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 emotes under the burden of being the spokesperson
for the entire anti-war movement


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.


God help us. Cindy, I do have a few questions:
- have you thought about taking on actual supporters of the war?
- why attack The Speaker, who has solid anti-war credentials, but failed to cave in to your pathetic blackmail tactics?
- was your five week retirement from spokespersonship so painful that you needed to leap back in to reclaim the limelight?
- do you really think your histrionics will fly in the House of Representatives?
- do you really want to be the spoiler in this election? Are you Ralph Nader (a/k/a The Dingbat) in disguise? - don't you realize this folly will only result in hellish blowback for your cause?
- do you not realize that you are ineluctably inelectable?

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

Of all the readers of All This Is That [tm], only Jeff Clinton could have sent me this. . .and he did. No editorial comment is needed...

[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



destruction and construction on 99 to Whistler


I have been at Whistler Mountain in British Columbia for the last few days. Driving up here was a complete circus. Hundreds of trucks parked everywhere; huge mountains of gravel and scree everywhere, waiting to be deployed by trucks and bulldozers; dynamite shacks and blasting off hillsides; literally hundreds of flaggers on the road between Vancouver and Whistler. They are seriously widening this gorgeous, winding road to make way for the thousands of people who will be attending and participating in the Winter Olympics 2010. It is completely insane! The road to Whistler is faced on one side by rocky hills/mountains, and on the other by a steep cliff. 99 is about the last road you'd want to widen...which explains all the dynamiting. And it looks like everything they dynamite away is being used on the cliff side to build up the road so they can add another lane on that side.



click to enlarge the bobsled run


Then, when you actually get to Whistler, there is an insane frenzy of building all over the place. As if it wasn't insane enough in the first place! We are having meetings on top of the mountain, which entails going up rocky, windy, and muddy switchback roads in a HumVee caravan every morning. The drivers on the road are all in constant communication, since the road is about a lane and a half, and you have to plan ahead for possibly meeting a Semi-truck trailer, or another HumVee, or possibly even a little ATV. It's a little spooky. Let's put it this way, you have to sign an insurance waiver every morning to get in the truck.


The most interesting thing here, aside from the mountains, of course, is the construction of the bobsled run. I am naive enough that I actually believed bobsled runs were just carved out of the ice and snow. Au contraire. It is a massive undertaking...way longer than I ever expected, with reinforced concrete, and it looks like piping (to cool the snow?) and, of course, lights, and platforms. It is a massive undertaking, and that's just for one sport. Just like on 99, there are hundreds of trucks here and building going on non-stop.


It began snowing today when we were on top of the mountain. In a month, you won't be able to drive to the top, and the construction will presumably slow down until the thaw next spring.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

I haven't heard it yet, but I am happy to know that Joni Mitchell released a new album yesterday called Shine. I won't get to hear it for a couple of days, unless there is a CD store in Whistler, British Columbia.

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?

Ufologists seem to agree (that doesn't happen often!) that these engine failures are the result of electromagnetic fields emitted by the spacecraft. Thomas M. Sipose, the L.A. Bureau Chief of "Weekly Universe" wrote:



"The functioning of starcraft ionic-microwave engines (aka antigravitation or electromagnetic engines) is accompanied by electromagnetic field phenomena, i.e. plasma, which can cause air mass movements."



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."



To read more Alien Lore on All This Is That (112 articles and counting), click on this Google Search


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Poem: Imaginary Friends

I wonder which is worse—
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"

On Drudge, more quotes from Bill Sammon in the bombshell book, EVANGELICAL PRESIDENT

President Bush has declared that Senator Clinton will win the presidential nomination. In other news, the White House called Barack Obama "lazy."
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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.

Painting: Dean Ericksen - portrait of a madman



Painting: self-portrait 24


click to enlarge
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Sunday, September 23, 2007

"Sure we'd invite Hitler to speak", says Columbia dean



The Dean of Columbia, John Coatsworth, said in an intervew that, yes, they would invite Hitler to speak if he were around today.

Well, sure. He was a rousing orator. And he was a vegetarian and loved children and dogs.


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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



These are a couple of my favorites. I believe they are American,
and were part of a hear no evil,see no evil set. I never did locate
the speak no evil mask.

An Indonesian bird of prey mask. The beaks sticks out about
one foot from the mask. It is ornately carved and painted.

These masks are not necessarily my favorites, but my favorites of those where I have photos. My favorite is a beautiful African mask purchased for me by Kevin Curran and Kris Kruse, followed by the three piece mask from Ceylon, and the large tin mask (both of which are pictured here).


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.


A leather mask. Probably American.

A Mexican mask of Fido.
I own 96 masks, of all sizes and shapes. Most of them are wooden, but about ten are steel or tin, two are ceramic, a Japanese one is made from some sort of paper mache, and one is made from leather.

This thin sheet metal mask has a great rust patina. It is two feet tall.

Maybe my second favorite mask, from Ceylon.
This is a very 3D mask, with removable ears.
The collection includes two vintage catcher's masks, one of which is 100 years old. The masks originate in Mexico, Thailand, Bali, Ceylon, Hawaii, Alaska, Japan, Indonesia, Ghana, Guatemala, Zimabwe, Chad, Senegal, and a few even come from the USA.
A japanese mask made from iron and painted green. This Buddha
weights about ten pounds.

The first mask I bought was at Pike Place Market-- a subtle, very geometric African mask from Ghana. I later started buying masks on our trips to Mexico, and also on eBay (which in the early days had many great masks at reasonable prices).
A horsehead, probably from Mexico. It has a mane
of horse-hair and a rope bridle.
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Saturday, September 22, 2007

The Brady Bunch does porn

Take nine Bradys from the blended family, toss in Alice the housekeeper, put them in every permutation and combination nine can provide, and you have Not The Bradys XXX, a new porn film. They even have their own myspace page.

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

Whoever this guy is, he's fantastic! What a great act.


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Painting: The Six


click to enlarge
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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: Democrat Independent Republican
Date of Birth: May 28, 1944
Official Website:
http://www.joinrudy2008.com/
Number of Wives: 1 2 3
Favorite Two Numbers: 9, 11
Famous Quote: "Freedom is about
authority."

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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Aviophobia, Part 22

I don't know how much you fly, but have you ever noticed that when you're about to fly somewhere, everyone reminds you to "have a safe trip." I realize it's a sweet sort of blessing or good wishes for fliers. But wouldn't it make more sense to wish that when I was climbing the wheel of the car, where I might actually have an impact on the outcome of the trip? About the only thing in my power to do to have a safe trip on a plane is not freak out and break down the cockpit door and strangle the captain and first mate.

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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O.J. now and then, then and now



I Ride The Short Bus

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

This is one of my favorite songs by Los Lobos, an American treasure-trove of roots music. The song is all the more poignant because it's Los Lobos and is simultaneously infectious and heartbreaking. Since I became a fan in the mid-eighties, I've always loved David Hidalgo's tenor voice, and Cesar Rosas' too. I've probably seen Los Lobos perform four times over the years, usually at the Bumbershoot arts festival in Seattle, although I think I saw them once in Berkeley or Oakland. . .who knows? They toured a lot with both Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead in the late 80's and early 90's. It might have been at one of their shows...




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

Why am I so fascinated with these pictures of Phil Kendall? Mainly because at the time of his death, we had not begun taking pictures. We haven't seen a picture of him in nearly 33 years (except for a one inch square high school annual shot). I especially love this one, taken in Boston. This web site is still elliptical and evolving, but you can find out more about Phil and his life here.


click to enlarge
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Double trouble: two guilty pleasures in one--> a Chcago song paired with a YouTube user video

OK, I'll admit, Chicago is a guilty pleasure (like quite a few other mainstream people who could actually play and sing). The first few albums were pretty good. Someone has set "Does anyone really know what time it is" to a truly hilarious user video. So, hey, you get to hear the song, and witness some top-notch thespians at work.


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Remember modems? Here's Penril marketing their 1200 baud modem


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