E. Michael Harrington

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I MET THE NICEST LITTLE OLD HISPANIC GUY TODAY on the V train heading uptown from East Houston. He saw me, started smiling and kept speaking Spanish to me. Of course, I spoke back in Spanish. I was surprised that I could exchange with him well enough but he was old and speaking slowly and we both liked each other. I helped him off the subway at Broadway. He had a cane and was a little slow. I enjoyed him a lot. He's one of those people who you can return to, think back to the nice exchanges and know that there is a very nice and kind soul in NY with whom you got to bond. Those to me are the best moments in life - meeting people who are just of a nature that improves you by their very presence. He did not have a Blackberry, didn't mention spread sheets or taxonomy, was not evaluating me by a series of numbers, and didn't look down on me for not wearing the right clothes - he was just a nice person who spread good will to me and the rest of the train.

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AS USUAL, I'VE BEEN LEADING TOO FUN AND DIVERSE A LIFE, here in Nova Iorque and in the other places where I've spoken or landed and fooled around, most recently, with my 45 new friends and classmates of Leadership Music 2007 in Nashville and Sewanee, Tennessee.
The Leadership Music thing is a profound undertaking for all of us. I've never been a part of something that well done, well organized, profound and inspiring. I was quite surprised by all of this and am extremely excited at returning to our November 13-hour get-together.

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ON MY WAY BACK TO NASHVILLE and LM last week, I saw the Boston Red Sox' Manny Ramirez at LaGuardia. He was with a friend or two and was in Gate D. His flight was probably an hour late leaving as well. Every plane I fly leaves an hour late either because of bad weather or prissy tennis players who are perturbed by the sound of an airplane overhead (I'm referring to the U. S. Open which is near LaGuardia). What a bunch of wimpy bastards.....

That is a strange series of celebrities in 24 hours - Hillary Clinton followed by Manny Ramirez. Both smile a lot and seem very cool.

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VERY UNLIKELY conversational exchange

I WAS WALKING IN MIDTOWN with a close female friend, someone I've spent a lot of time with, when I, VERY STRANGELY, pointed to a window we were passing. I think it was a shoe store. I simply pointed and said:

"SHOES"

That's very odd that I would use that word and especially around a woman as many women (all of the ones I know) do not need encouragement when it comes to SHOES.

Here's where it gets stranger as she responded:

"I HAVE ENOUGH SHOES."

Yes, this was a lovely well dressed intelligent female living and working in Manhattan and she said that she has enough shoes. Of course, I asked if we could rewind the tape or phrase or wondered if someone had digitally edited her sentence from a secret FBI van parked across 57th. But no - the rewind of the tape revealed that she had said what she said and upon further inspection no FBI van was found. It was just unique.

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MUSIC COPYRIGHT - more of that reference stuff

THE new CHASE MANHATTAN BANK commercial features a write around, or "reference," to the sound and stlye of 1965-66 Rolling Stones. That is such an odd write around/reference. But, I also heard a U2 soundalike today. It was done very well, so well that U2 will not be able to sue as this was too damn clever. I really love the world of advertising and use of music and licensing/avoiding licensing issues. I nerd out to this stuff.

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Tomorrow I travel to Boston. If one has to leave this excellent city, going to Boston is as good. It's not like I'm going to the hell hole known as Las Vegas with all of its depressed and depraved gamblers and smokers.

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HAIKU FOR THE PALM
BEACH PAGE-CHASING FIFTY-TWO
YEAR OLD CONGRESSMAN

This Mark Foley thing
will be good for keeping dumb
actions flourishing

It's better that we
concentrate on stuff that has
no meaing to life

Mark the Page Turner
And the jokes and the eyes keep
rolling and rolling

Who can hate the sin
more? These days people just hate
the sinner instead

The self righeousness
is worse than his flirting with
seventeen year olds

I think God's watching
I'm reminded of those who
live in glass houses

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I WAS WALKING UP FIFTH AVENUE AS FAST AS I COULD yesterday afternoon. I needed to go to the Apple Cube, the great Apple store but one that should be avoided on most afternoons as the crowds are quite large.

Around 55th Street, on the east side of 5th Avenue, I noticed a bit of a crowd in front of me. I expected that it was one of the usual distractions - most likely, a magician. It was not a homeless person because the small crowd was not moving. I could not see the magician but I saw a small break in the circle and decided I would plow through as the sidewalk was almost completely blocked.

As soon as I broke through and was inside the circle, I noticed some very large guys in suits, the Secret Service types who don't smile but loo good and oak-like. I didn't see a magician, instead I saw an attractive well dressed middle-aged woman with brownish blode hair who was posing with a woman and children while exclaiming, "YOUR FAMILY IS LOVELY."

Then I noticed her, paused my BUZZ OUT OUD podcast, recognized her, smiled and said, 'YOU'RE DOING A GREAT JOB. Keep giving George Bush hell!"

This was the junior senator from New York state, Hillary Clinton.

I mostly like her voting record, except for Iraq, and respect someone who has accomplished as much and worked as hard as she. And, I really hate to write something like this, and I'll probably sound like a gossip columnist, except that it is true - she is extremely charismatic and charming.

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The Apple Cube was too busy. I left after a short time to walk over to Columbus Circle and then to Tower. Of course, to walk West from the Apple Cube one has to pass Horse S*it Row (the SE corner of Central Park where tourists find the romance of breathing in horse s*it in horse-pulled carriages, and there are dozens to choose from).

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After leeaving Borders at Columbus Circle I noticed that something was going on probably near the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park (72d and 5th) as there were six helicopters hovering over that area. I was going to go the Boathouse as it is one of my favorite places, but the rain was increasing.

When I got back to my place, there were phone messages for me with friends wondering how I was, and the television coverage was all about the plane crash into the high rise at 72nd & York. I watched and never felt that it was terrorist. (Just like the explosion on the upper West side, terrorism is so unlikely to occur in a residential area. My neighborhood is much more likely a target with its big banks and financial places.)

I was very shocked and saddened to learn that it was the NY Yankees' Corey Lidle's plane. I had listened to him two days ago when phoned MIke & The Mad Dog, one of our local sports talk shows, to defend his remarks that the Detroit Tigers were more ready to play than were the Ynakees. I thought the two hosts, M & the MD, had really savaged him unnecessarily. I was amazed at how calm and kind Lidle seemed in the midst of those guys playing "Gotcha" bad sic-dog lawyers.

I had to tune in M & the MD yesterday to see how their reaction was. It seemed that they regretted their over-the-top hostility towards this nice guy. I felt bad for M & the MD because it must be a awful feeling to have acted in such a nasty function to someone and then have them die less than 48 hours later.

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There have been crazy reactions to this accident including calls to ban commercial and non-commercial aircraft over NY. Of course planes should be able to fly over Manhattan and over the Hudson and East Rivers. I saw a 747 fly up 8th Avenue yesterday. Provided that the planes are not flying low and not too fast, it is a safe thing to do, and a beautiful sight. Lidle has fown south (down) the Hudson River, circled around the Statue of the French Madam with the Torch, and then north (up) the East River. Something went very wrong for him to have hit that building in that way but the law does not need to be changed.

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I bought the THANK YOU FOR SMOKING DVD yesterday. I think I'll watch in on my flight today. I had been watching last week flying to Montreal except that Montreal is not far enough to watch the whole thing. Nashville is though. The big difference here is that Air Canada gives you your own screen complete with dozens of movies. Fortunately I have a new MacBook Pro with a 17 inch compensation screen.

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ON THIS DAY IN 2004, the United States Supreme Court efused to hear the RIAA v. Verizon appeal from DC Circuit. It's always fun to celebrate annivesaries where the RIAA is defeated. I think that it will occur to more of them that they need to build a better business and quit using lawyers to sue to keep things mired in the past.

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ANOTHER AIRPORT, ANOTHER STUPID MISTAKE ON MY PART, but this time it was a significant mistake in an international situation.

After my excellent afternoon in Old Montreal, I got back to my hotel, got my bags, said goobye to the lovely women at the desk (I got to know a couple of them well - more on that later - got a cab and got to YUL. I had packed everything very carefully into my one bag and my computer case, got into the wild cab driven by the wild driver and got to YUL in record time.

I went to the fast computerzed check in, aided by a very nice bilingual Air Canada woman, started entering the data, was asked for my passport and then came the problem. The passport was not where I always leave it, in its secret hiding place. Damn it, damn it, damn it. Not this again, I thought. (If you know me, you know that last year, I took a one way flight from greater New York to Nashville. The big problem with that was that I, a single male traveling alone on a late Friday afternoon, showed up at the WRONG AIRPORT (Newark instead of LaGuardia) with a one way ticket and the explanation that I, a supposedly mature, responsible male, showed up at the wrong airport "PLEASE believe my story and don't TSA me to death," I hoped. They did not quite buy it and they TSA'ed me a lot but not to death. I should re-read my blog about that.

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So, we talked and she let me through. I had to fill out a few extra forms and squint more than usual as I read the directions. It's not that I really had to squint, it's just that the lettering on the forms was in some cool new color that was more conducive to South Miami Beach bistro signs than a government document, and I think they dimmed the lights in the airport terminal just as I was about to read and write.

Well, I got through her and moved on to other trials. BUT FIRST, there was the duty free store and even though I was tempted by gigantic bottles of Grand Marnier and other blissful things (brandies, vodkas and other GRAINS from GOD, t-shirts, clothing and other stuff), I moved on.

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I came to the really hard part - the TOUGH but pretty UNIFORMED WOMAN with the long black hair. It was immediately apparent by her rigid demeanor that she was not about to let me through too easily. She asked where my passport was and my story was now that I had accidentally packed it.

She said, "TELL ME SOMETHING THAT ONLY AN AMERICAN CITIZEN WOULD KNOW."

I responded as quickly as possible with the first that entered my head:

GEORGE BUSH SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ELECTED PRESIDENT IN 2000 OR 2004. (I was sort of amazed that that is at the front of my forehead and not deep and buried like a trivial fact about Britney Spears - her first marriage lasted for 55 hours. I did not utter Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U. S. Constitution, I uttered a strong and true political statement.)

I thought that surely that would lead to a discussion of the U. S. courts - lose in Forida appeal to the 11th Circuit which is in Atlanta, lose at the 11th Circuit and appeal to God (the U. S. Supreme Court) who then kicks it back to Forida, lose there go back to Atlanta, lose again and go to God, he kicks you back down again, do not pass GO, do not collect $200, etc. - and she would be impressed by just how civic a U. S. citizen I am.

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She said THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH and then showed me a steely scary look. (As pretty was she was, she meant business. I had no chance of charming her. Even twenty years ago I would have had no chance of charming her, damn it.)

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Before I got more scared, I knew I needed something good to keep myself from being TOUCHED IN ALL OF THOSE PLACES by international touchers that were probably much meaner than New Jersey touchers who I knew from the Independence Air Friday afternoon flight last year. (I feared that every opening would be meticulously inspected if my next answer wasn't good.)

Well, my next answer, one that would definitively prove that I was an America citizen, was this:

TED KENNEDY and JOHN KERRY are the Senators from Massachusetts.

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Damn. That didn't work either. She was getting angrier looking with that one. (I thought that was good. If I needed to, I could probably name 80 of the 101 senators - one has to count the foul mouth Dick Cheney, doesn't one?)

So, she asked me if I was registered for Selective Service. I told her that I was drafted and initially classified as 1-H and then, after a "cough" physical, was upgraded to 1-A.

Fortunately, that worked. It was a good thing that I did not tell her that I also BURNED MY DRAFT CARD and applied to the Toronto Conservatory. I was not going to Vietnam, and nor was I going to do the chicken hawk (George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle, etc.) thing and get a deferment in the form of a National Guard appointment.

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I wrote this while sitting at the little place near Gate 56 having my final Molson on Molson soil and writing and laughing about this foolishness. I STILL DO NOT KNOW where my passport is. I hope it is packed somewhere.

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Tomorrow I fly south to attend the Leadership Music opening weekend/retreat and then return to NYC on Sunday.

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I've got to return to Montreal and McGill as soon as I can. In the meantime, there's always ALL FOLEY ALL THE TIME, the Foley coverup, a fun upcoming election, copyright shenanigans, New York Yankees fans savaging their losing team and cursing the world for not being granted a World Series, the Hollywood competition to adopt more children from African nations (especially if a movie about to released), and more.

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The saddest things in my life now are IRAQ - everything about Iraq is wrong and we are completely to blame - and the closing of Tower Records. I'm an old fashioned buying guy who still likes buying physical stuff and then BREAKING THE U. S. COPYRIGHT ACT twice, first while I copy my CD onto my hard drive and then again as I copy it into my iPod. These are the kinds of federal crimes I like to commit - copying my CD twice without any transformative value and without paying additional fees or seeking licenses to excuse my federal crimes. Some idiots (only certain attorneys with the gift for being literal) at the RIAA would have us believe that these two actions are illegal. I think on their deathbeds, some of them will only regret that they could not have sued more citizens.

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Posted by EMH at 07:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I LOVE MONTREAL AND AM SAD TO LEAVE even though I am returning to stunning Skyscraper National Park, U. S. A.

I've been running around this morning enjoying the campus of McGill University. I learned that James McGill was a native of Glasgow, Northern England (my guess is that Northenn England is now known as Scotland). McGill was a judge, fur trader, merchant, officer in the militia and beloved resident of Montreal.

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I returned to my room and immediately saw the now old and still crazed Ernest Angley preaching and converting on TV. It looked like he was somewhere in Africa, and it looked like his very intact black wig will last as long as a Hostess Twinkie or the cockroach. My close friends know that I once caused Ernest a bit of distress and near heart attack at one of his services. It is a very funny story but one that should not yet end up in print.

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I WAS TOLD THAT A NEW FRIEND OF MINE - I guess she is a friend, she surely is an intelligent attorney - REFERRED TO THE U. S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE as the U. S. COPY LEFT OFFICE. Oh my oh my. I need to compile all of the negative stuff I have written about the USCO (I call it the USCO third arm of the TROIKA, the people who happily sleep with the music and film industries).

I THINK THEY ARE ABOUT AS FAR TO THE COPY MAZIMIALIST SIDE (the Copy RIGHT) as is possible. If she thinks they are copy LEFT, then...... Fill in your own analogy.

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I HAD TO SKIP SOME VERY GOOD SESSIONS AT FMC yesterday afternoon as I had to get back to my room to watch the inevitable New York Yankees collapse. Getting to watch Goliath fall to a Davey is always great for the human spirit and when Goliath is the Evil Empire spend til you drop New York Yankees it is even sweeter. This reminded me of the 2002 Yankees collapse to the California Angels. Ive blogged about this earlier but when that even happened I was in a hotel bar in Charlotte NC drinking chardonnays and eating dead cows with Pittsburgh Steelers great, Mean Joe Green. For this collapse I was with a few friends in my hotel room in Montreal having just finished the last moments of the Future of Music Coalition 2006 Policy Summit. Life does not get better than seeing A Rod and those overpaid fools get their comeuppance. Yee Ha Yee Ha Yee Ha! I'll be dressed in Red Sox red, blue and green back in Manhattan for a long time to come. The Red Sox.... that fun little team from the small quaint New England seaside village where the populace is a quiet, humble and softspoken type. (OK, so I might be a bit off in my description.)

Just as many Republicans are turning on Foley and Hastert, so too will the New York Yankees start to turn on each other. And of course Steinbrenner will start to fume and fire. YEA!!!!!!

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I RECEIVED some very nice praise from about a dozen people yesterday about my interview on CBC Radio One. I did not hear it but will request a copy from the CBC.

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These are good times. Money does not always win. The Yankees keep learning this, and the Republicans with their Days of All Foley All The Time will soon find out.

Time for a shower, shave and more fun on the streets of Montreal.

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Posted by EMH at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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MONTREAL HAS BEEN WONDERFUL. The Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit has been its usual great event, except for some CRIA propaganda and babblings from excessive-DRM-enthusiasts. This morning, one of those sympathizers, a lawyer who would only dismiss any suggestions that the North Korean-style SONY ROOTKIT from last year was a problem, suggested that SONY ROOTKIT was only a minor inconvenience. He and another also claimed that DRM is pro-consumer. PRO-CONSUMER?!?!?! And the presence of U. S. troops in Iraq is making everyone very happy and safe. And catching Saddam Hussein helped end the violence of the insurgents. I could go on and on.

I found an artistic rendition of that attorney - here it is.

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I WAS INTERVIEWED BY THE CBC this afternoon. It was a hell of a lot of fun. I also have a great new CBC sweater and CBC baseball cap. Life is great!!!!

The interview will air tomorrow morning (Saturday, October 7, 2006, at 8:35 AM EDT) and can be heard at the following website (sorry for the shamless plug):

http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/

Click on "Listen Live" 88.5 CBC RADIO ONE MONTREAL.

The CEA sponsored party begins now. Time for more fun and Pop Montreal.

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Posted by EMH at 05:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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GAY OLD PEDOPHILES

The Mark Foley stuff, like most disasters involving unfettered egos and big power, has led to some good humor, or at least funny lines. I've heard that the GOP was an acronym for the Grand Old Party (maybe the Grand Ol' Party) but is now an acronym for GAY OLD PEDOPHILES. And this oncoming traveling comedy troupe is getting known as PED-A-FOLEY GATE. I heard hat phrase on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Mark Foley might become known as Peda Foley, or Peda File-Oley, or Peda-Filey. I won't throw many stones at him but at Denny Hastert and the Republican leadership whose love for power drove them to converup in order to hang on to their power. (Here is a photo of Denny Hastert with his pal-in-the-saddle from that classic Western movie, Brokeback Congressional Seat.)

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For one of the first times since I've known of Richard Viguerie, I am in agreement with him and respect him for his convictions and anger at the COVERUP. I might buy Richard Viguerie's new book, CONSERVATIVES BETRAYED. No, nevermind. But I will likely borrow it and read it as he is one of those few Republicans with a knowldege of and concern for Republican history and Republican principles. [Ah, the joy of getting intellectual property for free. Maybe I should try to go on a peer-to-peer network - force myself into THE TUBES of the INTER-NETS, and play and romp in the CYBER-MEADOW - and download the book. Angering those who will get angry at those two sentences is a joy to which I would look forward. More later on whether I choose legality or quasi-legality...) The Republicans were so much different before Reagan and now with Bush, the YALE UNIVERSITY Cheerleader, they have almost nothing in common with those "traditional" Republicans of the 1960's and earlier. They seem to love Washington and power and expanding both.

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FOLEY NEEDS TO BE HONEST

Stop it stop it stop it Mark. Take responsibility. You're gay (to me that's a good or irrelevant thing). Your problem is that you don't respect the law as it pertains to patience. One must wait for the lovely young children to grow up and become of legal age. Don't bother young people. Rememer that you are an old creepy guy, no matter how young and non-creepy you feel, and these children - the pages - are in a position of subjugation, you bastard. THINK about them, if you have to, but don't get creepy and act on them.

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AND WORST OF ALL......

Don't blame alcohol for your problems

AND

Don't blame being sexually blanked by a priest in your past for your problems.

Alcohol does not turn someone into a jerk unless one has the proclivity for being a JERK already. And by blaming alcohol which is made from stuff God planted on Earth (he had large bags of seed and dropped them from the clouds), you know, wheat, barley, hops, grapes, soured and fermented stuff, you're blaming God for your trouble. It's not God or the Devil or alcohol - it's just your out-of-control ego.

To paraphrase Otter in ANIMAL HOUSE, "You can do what you want to me, but I 'm not going to sit here and listen to you bad mouth God and the grains and mandate he gave us to make distilled spirits."

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I FLY TO MONTREAL THIS MORNING to meet French women and attend the Future of Music Coalition and Pop Montreal. While there, I'll also be interviewed by the CBC about copyright and current music industry matters.

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Posted by EMH at 05:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)