Dylan: "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

I just finished watching season 1 of Mad Men, which ended with Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" — and that reminded me of this, the stunning "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." A modern masterpiece, a legitimate precursor to rap, and one of the greatest songs written by an American, in my opinion.

This is a live performance, probably from 1964, and one of the best I found. Turn up the sound; it's on the quiet side, but very well performed, and similar to the studio version.



Dylan at the top of his pre-electric form. He's said that he couldn't write this song any more. Not sure many could.

Just one aspect of many to note — aside from the stunning content. It's often said that English is a rhyme-poor language, especially compared to any Latinate language for instance. Yet here's just the first verse (with chorus):

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying

Temptation’s page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you’d just be one more
Person crying

So don’t fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing

Even the last lines of each stanza rhyme with each other — trying / dying / crying / sighing — with lots of fun "feminine rhymes" like these. Note the internal rhyme in the line "So don't fear if you hear" — internal rhyme is a Dylan specialty.

The rhyme scheme for each stanza-set is:

• AAAAAB
• CCCCCB
• DDDDDB
• (Chorus) MMB

Verse after verse, that's an lot of rhymes, and effective ones, on four sounds per each 21 lines. Some of the rhymes are partial (the hole that he's in / if I can't please him), but even those work. I'm in awe.

GP

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Citibank sued by shareholders over excessive pay

Earlier this week shareholders rejected the bloated Citibank pay, but the vote was only a suggestion. Citigroup management chose to ignore the vote so now shareholders are taking their case to court. Reuters:

The complaint filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court accuses directors of breaching their fiduciary duties by awarding more than $54 million of compensation in 2011 to the executives, including $15 million to Pandit, though the bank's performance did not necessarily justify it. At Citigroup's annual meeting on Tuesday, about 55 percent of shareholders participating in an advisory vote rejected Pandit's pay package. That marked the first time that investors had rejected a compensation plan at a major U.S. bank. That vote "has cast doubt on the board's decision-making process, as well as the accuracy and truthfulness of its public statements," the complaint said. "Absent this (lawsuit), the majority will of the company's stockholders shall be rendered meaningless."

Was there really any doubt that the Citi management decision-making was already a disaster? Read the rest of this post...

Dear Google, whose bright idea was it to make the new Blogger CMS incompatible with the iPhone and iPad?

UPDATE, POST BUMP: The good news is that since we raised the concern publicly in this post last night, Blogger did a last minute update overnight so that the iphone app now tells you which posts are draft and which are published.

The bad news is that the app doesn't show you any of your posts that are already scheduled to be posted, they're simply gone. So when you open the app - and mind you, the app is the ONLY way to mobile blog now that Blogger is requiring use of their CMS, a CMS that is not compatible with the iphone or ipad - you don't see any posts that are already scheduled.  So you don't know if something is set to go live or not, so you don't know if you need to post another post immediately to fill in a gap that may or may not exist.

In other words, Google's Blogger iphone app is totally useless. And Google has made it so that it's the only way you can now mobile blog on Blogger.

They've had this app live for months - MONTHS.  And no one at Blogger or Google figured out that the app simply doesn't show posts that are already scheduled?  Someone should be fired for this disaster.  It's embarrassing for any company.  For Google, a leader - the leader - in technology and Web, the debacle that is the new Blogger CMS is criminal.  I can't believe some software person actually built this, and that some boss at Google actually approved it.

And PS - who in 2012 designs a Web site that isn't compatible with the iPhone or the iPad?  And who in a position of leadership at Google approves something like this?

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Blogger's new content management system no longer permits mobile blogging on the iPhone or iPad, the CMS simply doesn't work on the iPhone or iPad at all (at first it appears to work, then freezes, goes blank, etc.)

Because who would want to blog with their cell phone or with a tablet in 2012?

And Blogger's iPhone app is beyond rudimentary - you can't even schedule posts, hell you can't even un-publish a post you've accidentally published (nor does the app distinguish between posts in draft, posted scheduled to publish, or posts already published - you can't tell which is which, so you don't even know which post to publish).

I've just lost the ability to mobile blog at the beginning of two weeks of business travel.  And now need to desperately figure out how to move the blog over to WordPress asap.  Someone at Google should be fired for this.  They had months to fix this.  I told numerous people inside about this months ago, and I doubt I'm the only one who figured out the news CMS isn't compatible with the iPhone or iPad.  They knew the problems with the new system, and simply refused to fix them.

Then again, it is awfully coincidental that Google's new Blogger CMS doesn't work on Google's #1 Android competitor.

Do no evil, my ass.

More on this tomorrow. Read the rest of this post...

Grand Prix faces turmoil in Bahrain

I've never been much of a car racing person let alone Formula 1 racing, but it's an extremely popular sporting event outside of the US. There's been a growing controversy over the race scheduled for Sunday and many have protested to force its cancellation. Bahrain's prince claims that the event is a "force for good" but others disagree. In an effort to chase big money in Middle East, Forumula 1 (and the possibly also the soccer World Cup) have put themselves in this position, siding with horribly repressive governments. If the event turns out to be a fiasco and they lose money, they only have themselves to blame. The Guardian:

The prime minister, David Cameron, responded: "Peaceful protest should be allowed to go ahead. But Bahrain is not Syria. There is a process of reform under way and this government backs that reform." The problem, Bahraini and foreign critics argue, is that key reforms recommended by a high-powered commission appointed by King Hamad Al Khalifa have not been implemented.Bahrain's claim to be a bastion of freedom in the Gulf was further tarnished when non-sports journalists were turned back at the airport or denied visas. Prince Salman said that was not his decision, hinting at rifts with hardliners including his uncle, who has been prime minister since independence from Britain in 1971.Last year's Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled in the wake of the unprecedented protests that followed the Pearl Revolution, the Sunni-led monarchy's short-lived experience of the Arab spring, at an estimated cost of $480m-$800m (£500m). Around 50 people have been killed in unrest since then.

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The Band - Up on Cripple Creek

Sad news this week for fans of The Band. Singer/drummer Levon Helm passed away this week. One day to go until the first round of the elections here in France. Most are predicting a Socialist victory over the unpopular Nicholas Sarkozy. He's expected to make it through the first round but lose (possibly badly) in the second round. One factor that may impact the elections is that for many, this is a holiday period. Schools have break now so many are gone. It's still possible to vote but the numbers could be lower because of this. Read the rest of this post...

Join the EFF for a Week of Action Against #CISPA

Washington is once again doing their darnedest to monitor everything on the internet while forgetting about privacy and civil liberties. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is organizing a new effort to help educate Americans on the issues with CIPSA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing & Protection Act) and how to contact your representative in Congress. Some of the problems of this new effort to spy on Americans is that the law is not specific, so any excuse can be used to spy. Once they have your private information (which they can secretly collect without you knowing about it) the government can share it with whomever they like including companies and other agencies.

For additional information, read a good Q&A on Reddit for more. Spying on American citizens is very un-American so let your voice be heard. Read the rest of this post...