Dang!

Syd Barrett died!

You can read more here and here and here.

If you don't know who Syd Barrett was, skip to the next part of the post...

Syd was one of the most influential (but under-recognized) popular musicians and composers of the past half-century.

In my teen years, when I was exploring each and every musical sub-genre that caught my interest, the pshyc-rock of early Pink Floyd was high on my list. I had "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", "Relics" and "A Saucerful of Secrets".

I pretty much wore the iron oxide off the tapes.

'Arnold Layne', 'Corporal Klegg', 'Bike', 'See Emily Play' - these were songs that were so silly that they were laughable and yet were compelling enough both musically and lyrically that you just could not help but listen to them over and over again..

'Corporal Klegg' and 'Bike', especially, were part of my life's soundtrack and, even though I have actually heard neither in years, sometimes, out of the blue, these songs just pop into my head.

Just imagine what he could have done if he hadn't fried his brain...

I've got a bike
You can ride it if you like...
I'd give it to you if I could
But I borrowed it.

Syd Barrett's real given name was not, of course, 'Syd" - It was 'Roger'. But he couldn't call himself 'Roger', now could he? Especially since his Pink Floyd bandmate was also named 'Roger'.

Only that Roger's given name was 'George'.

So George is Roger and Roger was Syd.

Hey folks, you can't make this stuff up. After all they're English.

But it's a nice segue into another story I saw on the web news today concerning names. Namely - huh - that having certain, well, names in some parts of Iraq can get you kidnapped, beaten, tortured or worse.

It all relates to the Sunni/Shi'ia thing (which I do not pretend to understand). But I do understand that it is quite ridiculous to wish another person dead because of what their parents named them.

The only thing in this story that I found somewhat clever: some Sunni's in Iraq are trying to 'pass' as Shi'ites by adopting southern accents.

The mind wobbles if you try to translate this into our culture... think northern Catholics affecting an Alabama drawl in order to appear Baptist.

It's about as clever as our President claiming success over a $300 BILLION federal deficit.

Tell me, how in the name of anything you like, that it is 'good news' when this country is $300 BILLION in debt.

That makes about as much sense as killing people because they are named 'Omar' and have a northern accent.

Then again, Bush has a southern accent - Maybe he's one of those dirty Sunnites?

Nah, he's UMC, DANG it.

And all this makes about as much sense as writing songs about mice, crossdressers, stolen bicycles and amputees.

Nice segues, huh?

No shi'ite!

In barely related news, it seems the infighting in the Democratic party continues and Moulitsas always seems to be in the middle of this.

They're getting as bad as the Republicans.

It's looking more and more like Thoreau's political gizzard is being split into quarters instead of halves.

I can't wait.