"Kat, where's the Mama Cass review?" Jordan e-mails. It's done. I finished it Thursday evening.
I hadn't checked my e-mail Wednesday or before finishing my review Thursday. I called C.I. later to ask about posting because Thursday nights are Indymedia roundup and I also know C.I. really likes that stuff up in the morning when possible. C.I.'s thinking is that people will be more likely to scroll down to the beginning of a day than to the night before. Also, if C.I.'s tired (or sick in the morning) it does help when one of us has an entry that can go up that morning.
C.I. says, "You didn't check your e-mails?" Nope. Ruth participated in the Cindy Sheehan vigil Wednesday in her area. Because of that and because of that and other things, C.I. had told Ruth to take the week off. Then Isaiah and I both got e-mails but I didn't read mine.
So it will go up next week. Probably Monday morning, I think.
What am I listening to right now, Jordan wondered. Besides Cass Elliot's The Complete Cass Elliot Solo Collection 1968-71 I'm also listening to the new Black Eyed Peas which Cedric recommended. And if I can recommend something to you, I'd recommend you read what Cedric's been writing about the time he's spending visiting four men at the retirement home. I'm really impressed with not just the time he's volunteering but with the way he writes about it.
I told Mike that I'd grab from everyone's blogs today and do a heads up so let me do that. I'd steer you to Elaine's post "Kevin Benderman" from Thursday. Elaine's done a great job filling in for Rebecca (at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude). And the story of Kevin Benderman is something she's addressed multiple times. It's been one of her big issues. I spoke to Rebecca Wednesday before I went to the vigil for Cindy Sheehan in my area and we spent most of the time on the phone talking about what a great job Elaine's doing. She really is doing a wonderful job. Rebecca said she knew Elaine would do a good job but she had no idea she would do this great of a job. Elaine's so funny because she always asks, when we're all together on Saturdays working on The Third Estate Sunday Review, "You really thought that was good?" Yes, everyone thinks it was good. Actually, we all think it's great.
Betty's working on a post tonight that will pick up where her last one (other than "Found in the paper") left off. "Thomas Friedman Is On Vacation" made me laugh and I'm looking forward to reading the follow up which Betty says continues the vacation and she hopes to have up tonight.
I really love Mike's site as well. I like how he offers advice when people e-mail him with questions but he never presents himself as an expert (or a gatekeeper) and just notes instead something that worked for him or worked for a friend or his family. It's really common sense based and the sort of common sense that the new "Abby" and "Ann Landers" don't seem to possess. I especially enjoyed his interview with Dona (of The Third Estate Sunday Review).
It's difficult for me to pick one thing from The Third Estate Sunday Review's latest edition. I'll go with Ava and C.I.'s review "Peter Jennings Reporter leaves a bad taste" because (a) it's great writing and (b) I didn't help with that piece.
Which brings me to The Common Ills and that's a hard thing to pick from because C.I. packs a lot of information and important things into each entry over there. I think I can narrow it down to two things though. "Scattered Jottings" is about the need for us to stand strong and be vocal and I loved that. "Cindy Sheehan's message is 'Bring the Troops Home Now' (though some seem confused by her message)" is really strong and one of those "for the record" posts. Like Mike, I don't feel that those who wrote that Cindy Sheehan wasn't in favor of bringing the troops home now were mistaken, I feel they were lying. I think that was disrespectful and insulting and when the right's already lying, people on the left shouldn't be putting out misinformation (especially if it was to serve their own agendas).
That's really all I have to say tonight. I will put in a personal message: MAGGIE, RETURN MY JUDY COLLINS CD ALREADY!
And I'll close with what I've been closing with a lot lately because I want to be sure people know about this CD set:
Cass Elliot The Solo Sessions 1968-1971 (heads up to new double CD collection)
Ava and Jess here and we're doing this entry together. Last week, we received an e-mail about an upcoming Cass Elliot collection and would have been happy to link to it but it's only come out this week.It's entitled The Solo Sessions 1968-1971 and it's a double disc set ($39.98) offered by Hip-O Select. There are 5,000 copies so if you're interested, you should consider checking it out.
"Different" is one of the songs on the collection and that's the song that C.I. noted in a "Five CDs, Five Minutes." That's not been on a CD before. In addition the collection contains "three tracks that had never been released in any form: Cass' cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Sisotowbell Lane,' a version of John Sebastian's 'Darling Be Home Soon,' and the Cashman, Pistilli & West tune 'For As Long As You Need Me.' They are revolutionary, and stand proudly with anything Cass released."
The first disc contains twenty-three tracks and the second disc contains fifteen. If you've bought a Cass collection (and Jess has many), you don't have a collection like this. You get "Dream A Little Dream of Me," "California Earthquake," "Make Your Own Kind of Music," "I Can Dream, Can't I," "The Good Times Are Coming," and all the rest you know from other collections. But you also get tracks that aren't available in the CD format elsewhere.
There are no live tracks. The set focuses on Cass' singles from 1968 to 1971.The Mamas and the Papas and Cass, herself, are very popular with community members so we wanted to do a heads up. And if there's a visitor who stumbles upon this entry and wonders, "What does music have to do with anything?" you're at the wrong site. Music is very important to the community. (And here's but one example of Cass and the Mamas & Papas popping up in an earlier entry.)
We'd asked C.I. if it was okay to note the set here when it came out because The Third Estate Sunday Review only publishes on Sunday and were given permission (actually, what we got was, "Why are you even asking? Of course."). So that's your heads up.
If you're interested and can afford it, great. If you're interested but might need to save up (understandable), hopefully this gives you some time to do that. If you're a Cass fan or a Mamas and Papas fan you'll probably get a kick out of checking out the album online even if you're not planning to purchase it.
