"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" (Billy Taylor, 1921-2010)

This is the Trouble You Get When You Give Young Children Guitar Lessons

Derek Trucks!

Gays Must Be Arrested to Keep our Kids Safe

Have a Merry and Diabolical Xmas!

Joulupukki, the Yule Goat

The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English

 Perhaps.

Ailurophile  -   A cat-lover.
Assemblage -   A gathering.
Becoming   -  Attractive.
Beleaguer   -  To exhaust with attacks.
Brood   -  To think alone.
Bucolic   -  In a lovely rural setting.
Bungalow  -    A small, cozy cottage.
Chatoyant   -  Like a cat's eye.
Comely   -  Attractive.
Conflate   -  To blend together.
Cynosure   -  A focal point of admiration.
Dalliance   - A brief love affair.
Demesne  -   Dominion, territory.
Demure   -  Shy and reserved.
Denouement  -   The resolution of a mystery.
Desuetude  -   Disuse.
Desultory  -  Slow, sluggish.
Diaphanous  -   Filmy.
Dissemble   -  Deceive.
Dulcet   -  Sweet, sugary.
Ebullience  -   Bubbling enthusiasm.
Effervescent  -   Bubbly.
Efflorescence  -   Flowering, blooming.
Elision   -  Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.
Elixir   -  A good potion.
Eloquence -    Beauty and persuasion in speech.
Embrocation  -   Rubbing on a lotion.
Emollient   -  A softener.
Ephemeral   -   Short-lived.
Epiphany   -  A sudden revelation.
Erstwhile   -  At one time, for a time.
Ethereal  -   Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
Evanescent  -   Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
Evocative   -  Suggestive.
Fetching  -   Pretty.
Felicity   -  Pleasantness.
Forbearance  -   Withholding response to provocation.
Fugacious   -  Fleeting.
Furtive   -  Shifty, sneaky.
Gambol   -  To skip or leap about joyfully.
Glamour   -  Beauty.
Gossamer  -   The finest piece of thread, a spider's silk
Halcyon  -   Happy, sunny, care-free.
Harbinger  -   Messenger with news of the future.
Imbrication  -   Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.
Imbroglio   -  An altercation or complicated situation.
Imbue   -  To infuse, instill.
Incipient  -   Beginning, in an early stage.
Ineffable   -  Unutterable, inexpressible.
Ingénue   -  A naïve young woman.
Inglenook  -   A cozy nook by the hearth.
Insouciance  -   Blithe nonchalance.
Inure   -  To become jaded.
Labyrinthine  -   Twisting and turning.
Lagniappe   -  A special kind of gift.
Lagoon   -  A small gulf or inlet.
Languor   -  Listlessness, inactivity.
Lassitude   -  Weariness, listlessness.
Leisure   -  Free time.
Lilt   -  To move musically or lively.
Lissome   -  Slender and graceful.
Lithe   -  Slender and flexible.
Love  -   Deep affection.
Mellifluous  -   Sweet sounding.
Moiety   -  One of two equal parts.
Mondegreen  -   A slip of the ear.
Murmurous   -  Murmuring.
Nemesis   -  An unconquerable archenemy.
Offing   -   The sea between the horizon and the offshore.
Onomatopoeia  -   A word that sounds like its meaning.
Opulent   -  Lush, luxuriant.
Palimpsest  -   A manuscript written over earlier ones.
Panacea   -  A solution for all problems
Panoply  -   A complete set.
Pastiche   -   An art work combining materials from various sources.
Penumbra  -   A half-shadow.
Petrichor   -  The smell of earth after rain.
Plethora   -  A large quantity.
Propinquity  -   An inclination.
Pyrrhic   -  Successful with heavy losses.
Quintessential  -   Most essential.
Ratatouille  -   A spicy French stew.
Ravel  -   To knit or unknit.
Redolent  -   Fragrant.
Riparian   -  By the bank of a stream.
Ripple  -   A very small wave.
Scintilla  -   A spark or very small thing.
Sempiternal  -   Eternal.
Seraglio  -   Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.
Serendipity  -   Finding something nice while looking for something else.
Summery   -  Light, delicate or warm and sunny.
Sumptuous  -   Lush, luxurious.
Surreptitious  -   Secretive, sneaky.
Susquehanna   -  A river in Pennsylvania.
Susurrous   -  Whispering, hissing.
Talisman   -  A good luck charm.
Tintinnabulation  -   Tinkling.
Umbrella   -  Protection from sun or rain.
Untoward   -  Unseemly, inappropriate.
Vestigial  -   In trace amounts.
Wafture   -  Waving.
Wherewithal  -   The means.
Woebegone   -  Sorrowful, downcast.

But where are - conflate, desuetude, de rigueur, efflorescence, emollient, imbroglio, insouciance, lagniappe, languor,  palimpsest, propinquity, scintilla, seraglio, kerfuffle, portentous, tendentious, rodomontade, mufti, hauteur, mellifluous, armamentarium, efficacious, cruciverbalism, sesquipedalian, stark, bright, fetch, catch, beck, burn, brook, tor, brisk, cur, coombe, cat, kind, break, crack, speak, adust, brand, good, way, far, deft, rapscallion, cloven, circuitous, piratical, melancholy, diaphanous, euphonious, reverie, dulcet, inauguration, ineffable, nefarious, obsequious, pimple, pernicious, tendentious, interlocutor, omphaloskepsis, festoon, behooves, smithereens, aegis, desultory, slow, sluggish, homunculus, mercurial, anemone, aquifer, bacilli, balm, bazaar, caravan, conjurer, dancehall, deft, eucalyptus, faraway, froth, glazier, gravelly, gypsum, harbor, hooch, impostor, inkwell, intrigue, jowl, kiosk, languid, lemony, mahogany, mariner, mineral, mystic, nebula, oyster, pamphleteer, parabola, perfunctorily, preposterous, quahog, quixotic, ramshackle, regret, saffron, satellite, scallop, schooner, scurrilous, serene, snout, souk, sultry, swagger, swizzlestick, taffy, tawdry, thalassic, tisane, tonic, trinket, tropic, tryst, ubiquity, vagabond, vainglorious, vaudeville, wanton, whelk, zinc, calamitous, oblivion, revel, tambourine, vexatious, etc.

Tau Scorpii

 

Read here.

Shopping & Desire

Captain Beefheart's Ten Commandments For Guitarists

1. LISTEN TO THE BIRDS That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere.

2. YOUR GUITAR IS NOT REALLY A GUITAR Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one.

3. PRACTICE IN FRONT OF A BUSH Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn't shake, eat another piece of bread.

4. WALK WITH THE DEVIL Old delta blues players referred to amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts demons and devils. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.

5. IF YOU'RE GUILTY OF THINKING, YOU'RE OUT If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.

6. NEVER POINT YOUR GUITAR AT ANYONE Your instrument has more power than lightning. Just hit a big chord, then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.

7. ALWAYS CARRY YOUR CHURCH KEY You must carry your key and use it when called upon. That's your part of the bargain. Like One String Sam. He was a Detroit street musician in the fifties who played a homemade instrument. His song "I Need A Hundred Dollars" is warm pie. Another church key holder is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty making you want to look up her dress to see how he's doing it.

8. DON'T WIPE THE SWEAT OFF YOUR INSTRUMENT You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.

9. KEEP YOUR GUITAR IN A DARK PLACE When you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure to put a saucer of water in with it.

10. YOU GOTTA HAVE A HOOD FOR YOUR ENGINE Wear a hat when you play and keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house the hot air can't escape. Even a lima bean has to have a wet paper towel around it to make it grow.