Monday 23 September 2024 10:29:41 PM CDT
                                         
                                         
                                         
 
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         Friday 20 September 2024 19:13:52 AM CDT
                                         
                                         
                                          The Grand Illusion 
                                         is generally regarded as the breakthrough album for Styx.  I liked them from the beginning and had no problems with
                                         a little unevenness.  The Serpent is Rising was not liked by many (including one or two members of the band) but is one of my favorites.
                                         Sales are said to have numbered less than 100K as of a few years ago - I bought several between 8-tracks (wore out a couple), vinyl and CDs.  
                                         By Man of Miracles they were getting it together pretty well and when Tommy joined them for Crystal Ball they were ready to break 
                                         out as they did with TGI.  I enlisted in the Air Force in 1978 and it was real popular with the military crowd.  
                                         
                                          
                                         Tommy has been quoted - and  I've heard him say in interviews - that Man in the Wilderness was inspired in part by his brother's return 
                                         from Vietnam.  I met a lot of guys who had been in Vietnam, some of them in the Army and Marines who later went into the Air Force.  And of course
                                         a lot of the AF guys had been there.  
                                         
                                          
                                         I'm insanely jealous of Tommy because he's several years older than me and looks younger.  I hope it isn't because he has a 
                                         portrait hidden in his house 
                                         - he seems like a pretty good guy.  I liked it when he and Ted Nugent and a couple of other guys did a 
                                         supergroup 
                                         for a while.  Had the good sense not to overdo it - a couple of albums and a live one or two then back to Styx and Nuge doing his thing.
                                         
                                           
                                         OK, it's Friday again.  Don't expect crime reports this soon, from NEA at least. 
                                          Pervert in the Paragould Wal-mart 
                                         is about it so far.   I remember when that stuff wasn't common in Paragould but that was....
                                         
                                         
                                         What, Chris? 
                                         
                                         
                                         Alright already.  I won't say it.  Can't find any perp lists from the big 
                                         arrest-fest over in Jackson County 
                                         the other day so that will have to wait.   Jackson County population-wise is mostly Newport and a Tuckerman and a little place called Diaz.
                                         All I know about Diaz is the road sign - used to drive through there regular, probably when going to Batesville.  No other reason to be in 
                                         Jackson County that I know of.  
                                         
                                         
                                         Memphis is in the NEA news and vice versa so I'll mention 
                                         this.
                                         I've taken that wrong turn a time or three, scary even twenty years ago.  Coming out of the airport like this guy was doing it's
                                         easy to do.   In daylight it's bad enough but the one reason I didn't like flying back to Memphis after dark.
                                         
                                         He did worse, took a wrong turn and got his car stuck on a railroad track.  How does that happen?  Because Memphis?  
                                         
                                         
                                         Hamblen said while he was waiting on a tow truck, a man approached his car, asked him what was going on, and returned with another man and an assault rifle and robbed him.
                                         
                                         "They came up to me and asked for everything I had," Hamblen said.
                                         
                                         Hamblen said that when he didn't comply, the men went through his pockets and hit him several times on the back of the head with the butt of the rifle, knocking him to the ground.
                                         
                                          
                                         Guy's 84 years old.  Now it was dark and maybe they could't tell he was that old, maybe only sixty or seventy.  Give the thugs the benefit of doubt.
                                         
                                         
                                         "Those gentlemen could have decided to shoot me, and they didn't. So, I'm a happy camper to be alive," said Hamblen. "I'm aware that's not Memphis. It's two people, and it's not a community issue. It's a behavioral thing."
                                         
                                          
                                         It IS Memphis.  Two people did that to you, all day every day ones and twos and threes and howevermany people are doing that all over Memphis.  That is the community.  It's the behavior
                                         of the community.  
                                        
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         Saturday 21 September 2024 07:55:16 PM CDT
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         Still not much crime but the weekend is just getting started.  I doubt if any of the local purveyors of news are working this late so I'll wait.  The Wynne Progress
                                         says the 
                                         new school 
                                         will be finished in 2027.  Lessee, 2025, 2026, some of 2027.  Over two years?  You could do it in a year, maybe just a hair over, if it didn't have to be
                                         fancy.  I just finished building a house a couple of months ago and I can tell you when there's someone there to sign checks (in this case me) people will spend it.
                                         Wonder if a feller wanted it he could get a breakdown, just a simple spreadsheet would do, of what got spent and what it was spent for.   Just kidding.
                                         
                                         
                                         Same with 
                                         windmill farms, 
                                         how much spent, where it came from, who got it.  Did it make money or lose money?
                                         
                                         
                                         People in Craighead county might want to ask that about the library they're 
                                         wanting more money for.  
                                         That's something they actually get to vote for or against. 
                                         
                                         
                                         I have my doubts about Elon putting a facility in Memphis but can see 
                                         this one.  Lot of empty buildings 
                                         and - for now - a surplus of energy due to the declining population and exodus of industry.
                                         
                                         
                                         Was about to call it a day but apparently someone at 
                                         Jonesbororightnow is working.  
                                         Maybe the driver didn't know it's called a Ram because.... nevermind.  Seeya later.
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         Sunday 22 September 2024 17:15:46 PM CDT
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         Local mischief is pretty minor so far, or at least the reporting on it is.  KAIT has had the 
                                         'mass shooting' 
                                         in Alabama up all weekend.  Corporate policy maybe?  Not gonna bother looking at any of the other sites.  Took a look at KAIT's videos to see how they covered 
                                         it but it doesn't look like they did at six or ten news.  Had stuff about Trump but nothing on the Alabama killings.   Actually I wasn't sure if any of them 
                                         were actually a KAIT broadcast - on one or two the news reader looked like maybe a local.   No visual appeal in news readers these days either.
                                         
 
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         Monday 23 September 2024 11:25:42 PM CDT
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         Kids saying dumb stuff about school 
                                         makes up the volume lately.  Or maybe it's still early for the weekend fun to show up.  Over in Memphis they got two murder trials now.  One with the 
                                         cops that beat the guy dead 
                                         still going and one for a 
                                         rapper that got it three years ago.  Wickedpedia has a 
                                         homicided rappers page 
                                         where they keep all that stuff.  I checked and it's up to seventy with the newest one being in June.  According to them:
                                         
                                         
                                         Some reasons cited for the high homicide rate include poor background of many artists, criminal gang activity, drug use, and inadequate 
                                         pastoral care among artists and record labels.  In 2020, XXL wrote that of 77 rapper deaths they examined, more than 40 remain unsolved, 
                                         including the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur, the 1997 murder of the Notorious B.I.G., and the 1999 murder of Big L.  (Wikipedia)
                                         
                                          
                                         How about they're a bunch of thugs that are gonna kill each other?  I'm good with waiting another three years.  Except for that 
                                         
big dog 
                                         - got a feeling it won't take anywhere near that long for him to be Epstein 2.0.
                                         
                                         
                                         What, Chris?
                                         
                                         
                                         Well, they do.  How about an early lunch?  
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                          
                                         
                                         
                          
                                         
                                         
                          
                                         
                                         
                          
                                         
                                         
                          
                                         
                                         
                
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                                                   
                                         
                                         =============================
                                         Another year has passed me by
                                         Still I look at myself and cry
                                         What kind of man have I become?
                                         All of the years I've spent in search of myself
                                         And I'm still in the dark
                                         'Cause I can't seem to find the light alone
                                         
                                         Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness
                                         I'm a lonely soldier off to war
                                         Sent away to die never quite knowing why
                                         Sometimes it makes no sense at all
                                         
                                         Ten thousand people look my way
                                         But they can't see the way that I feel
                                         Nobody even cares to try
                                         I spend my life and sell my soul on the road
                                         And I'm still in the dark
                                         'Cause I can't seem to find the light alone
                                         
                                         Sometimes I feel like a man in the wilderness
                                         I'm a lonely sailor lost at sea
                                         Drifting with the tide
                                         Never quite knowing why
                                         Sometimes it makes no sense at all
                                         
                                         (I'm alive)
                                         
                                         Looking for love I'm a man with emotion
                                         
                                         (And my heart's on fire)
                                         
                                         I'm dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean
                                         I'm alive!
                                         
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                                         Remo Williams
                                         1 hour ago
                                         Somebody shot some people and apparently got away. Maybe they'll find them and
                                         maybe they won't - likely when they do it won't be the kind that they consider news.
                                         That's the biz sweetheart.
                                         Reply
                                         #8 [-
                                         Goldry Bluszco
                                         49 minutes ago
                                         Girlfriend called and said how about Mexican for dinner. I'd been thinking about
                                         pizza but OK, es bueno.
                                         It was pittie one so wittie malcontent, leaving reason should to treason so be bent.
                                         Reply +3
                                         L DePloraBelle
                                         32 minutes ago
                                         What difference, at this point, does it make?
                                         Reply
                                         Jessica Atreides Marshall
                                         29 minutes ago
                                         Most likely. Typical mayor - homicides since 2017:
                                         2023: 150
                                         2022: 152
                                         2021: 141
                                         2020: 125
                                         2019: 115
                                         2018: 110
                                         2017: 117
                                         42
                                         We have entered the time when all will turn against us and seek our lives.
                                         Reply 1
                                         
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