Thorogood was such a trooper in the 80s, playing constantly in clubs in San Francisco, that I actually thought he lived in the Bay Area. But he's from... Delaware. In the late 70's "Move It On Over" and his cover of "Who Do You Love" were hits on San Francisco radio and we were playing his high energy rootsy blues alongside the Pretenders, Clash, Blondie, Talking Heads, Generation X and (pre-Michael Savage) the Dead Kennedys. Bad to the Bone, his sixth album, came out in 1982. Here's the title track:

Susie Bright: The end of a publishing era as "Best American Erotica 2008" will be the last in the series. What this says about publishing, reading, and those of us who write anything at all, is sad, sad.

Too Sense: Andrew Young needs Jesus.

Les Enrages: an open letter to Tom Donahue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Shakespeare's Sister: Bush's Freedom Agenda (involves cocktail weenies, of course).

CJSD blog: Twelve ways to pick a candidate, even when Huckabee has completely lost his "figure."

(Mike's playing music on a boat with the Phantom Blues Band and is temporarily away from internet; he'll be back soon.)

I'm joining in to the music discussion that started over the weekend. The music world has changed incredibly in a short period of time, (technology, copyright laws, the Internet, etc...) so what's the big deal if bands let commercials use their music for a hefty fee? Back in "the day," it was the cool thing for a band to not "sell out" to the man, but as Amanda says: "That is so 20th Century." I still cringe a bit when I hear a Hendrix song on a commercial, but the times are a changin' and it has always been a struggle to make it in the music world.

What's sad is that the music industry knew that the dynamic was changing because of technology; file sharing in part was developed by them, but they sat on their hands because they DID NOT WANT to set a precedent. I'll have more on this later...

TOWER records went out of business and as expensive as a CD was, I still enjoyed browsing the store. Bands have huge costs to consider. A major tour takes a load of cash to pull off---now figure how hard it is for a lesser known band to do the same. When I toured with John Taylor (mostly for the House of Blues chain around the country) in the late 90's, Sixpence None the Richer opened for us. They were a great bunch of people and soon after they had a few hit songs, but they were just getting by...Duncan talks about supporting bands you like.

I find a lot of new music on TV these days. It seems like many more shows since Buffy are putting out compilation discs and featuring either new artists or old classics in their episodes...HOUSE, MD highlights some great music at the end of each episode most of the time..

Matt Yglesisas put together his: Ultimate Nineties Alt-Rock Playlist

(Photo courtesy of British Army) CTV:

The head of the British army says he has personally decided Prince Harry will go to Iraq.

Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt told BBC News the decision will be kept under review, but says he hopes his statement will end media speculation on Harry's deployment.

The 22-year-old Prince's regiment, the Blues and Royals, is due to begin a six-month tour of duty in Iraq within weeks. British commanders had reportedly been reconsidering their decision to allow the prince to fight in Iraq.[..]

Meanwhile, the Guardian newspaper is reporting that Shiite militants have set up a special squad targeting Harry should he be posted to Iraq.

The British newspaper quoted a commander in the Mahdi Army -- the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- as saying the group had informants inside British army bases who would tip them off about Harry's presence.

Normally, this is one of those quasi-celebrity stories that I could not care less about. But I think it's important to point out one thing: I don't know how the royal family feels about the occupation in Iraq, but it would have been no big thing for them to arrange for Harry to not be deployed. But they didn't.

So I put it out there to all those talking heads who are still cheerleading the war: The man third in line for the throne of England is willing to put his life on the line (with direct threats, I might add). When are we going to see the same sacrifice of those unwilling to question the President? When will Jenna and Barbara land in the Green Zone?

SJ Mercury News:

Ruth Brown's recordings of "Teardrops in My Eyes" and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" dominated the rhythm-and-blues charts in the 1950s and earned her the nickname "Miss Rhythm."

But her other nickname might as well be "Miss Survivor" for sustaining through the highs and lows of a six decades-long career.

Brown died Friday at a Las Vegas-area hospital of complications from a stroke and heart attack, said Lindajo Loftus, a publicist for the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, which Brown helped found. Read on...

This is the only video on YouTube I could find of Ruth, singing "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean"

Well, not the old blues legend, but then again...

Common Cause Blog: Go here to sign a petition and tell Hastert to bring the House back and investigate the Foley scandal. It aint unprecedented. They came back for some Terri Schiavo grandstanding. Hastert has called on the Attorney General to investigate
the whistleblower! Meanwhile, Capitol pages fear retaliation.

Media Needle: Rehab? What a load of horse manure...the Family Research Council identifies the source of the trouble..and Lucianne Goldberg says, " Leave Jonah Alone!"

Talk To Action: Now, these towering hypocrites will attempt to eliminate the Establishmant Clause

Orcinus : Torture and fascism

The Nation : Ten reasons why the Wal-Mart pundits are wrong

Our friend Blue Gal will be doing the Roundup for the next few days while I'm out playin' da blooze on the Legendary Rhythm + Blues Cruise.

Robert Cray's "Eyes Wide Open" Boots

Check out Cray's Video

"Cray's album, named "Twenty" has been nominated for a Grammy as Best Contemporary Blues Album."

"Gotta fight the rich man's war"

I'm taking a firmer stance on the comments.

Talk about the news, the blues or whatever you choose...

"The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times’ eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper’s editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn’t just out of concern about national security.--- I learned this week that on December 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story---read on

If this story is on the mark, then Karl Rove is really losing it. They had a couple weeks to come up with some Ken Mehlman action figure talking points are all Condi Rice manages to say was that she isn't a lawyer. Can we chalk this up to the Fitzmas blues too?