E. Michael Harrington

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HARRISBURG PA and the Millennium Music Conference were great - my friends, the new friends, the crazy musicians and venues.... Except that one can still smoke in Pennsylvania. Damn Neanderthals in the Pennsylvania legislature who will not legislate to stop the spread of carcinogens in the air.....

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I heard again a great quote from Winston Churchill. Today his quote seems more appropriate than on most days. Churchill said:

He described someone as...

"...a modest man who has much to be modest about."

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And speaking of someone who should be modest - I like two things George Bush has said and done recently.

1. I liked his dancing in Tanzania. I didn't like it so much as I liked the fact that he did it. He didn't seem to be disrespectful or smug or arrogant but relaxed and appreciative of the Africans around him.

2. The Boston Red Sox visited the White House today. I love all of Bush's witty remarks about the Boston Red Sox, and dissing Manny Ramirez for "being Manny" and not coming to the White House. Surely, someone else wrote Bush's pro-Boston Red Sox remarks as having the World Series winners over for lunch is a good, patriotic and expected thing to do (note to self - hire charter plane and prepare a sushi lunch), but he delivered them and I like being pro-Bush for one or two moments per decade.

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I WILL be speaking at the Singer Songwriter Cape May (SS Cape May) Conference next month. I don't know that part of New jersey so I am looking forward to staying on the ocean in southern NJ. I was sent the link to the site today and lo and behold my picture is one of those that comes up at the site. I should show this to my Mom as she would love to see a picture of her son popping up repeatedly in the Inter-Cosmos.

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MY FAVORITE SITE today though is Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person In The World" site from his Countdown television show.

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Annuit Coeptis until we meet again......

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Posted by EMH at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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ROGER CLEMENS testified under oath in front of a large group of U. S. House of Representatives today about his alleged use of steroids and human growth hormone. To quote some wise person from a long time ago - "he has such respect for the truth, he uses it sparingly."

I believe that Roger spoke the truth at least twice - his father died when he was young, and he worked out hard. But he also cheated by using illegal substances, illegal according to Rep. Shays (R-CT).

It has been really sickening to see how many of our representatives have been treating him like a demigod. It is more proof that justice is not blind - if you have money, your life is usually much better and easier, and you have huge advantages when it comes to getting justice.

I had been hoping that Roger Clemens would go to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a New York Yankee and not Boston Red Sox (even though he spent most of his career in Boston). I now can't imagine this lying cheater ever being elected to the Hall.

The Boston Dirt Dogs have some lovely, accurate and biased reporting and photos of Clemens.

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I AM SPEAKING on an AFM panel and a publishers' panel on Friday at the Millennium Music Conference. I first spoke at the MMC last year. The conference participants and organizers were great as was the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Last year, most of the highways in eastern and central state of PA were covered in ice and travel was difficult. This year seems like it will be normal winter weather without precipitation.

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I had this link from the 2007 Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit sent to me. It was a great honor to be on a panel with such brilliant friends.

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I'VE BEEN MEANING to give my friend, Bill Pursell, a shoutout over this excellent performance. Bill is the pianist. He turns these Marty Robbins moments into Marty Rachmaninoff moments! One of the most original and unexpected virtuosic outbursts.

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Posted by EMH at 06:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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IT'S BEEN A WILD 24 HOURS HERE IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE. I left Nashville last night c. 8:40 PM driving south to my home in Franklin. I am a bit of a weather junkie these days as I travel every week, and had noticed on the Weather Channel that we would have strong storms. The online Weather Channel had stated that the winds would be around 20 mph for the a few hours. WRONG. BY the time I got to my exit (Exit 65 on I-65), there was rain and more wind. As I turned right onto Highway 96, I heard sirens and started to pull over to the right side of the road as the good polite and attentive driver I am (I am a proper Bostonian, after all). I kept looking and couldn't find a police car or ambulance or fire engine and then I noticed that these were not the normal sirens, acoustically, but a different kind. They were the tornadoes-are-near sirens and they kept getting louder as I could hear them for almost all the 3-mile drive. Damn it - these are a bit of a concern especially at night when the roads are empty and it is dark. I also know that as I was driving south, they were headed at 50-70 mph to west/central Williamson County - my neighborhood. I thought I should try to outrun the damn things, get home, put on my green bicycle helmet, pour a dry white chardonnay (the kind Christ made at the wedding), turn on the TV and get ready. (Normally, if this was a daytime tornado, I would be cooking pasta and clam sauce as if I am going to die in my house, I want to die with my green helmet, chardonnay, Massachusetts clams, Massachusetts quadruple-ly excessively virgin-ed olive oil, Massachusetts sliced garlic and Massachusetts angel hair pasta a-cookin'.)

I was very fortunate as all I lost was a lot of sleep as I stayed awake most of the night watching television and waiting in case something bad was to happen (there was a 2 AM tornado reprise). A house six doors from mine had its roof torn off in a past tornado here, and I was here for that 14 hour period of Nashville tornadoes a decade ago.

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My bad news is that I found out last week that I have a torn rotator cuff in my right shoulder and will need an operation. It is often painful although I am doing a lot of therapy and sometimes feeling strong and healthy. I thought a tear was a little rip and that most of the thing was together. But no - the thing is separated - not joined. It's more of a complete hole than a tear. 2008 will improve at some point.

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I got to see a MOONSTRUCK moment last weekend at Tonio's, a very romantic old school Italian restaurant on 7th Avenue in Park Slope, when a guy proposed to his girlfriend. Tonio had participated as he carefully put the ring in the dessert. It was one of those tear-jerker moments for her and it was very nice for those non-proposers in the restaurant as well. I wanted to send them a bottle of champagne to celebrate but they were Coke users instead. Coca-Cola at a good restaurant? Coke with good food? How odd.....

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Channel 4, the local NBC affiliate, is doing a TORNADO RELIEF telethon/fund raiser for those who suffered through last night's weather. This is an extremely quick response - how great! I'll call in now. Hopefully recoveries will be fast.

Annuit Coeptis

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POOR MITT ROMNEY - how sad. His sleaze might be catching up with him as all his millions cannot seem to buy him honesty, the appearance of honesty, and any real progress in the Republican presidential campaigns. But his next life as a hater of all that is not conservative can continue and he will be able to run for President again as his hair will look good for years to come.

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Posted by EMH at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)