Revolution, liberty, discovery, and moral courage.  These were themes prevalent in Ted Kennedy’s eulogy for his brother Bobby, after his insane assassination in 1968.  Drawing directly from one of Bobby’s greatest speeches, Ted quoting Bobby, said that, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.  And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Well, I don’t know about you, but that’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard or read.  To me, it encapsulates the frontier thinking that marked the cultural and social revolutions going on in the 1960s.  Bobby originally gave that speech in apartheid afflicted South Africa in 1966, where racism and intolerance were raging.  Ted’s eulogy for his brother was also perhaps his finest moment and speech, summing up his brother’s life by stating that “his brother not need to be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life,” and that “he be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, and saw war and tried to stop it.”  It’s at this point, where Ted’s voice begins to quaver, and he delivers Bobby’s greatest thought ever, “some men see things as they are, and say why, I dream things that never were, and say why not.”

The trailer for “Bored to Death” season 3 just came out, and of course, its awesome.  I have an incredibly soft spot for this show.  For starters, I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the predominant location of the show’s adventures.  Next, I love detective comedies, long story there.  Lastly, the cast is brilliant and the show high brow and hilarious.  That’s two or three things, but whose counting?  Anyway, the season 3 trailer is just Ted, Jason, and Zach gallivanting around Coney Island to the Beastie Boys “Triple Trouble.”  If this doesn’t make you happy, I want you to stop reading my site.  Well…read my site less, or just read it the same amount, but respectfully disagree with me on the subject of liking this show.  BORED TO DEATH!!!!

Part 74 roars on, as I guess its punk week here on williesimpson.com.  This time I have the Ramones smashing through a blistering live performance of “Blitzkrieg Bop,” the lead off track from their debut record.  The Ramones, hailing from Forest Hill, Queens, NY, are probably the world’s first original punk rockers.  This video is amazing.  First of all, they are performing “Blitzkrieg Bop” in Germany of all places.  Second, its almost a note perfect recreation of the record, which speaks to the Ramones awesome live power.  Their energy and passion just fly off the stage, and off the screen.  This is one of the coolest documents in rock and roll history, and everyone who likes music needs to watch it.

Part 62 takes us back to Biggie and his incredible album Ready to Die with the song “Warning.”  This is a messed up perfect rap song about Biggie boasting about his awesomeness through the glass onion of revenge.  The video is a lot like the song, Biggie on the phone rapping to himself, well in this case, Biggie #2 is played by Diddy.  In actuality, the video is kind of redundant.  Biggie was such an amazing rapper, that he never needed videos, the lyrics just unfold in your brain like the baddest movie imaginable filled with attitude.  Still, its good to see Biggie and dream about what else he could have given us had he lived.  It’s so unfair that he’s still not here, and the irony of this song is not lost on anybody that knows Biggie, his music, and his story.

Part 29 of my youtube countdown continues yesterday’s theme of solo Beatle acoustic performances.  In this one, we have John Lennon playing Dear Yoko at his Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island home.  The common response to seeing the video is two fold.  For starters, a lot of people have trouble believing its really John behind the hat and long beard.  Well, it’s him.  Second, people are blown away by the intimacy of this video performance, wondering if John somehow predicted the emergence of youtube.  Well, obviously he didn’t, but this rare video is a beautiful youtube gift.  Its the type of clip that justifies youtube’s existence.  The main thing that strikes me personally about this clip is the wonderful condition John’s voice is in.  One thing I’ve come to realize is that John continued to improve as a singer well after the Beatle years.  His singing on Double Fantasy is the best of his career in my opinion.  Another thing that hits me is the songwriting style of “Dear Yoko.”  It’s like a throwback to the love songs he wrote with Paul when he was 17, in its simplicity, but ironically, filled with way more innocence and vulnerability than he could ever muster at that age.