a lot to say, a lot to do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

'Bellbottoms'



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catching up

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

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

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

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.

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

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:

"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

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.

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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.