Get into the blues — WAY into the blues

I‘ve been driving around in Memphis today, having made it across Mississippi and all those other states, listening to the all-blues WEVL, which has some great sounds.

If you’d like to hear it, too, you don’t have to drive 10 hours the way I did. Just click on the link here, and choose an application to play the live link (I’m using RealPlayer.)

Enjoy.

21 thoughts on “Get into the blues — WAY into the blues

  1. Lee Muller

    That’s the only way to listen to WEVL, its transmitter is so weak.
    My NAD analog receiver will pick up FM stations in Atlanta, Charleston, Charlotte and Raleigh, but WEVL just sputters.

  2. bud

    This is just too funny. Only members of the GOP could have this kind of hutpah. From Think Progress:
    Larry Craig and David Vitter — “two United States Senators implicated in extramarital sexual activity” — have named themselves as co-sponsors of S.J. Res. 43, the Marriage Protection Amendment. If passed, the bill would amend the Constitution to declare that marriage “shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.”

  3. Lee Muller

    There hasn’t been any oil spill that reached our coast from a US oil offshore rig since 1968, and the Exxon Valdez spill (due to drunk captain) is the only spill since 1967.
    No oil reached US shores from Hurrican Katrina, even though all those rigs were evacuated and their pipelines moved around the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.
    The Luddites fantasize and fabricate largely out of fear brought on by ignorance of a world created by engineers.

  4. bud

    Lee will, of course, not accept any evidence that runs counter to his preconceived ideas of the world. I’m not sure if Lee is an idiot or if he just likes to mess with people. Either way he’s usually wrong. For everyone else here’s a 2005 story from MSNBC about millions of gallons of oil spilled as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9365607/

  5. bud

    Need more convincing. Here’s an excerpt from a story that shows in detail how 741,000 gallons of oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Katrina. From Sky Truth:
    But for months after the storms, officials from government and industry repeatedly claimed that there were no “significant” spills in the Gulf. That line is still heard even now. Yet in May 2006, the U.S. Minerals Management Service published their offshore damage assessment: 113 platforms totally destroyed, and – more importantly – 457 pipelines damaged, 101 of those major lines with 10″ or larger diameter. At least 741,000 gallons were spilled from 124 reported sources (the Coast Guard calls anything over 100,000 gallons a “major” spill).
    So the whole GOP mantra that there were no major spills following Katrina and Rita is just a big, fat, bald-faced lie. Oil is messy stuff and we may have to live with it’s environmental costs for years to come. But it’s high time we make a concerted effort to weem our way off this addiction. More drilling is a fools game that will NEVER bring gasoline prices down. But it almost certainly will spoil our environment. What a shame if we let the GOP bullies get their way on this.

  6. p.m.

    Weem our way?
    Weem our way?
    Weem our way?
    Weem our way?
    In the jungle, the mighty jungle, young bud sleeps tonight…
    And, by the way, if more drilling were accompanied by more refining and created an oil glut, it certainly would bring prices down, bud. It’s that supply-and-demand thing. Third-grade economics.
    Your statement — “More drilling is a fools game that will NEVER bring gasoline prices down. But it almost certainly will spoil our environment” — is the reason gas costs so much now, and the reason we will soon be a third-world country if Democrats continue to depress our economy with their shallow thought.

  7. bud

    The reason gasoline costs so much, in spite of the fact that it is heavily subsidized, is exactly because of supply and demand issues. It’s not because of speculation, enviornmental wackos, politics, insurgents or Democrat intransigence. Production of oil has exceeded the discovery of new sources of oil since the late 1980s. That cannot continue indefinetely. In the U.S. we drill wells at a breathtaking rate. Currently over 500,000 well produce oil. Many of these are in hard to reach places such as the deep waters of the gulf or the frigid north slope of Alaska. The oil companies cannot even begin to drill on the millions of acres available for drilling now so opening up new areas will do absoltely nothing to bring in new supplies. The result is a 38 year decline in domestic production. ANWR drilling, the only really promising area currently off-limits, will barely slow down this decline. Nothing whatsover domestically can be done to stem this decline. It’s a matter of geology, not environmental extremism.
    And other countries are experiencing similar declines. These countries are not constricted by environment concerns. Countries like Mexico and Indonesia are in terminal decline. Mexico has long been a reliable source of oil but that will end in about 5-8 years as their biggest field, Canterell continues it’s steep decline. Indonesia was once a member of OPEC but now it is a net oil importer. Then there is the Persian Gulf region. Even though many of these countries can maintain production they are using more themselves as they continue to foolishly subsidize gasoline prices. Just check out the massive construction efforts in Dubai. That leaves less for export.
    Perhaps the biggest shock of all is coming from Russia. It is now the largest producer in the world and has shown a huge increase in recent years. Yet over the past year production growth has leveled off and now seems to be in decline. This was not expected for a few more years.
    On the other side we have the huge increase in oil use by the Chinese and Indians. It’s no wonder that gasoline prices are going up. Production simply cannot keep up even with enormous resources devoted to this problem world wide.
    Bottom line: We must use less. There is no other choice. Prices will continue to rise until we do.

  8. bud

    I see Brad is “doing his part” by driving thousands of miles on vaction. Did he not read the State’s article about the many attractions available locally?

  9. p.m.

    The My-Cadillac’s-Got-Nothing-But-Textiles-And-My-Bank-Stock-In-The-Tank Blues
    We’ve been running on fumes, baby.
    So let me fill your tank with love.
    Our Coup de Ville’s come to a sputtering, screeching halt.
    The mills have shut down all their looms, baby,
    But you could sew us up with love.
    Cheap Far East labor’s cut profits down to less than naught.
    They’ve foreclosed on all our rooms, baby,
    But we could live inside our love.
    Let’s just remember bud thinks it’s all George Bush’s fault.
    Blame a Republican for your troubles, baby,
    The world’s developed a liberal axis.
    Yes, blame a Republican for your troubles, girl,
    Where’er it is from which they waxes,
    Obama’s coming to save us
    By turning our paychecks into taxes.

  10. R2H

    One must really, really try to avoid confronting reality to post the following: “…we will soon be a third-world country if Democrats continue to depress our economy with their shallow thought.”
    Let’s try a mental exercise. Answer the following questions factually.
    (1) What party has been in control of Congress for most the past 30 years?
    (2) What party’s candidate has been in the WH for 20 of the past 28 years?
    Now, evidently here’s the tough question for p.m.:
    (3) How can the party out of power for over 2/3s of the last 28 years be driving the country into the ditch?

  11. slugger

    Do you know what BUD stands for?
    Best
    Uninformed
    Democrat
    Too much dosing up on MSNBC. Now we know where he gets his fix every day. He is utterly addicted. I do not even think that he snorts it. I think he mainlines.
    It may not be too late for Bud to go to rehab.

  12. bud

    Ok Slugger I just got back from therapy and now I understand. The White House is controlled by an oil man President with his oil man VP at his side. The VP chaired a secret energy task force that was largely controlled by still more oil men. During the past 7+ years while these oil men have been in charge of the White House and for most of that time their party controlled the congress. But all of that is irrelevant.
    What is really important to understand is the logic behind the power of being in the minority. It is logical to blame the party who is out of control for the 5 fold increase in oil prices during that time and it’s corresponding depressing effect on the economy.
    Now I get it. The Democrats have some magical power that can only come from being out of power. Man that rehab really works. I just wonder what they put in that koolaid.

  13. slugger

    Welcome back Bud. That was a quick trip to rehab but you must have had the TV on Keith and MSNBC while you were getting it in one ear and out the other. All those people in the White House are all oil barrons? They have been running this country to benefit themselves and their oil interest? They do not and have not cared about this country in the 7 and l/2 years while they were in office? They even invaded Iraq because of the oil? Sounds like a good story that Keith might sell to those that will listen.

  14. bud

    Ok, now back to reality. The current high gasoline price has nothing to do with (1) environmentalists (2) Democratic stalling tactics (3) speculators. It also doesn’t have anything to do with (4) poor policy decisions by the president and congress, (5) OPEC greed or (6) Oil company greed.
    There I’ve exonerated all the bogeymen that both sides are blaming in this debate. The problem is simply a shortage of oil production based on geological factors and a huge increase in demand because of China, India and our own love affair with big vehicles. There really aren’t any bad guys here but we do need to recognize the truth and plan accordingly. And that planning MUST include as it’s central component CONSERVATION.

  15. bud

    Paul Samuelson did a pretty good job explaining how futures markets work in an editorial piece in today’s State. I’ve seen other discussions that suggest a small amount of the price increase may be due to speculation that may explain the difference between $120/barrel and $140. But the fundementals suggest the very tight situation that currently exists between supply and demand. The world just doesn’t have much spare capacity.

  16. R2H

    By your own comments, bud, “poor policy decisions by the President and Congress” ARE to blame.
    Who can forget Cheney’s condescending comment? “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.”
    According to Money/CNN.com:

    It’s hard to say how much oil lifting the bans would provide – very little exploratory drilling has been done in most of these areas.
    But using estimates based on the limited information available from the Minerals Management Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Energy Information Administration, lifting the bans might boost the nation’s oil production by 1 or 2 million barrels a day by sometime next decade.

    Since world consumption is currently at 85 million barrels/day, even if we were willing to trade polluted coastal waters and turn pristine wilderness into industrial wastelands, adding 2 million barrels wouldn’t dent the growing supply deficiency.
    BTW, switching to electric cars would probably reduce our oil demand by more than the oil added by sacrificing our currently protected environmental areas.

  17. R2H

    According to SC PRT:

    In fact, travel and tourism directly accounts for 6 percent of all jobs and 5 percent of gross state product in the state.

    Any guesses what would happen to that sector when (not “if”) another Hurrican Hugo destroys drilling platforms, refineries and storage tanks?
    Here’s a look at what happened to LA after Katrina.

    The Coast Guard estimates more than 7 million gallons of oil were spilled from industrial plants, storage depots and other facilities around southeast Louisiana.

  18. bud

    R2H, I was trying to be charitable. The GOP has done very little to encourage conservation over the last 8 years. But the Dems haven’t done much better. All that was understandable while gasoline prices were in the $1.50 range. It just didn’t seem urgent. In any event the public wasn’t going to listen. The pressing issues in the days following 9-11 just weren’t conducive to a preachy conservation plan.
    But now things are very different. The environment is such that people need to understand the truth. That truth is an urgency to conserve energy. Jim DeMint for one foolishly pushes for more drilling and nuclear as the solutions. He never mentions promising energy sources such as wind and solar. And heaven forbid should anyone suggest driving a smaller car to save gas. (How about it Brad, Mr. Energy Party). So I’m willing to go easy on the administration for dragging their feet from 2002-2007. But now it’s time to take the gloves off. Simply put, the GOP approach to energy is atrocious.

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