CHOPS McGEE'S FEATURED VIDEO FROM CAPITOL HILL (updated semi-frequently):Keith Olbermann continues to top himself. The Neo-Cons keep helping him do it! This attack is baseless, insane, misguiding, ugly and yields no progress or healthy discussion. The position that all of the problems in Iraq and Al-Qaeda's retooling are the fault of Bush's critics, or even those who simply question his policies is one of the most insane, baseless, cowardly, disgusting political positions I've ever seen in this country. All of the death, all of the debt, all of the attacks, all of the dead soldiers and Iraqis... it's OUR FAULT? At the same time, Republican Congressman David Vitter (the guy who reamed Clinton for the Lewinsky stuff and runs on family values and who was exposed this month for having numerous relationships with prostitutes) got a STANDING OVATION from fellow Republicans at a dinner this week! Family values? "Family" as in "Republican colleagues", maybe. Neo-Cons are the most disgusting people on the face of the earth and the world would be better off without them.stage acting, getting into film acting, MUSIC, radio broadcasting, video and audio editing, RMM-Hall, Chicago White Sox baseball, live music, Mark Twain, vintage clothing (vintage everything), thrift stores, movies, friends, all-night parties (and therefore, recycling), beer, occasional hangouts and/or fun outdoor activities with THC (Tyrone Harold Chalmers), camping, board games, boats, live jazz, dancing (i'm not that bad), Freek Shows, coffee to start my day (nothing like stimulants), college hoops, not cleaning my car out, Remy the cat, Giovanni's deep dish pizza, taking photographs (preferably tin-type), city life (although I've spent 0 days living in a city), impeaching Bush/Cheney and then shooting them with rubber BBs at point-blank-range (just to show them WE know how to not violate the Geneva Conventions, oh, and I'd broadcast it live to every country in the world so that they understand WE don't like our leaders either), WCPT (Chicago's Progressive Talk), Wolfgang Puck's Chicken with Egg Noodles soup (which mysteriously disappeared from Town & Country shelves), Bubba's Jersey Subs, the NCAA Tournament, the occasional game of Texas Hold 'Em, boogie boarding, meeting people who know themselves (that way I can decide if I want to know you), bean crocks, IHOP at crazy hours, The Briar Patch, auxiliary percussion, Bell's Oberon, Upland Wheat, Blue Moon, Red Stripe, CHICAGO, Zombie Night, campfires...
I'd like to meet:
other old souls, people who know themselves, people who like frisbees and know how to throw them, non-judgmental people, Bill Clinton, Stevie Wonder, Drew Barrymore, Jon Stewart (for coffee), Al Franken, the cast of 40-Year-Old Virgin, down-to-earth musicians, Christina Ricci, Vincent Gallo... and definitely this red-shirted kid:
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adopt your own virtual pet!Nitz wants to meet you. Click "more" and feed him, or play "string-nut" with him.
Music:
With which great bass player do you most identify?
James Jamerson
Motown bassist who brought slapping to bass playing. Berry Gordy insisted on Jamerson being on almost every Motown recording.
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PROFILE SONG: KB In Autumn ~ Foosball Foobs... because KB needed a new, seasonal show intro... and because he consoles female Cubs fans (that don't talk smack). My main influences are old-school funk/soul/r&b and jazz, but I do like other things. Here they all are, in no particular order (after the first 8)...
Claude Debussy (The seed from which jazz was ultimately born in my opinion), Stevie Wonder (possibly the greatest songwriter of our generation), Herbie Hancock (fusion king), Donny Hathaway (haunted genius and Stevie's only near-equal), Steely Dan (made jazz more accessible, The Sophisticated Pimps of chord structure), Earth Wind & Fire (Spirituality incarnate), Bill Evans (prime innovator of de-standardization movement), GREYBOY ALLSTARS (most fun jazz/boogaloo dance band ever), Wayne Shorter (possibly one of the 3 greatest jazz composers), Dave Brubeck, Frank Sinatra, Brad Mehldau (underrated jazz keyboardist, great writer), Claude Bolling (French pianist who fused classical flavorings with jazz structures), Robert Walter (this dude has SOUL and I don't care who says otherwise), Soulive, Lettuce (conglomerate of Soulive, John Scofield band and others), Ben Folds, MMW (The leaders in modern fusion), Yes (the definition of Art Rock), Hatfield & The North (the most obscure-but-talented Progressive Jam Band), James Taylor (like a glass of lemonade on a summer's day), Sly Stone (one of the first mainstreamers to fuse rock with R&B), Rae & Christian (the most incisive DJs ever, from the UK), Los Amigos Invisibles (my favorite latin dance band), Al Green, Bill Withers, Cal Tjader (whipping cream for the soul), King Gyros, The Lonesomes, 44 Long, Ween (one word: balls), Lindsay Clark, Sarah Dooley (hometown product!), Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday (tragedy, oppression, addiction and brilliance), Kurt Elling (the best living jazz vocalist), Antonio Carlos Jobim (hexahydrothymol for the spirit), Vince Guaraldi (makes simple sound fulfilling), THE FUNK BROTHERS (if you like Motown and haven't seen "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", see it ASAP), Freek Johnson (local and insanely talented), Planetary Blues (a lot of old soul for a bunch of young dudes), Gentle Giant (if you can't keep time you'll be confused, pissed-off and bored, in that order), Weather Report (the most commercially-successful fusion band, and for good reason), Porterhouse Quintet (a Funk Band and prime example of the injustice of the commercialized music industry), Kick the Cat (Vijay Tellis-Nayak: Marco Villarreal meets Keith Emerson), Mr. Blotto (their drummer Tony Dellumo rules), Chester Brown (a nice mix of counrty, folk/rock, r&b and jam), Phish, Ohio Players, Tower of Power (equalled only by Earth Wind & Fire in the big-band funk department), Stanley Clarke (slappin' badass), Marvin Gaye (one of the greatest R&B composers ever), Donnie (Marvin's cousin and today's soap-box preacher for issues facing Americans today), Lemon Merengutan (a project currently only in mind), Billy Preston (Fifth Beatle, Scmifth Scmeatle, this guy brings the funky keys and helped shape the sound of the 70s), Remy Shand (again, commercialized music screws up the chance of someone who truly and justly deserves it), Erykah Badu, Maxwell, D'Angelo, Lou Rawls (when he can hit the notes), The O'Jays, James Brown (and his band because without him he'd have had a rough time of it), Curtis Mayfield, A Band of Bees (Smart, old-souled British band), Brett James (a shame commercialized music exists because there is not a better living country composer), Steppenwolf, Canned Heat (they loved the blues and they proved it), Gap Band, Doobie Brothers, Miles Davis, Seals & Crofts (forget about it; the most sophisticated folk writers in history, as they began to blend folk musings with jazz and pop chords), Shuggie Otis (ahead of his time), Jamiroquai (new dance shoes needed every night), A Tribe Called Quest, Louis Prima (showed that a comic presence can help... being as his trumpet playing was nothing special), Leon Redbone, Nikka Costa (she's super-bad), (somebody shoot me, I kinda like Maroon 5), The Tavares, MFSB, TSOP, The Philadelphia Experiment, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, (I'm starting to get into My Morning Jacket), Funkshoe, The Diggity, WAYNE GACY TRIO!! (because Heidi is awesome and Jack knows how to deliver the material), Monsters of Megaphone (Dickie Crickets and Kid Jersey), anything we played in A and B band, most tunes that were played on 60s-70s FM radio
Movies:
.. width="425" height="350" ....I've recently been introduced to the kitchy yet gory hilarity of ZOMBIE MOVIES! Thanks, Nick! Here's a list of those films I think are worthy of watching numerous times: MOST Woody Allen, Being There, Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea, Baseball (Ken Burns), Raising Arizona, The Goonies, Stand By Me, Secret of NIMH, The Muppet Movies, Charade, Kingpin, PCU, anything Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder were in, Willy Wonka, Goodfellas, Godfathers I and II, Used Cars, Bad News Bears (Matthau version), Weird Science, Breakfast Club, Steel Magnolias, The House of Yes, Army of Darkness, Dazed and Confused, The In-Laws (Peter Falk and Alan Arkin version), This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Jamoie, UHF, The Ladies Man (both Jerry Lewis and Tim Meadows), Star Wars saga, Superman I II and III, Buffalo '66, Drugstore Cowboy, Catch Me if you Can, Pulp Fiction, The French Connection, Rocky I-IV, Fahrenheit 9/11, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Charade, Elvis (Kurt Russell), Ray, American Beauty, American Pie, Caddyshack, Fletch, Vacation(s), Real Genius, Blues Brothers, Transylvania 6-5000, Napoleon Dynamite, Eternal Sunshine..., But I'm a Cheerleader, Slums of Beverly Hills, Office Space, Rushmore, Old School, Weekend at Bernie's, Opportunity Knocks, Strange Brew, Mel Brooks films, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, An Inconvenient Truth, Midnight Express, 28 Days Later, Sleepaway Camp, Shaun of the Dead, Home for the Holidays, Al Capone: One Bad Dude, The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye, Grindhouse, Wet Hot American Summer, Idiocracy
Television:
TV SHOULD BE KILLED in most situations and I currently live without it. I can't say (outside of sports) I miss it terribly. What to watch: ANYTHING BUT reality TV! Most specifically, when the Sox or another cool sporting event is not on: SESAME STREET (beeotch), Countdown with Keith Olbermann, FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS (the BEST show on HBO, check it out: Sundays, 9:30 CST),anything on Nick at Nite, anything on Adult Swim, Baseball Tonight, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mr. Show, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Arrested Development, My Name is Earl, The Office, Ren & Stimpy, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Danger Mouse, Little Bill, Kipper, Double Dare, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? (BEFORE they stupidly REDUBBED his VOICE!!!), As Told by Ginger, Police Squad!, The Price is Right, Press Your Luck, The Great Space Coaster, That 70's Show, Chappelle's Show, Emergency!, CHiPs, Saved by the Bell (shuttup, you watch it), Inside the NFL (nice recovery), Muppet Show, The Al Franken Show. PLEASE DON'T GET YOUR POLITICAL NEWS FROM TV, UNLESS YOU'RE WATCHING C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2 or C-SPAN 3. PLEASE READ NEWSPAPERS AND FORM YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS. DO YOU REALLY WANT BILL O'REILLY OR JAMES CARVILLE TELLING YOU WHAT'S HAPPENING?Television programming has gone down the chutes. Especially children's television. I would like to start a movement toward bringing back all-inclusive elements into Sesame Street, revitalize and re-create Electric Company for a new generation and either act in these shows or become head of CTW. Children NEED better programming, and in terms of Sesame Street, it needs to go back to live musicians, be more liberal in its creativity and find a new class of brilliant puppeteers and actors who truly inspire today's youth. Additionally, if a human being is going to be plopped in front of the boob tube throughout his/her life, programming overall has got to improve.CHOPS McGEE'S CORNER OF RECOVERED INNER-CHILDHOOD...
Books:
BELIEVE IT! (The Story of the 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox), Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them (and) The Truth -with jokes- by Al Franken, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, America by Jon Stewart, The 9/11 Commission Report by the 9/11 Commission, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Dude Where's My Country by Michael Moore, Charlotte's Web, Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing, Superfudge, anything by Joe Conason, The Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush from The Center for Constitutional Rights, Huckleberry Finn (ANYTHING Mark Twain wrote, said, thought, contemplated...), Democracy Matters by Cornell West, Screwed: The Undeclared War on the Middle Class & What We Can Do About It by Thom Hartmann
Heroes:
Broohaas, Mark Twain, Scott Joplin, Martin Luther King, Jackie Robinson, James Jamerson, JFK, RFK, Edward R. Murrow, Teeny Little Super Guy, Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Keith Olbermann, Al Gore (for his what-will-be historic speech on MLK Day 2006), and all those who voted Democratic in the 2006 mid-terms to STOP THE BLEEDING!! WELL DONE, ALL!!!
