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"Three Things You Need to Know"...interview with John Merrill...Trump asking for 22% budget cut...textsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hillary and Tina cover former Alabama Secretary of State, John Merrill. John Merrill pushed conservative policies as Alabama's Secretary of State starting in 2015. BUT when news of his extramarital affair broke, the scandal led to his decision not to run for reelection. Sources Hillary's Story Al.com Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill admits affair, won't run for U.S. Senate: ‘There's no excuse' (https://www.al.com/news/2021/04/alabama-secretary-of-state-john-merrill-admits-affair-wont-run-for-us-senate-theres-no-excuse.html) Phone recording of Alabama Secretary of State trying to end extramarital affair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt0BT5P6xyo) - from Al.com via YouTube Sex, lies and the Alabama secretary of state: The fall of John Merrill (https://www.al.com/news/2021/04/sex-lies-and-the-alabama-secretary-of-state-the-fall-of-john-merrill.html) Slate Top Alabama Republican John Merrill is extremely outraged at affair allegations before a 17-minute tape emerged. (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/04/alabama-republican-john-merrill-extramarital-affair-senate-race.html) Tuscaloosa News Former Alabama secretary of state John Merrill joins engineering firm (https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2023/02/03/former-alabama-secretary-of-state-john-merrill-joins-engineering-firm/69866816007/) Washington Post Confronted with leaked phone call, Alabama Republican John Merrill admits to affair, drops Senate bid (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/08/alabama-john-merrill-affair-senate/) Wikipedia John Merrill (American politician) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Merrill_(American_politician)) Photos John Merrill (https://compote.slate.com/images/9487a9a0-242a-40df-9546-3fd77067e0c0.jpeg?crop=3000%2C2000%2Cx0%2Cy0&width=1440)--by Joe Raedle via Slate John Merrill and Donald Trump (https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/24390419/20211205/095755/styles/raw/public/processed_images/Screen%20Shot%202021-12-05%20at%208.57.36%20PM.png?width=726)--from Merrill's Facebook via Patch
On today's episode of Locked on Wild, Alex Micheletti joins to discuss the impending news that Danila Yurov will be staying in the KHL for one more year. We look at the reasons behind this decision, how it impacts Yurov's ELC when he signs it and why even if Marcus Johansson does have a bounce back year, the Wild cannot be fooled into an extension again. Yurov sets up to take Johansson's roster spot in 2025-26. We also discuss Dean Evason being in the running for the Ottawa Senators head coaching gig. We look at the other candidates and why Evason seems like a good fit. We finish by discussing the expected Declan Chisholm extension and why John Merrill's extension should be used as framework for Chisholm.Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: Locked On WildFollow/Subscribe Anywhere: linktr.ee/LockedOnWildFollow Locked On NHL: linktr.ee/lockedonNHLJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/ZAB6yyckSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monopoly GO! - Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Pay. The mobile hit twist on classic MONOPOLY. eBay Motors - For parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let's ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.Policygenius - Check life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.Sleeper - Download the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper's Terms of Use for details.Gametime - Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuel - FanDuel, America's Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That's A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)
On tonight's show, I have former Alabama secretary of state John Merrill as we talk about his role at Waggoner Engineering and his efforts to improve infrastructure in our communities.
On this MADM, former Alabama secretary of state John Merrill is sharing about his work with Waggoner Engineering as they serve communities by building infrastructure. Sponsor: Park Supply Company, Inc. ParkSupplyCompany.com
On tonight's show, I have former Alabama secretary of state John Merrill as we talk about his role at Waggoner Engineering and his efforts to improve infrastructure in our communities.
For those who haven't heard the announcement I just posted , songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the first part of a multi-episode look at the Byrds in 1966-69 and the birth of country rock. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode on "My World Fell Down" by Sagittarius. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud at this time as there are too many Byrds songs in this chunk, but I will try to put together a multi-part Mixcloud when all the episodes for this song are up. My main source for the Byrds is Timeless Flight Revisited by Johnny Rogan, I also used Chris Hillman's autobiography, the 331/3 books on The Notorious Byrd Brothers and The Gilded Palace of Sin, For future parts of this multi-episode story I used Barney Hoskyns' Hotel California and John Einarson's Desperadoes as general background on Californian country-rock, Calling Me Hone, Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock by Bob Kealing for information on Parsons, and Requiem For The Timeless Vol 2 by Johnny Rogan for information about the post-Byrds careers of many members. Information on Gary Usher comes from The California Sound by Stephen McParland. And this three-CD set is a reasonable way of getting most of the Byrds' important recordings. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript When we left the Byrds at the end of the episode on "Eight Miles High", they had just released that single, which combined folk-rock with their new influences from John Coltrane and Ravi Shankar, and which was a group composition but mostly written by the group's lead singer, Gene Clark. And also, as we mentioned right at the end of the episode, Clark had left the group. There had been many, many factors leading to Clark's departure. Clark was writing *far* more material than the other band members, of whom only Roger McGuinn had been a writer when the group started, and as a result was making far more money than them, especially with songs like "She Don't Care About Time", which had been the B-side to their number one single "Turn! Turn! Turn!" [Excerpt: The Byrds, "She Don't Care About Time"] Clark's extra income was making the rest of the group jealous, and they also didn't think his songs were particularly good, though many of his songs on the early Byrds albums are now considered classics. Jim Dickson, the group's co-manager, said "Gene would write fifteen to twenty songs a week and you had to find a good one whenever it came along because there were lots of them that you couldn't make head or tail of. They didn't mean anything. We all knew that. Gene would write a good one at a rate of just about one per girlfriend." Chris Hillman meanwhile later said more simply "Gene didn't really add that much." That is, frankly, hard to square with the facts. There are ten original songs on the group's first two albums, plus one original non-album B-side. Of those eleven songs, Clark wrote seven on his own and co-wrote two with McGuinn. But as the other band members were starting to realise that they had the possibility of extra royalties -- and at least to some extent were starting to get artistic ambitions as far as writing goes -- they were starting to disparage Clark's work as a result, calling it immature. Clark had, of course, been the principal writer for "Eight Miles High", the group's most experimental record to date: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Eight Miles High"] But there he'd shared co-writing credit with David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, in part because that was the only way he could be sure they would agree to release it as a single. There were also internal rivalries within the band unrelated to songwriting -- as we've touched on, Crosby had already essentially bullied Clark off the guitar and into just playing tambourine (and McGuinn would be dismissive even of Clark's tambourine abilities). Crosby's inability to get on with any other member of any band he was in would later become legendary, but at this point Clark was the major victim of his bullying. According to Dickson "David understood when Gene left that ninety-five percent of why Gene left could be brought back to him." The other five percent, though, came from Clark's fear of flying. Clark had apparently witnessed a plane crash in his youth and been traumatised by it, and he had a general terror of flying and planes -- something McGuinn would mock him for a little, as McGuinn was an aviation buff. Eventually, Clark had a near-breakdown boarding a plane from California to New York for a promotional appearance with Murray the K, and ended up getting off the plane. McGuinn and Michael Clarke almost did the same, but in the end they decided to stay on, and the other four Byrds did the press conference without Gene. When asked where Gene was, they said he'd "broken a wing". He was also increasingly having mental health and substance abuse problems, which were exacerbated by his fear, and in the end he decided he just couldn't be a Byrd any more. Oddly, of all the band members, it was David Crosby who was most concerned about Clark's departure, and who did the most to try to persuade him to stay, but he still didn't do much, and the group decided to carry on as a four-piece and not even make a proper announcement of Clark's departure -- they just started putting out photos with four people instead of five. The main change as far as the group were concerned was that Hillman was now covering Clark's old vocal parts, and so Crosby moved to Clark's old centre mic while Hillman moved from his position at the back of the stage with Michael Clarke to take over Crosby's mic. The group now had three singer-instrumentalists in front, two of whom, Crosby and McGuinn, now thought of themselves as songwriters. So despite the loss of their singer/songwriter/frontman, they moved on to their new single, the guaranteed hit follow-up to "Eight Miles High": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "5D (Fifth Dimension)"] "5D" was written by McGuinn, inspired by a book of cartoons called 1-2-3-4 More More More More by Don Landis, which I haven't been able to track down a copy of, but which seems to have been an attempt to explain the mathematical concept of higher dimensions in cartoon form. McGuinn was inspired by this and by Einstein's theory of relativity -- or at least by his understanding of relativity, which does not seem to have been the most informed take on the topic. McGuinn has said in the past that the single should really have come with a copy of Landis' booklet, so people could understand it. Sadly, without the benefit of the booklet we only have the lyrics plus McGuinn's interviews to go on to try to figure out what he means. As far as I'm able to understand, McGuinn believed -- completely erroneously -- that Einstein had proved that along with the four dimensions of spacetime there is also a fifth dimension which McGuinn refers to as a "mesh", and that "the reason for the speed of light being what it is is because of that mesh." McGuinn then went on to identify this mesh with his own conception of God, influenced by his belief in Subud, and with a Bergsonian idea of a life force. He would talk about how most people are stuck in a materialist scientific paradigm which only admits to the existence of three dimensions, and how there are people out there advocating for a five-dimensional view of the world. To go along with this mystic view of the universe, McGuinn wanted some music inspired by the greatest composer of sacred music, and he asked Van Dyke Parks, who was brought in to add keyboards on the session, to play something influenced by Bach -- and Parks obliged, having been thinking along the same lines himself: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "5D (Fifth Dimension)"] Unfortunately for the group, McGuinn's lyrical intention wasn't clear enough and the song was assumed to be about drugs, and was banned by many radio stations. That plus the track's basically uncommercial nature meant that it reached no higher than number forty-four in the charts. Jim Dickson, the group's co-manager, pointed to a simpler factor in the record's failure, saying that if the organ outro to the track had instead been the intro, to set a mood for the track rather than starting with a cold vocal open, it would have had more success. The single was followed by an album, called Fifth Dimension, which was not particularly successful. Of the album's eleven songs, two were traditional folk songs, one was an instrumental -- a jam called "Captain Soul" which was a version of Lee Dorsey's "Get Out My Life Woman" credited to the four remaining Byrds, though Gene Clark is very audible on it playing harmonica -- and one more was a jam whose only lyrics were "gonna ride a Lear jet, baby", repeated over and over. There was also "Eight Miles High" and the group's inept and slightly-too-late take on "Hey Joe". It also included a third single, a country track titled "Mr. Spaceman": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mr. Spaceman"] McGuinn and, particularly, Hillman, had some country music background, and both were starting to think about incorporating country sounds into the group's style, as after Clark's departure from the group they were moving away from the style that had characterised their first two albums. But the interest in "Mr. Spaceman" was less about the musical style than about the lyrics. McGuinn had written the song in the hopes of contacting extraterrestrial life -- sending them a message in his lyrics so that any aliens listening to Earth radio would come and visit, though he was later disappointed to realise that the inverse-square law means that the signals would be too faint to make out after a relatively short distance: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mr. Spaceman"] "Mr. Spaceman" did better on the charts than its predecessor, scraping the lower reaches of the top forty, but it hardly set the world alight, and neither did the album -- a typical review was the one by Jon Landau, which said in part "This album then cannot be considered up to the standards set by the Byrds' first two and basically demonstrates that they should be thinking in terms of replacing Gene Clark, instead of just carrying on without him." Fifth Dimension would be the only album that Allen Stanton would produce for the Byrds, and his replacement had actually just produced an album that was a Byrds record by any other name: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "So You Say You've Lost Your Baby"] We've looked at Gary Usher before, but not for some time, and not in much detail. Usher was one of several people who were involved in the scene loosely centred on the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, though he never had much time for Jan Berry and he had got his own start in the music business slightly before the Beach Boys. As a songwriter, his first big successes had come with his collaborations with Brian Wilson -- he had co-written "409" for the Beach Boys, and had also collaborated with Wilson on some of his earliest more introspective songs, like "The Lonely Sea" and "In My Room", for which Usher had written the lyrics: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "In My Room"] Usher had built a career as a producer and writer for hire, often in collaboration with Roger Christian, who also wrote with Brian Wilson and Jan Berry. Usher, usually with Christian, and very occasionally Wilson wrote the songs for several of American International Pictures' Beach Party films: [Excerpt: Donna Loren, "Muscle Bustle"] And Usher and Christian had also had bit parts in some of the films, like Bikini Beach, and Usher had produced records for Annette Funicello, the star of the films, often with the Honeys (a group consisting of Brian Wilson's future wife Marilyn plus her sister and cousin) on backing vocals. He had also produced records for the Surfaris, as well as a whole host of studio-only groups like the Four Speeds, the Super Stocks, and Mr. Gasser and the Weirdoes, most of whom were Usher and the same small group of vocalist friends along with various selections of Wrecking Crew musicians making quick themed albums. One of these studio groups, the Hondells, went on to be a real group of sorts, after Usher and the Beach Boys worked together on a film, The Girls on the Beach. Usher liked a song that Wilson and Mike Love had written for the Beach Boys to perform in the film, "Little Honda", and after discovering that the Beach Boys weren't going to release their version as a single, he put together a group to record a soundalike version: [Excerpt: The Hondells, "Little Honda"] "Little Honda" made the top ten, and Usher produced two albums for the Hondells, who had one other minor hit with a cover version of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Younger Girl". Oddly, Usher's friend Terry Melcher, who would shortly produce the Byrds' first few hits, had also latched on to "Little Honda", and produced his own version of the track, sung by Pat Boone of all people, with future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Pat Boone, "Little Honda"] But when Usher had got his version out first, Boone's was relegated to a B-side. When the Byrds had hit, and folk-rock had started to take over from surf rock, Usher had gone with the flow and produced records like the Surfaris' album It Ain't Me Babe, with Usher and his usual gang of backing vocalists augmenting the Surfaris as they covered hits by Dylan, the Turtles, the Beach Boys and the Byrds: [Excerpt: The Surfaris, "All I Really Want to Do"] Usher was also responsible for the Surfaris being the first group to release a version of "Hey Joe" on a major label, as we heard in the episode on that song: [Excerpt: The Surfaris, "Hey Joe"] After moving between Capitol, Mercury, and Decca Records, Usher had left Decca after a round of corporate restructuring and been recommended for a job at Columbia by his friend Melcher, who at that point was producing Paul Revere and the Raiders and the Rip Chords and had just finished his time as the Byrds' producer. Usher's first work at Columbia was actually to prepare new stereo mixes of some Byrds tracks that had up to that point only been issued in mono, but his first interaction with the Byrds themselves came via Gene Clark: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "So You Say You've Lost Your Baby"] On leaving the Byrds, Clark had briefly tried to make a success of himself as a songwriter-for-hire in much the same mould as Usher, attempting to write and produce a single for two Byrds fans using the group name The Cookie Fairies, while spending much of his time romancing Michelle Phillips, as we talked about in the episode on "San Francisco". When the Cookie Fairies single didn't get picked up by a label, Clark had put together a group with Bill Rinehart from the Leaves, Chip Douglas of the Modern Folk Quartet, and Joel Larson of the Grass Roots. Just called Gene Clark & The Group, they'd played around the clubs in LA and cut about half an album's worth of demos produced by Jim Dickson and Ed Tickner, the Byrds' management team, before Clark had fired first Douglas and then the rest of the group. Clark's association with Douglas did go on to benefit him though -- Douglas went on, as we've seen in other episodes, to produce hits for the Turtles and the Monkees, and he later remembered an old song by Clark and McGuinn that the Byrds had demoed but never released, "You Showed Me", and produced a top ten hit version of it for the Turtles: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "You Showed Me"] Clark had instead started working with two country singers, Vern and Rex Gosdin, who had previously been with Chris Hillman in the country band The Hillmen. When that band had split up, the Gosdin Brothers had started to perform together as a duo, and in 1967 they would have a major country hit with "Hangin' On": [Excerpt: The Gosdin Brothers, "Hangin' On"] At this point though, they were just Gene Clark's backing vocalists, on an album that had been started with producer Larry Marks, who left Columbia half way through the sessions, at which point Usher took over. The album, titled Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers, featured a mix of musicians from different backgrounds. There were Larson and Rinehart from Gene Clark and the Group, there were country musicians -- a guitarist named Clarence White and the banjo player Doug Dillard. Hillman and Michael Clarke, the Byrds' rhythm section, played on much of the album as a way of keeping a united front, Glen Campbell, Jerry Cole, Leon Russell and Jim Gordon of the Wrecking Crew contributed, and Van Dyke Parks played most of the keyboards. The lead-off single for Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers, "Echoes", is one of the tracks produced by Marks, but in truth the real producer of that track is Leon Russell, who wrote the orchestral arrangement that turned Clark's rough demo into a baroque pop masterpiece: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "Echoes"] Despite Clark having quit the band, relations between him and the rest were still good enough that in September 1966 he temporarily rejoined the band after Crosby lost his voice, though he was gone again as soon as Crosby was well. But that didn't stop the next Byrds album, which Usher went on to produce straight after finishing work on Clark's record, coming out almost simultaneously with Clark's and, according to Clark, killing its commercial potential. Upon starting to work with the group, Usher quickly came to the conclusion that Chris Hillman was in many ways the most important member of the band. According to Usher "There was also quite a divisive element within the band at that stage which often prevented them working well together. Sometimes everything would go smoothly, but other times it was a hard road. McGuinn and Hillman were often more together on musical ideas. This left Crosby to fend for himself, which I might add he did very well." Usher also said "I quickly came to understand that Hillman was a good stabilising force within the Byrds (when he wanted to be). It was around the time that I began working with them that Chris also became more involved in the songwriting. I think part of that was the fact that he realised how much more money was involved if you actually wrote the songs yourself. And he was a good songwriter." The first single to be released from the new sessions was one that was largely Hillman's work. Hillman and Crosby had been invited by the great South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela to play on some demos for another South African jazzer, singer Letta Mbulu. Details are sparse, but one presumes this was for what became her 1967 album Letta Mbulu Sings, produced by David Axelrod: [Excerpt: Letta Mbulu, "Zola (MRA)"] According to Hillman, that session was an epiphany for him, and he went home and started writing his own songs for the first time. He took one of the riffs he came up with to McGuinn, who came up with a bridge inspired by a song by yet another South African musician, Miriam Makeba, who at the time was married to Masekela, and the two wrote a lyric inspired by what they saw as the cynical manipulation of the music industry in creating manufactured bands like the Monkees -- though they have both been very eager to say that they were criticising the industry, not the Monkees themselves, with whom they were friendly. As Hillman says in his autobiography, "Some people interpreted it as a jab at The Monkees. In reality, we had immense respect for all of them as singers and musicians. We weren't skewering the members of the Monkees, but we were taking a shot at the cynical nature of the entertainment business that will try to manufacture a group like The Monkees as a marketing strategy. For us, it was all about the music, and we were commenting on the pitfalls of the industry rather than on any of our fellow musicians." [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?"] The track continued the experimentation with sound effects that they had started with the Lear jet song on the previous album. That had featured recordings of a Lear jet, and "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?" featured recordings of audience screams. Those screams were, according to most sources, recorded by Derek Taylor at a Byrds gig in Bournemouth in 1965, but given reports of the tepid response the group got on that tour, that doesn't seem to make sense. Other sources say they're recordings of a *Beatles* audience in Bournemouth in *1963*, the shows that had been shown in the first US broadcast of Beatles footage, and the author of a book on links between the Beatles and Bournemouth says on his blog "In the course of researching Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth I spoke to two people who saw The Byrds at the Gaumont that August and neither recalled any screaming at all, let alone the wall of noise that can be heard on So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star." So it seems likely that screaming isn't for the Byrds, but of course Taylor had also worked for the Beatles. According to Usher "The crowd sound effects were from a live concert that Derek Taylor had taped with a little tape recorder in London. It was some outrageous crowd, something like 20,000 to 30,000 people. He brought the tape in, ran it off onto a big tape, re- EQ'd it, echoed it, cleaned it up and looped it." So my guess is that the audience screams in the Byrds song about the Monkees are for the Beatles, but we'll probably never know for sure: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?"] The track also featured an appearance by Hugh Masekela, the jazz trumpeter whose invitation to take part in a session had inspired the song: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?"] While Hillman was starting to lean more towards folk and country music -- he had always been the member of the band least interested in rock music -- and McGuinn was most interested in exploring electronic sounds, Crosby was still pushing the band more in the direction of the jazz experimentation they'd tried on "Eight Miles High", and one of the tracks they started working on soon after "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?" was inspired by another jazz trumpet great. Miles Davis had been partly responsible for getting the Byrds signed to Columbia, as we talked about in the episode on "Mr. Tambourine Man", and so the group wanted to pay him tribute, and they started working on a version of his classic instrumental "Milestones": [Excerpt: Miles Davis, "Milestones"] Sadly, while the group worked on their version for several days -- spurred on primarily by Crosby -- they eventually chose to drop the track, and it has never seen release or even been bootlegged, though there is a tiny clip of it that was used in a contemporaneous documentary, with a commentator talking over it: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Milestones (TV)"] It was apparently Crosby who decided to stop work on the track, just as working on it was also apparently his idea. Indeed, while the biggest change on the album that would become Younger Than Yesterday was that for the first time Chris Hillman was writing songs and taking lead vocals, Crosby was also writing more than before. Hillman wrote four of the songs on the album, plus his co-write with McGuinn on "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?", but Crosby also supplied two new solo compositions, plus a cowrite with McGuinn, and Crosby and McGuinn's "Why?", the B-side to "Eight Miles High", was also dug up and rerecorded for the album. Indeed, Gary Usher would later say "The album was probably 60% Crosby. McGuinn was not that involved, nor was Chris; at least as far as performing was concerned." McGuinn's only composition on the album other than the co-writes with Crosby and Hillman was another song about contacting aliens, "CTA-102", a song about a quasar which at the time some people were speculating might have been evidence of alien life. That song sounds to my ears like it's had some influence from Joe Meek's similar records, though I've never seen McGuinn mention Meek as an influence: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "CTA-102"] Crosby's growing dominance in the studio was starting to rankle with the other members. In particular two tracks were the cause of conflict. One was Crosby's song "Mind Gardens", an example of his increasing experimentation, a freeform song that ignores conventional song structure, and which he insisted on including on the album despite the rest of the group's objections: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mind Gardens"] The other was the track that directly followed "Mind Gardens" on the album. "My Back Pages" was a song from Dylan's album Another Side of Bob Dylan, a song many have seen as Dylan announcing his break with the folk-song and protest movements he'd been associated with up to that point, and his intention to move on in a new direction: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "My Back Pages"] Jim Dickson, the Byrds' co-manager, was no longer on speaking terms with the band and wasn't involved in their day-to-day recording as he had been, but he'd encountered McGuinn on the street and rolled down his car window and suggested that the group do the song. Crosby was aghast. They'd already recorded several songs from Another Side of Bob Dylan, and Fifth Dimension had been their first album not to include any Dylan covers. Doing a jangly cover of a Dylan song with a McGuinn lead vocal was something they'd moved on from, and he didn't want to go back to 1964 at the end of 1966. He was overruled, and the group recorded their version, a track that signified something very different for the Byrds than the original had for Dylan: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "My Back Pages"] It was released as the second single from the album, and made number thirty. It was the last Byrds single to make the top forty. While he was working with the Byrds, Usher continued his work in the pop field, though as chart pop moved on so did Usher, who was now making records in a psychedelic sunshine pop style with acts like the Peanut Butter Conspiracy: [Excerpt: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, "It's a Happening Thing"] and he produced Chad and Jeremy's massive concept album Of Cabbages and Kings, which included a five-song "Progress Suite" illustrating history from the start of creation until the end of the world: [Excerpt: Chad and Jeremy, "Editorial"] But one of the oddest projects he was involved in was indirectly inspired by Roger McGuinn. According to Usher "McGuinn and I had a lot in common. Roger would always say that he was "out of his head," which he thought was good, because he felt you had to go out of your head before you could really find your head! That sums up McGuinn perfectly! He was also one of the first people to introduce me to metaphysics, and from that point on I started reading everything I could get my hands on. His viewpoints on metaphysics were interesting, and, at the time, useful. He was also into Marshall McLuhan; very much into the effects of electronics and the electronic transformation. He was into certain metaphysical concepts before I was, but I was able to turn him onto some abstract concepts as well" These metaphysical discussions led to Usher producing an album titled The Astrology Album, with discussions of the meaning of different star signs over musical backing: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, "Leo"] And with interviews with various of the artists he was working with talking about astrology. He apparently interviewed Art Garfunkel -- Usher was doing some uncredited production work on Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends album at the time -- but Garfunkel declined permission for the interview to be used. But he did get both Chad and Jeremy to talk, along with John Merrill of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy -- and David Crosby: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, "Leo"] One of the tracks from that album, "Libra", became the B-side of a single by a group of studio musicians Usher put together, with Glen Campbell on lead vocals and featuring Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys prominently on backing vocals. "My World Fell Down" was credited to Sagittarius, again a sign of Usher's current interest in astrology, and featured some experimental sound effects that are very similar to the things that McGuinn had been doing on recent Byrds albums: [Excerpt: Sagittarius, "My World Fell Down"] While Usher was continuing with his studio experimentation, the Byrds were back playing live -- and they were not going down well at all. They did a UK tour where they refused to play most of their old hits and went down as poorly as on their previous tour, and they were no longer the kings of LA. In large part this was down to David Crosby, whose ego was by this point known to *everybody*, and who was becoming hugely unpopular on the LA scene even as he was starting to dominate the band. Crosby was now the de facto lead vocalist on stage, with McGuinn being relegated to one or two songs per set, and he was the one who would insist that they not play their older hit singles live. He was dominating the stage, leading to sarcastic comments from the normally placid Hillman like "Ladies and gentlemen, the David Crosby show!", and he was known to do things like start playing a song then stop part way through a verse to spend five minutes tuning up before restarting. After a residency at the Whisky A-Go-Go where the group were blown off the stage by their support act, the Doors, their publicist Derek Taylor quit, and he was soon followed by the group's co-managers Jim Dickson and Eddie Tickner, who were replaced by Crosby's friend Larry Spector, who had no experience in rock management but did represent Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, two young film stars Crosby was hanging round with. The group were particularly annoyed by Crosby when they played the Monterey Pop Festival. Crosby took most lead vocals in that set, and the group didn't go down well, though instrumentally the worst performer was Michael Clarke, who unlike the rest of the band had never become particularly proficient on his instrument: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star (live at Monterey)"] But Crosby also insisted on making announcements from the stage advocating LSD use and describing conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination: [Excerpt: David Crosby on the Warren Commission, from the end of "Hey Joe" Monterey] But even though Crosby was trying to be the Byrds' leader on stage, he was also starting to think that they maybe didn't deserve to have him as their leader. He'd recently been spending a lot of time hanging out with Stephen Stills of the Buffalo Springfield, and McGuinn talks about one occasion where Crosby and Stills were jamming together, Stills played a blues lick and said to McGuinn "Can you play that?" and when McGuinn, who was not a blues musician, said he couldn't, Stills looked at him with contempt. McGuinn was sure that Stills was trying to poach Crosby, and Crosby apparently wanted to be poached. The group had rehearsed intensely for Monterey, aware that they'd been performing poorly and not wanting to show themselves up in front of the new San Francisco bands, but Crosby had told them during rehearsals that they weren't good enough to play with him. McGuinn's suspicions about Stills wanting to poach Crosby seemed to be confirmed during Monterey when Crosby joined Buffalo Springfield on stage, filling in for Neil Young during the period when Young had temporarily quit the group, and performing a song he'd helped Stills write about Grace Slick: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Rock 'n' Roll Woman (live at Monterey)"] Crosby was getting tired not only of the Byrds but of the LA scene in general. He saw the new San Francisco bands as being infinitely cooler than the Hollywood plastic scene that was LA -- even though Crosby was possibly the single most Hollywood person on that scene, being the son of an Oscar-winning cinematographer and someone who hung out with film stars. At Monterey, the group had debuted their next single, the first one with an A-side written by Crosby, "Lady Friend": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Lady Friend"] Crosby had thought of that as a masterpiece, but when it was released as a single, it flopped badly, and the rest of the group weren't even keen on the track being included on the next album. To add insult to injury as far as Crosby was concerned, at the same time as the single was released, a new album came out -- the Byrds' Greatest Hits, full of all those singles he was refusing to play live, and it made the top ten, becoming far and away the group's most successful album. But despite all this, the biggest conflict between band members when they came to start sessions for their next album wasn't over Crosby, but over Michael Clarke. Clarke had never been a particularly good drummer, and while that had been OK at the start of the Byrds' career, when none of them had been very proficient on their instruments, he was barely any better at a time when both McGuinn and Hillman were being regarded as unique stylists, while Crosby was writing metrically and harmonically interesting material. Many Byrds fans appreciate Clarke's drumming nonetheless, saying he was an inventive and distinctive player in much the same way as the similarly unskilled Micky Dolenz, but on any measure of technical ability he was far behind his bandmates. Clarke didn't like the new material and wasn't capable of playing it the way his bandmates wanted. He was popular with the rest of the band as a person, but simply wasn't playing well, and it led to a massive row in the first session: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Universal Mind Decoder (alternate backing track)"] At one point they joke that they'll bring in Hal Blaine instead -- a reference to the recording of "Mr. Tambourine Man", when Clarke and Hillman had been replaced by Blaine and Larry Knechtel -- and Clarke says "Do it. I don't mind, I really don't." And so that ended up happening. Clarke was still a member of the band -- and he would end up playing on half the album's tracks -- but for the next few sessions the group brought in session drummers Hal Blaine and Jim Gordon to play the parts they actually wanted. But that wasn't going to stop the bigger problem in the group, and that problem was David Crosby's relationship with the rest of the band. Crosby was still at this point thinking of himself as having a future in the group, even as he was increasingly convinced that the group themselves were bad, and embarrassed by their live sound. He even, in a show of unity, decided to ask McGuinn and Hillman to collaborate on a couple of songs with him so they would share the royalties equally. But there were two flash-points in the studio. The first was Crosby's song "Triad", a song about what we would now call polyamory, partly inspired by Robert Heinlein's counterculture science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. The song was meant to portray a progressive, utopian, view of free love, but has dated very badly -- the idea that the *only* reason a woman might be unhappy with her partner sleeping with another woman is because of her mother's disapproval possibly reveals more about the mindset of hippie idealists than was intended. The group recorded Crosby's song, but refused to allow it to be released, and Crosby instead gave it to his friends Jefferson Airplane, whose version, by having Grace Slick sing it, at least reverses the dynamics of the relationship: [Excerpt: Jefferson Airplane, "Triad"] The other was a song that Gary Usher had brought to the group and suggested they record, a Goffin and King song released the previous year by Dusty Springfield: [Excerpt: Dusty Springfield, "Goin' Back"] Crosby was incandescent. The group wanted to do this Brill Building pap?! Hell, Gary Usher had originally thought that *Chad and Jeremy* should do it, before deciding to get the Byrds to do it instead. Did they really want to be doing Chad and Jeremy cast-offs when they could be doing his brilliant science-fiction inspired songs about alternative relationship structures? *Really*? They did, and after a first session, where Crosby reluctantly joined in, when they came to recut the track Crosby flat-out refused to take part, leading to a furious row with McGuinn. Since they were already replacing Michael Clarke with session drummers, that meant the only Byrds on "Goin' Back", the group's next single, were McGuinn and Hillman: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Goin' Back"] That came out in late October 1967, and shortly before it came out, McGuinn and Hillman had driven to Crosby's home. They told him they'd had enough. He was out of the band. They were buying him out of his contract. Despite everything, Crosby was astonished. They were a *group*. They fought, but only the way brothers fight. But McGuinn and Hillman were adamant. Crosby ended up begging them, saying "We could make great music together." Their response was just "And we can make great music without you." We'll find out whether they could or not in two weeks' time.
Realtors' Conspiracy host Maude is joined by real estate agent John Merrill of Century 21. Their conversation is all about the value he brings to the table, emphasizing the art of networking and community involvement. John shares his passion for sharing knowledge and adding value, revealing that almost all his business comes from referrals and people he knows. He advocates for being natural, involved, and inviting when building relationships, emphasizing that trust isn't built overnight but through dedicated effort! Tune in to learn about the importance of speaking confidently, knowledgeably, and charismatically, and how being a credible and reliable source is key in the real estate business. John also dives into his process-driven, data-backed strategy for listing presentations. Plus, don't miss the rapid-fire segment, where John shares insights on his most used social media platform, advice for new realtors, top income-generating activities, and more! Looking for a resource to help you revamp your goals as you close the chapter on another year? Check out our goal-setting must have
John Merrill has walked more than 228,500 miles, all over the world. His world records have been documented in over 520 books. He has walked across the USA, all over Europe and completed five solo treks across the Himalayas. His 152 pairs of boots were definitely made for walking! . Socials: https://instagram.com/chris.thrall https://youtube.com/christhrall https://christhrall.com . Support the podcast at: patreon.com/christhrall (£2 per month plus perks) https://gofundme.com/christhrall https://paypal.me/teamthrall ' Mailing list: https://christhrall.com/mailing-list/
John Merrill joins JT to discuss amendments and more that will be on your ballot.
Secretary of State John Merrill joins the show, and he and Will draw a distinct contrast between the way in which Alabama's elections are run and the chaotic state of affairs in states like Pennsylvania and Arizona. Secretary Merrill discusses his work in balancing integrity with increasing registration in the state.
Updates on guns at parks and the flu bug, a string of robberies that appears to be targeting a specific demographic, and what John Merrill is predicting turnout will be for the election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Josh and David open with a discussion of Tommy Tuberville's very racist comments and the lack of response from anyone in the Republican Party. Doug Jones, the guy we could have had as Senator, zooms in to talk Tuberville, the political state of this state and marijuana laws. And they wrap with a discussion of HBCUs and John Merrill, who is this week's Rightwing Nut of the Week. Send us a question: We take a bit of time each week to answer questions from our audience about Alabama politics — or Alabama in general. If you have a question about a politician, a policy, or a trend — really anything — you can shoot us an email at apwproducer@gmail.com or with this form. You can also send it to us on Facebook and Twitter. Or by emailing us a voice recording to our email with your question, and we may play it on air. Either way, make sure you include your name (first name is fine) and the city or county where you live. About APW: APW is a weekly Alabama political podcast hosted by Josh Moon and David Person, two longtime Alabama political journalists. More information is available on our website. Listen anywhere you get your podcasts. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Music credits: Music courtesy of Mr. Smith via the Free Music Archive. Visit Mr. Smith's page here.
QUESTION PRESENTED:Whether the state of Alabama's 2021 redistricting plan for its seven seats in the United States House of Representatives violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.DateProceedings and Orders (key to color coding)Jan 28 2022 | Application (21A375) for a stay or injunctive relief pending appeal, submitted to Justice Thomas.Jan 28 2022 | Statement as to jurisdiction filed. (Response due March 9, 2022)Jan 28 2022 | Response to application (21A375) requested by Justice Thomas, due by noon on Wednesday, February 2, 2022.Jan 31 2022 | Motion for leave to file amici curiae brief filed by Louisiana, et al. VIDED.Jan 31 2022 | Motion for leave to file amicus curiae brief filed by John Wahl, Chairman, Alabama State Republican Executive Committee.Feb 01 2022 | Motion for leave to file amicus curiae brief filed by The National Republican Redistricting Trust.Feb 01 2022 | Motion for leave to file amici curiae brief filed by United States Representatives from Alabama. VIDED.Feb 01 2022 | Motion for leave to file amicus curiae brief filed by Alabama Center for Law and Liberty. VIDED.Feb 02 2022 | Response to application from respondents Evan Milligan, et al. filed.Feb 02 2022 | Reply of applicants John Merrill, et al. filed.Feb 07 2022 | Application (21A375) referred to the Court.Feb 07 2022 | Application (21A375) granted by the Court. The application is treated as a jurisdictional statement (No. 21-1086), and probable jurisdiction is noted. The district court's January 24, 2022 preliminary injunction in No. 2:21-cv-1530 is stayed pending further order of the Court. Justice Kavanaugh, with whom Justice Alito joins, concurring in grant of applications for stay. (Detached opinion). The Chief Justice dissenting from grant of applications for stay. (Detached opinion). Justice Kagan, with whom Justice Breyer and Justice Sotomayor join, dissenting from grant of applications for stays. (Detached opinion).Feb 22 2022 | This case is consolidated with No. 21-1087, and a total of one hour is allotted for oral argument. The question presented in these cases is: Whether the District Courts in these cases correctly found a violation of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 52 U. S. C. §10301.Feb 22 2022 | Because the Court has consolidated these cases for briefing and oral argument, future filings and activity in the cases will now be reflected on the docket of No. 21-1086. Subsequent filings in these cases must therefore be submitted through the electronic filing system in No. 21-1086. Each document submitted in connection with one or more of these cases must include on its cover the case number and caption for each case in which the filing is intended to be submitted. Where a filing is submitted in fewer than all of the cases, the docket entry will reflect the case number(s) in which the filing is submitted; a document filed in all of the consolidated cases will be noted as “VIDED.”Mar 01 2022 | Joint motion of the parties for an extension of time file the briefs on the merits. VIDED.Mar 04 2022 | Motion to modify or amend the question presented filed by appellees and respondents. VIDED.Mar 08 2022 | Joint motion of the parties to extend the time to file the briefs on the merits granted. The time to file the joint appendix, appellants', and petitioners' briefs on the merits is extended to and including April 25, 2022. The time to file appellees' and respondents' briefs on the merits is extended to and including July 11, 2022. VIDED.Mar 08 2022 | Application (21A493) of appellants/petitioners for leave to file consolidated opening and reply briefs on the merits, submitted to Justice Thomas. VIDED.Mar 08 2022 | Response of appellants and petitioners to the motion to modify or amend the question presented filed. VIDED.Mar 14 2022 | Application (21A493) granted by Justice Thomas for leave to file consolidated opening and reply briefs on the merits provided that the opening brief does not exceed 18,000 words and the reply brief does not exceed 10,000 words. VIDED.Mar 21 2022 | Upon consideration of the motion to modify or amend the question presented, the question presented in these cases is amended as follows: Whether the State of Alabama's 2021 redistricting plan for its seven seats in the United States House of Representatives violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 52 U. S. C. §10301. VIDED.Mar 30 2022 | Blanket Consent filed by Respondent, Marcus Caster, et al.Mar 30 2022 | Blanket Consent filed by Respondent, Evan Milligan, et al.Mar 31 2022 | Blanket Consent filed by Petitioner, John H. Merrill, Alabama Secretary of State, et al.Apr 25 2022 | Joint appendix filed (three volumes). VIDED. (Statement of costs filed)Apr 25 2022 | Brief of appellants/petitioners John H. Merrill, Alabama Secretary of State, et al. filed. VIDED.Apr 29 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Public Interest Legal Foundation filed. VIDED.Apr 29 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Senator John Braun, et al. filed. VIDED.Apr 29 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Alabama Center for Law and Liberty filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of American Legislative Exchange Council filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Project on Fair Representation filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of The National Republican Redistricting Trust filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Citizens United, et al. filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of John Wahl, Chairman, Alabama State Republican Executive Committee filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Singleton Plaintiffs in support of neither party filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Lawyers Democracy Fund filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Republican National Committee filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amici curiae of The State of Louisiana, et al filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amici curiae of United States Representatives from Alabama filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of America First Legal filed. VIDED.May 02 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Coastal Alabama Partnership filed. VIDED.Jun 14 2022 | ARGUMENT SET FOR Tuesday, October, 4, 2022. VIDED.Jun 22 2022 | Record requested from the U.S.D.C. Northern District of Birmingham, Alabama.Jun 24 2022 | Application of Milligan, et al. (21A869) to file appellees' brief on the merits in excess of the word limit, submitted to Justice Thomas.Jun 24 2022 | Application (21A871) of Caster, et al. to file respondents' brief on the merits in excess of the word limit, submitted to Justice Thomas.Jun 30 2022 | Application (21A869) for leave to file appellees brief on the merits in excess of the word limit granted by Justice Thomas.Jul 01 2022 | Application (21A871) to file respondents' brief on the merits in excess of the word limit granted by Justice Thomas.Jul 11 2022 | Brief of respondents Marcus Caster, et al. filed. VIDED.Jul 11 2022 | Brief of appellees Evan Milligan, et al. filed (in 21-1086).Jul 18 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of American Bar Association filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Bipartisan Group of Senators and Congressional Staff Member-Supporters of the 1982 Voting Rights Act Amendments and 2006 Voting Rights Act Reauthorization filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Alabama Historians filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Professors Jowei Chen, Christopher S. Elmendorf, Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos, and Christopher S. Warshaw filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Campaign Legal Center filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of The Brennan Center for Justice filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Computational Redistricting Experts filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Republican Former Governors filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Professor Travis Crum filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Representative Terri Sewell, et al. filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Local Governments filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of District of Columbia, et al. filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of United States filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of Constitutional Accountability Center filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Voting Rights Practitioners filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of U.W. Clemon, Fred D. Gray, Henry Sanders, the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, and Social Science Professors filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of UCLA Social Scientists filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, et al. filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amicus curiae of National Congress of American Indians filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of The Central Alabama Fair Housing Center, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)Jul 18 2022 | Motion for divided argument filed by appellees and respondents. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae, for divided argument, and for enlargement of time for oral argument filed. VIDED.Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of The Southern Poverty Law Center, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)Jul 18 2022 | Brief amici curiae of Press Robinson, et al. filed. (Distributed)Jul 21 2022 | CIRCULATEDJul 22 2022 | Application (22A82) to extend the time to file appellants/petitioners consolidated reply brief on the merits from August 10, 2022 to August 24, 2022, submitted to Justice Thomas. VIDED.Jul 29 2022 | Application (22A82) granted by Justice Thomas extending the time to file appellants'/petitioners' consolidated reply brief on the merits until August 24, 2022. VIDED.Aug 22 2022 | Motion for divided argument filed by appellees and respondents GRANTED. VIDED.Aug 22 2022 | Motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae, for divided argument, and for enlargement of time for oral argument GRANTED. VIDED.Aug 24 2022 | Reply of appellants/petitioners John H. Merrill, Alabama Secretary of State, et al. filed. VIDED. (Distributed)
John Merrill joins JT to discuss Alabama GOP Chairman John Wahl using an ID he made to vote.
John Merrill joins JT to discuss the future of voting and specifically having to potentially declare one party and one party only.
Langley Vale Wood is a really special place. Created as part of the Trust's First World War Centenary Woods project, it's a natural living legacy for the fallen that symbolises peace and hope. Memorials offer space to remember in an evocative and moving tribute. As well as these important reflections on the past, the site has a bright future. Previously an arable farm that became non-viable, nature is now thriving, with butterfly, bird and rare plant numbers all up. Join site manager Guy Kent and volunteer David Hatcher to explore the ‘Regiment of Trees', the ‘Witness' memorial and Jutland Wood. Discover too how the site is being transformed into a peaceful oasis for people and nature and why some of these fields are internationally important. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe! Learn more about the Woodland Trust at woodlandtrust.org.uk Transcript Voiceover: You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland Trust, presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for people to enjoy, to fight climate change and to help wildlife thrive. Adam: Hello! I've got to start by telling you this. I have driven to Langley Vale today and I've been driving through suburban London, really not very much aware of my surroundings, and you come up this hill and suddenly everything falls away and you burst out onto the top of the hill and it's all sky and Epsom Downs. And the racecourse is just ahead of you! And it dramatically changes. So, it's quite, it's quite an entrance into the Langley Vale forest area. I've come to meet, well, a couple of people here. I've drawn up next to a farm, I don't really know where they are, but it gives me a moment to tell you a little bit about the Langley Vale project which is amazing. It's a lovely thought behind it, because it is about honouring those who died in the First World War, and of course, there are many ways in which we honour and remember the people whose lives were changed forever during that global conflict. There are war memorials, headstones, poetry and paintings – and those man-made accolades – they capture all the names, the dates, the emotions and the places. And of course, they are vital in recording and recounting the difficult and very harrowing experiences from that conflict. But, what this venture, I think, wanted to achieve with its First World War Centenary Woods Project was a natural, living legacy for the fallen. Flourishing places that symbolise peace and hope, as well as remembering and marking the dreadful events of war, but doing that in the shape of nature and hope for the future. Both now and for many, many generations to come, providing havens for wildlife and for people – and I'm one of those people – and so it's a great project, it's in its very early stages, but it's a great opportunity, I think, to have a look around today. So, oh! There's two people wandering down the road there in shorts, I think they're hikers, I don't think they are who I am seeing. [Pause] Adam: So, Guy you're the site manager here, just tell me a little bit about the site. Guy: So, we are on the North Downs here in Surrey. It's a huge ridge of chalk that runs along southern England and down through Kent, it pops under the channel and pops up again in France. And this chalk ridge has got very special habitats on it in terms of woodland, chalk grassland, and we're very thrilled here that we've been able to buy, in 2014, a formerly intensively managed arable farm that was actually not very productive. The soils are very thin here on the hills the chalk with flints, so, pretty poor for growing crops, and we were very lucky to buy it as part of our First World War Centenary Woods project as England's Centenary Wood. Adam: So, tell me a bit about the Centenary Woods part of this. Guy: So, the idea of the project was to put a new woodland in each country of the United Kingdom, that being Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England. This is the England site, and it is the largest of the four sites. We've actually planted 170,000 trees here. We did go through a full Environmental Impact Assessment and this enabled us to find out where we could plant trees because there are some special habitats here, and there is a national character to the North Downs – national character being that much of the woodland is planted on the high ground and much of the lower land is actually open space, be that for arable use or pasture. Adam: This is a Centenary Wood, so, is this just an ordinary woodland planted in the name of those who died during the First World War? Guy: Yes. The difference is… one of the reasons this site was selected was because we do actually have history here from the First World War. We've got a number of memorials that I hope to show you today. One of which commemorates a day in January 1915. Lord Kitchener inspected 20,000 troops here that had gathered and recently joined, taking up the call to join his new army. So, there were many sorts of civilians here in civilian clothing. They got up at 4am in the morning, I'm told, to all assemble here for him arriving at 10am with his equivalent French minister, and they inspected the troops for a very short period of time because they had other troops to go and inspect nearby. But many of those 20,000 actually then ended up going over, obviously, over to the frontline and many were not to return. Adam: Shall we have a walk down? And what is there then to commemorate that? Are there, are these just trees planted in memory of that occasion, or have you got a sort of statue or something? Guy: Yeah, well, the Regiment of Trees as we're just about to see, as you go around the corner… An artist, we commissioned an artist called Patrick Walls who has actually created some statues for us replicating that event. So, we have men standing to attention carved out of sandstone… Adam: Wow, yes. Just turning around the corner here and you can see this, yes, individual soldiers standing proud of a field of, actually, white daisies just emerging made from that sandstone you say? Guy: Yes sandstone. Adam: Sandstone soldiers. We are just walking up to them now, but behind that is all, I mean, I'm assuming this is a statue, but a statue made of trees. Guy: Indeed, what you're looking at there Adam is a memorial that we've called Witness. It's actually created by an artist called John Merrill and it is made up of parts of oak trees that have been assembled and it's inspired by the World War One painter Paul Nash, who was a cubist artist, and a particular painting of his called ‘Trees on the Downs' and that's inspired by that. And we're very lucky to have included within the memorial part of an oak out of Wilfred Owen's garden. Adam: Wow! Guy: Yeah so it's constructed to look like trees that have been obliterated, effectively, on the frontline, very evocative. Adam: Yes, you get very evocative pictures of a single tree either, you know, scarred black or sometimes actually still alive in a field of chaos. Guy: That's right yeah. And that's kind of trying to illustrate that in our memorial here, and what you can do, the public can actually walk through it. We've got a couple of benches within it, actually, where people can sit and contemplate, and actually written on the inside of some of these beams that go up are actually excerpts from poems from First World War poets. Adam: So, this first statue we're actually standing by it's sort of transformed in the flow of the statue – so it comes out of the ground as a sort of textured rock and as you go up 5 foot, 6 foot the statue also transforms into a man, but this man is wearing a suit and flat cap, so is a civilian. Guy: Indeed, and that's kind of trying to illustrate the fact that many of them are just joined up and a number of them haven't even got their uniform yet. Adam: So, let's move on, ahead of us, there's this sort of city gent on the left but looks a bit grander, but on the right, there are obviously… these look like officers. Guy: Yeah, the best, how I can best describe this is, that we've actually got 12 statues here and they're actually sitting among standard trees that were planted. So, we've got birch here, we've got beech, we've got whitebeam and we've got maple. But, these statues, the twelve of them, are in four lines. The guys at the back have only just joined up and they haven't had their uniform yet. And what the artist wanted to illustrate was the fact that all classes joined up at the same time. So, we have a working-class guy with his flat cap down the end there, we have our middle-class guy here with his hat on, and then we have the upper classes as well – it's meant to illustrate that everybody was in it together and joined in. Adam: I thought this was an officer, but I can see from his insignia he's a corporal. Guy: Indeed, and if you look at the statues Adam, as we go nearer the front to where Kitchener would have inspected, they all put the guys at the front who had all their webbing, all their uniform already, and as we move back through the lines it was less and less uniform and equipment. Adam: It's very evocative, I have to say, it's much more emotional than I thought it would be. Shall we go over to the sculpture? Guy: Yes let's. Adam: So, this is called ‘Witness'. Guy: So, this is ‘Witness' yes, and this is… John Merrill created this, he's got a yard in Wales where he works wood of this size. As you can see, it's quite a structure. Adam: So, yes as you say this size… So, I'm very bad at judging, six… I am trying to think, how many six-foot men could you fit under here? Six, twelve, I dunno thirty foot high? Was that fair? Guy: I tend to work in metres, I don't know about you, but I'm going to say about six metres at its highest point. Adam: So, it's made of, sort of, coming into it… it's… actually, it's quite cathedral-like inside. Small but is that a fair description? Guy: Yeah, I think so. Adam: *inaudible* Now, every second tree here has a line of First World War poetry etched into it rather beautifully. Do you want to read just a couple out for us? Guy: Yes… so here we have one saying: “And lying in sheer I look round at the corpses of the larches. Whom they slew to make pit-props.” [editor: Afterwards by Margaret Postgate Cole]. “At evening the autumn woodlands ring with deadly weapons. Over the golden plains and lakes…” [editor: Grodek by Georg Trakl]. Adam: Amazing, it's an amazing place. There are a couple of benches here and these are… Guy: These are the names of the poets. So, we have W Owen here, we have E Thomas, J W Streets, M P Cole, amongst others. Adam: Very moving, very moving. Okay, well it's a big site isn't it, a big site. So, where are we going to go to next? Guy: Well, we can walk through now Adam, we can see a new community orchard that we planted in 2017. Adam: So, we've come into, well a big part of, well there are a huge number of trees here. So, is this the main planting area? Guy: Yes, this is the main planting area. There are approximately 40,000 trees in here. Adam: We're quite near a lot of urban areas, but here they've all disappeared, and well, the field goes down and dips up again. Is that all Woodland Trust forest? Guy: That's right, what you can see ahead of us there is actually the first planting that we did on this site in 2014, on that hillside beyond. Adam: 2014? So, eight, eight… Guy: Eight years old. Adam: [laughs] Thank you, yes mental maths took me a moment. So, the reason I was doing that, is that they look like proper trees for only eight years old. Guy: It just shows you that obviously, you think that when we're planting all these trees now – that none of us will perhaps be here long enough to enjoy them when they're mature trees, but I think you can see from just by looking over there that that woodland is eight years old and it's very much started to look like a woodland. Adam: Very much so, well, brilliant. Well, very aptly I can see, starting to see poppies emerging in the fields amongst the trees. They do have this sort of sense of gravestones, in a way, don't they? They're sort of standing there in regimented rows amongst the poppy fields. So, where to now? Guy: So, we'll go to Jutland Wood, which is our memorial to the Battle of Jutland. Adam: The famous sea battle Guy: Yes, it was the largest battle of the First World War which raged over two days, the 31st of May to the 1st of June 1916. We're going to meet our volunteer, lead volunteer, David Hatcher now, who's been working with us on the site for a number of years, and he's going to tell you about this memorial that we've got to the Battle of Jutland. Adam: Right, I mean, here it's, it's different because there are these rather nice, actually, sculpted wooden stands. What are these? Guy: Yeah, these are… actually commemorate… we've got what we call naval oaks. So, we've got a standard oak planted for each of the ships that were lost in that particular battle and we've also, between them, we've got these port holes that have been made by an artist called Andrew Lapthorn, and if I can describe those to you, they are sort of a nice piece, monolith of wood with a porthole in the middle of…, a glass porthole, that indicates how many lives were lost and it has the name of the ship. Adam: So, this is HMS Sparrowhawk where six lives were lost, 84 survivors, but HMS Fortune next door, 67 lives lost, only ten survivors, and it just goes on all the way through. Guy: As you walk through the feature Adam, the actual lives lost gets a bit more, bigger and bigger, and by the end it's… there were very few survivors on some of the ships that went down, and they are illustrated on these nice portholes that commemorate that. Adam: And this is all from the Battle of Jutland? Guy: Battle of Jutland this is yeah. Adam: And just at the end here HMS Queen Mary, 1,266 lives lost, only 20 survivors from 1913. Very, very difficult. [Walking] Guy: This memorial, actually illustrates…, is by a lady called Christine Charlesworth, and what we have here is a metal representation of a sailor from 1916 in his uniform. And that faces the woodland here, where you can see ancient semi natural woodland that would have been here in 1916. So, this sailor is looking to the past and our ancient woodland. If we look to the other side of the sailor, we have a sailor from 2016 in his uniform and he's looking in the opposite direction, and he's looking at our newly planted trees – looking to the future. Adam: Let's walk through here, and at the end of this rather… I mean it is very elegantly done but obviously sombre. But, at the end here we're going to meet David who's your lead volunteer. So, David, so you're the lead volunteer for this site? And, I know that's, must be quite a responsibility because this is quite a site! David: That's very flattering - I'm a lead volunteer - I have lots of brilliant colleagues. Adam: Really? So, how many of you are there here? David: About seven lead volunteers, there are about one hundred volunteers on the list. Adam: And what do you actually do here? David: Ah well it's a whole range of different things. As you know this was an intensively farmed arable site. And there were lots of things like old fences and other debris. It was also used as a shooting estate, so there were things left over from feeding pheasants and what have you. Adam: Right. David: A lot of rubbish that all had to be cleared because it's open access land from the Woodland Trust, and we don't want dogs running into barbed wire fences and things like that. Adam: And it's different from, well I think, almost any other wood. It has this reflection of World War One in it. What does that mean to you? David: Well, it actually means a lot to me personally, because I was the first chairman of the Veteran's Gateway. So, I had a connection with the military, and it was brilliant for me to be able to come and do something practical, rather than just sitting at a desk, to honour our veterans. Adam: And do you notice that people bring their families here who have had grandfathers or great grandfathers who died in World War One? David: Yes, they do and in particular we have a memorial trail in November, every year, and there's a wreath where you can pick up a little tag and write a name on it and pin it to this wreath, and that honours one of your relatives or a friend, or somebody like that, and families come, and children love writing the names of their grandpa on and sticking it to the wreath. Adam: And do you have a family connection here at all? David: My father actually served in the, sorry, actually my grandfather served at the Battle of Jutland. Adam: Wow and what did he do there? David: He was a chief petty officer on a battleship, and he survived I am happy to say, and perhaps I would never have been here had he not, and all of my family – my father, my mother, both my grandfathers were all in the military. Adam: And do you remember him talking to you about the Battle of Jutland? David: He didn't, but what he did have was, he had a ceremonial sword which I loved, I loved playing with his ceremonial sword. Adam: Gotcha. And you are still here to tell the tale! [Laughter] David: And so are all my relatives! [Laughter] Adam: Yes, please don't play with ceremonial swords! [Laughter] That's amazing. Of course, a lot of people don't talk about those times. David: No. Adam: Because it's too traumatic, you know… as we've seen how many people died here. David: Yes. Adam: Well look, it's a relatively new woodland and we're just amongst, here in this bit, which commemorates Jutland, the trees are really only, some of them, poking above their really protective tubes. But what sort of changes have you seen in the last seven, eight odd years or so since it's been planted? David: It's changed enormously. It's quite extraordinary to see how some trees have really come on very well indeed, but also a lot of wildflowers have been sown. We have to be very careful about which we sow and where because it's also a very valuable natural wildflower site, so we don't want them getting mixed up. Adam: So, what's your favourite part of the site then? David: Ah well my favourite part…, I'm an amateur naturalist, so there's the sort of dark and gloomy things that are very like ancient woodland. We call them ancient semi-natural woodland. So there is Great Hurst Wood which is one of the ancient woodlands. Adam: Here on this site? David: Yes, on this site. It's just over there, but we have another couple of areas that are really ancient semi-natural woodland, but actually, I love it all. There's something for everybody: there's the skylarks that we can hear at the moment; the arable fields with very rare plants in; the very rare fungi in the woods. Actually, that line of trees that you can see behind you is something called the Sheep Walk, and the Sheep Walk is so-called because they used to drive sheep from all the way from Kent to markets in the west of the county, and they've always had that shelterbelt there – it's very narrow – so they've always had it there to protect the sheep from the sun, or the weather, or whatever. And it's the most natural bit of ancient woodland that there is, even though it's so narrow and it's fascinating what you can find under there. Adam: And I saw you brought some binoculars with you today. So, I mean, what about sort of the birds and other animals that presumably have flourished since this was planted? David: It's getting a lot better. The Woodland Trust has a general no chemicals and fertiliser policy and so as the soil returns to its natural state then other things that were here before, sometimes resting in the soil, are beginning to come up. We, I think, we surveyed maybe 20 species of butterflies in the first year… there are now over… 32! And there are only 56 different species over the country, so we have a jolly good proportion! We have two Red List birds at least here – skylarks and lapwings nesting. It's all getting better; it's getting a lot better under new management. Adam: [chuckle] Fantastic! Well, it's a real, a real joy to be here today. Er so, we're here in the Jutland woodland. Where, where are we going to next do you think? Where's the best place…? David: We're going to have a look at one of the wonderful poppy fields. Adam: Right. David: Because the poppies come up just as they did in Flanders every summer and it's, it really is a sight to behold. Adam: And is this peak poppy season? David: It's just passed… Adam: Just passed. David: So, we hope they are still there and haven't been blown away. Adam: It would be typical if I have got here and all the poppies have gone. Forget it, alright, let's go up there. So, well this is quite something! So, we've turned into this other field, and it is a field, well never in my life have I seen so many poppies! Mainly red poppies, but then there are…, what are these amongst them? Guy: Yeah. So, what you can see is a number of species of poppies here. The main one you can see, it's the red Flanders poppy. Adam: And is this natural or planted because of the First World War reference? Guy: No, it's mostly…, we did supplement this with some…, we've actually planted some of these poppy seeds, but most of them are natural and it's a direct result of the fact that we continue to cultivate the land. One of the most important conservation features we have here on site is rare arable plants. Bizarrely, these plants were once called arable weeds, but when intensification of farming began in the mid-20th century, the timing of ploughing was changed, the introduction of herbicides, all these things meant that these so-called arable weeds actually became quite rare and they were just hanging on to the edges of fields. What we've been able to do here is to continue to cultivate the land sympathetically for these plants and we now have much, much better arable plant assemblages here. We have rare arable plants here now, that mean that some of these fields are of national importance and a couple of them are of international importance, but a by-product of cultivating the land every year for these is that we get displays of poppies like this every year. Adam: And when you cultivate, you're talking about cultivating the land, you're planting these poppies, or what does that mean? Guy: No, it's almost like replicating the fact…, it's as if we're going to plant a crop, so we actually plough the field and then we roll it as if we're going to prepare a crop. Adam: But you don't actually plant a crop. Guy: No, no exactly. And then we leave it fallow and then naturally these arable plants tend to actually populate these fields. Poppies are incredibly nectar-rich, they're actually quite short-lived… Some of you may know poppies that grow in your garden, and they could be out in bloom one day and completely blown off their petals the next day. They don't, like, last very long, but they do pack a powerful punch for nectar, so definitely invertebrates… Because we don't use chemicals here anymore which would have been used constantly on this farm – and what that means is that many of these arable plants, they require low fertility otherwise they get out-competed by all the things you'd expect like nettles, docks and thistles. So as the land improves so will hopefully arable plant assemblages making them even more impressive than they already are. Adam: But actually, as the, as the soil improves isn't that a problem for things like poppies ‘cause they'll get out-competed by other plants which thrive better? Guy: It's a fair point, but what is actually crucial – is that to actually increase biodiversity in these fields it actually requires low nutrients. In terms of a lot of these fields, as well, we have, from years of chemical application, we have a lot of potassium, we have a lot of magnesium in them, and they have a lot of phosphorus too now. Magnesium and potassium tend to leach out of the soil so they will improve naturally, phosphorus tends to bind the soil and sticks around for a long time. So, we're trying to get these chemicals down to acceptable levels to make them more attractive for rare plants and therefore increasing biodiversity. Adam: Well, it is, it is like a painting and I'm going to take a photo and put it on my Twitter feed. I just, [gasp] so if anyone wants to see that, head over there. But it is beautiful, properly beautiful. I mean, so we were walking by this extraordinary painting of a poppy field to our right. It's a site which has been revolutionised because it was all arable farming less than a decade ago. What has that done for biodiversity here? Guy: Well, as we can imagine these fields, it's quite difficult to imagine them as we walk through them now, but these would have all been bare fields that were basically in crop production and there's clearly been an explosion of invertebrate activity here. We've got increasing butterfly species every year, our bird numbers are starting to go up, but also importantly we've got certain areas where habitats are being allowed to develop. So, we have a former arable field here that is now developing, it has been planted up with hazel coppice in a system we call ‘coppice with standards', where we plant… Adam: Coppice with standards? Guy: Coppice with standards yeah. Adam: Oo, well very grand! Guy: It is! It's an old forestry practice where they planted lots of hazel trees that would have been worked and then periodically in amongst them, there will be oak trees that would be allowed to grow longer and then harvested at a later date. What this has meant is that we've got long grass now that is growing between these trees and that's making it much more attractive for small mammals on site. Adam: Like what? What sort of small mammals? Guy: Things like voles, wood mice, field voles, these sort of things that make sort of tracks and sort of tunnels within the grass. And what that has meant is, as we go up the food chain is, that that's become more attractive now on the site for raptors. A nice story from two years ago - we have a volunteer that works with us who is a BTO bird ringer, and he sort of approached us to say “you've got barn owls nearby and your site is starting to develop nicely. How do you fancy putting up some raptor boxes to see if we can attract them in?” So, which was great, and we managed…, the local bird club donated some barn owl boxes, we put the barn owl boxes up in this field we have just talked about – the hazel coppice field – and the expert said “well they probably won't nest in it this year. They'll come and have a look…” Anyway, we put it up…, two months later… it was being used and we were able to ring those three chicks that came from that and they've been breeding ever since. Adam: Wow, how amazing! Must be very heartening to be working on the site which is growing like that so quickly. Guy: It is, it's amazing and when you consider that we're within the M25, we're very close to London, but we've got this site that is growing and it's only going to get better as we manage it sympathetically for the wildlife that it hosts. Adam: We're just coming round the bend and back to almost where we started into this field of standing soldiers amongst the growing trees, and the cathedral-like tree sculpture there which will take us back to the beginning. So we've just done a little tour… Guy: Yeah, Adam: So, I dunno half an hour, 40 minutes or so. Presumably, we skirted the edges of this… Guy: You certainly have Adam! It's a fraction of the site. We are 640 acres in size and we're just at the top part of it. This area that we've largely walked around today is very much focused on World War One and our memorials, but much of the rest of the site is, actually, is quite a bit quieter, there are fewer people around and the focus is definitely more on wildlife. Adam: Yes, well, it has been an amazing trip, I have to say, I've been to lots of different Woodland Trust woods all the way up the country, to the far stretches of Scotland. I have to say I think this is my favourite. It's quite, quite a site! And the memorial is done really tastefully and fits in with the landscape. I think this is quite, quite a site for you to manage, it's quite a thing. Guy: It's incredible and we are just so proud of it and we just can't wait to be able to open our car park and invite people from further afield, and not just locals who get to enjoy it as is the case at the moment. Adam: Absolutely. Well look, thank you! It started this morning, bright sun, it looked like I shouldn't need to bring a coat then all of a sudden, I thought “Oh my goodness”, we're standing under a completely black cloud but it has not rained, it is not raining, we're in running distance of the car so… Guy: Somebody's looking down on us Adam, at least for a couple of hours. Adam: They are indeed, well thank you very much! Voiceover: Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks. Join us next month when Adam will be taking another walk in the company of Woodland Trust staff, partners and volunteers and don't forget to subscribe to the series on iTunes, or wherever you're listening to us, and do give us a review and a rating. And why not send us a recording of your favourite woodland walk to be included in a future podcast? Keep it to a maximum of five minutes and please tell us what makes your woodland walk special. Or send an email with details of your favourite walk and what makes it special to you. Send any audio files to podcast@woodlandtrust.org.uk and we look forward to hearing from you.
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill discusses expected voter turn out for the run-off elections today
Secretary of State John Merrill discusses some challenges to the primary election that have been filed.
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill addresses the lawsuit filed by Lindy Blanchard over the election.
Secretary of State John Merrill joins us to share his expectations for turn out in the primary today and talks about if the PAC money spent on candidates this election really influences the voters.
Secretary of State John Merrill talks about the security of elections in Alabama after a video was released causing concern.
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill joins us to talk about election integrity and how other states could learn from the process Alabama has in place.
Trucker Strike, Crisis at th Border, Tragedy on 459, Dangerous time for Police, Secretary of State of Alabama John Merrill and E.R.I.C System See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Trucker Strike, Crisis at th Border, Tragedy on 459, Dangerous time for Police, Secretary of State of Alabama John Merrill and E.R.I.C System See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Trucker Strike, Crisis at th Border, Tragedy on 459, Dangerous time for Police, Secretary of State of Alabama John Merrill and E.R.I.C System See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Trucker Strike, Crisis at th Border, Tragedy on 459, Dangerous time for Police, Secretary of State of Alabama John Merrill and E.R.I.C System See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Straight From The Source with Michael Russo: A show about the Minnesota Wild
Minnesota Wild defenseman Jon Merrill joins SFTS to talk about the Merrill Monsters, his bearded dragon, RuPaul, inclusivity and social justice, his legendary stache, agreeing to a contract extension at the Winter Classic and how the red-hot Minnesota Wild compares to two teams he recently went to the Stanley Cup final with, Vegas and Montreal.Plus Russo discusses the last week of Minnesota Wild games, including a sweep of the Rangers and Islanders in New York, Jordan Greenway's three year extension, Kirill Kaprizov first all-star appearance, Kevin Fiala's hot streak and Matt Boldy says goodbye to the AHL, as he is here to stay in the NHL. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Straight From The Source with Michael Russo: A show about the Minnesota Wild
Minnesota Wild defenseman Jon Merrill joins SFTS to talk about the Merrill Monsters, his bearded dragon, RuPaul, inclusivity and social justice, his legendary stache, agreeing to a contract extension at the Winter Classic and how the red-hot Minnesota Wild compares to two teams he recently went to the Stanley Cup final with, Vegas and Montreal. Plus Russo discusses the last week of Minnesota Wild games, including a sweep of the Rangers and Islanders in New York, Jordan Greenway's three year extension, Kirill Kaprizov first all-star appearance, Kevin Fiala's hot streak and Matt Boldy says goodbye to the AHL, as he is here to stay in the NHL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Voodoo that you do is not that Vodou that Haitians do. So let's drop the pin dolls, the skulls and possession and learn about Vodou (with a “u”); a religious belief with millions of adherents around the world, and the reason why Haiti successfully orchestrated a successful slave revolt and built the worlds' first black Republic. Along the way, we'll chart Vodou's path through Haiti's history, from 1492 to the Present Sources Cain Stoneking, The Decline of the Tainos, 1492-1542: A Re-Vision (2009) Chris Woolf, When America occupied Haiti(2015) Eliza Kamerling-Brown, More Than a Misunderstood Religion: Rediscovering Vodou as a Tool of Survival and a Vehicle for Independence in Colonial Haiti (2016) Guilberly Louissaint, What is Haitian Voodoo? (2009) John Merrill, Vodou and Political Reform in Haiti: Some Lessons for the International Community (1996) Kim Wall and Caterina Clerici, Vodou is elusive and endangered, but it remains the soul of Haitian people (2015) Laurent Dubois, Vodou and History (2001) Louise Fenton, Representations of Voodoo: The history and influence of Haitian Vodou within the cultural productions of Britain and America since 1850 (2009) Mike Dash, The Trial That Gave Vodou A Bad Name (2013) Mike Mariani, The Tragic, Forgotten History of Zombies (2015) Renee Morgan Goodridge, Haitian Vodou as a Means of Resiliency (2018) Saumya Arya Haas, What is Voodoo? Understanding a Misunderstood Religion (2011) Sharon Guynup, Haiti: Possessed by Voodoo (2004) The Pluralism Project (Harvard University), Vodou, Serving the Spirits (2020) Tim Johnson, How voodoo is rebuilding Haiti (2015) Timothy J Yeager, Encomienda or Slavery? The Spanish Crown's Choice of Labor Organization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America (1995) University of Michigan, Haiti & the Truth about Zombies
The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate has established a strategic plan for how artificial intelligence and machine learning can help the DHS mission. It covers both the technology and people sides of this growing field. For details, Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with the acting deputy director of the Science and Technology Directorate, John Merrill.
Matt Murphy and Valerie Vining interview the Alabama Secretary of State, John Merrill, about the claims of Vice President Kamala Harris about voting rights. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Locked On Canadiens - Daily Podcast on the Montreal Canadiens
We look ahead to Game 2 of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoff semi final round between the Montreal Canadiens and the Vegas Golden Knights with the news that Jeff Petry, Jake Evans, and John Merrill have been skating with the team in contact jerseys.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Locked On Canadiens - Daily Podcast on the Montreal Canadiens
We look ahead to Game 2 of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoff semi final round between the Montreal Canadiens and the Vegas Golden Knights with the news that Jeff Petry, Jake Evans, and John Merrill have been skating with the team in contact jerseys. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! BetOnline AG There is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order. Rock Auto Amazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Shea Weber s'entraînait avec John Merrill mardi. Est-ce qu'Alexander Romanov pourrait être laissé de côté pour le premier match contre les Leafs?
Which Trade Deadline moves are paying dividends and which aren't? Mary Clarke and Andrew Berkshire discuss Taylor Hall and Mike Reilly on the Boston Bruins, Eric Staal and John Merrill on the Montreal Canadiens, Jakub Vrana and Anthony Mantha on the Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals, and Jeff Carter on the Pittsburgh Penguins. In this week's Cross-Check segment, the hosts discuss the Penguins' return to contender status, and how much of an impact Sidney Crosby has had. Finally, they examine the early retirement of Chicago Blackhawks agitator Andrew Shaw due to his history of concussions, and finish off the podcast with a Buzzfeed quiz about early 2000's music.Listen to The Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 presented by Audacy and the Locked On Podcast Network. April 19th-26th. Follow the feed today!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Which Trade Deadline moves are paying dividends and which aren't? Mary Clarke and Andrew Berkshire discuss Taylor Hall and Mike Reilly on the Boston Bruins, Eric Staal and John Merrill on the Montreal Canadiens, Jakub Vrana and Anthony Mantha on the Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals, and Jeff Carter on the Pittsburgh Penguins. In this week's Cross-Check segment, the hosts discuss the Penguins' return to contender status, and how much of an impact Sidney Crosby has had. Finally, they examine the early retirement of Chicago Blackhawks agitator Andrew Shaw due to his history of concussions, and finish off the podcast with a Buzzfeed quiz about early 2000's music. Listen to The Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 presented by Audacy and the Locked On Podcast Network. April 19th-26th. Follow the feed today! Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! BetOnline AG There is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order. Rock Auto Amazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Topics discussed include a bird pooping on Wes' head, the man who yeeted a bobcat, the Covid-19 vaccine overdose in an Iowa prison, the Honduran drug cartel, companies with ominous names, the fall of Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, Portland State's Men's basketball coach's crazy presser, Baylor's win over Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament, the NBA playoff hunt, a baby dinosaur seen in Florida, false memories, UFO's, and whether or not the Wizard of Oz set was cursed.
This Week’s ShowSegment 1: Week in Review, Habs News, League NewsRick and Joe break down the week that was for the Montreal Canadiens. Check out the comprehensive post-game reviews for every game at AllHabs.net. Tyler Toffoli chosen as first star of the week by Joseph Whalen. Roster news - Carey Price returned this week but was injured by Alex Chiasson on Monday and is suffering from a concussion. Cayden Primeau was recalled to the active roster on an emergency basis. Cole Caufield travelled with the team on the western road trip. John Merrill and Erik Gustafsson made their Habs debuts. Habs prospect report - Laval Rocket back in action this week with three games against Belleville. Who is the leading scorer for the Rocket? Check out https://www.thepresszone.fm/ (The Press Zone - Montreal). Ice Tips with Coach C. NHL News - Patrick Marleau set the NHL record for games played with 1,768. Segment 2: Accountability and LeadershipIn the midst of a a stretch in which the Canadiens have only won three out of their last ten games, the words of the players from media availabilities take on much more importance. The guys react to some of the quotes that came out of the last week from Habs players. Segment 3: Have Your Say All Habs Fantasy Hockey Update CC Question of the week: Are you happy to see Cole Caufield recalled to the taxi squad? Listener's calls and text Canadiens Connection On Rocket Sports RadioCanadiens Connection is hosted by Joe Whalen (https://twitter.com/JoeWhalen19 (@JoeWhalen19)) and Rick Stephens (http://www.twitter.com/allhabs (@AllHabs)) with contributions from Chris G. This talented team of credentialed journalists come together to share their valued insight. Canadiens Connection is a connection between fans, journalists, players, coaches, management to thoroughly discuss their favorite game in an informative, thought provoking, and entertaining way. Get The Canadiens Connection!Be sure to follow @habsconnection on https://twitter.com/HabsConnection (Twitter), https://www.facebook.com/habsconnection/ (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/habsconnection/ (Instagram) Search for “Canadiens Connection” from Rocket Sports Radio on your favorite podcast app and subscribe! You can also listen to every episode on apps including: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/rocket-sports-radio/id1286574860?mt=2 (Apple Podcasts (iTunes)) https://open.spotify.com/show/2SHpmnrTsx8Jll1Yf99qAJ?si=mWDPeR2cSyKHzBvwXugTRw (Spotify) https://overcast.fm/itunes1286574860/rocket-sports-radio (Overcast) https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/rocket-sports-radio (Stitcher) https://castbox.fm/channel/id3054454 (Castbox) https://pca.st/71oN (Pocket Casts) https://radiopublic.com/canadiens-connection-69AMww (RadioPublic) https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/Rocket-Sports-Radio-p1039405/ (TuneIn) https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmxvZ3RhbGtyYWRpby5jb20vcm9ja2V0c3BvcnRzL3BvZGNhc3Q (Google Podcasts) Share the Canadiens Connection on social media. And we would be grateful for your 5-star rating for the podcast!
Dans son apéro Jean-Charles nous parle du match de vendredi entre les Canadiens et les Flames, de la victoire face aux Oilers, des matchs dans la division nord aujourd'hui, du Rocket de Laval, des Golden Knights de Vegas qui ont assuré leur place en série, du congédiement de Jean-Jacques Daigneault par les Mooseheads et de la victoire de Félix Auger-Aliassime sur Dennis Shapovalov. Marc-André Perreault a assisté à la séance d'entraînement des Canadiens. Il nous en fait un résumé. La question du jour vous demande qu’elle est selon vous, l'attaquant le plus important du tricolore. Frédéric Lord nous offre les dernières nouvelles concernant le CF Montréal. On discute arts martiaux mixtes avec Master Bougaricci. Dans le segment du Colisée, Jean-Michel Dufaux et Jean-François Baril reviennent sur la victoire face aux Oilers. Louis Jean nous revient sur la performance de Shea Weber. Il considère également que la place en série du CH passe par les formations albertaines. Il est également question des récentes performances d'Anthony Duclair. Yvon Pedneault revient sur la victoire d'hier. Il nous parle également de Jonathan Drouin, Shea Weber et du match opposant les Maple Leafs aux Jets. Marc-André Perreault fait une 2e intervention pour nous parler du CH. Dans son billet de saison, JiC revient sur le monstre à deux têtes des Canadiens. Mike Bossy et Alexandre Picard se joignent à Jean-Charles pour le segment LE SHOW. Jean-Philippe Bertrand nous offre ses 3 doses de cafés. Renaud Lavoie nous parle de la faible production des joueurs de centre du tricolore et de Jesperi Kotkaniemi qui tente d'ajouter une corde à son arc. Philippe Boucher aborde différents sujets dont la victoire contre les Oilers, Josh Anderson, John Merrill et des équipes déjà qualifiées pour les séries. En entrevue, JiC reçoit l'attaquant des Golden KNights de Vegas, Jonathan Marchessault. Une production QUB radio Avril 2021 Pour de l’information concernant l’utilisation de vos données personnelles - https://omnystudio.com/policies/listener/fr
It isn't the extra-marital affair, as bad as it may be. People have affairs all the time. People in supposed high places, like Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, and people in low places. Right here in Clarke County there's been a lot of famous and in-famous “runnings around.” People are human. We should all realize that and realize that we all have faults of some sort or another. John Merrill was on the brink of announcing for the U.S. Senate when his lover spoke a little too explicitly about their affair and the audio clip got published on a...Article Link
Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill joins the show to talk about the upcmoing election. The V Team discusses Alabamians' political engagement and the state's revenues.
Independent, investigative news, reporting, interviews and commentary
Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
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