Sunday, September 30, 2007
Painting: Gibberish/Alien Lore No. 115: The Grey Manifesto
click to enlarge
I think of this painting as alien script. . .something that was perhaps slipped under my door by Krill. To decipher this manifesto, you would need to utilize the same procedures that have been used before to translate various ancient codices, The Rosetta stone, the texts found on crashed UFO vehicles, or the methodology Joseph Smith used to decode the golden tablets that contained the Mormon scriptures. First you need to determine how the text is arranged: does it read top to bottom, left to right like a standard English text? Do you read it up or down, from the bottom up, from right to left? Is the message encrypted, or is it raw data? And then, you need to analyze the actual markings as text, and attempt a translation based on recurring character patterns. attempting to establish some sort or corollary with English texts?
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Saturday, September 29, 2007
Cindy Sheehan for Congress::::::The "Spokesperson" abandons her five week retirement to hit the hustings:::::::: Sheehan is ineluctably inelectable
Cindy Sheehan told the Associated Press earlier this year that she would enter the 2008 House contest, in one of the nation’s most solidly Democratic and liberal-leaning districts, unless Speaker of the House Pelosi introduces articles of impeachment against Bush by July 23.
Guess what? The Speaker did not move to impeach the President. Therefore Sheehan is in the race, running for the San Francisco 8th District seat now occupied by Nancy Pelosi.
She even has some supporters lined up. In a recent interview with The Hill, Sheehan said she has been endorsed by actress Roseanne Barr, country star Willie Nelson and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Sheehan also claimed that White House hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich (a/k/a "the runt") and former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) are also backing her.“Celebrities bring a certain kind of...credibility,” Sheehan said. Willie Nelson is apparently a friend of Sheehan’s and has offered to help her raise money for her campaign. “[Nelson and his wife] just have the exact correct politics and the exact compassion for the earth and humanity that I think attracts us as friends,” she said. Willie? When I bought tickets to see you this summer, I hope you realize I never intended for my hard-earned mon to go toward a misguided attempt to unseat the Speaker.
Other recent articles here on Ms. Sheehan:
Matt "Sleazeball" Drudge Strikes Again
Friday, September 28, 2007
Bin Laden escapes the hangman's noose once again
According to NBC news, Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces. An August mission in Afghanistan just missed snagging Public Enemy Number One.
"A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago." Read the NBC news story here.
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The Party & an anonymous party's eternal mortification
[you must click this to enlarge and read!]
What I like best about this email are 1) this is the first time he ever drank; 2) his fretting over the homosexual aspect of what happened. It was a dog, fella!); and 3) the episode was apparently videotaped by one of the cheering crowd.
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
Dynamiting, bulldozing, and building in Whister, British Columbia
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Today, also, I believe Herbie Hancock released a tribute album to Joni. I'm looking forward to that one too.
As it turns out, the day of this record's release I am in her home state, about fifty miles from her house on Vancouver Island (where my daughter also lives). Like I said, I won't hear the record until I get back to stateside. I am not much of a digital music buyer. I have to hit the brick and mortar shop and have a CD to hold in my hands. Then, I just play a CD once...when I digitize it. Anyhow, here's to Joni. The advance on this album i that it's very good.
The tracks of Shine:
"One Week Last Summer"
"This Place"
"If I Had a Heart" "If I Had a Heart, I'd Cry" is a reaction to the state of the environment and what Mitchell called the current "holy war." In February 2007, The New York Times described the song as "one of the most haunting melodies she has ever written." Of the impetus that inspired her to write the song, Mitchell explained, "My heart is broken in the face of the stupidity of my species. I can't cry about it. In a way I'm inoculated. I've suffered this pain for so long. …The West has packed the whole world on a runaway train. We are on the road to extincting ourselves as a species."
"Hana"
"Bad Dreams are Good" "Bad Dreams Are Good" was inspired by a comment Mitchell's grandson made at the age of three: "Bad dreams are good, in the great plan." In a March 2007 BBC2 radio interview with Amanda Ghost, the singer jokingly said she'd promised to "cut him in" on the song's profits.
"Big Yellow Taxi" In March 2007, The Guardian reported that Shine will feature a "new version" of Joni's 1970 environmentally-themed hit single.
"Night of the Iguana"
"Strong and Wrong"
"Shine" Toronto Globe and Mail described this song as "a lush lullaby for the soul."[
"If" This song, which will be the last on the album,[8] is based on the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling. The jazz-inflected piece features Herbie Hancock playing piano.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
What would Jesus do? (pick up a naked woman?)
click Jesus to enlarge
Belgian Catholic bishops are protesting a TV ad that shows a pot-bellied, "hippy" Jesus performing miracles and picking up barely-clothed women in a club, according to church spokesfolk.
Plug TV and RTL-TVI defended the commercial, saying that it was not blasphemous but depicted a "laid-back Jesus addressing youth."
Some more traditional approaches to depicting Jesus:
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Alien Lore No. 113: Why do cars in the vicinity of UFOs die?
Why do witness's vehicles inevitably die when they see an alien space craft?
According to Weekly Universe: "...When real true-life starships descend, says [ufologist] Voron, "ionic-microwave streams interact with the environment...Even more shockingly, starship electromagnetic fields can impact our environment in still other ways -- some of them potentially deadly! UFO sightings have been accompanied by dangerous engine failures in planes, boats, cars -- as well as failures in other mechanical, electronics, communication devices."
Poem: Imaginary Friends
Having imaginary friends
Or imaginary enemies?
I don't know anyone
With an imaginary friend,
But I know plenty of folk—
From The President on down—
With imaginary enemies,
From ghostly dopplegangers
To the guy in the next cubicle,
That control every thought
And every move they make.
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Monday, September 24, 2007
President says Hillary will win the nomination/White House calls Obama "lazy"
Video (and lyrics) Not Alone Anymore...by Roy Orbison & The Traveling Wilburys
This song, from late in Roy Orbison's short life, was one of the finest The Wilburys recorded. And Roy is absolutely at the top of his game. It's one of my favorite Orbison tunes ever. It's a sweet, poppy, rock and C/W tinged gem. Thank you Roy!
Not Alone Any More
You always said that I’d be back again, that I’d come running to you in the end.
I thought that you were on your own, (sha la la la, sha la la la)
and now I find you're not alone. (sha la la la)
(Not alone) I’ll see you through the rain, (not alone) through the heartache and pain,
(not alone) it hurts like never before, you're not alone anymore.
You always said that I would know some day just how it feels when your love's gone away.
I let you down, I let you go, (sha la la la, sha la la la) I lost you, how was I to know? (sha la la la)
(Not alone) I see you through the rain, (not alone) through the heartache and pain,
(not alone) it hurts like never before, you're not alone anymore.
I never knew I could feel this way, I never could see past yesterday.
You feel that everything is gone, (sha la la la, sha la la la)
I feel it too, you're not alone. (sha la la la)
(Not alone) I’ll see you through the rain, (not alone) through the heartache and pain,
(not alone) it hurts like never before, you're not alone, you're not alone,
you're not alone anymore, any more, any more.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
"Sure we'd invite Hitler to speak", says Columbia dean
The Do It Now Foundation survives
click images to enlarge
Way back in the day (meaning, here, 1971-73), I worked two years full-time (for a subsistence stipend of $150 a month) at a Crisis & Drop-in Center, in Kent, Washington. We used a lot of educational materials from the Do It Now Foundation, which wasn't always popular with the authorities and funding agencies. Why? They focused on the immediately dangerous drugs like speed, heroin, PCP, and barbiturates, and didn't sweat the more organic drugs.
Do It Now's spokespeople were not popular with the establishment either. . .folks like Grace Slick, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, John Sebastian, and others. bNot to mention the garish graphics and typography, and illustrations by people like Robert Crumb, and the cartoons of the Furry Freak Brothers. But it worked. By not peddling a lot of false information, they established credibility.
click to enlarge - this book was great, and we bought them by the case
Do It Now's attitude was basically, if it grows in the ground (e.g., marijuana, peyote, mushrooms), it's not so bad. Although their educational materials were great, this pragmatic approach was not popular, as I mentioned, with the authorities, and even with many of our supporters and even workers.
I found Do It Now on-line the other day, still doing their good work, although they've definitely moderated their stance, as well as branched out into educating people about safe sex, crystal meth, and alcohol.
Click here to hear Frank Zappa's hilarious anti-speed Public Service Announcement.
Click here to read their newsletter from 1971--it is a fascinating time-capsule.
You can visit their web site here.
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Some masks from my collection
I don't know where these three masks came from; I bought them as one lot on e-bay.
They seem likely to be American.
"Stink-eye" by the American outsider artist Audrey Leanza.
I also own a couple of her paintings. I bought this from her directly.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The Brady Bunch does porn
Defamer said "The number of taboo combinations suggested by the iconic 3x3 grid is seemingly infinite, from Bobby and Cindy's mutual sexual awakening, to frustrated middle-child Jan hate-f***ing her more popular sister Marcia, to the everyone-on-Alice, "pork chopsh n' apple shaush" scenario we've so often returned to in our deepest, most forbidden Brady fantasies."
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Friday, September 21, 2007
The O.J. Press conference interloper
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Indecision 2008's profile of Rudy
I like Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 web site. Here is their profile of Rudy Giuliani--a subtle, but nice jab,
Full Name: Rudolph William Louis Giuliani
Party:
Date of Birth: May 28, 1944
Official Website: http://www.joinrudy2008.com/
Number of Wives:
Favorite Two Numbers: 9, 11
Famous Quote: "Freedom is about authority."
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Aviophobia, Part 22
I just got back from a trip to Newport Beach, but I had one of my more unpleasant T.S.A. experiences of late. This time I had cut it really close--I got into the security line with about 40 minutes before my plane took off. I don't know if they do this at random, if I was profiled, or what, but the woman who checks your driver's license and boarding pass, just said "Come with me." And she led me to the special, elite, bad-ass TSA security section. Only a handful of people were there getting the once over. And it was quite a once over. When I set off the metal detector (due to having a stainless steel hip), I received the most thorough going over I have ever received. I have probably flown forty times this year, but never had this treatment. It wasn't invasive or anything, just paintstakingly thorough and methodical.
As I was being patted and frisked, two other TSA stooges went through my bags. One guy unfolded every shirt, unrolled every sock, and opened every bottle of liquid I was carrying in my TSA approved plastic pouch, and the other guy took my shoes over to a special machine (presumably one that sniffs plastique explosive), and after the shoes, he went over to another machine with my laptop, my smartphone, my Sennheiser headphones, my Nintendo DS, and my iPod, and gave them some sort of electronic scan.
By the time I got to the gate, they had closed the doors. I could get another flight by paying $400, or I could hope for the best and go standby two and a half hours later.
Selah.
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Wednesday, September 19, 2007
It's become so fashionable, they have their own web site: Republican Sex Offenders
I don't know if Democrats are able to "score" without offending, or if it's just the preferred modus operandi of the G.O.P., but the Republicans have accumulated a formidable record in the sex-offender sweepstakes. Republican Sex Offenders is compiling a rapidly growing list of G.O.P. miscreants.
jack writing in from Newport Beach, California
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Los Lobos: One Time One Night, video and lyrics
One time one night lyrics
A wise man was telling stories to me
About the places he had been to
And the things that he had seen
A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song about the home of the brave
In this land here of the free
One time one night in America
A lady dressed in white with the man she loves
Standing along the side of their pick up truck
A shot rang out in the night
Just when everything seemed right
Another headline written down in America
The guy that lived next door in three oh five
took the kids to the park and disappeared 'bout half past nine
Who will ever know how much she loved them so
That dark night alone in America
A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song 'bout the home of the brave and this land here of the free,
One time one night in America
Four small boys playing ball in the parking lot
A preacher, a teacher, and the other became a cop
A car skidded into the rain
Making the last little one a saint
One more light goes out in America
A young girl tosses a coin in the wishing well
She hopes for a heaven while for her there's just this hell
She gave away her life to become somebody's wife
Another wish unanswered in America
People having so much faith
Die too soon while all the rest come late
We write a song that no one sings
On a cold black stone where a lasting peace will finally bring
The sunlight plays upon my window pane
I wake up to a world that's still the same
My father said to be strong
That a good man could never do wrong
In a dream I had last night in America
A wise man was telling stories to me
about the places he had been to and the things that he had seen
A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song 'bout the home of the brave and this land here of the free,
One time one night in America
One time one night in America
One time one night in America
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Monday, September 17, 2007
Alan Greenspan: "The Iraq War is largely about oil"
Alan Greenspan with his wife, the very talented journalist
and commentator Andrea Mitchell
This book is going to be great! The Republican Alan Greenspan, in his memoir, praises Bill Clinton for his financial restraint and for elminating deficit spending. He roasts President Bush for his profligate spending.
In my favorite part of the book so far, Greenspan writes:
“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."
The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan goes on sale tomorrow.
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Phil Kendall at both ends of his football career
Double trouble: two guilty pleasures in one--> a Chcago song paired with a YouTube user video
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