WEEKLY SOUTHERN ARTS
"Sometime the boogaloo 
  • Home
  • From The Publishers
  • Summer 1970 - Fishing with Alligators
  • The Fire-Starters
  • Jimi Hendrix Was The Roy Buchanan of Rock & Roll & Other Rural American Stories
  • Real Genius
  • Guns, Faith and Murder
  • A Blue World
  • Nova Explains
  • Satan's Jr. High
  • The Million Dollar Store
  • The People Who care
  • Jesus and The Red Words
  • Sniffing Out White Supremacy
  • Artistic Con-cepts
  • “The Word From The Streets”
  • A Voice from the Crowd
  • How a White-man Became a Black-man In Order To Find His Whiteness—His Alright-ness.
  • Camille Bertault: 2 Views of a Secret
  • Judy Garland - "Soul Singer"
  • Robert & Jimi and the Twenty Seven Blues
  • The Last Vestiges of Mueller’s Collusion Case Just Died...and Nobody Noticed
  • The Great Pretenders
  • Imagine
  • Me and Junior Parker
  • The Republican
  • "Kill The Pigs!!!"
  • "Another of Trump's Henchmen Falls!!!"
  • Saving ISIS, Killing America
  • Cyrus The Great Strikes Again
  • The Big Lie - "Fear Russia Love China"
  • “The Russians are Coming!” (again)
  • "Impeach This!"
  • “Trump Backs Turkey Down”
  • Congressman Elijah Cummings Died last night at the age of 68.
  • Sweet Home Chicago (The Obama Shakedown)
  • Blind as a Bat
  • "I cannot Tell a Lie"
  • If Only Obama Was Still President, Syria Would Be Swell
  • Impeachment Fever
  • The Ballad of Hunter & Joe
  • "God Will Do It!"
  • Jeffrey Epstein & The Mysterious Case of The Infinite Pedophile Monkeys
  • The World is Insane: pt 4095 - “What is Less Than Zero?”
  • The Magic Bullet and The Lonely Death of Jeffrey Epstein
  • The Facts about Illegal Immigration
  • Chicago
  • Liz Warren Hits The Road
  • Traitors & Lies
  • “If The World Was Fair”
  • "The Few, The proud, The Insane: The Democrats"
  • "GOD & UNCLE SAM"
  • A Minor Complaint
  • Murder in The Meantime
  • The 22-yr-old Bottle Blonde
  • “Jerry “The Toad” & other Sesame Street Lessons”
  • "Riffing in Tongues"
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence Revisited
  • The Few The Brave The FBI
  • Jesus and Liz Warren Want to Forgive You
  • The Witch Hunt Ends? Not Even Close.
  • Divine Guidance
  • The Crocodile & The Politician
  • Uncle Joe Apologizes
  • Why I Hate, Hate Crimes
  • It's Only a Matter of Time
  • Let It Rain
  • Dumb & Dumber
  • ....of Poets & Scientists
  • Goodbye Pork-Fried Rat
  • Hearing Duane Eddy
  • Is It Alright...To Be White?
  • "Hell is Real!!!"
  • Mauled by Reality
  • The Cult of The Secret Unknowing Marxist
  • Resist the Devil and He Will Flea
  • The Unwitting Socialist
  • Personal Stories
  • The Magula Report 2019
  • "The New Blood & The New Deal"
  • “The Wall"....and other, mostly silly conversations.
  • The War for the Soul of Mankind: “Stan Getz vs Eric Dolphy”
  • The "Others"
  • White Cracker-Ass Niggas
  • New York Gives The Thumbs Up To Mass Genocide
  • Rudy & Nat
  • A Close Shave With The Well-Intended Bigot
  • This is What Happens When My Favorite Band “The Mellow Herb” Comes To Town
  • The Hemispherical Brain Activity of a Wayward Somnambulist
  • Gun "Race With The Devil"
  • “Half Of All Millennials Think Barack Obama is More Important Than George Washington!!??”
  • "The Dow Posts The Biggest One Day Gain In History."
  • Good Morning Comrades
  • Sharks, Zombies & God
  • A Road Home
  • You're Getting Sleepy....Very Sleepy
  • Stupid People
  • Jezebel and Ahab Make a Comeback
  • Stevie Ray Vaughn: Derivitive Hack or Genius
  • Music & Reminiscence
  • “The Giant Facebook Id-Monster Attacks”
  • “Bullshit...it’s a Damned Invasion!”
  • Bobby-Jack
  • Lowell George searching for authenticity
  • For The Love of Krazy Kat
  • How I Came To Understand That Fighting The Power Was Useless. Unless...You Fight The Power By Giving Power to The Power To Fight The Power
  • Within the Lifetime Of The Average American...The U.S. Population Could Realistically Exceed That of China & India
  • The Problem of Blasphemy In a Secular Society
  • The Waitress and The Power
  • A Message From The Democrats After The 2018 Midterms
  • On This Day Before Election Day, These 5 Things Should Be Remembered As You Vote
  • A Lie Is As Good As The Truth....as long as it's a good lie
  • "Evil Republicans Suppress The Minority Vote"
  • The Enemy of Mankind
  • The Mob
  • Why Chinese Tariffs?
  • A Caravan To Nowhere
  • Ant Farm
  • “They’re Coming For Your Social Security!”
  • The Witchfinder Speaketh
  • Eating Sawdust & Voting Democrat
  • Muslims Kill Washington Post Journalist”...and other stories best left untold
  • Orwell's Nightmare
  • The Sobbing Walrus
  • A Telling Lie
  • Tribal Marxism
  • A Pimp and His Stable of Political Whores
  • "Evidence?.... I Don't Need No Damned Evidence!"
  • A Post Modern Lynching
  • Talkin’ Blues: A White Social Justice Warrior Meets a Bluesman
  • Pocahontas Wants To Impeach President Trump
  • A Belated Tip of The Hat To John McCain's Funeral
  • "Colin Kaepernick Fights The Power. My Brothers!"
  • Jack Ryan: Promoting Jihad & The Brotherhood of Man
  • Rediscovering Willie "The Fruitbat" Johnson
  • The Allegation
  • Message in a Bottle
  • A Coven of Witches
  • The Communist & The Exalted Cyclops
  • America vs Satanic Goat Worshipers
  • Forcing Transgender Penis Cakes on America
  • The Iidots Lament
  • Irritating Post: no. 529
  • Irritating Post: no. 642
  • My Brain is a Liar
  • My New Rap "Alligators"
  • Helpful Hints in Logic
  • The Unredacted News
  • A Loss of Composure
  • The Myth of Objective Fact Checkers
  • Surviving Politics
  • The Pit or The Pendulum
  • Do Not Forsake Me. Not For a Dollar. Not For a Dime.
  • Repeller of The Amorites
  • Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child...but only sometimes
  • Welcome To The Freakshow
  • Part One: The Monster Is Summoned
  • A Sideways Glance at Reality....
  • The Ballad of Trey Gowdy
  • Lies, Spies, and Thighs at The FBI
  • The Ballad of Charlie Crockett
  • Children in Cages
  • A Poem For Clifford Odets
  • Anthony Bourdain
  • Like Billy Eckstein Singing to an Empty Club at 1:00 AM on a Saturday Night in 1975.
  • A Letter From The Democratic National Committee
  • Bent
  • "There Were No Spies in The FBI and Other Fictional Tales"
  • The New Rules For Radicals
  • Blood In The Water
  • "3000 American Businesses Colluded with Russia For Profit"
  • I Spy (For The FBI)
  • Free Shit—and Bears
  • Cute Dog Videos
  • How The Press Aided and Abetted Terrorists
  • The Iran Deal Myth
  • The Scouts
  • Pinko Muthafuckas
  • Kelly Joe Phelps
  • Johnny Winter and, 1970
  • Happy Days Are Here Again
  • RAGe Against The Machine
  • Carlos and Buddy
    • How The Bird & Darwin Took Flight With a A7#9 Chord
  • Just a Few Glaring Examples Of Media Scummery
  • They Call it Stormy Monday
  • "I Gotta Take A Wiz" or, "How Starbucks Destroyed the World"
  • Who Needs War?
  • Why The Devil Don't Come Around No More
  • 2+2 Really Does = 4
  • The Tangled Web
  • Shadow Banning
  • What Changed?
  • Oblivious But Concerned
  • "Give Up!"
  • Jesus: The Spirit of Man and God That Illuminates The Darkness
  • Mickey Baker: Goin' To Kansas City
  • "Washington Saves America from Pot-smoking Mass Murderers"
  • Nontraditional Thoughts
  • Attack of The Trillion Dollar Omnibus Bill
  • Hearing Junior Wells “On Tap'' one more Time
  • Just Words
  • Muddy and Me
  • Racist Debtaes About Terrorsim
  • Fidel's Utopia
  • Unwitting Hypocrisy is The Best Kind of Hypocrisy
  • Excess Baggage
  • Excess Baggage pt. 2
  • Fake News Is The New Real News
  • The Death of Billy Graham and Manufacturing Consent
  • American Youth: The Rise of The New Media
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Talk About Slavery and Shit
  • Just Smoke
  • Monkey in a Box
  • How The Children of Sal and Dean Destroyed The World
  • On This Cold Winter's Morn
  • The Crime of the Century
  • Evidence: What The Hell Is It?
  • They Were Pissed: America, Jack Kerouac, and the Beats
  • Negotiating The Maze Of Life and a Blues Shuffle.
  • Everyone Is Hitler (In their own Way)
  • The Mystery of The Giant Balloon Shark
  • Subterfuge and Its Discontents
  • God Debunks Global Warming
  • Day Two: God Continues To Debunk Global Warming
  • Strzoking Russia
  • The Al Franken Effect. Or, How to Destroy America and Lose Elections
  • The Big Maybe
  • The News Apocalypse
  • The Guitarticle (Guitar article)
  • The Nation of Lucifer
  • Slurring Pocahontas
  • Why Everything Good Said About Net Neutrality is a Lie
  • .....and behold, The Cause of Your Demise Is Upon You
  • The Trans-boy That Cried Wolf
  • Believe Nothing
  • Donald Trump Blasts The Heads Off Of Tiny Woodland Creatures
  • The Problem of Hypocrites
  • Roy Moore: Serial Pervert
  • I'm So Frustrated
  • The Devil's Whisper
  • Science Can't Dance
  • You're Gonna Have To Serve Somebody
  • Louie C. K.
  • Common Sense
  • Hunting For Witches
  • Living in The Age of "tRump"
  • The Devil is a Hustler
  • The Skinny
  • Eric Dolphy
  • ISIS Rode in On a Donkey
  • "The Manafort Indictment"
  • The Truth About the Middle East
  • Dennis Budimer's "Alone Together" Revisited
  • The Halloween Edition
  • The 20th Century Was Groovy
  • The Salesman
  • The Dossier
  • Elmore James
  • Isle of The Poor
  • The Patriarchy is Alive and Well
  • Moving Napoleon
  • Guns and Guerrillas
  • Playing Four
  • Hollywood and Scumbags
  • Why Everything You Think, Is Wrong
  • Killing Yourself With Terrorism
  • Being Liberal
  • Laced With Hate
  • A Message From Occupy Democrats
  • A Taxing Dilemma
  • What Really Happened with Aid in Puerto Rico
  • Colin Kaepernick and BeyoncĂ© are geniuses. Part 1
  • When the Levee Breaks
  • The Second Coming of Anthony Weiner
  • How to Never Lose a Fight
  • Creating Chaos out of Meaning
  • Crime and Punishment
  • The Man in the Mirror
  • Guitar Gods of the Sixties
  • Entopy: A Play in One Act
  • The Ragged Tale of a Poverty Stricken Economic Genius
  • The Dreamers
  • Hey There Georgy Girl
  • This Is Not a Defense of Joel Osteen. Or is it?
  • The Ballad of Poindexter Glockenspiel
  • The Big Dummy
  • More Florida in Pictures and Text
  • How Do I Hate Thee
  • Florida in Images and More Images
  • "How To Solve The Healthcare Crisis and Why It's So Damned Hard To Fix"
  • The Big Lie
  • The Demise of the West
  • “Good Times! Good Times! You know, we talkin’ bout Good Times!”
  • "Justice My Ass!"
  • Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
  • The Coming Apocalypse and How to Avoid it: a Historical/Biblical Perspective.
  • "Muthafuckin' Chains!"
  • Lies Our Father's Told Us
  • Poetry and Politics - a few mixed verses
  • The Inner Man
  • The Vampire and The Carpet Salesman
  • Comey Speaks!
  • A Word From Nostradamus about the Comey Hearings
  • The Towering Babble
  • Chain of Fools
  • I Got Ramblin' on My Mind
  • Telling Ourselves Stories
  • Shit! Make Me Wanna Holler!
  • Even More Reasons Why The Paris Accords are Total Horseshit.
  • When Life Imitates Satire
  • Jethro and Becky Sue Come To America
  • Random Apocrypha
  • Why The Paris Climate Accords Are Total Horseshit
  • Urban Stories
  • The Kingdom of God: a personal rant
  • Urban Week @ South Beach
  • Serpico Revisited
  • The Road To Surf-dumb. Or, is it The Road To Serfdom?
  • This is Not a Political Article
  • My Hometown
  • What Does This Mean?
  • We're All Fools Sometime
  • One Pill Makes You Larger
  • "What a Maroon!"
  • Secrets and Lies
  • A Tale of Wine and Murder
  • "White House Under Siege!"
  • The Amateur Narcissist
  • Like a Rock
  • The Greatest of Ally of a True Idiot is.....
  • How To Prove someone's a Witch
  • Jesus Was a Sly Dog
  • An Open Letter From The Democratic National Committee
  • The Power of Language
  • The Existential CroĂ»ton
  • Random Facebook Thoughts
  • A Play "The Poverty Racket"
  • The Demise of the 4th Estate
  • Love To Hate My Enemies
  • Feelings, Oh, Oh, Oh, Feelings
  • Art or Reality
  • The Prison Yard Blues
  • Who is Richard Spencer and Why Does He Matter?
  • __an excerpt from "The Power of Voltron "
  • A Plea From a Progressive
  • ANTIFA - The Anti Fascists, Fascists
  • Conspiracy Theory
  • 4 More Poems, 4 More Pictures
  • "Are You Freaking People Insane?"
  • 4 Pictures 4 Poems
  • The Ballad of Carlos Slim
  • Pretending What's in Your Head is True
  • The Cognitive Dissonance of a Faithful Democrat
  • The Human Snakepit
  • George Freeman - Unsung Master of the Jazz Guitar
  • The Price of Milk
  • Suspicious Minds
  • Bill O'Reilly Sexual Predator?
  • The New Soldier
  • Orwell Revisited
  • Larry Coryell - The Godfather is Dead
  • A Tiger Beat
  • South Florida - HOT & COOL
  • Jean Paul Sartre & the Existentialist Mojo
  • Culture Matters, Immigration Matters, Sharks Matter
  • Thomas Sowell
  • A Tree Falls In Central Park on a Gay Banker
  • Black Codes From The Underground
  • Does an Idiot know they're an Idiot?
  • A Poem for Pooh
  • It's All or Nothing Baby!
  • Racism is Alive and Well
  • "Shut the Hell Up!"
  • Jerry Seinfeld - Social Pariah
  • A Man Must Nurture His Pet Peeves
  • Not the Usual Immigration Article
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 1
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 2
  • The Bad Seed
  • Dogma Never Sleeps
  • Trump and Clinton Debate
  • Was Jesus a True Pacifist?
  • Brexit Was the Shot Heard Around the World
  • Obama, How Great Thou Art
  • War is Good
  • The Willful Ignorance of Intellectual Children
  • What about All Those Peacful Muslims?
  • Terror! What Terror?
  • Biff and Shorty Play The Blues
  • Forty Miles of Bad Road
  • How Obamacare Became the law of the land: And Other Fairytales for Adults
  • Genteel Republicans vs The Alt-Right
  • Should Drugs be Legal?
  • The Prophet Speaks
  • The Dream Sequence
  • Voting 3rd Party and the Moral Low-Ground
  • Sayonara America
  • What does Never Trump Mean?
  • Barack Obama is the Most Brilliant Man Ever to be President?
  • If God Created War, Does That Mean That War is Good?
  • Never Let Your Enemies Define You
  • Facebook, Science & Religion
  • Bullshit by the Numbers
  • Bullshit by the Numbers - part II
  • The Heated Quest for the "No Information Voter"
  • I Love The Dead
  • Those Who Lurk
  • Battered, Bruised and Beaten
  • Trump and Hitler
  • America in Black and White
  • Trans-Athletics
  • Playing a Rigged Game
  • Who was that Mass Murderer?
  • The Kidnappers
  • The Game
  • Terror in Nice: A Variation on a Theme
  • The Idiots Guide on How to Destory the World
  • Terror in France
  • A Fictional Conversation Between a Pastor and a Historian About the Bible
  • The Immoral Necessity for Scapegoats
  • Who Really Shot Those Eleven Cops? Was It Donald Trump?
  • Killer Cops and Cop Killers
  • Happy 4th of July
  • How Do You Cast Your Vote When You've Only Got a Few Bullets Left?
  • "Yes, She's a Lying Sack of Shit....but She's our Lying Sack of Shit."
  • All Apologies
  • Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up
  • Goodbye Scotty Moore
  • If a Bluebird Plays the Blues Why Can't it Play Free Jazz
  • Terror in Turkey
  • When David Slew Goliath
  • The Life & Death of a Global Fat Cat
  • Intentionally Censoring the News
  • The Brits Leave the EU
  • Chick, Christian, Roy & Kenny G
  • Who Really Committed Mass Murder in Orlando
  • The Tale of the Prince and the Shrew
  • A Dying Father's Last Father's Day
  • Mass Murdering, Terrorist's Father is Obama and Hillary's Best Friend
  • Why Cream still Matters 50 Years Later
  • Misguided Anger and Partisan Politics
  • The Deep Guilt of the Religious Left
  • Radical Islam! What Radical Islam?
  • Denial is a River in Egypt
  • A Response to all the Haters
  • Why Muhammad Ali was my Hero (in spite of being a Racist)
  • Why Trump Matters
  • The New Progressive Racism
  • A Tragedy in Cincinnati
  • The Evil that Men do (Women too.)
  • Differences? What Differences?
  • Racism Revisited
  • Battling Immigration Straw Men
  • Blood Quantum
  • Fighting Transgender Straw Men
  • Logical Fallacies about God and Money
  • Progressive Straw Men
  • Everybody is Robbing You Blind
  • On The Road To El Donaldo
  • Dear Mark: About Donald Trump
  • Identifying the Enemy
  • Why I Will Vote For Trump
  • I Totally Agree With Myself
  • Teaching Americans Where to Pee
  • Goodbye Lonnie Mack
  • Bernie Wants You To Pay His Fair Share
  • Bruce Springsteen vs. North Carolina
  • Mr. Smiley Is an Idiot
  • Why Does College Cost So Much?
  • Black Power and Bad Vibes At Whiteness History Month
  • How Facebook Showed Me That We're Doomed
  • Muslims kill Muslims by means of White People
  • The Slap
  • America Wants a 3rd Party Candidate
  • Jesus Loved Everybody
  • Call it what it is.
  • Belgium vs. Turkey. Which One is Worse?
  • Barack, Fidel and Che
  • How He Gonna Get His Money pt. 2
  • How He Gonna Get His Money
  • The Turn of The Screw
  • Dear America: Now, about Trump....
  • The Attack of the Anti Trumpers
  • Did You Know that America is Socialism....and boy, ain't it Swell
  • Trump - Prophet or Blowhard?
  • Black Lies Matter, All Lies Matter
  • The Donald and the Debate
  • Leonardo and The Bear
  • The Thunder Rolled and the "Trump" Blows em all to Hell
  • Fragmented Fairytails
  • Cars That Never Were but Should've Been, Part 6
  • Building The Perfect Beast
  • America: A Tale of Two Cities, Part 1
  • Uncle Bernie in New Hampshire
  • The Big L
  • The Diary of a Former Leftist
  • Free Speech not Hate Speech?
  • State of the Union
  • Losing My Religion
  • Don't Take Our Guns Away Until We Kill Those Honky Bastards
  • Bye Bye Europe
  • "Trump is a Racist!"
  • "Hell Yeah! I've Got Obama Care!
  • Trumponomics
  • Woman of the Year
  • Malicious Intent and the Art of the Microaggression
  • Muslim No-Go Zones - Myth or Reality?
  • Donald J. Trump and the Muslim Migration to America
  • There Is No God But Allah?
  • Roadhouse - The Reboot
  • Sometimes You Just Can't Win
  • A Few Thoughts Regarding Trump
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been, Part 5
  • You Can Have My Steering Wheel When You Pry It From Cold, Daed Hands
  • The Great Debate
  • Al, Thomas and Paul - Malthusians Then and Now
  • A Prophet Debates Global Warming and other retated Dogma
  • Memes, Scapegoats, Propaganda
  • Little Hillary and Her Monsters
  • A Prophecy for America
  • The Basketball Metaphor
  • Vladimir Putin: An American Hero
  • Little Things
  • The Democrats Debate
  • It's All Ablout da Benjamins
  • Remember When?
  • Mass Shooter
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been: Part 4
  • Should A Muslim Be President in America?
  • The Strange Case of Ahmed Mohamed
  • Debt and Other Devious Angels
  • Bernie Sanders is Caesar not Jesus
  • An inconvenient Truth
  • Who's really a Native American?
  • The Rebirth of the Silent Majority
  • Money That's What I Want!
  • The Syrian Crisis and the Memeing of America
  • Why Societies Have Generally Valued Men More than Women
  • The Problem of Evil
  • A few Thoughts on a Few Things
  • The Authentic pose of a Black White Man
  • Sweden: Socialist Utopia or Progressive Madhouse?
  • Why Dogs Matter
  • Guilty Until Proven Innocent
  • Was Jesus a Socialist?
  • "The Donald" A Man for the Ages
  • Harvesting the Wheat - or - Karma's a Real Bitch
  • Cecil The Lion
  • Cars That Never Were but Should’ve Been, Part 3
  • Secrets and Lies
  • Can Minorities Be Racist?
  • I Was Just Thinking....Hmm?
  • Iran Deal - Good or Bad?
  • Jihad or Not Jihad? That is the Question.
  • "Let's Do Lunch" with Planned Parenthood
  • America The Contemptible
  • Marriage, Bigotry and Cooties
  • The Things We Care About
  • The Simplicity of it All
  • A Dissenting Opinion
  • Cars That Should've Been, But Never Were: part II
  • Live Now, Pay Later
  • I Am, Whatever I Say I Am!
  • Bernie Sanders is the Dumbest Bastard on Earth
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been
  • Bruce Jenner
  • The Good Society
  • A Personal Jesus For My Own
  • Take a Ride on a Hell Bound Train
  • Requiem For a Car Show
  • Obama Channels Neville Chamberlain in Dealing with Iran
  • The Short Life of a Political Lemming
  • The Strongman
  • The Broken Window
  • The Selective Outrage of The Anti Israel Left
  • When the Blind Lead the Blind
  • Top Brass With Class
  • Living In A world On Fire
  • Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell
  • What The Hell Is Esotericism?
  • Unicorns, Free Healthcare and other Mythological Creatures
  • Heroes and Dunces
  • A Few Thoughts On a Few Things
  • The Return Of Super Fly
  • Should You Ever Bet On A dead Horse?
  • Money For Nothing
  • Across The Great Divide
  • Tom, Jerry, Eddie & Sydney
  • The Folly of Foibles
  • Who really killed Eric Garner?
  • The Art of The Sale
  • Political Bullshit and All That Jazz
  • Oh, The Horror of It All
  • To Torture or Not To Torture, That is The Question
  • Selective Justice
  • Executive Action
  • Give Us Your Tired, Poor and Ambitious
  • Johnny Winter, Ahhh-Yeahh!
  • Homeless and Transgender "Let My People Pee!"
  • Are We Insane? You Betcha!
  • Ebola and Racism
  • You're a Racist, Just Admit It!
  • To Discriminate or Not to Discriminate, That is the Question
  • The Life of an Imaginary Historian
  • Why Most Debates About The Minimum Wage are Bullshit
  • The Return of the Infinite Monkeys
  • Politically Correct Genocide
  • Language and the illusion of Meaning
  • Obama vs. Reagan
  • Is Barack Obama our Most Successful President Ever?
  • White Racism Black Racism
  • The Race
  • Should People Be Free to Discriminate?
  • Science, Religion and Brother Neil
  • Welcome To America
  • The Reincarnation of Jimmy Carter and the Return of Scarface
  • SCOTUS, Condoms and Collateral Damage
  • The American Dream
  • Attack of the Bloated Leeches or "Why Does the Economy Suck pt. II"
  • Why Does the Economy Suck?
  • Jaco Pastorius - A Passage in Time
  • How can we save the world, from people who want to save the world?
  • A Short Political rant: pt I
  • Jerry Reed, Tom Jones and the Original Guitar Heroes
  • Part Two: The Politics of the Eloi and the Morlock
  • Angel: part 7
  • Wayne Cochran "Going Back to Miami"
  • Blessed Assurances and other Iron Clad Guarantees
  • James Brown & the Art of the Indefinite Rhythm
  • If the Bible Say's it, I believe It!
  • Go For a Jog, Go to Jail
  • Life as Theatre and The Well-Intended Sociopath
  • Rory Gallagher & Taste
  • Utopia and the Militant Socialist
  • Matt Damon & the Teachers Union vs. the Capitalist Pigs
  • The Fight of the Century
  • The Last Damned Healthcare Article You'll Ever Need
  • The Gospel According to Mark
  • You Might Be an Idiot if.....
  • How To Interpret Political Speech and other Forms of Gibberish
  • Polygamy and the Search For Morality
  • The "Big" Gulp
  • When a Lie is the Truth and the Truth is a Lie
  • Jim Hall - The Subtle Radical
  • Making Deals With the Devil in Iran
  • Dennis and Mary
  • Thank You Lord For the Good Things You have Done
  • Excersise In Futility
  • Is Obama The Antichrist?
  • The Case for Limited Government (and that includes a limited military)
  • The Weekly Southern Blog
  • Angel: part VI
  • The Esoteric Agenda
  • Ted Bundy & The Hunt For The Devil
  • Things I wish the President Knew Pt. 3
  • Really Now, I'm Syria
  • What Will You Do?
  • Charlie & Clint: Dead & Deader
  • God Loves Me and Has a Plan For My Life...Right?
  • Trayvon & George : An American Hate Story
  • Is God's Grace Ecclesiastical White-out?
  • Jury Duty
  • The Left's Contradictory Love Affair With Gays & Muslims
  • Hee Haw and Grandma and Grandpa
  • Little Tommy & The Blues Kings
  • Gay Marriage: Part II
  • Kayaking "The Big Cypress" with Crocodlies
  • The Birth of The Jazz Guitarist
  • Running With The Bullshit In Pamplona
  • Divided By Abortion
  • Gay Marriage
  • Life on the Fault-line
  • Out of the Wild
  • A Generation Out Of Touch
  • Morning Faith with a Cup of Joe
  • For The Children
  • Made up Facts & True Beliefs
  • The Unforgettable - Nat 'King' Cole
  • Slavery Was Big Business....and It Still Is!
  • Garage Band - The 1960's
  • A Man's Best Friend is his Dogma
  • Voting With Our Private Parts
  • Investors of the World, Unite
  • Good Intentions...bad results
  • The Plural of "You"
  • How to Get God to Give You What You Want: Redux
  • We Have Not Yet Begun To Fight
  • Polls–Divination or Manipulation?
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  The American Poets - "Hurt"

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Hurt

I'm so hurt
To think that you lied to me
I'm hurt
Way down deep inside me
You said your love was true
And we'd never, ever part
Now you want someone new
And it breaks, it breaks my heart

I'm hurt
Much more than you'll ever know
Darling, I'm so hurt
Because I still love you so
But... but, even... even though you hurt me
Like nobody else could ever do
I would never ever hurt... hurt you

Jimmy Crane and Al Jacobs

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There is a narrow divide between acting and singing.  Great actors crave great roles and great singers crave great songs.  Both are storytellers who bring to life the words and music of writers and composers—with one big difference, the singer has the added burden of interpreting the music as well.  Every songwriter knows that the words and music can never be any better than the singers who sing them. 

When a song is really good, bringing together that just-right combination of words and music, vocalists will line up to take their shot.  It is that mystical confluence of performer and role that makes a career, providing the singer and the song with an open door to immortality.  

Rosemary Timothy Yuro was born in Chicago, on August 4, 1940, into an Italian-American family.  By the time she was twenty-one she had found her song.  The song “Hurt” was written by Jimmy Crane and Al Jacobs and was originally recorded by Roy Hamilton, the smooth-voiced R&B crooner of “You’ll Never Walk Aone” and “Unchained Melody” fame.  His own version of “Hurt” peaked at no. 8 on the R&B charts in 1954 and remained an underappreciated classic.  Seven years later, in 1961,Timi Yuro stormed onto the scene with one of the greatest bravura performances of the era, turning the Crane/Jacobs song into a classic, earth-shaking, two-fisted, blue-eyed, soul ballad. Her husky, smoky contralto, with its searing emotional edge, formed a perfect partnership with the words and music, creating what up until now was the definitive reading of the song. Ms.Yuro never again found another great role to play, although she had some chart success and performed in Vegas, opening for Sinatra, among others.  

But the Crane/Jacobs song lives on, and has been performed by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Marty Robbins and Carly Simon.  Juice Newton scored a No.1 country hit with it in 1985, making it one of the very few songs to ever cross over all three, pop, country and R&B charts.

Music, like all art forms, has a lineage.  From Elvis and Roy Hamilton to Timi Yuro and Doris Day, these are just a few of the artists that have played the roles created by the songwriting duo—and now there are two more gifted performers we can ad
d to that list. 

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Jeff and Christine Maldonado are the creative duo behind the band “The American Poets.”  Their first CD with the group is entitled “Light of Life,” which is a reference to the Gospel of John, Chapter 8, Verse 12.  Full disclosure, I play trumpet on two cuts.  (Note to Jeff and Christine, always, always bring the trumpet up in the mix!)  Using great South Florida musicians, they have brought to life songs that clearly come from the heart.  However, before going off on a rhapsodic review of the CD, let me tell you a bit about Jeff and Christine.

Jeff Maldonado grew up in South Florida, taking private classical guitar lessons from teachers at the University of Miami.  He attended the prestigious New World School of the Arts and then went to Los Angeles and studied at the Musicians Institute and Costa Mesa Community College, again focused on classical guitar.

Christine Maldonado attended Miami Beach High School, studying under famed band director, Doug Burris.  She then won a full scholarship to Miami-Dade Community College where she was one of the Wolfson Singers.

Jeff had a couple of rock bands here in South Florida after returning from California.  Christine worked at Spec’s Record Store, studied drums and played local gigs—also singing at North Creek Presbyterian Church in northwest Broward County on Sundays.

In the late ‘90s, Jeff was hanging out at Warehaus 57, a now defunct club in Hollywood, Florida when he ran into Christine.  It was fate.  From that time to now, they have been inseparable.  First performing as “The Providence,” they released a well-regarded acoustic set on CD in 1999.  In between all of the gigs and recording sessions, they got married.

I first came across these talented folk while enjoying Mexican food at the late, lamented Cancun Grill here in Hollywood, Florida.  A funky, friendly place with excellent Margaritas, the Cancun Grill was a fixture in downtown Hollywood for many years.  Jeff and Christine had a regular weekend gig playing there for several of those years.

Hearing their beautiful harmonies, excellent guitar playing and percussion, I was knocked out.  I couldn’t believe they were playing in a restaurant when they ought to be in major venues on tour.  Getting to know them over the years, I learned that they were smart and capable folk who knew how to market their music.  Nonetheless, in spite of a large local support base, they haven’t “broken through” to mainstream success.  This is a real loss for the mainstream!

Sitting down with Jeff and Christine, I asked them about the album and their inspiration for the various songs, all but one an original, within it.  In a freewheeling discussion, I learned a lot about people I thought I already knew well.

“The first song on the CD is “Darlin’.”  Who wrote the song?”

“Christine wrote that one,” answered Jeff.

“What was the inspiration for the song?”

“I wrote it when I got my first apartment and was on my own for the first time,” Christine said, “It’s about…it’s about my friends and I, and the ways that we let ourselves lose our way pursuing unequal relationships.

“You mean with guys”? I asked.

“Yes, but really anytime you pursue a dream and don’t stay true to yourself and who you are.”

“So “Darlin’” was written before you knew Jeff?”

“Yes!”  She laughed.  “It wasn’t about Jeff.  He’s great!”

“So, who wrote “Nova?”

“I wrote it,” responded Christine.  “I actually wrote it in the studio.  We needed another song and I went into another room and started thinking about it.  It just came out in a few minutes.  When Jeff and I were thinking about having a child, we liked the name ‘Nova’ for a girl.  I was thinking about a possible daughter, but the song could be about many things.”

“Interesting.  Well, who wrote “Divine?”

“I wrote it,” Jeff said.  “I wrote it before Christine and I were together.  It’s about relationships and the way that we do things we shouldn’t to try and make things work.  It’s about things that fell apart.  It isn’t directly a spiritual song, but it’s kind of how, even when we get it wrong, God works it out in the end.  That’s, I guess, where the name “Divine” comes from.”

“I noticed that this song is a lot more, how would I put it, guitaristic than the other songs written by Christine.”

“Yeah, I can barely play guitar,” Christine laughed. “When I write, I focus on the lyrics, the melody and chords, but Jeff hears the whole arrangement in his head.”

“Is that so?” I asked.

Jeff answered, “Yeah, I hear it as a whole finished song, with the orchestration and whatever.  You know, I have to feel it, feel the sonics of the music when I’m writing.”

I agreed, “Yeah, me too.  When I write a song, I hear the whole thing in my head, with a horn section, solos, the whole thing.”

“So, ‘Long Ride’ is the next song on the album?”

“Yes, I wrote it,” answered Christine.  “I wrote it back in the time when I wrote ‘Darlin’.  I wrote it about this guy who was driving me crazy.  I thought I wanted him and I had this dream, this fantasy about how it would be with him, but he was really all wrong for me.  Jeff and I met then, but he helped me as a friend in dealing with the relationship I was pursuing at the time.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Christine and I were just friends then,” Jeff said.

Christine laughed and said, “He was really patient with me!”

“Wow!” I answered.  “Who knew?”

“He always wanted to have wife who was his best friend.  Tell him, Jeff.”

“It’s true.  Even when I was a little kid, I used to pray and ask God to give me a wife who was my best friend.  I guess, with the troubles my parents had, and the way my Dad treated my Mom, I wanted to have a relationship that was better.”

“That’s really cool,” I said.  “So, who wrote ‘Birds of Song’?”

“I wrote most of it,” Jeff said, “but Christine helped me on the bridge.  I had it as a little thing I worked on for years, starting before I ever met Christine.  When we needed another song in the studio, I pulled it out and Christine and I worked on it there.  It’s about my dream of love—the way that I envisioned a future love so strong that even the birds feel it.”

“Okay, Jeff, I have to ask about this next one, ‘Leaving Us Alone.’  It’s got a great guitar solo in the middle.  That’s not something that most of your songs feature.  So, for the guitar players out there, what kind of guitar did you use on that solo?”

Jeff laughed and said, “I used my favorite guitar, an ES 335 and I played it through my old Vox Cambridge amp.  I really like that guitar.  It’s got a great neck and I feel like I can play anything on it.”  (What followed was a discussion of the relative merits of various guitars between yours truly and Jeff.  I’ll spare the reader the details and just note that Jeff’s second favorite electric guitar is a Gibson SG.)

Christine chimed in and said, “I wrote ‘Leaving Us Alone’ as a reaction to all of the negativity on the news.  It's about how we are left alone to fend for ourselves.
The government and other positions of authority in general, seem not to be concerned with helping the common man.”

“Now, the next song is ‘Hurt,’ which was written by your grandfather, Christine.  Your grandfather had a number of hit songs.  Why did you choose this one to cover?”

“Well, while it’s true that my grandfather wrote many songs, this is the one that always meant the most to me.  I guess that I just felt it the most.  What I wanted to do when I covered it was to bring out what I thought was the heart of the song.  You know what I mean”?

“Sure.  Is that why you slowed it down a bit?”

“Yeah, I wanted to dig into the lyrics and bring them out.  They’re so beautiful…”

“Even though I love Timi Yuro’s version, I think I love yours more.” I said.

Christine laughed and said, “Well, thanks!”

Note to readers: Jeff and Christine are accomplished performers, but Christine’s singing on this song reaches something deeper than I’m accustomed to hearing from either her or Jeff.  The heartache invoked by the lyrics is obviously felt by Christine’s “character” and she carries that heartache for all who have been rejected by a lover.  Where Timi Yuro’s take on the song has the anguished force of a hurricane, Christine takes a cooler approach.  Hers is the sorrow, the hurt of an abandoned woman trying to cope, to keep her head held high in the face of despair.  On the verge of tears, but with a final declaration of “I could never hurt you” she determinedly carries on.  It is quite a different approach to the song, which has almost always been done by others in the manner first perfected by Ms. Yuro and shows a different understanding of the song’s pathos.  The exceedingly spare arrangement is an effective choice for highlighting Christine’s voice.  She is, essentially, alone.

“Now, ‘Solemn Promise.’  Who wrote this one?”

Jeff volunteered that they both wrote the song.  It was written as a gift to some friends for their wedding and was played by Jeff and Christine for the first dance at the reception.

Christine added, “Yes, I actually played guitar with Jeff on this one at the wedding and was terrible!”

Jeff quickly responded, “Well, we got through it okay.”

Laughing, we turned our attention to the next song.


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“I take it that you wrote this song, Jeff, since it’s a father’s song about his son.  Didn’t you write this one for Jonas?”

“That’s right.  I wrote it when he was about a year-and-a-half old.  He’s now fourteen!  I wrote it as an encouragement to him.  I wanted him to have something that would be his from me and would be with him even when I wasn’t.  He learned how to play it on guitar and now plays it for me!”

“How about ‘Your Grace Alone’?  Who wrote that one?”

Jeff answered, “We wrote it together.  I had a chorus that I’d been messing with, but the rest was done in the studio.”

I asked, “Were you concerned about putting such an overtly Christian song on the album?”

Both Jeff and Christine looked a little uncomfortable.  Jeff said, “Yes, it was a concern ‘cause not all of our friends and fans are Christians.  We just put our faith in God and trusted that He would make it all okay.  However, in the future, I think we would either do a Christian album or a secular album.  It’s just too hard to try to market a combined effort.  We just wanted to give something to our Christian fans and, besides, we wanted to write about all aspects of our life.”

“Yeah, I figured that might have been a concern.  On the other hand, every time I hear that part where you sing ‘Immanuel’ I get chills!”

They both laughed and said, “Thanks.”

“So, let’s see what’s next.  Oh yeah, ‘New Found Hope.’  Who wrote this one?” I asked.

“We wrote this one together.  We actually wrote it for a small film that a friend was involved with.  The film was about finding the courage to do what needed doing to mend a relationship.  As it turned out, the song wasn’t used in the movie, but we liked it and decided to use it on the album.  The message is that we should always make an effort to cast our fears and doubts aside and boldly face our challenges knowing that God will always give us the strength to carry us through”

“Well, finally there’s ‘All I Ever Wanted.’” I said.

Christine said, “I wrote it.  It was one of my first songs written on guitar.  I was really influenced by Sarah McLachlin at that time—I still am.  What’s funny is that I wrote it before I met Jeff, but it means so much more now.”

By this time, Eija, their three-year-old son, was getting restless.  He started singing the Beatles’ “Love Me Do” and I took it as my cue to leave.

I said, at the beginning of this article, that “There is a narrow divide between acting and singing.  Great actors crave great roles and great singers crave great songs.”  The American Poets understand this.  Their carefully crafted songs and the beautiful arrangements they use to bring them to life are the roles of a lifetime, incorporating as they do the emotions and experiences of their lives and ours. 

We have put some of Jeff and Christine’s songs below for our readers to hear.  “The American Poets” CD is available for download on iTunes and the physical CD is available at CDBaby.com/cd/americanpoets. The earlier “The Providence” CD is also available at CDBaby.com/cd/providence. Check them out and you, too, may soon be fans of “The American Poets.”

Thomas A. Hall



The American Poets

1. Hurt

2. Your Grace Alone

3. Divine

Leaving Us Alone

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