Things You Never Knew About America's War Dogs

• 
  

Believe it or not, dogs have been fighting beside their human counterparts in military conflicts for the better part of the last 3,000 years. Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, and yes, Americans.
We here at BI Military and Defense do a lot of slideshows about jets or tanks or patrols, but not much about our literal dogs of war.
So now's your opportunity to ...

The United States War Dogs Association estimates that, since the beginning of their service, dogs have saved approximately 10,000 American lives.

Dogs have been in service and seen combat with Americans in every conflict since the birth of the nation, but have only served officially since WWI.

Dogs were mostly used as message carriers during the first few conflicts.

In WWI, Sergeant Stubby, the most decorated War Dog in history, saved an entire company from a serin gas attack. He also met three presidents.

The biggest hero of WII though, was a German Shepherd named Chips who single-handedly forced a machine gun crew to surrender. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and the Purple Heart-all later revoked due to Army regulations against awarding animals.

But Rin Tin Tin became the most famous dog of WWII. A German war dog, he was abandoned, then adopted by American troops and brought to the U.S., where he became a movie star.

In the Pacific Campaign, Marine dog handlers were awarded a total of five Silver Stars and seven Bronze Stars for heroism in action, and more than forty Purple Hearts for wounds received in battle.

And there was actually a program during the Pacific Campaign which aimed to train a battalion of dogs to lead Marines in a possible assault of mainland Japan.

The highest ranking Marine War Dog was also the first official mascot, Sgt. Maj. Jiggs. He was one of the most liked due to his belligerent demeanor. His death in 1927 was mourned throughout the Corps.

Upon returning, of the 592 in the Marines' WWII war dog unit, only 4 of the animals couldn't adapt to civilian life.

Duke, a Vietnam war dog, once alerted his company to an impending ambush, and is credited with saving over a hundred lives with a single action.

In total, 5,000 dogs served in the Vietnam War, and approximately 300 lost their lives.

Dogs also serve in special forces—the SEALs brought a dog with them on the Osama bin Laden raid.

Present-day military dogs are like the K9 version of Navy SEALs. Highly trained, these dogs can cost upward of $8,000 each once they graduate.

A living, four-legged Swiss Army knife, they can be used to track, detect bombs, weapons, drugs, and even attack the enemy.

There are about 2,500 war dogs in service today, with about 700 serving at any given time overseas.

Dogs and their handlers alike have been known to need therapy after losing their partner in combat.

In fact, there's a popular story about a dog named Hawkeye who didn't leave the side of his fallen master's casket until the funeral service was over.

The dogs, like their military counterparts, often find service in law enforcement after their retirements, which occur at the ten year mark.

Upon retirement though, their handlers are given the option to adopt, or the service will help the dogs find willing families.

Servicemen have also been known to adopt strays out in the field, like this one, from a visit I made to a border fort in Iraq in 2008.

Adopting dogs is strictly prohibited, and when a colonel visited our base, he objected to two things—that we had a new puppy, and that we were fielding an illegal Mk-19 Automatic Grenade Launcher.

He let us keep the grenade launcher, but the puppy had to go

日本咸片影后蒼 井空呼籲中日人民不要争论 大家一起去扑嘢更好

蒼 井空 !!!!娜烏西卡!!!!林明美 !!!!

蒼井空竟然出現在The Economist，報導的題目是" Can't we all just get it on ^ ? A Japanese actress reminds her Chinese fans how conflicted they are"。早前她接受《朝日新聞》訪問，呼籲中日友好，片段在網上廣傳。她還在微博貼出了「日中／中日友好」的書法，說希望人與人之間有好的關係，她跟粉 絲都是一樣的人，感到傷心(從文法看，似乎是用軟件翻譯成中文的)。

風之谷的娜烏西卡 *！那個傳說原來是真的！

在風之谷的動畫和原著漫畫中，兩個民族開戰，無數王蟲被其中一方煽動狗衝，而娜烏西卡犧 牲了自己來消除王蟲的怒火，化解了兩個民族之間的衝突，應驗了穿藍衣的聖者踏在金色大地上拯救世界的預言傳說。

也有網友說是這超時空要塞現實版。超時空要塞裡 面的經典場面是中日混血兒林明美#，
用歌聲化解了外星文明對地球人的攻擊。



蒼井空就是林明美，用藝術來化解兩個種族的仇恨。

[認真mode] 其實蒼井空作為進軍大陸的AV女優， 她的做法是出自真心還是基於市場考慮，人們自會有各自的解讀。不過，就算是假，都比起大陸那些煽動搶掠暴亂的便衣公安 真，也比那些憤青暴徒可愛。(I definitely concur!!!!)

苍井空秀书法盼中日友好

苍井空自拍

苍井空微博截图

　　近来，中日两国关于钓鱼岛的争端日趋升级，原本仅限于政治范畴的事件也开始波及民间，不断有各类抗议活动在全国举行，而艺术层面的交流 也受到波及。对此，日籍艺人苍井空今天(14日)凌晨晒出两幅书法作品期盼中日友好，引发网友的热议。
　　苍井空晒书法盼中日友好引争议
　　眼看政治争端愈演愈烈，文化交流也因此受阻，作为日籍艺人的苍井空于今日(14日)凌晨，在微博晒出自己的书法作品，期盼中日和平友 好。 00:01分，空姐先是发了一张写有“日中友好”的书法作品，汉语不够灵光的她还用蹩脚的中文抒怀，大意是希望中日民间的交流不受政治因素影 响，发生这样 的事情自己也很伤心。也许是考虑到中国网友的民族感情，随后的00:18分，苍井空又上传了一幅“中日友好”的书法作品，有网友感叹空姐思虑 周全。
　　空姐呼唤和平的微博，受到网友们的热议，截止今日(14日)上午11点，这两条微博的评论转发量累积突破12万。网友们积蓄多日的爱过 热情，在数万条的评论中得以喷发。但也有淡定网友表示空姐是无辜的，呼吁理性对待。还有网友调侃“强烈要求苍老师任日本首相”。
　　钓鱼岛事件波及民间文化交流
　　近日，中日两国关于钓鱼岛的争端不断升级，除了两国政府外交上的频繁过招，文化交流也因此受到波及。日前就有消息传出，日本歌手谷村新 司原定于 本月25日在北京国家大剧院举办的演唱会延期，此活动原本是为了纪念中日邦交正常化40年而举办。同样，据共同社报道，原定于9月底在东京举 行的的孙楠 “纪念日中邦交正常化40周年”演唱会也决定取消。
　　昨日(13日)，又传出日籍女演员铃木美妃被迫退出中国舞台剧《大街小巷》的表演，但该剧导演表示双方正在进一步沟通中。另外，中国艺 人李冰冰赴日宣传电影的计划也宣布搁浅。

Pornography and patriotism

The Economist

Can’t we all just get it on ?

A Japanese actress reminds her Chinese fans how conflicted they are

Sora Aoi belongs to the world

OF ALL the positions with which Sora Aoi has excited her Chinese fans (and there have been many), this was among the more surprising. As anti-Japanese sentiment flared across China, the former porn star issued an online appeal, in fetching calligraphy, for Sino-Japanese friendship. One placard waved at anti-Japanese protests over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands read simply: “the Diaoyu islands belong to China; Sora Aoi belongs to the world.”
This odd slogan underlines the mixed and often contradictory feelings Chinese people can have about Japan. Brought up to hate it for its historic crimes, they also admire it for being better at some things than China: electronic goods; social order; comic books—and pornographic videos. Ms Aoi, unlike her government, has done nothing to hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, or at least the young men among them. She has more than 13m followers on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblog, and her public appearances have caused near-riots with a rare pro-Japanese slant.

---

Hers was not the only cause that hitched its wagon to the demonstrations. Some took part for the chance of letting off steam without feeling the sharp end of the police’s anger. Some waved portraits of Chairman Mao, who in fact was rather insouciant about these inalienable specks of Chinese sovereignty. Most stayed away altogether. Han Han, a writer, racing driver and one of China’s most popular bloggers, called for looters and vandals to be punished.
Ms Aoi’s appeal received some sympathetic comments among the 150,000 or so that it attracted. But many of her fans, like the nation as a whole, were fully behind the protests. Some taunted her with obscene insults and threats. One comment, translated by ChinaSMACK, a website, sought to make the best of things, suggesting that, when it takes back the Diaoyu islands, China should capture Ms Aoi alive.

^ get it on -

a euphemism for sex, popularized by Marvin Gaye in his classic "Let's Get It On"

*娜烏西卡是 一個靠海的小王國風之谷的公主，王國人口不到500人，而且仍在穩定的減少當中。她是基爾王的第11個孩子，也是唯一一個活到成年的孩 子。娜烏西卡經常與滑翔翼及狐松鼠在一起。娜烏西卡因戰爭聯盟條約以及老父身體衰弱，而成為部族領袖並代父參戰，因此介入多魯美奇亞王國與土 鬼諸侯國 兩強紛爭。培吉特餘黨拿小王虫來誘使王虫群攻擊風之谷，企圖從多魯美奇亞人手中奪回巨神兵之際，娜烏西卡解救了小王蟲，以身為盾來制止王蟲群 的憤怒。冷靜 下來的王蟲群以特殊能力救活娜烏西卡，她在晨曦中站立在王虫的觸鬚上，就像是在一片金色草原上舞動，印證了古老的傳說－站在金色草原的藍衣人 帶來了希望。 目睹無盡的殺戮和流血，無情戰火對生命的蹂躪和無依百姓的顛沛流離；當人類在和腐海之間的對抗節節敗退之餘卻瘋狂地發動屠殺同類的殘酷戰爭， 娜烏西卡開始 負起搶救生命、停止戰爭、探索生命之源及腐海秘密的使命。
在過程中被視為藍衣救世者的她，揭開了腐海和王蟲的秘密－原來那是人類在火之七日戰爭後所創造的一個嶄新生態系統，為了把污染的環境再次淨 化，提供 新人類居住。當世界淨化完成後，人造的腐海和王蟲將隨即死去，所有的人類和生物都無法適應純淨的環境而死亡，顛覆娜烏西卡原先認為腐海是自然 界用來淨化地 表污染的生態世界的推測。
娜烏西卡之後在巨神兵奧瑪的幫助下進入了土鬼聖都修瓦，該地有一座巨大陵墓，儲存純淨的原種以及舊世界的諸多工藝科技。娜烏西卡因為不認同 陵墓的存 在目的，最終將自稱為神的生物電腦摧毀。雖然世界遭腐海淹沒的局勢不可改變、人類生存處境日益艱辛，但娜烏西卡認為所有生命都是珍貴的，昆蟲 和人類都應該 被尊重，不容許被操弄。她相信生命自會找尋出路，不該如宿命般受世界重建計畫所箝制。最後娜烏西卡否決陵墓電腦用來迷惑眾人的說詞，命令巨神 兵奧瑪摧毀陵 墓，守護世界上一切生物生存的權利。


# 动漫【超时空要塞】的女主角，是日籍华裔的混血儿，

父母在横滨的唐人街经营餐馆，她和叔叔在南Atalia岛（即要塞Macross所坠落的岛屿）上的居 住。她在一场战争中不幸与家人走失，被一条辉救起，并两人产生了爱情。不久，在Macross小姐的竞选中，林明美脱颖而出，实现了当明星的愿 望。后在第一次星间大战战中她用自己的歌声感化了敌人，取得了家乡保卫战的胜利。

为什么中国人深深爱着日本咸片女王蒼井空?

「釣魚島是中國的！蒼井空是世界的！」小考

「釣魚島是中國的！蒼井空是世界的！」小考 今年9月內地反日遊行中最引人注目的口號是「釣魚島是中國的！蒼井空是世界的！」在多個城市出 現，而且還出現一些有趣的再創作。「釣魚島是中國的！蒼井空是世界的！」的前身是「釣魚島是中國的！蒼井空是大家 的！」它是今年才出現的佳句，創作人不詳，媒體在4月20日才開始報道。 今年4月19日在廣州天河上演一場中日球隊比賽，由廣州恒大 對日本柏太陽神( Kashiwa Reysol) 。廣州球 迷拉上「釣魚島是中國的！蒼井空是大家的！」的橫額，而且還付上日文。在奏日本國歌時大呼「馬鹿 野郎！」(Baka yaro) 。此 口號一夜成名，各地開花。夏天湖南鳳凰古城一酒吧掛上此橫額，還加上英文。8月18日一場山東一場足球 比賽場地拉上同一橫額。 8月中下旬內地開始爆發反日遊行，多處出現「釣魚島是中國的！蒼井空是世界的！」(不過 「釣魚島是中國的！蒼井空是大家的！」至今仍有人用)，此改動不知始於何地何人。9月出現在反日遊行中出現很多再創作，好像「釣魚島是中國的！蒼井空是我的！」「釣魚島是中國的！我老婆是自己 的！」「釣魚島是中國的！薄熙來是人民的！」騎呢之極！為沉重的反日遊行加添話題。不知這口號會如何進化下 去？現在網上流行「釣魚島是中 國的！蒼井空也是中國的！」這有可能會成新的口號。

尖閣問題に憤怒した蒼井そらが、中国での活動を停止？

中 国ネット界を激震が走った。今月初め、中国版Twitter「 微博」では1,300万人のフォロワーを誇り、絶大な人気を誇る蒼 井そらが、尖閣諸島の領有 を主張する中国への抗議として、中国での活動から撤退するとの情報が流れたからだ。ネット上で拡散した、彼女が日本メディアに 語ったものだとされる内容は 以下の通りだ。
「私は本日、中国の微博から正式に引退しました。もう中国でのいかなる活動も行いません。私は自分の国への支持を実際の行動で表 します」
 尖閣諸島問題に端を発した今回の反日デモでは、「尖閣は中国のもの、蒼井そらはみんなのもの」という横断幕も見られたほど。そ れだけに、人民たちの動揺 は大きかった。「微博」上では、「中国が好きだと言っていたのは結局、金儲けのためだったのか」「ついに本性を現しやがったな」 といった、彼女へのバッシ ングがあふれた。その一方で、「自分の国を愛すのは当然のこと」といった寛容な書き込みや、「私は何があってもあなたを愛し続け る」といった永遠の愛を誓 うラブコールも見られた。
 一方の蒼井は、今回の尖閣諸島問題の摩擦で反日感情が高まって以降、「微博」ではしばらくダンマリを決め込んでいた。そのこと が、中国撤退発言の信憑性 を高めたと思われる。ところが、今月4日、何事もなかったかのように「微博」の書き込みが行われたことで、蒼井の中国撤退発言は 何者かが悪意を持って流布 したデマだったことが判明。ちなみに、その書き込みは以下の通りだ。
「長い間、更新しなくてごめん。私は元気。中国に行きたい。仕事ではなく、旅行に行きたい。私におすすめの観光スポットを教え て」
 ちなみにこの書き込みには、多くのネット市民が「尖閣諸島！」と返答。つまり、尖閣諸島は中国の領土というわけである。
 最近でもAKB48が中国進出に踏み切ったばかりだが、中国で芸能ビジネスを展開する場合、政治外交問題は今後も大きなチャ イ）ナリスクとなりそうだ。
（文＝牧野源）

腐乳 +

2012/09/24 01:08

尖閣諸島をめぐり中国の反日感情が高まるなか、 中国のある青年がちょっと変わったメッセージを掲げて反日デモに参加した。青年が 掲げていた紙には、中国で「蒼井先生」などと呼ばれ高い人気を誇る日本のAV女優「蒼井そら」の名前が記されていたという。

韓 国メディアDKBnewsによると、 日本政府が11日に尖閣諸島を国有化したことを受けて、中国国内の80あまりの都市では同時 多発的に大規模な反日デモ が発生した。これを受けて、中国のある青年は、大連の二七広場で「蒼井そら、兄さんはもう君を必要としない。釣魚島を返して」と 書かれた紙を掲げて抗議し た。

この写真がインターネットに掲載されると、 中国のインターネットユーザーは「この男性の勇気に敬服する」などと男性を讃えたとい う。

こ のほかにも、 蒼井そらは尖閣問題で中国ネットユーザーからバッシングを受けている。14日、中国で発生する一連の反日デモに心を 痛めた蒼井そらは、中国版 ツイッター「微博」に「私は良い関係を維持してくれたら嬉しい。私もあなたたちと同じ人間だ」、「日中友好」と書き込んだ。しか し、これに中国のインター ネットユーザーは「日中友好？  中日と書け！」などとむしろ憤慨。結局、蒼井そらは「中日人民友好」と書かれた写真を掲載した。

だが、 中国のネットユーザーの反発はそれでも収まらず、 ネット上では激しい論争が繰り広げられた。「日本人Out」「魚釣島は中国の領 土」「なぜ他国の領土を自 国領だというのか」などと主張するコメントが10万件も寄せられた。日本政府による尖閣諸島の国有化に対する抗議は、なぜか中国 で絶大な人気を誇る蒼井そ らにも向けられている。

腐乳 +

2012/09/24 01:00

日本傳媒沒有報導。如果蒼井真的有說過，日本傳媒一定責難蒼井。

路人 +

2012/09/24 00:54

想確認一下蒼井本人真的有說過那句話嗎？因為上面那幅圖看起來像是ps圖，手寫字一看就是電腦字型。。。

Samsung And Google Ganging Up To Fight Apple ?

Samsung And Google Are Meeting To Discuss Apple

Today, Samsung and Google executives are meeting in Seoul.

The agenda: Apple.

Samsung reps Google's Android community, and its head of mobile Shin Jong-kyun will be meeting with Google's Eric Schmidt.

Both parties declined to give a run down of what would be discussed. But The Korean Times says Samsung is looking to pull Google into its ongoing battle with Apple "to seek royalties for patents."

Samsung and Apple have been at patent war, and a few weeks ago Apple decided to try and keep Samsung from selling the Galaxy X III.

koreatimes - Samsung, Google to powwow on Apple 

By Kim Yoo-chul

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday that it will hold a top-level meeting with its biggest software business partner Google today.

Samsung, which is the representative of Google’s Android community in an ongoing fight with Apple, is pulling Google into its battle to seek royalties for patents.

``I will meet Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt on Thursday in Seoul,’’ said Samsung mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun at a launch event to unveil Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2 held at the company’s main office in downtown Seoul.

Shin declined to give details, but stressed that strategic meetings with major carriers in the United States are set for next week.

Samsung has already been in talks for the development of modified products aimed at escaping from Apple’s design-related patents.

The Google representative arrived in Seoul late Tuesday and Schmidt will hold a news conference with local and overseas media at Google Korea headquarters, downtown Seoul, today, to roll out its Nexus 7 tablet, here.

Lois Kim, the head of communications at Google Korea, refused to give any details about Schmidt’s plans during his stay in Seoul.

The top meeting comes after Apple faces becoming embroiled in a further clash after Samsung said earlier it was intending to sue the firm over technology patent violations in the new iPhone 5.

Meanwhile, a panel of U.S. federal judges is to follow up a separate complaint by Google which is seeking a far-reaching sales ban against Apple products.

Although the fight with Apple is becoming more dramatic, Shin clarified his bullish stance to boost handset sales by saying Samsung doesn’t much care about the ongoing litigation-related issues.

``Samsung revised up this year’s total handset sales target to 400 million from our earlier projection of 370 million,’’ he said.

The company is widening its gap with Apple in phone shipments. During the second quarter of the year, Samsung and Apple sold 50 million and 26 million phones, respectively, according to market research firms.

Officials said the gap is expected to further widen due to Apple’s slowing innovation in products. Samsung has shortened its new mobile launch cycle _ it introduced various flagship products including the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 to respond to faster changes in consumer demand.

In contrast, Apple is still sticking with its ``one smartphone per year’’ policy, making it difficult for the Cupertino-based firm to fight with Samsung in the race for smartphone market domination.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which was introduced at last month’s IFA technology fair in Germany, is a hybrid smartphone and tablet PC. The revised sales target by Samsung is based on Shin’s optimism for the success of the just-launched device.

``I have no doubt that the Note 2 will hit the jackpot. We don’t have any problems to sell over 3 million Note 2s during the first three months after the device was launched,’’ said Shin.

The Note 2 will be available to consumers in the United States from late next month or early November. Samsung plans to roll out the device in 12 countries via 260 clients, said Samsung.

``In the United States, the Galaxy Note was only introduced via AT&T. But the Note 2 will be released by all major U.S. carriers,’’ said the mobile chief, adding leading carriers in Europe are going to definitely roll out the Samsung product.

In terms of hardware specifications, the Note 2 is far better than Apple’s iPhone5. The Note 2 features a 5.5-inch high-definition (HD) Super OLED screen, while the iPhone5 still uses a 4-inch Retina Display supplied by LG Display.

The product uses a display with 1280-by-720 resolution and a 16:9 contrast ratio at a density of 267 pixels-per-inch (ppi) _ the iPhone’s screen has a 1136-by-640 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio at a density of 326 ppi.

The Note2 is powered by 4.1 Jelly Bean, the latest version of Android software. The version included many improvements, including Google Now, Project Butter and Google Wallet.

The touch lag issue has been considered Android's biggest weakness, but Google Now, a voice-activated app available in over 40 languages, seemed to have resolved the issue as it provides users with personalized services by recognizing repeated actions. The function is based on Google's extensive search database.

The Galaxy Note 2 provided various multitasking with an enhanced S-Pen functionality. The Air View function offers a quicker and easier search into content by allowing users to hover with the S Pen over an email, S Planner, image gallery, or video to preview contents without having to open it, said Samsung in a statement.

``More consumers in Europe and the United States are acknowledging the Galaxy Note’s S-Pen functionality. We’ve been receiving very constructive responses from consumers in existing developed markets,’’ said Shin.

Just another nicer way to say China is fucked

China is Not a Bargain Compared to the US

Pundits and Television talking heads are starting to talk about China as a value play for investments. Well back in July in China is Still Worse Than the US, and that is Not a Good Thing I noted that relative to the S&P 500 ($SPY), the Shanghai Composite ($SSEC) still had a lot of room to run lower. The updated ratio chart below shows that the nearly 4 year long descending channel was broken to the downside 2 weeks ago. And below that channel and the 76.4% Fibonacci retracement of the major move higher, there are only two spots of support left before a full retracement. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is bearish and holding near the 30 level, technically oversold but just in a minor way. And the Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator


(MACD) is negative, also supporting further downward movement. Maybe the valuations on the Shanghai Composite are low, or even a steal, but that does not mean that they cannot go even lower. It also does not mean that the opportunities there will outperform those in the US. This chart suggest that you keep your money at home.

Janis Joplin, The Real Queen Of Blues

To understand Janis Joplin, you must first understand Port Arthur, Texas, — a small industrial town, a violent town, a town where the heat gets overpowering and the mosquitoes are more than an inch long. There are no shades of color in Port Arthur, only oppressive conservatism, where anything out of the ordinary is viewed with disdain. It’s good vs. bad, right vs. wrong. Townsfolk are proud to perpetuate tradition, “their daughters proper ladies, their sons Southern Gentlemen” (according to “Buried Alive,” the 1977 Joplin biography by Myra Friedman).

If you’re male, you graduate Port Arthur High School, you go to nearby Lamar State College, you prepare for a career in the oil industry. If you’re female, you get married and have babies. At least, that’s the way it was in the late 1940s and most of the 1950s.
Janis Lyn Joplin was born in 1943 to a mom who worked at the college and a Texaco engineer dad. The family (which included younger siblings Michael and Laura) regularly attended services at the local Church Of Christ. As Janis grew up, she found the town a hellhole — a stifling, uncreative, living nightmare. She was a loner and a misfit, ridiculed on a daily basis at school for her acne, her weight, her perceived ugliness. She took to writing poetry and just staying the hell away from everybody.

“As a blight on an adolescence that was already rocky enough, Janis lost what prettiness she had in those ways so judged by children. Her chubbiness bloated to a hefty bigness; she developed a terrible skin condition, far beyond anything that could be termed a teenager’s siege of acne … Janis herself withdrew, self-conscious and shamed,” Friedman wrote.

Photographer Jim Marshall captures the real Janis in this unguarded moment backstage. The Marshall-signed photo sold for $1,493.75 via Heritage Auction on Dec. 13, 2011. Photo courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries.

Janis found kindred spirits in the town’s outcasts, five boys who would do things considered outlandish like climbing the water towers, smoking cigarettes and listening to records by Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Leadbelly, Odetta, Big Mama Thornton and Billie Holiday. She began to vocally excoriate her teachers and community to the point she was ridiculed in the halls. School became a deeper hell, and her response was to flaunt her differences. Her hair and clothing got wilder. Her attitude became aggressive and confrontational. Yet she cried herself to sleep every night.

After enrolling in Lamar State, Janis transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where she first learned how to make her uniqueness work. Playing an autoharp and patterning herself after the long-ago, far-away, red-hot blues mamas she so loved, her first attempt at recording was her own “What Good Can Drinkin’ Do” in 1962. A voracious reader, she plowed through all of the beat poets and took off for San Francisco in 1963, where her heroin habit and use of speed increased. San Francisco in the 1960s was exploding with youthful talent and revolutionary bands. Janis fit right in.
After one more attempt to return home and “do the right thing,” she was lured back to the West Coast by Chet Helms, a fellow Texan and successful Frisco promoter who was managing the up and coming Big Brother & The Holding Company. With Big Brother, Janis found everything she ever wanted. Within the band context, she flourished, and the stage became her sanctuary. She took to stardom like a thirsty lost soul in the desert finding an oasis of water. She even accepted an invitation to go back to Port Arthur for her 10-year high school reunion just so she could show those bastards who laughed her out of town that she was a big rock star.

Sam Andrew was a guitarist for Big Brother and The Holding Company when Janis Joplin came aboard as the group’s singer. He also was among the musicians with whom Joplin had a relationship. Photo courtesy Sam Andrew.

In California, Janis had it all, and she had it all so fast. She dove in headfirst. Sex, drugs, folk-blues, men, women — anybody, anything, any time. She wanted to get it while she could, do anything if it felt good. But no matter what Janis did, she wasn’t satisfied. The shadow of Port Arthur hovered over her like a buzzard over a rotted corpse. In her effort to find love, which would be the main plot of her life, she fell for lowlife creeps. In fact, she couldn’t be herself with men. She’d get giggly and nervous.
Janis would go into bars, pick up her “pretty young things” and show up at rehearsals the next day with them. Her celebrity conquests were endless: Joe Namath, Dick Cavett, Jim Morrison (whom she slugged over the head with an empty bottle of Southern Comfort when he pulled her hair), Country Joe McDonald (who truly loved her), Kris Kristofferson, Leonard Cohen, Big Brother guitarist Sam Andrew.

“Sure, I loved her,” Andrew told Goldmine. “I mean, hell, we got along so well. We were tight, man. Tighter with each other than with anyone else in the band. We got along right from the start. I understood her. She reminded me of my mother in a lot of ways. My mom’s also from Texas. I understood the true Janis, and, to this day, I’m kind of at odds with some of the other guys in Big Brother about her. I could anticipate her every motivation.”
Janis sang with Andrew and the rest of Big Brother & The Holding Company from 1966 to 1968. The group’s self-titled debut landed in 1967’s Summer of Love. Its follow up, “Cheap Thrills,” came out a year later and made Janis a star.

Publicity photo courtesy Columbia.

When Janis left Big Brother, Sam followed, and they reunited in the Kozmic Blues Band. But their sexual relationship didn’t occur until much later.

“It was only after she fired me from Kozmic Blues Band,” he recalls. “We had a brief little fling. Boy, it was intense, though. Up to that point, I had always stayed away from having relationships with singers, because it’s hard enough to be in a band with one. She fired me. She asked me back. Then I quit. Something like that.”
In answering the question of why he was fired, Andrew pauses. When he speaks again, his voice is softer, lower and the words come out slowly.

“We set out to write more songs together and create this great soul band, and it just didn’t happen the way we envisioned it,” he says. “We didn’t write any songs. There was a real deadly phase at that time of way too much drug use and distractions. Neither one of us was writing. That was the main problem. It wasn’t a good period for either of us. It was like a divorce. Have you ever been divorced?”
When I answer in the affirmative, he continues.

“She was extremely insecure. I think a lot of performers are that way, but she was that way more than most. I don’t even think she knew where that line was,” he says. “She was, actually, an intellectual. It’s complicated. The image of the tough blues mama and the reserved intellectual doesn’t have to be diametrically opposed. She was both. She was incredibly complex. She was whichever one she needed at the moment. That’s who would come forth.”

By the time she was recording “Pearl,” Janis Joplin had built up her armor — jewelry, sunglasses, feathers and a devil-may-care attitude. David Gahr/Sony Music.

When Janis left to form The Kozmic Blues Band, she was doing hundreds of dollars worth of heroin per day. The 1969 album, “I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!” was uneven, but it still showed flashes of brilliance.

With “Pearl,” Janis finally put it all together to create a masterpiece.

“She was recording,” Andrew recalls. “The sessions were going great. She had a great band. She was going to make a family out of that band. Like Big Brother. It never really happened with Kozmic Blues. All systems were go.”

And then, it was all over.

On Oct. 4, 1970, tour manager John Byrne Cooke spotted Janis’ psychedelically-painted Porsche in the parking lot of The Landmark Hotel. She had been late to a recording session after having laid down her vocals for “Mercedes Benz” just days prior. Cooke found her on the floor of her room, dead from a heroin overdose.
She was 27.

“I was shocked. Terrified,” he recalls. “Yet, I knew it was inevitable with her. I used to go over to her house even though I wasn’t playing with her anymore; we’d hang out, talk. I knew all her friends. It was hard.”
Janis’ friends and family, as per her wishes, had a hell of a party celebrating her life with the $1,500 Janis left for just such an occasion.

After receiving word of Janis’ death, Andrew and other members of Janis’ social circle gathered at Big Brother drummer Dave Getz’ house to talk about what she meant to each of them.

Janis Joplin loved to party in life, and she wanted to make sure her friends and family sent her out right. She left $1,500 to be used specifically for a party following her death Oct. 4, 1970. Associated Press photo.

“It’s a very common thing for people who do drugs to think, ‘Well, I’m clean now. I’m not using. I’ve successfully kicked the habit. I’ll do this one last time.’ That’s what happened to her. And she died. It’s simple really. I think that’s what happened to Jerry Garcia, too. Happens a lot,” he said.

It happened to Jimi Hendrix and Canned Heat singer Alan “Blind Owl” just a few weeks before. And it likely contributed to the death of The Doors’ Jim Morrison less than a year later.
Cooke acknowledges that it wasn’t always easy being Janis’ manager — and by extension, accountant, nurse, baby sitter, policeman and therapist.

“You’re on call 24 hours a day,” he said. “I wouldn’t say Janis abused my availability … I did have some time that was my own — mostly when I was asleep.”
 
But he has plenty of good memories, too.

“My favorite memories of working with Janis are the summer of 
1970, when we were touring with her new back-up band, Full Tilt Boogie,” Cooke said. “Janis was happy with the band, happy with the new songs in her repertoire, and she seemed to be on the way to conquering her bad habits. That fall, recording in Los Angeles with Full Tilt Boogie, Janis was happy in the studio for the first time. She formed a creative relationship with her new producer, Paul Rothchild, and what she was learning from their work together gave her new optimism about her future.”

Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man Expanded Version

Coming

Hip-O Records' expanded reissue of Trouble Man is exciting news for fans.

Marvin Gaye, easily one of the world's great R&B singers, provided us with a string of successful and essential albums that include the ground-breaking What's Going On, an album that opened the door for social consciousness in R&B. Of course, Gaye enjoyed an impressively rich career prior to What's Going On with a string of albums that also included a stint with Tammi Terrell.
After What's Going On, Marvin Gaye released Let's Get It On, returning to more conventional, less heavy concepts such as sex, the dominant theme running through Let's Get It On.
But between the magnificent What's Going On and the sizzle of Let's Get It On, Gaye released a stunning soundtrack to the film Trouble Man. From the opening intrigue of the instrumental beginning, "Main Theme From Trouble Man," to the album's hit single, "Trouble Man," and the other well-produced instrumentals and vocal tracks, Marvin Gaye's contribution to the world of film put him in an exclusive class with Isaac Hayes (Shaft), and Curtis Mayfield (Superfly).
The music of Trouble Man is funky, always lively, and thoroughly engaging, just as the Shaft and Superfly soundtracks are. The drum-heavy ""T" Plays It Cool" and the mournful sax and piano and orchestral fills that complete "Poor Abbey Walsh," along with the funk of "T Stands For Trouble" that hints lightly of Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead," the album is one to be remembered. More importantly, it is a strong and compelling middle ground between the previously mentioned What's Going On and Let's Get It On.
Marvin Gaye went on to record several more albums before his tragic death in 1984, including the highly successful Midnight Love (1982), which delivered "Sexual Healing." But Trouble Man would be his only foray into soundtrack music.
On November 13, Hip-O Records will release an expanded edition of Gaye's 'more than a soundtrack' Trouble Man. This is particularly good news for fans not only of the film but also of Marvin Gaye.