Month: June 2008

After a long and rancorous campaign, will she consider Obama for the Veep spot?

Last night, after her historic victory in South Dakota, Hillary sounded gracious toward her defeated opponent:

I want to start tonight by congratulating Senator Obama and his supporters on the extraordinary race that they have run. Senator Obama has inspired so many Americans to care about politics and empowered so many more to get involved. And our party and our democracy is stronger and more vibrant as a result. So we are grateful.

And it has been an honor to contest these primaries with him, just as it is an honor to call him my friend. And, tonight, I would like all of us to take a moment to recognize him and his supporters for all they have accomplished.

My brother, who is a very good violin player, is finally getting some of his work online. He’s played with tons of people, Dan Hicks’ Acoustic Warriors, Ancient Future, the Waybacks, Queen Ida & her Bon Temps Zydeko Band (and with whom he recorded on a Grammy-winning record, and appeared on Saturday Night Live), and with Richie Blackmore (remember “Smoke on the Water”? well… I have stories…)

Anyway, here’s one of his recordings, recorded with Ancient Future, and that’s Zakir Hussein (of Ravi Shankar fame) on Tabla. The piece is called Lakshmi Rocks Me (originally just “L”), inspired by the playing of Lakshminarayanan Shankar of Shakti (with John McGlaughlin). Seems like every thing he recorded up to that time had a distinctly “Indian subcontinental” vibe to it. He’s vegetarian– I think he thinks he’s Hindu. or Buddhist, or something…

anyway…

We’re driving up to El Dorado County (in the Sierra Nevada foothills) in a couple of weeks to celebrate my Mother’s 90th birthday.

Yeah, we got longevity in the family. No hurry…

His mySpace link. Don’t worry. I’ll fix this one up…