hope for fiscal responsibility at City Hall.

The bill was approved this week by the MLGW board at a meeting at which no documentation supporting it was made public.
. . . .
Give the Spence-Lee team credit for chutzpah on this one, but as they say on TV: "Let's make a deal."

Go read the whole editorial and get just as skeptical as they are and I am.

Council members, we're going to be breathing down your necks on this one.

UPDATE: Another CA editorial against paying this entire bill without extreme scrutiny.

Welfare Mothers' Triple Play -- On Your Money

I don't know Terry Frank, but I thank her for her heads up on the new Census Bureau report:

[T]he national birth rate for women age 15 to 50 receiving public assistance in 2006 was about three times of those not receiving public assistance.

This is natural selection in reverse, isn't it? When are we going to demand a stop to this insane crap? Blow off a little steam to your Congressman and U.S. Senator, why don't you?

Here's the link to the report.

H/T: Kleinheider

Free Food, Now It's Free Cell Phones

Wow, quite a first for Tennessee:

Today, TracFone Wireless, Inc., America’s leading prepaid cell phone provider announced its launch of SafeLink Wireless® in Tennessee. SafeLink Wireless will serve as the company’s distribution of Lifeline - a U.S. government supported program for income eligible households that ensures telephone service is available and affordable for eligible low income households.

The SafeLink Wireless service will provide eligible low-income households a free cell phone, mobile access to emergency services and free 68 minutes of air time, monthly, for one year. The cell phone offers in-demand features: voicemail, text, call waiting, international calling to over 60 destinations and caller ID.

“Over 812,000 households in Tennessee qualify for the Lifeline services – offering these participants the opportunity to have the same access and privileges many individuals take for granted when it comes to using cell phones,” said Javier Rosado, Senior Vice President of Lifeline Services for TracFone.

Another welfare state goodie from your federal government (but financed by that bullshit universal service fee YOU pay every month; in other words, you're providing these people with free or subsidized cell phone service). From your friends at the FCC:

Telephone service is considered a necessity for daily modern life. Yet the cost of starting and maintaining such service may be too high for some consumers. Under Congressional mandate, the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) supports the Lifeline Assistance and Link-Up America programs.

What next? Free clothes? Free cars? Free beer? Free whiskey? Free crack?

Keep Improving the Juvenile "Justice" System

Here's an example of why I have problems with a separate juvenile "justice" system:

A 13-year-old girl who stabbed another girl to death earlier this year was committed to the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services until she turns 19.

The sentence handed down Wednesday by Juvenile Court Referee Herb Lane was the maximum Terrica Yarber could receive since her case was retained in Juvenile Court.

Now, I know Herb Lane, I've practiced before him, and he's a fine Referee. The problem in this particular case seems to be that transfer to Criminal Court to be tried as an adult was possible but not mandatory, under Tennessee Code Annotated 37-1-134.

Our current Juvenile Court Judge, Curtis Person, was the legislator most responsible for increasing the possibility of transfer of minor defendants committing serious crimes; but it is time for our current crop of legislators to continue his efforts in that direction, because of the career criminal conduct begun at an earlier age, sometimes as part of a gang-related effort to let juveniles take the risks because of the lower possibility and far less severity of punishment, and because of the deadlier behavior now displayed by ill-socialized minors in our community.

As starting suggestions, consider making transfer mandatory for "first degree murder, second degree murder, rape, aggravated rape, rape of a child, aggravated robbery, especially aggravated robbery, kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping or especially aggravated kidnapping or an attempt to commit any such offenses" as now allowed for minors under the age of sixteen, or simply bypassing the Juvenile Court in these instances. I'd also like to see the list of offenses enabling or mandating transfer as an adult expanded to include at least second offense car theft, burglary, and other crimes. As a defense attorney, I am privileged to see my clients' juvenile records; and many of these kids have juvenile records longer than your arm for these serious and damaging crimes. They're basically confirmed in a life of crime before they reach 16 or 18; and they return to the gang life to pick up even more serious cases as adults.

Changes in Tennessee law in this regard are sorely needed and long overdue. Contact your state legislators and tell them so.

Cut Trees Off the Utility Lines!

Here's just one recent example of how poor a job our utility companies do of clearing tree limbs that endanger our power, telephone, and cable TV and Internet lines:

Germantown City Admin. Patrick Lawton said a limb fell on the power line around 3:30 p.m. this afternoon. Besides knocking out the power, the downed line sent sparks flying and caused a small fire to the pole and the grassy area nearby. Germantown Fire Department put out the fire.

In addition, Lawton said, “It knocked out the traffic signal at Poplar Pike and Hacks.

Is it going to take another Hurricane Elvis for these companies to get together to keep these outages much rarer?

I've never seen so much buck-passing as when there is obvious overgrowth that adjoining homeowners have typically caused but will not remove. There may be a legal argument for forcing most property owners to have this clearance done, but enforcement inefficiencies and economies of scale do apply, so I propose that all three utilities kick in money for the more ongoing tree limb clearance program I remember from my youth, when the orange Asplundh trucks were always busy somewhere. For the "routine" outages, I suspect it's cheaper just to put the wires back up and maybe clear immediate linb problems; but I bet the public would accept a dollar a month surcharge on each bill to fund a far more aggressive effort to avoid outages and another disaster like Hurricane Elvis.

I applaud the news in the recent article, "No more trimming; TVA set to slash any trees in path of power lines"; lot owners need to quit the tree-hugger whining.

A massive blackout five years ago this month helped trigger the new restrictions. Tree limbs came into contact with transmission lines in Ohio. The limbs, coupled with human error and computer failures, caused 50 million people to be without power for days on the East Coast and Canada.

We know what that's like, don't we, Memphians? 'Nuff said.

Life Stage Happiness Differs by Sex

I found this article thought-provoking; and the results found make perfect sense. Read the whole thing, "Men End Up Happier Than Women," and see what you think.

Early in adult life, women are more likely than men to fulfill their family life and financial aspirations, leading to greater overall happiness.

Later in life, however, the tables turn and men report coming closer to reaching their goals for consumer goods and family life. Men are more satisfied with their financial situation and family life, and are happier than women in later life, the study shows.

Psychedelic Saturday -- Jefferson Airplane

Many statutes of limitations ago, circa 1968-69, I used to deal lids to this band cross-country from a very special shipment of Zihuatanejo Gold. I put the last few J's into Jorma's hand in the green room backstage at the Beacon Theater in Boston.

My blog is getting slow to load with all these musical riches, so I'm just going to post a two-fer video from the Smothers Brothers show on the Wayback Machine, "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love":

Stormy Monday -- Isaac Hayes

I only got to talk to Isaac Hayes once, at a NARAS tribute in Memphis. A musician friend of mine claimed to have taken the microphone Isaac recorded "Shaft" on from a local recording studio and asked me to find out if Ike wanted to buy it. I think Isaac tried to smoke me out by asking if the mic came from Stax. When I said "No, he said he took it from Universal," Isaac let out a slow, deep "Hmmmmm"; and I felt like I was talking to the Duke of New York. Jon Hornyak hustled an overdue Isaac off to the stage before the conversation could go any further.

Isaac died today at his home just outside Memphis next to a running treadmill in his bedroom. He'll be greatly missed.

Howlin' Wolf Wednesday

Willie Dixon certainly wrote some epic blues for Chester Burnett, the Howlin' Wolf, after he moved on up to Chicago; and many of those songs went on to be covered by the greatest rock stars the world has ever known. But when I walked into Sam Phillips' wake, someone (his sons Knox or Jerry, most likely) had this one playing, because their dad recorded it on him, "Moanin' At Midnight":



Hippie-era bands' covers of the Wolf's stuff are milestones. The Yardbirds tried to do "Smokestack Lightning" without doing it full justice. The following Wolf video is less powerful than his original recording for Chess Records; but since he's gone now, videos like this are the only way you're going to see him in action.



The Doors did a more convincing cover of Wolf's "Back Door Man," but then Jim Morrison was menacing in his own right. Here's Wolf's recorded version:



What a songbook! Cream did a cover of Wolf's "Spoonful," a song theme explored by Mississippi John Hurt and Charley Patton beforehand. Wolf's version is the one that got covered most notably:



Howlin' Wolf's songbook is an education in the blues. Check it all out if you want one.  If you made it this far, you might tolerate my usual anecdote about the musicians. Lee Baker, guitar player for Moloch, found out the Wolf was coming to town for a gig at the W.C. Handy Theater in the Orange Mound neighborhood of Memphis. He got us all tickets, front row tables. Wolf came out with his A-team band, Hubert Sumlin replicating the gorgeous licks on the records, while Wolf popped amyl nitrate ampules and blew harp into a mic attached to an extremely long cord. During the set, he jumped off the stage, got down on all fours, crawled under my table -- all the while playing harmonica -- and started biting my date on her legs! I maintain to this day that was the best live show I've ever seen.

Troubador Tuesday -- The Older Years

My oh-so-quotable friend Jim Dickinson once remarked about similar songs being recorded around the same time, "They're all just playing what's happening." As writers write about what's happening....

At some point back in the late 60's and early 70's, I realized the LSD was making me wise in some ways beyond my years. And while San Francisco and the nation were reveling in the youth culture, we here in Memphis were specializing in the Blues Revival -- we being particularly situated to do so -- and all the true legends who had not already passed away were very advanced in years. I found myself hanging out with bluesmen in their 70's and 80's, listening to them sing not just the songs of their youth but also songs of resignation. As my friend Furry Lewis sang, "Times that have been, will never be no more." I think I became comfortable with the idea of being old, thanks to those men, who made me realize what's important is acceptance of what is real and a spry attitude towards it all.

When Buddy Guy came down to North Mississippi a few years ago and covered Junior Kimbrough's gutsy, confessional "I Done Got Old," it was a graduate-level refresher course in life -- as it is if you're lucky enough to make it to an older age. I've met Buddy. He's a wonderful person. He gave me his phone numbers over 25 years ago so I could get him and Junior Wells some gigs in the Memphis area. I guess if Buddy can take getting old, I can too.



There can be great delights later in life. Furry used to have young people, cute girls too, come by his house nearly every day to cheer him on, bring him whiskey, and make him feel good about his life. Bukka White I thought whined too much sometimes, like by writing that "Fixin' To Die" song that Bob Dylan covered on his first record; but Bukka still knew how to have a ball in his golden years. I'll never forget sitting between Bukka and Furry at a country blues show in the Peabody Skyway, passing Bukka's gin bottle between the three of us, when the singer on stage sang the line, "I don't want no woman, has to use no Vaseline." I started laughing, and Bukka asked me, "What do you know about that?" My being twenty and a little bit. We hooted and hollered over that. I always remembered this song of his, "Gimme An Old Lady":



Bukka and a friend of mine (Bill Barth) in on a later, 1968 recording are both gone now. Thankfully, Jimmy Crosthwait is still around.

It seems when you get to your fifties, the loss of your friends starts accelerating. I never wanted to make the excuse of being "too old for that shit"; but denial of real changes that happen as you get older is silly. And when a friend or someone notable close to your age dies, it registers. At some point along the way, denial remains a defense mechanism only for the idiotic or the disgustingly vain. Keep yourself up, Lady Clairol; just don't walk around with a chip on your shoulder.

Sing us outa here, Furry. Show 'em what we old fuckers can do!