and another thing... 4.30
's the realization that we be old enough to remember the hillbilly ads... mountain dew, definitely not what it used to be...
occured to ourowndarnself this morning... 4.29
if you knew going into the gig how inadequate to the task you are, and that you were likely to become hugely unpopular; dangerous because of your unabashed greed & ambition, a likely target for some nut with a gun and a grudge, well, the best way to prevent anybody entertaining any assassinatory schemes is to make certain of
the character of your running mate and if that guy happens to be an even uglier version of brute than yourself,
well, congratulations George, nobody gonna be taking a shot at you, that's for damn sure... today's Tom Meyer cartoon
H-oh-kay, now we nearly late with this next, but for anyone in the vicinity of Down Home Records over the weekend,
the first Squeeze Box Social will be held on both Saturday & Sunday, 2pm-ish. Not much mention of the affair at the
website;
next item/affair out of our local environs, but it just across the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, Sunday night (this weekend, May 2nd...) big treat for Beatles fans, free screening/singalong of A Hard Day's Night, on 4th Street in San Rafael, courtesy the Rafael Film Center, part of the slate of activities celebrating their 5 Year Anniversary.
Listening to KPFA this Am, Sandy Miranda sitting in on S. Kent's Music of the World show, got the heads up from her on the California Herdeljezi Festival, great opporunity to enjoy a weekend in and around Sebastopol, no doubt there will be some very fine music to enjoy.
these days in particular...
yourstruly has relied on the twisted craziness of South Park to provide something to smile about, some measure of humour, good to know their madness gives plenty of others reason to smile. NYT article on the current South Park season, and for that special friend of ours out there in the hinterlands, Binky, go and hie thyself to this location and listen to tune dedicated to thee, courtesy l'Marquis, I've got something in my front pocket for you...
atkins dieters everywhere... 4.27
minor accomodation to the diet of the season in Chronicle lunchroom, one of the vending machines now contains packages of Pork Rinds...
chewy linky goodness abounds at the NYRB, How to Get Out of Iraq;
and let's not overlook the Late Spring '04 Ralph
marine layer on the verge of returning...
or so we hope, based on the weatherfolk's prognostications, damn-oh-lay, 91 degrees (allegedly) in S.F. yesterday.
okay, for the moment we revisit the world of hypertext:
The First Hypertext Edition of
The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
a little more than six months to go now... 4.26 and that november day will arrive, will he get his mandate or not? And if he does, should the cad-ministration somehow manage to eke out re-election, then what we gonna do Binky? yeeeeesh, can
you even begin to imagine another four years of those brutes?
an uneventful weekend around chez d'Monquis, temps warmed up very nicely for those of you intent on enjoying the outdoors experience, maybe a little too warm in some places. Yourstruly spent a little time with pal whom we hadn't seen in some months on friday eve, question put to us of whether or not we still making some effort at the dumbmonkey (she
obviously not one of the regulars there), and we had to admit, our heart not entirely in it, something feeling a little out of balance since the end of '03 and not just in regard to weblogging activity, and it isn't like yourstuly doesn't have it in mind, making the effort, oh, like for example, reading this article in the saturday fishwrap, and as milk one of our favorite beverages ('tho it seems
we got to be careful with it now, appears we developing a bit of lactose intolerance as we moving into our fifth
decade), and that item had us googling away for a bit, turning up bits of interest like this one re price hike in '99; here's one with some interesting numbers to peruse, subsidies paid to California dairies; item re CA milk subsidies upsetting dairyfolk in other states; some genuine food for thought in this AlterNet piece, Not Milk: The USDA, Monsanto, and the U.S. Dairy Industry; oh, maybe a handful of other links of interest we dug up, some related to the dairy industry in Marin. So you see, some persistence of that impulse to examine an issue a little bit, certainly not terribly comprehensively, but perhaps discover enough material to get folks to think upon this a little, as it makes us very curious as to why it is one can pay $1.89 or so for a half gallon of leche at Trader Joe's but well over two dollars at one of the majors in town, oh yah sure, got to factor in all their overhead, t.v./media advertising, etc etc, just seems something askew in the idea of the price of milk going up F I T T Y C E N T S arbitrarily...
oh and then there's the miscellanea we run across in the course of a days websurfing, bookmarking and creating shortcuts to recall the occasional little marvel of linky goodness, that thought of sharing same with the visitors hereabouts, stuff kinda like this books about california site; this one for the mandolin player you know; and whilst yourstruly cannot recall why this be bookmarked, maybe we wuz tryin' to determine our macho factor; oh, music again, or at least music related, the Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection; we always lookin' for something to fit the bill for our occasional jessferdahalibut category, and, well, here's Big Fib; politics? well, how about Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections and some Red Pepper, all of those ought to provide some clue that
ourowndarnself still maintaining some interest in what's going on about and around him, but maybe it be sort of like getting thrown off a horse rather violently, being unsure 'bout gettin back in the saddle, perhaps back on that same horse that threw you a few months ago, takin' reins in hand and feelin' confident enough to get outside the paddock, moving from a mosey to a trot, wondering when we'll feel like takin' on the challenge of a full gallop. Don't know, amigos y amigas, am still missing my ol' man, and grieving yet, some cessation of pain certainly, but tears are never far away, we'll see what the summer brings in terms of distractions and possibilities, and we'll keep some kind of hand in here, don't be shy about saying Howdy!, maybe share some of what you going through and what tickles your fancy these days, perhaps providing some inspiration...
later that same day... 4.25
nope, we didn't spend our entire day watching the tube, warm outside and we had some chores to accomplish, but if you home now and can get c-span2, re-broadcast of that Book Notes panel discussion mentioned earlier this day is about to begin (and it be just after 5pm-ish here on the left coast); now we get a chance to catch up on what we missed
earlier...
snuck up on yourstuly over the weekend...
Holy Boy!
tippin' da ol'red fez in the direction of John's information junque this Am, providing heads up to MSN link
(whoda thunk it?) to much Jerry Garcia music available online, Gracias Juanito, muchas gracias... ol' Captain Trips not to everybody's taste, but datz kool, those who know, know...
lovely rainy wednesday morning...
our daily routine wrecked by wierdly scheduled work week that has l'Marquis coming into the city by 10 and out of the j-o-b at 6 and he be thankful that today will be the last of that (he hopes) although he be working the usual early shift on Thurs & Fri without his usual weekday free on thursday, dammit. okay, now, the good stuff: People's Park, 35th Anniversary, Sunday, 4.25 (link here to series running in local Berkeley fishwrap re history of People's Park), if you spot l'Marquis, say hello, maybe we buy ya a Fat Slice on the ave; whilst listening to KPFA on the way to bart this Am, caught bit of interview with one of the prime movers behind The Middle East Research and Information Project. and by the way, the answer to this query by M. Morford,
well, for starters the resident is deficient in character & integrity...
Hooray for Zoë! 4.20 feel good story for your day, now we hopin' to avoid sinking into depression when contemplating just how fucked up this country is going to be considering the state of our educational system...
precisely what we have long wanted... 4.19
to say to that moronic imbecile resident in the white house,
and that nasty brutish group he's surrounded himself with: Fuck Off! credit for heads up to linky goodness goes to GMT + 9
yourstruly understands...
that many of our readers will be surprised by this:
You are a GRAMMAR GOD!
If your mission in life is not already to preserve the English tongue, it should be. Congratulations and thank you!
How grammatically sound are you? brought to you by Quizilla note as of 4:21 pm- friend tell me she got some virusy kind of thing from the quizilla place, she wandered afield to linkage there, be forewarned ye lads and lasses...
and all we wanna say in response to you doubters, phhhhhhffffffbbbbbbblllllllphhhhhhht..... many thanks to S.J. Green's Plep for the link/test...
apres le weekend...
okay, if you says so, quirky are us... yesterday, mostly light rain, till later in the evening, planned for some gardening & yard maintenance chores in the company of Coach S., put that off due to the slightly inclement weather, Bro K showed up with Becky-Monster and Ken Jr in tow, along with new poochster Ginger, Coach S. dropped in anyway, bringing along the Cully-dogg and doggie pal Jake, all of us head over to albany waterfront park and let the dogs have much fun. Later, back at chez jaypea, big pot of chicken cacciatore been cooking all morning, and along with big salad we share yummy luncheon, a fine day all in all, even had a fire going early in the day, cozy and a day full of good company, not
a bad end to the weekend...
l'Marquis asks hisowndarnedself... 4.15
is what we doing here just a matter of habitual behavior or wha? okay, you missed Mark Morford? likewise, Binky, likewise; we'd heard a number of rumours but remain far enough out of whatever loop matters we refrained from speculating, and now, thanks to the east bay express, we can stop wondering and send mr morford much support and a hearty "me missed you Marky!"
bear with us now, your patience required: maybe it was the day before yesterday, yourstruly perusing bloggos favoritos and discovering how much has happened to our shiny blue grasshopper, and as far as our wrinkled & weathered visage can recall, this where we first learned 'bout MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country, and if we knew Paul Simon we'd try & convince him to modify that tune of his and help SELL SOME BOOKS! doing our part? Yes Binky, We Are! Laid
out a little over one hundred simoleans this day, walking by Boadecia's Books when we espied it in the window, placed order for ten, our intent, oh obviously, to aid in the dissemination of leftist agit-prop, ya hear me johnny ashcroft you slimy weaselly bureaucrat you. Might spend some more later but for now all l'Marquis wants to suggest is you imagine, oh say 8 or 10 people you might know, young ones in particular, maybe you know some really dreadful single person who's always pestering you for attention and attaching themself to you in that way particular to pests, here's the opportunity to get them out there and working for the good of their fellow human type person. Speaking about something in that topical neighborhood, you can all thank whatever particular version of supreme being you're obeisant to for the fact you've not experienced our ranting upon the viability and availability of alternative energy systems. Following item is story out of the pages of the S.F. Chronicle about Berkeley firm's success in solar, and then, same paper, different day: Solar power system produces big windfall and damn, bet there are a LOT of places where this makes sense, don't you agree?
pronto, quickly now, vite vite... 4.14
excellent piece by Seymour Hersh in the 4.12 New Yorker: The Other War - Why Bush’s Afghanistan problem won’t go away;
and seriously, if you haven't already, you ought to be checking out
Ethel the Blog;
y una cosa mas, add the Bush Watch's Progressive Forum for good measure... really, yourstruly feelin' bad enough these days, so why'd we have to go and watch that simpering idiot's press conference and increase our level of distress, can you imagine another FOUR YEARS of that moronic imbecile and his cronies? Better start some serious discussions with your relatives Binky, you know which ones we talking 'bout, right? okay, just another couple of essential items, thanks to billmon's Whiskey Bar for link to Critical Viewer, and now, we off to medicate ourowndamnedself...
ain't it like the ol' d'Monquis... to get midway thru April before he finally realized/recalled that April be National Poetry Month? we attend to that in short order, as for now, courtesy of good pal o'ours Betsey C., she of the late lamented (and published out of her own pocketses) San Francisco Call, who sent yourstuly postcard from which we
scanned image you see alongside this post, part of her message says like all good monkeys, this one knows where the sake is kept, got us to thinkin' (as painful as that is sometimes, especially these days...) hmmmm, monkey, catfish and possibly sake bottle but mebbe... SO we noticed some translated text on back of card re Hyotan Namazu which inspired a little googling and we learned about an entire movement of painting re Catching a Catfish with a Gourd; well, not sure that movement is the word to use, but the theme certainly inspired a good many artists' creativity, like this fellow Josetsu's Catching a Catfish with a Gourd; so ho-kay, there's a poetry reference for you, and if fishing is involved, likely some zen master's not
far away, as this next item attempts to elucidate, Hyootan, Namazu and Daruma - The Gourd, the Catfish and Daruma; then, for your further edification, hie thyself to Yôkai: Monsters, Giant Catfish, & Symbolic Representation in Popular Culture and scan down the page a bit, till you find the chapter heading with title: Namazu (Giant Catfish): A Special Case of Yôkai. Holy Boy! Fascinating, no? okay, so now, tell me Binky, aren't you glad you stopped by el chango tonto ahora? okay, yah sure, but how did the monkey get involved?
mostly cool and overcast on this day... 4.11
the marine layer in quite close to shore and only receeding for a few brief hours of brilliantly sunny afternoon, ourowndarnself ensconced within the borders of 1'estate d'monquis, enjoyed watching Cornel West and Toni Morrison engaged in a televised tête-a-tête while watching C-Span, be forewarned, nothing in today's listings mentioning the show or any future re-broadcast, perhaps that will change after the bunnie has left the building...
okay, jessferdahalibut...
come along & surf beside l'Marquis this morning: moonmilk; thanking hellcat mellie for the reminder, yessss, they makes me smile too; good ol' riley dog, way out in the Yukon somewheres;
you must develop the habit of checking in on S.J.G.'s Plep; the always marvelous wood s lot; okay, let's pause for now, you know there's much more out there awaiting your
discovery...
darnitall, almos' forgot to mention this one, jon carroll and GYWO. see ya!
quelle coincidence... 4.6
during little respite between tedious tasks whilst on the j-o-b,
we chanced to visit the on-line NYT and, well, whaddayaknow, What's doing in El Paso. & Yea, Verily, we can attest to their recommendation
of a fine meal to be had at La Hacienda...
resistance alive & well in the East Bay...
tippin' our ol'red fez in the direction of the Beast Blog
for the update on plans to rid the neighborhood of Kwik Way Burger palace (yum yum) and put a McDon-you know what in its place, ALSO, great chunk of linky goodness also from the Beast Blog, fotoblog archive of the Grand Lake Theatre marquee courtesy the loving hands of David Gans...
buenas tardes, gatos y gatitaz... 4.5
ho-kay, so we wuz readin' Leah Garchik's column and noted the mention of KPFA live broadcast of the 9/11 Commission hearings, Senorita C. Rice appearing Thursday, broadcast begins at 5:30 Am...
okay, so we're back for the moment...
but not entirely in the saddle, not yet anyway...
espied this whilst perusing some of l'Marquis' fave places,
from the NYRB, God in the Hands of Angry Sinners.
so yourstruly's back on his home turf...
so to speak, and heading back into the city to fulfill his responsibility on the j-o-b, wondering all the while how much longer can this go on? Perhaps it is only the effect of tonight's full moon, perhaps it's indigestion, but we are feeling somewhat unsettled and uncertain about the course of our simian existence of late, and oh yessssss, somewhat dissatified, being increasingly aware of the predominance of that feeling. Okay, so while catching up on some idiot box content, we were watching the McLaughlin Group last evening and got wind of item written by Morton Abramowitz, Does Iraq Matter, from publication that ourowndamnedself not terribly familiar with, The National Interest, and whilst l'Marquis cannot imagine the twisted minds of the cad-minstration deciding upon such a course of action, it is somewhat reassuring to us that there exists some folk willing to consider same, brave enough to encourage the acknowledgement of the many mistakes resulting from a stupefyingly moronic course of action.
whooooo hoooooo! late arriving linky goodness update:
PDF of that Abramowitz essay available here.
who luvz ya Binky?, waaaal, de d'monkey do, datz who!
been on a few airline flights this year... 4.4
and if yourstruly hadn't been so lazy, could have taken nice shots of hoover dam whilst above
lake mead. oh, and can you imagine how excited we were to be on the same flight out of LAX as the handsome and talented William Hung? Oh yah... She Bangs She Bangs
celebrated the papasan's birthday recently... 4.1
no Binky, we not april foolin' wit ye, been back in EPT a week ago this evening, Vincenzo's birthday
was the 26th, made a little more memorable with Brother K in town for a few days as well. The photo you see up above is of the star on the mountain, once operated by the E.P. Electric Co. and lit during the xmas holidays, now run by the chamber of commerce which accepts sponsorship to light the
star for whatever purposes one might desire. Brother Daniel thought it would be a fitting gesture to
mark the occasion of our ol' Dad's b-day, so we all jumped in the Momz-mobile on Friday night and
took a drive out to see it, and thanks to the efforts of Brother Ken we offer up a viewable image. Dave, Ken, the Momz and ourowndarnself made a trip to visit Pop's gravesite, and we held a little family get-together at Brother Daniel's house on Saturday night with Ken acting as grillmaster and
cooking up some of his magnificent spicy teriyaki wings, we contributed some nicely grilled prawns,
the Momz made her wonderful potato salad, sis-in-law Janet worked hard to make us all feel at home & at ease, and amongst all the things we shared in the last few days one of the more memorable moments of our gathering together was turning off the lights, lighting a candle on Vince's birthday cake and
all of us joining in to sing Happy Birhday and yah Binky, you right, wasn't a dry eye in the house. Many pals of l'Marquis have inquired about how the Momz has been managing; pretty darn well, we happy to say, thanks to the presence of sister Victoria and Brothers Daniel & David, providing much support and attention, our Popz wouldn't have had it otherwise. Both Ken & ourowndarnself happy to be here and see for ourself that she be in fine fettle & taking good care of herself, and extremely glad to have had the comfort and closeness of our family all together for this occasion as each of us needed someone around to provide big hugs and emotional support, oh yahhhh, even the Momz couldn't avoid exposing a little chink in her armour on a couple of occasions and youse who know l'Marquis know he be a sentimental ol' ape sometimes...
we ought to be back in the Bay Area on Saturday, and who knows what be in store for l'Marquis, he be considering many options in regard the future of this little enterprise as well as that of his sizeable corpus, but a couple of items to pass along, sort of a reminder, but just 'cause we want to
keep our hand in, so to speak. Remember that this day is National "I'm Embarassed by My President" Day and that you can always find plenty of chunky linky goodness at Ethel the Blog. oh Binky, there's actually a whole lot more stuff we wanna tell ya 'bout, reunion with old pal Joe G., visiting el Barrio Segundo where the Momz & Popz first met up some many years ago, other chunky bits of linky deliciousness, maybe sometime soon we get into that, but for now, we just wish you all well, hope you being good to yourself and each other, hasta lluego amigos...
the not entirely pleasant & largely disagreeable month that was march '04
and that november day will arrive, will he get his mandate or not? And if he does, should the cad-ministration somehow manage to eke out re-election, then what we gonna do Binky? yeeeeesh, can
you even begin to imagine another four years of those brutes?
to get midway thru April before he finally realized/recalled that April be National Poetry Month? we attend to that in short order, as for now, courtesy of good pal o'ours Betsey C., she of the late lamented (and published out of her own pocketses) 
and if yourstruly hadn't been so lazy, could have taken nice shots of hoover dam whilst above
lake mead. oh, and can you imagine how excited we were to be on the same flight out of LAX as the handsome and talented William Hung? Oh yah... 
![[Optimized for PinealWeb]](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tilt/pinealweb/pineal.gif)