RON PAUL for President

Man they're falling like domino's Pizzas at Rosie O'donnell's house. Seriously; in the last 24 hours, exit John Edwards, Rudi Giuliani, and possibly in the not so distant future Mike Huckbee. My first pick for President was Tom Tancredo. But he was way too honest to be president. Then FRED. I figured he was the next coming of Ronnie Reagan. Nope. I think he likes his dressing room accomidations at NBC better. Now it's down to

Osama Hell No

Billary HELL HELL NO

Vs.

John McCain Hell No (same liberal hell no that applies to Osama)

Mitt Rommnie Uh, come on. He believes that American Indians are decendents of a Jewish tribe. (see the book of Mormon)

Mike Huckbee I wish. A baptist minister that is running out of church funds. Hopefully someone/anyone will win the lottery and fund his campagne.

And last but not least Ron (not Ru) Paul. A doctor from Texas. He's got a tough policy on illegal immigration. He doesn't appear to have a private agenda. And he seems to have the bucks to hang tough.

We'll see.


Ace

Rupaul not Ron Paul for President?

Why not? It makes perfect sense. I mean. We have our first real Black canidiate for president. (all those times Jesse and Al Sharpton ran was just a message) And now we have our first real female threat for president. (although many see it as a two for one deal) We have a MORMON running and to round it all off; we have a baptist minister.

WHAT? Where's the Black Gay Drag Queen? Why isn't Rupaul running for president? (not Ron Paul)

Now that Fred's gone; Who's next?

I really wanted to have a chance to vote for Fred Daulton Thompson for President but after Fred bolted last week; Who the hell is left?

Osama? Hell No

Billary? HELL NO

John Edwards? Get out of here

John McCain? Why? He's another socialist.

Ron Paul ? Sounds too much like RuPaul (Transvestite pictured left) but I like his stance on immigration (Ron Paul's, not Rupaul's)

Mit Rommnie? Sorry, can't vote for a Cult member.

Mike Huckbee? Mike Huckbee? Maybe so I don't know.

75 dollar a month addicition

How many of you GOT to have that latte, or Americano or Capuccino every morning? How many of you actually own an expresso machine? So those of you that didn't raise your hand, you must have a 75 dollar monthly installment (made daily) at your local Starbucks.

I've got a funny story for you. You'll get a kick out of it. Now 75 may not seem like much; but let's say you're married and your Spouse is addicted too. Now we're talking a small car payment or maybe one of your credit cards. So one day out of "laziness" we bought a bag of ground Starbucks coffee. It was about 12 or 14 dollars for a bag. But we figured, it would be ready when we woke up (before our shower). This was a cool Idea. At first, I had to have an Americano about 3 days out, just to have a taste of the real thing. But after a while, the drip didn't taste so bad. And we figured a bag was lasting us a week. So now our SB Jones is down to about 50 bucks a month for the two of us.

OK, here's where it gets really studpid. After getting use to SB drip we sort of got over the 2.50 a day habit. But we still had a Caffiene jones to deal with. So in Target yesterday, we see SB bags (really small ones) for about 6.95. Then just under it for the same price was a huge can of "Folgers". Instead of 11 oz. it was 33 oz. 8-() what? So I tell Corrine wtf. Let's try it. I aint in love with Star Buck's anyway. So this morning we wake to the same smell of coffee brewing. Damn I couldn't tell the difference.

Seriously, it's like the gas you put in your car. The fancy red white and blue Chevron station's gas is the same desert oil that Eco-brand gas uses. For decades in America we spent 10 cents on a cup of joe. Now for some reason you aint cool unless you pay 1.50 a cup. What? Come on people try it. It may take a week, but you can liberate your self from the world of external cool.

Here's Jackie Mason to say oh so eloquently:

God's Wonderful Blessings

I could easily be writing this note in a jail cell. This afternoon we were playing bumper cars in the Safeway parking lot. Two cars in front of me waiting to turn right down a row of parking spaces. Of course the guy in front has to sit and wait for someone to leave. So since I'm about 3 cars back I step on it and go around the car in front of me to the left ~ ONLY to find a human body in front of my car. Now as God is my witness; I don't know how I didn't mow this guy down. I am convinced that an angel or a platoon of angels got between my bumper and this guy's spleen. Probably one had his hand under my foot and accelerator. I mean I was going to ZIP around this guy in front of me. Honestly, I have no Idea how he survived. Thank you Jesus again. I was pretty shook up after that.

Hillary.........Ya Right

2008 R&R Hall of FAME.....IT's ABOUT TIME

One of my favorite groups if not my favorite group of the British Ivasion was the Dave Clark Five . It's insane to look at the inductees that got in before the DC5. But they finally made it. I was amazed to discover that they played the Ed Sullivan show more times than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.

Yes, While the Beatles were writing about yellow Submarines and Octopusses gardens, the DC5 were rocking songs like the classic "Glad all over" and "Do you love me" Interesting, they broke up the same year the Beatles did. Nobody really went on to successful solo careers. I think Dave Clark was smart and invested his money in business.

Mike Smith, the handsome lead singer is a paraplegic suffering from a tragic accident at his home in Spain. He had locked himself out of his house. So while climbing the gate to the back yard to gain entrance throug the back door, his pants snagged on the gate cause him to fall on his head crushing his cervical (neck) vertebrae. Keep Mike in your prayers.

Denny Putnam, the horn player died last year of cancer.

If there was one induction ceremony I would love to attend. It would be this one.

Ace out.....................

PRON

OK, that's the teenage code word for PORN. I wanted to spew my opinion on pornography. First of all, what is porn? Is nudity porn? Not always. It's like that saying "I can't describe it;but I know it when I see it". Porn is so ubquitous today, it surrounds us. From the Superbowl (SuperBowel) to prime time TV, you can't tune in to anything without having some woman's cleavage shoved in your face.

My mission statement, especially within this blog, is to try and offer ideas that will make this world a better place.

Simply put, porn is bad. Porn has no redeeming value. And the colateral damage from porn is often irrepairable. Let me pontificate:

1. Porn desensitizes us to reality. By doing so it makes us insensitve to the opposite sex.

2. Porn demeans the photographed. Some may think that Marylin Monroe was art. Images of her in "Some like it hot" can be considered art. Perhaps this was the beginning of our cultures downward spiral. But what you don't see now is an industry that exploits immature girls for a few bucks while the producer profits millions. What's even worse is that our culture is continually condoning the introduction of porn into our society. "Girls gone wild" should be retitled "Girls gone stupid while embarassing their parents".

3. Porn is an addiction that is driven by hughe profits. It's worse than smoking. Smoking will eventually kill your body. Porn will kill your soul. Now before you think I'm turning evangelical on you, let me explain. We are a culture of teenagers raised on "Sex and the City", and "Desperate housewives". Most teens have computers. Most of these computers are not filtered by parental guidance, meaning ANYTHING is available. So the only thing a person gains from viewing porn is more desensitization and a misguided belief system that most women are like porn actresses. This desensitization ruins the social interaction between males and females when they find themselves in "real" situations. They've been educated like Pavlov's Dog into seeing sex for the physical stimulation only. And like other endorphine releasing stimulants, it's hard to break away from once you've started. Especially for the teenage boy that's just discovered this private "E" ride. (Disneyland reference)


I was however; shocked to be viewing an episode of CSI, when the conversation of sex without love came up. Grissom says "Sex without love is sad, it makes you feel the opposite. It makes you feel lonely".

The "Sexual revolution" of the 60's turned Sex into a handshake. It's a shame because Boys see having sex as a form of "manhood", while Girls see sex as "Love".
Since Al Gore invented the internet (tongue in cheek) Rape has almost doubled in many communities. As a matter of fact, between 1998 and 2001 Rape tripled in the state of Oregon. Is it possible that after a night of drinking and snorting Meth, internet porn just doesn't do it anymore?

We live in a quick fix society. A time of drive thru restaurants, drive by gang violence, Express commuter lanes, High speed internet service, abortion rates that make the holocaust look like a small thing. We want it, and we want it now.

But the best things in life you still have to wait for. It's going to take 9 months to see the healthy smile on your child's face. It takes 162 games, plus 2 rounds of playoffs before you get to watch the world series. And a relationship that grows out of mutual respect and adoration will last much longer than two people that just decided to "hook up".

Don't believe me? Get slam drunk every night for a month. Then lay off alcohol for a month. Then see how good just one glass of Cabernet Savignon tastes.

Saturation is the enemy of Appreciation.



Ace out...........

The Poster boy for anti-abortion??????

I don't think so. There's a blog/website out there that is using my "Save Me" Video as a support for their anti-abortion message. But let me make it clear. I'm not anti-abortion, I'm anti-death. But I do support the death penalty. Some of you may call me a hypocrite for this but when the death of one outweighs the death of many, you gotta make the hard decision. It's the same with War. Those who hate war better know how to fight. It's like that line in the 80's movie "The Karate Kid". Young Ralph Maccio is learning Karate "So he doesn't have to fight". It's the same with war. You better believe that the stock pile of nuclear arms in those bunkers kept us from going to war many times.

But I digress.

I'm opposed to Euthanasia, I'm opposed to abortion, I'm opposed to fascist terrorist takeovers, Hell, I hate it when they spray for bugs. But this doesn't mean that my video Save Me makes me a right wing fanatic. If anything, I agree with what president Bush "said" but failed to "do" and that was to act on the side of conservatism. But by not getting involved; Bush allowed the Florida lynch mob to proceed with the death sentence of helpless Terri Schiavo.

I'm opposed to the bombing of abortion clinics. I would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned. Perhaps women would realize that they have a choice to keep their legs closed. I feel that killing a fetus is no different than killing a witness to a crime. I think that's originally where the phrase "have it taken care of" came from. A mob boss would tell a hit man to "have him taken care of". Make it go away.

Again, my focus is on proactive personal responsibility, not violent aggression. Killing abortion doctors is not, I repeat, NOT the answer to Roe versus Wade. Voting for a conservative president that will nominate conservative supreme court justices will address the needless death of unwanted pregnancies.

So if you see me on "Abortion Clinic 911 emergency calls" Please know that I don't condone the radical methods used in closing baby killing clinics. I'd prefer that women choose their sex partners with a bit more confidence. And the same goes for men that act like dogs.


Ace Out.................

Where did Rock and Roll's audience go?

As a part time historian, I can't help but look at the last 51 years and wonder if Rock and Roll is no different from Baseball, the movies or other forms of entertainment.

I know that Rock, or what people describe as rock is alive in today's culture. But it's no longer a "lifestyle" like it use to be. It's gone from being the The Devil's Jungle music; to my grandparent's music. I get a kick out of seeing posts on Foghat's Myspace site where 19 and 21 year olds say, Man you guys rock, My mom use to play the live album when I was still crapping in my diapers.

The Ramones are now selling Toyotas with the Blitzkrieg Bop. The Who has become the official music of CBS's CSI series (all three Las Vegas, Miami, and New York). Dick Dale is selling Nissan SUV's. Paul McCartney is only selling his music at Starbucks. The Eagles are only selling their music at Walmart. Coliseum concerts are a thing of the past. The only thing that comes close is the Superbowl half-time show (providing there are no costume malfunctions)

Rock was the ultimate way for a kid to piss off their parents and tell society to stick it up their ass. But now Rock is society. Where's the rebel to go? Gen Xers are locked up in their bedrooms playing X-Box til they pass out. Where's the defiance in that? Marylin Mansion became so disgusting that even pissed off teenagers couldn't lobby for the guy.

Part of the problem is, we have an inherent need to defy our parents. And if our parents our cool, then we're screwed. How would James Dean act if he was the son of Grace Slick? He'd probably be a straight A student in the young republicans club. I'm telling you, it's hard to be cool anymore.

Hip Hop will get you killed or thrown in Jail. The Fast and the Furious gave kids hope until they kept getting their rice rockets impounded by the man. That's one thing (Side Shows) that this younger generation can say is their thing. Now some say it's no different from racing Hot rods for pink slips and to a degree they're right. But these kids are having fun, breaking the law and ruining their transmissions all in the name of defiance. (That's rock and roll)

There's really no fun in protesting war because it's something old burned out coward hippies are trying to get kids to do. And today's kids have a built in level 5 of ADD. So they aren't going to stand around and hold signs. Now put a video controller in their hand and let them play GTA for peace and you'll get reactions.

In 1956, Boys and Girls had parents that were at home. (both of them) There wasn't any "hanging out" or "Hooking up" at the age of 14. Virginity actually made it to marriage back then. Now we have the latch key kid who watches cable TV in the absence of their parents. Then the first chance they get, they find a hormonally desperate mate and exchange body fluids just for experiment. It's sad. What about love? Ya I know what Tina sang.

So as Rock musicians, who's going to listen to our music? Who's going to go to our shows? Especially when the best musicians are in their 40's to 60's. Eddie Van Halen is 51. When you were 17 were you digging the music of a 51 year old? Hell no. That would have been like saying you dug Frank Sinatra. (whom I now love) We didn't trust anyone over 30. But even the kids that rock today like SUM 41 are imitating Judas Priest and Motley Crue.

So our kids turn to entertainment like "Jack Ass". And reality TV. Something with Shock Value or some kind of passion in it. They say that innocence died in the 60's.

It's obvious that without Morals, defiance is dead; and if defiance is dead, what's left of fun?

My Kindred Spirit........................

When I moved here to beautiful Monterey, I moved to #1 Surf Way. It's an elite group of condos on Del Monte Beach. My two siamese cats would spend ALL DAY long sitting in my living room window staring at the waves crashing against the beach.

The really cool thang about living at Del Monte Beach is that it was about a mile away from the actual spot where Jimi Hendrix torched his guitar at the MPF 1967 (the real one)

And I feel it every time I drive down fremont blvd a block away from the fairgrounds stage. I can feel the tension of Jimi and Pete Townsend arguing over who was going to go on first. Many places here have pictures of Jime buying food from the street vendors outside the fairgrounds. You see Jimi was just like me. He was at that "Almost Famous" stage of his career. He wasn't getting free meals everywhere until after his ass kicking performance the put Jimi on the Rock and Roll Map forever. I know this sounds really corny; but, everytime I gig here and play Purple Haze as my encore, I can almost feel the spirit of Jimi going, "come on Ace; let me play that guitar". It's sad too, because I have a beautiful white strat just like Jimi's that I use to bounce on the stage at the end of PH. And like Jimi's strat, the sumbitch won't stay in tune. I think it's time for a Floyd Rose with a locking nut.

But seriously, I pick up my prescriptions at the long's drug store just a block from the stage where The Who, Jefferson Airplane, The Animals, Johnny Rivers (who lives here) The mama's and papas (who recorded on my first album) and others like Ravi Shankar and Huge Masekala made history.

Jimi had huge success in England. When he was playing in Greenwich village in New York, Chas Chandler of the Animals approached Jimi and asked him to come back with the Animals to England where he hooked him up with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. It's very interesting to note that my friend Leo Lyons the bassist from Ten Years After was approached by Chandler first to be Jimi's Bassist. Cool..... But Leo was devoted to the Great Alvin Lee and went on to make their own history as the band that kicked everyone's ass at Woodstock. (the real one)

And living here where the summer of love was born has had a cool effect on my music. We (my band) play classics from the MPF concert but do it in our own heavy metal sound and people just love it. Listen to California Dreamin on my first album. You'll know what I'm talking about.

If I can just get Johnny Rivers to record on my next album "Spies, Lies, and Alibis" with me. IT would be so cool, almost like Monterey coming full circle. Forget the aquarium, Monterey is about Rock and Roll History. They should have built the R&R hall of fame here. The smoke from Jimi's strat is still in the air.

BLACK OUT...........................

I'm back from the 18th century. Friday 1/4/08 a winter storm hit Monterey California. Now in 04-05 I lived and recorded in the state of Washington. We got STRORMS up there. We lived less than 25 miles from Mount Saint Helen. And when a storm hit, I had to go in my back yard the next day and pick up all of my neighbor's trees. Make sure my fence was still standing but other than that, the electricity never went out. But of course we lived in a modern housing district that had underground cable and power.

2 years later, welcome back to California. Monterey/Carmel pride it's self on their beautiful "old" Cypress trees. This is the Cypress forest. Unfortunately, it never ever rains here in Monterey. It's like that song from the early 70's "It never rains in Southern California". Well it did this last Friday and at 11:00 AM every tree branch that could fall on an electric power line did. The priority of the reclaimation project will be interesting reading. I know that the fire department and power companies covet the tourist area. So downtown and Cannary Row had very little downtime. Then of course those on ventilators or repirators were helped. After that I'm sure it was the Mayor's grid, anyone who worked for Pacific Gas and Electricity's grid, etc.... We were 3 days down on the list.

Friday wasn't to bad. We had showered and cleaned up just before the storm. BUT being from the SF Bay area where trees are a rare specie; we never had our power out for more than 45 minutes. So it was a surprise to go to bed without power. Wake up in the middle of the night and go to the restroom without power, then wake up and find no hot water. *Note, even though your water heater is gas, the thermostat is electrical.

Saturday morning I had to cancel guitar classes as the studio was around 53 degrees, (the same temperature as the bay) No hot water meant no shower. One nice thing was that we have a gas stove which enabled us to cook food by lighting the burners by hand. I made 2 really gourmet meals just to pass the time. Later that night with no power, I boiled a pot of water and we washed our faces and then did a "sponge" bath before bedtime.


Sunday morning, more of the same only all of the warmth that was insulated in the house Sat. AM was gone. Every room was in the 50's. We boiled lots of water and did an old fashion shower in the bathroom by pouring heated water on our heads so we could shampoo our hair. Unfortunately we had no hair dryers so that was a new cold experience. We went to R.E.I. to see if they had any propane lanterns but they were sold out. Target was Sold out of all of their camping gear. We had no Idea how long this was going to last. We managed to eat all of the food we had in our fridge. (taking the perishables from the bottom and sticking them up in the freezer area as the temps went down)

Over all it was just unfrozen veggies that got tossed along with the milk.

The biggest pain aside from having no heat or hot water was having NO INTERNET ACCESS. I never realized just how dependent if not addicted we are to the new one eyed monster. People communicate via email now. If given a choice I think most busy people would prefer to send an email than make a phone call.

My cell phone died Saturday night. I had to recharge it at Starbuck's on Sunday morning. As did 50,000 other people.

I realize now that living in a tourist area that is basically a cowtown seaport has it's drawbacks. All I could think of in the dark was the letter I was going to send to the director of the PUC. What was hard to swallow was that I knew the PG&E guys were working hard and still are to get people's electricity back on. But in a way, we were just as prepared for this as the city of New ORleans was for Katrina. We knew it was coming but just sat back and responded.

You folks up in the Bay Area, be glad that your public works commision has a year long "Pro-active" tree trimming program that helps avoid long outages. Apparently here in Monterey county; it's a felony to trim a tree without city permit.

What did I "gleen" from this experience that I can pass on to others?

1. Enjoy your hot water showers.
2. Keep plenty of fresh batteries and battery operated appliances around.
3. Enjoy your furnace.
4. And keep lots of good reading material around.



Ace Out......................

Stephen Covey definition ~ Responable

Responsible is the ability to respond. Or to suggest that true responsibility; is the ability to choose our response in alignment with our goals based on Principals and NOT choosing our response based on EMOTIONS influenced by Environment.

I hope this isn't a new Trend............

On New Year's eve my better half and I were dining at what was once our favorite "Seafood" restaurant in Monterey. "The Monterey Seafood House". Usually known for it's affordability and really great food. But on New Year's eve, the first words out of the waiter's mouth was "Tonight we don't have any sole, or any snapper.

WHAT?

Now I've never eaten the sole or snapper at TMSH but it represented 2 of the cheaper seafood options. How on earth can a place using this moniker be out of the 2 most common fish available at any Safeway or 7eleven?

But the expensive Salmon was available........

I had the Chicken Marsala out of protest. yuk. Never go there for anything but the seafood. And don't go on New Years Eve or any other big night out. They'll hose you.

I mean, it's not like they ran out of it. It was 30 minutes after they opened. They just weren't going to bother selling cheap fish that night.

To anyone visiting Monterey; go to Bubba Gumps. Ya it's a tourist trap, and you know you're getting ripped off somewhat, but they're up front about it.

Happy New Year

2008 ! I'm amazed at everyone of these that I make it to. It's really only 24 hours away from yesterday and only about 14 hours away from tomorrow. It's another Tuesday. But damn, when you look at the number 2008 and think that Prince wrote a hit song about partying like it's 1999, you gotta wonder how hard you should party for each New Year you make it to after 2000?

What am I gonna do in 2008?

Lose weight? SCREW IT.

Be more Organized? SCREW IT.

Be more Consistent on blogging? SCREW IT.

This IS the YEAR I:

Record the Hardest Rocking Album ever made.

Make the cover of Rolling Stone.

Tour Europe.

Tour Japan.

Sign an Apple endorsement.

Become a spokesman for ATT.

Set My sites on Running for Congress.



Happy New Year all......




Ace