Well, well, well....:

President Barack Obama made history again Friday, winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples

The Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized Obama's efforts to solve complex global problems, including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

President Obama is the first sitting President since Woodrow Wilson to be awarded this honor. (Videos from CSpanJunkie)

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Of course, the right wing is saying it's because he's not George Bush, without acknowledging the shame our country still wears from Bush being the "Anti-Peace and No Prize" President:

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(Ride - obscure for absolutely no reason)

I think we're going to shelve the "theme weeks" for a while. I'm starting to realize a little goes a long way. So we're back to basics tonight.

Ride were an amazing band that broke up all too soon. They somehow got pigeonholed as "shoegaze", even though they did come about at the time when Indie was pretty much exploding on the music scene. There was very little of the mellowed out somnambulant they got saddled with to justify that. But . . what do you do?

Their first few albums were walls of guitar and vaguely ethereal vocals. But by the time of their last album Tarantula in 1996, they gave up the ethereal and went for the jugular, which was perfectly fine - and they could get away with it.

But Tarantula wound up being the last out of them and the band dissolved shortly after. Which was a shame as they evolved musically into one of the more consistently rewarding listening experiences I had in years.

But nothing ever stays the same and "Black Nite Crash" will have to do until a Ride reunion of some sort happens (they did do a one-off reunion of sorts in 2001 for the BBC). An official reunion was rumored to be this year, but was quickly denied.

Maybe someday.

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(Brother Jack McDuff - a little funk does a body good)

A little funk tonight by way of Brother Jack McDuff. From his 1971 Blue Note album "Who Knows What Tomorrow's Gonna Bring?".

This is the title track.

McDuff has taken something of a back seat in the recognition department over the years. And that's a shame - you can never have too many great Hammond B3 players in the world. I remember first hearing McDuff around the same time I first heard Jimmy Smith. To me, there was always enough room in the world to enjoy both of them - they came from different musical places. But they shared a common bond of excellence. McDuff was the funkier - but there's a big place in the world for that.

If you haven't checked out Brother Jack McDuff, or the ton of albums he's released (a lot, but not all are reissued on CD), here's a great chance to do yourself a favor.

I would have loved a much broader scope that would have been applied to the Durham Probe on CIA interrogations, as many have already stated, but you know I see a sliver of hope buried in it. Jane Mayer said as much on Olbermann yesterday and I perked up a little when I heard her say it because I was thinking the same thing.

MAYER: Well, my guess is that if they actually open some kind of serious investigation, and Durham is said to be a very serious prosecutor, that even if they start at the very bottom, it's going to keep leading up and up through the chain of command. Because, if nothing else, if they actually bring charges against anybody at the CIA who was at the bottom of the food chain, the first thing that person's going to do is say "I was authorized, let me tell you what my orders were." So they've begun a process that could lead to the top.

Please hear me all Ye Whistleblowers. Cometh to DC and lay forth the truth unto thee! Speak thy words to Durham's ear and whisper the truth of unspeakable horrors. So dark and so horrible that thee will tremble from thy shame and call upon those who defiled us so.
If something breaks out during Durham's tepid investigation, who knows what it shall bring.

And read Dahlia Lithwick's excellent piece on this whole sordid affair.

Halfway There. Is half a torture investigation better than none at all?

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(Gloria Jones - the voice that stopped you dead in your tracks)

A couple of lifetimes ago, I was working with a band whose management shared an office suite with Ed Cobb. Cobb was one of the really great writer/producers on the L.A. music scene. I would often sit in an adjacent office and listen to whatever he was working on through the walls. It was always pretty amazing. And that's where I discovered Gloria Jones. He wrote a lot of the material for and produced her first big hit "Heartbeat" (part 1 and 2) which featured a stellar backup band fronted by none other than Billy Preston. But it was Cobb's composition and Jones version of "Tainted Love" that proved to be a massive hit in the 1980's when it was covered by Soft Cell.

A couple of years later in 1968, I stumbled across one of the follow-up discs. This time not produced or written by Cobb, but rather written by Jackie DeShannon and arranged by Artie Butler.

"When He Touches Me" just aches. It is a soulful lament to self-destructive love (where have we heard that one before?), and in Jones' hands, it just tore me up.

Sadly, this didn't hit and Gloria Jones life took another turn. But she's still singing and recording and I suspect just as powerful as ever.

But right now, here's the single she cut for Minit Records in 1968. I have the feeling it's never been reissued - and that's a shame.

(h/t to Blabbermouth for the heads up.)

Neil Peart of Rush, legendary for being a great drummer and an all around nice guy, is adding a new section to his website -- about cooking. "Bubba's Bar and Grill" opens soon. Peart tells us:

“I have learned a few things about preparing good simple food that might be worth sharing. In this space I will assemble and present some of that lore, along with some simple recipes, because it seems a shame that other Bubbas (of any gender and ethnicity) should have to suffer the foolishness of my youth — I was in my forties before I learned to cook anything more complicated than soft-boiled eggs.”

Visit Bubba’s Bar ’n’ Grill, where you will learn about “The One Hour Rule,” “The Queen’s Portion,” and why Bubba says, “If you want to impress a woman, bake her a pie.”

Perhaps we'll preview some selections on a new section here at C+L, the Early Evening Dinner Club.

Find out more about Neil's recipes for things other than a ten minute drum solo here.