The author of the book “The turnaround kid, “Robert “Steve” Miller joins the buyout shop MidOcean Partners. Steve Miller helped revive major corporations such as Delphi Corp., Bethlehem Steel Corp. and Federal Mogul Corp.. Steve Miller was appointed as chairman of MidOcean Partners after he resigned as chairman of Delphi Corp. in October .

Cover Freak Report:

Click here to go to CF to check Devil in a Woodpile cover Led Zeppelin “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”, Marin Philadelphy cover Steve Miller “Abracadabra”, Booker T covers Tom Waits “Get Behind The Mule”

I’m sure you couldn’t care less, but this is my blog – so tough bikkies. Hah, wait a second, have you ever had a tough biscuit before? What does that even mean? ANZAC biscuits are generally pretty chewy and tough from my experience. Does it have something to do with ANZAC biscuits? That’s all that comes to mind right now. Er, easily distracted.

Anyway, i’ve had these lyrics stuck in my head for too long now, repetitively, doing my head in but at the same time comforting me.

We all know it, it’s striking a chord with me more and more lately though. So hey, here it is.

Steve Miller Band Fly Like An Eagle Live.

This is the best video I could find. Unfortunately embedding doesn’t work.

With that, i’m out to hopefully take some photos and have some solitude amongst some errands. Good day!

Sometimes when I go through my sister’s records I honestly cannot understand why she bought (or traded for) some albums.  Maybe I’m not giving her enough credit … or maybe she got them by accident.  Like the one I got from her room today: Rock Love, by the Steve Miller Band.  This one is pretty good!

This one came out in 1971, a year before Steve hit the pop charts with “The Joker.”  Miller and his band had been around since 1965, when they came out of San Francisco with a pretty generic blues-rock sound.  The Steve Miller Band’s first album Children of the Future (1968) came out on Capitol Records, but they actually first appeared on record in 1967, backing Chuck Berry for his Live at the Fillmore LP.

Miller was actually making progress up the stairway of success – Your Saving Grace and Number 5, albums from 1969-70, were moderate hits and songs like “Space Cowboy” and “Living In The USA” were getting radio airplay.  But in 1971 Miller got into a car accident and broke his neck.  During his long recuperation Capitol released Rock Love, an album of live and outtake material.

Side One was all live, with three tracks from the blues days.  “Love Shock,” clocking in at nearly 12 minutes, features Miller freaking out Hendrix-style on guitar and Jack King taking some lengthy drum solos.  The bass player is Ross Valory, who would go on to become a founding member of Journey a few years later.

Side Two of Rock Love had some pretty decent studio tracks that presaged Miller’s later sound: the title song sounds like something that could have been on Fly Like An Eagle (and maybe it was, in another form) while “Deliverance” sounds like some of the Miller Filler we would encounter in later live shows.

Needless to say, Rock Love didn’t make much of an impression.  Steve got out of his hospital bed (or not) and rushed into the studio for the next album, Recall The Beginning…A Journey from Eden, which had a huge, all-new band but some pretty mediocre songs.  Capitol sensed that maybe Miller had reached the end of his 15 minutes, so it released Anthology with songs from the first five albums.  Then along came The Joker in 1973 … and you know the rest.

MP3: “The Gangster Is Back” (live)

MP3: “Love Shock” (live)

MP3: “Rock Love”

Steve Miller Band official website

Th’ Lip is really FEELING this one. He’s been waiting 31 years to belt this out in public. TODAY is the day!

Steve Miller – “Jet Airliner”, oh, yeah…

Filmmaker Richard Lucchesi, a Kyung Hee University English Professor wanted to know more about the Su-neung (수능), a test that everyone in Korea knows about, and that virtually all high school students have taken since 1993. It’s a university entrance exam, and is still the most common way to enter university in Korea.  Offered once a year in November, as many as 600,000 high school seniors students sit for the exam each year. They traveled the streets of Seoul speaking to its residents about their experiences. This film is dedicated to the millions of people who have studied for and taken the Su-neung (수능) university entrance exam in Korea, and for those who have yet to do so.

Rock God Cred Report:

Click here to check a 70’s classic cover by Steve Miller “Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ But Trash”…I know The Clovers did this song in the 50’s…anyone before them?  Greaaat toon!

Buy “The Joker”….solid album.  Time to revisit.

Snuhthing Anything Report:

Click here to go to SA to check Steve Miller “The Joker”, Soundgarden “Black Hole Sun”, and Neil Young “Heart of Gold”

Listen up chumps.

There are bands and there are bands. The music scene is crazy. Bands start up each and every day. I saw another one just the other day.

Pe 31 octombrie, chiar de Halloween, de la ora 23:30, Horia Brenciu aduce in club Tribute din Bucuresti (Calea Victoriei) un nou program special intitulat “The American Dream”. Noul spectacol pus in scena de artistul MediaPro Music este un tribut, asa cum cere specificului clubului, de aceasta data adus “Visului American”. “Era o emisiune la BBC… Iti traduceau vers cu vers, iti dezvaluiau mesajul din spatele cuvintelor si la sfarsit, se asculta piesa intreaga. Asa am inteles ce zicea Steve Wonder despre Halloween, in I just called to say I love you. Ma intelegeti acum de ce show-ul meu de la Tribute se va numi The American dream, tocmai de Haloween? Pentru ca pentru mine acest vis il reprezinta muzica, in primul rand, a acelor ani. Toata splendoarea din ‘70 si ‘80 sta acum in note muzicale si in cuvinte cantate de oameni care au intrat intr-o galerie de clasa.”, dezvaluie Horia. Lionel Richie, Nat King Kole, Steve Miller, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Tina Turner, Prince, Steve Wonder, Madonna, Cool And The Gang, Michael Jackson si multi altii care au eticheta made in USA, l-au influentat si i-au format gustuile musicale vor prinde viata pe scena clubului Tribute, pe 31 octombrie.  “Sambata seara, la Tribute, n-o sa fie nicio stafie si nimeni care sa nu se bucure de muzica. Pentru cei care au rezervat pana acum locuri, ii linistesc si le spun ca va trebui sa se implice, ca de obicei, cum o fac la spectacolele mele, la cateva melodii. Sa-si pregateasca vocea si energia necesara unei asemenea seri.”, completeaza Horia.

Sursă: www.mediapromusic.ro, 28 octombrie 2009

My plan to get out and about early to see Athens hasn’t gone very well, I hadn’t allowed for a brutal hangover. Quite frustrating when I didn’t really enjoy the drink either. I eventually got out at just before 17:00.

The damn mosquitoes have got at me again, buggers. Are there any hot countries where you don’t get them? I have a fiendish plan for long term revenge though; I’m going to be become a Buddhist and have a word with Buddha so that I come back as a sharp eyed eagle and spend my days (how long do eagles live?) hunting down the minuscule menaces. I reckon I can wipe-out at least 10,000 of them for every bite I’ve ever received, 27 years (which is my guesstimate on your average eagle’s lifespan) will be plenty of time to do it.

I just had a bit of a doings with a member of staff at the hostel. I’d put 70 cents in a vending machine (on the premises) to get a bottle of water, when I pressed the button it took the money but didn’t give me the goods. As you would do I went to query it at the desk. The guy’s attitude was awful, he insulted my intelligence by suggesting I wasn’t doing it right, to try again, or to press the money return button. Arse. I told him that it was just clearly broken but he wouldn’t refund. I asked him if he was going to put an out of order sign up but he wasn’t even going to do that. I’d I lost my temper with him in the end and called him a “f*****g amateur”, which I shouldn’t have done, but after all, he was.

The Vespa P200 I just passed had the key in the ignition (in the top of the headset, never seen that on a PX before) with no one about. He’s (or she’s) a very trusting fella/fellette, I thought about taking it for a wee spin myself. It’s good to be somewhere where there are lots of Vespas knocking about again, but I’m really hoping to see some proper classics when I get to their homeland in the next couple of days. That reminds me, there is actually a Vespa museum somewhere in Italy, I’ll need to check if I’m going anywhere near it.

The only thing on my list to see in Athens is the Acropolis and I’ve managed to mess that up by getting there 10 minutes before closing time today. It’s the Frank Zappa Vilnius statue scenario all over again. It’s right round the corner though so hopefully I’ll have time to have a look in the morning before I get the bus to Patra (I’m not sure if that should have an ’s’ on the end, I’ve seen it spelled both ways) to get my ferry.

For dinner I ate at Ta Youvetsakia. I had roast veal with pasta and tomato sauce (youvetsi). At €10 it was a bit pricey for a pasta dish but that’s the going rate in Plaka and it was very tasty. With it being €5 a bottle, I didn’t bother with my usual liquid dinner mate.

Nothing was on the agenda for tonight and I really fancied catching a flick so I checked the listings, I liked the sound of ‘Carriers’. I found a cinema showing it about a 20 minute walk away and got myself there with Google Maps on the iPhone, I keep forgetting how damn useful that native app is, if I’d only remember I have a GPS in my pocket I could have saved myself a lot of stress on more than one occasion on this trip. The cinema ticket was a whopping €9, if I’d have just stumbled in on a whim I’d have stumbled back out again but as I’d walked there and was in the mood I thought what the hell.

I just saw (pun intended) a trailer for ‘Saw 6′. Talk about flogging a dead horse … and then burning it’s mane off with a blowtorch, spiking it with HIV infected needles, dousing it in sulphuric acid and finally cutting it’s front legs off with a stanley knife.

I just saw (no pun to intend) another one for ‘Avatar’, that looks promising.

The film was actually pretty good, it was like an American ‘28 Days Later’ (though wouldn’t that be ‘28 Weeks Later’) only without the zombies (though if you’re going to be pedantic, 28 Days/Weeks Later aren’t actually zombie movies), it had a touch of Stephen King about it. It’s quite depressing mind, can’t say I left the cinema with a spring in my step. Also, it was only about 90 minutes long, for the mathematically challenged amongst you that equates to one whole € for every 10 minutes viewing time. Scandalous.

Oooh, on the way back I walked past a couple of Piaggio related shops. One of them appeared to have a collection of classic Vespas on the top floor. Reckon I might well have little lookey in there tomorrow morning I does.

The photo was taken from Areopagus Hill, just next to the Acropolis.

Dismal. Dreary. Grim.

That’s what the weather’s been like here in Central Pennsylvania over the past few days. A cold, steady rain’s been soaking everything with gloom. The roof has been leaking. There have been no opportunities to walk in the mornings.

The weather forecasts even predict snow for tonight, and it’s only mid-October. A coating of the white stuff would cause much rejoicing from my 14-year-old son, whose suffers from incurable ski fever. Last night we went with a bunch of his ski buddies and their dads to a local high school to see Dynasty, the latest bit of powder porn by Warren Miller Productions. A local ski club sponsored the screening, for an audience that shared my son’s illness. As I watched the footage of skiers crashing through deep, fluffy powder on slopes around the world, I felt my own fever rise. Enough with fall! It’s time for winter!

I know one thing: If it does snow tonight, I’ll be playing Steve Miller’s Fly Like an Eagle in the morning.

It’s easy to scoff at 1970s hit-maker Miller. Songs like “Jungle Love” and “Jet Airliner” don’t give him much hipster cred, but he did have a knack for a good tune. For me, a lot of his work conjures up winter. I remember reading at my desk in my old bedroom back in Maine as my tiny transistor radio played “The Joker” and snow fell softly outside the windows. That must have been around 1973, when I was 13. Even now, 36 years later, when I hear that song the snow starts falling in my imagination.

I have strong links between music and the seasons. Sometimes I hear a song and it becomes permanently associated with the circumstances, like the way a baby bird will “imprint” on the first thing it sees. From then on, whenever I hear that song my senses flash back to the past. The Wings song “Listen to What the Man Said” pulls me back to an early June day in what must have been 1976, riding down the Pond Road in Manchester, Maine, in my brother’s station wagon, out of school early thanks to a bomb scare and off to go water-skiing, the bright sun strobing in and out of the newly green trees as we pass. Sweet’s Desolation Boulevard always brings me to spring. I think my brother had the eight-track playing one spring day when we drove to Portland for a boat show. “(They Just Can’t Stop the) Games People Play” by the Spinners is fall, because it was an autumn day when I rode my bike to the Grants department store to buy the single.

There are even albums I play especially for particular times. On Halloween I always play Supertramp’s Crisis, What Crisis?, Al Stewart’s Past, Present and Future, and Mike Oldham’s Tubular Bells. I remember hearing Maine station WBLM play Stewart’s “Nostradamus” on Halloween night in 1977, and it seemed so appropriate I made it a tradition. I played the Supertramp album that same night as I did my homework at the dining room table before going out to raise some heck with friends, so I play it every year now. It works just like a time machine. I like to play Tubular Bells on Halloween because its Exorcist connections just make it scary and I’ve been doing it for so long that it instantly conjured up Halloween for me. On July 4 I have a long set list for the occasion: Frank Sinatra singing “America,” David Byrne’s “Independence Day,” X’s “Fourth of July,” Galaxy 500’s “Fourth of July.” On a really sweltering summer’s day the time is ripe for Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, the side with “In the Light,” “Down by the Seaside,” and “Ten Years Gone.”

Fly Like an Eagle is winter from beginning to end, especially that spacey “Intro” to the title song. Once again the connection is largely thanks to my brother’s car, this time a blue Buick Skylark. We listened to the album—on eight-track, naturally—one morning as we drove to Western Maine to go skiing. It was one of those bright winter mornings of knife-like cold, with thin wisps of clouds scudding along high above us in the frigid blue sky. Someplace there’s a photo we took with a Polaroid Instamatic camera on that trip. It shows us standing by the side of the road next to the Buick wearing our 1970’s-style ski duds, squinting in the early-morning sun. Soundtrack provided by Steve Miller.

So if there’s snow on the ground tomorrow, I’ll cue Fly Like an Eagle up on the turntable and make the fall turn into winter from more than 30 years ago.

It’s all about the slide. Released in 1981, David Lindley’s pedal to the metal version of this late 1940’s r&b track (which has also been covered by Steve Miller, Meatloaf, Dwight Yoakam and Alan Jackson) became an FM rock radio staple upon its release and has has become a permanent fixture on classic rock stations ever since. Lindley, who’s probably best known for his work with Jackson Browne, has been referred to as a “maxi-instrumentalist” in that he has mastered an incredible array of stringed instruments from all manners of electric and acoustic guitars to the mandolin, banjo and bouzouki.

After playing with Browne for about a decade, Lindley formed the rock band El Rayo-X and they released a handful of albums, the first of which was the most successful. That first album, simply titled “El Rayo-X” featured mostly covers, including The Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” and The Temptations “Don’t Look Back” (also famously covered by Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger) but it was Mercury Blues that got the attention of radio programmers. Right from the intro with a drumbeat that grabs hold of the listener it’s three-and-a-half minutes of crank it up fun. And that slide guitar. He definitely put that sucker through its paces.

Lindley released a couple of more albums in the 80s under the El Rayo-X banner, and has continued to record and tour ever since. But it’s his version of a song originally written as a tribute to the American automobile that he will probably be most remembered for. That, plus you know that falsetto vocal on Jackson Browne’s version of “The Load Out/Stay” (another classic rock radio staple)? Yep, that’s Lindley. Check out the second clip below.

I was diagnosed with low grade cabin fever.

The doctor recommended walking.

It worked!

Now I’m looking for a bigger house so I can start jogging.

note: I don’t know how I got cabin fever: I live in a house.

double note: “cabinet fever” sounds really bad.

triple note: would buddhist monks get cabin fever?

quadruple note: a country’s isolationist policy just means a very big cabin fever … and possibly a headache for everyone else.

quintuple note: I haven’t heard any good “I spent a year by myself” stories that had a productive ending … except Steve Miller’s “Fly Like An Eagle” album story.

sextuple note: on Planetross there are other people, just not too real.

notes to myself #22

It doesn’t matter when you go to the nextdoor neighbours on Halloween, they will save the good candy for you.

If you have a mobile Home that is 33 years  old or less you will be hard pressed to beat my rates and coverages anywhere, in Florida not to mention I am a real person and not some statisic  gathering internet site that you put your information in and you hope and pray that you might get a phone call and then when you do you don’t have a clue where they are calling from. I AM RIGHT HERE IN CLEARWATER., the manufactured/mobile home capital of the country. What else do I offer with the Mobile Home package? I can raise your liability cover your Gulf Cart put replacement cost on your personal property, loss of use, Hurricane/Wind even Flood which is a separate policy. What if your unit doesn’t fit in the the 33 year old program? I still have a policy for you that will fit your needs. By the way I also offer Directors and Officers insurance for Mobile Home or Condo Association.

I also offer Auto Insurance for Grey Market cars and for less fortunate folks who seemed to get pulled over every time they get behind the wheel especially right after a celebration of some kind. I offer motorcycle Insurance, Jet Ski Insurance and all sorts of Commercial Insurance.

I can be reached at 727-424-1485 or you can e mail me at mcsplst@gmail.com

http://alphainventions.com                               http://blogsurfer.com

Happy Monday to Ya!

Cute photo of cousins Peyton and Hannah from a few years back.
          ~~~~~~~~~~
~”Mercedes Sosa (born 9 July 1935, died 3 October 2009 in Buenos Aires) was an Argentinean singer inmensely popular throughout Latin America. With her roots in argentinean folk music, she became one of the preeminent exponents of nueva trova (new song). Sosa is greatly admired for the depth and beauty of her contralto voice. She is nicknamed “La Negra” by her fans for her long, jet-black hair.
Sosa was born in Tucumán, a northwestern province of Argentina, of mestizo descent from French and Amerindian (Quechuan) ancestry.
Sosa and her first husband Manuel Oscar Matus were key players in the mid-60s nueva canción movement (which was called nuevo cancionero in Argentina). Her first record was Canciones con Fundamento (Songs with Fundament), a collection of Argentinean folk songs.
In 1967, Sosa toured with great success the United States and Europe. In subsequent years, she performed and recorded extensively, broadening her repertoire to include material from throughout Latin America.
In the early 1970s, Sosa released two concept albums in collaboration with composer Ariel Ramírez and lyricist Félix Luna: Cantata Sudamericana (South American Cantata) and Mujeres Argentinas (Argentinean Women). She also recorded a tribute to Chilean poet Violeta Parra.
~Mercedes Sosa, an Argentine singer who emerged as a electrifying voice of conscience throughout Latin America for songs that championed social justice in the face of government repression, died today at a medical clinic in Buenos Aires. She was 74 and had liver, kidney and heart ailments.”
(www.last.fm and www.mashget.com)

          ~~~~~~~~~~
Today’s Music Notes
~1965, Johnny Cash was arrested crossing the Mexican border into El Paso, Texas after customs officials found 100’s of pills in his guitar case. He received a suspended jail sentence and a $1,000 fine. 
 ~1966, Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding played together for the first time, The Jimi Hendrix Experience were formed.
~1974, The Beach Boys went to No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Endless Summer’, the group’s second US No.1.
          ~~~~~~~~~~
Big Birthday
~1943 Steve Miller born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You’ve probably heard the story-Les Paul was Best Man at Steve’s parents’ wedding. “Les Paul encouraged young Miller to use his prodigious talents, and much of Miller’s success has been attributed to Paul’s tutelage. Miller still uses some of the techniques taught to him at that time.”
Steve immersed himself in the Chicago blues scene, working with Paul Butterfield, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy. In 1967, the Steve Miller Band was formed…”Livin’ in the USA”, “The Joker”, “Fly Like An Eagle”, “Rock’n Me”, “Take the Money and Run”, “Jungle Love”, “Jet Airliner”.
“Upon hearing the news of the death of his godfather Les Paul, Steve was very distraught and responded “I can not believe he is gone, I will miss him very much, my prayers go out to him.” At the request of Les, Steve sang two songs at the private memorial service.”
          ~~~~~~~~~~
Firsts for Today
~1947 1st Presidential address televised from White House-HS Truman
~1962 Beatles release their 1st record “Love Me Do”
~1970 PBS becomes a network
          ~~~~~~~~~~
The Late Show with David Letterman
~Top Ten Things Overheard at China’s Anniversary Celebration
10. So communism is 20 years younger than Cher?
9. The Beijing Red Roof Inn is the best we could do?
8. Let’s take attendance to make sure all 1.3 billion people are here.
7. Wow, Regis will attend anything.
6. Why do I always get stuck sitting behind Yao Ming at these things?
5. Great! Letterman videotaped a special Top Ten list for us.
4. Is it me or is the Tiananmen Square cake a little tacky?
3. And now, President Hu Jintao will be roasted by the one and only Gilbert Gottfried.
2. Any more of those ‘pandas in a blanket’ appetizers?
1. Make sure we’re home in time for Leno.
          ~~~~~~~~~~
News from the Smooth ‘n’ Jazzy World
(smooth news from www.smoothjazznetwork.com)
~On Saturday, October 3, basketball and smooth jazz great Wayman Tisdale was posthumously honored by the Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Hospital in Oklahoma City. Tisdale, who died May 15, was given the Courage Award by the hospital, which provides rehabilitative care for children and adults with acquired brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputee or orthopedic conditions.
Tisdale, an All-Star player at the University of Oklahoma before turning pro and who lived in Tulsa, Okla., created the Wayman Tisdale Foundation, which is dedicated to providing financial assistance to amputees seeking prosthetic limbs. Tisdale had a portion of his right leg amputated due to bone cancer and was using a prosthetic leg when he died at age 44.
“I want to be able to help other people do this,” Tisdale told The Oklahoman newspaper after creating the foundation. “I want to give them the chance, because if I hadn’t been blessed to the point I’ve been blessed, then I couldn’t do this.”
On October 21, Tisdale will be inducted into the the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in Tulsa. Then, on November 12, he will be inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the highest honor an Oklahoman can receive. Finally, Tisdale will inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on November 22.
          ~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks and Cheers…

Steve Miller, American musician

Happy Birthday this week to:
Oct 04
1929 ● Leroy Van Dyke → “Walk On By” (1962)
1947 ● Jim Fielder → Blood, Sweat & Tears, sessions
1957 ● Barbara K. MacDonald → Timbuk 3
1962 ● Jon Secada

Oct 05
1936 ● George Jones Jr. → The Edsels
1938 ● Carlo Mastrangelo → The Belmonts
1942 ● Richard Street → The Temptations
1943 ● Steve Miller
1947 ● Brian Johnson → AC/DC
1949 ● Brian Connolly → Sweet
1954 ● Bob Geldof → Boomtown Rats
1957 ● Lee Thompson → Madness

Oct 06
1917 ● Bob Neal → Early Elvis Presley manager
1946 ● Millie Small → “My Boy Lollipop” (1964)
1950 ● Thomas McClary → The Commodores
1951 ● Kevin Cronin → REO Speedwagon
1954 ● David Hidalgo → Los Lobos

Oct 07
1941 ● Tony Sylvester → The Main Ingredient
1945 ● Kevin Godley → 10CC
1949 ● David Hope → Kansas
1951 ● John “Cougar” Mellencamp
1953 ● Tico Torres → Bon Jovi
1968 ● Thom Yorke → Radiohead
1968 ● Toni Braxton

Oct 08
1934 ● Doc Green → The Drifters
1942 ● Reese Francis “Buzz” Clifford → “Babysittin’ Boogie” (1961)
1948 ● Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) → The Ramones
1949 ● Hamish Stuart → Average White Band
1950 ● Robert “Kool” Bell → Kool & The Gang
1965 ● C.J. Ramone (Christopher John Ward) → The Ramones

Oct 09
1937 ● Pat Burke → The Foundations
1939 ● Overton Vertis “O.V.” Wright → “That’s How Strong My Love Is” (1964)
1940 ● John Lennon
1944 ● John Entwistle → The Who
1948 ● Jackson Browne
1969 ● Polly Jean “P.J.” Harvey
1975 ● Sean Ono Lennon
1984 ● Nona Hendryx → Labelle

Oct 10
1946 ● John Prine
1946 ● Keith Reid → Procol Harum
1953 ● Midge Ure → Ultravox
1954 ● David Lee Roth → Van Halen
1961 ● Martin Kemp → Spandau Ballet
1967 ● Mike Malinin → Goo Goo Dolls

Steve Miller is an eighteen-year-old  business major (thinking of changing) who enjoys sports like bowling and golf. Steve Miller is also one of the many international transplants attending Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. Like Elton John and the Beatles, Steve calls England his home and once I could look past his so-suave accent I decided to try and interview Steve about what the media is like in his own culture. (Note: I have been to England before, but it’s hard to get a good impression of a whole country’s media in less than a week.)

I asked Steve what kind of limitations the government had over the media in his country. In the US the FCC regulates the kind of language and because of that certain things are banned from being aired at times. We for the most part have a free press, something that the Bill of Rights granted journalists in the US. Apparently in England, they also have a free press. As Steve had told me, “..Yes, the media can say whatever they want. That is why the government always gets so ticked at the media…” Out of stupidity more than anything I had this crazy idea that the BBC was controlled by the government (too much V for Vendetta maybe?) but he quickly informed me it wasn’t and upon further research I found out that it is funded by all the taxpayers in the UK. I asked Steve how censored television programming was as well. Apparently unlike in the US, some penis-showing is A-OK in England (just as long as it is not erect). Which I personally think is radical. If women can be marketed off as sexual objects of lust across the world, then a little sausage wagging should balance it out here and there. (side note: Steve wanted everyone to know how crazy it is that Americans are all circumsized) Of course though, Steve pointed out that most nudity is saved for after 9 or 10 P.M. when censorship is nearly ruled out on the television… Meaning that basically you can swear like a sailor and the FCC isn’t going to fine you like your name is Janet Jackson.

When it comes to obtaining news and the what-not though, Steve said most of the people he knows gets all their info from the newspapers or TV. That’s a big contrast compared to what I know everyone to use to get their information – the internet. Steve told me that he primarily only uses social media to keep in touch with his acquaintances more than anything as well. Now that Steve doesn’t have access to an international phone though, I am sure his use of social media to keep in touch will become greater. Surprisingly enough, someone as myself, who uses social media and the internet for doing nearly everything did not even interview Steve via facebook or e-mail.

At the end of our little interview Steve told me in general that the American media, especially the news, seemed to hide a lot more from the citizens or sugar-coated news stories in order not to hurt anyone’s feelings or scare anyone and that is something that he has picked up since arriving here. I didn’t entirely know how to respond to this as I have never really had a proper look at how the UK reports their news, but I suppose I will take his word for it. Then again, he is a little biased .

STEVE ENJOYS THESE ADVERTISEMENTS FROM THE UK:

(coming soon)

Rock God Cred Report:

Click here to check Steve Miller Band “Dance Dance Dance”

Buy “Fly Like an Eagle”