Hysteria Week!

The original video for the first US single off the album, this is the opening song "Women".

How Bobby Darin Can Save Our Democracy (or Filibuster Reform Is Essential pt.2)

One of my favorite films of the past decade was Kevin Spacey's Beyond The Sea. A biopic of the criminally under-appreciated, at least nowadays, Bobby Darin. Darin was primarily known for pop/jazz tunes. He is most famous for "Mack The Knife" and "Beyond The Sea". But as he got a bit older and more introspective he wanted to do something different. He started thinking there was a way to use his music to make a real change in the world. So in the film he starts off writing these protest songs and these really deep and frankly fantastic songs. He grew his hair out a bit and became something of a hippy, you might say. But audiences rejected him. They wanted the guy in the suit who sang "Mack The Knife" and made them feel good. And Darin comes to the conclusion that "people hear what they see". That essentially people need to see something in front of them that is sort of familiar and comforting. And so he developed "Simple Song of Freedom" into a more Vegas-like number and it became a hit. Here he is singing it on tv, it's one of my favorite songs.

Sooo...remember this from yesterday(Wednesday's Rachel Maddow)?

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See the main reason Republicans have been getting away with their obstruction is because no one sees them do it. Even hearing "Well, the Republicans filibustered such-and-such bill" doesn't make it tangible enough. I've been really hard on Sen. Harry Reid and his willingness to back down whenever the GOP looks at him funny and I still think I'm justified for most of it. But if what Sen. Jeff Merkley is saying is true and that even if they are actually filibustering and no one is able to see them do it, well then I owe Sen. Reid an apology on that.

So let's start here. Let's make all Senators have to take their stand and make a point. Wanna filibuster? Be willing to stand up and make it happen.

Start at http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ find your Senator and tell them to support eitherJeff Merkley(D-Oregon)'s proposal or Tom Udall(D-NM)'s or both. This is our chance to take action. The new Senate rules will be adopted in January, we'll need to start pushing the members to vote for this now, so come Jan. 5th, the first day of the new Congress, they will vote for our Democracy. Let this be our next step!

I need to know how to set up a widget or something on here so you can more easily contact your Congresspersons from here. Also how best to put a petition together. If anyone can help, it'd be appreciated it.

Email me mnorton1972@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter @Colierrannd

Filibuster Reform Is Essential

Watch this.

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Want a more liberal United States? I do. This is essential. I need you to start blogging this video. If we're ever going to get past the 60 vote rule in the Senate we need to be able to make it so people can see who is blocking votes and why.

Want a more conservative United States? I don't but if you do, this is still essential. And it's fair. If you have the guts to withhold unemployment benefits or don't want to give children nutrition shouldn't you have to say why?

More to come.

Follow me on Twitter @Colierrannd

Email me mnorton1972@gmail.com

Hysteria Week!

OK so I found this and while I wouldn't have chosen Tomb Raider as a theme, I can't help but be impressed by the editing. "Don't Shoot Shotgun" was not a single, as I recall, but it is one of the upbeat tracks and frankly I kinda prefer it to "Love Bites" but then again I almost always will prefer upbeat over slow. Just my nature.

Hysteria Week!

Continuing my favorite album ever, 2 vids! First up, the title track. It's gorgeous isn't it?

And a B-side cut, maybe my favorite Def Leppard song ever. This was the B-Side to the single "Women". It is called "Tear It Down". It was re-recorded for their "Adrenalize" cd but the first is my favorite version. Here they are at the 1989 Mtv VMAs performing it.

The 2010 Election Was Friday Night At The Movies

I keep hearing this line from the media and the President, Democrats and Republicans. It goes something like this:

"The American people spoke out loud and clear that they wish us, Democrat and Republican, to reach across the aisle and work together to solve the nation's problems."

It's become so pro forma that even though I'm not intending to quote anyone word for word I'd bet you could find that exact phrase spoken by at least one of each party somewhere word for word. It's like a script. And...it sounds fake. It sounds bland and it sounds like a conclusion that elected officials, especially with "D" by their name, came to well before the actual voting took place. But here's the thing. They're all wrong!

As long as I can remember, I have consistently heard the same question every election cycle. "This is it? This is our choice?" In fact you hear it as much as you hear "Would you like fries with that?".

A quick Google around the net shows that voting among most groups was down, but especially in the younger voters demographics. I propose that the reason for this is simple. Much like a Friday night where nothing playing at the local cinema appeals, they stayed home. Why would you go stand in line, pay for a ticket and overpriced popcorn just to see a movie you weren't very interested in to begin with? The same thing applies to elections.

In Texas, our two choices for Governor this year was one rich white guy and one rich white guy. Neither were distinguishable from the other except rich white guy wants us to secede and rich white guy didn't. In the Congressional elections we had group of conservatives who want to gut government verses group of moderates who want to allow conservatives to gut government. I mean, that's what we saw every day. Capitulate, capitulate, capitulate with a dash of capitulate.

The reason none of them appealed wasn't just the color of the candidates' skin or their sex (see how much Michael Steele and Sarah Palin helped the GOP win the Presidency huh?). It was because there was no choice for liberals. All we saw was a party who wanted to throw people out in the cold and a party that appeared to want to hand you a blanket as you were being kicked out.

So it begs the question, if you capitulated to your opponents again and again and again and again, and you lost your majority in the House, why would you keep capitulating after the election?

Email me mnorton1972@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter @Colierrannd

Hysteria Week!

The second single off Hysteria and the Def Leppard's first UK # 1 single ever, "Animal" contains one of my very favorite solos by Phil Collen. Phil is without a doubt one of the best guitarists in rock that isn't called a Guitar God. I still have no idea why. Want proof? I present this live version of "Animal" from The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

And from the "In The Round, In Your Face" concert film. Phil's solo.