Well we just got back from Bonnaroo and my annual Sickest Psychedelic Jam award will be shared by two bands, this year. I thought right away there was a Led Zeppelin theme when Rodrigo Y Gabriella finished their set with "Stairway to Heaven" on Thursday night but I had no idea what I'd be in for until the next night.
Super Jam, for the second year in a row gets top honors. Consisting of John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin on bass, Ques Love of The Roots on drums and Ben Harper on guitar, this year's band exploded with a 3 hour, mind melting trip that featured many great Zeppelin songs, including "Dazed and Confused" and was one of the sickest most ridiculous shows I've ever seen! What a great show, and thank God because I sacrificed seeing String Cheese Incident ('cause they played at the exact same time), which is also an unavoidable aspect of being at Bonnaroo.

Sharing the honor this year was the show put on by The Flaming Lips. Now that these guys have a full time drummer, they have really taken off musically. Coming out early for their Saturday night show (about 11 pm), they performed a "sound check" which was a full blown sensory assault of the cover "War Pigs". We were ecstatic and there was almost an hour to go before the show actually "started". Not only musically great, these guys put on an act that was second to none. There were space ships, balloons, confetti and laser pointers (thousands were tossed out before the show by Flash the superhero) all adding to their music in an interactive way that even I don't find superficial or intrusive. Wayne Coyne is probably the most personable rock star in history. It was a psychedelic hoot!

Honorable mentions go to Ziggy Marley's show at the main stage. I also saw Tea Leaf Green*, Hot Tuna *, Richard Thompson *, Rodrigo Y Gabriella*, Gov' Mule*$, North Mississippi All Stars*, The Police*, Tool*, Widespread*@, White Stripes, Rat Dog and Ben Harper.

As for the "Dead" scene, well this just wasn't our year (in that regard) but know that we are always represented.

* = Incomplete show (for me, for one reason or other);
@ = Best audience induced light show (glow stick fights, glowing beach balls, etc.)
$ = Best Grateful Dead moment - Bob joins in for "Sugaree".

"This aggression will not stand, man....."

WHAT?

You want me to do WHAT?
Support this God damn war?
Watch brothers and sisters of the world
aiming guns at each other
instead of pointing out the insanity
the sheer insanity of it all.

And our troops are dodging roadside bombs
Above vast oil reserves
Excuse me, but if I may be so bold to ask?
So who really stands to benefit
benefit from it all?

And if I'm so addicted to oil
then I need a psychiatrist for the cure
Don't call a politician
not the Commander in Chief
not a General
not a General Motors
not a hybrid Toyota
not a man wearing a white hat
riding into Washington
on his white horse in 2008
(only 500 plus days away!)

You want me to do WHAT?
Go shopping?
take out my credit card at the mall again?
My patriotic duty to keep the economy
our economy humming along
So CEOs can get their stock options and mulitillion dollar salaries
and send our jobs overseas
Look, I'm up to my eyeballs in all this plastic crap
I've got no place . . .
I've got no place to put it any more

You want me to do WHAT?
Fill out these forms?
More forms . . .
That I can't understand at all
And I need a lawyer just to own my own home
Hey, aren't these the same forms
the same forms I've filled out before?

You want me to do WHAT?
You want me to pay and pay and pay
pay with my wallet
pay with mind
pay with my heart

You want me to do WHAT?
Believe?
Believe in your God?
Believe in your brand of Freedom

And WHAT did you say?
That you've got Liberty on sale
today?

joe zanghi

I thought I’d write about stem cells, a subject which I admittedly know little to nothing about. Yesterday, Mr. Shrub vetoed stem cell bill for the second time--no new federal dollars for stem cell research. It seems that when polled the majority of American people are in favor embryonic stem cell research. Then, I wondered how much our King George actually knows embryonic stem cells--or is he just shooting from his hip again? I mean the guy isn’t the Pope, a scientist, hardly a moral leader, and certainly not the American equivalent of Yoda.

And I know that federal funding for embryonic stem cell research is not that a flashy of a topic--unlike the Sopranos. These little buggers (stem cells) get pretty much swept under the carpet until someone like Michael J. Fox starts itching and twitching on TV. Then, Rush Limpballs tells Mr. Fox that with all his new moves, he should get a spot on Dancing with the Stars instead of whining about his silly-looking condition. Rush, what a man of compassion! And what chronic diarrhea of the mouth. There are millions of others wrldwide like MJ with various illnesses and injuries which embryonic stem cells offer a candle of hope as a possible therapy or even for a cure. Why shouldn’t we explore the possibilities? After all we are trying to find life on Mars, aren’t we?

The issue is so controversial because some people believe the destruction of any embryo is wrong. And the debate goes on about abortion and other forms of birth control like the day after pill. Should we leave this issue as well as other moral issues including goings on in the bedroom up to government? On the issue of embryonic stem cells, we let King George decide—decide about stem cells, and decide about a war. After all he is the self-proclaimed “Decider."

I suppose this is what happens when people are basically uninformed and powerless--but that's a topic for another day.

Stem cells are the body's master cells, the source of all cells and tissue, like brain, blood, heart, bones, muscles and skin. And these embryonic stem cells come from days-old embryos and can produce any type of cell in the body.

I wondered where these stem cells come from? I mean what kind of a dirty trailer-trash zygote would abandon her precious stem cells? I found out that scientists generally harvest embryonic stem cells from embryos left over after in vitro fertilization attempts at fertility clinics. They can also be produced using cloning technology.

So embryonic stem cell research isn’t like a bunch of mad scientists who are in the practice of fetus snatching, hacking the thing up, putting it in a juicer, then finding a dirty needle and injecting the stem cells in somebody’s arm. Phew…. Had me worried for a minute.

Is it better to help those living and suffering, OR to protect days-old embryos that are destined to be destroyed anyway?--never intended to be placed in a woman's womb. There is a choice here. What is the better choice? “Free will” as it says some where in the Bible.

Also, it seems that God just keeps on taking his hits. Vitro fertilization and cloning? Now, embryonic stem cells. First, we discovered the earth was round and now this? What next? Someday, will there be embryonic stem cells farms?

Indeed, it is a New World, but hardly a BRAVE new world—not brave enough to weigh the issues without emotion and religious dogma before deciding on what have a greater benefit to the 6.2 billion people on this planet, and then coming up with policies which best help us live together.

joe zanghi

You all owe it to yourselves to watch Keith Olbermann's Special Comment for the week:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19588942/

I was a bit inspired and realized that one word says it all right now. So I am putting it on my car, and you should too (no profits here, just cafepress base price).

http://www.cafepress.com/auds

I think that every politician who wants to support embryonic stem cell research, should get together with his or her own spouse, and then go down to the scientific research center. They should then jump up on the operating table and then have these "doctors" extract as many eggs as they can from the female's ovaries, then have the male discharge some of his sperm (I'll skip the visual). Then the two can flip a few hundred thousand from their campaign fund to the science center, and watch as their own kids are stuck with needles, and destroyed in the name of progress. Hey, that's what I call "taking one for the team."

It seems that these politicians are bold, brave, and outspoken with everyone else's children, but when it comes to their own, they never seem to be up to it. What gives with these slime balls?

Greg SC