st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;}

O.J. Simpson was “acquitted”. The word “acquitted” doesn’t mean “not guilty”. There is a legal difference. Michael Jackson, a writer tells me, was “acquitted” twice. Then he went on TV and chatted about sleeping in the same beds with little boys. This is a man who wasn’t unfamiliar with social mores. He understood clearly how his behavior would be viewed. His callousness is evidenced in the video of the man hanging one of his infant children over a balcony in Berlin. Had he been a poor man, Jackson would’ve been imprisoned and segregated for his own protection from other inmates. Last night a Washington Post columnist wrote Jackson benefited from the dawn of the music video and the tight production of Quincy Jones. When the video fad waned so did Jackson’s career.

Now, earlier I stated Ed McMahon was a role model. He left a budding broadcast career to return to the Marine Corp and dodged flack over North career on 85 distinct occasions. Ed McMahon was a great man. His TV obituaries reduced him to some sad clown guffawing at Johnny Carson’s jokes. For the record, Carson flew no missions over North Korea.

I’m also hearing comparisons between Jackson and Elvis Presley. The latter walked away from his career when it was at its peak and gave his country two years in the Army. Then he returned and had two distinct and successful careers before dying.

In an earlier note I mentioned I live a short drive from Dover Air Force Base. It houses a mortuary where fallen heroes come home for the last time. It was recently in the news as mainstream news media demanded they be given access to some very private family (relatives and military family) moments. Partial access was granted; the media showed up for a couple of days and then vanished. Most of the young men and women come home from their final battles and their names are rarely remembered beyond some urban neighborhood or small Nebraska town. Some came from hardscrabble backgrounds even more trying than anything the wealthy Mister Jackson endured. Yet they didn’t complain, they instead put on uniforms and sought more hardship. Past generations of Americans were almost wholly that way, taking depression in stride and then still offering to do a duty for their country.

There are no apologies I’ll make about my feelings for Michael Jackson. He was a media creation. The current media frenzy tells us a great deal about where we’re headed culturally and why there is so little hope for the future. Jackson could dance, sing and fellow a choreographer’s directions. Apparently far better than most people but what does he leave us culturally? The circus has left town and perhaps we need to take stock of what it really means to be an idol. A hero, for a much better description, and next week a large plane will land at Dover. Then how will you define greatness?

I’ve read comments at Facebook from cousins and old friends calling me a monster for suggesting Jackson was anything less than a demigod. He was just a man given great gifts, which then were squandered for some inexplicable reason. He’ll deal now with God as the rest of us will. Alone, carrying nothing from the temporal world.

Hey guys,

Long time no-blog.. Just wanted to check in from the new evening shift. On yesterday’s program a discussion about Tattoo’s came up and we decided live on air to have an impromptu Delmarva’s Best Tattoo contest. Two listener’s volunteered some great prizes., 1st prize is a $25 downtown gift certificate sponsored by Rehoboth Beach Main Street good at over 100 downtown establishments: shops, galleries, spas, hotels, restaurants & more!! (full list below) 0 2nd Prize a listener is donating a $25 g/c to Strawberry Liquors in Selbyville.

To submit your tattoo e-mail a pic or text a pic to jared@wgmd.com - I will be choosing a winner on Friday night, but your votes can help me decide.

To check out the current entries go to http://twitpic.com/photos/jaredmorris

to vote e-mail a description of the one you like the best to jared@wgmd.com (or call me on the air 7pm - 10pm)

So far (as of 06-24-09 at 10:48 PM) this one is my fav:

This isn’t an official radio station promotion, just a fun contest on the new Jared Morris Radio Show. (btw for those of you asking, I will have podcasts of the last few days up tomorrow night, having some computer troubles today! Thanks for keeping tuned in to the new show)

List of participating establishments for donated $25 G/c

RETAIL & SERVICES:
Adeline New York
AerieArt Gallery
Amandeline Gallery
Angel Eyes Gallery
Angel Scents
Ann Bateman Ltd
Anything Goes
Atlantic Books
Atlantic Jewelry Expressions Co
Bad Hair Day?
Bayside Rug Co.
Beach Essentials
Beach Fun Rentals & Sales
Beach Graphics
Bella Mia Hair Boutique
Bike to Go
Bin 66 Wine & Spirits
Blooming Boutique
Bob’s Bike Rentals
Body Shop Fitness
BodymindCenter
Bootlegger
Browseabout Shops
California Sunshine West
Carlton’s
Christmas Spirit
Cleo’s Boutique
Coastal T- Shirt
Coquina Caye
Creatable Crafts
Crysti & Company
Del Sol
Detail Gallery
Dolphin Dreaming
Downtown Cowgirl
E C Shades
The Edge
Elegant Slumming
Gallery 50
Gidget’s Gadgets
Heidi Lowe Jewelry
J Conn Scott Inc
Jeff West Home
Kennedy Gallery
Kitschy Stitch
Lily Pad Children’s Clothing
Lotions & Potions
Lounging Lizard
Mark Showell Interiors
Mizzen Mast
Mod Cottage
One Spirit Massage Studio
OutGear & More
Panache Gallery
PhilipMortonGallery
Portraits In The Sand
Redfish Designs
Rehoboth Art League
Rehoboth Beach Running Co.
RehobothBeach Variety
Rehoboth Lifestyle
Rehoboth Toy & Kite Co
Robert Thomas Salon
Rock Creek
Rose Garden
Sandals Sandals Sandals
Sea Finds
Sea Shell Shop
Shademakers Eyeware
Sharee’s Inc
Shirt Factory
Sign of the Times
Sign-A-Rama
Sole Boutique
Sole Kids
Something Comfortable
South Moon Under
Stuart Kingston
Sunsations
Sunshine Octopus
Thunderbird Gallery
Tidal Rave
Tidal Rave’s 5 & 10
Tiger Lili
Toys from the Attic
Ward Ellinger Gallery
Winding Beam Collection
Wooden Indian Ltd

RESTAURANTS, SNACKS & GOODIES:
Abstractions Sushi Bar & Restaurant
Adriatico Ristorante
Aqua Grill
Arena’s
Atlantic Seafood Grill
Back Porch Cafe
Bake Shoppe
Beachberry Frozen Yogurt
Best Buns on the Beach
Blue
Blue Moon
Cafe Papillon
Cafe Sole
Candy Kitchen Shoppes
Catchers
Claws Seafood House
Cloud 9 Restaurant
Coffee Mill
Cold Stone Creamery
Confucius Restaurant
Corner Grille
Cultured Pearl
Delfinis Italian Restaurant
DISH!
Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats
Dos Locos
Double Dippers
Eden Restaurant
Espuma
Finbar’s Pub & Grill
Fins Fish House & Rawbar
Fisher’s Popcorn
Five Guys
Frogg Pond
Go Fish!
Grazie! Italian Take Out
Grotto Pizza
Hobo’s Restaurant
Ice Cream Store
Iguana Grill
Irish Eyes
Jakes Seafood House
Kohr Brothers
La La Land
Louie’s Pizza
Lupo di Mare
Mariachi Restaurant
Nicola Pizza
Nourish
Obie’s by the Sea
Ovations Restaurant
Pig + Fish Restaurant Planet X
Pop Pop’s Donuts
Porcini House
Purple Parrot Grill
Rainbow Earth Foods
Rehoboth Ale House
Retro Café and Grille
Rigby’s Bar & Grill
Ristorante Zebra
Robin Hood Restaurant
Royal Treat
Salt Air
Sammy’s Kitchen
Seafood Shack
Seaside Thai Cuisine
Shag
Snyder’s Candy
Stingray Sushi Bar + Asian Latino Grill
Stoney Lonen
Summer House
Thrasher’s French Fries
Touch of Italy
Victoria’s Restaurant
Vine
Wings to Go

LODGING:
Admiral Hotel
At Melissa’s B & B
Atlantic Sands Hotel
Atlantis Inn
Avenue Inn
Beach View Motel
Bellmoor Inn & Spa
BoardwalkPlaza
Canalside Inn
Cape Suites Motel
Crosswinds Motel
Delaware Inn at Rehoboth
Hotel Rehoboth
Melbourne B & B
Oak Grove Motor Court
RoyalRoseInn
Sandcastle Motel
Summer Place Hotel
The Whitson

Susan Boyle is God’s messenger.

A writer at the Boston Globe named Paulson asks us why Boyle has touched so many people around the planet.  He admits to his worries about the demise of his paper but is transfixed by the You Tube video of Boyle singing on television.  M. Paulson quotes theologians and wants your thoughts on why Boyle is important to all of us. 

The theologians have it right but I’ll go beyond.  Boyle is God’s message.  She has lived quietly and unassumingly for almost 50 years in Scotland in preparation for our times.  The Globe writer fears for his job.  There are food riots around the world.  The Chinese have eaten our lunch.  Newsweek charges Americans have given up on God. 

Then comes a humble Scot and we are moved from our self pity and shaken by the voice.  By Friday I stumbled across a ten year old recording of Boyle singing.  Tears formed in my eyes. 

Boyle’s voice is God telling us, “Be not afraid”. 

Click Here to our to watch our
Nanticoke 2008 Powwow Video

Video by Jared Morris, audio courtesy of The Jared Morris Radio Show, The Dan Gaffney Morning Show and The Nanticoke Indian Association Annual Powwow, recorded live 09-07-08 for WGMD.

A few years back, Dan Gaffney and I started a project with local Rehoboth musician Xavier Alexander. Here’s how it happened… Xavier had been in and out of mental hospitals for the last few years, being involuntarily committed by his family, he began showing up at WGMD radio broadcasts with his guitar and singing songs that has written.

He eventually came on the radio on Dan’s morning show to be interviewed and to tell his story. A year or two later, we decided that I would produce an album for Xavier that included new interview segments, in a way to tell his story.

Though we never finished an entire album, 5 songs were recorded and about 26 minutes of interview audio were captured that spring day at WGMD studios in Rehoboth Beach. Shortly after these sessions were taped, Xavier found himself back in the hospital (after a brief stint of moving some of his possessions including his guitar to the radio station).

Though we haven’t worked with Xavier since, these following recording tell a powerful and haunting, beautiful and scary portrait of a tortured artist at work. I recently unearthed these recordings, and not knowing what to do with them, since the album project is not happening, I’ve decided to post them here and at a few other sites. Although I own these sound recordings, the songs are owned by Xavier and I would not in any way try to make anything from them. I just want you to hear them. Therefore, I’ve uploaded these songs to playlist.com and below you can listen to the complete session the way we envisioned it that day.

Here’s the link to the Playlist.com playlist…

http://www.playlist.com/standalone/34398795

Here’s the direct URLs to the MP3s –

“Backwards Dreams: The Music and Words of Xavier Alexander”
By: Xavier Alexander

Words and Music written by Xavier Alexander
Acoustic Guitar and Vocals by Xavier Alexander
Interview by Dan Gaffney
Recorded and Produced by Jared Morris
Concept: Dan Gaffney/Jared Morris
Recorded at WGMD Studios in Rehoboth Beach, DE 2005

1. Backwards Dream
2. About Backwards Dream
3. About Mother Earth
4. Mother Earth
5. About Cover Your Smiles
6. Cover Your Smiles
7. About Keep Chasing Pretty Face
8. Keep Chasing Pretty Face
9. About On The Right Track
10. On The Right Track
11. About Xavier Alexander

I took some time to enjoy the wonderful sunshine and take a lunchtime walk around Milford Delaware.  With my trusty camera in hand I snapped these photo gems:

 This is the back of a local doctors office.  It started first as “SSV”  (South Side Vatos), then the other groups sought to mark the territory with the “18″ and the “crown” plus all the other garbage on top.

ESA appears around town usually near or over top of SSV.  Here is a blurb from Yahoo Answers:

When a gang member calls another gang member an “Esa” or “SA” What does it mean?
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
It is written ESE because it is the sound of the letter S in Spanish. S for sureano meaning southerner! It is often used by gang members(Mexican American/Chicanos) mostly in California to refer to their fellow members or friends. It is not, however, used by Mexicans in Mexico nor is it typically used by Mexicans that move to the US. They will be very offended by the term! The word can also be offensive if you are not Hispanic. (It is like using the N word for a friend and you are not black!) Do not assume all Hispanics are Mexican or that all Mexican use this word so my advice is not to use it!

My husband and both brother in laws HATE this word and they are from Mexico!

Can you translate any of this?

No it’s not the movie from the 80’s called “Goonies”.  More gang stuff.  Not sure if it’s a Crip subset or a Blood subset.  I find different meanings on the net. 

“F Crips” “Goonies” “Blood For Life”  So, maybe these are Bloods, saying “F” the Crips?

This is a large sized spray paint area, maybe 15′ X 20′.  Near the library and behind an arcade.

Large on side of a house.  South Side Vatos

It’s nice to see the city with so much “art on display”. 

Good ol’ East Coast Mafia

I have more…but you get the picture.  I hope Milford gets the picture too, and starts a clean up campaign. 

 

 

 

Kevin Fleming is a world class photographer, and now a world class First State blogger.  Kevin is working on his latest book, “Wild Delaware”.  Once a day for an entire year, (365 days) Kevin will trudge out into the wilderness of Delaware and capture on camera local wildlife in it’s natural environment.  The photo’s from the days shoot appear daily on his blog, http://www.wilddelaware.com

 

For a real treat scroll back in time on his site and see the insect close-up’s and a great shot of a fox gazing into the morning sun.

I thought racist stereotypes in advertising art went out with Jim Crow.  I bought this soda yesterday in Milford, Delaware at a Spanish/Caribbean market that caters to the local Hispanic population.  This is 2007 right?

 

I suggested on last Friday’s program that Nile Rodgers killed Rock music. I’d like to qualify my remarks and shed a little light on Rodger’s musical history from session rock guitarist to Disco king.

While still in his teens, Rodgers was in New York recording sessions and a member of the Sesame Street Band. (Perhaps this is where he began to get confused?) He met a bassist named Bernard Edwards and they formed a ROCK band in 1970. They played successfully in NYC but found it difficult to get a recording contract partially because the label execs couldn’t accept a couple of black guys performing ROCK music.
After years of trying, they gave up on rock and in 1977 formed Chic with some fellow musicians. Chic had a string of Disco hits including Everybody Dance, Le Freak, Dance, Dance, Dance, I Want Your Love and a personal favorite of mine, Good Times (which was later sampled for use in the first crossover Rap music hit, Rappers Delight).

On top of the huge success of Chic, Rodgers and Edwards went on to produce and write for other artists, using CHIC to perform everything musically and vocally except lead vocals. Those productions with Norma Jean Wright, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Johnny Mathis(!) and Debbie Harry (of Blondie fame) among others on hits such as “Saturday”, “He’s The Greatest Dancer”, “We Are Family”, “Spacer”, “Upside Down”, “I’m Coming Out” and “Backfired” to name a few. Rodgers himself also produced many major hit records such as Sister Sledge’s We Are Family, Madonna’s Like A Virgin, two albums by Duran Duran, and various projects for Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Thompson Twins, Al Jarreau (including the theme to “Moonlighting”!), The B-52’s, David Bowie, David Lee Roth, and more recently Michael Bolton, Soul Decision, and MorrisonPoe. Believe me, this is a short list of the artists he has produced.
To be fair to Chic, while they are most often associated with Disco, the music is really more of a funky blend of R&B, Rock and Jazz stylings. They were really quite a breakthrough band which are amongst those credited with salvaging the music industry as the Rock era suffered it’s first real slump in sales and quality.

Nile Rodgers has been noted to have influenced some Rock legends such as Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.  Still scratching my head over this.
The introduction of heavy string support on Chic’s debut album and the over-produced singing tracks are among the reasons why I site Rodgers as the man who killed Rock music. Although these facets of music styling were not his invention, he used them to further his recording and financial success. In reality, Nile Rodgers seems more of a talented opportunist. He saw a hole and he filled it, now where’s ma-money?

The instrumental ballad Savoir Faire from Chic’s debut C’est Chic is the stuff of George Benson. At Last I Am Free sounds to have inspired much of Prince’s slow and easy attitude toward ballads. Sometimes You Win could have been penned by the BeeGee’s (who also started out as a Rock band, by the way). The final song from this album is called Bone (Funny) and is an upbeat instrumental dance tune with the sound of laughter running in the background. This song was obviously a filler with no great aspiration. The biggest hit from the album was Le Freak which when combined with the name of the band made the populous of the time think they were a French band, giving them cultural superiority over our lame US bands. (Isn’t it always the ‘guy from England’ or the ‘chick from Russia’ that seems to get all the attention in high school?)
Anyway, European envy aside, Nile Rodgers has certainly influenced music and I believe that influence was born of anger for not being considered a proper rocker. On top of that the success of Disco lead many of the great rocking bands to falter under the enormous pressure of the record companies to put out a “Disco Song”. We all cried as one-by-one our heros, rock legends, fell to the pressure of the almighty dollar and SOLD OUT to Disco!

On Friday’s Jared Morris Show I intend to expose these turncoats. Will you join me?

Congratulations to local boy, Cliff Hillis who has won the national (international?) Jingle “Be a Rock Star for a Day” contest for Chilis. Cliff is a local performer who has deep roots in Sussex County. His brother Roger (whom also plays bass occassionaly with Cliff) is a respected local reporter and Cliff has been playing locally for years.

“I entered this jingle contest for someone to do a new cover of the Chili’s baby-back rib jingle,” Hillis told WGMD in an early December interview. “And, as it turns out, the powers stuck me in the top ten finalists.”

 Hillis on the Contest (12/06)

The voting was held online on Chili’s myspace website. Hundreds of entries were sent in, 10 finals were selected and you voted to make Hillis “Rock Star for a Day”, in which he will be flown to LA. His Jingle will be heard in Chili’s commercials as well.

The official announcement from Chilis is set for January 8th, 2007.

 Cliff’s Chilis Jingle

for more information goto:
www.myspace.com/cliffhillis
or www.myspace.com/chilis