inner revolution, shake it up baby

a little ketchup

2008-07-30T22:26:00.005-04:00

wow.
it's been a long time between posts.

i went to see Batman with my nephew and some of his friends.
it was spectacular. the only thing it needed was more of the Joker.
he could have been in every scene. but i still don't like christian bale - and
why did he have to rasp like that? to cleverly disguise his voice? ha!
not needed at all.

things are alright here. still haven't sold my dads condo -
real estate in florida is NOT happening.
my job is still the same - the police busted a counterfeit ring
about 30 minutes from me that were making 20's. we got hit twice.

i've been going to the beach and now that my aunt & uncle are in Aspen,
their pool, so i'm pretty tan. even my hair has gotten lighter.
and i don't even mind being seen in a bathing suit.

my roommate works with this guy who is an artist that just happens to do tattoos.
there are 3 that i still want and he's going to do the easiest one next week. for 50 bucks!
i'm pretty excited. i'll post a picture of what it will look like and then one after it's done.

i gave a guy my phone number. i hope he'll call. i really like him. and he has a motorcycle.
a huge plus!

timed lapse or some such

2008-02-12T22:34:00.003-05:00

another year older.
sunday i turned 48.
i don't even know what that means.
maybe a few more lines on my face,
but i still look pretty much the same -
feel pretty much the same too.

still listening to the beastie boys and
the clash. cannibal ox and jeff buckley.
and ozomatli forever.
still wish i was 10 pounds lighter.

my daughter spent january down here with me.
i played miniature golf for the first time in many years.
had a fun time even though i lost. wait - the one with the
most points does lose, right?
did lots of nothing and walked the dog.
ate salad every day.
went to the beach and ate ice cream.
found a new radio station.

i've been reading, but i don't feel like posting a book list tonight.
i will say that if you haven't read any of Bill Bryson's books you should.

the only thing that bothers me a little is the lack of a relationship.
i'm ready, but it's hard meeting people that want to know you, not just
want to fuck you. hmm, that was kind of crude. true, but crude just the same.

and honestly, i'm kinda lonely.

it's been a while

2007-12-01T23:37:00.000-05:00

i can't believe it's december.
it's still 80 degrees during the day.
my neighbors across the street have decorated the shit
out of their yard - she said her electric bill last december
was 650 dollars! insane.
i guess people just go nuts to (over)compensate for the fact that
1. there's no snow and 2. when you go to get your christmas tree,
you sweat like a wildebeast getting it onto the roof of your car!

thanksgiving was sucky without my family.
i went to my cousin Mark's wedding the day after.
it was on a yacht that cruised around (for a 3 hour tour!)
all the Keys - Siesta, Longboat, Bird, and Lido. The food
was OK, the music was terrible and the vows corny.

the good part of it being december is that i get to see
my children in one month...

i've been reading, so i'll mention a few books worth checking out.
all the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child - and i've read 6 - are
good, easy reading. Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery was a
rollercoaster ride of a read. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle was
well worth a look-see. there have been more, but i'm tired, so next time.

happy sunday, people.

it's been some time...

2007-10-14T10:53:00.000-04:00

a lot happening - some good things, some not so good.
i have a temporary job (so i can eat) that i don't like
at a pay scale that is embarrassing. i'm still looking for
a better gig.

the news has been crazy and even though i haven't done a good job
blogging about it, i have been keeping up. don't want to talk about
blackwater or the absolute spineless-ness of a democratic congress though.
with the president's approval rating in the toilet, i don't quite understand
why they don't blast him and his out of control administration a new one.
in the next few days i'll try and have it together enough to put some stuff up.

the weather finally cooled down - yesterday! not humid at all and even
when it's 80 it's nice. i can't wait to turn off the AC and sleep with
the windows open.

i took the 2nd week of january off from work (if i'm still there, that is) so i could hang out with melissa and steven who are coming to visit. the dog is good
and is trying to get the cat to like her but she's a goober and he's a cat so
it's been a bumpy ride. they're getting better though. apollo (the cat) jumps on the dogs back and tries to eat her - her response? yeah, she licks him! what a dog!

happy sunday...

zesty xo

2007-09-09T16:29:00.000-04:00

that's Greek for it's HOT outside!

Overheard in Sarasota: (it's a new thing i'm starting)

Early 20's Sarasota JAP to 2 female relatives: 'Yeah, that's why she cut her hair all off - she was trying to lose weight.'

- Mrs. Chen's all you can eat Chinese Buffet
(which is AMAZING. and only $6)

starting off with a reagan quote - really!

2007-08-24T18:37:00.000-04:00

"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne're-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work."

-- Ronald Reagan in his recently published diaries, May 17, 1986

Rigoberta Menchú was recently thrown out of Cancun's 5 star Hotel Coral Beach. They thought the Noble Peace Prize winner was a bag lady.

One IS the lonelist number when you're all alone, as Tom Tancredo was, at the NAACP GOP Presidential Candidate Forum.

9 great old school punk videos.

Read this. It's by Philip Atkinson from theFamily Security Foundation. This is the killer (no pun intended) paragraph: 'The wisest course would have been for President Bush to use his nuclear weapons to slaughter Iraqis until they complied with his demands, or until they were all dead. Then there would be little risk or expense and no American army would be left exposed. But if he did this, his cowardly electorate would have instantly ended his term of office, if not his freedom or his life.' Oh. My. God. And this guy has a voice? People LISTEN to him?! Amazing.

Way to go Alabama! You can buy a gun on the street corners, but if you'd like a vibrator, you know, for pleasure - you've got to cross state lines! Violence, not sex, people. Indeed.

I got this from over at A Different Kitchen. "A group of concerned East Harlem parents are calling on the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball to stop selling hats from a cap manufacturer that adds gang colors and symbols to some of their wares."

From Satirical Political. It would oh so much funnier if it wasn't true...

OK. From the L.A. Times comes this story about 'Freedom Packages" making their way to our troops. Not filled with useful things like say... armored vests or anything. Nope. These were put together by a fundamentalist Christian ministry called Operation Straight Up, or OSU. You know who's in this ministry? Stephen Baldwin. Seriously. The packages are filled with bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and until the DOD said no deal - copies of the video game Left Behind:Eternal Forces in which "soldiers for Christ" hunt down enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers. Excellent. Soemtimes I have no words, just strangled sounds and a red face. Ugggghhhh.

This is a clip of Ted Nugent (he's still alive?!) cursing out Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer(!) and Dianne Feinstein(!)

b.s.

2007-08-16T17:01:00.000-04:00

i haven't looked at the traffic on my site meter for a while and this, by far, is THE best visitor:

Asia
Country: Philippines
State/Region: Rizal
City: Wack Wack

apparently i'm the number one go to site for Pablo Neruda's poem Integrations.
who knew?

some news and a mini update

2007-08-14T12:43:00.000-04:00

Has there ever been THIS much drama in F1? remember the days of Heinz Harold Frentzen? When spoonface stole his girlfriend and then MARRIED her? That's the way Alonso and Hamilton are going in the gossip department. Niiice.

William Lobdell, L.A Times's religion correspondent, loses faith after reporting church scandal after church scandal. Now that's sad.

Large-scale surveillance plan enacted in China. Where did they get the technology? From us! It's coming and I know I sound paranoid, but after congress failed to stand up to this administration and made legal what had been illegal wire tapping and surveillance HERE you know I'm right.

This is Noah, and he's rocking out to my favorite band Ozomatli

still looking for a job. i went on an interview today for a store manager position, but we'll see. i'm going to check out the store later today.

the house is shaping up. pictures have been hung, furniture has been arranged and books taken out of their boxes - i'm amazed at how many books i'd gotten rid of. i can now fill a single 5 shelf bookcase whereas in NY i had 5. not counting my bedroom. wow.

i meet with a realtor (my cousin Mark's friend) tomorrow to see about putting my father's condo up for sale. august is a slow month here, so it probably won't happen until september. i went over there yesterday to measure the bureau and clean it out so i can use it. that was harder than i thought it would be. i bagged a lot of his things to be donated to goodwill. i was surprised to find that he had prayer books in hebrew. also, many pictures i never knew existed. it's been 2 months since he died and sometimes it feels like yesterday and others, like today, it feels like ages ago. time is a bizarre and elastic thing sometimes.

i also need to sell my father's Camaro. i'm just waiting to see how much it's worth. tarik should let me know sometime this week.

steven & melissa are planning to come down in january. steven for a week and melissa for longer since she's off for the winter from landscaping. i doubt i'll be able to make it back to NY for thanksgiving. that's sucky since it'll be the first time we won't be celebrating all together.

i'll have a booklist again sometime in the near future...

2007-08-03T23:17:00.000-04:00

The water said to the dirty one,
"Come here."
The dirty one said,
"I am too ashamed."
The water replied:
"How will your shame be washed away without me?"
-Rumi

still no job.
filling out applications sucks, big time.

went swimming this morning. i have a tan.
it's still blazing hot, but there's an Amish restaurant
close by that's delicious and cheap. and they have pie.

i had to buy a 'beware of dog' sign to put on the fence. it's some sort of city ordinance or something. beware of dog that may lick you to death is what it should read.

pictures

2007-07-23T18:45:00.000-04:00

the top 2 are shots of the spectacular weather we've been having. see the the lightening?

the next ones are of the screened in porch facing Phillipi Creek (and yup, there's gators. baby ones) and one of the long part of the 'L' of the living room. to the right is the kitchen.

how hot is TOO hot?

2007-07-20T19:37:00.000-04:00

i'm past that hot.

made it to sarasota. no A/C until monday.
went swimming today. the water? 85 degrees. i shit you not.
ice cream sandwiches are my new best friend.
i plan to exist on smoothies and shakes from now until the end of september
when it's supposed to cool down around here.

will post some pictures soon.

last entry for a while

2007-06-22T23:14:00.000-04:00

i'm up to my eyeballs in boxes, my house looks like a maze and i'm donating about 200 books to various places. yes, i'm still moving to florida even though my dad's gone. i found some family i never really knew while down there that i'd like to get to know better. there's a lot to write about, but it's a little too close to the surface yet, so it'll have to wait.

i'll write again once i get settled.

2007-06-11T22:54:00.000-04:00

i just got back from florida early this morning.
my father died friday.

not much else to say, is there?

#@%*!!

2007-05-26T08:48:00.000-04:00

i was in florida last weekend visiting my father and looking for a place to live. we found a great house with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a screened-in porch and a fenced yard overlooking a creek with fruit trees. the rent was agreeable, so we went with it. my dad was funny and weird and charming and told lots of stories from when he was young and a little - let's say... criminal minded. he seemed fine. granted, he was walking slow, and showed signs of fatigue, but hell, he's got some serious shit wrong with him, so it was not unexpected. yesterday i get a call from sarasota memorial hospital advising me that he'd been admitted after taking a fall which apparently was induced by a seizure from one of the lesions in his brain. when i spoke to him he sounded like he'd had a stroke, but his doctor said it was because of the swelling in his head. his vitals were good but his kidneys weren't doing so hot, so they put him on some meds to help that. it seemed to have worked and even his white count was good. dr. singh talked about transferring him to the rehab facility on the premises in the next day or so. i was relieved since i won't be getting down there until the end of june and they wanted to keep him that long. i was out walking the dog this morning and when we got back there was a message from the hospital. dr. singh was there and told me that my father's mental status was deteriorating and he was having problems swallowing. they were transferring him not to rehab, but to the ICU. i asked him if it was critical and if i should get down there ASAP, but he told me no, that his vitals were still good and they were waiting to do another CAT scan. he knows all my numbers and will call if there are any changes.
i'm so scared that he won't make it until i get there. i mean, i'll fly down if things go bad, obviously, but i wanted him to be ok so we could spend some time together before he went. i mean, i know he's not going to come out of this, but i thought we'd have more time. he was so together just this past monday. i can't believe things can deteriorate so quickly.
all these things are scrambling around in my head like some crazy pinball game. i guess i just needed to write all of this down and get it out so i can be as effective as i can be. i've typed half a dozen things and changed my mind about leaving them - mostly they were angry,cursing things - so better to get rid of all the negative energy and ill temper to focus on the positive. ok.
i had a sweet book list and some news links too, but i've not the heart or the energy. i'm done.

11:30pm.
leaving for florida tomorrow 11:45am.
not good.

some news, some books, some bullsh*t

2007-05-12T18:15:00.000-04:00

why do i keep seeing mitt romney for president commercials? isn't it a little soon for that to start? if all the potentials from both sides start their television blitz - 10 republicans, 8 democrats - there won't be any time left for regular TV!

here comes the book portion:

1. A Handbook to Luck by Cristina García
2. The End of the World as we Know it: Scenes From a Life by Robert Goolrick
3. Love in a Torn Land: Joanna of Kurdistan: The True Story of a Freedom Fighter's Escape from Iraqi Vengeance by Jean Sasson
4. War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals by David Halberstam
5. The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq by Patrick Cockburn
6. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai
7. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
8. Just Another Soldier : A Year on the Ground in Iraq by Jason Christopher Hartley

aaaand the news...

twenty-five years ago, F1 lost one of its greatest ever - Gilles Villeneuve.

uh-oh! between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for.

see? even the iraqi lawmakers want us to set timetables.

some weeds make a viable alternative to oil.

a Dolores Huerta interview. she and César Chávez formed the UFW back in 1965.

france's new president takes a chapter from our president by going on vacation as violence breaks out over his being elected.

just nip the tip as an HIV prevention method. ouchie.

and finally to all those out there that celebrate Mother's Day (i am not one of them; as i have previously stated i believe EVERY day should be mother's day)
salary.com estimates the (monetary) worth of a full-time mom at $138,095. good luck getting it retroactively!

i'm starting to pack up some of the things i won't use for the next several months as a start to the packing up of my life and sending it south. i think i may have a lead on a house that is affordable and will let me keep the pupster. it has a screened in porch and a garage - rare in FLA so my dad says. i'll be able to see it next saturday when i'm down there. goody. sorry, a little sarcasm slipped in.
ok, i'm done.

news and video and a little whine with my cheese

2007-05-05T23:42:00.000-04:00

george tenet and ron jeremy - you know you want to read it.

the NYTimes no longer plans to attend the white house correspondent’s dinner. too much jackassery.

satan's influence on immigrants? WTF?! ooohh, it's UTAH! i get it.

Oregon's governor Ted Kulongoski pretends he’s on the food stamp program. he has $21 to spend. for a week’s groceries. that's not even a lot of 33 cent cup o' soup.

jon stewart on the renaming of ‘timetables’ in Iraq. ‘perhaps patriot dates? freedom deadlines? glory goals?' he then goes on to say ‘what decent, law abiding, patriotic american wouldn’t stand behind a glory goal?” had me giggling. a lot.

It's interesting how the criticism of the war in Iraq so far has been discussed in the passive voice. "Mistakes have been made" -- no one has yet named "The Mistaker" - from The News Hole (Countdown) on how the republicans described the ‘situation’ in Iraq on last week's debate.

gladiator bones found in Turkey.

robbs dept. store (in england) bosses set off the fire alarm to get all their employees together, not because the building was on fire, but because THEY were fired.

scientists find the gene that decides how long we live.

why drug reform won’t be quick to happen even though gov. spitzer used this as a talking point in his campaign platform.

no longer the decider? now you can call him the ‘commander guy’

grindhouse style movie posters for all kinds of movies – like Casablanca!

impeach bush/cheney this didn't rate a blip in the national papers. it's pretty incredible. and cheeky, too.

this is video (10 minutes worth) of the mayday immigration protest at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. a peaceful protest turned bloody with riot gear, huge rubber bullets and tear gas.

i'm going to florida on the 19th to check out the rental situation. my dad has been hard at work putting the feelers out and he's come up with some potentials. he goes tuesday for yet another MRI to see if the lesions in his brain have all gone. i went to dinner last night with mike and melissa to this turkish place - it was decent. the food was better than the atmosphere. we got to talking about me moving and melissa said something so obvious that i couldn't believe i hadn't thought about it sooner. thanksgiving. i won't be here to cook for, and host, the 6th annual misfits holiday dinner. that made me so sad that i was grateful the meal was over and i could get home. it hadn't even occured to me. how stupid am i? not to have thought about the holidays? this sucks.

a lot to say, a lot to do.

2007-04-28T09:17:00.000-04:00

ok. first. my book list .
1. Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier’s Perspective by Paul Rieckhoff
2. In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Lee Woodruff and Bob Woodruff
3. Against All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke
4. Jemez Spring by Rudolfo Anaya
5. Alburquerque by Rudolfo Anaya
6. Pistol: the life of Pete Maravich by Mark Kriegel
7. Between Worlds: the making of an american life by Bill Richardson
8. Butterfly Boy: memories of a Chicano mariposa by Rigoberto González
9. The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam
10. The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin
11. The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya
12. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

a few words about a few of these titles -
Infidel. go read it. it's the story of a Somali woman who became so politically involved that she now lives under armed guard because everyone and their mother want her dead.
Alburquerque was one of the finest books i've read in a long while. there's politics, boxing, love, healing and roots searching. what more do you want?
Chasing Ghosts - a revealing, non-fictional account of Paul Rieckhoff's tour in Iraq. he's now the founder of what used to be called Operation Truth and is now IAVA. (Iraq and Afganistan Veterans of America) he's on Countdown and Hardball a lot. smart man.

here's the news...

the bush administration will not try to assess whether the troop increase in Iraq is producing signs of political progress or greater security until september. AND officials made clear that the White House is now gradually scaling back its expectations for the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

american military commanders in bagdad are building a 12-foot-high, three-mile-long wall separating an historic Sunni enclave from Shiite neighborhoods. is it working? hmm, not so much.

Marilee Jones, the dean of admissions at MIT resigned amid a bit of a scandal. seems Ms Jones fabricated her own educational credentials. Officials of the institute said she did not have even an undergraduate degree.

Roberto Bolaño featured in The International Herald Tribune. if you've never read him, pick up By Night in Chile. it's truly amazing.

certifying coffee in Chiapas
Trader Joe's sells Fair Trade Coffee. just FYI.

watching The Simpsons can reduce the stigma attached to mental illness. i knew there was a good reason...

did anyone watch the 'debate' on thursday? i thought Obama and Clinton both said a whole lot of nothing. i wasn't impressed. Richardson obviously doesn't understand the meaning of one sentence answers or 60 second responses. he has the most all around experience, and actually answered some of the questions though. John Edwards, who i really wanted to like, did not impress me at all. he didn't seem able to think nimbly on his feet - and i don't mean that in the knee-jerk politico-spin kind of way either. Dennis Kucinich acted like that embarrassing relative you have - the one everyone rolls their eyes at, you know? he said some strong things that no one would come close to saying though. i found that i liked Joe Biden more than i thought i would. he got the only laugh by answering a long winded (which is funny in this context) question from Brian Williams about his verbosity with one word. HA! (as Chris Matthews kept saying) Chris Dodd was decent when he had the time to speak. but Mike Gravel was the show stopper. he said that some of his colleagues at the debate scared him. yup. that's what he said. he also said that he felt like a "potted plant" up there since hardly any questions came his way. we'll see...

so june is coming up fast and i have a lot to do. sell the stuff i don't want to take to florida, toss out what i don't want be reminded of, donate books and music - if anyone has any ideas about that, please let me know. i'm trying to donate some stuff to prisons, but that's slow going. oh yeah, i have to find a place to live and a job. nothing serious, really.
i'm having kind of a hard time thinking about being so far away from my kids - i mean they're grown, but still. i can't believe i'm going to be living in florida.
my dad is going through some alternative therapies since he stopped the chemo for the tumors in his lungs and adrenal gland and is doing radiation for the ones in his head. he sounds alright some days, but i know he's in a fair amount of pain. he still makes jokes though, thank goodness.

i'm off to price rental vans vs. moving vans and see what i can afford. enjoy the day, people. it's gorgeous out.

books, news and whatnot

2007-04-21T18:29:00.000-04:00

1. God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau
2. Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen
3. The Falls by Ian Rankin
4. The Supreme Court: the personalities and rivalries that defined America by Jeffrey Rosen
5. Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill.
6. Flight by Sherman Alexie
7. Klail City by Rolando Hinojosa
8. The Occupation of Iraq: winning the war, losing the peace by Ali A. Allawi

178 killed in Iraq by 4 separate bombings. not getting better - much worse, i'd say.

soldiers tours extended again. 3 more months.

john mccain's new song to iran.

the marine corps times says that a draft may be necessary.

are cell phones killing bees?

Bill Moyers new show on PBS called Buying the War starts 4/25 at 9pm.

pres. bush stands by ‘i don’t recall’ gonzales.

an alternate take on the gonzales testimony. food for thought, son.

a moscow university has ordered its foreign students to remain in their dormitories for the weekend because of fears of ethnic violence ahead of adolph hitler’s birthday April 20.

dickens world a theme park based on charles dickens. 'cause he was SUCH a fun guy...

stephen colbert vs. sean penn in the meta-free-phor-all. mediated by robert pinsky. yup. watch it, it's funny. thanks to crooks & liars.

jedi mind tricks at the gramercy theater tomorrow night.

i almost forgot to mention the Ozomatli show on tuesday night. it was the best one i've ever seen. the energy was SO high, the new stuff was great, the old stuff was great. the guys could do no wrong. let's see, we talked to Shef, (it was his birthday and there was cake AND singing) we talked to Raul - he's the nicest guy, and we spoke to Asdru and Uli and Wil-dog. Michelle got them all to sign her CD insert and boy was she over the moon! i wish sometimes that i lived in LA so i could see them like every other month or so...!

thank goodness it's spring-like. a beautiful day today. the doggie is in a coma now with all the cavorting (yeah, i said it!) around she did at the dog park.
well, enjoy the rest of your weekend, people. i know i will.

little bits of news and a few oddities

2007-04-13T15:30:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!!

welcome to Ikeatown. these pre-fab 'houses' are pretty popular across Scandanavia, and are now migrating to the UK.

this is for the person who is tired of making pancakes on a griddle and happens to have heroin works handy.

sandals with a false bottom? the better to sneak booze into places you aren't allowed to.

a delicious sauce from Ghana with an unfortunate name (for english speakers, that is).

the DNC appoints Jenni Engebretsen, the Director of Communications for the Recording Industry Association of America - commonly known as the RIAA - CEO for public affairs!!

Neil Gaiman reads his short story 'How to Talk to Girls'. from his (fantastic) website.

Kurt Vonnegut passed away wednesday at the age of 84. this is a text article plus audio from NPR.

you can now use Google Maps to view all the devastated villages in and around Darfur. is this a good thing?

"Iraqi Parliment bombing. from truthout.org. it's a great site, you should check it out.

a quote from Tim O'Brien's amazing book 'The Things They Carried'; about being a soldier in Vietnam: "If you don’t care for obscenity, you don’t care for the truth; if you don’t care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty."

links a-plenty

2007-03-31T17:43:00.001-04:00

Jon Town's lost VA benefits
this is truly disgraceful. the VA is telling him that the wounds he suffered in 2004 weren't of a physical nature - he lost his hearing - but rather his wounds were actually caused by a "personality disorder." Town was then booted from the Army and told that under a personality disorder discharge, he would never receive disability or medical benefits.

Rufina Amaya, the only survivor of the massacre in El Mozote, El Salvador, passed away.

San Francisco bans plastic bags from large supermarkets.

Republican Texas state senator Dan Patrick has proposed that pregnant women considering abortion be offered $500 not to end their pregnancies. yeah, you read it right. unfuckingbelievable.

rare tiny owl spotted in Peru - he's as big as your fist!

the handlebar moustache club: The qualification for membership is: "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip, with graspable extremities" and, in addition, we specify that beards are not allowed.

president bush attends the radio and television correspondents' annual dinner. he's not remotely amusing.

Happy Birthday to the late César Chávez.

new ozomatli - can't stop

2007-03-25T00:16:00.001-04:00

Music Video:CAN'T STOP (by Ozomatli)

Music Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

their new album, Don't Mess With the Dragon, comes out in 8 (yay!) days. BUY IT.

some books

2007-03-24T13:04:00.001-04:00

1) Drop by Mat Johnson
2) Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster
3) You Suck: a love story by Christopher Moore
4) Let the Northern Lights Erase your Name by Vendela Vida
5) The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: a memoir by Bill Bryson
6) The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer
7) You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Letham
8) The Long Road Home: a story of war and family by Martha Raddatz
9) On Call in Hell: a doctor's Iraq War story by Richard Jadick
10) Anything Goes by Madison Smartt Bell (yes, there are 2 t's)
11) Hard Men Humble: Vietnam Veterans who wouldn't come home by Jonathan Stevenson

links and more links

2007-03-17T12:48:00.000-04:00

amnesty international ad "Ted Bundy was accused of torturing, raping, and assassinating at least 100 women, including a girl. He went through 3 trials and countless appeals before his case was resolved. He had due process of law. Why does a Guantánamo prisoner not?"

rudy guiliani's law firm lobbies for Citgo Petroleum Corp., a unit of the state-owned oil company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who calls President Bush a "madman" and a "devil."

lavena johnson's parents question their daughter's mysterious death in Iraq

dealing with criticism: russian style

are injured soldiers being sent back to Iraq?

chlorine bombs used in Falluja today kills 8 and injures hundreds

is john mccainTHIS uninformed about HIV-AIDS prevention??! if you click on no other link, do yourself a favor and read this one. my jaw is STILL hovering on the floor...

possible caves found on Mars

a senior Iranian army commander warned the united states and other western powers not to make any "stupid moves" over Tehran's nuclear program. at this point, are there any other moves our fearless leader is capable of making?

F1 mclaren rookie starting 4th in melbourne

also, i'm reading Frank Rich's book The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina and i found this gem from barbara bush to diane sawyer about watching the war on television: Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's going to happen?" "It's not relevant, so why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" that was 4 years ago. unreal.

well, i'm going to see 300 today - i was supposed to go yesterday, but the snow storm shredded those plans. now i can even see my street!

****UPDATE****
Hamilton, the McLaren rookie finished in a very respectable 3rd place. the best part of F1 this season? no Schumacher!

300. well, all i can say is that it looked really good and gerard butler is the manliest of men. aside from that, not much in the substance department.

links and other things

2007-03-03T23:48:00.000-05:00

by 2008 we'll all need internal passports to be able to board an airplane.

steven spielberg and a stolen Norman Rockwell?

a Kuwaiti diplomat and his abused hired help - says he's untouchable because of his diplomatic status.

osama NOT the leader of al-qaeda? so says tony snow(job)

is that a grenade in your grocery bag?

clocks to be removed from post office in an attempt to trick customers on line into thinking they haven't been standing there for a decade.

fired U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias says lawmakers pressured him to speed up a probe of democrats just before the november elections.

my employer has done it again. turned something not directly involving her into a showcase for her self involved-ness (yeah, i made it up.) a close friend of hers told her that his brother's wife just gave birth to a baby with Down's Syndrome. instead of saying something empathetic, she tells the friend how completely devasted (her word) she is. NOT for their situation, but of course, for how it made HER feel. i swear some days i'd just like to smack the shit out of her. she was miffed (her word again) when his response was to end the call.
also, after the snow we had last week her husband and the kid go make a snowman. cute, right? yeah, until i saw the SNOWMAN KIT sitting on a shelf. seriously.

i read this on Overheard in NY: Earnest student giving presentation: I was going to talk about Freud, but I decided he was tanGenital to the discussion. how HI-larious is that? well, it made my day.

anyhow, it's gorgeous out and the dog wants to play outside.
enjoy the day, people.

**update**
ann coulter and what she said about john edwards. the link is to edward's site. it's great. you can watch the video and contribute to his campaign all on the same page! i love the interweb!
here's some more linkage...
the houston chronicle
yahoo news
media matters
elizabeth edwards comments

books and assorted distractions

2007-02-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

1) Caramba!: a tale told in turns of the card by Nina Marie Martínez
2) First Indian on the Moon by Sherman Alexie
3) The Virgin of Flames by Chris Abani
4) GraceLand by Chris Abani
5) Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcón
6) Nick's Trip by George Pelecanos
7) Sins of the Seventh Sister by Curtiss Huston
8) The Informant: a true story by Kurt Eichenwald
9) There are Jews in my House by Laura Vapnyar

peter pan peanut butter salmonella scare in Atlanta.

keep it short, keep it clean. and no mention of sex, either. in canberra there's a new 5 minute rule concerning eulogies.

can you guess what the president was doing while a white house diaster drill was going on? if you said riding his bike, you'd be right. perfect.

so it looks as though june is when i'll move to florida. i've started going through my books - god, there's SO damn many of them! i'm being relentless about the ones i'll keep and the ones i'll donate. i've looked at houses online - the sarasota paper is really good - and there's no shortage of places. or jobs for that matter. i found a few with fenced yards, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths all for $850 or so a month. THAT doesn't suck at least. and i can donate a lot of winter clothes as well.

the last mri that my father had found not just the one lesion in his brain, but 2, so they're going to suspend his chemo and try radiation on the larger of the two. he's not in any pain, still has a sense of humor and a positive attitude. i try and keep that going on the phone, but i'm always a little relieved when we hang up. and yeah, i feel pretty guilty about that.

gonna hop in the shower.

a collection or mixture of unrelated things

2007-02-23T19:30:00.000-05:00

lack of sleep makes you stupid. literally. no wonder i sometimes feel like my brain has atrophied.

don't miss the total lunar eclipse on march 3rd.

4 giant lakes found under Antarctic ice.

F1 countdown. i LOVE this page!

next time i'll post a book list. i've been feeling off my game as of late - that's why the (few) posts have been kinda lame... that's a funny picture, though, right?

a little vent

2007-02-11T23:50:00.000-05:00

first of all, did you know that there's a mexico, new york?
it's on the eastern edge of lake ontario. just fyi is all...

ok. 2 things that have been driving me a little crazy.
and they're both TV commercials.
the first one is that visa check card one in the cafeteria. everything is flowing along quite smoothly with everyone paying with their visa card. that is until this joker comes along and tries to pay with - you guessed it - CASH! that bastard!
all of a sudden there's this huge cluster-fuck because the line stops moving. i can't tell you how much this annoys the crap out of me. i guess it's because i'm the one always paying in cash.
the second one is the KFC one where a boy calls home to ask for permission to eat dinner at his friends house. he tells his mom that yes, the parents are home, they're all sitting down to a meal together, but the mom doesn't believe him. so he puts his friend's mom on the phone and she confirms what the boy said. what the mom can't believe is that they're all sitting down to a home cooked meal on a week night. since when is KFC home cooked? this one really pisses me off.

jon spencer blues explosion!

2007-02-10T00:24:00.000-05:00

'Bellbottoms'

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catching up

2007-02-03T19:31:00.000-05:00

for real or is it satire? music that'll make ya gay. yes, gay. be careful.

our fearless leader on a tractor, running down the press. literally.

more on (hey, moron, get it!!?) our fearless leader.

this is the saddest story about a soldier's cry that went unheard.

here are some books i've read:

1) Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly
2) Crumbtown by Joe Connelly
3) Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse by Seymour P. Lachman and Robert Polner
4) Means Of Escape: A War Correspondent's Memoir of Life and Death in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Vietnam by Philip Caputo
5)Dragon Sea: A True Tale of Treasure, Archeology, and Greed off the Coast of Vietnam by Frank Pope
6) The House of Forgetting by Benjamin Alire Saenz
7) We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch
8) General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier by Jeffry D. Wert

the visit to florida to see my dad went ok. he's pretty frail and ill. the chemo is taking its toll on him. if he weighs 120 pounds, i'd be surprised. he's always cold, so he keeps the heat on - it was at least a thousand degrees in the living room. i drove him around - his camaro is still the coolest car...
he is a sports freak, so he got me watching basketball AND football. i enjoyed the college ball a lot - i'd forgotten how pretty the game can be to watch. i also got to see king james lose to the suns. i like shawn marion and steve nash. my dad's the only one who ever got me to watch anything other than auto racing. and yes, dammit, i still believe it's a sport. anyhow, it sure looks as if i'll be moving down there around june so i can take care of him.
florida, jesus. at least it's not full of old folks where he is. and the driver (doug) who picked me up from the airport told me to move down so he could take me hiking. and he wasn't old OR hard to look at.

yesterday was melissa's 29th birthday. i cooked dinner for her - all her favorites - kielbasa marinated in beer, honey-dripped potatoes, broccoli, gnocchi, and a chocolate mousse tort for dessert. it was a pleasant evening. tomorrow is mike's 30th birthday and he's freaking out about it. poor guy. AND he's moving all this weekend. i hate moving. man, i have a lot to do before june.

well, that's about it for now

news and stuff

2007-01-21T20:28:00.000-05:00

cool comics school in Vermont. christina, this might be your future...

glimpsed by a blimp? big brother IS everywhere...

how many nukes do YOU need? this article tells how many we have and how many the former soviet union has.

US attorney’s fired by bush ends investigations into republican corruption. shocking!

it seems like everyone and their mother is running for president.

using cold medicine could possibly induce a stroke.

(formula 1 great) Bruce McLaren film planned reportedly being produced by Barrie Osborne who co-produced The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

i just finished reading a great book by Fareed Zakaria (he writes for Newsweek) called The Future of Freedom. he talks about the inherent difference between 'democracy' and 'constitutional liberalism'.
interesting. read it.
i'm also reading Andrea Mitchell's book 'Talking Back: ...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels' and Helen Thomas's Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public.

for anyone out there who likes off road racing - watch Dust to Glory. (it's on DVD) it's all about the Baja 1000. it's by the same guys that did Step into Liquid, that fantastic surf movie.

book list and various bits of stuff

2007-01-13T21:01:00.000-05:00

1) The Tent by Margaret Atwood
2) The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
3) Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali
4) Riley's Fire by Lee Merrill Byrd
5) Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
6) Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes
7) War by Candlelight by Daniel Alarcon
8) The Girl with the Gallery: Edith Gregor Halpert and the making of the modern art market by Lindsay Pollack
9) Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus (with Alan Jolis)

Wal-Mart's new software 'will make advance scheduling and reliable paychecks a thing of the past.' they have this new scheduling software that lets them gauge the surges (that word AGAIN!) and lulls so they can send employees home and call them back depending on the day's traffic. which means no reliable work scedule to hire childcare, and less hours altogether.

"Let us remember that we were not attacked by a nation on 9/11; we were attacked by extremists who acted in the name of the Islamic religion," Goode wrote. "I believe that if we do not stop illegal immigration totally, reduce legal immigration and end diversity visas, we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to infiltration by those who want to mold the United States into the image of their religion, rather than working within the Judeo-Christian principles that have made us a beacon for freedom-loving persons around the world." – virgil goode, virginia’s republican (duh!) representative - my jaw hit the floor when i read that.

keith olbermann is my new hero.

i've got my tickets to sarasota for the end of january and i'm looking forward to seeing my dad, but i'm a tad apprensive as well. he doesn't want to come to the airport to pick me up because he's afraid i wouldn't recognize him without his hair. i told him i'd do whatever made him the most comfortable. after the weekend i'll be doing a lot of thinking about his condition, prognosis and overall state of mind and then i'll decide if i should pick up stakes and move south. my brain hurts already.
steven has decided that he wants to move to philly with ray so that leaves me with no reason to hesitate. it will be awfully weird when he moves, but he's 21 and wants a change of scene, so good for him. (but he's my baby and i'll be sad!)
enough for now...

post christmas sum-up

2006-12-28T11:30:00.000-05:00

since i have the week off, i've got some free time to catch up on the blogging.
first, i'll post my book list. get that out of the way.

1) Frontera Street by Tanya Maria Barrientos
2) Snowball Earth: The Story of the Great Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life as We Know It (whew!) by Gabrielle Walker
3) Paradiso by Jose Lezama Lima
4) Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier
5) Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
6) Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
7) Comrade Rockstar: The Life and Mystery of Dean Reed, the All-American Boy Who Brought Rock 'N' Roll to the Soviet Union by Reggie Nadelson
8) In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen
9) Lisey's Story by Stephen King
10) Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
11) Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

so christmas was nice - except i got talked into playing (sort of) trivial pursuit - the 90's edition. why people play this game is a mystery to me. either the questions are ridiculously easy or impossible. the food was all good, (i made all of it!) roast pork with an apricot/soy sause glaze, broccoli souffle, roasted potates with honey, gnocchi, and pannetone bread pudding (with rum) for dessert. i only burned myself once. a triumph. good people, a lot of laughter, and a crazy dog. perfect.
melissa enrolled the both of us in a yoga class - she even got me a super terrific new mat to go with it. that's tonight. i hope all goes well there - i'm kind of nervous. not one to exercise amongst the masses, i guess. we gave steven a new chair for his room and haven't seen him since...! even the puppy made out - with bones and toys and a brand new bed. i got the nicest ornaments from christina!

i'm going to florida at the end of the month to see my father.
steven told me that he wants to move to Philly with ray in june, so i'm thinking maybe it's the perfect time for me to go to florida and be with my dad so he won't be alone. there's a lot to do before that.

more later.
have a happy and safe new year, people.

2006-12-17T15:45:00.000-05:00

my family has never been close.

my mother died 4 years ago. i took care of her at the end, but
we hadn't talked in nearly 15 years before that. i got to say the things
i needed to, and she did as well. i have no regrets where she's concerned.

my sister i haven't talked to since my mother died and before that,
it had been many years. she is not a good person. we shall leave it at that.

my father and i re-established a (good, it turns out) relationship a few
years ago - maybe 3 now - and it's been a good thing. i even went to visit
him last year. come to find out a few weeks ago that he has cancer. 4 tumors
in 3 different parts of his body. they can't figure out which part is producing
the death cells, so they've started him on chemo (the super killer treatment) in
the hope that the drugs will hunt down & kill the offending cell-maker.
i spoke with him (he lives in florida) last monday after the first session and he sounded OK. hungry even. and the second time i called, he still sounded alright after the 2nd session. well, i called last night and he sounded awful. his voice is different - i can hear the pain behind his assurances. he says his bones hurt and he's freezing all the time. has no energy and is feeling pretty surly all the way around. i tell him i want to come down there. he says no. not now. let's wait until the first round is done he says, and then we'll see where we're at. i try and argue, but that gets me nowhere fast. he's made up his mind. the thing is, i'm afraid (since he's 73 and lives alone) he'll fall or some other thing will happen and no one will be there to help him. he won't budge on it, so i tell him that i'll be calling more frequently and not to try and argue.
i feel so shitty and teary and i can't really talk about it out loud - which is why you poor people get to read all this - if you didn't stop at MY FAMILY. ha.
mostly i'm worried that the chemo won't work and, well, that it won't work.
i feel like i just got him back, know what i mean?

SHIT.

thanksgiving and miscellaneous news and or books

2006-11-24T14:15:00.000-05:00

thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. mostly because of the food. i love to cook everything that has anything to do with turkey day. this was the 5th annual misfits thanksgiving - hard to believe 5 years have passed - and friends who have no family, no family close by, or can't stand their family all attended. we had turkey and stuffing and sweet potato pie (i had to make 3 this year!) and honey carrots and garlic smashed potatoes and homemade (thanks michele) cookies and my pumpkin pie. the dog was much better this year. my poor little living room was bursting at the seams - especially with the prancing puppy about. it was a nice evening. i'm glad i have today off as well. i need some time to re-group and also to eat some leftovers!
i hope those of you that do the thanksgiving thing enjoyed yourselves as much as i did.

Los Amigos Invisibiles are playing at S.O.B.'s on Friday Dec 1 - go see them!

here's some news:
there was a hurricane on Saturn's south pole that measures 5000 miles in diameter.

the most visible leader of the leftist movement Oaxaca People's Assembly, Flavio Sosa, faces arrest warrants on riot and conspiracy charges in Oaxaca. the movement had been trying to oust state Gov. Ulises Ruiz. the assembly accuses Ruiz of rigging the 2004 election to win office and sending gangs of gun-toting thugs against his opponents.

After 54 years making door-to-door deliveries of bread and pastries to people in southeast Los Angeles County, Herman Langley is retiring.

Scientists in Geelong have created something talent-lean wannabe rock gods everywhere need: an air-guitar shirt that allows its wearer to
actually play!

and some books:

1) Carry Me Like Water by Benjamin Alire Saenz
2) We Are All Fine Here by Mary Guterson
3) The Areas of my Expertise: an almanac of complete world knowledge compiled with instructive annotation and arranged in useful order by John Hodgman
4) 109 East Palace : Robert Oppenheimer and the secret city of Los Alamos by Jennet Conant
5) Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures : a true story from Hell on Earth by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson
6) How the Universe got its Spots: diary of a finite time in a finite space by Janna Levin

let me just say that i enjoyed Carry Me Like Water so much that i've ordered a copy from amazon (used, of course!) the characters, their interaction, and the dialogue just flowed together so beautifully that by the time i finished the book i felt as if i knew them all personally and i was sad beyond belief to say goodbye to them.
and in Mary Guterson's We are all Fine Here, i didn't like the main character until the very end - though the story was good enough to keep me reading it.

that's it for now. i'm gonna go have some leftovers...

tom waits on his new album Orphans:

2006-11-17T08:21:00.000-05:00

"When I was small I always thought that songwriters sat alone at upright pianos in cramped smoky little rooms with a bottle and an ashtray and everything came in the window blew through them and came out of the piano as a song…and in a weird way that is exactly what happens.
What’s "Orphans"? I don’t know. "Orphans" is a dead end kid driving a coffin with big tires across the Ohio River wearing welding goggles and a wife beater with a lit firecracker in his ear.
At the center of this record is my voice. I try my best to chug, stomp, weep, whisper, moan, wheeze, scat, blurt, rage, whine, and seduce. With my voice, I can sound like a girl, the boogieman, a Theremin, a cherry bomb, a clown, a doctor, a murderer…I can be tribal. Ironic. Or disturbed. My voice is really my instrument.
Kathleen and I wanted the record to be like emptying our pockets on the table after an evening of gambling, burglary, and cow tipping. We enjoy strange couplings, that’s how we got together. We wanted Orphans to be like a shortwave radio show where the past is sequenced with the future, consisting of things you find on the ground, in this world and no world, or maybe the next world. Whatever you imagine that to be..."

man, i wish i could write like that!

feeling crummy today, but here i am

2006-11-09T13:50:00.000-05:00

your Life-Gem memorial will offer comfort and support when and where you need it, and provide a lasting memory that endures just as a diamond does. forever. totally creepy.

Violent dowry harassment is an increasingly visible phenomenon in India. just crazy.

spoon-face schumacher's new island (literally) get-a-way.

fantasy congress game - online. i wonder who'll have more fun playing now...

F1 theme park. enough said. i think.

President Vilsack? has a certain...ring to it, no? NO. no one will vote for a Vilsack for president. wrong? perhaps. so what.

*************************************************************************************

BOOK LIST:

1) A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin
2) An Iliad by Alessandro Baricco
3) Last Evening's on Earth by Roberto Bolaño
4) The City is a Rising Tide by Rebecca Lee
5) State of Denial by Bob Woodward
6) Iñes of my Soul by Isabel Allende
7) They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967
8) The Story of Salt by Mark Kurlansky

mostly a good bunch of books this time around. the new Isabel Allende was worth the library waiting list. whenever she writes about her native Chile, i know it's going to be excellent. last evening's on earth was very good as well. i got so worked up reading bob woodward's book that i (nearly) threw it across the room. and the thing is, i agreed with almost everything in it. it just irks me that he can be such a fair weather friend. you know, when bush was popular (still don't know why) he wrote a flattering book or 2 and now that the tides have turned, well...
the Baricco book about the Iliad was GREAT. i wanted so much to like Rebecca Lee's book, but i was not quite able to. it's a small book that promised - at least on the cover flaps - a big story. it even used the word suspense, i think. none of that. it was however, written beautifully. sounds contradictory, right? well, not in my head.
and i want to say something about Jed Rubenfeld's book (from the last list) called The Interpretation of Murder. GET IT! i forgot to mention it last time. it's got suspense, murder (duh!, hence the title) and Freud and Jung coming to America in 1909. much was based on actual fact with a grand story woven throughout.

¡Ya Basta!
go read - actually, go read outdoors. it's beautiful out.
even though i feel crummy, that's where i'm headed.

he still gets the big gas face

2006-10-31T16:44:00.000-05:00

P.W. Botha dead at 90

books and bush

2006-10-29T21:12:00.000-05:00

Hold on, that didn't sound right...!

wait, Bush DIDN'T say stay the course over and over and over? I guess the whole WORLD must have mis-heard.
Check out Crooks and Liars it's a great site.

Here's a partial book list for you.

1) Murder in the Heartland by M. William Phelps
2) Fraud by David Rakoff
3) Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
4) Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
5) The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
6) Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande (thanks to the good people over at La Bloga
7) Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon by Michael E. Veal
8) L.A. Rex by Will Beall
9) Echo Park by Michael Connelly
10) Mother Tongue by Demetria Martinez

I liked everything I read - mostly. The Rakoff book I could have lived without. At times it was funny and sarcastic (which I like) but mostly it annoyed me.
Everyone needs some brain candy to read and you could do A LOT worse than the Koontz book. This particular character is compelling, honest and real. AND he sees dead people. The Fela Kuti book was really good even if you don't know who he was.
LA Rex was hard to read in all its gore and violence, but it had its moments of sheer genius. I loved the newest Harry Bosch book by Michael Connelly. That guy sure can write. I especially liked the Reyna Grande novel. I can't remember the last time I got as emotional over a story. Oh yeah, I remember. 3 words - no 6 words. Luis Alberto Urrea. The Hummingbird's Daughter.
Read, people.

Happy 73rd Birthday (tomorrow) to my dad.

Alessandro Zanardi is testing for F1 in a BMW. Amazing, since he had both legs amputated after a horrific crash in Germany when he was racing Indy cars. Now that's courage and fortitude. He was always one of the approachable ones at all the races. Nice man. Good deal.

no snappy headline comes to mind

2006-10-14T14:21:00.000-04:00

wait, after the 4th time??! incredible. father finally catches on about his wife, their son, and those pesky ransom demands.

california (teen) girl questioned by secret service about a myspace picture she had posted of president bush.

questions for Mr T, the consummate eighties pop icon (not MY words...)

i don’t know what to make of this one... “with numerous subtle (and not so subtle) satirical swipes at the bush administration and the republican party” this childrens book will appeal to democrats of ALL ages.

you were right, christina

sunday! sunday! sunday!

2006-10-08T14:53:00.000-04:00

all i can say is YAY!
retiring NOT as world champion. sounds mean, but ask me if i care!

i cut my hair. it's short. and dark. winter is coming.

haven't felt poetically inclined as of late, but tony brown is at Bar 13 this monday, which means i'm going.

Ozomatli is at the Nokia Theater on Tuesday, November 14th. i WILL be there. the thing is they're OPENING for Los Lonely Boys - sheesh, what a turn of events.don't get me wrong LLB are alright, but they're flash in the pan compared to Ozomatli. whatever, i'm just glad to be seeing them again.

this, that, the other

2006-10-06T15:42:00.000-04:00

sometimes The Onion CAN make me laugh out loud.

The Selena stamp and the David Mann (famous motorcycle artist from Easyrider magazine) stamp. not available from your local post office though.

Bruce Potts,a professor of public speaking at the University of New Mexico, and his full face tribal tattoo.

The Hubble detects as many as 16 new planets.

Deliver Us From Evil, Amy Berg's unflinching documentary about a defrocked california priest convicted (and later deported back to his native Ireland) of several counts of child molestation won Best Documentary Film at the L.A. film festival.

Last week, a majority of Democrats in the U.S. Senate, including New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, joined forces with Republicans to vote 80 to 19 to begin construction of an expensive set of Berlin Wall-like barriers across this nation's southern border.

These are the good guys? Police in Russia have conducted raids against Georgian-owned markets, shops and restaurants and cracked down on illegal immigrants. Officials said at least 140 Georgians were deported by plane Friday. A spokesman for the Moscow city education department said police were asking schools for lists of students with Georgian names, whose parents might be in Russia illegally.

Archaeologists working in Mexico City have discovered an Aztec monolith - the most important ruins of the ancient civilization to be found in decades.

The military on MySpace - a link filled article definitely worth reading.

At least five apparently bogus voter registration forms were submitted to the Metro Nashville election commission by a worker with ties to the Republican National Committee, and up to 150 other registrations have been called into question, The Tennessean has learned.

Fuma los puros, toma ese cafecito riquito y ten mucho sexo, pero cuidado con el alcohol! Some Cuban centenarians say cigars, coffee and sex is the secret to living past 100. Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million, has about 3,000 people who have lived for more than a century.

for once there are

2006-09-23T12:26:00.000-04:00

too many shows i'd like to see.

Los Lobos on 9/28 at Irving (too bad about the sucky sound)
PJ Harvey at The Supper Club on 10/7
DJ Shadow at Webster Hall on 10/17
Beck at MSG on 10/18 (i don't really want to see him there, but, whatever)
Johnny Pacheco and the Fania All-Stars on 10/20 - also MSG
Mojave 3 on 10/20 & 21 at The Bowery
DJ Spooky at The Apollo on 10/27 & 28
Medeski, Martin & Wood at the Hammerstein on Halloween!
Cut Chemist & Lyrics Born at Webster Hall on 11/10
The Reverend Horton Heat (yay!) at Southpaw on 11/11
WHEW!

also,this is the only link for you today, but you NEED to click it and watch the video on how easy - i said EASY it is to hack into the Diebold voting machine to steal votes.

my vacation was only a week ago, but it feels like a lightyear away already.
i'm planning a 4 day getaway to New Mexico in March though. is march like...soon?

books first, then news

2006-09-13T16:52:00.000-04:00

books first:

1) A Hammock Beneath the Mangoes : stories from Latin America – edited by Thomas Colchie
2) The Bird Artist - Howard Norman
3) Smoke and Mirrors: the war on drugs & the politics of failure – Dan Baum
4) Dark Alliance: the CIA, the contras, and the crack cocaine explosion – Gary Webb
5) Desperados: Latin drug lords, U.S. lawmen, and the war america can’t win – Elaine Shannon
6) Drug Lord: the life and death of a mexican kingpin: a true story – Terrence Poppa
7) The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless – Ahmet Zappa

all by John Harvey:
8) Flesh & Blood
9) Lonely Hearts
10)In a True Light
11)Rough Treatment

prostitution made legal in russia? - the mayor thinks it will deter men from committing acts of extremist racial violence. so spend more time screwing, less time punching? interesting theory. the best part (by far) is that the mayor - Igor Shpektor – promises the women state protection and a full pension. yay!

remember Afghanistan? - things are more intense than is being reported at home. look at the link – NOT a national source.

wyclef jean thinks a little weed would do the president some good. as if that's all it would take! i never liked the man. still don’t.

researchers are thinking that Neanderthals may have lived longer than previously thought. hmm, i’d swear there are still some out there dragging their knuckles on the ground...

In a devastating one-two-three punch, the Uribe government in Colombia announced that it intends to partially-privatize the state-
owned oil company Ecopetrol and then declared its intentions to slash corporate income taxes while simultaneously increasing the Value Added Tax (VAT) on food basics such as rice, potatoes and chicken.

Greg Palast and television producer Matt Pascarella were charged, by Homeland Security, with the ’...unauthorized filming of a “critical national security structure” in Louisiana.’ they videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. okaaaay.

books and weather

2006-09-01T12:59:00.000-04:00

my vacation has begun and just LOOK at the weather forecast... rain, rain and MORE rain. great.

here are some books – i know i haven’t been as diligent as i ought to be, but if the sun doesn’t come out between now and the 15th, the list will be extensive, people...

1) Death of a Nationalist – Rebecca Pawel
2) the curious incident of the dog in the night-time – Mark Haddon
3) If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things – Jon McGregor
4) Will@epicquest.com: (a medicated memoir) – Tom Grimes
5) The Skin of the Sky - Elena Poniatowska
6) Harvest of Empire - Juan Gonzalez
7) A Fan’s Notes: A Fictional Memoir - Frederick Exley
8) Flesh and Blood – John Harvey
9) The Night Gardener – George Pelecanos
10) The Ties that Bind – Kent Haruf

news links

2006-08-20T13:40:00.000-04:00

hmm, so this is the legitimate way to cheat in formula 1. interesting.

dead climber found after the ice melted. 17 years later.

gives a new meaning to the words lady KILLERS doesn't it?

Our Lady of Guadalupe spotted in a piece of chocolate.

Don Vito Margera arrested on alleged sexual assault of a minor.

out of gas in Baghdad. yup, the country with the most oil has no fuel.

Jimmy Carter speaks about the US, Israel, Cuba, and george bush's "radical and unpressured departure from the basic policies of all previous administrations including those of both Republican and Democratic presidents"

“what the U.S. government is doing in Nicaragua would be illegal if a foreign government tried to do it in the U.S.” what, we have too much free time on our hands?

Japan imposes suspension of exported U.S. rice that has not been approved for human consumption.

official language debate in Ukraine

the few, the proud the rapists?

did i mention that my vacation starts soon? i'm down to 9 days...

Luis Urrea and Charles Bowden

2006-08-12T12:54:00.000-04:00

sometimes i tend to obsess over a particular author or theme – i’ve read more books on Vietnam than most people – both non-fiction and fiction for instance. lately though, i’ve gotten my hands on most of the books by Luis Alberto Urrea and Charles Bowden.
the list goes something like this:

Luis Alberto Urrea:

1) Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border
2) The Devil’s Highway: A True Story
3) By the Lake of Sleeping Children
4) In Search of Snow: A Novel
5) Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life
6) Six Kinds of Sky
7) The Hummingbird’s Daughter

The Hummingbird’s Daughter is why i started this list really. it’s probably one of the most beautiful books i’ve ever read. Urrea’s writing grabs you by the arm and puts you in your most favorite chair and the next thing you know it’s thursday and you’re starving. i felt like everything i had to do while reading this book (like shower, go to work, walk the dog, etc.) was a major inconvenience and i was more than mildly exasperated by them all. does anyone else get like this? it doesn’t have to be about books mind you, it could be about oh i don’t know – watching the westminster dog show on TV or new music. anything.

OK. as for Charles Bowden. he’s a journalist with the heart of a poet. for real. he writes non-fiction accounts on topics people generally don’t want to hear about, let alone learn more of. but once you start reading, you just get hooked and by the end of one of his books you’ve learned, by osmosis really, things about the extinction of bats in the southwest and the mexican/american drug trade and people’s lives that you’d never heard of before like (Lionel) Bruno Jordan from El Paso, Texas and his family. all true, but told with a feeling almost of desperation that these things, people, places not be erased or worse, never known about in the first place. do yourself a favor and pick up a few of these books. you won’t be sorry, i promise. and if you don’t already have a library card, GET ONE, because books are expensive! the cool thing about using the library is that if your branch doesn’t have what you’re looking for, chances are another one does and you can request it delivered to your branch. amazing, no?!

Charles Bowden:

1) Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family
2) A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior
3) Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America
4) Trust Me: Charles Keating and the Missing Millions
5) Blue Desert
6) Desierto: Memories of the Future
and his first book (re-visited)
7) Killing the Hidden Waters

i'm all over the map today... plus books

2006-08-05T12:19:00.000-04:00

pitbulls are getting a makeover - the new 'it' dog is born!

fries free to be french again - and i'll have syrup with my FRENCH toast please!

edvard munch - more than just The Scream.

the thefts from the State Hermitage Museum have been solved.

michael medved on mel gibson and michael moore (?)

The UK and California are to work together on reducing greenhouse gases and promoting low carbon technologies. does this mean that the govenator will be selling his hummers?!

neal boortz on the ‘incompetents and ‘worthless’ making the human...oops, i mean the minimum wage

books for the last while...

1) américo paredes - Between Two Worlds
2) américo paredes - "With His Pistol In His Hand": A Border Ballad and Its Hero
3) delia poey - Out of the Mirrored Garden: New Fiction by Latin American Women
4) oscar lewis - The Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family
5) oscar lewis - A Death in the Sanchez Family
6) brendan halpin - Donorboy
7) denis johnson - The Name of the World
8) denis johnson - Already Dead: a California Gothic
9) luis alberto urrea - The Hummingbird's Daughter
10) richard perez - The Loser's Club

this amused me

2006-07-30T14:51:00.000-04:00

Mel Gibson - drunk and anti-semitic in california...

i'm on vacation from august 30th to september 15th. the countdown starts tomorrow - a little early, i realize, but i need something good to look forward to.

does anyone know about life in new mexico? i may want to live there. i've never lived in the southwest and i hear it's a dry heat... ;)

there is no good news

2006-07-29T13:51:00.000-04:00

the bill that would make it a crime to take a pregnant girl across state lines for an abortion without her parents' knowledge passed in the Senate.

Gonzales lobbies Congress for torture shield - the War Crimes Act of 1996 (which was passed by the republicans, no less) criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment. well, this may just come back and bite the current administration, and our military troops, by the way, in the ass. it's making the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts. reaaaallly??! (said like fezzy from ron & fez, of course)

will durst on the G8 summit, talking with your mouth full and an un-welcomed neck massage.

republican pete mcloskey sees the need for a democratic majority in the US house of representatives in 2007. we'll see...

exxon/mobil reports a 10.36 BILLION dollar profit this quarter. it's second best quarter EVER! woohoo. how much does it cost to fill your tank now? almost as much...

i won't even get into the whole middle east disaster - it's paralyzing.
it's no wonder i read a lot.

stuff i forgot to mention

2006-07-22T11:53:00.000-04:00

talk about cashing in on christianity... by the way, the shoes leave 'follow jesus' footprints in the wearer's wake

this is by nicholas roerich, a russian painter everyone should know about. it's called a bridge to glory. he spent part of his life in russia, where he was born, part in america, and some in india. there's a museum on west 107th street that's pretty cool.

look at more of his paintings here

go see manu chao in prospect park as part of the celebrate brooklyn series

random particles of interest

2006-07-21T16:46:00.000-04:00

i watched this documentary last night and i’m still unsure how i feel about it. the premise is: a texas man crosses the border into Mexico to find Mexican wives for lonely white
guys. he’s got an as on the highway and everything - if you’ve got 3 grand, he’ll find you a woman. they follow him around while he conducts his ‘bidness’ – the whole process from getting the men to Mexico, placing a personal ad in the local paper, to scheduling appointments with various women. his spanish is so-so but none of the men i saw spoke a word of anything but english. at one point, ‘cowboy cupid’- (which is how he sees himself) his real name is ivan thompson, compares women to horses – his commentary is supposed to induce laughter, not derision, but i didn’t find it all too funny. he found himself a Mexican wife, got divorced a year later because ‘she pissed me off’ and the RE-married her 2 years later because he said he really cared about her. they divorced again because she wanted to ‘learn english.’ he said ‘she got a car, a cell phone and then became the boss of me, the house, the kids, (which were HERS, i might add) and even the farm.’ he divorced her the 2nd time because she all of the sudden became ‘americanized.’ he sure as shit couldn’t have his woman thinking and doing for herself now, could he? oy vey, this movie pissed me off. but sometimes he was really likable. i dunno. i hope someone else has seen it or will see it and tell me how they feel about it.

i just need about 35 million more dollars so i can charter a flight to the moon and walk around all weight-less and stuff...

slide trumpeter and bandleader Steven Bernstein’s take on Prince's Darling Nikki

pelican bay prisoner Donny Johnson just had an art show at a gallery in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. his postcard sized paintings are created not with paints, because he's not allowed to have them, but with M&M's.
thanks,christina

friday's show and links

2006-07-16T13:24:00.000-04:00

friday night at irving plaza was the Ozomatli show -
i won’t even get into how awful the opening band was, but i will say this: they did a song about palestine called blood in the streets. there, enough said.
OZOMATLI however, were fantastic. they opened with Chango which got the crowd – who until that point had been a typical NYC crowd – unmoving and detached – shaking its collective ass. between some new stuff that sounded pretty good to me they did dos cosas ciertas, como ves, cumbia de los muertos, ya viene el sol (one of my favorites), cuando canto - which made me indescribably happy, and my theme song déjame en paz (leave me in peace, just so you know). they ended with la misma cancion as per usual and the jumping into the crowd for the end samba. michelle got some good mini-video from her phone.
anyhow, i had a great time even though the sound could have been better – why does the sound always suck at irving? and man it was HOT in there. coming outside felt like being in air conditioning and it was 80 degrees out!! i wish i could’ve gone to the Philly show last night. oh well. and now it’ll be a really long time before they come back again...

here’s some news...

the new christian religion – tastes great or less filling?

hate groups in the military– quel surprise!!

juan pablo montoya - to jump to ganassi’s nascar team

and spoon-face wins in france. - blah blah blah...

links a-plenty

2006-07-03T10:06:00.000-04:00

villeneuve thinking about jumping the pond to nascar says that it won't feel like a step down because it's like... totally different. um, yeah, TOTALLY.
and i'm only mentioning in passing that spoon-face schumacher won at Indy.

pedrosa takes the win at Donington with rossi finishing 2nd despite starting 12th with a broken bone and colin edwards, after taking a big spill last week finishes 6th. nice.

cali bikers ride to hollister
despite the town's decision to forgo the annual run to celebrate (why?) marlon brando's movie The Wild One. the town said it was too much of a hassle.

my favorite article title of the day goes to the LA Times for this one If only gay sex caused global warming!

the Cannabis Club - all you need is a doctor's note gotta love san francisco!

election in mexico too close to call so BOTH candidates claim victory.

Ozomatli count down: T minus 10 days...wheeee

books, racing and random links

2006-07-01T11:42:00.000-04:00

4 DAYS OFF – in a row!!

here’s the latest book list:

1) ernesto galarza’s Barrio Boy
2) mario t. garcía’s Ruben Salazar: Border Correspondent
3) americo paredes’s With his Pistol in his Hand
4) rodolfo acuña’s Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
5) danielle trussoni’s Falling Through the Earth: a memoir
6) eyal press’s Absolute Convictions” my father, a city, and the conflict that divided america
7) murray forman and mark anthony neal’s That’s the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader
8) james t. murray and karla l. murray’s Broken Windows: Graffiti NYC
9) jill jonnes’s South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City
10) kenneth cain’s Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story from Hell on Earth

david coulthard on american fans

scary moment for colin edwards who looked set to win the Dutch GP, but good for nicky hayden (even though he overshot the last corner).
I'm not sure it will be possible to ride without painkillers for 30 laps so says rossi
who is racing in donington tomorrow despite a broken bone in his wrist. it seems there are a bunch of walking wounded this week.

viva la pink taco restaurant in scottsdale,arizona and the daily show for always staying on top on the latest breaking stories... and speaking of the daily show - did you catch the stephen hawking segment? no? well, here it is
>stephen hawking - total horndog?

F1 update and other racing news

2006-06-17T11:06:00.000-04:00

remember the indianapolis formula 1 debacle last year?
no? well, read this and you'll be up to speed (so to speak)
and just one year later... federal judge rules on fan law suit.
Honda says there will be no repeat of last years tire problems what with all the testing they've done at Indy already
an axl rose spotting? at silverstone racetrack - as a guest of mercedes benz, yet.

and for those MotoGP fans - valentino rossi rode one hell of a race at Mugello as he and 4 other guys battled one another for the win.

rally racing coming to ireland?

and i couldn't pass up the opportunity to include an article on the World Cup that made mention of the marvelous Maradona

on a personal note: today is my son's 21st birthday.
and as Vizzini in the Princess Bride repeats: INCONCEIVABLE

books, dogs and whatnot

2006-06-12T16:47:00.000-04:00

i’ve been taking petra the wonder wimp to this dog park melissa found for the last couple of weeks and she LOVES it! sometimes there are 15 or more dogs running crazy there – she sure loves to run. we spent about an hour and a half hanging out and i thought that she’d be real tired when we got back home – but NOPE. she was still a little feisty. later on though, she finally gave in and collapsed into a coma. it’s great watching her play. there was a little white pomeranian who petra thought was her own personal plaything. she tried picking him up by his little harness so he could go wherever she went. the woman who brought the dog, stitch is his name, didn’t seem to mind and actually thought it was funny. also funny – knowing the all the dog’s names, but not their owners.

i forgot to mention that i got my Ozomatli tickets for july. am i excited?
HELL YEAH!!

ok. here’s the long-awaited (yeah, right) booklist:

1) Scott Bradfield’s Dream of the Wolf
2) Cherokee Paul McDonald’s Into the Green
3) Edna OBrien’s Mother Ireland
4) Janice Galloway’s The Trick is to Keep Breathing
5) Bino Relauyo’s The Umbrella Country
6) Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s Inland Ice and Other Stories
7) Neil Gaiman’s Angels & Visitations
8) Don Winslow’s The Power of the Dog
9) Lori Lansen’s The Girls
10) Colson Whitehead’s Apex Hides the Hurt
11) Juan Ramirez’s A Patriot After All: The Story of a Chicano Vietnam Vet
12) Juan Felipe Herrera’s Mayan Drifter: Chicano poet in the lowlands of America
13) Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway: A True Story
14) Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus: the story behind who changed the Bible and why

just in case you have too much time on your hands...

2006-05-26T11:22:00.000-04:00

from the How-To section on my custom-built Google homepage. jealous, right? spinning pencil? you can also learn how to make chocolate milk?!
i didn't read them, so i don't know if they work - i don't have THAT much time on my hands...!

hey - have a great weekend everybody.
happy BBQ'ing

so, i’m in love.

2006-05-20T09:59:00.000-04:00

his name is Francisco X. Alarcón.
though we shall not likely meet, his poetry is enough.
he wrote this collection called Snake Poems, an Aztec Invocation.
ok, check this out –
in 1629, Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón, a catholic priest from Atenango
(in what’s now the state of Guerrero, Mexico) wrote a manuscript on
Native American beliefs called Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres
gentílicas que oy viven entre los indios naturales desta Nueva España.
in english that’s Treatise on the superstitions and heathen customs that today live among the Indians Native to this New Spain. not a good guy, this Alarcón.
he wrote to expose the ‘heathen’ practices among the Indians to extend the repressive practices of the Spanish Inquisition . but the interesting thing was that by writing all these spells and curing remedies down he created the only comprehensive compilation in existence. so a few hundred years later, along comes Francisco X of the same last name and he makes poetry out of it while passing along the knowledge. his poetry is spare, but only in actual word count.
the ones that he chooses resonate and seem to echo from the head to the heart
and back again. absolutely spellbinding. here are a few so you can see what i mean.

I’m Not Really Crying
it’s just
the sheer
number
of chopped
onions
in the world

Mestizo
my name
is not
Francisco
there is
an Arab
within me
who prays
three times
each day
behind
my Roman
nose
there is
a Phoenician
smiling
my eyes
still see
Sevilla
but
my mouth
is Olmec
my dark
hands are
Toltec
my cheekbones
fierce
Chichimec
my feet
recognize
no border
no rule
no code
no lord
for this
wanderer’s
heart

Never Alone
always
this caressing
Wind
this Earth
whispering
to our feet
this boundless
desire
of being
grass
tree
corazón

Day and Night
I bleed
in silence
all alone

Martín
Mariana
Domingo

in fields
in streets
in cells
my fists
hit
walls
whips
undress
my ribs
from
my mouth
come out
broken teeth
blood
butterflies

some news and some books

2006-05-07T09:05:00.000-04:00

i may be obssessed about Easter Island but i just really, really want to go.

if you're still in college trying to figure out what to major in and you're kind of - well, really smart, think about psychometrics. it's all about academic test-makers. very interesting stuff.

talk about big brother! watching television isn't obnoxious enough?

seal your secrets... and have them displayed on 44th street?!

1. kim stanley robinson's Forty Signs of Rain
2. lynn foster's A Brief History of Central America
3. jim sagel's El Santo Queso: Cuentos
4. jaime suchlicki's Mexico: From Montezuma to NAFTA, Chiapas, and Beyond
5. celia wakefield's Under the Tabachin Tree: A New Home in Mexico
6. eric burdon's Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
7. mark kurlansky's Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue

walking the dog has been made much more pleasant in recent days. one being the nice warm weather and the second being the delivery of an ipod that my employer promised me months ago. she got them (3) for free from some fundraising chick she knows. so yay for me! and i went out and spent 30 bucks (why are all ipod accessories 30 bucks, BTW?) on one of those arm band thingies. so now there's a new bounce to my step at 6 freakin 45 AM!!

books - no, i haven't stopped reading just

2006-04-22T10:51:00.000-04:00

been real lazy about posting...

1) john ketwig's ...and a hard rain fell

2) uzodinma iweala's Beasts of No Nation

3) mary gaitskill's Veronica

4) mirta ojito's Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus

5) campbell mcgrath's Pax Atomica: Poems

6) ken dornstein's The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky: A True Story

7) mario vargas llosa's The Feast of the Goat

8) julia alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents

9) julia alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies

10) elizabeth strout's Abide With Me

11) christopher moore's The Stupidest Angel

12) christopher moore's A Dirty Job: A Novel

13) sonia nazario's Enrique's Journey

14) edward james olmos (editor) Vietnam Veteranos : Chicanos Recall the War

15) victor serge's The Case of Comrade Tulayev

16) mikhail bulgakov's The Master and Margarita

i love this poem a day thing...

2006-04-13T16:43:00.000-04:00

Permanently
-Kenneth Koch

One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.
The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.
The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.

Each Sentence says one thing—for example, "Although it was a dark rainy
day when the Adjective walked by, I shall remember the pure and sweet
expression on her face until the day I perish from the green, effective
earth."
Or, "Will you please close the window, Andrew?"
Or, for example, "Thank you, the pink pot of flowers on the window sill
has changed color recently to a light yellow, due to the heat from the
boiler factory which exists nearby."

In the springtime the Sentences and the Nouns lay silently on the grass.
A lonely Conjunction here and there would call, "And! But!"
But the Adjective did not emerge.

As the Adjective is lost in the sentence,
So I am lost in your eyes, ears, nose, and throat—
You have enchanted me with a single kiss
Which can never be undone
Until the destruction of language.

beautiful day today. i'm heading out with the dog...

more step, less hobble

2006-04-09T15:18:00.000-04:00

so my friend christina is working at the Center for Sex & Culture in San Francisco for the next couple of months. in addition to all the cataloging she's doing, she also attends events there. i spoke to her yesterday and she told me about the one they had the night before - something about sex and superheroes - i dunno. but she told me about this really drunk woman who got pissy with her (she was working the door) because there was no smoking allowed in the room and if she wanted to smoke, she had to go down 2 flights of stairs. robert, christina's boss asked her what was going on and she told him about the obnoxious drunk lady. he asked her where she went and christina looked inside the room where the event was and pointed the woman out to robert by saying AND I QUOTE 'look, she's the one straddling Batman' i never thought i'd hear that sentence from - well - from ANYONE!! too funny.

my foot feels better although i was just getting used to my son and his friends calling me Hob - my foot turned the craziest colors. i watched a lot of movies since i wasn't really getting around too much. i liked Capote, i liked Broken Flowers, (especially the soundtrack) i didn't like Junebug, or The Ice Harvest . i've also been watching the series American Family (i got the dvd box set) and i'm really enjoying it. it was on PBS a few years ago. Edward James Olmos, Esai Morales, Sonia Braga - takes place in L.A. good stuff. i also watched Godspell - does anyone remember this musical/movie? 1972 or3 i think. it's based on the gospel according to St. Matthew. filmed entirely on new york streets and central park, and washington square and features as Jesus, Victor Garber. yeah, the name sounded familiar to me and he also looked real familiar, but it wasn't until my son said hey, isn't that the guy from Alias? you know, jennifer garner's father? and bingo, he was right. singing and everything. huh.
well, gotta get moving -

I stumble along . . . with a tumble and fall

2006-04-04T20:40:00.000-04:00

yeah. so as i was leaving for 13 last night i took a header down my steps. not ALL of them mind you, but the last 6 or so. did something horrible to my right foot. emergency room, x-rays, blah blah blah and 6 hours later home with a bad sprain. i didn't even get any good painkillers out of the whole ordeal. AND i worked a full day today. man am i one sore sister tonight. ace bandages (i didn't even know they still used those!) ice and elevation are the order of the evening. steven is in charge of the pooch.

i'm out.

short and sweet

2006-04-02T23:10:00.000-04:00

dame puro amor para que viva mejor.

oh, and formula 1 was in melbourne, australia where fernando alonso beat out kimi raikkonen for the win. he (alonso) reminds me more and more of ayrton senna. there's an AMERICAN in formula 1 this year! scott speed (yes, that actually IS his name) and he's been around the racing scene for a while - he started in karts at 12 i think. i can't seem to find out if he's lake speed's son though. he was a nascar driver back in the day, but also was an international karting champ so maybe? if anyone knows...
oh also - why is david coultard STILL racing? he lost his edge ages ago. he should act or something. anyhow, nice to see some cars going fast.

it's been a minute...

2006-03-30T17:20:00.000-05:00

bolthouse farms perfectly protein mocha cappuccino. get it.

i've not been around much lately, but it's not like anyone really reads this on the regular anyhow, so i don't feel that bad. it's finally getting warmer out and this makes taking the dog out at 6AM not such a terrible thing.
work is stupid, so we shall dispense with any further mention.
my son (finally) got his own computer so i have mine all to myself. now i can find & trash all his hidden porn stuff!! haha. i bet he DOES have some, too. he's going to be 21 in june - not that that has anything to do with him downloading porn, but it just sorta hit me. thank god i'm not getting any older. (c'mon, play along, dammit!)
i watched the Situation Room with wolf blitzer last night. his guests were lou dobbs and jorge ramos (of telemundo) and they were squaring off about the proposed immigration bills by the senate and the house. nothing was actually said because the two were so antagonistic towards one another that all that happened was interrupted yelling. so much for a calm debate about important issues . then i watched the chapelle show and that was WAY more entertaining. i have a list of books but i'm too lazy to list them right now. i will recommend christopher moore's newest book called A Dirty Job - A Novel. as always it was HI-larious and seriously fun.

well, time to feed el perro.
more later...

i just saw this this morning and couldn't stop laughing. so read and enjoy! Aussie thieves try to steal a koala to sell for drug money

books and reunions

2006-03-11T17:32:00.000-05:00

1. italo svevo’s Confessions of Zeno
2. hartley goodweather’s DreadfulWater Shows Up
3. barry crimmins’s Never Shake Hands with a War Criminal
4. luis alberto urrea’s By the Lake of Sleeping Children
5. wally lamb’s Couldn’t Keep it to Myself
6. jason deparle’s American Dream: 3 Women, 10 Kids, and a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare
7. donovan webster’s The Burma Road
8. jonathan shay’s Achilles in Vietnam
9. roger bonair-agard, stephen colman, guy lecharles gonzalez, alix olson and lynne procope’s Burning Down the House
10. jonathan lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude

so my trip to sarasota (fla) to visit my father after 10 years of not seeing him. yeah. all in all a good trip. he picked me up from the tampa airport, and since i hadn’t seen him in so long, i was really worried that i’d walk right by him. and guess what? i would have had he not said my name. the years have shortened him! he used to be 5’11 or so and now – my height. 5’7. and his eye disease – the same one onassis had – changed the shape of his face a bit, although as soon as i really looked at him he was my father the way i remembered him. i stayed at his house, which is a very nice 2 bedroom condo. nice grounds, nice pool. he is the president of the tenant’s association, so he screens potential applicants – you can rent or buy a place – i think he’s stacked the deck with attractive younger people – especially women –
some things never change, i guess, even when you’re 73. we went out to chili’s for a quick dinner and then came back and talked the night away. i wanted to know more about the history of my family and the relationships that formed my childhood. he had plenty of stories. he was always a good storyteller. it’s quite amazing how many names he remembers from the past and instances that barely made a blip on my radar screen. he kept asking if i remembered this or that and i had to say no to a fair amount of them. my memory has these blank spaces and doesn’t become a solid bunch of recollections until year 11 for me. anyhow, we had a good talk, ate chocolate ice cream and cookies and called it a night at around 1:30am. i got into bed to read. i put my headphones on – i hadn’t listened to any music all night and that’s a rare thing – the orisha’s were calling me – and i settled into luis alberto urrea’s 2nd book about life in tijuana. when out of the corner of my eye i sense movement. now i know florida is big on insects. BIG insects, so i thought it was a june bug or some other obnoxious flying, walking, creepy thing. nope. i was wrong. it was a gi-normous brown fuzzy tarantula looking spider. i don’t remember breathing. just slipping out of bed, tip-toeing to where my shoes were, creeping like a ninja to where it was and whacking the shit out of it with the shoe. my NEW shoe. well, i hadn’t anticipated the guts of the thing to be as...substantial as they were. i just ruined my father’s beige carpet. shit. i slipped out of the room – thankfully he seemed to be asleep – went into the kitchen and found (what luck) and canister of resolve carpet cleaner. spider guts obliterated from said carpet. whew! saturday we were having brunch at a great place (i was assured) called The Boathouse at the Hiatt hotel with my cousin Mark. really lovely. good food too. Mark never showed. asshole. i haven’t seen the man in a zillion years – probably since his bar mitzvah - he’s 50 now -. then i got to drive the camaro over to Longboat Key which is where all the people with money (and there are A LOT of those) hang out. then out to Siesta Key which is where all the artist’s hang out. which Key did i like better? you don’t even have to ask. Siesta is a beautiful little hamlet. walked on the beach awhile – dad stayed near the bar – he doesn’t drink anymore though – he just feels more comfortable there i guess. dinner was at a fancy italian restaurant – cafe baci, i think. nice place. more talk. no more spiders. back to tampa airport sunday for my 12:30pm flight home. next time around, he’s going to come here and visit.

well, i guess that’s it. tomorrow is the orchid show at the Botannical Gardens.

Kafka's doll story

2006-02-28T18:55:00.000-05:00

has anyone ever heard this? he was visiting dora diamont in berlin. they were walking in a park when they came upon this crying girl. kafka asked her what the matter was. she told him that she had lost her doll. he then told her not to worry since the doll was actually away on a trip, not lost. she didn’t believe him so he told her that he had a letter from the doll. when the little girl asked him to show it to her, he said that he had not brought it with him, but if she came back the next day, he would bring it. he came back the next day after spending countless hours working on this letter. and every day for 3 weeks, he brought the girl another one. he spent a lot of time, and put a lot of thought into these letters. finally, he had to come up with a believable ending. (he was leaving germany) he decided to have the doll get married. he wrote about the man she was engaged to, the preparations for the wedding, everything. by this time, the girl was so enamored of the story, that she had quite forgotten that the doll was gone.

i wonder what became of her and if she still has those letters.
she’d be in her 90’s i guess. huh.

here's that book list you all were waiting up for

2006-02-20T00:06:00.000-05:00

1) danielle ofri's Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue

2) dennis smith's San Francisco is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires

3) paul auster's The Brooklyn Follies

4) méira cook's The Blood Girls

5) willard m. wallace's Soul of a Lion: The Biography of Joshua Chamberlin

6) marjorie shostak's Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman

7) martha tod dudman's Augusta, Gone

random-ness

2006-02-19T08:56:00.000-05:00

i read this article on 'celebrity' dj-ing and these lines just cracked me up:

"I've pretty much stopped DJ'ing regularly because it's gotten to be too much of a cliché," says Zinner. "Not only is everyone in a band, but everyone's a DJ. I'm just a little sick of the whole phenomenon. I would, however, totally throw down 10 bucks to watch DJ Glenn Danzig any day."

and i read this by chance the other day and really liked it:

Windy City

The garments worn in flying dreams
were fashioned there --
overcoats that swooped like kites,
scarves streaming like vapor trails,
gowns ballooning into spinnakers.
In a city like that one might sail
through life led by a runaway hat.
The young scattered in whatever directions
their wild hair pointed, and gusting
into one another, they fell in love.
At night, wind rippled saxophones
that hung like wind chimes
in pawnshop windows, hooting through
each horn so that the streets seemed haunted,
not by nighthawks, but by doves.
Pinwheels whirred from steeples
in place of crosses. At the pinnacles
of public buildings, snagged underclothes --
the only flag -- flapped majestically.
And when it came time to disappear
one simply chose a thoroughfare
devoid of memories, raised a collar,
and turned one's back on the wind.
I remember closing my eyes as I stepped
into a swirl of scuttling leaves.

-Stuart Dybek

and i did this (free) numerology thingie that breaks down your name and the 'true' meaning of it. most of it was off the mark, (not surprisingly) but this bit rather hit home:
Private, reserved, and rather secretive, there are probably very few who truly know and understand your inner thoughts, feelings, hopes, and aspirations. Unless you learn to share your deeper self more freely, and to be less of an idealistic perfectionist, you may be rather lonely.

and this from overheard in ny: vendor guy: Here, take one. Just give it a listen. Listening is the new reading... You don’t even have to use your eyes.

the first weekend in march i'll be going to sarasota (fla) to visit my father. i haven't seen him in many years. i'm nervous, but i'm looking forward to it. i get to drive his camaro back from the airport. woo hoo! my father is 73 and still has a cool car. nice.

i'm procrastinating. i should be doing my taxes, but i know all those numbers will give me a headache and besides, at 10AM is the inside the actors studio repeat with dave chappelle. i heard it was really good. maybe i can get them done in an hour?

the sound of the other shoe dropping

2006-02-12T08:51:00.000-05:00

sounds a lot like a BLIZZARD. i knew we'd pay for all the 55 - 60 degree days we've had this 'winter.' but man there's SO MUCH snow out there. and it's still snowing. my dog has been staring out the window since 7:30, but i'll be god-damned if i'm going out there. the latest report says an average - that's AVERAGE - of 16 to 24 inches when all is said and done.

in other news, i got a very nice birthday package on friday with lots of super stuff in it, including panda licorice bars that apparently are only available in maine. some nice e-mails and phone calls as well. my father called and sang. which is a scary thing since he's completely tone deaf. thankfully, he only sang one line of the birthday song. whew! the day passed and i didn't implode or turn into an old hag or anything, so i'm over the age thing. (for this year)

my book list for the past how-ever-many-days:

1) pedro páramo's Juan Rulfo
2) ted conover's New Jack
3) jehan sadat's A Woman of Egypt
4) bruce robinson's The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman
5) dick lehr and gerard o'neill's Black Mass
6) bill bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything
7) elizabeth smart's By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

someone sent me one of those stupid quiz thingies, so here that is.
1. RELATIONSHIP STATUS: single and hardly looking...
2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING: russka by edward rutherford, red beans by victor hernandez cruz, and the boy without a flag (tales of the south bronx) by abraham rodriguez jr.
3. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD: it’s a mini oriental rug
4. FAVORITE BOARD GAME: none – i had to play too many games of sorry with my son when he was little so...
5. FAVORITE MAGAZINE: the new yorker and mother jones
6. FAVORITE FEELING IN THE WORLD: what does that even mean?
7. FAVORITE SOUND: definitely laughter and then jeff buckley’s voice
8. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD: helplessness
9. FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING: i continually hope that the dog has learned to walk herself
10. FAVORITE COLOR: green – no, brown. both
11. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER THE PHONE: depends on where i am when it rings and who is on the other end.
12. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME: none in the future – been there, done that already
13. FAVORITE FOODS: brown bread, cheese, pineapples, eggs over easy, garlic mashed potatoes and sometimes a greasy cheeseburger is the only thing that will do
14. GOLD OR SILVER?: silver
15. DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST?: lord, yes
16. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?: nope, real one
17. STORMS- COOL OR SCARY: very cool.
18. WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?: an audi 5000 turbo. RIP, diva
19. IF YOU COULD MEET ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD IT BE? too many choices
20. FAVORITE DRINK: thai iced tea, water, banana smoothie
21. WHAT'S YOUR ZODIAC SIGN: aquarius
22. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI: sure, don’t you?!
23. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB WHAT WOULD IT BE: a publisher of poetry, a producer of music, and a gallery owner of photography
24. IF YOU COULD COLOR YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR WHAT WOULD IT BE? i always wanted to have auburn hair – i have the (natural) highlights though
25. EVER BEEN IN LOVE?: yes
26. IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?: depends on which side of the bed i happen to wake up on
27. FAVORITE MOVIE: changes weekly – this week: smoke signals and the boondock saints
28. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS?: nope. i am THE worst at typing
29. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?: dust bunnies and a sock
30. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER?: 2 & 10
31. FAVORITE SPORT: auto racing (yes, it’s a sport!)
32. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH: same as above
33. FAVORITE PLACE IN THE UNITED STATES: new york city and las vegas
34. PLACE YOU MOST WANT TO BE RIGHT NOW: right here
35. FAVORITE PERSON TO BE WITH: i like my kids and my dog, other than that i’m feeling a little toxic lately...!
36. FAVORITE QUOTE: ‘every act of creation is first an act of destruction’ - pablo picasso
37. WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE SOMEONE LEAD YOU ON IN THE DARK OR BREAK YOUR HEART BY TELLING YOU? straight shooter, please
38. DO YOU HAVE A SECRET CRUSH? um, nope
39. WHO IS IT?: alright, maybe, but i’ll never tell
40. BEST PLACE TO BE KISSED?: is that geographical location or body part?
41. SAY ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU! sharon rose is a warm, kind-hearted soul
42. WHO WOULD YOU CALL YOUR CLOSEST FRIEND? no need to name names

don't play nelly at YOUR wedding...

2006-02-05T10:22:00.000-05:00

so, the wedding:

i looked good, and i felt good.

after waaay too many hours shopping for the 'perfect' thing to wear - i was, after all, seeing my ex-husband after 15 years - i found it. 15 minutes before the store closed, and 13 hours before the wedding. so now i have a bazillion things to return at half a dozen stores this week. i have NEVER done that much shopping, and i never will again. way too stressful. anyhow, my son and i walked into the restaurant (the whole thing took place there) like we owned the place. outwardly calm, insides all jello-y. we run smack into the ex. naturally. i can not believe how SMALL he is. never a tall man (always taller than me though) he is now what i can only call petite. his new woman (whom i met and seemed rather nice) turned him into a runner. he runs like 6 or 8 miles a day. every day. i offer him my hand to shake - no free hugs from this girl - he looks at me like hmm, no hug? we exchange pleasantries. he introduces me to lisa, mentioned above. - a little back story about the ex: he's been married, including to me, 4 times. he has 5 children by all of his exes. one of which is the bride - his first child/first ex. not a very good track record. my excuse, and i'm sticking to it: i was only 17, what the hell did i know?! and i was the 2nd ex. not yet the fixed pattern-to-be. so there.
so, i move aside to speak to my ex-inlaws. whom i have always liked. lots of hugs there. very happy to see them all. tami's (one of my ex-sisters-in-law) husband rod and i have known each other since junior high school so it was especially good to see him. he's still tall and gorgeous. she's still short and adorable. perfect.
then the puerto rican contingent arrived - late as usual - making a whole lot of noise - and i began to relax. the alcohol started flowing and tongues started loosening. in these instances, i'm really glad i don't drink because i would never remember half of the funny shit that was said, and lord knows it needs to be remembered. my other ex sister-in-law, rosalie, is the most evil woman - and i mean that in best possible way - damn, i've really missed her. she said some truly hilarious things about her brother, the ex! ok. the food was good, the dj was tolerable, blah blah blah... cut to the ex getting up to read a poem that he had written especially for his daughter on her wedding day. now, i bet you can guess that it was pretty awful, and you'd be right, but mostly it was the act of a truly selfish man. here's why. instead of writng about alicyn and how much her happiness means to him and what he wishes for her in the future - whatever - he writes a totally bullshit 'poem' about how he decided what to name her and why. it was some rambling thing about when he met muhammed ali. (note spelling of daughters name)
i couldn't look at anyone at the table because i thought i'd lose it and start laughing and not be able to stop. that wouldn't have been good. turns out everyone else at the table was looking elsewhere as well. afterwards, he has the nerve, probably some liquid courage involved, to ask me if i liked his poem. i struggled with the thousands of possible answers to the question. straight out no? evade and be vague? well, i couldn't really hear it was too noisy back here? i finally blurted out um, i liked the title? (he called it pretty snapshots) he gave me a look and said well, melissa (his daughter #2) certainly is your daughter. i said hmm, was there ever any doubt? he wandered off. when i was ready to leave, i said good-bye to him and lisa. i went to shake his hand again and he said how about a hug this time - i won't bite you. i said well, how do you know i won't bite you? and shook his hand.
and as i started walking away, he said 'take care of melissa.' i stopped and spun around, walked back and said 'melissa can take care of herself' what i should have said was that i'd been taking care of melissa since she was born, thank you very much mr. sometimes sunday dad. but i have more tact than i thought i had. huh, learn something new every day. even at almost 46. a funny thing, and then i'm done with this topic. at my table was steve the therapist. friend of the family and at times therapist to the family. i met him once before and since he didn't really know anyone that wasn't in the bridal party, i sat with him. he's a super terrific guy. anyhow, he meets bruce, the ex and immediately dislikes him. says some pretty insightful things (he IS a therapist after all) and likens the ex to a slick politician who will (and does) say and do anything and everything to get himself elected. BINGO.
then there was cake and aferwards i was escorted to the dance floor by rod to dance a nice slow dance. lovely. i even allowed photographs to be taken of me. imagine!
my daughter the bridesmaid looked absolutely gorgeous and my son cleaned up rather nicely as well. i let him bail after a few hours - he was bored silly. all in all, a good day. my shoes were new, high and comfortable. what else can be said?

book list forthcoming...

happy chinese new year

2006-01-29T14:36:00.000-05:00

i happen to be the sign of the rat and...

Though the Western rat is reviled as little more than a bottom-dwelling disease carrier, this animal is viewed much differently in the East. The Eastern rat is revered for its quick wits and its ability to accrue and hold on to items of value; rats are considered a symbol of good luck and wealth in both China and Japan. Clever and quick-witted, the Rat of the Chinese Zodiac is utterly disarming to boot. Possessed of excellent taste, this Sign flaunts its style at every turn. Its natural charm and sharp, funny demeanor make it an appealing friend for almost anyone. The Rat likes to know who is on its side and will treat its most loyal friends with an extra measure of protection and generosity.
Behind that sweet smile, though, Rats are keen and unapologetic promoters of their own agendas. This Sign is motivated by its own interests, which often include money; greed can become a problem if the Rat isn't careful to keep its priorities straight. This Sign's natural powers of charm and persuasion can definitely come in handy! Although they are often hoarders, Rats can be very generous to those in their "pack," namely friends and family members who have proven their loyalty. Others might perceive them as quick-tempered and sharp-tongued, but never boorish. Verbal jousting is a great pleasure for the Rat, a Sign that everyone around will quickly learn either to love or to hate.
Rats enjoy being on the outside looking in, as the outside affords a view into the inner workings of a system or situation. The Rat's keen mind always seeks out new knowledge, to be stored away for future use. This ever-curious Sign also welcomes challenges as a way to stay sharp. If boredom sets in the Rat is no fun at all, but that isn't likely; this Sign knows how to keep itself entertained.
A valuable lesson for Rats is to learn to consider others above themselves, at least sometimes. If they can develop their sense of self and realize it leaves room for others in their life as well, Rats could find true happiness.

The most compatible match for a Rat is the Dragon or the Monkey.

what sign are you?

babble and books (part 2?)

2006-01-28T10:42:00.000-05:00

i think it best if after 35 or 40 you disregard any and all references to birthdays. it's not like when you're 6 or 7 and have all the kids from your class come to your party and you get stuff you actually WANT - not NEED - well, except from your family of course. though my parents tended toward the extravagent in gifts perhaps in an attempt to alleviate the burden of their own shortcomings as parents - who knows. on one birthday it took them over an hour (my friend jean told me later that night) to notice that i had actually LEFT my party. i was 12. when i was younger (and less aware) my parents sometimes took me and my sister to my father's favorite restaurant for special occasions. it's long gone, but i think it was in the east 70's somewhere. it was called Damon's. or sometimes he'd switch it up and take us to chinatown to a great place called Shangri-La. those were fun because my father had an audience and he could be really funny and charming when he was 'on'. years later i came to dread these occasions when i began to realize that not only was my dad hitting on the waitresses (and bar girls and hostesses - etc...) but on my friends as well. i also harbored a deep resentment for having been born in february because i never got to have a beach party and always wanted to. silly, i know, but a skiier i am NOT. i've never been a big fan of the cold...
so this week i've been needlessly reminded time and again that my birthday is right around the corner. i'm sure i'll get all these 'funny' you're SO old cards and people will joke about me losing my memory - 'it's the first thing to go you know - wink wink' but i expect mostly good-natured kidding around which usually i can handle no problem, but this year i'm MORE than (>) halfway through my fourth decade -by 1 year that is, and it's bugging the hell out of me. and don't think for one hot second that i'm not acutely aware of how ridiculous i sound. it's my blog and i'll whine if i want to, whine if i want to...
i guess what i desperately need to do is get the fuck out of my own head and put some mental miles between thoughts like...jesus, i am going to die alone and i still need to lose 10 pounds, dammit and please god, let no one get it into their stupid heads to throw me a surprise party because i KNOW i will NOT be gracious and good-natured about it. perhaps some cheese with that whine? ok. basta. enough.

well, i actually DO have a books list to post and then i'm going to return half the stuff i bought for this wedding that i wish was already over.

1) luis alberto urrea's Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border
2) jorge ramos's The Other Face of America
3) geoffrey canada's Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun
4) gerald nicosia's Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veteran's Movement
5) mary karr's The Liars' Club
6) caroline moorehead's Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century Life

and furthermore...

2006-01-20T09:12:00.000-05:00

so, how come i had to wake up at 5AM to be at work at 6AM only to be sent home at 7:30?! AND i can't go back to sleep since i've already downed 17 quarts of coffee!
but i can (and will) share my books read list with you. oh, and a hilarious survey i got in the mail yesterday for an online singles thingie. too much fun this early, i say...

1) joe rodríguez's Oddsplayer
2) daniel cano's Shifting Loyalties
3) ted conover's Coyotes
4) amarillo slim preston (!) w/ greg dinkin's Amarillo Slim in a World of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived (woohoo)
5) richard p. feynman's 'Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman'
6) mark dow's American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons
7) magnus mills' Three To See The King (thanks Tiny Tyrant for the heads up on this great book -i liked it better than The Restraint of Beasts!)

a few words on the books this week - sometimes i think i should include a little summary or mini-review of the books i list, or at the very least mention the subject matter, but alas, i guess i'm either too lazy, or out of time. today, i have the time and as noted above, have injested enough caffeine to keep me typing awhile. Shifting Loyalties has got to be the finest fiction written on Vietnam i've ever read. Daniel Cano is a veteran of that war, so the 'stories' have the feel of truth to them. beautifully realized. amarillo slim's book (which my daughter's boyfriend gave me for christmas knowing i wouldn't have read it already!) was so funny and full of shit - and i don't mean that in a BAD way... the biggest deal for me was American Gulag. frustrating, upsetting, heart-breaking - this book killed me to read. it makes me wish i could wave a wand over all the bad people and make them disappear forever, so the good (and semi-good) people can get on with things.

now the survey. some questions - all are yes or no, by the way. cause you can get a real sense of the truth just by asking those kinds of questions, right?

1. do you ever wonder where quality single people go to meet one another?
2. are you frustrated by the games you have to play to meet someone special?
3. are you too busy and/or do not like the bar scene, but would really like to find that special person ?

the bold and italics are theirs, not mine. there were more questions for the men, but since that doesn't concern me, i didn't bother. i think we all get the picture anyway. from these and a few other deep, profound, meaningful inquiries, one should be able to figure out that yes, they're single and looking. wow.

ok, kids, time to go to the mall and meet mr right. oh, no, wait, i mean find a dress for the wedding next week.

have a good weekend.

5:40AM and 31 degrees

2006-01-20T05:35:00.000-05:00

this was supposed to be my day off, but instead, i'm going to work at 6:00AM. AGAIN. this has been a sucky week. AND i still have to find a dress for Ali's wedding. fuck. have i ever mentioned how. much. i. hate. shopping.??
time to go. blech!

i've come to an understanding:

2006-01-14T06:38:00.000-05:00

some things aren't worth the trouble.

back to the books (and some pictures)

2006-01-12T21:29:00.000-05:00

1) tom hayden's Street Gangs: Gangs and the Future of Violence
2) alex garland's Coma
3) john laurence's The Cat from Hué
4) peter matthiessen's Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution
5) victor d. lavalle's Slapboxing with Jesus
6) scott bradfield's History of Luminous Motion
7) george mariscal's Aztlán and Viet Nam: Chicano and Chicana Experiences of the War

does anyone want to start a book club with these kinds of titles?
*************************************************************************************

these were taken at christmas. and i will admit that a good picture of me is a blurry picture of me! thanks, christina

turn that frown upside down

2006-01-11T23:50:00.000-05:00

this made an otherwise dismal day a little brighter.
man, people say the dumbest things.

(from overheard in ny)

Nanny #1: Who were you named after, Paulette?
Nanny #2: My father.
Nanny #1: Oh, what was his name?
Nanny #2: Ette.

there's more to say, but it's too close to the surface right now.

no news, no books, just pondering

2006-01-05T19:58:00.000-05:00

i think i fill my blog with news items and other people's poetry because i hate thinking, much less writing, about what's going on in my brain. the few times that i've posted personal things they weren't real 'this is how i'm feeling' stuff or i somehow deflected the real-ness with humor. which kind of negates the whole deal, right? anyhow, i did some serious thinking over the 3 days i had off for New Years and i've decided that side-stepping the internal confrontations one normally has with oneself isn't working for me any longer. my body (of all things) has betrayed my confidence by sending me more migraine headaches (5 in december alone) in one month than i've had in the past 5 years in addition to numerous pinched nerves. OK, dammit. i get it. finally. it's the body's way of saying listen bitch, pay attention to your head (and heart for that matter) and i'll let you live relatively pain free. so this is the internal debate i've been struggling with these last few days. or months or years depending on who you ask: how can i meet people with similar interests that are somewhat nearer my age than 27. and CAN i do that? because 27 is all i keep coming across. and while there are definite plusses to that, there are also some sizable detractions. i've gotten so used to my self-imposed isolation that i wouldn't even know where to start looking. being this out of touch is kind of scary at this point in my life. i've never really been good at making friends and i'll tell you why. the thing that i need (or want) out of a friendship first and foremost is intellectual stimulation. you've got to be able to carry on a conversation. so please, go ahead and challenge me to use more than a third of my brain. but the catch is i don't need to see or talk to you every day - in fact, that would probably drive me nuts. and you know, it's not a far drive... i'd like to be able to tell someone something serious about myself with out getting that stripped naked in a public forum feeling. my dilemma (or one of them anyway) is that there don't seem to be many - let's for arguments sake - say 35 to 45 year olds with interests remotely like mine. poetry, auto-racing, the music i listen to - none of those. separately, maybe. i just keep going round and round in my head with all this nonsense. mostly all i wanted to say was i'm tired of being an island but i'm not sure if i have the necessary materials to build a bridge to the main-land.

*end of self-indulgent rambling post #1*

i've got to get used to writing 2006...

2006-01-02T17:17:00.000-05:00

so i borrowed this book from the library called Twentieth Century Latin American Poetry (which i need to re-check out because i'm surely not done reading it) and there are SO many great poets i've never heard of or have heard of but never read. so, i have taken it upon myself to share these poems with you that i think are just crazy good. even if poetry isn't your 'thing' read them anyway - you just MAY get something from them. i've posted the english versions because i'm a very poor (slow) typist and typing both versions would take me a bazillion years.

To Carlos Drummond de Andrade

There is no umbrella
against the poem
rising from the regions where everything is a surprise,
like a flower from a garden.
There is no umbrella
against the love
that chews up and spits out – like a mouth:
that grinds like a disaster.
There is no umbrella
against the tedium,
the tedium of four walls, four
seasons, four points of the compass.
There is no umbrella
against the world
the newspapers ruin each day
with this kind of paper, this ink.
There is no umbrella
against time:
river flowing under the house, its current
carrying off the days, one’s hair

-João Cabral de Melo Neto
Brazil

Life-Hook

Love: if I die don’t take me to the cemetery.
Dig my grave just at ground level, near the laughing
Divine disturbance of a birdhouse.
Or by a fountain’s haunting talk.

Just at ground level, my love. And almost above earth
Where the sun can heat the bones, and my eyes,
Extended, as if into stalks, rise to see again
The savage lamp of the setting sun.

Just at ground level, my love. So the passage
Will be even shorter. I sense
Already my flesh fighting, trying to return
To feel the atoms of a freshening wind.

I know my hands
May never stay still down there.
That like moles they will scrape the earth
In the middle of dark, compacted shadows.

Cover me with seeds. I want them to root
In the yellow chalk of my diminishing bones.
Up the gray staircase of living roots
I will rise to watch you. I’ll be the purple lilies.

-Juana de Ibarbourou
Uruguay

To Poetry

The taste of October on your shoulders.
Your hands give off a scent of April.
Like a hundred mirrors, I reflect
your body.
Night-time in the flutes of my voice.

Your footsteps were paths
of music. It danced
tangled up in leaves: the helix
of hours.
Naked liberation.

The measure of your height,
of the wave that raised
your weight of time, untouched.
My arm
softly circled it.

Among the aftergrowths
and your summery gaze
I sharpened the sickle that conjoined
the day
with the heavenly harvest.

From the blue depths the willowy wheat
falls to the brilliance of the sickle.
From the black depths a grain of gold
a pitchfork
with a cosmic shiver.

To plant in the breezy countryside –
to grow swellingly, a delicate flower:
the earth sweated, and the path
toward the red
sunset yields to grey.

He lifted his narrow stroke,
his hand above the wheat-field.
All the grains identical: One!
Naked.
The free voice begins to sing.

The taste of October on your shoulders.
Your hands give off a scent of April.
A mirror of a hundred mirrors,
my body
will sleep darkly in your voice.

-Carlos Pellicer
Mexico

wrapping it up - oh, and books, of course

2005-12-30T15:27:00.000-05:00

haven't felt much like posting lately.
or seeing people either. i guess it's a case of the end of the year blues or maybe it's because i like people less and less...? hmmm. ok. you decide.

that being (typed) said:
christmas was lovely - filled with some of the people i love best.
some cooking god(dess) smiled down on my roast pork because it was OUT of this world!
that and the baked ziti - (which i did NOT like) but others thought delicious. the exchange of gifts resulted in a frenetic mushroom-like cloud of wrapping paper. everyone happy with their loot. even the dog got a stocking. yay petra!

but you know, even after all the christmas music - my own compilation CD, of course -it still didn't feel like christmas. oh well. i hope next year i feel more festive and less resigned to it happening whether i want it to or not.

i don't have a best of list, nor could i do one justice, but let me just say how much i am STILL enjoying the Ozomatli DVD i got last month. and melissa gave me Batman Begins because she knows how much i loooove batman.

so here's my books read list for the past however many days...

1) laurie lynn drummond's Anything You Say Can And Will Be Used Against You
2) james reston's Warrior of the Gods (about the Crusades - damn good reading)
3) stephen graham jones's All the Beautiful Sinners
4) danny lyon's The Destruction of Lower Manhattan
5) barbara victor's Army of Roses : Inside the World of Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers (scary good reading)
6) candice millard's The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
7) geoffrey maguire's Son of Wicked
8) frances itani's Deafening
there's something else too, but i'm in the office and way too lazy to go and see what it was. it will have to wait for next weeks list, i guess.

ok people, have a happy new year and all that.

some news and weekly book post

2005-12-17T09:54:00.000-05:00

a Henry Moore statue, one of his 'reclining figures', was stolen from a courtyard at the Henry Moore Foundation. it weighed in at a measly 2.1 TONS! those guys had to use a crane to get it out of there - and no one notices??
'We are gobsmacked, extremely upset and also disappointed that someone would steal it' - Gareth Spence said yesterday. indeed.

1) edward humes's No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court
2) kent haruf's The Ties That Bind
3) demetria martinez's Mother Tongue
4) paul auster's Oracle Night
5) daniel ellsburg's Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

it's 3:30 AM and

2005-12-16T08:08:00.000-05:00

the ice crystals floating in the air
look like the dust of diamonds
all is silent and strangely calm

books of the week

2005-12-10T11:20:00.000-05:00

1) ernesto quiñonez' Chango's Fire
2) mary childers' Welfare Brat
3) adrian c. louis' Skins
4) stephen graham jones' The Bird is Gone: A Manifesto
5) andrew witten's Dondi White Style Master General: The Life of Graffiti Artist Dondi White

i love reading, but i sure wish i slept more.

there were 2 sitting right next to me...

2005-12-09T10:44:00.000-05:00

stolen from rich's live journal:
(because i like it)

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

‘he didn’t blame anyone but wished the hell he could turn back time’

-edgardo vega yunqué from No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook Or Pay The Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again

and

‘likening voluntary simplicity to a religion is neither hyperbole nor sacrilege’

-barbara kingsolver from Small Wonders (essays)

my only other comment for today is fuck a winter wonderland.

books and bullsh*t

2005-12-03T12:13:00.000-05:00

1) george r.r. martin's A Feast for Crows
2) amanda eyre ward's Sleep Toward Heaven
3) keith walker's A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam
4) jake halpern's Braving Home
5) owen sheer's The Blue Book (poems)

a pretty good selection this week although i was pretty disappointed in A Feast for Crows. it was supposed to be the final in a series of four - and we all waited FORever for him to finish - only to find out that he wrote SO much that he ended up having to split the book in half. and god only knows when the second half will be out. also a little disappointed with the owen sheers book. it got so much buzz that i ordered it from a far away library just to read it. and if you aren't hip to the awesome-ness of the library, you really are missing out. especially if you're like me. i read a LOT, and if i had to BUY all the books i'd read, well, i'd be ever more poorer than i am now, that's for sure. there were 2 poems in the sheer book i liked, so maybe i'll reprint them here.

so tuesday my dog is getting her first of 5 doggie training lessons. i can't wait to see what he thinks of her and what he can do. the guy who's doing them is pretty well known. he just did a movie with nicole kidman - well, his dog did... here's his site: Shepard's Watch
i'll be sure to update her (and my) progress...

i need a new job - pronto!

2005-12-01T17:25:00.000-05:00

my employer's husband is having pretty major surgery on monday. they're fixing something wrong with his jaw. so they have to break it, then saw out some bits and add other bits. then wire it all shut for 6 weeks. just thinking about the operation has given me nightmares. anyway, i ask her what the matter is - she looks upset - BAD idea. she tells me she's scared about the surgery. I SAY: understandable - it's a 5 hour long, scary procedure. SHE SAYS: no, no , you don't understand - it's not the operation i'm worried about, it's the recovery. he's going to need A LOT of ministering to. this is going to be really hard on me. well, i choked on my gum and sputtered something that i think may have sounded sympathetic and hurriedly left the room. i was kinda queasy by then. remember a while back when i wrote about the hurricane thing and her credit card? and i thought then that she was the MOST self-involved human alive - but this - THIS is too much. i have to find another job. now. today.
this is me going to spruce up my resume to find something.

books of the week & some rambling about thanksgiving

2005-11-27T11:21:00.000-05:00

i've been pretty busy so i haven't read as much as usual...

1) john del vecchio's The 13th Valley
2) boris vian's I spit on your graves
3) duncan maclean's Bunker Man
*************************************************************
so thanksgiving turned out really well. a lot of people, a lot of food, a lot of noise, and a lot to clean up. but i think everyone had a good time. i know they ate enough! melissa and mike brought their dog so i let mine out and they had a great time playing and running around. it kept them away from other people and more importantly away from all the food. finally (i can only take so many people for so long) around 11:30 everyone was gone. but the weekend proved to be filled with people dropping by - mostly uninvited - but in some cases i hadn't seen some of them in a long time, so it was alright. steven's friend steve (and his band The Blue Light Special) was in from philly to play at the Knitting factory last night. good to see them doing so well.

so that's it. back to work tomorrow. wait is that a tickle in my throat? i don't feel so good... :D

this week in books

2005-11-19T10:03:00.000-05:00

1) frederick down's The Killing Zone
2) jonathan shay's Achilles in Vietnam
3) donovan webster's The Burma Road
4) jennifer vanderbes' Easter Island
5) andrew greig's Electric Brae
***************************************

so today at 7am it was a bracing 24 degrees and the dog needed to go out.
now i remember why i hate the winter and having a dog at the same time. it was SO cold - even after i got dressed for the Arctic - that my nose ran (pretty, right?) and my eyes watered. petra wasn't all that thrilled with the weather conditions either seeing as how she has next to no fur to keep her warm and toasty. i have a fleece-lined harness for her, so that does a little to help, but mostly that's so she doesn't pull me around the block until my arm comes loose from it's socket. well, we made it back in 20 looong minutes. my hands were frozen through my thinsulate lined gloves. and it's only NOVEMBER. lovely.
now i'm off to shop for thanksgiving.

god help anyone who gets in my way - i'm on a mission.

i'm out.

for those of you in the LA area - don't miss

2005-11-17T15:06:00.000-05:00

Luis Rodriguez, award-winning poet and best-selling author (Always Running, Music of the Mill), will be the featured performer at the Blue Nile Cafe in Long Beach on December 2.

Luis, also a co-founder of Rock A Mole Productions, will highlight a night of poetry and music presented by the Poets of the Round Table. The Blue Nile is a beautiful two-story venue in the classic New Orleans style. A comfortable place to hang out and the staff will treat you with love and respect. Come on out. It's all ages and it's free!

here's the info:

Blue Nile Cafe
438 Broadway
Long Beach
Friday, December 2, 9 PM
All Ages
Admission: Free

*************************************************************************************
so a week from today is thanksgiving. my favorite holiday. yet this year i am SO horribly unprepared - both mentally and food-wise. i have nothing purchased, no idea aside from turkey, of course, what i'm going to cook. i suppose i'm kind of dreading it because of the dog. that sounds terrible, but she's definitely NOT ready for the chaos of the day. people in and out, FOOD tempting her the whole time. shit, I'M not ready for that either. well, better get cracking on a menu and a shopping list. i'm not even sure how many people will be here.

maybe i'll do take-out?!

books of the week

2005-11-13T23:44:00.000-05:00

1) cherokee paul mcdonald's Into the Green
2) magnus mills' The Restraint of Beasts
3) philip caputo's A Rumor of War
4) jose saramago's The Cave
5) nina berberova's The Italics are Mine
6) romeo dallaire's Shake Hands with the Devil

i'm all over the place today

2005-11-06T09:24:00.000-05:00

some days you're the dry land and some days you're the island... a football field sized mobile island washes up in a Massachusetts mans backyard

speaking of things moving (when they shouldn't, that is) check this -
icebergs on the move in Antarctica

paris suburbs STILL burning
here's a link to what the residents are saying about it all

don't mess with Texas' death row convicts, that is they just walk right out of prison after killing 2 people back in 1999

so both my employers are (attempting) to quit smoking AT THE SAME TIME. i am seriously thinking about giving my notice. there will be a homicide (or 2) if things get ugly in the workplace. or maybe it's the perfect kick in the ass that i need to make some big changes in my lackluster life. i watched the movie 'WHAT THE #$*! DO WE KNOW?!' last night - not a good thing if you're feeling small and insignificant already - but it was entertaining. all about quantum mechanics and the what ifs...
a few of the 'scientists' were pretty amusing in a kind of eerie way.

time to put my newly stained bookcase together. sigh. hopefully i'll be able to figure it out. it DID come from IKEA after all. these times are pretty much the only times i miss the ex...

2005-11-05T00:44:00.000-05:00

a poem by sherman alexie

spontaneous combustion

sometimes when an indian boy loves
a white girl and vice-versa
it’s like waking up
with half the world
on fire. you don’t know
if you should throw water
or let the whole goddamn thing burn.

books read this week:

1) neil gaiman’s Anansi Boys
2) sherman alexie’s Business of Fancydancing
3) octavio paz’s Early Poems: 1935-1955
4) gabriel garcia marquez’s One hundred Years of Solitude (re-read for the 10th time!)
5) khaled hosseini’s The Kite Runner
6) mark haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

more Paz

2005-11-02T07:36:00.000-05:00

Vida entrevista

Relampagos o peses
en la noche del mar
y parajaros, relampagos
en la noche del bosque.

Los huesos son relampagos
en la noche del cuerpo.
Oh mundo, todo es noche
y la vida es relampago.

Live interval

Lightning or fishes
in the night of the sea
and birds, lightning
into the forest night.

Our bones are lightning
in the night of the flesh.
Oh world, all is night,
life is the lightning.

big, big sigh...

sonja needs...

2005-10-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

straight from rich's blog:

and if you didn't LOOk at rich's blog, which you really should, just google your name, and add 'needs' after it.
i assure you that hilarity will ensue.

this is an update of the Sonja Needs thingie because i found really funny stuff this time - someone looked at this page the other day, so i checked.

Sonja needs both bread and roses. interesting..
Sonja needs to be nerfed big time. too true.
Sonja needs an angry expression. hmm, give me a minute...
Sonja needs snacks throughout the day. and that's how to gain 5 pounds on your vacation... sigh.

Sonja needs to find a new home - ain't that the truth!

Sonja needs to have a marriage license from County Clark which costs $55 - that's kinda scary. where IS Clark County, anyway?

Sonja needs a family that can give her a lot of time & love - my family's good like that, but i guess you can always have MORE love...

Sounds to me like Sonja needs a psychiatrist - well, that's just... well... alright, maybe a teeny bit true?!

Sonja needs a caretaker - DAMN, i'm not that old

Sonja needs to focus more - well, maybe that's... ooh... ice cream!!

i just watched Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids and i was blown away by it. this woman goes to india to photograph the red light district and falls in love with the children of the prostitutes. she gives them cameras and teaches them all about photography and sends them out to take pictures of their lives. she tries, in vain mostly, to get these kids into good schools so that the girls won't have to follow their mothers into 'the line'
rent it and watch it. the kids came out with some of the finest photos i've seen.

Alzheimer's and Picasso - a great article.

books of the week

2005-10-29T12:55:00.000-04:00

a heavy week of non-fiction

1) susan o'neill's Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam
2) edward rivera's Family Installments
3) virgil suarez's Spared Angola
4) editors tara herivel and paul wright's Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor
5) james ebert's A Life in a Year : The American Infantryman in Vietnam
6) keith david hamm's Scarred for Life: Eleven Stories About Skateboarders

next i think some poetry. i just got Song of the Simple Truth : The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos so that'll keep me happy.

2005-10-27T20:09:00.000-04:00

say so long, harriet
here's the spin: "Harriet Miers' decision demonstrates her deep respect for this essential aspect of the constitutional separation of powers - and confirms my deep respect and admiration for her," Mr Bush said. but it's a TKO for bush and his (in) ability to get anything done in his second term - and he thought it was gonna be easy!

will there FINALLY be justice in the Plame case?

here's an update of the possible migration (no pun intended - well, maybe a little) of the bird flu

truth IS stranger than fiction y'all well, she did pick a helluva time of the year to hang herself...

i'm back reading books on Vietnam - every so often i read all i can about that time -it fascinates me. one of my favorite jobs was working at Montrose VA hospital with all the vets.
that and civil war books - i can't get enough of those books. not the fictional accounts though - only non-fiction ones. thank god for library cards.
oh, and Ozomatli? still listening AND watching that DVD

that's it for now - have a good weekend all...

part 2

2005-10-23T22:03:00.000-04:00

you know how people think that by going to places like Costco that they save money by buying in bulk? i think that's bullshit. i just spent 100 bucks and all i needed was paper towels and tin foil. huh.

En la vida hay dos cosas ciertas,
Son la muerte y el cambio

still can't stop listening to ozomatli y'all...

burt bacharach and dr. dre?

2005-10-23T21:29:00.000-04:00

now you KNOW shit's serious...! check this -

A new album titled "At This Time" arrives in stores on the first of the month with some intriguing attributes. Hip-hop beats crafted by Dr. Dre on three tracks. Politically charged lyrics, among them a bruising attack on the Bush administration. And the record label that's releasing the CD stepped in to ask the artist to tone down the raw language.
Most intriguing is that artist is none other than 77-year-old Burt Bacharach, a songwriter best known for his polished love songs and elegant orchestrations. Some of his tennis partners are going to be a bit rattled by all of this.
"I know, I know, all of this is going to surprise some people," Bacharach said in a wispy voice in a phone call from New York, far from his usual Pacific Palisades turf. "I wanted to take some chances. There are things I needed to say."
It's a good fit for him right now, being in a city of rain and hard edges.
"There was no fear here," he said. "I feel I have a new kind of freedom in making an album like this. In a pop song you're always a bit restrained. Where are you going to go in a three- or four-minute song that is intended for radio? There are limits. Here I went where I wanted to go."
Where he wanted to go required some seven-minute mini-operas, a 35-piece orchestra, three hip-hop producers, Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainwright, jazzman Chris Botti and, for the first time in Bacharach's long and illustrious career of melody-making, lyrics he wrote himself.
The result is an album of high polish — everything Bacharach does with brass and piano is as decorative and shiny as brass buttons on a country-club sports coat — and gives him an adventurous auteur role here that makes him seem like Moby fashioning an album for a light-jazz radio station.
Bacharach is one of the most famous composers in the world and in his sixth decade in the business. He has won six Grammys and three Oscars. He's collaborated on 48 Top 10 hits but along the way wrote the lyrics to exactly zero of them. Old partner Hal David was the word man on "Walk on By," "The Look of Love," "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and most of the other signature works in the Bacharach songbook.
"Through the years did I contribute a line here or there or a title to a song? Yes. But this is a whole new thing for me." There's a revelation in his writing, too: Who knew the cheerful-looking fellow behind the piano was so angry? Take the most indignant track, "Who Are These People?"
This stupid mess we're in just keeps getting worse

So many people dying needlessly

Looks like the liars may inherit the earth

Even pretending to pray and getting away with it.

Not exactly "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head." The songwriter says politics have never really been part of his personal composition.

"Vietnam, I'm sure terrible things happened, I know terrible things happened, but you know … some years I didn't vote and politics, that just wasn't my thing," Bacharach said.

When he and David did look to geopolitical headlines for inspiration, the result wasn't exactly high-definition rhetoric. In the gorgeous 1967 hit "Say a Little Prayer," it turns out that it was a distant solider boy who Dionne Warwick was fretting about during her daily routine. The singer said years later that "we were sending a message to our kids in Vietnam." Who knew? It's safe to say that for most pop fans, that message remained safely encrypted.
Not so with the new CD. Asked about the unveiled references, Bacharach's voice began to vibrate with emotion as he indexed his frustrations with the Bush administration.
"The world I see right now is so upsetting that I feel I have to say what I feel," Bacharach said. "At my age, and at this time, things are getting worse by the minute, worse by the day. And this album is that."
The album opens with "Please Explain," which is hung on the ominous chest-thump and orchestral weave of a Dre-fashioned drum-and-bass loop. The slow build leads to Bacharach's vocals, which have always been limited as an instrument and — again, like a Moby album — are often half-hidden behind orchestral corners. ("I'm very self-conscious about my vocals," a sheepish Bacharach conceded.)
The first lyrics on the album make it clear that Bacharach is worried these days that love, sweet love, may not be enough for the world anymore.

There was a song I remember

said "What the World Needs Now … "

Where is the love

Where did it go

Who broke our hearts

'cause we need to know.

Trumpet player and composer Botti met Bacharach on two separate occasions that were a year apart before the song "Dreams" coalesced as a complete work.
The young musician said that Bacharach's talent is to set aside pop convention and somehow create music that attains a near-universal appeal.
"What he does harmonically and rhythmically is so complex and rare because it seems so simple and natural on the surface," Botti said. "Dig deeper and look at what he's doing and you'll see why musicians — from jazz backgrounds or pop or classical or hip-hop or whatever — all respect him."
Botti said the famously mellow Bacharach is a "wonderful collaborator — you can't write all those lovely songs and not be a nice guy, right?"
Maybe so, but Bacharach nearly shed some of his warm and fuzzy persona. This album came mighty close to arriving in stores with a parental advisory sticker.
"Who Are These People?" features Costello, in his best pinched-rage voice, decrying liars and leaders who "can't admit when they're wrong." It ends with Costello singing: "See things really have to change/ Before it's too late."
But in the studio the song had a different ending involving a certain f-word. Bacharach was persuaded by label executives to put a less spiky ending on a lushly orchestrated track.
"But I loved the way it sounded."
The songwriter repeated the original line a few times, savoring the phonetic charge of the bomb he almost set off.
"We should have left it in," he said. "That line says it all.
"That's where we are. I'm being honest."
He says now he expects to release the R-rated version as a single or download or import. "I want people to hear it."

By Geoff Boucher, LA Times Staff Writer 10/22/05

friday night blues

2005-10-21T18:36:00.000-04:00

so i don't usually bring work up here, but today was a shit-ass day which has only reaffirmed my deep dislike of some people - well, alright, most people. i don't think that there exists a more self-centered, self-involved human alive than my employer. the lengths she will go to make herself look good to anyone astounds me. she finds a way to make EVERYthing about her, no matter what it is. you all thought Katrina was a hurricane that affected folks in new orleans, right? nope. it totally was about her when she couldn't cancel a credit card because the computers were down in NEW ORLEANS!! and she threw a fit - i almost fell over dead. and since i am NOT prone to exaggeration, you know it's the truth. thank god it's friday and i don't have to be anywhere near her until monday, which if you ask me is too damn soon. the good part of the story is that steven is visiting his friends at binghamton and i am alone (sorta - there is the dog) until sunday night.

there, i feel better. have a good weekend, i know i will.