To Counter the Summer Doldrums

** Bryce Harper of The Washington Nationals won an All-Star starting berth, making him the youngest All-Star since Ken Griffey,Jr.

**The Dalai Lama celebrates his 78th birthday today.For a great read about the 14th Dalai Lama, I can't recommend Pico Iyer's "The Open Road" enough.

**Veteran guitarist Michael Mattice released his first solo album this past month. Mike of the famous Virginia band "Shapes Not Sounds" goes acoustic in "Comin' Home", which is available on Amazon's MP3 store. Check out his Youtube videos to see Mike the magical shredding in his electric incarnations. Congratulations, Mike.

**The Drummer for "Shapes Not Sounds" released his first solo album of experimental percussion. Ian G. McColm cut "Virgin Skins" for Pidgin Records out of Frenchtown, New Jersey.  Ian has another album coming out next month whose production was funded by Kickstarter and recorded on Sly Stone's old soundboard in Michigan. I first heard Ian G. McColm's experimental compositions as the soundtrack for Man Ray's surrealistic film "Starfish". Now we need a "Shapes Not Sounds" reunion CD.

++Contrary to the negative press and reviews, Johnny Depp is back with a terrific performance as Tonto in the Lone Ranger. It is a Lone Ranger for somewhat grown ups. I saw it with only three other people in the audience.

++Pope Francis paved the way for John Paul II and John Paul XXIII becoming saints. But he muffed it with a treatise co-authored by Pope Benedict against same sex marriage.

++Andrew Sullivan celebrated July 4th by reproducing the best national anthems. My picks are Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, Marvin Gaye at the 1984 Lakers Playoff game, and Lady Gaga at the recent Gay Pride Day in New York.

++KGB agent Ann Chapman proposed marriage to Edward Snowden who is still sequestered at the Moscow airport. Venezuela, Bolivia,and Nicaragua  have offered asylum and Iceland's parliament rejected an offer of citizenship.

++The economy saw 195,000 jobs created last month. Although everyone saw this exceeding expectations,many pundits proclaimed that it meant trouble for Obama, Obamacare and the Democrats. If you added the 5,000 government jobs lost, it would have been 200,000--about as good as it gets.